Naturall philosophie reformed by divine light, or, A synopsis of physicks by J.A. Comenius ... ; with a briefe appendix touching the diseases of the body, mind, and soul, with their generall remedies, by the same author.

Of an occult quality.

XXV An occult quality is a force of ope∣rating upon any otber body, which notwithstan∣ding is not ••iscovered, but by its eff••ct.

For examp. that the loadstone draws iron: that poisons assaile, and go about to ex∣tinguish nothing but the spirit in bodies: that antidotes again resist poison, and for∣tifie the spirit against them; that some herbs are peculiarly good for the brain, others for the heart, others for the liver, and such like. Such kind of occult qualities as these God hath dispersed throughout all nature, and they yet lie hid for the better part of them, but they come immediately from the pe∣culiar spirit infused into every creature. For even as one and the same matter of the

world, by reason of its diverse texture, hath gotten as it were infinite figures in stones, metals, plants, and living creatures; so one and the same spirit of the world, is drawn out as it were into infinite formes, by various and speciall virtues, known to God, and from these occult qualities sym∣pathies and antipathies of things do pro∣perly arise.