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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Necromancers, by William Godwin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lives of the Necromancers
+
+Author: William Godwin
+
+Posting Date: August 7, 2012 [EBook #7082]
+Release Date: December, 2004
+First Posted: March 8, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE NECROMANCERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Wendy Crockett, Carlo Traverso, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team, from images
+generously made available by the Bibliotheque nationale
+de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been numbered sequentially and
+moved to the end of the text.]
+
+
+
+
+LIVES OF THE NECROMANCERS:
+
+OR
+
+AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST EMINENT PERSONS IN SUCCESSIVE AGES, WHO HAVE
+CLAIMED FOR THEMSELVES, OR TO WHOM HAS BEEN IMPUTED BY OTHERS,
+
+THE
+
+EXERCISE OF MAGICAL POWER.
+
+
+BY  WILLIAM  GODWIN.
+
+
+LONDON
+
+Frederick J Mason, 444, West Strand
+
+1834
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The main purpose of this book is to exhibit a fair delineation of the
+credulity of the human mind. Such an exhibition cannot fail to be
+productive of the most salutary lessons.
+
+One view of the subject will teach us a useful pride in the abundance
+of our faculties. Without pride man is in reality of little value. It
+is pride that stimulates us to all our great undertakings. Without
+pride, and the secret persuasion of extraordinary talents, what man
+would take up the pen with a view to produce an important work,
+whether of imagination and poetry, or of profound science, or of acute
+and subtle reasoning and intellectual anatomy? It is pride in this
+sense that makes the great general and the consummate legislator, that
+animates us to tasks the most laborious, and causes us to shrink from
+no difficulty, and to be confounded and overwhelmed with no obstacle
+that can be interposed in our path.
+
+Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between man and the
+inferior animals. The latter live only for the day, and see for the
+most part only what is immediately before them. But man lives in the
+past and the future. He reasons upon and improves by the past; he
+records the acts of a long series of generations: and he looks into
+future time, lays down plans which he shall be months and years in
+bringing to maturity, and contrives machines and delineates systems
+of education and government, which may gradually add to the
+accommodations of all, and raise the species generally into a nobler
+and more honourable character than our ancestors were capable of
+sustaining.
+
+Man looks through nature, and is able to reduce its parts into a great
+whole. He classes the beings which are found in it, both animate and
+inanimate, delineates and describes them, investigates their
+properties, and records their capacities, their good and evil
+qualities, their dangers and their uses.
+
+Nor does he only see all that is; but he also images all that is not.
+He takes to pieces the substances that are, and combines their parts
+into new arrangements. He peoples all the elements from the world of
+his imagination. It is here that he is most extraordinary and
+wonderful. The record of what actually is, and has happened in the
+series of human events, is perhaps the smallest part of human history.
+If we would know man in all his subtleties, we must deviate into the
+world of miracles and sorcery. To know the things that are not, and
+cannot be, but have been imagined and believed, is the most curious
+chapter in the annals of man. To observe the actual results of these
+imaginary phenomena, and the crimes and cruelties they have caused us
+to commit, is one of the most instructive studies in which we can
+possibly be engaged. It is here that man is most astonishing, and that
+we contemplate with most admiration the discursive and unbounded
+nature of his faculties.
+
+But, if a recollection of the examples of the credulity of the human
+mind may in one view supply nourishment to our pride, it still more
+obviously tends to teach us sobriety and humiliation. Man in his
+genuine and direct sphere is the disciple of reason; it is by this
+faculty that he draws inferences, exerts his prudence, and displays
+the ingenuity of machinery, and the subtlety of system both in natural
+and moral philosophy. Yet what so irrational as man? Not contented
+with making use of the powers we possess, for the purpose of conducing
+to our accommodation and well being, we with a daring spirit inquire
+into the invisible causes of what we see, and people all nature with
+Gods "of every shape and size" and angels, with principalities and
+powers, with beneficent beings who "take charge concerning us lest at
+any time we dash our foot against a stone," and with devils who are
+perpetually on the watch to perplex us and do us injury. And, having
+familiarised our minds with the conceptions of these beings, we
+immediately aspire to hold communion with them. We represent to
+ourselves God, as "walking in the garden with us in the cool of the
+day," and teach ourselves "not to forget to entertain strangers, lest
+by so doing we should repel angels unawares."
+
+No sooner are we, even in a slight degree, acquainted with the laws of
+nature, than we frame to ourselves the idea, by the aid of some
+invisible ally, of suspending their operation, of calling out meteors
+in the sky, of commanding storms and tempests, of arresting the motion
+of the heavenly bodies, of producing miraculous cures upon the bodies
+of our fellow-men, or afflicting them with disease and death, of
+calling up the deceased from the silence of the grave, and compelling
+them to disclose "the secrets of the world unknown."
+
+But, what is most deplorable, we are not contented to endeavour to
+secure the aid of God and good angels, but we also aspire to enter
+into alliance with devils, and beings destined for their rebellion to
+suffer eternally the pains of hell. As they are supposed to be of a
+character perverted and depraved, we of course apply to them
+principally for purposes of wantonness, or of malice and revenge. And,
+in the instances which have occurred only a few centuries back, the
+most common idea has been of a compact entered into by an unprincipled
+and impious human being with the sworn enemy of God and man, in the
+result of which the devil engages to serve the capricious will and
+perform the behests of his blasphemous votary for a certain number of
+years, while the deluded wretch in return engages to renounce his God
+and Saviour, and surrender himself body and soul to the pains of hell
+from the end of that term to all eternity. No sooner do we imagine
+human beings invested with these wonderful powers, and conceive them
+as called into action for the most malignant purposes, than we become
+the passive and terrified slaves of the creatures of our own
+imaginations, and fear to be assailed at every moment by beings to
+whose power we can set no limit, and whose modes of hostility no human
+sagacity can anticipate and provide against. But, what is still more
+extraordinary, the human creatures that pretend to these powers have
+often been found as completely the dupes of this supernatural
+machinery, as the most timid wretch that stands in terror at its
+expected operation; and no phenomenon has been more common than the
+confession of these allies of hell, that they have verily and indeed
+held commerce and formed plots and conspiracies with Satan.
+
+The consequence of this state of things has been, that criminal
+jurisprudence and the last severities of the law have been called
+forth to an amazing extent to exterminate witches and witchcraft. More
+especially in the sixteenth century hundreds and thousands were burned
+alive within the compass of a small territory; and judges, the
+directors of the scene, a Nicholas Remi, a De Lancre, and many others,
+have published copious volumes, entering into a minute detail of the
+system and fashion of the witchcraft of the professors, whom they sent
+in multitudes to expiate their depravity at the gallows and the stake.
+
+One useful lesson which we may derive from the detail of these
+particulars, is the folly in most cases of imputing pure and unmingled
+hypocrisy to man. The human mind is of so ductile a character that,
+like what is affirmed of charity by the apostle, it "believeth all
+things, and endureth all things." We are not at liberty to trifle with
+the sacredness of truth. While we persuade others, we begin to deceive
+ourselves. Human life is a drama of that sort, that, while we act our
+part, and endeavour to do justice to the sentiments which are put down
+for us, we begin to believe we are the thing we would represent.
+
+To shew however the modes in which the delusion acts upon the person
+through whom it operates, is not properly the scope of this book. Here
+and there I have suggested hints to this purpose, which the curious
+reader may follow to their furthest extent, and discover how with
+perfect good faith the artist may bring himself to swallow the
+grossest impossibilities. But the work I have written is not a
+treatise of natural magic. It rather proposes to display the immense
+wealth of the faculty of imagination, and to shew the extravagances of
+which the man may be guilty who surrenders himself to its guidance.
+
+It is fit however that the reader should bear in mind, that what is
+put down in this book is but a small part and scantling of the acts of
+sorcery and witchcraft which have existed in human society. They have
+been found in all ages and countries. The torrid zone and the frozen
+north have neither of them escaped from a fruitful harvest of this
+sort of offspring. In ages of ignorance they have been especially at
+home; and the races of men that have left no records behind them to
+tell almost that they existed, have been most of all rife in deeds of
+darkness, and those marvellous incidents which especially astonish the
+spectator, and throw back the infant reason of man into those shades
+and that obscurity from which it had so recently endeavoured to
+escape.
+
+I wind up for the present my literary labours with the production of
+this book. Nor let any reader imagine that I here put into his hands a
+mere work of idle recreation. It will be found pregnant with deeper
+uses. The wildest extravagances of human fancy, the most deplorable
+perversion of human faculties, and the most horrible distortions of
+jurisprudence, may occasionally afford us a salutary lesson. I love in
+the foremost place to contemplate man in all his honours and in all
+the exaltation of wisdom and virtue; but it will also be occasionally
+of service to us to look into his obliquities, and distinctly to
+remark how great and portentous have been his absurdities and his
+follies.
+
+_May_ 29, 1834.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+AMBITIOUS NATURE OF MAN
+  HIS DESIRE TO PENETRATE INTO FUTURITY
+  DIVINATION
+  AUGURY
+  CHIROMANCY
+  PHYSIOGNOMY
+  INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
+  CASTING OF LOTS
+  ASTROLOGY
+  ORACLES
+  DELPHI
+  THE DESIRE TO  COMMAND AND CONTROL FUTURE EVENTS
+  COMMERCE WITH THE INVISIBLE WORLD
+  SORCERY AND ENCHANTMENT
+  WITCHCRAFT
+  COMPACTS WITH THE DEVIL
+  IMPS
+  TALISMANS AND AMULETS
+  NECROMANCY
+  ALCHEMY
+  FAIRIES
+  ROSICRUCIANS
+  SYLPHS AND GNOMES, SALAMANDERS AND UNDINES
+
+EXAMPLES OF NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT FROM THE BIBLE
+  THE MAGI, OR WISE MEN OF THE EAST
+  EGYPT
+  STATUE OF MEMNON
+  TEMPLE OF JUPITER AMMON: ITS ORACLES
+  CHALDEA AND BABYLON
+  ZOROASTER
+
+GREECE
+  DEITIES OF GREECE
+  DEMIGODS
+  DAEDALUS
+  THE ARGONAUTS
+  MEDEA
+  CIRCE
+  ORPHEUS
+  AMPHION
+  TIRESIAS
+  ABARIS
+  PYTHAGORAS
+  EPIMENIDES
+  EMPEDOCLES
+  ARISTEAS
+  HERMOTIMUS
+  THE MOTHER OF DEMARATUS, KING OF SPARTA
+  ORACLES
+  INVASION OF XERXES INTO GREECE
+  DEMOCRITUS
+  SOCRATES
+
+ROME
+  VIRGIL
+  POLYDORUS
+  DIDO
+  ROMULUS
+  NUMA
+  TULLUS HOSTILIUS
+  ACCIUS NAVIUS
+  SERVIUS TULLIUS
+  THE SORCERESS OF VIRGIL
+  CANIDIA
+  ERICHTHO
+  SERTORIUS
+  CASTING OUT DEVILS
+  SIMON MAGUS
+  ELYMAS, THE SORCERER
+  NERO
+  VESPASIAN
+  APOLLONIUS OF TYANA
+  APULEIUS
+  ALEXANDER THE PAPHLAGONIAN
+
+REVOLUTION PRODUCED IN THE HISTORY OF NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT UPON
+THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY
+  MAGICAL CONSULTATIONS RESPECTING THE LIFE OF THE EMPEROR
+
+HISTORY OF NECROMANCY IN THE EAST
+  GENERAL SILENCE OF THE EAST RESPECTING INDIVIDUAL NECROMANCERS
+  ROCAIL
+  HAKEM, OTHERWISE MACANNA
+  ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS
+  PERSIAN TALES
+  STORY OF A GOULE
+  ARABIAN NIGHTS
+  RESEMBLANCE OF THE TALES OF THE EAST AND OF EUROPE
+  CAUSES OF HUMAN CREDULITY
+
+DARK AGES OF EUROPE
+  MERLIN
+  ST. DUNSTAN
+
+COMMUNICATION OF EUROPE AND THE SARACENS
+  GERBERT, POPE SILVESTER II
+  BENEDICT THE NINTH
+  GREGORY THE SEVENTH
+  DUFF, KING OF SCOTLAND
+  MACBETH
+  VIRGIL
+  ROBERT OF LINCOLN
+  MICHAEL SCOT
+  THE DEAN OF BADAJOZ
+  MIRACLE OF THE TUB OF WATER
+  INSTITUTION OF FRIARS
+  ALBERTUS MAGNUS
+  ROGER BACON
+  THOMAS AQUINAS
+  PETER OF APONO
+  ENGLISH LAW OF HIGH TREASON
+  ZIITO
+  TRANSMUTATION OF METALS
+  ARTEPHIUS
+  RAYMOND LULLI
+  ARNOLD OF VILLENEUVE
+  ENGLISH LAWS RESPECTING TRANSMUTATION
+
+REVIVAL OF LETTERS
+  JOAN OF ARC
+  ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER
+  RICHARD III
+
+SANGUINARY  PROCEEDINGS AGAINST WITCHCRAFT
+  SAVONAROLA
+  TRITHEMIUS
+  LUTHER
+  CORNELIUS AGRIPPA
+  FAUSTUS
+  SABELLICUS
+  PARACELSUS
+  CARDAN
+  QUACKS, WHO IN COOL BLOOD UNDERTOOK TO OVERREACH MANKIND
+  BENVENUTO CELLINI
+  NOSTRADAMUS
+  DOCTOR DEE
+  EARL OF DERBY
+  KING JAMES'S VOYAGE TO NORWAY
+  JOHN FIAN
+  KING JAMES'S DEMONOLOGY
+  STATUTE, 1 JAMES I
+  FORMAN AND OTHERS
+  LATEST IDEAS OF JAMES ON THE SUBJECT
+  LANCASHIRE WITCHES
+  LADY DAVIES
+  EDWARD FAIRFAX
+  DOCTOR LAMB
+  URBAIN GRANDIER
+  ASTROLOGY
+  WILLIAM LILLY
+  MATTHEW HOPKINS
+  CROMWEL
+  DOROTHY MATELEY
+  WITCHES HANGED BY SIR MATTHEW HALE
+  WITCHCRAFT IN SWEDEN
+  WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+LIVES OF THE NECROMANCERS
+
+
+The improvements that have been effected in natural philosophy have by
+degrees convinced the enlightened part of mankind that the material
+universe is every where subject to laws, fixed in their weight,
+measure and duration, capable of the most exact calculation, and which
+in no case admit of variation and exception. Whatever is not thus to
+be accounted for is of mind, and springs from the volition of some
+being, of which the material form is subjected to our senses, and the
+action of which is in like manner regulated by the laws of matter.
+Beside this, mind, as well as matter, is subject to fixed laws; and
+thus every phenomenon and occurrence around us is rendered a topic for
+the speculations of sagacity and foresight. Such is the creed which
+science has universally prescribed to the judicious and reflecting
+among us.
+
+It was otherwise in the infancy and less mature state of human
+knowledge. The chain of causes and consequences was yet unrecognized;
+and events perpetually occurred, for which no sagacity that was then
+in being was able to assign an original. Hence men felt themselves
+habitually disposed to refer many of the appearances with which they
+were conversant to the agency of invisible intelligences; sometimes
+under the influence of a benignant disposition, sometimes of malice,
+and sometimes perhaps from an inclination to make themselves sport of
+the wonder and astonishment of ignorant mortals. Omens and portents
+told these men of some piece of good or ill fortune speedily to befal
+them. The flight of birds was watched by them, as foretokening
+somewhat important. Thunder excited in them a feeling of supernatural
+terror. Eclipses with fear of change perplexed the nations. The
+phenomena of the heavens, regular and irregular, were anxiously
+remarked from the same principle. During the hours of darkness men
+were apt to see a supernatural being in every bush; and they could not
+cross a receptacle for the dead, without expecting to encounter some
+one of the departed uneasily wandering among graves, or commissioned
+to reveal somewhat momentous and deeply affecting to the survivors.
+Fairies danced in the moonlight glade; and something preternatural
+perpetually occurred to fill the living with admiration and awe.
+
+All this gradually reduced itself into a system. Mankind, particularly
+in the dark and ignorant ages, were divided into the strong and the
+weak; the strong and weak of animal frame, when corporeal strength
+more decidedly bore sway than in a period of greater cultivation; and
+the strong and weak in reference to intellect; those who were bold,
+audacious and enterprising in acquiring an ascendancy over their
+fellow-men, and those who truckled, submitted, and were acted upon,
+from an innate consciousness of inferiority, and a superstitious
+looking up to such as were of greater natural or acquired endowments
+than themselves. The strong in intellect were eager to avail
+themselves of their superiority, by means that escaped the penetration
+of the multitude, and had recourse to various artifices to effect
+their ends. Beside this, they became the dupes of their own practices.
+They set out at first in their conception of things from the level of
+the vulgar. They applied themselves diligently to the unravelling of
+what was unknown; wonder mingled with their contemplation; they
+abstracted their minds from things of ordinary occurrence, and, as we
+may denominate it, of real life, till at length they lost their true
+balance amidst the astonishment they sought to produce in their
+inferiors. They felt a vocation to things extraordinary; and they
+willingly gave scope and line without limit to that which engendered
+in themselves the most gratifying sensations, at the same time that it
+answered the purposes of their ambition.
+
+As these principles in the two parties, the more refined and the
+vulgar, are universal, and derive their origin from the nature of man,
+it has necessarily happened that this faith in extraordinary events,
+and superstitious fear of what is supernatural, has diffused itself
+through every climate of the world, in a certain stage of human
+intellect, and while refinement had not yet got the better of
+barbarism. The Celts of antiquity had their Druids, a branch of whose
+special profession was the exercise of magic. The Chaldeans and
+Egyptians had their wise men, their magicians and their sorcerers. The
+negroes have their foretellers of events, their amulets, and their
+reporters and believers of miraculous occurrences. A similar race of
+men was found by Columbus and the other discoverers of the New World
+in America; and facts of a parallel nature are attested to us in the
+islands of the South Seas. And, as phenomena of this sort were
+universal in their nature, without distinction of climate, whether
+torrid or frozen, and independently of the discordant manners and
+customs of different countries, so have they been very slow and recent
+in their disappearing. Queen Elizabeth sent to consult Dr. John Dee,
+the astrologer, respecting a lucky day for her coronation; King James
+the First employed much of his learned leisure upon questions of
+witchcraft and demonology, in which he fully believed and sir Matthew
+Hale in the year 1664 caused two old women to be hanged upon a charge
+of unlawful communion with infernal agents.
+
+The history of mankind therefore will be very imperfect, and our
+knowledge of the operations and eccentricities of the mind lamentably
+deficient, unless we take into our view what has occurred under this
+head. The supernatural appearances with which our ancestors conceived
+themselves perpetually surrounded must have had a strong tendency to
+cherish and keep alive the powers of the imagination, and to penetrate
+those who witnessed or expected such things with an extraordinary
+sensitiveness. As the course of events appears to us at present, there
+is much, though abstractedly within the compass of human sagacity to
+foresee, which yet the actors on the scene do not foresee: but the
+blindness and perplexity of short-sighted mortals must have been
+wonderfully increased, when ghosts and extraordinary appearances were
+conceived liable to cross the steps and confound the projects of men
+at every turn, and a malicious wizard or a powerful enchanter might
+involve his unfortunate victim in a chain of calamities, which no
+prudence could disarm, and no virtue could deliver him from. They were
+the slaves of an uncontrolable destiny, and must therefore have been
+eminently deficient in the perseverance and moral courage, which may
+justly be required of us in a more enlightened age. And the men (but
+these were few compared with the great majority of mankind), who
+believed themselves gifted with supernatural endowments, must have
+felt exempt and privileged from common rules, somewhat in the same way
+as the persons whom fiction has delighted to pourtray as endowed with
+immeasurable wealth, or with the power of rendering themselves
+impassive or invisible. But, whatever were their advantages or
+disadvantages, at any rate it is good for us to call up in review
+things, which are now passed away, but which once occupied so large a
+share of the thoughts and attention of mankind, and in a great degree
+tended to modify their characters and dictate their resolutions.
+
+As has already been said, numbers of those who were endowed with the
+highest powers of human intellect, such as, if they had lived in these
+times, would have aspired to eminence in the exact sciences, to the
+loftiest flights of imagination, or to the discovery of means by which
+the institutions of men in society might be rendered more beneficial
+and faultless, at that time wasted the midnight oil in endeavouring to
+trace the occult qualities and virtues of things, to render invisible
+spirits subject to their command, and to effect those wonders, of
+which they deemed themselves to have a dim conception, but which more
+rational views of nature have taught us to regard as beyond our power
+to effect. These sublime wanderings of the mind are well entitled to
+our labour to trace and investigate. The errors of man are worthy to
+be recorded, not only as beacons to warn us from the shelves where our
+ancestors have made shipwreck, but even as something honourable to our
+nature, to show how high a generous ambition could sour, though in
+forbidden paths, and in things too wonderful for us.
+
+Nor only is this subject inexpressibly interesting, as setting before
+us how the loftiest and most enterprising minds of ancient days
+formerly busied themselves. It is also of the highest importance to an
+ingenuous curiosity, inasmuch as it vitally affected the fortunes of
+so considerable a portion of the mass of mankind. The legislatures of
+remote ages bent all their severity at different periods against what
+they deemed the unhallowed arts of the sons and daughters of
+reprobation. Multitudes of human creatures have been sacrificed in
+different ages and countries, upon the accusation of having exercised
+arts of the most immoral and sacrilegious character. They were
+supposed to have formed a contract with a mighty and invisible spirit,
+the great enemy of man, and to have sold themselves, body and soul, to
+everlasting perdition, for the sake of gratifying, for a short term of
+years, their malignant passions against those who had been so
+unfortunate as to give them cause of offence. If there were any
+persons who imagined they had entered into such a contract, however
+erroneous was their belief, they must of necessity have been greatly
+depraved. And it was but natural that such as believed in this crime,
+must have considered it as atrocious beyond all others, and have
+regarded those who were supposed guilty of it with inexpressible
+abhorrence. There are many instances on record, where the persons
+accused of it, either from the depth of their delusion, or, which is
+more probable, harassed by persecution, by the hatred of their
+fellow-creatures directed against them, or by torture, actually
+confessed themselves guilty. These instances are too numerous, not to
+constitute an important chapter in the legislation of past ages. And,
+now that the illusion has in a manner passed away from the face of the
+earth, we are on that account the better qualified to investigate this
+error in its causes and consequences, and to look back on the tempest
+and hurricane from which we have escaped, with chastened feelings, and
+a sounder estimate of its nature, its reign, and its effects.
+
+
+
+
+AMBITIOUS NATURE OF MAN
+
+
+Man is a creature of boundless ambition.
+
+It is probably our natural wants that first awaken us from that
+lethargy and indifference in which man may be supposed to be plunged
+previously to the impulse of any motive, or the accession of any
+uneasiness. One of our earliest wants may be conceived to be hunger,
+or the desire of food.
+
+From this simple beginning the history of man in all its complex
+varieties may be regarded as proceeding.
+
+Man in a state of society, more especially where there is an
+inequality of condition and rank, is very often the creature of
+leisure. He finds in himself, either from internal or external
+impulse, a certain activity. He finds himself at one time engaged in
+the accomplishment of his obvious and immediate desires, and at
+another in a state in which these desires have for the present been
+fulfilled, and he has no present occasion to repeat those exertions
+which led to their fulfilment. This is the period of contemplation.
+This is the state which most eminently distinguishes us from the
+brutes. Here it is that the history of man, in its exclusive sense,
+may be considered as taking its beginning.
+
+Here it is that he specially recognises in himself the sense of power.
+Power in its simplest acceptation, may be exerted in either of two
+ways, either in his procuring for himself an ample field for more
+refined accommodations, or in the exercise of compulsion and authority
+over other living creatures. In the pursuit of either of these, and
+especially the first, he is led to the attainment of skill and
+superior adroitness in the use of his faculties.
+
+No sooner has man reached to this degree of improvement, than now, if
+not indeed earlier, he is induced to remark the extreme limitedness of
+his faculties in respect to the future; and he is led, first earnestly
+to desire a clearer insight into the future, and next a power of
+commanding those external causes upon which the events of the future
+depend. The first of these desires is the parent of divination, augury,
+chiromancy, astrology, and the consultation of oracles; and the second
+has been the prolific source of enchantment, witchcraft, sorcery,
+magic, necromancy, and alchemy, in its two branches, the unlimited
+prolongation of human life, and the art of converting less precious
+metals into gold.
+
+
+HIS DESIRE TO PENETRATE INTO FUTURITY.
+
+Nothing can suggest to us a more striking and stupendous idea of the
+faculties of the human mind, than the consideration of the various
+arts by which men have endeavoured to penetrate into the future, and
+to command the events of the future, in ways that in sobriety and
+truth are entirely out of our competence. We spurn impatiently against
+the narrow limits which the constitution of things has fixed to our
+aspirings, and endeavour by a multiplicity of ways to accomplish that
+which it is totally beyond the power of man to effect.
+
+
+DIVINATION.
+
+Divination has been principally employed in inspecting the entrails of
+beasts offered for sacrifice, and from their appearance drawing omens
+of the good or ill success of the enterprises in which we are about to
+engage.
+
+What the divination by the cup was which Joseph practised, or
+pretended to practise, we do not perhaps exactly understand. We all of
+us know somewhat of the predictions, to this day resorted to by
+maid-servants and others, from the appearance of the sediment to be
+found at the bottom of a tea-cup. Predictions of a similar sort are
+formed from the unpremeditated way in which we get out of bed in a
+morning, or put on our garments, from the persons or things we shall
+encounter when we first leave our chamber or go forth in the air, or
+any of the indifferent accidents of life.
+
+
+AUGURY.
+
+Augury has its foundation in observing the flight of birds, the sounds
+they utter, their motions whether sluggish or animated, and the
+avidity or otherwise with which they appear to take their food. The
+college of augurs was one of the most solemn institutions of ancient
+Rome.
+
+
+CHIROMANCY.
+
+Chiromancy, or the art of predicting the various fortunes of the
+individual, from an inspection of the minuter variations of the lines
+to be found in the palm of the human hand, has been used perhaps at
+one time or other in all the nations of the world.
+
+
+PHYSIOGNOMY.
+
+Physiognomy is not so properly a prediction of future events, as an
+attempt to explain the present and inherent qualities of a man. By
+unfolding his propensities however, it virtually gave the world to
+understand the sort of proceedings in which he was most likely to
+engage. The story of Socrates and the physiognomist is sufficiently
+known. The physiognomist having inspected the countenance of the
+philosopher, pronounced that he was given to intemperance, sensuality,
+and violent bursts of passion, all of which was so contrary to his
+character as universally known, that his disciples derided the
+physiognomist as a vain-glorious pretender. Socrates however presently
+put them to silence, by declaring that he had had an original
+propensity to all the vices imputed to him, and had only conquered the
+propensity by dint of a severe and unremitted self-discipline.
+
+
+INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS.
+
+Oneirocriticism, or the art of interpreting dreams, seems of all the
+modes of prediction the most inseparable from the nature of man. A
+considerable portion of every twenty-four hours of our lives is spent
+in sleep; and in sleep nothing is at least more usual, than for the
+mind to be occupied in a thousand imaginary scenes, which for the time
+are as realities, and often excite the passions of the mind of the
+sleeper in no ordinary degree. Many of them are wild and rambling; but
+many also have a portentous sobriety. Many seem to have a strict
+connection with the incidents of our actual lives; and some appear as
+if they came for the very purpose to warn us of danger, or prepare us
+for coming events. It is therefore no wonder that these occasionally
+fill our waking thoughts with a deep interest, and impress upon us an
+anxiety of which we feel it difficult to rid ourselves. Accordingly,
+in ages when men were more prone to superstition, than at present,
+they sometimes constituted a subject of earnest anxiety and
+inquisitiveness; and we find among the earliest exercises of the art
+of prediction, the interpretation of dreams to have occupied a
+principal place, and to have been as it were reduced into a science.
+
+
+CASTING OF LOTS.
+
+The casting of lots seems scarcely to come within the enumeration here
+given. It was intended as an appeal to heaven upon a question involved
+in uncertainty, with the idea that the supreme Ruler of the skies,
+thus appealed to, would from his omniscience supply the defect of
+human knowledge. Two examples, among others sufficiently remarkable,
+occur in the Bible. One of Achan, who secreted part of the spoil taken
+in Jericho, which was consecrated to the service of God, and who,
+being taken by lot, confessed, and was stoned to death. [1] The other
+of Jonah, upon whom the lot fell in a mighty tempest, the crew of the
+ship enquiring by this means what was the cause of the calamity that
+had overtaken them, and Jonah being in consequence cast into the sea.
+
+
+ASTROLOGY.
+
+Astrology was one of the modes most anciently and universally resorted
+to for discovering the fortunes of men and nations. Astronomy and
+astrology went hand in hand, particularly among the people of the
+East. The idea of fate was most especially bound up in this branch of
+prophecy. If the fortune of a man was intimately connected with the
+position of the heavenly bodies, it became evident that little was
+left to the province of his free will. The stars overruled him in all
+his determinations; and it was in vain for him to resist them. There
+was something flattering to the human imagination in conceiving that
+the planets and the orbs on high were concerned in the conduct we
+should pursue, and the events that should befal us. Man resigned
+himself to his fate with a solemn, yet a lofty feeling, that the
+remotest portions of the universe were concerned in the catastrophe
+that awaited him. Beside which, there was something peculiarly
+seducing in the apparently profound investigation of the professors of
+astrology. They busied themselves with the actual position of the
+heavenly bodies, their conjunctions and oppositions; and of
+consequence there was a great apparatus of diagrams and calculation to
+which they were prompted to apply themselves, and which addressed
+itself to the eyes and imaginations of those who consulted them.
+
+
+ORACLES.
+
+But that which seems to have had the greatest vogue in times of
+antiquity, relative to the prediction of future events, is what is
+recorded of oracles. Finding the insatiable curiosity of mankind as to
+what was to happen hereafter, and the general desire they felt to be
+guided in their conduct by an anticipation of things to come, the
+priests pretty generally took advantage of this passion, to increase
+their emoluments and offerings, and the more effectually to inspire
+the rest of their species with veneration and a willing submission to
+their authority. The oracle was delivered in a temple, or some sacred
+place; and in this particular we plainly discover that mixture of
+nature and art, of genuine enthusiasm and contriving craft, which is
+so frequently exemplified in the character of man.
+
+
+DELPHI.
+
+The oracle of Apollo at Delphi is the most remarkable; and respecting
+it we are furnished with the greatest body of particulars. The
+locality of this oracle is said to have been occasioned by the
+following circumstance. A goat-herd fed his flocks on the acclivity of
+mount Parnassus. As the animals wandered here and there in pursuit of
+food, they happened to approach a deep and long chasm which appeared
+in the rock. From this chasm a vapour issued; and the goats had no
+sooner inhaled a portion of the vapour, than they began to play and
+frisk about with singular agility. The goat-herd, observing this, and
+curious to discover the cause, held his head over the chasm; when, in
+a short time, the fumes having ascended to his brain, he threw himself
+into a variety of strange attitudes, and uttered words, which probably
+he did not understand himself, but which were supposed to convey a
+prophetic meaning.
+
+This phenomenon was taken advantage of, and a temple to Apollo was
+erected on the spot. The credulous many believed that here was
+obviously a centre and focus of divine inspiration. On this mountain
+Apollo was said to have slain the serpent Python. The apartment of the
+oracle was immediately over the chasm from which the vapour issued. A
+priestess delivered the responses, who was called Pythia, probably in
+commemoration of the exploit which had been performed by Apollo. She
+sat upon a tripod, or three-legged stool, perforated with holes, over
+the seat of the vapours. After a time, her figure enlarged itself, her
+hair stood on end, her complexion and features became altered, her
+heart panted and her bosom swelled, and her voice grew more than
+human. In this condition she uttered a number of wild and incoherent
+phrases, which were supposed to be dictated by the God. The questions
+which were offered by those who came to consult the oracle were then
+proposed to her, and her answers taken down by the priest, whose
+office was to arrange and methodize them, and put them into hexameter
+verse, after which they were delivered to the votaries. The priestess
+could only be consulted on one day in every month.
+
+Great ingenuity and contrivance were no doubt required to uphold the
+credit of the oracle; and no less boldness and self-collectedness on
+the part of those by whom the machinery was conducted. Like the
+conjurors of modern times, they took care to be extensively informed
+as to all such matters respecting which the oracle was likely to be
+consulted. They listened probably to the Pythia with a superstitious
+reverence for the incoherent sentences she uttered. She, like them,
+spent her life in being trained for the office to which she was
+devoted. All that was rambling and inapplicable in her wild
+declamation they consigned to oblivion. Whatever seemed to bear on the
+question proposed they preserved. The persons by whom the responses
+were digested into hexameter verse, had of course a commission
+attended with great discretionary power. They, as Horace remarks on
+another occasion, [2] divided what it was judicious to say, from what
+it was prudent to omit, dwelt upon one thing, and slurred over and
+accommodated another, just as would best suit the purpose they had in
+hand. Beside this, for the most part they clothed the apparent meaning
+of the oracle in obscurity, and often devised sentences of ambiguous
+interpretation, that might suit with opposite issues, whichever might
+happen to fall out. This was perfectly consistent with a high degree
+of enthusiasm on the part of the priest. However confident he might be
+in some things, he could not but of necessity feel that his
+prognostics were surrounded with uncertainty. Whatever decisions of
+the oracle were frustrated by the event, and we know that there were
+many of this sort, were speedily forgotten; while those which
+succeeded, were conveyed from shore to shore, and repeated by every
+echo. Nor is it surprising that the transmitters of the sentences of
+the God should in time arrive at an extraordinary degree of sagacity
+and skill. The oracles accordingly reached to so high a degree of
+reputation, that, as Cicero observes, no expedition for a long time
+was undertaken, no colony sent out, and often no affair of any
+distinguished family or individual entered on, without the previously
+obtaining their judgment and sanction. Their authority in a word was
+so high, that the first fathers of the Christian church could no
+otherwise account for a reputation thus universally received, than by
+supposing that the devils were permitted by God Almighty to inform the
+oracles with a more than human prescience, that all the world might be
+concluded in idolatry and unbelief, [3] and the necessity of a Saviour
+be made more apparent. The gullibility of man is one of the most
+prominent features of our nature. Various periods and times, when
+whole nations have as it were with one consent run into the most
+incredible and the grossest absurdities, perpetually offer themselves
+in the page of history; and in the records of remote antiquity it
+plainly appears that such delusions continued through successive
+centuries.
+
+
+THE DESIRE TO COMMAND AND CONTROL FUTURE EVENTS.
+
+Next to the consideration of those measures by which men have sought
+to dive into the secrets of future time, the question presents itself
+of those more daring undertakings, the object of which has been by
+some supernatural power to control the future, and place it in
+subjection to the will of the unlicensed adventurer. Men have always,
+especially in ages of ignorance, and when they most felt their
+individual weakness, figured to themselves an invisible strength
+greater than their own; and, in proportion to their impatience, and
+the fervour of their desires, have sought to enter into a league with
+those beings whose mightier force might supply that in which their
+weakness failed.
+
+
+COMMERCE WITH THE INVISIBLE WORLD.
+
+It is an essential feature of different ages and countries to vary
+exceedingly in the good or ill construction, the fame or dishonour,
+which shall attend upon the same conduct or mode of behaviour. In
+Egypt and throughout the East, especially in the early periods of
+history, the supposed commerce with invisible powers was openly
+professed, which, under other circumstances, and during the reign of
+different prejudices, was afterwards carefully concealed, and
+barbarously hunted out of the pale of allowed and authorised practice.
+The Magi of old, who claimed a power of producing miraculous
+appearances, and boasted a familiar intercourse with the world of
+spirits, were regarded by  their countrymen with peculiar reverence,
+and considered as the first and chiefest men in the state. For this
+mitigated view of such dark and mysterious proceedings the ancients
+were in a great degree indebted to their polytheism. The Romans are
+computed to have acknowledged thirty thousand divinities, to all of
+whom was rendered a legitimate homage; and other countries in a
+similar proportion.
+
+
+SORCERY AND ENCHANTMENT.
+
+In Asia, however, the Gods were divided into two parties, under
+Oromasdes, the principle of good, and Arimanius, the principle of
+evil. These powers were in perpetual contention with each other,
+sometimes the one, and sometimes the other gaining the superiority.
+Arimanius and his legions were therefore scarcely considered as
+entitled to the homage of mankind. Those who were actuated by
+benevolence, and who desired to draw down blessings upon their
+fellow-creatures, addressed themselves to the principle of good; while
+such unhappy beings, with whom spite and ill-will had the
+predominance, may be supposed often to have invoked in preference the
+principle of evil. Hence seems to have originated the idea of sorcery,
+or an appeal by incantations and wicked arts to the demons who
+delighted in mischief.
+
+These beings rejoiced in the opportunity of inflicting calamity and
+misery on mankind. But by what we read of them we might be induced to
+suppose that they were in some way restrained from gratifying their
+malignant intentions, and waited in eager hope, till some mortal
+reprobate should call out their dormant activity, and demand their
+aid.
+
+Various enchantments were therefore employed by those unhappy mortals
+whose special desire was to bring down calamity and plagues upon the
+individuals or tribes of men against whom their animosity was
+directed. Unlawful and detested words and mysteries were called into
+action to conjure up demons who should yield their powerful and
+tremendous assistance. Songs of a wild and maniacal character were
+chaunted. Noisome scents and the burning of all unhallowed and odious
+things were resorted to. In later times books and formulas of a
+terrific character were commonly employed, upon the reading or recital
+of which the prodigies resorted to began to display themselves. The
+heavens were darkened; the thunder rolled; and fierce and blinding
+lightnings flashed from one corner of the heavens to the other. The
+earth quaked and rocked from side to side. All monstrous and deformed
+things shewed themselves, "Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire,"
+enough to cause the stoutest heart to quail. Lastly, devils, whose
+name was legion, and to whose forms and distorted and menacing
+countenances superstition had annexed the most frightful ideas,
+crowded in countless multitudes upon the spectator, whose breath was
+flame, whose dances were full of terror, and whose strength infinitely
+exceeded every thing human. Such were the appalling conceptions which
+ages of bigotry and ignorance annexed to the notion of sorcery, and
+with these they scared the unhappy beings over whom this notion had
+usurped an ascendancy into lunacy, and prepared them for the
+perpetrating flagitious and unheard-of deeds.
+
+The result of these horrible incantations was not less tremendous,
+than the preparations might have led us to expect. The demons
+possessed all the powers of the air, and produced tempests and
+shipwrecks at their pleasure. "Castles toppled on their warder's
+heads, and palaces and pyramids sloped their summits to their
+foundations;" forests and mountains were torn from their roots, and
+cast into the sea. They inflamed the passions of men, and caused them
+to commit the most unheard-of excesses. They laid their ban on those
+who enjoyed the most prosperous health, condemned them to peak and
+pine, wasted them into a melancholy atrophy, and finally consigned
+them to a premature grave. They breathed a new and unblest life into
+beings in whom existence had long been extinct, and by their hateful
+and resistless power caused the sepulchres to give up their dead.
+
+
+WITCHCRAFT.
+
+Next to sorcery we may recollect the case of witchcraft, which occurs
+oftener, particularly in modern times, than any other alleged mode of
+changing by supernatural means the future course of events. The
+sorcerer, as we shall see hereafter, was frequently a man of learning
+and intellectual abilities, sometimes of comparative opulence and
+respectable situation in society. But the witch or wizard was almost
+uniformly old, decrepid, and nearly or altogether in a state of
+penury. The functions however of the witch and the sorcerer were in a
+great degree the same. The earliest account of a witch, attended with
+any degree of detail, is that of the witch of Endor in the Bible, who
+among other things, professed the power of calling up the dead upon
+occasion from the peace of the sepulchre. Witches also claimed the
+faculty of raising storms, and in various ways disturbing the course
+of nature. They appear in most cases to have been brought into action
+by the impulse of private malice. They occasioned mortality of greater
+or less extent in man and beast. They blighted the opening prospect of
+a plentiful harvest. They covered the heavens with clouds, and sent
+abroad withering and malignant blasts. They undermined the health of
+those who were so unfortunate as to incur their animosity, and caused
+them to waste away gradually with incurable disease. They were
+notorious two or three centuries ago for the power of the "evil eye."
+The vulgar, both great and small, dreaded their displeasure, and
+sought, by small gifts, and fair speeches, but insincere, and the
+offspring of terror only, to avert the pernicious consequences of
+their malice. They were famed for fabricating small images of wax, to
+represent the object of their persecution; and, as these by gradual
+and often studiously protracted degrees wasted before the fire, so the
+unfortunate butts of their resentment perished with a lingering, but
+inevitable death.
+
+
+COMPACTS WITH THE DEVIL.
+
+The power of these witches, as we find in their earliest records,
+originated in their intercourse with "familiar spirits," invisible
+beings who must be supposed to be enlisted in the armies of the prince
+of darkness. We do not read in these ancient memorials of any league
+of mutual benefit entered into between the merely human party, and his
+or her supernatural assistant. But modern times have amply supplied
+this defect. The witch or sorcerer could not secure the assistance of
+the demon but by a sure and faithful compact, by which the human party
+obtained the industrious and vigilant service of his familiar for a
+certain term of years, only on condition that, when the term was
+expired, the demon of undoubted right was to obtain possession of the
+indentured party, and to convey him irremissibly and for ever to the
+regions of the damned. The contract was drawn out in authentic form,
+signed by the sorcerer, and attested with his blood, and was then
+carried away by the demon, to be produced again at the appointed time.
+
+
+IMPS.
+
+These familiar spirits often assumed the form of animals, and a black
+dog or cat was considered as a figure in which the attendant devil was
+secretly hidden. These subordinate devils were called Imps. Impure and
+carnal ideas were mingled with these theories. The witches were said
+to have preternatural teats from which their familiars sucked their
+blood. The devil also engaged in sexual intercourse with the witch or
+wizard, being denominated _incubus_, if his favourite were a
+woman, and _succubus_, if a man. In short, every frightful and
+loathsome idea was carefully heaped up together, to render the
+unfortunate beings to whom the crime of witchcraft was imputed the
+horror and execration of their species.
+
+
+TALISMANS AND AMULETS.
+
+As according to the doctrine of witchcraft, there were certain
+compounds, and matters prepared by rules of art, that proved baleful
+and deadly to the persons against whom their activity was directed, so
+there were also preservatives, talismans, amulets and charms, for the
+most [Errata: _read_ for the most part] to be worn about the
+person, which rendered him superior to injury, not only from the
+operations of witchcraft, but in some cases from the sword or any
+other mortal weapon. As the poet says, he that had this,
+
+  Might trace huge forests and unhallowed heaths,--
+  Yea there, where very desolation dwells,
+  By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades,
+
+nay, in the midst of every tremendous assailant, "might pass on with
+unblenched majesty," uninjured and invulnerable.
+
+
+NECROMANCY.
+
+Last of all we may speak of necromancy, which has something in it that
+so strongly takes hold of the imagination, that, though it is one only
+of the various modes which have been enumerated for the exorcise of
+magical power, we have selected it to give a title to the present
+volume.
+
+There is something sacred to common apprehension in the repose of the
+dead. They seem placed beyond our power to disturb. "There is no work,
+nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave."
+
+  After life's fitful fever they sleep well:
+  Nor steel, nor poison,
+  Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
+  Can touch them further.
+
+Their remains moulder in the earth. Neither form nor feature is long
+continued to them. We shrink from their touch, and their sight. To
+violate the sepulchre therefore for the purpose of unholy spells and
+operations, as we read of in the annals of witchcraft, cannot fail to
+be exceedingly shocking. To call up the spirits of the departed, after
+they have fulfilled the task of life, and are consigned to their final
+sleep, is sacrilegious. Well may they exclaim, like the ghost of
+Samuel in the sacred story, "Why hast thou disquieted me?"
+
+There is a further circumstance in the case, which causes us
+additionally to revolt from the very idea of necromancy, strictly so
+called. Man is a mortal, or an immortal being. His frame either wholly
+"returns to the earth as it was, or his spirit," the thinking
+principle within him, "to God who gave it." The latter is the
+prevailing sentiment of mankind in modern times. Man is placed upon
+earth in a state of probation, to be dealt with hereafter according to
+the deeds done in the flesh. "Some shall go away into everlasting
+punishment; and others into life eternal." In this case there is
+something blasphemous in the idea of intermedding with the state of
+the dead. We must leave them in the hands of God. Even on the idea of
+an interval, the "sleep of the soul" from death to the general
+resurrection, which is the creed of no contemptible sect of
+Christians, it is surely a terrific notion that we should disturb the
+pause, which upon that hypothesis, the laws of nature have assigned to
+the departed soul, and come to awake, or to "torment him before the
+time."
+
+
+ALCHEMY.
+
+To make our catalogue of supernatural doings, and the lawless
+imaginations of man, the more complete, it may be further necessary to
+refer to the craft, so eagerly cultivated in successive ages of the
+world of converting the inferior metals into gold, to which was
+usually joined the _elixir vitae_, or universal medicine, having
+the quality of renewing the youth of man, and causing him to live for
+ever. The first authentic record on this subject is an edict of
+Dioclesian about three hundred years after Christ, ordering a diligent
+search to be made in Egypt for all the ancient books which treated of
+the art of making gold and silver, that they might without distinction
+be consigned to the flames. This edict however necessarily presumes a
+certain antiquity to the pursuit; and fabulous history has recorded
+Solomon, Pythagoras and Hermes among its distinguished votaries. From
+this period the study seems to have slept, till it was revived among
+the Arabians after a lapse of five or six hundred years.
+
+It is well known however how eagerly it was cultivated in various
+countries of the world for many centuries after it was divulged by
+Geber. Men of the most wonderful talents devoted their lives to the
+investigation; and in multiplied instances the discovery was said to
+have been completed. Vast sums of money were consumed in the fruitless
+endeavour; and in a later period it seems to have furnished an
+excellent handle to vain and specious projectors, to extort money from
+those more amply provided with the goods of fortune than themselves.
+
+The art no doubt is in itself sufficiently mystical, having been
+pursued by multitudes, who seemed to themselves ever on the eve of
+consummation, but as constantly baffled when to their own apprehension
+most on the verge of success. The discovery indeed appears upon the
+face of it to be of the most delicate nature, as the benefit must
+wholly depend upon its being reserved to one or a very few, the object
+being unbounded wealth, which is nothing unless confined. If the power
+of creating gold is diffused, wealth by such diffusion becomes
+poverty, and every thing after a short time would but return to what
+it had been. Add to which, that the nature of discovery has ordinarily
+been, that, when once the clue has been found, it reveals itself to
+several about the same period of time.
+
+The art, as we have said, is in its own nature sufficiently mystical,
+depending on nice combinations and proportions of ingredients, and
+upon the addition of each ingredient being made exactly in the
+critical moment, and in the precise degree of heat, indicated by the
+colour of the vapour arising from the crucible or retort. This was
+watched by the operator with inexhaustible patience; and it was often
+found or supposed, that the minutest error in this respect caused the
+most promising appearances to fail of the expected success. This
+circumstance no doubt occasionally gave an opportunity to an artful
+impostor to account for his miscarriage, and thus to prevail upon his
+credulous dupe to enable him to begin his tedious experiment again.
+
+But, beside this, it appears that those whose object was the
+transmutation of metals, very frequently joined to this pursuit the
+study of astrology, and even the practice of sorcery. So much delicacy
+and nicety were supposed to be required in the process for the
+transmutation of metals, that it could not hope to succeed but under a
+favourable conjunction of the planets; and the most flourishing
+pretenders to the art boasted that they had also a familiar
+intercourse with certain spirits of supernatural power, which assisted
+them in their undertakings, and enabled them to penetrate into things
+undiscoverable to mere human sagacity, and to predict future events.
+
+
+FAIRIES.
+
+Another mode in which the wild and erratic imagination of our
+ancestors manifested itself, was in the creation of a world of
+visionary beings of a less terrific character, but which did not fail
+to annoy their thoughts, and perplex their determinations, known by
+the name of Fairies.
+
+There are few things more worthy of contemplation, and that at the
+same time tend to place the dispositions of our ancestors in a more
+amiable point of view, than the creation of this airy and fantastic
+race. They were so diminutive as almost to elude the organs of human
+sight. They were at large, even though confined to the smallest
+dimensions. They "could be bounded in a nutshell, and count themselves
+kings of infinite space."
+
+  Their midnight revels, by a forest-side
+  Or fountain, the belated peasant saw,
+  Or dreamed he saw, while overhead the moon
+  Sat arbitress, and nearer to the earth
+  Wheeled her pale course--they, on their mirth and dance
+  Intent, with jocund music charmed his ear;
+  At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
+
+Small circles marked the grass in solitary places, the trace of their
+little feet, which, though narrow, were ample enough to afford every
+accommodation to their pastime.
+
+The fairy tribes appear to have been every where distinguished for
+their patronage of truth, simplicity and industry, and their
+abhorrence of sensuality and prevarication. They left little rewards
+in secret, as tokens of their approbation of the virtues they loved,
+and by their supernatural power afforded a supplement to pure and
+excellent intentions, when the corporeal powers of the virtuous sank
+under the pressure of human infirmity. Where they conceived
+displeasure, the punishments they inflicted were for the most part
+such as served moderately to vex and harass the offending party,
+rather than to inflict upon him permanent and irremediable evils.
+
+  Their airy tongues would syllable men's names
+  On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.
+
+They were supposed to guide the wandering lights, that in the
+obscurity of the night beguiled the weary traveller "through bog,
+through bush, through brake, through briar." But their power of evil
+only extended, or was only employed, to vex those who by a certain
+obliquity of conduct gave occasion for their reproofs. They besides
+pinched and otherwise tormented the objects of their displeasure; and,
+though the mischiefs they executed were not of the most vital kind,
+yet, coming from a supernatural enemy, and being inflicted by
+invisible hands, they could not fail greatly to disturb and disorder
+those who suffered from them.
+
+There is at first sight a great inconsistency in the representations
+of these imaginary people. For the most part they are described to us
+as of a stature and appearance, almost too slight to be marked by our
+grosser human organs. At other times however, and especially in the
+extremely popular tales digested by M. Perrault, they shew themselves
+in indiscriminate assemblies, brought together for some solemn
+festivity or otherwise, and join the human frequenters of the scene,
+without occasioning enquiry or surprise. They are particularly
+concerned in the business of summarily and without appeal bestowing
+miraculous gifts, sometimes as a mark of special friendship and
+favour, and sometimes with a malicious and hostile intention.--But we
+are to consider that spirits
+
+  Can every form assume; so soft
+  And uncompounded is their essence pure;
+  Not tied or manacled with joint or limb,
+  Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose,
+  Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,
+  Can execute their airy purposes,
+  And works of love or enmity fulfil.
+
+And then again, as their bounties were shadowy, so were they specially
+apt to disappear in a moment, the most splendid palaces and
+magnificent exhibitions vanishing away, and leaving their disconcerted
+dupe with his robes converted into the poorest rags, and, instead of
+glittering state, finding himself suddenly in the midst of desolation,
+and removed no man knew whither.
+
+One of the mischiefs that were most frequently imputed to them, was
+the changing the beautiful child of some doating parents, for a babe
+marked with ugliness and deformity. But this idea seems fraught with
+inconsistency. The natural stature of the fairy is of the smallest
+dimensions; and, though they could occasionally dilate their figure so
+as to imitate humanity, yet it is to be presumed that this was only
+for a special purpose, and, that purpose obtained, that they shrank
+again habitually into their characteristic littleness. The change
+therefore can only be supposed to have been of one human child for
+another.
+
+
+ROSICRUCIANS.
+
+Nothing very distinct has been ascertained respecting a sect, calling
+itself Rosicrucians. It is said to have originated in the East from
+one of the crusaders in the fourteenth century; but it attracted at
+least no public notice till the beginning of the seventeenth century.
+Its adherents appear to have imbibed their notions from the Arabians,
+and claimed the possession of the philosopher's stone, the art of
+transmuting metals, and the _elixir vitae_.
+
+
+SYLPHS AND GNOMES, SALAMANDERS AND UNDINES.
+
+But that for which they principally excited public attention, was
+their creed respecting certain elementary beings, which to grosser
+eyes are invisible, but were familiarly known to the initiated. To be
+admitted to their acquaintance it was previously necessary that the
+organs of human sight should be purged by the universal medicine, and
+that certain glass globes should be chemically prepared with one or
+other of the four elements, and for one month exposed to the beams of
+the sun. These preliminary steps being taken, the initiated
+immediately had a sight of innumerable beings of a luminous substance,
+but of thin and evanescent structure, that people the elements on all
+sides of us. Those who inhabited the air were called Sylphs; and those
+who dwelt in the earth bore the name of Gnomes; such as peopled the
+fire were Salamanders; and those who made their home in the waters
+were Undines. Each class appears to have had an extensive power in the
+elements to which they belonged. They could raise tempests in the air,
+and storms at sea, shake the earth, and alarm the inhabitants of the
+globe with the sight of devouring flames. These appear however to have
+been more formidable in appearance than in reality. And the whole race
+was subordinate to man, and particularly subject to the initiated. The
+gnomes, inhabitants of the earth and the mines, liberally supplied to
+the human beings with whom they conversed, the hidden treasures over
+which they presided. The four classes were some of them male, and some
+female; but the female sex seems to have preponderated in all.
+
+These elementary beings, we are told, were by their constitution more
+long-lived than man, but with this essential disadvantage, that at
+death they wholly ceased to exist. In the mean time they were inspired
+with an earnest desire for immortality; and there was one way left for
+them, by which this desire might be gratified. If they were so happy
+as to awaken in any of the initiated a passion the end of which was
+marriage, then the sylph who became the bride of a virtuous man,
+followed his nature, and became immortal; while on the other hand, if
+she united herself to an immoral being and a profligate, the husband
+followed the law of the wife, and was rendered entirely mortal. The
+initiated however were required, as a condition to their being
+admitted into the secrets of the order, to engage themselves in a vow
+of perpetual chastity as to women. And they were abundantly rewarded
+by the probability of being united to a sylph, a gnome, a salamander,
+or an undine, any one of whom was inexpressibly more enchanting than
+the most beautiful woman, in addition to which her charms were in a
+manner perpetual, while a wife of our own nature is in a short time
+destined to wrinkles, and all the other disadvantages of old age. The
+initiated of course enjoyed a beatitude infinitely greater than that
+which falls to the lot of ordinary mortals, being conscious of a
+perpetual commerce with these wonderful beings from whose society the
+vulgar are debarred, and having such associates unintermittedly
+anxious to perform their behests, and anticipate their desires. [4]
+
+We should have taken but an imperfect survey of the lawless
+extravagancies of human imagination, if we had not included a survey
+of this sect. There is something particularly soothing to the fancy of
+an erratic mind, in the conception of being conversant with a race of
+beings the very existence of which is unperceived by ordinary mortals,
+and thus entering into an infinitely numerous and variegated society,
+even when we are apparently swallowed up in entire solitude.
+
+The Rosicrucians are further entitled to our special notice, as their
+tenets have had the good fortune to furnish Pope with the beautiful
+machinery with which he has adorned the Rape of the Lock. There is
+also, of much later date, a wild and poetical fiction for which we are
+indebted to the same source, called Undine, from the pen of Lamotte
+Fouquet.
+
+
+
+
+EXAMPLES OF NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT FROM THE BIBLE.
+
+
+The oldest and most authentic record from which we can derive our
+ideas on the subject of necromancy and witchcraft, unquestionably is
+the Bible. The Egyptians and Chaldeans were early distinguished for
+their supposed proficiency in magic, in the production of supernatural
+phenomena, and in penetrating into the secrets of future time. The
+first appearance of men thus extraordinarily gifted, or advancing
+pretensions of this sort, recorded in Scripture, is on occasion of
+Pharoah's dream of the seven years of plenty, and seven years of
+famine. At that period the king "sent and called for all the magicians
+of Egypt and all the wise men; but they could not interpret the
+dream," [5] which Joseph afterwards expounded.
+
+Their second appearance was upon a most memorable occasion, when Moses
+and Aaron, armed with miraculous powers, came to a subsequent king of
+Egypt, to demand from him that their countrymen might be permitted to
+depart to another tract of the world. They produced a miracle as the
+evidence of their divine mission: and the king, who was also named
+Pharoah, "called before him the wise men and the sorcerers of Egypt,
+who with their enchantments did in like manner" as Moses had done;
+till, after some experiments in which they were apparently successful,
+they at length were compelled to allow themselves overcome, and fairly
+to confess to their master, "This is the finger of God!" [6]
+
+The spirit of the Jewish history loudly affirms, that the Creator of
+heaven and earth had adopted this nation for his chosen people, and
+therefore demanded their exclusive homage, and that they should
+acknowledge no other God. It is on this principle that it is made one
+of his early commands to them, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to
+live." [7] And elsewhere the meaning of this prohibition is more fully
+explained: "There shall not be found among you any one that useth
+divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a
+charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a
+necromancer: [8] these shall surely be put to death; they shall stone
+them with stones." [9]
+
+The character of an enchanter is elsewhere more fully illustrated in
+the case of Balaam, the soothsayer, who was sent for by Balak, the
+king of Moab, that he might "curse the people of Israel. The
+messengers of the king came to Balaam with the rewards of divination
+in their hand;" [10] but the soothsayer was restrained from his
+purpose by the God of the Jews, and, where he came to curse, was
+compelled to bless. He therefore "did not go, as at other times, to
+seek for enchantments," [11] but took up his discourse, and began,
+saying, "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is
+there any divination against Israel!" [12]
+
+Another example of necromantic power or pretension is to be found in
+the story of Saul and the witch of Endor. Saul, the first king of the
+Jews, being rejected by God, and obtaining "no answer to his
+enquiries, either by dreams, or by prophets, said to his servants,
+seek me a woman that has a familiar spirit. And his servants, said,
+Lo, there is a woman that has a familiar spirit at Endor." Saul
+accordingly had recourse to her. But, previously to this time, in
+conformity to the law of God, he "had cut off those that had familiar
+spirits, and the wizards out of the land;" and the woman therefore was
+terrified at his present application. Saul re-assured her; and in
+consequence the woman consented to call up the person he should name.
+Saul demanded of her to bring up the ghost of Samuel. The ghost,
+whether by her enchantments or through divine interposition we are not
+told, appeared, and prophesied to Saul, that he and his son should
+fall in battle on the succeeding day, [13] which accordingly came to
+pass.
+
+Manasseh, a subsequent king in Jerusalem, "observed times, and used
+enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards, and so
+provoked God to anger." [14]
+
+It appears plainly from the same authority, that there were good
+spirits and evil spirits, "The Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab,
+that he may go up, and fall before Ramoth Gilead? And there came a
+spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him: I
+will go forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
+And the Lord said, Thou shall persuade him." [15]
+
+In like manner, we are told, "Satan stood up against Israel, and
+provoked David to number the people; and God was displeased with the
+thing, and smote Israel, so that there fell of the people seventy
+thousand men." [16]
+
+Satan also, in the Book of Job, presented himself before the Lord
+among the Sons of God, and asked and obtained leave to try the
+faithfulness of Job by "putting forth his hand," and despoiling the
+patriarch of "all that he had."
+
+Taking these things into consideration, there can be no reasonable
+doubt, though the devil and Satan are not mentioned in the story, that
+the serpent who in so crafty a way beguiled Eve, was in reality no
+other than the malevolent enemy of mankind under that disguise.
+
+We are in the same manner informed of the oracles of the false Gods;
+and an example occurs of a king of Samaria, who fell sick, and who
+"sent messengers, and said to them, Go, and enquire of Baalzebub, the
+God of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease." At which
+proceeding the God of the Jews was displeased, and sent Elijah to the
+messengers to say, "Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that
+you go to enquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron? Because the king has
+done this, he shall not recover; he shall surely die." [17]
+
+The appearance of the Wise Men of the East again occurs in considerable
+detail in the Prophecy of Daniel, though they are only brought forward
+there, as discoverers of hidden things, and interpreters of dreams.
+Twice, on occasion of dreams that troubled him, Nebuchadnezzar, king
+of Babylon, "commanded to be called to him the magicians, and the
+astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans" of his kingdom, and
+each time with similar success. They confessed their incapacity; and
+Daniel, the prophet of the Jews, expounded to the king that in which
+they had failed. Nebuchadnezzar in consequence promoted Daniel to be
+master of the magicians. A similar scene occurred in the court of
+Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, in the case of the hand-writing
+on the wall.
+
+It is probable that the Jews considered the Gods of the nations around
+them as so many of the fallen angels, or spirits of hell, since, among
+other arguments, the coincidence of the name of Beelzebub, the prince
+of devils, [18] with Baalzebub, the God of Ekron, could scarcely have
+fallen out by chance.
+
+It seemed necessary to enter into these particulars, as they occur in
+the oldest and most authentic records from which we can derive our
+ideas on the subject of necromancy, witchcraft, and the claims that
+were set up in ancient times to the exercise of magcial power. Among
+these examples there is only one, that of the contention for
+superiority between Moses and the Wise Men of Egypt in which we are
+presented with their pretensions to a visible exhibition of
+supernatural effects.
+
+
+THE MAGI, OR WISE MEN OF THE EAST.
+
+The Magi, or Wise Men of the East, extended their ramifications over
+Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, India, and probably, though with a different
+name, over China, and indeed the whole known world. Their profession
+was of a mysterious nature. They laid claim to a familiar intercourse
+with the Gods. They placed themselves as mediators between heaven and
+earth, assumed the prerogative of revealing the will of beings of a
+nature superior to man, and pretended to show wonders and prodigies
+that surpassed any power which was merely human.
+
+To understand this, we must bear in mind the state of knowledge in
+ancient times, where for the most part the cultivation of the mind,
+and an acquaintance with either science or art, were confined to a
+very small part of the population. In each of the nations we have
+mentioned, there was a particular caste or tribe of men, who, by the
+prerogative of their birth, were entitled to the advantages of science
+and a superior education, while the rest of their countrymen were
+destined to subsist by manual labour. This of necessity gave birth in
+the privileged few to an overweening sense of their own importance.
+They scarcely regarded the rest of their countrymen as beings of the
+same species with themselves; and, finding a strong line of distinction
+cutting them off from the herd, they had recourse to every practicable
+method for making that distinction still stronger. Wonder is one of
+the most obvious means of generating deference; and, by keeping to
+themselves the grounds and process of their skill, and presenting the
+results only, they were sure to excite the admiration and reverence of
+their contemporaries. This mode of proceeding further produced a
+re-action upon themselves. That which supplied and promised to supply
+to them so large a harvest of honour and fame, unavoidably became
+precious in their eyes. They pursued their discoveries with avidity,
+because few had access to their opportunities in that respect, and
+because, the profounder were their researches, the more sure they were
+of being looked up to by the public as having that in them which was
+sacred and inviolable. They spent their days and nights in these
+investigations. They shrank from no privation and labour. At the same
+time that in these labours they had at all times an eye to their
+darling object, an ascendancy over the minds of their countrymen at
+large, and the extorting from them a blind and implicit deference to
+their oracular decrees. They however loved their pursuits for the
+pursuits themselves. They felt their abstraction and their unlimited
+nature, and on that account contemplated them with admiration. They
+valued them (for such is the indestructible character of the human
+mind) for the pains they had bestowed on them. The sweat of their brow
+grew into a part as it were of the intrinsic merit of the articles;
+and that which had with so much pains been attained by them, they
+could not but regard as of inestimable worth.
+
+
+EGYPT.
+
+The Egyptians took the lead in early antiquity, with respect to
+civilisation and the stupendous productions of human labour and art,
+of all other known nations of the world. The pyramids stand by
+themselves as a monument of the industry of mankind. Thebes, with her
+hundred gates, at each of which we are told she could send out at once
+two hundred chariots and ten thousand warriors completely accoutred,
+was one of the noblest cities on record. The whole country of Lower
+Egypt was intersected with canals giving a beneficent direction to the
+periodical inundations of the Nile; and the artificial lake Moeris was
+dug of a vast extent, that it might draw off the occasional excesses
+of the overflowings of the river. The Egyptians had an extraordinary
+custom of preserving their dead, so that the country was peopled
+almost as numerously with mummies prepared by extreme assiduity and
+skill, as with the living.
+
+And, in proportion to their edifices and labours of this durable sort,
+was their unwearied application to all the learning that was then
+known. Geometry is said to have owed its existence to the necessity
+under which they were placed of every man recognising his own property
+in land, as soon as the overflowings of the Nile had ceased. They were
+not less assiduous in their application to astronomy. The hieroglyphics
+of Egypt are of universal notoriety. Their mythology was of the most
+complicated nature. Their Gods were infinitely varied in their kind;
+and the modes of their worship not less endlessly diversified. All
+these particulars still contributed to the abstraction of their
+studies, and the loftiness of their pretensions to knowledge. They
+perpetually conversed with the invisible world, and laid claim to the
+faculty of revealing things hidden, of foretelling future events, and
+displaying wonders that exceeded human power to produce.
+
+A striking illustration of the state of Egypt in that respect in early
+times, occurs incidentally in the history of Joseph in the Bible. Jacob
+had twelve sons, among whom his partiality for Joseph was so notorious,
+that his brethren out of envy sold him as a slave to the wandering
+Midianites. Thus it was his fortune to be placed in Egypt, where in
+the process of events he became the second man in the country, and
+chief minister of the king. A severe famine having visited these
+climates, Jacob sent his sons into Egypt to buy corn, where only it
+was to be found. As soon as Joseph saw them, he knew them, though they
+knew not him in his exalted situation; and he set himself to devise
+expedients to settle them permanently in the country in which he
+ruled. Among the rest he caused a precious cup from his stores to be
+privily conveyed into the corn-sack of Benjamin, his only brother by
+the same mother. The brothers were no sooner departed, than Joseph
+sent in pursuit of them; and the messengers accosted them with the
+words, "Is not this the cup in which my lord drinketh, and whereby
+also he divineth? Ye have done evil in taking it away." [19] They
+brought the strangers again into the presence of Joseph, who addressed
+them with severity, saying, "What is this deed that ye have done? Wot
+ye not that such a man as I could certainly divine?" [20]
+
+From this story it plainly appears, that the art of divination was
+extensively exercised in Egypt, that the practice was held in honour,
+and that such was the state of the country, that it was to be presumed
+as a thing of course, that a man of the high rank and distinction of
+Joseph should professedly be an adept in it.
+
+In the great contention for supernatural power between Moses and the
+magicians of Egypt, it is plain that they came forward with confidence,
+and did not shrink from the debate. Moses's rod was turned into a
+serpent; so were their rods: Moses changed the waters of Egypt into
+blood; and the magicians did the like with their enchantments: Moses
+caused frogs to come up, and cover the land of Egypt; and the magicians
+also brought frogs upon the country. Without its being in any way
+necessary to enquire how they effected these wonders, it is evident
+from the whole train of the narrative, that they must have been much
+in the practice of astonishing their countrymen with their feats in
+such a kind, and, whether it were delusion, or to whatever else we may
+attribute their success, that they were universally looked up to for
+the extraordinariness of their performances.
+
+While we are on this subject of illustrations from the Bible, it may
+be worth while to revert more particularly to the story of Balaam.
+Balak the king of Moab, sent for Balaam that he might come and curse
+the invaders of his country; and in the sequel we are told, when the
+prophet changed his curses into a blessing, that he did not "go forth,
+as at other times, to seek for enchantments." It is plain therefore
+that Balak did not rely singly upon the eloquence and fervour of
+Balaam to pour out vituperations upon the people of Israel, but that
+it was expected that the prophet should use incantations and certain
+mystical rites, upon which the efficacy of his foretelling disaster
+to the enemy principally depended.
+
+
+STATUE OF MEMNON.
+
+The Magi of Egypt looked round in every quarter for phenomena that
+might produce astonishment among their countrymen, and induce them to
+believe that they dwelt in a land which overflowed with the testimonies
+and presence of a divine power. Among others the statue of Memnon,
+erected over his tomb near Thebes, is recorded by many authors. Memnon
+is said to have been the son of Aurora, the Goddess of the morning;
+and his statue is related to have had the peculiar faculty of uttering
+a melodious sound every morning when touched by the first beams of
+day, as if to salute his mother; and every night at sunset to have
+imparted another sound, low and mournful, as lamenting the departure
+of the day. This prodigy is spoken of by Tacitus, Strabo, Juvenal and
+Philostratus. The statue uttered these sounds, while perfect; and,
+when it was mutilated by human violence, or by a convulsion of nature,
+it still retained the property with which it had been originally
+endowed. Modern travellers, for the same phenomenon has still been
+observed, have asserted that it does not owe its existence to any
+prodigy, but to a property of the granite, of which the statue or its
+pedestal is formed, which, being hollow, is found in various parts of
+the world to exhibit this quality. It has therefore been suggested,
+that the priests, having ascertained its peculiarity, expressly formed
+the statue of that material, for the purpose of impressing on it a
+supernatural character, and thus being enabled to extend their
+influence with a credulous people. [21]
+
+
+TEMPLE OF JUPITER AMMON: ITS ORACLES.
+
+Another of what may be considered as the wonders of Egypt, is the
+temple of Jupiter Ammon in the midst of the Great Desert. This temple
+was situated at a distance of no less than twelve days' journey from
+Memphis, the capital of the Lower Egypt. The principal part of this
+space consisted of one immense tract of moving sand, so hot as to be
+intolerable to the sole of the foot, while the air was pregnant with
+fire, so that it was almost impossible to breathe in it. Not a drop of
+water, not a tree, not a blade of grass, was to be found through this
+vast surface. It was here that Cambyses, engaged in an impious
+expedition to demolish the temple, is said to have lost an army of
+fifty thousand men, buried in the sands. When you arrived however,
+you were presented with a wood of great circumference, the foliage of
+which was so thick that the beams of the sun could not pierce it. The
+atmosphere of the place was of a delicious temperature; the scene was
+every where interspersed with fountains; and all the fruits of the
+earth were found in the highest perfection. In the midst was the
+temple and oracle of the God, who was worshipped in the likeness of a
+ram. The Egyptian priests chose this site as furnishing a test of the
+zeal of their votaries; the journey being like the pilgrimage to
+Jerusalem or Mecca, if not from so great a distance, yet attended in
+many respects with perils more formidable. It was not safe to attempt
+the passage but with moderate numbers, and those expressly equipped
+for expedition.
+
+Bacchus is said to have visited this spot in his great expedition to
+the East, when Jupiter appeared to him in the form of a ram, having
+struck his foot upon the soil, and for the first time occasioned that
+supply of water, with which the place was ever after plentifully
+supplied. Alexander the Great in a subsequent age undertook the same
+journey with his army, that he might cause himself to be acknowledged
+for the son of the God, under which character he was in all due form
+recognised. The priests no doubt had heard of the successful battles
+of the Granicus and of Issus, of the capture of Tyre after a seven
+months' siege, and of the march of the great conqueror in Egypt, where
+he carried every thing before him.
+
+Here we are presented with a striking specimen of the mode and spirit
+in which the oracles of old were accustomed to be conducted. It may be
+said that the priests were corrupted by the rich presents which
+Alexander bestowed on them with a liberal hand. But this was not the
+prime impulse in the business. They were astonished at the daring with
+which Alexander with a comparative handful of men set out from Greece,
+having meditated the overthrow of the great Persian empire. They were
+astonished with his perpetual success, and his victorious progress
+from the Hellespont to mount Taurus, from mount Taurus to Pelusium,
+and from Pelusium quite across the ancient kingdom of Egypt to the
+Palus Mareotis. Accustomed to the practice of adulation, and to the
+belief that mortal power and true intellectual greatness were the
+same, they with a genuine enthusiastic fervour regarded Alexander as
+the son of their God, and acknowledged him as such.--Nothing can be
+more memorable than the way in which belief and unbelief hold a
+divided empire over the human mind, our passions hurrying us into
+belief, at the same time that our intervals of sobriety suggest to
+us that it is all pure imposition.
+
+
+CHALDEA AND BABYLON.
+
+The history of the Babylonish monarchy not having been handed down to
+us, except incidentally as it is touched upon by the historians of
+other countries, we know little of those anecdotes respecting it which
+are best calculated to illustrate the habits and manners of a people.
+We know that they in probability preceded all other nations in the
+accuracy of their observations on the phenomena of the heavenly
+bodies. We know that the Magi were highly respected among them as an
+order in the state; and that, when questions occurred exciting great
+alarm in the rulers, "the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers,
+and the Chaldeans," were called together, to see whether by their arts
+they could throw light upon questions so mysterious and perplexing,
+and we find sufficient reason, both from analogy, and from the very
+circumstance that sorcerers are specifically named among the classes
+of which their Wise Men consisted, to believe that the Babylonian Magi
+advanced no dubious pretensions to the exercise of magical power.
+
+
+ZOROASTER.
+
+Among the Chaldeans the most famous name is that of Zoroaster, who is
+held to have been the author of their religion, their civil policy,
+their sciences, and their magic. He taught the doctrine of two great
+principles, the one the author of good, the other of evil. He
+prohibited the use of images in the ceremonies of religion, and
+pronounced that nothing deserved homage but fire, and the sun, the
+centre and the source of fire, and these perhaps to be venerated not
+for themselves, but as emblematical of the principle of all good
+things. He taught astronomy and astrology. We may with sufficient
+probability infer his doctrines from those of the Magi, who were his
+followers. He practised enchantments, by means of which he would send
+a panic among the forces that were brought to make war against him,
+rendering the conflict by force of arms unnecessary. He prescribed the
+use of certain herbs as all-powerful for the production of supernatural
+effects. He pretended to the faculty of working miracles, and of
+superseding and altering the ordinary course of nature.--There was,
+beside the Chaldean Zoroaster, a Persian known by the same name, who
+is said to have been a contemporary of Darius Hystaspes.
+
+
+
+
+GREECE.
+
+
+Thus obscure and general is our information respecting the
+Babylonians. But it was far otherwise with the Greeks. Long before
+the period, when, by their successful resistance to the Persian
+invasion, they had rendered themselves of paramount importance in the
+history of the civilised world, they had their poets and annalists,
+who preserved to future time the memory of their tastes, their manners
+and superstitions, their strength, and their weakness. Homer in
+particular had already composed his two great poems, rendering the
+peculiarities of his countrymen familiar to the latest posterity. The
+consequence of this is, that the wonderful things of early Greece are
+even more frequent than the record of its sober facts. As men advance
+in observation and experience, they are compelled more and more to
+perceive that all the phenomena of nature are one vast chain of
+uninterrupted causes and consequences: but to the eye of uninstructed
+ignorance every thing is astonishing, every thing is unexpected. The
+remote generations of mankind are in all cases full of prodigies: but
+it is the fortune of Greece to have preserved its early adventures, so
+as to render the beginning pages of its history one mass of impossible
+falsehoods.
+
+
+DEITIES OF GREECE.
+
+The Gods of the Greeks appear all of them once to have been men. Their
+real or supposed adventures therefore make a part of what is recorded
+respecting them. Jupiter was born in Crete, and being secreted by his
+mother in a cave, was suckled by a goat. Being come to man's estate,
+he warred with the giants, one of whom had an hundred hands, and two
+others brethren, grew nine inches every month, and, when nine years
+old, were fully qualified to engage in all exploits of corporeal
+strength. The war was finished, by the giants being overwhelmed with
+the thunderbolts of heaven, and buried under mountains.
+
+Minerva was born from the head of her father, without a mother; and
+Bacchus, coming into the world after the death of his female parent,
+was inclosed in the thigh of Jupiter, and was thus produced at the
+proper time in full vigour and strength. Minerva had a shield, in
+which was preserved the real head of Medusa, that had the property of
+turning every one that looked on it into stone. Bacchus, when a child,
+was seized on by pirates with the intention to sell him for a slave:
+but he waved a spear, and the oars of the sailors were turned into
+vines, which climbed the masts, and spread their clusters over the
+sails; and tigers, lynxes and panthers, appeared to swim round the
+ship, so terrifying the crew that they leaped overboard, and were
+changed into dolphins. Bacchus, in his maturity, is described as
+having been the conqueror of India. He did not set out on this
+expedition like other conquerors, at the head of an army. He rode in
+an open chariot, which was drawn by tame lions. His attendants were
+men and women in great multitudes, eminently accomplished in the arts
+of rural industry. Wherever he came, he taught men the science of
+husbandry, and the cultivation of the vine. Wherever he came, he was
+received, not with hostility, but with festivity and welcome. On his
+return however, Lycurgus, king of Thrace, and Pentheus, king of
+Thebes, set themselves in opposition to the improvements which the
+East had received with the most lively gratitude; and Bacchus, to
+punish them, caused Lycurgus to be torn to pieces by wild horses, and
+spread a delusion among the family of Pentheus, so that they mistook
+him for a wild boar which had broken into their vineyards, and of
+consequence fell upon him, and he expired amidst a thousand wounds.
+
+Apollo was the author of plagues and contagious diseases; at the same
+time that, when he pleased, he could restore salubrity to a climate,
+and health and vigour to the sons of men. He was the father of poetry,
+and possessed in an eminent degree the gift of foretelling future
+events. Hecate, which was one of the names of Diana, was distinguished
+as the Goddess of magic and enchantments. Venus was the Goddess of
+love, the most  irresistible and omnipotent impulse of which the heart
+of man is susceptible. The wand of Mercury was endowed with such
+virtues, that whoever it touched, if asleep, would start up into life
+and alacrity, and, if awake, would immediately fall into a profound
+sleep. When it touched the dying, their souls gently parted from their
+mortal frame; and, when it was applied to the dead, the dead returned
+to life. Neptune had the attribute of raising and appeasing tempests:
+and Vulcan, the artificer of heaven and earth, not only produced the
+most exquisite specimens of skill, but also constructed furniture that
+was endowed with a self-moving principle, and would present itself for
+use or recede at the will of its proprietor. Pluto, in perpetrating
+the rape of Proserpine, started up in his chariot through a cleft of
+the earth in the vale of Enna in Sicily, and, having seized his prize,
+disappeared again by the way that he came.
+
+Ceres, the mother of Proserpine, in her search after her lost daughter,
+was received with peculiar hospitality by Celeus, king of Eleusis. She
+became desirous of remunerating his liberality by some special favour.
+She saw his only child laid in a cradle, and labouring under a fatal
+distemper. She took him under her protection. She fed him with milk
+from her own breast, and at night covered him with coals of fire.
+Under this treatment he not only recovered his strength, but shot up
+miraculously into manhood, so that what in other men is the effect of
+years, was accomplished in Triptolemus in as many hours. She gave him
+for a gift the art of agriculture, so that he is said to have been the
+first to teach mankind to sow and to reap corn, and to make bread of
+the produce.
+
+Prometheus, one of the race of the giants, was peculiarly distinguished
+for his proficiency in the arts. Among other extraordinary productions
+he formed a man of clay, of such exquisite workmanship, as to have
+wanted nothing but a living soul to cause him to be acknowledged as
+the paragon of the world. Minerva beheld the performance of Prometheus
+with approbation, and offered him her assistance. She conducted him to
+heaven, where he watched his opportunity to carry off on the tip of
+his wand a portion of celestial fire from the chariot of the sun. With
+this he animated his image; and the man of Prometheus moved, and
+thought, and spoke, and became every thing that the fondest wishes of
+his creator could ask. Jupiter ordered Vulcan to make a woman, that
+should surpass this man. All the Gods gave her each one a several
+gift: Venus gave her the power to charm; the Graces bestowed on her
+symmetry of limb, and elegance of motion; Apollo the accomplishments
+of vocal and instrumental music; Mercury the art of persuasive speech;
+Juno a multitude of rich and gorgeous ornaments; and Minerva the
+management of the loom and the needle. Last of all, Jupiter presented
+her with a sealed box, of which the lid was no sooner unclosed, than a
+multitude of calamities and evils of all imaginable sorts flew out,
+only Hope remaining at the bottom.
+
+Deucalion was the son of Prometheus and Pyrrha, his niece. They
+married. In their time a flood occurred, which as they imagined
+destroyed the whole human race; they were the only survivors. By the
+direction of an oracle they cast stones over their shoulders; when, by
+the divine interposition, the stones cast by Deucalion became men, and
+those cast by Pyrrha women. Thus the earth was re-peopled.
+
+I have put down a few of these particulars, as containing in several
+instances the qualities of what is called magic, and thus furnishing
+examples of some of the earliest occasions upon which supernatural
+powers have been alleged to mix with human affairs.
+
+
+DEMIGODS.
+
+The early history of mortals in Greece is scarcely separated from that
+of the Gods. The first adventurer that it is perhaps proper to notice,
+as his exploits have I know not what of magic in them, is Perseus, the
+founder of the metropolis and kingdom of Mycenae. By way of rendering
+his birth illustrious, he is said to have been the son of Jupiter, by
+Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. The king, being
+forewarned by an oracle that his daughter should bear a son, by whose
+hand her father should be deprived of life, thought proper to shut her
+up in a tower of brass. Jupiter, having metamorphosed himself into a
+shower of gold, found his way into her place of confinement, and
+became the father of Perseus. On the discovery of this circumstance,
+Acrisius caused both mother and child to be inclosed in a chest, and
+committed to the waves. The chest however drifted upon the lands of a
+person of royal descent in the island of Seriphos, who extended his
+care and hospitality to both. When Perseus grew to man's estate, he
+was commissioned by the king of Seriphos to bring him the head of
+Medusa, one of the Gorgons. Medusa had the wonderful faculty, that
+whoever met her eyes was immediately turned into stone; and the king,
+who had conceived a passion for Danae, sent her son on this enterprise,
+with the hope that he would never come back alive. He was however
+favoured by the Gods; Mercury gave him wings to fly, Pluto an invisible
+helmet, and Minerva a mirror-shield, by looking in which he could
+discover how his enemy was disposed, without the danger of meeting her
+eyes. Thus equipped, he accomplished his undertaking, cut off the head
+of the Gorgon, and pursed it in a bag. From this exploit he proceeded
+to visit Atlas, king of Mauritania, who refused him hospitality, and
+in revenge Perseus turned him into stone. He next rescued Andromeda,
+daughter of the king of Ethiopia, from a monster sent by Neptune to
+devour her. And, lastly, returning to his mother, and finding the king
+of Seriphos still incredulous and obstinate, he turned him likewise
+into a stone.
+
+The labours of Hercules, the most celebrated of the Greeks of the
+heroic age, appear to have had little of magic in them, but to have
+been indebted for their success to a corporal strength, superior to
+that of all other mortals, united with an invincible energy of mind,
+which disdained to yield to any obstacle that could be opposed to him.
+His achievements are characteristic of the rude and barbarous age in
+which he lived: he strangled serpents, and killed the Erymanthian
+boar, the Nemaean lion, and the Hydra.
+
+
+DAEDALUS.
+
+Nearly contemporary with the labours of Hercules is the history of
+Pasiphae and the Minotaur; and this brings us again within the sphere
+of magic. Pasiphae was the wife of Minos, king of Crete, who conceived
+an unnatural passion for a beautiful white bull, which Neptune had
+presented to the king. Having found the means of gratifying her
+passion, she became the mother of a monster, half-man and half-bull,
+called the Minotaur. Minos was desirous of hiding this monster from
+the observation of mankind, and for this purpose applied to Daedalus,
+an Athenian, the most skilful artist of his time, who is said to have
+invented the axe, the wedge, and the plummet, and to have found out
+the use of glue. He first contrived masts and sails for ships, and
+carved statues so admirably, that they not only looked as if they were
+alive, but had actually the power of self-motion, and would have
+escaped from the custody of their possessor, if they had not been
+chained to the wall.
+
+Daedalus contrived for Minos a labyrinth, a wonderful structure, that
+covered many acres of ground. The passages in this edifice met and
+crossed each other with such intricacy, that a stranger who had once
+entered the building, would have been starved to death before he could
+find his way out. In this labyrinth Minos shut up the Minotaur. Having
+conceived a deep resentment against the people of Athens, where his
+only son had been killed in a riot, he imposed upon them an annual
+tribute of seven noble youths, and as many virgins to be devoured by
+the Minotaur. Theseus, son of the king of Athens, put an end to this
+disgrace. He was taught by Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, how to
+destroy the monster, and furnished with a clue by which afterwards to
+find his way out of the labyrinth.
+
+Daedalus for some reason having incurred the displeasure of Minos, was
+made a prisoner by him in his own labyrinth. But the artist being
+never at an end of his inventions, contrived with feathers and wax to
+make a pair of wings for himself, and escaped. Icarus, his son, who
+was prisoner along with him, was provided by his father with a similar
+equipment. But the son, who was inexperienced and heedless, approached
+too near to the sun in his flight; and, the wax of his wings being
+melted with the heat, he fell into the sea and was drowned.
+
+
+THE ARGONAUTS.
+
+Contemporary with the reign of Minos occurred the expedition of the
+Argonauts. Jason, the son of the king of Iolchos in Thessaly, was at
+the head of this expedition. Its object was to fetch the golden
+fleece, which was hung up in a grove sacred to Mars, in the kingdom
+of Colchis, at the eastern extremity of the Euxine sea. He enlisted in
+this enterprise all the most gallant spirits existing in the country,
+and among the rest Hercules, Theseus, Orpheus and Amphion. After having
+passed through a multitude of perils, one of which was occasioned by
+the Cyanean rocks at the entrance of the Euxine, that had the quality
+of closing upon every vessel which attempted to make its way between
+them and crushing it to pieces, a danger that could only be avoided by
+sending a dove before as their harbinger, they at length arrived.
+
+
+MEDEA.
+
+The golden fleece was defended by bulls, whose hoofs were brass, and
+whose breath was fire, and by a never-sleeping dragon that planted
+itself at the foot of the tree upon which the fleece was suspended.
+Jason was prepared for his undertaking by Medea, the daughter of the
+king of the country, herself an accomplished magician, and furnished
+with philtres, drugs and enchantments. Thus equipped, he tamed the
+bulls, put a yoke on their necks, and caused them to plough two acres
+of the stiffest land. He killed the dragon, and, to complete the
+adventure, drew the monster's teeth, sowed them in the ground, and saw
+an army of soldiers spring from the seed. The army hastened forward to
+attack him; but he threw a large stone into the midst of their ranks,
+when they immediately turned from him, and, falling on each other,
+were all killed with their mutual weapons.
+
+The adventure being accomplished, Medea set out with Jason on his
+return to Thessaly. On their arrival, they found Aeson, the father of
+Jason, and Pelias, his uncle, who had usurped the throne, both old and
+decrepid. Jason applied to Medea, and asked her whether among her
+charms she had none to make an old man young again. She replied she
+had: she drew the impoverished and watery blood from the body of Aeson;
+she infused the juice of certain potent herbs into his veins; and he
+rose from the operation as fresh and vigorous a man as his son.
+
+The daughters of Pelias professed a perfect willingness to abdicate
+the throne of Iolchos; but, before they retired, they requested Medea
+to do the same kindness for their father which she had already done
+for Aeson. She said she would. She told them the method was to cut the
+old man in pieces, and boil him in a kettle with an infusion of
+certain herbs, and he would come out as smooth and active as a child.
+
+The daughters of Pelias a little scrupled the operation. Medea, seeing
+this, begged they would not think she was deceiving them. If however
+they doubted, she desired they would bring her the oldest ram from
+their flocks, and they should see the experiment. Medea cut up the
+ram, cast in certain herbs, and the old bell-wether came out as
+beautiful and innocent a he-lamb as was ever beheld. The daughters of
+Pelias were satisfied. They divided their father in pieces; but he was
+never restored either to health or life.
+
+From Iolchos, upon some insurrection of the people, Medea and Jason
+fled to Corinth. Here they lived ten years in much harmony. At the end
+of that time Jason grew tired of his wife, and fell in love with
+Glauce, daughter of the king of Corinth. Medea was greatly exasperated
+with his infidelity, and, among other enormities, slew with her own
+hand the two children she had borne him before his face, Jason
+hastened to punish her barbarity; but Medea mounted a chariot drawn by
+fiery dragons, fled through the air to Athens, and escaped.
+
+At Athens she married Aegeus, king of that city. Aegeus by a former wife
+had a son, named Theseus, who for some reason had been brought up
+obscure, unknown and in exile. At a suitable time he returned home to
+his father with the intention to avow his parentage. But Medea was
+beforehand with him. She put a poisoned goblet into the hands of Aegeus
+at an entertainment he gave to Theseus, with the intent that he should
+deliver it to his son. At the critical moment Aegeus cast his eyes on
+the sword of Theseus, which he recognised as that which he had
+delivered with his son, when a child, and had directed that it should
+be brought by him, when a man, as a token of the mystery of his birth.
+The goblet was cast away; the father and son rushed into each other's
+arms; and Medea fled from Athens in her chariot drawn by dragons
+through the air, as she had years before fled from Corinth.
+
+
+CIRCE.
+
+Circe was the sister of Aeetes and Pasiphae, and was, like Medea, her
+niece, skilful in sorcery. She had besides the gift of immortality.
+She was exquisitely beautiful; but she employed the charms of her
+person, and the seducing grace of her manners to a bad purpose. She
+presented to every stranger who landed in her territory an enchanted
+cup, of which she intreated him to drink. He no sooner tasted it, than
+he was turned into a hog, and was driven by the magician to her sty.
+The unfortunate stranger retained under this loathsome appearance the
+consciousness of what he had been, and mourned for ever the criminal
+compliance by which  he was brought to so melancholy a pass.
+
+
+ORPHEUS.
+
+Cicero [22] quotes Aristotle as affirming that there was no such man
+as Orpheus. But Aristotle is at least single in that opinion. And
+there are too many circumstances known respecting Orpheus, and which
+have obtained the consenting voice of all antiquity, to allow us to
+call in question his existence. He was a native of Thrace, and from
+that country migrated into Greece. He travelled into Egypt for the
+purpose of collecting there the information necessary to the
+accomplishment of his ends. He died a violent death; and, as is almost
+universally affirmed, fell a sacrifice to the resentment and fury of
+the women of his native soil. [23]
+
+Orpheus was doubtless a poet; though it is not probable that any of
+his genuine productions have been handed down to us. He was, as all
+the poets of so remote a period were, extremely accomplished in all
+the arts of vocal and instrumental music. He civilised the rude
+inhabitants of Greece, and subjected them to order and law. He formed
+them into communities. He is said by Aristophanes [24] and Horace [25]
+to have reclaimed the savage man, from slaughter, and an indulgence in
+food that was loathsome and foul. And this has with sufficient
+probability been interpreted to mean, that he found the race of men
+among whom he lived cannibals, and that, to cure them the more
+completely of this horrible practice, he taught them to be contented
+to subsist upon the fruits of the earth. [26] Music and poetry are
+understood to have been made specially instrumental by him to the
+effecting this purpose. He is said to have made the hungry lion and
+the famished tiger obedient to his bidding, and to put off their wild
+and furious natures.
+
+This is interpreted by Horace [27] and other recent expositors to mean
+no more than that he reduced the race of savages as he found them, to
+order and civilisation. But it was at first perhaps understood more
+literally. We shall not do justice to the traditions of these remote
+times, if we do not in imagination transport ourselves among them, and
+teach ourselves to feel their feelings, and conceive their conceptions.
+Orpheus lived in a time when all was enchantment and prodigy. Gifted
+and extraordinary persons in those ages believed that they were endowed
+with marvellous prerogatives, and acted upon that belief. We may
+occasionally observe, even in these days of the dull and the literal,
+how great is the ascendancy of the man over the beast, when he feels a
+full and entire confidence in that ascendancy. The eye and the gesture
+of man cannot fail to produce effects, incredible till they are seen.
+Magic was the order of the day; and the enthusiasm of its heroes was
+raised to the highest pitch, and attended with no secret misgivings.
+We are also to consider that, in all operations of a magical nature,
+there is a wonderful mixture of frankness and _bonhommie_ with a
+strong vein of cunning and craft. Man in every age is full of
+incongruous and incompatible principles; and, when we shall cease to
+be inconsistent, we shall cease to be men.
+
+It is difficult fully to explain what is meant by the story of Orpheus
+and Eurydice; but in its circumstances it bears a striking resemblance
+to what has been a thousand times recorded respecting the calling up
+of the ghosts of the dead by means of sorcery. The disconsolate
+husband has in the first place recourse to the resistless aid of
+music. [28] After many preparatives he appears to have effected his
+purpose, and prevailed upon the powers of darkness to allow him the
+presence of his beloved. She appears in the sequel however to have
+been a thin and a fleeting shadow. He is forbidden to cast his eyes on
+her; and, if he had obeyed this injunction, it is uncertain how the
+experiment would have ended. He proceeds however, as he is commanded,
+towards the light of day. He is led to believe that his consort is
+following his steps. He is beset with a multitude of unearthly
+phenomena. He advances for some time with confidence. At length he is
+assailed with doubts. He has recourse to the auricular sense, to know
+if she is following him. He can hear nothing. Finally he can endure
+this uncertainty no longer; and, in defiance of the prohibition he has
+received, cannot refrain from turning his head to ascertain whether he
+is baffled, and has spent all his labour in vain. He sees her; but no
+sooner he sees her, than she becomes evanescent and impalpable;
+farther and farther she retreats before him; she utters a shrill cry,
+and endeavours to articulate; but she grows more and more
+imperceptible; and in the conclusion he is left with the scene around
+him in all respects the same as it had been before his incantations.
+The result of the whole that is known of Orpheus, is, that he was an
+eminently great and virtuous man, but was the victim of singular
+calamity.
+
+We have not yet done with the history of Orpheus. As has been said, he
+fell a sacrifice to the resentment and fury of the women of his native
+soil. They are affirmed to have torn him limb from limb. His head,
+divided from his body, floated down the waters of the Hebrus, and
+miraculously, as it passed along to the sea, it was still heard to
+exclaim in mournful accents, Eurydice, Eurydice! [29] At length it was
+carried ashore on the island of Lesbos. [30] Here, by some
+extraordinary concurrence of circumstances, it found a resting-place
+in a fissure of a rock over-arched by a cave, and, thus domiciliated,
+is said to have retained the power of speech, and to have uttered
+oracles. Not only the people of Lesbos resorted to it for guidance in
+difficult questions, but also the Asiatic Greeks from Ionia and Aetolia;
+and its fame and character for predicting future events even extended
+to Babylon. [31]
+
+
+AMPHION.
+
+The story of Amphion is more perplexing than that of the living
+Orpheus. Both of them turn in a great degree upon the miraculous
+effects of music. Amphion was of the royal family of Thebes, and
+ultimately became ruler of the territory. He is said, by the potency
+of his lyre, or his skill in the magic art, to have caused the stones
+to follow him, to arrange themselves in the way he proposed, and
+without the intervention of a human hand to have raised a wall about
+his metropolis. [32] It is certainly less difficult to conceive the
+savage man to be rendered placable, and to conform to the dictates of
+civilisation, or even wild beasts to be made tame, than to imagine
+stones to obey the voice and the will of a human being. The example
+however is not singular; and hereafter we shall find related that
+Merlin, the British enchanter, by the power of magic caused the rocks
+of Stonehenge, though of such vast dimensions, to be carried through
+the air from Ireland to the place where we at present find them.--Homer
+mentions that Amphion, and his brother Zethus built the walls of
+Thebes, but does not describe it as having been done by miracle. [33]
+
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+Tiresias was one of the most celebrated soothsayers of the early ages
+of Greece. He lived in the times of Oedipus, and the war of the seven
+chiefs against Thebes. He was afflicted by the Gods with blindness, in
+consequence of some displeasure they conceived against him; but in
+compensation they endowed him beyond all other mortals with the gift
+of prophecy. He is said to have understood the language of birds. He
+possessed the art of divining future events from the various
+indications that manifest themselves in fire, in smoke, and in other
+ways, [34] but to have set the highest value upon the communications
+of the dead, whom by spells and incantations he constrained to appear
+and answer his enquiries; [35] and he is represented as pouring out
+tremendous menaces against them, when they shewed themselves tardy to
+attend upon his commands. [36]
+
+
+ABARIS.
+
+Abaris, the Scythian, known to us for his visit to Greece, was by all
+accounts a great magician. Herodotus says [37] that he is reported to
+have travelled over the world with an arrow, eating nothing during his
+journey. Other authors relate that this arrow was given to him by
+Apollo, and that he rode upon it through the air, over lands, and
+seas, and all inaccessible places. [38] The time in which he flourished
+is very uncertain, some having represented him as having constructed
+the Palladium, which, as long as it was preserved, kept Troy from
+being taken by an enemy, [39] and others affirming that he was
+familiar with Pythagoras, who lived six hundred years later, and that
+he was admitted into his special confidence. [40] He is said to have
+possessed the faculty of foretelling earthquakes, allaying storms, and
+driving away pestilence; he gave out predictions wherever he went; and
+is described as an enchanter, professing to cure diseases by virtue of
+certain words which he pronounced over those who were afflicted with
+them. [41]
+
+
+PYTHAGORAS.
+
+The name of Pythagoras is one of the most memorable in the records of
+the human species; and his character is well worthy of the minutest
+investigation. By this name we are brought at once within the limits
+of history properly so called. He lived in the time of Cyrus and
+Darius Hystaspes, of Croesus, of Pisistratus, of Polycrates, tyrant of
+Samos, and Amasis, king of Egypt. Many hypotheses have been laid down
+respecting the precise period of his birth and death; but, as it is
+not to our purpose to enter into any lengthened discussions of that
+sort, we will adopt at once the statement that appears to be the most
+probable, which is that of Lloyd, [42] who fixes his birth about the
+year before Christ 586, and his death about the year 506.
+
+Pythagoras was a man of the most various accomplishments, and appears
+to have penetrated in different directions into the depths of human
+knowledge. He sought wisdom in its retreats of fairest promise, in
+Egypt and other distant countries. [43] In this investigation he
+employed the earlier period of his life, probably till he was forty,
+and devoted the remainder to such modes of proceeding, as appeared to
+him the most likely to secure the advantage of what he had acquired to
+a late posterity. [44]
+
+He founded a school, and delivered his acquisitions by oral
+communication to a numerous body of followers. He divided his pupils
+into two classes, the one neophytes, to whom was explained only the
+most obvious and general truths, the other who were admitted into the
+entire confidence of the master. These last he caused to throw their
+property into a common stock, and to live together in the same place
+of resort. [45] He appears to have spent the latter half of his life
+in that part of Italy, called Magna Graecia, so denominated in some
+degree from the numerous colonies of Grecians by whom it was planted,
+and partly perhaps from the memory of the illustrious things which
+Pythagoras achieved there. [46] He is said to have spread the seeds of
+political liberty in Crotona, Sybaris, Metapontum, and Rhegium, and
+from thence in Sicily to Tauromenium, Catana, Agrigentum and Himera.
+[47] Charondas and Zaleucus, themselves famous legislators, derived
+the rudiments of their political wisdom from the instructions of
+Pythagoras. [48]
+
+But this marvellous man in some way, whether from the knowlege he
+received, or from his own proper discoveries, has secured to his
+species benefits of a more permanent nature, and which shall outlive
+the revolutions of ages, and the instability of political institutions.
+He was a profound geometrician. The two theorems, that the internal
+angles of every right-line triangle are equal to two right angles, [49]
+and that the square of the hypothenuse of every right angled triangle
+is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, [50] are
+ascribed to him. In memory of the latter of these discoveries he is
+said to have offered a public sacrifice to the Gods; and the theorem
+is still known by the name of the Pythagorean theorem. He ascertained
+from the length of the Olympic course, which was understood to have
+measured six hundred of Hercules's feet, the precise stature of that
+hero. [51] Lastly, Pythagoras is the first person, who is known to
+have taught the spherical figure of the earth, and that we have
+antipodes; [52] and he propagated the doctrine that the earth is a
+planet, and that the sun is the centre round which the earth and the
+other planets move, now known by the name of the Copernican
+system. [53]
+
+To inculcate a pure and a simple mode of subsistence was also an
+express object of pursuit to Pythagoras. He taught a total abstinence
+from every thing having had the property of animal life. It has been
+affirmed, as we have seen, [54] that Orpheus before him taught the
+same thing. But the claim of Orpheus to this distinction is ambiguous;
+while the theories and dogmas of the Samian sage, as he has frequently
+been styled, were more methodically digested, and produced more
+lasting and unequivocal effects. He taught temperance in all its
+branches, and a resolute subjection of the appetites of the body to
+contemplation and the exercises of the mind; and, by the unremitted
+discipline and authority he exerted over his followers, he caused his
+lessons to be constantly observed. There was therefore an edifying and
+an exemplary simplicity that prevailed as far as the influence of
+Pythagoras extended, that won golden opinions to his adherents at all
+times that they appeared, and in all places. [55]
+
+One revolution that Pythagoras worked, was that, whereas, immediately
+before, those who were most conspicuous among the Greeks as instructors
+of mankind in understanding and virtue, styled themselves sophists,
+professors of wisdom, this illustrious man desired to be known only by
+the appellation of a philosopher, a lover of wisdom. [56] The sophists
+had previously brought their denomination into discredit and reproach,
+by the arrogance of their pretensions, and the imperious way in which
+they attempted to lay down the law to the world.
+
+The modesty of this appellation however did not altogether suit with
+the deep designs of Pythagoras, the ascendancy he resolved to acquire,
+and the oracular subjection in which he deemed it necessary to hold
+those who placed themselves under his instruction. This wonderful man
+set out with making himself a model of the passive and unscrupulous
+docility which he afterwards required from others. He did not begin to
+teach till he was forty years of age, and from eighteen to that period
+he studied in foreign countries, with the resolution to submit to all
+his teachers enjoined, and to make himself master of their least
+communicated and most secret wisdom. In Egypt in particular, we are
+told that, though he brought a letter of recommendation from
+Polycrates, his native sovereign, to Amasis, king of that country, who
+fully concurred with the views of the writer, the priests, jealous of
+admitting a foreigner into their secrets, baffled him as long as they
+could, referring him from one college to another, and prescribing to
+him the most rigorous preparatives, not excluding the rite of
+circumcision. [57] But Pythagoras endured and underwent every thing,
+till at length their unwillingness was conquered, and his perseverance
+received its suitable reward.
+
+When in the end Pythagoras thought himself fully qualified for the
+task he had all along had in view, he was no less strict in prescribing
+ample preliminaries to his own scholars. At the time that a pupil was
+proposed to him, the master, we are told, examined him with multiplied
+questions as to his principles, his habits and intentions, observed
+minutely his voice and manner of speaking, his walk and his gestures,
+the lines of his countenance, and the expression and management of his
+eye, and, when he was satisfied with these, then and not till then
+admitted him as a probationer. [58] It is to be supposed that all this
+must have been personal. As soon however as this was over, the master
+was withdrawn from the sight of the pupil; and a noviciate of three
+and five, in all eight years, [59] was prescribed to the scholar,
+during which time he was only to hear his instructor from behind a
+curtain, and the strictest silence was enjoined him through the whole
+period. As the instructions Pythagoras received in Egypt and the East
+admitted of no dispute, so in his turn he required an unreserved
+submission from those who heard him: autos iphae "the master has said
+it," was deemed a sufficient solution to all doubt and uncertainty. [60]
+
+To give the greater authority and effect to his communications
+Pythagoras hid himself during the day at least from the great body of
+his pupils, and was only seen by them at night. Indeed there is no
+reason to suppose that any one was admitted into his entire
+familiarity. When he came forth, he appeared in a long garment of the
+purest white, with a flowing beard, and a garland upon his head. He is
+said to have been of the finest symmetrical form, with a majestic
+carriage, and a grave and awful countenance. [61] He suffered his
+followers to believe that he was one of the Gods, the Hyperborean
+Apollo, [62] and is said to have told Abaris that he assumed the human
+form, that he might the better invite men to an easiness of approach
+and to confidence in him. [63] What however seems to be agreed in by
+all his biographers, is that he professed to have already in different
+ages appeared in the likeness of man: first as Aethalides, the son of
+Mercury; and, when his father expressed himself ready to invest him
+with any gift short of immortality, he prayed that, as the human soul
+is destined successively to dwell in various forms, he might have the
+privilege in each to remember his former state of being, which was
+granted him. From, Aethalides he became Euphorbus, who slew Patroclus
+at the siege of Troy. He then appeared as Hermotimus, then Pyrrhus, a
+fisherman of Delos, and finally Pythagoras. He said that a period of
+time was interposed between each transmigration, during which he
+visited the seat of departed souls; and he professed to relate a part
+of the wonders he had seen. [64] He is said to have eaten sparingly
+and in secret, and in all respects to have given himself out for a
+being not subject to the ordinary laws of nature. [65]
+
+Pythagoras therefore pretended to miraculous endowments. Happening to
+be on the sea-shore when certain fishermen drew to land an enormous
+multitude of fishes, he desired them to allow him to dispose of the
+capture, which they consented to, provided he would name the precise
+number they had caught. He did so, and required that they should throw
+their prize into the sea again, at the same time paying them the value
+of the fish. [66] He tamed a Daunian bear by whispering in his ear,
+and prevailed on him henceforth to refrain from the flesh of animals,
+and to feed on vegetables. By the same means he induced an ox not to
+eat beans, which was a diet specially prohibited by Pythagoras; and he
+called down an eagle from his flight, causing him to sit on his hand,
+and submit to be stroked down by the philosopher. [67] In Greece, when
+he passed the river Nessus in Macedon, the stream was heard to salute
+him with the words "Hail, Pythagoras!" [68] When Abaris addressed him
+as one of the heavenly host, he took the stranger aside, and convinced
+him that he was under no mistake, by exhibiting to him his thigh of
+gold: or, according to another account, he used the same sort of
+evidence at a certain time, to satisfy his pupils of his celestial
+descent. [69] He is said to have been seen on the same day at
+Metapontum in Italy, and at Taurominium in Sicily, though these places
+are divided by the sea, so that it was conceived that it would cost
+several days to pass from one to the other. [70] In one instance he
+absented himself from his associates in Italy for a whole year; and
+when he appeared again, related that he had passed that time in the
+infernal regions, describing likewise the marvellous things he had
+seen. [71] Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this circumstance affirms
+however that he remained during this period in a cave, where his
+mother conveyed to him intelligence and necessaries, and that, when
+he came once more into light and air, he appeared so emaciated and
+colourless, that he might well be believed to have come out of Hades.
+
+The close of the life of Pythagoras was, according to every statement,
+in the midst of misfortune and violence. Some particulars are related
+by Iamblichus, [72] which, though he is not an authority beyond all
+exception, are so characteristic as seem to entitle them to the being
+transcribed. This author is more circumstantial than any other in
+stating the elaborate steps by which the pupils of Pythagoras came to
+be finally admitted into the full confidence of the master. He says,
+that they passed three years in the first place in a state of
+probation, carefully watched by their seniors, and exposed to their
+occasional taunts and ironies, by way of experiment to ascertain
+whether they were of a temper sufficiently philosophical and firm. At
+the expiration of that period they were admitted to a noviciate, in
+which they were bound to uninterrupted silence, and heard the lectures
+of the master, while he was himself concealed from their view by a
+curtain. They were then received to initiation, and required to
+deliver over their property to the common stock. They were admitted to
+intercourse with the master. They were invited to a participation of
+the most obscure theories, and the abstrusest problems. If however in
+this stage of their progress they were discovered to be too weak of
+intellectual penetration, or any other fundamental objection were
+established against them, they were expelled the community; the double
+of the property they had contributed to the common stock was paid down
+to them; a head-stone and a monument inscribed with their names were
+set up in the place of meeting of the community; they were considered
+as dead; and, if afterwards they met by chance any of those who were
+of the privileged few, they were treated by them as entirely strangers.
+
+Cylon, the richest man, or, as he is in one place styled, the prince,
+of Crotona, had manifested the greatest partiality to Pythagoras. He
+was at the same time a man of rude, impatient and boisterous character.
+He, together with Perialus of Thurium, submitted to all the severities
+of the Pythagorean school. They passed the three years of probation,
+and the five years of silence. They were received into the familiarity
+of the master. They were then initiated, and delivered all their
+wealth into the common stock. They were however ultimately pronounced
+deficient in intellectual power, or for some other reason were not
+judged worthy to continue among the confidential pupils of Pythagoras.
+They were expelled. The double of the property they had contributed
+was paid back to them. A monument was set up in memory of what they
+had been; and they were pronounced dead to the school.
+
+It will easily be conceived in what temper Cylon sustained this
+degradation. Of Perialus we hear nothing further. But Cylon, from
+feelings of the deepest reverence and awe for Pythagoras, which he had
+cherished for years, was filled even to bursting with inextinguishable
+hatred and revenge. The unparalleled merits, the venerable age of the
+master whom he had so long followed, had no power to control his
+violence. His paramount influence in the city insured him the command
+of a great body of followers. He excited them to a frame of turbulence
+and riot. He represented to them how intolerable was the despotism of
+this pretended philosopher. They surrounded the school in which the
+pupils were accustomed to assemble, and set it on fire. Forty persons
+perished in the flames. [73] According to some accounts Pythagoras was
+absent at the time. According to others he and two of his pupils
+escaped. He retired from Crotona to Metapontum. But the hostility
+which had broken out in the former city, followed him there. He took
+refuge in the Temple of the Muses. But he was held so closely besieged
+that no provisions could be conveyed to him; and he finally perished
+with hunger, after, according to Laertius, forty days' abstinence. [74]
+
+It is difficult to imagine any thing more instructive, and more
+pregnant with matter for salutary reflection, than the contrast
+presented to us by the character and system of action of Pythagoras
+on the one hand, and those of the great enquirers of the last two
+centuries, for example, Bacon, Newton and Locke, on the other.
+Pythagoras probably does not yield to any one of these in the
+evidences of true intellectual greatness. In his school, in the
+followers he trained resembling himself, and in the salutary effects
+he produced on the institutions of the various republics of Magna
+Graecia and Sicily, he must be allowed greatly to have excelled them.
+His discoveries of various propositions in geometry, of the earth as
+a planet, and of the solar system as now universally recognised,
+clearly stamp him a genius of the highest order.
+
+Yet this man, thus enlightened and philanthropical, established his
+system of proceeding upon narrow and exclusive principles, and
+conducted it by methods of artifice, quackery and delusion. One of his
+leading maxims was, that the great and fundamental truths to the
+establishment of which he devoted himself, were studiously to be
+concealed from the vulgar, and only to be imparted to a select few,
+and after years of the severest noviciate and trial. He learned his
+earliest lessons of wisdom in Egypt after this method, and he
+conformed through life to the example which had thus been delivered to
+him. The severe examination that he made of the candidates previously
+to their being admitted into his school, and the years of silence that
+were then prescribed to them, testify this. He instructed them by
+symbols, obscure and enigmatical propositions, which they were first
+to exercise their ingenuity to expound. The authority and dogmatical
+assertions of the master were to remain unquestioned; and the pupils
+were to fashion themselves to obsequious and implicit submission, and
+were the furthest in the world from being encouraged to the independent
+exercise of their own understandings. There was nothing that Pythagoras
+was more fixed to discountenance, than the communication of the truths
+upon which he placed the highest value, to the uninitiated. It is not
+probable therefore that he wrote any thing: all was communicated
+orally, by such gradations, and with such discretion, as he might
+think fit to adopt and to exercise.
+
+Delusion and falsehood were main features of his instruction. With
+what respect therefore can we consider, and what manliness worthy of
+his high character and endowments can we impute to, his discourses
+delivered from behind a curtain, his hiding himself during the day,
+and only appearing by night in a garb assumed for the purpose of
+exciting awe and veneration? What shall we say to the story of his
+various transmigrations? At first sight it appears in the light of the
+most audacious and unblushing imposition. And, if we were to yield so
+far as to admit that by a high-wrought enthusiasm, by a long train of
+maceration and visionary reveries, he succeeded in imposing on himself,
+this, though in a different way, would scarcely less detract from the
+high stage of eminence upon which the nobler parts of his character
+would induce us to place him.
+
+Such were some of the main causes that have made his efforts
+perishable, and the lustre which should have attended his genius in a
+great degree transitory and fugitive. He was probably much under the
+influence of a contemptible jealousy, and must be considered as
+desirous that none of his contemporaries or followers should eclipse
+their master. All was oracular and dogmatic in the school of
+Pythagoras. He prized and justly prized the greatness of his
+attainments and discoveries, and had no conception that any thing
+could go beyond them. He did not encourage, nay, he resolutely opposed,
+all true independence of mind, and that undaunted spirit of enterprise
+which is the atmosphere in which the sublimest thoughts are most
+naturally generated. He therefore did not throw open the gates of
+science and wisdom, and invite every comer; but on the contrary
+narrowed the entrance, and carefully reduced the number of aspirants.
+He thought not of the most likely methods to give strength and
+permanence and an extensive sphere to the progress of the human mind.
+For these reasons he wrote nothing; but consigned all to the frail and
+uncertain custody of tradition. And distant posterity has amply
+avenged itself upon the narrowness of his policy; and the name of
+Pythagoras, which would otherwise have been ranked with the first
+luminaries of mankind, and consigned to everlasting gratitude, has in
+consequence of a few radical and fatal mistakes, been often loaded
+with obloquy, and the hero who bore it been indiscriminately classed
+among the votaries of imposture and artifice.
+
+
+EPIMENIDES.
+
+Epimenides has been mentioned among the disciples of Pythagoras; but
+he probably lived at an earlier period. He was a native of Crete. The
+first extraordinary circumstance that is recorded of him is, that,
+being very young, he was sent by his father in search of a stray
+sheep, when, being overcome by the heat of the weather, he retired
+into a cave, and slept fifty-seven years. Supposing that he had slept
+only a few hours, he repaired first to his father's country-house,
+which he found in possession of a new tenant, and then to the city,
+where he encountered his younger brother, now grown an old man, who
+with difficulty was brought to acknowledge him. [75] It was probably
+this circumstance that originally brought Epimenides into repute as a
+prophet, and a favourite of the Gods.
+
+Epimenides appears to have been one of those persons, who make it
+their whole study to delude their fellow-men, and to obtain for
+themselves the reputation of possessing supernatural gifts. Such
+persons, almost universally, and particularly in ages of ignorance and
+wonder, become themselves the dupes of their own pretensions. He gave
+out that he was secretly subsisted by food brought to him by the
+nymphs; and he is said to have taken nourishment in so small
+quantities, as to be exempted from the ordinary necessities of nature.
+[76] He boasted that he could send his soul out of his body, and recal
+it, when he pleased; and alternately appeared an inanimate corpse, and
+then again his life would return to him, and he appear capable of
+every human function as before. [77] He is said to have practised the
+ceremony of exorcising houses and fields, and thus rendering them
+fruitful and blessed. [78] He frequently uttered prophecies of events
+with such forms of ceremony and such sagacious judgment, that they
+seemed to come to pass as he predicted.
+
+One of the most memorable acts of his life happened in this manner.
+Cylon, the head of one of the principal families in Athens, set on
+foot a rebellion against the government, and surprised the citadel.
+His power however was of short duration. Siege was laid to the place,
+and Cylon found his safety in flight. His partisans forsook their
+arms, and took refuge at the altars. Seduced from this security by
+fallacious promises, they were brought to judgment and all of them put
+to death. The Gods were said to be offended with this violation of the
+sanctions of religion, and sent a plague upon the city. All things
+were in confusion, and sadness possessed the whole community.
+Prodigies were perpetually seen; the spectres of the dead walked the
+streets; and terror universally prevailed. The sacrifices offered to
+the gods exhibited the most unfavourable symptoms. [79] In this
+emergency the Athenian senate resolved to send for Epimenides to come
+to their relief. His reputation was great. He was held for a holy and
+devout man, and wise in celestial things by inspiration from above. A
+vessel was fitted out under the command of one of the first citizens
+of the state to fetch Epimenides from Crete. He performed various
+rites and purifications. He took a certain number of sheep, black and
+white, and led them to the Areopagus, where he caused them to be let
+loose to go wherever they would. He directed certain persons to follow
+them, and mark the place where they lay down. He enquired to what
+particular deity the spot was consecrated, and sacrificed the sheep to
+that deity; and in the result of these ceremonies the plague was
+stayed. According to others he put an end to the plague by the
+sacrifice of two human victims. The Athenian senate, full of gratitude
+to their benefactor, tendered him the gift of a talent. But Epimenides
+refused all compensation, and only required, as an acknowledgment of
+what he had done, that there should be perpetual peace between the
+Athenians and the people of Gnossus, his native city. [80] He is said
+to have died shortly after his return to his country, being of the age
+of one hundred and fifty-seven years. [81]
+
+
+EMPEDOCLES.
+
+Empedocles has also been mentioned as a disciple of Pythagoras. But he
+probably lived too late for that to have been the case. His principles
+were in a great degree similar to those of that illustrious personage;
+and he might have studied under one of the immediate successors of
+Pythagoras. He was a citizen of Agrigentum in Sicily; and, having
+inherited considerable wealth, exercised great authority in his native
+place. [82] He was a distinguished orator and poet. He was greatly
+conversant in the study of nature, and was eminent for his skill in
+medicine. [83] In addition to these accomplishments, he appears to
+have been a devoted adherent to the principles of liberty. He effected
+the dissolution of the ruling council of Agrigentum, and substituted
+in their room a triennial magistracy, by means of which the public
+authority became not solely in the hands of the rich as before, but
+was shared by them with expert and intelligent men of an inferior
+class. [84] He opposed all arbitrary exercises of rule. He gave
+dowries from his own stores to many young maidens of impoverished
+families, and settled them in eligible marriages. [85] He performed
+many cures upon his fellow-citizens; and is especially celebrated for
+having restored a woman to life, who had been apparently dead,
+according to one account for seven days, but according to others for
+thirty. [86]
+
+But the most memorable things known of Empedocles, are contained in
+the fragments of his verses that have been preserved to us. In one of
+them he says of himself, "I well remember the time before I was
+Empedocles, that I once was a boy, then a girl, a plant, a glittering
+fish, a bird that cut the air." [87] Addressing those who resorted to
+him for improvement and wisdom, he says, "By my instructions you shall
+learn medicines that are powerful to cure disease, and re-animate old
+age; you shall be able to calm the savage winds which lay waste the
+labours of the husbandman, and, when you will, shall send forth the
+tempest again; you shall cause the skies to be fair and serene, or
+once more shall draw down refreshing showers, re-animating the fruits
+of the earth; nay, you shall recal the strength of the dead man, when
+he has already become the victim of Pluto." [88] Further, speaking of
+himself, Empedocles exclaims: "Friends, who inhabit the great city
+laved by the yellow Acragas, all hail! I mix with you a God, no longer
+a mortal, and am every where honoured by you, as is just; crowned with
+fillets, and fragrant garlands, adorned with which when I visit
+populous cities, I am revered by both men and women, who follow me by
+ten thousands, enquiring the road to boundless wealth, seeking the
+gift of prophecy, and who would learn the marvellous skill to cure all
+kinds of diseases." [89]
+
+The best known account of the death of Empedocles may reasonably be
+considered as fabulous. From what has been said it sufficiently
+appears, that he was a man of extraordinary intellectual endowments,
+and the most philanthropical dispositions; at the same time that he
+was immoderately vain, aspiring by every means in his power to acquire
+to himself a deathless remembrance. Working on these hints, a story
+has been invented that he aspired to a miraculous way of disappearing
+from among men; and for this purpose repaired, when alone, to the top
+of Mount Aetna, then in a state of eruption, and threw himself down the
+burning crater: but it is added, that in the result of this perverse
+ambition he was baffled, the volcano having thrown up one of his
+brazen sandals, by means of which the mode of his death became known.
+[90]
+
+
+ARISTEAS.
+
+Herodotus tells a marvellous story of one Aristeas, a poet of
+Proconnesus, an island of the Propontis. This man, coming by chance
+into a fuller's workshop in his native place, suddenly fell down dead.
+As the man was of considerable rank, the fuller immediately, quitting
+and locking up his shop, proceeded to inform his family of what had
+happened. The relations went accordingly, having procured what was
+requisite to give the deceased the rites of sepulture, to the shop;
+but, when it was opened, they could discover no vestige of Aristeas,
+either dead or alive. A traveller however from the neighbouring town
+of Cyzicus on the continent, protested that he had just left that
+place, and, as he set foot in the wherry which had brought him over,
+had met Aristeas, and held a particular conversation with him. Seven
+years after, Aristeas reappeared at Proconnesus, resided there a
+considerable time, and during this abode wrote his poem of the wars of
+the one-eyed Arimaspians and the Gryphons. He then again disappeared
+in an unaccountable manner. But, what is more than all extraordinary,
+three hundred and forty years after this disappearance, he shewed
+himself again at Metapontum, in Magna Graecia, and commanded the
+citizens to erect a statue in his honour near the temple of Apollo in
+the forum; which being done, he raised himself in the air; and flew
+away in the form of a crow. [91]
+
+
+HERMOTIMUS.
+
+Hermotimus, or, as Plutarch names him, Hermodorus of Clazomene, is
+said to have possessed, like Epimenides, the marvellous power of
+quitting his body, and returning to it again, as often, and for as
+long a time as he pleased. In these absences his unembodied spirit
+would visit what places he thought proper, observe every thing that
+was going on, and, when he returned to his fleshy tabernacle, make a
+minute relation of what he had seen. Hermotimus had enemies, who, one
+time when his body had lain unanimated unusually long, beguiled his
+wife, made her believe that he was certainly dead, and that it was
+disrespectful and indecent to keep him so long in that state. The
+woman therefore placed her husband on the funeral pyre, and consumed
+him to ashes; so that, continues the philosopher, when the soul of
+Hermotimus came back again, it no longer found its customary
+receptacle to retire into. [92] Certainly this kind of treatment
+appeared to furnish an infallible criterion, whether the seeming
+absences of the soul of this miraculous man were pretended or real.
+
+
+THE MOTHER OF DEMARATUS, KING OF SPARTA.
+
+Herodotus [93] tells a story of the mother of Demaratus, king of
+Sparta, which bears a striking resemblance to the fairy tales of
+modern times. This lady, afterward queen of Sparta, was sprung from
+opulent parents, but, when she was born, was so extravagantly ugly,
+that her parents hid her from all human observation. According to the
+mode of the times however, they sent the babe daily in its nurse's
+arms to the shrine of Helen, now metamorphosed into a Goddess, to pray
+that the child might be delivered from its present preternatural
+deformity. On these occasions the child was shrouded in many coverings,
+that it might escape being seen. One day as the nurse came out of the
+temple, a strange woman met her, and asked her what she carried so
+carefully concealed. The nurse said it was a female child, but of
+opulent parents, and she was strictly enjoined that it should be seen
+by no one. The stranger was importunate, and by dint of perseverance
+overcame the nurse's reluctance. The woman took the babe in her arms,
+stroked down its hair, kissed it, and then returning it to the nurse,
+said that it should grow up the most perfect beauty in Sparta. So
+accordingly it proved: and the king of the country, having seen her,
+became so enamoured of her, that, though he already had a wife, and
+she a husband, he overcame all obstacles, and made her his queen.
+
+
+ORACLES.
+
+One of the most extraordinary things to be met with in the history of
+ancient times is the oracles. They maintained their reputation for
+many successive centuries. The most famous perhaps were that of Delphi
+in Greece, and that of Jupiter Ammon in the deserts of Lybia. But they
+were scattered through many cities, many plains, and many islands.
+They were consulted by the foolish and the wise; and scarcely anything
+considerable was undertaken, especially about the time of the Persian
+invasion into Greece, without the parties having first had recourse to
+these; and they in most cases modified the conduct of princes and
+armies accordingly. To render the delusion more successful, every kind
+of artifice was put in practice. The oracle could only be consulted on
+fixed days; and the persons who resorted to it, prefaced their
+application with costly offerings to the presiding God. Their
+questions passed through the hands of certain priests, residing in
+and about the temple. These priests received the embassy with all due
+solemnity, and retired. A priestess, or Pythia, who was seldom or
+never seen by any of the profane vulgar, was the immediate vehicle of
+communication with the God. She was cut off from all intercourse with
+the world, and was carefully trained by the attendant priests.
+Spending almost the whole of her time in solitude, and taught to
+consider her office as ineffably sacred, she saw visions, and was for
+the most part in a state of great excitement. The Pythia, at least of
+the Delphian God, was led on with much ceremony to the performance of
+her office, and placed upon the sacred tripod. The tripod, we are
+told, stood over a chasm in the rock, from which issued fumes of an
+inebriating quality. The Pythia became gradually penetrated through
+every limb with these fumes, till her bosom swelled, her features
+enlarged, her mouth foamed, her voice seemed supernatural, and she
+uttered words that could sometimes scarcely be called articulate.
+She could with difficulty contain herself, and seemed to be possessed,
+and wholly overpowered, with the God. After a prelude of many
+unintelligible sounds, uttered with fervour and a sort of frenzy, she
+became by degrees more distinct. She uttered incoherent sentences,
+with breaks and pauses, that were filled up with preternatural efforts
+and distorted gestures; while the priests stood by, carefully recording
+her words, and then reducing them into a sort of obscure signification.
+They finally digested them for the most part into a species of
+hexameter verse. We may suppose the supplicants during this ceremony
+placed at a proper distance, so as to observe these things imperfectly,
+while the less they understood, they were ordinarily the more impressed
+with religious awe, and prepared implicitly to receive what was
+communicated to them. Sometimes the priestess found herself in a frame,
+not entirely equal to her function, and refused for the present to
+proceed with the ceremony.
+
+The priests of the oracle doubtless conducted them in a certain degree
+like the gipsies and fortune-tellers of modern times, cunningly
+procuring to themselves intelligence in whatever way they could, and
+ingeniously worming out the secrets of their suitors, at the same time
+contriving that their drift should least of all be suspected. But
+their main resource probably was in the obscurity, almost amounting to
+unintelligibleness, of their responses. Their prophecies in most cases
+required the comment of the event to make them understood; and it not
+seldom happened, that the meaning in the sequel was found to be the
+diametrically opposite of that which the pious votaries had originally
+conceived.
+
+In the mean time the obscurity of the oracles was of inexpressible
+service to the cause of superstition. If the event turned out to be
+such as could in no way be twisted to come within the scope of the
+response, the pious suitor only concluded that the failure was owing
+to the grossness and carnality of his own apprehension, and not to any
+deficiency in the institution. Thus the oracle by no means lost credit,
+even when its meaning remained for ever in its original obscurity. But,
+when, by any fortunate chance, its predictions seemed to be verified,
+then the unerringness of the oracle was lauded from nation to nation;
+and the omniscience of the God was admitted with astonishment and
+adoration.
+
+It would be a vulgar and absurd mistake however, to suppose that all
+this was merely the affair of craft, the multitude only being the
+dupes, while the priests in cold blood carried on the deception, and
+secretly laughed at the juggle they were palming on the world. They
+felt their own importance; and they cherished it. They felt that they
+were regarded by their countrymen as something more than human; and
+the opinion entertained of them by the world around them, did not fail
+to excite a responsive sentiment in their own bosoms. If their
+contemporaries willingly ascribed to them an exclusive sacredness, by
+how much stronger an impulse were they led fully to receive so
+flattering a suggestion! Their minds were in a perpetual state of
+exaltation; and they believed themselves specially favoured by the God
+whose temple constituted their residence. A small matter is found
+sufficient to place a creed which flatters all the passions of its
+votaries, on the most indubitable basis. Modern philosophers think
+that by their doctrine of gases they can explain all the appearances
+of the Pythia; but the ancients, to whom this doctrine was unknown,
+admitted these appearances as the undoubted evidence of an
+interposition from heaven.
+
+It is certainly a matter of the extremest difficulty, for us in
+imagination to place ourselves in the situation of those who believed
+in the ancient polytheistical creed. And yet these believers nearly
+constituted the whole of the population of the kingdoms of antiquity.
+Even those who professed to have shaken off the prejudices of their
+education, and to rise above the absurdities of paganism, had still
+some of the old leaven adhering to them. One of the last acts of the
+life of Socrates, was to order the sacrifice of a cock to be made to
+Aesculapius.
+
+Now the creed of paganism is said to have made up to the number of
+thirty thousand deities. Every kingdom, every city, every street, nay,
+in a manner every house, had its protecting God. These Gods were
+rivals to each other; and were each jealous of his own particular
+province, and watchful against the intrusion of any neighbour deity
+upon ground where he had a superior right. The province of each of
+these deities was of small extent; and therefore their watchfulness
+and jealousy of their appropriate honours do not enter into the
+slightest comparison with the Providence of the God who directs the
+concerns of the universe. They had ample leisure to employ in
+vindicating their prerogatives. Prophecy was of all means the plainest
+and most obvious for each deity to assert his existence, and to
+inforce the reverence and submission of his votaries. Prophecy was
+that species of interference which was least liable to the being
+confuted and exposed. The oracles, as we have said, were delivered in
+terms and phrases that were nearly unintelligible. If therefore they
+met with no intelligible fulfilment, this lost them nothing; and, if
+it gained them no additional credit, neither did it expose them to any
+disgrace. Whereas every example, where the obscure prediction seemed
+to tally with, and be illustrated by any subsequent event, was hailed
+with wonder and applause, confirmed the faith of the true believers,
+and was held forth as a victorious confutation of the doubts of the
+infidel.
+
+
+INVASION OF XERXES INTO GREECE.
+
+It is particularly suitable in this place to notice the events which
+took place at Delphi upon occasion of the memorable invasion of Xerxes
+into Greece. This was indeed a critical moment for the heathen
+mythology. The Persians were pointed and express in their hostility
+against the altars and the temples of the Greeks. It was no sooner
+known that the straits of Thermopylae had been forced, than the priests
+consulted the God, as to whether they should bury the treasures of the
+temple, so to secure them against the sacrilege of the invader. The
+answer of the oracle was: "Let nothing be moved; the God is sufficient
+for the protection of his rights." The inhabitants therefore of the
+neighbourhood withdrew: only sixty men and the priest remained. The
+Persians in the mean time approached. Previously to this however, the
+sacred arms which were placed in the temple, were seen to be moved by
+invisible hands, and deposited on the declivity which was on the
+outside of the building. The invaders no sooner shewed themselves,
+than a miraculous storm of thunder and lightning rebounded and flashed
+among the multiplied hills which surrounded the sacred area, and
+struck terror into all hearts. Two vast fragments were detached from
+the top of mount Parnassus, and crushed hundreds in their fall. A
+voice of warlike acclamation issued from within the walls. Dismay
+seized the Persian troops. The Delphians then, rushing from their
+caverns, and descending from the summits, attacked them with great
+slaughter. Two persons, exceeding all human stature, and that were
+said to be the demigods whose fanes were erected near the temple of
+Apollo, joined in the pursuit, and extended the slaughter. [94] It has
+been said that the situation of the place was particularly adapted to
+this mode of defence. Surrounded and almost overhung with lofty
+mountain-summits, the area of the city was inclosed within crags and
+precipices. No way led to it but through defiles, narrow and steep,
+shadowed with wood, and commanded at every step by fastnesses from
+above. In such a position artificial fires and explosion might imitate
+a thunder storm. Great pains had been taken, to represent the place as
+altogether abandoned; and therefore the detachment of rocks from the
+top of mount Parnassus, though effected by human hands, might appear
+altogether supernatural.
+
+Nothing can more forcibly illustrate the strength of the religious
+feeling among the Greeks, than the language of the Athenian government
+at the time of the second descent of the Persian armament upon their
+territory, when they were again compelled to abandon their houses and
+land to the invader. Mardonius said to them: "I am thus commissioned
+by the king of Persia, he will release and give back to you your
+country; he invites you to choose a further territory, whatever you
+may think desirable, which he will guarantee to you to govern as you
+shall judge fit. He will rebuild for you, without its costing you
+either money or labour, the temples which in his former incursion he
+destroyed with fire. It is in vain for you to oppose him by force, for
+his armies are innumerable." To which the Athenians replied, "As long
+as the sun pursues his course in the heavens, so long will we resist
+the Persian invader." Then turning to the Spartan ambassadors who were
+sent to encourage and animate them to persist, they added, "It is but
+natural that your employers should apprehend that we might give way
+and be discouraged. But there is no sum of money so vast, and no
+region so inviting and fertile, that could buy us to concur in the
+enslaving of Greece. Many and resistless are the causes which induce
+us to this resolve. First and chiefest, the temples and images of the
+Gods, which Xerxes has burned and laid in ruins, and which we are
+called upon to avenge to the utmost, instead of forming a league with
+him who made this devastation. Secondly, the consideration of the
+Grecian race, the same with us in blood and in speech, the same in
+religion and manners, and whose cause we will never betray. Know
+therefore now, if you knew not before, that, as long as a single
+Athenian survives, we will never swerve from the hostility to Persia
+to which we have devoted ourselves."
+
+Contemplating this magnanimous resolution, it is in vain for us to
+reflect on the absurdity, incongruity and frivolousness, as we
+apprehend it, of the pagan worship, inasmuch as we find, whatever we
+may think of its demerits, that the most heroic people that ever
+existed on earth, in the hour of their direst calamity, regarded a
+zealous and fervent adherence to that religion as the most sacred of
+all duties. [95]
+
+
+DEMOCRITUS.
+
+The fame of Democritus has sustained a singular fortune. He is
+represented by Pliny as one of the most superstitious of mortals. This
+character is founded on certain books which appeared in his name. In
+these books he is made to say, that, if the blood of certain birds be
+mingled together, the combination will produce a serpent, of which
+whoever eats will become endowed with the gift of understanding the
+language of birds. [96] He attributes a multitude of virtues to the
+limbs of a dead camelion: among others that, if the left foot of this
+animal be grilled, and there be added certain herbs, and a particular
+unctuous preparation, it will have the quality to render the person
+who carries it about him invisible. [97] But all this is wholly
+irreconcileable with the known character of Democritus, who
+distinguished himself by the hypothesis that the world was framed from
+the fortuitous concourse of atoms, and that the soul died with the
+body. And accordingly Lucian, [98] a more judicious author than Pliny,
+expressly cites Democritus as the strenuous opposer of all the
+pretenders to miracles. "Such juggling tricks," he says, "call for a
+Democritus, an Epicurus, a Metrodorus, or some one of that temper, who
+should endeavour to detect the illusion, and would hold it for certain,
+even if he could not fully lay open the deceit, that the whole was a
+lying pretence, and had not a spark of reality in it."
+
+Democritus was in reality one of the most disinterested characters on
+record in the pursuit of truth. He has been styled the father of
+experimental philosophy. When his father died, and the estate came to
+be divided between him and two brothers, he chose the part which was
+in money, though the smallest, that he might indulge him [Errata:
+_read_ himself] in travelling in pursuit of knowledge. He visited
+Egypt and Persia, and turned aside into Ethiopia and India. He is
+reported to have said, that he had rather be the possessor of one of
+the cardinal secrets of nature, than of the diadem of Persia.
+
+
+SOCRATES.
+
+Socrates is the most eminent of the ancient philosophers. He lived in
+the most enlightened age of Greece, and in Athens, the most illustrious
+of her cities. He was born in the middle ranks of life, the son of a
+sculptor. He was of a mean countenance, with a snub nose, projecting
+eyes, and otherwise of an appearance so unpromising, that a
+physiognomist, his contemporary, pronounced him to be given to the
+grossest vices. But he was of a penetrating understanding, the simplest
+manners, and a mind wholly bent on the study of moral excellence. He
+at once abjured all the lofty pretensions, and the dark and recondite
+pursuits of the most applauded teachers of his time, and led those to
+whom he addressed his instructions from obvious and irresistible data
+to the most unexpected and useful conclusions. There was something in
+his manner of teaching that drew to him the noblest youth of Athens.
+Plato and Xenophon, two of the most admirable of the Greek writers,
+were among his pupils. He reconciled in his own person in a surprising
+degree poverty with the loftiest principles of independence. He taught
+an unreserved submission to the laws of our country. He several times
+unequivocally displayed his valour in the field of battle, while at
+the same time he kept aloof from public offices and trusts. The
+serenity of his mind never forsook him. He was at all times ready to
+teach, and never found it difficult to detach himself from his own
+concerns, to attend to the wants and wishes of others. He was
+uniformly courteous and unpretending; and, if at any time he indulged
+in a vein of playful ridicule, it was only against the presumptuously
+ignorant, and those who were without foundation wise in their own
+conceit.
+
+Yet, with all these advantages and perfections, the name of Socrates
+would not have been handed down with such lustre to posterity but for
+the manner of his death. He made himself many enemies. The plainness
+of his manner and the simplicity of his instructions were inexpressibly
+wounding to those (and they were many), who, setting up for professors,
+had hitherto endeavoured to dazzle their hearers by the loftiness of
+their claims, and to command from them implicit submission by the
+arrogance with which they dictated. It must be surprising to us, that
+a man like Socrates should be arraigned in a country like Athens upon
+a capital accusation. He was charged with instilling into the youth a
+disobedience to their duties, and propagating impiety to the Gods,
+faults of which he was notoriously innocent. But the plot against him
+was deeply laid, and is said to have been twenty years in the
+concoction. And he greatly assisted the machinations of his
+adversaries, by the wonderful firmness of his conduct upon his trial,
+and his spirited resolution not to submit to any thing indirect and
+pusillanimous. He defended himself with a serene countenance and the
+most cogent arguments, but would not stoop to deprecation and intreaty.
+When sentence was pronounced against him, this did not induce the
+least alteration of his conduct. He did not think that a life which he
+had passed for seventy years with a clear conscience, was worth
+preserving by the sacrifice of honour. He refused to escape from
+prison, when one of his rich friends had already purchased of the
+jailor the means of his freedom. And, during the last days of his life,
+and when he was waiting the signal of death, which was to be the return
+of a ship that had been sent with sacrifices to Delos, he uttered those
+admirable discourses, which have been recorded by Xenophon and Plato
+to the latest posterity.
+
+But the question which introduces his name into this volume, is that
+of what is called the demon of Socrates. He said that he repeatedly
+received a divine premonition of dangers impending over himself and
+others; and considerable pains have been taken to ascertain the cause
+and author of these premonitions. Several persons, among whom we may
+include Plato, have conceived that Socrates regarded himself as
+attended by a supernatural guardian who at all times watched over his
+welfare and concerns.
+
+But the solution is probably of a simpler nature. Socrates, with all
+his incomparable excellencies and perfections, was not exempt from the
+superstitions of his age and country. He had been bred up among the
+absurdities of polytheism. In them were included, as we have seen, a
+profound deference for the responses of oracles, and a vigilant
+attention to portents and omens. Socrates appears to have been
+exceedingly regardful of omens. Plato tells us that this intimation,
+which he spoke of as his demon, never prompted him to any act, but
+occasionally interfered to prevent him or his friends from proceeding
+in any thing that would have been attended with injurious consequences.
+[99] Sometimes he described it as a voice, which no one however heard
+but himself; and sometimes it shewed itself in the act of sneezing. If
+the sneezing came, when he was in doubt to do a thing or not to do it,
+it confirmed him; but if, being already engaged in any act, he sneezed,
+this he considered as a warning to desist. If any of his friends
+sneezed on his right hand, he interpreted this as a favourable omen;
+but, if on his left, he immediately relinquished his purpose. [100]
+Socrates vindicated his mode of expressing himself on the subject, by
+saying that others, when they spoke of omens, for example, by the
+voice of a bird, said the bird told me this, but that he, knowing that
+the omen was purely instrumental to a higher power, deemed it more
+religious and respectful to have regard only to the higher power, and
+to say that God had graciously warned him. [101] One of the examples
+of this presage was, that, going along a narrow street with several
+companions in earnest discourse, he suddenly stopped, and turned
+another way, warning his friends to do the same. Some yielded to him,
+and others went on, who were encountered by the rushing forward of a
+multitude of hogs, and did not escape without considerable
+inconvenience and injury. [102] In another instance one of a company
+among whom was Socrates, had confederated to commit an act of
+assassination. Accordingly he rose to quit the place, saying to
+Socrates, "I will be back presently." Socrates, unaware of his purpose,
+but having received the intimation of his demon, said to him earnestly,
+"Go not." The conspirator sat down. Again however he rose, and again
+Socrates stopped him. At length he escaped, without the observation of
+the philosopher, and committed the act, for which he was afterwards
+brought to trial. When led to execution, he exclaimed, "This would
+never have happened to me, if I had yielded to the intimation of
+Socrates." [103] In the same manner, and by a similar suggestion, the
+philosopher predicted the miscarriage of the Athenian expedition to
+Sicily under Nicias, which terminated with such signal disaster. [104]
+This feature in the character of Socrates is remarkable, and may shew
+the prevalence of superstitious observances, even in persons whom we
+might think the most likely to be exempt from this weakness.
+
+
+
+
+ROME.
+
+
+VIRGIL.
+
+From the Greeks let us turn to the Romans. The earliest examples to
+our purpose occur in the Aeneid. And, though Virgil is a poet, yet is
+he so correct a writer, that we may well take for granted, that he
+either records facts which had been handed down by tradition, or that,
+when he feigns, he feigns things strikingly in accord with the manners
+and belief of the age of which he speaks.
+
+
+POLYDORUS.
+
+One of the first passages that occur, is of the ghost of the deceased
+Polydorus on the coast of Thrace. Polydorus, the son of Priam, was
+murdered by the king of that country, his host, for the sake of the
+treasures he had brought with him from Troy. He was struck through
+with darts made of the wood of the myrtle. The body was cast into a
+pit, and earth thrown upon it. The stems of myrtle grew and flourished.
+Aeneas, after the burning of Troy, first attempted a settlement in this
+place. Near the spot where he landed he found a hillock thickly set
+with myrtle. He attempted to gather some, thinking it might form a
+suitable screen to an altar which he had just raised. To his
+astonishment and horror he found the branches he had plucked, dropping
+with blood. He tried the experiment again and again. At length a voice
+from the mound was heard, exclaiming, "Spare me! I am Polydorus;" and
+warning him to fly the blood-stained and treacherous shore.
+
+
+DIDO.
+
+We have a more detailed tale of necromancy, when Dido, deserted by
+Aeneas, resolves on self-destruction. To delude her sister as to her
+secret purpose, she sends for a priestess from the gardens of the
+Hesperides, pretending that her object is by magical incantations
+again to relumine the passion of love in the breast of Aeneas. This
+priestess is endowed with the power, by potent verse to free the
+oppressed soul from care, and by similar means to agitate the bosom
+with passion which is free from its empire. She can arrest the
+headlong stream, and cause the stars to return back in their orbits.
+She can call up the ghosts of the dead. She is able to compel the
+solid earth to rock, and the trees of the forest to descend from their
+mountains. To give effect to the infernal spell, Dido commands that a
+funeral pyre shall be set up in the interior court of her palace, and
+that the arms of Aeneas, what remained of his attire, and the marriage
+bed in which Dido had received him, shall be heaped upon it. The pyre
+is hung round with garlands, and adorned with branches of cypress. The
+sword of Aeneas and his picture are added. Altars are placed round the
+pyre; and the priestess, with dishevelled hair, calls with terrific
+charms upon her three hundred Gods, upon Erebus, chaos, and the
+three-faced Hecate. She sprinkles around the waters of Avernus, and
+adds certain herbs that had been cropped by moonlight with a sickle of
+brass. She brings with her the excrescence which is found upon the
+forehead of a new-cast foal, of the size of a dried fig, and which
+unless first eaten by the mare, the mother never admits her young to
+the nourishment of her milk. After these preparations, Dido, with
+garments tucked up, and with one foot bare, approached the altars,
+breaking over them a consecrated cake, and embracing them successively
+in her arms. The pyre was then to be set on fire; and, as the
+different objects placed upon it were gradually consumed, the charm
+became complete, and the ends proposed to the ceremony were expected
+to follow. Dido assures her sister, that she well knew the unlawfulness
+of her proceeding, and protests that nothing but irresistible necessity
+should have compelled her to have recourse to these unhallowed arts.
+She finally stabs herself, and expires.
+
+
+ROMULUS.
+
+The early history of Rome is, as might be expected, interspersed with
+prodigies. Romulus himself, the founder, after a prosperous reign of
+many years, disappeared at last by a miracle. The king assembled his
+army to a general review, when suddenly, in the midst of the ceremony,
+a tempest arose, with vivid lightnings and tremendous crashes of
+thunder. Romulus became enveloped in a cloud, and, when, shortly after,
+a clear sky and serene heavens succeeded, the king was no more seen,
+and the throne upon which he had sat appeared vacant. The people were
+somewhat dissatisfied with the event, and appear to have suspected
+foul play. But the next day Julius Proculus, a senator of the highest
+character, shewed himself in the general assembly, and assured them,
+that, with the first dawn of the morning, Romulus had stood before him,
+and certified to him that the Gods had taken him up to their celestial
+abodes, authorising him withal to declare to his citizens, that their
+arms should be for ever successful against all their enemies. [105]
+
+
+NUMA.
+
+Numa was the second king of Rome: and, the object of Romulus having
+been to render his people soldiers and invincible in war, Numa, an old
+man and a philosopher, made it his purpose to civilise them, and
+deeply to imbue them with sentiments of religion. He appears to have
+imagined the thing best calculated to accomplish this purpose, was to
+lead them by prodigies and the persuasion of an intercourse with the
+invisible world. A shield fell from heaven in his time, which he
+caused to be carefully kept and consecrated to the Gods; and he
+conceived no means so likely to be effectual to this end, as to make
+eleven other shields exactly like the one which had descended by
+miracle, so that, if an accident happened to any one, the Romans might
+believe that the one given to them by the divinity was still in their
+possession.[106]
+
+Numa gave to his people civil statutes, and a code of observances in
+matters of religion; and these also were inforced with a divine
+sanction. Numa met the goddess Egeria from time to time in a cave; and
+by her was instructed in the institutions he should give to the Romans:
+and this barbarous people, awed by the venerable appearance of their
+king, by the sanctity of his manners, and still more by the divine
+favour which was so signally imparted to him, received his mandates
+with exemplary reverence, and ever after implicitly conformed
+themselves to all that he had suggested. [107]
+
+
+TULLUS HOSTILIUS.
+
+Tullus Hostilius, the third king of Rome, restored again the policy of
+Romulus. In his time, Alba, the parent state, was subdued and united
+to its more flourishing colony. In the mean time Tullus, who during
+the greater part of his reign had been distinguished by martial
+achievements, in the latter part became the victim of superstitions.
+A shower of stones fell from heaven, in the manner, as Livy tells us,
+of a hail-storm. A plague speedily succeeded to this prodigy. [108]
+Tullus, awed by these events, gave his whole attention to the rites of
+religion. Among other things he found in the sacred books of Numa an
+account of a certain ceremony, by which, if rightly performed, the
+appearance of a God, named Jupiter Elicius, would be conjured up. But
+Tullus, who had spent his best days in the ensanguined field, proved
+inadequate to this new undertaking. Some defects having occurred in
+his performance of the magical ceremony, not only no God appeared at
+his bidding, but, the anger of heaven being awakened, a thunderbolt
+fell on the palace, and the king, and the place of his abode were
+consumed together. [109]
+
+
+ACCIUS NAVIUS.
+
+In the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, another
+famous prodigy is recorded. The king had resolved to increase the
+number of the Roman cavalry. Romulus had raised the first body with
+the customary ceremony of augury. Tarquinius proposed to proceed in
+the present case, omitting this ceremony. Accius Navius, the chief
+augur, protested against the innovation. Tarquin, in contempt of his
+interference, addressed Accius, saying, "Come, augur, consult your
+birds, and tell me, whether the thing I have now in my mind can be
+done, or cannot be done." Accius proceeded according to the rules of
+his art, and told the king it could be done. "What I was thinking of,"
+replied Tarquinius, "was whether you could cut this whetstone in two
+with this razor." Accius immediately took the one instrument and the
+other, and performed the prodigy in the face of the assembled people.
+[110]
+
+
+SERVIUS TULLIUS.
+
+Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, was the model of a
+disinterested and liberal politician, and gave to his subjects those
+institutions to which, more than to any other cause, they were indebted
+for their subsequent greatness. Tarquinius subjected nearly the whole
+people of Latium to his rule, capturing one town of this district
+after another. In Corniculum, one of these places, Servius Tullius,
+being in extreme youth, was made a prisoner of war, and subsequently
+dwelt as a slave in the king's palace. One day as he lay asleep in the
+sight of many, his head was observed to be on fire. The bystanders,
+terrified at the spectacle, hastened to bring water that they might
+extinguish the flames. The queen forbade their assiduity, regarding
+the event as a token from the Gods. By and by the boy awoke of his own
+accord, and the flames at the same instant disappeared. The queen,
+impressed with the prodigy, became persuaded that the youth was
+reserved for high fortunes, and directed that he should be instructed
+accordingly in all liberal knowledge. In due time he was married to
+the daughter of Tarquinius, and was destined in all men's minds to
+succeed in the throne, which took place in the sequel. [111]
+
+In the year of Rome two hundred and ninety one, forty-seven years
+after the expulsion of Tarquin, a dreadful plague broke out in the
+city, and carried off both the consuls, the augurs, and a vast
+multitude of the people. The following year was distinguished by
+numerous prodigies; fires were seen in the heavens, and the earth
+shook, spectres appeared, and supernatural voices were heard, an ox
+spoke, and a shower of raw flesh fell in the fields. Most of these
+prodigies were not preternatural; the speaking ox was probably
+received on the report of a single hearer; and the whole was invested
+with exaggerated terror by means of the desolation of the preceding
+year. [112]
+
+
+THE SORCERESS OF VIRGIL.
+
+Prodigies are plentifully distributed through the earlier parts of the
+Roman history; but it is not our purpose to enter into a chronological
+detail on the subject. And in reality those already given, except in
+the instance of Tullus Hostilius, do not entirely fall within the
+scope of the present volume. The Roman poets, Virgil, Horace, Ovid and
+Lucan, give a fuller insight than the Latin prose-writers, into the
+conceptions of their countrymen upon the subject of incantations and
+magic.
+
+The eighth eclogue of Virgil, entitled Pharmaceutria, is particularly
+to our purpose in this point. There is an Idyll of Theocritus under
+the same name; but it is of an obscurer character; and the enchantress
+is not, like that of Virgil, triumphant in the success of her arts.
+
+The sorceress is introduced by Virgil, giving direction to her female
+attendant as to the due administration of her charms. Her object is to
+recal Daphnis, whom she styles her husband, to his former love for her.
+At the same time, she says, she will endeavour by magic to turn him
+away from his wholesome sense. She directs her attendant to burn
+vervain and frankincense; and she ascribes the highest efficacy to the
+solemn chant, which, she says, can call down the moon from its sphere,
+can make the cold-blooded snake burst in the field, and was the means
+by which Circe turned the companions of Ulysses into beasts. She
+orders his image to be thrice bound round with fillets of three
+colours, and then that it be paraded about a prepared altar, while in
+binding the knots the attendant shall still say, "Thus do I bind the
+fillets of Venus." One image of clay and one of wax are placed before
+the same fire; and as the image of clay hardens, so does the heart of
+Daphnis harden towards his new mistress; and as the image of wax
+softens, so is the heart of Daphnis made tender towards the sorceress.
+She commands a consecrated cake to be broken over the image, and
+crackling laurels to be burned before it, that as Daphnis had
+tormented her by his infidelity, so he in his turn may be agitated
+with a returning constancy. She prays that as the wanton heifer
+pursues the steer through woods and glens, till at length, worn out
+with fatigue, she lies down on the oozy reeds by the banks of the
+stream, and the night-dew is unable to induce her to withdraw, so
+Daphnis may be led on after her for ever with inextinguishable love.
+She buries the relics of what had belonged to Daphnis beneath her
+threshold. She bruises poisonous herbs of resistless virtue which had
+been gathered in the kingdom of Pontus, herbs, which enabled him who
+gave them to turn himself into a hungry wolf prowling amidst the
+forests, to call up ghosts from the grave, and to translate the
+ripened harvest from the field where it grew to the lands of another.
+She orders her attendant to bring out to the face of heaven the ashes
+of these herbs, and [Errata: _dele_ and] to cast them over her
+head into the running stream, and at the same time taking care not to
+look behind her. After all her efforts the sorceress begins to despair.
+She says, "Daphnis heeds not my incantations, heeds not the Gods." She
+looks again; she perceives the ashes on the altar emit sparkles of
+fire; she hears her faithful house-dog bark before the door; she says,
+"Can these things be; or do lovers dream what they desire? It is not
+so! The real Daphnis comes; I hear his steps; he has left the deluding
+town; he hastens to my longing arms!"
+
+
+CANIDIA.
+
+In the works of Horace occurs a frightful and repulsive, but a curious
+detail of a scene of incantation. [113] Four sorceresses are
+represented as assembled, Canidia, the principal, to perform, the other
+three to assist in, the concoction of a charm, by means of which a
+certain youth, named Varus, for whom Canidia had conceived a passion,
+but who regards the hag with the utmost contempt, may be made
+obsequious to her desires. Canidia appears first, the locks of her
+dishevelled hair twined round with venomous and deadly serpents,
+ordering the wild fig-tree and the funereal cypress to be rooted up
+from the sepulchres on which they grew, and these, together with the
+egg of a toad smeared with blood, the plumage of the screech-owl,
+various herbs brought from Thessaly and Georgia, and bones torn from
+the jaws of a famished dog, to be burned in flames fed with perfumes
+from Colchis. Of the assistant witches, one traces with hurried steps
+the edifice, sprinkling it, as she goes, with drops from the Avernus,
+her hair on her head stiff and erect, like the quills of the
+sea-hedge-hog, or the bristles of a hunted boar; and another, who is
+believed by all the neighbourhood to have the faculty of conjuring the
+stars and the moon down from heaven, contributes her aid.
+
+But, which is most horrible, the last of the assistant witches is seen,
+armed with a spade, and, with earnest and incessant labour, throwing
+up earth, that she may dig a trench, in which is to be plunged up to
+his chin a beardless youth, stripped of his purple robe, the emblem of
+his noble descent, and naked, that, from his marrow already dry and
+his liver (when at length his eye-balls, long fixed on the still
+renovated food which is withheld from his famished jaws, have no more
+the power to discern), may be concocted the love-potion, from which
+these hags promise themselves the most marvellous results.
+
+Horace presents before us the helpless victim of their malice, already
+inclosed in the fatal trench, first viewing their orgies with affright,
+asking, by the Gods who rule the earth and all the race of mortals,
+what means the tumult around him? He then intreats Canidia, by her
+children if ever she had offspring, by the visible evidences of his
+high rank, and by the never-failing vengeance of Jupiter upon such
+misdeeds, to say why she casts on him glances, befitting the fury of a
+stepmother, or suited to a beast already made desperate by the wounds
+of the hunter.
+
+At length, no longer exhausting himself in fruitless intreaties, the
+victim has recourse in his agonies to curses on his executioners. He
+says, his ghost shall haunt them for ever, for no vengeance can
+expiate such cruelty. He will tear their cheeks with his fangs, for
+that power is given to the shades below. He will sit, a night-mare, on
+their bosoms, driving away sleep from their eyes; while the enraged
+populace shall pursue them with stones, and the wolves shall gnaw and
+howl over their unburied members. The unhappy youth winds up all with
+the remark, that his parents who will survive him, shall themselves
+witness this requital of the sorceresses' infernal deeds.
+
+Canidia, unmoved by these menaces and execrations, complains of the
+slow progress of her charms. She gnaws her fingers with rage. She
+invokes the night and the moon, beneath whose rays these preparations
+are carried on, now, while the wild beasts lie asleep in the forests,
+and while the dogs alone bay the superanuated letcher, who relies
+singly on the rich scents with which he is perfumed for success, to
+speed her incantations, and signalise their power beneath the roof of
+him whose love she seeks. She impatiently demands why her drugs should
+be of less avail than those of Medea, with which she poisoned a
+garment, that, once put on, caused Creusa, daughter of the king of
+Corinth, to expire in intolerable torments? She discovers that Varus
+had hitherto baffled her power by means of some magical antidote; and
+she resolves to prepare a mightier charm, that nothing from earth or
+hell shall resist. "Sooner," she says, "shall the sky be swallowed up
+in the sea, and the earth be stretched a covering over both, than thou,
+my enemy, shalt not be wrapped in the flames of love, as subtle and
+tenacious as those of burning pitch."
+
+It is not a little curious to remark the operation of the antagonist
+principles of superstition and scepticism among the Romans in this
+enlightened period, as it comes illustrated to us in the compositions
+of Horace on this subject. In the piece, the contents of which have
+just been given, things are painted in all the solemnity and terror
+which is characteristic of the darkest ages. But, a few pages further
+on, we find the poet in a mock Palinodia deprecating the vengeance of
+the sorceress, who, he says, has already sufficiently punished him by
+turning through her charms his flaxen hair to hoary white, and
+overwhelming him by day and night with ceaseless anxieties. He feels
+himself through her powerful magic tortured, like Hercules in the
+envenomed shirt of Nessus, or as if he were cast down into the flames
+of Aetna; nor does he hope that she will cease compounding a thousand
+deadly ingredients against him, till his very ashes shall have been
+scattered by the resistless winds. He offers therefore to expiate his
+offence at her pleasure either by a sacrifice of an hundred oxen, or
+by a lying ode, in which her chastity and spotless manners shall be
+applauded to the skies.
+
+What Ovid gives is only a new version of the charms and philtres of
+Medea. [114]
+
+
+ERICHTHO.
+
+Lucan, in his Pharsalia, [115] takes occasion, immediately before the
+battle which was to decide the fate of the Roman world, to introduce
+Sextus, the younger son of Pompey, as impatient to enquire, even by
+the most sacrilegious means, into the important events which are
+immediately impending. He is encouraged in the attempt by the
+reflection, that the soil upon which they are now standing, Thessaly,
+had been notorious for ages as the noxious and unwholesome seat of
+sorcery and witchcraft. The poet therefore embraces this occasion to
+expatiate on the various modes in which this detested art was
+considered as displaying itself. And, however he may have been
+ambitious to seize this opportunity to display the wealth of his
+imagination, the whole does not fail to be curious, as an exhibition
+of the system of magical power so far as the matter in hand is
+concerned.
+
+The soil of Thessaly, says the poet, is in the utmost degree fertile
+in poisonous herbs, and her rocks confess the power of the sepulchral
+song of the magician. There a vegetation springs up of virtue to
+compel the Gods; and Colchis itself imports from Thessaly treasures of
+this sort which she cannot boast as her own. The chaunt of the
+Thessalian witch penetrates the furthest seat of the Gods, and
+contains words so powerful, that not the care of the skies, or of the
+revolving spheres, can avail as an excuse to the deities to decline
+its force. Babylon and Memphis yield to the superior might; and the
+Gods of foreign climes fly to fulfil the dread behests of the magician.
+
+Prompted by Thessalian song, love glides into the hardest hearts; and
+even the severity of age is taught to burn with youthful fires. The
+ingredients of the poisoned cup, nor the excrescence found on the
+forehead of the new-cast foal, can rival in efficacy the witching
+incantation. The soul is melted by its single force. The heart which
+not all the attractions of the genial bed could fire, nor the
+influence of the most beautiful form, the wheel of the sorceress shall
+force from its bent.
+
+But the effects are perhaps still more marvellous that are produced on
+inanimate and unintellectual nature. The eternal succession of the
+world is suspended; day delays to rise on the earth; the skies no
+longer obey their ruler. Nature becomes still at the incantation: and
+Jove, accustomed to guide the machine, is astonished to find the poles
+disobedient to his impulse. Now the sorceress deluges the plains with
+rain, hides the face of heaven with murky clouds, and the thunders
+roll, unbidden by the thunderer. Anon she shakes her hair, and the
+darkness is dispersed, and the whole horizon is cleared. At one time
+the sea rages, urged by no storm; and at another is smooth as glass,
+in defiance of the tempestuous North. The breath of the enchanter
+carries along the bark in the teeth of the wind; the headlong torrent
+is suspended, and rivers run back to their source. The Nile overflows
+not in the summer; the crooked Meander shapes to itself a direct
+course; the sluggish Arar gives new swiftness to the rapid Rhone; and
+the mountains bow their heads to their foundations. Clouds shroud the
+peaks of the cloudless Olympus; and the Scythian snows dissolve,
+unurged by the sun. The sea, though impelled by the tempestuous
+constellations, is counteracted by witchcraft, and no longer beats
+along the shore. Earthquakes shake the solid globe; and the affrighted
+inhabitants behold both hemispheres at once. The animals most dreaded
+for their fury, and whose rage is mortal, become tame; the hungry
+tiger and the lordly lion fawn at the sorceress's feet; the snake
+untwines all her folds amidst the snow; the viper, divided by wounds,
+unites again its severed parts; and the envenomed serpent pines and
+dies under the power of a breath more fatal than his own.
+
+What, exclaims the poet, is the nature of the compulsion thus
+exercised on the Gods, this obedience to song and to potent herbs,
+this fear to disobey and scorn the enchanter? Do they yield from
+necessity, or is it a voluntary subjection? Is it the piety of these
+hags that obtains the reward, or by menaces do they secure their
+purpose? Are all the Gods subject to this control, or, is there one
+God upon whom it has power, who, himself compelled, compels the
+elements? The stars fall from heaven at their command. The silver moon
+yields to their execrations, and burns with a smouldering flame, even
+as when the earth comes between her and the sun, and by its shadow
+intercepts its rays; thus is the moon brought lower and more low, till
+she covers with her froth the herbs destined to receive her malignant
+influence.
+
+But Erichtho, the witch of the poet, flouts all these arts, as too
+poor and timid for her purposes. She never allows a roof to cover her
+horrid head, or confesses the influence of the Houshold Gods. She
+inhabits the deserted tomb, and dwells in a grave from which the ghost
+of the dead has been previously expelled. She knows the Stygian abodes,
+and the counsels of the infernals. Her countenance is lean; and her
+complexion overspread with deadly paleness. Her hair is neglected and
+matted. But when clouds and tempests obscure the stars, then she comes
+forth, and defies the midnight lightning. Wherever she treads, the
+fruits of the earth become withered, and the wholesome air is poisoned
+with her breath. She offers no prayers, and pours forth no
+supplications; she has recourse to no divination. She delights to
+profane the sacred altar with a funereal flame, and pollutes the
+incense with a torch from the pyre. The Gods yield at once to her
+voice, nor dare to provoke her to a second mandate. She incloses the
+living man within the confines of the grave; she subjects to sudden
+death those who were destined to a protracted age; and she brings back
+to life the corses of the dead. She snatches the smoaking cinders,
+and the bones whitened with flame, from the midst of the pile, and
+wrests the torch from the hand of the mourning parent. She seizes the
+fragments of the burning shroud, and the embers yet moistened with
+blood. But, where the sad remains are already hearsed in marble, it is
+there that she most delights to exercise her sacrilegious power. She
+tears the limbs of the dead, and digs out their eyes. She gnaws their
+fingers. She separates with her teeth the rope on the gibbet, and
+tears away the murderer from the cross on which he hung suspended. She
+applies to her purposes the entrails withered with the wind, and the
+marrow that had been dried by the sun. She bears away the nails which
+had pierced the hands and feet of the criminal, the clotted blood
+which had distilled from his wounds, and the sinews that had held him
+suspended. She pounces upon the body of the dead in the battle-field,
+anticipating the vulture and the beast of prey; but she does not
+divide the limbs with a knife, nor tear them asunder with her hands:
+she watches the approach of the wolf, that she may wrench the morsels
+from his hungry jaws. Nor does the thought of murder deter her, if her
+rites require the living blood, first spurting from the lacerated
+throat. She drags forth the foetus from its pregnant mother, by a
+passage which violence has opened. Wherever there is occasion for a
+bolder and more remorseless ghost, with her own hand she dismisses him
+from life; man at every period of existence furnishes her with
+materials. She drags away the first down from the cheek of the
+stripling, and with her left hand cuts the favourite lock from the
+head of the young man. Often she watches with seemingly pious care the
+dying hours of a relative, and seizes the occasion to bite his lips,
+to compress his windpipe, and whisper in his expiring organ some
+message to the infernal shades.
+
+Sextus, guided by the general fame of this woman, sought her in her
+haunts. He chose his time, in the depth of the night, when the sun is
+at its lowermost distance from the upper sky. He took his way through
+the desert fields. He took for companions the associates, the
+accustomed ministers of his crimes. Wandering among broken graves and
+crumbling sepulchres, they discovered her, sitting sublime on a ragged
+rock, where mount Haemus stretches its roots to the Pharsalic field.
+She was mumbling charms of the Magi and the magical Gods. For she
+feared that the war might yet be transferred to other than the
+Emathian fields. The sorceress was busy therefore enchanting the soil
+of Philippi, and scattering on its surface the juice of potent herbs,
+that it might be heaped with carcasses of the dead, and saturated with
+their blood, that Macedon, and not Italy, might receive the bodies of
+departed kings and the bones of the noble, and might be amply peopled
+with the shades of men. Her choicest labour was as to the earth where
+should be deposited the prostrate Pompey, or the limbs of the mighty
+Caesar.
+
+Sextus approached, and bespoke her thus: "Oh, glory of Haemonia, that
+hast the power to divulge the fates of men, or canst turn aside fate
+itself from its prescribed course, I pray thee to exercise thy gift in
+disclosing events to come. Not the meanest of the Roman race am I, the
+offspring of an illustrious chieftain, lord of the world in the one
+case, or in the other the destined heir to my father's calamity. I
+stand on a tremendous and giddy height: snatch me from this posture of
+doubt; let me not blindly rush on, and blindly fall; extort this
+secret from the Gods, or force the dead to confess what they know."
+
+To whom the Thessalian crone replied: "If you asked to change the fate
+of an individual, though it were to restore an old man, decrepid with
+age, to vigorous youth, I could comply; but to break the eternal chain
+of causes and consequences exceeds even our power. You seek however
+only a foreknowledge of events to come, and you shall be gratified.
+Meanwhile it were best, where slaughter has afforded so ample a field,
+to select the body of one newly deceased, and whose flexible organs
+shall be yet capable of speech, not with lineaments already hardened
+in the sun."
+
+Saying thus, Erichtho proceeded (having first with her art made the
+night itself more dark, and involved her head in a pitchy cloud), to
+explore the field, and examine one by one the bodies of the unburied
+dead. As she approached, the wolves fled before her, and the birds of
+prey, unwillingly sheathing their talons, abandoned their repast,
+while the Thessalian witch, searching into the vital parts of the
+frames before her, at length fixed on one whose lungs were uninjured,
+and whose organs of speech had sustained no wound. The fate of many
+hung in doubt, till she had made her selection. Had the revival of
+whole armies been her will, armies would have stood up obedient to her
+bidding. She passed a hook beneath the jaw of the selected one, and,
+fastening it to a cord, dragged him along over rocks and stones, till
+she reached a cave, overhung by a projecting ridge. A gloomy fissure
+in the ground was there, of a depth almost reaching to the Infernal
+Gods, where the yew-tree spread thick its horizontal branches, at all
+times excluding the light of the sun. Fearful and withering shade was
+there, and noisome slime cherished by the livelong night. The air was
+heavy and flagging as that of the Taenarian promontory; and hither the
+God of hell permits his ghosts to extend their wanderings. It is
+doubtful whether the sorceress called up the dead to attend her here,
+or herself descended to the abodes of Pluto. She put on a fearful and
+variegated robe; she covered her face with her dishevelled hair, and
+bound her brow with a wreath of vipers.
+
+Meanwhile she observed Sextus afraid, with his eyes fixed on the
+ground, and his companions trembling; and thus she reproached them.
+"Lay aside," she said, "your vainly-conceived terrors! You shall
+behold only a living and a human figure, whose accents you may listen
+to with perfect security. If this alarms you, what would you say, if
+you should have seen the Stygian lakes, and the shores burning with
+sulphur unconsumed, if the furies stood before you, and Cerberus with
+his mane of vipers, and the giants chained in eternal adamant? Yet all
+these you might have witnessed unharmed; for all these would quail at
+the terror of my brow."
+
+She spoke, and next plied the dead body with her arts. She supples his
+wounds, and infuses fresh blood into his veins: she frees his scars
+from the clotted gore, and penetrates them with froth from the moon.
+She mixes whatever nature has engendered in its most fearful caprices,
+foam from the jaws of a mad dog, the entrails of the lynx, the backbone
+of the hyena, and the marrow of a stag that had dieted on serpents,
+the sinews of the remora, and the eyes of a dragon, the eggs of the
+eagle, the flying serpent of Arabia, the viper that guards the pearl
+in the Red Sea, the slough of the hooded snake, and the ashes that
+remain when the phoenix has been consumed. To these she adds all venom
+that has a name, the foliage of herbs over which she has sung her
+charms, and on which she had voided her rheum as they grew.
+
+At length she chaunts her incantation to the Stygian Gods, in a voice
+compounded of all discords, and altogether alien to human organs. It
+resembles at once the barking of a dog, and the howl of a wolf; it
+consists of the hooting of the screech-owl, the yelling of a ravenous
+wild beast, and the fearful hiss of a serpent. It borrows somewhat
+from the roar of tempestuous waves, the hollow rushing of the winds
+among the branches of the forest, and the tremendous crash of
+deafening thunder.
+
+"Ye furies," she cries, "and dreadful Styx, ye sufferings of the
+damned, and Chaos, for ever eager to destroy the fair harmony of
+worlds, and thou, Pluto, condemned to an eternity of ungrateful
+existence, Hell, and Elysium, of which no Thessalian witch shall
+partake, Proserpine, for ever cut off from thy health-giving mother,
+and horrid Hecate, Cerebrus [Errata: _read_ Cerberus] curst with
+incessant hunger, ye Destinies, and Charon endlessly murmuring at the
+task I impose of bringing back the dead again to the land of the
+living, hear me!--if I call on you with a voice sufficiently impious
+and abominable, if I have never sung this chaunt, unsated with human
+gore, if I have frequently laid on your altars the fruit of the
+pregnant mother, bathing its contents with the reeking brain, if I
+have placed on a dish before you the head and entrails of an infant on
+the point to be born--
+
+"I ask not of you a ghost, already a tenant of the Tartarean abodes,
+and long familiarised to the shades below, but one who has recently
+quitted the light of day, and who yet hovers over the mouth of hell:
+let him hear these incantations, and immediately after descend to his
+destined place! Let him articulate suitable omens to the son of his
+general, having so late been himself a soldier of the great Pompey! Do
+this, as you love the very sound and rumour of a civil war!"
+
+Saying this, behold, the ghost of the dead man stood erect before her,
+trembling at the view of his own unanimated limbs, and loth to enter
+again the confines of his wonted prison. He shrinks to invest himself
+with the gored bosom, and the fibres from which death had separated
+him. Unhappy wretch, to whom death had not given the privilege to die!
+Erichtho, impatient at the unlooked for delay, lashes the unmoving
+corpse with one of her serpents. She calls anew on the powers of hell,
+and threatens to pronounce the dreadful name, which cannot be
+articulated without consequences never to be thought of, nor without
+the direst necessity to be ventured upon.
+
+At length the congealed blood becomes liquid and warm; it oozes from
+the wounds, and creeps steadily along the veins and the members; the
+fibres are called into action beneath the gelid breast, and the nerves
+once more become instinct with life. Life and death are there at once.
+The arteries beat; the muscles are braced; the body raises itself, not
+by degrees, but at a single impulse, and stands erect. The eyelids
+unclose. The countenance is not that of a living subject, but of the
+dead. The paleness of the complexion, the rigidity of the lines,
+remain; and he looks about with an unmeaning stare, but utters no
+sound. He waits on the potent enchantress.
+
+"Speak!" said she; "and ample shall be your reward. You shall not
+again be subject to the art of the magician. I will commit your
+members to such a sepulchre; I will burn your form with such wood, and
+will chaunt such a charm over your funeral pyre, that all incantations
+shall thereafter assail you in vain. Be it enough, that you have once
+been brought back to life! Tripods, and the voice of oracles deal in
+ambiguous responses; but the voice of the dead is perspicuous and
+certain to him who receives it with an unshrinking spirit. Spare not!
+Give names to things; give places a clear designation; speak with a
+full and articulate voice."
+
+Saying this, she added a further spell, qualified to give to him who
+was to answer, a distinct knowledge of that respecting which he was
+about to be consulted. He accordingly delivers the responses demanded
+of him; and, that done, earnestly requires of the witch to be
+dismissed. Herbs and magic rites are necessary, that the corpse may be
+again unanimated, and the spirit never more be liable to be recalled
+to the realms of day. The sorceress constructs the funeral pile; the
+dead man places himself thereon; Erichtho applies the torch; and the
+charm is for ever at an end.
+
+Lucan in this passage is infinitely too precise, and exhausts his muse
+in a number of particulars, where he had better have been more
+succinct and select. He displays the prolific exuberance of a young
+poet, who had not yet taught himself the multiplied advantages of
+compression. He had not learned the principle, _Relinquere quae
+desperat tractata nitescere posse_. [116] But, as this is the
+fullest enumeration of the forms of witchcraft that occurs in the
+writers of antiquity, it seemed proper to give it to the reader
+entire.
+
+
+SERTORIUS.
+
+The story of Sertorius and his hind, which occurred about thirty years
+before, may not be improperly introduced here. It is told by Plutarch
+in the spirit of a philosopher, and as a mere deception played by that
+general, to render the barbarous people of Spain more devoted to his
+service. But we must suppose that it had, at least for the time, the
+full effect of something preternatural. Sertorius was one of the most
+highly gifted and well balanced characters that is to be found in
+Roman story. He considered with the soundest discernment the nature of
+the persons among whom he was to act, and conducted himself
+accordingly. The story in Plutarch is this.
+
+"So soone as Sertorius arriued from Africa, he straight leauied men of
+warre, and with them subdued the people of Spaine fronting upon his
+marches, of which the more part did willingly submit themselves, upon
+the bruit that ran of him to be mercifull and courteous, and a valiant
+man besides in present danger, Furthermore, he lacked no fine deuises
+and subtilties to win their goodwils: as among others, the policy, and
+deuise of the hind. There was a poore man of the countrey called
+Spanus, who meeting by chance one day with a hind in his way that had
+newly calved, flying from the hunters, he let the damme go, not being
+able to take her; and running after her calfe tooke it, which was a
+young hind, and of a strange haire, for she was all milk-white. It
+chanced so, that Sertorius was at that time in those parts. So, this
+poore man presented Sertorius with his young hind, which he gladly
+receiued, and which with time he made so tame, that she would come to
+him when he called her, and follow him where-euer he went, being
+nothing the wilder for the daily sight of such a number of armed
+souldiers together as they were, nor yet afraid of the noise and
+tumult of the campe. Insomuch as Sertorius by little and little made
+it a miracle, making the simple barbarous people beleeue that it was a
+gift that Diana had sent him, by the which she made him understand of
+many and sundrie things to come: knowing well inough of himselfe, that
+the barbarous people were men easily deceiued, and quickly caught by
+any subtill superstition, besides that by art also he brought them to
+beleeue it as a thing verie true. For when he had any secret
+intelligence giuen him, that the enemies would inuade some part of the
+countries and prouinces subject vnto him, or that they had taken any
+of his forts from him by any intelligence or sudden attempt, he
+straight told them that his hind spake to him as he slept, and had
+warned him both to arme his men, and put himselfe in strength. In like
+manner if he had heard any newes that one of his lieutenants had wonne
+a battell, or that he had any aduantage of his enemies, he would hide
+the messenger, and bring his hind abroad with a garland and coller of
+nosegayes: and then say, it was a token of some good newes comming
+towards him, perswading them withall to be of good cheare; and so did
+sacrifice to the Gods, to giue them thankes for the good tidings he
+should heare before it were long. Thus by putting this superstition
+into their heades, he made them the more tractable and obedient to his
+will, in so much as they thought they were not now gouerned any more
+by a stranger wiser than themselues, but were steadfastly perswaded
+that they were rather led by some certaine God."--
+
+"Now was Sertorius very heauie, that no man could tell him what was
+become of his white hind: for thereby all his subtilltie and finenesse
+to keepe the barbarous people in obedience was taken away, and then
+specially when they stood in need of most comfort. But by good hap,
+certaine of his souldiers that had lost themselves in the night, met
+with the hind in their way, and knowing her by her colour, tooke her
+and brought her backe againe. Sertorius hearing of her, promised them
+a good reward, so that they would tell no liuing creature that they
+brought her againe, and thereupon made her to be secretly kept. Then
+within a few dayes after, he came abroad among them, and with a
+pleasant countenance told the noble men and chiefe captaines of these
+barbarous people, how the Gods had reuealed it to him in his dreame,
+that he should shortly have a maruellous good thing happen to him: and
+with these words sate downe in his chaire to give audience. Whereupon
+they that kept the hind not farre from thence, did secretly let her go.
+The hind being loose, when she had spied Sertorius, ranne straight to
+his chaire with great joy, and put her head betwixt his legges, and
+layed her mouth in his right hand, as she before was wont to do.
+Sertorius also made very much of her, and of purpose appeared
+maruellous glad, shewing such tender affection to the hind, as it
+seemed the water stood in his eyes for joy. The barbarous people that
+stood there by and beheld the same, at the first were much amazed
+therewith, but afterwards when they had better bethought themselues,
+for ioy they clapped their hands together, and waited upon Sertorius
+to his lodging with great and ioyfull shouts, saying, and steadfastly
+beleeuing, that he he was a heavenly creature, and beloued of the
+Gods." [117]
+
+
+CASTING OUT DEVILS.
+
+We are now brought down to the era of the Christian religion; and
+there is repeated mention of sorcery in the books of the New Testament.
+
+One of the most frequent miracles recorded of Jesus Christ is called
+the "casting out devils." The Pharisees in the Evangelist, for the
+purpose of depreciating this evidence of his divine mission, are
+recorded to have said, "this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by
+Beelzebub, the prince of devils." Jesus, among other remarks in
+refutation of this opprobrium, rejoins upon them, "If I by Beelzebub
+cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?" [118] Here
+then we have a plain insinuation of sorcery from the lips of Christ
+himself, at the same time that he appears to admit that his
+adversaries produced supernatural achievements similar to his own.
+
+
+SIMON MAGUS.
+
+But the most remarkable passage in the New Testament on the subject of
+sorcery, is one which describes the proceedings of Simon Magus, as
+follows.
+
+"Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ
+unto them. But there was a certain man, called Simon, which before
+time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of
+Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one. To whom they all
+gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the
+great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long
+time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But, when they believed
+Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the
+name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Then
+Simon himself believed also. And, when he was baptized, he continued
+with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were
+done.
+
+"Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
+received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. Who,
+when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the
+Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were
+baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on
+them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
+
+"And, when Simon saw that, through the laying on of the apostles'
+hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give
+me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the
+Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee!
+because thou hast thought that the gift of God might be purchased with
+money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is
+not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness,
+and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee:
+for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the
+bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord
+for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me."
+[119]
+
+This passage of the New Testament leaves us in considerable uncertainty
+as to the nature of the sorceries, by which "of a long time Simon had
+bewitched the people of Samaria." But the fathers of the church,
+Clemens Romanus and Anastasius Sinaita, have presented us with a
+detail of the wonders he actually performed. When and to whom he
+pleased he made himself invisible; he created a man out of air; he
+passed through rocks and mountains without encountering an obstacle;
+he threw himself from a precipice uninjured; he flew along in the air;
+he flung himself in the fire without being burned. Bolts and chains
+were impotent to detain him. He animated statues, so that they
+appeared to every beholder to be men and women; he made all the
+furniture of the house and the table to change places as required,
+without a visible mover; he metamorphosed his countenance and visage
+into that of another person; he could make himself into a sheep, or a
+goat, or a serpent; he walked through the streets attended with a
+multitude of strange figures, which he affirmed to be the souls of the
+departed; he made trees and branches of trees suddenly to spring up
+where he pleased; he set up and deposed kings at will; he caused a
+sickle to go into a field of corn, which unassisted would mow twice as
+fast as the most industrious reaper. [120]
+
+Thus endowed, it is difficult to imagine what he thought he would have
+gained by purchasing from the apostles their gift of working miracles.
+But Clemens Romanus informs us that he complained that, in his
+sorceries, he was obliged to employ tedious ceremonies and
+incantations; whereas the apostles appeared to effect their wonders
+without difficulty and effort, by barely speaking a word. [121]
+
+
+ELYMAS, THE SORCERER.
+
+But Simon Magus is not the only magician spoken of in the New
+Testament. When the apostle Paul came to Paphos in the isle of Cyprus,
+he found the Roman governor divided in his preference between Paul and
+Elymas, the sorcerer, who before the governor withstood Paul to his
+face. Then Paul, prompted by his indignation, said, "Oh, full of all
+subtlety and mischief, child of the devil, enemy of all righteousness,
+wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now,
+behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind,
+not seeing the sun for a season." What wonders Elymas effected to
+deceive the Roman governor we are not told: but "immediately there
+fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about, seeking some to
+lead him by the hand." [122]
+
+In another instance we find certain vagabond Jews, exorcists, who
+pretended to cast out devils from the possessed. But they came to the
+apostle, and "confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also
+which used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them
+before all. And they counted the price of them, and found it fifty
+thousand pieces of silver." [123]
+
+It is easy to see however on which side the victory lay. The apostles
+by their devotion and the integrity of their proceedings triumphed;
+while those whose only motive was selfishness, the applause of the
+vulgar, or the admiration of the superficial, gained the honours of a
+day, and were then swept away into the gulf of general oblivion.
+
+
+NERO.
+
+The arts of the magician are said to have been called into action by
+Nero upon occasion of the assassination of his mother, Agrippina. He
+was visited with occasional fits of the deepest remorse in the
+recollection of his enormity. Notwithstanding all the ostentatious
+applauses and congratulations which he obtained from the senate, the
+army and the people, he complained that he was perpetually haunted
+with the ghost of his mother, and pursued by the furies with flaming
+torches and whips. He therefore caused himself to be attended by
+magicians, who employed their arts to conjure up the shade of
+Agrippina, and to endeavour to obtain her forgiveness for the crime
+perpetrated by her son. [124] We are not informed of the success of
+their evocations.
+
+
+VESPASIAN.
+
+In the reign of Vespasian we meet with a remarkable record of
+supernatural power, though it does not strictly fall under the head of
+magic. It is related by both Tacitus and Suetonius. Vespasian having
+taken up his abode for some months at Alexandria, a blind man, of the
+common people, came to him, earnestly intreating the emperor to assist
+in curing his infirmity, alleging that he was prompted to apply by the
+admonition of the God Serapis, and importuning the prince to anoint
+his cheeks and the balls of his eyes with the royal spittle. Vespasian
+at first treated the supplication with disdain; but at length, moved
+by the fervour of the petitioner, inforced as it was by the flattery
+of his courtiers, the emperor began to think that every thing would
+give way to his prosperous fortune, and yielded to the poor man's
+desire. With a confident carriage therefore, the multitude of those
+who stood by being full of expectation, he did as he was requested,
+and the desired success immediately followed. Another supplicant
+appeared at the same time, who had lost the use of his hands, and
+intreated Vespasian to touch the diseased members with his foot; and
+he also was cured.[125]
+
+Hume has remarked that many circumstances contribute to give
+authenticity to this miracle, "if," as he says, "any evidence could
+avail to establish so palpable a falsehood. The gravity, solidity, age
+and probity of so great an emperor, who, through the whole course of
+his life, conversed in a familiar manner with his friends and
+courtiers, and never affected any airs of divinity: the historian, a
+contemporary writer, noted for candour and veracity, and perhaps the
+greatest and most penetrating genius of all antiquity: and lastly, the
+persons from whose authority he related the miracle, who we may
+presume to have been of established character for judgment and honour;
+eye-witnesses of the fact, and confirming their testimony, as Tacitus
+goes on to say, after the Flavian family ceased to be in power, and
+could no longer give any reward as the price of a lie." [126]
+
+
+APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.
+
+Apollonius of Tyana in Asia Minor was born nearly at the same time as
+Jesus Christ, and acquired great reputation while he lived, and for a
+considerable time after. He was born of wealthy parents, and seems
+early to have betrayed a passion for philosophy. His father,
+perceiving this, placed him at fourteen years of age under Euthydemus,
+a rhetorician of Tarsus; but the youth speedily became dissatisfied
+with the indolence and luxury of the citizens, and removed himself to
+Aegas, a neighbouring town, where was a temple of Aesculapius, and where
+the God was supposed sometimes to appear in person. Here he became
+professedly a disciple of the sect of Pythagoras. He refrained from
+animal food, and subsisted entirely on fruits and herbs. He went
+barefoot, and wore no article of clothing made from the skins of
+animals. [127] He further imposed on himself a noviciate of five years
+silence. At the death of his father, he divided his patrimony equally
+with his brother; and, that brother having wasted his estate by
+prodigality, he again made an equal division with him of what
+remained. [128] He travelled to Babylon and Susa in pursuit of
+knowledge, and even among the Brachmans of India, and appears
+particularly to have addicted himself to the study of magic. [129] He
+was of a beautiful countenance and a commanding figure, and, by means
+of these things, combined with great knowledge, a composed and
+striking carriage, and much natural eloquence, appears to have won
+universal favour wherever he went. He is said to have professed the
+understanding of all languages without learning them, to read the
+thoughts of men, and to be able to interpret the language of animals.
+A power of working miracles attended him in all places. [130]
+
+On one occasion he announced to the people of Ephesus the approach of
+a terrible pestilence; but the citizens paid no attention to his
+prophecy. The calamity however having overtaken them, they sent to
+Apollonius who was then at Smyrna, to implore his assistance. He
+obeyed the summons. Having assembled the inhabitants, there was seen
+among them a poor, old and decrepid beggar, clothed in rags, hideous
+of visage, and with a peculiarly fearful and tremendous expression in
+his eyes. Apollonius called out to the Ephesians, "This is an enemy to
+the Gods; turn all your animosity against him, and stone him to death!"
+The old man in the most piteous tones besought their mercy. The
+citizens were shocked with the inhumanity of the prophet. Some however
+of the more thoughtless flung a few stones, without any determined
+purpose. The old man, who had stood hitherto crouching, and with his
+eyes half-closed, now erected his figure, and cast on the crowd
+glances, fearful, and indeed diabolical. The Ephesians understood at
+once that this was the genius of the plague. They showered upon him
+stones without mercy, so as not only to cover him, but to produce a
+considerable mound where he had stood. After a time Apollonius
+commanded them to take away the stones, that they might discover what
+sort of an enemy they had destroyed. Instead of a man they now saw an
+enormous black dog, of the size of a lion, and whose mouth and jaws
+were covered with a thick envenomed froth. [131]
+
+Another miracle was performed by Apollonius in favour of a young man,
+named Menippus of Corinth, five and twenty years of age, for whom the
+prophet entertained a singular favour. This man conceived himself to
+be beloved by a rich and beautiful woman, who made advances to him,
+and to whom he was on the point of being contracted in marriage.
+Apollonius warned his young friend against the match in an enigmatical
+way, telling him that he nursed a serpent in his bosom. This however
+did not deter Menippus. All things were prepared; and the wedding
+table was spread. Apollonius meanwhile came among them, and prevented
+the calamity. He told the young man that the dishes before him, the
+wine he was drinking, the vessels of gold and silver that appeared
+around him, and the very guests themselves were unreal and illusory;
+and to prove his words, he caused them immediately to vanish. The
+bride alone was refractory. She prayed the philosopher not to torment
+her, and not to compel her to confess what she was. He was however
+inexorable. She at length owned that she was an empuse (a sort of
+vampire), and that she had determined to cherish and pamper Menippus,
+that she might in the conclusion eat his flesh, and lap up his blood.
+[132]
+
+One of the miracles of Apollonius consisted in raising the dead. A
+young woman of beautiful person was laid out upon a bier, and was in
+the act of being conveyed to the tomb. She was followed by a multitude
+of friends, weeping and lamenting, and among others by a young man,
+to whom she had been on the point to be married. Apollonius met the
+procession, and commanded those who bore it, to set down the bier. He
+exhorted the proposed bridegroom to dry up his tears. He enquired the
+name of the deceased, and, saluting her accordingly, took hold of her
+hand, and murmured over her certain mystical words. At this act the
+maiden raised herself on her seat, and presently returned home, whole
+and sound, to the house of her father. [133]
+
+Towards the end of his life Apollonius was accused before Domitian of
+having conspired with Nerva to put an end to the reign of the tyrant.
+He appears to have proved that he was at another place, and therefore
+could not have engaged in the conspiracy that was charged upon him.
+Domitian publicly cleared him from the accusation, but at the same
+time required him not to withdraw from Rome, till the emperor had
+first had a private conference with him. To this requisition Apollonius
+replied in the most spirited terms. "I thank your majesty," said he,
+"for the justice you have rendered me. But I cannot submit to what you
+require. How can I be secure from the false accusations of the
+unprincipled informers who infest your court? It is by their means
+that whole towns of your empire are unpeopled, that provinces are
+involved in mourning and tears, your armies are in mutiny, your senate
+full of suspicion and alarms, and the islands are crowded with exiles.
+It is not for myself that I speak, my soul is invulnerable to your
+enmity; and it is not given to you by the Gods to become master of my
+body." And, having thus given utterance to the virtuous anguish of his
+spirit, he suddenly became invisible in the midst of a full assembly,
+and was immediately after seen at Puteoli in the neighbourhood of
+Mount Vesuvius. [134]
+
+Domitian pursued the prophet no further; and he passed shortly after
+to Greece, to Ionia, and finally to Ephesus. He every where delivered
+lectures as he went, and was attended with crowds of the most
+distinguished auditors, and with the utmost popularity. At length at
+Ephesus, when he was in the midst of an eloquent harangue, he suddenly
+became silent. He seemed as if he saw a spectacle which engrossed all
+his attention. His countenance expressed fervour and the most
+determined purpose. He exclaimed, "Strike the tyrant; strike him!" and
+immediately after, raising himself, and addressing the assembly, he
+said, "Domitian is no more; the world is delivered of its bitterest
+oppressor."--The next post brought the news that the emperor was
+killed at Rome, exactly on the day and at the hour when Apollonius had
+thus made known the event at Ephesus. [135]
+
+Nerva succeeded Domitian, between whom and Apollonius there subsisted
+the sincerest friendship. The prophet however did not long survive
+this event. He was already nearly one hundred years old. But what is
+most extraordinary, no one could tell precisely when or where he died.
+No tomb bore the record of his memory; and his biographer inclines to
+the opinion that he was taken up into heaven. [136]
+
+Divine honours were paid to this philosopher, both during his life,
+and after his death. The inhabitants of Tyana built a temple to him,
+and his image was to be found in many other temples. [137] The emperor
+Adrian collected his letters, and treated them as an invaluable relic.
+Alexander Severus placed his statue in his oratory, together with
+those of Jesus Christ, Abraham and Orpheus, to whom he was accustomed
+daily to perform the ceremonies of religion. [138] Vopiscus, in his
+Life of Aurelian, [139] relates that this emperor had determined to
+rase the city of Tyana, but that Apollonius, whom he knew from his
+statues, appeared to him, and said, "Aurelian, if you would conquer,
+do not think of the destruction of my citizens: Aurelian, if you would
+reign, abstain from the blood of the innocent: Aurelian, if you would
+conquer, distinguish yourself by acts of clemency." It was at the
+desire of Julia, the mother of Severus, that Philostratus composed the
+life of Apollonius, to which he is now principally indebted for his
+fame. [140]
+
+The publicity of Apollonius and his miracles has become considerably
+greater, from the circumstance of the early enemies of the Christian
+religion having instituted a comparison between the miracles of Christ
+and of this celebrated philosopher, for the obvious purpose of
+undermining one of the most considerable evidences of the truth of
+divine revelation. It was probably with an indirect view of this sort
+that Philostratus was incited by the empress Julia to compose his life
+of this philosopher; and Hierocles, a writer of the time of Dioclesian,
+appears to have penned an express treatise in the way of a parallel
+between the two, attempting to shew a decisive superiority in the
+miracles of Apollonius.
+
+
+APULEIUS.
+
+Apuleius of Madaura in Africa, who lived in the time of the Antonines,
+appears to have been more remarkable as an author, than for any thing
+that occurs in the history of his life. St. Augustine and Lactantius
+however have coupled him with Apollonius of Tyana, as one of those who
+for their pretended miracles were brought into competition with the
+author of the Christian religion. But this seems to have arisen from
+their misapprehension respecting his principal work, the Golden Ass,
+which is a romance detailing certain wonderful transformations, and
+which they appear to have thought was intended as an actual history of
+the life of the author.
+
+The work however deserves to be cited in this place, as giving a
+curious representation of the ideas which were then prevalent on the
+subjects of magic and witchcraft. The author in the course of his
+narrative says: "When the day began to dawn, I chanced to awake, and
+became desirous to know and see some marvellous and strange things,
+remembering that I was now in the midst of Thessaly, where, by the
+common report of the world, sorceries and enchantments are most
+frequent. I viewed the situation of the place in which I was; nor was
+there any thing I saw, that I believed to be the same thing which it
+appeared. Insomuch that the very stones in the street I thought were
+men bewitched and turned into that figure, and the birds I heard
+chirping, the trees without the walls, and the running waters, were
+changed from human creatures into the appearances they wore. I
+persuaded myself that the statues and buildings could move, that the
+oxen and other brute beasts could speak and tell strange tidings, and
+that I should see and hear oracles from heaven, conveyed on the beams
+of the sun."
+
+
+ALEXANDER THE PAPHLAGONIAN.
+
+At the same time with Apuleius lived Alexander the Paphlagonian, of
+whom so extraordinary an account is transmitted to us by Lucian. He
+was the native of an obscure town, called Abonotica, but was endowed
+with all that ingenuity and cunning which enables men most effectually
+to impose upon their fellow-creatures. He was tall of stature, of an
+impressive aspect, a fair complexion, eyes that sparkled with an
+awe-commanding fire as if informed by some divinity, and a voice to
+the last degree powerful and melodious. To these he added the graces
+of carriage and attire. Being born to none of the goods of fortune, he
+considered with himself how to turn these advantages to the greatest
+account; and the plan he fixed upon was that of instituting an oracle
+entirely under his own direction. He began at Chalcedon on the
+Thracian Bosphorus; but, continuing but a short time there, he used it
+principally as an opportunity for publishing that Aesculapius, with
+Apollo, his father, would in no long time fix his residence at
+Abonotica. This rumour reached the fellow-citizens of the prophet, who
+immediately began to lay the foundations of a temple for the reception
+of the God. In due time Alexander made his appearance; and he so well
+managed his scheme, that, by means of spies and emissaries whom he
+scattered in all directions, he not only collected applications to his
+prophetic skill from the different towns of Ionia, Cilicia and Galatia,
+but presently extended his fame to Italy and Rome. For twenty years
+scarcely any oracle of the known world could vie with that of
+Abonotica; and the emperor Aurelius himself is said to have relied for
+the success of a military expedition upon the predictions of Alexander
+the Paphlagonian.
+
+Lucian gives, or pretends to give, an account of the manner in which
+Alexander gained so extraordinary a success. He says, that this young
+man in his preliminary travels, coming to Pella in Macedon, found that
+the environs of this city were distinguished from perhaps all other
+parts of the world, by a breed of serpents of extraordinary size and
+beauty. Our author adds that these serpents were so tame, that they
+inhabited the houses of the province, and slept in bed with the
+children. If you trod upon them, they did not turn again, or shew
+tokens of anger, and they sucked the breasts of the women to whom it
+might be of service to draw off their milk. Lucian says, it was
+probably one of these serpents, that was found in the bed of Olympias,
+and gave occasion to the tale that Alexander the Great was begotten by
+Jupiter under the form of a serpent. The prophet bought the largest
+and finest serpent he could find, and conveyed it secretly with him
+into Asia. When he came to Abonotica, he found the temple that was
+built surrounded with a moat; and he took an opportunity privately of
+sinking a goose-egg, which he had first emptied of its contents,
+inserting instead a young serpent just hatched, and closing it again
+with great care. He then told his fellow-citizens that the God was
+arrived, and hastening to the moat, scooped up the egg in an egg-cup
+in presence of the whole assembly. He next broke the shell, and shewed
+the young serpent that twisted about his fingers in presence of the
+admiring multitude. After this he suffered several days to elapse, and
+then, collecting crowds from every part of Paphlagonia, he exhibited
+himself, as he had previously announced he should do, with the fine
+serpent he had brought from Macedon twisted in coils about the
+prophet's neck, and its head hid under his arm-pit, while a head
+artfully formed with linen, and bearing some resemblance to a human
+face, protruded itself, and passed for the head of the reptile. The
+spectators were beyond measure astonished to see a little embryo
+serpent, grown in a few days to so magnificent a size, and exhibiting
+the features of a human countenance.
+
+Having thus far succeeded, Alexander did not stop here. He contrived
+a pipe which passed seemingly into the mouth of the animal, while the
+other end terminated in an adjoining room, where a man was placed
+unseen, and delivered the replies which appeared to come from the
+mouth of the serpent. This immediate communication with the God was
+reserved for a few favoured suitors, who bought at a high price the
+envied distinction.
+
+The method with ordinary enquirers was for them to communicate their
+requests in writing, which they were enjoined to roll up and carefully
+seal; and these scrolls were returned to them in a few days, with the
+seals apparently unbroken, but with an answer written within,
+strikingly appropriate to the demand that was preferred.--It is further
+to be observed, that the mouth of the serpent was occasionally opened
+by means of a horsehair skilfully adjusted for the purpose, at the
+same time that by similar means the animal darted out its biforked
+tongue to the terror of the amazed bystanders.
+
+
+
+
+REVOLUTION PRODUCED IN THE HISTORY OF NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT UPON
+THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY.
+
+
+It is necessary here to take notice of the great revolution that took
+place under Constantine, nearly three hundred years after the death of
+Christ, when Christianity became the established religion of the Roman
+empire. This was a period which produced a new era in the history of
+necromancy and witchcraft. Under the reign of polytheism, devotion was
+wholly unrestrained in every direction it might chance to assume. Gods
+known and unknown, the spirits of departed heroes, the Gods of heaven
+and hell, abstractions of virtue or vice, might unblamed be made the
+objects of religious worship. Witchcraft therefore, and the invocation
+of the spirits of the dead, might be practised with toleration; or at
+all events were not regarded otherwise than as venial deviations from
+the religion of the state.
+
+It is true, there must always have been a horror of secret arts,
+especially of such as were of a maleficent nature. At all times men
+dreaded the mysterious power of spells and incantations, of potent
+herbs and nameless rites, which were able to control the eternal order
+of the planets, and the voluntary operations of mind, which could
+extinguish or recal life, inflame the passions of the soul, blast the
+works of creation, and extort from invisible beings and the dead the
+secrets of futurity. But under the creed of the unity of the divine
+nature the case was exceedingly different. Idolatry, and the worship
+of other Gods than one, were held to be crimes worthy of the utmost
+abhorrence and the severest punishment. There was no medium between
+the worship of heaven and hell. All adoration was to be directed to
+God the Creator through the mediation of his only begotten Son; or, if
+prayers were addressed to inferior beings, and the glorified spirits
+of his saints, at least they terminated in the Most High, were a
+deprecation of his wrath, a soliciting his favour, and a homage to his
+omnipotence. On the other hand sorcery and witchcraft were sins of the
+blackest dye. In opposition to the one only God, the creator of heaven
+and earth, was the "prince of darkness," the "prince of the power of
+the air," who contended perpetually against the Almighty, and sought
+to seduce his creatures and his subjects from their due allegiance.
+Sorcerers and witches were supposed to do homage and sell themselves
+to the devil, than which it was not in the mind of man to conceive a
+greater enormity, or a crime more worthy to cause its perpetrators to
+be exterminated from the face of the earth. The thought of it was of
+power to cause the flesh of man to creep and tingle with horror: and
+such as were prone to indulge their imaginations to the utmost extent
+of the terrible, found a perverse delight in conceiving this
+depravity, and were but too much disposed to fasten it upon their
+fellow-creatures.
+
+
+MAGICAL CONSULTATIONS RESPECTING THE LIFE OF THE EMPEROR.
+
+It was not within the range of possibility, that such a change should
+take place in the established religion of the empire as that from
+Paganism to Christianity, without convulsions and vehement struggle.
+The prejudices of mankind on a subject so nearly concerned with their
+dearest interests and affections must inevitably be powerful and
+obstinate; and the lucre of the priesthood, together with the strong
+hold they must necessarily have had on the weakness and superstition
+of their flocks, would tend to give force and perpetuity to the
+contention. Julian, a man of great ability and unquestionable
+patriotism, succeeded to the empire only twenty-four years after the
+death of Constantine; and he employed the most vigorous measures for
+the restoration of the ancient religion. But the reign of Julian was
+scarcely more than eighteen months in duration: and that of Jovian,
+his successor, who again unfurled the standard of Christianity, lasted
+hardly more than half a year. The state of things bore a striking
+similarity to that of England at the time of the Protestant
+Reformation, where the opposite faiths of Edward the Sixth and his
+sister Mary, and the shortness of their reigns, gave preternatural
+keenness to the feelings of the parties, and instigated them to hang
+with the most restless anticipation upon the chances of the demise of
+the sovereign, and the consequences, favourable or unfavourable, that
+might arise from a new accession.
+
+The joint reign of Valentinian and Valens, Christian emperors, had now
+lasted several years, when information was conveyed to these princes,
+and particularly to the latter, who had the rule of Asia, that
+numerous private consultations were held, as to the duration of their
+authority, and the person of the individual who should come after them.
+The succession of the Roman empire was elective; and consequently
+there was almost an unlimited scope for conjecture in this question.
+Among the various modes of enquiry that were employed we are told,
+that the twenty-four letters of the alphabet were artificially
+disposed in a circle, and that a magic ring, being suspended over the
+centre, was conceived to point to the initial letters of the name of
+him who should be the future emperor. Theodorus, a man of most eminent
+qualifications, and high popularity, was put to death by the jealousy
+of Valens, on the vague evidence that this kind of trial had indicated
+the early letters of his name. [141] It may easily be imagined, that,
+where so restless and secret an investigation was employed as to the
+successor that fate might provide, conspiracy would not always be
+absent. Charges of this sort were perpetually multiplied; informers
+were eager to obtain favour or rewards by the disclosures they
+pretended to communicate; and the Christians, who swayed the sceptre
+of the state, did not fail to aggravate the guilt of those who had
+recourse to these means for satisfying their curiosity, by alleging
+that demons were called up from hell to aid in the magic solution. The
+historians of these times no doubt greatly exaggerate the terror and
+the danger, when they say, that the persons apprehended on such
+charges in the great cities outnumbered the peaceable citizens who
+were left unsuspected, and that the military who had charge of the
+prisoners, complained that they were wholly without the power to
+restrain the flight of the captives, or to control the multitude of
+partisans who insisted on their immediate release. [142] The
+punishments were barbarous and indiscriminate; to be accused was
+almost the same thing as to be convicted; and those were obliged to
+hold themselves fortunate, who escaped with a fine that in a manner
+swallowed up their estates.
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF NECROMANCY IN THE EAST.
+
+
+From the countries best known in what is usually styled ancient
+history, in other words from Greece and Rome, and the regions into
+which the spirit of conquest led the people of Rome and Greece, it is
+time we should turn to the East, and those remoter divisions of the
+world, which to them were comparatively unknown.
+
+With what has been called the religion of the Magi, of Egypt, Persia
+and Chaldea, they were indeed superficially acquainted; but for a more
+familiar and accurate knowledge of the East we are chiefly indebted to
+certain events of modern history; to the conquests of the Saracens,
+when they possessed themselves of the North of Africa, made themselves
+masters of Spain, and threatened in their victorious career to subject
+France to their standard; to the crusades; to the spirit of nautical
+discovery which broke out in the close of the fifteenth century; and
+more recently to the extensive conquests and mighty augmentation of
+territory which have been realised by the English East India Company.
+
+The religion of Persia was that of Zoroaster and the Magi. When
+Ardshir, or Artaxerxes, the founder of the race of the Sassanides,
+restored the throne of Persia in the year of Christ 226, he called
+together an assembly of the Magi from all parts of his dominions, and
+they are said to have met to the number of eighty thousand. [143]
+These priests, from a remote antiquity, had to a great degree
+preserved their popularity, and had remarkably adhered to their
+ancient institutions.
+
+They seem at all times to have laid claim to the power of suspending
+the course of nature, and producing miraculous phenomena. But in so
+numerous a body there must have been some whose pretensions were of a
+more moderate nature, and others who displayed a loftier aspiration.
+The more ambitious we find designated in their native language by the
+name of _Jogees_, [144] of the same signification as the Latin
+_juncti_.
+
+Their notions of the Supreme Being are said to have been of the
+highest and abstrusest character, as comprehending every possible
+perfection of power, wisdom and goodness, as purely spiritual in his
+essence, and incapable of the smallest variation and change, the same
+yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Such as they apprehended him to be,
+such the most perfect of their priests aspired to make themselves.
+They were to put off all human weakness and frailty; and, in
+proportion as they _assimilated_, or rather _became one_
+with the Deity, they supposed themselves to partake of his attributes,
+to become infinitely wise and powerful and good. Hence their claim to
+suspend the course of nature, and to produce miraculous phenomena. For
+this purpose it was necessary that they should abstract themselves
+from every thing mortal, have no human passions or partialities, and
+divest themselves as much as possible of all the wants and demands of
+our material frame. Zoroaster appears indeed to have preferred
+morality to devotion, to have condemned celibacy and fasting, and to
+have pronounced, that "he who sows the ground with diligence and care,
+acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he who should repeat
+ten thousand prayers." But his followers at least did not abide by
+this decision. They found it more practicable to secure to themselves
+an elevated reputation by severe observances, rigid self-denial, and
+the practice of the most inconceivable mortifications. This excited
+wonder and reverence and a sort of worship from the bystander, which
+industry and benevolence do not so assuredly secure. They therefore in
+frequent instances lacerated their flesh, and submitted to incredible
+hardships. They scourged themselves without mercy, wounded their
+bodies with lancets and nails, [145] and condemned themselves to
+remain for days and years unmoved in the most painful attitudes. It
+was no unprecedented thing for them to take their station upon the top
+of a high pillar; and some are said to have continued in this position,
+without ever coming down from it, for thirty years. The more they
+trampled under foot the universal instincts of our nature, and shewed
+themselves superior to its infirmities, the nearer they approached to
+the divine essence, and to the becoming one with the Omnipresent. They
+were of consequence the more sinless and perfect; their will became
+the will of the Deity, and they were in a sense invested with, and
+became the mediums of the acts of, his power. The result of all this
+is, that they who exercised the art of magic in its genuine and
+unadulterated form, at all times applied it to purposes of goodness
+and benevolence, and that their interference was uniformly the signal
+of some unequivocal benefit, either to mankind in general, or to those
+individuals of mankind who were best entitled to their aid. It was
+theirs to succour virtue in distress, and to interpose the divine
+assistance in cases that most loudly and unquestionably called for it.
+
+Such, we are told, was the character of the pure and primitive magic,
+as it was handed down from the founder of their religion. It was
+called into action by the Jogees, men who, by an extraordinary merit
+of whatever sort, had in a certain sense rendered themselves one with
+the Deity. But the exercise of magical power was too tempting an
+endowment, not in some cases to be liable to abuse. Even as we read of
+the angels in heaven, that not all of them stood, and persevered in
+their original sinlessness and integrity, so of the Jogees some,
+partaking of the divine power, were also under the direction of a will
+celestial and divine, while others, having derived, we must suppose, a
+mighty and miraculous power from the gift of God, afterwards abused it
+by applying it to capricious, or, as it should seem, to malignant
+purposes. This appears to have been every where essential to the
+history of magic. If those who were supposed to possess it in its
+widest extent and most astonishing degree, had uniformly employed it
+only in behalf of justice and virtue, they would indeed have been
+regarded as benefactors, and been entitled to the reverence and love
+of mankind. But the human mind is always prone to delight in the
+terrible. No sooner did men entertain the idea of what was supernatural
+and uncontrolable, than they began to fear it and to deprecate its
+hostility. They apprehended they knew not what, of the dead returning
+to life, of invisible beings armed with the power and intention of
+executing mischief, and of human creatures endowed with the prerogative
+of bringing down pestilence and slaughter, of dispensing wealth and
+poverty, prosperity and calamity at their pleasure, of causing health
+and life to waste away by insensible, but sure degrees, of producing
+lingering torments, and death in its most fearful form. Accordingly it
+appears that, as there were certain magicians who were as Gods
+dispensing benefits to those who best deserved it, so there were
+others, whose only principle of action was caprice, and against whose
+malice no innocence and no degree of virtue would prove a defence. As
+the former sort of magicians were styled _Jogees_, and were held
+to be the deputies and instruments of infinite goodness, so the other
+sort were named _Ku-Jogees_, that is, persons who possessing the
+same species of ascendancy over the powers of nature, employed it only
+in deeds of malice and wickedness.
+
+In the mean time these magicians appear to have produced the wonderful
+effects which drew to them the reverence of the vulgar, very frequently
+by the intervention of certain beings of a nature superior to the
+human, who should seem, though ordinarily invisible, to have had the
+faculty of rendering themselves visible when they thought proper, and
+assuming what shape they pleased. These are principally known by the
+names of Peris, Dives, [146] and Gins, or Genii. Richardson, in the
+preface to his Persian Dictionary, from which our account will
+principally be taken, refers us to what he calls a romance, but from
+which he, appears to derive the outline of his Persian mythology. In
+this romance Kahraman, a mortal, is introduced in conversation with
+Simurgh, a creature partaking of the nature of a bird and a griffon,
+who reveals to him the secrets of the past history of the earth. She
+tells him that she has lived to see the world seven times peopled with
+inhabitants of so many different natures, and seven times depopulated,
+the former inhabitants having been so often removed, and giving place
+to their successors. The beings who occupied the earth previously to
+man, were distinguished into the Peris and the Dives; and, when they
+no longer possessed the earth in chief, they were, as it should seem,
+still permitted, in an airy and unsubstantial form, and for the most
+part invisibly, to interfere in the affairs of the human race. These
+beings ruled the earth during seventy-two generations. The last
+monarch, named Jan bin Jan, conducted himself so ill, that God sent
+the angel Haris to chastise him. Haris however became intoxicated with
+power, and employed his prerogative in the most reprehensible manner.
+God therefore at length created Adam, the first of men, crowning him
+with glory and honour, and giving him dominion over all other earthly
+beings. He commanded the angels to obey him; but Haris refused, and
+the Dives followed his example. The rebels were for the most part sent
+to hell for their contumacy; but a part of the Dives, whose
+disobedience had been less flagrant, were reserved, and allowed for a
+certain term to walk the earth, and by their temptations to put the
+virtue and constancy of man to trial. Henceforth the human race was
+secretly surrounded by invisible beings of two species, the Peris, who
+were friendly to man, and the Dives, who exercised their ingenuity in
+involving them in error and guilt. The Peris were beautiful and
+benevolent, but imperfect and offending beings; they are supposed to
+have borne a considerable resemblance to the Fairies of the western
+world. The Dives were hideous in form, and of a malignant disposition.
+The Peris subsist wholly on perfumes, which the Dives, being of a
+grosser nature, hold in abhorrence. This mythology is said to have
+been unknown in Arabia till long after Mahomet: the only invisible
+beings we read of in their early traditions are the Gins, which term,
+though now used for the most part as synonimous with Dives, originally
+signified nothing more than certain infernal fiends of stupendous
+power, whose agency was hostile to man.
+
+There was perpetual war between the Peris and the Dives, whose proper
+habitation was Kaf, or Caucasus, a line of mountains which was
+supposed to reach round the globe. In these wars the Peris generally
+came off with the worst; and in that case they are represented in the
+traditional tales of the East, as applying to some gallant and heroic
+mortal to reinforce their exertions. The warriors who figure in these
+narratives appear all to have been ancient Persian kings. Tahmuras,
+one of the most celebrated of them, is spoken of as mounting upon
+Simurgh, surrounded with talismans and enchanted armour, and furnished
+with a sword the dint of which nothing could resist. He proceeds to
+Kaf, or Ginnistan, and defeats Arzshank, the chief of the Dives, but
+is defeated in turn by a more formidable competitor. The war appears
+to be carried on for successive ages with alternate advantage and
+disadvantage, till after the lapse of centuries Rustan kills Arzshank,
+and finally reduces the Dives to a subject and tributary condition.
+In all this there is a great resemblance to the fables of Scandinavia;
+and the Northern and the Eastern world seem emulously to have
+contributed their quota of chivalry and romance, of heroic achievements
+and miraculous events, of monsters and dragons, of amulets and
+enchantment, and all those incidents which most rouse the imagination,
+and are calculated to instil into generous and enterprising youth a
+courage the most undaunted and invincible.
+
+
+GENERAL SILENCE OF THE EAST RESPECTING INDIVIDUAL NECROMANCERS.
+
+Asia has been more notorious than perhaps any other division of the
+globe for the vast multiplicity and variety of its narratives of
+sorcery and magic. I have however been much disappointed in the thing
+I looked for in the first place, and that is, in the individual
+adventures of such persons as might be supposed to have gained a high
+degree of credit and reputation for their skill in exploits of magic.
+Where the professors are many (and they have been perhaps no where so
+numerous as those of magic in the East), it is unavoidable but that
+some should have been more dextrous than others, more eminently gifted
+by nature, more enthusiastic and persevering in the prosecution of
+their purpose, and more fortunate in awakening popularity and
+admiration among their contemporaries. In the instances of Apollonius
+Tyanaeus and others among the ancients, and of Cornelius Agrippa, Roger
+Bacon and Faust among the moderns, we are acquainted with many
+biographical particulars of their lives, and can trace with some
+degree of accuracy, their peculiarities of disposition, and observe
+how they were led gradually from one study and one mode of action to
+another. But the magicians of the East, so to speak, are mere
+abstractions, not characterised by any of those habits which
+distinguish one individual of the human race from another, and having
+those marking traits and petty lineaments which make the person, as it
+were, start up into life while he passes before our eyes. They are
+merely reported to us as men prone to the producing great signs and
+wonders, and nothing more.
+
+Two of the most remarkable exceptions that I have found to this rule,
+occur in the examples of Rocail, and of Hakem, otherwise called
+Mocanna.
+
+
+ROCAIL.
+
+The first of these however is scarcely to be called an exception, as
+lying beyond the limits of all credible history, Rocail is said to
+have been the younger brother of Seth, the son of Adam. A Dive, or
+giant of mount Caucasus, being hard pressed by his enemies, sought as
+usual among the sons of men for aid that might extricate him out of
+his difficulties. He at length made an alliance with Rocail, by whose
+assistance he arrived at the tranquillity he desired, and who in
+consequence became his grand vizier, or prime minister. He governed
+the dominions of his principal for many years with great honour and
+success; but, ultimately perceiving the approaches of old age and
+death, he conceived a desire to leave behind him a monument worthy of
+his achievements in policy and war. He according erected, we are not
+told by what means, a magnificent palace, and a sepulchre equally
+worthy of admiration. But what was most entitled to notice, he peopled
+this palace with statues of so extraordinary a quality, that they
+moved and performed all the functions and offices of living men, so
+that every one who beheld them would have believed that they were
+actually informed with souls, whereas in reality all they did was by
+the power of magic, in consequence of which, though they were in fact
+no more than inanimate matter, they were enabled to obey the behests,
+and perform the will, of the persons by whom they were visited. [147]
+
+
+HAKEM, OTHERWISE MOCANNA.
+
+Hakem was a leader in one of the different divisions of the followers
+of Mahomet. To inspire the greater awe into the minds of his
+supporters, he pretended that he was the Most High God, the creator of
+heaven and earth, under one of the different forms by which he has in
+successive ages become incarnate, and made himself manifest to his
+creatures. He distinguished himself by the peculiarity of always
+wearing a thick and impervious veil, by which, according to his
+followers, he covered the dazzling splendour of his countenance, which
+was so great that no mortal could behold it and live, but that,
+according to his enemies, only served to conceal the hideousness of
+his features, too monstrously deformed to be contemplated without
+horror. One of his miracles, which seems the most to have been
+insisted on, was that he nightly, for a considerable space of time,
+caused an orb, something like the moon, to rise from a sacred well,
+which gave a light scarcely less splendid than the day, that diffused
+its beams for many miles around. His followers were enthusiastically
+devoted to his service, and he supported his authority unquestioned
+for a number of years. At length a more formidable opponent appeared,
+and after several battles he became obliged to shut himself up in a
+strong fortress. Here however he was so straitly besieged as to be
+driven to the last despair, and, having administered poison to his
+whole garrison, he prepared a bath of the most powerful ingredients,
+which, when he threw himself into it, dissolved his frame, even to the
+very bones, so that nothing remained of him but a lock of his hair. He
+acted thus, with the hope that it would be believed that he was
+miraculously taken up into heaven; nor did this fail to be the effect
+on the great body of his adherents. [148]
+
+
+ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS.
+
+The most copious record of stories of Asiatic enchantment that we
+possess, is contained in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; to which
+we may add the Persian Tales, and a few other repositories of Oriental
+adventures. It is true that these are delivered to us in a garb of
+fiction; but they are known to present so exact a picture of Eastern
+manners and customs, and so just a delineation of the follies, the
+weaknesses and credulity of the races of men that figure in them, that,
+in the absence of materials of a strictly historical sort of which we
+have to complain, they may not inadequately supply the place, and may
+furnish us with a pretty full representation of the ideas of sorcery
+and magic which for centuries were entertained in this part of the
+world. They have indeed one obvious defect, which it is proper the
+reader should keep constantly in mind. The mythology and groundwork of
+the whole is Persian: but the narrator is for the most part a
+Mahometan. Of consequence the ancient Fire-worshippers, though they
+contribute the entire materials, and are therefore solely entitled to
+our gratitude and deference for the abundant supply they have furnished
+to our curiosity, are uniformly treated in these books with disdain
+and contumely as unworthy of toleration, while the comparative upstart
+race of the believers in the Koran are held out to us as the only
+enlightened and upright among the sons of men.
+
+Many of the matters most currently related among these supernatural
+phenomena, are tales of transformation. A lady has two sisters of the
+most profligate and unprincipled character. They have originally the
+same share of the paternal inheritance as herself. But they waste it
+in profusion and folly, while she improves her portion by good
+judgment and frugality. Driven to the extremity of distress, they
+humble themselves, and apply to her for assistance. She generously
+imparts to them the same amount of wealth that they originally
+possessed, and they are once more reduced to poverty. This happens
+again and again. At length, finding them incapable of discretion, she
+prevails on them to come and live with her. By wearisome and ceaseless
+importunity they induce her to embark in a mercantile enterprise. Here
+she meets with a prince, who had the misfortune to be born in a region
+of fire-worshippers, but was providentially educated by a Mahometan
+nurse. Hence, when his countrymen were by divine vengeance all turned
+into stones, he alone was saved alive. The lady finds him in this
+situation, endowed with sense and motion amidst a petrified city, and
+they immediately fall in love with each other. She brings him away
+from this melancholy scene, and together they go on board the vessel
+which had been freighted by herself and her sisters. But the sisters
+become envious of her good fortune, and conspire, while she and the
+prince are asleep, to throw them overboard. The prince is drowned; but
+the lady with great difficulty escapes. She finds herself in a desert
+island, not far from the place where she had originally embarked on
+her adventure; and, having slept off the fatigues she had encountered,
+beholds on her awaking a black woman with an agreeable countenance, a
+fairy, who leads in her hand two black bitches coupled together with a
+cord. These black bitches are the lady's sisters, thus metamorphosed,
+as a punishment for their ingratitude and cruelty. The fairy conveys
+her through the air to her own house in Bagdad, which she finds well
+stored with all sorts of commodities, and delivers to her the two
+animals, with an injunction that she is to whip them every day at a
+certain hour as a further retribution for their crimes. This was
+accordingly punctually performed; and, at the end of each day's
+penance, the lady, having before paid no regard to the animals'
+gestures and pitiable cries, wept over them, took them in her arms,
+kissed them, and carefully wiped the moisture from their eyes. Having
+persevered for a length of time in this discipline, the offenders are
+finally, by a counter-incantation, restored to their original forms,
+being by the severities they had suffered entirely cured of the vices
+which had occasioned their calamitous condition.
+
+Another story is of a calender, a sort of Mahometan monk, with one eye,
+who had originally been a prince. He had contracted a taste for
+navigation and naval discoveries; and, in one of his voyages, having
+been driven by stress of weather into unknown seas, he suddenly finds
+himself attracted towards a vast mountain of loadstone, which first,
+by virtue of the iron and nails in the ship, draws the vessel towards
+itself, and then, by its own intrinsic force, extracts the nails, so
+that the ship tumbles to pieces, and every one on board is drowned.
+The mountain, on the side towards the sea, is all covered with nails,
+which had been drawn from vessels that previously suffered the same
+calamity; and these nails at once preserve and augment the fatal power
+of the mountain. The prince only escapes; and he finds himself in a
+desolate island, with a dome of brass, supported by brazen pillars,
+and on the top of it a horse of brass, and a rider of the same metal.
+This rider the prince is fated to throw down, by means of an enchanted
+arrow, and thus to dissolve the charm which had been fatal to
+thousands. From the desolate island he embarked on board a boat, with
+a single rower, a man of metal, and would have been safely conveyed to
+his native country, had he not inadvertently pronounced the name of
+God, that he had been warned not to do, and which injunction he had
+observed many days. On this the boat immediately sunk; but the prince
+was preserved, who comes into a desolate island, where he finds but
+one inhabitant, a youth of fifteen. This youth is hid in a cavern, it
+having been predicted of him that he should be killed after fifty days,
+by the man that threw down the horse of brass and his rider. A great
+friendship is struck up between the unsuspecting youth and the prince,
+who nevertheless fulfils the prediction, having by a pure accident
+killed the youth on the fiftieth day. He next arrives at a province of
+the main land, where he visits a castle, inhabited by ten very
+agreeable young men, each blind of the right eye. He dwells with them
+for a month, and finds, after a day of pleasant entertainment, that
+each evening they do penance in squalidness and ashes. His curiosity
+is greatly excited to obtain an explanation of what he saw, but this
+they refuse, telling him at the same time, that he may, if he pleases,
+pass through the same adventure as they have done, and, if he does,
+wishing it may be attended with a more favourable issue. He determines
+to make the experiment; and by their direction, after certain
+preparations, is flown away with through the air by a roc, a stupendous
+bird, that is capable in the same manner of carrying off an elephant.
+By this means he is brought to a castle of the most extraordinary
+magnificence, inhabited by forty ladies of exquisite beauty. With
+these ladies he lives for eleven months in a perpetual succession of
+delights. But in the twelfth month they tell him, that they are
+obliged to leave him till the commencement of the new year. In the
+mean time they give him for his amusement the keys of one hundred
+apartments, all but one of which he is permitted to open. He is
+delighted with the wonders of these apartments till the last day. On
+that day he opens the forbidden room, where the rarity that most
+strikes him is a black horse of admirable shape and appearance, with
+a saddle and bridle of gold. He leads this horse into the open air,
+and is tempted to mount him. The horse first stands still; but at
+length, being touched with a switch, spreads a pair of wings which the
+prince had not before perceived, and mounts to an amazing height in
+the air. The horse finally descends on the terrace of a castle, where
+he throws his rider, and leaves him, having first dashed out his right
+eye with a sudden swing of his tail. The prince goes down into the
+castle, and to his surprise finds himself in company with the ten
+young men, blind of one eye, who had passed through the same adventure
+as he had done, and all been betrayed by means of the same infirmity.
+
+
+PERSIAN TALES.
+
+These two stories are from the Arabian Nights: the two following are
+from the Persian Tales.--Fadlallah, king of Mousel, contracted an
+intimacy with a young dervise, a species of Turkish friar, who makes a
+vow of perpetual poverty. The dervise, to ingratiate himself the more
+with the prince, informed him of a secret he possessed, by means of a
+certain incantation, of projecting his soul into the body of any dead
+animal he thought proper.
+
+To convince the king that this power was no empty boast, he offered to
+quit his own body, and animate that of a doe, which Fadlallah had just
+killed in hunting. He accordingly executed what he proposed, took
+possession of the body of the doe, displayed the most surprising
+agility, approached the king, fawning on him with every expression of
+endearment, and then, after various bounds, deserting the limbs of the
+animal, and repossessing his own frame, which during the experiment
+had lain breathless on the ground. Fadlallah became earnest to possess
+the secret of the dervise; and, after some demurs, it was communicated
+to him. The king took possession of the body of the doe; but his
+treacherous confident no sooner saw the limbs of Fadlallah stretched
+senseless on the ground, than he conveyed his own spirit into them,
+and, bending his bow, sought to destroy the life of his defenceless
+victim. The king by his agility escaped; and the dervise, resorting to
+the palace, took possession of the throne, and of the bed of the queen,
+Zemroude, with whom Fadlallah was desperately enamoured. The first
+precaution of the usurper was to issue a decree that all the deer
+within his dominions should be killed, hoping by this means to destroy
+the rightful sovereign. But the king, aware of his danger, had deserted
+the body of the doe, and entered that of a dead nightingale that lay
+in his path. In this disguise he hastened to the palace, and placed
+himself in a wide-spreading tree, which grew immediately before the
+apartment of Zemroude. Here he poured out his complaints and the grief
+that penetrated his soul in such melodious notes, as did not fail to
+attract the attention of the queen. She sent out her bird-catchers to
+make captive the little warbler; and Fadlallah, who desired no better,
+easily suffered himself to be made their prisoner. In this new
+position he demonstrated by every gesture of fondness his partiality
+to the queen; but if any of her women approached him, he pecked at
+them in anger, and, when the impostor made his appearance, could not
+contain the vehemence of his rage. It happened one night that the
+queen's lap-dog died; and the thought struck Fadlallah that he would
+animate the corpse of this animal. The next morning Zemroude found her
+favourite bird dead in his cage, and immediately became inconsolable.
+Never, she said, was so amiable a bird; he distinguished her from all
+others; he seemed even to entertain a passion for her; and she felt as
+if she could not survive his loss. The dervise in vain tried every
+expedient to console her. At length he said, that, if she pleased, he
+would cause her nightingale to revive every morning, and entertain her
+with his tunes as long as she thought proper. The dervise accordingly
+laid himself on a sopha, and by means of certain cabalistic words,
+transported his soul into the body of the nightingale, and began to
+sing. Fadlallah watched his time; he lay in a corner of the room
+unobserved; but no sooner had the dervise deserted his body, than the
+king proceeded to take possession of it. The first thing he did was to
+hasten to the cage, to open the door with uncontrolable impatience,
+and, seizing the bird, to twist off its head. Zemroude, amazed, asked
+him what he meant by so inhuman an action. Fadlallah in reply related
+to her all the circumstances that had befallen him; and the queen
+became so struck with agony and remorse that she had suffered her
+person, however innocently, to be polluted by so vile an impostor,
+that she could not get over the recollection, but pined away and died
+from a sense of the degradation she had endured.
+
+But a much more perplexing and astounding instance of transformation
+occurs in the history of the Young King of Thibet and the Princess of
+the Naimans. The sorcerers in this case are represented as, without
+any intermediate circumstance to facilitate their witchcraft, having
+the ability to assume the form of any one they please, and in
+consequence to take the shape of one actually present, producing a
+duplication the most confounding that can be imagined.--Mocbel, the
+son of an artificer of Damascus, but whose father had bequeathed him
+considerable wealth, contrived to waste his patrimony and his youth
+together in profligate living with Dilnouaze, a woman of dissolute
+manners. Finding themselves at once poor and despised, they had
+recourse to the sage Bedra, the most accomplished magician of the
+desert, and found means to obtain her favour. In consequence she
+presented them with two rings, which had the power of enabling them to
+assume the likeness of any man or woman they please. Thus equipped,
+Mocbel heard of the death of Mouaffack, prince of the Naimans, who was
+supposed to have been slain in a battle, and whose body had never been
+found. The niece of Mouaffack now filled the throne; and under these
+circumstances Mocbel conceived the design of personating the absent
+Mouaffack, exciting a rebellion among his countrymen, and taking
+possession of the throne. In this project he succeeded; and the
+princess driven into exile, took refuge in the capital of Thibet. Here
+the king saw her, fell in love with her, and espoused her. Being made
+acquainted with her history, he resolved to re-conquer her dominions,
+and sent a defiance to the usurper. Mocbel, terrified at the thought
+of so formidable an invader, first pretended to die, and then, with
+Dilnouaze, who during his brief reign had under the form of a beautiful
+woman personated his queen, proceeded in his original form to the
+capital of Thibet. Here his purpose was to interrupt the happiness of
+those who had disturbed him in his deceitful career. Accordingly one
+night, when the queen, previously to proceeding to her repose, had
+shut herself up in her closet to read certain passages of the Alcoran,
+Dilnouaze, assuming her form with the minutest exactness, hastened to
+place herself in the royal bed by the side of the king. After a time,
+the queen shut her book, and went along the gallery to the king's
+bedchamber, Mocbel watched his time, and placed himself, under the
+form of a frightful apparition, directly in the queen's path. She
+started at the sight, and uttered a piercing shriek. The king
+recognised her voice, and hastened to see what had happened to her.
+She explained; but the king spoke of something much more extraordinary,
+and asked her how it could possibly happen that she should be in the
+gallery, at the same moment that he had left her, undressed and in bed.
+They proceeded to the chamber to unravel the mystery. Here a contention
+occurred between the real and the seeming queen, each charging the
+other with imposture. The king turned from one to the other, and was
+unable to decide between their pretensions. The courtiers and the
+ladies of the bedchamber were called, and all were perplexed with
+uncertainty and doubt. At length they determine in favour of the false
+queen, It was then proposed that the other should be burned for a
+sorceress. The king however forbade this. He was not yet altogether
+decided; and could not resolve to consign his true queen, as it might
+possibly be, to a cruel death. He was therefore content to strip her
+of her royal robes, to clothe her in rags, and thrust her ignominiously
+from his palace.
+
+Treachery however was not destined to be ultimately triumphant. The
+king one day rode out a hunting; and Mocbel, that he might the better
+deceive the guards of the palace, seizing the opportunity, assumed his
+figure, and went to bed to Dilnouaze. The king meanwhile recollected
+something of importance, that he had forgotten before he went out to
+hunt, and returning upon his steps, proceeded to the royal chamber.
+Here to his utter confusion he found a man in bed with his queen, and
+that man to his greater astonishment the exact counterpart of himself.
+Furious at the sight, he immediately drew his scymetar. The man
+contrived to escape down the backstairs. The woman however remained in
+bed; and, stretching out her hands to intreat for mercy, the king
+struck off the hand which had the ring on it, and she immediately
+appeared, as she really was, a frightful hag. She begged for life; and,
+that she might mollify his rage, explained the mystery, told him that
+it was by means of a ring that she effected the delusion, and that by
+a similar enchantment her paramour had assumed the likeness of the
+king. The king meanwhile was inexorable, and struck off her head. He
+next turned in pursuit of the adulterer. Mocbel however had had time
+to mount on horseback. But the king mounted also; and, being the
+better horseman, in a short time overtook his foe. The impostor did
+not dare to cope with him, but asked his life; and the king,
+considering him as the least offender of the two, pardoned him upon
+condition of his surrendering the ring, in consequence of which he
+passed the remainder of his life in poverty and decrepitude.
+
+
+STORY OF A GOULE.
+
+A story in the Arabian Nights, which merits notice for its singularity,
+and as exhibiting a particular example of the credulity of the people
+of the East, is that of a man who married a sorceress, without being
+in any way conscious of her character in that respect. She was
+sufficiently agreeable in her person, and he found for the most part
+no reason to be dissatisfied with her. But he became uneasy at the
+strangeness of her behaviour, whenever they sat together at meals. The
+husband provided a sufficient variety of dishes, and was anxious that
+his wife should eat and be refreshed. But she took scarcely any
+nourishment. He set before her a plate of rice. From this plate she
+took somewhat, grain by grain; but she would taste of no other dish.
+The husband remonstrated with her upon her way of eating, but to no
+purpose; she still went on the same. He knew it was impossible for any
+one to subsist upon so little as she ate; and his curiosity was roused.
+One night, as he lay quietly awake, he perceived his wife rise very
+softly, and put on her clothes. He watched, but made as if he saw
+nothing. Presently she opened the door, and went out. He followed her
+unperceived, by moonlight, and tracked her into a place of graves.
+Here to his astonishment he saw her joined by a Goule, a sort of
+wandering demon, which is known to infest ruinous buildings, and from
+time to time suddenly rushes out, seizes children and other defenceless
+people, strangles, and devours them. Occasionally, for want of other
+food, this detested race will resort to churchyards, and, digging up
+the bodies of the newly-buried, gorge their appetites upon the flesh
+of these. The husband followed his wife and her supernatural companion,
+and watched their proceedings. He saw them digging in a new-made grave.
+They extracted the body of the deceased; and, the Goule cutting it up
+joint by joint, they feasted voraciously, and, having satisfied their
+appetites, cast the remainder into the grave again, and covered it up
+as before. The husband now withdrew unobserved to his bed, and the
+wife followed presently after. He however conceived a horrible
+loathing of such a wife; and she discovers that he is acquainted with
+her dreadful secret. They can no longer live together; and a
+metamorphosis followed. She turned him into a dog, which by ill usage
+she drove from her door; and he, aided by a benevolent sorceress,
+first recovers his natural shape, and then, having changed her into a
+mare, by perpetual hard usage and ill treatment vents his detestation
+of the character he had discovered in her.
+
+
+ARABIAN NIGHTS.
+
+A compilation of more vigorous imagination and more exhaustless
+variety than the Arabian Nights, perhaps never existed. Almost every
+thing that can be conceived of marvellous and terrific is there to be
+found. When we should apprehend the author or authors to have come to
+an end of the rich vein in which they expatiate, still new wonders are
+presented to us in endless succession. Their power of comic exhibition
+is not less extraordinary than their power of surprising and
+terrifying. The splendour of their painting is endless; and the mind
+of the reader is roused and refreshed by shapes and colours for ever
+new.
+
+
+RESEMBLANCE OF THE TALES OF THE EAST AND OF EUROPE.
+
+It is characteristic of this work to exhibit a faithful and particular
+picture of Eastern manners, customs, and modes of thinking and acting.
+And yet, now and then, it is curious to observe the coincidence of
+Oriental imagination with that of antiquity and of the North of Europe,
+so that it is difficult to conceive the one not to be copied from the
+other. Perhaps it was so; and perhaps not. Man is every where man,
+possessed of the same faculties, stimulated by the same passions,
+deriving pain and pleasure from the same sources, with similar hopes
+and fears, aspirations and alarms.
+
+In the Third Voyage of Sinbad he arrives at an island were he finds
+one man, a negro, as tall as a palm-tree, and with a single eye in the
+middle of his forehead. He takes up the crew, one by one, and selects
+the fattest as first to be devoured. This is done a second time. At
+length nine of the boldest seize on a spit, while he lay on his back
+asleep, and, having heated it red-hot, thrust it into his eye.--This
+is precisely the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops.
+
+The story of the Little Hunchback, who is choaked with a fish-bone,
+and, after having brought successive individuals into trouble on the
+suspicion of murdering him, is restored to life again, is nearly the
+best known of the Arabian Tales. The merry jest of Dan Hew, Monk of
+Leicester, who "once was hanged, and four times slain," bears a very
+striking resemblance to this. [149]
+
+A similar resemblance is to be found, only changing the sex of the
+aggressor, between the well known tale of Patient Grizzel, and that of
+Cheheristany in the Persian Tales. This lady was a queen of the Gins,
+who fell in love with the emperor of China, and agrees to marry him
+upon condition that she shall do what she pleases, and he shall never
+doubt that what she does is right. She bears him a son, beautiful as
+the day, and throws him into the fire. She bears him a daughter, and
+gives her to a white bitch, who runs away with her, and disappears.
+The emperor goes to war with the Moguls; and the queen utterly
+destroys the provisions of his army. But the fire was a salamander,
+and the bitch a fairy, who rear the children in the most admirable
+manner; and the provisions of the army were poisoned by a traitor, and
+are in a miraculous manner replaced by such as were wholesome and of
+the most invigorating qualities.
+
+
+CAUSES OF HUMAN CREDULITY.
+
+Meanwhile, though the stories above related are extracted from books
+purely and properly of fiction, they  exhibit so just a delineation of
+Eastern manners and habits of mind, that, in the defect of materials
+strictly historical, they may to a certain degree supply the place.
+The principal feature they set before us is credulity and a love of
+the marvellous. This is ever found characteristic of certain ages of
+the world; but in Asia it prevails in uninterrupted continuity.
+Wherever learning and the exercise of the intellectual faculties first
+shew themselves, there mystery and a knowledge not to be communicated
+but to the select few must be expected to appear. Wisdom in its
+natural and genuine form seeks to diffuse itself; but in the East on
+the contrary it is only valued in proportion to its rarity. Those who
+devoted themselves to intellectual improvement, looked for it rather
+in solitary abstraction, than in free communication with the minds of
+others; and, when they condescended to the use of the organ of speech,
+they spoke in enigmas and ambiguities, and in phrases better adapted
+to produce wonder and perplexity, than to enlighten and instruct. When
+the more consummate instructed the novice, it was by slow degrees only,
+and through the medium of a long probation. In consequence of this
+state of things the privileged few conceived of their own attainments
+with an over-weening pride, and were puffed up with a sense of
+superiority; while the mass of their fellow-creatures looked to them
+with astonishment; and, agreeably to the Oriental creed of two
+independent and contending principles of good and of evil, regarded
+these select and supernaturally endowed beings anon as a source of the
+most enviable blessings, and anon as objects of unmingled apprehension
+and terror, before whom their understandings became prostrate, and
+every thing that was most appalling and dreadful was most easily
+believed. In this state superstition unavoidably grew infectious; and
+the more the seniors inculcated and believed, the more the imagination
+of the juniors became a pliant and unresisting slave.
+
+The Mantra, or charm, consisting of a few unintelligible words
+repeated again and again, always accompanied, or rather preceded, the
+supposed miraculous phenomenon that was imposed on the ignorant. Water
+was flung over, or in the face of, the thing or person upon whom the
+miraculous effect was to be produced. Incense was burned; and such
+chemical substances were set on fire, the dazzling appearance of which
+might confound the senses of the spectators. The whole consisted in
+the art of the juggler. The first business was to act on the passions,
+to excite awe and fear and curiosity in the parties; and next by a
+sort of slight of hand, and by changes too rapid to be followed by an
+unpractised eye, to produce phenomena, wholly unanticipated, and that
+could not be accounted for. Superstition was further an essential
+ingredient; and this is never perfect, but where the superior and more
+active party regards himself as something more than human, and the
+party acted upon beholds in the other an object of religious reverence,
+or tingles with apprehension of he knows not what of fearful and
+calamitous. The state of the party acted on, and indeed of either, is
+never complete, till the senses are confounded, what is imagined is so
+powerful as in a manner to exclude what is real, in a word, till, as
+the poet expresses it, "function is smothered in surmise, and nothing
+is, but what is not."
+
+It is in such a state of the faculties that it is entirely natural and
+simple, that one should mistake a mere dumb animal for one's relative
+or near connection in disguise. And, the delusion having once begun,
+the deluded individual gives to every gesture and motion of limb and
+eye an explanation that forwards the deception. It is in the same way
+that in ignorant ages the notion of changeling has been produced. The
+weak and fascinated mother sees every feature with a turn of
+expression unknown before, all the habits of the child appear
+different and strange, till the parent herself denies her offspring,
+and sees in the object so lately cherished and doated on, a monster
+uncouth and horrible of aspect.
+
+
+
+DARK AGES OF EUROPE
+
+
+In Europe we are slenderly supplied with historians, and with
+narratives exhibiting the manners and peculiarities of successive
+races of men, from the time of Theodosius in the close of the fourth
+century of the Christian era to the end of the tenth. Mankind during
+that period were in an uncommon degree wrapped up in ignorance and
+barbarism. We may be morally sure that this was an interval beyond all
+others, in which superstition and an implicit faith in supernatural
+phenomena predominated over this portion of the globe. The laws of
+nature, and the everlasting chain of antecedents and consequents, were
+little recognised. In proportion as illumination and science have
+risen on the world, men have become aware that the succession of
+events is universally operating, and that the frame of men and animals
+is every where the same, modified only by causes not less unchangeable
+in their influence than the internal constitution of the frame itself.
+We have learned to explain much; we are able to predict and investigate
+the course of things; and the contemplative and the wise are not less
+intimately and profoundly persuaded that the process of natural events
+is sure and simple and void of all just occasion for surprise and the
+lifting up of hands in astonishment, where we are not yet familiarly
+acquainted with the developement of the elements of things, as where
+we are. What we have not yet mastered, we feel confidently persuaded
+that the investigators that come after us will reduce to rules not
+less obvious, familiar and comprehensible, than is to us the rising of
+the sun, or the progress of animal and vegetable life from the first
+bud and seed of existence to the last stage of decrepitude and decay.
+
+But in these ages of ignorance, when but few, and those only the most
+obvious, laws of nature were acknowledged, every event that was not of
+almost daily occurrence, was contemplated with more or less of awe and
+alarm. These men "saw God in clouds, and heard him in the wind."
+Instead of having regard only to that universal Providence, which acts
+not by partial impulses, but by general laws, they beheld, as they
+conceived, the immediate hand of the Creator, or rather, upon most
+occasions, of some invisible intelligence, sometimes beneficent, but
+perhaps oftener malignant and capricious, interfering, to baffle the
+foresight of the sage, to humble the pride of the intelligent, and to
+place the discernment of the most gifted upon a level with the
+drivellings of the idiot, and the ravings of the insane.
+
+And, as in events men saw perpetually the supernatural and miraculous,
+so in their fellow-creatures they continually sought, and therefore
+frequently imagined that they found, a gifted race, that had command
+over the elements, held commerce with the invisible world, and could
+produce the most stupendous and terrific effects. In man, as we now
+behold him, we can ascertain his nature, the strength and pliability
+of his limbs, the accuracy of his eye, the extent of his intellectual
+acquisitions, and the subtlety of his powers of thought, and can
+therefore in a great measure anticipate what we have to hope or to
+fear from him. Every thing is regulated by what we call natural means.
+But, in the times I speak of, all was mysterious: the powers of men
+were subject to no recognised laws: and therefore nothing that
+imagination could suggest, exceeded the bounds of credibility. Some
+men were supposed to be so rarely endowed that "a thousand liveried
+angels" waited on them invisibly, to execute their behests for the
+benefit of those they favoured; while, much oftener, the perverse and
+crookedly disposed, who delighted in mischief, would bring on those to
+whom, for whatever capricious reason, they were hostile, calamities,
+which no sagacity could predict, and no merely human power could
+baffle and resist.
+
+After the tenth century enough of credulity remained, to display in
+glaring colours the aberrations of the human mind, and to furnish
+forth tales which will supply abundant matter for the remainder of
+this volume. But previously to this period, we may be morally sure,
+reigned most eminently the sabbath of magic and sorcery, when nothing
+was too wild, and remote from the reality of things, not to meet with
+an eager welcome, when terror and astonishment united themselves with
+a nameless delight, and the auditor was alarmed even to a sort of
+madness, at the same time that he greedily demanded an ever-fresh
+supply of congenial aliment. The more the known laws of the universe
+and the natural possibility of things were violated, with the stronger
+marks of approbation was the tale received: while the dextrous
+impostor, aware of the temper of his age, and knowing how most
+completely to blindfold and lead astray his prepared dupes, made a
+rich harvest of the folly of his contemporaries. But I am wrong to
+call him an impostor. He imposed upon himself, no less than on the
+gaping crowd. His discourses, even in the act of being pronounced, won
+upon his own ear; and the dexterity with which he baffled the
+observation of others, bewildered his ready sense, and filled him with
+astonishment at the magnitude of his achievements. The accomplished
+adventurer was always ready to regard himself rather as a sublime
+being endowed with great and stupendous attributes, than as a pitiful
+trickster. He became the God of his own idolatry, and stood astonished,
+as the witch of Endor in the English Bible is represented to have done,
+at the success of his incantations.
+
+But all these things are passed away, and are buried in the gulf of
+oblivion. A thousand tales, each more wonderful than the other, marked
+the year as it glided away. Every valley had its fairies; and every
+hill its giants. No solitary dwelling, unpeopled with human
+inhabitants, was without its ghosts; and no church-yard in the absence
+of day-light could be crossed with impunity. The gifted enchanter
+"bedimmed
+
+  The noon-tide sun, willed forth the mutinous winds,
+  And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
+  Set roaring war; to the dread, rattling thunder
+  He gave forth fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
+  With his own bolt, the strong-based promontory
+  He made to shake, and by the spurs plucked up
+  The pine and cedar."
+
+It is but a small remnant of these marvellous adventures that has been
+preserved. The greater part of them are swallowed up in that gulf of
+oblivion, to which are successively consigned after a brief interval
+all events as they occur, except so far as their memory is preserved
+through the medium of writing and records. From the eleventh century
+commences a stream of historical relation, which since that time never
+entirely eludes the search of the diligent enquirer. Before this
+period there occasionally appears an historian or miscellaneous writer:
+but he seems to start up by chance; the eddy presently closes over him,
+and all is again impenetrable darkness.
+
+When this succession of writers began, they were unavoidably induced
+to look back upon the ages that had preceded them, and to collect here
+and there from tradition any thing that appeared especially worthy of
+notice. Of course any information they could glean was wild and
+uncertain, deeply stamped with the credulity and wonder of an ignorant
+period, and still increasing in marvellousness and absurdity from
+every hand it passed through, and from every tongue which repeated it.
+
+
+MERLIN.
+
+One of the most extraordinary personages whose story is thus delivered
+to us, is Merlin. He appears to have been contemporary with the period
+of the Saxon invasion of Britain in the latter part of the fifth
+century; but probably the earliest mention of his name by any writer
+that has come down to us is not previous to the eleventh. We may the
+less wonder therefore at the incredible things that are reported of
+him. He is first mentioned in connection with the fortune of Vortigern,
+who is represented by Geoffrey of Monmouth as at that time king of
+England. The Romans having withdrawn their legions from this island,
+the unwarlike Britons found themselves incompetent to repel the
+invasions of the uncivilised Scots and Picts, and Vortigern perceived
+no remedy but in inviting the Saxons from the northern continent to
+his aid. The Saxons successfully repelled the invader; but, having
+done this, they refused to return home. They determined to settle here,
+and, having taken various towns, are represented as at length inviting
+Vortigern and his principal nobility to a feast near Salisbury under
+pretence of a peace, where they treacherously slew three hundred of
+the chief men of the island, and threw Vortigern into chains. Here, by
+way of purchasing the restoration of his liberty, they induced him to
+order the surrender of London, York, Winchester, and other principal
+towns. Having lost all his strong holds, he consulted his magicians as
+to how he was to secure himself from this terrible foe. They advised
+him to build an impregnable tower, and pointed out the situation where
+it was to be erected. But so unfortunately did their advice succeed,
+that all the work that his engineers did in the building one day, the
+earth swallowed, so that no vestige was to be found on the next. The
+magicians were consulted again on this fresh calamity; and they told
+the king that that there was no remedying this disaster, other than by
+cementing the walls of his edifice with the blood of a human being,
+who was born of no human father.
+
+Vortigern sent out his emissaries in every direction in search of this
+victim; and at length by strange good fortune they lighted on Merlin
+near the town of Caermarthen, who told them that his mother was the
+daughter of a king, but that she had been got with child of him by a
+being of an angelic nature, and not a man. No sooner had they received
+this information, than they seized him, and hurried him away to
+Vortigern as the victim required. But in presence of the king he
+baffled the magicians; he told the king that the ground they had
+chosen for his tower, had underneath it a lake, which being drained,
+they would find at the bottom two dragons of inextinguishable
+hostility, that under that form figured the Britons and Saxons, all of
+which upon the experiment proved to be true.
+
+Vortigern died shortly after, and was succeeded first by Ambrosius,
+and then by Uther Pendragon. Merlin was the confident of all these
+kings. To Uther he exhibited a very criminal sort of compliance. Uther
+became desperately enamoured of Igerna, wife of the duke of Cornwal,
+and tried every means to seduce her in vain. Having consulted Merlin,
+the magician contrived by an extraordinary unguent to metamorphose
+Uther into the form of the duke. The duke had shut up his wife for
+safety in a very strong tower; but Uther in his new form gained
+unsuspected entrance; and the virtuous Igerna received him to her
+embraces, by means of which he begot Arthur, afterwards the most
+renowned sovereign of this island. Uther now contrived that the duke,
+her husband, should be slain in battle, and immediately married the
+fair Igerna, and made her his queen.
+
+The next exploit of Merlin was with the intent to erect a monument
+that should last for ever, to the memory of the three hundred British
+nobles that were massacred by the Saxons. This design produced the
+extraordinary edifice called Stonehenge. These mighty stones, which by
+no human power could be placed in the position in which we behold them,
+had originally been set up in Africa, and afterwards by means unknown
+were transported to Ireland. Merlin commanded that they should be
+carried over the sea, and placed where they now are, on Salisbury
+Plain. The workmen, having received his directions, exerted all their
+power and skill, but could not move one of them. Merlin, having for
+some time watched their exertions, at length applied his magic; and to
+the amazement of every one, the stones spontaneously quitted the
+situation in which they had been placed, rose to a great height in the
+air, and then pursued the course which Merlin had prescribed, finally
+settling themselves in Wiltshire, precisely in the position in which
+we now find them, and which they will for ever retain.
+
+The last adventure recorded of Merlin proceeded from a project he
+conceived for surrounding his native town of Caermarthen with a brazen
+wall. He committed the execution of this project to a multitude of
+fiends, who laboured upon the plan underground in a neighbouring
+cavern. [150] In the mean while Merlin had become enamoured of a
+supernatural being, called the Lady of the Lake. The lady had long
+resisted his importunities, and in fact had no inclination to yield to
+his suit. One day however she sent for him in great haste; and Merlin
+was of course eager to comply with her invitation. Nevertheless,
+before he set out, he gave it strictly in charge to the fiends, that
+they should by no means suspend their labours till they saw him return.
+The design of the lady was to make sport with him, and elude his
+addresses. Merlin on the contrary, with the hope to melt her severity,
+undertook to shew her the wonders of his art. Among the rest he
+exhibited to her observation a tomb, formed to contain two bodies; at
+the same time teaching her a charm, by means of which the sepulchre
+would close, and never again be opened. The lady pretended not to
+believe that the tomb was wide enough for its purpose, and inveigled
+the credulous Merlin to enter it, and place himself as one dead. No
+sooner had she so far succeeded, than she closed the lid of the
+sepulchre, and pronouncing the charm, rendered it impossible that it
+should ever be opened again till the day of judgment. Thus, according
+to the story, Merlin was shut in, a corrupted and putrifying body with
+a living soul, to which still inhered the faculty of returning in
+audible sounds a prophetic answer to such as resorted to it as an
+oracle. Meanwhile the fiends, at work in the cavern near Caermarthen,
+mindful of the injunction of their taskmaster, not to suspend their
+labours till his return, proceed for ever in their office; and the
+traveller who passes that way, if he lays his ear close to the mouth
+of the cavern, may hear a ghastly noise of iron chains and brazen
+caldrons, the loud strokes of the hammer, and the ringing sound of the
+anvil, intermixed with the pants and groans of the workmen, enough to
+unsettle the brain and confound the faculties of him that for any time
+shall listen to the din.
+
+As six hundred years elapsed between the time of Merlin and the
+earliest known records of his achievements, it is impossible to
+pronounce what he really pretended to perform, and how great were the
+additions which successive reporters have annexed to the wonders of
+his art, more than the prophet himself perhaps ever dreamed of. In
+later times, when the historians were the contemporaries of the
+persons by whom the supposed wonders were achieved, or the persons who
+have for these causes been celebrated have bequeathed certain literary
+productions to posterity, we may be able to form some conjecture as to
+the degree in which the heroes of the tale were deluding or deluded,
+and may exercise our sagacity in the question by what strange
+peculiarity of mind adventures which we now hold to be impossible
+obtained so general belief. But in a case like this of Merlin, who
+lived in a time so remote from that in which his history is first
+known to have been recorded, it is impracticable to determine at what
+time the fiction which was afterwards generally received began to be
+reported, or whether the person to whom the miracles were imputed ever
+heard or dreamed of the extraordinary things he is represented as
+having achieved.
+
+
+ST. DUNSTAN.
+
+An individual scarcely less famous in the dark ages, and who, like
+Merlin, lived in confidence with successive kings, was St. Dunstan. He
+was born and died in the tenth century. It is not a little instructive
+to employ our attention upon the recorded adventures, and incidents
+occurring in the lives, of such men, since, though plentifully
+interspersed with impossible tales, they serve to discover to us the
+tastes and prepossessions of the times in which these men lived, and
+the sort of accomplishments which were necessary to their success.
+
+St. Dunstan is said to have been a man of distinguished birth, and to
+have spent the early years of his life in much licentiousness. He was
+however doubtless a person of the most extraordinary endowments of
+nature. Ambition early lighted its fire in his bosom; and he displayed
+the greatest facility in acquiring any talent or art on which he fixed
+his attention. His career of profligacy was speedily arrested by a
+dangerous illness, in which he was given over by his physicians. While
+he lay apparently at the point of death, an angel was suddenly seen,
+bringing a medicine to him which effected his instant cure. The saint
+immediately rose from his bed, and hastened to the nearest church to
+give God thanks for his recovery. As he passed along, the devil,
+surrounded with a pack of black dogs, interposed himself to obstruct
+his way. Dunstan however intrepidly brandished a rod that he held in
+his hand, and his opposers took to flight. When he came to the church,
+he found the doors closed. But the same angel, who effected his cure,
+was at hand, and, taking him up softly by the hair of his head, placed
+him before the high altar, where he performed his devotions with
+suitable fervour.
+
+That he might expiate the irregularities of his past life, St. Dunstan
+now secluded himself entirely from the world, and constructed for his
+habitation a cell in the abbey of Glastonbury, so narrow that he could
+neither stand upright in it, nor stretch out his limbs in repose. He
+took scarcely so much sustenance as would support life, and mortified
+his flesh with frequent castigations.
+
+He did not however pass his time during this seclusion in vacuity and
+indolence. He pursued his studies with the utmost ardour, and made a
+great proficiency in philosophy, divinity, painting, sculpture and
+music. Above all, he was an admirable chemist, excelled in manufactures
+of gold and other metals, and was distinguished by a wonderful skill
+in the art of magic.
+
+During all these mortifications and the severeness of his industry, he
+appears to have become a prey to extraordinary visions and
+imaginations. Among the rest, the devil visited him in his cell, and,
+thrusting his head in at the window, disturbed the saint with obscene
+and blasphemous speeches, and the most frightful contortions of the
+features of his countenance. Dunstan at length, wearied out with his
+perseverance, seized the red-hot tongs with which he was engaged in
+some chemical experiment, and, catching the devil by the nose, held
+him with the utmost firmness, while Satan filled the whole
+neighbourhood for many miles round with his bellowings. Extraordinary
+as this may appear, it constitutes one of the most prominent incidents
+in the life of the saint; and the representations of it were for ever
+repeated in ancient carvings, and in the illuminations of
+church-windows.
+
+This was the precise period at which the pope and his adherents were
+gaining the greatest ascendancy in the Christian world. The doctrine
+of transubstantiation was now in the highest vogue; and along with it
+a precept still more essential to the empire of the Catholic church,
+the celibacy of the clergy. This was not at first established without
+vehement struggles. The secular clergy, who were required at once to
+cast off their wives as concubines, and their children as bastards,
+found every impulse of nature rising in arms against the mandate. The
+regular clergy, or monks, were in obvious rivalship with the seculars,
+and engrossed to themselves, as much as possible, all promotions and
+dignities, as well ecclesiastical as civil. St. Augustine, who first
+planted Christianity in this island, was a Benedictine monk; and the
+Benedictines were for a long time in the highest reputation in the
+Catholic church. St. Dunstan was also a Benedictine. In his time the
+question of the celibacy of the clergy was most vehemently agitated;
+and Dunstan was the foremost of the champions of the new institution
+in England. The contest was carried on with great vehemence. Many of
+the most powerful nobility, impelled either by pity for the sufferers,
+or induced by family affinities, supported the cause of the seculars.
+Three successive synods were held on the subject; and the cause of
+nature it is said would have prevailed, had not Dunstan and his
+confederates called in the influence of miracles to their aid. In one
+instance, a crucifix, fixed in a conspicuous part of the place of
+assembly, uttered a voice at the critical moment, saying, "Be steady!
+you have once decreed right; alter not your ordinances." At another
+time the floor of the place of meeting partially gave way,
+precipitating the ungodly opposers of celibacy into the place beneath,
+while Dunstan and his party, who were in another part of the assembly,
+were miraculously preserved unhurt.
+
+In these instances Dunstan seemed to be engaged in the cause of
+religion, and might be considered as a zealous, though mistaken,
+advocate of Christian simplicity and purity. But he was not contented
+with figuring merely as a saint. He insinuated himself into the favour
+of Edred, the grandson of Alfred, and who, after two or three short
+reigns, succeeded to the throne. Edred was an inactive prince, but
+greatly under the dominion of religious prejudices; and Dunstan, being
+introduced to him, found him an apt subject for his machinations.
+Edred first made him abbot of Glastonbury, one of the most powerful
+ecclesiastical dignities in England, and then treasurer of the kingdom.
+During the reign of this prince, Dunstan disposed of all ecclesiastical
+affairs, and even of the treasures of the kingdom, at his pleasure.
+
+But Edred filled the throne only nine years, and was succeeded by Edwy
+at the early age of seventeen, who is said to have been endowed with
+every grace of form, and the utmost firmness and intrepidity of spirit.
+Dunstan immediately conceived a jealousy of these qualities, and took
+an early opportunity to endeavour to disarm them. Edwy entertained a
+passion for a princess of the royal house, and even proceeded to marry
+her, though within the degrees forbidden by the canon law. The rest of
+the story exhibits a lively picture of the manners of these barbarous
+times. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, the obedient tool of Dunstan, on
+the day of the coronation obtruded himself with his abettor into the
+private apartment, to which the king had retired with his queen, only
+accompanied by her mother; and here the ambitious abbot, after loading
+Edwy with the bitterest reproaches for his shameless sensuality,
+thrust him back by main force into the hall, where the nobles of the
+kingdom were still engaged at their banquet.
+
+The spirited young prince conceived a deep resentment of this unworthy
+treatment, and, seizing an opportunity, called Dunstan to account for
+malversation in the treasury during the late king's life-time. The
+priest refused to answer; and the issue was that he was banished the
+realm.
+
+But he left behind him a faithful and implicit coadjutor in archbishop
+Odo. This prelate is said actually to have forced his way with a party
+of soldiers into the palace, and, having seized the queen, barbarously
+to have seared her cheeks with a red-hot iron, and sent her off a
+prisoner to Ireland. He then proceeded to institute all the forms of a
+divorce, to which the unhappy king was obliged to submit. Meanwhile
+the queen, having recovered her beauty, found means to escape, and,
+crossing the Channel, hastened to join her husband. But here again the
+priests manifested the same activity as before. They intercepted the
+queen in her journey, and by the most cruel means undertook to make
+her a cripple for life. The princess however sunk under the experiment,
+and ended her existence and her woes together.
+
+A rebellion was now excited against the sacrilegious Edwy; and the
+whole north of England, having rebelled, was placed under the dominion
+of his brother, a boy of thirteen years of age. In the midst of these
+adventures Dunstan returned from the continent, and fearlessly shewed
+himself in his native country. His party was every where triumphant;
+Odo being dead, he was installed archbishop of Canterbury, and Edwy,
+oppressed with calamity on every side, sunk to an untimely grave.
+
+The rest of the life of Dunstan was passed in comparatively
+tranquillity. He made and unmade kings as he pleased. Edgar, the
+successor of Edwy, discovered the happy medium of energy and authority
+as a sovereign, combined with a disposition to indulge the ambitious
+policy of the priesthood. He was licentious in his amours, without
+losing a particle of his ascendancy as a sovereign. He however reigned
+only a few years; but Dunstan at his death found means to place his
+eldest son on the throne under his special protection, in defiance of
+the intrigues of the ambitious Elfrida, the king's second wife, who
+moved heaven and earth to cause the crown to descend upon her own son,
+as yet comparatively an infant.
+
+In this narrative we are presented with a lively picture of the means
+by which ambition climbed to its purposes in the darkness of the tenth
+century. Dunstan was enriched with all those endowments which might
+seem in any age to lead to the highest distinction. Yet it would
+appear to have been in vain that he was thus qualified, if he had not
+stooped to arts that fell in with the gross prejudices of his
+contemporaries. He had continual recourse to the aid of miracles. He
+gave into practices of the most rigorous mortification. He studied,
+and excelled in, all the learning and arts that were then known. But
+his main dependence was on the art of magic. The story of his taking
+the devil by the nose with a pair of red-hot tongs, seems to have been
+of greater service to him than any other single adventure of his life.
+In other times he might have succeeded in the schemes of his political
+ambition by seemly and specious means. But it was necessary for him in
+the times in which he lived, to proceed with eclat, and in a way that
+should confound all opposers. The utmost resolution was required to
+overwhelm those who might otherwise have been prompted to contend
+against him. Hence it appears that he took a right measure of the
+understanding of his contemporaries, when he dragged the young king
+from the scene of his retirement, and brought him back by force into
+the assembly of the nobles. And the inconceivable barbarity practised
+to the queen, which would have rendered his name horrible in a more
+civilised age, was exactly calculated to overwhelm the feelings and
+subject the understandings of the men among whom he lived. The great
+quality by which he was distinguished was confidence, a frame of
+behaviour which shewed that he acted from the fullest conviction, and
+never doubted that his proceedings had the immediate approbation of
+heaven.
+
+
+
+
+COMMUNICATION OF EUROPE AND THE SARACENS
+
+
+It appears to have been about the close of the tenth century that the
+more curious and inquisitive spirits of Europe first had recourse to
+the East as a source of such information and art, as they found most
+glaringly deficient among their countrymen. We have seen that in
+Persia there was an uninterrupted succession of professors in the art
+of magic: and, when the followers of Mahomet by their prowess had
+gained the superiority over the greater part of Asia, over all that
+was known of Africa, and a considerable tract of Europe, they
+gradually became awake to the desire of cultivating the sciences, and
+in particular of making themselves masters of whatever was most
+liberal and eminent among the disciples of Zoroaster. To this they
+added a curiosity respecting Greek learning, especially as it related
+to medicine and the investigation of the powers of physical nature.
+Bagdad became an eminent seat of learning; and perhaps, next to Bagdad,
+Spain under the Saracens, or Moors, was a principal abode for the
+professors of ingenuity and literature.
+
+
+GERBERT, POPE SILVESTER II.
+
+As a consequence of this state of things the more curious men of
+Europe by degrees adopted the practice of resorting to Spain for the
+purpose of enlarging their sphere of observation and knowledge. Among
+others Gerbert is reported to have been the first of the Christian
+clergy, who strung themselves up to the resolution of mixing with the
+followers of Mahomet, that they might learn from thence things, the
+knowledge of which it was impossible for them to obtain at home. This
+generous adventurer, prompted by an insatiable thirst for information,
+is said to have secretly withdrawn himself from his monastery of
+Fleury in Burgundy, and to have spent several years among the Saracens
+of Cordova. Here he acquired a knowledge of the language and learning
+of the Arabians, particularly of their astronomy, geometry and
+arithmetic; and he is understood to have been the first that imparted
+to the north and west of Europe a knowledge of the Arabic numerals, a
+science, which at first sight might be despised for its simplicity,
+but which in its consequences is no inconsiderable instrument in
+subtilising the powers of human intellect. He likewise introduced the
+use of clocks. He is also represented to have made an extraordinary
+proficiency in the art of magic; and among other things is said to
+have constructed a brazen head, which would answer when it was spoken
+to, and oracularly resolve many difficult questions. [151] The same
+historian assures us that Gerbert by the art of necromancy made
+various discoveries of hidden treasures, and relates in all its
+circumstances the spectacle of a magic palace he visited underground,
+with the multiplied splendours of an Arabian tale, but distinguished
+by this feature, that, though its magnificence was dazzling to the
+sight, it would not abide the test of feeling, but vanished into air,
+the moment it was attempted to be touched.
+
+It happened with Gerbert, as with St. Dunstan, that he united an
+aspiring mind and a boundless spirit of ambition, with the
+intellectual curiosity which has already been described. The first
+step that he made into public life and the career for which he panted,
+consisted in his being named preceptor, first to Robert, king of
+France, the son of Hugh Capet, and next to Otho the Third, emperor of
+Germany. Hugh Capet appointed him archbishop of Rheims; but, that
+dignity being disputed with him, he retired into Germany, and,
+becoming eminently a favourite with Otho the Third, he was by the
+influence of that prince raised, first to be archbishop of Ravenna,
+and afterwards to the papacy by the name of Silvester the Second. [152]
+
+Cardinal Benno, who was an adherent of the anti-popes, and for that
+reason is supposed to have calumniated Gerbert and several of his
+successors, affirms that he was habitually waited on by demons, that
+by their aid he obtained the papal crown, and that the devil to whom
+he had sold himself, faithfully promised him that he should live, till
+he had celebrated high mass at Jerusalem. This however was merely a
+juggle of the evil spirit; and Gerbert actually died, shortly after
+having officially dispensed the sacrament at the church of the Holy
+Cross in Jerusalem, which is one of the seven districts of the city of
+Rome. This event occurred in the year 1008. [153]
+
+
+BENEDICT THE NINTH.
+
+According to the same authority sorcery was at this time extensively
+practised by some of the highest dignitaries of the church, and five
+or six popes in succession were notorious for these sacrilegious
+practices. About the same period the papal chair was at its lowest
+state of degradation; this dignity was repeatedly exposed for sale;
+and the reign of Gerbert, a man of consummate abilities and
+attainments, is almost the only redeeming feature in the century in
+which he lived. At length the tiara became the purchase of an
+ambitious family, which had already furnished two popes, in behalf of
+a boy of twelve years of age, who reigned by the name of Benedict the
+Ninth. This youth, as he grew up, contaminated his rule with every
+kind of profligacy and debauchery. But even he, according to Benno,
+was a pupil in the school of Silvester, and became no mean proficient
+in the arts of sorcery. Among other things he caused the matrons of
+Rome by his incantations to follow him in troops among woods and
+mountains, being bewitched and their souls subdued by the irresistible
+charms of his magic. [154]
+
+
+GREGORY THE SEVENTH.
+
+Benno presents us with a regular catalogue of the ecclesiastical
+sorcerers of this period: Benedict the Ninth, and Laurence, archbishop
+of Melfi, (each of whom, he says, learned the art of Silvester),
+John XX and Gregory VI. But his most vehement accusations are directed
+against Gregory VII, who, he affirms, was in the early part of his
+career, the constant companion and assistant of these dignitaries in
+unlawful practices of this sort.
+
+Gregory VII, whose original name was Hildebrand, is one of the great
+champions of the Romish church, and did more than any other man to
+establish the law of the celibacy of the clergy, and to take the
+patronage of ecclesiastical dignities out of the hands of the laity.
+He was eminently qualified for this undertaking by the severity of his
+manners, and the inflexibility of his resolution to accomplish whatever
+he undertook.
+
+His great adversary was Henry the Fourth, emperor of Germany, a young
+prince of high spirit, and at that time (1075) twenty-four years of
+age. Gregory sent to summon him to Rome, to answer an accusation, that
+he, as all his predecessors had done, being a layman, had conferred
+ecclesiastical dignities. Henry refused submission, and was immediately
+declared excommunicated. In retaliation for this offence, the emperor,
+it is said, gave his orders to a chief of brigands, who, watching his
+opportunity, seized the pope in the act of saying mass in one of the
+churches of Rome, and carried him prisoner to a tower in the city
+which was in the possession of this adventurer. But no sooner was this
+known, than the citizens of Rome, rose _en masse_, and rescued
+their spiritual father. Meanwhile Henry, to follow up his blow,
+assembled a synod at Worms, who pronounced on the pope, that for
+manifold crimes he was fallen from his supreme dignity, and
+accordingly fulminated a decree of deposition against him. But Henry
+had no forces to carry this decree into execution; and Gregory on his
+side emitted a sentence of degradation against the emperor, commanding
+the Germans to elect a new emperor in his place. It then became
+evident that, in this age of ignorance and religious subjugation, the
+spiritual arm, at least in Germany, was more powerful than the
+temporal; and Henry, having maturely considered the perils that
+surrounded him, took the resolution to pass the Alps with a few
+domestics only, and, repairing to the presence of the pope, submit
+himself to such penance as the pontiff should impose. Gregory was at
+this time at Canosa, a fortress beyond Naples, which was surrounded
+with three walls. Henry, without any attendant, was admitted within
+the first wall. Here he was required to cast off all the symbols of
+royalty, to put on a hair-shirt, and to wait barefoot his holiness's
+pleasure. He stood accordingly, fasting from morn to eve, without
+receiving the smallest notice from the pontiff. It was in the month of
+January. He passed through the same trial the second day, and the
+third. On the fourth day in the morning he was admitted to the
+presence of the holy father. They parted however more irreconcileable
+in heart than ever, though each preserved the appearance of good will.
+The pope insisted that Henry should abide the issue of the congress in
+Germany, of which he constituted himself president; and the emperor,
+exasperated at the treatment he had received, resolved to keep no
+terms with Gregory. Henry proceeded to the election of an anti-pope,
+Clement the Third, and Gregory patronised a new emperor, Rodolph, duke
+of Suabia. Henry had however generally been successful in his military
+enterprises; and he defeated Rodolph in two battles, in the last of
+which his opponent was slain. In the synod of Brixen, in which Clement
+the Third was elected, Gregory was sentenced as a magician and a
+necromancer. The emperor, puffed up with his victories, marched
+against Rome, and took it, with the exception of the castle of St.
+Angelo, in which the pope shut himself up; and in the mean time Henry
+caused the anti-pope, his creature, to be solemnly inaugurated in the
+church of the Lateran. Gregory however, never dismayed, and never at
+an end of his expedients, called in the Normans, who had recently
+distinguished themselves by their victories in Naples and Sicily.
+Robert Guiscard, a Norman chieftain, drove the Germans out of Rome;
+but, some altercations ensuing between the pontiff and his deliverer,
+the city was given up to pillage, and Gregory was glad to take refuge
+in Salerno, the capital of his Norman ally, where he shortly after
+expired, an exile and a fugitive.
+
+Gregory was no doubt a man of extraordinary resources and invincible
+courage. He did not live to witness the triumph of his policy; but his
+projects for the exaltation of the church finally met with every
+success his most sanguine wishes could have aspired to. In addition to
+all the rest it happened, that the countess Matilda, a princess who in
+her own right possessed extensive sovereignties in Italy, nearly
+commensurate with what has since been styled the ecclesiastical state,
+transferred to the pope in her life-time, and confirmed by her
+testament, all these territories, thus mainly contributing to render
+him and his successors so considerable as temporal princes, as since
+that time they have appeared.
+
+It is, however, as a sorcerer, that Gregory VII (Hildebrand) finds a
+place in this volume. Benno relates that, coming one day from his
+Alban villa, he found, just as he was entering the church of the
+Lateran, that he had left behind him his magical book, which he was
+ascustomed to carry about his person. He immediately sent two trusty
+servants to fetch it, at the same time threatening them most fearfully
+if they should attempt to look into the volume. Curiosity however got
+the better of their fear. They opened the book, and began to read;
+when presently a number of devils appeared, saying, "We are come to
+obey your commands, but, if we find ourselves trifled with, we shall
+certainly fall upon and destroy you." The servants, exceedingly
+terrified, replied, "Our will is that you should immediately throw
+down so much of the wall of the city as is now before us." The devils
+obeyed; and the servants escaped the danger that hung over them. [155]
+It is further said, that Gregory was so expert in the arts of magic,
+that he would throw out lightning by shaking his arm, and dart thunder
+from his sleeve. [156]
+
+But the most conspicuous circumstance in the life of Gregory that has
+been made the foundation of a charge of necromancy against him, is
+that, when Rodolph marched against Henry IV, the pope was so confident
+of his success, as to venture publicly to prophesy, both in speech and
+in writing, that his adversary should be conquered and perish in this
+campaign. "Nay," he added, "this prophecy shall be accomplished before
+St. Peter's day; nor do I desire any longer to be acknowledged for
+pope, than on the condition that this comes to pass." It is added,
+that Rodolph, relying on the prediction, six times renewed the battle,
+in which finally he perished instead of his competitor. But this does
+not go far enough to substantiate a charge of necromancy. It is
+further remarked, that Gregory was deep in the pretended science of
+judicial astrology; and this, without its being necessary to have
+recourse to the solution of diabolical aid, may sufficiently account
+for the undoubting certainty with which he counted on the event.
+
+In the mean time this statement is of great importance, as illustrative
+of the spirit of the times in general, and the character of Gregory in
+particular. Rodolph, the competitor for the empire, has his mind wrought
+up to such a pitch by this prophetic assurance, that, five times
+repulsed, he yet led on his forces a sixth time, and perished the
+victim of his faith. Nor were his followers less animated than he, and
+from the same cause. We see also from the same story, that Gregory was
+not an artful and crafty impostor, but a man spurred on by a genuine
+enthusiasm. And this indeed is necessary to account for the whole of
+his conduct. The audacity with which he opposed the claims of Henry,
+and the unheard-of severity with which he treated him at the fortress
+of Canosa, are to be referred to the same feature of character.
+Invincible perseverance, when united with great resources of intellect
+and a lofty spirit, will enable a man thoroughly to effect, what a
+person of inferior endowments would not have dared so much as to dream
+of. And Gregory, like St. Dunstan, achieved incredible things, by
+skilfully adapting himself to circumstances, and taking advantage of
+the temper and weakness of his contemporaries.
+
+
+DUFF, KING OF SCOTLAND.
+
+It is not to be wondered at, when such things occurred in Italy, the
+principal seat of all the learning and refinement then existing in
+Europe, that the extreme northerly and western districts should have
+been given up to the blindest superstition. Among other instances we
+have the following account in relation to Duff, king of Scotland, who
+came to the crown about the year 968. He found his kingdom in the
+greatest disorder from numerous bands of robbers, many of whom were
+persons of high descent, but of no competent means of subsistence.
+Duff resolved to put an end to their depredations, and to secure those
+who sought a quiet support from cultivating the fruits of the earth
+from forcible invasion. He executed the law against these disturbers
+without respect of persons, and hence made himself many and powerful
+enemies. In the midst of his activity however he suddenly fell sick,
+and became confined to his bed. His physicians could no way account
+for his distemper. They found no excess of any humour in his body to
+which they could attribute his illness; his colour was fresh, and his
+eyes lively; and he had a moderate and healthful appetite. But with
+all this he was a total stranger to sleep; he burst out into
+immoderate perspirations; and there was scarcely any thing that
+remained of him, but skin and bone. In the meantime secret information
+was brought that all this evil was the result of witchcraft. And, the
+house being pointed out in which the sorcerers held their sabbath, a
+band of soldiers was sent to surprise them. The doors being burst open,
+they found one woman roasting upon a spit by the fire a waxen image of
+the king, so like in every feature, that no doubt was entertained that
+it was modelled by the art of the devil, while another sat by, busily
+engaged in reciting certain verses of enchantment, by which means, as
+the wax melted, the king was consumed with perspiration, and, as soon
+as it was utterly dissolved, his death should immediately follow. The
+witches were seized, and from their own confession burned alive. The
+image was broken to pieces, and every fragment of it destroyed. And no
+sooner was this effected, than Duff had all that night the most
+refreshing and healthful sleep, and the next day rose without any
+remains of his infirmity. [157]
+
+This reprieve however availed him but for a short time. He was no
+sooner recovered, than he occupied himself as before with pursuing the
+outlaws, whom he brought indiscriminately to condign punishment. Among
+these there chanced to be two young men, near relations of the
+governor of the castle of Fores, who had hitherto been the king's most
+faithful adherents. These young men had been deluded by ill company:
+and the governor most earnestly sued to Duff for their pardon. But the
+king was inexorable. Meanwhile, as he had always placed the most
+entire trust in their father, he continued to do so without the
+smallest suspicion. The night after the execution, the king slept in
+the castle of Fores, as he had often done before; but the governor,
+conceiving the utmost rancour at the repulse he had sustained, and
+moreover instigated by his wife, in the middle of the night murdered
+Duff in his bed, as he slept. His reign lasted only four years. [158]
+
+
+MACBETH.
+
+The seventh king of Scotland after Duff, with an interval of
+sixty-eight years, was Macbeth. The historian begins his tale of
+witchcraft, towards the end of the reign of Duncan, his predecessor,
+with observing, "Shortly after happened a strange and uncouth wonder,
+which afterward was the cause of much trouble in the realm of Scotland.
+It fortuned, as Macbeth and Banquo journeyed towards Fores, where the
+king as then lay, they went sporting by the way together, without
+other company save only themselves, passing through the woods and
+fields, when suddenly, in the midst of a laund, there met them three
+women in strange and ferly apparel, resembling creatures of an elder
+world, whom when they attentively beheld, wondering much at the sight,
+the first of them spake and said, All hail, Macbeth, thane of Glamis
+(for he had lately entered into that dignity and office by the death
+of his father Synel). The second of them said, Hail, Macbeth, thane of
+Cawdor. But the third said, All hail, Macbeth, that hereafter shall be
+king of Scotland. Then Banquo, What sort of women, said he, are you,
+that seem so little favourable unto me, whereas to my fellow here,
+besides high offices, ye assign also the kingdom, appointing forth
+nothing for me at all? Yes, saith the first of them, we promise
+greater benefits unto thee than unto him, for he shall reign indeed,
+but with an unlucky end, neither shall he leave any issue behind him
+to succeed in his place; where contrarily thou indeed shall not reign
+at all, but of thee those shall be born, which shall govern the
+Scottish kingdom by long order of continual descent. Herewith the
+foresaid women vanished immediately out of their sight.
+
+"This was reputed at the first but some vain fantastical illusion by
+Macbeth and Banquo, insomuch that Banquo would call Macbeth in jest
+king of Scotland, and Macbeth again would call him in sport likewise
+the father of many kings. But afterwards the common opinion was, that
+these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as you would say)
+the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies, endued with
+knowledge of prophecy by their necromantical science, because every
+thing came to pass as they had spoken.
+
+"For shortly after, the thane of Cawdor, being condemned at Fores of
+treason against the king committed, his lands, livings and offices
+were given of the king's liberality unto Macbeth." [159]
+
+Malcolm, the preceding king of Scotland, had two daughters, one of
+them the mother of Duncan, and the other of Macbeth; and in virtue of
+this descent Duncan succeeded to the crown. The accession of Macbeth
+therefore was not very remote, if he survived the present king. Of
+consequence Macbeth, though he thought much of the prediction of the
+weird sisters, yet resolved to wait his time, thinking that, as had
+happened in his former preferment, this might come to pass without his
+aid. But Duncan had two sons, Malcolm Cammore and Donald Bane. The law
+of succession in Scotland was, that, if at the death of the reigning
+sovereign he that should succeed were not of sufficient age to take on
+him the government, he that was next of blood to him should be
+admitted. Duncan however at this juncture created his eldest son
+Malcolm prince of Cumberland, a title which was considered as
+designating him heir to the throne. Macbeth was greatly troubled at
+this, as cutting off the expectation he thought he had a right to
+entertain: and, the words of the weird sisters still ringing in his
+ears, and his wife with ambitious speeches urging him to the deed, he,
+in conjunction with some trusty friends, among whom was Banquo, came
+to a resolution to kill the king at Inverness. The deed being
+perpetrated, Malcolm, the eldest son of Duncan, fled for safety into
+Cumberland, and Donald, the second, into Ireland. [160]
+
+Macbeth, who became king of Scotland in the year 1010, reigned for ten
+years with great popularity and applause, but at the end of that time
+changed his manner of government, and became a tyrant. His first
+action in this character was against Banquo. He remembered that the
+weird sisters had promised to Banquo that he should be father to a
+line of kings. Haunted with this recollection, Macbeth invited Banquo
+and his son Fleance to a supper, and appointed assassins to murder
+them both on their return. Banquo was slain accordingly; but Fleance,
+under favour of the darkness of the night, escaped. [161]
+
+This murder brought Macbeth into great odium, since every man began to
+doubt of the security of his life, and Macbeth at the same time to
+fear the ill will of his subjects. He therefore proceeded to destroy
+all against whom he entertained any suspicion, and every day more and
+more to steep his hands in blood. Further to secure himself, he built
+a castle on the top of a high hill, called Dunsinnan, which was placed
+on such an elevation, that it seemed impossible to approach it in a
+hostile manner. This work he carried on by means of requiring the
+thanes of the kingdom, each one in turn, to come with a set of workmen
+to help forward the edifice. When it came to the turn of Macduff,
+thane of Fife, he sent workmen, but did not come himself, as the
+others had done. Macbeth from that time regarded Macduff with an eye
+of perpetual suspicion. [162]
+
+Meanwhile Macbeth, remembering that the origin of his present
+greatness consisted in the prophecy of the weird sisters, addicted
+himself continually to the consulting of wizards. Those he consulted
+gave him a pointed warning to take heed of Macduff, who in time to
+come would seek to destroy him. This warning would unquestionably have
+proved fatal to Macduff; had not on the other hand Macbeth been buoyed
+up in security, by the prediction of a certain witch in whom he had
+great trust, that he should never be vanquished till the wood of
+Bernane came to the castle of Dunsinnan, and that he should not be
+slain by any man that was born of a woman; both which he judged to be
+impossibilities. [163]
+
+This vain confidence however urged him to do many outrageous things;
+at the same time that such was his perpetual uneasiness of mind, that
+in every nobleman's house he had one servant or another in fee, that
+he might be acquainted with every thing that was said or meditated
+against him. About this time Macduff fled to Malcolm, who had now
+taken refuge in the court of Edward the Confessor; and Macbeth came
+with a strong party into Fife with the purpose of surprising him. The
+master being safe, those within Macduff's castle threw open the gates,
+thinking that no mischief would result from receiving the king. But
+Macbeth, irritated that he missed of his prey, caused Macduff's wife
+and children, and all persons who were found within the castle, to be
+slain. [164]
+
+Shortly after, Malcolm and Macduff, reinforced by ten thousand English
+under the command of Seyward, earl of Northumberland, marched into
+Scotland. The subjects of Macbeth stole away daily from him to join
+the invaders; but he had such confidence in the predictions that had
+been delivered to him, that he still believed he should never be
+vanquished. Malcolm meanwhile, as he approached to the castle of
+Dunsinnan, commanded his men to cut down, each of them, a bough from
+the wood of Bernane, as large as he could bear, that they might take
+the tyrant the more by surprise. Macbeth saw, and thought the wood
+approached him; but he remembered the prophecy, and led forth and
+marshalled his men. When however the enemy threw down their boughs,
+and their formidable numbers stood revealed, Macbeth and his forces
+immediately betook themselves to flight. Macduff pursued him, and was
+hard at his heels, when the tyrant turned his horse, and exclaimed,
+"Why dost thou follow me? Know, that it is ordained that no creature
+born of a woman can ever overcome me." Macduff instantly retorted, "I
+am the man appointed to slay thee. I was not born of a woman, but was
+untimely ripped from my mother's womb." And, saying this, he killed
+him on the spot. Macbeth reigned in the whole seventeen years. [165]
+
+
+VIRGIL.
+
+One of the most curious particulars, and which cannot be omitted in a
+history of sorcery, is the various achievements in the art of magic
+which have been related of the poet Virgil. I bring them in here,
+because they cannot be traced further back than the eleventh or
+twelfth century. The burial-place of this illustrious man was at
+Pausilippo, near Naples; the Neapolitans had for many centuries
+cherished a peculiar reverence for his memory; and it has been
+supposed that the old ballads, and songs of the minstrels of the north
+of Italy, first originated this idea respecting him. [166] The vulgar
+of this city, full of imagination and poetry, conceived the idea of
+treating him as the guardian genius of the place; and, in bodying
+forth this conception, they represented him in his life-time as gifted
+with supernatural powers, which he employed in various ways for the
+advantage of a city that he so dearly loved. Be this as it will, it
+appears that Gervais of Tilbury, chancellor to Otho the Fourth,
+emperor of Germany, Helinandus, a Cisterian monk, and Alexander Neckam,
+all of whom lived about this time, first recorded these particulars in
+their works.
+
+They tell us, that Virgil placed a fly of brass over one of the gates
+of the city, which, as long as it continued there, that is, for a
+space of eight years, had the virtue of keeping Naples clear from
+moskitoes and all noxious insects: that he built a set of shambles,
+the meat in which was at all times free from putrefaction: that he
+placed two images over the gates of the city, one of which was named
+Joyful, and the other Sad, one of resplendent beauty, and the other
+hideous and deformed, and that whoever entered the town under the
+former image would succeed in all his undertakings, and under the
+latter would as certainly miscarry: that he caused a brazen statue to
+be erected on a mountain near Naples, with a trumpet in his mouth,
+which when the north wind blew, sounded so shrill as to drive to the
+sea the fire and smoke which issued from the neighbouring forges of
+Vulcan: that he built different baths at Naples, specifically prepared
+for the cure of every disease, which were afterwards demolished by the
+malice of the physicians: and that he lighted a perpetual fire for the
+refreshment of all travellers, close to which he placed an archer of
+brass, with his bow bent, and this inscription, "Whoever strikes me, I
+will let fly my arrow:" that a fool-hardy fellow notwithstanding
+struck the statue, when the arrow was immediately shot into the fire,
+and the fire was extinguished. It is added, that, Naples being
+infested with a vast multitude of contagious leeches, Virgil made a
+leech of gold, which he threw into a pit, and so delivered the city
+from the infection: that he surrounded his garden with a wall of air,
+within which the rain never fell: that he built a bridge of brass that
+would transport him wherever he pleased: that he made a set of statues,
+which were named the salvation of Rome, which had the property that,
+if any one of the subject nations prepared to revolt, the statue,
+which bore the name of, and was adored by that nation, rung a bell,
+and pointed with its finger in the direction of the danger: that he
+made a head, which had the virtue of predicting things future: and
+lastly, amidst a world of other wonders, that he cut a subterranean
+passage through mount Pausilippo, that travellers might pass with
+perfect safety, the mountain having before been so infested with
+serpents and dragons, that no one could venture to cross it.
+
+
+ROBERT OF LINCOLN.
+
+The most eminent person next, after popes Silvester II and Gregory VII,
+who labours under the imputation of magic, is Robert Grossetete, or
+Robert of Lincoln, appointed bishop of that see in the year 1235. He
+was, like those that have previously been mentioned, a man of the most
+transcendant powers of mind, and extraordinary acquirements. His
+parents are said to have been so poor, that he was compelled, when a
+boy, to engage in the meanest offices for bread, and even to beg on
+the highway. At length the mayor of Lincoln, struck with his
+appearance, and the quickness of his answers to such questions as were
+proposed to him, took him into his family, and put him to school. Here
+his ardent love of learning, and admirable capacity for acquiring it,
+soon procured him many patrons, by whose assistance he was enabled to
+prosecute his studies, first at Cambridge, afterwards at Oxford, and
+finally at Paris. He was master of the Greek and Hebrew languages,
+then very rare accomplishments; and is pronounced by Roger Bacon, a
+very competent judge, of whom we shall presently have occasion to
+speak, to have spent much of his time, for nearly forty years, in the
+study of geometry, astronomy, optics, and other branches of
+mathematical learning, in all of which he much excelled. So that, as
+we are informed from the same authority, this same Robert of Lincoln,
+and his friend, Friar Adam de Marisco, were the two most learned men
+in the world, and excelled the rest of mankind in both human and
+divine knowledge.
+
+This great man especially distinguished himself by his firm and
+undaunted opposition to the corruptions of the court of Rome. Pope
+Innocent IV, who filled the papal chair upwards of eleven years, from
+1243 to 1254, appears to have exceeded all his predecessors in the
+shamelessness of his abuses. We are told, that the hierarchy of the
+church of England was overwhelmed like a flood with an inundation of
+foreign dignitaries, of whom not a few were mere boys, for the most
+part without learning, ignorant of the language of the island, and
+incapable of benefiting the people nominally under their care, the
+more especially as they continued to dwell in their own countries, and
+scarcely once in their lives visited the sees to which they had been
+appointed. [167] Grossetete lifted up his voice against these scandals.
+He said that it was impossible the genuine apostolic see, which
+received its authority from the Lord Jesus for edification, and not
+for destruction, could be guilty of such a crime, for that would
+forfeit all its glory, and plunge it into the pains of hell. He did
+not scruple therefore among his most intimate friends to pronounce the
+reigning pope to be the true Antichrist; and he addressed the pontiff
+himself in scarcely more measured terms.
+
+Among the other accomplishments of bishop Grossetete he is said to
+have been profoundly skilled in the art of magic: and the old poet
+Gower relates of him that he made a head of brass, expressly
+constructed in such a manner as to be able to answer such questions as
+were propounded to it, and to foretel future events.
+
+
+MICHAEL SCOT.
+
+Michael Scot of Balwirie in the county of Fife, was nearly contemporary
+with bishop Grossetete. He was eminent for his knowledge of the Greek
+and Arabic languages. He was patronised by the emperor Frederic II,
+who encouraged him to undertake a translation of the works of Aristotle
+into Latin. He addicted himself to astrology, chemistry, and the still
+more frivolous sciences of chiromancy and physiognomy. It does not
+appear that he made any pretences to magic; but the vulgar, we are
+told, generally regarded him as a sorcerer, and are said to have
+carried their superstition so far as to have conceived a terror of so
+much as touching his works.
+
+
+THE DEAN OF BADAJOZ.
+
+There is a story related by this accomplished scholar, in a collection
+of aphorisms and anecdotes entitled _Mensa Philosophica_, which
+deserves to be cited as illustrating the ideas then current on the
+subject of sorcery. A certain great necromancer, or nigromancer, had
+once a pupil of considerable rank, who professed himself extremely
+desirous for once to have the gratification of believing himself an
+emperor. The necromancer, tired with his importunities, at length
+assented to his prayer. He took measures accordingly, and by his
+potent art caused his scholar to believe that one province and dignity
+fell to him after another, till at length his utmost desires became
+satisfied. The magician however appeared to be still at his elbow; and
+one day, when the scholar was in the highest exultation at his good
+fortune, the master humbly requested him to bestow upon him some
+landed possession, as a reward for the extraordinary benefit he had
+conferred. The imaginary emperor cast upon the necromancer a glance of
+the utmost disdain and contempt. "Who are you?" said he, "I really
+have not the smallest acquaintance with you." "I am he," replied the
+magician, with withering severity of countenance and tone, "that gave
+you all these things, and will take them away." And, saying this, the
+illusion with which the poor scholar had been inebriated, immediately
+vanished; and he became what he had before been, and no more.
+
+The story thus briefly told by Michael Scot, afterwards passed through
+many hands, and was greatly dilated. In its last form by the abbe
+Blanchet, it constituted the well known and agreeable tale of the dean
+of Badajoz. This reverend divine comes to a sorcerer, and intreats a
+specimen of his art. The magician replies that he had met with so many
+specimens of ingratitude, that he was resolved to be deluded no more.
+The dean persists, and at length overcomes the reluctance of the
+master. He invites his guest into the parlour, and orders his cook to
+put two partridges to the fire, for that the dean of Badajoz will sup
+with him. Presently he begins his incantations; and the dean becomes
+in imagination by turns a bishop, a cardinal, and a pope. The magician
+then claims his reward. Meanwhile the dean, inflated with his supposed
+elevation, turns to his benefactor, and says, "I have learned with
+grief that, under pretence of secret science, you correspond with the
+prince of darkness. I command you to repent and abjure; and in the
+mean time I order you to quit the territory of the church in three
+days, under pain of being delivered to the secular arm, and the rigour
+of the flames." The sorcerer, having been thus treated, presently
+dissolves the incantation, and calls aloud to his cook, "Put down but
+one partridge, the dean of Badajoz does not sup with me to-night."
+
+
+MIRACLE OF THE TUB OF WATER.
+
+This story affords an additional example of the affinity between the
+ancient Asiatic and European legends, so as to convince us that it is
+nearly impossible that the one should not be in some way borrowed from
+the other. There is, in a compilation called the Turkish Tales, a
+story of an infidel sultan of Egypt, who took the liberty before a
+learned Mahometan doctor, of ridiculing some of the miracles ascribed
+to the prophet, as for example his transportation into the seventh
+heaven, and having ninety thousand conferences with God, while in the
+mean time a pitcher of water, which had been thrown down in the first
+step of his ascent, was found with the water not all spilled at his
+return.
+
+The doctor, who had the gift of working miracles, told the sultan that,
+with his consent, he would give him a practical proof of the
+possibility of the circumstance related of Mahomet. The sultan agreed.
+The doctor therefore directed that a huge tub of water should be
+brought in, and, while the prince stood before it with his courtiers
+around, the holy man bade him plunge his head into the water, and draw
+it out again. The sultan immersed his head, and had no sooner done so,
+than he found himself alone at the foot of a mountain on a desert
+shore. The prince first began to rave against the doctor for this
+piece of treachery and witchcraft. Perceiving however that all his
+rage was vain, and submitting himself to the imperiousness of his
+situation, he began to seek for some habitable tract. By and by he
+discovered people cutting down wood in a forest, and, having no remedy,
+he was glad to have recourse to the same employment. In process of
+time he was brought to a town; and there by great good fortune, after
+other adventures, he married a woman of beauty and wealth, and lived
+long enough with her, for her to bear him seven sons and seven
+daughters. He was afterwards reduced to want, so as to be obliged to
+ply in the streets as a porter for his livelihood. One day, as he
+walked alone on the sea-shore, ruminating on his hard fate, he was
+seized with a fit of devotion, and threw off his clothes, that he
+might wash himself, agreeably to the Mahometan custom, previously to
+saying his prayers. He had no sooner however plunged into the sea, and
+raised his head again above water, than he found himself standing by
+the side of the tub that had been brought in, with all the great
+persons of his court round him, and the holy man close at his side. He
+found that the long series of imaginary adventures he had passed
+through, had in reality occupied but one minute of time.
+
+
+INSTITUTION OF FRIARS.
+
+About this time a great revolution took place in the state of
+literature in Europe. The monks, who at one period considerably
+contributed to preserve the monuments of ancient learning, memorably
+fell off in reputation and industry. Their communities by the
+donations of the pious grew wealthy; and the monks themselves
+inhabited splendid palaces, and became luxurious, dissipated and idle.
+Upon the ruins of their good fame rose a very extraordinary race of
+men, called Friars. The monks professed celibacy, and to have no
+individual property; but the friars abjured all property, both private
+and in common. They had no place where to lay their heads, and
+subsisted as mendicants upon the alms of their contemporaries. They
+did not hide themselves in refectories and dormitories, but lived
+perpetually before the public. In the sequel indeed they built
+Friaries for their residence; but these were no less distinguished for
+the simplicity and humbleness of their appearance, than the monasteries
+were for their grandeur and almost regal magnificence. The Friars were
+incessant in preaching and praying, voluntarily exposed themselves to
+the severest hardships, and were distinguished by a fervour of devotion
+and charitable activity that knew no bounds. We might figure them to
+ourselves as swallowed up in these duties. But they added to their
+merits an incessant earnestness in learning and science. A new era in
+intellect and subtlety of mind began with them; and a set of the most
+wonderful men in depth of application, logical acuteness, and
+discoveries in science distinguished this period. They were few indeed,
+in comparison of the world of ignorance that every where surrounded
+them; but they were for that reason only the more conspicuous. They
+divided themselves principally into two orders, the Dominicans and
+Franciscans. And all that was most illustrious in intellect at this
+period belonged either to the one or the other.
+
+
+ALBERTUS MAGNUS.
+
+Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, was one of the most famous of these. He
+was born according to some accounts in the year 1193, and according to
+others in 1205. It is reported of him, that he was naturally very dull,
+and so incapable of instruction, that he was on the point of quitting
+the cloister from despair of learning what his vocation required, when
+the blessed virgin appeared to him in a vision, and enquired of him in
+which he desired to excel, philosophy or divinity. He chose philosophy;
+and the virgin assured him that he should become incomparable in that,
+but, as a punishment for not having chosen divinity, he should sink,
+before he died, into his former stupidity. It is added that, after
+this apparition, he had an infinite deal of wit, and advanced in
+science with so rapid a progress as utterly to astonish the masters.
+He afterwards became bishop of Ratisbon.
+
+It is related of Albertus, that he made an entire man of brass,
+putting together its limbs under various constellations, and occupying
+no less than thirty years in its formation. This man would answer all
+sorts of questions, and was even employed by its maker as a domestic.
+But what is more extraordinary, this machine is said to have become at
+length so garrulous, that Thomas Aquinas, being a pupil of Albertus,
+and finding himself perpetually disturbed in his abstrusest
+speculations by its uncontrolable loquacity, in a rage caught up a
+hammer, and beat it to pieces. According to other accounts the man of
+Albertus Magnus was composed, not of metal, but of flesh and bones
+like other men; but this being afterwards judged to be impossible, and
+the virtue of images, rings, and planetary sigils being in great vogue,
+it was conceived that this figure was formed of brass, and indebted
+for its virtue to certain conjunctions and aspects of the planets.
+[168]
+
+A further extraordinary story is told of Albertus Magnus, well
+calculated to exemplify the ideas of magic with which these ages
+abounded. William, earl of Holland, and king of the Romans, was
+expected at a certain time to pass through Cologne. Albertus had set
+his heart upon obtaining from this prince the cession of a certain
+tract of land upon which to erect a convent. The better to succeed in
+his application he conceived the following scheme. He invited the
+prince on his journey to partake of a magnificent entertainment. To
+the surprise of every body, when the prince arrived, he found the
+preparations for the banquet spread in the open air. It was in the
+depth of winter, when the earth was bound up in frost, and the whole
+face of things was covered with snow. The attendants of the court were
+mortified, and began to express their discontent in loud murmurs. No
+sooner however was the king with Albertus and his courtiers seated at
+table, than the snow instantly disappeared, the temperature of summer
+shewed itself, and the sun burst forth with a dazzling splendour. The
+ground became covered with the richest verdure; the trees were clothed
+at once with foliage, flowers and fruits: and a vintage of the richest
+grapes, accompanied with a ravishing odour, invited the spectators to
+partake. A thousand birds sang on every branch. A train of pages
+shewed themselves, fresh and graceful in person and attire, and were
+ready diligently to supply the wants of all, while every one was
+struck with astonishment as to who they were and from whence they came.
+The guests were obliged to throw off their upper garments the better
+to cool themselves. The whole assembly was delighted with their
+entertainment, and Albertus easily gained his suit of the king.
+Presently after, the banquet disappeared; all was wintry and solitary
+as before; the snow lay thick upon the ground; and the guests in all
+haste snatched up the garments they had laid aside, and hurried into
+the apartments, that by numerous fires on the blazing hearth they
+might counteract the dangerous chill which threatened to seize on
+their limbs. [169]
+
+
+ROGER BACON.
+
+Roger Bacon, of whom extraordinary stories of magic have been told,
+and who was about twenty years younger than Albertus, was one of the
+rarest geniuses that have existed on earth. He was a Franciscan friar.
+He wrote grammars of the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages. He was
+profound in the science of optics. He explained the nature of
+burning-glasses, and of glasses which magnify and diminish, the
+microscope and the telescope. He discovered the composition of
+gunpowder. He ascertained the true length of the solar year; and his
+theory was afterwards brought into general use, but upon a narrow
+scale, by Pope Gregory XIII, nearly three hundred years after his
+death. [170]
+
+But for all these discoveries he underwent a series of the most bitter
+persecutions. It was imputed to him by the superiors of his order that
+the improvements he suggested in natural philosophy were the effects
+of magic, and were suggested to him through an intercourse with
+infernal spirits. They forbade him to communicate any of his
+speculations. They wasted his frame with rigorous fasting, often
+restricting him to a diet of bread and water, and prohibited all
+strangers to have access to him. Yet he went on indefatigably in
+pursuit of the secrets of nature. [171] At length Clement IV, to whom
+he appealed, procured him a considerable degree of liberty. But, after
+the death of that pontiff, he was again put under confinement, and
+continued in that state for a further period of ten years. He was
+liberated but a short time before his death.
+
+Freind says, [172] that, among other ingenious contrivances, he put
+statues in motion, and drew articulate sounds from a brazen head, not
+however by magic, but by an artificial application of the principles
+of natural philosophy.   This probably furnished a foundation for the
+tale of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungy, which was one of the earliest
+productions to which the art of printing was applied in England. These
+two persons are said to have entertained the project of inclosing
+England with a wall, so as to render it inaccessible to any invader.
+They accordingly raised the devil, as the person best able to inform
+them how this was to be done. The devil advised them to make a brazen
+head, with all the internal structure and organs of a human head. The
+construction would cost them much time; and they must then wait with
+patience till the faculty of speech descended upon it. It would
+finally however become an oracle, and, if the question were propounded
+to it, would teach them the solution of their problem. The friars
+spent seven years in bringing the structure to perfection, and then
+waited day after day, in expectation that it would utter articulate
+sounds. At length nature became exhausted in them, and they lay down
+to sleep, having first given it strictly in charge to a servant of
+theirs, clownish in nature, but of strict fidelity, that he should
+awaken them the moment the image began to speak. That period arrived.
+The head uttered sounds, but such as the clown judged unworthy of
+notice. "Time is!" it said. No notice was taken; and a long pause
+ensued. "Time was!" A similar pause, and no notice. "Time is passed!"
+And the moment these words were uttered, a tremendous storm ensued,
+with thunder and lightning, and the head was shivered into a thousand
+pieces. Thus the experiment of friar Bacon and friar Bungy came to
+nothing.
+
+
+THOMAS AQUINAS.
+
+Thomas Aquinas, who has likewise been brought under the imputation of
+magic, was one of the profoundest scholars and subtlest logicians of
+his day. He also furnishes a remarkable instance of the ascendant
+which the friars at that time obtained over the minds of ingenuous
+young men smitten with the thirst of knowledge. He was a youth of
+illustrious birth, and received the rudiments of his education under
+the monks of Monte Cassino, and in the university of Naples. But, not
+contented with these advantages, he secretly entered himself into the
+society of Preaching Friars, or Dominicans, at seventeen years of age.
+His mother, being indignant that he should thus take the vow of
+poverty, and sequester himself from the world for life, employed every
+means in her power to induce him to alter his purpose, but in vain.
+The friars, to deliver him from her importunities, removed him from
+Naples to Terracina, from Terracina to Anagnia, and from Anagnia to
+Rome. His mother followed him in all these changes of residence, but
+was not permitted so much as to see him. At length she spirited up his
+two elder brothers to seize him by force. They waylaid him in his road
+to Paris, whither he was sent to complete his course of instruction,
+and carried him off to the castle of Aquino where he had been born.
+Here he was confined for two years; but he found a way to correspond
+with the superiors of his order, and finally escaped from a window in
+the castle. St. Thomas Aquinas (for he was canonised after his death)
+exceeded perhaps all men that ever existed in the severity and
+strictness of his metaphysical disquisitions, and thus acquired the
+name of the Seraphic Doctor.
+
+It was to be expected that a man, who thus immersed himself in the
+depths of thought, should be an inexorable enemy to noise and
+interruption. We have seen that he dashed to pieces the artificial man
+of brass, that Albertus Magnus, who was his tutor, had spent thirty
+years in bringing to perfection, being impelled to this violence by
+its perpetual and unceasing garrulity. [173] It is further said, that
+his study being placed in a great thoroughfare, where the grooms were
+all day long exercising their horses, he found it necessary to apply a
+remedy to this nuisance. He made by the laws of magic a small horse of
+brass, which he buried two or three feet under ground in the midst of
+this highway; and, having done so, no horse would any longer pass
+along the road. It was in vain that the grooms with whip and spur
+sought to conquer their repugnance. They were finally compelled to
+give up the attempt, and to choose another place for their daily
+exercise. [174]
+
+It has further been sought to fix the imputation of magic upon Thomas
+Aquinas by imputing to him certain books written on that science; but
+these are now acknowledged to be spurious. [175]
+
+
+PETER OF APONO.
+
+Peter of Apono, so called from a village of that name in the vicinity
+of Padua, where he was born in the year 1250, was an eminent
+philosopher, mathematician and astrologer, but especially excelled in
+physic. Finding that science at a low ebb in his native country, he
+resorted to Paris, where it especially flourished; and after a time
+returning home, exercised his art with extraordinary success, and by
+this means accumulated great wealth.
+
+But all his fame and attainments were poisoned to him by the accusation
+of magic. Among other things he was said to possess seven spirits,
+each of them inclosed in a crystal vessel, from whom he received every
+information he desired in the seven liberal arts. He was further
+reported to have had the extraordinary faculty of causing the money he
+expended in his disbursements, immediately to come back into his own
+purse. He was besides of a hasty and revengeful temper. In consequence
+of this it happened to him, that, having a neighbour, who had an
+admirable spring of water in his garden, and who was accustomed to
+suffer the physician to send for a daily supply, but who for some
+displeasure or inconvenience withdrew his permission, Peter d'Apono,
+by the aid of the devil, removed the spring from the garden in which
+it had flowed, and turned it to waste in the public street. For some
+of these accusations he was called to account by the tribunal of the
+inquisition. While he was upon his trial however, the unfortunate man
+died. But so unfavourable was the judgment of the inquisitors
+respecting him, that they decreed that his bones should be dug up, and
+publicly burned. Some of his friends got intimation of this, and saved
+him from the impending disgrace by removing his remains. Disappointed
+in this, the inquisitors proceeded to burn him in effigy.
+
+
+ENGLISH LAW OF HIGH TREASON.
+
+It may seem strange that in a treatise concerning necromancy we should
+have occasion to speak of the English law of high treason. But on
+reflection perhaps it may appear not altogether alien to the subject.
+This crime is ordinarily considered by our lawyers as limited and
+defined by the statute of 25 Edward III. As Blackstone has observed,
+"By the ancient common law there was a great latitude left in the
+breast of the judges, to determine what was treason, or not so:
+whereby the creatures of tyrannical power had opportunity to create
+abundance of constructive treasons; that is, to raise, by forced and
+arbitrary constructions, offences into the crime and punishment of
+treason, which were never suspected to be such. To prevent these
+inconveniences, the statute of 25 Edward III was made." [176] This
+statute divides treason into seven distinct branches; and the first
+and chief of these is, "when a man doth compass or imagine the death
+of our lord the king."
+
+Now the first circumstance that strikes us in this affair is, why the
+crime was not expressed in more perspicuous and appropriate language?
+Why, for example, was it not said, that the first and chief branch of
+treason was to "kill the king?" Or, if that limitation was not held to
+be sufficiently ample, could it not have been added, it is treason to
+"attempt, intend, or contrive to kill the king?" We are apt to make
+much too large an allowance for what is considered as the vague and
+obsolete language of our ancestors. Logic was the element in which the
+scholars of what are called the dark ages were especially at home. It
+was at that period that the description of human geniuses, called the
+Schoolmen, principally flourished. The writers who preceded the
+Christian era, possessed in an extraordinary degree the gift of
+imagination and invention. But they had little to boast on the score
+of arrangement, and discovered little skill in the strictness of an
+accurate deduction. Meanwhile the Schoolmen had a surprising subtlety
+in weaving the web of an argument, and arriving by a close deduction,
+through a multitude of steps, to a sound and irresistible conclusion.
+Our lawyers to a certain degree formed themselves on the discipline of
+the Schoolmen. Nothing can be more forcibly contrasted, than the mode
+of pleading among the ancients, and that which has characterised the
+processes of the moderns. The pleadings of the ancients were praxises
+of the art of oratorical persuasion; the pleadings of the moderns
+sometimes, though rarely, deviate into oratory, but principally
+consist in dextrous subtleties upon words, or a nice series of
+deductions, the whole contexture of which is endeavoured to be woven
+into one indissoluble substance. Several striking examples have been
+preserved of the mode of pleading in the reign of Edward II, in which
+the exceptions taken for the defendant, and the replies supporting the
+mode of proceeding on behalf of the plaintiff, in no respect fall
+short of the most admired shifts, quirks and subtleties of the great
+lawyers of later times. [177]
+
+It would be certainly wrong therefore to consider the legal phrase, to
+"compass or imagine the death of the king," as meaning the same thing
+as to "kill, or intend to kill" him. At all events we may take it for
+granted, that to "compass" does not mean to accomplish; but rather to
+"take in hand, to go about to effect." There is therefore no form of
+words here forbidding to "kill the king." The phrase, to "imagine,"
+does not appear less startling. What is, to a proverb, more lawless
+than imagination?
+
+  Evil into the mind of God or man
+  May come and go, so unapproved, and leave
+  No spot or blame behind.
+
+What can be more tyrannical, than an inquisition into the sports and
+freaks of fancy? What more unsusceptible of detection or evidence? How
+many imperceptible shades of distinction between the guilt and
+innocence that characterise them!--Meanwhile the force and propriety
+of these terms will strikingly appear, if we refer them to the popular
+ideas of witchcraft. Witches were understood to have the power of
+destroying life, without the necessity of approaching the person whose
+life was to be destroyed, or producing any consciousness in him of the
+crime about to be perpetrated. One method was by exposing an image of
+wax to the action of fire; while, in proportion as the image wasted
+away, the life of the individual who was the object contrived against,
+was undermined and destroyed. Another was by incantations and spells.
+Either of these might fitly be called the "compassing or imagining the
+death." Imagination is, beside this, the peculiar province of
+witchcraft. And in these pretended hags the faculty is no longer
+desultory and erratic. Conscious of their power, they are supposed to
+have subjected it to system and discipline. They apply its secret and
+trackless energy with an intentness and a vigour, which ordinary
+mortals may in vain attempt to emulate in an application of the force
+of inert matter, or of the different physical powers by means of which
+such stupendous effects have often been produced.--How universal and
+familiar then must we consider the ideas of witchcraft to have been
+before language which properly describes the secret practices of such
+persons, and is not appropriate to any other, could have been found to
+insinuate itself into the structure of the most solemn act of our
+legislature, that act which beyond all others was intended to narrow
+or shut out the subtle and dangerous inroads of arbitrary power!
+
+
+ZIITO.
+
+Very extraordinary things are related of Ziito, a sorcerer, in the
+court of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia and afterwards emperor of Germany,
+in the latter part of the fourteenth century. This is perhaps, all
+things considered, the most wonderful specimen of magical power any
+where to be found. It is gravely recorded by Dubravius, bishop of
+Olmutz, in his History of Bohemia. It was publicly exhibited on
+occasion of the marriage of Wenceslaus with Sophia, daughter of the
+elector Palatine of Bavaria, before a vast assembled multitude.
+
+The father-in-law of the king, well aware of the bridegroom's known
+predilection for theatrical exhibitions and magical illusions, brought
+with him to Prague, the capital of Wenceslaus, a whole waggon-load of
+morrice-dancers and jugglers, who made their appearance among the
+royal retinue. Meanwhile Ziito, the favourite magician of the king,
+took his place obscurely among the ordinary spectators. He however
+immediately arrested the attention of the strangers, being remarked
+for his extraordinary deformity, and a mouth that stretched completely
+from ear to ear. Ziito was for some time engaged in quietly observing
+the tricks and sleights that were exhibited. At length, while the
+chief magician of the elector Palatine was still busily employed in
+shewing some of the most admired specimens of his art, the Bohemian,
+indignant at what appeared to him the bungling exhibitions of his
+brother-artist, came forward, and reproached him with the unskilfulness
+of his performances. The two professors presently fell into warm
+debate. Ziito, provoked at the insolence of his rival, made no more
+ado but swallowed him whole before the multitude, attired as he was,
+all but his shoes, which he objected to because they were dirty. He
+then retired for a short while to a closet, and presently returned,
+leading the magician along with him.
+
+Having thus disposed of his rival, Ziito proceeded to exhibit the
+wonders of his art. He shewed himself first in his proper shape, and
+then in those of different persons successively, with countenances and
+a stature totally dissimilar to his own; at one time splendidly
+attired in robes of purple and silk, and then in the twinkling of an
+eye in coarse linen and a clownish coat of frieze. He would proceed
+along the field with a smooth and undulating motion without changing
+the posture of a limb, for all the world as if he were carried along
+in a ship. He would keep pace with the king's chariot, in a car drawn
+by barn-door fowls. He also amused the king's guests as they sat at
+table, by causing, when they stretched out their hands to the different
+dishes, sometimes their hands to turn into the cloven feet of an ox,
+and at other times into the hoofs of a horse. He would clap on them
+the antlers of a deer, so that, when they put their heads out at
+window to see some sight that was going by, they could by no means
+draw them back again; while he in the mean time feasted on the savoury
+cates that had been spread before them, at his leisure.
+
+At one time he pretended to be in want of money, and to task his wits
+to devise the means to procure it. On such an occasion he took up a
+handful of grains of corn, and presently gave them the form and
+appearance of thirty hogs well fatted for the market. He drove these
+hogs to the residence of one Michael, a rich dealer, but who was
+remarked for being penurious and thrifty in his bargains. He offered
+them to Michael for whatever price he should judge reasonable. The
+bargain was presently struck, Ziito at the same time warning the
+purchaser, that he should on no account drive them to the river to
+drink. Michael however paid no attention to this advice; and the hogs
+no sooner arrived at the river, than they turned into grains of corn
+as before. The dealer, greatly enraged at this trick, sought high and
+low for the seller that he might be revenged on him. At length he
+found him in a vintner's shop seemingly in a gloomy and absent frame
+of mind, reposing himself, with his legs stretched out on a form. The
+dealer called out to him, but he seemed not to hear. Finally he seized
+Ziito by one foot, plucking at it with all his might. The foot came
+away with the leg and thigh; and Ziito screamed out, apparently in
+great agony. He seized Michael by the nape of the neck, and dragged
+him before a judge. Here the two set up their separate complaints,
+Michael for the fraud that had been committed on him, and Ziito for
+the irreparable injury he had suffered in his person. From this
+adventure came the proverb, frequent in the days of the historian,
+speaking of a person who had made an improvident bargain, "He has made
+just such a purchase as Michael did with his hogs."
+
+
+TRANSMUTATION OF METALS.
+
+Among the different pursuits, which engaged the curiosity of active
+minds in these unenlightened ages, was that of the transmutation of
+the more ordinary metals into gold and silver. This art, though not
+properly of necromantic nature, was however elevated by its professors,
+by means of an imaginary connection between it and astrology, and even
+between it and an intercourse with invisible spirits. They believed,
+that their investigations could not be successfully prosecuted but
+under favourable aspects of the planets, and that it was even
+indispensible to them to obtain supernatural aid.
+
+In proportion as the pursuit of transmutation, and the search after
+the elixir of immortality grew into vogue, the adepts became desirous
+of investing them with the venerable garb of antiquity. They
+endeavoured to carry up the study to the time of Solomon; and there
+were not wanting some who imputed it to the first father of mankind.
+They were desirous to track its footsteps in Ancient Egypt; and they
+found a mythological representation of it in the expedition of Jason
+after the golden fleece, and in the cauldron by which Medea restored
+the father of Jason to his original youth. [178] But, as has already
+been said, the first unquestionable mention of the subject is to be
+referred to the time of Dioclesian. [179] From that period traces of
+the studies of the alchemists from time to time regularly discover
+themselves.
+
+The study of chemistry and its supposed invaluable results was
+assiduously cultivated by Geber and the Arabians.
+
+
+ARTEPHIUS.
+
+Artephius is one of the earliest names that occur among the students
+who sought the philosopher's stone. Of him extraordinary things are
+told. He lived about the year 1130, and wrote a book of the Art of
+Prolonging Human Life, in which he professes to have already attained
+the age of one thousand and twenty-five years. [180] He must by this
+account have been born about one hundred years after our Saviour. He
+professed to have visited the infernal regions, and there to have seen
+Tantalus seated on a throne of gold. He is also said by some to be the
+same person, whose life has been written by Philostratus under the
+name of Apollonius of Tyana. [181] He wrote a book on the philosopher's
+stone, which was published in Latin and French at Paris in the year
+1612.
+
+
+RAYMOND LULLI.
+
+Among the European students of these interesting secrets a foremost
+place is to be assigned to Raymond Lulli and Arnold of Villeneuve.
+
+Lulli was undoubtedly a man endowed in a very eminent degree with the
+powers of intellect. He was a native of the island of Majorca, and was
+born in the year 1234. He is said to have passed his early years in
+profligacy and dissipation, but to have been reclaimed by the accident
+of falling in love with a young woman afflicted with a cancer. This
+circumstance induced him to apply himself intently to the study of
+chemistry and medicine, with a view to discover a cure for her
+complaint, in which he succeeded. He afterwards entered into the
+community of Franciscan friars.
+
+Edward the First was one of the most extraordinary princes that ever
+sat on a throne. He revived the study of the Roman civil law with such
+success as to have merited the title of the English Justinian. He was
+no less distinguished as the patron of arts and letters. He invited to
+England Guido dalla Colonna, the author of the Troy Book, and Raymond
+Lulli. This latter was believed in his time to have prosecuted his
+studies with such success as to have discovered the _elixir vitae_,
+by means of which he could keep off the assaults of old age, at least
+for centuries, and the philosopher's stone. He is affirmed by these
+means to have supplied to Edward the First six millions of money, to
+enable him to carry on war against the Turks.
+
+But he was not only indefatigable in the pursuit of natural science.
+He was also seized with an invincible desire to convert the Mahometans
+to the Christian faith. For this purpose he entered earnestly upon the
+study of the Oriental languages. He endeavoured to prevail on different
+princes of Europe to concur in his plan, and to erect colleges for the
+purpose, but without success. He at length set out alone upon his
+enterprise, but met with small encouragement. He penetrated into
+Africa and Asia. He made few converts, and was with difficulty suffered
+to depart, under a solemn injunction that he should not return. But
+Lulli chose to obey God rather than man, and ventured a second time.
+The Mahometans became exasperated with his obstinacy, and are said to
+have stoned him to death at the age of eighty years. His body was
+however transported to his native place; and miracles are reported to
+have been worked at his tomb. [182]
+
+Raymond Lulli is beside famous for what he was pleased to style his
+Great Art. The ordinary accounts however that are given of this art
+assume a style of burlesque, rather than of philosophy. He is said to
+have boasted that by means of it he could enable any one to argue
+logically on any subject for a whole day together, independently of
+any previous study of the subject in debate. To the details of the
+process Swift seems to have been indebted for one of the humorous
+projects described by him in his voyage to Laputa. Lulli recommended
+that certain general terms of logic, metaphysics, ethics or theology
+should first be collected. These were to be inscribed separately upon
+square pieces of parchment. They were then to be placed on a frame so
+constructed that by turning a handle they might revolve freely, and
+form endless combinations. One term would stand for a subject, and
+another for a predicate. The student was then diligently to inspect
+the different combinations that fortuitously arose, and exercising the
+subtlety of his faculties to select such as he should find best
+calculated for his purposes. He would thus carry on the process of his
+debate; and an extraordinary felicity would occasionally arise,
+suggesting the most ingenious hints, and leading on to the most
+important discoveries. [183]--If a man with the eminent faculties
+which Lulli otherwise appeared to have possessed really laid down the
+rules of such an art, all he intended by it must have been to satirize
+the gravity with which the learned doctors of his time carried on
+their grave disputations in mood and figure, having regard only to the
+severity of the rule by which they debated, and holding themselves
+totally indifferent whether they made any real advances in the
+discovery of truth.
+
+
+ARNOLD OF VILLENEUVE.
+
+Arnold of Villeneuve, who lived about the same time, was a man of
+eminent attainments. He made a great proficiency in Greek, Hebrew, and
+Arabic. He devoted himself in a high degree to astrology, and was so
+confident in his art, as to venture to predict that the end of the
+world would occur in a few years; but he lived to witness the
+fallaciousness of his prophecy. He had much reputation as a physician.
+He appears to have been a bold thinker. He maintained that deeds of
+charity were of more avail than the sacrifice of the mass, and that no
+one would be damned hereafter, but such as were proved to afford an
+example of immoral conduct. Like all the men of these times who were
+distinguished by the profoundness of their studies, he was accused of
+magic. For this, or upon a charge of heresy, he was brought under the
+prosecution of the inquisition. But he was alarmed by the fate of
+Peter of Apono, and by recantation or some other mode of prudent
+contrivance was fortunate enough to escape. He is one of the persons
+to whom the writing of the book, _De Tribus Impostoribus_, Of the
+Three Impostors (Moses, Jesus Christ and Mahomet) was imputed! [184]
+
+
+ENGLISH LAWS RESPECTING TRANSMUTATION.
+
+So great an alarm was conceived about this time respecting the art of
+transmutation, that an act of parliament was passed in the fifth year
+of Henry IV, 1404, which lord Coke states as the shortest of our
+statutes, determining that the making of gold or silver shall be
+deemed felony. This law is said to have resulted from the fear at that
+time entertained by the houses of lords and commons, lest the
+executive power, finding itself by these means enabled to increase the
+revenue of the crown to any degree it pleased, should disdain to ask
+aid from the legislature; and in consequence should degenerate into
+tyranny and arbitrary power. [185]
+
+George Ripley, of Ripley in the county of York, is mentioned, towards
+the latter part of the fifteenth century, as having discovered the
+philosopher's stone, and by its means contributed one hundred thousand
+pounds to the knights of Rhodes, the better to enable them to carry on
+their war against the Turks. [186]
+
+About this time however the tide appears to have turned, and the alarm
+respecting the multiplication of the precious metals so greatly to
+have abated, that patents were issued in the thirty-fifth year of
+Henry VI, for the encouragement of such as were disposed to seek the
+universal medicine, and to endeavour the transmutation of inferior
+metals into gold. [187]
+
+
+
+
+REVIVAL OF LETTERS.
+
+
+While these things were going on in Europe, the period was gradually
+approaching, when the energies of the human mind were to loosen its
+shackles, and its independence was ultimately to extinguish those
+delusions and that superstition which had so long enslaved it.
+Petrarch, born in the year 1304, was deeply impregnated with a passion
+for classical lore, was smitten with the love of republican
+institutions, and especially distinguished himself for an adoration of
+Homer. Dante, a more sublime and original genius than Petrarch, was
+his contemporary. About the same time Boccaccio in his Decamerone gave
+at once to Italian prose that purity and grace, which none of his
+successors in the career of literature have ever been able to excel.
+And in our own island Chaucer with a daring hand redeemed his native
+tongue from the disuse and ignominy into which it had fallen, and
+poured out the immortal strains that the genuine lovers of the English
+tongue have ever since perused with delight, while those who are
+discouraged by its apparent crabbedness, have yet grown familiar with
+his thoughts in the smoother and more modern versification of Dryden
+and Pope. From that time the principles of true taste have been more
+or less cultivated, while with equal career independence of thought
+and an ardent spirit of discovery have continually proceeded, and made
+a rapid advance towards the perfect day.
+
+But the dawn of literature and intellectual freedom were still a long
+time ere they produced their full effect. The remnant of the old woman
+clung to the heart with a tenacious embrace. Three or four centuries
+elapsed, while yet the belief in sorcery and witchcraft was alive in
+certain classes of society. And then, as is apt to occur in such cases,
+the expiring folly occasionally gave tokens of its existence with a
+convulsive vehemence, and became only the more picturesque and
+impressive through the strong contrast of lights and shadows that
+attended its manifestations.
+
+
+JOAN OF ARC.
+
+One of the most memorable stories on record is that of Joan of Arc,
+commonly called the Maid of Orleans. Henry the Fifth of England won
+the decisive battle of Agincourt in the year 1415, and some time after
+concluded a treaty with the reigning king of France, by which he was
+recognised, in case of that king's death, as heir to the throne.
+Henry V died in the year 1422, and Charles VI of France in less than
+two months after. Henry VI was only nine months old at the time of his
+father's death; but such was the deplorable state of France, that he
+was in the same year proclaimed king in Paris, and for some years
+seemed to have every prospect of a fortunate reign. John duke of
+Bedford, the king's uncle, was declared regent of France: the son of
+Charles VI was reduced to the last extremity; Orleans was the last
+strong town in the heart of the kingdom which held out in his favour;
+and that place seemed on the point to surrender to the conqueror.
+
+In this fearful crisis appeared Joan of Arc, and in the most incredible
+manner turned the whole tide of affairs. She was a servant in a poor
+inn at Domremi, and was accustomed to perform the coarsest offices,
+and in particular to ride the horses to a neighbouring stream to water.
+Of course the situation of France and her hereditary king formed the
+universal subject of conversation; and Joan became deeply impressed
+with the lamentable state of her country and the misfortunes of her
+king. By dint of perpetual meditation, and feeling in her breast the
+promptings of energy and enterprise, she conceived the idea that she
+was destined by heaven to be the deliverer of France. Agreeably to the
+state of intellectual knowledge at that period, she persuaded herself
+that she saw visions, and held communication with the saints. She had
+conversations with St. Margaret, and St. Catherine of Fierbois. They
+told her that she was commissioned by God to raise the siege of
+Orleans, and to conduct Charles VII to his coronation at Rheims. St.
+Catherine commanded her to demand a sword which was in her church at
+Fierbois, which the Maid described by particular tokens, though she
+had never seen it. She then presented herself to Baudricourt, governor
+of the neighbouring town of Vaucouleurs, telling him her commission,
+and requiring him to send her to the king at Chinon. Baudricourt at
+first made light of her application; but her importunity and the
+ardour she expressed at length excited him. He put on her a man's
+attire, gave her arms, and sent her under an escort of two gentlemen
+and their attendants to Chinon. Here she immediately addressed the
+king in person, who had purposely hid himself behind his courtiers
+that she might not know him. She then delivered her message, and
+offered in the name of the Most High to raise the siege of Orleans,
+and conduct king Charles to Rheims to be anointed. As a further
+confirmation she is said to have revealed to the king before a few
+select friends, a secret, which nothing but divine inspiration could
+have discovered to her.
+
+Desperate as was then the state of affairs, Charles and his ministers
+immediately resolved to seize the occasion that offered, and put
+forward Joan as an instrument to revive the prostrate courage of his
+subjects. He had no sooner determined on this, than he pretended to
+submit the truth of her mission to the most rigorous trial. He called
+together an assembly of theologians and doctors, who rigorously
+examined Joan, and pronounced in her favour. He referred the question
+to the parliament of Poitiers; and they, who met persuaded that she
+was an impostor, became convinced of her inspiration. She was mounted
+on a high-bred steed, furnished with a consecrated banner, and marched,
+escorted by a body of five thousand men, to the relief of Orleans. The
+French, strongly convinced by so plain an interposition of heaven,
+resumed the courage to which they had long been strangers. Such a
+phenomenon was exactly suited to the superstition and credulity of the
+age. The English were staggered with the rumours that every where went
+before her, and struck with a degree of apprehension and terror that
+they could not shake off. The garrison, informed of her approach, made
+a sally on the other side of the town; and Joan and her convoy entered
+without opposition. She displayed her standard in the market-place,
+and was received as a celestial deliverer.
+
+She appears to have been endowed with a prudence, not inferior to her
+courage and spirit of enterprise. With great docility she caught the
+hints of the commanders by whom she was surrounded; and, convinced of
+her own want of experience and skill, delivered them to the forces as
+the dictates of heaven. Thus the knowledge and discernment of the
+generals were brought into play, at the same time that their
+suggestions acquired new weight, when falling from the lips of the
+heaven-instructed heroine. A second convoy arrived; the waggons and
+troops passed between the redoubts of the English; while a dead
+silence and astonishment reigned among the forces, so lately
+enterprising and resistless. Joan now called on the garrison no longer
+to stand upon the defensive, but boldly to attack the army of the
+besiegers. She took one redoubt and then another. The English,
+overwhelmed with amazement, scarcely dared to lift a hand against her.
+Their veteran generals became spell-bound and powerless; and their
+soldiers were driven before the prophetess like a flock of sheep. The
+siege was raised.
+
+Joan followed the English garrison to a fortified town which they
+fixed on as their place of retreat. The siege lasted ten days; the
+place was taken; and all the English within it made prisoners. The
+late victorious forces now concentred themselves at Patay in the
+Orleanois; Joan advanced to meet them. The battle lasted not a moment;
+it was rather a flight than a combat; Fastolfe, one of the bravest of
+our commanders, threw down his arms, and ran for his life; Talbot and
+Scales, the other generals, were made prisoners. The siege of Orleans
+was raised on the eighth of May, 1429; the battle of Patay was fought
+on the tenth of the following month. Joan was at this time twenty-two
+years of age.
+
+This extraordinary turn having been given to the affairs of the
+kingdom, Joan next insisted that the king should march to Rheims, in
+order to his being crowned. Rheims lay in a direction expressly
+through the midst of the enemies' garrisons. But every thing yielded
+to the marvellous fortune that attended upon the heroine. Troyes
+opened its gates; Chalons followed the example; Rheims sent a
+deputation with the keys of the city, which met Charles on his march.
+The proposed solemnity took place amidst the extacies and enthusiastic
+shouts of his people. It was no sooner over, than Joan stept forward.
+She said, she had now performed the whole of what God had commissioned
+her to do; she was satisfied; she intreated the king to dismiss her to
+the obscurity from which she had sprung.
+
+The ministers and generals of France however found Joan too useful an
+instrument, to be willing to part with her thus early; and she yielded
+to their earnest expostulations. Under her guidance they assailed Laon,
+Soissons, Chateau Thierry, Provins, and many other places, and took
+them one after another. She threw herself into Compiegne, which was
+besieged by the Duke of Burgundy in conjunction with certain English
+commanders. The day after her arrival she headed a sally against the
+enemy; twice she repelled them; but, finding their numbers increase
+every moment with fresh reinforcements, she directed a retreat. Twice
+she returned upon her pursuers, and made them recoil, the third time
+she was less fortunate. She found herself alone, surrounded with the
+enemy; and after having enacted prodigies of valour, she was compelled
+to surrender a prisoner. This happened on the twenty-fifth of May,
+1430.
+
+It remained to be determined what should be the fate of this admirable
+woman. Both friends and enemies agreed that her career had been
+attended with a supernatural power. The French, who were so infinitely
+indebted to her achievements, and who owed the sudden and glorious
+reverse of their affairs to her alone, were convinced that she was
+immediately commissioned by God, and vied with each other in reciting
+the miraculous phenomena which marked every step in her progress. The
+English, who saw all the victorious acquisitions of Henry V crumbling
+from their grasp, were equally impressed with the manifest miracle,
+but imputed all her good-fortune to a league with the prince of
+darkness. They said that her boasted visions were so many delusions of
+the devil. They determined to bring her to trial for the tremendous
+crimes of sorcery and witchcraft. They believed that, if she were once
+convicted and led out to execution, the prowess and valour which had
+hitherto marked their progress would return to them, and that they
+should obtain the same superiority over their disheartened foes. The
+devil, who had hitherto been her constant ally, terrified at the
+spectacle of the flames that consumed her, would instantly return to
+the infernal regions, and leave the field open to English enterprise
+and energy, and to the interposition of God and his saints.
+
+An accusation was prepared against her, and all the solemnities of a
+public trial were observed. But the proofs were so weak and
+unsatisfactory, and Joan, though oppressed and treated with the utmost
+severity, displayed so much acuteness and presence of mind, that the
+court, not venturing to proceed to the last extremity, contented
+themselves with sentencing her to perpetual imprisonment, and to be
+allowed no other nourishment than bread and water for life. Before
+they yielded to this mitigation of punishment, they caused her to sign
+with her mark a recantation of her offences. She acknowledged that the
+enthusiasm that had guided her was an illusion, and promised never
+more to listen to its suggestions.
+
+The hatred of her enemies however was not yet appeased. They
+determined in some way to entrap her. They had clothed her in a female
+garb; they insidiously laid in her way the habiliments of a man. The
+fire smothered in the bosom of the maid, revived at the sight; she was
+alone; she caught up the garments, and one by one adjusted them to her
+person. Spies were set upon her to watch for this event; they burst
+into the apartment. What she had done was construed into no less
+offence than that of a relapsed heretic; there was no more pardon for
+such confirmed delinquency; she was brought out to be burned alive in
+the market-place of Rouen, and she died, embracing a crucifix, and in
+her last moments calling upon the name of Jesus. A few days more than
+twelve months, had elapsed between the period of her first captivity
+and her execution.
+
+
+ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER.
+
+This was a period in which the ideas of witchcraft had caught fast
+hold of the minds of mankind; and those accusations, which by the
+enlightened part of the species would now be regarded as worthy only
+of contempt, were then considered as charges of the most flatigious
+[Errata: _read_ flagitious] nature. While John, duke of Bedford,
+the eldest uncle of king Henry VI, was regent of France, Humphrey of
+Gloucester, next brother to Bedford, was lord protector of the realm
+of England. Though Henry was now nineteen years of age, yet, as he was
+a prince of slender capacity, Humphrey still continued to discharge
+the functions of sovereignty. He was eminently endowed with popular
+qualities, and was a favourite with the majority of the nation. He had
+however many enemies, one of the chief of whom was Henry Beaufort,
+great-uncle to the king, and cardinal of Winchester. One of the means
+employed by this prelate to undermine the power of Humphrey, consisted
+in a charge of witchcraft brought against Eleanor Cobham, his wife.
+
+This woman had probably yielded to the delusions, which artful persons,
+who saw into the weakness of her character, sought to practise upon
+her. She was the second wife of Humphrey, and he was suspected to have
+indulged in undue familiarity with her, before he was a widower. His
+present duchess was reported to have had recourse to witchcraft in the
+first instance, by way of securing his wayward inclinations. The duke
+of Bedford had died in 1435; and Humphrey now, in addition to the
+actual exercise of the powers of sovereigny, was next heir to the
+crown in case of the king's decease. This weak and licentious woman,
+being now duchess of Gloucester, and wife to the lord protector,
+directed her ambition to the higher title and prerogatives of a queen,
+and by way of feeding her evil passions, called to her counsels
+Margery Jourdain, commonly called the witch of Eye, Roger Bolingbroke,
+an astrologer and supposed magician, Thomas Southwel, canon of St.
+Stephen's, and one John Hume, or Hun, a priest. These persons
+frequently met the duchess in secret cabal. They were accused of
+calling up spirits from the infernal world; and they made an image of
+wax, which they slowly consumed before a fire, expecting that, as the
+image gradually wasted away, so the constitution and life of the poor
+king would decay and finally perish.
+
+Hume, or Hun, is supposed to have turned informer, and upon his
+information several of these persons were taken into custody. After
+previous examination, on the twenty-fifth of July, 1441, Bolingbroke
+was placed upon a scaffold before the cross of St. Paul's, with a
+chair curiously painted, which was supposed to be one of his
+implements of necromancy, and dressed in mystical attire, and there,
+before the archbishop of Canterbury, the cardinal of Winchester, and
+several other bishops, made abjuration of all his unlawful arts.
+
+A short time after, the duchess of Gloucester, having fled to the
+sanctuary at Westminster, her case was referred to the same high
+persons, and Bolingbroke was brought forth to give evidence against
+her. She was of consequence committed to custody in the castle of
+Leeds near Maidstone, to take her trial in the month of October. A
+commission was directed to the lord treasurer, several noblemen, and
+certain judges of both benches, to enquire into all manner of treasons,
+sorceries, and other things that might be hurtful to the king's person,
+and Bolingbroke and Southwel as principals, and the duchess of
+Gloucester as accessory, were brought before them. Margery Jourdain
+was arraigned at the same time; and she, as a witch and relapsed
+heretic, was condemned to be burned in Smithfield. The duchess of
+Gloucester was sentenced to do penance on three several days, walking
+through the streets of London, with a lighted taper in her hand,
+attended by the lord mayor, the sheriffs, and a select body of the
+livery, and then to be banished for life to the isle of Man. Thomas
+Southwel died in prison; and Bolingbroke was hanged at Tyburn on the
+eighteenth of November.
+
+
+RICHARD III.
+
+An event occurred not very long after this, which deserves to be
+mentioned, as being well calculated to shew how deep an impression
+ideas of witchcraft had made on the public mind even in the gravest
+affairs and the counsels of a nation. Richard duke of Gloucester,
+afterwards Richard III, shortly before his usurpation of the crown in
+1483, had recourse to this expedient for disarming the power of his
+enemies, which he feared as an obstacle to his project. Being lord
+protector, he came abruptly into the assembly of the council that he
+had left but just before, and suddenly asked, what punishment they
+deserved who should be found to have plotted against his life, being
+the person, as nearest akin to the young king, intrusted in chief with
+the affairs of the nation? And, a suitable answer being returned, he
+said the persons he accused were the queen-dowager, and Jane Shore,
+the favourite concubine of the late king, who by witchcraft and
+forbidden arts had sought to destroy him. And, while he spoke, he laid
+bare his left arm up to the elbow, which appeared shrivelled and
+wasted in a pitiable manner. "To this condition," said he, "have these
+abandoned women reduced me."--The historian adds, that it was well
+known that his arm had been thus wasted from his birth.
+
+In January 1484, the parliament met which recognised the title of
+Richard, and pronounced the marriage of Edward IV null, and its issue
+illegitimate. [188] The same parliament passed an act of attainder
+against Henry earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII, the countess of
+Richmond, his mother, and a great number of other persons, many of
+them the most considerable adherents of the house of Lancaster. Among
+these persons are enumerated Thomas Nandick and William Knivet,
+necromancers. In the first parliament of Henry VII this attainder was
+reversed, and Thomas Nandick of Cambridge, conjurer, is specially
+nominated as an object of free pardon. [189]
+
+
+
+
+SANGUINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST WITCHCRAFT.
+
+
+I am now led to the most painful part of my subject, but which does
+not the less constitute one of its integral members, and which, though
+painful, is deeply instructive, and constitutes a most essential
+branch in the science of human nature. Wherever I could, I have
+endeavoured to render the topics which offered themselves to my
+examination, entertaining. When men pretended to invert the known laws
+of nature, "murdering impossibility; to make what cannot be, slight
+work;" I have been willing to consider the whole as an ingenious
+fiction, and merely serving as an example how far credulity could go
+in setting aside the deductions of our reason, and the evidence of
+sense. The artists in these cases did not fail to excite admiration,
+and gain some sort of applause from their contemporaries, though still
+with a tingling feeling that all was not exactly as it should be, and
+with a confession that the professors were exercising unhallowed arts.
+It was like what has been known of the art of acting; those who
+employed it were caressed and made every where welcome, but were not
+allowed the distinction of Christian burial.
+
+But, particularly in the fifteenth century, things took a new turn. In
+the dawn of the day of good sense, and when historical evidence at
+length began to be weighed in the scales of judgment, men became less
+careless of truth, and regarded prodigies and miracles with a different
+temper. And, as it often happens, the crisis, the precise passage from
+ill to better, shewed itself more calamitous, and more full of
+enormities and atrocity, than the period when the understanding was
+completely hood-winked, and men digested absurdities and impossibility
+with as much ease as their every day food. They would not now forgive
+the tampering with the axioms of eternal truth; they regarded cheat
+and imposture with a very different eye; and they had recourse to the
+stake and the faggot, for the purpose of proving that they would no
+longer be trifled with. They treated the offenders as the most
+atrocious of criminals, and thus, though by a very indirect and
+circuitous method, led the way to the total dispersion of those clouds,
+which hung, with most uneasy operation, on the human understanding.
+
+The university of Paris in the year 1398 promulgated an edict, in
+which they complained that the practice of witchcraft was become more
+frequent and general than at any former period. [190]
+
+A stratagem was at this time framed by the ecclesiastical persecutors,
+of confounding together the crimes of heresy and witchcraft. The first
+of these might seem to be enough in the days of bigotry and implicit
+faith, to excite the horror of the vulgar; but the advocates of
+religious uniformity held that they should be still more secure of
+their object, if they could combine the sin of holding cheap the
+authority of the recognised heads of Christian faith, with that of
+men's enlisting under the banners of Satan, and becoming the avowed
+and sworn vassals of his infernal empire. They accordingly seem to
+have invented the ideas of a sabbath of witches, a numerous assembly
+of persons who had cast off all sense of shame, and all regard for
+those things which the rest of the human species held most sacred,
+where the devil appeared among them in his most forbidding form, and,
+by rites equally ridiculous and obscene, the persons present
+acknowledged themselves his subjects. And, having invented this scene,
+these cunning and mischievous persecutors found means, as we shall
+presently see, of compelling their unfortunate victims to confess that
+they had personally assisted at the ceremony, and performed all the
+degrading offices which should consign them in the world to come to
+everlasting fire.
+
+While I express myself thus, I by no means intend to encourage the
+idea that the ecclesiastical authorities of these times were generally
+hypocrites. They fully partook of the narrowness of thought of the
+period in which they lived. They believed that the sin of heretical
+pravity was "as the sin of witchcraft;" [191] they regarded them alike
+with horror, and were persuaded that there was a natural consent and
+alliance between them. Fully impressed with this conception, they
+employed means from which our genuine and undebauched nature revolts,
+to extort from their deluded victims a confession of what their
+examiners apprehended to be true; they asked them leading questions;
+they suggested the answers they desired to receive; and led the
+ignorant and friendless to imagine that, if these answers were adopted,
+they might expect immediately to be relieved from insupportable
+tortures. The delusion went round. These unhappy wretches, finding
+themselves the objects of universal abhorrence, and the hatred of
+mankind, at length many of them believed that they had entered into a
+league with the devil, that they had been transported by him through
+the air to an assembly of souls consigned to everlasting reprobation,
+that they had bound themselves in acts of fealty to their infernal
+taskmasters [Errata: _read_ taskmaster], and had received from
+him in return the gift of performing superhuman and supernatural feats.
+This is a tremendous state of degradation of what Milton called the
+"the faultless proprieties of nature," [192] which cooler thinking and
+more enlightened times would lead us to regard as impossible, but to
+which the uncontradicted and authentic voice of history compels us to
+subscribe.
+
+The Albigenses and Waldenses were a set of men, who, in the
+flourishing provinces of Languedoc, in the darkest ages, and when the
+understandings of human creatures by a force not less memorable than
+that of Procrustes were reduced to an uniform stature, shook off by
+some strange and unaccountable freak, the chains that were universally
+imposed, and arrived at a boldness of thinking similar to that which
+Luther and Calvin after a lapse of centuries advocated with happier
+auspices. With these manly and generous sentiments however they
+combined a considerable portion of wild enthusiasm. They preached the
+necessity of a community of goods, taught that it was necessary to
+wear sandals, because sandals only had been worn by the apostles, and
+devoted themselves to lives of rigorous abstinence and the most severe
+self-denial.
+
+The Catholic church knew no other way in those days of converting
+heretics, but by fire and sword; and accordingly pope Innocent the
+Third published a crusade against them. The inquisition was expressly
+appointed in its origin to bring back these stray sheep into the flock
+of Christ; and, to support this institution in its operations, Simon
+Montfort marched a numerous army for the extermination of the
+offenders. One hundred thousand are said to have perished. They
+disappeared from the country which had witnessed their commencement,
+and dispersed themselves in the vallies of Piedmont, in Artois, and in
+various other places. This crusade occurred in the commencement of the
+thirteenth century; and they do not again attract the notice of
+history till the middle of the fifteenth.
+
+Monstrelet, in his Chronicle, gives one of the earliest accounts of
+the proceedings at this time instituted against these unfortunate
+people, under the date of the year 1459. "In this year," says he, "in
+the town of Arras, there occurred a miserable and inhuman scene, to
+which, I know not why, was given the name of _Vaudoisie_. There
+were taken up and imprisoned a number of considerable persons
+inhabitants of this town, and others of a very inferior class. These
+latter were so cruelly put to the torture, that they confessed, that
+they had been transported by supernatural means to a solitary place
+among woods, where the devil appeared before them in the form of a man,
+though they saw not his face. He instructed them in the way in which
+they should do his bidding, and exacted from them acts of homage and
+obedience. He feasted them, and after, having put out the lights, they
+proceeded to acts of the grossest licentiousness." These accounts,
+according to Monstrelet, were dictated to the victims by their
+tormentors; and they then added, under the same suggestion, the names
+of divers lords, prelates, and governors of towns and bailliages, whom
+they affirmed they had seen at these meetings, and who joined in the
+same unholy ceremonies. The historian adds, that it cannot be
+concealed that these accusations were brought by certain malicious
+persons, either to gratify an ancient hatred, or to extort from the
+rich sums of money, by means of which they might purchase their escape
+from further prosecution. The persons apprehended were many of them
+put to the torture so severely, and for so long a time, and were
+tortured again and again, that they were obliged to confess what was
+laid to their charge. Some however shewed so great constancy, that
+they could by no means be induced to depart from the protestation of
+their innocence. In fine, many of the poorer victims were inhumanly
+burned; while the richer with great sums of money procured their
+discharge, but at the same time were compelled to banish themselves to
+distant places, remote from the scene of this cruel outrage.--Balduinus
+of Artois gives a similar account, and adds that the sentence of the
+judges was brought, by appeal under the revision of the parliament of
+Paris, and was reversed by that judicature in the year 1491. [193]
+
+I have not succeeded in tracing to my satisfaction from the original
+authorities the dates of the following examples, and therefore shall
+refer them to the periods assigned them in Hutchinson on Witchcraft.
+The facts themselves rest for the most part on the most unquestionable
+authority.
+
+Innocent VIII published about the year 1484 a bull, in which he
+affirms: "It has come to our ears, that numbers of both sexes do not
+avoid to have intercourse with the infernal fiends, and that by their
+sorceries they afflict both man and beast; they blight the
+marriage-bed, destroy the births of women, and the increase of cattle;
+they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the
+fruits of the trees, and the grass and herbs of the field." For these
+reasons he arms the inquisitors with apostolic power to "imprison,
+convict and punish" all such as may be charged with these
+offences.--The consequences of this edict were dreadful all over the
+continent, particularly in Italy, Germany and France.
+
+Alciatus, an eminent lawyer of this period, relates, that a certain
+inquisitor came about this time into the vallies of the Alps, being
+commissioned to enquire out and proceed against heretical women with
+whom those parts were infested. He accordingly consigned more than one
+hundred to the flames, every day, like a new holocaust, sacrificing
+such persons to Vulcan, as, in the judgment of the historian, were
+subjects demanding rather hellebore than fire; till at length the
+peasantry of the vicinity rose in arms, and drove the merciless judge
+out of the country. The culprits were accused of having dishonoured
+the crucifix, and denying Christ for their God. They were asserted to
+have solemnised after a detestable way the devil's sabbath, in which
+the fiend appeared personally among them, and instructed them in the
+ceremonies of his worship. Meanwhile a question was raised whether
+they personally assisted on the occasion, or only saw the solemnities
+in a vision, credible witnesses having sworn that they were at home in
+their beds, at the very time that they were accused of having taken
+part in these blasphemies. [194]
+
+In 1515, more than five hundred persons are said to have suffered
+capitally for the crime of witchcraft in the city of Geneva in the
+course of three months. [195]
+
+In 1524, one thousand persons were burned on this accusation in the
+territory of Como, and one hundred per annum for several year after.
+[196]
+
+Danaeus commences his Dialogue of Witches with this observation. "Within
+three months of the present time (1575) an almost infinite number of
+witches have been taken, on whom the parliament of Paris has passed
+judgment: and the same tribunal fails not to sit daily, as malefactors
+accused of this crime are continually brought before them out of all
+the provinces."
+
+In the year 1595 Nicholas Remi, otherwise Remigius, printed a very
+curious work, entitled Demonolatreia, in which he elaborately expounds
+the principles of the compact into which the devil enters with his
+mortal allies, and the modes of conduct specially observed by both
+parties. He boasts that his exposition is founded on an exact
+observation of the judicial proceedings which had taken place under
+his eye in the duchy of Lorraine, where for the preceding fifteen
+years nine hundred persons, more or less, had suffered the extreme
+penalty of the law for the crime of sorcery. Most of the persons tried
+seem to have been sufficiently communicative as to the different kinds
+of menace and compulsion by which the devil had brought them into his
+terms, and the various appearances he had exhibited, and feats he had
+performed: but others, says the author, had, "by preserving an
+obstinate silence, shewn themselves invincible to every species of
+torture that could be inflicted on them."
+
+But the most memorable record that remains to us on the subject of
+witchcraft, is contained in an ample quarto volume, entitled A
+Representation (_Tableau_) of the Ill Faith of Evil Spirits and
+Demons, by Pierre De Lancre, Royal Counsellor in the Parliament of
+Bordeaux. This man was appointed with one coadjutor, to enquire into
+certain acts of sorcery, reported to have been committed in the
+district of Labourt, near the foot of the Pyrenees; and his commission
+bears date in May, 1609, and by consequence twelve months before the
+death of Henry the Fourth.
+
+The book is dedicated to M. de Silleri, chancellor of France; and in
+the dedication the author observes, that formerly those who practised
+sorcery were well known for persons of obscure station and narrow
+intellect; but that now the sorcerers who confess their misdemeanours,
+depose, that there are seen in the customary meetings held by such
+persons a great number of individuals of quality, whom Satan keeps
+veiled from ordinary gaze, and who are allowed to approach near to him,
+while those of a poorer and more vulgar class are thrust back to the
+furthest part of the assembly. The whole narrative assumes the form of
+a regular warfare between Satan on the one side, and the royal
+commissioners on the other.
+
+At first the devil endeavoured to supply the accused with strength to
+support the tortures by which it was sought to extort confession from
+them, insomuch that, in an intermission of the torture, the wretches
+declared that, presently falling asleep, they seemed to be in paradise,
+and to enjoy the most beautiful visions. The commissioners however,
+observing this, took care to grant them scarcely any remission, till
+they had drawn from them, if possible, an ample confession. The devil
+next proceeded to stop the mouths of the accused that they might not
+confess. He leaped on their throats, and evidently caused an
+obstruction of the organs of speech, so that in vain they endeavoured
+to relieve themselves by disclosing all that was demanded of them.
+
+The historian proceeds to say that, at these sacrilegious assemblings,
+they now began to murmur against the devil, as wanting power to
+relieve them in their extremity. The children, the daughters, and
+other relatives of the victims reproached him, not scrupling to say,
+"Out upon you! you promised that our mothers who were prisoners should
+not die; and look how you have kept your word with us! They have been
+burned, and are a heap of ashes." In answer to this charge the devil
+stoutly affirmed, that their parents, who seemed to have suffered,
+were not dead, but were safe in a foreign country, assuring the
+malcontents that, if they called on them, they would receive an answer.
+The children called accordingly, and by an infernal illusion an answer
+came, exactly in the several voices of the deceased, declaring that
+they were in a state of happiness and security.
+
+Further to satisfy the complainers, the devil produced illusory fires,
+and encouraged the dissatisfied to walk through them, assuring them
+that the fires lighted by a judicial decree were as harmless and
+inoffensive as these. The demon further threatened that he would cause
+the prosecutors to be burned in their own fire, and even proceeded to
+make them in semblance hover and alight on the branches of the
+neighbouring trees. He further caused a swarm of toads to appear like
+a garland to crown the heads of the sufferers, at which when in one
+instance the bystanders threw stones to drive them away, one monstrous
+black toad remained to the last uninjured, and finally mounted aloft,
+and vanished from sight. De Lancre goes on to describe the ceremonies
+of the sabbath of the devil; and a plate is inserted, presenting the
+assembly in the midst of their solemnities. He describes in several
+chapters the sort of contract entered into between the devil and the
+sorcerers, the marks by which they may be known, the feast with which
+the demon regaled them, their distorted and monstrous dance, the
+copulation between the fiend and the witch, and its issue.--It is easy
+to imagine with what sort of fairness the trials were conducted, when
+such is the description the judge affords us of what passed at these
+assemblies. Six hundred were burned under this prosecution.
+
+The last chapter is devoted to an accurate account of what took place
+at an _auto da fe_ in the month of November 1610 at Logrogno on
+the Ebro in Spain, the victims being for the greater part the unhappy
+wretches, who had escaped through the Pyrenees from the merciless
+prosecution that had been exercised against them by the historian of
+the whole.
+
+
+SAVONAROLA.
+
+Jerome Savonarola was one of the most remarkable men of his time, and
+his fortunes are well adapted to illustrate the peculiarities of that
+period. He was born in the year 1452 at Ferrara in Italy. He became a
+Dominican Friar at Bologna without the knowledge of his parents in the
+twenty-second year of his age. He was first employed by his superiors
+in elucidating the principles of physics and metaphysics. But, after
+having occupied some years in this way, he professed to take a lasting
+leave of these subtleties, and to devote himself exclusively to the
+study of the Scriptures. In no long time he became an eminent preacher,
+by the elegance and purity of his style acquiring the applause of
+hearers of taste, and by the unequalled fervour of his eloquence
+securing the hearts of the many. It was soon obvious, that, by his
+power gained in this mode, he could do any thing he pleased with the
+people of Florence among whom he resided. Possessed of such an
+ascendancy, he was not contented to be the spiritual guide of the
+souls of men, but further devoted himself to the temporal prosperity
+and grandeur of his country. The house of Medici was at this time
+masters of the state, and the celebrated Lorenzo de Medici possessed
+the administration of affairs. But the political maxims of Lorenzo
+were in discord with those of our preacher. Lorenzo sought to
+concentre all authority in the opulent few; but Savonarola, proceeding
+on the model of the best times of ancient Rome, endeavoured to vest
+the sovereign power in the hands of the people.
+
+He had settled at Florence in the thirty-fourth year of his age, being
+invited to become prior of the convent of St. Mark in that city: and
+such was his popularity, that, four years after, Lorenzo on his
+death-bed sent for Savonarola to administer to him spiritual
+consolation. Meanwhile, so stern did this republican shew himself,
+that he insisted on Lorenzo's renunciation of his absolute power,
+before he would administer to him the sacrament and absolution: and
+Lorenzo complied with these terms.
+
+The prince being dead, Savonarola stepped immediately into the highest
+authority. He reconstituted the state upon pure republican principles,
+and enjoined four things especially in all his public preachings, the
+fear of God, the love of the republic, oblivion of all past injuries,
+and equal rights to all for the future.
+
+But Savonarola was not contented with the delivery of Florence, where
+he is said to have produced a total revolution of manners, from
+libertinism to the most exemplary purity and integrity; he likewise
+aspired to produce an equal effect on the entire of Italy.
+Alexander VI, the most profligate of popes, then filled the chair at
+Rome; and Savonarola thundered against him in the cathedral at
+Florence the most fearful denunciations. The pope did not hesitate a
+moment to proceed to extremities against the friar. He cited him to
+Rome, under pain, if disobeyed, of excommunication to the priest, and
+an interdict to the republic that harboured him. The Florentines
+several times succeeded in causing the citation to be revoked, and,
+making terms with the sovereign pontiff, Jerome again and again
+suspending his preachings, which were however continued by other
+friars, his colleagues and confederates. Savonarola meanwhile could
+not long be silent; he resumed his philippics as fiercely as ever.
+
+At this time faction raged strongly at Florence. Jerome had many
+partisans; all the Dominicans, and the greater part of the populace.
+But he had various enemies leagued against him; the adherents of the
+house of Medici, those of the pope, the libertines, and all orders of
+monks and friars except the Dominicans, The violence proceeded so far,
+that the preacher was not unfrequently insulted in his pulpit, and the
+cathedral echoed with the dissentions of the parties. At length a
+conspiracy was organized against Savonarola; and, his adherents having
+got the better, the friar did not dare to trust the punishment of his
+enemies to the general assembly, where the question would have led to
+a scene of warfare, but referred it to a more limited tribunal, and
+finally proceeded to the infliction of death on its sole authority.
+
+This extremity rendered his enemies more furious against him. The pope
+directed absolution, the communion, and the rites of sepulture, to be
+refused to his followers. He was now expelled from the cathedral at
+Florence, and removed his preachings to the chapel of his convent,
+which was enlarged in its accommodations to adapt itself to his
+numerous auditors. In this interim a most extraordinary scene took
+place. One Francis de Pouille offered himself to the trial of fire, in
+favour of the validity of the excommunication of the pope against the
+pretended inspiration and miracles of the prophet. He said he did not
+doubt to perish in the experiment, but that he should have the
+satisfaction of seeing Savonarola perish along with him. Dominic de
+Pescia however and another Dominican presented themselves to the
+flames instead of Jerome, alledging that he was reserved for higher
+things. De Pouille at first declined the substitution, but was
+afterwards prevailed on to submit. A vast fire was lighted in the
+marketplace for the trial; and a low and narrow gallery of iron passed
+over the middle, on which the challenger and the challenged were to
+attempt to effect their passage. But a furious deluge of rain was said
+to have occurred at the instant every thing was ready; the fire was
+extinguished; and the trial for the present was thus rendered
+impossible.
+
+Savonarola in the earnestness of his preachings pretended to turn
+prophet, and confidently to predict future events. He spoke of
+Charles VIII of France as the Cyrus who should deliver Italy, and
+subdue the nations before him; and even named the spring of the year
+1498 as the period that should see all these things performed.
+
+But it was not in prophecy alone that Savonarola laid claim to
+supernatural aid. He described various contests that he had maintained
+against a multitude of devils at once in his convent. They tormented
+in different ways the friars of St. Mark, but ever shrank with awe
+from his personal interposition. They attempted to call upon him by
+name; but the spirit of God overruled them, so that they could never
+pronounce his name aright, but still misplaced syllables and letters
+in a ludicrous fashion. They uttered terrific threatenings against him,
+but immediately after shrank away with fear, awed by the holy words
+and warnings which he denounced against them. Savonarola besides
+undertook to expel them by night, by sprinkling holy water, and the
+singing of hymns in a solemn chorus. While however he was engaged in
+these sacred offices, and pacing the cloister of his convent, the
+devils would arrest his steps, and suddenly render the air before him
+so thick, that it was impossible for him to advance further. On
+another occasion one of his colleagues assured Francis Picus of
+Mirandola, the writer of his Life, that he had himself seen the Holy
+Ghost in the form of a dove more than once, sitting on Savonarola's
+shoulder, fluttering his feathers, which were sprinkled with silver
+and gold, and, putting his beak to his ear, whispering to him his
+divine suggestions. The prior besides relates in a book of his own
+composition at great length a dialogue that he held with the devil,
+appearing like, and having been mistaken by the writer for, a hermit.
+
+The life of Savonarola however came to a speedy and tragical close.
+The multitude, who are always fickle in their impulses, conceiving an
+unfavourable impression in consequence of his personally declining the
+trial by fire, turned against him. The same evening they besieged the
+convent where he resided, and in which he had taken refuge. The
+signory, seeing the urgency of the case, sent to the brotherhood,
+commanding them to surrender the prior, and the two Dominicans who had
+presented themselves in his stead to the trial by fire. The pope sent
+two judges to try them on the spot. They were presently put to the
+torture. Savonarola, who we are told was of a delicate habit of body,
+speedily confessed and expressed contrition for what he had done. But
+no sooner was he delivered from the strappado, than he retracted all
+that he had before confessed. The experiment was repeated several
+times, and always with the same success.
+
+At length he and the other two were adjudged to perish in the flames.
+This sentence was no sooner pronounced than Savonarola resumed all the
+constancy of a martyr. He advanced to the place of execution with a
+steady pace and a serene countenance, and in the midst of the flames
+resignedly commended his soul into the hands of his maker. His
+adherents regarded him as a witness to the truth, and piously
+collected his relics; but his judges, to counteract this defiance of
+authority, commanded his remains and his ashes to be cast into the
+river. [197]
+
+
+TRITHEMIUS.
+
+A name that has in some way become famous in the annals of magic, is
+that of John Trithemius, abbot of Spanheim, or Sponheim, in the circle
+of the Upper Rhine. He was born in the year 1462. He early
+distinguished himself by his devotion to literature; insomuch that,
+according to the common chronology, he was chosen in the year 1482,
+being about twenty years of age, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of
+St. Martin at Spanheim. He has written a great number of works, and
+has left some memorials of his life. Learning was at a low ebb when he
+was chosen to this dignity. The library of the convent consisted of
+little more than forty volumes. But, shortly after, under his
+superintendence it amounted to many hundreds. He insisted upon his
+monks diligently employing themselves in the multiplication of
+manuscripts. The monks, who had hitherto spent their days in luxurious
+idleness, were greatly dissatisfied with this revolution, and led
+their abbot a very uneasy life. He was in consequence removed to
+preside over the abbey of St. Jacques in Wurtzburg in 1506, where he
+died in tranquillity and peace in 1516.
+
+Trithemius has been accused of necromancy and a commerce with demons.
+The principal ground of this accusation lies in a story that has been
+told of his intercourse with the emperor Maximilian. Maximilian's
+first wife was Mary of Burgundy, whom he lost in the prime of her life.
+The emperor was inconsolable upon the occasion; and Trithemius, who
+was called in as singularly qualified to comfort him, having tried all
+other expedients in vain, at length told Maximilian that he would
+undertake to place his late consort before him precisely in the state
+in which she had lived. After suitable preparations, Mary of Burgundy
+accordingly appeared. The emperor was struck with astonishment. He
+found the figure before him in all respects like the consort he had
+lost. At length he exclaimed, "There is one mark by which I shall
+infallibly know whether this is the same person. Mary, my wife, had a
+wart in the nape of her neck, to the existence of which no one was
+privy but myself." He examined, and found the wart there, in all
+respects as it had been during her life. The story goes on to say,
+that Maximilian was so disgusted and shocked with what he saw, that he
+banished Trithemius his presence for ever.
+
+This tale has been discredited, partly on the score of the period of
+the death of Mary of Burgundy, which happened in 1481, when Trithemius
+was only nineteen years of age. He himself expressly disclaims all
+imputation of sorcery. One ground of the charge has been placed upon
+the existence of a work of his, entitled Steganographia, or the art,
+by means of a secret writing, of communicating our thoughts to a
+person absent. He says however, that in this work he had merely used
+the language of magic, without in any degree having had recourse to
+their modes of proceeding. Trithemius appears to have been the first
+writer who has made mention of the extraordinary feats of John Faust
+of Wittenburg, and that in a way that shews he considered these
+enchantments as the work of a supernatural power. [198]
+
+
+LUTHER.
+
+It is particularly proper to introduce some mention of Luther in this
+place; not that he is in any way implicated in the question of
+necromancy, but that there are passages in his writings in which he
+talks of the devil in what we should now think a very extraordinary
+way. And it is curious, and not a little instructive, to see how a
+person of so masculine an intellect, and who in many respects so far
+outran the illumination of his age, was accustomed to judge respecting
+the intercourse of mortals with the inhabitants of the infernal world.
+Luther was born in the year 1483.
+
+It appears from his Treatise on the Abuses attendant on Private Masses,
+that he had a conference with the devil on the subject. He says, that
+this supernatural personage caused him by his visits "many bitter
+nights and much restless and wearisome repose." Once in particular he
+came to Luther, "in the dead of the night, when he was just awaked out
+of sleep. The devil," he goes on to say, "knows well how to construct
+his arguments, and to urge them with the skill of a master. He
+delivers himself with a grave, and yet a shrill voice. Nor does he use
+circumlocutions, and beat about the bush, but excels in forcible
+statements and quick rejoinders. I no longer wonder," he adds, "that
+the persons whom he assails in this way, are occasionally found dead
+in their beds. He is able to compress and throttle, and more than once
+he has so assaulted me and driven my soul into a corner, that I felt
+as if the next moment it must leave my body. I am of opinion that
+Gesner and Oecolampadius and others in that manner came by their
+deaths. The devil's manner of opening a debate is pleasant enough; but
+he urges things so peremptorily, that the respondent in a short time
+knows not how to acquit himself." [199] He elsewhere says, "The
+reasons why the sacramentarians understood so little of the Scriptures,
+is that they do not encounter the true opponent, that is, the devil,
+who presently drives one up in a corner, and thus makes one perceive
+the just interpretation. For my part I am thoroughly acquainted with
+him, and have eaten a bushel of salt with him. He sleeps with me more
+frequently, and lies nearer to me in bed, than my own wife does." [200]
+
+
+CORNELIUS AGRIPPA.
+
+Henry Cornelius Agrippa was born in the year 1486. He was one of the
+most celebrated men of his time. His talents were remarkably great;
+and he had a surprising facility in the acquisition of languages. He
+is spoken of with the highest commendations by Trithemius, Erasmus,
+Melancthon, and others, the greatest men of his times. But he was a
+man of the most violent passions, and of great instability of temper.
+He was of consequence exposed to memorable vicissitudes. He had great
+reputation as an astrologer, and was assiduous in the cultivation of
+chemistry. He had the reputation of possessing the philosopher's stone,
+and was incessantly experiencing the privations of poverty. He was
+subject to great persecutions, and was repeatedly imprisoned. He
+received invitations at the same time from Henry VIII, from the
+chancellor of the emperor, from a distinguished Italian marquis, and
+from Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries. He made his
+election in favour of the last, and could find no way so obvious of
+showing his gratitude for her patronage, as composing an elaborate
+treatise on the Superiority of the Female Sex, which he dedicated to
+her. Shortly after, he produced a work not less remarkable, to
+demonstrate the Vanity and Emptiness of Scientifical Acquirements.
+Margaret of Austria being dead, he was subsequently appointed physician
+to Louisa of Savoy, mother to Francis I. This lady however having
+assigned him a task disagreeable to his inclination, a calculation
+according to the rules of astrology, he made no scruple of turning
+against her, and affirming that he should henceforth hold her for a
+cruel and perfidious Jezebel. After a life of storms and perpetual
+vicissitude, he died in 1534, aged 48 years.
+
+He enters however into the work I am writing, principally on account
+of the extraordinary stories that have been told of him on the subject
+of magic. He says of himself, in his Treatise on the Vanity of
+Sciences, "Being then a very young man, I wrote in three books of a
+considerable size Disquisitions concerning Magic."
+
+The first of the stories I am about to relate is chiefly interesting,
+inasmuch as it is connected with the history of one of the most
+illustrious ornaments of our early English poetry, Henry Howard earl
+of Surrey, who suffered death at the close of the reign of King
+Henry VIII. The earl of Surrey, we are told, became acquainted with
+Cornelius Agrippa at the court of John George elector of Saxony. On
+this occasion were present, beside the English nobleman, Erasmus, and
+many other persons eminent in the republic of letters. These persons
+shewed themselves enamoured of the reports that had been spread of
+Agrippa, and desired him before the elector to exhibit something
+memorable. One intreated him to call up Plautus, and shew him as he
+appeared in garb and countenance, when he ground corn in the mill.
+Another before all things desired to see Ovid. But Erasmus earnestly
+requested to behold Tully in the act of delivering his oration for
+Roscius. This proposal carried the most votes. And, after marshalling
+the concourse of spectators, Tully appeared, at the command of Agrippa,
+and from the rostrum pronounced the oration, precisely in the words in
+which it has been handed down to us, "with such astonishing animation,
+so fervent an exaltation of spirit, and such soul-stirring gestures,
+that all the persons present were ready, like the Romans of old, to
+pronounce his client innocent of every charge that had been brought
+against him." The story adds, that, when sir Thomas More was at the
+same place, Agrippa shewed him the whole destruction of Troy in a
+dream. To Thomas Lord Cromwel he exhibited in a perspective glass King
+Henry VIII and all his lords hunting in his forest at Windsor. To
+Charles V he shewed David, Solomon, Gideon, and the rest, with the
+Nine Worthies, in their habits and similitude as they had lived.
+
+Lord Surrey, in the mean time having gotten into familiarity with
+Agrippa, requested him by the way side as they travelled, to set
+before him his mistress, the fair Geraldine, shewing at the same time
+what she did, and with whom she talked. Agrippa accordingly exhibited
+his magic glass, in which the noble poet saw this beautiful dame, sick,
+weeping upon her bed, and inconsolable for the absence of her
+admirer.--It is now known, that the sole authority for this tale is
+Thomas Nash, the dramatist, in his Adventures of Jack Wilton, printed
+in the year 1593.
+
+Paulus Jovius relates that Agrippa always kept a devil attendant upon
+him, who accompanied him in all his travels in the shape of a black
+dog. When he lay on his death-bed, he was earnestly exhorted to repent
+of his sins. Being in consequence struck with a deep contrition, he
+took hold of the dog, and removed from him a collar studded with nails,
+which formed a necromantic inscription, at the same time saying to him,
+"Begone, wretched animal, which hast been the cause of my entire
+destruction!"--It is added, that the dog immediately ran away, and
+plunged itself in the river Soane, after which it was seen no more.
+[201] It is further related of Agrippa, as of many other magicians,
+that he was in the habit, when he regaled himself at an inn, of paying
+his bill in counterfeit money, which at the time of payment appeared
+of sterling value, but in a few days after became pieces of horn and
+worthless shells. [202]
+
+But the most extraordinary story of Agrippa is told by Delrio, and is
+as follows. Agrippa had occasion one time to be absent for a few days
+from his residence at Louvain. During his absence he intrusted his
+wife with the key of his Museum, but with an earnest injunction that
+no one on any account should be allowed to enter. Agrippa happened at
+that time to have a boarder in his house, a young fellow of insatiable
+curiosity, who would never give over importuning his hostess, till at
+length he obtained from her the forbidden key. The first thing in the
+Museum that attracted his attention, was a book of spells and
+incantations. He spread this book upon a desk, and, thinking no harm,
+began to read aloud. He had not long continued this occupation, when a
+knock was heard at the door of the chamber. The youth took no notice,
+but continued reading. Presently followed a second knock, which
+somewhat alarmed the reader. The space of a minute having elapsed, and
+no answer made, the door was opened, and a demon entered. "For what
+purpose am I called?" said the stranger sternly. "What is it you
+demand to have done?" The youth was seized with the greatest alarm,
+and struck speechless. The demon advanced towards him, seized him by
+the throat, and strangled him, indignant that his presence should thus
+be invoked from pure thoughtlessness and presumption.
+
+At the expected time Agrippa came home, and to his great surprise
+found a number of devils capering and playing strange antics about,
+and on the roof of his house. By his art he caused them to desist from
+their sport, and with authority demanded what was the cause of this
+novel appearance. The chief of them answered. He told how they had
+been invoked, and insulted, and what revenge they had taken. Agrippa
+became exceedingly alarmed for the consequences to himself of this
+unfortunate adventure. He ordered the demon without loss of time to
+reanimate the body of his victim, then to go forth, and to walk the
+boarder three or four times up and down the market-place in the sight
+of the people. The infernal spirit did as he was ordered, shewed the
+student publicly alive, and having done this, suffered the body to
+fall down, the marks of conscious existence being plainly no more. For
+a time it was thought that the student had been killed by a sudden
+attack of disease. But, presently after, the marks of strangulation
+were plainly discerned, and the truth came out. Agrippa was then
+obliged suddenly to withdraw himself, and to take up his residence in
+a distant province. [203]
+
+Wierus in his well known book, _De Praestigiis Demonum_, informs
+us that he had lived for years in daily attendance on Cornelius
+Agrippa, and that the black dog respecting which such strange surmises
+had been circulated, was a perfectly innocent animal that he had often
+led in a string. He adds, that the sole foundation for the story lay
+in the fact, that Agrippa had been much attached to the dog, which he
+was accustomed to permit to eat off the table with its master, and
+even to lie of nights in his bed. He further remarks, that Agrippa was
+accustomed often not to go out of his room for a week together, and
+that people accordingly wondered that he could have such accurate
+information of what was going on in all parts of the world, and would
+have it that his intelligence was communicated to him by his dog. He
+subjoins however, that Agrippa had in fact correspondents in every
+quarter of the globe, and received letters from them daily, and that
+this was the real source of his extraordinary intelligence. [204]
+
+Naude, in his Apology for Great Men accused of Magic, mentions, that
+Agrippa composed a book of the Rules and Precepts of the Art of Magic,
+and that, if such a work could entitle a man to the character of a
+magician, Agrippa indeed well deserved it. But he gives it as his
+opinion that this was the only ground for fastening the imputation on
+this illustrious character.
+
+Without believing however any of the tales of the magic practices of
+Cornelius Agrippa, and even perhaps without supposing that he
+seriously pretended to such arts, we are here presented with a
+striking picture of the temper and credulity of the times in which he
+lived. We plainly see from the contemporary evidence of Wierus, that
+such things were believed of him by his neighbours; and at that period
+it was sufficiently common for any man of deep study, of recluse
+habits, and a certain sententious and magisterial air to undergo these
+imputations. It is more than probable that Agrippa was willing by a
+general silence and mystery to give encouragement to the wonder of the
+vulgar mind. He was flattered by the terror and awe which his
+appearance inspired. He did not wish to come down to the ordinary
+level. And if to this we add his pursuits of alchemy and astrology,
+with the formidable and various apparatus supposed to be required in
+these pursuits, we shall no longer wonder at the results which
+followed. He loved to wander on the brink of danger, and was contented
+to take his chance of being molested, rather than not possess that
+ascendancy over the ordinary race of mankind which was evidently
+gratifying to his vanity.
+
+
+FAUSTUS.
+
+Next in respect of time to Cornelius Agrippa comes the celebrated Dr.
+Faustus. Little in point of fact is known respecting this eminent
+personage in the annals of necromancy. His pretended history does not
+seem to have been written till about the year 1587, perhaps half a
+century after his death. This work is apparently in its principal
+features altogether fictitious. We have no reason however to deny the
+early statements as to his life. He is asserted by Camerarius and
+Wierus to have been born at Cundling near Cracow in the kingdom of
+Poland, and is understood to have passed the principal part of his
+life at the university of Wittenberg. He was probably well known to
+Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus. Melancthon mentions him in his
+Letters; and Conrad Gessner refers to him as a contemporary. The
+author of his Life cites the opinions entertained respecting him by
+Luther. Philip Camerarius speaks of him in his Horae Subsecivae as a
+celebrated name among magicians, apparently without reference to the
+Life that has come down to us; [205] and Wierus does the same thing.
+[206] He was probably nothing more than an accomplished juggler, who
+appears to have practised his art with great success in several towns
+of Germany. He was also no doubt a pretender to necromancy.
+
+On this basis the well known History of his Life has been built. The
+author has with great art expanded very slender materials, and
+rendered his work in a striking degree a code and receptacle of all
+the most approved ideas respecting necromancy and a profane and
+sacrilegious dealing with the devil. He has woven into it with much
+skill the pretended arts of the sorcerers, and has transcribed or
+closely imitated the stories that have been handed down to us of many
+of the extraordinary feats they were said to have performed. It is
+therefore suitable to our purpose to dwell at some length upon the
+successive features of this history.
+
+The life has been said to have been originally written in Spain by
+Franciscus Schottus of Toledo, in the Latin language. [207] But this
+biographical work is assigned to the date of 1594, previously to which
+the Life is known to have existed in German. It is improbable that a
+Spanish writer should have chosen a German for the hero of his romance,
+whereas nothing can be more natural than for a German to have conceived
+the idea of giving fame and notoriety to his countryman. The mistake
+seems to be the same, though for an opposite reason, as that which
+appears to have been made in representing the Gil Blas of Le Sage as a
+translation.
+
+The biographical account professes to have been begun by Faustus
+himself, though written in the third person, and to have been
+continued by Wagner, his confidential servant, to whom the doctor is
+affirmed to have bequeathed his memoirs, letters and manuscripts,
+together with his house and its furniture.
+
+Faustus then, according to his history, was the son of a peasant,
+residing on the banks of the Roda in the duchy of Weimar, and was
+early adopted by an uncle, dwelling in the city of Wittenberg, who had
+no children. Here he was sent to college, and was soon distinguished
+by the greatness of his talents, and the rapid progress he made in
+every species of learning that was put before him. He was destined by
+his relative to the profession of theology. But singularly enough,
+considering that he is represented as furnishing materials for his
+own Memoirs, he is said ungraciously to have set at nought his uncle's
+pious intentions by deriding God's word, and thus to have resembled
+Cain, Reuben and Absalom, who, having sprung from godly parents,
+afflicted their fathers' hearts by their apostasy. He went through his
+examinations with applause, and carried off all the first prizes among
+sixteen competitors. He therefore obtained the degree of doctor in
+divinity; but his success only made him the more proud and headstrong.
+He disdained his theological eminence, and sighed for distinction as a
+man of the world. He took his degree as a doctor of medicine, and
+aspired to celebrity as a practitioner of physic. About the same time
+he fell in with certain contemporaries, of tastes similar to his own,
+and associated with them in the study of Chaldean, Greek and Arabic
+science, of strange incantations and supernatural influences, in short,
+of all the arts of a sorcerer.
+
+Having made such progress as he could by dint of study and intense
+application, he at length resolved to prosecute his purposes still
+further by actually raising the devil. He happened one evening to walk
+in a thick, dark wood, within a short distance from Wittenberg, when
+it occurred to him that that was a fit place for executing his design.
+He stopped at a solitary spot where four roads met, and made use of
+his wand to mark out a large circle, and then two small ones within
+the larger. In one of these he fixed himself, appropriating the other
+for the use of his expected visitor. He went over the precise range of
+charms and incantations, omitting nothing. It was now dark night
+between the ninth and tenth hour. The devil manifested himself by the
+usual signs of his appearance. "Wherefore am I called?" said he, "and
+what is it that you demand?" "I require," rejoined Faustus, "that you
+should sedulously attend upon me, answer my enquiries, and fulfil my
+behests."
+
+Immediately upon Faustus pronouncing these words, there followed a
+tumult over head, as if heaven and earth were coming together. The
+trees in their topmost branches bended to their very roots. It seemed
+as if the whole forest were peopled with devils, making a crash like a
+thousand waggons, hurrying to the right and the left, before and
+behind, in every possible direction, with thunder and lightning, and
+the continual discharge of great cannon. Hell appeared to have emptied
+itself, to have furnished the din. There succeeded the most charming
+music from all sorts of instruments, and sounds of hilarity and
+dancing. Next came a report as of a tournament, and the clashing of
+innumerable lances. This lasted so long, that Faustus was many times
+about to rush out of the circle in which he had inclosed himself, and
+to abandon his preparations. His courage and resolution however got
+the better; and he remained immoveable. He pursued his incantations
+without intermission. Then came to the very edge of the circle a
+griffin first, and next a dragon, which in the midst of his
+enchantments grinned at him horribly with his teeth, but finally fell
+down at his feet, and extended his length to many a rood. Faustus
+persisted. Then succeeded a sort of fireworks, a pillar of fire, and a
+man on fire at the top, who leaped down; and there immediately
+appeared a number of globes here and there red-hot, while the man on
+fire went and came to every part of the circle for a quarter of an
+hour. At length the devil came forward in the shape of a grey monk,
+and asked Faustus what he wanted. Faustus adjourned their further
+conference, and appointed the devil to come to him at his lodgings.
+
+He in the mean time busied himself in the necessary preparations. He
+entered his study at the appointed time, and found the devil waiting
+for him. Faustus told him that he had prepared certain articles, to
+which it was necessary that the demon should fully accord,--that he
+should attend him at all times, when required, for all the days of his
+life, that he should bring him every thing he wanted, that he should
+come to him in any shape that Faustus required, or be invisible, and
+Faustus should be invisible too, whenever he desired it, that he
+should deny him nothing, and answer him with perfect veracity to every
+thing he demanded. To some of these requisitions the spirit could not
+consent, without authority from his master, the chief of devils. At
+length all these concessions were adjusted. The devil on his part also
+prescribed his conditions. That Faustus should abjure the Christian
+religion and all reverence for the supreme God; that he should enjoy
+the entire command of his attendant demon for a certain term of years,
+and that at the end of that period the devil should dispose of him
+body and soul at his pleasure [the term was fixed for twenty-four
+years]; that he should at all times stedfastly refuse to listen to any
+one who should desire to convert him, or convince him of the error of
+his ways, and lead him to repentance; that Faustus should draw up a
+writing containing these particulars, and sign it with his blood, that
+he should deliver this writing to the devil, and keep a duplicate of
+it for himself, that so there might be no misunderstanding. It was
+further appointed by Faustus that the devil should usually attend him
+in the habit of cordelier, with a pleasing countenance and an
+insinuating demeanour. Faustus also asked the devil his name, who
+answered that he was usually called Mephostophiles (perhaps more
+accurately Nephostophiles, a lover of clouds).
+
+Previously to this deplorable transaction, in which Faustus sold
+himself, soul and body, to the devil, he had consumed his inheritance,
+and was reduced to great poverty. But he was now no longer subjected
+to any straits. The establishments of the prince of Chutz, the duke of
+Bavaria, and the archbishop of Saltzburgh were daily put under
+contribution for his more convenient supply. By the diligence of
+Mephostophiles provisions of all kinds continually flew in at his
+windows; and the choicest wines were perpetually found at his board to
+the annoyance and discredit of the cellarers and butlers of these
+eminent personages, who were extremely blamed for defalcations in
+which they had no share. He also brought him a monthly supply of money,
+sufficient for the support of his establishment. Besides, he supplied
+him with a succession of mistresses, such as his heart desired, which
+were in truth nothing but devils disguised under the semblance of
+beautiful women. He further gave to Faustus a book, in which were
+amply detailed the processes of sorcery and witchcraft, by means of
+which the doctor could obtain whatever he desired.
+
+One of the earliest indulgences which Faustus proposed to himself from
+the command he possessed over his servant-demon, was the gratification
+of his curiosity in surveying the various nations of the world.
+Accordingly Mephostophiles converted himself into a horse, with two
+hunches on his back like a dromedary, between which he conveyed
+Faustus through the air where-ever he desired. They consumed fifteen
+months in their travels. Among the countries they visited the history
+mentions Pannonia, Austria, Germany, Bohemia, Silesia, Saxony, Misnia,
+Thuringia, Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, Lithuania, Livonia, Prussia,
+Muscovy, Friseland, Holland, Westphalia, Zealand, Brabant, Flanders,
+France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Hungary; and afterwards Turkey,
+Egypt, England, Sweden, Denmark, India, Africa and Persia. In most of
+these countries Mephostophiles points out to his fellow-traveller
+their principal curiosities and antiquities. In Rome they sojourned
+three days and three nights, and, being themselves invisible, visited
+the residence of the pope and the other principal palaces.
+
+At Constantinople Faustus visited the emperor of the Turks, assuming
+to himself the figure of the prophet Mahomet. His approach was
+preceded by a splendid illumination, not less than that of the sun in
+all his glory. He said to the emperor, "Happy art thou, oh sultan, who
+art found worthy to be visited by the great prophet." And the emperor
+in return fell prostrate before him, thanking Mahomet for his
+condescension in this visit. The doctor also entered the seraglio,
+where he remained six days under the same figure, the building and its
+gardens being all the time environed with a thick darkness, so that no
+one, not the emperor himself, dared to enter. At the end of this time
+the doctor, still under the figure of Mahomet, was publicly seen,
+ascending, as it seemed, to heaven. The sultan afterwards enquired of
+the women of his seraglio what had occurred to them during the period
+of the darkness; and they answered, that the God Mahomet had been with
+them, that he had enjoyed them corporeally, and had told them that
+from his seed should arise a great people, capable of irresistible
+exploits.
+
+Faustus had conceived a plan of making his way into the terrestrial
+paradise, without awakening suspicion in his demon-conductor. For this
+purpose he ordered him to ascend the highest mountains of Asia. At
+length they came so near, that they saw the angel with the flaming
+sword forbidding approach to the garden. Faustus, perceiving this,
+asked Mephostophiles what it meant. His conductor told him, but added
+that it was in vain for them, or any one but the angels of the Lord,
+to think of entering within.
+
+Having gratified his curiosity in other ways, Faustus was seized with
+a vehement desire to visit the infernal regions. He proposed the
+question to Mephostophiles, who told him that this was a matter out of
+his department, and that on that journey he could have no other
+conductor than Beelzebub. Accordingly, every thing being previously
+arranged, one day at midnight Beelzebub appeared, being already
+equipped with a saddle made of dead men's bones. Faustus speedily
+mounted. They in a short time came to an abyss, and encountered a
+multitude of enormous serpents; but a bear with wings came to their
+aid, and drove the serpents away. A flying bull next came with a
+hideous roar, so fierce that Beelzebub appeared to give way, and
+Faustus tumbled at once heels-over-head into the pit. After having
+fallen to a considerable depth, two dragons with a chariot came to his
+aid, and an ape helped him to get into the vehicle. Presently however
+came on a storm with thunder and lightning, so dreadful that the
+doctor was thrown out, and sunk in a tempestuous sea to a vast depth.
+He contrived however to lay hold of a rock, and here to secure himself
+a footing. He looked down, and perceived a great gulph, in which lay
+floating many of the vulgar, and not a few emperors, kings, princes,
+and such as had been mighty lords. Faustus with a sudden impulse cast
+himself into the midst of the flames with which they were surrounded,
+with the desire to snatch one of the damned souls from the pit. But,
+just as he thought he had caught him by the hand, the miserable wretch
+slided from between his fingers, and sank again.
+
+At length the doctor became wholly exhausted with the fatigue he had
+undergone, with the smoke and the fog, with the stifling, sulphureous
+air, with the tempestuous blasts, with the alternate extremes of heat
+and cold, and with the clamours, the lamentations, the agonies, and
+the howlings of the damned everywhere around him,--when, just in the
+nick of time, Beelzebub appeared to him again, and invited him once
+more to ascend the saddle, which he had occupied during his infernal
+journey. Here he fell asleep, and, when he awoke, found himself in his
+own bed in his house. He then set himself seriously to reflect on what
+had passed. At one time he believed that he had been really in hell,
+and had witnessed all its secrets. At another he became persuaded that
+he had been subject to an illusion only, and that the devil had led
+him through an imaginary scene, which was truly the case; for the
+devil had taken care not to shew him the real hell, fearing that it
+might have caused too great a terror, and have induced him to repent
+him of his misdeeds perhaps before it was too late.
+
+It so happened that, once upon a time, the emperor Charles V was at
+Inspruck, at a time when Faustus also resided there. His courtiers
+informed the emperor that Faustus was in the town, and Charles
+expressed a desire to see him. He was introduced. Charles asked him
+whether he could really perform such wondrous feats as were reported
+of him. Faustus modestly replied, inviting the emperor to make trial
+of his skill. "Then," said Charles, "of all the eminent personages I
+have ever read of, Alexander the Great is the man who most excites my
+curiosity, and whom it would most gratify my wishes to see in the very
+form in which he lived." Faustus rejoined, that it was out of his
+power truly to raise the dead, but that he had spirits at his command
+who had often seen that great conqueror, and that Faustus would
+willingly place him before the emperor as he required. He conditioned
+that Charles should not speak to him, nor attempt to touch him. The
+emperor promised compliance. After a few ceremonies therefore, Faustus
+opened a door, and brought in Alexander exactly in the form in which
+he had lived, with the same garments, and every circumstance
+corresponding. Alexander made his obeisance to the emperor, and walked
+several times round him. The queen of Alexander was then introduced in
+the same manner. Charles just then recollected, he had read that
+Alexander had a wart on the nape of his neck; and with proper
+precautions Faustus allowed the emperor to examine the apparition by
+this test. Alexander then vanished.
+
+As doctor Faustus waited in court, he perceived a certain knight, who
+had fallen asleep in a bow-window, with his head out at window. The
+whim took the doctor, to fasten on his brow the antlers of a stag.
+Presently the knight was roused from his nap, when with all his
+efforts he could not draw in his head on account of the antlers which
+grew upon it. The courtiers laughed exceedingly at the distress of the
+knight, and, when they had sufficiently diverted themselves, Faustus
+took off his conjuration, and set the knight at liberty.
+
+Soon after Faustus retired from Inspruck. Meanwhile the knight, having
+conceived a high resentment against the conjuror, waylaid him with
+seven horsemen on the road by which he had to pass. Faustus however
+perceived them, and immediately made himself invisible. Meanwhile the
+knight spied on every side to discover the conjuror; but, as he was
+thus employed, he heard a sudden noise of drums and trumpets and
+cymbals, and saw a regiment of horse advancing against him. He
+immediately turned off in another direction; but was encountered by a
+second regiment of horse. This occurred no less than six times; and
+the knight and his companions were compelled to surrender at
+discretion. These regiments were so many devils; and Faustus now
+appeared in a new form as the general of this army. He obliged the
+knight and his party to dismount, and give up their swords. Then with
+a seeming generosity he gave them new horses and new swords, But this
+was all enchantment. The swords presently turned into switches; and
+the horses, plunging into a river on their road, vanished from beneath
+their riders, who were thoroughly drenched in the stream, and scarcely
+escaped with their lives.
+
+Many of Faustus's delusions are rather remarkable as tricks of merry
+vexation, than as partaking of those serious injuries which we might
+look for in an implement of hell. In one instance he inquired of a
+countryman who was driving a load of hay, what compensation he would
+judge reasonable for the doctor's eating as much of his hay as he
+should be inclined to. The waggoner replied, that for half a stiver
+(one farthing) he should be welcome to eat as much as he pleased. The
+doctor presently fell to, and ate at such a rate, that the peasant was
+frightened lest his whole load should be consumed. He therefore
+offered Faustus a gold coin, value twenty-seven shillings, to be off
+his bargain. The doctor took it; and, when the countryman came to his
+journey's end, he found his cargo undiminished even by a single blade.
+
+Another time, as Faustus was walking along the road near Brunswick,
+the whim took him of asking a waggoner who was driving by, to treat
+him with a ride in his vehicle. "No, I will not," replied the boor;
+"my horses will have enough to do to drag their proper load." "You
+churl," said the doctor, "since you will not let your wheels carry me,
+you shall carry them yourself as far as from the gates of the city."
+The wheels then detached themselves, and flew through the air, to the
+gates of the town from which they came. At the same time the horses
+fell to the ground, and were utterly unable to raise themselves up.
+The countryman, frightened, fell on his knees to the doctor, and
+promised, if he would forgive him, never to offend in like manner
+again. Faustus now, relenting a little, bade the waggoner take a
+handful of sand from the road, and scatter on his horses, and they
+would be well. At the same time he directed the man to go to the four
+gates of Brunswick, and he would find his wheels, one at each gate.
+
+In another instance, Faustus went into a fair, mounted on a noble
+beast, richly caparisoned, the sight of which presently brought all
+the horse-fanciers about him. After considerable haggling, he at last
+disposed of his horse to a dealer for a handsome price, only cautioning
+him at parting, how he rode the horse to water. The dealer, despising
+the caution that had been given him, turned his horse the first thing
+towards the river. He had however no sooner plunged in, than the horse
+vanished, and the rider found himself seated on a saddle of straw, in
+the middle of the stream. With difficulty he waded to the shore, and
+immediately, enquiring out the doctor's inn, went to him to complain
+of the cheat. He was directed to Faustus's room, and entering found
+the conjuror on his bed, apparently asleep. He called to him lustily,
+but the doctor took no notice. Worked up beyond his patience, he next
+laid hold of Faustus's foot, that he might rouse him the more
+effectually. What was his surprise, to find the doctor's leg and foot
+come off in his hand! Faustus screamed, apparently in agony of pain,
+and the dealer ran out of the room as fast as he could, thinking that
+he had the devil behind him.
+
+In one instance three young noblemen applied to Faustus, having been
+very desirous to be present at the marriage of the son of the duke of
+Bavaria at Mentz, but having overstaid the time, in which it would
+have been possible by human means to accomplish the journey. Faustus,
+to oblige them, led them into his garden, and, spreading a large
+mantle upon a grass-plot, desired them to step on it, and placed
+himself in the midst. He then recited a certain form of conjuration.
+At the same time he conditioned with them, that they should on no
+account speak to any one at the marriage, and, if spoken to, should
+not answer again. They were carried invisibly through the air, and
+arrived in excellent time. At a certain moment they became visible,
+but were still bound to silence. One of them however broke the
+injunction, and amused himself with the courtiers. The consequence was
+that, when the other two were summoned by the doctor to return, he was
+left behind. There was something so extraordinary in their sudden
+appearance, and the subsequent disappearance of the others, that he
+who remained was put in prison, and threatened with the torture the
+next day, if he would not make a full disclosure. Faustus however
+returned before break of day, opened the gates of the prison, laid all
+the guards asleep, and carried off the delinquent in triumph.
+
+On one occasion Faustus, having resolved to pass a jovial evening,
+took some of his old college-companions, and invited them to make free
+with the archbishop of Saltzburgh's cellar. They took a ladder, and
+scaled the wall. They seated themselves round, and placed a
+three-legged stool, with bottles and glasses in the middle. They were
+in the heart of their mirth, when the butler made his appearance, and
+began to cry thieves with all his might. The doctor at once conjured
+him, so that he could neither speak nor move. There he was obliged to
+sit, while Faustus and his companions tapped every vat in the cellar.
+They then carried him along with them in triumph. At length they came
+to a lofty tree, where Faustus ordered them to stop; and the butler
+was in the greatest fright, apprehending that they would do no less
+than hang him. The doctor however was contented, by his art to place
+him on the topmost branch, where he was obliged to remain trembling
+and almost dead with the cold, till certain peasants came out to their
+work, whom he hailed, and finally with great difficulty they rescued
+him from his painful eminence, and placed him safely on the ground.
+
+On another occasion Faustus entertained several of the junior members
+of the university of Wittenberg at his chambers. One of them,
+referring to the exhibition the doctor had made of Alexander the Great
+to the emperor Charles V, said it would gratify him above all things,
+if he could once behold the famous Helen of Greece, whose beauty was
+so great as to have roused all the princes of her country to arms, and
+to have occasioned a ten years' war. Faustus consented to indulge his
+curiosity, provided all the company would engage to be merely mute
+spectators of the scene. This being promised, he left the room, and
+presently brought in Helen. She was precisely as Homer has described
+her, when she stood by the side of Priam on the walls of Troy, looking
+on the Grecian chiefs. Her features were irresistibly attractive; and
+her full, moist lips were redder than the summer cherries. Faustus
+shortly after obliged his guests with her bust in marble, from which
+several copies were taken, no one knowing the name of the original
+artist.
+
+No long time elapsed after this, when the doctor was engaged in
+delivering a course of lectures on Homer at Erfurth, one of the
+principal cities of Germany. It having been suggested to him that it
+would very much enhance the interest of his lectures, if he would
+exhibit to the company the heroes of Greece exactly as they appeared
+to their contemporaries, Faustus obligingly yielded to the proposal.
+The heroes of the Trojan war walked in procession before the
+astonished auditors, no less lively in the representation than Helen
+had been shewn before, and each of them with some characteristic
+attitude and striking expression of countenance.
+
+When the doctor happened to be at Frankfort, there came there four
+conjurors, who obtained vast applause by the trick of cutting off one
+another's heads, and fastening them on again. Faustus was exasperated
+at this proceeding, and regarded them as laying claim to a skill
+superior to his own. He went, and was invisibly present at their
+exhibition. They placed beside them a vessel with liquor which they
+pretended was the elixir of life, into which at each time they threw a
+plant resembling the lily, which no sooner touched the liquor than its
+buds began to unfold, and shortly it appeared in full blossom. The
+chief conjuror watched his opportunity; and, when the charm was
+complete, made no more ado but struck off the head of his fellow that
+was next to him, and dipping it in the liquor, adjusted it to the
+shoulders, where it became as securely fixed as before the operation.
+This was repeated a second and a third time. At length it came to the
+turn of the chief conjuror to have his head smitten off. Faustus stood
+by invisibly, and at the proper time broke off the flower of the lily
+without any one being aware of it. The head therefore of the principal
+conjuror was struck off; but in vain was it steeped in the liquor. The
+other conjurors were at a loss to account for the disappearance of the
+lily, and fumbled for a long time with the old sorcerer's head, which
+would not stick on in any position in which it could be placed.
+
+Faustus was in great favour with the Prince of Anhalt. On one occasion,
+after residing some days in his court, he said to the prince, "Will
+your highness do me the favour to partake of a small collation at a
+castle which belongs to me out at your city-gates?" The prince
+graciously consented. The prince and princess accompanied the doctor,
+and found a castle which Faustus had erected by magic during the
+preceding night. The castle, with five lofty towers, and two great
+gates, inclosing a spacious court, stood in the midst of a beautiful
+lake, stocked with all kinds of fish, and every variety of water-fowl.
+The court exhibited all sorts of animals, beside birds of every colour
+and song, which flitted from tree to tree. The doctor then ushered his
+guests into the hall, with an ample suite of apartments, branching off
+on each side. In one of the largest they found a banquet prepared,
+with the pope's plate of gold, which Mephostophiles had borrowed for
+the day. The viands were of the most delicious nature, with the
+choicest wines in the world. The banquet being over, Faustus conducted
+the prince and princess back to the palace. But, before they had gone
+far, happening to turn their heads, they saw the whole castle blown up,
+and all that had been prepared for the occasion vanish at once in a
+vast volume of fire.
+
+One Christmas-time Faustus gave a grand entertainment to certain
+distinguished persons of both sexes at Wittenberg. To render the scene
+more splendid, he contrived to exhibit a memorable inversion of the
+seasons. As the company approached the doctor's house, they were
+surprised to find, though there was a heavy snow through the
+neighbouring fields, that Faustus's court and garden bore not the
+least marks of the season, but on the contrary were green and blooming
+as in the height of summer. There was an appearance of the freshest
+vegetation, together with a beautiful vineyard, abounding with grapes,
+figs, raspberries, and an exuberance of the finest fruits. The large,
+red Provence roses, were as sweet to the scent as the eye, and looked
+perfectly fresh and sparkling with dew.
+
+As Faustus was now approaching the last year of his term, he seemed to
+resolve to pamper his appetite with every species of luxury. He
+carefully accumulated all the materials of voluptuousness and
+magnificence. He was particularly anxious in the selection of women
+who should serve for his pleasures. He had one Englishwoman, one
+Hungarian, one French, two of Germany, and two from different parts of
+Italy, all of them eminent for the perfections which characterised
+their different countries.
+
+As Faustus's demeanour was particularly engaging, there were many
+respectable persons in the city in which he lived, that became
+interested in his welfare. These applied to a certain monk of
+exemplary purity of life and devotion, and urged him to do every thing
+he could to rescue the doctor from impending destruction. The monk
+began with him with tender and pathetic remonstrances. He then drew a
+fearful picture of the wrath of God, and the eternal damnation which
+would certainly ensue. He reminded the doctor of his extraordinary
+gifts and graces, and told him how different an issue might reasonably
+have been expected from him. Faustus listened attentively to all the
+good monk said, but replied mournfully that it was too late, that he
+had despised and insulted the Lord, that he had deliberately sealed a
+solemn compact to the devil, and that there was no possibility of
+going back. The monk answered, "You are mistaken. Cry to the Lord for
+grace; and it shall still be given. Shew true remorse; confess your
+sins; abstain for the future from all acts of sorcery and diabolical
+interference; and you may rely on final salvation." The doctor however
+felt that all endeavours would be hopeless, He found in himself an
+incapacity, for true repentance. And finally the devil came to him,
+reproached him for breach of contract in listening to the pious
+expostulations of a saint, threatened that in case of infidelity he
+would take him away to hell even before his time, and frightened the
+doctor into the act of signing a fresh contract in ratification of
+that which he had signed before.
+
+At length Faustus ultimately arrived at the end of the term for which
+he had contracted with the devil. For two or three years before it
+expired, his character gradually altered. He became subject to fits of
+despondency, was no longer susceptible of mirth and amusement, and
+reflected with bitter agony on the close in which the whole must
+terminate. During the last month of his period, he no longer sought
+the services of his infernal ally, but with the utmost unwillingness
+saw his arrival. But Mephostophiles now attended him unbidden, and
+treated him with biting scoffs and reproaches. "You have well studied
+the Scriptures," he said, "and ought to have known that your safety
+lay in worshipping God alone. You sinned with your eyes open, and can
+by no means plead ignorance. You thought that twenty-four years was a
+term that would have no end; and you now see how rapidly it is
+flitting away. The term for which you sold yourself to the devil is a
+very different thing; and, after the lapse of thousands of ages, the
+prospect before you will be still as unbounded as ever. You were
+warned; you were earnestly pressed to repent; but now it is too late."
+
+After the demon, Mephostophiles, had long tormented Faustus in this
+manner, he suddenly disappeared, consigning him over to wretchedness,
+vexation and despair.
+
+The whole twenty-four years were now expired. The day before,
+Mephostophiles again made his appearance, holding in his hand the bond
+which the doctor had signed with his blood, giving him notice that the
+next day, the devil, his master, would come for him, and advising him
+to hold himself in readiness. Faustus, it seems, had earned himself
+much good will among the younger members of the university by his
+agreeable manners, by his willingness to oblige them, and by the
+extraordinary spectacles with which he occasionally diverted them.
+This day he resolved to pass in a friendly farewel. He invited a
+number of them to meet him at a house of public reception, in a hamlet
+adjoining to the city. He bespoke a large room in the house for a
+banqueting room, another apartment overhead for his guests to sleep in,
+and a smaller chamber at a little distance for himself. He furnished
+his table with abundance of delicacies and wines. He endeavoured to
+appear among them in high spirits; but his heart was inwardly sad.
+
+When the entertainment was over, Faustus addressed them, telling them
+that this was the last day of his life, reminding them of the wonders
+with which he had frequently astonished them, and informing them of
+the condition upon which he had held this power. They, one and all,
+expressed the deepest sorrow at the intelligence. They had had the
+idea of something unlawful in his proceedings; but their notions had
+been very far from coming up to the truth. They regretted exceedingly
+that he had not been unreserved in his communications at an earlier
+period. They would have had recourse in his behalf to the means of
+religion, and have applied to pious men, desiring them to employ their
+power to intercede with heaven in his favour. Prayer and penitence
+might have done much for him; and the mercy of heaven was unbounded.
+They advised him still to call upon God, and endeavour to secure an
+interest in the merits of the Saviour.
+
+Faustus assured them that it was all in vain, and that his tragical
+fate was inevitable. He led them to their sleeping apartment, and
+recommended to them to pass the night as they could, but by no means,
+whatever they might happen to hear, to come out of it; as their
+interference could in no way be beneficial to him, and might be
+attended with the most serious injury to themselves. They lay still
+therefore, as he had enjoined them; but not one of them could close
+his eyes.
+
+Between twelve and one in the night they heard first a furious storm
+of wind round all sides of the house, as if it would have torn away
+the walls from their foundations. This no sooner somewhat abated, than
+a noise was heard of discordant and violent hissing, as if the house
+was full of all sorts of venomous reptiles, but which plainly
+proceeded from Faustus's chamber. Next they heard the doctor's
+room-door vehemently burst open, and cries for help uttered with
+dreadful agony, but a half-suppressed voice, which presently grew
+fainter and fainter. Then every thing became still, as if the
+everlasting motion of the world was suspended.
+
+When at length it became broad day, the students went in a body into
+the doctor's apartment. But he was no where to be seen. Only the walls
+were found smeared with his blood, and marks as if his brains had been
+dashed out. His body was finally discovered at some distance from the
+house, his limbs dismembered, and marks of great violence about the
+features of his face. The students gathered up the mutilated parts of
+his body, and afforded them private burial at the temple of Mars in
+the village where he died.
+
+A ludicrous confusion of ideas has been produced by some persons from
+the similarity of names of Faustus, the supposed magician of
+Wittenberg, and Faust or Fust of Mentz, the inventor, or first
+establisher of the art of printing. It has been alleged that the exact
+resemblance of the copies of books published by the latter, when no
+other mode of multiplying copies was known but by the act of
+transcribing, was found to be such, as could no way be accounted for
+by natural means, and that therefore it was imputed to the person who
+presented these copies, that he must necessarily be assisted by the
+devil. It has further been stated, that Faust, the printer, swore the
+craftsmen he employed at his press to inviolable secrecy, that he
+might the more securely keep up the price of his books. But this
+notion of the identity of the two persons is entirely groundless.
+Faustus, the magician, is described in the romance as having been born
+in 1491, twenty-five years after the period at which the printer is
+understood to have died, and there is no one coincidence between the
+histories of the two persons, beyond the similarity of names, and a
+certain mystery (or magical appearance) that inevitably adheres to the
+practice of an art hitherto unknown. If any secret reference had been
+intended in the romance to the real character of the illustrious
+introducer of an art which has been productive of such incalculable
+benefits to mankind, it would be impossible to account for such a
+marvellous inconsistence in the chronology.
+
+Others have carried their scepticism so far, as to have started a
+doubt whether there was ever really such a person as Faustus of
+Wittenberg, the alleged magician. But the testimony of Wierus, Philip
+Camerarius, Melancthon and others, his contemporaries, sufficiently
+refutes this supposition. The fact is, that there was undoubtedly such
+a man, who, by sleights of dexterity, made himself a reputation as if
+there was something supernatural in his performances, and that he was
+probably also regarded with a degree of terror and abhorrence by the
+superstitious. On this theme was constructed a romance, which once
+possessed the highest popularity, and furnished a subject to the
+dramatical genius of Marlow, Leasing, Goethe, and others.--It is
+sufficiently remarkable, that the notoriety of this romance seems to
+have suggested to Shakespear the idea of sending the grand conception
+of his brain, Hamlet, prince of Denmark, to finish his education at
+the university of Wittenberg.
+
+And here it may not be uninstructive to remark the different tone
+of the record of the acts of Ziito, the Bohemian, and Faustus of
+Wittenburg, though little more than half a century elapsed between
+the periods at which they were written. Dubravius, bishop of Olmutz
+in Moravia, to whose pen we are indebted for what we know of Ziito,
+died in the year 1553. He has deemed it not unbecoming to record in
+his national history of Bohemia, the achievements of this magician,
+who, he says, exhibited them before Wenceslaus, king of the country,
+at the celebration of his marriage. A waggon-load of sorcerers arrived
+at Prague on that occasion for the entertainment of the company. But,
+at the close of that century, the exploits of Faustus were no longer
+deemed entitled to a place in national history, but were more
+appropriately taken for the theme of a romance. Faustus and his
+performances were certainly contemplated with at least as much horror
+as the deeds of Ziito. But popular credulity was no longer wound to
+so high a pitch: the marvels effected by Faustus are not represented
+as challenging the observation of thousands at a public court, and
+on the occasion of a royal festival. They "hid their diminished heads,"
+and were performed comparatively in a corner.
+
+
+SABELLICUS.
+
+A pretended magician is recorded by Naude, as living about this time,
+named Georgius Sabellicus, who, he says, if loftiness and arrogance
+of assumption were enough to establish a claim to the possession of
+supernatural gifts, would beyond all controversy be recognised for
+a chief and consummate sorcerer. It was his ambition by the most
+sounding appellations of this nature to advance his claim to immortal
+reputation. He called himself, "The most accomplished Georgius
+Sabellicus, a second Faustus, the spring and centre of necromantic
+art, an astrologer, a magician, consummate in chiromancy, and in
+agromancy, pyromancy and hydromancy inferior to none that ever lived."
+I mention this the rather, as affording an additional proof how highly
+Faustus was rated at the time in which he is said to have flourished.
+
+It is specially worthy of notice, that Naude, whose book is a sort
+of register of all the most distinguished names in the annals of
+necromancy, drawn up for the purpose of vindicating their honour,
+now here [Errata: _read_ no where] mentions Faustus, except once
+in this slight and cursory way.
+
+
+PARACELSUS
+
+Paracelsus, or, as he styled himself, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus
+Bombastus Paracelsus de Hohenheim, was a man of great notoriety and
+eminence, about the same time as Dr. Faustus. He was born in the year
+1493, and died in 1541. His father is said to have lived in some
+repute; but the son early became a wanderer in the world, passing
+his youth in the occupation of foretelling future events by the stars
+and by chiromancy, invoking the dead, and performing various operations
+of alchemy and magic. He states Trithemius to have been his instructor
+in the science of metals. He was superficial in literature, and says
+of himself that at one time he did not open a book for ten years
+together. He visited the mines of Bohemia, Sweden and the East to
+perfect himself in metallic knowledge. He travelled through Prussia,
+Lithuania, Poland, Transylvania and Illyria, conversing indifferently
+with physicians and old women, that he might extract from them the
+practical secrets of their art. He visited Egypt, Tartary and
+Constantinople, at which last place, as he says, he learned the
+transmutation of metals and the philosopher's stone. He boasts also
+of the elixir of life, by means of which he could prolong the life
+of man to the age of the antediluvians. He certainly possessed
+considerable sagacity and a happy spirit of daring, which induced
+him to have recourse to the application of mercury and opium in the
+cure of diseases, when the regular physicians did not venture on the
+use of them. He therefore was successfully employed by certain eminent
+persons in desperate cases, and was consulted by Erasmus. He gradually
+increased in fame, and in the year 1526 was chosen professor of natural
+philosophy and surgery in the university of Bale. Here he delivered
+lectures in a very bold and presumptuous style. He proclaimed himself
+the monarch of medicine, and publicly burned the writings of Galen
+and Avicenna as pretenders and impostors.
+
+This however was the acme of his prosperity. His system was extremely
+popular for one year; but then he lost himself by brutality and
+intemperance. He had drunk water only for the first five-and-twenty
+years of his life; but now indulged himself in beastly crapulence
+with the dregs of society, and scarcely ever took off his clothes
+by day or night. After one year therefore spent at Bale, he resumed
+his former vagabond life, and, having passed through many vicissitudes,
+some of them of the most abject poverty, he died at the age of
+forty-eight.
+
+Paracelsus in fact exhibited in his person the union of a quack, a
+boastful and impudent pretender, with a considerable degree of natural
+sagacity and shrewdness. Such an union is not uncommon in the present
+day; but it was more properly in its place, when the cultivation of
+the faculties of the mind was more restricted than now, and the law
+of criticism of facts and evidence was nearly unknown. He took
+advantage of the credulity and love of wonder incident to the
+generality of our species; and, by dint of imposing on others,
+succeeded in no small degree in imposing on himself. His intemperance
+and arrogance of demeanour gave the suitable finish to his character.
+He therefore carefully cherished in those about him the idea that
+there was in him a kind of supernatural virtue, and that he had the
+agents of an invisible world at his command. In particular he gave
+out that he held conferences with a familiar or demon, whom for the
+convenience of consulting he was in the habit of carrying about with
+him in the hilt of his sword.
+
+
+CARDAN.
+
+Jerome Cardan, who was only a few years younger than Paracelsus, was
+a man of a very different character. He had considerable refinement
+and discrimination, and ranked among the first scholars of his day.
+He is however most of all distinguished for the Memoirs he has left
+us of his life, which are characterised by a frankness and unreserve
+which are almost without a parallel. He had undoubtedly a considerable
+spice of madness in his composition. He says of himself, that he was
+liable to extraordinary fits of abstraction and elevation of mind,
+which by their intenseness became so intolerable, that he gladly had
+recourse to very severe bodily pain by way of getting rid of them.
+That in such cases he would bite his lips till they bled, twist his
+fingers almost to dislocation, and whip his legs with rods, which
+he found a great relief to him. That he would talk purposely of
+subjects which he knew were particularly offensive to the company
+he was in; that he argued on any side of a subject, without caring
+whether he was right or wrong; and that he would spend whole nights
+in gaming, often venturing as the stake he played for, the furniture
+of his house, and his wife's jewels.
+
+Cardan describes three things of himself, which he habitually
+experienced, but respecting which he had never unbosomed himself to
+any of his friends. The first was, a capacity which he felt in himself
+of abandoning his body in a sort of extacy whenever he pleased. He
+felt in these cases a sort of splitting of the heart, as if his soul
+was about to withdraw, the sensation spreading over his whole frame,
+like the opening of a door for the dismissal of its guest. His
+apprehension was, that he was out of his body, and that by an
+energetic exertion he still retained a small hold of his corporeal
+figure. The second of his peculiarities was, that he saw, when he
+pleased, whatever he desired to see, not through the force of
+imagination, but with his material organs: he saw groves, animals,
+orbs, as he willed. When he was a child, he saw these things, as they
+occurred, without any previous volition or anticipation that such
+a thing was about to happen. But, after he had arrived at years of
+maturity, he saw them only when he desired, and such things as he
+desired. These images were in perpetual succession, one after another.
+The thing incidental to him which he mentions in the third place was,
+that he could not recollect any thing that ever happened to him,
+whether good, ill, or indifferent, of which he had not been admonished,
+and that a very short time before, in a dream. These things serve
+to shew of what importance he was in his own eyes, and also, which
+is the matter he principally brings it to prove, the subtlety and
+delicacy of his animal nature.
+
+Cardan speaks uncertainly and contradictorily as to his having a
+genius or demon perpetually attending him, advising him of what was
+to happen, and forewarning him of sinister events. He concludes
+however that he had no such attendant, but that it was the excellence
+of his nature, approaching to immortality. He was much addicted to
+the study of astrology, and laid claim to great skill as a physician.
+He visited the court of London, and calculated the nativity of king
+Edward VI. He was sent for as a physician by cardinal Beaton,
+archbishop of St Andrews, whom, according to Melvile, [208] he
+recovered to speech and health, and the historian appears to attribute
+the cure to magic. He calculated the nativity of Jesus Christ, which
+was imputed to him as an impious undertaking, inasmuch as it supposed
+the creator of the world to be subject to the influence of the stars.
+He also predicted his own death, and is supposed by some to have
+forwarded that event, by abstinence from food at the age of
+seventy-five, that he might not bely his prediction.
+
+
+QUACKS, WHO IN COOL BLOOD UNDERTOOK TO OVERREACH MANKIND.
+
+Hitherto we have principally passed such persons in review, as seem
+to have been in part at least the victims of their own delusions.
+But beside these there has always been a numerous class of men, who,
+with minds perfectly disengaged and free, have applied themselves
+to concert the means of overreaching the simplicity, or baffling the
+penetration, of those who were merely spectators, and uninitiated
+in the mystery of the arts that were practised upon them. Such was
+no doubt the case with the speaking heads and statues, which were
+sometimes exhibited in the ancient oracles. Such was the case with
+certain optical delusions, which were practised on the unsuspecting,
+and were contrived to produce on them the effect of supernatural
+revelations. Such is the story of Bel and the Dragon in the book of
+Apocrypha, where the priests daily placed before the idol twelve
+measures of flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine,
+pretending that the idol consumed all these provisions, when in fact
+they entered the temple by night, by a door under the altar, and
+removed them.
+
+
+BENVENUTO CELLINI.
+
+We have a story minutely related by Benvenuto Cellini in his Life,
+which it is now known was produced by optical delusion, but which
+was imposed upon the artist and his companions as altogether
+supernatural. It occurred a very short time before the death of pope
+Clement the Seventh in 1534, and is thus detailed. It took place in
+the Coliseum at Rome.
+
+"It came to pass through a variety of odd accidents, that I made
+acquaintance with a Sicilian priest, who was a man of genius, and
+well versed in the Greek and Latin languages. Happening one day to
+have some conversation with him, where the subject turned upon the
+art of necromancy, I, who had a great desire to know something of
+the matter, told him, that I had all my life had a curiosity to be
+acquainted with the mysteries of this art. The priest made answer,
+that the man must be of a resolute and steady temper, who entered
+on that study. I replied, that I had fortitude and resolution enough
+to desire to be initiated in it. The priest subjoined, 'If you think
+you have the heart to venture, I will give you all the satisfaction
+you can desire.' Thus we agreed to enter upon a scheme of necromancy.
+
+"The priest one evening prepared to satisfy me, and desired me to
+look for a companion or two. I invited one Vincenzio Romoli, who was
+my intimate acquaintance, and he brought with him a native of Pistoia
+who cultivated the art of necromancy himself. We repaired to the
+Coliseum; and the priest, according to the custom of conjurors, began
+to draw circles on the ground, with the most impressive ceremonies
+imaginable. He likewise brought with him all sorts of precious
+perfumes and fire, with some compositions which diffused noisome and
+bad odours. As soon as he was in readiness, he made an opening to
+the circle, and took us by the hand, and ordered the other
+necromancer, his partner, to throw perfumes into the fire at a proper
+time, intrusting the care of the fire and the perfumes to the rest;
+and then he began his incantations.
+
+"This ceremony lasted above an hour and a half, when there appeared
+several legions of devils, so that the amphitheatre was quite filled
+with them. I was busy about the perfumes, when the priest, who knew
+that there was a sufficient number of infernal spirits, turned about
+to me, and said, 'Benvenuto, ask them something.' I answered, 'Let
+them bring me into company with my Sicilian mistress, Angelica.' That
+night we obtained no answer of any sort; but I received great
+satisfaction in having my curiosity so far indulged.
+
+"The necromancer told me that it was requisite we should go a second
+time, assuring me that I should be satisfied in whatever I asked; but
+that I must bring with me a boy that had never known woman. I took
+with me my apprentice, who was about twelve years of age; with the
+same Vincenzio Romoli, who had been my companion the first time, and
+one Agnolino Gaddi, an intimate acquaintance, whom I likewise
+prevailed on to assist at the ceremony. When we came to the place
+appointed, the priest, having made his preparations as before with the
+same and even more striking ceremonies, placed us within the circle,
+which he had drawn with a more wonderful art and in a more solemn
+manner, than at our former meeting. Thus having committed the care of
+the perfumes and the fire to my friend Vincenzio, who was assisted by
+Gaddi, he put into my hands a pintacolo, or magical chart, and bid me
+turn it towards the places to which he should direct me; and under the
+pintacolo I held my apprentice. The necromancer, having begun to make
+his most tremendous invocations, called by their names a multitude of
+demons who were the leaders of the several legions, and questioned
+them, by the virtue and power of the eternal, uncreated God, who lives
+for ever, in the Hebrew language, as also in Latin and Greek; insomuch
+that the amphitheatre was filled, almost in an instant, with demons a
+hundred times more numerous than at the former conjuration. Vincenzio
+meanwhile was busied in making a fire with the assistance of Gaddi,
+and burning a great quantity of precious perfumes. I, by the direction
+of the necromancer, again desired to be in company with my Angelica.
+He then turning upon me said, 'Know, they have declared that in the
+space of a month you shall be in her company.'
+
+"He then requested me to stand by him resolutely, because the legions
+were now above a thousand more in number than he had designed; and
+besides these were the most dangerous; so that, after they had
+answered my question, it behoved him to be civil to them, and dismiss
+them quietly. At the same time the boy under the pintacolo was in a
+terrible fright, saying, that there were in the place a million of
+fierce men who threatened to destroy us; and that, besides, there were
+four armed giants of enormous stature, who endeavoured to break into
+our circle. During this time, while the necromancer, trembling with
+fear, endeavoured by mild means to dismiss them in the best way he
+could, Vincenzio, who quivered like an aspen leaf, took care of the
+perfumes. Though I was as much afraid as any of them, I did my utmost
+to conceal it; so that I greatly contributed to inspire the rest with
+resolution; but the truth is, I gave myself over for a dead man,
+seeing the horrid fright the necromancer was in.
+
+"The boy had placed his head between his knees; and said, 'In this
+attitude will I die; for we shall all surely perish.' I told him that
+those demons were under us, and what he saw was smoke and shadow; so
+bid him hold up his head and take courage. No sooner did he look up,
+than he cried out, 'The whole amphitheatre is burning, and the fire is
+just falling on us.' So, covering his eyes with his hands, he again
+exclaimed, that destruction was inevitable, and he desired to see no
+more. The necromancer intreated me to have a good heart, and to take
+care to burn proper perfumes; upon which I turned to Vincenzio, and
+bade him burn all the most precious perfumes he had. At the same time
+I cast my eyes upon Gaddi, who was terrified to such a degree, that he
+could scarcely distinguish objects, and seemed to be half dead. Seeing
+him in this condition, I said to him, 'Gaddi, upon these occasions a
+man should not yield to fear, but stir about to give some assistance;
+so come directly, and put on more of these perfumes.' Gaddi accordingly
+attempted to move; but the effect was annoying both to our sense of
+hearing and smell, and overcame the perfumes.
+
+"The boy perceiving this, once more ventured to raise his head, and,
+seeing me laugh, began to take courage, and said, 'The devils are
+flying away with a vengeance.' In this condition we staid, till the
+bell rang for morning prayers. The boy again told us, that there
+remained but few devils, and those were at a great distance. When the
+magician had performed the rest of his ceremonies, he stripped off his
+gown, and took up a wallet full of books, which he had brought with
+him. We all went out of the circle together, keeping as close to each
+other as we possibly could, especially the boy, who placed himself in
+the middle, holding the necromancer by the coat, and me by the cloak.
+
+"As we were going to our houses in the quarter of Banchi, the boy told
+us, that two of the demons whom we had seen at the amphitheatre, went
+on before us leaping and skipping, sometimes running upon the roofs of
+the houses, and sometimes on the ground. The priest declared that, as
+often as he had entered magic circles, nothing so extraordinary had
+ever happened to him. As we went along, he would fain have persuaded
+me to assist at the consecrating a book, from which he said we should
+derive immense riches. We should then ask the demons to discover to us
+the various treasures with which the earth abounds, which would raise
+us to opulence and power; but that those love-affairs were mere
+follies from which no good could be expected. I made answer, that I
+would readily have accepted his proposal if I had understood Latin. He
+assured me that the knowledge of Latin was nowise material; but that
+he could never meet with a partner of resolution and intrepidity equal
+to mine, and that that would be to him an invaluable acquisition."
+Immediately subsequent to this scene, Cellini got into one of those
+scrapes, in which he was so frequently involved by his own violence
+and ferocity; and the connection was never again renewed.
+
+The first remark that arises out of this narrative is, that nothing is
+actually done by the supernatural personages which are exhibited. The
+magician reports certain answers as given by the demons; but these
+answers do not appear to have been heard from any lips but those of
+him who was the creator or cause of the scene. The whole of the demons
+therefore were merely figures, produced by the magic lantern (which is
+said to have been invented by Roger Bacon), or by something of that
+nature. The burning of the perfumes served to produce a dense
+atmosphere, that was calculated to exaggerate, and render more
+formidable and terrific, the figures which were exhibited. The magic
+lantern, which is now the amusement only of servant-maids, and boys at
+school in their holidays, served at this remote period, and when the
+power of optical delusions was unknown, to terrify men of wisdom and
+penetration, and make them believe that legions of devils from the
+infernal regions were come among them, to produce the most horrible
+effects, and suspend and invert the laws of nature. It is probable,
+that the magician, who carried home with him a "wallet full of books,"
+also carried at the same time the magic lantern or mirror, with its
+lights, which had served him for his exhibition, and that this was the
+cause of the phenomenon, that they observed two of the demons which
+they had seen at the amphitheatre, going before them on their return,
+"leaping and skipping, sometimes running on the roofs of the houses,
+and sometimes on the ground." [209]
+
+
+NOSTRADAMUS.
+
+Michael Nostradamus, a celebrated astrologer, was born at St. Remi in
+Provence in the year 1503. He published a Century of Prophecies in
+obscure and oracular terms and barbarous verse, and other works. In
+the period in which he lived the pretended art of astrological
+prediction was in the highest repute; and its professors were sought
+for by emperors and kings, and entertained with the greatest
+distinction and honour. Henry the Second of France, moved with his
+great renown, sent for Nostradamus to court, received much
+gratification from his visit, and afterward ordered him to Blois, that
+he might see the princes, his sons, calculate their horoscopes, and
+predict their future fortunes. He was no less in favour afterwards
+with Charles the Ninth. He died in the year 1566.
+
+
+DOCTOR DEE.
+
+Dr. John Dee was a man who made a conspicuous figure in the sixteenth
+century. He was born at London in the year 1527. He was an eminent
+mathematician, and an indefatigable scholar. He says of himself, that,
+having been sent to Cambridge when he was fifteen, he persisted for
+several years in allowing himself only four hours for sleep in the
+twenty-four, and two for food and refreshment, and that he constantly
+occupied the remaining eighteen (the time for divine service only
+excepted) in study. At Cambridge he superintended the exhibition of a
+Greek play of Aristophanes, among the machinery of which he introduced
+an artificial scarabaeus, or beetle, which flew up to the palace of
+Jupiter, with a man on his back, and a basket of provisions. The
+ignorant and astonished spectators ascribed this feat to the arts of
+the magician; and Dee, annoyed by these suspicions, found it expedient
+to withdraw to the continent. Here he resided first at the university
+of Louvaine, at which place, his acquaintance was courted by the dukes
+of Mantua and Medina, and from thence proceeded to Paris, where he
+gave lectures on Euclid with singular applause.
+
+In 1551 he returned to England, and was received with distinction by
+sir John Check, and introduced to secretary Cecil, and even to king
+Edward, from whom he received a pension of one hundred crowns _per
+annum_, which he speedily after exchanged for a small living in the
+church. In the reign of queen Mary he was for some time kindly
+treated; but afterwards came into great trouble, and even into danger
+of his life. He entered into correspondence with several of the
+servants of queen Elizabeth at Woodstock, and was charged with
+practising against Mary's life by enchantments. Upon this accusation,
+he was seized and confined; and, being after several examinations
+discharged of the indictment, was turned over to bishop Bonner to see
+if any heresy could be found in him. After a tedious persecution he
+was set at liberty in 1555, and was so little subdued by what he had
+suffered, that in the following year he presented a petition to the
+queen, requesting her co-operation in a plan for preserving and
+recovering certain monuments of classical antiquity.
+
+The principal study of Dee however at this time lay in astrology; and
+accordingly, upon the accession of Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, her chief
+favourite, was sent to consult the doctor as to the aspect of the
+stars, that they might fix on an auspicious day for celebrating her
+coronation. Some years after we find him again on the continent; and
+in 1571, being taken ill at Louvaine, we are told the queen sent over
+two physicians to accomplish his cure. Elizabeth afterwards visited
+him at his house at Mortlake, that she might view his magazine of
+mathematical instruments and curiosities; and about this time employed
+him to defend her title to countries discovered in different parts of
+the globe. He says of himself, that he received the most advantageous
+offers from Charles V, Ferdinand, Maximilian II, and Rodolph II,
+emperors of Germany, and from the czar of Muscovy an offer of L.2000
+sterling _per annum_, upon condition that he would reside in his
+dominions. All these circumstances were solemnly attested by Dee in a
+Compendious Rehearsal of his Life and Studies for half-a-century,
+composed at a later period, and read by him at his house at Mortlake
+to two commissioners appointed by Elizabeth to enquire into his
+circumstances, accompanied with evidences and documents to establish
+the particulars. [210]
+
+Had Dee gone no further than this, he would undoubtedly have ranked
+among the profoundest scholars and most eminent geniuses that adorned
+the reign of the maiden queen. But he was unfortunately cursed with an
+ambition that nothing could satisfy; and, having accustomed his mind
+to the wildest reveries, and wrought himself up to an extravagant
+pitch of enthusiasm, he pursued a course that involved him in much
+calamity, and clouded all his latter days with misery and ruin. He
+dreamed perpetually of the philosopher's stone, and was haunted with
+the belief of intercourse of a supramundane character. It is almost
+impossible to decide among these things, how much was illusion, and
+how much was forgery. Both were inextricably mixed in his proceedings;
+and this extraordinary victim probably could not in his most
+dispassionate moments precisely distinguish what belonged to the one,
+and what to the other.
+
+As Dee was an enthusiast, so he perpetually interposed in his
+meditations prayers of the greatest emphasis and fervour. As he was
+one day in November 1582, engaged in these devout exercises, he says
+that there appeared to him the angel Uriel at the west window of his
+Museum, who gave him a translucent stone, or chrystal, of a convex
+form, that had the quality, when intently surveyed, of presenting
+apparitions, and even emitting sounds, in consequence of which the
+observer could hold conversations, ask questions and receive answers
+from the figures he saw in the mirror. It was often necessary that the
+stone should be turned one way and another in different positions,
+before the person who consulted it gained the right focus; and then
+the objects to be observed would sometimes shew themselves on the
+surface of the stone, and sometime in different parts of the room by
+virtue of the action of the stone. It had also this peculiarity, that
+only one person, having been named as seer, could see the figures
+exhibited, and hear the voices that spoke, though there might be
+various persons in the room. It appears that the person who discerned
+these visions must have his eyes and his ears uninterruptedly engaged
+in the affair, so that, as Dee experienced, to render the communication
+effectual, there must be two human beings concerned in the scene, one
+of them to describe what he saw, and to recite the dialogue that took
+place, and the other immediately to commit to paper all that his
+partner dictated. Dee for some reason chose for himself the part of
+the amanuensis, and had to seek for a companion, who was to watch the
+stone, and repeat to him whatever he saw and heard.
+
+It happened opportunely that, a short time before Dee received this
+gift from on high, he contracted a familiar intercourse with one
+Edward Kelly of Worcestershire, whom he found specially qualified to
+perform the part which it was necessary to Dee to have adequately
+filled. Kelly was an extraordinary character, and in some respects
+exactly such a person as Dee wanted. He was just twenty-eight years
+younger than the memorable personage, who now received him as an
+inmate, and was engaged in his service at a stipulated salary of fifty
+pounds a year.
+
+Kelly entered upon life with a somewhat unfortunate adventure. He was
+accused, when a young man, of forgery, brought to trial, convicted,
+and lost his ears in the pillory. This misfortune however by no means
+daunted him. He was assiduously engaged in the search for the
+philosopher's stone. He had an active mind, great enterprise, and a
+very domineering temper. Another adventure in which he had been
+engaged previously to his knowledge of Dee, was in digging up the body
+of a man, who had been buried only the day before, that he might
+compel him by incantations, to answer questions, and discover future
+events. There was this difference therefore between the two persons
+previously to their league. Dee was a man of regular manners and
+unspotted life, honoured by the great, and favourably noticed by
+crowned heads in different parts of the world; while Kelly was a
+notorious profligate, accustomed to the most licentious actions, and
+under no restraint from morals or principle.
+
+One circumstance that occurred early in the acquaintance of Kelly and
+Dee it is necessary to mention. It serves strikingly to illustrate the
+ascendancy of the junior and impetuous party over his more gifted
+senior. Kelly led Dee, we are not told under what pretence, to visit
+the celebrated ruins of Glastonbury Abbey in Somersetshire. Here, as
+these curious travellers searched into every corner of the scene, they
+met by some rare accident with a vase containing a certain portion of
+the actual _elixir vitae_, that rare and precious liquid, so much
+sought after, which has the virtue of converting the baser metals into
+gold and silver. It had remained here perhaps ever since the time of
+the highly-gifted St. Dunstan in the tenth century. This they carried
+off in triumph: but we are not told of any special use to which they
+applied it, till a few years after, when they were both on the
+continent.
+
+The first record of their consultations with the supramundane spirits,
+was of the date of December 2, 1581, at Lexden Heath in the county of
+Essex; and from this time they went on in a regular series of
+consultations with and enquiries from these miraculous visitors, a
+great part of which will appear to the uninitiated extremely puerile
+and ludicrous, but which were committed to writing with the most
+scrupulous exactness by Dee, the first part still existing in
+manuscript, but the greater portion from 28 May 1583 to 1608, with
+some interruptions, having been committed to the press by Dr. Meric
+Casaubon in a well-sized folio in 1659, under the title of "A True and
+Faithful Relation of what passed between Dr. John Dee and some
+Spirits, tending, had it succeeded, to a general alteration of most
+states and kingdoms of the world."
+
+Kelly and Dee had not long been engaged in these supernatural
+colloquies, before an event occurred which gave an entirely new turn
+to their proceedings. Albert Alaski, a Polish nobleman, lord palatine
+of the principality of Siradia, came over at this time into England,
+urged, as he said, by a desire personally to acquaint himself with the
+glories of the reign of Elizabeth, and the evidences of her unrivalled
+talents. The queen and her favourite, the earl of Leicester, received
+him with every mark of courtesy and attention, and, having shewn him
+all the wonders of her court at Westminster and Greenwich, sent him to
+Oxford, with a command to the dignitaries and heads of colleges, to
+pay him every attention, and to lay open to his view all their rarest
+curiosities. Among other things worthy of notice, Alaski enquired for
+the celebrated Dr. Dee, and expressed the greatest impatience to be
+acquainted with him.
+
+Just at this juncture the earl of Leicester happened to spy Dr. Dee
+among the crowd who attended at a royal levee. The earl immediately
+advanced towards him; and, in his frank manner, having introduced him
+to Alaski, expressed his intention of bringing the Pole to dine with
+the doctor at his house at Mortlake. Embarrassed with this unexpected
+honour, Dee no sooner got home, than he dispatched an express to the
+earl, honestly confessing that he should be unable to entertain such
+guests in a suitable manner, without being reduced to the expedient of
+selling or pawning his plate, to procure him the means of doing so.
+Leicester communicated the doctor's perplexity to Elizabeth; and the
+queen immediately dispatched a messenger with a present of forty
+angels, or twenty pounds, to enable him to receive his guests as
+became him.
+
+A great intimacy immediately commenced between Dee and the stranger.
+Alaski, though possessing an extensive territory, was reduced by the
+prodigality of himself or his ancestors to much embarrassment; and on
+the other hand this nobleman appeared to Dee an instrument well
+qualified to accomplish his ambitious purposes. Alaski was extremely
+desirous to look into the womb of time; and Dee, it is likely,
+suggested repeated hints of his extraordinary power from his
+possession of the philosopher's stone. After two or three interviews,
+and much seeming importunity on the part of the Pole, Dee and Kelly
+graciously condescended to admit Alaski as a third party to their
+secret meetings with their supernatural visitors, from which the rest
+of the world were carefully excluded. Here the two Englishmen made use
+of the vulgar artifice, of promising extraordinary good fortune to the
+person of whom they purposed to make use. By the intervention of the
+miraculous stone they told the wondering traveller, that he should
+shortly become king of Poland, with the accession of several other
+kingdoms, that he should overcome many armies of Saracens and Paynims,
+and prove a mighty conqueror. Dee at the same time complained of the
+disagreeable condition in which he was at home, and that Burleigh and
+Walsingham were his malicious enemies. At length they concerted among
+themselves, that they, Alaski, and Dee and Kelly with their wives and
+families, should clandestinely withdraw out of England, and proceed
+with all practicable rapidity to Alaski's territory in the kingdom of
+Poland. They embarked on this voyage 21 September, and arrived at
+Siradia the third of February following.
+
+At this place however the strangers remained little more than a month.
+Alaski found his finances in such disorder, that it was scarcely
+possible for him to feed the numerous guests he had brought along with
+him. The promises of splendid conquests which Dee and Kelly profusely
+heaped upon him, were of no avail to supply the deficiency of his
+present income. And the elixir they brought from Glastonbury was, as
+they said, so incredibly rich in virtue, that they were compelled to
+lose much time in making projection by way of trial, before they could
+hope to arrive at the proper temperament for producing the effect they
+desired.
+
+In the following month Alaski with his visitors passed to Cracow, the
+residence of the kings of Poland. Here they remained five months, Dee
+and Kelly perpetually amusing the Pole with the extraordinary virtue
+of the stone, which had been brought from heaven by an angel, and
+busied in a thousand experiments with the elixir, and many tedious
+preparations which they pronounced to be necessary, before the
+compound could have the proper effect. The prophecies were uttered
+with extreme confidence; but no external indications were afforded, to
+shew that in any way they were likely to be realised. The experiments
+and exertions of the laboratory were incessant; but no transmutation
+was produced. At length Alaski found himself unable to sustain the
+train of followers he had brought out of England. With mountains of
+wealth, the treasures of the world promised, they were reduced to the
+most grievous straits for the means of daily subsistence. Finally the
+zeal of Alaski diminished; he had no longer the same faith in the
+projectors that had deluded him; and he devised a way of sending them
+forward with letters of recommendation to Rodolph II, emperor of
+Germany, at his imperial seat of Prague, where they arrived on the
+ninth of August.
+
+Rodolph was a man, whose character and habits of life they judged
+excellently adapted to their purpose. Dee had a long conference with
+the emperor, in which he explained to him what wonderful things the
+spirits promised to this prince, in case he proved exemplary of life,
+and obedient to their suggestions, that he should be the greatest
+conqueror in the world, and should take captive the Turk in his city
+of Constantinople. Rodolph was extremely courteous in his reception,
+and sent away Dee with the highest hopes that he had at length found
+a personage with whom he should infallibly succeed to the extent of
+his wishes. He sought however a second interview, and was baffled. At
+one time the emperor was going to his country palace near Prague, and
+at another was engaged in the pleasures of the chace.
+
+He also complained that he was not sufficiently familiar with the
+Latin tongue, to manage the conferences with Dee in a satisfactory
+manner in person. He therefore deputed Curtzius, a man high in his
+confidence, to enter into the necessary details with his learned
+visitor. Dee also contrived to have Spinola, the ambassador from
+Madrid to the court of the emperor, to urge his suit. The final result
+was that Rodolph declined any further intercourse with Dee. He turned
+a deaf ear to his prophecies, and professed to be altogether void of
+faith as to his promises respecting the philosopher's stone. Dee
+however was led on perpetually with hopes of better things from the
+emperor, till the spring of the year 1585. At length he was obliged to
+fly from Prague, the bishop of Placentia, the pope's nuncio, having it
+in command from his holiness to represent to Rodolph how discreditable
+it was for him to harbour English magicians, heretics, at his court.
+
+From Prague Dee and his followers proceeded to Cracow. Here he found
+means of introduction to Stephen, king of Poland, to whom immediately
+he insinuated as intelligence from heaven, that Rodolph, the emperor,
+would speedily be assassinated, and that Stephen would succeed him in
+the throne of Germany. Stephen appears to have received Dee with more
+condescension than Rodolph had done, and was once present at his
+incantation and interview with the invisible spirits. Dee also lured
+him on with promises respecting the philosopher's stone. Meanwhile the
+magician was himself reduced to the strangest expedients for
+subsistence. He appears to have daily expected great riches from the
+transmutation of metals, and was unwilling to confess that he and his
+family were in the mean time almost starving.
+
+When king Stephen at length became wearied with fruitless expectation,
+Dee was fortunate enough to meet with another and more patient dupe in
+Rosenburg, a nobleman of considerable wealth at Trebona in the kingdom
+of Bohemia. Here Dee appears to have remained till 1589, when he was
+sent for home by Elizabeth. In what manner he proceeded during this
+interval, and from whence he drew his supplies, we are only left to
+conjecture. He lured on his victim with the usual temptation,
+promising him that he should be king of Poland. In the mean time it is
+recorded by him, that, on the ninth of December, 1586, he arrived at
+the point of projection, having cut a piece of metal out of a brass
+warming-pan; and merely heating it by the fire, and pouring on it a
+portion of the elixir, it was presently converted into pure silver. We
+are told that he sent the warming-pan and the piece of silver to queen
+Elizabeth, that she might be convinced by her own eyes how exactly
+they tallied, and that the one had unquestionably been a portion of
+the other. About the same time it is said, that Dee and his associate
+became more free in their expenditure; and in one instance it is
+stated as an example, that Kelly gave away to the value of four
+thousand pounds sterling in gold rings on occasion of the celebration
+of the marriage of one of his maid-servants. On the twenty-seventh and
+thirtieth of July, 1587, Dee has recorded in his journal his gratitude
+to God for his unspeakable mercies on those days imparted, which has
+been interpreted to mean further acquisitions of wealth by means of
+the elixir.
+
+Meanwhile perpetual occasions of dissention occurred between the two
+great confederates, Kelly and Dee. They were in many respects unfitted
+for each other's society. Dee was a man, who from his youth upward had
+been indefatigable in study and research, had the consciousness of
+great talents and intellect, and had been universally recognised as
+such, and had possessed a high character for fervent piety and
+blameless morals. Kelly was an impudent adventurer, a man of no
+principles and of blasted reputation; yet fertile in resources, full
+of self-confidence, and of no small degree of ingenuity. In their
+mutual intercourse the audacious adventurer often had the upper hand
+of the man who had lately possessed a well-earned reputation. Kelly
+frequently professed himself tired of enacting the character of
+interpreter of the Gods under Dee. He found Dee in all cases running
+away with the superior consideration; while he in his own opinion best
+deserved to possess it. The straitness of their circumstances, and the
+misery they were occasionally called on to endure, we may be sure did
+not improve their good understanding. Kelly once and again threatened
+to abandon his leader. Dee continually soothed him, and prevailed on
+him to stay.
+
+Kelly at length started a very extraordinary proposition. Kelly, as
+interpreter to the spirits, and being the only person who heard and
+saw any thing, we may presume made them say whatever he pleased. Kelly
+and Dee had both of them wives. Kelly did not always live harmoniously
+with the partner of his bed. He sometimes went so far as to say that
+he hated her. Dee was more fortunate. His wife was a person of good
+family, and had hitherto been irreproachable in her demeanour. The
+spirits one day revealed to Kelly, that they must henceforth have
+their wives in common. The wife of Kelly was barren, and this curse
+could no otherwise be removed. Having started the proposition, Kelly
+played the reluctant party. Dee, who was pious and enthusiastic,
+inclined to submit. He first indeed started the notion, that it could
+only be meant that they should live in mutual harmony and good
+understanding. The spirits protested against this, and insisted upon
+the literal interpretation. Dee yielded, and compared his case to that
+of Abraham, who at the divine command consented to sacrifice his son
+Isaac. Kelly alleged that these spirits, which Dee had hitherto
+regarded as messengers from God, could be no other than servants of
+Satan. He persisted in his disobedience; and the spirits declared that
+he was no longer worthy to be their interpreter, and that another
+mediator must be found.
+
+They named Arthur Dee, the son of the possessor of the stone, a
+promising and well-disposed boy of only eight years of age. Dee
+consecrated the youth accordingly to his high function by prayers and
+religious rites for several days together. Kelly took horse and rode
+away, protesting that they should meet no more. Arthur entered upon
+his office, April 15, 1587. The experiment proved abortive. He saw
+something; but not to the purpose. He heard no voices. At length
+Kelly, on the third day, entered the room unexpectedly, "by miraculous
+fortune," as Dee says, "or a divine fate," sate down between them, and
+immediately saw figures, and heard voices, which the little Arthur was
+not enabled to perceive. In particular he saw four heads inclosed in
+an obelisk, which he perceived to represent the two magicians and
+their wives, and interpreted to signify that unlimited communion in
+which they were destined to engage. The matter however being still an
+occasion of scruple, a spirit appeared, who by the language he used
+was plainly no other than the Saviour of the world, and took away from
+them the larger stone; for now it appears there were two stones. This
+miracle at length induced all parties to submit; and the divine
+command was no sooner obeyed, than the stone which had been
+abstracted, was found again under the pillow of the wife of Dee.
+
+It is not easy to imagine a state of greater degradation than that
+into which this person had now fallen. During all the prime and vigour
+of his intellect, he had sustained an eminent part among the learned
+and the great, distinguished and honoured by Elizabeth and her
+favourite. But his unbounded arrogance and self-opinion could never be
+satisfied. And seduced, partly by his own weakness, and partly by the
+insinuations of a crafty adventurer, he became a mystic of the most
+dishonourable sort. He was induced to believe in a series of
+miraculous communications without common sense, engaged in the pursuit
+of the philosopher's stone, and no doubt imagined that he was
+possessed of the great secret. Stirred up by these conceptions, he
+left his native country, and became a wanderer, preying upon the
+credulity of one prince and eminent man after another, and no sooner
+was he discarded by one victim of credulity, than he sought another,
+a vagabond on the earth, reduced from time to time to the greatest
+distress, persecuted, dishonoured and despised by every party in their
+turn. At length by incessant degrees he became dead to all moral
+distinctions, and all sense of honour and self-respect. "Professing
+himself to be wise he became a fool, walked in the vanity of his
+imagination," and had his understanding under total eclipse. The
+immoral system of conduct in which he engaged, and the strange and
+shocking blasphemy that he mixed with it, render him at this time a
+sort of character that it is painful to contemplate.
+
+Led on as Dee at this time was by the ascendancy and consummate art of
+Kelly, there was far from existing any genuine harmony between them;
+and, after many squabbles and heart-burnings, they appear finally to
+have parted in January 1589, Dee having, according to his own account,
+at that time delivered up to Kelly, the elixir and the different
+implements by which the transmutation of metals was to be effected.
+
+Various overtures appear to have passed now for some years between Dee
+and queen Elizabeth, intended to lead to his restoration to his native
+country. Dee had upon different occasions expressed a wish to that
+effect; and Elizabeth in the spring of 1589 sent him a message, that
+removed from him all further thought of hesitation and delay. He set
+out from Trebona with three coaches, and a baggage train correspondent,
+and had an audience of the queen at Richmond towards the close of that
+year. Upon the whole it is impossible perhaps not to believe, that
+Elizabeth was influenced in this proceeding by the various reports
+that had reached her of his extraordinary success with the
+philosopher's stone, and the boundless wealth he had it in his power
+to bestow. Many princes at this time contended with each other, as to
+who should be happy enough by fair means or by force to have under his
+control the fortunate possessor of the great secret, and thus to have
+in his possession the means of inexhaustible wealth. Shortly after
+this time the emperor Rodolph seized and committed to prison Kelly,
+the partner of Dee in this inestimable faculty, and, having once
+enlarged him, placed him in custody a second time. Meanwhile Elizabeth
+is said to have made him pressing overtures of so flattering a nature
+that he determined to escape and return to his native country. For
+this purpose he is said to have torn the sheets of his bed, and
+twisted them into a rope, that by that means he might descend from
+the tower in which he was confined. But, being a corpulent man of
+considerable weight, the rope broke with him before he was half way
+down, and, having fractured one or both his legs, and being otherwise
+considerably bruised, he died shortly afterwards. This happened in
+the year 1595.
+
+Dee (according to his own account, delivered to commissioners
+appointed by queen Elizabeth to enquire into his circumstances) came
+from Trebona to England in a state little inferior to that of an
+ambassador. He had three coaches, with four horses harnessed to each
+coach, two or three loaded waggons, and a guard, sometimes of six,
+and sometimes of twenty-four soldiers, to defend him from enemies,
+who were supposed to lie in wait to intercept his passage. Immediately
+on his arrival he had an audience of the queen at Richmond, by whom
+he was most graciously received. She gave special orders, that he
+should do what he would in chemistry and philosophy, and that no one
+should on any account molest him.
+
+But here end the prosperity and greatness of this extraordinary man.
+If he possessed the power of turning all baser metals into gold, he
+certainly acted unadvisedly in surrendering this power to his
+confederate, immediately before his return to his native country.
+He parted at the same time with his gift of prophecy, since, though
+he brought away with him his miraculous stone, and at one time
+appointed one Bartholomew, and another one Hickman, his interpreters
+to look into the stone, to see the marvellous sights it was expected
+to disclose, and to hear the voices and report the words that issued
+from it, the experiments proved in both instances abortive. They
+wanted the finer sense, or the unparalleled effrontery and
+inexhaustible invention, which Kelly alone possessed.
+
+The remainder of the voyage of the life of Dee was "bound in shallows
+and in miseries." Queen Elizabeth we may suppose soon found that her
+dreams of immense wealth to be obtained through his intervention were
+nugatory. Yet would she not desert the favourite of her former years.
+He presently began to complain of poverty and difficulties. He
+represented that the revenue of two livings he held in the church
+had been withheld from him from the time of his going abroad. He
+stated that, shortly after that period, his house had been broken
+into and spoiled by a lawless mob, instigated by his ill fame as a
+dealer in prohibited and unlawful arts. They destroyed or dispersed
+his library, consisting of four thousand volumes, seven hundred of
+which were manuscripts, and of inestimable rarity. They ravaged his
+collection of curious implements and machines. He enumerated the
+expences of his journey home by Elizabeth's command, for which he
+seemed to consider the queen as his debtor. Elizabeth in consequence
+ordered him at several times two or three small sums. But this being
+insufficient, she was prevailed upon in 1592 to appoint two members
+of her privy council to repair to his house at Mortlake to enquire
+into particulars, to whom he made a Compendious Rehearsal of half
+a hundred years of his life, accompanied with documents and vouchers.
+
+It is remarkable that in this Rehearsal no mention occurs of the
+miraculous stone brought down to him by an angel, or of his
+pretensions respecting the transmutation of metals. He merely rests,
+his claims to public support upon his literary labours, and the
+acknowledged eminence of his intellectual faculties. He passes over
+the years he had lately spent in foreign countries, in entire silence,
+unless we except his account of the particulars of his journey home.
+His representation to Elizabeth not being immediately productive of
+all the effects he expected, he wrote a letter to archbishop Whitgift
+two years after, lamenting the delay of the expected relief, and
+complaining of the "untrue reports, opinions and fables, which had
+for so many years been spread of his studies." He represents these
+studies purely as literary, frank, and wholly divested of mystery.
+If the "True Relation of what passed for many years between Dr. Dee
+and certain Spirits" had not been preserved, and afterwards printed,
+we might have been disposed to consider all that was said on this
+subject as a calumny.
+
+The promotion which Dee had set his heart on, was to the office of
+master of St. Cross's Hospital near Winchester, which the queen had
+promised him when the present holder should be made a bishop. But
+this never happened. He obtained however in lieu of it the
+chancellorship of St. Paul's cathedral, 8 December 1594, which in
+the following year he exchanged for the wardenship of the college
+at Manchester. In this last office he continued till the year 1602
+(according to other accounts 1604), during which time he complained
+of great dissention and refractoriness on the part of the fellows;
+though it may perhaps be doubted whether equal blame may not fairly
+be imputed to the arrogance and restlessness of the warden. At length
+he receded altogether from public life, and retired to his ancient
+domicile at Mortlake. He made one attempt to propitiate the favour
+of king James; but it was ineffectual. Elizabeth had known him in
+the flower and vigour of his days; he had boasted the uniform
+patronage of her chief favourite; he had been recognised by the
+philosophical and the learned as inferior to none of their body,
+and he had finally excited the regard of his ancient mistress by
+his pretence to revelations, and the promises he held out of the
+philosopher's stone. She could not shake off her ingrafted prejudice
+in his favour; she could not find in her heart to cast him aside in
+his old age and decay. But then came a king, to whom in his prosperity
+and sunshine he had been a stranger. He wasted his latter days in
+dotage, obscurity and universal neglect. No one has told us how he
+contrived to subsist. We may be sure that his constant companions
+were mortification and the most humiliating privations. He lingered
+on till the year 1608; and the ancient people in the time of Antony
+Wood, nearly a century afterwards, pointed to his grave in the chancel
+of the church at Mortlake, and professed to know the very spot where
+his remains were desposited.
+
+The history of Dee is exceedingly interesting, not only on its own
+account; not only for the eminence of his talents and attainments,
+and the incredible sottishness and blindness of understanding which
+marked his maturer years; but as strikingly illustrative of the
+credulity and superstitious faith of the time in which he lived. At
+a later period his miraculous stone which displayed such wonders,
+and was attended with so long a series of supernatural vocal
+communications would have deceived nobody: it was scarcely more
+ingenious than the idle tricks of the most ordinary conjurer. But
+at this period the crust of long ages of darkness had not yet been
+fully worn away. Men did not trust to the powers of human
+understanding, and were not familiarised with the main canons of
+evidence and belief. Dee passed six years on the continent, proceeding
+from the court of one prince or potent nobleman to another, listened
+to for a time by each, each regarding his oracular communications
+with astonishment and alarm, and at length irresolutely casting him
+off, when he found little or no difficulty in running a like career
+with another.
+
+It is not the least curious circumstance respecting the life of Dee,
+that in 1659, half a century after his death, there remained still
+such an interest respecting practices of this sort, as to authorise
+the printing a folio volume, in a complex and elaborate form, of his
+communications with spirits. The book was brought out by Dr. Meric
+Casaubon, no contemptible name in the republic of letters. The editor
+observes respecting the hero and his achievements in the Preface,
+that, "though his carriage in certain respects seemed to lay in works
+of darkness, yet all was tendered by him to kings and princes, and
+by all (England alone excepted) was listened to for a good while with
+good respect, and by some for a long time embraced and entertained."
+He goes on to say, that "the fame of it made the pope bestir himself,
+and filled all, both learned and unlearned, with great wonder and
+astonishment." He adds, that, "as a whole it is undoubtedly not to
+be paralleled in its kind in any age or country." In a word the
+editor, though disavowing an entire belief in Dee's pretensions, yet
+plainly considers them with some degree of deference, and insinuates
+to how much more regard such undue and exaggerated pretensions are
+entitled, than the impious incredulity of certain modern Sadducees,
+who say that "there is no resurrection; neither angel, nor spirit."
+The belief in witchcraft and sorcery has undoutedly met with some
+degree of favour from this consideration, inasmuch as, by recognising
+the correspondence of human beings with the invisible world, it has
+one principle in common with the believers in revelation, of which
+the more daring infidel is destitute.
+
+
+EARL OF DERBY.
+
+The circumstances of the death of Ferdinand, fifth earl of Derby,
+in 1594, have particularly engaged the attention of the contemporary
+historians. Hesket, an emissary of the Jesuits and English Catholics
+abroad, was importunate with this nobleman to press his title to the
+crown, as the legal representative of his great-grandmother Mary,
+youngest daughter to king Henry the Seventh. But the earl, fearing,
+as it is said, that this was only a trap to ensnare him, gave
+information against Hesket to the government, in consequence of which
+he was apprehended, tried and executed. Hesket had threatened the
+earl that, if he did not comply with his suggestion, he should live
+only a short time. Accordingly, four months afterwards, the earl was
+seized with a very uncommon disease. A waxen image was at the same
+time found in his chamber with hairs in its belly exactly of the same
+colour as those of the earl. [211] The image was, by some zealous
+friend of lord Derby, burned; but the earl grew worse. He was himself
+thoroughly persuaded that he was bewitched. Stow has inserted in his
+Annals a minute account of his disease from day to day, with a
+description of all the symptoms.
+
+
+KING JAMES'S VOYAGE TO NORWAY.
+
+While Elizabeth amused herself with the supernatural gifts to which
+Dee advanced his claim, and consoled the adversity and destitution
+to which the old man, once so extensively honoured, was now reduced,
+a scene of a very different complexion was played in the northern
+part of the island. Trials for sorcery were numerous in the reign
+of Mary queen of Scots; the comparative darkness and ignorance of
+the sister kingdom rendered it a soil still more favourable than
+England to the growth of these gloomy superstitions. But the mind
+of James, at once inquisitive, pedantic and self-sufficient,
+peculiarly fitted him for the pursuit of these narrow-minded and
+obscure speculations. One combination of circumstances wrought up
+this propensity within him to the greatest height.
+
+James was born in the year 1566. He was the only direct heir to the
+crown of Scotland; and he was in near prospect of succession to that
+of England. The zeal of the Protestant Reformation had wrought up
+the anxiety of men's minds to a fever of anticipation and forecast.
+Consequently, towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, a point which
+greatly arrested the general attention was the expected marriage of
+the king of Scotland. Elizabeth, with that petty jealousy which
+obscured the otherwise noble qualities of her spirit, sought to
+countermine this marriage, that her rival and expected successor might
+not be additionally graced with the honours of offspring. James fixed
+his mind upon a daughter of the king of Denmark. By the successful
+cabals of Elizabeth he was baffled in this suit; and the lady was
+finally married to the duke of Bavaria. The king of Denmark had
+another daughter; and James made proposals to this princess. Still
+he was counteracted; till at length he sent a splendid embassy, with
+ample powers and instructions, and the treaty was concluded. The
+princess embarked; but, when she had now for some time been expected
+in Scotland, news was brought instead, that she had been driven back
+by tempests on the coast of Norway. The young king felt keenly his
+disappointment, and gallantly resolved to sail in person for the port,
+where his intended consort was detained by the shattered condition
+of her fleet. James arrived on the twenty-second of October 1589,
+and having consummated his marriage, was induced by the invitation
+of his father-in-law to pass the winter at Copenhagen, from whence
+he did not sail till the spring, and, after having encountered a
+variety of contrary winds and some danger, reached Edinburgh on the
+first of May in the following year.
+
+It was to be expected that variable weather and storms should
+characterise the winter-season in these seas. But the storms were
+of longer continuance and of more frequent succession, than was
+usually known. And at this period, when the proposed consort of James
+first, then the king himself, and finally both of them, and the hope
+of Protestant succession, were committed to the mercy of the waves,
+it is not wonderful that the process of the seasons should be
+accurately marked, and that those varieties, which are commonly
+ascribed to second causes, should have been imputed to extraordinary
+and supernatural interference. It was affirmed that, in the king's
+return from Denmark, his ship was impelled by a different wind from
+that which acted on the rest of his fleet.
+
+It happened that, soon after James's return to Scotland, one Geillis
+Duncan, a servant-maid, for the extraordinary circumstances that
+attended certain cures which she performed, became suspected of
+witchcraft. Her master questioned her on the subject; but she would
+own nothing. Perceiving her obstinacy, the master took upon himself
+of his own authority, to extort confession from her by torture. In
+this he succeeded; and, having related divers particulars of
+witchcraft of herself, she proceeded to accuse others. The persons
+she accused were cast into the public prison.
+
+One of these, Agnes Sampson by name, at first stoutly resisted the
+torture. But, it being more strenuously applied, she by and by became
+extremely communicative. It was at this period that James personally
+engaged in the examinations. We are told that he "took great delight
+in being present," and putting the proper questions. The unhappy
+victim was introduced into a room plentifully furnished with
+implements of torture, while the king waited in an apartment at a
+convenient distance, till the patient was found to be in a suitable
+frame of mind to make the desired communications. No sooner did he
+or she signify that they were ready, and should no longer refuse to
+answer, than they were introduced, fainting, sinking under recent
+sufferings which they had no longer strength to resist, into the royal
+presence. And here sat James, in envied ease and conscious "delight,"
+wrapped up in the thought of his own sagacity, framing the enquiries
+that might best extort the desired evidence, and calculating with
+a judgment by no means to be despised, from the bearing, the turn
+of features, and the complexion of the victim, the probability whether
+he was making a frank and artless confession, or had still the secret
+desire to impose on the royal examiner, or from a different motive
+was disposed to make use of the treacherous authority which the
+situation afforded, to gratify his revenge upon some person towards
+whom he might be inspired with latent hatred and malice.
+
+Agnes Sampson related with what solicitude she had sought to possess
+some fragment of the linen belonging to the king. If he had worn it,
+and it had contracted any soil from his royal person, this would be
+enough: she would infallibly, by applying her incantations to this
+fragment, have been able to undermine the life of the sovereign. She
+told how she with two hundred other witches had sailed in sieves from
+Leith to North Berwick church, how they had there encountered the
+devil in person, how they had feasted with him, and what obscenities
+had been practised. She related that in this voyage they had drowned
+a cat, having first baptised him, and that immediately a dreadful
+storm had arisen, and in this very storm the king's ship had been
+separated from the rest of his fleet. She took James aside, and, the
+better to convince him, undertook to repeat to him the conversation,
+the dialogue which had passed from the one to the other, between the
+king and queen in their bedchamber on the wedding-night. Agnes Sampson
+was condemned to the flames.
+
+
+JOHN FIAN.
+
+Another of the miserable victims on this occasion was John Fian, a
+schoolmaster at Tranent near Edinburgh, a young man, whom the ignorant
+populace had decorated with the style of doctor. He was tortured by
+means of a rope strongly twisted about his head, and by the boots.
+He was at length brought to confession. He told of a young girl, the
+sister of one of his scholars, with whom he had been deeply enamoured.
+He had proposed to the boy to bring him three hairs from the most
+secret part of his sister's body, possessing which he should be
+enabled by certain incantations to procure himself the love of the
+girl. The boy at his mother's instigation brought to Fian three hairs
+from a virgin heifer instead; and, applying his conjuration to them,
+the consequence had been that the heifer forced her way into his
+school, leaped upon him in amorous fashion, and would not be
+restrained from following him about the neighbourhood.
+
+This same Fian acted an important part in the scene at North Berwick
+church. As being best fitted for the office, he was appointed recorder
+or clerk to the devil, to write down the names, and administer the
+oaths to the witches. He was actively concerned in the enchantment,
+by means of which the king's ship had nearly been lost on his return
+from Denmark. This part of his proceeding however does not appear
+in his own confession, but in that of the witches who were his
+fellow-conspirators.
+
+He further said, that, the night after he made his confession, the
+devil appeared to him, and was in a furious rage against him for his
+disloyalty to his service, telling him that he should severely repent
+his infidelity. According to his own account, he stood firm, and
+defied the devil to do his worst. Meanwhile the next night he escaped
+out of prison, and was with some difficulty retaken. He however
+finally denied all his former confessions, said that they were
+falshoods forced from him by mere dint of torture, and, though he
+was now once more subjected to the same treatment to such an excess
+as must necessarily have crippled him of his limbs for ever, he proved
+inflexible to the last. At length by the king's order he was
+strangled, and his body cast into the flames. Multitudes of unhappy
+men and women perished in this cruel persecution. [212]
+
+
+KING JAMES'S DEMONOLOGY.
+
+It was by a train of observations and experience like this, that James
+was prompted seven years after to compose and publish his Dialogues
+on Demonology in Three Books. In the Preface to this book he says,
+"The fearfull abounding at this time in this countrey, of these
+detestable slaves of the Diuel, the Witches or enchaunters, hath moved
+me (beloued Reader) to dispatch in post this following Treatise of
+mine, not in any wise (as I protest) to serue for a shew of my
+learning and ingine, but onely (moued of conscience) to preasse
+thereby, so farre as I can, to resolue the doubting hearts of many,
+both that such assaults of Satan are most certainely practised, and
+that the instruments thereof merits most seuerely to be punished."
+
+In the course of the treatise he affirms, "that barnes, or wiues,
+or neuer so diffamed persons, may serue for sufficient witnesses and
+proofes in such trialls; for who but Witches can be prooves, and so
+witnesses of the doings of Witches?" [213] But, lest innocent persons
+should be accused, and suffer falsely, he tells us, "There are two
+other good helps that may be used for their trial: the one is, the
+finding of their marke [a mark that the devil was supposed to impress
+upon some part of their persons], and the trying the insensibleness
+thereof: the other is their fleeting on the water: for, as in a secret
+murther, if the dead carkasse be at any time thereafter handled by
+the murtherer, it will gush out of bloud, as if the bloud were crying
+to the heauen for revenge of the murtherer, God hauing appointed that
+secret supernaturall signe, for triall of that secret unnaturall
+crime, so it appears that God hath appointed (for a supernaturall
+signe of the monstrous impietie of Witches) that the water shall
+refuse to receive them in her bosome, that haue shaken off them the
+sacred water of Baptisme, and wilfully refused the benefite thereof:
+No, not so much as their eyes are able to shed teares (threaten and
+torture them as ye please) while first they repent (God not permitting
+them to dissemble their obstinacie in so horrible a crime.)" [214]
+
+
+STATUTE, 1 JAMES I.
+
+In consequence of the strong conviction James entertained on the
+subject, the English parliament was induced, in the first year of
+his reign, to supersede the milder proceedings of Elizabeth, and to
+enact that "if any person shall use, practice, or exercise any
+invocation or conjuration of any evil and wicked spirit, or shall
+consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil
+and wicked spirit, to or for any intent and purpose; or take up any
+dead man, woman, or child out of their grave, or the skin, bone, or
+any part of any dead person, to be used in any manner of witchcraft,
+sorcery or enchantment, or shall use any witchcraft, sorcery or
+enchantment, whereby any person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted,
+consumed, pined or lamed in his or her body, or any part thereof;
+that then every such offender, their aiders, abettors and counsellors
+shall suffer the pains of death." And upon this statute great numbers
+were condemned and executed.
+
+
+FORMAN AND OTHERS.
+
+There is a story of necromancy which unfortunately makes too prominent
+a figure in the history of the court and character of king James the
+First. Robert earl of Essex, son of queen Elizabeth's favourite, and
+who afterwards became commander in chief of the parliamentary forces
+in the civil wars, married lady Frances Howard, a younger daughter
+of the earl of Suffolk, the bride and bridegroom being the one
+thirteen, the other fourteen years old at the time of the marriage.
+The relatives of the countess however, who had brought about the
+match, thought it most decorous to separate them for some time, and,
+while she remained at home with her friends, the bridegroom travelled
+for three or four years on the continent. The lady proved the greatest
+beauty of her time, but along with this had the most libertine and
+unprincipled dispositions.
+
+The very circumstance that she had vowed her faith at the altar when
+she was not properly capable of choice, inspired into the wayward
+mind of the countess a repugnance to her husband. He came from the
+continent, replete with accomplishments; and we may conclude, from
+the figure he afterwards made in the most perilous times, not without
+a competent share of intellectual abilities. But the countess shrank
+from all advances on his part. He loved retirement, and woed the lady
+to scenes most favourable to the development of the affections: she
+had been bred in court, and was melancholy and repined in any other
+scene. So capricious was her temper, that she is said at the same
+time to have repelled the overtures of the accomplished and popular
+prince Henry, the heir to the throne.
+
+It happened about this period that a beautiful young man, twenty years
+of age, and full of all martial graces, appeared on the stage. King
+James was singularly partial to young men who were distinguished for
+personal attractions. By an extraordinary accident this person, Robert
+Carr by name, in the midst of a court-spectacle, just when it was
+his cue to present a buckler with a device to the king, was thrown
+from his horse, and broke his leg. This was enough: James naturally
+became interested in the misfortune, attached himself to Carr, and
+even favoured him again and again with a royal visit during his cure.
+Presently the young man became an exclusive favourite; and no honours
+and graces could be obtained of the sovereign but by his interference.
+
+This circumstance fixed the wavering mind of the countess of Essex.
+Voluptuous and self-willed in her disposition, she would hear of no
+one but Carr. But her opportunities of seeing him were both short
+and rare. In this emergency she applied to Mrs. Turner, a woman whose
+profession it was to study and to accommodate the fancies of such
+persons as the countess. Mrs. Turner introduced her to Dr. Forman,
+a noted astrologer and magician, and he, by images made of wax, and
+various uncouth figures and devices, undertook to procure the love
+of Carr to the lady. At the same time he practised against the earl,
+that he might become impotent, at least towards his wife. This however
+did not satisfy the lady; and having gone the utmost lengths towards
+her innamorato, she insisted on a divorce in all the forms, and a
+legal marriage with the youth she loved. Carr appears originally to
+have had good dispositions; and, while that was the case, had
+assiduously cultivated the friendship of Sir Thomas Overbury, one
+of the most promising young courtiers of the time. Sir Thomas
+earnestly sought to break off the intimacy of Carr with lady Essex,
+and told him how utterly ruinous to his reputation and prospects it
+would prove, if he married her. But Carr, instead of feeling how much
+obliged he was to Overbury for this example of disinterested
+friendship, went immediately and told the countess what the young
+man said.
+
+From this time the destruction of Overbury was resolved on between
+them. He was first committed to the Tower by an arbitrary mandate
+of James for refusing an embassage to Russia, next sequestered from
+all visitors, and finally attacked with poison, which, after several
+abortive attempts, was at length brought to effect. Meanwhile a
+divorce was sued for by the countess upon an allegation of impotence;
+and another female was said to have been substituted in her room,
+to be subjected to the inspection of a jury of matrons in proof of
+her virginity. After a lapse of two years the murder was brought to
+light, the inferior criminals, Mrs. Turner and the rest, convicted
+and executed, and Carr, now earl of Somerset, and his countess, found
+guilty, but received the royal pardon.--It is proper to add, in order
+to give a just idea of the state of human credulity at this period,
+that, Forman having died at the time that his services were deemed
+most necessary, one Gresham first, and then a third astrologer and
+enchanter were brought forward, to consummate the atrocious projects
+of the infamous countess. It is said that she and her second husband
+were ultimately so thoroughly alienated from each other, that they
+resided for years under the same roof, with the most careful
+precautions that they might not by any chance come into each other's
+presence. [215]
+
+
+LATEST IDEAS OF JAMES ON THE SUBJECT.
+
+It is worthy of remark however that king James lived to alter his
+mind extremely on the question of witchcraft. He was active in his
+observations on the subject; and we are told that "the frequency of
+forged possessions which were detected by him wrought such an
+alteration in his judgment, that he, receding from what he had written
+in his early life, grew first diffident of, and then flatly to deny,
+the working of witches and devils, as but falshoods and delusions."
+[216]
+
+
+LANCASHIRE WITCHES.
+
+A more melancholy tale does not occur in the annals of necromancy
+than that of the Lancashire witches in 1612. The scene of this story
+is in Pendlebury Forest, four or five miles from Manchester,
+remarkable for its picturesque and gloomy situation. Such places were
+not sought then as now, that they might afford food for the
+imagination, and gratify the refined taste of the traveller. They
+were rather shunned as infamous for scenes of depredation and murder,
+or as the consecrated haunts of diabolical intercourse. Pendlebury
+had been long of ill repute on this latter account, when a country
+magistrate, Roger Nowel by name, conceived about this time that he
+should do a public service, by rooting out a nest of witches, who
+rendered the place a terror to all the neighbouring vulgar. The first
+persons he seized on were Elizabeth Demdike and Ann Chattox, the
+former of whom was eighty years of age, and had for some years been
+blind, who subsisted principally by begging, though she had a
+miserable hovel on the spot, which she called her own. Ann Chattox
+was of the same age, and had for some time been threatened with the
+calamity of blindness. Demdike was held to be so hardened a witch,
+that she had trained all her family to the mystery; namely, Elizabeth
+Device, her daughter, and James and Alison Device, her grandchildren.
+In the accusation of Chattox was also involved Ann Redferne, her
+daughter. These, together with John Bulcock, and Jane his mother,
+Alice Nutter, Catherine Hewit, and Isabel Roby, were successively
+apprehended by the diligence of Nowel and one or two neighbouring
+magistrates, and were all of them by some means induced, some to make
+a more liberal, and others a more restricted confession of their
+misdeeds in witchcraft, and were afterwards hurried away to Lancaster
+Castle, fifty miles off, to prison. Their crimes were said to have
+universally proceeded from malignity and resentment; and it was
+reported to have repeatedly happened for poor old Demdike to be led
+by night from her habitation into the open air by some member of her
+family, when she was left alone for an hour to curse her victim, and
+pursue her unholy incantations, and was then sought, and brought again
+to her hovel. Her curses never failed to produce the desired effect.
+
+These poor wretches had been but a short time in prison, when
+information was given, that a meeting of witches was held on Good
+Friday, at Malkin's Tower, the habitation of Elizabeth Device, to
+the number of twenty persons, to consult how by infernal machinations
+to kill one Covel, an officer, to blow up Lancaster Castle, and
+deliver the prisoners, and to kill another man of the name of Lister.
+The last was effected. The other plans by some means, we are not told
+how, were prevented.
+
+The prisoners were kept in jail till the summer assizes; and in the
+mean time it fortunately happened that the poor blind Demdike died
+in confinement, and was never brought up to trial.
+
+The other prisoners were severally indicted for killing by witchcraft
+certain persons who were named, and were all found guilty. The
+principal witnesses against Elizabeth Device were James Device and
+Jennet Device, her grandchildren, the latter only nine years of age.
+When this girl was put into the witness-box, the grandmother, on
+seeing her, set up so dreadful a yell, intermixed with bitter curses,
+that the child declared that she could not go on with her evidence,
+unless the prisoner was removed. This was agreed to; and both brother
+and sister swore, that they had been present, when the devil came
+to their grandmother in the shape of a black dog, and asked her what
+she desired. She said, the death of John Robinson; when the dog told
+her to make an image of Robinson in clay, and after crumble it into
+dust, and as fast as the image perished, the life of the victim should
+waste away, and in conclusion the man should die. This evidence was
+received; and upon such testimony, and testimony like this, ten
+persons were led to the gallows, on the twentieth of August, Ann
+Chattox of eighty years of age among the rest, the day after the
+trials, which lasted two days, were finished. The judges who presided
+on these trials were sir James Altham and sir Edward Bromley, barons
+of the exchequer. [217]
+
+From the whole of this story it is fair to infer, that these old women
+had played at the game of commerce with the devil. It had flattered
+their vanity, to make their simpler neighbours afraid of them. To
+observe the symptoms of their rustic terror, even of their hatred
+and detestation, had been gratifying to them. They played the game
+so long, that in an imperfect degree they deceived themselves. Human
+passions are always to a certain degree infectious. Perceiving the
+hatred of their neighbours, they began to think that they were worthy
+objects of detestation and terror, that their imprecations had a real
+effect, and their curses killed. The brown horrors of the forest were
+favourable to visions; and they sometimes almost believed, that they
+met the foe of mankind in the night.--But, when Elizabeth Device
+actually saw her grandchild of nine years old placed in the
+witness-box, with the intention of consigning her to a public and
+an ignominious end, then the reveries of the imagination vanished,
+and she deeply felt the reality, that, where she had been somewhat
+imposing on the child in devilish sport, she had been whetting the
+dagger that was to take her own life, and digging her own grave. It
+was then no wonder that she uttered a preternatural yell, and poured
+curses from the bottom of her heart. It must have been almost beyond
+human endurance, to hear the cry of her despair, and to witness the
+curses and the agony in which it vented itself.
+
+Twenty-two years elapsed after this scene, when a wretched man, of
+the name of Edmund Robinson, conceived on the same spot the scheme
+of making himself a profitable speculation from a similar source.
+He trained his son, eleven years of age, and furnished him with the
+necessary instructions. He taught him to say that one day in the
+fields he had met with two dogs, which he urged on to hunt a hare.
+They would not budge; and he in revenge tied them to a bush and
+whipped them; when suddenly one of them was transformed into an old
+woman and the other into a child, a witch and her imp. This story
+succeeded so well, that the father soon after gave out that his son
+had an eye that could distinguish a witch by sight, and took him round
+to the neighbouring churches, where he placed him standing on a bench
+after service, and bade him look round and see what he could observe.
+The device, however clumsy, succeeded, and no less than seventeen
+persons were apprehended at the boy's selection, and conducted to
+Lancaster Castle. These seventeen persons were tried at the assizes,
+and found guilty; but the judge, whose name has unfortunately been
+lost, unlike sir James Altham and sir Edward Bromley, saw something
+in the case that excited his suspicion, and, though the juries had
+not hesitated in any one instance, respited the convicts, and sent
+up a report of the affair to the government. Twenty-two years on this
+occasion had not elapsed in vain. Four of the prisoners were by the
+judge's recommendation sent for to the metropolis, and were examined
+first by the king's physicians, and then by Charles the First in
+person. The boy's story was strictly scrutinised. In fine he confessed
+that it was all an imposture; and the whole seventeen received the
+royal pardon. [218]
+
+
+LADY DAVIES.
+
+Eleanor Tuchet, daughter of George lord Audley, married sir John
+Davies, an eminent lawyer in the time of James the First, and author
+of a poem of considerable merit on the Immortality of the Soul. This
+lady was a person of no contemptible talents; but what she seems most
+to have valued herself upon, was her gift of prophecy; and she
+accordingly printed a book of Strange and Wonderful Predictions. She
+professed to receive her prophecies from a spirit, who communicated
+to her audibly things about to come to pass, though the voice could
+be heard by no other person. Sir John Davies was nominated lord chief
+justice of the king's bench in 1626. Before he was inducted into the
+office, lady Eleanor, sitting with him on Sunday at dinner, suddenly
+burst into a passion of tears. Sir John asked her what made her weep.
+To which she replied, "These are your funeral tears." Sir John turned
+off the prediction with a merry answer. But in a very few days he
+was seized with an apoplexy, of which he presently died. [219]--She
+also predicted the death of the duke of Buckingham in the same year.
+For this assumption of the gift of prophecy, she was cited before
+the high-commission-court and examined in 1634. [220]
+
+
+EDWARD FAIRFAX.
+
+It is a painful task to record, that Edward Fairfax, the harmonious
+and elegant translator of Tasso, prosecuted six of his neighbours
+at York assizes in the year 1622, for witchcraft on his children.
+"The common facts of imps, fits, and the apparition of the witches,
+were deposed against the prisoners." The grand jury found the bill,
+and the accused were arraigned. But, we are told, "the judge, having
+a certificate of the sober behaviour of the prisoners, directed the
+jury so well as to induce them to bring in a verdict of acquittal."
+[221] The poet afterwards drew up a bulky argument and narrative in
+vindication of his conduct.
+
+
+DOCTOR LAMB.
+
+Dr. Lamb was a noted sorcerer in the time of Charles the First. The
+famous Richard Baxter, in his Certainty of the World of Spirits,
+printed in 1691, has recorded an appropriate instance of the
+miraculous performances of this man. Meeting two of his acquaintance
+in the street, and they having intimated a desire to witness some
+example of his skill, he invited them home with him. He then conducted
+them into an inner room, when presently, to their no small surprise,
+they saw a tree spring up in the middle of the apartment. They had
+scarcely ceased wondering at this phenomenon, when in a moment there
+appeared three diminutive men, with little axes in their hands for
+the purpose of cutting down this tree. The tree was felled; and the
+doctor dismissed his guests, fully satisfied of the solidity of his
+pretensions. That very night however a tremendous hurricane arose,
+causing the house of one of the guests to rock from side to side,
+with every appearance that the building would come down, and bury
+him and his wife in the ruins. The wife in great terror asked, "Were
+you not at Dr. Lamb's to-day?" The husband confessed it was true.
+"And did you not bring away something from his house?" The husband
+owned that, when the little men felled the tree, he had been idle
+enough to pick up some of the chips, and put them in his pocket.
+Nothing now remained to be done, but to produce the chips, and get
+rid of them as fast as they could. This ceremony performed, the
+whirlwind immediately ceased, and the remainder of the night became
+perfectly calm and serene.
+
+Dr. Lamb at length became so odious by his reputation for these
+infernal practices, that the populace rose upon him in 1640, and tore
+him to pieces in the streets.--Nor did the effects of his ill fame
+terminate here. Thirteen years after, a woman, who had been his
+servant-maid, was apprehended on a charge of witchcraft, was tried,
+and in expiation of her crime was executed at Tyburn.
+
+
+URBAIN GRANDIER.
+
+A few years previously to the catastrophe of Dr. Lamb, there occurred
+a scene in France which it is eminently to the purpose of this work
+to record. Urbain Grandier, a canon of the church, and a popular
+preacher of the town of Loudun in the district of Poitiers, was in
+the year 1634 brought to trial upon the accusation of magic. The first
+cause of his being thus called in question was the envy of his rival
+preachers, whose fame was eclipsed by his superior talents. The second
+cause was a libel falsely imputed to him upon cardinal Richelieu,
+who with all his eminent qualities had the infirmity of being
+inexorable upon the question of any personal attack that was made
+upon him. Grandier, beside his eloquence, was distinguished for his
+courage and resolution, for the gracefulness of his figure, and the
+extraordinary attention he paid to the neatness of his dress and the
+decoration of his person, which last circumstance brought upon him
+the imputation of being too much devoted to the service of the fair.
+
+About this time certain nuns of the convent of Ursulines at Loudun
+were attacked with a disease which manifested itself by very
+extraordinary symptoms, suggesting to many the idea that they were
+possessed with devils. A rumour was immediately spread that Grandier,
+urged by some offence he had conceived against these nuns, was the
+author, by the skill he had in the arts of sorcery, of these
+possessions. It unfortunately happened, that the same capuchin friar
+who assured cardinal Richelieu that Grandier was the writer of the
+libel against him, also communicated to him the story of the possessed
+nuns, and the suspicion which had fallen on the priest on their
+account. The cardinal seized with avidity on this occasion of private
+vengeance, wrote to a counsellor of state at Loudun, one of his
+creatures, to cause a strict investigation to be made into the charge,
+and in such terms as plainly implied that what he aimed at was the
+destruction of Grandier.
+
+The trial took place in the month of August 1634; and, according to
+the authorised copy of the trial, Grandier was convicted upon the
+evidence of Astaroth, a devil of the order of Seraphims, and chief
+of the possessing devils, of Easas, of Celsus, of Acaos, of Cedon,
+of Asmodeus of the order of thrones, of Alex, of Zabulon, of
+Naphthalim, of Cham, of Uriel, and of Achas of the order of
+principalities, and sentenced to be burned alive. In other words,
+he was convicted upon the evidence of twelve nuns, who, being asked
+who they were, gave in these names, and professed to be devils, that,
+compelled by the order of the court, delivered a constrained
+testimony. The sentence was accordingly executed, and Grandier met
+his fate with heroic constancy. At his death an enormous drone fly
+was seen buzzing about his head; and a monk, who was present at the
+execution, attested that, whereas the devils are accustomed to present
+themselves in the article of death to tempt men to deny God their
+Saviour, this was Beelzebub, which in Hebrew signifies the God of
+flies, come to carry away to hell the soul of the victim. [222]
+
+
+ASTROLOGY.
+
+The supposed science of astrology is of a nature less tremendous,
+and less appalling to the imagination, than the commerce with devils
+and evil spirits, or the raising of the dead from the peace of the
+tomb to effect certain magical operations, or to instruct the living
+as to the events that are speedily to befal them. Yet it is well
+worthy of attention in a work of this sort, if for no other reason,
+because it has prevailed in almost all nations and ages of the world,
+and has been assiduously cultivated by men, frequently of great
+talent, and who were otherwise distinguished for the soundness of
+their reasoning powers, and for the steadiness and perseverance of
+their application to the pursuits in which they engaged.
+
+The whole of the question was built upon the supposed necessary
+connection of certain aspects and conjunctions or oppositions of the
+stars and heavenly bodies, with the events of the world and the
+characters and actions of men. The human mind has ever confessed an
+anxiety to pry into the future, and to deal in omens and prophetic
+suggestions, and, certain coincidences having occurred however
+fortuitously, to deduce from them rules and maxims upon which to build
+an anticipation of things to come.
+
+Add to which, it is flattering to the pride of man, to suppose all
+nature concerned with and interested in what is of importance to
+ourselves. Of this we have an early example in the song of Deborah
+in the Old Testament, where, in a fit of pious fervour and exaltation,
+the poet exclaims, "They fought from heaven; the stars in their
+courses fought against Sisera." [223]
+
+The general belief in astrology had a memorable effect on the history
+of the human mind. All men in the first instance have an intuitive
+feeling of freedom in the acts they perform, and of consequence of
+praise or blame due to them in just proportion to the integrity or
+baseness of the motives by which they are actuated. This is in reality
+the most precious endowment of man. Hence it comes that the good man
+feels a pride and self-complacency in acts of virtue, takes credit
+to himself for the independence of his mind, and is conscious of the
+worth and honour to which he feels that he has a rightful claim. But,
+if all our acts are predetermined by something out of ourselves, if,
+however virtuous and honourable are our dispositions, we are overruled
+by our stars, and compelled to the acts, which, left to ourselves,
+we should most resolutely disapprove, our condition becomes slavery,
+and we are left in a state the most abject and hopeless. And, though
+our situation in this respect is merely imaginary, it does not the
+less fail to have very pernicious results to our characters. Men,
+so far as they are believers in astrology, look to the stars, and
+not to themselves, for an account of what they shall do, and resign
+themselves to the omnipotence of a fate which they feel it in vain
+to resist. Of consequence, a belief in astrology has the most
+unfavourable tendency as to the morality of man; and, were it not
+that the sense of the liberty of our actions is so strong that all
+the reasonings in the world cannot subvert it, there would be a fatal
+close to all human dignity and all human virtue.
+
+
+WILLIAM LILLY.
+
+One of the most striking examples of the ascendancy of astrological
+faith is in the instance of William Lilly. This man has fortunately
+left us a narrative of his own life; and he comes sufficiently near
+to our time, to give us a feeling of reality in the transactions in
+which he was engaged, and to bring the scenes home to our business
+and bosoms.
+
+Before he enters expressly upon the history of his life, he gives
+us incidentally an anecdote which merits our attention, as tending
+strongly to illustrate the credulity of man at the periods of which
+we treat.
+
+Lilly was born in the year 1602. When certain circumstances led his
+yet undetermined thoughts to the study of astrology as his principal
+pursuit, he put himself in the year 1632 under the tuition of one
+Evans, whom he describes as poor, ignorant, drunken, presumptuous
+and knavish, but who had a character, as the phrase was, for erecting
+a figure, predicting future events, discovering secrets, restoring
+stolen goods, and even for raising a spirit when he pleased. Sir
+Kenelm Digby was one of the most promising characters of these times,
+extremely handsome and graceful in his person, accomplished in all
+military exercises, endowed with high intellectual powers, and
+indefatigably inquisitive after knowledge. To render him the more
+remarkable, he was the eldest son of Everard Digby, who was the most
+eminent sufferer for the conspiracy of the Gunpowder Treason.
+
+It was, as it seems, some time before Lilly became acquainted with
+Evans, that lord Bothwel and sir Kenelm Digby came to Evans at his
+lodgings in the Minories, for the express purpose of desiring him
+to shew them a spirit. Sir Kenelm was born in the year 1603; he must
+have been therefore at this time a young man, but sufficiently old
+to know what he sought, and to choose the subjects of his enquiry
+with a certain discretion. Evans consented to gratify the curiosity
+of his illustrious visitors. He drew a circle, and placed himself
+and the two strangers within the circle. He began his invocations.
+On a sudden, Evans was taken away from the others, and found himself,
+he knew not how, in Battersea Fields near the Thames. The next morning
+a countryman discovered him asleep, and, having awaked him, in answer
+to his enquiries told him where he was. Evans in the afternoon sent
+a messenger to his wife, to inform her of his safety, and to calm
+the apprehensions she might reasonably entertain. Just as the
+messenger arrived, sir Kenelm Digby came to the house, curious to
+enquire respecting the issue of the adventure of yesterday. Lilly
+received this story from Evans; and, having asked him how such an
+event came to attend on the experiment, was answered that, in
+practising the invocation, he had heedlessly omitted the necessary
+suffumigation, at which omission the spirit had taken offence.
+
+Lilly made some progress in astrology under Evans, and practised the
+art in minor matters with a certain success; but his ambition led
+him to aspire to the highest place in his profession. He made an
+experiment to discover a hidden treasure in Westminster Abbey; and,
+having obtained leave for that purpose from the bishop of Lincoln,
+dean of Westminster, he resorted to the spot with about thirty persons
+more, with divining rods. He fixed on the place according to the
+rules, and began to dig; but he had not proceeded far, before a
+furious storm came on, and he judged it advisable to "dismiss the
+demons," and desist. These supernatural assistants, he says, had taken
+offence at the number and levity of the persons present; and, if he
+had not left off when he did, he had no doubt that the storm would
+have grown more and more violent, till the whole structure would have
+been laid level with the ground.
+
+He purchased himself a house to which to retire in 1636 at Hersham
+near Walton on Thames, having, though originally bred in the lowest
+obscurity, twice enriched himself in some degree by marriage. He came
+to London with a view to practise his favourite art in 1641; but,
+having received a secret monition warning him that he was not yet
+sufficiently an adept, he retired again into the country for two
+years, and did not finally commence his career till 1644, when he
+published a Prophetical Almanac, which he continued to do till about
+the time of his death. He then immediately began to rise into
+considerable notice. Mrs. Lisle, the wife of one of the commissioners
+of the great seal, took to him the urine of Whitlocke, one of the
+most eminent lawyers of the time, to consult him respecting the health
+of the party, when he informed the lady that the person would recover
+from his present disease, but about a month after would be very
+dangerously ill of a surfeit, which accordingly happened. He was
+protected by the great Selden, who interested himself in his favour;
+and he tells us that Lenthal, speaker of the house of commons, was
+at all times his friend. He further says of himself that he was
+originally partial to king Charles and to monarchy: but, when the
+parliament had apparently the upper hand, he had the skill to play
+his cards accordingly, and secured his favour with the ruling powers.
+Whitlocke, in his Memorials of Affairs in his Own Times, takes
+repeated notice of him, says that, meeting him in the street in the
+spring of 1645, he enquired of Lilly as to what was likely speedily
+to happen, who predicted to him the battle of Naseby, and notes in
+1648 that some of his prognostications "fell out very strangely,
+particularly as to the king's fall from his horse about this time."
+Lilly applied to Whitlocke in favour of his rival, Wharton, the
+astrologer, and his prayer was granted, and again in behalf of
+Oughtred, the celebrated mathematician.
+
+Lilly and Booker, a brother-astrologer, were sent for in great form,
+with a coach and four horses, to the head-quarters of Fairfax at
+Windsor, towards the end of the year 1647, when they told the general,
+that they were "confident that God would go along with him and his
+army, till the great work for which they were ordained was perfected,
+which they hoped would be the conquering their and the parliament's
+enemies, and a quiet settlement and firm peace over the whole nation."
+The two astrologers were sent for in the same state in the following
+year to the siege of Colchester, which they predicted would soon fall
+into possession of the parliament.
+
+Lilly in the mean while retained in secret his partiality to Charles
+the First. Mrs. Whorwood, a lady who was fully in the king's
+confidence, came to consult him, as to the place to which Charles
+should retire when he escaped from Hampton Court. Lilly prescribed
+accordingly; but Ashburnham disconcerted all his measures, and the
+king made his inauspicious retreat to the isle of Wight. Afterwards
+he was consulted by the same lady, as to the way in which Charles
+should proceed respecting the negociations with the parliamentary
+commissioners at Newport, when Lilly advised that the king should
+sign all the propositions, and come up immediately with the
+commissioners to London, in which case Lilly did not doubt that the
+popular tide would turn in his favour, and the royal cause prove
+triumphant. Finally, he tells us that he furnished the saw and _aqua
+fortis_, with which the king had nearly removed the bars of the
+window of his prison in Carisbrook Castle, and escaped. But Charles
+manifested the same irresolution at the critical moment in this case,
+which had before proved fatal to his success. In the year 1649 Lilly
+received a pension of one hundred pounds _per annum_ from the
+council of state, which, after having been paid him for two years,
+he declined to accept any longer. In 1659 he received a present of
+a gold chain and medal from Charles X king of Sweden, in acknowledgment
+of the respectful mention he had made of that monarch in his almanacs.
+
+Lilly lived to a considerable age, not having died till the year 1681.
+In the year 1666 he was summoned before a committee of the house of
+commons, on the frivolous ground that, in his Monarchy or No Monarchy
+published fifteen years before, he had introduced sixteen plates,
+among which was one, the eighth, representing persons digging graves,
+with coffins, and other emblems significative of mortality, and, in
+the thirteenth, a city in flames. He was asked whether these things
+referred to the late plague and fire of London. Lilly replied in a
+manner to intimate that they did; but he ingenuously confessed that
+he had not known in what year they would happen. He said, that he
+had given these emblematical representations without any comment,
+that those who were competent might apprehend their meaning, whilst
+the rest of the world remained in the ignorance which was their
+appointed portion.
+
+
+MATTHEW HOPKINS.
+
+Nothing can place the credulity of the English nation on the subject
+of witchcraft about this time, in a more striking point of view, than
+the history of Matthew Hopkins, who, in a pamphlet published in 1647
+in his own vindication, assumes to himself the surname of the
+Witch-finder. He fell by accident, in his native county of Suffolk,
+into contact with one or two reputed witches, and, being a man of
+an observing turn and an ingenious invention, struck out for himself
+a trade, which brought him such moderate returns as sufficed to
+maintain him, and at the same time gratified his ambition by making
+him a terror to many, and the object of admiration and gratitude to
+more, who felt themselves indebted to him for ridding them of secret
+and intestine enemies, against whom, as long as they proceeded in
+ways that left no footsteps behind, they felt they had no possibility
+of guarding themselves. Hopkins's career was something like that of
+Titus Oates in the following reign, but apparently much safer for
+the adventurer, since Oates armed against himself a very formidable
+party, while Hopkins seemed to assail a few only here and there, who
+were poor, debilitated, impotent and helpless.
+
+After two or three successful experiments, Hopkins engaged in a
+regular tour of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and
+Huntingdonshire. He united to him two confederates, a man named John
+Stern, and a woman whose name has not been handed down to us. They
+visited every town in their route that invited them, and secured to
+them the moderate remuneration of twenty shillings and their expences,
+leaving what was more than this to the spontaneous gratitude of those
+who should deem themselves indebted to the exertions of Hopkins and
+his party. By this expedient they secured to themselves a favourable
+reception; and a set of credulous persons who would listen to their
+dictates as so many oracles. Being three of them, they were enabled
+to play the game into one another's hands, and were sufficiently
+strong to overawe all timid and irresolute opposition. In every town
+to which they came, they enquired for reputed witches, and having
+taken them into custody, were secure for the most part of a certain
+number of zealous abettors, who took care that they should have a
+clear stage for their experiments. They overawed their helpless
+victims with a certain air of authority, as if they had received a
+commission from heaven for the discovery of misdeeds. They assailed
+the poor creatures with a multitude of questions constructed in the
+most artful manner. They stripped them naked, in search for the
+devil's marks in different parts of their bodies, which were
+ascertained by running pins to the head into those parts, that, if
+they were genuine marks, would prove themselves such by their
+insensibility. They swam their victims in rivers and ponds, it being
+an undoubted fact, that, if the persons accused were true witches,
+the water, which was the symbol of admission into the Christian
+church, would not receive them into its bosom. If the persons examined
+continued obstinate, they seated them in constrained and uneasy
+attitudes, occasionally binding them with cords, and compelling them
+to remain so without food or sleep for twenty-four hours. They walked
+them up and down the room, two taking them under each arm, till they
+dropped down with fatigue. They carefully swept the room in which
+the experiment was made, that they might keep away spiders and flies,
+which were supposed to be devils or their imps in that disguise.
+
+The most plentiful inquisition of Hopkins and his confederates was
+in the years 1644, 1645 and 1646. At length there were so many persons
+committed to prison upon suspicion of witchcraft, that the government
+was compelled to take in hand the affair. The rural magistrates before
+whom Hopkins and his confederates brought their victims, were obliged,
+willingly or unwillingly, to commit them for trial. A commission was
+granted to the earl of Warwick and others to hold a sessions of
+jail-delivery against them for Essex at Chelmsford, Lord Warwick was
+at this time the most popular nobleman in England. He was appointed
+by the parliament lord high admiral during the civil war. He was much
+courted by the independent clergy, was shrewd, penetrating and active,
+and exhibited a singular mixture of pious demeanour with a vein of
+facetiousness and jocularity. With him was sent Dr. Calamy, the most
+eminent divine of the period of the Commonwealth, to see (says Baxter
+[224]) that no fraud was committed, or wrong done to the parties
+accused. It may well be doubted however whether the presence of this
+clergyman did not operate unfavourably to the persons suspected. He
+preached before the judges. It may readily be believed, considering
+the temper of the times, that he insisted much upon the horrible
+nature of the sin of witchcraft, which could expect no pardon, either
+in this world or the world to come. He sat on the bench with the
+judges, and participated in their deliberations. In the result of
+this inquisition sixteen persons were hanged at Yarmouth in Norfolk,
+fifteen at Chelmsford, and sixty at various places in the county of
+Suffolk.
+
+Whitlocke in his Memorials of English Affairs, under the date of 1649,
+speaks of many witches being apprehended about Newcastle, upon the
+information of a person whom he calls the Witch-finder, who, as his
+experiments were nearly the same, though he is not named, we may
+reasonably suppose to be Hopkins; and in the following year about
+Boston in Lincolnshire. In 1652 and 1653 the same author speaks of
+women in Scotland, who were put to incredible torture to extort from
+them a confession of what their adversaries imputed to them.
+
+The fate of Hopkins was such us might be expected in similar cases.
+The multitude are at first impressed with horror at the monstrous
+charges that are advanced. They are seized, as by contagion, with
+terror at the mischiefs which seem to impend over them, and from
+which no innocence and no precaution appear to afford them sufficient
+protection. They hasten, as with an unanimous effort, to avenge
+themselves upon these malignant enemies, whom God and man alike
+combine to expel from society. But, after a time, they begin to
+reflect, and to apprehend that they have acted with too much
+precipitation, that they have been led on with uncertain appearances.
+They see one victim led to the gallows after another, without stint
+or limitation. They see one dying with the most solemn asseverations
+of innocence, and another confessing apparently she knows not what,
+what is put into her mouth by her relentless persecutors. They see
+these victims, old, crazy and impotent, harassed beyond endurance
+by the ingenious cruelties that are practised against them. They were
+first urged on by implacable hostility and fury, to be satisfied with
+nothing but blood. But humanity and remorse also have their turn.
+Dissatisfied with themselves, they are glad to point their resentment
+against another. The man that at first they hailed as a public
+benefactor, they presently come to regard with jealous eyes, and begin
+to consider as a cunning impostor, dealing in cool blood with the
+lives of his fellow-creatures for a paltry gain, and, still more
+horrible, for the lure of a perishable and short-lived fame. The
+multitude, we are told, after a few seasons, rose upon Hopkins, and
+resolved to subject him to one of his own criterions. They dragged
+him to a pond, and threw him into the water for a witch. It seems
+he floated on the surface, as a witch ought to do. They then pursued
+him with hootings and revilings, and drove him for ever into that
+obscurity and ignominy which he had amply merited.
+
+
+CROMWEL.
+
+There is a story of Cromwel recorded by Echard, the historian, which
+well deserves to be mentioned, as strikingly illustrative of the
+credulity which prevailed about this period. It takes its date from
+the morning of the third of September, 1651, when Cromwel gained the
+battle of Worcester against Charles the Second, which he was
+accustomed to call by a name sufficiently significant, his "crowning
+victory." It is told on the authority of a colonel Lindsey, who is
+said to have been an intimate friend of the usurper, and to have been
+commonly known by that name, as being in reality the senior captain
+in Cromwel's own regiment. "On this memorable morning the general,"
+it seems, "took this officer with him to a woodside not far from the
+army, and bade him alight, and follow him into that wood, and to take
+particular notice of what he saw and heard. After having alighted,
+and secured their horses, and walked some little way into the wood,
+Lindsey began to turn pale, and to be seized with horror from some
+unknown cause. Upon which Cromwel asked him how he did, or how he
+felt himself. He answered, that he was in such a trembling and
+consternation, that he had never felt the like in all the conflicts
+and battles he had ever been engaged in: but whether it proceeded
+from the gloominess of the place, or the temperature of his body,
+he knew not. 'How now?' said Cromwel, 'What, troubled with the
+vapours? Come forward, man.' They had not gone above twenty yards
+further, before Lindsey on a sudden stood still, and cried out, 'By
+all that is good I am seized with such unaccountable terror and
+astonishment, that it is impossible for me to stir one step further.'
+Upon which Cromwel called him, 'Fainthearted fool!' and bade him,
+'stand there, and observe, or be witness.' And then the general,
+advancing to some distance from him, met a grave, elderly man with
+a roll of parchment in his hand, who delivered it to Cromwel, and
+he eagerly perused it, Lindsey, a little recovered from his fear,
+heard several loud words between them: particularly Cromwel said,
+'This is but for seven years; I was to have had it for one-and-twenty;
+and it must, and shall be so.' The other told him positively, it could
+not be for more than seven. Upon which Cromwel cried with great
+fierceness, 'It shall however be for fourteen years.' But the other
+peremptorily declared, 'It could not possibly be for any longer time;
+and, if he would not take it so, there were others that would.' Upon
+which Cromwel at last took the parchment: and, returning to Lindsey
+with great joy in his countenance, he cried, 'Now, Lindsey, the battle
+is our own! I long to be engaged.' Returning out of the wood, they
+rode to the army, Cromwel with a resolution to engage as soon as
+possible, and the other with a design to leave the army as soon. After
+the first charge, Lindsey deserted his post, and rode away with all
+possible speed day and night, till he came into the county of Norfolk,
+to the house of an intimate friend, one Mr. Thoroughgood, minister
+of the parish of Grimstone. Cromwel, as soon as he missed him, sent
+all ways after him, with a promise of a great reward to any that
+should bring him alive or dead. When Mr. Thoroughgood saw his friend
+Lindsey come into his yard, his horse and himself much tired, in a
+sort of a maze, he said, 'How now, colonel? We hear there is likely
+to be a battle shortly: what, fled from your colours?' 'A battle,'
+said the other; 'yes there has been a battle, and I am sure the king
+is beaten. But, if ever I strike a stroke for Cromwel again, may I
+perish eternally! For I am sure he has made a league with the devil,
+and the devil will have him in due time.' Then, desiring his
+protection from Cromwel's inquisitors, he went in, and related to
+him the story in all its circumstances." It is scarcely necessary
+to remind the reader, that Cromwel died on that day seven years,
+September the third, 1658.
+
+Echard adds, to prove his impartiality as an historian, "How far
+Lindsey is to be believed, and how far the story is to be accounted
+incredible, is left to the reader's faith and judgment, and not to
+any determination of our own."
+
+
+DOROTHY MATELEY.
+
+I find a story dated about this period, which, though it does not
+strictly belong to the subject of necromancy or dealings with the
+devil, seems well to deserve to be inserted in this work. The topic
+of which I treat is properly of human credulity; and this infirmity
+of our nature can scarcely be more forcibly illustrated than in the
+following example. It is recorded by the well-known John Bunyan, in
+a fugitive tract of his, entitled the Life and Death of Mr. Badman,
+but which has since been inserted in the works of the author in two
+volumes folio. In minuteness of particularity and detail it may vie
+with almost any story which human industry has collected, and human
+simplicity has ever placed upon record.
+
+"There was," says my author, "a poor woman, by name Dorothy Mateley,
+who lived at a small village, called Ashover, in the county of Derby.
+The way in which she earned her subsistence, was by washing the
+rubbish that came from the lead-mines in that neighbourhood through
+a sieve, which labour she performed till the earth had passed the
+sieve, and what remained was particles and small portions of genuine
+ore. This woman was of exceedingly low and coarse habits, and was
+noted to be a profane swearer, curser, liar and thief; and her usual
+way of asserting things was with an imprecation, as, 'I would I might
+sink into the earth, if it be not so,' or, 'I would that God would
+make the earth open and swallow me up, if I tell an untruth.'
+
+"Now it happened on the 23rd of March, 1660, [according to our
+computation 1661], that she was washing ore on the top of a steep
+hill about a quarter of a mile from Ashover, when a lad who was
+working on the spot missed two-pence out of his pocket, and
+immediately bethought himself of charging Dorothy with the theft.
+He had thrown off his breeches, and was working in his drawers.
+Dorothy with much seeming indignation denied the charge, and added,
+as was usual with her, that she wished the ground might open and
+swallow her up, if she had the boy's money.
+
+"One George Hopkinson, a man of good report in Ashover, happened to
+pass at no great distance at the time. He stood a while to talk to
+the woman. There stood also near the tub a little child, who was
+called to by her elder sister to come away. Hopkinson therefore took
+the little girl by the hand to lead her to her that called her. But
+he had not gone ten yards from Dorothy, when he heard her crying out
+for help, and turning back, to his great astonishment he saw the
+woman, with her tub and her sieve, twirling round and round, and
+sinking at the same time in the earth. She sunk about three yards,
+and then stopped, at the same time calling lustily for assistance.
+But at that very moment a great stone fell upon her head, and broke
+her skull, and the earth fell in and covered her. She was afterwards
+digged up, and found about four yards under ground, and the boy's
+two pennies were discovered on her person, but the tub and the sieve
+had altogether disappeared."
+
+
+WITCHES HANGED BY SIR MATTHEW HALE.
+
+One of the most remarkable trials that occur in the history of
+criminal jurisprudence, was that of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender at
+Bury St. Edmund's in the year 1664. Not for the circumstances that
+occasioned it; for they were of the coarsest and most vulgar
+materials. The victims were two poor, solitary women of the town of
+Lowestoft in Suffolk, who had by temper and demeanour rendered
+themselves particularly obnoxious to their whole neighbourhood.
+Whenever they were offended with any one, and this frequently
+happened, they vented their wrath in curses and ill language,
+muttered between their teeth, and the sense of which could scarcely
+be collected; and ever and anon they proceeded to utter dark
+predictions of evil, which should happen in revenge for the ill
+treatment they received. The fishermen would not sell them fish; and
+the boys in the street were taught to fly from them with horror, or
+to pursue them with hootings and scurrilous abuse. The principal
+charges against them were, that the children of two families were
+many times seized with fits, in which they exclaimed that they saw
+Amy Duny and Rose Cullender coming to torment them. They vomited,
+and in their vomit were often found pins, and once or twice a
+two-penny nail. One or two of the children died; for the accusations
+spread over a period of eight years, from 1656 to the time of the
+trial. To back these allegations, a waggoner appeared, whose waggon
+had been twice overturned in one morning, in consequence of the curses
+of one of the witches, the waggon having first run against her hovel,
+and materially injured it. Another time the waggon stuck fast in a
+gate-way, though the posts on neither side came in contact with the
+wheels; and, one of the posts being cut down, the waggon passed easily
+along.
+
+This trial, as I have said, was no way memorable for the circumstances
+that occasioned it, but for the importance of the persons who were
+present, and had a share in the conduct of it. The judge who presided
+was sir Matthew Hale, then chief baron of the exchequer, and who had
+before rendered himself remarkable for his undaunted resistance to
+one of the arbitrary mandates of Cromwel, then in the height of his
+power, which was addressed to Hale in his capacity of judge. Hale
+was also an eminent author, who had treated upon the abstrusest
+subjects, and was equally distinguished for his piety and inflexible
+integrity. Another person, who was present, and accidentally took
+part in the proceedings, was sir Thomas Browne, the superlatively
+eloquent and able author of the Religio Medici. (He likewise took
+a part on the side of superstition in the trial of the Lancashire
+witches in 1634.) A judge also who assisted at the trial was Keeling,
+who afterwards occupied the seat of chief justice.
+
+Sir Matthew Hale apparently paid deep attention to the trial, and
+felt much perplexed by the evidence. Seeing sir Thomas Browne in
+court, and knowing him for a man of extensive information and vast
+powers of intellect, Hale appealed to him, somewhat extrajudicially,
+for his thoughts on what had transpired. Sir Thomas gave it as his
+opinion that the children were bewitched, and inforced his position
+by something that had lately occured in Denmark. Keeling dissented
+from this, and inclined to the belief that it might all be practice,
+and that there was nothing supernatural in the affair.
+
+The chief judge was cautious in his proceeding. He even refused to
+sum up the evidence, lest he might unawares put a gloss of his own
+upon any thing that had been sworn, but left it all to the jury. He
+told them that the Scriptures left no doubt that there was such a
+thing as witchcraft, and instructed them that all they had to do was,
+first, to consider whether the children were really bewitched, and
+secondly, whether the witchcraft was sufficiently brought home to
+the prisoners at the bar. The jury returned a verdict of guilty; and
+the two women were hanged on the seventeenth of March 1664, one week
+after their trial. The women shewed very little activity during the
+trial, and died protesting their innocence. [225]
+
+This trial is particularly memorable for the circumstances that
+attended it. It has none of the rust of ages: no obscurity arises
+from a long vista of years interposed between. Sir Matthew Hale and
+sir Thomas Browne are eminent authors; and there is something in such
+men, that in a manner renders them the contemporaries of all times,
+the living acquaintance of successive ages of the world. Names
+generally stand on the page of history as mere abstract idealities;
+but in the case of these men we are familiar with their tempers and
+prejudices, their virtues and vices, their strength and their
+weakness.
+
+They proceed in the first place upon the assumption that there is
+such a thing as witchcraft, and therefore have nothing to do but with
+the cogency or weakness of evidence as applied to this particular
+case. Now what are the premises on which they proceed in this
+question? They believe in a God, omniscient, all wise, all powerful,
+and whose "tender mercies are over all his works." They believe in
+a devil, awful almost as God himself, for he has power nearly
+unlimited, and a will to work all evil, with subtlety, deep reach
+of thought, vigilant, "walking about, seeking whom he may devour."
+This they believe, for they refer to "the Scriptures, as confirming
+beyond doubt that there is such a thing as witchcraft." Now what
+office do they assign to the devil, "the prince of the power of the
+air," at whose mighty attributes, combined with his insatiable
+malignity, the wisest of us might well stand aghast? It is the first
+law of sound sense and just judgment,
+
+  --_servetur ad imum,
+  Qualis ab incoepto processerit, et sibi constet_;
+
+that every character which we place on the scene of things should
+demean himself as his beginning promises, and preserve a consistency
+that, to a mind sufficiently sagacious, should almost serve us in
+lieu of the gift of prophecy. And how is this devil employed according
+to sir Matthew Hale and sir Thomas Browne? Why in proffering himself
+as the willing tool of the malice of two doting old women. In
+afflicting with fits, in causing them to vomit pins and nails, the
+children of the parents who had treated the old women with barbarity
+and cruelty. In judgment upon these women sit two men, in some
+respects the most enlightened of an age that produced Paradise Lost,
+and in confirmation of this blessed creed two women are executed in
+cool blood, in a country which had just achieved its liberties under
+the guidance and the virtues of Hampden.
+
+What right we have in any case to take away the life of a human being
+already in our power, and under the forms of justice, is a problem,
+one of the hardest that can be proposed for the wit of man to solve.
+But to see some of the wisest of men, sitting in judgment upon the
+lives of two human creatures in consequence of the forgery and tricks
+of a set of malicious children, as in this case undoubtedly it was,
+is beyond conception deplorable. Let us think for a moment of the
+inexpressible evils which a man encounters when dragged from his
+peaceful home under a capital accusation, of his arraignment in open
+court, of the orderly course of the evidence, and of the sentence
+awarded against him, of the "damned minutes and days he counts over"
+from that time to his execution, of his being finally brought forth
+before a multitude exasperated by his supposed crimes, and his being
+cast out from off the earth as unworthy so much as to exist among
+men, and all this being wholly innocent. The consciousness of
+innocence a hundred fold embitters the pang. And, if these poor women
+were too obtuse of soul entirely to feel the pang, did that give their
+superiors a right to overwhelm and to crush them?
+
+
+WITCHCRAFT IN SWEDEN.
+
+The story of witchcraft, as it is reported to have passed in Sweden
+in the year 1670, and has many times been reprinted in this country,
+is on several accounts one of the most interesting and deplorable
+that has ever been recorded. The scene lies in Dalecarlia, a country
+for ever memorable as having witnessed some of the earliest adventures
+of Gustavus Vasa, his deepest humiliation, and the first commencement
+of his prosperous fortune. The Dalecarlians are represented to us
+as the simplest, the most faithful, and the bravest of the sons of
+men, men undebauched and unsuspicious, but who devoted themselves
+in the most disinterested manner for a cause that appeared to them
+worthy of support, the cause of liberty and independence against the
+cruelest of tyrants. At least such they were in 1520, one hundred
+and fifty years before the date of the story we are going to
+recount.--The site of these events was at Mohra and Elfdale in the
+province that has just been mentioned.
+
+The Dalecarlians, simple and ignorant, but of exemplary integrity
+and honesty, who dwelt amidst impracticable mountains and spacious
+mines of copper and iron, were distinguished for superstition among
+the countries of the north, where all were superstitious. They were
+probably subject at intervals to the periodical visitation of alarms
+of witches, when whole races of men became wild with the infection
+without any one's being well able to account for it.
+
+In the year 1670, and one or two preceding years, there was a great
+alarm of witches in the town of Mohra. There were always two or three
+witches existing in some of the obscure quarters of this place. But
+now they increased in number, and shewed their faces with the utmost
+audacity. Their mode on the present occasion was to make a journey
+through the air to Blockula, an imaginary scene of retirement, which
+none but the witches and their dupes had ever seen. Here they met
+with feasts and various entertainments, which it seems had particular
+charms for the persons who partook of them. The witches used to go
+into a field in the environs of Mohra, and cry aloud to the devil
+in a peculiar sort of recitation, "Antecessor, come and carry us to
+Blockula!" Then appeared a multitude of strange beasts, men, spits,
+posts, and goats with spits run through their entrails and projecting
+behind that all might have room. The witches mounted these beasts
+of burthen or vehicles, and were conveyed through the air over high
+walls and mountains, and through churches and chimneys, without
+perceptible impediment, till they arrived at the place of their
+destination. Here the devil feasted them with various compounds and
+confections, and, having eaten to their hearts' content, they danced,
+and then fought. The devil made them ride on spits, from which they
+were thrown; and the devil beat them with the spits, and laughed at
+them. He then caused them to build a house to protect them against
+the day of judgment, and presently overturned the walls of the house,
+and derided them again. All sorts of obscenities were reported to
+follow upon these scenes. The devil begot on the witches sons and
+daughters: this new generation intermarried again, and the issue of
+this further conjunction appears to have been toads and serpents.
+How all this pedigree proceeded in the two or three years in which
+Blockula had ever been heard of, I know not that the witches were
+ever called on to explain.
+
+But what was most of all to be deplored, the devil was not content
+with seducing the witches to go and celebrate this infernal sabbath;
+he further insisted that they should bring the children of Mohra along
+with them. At first he was satisfied, if each witch brought one; but
+now he demanded that each witch should bring six or seven for her
+quota. How the witches managed with the minds of the children we are
+at a loss to guess. These poor, harmless innocents, steeped to the
+very lips in ignorance and superstition, were by some means kept in
+continual alarm by the wicked, or, to speak more truly, the insane
+old women, and said as their prompters said. It does not appear that
+the children ever left their beds, at the time they reported they
+had been to Blockula. Their parents watched them with fearful anxiety.
+At a certain time of the night the children were seized with a strange
+shuddering, their limbs were agitated, and their skins covered with
+a profuse perspiration. When they came to themselves, they related
+that they had been to Blockula, and the strange things they had seen,
+similar to what had already been described by the women. Three hundred
+children of various ages are said to have been seized with this
+epidemic.
+
+The whole town of Mohra became subject to the infection, and were
+overcome with the deepest affliction. They consulted together, and
+drew up a petition to the royal council at Stockholm, intreating that
+they would discover some remedy, and that the government would
+interpose its authority to put an end to a calamity to which otherwise
+they could find no limit. The king of Sweden was at that time Charles
+the Eleventh, father of Charles the Twelfth, and was only fourteen
+years of age. His council in their wisdom deputed two commissioners
+to Mohra, and furnished them with powers to examine witnesses, and
+to take whatever proceedings they might judge necessary to put an
+end to so unspeakable a calamity.
+
+They entered on the business of their commission on the thirteenth
+of August, the ceremony having been begun with two sermons in the
+great church of Mohra, in which we may be sure the damnable sin of
+witchcraft was fully dilated on, and concluding with prayers to
+Almighty God that in his mercy he would speedily bring to an end the
+tremendous misfortune, with which for their sins he had seen fit to
+afflict the poor people of Mohra. The next day they opened their
+commission. Seventy witches were brought before them. They were all
+at first stedfast in their denial, alleging that the charges were
+wantonly brought against them, solely from malice and ill will. But
+the judges were earnest in pressing them, till at length first one,
+and then another; burst into tears, and confessed all. Twenty-three
+were prevailed on thus to disburthen their consciences; but nearly
+the whole, as well those who owned the justice of their sentence,
+as those who protested their innocence to the last, were executed.
+Fifteen children confessed their guilt, and were also executed.
+Thirty-six other children (who we may infer did not confess), between
+the ages of nine and sixteen, were condemned to run the gauntlet,
+and to be whipped on their hands at the church-door every Sunday for
+a year together. Twenty others were whipped on their hands for three
+Sundays. [226]
+
+This is certainly a very deplorable scene, and is made the more so
+by the previous character which history has impressed on us, of the
+simplicity, integrity, and generous love of liberty of the
+Dalecarlians. For the children and their parents we can feel nothing
+but unmingled pity. The case of the witches is different. That three
+hundred children should have been made the victims of this imaginary
+witchcraft is doubtless a grievous calamity. And that a number of
+women should have been found so depraved and so barbarous, as by their
+incessant suggestions to have practised on the minds of these
+children, so as to have robbed them of sober sense, to have frightened
+them into fits and disease, and made them believe the most odious
+impossibilities, argued a most degenerate character, and well merited
+severe reprobation, but not death. Add to which, many of these women
+may be believed innocent, otherwise a great majority of those who
+were executed, would not have died protesting their entire freedom
+from what was imputed to them. Some of the parents no doubt, from
+folly and ill judgment, aided the alienation of mind in their children
+which they afterwards so deeply deplored, and gratified their
+senseless aversion to the old women, when they were themselves in
+many cases more the real authors of the evil than those who suffered.
+
+
+WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND.
+
+As a story of witchcraft, without any poetry in it, without any thing
+to amuse the imagination, or interest the fancy, but hard, prosy,
+and accompanied with all that is wretched, pitiful and withering,
+perhaps the well known story of the New England witchcraft surpasses
+every thing else upon record. The New Englanders were at this time,
+towards the close of the seventeenth century, rigorous Calvinists,
+with long sermons and tedious monotonous prayers, with hell before
+them for ever on one side, and a tyrannical, sour and austere God
+on the other, jealous of an arbitrary sovereignty, who hath "mercy
+on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." These
+men, with long and melancholy faces, with a drawling and sanctified
+tone, and a carriage that would "at once make the most severely
+disposed merry, and the most cheerful spectators sad," constituted
+nearly the entire population of the province of Massachuset's Bay.
+
+The prosecutions for witchcraft continued with little intermission
+principally at Salem, during the greater part of the year 1692. The
+accusations were of the most vulgar and contemptible sort, invisible
+pinchings and blows, fits, with the blastings and mortality of cattle,
+and wains stuck fast in the ground, or losing their wheels. A
+conspicuous feature in nearly the whole of these stories was what
+they named the "spectral sight;" in other words, that the profligate
+accusers first feigned for the most part the injuries they received,
+and next saw the figures and action of the persons who inflicted them,
+when they were invisible to every one else. Hence the miserable
+prosecutors gained the power of gratifying the wantonness of their
+malice, by pretending that they suffered by the hand of any one whose
+name first presented itself, or against whom they bore an ill will.
+The persons so charged, though unseen by any but the accuser, and
+who in their corporal presence were at a distance of miles, and were
+doubtless wholly unconscious of the mischief that was hatching against
+them, were immediately taken up, and cast into prison. And what was
+more monstrous and incredible, there stood at the bar the prisoner
+on trial for his life, while the witnesses were permitted to swear
+that his spectre had haunted them, and afflicted them with all manner
+of injuries. That the poor prosecuted wretch stood astonished at what
+was alleged against him, was utterly overwhelmed with the charges,
+and knew not what to answer, was all of it interpreted as so many
+presumptions of his guilt. Ignorant as they were, they were unhappy
+and unskilful in their defence; and, if they spoke of the devil, as
+was but natural, it was instantly caught at as a proof how familiar
+they were with the fiend that had seduced them to their damnation.
+
+The first specimen of this sort of accusation in the present instance
+was given by one Paris, minister of a church at Salem, in the end
+of the year 1691, who had two daughters, one nine years old, the other
+eleven, that were afflicted with fits and convulsions. The first
+person fixed on as the mysterious author of what was seen, was Tituba,
+a female slave in the family, and she was harassed by her master into
+a confession of unlawful practices and spells. The girls then fixed
+on Sarah Good, a female known to be the victim of a morbid melancholy,
+and Osborne, a poor man that had for a considerable time been bed-rid,
+as persons whose spectres had perpetually haunted and tormented them:
+and Good was twelve months after hanged on this accusation.
+
+A person, who was one of the first to fall under the imputation, was
+one George Burroughs, also a minister of Salem. He had, it seems,
+buried two wives, both of whom the busy gossips said he had used ill
+in their life-time, and consequently, it was whispered, had murdered
+them. This man was accustomed foolishly to vaunt that he knew what
+people said of him in his absence; and this was brought as a proof
+that he dealt with the devil. Two women, who were witnesses against
+him, interrupted their testimony with exclaiming that they saw the
+ghosts of the murdered wives present (who had promised them they would
+come), though no one else in the court saw them; and this was taken
+in evidence. Burroughs conducted himself in a very injudicious way
+on his trial; but, when he came to be hanged, made so impressive a
+speech on the ladder, with fervent protestations of innocence, as
+melted many of the spectators into tears.
+
+The nature of accusations of this sort is ever found to operate like
+an epidemic. Fits and convulsions are communicated from one subject
+to another. The "spectral sight," as it was called, is obviously a
+theme for the vanity of ignorance. "Love of fame," as the poet
+teaches, is an "universal passion." Fame is placed indeed on a height
+beyond the hope of ordinary mortals. But in occasional instances it
+is brought unexpectedly within the reach of persons of the coarsest
+mould; and many times they will be apt to seize it with proportionable
+avidity. When too such things are talked of, when the devil and
+spirits of hell are made familiar conversation, when stories of this
+sort are among the daily news, and one person and another, who had
+a little before nothing extraordinary about them, become subjects
+of wonder, these topics enter into the thoughts of many, sleeping
+and waking: "their young men see visions, and their old men dream
+dreams."
+
+In such a town as Salem, the second in point of importance in the
+colony, such accusations spread with wonderful rapidity. Many were
+seized with fits, exhibited frightful contortions of their limbs and
+features, and became a fearful spectacle to the bystander. They were
+asked to assign the cause of all this; and they supposed, or pretended
+to suppose, some neighbour, already solitary and afflicted, and on
+that account in ill odour with the townspeople, scowling upon,
+threatening, and tormenting them. Presently persons, specially gifted
+with the "spectral sight," formed a class by themselves, and were
+sent about at the public expence from place to place, that they might
+see what no one else could see. The prisons were filled with the
+persons accused. The utmost horror was entertained, as of a calamity
+which in such a degree had never visited that part of the world. It
+happened, most unfortunately, that Baxter's Certainty of the World
+of Spirits had been published but the year before, and a number of
+copies had been sent out to New England. There seemed a strange
+coincidence and sympathy between vital Christianity in its most
+honourable sense, and the fear of the devil, who appeared to be "come
+down unto them, with great wrath." Mr. Increase Mather, and Mr. Cotton
+Mather, his son, two clergymen of highest reputation in the
+neighbourhood, by the solemnity and awe with which they treated the
+subject, and the earnestness and zeal which they displayed, gave a
+sanction to the lowest superstition and virulence of the ignorant.
+
+All the forms of justice were brought forward on this occasion. There
+was no lack of judges, and grand juries, and petty juries, and
+executioners, and still less of prosecutors and witnesses. The first
+person that was hanged was on the tenth of June, five more on the
+nineteenth of July, five on the nineteenth of August, and eight on
+the twenty-second of September. Multitudes confessed that they were
+witches; for this appeared the only way for the accused to save their
+lives. Husbands and children fell down on their knees, and implored
+their wives and mothers to own their guilt. Many were tortured by
+being tied neck and heels together, till they confessed whatever was
+suggested to them. It is remarkable however that not one persisted
+in her confession at the place of execution.
+
+The most interesting story that occurred in this affair was of Giles
+Cory, and Martha, his wife. The woman was tried on the ninth of
+September, and hanged on the twenty-second. In the interval, on the
+sixteenth, the husband was brought up for trial. He said, he was not
+guilty; but, being asked how he would be tried? he refused to go
+through the customary form, and say, "By God and my country." He
+observed that, of all that had been tried, not one had as yet been
+pronounced not guilty; and he resolutely refused in that mode to
+undergo a trial. The judge directed therefore that, according to the
+barbarous mode prescribed in the mother-country, he should be laid
+on his back, and pressed to death with weights gradually accumulated
+on the upper surface of his body, a proceeding which had never yet
+been resorted to by the English in North America. The man persisted
+in his resolution, and remained mute till he expired.
+
+The whole of this dreadful tragedy was kept together by a thread.
+The spectre-seers for a considerable time prudently restricted their
+accusations to persons of ill repute, or otherwise of no consequence
+in the community. By and by however they lost sight of this caution,
+and pretended they saw the figures of some persons well connected,
+and of unquestioned honour and reputation, engaged in acts of
+witchcraft. Immediately the whole fell through in a moment. The
+leading inhabitants presently saw how unsafe it would be to trust
+their reputations and their lives to the mercy of these profligate
+accusers. Of fifty-six bills of indictment that were offered to the
+grand-jury on the third of January, 1693, twenty-six only were found
+true bills, and thirty thrown out. On the twenty-six bills that were
+found, three persons only were pronounced guilty by the petty jury,
+and these three received their pardon from the government. The prisons
+were thrown open; fifty confessed witches, together with two hundred
+persons imprisoned on suspicion, were set at liberty, and no more
+accusations were heard of. The "afflicted," as they were technically
+termed, recovered their health; the "spectral sight" was universally
+scouted; and men began to wonder how they could ever have been the
+victims of so horrible a delusion. [227]
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The volume of records of supposed necromancy and witchcraft is
+sufficiently copious, without its being in any way necessary to trace
+it through its latest relics and fragments. Superstition is so
+congenial to the mind of man, that, even in the early years of the
+author of the present volume, scarcely a village was unfurnished with
+an old man or woman who laboured under an ill repute on this score;
+and I doubt not many remain to this very day. I remember, when a
+child, that I had an old woman pointed out to me by an ignorant
+servant-maid, as being unquestionably possessed of the ominous gift
+of the "evil eye," and that my impulse was to remove myself as quickly
+as might be from the range of her observation.
+
+But witchcraft, as it appears to me, is by no means so desirable a
+subject as to make one unwilling to drop it. It has its uses. It is
+perhaps right that we should be somewhat acquainted with this
+repulsive chapter in the annals of human nature. As the wise man says
+in the Bible, "It is good for us to resort to the house of those that
+mourn;" for there is a melancholy which is attended with beneficial
+effects, and "by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made
+better." But I feel no propensity to linger in these dreary abodes,
+and would rather make a speedy exchange for the dwellings of
+healthfulness and a certain hilarity. We will therefore with the
+reader's permission at length shut the book, and say, "Lo, it is
+enough."
+
+There is no time perhaps at which we can more fairly quit the subject,
+than when the more enlightened governments of Europe have called for
+the code of their laws, and have obliterated the statute which annexed
+the penalty of death to this imaginary crime.
+
+So early as the year 1672, Louis XIV promulgated an order of the
+council of state, forbidding the tribunals from proceeding to judgment
+in cases where the accusation was of sorcery only. [228]
+
+In England we paid a much later tribute to the progress of
+illumination and knowledge; and it was not till the year 1736 that
+a statute was passed, repealing the law made in the first year of
+James I, and enacting that no capital prosecution should for the
+future take place for conjuration, sorcery and enchantment, but
+restricting the punishment of persons pretending to tell fortunes
+and discover stolen goods by witchcraft, to that appertaining to a
+misdemeanour.
+
+As long as death could by law be awarded against those who were
+charged with a commerce with evil spirits, and by their means
+inflicting mischief on their species, it is a subject not unworthy
+of grave argument and true philanthropy, to endeavour to detect the
+fallacy of such pretences, and expose the incalculable evils and the
+dreadful tragedies that have grown out of accusations and prosecutions
+for such imaginary crimes. But the effect of perpetuating the silly
+and superstitious tales that have survived this mortal blow, is
+exactly opposite. It only serves to keep alive the lingering folly
+of imbecile minds, and still to feed with pestiferous clouds the
+thoughts of the ignorant. Let us rather hail with heart-felt gladness
+the light which has, though late, broken in upon us, and weep over
+the calamity of our forefathers, who, in addition to the inevitable
+ills of our sublunary state, were harassed with imaginary terrors,
+and haunted by suggestions,
+
+  Whose horrid image did unfix their hair,
+  And make their seated hearts knock at their ribs,
+  Against the use of nature.
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+[1] Joshua, vii. 16, _et seq_.
+
+[2] De Arte Poetica, v. 150.
+
+[3] Romans, xi. 32.
+
+[4] Comte de Gabalis.
+
+[5] Genesis xli, 8, 25, &c.
+
+[6] Exodus, vii. 11; viii. 19.
+
+[7] Ibid, xxii. 18.
+
+[8] Deuteronomy, xviii. 10,11.
+
+[9] Leviticus, xx. 27.
+
+[10] Numbers, xxii. 5,6,7.
+
+[11] Numbers, xxiv, 1.
+
+[12] Ibid, xxiii. 23.
+
+[13] 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, _et seq_.
+
+[14] 2 Kings, xxi. 6.
+
+[15] 1 Kings, xxii. 20, _et seqq_.
+
+[16] 1 Chron. xxi. 1,7,14.
+
+[17] 2 Kings, i. 2,3,4.
+
+[18] Matthew, xii. 24.
+
+[19] Genesis, xliv. 5.
+
+[20] Genesis, xliv. 15.
+
+[21] Brewster on Natural Magic, Letter IX.
+
+[22] De Natura Deorum, Lib. I, c. 38.
+
+[23] Plato, De Republica, Lib. X, _sub finem_.
+
+[24] Batrachos, v. 1032.
+
+[25] De Arte Poetica, v.391.
+
+[26] Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, Tom. V, p. 117.
+
+[27] De Arte Poetica, v. 391, 2, 3.
+
+[28] Virgil, Georgiea, Lib. IV. v. 461, _et seqq_.
+
+[29] Georgiea, iv, 525.
+
+[30] Metamorphoses, xi, 55.
+
+[31] Philostratus, Heroica, cap. v.
+
+[32] Horat, de Arte Poetica, v. 394. Pausanias.
+
+[33] Odyssey, Lib. XI, v. 262.
+
+[34] Statius, Thebais, Lib. X. v. 599.
+
+[35] Ibid, Lib. IV, v. 599.
+
+[36] Ibid, Lib. IV, v. 409, _et seqq_.
+
+[37] Lib. IV, c. 36.
+
+[38] Iamblichus.
+
+[39] Julius Firmicus, _apud_ Scaliger, in Eusebium.
+
+[40] Iamblichus, Vita Pythagorae.
+
+[41] Pluto, Charmides.
+
+[42] Chronological Account of Pythagoras and his Contemporaries.
+
+[43] Laertius, Lib. VIII, c. 3.
+
+[44] Lloyd, _ubi supra_.
+
+[45] Iamblichus, c. 17.
+
+[46] Iamblichus, c. 29.
+
+[47] Ibid, c. 7.
+
+[48] Laertius, c. 15.
+
+[49] Ibid, c. 11.
+
+[50] Plutarchus, Symposiaca, Lib. VIII, Quaestio 2.
+
+[51] Aulus Gellius, Lib. I, c. 1, from Plutarch.
+
+[52] Laertius, c.19.
+
+[53] Bailly, Histoire de l'Astronomie, Lib VIII, S.3.
+
+[54] Plutarchus, de Esu Carnium. Ovidius, Metamorphoses, Lib. XV.
+Laertius, c. 12.
+
+[55] Iamblichus, c. 16.
+
+[56] Laertius, c. 6.
+
+[57] Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata, Lib. I, p. 302.
+
+[58] Iamblichus, c.17.
+
+[59] Laertius, c. 8. Iamblichus, c. 17.
+
+[60] Cicero de Natura Deorum, Lib. I, c. 5.
+
+[61] Laertius, c. 9.
+
+[62] Ibid.
+
+[63] Iamblichus, c. 19.
+
+[64] Laertius, c.1.
+
+[65] Ibid, c. 18.
+
+[66] Iamblichus, c. 8.
+
+[67] Ibid, c. 13.
+
+[68] Laertius, c. 9. Iamblichus, c. 28.
+
+[69] Laertius, c. 9. Iamblichus, c. 18.
+
+[70] Ibid, c. 28.
+
+[71] Laertius, c.21.
+
+[72] Iamblichus, c.17.
+
+[73] Iamblichus, c. 35. Laertius, c. 21.
+
+[74] Laertius, c. 21.
+
+[75] Laertius, Lib. I, c. 109. Plinius, Lib. VII, c. 52.
+
+[76] Laertius, c. 113.
+
+[77] Ibid.
+
+[78] Ibid. c. 111.
+
+[79] Plutarch, Vita Solonis. Laertius, Lib. I, c. 109.
+
+[80] Plutarch, Vita Solonis. Laertius, Lib. I, c. 110.
+
+[81] Ibid.
+
+[82] Laertius, Lib. VIII, c. 51, 64.
+
+[83] Ibid, c. 57.
+
+[84] Ibid, c. 66.
+
+[85] Ibid, c. 73.
+
+[86] Plinius, Lib. VII, c. 52. Laertius, c. 61.
+
+[87] Laertius, c. 77.
+
+[88] Ibid, c. 59.
+
+[89] Ibid, c. 62.
+
+[90] Laertias, c. 69. Horat, De Arte Poetica, v. 463.
+
+[91] Herodotus, Lib. III, c. 14, 15. Plinius, Lib. VII, c. 52.
+
+[92] Plutarch, De Genio Socratis. Lucian, Muscae Encomium. Plinius,
+Lib. VII, c. 52. [Errata: _dele_ Plinius]
+
+[93] Plinius, Lib. III, c, 61, 62.
+
+[94] Herodotus, Lib. VIII, c. 36, 37, 38, 39.
+
+[95] Herodotus, Lib. VIII, c. 140, _et seqq_.
+
+[96] Historia Naturalis, Lib. X, c. 40.
+
+[97] Plinius, Lib. XXVIII. c. 8.
+
+[98] Pseudomantis, c. 17. See also Philopseudes, c. 32.
+
+[99] Theages.
+
+[100] Plutarch, De Genio Socratis.
+
+[101] Xenophon, Memorabilia, Lib. I, c. 1.
+
+[102] Plutarch, _ubi supra_.
+
+[103] Plato, Theages.
+
+[104] Ibid.
+
+[105] Livius, Lib. I, c. 16.
+
+[106] Dionysius Halicarnassensis.
+
+[107] Livius, Lib. I, c. 19, 21.
+
+[108] Livius, Lib. I, c. 31.
+
+[109] Ibid.
+
+[110] Livius, Lib. I, c. 36.
+
+[111] Livius, Lib. I, c. 39.
+
+[112] Livius, Lib. III, c. 6, _et seqq_.
+
+[113] Epod. V.
+
+[114] Metamorphoses, Lib. VII.
+
+[115] Lib. VI.
+
+[116] Horat., de Arte Poetica, v. 150.
+
+[117] Plutarch, North's Translation.
+
+[118] Matt. c. xii, v. 24, 27.
+
+[119] Acts, c. viii.
+
+[120] Clemens Romanus, Recognitiones, Lib. II, cap. 9. Anastasius
+Sinaita, Quaestiones; Quaestio 20.
+
+[121] Clemens Romanus, Constitutiones Apostolici, Lib. VI, cap. 7.
+
+[122] Acts, c. xiii.
+
+[123] Ibid, c. xix.
+
+[124] Suetonius, Lib. VI, cap. 14.
+
+[125] Tacitus, Historiae, Lib. IV, cap. 81. Suetonius, Lib. VIII,
+cap. 7.
+
+[126] Hume, Essays, Part III, Section X.
+
+[127] Philostratus, Vita Apollonii, Lib. I, cap. 5, 6.
+
+[128] Philostratus, Vita Apollonii, Lib. I, c. 10.
+
+[129] Ibid, c.13.
+
+[130] Ibid, c. 13, 14.
+
+[131] Philostratus, Lib. IV, c. 10.
+
+[132] Philostratus, Lib. IV, c. 25.
+
+[133] Philostratus, Lib. IV, c. 45.
+
+[134] Philostratus, Lib. VIII, c. 5.
+
+[135] Ibid, c. 26.
+
+[136] Philostratus, Lib. VIII, c. 29, 30.
+
+[137] Ibid, c. 29.
+
+[138] Lampridius, in Vita Alex. Severi, c. 29.
+
+[139] C. 24.
+
+[140] Philostratus, Lib. I, c. 3.
+
+[141] Zosimus, Lib, IV, cap. 13. Gibbon observes, that the name of
+Theodosius, who actually succeeded, begins with the same letters which
+were indicated in this magic trial.
+
+[142] Zosimus, Lib. IV, cap.  14.
+
+[143] Gibbon, Chap. VIII.
+
+[144] This word is of Sanscrit original.
+
+[145] "They cut themselves with knives and lancets, till the blood
+gushed out upon them." I Kings, xviii, 28.
+
+[146] Otherwise, Deeves.
+
+[147] D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale.
+
+[148] D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale.
+
+[149] It is in Selden's Collection of Ballads in the Bodleian Library.
+See Letters from the Bodleian, Vol. I, p. 120 to 126.
+
+[150] Spenser, Fairy Queen, Book III, Canto III, stanza 9, _et seqq_.
+
+[151] William of Malmesbury, Lib. II, c. 10.
+
+[152] William of Malmesbury, Lib. II, c. 10.
+
+[153] Naude, Apologie des Grands Hommes Accuses de Magie. Malmesbury,
+_ubi supra_.
+
+[154] Naude, Apologie des Grands Hommes Accuses de Magie, chap. 19.
+
+[155] Mornay, Mysterium Iniquitalis, p. 258. Coeffeteau, Reponse a
+ditto, p. 274.
+
+[156] Ibid.
+
+[157] Hollinshed, History of Scotland, p. 206, 207.
+
+[158] Ibid. p. 207, 208.
+
+[159] Hollinshed, History of Scotland, p. 243, 244.
+
+[160] Hollinshed, History of Scotland, p. 244, 245.
+
+[161] Hollinshed, History of Scotland, p. 246.
+
+[162] Ibid, p. 248, 249.
+
+[163] Hollinshed, History of Scotland, p. 249.
+
+[164] Ibid.
+
+[165] Hollinshed, History of Scotland, p. 251.
+
+[166] Naude.
+
+[167] Godwin, Praesulibus, art. Gronthead.
+
+[168] Naude c. 18.
+
+[169] Johannes de Becka, _apud_ Trithemii Chronica, ann. 1254.
+
+[170] Freind, History of Physick, Vol. II, p. 234 to 239.
+
+[171] Bacon, Epist. ad Clement. IV.
+
+[172] Ubi supra.
+
+[173] See page 261.
+
+[174] Naude, Cap. 17.
+
+[175] Ibid.
+
+[176] Commentaries, Book IV. chap. vi.
+
+[177] Life of Chaucer, c. xviii.
+
+[178] Wotton, Reflections on Learning, Chap. X.
+
+[179] See above, p. 29.
+
+[180] Biographic Universelle.
+
+[181] Naude.
+
+[182] Moreri.
+
+[183] Enfield, History of Philosophy, Book VIII, chapter i.
+
+[184] Moreri.
+
+[185] Watson, Chemical Essays, Vol. I.
+
+[186] Fuller, Worthies of England.
+
+[187] Watson, _ubi supra_.
+
+[188] Sir Thomas More, History of Edward the Fifth.
+
+[189] Buck, Life and Reign of Richard III.
+
+[190] Hutchinson on Witchcraft.
+
+[191] I Samuel, xv, 23.
+
+[192] Doctrine of Divorce, Preface.
+
+[193] Delrio, Disquisitiones Magicae, p. 746.
+
+[194] Alciatus, Parergon Juris, L. VIII, cap. 22.
+
+[195] Danaeus, _apud_ Delrio, Proloquium.
+
+[196] Bartholomaeus de Spina, De Strigibus, c. 13.
+
+[197] Biographie Universelle.
+
+[198] Biographie Universelle.
+
+[199] Hospinian, Historia Sacramentaria, Part II, fol. 131.
+
+[200] Bayle.
+
+[201] Paulus Jovius, Elogia Doctorum Virorum, c.101.
+
+[202] Delrio, Disquisitiones Magicae, Lib. II, Quaestio xi, S. 18.
+
+[203] Delrio, Lib. II, Quaestio xxix. S. 7.
+
+[204] Wierus, Lib. II, c.v. S. 11, 12.
+
+[205] Cent. I, cap. 70.
+
+[206] De Praestigiis Demonum, Lib. II, cap. iv, sect. 8.
+
+[207] Durrius, _apud_ Schelhorn, Amoenitates Literariae, Tom. V,
+p.50, _et seqq_.
+
+[208] Memoirs, p. 14.
+
+[209] Brewster, Letters on Natural Magic, Letter IV.
+
+[210] Appendix to Johannes Glastoniensis, edited by Hearne.
+
+[211] Camden, anno 1693, 1694.
+
+[212] Pitcairn, Trials in Scotland in Five Volumes, 4to.
+
+[213] King James's Works, p. 135.
+
+[214] King James's Works, p. 135, 136.
+
+[215] Truth brought to Light by Time. Wilson, History of James I.
+
+[216] Fuller, Church History of Britain, Book X, p. 74. See also
+Osborn's Works, Essay I: where the author says, he "gave charge to
+his judges, to be circumspect in condemning those, committed by
+ignorant justices for diabolical compacts. Nor had he concluded his
+advice in a narrower circle, as I have heard, than the denial of any
+such operations, but out of reason of state, and to gratify the
+church, which hath in no age thought fit to explode out of the common
+people's minds an apprehension of witchcraft." The author adds, that
+he "must confess James to have been the promptest man living in his
+dexterity to discover an imposture," and subjoins a remarkable story
+in confirmation of this assertion.
+
+[217] Discovery of the Witches, 1612, printed by order of the Court.
+
+[218] History of Whalley, by Thomas Dunham Whitaker, p. 215.
+
+[219] Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, Vol. II, p. 507.
+
+[220] Heylyn, Life of Laud.
+
+[221] Hutchinson on Witchcraft.
+
+[222] Menagiana, Tom. II, p. 252, _et seqq_.
+
+[223] Judges, v, 20.
+
+[224] Certainty of the World of Spirits.
+
+[225] Trial of the Witches executed at Bury St. Edmund's.
+
+[226] Narrative translated by Dr. Horneck, _apud_ Satan's
+Invisible World by Sinclair, and Sadducismus Triumphatus by
+Glanville.
+
+[227] Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World; Calef, More
+Wonders of the Invisible World; Neal, History of New England.
+
+[228] Menagiana, Tom II, p. 264. Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV, Chap.
+xxxi.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Lives of the Necromancers, by William Godwin
+
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