Répondirent qu'ils eftoient habitans de la Lune.

When I got home, I found a book by Cardano in my study, open on the table, a book I had not put there. I hadn't intended to read it at all, but on approaching it my eyes fell, as if compelled to see, upon the passage in his memoir when he is up one evening, reading by candlelight, when two tall old men passed through the closed doors of his chamber. He asked them many things, but when he asked who they were, they told him they were from the Moon, and vanished.

Naturally, I was surprised a book had put itself on the table and opened itself on that page of all pages. I took it to be a sign I must prove to all the Moon is a world like ours. I mean, here I am, this evening having spoken about this very subject, looking at the one book in the world treating of that topic in this way; it has flown down from its shelf and, now possessed of reason I assume, opened itself to draw my eye to that most marvellous adventure on the page, casting its reflection upon my imagination and setting my mind in motion!

Surely, I thought, the two tall old men who had appeared to Cardano must have set this book out for me to find, to save themselves the trouble of saying it all a second time. There was only one way to find out; one way or another, I must climb up there and ask them.

Why not? Prometheus ascended Heaven to steal fire, and I am at least as tough as he was. What could possibly go wrong?

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She called the Devil by the Name of Bunne: The Faversham Witches (1645).

The Examination, Confession, Trial and Execution of Joan Williford, Joan Cariden and Jane Holt. Who were executed at Faversham in Kent for being Witches, on Monday the 29. of September, 1645. Being a true copy of their evil lives and wicked deeds, taken by the Mayor of Faversham and jurors for the said inquest. With the examination and confession of Elizabeth Harris, not yet executed. All attested under the hand of Robert Greenstreet, Mayor of Faversham. London, Printed for J.G. October 2. 1645. The Confession of Joan Williford, Septemb. 24. 1656, made before the Mayor, and other jurates. She confessed that the Devil about seven years ago did appear to her in the shape of a little dog, and bid her to forsake God and lean to him. Who replied, that she was loath to forsake him. She confessed also that she had a desire to be revenged upon Thomas Letherland and Mary Woodrofe, now his wife. She further said that the Devil promised her that she shoul...

Robert Plot, first Keeper of the Ashmolean, on mysterious circles, from 'The Natural History of Staffordshire' (Oxford, 1686).

And here perchance, by the way, it may be no great digression to enquire into the nature and efficient cause of those rings we find in the grass, which they commonly call fairy circles, whether they are caused by lighning, or are indeed the rendezvouzes of witches , or the dancing places of those little pygmy spirits they call elves or fairies . And the rather because, 1 - a question - perhaps by reason of the difficulty - scarce yet attempted, and 2 - because I met with the largest of their kind - that perchance were ever heard of - in this county; one of them showed me in the grounds between Handsworth Church and the heath being near forty yards diameter, and I was told of another by that ingenious gent. - one of the most cordial encouragers of this work - the Worshipful Sir Henry Gough, Knight, that there was one in his grounds near Pury-Hall but few years since - now indeed plowed up - of a much larger size, he believed near fifty. Whereas,...

Se riza el aire gris.

The field of olives opens and closes like a fan. Above the grove the sky is sunk the rain is dark the stars are cold. A trembling in the rushes and darkness falls on the riverbank. A ripple through the grey air. Olive trees laden with screams. A flock of captive birds move their long, long tails in the shadows. FGL (1931) PSY (Feb. 2025)

Paul Summers Young

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