Chapter LXXIV, Section 1b

He, therefore, that will find them out, must by each joining together of the letters so long examine them, until the voice of God is manifest, and the framing of the most sacred letters be opened and discovered; for hence voices and words have efficacy in magical works, because that in which Nature first exerciseth magical efficacy is the voice of God. But these are of more deep speculation than to be handled in this book. To return to the division of the letters: of these, amongst the Hebrews, are three mothers, viz., ‏י‎, ‏ו‎, ‏א‎; seven double, viz., ‏ת‎, ‏ר‎, ‏פ‎, ‏כ‎, ‏ד‎, ‏נ‎, ‏ב‎. The other twelve, viz., ‏ש‎, ‏ק‎, ‏צ‎, ‏ע‎, ‏ס‎, ‏ג‎, ‏מ‎, ‏ל‎, ‏ט‎, ‏ח‎, ‏ז‎, ‏ה‎, are simple. The rule is the same amongst the Chaldeans, and, by the imitation of those above, also the letters of other tongues are distributed to the Signs, Planets, and Elements, after their order. For the vowels in the Greek tongue answer to the Seven Planets, and the others are attributed to the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, the Four Elements, and the Spirit of the World. Amongst the Latins there is the same signification of them. For the five vowels A, E, I, O, U, and J and V, consonants, are ascribed to the Seven Planets, and the consonants, B, C, D, F, G, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, are answerable to the Twelve Signs. The rest, viz., K, Q, X, Z, make the Elements. H the aspiration, represents the Spirit of the World. Y, because it is a Greek, and not a Latin character, and serving only to Greek words, follows the nature of its idiom. But this you must not be ignorant of, that it is observed by all wise men, that the Hebrew letters are the most efficacious of all, because they have the greatest similitude with celestials and the world, and that the letters of the other tongues have not so great an efficacy because they are more distant from them. Now the disposition of these the following table will explain. Also all the letters have double numbers of their order, viz., extended, which simply express of what number the letters are, according to their order; and collected, which re-collect with themselves the numbers of all the preceding letters. Also they have integral numbers, which result from the names of letters, according to their various manners of numbering. The virtues of which numbers, he that shall know, shall be able in every tongue to draw forth wonderful mysteries by their letters, as also to tell what things have been past, and foretell things to come. There are also other mysterious joinings of letters with numbers, but we shall abundantly discourse of all these in the following books. Wherefore we will now put an end to this first book. _______ The table above referred to, on the following page, is from the English edition of 1651. The reader will also find a table of the Cabala elsewhere in this volume. At this place we insert Mr. Henry Morley's appropriate criticism on Agrippa's book of Natural Magic.