Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions

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MEMOIRS OF EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS.

BY CHARLES MACKAY.

AUTHOR OF
THE THAMES AND ITS TRIBUTARIES," "THE HOPE OF THE WORLD," ETC.

"Il est bon de connaitre les delires de l'esprit humain.
Chaque peuple a ses folies plus ou moins grossieres."

Millot

VOL. III.

CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME.

BOOK I.

INTRODUCTION

THE ALCHYMISTS; or, Searchers for the Philosopher's Stone
and the Water of Life

PART I. -- History of Alchymy from the earliest periods to the
Fifteenth Century. -- Pretended Antiquity of the Art. -- Geber. --
Alfarabi. -- Avicenna. -- Albertus Magnus. -- Thomas Aquinas. --
Artephius. -- Alain de Lisle. -- Arnold de Villeneuve. -- Pietro
d'Apone. -- Raymond Lulli. -- Roger Bacon. -- Pope John XXII. -- Jean
de Meung.-- Nicholas Flamel. -- George Ripley. -- Basil Valentine. --
Bernard of Treves. -- Trithemius. -- The Marechal de Rays. -- Jacques
Coeur. -- Inferior Adepts.

PART II.--Progress of the Infatuation during the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. -- Augurello. -- Cornelius Agrippa. --
Paracelsus. -- George Agricola. -- Denys Zachaire. -- Dr. Dee and
Edward Kelly. -- The Cosmopolite. -- Sendivogius. -- The Rosicrucians.
-- Michael Mayer. -- Robert Fludd. -- Jacob Bohmen. -- John Heydn. --
Joseph Francis Borri. -- Alchymical Writers of the Seventeenth
Century. -- De Lisle. -- Albert Aluys. -- Count de St. Germains. --
Cagliostro. -- Present State of the Science.

BOOK II.
FORTUNE TELLING

BOOK III.
THE MAGNETISERS

PHILOSOPHICAL DELUSIONS.

Dissatisfaction with his lot seems to be the characteristic of man
in all ages and climates. So far, however, from being an evil, as at
first might be supposed, it has been the great civiliser of our race;
and has tended, more than anything else, to raise us above the
condition of the brutes. But the same discontent which has been the
source of all improvement, has been the parent of no small progeny of
follies and absurdities; to trace these latter is the object of the
present volume. Vast as the subject appears, it is easily reducible
within such limits as will make it comprehensive without being
wearisome, and render its study both instructive and amusing.

Three causes especially have excited our discontent; and, by
impelling us to seek for remedies for the irremediable, have
bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil,
and ignorance of the future -- the doom of man upon this sphere, and
for which he shows his antipathy by his love of life, his longing for
abundance, and his craving curiosity to pierce the secrets of the days
to come. The first has led many to imagine that they might find means
to avoid death, or, failing in this, that they might, nevertheless, so
prolong existence as to reckon it by centuries instead of units. From
this sprang the search, so long continued and still pursued, for the
elixir vitae, or water of life, which has led thousands to pretend to
it and millions to believe in it. From the second sprang the absurd
search for the philosopher's stone, which was to create plenty by
changing all metals into gold; and from the third, the false sciences
of astrology, divination, and their divisions of necromancy,
chiromancy, augury, with all their train of signs, portents, and
omens.

In tracing the career of the erring philosophers, or the wilful
cheats, who have encouraged or preyed upon the credulity of mankind,
it will simplify and elucidate the subject, if we divide it into three
classes: -- the first comprising alchymists, or those in general who
have devoted themselves to the discovering of the philosopher's stone
and the water of life; the second comprising astrologers,
necromancers, sorcerers, geomancers, and all those who pretended to
discover futurity; and the third consisting of the dealers in charms,
amulets, philters, universal-panacea mongers, touchers for the evil,
seventh sons of a seventh son, sympathetic powder compounders,
homeopathists, animal magnetizers, and all the motley tribe of quacks,
empirics, and charlatans.

But, in narrating the career of such men, it will be found that
many of them united several or all of the functions just mentioned;
that the alchymist was a fortune-teller, or a necromancer -- that he
pretended to cure all maladies by touch or charm, and to work miracles
of every kind. In the dark and early ages of European history, this is
more especially the case. Even as we advance to more recent periods,
we shall find great difficulty in separating the characters. The
alchymist seldom confined himself strictly to his pretended
science -- the sorcerer and necromancer to theirs, or the medical
charlatan to his. Beginning with alchymy, some confusion of these
classes is unavoidable; but the ground will clear for us as we
advance.

Let us not, in the pride of our superior knowledge, turn with
contempt from the follies of our predecessors. The study of the errors
into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never
be uninstructive. As the man looks back to the days of his childhood
and his youth, and recalls to his mind the strange notions and false
opinions that swayed his actions at that time, that he may wonder at
them, so should society, for its edification, look back to the
opinions which governed the ages fled. He is but a superficial thinker
who would despise and refuse to hear of them merely because they are
absurd. No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his
past errors, either of thought or action, and no society has made such
advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its
past folly and credulity. And not only is such a study instructive: he
who reads for amusement only, will find no chapter in the annals of
the human mind more amusing than this. It opens out the whole realm of
fiction -- the wild, the fantastic, and the wonderful, and all the
immense variety of things "that are not, and cannot be; but that have
been imagined and believed."

BOOK I.

THE ALCHYMISTS; OR, SEARCHERS FOR THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE AND THE
WATER OF LIFE.

"Mercury (loquitur). -- The mischief a secret any of them know,
above the consuming of coals and drawing of usquebaugh! Howsoever they
may pretend, under the specious names of Geber, Arnold, Lulli, or
bombast of Hohenheim, to commit miracles in art, and treason against
nature! As if the title of philosopher, that creature of glory, were
to be fetched out of a furnace! I am their crude, and their sublimate,
their precipitate, and their unctions; their male and their female,
sometimes their hermaphrodite -- what they list to style me! They will
calcine you a grave matron, as it might be a mother of the maids, and
spring up a young virgin out of her ashes, as fresh as a phoenix; lay
you an old courtier on the coals, like a sausage or a bloat-herring,
and, after they have broiled him enough, blow a soul into him, with a
pair of bellows! See! they begin to muster again, and draw their
forces out against me! The genius of the place defend me!" -- Ben
Jonson's Masque "Mercury vindicated from the Alchymists."

THE ALCHYMISTS.

PART I.

HISTORY OF ALCHYMY FROM THE EARLIEST PERIODS TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

PRETENDED ANTIQUITY OF THE ART. -- GEBER. -- ALFARABI. -- AVICENNA. --
ALBERTUS MAGNUS. -- THOMAS AQUINAS. -- ARTEPHIUS. -- ALAIN DE LISLE.
-- ARNOLD DE VILLENEUVE. -- PIETRO D'APONE. -- RAYMOND LULLI. -- ROGER
BACON. -- POPE JOHN XXII. -- JEAN DE MEUNG. -- NICHOLAS FLAMEL. --
GEORGE RIPLEY. -- BASIL VALENTINE. -- BERNARD OF TREVES. --
TRITHEMIUS. -- THE MARECHAL DE RAYS. -- JACQUES COEUR. -- INFERIOR
ADEPTS.

For more than a thousand years the art of alchymy captivated many
noble spirits, and was believed in by millions. Its origin is involved
in obscurity. Some of its devotees have claimed for it an antiquity
coeval with the creation of man himself; others, again, would trace it
no further back than the time of Noah. Vincent de Beauvais argues,
indeed, that all the antediluvians must have possessed a knowledge of
alchymy; and particularly cites Noah as having been acquainted with
the elixir vitae, or he could not have lived to so prodigious an age,
and have begotten children when upwards of five hundred. Lenglet du
Fresnoy, in his "History of the Hermetic Philosophy," says, "Most of
them pretended that Shem, or Chem, the son of Noah, was an adept in
the art, and thought it highly probable that the words chemistry and
alchymy were both derived from his name." Others say, the art was
derived from the Egyptians, amongst whom it was first founded by
Hermes Trismegistus. Moses, who is looked upon as a first-rate
alchymist, gained his knowledge in Egypt; but he kept it all to
himself, and would not instruct the children of Israel in its
mysteries. All the writers upon alchymy triumphantly cite the story of
the golden calf, in the 32nd chapter of Exodus, to prove that this
great lawgiver was an adept, and could make or unmake gold at his
pleasure. It is recorded, that Moses was so wroth with the Israelites
for their idolatry, "that he took the calf which they had made, and
burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon
the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it." This, say the
alchymists, he never could have done, had he not been in possession of
the philosopher's stone; by no other means could he have made the
powder of gold float upon the water. But we must leave this knotty
point for the consideration of the adepts in the art, if any such
there be, and come to more modern periods of its history. The Jesuit,
Father Martini, in his "Historia Sinica," says, it was practised by
the Chinese two thousand five hundred years before the birth of
Christ; but his assertion, being unsupported, is worth nothing. It
would appear, however, that pretenders to the art of making gold and
silver existed in Rome in the first centuries after the Christian era,
and that, when discovered, they were liable to punishment as knaves
and impostors. At Constantinople, in the fourth century, the
transmutation of metals was very generally believed in, and many of
the Greek ecclesiastics wrote treatises upon the subject. Their names
are preserved, and some notice of their works given, in the third
volume of Lenglet du Fresnoy's "History of the Hermetic Philosophy."
Their notion appears to have been, that all metals were composed of
two substances; the one, metallic earth; and the other, a red
inflammable matter, which they called sulphur. The pure union of these
substances formed gold; but other metals were mixed with and
contaminated by various foreign ingredients. The object of the
philosopher's stone was to dissolve or neutralize all these
ingredients, by which iron, lead, copper, and all metals would be
transmuted into the original gold. Many learned and clever men wasted
their time, their health, and their energies, in this vain pursuit;
but for several centuries it took no great hold upon the imagination
of the people. The history of the delusion appears, in a manner, lost
from this time till the eighth century, when it appeared amongst the
Arabians. From this period it becomes easier to trace its progress. A
master then appeared, who was long looked upon as the father of the
science, and whose name is indissolubly connected with it.

GEBER.

Of this philosopher, who devoted his life to the study of alchymy,
but few particulars are known. He is thought to have lived in the year
730. His true name was Abou Moussah Djafar, to which was added Al
Soft, or "The Wise," and he was born at Hauran, in Mesopotamia.
["Biographie Universelle."] Some have thought he was a Greek, others a
Spaniard, and others, a prince of Hindostan: but, of all the mistakes
which have been made respecting him, the most ludicrous was that made
by the French translator of Sprenger's "History of Medicine," who
thought, from the sound of his name, that he was a German, and
rendered it as the "Donnateur," or Giver. No details of his life are
known; but it is asserted, that he wrote more than five hundred works
upon the philosopher's stone and the water of life. He was a great
enthusiast in his art, and compared the incredulous to little children
shut up in a narrow room, without windows or aperture, who, because
they saw nothing beyond, denied the existence of the great globe
itself. He thought that a preparation of gold would cure all maladies,
not only in man, but in the inferior animals and plants. He also
imagined that all the metals laboured under disease, with the
exception of gold, which was the only one in perfect health. He
affirmed, that the secret of the philosopher's stone had been more
than once discovered; but that the ancient and wise men who had hit
upon it, would never, by word or writing, communicate it to men,
because of their unworthiness and incredulity. [His "sum of
perfection," or instructions to students to aid them in the laborious
search for the stone and elixir, has been translated into most of the
languages of Europe. An English translation, by a great enthusiast in
alchymy, one Richard Russell, was published in London in 1686. The
preface is dated eight years previously, from the house of the
alchymist, "at the Star, in Newmarket, in Wapping, near the Dock." His
design in undertaking the translation was, as he informs us, to expose
the false pretences of the many ignorant pretenders to the science who
abounded in his day.] But the life of Geber, though spent in the
pursuit of this vain chimera, was not altogether useless. He stumbled
upon discoveries which he did not seek, and science is indebted to him
for the first mention of corrosive sublimate, the red oxide of
mercury, nitric acid, and the nitrate of silver. [Article, Geber,
"Biographie Universelle."]

For more than two hundred years after the death of Geber, the
Arabian philosophers devoted themselves to the study of alchymy,
joining with it that of astrology. Of these the most celebrated was

ALFARABI.

Alfarabi flourished at the commencement of the tenth century, and
enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most learned men of his
age. He spent his life in travelling from country to country, that
he might gather the opinions of philosophers upon the great secrets of
nature. No danger dismayed him; no toil wearied him of the pursuit.
Many sovereigns endeavoured to retain him at their courts; but he
refused to rest until he had discovered the great object of his
life -- the art of preserving it for centuries, and of making gold as
much as he needed. This wandering mode of life at last proved fatal to
him. He had been on a visit to Mecca, not so much for religious as for
philosophical purposes, when, returning through Syria, he stopped at
the court of the Sultan Seifeddoulet, who was renowned as the patron
of learning. He presented himself in his travelling attire, in the
presence of that monarch and his courtiers; and, without invitation,
coolly sat himself down upon the sofa, beside the Prince. The
courtiers and wise men were indignant; and the Sultan, who did not
know the intruder, was at first inclined to follow their example. He
turned to one of his officers, and ordered him to eject the
presumptuous stranger from the room; but Alfarabi, without moving,
dared them to lay hands upon him; and, turning himself calmly to the
prince, remarked, that he did not know who was his guest, or he would
treat him with honour, not with violence. The Sultan, instead of being
still further incensed, as many potentates would have been, admired
his coolness; and, requesting him to sit still closer to him on the
sofa, entered into a long conversation with him upon science and
divine philosophy. All the court were charmed with the stranger.
Questions for discussion were propounded, on all of which he showed
superior knowledge. He convinced every one that ventured to dispute
with him; and spoke so eloquently upon the science of alchymy, that he
was at once recognised as only second to the great Geber himself. One
of the doctors present inquired whether a man who knew so many
sciences was acquainted with music? Alfarabi made no reply, but merely
requested that a lute should be brought him. The lute was brought; and
he played such ravishing and tender melodies, that all the court were
melted into tears. He then changed his theme, and played airs so
sprightly, that he set the grave philosophers, Sultan and all, dancing
as fast as their legs could carry them. He then sobered them again by
a mournful strain, and made them sob and sigh as if broken-hearted.
The Sultan, highly delighted with his powers, entreated him to stay,
offering him every inducement that wealth, power, and dignity could
supply; but the alchymist resolutely refused, it being decreed, he
said, that he should never repose till he had discovered the
philosopher's stone. He set out accordingly the same evening, and was
murdered by some thieves in the deserts of Syria. His biographers give
no further particulars of his life beyond mentioning, that he wrote
several valuable treatises on his art, all of which, however, have
been lost. His death happened in the year 954.

AVICENNA.

Avicenna, whose real name was Ebn Cinna, another great alchymist,
was born at Bokhara, in 980. His reputation as a physician and a man
skilled in all sciences was so great, that the Sultan Magdal Douleth
resolved to try his powers in the great science of government. He was
accordingly made Grand Vizier of that Prince, and ruled the state with
some advantage: but, in a science still more difficult, he failed
completely. He could not rule his own passions, but gave himself up to
wine and women, and led a life of shameless debauchery. Amid the
multifarious pursuits of business and pleasure, he nevertheless found
time to write seven treatises upon the philosopher's stone, which
were for many ages looked upon as of great value by pretenders to the
art. It is rare that an eminent physician, as Avicenna appears to have
been, abandons himself to sensual gratification; but so completely did
he become enthralled in the course of a few years, that he was
dismissed from his high office, and died shortly afterwards, of
premature old age and a complication of maladies, brought on by
debauchery. His death took place in the year 1036. After his time, few
philosophers of any note in Arabia are heard of as devoting themselves
to the study of alchymy; but it began shortly afterwards to attract
greater attention in Europe. Learned men in France, England, Spain,
and Italy expressed their belief in the science, and many devoted
their whole energies to it. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
especially, it was extensively pursued, and some of the brightest
names of that age are connected with it. Among the most eminent of
them are

ALBERTUS MAGNUS and THOMAS AQUINA.

The first of these philosophers was born in the year 1193, of a
noble family at Lawingen, in the duchy of Neuburg, on the Danube. For
the first thirty years of his life, he appeared remarkably dull and
stupid, and it was feared by every one that no good could come of him.
He entered a Dominican monastery at an early age; but made so little
progress in his studies, that he was more than once upon the point of
abandoning them in despair; but he was endowed with extraordinary
perseverance. As he advanced to middle age, his mind expanded, and he
learned whatever he applied himself to with extreme facility. So
remarkable a change was not, in that age, to be accounted for but by a
miracle. It was asserted and believed that the Holy Virgin, touched
with his great desire to become learned and famous, took pity upon his
incapacity, and appeared to him in the cloister where he sat, almost
despairing, and asked him whether he wished to excel in philosophy or
divinity. He chose philosophy, to the chagrin of the Virgin, who
reproached him in mild and sorrowful accents that he had not made a
better choice. She, however, granted his request that he should become
the most excellent philosopher of the age; but set this drawback to
his pleasure, that he should relapse, when at the height of his fame,
into his former incapacity and stupidity. Albertus never took the
trouble to contradict the story, but prosecuted his studies with such
unremitting zeal that his reputation speedily spread over all Europe.
In the year 1244, the celebrated Thomas Aquinas placed himself under
his tuition. Many extraordinary stories are told of the master and his
pupil. While they paid all due attention to other branches of science,
they never neglected the pursuit of the philosopher's stone and the
elixir vitae. Although they discovered neither, it was believed that
Albert had seized some portion of the secret of life, and found means
to animate a brazen statue, upon the formation of which, under proper
conjunctions of the planets, he had been occupied many years of his
life. He and Thomas Aquinas completed it together, endowed it with the
faculty of speech, and made it perform the functions of a domestic
servant. In this capacity it was exceedingly useful; but, through some
defect in the machinery, it chattered much more than was agreeable to
either philosopher. Various remedies were tried to cure it of its
garrulity, but in vain; and one day Thomas Aquinas was so enraged at
the noise it made, when he was in the midst of a mathematical
problem, that he seized a ponderous hammer and smashed it to pieces.
[Naude, "Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses de Magie ;" chap. xviii.]
He was sorry afterwards for what he had done, and was reproved by his
master for giving way to his anger, so unbecoming in a philosopher.
They made no attempt to re-animate the statue.

Such stories as these show the spirit of the age. Every great man
who attempted to study the secrets of nature was thought a magician;
and it is not to be wondered at that, when philosophers themselves
pretended to discover an elixir for conferring immortality, or a red
stone which was to create boundless wealth, that popular opinion
should have enhanced upon their pretensions, and have endowed them
with powers still more miraculous. It was believed of Albertus Magnus
that he could even change the course of the seasons; a feat which the
many thought less difficult than the discovery of the grand elixir.
Albertus was desirous of obtaining a piece of ground on which to build
a monastery, in the neighbourhood of Cologne. The ground belonged to
William, Count of Holland and King of the Romans, who, for some reason
or other, did not wish to part with it. Albertus is reported to have
gained it by the following extraordinary method: -- He invited the
Prince, as he was passing through Cologne, to a magnificent
entertainment prepared for him and all his court. The Prince accepted
it, and repaired with a lordly retinue to the residence of the sage.
It was in the midst of winter; the Rhine was frozen over, and the cold
was so bitter that the knights could not sit on horseback without
running the risk of losing their toes by the frost. Great, therefore,
was their surprise, on arriving at Albert's house, to find that the
repast was spread in his garden, in which the snow had drifted to the
depth of several feet. The Earl, in high dudgeon, remounted his steed;
but Albert at last prevailed upon him to take his seat at the table.
He had no sooner done so, than the dark clouds rolled away from the
sky -- a warm sun shone forth -- the cold north wind veered suddenly
round, and blew a mild breeze from the south -- the snows melted away
-- the ice was unbound upon the streams, and the trees put forth their
green leaves and their fruit -- flowers sprang up beneath their feet,
while larks, nightingales, blackbirds, cuckoos, thrushes, and every
sweet song-bird, sang hymns from every tree. The Earl and his
attendants wondered greatly; but they ate their dinner, and in
recompence for it, Albert got his piece of ground to build a convent
on. He had not, however, shown them all his power. Immediately that
the repast was over, he gave the word, and dark clouds obscured the
sun -- the snow fell in large flakes -- the singing-birds fell dead --
the leaves dropped from the trees, and the winds blew so cold, and
howled so mournfully, that the guests wrapped themselves up in their
thick cloaks, and retreated into the house to warm themselves at the
blazing fire in Albert's kitchen. [Lenglet, "Histoire de la
Philosophie Hermetique." See also, Godwin's "Lives of the
Necromancers."]

Thomas Aquinas also could work wonders as well as his master. It
is related of him, that he lodged in a street at Cologne, where he was
much annoyed by the incessant clatter made by the horses' hoofs, as
they were led through it daily to exercise by their grooms. He had
entreated the latter to select some other spot where they might not
disturb a philosopher, but the grooms turned a deaf ear to all his
solicitations. In this emergency he had recourse to the aid of magic.
He constructed a small horse of bronze, upon which he inscribed
certain cabalistic characters, and buried it at midnight in the midst
of the highway. The next morning, a troop of grooms came riding along
as usual; but the horses, as they arrived at the spot where the magic
horse was buried, reared and plunged violently -- their nostrils
distended with terror -- their manes grew erect, and the perspiration
ran down their sides in streams. In vain the riders applied the spur
-- in vain they coaxed or threatened, the animals would not pass the
spot. On the following day, their success was no better. They were at
length compelled to seek another spot for their exercise, and Thomas
Aquinas was left in peace. [Naude, "Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses
de Magie;" chap. xvii.]

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