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On magic<br />
While bronze is more similar to gold and is closer to the distinctive properties<br />
of gold than are the ashes of bronze, still, in a transmutation, these<br />
ashes of bronze are closer to the form of gold than is bronze. Likewise, we<br />
see that all seeds, which are oriented to producing a particular species, happen<br />
to be rather alike as though they were of the same, and not different,<br />
species, since they are similar and distinctive and related. He who believes<br />
otherwise is like someone who thinks that an ape can be changed into a<br />
human more easily than the seed, implanted in a woman, which previously<br />
was food and bread.<br />
Nevertheless, in every production, there must be present a similarity and<br />
a form of the same species. Just as a house or a garment results from a model<br />
in the maker’s mind in the case of artefacts, likewise, in the productions of<br />
nature, a species of things is generated and defined by the exemplar, which<br />
is distinctive of the matter which generates the form. For example, we see the<br />
same types of food, and the same heavens, water and houses reproduced in<br />
substance: a dog into a dog, a human into a human, a cat into a cat. And a dog<br />
generates the same species of dog, and a human the same species of human.<br />
From this, it is clear that the entire cause of the differences is due to an<br />
idea, which is generally present everywhere in nature, and which is later<br />
limited to this or that species, depending on whether one or other species<br />
resembles the idea more. As a result, any magician who wishes to carry out<br />
his work in accordance with nature must especially understand this ideal<br />
principle and how it applies specifically to species, numerically to numbers<br />
and individually to individuals. From this, he formulates an image and the<br />
proportions of the matter so formed, and with good reasons reinforces the<br />
result with the wisdom and power of his magic. Many also bring about<br />
cures and injuries by connecting symbols with particular components or<br />
by appealing to those who communicate with or take part in curing or<br />
destructive forces. In this way, the work of magic is restricted and applied<br />
to a particular individual.<br />
Leaving aside other arguments, it is clear from these experiences that<br />
every soul and spirit has some degree of continuity with the universal<br />
spirit, which is recognized to be located not only where the individual soul<br />
lives and perceives, but also to be spread out everywhere in its essence and<br />
substance, as many Platonists and Pythagoreans have taught. As a result,<br />
vision grasps the most distant things immediately and without motion,<br />
and, indeed, the eye, or some part thereof, extends immediately to the stars<br />
or immediately from the stars to the eye.<br />
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