… Bodine … will have these animae separatae, (abstract souls) genii, spirits, devils … to be of some shape, and that absolutely round, like sun and moon, because that is the most perfect form, quae nihil habet asperitatis, nihil angulis incisum, nihil anfractibus involutum, nihil eminens, sed inter corpora perfecta est perfectissimum (which has no rough edges, no corners, no twists, no projections, but is the most perfect of shapes)…. That they can assume other aerial bodies; all manner of shapes at their pleasures, appear in what likeness they will themselves, that they are most swift in motion, can pass many miles in an instant, and so likewise transform bodies of others into what shape they please, and with admirable celerity remove them from place to place; … that they can represent castles in the air, palaces, armies, spectrums, prodigies, and such strange objects to mortal men’s eyes, cause smells, savours, etc., deceive all the senses: most writers of this subject credibly believe; and that they can foretell future events, and do many strange miracles.
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And Leo Suavius, a Frenchman … out of some Platonists, will have the air to be full of them as snow falling in the skies, and that they may be seen, and withal sets down the means how men may see them.
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Cardan, in his Hyperchen, out of the doctrine of Stoics, will have some of these genii (for so he calls them) to be desirous of men’s company, very affable and familiar with them, as dogs are.
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Terrestrial devils are those lares, genii, fauns, satyrs, wood-nymphs, foliots, fairies, Robin Goodfellows, trolli (trolls) etc. which as they are most conversant with men, so they do them most harm. Some think it was they alone that kept the heathen people in awe of old, and had so many idols and temples erected to them…. Some put our fairies into this rank, which have been in former times adored with much superstition, with sweeping their houses, and setting a pail of clean water, good victuals and the like, and then they shall not be pinched, but find money in their shoes, and be fortunate in their enterprises. These are they that dance on heaths and greens, as Lavater thinks with Trithemius, and as Olaus Magnus adds, leave that green circle, which we commonly find in plain fields, which others hold to proceed from a meteor falling, or some accidental rankness of the ground, so Nature sports herself; they are sometimes seen by old women and children.
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Paracelsus reckons up many places in Germany, where they do usually walk in little coats, some two feet long. A bigger kind there is of them called with us hobgoblins, and Robin Goodfellows, that would in these superstitious times grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work…. Another sort of these there are, which frequent forlorn houses, which Italians call foliots, most part innocuous,—Cardan holds. They will make strange noises in the night, howl sometimes pitifully, and then laugh again, cause great flame and sudden lights.