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. 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 on1Preliver 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 assaileersia, 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.

Anthony Todd Thomson

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