Tome found from Mortimer Wycroft, Cuncudgerie, Australia:<\/p>\n
A battered octavo (5\u201d x 7\u00bd\u201d). This small book was originally bound in fine red leather but, presumably due to the poor conditions in which it has been kept, the color has faded leaving it a light brown. Only a hint of the ornate cover bearing a traditional diamond-shaped design along its side is still visible. The top of the still intact spine is flat, and bears the faded title of the book and its author, though both are faint and hard to read in poor light. The edges of the pages show signs of wear, while some newer damage to the exterior suggests more recent abuse. Multiple ink-stained finger prints and brown mud-like stains appear in the margins. The print is blocky and the numerous wood-cut illustrations are of a low quality. While no publication date is given, the book\u2019s style suggests the late 17th century.<\/p>\n
This book purports to be the testimony of one James Woodville, a Suffolk gentleman, collecting his dream visions and prophecies. The bulk of the work is focused on Woodville\u2019s torture at the hands of peculiar conic demons. Shown almost as frequently are crude woodcuts depicting a bewildering array of sexual practices that the author prescribes as a divinely-inspired method of protecting oneself from demonic assault and restoring man to the sinless state before the Fall. Many of the images are pornographic by modern standards, even more so when the book was written. The text concludes with a lengthy prophecy outlining the divine destruction of the conic devils in the time before the creation of Man by shapeless (often invisible) and terrible angelic beings, as well as a future apocalypse, in which a sinful humanity is swept away. Woodville\u2019s prose is frantic, obsessive, lewd, and clearly the product of a deranged mind.<\/p>\n
I didst see that ye One before me, Born of ye Pit of Flame, had ye Forme of a Grate Cone, as high as a horse head, at ye Utmost Part were four limbes like unto a snake. Two limbes had claws at their end, like a crabe whilst another had many trumpets, and ye final head had giant eyes, Red like blud and with many small fibres. I set out my Arm against ye Devil only then to learn that what I saw before me was but my Owne Reflection in a Vast Mirror, for you see reader, that as the Demon\u2019s Spirit had taken my Forme and Countenance, I had been affix\u2019d with his.<\/em><\/p>\n My devotion knew no limits and I gave myself fully to ye task of freeing my gift of Prophecy from ye Tomb within \u00a0my Dreams. Taking much wine, I knew a ruddy Catalan girl in the French Manner \u2013 most satisfactorily \u2013 thence an Italian, likewise an older servant of my Hostess. I taught her Much to Warde her against ye Demonick Spirits, though I knew Not her Tongue, and she likewise shared Much Knowledge with me. As Lot\u2019s seed was carried forth in a sullied vessel yet remained Clean, so may Man, by laying like Beasts, drive forth ye Demonic Inquisitors as Smoke drives off Bees.<\/em><\/p>\n Know you well that when ye Time of Judgment is at hand, and Lord God returns, there will be many Signs. Ye Moon will be as Blud and bear ye mark of red tongued Satan. The Beast will awaken in the West and his City shall rise up from ye waves. Reliah is the name of his Kingdom, and its coming will be on the lips of every man, be he heathen Musselman, Hindoo, or Pious Christian. When ye Beast strides forth from his City the Moon shall be torn asunder by the Whore of Babylon, Mother to Blasphemy and Corruption, and Angels will appear in many places, to carry forth ye Souls of the Righteous in silver chalices to ye Throne of Almighty God on high\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tome found from Mortimer Wycroft, Cuncudgerie, Australia: WONDROUS INTELLIGENCES PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION A battered octavo (5\u201d x 7\u00bd\u201d). This small book was originally bound in fine red leather but, presumably due to the poor conditions in which it has been kept, … Continue reading