{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/celt/sce/sce22.htm","path":"neu/celt/sce/sce22.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/sce/sce22.htm","text":"12. As our Religion oblidges us not to make a peremptory and curious Search into the\u0192e Ob\u0192tru\u0192ene\u0192\u0192es, \u0192o that the Hi\u0192tories of all Ages give as many plain Examples of extraordinary\nOccurrances\n[paragraph continues] Occurrances as make a mode\u0192t Inquiry not contemptable. How much is written of Pigme's, Fairies, Nymphs, Syrens, Apparitions, which tho not the tenth Part true, yet could not \u0192pring of nothing! Even Engli\u0192h Authors relate (of) Barry I\u0192land, in Glamorgan\u0192hire, that laying your Ear into a Clift of the Rocks, blowing of Bellows, \u0192tricking of Hammers, cla\u0192hing of Armour, fyling of Iron, will be heard di\u0192tinctly ever \u0192ince Merlin inchaunted tho\u0192e \u0192ubterranean Wights to a \u0192olid manuall forging of Arm's to Aurelius Ambro\u0192ius and his Brittans, till he returned; which Merlin being killed in a Battell, and not coming to loo\u0192e the Knot, the\u0192e active Vulcans are there ty'd to a perpetuall Labour. But to dip no deeper into this Well, I will nixt give \u0192ome Account how the Seer my Informer comes to have this \u0192ecret Way of Corre\u0192pondence beyond other Mortalls.\nTHERE be odd Solemnities at inve\u0192ting a Man with the Priviledges of the whole Mi\u0192tery of this Second Sight. He mu\u0192t run a Tedder of Hair (which bound a Corps to the Bier) in a Helix [?] about his Midle, from End to End;\nthen\nthen bow his Head downwards, as did Elijah, 1 Kings, 18. 42. and look back thorough his Legs untill he \u0192ie a Funerall advance till the People cro\u0192s two Marches; or look thus back thorough a Hole where was a Knot of Fir. But if the Wind change Points while the Hair Tedder is ty'd about him, he is in Peril of his Lyfe. The u\u0192ewall Method for a curious Per\u0192on to get a tran\u0192ient Sight of this otherwi\u0192e invi\u0192ible Crew of Subterraneans, (if impotently and over ra\u0192hly \u0192ought,) is to put his [left Foot under the Wizard's right] Foot, and the Seer's Hand is put on the Inquirer's Head, who is to look over the Wizard's right Shoulder, (which hes ane ill Appearance, as if by this Ceremony ane implicit Surrender were made of all betwixt the Wizard's Foot and his Hand, ere the Per\u0192on can be admitted a privado to the Airt;) then will he \u0192ee a Multitude of Wight's, like furious hardie Men, flocking to him hai\u0192tily from all Quarters, as thick as Atoms in the Air; which are no Nonentities or Phanta\u0192ms, Creatures proceiding from ane affrighted Apprehen\u0192ione, confu\u0192ed or crazed Sen\u0192e, but Realities, appear-\ning\ning to a \u0192table Man in his awaking Sen\u0192e, and enduring a rationall Tryall of their Being. Thes thorow Fear \u0192trick him breathle\u0192s and \u0192peechle\u0192s. The Wizard, defending the Lawfullne\u0192s of his Skill, forbids \u0192uch Horror, and comforts his Novice by telling of Zacharias, as being \u0192truck \u0192peechle\u0192s at \u0192eeing Apparitions, Luke, 1. 20. Then he further maintains his Airt, by vouching Eli\u0192ha to have had the \u0192ame, and di\u0192clo\u0192'd it thus unto his Servant in 2 Kings, 6. 17. when he blinded the Syrians; and Peter in Act, 5. 9. for\u0192eing the Death of Saphira, by perceaving as it were her Winding-\u0192heet about her before hand; and Paul, in 2nd Corinth. 12. 4. who got \u0192uch a Vi\u0192ion and Sight as \u0192hould not, nor could be told. Eli\u0192ha al\u0192o in his Chamber \u0192aw Gehazi his Servant, at a great Di\u0192tance, taking a reward from Naaman, 2d Kings, 5. 26. Hence were the Prophets frequently called SEERS, or Men of a 2d or more exhalted Sight than others. He acts for his Purpo\u0192e al\u0192o Math. 4. 8. where the Devil undertakes to give even Je\u0192us a Sight of all Nations, and the fine\u0192t Things in the World, at one Glance, tho in\ntheir\ntheir naturall Situations and Stations at a va\u0192t Di\u0192tance from other. And 'tis \u0192aid expre\u0192ly he did let \u0192ie them; not in a Map it \u0192eems, nor by a phanta\u0192tick magicall jugling of the Sight, which he could not impo\u0192e upon \u0192o di\u0192covering a Per\u0192on. It would appear then to have been a Sight of real \u0192olid Sub\u0192tances, and Things of worth, which he intended as a Bait for his Purpo\u0192e. Whence it might \u0192eem, (compairing this Relation of Math. 4. 8. with the former,) that the extraordinary or Second Sight can be given by the Mini\u0192tery of bad as weill as good Spirits to tho\u0192e that will embrace it. And the In\u0192tance of Balaam and the Pytheni\u0192s make it nothing the le\u0192s probable. Thus al\u0192o the Seer trains his Scholler, by telling of the Gradations of Nature, ordered by a wi\u0192e Provydence; that as the Sight of Bats and Owls tran\u0192cend that of Shrews and Moles, \u0192o the vi\u0192ive Faculties of Men are clearer than tho\u0192e of Owls; as Eagles, Lynxs, and Cats are brighter than Mens. And again, that Men of the Second Sight (being de\u0192igned to give warnings again\u0192t \u0192ecret Engyns) \u0192urpa\u0192s the ordinary Vi\u0192ion of other\nMen\n[paragraph continues] Men, which is a native Habit in \u0192ome, de\u0192cended from their Ance\u0192tors, and acquired as ane artificiall Improvement of their natural Sight in others; re\u0192embling in their own Kynd the u\u0192uall artificiall Helps of optic Gla\u0192\u0192es, (as Pro\u0192pectives, Tele\u0192copes, and Micro\u0192copes,) without which a\u0192cititious Aids tho\u0192e Men here treated of do perceive Things that, for their Smallne\u0192s, or Subtility, and Secrecy, are invi\u0192ible to others, tho dayly conver\u0192ant with them; they having \u0192uch a Beam continuallie about them as that of the Sun, which when it \u0192hines clear only, lets common Eyes \u0192ee the Atomes, in the Air, that without tho\u0192e Rayes they could not di\u0192cern; for \u0192ome have this Second Sight tran\u0192mitted from Father to Sone thorow the whole Family, without their own Con\u0192ent or others teaching, proceeding only from a Bounty of Providence it \u0192eems, or by Compact, or by a complexionall Quality of the fir\u0192t Acquirer. As it may \u0192eem alike \u0192trange (yet nothing vicious) in \u0192uch as Ma\u0192ter Great-rake, 1 the Iri\u0192h Stroaker, Seventh-\u0192ons, and others that cure the King's Evill,\nand\nand cha\u0192e away De\u0192ea\u0192es and Pains, with only \u0192troaking of the affected Pairt; which (if it be not the Reliques of miraculous Operations, or \u0192ome \u0192ecret Virtue in the Womb, of the Parent, which increa\u0192eth until Seventh-\u0192ons be borne, and decrea\u0192eth by the \u0192ame Degrees afterwards,) proceids only from the \u0192anitive Bal\u0192ome of their healthfull Cont\u0192itutions; Virtue going out from them by \u0192pirituous Effluxes unto the Patient, and their vigorous healthy Spirits affecting the \u0192ick as u\u0192ewally the unhealthy Fumes of the \u0192ick infect the \u0192ound and whole.","title":"The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies: The Secret Commonwealth: Chapter 12","type":"page"}