Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Hermetic Powder.

 Hermet’ic Philosophy.Hermet’ically Sealed. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Hermetic Powder.
 
The sympathetic powder, supposed to possess a healing influence from a distance. The mediæval philosophers were very fond of calling books, drugs, etc., connected with alchemy and astrology by the term hermetic, out of compliment to Herms Trismegis’tus. (Sir Kenelm Digby: Discourse Concerning the Cure of Wounds by Sympathy.)   1
       
“For by his side a pouch he wore
Replete with strange her&macute;etic powder,
That wounds nine miles point-blank would solder.”
       
Butler: Hudibras, i. 2.
 


 Hermet’ic Philosophy.Hermet’ically Sealed. 

 
Loading
Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.
Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry
© 1993–2013 Bartleby.com · [Top 150]