Anthony Todd Thomson

643 Pages·2012·59.48 MB·English

T H E 0 C C U L TI S C I E N C E S.
I
THE
PHILOSOPHY OF MAGIC,
::::t_ PRODIGIES, AND APPARENT MIRACLES.
FRO~I THE FRESCH OF
.
EUSEBE SALVERTE .
'
WITH NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE, EXPLANATORY,
AND CRITICAL
1
BY ANTHONY TODD THOMSON, M.D., F.L.S., &c.
"Non igitur oportet nos magir.is illusionibus uti, cum potestas philoso
pbica doceat operari quod ~;ufficit."-RoG. BACON, De seer. Oper . .Art. tt
Nat., c. v.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
V 0 L. I.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
82 CLIFF STREET.
18 4 7.
X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SALVERTE.
of political passions would fall upon many
of our military leaders; he guessed that these
sanguinary acts would be excited, or at least
encouraged, by the allied generals ; he fore·
saw that jn the South those odious dragonnades
would be renewed which history has ranked
among the darkest stains in the reign of Louis
XIV. He felt his heart oppressed by the pros
pect of so direful a future. He resolved, above
all, to avoid the humiliating spectacle of the mil- t,
itary occupation of France, and he therefore
set out for Geneva. Madame Salv erte, so emA (,/
lnently distinguished, so capable of understand
ing and of entering into his noble feelings
whose fate it had been to be united to two men,*
·who in different modes have done equal honor
to France-accompanied her husband in this
voluntary exile, which lasted for five years.
The public and political life of Salverte only
commenced, properly speaking, in 1828. In
that year one of the electoral districts, compos
ed of the third and fifth municipal districts of
Paris, confided to our friend the honor of reH
~senting it in the Chamber of Deputies. Wit~
a few weeks' interruption, he ever afterward
;t
retained this honor and during the eleven
* M. de Fleurieu, who was successively lJ!inistre d~ la ftfa.
rine, Senateur, and Governor of the Tuileries-and M. E. Sal
verte.
t In 1839, nt the time of the general election, M. E Sah·erte
100 EXTRAORDIN.\.ltY 8TORU:::::i CREDIBLE.
In the en\-il"ons of Padua, in 1819, the polenta
prepared with the flour of maize appeared coYcrcd
with 11umerous little red spots, which were soon
considered~ iu the eyes of the supcr::;titious, as drops
of blood. The phenomenon appeared many suc
cessiYe days, although pious terror sought, by fast:-.,
prayers, masses, an~l even exmcisms, to bring it to
a termination. Those feelings, excited to an al
most dangerous degree, were at length calmed by
a naturalist,* who proved that the red spots were
but the results of a mold, until then uuobserved.t
in the Arctic region, and the specimen of the substance which
that officer brought home, excited in no ordinary degree the atten
tion of the naturalists, uotanists, aud chemists of Eul'OJlC, and
many theories were torm<.'d to e:xplam its uature. The most sat
isfactory opinion was !!'i,·cn by Professor Agardh, in a memoir
published in the twelfth volume of the 1\'Qca Acta .:.Yatum: Curi
o.~ortnu, p. 737. The professor first notices a. shower resembling
snlphur that feU near Lund. and which was found to be the farina.
of the fir; and two showers of apparent blood; more especially
one whirh fell at Shoncu iu 1711, occasioned by insects, but which
the Bishop of Swedbcr~ pronounced to be n miraculous interveu·
t1on of the Dtvinit•off, and uot a natural evcut. He then mentious
most of the parts Europe where red :mow liaS beeu obsen·etl,
and also the opinious of botanists respcctiu~ it; especially that
of Baron \Yrangel, thnt it was a specie!' of lichen, whkh he
termed Lepraria kermcsina ; but Dr. ~\.gardh regarded it to bt!
one of the a[g([', aud uamcd it Protococcus 11iralis, or kermesinus.
He exnmiued it und cr the microscope, awl found that it consi ste•l
of minute, blood-reel, O{Hl•luc particles, perfectly round nud ses·
sile ; they were both aggreg-ated, forming little clusters, an•l sol·
itnry. He considers that tltere is a gt·eat nllinity between it ruul
the iufusory animals, bciu:~s which seem to be the link between
the auitnnl and the Vt"'!!'Ctable kin~dom, auu which pass into cnch
other. aud for the existence of which the n~ency of li~ht and
IJcat is essential. The protococcus has never been seen· except
ou whit~ bodit's. It has been asserted by naturalists that it is
precipitated from the atmosphere; but thi's opinion has not bee11
made. <?Ut: Agardh su.pp~scs that t!le meltiug of tbe snow, nn•l
the VlVtfymg power of lts hght, contnbnte to the production of this
plant; but. I may. remark, that .although these powers may call
the plant mto. e~usteucc when 1ts spawn or germs are present,
yet we are shlltn the dark as to wheuce it i~ deri\-ed. Au ex·
cellcnt fi~ure an1l account of the plant is contained in Dr. Grc·
Yille·s Scollisk Cr!Jplo!!amic Flora, vol. iv., p. ~31.-En.
11 Rente Encyclopfdiqur, p. 141, U.3.
t Blood spots, as these were tenneu, were first observed duling
EXTIL\ORDJN c\RY STORIES CREDIBLE. 101
'.Fhe grain of the bearded darnel (Lo1ium temu
lentum ), mixed with wheat, gives a reddish tinge
to bread baked on the ashes; aucl if this food be
eaten, it occasions violent giddiness. Thus, in all
the examples quoted, the natural effect being sat
isfactorily made out, the marvelous disappears, and
with it falls thL accusation of imposture or ridicu
lous credulity with \Yhich ancient authors are so
fi·equently accused.
On the surface of the hot mineral springs of Ba
den, in Germany, and on the waters of Ischia, an
island in the kingdom of Naples, the zoogene is
gathered, a singular substance, resembling human
flesh and skin: and \vhich, nfter undergoing the
process of distillation, produces the same results
as animal matter. ~I. G imbernat* has seen rocks
Le
covered with tl1is substance ncar the Castle of
pomena, and in tlae valleys of Sinigaglia and N e-
the great general plague in the sixth centnry, and again during
the plague of the .rears 786 and 959. ··1'he saJUe spots, also, in
the years 1500 to 1503 threw the faithful into 15"reat consternation,
1
because, as <1n the former occasions, they fancied they recognized
in them the form of the cross.'' Crusius, a writer of that period,
even gives the names of many on whose clothes crosses were vis
ible. In the vicinity of Biberach, on the Rhine, a miller's lad, who
ventured to make rude sport of those supposed markings of the
cross, was seized and burned.* These spots, on the last-mention
ed occasion, spread through Genna11y aud France. They were
principnlly red, but they varied in color. They appeared on the
roofs of houses, on clothes (whence the name Leprn t·est u u m ),
on the veils and neckerchiefs of women, on household utensils,
nnd even on meat in larders. George Agricola, a naturalist who
lived at the time, reco!?llized them as lichens, and regarded their
appearance as au indiC'ation of extensive disease. t At so late a
period as 1819, a red coloring roolrl appeared on vegetable and
animal substances in the province of Padua, which excited super
stitions apprehensions among the pcople.t-En
'* Journal de Pharmacie, 1821, p. 196 .
.; Hecker's Epidtmics of the Middle Ages, trans. 1844, p. 205.
t A~r1cola, De P~ste, 1!"154, lio. i., p. 45.
t Y lliCcnzo St-ttc. ~ull' Arrosimento Slraordinario, &c., quoted by lleck
c>r, loc. 'it., p. 206, note.
102 EXTRAORDI:\.AltY ST0Rlf.:5 CRIWrBLl:'.
gropont.• This nffords an explanation of those
showers of human flcRh which l1chl a place among
the crowtl of the procligie:-> of antiquity, and wl1ich
excited nn excusable (lrcad in tl10sc who beheld in
them an announcement of the decrees of fate, or
threatcninrrs of the Divinitv, and who would im-
putc to div~i ne intcrnmtion •e Yery rare anu_l oppor~
tune event.t
In 1572, some time after the massacre of St.
Bartholomew, a l1awthorn blossomed in the Cime~
;f
tiere des lnnoceuts fanaticism saw in this pre~
tended prodigy a convincing proof of the approba
tion of Heaven of tho destruction of the ProteRtants.
\Vhcn the soldiers of Alexander were digging
wells in the viciuity of the Oxus, they remarked
that a spring flo\ved in the tent of the kiug; as they
had not at first pcrcch·cd the water, they pretended
it had a1iscn suddenly, and was a gift of the gods;
and Alexander was willing they should belieYe it
to be a miracle.~
The same wonders have been displayed in very
different times and placeg. In 172 t, the Chinese
troops, pursuing in :\1ongolia an army of rebels, suf~
fered severely from thirst. They discovered a
spring ncar the camp, ond cried out that it had is~
sued miraculously from the ground. This favor
was attributed to tlJC spirit of the Blue Rea,[[ which
lay in the Yicinity of the gpot \vhcre the mirac1c
. • It is n~ost prob.ably nn.lur.mntncoccn~. one oft!ac zoocarps, pecu·
har or~nmzccl bo1ht!s vnrwusly dassed b~· botrnu!>tS and zoologists
as mumnls or plants, owin~ to the difticulty of determiuin!! to
or
which divisiou the Or!!:lllic ldngdom ofuaturc they belong. . ....:En.
t Thci'C can be no doni.JL that everv e,•eut ill thf' system of nn·
ture is nuder tbe dircrtiou of' the Deity; but this does not set
asid~ the a~ency of seco.IHI:try causes, '\.vhicl_l are contiuuall>· op·
eratmg, n111l ~y whose mflucucc we explnm hoth the ordmary
phenmncun. of uature, and rare ami oppurtunc cnmts.-Eo.
t
'fhuau, Hi.~f., lib. Iii.,§ 10. § Q. Curt., lib. vii. chnp. 10.
II Timkowsk.i, T-o1mgr. ci I'l'kin, tome ii. . p. 277. '
EXTRAORDINARY STORIES CREDIBLE. 103
was observed, and the emperor on1Pre<l a monu··
ment to he raised to record the t',·cnt.
The Emperor Isaac Comnenu:::, being overtaken
by a violent storm, took shelter under a beech-tree.
The noise of the thunder alarmed him; he there
fore changed his place, and immedinr ely afterwm·d
the beech was uprooted by the violence of the
wind. The preservation of the emperor's life
passed for a miracle, owing to the intercession of
St. Thecla,* whose Jay is even now obscryeu by
the Christians, and to lVhom baac Comncnus ded
icated a church.t
The rain which so opportunely succored 1\Iar
cus Aurelius in the war again~t the ::\Iarcomans
was attributed hy the Christians to the effir.acy of
their prayers; by l\Iarcu~ Aurelius to the favor of
Jupiter; by some polythci::)ts to an Egyptian magi
cian; and by others tu the a!"trologer .Tnlianus; but
all concurred in regarding it as a cdcstia1 prodigy.
\Vhen Thrasvbulns came, at the henJ of the ex
to
iled .Atbeninns, dt>liver his country from the yoke
of the thirty tyrantR,t o. fiery meteor illumined his
path : it was regarded as n. divine fire, sent by the
gods to guide him iu the darkn~t'S of the night, and
to conduct him hv roads unkno,vn to his enemies.
Th~ falling or" aerolites has so frequently hap
pened, that it may concur "·1th the moment of a
combat; and such a coincidence pr~bab1y gaYe rise
to the fiction that Jupiter rained stones on the en
emies ofllercules.§ \\.,.ere we to credit the Arabs,
a similar shower crushed, at the foot of the walls of
- St. •rhecla was a nati,·c of Isauria. She 'vas wPll euucnted,
and is renowned for her elo•tnence, which she is l'lnid to have re
ceived from Rt. Pan!, Ly whom l'lhe was converted from pagan·
ism. an• I on whom she atte111led iu l'leveral of his apost.o1ical jour
:levs.-Bntlu's Lit·c.~ nf SointG, &c., p. -t!J<:~.-gi>.
f Anna Coumcna, ilist. rlt: l' 1: mpt·rc/1 r Ale.ns Comncnr, liv.
iii., chap. G. t Oleownt. .Alex., Stromal .. li1. i.
§ This faille may also be explained by supposing it a. specim(\n
104 EXTUAORUI~.\HY ='ToniE:; CR[DIBLE.
1\lecca, the Ethi(•pians, who were the profane be
siegers of the sacrc<.l city.* It is also relat<'d that
Basil, chief of the Bl)•romiles, returning- in the eYcn
ing from the palace.:> of the empemrt to his cel1,
was assaile<l by a shower of stones, not any of which
were throwu by a lnunan han<l, and that the phe
nomenon was accompanied by a violeut earthquake.
The enemies of Ba:sil deemed this phcuomenon a
supernatural punishment upon the heretical monk.
The inhabitants of Nantes, at the time when tlwir
country was maler subjection to the arms of .T ulius
Cresar, took refuge in the marshes, wl1ich form at
some distance the ri,·er of Bo1ogne. Their asy
lum enlargeti, and became a tow11, known under
the name of Herbatilicum. In 53•1, the soil on
which it was built, having been undermined by
water, sank into a lake, which swa1lowecl up the
town ; one part of it, situated on high groun<l, alone
remained, and is at this day the villagt; of Her
bauge. Hagiographers promulgated as a miracle
this disaster, which is so naturally explained ; and
we are told that ~t. 1\Iartin, w·ho was sent by ~t.
Felix, bishop of Nantes, to convert the inhabitants
of Herbatilicum, fimling them immovable in the
faith of their fathers, and in consequeucc of the re
ception he met with, departed in despair; the town
immecliate1y was ingulted, and a luke usurped its
place, presenting an cntluring monument of the
chasti::;ement inflicted on unbelief.t
T
of the figurati\·e !'tyle. Tlu: T!eb~les which c-over the plain wl1crc
the battle was fou~ht would tnrmsh aLundaut amumuition to the
\~arriors armed \~·ith Hl.iu:;s. who, under the nuspict·~ of their un
ttonal g-od, the Tn-yntl11nu Hercules, invaded the south of Uaul,
nnd fou!!ht the natives.
"' BruJce, Trm;cls to Dtscot·er tlte Source (I~ IJa• ,~.\'ifc vol. ii. p.
4.4J6 , :4. .4 7. 'J I I
r}na. Comncua, IJ~toire de l'Empcreur Alc.ris Comrdm•,
h . X:..· .• Cii~·~· !),
~ .1ctcs 'ilc St 1[ar'i", tfbbr d" rrrtnu, in the• Pn·•tn·,· del' l/is·
EXTRAORDir'\.\.RY STORIES CREDIBLE. 105
In the Bay of Douarnancz similar marine ruins
may be obsen·ed. These, says ancient tradition,
arc the remains of the tmvn of Is, which \:vas swal
lowed up by the sea in the commencement of the
fifth century. Gralon, king of the country, alone
saved himself; and the impression made on the
rock by the hoof of the horse that carried him away
is still pointed out.* Inundation is a local phe
nomenon, which can not be a matter of surprise ;
other ruins on the same coast attest the t·avages of
Nature; but it has ever been, in all ages, the in
clination of man to take advantage of natural dis
asters, and to announce them as preternatural events
intended for the benefit of mortality.
The ignorance of the fact that certain phenomena
are peculiar to certain localities, has caused some
events to be either revered as supernatural inter
positions, or rejected as impossibilities. Among
such are pretended showers of nutritive substances.
'Ve are told that, in 182·1 and in 1828, a shower of
this kind fell in a district of I>ersia, and so abund
ant was the rain that, in some places, it lay five or
six inches deep on the ground. The supposed fallen
substance, however, was a well-known species of
lichen, which the cattle and the sheep eat up with
great avidity, and which was also converted into
very eatable bread.t How many natural occur
rences have thus passed for miracles.
If the mu1titucle have often regarded as prodigies
some loca1 phenomena, tlJe periodical rettu11 of
which they did not reckon upon, ignorance, also, or
forgetfulness, has often obscured the knowledge of
the natural facts, even to the priests themselves,
toire de Brctaqne rli! Dom. 11lorice, tome i., p. 196. See, also, La
Vic de St. .lt lartin, Oct. 24; and Ln rie tl(• St. Filbert, Ao;,•·ust 20.
* Cambray, l'oyage dans le D£fp,trlement de Fi~ti~li:rc, tome
ii p ''"'l-'l'>4
.,t .~;;nc;~ad l'Ar:adfmie des 8eie~tcc<:, Aug. 4. 1826.
106 EXTRAuRDINARY STORIE;; CREDIRLE.
who proclaimed them as prodigies. The following
example affords a proof of this remark. The Elc
ans worshiped Jupiter Apomyios (the fly-catcher),
and, at the commencement of the Olympic games,
a sacrifice to the goJ was performed fm· the banish
ment of a11 the flies. Hercules, in the place where
a temple was afterward raised to him, invoked the
god l\lyagrus* (also a fly-catcher), on which ac
count, the story adds, the flies were ne.-er after
seen in that temple.t But, independent of the use
of secret means, such as certain fumigations, which
drive away flies, the disappearance of these insects
was only a natural consequence of the profound ob
scurity which always reigned in heathen sanctuaries.
In order to discover whether the prodigy bestowed
the surname on the god, or whether the surname
of the god was the origin of the pretended prodigy,
let us examine ·where the worship of the fly-catch
ing god commenced.
In Syria and in Phrenicia the gou BelzPbnth, or
of
Baalzebud,t the god, or lord tlw flies, was wor
shiped; and, at the approach of Pluto, or Her
cules, the Serpent, the constellation which rises in
October, all the flies disappeared. But such a co
incidence could ouly occur, and be consecrated by
religion, in a country where the presence of the
flies amounts almost to a plague, and where the
revolution of the seasons regulates their periodical
return.
'4f :Myagrus, or :\Iyodes, was an Eevptian demcia-pu.o d.-ED.
t. Soliuus, cap. i. Plin., Hist. Nal., lib. x., 28; and lib.
XXIX., cap. 6.
f The name of Baal zcbud may he traced in that of Bal-zub
under which. the ancient I1ish worshiped the sun as the God of
Death; that 1s, the .sun of the iufe!ior si~ns; the same as Sera pis
and Pluto (C. H1ggms on tl~e.C'elta· Dru1ds, p. 119). It is difficult
now to prove a con_n~on on(\'m between the divinities of Ireland
and those of Phrer_ncm. Bnal-zebud was in Pliam1cia the star of
the autumual equ~nox, the gorl whose nununl arrival put an end
to the plague of fhes.
EXTR:\C:.RDIX.ARY STORIES CREDIBLE. 107
The inhabitants of Cvrenc made sacrifices to the
god Achro to be delivered from flies.* This draws
us nearer to tlJe point we desire to arrive at. It
·was from the platform of I\Ieroc,t far from the form
idable Tsaltsalya, that the shepherds took flight to
await the autumnal equinox, the desired termina
tion of his six months' reign. They must have
worshiped, in this conqueror of flies, the constella
tion of the equinox, afterwanl represented by Ser
rapis, Pluto, and the Serpent. In the countries
where this divinity was adored, as changing the
face of the earth and the destinies of men, the lively
impression made on those who had frequently wit
nessed the plague, oyer which he triumphed, concur
t·ed to extend his worship from Cyrenaica into Syr
ia amon~ the Phrenicians.
The Romans and the Greeks, perhaps, also bor
rowed this superstition ; but it is remarkable that
Greece attached it~elf only to African traditions.
The Arcadians of Herrea joined the worship of the
demi-god l\Iyagrus, which they had acquired from
Africa, to tl1at of 1\Iinen·a. Their tradition report
ed, indeed, that l\Iincn·a was born in Arcadia; but
it was on the margin of the fountain Triton ides that
we are told the same wonders were displayedf as
those which assigned the Lake, or River Tritonis,
,. Plin., Hist . .J.Yat.
t Modern ~eorrraph!'r.!l have dlffered in fixing the locality of
Meroe; uut l\1. Cailloux hns settled the qucstio11. He describes
it to be thnt part of Africa in the vicinity of the Nile, which is
formed into a kind of pcuinsula by the Nile itself. not its branch·
es Astapus and Astaboras, as tonnerly supposed. The river
bends in surb a man111'r as nearly to insulate a space !;O large,
that to travel round it requires many weeks, while nC'ross its neck
is only oue day's joumcy. Its inhnbitauts resembled the E~yp·
tians in their refinement and their architecture; indeed, Meroe
was supposed to have bccu tlle cradle of most of the religious irt·
liititutious of the E!!yptinns.-ED.
t
Pansauin.:;, A.J't:nd. • cnp. xx.,..i. The Breotians, nlso, of Alal~o­
menre show iu theircountn· a river Triton, ou the unnks of whrch
they placed the birth of Mluerva.-Pausanias, BCPot., cap. xxxiii.