For Nature Hath Taught Both Vs & Others (Maugre Your Opinion) To Acknowledge Her Operations In These Fire Workes, Not The Fury Of Hell. But Now Let Vs Examine A Few More Such Fables Of The Common People, Which Haue So Vnhappily Misledd Our Historiographers & Cosmographers.

SECTIO OCTAUA.

[Sidenote: Frisius Zieglerus, Olauus Magn.] Iuxta hos montes (tres pradictos Heclam, &c.) sunt tres hiatus immanes, quorum altitudinem apud montem Heclam potissimum, ne Lynceus quidem perspicere queat: Sed apparent ipsum inspicientibus, homines primum submersi, adhuc spiritum exhalantes, qui amicis suis, vt ad propria redeant, hortantibus, magnis suspirijs se ad montem Heclam proficisci debere respondent: Sicque subito euanescunt.

Ad confirmandum superius mendacium de Inferno terrestri ac visibili, commentum hoc, non minus calumniosum (etsi facile largiar, Frisium non tam calumniandi, quam noua & inaudita pradicandi animo ista scripsisse) quam falsum ac gerris Siculis longe vanius ac detestabilius, excogitarunt homines ignaui, nec coelum ec infernum scientes. Quos scriptores isti, viri alioqui praclarissimi & optime de Repub. literaria meriti, nimium prapropero iudicio secuti sunt.

Caterum optandum esset, nullos tanto nouitatis studio Historias scribere, vt non vereantur aniles quasuis nugas ijs inserere, atque ita aurum purum coeno aspergere. Qui vero demum sunt homines illi submersi, in lacu infernali natitantes, & nihilominus cum notis & amicis confabulantes? Anne nobis veterem Orphea, cum sua Euridice, in Stygias relabente vndas, colloquentem, & in his extremi orbis partibus, tanquam ad Tanaim Hebrumque niualem, cantus exercentem lyricos, rediuiuum dabitis? Certe, etsi nolint alij futilem huiusmodi ineptiarum leuitatem ac mendacium agnoscere, agnouit tamen rerum omnium haud negligens astimator Cardanus, lib. 18. subtil. cuius hac sunt verba.

Est Hecla mons in Islandia, ardetque non aliter ac Atna in Sicilia per interualla, ideoque persuasione longa (vulgi) concepta, quod ibi expientur animaa. Alij, ne vani sint, affingunt inania fabula, vt consona videantur. Qua sunt autem illa inania? Quod spectra comminiscuntur, se ad montem Heclam ire respondentia, ait idem. Et addit. Nec in Islandia solum, sed vbique, licet raro, talia contingunt: Subditque de larua homicida Historiam, qua sic habet. Efferebatur, inquit, anno praterito, funus viri plebeij Mediolani, orientali in porta iuxta templum maius foro venali, quod a caulium frequentia nomen caulis nostra lingua sonat. Occurrit mihi notus: Peto, vt medicorum moris est, quo morbo excesserit? Respondet ille: consuesse hunc virum hora noctis, tertia a labore redire domum: Vidit lemurem nocte quadam insequentem: Quam cum effugere conaretur, ocyus citato pede abibat: Sed a spectro captus atque in terram proiectus videbatur. Exclamare nitebatur: Non poterat. Tandem, cum diu in terra cum larua volutatus esset, inuentus a pratereuntibus quibusdam, semiuiuus domum relatus, cum resipuisset, interrogatus, hac qua minus expectabantur, retulit. Ob id animam despondens, cum nec ab amicis, nec medicis, nec sacerdotibus persuaderi potuisset, inania esse hac, octo inde diebus perijt. Audiui postmodum & ab alijs, qui vicini essent illi, neminem ab inimico vulneratum tam constanter de illo testatum, vt hic, quod a mortuo fuisset in terram prouolutus. Cum quidam quarerent, quid ille postquam in terram volutaretur ageret? Conatum, inquit, mortuum adhibitis gula manibus, vt eum strangularet: Nec obstitisse quicquam, nisi quod se ipsum tueretur manibus. Cum alij dubitarent, ne forte hac a viuo passus esset, interrogarentque in quo mortuum a viuo secernere potuisset? Caussam reddidit satis probabilem, dicens se tanquam cottum attrectasse, nec pondus habuisse, nisi vt premebatur. Et paulo post addit. Eadem vero ratione qua in Islandia, in arena solitudinibus Agypti & Athiopia, Indiaque vbi Sol ardet, eadem imagines, eadem spectra viatores ludificare solent. Hactenus Cardanus. Inde tamen nemo concluseret, sicut de Islandia scriptores nostri faciunt, in illis Agypti and Athiopia, Indiaque locis, carcerem existere damnatorum.

Hac ex Cardano adscribere libuit, vt etiam extraneorum testimonia pro nobis, contra figmenta tanta afferamus. Conuincit autem prasens Cardani locus hac duo, scilicet: nec esse Islandia proprias spectrorum apparitiones: (quod etiam omnes norunt, nisi eius rei ignorantiam nimis affectent) nec illud mortuorum cum viuis, in hiatu Heclensi, colloquium, nisi ementitis hominum fabulis, quauis ampulla vani oribus, niti, quibus belua vulgares, ad confirmandam de animarum cruciatibus opinionem, vsa fuerant. Et quisquam est, qui illis scriptorum hiatibus, mortuorum miraculis ad summum vsque refertis, adduci potest vt credat? 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?

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