Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes) · 1650

Anthroposophia Theomagica

Anthroposophia Theomagica was the first book of the Welsh alchemist and mystical philosopher Thomas Vaughan, twin brother of the poet Henry Vaughan, published in 1650 under the name Eugenius Philalethes. Dedicated to the Rosicrucian brethren, it reads the creation in Genesis as a divine chemistry, and from it derives the nature of man, the union of soul, spirit and body, and the state of the soul after death, drawing on Hermetic, Platonic and Cabalistic sources and scorning the Aristotelian schools. Its attack on academic philosophy provoked the Cambridge Platonist Henry More, whose reply began a sharp pamphlet quarrel. This text follows the EEBO-TCP transcription of the 1650 edition, including the closing advertisement to the reader.