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LIVES OF THE NECROMANCERS:

OR

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST EMINENT PERSONS IN SUCCESSIVE AGES, WHO HAVECLAIMED 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 thecredulity of the human mind. Such an exhibition cannot fail to beproductive of the most salutary lessons. 

One view of the subject will teach us a useful pride in the abundanceof our faculties. Without pride man is in reality of little value. Itis pride that stimulates us to all our great undertakings. Withoutpride, and the secret persuasion of extraordinary talents, what manwould take up the pen with a view to produce an important work, whether of imagination and poetry, or of profound science, or of acuteand subtle reasoning and intellectual anatomy? It is pride in thissense that makes the great general and the consummate legislator, thatanimates us to tasks the most laborious, and causes us to shrink fromno difficulty, and to be confounded and overwhelmed with no obstaclethat can be interposed in our path. 

Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between man and theinferior animals. The latter live only for the day, and see for themost part only what is immediately before them. But man lives in thepast and the future. He reasons upon and improves by the past; herecords the acts of a long series of generations: and he looks intofuture time, lays down plans which he shall be months and years inbringing to maturity, and contrives machines and delineates systemsof education and government, which may gradually add to theaccommodations of all, and raise the species generally into a noblerand more honourable character than our ancestors were capable ofsustaining. 

Man looks through nature, and is able to reduce its parts into a greatwhole. He classes the beings which are found in it, both animate andinanimate, delineates and describes them, investigates theirproperties, and records their capacities, their good and evilqualities, 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 partsinto new arrangements. He peoples all the elements from the world ofhis imagination. It is here that he is most extraordinary andwonderful. The record of what actually is, and has happened in theseries of human events, is perhaps the smallest part of human history. If we would know man in all his subtleties, we must deviate into theworld of miracles and sorcery. To know the things that are not, andcannot be, but have been imagined and believed, is the most curiouschapter in the annals of man. To observe the actual results of theseimaginary phenomena, and the crimes and cruelties they have caused usto commit, is one of the most instructive studies in which we canpossibly be engaged. It is here that man is most astonishing, and thatwe contemplate with most admiration the discursive and unboundednature of his faculties. 

But, if a recollection of the examples of the credulity of the humanmind may in one view supply nourishment to our pride, it still moreobviously tends to teach us sobriety and humiliation. Man in hisgenuine and direct sphere is the disciple of reason; it is by thisfaculty that he draws inferences, exerts his prudence, and displaysthe ingenuity of machinery, and the subtlety of system both in naturaland moral philosophy. Yet what so irrational as man? Not contentedwith making use of the powers we possess, for the purpose of conducingto our accommodation and well being, we with a daring spirit inquireinto the invisible causes of what we see, and people all nature withGods "of every shape and size" and angels, with principalities andpowers, with beneficent beings who "take charge concerning us lest atany time we dash our foot against a stone, " and with devils who areperpetually on the watch to perplex us and do us injury. And, havingfamiliarised our minds with the conceptions of these beings, weimmediately aspire to hold communion with them. We represent toourselves God, as "walking in the garden with us in the cool of theday, " and teach ourselves "not to forget to entertain strangers, lestby so doing we should repel angels unawares. "

No sooner are we, even in a slight degree, acquainted with the laws ofnature, than we frame to ourselves the idea, by the aid of someinvisible ally, of suspending their operation, of calling out meteorsin the sky, of commanding storms and tempests, of arresting the motionof the heavenly bodies, of producing miraculous cures upon the bodiesof our fellow-men, or afflicting them with disease and death, ofcalling up the deceased from the silence of the grave, and compellingthem to disclose "the secrets of the world unknown. "

But, what is most deplorable, we are not contented to endeavour tosecure the aid of God and good angels, but we also aspire to enterinto alliance with devils, and beings destined for their rebellion tosuffer eternally the pains of hell. As they are supposed to be of acharacter perverted and depraved, we of course apply to themprincipally for purposes of wantonness, or of malice and revenge. And, in the instances which have occurred only a few centuries back, themost common idea has been of a compact entered into by an unprincipledand impious human being with the sworn enemy of God and man, in theresult of which the devil engages to serve the capricious will andperform the behests of his blasphemous votary for a certain number ofyears, while the deluded wretch in return engages to renounce his Godand Saviour, and surrender himself body and soul to the pains of hellfrom the end of that term to all eternity. No sooner do we imaginehuman beings invested with these wonderful powers, and conceive themas called into action for the most malignant purposes, than we becomethe passive and terrified slaves of the creatures of our ownimaginations, and fear to be assailed at every moment by beings towhose power we can set no limit, and whose modes of hostility no humansagacity can anticipate and provide against. But, what is still moreextraordinary, the human creatures that pretend to these powers haveoften been found as completely the dupes of this supernaturalmachinery, as the most timid wretch that stands in terror at itsexpected operation; and no phenomenon has been more common than theconfession of these allies of hell, that they have verily and indeedheld commerce and formed plots and conspiracies with Satan. 

The consequence of this state of things has been, that criminaljurisprudence and the last severities of the law have been calledforth to an amazing extent to exterminate witches and witchcraft. Moreespecially in the sixteenth century hundreds and thousands were burnedalive within the compass of a small territory; and judges, thedirectors of the scene, a Nicholas Remi, a De Lancre, and many others, have published copious volumes, entering into a minute detail of thesystem and fashion of the witchcraft of the professors, whom they sentin multitudes to expiate their depravity at the gallows and the stake. 

One useful lesson which we may derive from the detail of theseparticulars, is the folly in most cases of imputing pure and unmingledhypocrisy to man. The human mind is of so ductile a character that, like what is affirmed of charity by the apostle, it "believeth allthings, and endureth all things. " We are not at liberty to trifle withthe sacredness of truth. While we persuade others, we begin to deceiveourselves. Human life is a drama of that sort, that, while we act ourpart, and endeavour to do justice to the sentiments which are put downfor us, we begin to believe we are the thing we would represent. 

To shew however the modes in which the delusion acts upon the personthrough whom it operates, is not properly the scope of this book. Hereand there I have suggested hints to this purpose, which the curiousreader may follow to their furthest extent, and discover how withperfect good faith the artist may bring himself to swallow thegrossest impossibilities. But the work I have written is not atreatise of natural magic. It rather proposes to display the immensewealth of the faculty of imagination, and to shew the extravagances ofwhich the man may be guilty who surrenders himself to its guidance. 

It is fit however that the reader should bear in mind, that what isput down in this book is but a small part and scantling of the acts ofsorcery and witchcraft which have existed in human society. They havebeen found in all ages and countries. The torrid zone and the frozennorth have neither of them escaped from a fruitful harvest of thissort of offspring. In ages of ignorance they have been especially athome; and the races of men that have left no records behind them totell almost that they existed, have been most of all rife in deeds ofdarkness, and those marvellous incidents which especially astonish thespectator, and throw back the infant reason of man into those shadesand that obscurity from which it had so recently endeavoured toescape. 

I wind up for the present my literary labours with the production ofthis book. Nor let any reader imagine that I here put into his hands amere work of idle recreation. It will be found pregnant with deeperuses. The wildest extravagances of human fancy, the most deplorableperversion of human faculties, and the most horrible distortions ofjurisprudence, may occasionally afford us a salutary lesson. I love inthe foremost place to contemplate man in all his honours and in allthe exaltation of wisdom and virtue; but it will also be occasionallyof service to us to look into his obliquities, and distinctly toremark how great and portentous have been his absurdities and hisfollies. 

_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 UPONTHE 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 bydegrees convinced the enlightened part of mankind that the materialuniverse is every where subject to laws, fixed in their weight, measure and duration, capable of the most exact calculation, and whichin no case admit of variation and exception. Whatever is not thus tobe accounted for is of mind, and springs from the volition of somebeing, of which the material form is subjected to our senses, and theaction of which is in like manner regulated by the laws of matter. Beside this, mind, as well as matter, is subject to fixed laws; andthus every phenomenon and occurrence around us is rendered a topic forthe speculations of sagacity and foresight. Such is the creed whichscience has universally prescribed to the judicious and reflectingamong us. 

It was otherwise in the infancy and less mature state of humanknowledge. The chain of causes and consequences was yet unrecognized;and events perpetually occurred, for which no sagacity that was thenin being was able to assign an original. Hence men felt themselveshabitually disposed to refer many of the appearances with which theywere conversant to the agency of invisible intelligences; sometimesunder the influence of a benignant disposition, sometimes of malice, and sometimes perhaps from an inclination to make themselves sport ofthe wonder and astonishment of ignorant mortals. Omens and portentstold these men of some piece of good or ill fortune speedily to befalthem. The flight of birds was watched by them, as foretokeningsomewhat important. Thunder excited in them a feeling of supernaturalterror. Eclipses with fear of change perplexed the nations. Thephenomena of the heavens, regular and irregular, were anxiouslyremarked from the same principle. During the hours of darkness menwere apt to see a supernatural being in every bush; and they could notcross a receptacle for the dead, without expecting to encounter someone of the departed uneasily wandering among graves, or commissionedto reveal somewhat momentous and deeply affecting to the survivors. Fairies danced in the moonlight glade; and something preternaturalperpetually occurred to fill the living with admiration and awe. 

All this gradually reduced itself into a system. Mankind, particularlyin the dark and ignorant ages, were divided into the strong and theweak; the strong and weak of animal frame, when corporeal strengthmore decidedly bore sway than in a period of greater cultivation; andthe strong and weak in reference to intellect; those who were bold, audacious and enterprising in acquiring an ascendancy over theirfellow-men, and those who truckled, submitted, and were acted upon, from an innate consciousness of inferiority, and a superstitiouslooking up to such as were of greater natural or acquired endowmentsthan themselves. The strong in intellect were eager to availthemselves of their superiority, by means that escaped the penetrationof the multitude, and had recourse to various artifices to effecttheir ends. Beside this, they became the dupes of their own practices. They set out at first in their conception of things from the level ofthe vulgar. They applied themselves diligently to the unravelling ofwhat was unknown; wonder mingled with their contemplation; theyabstracted their minds from things of ordinary occurrence, and, as wemay denominate it, of real life, till at length they lost their truebalance amidst the astonishment they sought to produce in theirinferiors. They felt a vocation to things extraordinary; and theywillingly gave scope and line without limit to that which engenderedin themselves the most gratifying sensations, at the same time that itanswered the purposes of their ambition. 

As these principles in the two parties, the more refined and thevulgar, 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 itselfthrough every climate of the world, in a certain stage of humanintellect, and while refinement had not yet got the better ofbarbarism. The Celts of antiquity had their Druids, a branch of whosespecial profession was the exercise of magic. The Chaldeans andEgyptians had their wise men, their magicians and their sorcerers. Thenegroes have their foretellers of events, their amulets, and theirreporters and believers of miraculous occurrences. A similar race ofmen was found by Columbus and the other discoverers of the New Worldin America; and facts of a parallel nature are attested to us in theislands of the South Seas. And, as phenomena of this sort wereuniversal in their nature, without distinction of climate, whethertorrid or frozen, and independently of the discordant manners andcustoms of different countries, so have they been very slow and recentin their disappearing. Queen Elizabeth sent to consult Dr. John Dee, the astrologer, respecting a lucky day for her coronation; King Jamesthe First employed much of his learned leisure upon questions ofwitchcraft and demonology, in which he fully believed and sir MatthewHale in the year 1664 caused two old women to be hanged upon a chargeof unlawful communion with infernal agents. 

The history of mankind therefore will be very imperfect, and ourknowledge of the operations and eccentricities of the mind lamentablydeficient, unless we take into our view what has occurred under thishead. The supernatural appearances with which our ancestors conceivedthemselves perpetually surrounded must have had a strong tendency tocherish and keep alive the powers of the imagination, and to penetratethose who witnessed or expected such things with an extraordinarysensitiveness. As the course of events appears to us at present, thereis much, though abstractedly within the compass of human sagacity toforesee, which yet the actors on the scene do not foresee: but theblindness and perplexity of short-sighted mortals must have beenwonderfully increased, when ghosts and extraordinary appearances wereconceived liable to cross the steps and confound the projects of menat every turn, and a malicious wizard or a powerful enchanter mightinvolve his unfortunate victim in a chain of calamities, which noprudence could disarm, and no virtue could deliver him from. They werethe slaves of an uncontrolable destiny, and must therefore have beeneminently deficient in the perseverance and moral courage, which mayjustly be required of us in a more enlightened age. And the men (butthese were few compared with the great majority of mankind), whobelieved themselves gifted with supernatural endowments, must havefelt exempt and privileged from common rules, somewhat in the same wayas the persons whom fiction has delighted to pourtray as endowed withimmeasurable wealth, or with the power of rendering themselvesimpassive or invisible. But, whatever were their advantages ordisadvantages, at any rate it is good for us to call up in reviewthings, which are now passed away, but which once occupied so large ashare of the thoughts and attention of mankind, and in a great degreetended to modify their characters and dictate their resolutions. 

As has already been said, numbers of those who were endowed with thehighest powers of human intellect, such as, if they had lived in thesetimes, would have aspired to eminence in the exact sciences, to theloftiest flights of imagination, or to the discovery of means by whichthe institutions of men in society might be rendered more beneficialand faultless, at that time wasted the midnight oil in endeavouring totrace the occult qualities and virtues of things, to render invisiblespirits subject to their command, and to effect those wonders, ofwhich they deemed themselves to have a dim conception, but which morerational views of nature have taught us to regard as beyond our powerto effect. These sublime wanderings of the mind are well entitled toour labour to trace and investigate. The errors of man are worthy tobe recorded, not only as beacons to warn us from the shelves where ourancestors have made shipwreck, but even as something honourable to ournature, to show how high a generous ambition could sour, though inforbidden paths, and in things too wonderful for us. 

Nor only is this subject inexpressibly interesting, as setting beforeus how the loftiest and most enterprising minds of ancient daysformerly busied themselves. It is also of the highest importance to aningenuous curiosity, inasmuch as it vitally affected the fortunes ofso considerable a portion of the mass of mankind. The legislatures ofremote ages bent all their severity at different periods against whatthey deemed the unhallowed arts of the sons and daughters ofreprobation. Multitudes of human creatures have been sacrificed indifferent ages and countries, upon the accusation of having exercisedarts of the most immoral and sacrilegious character. They weresupposed to have formed a contract with a mighty and invisible spirit, the great enemy of man, and to have sold themselves, body and soul, toeverlasting perdition, for the sake of gratifying, for a short term ofyears, their malignant passions against those who had been sounfortunate as to give them cause of offence. If there were anypersons who imagined they had entered into such a contract, howevererroneous was their belief, they must of necessity have been greatlydepraved. And it was but natural that such as believed in this crime, must have considered it as atrocious beyond all others, and haveregarded those who were supposed guilty of it with inexpressibleabhorrence. There are many instances on record, where the personsaccused of it, either from the depth of their delusion, or, which ismore probable, harassed by persecution, by the hatred of theirfellow-creatures directed against them, or by torture, actuallyconfessed themselves guilty. These instances are too numerous, not toconstitute an important chapter in the legislation of past ages. And, now that the illusion has in a manner passed away from the face of theearth, we are on that account the better qualified to investigate thiserror in its causes and consequences, and to look back on the tempestand hurricane from which we have escaped, with chastened feelings, anda 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 thatlethargy and indifference in which man may be supposed to be plungedpreviously to the impulse of any motive, or the accession of anyuneasiness. 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 complexvarieties may be regarded as proceeding. 

Man in a state of society, more especially where there is aninequality of condition and rank, is very often the creature ofleisure. He finds in himself, either from internal or externalimpulse, a certain activity. He finds himself at one time engaged inthe accomplishment of his obvious and immediate desires, and atanother in a state in which these desires have for the present beenfulfilled, and he has no present occasion to repeat those exertionswhich led to their fulfilment. This is the period of contemplation. This is the state which most eminently distinguishes us from thebrutes. 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 twoways, either in his procuring for himself an ample field for morerefined accommodations, or in the exercise of compulsion and authorityover other living creatures. In the pursuit of either of these, andespecially the first, he is led to the attainment of skill andsuperior adroitness in the use of his faculties. 

No sooner has man reached to this degree of improvement, than now, ifnot indeed earlier, he is induced to remark the extreme limitedness ofhis faculties in respect to the future; and he is led, first earnestlyto desire a clearer insight into the future, and next a power ofcommanding those external causes upon which the events of the futuredepend. The first of these desires is the parent of divination, augury, chiromancy, astrology, and the consultation of oracles; and the secondhas been the prolific source of enchantment, witchcraft, sorcery, magic, necromancy, and alchemy, in its two branches, the unlimitedprolongation of human life, and the art of converting less preciousmetals into gold. 

HIS DESIRE TO PENETRATE INTO FUTURITY. 

Nothing can suggest to us a more striking and stupendous idea of thefaculties of the human mind, than the consideration of the variousarts by which men have endeavoured to penetrate into the future, andto command the events of the future, in ways that in sobriety andtruth are entirely out of our competence. We spurn impatiently againstthe narrow limits which the constitution of things has fixed to ouraspirings, and endeavour by a multiplicity of ways to accomplish thatwhich it is totally beyond the power of man to effect. 

DIVINATION. 

Divination has been principally employed in inspecting the entrails ofbeasts offered for sacrifice, and from their appearance drawing omensof the good or ill success of the enterprises in which we are about toengage. 

What the divination by the cup was which Joseph practised, orpretended to practise, we do not perhaps exactly understand. We all ofus know somewhat of the predictions, to this day resorted to bymaid-servants and others, from the appearance of the sediment to befound at the bottom of a tea-cup. Predictions of a similar sort areformed from the unpremeditated way in which we get out of bed in amorning, or put on our garments, from the persons or things we shallencounter when we first leave our chamber or go forth in the air, orany of the indifferent accidents of life. 

AUGURY. 

Augury has its foundation in observing the flight of birds, the soundsthey utter, their motions whether sluggish or animated, and theavidity or otherwise with which they appear to take their food. Thecollege of augurs was one of the most solemn institutions of ancientRome. 

CHIROMANCY. 

Chiromancy, or the art of predicting the various fortunes of theindividual, from an inspection of the minuter variations of the linesto be found in the palm of the human hand, has been used perhaps atone time or other in all the nations of the world. 

PHYSIOGNOMY. 

Physiognomy is not so properly a prediction of future events, as anattempt to explain the present and inherent qualities of a man. Byunfolding his propensities however, it virtually gave the world tounderstand the sort of proceedings in which he was most likely toengage. The story of Socrates and the physiognomist is sufficientlyknown. The physiognomist having inspected the countenance of thephilosopher, pronounced that he was given to intemperance, sensuality, and violent bursts of passion, all of which was so contrary to hischaracter as universally known, that his disciples derided thephysiognomist as a vain-glorious pretender. Socrates however presentlyput them to silence, by declaring that he had had an originalpropensity to all the vices imputed to him, and had only conquered thepropensity by dint of a severe and unremitted self-discipline. 

INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS. 

Oneirocriticism, or the art of interpreting dreams, seems of all themodes of prediction the most inseparable from the nature of man. Aconsiderable portion of every twenty-four hours of our lives is spentin sleep; and in sleep nothing is at least more usual, than for themind to be occupied in a thousand imaginary scenes, which for the timeare as realities, and often excite the passions of the mind of thesleeper in no ordinary degree. Many of them are wild and rambling; butmany also have a portentous sobriety. Many seem to have a strictconnection with the incidents of our actual lives; and some appear asif they came for the very purpose to warn us of danger, or prepare usfor coming events. It is therefore no wonder that these occasionallyfill our waking thoughts with a deep interest, and impress upon us ananxiety 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 andinquisitiveness; and we find among the earliest exercises of the artof prediction, the interpretation of dreams to have occupied aprincipal 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 heregiven. It was intended as an appeal to heaven upon a question involvedin uncertainty, with the idea that the supreme Ruler of the skies, thus appealed to, would from his omniscience supply the defect ofhuman knowledge. Two examples, among others sufficiently remarkable, occur in the Bible. One of Achan, who secreted part of the spoil takenin Jericho, which was consecrated to the service of God, and who, being taken by lot, confessed, and was stoned to death. [1] The otherof Jonah, upon whom the lot fell in a mighty tempest, the crew of theship enquiring by this means what was the cause of the calamity thathad overtaken them, and Jonah being in consequence cast into the sea. 

ASTROLOGY. 

Astrology was one of the modes most anciently and universally resortedto for discovering the fortunes of men and nations. Astronomy andastrology went hand in hand, particularly among the people of theEast. The idea of fate was most especially bound up in this branch ofprophecy. If the fortune of a man was intimately connected with theposition of the heavenly bodies, it became evident that little wasleft to the province of his free will. The stars overruled him in allhis determinations; and it was in vain for him to resist them. Therewas something flattering to the human imagination in conceiving thatthe planets and the orbs on high were concerned in the conduct weshould pursue, and the events that should befal us. Man resignedhimself to his fate with a solemn, yet a lofty feeling, that theremotest portions of the universe were concerned in the catastrophethat awaited him. Beside which, there was something peculiarlyseducing in the apparently profound investigation of the professors ofastrology. They busied themselves with the actual position of theheavenly bodies, their conjunctions and oppositions; and ofconsequence there was a great apparatus of diagrams and calculation towhich they were prompted to apply themselves, and which addresseditself to the eyes and imaginations of those who consulted them. 

ORACLES. 

But that which seems to have had the greatest vogue in times ofantiquity, relative to the prediction of future events, is what isrecorded of oracles. Finding the insatiable curiosity of mankind as towhat was to happen hereafter, and the general desire they felt to beguided in their conduct by an anticipation of things to come, thepriests pretty generally took advantage of this passion, to increasetheir emoluments and offerings, and the more effectually to inspirethe rest of their species with veneration and a willing submission totheir authority. The oracle was delivered in a temple, or some sacredplace; and in this particular we plainly discover that mixture ofnature and art, of genuine enthusiasm and contriving craft, which isso frequently exemplified in the character of man. 

DELPHI. 

The oracle of Apollo at Delphi is the most remarkable; and respectingit we are furnished with the greatest body of particulars. Thelocality of this oracle is said to have been occasioned by thefollowing circumstance. A goat-herd fed his flocks on the acclivity ofmount Parnassus. As the animals wandered here and there in pursuit offood, they happened to approach a deep and long chasm which appearedin the rock. From this chasm a vapour issued; and the goats had nosooner inhaled a portion of the vapour, than they began to play andfrisk about with singular agility. The goat-herd, observing this, andcurious to discover the cause, held his head over the chasm; when, ina short time, the fumes having ascended to his brain, he threw himselfinto a variety of strange attitudes, and uttered words, which probablyhe did not understand himself, but which were supposed to convey aprophetic meaning. 

This phenomenon was taken advantage of, and a temple to Apollo waserected on the spot. The credulous many believed that here wasobviously a centre and focus of divine inspiration. On this mountainApollo was said to have slain the serpent Python. The apartment of theoracle was immediately over the chasm from which the vapour issued. Apriestess delivered the responses, who was called Pythia, probably incommemoration of the exploit which had been performed by Apollo. Shesat upon a tripod, or three-legged stool, perforated with holes, overthe seat of the vapours. After a time, her figure enlarged itself, herhair stood on end, her complexion and features became altered, herheart panted and her bosom swelled, and her voice grew more thanhuman. In this condition she uttered a number of wild and incoherentphrases, which were supposed to be dictated by the God. The questionswhich were offered by those who came to consult the oracle were thenproposed to her, and her answers taken down by the priest, whoseoffice was to arrange and methodize them, and put them into hexameterverse, after which they were delivered to the votaries. The priestesscould only be consulted on one day in every month. 

Great ingenuity and contrivance were no doubt required to uphold thecredit of the oracle; and no less boldness and self-collectedness onthe part of those by whom the machinery was conducted. Like theconjurors of modern times, they took care to be extensively informedas to all such matters respecting which the oracle was likely to beconsulted. They listened probably to the Pythia with a superstitiousreverence for the incoherent sentences she uttered. She, like them, spent her life in being trained for the office to which she wasdevoted. All that was rambling and inapplicable in her wilddeclamation they consigned to oblivion. Whatever seemed to bear on thequestion proposed they preserved. The persons by whom the responseswere digested into hexameter verse, had of course a commissionattended with great discretionary power. They, as Horace remarks onanother occasion, [2] divided what it was judicious to say, from whatit was prudent to omit, dwelt upon one thing, and slurred over andaccommodated another, just as would best suit the purpose they had inhand. Beside this, for the most part they clothed the apparent meaningof the oracle in obscurity, and often devised sentences of ambiguousinterpretation, that might suit with opposite issues, whichever mighthappen to fall out. This was perfectly consistent with a high degreeof enthusiasm on the part of the priest. However confident he might bein some things, he could not but of necessity feel that hisprognostics were surrounded with uncertainty. Whatever decisions ofthe oracle were frustrated by the event, and we know that there weremany of this sort, were speedily forgotten; while those whichsucceeded, were conveyed from shore to shore, and repeated by everyecho. Nor is it surprising that the transmitters of the sentences ofthe God should in time arrive at an extraordinary degree of sagacityand skill. The oracles accordingly reached to so high a degree ofreputation, that, as Cicero observes, no expedition for a long timewas undertaken, no colony sent out, and often no affair of anydistinguished family or individual entered on, without the previouslyobtaining their judgment and sanction. Their authority in a word wasso high, that the first fathers of the Christian church could nootherwise account for a reputation thus universally received, than bysupposing that the devils were permitted by God Almighty to inform theoracles with a more than human prescience, that all the world might beconcluded in idolatry and unbelief, [3] and the necessity of a Saviourbe made more apparent. The gullibility of man is one of the mostprominent features of our nature. Various periods and times, whenwhole nations have as it were with one consent run into the mostincredible and the grossest absurdities, perpetually offer themselvesin the page of history; and in the records of remote antiquity itplainly appears that such delusions continued through successivecenturies. 

THE DESIRE TO COMMAND AND CONTROL FUTURE EVENTS. 

Next to the consideration of those measures by which men have soughtto dive into the secrets of future time, the question presents itselfof those more daring undertakings, the object of which has been bysome supernatural power to control the future, and place it insubjection to the will of the unlicensed adventurer. Men have always, especially in ages of ignorance, and when they most felt theirindividual weakness, figured to themselves an invisible strengthgreater than their own; and, in proportion to their impatience, andthe fervour of their desires, have sought to enter into a league withthose beings whose mightier force might supply that in which theirweakness failed. 

COMMERCE WITH THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 

It is an essential feature of different ages and countries to varyexceedingly in the good or ill construction, the fame or dishonour, which shall attend upon the same conduct or mode of behaviour. InEgypt and throughout the East, especially in the early periods ofhistory, the supposed commerce with invisible powers was openlyprofessed, which, under other circumstances, and during the reign ofdifferent prejudices, was afterwards carefully concealed, andbarbarously hunted out of the pale of allowed and authorised practice. The Magi of old, who claimed a power of producing miraculousappearances, and boasted a familiar intercourse with the world ofspirits, were regarded by their countrymen with peculiar reverence, and considered as the first and chiefest men in the state. For thismitigated view of such dark and mysterious proceedings the ancientswere in a great degree indebted to their polytheism. The Romans arecomputed to have acknowledged thirty thousand divinities, to all ofwhom was rendered a legitimate homage; and other countries in asimilar proportion. 

SORCERY AND ENCHANTMENT. 

In Asia, however, the Gods were divided into two parties, underOromasdes, the principle of good, and Arimanius, the principle ofevil. 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 asentitled to the homage of mankind. Those who were actuated bybenevolence, and who desired to draw down blessings upon theirfellow-creatures, addressed themselves to the principle of good; whilesuch unhappy beings, with whom spite and ill-will had thepredominance, may be supposed often to have invoked in preference theprinciple of evil. Hence seems to have originated the idea of sorcery, or an appeal by incantations and wicked arts to the demons whodelighted in mischief. 

These beings rejoiced in the opportunity of inflicting calamity andmisery on mankind. But by what we read of them we might be induced tosuppose that they were in some way restrained from gratifying theirmalignant intentions, and waited in eager hope, till some mortalreprobate should call out their dormant activity, and demand theiraid. 

Various enchantments were therefore employed by those unhappy mortalswhose special desire was to bring down calamity and plagues upon theindividuals or tribes of men against whom their animosity wasdirected. Unlawful and detested words and mysteries were called intoaction to conjure up demons who should yield their powerful andtremendous assistance. Songs of a wild and maniacal character werechaunted. Noisome scents and the burning of all unhallowed and odiousthings were resorted to. In later times books and formulas of aterrific character were commonly employed, upon the reading or recitalof which the prodigies resorted to began to display themselves. Theheavens were darkened; the thunder rolled; and fierce and blindinglightnings flashed from one corner of the heavens to the other. Theearth quaked and rocked from side to side. All monstrous and deformedthings shewed themselves, "Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire, "enough to cause the stoutest heart to quail. Lastly, devils, whosename was legion, and to whose forms and distorted and menacingcountenances superstition had annexed the most frightful ideas, crowded in countless multitudes upon the spectator, whose breath wasflame, whose dances were full of terror, and whose strength infinitelyexceeded every thing human. Such were the appalling conceptions whichages of bigotry and ignorance annexed to the notion of sorcery, andwith these they scared the unhappy beings over whom this notion hadusurped an ascendancy into lunacy, and prepared them for theperpetrating 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 demonspossessed all the powers of the air, and produced tempests andshipwrecks at their pleasure. "Castles toppled on their warder'sheads, and palaces and pyramids sloped their summits to theirfoundations;" forests and mountains were torn from their roots, andcast into the sea. They inflamed the passions of men, and caused themto commit the most unheard-of excesses. They laid their ban on thosewho enjoyed the most prosperous health, condemned them to peak andpine, wasted them into a melancholy atrophy, and finally consignedthem to a premature grave. They breathed a new and unblest life intobeings in whom existence had long been extinct, and by their hatefuland resistless power caused the sepulchres to give up their dead. 

WITCHCRAFT. 

Next to sorcery we may recollect the case of witchcraft, which occursoftener, particularly in modern times, than any other alleged mode ofchanging by supernatural means the future course of events. Thesorcerer, as we shall see hereafter, was frequently a man of learningand intellectual abilities, sometimes of comparative opulence andrespectable situation in society. But the witch or wizard was almostuniformly old, decrepid, and nearly or altogether in a state ofpenury. The functions however of the witch and the sorcerer were in agreat degree the same. The earliest account of a witch, attended withany degree of detail, is that of the witch of Endor in the Bible, whoamong other things, professed the power of calling up the dead uponoccasion from the peace of the sepulchre. Witches also claimed thefaculty of raising storms, and in various ways disturbing the courseof nature. They appear in most cases to have been brought into actionby the impulse of private malice. They occasioned mortality of greateror less extent in man and beast. They blighted the opening prospect ofa plentiful harvest. They covered the heavens with clouds, and sentabroad withering and malignant blasts. They undermined the health ofthose who were so unfortunate as to incur their animosity, and causedthem to waste away gradually with incurable disease. They werenotorious two or three centuries ago for the power of the "evil eye. "The vulgar, both great and small, dreaded their displeasure, andsought, by small gifts, and fair speeches, but insincere, and theoffspring of terror only, to avert the pernicious consequences oftheir malice. They were famed for fabricating small images of wax, torepresent the object of their persecution; and, as these by gradualand often studiously protracted degrees wasted before the fire, so theunfortunate butts of their resentment perished with a lingering, butinevitable death. 

COMPACTS WITH THE DEVIL. 

The power of these witches, as we find in their earliest records, originated in their intercourse with "familiar spirits, " invisiblebeings who must be supposed to be enlisted in the armies of the princeof darkness. We do not read in these ancient memorials of any leagueof mutual benefit entered into between the merely human party, and hisor her supernatural assistant. But modern times have amply suppliedthis defect. The witch or sorcerer could not secure the assistance ofthe demon but by a sure and faithful compact, by which the human partyobtained the industrious and vigilant service of his familiar for acertain term of years, only on condition that, when the term wasexpired, the demon of undoubted right was to obtain possession of theindentured party, and to convey him irremissibly and for ever to theregions of the damned. The contract was drawn out in authentic form, signed by the sorcerer, and attested with his blood, and was thencarried away by the demon, to be produced again at the appointed time. 

IMPS. 

These familiar spirits often assumed the form of animals, and a blackdog or cat was considered as a figure in which the attendant devil wassecretly hidden. These subordinate devils were called Imps. Impure andcarnal ideas were mingled with these theories. The witches were saidto have preternatural teats from which their familiars sucked theirblood. The devil also engaged in sexual intercourse with the witch orwizard, being denominated _incubus_, if his favourite were awoman, and _succubus_, if a man. In short, every frightful andloathsome idea was carefully heaped up together, to render theunfortunate beings to whom the crime of witchcraft was imputed thehorror and execration of their species. 

TALISMANS AND AMULETS. 

As according to the doctrine of witchcraft, there were certaincompounds, and matters prepared by rules of art, that proved balefuland deadly to the persons against whom their activity was directed, sothere were also preservatives, talismans, amulets and charms, for themost [Errata: _read_ for the most part] to be worn about theperson, which rendered him superior to injury, not only from theoperations of witchcraft, but in some cases from the sword or anyother 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 withunblenched majesty, " uninjured and invulnerable. 

NECROMANCY. 

Last of all we may speak of necromancy, which has something in it thatso strongly takes hold of the imagination, that, though it is one onlyof the various modes which have been enumerated for the exorcise ofmagical power, we have selected it to give a title to the presentvolume. 

There is something sacred to common apprehension in the repose of thedead. 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 longcontinued to them. We shrink from their touch, and their sight. Toviolate the sepulchre therefore for the purpose of unholy spells andoperations, as we read of in the annals of witchcraft, cannot fail tobe exceedingly shocking. To call up the spirits of the departed, afterthey have fulfilled the task of life, and are consigned to their finalsleep, is sacrilegious. Well may they exclaim, like the ghost ofSamuel in the sacred story, "Why hast thou disquieted me?"

There is a further circumstance in the case, which causes usadditionally to revolt from the very idea of necromancy, strictly socalled. Man is a mortal, or an immortal being. His frame either wholly"returns to the earth as it was, or his spirit, " the thinkingprinciple within him, "to God who gave it. " The latter is theprevailing sentiment of mankind in modern times. Man is placed uponearth in a state of probation, to be dealt with hereafter according tothe deeds done in the flesh. "Some shall go away into everlastingpunishment; and others into life eternal. " In this case there issomething blasphemous in the idea of intermedding with the state ofthe dead. We must leave them in the hands of God. Even on the idea ofan interval, the "sleep of the soul" from death to the generalresurrection, which is the creed of no contemptible sect ofChristians, it is surely a terrific notion that we should disturb thepause, which upon that hypothesis, the laws of nature have assigned tothe departed soul, and come to awake, or to "torment him before thetime. "

ALCHEMY. 

To make our catalogue of supernatural doings, and the lawlessimaginations of man, the more complete, it may be further necessary torefer to the craft, so eagerly cultivated in successive ages of theworld of converting the inferior metals into gold, to which wasusually joined the _elixir vitae_, or universal medicine, havingthe quality of renewing the youth of man, and causing him to live forever. The first authentic record on this subject is an edict ofDioclesian about three hundred years after Christ, ordering a diligentsearch to be made in Egypt for all the ancient books which treated ofthe art of making gold and silver, that they might without distinctionbe consigned to the flames. This edict however necessarily presumes acertain antiquity to the pursuit; and fabulous history has recordedSolomon, Pythagoras and Hermes among its distinguished votaries. Fromthis period the study seems to have slept, till it was revived amongthe Arabians after a lapse of five or six hundred years. 

It is well known however how eagerly it was cultivated in variouscountries of the world for many centuries after it was divulged byGeber. Men of the most wonderful talents devoted their lives to theinvestigation; and in multiplied instances the discovery was said tohave been completed. Vast sums of money were consumed in the fruitlessendeavour; and in a later period it seems to have furnished anexcellent handle to vain and specious projectors, to extort money fromthose more amply provided with the goods of fortune than themselves. 

The art no doubt is in itself sufficiently mystical, having beenpursued by multitudes, who seemed to themselves ever on the eve ofconsummation, but as constantly baffled when to their own apprehensionmost on the verge of success. The discovery indeed appears upon theface of it to be of the most delicate nature, as the benefit mustwholly depend upon its being reserved to one or a very few, the objectbeing unbounded wealth, which is nothing unless confined. If the powerof creating gold is diffused, wealth by such diffusion becomespoverty, and every thing after a short time would but return to whatit had been. Add to which, that the nature of discovery has ordinarilybeen, that, when once the clue has been found, it reveals itself toseveral 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, andupon the addition of each ingredient being made exactly in thecritical moment, and in the precise degree of heat, indicated by thecolour of the vapour arising from the crucible or retort. This waswatched by the operator with inexhaustible patience; and it was oftenfound or supposed, that the minutest error in this respect caused themost promising appearances to fail of the expected success. Thiscircumstance no doubt occasionally gave an opportunity to an artfulimpostor to account for his miscarriage, and thus to prevail upon hiscredulous dupe to enable him to begin his tedious experiment again. 

But, beside this, it appears that those whose object was thetransmutation of metals, very frequently joined to this pursuit thestudy of astrology, and even the practice of sorcery. So much delicacyand nicety were supposed to be required in the process for thetransmutation of metals, that it could not hope to succeed but under afavourable conjunction of the planets; and the most flourishingpretenders to the art boasted that they had also a familiarintercourse with certain spirits of supernatural power, which assistedthem in their undertakings, and enabled them to penetrate into thingsundiscoverable to mere human sagacity, and to predict future events. 

FAIRIES. 

Another mode in which the wild and erratic imagination of ourancestors manifested itself, was in the creation of a world ofvisionary beings of a less terrific character, but which did not failto annoy their thoughts, and perplex their determinations, known bythe name of Fairies. 

There are few things more worthy of contemplation, and that at thesame time tend to place the dispositions of our ancestors in a moreamiable point of view, than the creation of this airy and fantasticrace. They were so diminutive as almost to elude the organs of humansight. They were at large, even though confined to the smallestdimensions. They "could be bounded in a nutshell, and count themselveskings 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 theirlittle feet, which, though narrow, were ample enough to afford everyaccommodation to their pastime. 

The fairy tribes appear to have been every where distinguished fortheir patronage of truth, simplicity and industry, and theirabhorrence of sensuality and prevarication. They left little rewardsin secret, as tokens of their approbation of the virtues they loved, and by their supernatural power afforded a supplement to pure andexcellent intentions, when the corporeal powers of the virtuous sankunder the pressure of human infirmity. Where they conceiveddispleasure, the punishments they inflicted were for the most partsuch 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 theobscurity of the night beguiled the weary traveller "through bog, through bush, through brake, through briar. " But their power of evilonly extended, or was only employed, to vex those who by a certainobliquity of conduct gave occasion for their reproofs. They besidespinched 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 byinvisible hands, they could not fail greatly to disturb and disorderthose who suffered from them. 

There is at first sight a great inconsistency in the representationsof these imaginary people. For the most part they are described to usas of a stature and appearance, almost too slight to be marked by ourgrosser human organs. At other times however, and especially in theextremely popular tales digested by M. Perrault, they shew themselvesin indiscriminate assemblies, brought together for some solemnfestivity or otherwise, and join the human frequenters of the scene, without occasioning enquiry or surprise. They are particularlyconcerned in the business of summarily and without appeal bestowingmiraculous gifts, sometimes as a mark of special friendship andfavour, and sometimes with a malicious and hostile intention. --But weare 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 speciallyapt to disappear in a moment, the most splendid palaces andmagnificent exhibitions vanishing away, and leaving their disconcerteddupe with his robes converted into the poorest rags, and, instead ofglittering 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, wasthe changing the beautiful child of some doating parents, for a babemarked with ugliness and deformity. But this idea seems fraught withinconsistency. The natural stature of the fairy is of the smallestdimensions; and, though they could occasionally dilate their figure soas to imitate humanity, yet it is to be presumed that this was onlyfor a special purpose, and, that purpose obtained, that they shrankagain habitually into their characteristic littleness. The changetherefore can only be supposed to have been of one human child foranother. 

ROSICRUCIANS. 

Nothing very distinct has been ascertained respecting a sect, callingitself Rosicrucians. It is said to have originated in the East fromone of the crusaders in the fourteenth century; but it attracted atleast 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 oftransmuting metals, and the _elixir vitae_. 

SYLPHS AND GNOMES, SALAMANDERS AND UNDINES. 

But that for which they principally excited public attention, wastheir creed respecting certain elementary beings, which to grossereyes are invisible, but were familiarly known to the initiated. To beadmitted to their acquaintance it was previously necessary that theorgans of human sight should be purged by the universal medicine, andthat certain glass globes should be chemically prepared with one orother of the four elements, and for one month exposed to the beams ofthe sun. These preliminary steps being taken, the initiatedimmediately had a sight of innumerable beings of a luminous substance, but of thin and evanescent structure, that people the elements on allsides of us. Those who inhabited the air were called Sylphs; and thosewho dwelt in the earth bore the name of Gnomes; such as peopled thefire were Salamanders; and those who made their home in the waterswere Undines. Each class appears to have had an extensive power in theelements to which they belonged. They could raise tempests in the air, and storms at sea, shake the earth, and alarm the inhabitants of theglobe with the sight of devouring flames. These appear however to havebeen more formidable in appearance than in reality. And the whole racewas subordinate to man, and particularly subject to the initiated. Thegnomes, inhabitants of the earth and the mines, liberally supplied tothe human beings with whom they conversed, the hidden treasures overwhich they presided. The four classes were some of them male, and somefemale; but the female sex seems to have preponderated in all. 

These elementary beings, we are told, were by their constitution morelong-lived than man, but with this essential disadvantage, that atdeath they wholly ceased to exist. In the mean time they were inspiredwith an earnest desire for immortality; and there was one way left forthem, by which this desire might be gratified. If they were so happyas to awaken in any of the initiated a passion the end of which wasmarriage, then the sylph who became the bride of a virtuous man, followed his nature, and became immortal; while on the other hand, ifshe united herself to an immoral being and a profligate, the husbandfollowed the law of the wife, and was rendered entirely mortal. Theinitiated however were required, as a condition to their beingadmitted into the secrets of the order, to engage themselves in a vowof perpetual chastity as to women. And they were abundantly rewardedby the probability of being united to a sylph, a gnome, a salamander, or an undine, any one of whom was inexpressibly more enchanting thanthe most beautiful woman, in addition to which her charms were in amanner perpetual, while a wife of our own nature is in a short timedestined to wrinkles, and all the other disadvantages of old age. Theinitiated of course enjoyed a beatitude infinitely greater than thatwhich falls to the lot of ordinary mortals, being conscious of aperpetual commerce with these wonderful beings from whose society thevulgar are debarred, and having such associates unintermittedlyanxious to perform their behests, and anticipate their desires. [4]

We should have taken but an imperfect survey of the lawlessextravagancies of human imagination, if we had not included a surveyof this sect. There is something particularly soothing to the fancy ofan erratic mind, in the conception of being conversant with a race ofbeings 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 theirtenets have had the good fortune to furnish Pope with the beautifulmachinery with which he has adorned the Rape of the Lock. There isalso, of much later date, a wild and poetical fiction for which we areindebted to the same source, called Undine, from the pen of LamotteFouquet. 

EXAMPLES OF NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT FROM THE BIBLE. 

The oldest and most authentic record from which we can derive ourideas on the subject of necromancy and witchcraft, unquestionably isthe Bible. The Egyptians and Chaldeans were early distinguished fortheir supposed proficiency in magic, in the production of supernaturalphenomena, and in penetrating into the secrets of future time. Thefirst appearance of men thus extraordinarily gifted, or advancingpretensions of this sort, recorded in Scripture, is on occasion ofPharoah's dream of the seven years of plenty, and seven years offamine. At that period the king "sent and called for all the magiciansof Egypt and all the wise men; but they could not interpret thedream, " [5] which Joseph afterwards expounded. 

Their second appearance was upon a most memorable occasion, when Mosesand Aaron, armed with miraculous powers, came to a subsequent king ofEgypt, to demand from him that their countrymen might be permitted todepart to another tract of the world. They produced a miracle as theevidence of their divine mission: and the king, who was also namedPharoah, "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 fairlyto confess to their master, "This is the finger of God!" [6]

The spirit of the Jewish history loudly affirms, that the Creator ofheaven and earth had adopted this nation for his chosen people, andtherefore demanded their exclusive homage, and that they shouldacknowledge no other God. It is on this principle that it is made oneof his early commands to them, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch tolive. " [7] And elsewhere the meaning of this prohibition is more fullyexplained: "There shall not be found among you any one that usethdivination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or acharmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or anecromancer: [8] these shall surely be put to death; they shall stonethem with stones. " [9]

The character of an enchanter is elsewhere more fully illustrated inthe case of Balaam, the soothsayer, who was sent for by Balak, theking of Moab, that he might "curse the people of Israel. Themessengers of the king came to Balaam with the rewards of divinationin their hand;" [10] but the soothsayer was restrained from hispurpose by the God of the Jews, and, where he came to curse, wascompelled to bless. He therefore "did not go, as at other times, toseek for enchantments, " [11] but took up his discourse, and began, saying, "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither isthere any divination against Israel!" [12]

Another example of necromantic power or pretension is to be found inthe story of Saul and the witch of Endor. Saul, the first king of theJews, being rejected by God, and obtaining "no answer to hisenquiries, 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. " Saulaccordingly had recourse to her. But, previously to this time, inconformity to the law of God, he "had cut off those that had familiarspirits, and the wizards out of the land;" and the woman therefore wasterrified at his present application. Saul re-assured her; and inconsequence 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 nottold, appeared, and prophesied to Saul, that he and his son shouldfall in battle on the succeeding day, [13] which accordingly came topass. 

Manasseh, a subsequent king in Jerusalem, "observed times, and usedenchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards, and soprovoked God to anger. " [14]

It appears plainly from the same authority, that there were goodspirits and evil spirits, "The Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up, and fall before Ramoth Gilead? And there came aspirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him: Iwill 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, andprovoked David to number the people; and God was displeased with thething, and smote Israel, so that there fell of the people seventythousand men. " [16]

Satan also, in the Book of Job, presented himself before the Lordamong the Sons of God, and asked and obtained leave to try thefaithfulness of Job by "putting forth his hand, " and despoiling thepatriarch of "all that he had. "

Taking these things into consideration, there can be no reasonabledoubt, though the devil and Satan are not mentioned in the story, thatthe serpent who in so crafty a way beguiled Eve, was in reality noother 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, theGod of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease. " At whichproceeding the God of the Jews was displeased, and sent Elijah to themessengers to say, "Is it because there is not a God in Israel, thatyou go to enquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron? Because the king hasdone this, he shall not recover; he shall surely die. " [17]

The appearance of the Wise Men of the East again occurs in considerabledetail in the Prophecy of Daniel, though they are only brought forwardthere, as discoverers of hidden things, and interpreters of dreams. Twice, on occasion of dreams that troubled him, Nebuchadnezzar, kingof Babylon, "commanded to be called to him the magicians, and theastrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans" of his kingdom, andeach time with similar success. They confessed their incapacity; andDaniel, the prophet of the Jews, expounded to the king that in whichthey had failed. Nebuchadnezzar in consequence promoted Daniel to bemaster of the magicians. A similar scene occurred in the court ofBelshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, in the case of the hand-writingon the wall. 

It is probable that the Jews considered the Gods of the nations aroundthem as so many of the fallen angels, or spirits of hell, since, amongother arguments, the coincidence of the name of Beelzebub, the princeof devils, [18] with Baalzebub, the God of Ekron, could scarcely havefallen out by chance. 

It seemed necessary to enter into these particulars, as they occur inthe oldest and most authentic records from which we can derive ourideas on the subject of necromancy, witchcraft, and the claims thatwere set up in ancient times to the exercise of magcial power. Amongthese examples there is only one, that of the contention forsuperiority between Moses and the Wise Men of Egypt in which we arepresented with their pretensions to a visible exhibition ofsupernatural effects. 

THE MAGI, OR WISE MEN OF THE EAST. 

The Magi, or Wise Men of the East, extended their ramifications overEgypt, Babylonia, Persia, India, and probably, though with a differentname, over China, and indeed the whole known world. Their professionwas of a mysterious nature. They laid claim to a familiar intercoursewith the Gods. They placed themselves as mediators between heaven andearth, assumed the prerogative of revealing the will of beings of anature superior to man, and pretended to show wonders and prodigiesthat surpassed any power which was merely human. 

To understand this, we must bear in mind the state of knowledge inancient times, where for the most part the cultivation of the mind, and an acquaintance with either science or art, were confined to avery small part of the population. In each of the nations we havementioned, there was a particular caste or tribe of men, who, by theprerogative of their birth, were entitled to the advantages of scienceand a superior education, while the rest of their countrymen weredestined to subsist by manual labour. This of necessity gave birth inthe privileged few to an overweening sense of their own importance. They scarcely regarded the rest of their countrymen as beings of thesame species with themselves; and, finding a strong line of distinctioncutting them off from the herd, they had recourse to every practicablemethod for making that distinction still stronger. Wonder is one ofthe most obvious means of generating deference; and, by keeping tothemselves the grounds and process of their skill, and presenting theresults only, they were sure to excite the admiration and reverence oftheir contemporaries. This mode of proceeding further produced are-action upon themselves. That which supplied and promised to supplyto them so large a harvest of honour and fame, unavoidably becameprecious in their eyes. They pursued their discoveries with avidity, because few had access to their opportunities in that respect, andbecause, the profounder were their researches, the more sure they wereof being looked up to by the public as having that in them which wassacred and inviolable. They spent their days and nights in theseinvestigations. They shrank from no privation and labour. At the sametime that in these labours they had at all times an eye to theirdarling object, an ascendancy over the minds of their countrymen atlarge, and the extorting from them a blind and implicit deference totheir oracular decrees. They however loved their pursuits for thepursuits themselves. They felt their abstraction and their unlimitednature, and on that account contemplated them with admiration. Theyvalued them (for such is the indestructible character of the humanmind) for the pains they had bestowed on them. The sweat of their browgrew 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, theycould not but regard as of inestimable worth. 

EGYPT. 

The Egyptians took the lead in early antiquity, with respect tocivilisation and the stupendous productions of human labour and art, of all other known nations of the world. The pyramids stand bythemselves as a monument of the industry of mankind. Thebes, with herhundred gates, at each of which we are told she could send out at oncetwo hundred chariots and ten thousand warriors completely accoutred, was one of the noblest cities on record. The whole country of LowerEgypt was intersected with canals giving a beneficent direction to theperiodical inundations of the Nile; and the artificial lake Moeris wasdug of a vast extent, that it might draw off the occasional excessesof the overflowings of the river. The Egyptians had an extraordinarycustom of preserving their dead, so that the country was peopledalmost as numerously with mummies prepared by extreme assiduity andskill, 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 thenknown. Geometry is said to have owed its existence to the necessityunder which they were placed of every man recognising his own propertyin land, as soon as the overflowings of the Nile had ceased. They werenot less assiduous in their application to astronomy. The hieroglyphicsof Egypt are of universal notoriety. Their mythology was of the mostcomplicated nature. Their Gods were infinitely varied in their kind;and the modes of their worship not less endlessly diversified. Allthese particulars still contributed to the abstraction of theirstudies, and the loftiness of their pretensions to knowledge. Theyperpetually conversed with the invisible world, and laid claim to thefaculty of revealing things hidden, of foretelling future events, anddisplaying wonders that exceeded human power to produce. 

A striking illustration of the state of Egypt in that respect in earlytimes, occurs incidentally in the history of Joseph in the Bible. Jacobhad twelve sons, among whom his partiality for Joseph was so notorious, that his brethren out of envy sold him as a slave to the wanderingMidianites. Thus it was his fortune to be placed in Egypt, where inthe process of events he became the second man in the country, andchief minister of the king. A severe famine having visited theseclimates, Jacob sent his sons into Egypt to buy corn, where only itwas to be found. As soon as Joseph saw them, he knew them, though theyknew not him in his exalted situation; and he set himself to deviseexpedients to settle them permanently in the country in which heruled. Among the rest he caused a precious cup from his stores to beprivily conveyed into the corn-sack of Benjamin, his only brother bythe same mother. The brothers were no sooner departed, than Josephsent in pursuit of them; and the messengers accosted them with thewords, "Is not this the cup in which my lord drinketh, and wherebyalso he divineth? Ye have done evil in taking it away. " [19] Theybrought the strangers again into the presence of Joseph, who addressedthem with severity, saying, "What is this deed that ye have done? Wotye not that such a man as I could certainly divine?" [20]

From this story it plainly appears, that the art of divination wasextensively exercised in Egypt, that the practice was held in honour, and that such was the state of the country, that it was to be presumedas a thing of course, that a man of the high rank and distinction ofJoseph should professedly be an adept in it. 

In the great contention for supernatural power between Moses and themagicians of Egypt, it is plain that they came forward with confidence, and did not shrink from the debate. Moses's rod was turned into aserpent; so were their rods: Moses changed the waters of Egypt intoblood; and the magicians did the like with their enchantments: Mosescaused frogs to come up, and cover the land of Egypt; and the magiciansalso brought frogs upon the country. Without its being in any waynecessary to enquire how they effected these wonders, it is evidentfrom the whole train of the narrative, that they must have been muchin the practice of astonishing their countrymen with their feats insuch a kind, and, whether it were delusion, or to whatever else we mayattribute their success, that they were universally looked up to forthe extraordinariness of their performances. 

While we are on this subject of illustrations from the Bible, it maybe worth while to revert more particularly to the story of Balaam. Balak the king of Moab, sent for Balaam that he might come and cursethe invaders of his country; and in the sequel we are told, when theprophet changed his curses into a blessing, that he did not "go forth, as at other times, to seek for enchantments. " It is plain thereforethat Balak did not rely singly upon the eloquence and fervour ofBalaam to pour out vituperations upon the people of Israel, but thatit was expected that the prophet should use incantations and certainmystical rites, upon which the efficacy of his foretelling disasterto the enemy principally depended. 

STATUE OF MEMNON. 

The Magi of Egypt looked round in every quarter for phenomena thatmight produce astonishment among their countrymen, and induce them tobelieve that they dwelt in a land which overflowed with the testimoniesand presence of a divine power. Among others the statue of Memnon, erected over his tomb near Thebes, is recorded by many authors. Memnonis 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 utteringa melodious sound every morning when touched by the first beams ofday, as if to salute his mother; and every night at sunset to haveimparted another sound, low and mournful, as lamenting the departureof the day. This prodigy is spoken of by Tacitus, Strabo, Juvenal andPhilostratus. 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 originallyendowed. Modern travellers, for the same phenomenon has still beenobserved, have asserted that it does not owe its existence to anyprodigy, but to a property of the granite, of which the statue or itspedestal is formed, which, being hollow, is found in various parts ofthe world to exhibit this quality. It has therefore been suggested, that the priests, having ascertained its peculiarity, expressly formedthe statue of that material, for the purpose of impressing on it asupernatural character, and thus being enabled to extend theirinfluence with a credulous people. [21]

TEMPLE OF JUPITER AMMON: ITS ORACLES. 

Another of what may be considered as the wonders of Egypt, is thetemple of Jupiter Ammon in the midst of the Great Desert. This templewas situated at a distance of no less than twelve days' journey fromMemphis, the capital of the Lower Egypt. The principal part of thisspace consisted of one immense tract of moving sand, so hot as to beintolerable to the sole of the foot, while the air was pregnant withfire, so that it was almost impossible to breathe in it. Not a drop ofwater, not a tree, not a blade of grass, was to be found through thisvast surface. It was here that Cambyses, engaged in an impiousexpedition to demolish the temple, is said to have lost an army offifty thousand men, buried in the sands. When you arrived however, you were presented with a wood of great circumference, the foliage ofwhich was so thick that the beams of the sun could not pierce it. Theatmosphere of the place was of a delicious temperature; the scene wasevery where interspersed with fountains; and all the fruits of theearth were found in the highest perfection. In the midst was thetemple and oracle of the God, who was worshipped in the likeness of aram. The Egyptian priests chose this site as furnishing a test of thezeal of their votaries; the journey being like the pilgrimage toJerusalem or Mecca, if not from so great a distance, yet attended inmany respects with perils more formidable. It was not safe to attemptthe passage but with moderate numbers, and those expressly equippedfor expedition. 

Bacchus is said to have visited this spot in his great expedition tothe East, when Jupiter appeared to him in the form of a ram, havingstruck his foot upon the soil, and for the first time occasioned thatsupply of water, with which the place was ever after plentifullysupplied. Alexander the Great in a subsequent age undertook the samejourney with his army, that he might cause himself to be acknowledgedfor the son of the God, under which character he was in all due formrecognised. The priests no doubt had heard of the successful battlesof the Granicus and of Issus, of the capture of Tyre after a sevenmonths' siege, and of the march of the great conqueror in Egypt, wherehe carried every thing before him. 

Here we are presented with a striking specimen of the mode and spiritin which the oracles of old were accustomed to be conducted. It may besaid that the priests were corrupted by the rich presents whichAlexander bestowed on them with a liberal hand. But this was not theprime impulse in the business. They were astonished at the daring withwhich Alexander with a comparative handful of men set out from Greece, having meditated the overthrow of the great Persian empire. They wereastonished with his perpetual success, and his victorious progressfrom the Hellespont to mount Taurus, from mount Taurus to Pelusium, and from Pelusium quite across the ancient kingdom of Egypt to thePalus Mareotis. Accustomed to the practice of adulation, and to thebelief that mortal power and true intellectual greatness were thesame, they with a genuine enthusiastic fervour regarded Alexander asthe son of their God, and acknowledged him as such. --Nothing can bemore memorable than the way in which belief and unbelief hold adivided empire over the human mind, our passions hurrying us intobelief, at the same time that our intervals of sobriety suggest tous that it is all pure imposition. 

CHALDEA AND BABYLON. 

The history of the Babylonish monarchy not having been handed down tous, except incidentally as it is touched upon by the historians ofother countries, we know little of those anecdotes respecting it whichare best calculated to illustrate the habits and manners of a people. We know that they in probability preceded all other nations in theaccuracy of their observations on the phenomena of the heavenlybodies. We know that the Magi were highly respected among them as anorder in the state; and that, when questions occurred exciting greatalarm in the rulers, "the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, " were called together, to see whether by their artsthey could throw light upon questions so mysterious and perplexing, and we find sufficient reason, both from analogy, and from the verycircumstance that sorcerers are specifically named among the classesof which their Wise Men consisted, to believe that the Babylonian Magiadvanced no dubious pretensions to the exercise of magical power. 

ZOROASTER. 

Among the Chaldeans the most famous name is that of Zoroaster, who isheld to have been the author of their religion, their civil policy, their sciences, and their magic. He taught the doctrine of two greatprinciples, the one the author of good, the other of evil. Heprohibited the use of images in the ceremonies of religion, andpronounced that nothing deserved homage but fire, and the sun, thecentre and the source of fire, and these perhaps to be venerated notfor themselves, but as emblematical of the principle of all goodthings. He taught astronomy and astrology. We may with sufficientprobability infer his doctrines from those of the Magi, who were hisfollowers. He practised enchantments, by means of which he would senda panic among the forces that were brought to make war against him, rendering the conflict by force of arms unnecessary. He prescribed theuse of certain herbs as all-powerful for the production of supernaturaleffects. He pretended to the faculty of working miracles, and ofsuperseding and altering the ordinary course of nature. --There was, beside the Chaldean Zoroaster, a Persian known by the same name, whois said to have been a contemporary of Darius Hystaspes. 

GREECE. 

Thus obscure and general is our information respecting theBabylonians. But it was far otherwise with the Greeks. Long beforethe period, when, by their successful resistance to the Persianinvasion, they had rendered themselves of paramount importance in thehistory of the civilised world, they had their poets and annalists, who preserved to future time the memory of their tastes, their mannersand superstitions, their strength, and their weakness. Homer inparticular had already composed his two great poems, rendering thepeculiarities of his countrymen familiar to the latest posterity. Theconsequence of this is, that the wonderful things of early Greece areeven more frequent than the record of its sober facts. As men advancein observation and experience, they are compelled more and more toperceive that all the phenomena of nature are one vast chain ofuninterrupted causes and consequences: but to the eye of uninstructedignorance every thing is astonishing, every thing is unexpected. Theremote generations of mankind are in all cases full of prodigies: butit is the fortune of Greece to have preserved its early adventures, soas to render the beginning pages of its history one mass of impossiblefalsehoods. 

DEITIES OF GREECE. 

The Gods of the Greeks appear all of them once to have been men. Theirreal or supposed adventures therefore make a part of what is recordedrespecting them. Jupiter was born in Crete, and being secreted by hismother 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 twoothers brethren, grew nine inches every month, and, when nine yearsold, were fully qualified to engage in all exploits of corporealstrength. The war was finished, by the giants being overwhelmed withthe thunderbolts of heaven, and buried under mountains. 

Minerva was born from the head of her father, without a mother; andBacchus, coming into the world after the death of his female parent, was inclosed in the thigh of Jupiter, and was thus produced at theproper time in full vigour and strength. Minerva had a shield, inwhich was preserved the real head of Medusa, that had the property ofturning 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 intovines, which climbed the masts, and spread their clusters over thesails; and tigers, lynxes and panthers, appeared to swim round theship, so terrifying the crew that they leaped overboard, and werechanged into dolphins. Bacchus, in his maturity, is described ashaving been the conqueror of India. He did not set out on thisexpedition like other conquerors, at the head of an army. He rode inan open chariot, which was drawn by tame lions. His attendants weremen and women in great multitudes, eminently accomplished in the artsof rural industry. Wherever he came, he taught men the science ofhusbandry, and the cultivation of the vine. Wherever he came, he wasreceived, not with hostility, but with festivity and welcome. On hisreturn however, Lycurgus, king of Thrace, and Pentheus, king ofThebes, set themselves in opposition to the improvements which theEast had received with the most lively gratitude; and Bacchus, topunish them, caused Lycurgus to be torn to pieces by wild horses, andspread a delusion among the family of Pentheus, so that they mistookhim for a wild boar which had broken into their vineyards, and ofconsequence fell upon him, and he expired amidst a thousand wounds. 

Apollo was the author of plagues and contagious diseases; at the sametime 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 futureevents. Hecate, which was one of the names of Diana, was distinguishedas the Goddess of magic and enchantments. Venus was the Goddess oflove, the most irresistible and omnipotent impulse of which the heartof man is susceptible. The wand of Mercury was endowed with suchvirtues, that whoever it touched, if asleep, would start up into lifeand alacrity, and, if awake, would immediately fall into a profoundsleep. When it touched the dying, their souls gently parted from theirmortal frame; and, when it was applied to the dead, the dead returnedto life. Neptune had the attribute of raising and appeasing tempests:and Vulcan, the artificer of heaven and earth, not only produced themost exquisite specimens of skill, but also constructed furniture thatwas endowed with a self-moving principle, and would present itself foruse or recede at the will of its proprietor. Pluto, in perpetratingthe rape of Proserpine, started up in his chariot through a cleft ofthe 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. Shebecame desirous of remunerating his liberality by some special favour. She saw his only child laid in a cradle, and labouring under a fataldistemper. She took him under her protection. She fed him with milkfrom her own breast, and at night covered him with coals of fire. Under this treatment he not only recovered his strength, but shot upmiraculously into manhood, so that what in other men is the effect ofyears, was accomplished in Triptolemus in as many hours. She gave himfor a gift the art of agriculture, so that he is said to have been thefirst to teach mankind to sow and to reap corn, and to make bread ofthe produce. 

Prometheus, one of the race of the giants, was peculiarly distinguishedfor his proficiency in the arts. Among other extraordinary productionshe formed a man of clay, of such exquisite workmanship, as to havewanted nothing but a living soul to cause him to be acknowledged asthe paragon of the world. Minerva beheld the performance of Prometheuswith approbation, and offered him her assistance. She conducted him toheaven, where he watched his opportunity to carry off on the tip ofhis wand a portion of celestial fire from the chariot of the sun. Withthis he animated his image; and the man of Prometheus moved, andthought, and spoke, and became every thing that the fondest wishes ofhis creator could ask. Jupiter ordered Vulcan to make a woman, thatshould surpass this man. All the Gods gave her each one a severalgift: Venus gave her the power to charm; the Graces bestowed on hersymmetry of limb, and elegance of motion; Apollo the accomplishmentsof vocal and instrumental music; Mercury the art of persuasive speech;Juno a multitude of rich and gorgeous ornaments; and Minerva themanagement of the loom and the needle. Last of all, Jupiter presentedher with a sealed box, of which the lid was no sooner unclosed, than amultitude 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. Theymarried. In their time a flood occurred, which as they imagineddestroyed the whole human race; they were the only survivors. By thedirection of an oracle they cast stones over their shoulders; when, bythe divine interposition, the stones cast by Deucalion became men, andthose cast by Pyrrha women. Thus the earth was re-peopled. 

I have put down a few of these particulars, as containing in severalinstances the qualities of what is called magic, and thus furnishingexamples of some of the earliest occasions upon which supernaturalpowers have been alleged to mix with human affairs. 

DEMIGODS. 

The early history of mortals in Greece is scarcely separated from thatof 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, thefounder of the metropolis and kingdom of Mycenae. By way of renderinghis birth illustrious, he is said to have been the son of Jupiter, byDanae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. The king, beingforewarned by an oracle that his daughter should bear a son, by whosehand her father should be deprived of life, thought proper to shut herup in a tower of brass. Jupiter, having metamorphosed himself into ashower of gold, found his way into her place of confinement, andbecame the father of Perseus. On the discovery of this circumstance, Acrisius caused both mother and child to be inclosed in a chest, andcommitted to the waves. The chest however drifted upon the lands of aperson of royal descent in the island of Seriphos, who extended hiscare and hospitality to both. When Perseus grew to man's estate, hewas commissioned by the king of Seriphos to bring him the head ofMedusa, one of the Gorgons. Medusa had the wonderful faculty, thatwhoever 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 howeverfavoured by the Gods; Mercury gave him wings to fly, Pluto an invisiblehelmet, and Minerva a mirror-shield, by looking in which he coulddiscover how his enemy was disposed, without the danger of meeting hereyes. Thus equipped, he accomplished his undertaking, cut off the headof the Gorgon, and pursed it in a bag. From this exploit he proceededto visit Atlas, king of Mauritania, who refused him hospitality, andin revenge Perseus turned him into stone. He next rescued Andromeda, daughter of the king of Ethiopia, from a monster sent by Neptune todevour her. And, lastly, returning to his mother, and finding the kingof Seriphos still incredulous and obstinate, he turned him likewiseinto a stone. 

The labours of Hercules, the most celebrated of the Greeks of theheroic age, appear to have had little of magic in them, but to havebeen indebted for their success to a corporal strength, superior tothat 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 inwhich he lived: he strangled serpents, and killed the Erymanthianboar, the Nemaean lion, and the Hydra. 

DAEDALUS. 

Nearly contemporary with the labours of Hercules is the history ofPasiphae and the Minotaur; and this brings us again within the sphereof magic. Pasiphae was the wife of Minos, king of Crete, who conceivedan unnatural passion for a beautiful white bull, which Neptune hadpresented to the king. Having found the means of gratifying herpassion, she became the mother of a monster, half-man and half-bull, called the Minotaur. Minos was desirous of hiding this monster fromthe observation of mankind, and for this purpose applied to Daedalus, an Athenian, the most skilful artist of his time, who is said to haveinvented the axe, the wedge, and the plummet, and to have found outthe use of glue. He first contrived masts and sails for ships, andcarved statues so admirably, that they not only looked as if they werealive, but had actually the power of self-motion, and would haveescaped from the custody of their possessor, if they had not beenchained to the wall. 

Daedalus contrived for Minos a labyrinth, a wonderful structure, thatcovered many acres of ground. The passages in this edifice met andcrossed each other with such intricacy, that a stranger who had onceentered the building, would have been starved to death before he couldfind his way out. In this labyrinth Minos shut up the Minotaur. Havingconceived a deep resentment against the people of Athens, where hisonly son had been killed in a riot, he imposed upon them an annualtribute of seven noble youths, and as many virgins to be devoured bythe Minotaur. Theseus, son of the king of Athens, put an end to thisdisgrace. He was taught by Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, how todestroy the monster, and furnished with a clue by which afterwards tofind his way out of the labyrinth. 

Daedalus for some reason having incurred the displeasure of Minos, wasmade a prisoner by him in his own labyrinth. But the artist beingnever at an end of his inventions, contrived with feathers and wax tomake a pair of wings for himself, and escaped. Icarus, his son, whowas prisoner along with him, was provided by his father with a similarequipment. But the son, who was inexperienced and heedless, approachedtoo near to the sun in his flight; and, the wax of his wings beingmelted with the heat, he fell into the sea and was drowned. 

THE ARGONAUTS. 

Contemporary with the reign of Minos occurred the expedition of theArgonauts. Jason, the son of the king of Iolchos in Thessaly, was atthe head of this expedition. Its object was to fetch the goldenfleece, which was hung up in a grove sacred to Mars, in the kingdomof Colchis, at the eastern extremity of the Euxine sea. He enlisted inthis enterprise all the most gallant spirits existing in the country, and among the rest Hercules, Theseus, Orpheus and Amphion. After havingpassed through a multitude of perils, one of which was occasioned bythe Cyanean rocks at the entrance of the Euxine, that had the qualityof closing upon every vessel which attempted to make its way betweenthem and crushing it to pieces, a danger that could only be avoided bysending a dove before as their harbinger, they at length arrived. 

MEDEA. 

The golden fleece was defended by bulls, whose hoofs were brass, andwhose breath was fire, and by a never-sleeping dragon that planteditself at the foot of the tree upon which the fleece was suspended. Jason was prepared for his undertaking by Medea, the daughter of theking of the country, herself an accomplished magician, and furnishedwith philtres, drugs and enchantments. Thus equipped, he tamed thebulls, put a yoke on their necks, and caused them to plough two acresof the stiffest land. He killed the dragon, and, to complete theadventure, drew the monster's teeth, sowed them in the ground, and sawan army of soldiers spring from the seed. The army hastened forward toattack 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 hisreturn to Thessaly. On their arrival, they found Aeson, the father ofJason, and Pelias, his uncle, who had usurped the throne, both old anddecrepid. Jason applied to Medea, and asked her whether among hercharms she had none to make an old man young again. She replied shehad: she drew the impoverished and watery blood from the body of Aeson;she infused the juice of certain potent herbs into his veins; and herose from the operation as fresh and vigorous a man as his son. 

The daughters of Pelias professed a perfect willingness to abdicatethe throne of Iolchos; but, before they retired, they requested Medeato do the same kindness for their father which she had already donefor Aeson. She said she would. She told them the method was to cut theold man in pieces, and boil him in a kettle with an infusion ofcertain herbs, and he would come out as smooth and active as a child. 

The daughters of Pelias a little scrupled the operation. Medea, seeingthis, begged they would not think she was deceiving them. If howeverthey doubted, she desired they would bring her the oldest ram fromtheir flocks, and they should see the experiment. Medea cut up theram, cast in certain herbs, and the old bell-wether came out asbeautiful and innocent a he-lamb as was ever beheld. The daughters ofPelias were satisfied. They divided their father in pieces; but he wasnever restored either to health or life. 

From Iolchos, upon some insurrection of the people, Medea and Jasonfled to Corinth. Here they lived ten years in much harmony. At the endof that time Jason grew tired of his wife, and fell in love withGlauce, daughter of the king of Corinth. Medea was greatly exasperatedwith his infidelity, and, among other enormities, slew with her ownhand the two children she had borne him before his face, Jasonhastened to punish her barbarity; but Medea mounted a chariot drawn byfiery dragons, fled through the air to Athens, and escaped. 

At Athens she married Aegeus, king of that city. Aegeus by a former wifehad a son, named Theseus, who for some reason had been brought upobscure, unknown and in exile. At a suitable time he returned home tohis father with the intention to avow his parentage. But Medea wasbeforehand with him. She put a poisoned goblet into the hands of Aegeusat an entertainment he gave to Theseus, with the intent that he shoulddeliver it to his son. At the critical moment Aegeus cast his eyes onthe sword of Theseus, which he recognised as that which he haddelivered with his son, when a child, and had directed that it shouldbe 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'sarms; and Medea fled from Athens in her chariot drawn by dragonsthrough the air, as she had years before fled from Corinth. 

CIRCE. 

Circe was the sister of Aeetes and Pasiphae, and was, like Medea, herniece, skilful in sorcery. She had besides the gift of immortality. She was exquisitely beautiful; but she employed the charms of herperson, and the seducing grace of her manners to a bad purpose. Shepresented to every stranger who landed in her territory an enchantedcup, of which she intreated him to drink. He no sooner tasted it, thanhe was turned into a hog, and was driven by the magician to her sty. The unfortunate stranger retained under this loathsome appearance theconsciousness of what he had been, and mourned for ever the criminalcompliance by which he was brought to so melancholy a pass. 

ORPHEUS. 

Cicero [22] quotes Aristotle as affirming that there was no such manas Orpheus. But Aristotle is at least single in that opinion. Andthere are too many circumstances known respecting Orpheus, and whichhave obtained the consenting voice of all antiquity, to allow us tocall in question his existence. He was a native of Thrace, and fromthat country migrated into Greece. He travelled into Egypt for thepurpose of collecting there the information necessary to theaccomplishment of his ends. He died a violent death; and, as is almostuniversally affirmed, fell a sacrifice to the resentment and fury ofthe women of his native soil. [23]

Orpheus was doubtless a poet; though it is not probable that any ofhis genuine productions have been handed down to us. He was, as allthe poets of so remote a period were, extremely accomplished in allthe arts of vocal and instrumental music. He civilised the rudeinhabitants of Greece, and subjected them to order and law. He formedthem into communities. He is said by Aristophanes [24] and Horace [25]to have reclaimed the savage man, from slaughter, and an indulgence infood that was loathsome and foul. And this has with sufficientprobability been interpreted to mean, that he found the race of menamong whom he lived cannibals, and that, to cure them the morecompletely of this horrible practice, he taught them to be contentedto subsist upon the fruits of the earth. [26] Music and poetry areunderstood to have been made specially instrumental by him to theeffecting this purpose. He is said to have made the hungry lion andthe famished tiger obedient to his bidding, and to put off their wildand furious natures. 

This is interpreted by Horace [27] and other recent expositors to meanno more than that he reduced the race of savages as he found them, toorder and civilisation. But it was at first perhaps understood moreliterally. We shall not do justice to the traditions of these remotetimes, if we do not in imagination transport ourselves among them, andteach ourselves to feel their feelings, and conceive their conceptions. Orpheus lived in a time when all was enchantment and prodigy. Giftedand extraordinary persons in those ages believed that they were endowedwith marvellous prerogatives, and acted upon that belief. We mayoccasionally 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 afull and entire confidence in that ascendancy. The eye and the gestureof man cannot fail to produce effects, incredible till they are seen. Magic was the order of the day; and the enthusiasm of its heroes wasraised 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 astrong vein of cunning and craft. Man in every age is full ofincongruous and incompatible principles; and, when we shall cease tobe inconsistent, we shall cease to be men. 

It is difficult fully to explain what is meant by the story of Orpheusand Eurydice; but in its circumstances it bears a striking resemblanceto what has been a thousand times recorded respecting the calling upof the ghosts of the dead by means of sorcery. The disconsolatehusband has in the first place recourse to the resistless aid ofmusic. [28] After many preparatives he appears to have effected hispurpose, and prevailed upon the powers of darkness to allow him thepresence of his beloved. She appears in the sequel however to havebeen a thin and a fleeting shadow. He is forbidden to cast his eyes onher; and, if he had obeyed this injunction, it is uncertain how theexperiment would have ended. He proceeds however, as he is commanded, towards the light of day. He is led to believe that his consort isfollowing his steps. He is beset with a multitude of unearthlyphenomena. He advances for some time with confidence. At length he isassailed with doubts. He has recourse to the auricular sense, to knowif she is following him. He can hear nothing. Finally he can endurethis uncertainty no longer; and, in defiance of the prohibition he hasreceived, cannot refrain from turning his head to ascertain whether heis baffled, and has spent all his labour in vain. He sees her; but nosooner 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 moreimperceptible; and in the conclusion he is left with the scene aroundhim 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 aneminently great and virtuous man, but was the victim of singularcalamity. 

We have not yet done with the history of Orpheus. As has been said, hefell a sacrifice to the resentment and fury of the women of his nativesoil. They are affirmed to have torn him limb from limb. His head, divided from his body, floated down the waters of the Hebrus, andmiraculously, as it passed along to the sea, it was still heard toexclaim in mournful accents, Eurydice, Eurydice! [29] At length it wascarried ashore on the island of Lesbos. [30] Here, by someextraordinary concurrence of circumstances, it found a resting-placein 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 utteredoracles. Not only the people of Lesbos resorted to it for guidance indifficult questions, but also the Asiatic Greeks from Ionia and Aetolia;and its fame and character for predicting future events even extendedto Babylon. [31]

AMPHION. 

The story of Amphion is more perplexing than that of the livingOrpheus. Both of them turn in a great degree upon the miraculouseffects of music. Amphion was of the royal family of Thebes, andultimately became ruler of the territory. He is said, by the potencyof his lyre, or his skill in the magic art, to have caused the stonesto follow him, to arrange themselves in the way he proposed, andwithout the intervention of a human hand to have raised a wall abouthis metropolis. [32] It is certainly less difficult to conceive thesavage man to be rendered placable, and to conform to the dictates ofcivilisation, or even wild beasts to be made tame, than to imaginestones to obey the voice and the will of a human being. The examplehowever is not singular; and hereafter we shall find related thatMerlin, the British enchanter, by the power of magic caused the rocksof Stonehenge, though of such vast dimensions, to be carried throughthe air from Ireland to the place where we at present find them. --Homermentions that Amphion, and his brother Zethus built the walls ofThebes, but does not describe it as having been done by miracle. [33]

TIRESIAS. 

Tiresias was one of the most celebrated soothsayers of the early agesof Greece. He lived in the times of Oedipus, and the war of the sevenchiefs against Thebes. He was afflicted by the Gods with blindness, inconsequence of some displeasure they conceived against him; but incompensation they endowed him beyond all other mortals with the giftof prophecy. He is said to have understood the language of birds. Hepossessed the art of divining future events from the variousindications that manifest themselves in fire, in smoke, and in otherways, [34] but to have set the highest value upon the communicationsof the dead, whom by spells and incantations he constrained to appearand answer his enquiries; [35] and he is represented as pouring outtremendous menaces against them, when they shewed themselves tardy toattend upon his commands. [36]

ABARIS. 

Abaris, the Scythian, known to us for his visit to Greece, was by allaccounts a great magician. Herodotus says [37] that he is reported tohave travelled over the world with an arrow, eating nothing during hisjourney. Other authors relate that this arrow was given to him byApollo, and that he rode upon it through the air, over lands, andseas, and all inaccessible places. [38] The time in which he flourishedis very uncertain, some having represented him as having constructedthe Palladium, which, as long as it was preserved, kept Troy frombeing taken by an enemy, [39] and others affirming that he wasfamiliar with Pythagoras, who lived six hundred years later, and thathe was admitted into his special confidence. [40] He is said to havepossessed the faculty of foretelling earthquakes, allaying storms, anddriving away pestilence; he gave out predictions wherever he went; andis described as an enchanter, professing to cure diseases by virtue ofcertain words which he pronounced over those who were afflicted withthem. [41]

PYTHAGORAS. 

The name of Pythagoras is one of the most memorable in the records ofthe human species; and his character is well worthy of the minutestinvestigation. By this name we are brought at once within the limitsof history properly so called. He lived in the time of Cyrus andDarius Hystaspes, of Croesus, of Pisistratus, of Polycrates, tyrant ofSamos, and Amasis, king of Egypt. Many hypotheses have been laid downrespecting the precise period of his birth and death; but, as it isnot to our purpose to enter into any lengthened discussions of thatsort, we will adopt at once the statement that appears to be the mostprobable, which is that of Lloyd, [42] who fixes his birth about theyear before Christ 586, and his death about the year 506. 

Pythagoras was a man of the most various accomplishments, and appearsto have penetrated in different directions into the depths of humanknowledge. He sought wisdom in its retreats of fairest promise, inEgypt and other distant countries. [43] In this investigation heemployed the earlier period of his life, probably till he was forty, and devoted the remainder to such modes of proceeding, as appeared tohim the most likely to secure the advantage of what he had acquired toa late posterity. [44]

He founded a school, and delivered his acquisitions by oralcommunication to a numerous body of followers. He divided his pupilsinto two classes, the one neophytes, to whom was explained only themost obvious and general truths, the other who were admitted into theentire confidence of the master. These last he caused to throw theirproperty into a common stock, and to live together in the same placeof resort. [45] He appears to have spent the latter half of his lifein that part of Italy, called Magna Graecia, so denominated in somedegree from the numerous colonies of Grecians by whom it was planted, and partly perhaps from the memory of the illustrious things whichPythagoras achieved there. [46] He is said to have spread the seeds ofpolitical liberty in Crotona, Sybaris, Metapontum, and Rhegium, andfrom thence in Sicily to Tauromenium, Catana, Agrigentum and Himera. [47] Charondas and Zaleucus, themselves famous legislators, derivedthe rudiments of their political wisdom from the instructions ofPythagoras. [48]

But this marvellous man in some way, whether from the knowlege hereceived, or from his own proper discoveries, has secured to hisspecies benefits of a more permanent nature, and which shall outlivethe revolutions of ages, and the instability of political institutions. He was a profound geometrician. The two theorems, that the internalangles of every right-line triangle are equal to two right angles, [49]and that the square of the hypothenuse of every right angled triangleis equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, [50] areascribed to him. In memory of the latter of these discoveries he issaid to have offered a public sacrifice to the Gods; and the theoremis still known by the name of the Pythagorean theorem. He ascertainedfrom the length of the Olympic course, which was understood to havemeasured six hundred of Hercules's feet, the precise stature of thathero. [51] Lastly, Pythagoras is the first person, who is known tohave taught the spherical figure of the earth, and that we haveantipodes; [52] and he propagated the doctrine that the earth is aplanet, and that the sun is the centre round which the earth and theother planets move, now known by the name of the Copernicansystem. [53]

To inculcate a pure and a simple mode of subsistence was also anexpress object of pursuit to Pythagoras. He taught a total abstinencefrom every thing having had the property of animal life. It has beenaffirmed, as we have seen, [54] that Orpheus before him taught thesame thing. But the claim of Orpheus to this distinction is ambiguous;while the theories and dogmas of the Samian sage, as he has frequentlybeen styled, were more methodically digested, and produced morelasting and unequivocal effects. He taught temperance in all itsbranches, and a resolute subjection of the appetites of the body tocontemplation and the exercises of the mind; and, by the unremitteddiscipline and authority he exerted over his followers, he caused hislessons to be constantly observed. There was therefore an edifying andan exemplary simplicity that prevailed as far as the influence ofPythagoras extended, that won golden opinions to his adherents at alltimes that they appeared, and in all places. [55]

One revolution that Pythagoras worked, was that, whereas, immediatelybefore, those who were most conspicuous among the Greeks as instructorsof mankind in understanding and virtue, styled themselves sophists, professors of wisdom, this illustrious man desired to be known only bythe appellation of a philosopher, a lover of wisdom. [56] The sophistshad previously brought their denomination into discredit and reproach, by the arrogance of their pretensions, and the imperious way in whichthey attempted to lay down the law to the world. 

The modesty of this appellation however did not altogether suit withthe deep designs of Pythagoras, the ascendancy he resolved to acquire, and the oracular subjection in which he deemed it necessary to holdthose who placed themselves under his instruction. This wonderful manset out with making himself a model of the passive and unscrupulousdocility which he afterwards required from others. He did not begin toteach till he was forty years of age, and from eighteen to that periodhe studied in foreign countries, with the resolution to submit to allhis teachers enjoined, and to make himself master of their leastcommunicated and most secret wisdom. In Egypt in particular, we aretold that, though he brought a letter of recommendation fromPolycrates, his native sovereign, to Amasis, king of that country, whofully concurred with the views of the writer, the priests, jealous ofadmitting a foreigner into their secrets, baffled him as long as theycould, referring him from one college to another, and prescribing tohim the most rigorous preparatives, not excluding the rite ofcircumcision. [57] But Pythagoras endured and underwent every thing, till at length their unwillingness was conquered, and his perseverancereceived its suitable reward. 

When in the end Pythagoras thought himself fully qualified for thetask he had all along had in view, he was no less strict in prescribingample preliminaries to his own scholars. At the time that a pupil wasproposed to him, the master, we are told, examined him with multipliedquestions as to his principles, his habits and intentions, observedminutely his voice and manner of speaking, his walk and his gestures, the lines of his countenance, and the expression and management of hiseye, and, when he was satisfied with these, then and not till thenadmitted him as a probationer. [58] It is to be supposed that all thismust have been personal. As soon however as this was over, the masterwas withdrawn from the sight of the pupil; and a noviciate of threeand five, in all eight years, [59] was prescribed to the scholar, during which time he was only to hear his instructor from behind acurtain, and the strictest silence was enjoined him through the wholeperiod. As the instructions Pythagoras received in Egypt and the Eastadmitted of no dispute, so in his turn he required an unreservedsubmission from those who heard him: autos iphae "the master has saidit, " was deemed a sufficient solution to all doubt and uncertainty. [60]

To give the greater authority and effect to his communicationsPythagoras hid himself during the day at least from the great body ofhis pupils, and was only seen by them at night. Indeed there is noreason to suppose that any one was admitted into his entirefamiliarity. When he came forth, he appeared in a long garment of thepurest white, with a flowing beard, and a garland upon his head. He issaid to have been of the finest symmetrical form, with a majesticcarriage, and a grave and awful countenance. [61] He suffered hisfollowers to believe that he was one of the Gods, the HyperboreanApollo, [62] and is said to have told Abaris that he assumed the humanform, that he might the better invite men to an easiness of approachand to confidence in him. [63] What however seems to be agreed in byall his biographers, is that he professed to have already in differentages appeared in the likeness of man: first as Aethalides, the son ofMercury; and, when his father expressed himself ready to invest himwith any gift short of immortality, he prayed that, as the human soulis destined successively to dwell in various forms, he might have theprivilege in each to remember his former state of being, which wasgranted him. From, Aethalides he became Euphorbus, who slew Patroclusat the siege of Troy. He then appeared as Hermotimus, then Pyrrhus, afisherman of Delos, and finally Pythagoras. He said that a period oftime was interposed between each transmigration, during which hevisited the seat of departed souls; and he professed to relate a partof the wonders he had seen. [64] He is said to have eaten sparinglyand in secret, and in all respects to have given himself out for abeing not subject to the ordinary laws of nature. [65]

Pythagoras therefore pretended to miraculous endowments. Happening tobe on the sea-shore when certain fishermen drew to land an enormousmultitude of fishes, he desired them to allow him to dispose of thecapture, which they consented to, provided he would name the precisenumber they had caught. He did so, and required that they should throwtheir prize into the sea again, at the same time paying them the valueof 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 toeat beans, which was a diet specially prohibited by Pythagoras; and hecalled 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, whenhe passed the river Nessus in Macedon, the stream was heard to salutehim with the words "Hail, Pythagoras!" [68] When Abaris addressed himas one of the heavenly host, he took the stranger aside, and convincedhim that he was under no mistake, by exhibiting to him his thigh ofgold: or, according to another account, he used the same sort ofevidence at a certain time, to satisfy his pupils of his celestialdescent. [69] He is said to have been seen on the same day atMetapontum in Italy, and at Taurominium in Sicily, though these placesare divided by the sea, so that it was conceived that it would costseveral days to pass from one to the other. [70] In one instance heabsented himself from his associates in Italy for a whole year; andwhen he appeared again, related that he had passed that time in theinfernal regions, describing likewise the marvellous things he hadseen. [71] Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this circumstance affirmshowever that he remained during this period in a cave, where hismother conveyed to him intelligence and necessaries, and that, whenhe came once more into light and air, he appeared so emaciated andcolourless, 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 relatedby Iamblichus, [72] which, though he is not an authority beyond allexception, are so characteristic as seem to entitle them to the beingtranscribed. This author is more circumstantial than any other instating the elaborate steps by which the pupils of Pythagoras came tobe finally admitted into the full confidence of the master. He says, that they passed three years in the first place in a state ofprobation, carefully watched by their seniors, and exposed to theiroccasional taunts and ironies, by way of experiment to ascertainwhether they were of a temper sufficiently philosophical and firm. Atthe expiration of that period they were admitted to a noviciate, inwhich they were bound to uninterrupted silence, and heard the lecturesof the master, while he was himself concealed from their view by acurtain. They were then received to initiation, and required todeliver over their property to the common stock. They were admitted tointercourse with the master. They were invited to a participation ofthe most obscure theories, and the abstrusest problems. If however inthis stage of their progress they were discovered to be too weak ofintellectual penetration, or any other fundamental objection wereestablished against them, they were expelled the community; the doubleof the property they had contributed to the common stock was paid downto them; a head-stone and a monument inscribed with their names wereset up in the place of meeting of the community; they were consideredas dead; and, if afterwards they met by chance any of those who wereof 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. Hewas at the same time a man of rude, impatient and boisterous character. He, together with Perialus of Thurium, submitted to all the severitiesof the Pythagorean school. They passed the three years of probation, and the five years of silence. They were received into the familiarityof the master. They were then initiated, and delivered all theirwealth into the common stock. They were however ultimately pronounceddeficient in intellectual power, or for some other reason were notjudged worthy to continue among the confidential pupils of Pythagoras. They were expelled. The double of the property they had contributedwas paid back to them. A monument was set up in memory of what theyhad been; and they were pronounced dead to the school. 

It will easily be conceived in what temper Cylon sustained thisdegradation. Of Perialus we hear nothing further. But Cylon, fromfeelings of the deepest reverence and awe for Pythagoras, which he hadcherished for years, was filled even to bursting with inextinguishablehatred and revenge. The unparalleled merits, the venerable age of themaster whom he had so long followed, had no power to control hisviolence. His paramount influence in the city insured him the commandof a great body of followers. He excited them to a frame of turbulenceand riot. He represented to them how intolerable was the despotism ofthis pretended philosopher. They surrounded the school in which thepupils were accustomed to assemble, and set it on fire. Forty personsperished in the flames. [73] According to some accounts Pythagoras wasabsent at the time. According to others he and two of his pupilsescaped. He retired from Crotona to Metapontum. But the hostilitywhich had broken out in the former city, followed him there. He tookrefuge in the Temple of the Muses. But he was held so closely besiegedthat no provisions could be conveyed to him; and he finally perishedwith hunger, after, according to Laertius, forty days' abstinence. [74]

It is difficult to imagine any thing more instructive, and morepregnant with matter for salutary reflection, than the contrastpresented to us by the character and system of action of Pythagorason the one hand, and those of the great enquirers of the last twocenturies, for example, Bacon, Newton and Locke, on the other. Pythagoras probably does not yield to any one of these in theevidences of true intellectual greatness. In his school, in thefollowers he trained resembling himself, and in the salutary effectshe produced on the institutions of the various republics of MagnaGraecia and Sicily, he must be allowed greatly to have excelled them. His discoveries of various propositions in geometry, of the earth asa 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 hissystem of proceeding upon narrow and exclusive principles, andconducted it by methods of artifice, quackery and delusion. One of hisleading maxims was, that the great and fundamental truths to theestablishment of which he devoted himself, were studiously to beconcealed from the vulgar, and only to be imparted to a select few, and after years of the severest noviciate and trial. He learned hisearliest lessons of wisdom in Egypt after this method, and heconformed through life to the example which had thus been delivered tohim. The severe examination that he made of the candidates previouslyto their being admitted into his school, and the years of silence thatwere then prescribed to them, testify this. He instructed them bysymbols, obscure and enigmatical propositions, which they were firstto exercise their ingenuity to expound. The authority and dogmaticalassertions of the master were to remain unquestioned; and the pupilswere to fashion themselves to obsequious and implicit submission, andwere the furthest in the world from being encouraged to the independentexercise of their own understandings. There was nothing that Pythagoraswas more fixed to discountenance, than the communication of the truthsupon which he placed the highest value, to the uninitiated. It is notprobable therefore that he wrote any thing: all was communicatedorally, by such gradations, and with such discretion, as he mightthink fit to adopt and to exercise. 

Delusion and falsehood were main features of his instruction. Withwhat respect therefore can we consider, and what manliness worthy ofhis high character and endowments can we impute to, his discoursesdelivered from behind a curtain, his hiding himself during the day, and only appearing by night in a garb assumed for the purpose ofexciting awe and veneration? What shall we say to the story of hisvarious transmigrations? At first sight it appears in the light of themost audacious and unblushing imposition. And, if we were to yield sofar as to admit that by a high-wrought enthusiasm, by a long train ofmaceration and visionary reveries, he succeeded in imposing on himself, this, though in a different way, would scarcely less detract from thehigh stage of eminence upon which the nobler parts of his characterwould induce us to place him. 

Such were some of the main causes that have made his effortsperishable, and the lustre which should have attended his genius in agreat degree transitory and fugitive. He was probably much under theinfluence of a contemptible jealousy, and must be considered asdesirous that none of his contemporaries or followers should eclipsetheir master. All was oracular and dogmatic in the school ofPythagoras. He prized and justly prized the greatness of hisattainments and discoveries, and had no conception that any thingcould go beyond them. He did not encourage, nay, he resolutely opposed, all true independence of mind, and that undaunted spirit of enterprisewhich is the atmosphere in which the sublimest thoughts are mostnaturally generated. He therefore did not throw open the gates ofscience and wisdom, and invite every comer; but on the contrarynarrowed the entrance, and carefully reduced the number of aspirants. He thought not of the most likely methods to give strength andpermanence and an extensive sphere to the progress of the human mind. For these reasons he wrote nothing; but consigned all to the frail anduncertain custody of tradition. And distant posterity has amplyavenged itself upon the narrowness of his policy; and the name ofPythagoras, which would otherwise have been ranked with the firstluminaries of mankind, and consigned to everlasting gratitude, has inconsequence of a few radical and fatal mistakes, been often loadedwith obloquy, and the hero who bore it been indiscriminately classedamong the votaries of imposture and artifice. 

EPIMENIDES. 

Epimenides has been mentioned among the disciples of Pythagoras; buthe probably lived at an earlier period. He was a native of Crete. Thefirst extraordinary circumstance that is recorded of him is, that, being very young, he was sent by his father in search of a straysheep, when, being overcome by the heat of the weather, he retiredinto a cave, and slept fifty-seven years. Supposing that he had sleptonly 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, whowith difficulty was brought to acknowledge him. [75] It was probablythis circumstance that originally brought Epimenides into repute as aprophet, and a favourite of the Gods. 

Epimenides appears to have been one of those persons, who make ittheir whole study to delude their fellow-men, and to obtain forthemselves the reputation of possessing supernatural gifts. Suchpersons, almost universally, and particularly in ages of ignorance andwonder, become themselves the dupes of their own pretensions. He gaveout that he was secretly subsisted by food brought to him by thenymphs; and he is said to have taken nourishment in so smallquantities, as to be exempted from the ordinary necessities of nature. [76] He boasted that he could send his soul out of his body, and recalit, when he pleased; and alternately appeared an inanimate corpse, andthen again his life would return to him, and he appear capable ofevery human function as before. [77] He is said to have practised theceremony of exorcising houses and fields, and thus rendering themfruitful and blessed. [78] He frequently uttered prophecies of eventswith such forms of ceremony and such sagacious judgment, that theyseemed 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 onfoot 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 theirarms, and took refuge at the altars. Seduced from this security byfallacious promises, they were brought to judgment and all of them putto death. The Gods were said to be offended with this violation of thesanctions of religion, and sent a plague upon the city. All thingswere in confusion, and sadness possessed the whole community. Prodigies were perpetually seen; the spectres of the dead walked thestreets; and terror universally prevailed. The sacrifices offered tothe gods exhibited the most unfavourable symptoms. [79] In thisemergency the Athenian senate resolved to send for Epimenides to cometo their relief. His reputation was great. He was held for a holy anddevout man, and wise in celestial things by inspiration from above. Avessel was fitted out under the command of one of the first citizensof the state to fetch Epimenides from Crete. He performed variousrites and purifications. He took a certain number of sheep, black andwhite, and led them to the Areopagus, where he caused them to be letloose to go wherever they would. He directed certain persons to followthem, and mark the place where they lay down. He enquired to whatparticular deity the spot was consecrated, and sacrificed the sheep tothat deity; and in the result of these ceremonies the plague wasstayed. According to others he put an end to the plague by thesacrifice of two human victims. The Athenian senate, full of gratitudeto their benefactor, tendered him the gift of a talent. But Epimenidesrefused all compensation, and only required, as an acknowledgment ofwhat he had done, that there should be perpetual peace between theAthenians and the people of Gnossus, his native city. [80] He is saidto have died shortly after his return to his country, being of the ageof one hundred and fifty-seven years. [81]

EMPEDOCLES. 

Empedocles has also been mentioned as a disciple of Pythagoras. But heprobably lived too late for that to have been the case. His principleswere in a great degree similar to those of that illustrious personage;and he might have studied under one of the immediate successors ofPythagoras. He was a citizen of Agrigentum in Sicily; and, havinginherited considerable wealth, exercised great authority in his nativeplace. [82] He was a distinguished orator and poet. He was greatlyconversant in the study of nature, and was eminent for his skill inmedicine. [83] In addition to these accomplishments, he appears tohave been a devoted adherent to the principles of liberty. He effectedthe dissolution of the ruling council of Agrigentum, and substitutedin their room a triennial magistracy, by means of which the publicauthority became not solely in the hands of the rich as before, butwas shared by them with expert and intelligent men of an inferiorclass. [84] He opposed all arbitrary exercises of rule. He gavedowries from his own stores to many young maidens of impoverishedfamilies, and settled them in eligible marriages. [85] He performedmany cures upon his fellow-citizens; and is especially celebrated forhaving restored a woman to life, who had been apparently dead, according to one account for seven days, but according to others forthirty. [86]

But the most memorable things known of Empedocles, are contained inthe fragments of his verses that have been preserved to us. In one ofthem he says of himself, "I well remember the time before I wasEmpedocles, that I once was a boy, then a girl, a plant, a glitteringfish, a bird that cut the air. " [87] Addressing those who resorted tohim for improvement and wisdom, he says, "By my instructions you shalllearn medicines that are powerful to cure disease, and re-animate oldage; you shall be able to calm the savage winds which lay waste thelabours of the husbandman, and, when you will, shall send forth thetempest again; you shall cause the skies to be fair and serene, oronce more shall draw down refreshing showers, re-animating the fruitsof the earth; nay, you shall recal the strength of the dead man, whenhe has already become the victim of Pluto. " [88] Further, speaking ofhimself, Empedocles exclaims: "Friends, who inhabit the great citylaved by the yellow Acragas, all hail! I mix with you a God, no longera mortal, and am every where honoured by you, as is just; crowned withfillets, and fragrant garlands, adorned with which when I visitpopulous cities, I am revered by both men and women, who follow me byten thousands, enquiring the road to boundless wealth, seeking thegift of prophecy, and who would learn the marvellous skill to cure allkinds of diseases. " [89]

The best known account of the death of Empedocles may reasonably beconsidered as fabulous. From what has been said it sufficientlyappears, that he was a man of extraordinary intellectual endowments, and the most philanthropical dispositions; at the same time that hewas immoderately vain, aspiring by every means in his power to acquireto himself a deathless remembrance. Working on these hints, a storyhas been invented that he aspired to a miraculous way of disappearingfrom among men; and for this purpose repaired, when alone, to the topof Mount Aetna, then in a state of eruption, and threw himself down theburning crater: but it is added, that in the result of this perverseambition he was baffled, the volcano having thrown up one of hisbrazen sandals, by means of which the mode of his death became known. [90]

ARISTEAS. 

Herodotus tells a marvellous story of one Aristeas, a poet ofProconnesus, an island of the Propontis. This man, coming by chanceinto a fuller's workshop in his native place, suddenly fell down dead. As the man was of considerable rank, the fuller immediately, quittingand locking up his shop, proceeded to inform his family of what hadhappened. The relations went accordingly, having procured what wasrequisite 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 townof Cyzicus on the continent, protested that he had just left thatplace, and, as he set foot in the wherry which had brought him over, had met Aristeas, and held a particular conversation with him. Sevenyears after, Aristeas reappeared at Proconnesus, resided there aconsiderable time, and during this abode wrote his poem of the wars ofthe one-eyed Arimaspians and the Gryphons. He then again disappearedin an unaccountable manner. But, what is more than all extraordinary, three hundred and forty years after this disappearance, he shewedhimself again at Metapontum, in Magna Graecia, and commanded thecitizens to erect a statue in his honour near the temple of Apollo inthe forum; which being done, he raised himself in the air; and flewaway in the form of a crow. [91]

HERMOTIMUS. 

Hermotimus, or, as Plutarch names him, Hermodorus of Clazomene, issaid to have possessed, like Epimenides, the marvellous power ofquitting his body, and returning to it again, as often, and for aslong a time as he pleased. In these absences his unembodied spiritwould visit what places he thought proper, observe every thing thatwas going on, and, when he returned to his fleshy tabernacle, make aminute relation of what he had seen. Hermotimus had enemies, who, onetime when his body had lain unanimated unusually long, beguiled hiswife, made her believe that he was certainly dead, and that it wasdisrespectful and indecent to keep him so long in that state. Thewoman therefore placed her husband on the funeral pyre, and consumedhim to ashes; so that, continues the philosopher, when the soul ofHermotimus came back again, it no longer found its customaryreceptacle to retire into. [92] Certainly this kind of treatmentappeared to furnish an infallible criterion, whether the seemingabsences 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 ofSparta, which bears a striking resemblance to the fairy tales ofmodern times. This lady, afterward queen of Sparta, was sprung fromopulent parents, but, when she was born, was so extravagantly ugly, that her parents hid her from all human observation. According to themode of the times however, they sent the babe daily in its nurse'sarms to the shrine of Helen, now metamorphosed into a Goddess, to praythat the child might be delivered from its present preternaturaldeformity. On these occasions the child was shrouded in many coverings, that it might escape being seen. One day as the nurse came out of thetemple, a strange woman met her, and asked her what she carried socarefully concealed. The nurse said it was a female child, but ofopulent parents, and she was strictly enjoined that it should be seenby no one. The stranger was importunate, and by dint of perseveranceovercame 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. Soaccordingly it proved: and the king of the country, having seen her, became so enamoured of her, that, though he already had a wife, andshe 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 ofancient times is the oracles. They maintained their reputation formany successive centuries. The most famous perhaps were that of Delphiin Greece, and that of Jupiter Ammon in the deserts of Lybia. But theywere scattered through many cities, many plains, and many islands. They were consulted by the foolish and the wise; and scarcely anythingconsiderable was undertaken, especially about the time of the Persianinvasion into Greece, without the parties having first had recourse tothese; and they in most cases modified the conduct of princes andarmies accordingly. To render the delusion more successful, every kindof artifice was put in practice. The oracle could only be consulted onfixed days; and the persons who resorted to it, prefaced theirapplication with costly offerings to the presiding God. Theirquestions passed through the hands of certain priests, residing inand about the temple. These priests received the embassy with all duesolemnity, and retired. A priestess, or Pythia, who was seldom ornever seen by any of the profane vulgar, was the immediate vehicle ofcommunication with the God. She was cut off from all intercourse withthe world, and was carefully trained by the attendant priests. Spending almost the whole of her time in solitude, and taught toconsider her office as ineffably sacred, she saw visions, and was forthe most part in a state of great excitement. The Pythia, at least ofthe Delphian God, was led on with much ceremony to the performance ofher office, and placed upon the sacred tripod. The tripod, we aretold, stood over a chasm in the rock, from which issued fumes of aninebriating quality. The Pythia became gradually penetrated throughevery limb with these fumes, till her bosom swelled, her featuresenlarged, her mouth foamed, her voice seemed supernatural, and sheuttered 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 manyunintelligible sounds, uttered with fervour and a sort of frenzy, shebecame by degrees more distinct. She uttered incoherent sentences, with breaks and pauses, that were filled up with preternatural effortsand distorted gestures; while the priests stood by, carefully recordingher words, and then reducing them into a sort of obscure signification. They finally digested them for the most part into a species ofhexameter verse. We may suppose the supplicants during this ceremonyplaced at a proper distance, so as to observe these things imperfectly, while the less they understood, they were ordinarily the more impressedwith religious awe, and prepared implicitly to receive what wascommunicated to them. Sometimes the priestess found herself in a frame, not entirely equal to her function, and refused for the present toproceed with the ceremony. 

The priests of the oracle doubtless conducted them in a certain degreelike the gipsies and fortune-tellers of modern times, cunninglyprocuring to themselves intelligence in whatever way they could, andingeniously worming out the secrets of their suitors, at the same timecontriving that their drift should least of all be suspected. Buttheir main resource probably was in the obscurity, almost amounting tounintelligibleness, of their responses. Their prophecies in most casesrequired the comment of the event to make them understood; and it notseldom happened, that the meaning in the sequel was found to be thediametrically opposite of that which the pious votaries had originallyconceived. 

In the mean time the obscurity of the oracles was of inexpressibleservice to the cause of superstition. If the event turned out to besuch as could in no way be twisted to come within the scope of theresponse, the pious suitor only concluded that the failure was owingto the grossness and carnality of his own apprehension, and not to anydeficiency 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 andadoration. 

It would be a vulgar and absurd mistake however, to suppose that allthis was merely the affair of craft, the multitude only being thedupes, while the priests in cold blood carried on the deception, andsecretly laughed at the juggle they were palming on the world. Theyfelt their own importance; and they cherished it. They felt that theywere regarded by their countrymen as something more than human; andthe opinion entertained of them by the world around them, did not failto excite a responsive sentiment in their own bosoms. If theircontemporaries willingly ascribed to them an exclusive sacredness, byhow much stronger an impulse were they led fully to receive soflattering a suggestion! Their minds were in a perpetual state ofexaltation; and they believed themselves specially favoured by the Godwhose temple constituted their residence. A small matter is foundsufficient to place a creed which flatters all the passions of itsvotaries, on the most indubitable basis. Modern philosophers thinkthat by their doctrine of gases they can explain all the appearancesof the Pythia; but the ancients, to whom this doctrine was unknown, admitted these appearances as the undoubted evidence of aninterposition from heaven. 

It is certainly a matter of the extremest difficulty, for us inimagination to place ourselves in the situation of those who believedin the ancient polytheistical creed. And yet these believers nearlyconstituted the whole of the population of the kingdoms of antiquity. Even those who professed to have shaken off the prejudices of theireducation, and to rise above the absurdities of paganism, had stillsome of the old leaven adhering to them. One of the last acts of thelife of Socrates, was to order the sacrifice of a cock to be made toAesculapius. 

Now the creed of paganism is said to have made up to the number ofthirty thousand deities. Every kingdom, every city, every street, nay, in a manner every house, had its protecting God. These Gods wererivals to each other; and were each jealous of his own particularprovince, and watchful against the intrusion of any neighbour deityupon ground where he had a superior right. The province of each ofthese deities was of small extent; and therefore their watchfulnessand jealousy of their appropriate honours do not enter into theslightest comparison with the Providence of the God who directs theconcerns of the universe. They had ample leisure to employ invindicating their prerogatives. Prophecy was of all means the plainestand most obvious for each deity to assert his existence, and toinforce the reverence and submission of his votaries. Prophecy wasthat species of interference which was least liable to the beingconfuted and exposed. The oracles, as we have said, were delivered interms and phrases that were nearly unintelligible. If therefore theymet with no intelligible fulfilment, this lost them nothing; and, ifit gained them no additional credit, neither did it expose them to anydisgrace. Whereas every example, where the obscure prediction seemedto tally with, and be illustrated by any subsequent event, was hailedwith wonder and applause, confirmed the faith of the true believers, and was held forth as a victorious confutation of the doubts of theinfidel. 

INVASION OF XERXES INTO GREECE. 

It is particularly suitable in this place to notice the events whichtook place at Delphi upon occasion of the memorable invasion of Xerxesinto Greece. This was indeed a critical moment for the heathenmythology. The Persians were pointed and express in their hostilityagainst the altars and the temples of the Greeks. It was no soonerknown that the straits of Thermopylae had been forced, than the priestsconsulted the God, as to whether they should bury the treasures of thetemple, so to secure them against the sacrilege of the invader. Theanswer of the oracle was: "Let nothing be moved; the God is sufficientfor the protection of his rights. " The inhabitants therefore of theneighbourhood withdrew: only sixty men and the priest remained. ThePersians in the mean time approached. Previously to this however, thesacred arms which were placed in the temple, were seen to be moved byinvisible hands, and deposited on the declivity which was on theoutside of the building. The invaders no sooner shewed themselves, than a miraculous storm of thunder and lightning rebounded and flashedamong the multiplied hills which surrounded the sacred area, andstruck terror into all hearts. Two vast fragments were detached fromthe top of mount Parnassus, and crushed hundreds in their fall. Avoice of warlike acclamation issued from within the walls. Dismayseized the Persian troops. The Delphians then, rushing from theircaverns, and descending from the summits, attacked them with greatslaughter. Two persons, exceeding all human stature, and that weresaid to be the demigods whose fanes were erected near the temple ofApollo, joined in the pursuit, and extended the slaughter. [94] It hasbeen said that the situation of the place was particularly adapted tothis mode of defence. Surrounded and almost overhung with loftymountain-summits, the area of the city was inclosed within crags andprecipices. No way led to it but through defiles, narrow and steep, shadowed with wood, and commanded at every step by fastnesses fromabove. In such a position artificial fires and explosion might imitatea thunder storm. Great pains had been taken, to represent the place asaltogether abandoned; and therefore the detachment of rocks from thetop of mount Parnassus, though effected by human hands, might appearaltogether supernatural. 

Nothing can more forcibly illustrate the strength of the religiousfeeling among the Greeks, than the language of the Athenian governmentat the time of the second descent of the Persian armament upon theirterritory, when they were again compelled to abandon their houses andland to the invader. Mardonius said to them: "I am thus commissionedby the king of Persia, he will release and give back to you yourcountry; he invites you to choose a further territory, whatever youmay think desirable, which he will guarantee to you to govern as youshall judge fit. He will rebuild for you, without its costing youeither money or labour, the temples which in his former incursion hedestroyed with fire. It is in vain for you to oppose him by force, forhis armies are innumerable. " To which the Athenians replied, "As longas the sun pursues his course in the heavens, so long will we resistthe Persian invader. " Then turning to the Spartan ambassadors who weresent to encourage and animate them to persist, they added, "It is butnatural that your employers should apprehend that we might give wayand be discouraged. But there is no sum of money so vast, and noregion so inviting and fertile, that could buy us to concur in theenslaving of Greece. Many and resistless are the causes which induceus to this resolve. First and chiefest, the temples and images of theGods, which Xerxes has burned and laid in ruins, and which we arecalled upon to avenge to the utmost, instead of forming a league withhim who made this devastation. Secondly, the consideration of theGrecian race, the same with us in blood and in speech, the same inreligion and manners, and whose cause we will never betray. Knowtherefore now, if you knew not before, that, as long as a singleAthenian survives, we will never swerve from the hostility to Persiato which we have devoted ourselves. "

Contemplating this magnanimous resolution, it is in vain for us toreflect on the absurdity, incongruity and frivolousness, as weapprehend it, of the pagan worship, inasmuch as we find, whatever wemay think of its demerits, that the most heroic people that everexisted on earth, in the hour of their direst calamity, regarded azealous and fervent adherence to that religion as the most sacred ofall duties. [95]

DEMOCRITUS. 

The fame of Democritus has sustained a singular fortune. He isrepresented by Pliny as one of the most superstitious of mortals. Thischaracter is founded on certain books which appeared in his name. Inthese books he is made to say, that, if the blood of certain birds bemingled together, the combination will produce a serpent, of whichwhoever eats will become endowed with the gift of understanding thelanguage of birds. [96] He attributes a multitude of virtues to thelimbs of a dead camelion: among others that, if the left foot of thisanimal be grilled, and there be added certain herbs, and a particularunctuous preparation, it will have the quality to render the personwho carries it about him invisible. [97] But all this is whollyirreconcileable with the known character of Democritus, whodistinguished himself by the hypothesis that the world was framed fromthe fortuitous concourse of atoms, and that the soul died with thebody. And accordingly Lucian, [98] a more judicious author than Pliny, expressly cites Democritus as the strenuous opposer of all thepretenders to miracles. "Such juggling tricks, " he says, "call for aDemocritus, an Epicurus, a Metrodorus, or some one of that temper, whoshould 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 alying pretence, and had not a spark of reality in it. "

Democritus was in reality one of the most disinterested characters onrecord in the pursuit of truth. He has been styled the father ofexperimental philosophy. When his father died, and the estate came tobe divided between him and two brothers, he chose the part which wasin money, though the smallest, that he might indulge him [Errata:_read_ himself] in travelling in pursuit of knowledge. He visitedEgypt and Persia, and turned aside into Ethiopia and India. He isreported to have said, that he had rather be the possessor of one ofthe cardinal secrets of nature, than of the diadem of Persia. 

SOCRATES. 

Socrates is the most eminent of the ancient philosophers. He lived inthe most enlightened age of Greece, and in Athens, the most illustriousof her cities. He was born in the middle ranks of life, the son of asculptor. He was of a mean countenance, with a snub nose, projectingeyes, and otherwise of an appearance so unpromising, that aphysiognomist, his contemporary, pronounced him to be given to thegrossest vices. But he was of a penetrating understanding, the simplestmanners, and a mind wholly bent on the study of moral excellence. Heat once abjured all the lofty pretensions, and the dark and reconditepursuits of the most applauded teachers of his time, and led those towhom he addressed his instructions from obvious and irresistible datato the most unexpected and useful conclusions. There was something inhis 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 surprisingdegree poverty with the loftiest principles of independence. He taughtan unreserved submission to the laws of our country. He several timesunequivocally displayed his valour in the field of battle, while atthe same time he kept aloof from public offices and trusts. Theserenity of his mind never forsook him. He was at all times ready toteach, and never found it difficult to detach himself from his ownconcerns, to attend to the wants and wishes of others. He wasuniformly courteous and unpretending; and, if at any time he indulgedin a vein of playful ridicule, it was only against the presumptuouslyignorant, and those who were without foundation wise in their ownconceit. 

Yet, with all these advantages and perfections, the name of Socrateswould not have been handed down with such lustre to posterity but forthe manner of his death. He made himself many enemies. The plainnessof his manner and the simplicity of his instructions were inexpressiblywounding to those (and they were many), who, setting up for professors, had hitherto endeavoured to dazzle their hearers by the loftiness oftheir claims, and to command from them implicit submission by thearrogance with which they dictated. It must be surprising to us, thata man like Socrates should be arraigned in a country like Athens upona capital accusation. He was charged with instilling into the youth adisobedience to their duties, and propagating impiety to the Gods, faults of which he was notoriously innocent. But the plot against himwas deeply laid, and is said to have been twenty years in theconcoction. And he greatly assisted the machinations of hisadversaries, by the wonderful firmness of his conduct upon his trial, and his spirited resolution not to submit to any thing indirect andpusillanimous. He defended himself with a serene countenance and themost cogent arguments, but would not stoop to deprecation and intreaty. When sentence was pronounced against him, this did not induce theleast alteration of his conduct. He did not think that a life which hehad passed for seventy years with a clear conscience, was worthpreserving by the sacrifice of honour. He refused to escape fromprison, when one of his rich friends had already purchased of thejailor 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 returnof a ship that had been sent with sacrifices to Delos, he uttered thoseadmirable discourses, which have been recorded by Xenophon and Platoto the latest posterity. 

But the question which introduces his name into this volume, is thatof what is called the demon of Socrates. He said that he repeatedlyreceived a divine premonition of dangers impending over himself andothers; and considerable pains have been taken to ascertain the causeand author of these premonitions. Several persons, among whom we mayinclude Plato, have conceived that Socrates regarded himself asattended by a supernatural guardian who at all times watched over hiswelfare and concerns. 

But the solution is probably of a simpler nature. Socrates, with allhis incomparable excellencies and perfections, was not exempt from thesuperstitions of his age and country. He had been bred up among theabsurdities of polytheism. In them were included, as we have seen, aprofound deference for the responses of oracles, and a vigilantattention to portents and omens. Socrates appears to have beenexceedingly regardful of omens. Plato tells us that this intimation, which he spoke of as his demon, never prompted him to any act, butoccasionally interfered to prevent him or his friends from proceedingin any thing that would have been attended with injurious consequences. [99] Sometimes he described it as a voice, which no one however heardbut himself; and sometimes it shewed itself in the act of sneezing. Ifthe 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 friendssneezed 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, bysaying that others, when they spoke of omens, for example, by thevoice of a bird, said the bird told me this, but that he, knowing thatthe omen was purely instrumental to a higher power, deemed it morereligious and respectful to have regard only to the higher power, andto say that God had graciously warned him. [101] One of the examplesof this presage was, that, going along a narrow street with severalcompanions in earnest discourse, he suddenly stopped, and turnedanother way, warning his friends to do the same. Some yielded to him, and others went on, who were encountered by the rushing forward of amultitude of hogs, and did not escape without considerableinconvenience and injury. [102] In another instance one of a companyamong whom was Socrates, had confederated to commit an act ofassassination. Accordingly he rose to quit the place, saying toSocrates, "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 againSocrates stopped him. At length he escaped, without the observation ofthe philosopher, and committed the act, for which he was afterwardsbrought to trial. When led to execution, he exclaimed, "This wouldnever have happened to me, if I had yielded to the intimation ofSocrates. " [103] In the same manner, and by a similar suggestion, thephilosopher predicted the miscarriage of the Athenian expedition toSicily under Nicias, which terminated with such signal disaster. [104]This feature in the character of Socrates is remarkable, and may shewthe prevalence of superstitious observances, even in persons whom wemight think the most likely to be exempt from this weakness. 

ROME. 

VIRGIL. 

From the Greeks let us turn to the Romans. The earliest examples toour purpose occur in the Aeneid. And, though Virgil is a poet, yet ishe so correct a writer, that we may well take for granted, that heeither records facts which had been handed down by tradition, or that, when he feigns, he feigns things strikingly in accord with the mannersand belief of the age of which he speaks. 

POLYDORUS. 

One of the first passages that occur, is of the ghost of the deceasedPolydorus on the coast of Thrace. Polydorus, the son of Priam, wasmurdered by the king of that country, his host, for the sake of thetreasures he had brought with him from Troy. He was struck throughwith darts made of the wood of the myrtle. The body was cast into apit, and earth thrown upon it. The stems of myrtle grew and flourished. Aeneas, after the burning of Troy, first attempted a settlement in thisplace. Near the spot where he landed he found a hillock thickly setwith myrtle. He attempted to gather some, thinking it might form asuitable screen to an altar which he had just raised. To hisastonishment and horror he found the branches he had plucked, droppingwith blood. He tried the experiment again and again. At length a voicefrom the mound was heard, exclaiming, "Spare me! I am Polydorus;" andwarning him to fly the blood-stained and treacherous shore. 

DIDO. 

We have a more detailed tale of necromancy, when Dido, deserted byAeneas, resolves on self-destruction. To delude her sister as to hersecret purpose, she sends for a priestess from the gardens of theHesperides, pretending that her object is by magical incantationsagain to relumine the passion of love in the breast of Aeneas. Thispriestess is endowed with the power, by potent verse to free theoppressed soul from care, and by similar means to agitate the bosomwith passion which is free from its empire. She can arrest theheadlong 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 thesolid earth to rock, and the trees of the forest to descend from theirmountains. To give effect to the infernal spell, Dido commands that afuneral pyre shall be set up in the interior court of her palace, andthat the arms of Aeneas, what remained of his attire, and the marriagebed in which Dido had received him, shall be heaped upon it. The pyreis hung round with garlands, and adorned with branches of cypress. Thesword of Aeneas and his picture are added. Altars are placed round thepyre; and the priestess, with dishevelled hair, calls with terrificcharms upon her three hundred Gods, upon Erebus, chaos, and thethree-faced Hecate. She sprinkles around the waters of Avernus, andadds certain herbs that had been cropped by moonlight with a sickle ofbrass. She brings with her the excrescence which is found upon theforehead of a new-cast foal, of the size of a dried fig, and whichunless first eaten by the mare, the mother never admits her young tothe nourishment of her milk. After these preparations, Dido, withgarments tucked up, and with one foot bare, approached the altars, breaking over them a consecrated cake, and embracing them successivelyin her arms. The pyre was then to be set on fire; and, as thedifferent objects placed upon it were gradually consumed, the charmbecame complete, and the ends proposed to the ceremony were expectedto follow. Dido assures her sister, that she well knew the unlawfulnessof her proceeding, and protests that nothing but irresistible necessityshould 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 withprodigies. Romulus himself, the founder, after a prosperous reign ofmany years, disappeared at last by a miracle. The king assembled hisarmy to a general review, when suddenly, in the midst of the ceremony, a tempest arose, with vivid lightnings and tremendous crashes ofthunder. 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 weresomewhat dissatisfied with the event, and appear to have suspectedfoul play. But the next day Julius Proculus, a senator of the highestcharacter, 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 celestialabodes, authorising him withal to declare to his citizens, that theirarms should be for ever successful against all their enemies. [105]

NUMA. 

Numa was the second king of Rome: and, the object of Romulus havingbeen to render his people soldiers and invincible in war, Numa, an oldman and a philosopher, made it his purpose to civilise them, anddeeply to imbue them with sentiments of religion. He appears to haveimagined the thing best calculated to accomplish this purpose, was tolead them by prodigies and the persuasion of an intercourse with theinvisible world. A shield fell from heaven in his time, which hecaused to be carefully kept and consecrated to the Gods; and heconceived no means so likely to be effectual to this end, as to makeeleven other shields exactly like the one which had descended bymiracle, so that, if an accident happened to any one, the Romans mightbelieve that the one given to them by the divinity was still in theirpossession. [106]

Numa gave to his people civil statutes, and a code of observances inmatters of religion; and these also were inforced with a divinesanction. Numa met the goddess Egeria from time to time in a cave; andby her was instructed in the institutions he should give to the Romans:and this barbarous people, awed by the venerable appearance of theirking, by the sanctity of his manners, and still more by the divinefavour which was so signally imparted to him, received his mandateswith exemplary reverence, and ever after implicitly conformedthemselves to all that he had suggested. [107]

TULLUS HOSTILIUS. 

Tullus Hostilius, the third king of Rome, restored again the policy ofRomulus. In his time, Alba, the parent state, was subdued and unitedto its more flourishing colony. In the mean time Tullus, who duringthe greater part of his reign had been distinguished by martialachievements, 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 ofreligion. Among other things he found in the sacred books of Numa anaccount of a certain ceremony, by which, if rightly performed, theappearance of a God, named Jupiter Elicius, would be conjured up. ButTullus, who had spent his best days in the ensanguined field, provedinadequate to this new undertaking. Some defects having occurred inhis performance of the magical ceremony, not only no God appeared athis bidding, but, the anger of heaven being awakened, a thunderboltfell on the palace, and the king, and the place of his abode wereconsumed together. [109]

ACCIUS NAVIUS. 

In the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, anotherfamous prodigy is recorded. The king had resolved to increase thenumber of the Roman cavalry. Romulus had raised the first body withthe customary ceremony of augury. Tarquinius proposed to proceed inthe present case, omitting this ceremony. Accius Navius, the chiefaugur, protested against the innovation. Tarquin, in contempt of hisinterference, addressed Accius, saying, "Come, augur, consult yourbirds, and tell me, whether the thing I have now in my mind can bedone, or cannot be done. " Accius proceeded according to the rules ofhis art, and told the king it could be done. "What I was thinking of, "replied Tarquinius, "was whether you could cut this whetstone in twowith this razor. " Accius immediately took the one instrument and theother, 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 adisinterested and liberal politician, and gave to his subjects thoseinstitutions to which, more than to any other cause, they were indebtedfor their subsequent greatness. Tarquinius subjected nearly the wholepeople of Latium to his rule, capturing one town of this districtafter another. In Corniculum, one of these places, Servius Tullius, being in extreme youth, was made a prisoner of war, and subsequentlydwelt as a slave in the king's palace. One day as he lay asleep in thesight of many, his head was observed to be on fire. The bystanders, terrified at the spectacle, hastened to bring water that they mightextinguish the flames. The queen forbade their assiduity, regardingthe event as a token from the Gods. By and by the boy awoke of his ownaccord, and the flames at the same instant disappeared. The queen, impressed with the prodigy, became persuaded that the youth wasreserved for high fortunes, and directed that he should be instructedaccordingly in all liberal knowledge. In due time he was married tothe daughter of Tarquinius, and was destined in all men's minds tosucceed in the throne, which took place in the sequel. [111]

In the year of Rome two hundred and ninety one, forty-seven yearsafter the expulsion of Tarquin, a dreadful plague broke out in thecity, and carried off both the consuls, the augurs, and a vastmultitude of the people. The following year was distinguished bynumerous prodigies; fires were seen in the heavens, and the earthshook, spectres appeared, and supernatural voices were heard, an oxspoke, and a shower of raw flesh fell in the fields. Most of theseprodigies were not preternatural; the speaking ox was probablyreceived on the report of a single hearer; and the whole was investedwith exaggerated terror by means of the desolation of the precedingyear. [112]

THE SORCERESS OF VIRGIL. 

Prodigies are plentifully distributed through the earlier parts of theRoman history; but it is not our purpose to enter into a chronologicaldetail on the subject. And in reality those already given, except inthe instance of Tullus Hostilius, do not entirely fall within thescope of the present volume. The Roman poets, Virgil, Horace, Ovid andLucan, give a fuller insight than the Latin prose-writers, into theconceptions of their countrymen upon the subject of incantations andmagic. 

The eighth eclogue of Virgil, entitled Pharmaceutria, is particularlyto our purpose in this point. There is an Idyll of Theocritus underthe same name; but it is of an obscurer character; and the enchantressis not, like that of Virgil, triumphant in the success of her arts. 

The sorceress is introduced by Virgil, giving direction to her femaleattendant as to the due administration of her charms. Her object is torecal 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 himaway from his wholesome sense. She directs her attendant to burnvervain and frankincense; and she ascribes the highest efficacy to thesolemn 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 meansby which Circe turned the companions of Ulysses into beasts. Sheorders his image to be thrice bound round with fillets of threecolours, and then that it be paraded about a prepared altar, while inbinding the knots the attendant shall still say, "Thus do I bind thefillets of Venus. " One image of clay and one of wax are placed beforethe same fire; and as the image of clay hardens, so does the heart ofDaphnis harden towards his new mistress; and as the image of waxsoftens, so is the heart of Daphnis made tender towards the sorceress. She commands a consecrated cake to be broken over the image, andcrackling laurels to be burned before it, that as Daphnis hadtormented her by his infidelity, so he in his turn may be agitatedwith a returning constancy. She prays that as the wanton heiferpursues the steer through woods and glens, till at length, worn outwith fatigue, she lies down on the oozy reeds by the banks of thestream, and the night-dew is unable to induce her to withdraw, soDaphnis may be led on after her for ever with inextinguishable love. She buries the relics of what had belonged to Daphnis beneath herthreshold. She bruises poisonous herbs of resistless virtue which hadbeen gathered in the kingdom of Pontus, herbs, which enabled him whogave them to turn himself into a hungry wolf prowling amidst theforests, to call up ghosts from the grave, and to translate theripened 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 ashesof these herbs, and [Errata: _dele_ and] to cast them over herhead into the running stream, and at the same time taking care not tolook behind her. After all her efforts the sorceress begins to despair. She says, "Daphnis heeds not my incantations, heeds not the Gods. " Shelooks again; she perceives the ashes on the altar emit sparkles offire; 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 notso! The real Daphnis comes; I hear his steps; he has left the deludingtown; he hastens to my longing arms!"

CANIDIA. 

In the works of Horace occurs a frightful and repulsive, but a curiousdetail of a scene of incantation. [113] Four sorceresses arerepresented as assembled, Canidia, the principal, to perform, the otherthree to assist in, the concoction of a charm, by means of which acertain youth, named Varus, for whom Canidia had conceived a passion, but who regards the hag with the utmost contempt, may be madeobsequious to her desires. Canidia appears first, the locks of herdishevelled hair twined round with venomous and deadly serpents, ordering the wild fig-tree and the funereal cypress to be rooted upfrom the sepulchres on which they grew, and these, together with theegg of a toad smeared with blood, the plumage of the screech-owl, various herbs brought from Thessaly and Georgia, and bones torn fromthe jaws of a famished dog, to be burned in flames fed with perfumesfrom Colchis. Of the assistant witches, one traces with hurried stepsthe edifice, sprinkling it, as she goes, with drops from the Avernus, her hair on her head stiff and erect, like the quills of thesea-hedge-hog, or the bristles of a hunted boar; and another, who isbelieved by all the neighbourhood to have the faculty of conjuring thestars 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, throwingup earth, that she may dig a trench, in which is to be plunged up tohis chin a beardless youth, stripped of his purple robe, the emblem ofhis noble descent, and naked, that, from his marrow already dry andhis liver (when at length his eye-balls, long fixed on the stillrenovated food which is withheld from his famished jaws, have no morethe power to discern), may be concocted the love-potion, from whichthese hags promise themselves the most marvellous results. 

Horace presents before us the helpless victim of their malice, alreadyinclosed 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 herchildren if ever she had offspring, by the visible evidences of hishigh rank, and by the never-failing vengeance of Jupiter upon suchmisdeeds, to say why she casts on him glances, befitting the fury of astepmother, or suited to a beast already made desperate by the woundsof the hunter. 

At length, no longer exhausting himself in fruitless intreaties, thevictim has recourse in his agonies to curses on his executioners. Hesays, his ghost shall haunt them for ever, for no vengeance canexpiate such cruelty. He will tear their cheeks with his fangs, forthat power is given to the shades below. He will sit, a night-mare, ontheir bosoms, driving away sleep from their eyes; while the enragedpopulace shall pursue them with stones, and the wolves shall gnaw andhowl over their unburied members. The unhappy youth winds up all withthe remark, that his parents who will survive him, shall themselveswitness this requital of the sorceresses' infernal deeds. 

Canidia, unmoved by these menaces and execrations, complains of theslow progress of her charms. She gnaws her fingers with rage. Sheinvokes the night and the moon, beneath whose rays these preparationsare carried on, now, while the wild beasts lie asleep in the forests, and while the dogs alone bay the superanuated letcher, who reliessingly on the rich scents with which he is perfumed for success, tospeed her incantations, and signalise their power beneath the roof ofhim whose love she seeks. She impatiently demands why her drugs shouldbe of less avail than those of Medea, with which she poisoned agarment, that, once put on, caused Creusa, daughter of the king ofCorinth, to expire in intolerable torments? She discovers that Varushad hitherto baffled her power by means of some magical antidote; andshe resolves to prepare a mightier charm, that nothing from earth orhell shall resist. "Sooner, " she says, "shall the sky be swallowed upin 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 andtenacious as those of burning pitch. "

It is not a little curious to remark the operation of the antagonistprinciples of superstition and scepticism among the Romans in thisenlightened period, as it comes illustrated to us in the compositionsof Horace on this subject. In the piece, the contents of which havejust been given, things are painted in all the solemnity and terrorwhich is characteristic of the darkest ages. But, a few pages furtheron, we find the poet in a mock Palinodia deprecating the vengeance ofthe sorceress, who, he says, has already sufficiently punished him byturning through her charms his flaxen hair to hoary white, andoverwhelming him by day and night with ceaseless anxieties. He feelshimself through her powerful magic tortured, like Hercules in theenvenomed shirt of Nessus, or as if he were cast down into the flamesof Aetna; nor does he hope that she will cease compounding a thousanddeadly ingredients against him, till his very ashes shall have beenscattered by the resistless winds. He offers therefore to expiate hisoffence at her pleasure either by a sacrifice of an hundred oxen, orby a lying ode, in which her chastity and spotless manners shall beapplauded to the skies. 

What Ovid gives is only a new version of the charms and philtres ofMedea. [114]

ERICHTHO. 

Lucan, in his Pharsalia, [115] takes occasion, immediately before thebattle which was to decide the fate of the Roman world, to introduceSextus, the younger son of Pompey, as impatient to enquire, even bythe most sacrilegious means, into the important events which areimmediately impending. He is encouraged in the attempt by thereflection, that the soil upon which they are now standing, Thessaly, had been notorious for ages as the noxious and unwholesome seat ofsorcery and witchcraft. The poet therefore embraces this occasion toexpatiate on the various modes in which this detested art wasconsidered as displaying itself. And, however he may have beenambitious to seize this opportunity to display the wealth of hisimagination, the whole does not fail to be curious, as an exhibitionof the system of magical power so far as the matter in hand isconcerned. 

The soil of Thessaly, says the poet, is in the utmost degree fertilein poisonous herbs, and her rocks confess the power of the sepulchralsong of the magician. There a vegetation springs up of virtue tocompel the Gods; and Colchis itself imports from Thessaly treasures ofthis sort which she cannot boast as her own. The chaunt of theThessalian witch penetrates the furthest seat of the Gods, andcontains words so powerful, that not the care of the skies, or of therevolving spheres, can avail as an excuse to the deities to declineits force. Babylon and Memphis yield to the superior might; and theGods of foreign climes fly to fulfil the dread behests of the magician. 

Prompted by Thessalian song, love glides into the hardest hearts; andeven the severity of age is taught to burn with youthful fires. Theingredients of the poisoned cup, nor the excrescence found on theforehead of the new-cast foal, can rival in efficacy the witchingincantation. The soul is melted by its single force. The heart whichnot all the attractions of the genial bed could fire, nor theinfluence of the most beautiful form, the wheel of the sorceress shallforce from its bent. 

But the effects are perhaps still more marvellous that are produced oninanimate and unintellectual nature. The eternal succession of theworld is suspended; day delays to rise on the earth; the skies nolonger obey their ruler. Nature becomes still at the incantation: andJove, accustomed to guide the machine, is astonished to find the polesdisobedient to his impulse. Now the sorceress deluges the plains withrain, hides the face of heaven with murky clouds, and the thundersroll, unbidden by the thunderer. Anon she shakes her hair, and thedarkness is dispersed, and the whole horizon is cleared. At one timethe sea rages, urged by no storm; and at another is smooth as glass, in defiance of the tempestuous North. The breath of the enchantercarries along the bark in the teeth of the wind; the headlong torrentis suspended, and rivers run back to their source. The Nile overflowsnot in the summer; the crooked Meander shapes to itself a directcourse; the sluggish Arar gives new swiftness to the rapid Rhone; andthe mountains bow their heads to their foundations. Clouds shroud thepeaks of the cloudless Olympus; and the Scythian snows dissolve, unurged by the sun. The sea, though impelled by the tempestuousconstellations, is counteracted by witchcraft, and no longer beatsalong the shore. Earthquakes shake the solid globe; and the affrightedinhabitants behold both hemispheres at once. The animals most dreadedfor their fury, and whose rage is mortal, become tame; the hungrytiger and the lordly lion fawn at the sorceress's feet; the snakeuntwines all her folds amidst the snow; the viper, divided by wounds, unites again its severed parts; and the envenomed serpent pines anddies under the power of a breath more fatal than his own. 

What, exclaims the poet, is the nature of the compulsion thusexercised on the Gods, this obedience to song and to potent herbs, this fear to disobey and scorn the enchanter? Do they yield fromnecessity, or is it a voluntary subjection? Is it the piety of thesehags that obtains the reward, or by menaces do they secure theirpurpose? Are all the Gods subject to this control, or, is there oneGod upon whom it has power, who, himself compelled, compels theelements? The stars fall from heaven at their command. The silver moonyields to their execrations, and burns with a smouldering flame, evenas when the earth comes between her and the sun, and by its shadowintercepts its rays; thus is the moon brought lower and more low, tillshe covers with her froth the herbs destined to receive her malignantinfluence. 

But Erichtho, the witch of the poet, flouts all these arts, as toopoor and timid for her purposes. She never allows a roof to cover herhorrid head, or confesses the influence of the Houshold Gods. Sheinhabits the deserted tomb, and dwells in a grave from which the ghostof the dead has been previously expelled. She knows the Stygian abodes, and the counsels of the infernals. Her countenance is lean; and hercomplexion overspread with deadly paleness. Her hair is neglected andmatted. But when clouds and tempests obscure the stars, then she comesforth, and defies the midnight lightning. Wherever she treads, thefruits of the earth become withered, and the wholesome air is poisonedwith her breath. She offers no prayers, and pours forth nosupplications; she has recourse to no divination. She delights toprofane the sacred altar with a funereal flame, and pollutes theincense with a torch from the pyre. The Gods yield at once to hervoice, nor dare to provoke her to a second mandate. She incloses theliving man within the confines of the grave; she subjects to suddendeath those who were destined to a protracted age; and she brings backto life the corses of the dead. She snatches the smoaking cinders, and the bones whitened with flame, from the midst of the pile, andwrests the torch from the hand of the mourning parent. She seizes thefragments of the burning shroud, and the embers yet moistened withblood. But, where the sad remains are already hearsed in marble, it isthere that she most delights to exercise her sacrilegious power. Shetears the limbs of the dead, and digs out their eyes. She gnaws theirfingers. She separates with her teeth the rope on the gibbet, andtears away the murderer from the cross on which he hung suspended. Sheapplies to her purposes the entrails withered with the wind, and themarrow that had been dried by the sun. She bears away the nails whichhad pierced the hands and feet of the criminal, the clotted bloodwhich had distilled from his wounds, and the sinews that had held himsuspended. She pounces upon the body of the dead in the battle-field, anticipating the vulture and the beast of prey; but she does notdivide the limbs with a knife, nor tear them asunder with her hands:she watches the approach of the wolf, that she may wrench the morselsfrom his hungry jaws. Nor does the thought of murder deter her, if herrites require the living blood, first spurting from the laceratedthroat. She drags forth the foetus from its pregnant mother, by apassage which violence has opened. Wherever there is occasion for abolder and more remorseless ghost, with her own hand she dismisses himfrom life; man at every period of existence furnishes her withmaterials. She drags away the first down from the cheek of thestripling, and with her left hand cuts the favourite lock from thehead of the young man. Often she watches with seemingly pious care thedying hours of a relative, and seizes the occasion to bite his lips, to compress his windpipe, and whisper in his expiring organ somemessage to the infernal shades. 

Sextus, guided by the general fame of this woman, sought her in herhaunts. He chose his time, in the depth of the night, when the sun isat its lowermost distance from the upper sky. He took his way throughthe desert fields. He took for companions the associates, theaccustomed ministers of his crimes. Wandering among broken graves andcrumbling sepulchres, they discovered her, sitting sublime on a raggedrock, where mount Haemus stretches its roots to the Pharsalic field. She was mumbling charms of the Magi and the magical Gods. For shefeared that the war might yet be transferred to other than theEmathian fields. The sorceress was busy therefore enchanting the soilof Philippi, and scattering on its surface the juice of potent herbs, that it might be heaped with carcasses of the dead, and saturated withtheir blood, that Macedon, and not Italy, might receive the bodies ofdeparted kings and the bones of the noble, and might be amply peopledwith the shades of men. Her choicest labour was as to the earth whereshould be deposited the prostrate Pompey, or the limbs of the mightyCaesar. 

Sextus approached, and bespoke her thus: "Oh, glory of Haemonia, thathast the power to divulge the fates of men, or canst turn aside fateitself from its prescribed course, I pray thee to exercise thy gift indisclosing events to come. Not the meanest of the Roman race am I, theoffspring of an illustrious chieftain, lord of the world in the onecase, or in the other the destined heir to my father's calamity. Istand on a tremendous and giddy height: snatch me from this posture ofdoubt; let me not blindly rush on, and blindly fall; extort thissecret from the Gods, or force the dead to confess what they know. "

To whom the Thessalian crone replied: "If you asked to change the fateof an individual, though it were to restore an old man, decrepid withage, to vigorous youth, I could comply; but to break the eternal chainof causes and consequences exceeds even our power. You seek howeveronly 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 organsshall be yet capable of speech, not with lineaments already hardenedin the sun. "

Saying thus, Erichtho proceeded (having first with her art made thenight itself more dark, and involved her head in a pitchy cloud), toexplore the field, and examine one by one the bodies of the unburieddead. As she approached, the wolves fled before her, and the birds ofprey, unwillingly sheathing their talons, abandoned their repast, while the Thessalian witch, searching into the vital parts of theframes before her, at length fixed on one whose lungs were uninjured, and whose organs of speech had sustained no wound. The fate of manyhung in doubt, till she had made her selection. Had the revival ofwhole armies been her will, armies would have stood up obedient to herbidding. She passed a hook beneath the jaw of the selected one, and, fastening it to a cord, dragged him along over rocks and stones, tillshe reached a cave, overhung by a projecting ridge. A gloomy fissurein the ground was there, of a depth almost reaching to the InfernalGods, where the yew-tree spread thick its horizontal branches, at alltimes excluding the light of the sun. Fearful and withering shade wasthere, and noisome slime cherished by the livelong night. The air washeavy and flagging as that of the Taenarian promontory; and hither theGod of hell permits his ghosts to extend their wanderings. It isdoubtful whether the sorceress called up the dead to attend her here, or herself descended to the abodes of Pluto. She put on a fearful andvariegated robe; she covered her face with her dishevelled hair, andbound her brow with a wreath of vipers. 

Meanwhile she observed Sextus afraid, with his eyes fixed on theground, and his companions trembling; and thus she reproached them. "Lay aside, " she said, "your vainly-conceived terrors! You shallbehold only a living and a human figure, whose accents you may listento with perfect security. If this alarms you, what would you say, ifyou should have seen the Stygian lakes, and the shores burning withsulphur unconsumed, if the furies stood before you, and Cerberus withhis mane of vipers, and the giants chained in eternal adamant? Yet allthese you might have witnessed unharmed; for all these would quail atthe terror of my brow. "

She spoke, and next plied the dead body with her arts. She supples hiswounds, and infuses fresh blood into his veins: she frees his scarsfrom 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 backboneof 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 theeagle, the flying serpent of Arabia, the viper that guards the pearlin the Red Sea, the slough of the hooded snake, and the ashes thatremain when the phoenix has been consumed. To these she adds all venomthat has a name, the foliage of herbs over which she has sung hercharms, and on which she had voided her rheum as they grew. 

At length she chaunts her incantation to the Stygian Gods, in a voicecompounded of all discords, and altogether alien to human organs. Itresembles at once the barking of a dog, and the howl of a wolf; itconsists of the hooting of the screech-owl, the yelling of a ravenouswild beast, and the fearful hiss of a serpent. It borrows somewhatfrom the roar of tempestuous waves, the hollow rushing of the windsamong the branches of the forest, and the tremendous crash ofdeafening thunder. 

"Ye furies, " she cries, "and dreadful Styx, ye sufferings of thedamned, and Chaos, for ever eager to destroy the fair harmony ofworlds, and thou, Pluto, condemned to an eternity of ungratefulexistence, Hell, and Elysium, of which no Thessalian witch shallpartake, Proserpine, for ever cut off from thy health-giving mother, and horrid Hecate, Cerebrus [Errata: _read_ Cerberus] curst withincessant hunger, ye Destinies, and Charon endlessly murmuring at thetask I impose of bringing back the dead again to the land of theliving, hear me!--if I call on you with a voice sufficiently impiousand abominable, if I have never sung this chaunt, unsated with humangore, if I have frequently laid on your altars the fruit of thepregnant mother, bathing its contents with the reeking brain, if Ihave placed on a dish before you the head and entrails of an infant onthe 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 recentlyquitted the light of day, and who yet hovers over the mouth of hell:let him hear these incantations, and immediately after descend to hisdestined place! Let him articulate suitable omens to the son of hisgeneral, having so late been himself a soldier of the great Pompey! Dothis, 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 enteragain the confines of his wonted prison. He shrinks to invest himselfwith the gored bosom, and the fibres from which death had separatedhim. Unhappy wretch, to whom death had not given the privilege to die!Erichtho, impatient at the unlooked for delay, lashes the unmovingcorpse with one of her serpents. She calls anew on the powers of hell, and threatens to pronounce the dreadful name, which cannot bearticulated without consequences never to be thought of, nor withoutthe direst necessity to be ventured upon. 

At length the congealed blood becomes liquid and warm; it oozes fromthe wounds, and creeps steadily along the veins and the members; thefibres are called into action beneath the gelid breast, and the nervesonce more become instinct with life. Life and death are there at once. The arteries beat; the muscles are braced; the body raises itself, notby degrees, but at a single impulse, and stands erect. The eyelidsunclose. The countenance is not that of a living subject, but of thedead. The paleness of the complexion, the rigidity of the lines, remain; and he looks about with an unmeaning stare, but utters nosound. He waits on the potent enchantress. 

"Speak!" said she; "and ample shall be your reward. You shall notagain be subject to the art of the magician. I will commit yourmembers to such a sepulchre; I will burn your form with such wood, andwill chaunt such a charm over your funeral pyre, that all incantationsshall thereafter assail you in vain. Be it enough, that you have oncebeen brought back to life! Tripods, and the voice of oracles deal inambiguous responses; but the voice of the dead is perspicuous andcertain to him who receives it with an unshrinking spirit. Spare not!Give names to things; give places a clear designation; speak with afull and articulate voice. "

Saying this, she added a further spell, qualified to give to him whowas to answer, a distinct knowledge of that respecting which he wasabout to be consulted. He accordingly delivers the responses demandedof him; and, that done, earnestly requires of the witch to bedismissed. Herbs and magic rites are necessary, that the corpse may beagain unanimated, and the spirit never more be liable to be recalledto the realms of day. The sorceress constructs the funeral pile; thedead man places himself thereon; Erichtho applies the torch; and thecharm is for ever at an end. 

Lucan in this passage is infinitely too precise, and exhausts his musein a number of particulars, where he had better have been moresuccinct and select. He displays the prolific exuberance of a youngpoet, who had not yet taught himself the multiplied advantages ofcompression. He had not learned the principle, _Relinquere quaedesperat tractata nitescere posse_. [116] But, as this is thefullest enumeration of the forms of witchcraft that occurs in thewriters of antiquity, it seemed proper to give it to the readerentire. 

SERTORIUS. 

The story of Sertorius and his hind, which occurred about thirty yearsbefore, may not be improperly introduced here. It is told by Plutarchin the spirit of a philosopher, and as a mere deception played by thatgeneral, to render the barbarous people of Spain more devoted to hisservice. But we must suppose that it had, at least for the time, thefull effect of something preternatural. Sertorius was one of the mosthighly gifted and well balanced characters that is to be found inRoman story. He considered with the soundest discernment the nature ofthe persons among whom he was to act, and conducted himselfaccordingly. The story in Plutarch is this. 

"So soone as Sertorius arriued from Africa, he straight leauied men ofwarre, and with them subdued the people of Spaine fronting upon hismarches, of which the more part did willingly submit themselves, uponthe bruit that ran of him to be mercifull and courteous, and a valiantman besides in present danger, Furthermore, he lacked no fine deuisesand subtilties to win their goodwils: as among others, the policy, anddeuise of the hind. There was a poore man of the countrey calledSpanus, who meeting by chance one day with a hind in his way that hadnewly calved, flying from the hunters, he let the damme go, not beingable to take her; and running after her calfe tooke it, which was ayoung hind, and of a strange haire, for she was all milk-white. Itchanced so, that Sertorius was at that time in those parts. So, thispoore man presented Sertorius with his young hind, which he gladlyreceiued, and which with time he made so tame, that she would come tohim when he called her, and follow him where-euer he went, beingnothing the wilder for the daily sight of such a number of armedsouldiers together as they were, nor yet afraid of the noise andtumult of the campe. Insomuch as Sertorius by little and little madeit a miracle, making the simple barbarous people beleeue that it was agift that Diana had sent him, by the which she made him understand ofmany and sundrie things to come: knowing well inough of himselfe, thatthe barbarous people were men easily deceiued, and quickly caught byany subtill superstition, besides that by art also he brought them tobeleeue it as a thing verie true. For when he had any secretintelligence giuen him, that the enemies would inuade some part of thecountries and prouinces subject vnto him, or that they had taken anyof his forts from him by any intelligence or sudden attempt, hestraight told them that his hind spake to him as he slept, and hadwarned him both to arme his men, and put himselfe in strength. In likemanner if he had heard any newes that one of his lieutenants had wonnea battell, or that he had any aduantage of his enemies, he would hidethe messenger, and bring his hind abroad with a garland and coller ofnosegayes: and then say, it was a token of some good newes commingtowards him, perswading them withall to be of good cheare; and so didsacrifice to the Gods, to giue them thankes for the good tidings heshould heare before it were long. Thus by putting this superstitioninto their heades, he made them the more tractable and obedient to hiswill, in so much as they thought they were not now gouerned any moreby a stranger wiser than themselues, but were steadfastly perswadedthat they were rather led by some certaine God. "--

"Now was Sertorius very heauie, that no man could tell him what wasbecome of his white hind: for thereby all his subtilltie and finenesseto keepe the barbarous people in obedience was taken away, and thenspecially when they stood in need of most comfort. But by good hap, certaine of his souldiers that had lost themselves in the night, metwith the hind in their way, and knowing her by her colour, tooke herand brought her backe againe. Sertorius hearing of her, promised thema good reward, so that they would tell no liuing creature that theybrought her againe, and thereupon made her to be secretly kept. Thenwithin a few dayes after, he came abroad among them, and with apleasant countenance told the noble men and chiefe captaines of thesebarbarous people, how the Gods had reuealed it to him in his dreame, that he should shortly have a maruellous good thing happen to him: andwith these words sate downe in his chaire to give audience. Whereuponthey that kept the hind not farre from thence, did secretly let her go. The hind being loose, when she had spied Sertorius, ranne straight tohis chaire with great joy, and put her head betwixt his legges, andlayed her mouth in his right hand, as she before was wont to do. Sertorius also made very much of her, and of purpose appearedmaruellous glad, shewing such tender affection to the hind, as itseemed the water stood in his eyes for joy. The barbarous people thatstood there by and beheld the same, at the first were much amazedtherewith, but afterwards when they had better bethought themselues, for ioy they clapped their hands together, and waited upon Sertoriusto his lodging with great and ioyfull shouts, saying, and steadfastlybeleeuing, that he he was a heavenly creature, and beloued of theGods. " [117]

CASTING OUT DEVILS. 

We are now brought down to the era of the Christian religion; andthere is repeated mention of sorcery in the books of the New Testament. 

One of the most frequent miracles recorded of Jesus Christ is calledthe "casting out devils. " The Pharisees in the Evangelist, for thepurpose of depreciating this evidence of his divine mission, arerecorded to have said, "this fellow doth not cast out devils, but byBeelzebub, the prince of devils. " Jesus, among other remarks inrefutation of this opprobrium, rejoins upon them, "If I by Beelzebubcast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?" [118] Herethen we have a plain insinuation of sorcery from the lips of Christhimself, at the same time that he appears to admit that hisadversaries produced supernatural achievements similar to his own. 

SIMON MAGUS. 

But the most remarkable passage in the New Testament on the subject ofsorcery, is one which describes the proceedings of Simon Magus, asfollows. 

"Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christunto them. But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people ofSamaria, giving out that himself was some great one. To whom they allgave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is thegreat power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of longtime he had bewitched them with sorceries. But, when they believedPhilip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and thename of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. ThenSimon himself believed also. And, when he was baptized, he continuedwith Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which weredone. 

"Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria hadreceived the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive theHoly Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they werebaptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands onthem, 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, Giveme also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive theHoly Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee!because thou hast thought that the gift of God might be purchased withmoney. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart isnot 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 thebond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lordfor me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. "[119]

This passage of the New Testament leaves us in considerable uncertaintyas to the nature of the sorceries, by which "of a long time Simon hadbewitched the people of Samaria. " But the fathers of the church, Clemens Romanus and Anastasius Sinaita, have presented us with adetail of the wonders he actually performed. When and to whom hepleased he made himself invisible; he created a man out of air; hepassed 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 chainswere impotent to detain him. He animated statues, so that theyappeared to every beholder to be men and women; he made all thefurniture of the house and the table to change places as required, without a visible mover; he metamorphosed his countenance and visageinto that of another person; he could make himself into a sheep, or agoat, or a serpent; he walked through the streets attended with amultitude of strange figures, which he affirmed to be the souls of thedeparted; he made trees and branches of trees suddenly to spring upwhere he pleased; he set up and deposed kings at will; he caused asickle to go into a field of corn, which unassisted would mow twice asfast as the most industrious reaper. [120]

Thus endowed, it is difficult to imagine what he thought he would havegained by purchasing from the apostles their gift of working miracles. But Clemens Romanus informs us that he complained that, in hissorceries, he was obliged to employ tedious ceremonies andincantations; whereas the apostles appeared to effect their wonderswithout difficulty and effort, by barely speaking a word. [121]

ELYMAS, THE SORCERER. 

But Simon Magus is not the only magician spoken of in the NewTestament. When the apostle Paul came to Paphos in the isle of Cyprus, he found the Roman governor divided in his preference between Paul andElymas, the sorcerer, who before the governor withstood Paul to hisface. Then Paul, prompted by his indignation, said, "Oh, full of allsubtlety 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 todeceive the Roman governor we are not told: but "immediately therefell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about, seeking some tolead him by the hand. " [122]

In another instance we find certain vagabond Jews, exorcists, whopretended to cast out devils from the possessed. But they came to theapostle, and "confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them alsowhich used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned thembefore all. And they counted the price of them, and found it fiftythousand pieces of silver. " [123]

It is easy to see however on which side the victory lay. The apostlesby their devotion and the integrity of their proceedings triumphed;while those whose only motive was selfishness, the applause of thevulgar, or the admiration of the superficial, gained the honours of aday, 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 byNero upon occasion of the assassination of his mother, Agrippina. Hewas visited with occasional fits of the deepest remorse in therecollection of his enormity. Notwithstanding all the ostentatiousapplauses and congratulations which he obtained from the senate, thearmy and the people, he complained that he was perpetually hauntedwith the ghost of his mother, and pursued by the furies with flamingtorches and whips. He therefore caused himself to be attended bymagicians, who employed their arts to conjure up the shade ofAgrippina, and to endeavour to obtain her forgiveness for the crimeperpetrated by her son. [124] We are not informed of the success oftheir evocations. 

VESPASIAN. 

In the reign of Vespasian we meet with a remarkable record ofsupernatural power, though it does not strictly fall under the head ofmagic. It is related by both Tacitus and Suetonius. Vespasian havingtaken up his abode for some months at Alexandria, a blind man, of thecommon people, came to him, earnestly intreating the emperor to assistin curing his infirmity, alleging that he was prompted to apply by theadmonition of the God Serapis, and importuning the prince to anointhis cheeks and the balls of his eyes with the royal spittle. Vespasianat first treated the supplication with disdain; but at length, movedby the fervour of the petitioner, inforced as it was by the flatteryof his courtiers, the emperor began to think that every thing wouldgive way to his prosperous fortune, and yielded to the poor man'sdesire. With a confident carriage therefore, the multitude of thosewho stood by being full of expectation, he did as he was requested, and the desired success immediately followed. Another supplicantappeared at the same time, who had lost the use of his hands, andintreated Vespasian to touch the diseased members with his foot; andhe also was cured. [125]

Hume has remarked that many circumstances contribute to giveauthenticity to this miracle, "if, " as he says, "any evidence couldavail to establish so palpable a falsehood. The gravity, solidity, ageand probity of so great an emperor, who, through the whole course ofhis life, conversed in a familiar manner with his friends andcourtiers, and never affected any airs of divinity: the historian, acontemporary writer, noted for candour and veracity, and perhaps thegreatest and most penetrating genius of all antiquity: and lastly, thepersons from whose authority he related the miracle, who we maypresume to have been of established character for judgment and honour;eye-witnesses of the fact, and confirming their testimony, as Tacitusgoes on to say, after the Flavian family ceased to be in power, andcould 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 asJesus Christ, and acquired great reputation while he lived, and for aconsiderable time after. He was born of wealthy parents, and seemsearly 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 dissatisfiedwith the indolence and luxury of the citizens, and removed himself toAegas, a neighbouring town, where was a temple of Aesculapius, and wherethe God was supposed sometimes to appear in person. Here he becameprofessedly a disciple of the sect of Pythagoras. He refrained fromanimal food, and subsisted entirely on fruits and herbs. He wentbarefoot, and wore no article of clothing made from the skins ofanimals. [127] He further imposed on himself a noviciate of five yearssilence. At the death of his father, he divided his patrimony equallywith his brother; and, that brother having wasted his estate byprodigality, he again made an equal division with him of whatremained. [128] He travelled to Babylon and Susa in pursuit ofknowledge, and even among the Brachmans of India, and appearsparticularly to have addicted himself to the study of magic. [129] Hewas of a beautiful countenance and a commanding figure, and, by meansof these things, combined with great knowledge, a composed andstriking carriage, and much natural eloquence, appears to have wonuniversal favour wherever he went. He is said to have professed theunderstanding of all languages without learning them, to read thethoughts 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 ofa terrible pestilence; but the citizens paid no attention to hisprophecy. The calamity however having overtaken them, they sent toApollonius who was then at Smyrna, to implore his assistance. Heobeyed the summons. Having assembled the inhabitants, there was seenamong them a poor, old and decrepid beggar, clothed in rags, hideousof visage, and with a peculiarly fearful and tremendous expression inhis eyes. Apollonius called out to the Ephesians, "This is an enemy tothe Gods; turn all your animosity against him, and stone him to death!"The old man in the most piteous tones besought their mercy. Thecitizens were shocked with the inhumanity of the prophet. Some howeverof the more thoughtless flung a few stones, without any determinedpurpose. The old man, who had stood hitherto crouching, and with hiseyes half-closed, now erected his figure, and cast on the crowdglances, fearful, and indeed diabolical. The Ephesians understood atonce that this was the genius of the plague. They showered upon himstones without mercy, so as not only to cover him, but to produce aconsiderable mound where he had stood. After a time Apolloniuscommanded them to take away the stones, that they might discover whatsort of an enemy they had destroyed. Instead of a man they now saw anenormous black dog, of the size of a lion, and whose mouth and jawswere 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 theprophet entertained a singular favour. This man conceived himself tobe 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 enigmaticalway, telling him that he nursed a serpent in his bosom. This howeverdid not deter Menippus. All things were prepared; and the weddingtable was spread. Apollonius meanwhile came among them, and preventedthe calamity. He told the young man that the dishes before him, thewine he was drinking, the vessels of gold and silver that appearedaround him, and the very guests themselves were unreal and illusory;and to prove his words, he caused them immediately to vanish. Thebride alone was refractory. She prayed the philosopher not to tormenther, and not to compel her to confess what she was. He was howeverinexorable. She at length owned that she was an empuse (a sort ofvampire), 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. Ayoung woman of beautiful person was laid out upon a bier, and was inthe act of being conveyed to the tomb. She was followed by a multitudeof friends, weeping and lamenting, and among others by a young man, to whom she had been on the point to be married. Apollonius met theprocession, and commanded those who bore it, to set down the bier. Heexhorted the proposed bridegroom to dry up his tears. He enquired thename of the deceased, and, saluting her accordingly, took hold of herhand, and murmured over her certain mystical words. At this act themaiden raised herself on her seat, and presently returned home, wholeand sound, to the house of her father. [133]

Towards the end of his life Apollonius was accused before Domitian ofhaving 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 thereforecould not have engaged in the conspiracy that was charged upon him. Domitian publicly cleared him from the accusation, but at the sametime required him not to withdraw from Rome, till the emperor hadfirst had a private conference with him. To this requisition Apolloniusreplied in the most spirited terms. "I thank your majesty, " said he, "for the justice you have rendered me. But I cannot submit to what yourequire. How can I be secure from the false accusations of theunprincipled informers who infest your court? It is by their meansthat whole towns of your empire are unpeopled, that provinces areinvolved in mourning and tears, your armies are in mutiny, your senatefull of suspicion and alarms, and the islands are crowded with exiles. It is not for myself that I speak, my soul is invulnerable to yourenmity; and it is not given to you by the Gods to become master of mybody. " And, having thus given utterance to the virtuous anguish of hisspirit, he suddenly became invisible in the midst of a full assembly, and was immediately after seen at Puteoli in the neighbourhood ofMount Vesuvius. [134]

Domitian pursued the prophet no further; and he passed shortly afterto Greece, to Ionia, and finally to Ephesus. He every where deliveredlectures as he went, and was attended with crowds of the mostdistinguished auditors, and with the utmost popularity. At length atEphesus, when he was in the midst of an eloquent harangue, he suddenlybecame silent. He seemed as if he saw a spectacle which engrossed allhis attention. His countenance expressed fervour and the mostdetermined purpose. He exclaimed, "Strike the tyrant; strike him!" andimmediately after, raising himself, and addressing the assembly, hesaid, "Domitian is no more; the world is delivered of its bitterestoppressor. "--The next post brought the news that the emperor waskilled at Rome, exactly on the day and at the hour when Apollonius hadthus made known the event at Ephesus. [135]

Nerva succeeded Domitian, between whom and Apollonius there subsistedthe sincerest friendship. The prophet however did not long survivethis event. He was already nearly one hundred years old. But what ismost extraordinary, no one could tell precisely when or where he died. No tomb bore the record of his memory; and his biographer inclines tothe 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 emperorAdrian collected his letters, and treated them as an invaluable relic. Alexander Severus placed his statue in his oratory, together withthose of Jesus Christ, Abraham and Orpheus, to whom he was accustomeddaily to perform the ceremonies of religion. [138] Vopiscus, in hisLife of Aurelian, [139] relates that this emperor had determined torase the city of Tyana, but that Apollonius, whom he knew from hisstatues, appeared to him, and said, "Aurelian, if you would conquer, do not think of the destruction of my citizens: Aurelian, if you wouldreign, abstain from the blood of the innocent: Aurelian, if you wouldconquer, distinguish yourself by acts of clemency. " It was at thedesire of Julia, the mother of Severus, that Philostratus composed thelife of Apollonius, to which he is now principally indebted for hisfame. [140]

The publicity of Apollonius and his miracles has become considerablygreater, from the circumstance of the early enemies of the Christianreligion having instituted a comparison between the miracles of Christand of this celebrated philosopher, for the obvious purpose ofundermining one of the most considerable evidences of the truth ofdivine revelation. It was probably with an indirect view of this sortthat Philostratus was incited by the empress Julia to compose his lifeof this philosopher; and Hierocles, a writer of the time of Dioclesian, appears to have penned an express treatise in the way of a parallelbetween the two, attempting to shew a decisive superiority in themiracles 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 thingthat occurs in the history of his life. St. Augustine and Lactantiushowever have coupled him with Apollonius of Tyana, as one of those whofor their pretended miracles were brought into competition with theauthor of the Christian religion. But this seems to have arisen fromtheir misapprehension respecting his principal work, the Golden Ass, which is a romance detailing certain wonderful transformations, andwhich they appear to have thought was intended as an actual history ofthe life of the author. 

The work however deserves to be cited in this place, as giving acurious representation of the ideas which were then prevalent on thesubjects of magic and witchcraft. The author in the course of hisnarrative says: "When the day began to dawn, I chanced to awake, andbecame desirous to know and see some marvellous and strange things, remembering that I was now in the midst of Thessaly, where, by thecommon report of the world, sorceries and enchantments are mostfrequent. I viewed the situation of the place in which I was; nor wasthere any thing I saw, that I believed to be the same thing which itappeared. Insomuch that the very stones in the street I thought weremen bewitched and turned into that figure, and the birds I heardchirping, the trees without the walls, and the running waters, werechanged from human creatures into the appearances they wore. Ipersuaded myself that the statues and buildings could move, that theoxen and other brute beasts could speak and tell strange tidings, andthat I should see and hear oracles from heaven, conveyed on the beamsof the sun. "

ALEXANDER THE PAPHLAGONIAN. 

At the same time with Apuleius lived Alexander the Paphlagonian, ofwhom so extraordinary an account is transmitted to us by Lucian. Hewas the native of an obscure town, called Abonotica, but was endowedwith all that ingenuity and cunning which enables men most effectuallyto impose upon their fellow-creatures. He was tall of stature, of animpressive aspect, a fair complexion, eyes that sparkled with anawe-commanding fire as if informed by some divinity, and a voice tothe last degree powerful and melodious. To these he added the gracesof carriage and attire. Being born to none of the goods of fortune, heconsidered with himself how to turn these advantages to the greatestaccount; and the plan he fixed upon was that of instituting an oracleentirely under his own direction. He began at Chalcedon on theThracian Bosphorus; but, continuing but a short time there, he used itprincipally as an opportunity for publishing that Aesculapius, withApollo, his father, would in no long time fix his residence atAbonotica. This rumour reached the fellow-citizens of the prophet, whoimmediately began to lay the foundations of a temple for the receptionof the God. In due time Alexander made his appearance; and he so wellmanaged his scheme, that, by means of spies and emissaries whom hescattered in all directions, he not only collected applications to hisprophetic skill from the different towns of Ionia, Cilicia and Galatia, but presently extended his fame to Italy and Rome. For twenty yearsscarcely any oracle of the known world could vie with that ofAbonotica; and the emperor Aurelius himself is said to have relied forthe success of a military expedition upon the predictions of Alexanderthe Paphlagonian. 

Lucian gives, or pretends to give, an account of the manner in whichAlexander gained so extraordinary a success. He says, that this youngman in his preliminary travels, coming to Pella in Macedon, found thatthe environs of this city were distinguished from perhaps all otherparts of the world, by a breed of serpents of extraordinary size andbeauty. Our author adds that these serpents were so tame, that theyinhabited the houses of the province, and slept in bed with thechildren. If you trod upon them, they did not turn again, or shewtokens of anger, and they sucked the breasts of the women to whom itmight be of service to draw off their milk. Lucian says, it wasprobably one of these serpents, that was found in the bed of Olympias, and gave occasion to the tale that Alexander the Great was begotten byJupiter under the form of a serpent. The prophet bought the largestand finest serpent he could find, and conveyed it secretly with himinto Asia. When he came to Abonotica, he found the temple that wasbuilt surrounded with a moat; and he took an opportunity privately ofsinking a goose-egg, which he had first emptied of its contents, inserting instead a young serpent just hatched, and closing it againwith great care. He then told his fellow-citizens that the God wasarrived, and hastening to the moat, scooped up the egg in an egg-cupin presence of the whole assembly. He next broke the shell, and shewedthe young serpent that twisted about his fingers in presence of theadmiring multitude. After this he suffered several days to elapse, andthen, collecting crowds from every part of Paphlagonia, he exhibitedhimself, as he had previously announced he should do, with the fineserpent he had brought from Macedon twisted in coils about theprophet's neck, and its head hid under his arm-pit, while a headartfully formed with linen, and bearing some resemblance to a humanface, protruded itself, and passed for the head of the reptile. Thespectators were beyond measure astonished to see a little embryoserpent, grown in a few days to so magnificent a size, and exhibitingthe features of a human countenance. 

Having thus far succeeded, Alexander did not stop here. He contriveda pipe which passed seemingly into the mouth of the animal, while theother end terminated in an adjoining room, where a man was placedunseen, and delivered the replies which appeared to come from themouth of the serpent. This immediate communication with the God wasreserved for a few favoured suitors, who bought at a high price theenvied distinction. 

The method with ordinary enquirers was for them to communicate theirrequests in writing, which they were enjoined to roll up and carefullyseal; and these scrolls were returned to them in a few days, with theseals apparently unbroken, but with an answer written within, strikingly appropriate to the demand that was preferred. --It is furtherto be observed, that the mouth of the serpent was occasionally openedby means of a horsehair skilfully adjusted for the purpose, at thesame time that by similar means the animal darted out its biforkedtongue to the terror of the amazed bystanders. 

REVOLUTION PRODUCED IN THE HISTORY OF NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT UPONTHE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

It is necessary here to take notice of the great revolution that tookplace under Constantine, nearly three hundred years after the death ofChrist, when Christianity became the established religion of the Romanempire. This was a period which produced a new era in the history ofnecromancy and witchcraft. Under the reign of polytheism, devotion waswholly unrestrained in every direction it might chance to assume. Godsknown and unknown, the spirits of departed heroes, the Gods of heavenand hell, abstractions of virtue or vice, might unblamed be made theobjects of religious worship. Witchcraft therefore, and the invocationof the spirits of the dead, might be practised with toleration; or atall events were not regarded otherwise than as venial deviations fromthe 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 mendreaded the mysterious power of spells and incantations, of potentherbs and nameless rites, which were able to control the eternal orderof the planets, and the voluntary operations of mind, which couldextinguish or recal life, inflame the passions of the soul, blast theworks of creation, and extort from invisible beings and the dead thesecrets of futurity. But under the creed of the unity of the divinenature the case was exceedingly different. Idolatry, and the worshipof other Gods than one, were held to be crimes worthy of the utmostabhorrence and the severest punishment. There was no medium betweenthe worship of heaven and hell. All adoration was to be directed toGod the Creator through the mediation of his only begotten Son; or, ifprayers were addressed to inferior beings, and the glorified spiritsof his saints, at least they terminated in the Most High, were adeprecation of his wrath, a soliciting his favour, and a homage to hisomnipotence. On the other hand sorcery and witchcraft were sins of theblackest dye. In opposition to the one only God, the creator of heavenand earth, was the "prince of darkness, " the "prince of the power ofthe air, " who contended perpetually against the Almighty, and soughtto seduce his creatures and his subjects from their due allegiance. Sorcerers and witches were supposed to do homage and sell themselvesto the devil, than which it was not in the mind of man to conceive agreater enormity, or a crime more worthy to cause its perpetrators tobe exterminated from the face of the earth. The thought of it was ofpower to cause the flesh of man to creep and tingle with horror: andsuch as were prone to indulge their imaginations to the utmost extentof the terrible, found a perverse delight in conceiving thisdepravity, and were but too much disposed to fasten it upon theirfellow-creatures. 

MAGICAL CONSULTATIONS RESPECTING THE LIFE OF THE EMPEROR. 

It was not within the range of possibility, that such a change shouldtake place in the established religion of the empire as that fromPaganism to Christianity, without convulsions and vehement struggle. The prejudices of mankind on a subject so nearly concerned with theirdearest interests and affections must inevitably be powerful andobstinate; and the lucre of the priesthood, together with the stronghold they must necessarily have had on the weakness and superstitionof their flocks, would tend to give force and perpetuity to thecontention. Julian, a man of great ability and unquestionablepatriotism, succeeded to the empire only twenty-four years after thedeath of Constantine; and he employed the most vigorous measures forthe restoration of the ancient religion. But the reign of Julian wasscarcely more than eighteen months in duration: and that of Jovian, his successor, who again unfurled the standard of Christianity, lastedhardly more than half a year. The state of things bore a strikingsimilarity to that of England at the time of the ProtestantReformation, where the opposite faiths of Edward the Sixth and hissister Mary, and the shortness of their reigns, gave preternaturalkeenness to the feelings of the parties, and instigated them to hangwith the most restless anticipation upon the chances of the demise ofthe sovereign, and the consequences, favourable or unfavourable, thatmight arise from a new accession. 

The joint reign of Valentinian and Valens, Christian emperors, had nowlasted several years, when information was conveyed to these princes, and particularly to the latter, who had the rule of Asia, thatnumerous private consultations were held, as to the duration of theirauthority, and the person of the individual who should come after them. The succession of the Roman empire was elective; and consequentlythere 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 artificiallydisposed in a circle, and that a magic ring, being suspended over thecentre, was conceived to point to the initial letters of the name ofhim who should be the future emperor. Theodorus, a man of most eminentqualifications, and high popularity, was put to death by the jealousyof Valens, on the vague evidence that this kind of trial had indicatedthe early letters of his name. [141] It may easily be imagined, that, where so restless and secret an investigation was employed as to thesuccessor that fate might provide, conspiracy would not always beabsent. Charges of this sort were perpetually multiplied; informerswere eager to obtain favour or rewards by the disclosures theypretended to communicate; and the Christians, who swayed the sceptreof the state, did not fail to aggravate the guilt of those who hadrecourse to these means for satisfying their curiosity, by allegingthat demons were called up from hell to aid in the magic solution. Thehistorians of these times no doubt greatly exaggerate the terror andthe danger, when they say, that the persons apprehended on suchcharges in the great cities outnumbered the peaceable citizens whowere left unsuspected, and that the military who had charge of theprisoners, complained that they were wholly without the power torestrain the flight of the captives, or to control the multitude ofpartisans who insisted on their immediate release. [142] Thepunishments were barbarous and indiscriminate; to be accused wasalmost the same thing as to be convicted; and those were obliged tohold themselves fortunate, who escaped with a fine that in a mannerswallowed up their estates. 

HISTORY OF NECROMANCY IN THE EAST. 

From the countries best known in what is usually styled ancienthistory, in other words from Greece and Rome, and the regions intowhich the spirit of conquest led the people of Rome and Greece, it istime we should turn to the East, and those remoter divisions of theworld, which to them were comparatively unknown. 

With what has been called the religion of the Magi, of Egypt, Persiaand Chaldea, they were indeed superficially acquainted; but for a morefamiliar and accurate knowledge of the East we are chiefly indebted tocertain events of modern history; to the conquests of the Saracens, when they possessed themselves of the North of Africa, made themselvesmasters of Spain, and threatened in their victorious career to subjectFrance to their standard; to the crusades; to the spirit of nauticaldiscovery which broke out in the close of the fifteenth century; andmore recently to the extensive conquests and mighty augmentation ofterritory which have been realised by the English East India Company. 

The religion of Persia was that of Zoroaster and the Magi. WhenArdshir, or Artaxerxes, the founder of the race of the Sassanides, restored the throne of Persia in the year of Christ 226, he calledtogether an assembly of the Magi from all parts of his dominions, andthey are said to have met to the number of eighty thousand. [143]These priests, from a remote antiquity, had to a great degreepreserved their popularity, and had remarkably adhered to theirancient institutions. 

They seem at all times to have laid claim to the power of suspendingthe course of nature, and producing miraculous phenomena. But in sonumerous a body there must have been some whose pretensions were of amore moderate nature, and others who displayed a loftier aspiration. The more ambitious we find designated in their native language by thename of _Jogees_, [144] of the same signification as the Latin_juncti_. 

Their notions of the Supreme Being are said to have been of thehighest and abstrusest character, as comprehending every possibleperfection of power, wisdom and goodness, as purely spiritual in hisessence, and incapable of the smallest variation and change, the sameyesterday, 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, inproportion 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 tosuspend the course of nature, and to produce miraculous phenomena. Forthis purpose it was necessary that they should abstract themselvesfrom every thing mortal, have no human passions or partialities, anddivest themselves as much as possible of all the wants and demands ofour material frame. Zoroaster appears indeed to have preferredmorality to devotion, to have condemned celibacy and fasting, and tohave pronounced, that "he who sows the ground with diligence and care, acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he who should repeatten thousand prayers. " But his followers at least did not abide bythis decision. They found it more practicable to secure to themselvesan elevated reputation by severe observances, rigid self-denial, andthe practice of the most inconceivable mortifications. This excitedwonder and reverence and a sort of worship from the bystander, whichindustry and benevolence do not so assuredly secure. They therefore infrequent instances lacerated their flesh, and submitted to incrediblehardships. They scourged themselves without mercy, wounded theirbodies with lancets and nails, [145] and condemned themselves toremain for days and years unmoved in the most painful attitudes. Itwas no unprecedented thing for them to take their station upon the topof a high pillar; and some are said to have continued in this position, without ever coming down from it, for thirty years. The more theytrampled under foot the universal instincts of our nature, and shewedthemselves superior to its infirmities, the nearer they approached tothe divine essence, and to the becoming one with the Omnipresent. Theywere of consequence the more sinless and perfect; their will becamethe will of the Deity, and they were in a sense invested with, andbecame the mediums of the acts of, his power. The result of all thisis, that they who exercised the art of magic in its genuine andunadulterated form, at all times applied it to purposes of goodnessand benevolence, and that their interference was uniformly the signalof some unequivocal benefit, either to mankind in general, or to thoseindividuals of mankind who were best entitled to their aid. It wastheirs to succour virtue in distress, and to interpose the divineassistance 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 wascalled into action by the Jogees, men who, by an extraordinary meritof whatever sort, had in a certain sense rendered themselves one withthe Deity. But the exercise of magical power was too tempting anendowment, not in some cases to be liable to abuse. Even as we read ofthe angels in heaven, that not all of them stood, and persevered intheir original sinlessness and integrity, so of the Jogees some, partaking of the divine power, were also under the direction of a willcelestial and divine, while others, having derived, we must suppose, amighty and miraculous power from the gift of God, afterwards abused itby applying it to capricious, or, as it should seem, to malignantpurposes. This appears to have been every where essential to thehistory of magic. If those who were supposed to possess it in itswidest extent and most astonishing degree, had uniformly employed itonly in behalf of justice and virtue, they would indeed have beenregarded as benefactors, and been entitled to the reverence and loveof mankind. But the human mind is always prone to delight in theterrible. No sooner did men entertain the idea of what was supernaturaland uncontrolable, than they began to fear it and to deprecate itshostility. They apprehended they knew not what, of the dead returningto life, of invisible beings armed with the power and intention ofexecuting mischief, and of human creatures endowed with the prerogativeof bringing down pestilence and slaughter, of dispensing wealth andpoverty, prosperity and calamity at their pleasure, of causing healthand life to waste away by insensible, but sure degrees, of producinglingering torments, and death in its most fearful form. Accordingly itappears that, as there were certain magicians who were as Godsdispensing benefits to those who best deserved it, so there wereothers, whose only principle of action was caprice, and against whosemalice no innocence and no degree of virtue would prove a defence. Asthe former sort of magicians were styled _Jogees_, and were heldto be the deputies and instruments of infinite goodness, so the othersort were named _Ku-Jogees_, that is, persons who possessing thesame species of ascendancy over the powers of nature, employed it onlyin deeds of malice and wickedness. 

In the mean time these magicians appear to have produced the wonderfuleffects which drew to them the reverence of the vulgar, very frequentlyby the intervention of certain beings of a nature superior to thehuman, who should seem, though ordinarily invisible, to have had thefaculty of rendering themselves visible when they thought proper, andassuming what shape they pleased. These are principally known by thenames of Peris, Dives, [146] and Gins, or Genii. Richardson, in thepreface to his Persian Dictionary, from which our account willprincipally be taken, refers us to what he calls a romance, but fromwhich he, appears to derive the outline of his Persian mythology. Inthis romance Kahraman, a mortal, is introduced in conversation withSimurgh, 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. Shetells him that she has lived to see the world seven times peopled withinhabitants of so many different natures, and seven times depopulated, the former inhabitants having been so often removed, and giving placeto their successors. The beings who occupied the earth previously toman, were distinguished into the Peris and the Dives; and, when theyno longer possessed the earth in chief, they were, as it should seem, still permitted, in an airy and unsubstantial form, and for the mostpart invisibly, to interfere in the affairs of the human race. Thesebeings ruled the earth during seventy-two generations. The lastmonarch, named Jan bin Jan, conducted himself so ill, that God sentthe angel Haris to chastise him. Haris however became intoxicated withpower, and employed his prerogative in the most reprehensible manner. God therefore at length created Adam, the first of men, crowning himwith glory and honour, and giving him dominion over all other earthlybeings. He commanded the angels to obey him; but Haris refused, andthe Dives followed his example. The rebels were for the most part sentto hell for their contumacy; but a part of the Dives, whosedisobedience had been less flagrant, were reserved, and allowed for acertain term to walk the earth, and by their temptations to put thevirtue and constancy of man to trial. Henceforth the human race wassecretly surrounded by invisible beings of two species, the Peris, whowere friendly to man, and the Dives, who exercised their ingenuity ininvolving them in error and guilt. The Peris were beautiful andbenevolent, but imperfect and offending beings; they are supposed tohave borne a considerable resemblance to the Fairies of the westernworld. The Dives were hideous in form, and of a malignant disposition. The Peris subsist wholly on perfumes, which the Dives, being of agrosser nature, hold in abhorrence. This mythology is said to havebeen unknown in Arabia till long after Mahomet: the only invisiblebeings we read of in their early traditions are the Gins, which term, though now used for the most part as synonimous with Dives, originallysignified nothing more than certain infernal fiends of stupendouspower, whose agency was hostile to man. 

There was perpetual war between the Peris and the Dives, whose properhabitation was Kaf, or Caucasus, a line of mountains which wassupposed to reach round the globe. In these wars the Peris generallycame off with the worst; and in that case they are represented in thetraditional tales of the East, as applying to some gallant and heroicmortal to reinforce their exertions. The warriors who figure in thesenarratives appear all to have been ancient Persian kings. Tahmuras, one of the most celebrated of them, is spoken of as mounting uponSimurgh, surrounded with talismans and enchanted armour, and furnishedwith a sword the dint of which nothing could resist. He proceeds toKaf, or Ginnistan, and defeats Arzshank, the chief of the Dives, butis defeated in turn by a more formidable competitor. The war appearsto be carried on for successive ages with alternate advantage anddisadvantage, 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 havecontributed their quota of chivalry and romance, of heroic achievementsand miraculous events, of monsters and dragons, of amulets andenchantment, and all those incidents which most rouse the imagination, and are calculated to instil into generous and enterprising youth acourage the most undaunted and invincible. 

GENERAL SILENCE OF THE EAST RESPECTING INDIVIDUAL NECROMANCERS. 

Asia has been more notorious than perhaps any other division of theglobe for the vast multiplicity and variety of its narratives ofsorcery and magic. I have however been much disappointed in the thingI looked for in the first place, and that is, in the individualadventures of such persons as might be supposed to have gained a highdegree of credit and reputation for their skill in exploits of magic. Where the professors are many (and they have been perhaps no where sonumerous as those of magic in the East), it is unavoidable but thatsome should have been more dextrous than others, more eminently giftedby nature, more enthusiastic and persevering in the prosecution oftheir purpose, and more fortunate in awakening popularity andadmiration among their contemporaries. In the instances of ApolloniusTyanaeus and others among the ancients, and of Cornelius Agrippa, RogerBacon and Faust among the moderns, we are acquainted with manybiographical particulars of their lives, and can trace with somedegree of accuracy, their peculiarities of disposition, and observehow they were led gradually from one study and one mode of action toanother. But the magicians of the East, so to speak, are mereabstractions, not characterised by any of those habits whichdistinguish one individual of the human race from another, and havingthose marking traits and petty lineaments which make the person, as itwere, start up into life while he passes before our eyes. They aremerely reported to us as men prone to the producing great signs andwonders, 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 calledMocanna. 

ROCAIL. 

The first of these however is scarcely to be called an exception, aslying beyond the limits of all credible history, Rocail is said tohave been the younger brother of Seth, the son of Adam. A Dive, orgiant of mount Caucasus, being hard pressed by his enemies, sought asusual among the sons of men for aid that might extricate him out ofhis difficulties. He at length made an alliance with Rocail, by whoseassistance he arrived at the tranquillity he desired, and who inconsequence became his grand vizier, or prime minister. He governedthe dominions of his principal for many years with great honour andsuccess; but, ultimately perceiving the approaches of old age anddeath, he conceived a desire to leave behind him a monument worthy ofhis achievements in policy and war. He according erected, we are nottold by what means, a magnificent palace, and a sepulchre equallyworthy of admiration. But what was most entitled to notice, he peopledthis palace with statues of so extraordinary a quality, that theymoved and performed all the functions and offices of living men, sothat every one who beheld them would have believed that they wereactually informed with souls, whereas in reality all they did was bythe power of magic, in consequence of which, though they were in factno 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 followersof Mahomet. To inspire the greater awe into the minds of hissupporters, he pretended that he was the Most High God, the creator ofheaven and earth, under one of the different forms by which he has insuccessive ages become incarnate, and made himself manifest to hiscreatures. He distinguished himself by the peculiarity of alwayswearing a thick and impervious veil, by which, according to hisfollowers, he covered the dazzling splendour of his countenance, whichwas so great that no mortal could behold it and live, but that, according to his enemies, only served to conceal the hideousness ofhis features, too monstrously deformed to be contemplated withouthorror. One of his miracles, which seems the most to have beeninsisted 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 diffusedits beams for many miles around. His followers were enthusiasticallydevoted to his service, and he supported his authority unquestionedfor a number of years. At length a more formidable opponent appeared, and after several battles he became obliged to shut himself up in astrong fortress. Here however he was so straitly besieged as to bedriven to the last despair, and, having administered poison to hiswhole garrison, he prepared a bath of the most powerful ingredients, which, when he threw himself into it, dissolved his frame, even to thevery bones, so that nothing remained of him but a lock of his hair. Heacted thus, with the hope that it would be believed that he wasmiraculously taken up into heaven; nor did this fail to be the effecton the great body of his adherents. [148]

ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS. 

The most copious record of stories of Asiatic enchantment that wepossess, is contained in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; to whichwe may add the Persian Tales, and a few other repositories of Orientaladventures. It is true that these are delivered to us in a garb offiction; but they are known to present so exact a picture of Easternmanners and customs, and so just a delineation of the follies, theweaknesses and credulity of the races of men that figure in them, that, in the absence of materials of a strictly historical sort of which wehave to complain, they may not inadequately supply the place, and mayfurnish us with a pretty full representation of the ideas of sorceryand magic which for centuries were entertained in this part of theworld. They have indeed one obvious defect, which it is proper thereader should keep constantly in mind. The mythology and groundwork ofthe whole is Persian: but the narrator is for the most part aMahometan. Of consequence the ancient Fire-worshippers, though theycontribute the entire materials, and are therefore solely entitled toour gratitude and deference for the abundant supply they have furnishedto our curiosity, are uniformly treated in these books with disdainand contumely as unworthy of toleration, while the comparative upstartrace of the believers in the Koran are held out to us as the onlyenlightened and upright among the sons of men. 

Many of the matters most currently related among these supernaturalphenomena, are tales of transformation. A lady has two sisters of themost profligate and unprincipled character. They have originally thesame share of the paternal inheritance as herself. But they waste itin profusion and folly, while she improves her portion by goodjudgment and frugality. Driven to the extremity of distress, theyhumble themselves, and apply to her for assistance. She generouslyimparts to them the same amount of wealth that they originallypossessed, and they are once more reduced to poverty. This happensagain and again. At length, finding them incapable of discretion, sheprevails on them to come and live with her. By wearisome and ceaselessimportunity they induce her to embark in a mercantile enterprise. Hereshe meets with a prince, who had the misfortune to be born in a regionof fire-worshippers, but was providentially educated by a Mahometannurse. Hence, when his countrymen were by divine vengeance all turnedinto stones, he alone was saved alive. The lady finds him in thissituation, endowed with sense and motion amidst a petrified city, andthey immediately fall in love with each other. She brings him awayfrom this melancholy scene, and together they go on board the vesselwhich had been freighted by herself and her sisters. But the sistersbecome envious of her good fortune, and conspire, while she and theprince are asleep, to throw them overboard. The prince is drowned; butthe lady with great difficulty escapes. She finds herself in a desertisland, not far from the place where she had originally embarked onher adventure; and, having slept off the fatigues she had encountered, beholds on her awaking a black woman with an agreeable countenance, afairy, who leads in her hand two black bitches coupled together with acord. These black bitches are the lady's sisters, thus metamorphosed, as a punishment for their ingratitude and cruelty. The fairy conveysher through the air to her own house in Bagdad, which she finds wellstored with all sorts of commodities, and delivers to her the twoanimals, with an injunction that she is to whip them every day at acertain hour as a further retribution for their crimes. This wasaccordingly punctually performed; and, at the end of each day'spenance, 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. Havingpersevered for a length of time in this discipline, the offenders arefinally, by a counter-incantation, restored to their original forms, being by the severities they had suffered entirely cured of the viceswhich 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 fornavigation and naval discoveries; and, in one of his voyages, havingbeen driven by stress of weather into unknown seas, he suddenly findshimself attracted towards a vast mountain of loadstone, which first, by virtue of the iron and nails in the ship, draws the vessel towardsitself, and then, by its own intrinsic force, extracts the nails, sothat 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 samecalamity; and these nails at once preserve and augment the fatal powerof the mountain. The prince only escapes; and he finds himself in adesolate 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 enchantedarrow, and thus to dissolve the charm which had been fatal tothousands. From the desolate island he embarked on board a boat, witha single rower, a man of metal, and would have been safely conveyed tohis native country, had he not inadvertently pronounced the name ofGod, that he had been warned not to do, and which injunction he hadobserved many days. On this the boat immediately sunk; but the princewas preserved, who comes into a desolate island, where he finds butone inhabitant, a youth of fifteen. This youth is hid in a cavern, ithaving 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 greatfriendship is struck up between the unsuspecting youth and the prince, who nevertheless fulfils the prediction, having by a pure accidentkilled the youth on the fiftieth day. He next arrives at a province ofthe main land, where he visits a castle, inhabited by ten veryagreeable young men, each blind of the right eye. He dwells with themfor a month, and finds, after a day of pleasant entertainment, thateach evening they do penance in squalidness and ashes. His curiosityis greatly excited to obtain an explanation of what he saw, but thisthey 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 determinesto make the experiment; and by their direction, after certainpreparations, is flown away with through the air by a roc, a stupendousbird, that is capable in the same manner of carrying off an elephant. By this means he is brought to a castle of the most extraordinarymagnificence, inhabited by forty ladies of exquisite beauty. Withthese ladies he lives for eleven months in a perpetual succession ofdelights. But in the twelfth month they tell him, that they areobliged to leave him till the commencement of the new year. In themean time they give him for his amusement the keys of one hundredapartments, all but one of which he is permitted to open. He isdelighted with the wonders of these apartments till the last day. Onthat day he opens the forbidden room, where the rarity that moststrikes him is a black horse of admirable shape and appearance, witha 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 atlength, being touched with a switch, spreads a pair of wings which theprince had not before perceived, and mounts to an amazing height inthe air. The horse finally descends on the terrace of a castle, wherehe throws his rider, and leaves him, having first dashed out his righteye with a sudden swing of his tail. The prince goes down into thecastle, and to his surprise finds himself in company with the tenyoung men, blind of one eye, who had passed through the same adventureas 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 arefrom the Persian Tales. --Fadlallah, king of Mousel, contracted anintimacy with a young dervise, a species of Turkish friar, who makes avow of perpetual poverty. The dervise, to ingratiate himself the morewith the prince, informed him of a secret he possessed, by means of acertain incantation, of projecting his soul into the body of any deadanimal he thought proper. 

To convince the king that this power was no empty boast, he offered toquit his own body, and animate that of a doe, which Fadlallah had justkilled in hunting. He accordingly executed what he proposed, tookpossession of the body of the doe, displayed the most surprisingagility, approached the king, fawning on him with every expression ofendearment, and then, after various bounds, deserting the limbs of theanimal, and repossessing his own frame, which during the experimenthad lain breathless on the ground. Fadlallah became earnest to possessthe secret of the dervise; and, after some demurs, it was communicatedto him. The king took possession of the body of the doe; but histreacherous confident no sooner saw the limbs of Fadlallah stretchedsenseless on the ground, than he conveyed his own spirit into them, and, bending his bow, sought to destroy the life of his defencelessvictim. The king by his agility escaped; and the dervise, resorting tothe palace, took possession of the throne, and of the bed of the queen, Zemroude, with whom Fadlallah was desperately enamoured. The firstprecaution of the usurper was to issue a decree that all the deerwithin his dominions should be killed, hoping by this means to destroythe rightful sovereign. But the king, aware of his danger, had desertedthe body of the doe, and entered that of a dead nightingale that layin his path. In this disguise he hastened to the palace, and placedhimself in a wide-spreading tree, which grew immediately before theapartment of Zemroude. Here he poured out his complaints and the griefthat penetrated his soul in such melodious notes, as did not fail toattract the attention of the queen. She sent out her bird-catchers tomake captive the little warbler; and Fadlallah, who desired no better, easily suffered himself to be made their prisoner. In this newposition he demonstrated by every gesture of fondness his partialityto the queen; but if any of her women approached him, he pecked atthem in anger, and, when the impostor made his appearance, could notcontain the vehemence of his rage. It happened one night that thequeen's lap-dog died; and the thought struck Fadlallah that he wouldanimate the corpse of this animal. The next morning Zemroude found herfavourite bird dead in his cage, and immediately became inconsolable. Never, she said, was so amiable a bird; he distinguished her from allothers; he seemed even to entertain a passion for her; and she felt asif she could not survive his loss. The dervise in vain tried everyexpedient to console her. At length he said, that, if she pleased, hewould cause her nightingale to revive every morning, and entertain herwith his tunes as long as she thought proper. The dervise accordinglylaid himself on a sopha, and by means of certain cabalistic words, transported his soul into the body of the nightingale, and began tosing. Fadlallah watched his time; he lay in a corner of the roomunobserved; but no sooner had the dervise deserted his body, than theking proceeded to take possession of it. The first thing he did was tohasten to the cage, to open the door with uncontrolable impatience, and, seizing the bird, to twist off its head. Zemroude, amazed, askedhim what he meant by so inhuman an action. Fadlallah in reply relatedto her all the circumstances that had befallen him; and the queenbecame so struck with agony and remorse that she had suffered herperson, however innocently, to be polluted by so vile an impostor, that she could not get over the recollection, but pined away and diedfrom a sense of the degradation she had endured. 

But a much more perplexing and astounding instance of transformationoccurs in the history of the Young King of Thibet and the Princess ofthe Naimans. The sorcerers in this case are represented as, withoutany intermediate circumstance to facilitate their witchcraft, havingthe ability to assume the form of any one they please, and inconsequence to take the shape of one actually present, producing aduplication the most confounding that can be imagined. --Mocbel, theson of an artificer of Damascus, but whose father had bequeathed himconsiderable wealth, contrived to waste his patrimony and his youthtogether in profligate living with Dilnouaze, a woman of dissolutemanners. Finding themselves at once poor and despised, they hadrecourse to the sage Bedra, the most accomplished magician of thedesert, and found means to obtain her favour. In consequence shepresented them with two rings, which had the power of enabling them toassume the likeness of any man or woman they please. Thus equipped, Mocbel heard of the death of Mouaffack, prince of the Naimans, who wassupposed to have been slain in a battle, and whose body had never beenfound. The niece of Mouaffack now filled the throne; and under thesecircumstances Mocbel conceived the design of personating the absentMouaffack, exciting a rebellion among his countrymen, and takingpossession of the throne. In this project he succeeded; and theprincess driven into exile, took refuge in the capital of Thibet. Herethe king saw her, fell in love with her, and espoused her. Being madeacquainted with her history, he resolved to re-conquer her dominions, and sent a defiance to the usurper. Mocbel, terrified at the thoughtof so formidable an invader, first pretended to die, and then, withDilnouaze, who during his brief reign had under the form of a beautifulwoman personated his queen, proceeded in his original form to thecapital of Thibet. Here his purpose was to interrupt the happiness ofthose who had disturbed him in his deceitful career. Accordingly onenight, when the queen, previously to proceeding to her repose, hadshut herself up in her closet to read certain passages of the Alcoran, Dilnouaze, assuming her form with the minutest exactness, hastened toplace 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'sbedchamber, Mocbel watched his time, and placed himself, under theform of a frightful apparition, directly in the queen's path. Shestarted at the sight, and uttered a piercing shriek. The kingrecognised 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 thegallery, at the same moment that he had left her, undressed and in bed. They proceeded to the chamber to unravel the mystery. Here a contentionoccurred between the real and the seeming queen, each charging theother with imposture. The king turned from one to the other, and wasunable to decide between their pretensions. The courtiers and theladies of the bedchamber were called, and all were perplexed withuncertainty and doubt. At length they determine in favour of the falsequeen, It was then proposed that the other should be burned for asorceress. The king however forbade this. He was not yet altogetherdecided; and could not resolve to consign his true queen, as it mightpossibly be, to a cruel death. He was therefore content to strip herof her royal robes, to clothe her in rags, and thrust her ignominiouslyfrom his palace. 

Treachery however was not destined to be ultimately triumphant. Theking one day rode out a hunting; and Mocbel, that he might the betterdeceive the guards of the palace, seizing the opportunity, assumed hisfigure, and went to bed to Dilnouaze. The king meanwhile recollectedsomething of importance, that he had forgotten before he went out tohunt, and returning upon his steps, proceeded to the royal chamber. Here to his utter confusion he found a man in bed with his queen, andthat man to his greater astonishment the exact counterpart of himself. Furious at the sight, he immediately drew his scymetar. The mancontrived to escape down the backstairs. The woman however remained inbed; and, stretching out her hands to intreat for mercy, the kingstruck off the hand which had the ring on it, and she immediatelyappeared, as she really was, a frightful hag. She begged for life; and, that she might mollify his rage, explained the mystery, told him thatit was by means of a ring that she effected the delusion, and that bya similar enchantment her paramour had assumed the likeness of theking. The king meanwhile was inexorable, and struck off her head. Henext turned in pursuit of the adulterer. Mocbel however had had timeto mount on horseback. But the king mounted also; and, being thebetter horseman, in a short time overtook his foe. The impostor didnot dare to cope with him, but asked his life; and the king, considering him as the least offender of the two, pardoned him uponcondition of his surrendering the ring, in consequence of which hepassed 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 peopleof the East, is that of a man who married a sorceress, without beingin any way conscious of her character in that respect. She wassufficiently agreeable in her person, and he found for the most partno reason to be dissatisfied with her. But he became uneasy at thestrangeness of her behaviour, whenever they sat together at meals. Thehusband provided a sufficient variety of dishes, and was anxious thathis wife should eat and be refreshed. But she took scarcely anynourishment. He set before her a plate of rice. From this plate shetook somewhat, grain by grain; but she would taste of no other dish. The husband remonstrated with her upon her way of eating, but to nopurpose; she still went on the same. He knew it was impossible for anyone 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 verysoftly, and put on her clothes. He watched, but made as if he sawnothing. Presently she opened the door, and went out. He followed herunperceived, by moonlight, and tracked her into a place of graves. Here to his astonishment he saw her joined by a Goule, a sort ofwandering demon, which is known to infest ruinous buildings, and fromtime to time suddenly rushes out, seizes children and other defencelesspeople, strangles, and devours them. Occasionally, for want of otherfood, this detested race will resort to churchyards, and, digging upthe bodies of the newly-buried, gorge their appetites upon the fleshof 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 upjoint by joint, they feasted voraciously, and, having satisfied theirappetites, cast the remainder into the grave again, and covered it upas before. The husband now withdrew unobserved to his bed, and thewife followed presently after. He however conceived a horribleloathing of such a wife; and she discovers that he is acquainted withher dreadful secret. They can no longer live together; and ametamorphosis followed. She turned him into a dog, which by ill usageshe drove from her door; and he, aided by a benevolent sorceress, first recovers his natural shape, and then, having changed her into amare, by perpetual hard usage and ill treatment vents his detestationof the character he had discovered in her. 

ARABIAN NIGHTS. 

A compilation of more vigorous imagination and more exhaustlessvariety than the Arabian Nights, perhaps never existed. Almost everything that can be conceived of marvellous and terrific is there to befound. When we should apprehend the author or authors to have come toan end of the rich vein in which they expatiate, still new wonders arepresented to us in endless succession. Their power of comic exhibitionis not less extraordinary than their power of surprising andterrifying. The splendour of their painting is endless; and the mindof the reader is roused and refreshed by shapes and colours for evernew. 

RESEMBLANCE OF THE TALES OF THE EAST AND OF EUROPE. 

It is characteristic of this work to exhibit a faithful and particularpicture of Eastern manners, customs, and modes of thinking and acting. And yet, now and then, it is curious to observe the coincidence ofOriental 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 theother. 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 hopesand fears, aspirations and alarms. 

In the Third Voyage of Sinbad he arrives at an island were he findsone man, a negro, as tall as a palm-tree, and with a single eye in themiddle of his forehead. He takes up the crew, one by one, and selectsthe fattest as first to be devoured. This is done a second time. Atlength nine of the boldest seize on a spit, while he lay on his backasleep, and, having heated it red-hot, thrust it into his eye. --Thisis 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 thesuspicion of murdering him, is restored to life again, is nearly thebest known of the Arabian Tales. The merry jest of Dan Hew, Monk ofLeicester, who "once was hanged, and four times slain, " bears a verystriking resemblance to this. [149]

A similar resemblance is to be found, only changing the sex of theaggressor, between the well known tale of Patient Grizzel, and that ofCheheristany 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 himupon condition that she shall do what she pleases, and he shall neverdoubt that what she does is right. She bears him a son, beautiful asthe day, and throws him into the fire. She bears him a daughter, andgives her to a white bitch, who runs away with her, and disappears. The emperor goes to war with the Moguls; and the queen utterlydestroys the provisions of his army. But the fire was a salamander, and the bitch a fairy, who rear the children in the most admirablemanner; and the provisions of the army were poisoned by a traitor, andare in a miraculous manner replaced by such as were wholesome and ofthe most invigorating qualities. 

CAUSES OF HUMAN CREDULITY. 

Meanwhile, though the stories above related are extracted from bookspurely and properly of fiction, they exhibit so just a delineation ofEastern manners and habits of mind, that, in the defect of materialsstrictly historical, they may to a certain degree supply the place. The principal feature they set before us is credulity and a love ofthe marvellous. This is ever found characteristic of certain ages ofthe world; but in Asia it prevails in uninterrupted continuity. Wherever learning and the exercise of the intellectual faculties firstshew themselves, there mystery and a knowledge not to be communicatedbut to the select few must be expected to appear. Wisdom in itsnatural and genuine form seeks to diffuse itself; but in the East onthe contrary it is only valued in proportion to its rarity. Those whodevoted themselves to intellectual improvement, looked for it ratherin solitary abstraction, than in free communication with the minds ofothers; and, when they condescended to the use of the organ of speech, they spoke in enigmas and ambiguities, and in phrases better adaptedto produce wonder and perplexity, than to enlighten and instruct. Whenthe more consummate instructed the novice, it was by slow degrees only, and through the medium of a long probation. In consequence of thisstate of things the privileged few conceived of their own attainmentswith an over-weening pride, and were puffed up with a sense ofsuperiority; while the mass of their fellow-creatures looked to themwith astonishment; and, agreeably to the Oriental creed of twoindependent and contending principles of good and of evil, regardedthese select and supernaturally endowed beings anon as a source of themost enviable blessings, and anon as objects of unmingled apprehensionand terror, before whom their understandings became prostrate, andevery thing that was most appalling and dreadful was most easilybelieved. In this state superstition unavoidably grew infectious; andthe more the seniors inculcated and believed, the more the imaginationof the juniors became a pliant and unresisting slave. 

The Mantra, or charm, consisting of a few unintelligible wordsrepeated again and again, always accompanied, or rather preceded, thesupposed miraculous phenomenon that was imposed on the ignorant. Waterwas flung over, or in the face of, the thing or person upon whom themiraculous effect was to be produced. Incense was burned; and suchchemical substances were set on fire, the dazzling appearance of whichmight confound the senses of the spectators. The whole consisted inthe 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 asort of slight of hand, and by changes too rapid to be followed by anunpractised eye, to produce phenomena, wholly unanticipated, and thatcould not be accounted for. Superstition was further an essentialingredient; and this is never perfect, but where the superior and moreactive party regards himself as something more than human, and theparty acted upon beholds in the other an object of religious reverence, or tingles with apprehension of he knows not what of fearful andcalamitous. The state of the party acted on, and indeed of either, isnever complete, till the senses are confounded, what is imagined is sopowerful as in a manner to exclude what is real, in a word, till, asthe poet expresses it, "function is smothered in surmise, and nothingis, but what is not. "

It is in such a state of the faculties that it is entirely natural andsimple, that one should mistake a mere dumb animal for one's relativeor near connection in disguise. And, the delusion having once begun, the deluded individual gives to every gesture and motion of limb andeye an explanation that forwards the deception. It is in the same waythat in ignorant ages the notion of changeling has been produced. Theweak and fascinated mother sees every feature with a turn ofexpression unknown before, all the habits of the child appeardifferent and strange, till the parent herself denies her offspring, and sees in the object so lately cherished and doated on, a monsteruncouth and horrible of aspect. 

DARK AGES OF EUROPE

In Europe we are slenderly supplied with historians, and withnarratives exhibiting the manners and peculiarities of successiveraces of men, from the time of Theodosius in the close of the fourthcentury of the Christian era to the end of the tenth. Mankind duringthat period were in an uncommon degree wrapped up in ignorance andbarbarism. We may be morally sure that this was an interval beyond allothers, in which superstition and an implicit faith in supernaturalphenomena predominated over this portion of the globe. The laws ofnature, and the everlasting chain of antecedents and consequents, werelittle recognised. In proportion as illumination and science haverisen on the world, men have become aware that the succession ofevents is universally operating, and that the frame of men and animalsis every where the same, modified only by causes not less unchangeablein their influence than the internal constitution of the frame itself. We have learned to explain much; we are able to predict and investigatethe course of things; and the contemplative and the wise are not lessintimately and profoundly persuaded that the process of natural eventsis sure and simple and void of all just occasion for surprise and thelifting up of hands in astonishment, where we are not yet familiarlyacquainted with the developement of the elements of things, as wherewe are. What we have not yet mastered, we feel confidently persuadedthat the investigators that come after us will reduce to rules notless obvious, familiar and comprehensible, than is to us the rising ofthe sun, or the progress of animal and vegetable life from the firstbud 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 mostobvious, laws of nature were acknowledged, every event that was not ofalmost daily occurrence, was contemplated with more or less of awe andalarm. These men "saw God in clouds, and heard him in the wind. "Instead of having regard only to that universal Providence, which actsnot by partial impulses, but by general laws, they beheld, as theyconceived, the immediate hand of the Creator, or rather, upon mostoccasions, of some invisible intelligence, sometimes beneficent, butperhaps oftener malignant and capricious, interfering, to baffle theforesight of the sage, to humble the pride of the intelligent, and toplace the discernment of the most gifted upon a level with thedrivellings 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 thereforefrequently imagined that they found, a gifted race, that had commandover the elements, held commerce with the invisible world, and couldproduce the most stupendous and terrific effects. In man, as we nowbehold him, we can ascertain his nature, the strength and pliabilityof his limbs, the accuracy of his eye, the extent of his intellectualacquisitions, and the subtlety of his powers of thought, and cantherefore in a great measure anticipate what we have to hope or tofear 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 menwere subject to no recognised laws: and therefore nothing thatimagination could suggest, exceeded the bounds of credibility. Somemen were supposed to be so rarely endowed that "a thousand liveriedangels" waited on them invisibly, to execute their behests for thebenefit of those they favoured; while, much oftener, the perverse andcrookedly disposed, who delighted in mischief, would bring on those towhom, for whatever capricious reason, they were hostile, calamities, which no sagacity could predict, and no merely human power couldbaffle and resist. 

After the tenth century enough of credulity remained, to display inglaring colours the aberrations of the human mind, and to furnishforth tales which will supply abundant matter for the remainder ofthis volume. But previously to this period, we may be morally sure, reigned most eminently the sabbath of magic and sorcery, when nothingwas too wild, and remote from the reality of things, not to meet withan eager welcome, when terror and astonishment united themselves witha nameless delight, and the auditor was alarmed even to a sort ofmadness, at the same time that he greedily demanded an ever-freshsupply of congenial aliment. The more the known laws of the universeand the natural possibility of things were violated, with the strongermarks of approbation was the tale received: while the dextrousimpostor, aware of the temper of his age, and knowing how mostcompletely to blindfold and lead astray his prepared dupes, made arich harvest of the folly of his contemporaries. But I am wrong tocall him an impostor. He imposed upon himself, no less than on thegaping crowd. His discourses, even in the act of being pronounced, wonupon his own ear; and the dexterity with which he baffled theobservation of others, bewildered his ready sense, and filled him withastonishment at the magnitude of his achievements. The accomplishedadventurer was always ready to regard himself rather as a sublimebeing endowed with great and stupendous attributes, than as a pitifultrickster. 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 ofoblivion. A thousand tales, each more wonderful than the other, markedthe year as it glided away. Every valley had its fairies; and everyhill its giants. No solitary dwelling, unpeopled with humaninhabitants, was without its ghosts; and no church-yard in the absenceof 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 beenpreserved. The greater part of them are swallowed up in that gulf ofoblivion, to which are successively consigned after a brief intervalall events as they occur, except so far as their memory is preservedthrough the medium of writing and records. From the eleventh centurycommences a stream of historical relation, which since that time neverentirely eludes the search of the diligent enquirer. Before thisperiod 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 inducedto look back upon the ages that had preceded them, and to collect hereand there from tradition any thing that appeared especially worthy ofnotice. Of course any information they could glean was wild anduncertain, deeply stamped with the credulity and wonder of an ignorantperiod, and still increasing in marvellousness and absurdity fromevery hand it passed through, and from every tongue which repeated it. 

MERLIN. 

One of the most extraordinary personages whose story is thus deliveredto us, is Merlin. He appears to have been contemporary with the periodof the Saxon invasion of Britain in the latter part of the fifthcentury; but probably the earliest mention of his name by any writerthat has come down to us is not previous to the eleventh. We may theless wonder therefore at the incredible things that are reported ofhim. He is first mentioned in connection with the fortune of Vortigern, who is represented by Geoffrey of Monmouth as at that time king ofEngland. The Romans having withdrawn their legions from this island, the unwarlike Britons found themselves incompetent to repel theinvasions of the uncivilised Scots and Picts, and Vortigern perceivedno remedy but in inviting the Saxons from the northern continent tohis aid. The Saxons successfully repelled the invader; but, havingdone this, they refused to return home. They determined to settle here, and, having taken various towns, are represented as at length invitingVortigern and his principal nobility to a feast near Salisbury underpretence of a peace, where they treacherously slew three hundred ofthe chief men of the island, and threw Vortigern into chains. Here, byway of purchasing the restoration of his liberty, they induced him toorder the surrender of London, York, Winchester, and other principaltowns. Having lost all his strong holds, he consulted his magicians asto how he was to secure himself from this terrible foe. They advisedhim to build an impregnable tower, and pointed out the situation whereit was to be erected. But so unfortunately did their advice succeed, that all the work that his engineers did in the building one day, theearth swallowed, so that no vestige was to be found on the next. Themagicians were consulted again on this fresh calamity; and they toldthe king that that there was no remedying this disaster, other than bycementing 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 thisvictim; and at length by strange good fortune they lighted on Merlinnear the town of Caermarthen, who told them that his mother was thedaughter of a king, but that she had been got with child of him by abeing of an angelic nature, and not a man. No sooner had they receivedthis information, than they seized him, and hurried him away toVortigern as the victim required. But in presence of the king hebaffled the magicians; he told the king that the ground they hadchosen for his tower, had underneath it a lake, which being drained, they would find at the bottom two dragons of inextinguishablehostility, that under that form figured the Britons and Saxons, all ofwhich 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 thesekings. To Uther he exhibited a very criminal sort of compliance. Utherbecame 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 metamorphoseUther into the form of the duke. The duke had shut up his wife forsafety in a very strong tower; but Uther in his new form gainedunsuspected entrance; and the virtuous Igerna received him to herembraces, by means of which he begot Arthur, afterwards the mostrenowned sovereign of this island. Uther now contrived that the duke, her husband, should be slain in battle, and immediately married thefair Igerna, and made her his queen. 

The next exploit of Merlin was with the intent to erect a monumentthat should last for ever, to the memory of the three hundred Britishnobles that were massacred by the Saxons. This design produced theextraordinary edifice called Stonehenge. These mighty stones, which byno human power could be placed in the position in which we behold them, had originally been set up in Africa, and afterwards by means unknownwere transported to Ireland. Merlin commanded that they should becarried over the sea, and placed where they now are, on SalisburyPlain. The workmen, having received his directions, exerted all theirpower and skill, but could not move one of them. Merlin, having forsome time watched their exertions, at length applied his magic; and tothe amazement of every one, the stones spontaneously quitted thesituation in which they had been placed, rose to a great height in theair, and then pursued the course which Merlin had prescribed, finallysettling themselves in Wiltshire, precisely in the position in whichwe now find them, and which they will for ever retain. 

The last adventure recorded of Merlin proceeded from a project heconceived for surrounding his native town of Caermarthen with a brazenwall. He committed the execution of this project to a multitude offiends, who laboured upon the plan underground in a neighbouringcavern. [150] In the mean while Merlin had become enamoured of asupernatural being, called the Lady of the Lake. The lady had longresisted his importunities, and in fact had no inclination to yield tohis suit. One day however she sent for him in great haste; and Merlinwas of course eager to comply with her invitation. Nevertheless, before he set out, he gave it strictly in charge to the fiends, thatthey 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 hisaddresses. Merlin on the contrary, with the hope to melt her severity, undertook to shew her the wonders of his art. Among the rest heexhibited to her observation a tomb, formed to contain two bodies; atthe same time teaching her a charm, by means of which the sepulchrewould close, and never again be opened. The lady pretended not tobelieve that the tomb was wide enough for its purpose, and inveigledthe credulous Merlin to enter it, and place himself as one dead. Nosooner had she so far succeeded, than she closed the lid of thesepulchre, and pronouncing the charm, rendered it impossible that itshould ever be opened again till the day of judgment. Thus, accordingto the story, Merlin was shut in, a corrupted and putrifying body witha living soul, to which still inhered the faculty of returning inaudible sounds a prophetic answer to such as resorted to it as anoracle. Meanwhile the fiends, at work in the cavern near Caermarthen, mindful of the injunction of their taskmaster, not to suspend theirlabours till his return, proceed for ever in their office; and thetraveller who passes that way, if he lays his ear close to the mouthof the cavern, may hear a ghastly noise of iron chains and brazencaldrons, the loud strokes of the hammer, and the ringing sound of theanvil, intermixed with the pants and groans of the workmen, enough tounsettle the brain and confound the faculties of him that for any timeshall listen to the din. 

As six hundred years elapsed between the time of Merlin and theearliest known records of his achievements, it is impossible topronounce what he really pretended to perform, and how great were theadditions which successive reporters have annexed to the wonders ofhis art, more than the prophet himself perhaps ever dreamed of. Inlater times, when the historians were the contemporaries of thepersons by whom the supposed wonders were achieved, or the persons whohave for these causes been celebrated have bequeathed certain literaryproductions to posterity, we may be able to form some conjecture as tothe degree in which the heroes of the tale were deluding or deluded, and may exercise our sagacity in the question by what strangepeculiarity of mind adventures which we now hold to be impossibleobtained so general belief. But in a case like this of Merlin, wholived in a time so remote from that in which his history is firstknown to have been recorded, it is impracticable to determine at whattime the fiction which was afterwards generally received began to bereported, or whether the person to whom the miracles were imputed everheard or dreamed of the extraordinary things he is represented ashaving achieved. 

ST. DUNSTAN. 

An individual scarcely less famous in the dark ages, and who, likeMerlin, lived in confidence with successive kings, was St. Dunstan. Hewas born and died in the tenth century. It is not a little instructiveto employ our attention upon the recorded adventures, and incidentsoccurring in the lives, of such men, since, though plentifullyinterspersed with impossible tales, they serve to discover to us thetastes and prepossessions of the times in which these men lived, andthe sort of accomplishments which were necessary to their success. 

St. Dunstan is said to have been a man of distinguished birth, and tohave spent the early years of his life in much licentiousness. He washowever doubtless a person of the most extraordinary endowments ofnature. Ambition early lighted its fire in his bosom; and he displayedthe greatest facility in acquiring any talent or art on which he fixedhis attention. His career of profligacy was speedily arrested by adangerous illness, in which he was given over by his physicians. Whilehe lay apparently at the point of death, an angel was suddenly seen, bringing a medicine to him which effected his instant cure. The saintimmediately rose from his bed, and hastened to the nearest church togive God thanks for his recovery. As he passed along, the devil, surrounded with a pack of black dogs, interposed himself to obstructhis way. Dunstan however intrepidly brandished a rod that he held inhis 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, placedhim before the high altar, where he performed his devotions withsuitable fervour. 

That he might expiate the irregularities of his past life, St. Dunstannow secluded himself entirely from the world, and constructed for hishabitation a cell in the abbey of Glastonbury, so narrow that he couldneither stand upright in it, nor stretch out his limbs in repose. Hetook scarcely so much sustenance as would support life, and mortifiedhis flesh with frequent castigations. 

He did not however pass his time during this seclusion in vacuity andindolence. He pursued his studies with the utmost ardour, and made agreat proficiency in philosophy, divinity, painting, sculpture andmusic. Above all, he was an admirable chemist, excelled in manufacturesof gold and other metals, and was distinguished by a wonderful skillin the art of magic. 

During all these mortifications and the severeness of his industry, heappears to have become a prey to extraordinary visions andimaginations. Among the rest, the devil visited him in his cell, and, thrusting his head in at the window, disturbed the saint with obsceneand blasphemous speeches, and the most frightful contortions of thefeatures of his countenance. Dunstan at length, wearied out with hisperseverance, seized the red-hot tongs with which he was engaged insome chemical experiment, and, catching the devil by the nose, heldhim with the utmost firmness, while Satan filled the wholeneighbourhood for many miles round with his bellowings. Extraordinaryas this may appear, it constitutes one of the most prominent incidentsin the life of the saint; and the representations of it were for everrepeated in ancient carvings, and in the illuminations ofchurch-windows. 

This was the precise period at which the pope and his adherents weregaining the greatest ascendancy in the Christian world. The doctrineof transubstantiation was now in the highest vogue; and along with ita precept still more essential to the empire of the Catholic church, the celibacy of the clergy. This was not at first established withoutvehement struggles. The secular clergy, who were required at once tocast off their wives as concubines, and their children as bastards, found every impulse of nature rising in arms against the mandate. Theregular clergy, or monks, were in obvious rivalship with the seculars, and engrossed to themselves, as much as possible, all promotions anddignities, as well ecclesiastical as civil. St. Augustine, who firstplanted Christianity in this island, was a Benedictine monk; and theBenedictines were for a long time in the highest reputation in theCatholic church. St. Dunstan was also a Benedictine. In his time thequestion of the celibacy of the clergy was most vehemently agitated;and Dunstan was the foremost of the champions of the new institutionin England. The contest was carried on with great vehemence. Many ofthe 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 ofnature it is said would have prevailed, had not Dunstan and hisconfederates called in the influence of miracles to their aid. In oneinstance, a crucifix, fixed in a conspicuous part of the place ofassembly, uttered a voice at the critical moment, saying, "Be steady!you have once decreed right; alter not your ordinances. " At anothertime 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 ofreligion, and might be considered as a zealous, though mistaken, advocate of Christian simplicity and purity. But he was not contentedwith figuring merely as a saint. He insinuated himself into the favourof Edred, the grandson of Alfred, and who, after two or three shortreigns, succeeded to the throne. Edred was an inactive prince, butgreatly under the dominion of religious prejudices; and Dunstan, beingintroduced to him, found him an apt subject for his machinations. Edred first made him abbot of Glastonbury, one of the most powerfulecclesiastical dignities in England, and then treasurer of the kingdom. During the reign of this prince, Dunstan disposed of all ecclesiasticalaffairs, and even of the treasures of the kingdom, at his pleasure. 

But Edred filled the throne only nine years, and was succeeded by Edwyat the early age of seventeen, who is said to have been endowed withevery grace of form, and the utmost firmness and intrepidity of spirit. Dunstan immediately conceived a jealousy of these qualities, and tookan early opportunity to endeavour to disarm them. Edwy entertained apassion for a princess of the royal house, and even proceeded to marryher, though within the degrees forbidden by the canon law. The rest ofthe story exhibits a lively picture of the manners of these barbaroustimes. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, the obedient tool of Dunstan, onthe day of the coronation obtruded himself with his abettor into theprivate apartment, to which the king had retired with his queen, onlyaccompanied by her mother; and here the ambitious abbot, after loadingEdwy with the bitterest reproaches for his shameless sensuality, thrust him back by main force into the hall, where the nobles of thekingdom were still engaged at their banquet. 

The spirited young prince conceived a deep resentment of this unworthytreatment, and, seizing an opportunity, called Dunstan to account formalversation in the treasury during the late king's life-time. Thepriest refused to answer; and the issue was that he was banished therealm. 

But he left behind him a faithful and implicit coadjutor in archbishopOdo. This prelate is said actually to have forced his way with a partyof soldiers into the palace, and, having seized the queen, barbarouslyto have seared her cheeks with a red-hot iron, and sent her off aprisoner to Ireland. He then proceeded to institute all the forms of adivorce, to which the unhappy king was obliged to submit. Meanwhilethe queen, having recovered her beauty, found means to escape, and, crossing the Channel, hastened to join her husband. But here again thepriests manifested the same activity as before. They intercepted thequeen in her journey, and by the most cruel means undertook to makeher 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 thewhole north of England, having rebelled, was placed under the dominionof his brother, a boy of thirteen years of age. In the midst of theseadventures Dunstan returned from the continent, and fearlessly shewedhimself 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 comparativelytranquillity. He made and unmade kings as he pleased. Edgar, thesuccessor of Edwy, discovered the happy medium of energy and authorityas a sovereign, combined with a disposition to indulge the ambitiouspolicy of the priesthood. He was licentious in his amours, withoutlosing a particle of his ascendancy as a sovereign. He however reignedonly a few years; but Dunstan at his death found means to place hiseldest son on the throne under his special protection, in defiance ofthe intrigues of the ambitious Elfrida, the king's second wife, whomoved 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 meansby which ambition climbed to its purposes in the darkness of the tenthcentury. Dunstan was enriched with all those endowments which mightseem in any age to lead to the highest distinction. Yet it wouldappear to have been in vain that he was thus qualified, if he had notstooped to arts that fell in with the gross prejudices of hiscontemporaries. He had continual recourse to the aid of miracles. Hegave into practices of the most rigorous mortification. He studied, and excelled in, all the learning and arts that were then known. Buthis main dependence was on the art of magic. The story of his takingthe devil by the nose with a pair of red-hot tongs, seems to have beenof greater service to him than any other single adventure of his life. In other times he might have succeeded in the schemes of his politicalambition by seemly and specious means. But it was necessary for him inthe times in which he lived, to proceed with eclat, and in a way thatshould confound all opposers. The utmost resolution was required tooverwhelm those who might otherwise have been prompted to contendagainst him. Hence it appears that he took a right measure of theunderstanding of his contemporaries, when he dragged the young kingfrom the scene of his retirement, and brought him back by force intothe assembly of the nobles. And the inconceivable barbarity practisedto the queen, which would have rendered his name horrible in a morecivilised age, was exactly calculated to overwhelm the feelings andsubject the understandings of the men among whom he lived. The greatquality by which he was distinguished was confidence, a frame ofbehaviour which shewed that he acted from the fullest conviction, andnever doubted that his proceedings had the immediate approbation ofheaven. 

COMMUNICATION OF EUROPE AND THE SARACENS

It appears to have been about the close of the tenth century that themore curious and inquisitive spirits of Europe first had recourse tothe East as a source of such information and art, as they found mostglaringly deficient among their countrymen. We have seen that inPersia there was an uninterrupted succession of professors in the artof magic: and, when the followers of Mahomet by their prowess hadgained the superiority over the greater part of Asia, over all thatwas known of Africa, and a considerable tract of Europe, theygradually became awake to the desire of cultivating the sciences, andin particular of making themselves masters of whatever was mostliberal and eminent among the disciples of Zoroaster. To this theyadded a curiosity respecting Greek learning, especially as it relatedto 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 theprofessors of ingenuity and literature. 

GERBERT, POPE SILVESTER II. 

As a consequence of this state of things the more curious men ofEurope by degrees adopted the practice of resorting to Spain for thepurpose of enlarging their sphere of observation and knowledge. Amongothers Gerbert is reported to have been the first of the Christianclergy, who strung themselves up to the resolution of mixing with thefollowers of Mahomet, that they might learn from thence things, theknowledge of which it was impossible for them to obtain at home. Thisgenerous adventurer, prompted by an insatiable thirst for information, is said to have secretly withdrawn himself from his monastery ofFleury in Burgundy, and to have spent several years among the Saracensof Cordova. Here he acquired a knowledge of the language and learningof the Arabians, particularly of their astronomy, geometry andarithmetic; and he is understood to have been the first that impartedto the north and west of Europe a knowledge of the Arabic numerals, ascience, which at first sight might be despised for its simplicity, but which in its consequences is no inconsiderable instrument insubtilising the powers of human intellect. He likewise introduced theuse of clocks. He is also represented to have made an extraordinaryproficiency in the art of magic; and among other things is said tohave constructed a brazen head, which would answer when it was spokento, and oracularly resolve many difficult questions. [151] The samehistorian assures us that Gerbert by the art of necromancy madevarious discoveries of hidden treasures, and relates in all itscircumstances the spectacle of a magic palace he visited underground, with the multiplied splendours of an Arabian tale, but distinguishedby this feature, that, though its magnificence was dazzling to thesight, 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 anaspiring mind and a boundless spirit of ambition, with theintellectual curiosity which has already been described. The firststep that he made into public life and the career for which he panted, consisted in his being named preceptor, first to Robert, king ofFrance, the son of Hugh Capet, and next to Otho the Third, emperor ofGermany. Hugh Capet appointed him archbishop of Rheims; but, thatdignity being disputed with him, he retired into Germany, and, becoming eminently a favourite with Otho the Third, he was by theinfluence 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 thatreason is supposed to have calumniated Gerbert and several of hissuccessors, affirms that he was habitually waited on by demons, thatby their aid he obtained the papal crown, and that the devil to whomhe had sold himself, faithfully promised him that he should live, tillhe had celebrated high mass at Jerusalem. This however was merely ajuggle of the evil spirit; and Gerbert actually died, shortly afterhaving officially dispensed the sacrament at the church of the HolyCross in Jerusalem, which is one of the seven districts of the city ofRome. This event occurred in the year 1008. [153]

BENEDICT THE NINTH. 

According to the same authority sorcery was at this time extensivelypractised by some of the highest dignitaries of the church, and fiveor six popes in succession were notorious for these sacrilegiouspractices. About the same period the papal chair was at its loweststate of degradation; this dignity was repeatedly exposed for sale;and the reign of Gerbert, a man of consummate abilities andattainments, is almost the only redeeming feature in the century inwhich he lived. At length the tiara became the purchase of anambitious family, which had already furnished two popes, in behalf ofa boy of twelve years of age, who reigned by the name of Benedict theNinth. This youth, as he grew up, contaminated his rule with everykind of profligacy and debauchery. But even he, according to Benno, was a pupil in the school of Silvester, and became no mean proficientin the arts of sorcery. Among other things he caused the matrons ofRome by his incantations to follow him in troops among woods andmountains, being bewitched and their souls subdued by the irresistiblecharms of his magic. [154]

GREGORY THE SEVENTH. 

Benno presents us with a regular catalogue of the ecclesiasticalsorcerers of this period: Benedict the Ninth, and Laurence, archbishopof Melfi, (each of whom, he says, learned the art of Silvester), John XX and Gregory VI. But his most vehement accusations are directedagainst Gregory VII, who, he affirms, was in the early part of hiscareer, the constant companion and assistant of these dignitaries inunlawful practices of this sort. 

Gregory VII, whose original name was Hildebrand, is one of the greatchampions of the Romish church, and did more than any other man toestablish the law of the celibacy of the clergy, and to take thepatronage of ecclesiastical dignities out of the hands of the laity. He was eminently qualified for this undertaking by the severity of hismanners, and the inflexibility of his resolution to accomplish whateverhe undertook. 

His great adversary was Henry the Fourth, emperor of Germany, a youngprince of high spirit, and at that time (1075) twenty-four years ofage. Gregory sent to summon him to Rome, to answer an accusation, thathe, as all his predecessors had done, being a layman, had conferredecclesiastical dignities. Henry refused submission, and was immediatelydeclared excommunicated. In retaliation for this offence, the emperor, it is said, gave his orders to a chief of brigands, who, watching hisopportunity, seized the pope in the act of saying mass in one of thechurches of Rome, and carried him prisoner to a tower in the citywhich was in the possession of this adventurer. But no sooner was thisknown, than the citizens of Rome, rose _en masse_, and rescuedtheir spiritual father. Meanwhile Henry, to follow up his blow, assembled a synod at Worms, who pronounced on the pope, that formanifold crimes he was fallen from his supreme dignity, andaccordingly fulminated a decree of deposition against him. But Henryhad no forces to carry this decree into execution; and Gregory on hisside emitted a sentence of degradation against the emperor, commandingthe Germans to elect a new emperor in his place. It then becameevident that, in this age of ignorance and religious subjugation, thespiritual arm, at least in Germany, was more powerful than thetemporal; and Henry, having maturely considered the perils thatsurrounded him, took the resolution to pass the Alps with a fewdomestics only, and, repairing to the presence of the pope, submithimself to such penance as the pontiff should impose. Gregory was atthis time at Canosa, a fortress beyond Naples, which was surroundedwith three walls. Henry, without any attendant, was admitted withinthe first wall. Here he was required to cast off all the symbols ofroyalty, to put on a hair-shirt, and to wait barefoot his holiness'spleasure. He stood accordingly, fasting from morn to eve, withoutreceiving the smallest notice from the pontiff. It was in the month ofJanuary. He passed through the same trial the second day, and thethird. On the fourth day in the morning he was admitted to thepresence of the holy father. They parted however more irreconcileablein heart than ever, though each preserved the appearance of good will. The pope insisted that Henry should abide the issue of the congress inGermany, of which he constituted himself president; and the emperor, exasperated at the treatment he had received, resolved to keep noterms with Gregory. Henry proceeded to the election of an anti-pope, Clement the Third, and Gregory patronised a new emperor, Rodolph, dukeof Suabia. Henry had however generally been successful in his militaryenterprises; and he defeated Rodolph in two battles, in the last ofwhich his opponent was slain. In the synod of Brixen, in which Clementthe Third was elected, Gregory was sentenced as a magician and anecromancer. The emperor, puffed up with his victories, marchedagainst 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 Henrycaused the anti-pope, his creature, to be solemnly inaugurated in thechurch of the Lateran. Gregory however, never dismayed, and never atan end of his expedients, called in the Normans, who had recentlydistinguished 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 refugein Salerno, the capital of his Norman ally, where he shortly afterexpired, an exile and a fugitive. 

Gregory was no doubt a man of extraordinary resources and invinciblecourage. He did not live to witness the triumph of his policy; but hisprojects for the exaltation of the church finally met with everysuccess his most sanguine wishes could have aspired to. In addition toall the rest it happened, that the countess Matilda, a princess who inher own right possessed extensive sovereignties in Italy, nearlycommensurate with what has since been styled the ecclesiastical state, transferred to the pope in her life-time, and confirmed by hertestament, all these territories, thus mainly contributing to renderhim and his successors so considerable as temporal princes, as sincethat time they have appeared. 

It is, however, as a sorcerer, that Gregory VII (Hildebrand) finds aplace in this volume. Benno relates that, coming one day from hisAlban villa, he found, just as he was entering the church of theLateran, that he had left behind him his magical book, which he wasascustomed to carry about his person. He immediately sent two trustyservants to fetch it, at the same time threatening them most fearfullyif they should attempt to look into the volume. Curiosity however gotthe better of their fear. They opened the book, and began to read;when presently a number of devils appeared, saying, "We are come toobey your commands, but, if we find ourselves trifled with, we shallcertainly fall upon and destroy you. " The servants, exceedinglyterrified, replied, "Our will is that you should immediately throwdown so much of the wall of the city as is now before us. " The devilsobeyed; 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 thunderfrom his sleeve. [156]

But the most conspicuous circumstance in the life of Gregory that hasbeen made the foundation of a charge of necromancy against him, isthat, when Rodolph marched against Henry IV, the pope was so confidentof his success, as to venture publicly to prophesy, both in speech andin writing, that his adversary should be conquered and perish in thiscampaign. "Nay, " he added, "this prophecy shall be accomplished beforeSt. Peter's day; nor do I desire any longer to be acknowledged forpope, 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 doesnot go far enough to substantiate a charge of necromancy. It isfurther remarked, that Gregory was deep in the pretended science ofjudicial astrology; and this, without its being necessary to haverecourse to the solution of diabolical aid, may sufficiently accountfor the undoubting certainty with which he counted on the event. 

In the mean time this statement is of great importance, as illustrativeof the spirit of the times in general, and the character of Gregory inparticular. Rodolph, the competitor for the empire, has his mind wroughtup to such a pitch by this prophetic assurance, that, five timesrepulsed, he yet led on his forces a sixth time, and perished thevictim of his faith. Nor were his followers less animated than he, andfrom the same cause. We see also from the same story, that Gregory wasnot an artful and crafty impostor, but a man spurred on by a genuineenthusiasm. And this indeed is necessary to account for the whole ofhis conduct. The audacity with which he opposed the claims of Henry, and the unheard-of severity with which he treated him at the fortressof Canosa, are to be referred to the same feature of character. Invincible perseverance, when united with great resources of intellectand a lofty spirit, will enable a man thoroughly to effect, what aperson of inferior endowments would not have dared so much as to dreamof. And Gregory, like St. Dunstan, achieved incredible things, byskilfully adapting himself to circumstances, and taking advantage ofthe temper and weakness of his contemporaries. 

DUFF, KING OF SCOTLAND. 

It is not to be wondered at, when such things occurred in Italy, theprincipal seat of all the learning and refinement then existing inEurope, that the extreme northerly and western districts should havebeen given up to the blindest superstition. Among other instances wehave the following account in relation to Duff, king of Scotland, whocame to the crown about the year 968. He found his kingdom in thegreatest disorder from numerous bands of robbers, many of whom werepersons of high descent, but of no competent means of subsistence. Duff resolved to put an end to their depredations, and to secure thosewho sought a quiet support from cultivating the fruits of the earthfrom forcible invasion. He executed the law against these disturberswithout respect of persons, and hence made himself many and powerfulenemies. In the midst of his activity however he suddenly fell sick, and became confined to his bed. His physicians could no way accountfor his distemper. They found no excess of any humour in his body towhich they could attribute his illness; his colour was fresh, and hiseyes lively; and he had a moderate and healthful appetite. But withall this he was a total stranger to sleep; he burst out intoimmoderate perspirations; and there was scarcely any thing thatremained of him, but skin and bone. In the meantime secret informationwas brought that all this evil was the result of witchcraft. And, thehouse being pointed out in which the sorcerers held their sabbath, aband 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 ofthe king, so like in every feature, that no doubt was entertained thatit was modelled by the art of the devil, while another sat by, busilyengaged in reciting certain verses of enchantment, by which means, asthe wax melted, the king was consumed with perspiration, and, as soonas it was utterly dissolved, his death should immediately follow. Thewitches were seized, and from their own confession burned alive. Theimage was broken to pieces, and every fragment of it destroyed. And nosooner was this effected, than Duff had all that night the mostrefreshing and healthful sleep, and the next day rose without anyremains of his infirmity. [157]

This reprieve however availed him but for a short time. He was nosooner recovered, than he occupied himself as before with pursuing theoutlaws, whom he brought indiscriminately to condign punishment. Amongthese there chanced to be two young men, near relations of thegovernor of the castle of Fores, who had hitherto been the king's mostfaithful adherents. These young men had been deluded by ill company:and the governor most earnestly sued to Duff for their pardon. But theking was inexorable. Meanwhile, as he had always placed the mostentire trust in their father, he continued to do so without thesmallest suspicion. The night after the execution, the king slept inthe castle of Fores, as he had often done before; but the governor, conceiving the utmost rancour at the repulse he had sustained, andmoreover instigated by his wife, in the middle of the night murderedDuff in his bed, as he slept. His reign lasted only four years. [158]

MACBETH. 

The seventh king of Scotland after Duff, with an interval ofsixty-eight years, was Macbeth. The historian begins his tale ofwitchcraft, 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 theking as then lay, they went sporting by the way together, withoutother company save only themselves, passing through the woods andfields, when suddenly, in the midst of a laund, there met them threewomen in strange and ferly apparel, resembling creatures of an elderworld, 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 deathof his father Synel). The second of them said, Hail, Macbeth, thane ofCawdor. But the third said, All hail, Macbeth, that hereafter shall beking 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 forthnothing for me at all? Yes, saith the first of them, we promisegreater benefits unto thee than unto him, for he shall reign indeed, but with an unlucky end, neither shall he leave any issue behind himto succeed in his place; where contrarily thou indeed shall not reignat all, but of thee those shall be born, which shall govern theScottish kingdom by long order of continual descent. Herewith theforesaid women vanished immediately out of their sight. 

"This was reputed at the first but some vain fantastical illusion byMacbeth and Banquo, insomuch that Banquo would call Macbeth in jestking of Scotland, and Macbeth again would call him in sport likewisethe father of many kings. But afterwards the common opinion was, thatthese women were either the weird sisters, that is (as you would say)the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies, endued withknowledge of prophecy by their necromantical science, because everything came to pass as they had spoken. 

"For shortly after, the thane of Cawdor, being condemned at Fores oftreason against the king committed, his lands, livings and officeswere given of the king's liberality unto Macbeth. " [159]

Malcolm, the preceding king of Scotland, had two daughters, one ofthem the mother of Duncan, and the other of Macbeth; and in virtue ofthis descent Duncan succeeded to the crown. The accession of Macbeththerefore was not very remote, if he survived the present king. Ofconsequence Macbeth, though he thought much of the prediction of theweird sisters, yet resolved to wait his time, thinking that, as hadhappened in his former preferment, this might come to pass without hisaid. But Duncan had two sons, Malcolm Cammore and Donald Bane. The lawof succession in Scotland was, that, if at the death of the reigningsovereign he that should succeed were not of sufficient age to take onhim the government, he that was next of blood to him should beadmitted. Duncan however at this juncture created his eldest sonMalcolm prince of Cumberland, a title which was considered asdesignating him heir to the throne. Macbeth was greatly troubled atthis, as cutting off the expectation he thought he had a right toentertain: and, the words of the weird sisters still ringing in hisears, and his wife with ambitious speeches urging him to the deed, he, in conjunction with some trusty friends, among whom was Banquo, cameto a resolution to kill the king at Inverness. The deed beingperpetrated, Malcolm, the eldest son of Duncan, fled for safety intoCumberland, and Donald, the second, into Ireland. [160]

Macbeth, who became king of Scotland in the year 1010, reigned for tenyears with great popularity and applause, but at the end of that timechanged his manner of government, and became a tyrant. His firstaction in this character was against Banquo. He remembered that theweird sisters had promised to Banquo that he should be father to aline of kings. Haunted with this recollection, Macbeth invited Banquoand his son Fleance to a supper, and appointed assassins to murderthem 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 todoubt of the security of his life, and Macbeth at the same time tofear the ill will of his subjects. He therefore proceeded to destroyall against whom he entertained any suspicion, and every day more andmore to steep his hands in blood. Further to secure himself, he builta castle on the top of a high hill, called Dunsinnan, which was placedon such an elevation, that it seemed impossible to approach it in ahostile manner. This work he carried on by means of requiring thethanes of the kingdom, each one in turn, to come with a set of workmento help forward the edifice. When it came to the turn of Macduff, thane of Fife, he sent workmen, but did not come himself, as theothers had done. Macbeth from that time regarded Macduff with an eyeof perpetual suspicion. [162]

Meanwhile Macbeth, remembering that the origin of his presentgreatness consisted in the prophecy of the weird sisters, addictedhimself continually to the consulting of wizards. Those he consultedgave him a pointed warning to take heed of Macduff, who in time tocome would seek to destroy him. This warning would unquestionably haveproved fatal to Macduff; had not on the other hand Macbeth been buoyedup in security, by the prediction of a certain witch in whom he hadgreat trust, that he should never be vanquished till the wood ofBernane came to the castle of Dunsinnan, and that he should not beslain by any man that was born of a woman; both which he judged to beimpossibilities. [163]

This vain confidence however urged him to do many outrageous things;at the same time that such was his perpetual uneasiness of mind, thatin every nobleman's house he had one servant or another in fee, thathe might be acquainted with every thing that was said or meditatedagainst him. About this time Macduff fled to Malcolm, who had nowtaken refuge in the court of Edward the Confessor; and Macbeth camewith a strong party into Fife with the purpose of surprising him. Themaster being safe, those within Macduff's castle threw open the gates, thinking that no mischief would result from receiving the king. ButMacbeth, irritated that he missed of his prey, caused Macduff's wifeand children, and all persons who were found within the castle, to beslain. [164]

Shortly after, Malcolm and Macduff, reinforced by ten thousand Englishunder the command of Seyward, earl of Northumberland, marched intoScotland. The subjects of Macbeth stole away daily from him to jointhe invaders; but he had such confidence in the predictions that hadbeen delivered to him, that he still believed he should never bevanquished. Malcolm meanwhile, as he approached to the castle ofDunsinnan, commanded his men to cut down, each of them, a bough fromthe wood of Bernane, as large as he could bear, that they might takethe tyrant the more by surprise. Macbeth saw, and thought the woodapproached him; but he remembered the prophecy, and led forth andmarshalled his men. When however the enemy threw down their boughs, and their formidable numbers stood revealed, Macbeth and his forcesimmediately betook themselves to flight. Macduff pursued him, and washard at his heels, when the tyrant turned his horse, and exclaimed, "Why dost thou follow me? Know, that it is ordained that no creatureborn of a woman can ever overcome me. " Macduff instantly retorted, "Iam the man appointed to slay thee. I was not born of a woman, but wasuntimely ripped from my mother's womb. " And, saying this, he killedhim on the spot. Macbeth reigned in the whole seventeen years. [165]

VIRGIL. 

One of the most curious particulars, and which cannot be omitted in ahistory of sorcery, is the various achievements in the art of magicwhich have been related of the poet Virgil. I bring them in here, because they cannot be traced further back than the eleventh ortwelfth century. The burial-place of this illustrious man was atPausilippo, near Naples; the Neapolitans had for many centuriescherished a peculiar reverence for his memory; and it has beensupposed that the old ballads, and songs of the minstrels of the northof Italy, first originated this idea respecting him. [166] The vulgarof this city, full of imagination and poetry, conceived the idea oftreating him as the guardian genius of the place; and, in bodyingforth this conception, they represented him in his life-time as giftedwith supernatural powers, which he employed in various ways for theadvantage of a city that he so dearly loved. Be this as it will, itappears 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 intheir works. 

They tell us, that Virgil placed a fly of brass over one of the gatesof the city, which, as long as it continued there, that is, for aspace of eight years, had the virtue of keeping Naples clear frommoskitoes and all noxious insects: that he built a set of shambles, the meat in which was at all times free from putrefaction: that heplaced two images over the gates of the city, one of which was namedJoyful, and the other Sad, one of resplendent beauty, and the otherhideous and deformed, and that whoever entered the town under theformer image would succeed in all his undertakings, and under thelatter would as certainly miscarry: that he caused a brazen statue tobe 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 thesea the fire and smoke which issued from the neighbouring forges ofVulcan: that he built different baths at Naples, specifically preparedfor the cure of every disease, which were afterwards demolished by themalice of the physicians: and that he lighted a perpetual fire for therefreshment of all travellers, close to which he placed an archer ofbrass, with his bow bent, and this inscription, "Whoever strikes me, Iwill let fly my arrow:" that a fool-hardy fellow notwithstandingstruck the statue, when the arrow was immediately shot into the fire, and the fire was extinguished. It is added, that, Naples beinginfested with a vast multitude of contagious leeches, Virgil made aleech of gold, which he threw into a pit, and so delivered the cityfrom 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 thatwould 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 hemade a head, which had the virtue of predicting things future: andlastly, amidst a world of other wonders, that he cut a subterraneanpassage through mount Pausilippo, that travellers might pass withperfect safety, the mountain having before been so infested withserpents 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 Grossetête, orRobert of Lincoln, appointed bishop of that see in the year 1235. Hewas, like those that have previously been mentioned, a man of the mosttranscendant powers of mind, and extraordinary acquirements. Hisparents are said to have been so poor, that he was compelled, when aboy, to engage in the meanest offices for bread, and even to beg onthe highway. At length the mayor of Lincoln, struck with hisappearance, and the quickness of his answers to such questions as wereproposed to him, took him into his family, and put him to school. Herehis ardent love of learning, and admirable capacity for acquiring it, soon procured him many patrons, by whose assistance he was enabled toprosecute his studies, first at Cambridge, afterwards at Oxford, andfinally at Paris. He was master of the Greek and Hebrew languages, then very rare accomplishments; and is pronounced by Roger Bacon, avery competent judge, of whom we shall presently have occasion tospeak, to have spent much of his time, for nearly forty years, in thestudy of geometry, astronomy, optics, and other branches ofmathematical learning, in all of which he much excelled. So that, aswe are informed from the same authority, this same Robert of Lincoln, and his friend, Friar Adam de Marisco, were the two most learned menin the world, and excelled the rest of mankind in both human anddivine knowledge. 

This great man especially distinguished himself by his firm andundaunted opposition to the corruptions of the court of Rome. PopeInnocent IV, who filled the papal chair upwards of eleven years, from1243 to 1254, appears to have exceeded all his predecessors in theshamelessness of his abuses. We are told, that the hierarchy of thechurch of England was overwhelmed like a flood with an inundation offoreign dignitaries, of whom not a few were mere boys, for the mostpart without learning, ignorant of the language of the island, andincapable of benefiting the people nominally under their care, themore especially as they continued to dwell in their own countries, andscarcely once in their lives visited the sees to which they had beenappointed. [167] Grossetête lifted up his voice against these scandals. He said that it was impossible the genuine apostolic see, whichreceived its authority from the Lord Jesus for edification, and notfor destruction, could be guilty of such a crime, for that wouldforfeit all its glory, and plunge it into the pains of hell. He didnot scruple therefore among his most intimate friends to pronounce thereigning pope to be the true Antichrist; and he addressed the pontiffhimself in scarcely more measured terms. 

Among the other accomplishments of bishop Grossetête he is said tohave been profoundly skilled in the art of magic: and the old poetGower relates of him that he made a head of brass, expresslyconstructed in such a manner as to be able to answer such questions aswere propounded to it, and to foretel future events. 

MICHAEL SCOT. 

Michael Scot of Balwirie in the county of Fife, was nearly contemporarywith bishop Grossetête. He was eminent for his knowledge of the Greekand Arabic languages. He was patronised by the emperor Frederic II, who encouraged him to undertake a translation of the works of Aristotleinto Latin. He addicted himself to astrology, chemistry, and the stillmore frivolous sciences of chiromancy and physiognomy. It does notappear that he made any pretences to magic; but the vulgar, we aretold, generally regarded him as a sorcerer, and are said to havecarried their superstition so far as to have conceived a terror of somuch as touching his works. 

THE DEAN OF BADAJOZ. 

There is a story related by this accomplished scholar, in a collectionof aphorisms and anecdotes entitled _Mensa Philosophica_, whichdeserves to be cited as illustrating the ideas then current on thesubject of sorcery. A certain great necromancer, or nigromancer, hadonce a pupil of considerable rank, who professed himself extremelydesirous for once to have the gratification of believing himself anemperor. The necromancer, tired with his importunities, at lengthassented to his prayer. He took measures accordingly, and by hispotent art caused his scholar to believe that one province and dignityfell to him after another, till at length his utmost desires becamesatisfied. The magician however appeared to be still at his elbow; andone day, when the scholar was in the highest exultation at his goodfortune, the master humbly requested him to bestow upon him somelanded possession, as a reward for the extraordinary benefit he hadconferred. The imaginary emperor cast upon the necromancer a glance ofthe utmost disdain and contempt. "Who are you?" said he, "I reallyhave not the smallest acquaintance with you. " "I am he, " replied themagician, with withering severity of countenance and tone, "that gaveyou all these things, and will take them away. " And, saying this, theillusion with which the poor scholar had been inebriated, immediatelyvanished; and he became what he had before been, and no more. 

The story thus briefly told by Michael Scot, afterwards passed throughmany hands, and was greatly dilated. In its last form by the abbéBlanchet, it constituted the well known and agreeable tale of the deanof Badajoz. This reverend divine comes to a sorcerer, and intreats aspecimen of his art. The magician replies that he had met with so manyspecimens of ingratitude, that he was resolved to be deluded no more. The dean persists, and at length overcomes the reluctance of themaster. He invites his guest into the parlour, and orders his cook toput two partridges to the fire, for that the dean of Badajoz will supwith him. Presently he begins his incantations; and the dean becomesin imagination by turns a bishop, a cardinal, and a pope. The magicianthen claims his reward. Meanwhile the dean, inflated with his supposedelevation, turns to his benefactor, and says, "I have learned withgrief that, under pretence of secret science, you correspond with theprince of darkness. I command you to repent and abjure; and in themean time I order you to quit the territory of the church in threedays, under pain of being delivered to the secular arm, and the rigourof the flames. " The sorcerer, having been thus treated, presentlydissolves the incantation, and calls aloud to his cook, "Put down butone 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 theancient Asiatic and European legends, so as to convince us that it isnearly impossible that the one should not be in some way borrowed fromthe other. There is, in a compilation called the Turkish Tales, astory of an infidel sultan of Egypt, who took the liberty before alearned Mahometan doctor, of ridiculing some of the miracles ascribedto the prophet, as for example his transportation into the seventhheaven, and having ninety thousand conferences with God, while in themean time a pitcher of water, which had been thrown down in the firststep of his ascent, was found with the water not all spilled at hisreturn. 

The doctor, who had the gift of working miracles, told the sultan that, with his consent, he would give him a practical proof of thepossibility of the circumstance related of Mahomet. The sultan agreed. The doctor therefore directed that a huge tub of water should bebrought in, and, while the prince stood before it with his courtiersaround, the holy man bade him plunge his head into the water, and drawit 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 desertshore. The prince first began to rave against the doctor for thispiece of treachery and witchcraft. Perceiving however that all hisrage was vain, and submitting himself to the imperiousness of hissituation, he began to seek for some habitable tract. By and by hediscovered people cutting down wood in a forest, and, having no remedy, he was glad to have recourse to the same employment. In process oftime he was brought to a town; and there by great good fortune, afterother adventures, he married a woman of beauty and wealth, and livedlong enough with her, for her to bear him seven sons and sevendaughters. He was afterwards reduced to want, so as to be obliged toply in the streets as a porter for his livelihood. One day, as hewalked alone on the sea-shore, ruminating on his hard fate, he wasseized with a fit of devotion, and threw off his clothes, that hemight wash himself, agreeably to the Mahometan custom, previously tosaying his prayers. He had no sooner however plunged into the sea, andraised his head again above water, than he found himself standing bythe side of the tub that had been brought in, with all the greatpersons of his court round him, and the holy man close at his side. Hefound that the long series of imaginary adventures he had passedthrough, had in reality occupied but one minute of time. 

INSTITUTION OF FRIARS. 

About this time a great revolution took place in the state ofliterature in Europe. The monks, who at one period considerablycontributed to preserve the monuments of ancient learning, memorablyfell off in reputation and industry. Their communities by thedonations of the pious grew wealthy; and the monks themselvesinhabited splendid palaces, and became luxurious, dissipated and idle. Upon the ruins of their good fame rose a very extraordinary race ofmen, called Friars. The monks professed celibacy, and to have noindividual property; but the friars abjured all property, both privateand in common. They had no place where to lay their heads, andsubsisted as mendicants upon the alms of their contemporaries. Theydid not hide themselves in refectories and dormitories, but livedperpetually before the public. In the sequel indeed they builtFriaries for their residence; but these were no less distinguished forthe simplicity and humbleness of their appearance, than the monasterieswere for their grandeur and almost regal magnificence. The Friars wereincessant in preaching and praying, voluntarily exposed themselves tothe severest hardships, and were distinguished by a fervour of devotionand charitable activity that knew no bounds. We might figure them toourselves as swallowed up in these duties. But they added to theirmerits an incessant earnestness in learning and science. A new era inintellect and subtlety of mind began with them; and a set of the mostwonderful men in depth of application, logical acuteness, anddiscoveries in science distinguished this period. They were few indeed, in comparison of the world of ignorance that every where surroundedthem; but they were for that reason only the more conspicuous. Theydivided themselves principally into two orders, the Dominicans andFranciscans. And all that was most illustrious in intellect at thisperiod belonged either to the one or the other. 

ALBERTUS MAGNUS. 

Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, was one of the most famous of these. Hewas born according to some accounts in the year 1193, and according toothers 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 quittingthe cloister from despair of learning what his vocation required, whenthe blessed virgin appeared to him in a vision, and enquired of him inwhich 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, afterthis apparition, he had an infinite deal of wit, and advanced inscience 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 occupyingno less than thirty years in its formation. This man would answer allsorts of questions, and was even employed by its maker as a domestic. But what is more extraordinary, this machine is said to have become atlength so garrulous, that Thomas Aquinas, being a pupil of Albertus, and finding himself perpetually disturbed in his abstrusestspeculations by its uncontrolable loquacity, in a rage caught up ahammer, and beat it to pieces. According to other accounts the man ofAlbertus Magnus was composed, not of metal, but of flesh and boneslike other men; but this being afterwards judged to be impossible, andthe virtue of images, rings, and planetary sigils being in great vogue, it was conceived that this figure was formed of brass, and indebtedfor its virtue to certain conjunctions and aspects of the planets. [168]

A further extraordinary story is told of Albertus Magnus, wellcalculated to exemplify the ideas of magic with which these agesabounded. William, earl of Holland, and king of the Romans, wasexpected at a certain time to pass through Cologne. Albertus had sethis heart upon obtaining from this prince the cession of a certaintract of land upon which to erect a convent. The better to succeed inhis application he conceived the following scheme. He invited theprince on his journey to partake of a magnificent entertainment. Tothe surprise of every body, when the prince arrived, he found thepreparations for the banquet spread in the open air. It was in thedepth of winter, when the earth was bound up in frost, and the wholeface of things was covered with snow. The attendants of the court weremortified, and began to express their discontent in loud murmurs. Nosooner however was the king with Albertus and his courtiers seated attable, than the snow instantly disappeared, the temperature of summershewed itself, and the sun burst forth with a dazzling splendour. Theground became covered with the richest verdure; the trees were clothedat once with foliage, flowers and fruits: and a vintage of the richestgrapes, accompanied with a ravishing odour, invited the spectators topartake. A thousand birds sang on every branch. A train of pagesshewed themselves, fresh and graceful in person and attire, and wereready diligently to supply the wants of all, while every one wasstruck with astonishment as to who they were and from whence they came. The guests were obliged to throw off their upper garments the betterto cool themselves. The whole assembly was delighted with theirentertainment, and Albertus easily gained his suit of the king. Presently after, the banquet disappeared; all was wintry and solitaryas before; the snow lay thick upon the ground; and the guests in allhaste snatched up the garments they had laid aside, and hurried intothe apartments, that by numerous fires on the blazing hearth theymight counteract the dangerous chill which threatened to seize ontheir 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 therarest geniuses that have existed on earth. He was a Franciscan friar. He wrote grammars of the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages. He wasprofound in the science of optics. He explained the nature ofburning-glasses, and of glasses which magnify and diminish, themicroscope and the telescope. He discovered the composition ofgunpowder. He ascertained the true length of the solar year; and histheory was afterwards brought into general use, but upon a narrowscale, by Pope Gregory XIII, nearly three hundred years after hisdeath. [170]

But for all these discoveries he underwent a series of the most bitterpersecutions. It was imputed to him by the superiors of his order thatthe improvements he suggested in natural philosophy were the effectsof magic, and were suggested to him through an intercourse withinfernal spirits. They forbade him to communicate any of hisspeculations. They wasted his frame with rigorous fasting, oftenrestricting him to a diet of bread and water, and prohibited allstrangers to have access to him. Yet he went on indefatigably inpursuit of the secrets of nature. [171] At length Clement IV, to whomhe appealed, procured him a considerable degree of liberty. But, afterthe death of that pontiff, he was again put under confinement, andcontinued in that state for a further period of ten years. He wasliberated but a short time before his death. 

Freind says, [172] that, among other ingenious contrivances, he putstatues in motion, and drew articulate sounds from a brazen head, nothowever by magic, but by an artificial application of the principlesof natural philosophy. This probably furnished a foundation for thetale of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungy, which was one of the earliestproductions to which the art of printing was applied in England. Thesetwo persons are said to have entertained the project of inclosingEngland with a wall, so as to render it inaccessible to any invader. They accordingly raised the devil, as the person best able to informthem how this was to be done. The devil advised them to make a brazenhead, with all the internal structure and organs of a human head. Theconstruction would cost them much time; and they must then wait withpatience till the faculty of speech descended upon it. It wouldfinally however become an oracle, and, if the question were propoundedto it, would teach them the solution of their problem. The friarsspent seven years in bringing the structure to perfection, and thenwaited day after day, in expectation that it would utter articulatesounds. At length nature became exhausted in them, and they lay downto sleep, having first given it strictly in charge to a servant oftheirs, clownish in nature, but of strict fidelity, that he shouldawaken them the moment the image began to speak. That period arrived. The head uttered sounds, but such as the clown judged unworthy ofnotice. "Time is!" it said. No notice was taken; and a long pauseensued. "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 thousandpieces. Thus the experiment of friar Bacon and friar Bungy came tonothing. 

THOMAS AQUINAS. 

Thomas Aquinas, who has likewise been brought under the imputation ofmagic, was one of the profoundest scholars and subtlest logicians ofhis day. He also furnishes a remarkable instance of the ascendantwhich the friars at that time obtained over the minds of ingenuousyoung men smitten with the thirst of knowledge. He was a youth ofillustrious birth, and received the rudiments of his education underthe monks of Monte Cassino, and in the university of Naples. But, notcontented with these advantages, he secretly entered himself into thesociety of Preaching Friars, or Dominicans, at seventeen years of age. His mother, being indignant that he should thus take the vow ofpoverty, and sequester himself from the world for life, employed everymeans in her power to induce him to alter his purpose, but in vain. The friars, to deliver him from her importunities, removed him fromNaples to Terracina, from Terracina to Anagnia, and from Anagnia toRome. His mother followed him in all these changes of residence, butwas not permitted so much as to see him. At length she spirited up histwo elder brothers to seize him by force. They waylaid him in his roadto 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 correspondwith the superiors of his order, and finally escaped from a window inthe castle. St. Thomas Aquinas (for he was canonised after his death)exceeded perhaps all men that ever existed in the severity andstrictness of his metaphysical disquisitions, and thus acquired thename of the Seraphic Doctor. 

It was to be expected that a man, who thus immersed himself in thedepths of thought, should be an inexorable enemy to noise andinterruption. We have seen that he dashed to pieces the artificial manof brass, that Albertus Magnus, who was his tutor, had spent thirtyyears in bringing to perfection, being impelled to this violence byits perpetual and unceasing garrulity. [173] It is further said, thathis study being placed in a great thoroughfare, where the grooms wereall day long exercising their horses, he found it necessary to apply aremedy to this nuisance. He made by the laws of magic a small horse ofbrass, which he buried two or three feet under ground in the midst ofthis highway; and, having done so, no horse would any longer passalong the road. It was in vain that the grooms with whip and spursought to conquer their repugnance. They were finally compelled togive up the attempt, and to choose another place for their dailyexercise. [174]

It has further been sought to fix the imputation of magic upon ThomasAquinas by imputing to him certain books written on that science; butthese are now acknowledged to be spurious. [175]

PETER OF APONO. 

Peter of Apono, so called from a village of that name in the vicinityof Padua, where he was born in the year 1250, was an eminentphilosopher, mathematician and astrologer, but especially excelled inphysic. Finding that science at a low ebb in his native country, heresorted to Paris, where it especially flourished; and after a timereturning home, exercised his art with extraordinary success, and bythis means accumulated great wealth. 

But all his fame and attainments were poisoned to him by the accusationof magic. Among other things he was said to possess seven spirits, each of them inclosed in a crystal vessel, from whom he received everyinformation he desired in the seven liberal arts. He was furtherreported to have had the extraordinary faculty of causing the money heexpended in his disbursements, immediately to come back into his ownpurse. He was besides of a hasty and revengeful temper. In consequenceof this it happened to him, that, having a neighbour, who had anadmirable spring of water in his garden, and who was accustomed tosuffer the physician to send for a daily supply, but who for somedispleasure or inconvenience withdrew his permission, Peter d'Apono, by the aid of the devil, removed the spring from the garden in whichit had flowed, and turned it to waste in the public street. For someof these accusations he was called to account by the tribunal of theinquisition. While he was upon his trial however, the unfortunate mandied. But so unfavourable was the judgment of the inquisitorsrespecting him, that they decreed that his bones should be dug up, andpublicly burned. Some of his friends got intimation of this, and savedhim from the impending disgrace by removing his remains. Disappointedin 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 shouldhave occasion to speak of the English law of high treason. But onreflection perhaps it may appear not altogether alien to the subject. This crime is ordinarily considered by our lawyers as limited anddefined by the statute of 25 Edward III. As Blackstone has observed, "By the ancient common law there was a great latitude left in thebreast of the judges, to determine what was treason, or not so:whereby the creatures of tyrannical power had opportunity to createabundance of constructive treasons; that is, to raise, by forced andarbitrary constructions, offences into the crime and punishment oftreason, which were never suspected to be such. To prevent theseinconveniences, the statute of 25 Edward III was made. " [176] Thisstatute divides treason into seven distinct branches; and the firstand chief of these is, "when a man doth compass or imagine the deathof our lord the king. "

Now the first circumstance that strikes us in this affair is, why thecrime was not expressed in more perspicuous and appropriate language?Why, for example, was it not said, that the first and chief branch oftreason was to "kill the king?" Or, if that limitation was not held tobe sufficiently ample, could it not have been added, it is treason to"attempt, intend, or contrive to kill the king?" We are apt to makemuch too large an allowance for what is considered as the vague andobsolete language of our ancestors. Logic was the element in which thescholars of what are called the dark ages were especially at home. Itwas at that period that the description of human geniuses, called theSchoolmen, principally flourished. The writers who preceded theChristian era, possessed in an extraordinary degree the gift ofimagination and invention. But they had little to boast on the scoreof arrangement, and discovered little skill in the strictness of anaccurate deduction. Meanwhile the Schoolmen had a surprising subtletyin 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 ofthe Schoolmen. Nothing can be more forcibly contrasted, than the modeof pleading among the ancients, and that which has characterised theprocesses of the moderns. The pleadings of the ancients were praxisesof the art of oratorical persuasion; the pleadings of the modernssometimes, though rarely, deviate into oratory, but principallyconsist in dextrous subtleties upon words, or a nice series ofdeductions, the whole contexture of which is endeavoured to be woveninto one indissoluble substance. Several striking examples have beenpreserved of the mode of pleading in the reign of Edward II, in whichthe exceptions taken for the defendant, and the replies supporting themode of proceeding on behalf of the plaintiff, in no respect fallshort of the most admired shifts, quirks and subtleties of the greatlawyers 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 thingas to "kill, or intend to kill" him. At all events we may take it forgranted, that to "compass" does not mean to accomplish; but rather to"take in hand, to go about to effect. " There is therefore no form ofwords here forbidding to "kill the king. " The phrase, to "imagine, "does not appear less startling. What is, to a proverb, more lawlessthan 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 andfreaks of fancy? What more unsusceptible of detection or evidence? Howmany imperceptible shades of distinction between the guilt andinnocence that characterise them!--Meanwhile the force and proprietyof these terms will strikingly appear, if we refer them to the popularideas of witchcraft. Witches were understood to have the power ofdestroying life, without the necessity of approaching the person whoselife was to be destroyed, or producing any consciousness in him of thecrime about to be perpetrated. One method was by exposing an image ofwax to the action of fire; while, in proportion as the image wastedaway, 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 thedeath. " Imagination is, beside this, the peculiar province ofwitchcraft. And in these pretended hags the faculty is no longerdesultory and erratic. Conscious of their power, they are supposed tohave subjected it to system and discipline. They apply its secret andtrackless energy with an intentness and a vigour, which ordinarymortals may in vain attempt to emulate in an application of the forceof inert matter, or of the different physical powers by means of whichsuch stupendous effects have often been produced. --How universal andfamiliar then must we consider the ideas of witchcraft to have beenbefore language which properly describes the secret practices of suchpersons, and is not appropriate to any other, could have been found toinsinuate itself into the structure of the most solemn act of ourlegislature, that act which beyond all others was intended to narrowor shut out the subtle and dangerous inroads of arbitrary power!

ZIITO. 

Very extraordinary things are related of Ziito, a sorcerer, in thecourt of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia and afterwards emperor of Germany, in the latter part of the fourteenth century. This is perhaps, allthings considered, the most wonderful specimen of magical power anywhere to be found. It is gravely recorded by Dubravius, bishop ofOlmutz, in his History of Bohemia. It was publicly exhibited onoccasion of the marriage of Wenceslaus with Sophia, daughter of theelector Palatine of Bavaria, before a vast assembled multitude. 

The father-in-law of the king, well aware of the bridegroom's knownpredilection for theatrical exhibitions and magical illusions, broughtwith him to Prague, the capital of Wenceslaus, a whole waggon-load ofmorrice-dancers and jugglers, who made their appearance among theroyal retinue. Meanwhile Ziito, the favourite magician of the king, took his place obscurely among the ordinary spectators. He howeverimmediately arrested the attention of the strangers, being remarkedfor his extraordinary deformity, and a mouth that stretched completelyfrom ear to ear. Ziito was for some time engaged in quietly observingthe tricks and sleights that were exhibited. At length, while thechief magician of the elector Palatine was still busily employed inshewing some of the most admired specimens of his art, the Bohemian, indignant at what appeared to him the bungling exhibitions of hisbrother-artist, came forward, and reproached him with the unskilfulnessof his performances. The two professors presently fell into warmdebate. Ziito, provoked at the insolence of his rival, made no moreado but swallowed him whole before the multitude, attired as he was, all but his shoes, which he objected to because they were dirty. Hethen 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 thewonders of his art. He shewed himself first in his proper shape, andthen in those of different persons successively, with countenances anda stature totally dissimilar to his own; at one time splendidlyattired in robes of purple and silk, and then in the twinkling of aneye in coarse linen and a clownish coat of frieze. He would proceedalong the field with a smooth and undulating motion without changingthe posture of a limb, for all the world as if he were carried alongin a ship. He would keep pace with the king's chariot, in a car drawnby barn-door fowls. He also amused the king's guests as they sat attable, by causing, when they stretched out their hands to the differentdishes, 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 themthe antlers of a deer, so that, when they put their heads out atwindow to see some sight that was going by, they could by no meansdraw them back again; while he in the mean time feasted on the savourycates that had been spread before them, at his leisure. 

At one time he pretended to be in want of money, and to task his witsto devise the means to procure it. On such an occasion he took up ahandful of grains of corn, and presently gave them the form andappearance of thirty hogs well fatted for the market. He drove thesehogs to the residence of one Michael, a rich dealer, but who wasremarked for being penurious and thrifty in his bargains. He offeredthem to Michael for whatever price he should judge reasonable. Thebargain was presently struck, Ziito at the same time warning thepurchaser, that he should on no account drive them to the river todrink. Michael however paid no attention to this advice; and the hogsno sooner arrived at the river, than they turned into grains of cornas before. The dealer, greatly enraged at this trick, sought high andlow for the seller that he might be revenged on him. At length hefound him in a vintner's shop seemingly in a gloomy and absent frameof mind, reposing himself, with his legs stretched out on a form. Thedealer called out to him, but he seemed not to hear. Finally he seizedZiito by one foot, plucking at it with all his might. The foot cameaway with the leg and thigh; and Ziito screamed out, apparently ingreat agony. He seized Michael by the nape of the neck, and draggedhim before a judge. Here the two set up their separate complaints, Michael for the fraud that had been committed on him, and Ziito forthe irreparable injury he had suffered in his person. From thisadventure came the proverb, frequent in the days of the historian, speaking of a person who had made an improvident bargain, "He has madejust such a purchase as Michael did with his hogs. "

TRANSMUTATION OF METALS. 

Among the different pursuits, which engaged the curiosity of activeminds in these unenlightened ages, was that of the transmutation ofthe more ordinary metals into gold and silver. This art, though notproperly of necromantic nature, was however elevated by its professors, by means of an imaginary connection between it and astrology, and evenbetween it and an intercourse with invisible spirits. They believed, that their investigations could not be successfully prosecuted butunder favourable aspects of the planets, and that it was evenindispensible to them to obtain supernatural aid. 

In proportion as the pursuit of transmutation, and the search afterthe elixir of immortality grew into vogue, the adepts became desirousof investing them with the venerable garb of antiquity. Theyendeavoured to carry up the study to the time of Solomon; and therewere not wanting some who imputed it to the first father of mankind. They were desirous to track its footsteps in Ancient Egypt; and theyfound a mythological representation of it in the expedition of Jasonafter the golden fleece, and in the cauldron by which Medea restoredthe father of Jason to his original youth. [178] But, as has alreadybeen said, the first unquestionable mention of the subject is to bereferred to the time of Dioclesian. [179] From that period traces ofthe studies of the alchemists from time to time regularly discoverthemselves. 

The study of chemistry and its supposed invaluable results wasassiduously cultivated by Geber and the Arabians. 

ARTEPHIUS. 

Artephius is one of the earliest names that occur among the studentswho sought the philosopher's stone. Of him extraordinary things aretold. He lived about the year 1130, and wrote a book of the Art ofProlonging Human Life, in which he professes to have already attainedthe age of one thousand and twenty-five years. [180] He must by thisaccount have been born about one hundred years after our Saviour. Heprofessed to have visited the infernal regions, and there to have seenTantalus seated on a throne of gold. He is also said by some to be thesame person, whose life has been written by Philostratus under thename of Apollonius of Tyana. [181] He wrote a book on the philosopher'sstone, which was published in Latin and French at Paris in the year1612. 

RAYMOND LULLI. 

Among the European students of these interesting secrets a foremostplace is to be assigned to Raymond Lulli and Arnold of Villeneuve. 

Lulli was undoubtedly a man endowed in a very eminent degree with thepowers of intellect. He was a native of the island of Majorca, and wasborn in the year 1234. He is said to have passed his early years inprofligacy and dissipation, but to have been reclaimed by the accidentof falling in love with a young woman afflicted with a cancer. Thiscircumstance induced him to apply himself intently to the study ofchemistry and medicine, with a view to discover a cure for hercomplaint, in which he succeeded. He afterwards entered into thecommunity of Franciscan friars. 

Edward the First was one of the most extraordinary princes that eversat on a throne. He revived the study of the Roman civil law with suchsuccess as to have merited the title of the English Justinian. He wasno less distinguished as the patron of arts and letters. He invited toEngland Guido dalla Colonna, the author of the Troy Book, and RaymondLulli. This latter was believed in his time to have prosecuted hisstudies with such success as to have discovered the _elixir vitae_, by means of which he could keep off the assaults of old age, at leastfor centuries, and the philosopher's stone. He is affirmed by thesemeans to have supplied to Edward the First six millions of money, toenable 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 Mahometansto the Christian faith. For this purpose he entered earnestly upon thestudy of the Oriental languages. He endeavoured to prevail on differentprinces of Europe to concur in his plan, and to erect colleges for thepurpose, but without success. He at length set out alone upon hisenterprise, but met with small encouragement. He penetrated intoAfrica and Asia. He made few converts, and was with difficulty sufferedto depart, under a solemn injunction that he should not return. ButLulli chose to obey God rather than man, and ventured a second time. The Mahometans became exasperated with his obstinacy, and are said tohave stoned him to death at the age of eighty years. His body washowever transported to his native place; and miracles are reported tohave been worked at his tomb. [182]

Raymond Lulli is beside famous for what he was pleased to style hisGreat Art. The ordinary accounts however that are given of this artassume a style of burlesque, rather than of philosophy. He is said tohave boasted that by means of it he could enable any one to arguelogically on any subject for a whole day together, independently ofany previous study of the subject in debate. To the details of theprocess Swift seems to have been indebted for one of the humorousprojects described by him in his voyage to Laputa. Lulli recommendedthat certain general terms of logic, metaphysics, ethics or theologyshould first be collected. These were to be inscribed separately uponsquare pieces of parchment. They were then to be placed on a frame soconstructed that by turning a handle they might revolve freely, andform endless combinations. One term would stand for a subject, andanother for a predicate. The student was then diligently to inspectthe different combinations that fortuitously arose, and exercising thesubtlety of his faculties to select such as he should find bestcalculated for his purposes. He would thus carry on the process of hisdebate; and an extraordinary felicity would occasionally arise, suggesting the most ingenious hints, and leading on to the mostimportant discoveries. [183]--If a man with the eminent facultieswhich Lulli otherwise appeared to have possessed really laid down therules of such an art, all he intended by it must have been to satirizethe gravity with which the learned doctors of his time carried ontheir grave disputations in mood and figure, having regard only to theseverity of the rule by which they debated, and holding themselvestotally indifferent whether they made any real advances in thediscovery of truth. 

ARNOLD OF VILLENEUVE. 

Arnold of Villeneuve, who lived about the same time, was a man ofeminent attainments. He made a great proficiency in Greek, Hebrew, andArabic. He devoted himself in a high degree to astrology, and was soconfident in his art, as to venture to predict that the end of theworld would occur in a few years; but he lived to witness thefallaciousness of his prophecy. He had much reputation as a physician. He appears to have been a bold thinker. He maintained that deeds ofcharity were of more avail than the sacrifice of the mass, and that noone would be damned hereafter, but such as were proved to afford anexample of immoral conduct. Like all the men of these times who weredistinguished by the profoundness of their studies, he was accused ofmagic. For this, or upon a charge of heresy, he was brought under theprosecution of the inquisition. But he was alarmed by the fate ofPeter of Apono, and by recantation or some other mode of prudentcontrivance was fortunate enough to escape. He is one of the personsto whom the writing of the book, _De Tribus Impostoribus_, Of theThree 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 oftransmutation, that an act of parliament was passed in the fifth yearof Henry IV, 1404, which lord Coke states as the shortest of ourstatutes, determining that the making of gold or silver shall bedeemed felony. This law is said to have resulted from the fear at thattime entertained by the houses of lords and commons, lest theexecutive power, finding itself by these means enabled to increase therevenue of the crown to any degree it pleased, should disdain to askaid from the legislature; and in consequence should degenerate intotyranny and arbitrary power. [185]

George Ripley, of Ripley in the county of York, is mentioned, towardsthe latter part of the fifteenth century, as having discovered thephilosopher's stone, and by its means contributed one hundred thousandpounds to the knights of Rhodes, the better to enable them to carry ontheir war against the Turks. [186]

About this time however the tide appears to have turned, and the alarmrespecting the multiplication of the precious metals so greatly tohave abated, that patents were issued in the thirty-fifth year ofHenry VI, for the encouragement of such as were disposed to seek theuniversal medicine, and to endeavour the transmutation of inferiormetals into gold. [187]

REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 

While these things were going on in Europe, the period was graduallyapproaching, when the energies of the human mind were to loosen itsshackles, and its independence was ultimately to extinguish thosedelusions and that superstition which had so long enslaved it. Petrarch, born in the year 1304, was deeply impregnated with a passionfor classical lore, was smitten with the love of republicaninstitutions, and especially distinguished himself for an adoration ofHomer. Dante, a more sublime and original genius than Petrarch, washis contemporary. About the same time Boccaccio in his Decamerone gaveat once to Italian prose that purity and grace, which none of hissuccessors in the career of literature have ever been able to excel. And in our own island Chaucer with a daring hand redeemed his nativetongue from the disuse and ignominy into which it had fallen, andpoured out the immortal strains that the genuine lovers of the Englishtongue have ever since perused with delight, while those who arediscouraged by its apparent crabbedness, have yet grown familiar withhis thoughts in the smoother and more modern versification of Drydenand Pope. From that time the principles of true taste have been moreor less cultivated, while with equal career independence of thoughtand an ardent spirit of discovery have continually proceeded, and madea rapid advance towards the perfect day. 

But the dawn of literature and intellectual freedom were still a longtime ere they produced their full effect. The remnant of the old womanclung to the heart with a tenacious embrace. Three or four centurieselapsed, while yet the belief in sorcery and witchcraft was alive incertain classes of society. And then, as is apt to occur in such cases, the expiring folly occasionally gave tokens of its existence with aconvulsive vehemence, and became only the more picturesque andimpressive through the strong contrast of lights and shadows thatattended 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 wonthe decisive battle of Agincourt in the year 1415, and some time afterconcluded a treaty with the reigning king of France, by which he wasrecognised, 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 thantwo months after. Henry VI was only nine months old at the time of hisfather's death; but such was the deplorable state of France, that hewas in the same year proclaimed king in Paris, and for some yearsseemed to have every prospect of a fortunate reign. John duke ofBedford, the king's uncle, was declared regent of France: the son ofCharles VI was reduced to the last extremity; Orleans was the laststrong 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 incrediblemanner turned the whole tide of affairs. She was a servant in a poorinn 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 theuniversal subject of conversation; and Joan became deeply impressedwith the lamentable state of her country and the misfortunes of herking. By dint of perpetual meditation, and feeling in her breast thepromptings of energy and enterprise, she conceived the idea that shewas destined by heaven to be the deliverer of France. Agreeably to thestate of intellectual knowledge at that period, she persuaded herselfthat she saw visions, and held communication with the saints. She hadconversations with St. Margaret, and St. Catherine of Fierbois. Theytold her that she was commissioned by God to raise the siege ofOrleans, and to conduct Charles VII to his coronation at Rheims. St. Catherine commanded her to demand a sword which was in her church atFierbois, which the Maid described by particular tokens, though shehad never seen it. She then presented herself to Baudricourt, governorof the neighbouring town of Vaucouleurs, telling him her commission, and requiring him to send her to the king at Chinon. Baudricourt atfirst made light of her application; but her importunity and theardour she expressed at length excited him. He put on her a man'sattire, gave her arms, and sent her under an escort of two gentlemenand their attendants to Chinon. Here she immediately addressed theking in person, who had purposely hid himself behind his courtiersthat she might not know him. She then delivered her message, andoffered in the name of the Most High to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct king Charles to Rheims to be anointed. As a furtherconfirmation she is said to have revealed to the king before a fewselect friends, a secret, which nothing but divine inspiration couldhave discovered to her. 

Desperate as was then the state of affairs, Charles and his ministersimmediately resolved to seize the occasion that offered, and putforward Joan as an instrument to revive the prostrate courage of hissubjects. He had no sooner determined on this, than he pretended tosubmit the truth of her mission to the most rigorous trial. He calledtogether an assembly of theologians and doctors, who rigorouslyexamined Joan, and pronounced in her favour. He referred the questionto the parliament of Poitiers; and they, who met persuaded that shewas an impostor, became convinced of her inspiration. She was mountedon a high-bred steed, furnished with a consecrated banner, and marched, escorted by a body of five thousand men, to the relief of Orleans. TheFrench, strongly convinced by so plain an interposition of heaven, resumed the courage to which they had long been strangers. Such aphenomenon was exactly suited to the superstition and credulity of theage. The English were staggered with the rumours that every where wentbefore her, and struck with a degree of apprehension and terror thatthey could not shake off. The garrison, informed of her approach, madea sally on the other side of the town; and Joan and her convoy enteredwithout 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 hercourage and spirit of enterprise. With great docility she caught thehints of the commanders by whom she was surrounded; and, convinced ofher own want of experience and skill, delivered them to the forces asthe dictates of heaven. Thus the knowledge and discernment of thegenerals were brought into play, at the same time that theirsuggestions acquired new weight, when falling from the lips of theheaven-instructed heroine. A second convoy arrived; the waggons andtroops passed between the redoubts of the English; while a deadsilence and astonishment reigned among the forces, so latelyenterprising and resistless. Joan now called on the garrison no longerto stand upon the defensive, but boldly to attack the army of thebesiegers. 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 theirsoldiers were driven before the prophetess like a flock of sheep. Thesiege was raised. 

Joan followed the English garrison to a fortified town which theyfixed on as their place of retreat. The siege lasted ten days; theplace was taken; and all the English within it made prisoners. Thelate victorious forces now concentred themselves at Patay in theOrleanois; Joan advanced to meet them. The battle lasted not a moment;it was rather a flight than a combat; Fastolfe, one of the bravest ofour commanders, threw down his arms, and ran for his life; Talbot andScales, the other generals, were made prisoners. The siege of Orleanswas raised on the eighth of May, 1429; the battle of Patay was foughton the tenth of the following month. Joan was at this time twenty-twoyears of age. 

This extraordinary turn having been given to the affairs of thekingdom, Joan next insisted that the king should march to Rheims, inorder to his being crowned. Rheims lay in a direction expresslythrough the midst of the enemies' garrisons. But every thing yieldedto the marvellous fortune that attended upon the heroine. Troyesopened its gates; Chalons followed the example; Rheims sent adeputation with the keys of the city, which met Charles on his march. The proposed solemnity took place amidst the extacies and enthusiasticshouts of his people. It was no sooner over, than Joan stept forward. She said, she had now performed the whole of what God had commissionedher to do; she was satisfied; she intreated the king to dismiss her tothe obscurity from which she had sprung. 

The ministers and generals of France however found Joan too useful aninstrument, to be willing to part with her thus early; and she yieldedto their earnest expostulations. Under her guidance they assailed Laon, Soissons, Chateau Thierry, Provins, and many other places, and tookthem one after another. She threw herself into Compiegne, which wasbesieged by the Duke of Burgundy in conjunction with certain Englishcommanders. The day after her arrival she headed a sally against theenemy; twice she repelled them; but, finding their numbers increaseevery moment with fresh reinforcements, she directed a retreat. Twiceshe returned upon her pursuers, and made them recoil, the third timeshe was less fortunate. She found herself alone, surrounded with theenemy; and after having enacted prodigies of valour, she was compelledto surrender a prisoner. This happened on the twenty-fifth of May, 1430. 

It remained to be determined what should be the fate of this admirablewoman. Both friends and enemies agreed that her career had beenattended with a supernatural power. The French, who were so infinitelyindebted to her achievements, and who owed the sudden and gloriousreverse of their affairs to her alone, were convinced that she wasimmediately commissioned by God, and vied with each other in recitingthe miraculous phenomena which marked every step in her progress. TheEnglish, who saw all the victorious acquisitions of Henry V crumblingfrom their grasp, were equally impressed with the manifest miracle, but imputed all her good-fortune to a league with the prince ofdarkness. They said that her boasted visions were so many delusions ofthe devil. They determined to bring her to trial for the tremendouscrimes of sorcery and witchcraft. They believed that, if she were onceconvicted and led out to execution, the prowess and valour which hadhitherto marked their progress would return to them, and that theyshould obtain the same superiority over their disheartened foes. Thedevil, who had hitherto been her constant ally, terrified at thespectacle of the flames that consumed her, would instantly return tothe infernal regions, and leave the field open to English enterpriseand energy, and to the interposition of God and his saints. 

An accusation was prepared against her, and all the solemnities of apublic trial were observed. But the proofs were so weak andunsatisfactory, and Joan, though oppressed and treated with the utmostseverity, displayed so much acuteness and presence of mind, that thecourt, not venturing to proceed to the last extremity, contentedthemselves with sentencing her to perpetual imprisonment, and to beallowed no other nourishment than bread and water for life. Beforethey yielded to this mitigation of punishment, they caused her to signwith her mark a recantation of her offences. She acknowledged that theenthusiasm that had guided her was an illusion, and promised nevermore to listen to its suggestions. 

The hatred of her enemies however was not yet appeased. Theydetermined in some way to entrap her. They had clothed her in a femalegarb; they insidiously laid in her way the habiliments of a man. Thefire smothered in the bosom of the maid, revived at the sight; she wasalone; she caught up the garments, and one by one adjusted them to herperson. Spies were set upon her to watch for this event; they burstinto the apartment. What she had done was construed into no lessoffence than that of a relapsed heretic; there was no more pardon forsuch confirmed delinquency; she was brought out to be burned alive inthe market-place of Rouen, and she died, embracing a crucifix, and inher last moments calling upon the name of Jesus. A few days more thantwelve months, had elapsed between the period of her first captivityand her execution. 

ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER. 

This was a period in which the ideas of witchcraft had caught fasthold of the minds of mankind; and those accusations, which by theenlightened part of the species would now be regarded as worthy onlyof 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 ofGloucester, next brother to Bedford, was lord protector of the realmof England. Though Henry was now nineteen years of age, yet, as he wasa prince of slender capacity, Humphrey still continued to dischargethe functions of sovereignty. He was eminently endowed with popularqualities, and was a favourite with the majority of the nation. He hadhowever many enemies, one of the chief of whom was Henry Beaufort, great-uncle to the king, and cardinal of Winchester. One of the meansemployed by this prelate to undermine the power of Humphrey, consistedin 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 uponher. She was the second wife of Humphrey, and he was suspected to haveindulged in undue familiarity with her, before he was a widower. Hispresent duchess was reported to have had recourse to witchcraft in thefirst instance, by way of securing his wayward inclinations. The dukeof Bedford had died in 1435; and Humphrey now, in addition to theactual exercise of the powers of sovereigny, was next heir to thecrown 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 counselsMargery 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 personsfrequently met the duchess in secret cabal. They were accused ofcalling up spirits from the infernal world; and they made an image ofwax, which they slowly consumed before a fire, expecting that, as theimage gradually wasted away, so the constitution and life of the poorking would decay and finally perish. 

Hume, or Hun, is supposed to have turned informer, and upon hisinformation several of these persons were taken into custody. Afterprevious examination, on the twenty-fifth of July, 1441, Bolingbrokewas placed upon a scaffold before the cross of St. Paul's, with achair curiously painted, which was supposed to be one of hisimplements of necromancy, and dressed in mystical attire, and there, before the archbishop of Canterbury, the cardinal of Winchester, andseveral other bishops, made abjuration of all his unlawful arts. 

A short time after, the duchess of Gloucester, having fled to thesanctuary at Westminster, her case was referred to the same highpersons, and Bolingbroke was brought forth to give evidence againsther. She was of consequence committed to custody in the castle ofLeeds near Maidstone, to take her trial in the month of October. Acommission was directed to the lord treasurer, several noblemen, andcertain 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 ofGloucester as accessory, were brought before them. Margery Jourdainwas arraigned at the same time; and she, as a witch and relapsedheretic, was condemned to be burned in Smithfield. The duchess ofGloucester was sentenced to do penance on three several days, walkingthrough the streets of London, with a lighted taper in her hand, attended by the lord mayor, the sheriffs, and a select body of thelivery, and then to be banished for life to the isle of Man. ThomasSouthwel died in prison; and Bolingbroke was hanged at Tyburn on theeighteenth of November. 

RICHARD III. 

An event occurred not very long after this, which deserves to bementioned, as being well calculated to shew how deep an impressionideas of witchcraft had made on the public mind even in the gravestaffairs and the counsels of a nation. Richard duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III, shortly before his usurpation of the crown in1483, had recourse to this expedient for disarming the power of hisenemies, which he feared as an obstacle to his project. Being lordprotector, he came abruptly into the assembly of the council that hehad left but just before, and suddenly asked, what punishment theydeserved who should be found to have plotted against his life, beingthe person, as nearest akin to the young king, intrusted in chief withthe affairs of the nation? And, a suitable answer being returned, hesaid the persons he accused were the queen-dowager, and Jane Shore, the favourite concubine of the late king, who by witchcraft andforbidden arts had sought to destroy him. And, while he spoke, he laidbare his left arm up to the elbow, which appeared shrivelled andwasted in a pitiable manner. "To this condition, " said he, "have theseabandoned women reduced me. "--The historian adds, that it was wellknown that his arm had been thus wasted from his birth. 

In January 1484, the parliament met which recognised the title ofRichard, and pronounced the marriage of Edward IV null, and its issueillegitimate. [188] The same parliament passed an act of attainderagainst Henry earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII, the countess ofRichmond, his mother, and a great number of other persons, many ofthem the most considerable adherents of the house of Lancaster. Amongthese persons are enumerated Thomas Nandick and William Knivet, necromancers. In the first parliament of Henry VII this attainder wasreversed, and Thomas Nandick of Cambridge, conjurer, is speciallynominated 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 doesnot the less constitute one of its integral members, and which, thoughpainful, is deeply instructive, and constitutes a most essentialbranch in the science of human nature. Wherever I could, I haveendeavoured to render the topics which offered themselves to myexamination, entertaining. When men pretended to invert the known lawsof nature, "murdering impossibility; to make what cannot be, slightwork;" I have been willing to consider the whole as an ingeniousfiction, and merely serving as an example how far credulity could goin setting aside the deductions of our reason, and the evidence ofsense. The artists in these cases did not fail to excite admiration, and gain some sort of applause from their contemporaries, though stillwith a tingling feeling that all was not exactly as it should be, andwith a confession that the professors were exercising unhallowed arts. It was like what has been known of the art of acting; those whoemployed it were caressed and made every where welcome, but were notallowed the distinction of Christian burial. 

But, particularly in the fifteenth century, things took a new turn. Inthe dawn of the day of good sense, and when historical evidence atlength began to be weighed in the scales of judgment, men became lesscareless of truth, and regarded prodigies and miracles with a differenttemper. And, as it often happens, the crisis, the precise passage fromill to better, shewed itself more calamitous, and more full ofenormities and atrocity, than the period when the understanding wascompletely hood-winked, and men digested absurdities and impossibilitywith as much ease as their every day food. They would not now forgivethe tampering with the axioms of eternal truth; they regarded cheatand imposture with a very different eye; and they had recourse to thestake and the faggot, for the purpose of proving that they would nolonger be trifled with. They treated the offenders as the mostatrocious of criminals, and thus, though by a very indirect andcircuitous 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, inwhich they complained that the practice of witchcraft was become morefrequent 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 firstof these might seem to be enough in the days of bigotry and implicitfaith, to excite the horror of the vulgar; but the advocates ofreligious uniformity held that they should be still more secure oftheir object, if they could combine the sin of holding cheap theauthority of the recognised heads of Christian faith, with that ofmen's enlisting under the banners of Satan, and becoming the avowedand sworn vassals of his infernal empire. They accordingly seem tohave invented the ideas of a sabbath of witches, a numerous assemblyof persons who had cast off all sense of shame, and all regard forthose 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 presentacknowledged themselves his subjects. And, having invented this scene, these cunning and mischievous persecutors found means, as we shallpresently see, of compelling their unfortunate victims to confess thatthey had personally assisted at the ceremony, and performed all thedegrading offices which should consign them in the world to come toeverlasting fire. 

While I express myself thus, I by no means intend to encourage theidea that the ecclesiastical authorities of these times were generallyhypocrites. They fully partook of the narrowness of thought of theperiod in which they lived. They believed that the sin of hereticalpravity was "as the sin of witchcraft;" [191] they regarded them alikewith horror, and were persuaded that there was a natural consent andalliance between them. Fully impressed with this conception, theyemployed means from which our genuine and undebauched nature revolts, to extort from their deluded victims a confession of what theirexaminers apprehended to be true; they asked them leading questions;they suggested the answers they desired to receive; and led theignorant and friendless to imagine that, if these answers were adopted, they might expect immediately to be relieved from insupportabletortures. The delusion went round. These unhappy wretches, findingthemselves the objects of universal abhorrence, and the hatred ofmankind, at length many of them believed that they had entered into aleague with the devil, that they had been transported by him throughthe air to an assembly of souls consigned to everlasting reprobation, that they had bound themselves in acts of fealty to their infernaltaskmasters [Errata: _read_ taskmaster], and had received fromhim 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 andmore enlightened times would lead us to regard as impossible, but towhich the uncontradicted and authentic voice of history compels us tosubscribe. 

The Albigenses and Waldenses were a set of men, who, in theflourishing provinces of Languedoc, in the darkest ages, and when theunderstandings of human creatures by a force not less memorable thanthat of Procrustes were reduced to an uniform stature, shook off bysome strange and unaccountable freak, the chains that were universallyimposed, and arrived at a boldness of thinking similar to that whichLuther and Calvin after a lapse of centuries advocated with happierauspices. With these manly and generous sentiments however theycombined a considerable portion of wild enthusiasm. They preached thenecessity of a community of goods, taught that it was necessary towear sandals, because sandals only had been worn by the apostles, anddevoted themselves to lives of rigorous abstinence and the most severeself-denial. 

The Catholic church knew no other way in those days of convertingheretics, but by fire and sword; and accordingly pope Innocent theThird published a crusade against them. The inquisition was expresslyappointed in its origin to bring back these stray sheep into the flockof Christ; and, to support this institution in its operations, SimonMontfort marched a numerous army for the extermination of theoffenders. One hundred thousand are said to have perished. Theydisappeared from the country which had witnessed their commencement, and dispersed themselves in the vallies of Piedmont, in Artois, and invarious other places. This crusade occurred in the commencement of thethirteenth century; and they do not again attract the notice ofhistory till the middle of the fifteenth. 

Monstrelet, in his Chronicle, gives one of the earliest accounts ofthe proceedings at this time instituted against these unfortunatepeople, under the date of the year 1459. "In this year, " says he, "inthe town of Arras, there occurred a miserable and inhuman scene, towhich, I know not why, was given the name of _Vaudoisie_. Therewere taken up and imprisoned a number of considerable personsinhabitants of this town, and others of a very inferior class. Theselatter were so cruelly put to the torture, that they confessed, thatthey had been transported by supernatural means to a solitary placeamong 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 whichthey should do his bidding, and exacted from them acts of homage andobedience. He feasted them, and after, having put out the lights, theyproceeded to acts of the grossest licentiousness. " These accounts, according to Monstrelet, were dictated to the victims by theirtormentors; and they then added, under the same suggestion, the namesof divers lords, prelates, and governors of towns and bailliages, whomthey affirmed they had seen at these meetings, and who joined in thesame unholy ceremonies. The historian adds, that it cannot beconcealed that these accusations were brought by certain maliciouspersons, either to gratify an ancient hatred, or to extort from therich sums of money, by means of which they might purchase their escapefrom further prosecution. The persons apprehended were many of themput to the torture so severely, and for so long a time, and weretortured again and again, that they were obliged to confess what waslaid to their charge. Some however shewed so great constancy, thatthey could by no means be induced to depart from the protestation oftheir innocence. In fine, many of the poorer victims were inhumanlyburned; while the richer with great sums of money procured theirdischarge, but at the same time were compelled to banish themselves todistant places, remote from the scene of this cruel outrage. --Balduinusof Artois gives a similar account, and adds that the sentence of thejudges was brought, by appeal under the revision of the parliament ofParis, and was reversed by that judicature in the year 1491. [193]

I have not succeeded in tracing to my satisfaction from the originalauthorities the dates of the following examples, and therefore shallrefer them to the periods assigned them in Hutchinson on Witchcraft. The facts themselves rest for the most part on the most unquestionableauthority. 

Innocent VIII published about the year 1484 a bull, in which heaffirms: "It has come to our ears, that numbers of both sexes do notavoid to have intercourse with the infernal fiends, and that by theirsorceries they afflict both man and beast; they blight themarriage-bed, destroy the births of women, and the increase of cattle;they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, thefruits of the trees, and the grass and herbs of the field. " For thesereasons he arms the inquisitors with apostolic power to "imprison, convict and punish" all such as may be charged with theseoffences. --The consequences of this edict were dreadful all over thecontinent, particularly in Italy, Germany and France. 

Alciatus, an eminent lawyer of this period, relates, that a certaininquisitor came about this time into the vallies of the Alps, beingcommissioned to enquire out and proceed against heretical women withwhom those parts were infested. He accordingly consigned more than onehundred to the flames, every day, like a new holocaust, sacrificingsuch persons to Vulcan, as, in the judgment of the historian, weresubjects demanding rather hellebore than fire; till at length thepeasantry of the vicinity rose in arms, and drove the merciless judgeout of the country. The culprits were accused of having dishonouredthe crucifix, and denying Christ for their God. They were asserted tohave solemnised after a detestable way the devil's sabbath, in whichthe fiend appeared personally among them, and instructed them in theceremonies of his worship. Meanwhile a question was raised whetherthey personally assisted on the occasion, or only saw the solemnitiesin a vision, credible witnesses having sworn that they were at home intheir beds, at the very time that they were accused of having takenpart in these blasphemies. [194]

In 1515, more than five hundred persons are said to have sufferedcapitally for the crime of witchcraft in the city of Geneva in thecourse of three months. [195]

In 1524, one thousand persons were burned on this accusation in theterritory of Como, and one hundred per annum for several year after. [196]

Danaeus commences his Dialogue of Witches with this observation. "Withinthree months of the present time (1575) an almost infinite number ofwitches have been taken, on whom the parliament of Paris has passedjudgment: and the same tribunal fails not to sit daily, as malefactorsaccused of this crime are continually brought before them out of allthe provinces. "

In the year 1595 Nicholas Remi, otherwise Remigius, printed a verycurious work, entitled Demonolatreia, in which he elaborately expoundsthe principles of the compact into which the devil enters with hismortal allies, and the modes of conduct specially observed by bothparties. He boasts that his exposition is founded on an exactobservation of the judicial proceedings which had taken place underhis eye in the duchy of Lorraine, where for the preceding fifteenyears nine hundred persons, more or less, had suffered the extremepenalty of the law for the crime of sorcery. Most of the persons triedseem to have been sufficiently communicative as to the different kindsof menace and compulsion by which the devil had brought them into histerms, and the various appearances he had exhibited, and feats he hadperformed: but others, says the author, had, "by preserving anobstinate silence, shewn themselves invincible to every species oftorture that could be inflicted on them. "

But the most memorable record that remains to us on the subject ofwitchcraft, is contained in an ample quarto volume, entitled ARepresentation (_Tableau_) of the Ill Faith of Evil Spirits andDemons, by Pierre De Lancre, Royal Counsellor in the Parliament ofBordeaux. This man was appointed with one coadjutor, to enquire intocertain acts of sorcery, reported to have been committed in thedistrict of Labourt, near the foot of the Pyrenees; and his commissionbears date in May, 1609, and by consequence twelve months before thedeath of Henry the Fourth. 

The book is dedicated to M. De Silleri, chancellor of France; and inthe dedication the author observes, that formerly those who practisedsorcery were well known for persons of obscure station and narrowintellect; but that now the sorcerers who confess their misdemeanours, depose, that there are seen in the customary meetings held by suchpersons a great number of individuals of quality, whom Satan keepsveiled 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 thefurthest part of the assembly. The whole narrative assumes the form ofa regular warfare between Satan on the one side, and the royalcommissioners on the other. 

At first the devil endeavoured to supply the accused with strength tosupport the tortures by which it was sought to extort confession fromthem, insomuch that, in an intermission of the torture, the wretchesdeclared 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, tillthey had drawn from them, if possible, an ample confession. The devilnext proceeded to stop the mouths of the accused that they might notconfess. He leaped on their throats, and evidently caused anobstruction of the organs of speech, so that in vain they endeavouredto 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 torelieve them in their extremity. The children, the daughters, andother relatives of the victims reproached him, not scrupling to say, "Out upon you! you promised that our mothers who were prisoners shouldnot die; and look how you have kept your word with us! They have beenburned, and are a heap of ashes. " In answer to this charge the devilstoutly affirmed, that their parents, who seemed to have suffered, were not dead, but were safe in a foreign country, assuring themalcontents that, if they called on them, they would receive an answer. The children called accordingly, and by an infernal illusion an answercame, exactly in the several voices of the deceased, declaring thatthey 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 themthat the fires lighted by a judicial decree were as harmless andinoffensive as these. The demon further threatened that he would causethe prosecutors to be burned in their own fire, and even proceeded tomake them in semblance hover and alight on the branches of theneighbouring trees. He further caused a swarm of toads to appear likea garland to crown the heads of the sufferers, at which when in oneinstance the bystanders threw stones to drive them away, one monstrousblack toad remained to the last uninjured, and finally mounted aloft, and vanished from sight. De Lancre goes on to describe the ceremoniesof the sabbath of the devil; and a plate is inserted, presenting theassembly in the midst of their solemnities. He describes in severalchapters the sort of contract entered into between the devil and thesorcerers, the marks by which they may be known, the feast with whichthe demon regaled them, their distorted and monstrous dance, thecopulation between the fiend and the witch, and its issue. --It is easyto imagine with what sort of fairness the trials were conducted, whensuch is the description the judge affords us of what passed at theseassemblies. Six hundred were burned under this prosecution. 

The last chapter is devoted to an accurate account of what took placeat an _auto da fe_ in the month of November 1610 at Logrogno onthe Ebro in Spain, the victims being for the greater part the unhappywretches, who had escaped through the Pyrenees from the mercilessprosecution that had been exercised against them by the historian ofthe whole. 

SAVONAROLA. 

Jerome Savonarola was one of the most remarkable men of his time, andhis fortunes are well adapted to illustrate the peculiarities of thatperiod. He was born in the year 1452 at Ferrara in Italy. He became aDominican Friar at Bologna without the knowledge of his parents in thetwenty-second year of his age. He was first employed by his superiorsin elucidating the principles of physics and metaphysics. But, afterhaving occupied some years in this way, he professed to take a lastingleave of these subtleties, and to devote himself exclusively to thestudy of the Scriptures. In no long time he became an eminent preacher, by the elegance and purity of his style acquiring the applause ofhearers of taste, and by the unequalled fervour of his eloquencesecuring the hearts of the many. It was soon obvious, that, by hispower gained in this mode, he could do any thing he pleased with thepeople of Florence among whom he resided. Possessed of such anascendancy, he was not contented to be the spiritual guide of thesouls of men, but further devoted himself to the temporal prosperityand grandeur of his country. The house of Medici was at this timemasters of the state, and the celebrated Lorenzo de Medici possessedthe administration of affairs. But the political maxims of Lorenzowere in discord with those of our preacher. Lorenzo sought toconcentre all authority in the opulent few; but Savonarola, proceedingon the model of the best times of ancient Rome, endeavoured to vestthe sovereign power in the hands of the people. 

He had settled at Florence in the thirty-fourth year of his age, beinginvited to become prior of the convent of St. Mark in that city: andsuch was his popularity, that, four years after, Lorenzo on hisdeath-bed sent for Savonarola to administer to him spiritualconsolation. 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: andLorenzo complied with these terms. 

The prince being dead, Savonarola stepped immediately into the highestauthority. He reconstituted the state upon pure republican principles, and enjoined four things especially in all his public preachings, thefear 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, wherehe is said to have produced a total revolution of manners, fromlibertinism to the most exemplary purity and integrity; he likewiseaspired to produce an equal effect on the entire of Italy. Alexander VI, the most profligate of popes, then filled the chair atRome; and Savonarola thundered against him in the cathedral atFlorence the most fearful denunciations. The pope did not hesitate amoment to proceed to extremities against the friar. He cited him toRome, under pain, if disobeyed, of excommunication to the priest, andan interdict to the republic that harboured him. The Florentinesseveral times succeeded in causing the citation to be revoked, and, making terms with the sovereign pontiff, Jerome again and againsuspending his preachings, which were however continued by otherfriars, his colleagues and confederates. Savonarola meanwhile couldnot long be silent; he resumed his philippics as fiercely as ever. 

At this time faction raged strongly at Florence. Jerome had manypartisans; all the Dominicans, and the greater part of the populace. But he had various enemies leagued against him; the adherents of thehouse of Medici, those of the pope, the libertines, and all orders ofmonks and friars except the Dominicans, The violence proceeded so far, that the preacher was not unfrequently insulted in his pulpit, and thecathedral echoed with the dissentions of the parties. At length aconspiracy was organized against Savonarola; and, his adherents havinggot the better, the friar did not dare to trust the punishment of hisenemies to the general assembly, where the question would have led toa scene of warfare, but referred it to a more limited tribunal, andfinally proceeded to the infliction of death on its sole authority. 

This extremity rendered his enemies more furious against him. The popedirected absolution, the communion, and the rites of sepulture, to berefused to his followers. He was now expelled from the cathedral atFlorence, and removed his preachings to the chapel of his convent, which was enlarged in its accommodations to adapt itself to hisnumerous auditors. In this interim a most extraordinary scene tookplace. One Francis de Pouille offered himself to the trial of fire, infavour of the validity of the excommunication of the pope against thepretended inspiration and miracles of the prophet. He said he did notdoubt to perish in the experiment, but that he should have thesatisfaction of seeing Savonarola perish along with him. Dominic dePescia however and another Dominican presented themselves to theflames instead of Jerome, alledging that he was reserved for higherthings. De Pouille at first declined the substitution, but wasafterwards prevailed on to submit. A vast fire was lighted in themarketplace for the trial; and a low and narrow gallery of iron passedover the middle, on which the challenger and the challenged were toattempt to effect their passage. But a furious deluge of rain was saidto have occurred at the instant every thing was ready; the fire wasextinguished; and the trial for the present was thus renderedimpossible. 

Savonarola in the earnestness of his preachings pretended to turnprophet, and confidently to predict future events. He spoke ofCharles VIII of France as the Cyrus who should deliver Italy, andsubdue the nations before him; and even named the spring of the year1498 as the period that should see all these things performed. 

But it was not in prophecy alone that Savonarola laid claim tosupernatural aid. He described various contests that he had maintainedagainst a multitude of devils at once in his convent. They tormentedin different ways the friars of St. Mark, but ever shrank with awefrom his personal interposition. They attempted to call upon him byname; but the spirit of God overruled them, so that they could neverpronounce his name aright, but still misplaced syllables and lettersin a ludicrous fashion. They uttered terrific threatenings against him, but immediately after shrank away with fear, awed by the holy wordsand warnings which he denounced against them. Savonarola besidesundertook to expel them by night, by sprinkling holy water, and thesinging of hymns in a solemn chorus. While however he was engaged inthese sacred offices, and pacing the cloister of his convent, thedevils would arrest his steps, and suddenly render the air before himso thick, that it was impossible for him to advance further. Onanother occasion one of his colleagues assured Francis Picus ofMirandola, the writer of his Life, that he had himself seen the HolyGhost in the form of a dove more than once, sitting on Savonarola'sshoulder, fluttering his feathers, which were sprinkled with silverand gold, and, putting his beak to his ear, whispering to him hisdivine suggestions. The prior besides relates in a book of his owncomposition 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 anunfavourable impression in consequence of his personally declining thetrial by fire, turned against him. The same evening they besieged theconvent where he resided, and in which he had taken refuge. Thesignory, seeing the urgency of the case, sent to the brotherhood, commanding them to surrender the prior, and the two Dominicans who hadpresented themselves in his stead to the trial by fire. The pope senttwo judges to try them on the spot. They were presently put to thetorture. Savonarola, who we are told was of a delicate habit of body, speedily confessed and expressed contrition for what he had done. Butno sooner was he delivered from the strappado, than he retracted allthat he had before confessed. The experiment was repeated severaltimes, 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 theconstancy of a martyr. He advanced to the place of execution with asteady pace and a serene countenance, and in the midst of the flamesresignedly commended his soul into the hands of his maker. Hisadherents regarded him as a witness to the truth, and piouslycollected his relics; but his judges, to counteract this defiance ofauthority, commanded his remains and his ashes to be cast into theriver. [197]

TRITHEMIUS. 

A name that has in some way become famous in the annals of magic, isthat of John Trithemius, abbot of Spanheim, or Sponheim, in the circleof the Upper Rhine. He was born in the year 1462. He earlydistinguished 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 ofSt. Martin at Spanheim. He has written a great number of works, andhas left some memorials of his life. Learning was at a low ebb when hewas chosen to this dignity. The library of the convent consisted oflittle more than forty volumes. But, shortly after, under hissuperintendence it amounted to many hundreds. He insisted upon hismonks diligently employing themselves in the multiplication ofmanuscripts. The monks, who had hitherto spent their days in luxuriousidleness, were greatly dissatisfied with this revolution, and ledtheir abbot a very uneasy life. He was in consequence removed topreside over the abbey of St. Jacques in Wurtzburg in 1506, where hedied 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 beentold of his intercourse with the emperor Maximilian. Maximilian'sfirst wife was Mary of Burgundy, whom he lost in the prime of her life. The emperor was inconsolable upon the occasion; and Trithemius, whowas called in as singularly qualified to comfort him, having tried allother expedients in vain, at length told Maximilian that he wouldundertake to place his late consort before him precisely in the statein which she had lived. After suitable preparations, Mary of Burgundyaccordingly appeared. The emperor was struck with astonishment. Hefound the figure before him in all respects like the consort he hadlost. At length he exclaimed, "There is one mark by which I shallinfallibly know whether this is the same person. Mary, my wife, had awart in the nape of her neck, to the existence of which no one wasprivy but myself. " He examined, and found the wart there, in allrespects 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 hebanished Trithemius his presence for ever. 

This tale has been discredited, partly on the score of the period ofthe death of Mary of Burgundy, which happened in 1481, when Trithemiuswas only nineteen years of age. He himself expressly disclaims allimputation of sorcery. One ground of the charge has been placed uponthe existence of a work of his, entitled Steganographia, or the art, by means of a secret writing, of communicating our thoughts to aperson absent. He says however, that in this work he had merely usedthe language of magic, without in any degree having had recourse totheir modes of proceeding. Trithemius appears to have been the firstwriter who has made mention of the extraordinary feats of John Faustof Wittenburg, and that in a way that shews he considered theseenchantments as the work of a supernatural power. [198]

LUTHER. 

It is particularly proper to introduce some mention of Luther in thisplace; not that he is in any way implicated in the question ofnecromancy, but that there are passages in his writings in which hetalks of the devil in what we should now think a very extraordinaryway. And it is curious, and not a little instructive, to see how aperson of so masculine an intellect, and who in many respects so faroutran the illumination of his age, was accustomed to judge respectingthe 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, thatthis supernatural personage caused him by his visits "many bitternights and much restless and wearisome repose. " Once in particular hecame to Luther, "in the dead of the night, when he was just awaked outof sleep. The devil, " he goes on to say, "knows well how to constructhis arguments, and to urge them with the skill of a master. Hedelivers himself with a grave, and yet a shrill voice. Nor does he usecircumlocutions, and beat about the bush, but excels in forciblestatements and quick rejoinders. I no longer wonder, " he adds, "thatthe persons whom he assails in this way, are occasionally found deadin their beds. He is able to compress and throttle, and more than oncehe has so assaulted me and driven my soul into a corner, that I feltas if the next moment it must leave my body. I am of opinion thatGesner and Oecolampadius and others in that manner came by theirdeaths. The devil's manner of opening a debate is pleasant enough; buthe urges things so peremptorily, that the respondent in a short timeknows not how to acquit himself. " [199] He elsewhere says, "Thereasons 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 perceivethe just interpretation. For my part I am thoroughly acquainted withhim, and have eaten a bushel of salt with him. He sleeps with me morefrequently, 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 themost celebrated men of his time. His talents were remarkably great;and he had a surprising facility in the acquisition of languages. Heis spoken of with the highest commendations by Trithemius, Erasmus, Melancthon, and others, the greatest men of his times. But he was aman of the most violent passions, and of great instability of temper. He was of consequence exposed to memorable vicissitudes. He had greatreputation as an astrologer, and was assiduous in the cultivation ofchemistry. He had the reputation of possessing the philosopher's stone, and was incessantly experiencing the privations of poverty. He wassubject to great persecutions, and was repeatedly imprisoned. Hereceived invitations at the same time from Henry VIII, from thechancellor of the emperor, from a distinguished Italian marquis, andfrom Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries. He made hiselection in favour of the last, and could find no way so obvious ofshowing his gratitude for her patronage, as composing an elaboratetreatise on the Superiority of the Female Sex, which he dedicated toher. Shortly after, he produced a work not less remarkable, todemonstrate the Vanity and Emptiness of Scientifical Acquirements. Margaret of Austria being dead, he was subsequently appointed physicianto Louisa of Savoy, mother to Francis I. This lady however havingassigned him a task disagreeable to his inclination, a calculationaccording to the rules of astrology, he made no scruple of turningagainst her, and affirming that he should henceforth hold her for acruel and perfidious Jezebel. After a life of storms and perpetualvicissitude, he died in 1534, aged 48 years. 

He enters however into the work I am writing, principally on accountof the extraordinary stories that have been told of him on the subjectof magic. He says of himself, in his Treatise on the Vanity ofSciences, "Being then a very young man, I wrote in three books of aconsiderable 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 mostillustrious ornaments of our early English poetry, Henry Howard earlof Surrey, who suffered death at the close of the reign of KingHenry VIII. The earl of Surrey, we are told, became acquainted withCornelius Agrippa at the court of John George elector of Saxony. Onthis occasion were present, beside the English nobleman, Erasmus, andmany other persons eminent in the republic of letters. These personsshewed themselves enamoured of the reports that had been spread ofAgrippa, and desired him before the elector to exhibit somethingmemorable. One intreated him to call up Plautus, and shew him as heappeared in garb and countenance, when he ground corn in the mill. Another before all things desired to see Ovid. But Erasmus earnestlyrequested to behold Tully in the act of delivering his oration forRoscius. This proposal carried the most votes. And, after marshallingthe concourse of spectators, Tully appeared, at the command of Agrippa, and from the rostrum pronounced the oration, precisely in the words inwhich 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, topronounce his client innocent of every charge that had been broughtagainst him. " The story adds, that, when sir Thomas More was at thesame place, Agrippa shewed him the whole destruction of Troy in adream. To Thomas Lord Cromwel he exhibited in a perspective glass KingHenry VIII and all his lords hunting in his forest at Windsor. ToCharles V he shewed David, Solomon, Gideon, and the rest, with theNine Worthies, in their habits and similitude as they had lived. 

Lord Surrey, in the mean time having gotten into familiarity withAgrippa, requested him by the way side as they travelled, to setbefore him his mistress, the fair Geraldine, shewing at the same timewhat she did, and with whom she talked. Agrippa accordingly exhibitedhis magic glass, in which the noble poet saw this beautiful dame, sick, weeping upon her bed, and inconsolable for the absence of heradmirer. --It is now known, that the sole authority for this tale isThomas Nash, the dramatist, in his Adventures of Jack Wilton, printedin the year 1593. 

Paulus Jovius relates that Agrippa always kept a devil attendant uponhim, who accompanied him in all his travels in the shape of a blackdog. When he lay on his death-bed, he was earnestly exhorted to repentof his sins. Being in consequence struck with a deep contrition, hetook 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 entiredestruction!"--It is added, that the dog immediately ran away, andplunged 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 payinghis bill in counterfeit money, which at the time of payment appearedof sterling value, but in a few days after became pieces of horn andworthless shells. [202]

But the most extraordinary story of Agrippa is told by Delrio, and isas follows. Agrippa had occasion one time to be absent for a few daysfrom his residence at Louvain. During his absence he intrusted hiswife with the key of his Museum, but with an earnest injunction thatno one on any account should be allowed to enter. Agrippa happened atthat time to have a boarder in his house, a young fellow of insatiablecuriosity, who would never give over importuning his hostess, till atlength he obtained from her the forbidden key. The first thing in theMuseum that attracted his attention, was a book of spells andincantations. He spread this book upon a desk, and, thinking no harm, began to read aloud. He had not long continued this occupation, when aknock was heard at the door of the chamber. The youth took no notice, but continued reading. Presently followed a second knock, whichsomewhat alarmed the reader. The space of a minute having elapsed, andno answer made, the door was opened, and a demon entered. "For whatpurpose am I called?" said the stranger sternly. "What is it youdemand to have done?" The youth was seized with the greatest alarm, and struck speechless. The demon advanced towards him, seized him bythe throat, and strangled him, indignant that his presence should thusbe invoked from pure thoughtlessness and presumption. 

At the expected time Agrippa came home, and to his great surprisefound 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 fromtheir sport, and with authority demanded what was the cause of thisnovel appearance. The chief of them answered. He told how they hadbeen invoked, and insulted, and what revenge they had taken. Agrippabecame exceedingly alarmed for the consequences to himself of thisunfortunate adventure. He ordered the demon without loss of time toreanimate the body of his victim, then to go forth, and to walk theboarder three or four times up and down the market-place in the sightof the people. The infernal spirit did as he was ordered, shewed thestudent publicly alive, and having done this, suffered the body tofall down, the marks of conscious existence being plainly no more. Fora time it was thought that the student had been killed by a suddenattack of disease. But, presently after, the marks of strangulationwere plainly discerned, and the truth came out. Agrippa was thenobliged suddenly to withdraw himself, and to take up his residence ina distant province. [203]

Wierus in his well known book, _De Praestigiis Demonum_, informsus that he had lived for years in daily attendance on CorneliusAgrippa, and that the black dog respecting which such strange surmiseshad been circulated, was a perfectly innocent animal that he had oftenled in a string. He adds, that the sole foundation for the story layin the fact, that Agrippa had been much attached to the dog, which hewas accustomed to permit to eat off the table with its master, andeven to lie of nights in his bed. He further remarks, that Agrippa wasaccustomed often not to go out of his room for a week together, andthat people accordingly wondered that he could have such accurateinformation of what was going on in all parts of the world, and wouldhave it that his intelligence was communicated to him by his dog. Hesubjoins however, that Agrippa had in fact correspondents in everyquarter of the globe, and received letters from them daily, and thatthis was the real source of his extraordinary intelligence. [204]

Naudé, in his Apology for Great Men accused of Magic, mentions, thatAgrippa 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 amagician, Agrippa indeed well deserved it. But he gives it as hisopinion that this was the only ground for fastening the imputation onthis illustrious character. 

Without believing however any of the tales of the magic practices ofCornelius Agrippa, and even perhaps without supposing that heseriously pretended to such arts, we are here presented with astriking picture of the temper and credulity of the times in which helived. We plainly see from the contemporary evidence of Wierus, thatsuch things were believed of him by his neighbours; and at that periodit was sufficiently common for any man of deep study, of reclusehabits, and a certain sententious and magisterial air to undergo theseimputations. It is more than probable that Agrippa was willing by ageneral silence and mystery to give encouragement to the wonder of thevulgar mind. He was flattered by the terror and awe which hisappearance inspired. He did not wish to come down to the ordinarylevel. And if to this we add his pursuits of alchemy and astrology, with the formidable and various apparatus supposed to be required inthese pursuits, we shall no longer wonder at the results whichfollowed. He loved to wander on the brink of danger, and was contentedto take his chance of being molested, rather than not possess thatascendancy over the ordinary race of mankind which was evidentlygratifying 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 eminentpersonage in the annals of necromancy. His pretended history does notseem to have been written till about the year 1587, perhaps half acentury after his death. This work is apparently in its principalfeatures altogether fictitious. We have no reason however to deny theearly statements as to his life. He is asserted by Camerarius andWierus to have been born at Cundling near Cracow in the kingdom ofPoland, and is understood to have passed the principal part of hislife at the university of Wittenberg. He was probably well known toCornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus. Melancthon mentions him in hisLetters; and Conrad Gessner refers to him as a contemporary. Theauthor of his Life cites the opinions entertained respecting him byLuther. Philip Camerarius speaks of him in his Horae Subsecivae as acelebrated name among magicians, apparently without reference to theLife that has come down to us; [205] and Wierus does the same thing. [206] He was probably nothing more than an accomplished juggler, whoappears to have practised his art with great success in several townsof Germany. He was also no doubt a pretender to necromancy. 

On this basis the well known History of his Life has been built. Theauthor has with great art expanded very slender materials, andrendered his work in a striking degree a code and receptacle of allthe most approved ideas respecting necromancy and a profane andsacrilegious dealing with the devil. He has woven into it with muchskill the pretended arts of the sorcerers, and has transcribed orclosely imitated the stories that have been handed down to us of manyof the extraordinary feats they were said to have performed. It istherefore suitable to our purpose to dwell at some length upon thesuccessive features of this history. 

The life has been said to have been originally written in Spain byFranciscus Schottus of Toledo, in the Latin language. [207] But thisbiographical work is assigned to the date of 1594, previously to whichthe Life is known to have existed in German. It is improbable that aSpanish writer should have chosen a German for the hero of his romance, whereas nothing can be more natural than for a German to have conceivedthe idea of giving fame and notoriety to his countryman. The mistakeseems to be the same, though for an opposite reason, as that whichappears to have been made in representing the Gil Blas of Le Sage as atranslation. 

The biographical account professes to have been begun by Faustushimself, though written in the third person, and to have beencontinued by Wagner, his confidential servant, to whom the doctor isaffirmed 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 wasearly adopted by an uncle, dwelling in the city of Wittenberg, who hadno children. Here he was sent to college, and was soon distinguishedby the greatness of his talents, and the rapid progress he made inevery species of learning that was put before him. He was destined byhis relative to the profession of theology. But singularly enough, considering that he is represented as furnishing materials for hisown Memoirs, he is said ungraciously to have set at nought his uncle'spious intentions by deriding God's word, and thus to have resembledCain, Reuben and Absalom, who, having sprung from godly parents, afflicted their fathers' hearts by their apostasy. He went through hisexaminations with applause, and carried off all the first prizes amongsixteen competitors. He therefore obtained the degree of doctor indivinity; but his success only made him the more proud and headstrong. He disdained his theological eminence, and sighed for distinction as aman of the world. He took his degree as a doctor of medicine, andaspired to celebrity as a practitioner of physic. About the same timehe fell in with certain contemporaries, of tastes similar to his own, and associated with them in the study of Chaldean, Greek and Arabicscience, 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 intenseapplication, he at length resolved to prosecute his purposes stillfurther by actually raising the devil. He happened one evening to walkin a thick, dark wood, within a short distance from Wittenberg, whenit 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 ofhis wand to mark out a large circle, and then two small ones withinthe larger. In one of these he fixed himself, appropriating the otherfor the use of his expected visitor. He went over the precise range ofcharms and incantations, omitting nothing. It was now dark nightbetween the ninth and tenth hour. The devil manifested himself by theusual signs of his appearance. "Wherefore am I called?" said he, "andwhat is it that you demand?" "I require, " rejoined Faustus, "that youshould sedulously attend upon me, answer my enquiries, and fulfil mybehests. "

Immediately upon Faustus pronouncing these words, there followed atumult over head, as if heaven and earth were coming together. Thetrees in their topmost branches bended to their very roots. It seemedas if the whole forest were peopled with devils, making a crash like athousand waggons, hurrying to the right and the left, before andbehind, in every possible direction, with thunder and lightning, andthe continual discharge of great cannon. Hell appeared to have emptieditself, to have furnished the din. There succeeded the most charmingmusic from all sorts of instruments, and sounds of hilarity anddancing. Next came a report as of a tournament, and the clashing ofinnumerable lances. This lasted so long, that Faustus was many timesabout to rush out of the circle in which he had inclosed himself, andto abandon his preparations. His courage and resolution however gotthe better; and he remained immoveable. He pursued his incantationswithout intermission. Then came to the very edge of the circle agriffin first, and next a dragon, which in the midst of hisenchantments grinned at him horribly with his teeth, but finally felldown at his feet, and extended his length to many a rood. Faustuspersisted. Then succeeded a sort of fireworks, a pillar of fire, and aman on fire at the top, who leaped down; and there immediatelyappeared a number of globes here and there red-hot, while the man onfire went and came to every part of the circle for a quarter of anhour. At length the devil came forward in the shape of a grey monk, and asked Faustus what he wanted. Faustus adjourned their furtherconference, and appointed the devil to come to him at his lodgings. 

He in the mean time busied himself in the necessary preparations. Heentered his study at the appointed time, and found the devil waitingfor him. Faustus told him that he had prepared certain articles, towhich it was necessary that the demon should fully accord, --that heshould attend him at all times, when required, for all the days of hislife, that he should bring him every thing he wanted, that he shouldcome to him in any shape that Faustus required, or be invisible, andFaustus should be invisible too, whenever he desired it, that heshould deny him nothing, and answer him with perfect veracity to everything he demanded. To some of these requisitions the spirit could notconsent, without authority from his master, the chief of devils. Atlength all these concessions were adjusted. The devil on his part alsoprescribed his conditions. That Faustus should abjure the Christianreligion and all reverence for the supreme God; that he should enjoythe 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 himbody and soul at his pleasure [the term was fixed for twenty-fouryears]; that he should at all times stedfastly refuse to listen to anyone who should desire to convert him, or convince him of the error ofhis ways, and lead him to repentance; that Faustus should draw up awriting containing these particulars, and sign it with his blood, thathe should deliver this writing to the devil, and keep a duplicate ofit for himself, that so there might be no misunderstanding. It wasfurther appointed by Faustus that the devil should usually attend himin the habit of cordelier, with a pleasing countenance and aninsinuating demeanour. Faustus also asked the devil his name, whoanswered that he was usually called Mephostophiles (perhaps moreaccurately Nephostophiles, a lover of clouds). 

Previously to this deplorable transaction, in which Faustus soldhimself, soul and body, to the devil, he had consumed his inheritance, and was reduced to great poverty. But he was now no longer subjectedto any straits. The establishments of the prince of Chutz, the duke ofBavaria, and the archbishop of Saltzburgh were daily put undercontribution for his more convenient supply. By the diligence ofMephostophiles provisions of all kinds continually flew in at hiswindows; and the choicest wines were perpetually found at his board tothe annoyance and discredit of the cellarers and butlers of theseeminent personages, who were extremely blamed for defalcations inwhich they had no share. He also brought him a monthly supply of money, sufficient for the support of his establishment. Besides, he suppliedhim with a succession of mistresses, such as his heart desired, whichwere in truth nothing but devils disguised under the semblance ofbeautiful women. He further gave to Faustus a book, in which wereamply detailed the processes of sorcery and witchcraft, by means ofwhich the doctor could obtain whatever he desired. 

One of the earliest indulgences which Faustus proposed to himself fromthe command he possessed over his servant-demon, was the gratificationof his curiosity in surveying the various nations of the world. Accordingly Mephostophiles converted himself into a horse, with twohunches on his back like a dromedary, between which he conveyedFaustus through the air where-ever he desired. They consumed fifteenmonths in their travels. Among the countries they visited the historymentions 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 ofthese countries Mephostophiles points out to his fellow-travellertheir principal curiosities and antiquities. In Rome they sojournedthree days and three nights, and, being themselves invisible, visitedthe residence of the pope and the other principal palaces. 

At Constantinople Faustus visited the emperor of the Turks, assumingto himself the figure of the prophet Mahomet. His approach waspreceded by a splendid illumination, not less than that of the sun inall his glory. He said to the emperor, "Happy art thou, oh sultan, whoart found worthy to be visited by the great prophet. " And the emperorin return fell prostrate before him, thanking Mahomet for hiscondescension in this visit. The doctor also entered the seraglio, where he remained six days under the same figure, the building and itsgardens being all the time environed with a thick darkness, so that noone, not the emperor himself, dared to enter. At the end of this timethe doctor, still under the figure of Mahomet, was publicly seen, ascending, as it seemed, to heaven. The sultan afterwards enquired ofthe women of his seraglio what had occurred to them during the periodof the darkness; and they answered, that the God Mahomet had been withthem, that he had enjoyed them corporeally, and had told them thatfrom his seed should arise a great people, capable of irresistibleexploits. 

Faustus had conceived a plan of making his way into the terrestrialparadise, without awakening suspicion in his demon-conductor. For thispurpose he ordered him to ascend the highest mountains of Asia. Atlength they came so near, that they saw the angel with the flamingsword forbidding approach to the garden. Faustus, perceiving this, asked Mephostophiles what it meant. His conductor told him, but addedthat 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 witha vehement desire to visit the infernal regions. He proposed thequestion to Mephostophiles, who told him that this was a matter out ofhis department, and that on that journey he could have no otherconductor than Beelzebub. Accordingly, every thing being previouslyarranged, one day at midnight Beelzebub appeared, being alreadyequipped with a saddle made of dead men's bones. Faustus speedilymounted. They in a short time came to an abyss, and encountered amultitude of enormous serpents; but a bear with wings came to theiraid, and drove the serpents away. A flying bull next came with ahideous roar, so fierce that Beelzebub appeared to give way, andFaustus tumbled at once heels-over-head into the pit. After havingfallen to a considerable depth, two dragons with a chariot came to hisaid, and an ape helped him to get into the vehicle. Presently howevercame on a storm with thunder and lightning, so dreadful that thedoctor 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 himselfa footing. He looked down, and perceived a great gulph, in which layfloating many of the vulgar, and not a few emperors, kings, princes, and such as had been mighty lords. Faustus with a sudden impulse casthimself 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 wretchslided from between his fingers, and sank again. 

At length the doctor became wholly exhausted with the fatigue he hadundergone, with the smoke and the fog, with the stifling, sulphureousair, with the tempestuous blasts, with the alternate extremes of heatand cold, and with the clamours, the lamentations, the agonies, andthe howlings of the damned everywhere around him, --when, just in thenick of time, Beelzebub appeared to him again, and invited him oncemore to ascend the saddle, which he had occupied during his infernaljourney. Here he fell asleep, and, when he awoke, found himself in hisown bed in his house. He then set himself seriously to reflect on whathad passed. At one time he believed that he had been really in hell, and had witnessed all its secrets. At another he became persuaded thathe had been subject to an illusion only, and that the devil had ledhim through an imaginary scene, which was truly the case; for thedevil had taken care not to shew him the real hell, fearing that itmight have caused too great a terror, and have induced him to repenthim of his misdeeds perhaps before it was too late. 

It so happened that, once upon a time, the emperor Charles V was atInspruck, at a time when Faustus also resided there. His courtiersinformed the emperor that Faustus was in the town, and Charlesexpressed a desire to see him. He was introduced. Charles asked himwhether he could really perform such wondrous feats as were reportedof him. Faustus modestly replied, inviting the emperor to make trialof his skill. "Then, " said Charles, "of all the eminent personages Ihave ever read of, Alexander the Great is the man who most excites mycuriosity, and whom it would most gratify my wishes to see in the veryform in which he lived. " Faustus rejoined, that it was out of hispower truly to raise the dead, but that he had spirits at his commandwho had often seen that great conqueror, and that Faustus wouldwillingly place him before the emperor as he required. He conditionedthat Charles should not speak to him, nor attempt to touch him. Theemperor promised compliance. After a few ceremonies therefore, Faustusopened a door, and brought in Alexander exactly in the form in whichhe had lived, with the same garments, and every circumstancecorresponding. Alexander made his obeisance to the emperor, and walkedseveral times round him. The queen of Alexander was then introduced inthe same manner. Charles just then recollected, he had read thatAlexander had a wart on the nape of his neck; and with properprecautions Faustus allowed the emperor to examine the apparition bythis test. Alexander then vanished. 

As doctor Faustus waited in court, he perceived a certain knight, whohad fallen asleep in a bow-window, with his head out at window. Thewhim took the doctor, to fasten on his brow the antlers of a stag. Presently the knight was roused from his nap, when with all hisefforts he could not draw in his head on account of the antlers whichgrew upon it. The courtiers laughed exceedingly at the distress of theknight, and, when they had sufficiently diverted themselves, Faustustook off his conjuration, and set the knight at liberty. 

Soon after Faustus retired from Inspruck. Meanwhile the knight, havingconceived a high resentment against the conjuror, waylaid him withseven horsemen on the road by which he had to pass. Faustus howeverperceived them, and immediately made himself invisible. Meanwhile theknight spied on every side to discover the conjuror; but, as he wasthus employed, he heard a sudden noise of drums and trumpets andcymbals, and saw a regiment of horse advancing against him. Heimmediately turned off in another direction; but was encountered by asecond regiment of horse. This occurred no less than six times; andthe knight and his companions were compelled to surrender atdiscretion. These regiments were so many devils; and Faustus nowappeared in a new form as the general of this army. He obliged theknight and his party to dismount, and give up their swords. Then witha seeming generosity he gave them new horses and new swords, But thiswas all enchantment. The swords presently turned into switches; andthe horses, plunging into a river on their road, vanished from beneaththeir riders, who were thoroughly drenched in the stream, and scarcelyescaped with their lives. 

Many of Faustus's delusions are rather remarkable as tricks of merryvexation, than as partaking of those serious injuries which we mightlook for in an implement of hell. In one instance he inquired of acountryman who was driving a load of hay, what compensation he wouldjudge reasonable for the doctor's eating as much of his hay as heshould be inclined to. The waggoner replied, that for half a stiver(one farthing) he should be welcome to eat as much as he pleased. Thedoctor presently fell to, and ate at such a rate, that the peasant wasfrightened lest his whole load should be consumed. He thereforeoffered Faustus a gold coin, value twenty-seven shillings, to be offhis bargain. The doctor took it; and, when the countryman came to hisjourney'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 treathim 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. " "Youchurl, " 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 thegates of the town from which they came. At the same time the horsesfell to the ground, and were utterly unable to raise themselves up. The countryman, frightened, fell on his knees to the doctor, andpromised, if he would forgive him, never to offend in like manneragain. Faustus now, relenting a little, bade the waggoner take ahandful of sand from the road, and scatter on his horses, and theywould be well. At the same time he directed the man to go to the fourgates of Brunswick, and he would find his wheels, one at each gate. 

In another instance, Faustus went into a fair, mounted on a noblebeast, richly caparisoned, the sight of which presently brought allthe horse-fanciers about him. After considerable haggling, he at lastdisposed of his horse to a dealer for a handsome price, only cautioninghim at parting, how he rode the horse to water. The dealer, despisingthe caution that had been given him, turned his horse the first thingtowards the river. He had however no sooner plunged in, than the horsevanished, and the rider found himself seated on a saddle of straw, inthe middle of the stream. With difficulty he waded to the shore, andimmediately, enquiring out the doctor's inn, went to him to complainof the cheat. He was directed to Faustus's room, and entering foundthe conjuror on his bed, apparently asleep. He called to him lustily, but the doctor took no notice. Worked up beyond his patience, he nextlaid hold of Faustus's foot, that he might rouse him the moreeffectually. What was his surprise, to find the doctor's leg and footcome 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 thathe had the devil behind him. 

In one instance three young noblemen applied to Faustus, having beenvery desirous to be present at the marriage of the son of the duke ofBavaria at Mentz, but having overstaid the time, in which it wouldhave been possible by human means to accomplish the journey. Faustus, to oblige them, led them into his garden, and, spreading a largemantle upon a grass-plot, desired them to step on it, and placedhimself in the midst. He then recited a certain form of conjuration. At the same time he conditioned with them, that they should on noaccount speak to any one at the marriage, and, if spoken to, shouldnot answer again. They were carried invisibly through the air, andarrived in excellent time. At a certain moment they became visible, but were still bound to silence. One of them however broke theinjunction, and amused himself with the courtiers. The consequence wasthat, when the other two were summoned by the doctor to return, he wasleft behind. There was something so extraordinary in their suddenappearance, and the subsequent disappearance of the others, that hewho remained was put in prison, and threatened with the torture thenext day, if he would not make a full disclosure. Faustus howeverreturned before break of day, opened the gates of the prison, laid allthe 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 freewith the archbishop of Saltzburgh's cellar. They took a ladder, andscaled the wall. They seated themselves round, and placed athree-legged stool, with bottles and glasses in the middle. They werein the heart of their mirth, when the butler made his appearance, andbegan to cry thieves with all his might. The doctor at once conjuredhim, so that he could neither speak nor move. There he was obliged tosit, while Faustus and his companions tapped every vat in the cellar. They then carried him along with them in triumph. At length they cameto a lofty tree, where Faustus ordered them to stop; and the butlerwas in the greatest fright, apprehending that they would do no lessthan hang him. The doctor however was contented, by his art to placehim on the topmost branch, where he was obliged to remain tremblingand almost dead with the cold, till certain peasants came out to theirwork, whom he hailed, and finally with great difficulty they rescuedhim from his painful eminence, and placed him safely on the ground. 

On another occasion Faustus entertained several of the junior membersof the university of Wittenberg at his chambers. One of them, referring to the exhibition the doctor had made of Alexander the Greatto the emperor Charles V, said it would gratify him above all things, if he could once behold the famous Helen of Greece, whose beauty wasso great as to have roused all the princes of her country to arms, andto have occasioned a ten years' war. Faustus consented to indulge hiscuriosity, provided all the company would engage to be merely mutespectators of the scene. This being promised, he left the room, andpresently brought in Helen. She was precisely as Homer has describedher, when she stood by the side of Priam on the walls of Troy, lookingon the Grecian chiefs. Her features were irresistibly attractive; andher full, moist lips were redder than the summer cherries. Faustusshortly after obliged his guests with her bust in marble, from whichseveral copies were taken, no one knowing the name of the originalartist. 

No long time elapsed after this, when the doctor was engaged indelivering a course of lectures on Homer at Erfurth, one of theprincipal cities of Germany. It having been suggested to him that itwould very much enhance the interest of his lectures, if he wouldexhibit to the company the heroes of Greece exactly as they appearedto their contemporaries, Faustus obligingly yielded to the proposal. The heroes of the Trojan war walked in procession before theastonished auditors, no less lively in the representation than Helenhad been shewn before, and each of them with some characteristicattitude and striking expression of countenance. 

When the doctor happened to be at Frankfort, there came there fourconjurors, who obtained vast applause by the trick of cutting off oneanother's heads, and fastening them on again. Faustus was exasperatedat this proceeding, and regarded them as laying claim to a skillsuperior to his own. He went, and was invisibly present at theirexhibition. They placed beside them a vessel with liquor which theypretended was the elixir of life, into which at each time they threw aplant resembling the lily, which no sooner touched the liquor than itsbuds began to unfold, and shortly it appeared in full blossom. Thechief conjuror watched his opportunity; and, when the charm wascomplete, made no more ado but struck off the head of his fellow thatwas next to him, and dipping it in the liquor, adjusted it to theshoulders, where it became as securely fixed as before the operation. This was repeated a second and a third time. At length it came to theturn of the chief conjuror to have his head smitten off. Faustus stoodby invisibly, and at the proper time broke off the flower of the lilywithout any one being aware of it. The head therefore of the principalconjuror was struck off; but in vain was it steeped in the liquor. Theother conjurors were at a loss to account for the disappearance of thelily, and fumbled for a long time with the old sorcerer's head, whichwould 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, "Willyour highness do me the favour to partake of a small collation at acastle which belongs to me out at your city-gates?" The princegraciously consented. The prince and princess accompanied the doctor, and found a castle which Faustus had erected by magic during thepreceding night. The castle, with five lofty towers, and two greatgates, inclosing a spacious court, stood in the midst of a beautifullake, stocked with all kinds of fish, and every variety of water-fowl. The court exhibited all sorts of animals, beside birds of every colourand song, which flitted from tree to tree. The doctor then ushered hisguests into the hall, with an ample suite of apartments, branching offon each side. In one of the largest they found a banquet prepared, with the pope's plate of gold, which Mephostophiles had borrowed forthe day. The viands were of the most delicious nature, with thechoicest wines in the world. The banquet being over, Faustus conductedthe prince and princess back to the palace. But, before they had gonefar, 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 avast volume of fire. 

One Christmas-time Faustus gave a grand entertainment to certaindistinguished persons of both sexes at Wittenberg. To render the scenemore splendid, he contrived to exhibit a memorable inversion of theseasons. As the company approached the doctor's house, they weresurprised to find, though there was a heavy snow through theneighbouring fields, that Faustus's court and garden bore not theleast marks of the season, but on the contrary were green and bloomingas in the height of summer. There was an appearance of the freshestvegetation, 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 lookedperfectly fresh and sparkling with dew. 

As Faustus was now approaching the last year of his term, he seemed toresolve to pamper his appetite with every species of luxury. Hecarefully accumulated all the materials of voluptuousness andmagnificence. He was particularly anxious in the selection of womenwho should serve for his pleasures. He had one Englishwoman, oneHungarian, one French, two of Germany, and two from different parts ofItaly, all of them eminent for the perfections which characterisedtheir different countries. 

As Faustus's demeanour was particularly engaging, there were manyrespectable persons in the city in which he lived, that becameinterested in his welfare. These applied to a certain monk ofexemplary purity of life and devotion, and urged him to do every thinghe could to rescue the doctor from impending destruction. The monkbegan with him with tender and pathetic remonstrances. He then drew afearful picture of the wrath of God, and the eternal damnation whichwould certainly ensue. He reminded the doctor of his extraordinarygifts and graces, and told him how different an issue might reasonablyhave been expected from him. Faustus listened attentively to all thegood monk said, but replied mournfully that it was too late, that hehad despised and insulted the Lord, that he had deliberately sealed asolemn compact to the devil, and that there was no possibility ofgoing back. The monk answered, "You are mistaken. Cry to the Lord forgrace; and it shall still be given. Shew true remorse; confess yoursins; abstain for the future from all acts of sorcery and diabolicalinterference; and you may rely on final salvation. " The doctor howeverfelt that all endeavours would be hopeless, He found in himself anincapacity, for true repentance. And finally the devil came to him, reproached him for breach of contract in listening to the piousexpostulations of a saint, threatened that in case of infidelity hewould take him away to hell even before his time, and frightened thedoctor into the act of signing a fresh contract in ratification ofthat which he had signed before. 

At length Faustus ultimately arrived at the end of the term for whichhe had contracted with the devil. For two or three years before itexpired, his character gradually altered. He became subject to fits ofdespondency, was no longer susceptible of mirth and amusement, andreflected with bitter agony on the close in which the whole mustterminate. During the last month of his period, he no longer soughtthe services of his infernal ally, but with the utmost unwillingnesssaw his arrival. But Mephostophiles now attended him unbidden, andtreated him with biting scoffs and reproaches. "You have well studiedthe Scriptures, " he said, "and ought to have known that your safetylay in worshipping God alone. You sinned with your eyes open, and canby no means plead ignorance. You thought that twenty-four years was aterm that would have no end; and you now see how rapidly it isflitting away. The term for which you sold yourself to the devil is avery different thing; and, after the lapse of thousands of ages, theprospect before you will be still as unbounded as ever. You werewarned; you were earnestly pressed to repent; but now it is too late. "

After the demon, Mephostophiles, had long tormented Faustus in thismanner, 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 bondwhich the doctor had signed with his blood, giving him notice that thenext day, the devil, his master, would come for him, and advising himto hold himself in readiness. Faustus, it seems, had earned himselfmuch good will among the younger members of the university by hisagreeable manners, by his willingness to oblige them, and by theextraordinary spectacles with which he occasionally diverted them. This day he resolved to pass in a friendly farewel. He invited anumber of them to meet him at a house of public reception, in a hamletadjoining to the city. He bespoke a large room in the house for abanqueting room, another apartment overhead for his guests to sleep in, and a smaller chamber at a little distance for himself. He furnishedhis table with abundance of delicacies and wines. He endeavoured toappear among them in high spirits; but his heart was inwardly sad. 

When the entertainment was over, Faustus addressed them, telling themthat this was the last day of his life, reminding them of the wonderswith which he had frequently astonished them, and informing them ofthe condition upon which he had held this power. They, one and all, expressed the deepest sorrow at the intelligence. They had had theidea of something unlawful in his proceedings; but their notions hadbeen very far from coming up to the truth. They regretted exceedinglythat he had not been unreserved in his communications at an earlierperiod. They would have had recourse in his behalf to the means ofreligion, and have applied to pious men, desiring them to employ theirpower to intercede with heaven in his favour. Prayer and penitencemight have done much for him; and the mercy of heaven was unbounded. They advised him still to call upon God, and endeavour to secure aninterest in the merits of the Saviour. 

Faustus assured them that it was all in vain, and that his tragicalfate was inevitable. He led them to their sleeping apartment, andrecommended 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 theirinterference could in no way be beneficial to him, and might beattended with the most serious injury to themselves. They lay stilltherefore, as he had enjoined them; but not one of them could closehis eyes. 

Between twelve and one in the night they heard first a furious stormof wind round all sides of the house, as if it would have torn awaythe walls from their foundations. This no sooner somewhat abated, thana noise was heard of discordant and violent hissing, as if the housewas full of all sorts of venomous reptiles, but which plainlyproceeded from Faustus's chamber. Next they heard the doctor'sroom-door vehemently burst open, and cries for help uttered withdreadful agony, but a half-suppressed voice, which presently grewfainter and fainter. Then every thing became still, as if theeverlasting motion of the world was suspended. 

When at length it became broad day, the students went in a body intothe doctor's apartment. But he was no where to be seen. Only the wallswere found smeared with his blood, and marks as if his brains had beendashed out. His body was finally discovered at some distance from thehouse, his limbs dismembered, and marks of great violence about thefeatures of his face. The students gathered up the mutilated parts ofhis body, and afforded them private burial at the temple of Mars inthe village where he died. 

A ludicrous confusion of ideas has been produced by some persons fromthe similarity of names of Faustus, the supposed magician ofWittenberg, and Faust or Fust of Mentz, the inventor, or firstestablisher of the art of printing. It has been alleged that the exactresemblance of the copies of books published by the latter, when noother mode of multiplying copies was known but by the act oftranscribing, was found to be such, as could no way be accounted forby natural means, and that therefore it was imputed to the person whopresented these copies, that he must necessarily be assisted by thedevil. It has further been stated, that Faust, the printer, swore thecraftsmen he employed at his press to inviolable secrecy, that hemight the more securely keep up the price of his books. But thisnotion of the identity of the two persons is entirely groundless. Faustus, the magician, is described in the romance as having been bornin 1491, twenty-five years after the period at which the printer isunderstood to have died, and there is no one coincidence between thehistories of the two persons, beyond the similarity of names, and acertain mystery (or magical appearance) that inevitably adheres to thepractice of an art hitherto unknown. If any secret reference had beenintended in the romance to the real character of the illustriousintroducer of an art which has been productive of such incalculablebenefits to mankind, it would be impossible to account for such amarvellous inconsistence in the chronology. 

Others have carried their scepticism so far, as to have started adoubt whether there was ever really such a person as Faustus ofWittenberg, the alleged magician. But the testimony of Wierus, PhilipCamerarius, Melancthon and others, his contemporaries, sufficientlyrefutes this supposition. The fact is, that there was undoubtedly sucha man, who, by sleights of dexterity, made himself a reputation as ifthere was something supernatural in his performances, and that he wasprobably also regarded with a degree of terror and abhorrence by thesuperstitious. On this theme was constructed a romance, which oncepossessed the highest popularity, and furnished a subject to thedramatical genius of Marlow, Leasing, Goethe, and others. --It issufficiently remarkable, that the notoriety of this romance seems tohave suggested to Shakespear the idea of sending the grand conceptionof his brain, Hamlet, prince of Denmark, to finish his education atthe university of Wittenberg. 

And here it may not be uninstructive to remark the different toneof the record of the acts of Ziito, the Bohemian, and Faustus ofWittenburg, though little more than half a century elapsed betweenthe periods at which they were written. Dubravius, bishop of Olmutzin 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 inhis 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 arrivedat Prague on that occasion for the entertainment of the company. But, at the close of that century, the exploits of Faustus were no longerdeemed entitled to a place in national history, but were moreappropriately taken for the theme of a romance. Faustus and hisperformances were certainly contemplated with at least as much horroras the deeds of Ziito. But popular credulity was no longer wound toso high a pitch: the marvels effected by Faustus are not representedas challenging the observation of thousands at a public court, andon 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 Naudé, as living about this time, named Georgius Sabellicus, who, he says, if loftiness and arroganceof assumption were enough to establish a claim to the possession ofsupernatural gifts, would beyond all controversy be recognised fora chief and consummate sorcerer. It was his ambition by the mostsounding appellations of this nature to advance his claim to immortalreputation. He called himself, "The most accomplished GeorgiusSabellicus, a second Faustus, the spring and centre of necromanticart, an astrologer, a magician, consummate in chiromancy, and inagromancy, pyromancy and hydromancy inferior to none that ever lived. "I mention this the rather, as affording an additional proof how highlyFaustus was rated at the time in which he is said to have flourished. 

It is specially worthy of notice, that Naudé, whose book is a sortof register of all the most distinguished names in the annals ofnecromancy, drawn up for the purpose of vindicating their honour, now here [Errata: _read_ no where] mentions Faustus, except oncein this slight and cursory way. 

PARACELSUS

Paracelsus, or, as he styled himself, Philippus Aureolus TheophrastusBombastus Paracelsus de Hohenheim, was a man of great notoriety andeminence, about the same time as Dr. Faustus. He was born in the year1493, and died in 1541. His father is said to have lived in somerepute; but the son early became a wanderer in the world, passinghis youth in the occupation of foretelling future events by the starsand by chiromancy, invoking the dead, and performing various operationsof alchemy and magic. He states Trithemius to have been his instructorin the science of metals. He was superficial in literature, and saysof himself that at one time he did not open a book for ten yearstogether. He visited the mines of Bohemia, Sweden and the East toperfect himself in metallic knowledge. He travelled through Prussia, Lithuania, Poland, Transylvania and Illyria, conversing indifferentlywith physicians and old women, that he might extract from them thepractical secrets of their art. He visited Egypt, Tartary andConstantinople, at which last place, as he says, he learned thetransmutation of metals and the philosopher's stone. He boasts alsoof the elixir of life, by means of which he could prolong the lifeof man to the age of the antediluvians. He certainly possessedconsiderable sagacity and a happy spirit of daring, which inducedhim to have recourse to the application of mercury and opium in thecure of diseases, when the regular physicians did not venture on theuse of them. He therefore was successfully employed by certain eminentpersons in desperate cases, and was consulted by Erasmus. He graduallyincreased in fame, and in the year 1526 was chosen professor of naturalphilosophy and surgery in the university of Bale. Here he deliveredlectures in a very bold and presumptuous style. He proclaimed himselfthe monarch of medicine, and publicly burned the writings of Galenand Avicenna as pretenders and impostors. 

This however was the acme of his prosperity. His system was extremelypopular for one year; but then he lost himself by brutality andintemperance. He had drunk water only for the first five-and-twentyyears of his life; but now indulged himself in beastly crapulencewith the dregs of society, and scarcely ever took off his clothesby day or night. After one year therefore spent at Bale, he resumedhis former vagabond life, and, having passed through many vicissitudes, some of them of the most abject poverty, he died at the age offorty-eight. 

Paracelsus in fact exhibited in his person the union of a quack, aboastful and impudent pretender, with a considerable degree of naturalsagacity and shrewdness. Such an union is not uncommon in the presentday; but it was more properly in its place, when the cultivation ofthe faculties of the mind was more restricted than now, and the lawof criticism of facts and evidence was nearly unknown. He tookadvantage of the credulity and love of wonder incident to thegenerality of our species; and, by dint of imposing on others, succeeded in no small degree in imposing on himself. His intemperanceand arrogance of demeanour gave the suitable finish to his character. He therefore carefully cherished in those about him the idea thatthere was in him a kind of supernatural virtue, and that he had theagents of an invisible world at his command. In particular he gaveout that he held conferences with a familiar or demon, whom for theconvenience of consulting he was in the habit of carrying about withhim in the hilt of his sword. 

CARDAN. 

Jerome Cardan, who was only a few years younger than Paracelsus, wasa man of a very different character. He had considerable refinementand discrimination, and ranked among the first scholars of his day. He is however most of all distinguished for the Memoirs he has leftus of his life, which are characterised by a frankness and unreservewhich are almost without a parallel. He had undoubtedly a considerablespice of madness in his composition. He says of himself, that he wasliable to extraordinary fits of abstraction and elevation of mind, which by their intenseness became so intolerable, that he gladly hadrecourse 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 hisfingers almost to dislocation, and whip his legs with rods, whichhe found a great relief to him. That he would talk purposely ofsubjects which he knew were particularly offensive to the companyhe was in; that he argued on any side of a subject, without caringwhether he was right or wrong; and that he would spend whole nightsin gaming, often venturing as the stake he played for, the furnitureof his house, and his wife's jewels. 

Cardan describes three things of himself, which he habituallyexperienced, but respecting which he had never unbosomed himself toany of his friends. The first was, a capacity which he felt in himselfof abandoning his body in a sort of extacy whenever he pleased. Hefelt in these cases a sort of splitting of the heart, as if his soulwas about to withdraw, the sensation spreading over his whole frame, like the opening of a door for the dismissal of its guest. Hisapprehension was, that he was out of his body, and that by anenergetic exertion he still retained a small hold of his corporealfigure. The second of his peculiarities was, that he saw, when hepleased, whatever he desired to see, not through the force ofimagination, but with his material organs: he saw groves, animals, orbs, as he willed. When he was a child, he saw these things, as theyoccurred, without any previous volition or anticipation that sucha thing was about to happen. But, after he had arrived at years ofmaturity, he saw them only when he desired, and such things as hedesired. 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 serveto shew of what importance he was in his own eyes, and also, whichis the matter he principally brings it to prove, the subtlety anddelicacy of his animal nature. 

Cardan speaks uncertainly and contradictorily as to his having agenius or demon perpetually attending him, advising him of what wasto happen, and forewarning him of sinister events. He concludeshowever that he had no such attendant, but that it was the excellenceof his nature, approaching to immortality. He was much addicted tothe study of astrology, and laid claim to great skill as a physician. He visited the court of London, and calculated the nativity of kingEdward VI. He was sent for as a physician by cardinal Beaton, archbishop of St Andrews, whom, according to Melvile, [208] herecovered to speech and health, and the historian appears to attributethe cure to magic. He calculated the nativity of Jesus Christ, whichwas imputed to him as an impious undertaking, inasmuch as it supposedthe 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 haveforwarded that event, by abstinence from food at the age ofseventy-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 seemto 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 themselvesto concert the means of overreaching the simplicity, or baffling thepenetration, of those who were merely spectators, and uninitiatedin the mystery of the arts that were practised upon them. Such wasno doubt the case with the speaking heads and statues, which weresometimes exhibited in the ancient oracles. Such was the case withcertain optical delusions, which were practised on the unsuspecting, and were contrived to produce on them the effect of supernaturalrevelations. Such is the story of Bel and the Dragon in the book ofApocrypha, where the priests daily placed before the idol twelvemeasures of flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine, pretending that the idol consumed all these provisions, when in factthey entered the temple by night, by a door under the altar, andremoved 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 whichwas imposed upon the artist and his companions as altogethersupernatural. It occurred a very short time before the death of popeClement the Seventh in 1534, and is thus detailed. It took place inthe Coliseum at Rome. 

"It came to pass through a variety of odd accidents, that I madeacquaintance with a Sicilian priest, who was a man of genius, andwell versed in the Greek and Latin languages. Happening one day tohave some conversation with him, where the subject turned upon theart of necromancy, I, who had a great desire to know something ofthe matter, told him, that I had all my life had a curiosity to beacquainted with the mysteries of this art. The priest made answer, that the man must be of a resolute and steady temper, who enteredon that study. I replied, that I had fortitude and resolution enoughto desire to be initiated in it. The priest subjoined, 'If you thinkyou have the heart to venture, I will give you all the satisfactionyou can desire. ' Thus we agreed to enter upon a scheme of necromancy. 

"The priest one evening prepared to satisfy me, and desired me tolook for a companion or two. I invited one Vincenzio Romoli, who wasmy intimate acquaintance, and he brought with him a native of Pistoiawho cultivated the art of necromancy himself. We repaired to theColiseum; and the priest, according to the custom of conjurors, beganto draw circles on the ground, with the most impressive ceremoniesimaginable. He likewise brought with him all sorts of preciousperfumes and fire, with some compositions which diffused noisome andbad odours. As soon as he was in readiness, he made an opening tothe circle, and took us by the hand, and ordered the othernecromancer, his partner, to throw perfumes into the fire at a propertime, 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 appearedseveral legions of devils, so that the amphitheatre was quite filledwith them. I was busy about the perfumes, when the priest, who knewthat there was a sufficient number of infernal spirits, turned aboutto me, and said, 'Benvenuto, ask them something. ' I answered, 'Letthem bring me into company with my Sicilian mistress, Angelica. ' Thatnight we obtained no answer of any sort; but I received greatsatisfaction in having my curiosity so far indulged. 

"The necromancer told me that it was requisite we should go a secondtime, assuring me that I should be satisfied in whatever I asked; butthat I must bring with me a boy that had never known woman. I tookwith me my apprentice, who was about twelve years of age; with thesame Vincenzio Romoli, who had been my companion the first time, andone Agnolino Gaddi, an intimate acquaintance, whom I likewiseprevailed on to assist at the ceremony. When we came to the placeappointed, the priest, having made his preparations as before with thesame and even more striking ceremonies, placed us within the circle, which he had drawn with a more wonderful art and in a more solemnmanner, than at our former meeting. Thus having committed the care ofthe perfumes and the fire to my friend Vincenzio, who was assisted byGaddi, he put into my hands a pintacolo, or magical chart, and bid meturn it towards the places to which he should direct me; and under thepintacolo I held my apprentice. The necromancer, having begun to makehis most tremendous invocations, called by their names a multitude ofdemons who were the leaders of the several legions, and questionedthem, by the virtue and power of the eternal, uncreated God, who livesfor ever, in the Hebrew language, as also in Latin and Greek; insomuchthat the amphitheatre was filled, almost in an instant, with demons ahundred times more numerous than at the former conjuration. Vincenziomeanwhile was busied in making a fire with the assistance of Gaddi, and burning a great quantity of precious perfumes. I, by the directionof the necromancer, again desired to be in company with my Angelica. He then turning upon me said, 'Know, they have declared that in thespace of a month you shall be in her company. '

"He then requested me to stand by him resolutely, because the legionswere now above a thousand more in number than he had designed; andbesides these were the most dangerous; so that, after they hadanswered my question, it behoved him to be civil to them, and dismissthem quietly. At the same time the boy under the pintacolo was in aterrible fright, saying, that there were in the place a million offierce men who threatened to destroy us; and that, besides, there werefour armed giants of enormous stature, who endeavoured to break intoour circle. During this time, while the necromancer, trembling withfear, endeavoured by mild means to dismiss them in the best way hecould, Vincenzio, who quivered like an aspen leaf, took care of theperfumes. Though I was as much afraid as any of them, I did my utmostto conceal it; so that I greatly contributed to inspire the rest withresolution; 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 thisattitude will I die; for we shall all surely perish. ' I told him thatthose demons were under us, and what he saw was smoke and shadow; sobid 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 isjust falling on us. ' So, covering his eyes with his hands, he againexclaimed, that destruction was inevitable, and he desired to see nomore. The necromancer intreated me to have a good heart, and to takecare to burn proper perfumes; upon which I turned to Vincenzio, andbade him burn all the most precious perfumes he had. At the same timeI cast my eyes upon Gaddi, who was terrified to such a degree, that hecould scarcely distinguish objects, and seemed to be half dead. Seeinghim in this condition, I said to him, 'Gaddi, upon these occasions aman should not yield to fear, but stir about to give some assistance;so come directly, and put on more of these perfumes. ' Gaddi accordinglyattempted to move; but the effect was annoying both to our sense ofhearing 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 areflying away with a vengeance. ' In this condition we staid, till thebell rang for morning prayers. The boy again told us, that thereremained but few devils, and those were at a great distance. When themagician had performed the rest of his ceremonies, he stripped off hisgown, and took up a wallet full of books, which he had brought withhim. We all went out of the circle together, keeping as close to eachother as we possibly could, especially the boy, who placed himself inthe 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 toldus, that two of the demons whom we had seen at the amphitheatre, wenton before us leaping and skipping, sometimes running upon the roofs ofthe houses, and sometimes on the ground. The priest declared that, asoften as he had entered magic circles, nothing so extraordinary hadever happened to him. As we went along, he would fain have persuadedme to assist at the consecrating a book, from which he said we shouldderive immense riches. We should then ask the demons to discover to usthe various treasures with which the earth abounds, which would raiseus to opulence and power; but that those love-affairs were merefollies from which no good could be expected. I made answer, that Iwould readily have accepted his proposal if I had understood Latin. Heassured me that the knowledge of Latin was nowise material; but thathe could never meet with a partner of resolution and intrepidity equalto mine, and that that would be to him an invaluable acquisition. "Immediately subsequent to this scene, Cellini got into one of thosescrapes, in which he was so frequently involved by his own violenceand ferocity; and the connection was never again renewed. 

The first remark that arises out of this narrative is, that nothing isactually done by the supernatural personages which are exhibited. Themagician reports certain answers as given by the demons; but theseanswers do not appear to have been heard from any lips but those ofhim who was the creator or cause of the scene. The whole of the demonstherefore were merely figures, produced by the magic lantern (which issaid to have been invented by Roger Bacon), or by something of thatnature. The burning of the perfumes served to produce a denseatmosphere, that was calculated to exaggerate, and render moreformidable and terrific, the figures which were exhibited. The magiclantern, which is now the amusement only of servant-maids, and boys atschool in their holidays, served at this remote period, and when thepower of optical delusions was unknown, to terrify men of wisdom andpenetration, and make them believe that legions of devils from theinfernal regions were come among them, to produce the most horribleeffects, 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 itslights, which had served him for his exhibition, and that this was thecause of the phenomenon, that they observed two of the demons whichthey 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 inProvence in the year 1503. He published a Century of Prophecies inobscure and oracular terms and barbarous verse, and other works. Inthe period in which he lived the pretended art of astrologicalprediction was in the highest repute; and its professors were soughtfor by emperors and kings, and entertained with the greatestdistinction and honour. Henry the Second of France, moved with hisgreat renown, sent for Nostradamus to court, received muchgratification from his visit, and afterward ordered him to Blois, thathe might see the princes, his sons, calculate their horoscopes, andpredict their future fortunes. He was no less in favour afterwardswith Charles the Ninth. He died in the year 1566. 

DOCTOR DEE. 

Dr. John Dee was a man who made a conspicuous figure in the sixteenthcentury. He was born at London in the year 1527. He was an eminentmathematician, and an indefatigable scholar. He says of himself, that, having been sent to Cambridge when he was fifteen, he persisted forseveral years in allowing himself only four hours for sleep in thetwenty-four, and two for food and refreshment, and that he constantlyoccupied the remaining eighteen (the time for divine service onlyexcepted) in study. At Cambridge he superintended the exhibition of aGreek play of Aristophanes, among the machinery of which he introducedan artificial scarabaeus, or beetle, which flew up to the palace ofJupiter, with a man on his back, and a basket of provisions. Theignorant and astonished spectators ascribed this feat to the arts ofthe magician; and Dee, annoyed by these suspicions, found it expedientto withdraw to the continent. Here he resided first at the universityof Louvaine, at which place, his acquaintance was courted by the dukesof Mantua and Medina, and from thence proceeded to Paris, where hegave lectures on Euclid with singular applause. 

In 1551 he returned to England, and was received with distinction bysir John Check, and introduced to secretary Cecil, and even to kingEdward, from whom he received a pension of one hundred crowns _perannum_, which he speedily after exchanged for a small living in thechurch. In the reign of queen Mary he was for some time kindlytreated; but afterwards came into great trouble, and even into dangerof his life. He entered into correspondence with several of theservants of queen Elizabeth at Woodstock, and was charged withpractising against Mary's life by enchantments. Upon this accusation, he was seized and confined; and, being after several examinationsdischarged of the indictment, was turned over to bishop Bonner to seeif any heresy could be found in him. After a tedious persecution hewas set at liberty in 1555, and was so little subdued by what he hadsuffered, that in the following year he presented a petition to thequeen, requesting her co-operation in a plan for preserving andrecovering certain monuments of classical antiquity. 

The principal study of Dee however at this time lay in astrology; andaccordingly, upon the accession of Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, her chieffavourite, was sent to consult the doctor as to the aspect of thestars, that they might fix on an auspicious day for celebrating hercoronation. Some years after we find him again on the continent; andin 1571, being taken ill at Louvaine, we are told the queen sent overtwo physicians to accomplish his cure. Elizabeth afterwards visitedhim at his house at Mortlake, that she might view his magazine ofmathematical instruments and curiosities; and about this time employedhim to defend her title to countries discovered in different parts ofthe globe. He says of himself, that he received the most advantageousoffers from Charles V, Ferdinand, Maximilian II, and Rodolph II, emperors of Germany, and from the czar of Muscovy an offer of L. 2000sterling _per annum_, upon condition that he would reside in hisdominions. All these circumstances were solemnly attested by Dee in aCompendious Rehearsal of his Life and Studies for half-a-century, composed at a later period, and read by him at his house at Mortlaketo two commissioners appointed by Elizabeth to enquire into hiscircumstances, accompanied with evidences and documents to establishthe particulars. [210]

Had Dee gone no further than this, he would undoubtedly have rankedamong the profoundest scholars and most eminent geniuses that adornedthe reign of the maiden queen. But he was unfortunately cursed with anambition that nothing could satisfy; and, having accustomed his mindto the wildest reveries, and wrought himself up to an extravagantpitch of enthusiasm, he pursued a course that involved him in muchcalamity, and clouded all his latter days with misery and ruin. Hedreamed perpetually of the philosopher's stone, and was haunted withthe belief of intercourse of a supramundane character. It is almostimpossible to decide among these things, how much was illusion, andhow much was forgery. Both were inextricably mixed in his proceedings;and this extraordinary victim probably could not in his mostdispassionate moments precisely distinguish what belonged to the one, and what to the other. 

As Dee was an enthusiast, so he perpetually interposed in hismeditations prayers of the greatest emphasis and fervour. As he wasone day in November 1582, engaged in these devout exercises, he saysthat there appeared to him the angel Uriel at the west window of hisMuseum, who gave him a translucent stone, or chrystal, of a convexform, that had the quality, when intently surveyed, of presentingapparitions, and even emitting sounds, in consequence of which theobserver could hold conversations, ask questions and receive answersfrom the figures he saw in the mirror. It was often necessary that thestone should be turned one way and another in different positions, before the person who consulted it gained the right focus; and thenthe objects to be observed would sometimes shew themselves on thesurface of the stone, and sometime in different parts of the room byvirtue of the action of the stone. It had also this peculiarity, thatonly one person, having been named as seer, could see the figuresexhibited, and hear the voices that spoke, though there might bevarious persons in the room. It appears that the person who discernedthese visions must have his eyes and his ears uninterruptedly engagedin the affair, so that, as Dee experienced, to render the communicationeffectual, there must be two human beings concerned in the scene, oneof them to describe what he saw, and to recite the dialogue that tookplace, and the other immediately to commit to paper all that hispartner dictated. Dee for some reason chose for himself the part ofthe amanuensis, and had to seek for a companion, who was to watch thestone, and repeat to him whatever he saw and heard. 

It happened opportunely that, a short time before Dee received thisgift from on high, he contracted a familiar intercourse with oneEdward Kelly of Worcestershire, whom he found specially qualified toperform the part which it was necessary to Dee to have adequatelyfilled. Kelly was an extraordinary character, and in some respectsexactly such a person as Dee wanted. He was just twenty-eight yearsyounger than the memorable personage, who now received him as aninmate, and was engaged in his service at a stipulated salary of fiftypounds a year. 

Kelly entered upon life with a somewhat unfortunate adventure. He wasaccused, when a young man, of forgery, brought to trial, convicted, and lost his ears in the pillory. This misfortune however by no meansdaunted him. He was assiduously engaged in the search for thephilosopher's stone. He had an active mind, great enterprise, and avery domineering temper. Another adventure in which he had beenengaged previously to his knowledge of Dee, was in digging up the bodyof a man, who had been buried only the day before, that he mightcompel him by incantations, to answer questions, and discover futureevents. There was this difference therefore between the two personspreviously to their league. Dee was a man of regular manners andunspotted life, honoured by the great, and favourably noticed bycrowned heads in different parts of the world; while Kelly was anotorious profligate, accustomed to the most licentious actions, andunder no restraint from morals or principle. 

One circumstance that occurred early in the acquaintance of Kelly andDee it is necessary to mention. It serves strikingly to illustrate theascendancy of the junior and impetuous party over his more giftedsenior. Kelly led Dee, we are not told under what pretence, to visitthe celebrated ruins of Glastonbury Abbey in Somersetshire. Here, asthese curious travellers searched into every corner of the scene, theymet by some rare accident with a vase containing a certain portion ofthe actual _elixir vitae_, that rare and precious liquid, so muchsought after, which has the virtue of converting the baser metals intogold and silver. It had remained here perhaps ever since the time ofthe highly-gifted St. Dunstan in the tenth century. This they carriedoff in triumph: but we are not told of any special use to which theyapplied it, till a few years after, when they were both on thecontinent. 

The first record of their consultations with the supramundane spirits, was of the date of December 2, 1581, at Lexden Heath in the county ofEssex; and from this time they went on in a regular series ofconsultations with and enquiries from these miraculous visitors, agreat part of which will appear to the uninitiated extremely puerileand ludicrous, but which were committed to writing with the mostscrupulous exactness by Dee, the first part still existing inmanuscript, but the greater portion from 28 May 1583 to 1608, withsome interruptions, having been committed to the press by Dr. MericCasaubon in a well-sized folio in 1659, under the title of "A True andFaithful Relation of what passed between Dr. John Dee and someSpirits, tending, had it succeeded, to a general alteration of moststates and kingdoms of the world. "

Kelly and Dee had not long been engaged in these supernaturalcolloquies, before an event occurred which gave an entirely new turnto their proceedings. Albert Alaski, a Polish nobleman, lord palatineof the principality of Siradia, came over at this time into England, urged, as he said, by a desire personally to acquaint himself with theglories of the reign of Elizabeth, and the evidences of her unrivalledtalents. The queen and her favourite, the earl of Leicester, receivedhim with every mark of courtesy and attention, and, having shewn himall the wonders of her court at Westminster and Greenwich, sent him toOxford, with a command to the dignitaries and heads of colleges, topay him every attention, and to lay open to his view all their rarestcuriosities. Among other things worthy of notice, Alaski enquired forthe celebrated Dr. Dee, and expressed the greatest impatience to beacquainted with him. 

Just at this juncture the earl of Leicester happened to spy Dr. Deeamong the crowd who attended at a royal levee. The earl immediatelyadvanced towards him; and, in his frank manner, having introduced himto Alaski, expressed his intention of bringing the Pole to dine withthe doctor at his house at Mortlake. Embarrassed with this unexpectedhonour, Dee no sooner got home, than he dispatched an express to theearl, honestly confessing that he should be unable to entertain suchguests in a suitable manner, without being reduced to the expedient ofselling or pawning his plate, to procure him the means of doing so. Leicester communicated the doctor's perplexity to Elizabeth; and thequeen immediately dispatched a messenger with a present of fortyangels, or twenty pounds, to enable him to receive his guests asbecame him. 

A great intimacy immediately commenced between Dee and the stranger. Alaski, though possessing an extensive territory, was reduced by theprodigality of himself or his ancestors to much embarrassment; and onthe other hand this nobleman appeared to Dee an instrument wellqualified to accomplish his ambitious purposes. Alaski was extremelydesirous to look into the womb of time; and Dee, it is likely, suggested repeated hints of his extraordinary power from hispossession of the philosopher's stone. After two or three interviews, and much seeming importunity on the part of the Pole, Dee and Kellygraciously condescended to admit Alaski as a third party to theirsecret meetings with their supernatural visitors, from which the restof the world were carefully excluded. Here the two Englishmen made useof the vulgar artifice, of promising extraordinary good fortune to theperson of whom they purposed to make use. By the intervention of themiraculous stone they told the wondering traveller, that he shouldshortly become king of Poland, with the accession of several otherkingdoms, that he should overcome many armies of Saracens and Paynims, and prove a mighty conqueror. Dee at the same time complained of thedisagreeable condition in which he was at home, and that Burleigh andWalsingham were his malicious enemies. At length they concerted amongthemselves, that they, Alaski, and Dee and Kelly with their wives andfamilies, should clandestinely withdraw out of England, and proceedwith all practicable rapidity to Alaski's territory in the kingdom ofPoland. They embarked on this voyage 21 September, and arrived atSiradia 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 scarcelypossible for him to feed the numerous guests he had brought along withhim. The promises of splendid conquests which Dee and Kelly profuselyheaped upon him, were of no avail to supply the deficiency of hispresent income. And the elixir they brought from Glastonbury was, asthey said, so incredibly rich in virtue, that they were compelled tolose much time in making projection by way of trial, before they couldhope to arrive at the proper temperament for producing the effect theydesired. 

In the following month Alaski with his visitors passed to Cracow, theresidence of the kings of Poland. Here they remained five months, Deeand Kelly perpetually amusing the Pole with the extraordinary virtueof the stone, which had been brought from heaven by an angel, andbusied in a thousand experiments with the elixir, and many tediouspreparations which they pronounced to be necessary, before thecompound could have the proper effect. The prophecies were utteredwith extreme confidence; but no external indications were afforded, toshew that in any way they were likely to be realised. The experimentsand exertions of the laboratory were incessant; but no transmutationwas produced. At length Alaski found himself unable to sustain thetrain of followers he had brought out of England. With mountains ofwealth, the treasures of the world promised, they were reduced to themost grievous straits for the means of daily subsistence. Finally thezeal of Alaski diminished; he had no longer the same faith in theprojectors that had deluded him; and he devised a way of sending themforward with letters of recommendation to Rodolph II, emperor ofGermany, at his imperial seat of Prague, where they arrived on theninth of August. 

Rodolph was a man, whose character and habits of life they judgedexcellently adapted to their purpose. Dee had a long conference withthe emperor, in which he explained to him what wonderful things thespirits promised to this prince, in case he proved exemplary of life, and obedient to their suggestions, that he should be the greatestconqueror in the world, and should take captive the Turk in his cityof Constantinople. Rodolph was extremely courteous in his reception, and sent away Dee with the highest hopes that he had at length founda personage with whom he should infallibly succeed to the extent ofhis wishes. He sought however a second interview, and was baffled. Atone time the emperor was going to his country palace near Prague, andat another was engaged in the pleasures of the chace. 

He also complained that he was not sufficiently familiar with theLatin tongue, to manage the conferences with Dee in a satisfactorymanner in person. He therefore deputed Curtzius, a man high in hisconfidence, to enter into the necessary details with his learnedvisitor. Dee also contrived to have Spinola, the ambassador fromMadrid to the court of the emperor, to urge his suit. The final resultwas that Rodolph declined any further intercourse with Dee. He turneda deaf ear to his prophecies, and professed to be altogether void offaith as to his promises respecting the philosopher's stone. Deehowever was led on perpetually with hopes of better things from theemperor, till the spring of the year 1585. At length he was obliged tofly from Prague, the bishop of Placentia, the pope's nuncio, having itin command from his holiness to represent to Rodolph how discreditableit was for him to harbour English magicians, heretics, at his court. 

From Prague Dee and his followers proceeded to Cracow. Here he foundmeans of introduction to Stephen, king of Poland, to whom immediatelyhe insinuated as intelligence from heaven, that Rodolph, the emperor, would speedily be assassinated, and that Stephen would succeed him inthe throne of Germany. Stephen appears to have received Dee with morecondescension than Rodolph had done, and was once present at hisincantation and interview with the invisible spirits. Dee also luredhim on with promises respecting the philosopher's stone. Meanwhile themagician was himself reduced to the strangest expedients forsubsistence. He appears to have daily expected great riches from thetransmutation of metals, and was unwilling to confess that he and hisfamily 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 inRosenburg, a nobleman of considerable wealth at Trebona in the kingdomof Bohemia. Here Dee appears to have remained till 1589, when he wassent for home by Elizabeth. In what manner he proceeded during thisinterval, and from whence he drew his supplies, we are only left toconjecture. He lured on his victim with the usual temptation, promising him that he should be king of Poland. In the mean time it isrecorded by him, that, on the ninth of December, 1586, he arrived atthe point of projection, having cut a piece of metal out of a brasswarming-pan; and merely heating it by the fire, and pouring on it aportion of the elixir, it was presently converted into pure silver. Weare told that he sent the warming-pan and the piece of silver to queenElizabeth, that she might be convinced by her own eyes how exactlythey tallied, and that the one had unquestionably been a portion ofthe other. About the same time it is said, that Dee and his associatebecame more free in their expenditure; and in one instance it isstated as an example, that Kelly gave away to the value of fourthousand pounds sterling in gold rings on occasion of the celebrationof the marriage of one of his maid-servants. On the twenty-seventh andthirtieth of July, 1587, Dee has recorded in his journal his gratitudeto God for his unspeakable mercies on those days imparted, which hasbeen interpreted to mean further acquisitions of wealth by means ofthe elixir. 

Meanwhile perpetual occasions of dissention occurred between the twogreat confederates, Kelly and Dee. They were in many respects unfittedfor each other's society. Dee was a man, who from his youth upward hadbeen indefatigable in study and research, had the consciousness ofgreat talents and intellect, and had been universally recognised assuch, and had possessed a high character for fervent piety andblameless morals. Kelly was an impudent adventurer, a man of noprinciples and of blasted reputation; yet fertile in resources, fullof self-confidence, and of no small degree of ingenuity. In theirmutual intercourse the audacious adventurer often had the upper handof the man who had lately possessed a well-earned reputation. Kellyfrequently professed himself tired of enacting the character ofinterpreter of the Gods under Dee. He found Dee in all cases runningaway with the superior consideration; while he in his own opinion bestdeserved to possess it. The straitness of their circumstances, and themisery they were occasionally called on to endure, we may be sure didnot improve their good understanding. Kelly once and again threatenedto abandon his leader. Dee continually soothed him, and prevailed onhim to stay. 

Kelly at length started a very extraordinary proposition. Kelly, asinterpreter to the spirits, and being the only person who heard andsaw any thing, we may presume made them say whatever he pleased. Kellyand Dee had both of them wives. Kelly did not always live harmoniouslywith the partner of his bed. He sometimes went so far as to say thathe hated her. Dee was more fortunate. His wife was a person of goodfamily, and had hitherto been irreproachable in her demeanour. Thespirits one day revealed to Kelly, that they must henceforth havetheir wives in common. The wife of Kelly was barren, and this cursecould no otherwise be removed. Having started the proposition, Kellyplayed the reluctant party. Dee, who was pious and enthusiastic, inclined to submit. He first indeed started the notion, that it couldonly be meant that they should live in mutual harmony and goodunderstanding. The spirits protested against this, and insisted uponthe literal interpretation. Dee yielded, and compared his case to thatof Abraham, who at the divine command consented to sacrifice his sonIsaac. Kelly alleged that these spirits, which Dee had hithertoregarded as messengers from God, could be no other than servants ofSatan. He persisted in his disobedience; and the spirits declared thathe was no longer worthy to be their interpreter, and that anothermediator must be found. 

They named Arthur Dee, the son of the possessor of the stone, apromising and well-disposed boy of only eight years of age. Deeconsecrated the youth accordingly to his high function by prayers andreligious rites for several days together. Kelly took horse and rodeaway, protesting that they should meet no more. Arthur entered uponhis office, April 15, 1587. The experiment proved abortive. He sawsomething; but not to the purpose. He heard no voices. At lengthKelly, on the third day, entered the room unexpectedly, "by miraculousfortune, " as Dee says, "or a divine fate, " sate down between them, andimmediately saw figures, and heard voices, which the little Arthur wasnot enabled to perceive. In particular he saw four heads inclosed inan obelisk, which he perceived to represent the two magicians andtheir wives, and interpreted to signify that unlimited communion inwhich they were destined to engage. The matter however being still anoccasion of scruple, a spirit appeared, who by the language he usedwas plainly no other than the Saviour of the world, and took away fromthem the larger stone; for now it appears there were two stones. Thismiracle at length induced all parties to submit; and the divinecommand was no sooner obeyed, than the stone which had beenabstracted, was found again under the pillow of the wife of Dee. 

It is not easy to imagine a state of greater degradation than thatinto which this person had now fallen. During all the prime and vigourof his intellect, he had sustained an eminent part among the learnedand the great, distinguished and honoured by Elizabeth and herfavourite. But his unbounded arrogance and self-opinion could never besatisfied. And seduced, partly by his own weakness, and partly by theinsinuations of a crafty adventurer, he became a mystic of the mostdishonourable sort. He was induced to believe in a series ofmiraculous communications without common sense, engaged in the pursuitof the philosopher's stone, and no doubt imagined that he waspossessed of the great secret. Stirred up by these conceptions, heleft his native country, and became a wanderer, preying upon thecredulity of one prince and eminent man after another, and no soonerwas he discarded by one victim of credulity, than he sought another, a vagabond on the earth, reduced from time to time to the greatestdistress, persecuted, dishonoured and despised by every party in theirturn. At length by incessant degrees he became dead to all moraldistinctions, and all sense of honour and self-respect. "Professinghimself to be wise he became a fool, walked in the vanity of hisimagination, " and had his understanding under total eclipse. Theimmoral system of conduct in which he engaged, and the strange andshocking blasphemy that he mixed with it, render him at this time asort of character that it is painful to contemplate. 

Led on as Dee at this time was by the ascendancy and consummate art ofKelly, there was far from existing any genuine harmony between them;and, after many squabbles and heart-burnings, they appear finally tohave parted in January 1589, Dee having, according to his own account, at that time delivered up to Kelly, the elixir and the differentimplements by which the transmutation of metals was to be effected. 

Various overtures appear to have passed now for some years between Deeand queen Elizabeth, intended to lead to his restoration to his nativecountry. Dee had upon different occasions expressed a wish to thateffect; and Elizabeth in the spring of 1589 sent him a message, thatremoved from him all further thought of hesitation and delay. He setout from Trebona with three coaches, and a baggage train correspondent, and had an audience of the queen at Richmond towards the close of thatyear. Upon the whole it is impossible perhaps not to believe, thatElizabeth was influenced in this proceeding by the various reportsthat had reached her of his extraordinary success with thephilosopher's stone, and the boundless wealth he had it in his powerto bestow. Many princes at this time contended with each other, as towho should be happy enough by fair means or by force to have under hiscontrol the fortunate possessor of the great secret, and thus to havein his possession the means of inexhaustible wealth. Shortly afterthis time the emperor Rodolph seized and committed to prison Kelly, the partner of Dee in this inestimable faculty, and, having onceenlarged him, placed him in custody a second time. Meanwhile Elizabethis said to have made him pressing overtures of so flattering a naturethat he determined to escape and return to his native country. Forthis purpose he is said to have torn the sheets of his bed, andtwisted them into a rope, that by that means he might descend fromthe tower in which he was confined. But, being a corpulent man ofconsiderable weight, the rope broke with him before he was half waydown, and, having fractured one or both his legs, and being otherwiseconsiderably bruised, he died shortly afterwards. This happened inthe year 1595. 

Dee (according to his own account, delivered to commissionersappointed by queen Elizabeth to enquire into his circumstances) camefrom Trebona to England in a state little inferior to that of anambassador. He had three coaches, with four horses harnessed to eachcoach, 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. Immediatelyon his arrival he had an audience of the queen at Richmond, by whomhe was most graciously received. She gave special orders, that heshould do what he would in chemistry and philosophy, and that no oneshould 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, hecertainly acted unadvisedly in surrendering this power to hisconfederate, immediately before his return to his native country. He parted at the same time with his gift of prophecy, since, thoughhe brought away with him his miraculous stone, and at one timeappointed one Bartholomew, and another one Hickman, his interpretersto look into the stone, to see the marvellous sights it was expectedto disclose, and to hear the voices and report the words that issuedfrom it, the experiments proved in both instances abortive. Theywanted the finer sense, or the unparalleled effrontery andinexhaustible invention, which Kelly alone possessed. 

The remainder of the voyage of the life of Dee was "bound in shallowsand in miseries. " Queen Elizabeth we may suppose soon found that herdreams of immense wealth to be obtained through his intervention werenugatory. Yet would she not desert the favourite of her former years. He presently began to complain of poverty and difficulties. Herepresented that the revenue of two livings he held in the churchhad been withheld from him from the time of his going abroad. Hestated that, shortly after that period, his house had been brokeninto and spoiled by a lawless mob, instigated by his ill fame as adealer in prohibited and unlawful arts. They destroyed or dispersedhis library, consisting of four thousand volumes, seven hundred ofwhich were manuscripts, and of inestimable rarity. They ravaged hiscollection of curious implements and machines. He enumerated theexpences of his journey home by Elizabeth's command, for which heseemed to consider the queen as his debtor. Elizabeth in consequenceordered him at several times two or three small sums. But this beinginsufficient, she was prevailed upon in 1592 to appoint two membersof her privy council to repair to his house at Mortlake to enquireinto particulars, to whom he made a Compendious Rehearsal of halfa hundred years of his life, accompanied with documents and vouchers. 

It is remarkable that in this Rehearsal no mention occurs of themiraculous stone brought down to him by an angel, or of hispretensions respecting the transmutation of metals. He merely rests, his claims to public support upon his literary labours, and theacknowledged eminence of his intellectual faculties. He passes overthe 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 ofall the effects he expected, he wrote a letter to archbishop Whitgifttwo years after, lamenting the delay of the expected relief, andcomplaining of the "untrue reports, opinions and fables, which hadfor so many years been spread of his studies. " He represents thesestudies purely as literary, frank, and wholly divested of mystery. If the "True Relation of what passed for many years between Dr. Deeand certain Spirits" had not been preserved, and afterwards printed, we might have been disposed to consider all that was said on thissubject as a calumny. 

The promotion which Dee had set his heart on, was to the office ofmaster of St. Cross's Hospital near Winchester, which the queen hadpromised him when the present holder should be made a bishop. Butthis never happened. He obtained however in lieu of it thechancellorship of St. Paul's cathedral, 8 December 1594, which inthe following year he exchanged for the wardenship of the collegeat Manchester. In this last office he continued till the year 1602(according to other accounts 1604), during which time he complainedof great dissention and refractoriness on the part of the fellows;though it may perhaps be doubted whether equal blame may not fairlybe imputed to the arrogance and restlessness of the warden. At lengthhe receded altogether from public life, and retired to his ancientdomicile at Mortlake. He made one attempt to propitiate the favourof king James; but it was ineffectual. Elizabeth had known him inthe flower and vigour of his days; he had boasted the uniformpatronage of her chief favourite; he had been recognised by thephilosophical and the learned as inferior to none of their body, and he had finally excited the regard of his ancient mistress byhis pretence to revelations, and the promises he held out of thephilosopher's stone. She could not shake off her ingrafted prejudicein his favour; she could not find in her heart to cast him aside inhis old age and decay. But then came a king, to whom in his prosperityand sunshine he had been a stranger. He wasted his latter days indotage, obscurity and universal neglect. No one has told us how hecontrived to subsist. We may be sure that his constant companionswere mortification and the most humiliating privations. He lingeredon till the year 1608; and the ancient people in the time of AntonyWood, nearly a century afterwards, pointed to his grave in the chancelof the church at Mortlake, and professed to know the very spot wherehis remains were desposited. 

The history of Dee is exceedingly interesting, not only on its ownaccount; not only for the eminence of his talents and attainments, and the incredible sottishness and blindness of understanding whichmarked his maturer years; but as strikingly illustrative of thecredulity and superstitious faith of the time in which he lived. Ata later period his miraculous stone which displayed such wonders, and was attended with so long a series of supernatural vocalcommunications would have deceived nobody: it was scarcely moreingenious than the idle tricks of the most ordinary conjurer. Butat this period the crust of long ages of darkness had not yet beenfully worn away. Men did not trust to the powers of humanunderstanding, and were not familiarised with the main canons ofevidence and belief. Dee passed six years on the continent, proceedingfrom the court of one prince or potent nobleman to another, listenedto for a time by each, each regarding his oracular communicationswith astonishment and alarm, and at length irresolutely casting himoff, when he found little or no difficulty in running a like careerwith another. 

It is not the least curious circumstance respecting the life of Dee, that in 1659, half a century after his death, there remained stillsuch an interest respecting practices of this sort, as to authorisethe printing a folio volume, in a complex and elaborate form, of hiscommunications with spirits. The book was brought out by Dr. MericCasaubon, no contemptible name in the republic of letters. The editorobserves respecting the hero and his achievements in the Preface, that, "though his carriage in certain respects seemed to lay in worksof darkness, yet all was tendered by him to kings and princes, andby all (England alone excepted) was listened to for a good while withgood 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 andastonishment. " He adds, that, "as a whole it is undoubtedly not tobe paralleled in its kind in any age or country. " In a word theeditor, though disavowing an entire belief in Dee's pretensions, yetplainly considers them with some degree of deference, and insinuatesto how much more regard such undue and exaggerated pretensions areentitled, 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 somedegree of favour from this consideration, inasmuch as, by recognisingthe correspondence of human beings with the invisible world, it hasone principle in common with the believers in revelation, of whichthe 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 contemporaryhistorians. Hesket, an emissary of the Jesuits and English Catholicsabroad, was importunate with this nobleman to press his title to thecrown, 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, gaveinformation against Hesket to the government, in consequence of whichhe was apprehended, tried and executed. Hesket had threatened theearl that, if he did not comply with his suggestion, he should liveonly a short time. Accordingly, four months afterwards, the earl wasseized with a very uncommon disease. A waxen image was at the sametime found in his chamber with hairs in its belly exactly of the samecolour as those of the earl. [211] The image was, by some zealousfriend of lord Derby, burned; but the earl grew worse. He was himselfthoroughly persuaded that he was bewitched. Stow has inserted in hisAnnals a minute account of his disease from day to day, with adescription of all the symptoms. 

KING JAMES'S VOYAGE TO NORWAY. 

While Elizabeth amused herself with the supernatural gifts to whichDee advanced his claim, and consoled the adversity and destitutionto which the old man, once so extensively honoured, was now reduced, a scene of a very different complexion was played in the northernpart of the island. Trials for sorcery were numerous in the reignof Mary queen of Scots; the comparative darkness and ignorance ofthe sister kingdom rendered it a soil still more favourable thanEngland to the growth of these gloomy superstitions. But the mindof James, at once inquisitive, pedantic and self-sufficient, peculiarly fitted him for the pursuit of these narrow-minded andobscure speculations. One combination of circumstances wrought upthis propensity within him to the greatest height. 

James was born in the year 1566. He was the only direct heir to thecrown of Scotland; and he was in near prospect of succession to thatof England. The zeal of the Protestant Reformation had wrought upthe anxiety of men's minds to a fever of anticipation and forecast. Consequently, towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, a point whichgreatly arrested the general attention was the expected marriage ofthe king of Scotland. Elizabeth, with that petty jealousy whichobscured the otherwise noble qualities of her spirit, sought tocountermine this marriage, that her rival and expected successor mightnot be additionally graced with the honours of offspring. James fixedhis mind upon a daughter of the king of Denmark. By the successfulcabals of Elizabeth he was baffled in this suit; and the lady wasfinally married to the duke of Bavaria. The king of Denmark hadanother daughter; and James made proposals to this princess. Stillhe was counteracted; till at length he sent a splendid embassy, withample powers and instructions, and the treaty was concluded. Theprincess embarked; but, when she had now for some time been expectedin Scotland, news was brought instead, that she had been driven backby tempests on the coast of Norway. The young king felt keenly hisdisappointment, and gallantly resolved to sail in person for the port, where his intended consort was detained by the shattered conditionof her fleet. James arrived on the twenty-second of October 1589, and having consummated his marriage, was induced by the invitationof his father-in-law to pass the winter at Copenhagen, from whencehe did not sail till the spring, and, after having encountered avariety of contrary winds and some danger, reached Edinburgh on thefirst of May in the following year. 

It was to be expected that variable weather and storms shouldcharacterise the winter-season in these seas. But the storms wereof longer continuance and of more frequent succession, than wasusually known. And at this period, when the proposed consort of Jamesfirst, then the king himself, and finally both of them, and the hopeof Protestant succession, were committed to the mercy of the waves, it is not wonderful that the process of the seasons should beaccurately marked, and that those varieties, which are commonlyascribed to second causes, should have been imputed to extraordinaryand supernatural interference. It was affirmed that, in the king'sreturn from Denmark, his ship was impelled by a different wind fromthat which acted on the rest of his fleet. 

It happened that, soon after James's return to Scotland, one GeillisDuncan, a servant-maid, for the extraordinary circumstances thatattended certain cures which she performed, became suspected ofwitchcraft. Her master questioned her on the subject; but she wouldown nothing. Perceiving her obstinacy, the master took upon himselfof his own authority, to extort confession from her by torture. Inthis he succeeded; and, having related divers particulars ofwitchcraft of herself, she proceeded to accuse others. The personsshe accused were cast into the public prison. 

One of these, Agnes Sampson by name, at first stoutly resisted thetorture. But, it being more strenuously applied, she by and by becameextremely communicative. It was at this period that James personallyengaged in the examinations. We are told that he "took great delightin being present, " and putting the proper questions. The unhappyvictim was introduced into a room plentifully furnished withimplements of torture, while the king waited in an apartment at aconvenient distance, till the patient was found to be in a suitableframe of mind to make the desired communications. No sooner did heor she signify that they were ready, and should no longer refuse toanswer, than they were introduced, fainting, sinking under recentsufferings which they had no longer strength to resist, into the royalpresence. And here sat James, in envied ease and conscious "delight, "wrapped up in the thought of his own sagacity, framing the enquiriesthat might best extort the desired evidence, and calculating witha judgment by no means to be despised, from the bearing, the turnof features, and the complexion of the victim, the probability whetherhe was making a frank and artless confession, or had still the secretdesire to impose on the royal examiner, or from a different motivewas disposed to make use of the treacherous authority which thesituation afforded, to gratify his revenge upon some person towardswhom he might be inspired with latent hatred and malice. 

Agnes Sampson related with what solicitude she had sought to possesssome 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 beenough: she would infallibly, by applying her incantations to thisfragment, have been able to undermine the life of the sovereign. Shetold how she with two hundred other witches had sailed in sieves fromLeith to North Berwick church, how they had there encountered thedevil in person, how they had feasted with him, and what obscenitieshad been practised. She related that in this voyage they had drowneda cat, having first baptised him, and that immediately a dreadfulstorm had arisen, and in this very storm the king's ship had beenseparated from the rest of his fleet. She took James aside, and, thebetter to convince him, undertook to repeat to him the conversation, the dialogue which had passed from the one to the other, between theking and queen in their bedchamber on the wedding-night. Agnes Sampsonwas condemned to the flames. 

JOHN FIAN. 

Another of the miserable victims on this occasion was John Fian, aschoolmaster at Tranent near Edinburgh, a young man, whom the ignorantpopulace had decorated with the style of doctor. He was tortured bymeans 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, thesister 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 mostsecret part of his sister's body, possessing which he should beenabled by certain incantations to procure himself the love of thegirl. The boy at his mother's instigation brought to Fian three hairsfrom a virgin heifer instead; and, applying his conjuration to them, the consequence had been that the heifer forced her way into hisschool, leaped upon him in amorous fashion, and would not berestrained from following him about the neighbourhood. 

This same Fian acted an important part in the scene at North Berwickchurch. As being best fitted for the office, he was appointed recorderor clerk to the devil, to write down the names, and administer theoaths to the witches. He was actively concerned in the enchantment, by means of which the king's ship had nearly been lost on his returnfrom Denmark. This part of his proceeding however does not appearin his own confession, but in that of the witches who were hisfellow-conspirators. 

He further said, that, the night after he made his confession, thedevil appeared to him, and was in a furious rage against him for hisdisloyalty to his service, telling him that he should severely repenthis infidelity. According to his own account, he stood firm, anddefied the devil to do his worst. Meanwhile the next night he escapedout of prison, and was with some difficulty retaken. He howeverfinally denied all his former confessions, said that they werefalshoods forced from him by mere dint of torture, and, though hewas now once more subjected to the same treatment to such an excessas must necessarily have crippled him of his limbs for ever, he provedinflexible to the last. At length by the king's order he wasstrangled, and his body cast into the flames. Multitudes of unhappymen and women perished in this cruel persecution. [212]

KING JAMES'S DEMONOLOGY. 

It was by a train of observations and experience like this, that Jameswas prompted seven years after to compose and publish his Dialogueson Demonology in Three Books. In the Preface to this book he says, "The fearfull abounding at this time in this countrey, of thesedetestable slaves of the Diuel, the Witches or enchaunters, hath movedme (beloued Reader) to dispatch in post this following Treatise ofmine, not in any wise (as I protest) to serue for a shew of mylearning and ingine, but onely (moued of conscience) to preassethereby, so farre as I can, to resolue the doubting hearts of many, both that such assaults of Satan are most certainely practised, andthat 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 andproofes in such trialls; for who but Witches can be prooves, and sowitnesses of the doings of Witches?" [213] But, lest innocent personsshould be accused, and suffer falsely, he tells us, "There are twoother good helps that may be used for their trial: the one is, thefinding of their marke [a mark that the devil was supposed to impressupon some part of their persons], and the trying the insensiblenessthereof: the other is their fleeting on the water: for, as in a secretmurther, if the dead carkasse be at any time thereafter handled bythe murtherer, it will gush out of bloud, as if the bloud were cryingto the heauen for revenge of the murtherer, God hauing appointed thatsecret supernaturall signe, for triall of that secret unnaturallcrime, so it appears that God hath appointed (for a supernaturallsigne of the monstrous impietie of Witches) that the water shallrefuse to receive them in her bosome, that haue shaken off them thesacred water of Baptisme, and wilfully refused the benefite thereof:No, not so much as their eyes are able to shed teares (threaten andtorture them as ye please) while first they repent (God not permittingthem to dissemble their obstinacie in so horrible a crime. )" [214]

STATUTE, 1 JAMES I. 

In consequence of the strong conviction James entertained on thesubject, the English parliament was induced, in the first year ofhis reign, to supersede the milder proceedings of Elizabeth, and toenact that "if any person shall use, practice, or exercise anyinvocation or conjuration of any evil and wicked spirit, or shallconsult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any eviland wicked spirit, to or for any intent and purpose; or take up anydead man, woman, or child out of their grave, or the skin, bone, orany part of any dead person, to be used in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment, or shall use any witchcraft, sorcery orenchantment, 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 counsellorsshall suffer the pains of death. " And upon this statute great numberswere condemned and executed. 

FORMAN AND OTHERS. 

There is a story of necromancy which unfortunately makes too prominenta figure in the history of the court and character of king James theFirst. Robert earl of Essex, son of queen Elizabeth's favourite, andwho afterwards became commander in chief of the parliamentary forcesin the civil wars, married lady Frances Howard, a younger daughterof the earl of Suffolk, the bride and bridegroom being the onethirteen, the other fourteen years old at the time of the marriage. The relatives of the countess however, who had brought about thematch, thought it most decorous to separate them for some time, and, while she remained at home with her friends, the bridegroom travelledfor three or four years on the continent. The lady proved the greatestbeauty of her time, but along with this had the most libertine andunprincipled dispositions. 

The very circumstance that she had vowed her faith at the altar whenshe was not properly capable of choice, inspired into the waywardmind of the countess a repugnance to her husband. He came from thecontinent, replete with accomplishments; and we may conclude, fromthe figure he afterwards made in the most perilous times, not withouta competent share of intellectual abilities. But the countess shrankfrom all advances on his part. He loved retirement, and woed the ladyto scenes most favourable to the development of the affections: shehad been bred in court, and was melancholy and repined in any otherscene. So capricious was her temper, that she is said at the sametime to have repelled the overtures of the accomplished and popularprince Henry, the heir to the throne. 

It happened about this period that a beautiful young man, twenty yearsof age, and full of all martial graces, appeared on the stage. KingJames was singularly partial to young men who were distinguished forpersonal attractions. By an extraordinary accident this person, RobertCarr by name, in the midst of a court-spectacle, just when it washis cue to present a buckler with a device to the king, was thrownfrom his horse, and broke his leg. This was enough: James naturallybecame interested in the misfortune, attached himself to Carr, andeven favoured him again and again with a royal visit during his cure. Presently the young man became an exclusive favourite; and no honoursand 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 noone but Carr. But her opportunities of seeing him were both shortand rare. In this emergency she applied to Mrs. Turner, a woman whoseprofession it was to study and to accommodate the fancies of suchpersons as the countess. Mrs. Turner introduced her to Dr. Forman, a noted astrologer and magician, and he, by images made of wax, andvarious uncouth figures and devices, undertook to procure the loveof Carr to the lady. At the same time he practised against the earl, that he might become impotent, at least towards his wife. This howeverdid not satisfy the lady; and having gone the utmost lengths towardsher innamorato, she insisted on a divorce in all the forms, and alegal marriage with the youth she loved. Carr appears originally tohave had good dispositions; and, while that was the case, hadassiduously cultivated the friendship of Sir Thomas Overbury, oneof the most promising young courtiers of the time. Sir Thomasearnestly sought to break off the intimacy of Carr with lady Essex, and told him how utterly ruinous to his reputation and prospects itwould prove, if he married her. But Carr, instead of feeling how muchobliged he was to Overbury for this example of disinterestedfriendship, went immediately and told the countess what the youngman said. 

From this time the destruction of Overbury was resolved on betweenthem. He was first committed to the Tower by an arbitrary mandateof James for refusing an embassage to Russia, next sequestered fromall visitors, and finally attacked with poison, which, after severalabortive attempts, was at length brought to effect. Meanwhile adivorce 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 ofher virginity. After a lapse of two years the murder was brought tolight, the inferior criminals, Mrs. Turner and the rest, convictedand executed, and Carr, now earl of Somerset, and his countess, foundguilty, but received the royal pardon. --It is proper to add, in orderto give a just idea of the state of human credulity at this period, that, Forman having died at the time that his services were deemedmost necessary, one Gresham first, and then a third astrologer andenchanter were brought forward, to consummate the atrocious projectsof the infamous countess. It is said that she and her second husbandwere ultimately so thoroughly alienated from each other, that theyresided for years under the same roof, with the most carefulprecautions that they might not by any chance come into each other'spresence. [215]

LATEST IDEAS OF JAMES ON THE SUBJECT. 

It is worthy of remark however that king James lived to alter hismind extremely on the question of witchcraft. He was active in hisobservations on the subject; and we are told that "the frequency offorged possessions which were detected by him wrought such analteration in his judgment, that he, receding from what he had writtenin 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 necromancythan that of the Lancashire witches in 1612. The scene of this storyis in Pendlebury Forest, four or five miles from Manchester, remarkable for its picturesque and gloomy situation. Such places werenot sought then as now, that they might afford food for theimagination, and gratify the refined taste of the traveller. Theywere rather shunned as infamous for scenes of depredation and murder, or as the consecrated haunts of diabolical intercourse. Pendleburyhad been long of ill repute on this latter account, when a countrymagistrate, Roger Nowel by name, conceived about this time that heshould do a public service, by rooting out a nest of witches, whorendered the place a terror to all the neighbouring vulgar. The firstpersons he seized on were Elizabeth Demdike and Ann Chattox, theformer of whom was eighty years of age, and had for some years beenblind, who subsisted principally by begging, though she had amiserable hovel on the spot, which she called her own. Ann Chattoxwas of the same age, and had for some time been threatened with thecalamity of blindness. Demdike was held to be so hardened a witch, that she had trained all her family to the mystery; namely, ElizabethDevice, her daughter, and James and Alison Device, her grandchildren. In the accusation of Chattox was also involved Ann Redferne, herdaughter. These, together with John Bulcock, and Jane his mother, Alice Nutter, Catherine Hewit, and Isabel Roby, were successivelyapprehended by the diligence of Nowel and one or two neighbouringmagistrates, and were all of them by some means induced, some to makea more liberal, and others a more restricted confession of theirmisdeeds in witchcraft, and were afterwards hurried away to LancasterCastle, fifty miles off, to prison. Their crimes were said to haveuniversally proceeded from malignity and resentment; and it wasreported to have repeatedly happened for poor old Demdike to be ledby night from her habitation into the open air by some member of herfamily, when she was left alone for an hour to curse her victim, andpursue her unholy incantations, and was then sought, and brought againto her hovel. Her curses never failed to produce the desired effect. 

These poor wretches had been but a short time in prison, wheninformation was given, that a meeting of witches was held on GoodFriday, at Malkin's Tower, the habitation of Elizabeth Device, tothe number of twenty persons, to consult how by infernal machinationsto kill one Covel, an officer, to blow up Lancaster Castle, anddeliver 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 toldhow, were prevented. 

The prisoners were kept in jail till the summer assizes; and in themean time it fortunately happened that the poor blind Demdike diedin confinement, and was never brought up to trial. 

The other prisoners were severally indicted for killing by witchcraftcertain persons who were named, and were all found guilty. Theprincipal witnesses against Elizabeth Device were James Device andJennet Device, her grandchildren, the latter only nine years of age. When this girl was put into the witness-box, the grandmother, onseeing 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 brotherand sister swore, that they had been present, when the devil cameto their grandmother in the shape of a black dog, and asked her whatshe desired. She said, the death of John Robinson; when the dog toldher to make an image of Robinson in clay, and after crumble it intodust, and as fast as the image perished, the life of the victim shouldwaste away, and in conclusion the man should die. This evidence wasreceived; and upon such testimony, and testimony like this, tenpersons were led to the gallows, on the twentieth of August, AnnChattox of eighty years of age among the rest, the day after thetrials, which lasted two days, were finished. The judges who presidedon these trials were sir James Altham and sir Edward Bromley, baronsof the exchequer. [217]

From the whole of this story it is fair to infer, that these old womenhad played at the game of commerce with the devil. It had flatteredtheir vanity, to make their simpler neighbours afraid of them. Toobserve the symptoms of their rustic terror, even of their hatredand detestation, had been gratifying to them. They played the gameso long, that in an imperfect degree they deceived themselves. Humanpassions are always to a certain degree infectious. Perceiving thehatred of their neighbours, they began to think that they were worthyobjects of detestation and terror, that their imprecations had a realeffect, and their curses killed. The brown horrors of the forest werefavourable to visions; and they sometimes almost believed, that theymet the foe of mankind in the night. --But, when Elizabeth Deviceactually saw her grandchild of nine years old placed in thewitness-box, with the intention of consigning her to a public andan ignominious end, then the reveries of the imagination vanished, and she deeply felt the reality, that, where she had been somewhatimposing on the child in devilish sport, she had been whetting thedagger that was to take her own life, and digging her own grave. Itwas then no wonder that she uttered a preternatural yell, and pouredcurses from the bottom of her heart. It must have been almost beyondhuman endurance, to hear the cry of her despair, and to witness thecurses and the agony in which it vented itself. 

Twenty-two years elapsed after this scene, when a wretched man, ofthe name of Edmund Robinson, conceived on the same spot the schemeof making himself a profitable speculation from a similar source. He trained his son, eleven years of age, and furnished him with thenecessary instructions. He taught him to say that one day in thefields 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 andwhipped them; when suddenly one of them was transformed into an oldwoman and the other into a child, a witch and her imp. This storysucceeded so well, that the father soon after gave out that his sonhad an eye that could distinguish a witch by sight, and took him roundto the neighbouring churches, where he placed him standing on a benchafter service, and bade him look round and see what he could observe. The device, however clumsy, succeeded, and no less than seventeenpersons were apprehended at the boy's selection, and conducted toLancaster Castle. These seventeen persons were tried at the assizes, and found guilty; but the judge, whose name has unfortunately beenlost, unlike sir James Altham and sir Edward Bromley, saw somethingin the case that excited his suspicion, and, though the juries hadnot hesitated in any one instance, respited the convicts, and sentup a report of the affair to the government. Twenty-two years on thisoccasion had not elapsed in vain. Four of the prisoners were by thejudge's recommendation sent for to the metropolis, and were examinedfirst by the king's physicians, and then by Charles the First inperson. The boy's story was strictly scrutinised. In fine he confessedthat it was all an imposture; and the whole seventeen received theroyal pardon. [218]

LADY DAVIES. 

Eleanor Tuchet, daughter of George lord Audley, married sir JohnDavies, an eminent lawyer in the time of James the First, and authorof a poem of considerable merit on the Immortality of the Soul. Thislady was a person of no contemptible talents; but what she seems mostto have valued herself upon, was her gift of prophecy; and sheaccordingly printed a book of Strange and Wonderful Predictions. Sheprofessed to receive her prophecies from a spirit, who communicatedto her audibly things about to come to pass, though the voice couldbe heard by no other person. Sir John Davies was nominated lord chiefjustice of the king's bench in 1626. Before he was inducted into theoffice, lady Eleanor, sitting with him on Sunday at dinner, suddenlyburst into a passion of tears. Sir John asked her what made her weep. To which she replied, "These are your funeral tears. " Sir John turnedoff the prediction with a merry answer. But in a very few days hewas seized with an apoplexy, of which he presently died. [219]--Shealso predicted the death of the duke of Buckingham in the same year. For this assumption of the gift of prophecy, she was cited beforethe high-commission-court and examined in 1634. [220]

EDWARD FAIRFAX. 

It is a painful task to record, that Edward Fairfax, the harmoniousand elegant translator of Tasso, prosecuted six of his neighboursat 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, havinga certificate of the sober behaviour of the prisoners, directed thejury so well as to induce them to bring in a verdict of acquittal. "[221] The poet afterwards drew up a bulky argument and narrative invindication of his conduct. 

DOCTOR LAMB. 

Dr. Lamb was a noted sorcerer in the time of Charles the First. Thefamous Richard Baxter, in his Certainty of the World of Spirits, printed in 1691, has recorded an appropriate instance of themiraculous performances of this man. Meeting two of his acquaintancein the street, and they having intimated a desire to witness someexample of his skill, he invited them home with him. He then conductedthem into an inner room, when presently, to their no small surprise, they saw a tree spring up in the middle of the apartment. They hadscarcely ceased wondering at this phenomenon, when in a moment thereappeared three diminutive men, with little axes in their hands forthe purpose of cutting down this tree. The tree was felled; and thedoctor dismissed his guests, fully satisfied of the solidity of hispretensions. 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 buryhim and his wife in the ruins. The wife in great terror asked, "Wereyou not at Dr. Lamb's to-day?" The husband confessed it was true. "And did you not bring away something from his house?" The husbandowned that, when the little men felled the tree, he had been idleenough 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 getrid of them as fast as they could. This ceremony performed, thewhirlwind immediately ceased, and the remainder of the night becameperfectly calm and serene. 

Dr. Lamb at length became so odious by his reputation for theseinfernal practices, that the populace rose upon him in 1640, and torehim to pieces in the streets. --Nor did the effects of his ill fameterminate here. Thirteen years after, a woman, who had been hisservant-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 occurreda scene in France which it is eminently to the purpose of this workto record. Urbain Grandier, a canon of the church, and a popularpreacher of the town of Loudun in the district of Poitiers, was inthe year 1634 brought to trial upon the accusation of magic. The firstcause of his being thus called in question was the envy of his rivalpreachers, whose fame was eclipsed by his superior talents. The secondcause was a libel falsely imputed to him upon cardinal Richelieu, who with all his eminent qualities had the infirmity of beinginexorable upon the question of any personal attack that was madeupon him. Grandier, beside his eloquence, was distinguished for hiscourage and resolution, for the gracefulness of his figure, and theextraordinary attention he paid to the neatness of his dress and thedecoration of his person, which last circumstance brought upon himthe imputation of being too much devoted to the service of the fair. 

About this time certain nuns of the convent of Ursulines at Loudunwere attacked with a disease which manifested itself by veryextraordinary symptoms, suggesting to many the idea that they werepossessed with devils. A rumour was immediately spread that Grandier, urged by some offence he had conceived against these nuns, was theauthor, by the skill he had in the arts of sorcery, of thesepossessions. It unfortunately happened, that the same capuchin friarwho assured cardinal Richelieu that Grandier was the writer of thelibel against him, also communicated to him the story of the possessednuns, and the suspicion which had fallen on the priest on theiraccount. The cardinal seized with avidity on this occasion of privatevengeance, wrote to a counsellor of state at Loudun, one of hiscreatures, to cause a strict investigation to be made into the charge, and in such terms as plainly implied that what he aimed at was thedestruction of Grandier. 

The trial took place in the month of August 1634; and, according tothe authorised copy of the trial, Grandier was convicted upon theevidence of Astaroth, a devil of the order of Seraphims, and chiefof the possessing devils, of Easas, of Celsus, of Acaos, of Cedon, of Asmodeus of the order of thrones, of Alex, of Zabulon, ofNaphthalim, of Cham, of Uriel, and of Achas of the order ofprincipalities, and sentenced to be burned alive. In other words, he was convicted upon the evidence of twelve nuns, who, being askedwho they were, gave in these names, and professed to be devils, that, compelled by the order of the court, delivered a constrainedtestimony. The sentence was accordingly executed, and Grandier methis fate with heroic constancy. At his death an enormous drone flywas seen buzzing about his head; and a monk, who was present at theexecution, attested that, whereas the devils are accustomed to presentthemselves in the article of death to tempt men to deny God theirSaviour, this was Beelzebub, which in Hebrew signifies the God offlies, 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 devilsand evil spirits, or the raising of the dead from the peace of thetomb to effect certain magical operations, or to instruct the livingas to the events that are speedily to befal them. Yet it is wellworthy 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 greattalent, and who were otherwise distinguished for the soundness oftheir reasoning powers, and for the steadiness and perseverance oftheir application to the pursuits in which they engaged. 

The whole of the question was built upon the supposed necessaryconnection of certain aspects and conjunctions or oppositions of thestars and heavenly bodies, with the events of the world and thecharacters and actions of men. The human mind has ever confessed ananxiety to pry into the future, and to deal in omens and propheticsuggestions, and, certain coincidences having occurred howeverfortuitously, to deduce from them rules and maxims upon which to buildan anticipation of things to come. 

Add to which, it is flattering to the pride of man, to suppose allnature concerned with and interested in what is of importance toourselves. Of this we have an early example in the song of Deborahin the Old Testament, where, in a fit of pious fervour and exaltation, the poet exclaims, "They fought from heaven; the stars in theircourses fought against Sisera. " [223]

The general belief in astrology had a memorable effect on the historyof the human mind. All men in the first instance have an intuitivefeeling of freedom in the acts they perform, and of consequence ofpraise or blame due to them in just proportion to the integrity orbaseness of the motives by which they are actuated. This is in realitythe most precious endowment of man. Hence it comes that the good manfeels a pride and self-complacency in acts of virtue, takes creditto himself for the independence of his mind, and is conscious of theworth 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 overruledby 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, thoughour situation in this respect is merely imaginary, it does not theless fail to have very pernicious results to our characters. Men, so far as they are believers in astrology, look to the stars, andnot to themselves, for an account of what they shall do, and resignthemselves to the omnipotence of a fate which they feel it in vainto resist. Of consequence, a belief in astrology has the mostunfavourable tendency as to the morality of man; and, were it notthat the sense of the liberty of our actions is so strong that allthe reasonings in the world cannot subvert it, there would be a fatalclose to all human dignity and all human virtue. 

WILLIAM LILLY. 

One of the most striking examples of the ascendancy of astrologicalfaith is in the instance of William Lilly. This man has fortunatelyleft us a narrative of his own life; and he comes sufficiently nearto our time, to give us a feeling of reality in the transactions inwhich he was engaged, and to bring the scenes home to our businessand bosoms. 

Before he enters expressly upon the history of his life, he givesus incidentally an anecdote which merits our attention, as tendingstrongly to illustrate the credulity of man at the periods of whichwe treat. 

Lilly was born in the year 1602. When certain circumstances led hisyet undetermined thoughts to the study of astrology as his principalpursuit, he put himself in the year 1632 under the tuition of oneEvans, whom he describes as poor, ignorant, drunken, presumptuousand knavish, but who had a character, as the phrase was, for erectinga figure, predicting future events, discovering secrets, restoringstolen goods, and even for raising a spirit when he pleased. SirKenelm Digby was one of the most promising characters of these times, extremely handsome and graceful in his person, accomplished in allmilitary exercises, endowed with high intellectual powers, andindefatigably inquisitive after knowledge. To render him the moreremarkable, he was the eldest son of Everard Digby, who was the mosteminent sufferer for the conspiracy of the Gunpowder Treason. 

It was, as it seems, some time before Lilly became acquainted withEvans, that lord Bothwel and sir Kenelm Digby came to Evans at hislodgings in the Minories, for the express purpose of desiring himto shew them a spirit. Sir Kenelm was born in the year 1603; he musthave been therefore at this time a young man, but sufficiently oldto know what he sought, and to choose the subjects of his enquirywith a certain discretion. Evans consented to gratify the curiosityof his illustrious visitors. He drew a circle, and placed himselfand 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 morninga countryman discovered him asleep, and, having awaked him, in answerto his enquiries told him where he was. Evans in the afternoon senta messenger to his wife, to inform her of his safety, and to calmthe apprehensions she might reasonably entertain. Just as themessenger arrived, sir Kenelm Digby came to the house, curious toenquire respecting the issue of the adventure of yesterday. Lillyreceived this story from Evans; and, having asked him how such anevent came to attend on the experiment, was answered that, inpractising the invocation, he had heedlessly omitted the necessarysuffumigation, at which omission the spirit had taken offence. 

Lilly made some progress in astrology under Evans, and practised theart in minor matters with a certain success; but his ambition ledhim to aspire to the highest place in his profession. He made anexperiment 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 personsmore, with divining rods. He fixed on the place according to therules, and began to dig; but he had not proceeded far, before afurious storm came on, and he judged it advisable to "dismiss thedemons, " and desist. These supernatural assistants, he says, had takenoffence at the number and levity of the persons present; and, if hehad not left off when he did, he had no doubt that the storm wouldhave grown more and more violent, till the whole structure would havebeen laid level with the ground. 

He purchased himself a house to which to retire in 1636 at Hershamnear Walton on Thames, having, though originally bred in the lowestobscurity, twice enriched himself in some degree by marriage. He cameto London with a view to practise his favourite art in 1641; but, having received a secret monition warning him that he was not yetsufficiently an adept, he retired again into the country for twoyears, and did not finally commence his career till 1644, when hepublished a Prophetical Almanac, which he continued to do till aboutthe time of his death. He then immediately began to rise intoconsiderable notice. Mrs. Lisle, the wife of one of the commissionersof the great seal, took to him the urine of Whitlocke, one of themost eminent lawyers of the time, to consult him respecting the healthof the party, when he informed the lady that the person would recoverfrom his present disease, but about a month after would be verydangerously ill of a surfeit, which accordingly happened. He wasprotected by the great Selden, who interested himself in his favour;and he tells us that Lenthal, speaker of the house of commons, wasat all times his friend. He further says of himself that he wasoriginally partial to king Charles and to monarchy: but, when theparliament had apparently the upper hand, he had the skill to playhis cards accordingly, and secured his favour with the ruling powers. Whitlocke, in his Memorials of Affairs in his Own Times, takesrepeated notice of him, says that, meeting him in the street in thespring of 1645, he enquired of Lilly as to what was likely speedilyto happen, who predicted to him the battle of Naseby, and notes in1648 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, theastrologer, and his prayer was granted, and again in behalf ofOughtred, 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 atWindsor, towards the end of the year 1647, when they told the general, that they were "confident that God would go along with him and hisarmy, till the great work for which they were ordained was perfected, which they hoped would be the conquering their and the parliament'senemies, and a quiet settlement and firm peace over the whole nation. "The two astrologers were sent for in the same state in the followingyear to the siege of Colchester, which they predicted would soon fallinto possession of the parliament. 

Lilly in the mean while retained in secret his partiality to Charlesthe First. Mrs. Whorwood, a lady who was fully in the king'sconfidence, came to consult him, as to the place to which Charlesshould retire when he escaped from Hampton Court. Lilly prescribedaccordingly; but Ashburnham disconcerted all his measures, and theking made his inauspicious retreat to the isle of Wight. Afterwardshe was consulted by the same lady, as to the way in which Charlesshould proceed respecting the negociations with the parliamentarycommissioners at Newport, when Lilly advised that the king shouldsign all the propositions, and come up immediately with thecommissioners to London, in which case Lilly did not doubt that thepopular tide would turn in his favour, and the royal cause provetriumphant. Finally, he tells us that he furnished the saw and _aquafortis_, with which the king had nearly removed the bars of thewindow of his prison in Carisbrook Castle, and escaped. But Charlesmanifested the same irresolution at the critical moment in this case, which had before proved fatal to his success. In the year 1649 Lillyreceived a pension of one hundred pounds _per annum_ from thecouncil of state, which, after having been paid him for two years, he declined to accept any longer. In 1659 he received a present ofa gold chain and medal from Charles X king of Sweden, in acknowledgmentof 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 ofcommons, on the frivolous ground that, in his Monarchy or No Monarchypublished 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, inthe thirteenth, a city in flames. He was asked whether these thingsreferred to the late plague and fire of London. Lilly replied in amanner to intimate that they did; but he ingenuously confessed thathe had not known in what year they would happen. He said, that hehad given these emblematical representations without any comment, that those who were competent might apprehend their meaning, whilstthe rest of the world remained in the ignorance which was theirappointed portion. 

MATTHEW HOPKINS. 

Nothing can place the credulity of the English nation on the subjectof witchcraft about this time, in a more striking point of view, thanthe history of Matthew Hopkins, who, in a pamphlet published in 1647in his own vindication, assumes to himself the surname of theWitch-finder. He fell by accident, in his native county of Suffolk, into contact with one or two reputed witches, and, being a man ofan observing turn and an ingenious invention, struck out for himselfa trade, which brought him such moderate returns as sufficed tomaintain him, and at the same time gratified his ambition by makinghim a terror to many, and the object of admiration and gratitude tomore, who felt themselves indebted to him for ridding them of secretand intestine enemies, against whom, as long as they proceeded inways that left no footsteps behind, they felt they had no possibilityof guarding themselves. Hopkins's career was something like that ofTitus Oates in the following reign, but apparently much safer forthe adventurer, since Oates armed against himself a very formidableparty, while Hopkins seemed to assail a few only here and there, whowere poor, debilitated, impotent and helpless. 

After two or three successful experiments, Hopkins engaged in aregular tour of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex andHuntingdonshire. He united to him two confederates, a man named JohnStern, and a woman whose name has not been handed down to us. Theyvisited every town in their route that invited them, and secured tothem the moderate remuneration of twenty shillings and their expences, leaving what was more than this to the spontaneous gratitude of thosewho should deem themselves indebted to the exertions of Hopkins andhis party. By this expedient they secured to themselves a favourablereception; and a set of credulous persons who would listen to theirdictates as so many oracles. Being three of them, they were enabledto play the game into one another's hands, and were sufficientlystrong to overawe all timid and irresolute opposition. In every townto which they came, they enquired for reputed witches, and havingtaken them into custody, were secure for the most part of a certainnumber of zealous abettors, who took care that they should have aclear stage for their experiments. They overawed their helplessvictims with a certain air of authority, as if they had received acommission from heaven for the discovery of misdeeds. They assailedthe poor creatures with a multitude of questions constructed in themost artful manner. They stripped them naked, in search for thedevil's marks in different parts of their bodies, which wereascertained by running pins to the head into those parts, that, ifthey were genuine marks, would prove themselves such by theirinsensibility. They swam their victims in rivers and ponds, it beingan undoubted fact, that, if the persons accused were true witches, the water, which was the symbol of admission into the Christianchurch, would not receive them into its bosom. If the persons examinedcontinued obstinate, they seated them in constrained and uneasyattitudes, occasionally binding them with cords, and compelling themto remain so without food or sleep for twenty-four hours. They walkedthem up and down the room, two taking them under each arm, till theydropped down with fatigue. They carefully swept the room in whichthe 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 wasin the years 1644, 1645 and 1646. At length there were so many personscommitted to prison upon suspicion of witchcraft, that the governmentwas compelled to take in hand the affair. The rural magistrates beforewhom Hopkins and his confederates brought their victims, were obliged, willingly or unwillingly, to commit them for trial. A commission wasgranted to the earl of Warwick and others to hold a sessions ofjail-delivery against them for Essex at Chelmsford, Lord Warwick wasat this time the most popular nobleman in England. He was appointedby the parliament lord high admiral during the civil war. He was muchcourted by the independent clergy, was shrewd, penetrating and active, and exhibited a singular mixture of pious demeanour with a vein offacetiousness and jocularity. With him was sent Dr. Calamy, the mosteminent divine of the period of the Commonwealth, to see (says Baxter[224]) that no fraud was committed, or wrong done to the partiesaccused. It may well be doubted however whether the presence of thisclergyman did not operate unfavourably to the persons suspected. Hepreached before the judges. It may readily be believed, consideringthe temper of the times, that he insisted much upon the horriblenature of the sin of witchcraft, which could expect no pardon, eitherin this world or the world to come. He sat on the bench with thejudges, and participated in their deliberations. In the result ofthis inquisition sixteen persons were hanged at Yarmouth in Norfolk, fifteen at Chelmsford, and sixty at various places in the county ofSuffolk. 

Whitlocke in his Memorials of English Affairs, under the date of 1649, speaks of many witches being apprehended about Newcastle, upon theinformation of a person whom he calls the Witch-finder, who, as hisexperiments were nearly the same, though he is not named, we mayreasonably suppose to be Hopkins; and in the following year aboutBoston in Lincolnshire. In 1652 and 1653 the same author speaks ofwomen in Scotland, who were put to incredible torture to extort fromthem 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 monstrouscharges that are advanced. They are seized, as by contagion, withterror at the mischiefs which seem to impend over them, and fromwhich no innocence and no precaution appear to afford them sufficientprotection. They hasten, as with an unanimous effort, to avengethemselves upon these malignant enemies, whom God and man alikecombine to expel from society. But, after a time, they begin toreflect, and to apprehend that they have acted with too muchprecipitation, that they have been led on with uncertain appearances. They see one victim led to the gallows after another, without stintor limitation. They see one dying with the most solemn asseverationsof innocence, and another confessing apparently she knows not what, what is put into her mouth by her relentless persecutors. They seethese victims, old, crazy and impotent, harassed beyond enduranceby the ingenious cruelties that are practised against them. They werefirst urged on by implacable hostility and fury, to be satisfied withnothing but blood. But humanity and remorse also have their turn. Dissatisfied with themselves, they are glad to point their resentmentagainst another. The man that at first they hailed as a publicbenefactor, they presently come to regard with jealous eyes, and beginto consider as a cunning impostor, dealing in cool blood with thelives of his fellow-creatures for a paltry gain, and, still morehorrible, for the lure of a perishable and short-lived fame. Themultitude, we are told, after a few seasons, rose upon Hopkins, andresolved to subject him to one of his own criterions. They draggedhim to a pond, and threw him into the water for a witch. It seemshe floated on the surface, as a witch ought to do. They then pursuedhim with hootings and revilings, and drove him for ever into thatobscurity and ignominy which he had amply merited. 

CROMWEL. 

There is a story of Cromwel recorded by Echard, the historian, whichwell deserves to be mentioned, as strikingly illustrative of thecredulity which prevailed about this period. It takes its date fromthe morning of the third of September, 1651, when Cromwel gained thebattle of Worcester against Charles the Second, which he wasaccustomed to call by a name sufficiently significant, his "crowningvictory. " It is told on the authority of a colonel Lindsey, who issaid to have been an intimate friend of the usurper, and to have beencommonly known by that name, as being in reality the senior captainin Cromwel's own regiment. "On this memorable morning the general, "it seems, "took this officer with him to a woodside not far from thearmy, and bade him alight, and follow him into that wood, and to takeparticular 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 someunknown cause. Upon which Cromwel asked him how he did, or how hefelt himself. He answered, that he was in such a trembling andconsternation, that he had never felt the like in all the conflictsand battles he had ever been engaged in: but whether it proceededfrom the gloominess of the place, or the temperature of his body, he knew not. 'How now?' said Cromwel, 'What, troubled with thevapours? Come forward, man. ' They had not gone above twenty yardsfurther, before Lindsey on a sudden stood still, and cried out, 'Byall that is good I am seized with such unaccountable terror andastonishment, 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 witha roll of parchment in his hand, who delivered it to Cromwel, andhe 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 couldnot be for more than seven. Upon which Cromwel cried with greatfierceness, 'It shall however be for fourteen years. ' But the otherperemptorily declared, 'It could not possibly be for any longer time;and, if he would not take it so, there were others that would. ' Uponwhich Cromwel at last took the parchment: and, returning to Lindseywith great joy in his countenance, he cried, 'Now, Lindsey, the battleis our own! I long to be engaged. ' Returning out of the wood, theyrode to the army, Cromwel with a resolution to engage as soon aspossible, and the other with a design to leave the army as soon. Afterthe first charge, Lindsey deserted his post, and rode away with allpossible speed day and night, till he came into the county of Norfolk, to the house of an intimate friend, one Mr. Thoroughgood, ministerof the parish of Grimstone. Cromwel, as soon as he missed him, sentall ways after him, with a promise of a great reward to any thatshould bring him alive or dead. When Mr. Thoroughgood saw his friendLindsey come into his yard, his horse and himself much tired, in asort of a maze, he said, 'How now, colonel? We hear there is likelyto 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 kingis beaten. But, if ever I strike a stroke for Cromwel again, may Iperish eternally! For I am sure he has made a league with the devil, and the devil will have him in due time. ' Then, desiring hisprotection from Cromwel's inquisitors, he went in, and related tohim the story in all its circumstances. " It is scarcely necessaryto 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 farLindsey is to be believed, and how far the story is to be accountedincredible, is left to the reader's faith and judgment, and not toany determination of our own. "

DOROTHY MATELEY. 

I find a story dated about this period, which, though it does notstrictly belong to the subject of necromancy or dealings with thedevil, seems well to deserve to be inserted in this work. The topicof which I treat is properly of human credulity; and this infirmityof our nature can scarcely be more forcibly illustrated than in thefollowing example. It is recorded by the well-known John Bunyan, ina 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 twovolumes folio. In minuteness of particularity and detail it may viewith almost any story which human industry has collected, and humansimplicity 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 therubbish that came from the lead-mines in that neighbourhood througha sieve, which labour she performed till the earth had passed thesieve, and what remained was particles and small portions of genuineore. This woman was of exceedingly low and coarse habits, and wasnoted to be a profane swearer, curser, liar and thief; and her usualway of asserting things was with an imprecation, as, 'I would I mightsink into the earth, if it be not so, ' or, 'I would that God wouldmake the earth open and swallow me up, if I tell an untruth. '

"Now it happened on the 23rd of March, 1660, [according to ourcomputation 1661], that she was washing ore on the top of a steephill about a quarter of a mile from Ashover, when a lad who wasworking on the spot missed two-pence out of his pocket, andimmediately 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 andswallow her up, if she had the boy's money. 

"One George Hopkinson, a man of good report in Ashover, happened topass at no great distance at the time. He stood a while to talk tothe woman. There stood also near the tub a little child, who wascalled to by her elder sister to come away. Hopkinson therefore tookthe little girl by the hand to lead her to her that called her. Buthe had not gone ten yards from Dorothy, when he heard her crying outfor help, and turning back, to his great astonishment he saw thewoman, with her tub and her sieve, twirling round and round, andsinking 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 brokeher skull, and the earth fell in and covered her. She was afterwardsdigged up, and found about four yards under ground, and the boy'stwo pennies were discovered on her person, but the tub and the sievehad altogether disappeared. "

WITCHES HANGED BY SIR MATTHEW HALE. 

One of the most remarkable trials that occur in the history ofcriminal jurisprudence, was that of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender atBury St. Edmund's in the year 1664. Not for the circumstances thatoccasioned it; for they were of the coarsest and most vulgarmaterials. The victims were two poor, solitary women of the town ofLowestoft in Suffolk, who had by temper and demeanour renderedthemselves particularly obnoxious to their whole neighbourhood. Whenever they were offended with any one, and this frequentlyhappened, they vented their wrath in curses and ill language, muttered between their teeth, and the sense of which could scarcelybe collected; and ever and anon they proceeded to utter darkpredictions of evil, which should happen in revenge for the illtreatment they received. The fishermen would not sell them fish; andthe boys in the street were taught to fly from them with horror, orto pursue them with hootings and scurrilous abuse. The principalcharges against them were, that the children of two families weremany times seized with fits, in which they exclaimed that they sawAmy Duny and Rose Cullender coming to torment them. They vomited, and in their vomit were often found pins, and once or twice atwo-penny nail. One or two of the children died; for the accusationsspread over a period of eight years, from 1656 to the time of thetrial. To back these allegations, a waggoner appeared, whose waggonhad been twice overturned in one morning, in consequence of the cursesof one of the witches, the waggon having first run against her hovel, and materially injured it. Another time the waggon stuck fast in agate-way, though the posts on neither side came in contact with thewheels; and, one of the posts being cut down, the waggon passed easilyalong. 

This trial, as I have said, was no way memorable for the circumstancesthat occasioned it, but for the importance of the persons who werepresent, and had a share in the conduct of it. The judge who presidedwas sir Matthew Hale, then chief baron of the exchequer, and who hadbefore rendered himself remarkable for his undaunted resistance toone of the arbitrary mandates of Cromwel, then in the height of hispower, which was addressed to Hale in his capacity of judge. Halewas also an eminent author, who had treated upon the abstrusestsubjects, and was equally distinguished for his piety and inflexibleintegrity. Another person, who was present, and accidentally tookpart in the proceedings, was sir Thomas Browne, the superlativelyeloquent and able author of the Religio Medici. (He likewise tooka part on the side of superstition in the trial of the Lancashirewitches 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, andfelt much perplexed by the evidence. Seeing sir Thomas Browne incourt, and knowing him for a man of extensive information and vastpowers of intellect, Hale appealed to him, somewhat extrajudicially, for his thoughts on what had transpired. Sir Thomas gave it as hisopinion that the children were bewitched, and inforced his positionby something that had lately occured in Denmark. Keeling dissentedfrom 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 tosum up the evidence, lest he might unawares put a gloss of his ownupon any thing that had been sworn, but left it all to the jury. Hetold them that the Scriptures left no doubt that there was such athing as witchcraft, and instructed them that all they had to do was, first, to consider whether the children were really bewitched, andsecondly, whether the witchcraft was sufficiently brought home tothe prisoners at the bar. The jury returned a verdict of guilty; andthe two women were hanged on the seventeenth of March 1664, one weekafter their trial. The women shewed very little activity during thetrial, and died protesting their innocence. [225]

This trial is particularly memorable for the circumstances thatattended it. It has none of the rust of ages: no obscurity arisesfrom a long vista of years interposed between. Sir Matthew Hale andsir Thomas Browne are eminent authors; and there is something in suchmen, that in a manner renders them the contemporaries of all times, the living acquaintance of successive ages of the world. Namesgenerally stand on the page of history as mere abstract idealities;but in the case of these men we are familiar with their tempers andprejudices, their virtues and vices, their strength and theirweakness. 

They proceed in the first place upon the assumption that there issuch a thing as witchcraft, and therefore have nothing to do but withthe cogency or weakness of evidence as applied to this particularcase. Now what are the premises on which they proceed in thisquestion? They believe in a God, omniscient, all wise, all powerful, and whose "tender mercies are over all his works. " They believe ina devil, awful almost as God himself, for he has power nearlyunlimited, and a will to work all evil, with subtlety, deep reachof thought, vigilant, "walking about, seeking whom he may devour. "This they believe, for they refer to "the Scriptures, as confirmingbeyond doubt that there is such a thing as witchcraft. " Now whatoffice do they assign to the devil, "the prince of the power of theair, " at whose mighty attributes, combined with his insatiablemalignity, the wisest of us might well stand aghast? It is the firstlaw 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 shoulddemean himself as his beginning promises, and preserve a consistencythat, to a mind sufficiently sagacious, should almost serve us inlieu of the gift of prophecy. And how is this devil employed accordingto sir Matthew Hale and sir Thomas Browne? Why in proffering himselfas the willing tool of the malice of two doting old women. Inafflicting with fits, in causing them to vomit pins and nails, thechildren of the parents who had treated the old women with barbarityand cruelty. In judgment upon these women sit two men, in somerespects the most enlightened of an age that produced Paradise Lost, and in confirmation of this blessed creed two women are executed incool blood, in a country which had just achieved its liberties underthe guidance and the virtues of Hampden. 

What right we have in any case to take away the life of a human beingalready 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 thelives of two human creatures in consequence of the forgery and tricksof a set of malicious children, as in this case undoubtedly it was, is beyond conception deplorable. Let us think for a moment of theinexpressible evils which a man encounters when dragged from hispeaceful home under a capital accusation, of his arraignment in opencourt, of the orderly course of the evidence, and of the sentenceawarded against him, of the "damned minutes and days he counts over"from that time to his execution, of his being finally brought forthbefore a multitude exasperated by his supposed crimes, and his beingcast out from off the earth as unworthy so much as to exist amongmen, and all this being wholly innocent. The consciousness ofinnocence a hundred fold embitters the pang. And, if these poor womenwere too obtuse of soul entirely to feel the pang, did that give theirsuperiors a right to overwhelm and to crush them?

WITCHCRAFT IN SWEDEN. 

The story of witchcraft, as it is reported to have passed in Swedenin the year 1670, and has many times been reprinted in this country, is on several accounts one of the most interesting and deplorablethat has ever been recorded. The scene lies in Dalecarlia, a countryfor ever memorable as having witnessed some of the earliest adventuresof Gustavus Vasa, his deepest humiliation, and the first commencementof his prosperous fortune. The Dalecarlians are represented to usas the simplest, the most faithful, and the bravest of the sons ofmen, men undebauched and unsuspicious, but who devoted themselvesin the most disinterested manner for a cause that appeared to themworthy of support, the cause of liberty and independence against thecruelest of tyrants. At least such they were in 1520, one hundredand fifty years before the date of the story we are going torecount. --The site of these events was at Mohra and Elfdale in theprovince that has just been mentioned. 

The Dalecarlians, simple and ignorant, but of exemplary integrityand honesty, who dwelt amidst impracticable mountains and spaciousmines of copper and iron, were distinguished for superstition amongthe countries of the north, where all were superstitious. They wereprobably subject at intervals to the periodical visitation of alarmsof witches, when whole races of men became wild with the infectionwithout any one's being well able to account for it. 

In the year 1670, and one or two preceding years, there was a greatalarm of witches in the town of Mohra. There were always two or threewitches existing in some of the obscure quarters of this place. Butnow they increased in number, and shewed their faces with the utmostaudacity. Their mode on the present occasion was to make a journeythrough the air to Blockula, an imaginary scene of retirement, whichnone but the witches and their dupes had ever seen. Here they metwith feasts and various entertainments, which it seems had particularcharms for the persons who partook of them. The witches used to gointo a field in the environs of Mohra, and cry aloud to the devilin a peculiar sort of recitation, "Antecessor, come and carry us toBlockula!" Then appeared a multitude of strange beasts, men, spits, posts, and goats with spits run through their entrails and projectingbehind that all might have room. The witches mounted these beastsof burthen or vehicles, and were conveyed through the air over highwalls and mountains, and through churches and chimneys, withoutperceptible impediment, till they arrived at the place of theirdestination. Here the devil feasted them with various compounds andconfections, and, having eaten to their hearts' content, they danced, and then fought. The devil made them ride on spits, from which theywere thrown; and the devil beat them with the spits, and laughed atthem. He then caused them to build a house to protect them againstthe day of judgment, and presently overturned the walls of the house, and derided them again. All sorts of obscenities were reported tofollow upon these scenes. The devil begot on the witches sons anddaughters: this new generation intermarried again, and the issue ofthis further conjunction appears to have been toads and serpents. How all this pedigree proceeded in the two or three years in whichBlockula had ever been heard of, I know not that the witches wereever called on to explain. 

But what was most of all to be deplored, the devil was not contentwith seducing the witches to go and celebrate this infernal sabbath;he further insisted that they should bring the children of Mohra alongwith them. At first he was satisfied, if each witch brought one; butnow he demanded that each witch should bring six or seven for herquota. How the witches managed with the minds of the children we areat a loss to guess. These poor, harmless innocents, steeped to thevery lips in ignorance and superstition, were by some means kept incontinual alarm by the wicked, or, to speak more truly, the insaneold women, and said as their prompters said. It does not appear thatthe children ever left their beds, at the time they reported theyhad been to Blockula. Their parents watched them with fearful anxiety. At a certain time of the night the children were seized with a strangeshuddering, their limbs were agitated, and their skins covered witha profuse perspiration. When they came to themselves, they relatedthat they had been to Blockula, and the strange things they had seen, similar to what had already been described by the women. Three hundredchildren of various ages are said to have been seized with thisepidemic. 

The whole town of Mohra became subject to the infection, and wereovercome with the deepest affliction. They consulted together, anddrew up a petition to the royal council at Stockholm, intreating thatthey would discover some remedy, and that the government wouldinterpose its authority to put an end to a calamity to which otherwisethey could find no limit. The king of Sweden was at that time Charlesthe Eleventh, father of Charles the Twelfth, and was only fourteenyears of age. His council in their wisdom deputed two commissionersto Mohra, and furnished them with powers to examine witnesses, andto take whatever proceedings they might judge necessary to put anend to so unspeakable a calamity. 

They entered on the business of their commission on the thirteenthof August, the ceremony having been begun with two sermons in thegreat church of Mohra, in which we may be sure the damnable sin ofwitchcraft was fully dilated on, and concluding with prayers toAlmighty God that in his mercy he would speedily bring to an end thetremendous misfortune, with which for their sins he had seen fit toafflict the poor people of Mohra. The next day they opened theircommission. Seventy witches were brought before them. They were allat first stedfast in their denial, alleging that the charges werewantonly brought against them, solely from malice and ill will. Butthe judges were earnest in pressing them, till at length first one, and then another; burst into tears, and confessed all. Twenty-threewere prevailed on thus to disburthen their consciences; but nearlythe 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), betweenthe ages of nine and sixteen, were condemned to run the gauntlet, and to be whipped on their hands at the church-door every Sunday fora year together. Twenty others were whipped on their hands for threeSundays. [226]

This is certainly a very deplorable scene, and is made the more soby the previous character which history has impressed on us, of thesimplicity, integrity, and generous love of liberty of theDalecarlians. For the children and their parents we can feel nothingbut unmingled pity. The case of the witches is different. That threehundred children should have been made the victims of this imaginarywitchcraft is doubtless a grievous calamity. And that a number ofwomen should have been found so depraved and so barbarous, as by theirincessant suggestions to have practised on the minds of thesechildren, so as to have robbed them of sober sense, to have frightenedthem into fits and disease, and made them believe the most odiousimpossibilities, argued a most degenerate character, and well meritedsevere reprobation, but not death. Add to which, many of these womenmay be believed innocent, otherwise a great majority of those whowere executed, would not have died protesting their entire freedomfrom what was imputed to them. Some of the parents no doubt, fromfolly and ill judgment, aided the alienation of mind in their childrenwhich they afterwards so deeply deplored, and gratified theirsenseless aversion to the old women, when they were themselves inmany 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 thingto 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 surpassesevery 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 beforethem for ever on one side, and a tyrannical, sour and austere Godon the other, jealous of an arbitrary sovereignty, who hath "mercyon whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. " Thesemen, with long and melancholy faces, with a drawling and sanctifiedtone, and a carriage that would "at once make the most severelydisposed merry, and the most cheerful spectators sad, " constitutednearly the entire population of the province of Massachuset's Bay. 

The prosecutions for witchcraft continued with little intermissionprincipally at Salem, during the greater part of the year 1692. Theaccusations were of the most vulgar and contemptible sort, invisiblepinchings and blows, fits, with the blastings and mortality of cattle, and wains stuck fast in the ground, or losing their wheels. Aconspicuous feature in nearly the whole of these stories was whatthey named the "spectral sight;" in other words, that the profligateaccusers 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 miserableprosecutors gained the power of gratifying the wantonness of theirmalice, by pretending that they suffered by the hand of any one whosename first presented itself, or against whom they bore an ill will. The persons so charged, though unseen by any but the accuser, andwho in their corporal presence were at a distance of miles, and weredoubtless wholly unconscious of the mischief that was hatching againstthem, were immediately taken up, and cast into prison. And what wasmore monstrous and incredible, there stood at the bar the prisoneron trial for his life, while the witnesses were permitted to swearthat his spectre had haunted them, and afflicted them with all mannerof injuries. That the poor prosecuted wretch stood astonished at whatwas alleged against him, was utterly overwhelmed with the charges, and knew not what to answer, was all of it interpreted as so manypresumptions of his guilt. Ignorant as they were, they were unhappyand unskilful in their defence; and, if they spoke of the devil, aswas but natural, it was instantly caught at as a proof how familiarthey were with the fiend that had seduced them to their damnation. 

The first specimen of this sort of accusation in the present instancewas given by one Paris, minister of a church at Salem, in the endof the year 1691, who had two daughters, one nine years old, the othereleven, that were afflicted with fits and convulsions. The firstperson 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 intoa confession of unlawful practices and spells. The girls then fixedon 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, wasone George Burroughs, also a minister of Salem. He had, it seems, buried two wives, both of whom the busy gossips said he had used illin their life-time, and consequently, it was whispered, had murderedthem. This man was accustomed foolishly to vaunt that he knew whatpeople said of him in his absence; and this was brought as a proofthat he dealt with the devil. Two women, who were witnesses againsthim, interrupted their testimony with exclaiming that they saw theghosts of the murdered wives present (who had promised them they wouldcome), though no one else in the court saw them; and this was takenin evidence. Burroughs conducted himself in a very injudicious wayon his trial; but, when he came to be hanged, made so impressive aspeech on the ladder, with fervent protestations of innocence, asmelted many of the spectators into tears. 

The nature of accusations of this sort is ever found to operate likean epidemic. Fits and convulsions are communicated from one subjectto another. The "spectral sight, " as it was called, is obviously atheme for the vanity of ignorance. "Love of fame, " as the poetteaches, is an "universal passion. " Fame is placed indeed on a heightbeyond the hope of ordinary mortals. But in occasional instances itis brought unexpectedly within the reach of persons of the coarsestmould; and many times they will be apt to seize it with proportionableavidity. When too such things are talked of, when the devil andspirits of hell are made familiar conversation, when stories of thissort are among the daily news, and one person and another, who hada little before nothing extraordinary about them, become subjectsof wonder, these topics enter into the thoughts of many, sleepingand waking: "their young men see visions, and their old men dreamdreams. "

In such a town as Salem, the second in point of importance in thecolony, such accusations spread with wonderful rapidity. Many wereseized with fits, exhibited frightful contortions of their limbs andfeatures, and became a fearful spectacle to the bystander. They wereasked to assign the cause of all this; and they supposed, or pretendedto suppose, some neighbour, already solitary and afflicted, and onthat account in ill odour with the townspeople, scowling upon, threatening, and tormenting them. Presently persons, specially giftedwith the "spectral sight, " formed a class by themselves, and weresent about at the public expence from place to place, that they mightsee what no one else could see. The prisons were filled with thepersons accused. The utmost horror was entertained, as of a calamitywhich in such a degree had never visited that part of the world. Ithappened, most unfortunately, that Baxter's Certainty of the Worldof Spirits had been published but the year before, and a number ofcopies had been sent out to New England. There seemed a strangecoincidence and sympathy between vital Christianity in its mosthonourable sense, and the fear of the devil, who appeared to be "comedown unto them, with great wrath. " Mr. Increase Mather, and Mr. CottonMather, his son, two clergymen of highest reputation in theneighbourhood, by the solemnity and awe with which they treated thesubject, and the earnestness and zeal which they displayed, gave asanction to the lowest superstition and virulence of the ignorant. 

All the forms of justice were brought forward on this occasion. Therewas no lack of judges, and grand juries, and petty juries, andexecutioners, and still less of prosecutors and witnesses. The firstperson that was hanged was on the tenth of June, five more on thenineteenth of July, five on the nineteenth of August, and eight onthe twenty-second of September. Multitudes confessed that they werewitches; for this appeared the only way for the accused to save theirlives. Husbands and children fell down on their knees, and imploredtheir wives and mothers to own their guilt. Many were tortured bybeing tied neck and heels together, till they confessed whatever wassuggested to them. It is remarkable however that not one persistedin her confession at the place of execution. 

The most interesting story that occurred in this affair was of GilesCory, and Martha, his wife. The woman was tried on the ninth ofSeptember, and hanged on the twenty-second. In the interval, on thesixteenth, the husband was brought up for trial. He said, he was notguilty; but, being asked how he would be tried? he refused to gothrough the customary form, and say, "By God and my country. " Heobserved that, of all that had been tried, not one had as yet beenpronounced not guilty; and he resolutely refused in that mode toundergo a trial. The judge directed therefore that, according to thebarbarous mode prescribed in the mother-country, he should be laidon his back, and pressed to death with weights gradually accumulatedon the upper surface of his body, a proceeding which had never yetbeen resorted to by the English in North America. The man persistedin 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 theiraccusations to persons of ill repute, or otherwise of no consequencein 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 ofwitchcraft. Immediately the whole fell through in a moment. Theleading inhabitants presently saw how unsafe it would be to trusttheir reputations and their lives to the mercy of these profligateaccusers. Of fifty-six bills of indictment that were offered to thegrand-jury on the third of January, 1693, twenty-six only were foundtrue bills, and thirty thrown out. On the twenty-six bills that werefound, three persons only were pronounced guilty by the petty jury, and these three received their pardon from the government. The prisonswere thrown open; fifty confessed witches, together with two hundredpersons imprisoned on suspicion, were set at liberty, and no moreaccusations were heard of. The "afflicted, " as they were technicallytermed, recovered their health; the "spectral sight" was universallyscouted; and men began to wonder how they could ever have been thevictims of so horrible a delusion. [227]

CONCLUSION. 

The volume of records of supposed necromancy and witchcraft issufficiently copious, without its being in any way necessary to traceit through its latest relics and fragments. Superstition is socongenial to the mind of man, that, even in the early years of theauthor of the present volume, scarcely a village was unfurnished withan 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 achild, that I had an old woman pointed out to me by an ignorantservant-maid, as being unquestionably possessed of the ominous giftof the "evil eye, " and that my impulse was to remove myself as quicklyas might be from the range of her observation. 

But witchcraft, as it appears to me, is by no means so desirable asubject as to make one unwilling to drop it. It has its uses. It isperhaps right that we should be somewhat acquainted with thisrepulsive chapter in the annals of human nature. As the wise man saysin the Bible, "It is good for us to resort to the house of those thatmourn;" for there is a melancholy which is attended with beneficialeffects, and "by the sadness of the countenance the heart is madebetter. " But I feel no propensity to linger in these dreary abodes, and would rather make a speedy exchange for the dwellings ofhealthfulness and a certain hilarity. We will therefore with thereader's permission at length shut the book, and say, "Lo, it isenough. "

There is no time perhaps at which we can more fairly quit the subject, than when the more enlightened governments of Europe have called forthe code of their laws, and have obliterated the statute which annexedthe penalty of death to this imaginary crime. 

So early as the year 1672, Louis XIV promulgated an order of thecouncil of state, forbidding the tribunals from proceeding to judgmentin cases where the accusation was of sorcery only. [228]

In England we paid a much later tribute to the progress ofillumination and knowledge; and it was not till the year 1736 thata statute was passed, repealing the law made in the first year ofJames I, and enacting that no capital prosecution should for thefuture take place for conjuration, sorcery and enchantment, butrestricting the punishment of persons pretending to tell fortunesand discover stolen goods by witchcraft, to that appertaining to amisdemeanour. 

As long as death could by law be awarded against those who werecharged with a commerce with evil spirits, and by their meansinflicting mischief on their species, it is a subject not unworthyof grave argument and true philanthropy, to endeavour to detect thefallacy of such pretences, and expose the incalculable evils and thedreadful tragedies that have grown out of accusations and prosecutionsfor such imaginary crimes. But the effect of perpetuating the sillyand superstitious tales that have survived this mortal blow, isexactly opposite. It only serves to keep alive the lingering follyof imbecile minds, and still to feed with pestiferous clouds thethoughts of the ignorant. Let us rather hail with heart-felt gladnessthe light which has, though late, broken in upon us, and weep overthe calamity of our forefathers, who, in addition to the inevitableills 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. AnastasiusSinaita, 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 ofTheodosius, who actually succeeded, begins with the same letters whichwere 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 bloodgushed out upon them. " I Kings, xviii, 28. 

[146] Otherwise, Deeves. 

[147] D'Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale. 

[148] D'Herbelot, Bibliothèque 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] Naudé, Apologie des Grands Hommes Accusés de Magie. Malmesbury, _ubi supra_. 

[154] Naudé, Apologie des Grands Hommes Accusés de Magie, chap. 19. 

[155] Mornay, Mysterium Iniquitalis, p. 258. Coeffeteau, Reponse àditto, 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] Naudé. 

[167] Godwin, Praesulibus, art. Gronthead. 

[168] Naudé 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] Naudé, 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] Naudé. 

[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 alsoOsborn's Works, Essay I: where the author says, he "gave charge tohis judges, to be circumspect in condemning those, committed byignorant justices for diabolical compacts. Nor had he concluded hisadvice in a narrower circle, as I have heard, than the denial of anysuch operations, but out of reason of state, and to gratify thechurch, which hath in no age thought fit to explode out of the commonpeople's minds an apprehension of witchcraft. " The author adds, thathe "must confess James to have been the promptest man living in hisdexterity to discover an imposture, " and subjoins a remarkable storyin 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'sInvisible World by Sinclair, and Sadducismus Triumphatus byGlanville. 

[227] Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World; Calef, MoreWonders of the Invisible World; Neal, History of New England. 

[228] Menagiana, Tom II, p. 264. Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XIV, Chap. Xxxi.