Quisquam, Qui Vanitatem Tantam Non Cotemnat?

Certe.

Nam & hinc conuicia in gentem nostram recte sumi aiunt: Nihil scilicet hac proiectius ac deterius esse vsquam, qua intra limites Orcum habeat. Scilicet hoc commodi nobis peperit Historicorum ad res nouas diuulgandas auiditas. Verum illa e vulgi dementia nata opinio, vt stulta ac inanis, & in opprobrium nostra gentis conficta, hactenus, vt spero, satis labefactata est. Quare iam perge Lector, vlterius hanc de secretis infernalibus Philosophiam cognoscere.

The same in English.

THE EIGHT SECTION.

[Sidenote: Frisius. Zieglerus. Olaus magnus.] Neare vnto the mountaines (the 3. fornamed Hecla &c.) there be three vaste holes, the depth whereof, especially at mount Hecla, cannot be discerned by any man, be he neuer so sharpe sighted: but there appeare to the beholders thereof certaine men at that instant plunged in, & as yet drawing their breath, who answere their friends (exhorting them with deepe sighs to returne home) that they must depart to mount Hecla: and with that, they suddenly vanish away.

To confirme the former lie, of an earthly & visible hell (albeit I will easily grant that Frisius in writing these things did not entend to reproch any, but only to blaze abroad new & incredible matters) certaine idle companions knowing neither hell nor heauen haue inuented this fable, no lesse reprochfull then false, and more vaine & detestable then Sicilian scoffes. Which fellowes these writers (being otherwise men of excellent parts, and to whom learning is much indebted) haue followed with an ouer hastie iudgement.

But it were to be wished, that none would write Histories with so great a desire of setting foorth nouelties & strange things, that they feare not, in that regard to broch any fabulous & old-wiues toyes, & so to defile pure gold with filthy mire. But I pray you, how might those drowned men be swimming in the infernal lake, & yet for al that, parletng with their acquaintance & friends? What? Will you coniure, & raise vp vnto vs from death to life old, Orpheus conferring with his wife Euridice (drawen backe againe down to the Stigian flood) & in these parts of the world, as it were by the bankes of snowey Tanais, & Hebrus descanting vpon his harpe? But in very deed although others will not acknowledge the falsbood, & vanity of these trifles, yet Cardane being a diligent considerer of al things in his 18. booke de subtilitate, doth acknowledge & find them out. Whose words be these. There is Hecla a mountaine in Island, which burneth like vnto Atna at certain seasons, & hereupon the comon people haue conceiued an opinion this long time, that soules are there purged: some, least they should seeme liars, heape vp more vanities to this fable, that it may appeare to be probable, & agreeable to reason. But what be those vanities? namely, they feine certaine ghosts answering them, that they are going to mount Hecla; as the same Cardane saith. And further he addeth. Neither in Island only, but euery where (albeit seldome) such things come to passe. And then he tels this storie following of a man-killing spright.

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