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. There was (saith he) solemnized this last yeare the funerall of a comon citizen, in the gate neare vnto the great Church, by that marketplace, which in regard of the abundace of herbs, in our tong hath the name of the herbmarket. There meets with me one of mine acquaintance: I (according to the custome of Phisitians) presently aske of what disease the man died? he giueth me answere that this man vsed to come home from his labour 3. houres within night: one night among the rest he espied an hobgoblin pursuing him: which to auoid, he ran away with al speed: but being caught by the spright, he was throwne down vpon the ground. He would faine haue made a shout, & was not able. At length (when the spright & he had struggled together vpon the ground a good while) he was found by certain passengers, & carried home halfe dead. And when he was come to himselfe againe, being asked what was the matter, he vp and tolde this strange relation. Hereupon (being vtterly daunted, & discouraged, when neither by his friends, nor by Phisitians, nor by Priests, he could be perswaded, that these things were but his owne conceits, & that there was no such matter) 8. daies after he died. I heard also afterward of others which were his neighbors, that no man could more constantly affirme himselfe to be wounded of his enemy, then this man did, that he was cast vpon the ground by a ghost. And when some demanded what he did, after he was tumbled on the earth? The dead man (quoth he) laying his hands to my throat, went about to strangle me: neither was there any remedy, but by defending my selfe with mine own hands. When others doubted least he might suffer these things of a liuing man, they asked him how he could discerne a dead man from a liuing? To this he rendered a very probable reason, saying that he seemed in handling to be like Cottum, & that he had no weight, but held him down by maine force. And presently after he addeth. In like manner as in Island, so in the desert sands of Agypt, Athiopia, and India, where the sunne is hot, the very same apparitions, the same sprights are wont to delude wayfaring men. Thus much Cardane. Yet from hence (I trow) no man will conclude as our writers of Island do, that in the places of Agypt, Athiopia, and India, there is a prison of damned soules.

I thought good to write these things out of Cardane, that I may bring euen the testimony of strangers on our sides, against such monstrous fables. This place of Cardane implieth these two things, namely that apparitions of sprights are not proper to Island alone (which thing al men know, if they do not maliciously feigne themselues to be ignorant). And secondly that that conference of the dead with the liuing in the gulfe of Hecla is not grounded vpon any certainty, but only vpon fables coined by some idle persons, being more vaine then any bubble, which the brutish common sort haue vsed, to confirme their opinion of the tormenting of soules. And is there any man so fantasticall, that wilbe induced to beleeue these gulfes, mentioned by writers, to be any where extant, although they be neuer so ful of dead mens miracles? yea doubtlesse. For from hence also they say, that reproches are iustly vsed against our nation: namely that there is nothing in all the world more base, & worthlesse then it, which conteineth hell within the bounds therof. This verely is the good that we haue gotten by those historiographers, who haue bin so greedy to publish nouelties. But this opinion, bred by the sottishnes of the common people hath hitherto (as I hope) bene sufficiently ouerthrowen as a thing foolish & vaine, and as being deuised for the vpbrayding of our nation. Wherefore, proceede (friendly Reader) and be farther instructed in this philosophy of infernall secrets.

SECTIO NONA.

[Sidenote: Frisius & Munst.] Circum vero Insulam, per septem aut octo menses fluctuat glacies, miserabilem quendam gemitum, & ab humana voce non alienum, ex collisione edens. Putant incola, & in monte Hecla, & in glacie loca esse, in quibus anima suorum crucientur.

Egregium scilicet Historia augmentum, de Orro Islandico in vnius montis basin, haud sane vastam, coacto: Et interdum (statis forsan temporibus) loca commutante. Vbi scilicet domi in foco montano delitescere piget, & exire, pelagusque sed sine rate, tentare iuuat, seseque in glaciei frustella colligere. Audite porro, huius secreti admiratores: En porrigam Historicis aliud Historia auctarium nequaquam contemnendum. Scribant igitur, quotquot his scriptorum commentis adherent, Islandos non solum infernum intra limites habere, sed & scientes volentes ingredi, atque intactos eodem die egredi. Quid ita? Quia peruetus est Insula consuetudo, vt maritimi in hanc glaciem, ab Historicis infernalem factam, mane phocas, seu vitulos marinos captum eant, ac vesperi incolumes redeant. Addite etiam, in scrinijs & alijs vasis ab Islandis carcerem damnatorum asseruari, vt paulo post ex Frisio audiemus.

Sed mature pravidendum erit vobis, ne Islandi fortitudinis & constantia laudem vestris nationibus praripiant: Quippe qui tormenta (vt historicis vestris placet) barathri sustinuisse & velint & possint, illaque sine vllo grauiore damno perrumpere atque effugere valeant, quod quidem ipsum ex iam dictis efficitur:

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