SOURCE: "Cornelius Agrippa," in The Eclectic Review, n. s. Vol. 1, May, 1857, pp. 467-88.

In the excerpt below, an anonymous reviewer briefly describes a number of Agrippa's writings, portraying him as a misunderstood and tragic figure.

[Agrippa's On the Nobleness and Superiority of the Female Sex] is a very learned but exaggerated assertion of the superiority of women to men; every weakness—physical, mental, moral—being exalted into a merit. One can scarcely conceive such a production to be the serious accomplishment of a serious mind, its extravagant perversion of fact and argument so much resembling that grave banter which is the most pungent ridicule. Some of the items are amusing: —

It is because she is made of purer matter that a woman, from whatever height she may look down, never turns giddy, and her eyes never have a mist before them, like the eyes of men.

Even after...