From “The Anatomy of Melancholy.”

A NOBLEMAN in Germany was sent embassador to the king of Sweden (for his name, the time, and such circumstances, I refer you to Boissardus, mine author). After he had done his business, he sailed to Livonia, on set purpose to see those familiar spirits, which are there said to be conversant with men, and do their drudgery work. Amongst other matters, one of them told him where his wife was, in what room, in what clothes, what doing, and brought him a ring from her, which at his return, non sine omnium admiratione, he found to be true; and so believed that ever after, which before he doubted of. Cardan (1. 19. De Subtil.) relates of his father, Facius Cardan, that after the accustomed solemnities (An. 1491, 13 August), he conjured up seven devils, in Greek apparel, about forty years of age, some ruddy of complexion, and some pale, as he thought; he asked them many questions, and they made ready answer that they were aërial devils, that they lived and died as men did, save that they were far longer lived (seven hundred or eight hundred years); they did as much excel men in dignity as we do juments, and were as far excelled again of those that were above them; our governors and keepers they are moreover, which Plato in Critias delivered of old, and subordinate to one another, Ut enim homo homini, sic dæmon dæmoni dominatur; they rule themselves as well as us, and the spirits of the meaner sort had commonly such offices, as we make horse keepers, neatherds, and the basest of us, overseers of our cattle; and that we can no more apprehend their natures and functions than a horse a man’s. They knew all things, but might not reveal them to men; and ruled and domineered over us, as we do over our horses; the best kings amongst us, and the most generous spirits, were not comparable to the basest of them. Sometimes they did instruct men, and communicate their skill, reward and cherish, and sometimes, again, terrify and punish, to keep them in awe, as they thought fit, Nihil magis cupientes (saith Lysius, Phis. Stoicorum) quam adorationem hominum. The same author, 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; others, again, to abhor as serpents, and care not for them. The same belike Tritemius calls Ignios et sublunares, qui nunquam demergunt ad inferiora, aut vix ullum habent in terris commercium. “Generally they far excel men in worth, as a man the meanest worm; though some of them are inferior to those of their own rank in worth, as the blackguard in a prince’s court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures are excelled of brute beasts.”…

  Gregorius Tholsanus makes seven kinds of ethereal Spirits or Angels, according to the number of the seven planets, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial, (of which Cardan discourseth lib. XX. De Subtil.); he calls them substantias primas, Olympicos dæmones Tritemius, qui præsunt Zodiaco, etc., and will have them to be good Angels above, Devils beneath the Moon; their several names and offices he there sets down, and which Dionysius (Of Angels) will have several spirits for several countries, men, offices, etc., which live about them, and as many assisting powers cause their operations, will have in a word, innumerable, as many of them as there be stars in the skies. Marcilius Ficinus seems to second this opinion, out of Plato, or from himself, I know not (still ruling their inferiors, as they do those under them again, all subordinate, and the nearest to the earth rule us, whom we subdivide into good and bad angels, call Gods or Devils, as they help or hurt us, and so adore, love or hate), but it is most likely from Plato, for he relying wholly on Socrates, quem mori potius quam mentiri voluisse scribit, whom he says would rather die than tell a falsehood, out of Socrates’s authority alone, made nine kinds of them: which opinion be like Socrates took from Pythagoras, and he from Trismegistus, he from Zoroaster, 1. God, 2. Idea, 3. Intelligences, 4. Archangels, 5. Angels, 6. Devils, 7. Heroes, 8. Principalities, 9. Princes, of which some were absolutely good as Gods, some bad, some indifferent inter deos et homines, as heroes and dæmons, which ruled men, and were called Genii, or as Proclus and Jamblichus will, the middle betwixt God and men. Principalities and Princes, which commanded and swayed kings and countries; and had several places in the Spheres perhaps, for as every sphere is higher, so hath it more excellent inhabitants: which belike is that Galileo and Kepler aims at in his “Nuncio Syderio,” when he will have Saturnine and Jovial inhabitants; and which Tycho Brahe doth in some sort touch or insinuate in one of his Epistles: but these things Zanchius justly explodes (cap. 3. lib. 4. P. Martyr. in 4. Sam. 28).

  So that according to these men the number of ethereal spirits must needs be infinite: for if that be true that some of our mathematicians say, if a stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eighth sphere, and should pass every hour a hundred miles, it would be sixty-five years or more before it would come to ground, by reason of the great distance of heaven from earth, which contains as some say 170,000,800 miles, besides those other heavens, whether they be crystalline or watery which Maginus adds, which peradventure holds as much more,—how many such spirits may it contain? And yet for all this, Thomas Albertus and most hold that there be far more angels than devils.