'He Anthroposophus, and Floud,
And Jacob Behmen understood'
—Cf. Hudibras Part I, c. i. 1. 541
Sendivogius was a Polish Alchemist, who had written, some 100 years before, on the philosopher's stone. Behmen, or Bohme, was a German visionary and enthusiast who, about the same time, wrote a book called Aurora, embodying some of the chemical notions of the day. He was suspected of witchcraft. The Anthroposophia Theomagica was a treatise, written in 1650, by Thomas Vaughan, Rector of St. Bridget, near Brecknock. It was a réechauffé of Alchemist doctrines, and involved him in a controversy with Henry More. See also p. 180, 1. 1 (note). The note quoted at this passage in Scott's edition as 'original' is not so, and is indeed entirely the reverse of what Swift would write.