“Inter alios plurimos characteres, duo tantum sunt veri et præcipui, quorum primus constat ex duobus trigonis super se invicem ita depictis ut Hexagonum constituant. Alterum dicunt esse priori potentiorem et efficaciorem et esse pentagonon.”—Paracelsus de Characteribus apud Horst, Z. B. vol. iii. p. 74. The figure thus accurately described by the oracular Bombastus occurs almost as frequently as the sign of the cross, in almost all the old books on magic, and is drawn thus:
The Platonists (let Proclus serve for an example) seem to have derived from the Pythagoreans a strange mixture of religious mysticism with a great enthusiasm for the mathematical sciences; and this same pentagonal figure very probably derives not a little of its supreme efficacy from the fact of its having been transmitted to us from the most ancient times. Poetry is not the only thing that receives a sacredness from age.
When left you Rippach? you must have been pressed
For time. Supped you with Squire Hans by the way?
“Rippach is a village near Leipzig; and to ask for Hans von Rippach, a fictitious personage, was an old joke amongst the students. The ready reply of Mephistopheles, indicating no surprise, shows Siebel and Altmayer that he is up to it. Hans is the German Jack.”—Hayward.
Cat-Apes.
These nimble little animals, which play such a distinguished part in this Witch Scene, are denominated in the original “Meer-katzen,” literally “Sea-cats;” of which Adelung (in voce) gives the following account:—“A name given to a certain kind of monkeys with a cat’s tail, of which there are many species,—Cebus, Linnæi. They are so called from coming across the sea from warm countries.” I originally intended to retain the German phrase “Sea-cat;” but afterwards had no hesitation to adopt the happy translation given by the writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. vii. There is something mystical in the idea of an animal half cat and half ape, which agrees wonderfully with the witch-like antic character of this whole scene. Besides, the term “Cat-ape” is far more expressive of the nature of the animal than that in the original.