The fables of Jason and many others of the same class are said by Fortuitus Comes to have a reference to alchemy.
165
Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xviii. c. 16-18.
166
Frederici Hoffman, de Diaboli Potentia in Corpora, p. 382.
167
See John Schesser, Laponia, printed at Frankfort in 4to. an. 1673, chap. xi. entitled, De sacris Magicis et Magia Laponia, p. 119, and following.
168
Plin. lib. iii. c. 2.
169
Philost. Vit. Apollon.
170
Lactant. lib. vi. Divin. Instit. c. 13.
171
Aug. ad Simplic.
172
Tertull. de Animâ, c. 57.
173
Lucan. Pharsal. lib. vi. 450, et seq.
174
"Cessavere vices rerum, dilataque longa,
Hæsit nocte dies; legi non paruit æther;
Torpuit et præceps audito carmine mundus;
Et tonat ignaro cœlum Jove."
175
"Cantat et e curro tentat deducere Lunam
Et faceret, si non æra repulsa sonent."
Tibull. lib. i. Eleg. ix. 21
176
Pietro della Valle, Voyage.
177
"… Obscurum verborum ambage nervorum
Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.
Jam ciet infernas magico stridore catervas,
Jam jubet aspersum lacte referre pedem.
Cùm libet, hæc tristi depellit nubila cœlo;
Cùm libet, æstivo provocat orbe nives."
Ovid.Metamorph. 14.
178
"Naïs nam ut cantu, nimiumque potentibus herbis
Verterit in tacitos juvenilia corpora pisces."
179
"Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris
Spargere qui somnos cantuque manque solebat,"
180
Plin. lib. viii. c. 48.
181
Herodot. lib. ix.
182
Vide Joan. Marsham, Sæc. iv. pp. 62, 63.
183
Pausan. lib. vii. p. 141.
184
Homer, Iliad, xii. 2, 235.
185
Herodot. lib. ii. c. 52, 55.