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its tongue it had a gold plate, on which were engraved divers
constellations. Thus he deceived people. The fact explains itself. You
see my moderation. I separate the true from the false. See! here are
other errors in which, no doubt, you partake, poor ignorant folks that
you are, and from which I wish to free you. Dioscorides believed that
there was a god in the henbane; Chrysippus in the cynopaste; Josephus in
the root bauras; Homer in the plant moly. They were all wrong. The
spirits in herbs are not gods but devils. I have tested this fact. It is
not true that the serpent which tempted Eve had a human face, as Cadmus
relates. Garcias de Horto, Cadamosto, and John Hugo, Archbishop of
Treves, deny that it is sufficient to saw down a tree to catch an
elephant. I incline to their opinion. Citizens, the efforts of Lucifer
are the cause of all false impressions. Under the reign of such a prince
it is natural that meteors of error and of perdition should arise. My
friends, Claudius Pulcher did not die because the fowls refused to come
out of the fowl house. The fact is, that Lucifer, having foreseen the
death of Claudius Pulcher, took care to prevent the birds feeding. That
Beelzebub gave the Emperor Vespasian the virtue of curing the lame and
giving sight to the blind, by his touch, was an act praiseworthy in
itself, but of which the motive was culpable. Gentlemen, distrust those
false doctors, who sell the root of the bryony and the white snake, and
who make washes with honey and the blood of a cock. See clearly through
that which is false. It is not quite true that Orion was the result of a
natural function of Jupiter. The truth is that it was Mercury who
produced this star in that way. It is not true that Adam had a navel.
When St. George killed the dragon he had not the daughter of a saint
standing by his side. St. Jerome had not a clock on the chimney-piece of
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