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3 


PLATE  J. 


Frontispiece^ 


^m^m- 


Fig. 


Symbolic  Alchemical  Design  from  Mutus  Liber  (1677). 


BYGONE  BELIEl'o 

BEING  A  SERIES  OF 

EXCURSIONS    IN   THE    BYWAYS 

OF   THOUGHT 


BY 

H.   STANLEY    REDGROVE 

B.Sc.  (Lond.),  F.C.S. 

author  of 
"alchemy:  ancient  and  modern" 
•*a  mathematical  theory  of  spirit" 

"the    MAGIC    OF    EXPERIENCE,"   ETC. 


WITH    MANY    ILLUSTRATIONS 


\ 

LONDON 
WILLIAM    RIDER    ^   SON,  LTD. 

8   PATERNOSTER  ROW,  E.G.  4 
1920 


Alle  Erfahrung  ist  Magie^  und  nur  magisch  erkldrbar. 

NOVALIS  (Friedrich  von  Hardenberg). 

Everything  possible  to  be  believ'd  is  an  image  of  truth. 

William  Blake. 


TO 

MY  WIFE 


PREFACE 

These  Excursions  in  the  Byways  of  Thought  were 
undertaken  at  different  times  and  on  different  occa- 
sions ;  consequently,  the  reader  may  be  able  to  detect 
in  them  inequalities  of  treatment.  He  may  feel  that 
I  have  lingered  too  long  in  some  byways  and  hurried 
too  rapidly  through  others,  taking,  as  it  were,  but  a 
general  view  of  the  road  in  the  latter  case,  whilst 
examining  everything  that  could  be  seen  in  the  former 
with,  perhaps,  undue  care.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  how- 
ever, all  these  excursions  have  been  undertaken  with 
one  and  the  same  object  in  view,  that,  namely,  of 
understanding  aright  and  appreciating  at  their  true 
worth  some  of  the  more  curious  byways  along  which 
human  thought  has  travelled.  It  is  easy  for  the 
superficial  thinker  to  dismiss  much  of  the  thought 
of  the  past  (and,  indeed,  of  the  present)  as  mere 
superstition,  not  worth  the  trouble  of  investigation : 
but  it  is  not  scientific.  There  is  a  reason  for  every 
belief,  even  the  most  fantastic,  and  it  should  be 
our  object  to  discover  this  reason.  How  far,  if  at 
all,  the  reason  in  any  case  justifies  us  in  holding  a 
similar  belief  is,  of  course,  another  question.  Some 
of  the  beliefs  I  have  dealt  with  I  have  treated  at 
greater  length  than  others,  because  it  seems  to  me 


X  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

that  the  truths  of  which  they  are  the  images — vague 
and  distorted  in  many  cases  though  they  be — ^are 
truths  which  we  have  either  forgotten  nowadays,  or 
are  in  danger  of  forgetting.  We  moderns  may,  in- 
deed, learn  something  from  the  thought  of  the  past, 
even  in  its  most  fantastic  aspects.  In  one  excursion 
at  least,  namely,  the  essay  on  "  The  Cambridge 
Platonists,"  I  have  ventured  to  deal  with  a  higher 
phase — perhaps  I  should  say  the  highest  phase — of 
the  thought  of  a  bygone  age,  to  which  the  modern 
world  may  be  completely  debtor. 

*'  Some  Characteristics  of  Mediaeval  Thought,'' 
and  the  two  essays  on  Alchemy,  have  appeared  in 
The  Journal  of  the  Alchemical  Society,  In  others  I 
have  utilised  material  I  have  contributed  to  The 
Occult  Review,  to  the  editor  of  which  journal  my 
thanks  are  due  for  permission  so  to  do.  I  have  also 
to  express  my  gratitude  to  the  Rev.  A.  H.  Collins, 
and  others  to  be  referred  to  in  due  course,  for  per- 
mission here  to  reproduce  illustrations  of  which 
they  are  the  copyright  holders.  I  have  further  to 
offer  my  hearty  thanks  to  Mr  B.  R.  Rowbottom 
and  my  wife  for  valuable  assistance  in  reading  the 
proofs. 

H.  S.  R. 

Bletchley,  Bucks, 
December  191 9. 


CONTENTS 


Preface         

List  of  Illustrations 

1.  Some  Characteristics  of  Mediaeval  Thought 

2.  Pythagoras  and  his  Philosophy      . 

3.  Medicine  and  Magic        .... 

4.  Superstitions  concerning  Birds 

5.  The  Powder  of  Sympathy  :  a  Curious  Medical 

Superstition 

6.  The  Belief  in  Talismans 

7.  Ceremonial  Magic  in  Theory  and  Practice 

8.  Architectural  Symbolism 

9.  The  Quest  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone 

10.  The  Phallic  Element  in  Alchemical  Doctrine 

11.  Roger  Bacon  :   an  Appreciation 

12.  The  Cambridge  Platonists 


PAGE 

ix 
xiii 

'8 
25 


47 

57 

87 

III 

121 

149 

183 
193 


4> 

i8 

•      P- 

19 

5,  to  face  p. 

26 

LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. 

1.  Symbolic     Alchemical    Design 

from  Mutus  Liber  (1677)      .       Plate    i,     frontispiece 

2.  Frontispiece  to  Glanvil's  Sa- 

ducismus  Triumphatus  (1700), 
illustrating  Superstitions  con- 
cerning Witchcraft,  g^c.         .  „        2,  to  face  p.      4 

3.  Diagram  to  illustrate  the  Theo- 

rem of  Pythagoras    .         .  „        3,       „  10 

4-8.  Diagrams  for  constructing 
the  Regular  (or  Platonic) 
Solids         .... 

9.  The  Pentagram      ... 

10.  Reduced  Fascimile  of  a  Page 

of  the  Papyrus  Ebers  .       Plate 

11.  Paracelsus  (aged  24),  from  a 

Painting  by  Scorel  (15 17), 

now  in  the  Louvre  Gallery  .  ,,        6,        ,,  aS 

12.  Barnacle    Geese,    from    Ger- 

arde's  Herball  (1597)  .  „        7,        „  40 

13.  The  Fung  Hwang,  according  to 

the  'Rh  Ya,  from  Gould's 

Mythical  Monsters        .  .  ,,        8,        „  44 

14.  Harpy,  from  Vlyssis  Aldro- 

VANDi's  Monstrorum  Historia 

(1642)         ....  „        7»       M  40 

15.  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  from  an 

engraved  Portrait  by  Hou- 

BRAKEN,  after  Vandyke      .  „       9,       „  48 

16.  James  Howell,  from  an  en- 

graved Portrait  by  Claude 

Melan  and  Abraham  Bosse  „      10,       „  50 

xiii 


XIV 


BYGONE  BELIEFS 


FIG. 

17.  Nathanael  Highmore,  M.D., 

from  an  engraved  Portrait  by 
A.  Blooteling  . 

18.  Francis  Bacon,  from  the  Fron- 

tispiece to  his  Sylva  Syl- 
varum  (6th  edition,  1651) 

19  and  20.  "  Abracadabra  "  Amu- 
lets .... 

21.  The  First  Pentacle  of  the  Sun, 

from  Clavicula  Salomonis 

22.  The   Fifth   Pentacle   of   Mars, 

from  Clavicula  Salomonis 

23.  The    Third    Pentacle    of    the 

Moon,  from  Clavicula  Salo- 
monis        .... 

24.  The  Third  Pentacle  of  Venus, 

from  Clavicula  Salomonis 

25.  The  Third   Pentacle    of    Mer- 

cury, from  Clavicula  Salo- 
monis        .... 

26-28.  The  Seals  of  Mars,  his  In- 
telligence, and  his  Spirit, 
from  Barrett's  Magus 
(1801)         .... 

29.  The  Talisman  of   Mars,   from 

Barrett's  Magus 

30.  The  Pentagram  embellished  ac- 

cording to  Eliphas  Ltyi 

31.  The    Hexagram,    or    Seal    of 

Solomon,  embellished  ac- 
cording to  £liphas  Livi 

32.  Magical  Circle,  from  The  Lesser 

Key  of  Solomon  the  King 

33.  Magical     Instruments — Lamp, 

Rod,  Sword,  and  Dagger — 
according  to  ^liphas  lSvi  . 

34.  Agnus  Dei,  Sixteenth-century 

Font,  Southfleet,  Kent,  from 
Collins'  Symbolism  of 
Animals     .... 


,at 

EII, 

to  face  p. 

52 

>> 

12, 

>> 

54 

• 

• 

.      P- 

61 

• 

• 

66 

• 

• 

67 

. 

. 

68 

• 

• 

69 

70 

Plate  13,  ^0  face  p.    72 
74 


M> 


14, 


15, 


16, 


17, 


74 
98 

102 
112 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

FIG. 

35.  Unicorn,       Sixteenth  -  century 

Font,  Southfieet,  Kent,  from 
Collins'  Symbolism  of 
Animals     ....       Fl ate  ly,  to  face  p.  112 

36.  Pelican  in  her  Piety,  inset  in 

Pulpit,  Aldington,  Kent, 
from  Collins'  Symbolism  of 
Animals     ....  „      18,        ,,         114 

37.  Twelfth-century    South    Door, 

Barf  est  on  Church,  Kent, 
showing  Griffin  and  other 
Sjnnbols,  from  Collins' 
Symbolism  of  Animals         .  „      18,        ,,         114 

38.  Western    Doorway    of    Port- 

chester  Church,  Hants,  show- 
ing Sagittarius  and  Pisces, 
from  a  Photograph     .  .  ,,19,        ,,         116 

39.  Centaur,  from  Vlyssis  Aldro- 

vandi's  Monstrorum  Historia 

(1642)         .         .         .         .  „      20,       „         118 

40.  Mantichora,   from  A   Descrip- 

tion of  Three  Hundred  A  nimals 

(1730)         ....  „      20,        „         118 

41  and  42.  Symbolic  Representa- 
tions of  the  Alchemical 
Principle  of  Purification  by 
Putrefaction,  from  "  Basil 
WA-Lm^Tm-E/s*' Twelve  Keys  ,,      21,        „         140 

43.  Symbolic    Alchemical    Design 

illustrating  the  Conjunction 
of  Brother  and  Sister,  from 
Michael  Maier's  Atalanta 
Fugiens  (1617)    .         .         .  „      22,        ,,         170 

44.  Symbolic    Alchemical    Design 

illustrating  Lactation,  from 

Maier's  Atalanta  Fugiens    .  „      23,       ,,         172 

45.  Symbolic    Alchemical    Design 

illustrating  the  Conjunction 
of  Gold  and  Silver  (or  Sun 
and  Moon),  from  Maier's 
Atalanta  Fugiens         .         .  „      24,       „         174 


xvi  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

FIG. 

46.  Symbolic    Alchemical    Design 

from  Mutus  Liber  (1677)       .       Plate  25,  to  face  p.  176 

47.  Symbolic    Alchemical    Design 

illustrating  the  Work  of 
Woman,  from  Maier's  Ata- 
lanta  Fugiens      .         .         .  ,,26,        ,,         178 

48.  Symbolic    Alchemica    Design, 

Hermaphrodite,f  rom  Maier's 

Atalanta  Fugiens         .         .  ,,27,        ,,         180 

49.  Roger    Bacon    presenting    a 

Book  to  a  King,  from  a 
Fifteenth-century  Miniature 
in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
Oxford       ....  ,,28,        „  184 

50.  Roger  Bacon,  from  a  Portrait 

in  Knole  Castle  .         .         .  „      29,        „         188 

51.  Benjamin    Whichcote,    from 

an     engraved    Portrait    by 

Robert  White  .         .  „      30,       „         194 

52.  Henry  More,  from  a  Portrait 

by  David  Loggan,  engraved 

ad  vivum,  1679    .         .         .  ,,31,        >,         198 

53.  Ralph  Cudworth,  from  an  en- 

graved Portrait  by  Vertue, 
after  Loggan,  forming  the 
Frontispiece  to  Cudworth's 
Treatise  Concerning  Morality 
(1731) ,32,        „         200 


BYGONE    BELIEFS 
I 

SOME    CHARACTERISTICS    OF 
MEDIEVAL   THOUGHT 

In  the  earliest  days  of  his  upward  evolution  man  was 
satisfied  with  a  very  crude  explanation  of  natural 
phenomena — that  to  which  the  name  "  animism  " 
has  been  given.  In  this  stage  of  mental  develop- 
ment all  the  various  forces  of  Nature  are  personified  : 
the  rushing  torrent,  the  devastating  fire,  the  wind 
rustling  the  forest  leaves — in  the  mind  of  the  animistic 
savage  all  these  are  personalities,  spirits,  like  him- 
self, but  animated  by  motives  more  or  less  antagon- 
istic to  him. 

I  suppose  that  no  possible  exception  could  be  taken 
to  the  statement  that  modern  science  renders  animism 
impossible.  But  let  us  inquire  in  exactly  what  sense 
this  is  true.  (It  is  not  true  that  science  robs  natural 
phenomena  of  their  spiritual  significance.  The  mis- 
take is  often  made  of  supposing  that  science  explains, 
or  endeavours  to  explain,  phenomena.  But  that 
is  the  business  of  philosophy.  The  task  science 
attempts  is  the  simpler  one  of  the  correlation  of 
natural  phenomena,  and  in  this  eflFort  leaves  the 
ultimate  problems  of  metaphysics   untouched.  \  A 

universe,  however,  whose  phenomena  are  not  only 

I  I 


2  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

capable  of  some  degree  of  correlation,  but  present 
the  extraordinary  degree  of  harmony  and  unity 
which  science  makes  manifest  in  Nature,  cannot  be, 
as  in  animism,  the  product  of  a  vast  number  of  inco- 
ordinated  and  antagonistic  wills,  but  must  either  be 
the  product  of  one  Will,  or  not  the  product  of  will 
at  all. 

The  latter  alternative  means  that  the  Cosmos  is 
inexplicable,  which  not  only  man's  growing  experi- 
ence, but  the  fact  that  man  and  the  universe  form 
essentially  a  unity,  forbid  us  to  believe.  The  term 
"  anthropomorphic  *'  is  too  easily  applied  to  philo- 
sophical systems,  as  if  it  constituted  a  criticism  of 
their  validity.  [For  if  it  be  true,  as  all  must  admit, 
that  the  unknown  can  only  be  explained  in  terms  of 
the  known,  then  the  universe  must  either  be  ex- 
plained in  terms  of  man — i.e,  in  terms  of  will  or 
desire — or  remain  incomprehensible.  J  That  is  to 
say,  a  philosophy  must  either  be  anthropomorphic, 
or  no  philosophy  at  all^ 

Thus  a  metaphysical  scrutiny  of  the  results  of 
modern  science  leads  us  to  a  belief  in  God.  But  man 
felt  the  need  of  unity,  and  crude  animism,  though  a 
step  in  the  right  direction,  failed  to  satisfy  his  thought, 
long  before  the  days  of  modern  science.  The  spirits 
of  animism,  however,  were  not  discarded,  but  were 
modified,  co-ordinated,  and  worked  into  a  system  as 
servants  of  the  Most  High.  Polytheism  may  mark 
a  stage  in  this  process  ;  or,  perhaps,  it  was  a  result 
of  mental  degeneracy. 

What  I  may  term  systematised  as  distinguished 
from  crude  animism  persisted  throughout  the  Middle 
Ages.     The  work  of  systematisation  had  already  been 


MEDIi^VAL  THOUGHT  3 

accomplished,  to  a  large  extent,  by  the  Neo-PIatonists 
and  whoever  were  responsible  for  the  Kabala.  It  is 
true  that  these  main  sources  of  magical  or  animistic 
philosophy  remained  hidden  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  but  at  about  their  close  the 
youthful  and  enthusiastic  Cornelius  Agrippa  (1486- 
1535)  ^  slaked  his  thirst  thereat  and  produced  his 
own  attempt  at  the  systematisation  of  magical  belief 
in  the  famous  Three  Books  of  Occult  Philosophy.  But 
the  waters  of  magical  philosophy  reached  the  medi- 
aeval mind  through  various  devious  channels,  tradi- 
tional on  the  one  hand  and  literary  on  the  other. 
And  of  the  latter,  the  works  of  pseudo-DiONYSius,^ 
whose  immense  influence  upon  mediaeval  thought 
has  sometimes  been  neglected,  must  certainly  be 
noted. 

The  most  obvious  example  of  a  mediaeval  animistic 
belief  is  that  in  **  elementals  " — the  spirits  which 
personify  the  primordial  forces  of  Nature,  and  are 
symbolised  by  the  four  elements,  immanent  in  which 
they  were  supposed  to  exist,  and  through  which  they 
were  held  to  manifest  their  powers.  And  astrology, 
it  must  be  remembered,  is  essentially  a  systematised 

1  The  story  of  his  Hfe  has  been  admirably  told  by  Henry 
MoRLEY  (2  vols.,  1856). 

2  These  writings  were  first  heard  of  in  the  early  part  of  the 
sixth  century,  and  were  probably  the  work  of  a  Syrian  monk 
of  that  date,  who  fathered  them  on  to  Dionysius  the  Areo- 
pagite  as  a  pious  fraud.  See  Dean  Inge's  Christian  Mysticism 
(1899),  pp.  104-122,  and  Vaughan's  Hours  with  the  Mystics 
(7th  ed.,  1895),  vol.  i.  pp.  111-124.  The  books  have  been 
translated  into  English  by  the  Rev.  John  Parker  (2  vols., 
1897-1899),  who  beUeves  in  the  genuineness  of  their  alleged 
authorship. 


4  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

animism.  The  stars,  to  the  ancients,  were  not 
material  bodies  like  the  earth,  but  spiritual  beings. 
Plato  (427-347  b.c.)  speaks  of  them  as  *'  gods  ". 
Mediaeval  thought  did  not  regard  them  in  quite  this 
way.  But  for  those  who  believed  in  astrology,  and 
few,  I  think,  did  not,  the  stars  were  still  symbols  of 
spiritual  forces  operative  on  man.  Evidences  of  the 
wide  extent  of  astrological  belief  in  those  days  are 
abundant,  many  instances  of  which  we  shall  doubt- 
less encounter  in  our  excursions. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  theological  and  philo- 
sophical atmosphere  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  ''  schol- 
astic," not  mystical.  No  doubt  ''  mysticism,"  as  a 
mode  of  life  aiming  at  the  realisation  of  the  presence 
of  God,  is  as  distinct  from  scholasticism  as  empiri- 
cism is  from  rationalism,  or  **  tough-minded  "  philo- 
sophy (to  use  James'  happy  phrase)  is  from  *'  tender- 
minded  ".  But  no  philosophy  can  be  absolutely  and 
purely  deductive.  It  must  start  from  certain  empiri- 
cally determined  facts.  A  man  might  be  an  extreme 
empiricist  in  religion  {i.e.  a  mystic),  and  yet  might 
attempt  to  deduce  all  other  forms  of  knowledge  from 
the  results  of  his  religious  experiences,  never  caring 
to  gather  experience  in  any  other  realm.  Hence  the 
breach  between  mysticism  and  scholasticism  is  not 
really  so  wide  as  may  appear  at  first  sight.  Indeed, 
scholasticism  officially  recognised  three  branches  of 
theology,  of  which  the  mystical  was  one.  I  think 
that  mysticism  and  scholasticism  both  had  a  pro- 
found influence  on  the  mediaeval  mind,  sometimes 
acting  as  opposing  forces,  sometimes  operating  har- 
moniously with  one  another.  As  Professor  Windel- 
BAND  puts  it :  **  We  no  longer  onesidedly  characterise 


To  face  p.  4. 


PLATE   2. 


Fig.  2. 

Frontispiece  to  Glanvil's  Saducismus  Triumphalus  (3rd  edition,  1700), 
illustrating  Superstitions  concerning  Witchcraft,  etc. 


MEDIi^VAL  THOUGHT  5 

the  philosophy  of  the  middle  ages  as  scholasticism, 
but  rather  place  mysticism  beside  it  as  of  equal  rank, 
and  even  as  being  the  more  fruitful  and  promising 
movement."  ^ 

Alchemy,  with  its  four  Aristotelian  or  scholastic 
elements  and  its  three  mystical  principles — sulphur, 
mercury,  salt, — must  be  cited  as  the  outstanding  pro- 
duct of  the  combined  influence  of  mysticism  and 
scholasticism :  of  mysticism,  which  postulated  the 
unity  of  the  Cosmos,  and  hence  taught  that  every- 
thing natural  is  the  expressive  image  and  type  of  some 
supernatural  reality ;  of  scholasticism,  which  taught 
men  to  rely  upon  deduction  and  to  restrict  experi- 
mentation to  the  smallest  possible  limits. 

The  mind  naturally  proceeds  from  the  known,  or 

from  what  is  supposed  to  be  known,  to  the  unknown. 

Indeed,  as  I  have  already  indicated,  it  must  so  proceed 

if  truth  is  to  be  gained.     Now  what  did  the  men  of 

the  Middle  Ages  regard  as  falling  into  the  category 

of  the  known  }    Why,  surely,  the  truths  of  revealed 

religion,  whether  accepted  upon  authority  or  upon 

the  evidence  of  their  own  experience.     The  realm  of 

spiritual  and  moral  reality:  there,  they  felt,  they  were 

on  firm  ground.     Nature  was  a  realm  unknown  ; 

but  they  had  analogy  to  guide,  or,  rather,  misguide 

them.     Nevertheless  if,  as  we  know,  it  misguided, 

this  was  not,  I  think,  because  the  mystical  doctrine 

of  the  correspondence  between  the  spiritual  and  the 

natural  is  unsound,  but  because  these  ancient  seekers 

into  Nature's  secrets  knew  so  little,  and  so  frequently 

misapplied   what   they   did   know.      So   alchemical 

1  Professor  Wilhelm  Windelband,  Ph.D.:  "Present-Day 
Mysticism,"  The  Quest,  vol.  iv.  (1913),  p.  205. 


6  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

philosophy  arose  and  became  systematised,  with  its 
wonderful  endeavour  to  perfect  the  base  metals  by 
the  Philosopher's  Stone — the  concentrated  Essence 
of  Nature, — as  man's  soul  is  perfected  through  the 
life-giving  power  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  want,  in  conclusion  to  these  brief  introductory 
remarks,  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  phallicism 
in  connection  with  my  topic.  For  some  "  tender- 
minded  "  1  and,  to  my  thought,  obscure,  reason  the 
subject  is  tabooed.  Even  the  British  Museum 
does  not  include  works  on  phallicism  in  its 
catalogue,  and  special  permission  has  to  be  ob- 
tained to  consult  them.  Yet  the  subject  is  of  vast 
importance  as  concerns  the  origin  and  development 
of  religion  and  philosophy,  and  the  extent  of  phallic 
worship  may  be  gathered  from  the  widespread  occur- 
rence of  obelisks  and  similar  objects  amongst  ancient 
relics.  Our  own  maypole  dances  may  be  instanced 
as  one  survival  of  the  ancient  worship  of  the  male 
generative  principle. 

What  could  be  more  easy  to  understand  than  that, 
when  man  first  questioned  as  to  the  creation  of  the 
earth,  he  should  suppose  it  to  have  been  generated 
by  some  process  analogous  to  that  which  he  saw 
held  in  the  case  of  man  }  How  else  could  he  account 
for  its  origin,  if  knowledge  must  proceed  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown  ?  No  one  questions  at  all 
that  the  worship  of  the  human  generative  organs  as 
symbols  of  the  dual  generative  principle  of  Nature 
degenerated  into  orgies  of  the  most  frightful  charac- 
ter, but  the  view  of  Nature  which  thus  degenerated 

^  I  here  use  the  term  with  the  extended  meaning  Mr  H.  G. 
Wells  has  given  to  it.     See  The  New  Machiavelli. 


MEDIAEVAL  THOUGHT  7 

is  not,  I  think,  an  altogether  unsound  one,  and  very 
interesting  remnants  of  it  are  to  be  found  in  mediaeval 
philosophy. 

These  remnants  are  very  marked  in  alchemy. 
The  metals,  as  I  have  suggested,  are  there  regarded 
as  types  of  man  ;  hence  they  are  produced  from  seed, 
through  the  combination  of  male  and  female  prin- 
ciples— mercury  and  sulphur,  which  on  the  spiritual 
plane  are  intelligence  and  love.  The  same  is  true  of 
that  Stone  which  is  perfect  Man.  As  Bernard  of 
Tr^visan  ( 1 406-1 490)  wrote  in  the  fifteenth  century  : 
**  This  Stone  then  is  compounded  of  a  Body  and 
Spirit,  or  of  a  volatile  and  fixed  Substance,  and  that 
is  therefore  done,  because  nothing  in  the  World  can 
be  generated  and  brought  to  light  without  these  two 
Substances,  to  wit,  a  Male  and  Female  :  From 
whence  it  appeareth,  that  although  these  two  Sub- 
stances are  not  of  one  and  the  same  species,  yet  one 
Stone  doth  thence  arise,  and  although  they  appear 
and  are  said  to  be  two  Substances,  yet  in  truth  it  is 
but  one,  to  wit,  Argent-Vive^^  No  doubt  this 
sounds  fantastic  ;  but  with  all  their  seeming  in- 
tellectual follies  these  old  thinkers  were  no  fools. 
The  fact  of  sex  is  the  most  fundamental  fact  of  the 
universe,  and  is  a  spiritual  and  physical  as  well  as  a 
physiological  fact.  I  shall  deal  with  the  subject 
as  concerns  the  speculations  of  the  alchemists  in 
some  detail  in  a  later  excursion. 

^  Bernard,  Earl  of  Tr^visan  :  A  Treatise  of  the  Philo- 
sopher's Stone,  1683.  (See  Collectanea  Chymica  :  A  Collection 
of  Ten  Several  Treatises  in  Chemistry,  1684,  p.  91.) 


II 

PYTHAGORAS    AND    HIS 
PHILOSOPHY 

It  is  a  matter  for  enduring  regret  that  so  little  is 
known  to  us  concerning  Pythagoras.  What  little 
we  do  know  serves  but  to  enhance  for  us  the  interest 
of  the  man  and  his  philosophy,  to  make  him,  in  many 
ways,  the  most  attractive  of  Greek  thinkers  ;  and, 
basing  our  estimate  on  the  extent  of  his  influence  on 
the  thought  of  succeeding  ages,  we  recognise  in  him 
one  of  the  world's  master-minds. 

Pythagoras  was  born  about  582  B.C.  at  Samos, 
one  of  the  Grecian  isles.  In  his  youth  he  came  in 
contact  with  Thales — the  Father  of  Geometry,  as 
he  is  well  called, — and  though  he  did  not  become  a 
member  of  Thales'  school,  his  contact  with  the  latter 
no  doubt  helped  to  turn  his  mind  towards  the  study 
of  geometry.  This  interest  found  the  right  ground 
for  its  development  in  Egypt,  which  he  visited  when 
still  young.  Egypt  is  generally  regarded  as  the 
birthplace  of  geometry,  the  subject  having,  it  is 
supposed,  been  forced  on  the  minds  of  the  Egyptians 
by  the  necessity  of  fixing  the  bour^aries  of  lands 
against  the  annual  overflowing  of  the\Nile.  But  the 
Egyptians  were  what  is  called  an  essentially  practical 

8 


PYTHAGORAS  AND  HIS  PHILOSOPHY     9 

people,  and  their  geometrical  knowledge  did  not 
extend  beyond  a  few  empirical  rules  useful  for  fixing 
these  boundaries  and  in  constructing  their  temples. 
Striking  evidence  of  this  fact  is  supplied  by  the 
Ahmes  papyrus,  compiled  some  little  time  before 
1700  B.C.  from  an  older  work  dating  from  about  3400 
B.c.,^  a  papyrus  which  almost  certainly  represents 
the  highest  mathematical  knowledge  reached  by  the 
Egyptians  of  that  day.  Geometry  is  treated  very  super- 
ficially and  as  of  subsidiary  interest  to  arithmetic  ; 
there  is  no  ordered  series  of  reasoned  geometrical 
propositions  given — nothing,  indeed,  beyond  isolated 
rules,  and  of  these  some  are  wanting  in  accuracy. 

One  geometrical  fact  known  to  the  Egyptians  was 
that  if  a  triangle  be  constructed  having  its  sides  3,  4, 
and  5  units  long  respectively,  then  the  angle  opposite 
the  longest  side  is  exactly  a  right  angle  ;  and  the 
Egyptian  builders  used  this  rule  for  constructing 
walls  perpendicular  to  each  other,  employing  a  cord 
graduated  in  the  required  manner.  The  Greek 
mind  was  not,  however,  satisfied  with  the  bald  state- 
ment of  mere  facts — it  cared  little  for  practical  appli- 
cations, but  sought  above  all  for  the  underlying 
reason  of  everything.  Nowadays  we  are  beginning 
to  realise  that  the  results  achieved  by  this  type  of 
mind,  the  general  laws  of  Nature's  behaviour  formu- 
lated by  its  endeavours,  are  frequently  of  immense 
practical  importance — of  far  more  importance  than 
the   mere   rules-of-thumb   beyond   which   so-called 

^  See  August  Eisenlohr:  Ein  mathematisches  Handbuch 
der  alien  Aegypter  (1877)  ;  J.  Gow  :  A  Short  History  of  Greek 
Mathematics  (1884) ;  and  V.  E.  Johnson  :  Egyptian  Science 
from  the  Monuments  and  Ancient  Books  (1891). 


lo  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

practical  minds  never  advance.  The  classic  example 
of  the  utility  of  seemingly  useless  knowledge  is 
afforded  by  Sir  William  Hamilton's  discovery,  or, 
rather,  invention  of  Quarternions,  but  no  better 
example  of  the  utilitarian  triumph  of  the  theoretical 
over  the  so-called  practical  mind  can  be  adduced 
than  that  afforded  by  Pythagoras.  Given  this  rule 
for  constructing  a  right  angle,  about  whose  reason 
the  Egyptian  who  used  it  never  bothered  himself, 
and  the  mind  of  Pythagoras,  searching  for  its  full 
significance,  made  that  gigantic  geometrical  discovery 
which  is  to  this  day  known  as  the  Theorem  of 
Pythagoras — the  law  that  in  every  right-angled 
triangle  the  square  on  the  side  opposite  the  right 
angle  is  equal  in  area  to  the  sum  of  the  squares  on  the 
other  two  sides. ^  The  importance  of  this  discovery 
can  hardly  be  overestimated.  It  is  of  fundamental 
importance  in  most  branches  of  geometry,  and  the 
basis  of  the  whole  of  trigonometry — ^the  special  branch 
of  geometry  that  deals  with  the  practical  mensuration 
of  triangles.  Euclid  devoted  the  whole  of  the  first 
book  of  his  Elements  of  Geometry  to  establishing  the 
truth  of  this  theorem  ;  how  Pythagoras  demon- 
strated it  we  unfortunately  do  not  know. 

1  Fig.  3  affords  an  interesting  practical  demonstration  of 
the  truth  of  this  theorem.  If  the  reader  will  copy  this  figure, 
cut  out  the  squares  on  the  two  shorter  sides  of  the  triangle 
and  divide  them  along  the  lines  AD,  BE,  EF,  he  will  find  that 
the  five  pieces  so  obtained  can  be  made  exactly  to  fit  the  square 
on  the  longest  side  as  shown  by  the  dotted  lines.  The  size  and 
shape  of  the  triangle  ABC,  so  long  as  it  has  a  right  angle  at  C, 
is  immaterial.  The  lines  AD,  BE  are  obtained  by  continuing 
the  sides  of  the  square  on  the  side  AB,  i.e.  the  side  opposite 
the  right  angle,  and  EF  is  drawn  at  right  angles  to  BE. 


To  face  p.  lo. 


PLATE   3. 


Fig.  3. 
Diagram  to  illustrate  the  Theorem  of  Pythagoras. 


PYTHAGORAS  AND  HIS  PHILOSOPHY     ii 

After  absorbing  what  knowledge  was  to  be  gained 
in  Egypt,  Pythagoras  journeyed  to  Babylon,  where 
he  probably  came  into  contact  with  even  greater 
traditions  and  more  potent  influences  and  sources  of 
knowledge  than  in  Egypt,  for  there  is  reason  for  j 
believing  that  the  ancient  Chaldeans  were  the  builders  1 
of  the  Pyramids  and  in  many  ways  the  intellectual 
superiors  of  the  Egyptians. 

At  last,  after  having  travelled  still  further  East, 
probably  as  far  as  India,  Pythagoras  returned  to 
his  birthplace  to  teach  the  men  of  his  native  land  the 
knowledge  he  had  gained.  But  Crgesus  was  tyrant 
over  Samos,  and  so  oppressive  was  his  rule  that 
none  had  leisure  in  which  to  learn.  Not  a  student 
came  to  Pythagoras,  until,  in  despair,  so  the  story 
runs,  he  offered  to  pay  an  artisan  if  he  would  but 
learn  geometry.  The  man  accepted,  and  later,  when 
Pythagoras  pretended  inability  any  longer  to  con- 
tinue the  payments,  he  offered,  so  fascinating  did  he 
find  the  subject,  to  pay  his  teacher  instead  if  the 
lessons  might  only  be  continued.  Pythagoras  no 
doubt  was  much  gratified  at  this  ;  and  the  motto  he 
adopted  for  his  great  Brotherhood,  of  which  we  shall 
make  the  acquaintance  in  a  moment,  was  in  all  likeli- 
hood based  on  this  event.  It  ran,  **  Honour  a  figure 
and  a  step^  before  a  figure  and  a  tribolus  "  ;  or,  as  a 
freer  translation  renders  it  : — 

"  A  figure  and  a  step  onward  : 
Not  a  figure  and  a  florin." 

*'  At  all  events,''  as  Mr  Frankland  remarks,  "  the    j 
motto  is  a  lasting  witness  to  a  very  singular  devotion 
to  knowledge  for  its  own  sake."  ^ 
1  W.  B.  Frankland,  M.A.  :  The  Story  of  Euclid  (1902),  p.  33. 


12  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

But  Pythagoras  needed  a  greater  audience  than 
one  man,  however  enthusiastic  a  pupil  he  might  be, 
and  he  left  Samos  for  Southern  Italy,  the  rich  in- 
habitants of  whose  cities  had  both  the  leisure  and 
inclination  to  study.  Delphi,  far-famed  for  its 
Oracles,  was  visited  en  route,  and  Pythagoras,  after 
a  sojourn  at  Tarentum,  settled  at  Croton,  where  he 
gathered  about  him  a  great  band  of  pupils,  mainly 
young  people  of  the  aristocratic  class.  By  consent 
of  the  Senate  of  Croton,  he  formed  out  of  these  a 
great  philosophical  brotherhood,  whose  members 
lived  apart  from  the  ordinary  people,  forming,  as  it 
were,  a  separate  community.  They  were  bound  to 
Pythagoras  by  the  closest  ties  of  admiration  and 
reverence,  and,  for  years  after  his  death,  discoveries 
made  by  Pythagoreans  were  invariably  attributed  to 
the  Master,  a  fact  which  makes  it  very  difficult  ex- 
actly to  gauge  the  extent  of  Pythagoras'  own  know- 
ledge and  achievements.  The  regime  of  the  Brother- 
hood, or  Pythagorean  Order,  was  a  strict  one,  entail- 
ing "  high  thinking  and  low  living  "  at  all  times.  A 
restricted  diet,  the  exact  nature  of  which  is  in  dispute, 
was  observed  by  all  members,  and  long  periods  of 
silence,  as  conducive  to  deep  thinking,  were  imposed 
on  novices.  Women  were  admitted  to  the  Order, 
and  Pythagoras'  asceticism  did  not  prohibit  ro- 
mance, for  we  read  that  one  of  his  fair  pupils  won  her 
way  to  his  heart,  and,  declaring  her  affection  for  him, 
found  it  reciprocated  and  became  his  wife. 

ScHURE  writes  :  *'  By  his  marriage  with  Theano, 
Pythagoras  affixed  the  seal  of  realization  to  his  work. 
The  union  and  fusion  of  the  two  lives  was  complete. 
One  day  when  the  master's  wife  was  asked  what 


PYTHAGORAS  AND  HIS  PHILOSOPHY     13 

length  of  time  elapsed  before  a  woman  could  become 
pure  after  intercourse  with  a  man,  she  replied  :  '  If  it 
is  with  her  husband,  she  is  pure  all  the  time  ;  if  with 
another  man,  she  is  never  pure.'  "  ''  Many  women," 
adds  the  writer,  *'  would  smilingly  remark  that  to 
give  such  a  reply  one  must  be  the  wife  of  Pytha- 
goras, and  love  him  as  Theano  did.  And  they  would 
be  in  the  right,  for  it  is  not  marriage  that  sanctifies 
love,  it  is  love  which  justifies  marriage."  ^ 

Pythagoras  was  not  merely  a  mathematician :  he 
was  first  and  foremost  a  philosopher,  whose  philo- 
sophy found  in  number  the  basis  of  all  things,  be- 
cause number,  for  him,  alone  possessed  stability  of 
relationship.  As  I  have  remarked  on  a  former  occa- 
sion, *'  The  theory  that  the  Cosmos  has  its  origin 
and  explanation  in  Number  ...  is  one  for  which 
it  is  not  difficult  to  account  if  we  take  into  considera- 
tion the  nature  of  the  times  in  which  it  was  formu- 
lated. The  Greek  of  the  period,  looking  upon 
Nature,  beheld  no  picture  of  harmony,  uniformity 
and  fundamental  unity.  The  outer  world  appeared 
to  him  rather  as  a  discordant  chaos,  the  mere  sport 
and  plaything  of  the  gods.  The  theory  of  the  uni- 
formity of  Nature — that  Nature  is  ever  like  to  herself 
— the  very  essence  of  the  modern  scientific  spirit,  had 
yet  to  be  born  of  years  of  unwearied  labour  and  un- 
ceasing delving  into  Nature's  innermost  secrets. 
Only  in  Mathematics — in  the  properties  of  geometri- 
cal figures,  and  of  numbers — was  the  reign  of  law, 
the  principle  of  harmony,  perceivable.  Even  at  this 
present  day  when  the  marvellous  has  become  com- 

^  Edouard  Schure  :  Pythagoras  and  the  Delphic  Mysteries, 
trans,  by  F.  Rothwell,  B.A.  (1906),  pp.  164  and  165. 


14  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

monplace,  that  property  of  right-angled  triangles  .  .  . 
already  discussed  .  .  .  comes  to  the  mind  as  a  re- 
markable and  notable  fact  :  it  must  have  seemed  a 
stupendous  marvel  to  its  discoverer,  to  whom,  it 
appears,  the  regular  alternation  of  the  odd  and  even 
numbers,  a  fact  so  obvious  to  us  that  we  are  inclined  to 
attach  no  importance  to  it,  seemed,  itself,  to  be  some- 
thing wonderful.  Here  in  Geometry  and  Arithmetic, 
here  was  order  and  harmony  unsurpassed  and  un- 
surpassable. What  wonder  then  that  Pythagoras 
concluded  that  the  solution  of  the  mighty  riddle  of 
the  Universe  was  contained  in  the  mysteries  of 
Geometry  ?  What  wonder  that  he  read  mystic  mean- 
ings into  the  laws  of  Arithmetic,  and  believed  Number 
to  be  the  explanation  and  origin  of  all  that  is  ?  '*  ^ 

No  doubt  the  Pythagorean  theory  suffers  from  a 
defect  similar  to  that  of  the  Kabalistic  doctrine,  which, 
starting  from  the  fact  that  all  words  are  composed  of 
letters,  representing  the  primary  sounds  of  language, 
maintained  that  all  the  things  represented  by  these 
words  were  created  by  God  by  means  of  the  twenty- 
two  letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet.  But  at  the  same 
time  the  Pythagorean  theory  certainly  embodies  a 
considerable  element  of  truth.  Modern  science 
demonstrates  nothing  more  clearly  than  the  impor- 
tance of  numerical  relationships.  Indeed,  ''  the 
history  of  science  shows  us  the  gradual  transforma- 
tion of  crude  facts  of  experience  into  increasingly 
exact  generalisations  by  the  application  to  them  of 
mathematics.  The  enormous  advances  that  have 
been  made  in  recent  years  in  physics  and  chemistry 
are  very  largely  due  to  mathematical  methods  of 

1  A  Mathematical  Theory  of  Spirit  (1912),  pp.  64-65. 


PYTHAGORAS  AND  HIS  PHILOSOPHY     15 

interpreting  and  co-ordinating  facts  experimentally 
revealed,  whereby  further  experiments  have  been 
suggested,  the  results  of  which  have  themselves 
been  mathematically  interpreted.  Both  physics  and 
chemistry,  especially  the  former,  are  now  highly 
mathematical.  In  the  biological  sciences  and  especi- 
ally in  psychology  it  is  true  that  mathematical 
methods  are,  as  yet,  not  so  largely  employed.  But 
these  sciences  are  far  less  highly  developed,  far  less 
exact  and  systematic,  that  is  to  say,  far  less  scientific, 
at  present,  than  is  either  physics  or  chemistry.  How- 
ever, the  application  of  statistical  methods  promises 
good  results,  and  there  are  not  wanting  generalisa- 
tions already  arrived  at  which  are  expressible  mathe- 
matically ;  Weber's  Law  in  psychology,  and  the  law 
concerning  the  arrangement  of  the  leaves  about  the 
stems  of  plants  in  biology,  may  be  instanced  as  cases 
in  point."  ^ 

The  Pythagorean  doctrine  of  the  Cosmos,  in 
its  most  reasonable  form,  however,  is  confronted 
with  one  great  difficulty  which  it  seems  incapable  of 
overcoming,  namely,  that  of  cpjitinuity.  Modern 
science,  with  its  atomiclheories  of  matter  and  electri- 
city, does,  indeed,  show  us  that  the  apparent  con- 
tinuity of  material  things  is  spurious,  that  all 
material  things  consist  of  discrete  particles,  and  are 
hence  measurable  in  numerical  terms.  But  modern 
science  is  also  obliged  to  postulate  an  ether  behind 

1  Quoted  from  a, lecture  by  the  present  writer  on  "  The  Law 
of  Correspondences  Mathematically  Considered/'  delivered 
before  The  Theological  and  Philosophical  Society  on  26th  April 
1912,  and  published  in  Morning  Light,  vol.  xxxv.  (1912),  p.  434 
et  seq. 


i6  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

these  atoms,  an  ether  which  is  wholly  continuous, 
and  hence  transcends  the  domain  of  number .^  It  is 
true  that,  in  quite  recent  times,  a  certain  school  of 
thought  has  argued  that  the  ether  is  also  atomic  in 
constitution — that  all  things,  indeed,  have  a  grained 
structure,  even  forces  being  made  up  of  a  large 
number  of  quantums  or  indivisible  units  of  force. 
But  this  view  has  not  gained  general  acceptance,  and 
it  seems  to  necessitate  the  postulation  of  an  ether 
beyond  the  ether,  filling  the  interspaces  between  its 
atoms,  to  obviate  the  difficulty  of  conceiving  of  action 
at  a  distance. 

According  to  Bergson,  life — the  reality  that  can 
only  be  lived,  not  understood — is  absolutely  con- 
tinuous (i.e.  not  amenable  to  numerical  treatment). 
It  is  because  life  is  absolutely  continuous  that  we 
cannot,  he  says,  understand  it  ;  for  reason  acts 
discontinuously,  grasping  only,  so  to  speak,  a  cine- 
matographic view  of  life,  made  up  of  an  immense 
number  of  instantaneous  glimpses.  All  that  passes 
between  the  glimpses  is  lost,  and  so  the  true  whole, 
reason  can  never  synthesise  from  that  which  it 
possesses.  On  the  other  hand,  one  might  also  argue 
— extending,  in  a  way,  the  teaching  of  the  physical 
sciences  of  the  period  between  the  postulation  of 
Dalton's  atomic  theory  and  the  discovery  of  the 
significance  of  the  ether  of  space — that  reality  is 
essentially  discontinuous,  our  idea  that  it  is  continuous 
being  a  mere  illusion  arising  from  the  coarseness  of 
our  senses.     That  might  provide  a  complete  vindi- 

^  Cf.  chap,  iii.,  "  On  Nature  as  tlie  Embodiment  of  Number," 
of  my  A  Mathematical  Theory  of  Spirit,  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made. 


PYTHAGORAS  AND  HIS  PHILOSOPHY     17 

cation  of  the  Pythagorean  view ;  but  a  better  vindica- 
tion, if  not  of  that  theory,  at  any  rate  of  Pythagoras' 
philosophical  attitude,  is  forthcoming,  I  think,  in  the 
fact  that  modern  mathematics  has  transcended  the 
shackles  of  number,  and  has  enlarged  her  kingdom, 
so  as  to  include  quantities  other  than  numerical. 
Pythagoras,  had  he  been  born  in  these  latter  cen- 
turies, would  surely  have  rejoiced  in  this  enlarge- 
ment, whereby  the  continuous  as  well  as  the  dis- 
continuous is  brought,  if  not  under  the  rule  of 
number,  under  the  rule  of  mathematics  indeed. 

Pythagoras'  foremost  achievement  in  mathe- 
matics I  have  already  mentioned.  Another  notable 
piece  of  work  in  the  same  department  was  the  dis- 
covery of  a  method  of  constructing  a  parallelogram 
having  a  side  equal  to  a  given  line,  an  angle  equal  to 
a  given  angle,  and  its  area  equal  to  that  of  a  given 
triangle.  Pythagoras  is  said  to  have  celebrated 
this  discovery  by  the  sacrifice  of  a  whole  ox.  The 
problem  appears  in  the  first  book  of  Euclid's 
Elements  of  Geometry  as  proposition  44.  In  fact, 
many  of  the  propositions  of  Euclid's  first,  second, 
fourth,  and  sixth  books  were  worked  out  by  Pytha- 
goras and  the  Pythagoreans  ;  but,  curiously  enough, 
they  seem  greatly  to  have  neglected  the  geometry  of 
the  circle. 

The  symmetrical  solids  were  regarded  by  Pytha- 
goras, and  by  the  Greek  thinkers  after  him,  as  of  the 
greatest  importance.  To  be  perfectly  symmetrical 
or  regular,  a  solid  must  have  an  equal  number  of 
faces  meeting  at  each  of  its  angles,  and  these  faces 
must  be  equal  regular  polygons,  i.e.  figures  whose 
sides  and  angles  are  all  equal.    Pythagoras,  perhaps, 


i8  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

may  be  credited  with  the  great  discovery  that 
there  are  only  five  such  soHds.  These  are  as 
follows  : — 

The  Tetrahedron,  having  four  equilateral  triangles 
as  faces. 

The  Cube,  having  six  squares  as  faces. 

The  Octahedron,  having  eight  equilateral  triangles 
as  faces. 

The  Dodecahedron,  having  twelve  regular  penta- 
gons (or  five-sided  figures)  as  faces. 

The  Icosahedron,  having  twenty  equilateral  tri- 
angles as  faces.  1 

Now,  the  Greeks  believed  the  world  to  be  com- 
posed of  four  elements — earth,  air,  fire,  water, — 
and  to  the  Greek  mind  the  conclusion  was  inevitable^ 
that  the  shapes  of  the  particles  of  the  elements  were 
those  of  the  regular  solids.  Earth-particles  were 
cubical,  the  cube  being  the  regular  solid  possessed 
of  greatest  stability  ;  fire-particles  were  tetrahedral, 
the  tetrahedron  being  the  simplest  and,  hence, 
lightest  solid.  Water-particles  were  icosahedral  for 
exactly  the  reverse  reason,  whilst  air-particles,  as 
intermediate  between  the  two  latter,  were  octahedral. 
The  dodecahedron  was,  to  these  ancient  mathe- 
maticians, the  most  mysterious  of  the  solids  :  it  was 
by  far  the  most  difficult  to  construct,  the  accurate 
drawing  of  the  regular  pentagon  necessitating  a  rather 

1  If  the  reader  will  copy  figs.  4  to  8  on  cardboard  or  stiff 
paper,  bend  each  along  the  dotted  lines  so  as  to  form  a  solid, 
fastening  together  the  free  edges  with  gummed  paper,  he  will 
be  in  possession  of  models  of  the  five  solids  in  question. 

2  Cf.  Plato  :  The  Timceus,  §§  xxviii-xxx. 


To  face  p.  i8. 


PLATE   4. 


Tetrahedron. 


Dodecahedron. 

Two   FIGURES  L/KE   THE  ABOVE  MUST 
BE  CUT  OUT  AND   FITTED  TOGETHER 


Cube. 


OCTAHEDRON. 


ICOSAHEDRON. 


Figs.  4-8. 
Diagrams  for  constructing'the  Regular  (or  Platonic)  Solids. 


PYTHAGORAS  AND  HIS  PHILOSOPHY     19 

elaborate  application  of  Pythagoras'  great  theorem.^ 
Hence  the  conclusion,  as  Plato  put  it,  that  **  this 
[the  regular  dodecahedron]  the  Deity  employed  in 
tracing  the  plan  of  the  Universe.''  ^  Hence  also 
the  high  esteem  in  which  the  pentagon  was  held  by 
the  Pythagoreans.  By  producing  each  side  of  this 
latter  figure  the  five-pointed  star  (fig.  9),  known  as 


Fig.  9. 
The  Pentagram. 

the  pentagram,  is  obtained.  This  was  adopted  by 
the  Pythagoreans  as  the  badge  of  their  Society,  and 
for  many  ages  was  held  as  a  symbol  possessed  of 
magic  powers.     The  mediaeval  magicians  made  use 

^  In  reference  to  this  matter  Frankland  remarks :  "  In  those 
early  days  the  innermost  secrets  of  nature  lay  in  the  lap  of 
geometry,  and  the  extraordinary  inference  follows  that 
Euclid's  Elements,  which  are  devoted  to  the  investigation  of 
the  regular  soHds,  are  therefore  in  reality  and  at  bottom  an 
attempt  to  '  solve  the  universe/  Euclid,  in  fact,  made  this 
goal  of  the  Pythagoreans  the  aim  of  his  Elements." — Op.  cit., 
p.  35.  *  Op,  eit„  §  xxix. 


20  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

of  it  in  their  evocations,  and  as  a  talisman  it  was  held 
in  the  highest  esteem. 

Music  played  an  important  part  in  the  curriculum 
of  the  Pythagorean  Brotherhood,  and  the  important 
discovery  that  the  relations  between  the  notes  of 
musical  scales  can  be  expressed  by  means  of  numbers 
is  a  Pythagorean  one.  It  must  have  seemed  to  its 
discoverer — as,  in  a  sense,  it  indeed  is — a  striking 
confirmation  of  the  numerical  theory  of  the  Cosmos. 
The  Pythagoreans  held  that  the  positions  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  were  governed  by  similar  numerical 
relations,  and  that  in  consequence  their  motion  was 
productive  of  celestial  music.  This  concept  of  "  the 
harmony  of  the  spheres  "  is  among  the  most  cele- 
brated of  the  Pythagorean  doctrines,  and  has  found 
ready  acceptance  in  many  mystically-speculative 
minds.  "  Look  how  the  floor  of  heaven,"  says 
Lorenzo  in  Shakespeare's  The  Merchant  of  Venice — 

"...  Look  how  the  floor  of  heaven 
Is  thick  inlaid  with  patines  of  bright  gold : 
There's  not  the  smallest  orb  which  thou  behold'st 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings. 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubins  ; 
Such  harmony  is  in  immortal  souls  ; 
But  whilst  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  it  in,  we  cannot  hear  it."  ^ 

Or,  as  KiNGSLEY  writes  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  When 
I  walk  the  fields  I  am  oppressed  every  now  and  then 
with  an  innate  feeling  that  everything  I  see  has  a 
meaning,  if  I  could  but  understand  it.  And  this 
feeling  of  being  surrounded  with  truths  which  I 
cannot  grasp,  amoimts  to  an  indescribable  awe  some- 
^  Act  v.  scene  i. 


PYTHAGORAS  AND  HIS  PHILOSOPHY     21 

times  !  Everything  seems  to  be  full  of  God's  reflex, 
if  we  could  but  see  it.  Oh !  how  I  have  prayed  to 
have  the  mystery  unfolded,  at  least  hereafter.  To 
see,  if  but  for  a  moment,  the  whole  harmony  of  the 
great  system  !  To  hear  once  the  music  which  the 
whole  universe  makes  as  it  performs  His  bidding !  ''^ 
In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned  the  very  signi- 
ficant fact  that  the  Pythagoreans  did  not  consider  the 
earth,  in  accordance  with  current  opinion,  to  be  a 
stationary  body,  but  believed  that  it  and  the  other 
planets  revolved  about  a  central  point,  or  fire,  as  they 
called  it. 

As  concerns  Pythagoras'  ethical  teaching,  judging 
from  the  so-called  Golden  Verses  attributed  to  him, 
and  no  doubt  written  by  one  of  his  disciples,^  this 
would  appear  to  be  in  some  respects  similar  to  that 
of  the  Stoics  who  came  later,  but  free  from  the 
materialism  of  the  Stoic  doctrines.  Due  regard  for 
oneself  is  blended  with  regard  for  the  gods  and  for 
other  men,  the  atmosphere  of  the  whole  being  at  once 
rational  and  austere.  One  verse — "  Thou  shalt  like- 
wise know,  according  to  Justice,  that  the  nature  of 
this  Universe  is  in  all  things  alike  "  ^ — is  of  particular 
interest,  as  showing  Pythagoras'  belief  in  that  prin- 
ciple of  analogy — that  "  What  is  below  is  as  that 
which  is  above,  what  is  above  is  as  that  which  is 
below  " — ^which  held  so  dominant  a  sway  over  the 

^  Charles  Kingsley  :    His  Letters  and  Memories  of  His 
Life,  edited  by  his  wife  (1883),  p.  28. 

2  It  seems  probable,  though  not  certain,  that  Pythagoras 
wrote  nothing  himself,  but  taught  always  by  the  oral  method. 

3  Cf  the  remarks  of  Hierocles  on  this  verse  in  his  Com- 
mentary. 


22  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

minds  of  ancient  and  mediaeval  philosophers,  leading 
them — in  spite,  I  suggest,  of  its  fundamental  truth 
— into  so  many  fantastic  errors,  as  we  shall  see  in 
future  excursions.  Metempsychosis  was  another 
of  the  Pythagorean  tenets,  a  fact  which  is  inter- 
esting in  view  of  the  modern  revival  of  this  doctrine. 
Pythagoras,  no  doubt,  derived  it  from  the  East, 
apparently  introducing  it  for  the  first  time  to 
Western  thought. 

Such,  in  brief,  were  the  outstanding  doctrines  of 
the  Pythagorean  Brotherhood.  Their  teachings  in- 
cluded, as  we  have  seen,  what  may  justly  be  called 
scientific  discoveries  of  the  first  importance,  as  well 
as  doctrines  which,  though  we  may  feel  compelled 
—  perhaps  rightly  —  to  regard  them  as  fantastic 
now,  had  an  immense  influence  on  the  thought  of 
succeeding  ages,  especially  on  Greek  philosophy  as 
represented  by  Plato  and  the  Neo-Platonists,  and 
the  more  speculative  minds — ^the  occult  philosophers, 
shall  I  say  ? — of  the  latter  mediaeval  period  and  suc- 
ceeding centuries.  The  Brotherhood,  however,  was 
not  destined  to  continue  its  days  in  peace.  As  I  have 
indicated,  it  was  a  philosophical,  not  a  political,  asso- 
ciation ;  but  naturally  Pythagoras'  philosophy  in- 
cluded political  doctrines.  At  any  rate,  the  Brother- 
hood acquired  a  considerable  share  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Croton,  a  fact  which  was  greatly  resented 
by  the  members  of  the  democratic  party,  who  feared 
the  loss  of  their  rights  ;  and,  urged  thereto,  it  is  said, 
by  a  rejected  applicant  for  membership  of  the  Order, 
the  mob  made  an  onslaught  on  the  Brotherhood's 
place  of  assembly  and  burnt  it  to  the  ground.  One 
account  has  it  that  Pythagoras  himself  died  in 


PYTHAGORAS   AND   HIS  PHILOSOPHY     23 

the  conflagration,  a  sacrifice  to  the  mad  fury  of  the 
mob.  According  to  another  account — and  we  Uke 
to  beUeve  that  this  is  the  true  one — he  escaped  to 
Tarentum,  from  which  he  was  banished,  to  find 
an  asylum  in  Metapontum,  where  he  Uved  his  last 
years  in  peace. 

The  Pythagorean  Order  was  broken  up,  but  the 
bonds  of  brotherhood  still  existed  between  its  mem- 
bers. **  One  of  them  who  had  fallen  upon  sickness 
and  poverty  was  kindly  taken  in  by  an  innkeeper. 
Before  dying  he  traced  a  few  mysterious  signs  [the 
pentagram,  no  doubt]  on  the  door  of  the  inn  and 
said  to  the  host :  *  Do  not  be  uneasy,  one  of  my 
brothers  will  pay  my  debts.'  A  year  afterwards,  as 
a  stranger  was  passing  by  this  inn  he  saw  the  signs 
and  said  to  the  host :  *  I  am  a  Pythagorean ;  one  of 
my  brothers  died  here  ;  tell  me  what  I  owe  you  on 
his  account.'  "  ^ 

In  endeavouring  to  estimate  the  worth  of  Pytha- 
goras' discoveries  and  teaching,  Mr  Frankland 
writes,  with  reference  to  his  achievements  in  geo- 
metry :  **  Even  after  making  a  considerable  allowance 
for  his  pupils'  share,  the  Master's  geometrical  work 
calls  for  much  admiration  "  ;  and,  "...  it  cannot  be 
far  wrong  to  suppose  that  it  was  Pythagoras'  wont  to 
insist  upon  proofs,  and  so  to  secure  that  rigour  which 
gives  to  mathematics  its  honourable  position  amongst 
the  sciences."  And  of  his  work  in  arithmetic,  music, 
and  astronomy,  the  same  author  writes :  "...  every- 
where he  appears  to  have  inaugurated  genuinely 
scientific  methods,  and  to  have  laid  the  foundations 
of  a  high  and  liberal  education  " ;  adding,  "  For  nearly 
1  Edouard  ScHURi :  Op,  cit.,  p.  174. 


24  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

a  score  of  centuries,  to  the  very  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  four  Pythagorean  subjects  of  study — arith- 
i  metic,  geometry,  astronomy,  music — were  the  staple 
educational  course,  and  were  bound  together  into  a 
fourfold  way  of  knowledge — ^the  Quadrivium."  ^ 
With  these  words  of  due  praise,  our  present  excursion 
may  fittingly  close. 

1  Op.  cit,  pp.  35,  37,  and  38. 


Ill 

MEDICINE    AND    MAGIC 

There  are  few  tasks  at  once  so  instructive  and  so 
fascinating  as  the  tracing  of  the  development  of  the 
human  mind  as  manifested  in  the  evolution  of 
scientific  and  philosophical  theories.  And  this  is, 
perhaps,  especially  true  when,  as  in  the  case  of 
medicine,  this  evolution  has  followed  paths  so 
tortuous,  intersected  by  so  many  fantastic  byways, 
that  one  is  not  infrequently  doubtful  as  to  the  true 
road.  The  history  of  medicine  is  at  once  the  history 
of  human  wisdom  and  the  history  of  human  credulity 
and  folly,  and  the  romantic  element  (to  use  the  ex- 
pression in  its  popular  acceptation)  thus  introduced, 
whilst  making  the  subject  more  entertaining,  by  no 
means  detracts  from  its  importance  considered 
psychologically. 

To  whom  the  honour  of  having  first  invented  medi- 
cines is  due  is  unknown,  the  origins  of  pharmacy 
being  lost  in  the  twilight  of  myth.  Osiris  and  Isis, 
Bacchus,  Apollo  father  of  the  famous  physician 
iEscuLAPius,  and  Chiron  the  Centaur,  tutor  of  the 
latter,  are  among  the  many  mythological  personages 
who  have  been  accredited  with  the  invention  of 

25 


26  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

physic.  It  is  certain  that  the  art  of  compounding 
medicines  is  extraordinarily  ancient.  There  is  a 
papyrus  in  the  British  Museum  containing  medical 
prescriptions  which  was  written  about  1200  B.C. ; 
and  the  famous  Ebers  papyrus,  which  is  devoted 
to  medical  matters,  is  reckoned  to  date  from  about 
the  year  1550  B.C.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
in  the  prescriptions  given  in  this  latter  papyrus,  as 
seems  to  have  been  the  case  throughout  the  history 
of  medicine,  the  principle  that  the  efficacy  of  a  medi- 
cine is  in  proportion  to  its  nastiness  appears  to  have 
been  the  main  idea.  Indeed,  many  old  medicines 
contained  ingredients  of  the  most  disgusting  nature 
imaginable :  a  mediaeval  remedy  known  as  oil  of 
puppies,  made  by  cutting  up  two  newly-born  puppies 
and  boiling  them  with  one  pound  of  live  earthworms, 
may  be  cited  as  a  comparatively  pleasant  example  of 
the  remedies  (?)  used  in  the  days  when  all  sorts  of 
excreta  were  prescribed  as  medicines. ^ 

Presumably  the  oldest  theory  concerning  the  causa- 
tion of  disease  is  that  which  attributes  all  the  ills  of 
mankind  to  the  malignant  operations  of  evil  spirits, 
a  theory  which  someone  has  rather  fancifully  sug- 
gested is  not  so  erroneous  after  all,  if  we  may  be 
allowed  to  apply  the  term  "  evil  spirits  "  to  the 
microbes  of  modern  bacteriology.  Remnants  of 
this  theory  (which  does — shall  I  say  ? — conceal  a 
transcendental  truth),  that  is,  in  its  original  form, 
still  survive  to  the  present  day  in  various  superstitious 
customs,  whose  absurdity  does  not  need  emphasising  : 

^  See  the  late  Mr  A.  C.  Wootton's  excellent  work. 
Chronicles  of  Pharmacy  (2  vols,  1910),  to  which  I  gladly 
acknowledge  my  indebtedness. 


To  face  p.  26.  PLATE   5, 


5-17!  ^-H'^^^^iffi^  '^-'^'^'^^^  •* 


i'U',.    10. 

Reduced  Facsimile  of  a  Page  of  the  Papyrus  Ebers. 

(By  permission  of  Messrs  Macmillan  &  Co.) 


MEDICINE  AND  MAGIC  27 

for  example,  the  use  of  red  flannel  by  old-fashioned 
folk  with  which  to  tie  up  sore  throats — red  having 
once  been  supposed  to  be  a  colour  very  angatonistic 
to  evil  spirits  ;  so  much  so  that  at  one  time  red  cloth 
hung  in  the  patient's  room  was  much  employed  as  a 
cure  for  smallpox  ! 

Medicine  and  magic  have  always  been  closely 
associated.  Indeed,  the  greatest  name  in  the  his- 
tory of  pharmacy  is  also  what  is  probably  the  greatest 
name  in  the  history  of  magic — ^the  reference,  of 
course,  being  to  Paracelsus  (1493-1541).  Until 
Paracelsus,  partly  by  his  vigorous  invective  and 
partly  by  his  remarkable  cures  of  various  diseases, 
demolished  the  old  school  of  medicine,  no  one  dared 
contest  the  authority  of  Galen  {i^o-circa  205)  and 
AviCENNA  (980-1037).  Galen's  theory  of  disease 
was  largely  based  upon  that  of  the  four  humours  in 
man — ^bile,  blood,  phlegm,  and  black  bile, — which 
were  regarded  as  related  to  (but  not  identical  with) 
the  four  elements — fire,  air,  water,  and  earth, — being 
supposed  to  have  characters  similar  to  these.  Thus, 
to  bile,  as  to  fire,  were  attributed  the  properties  of 
hotness  and  dryness  ;  to  blood  and  air  those  of  hot- 
ness  and  moistness  ;  to  phlegm  and  water  those  of 
coldness  and  moistness ;  and,  finally,  black  bile,  like 
earth,  was  said  to  be  cold  and  dry.  Galen  supposed 
that  an  alteration  in  the  due  proportion  of  these 
humours  gives  rise  to  disease,  though  he  did  not  con- 
sider this  to  be  its  only  cause  ;  thus,  cancer,  it  was 
thought,  might  result  from  an  excess  of  black  bile, 
and  rheumatism  from  an  excess  of  phlegm.  Drugs, 
Galen  argued,  are  of  efficiency  in  the  curing  of 
disease,  according  as  they  possess  one  or  more  of 


28  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

these  so-called  fundamental  properties,  hotness,  dry- 
ness, coldness,  and  moistness,  whereby  it  was  con- 
sidered that  an  excess  of  any  humour  might  be 
counteracted  ;  moreover,  it  was  further  assumed 
that  four  degrees  of  each  property  exist,  and  that  only 
those  drugs  are  of  use  in  curing  a  disease  which  con- 
tain the  necessary  property  or  properties  in  the  degree 
proportionate  to  that  in  which  the  opposite  humour 
or  humours  are  in  excess  in  the  patient's  system. 

Paracelsus'  views  were  based  upon  his  theory  (un- 
doubtedly true  in  a  sense)  that  man  is  a  microcosm, 
a  world  in  miniature.^  Now,  all  things  material, 
taught  Paracelsus,  contain  the  three  principles 
termed  in  alchemistic  phraseology  salt,  sulphur,  and 
mercury.  This  is  true,  therefore,  of  man  :  the 
healthy  body,  he  argued,  is  a  sort  of  chemical  com- 
pound in  which  these  three  principles  are  har- 
moniously blended  (as  in  the  Macrocosm)  in  due 
proportion,  w^hilst  disease  is  due  to  a  preponderance 
of  one  principle,  fevers,  for  example,  being  the  result 
of  an  excess  of  sulphur  (i.e.  the  fiery  principle),  etc. 
Paracelsus,  although  his  theory  was  not  so  different 
from  that  of  Galen,  whose  views  he  denounced,  was 
thus  led  to  seek  for  chemical  remedies,  containing 
these  principles  in  varying  proportions  ;  he  was  not 
content  with  medicinal  herbs  and  minerals  in  their 
crude  state,  but  attempted  to  extract  their  effective 
essences  ;  indeed,  he  maintained  that  the  preparation 
of  new  and  better  drugs  is  the  chief  business  of 
chemistry. 

This  theory  of  disease  and  of  the  efficacy  of  drugs 

^  See  the  "  Note  on  the  Paracelsian  Doctrine  of  the 
Microcosm  '*  below. 


To  face  p.  28. 


PLATE   6. 


Fig.  II. 

Paracelsus  (aged  24),  from  a  Paintini,'  by  Scorel  (13 17),  now  in  the 
Louvre  Gallery. 


MEDICINE  AND  MAGIC  29 

was  complicated  by  many  fantastic  additions ;  ^ 
thus  there  is  the  "  Archaeus,"  a  sort  of  benevolent 
demon,  supposed  by  Paracelsus  to  look  after  all  the 
unconscious  functions  of  the  bodily  organism,  who 
has  to  be  taken  into  account.  Paracelsus  also  held 
the  Doctrine  of  Signatures,  according  to  which  the 
medicinal  value  of  plants  and  minerals  is  indicated 
by  their  external  form,  or  by  some  sign  impressed 
upon  them  by  the  operation  of  the  stars.  A  very 
old  example  of  this  belief  is  to  be  found  in  the  use  of 
mandrake  (whose  roots  resemble  the  human  form) 
by  the  Hebrews  and  Greeks  as  a  cure  for  sterility  ; 
or,  to  give  an  instance  which  is  still  accredited  by 
some,  the  use  of  eye-bright  {Euphrasia  officinalis^  L., 
a  plant  with  a  black  pupil-like  spot  in  its  corolla)  for 
complaints  of  the  eyes.^  Allied  to  this  doctrine  are 
such  beliefs,  once  held,  as  that  the  lungs  of  foxes  are 
good  for  bronchial  troubles,  or  that  the  heart  of  a 
lion  will  endow  one  with  courage  ;  as  Cornelius 
Agrippa  put  it, ''  It  is  well  known  amongst  physicians 
that  brain  helps  the  brain,  and  lungs  the  lungs."  ^ 
In  modern  times  homoeopathy — according  to  which 

^  The  question  of  Paracelsus'  pharmacy  is  further  com- 
plicated by  the  fact  that  this  eccentric  genius  coined  many 
new  words  (without  regard  to  the  principles  of  etymology)  as 
names  for  his  medicines,  and  often  used  the  same  term  to 
stand  for  quite  different  bodies.  Some  of  his  disciples  main- 
tained that  he  must  not  always  be  understood  in  a  literal  sense, 
in  which  probably  there  is  an  element  of  truth.  See,  for 
instance,  A  Golden  and  Blessed  Casket  of  Nature's  Marvels,  by 
Benedictus  Figulus  (trans,  by  A.  E.  Waite,  1893). 

'^  See  Dr  Alfred  C.  Haddon's  Magic  and  Fetishism  (1906), 

p.  15. 

3  Henry  Cornelius  Agrippa:  Occult  Philosophy,  bk.  i. 
chap.  .XV,  (Whitehead's  edition,  Chicago,  1898,  p.  72). 


30  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

a  drug  is  a  cure,  if  administered  in  small  doses,  for 
that  disease  whose  symptoms  it  produces,  if  given  in 
large  doses  to  a  healthy  person — seems  to  bear  some 
resemblance  to  these  old  medical  theories  concern- 
ing the  curing  of  like  by  like.  That  the  system  of 
Hahnemann  (1755-1843),  the  founder  of  homoeo- 
pathy, is  free  from  error  could  be  scarcely  main- 
tained, but  certain  recent  discoveries  in  connection 
with  serum-therapy  appear  to  indicate  that  the  last 
word  has  not  yet  been  said  on  the  subject,  and  the 
formula  "  like  cures  like "  may  still  have  another 
lease  of  life  to  run. 

To  return  to  Paracelsus,  however.  It  may  be 
thought  that  his  views  were  not  so  great  an  advance 
on  those  of  Galen  ;  but  whether  or  not  this  be  the 
case,  his  union  of  chemistry  and  medicine  was  of 
immense  benefit  to  each  science,  and  marked  a  new 
era  in  pharmacy.  Even  if  his  theories  were  highly 
fantastic,  it  was  he  who  freed  medicine  from  the 
shackles  of  traditionalism,  and  rendered  progress  in 
medical  science  possible. 

I  must  not  conclude  these  brief  notes  without  some 
reference  to  the  medical  theory  of  the  medicinal 
efficacy  of  words.  The  Ebers  papyrus  already  men- 
tioned gives  various  formulas  which  must  be  pro- 
nounced when  preparing  and  when  administering  a 
drug  ;  and  there  is  a  draught  used  by  the  Eastern 
Jews  as  a  cure  for  bronchial  complaints  prepared  by 
writing  certain  words  on  a  plate,  washing  them  off 
with  wine,  and  adding  three  grains  of  a  citron  which 
has  been  used  at  the  Tabernacle  festival.  But  enough 
for  our  present  excursion  ;  we  must  hie  us  back  to 
the  modern  world,  with  its  alkaloids,  serums,  and 


MEDICINE  AND   MAGIC  31 

anti-toxins — another  day  we  will,  perhaps,  wander 
again  down  the  by-paths  of  Medicinal  Magic. 

Note  on  the  Paracelsian  Doctrine  of 
THE  Microcosm 

"  Man's  nature,"  writes  Cornelius  Agrippa,  "  is 
the  most  complete  Image  of  the  whole  Universe  ^  ^ 
This  theory,  especially  connected  with  the  name  of 
Paracelsus,  is  worthy  of  more  than  passing  reference; 
but  as  the  consideration  of  it  leads  us  from  medicine 
to  metaphysics,  I  have  thought  it  preferable  to  deal 
with  the  subject  in  a  note. 

Man,  taught  the  old  mystical  philosophers,  is 
threefold  in  nature,  consisting  of  spirit,  soul,  and 
body.  The  Paracelsian  mercury,  sulphur,  and  salt 
were  the  mineral  analogues  of  these.  **  As  to  the 
Spirit,''  writes  Valentine  Weigel  (1533-1588),  a 
disciple  of  Paracelsus,  *'  we  are  of  God,  move  in 
God,  and  live  in  God,  and  are  nourished  of  God. 
Hence  God  is  in  us  and  we  are  in  God  ;  God  hath 
put  and  placed  Himself  in  us,  and  we  are  put  and 
placed  in  God.  As  to  the  Soul,  we  are  from  the 
Firmament  and  Stars,  we  live  and  move  therein, 
and  are  nourished  thereof.  Hence  the  Firmament 
with  its  astralic  virtues  and  operations  is  in  us,  and 
we  in  it.  The  Firmament  is  put  and  placed  in  us, 
and  we  are  put  and  placed  in  the  Firmament.  As  to 
the  Body,  we  are  of  the  elements,  we  move  and  live 
therein,  and  are  nourished  of  them  : — hence  the 
elements  are  in  us,  and  we  in  them.  The  elements, 
by  the  slime,  are  put  and  placed  in  us,  and  we  are 

^  H.  C.  Agrippa:  Occult  Philosophy,  bk.  i.  chap,  xxxiii. 
(Whitehead's  edition,  p.  iii). 


32  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

put  and  placed  in  them."  ^  Or,  to  quote  from  Para- 
celsus himself,  in  his  Hermetic  Astronomy  he  writes  : 
"  God  took  the  body  out  of  which  He  built  up  man 
from  those  things  which  He  created  from  nothingness 
into  something  .  .  .  Hence  man  is  now  a  micro- 
cosm, or  a  little  world,  because  he  is  an  extract  from 
all  the  stars  and  planets  of  the  whole  firmament,  from 
the  earth  and  the  elements,  and  so  he  is  their  quint- 
essence. .  .  .  But  between  the  macrocosm  and  the 
microcosm  this  difference  occurs,  that  the  form, 
image,  species,  and  substance  of  man  are  diverse 
therefrom.  In  man  the  earth  is  flesh,  the  water  is 
blood,  fire  is  the  heat  thereof,  and  air  is  the  balsam. 
These  properties  have  not  been  changed  but  only 
the  substance  of  the  body.  So  man  is  man,  not  a 
world,  yet  made  from  the  world,  made  in  the  likeness, 
not  of  the  world,  but  of  God.  Yet  man  comprises 
in  himself  all  the  qualities  of  the  world.  .  .  .  His 
body  is  from  the  world,  and  therefore  must  be  fed 
and  nourished  by  that  world  from  which  he  has 
sprung.  ...  He  has  been  taken  from  the  earth  and 
from  the  elements,  and  therefore,  must  be  nourished 
by  these.  .  .  .  Now,  man  is  not  only  flesh  and 
blood,  but  there  is  within  the  intellect  which  does  not, 
like  the  complexion,  come  from  the  elements,  but 
from  the  stars.  And  the  condition  of  the  stars  is 
this,  that  all  the  wisdom,  intelligence,  industry  of  the 
animal,  and  all  the  arts  peculiar  to  man  are  contained 
in  them.  From  the  stars  man  has  these  same  things, 
and  that  is  called  the  light  of  Nature ;   in  fact,  it  is 

^Valentine  Weigel:  "Astrology  Theologised" :  The 
Spiritual  Hermeneutics  of  Astrology  and  Holy  Writ,  ed.  by 
Anna  Bonus  Kingsford  (1886),  p.  59. 


MEDICINE  AND  MAGIC  33 

whatever  man  has  found  by  the  Hght  of  Nature.  .  .  . 
Such,  then,  is  the  condition  of  man,  that,  out  of  the 
great  universe  he  needs  both  elements  and  stars, 
seeing  that  he  himself  is  constituted  in  that  way."  ^ 
It  is  not  difficult  to  discern  a  certain  truth  in  all 
this,  making  allowances  for  modes  of  thought  which 
are  not  those  of  the  present  day.  The  Swedish 
philosopher  Swedenborg  (1688-1772)  reaffirmed  the 
theory  in  later  years  ;  but,  as  he  points  out,^  the 
reason  that  man  is  a  microcosm  lies  deeper  than  in 
the  facts  that  his  body  is  of  the  elements  of  this  earth 
and  is  nourished  thereby.  According  to  this  pro- 
found thinker,  form,  spiritually  understood,  is  the 
expression  of  use,  the  uses  of  things  being  indicated 
by  their  forms.  Now,  the  human  form  is  the  highest 
of  all  forms,  because  it  subserves  the  highest  of  all 
uses.  Hence,  both  the  world  of  matter  and  the 
world  of  spirit  are  in  the  human  form,  because  there 
is  a  correspondence  in  use  between  man  and  the 
Cosmos.  We  may,  therefore,  call  man  as  to  his 
body  a  microcosm,  or  little  world  ;  as  to  his  soul  a 
micro-uranos,  or  little  heaven.  Or  we  may  speak 
of  the  macrocosm,  or  great  world,  as  the  Grand  Man, 
and  we  may  say  that  the  Soul  of  this  Grand  Man,  the 
self- existent,  substantial,  and  efficient  cause  of  all 
things,  at  once  immanent  within  yet  transcending  all 
things,  is  God. 

1  The  Hermetic  and  Alchemical  Writings  of  Paracelsus,  ed. 
by  A.  E.  Waite  (1894),  vol.  ii.  pp.  289-291. 

2  See  especially  his  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom,  §§  251  and  319. 


IV 

SUPERSTITIONS   CONCERNING 
BIRDS 

Amongst  the  most  remarkable  of  natural  occurrences 
must  be  included  many  of  the  phenomena  connected 
with  the  behaviour  of  birds.  Undoubtedly  numerous 
species  of  birds  are  susceptible  to  atmospheric 
changes  (of  an  electrical  and  barometric  nature)  too 
slight  to  be  observed  by  man's  unaided  senses  ;  thus 
only  is  to  be  explained  the  phenomenon  of  migration 
and  also  the  many  other  peculiarities  in  the  behaviour 
of  birds  whereby  approaching  changes  in  the  weather 
may  be  foretold.  Probably,  also,  this  fact  has  much 
to  do  with  the  extraordinary  homing  instinct  of 
pigeons.  But,  of  course,  in  the  days  when  meteoro- 
logical science  had  yet  to  be  born,  no  such  explanation 
as  this  could  be  known.  The  ancients  observed 
that  birds  by  their  migrations  or  by  other  peculiarities 
in  their  behaviour  prognosticated  coming  changes 
in  the  seasons  of  the  year  and  other  changes  con- 
nected with  the  weather  (such  as  storms,  etc.)  ;  they 
saw,  too,  in  the  homing  instincts  of  pigeons  an 
apparent  exhibition  of  intelligence  exceeding  that  of 
man.    What  more  natural,  then,  for  them  to  attribute 

34 


SUPERSTITIONS  CONCERNING  BIRDS    35 

foresight  to  birds,  and  to  suppose  that  all  sorts  of 
coming  events  (other  than  those  of  an  atmospheric 
nature)  might  be  foretold  by  careful  observation  of 
their  flight  and  song  ? 

Augury — that  is,  the  art  of  divination  by  observing 
the  behaviour  of  birds — was  extensively  cultivated 
by  the  Etrurians  and  Romans. ^     It  is  still  used,  I 
believe,  by  the  natives  of  Samoa.     The  Romans  had 
an  official  college  of  augurs,  the  members  of  which 
were  originally  three  patricians.     About  300  B.C.  the 
number  of  patrician  augurs  was  increased  by  one, 
and  five  plebeian  augurs  were  added.      Later  the 
number  was  again  increased  to  fifteen.     The  object 
of  augury  was  not  so  much  to  foretell  the  future  as 
to  indicate  what  line  of  action  should  be  followed,  in 
any  given  circumstances,  by  the  nation.     The  augurs 
were  consulted  on  all  matters  of  importance,  and  the 
position  of  augur  was  thus  one  of  great  consequence. 
In  what  appears  to  be  the  oldest  method,  the  augur, 
arrayed  in  a  special  costume,  and  carrying  a  staff  with 
which  to  mark  out  the  visible  heavens  into  houses, 
proceeded  to  an  elevated  piece  of  ground,  where  a 
sacrifice  was  made  and  a  prayer  repeated.     Then, 
gazing   towards   the   sky,   he   waited   until   a   bird 
appeared.     The  point  in  the  heavens  where  it  first 
made  its  appearance  was  carefully  noted,  also  the 
manner  and  direction  of  its  flight,  and  the  point 
where  it  was  lost  sight  of.     From  these  particulars 
an  augury  was  derived,  but,  in  order  to  be  of  effect, 
it  had  to  be  confirmed  by  a  further  one. 

^  This  is  not  quite  an  accurate  definition,  as  *'  auguries  " 
were  also  obtained  from  other  animals  and  from  celestial 
phenomena  (e.g.  lightning),  etc. 


36  BYGONE   BELIEFS 

Auguries  were  also  drawn  from  the  notes  of  birds, 
birds  being  divided  by  the  augurs  into  two  classes  : 
(i)  oscineSy  **  those  which  give  omens  by  their  note," 
and  (ii)  alites,  ''  those  which  afford  presages  by  their 
flight."  ^  Another  method  of  augury  was  performed 
by  the  feeding  of  chickens  specially  kept  for  this 
purpose.  This  was  done  just  before  sunrise  by  the 
pullarius  or  feeder,  strict  silence  being  observed.  If 
the  birds  manifested  no  desire  for  their  food,  the 
omen  was  of  a  most  direful  nature.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  from  the  greediness  of  the  chickens  the  grain 
fell  from  their  beaks  and  rebounded  from  the  ground, 
the  augury  was  most  favourable.  This  latter  augury 
was  known  as  tripudium  solistimum.  "  Any  fraud 
practised  by  the  '  pullarius  ',"  writes  the  Rev.  Edward 
Smedley,  "  reverted  to  his  own  head.  Of  this  we 
have  a  memorable  instance  in  the  great  battle  be- 
tween Papirius  Cursor  and  the  Samnites  in  the  year 
of  Rome  459.  So  anxious  were  the  troops  for  battle, 
that  the  '  pullarius '  dared  to  announce  to  the  consul 
a  *  tripudium  solistimum,'  although  the  chickens 
refused  to  eat.  Papirius  unhesitatingly  gave  the  signal 
for  fight,  when  his  son,  having  discovered  the  false 
augury,  hastened  to  communicate  it  to  his  father. 

*  Do  thy  part  well,'  was  his  reply, '  and  let  the  deceit 
of  the  augur  fall  on  himself.  The  **  tripudium  "  has 
been  announced  to  me,  and  no  omen  could  be  better 
for  the  Roman  army  and  people  ! '  As  the  troops 
advanced,  a  javelin  thrown  at   random   struck  the 

*  pullarius '  dead.     '  The  hand  of  heaven  is  in  the 

battle,'  cried  Papirius ;   '  the  guilty  is   punished  ! ' 

1  Pliny  :  Natural  History,  bk.  x.  chap.  xxii.  (Bostock  and 
Riley's  trans.,^vol.  ii.,  1855,  p.  495). 


SUPERSTITIONS  CONCERNING  BIRDS    37 

and  he  advanced  and  conquered/'  ^  A  coincidence 
of  this  sort,  if  it  really  occurred,  would  very  greatly 
strengthen  the  popular  belief  in  auguries. 

The  cock  has  always  been  reckoned  a  bird  possessed 
of  magic  power.  At  its  crowing,  we  are  told,  all  un- 
quiet spirits  who  roam  the  earth  depart  to  their  dismal 
abodes,  and  the  orgies  of  the  Witches'  Sabbath  termi- 
nate. A  cock  is  the  favourite  sacrifice  offered  to  evil 
spirits  in  Ceylon  and  elsewhere.  Alectromancy  ^ 
was  an  ancient  and  peculiarly  senseless  method  of 
divination  (so  called)  in  which  a  cock  was  employed. 
The  bird  had  to  be  young  and  quite  white.  Its  feet 
were  cut  off  and  crammed  down  its  throat  with  a 
piece  of  parchment  on  which  were  written  certain 
Hebrew  words.  The  cock,  after  the  repetition  of  a 
prayer  by  the  operator,  was  placed  in  a  circle  divided 
into  parts  corresponding  to  the  letters  of  the  alphabet, 
in  each  of  which  a  grain  of  wheat  was  placed.  A 
certain  psalm  was  recited,  and  then  the  letters  were 
noted  from  which  the  cock  picked  up  the  grains,  a 
fresh  grain  being  put  down  for  each  one  picked  up. 
These  letters,  properly  arranged,  were  said  to  give 
the  answer  to  the  inquiry  for  which  divination  was 
made.  I  am  not  sure  what  one  was  supposed  to 
do  if,  as  seems  likely,  the  cock  refused  to  act  in 
the  required  manner. 

The  owl  was  reckoned  a  bird  of  evil  omen  with 
the  Romans,  who  derived  this  opinion  from  the 

^  Rev.  Edward  Smedley,  M.A.  :  The  Occult  Sciences 
(Encyclopedia   Metropolitana),   ed.   by  Elihu    Rich   (1855), 

p.  144. 

*  Cf.  Arthur  Edward  WArrE :  The  Occult  Sciences  (1891), 
pp.  124  and  125. 


38  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Etrurians,  along  with  much  else  of  their  so-called 
science  of  augury.  It  was  particularly  dreaded  if 
seen  in  a  city,  or,  indeed,  anywhere  by  day.  Pliny 
(Caius  PHnius  Secundus,  a.d.  6i-before  115)  informs 
us  that  on  one  occasion  "  a  horned  owl  entered  the 
very  sanctuary  of  the  Capitol  ;  ...  in  consequence 
of  which,  Rome  was  purified  on  the  nones  of  March 
in  that  year."  ^ 

The  folk-lore  of  the  British  Isles  abounds  with 
quaint  beliefs  and  stories  concerning  birds.  There 
is  a  charming  Welsh  legend  concerning  the  robin y 
which  the  Rev.  T.  F.  T.  Dyer  quotes  from  Notes 
and  Queries : — ''  Far,  far  away,  is  a  land  of  woe, 
darkness,  spirits  of  evil,  and  fire.  Day  by  day  does 
this  little  bird  bear  in  his  bill  a  drop  of  water  to  quench 
the  flame.  So  near  the  burning  stream  does  he  fly, 
that  his  dear  little  feathers  are  scorched  ;  and  hence 
he  is  named  Brou-rhuddyn  (Breast-burnt).  To  serve 
little  children,  the  robin  dares  approach  the  infernal 
pit.  No  good  child  will  hurt  the  devoted  benefactor 
of  man.  The  robin  returns  from  the  land  of  fire, 
and  therefore  he  feels  the  cold  of  winter  far  more 
than  his  brother  birds.  He  shivers  in  the  brumal 
blast ;  hungry,  he  chirps  before  your  door."  ^ 

Another  legend  accounts  for  the  robin's  red  breast 
by  supposing  this  bird  to  have  tried  to  pluck  a  thorn 
from  the  crown  encircling  the  brow  of  the  crucified 
Christ,  in  order  to  alleviate  His  sufferings.  No  doubt 
it  is  on  account  of  these  legends  that  it  is  considered  a 

^  Pliny  :  Natural  History,  bk.  x.  chap.  xvi.  (Bostock  and 
Riley's  trans.,  vol.  ii.,  1855,  p.  492). 

2  T.  F.  Thiselton  Dyer,  M.A.  :  English  Folk-Lore  {1878), 
pp.  65  and  66. 


SUPERSTITIONS  CONCERNING  BIRDS    39 

crime,  which  will  be  punished  with  great  misfortune, 
to  kill  a  robin.  In  some  places  the  same  prohibition 
extends  to  the  wren,  which  is  popularly  believed  to 
be  the  wife  of  the  robin.  In  other  parts,  however, 
the  wren  is  (or  at  least  was)  cruelly  hunted  on  certain 
days.  In  the  Isle  of  Man  the  wren-hunt  took  place 
on  Christmas  Eve  and  St  Stephen's  Day,  and  is 
accounted  for  by  a  legend  concerning  an  evil  fairy 
who  lured  many  men  to  destruction,  but  had  to 
assume  the  form  of  a  wren  to  escape  punishment  at 
the  hands  of  an  ingenious  knight-errant. 

For  several  centuries  there  was  prevalent  over  the 
whole  of  civilised  Europe  a  most  extraordinary 
superstition  concerning  the  small  Arctic  bird  resem- 
bling, but  not  so  large  as,  the  common  wild  goose, 
known  as  the  barnacle  or  bernicle  goose.  Max 
Mueller  ^  has  suggested  that  this  word  was  really 
derived  from  Hibernicula,  the  name  thus  referring 
to  Ireland,  where  the  birds  were  caught ;  but  common 
opinion  associated  the  barnacle  goose  with  the  shell- 
fish known  as  the  barnacle  (which  is  found  on  timber 
exposed  to  the  sea),  supposing  that  the  former  was 
generated  out  of  the  latter.  Thus  in  one  old  medical 
writer  we  find  :  "  There  are  founde  in  the  north  parts 
of  Scotland,  and  the  Hands  adiacent,  called  Orchades 
[Orkney  Islands],  certain  trees,  whereon  doe  growe 
certaine  shell  fishes,  of  a  white  colour  tending  to 
russet ;  wherein  are  conteined  little  lining  creatures  : 
which  shells  in  time  of  maturitie  doe  open,  and  out 
of  them  grow  those  little  living  things  ;  which  falling 

^  See  F.  Max  Mueller's  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language 
(1885),  where  a  very  full  account  of  the  tradition  concerning 
the  origin  of  the  barnacle  goose  will  be  found. 


40  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

into  the  water,  doe  become  foules,  whom  we  call 
Barnakles  .  .  .  but  the  other  that  do  fall  vpon  the 
land,  perish  and  come  to  nothing  :  this  much  by 
the  writings  of  others,  and  also  from  the  mouths  of 
the  people  of  those  parts.  .  .  ."  ^ 

The  writer,  however,  who  was  a  well-known 
surgeon  and  botanist  of  his  day,  adds  that  he  had 
personally  examined  certain  shell-fish  from  Lan- 
cashire, and  on  opening  the  shells  had  observed 
within  birds  in  various  stages  of  development.  No 
doubt  he  was  deceived  by  some  purely  superficial 
resemblances — for  example,  the  feet  of  the  barnacle 
fish  resemble  somewhat  the  feathers  of  a  bird.  He 
gives  an  imaginative  illustration  of  the  barnacle  fowl 
escaping  from  its  shell,  which  is  reproduced  in  fig.  12. 

Turning  now  from  superstitions  concerning 
actual  birds  to  legends  of  those  that  are  purely 
mythical,  passing  reference  must  be  made  to  the 
roc,  a  bird  existing  in  Arabian  legend,  which  we  meet 
in  the  Arabian  Nights,  and  which  is  chiefly  remarkable 
for  its  size  and  strength. 

The  phoenix,  perhaps,  is  of  more  interest.  Of 
**  that  famous  bird  of  Arabia,"  Pliny  writes  as 
follows,  prefixing  his  description  of  it  with  the 
cautious  remark,  **  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  its  exist- 
ence is  not  all  a  fable."  **  It  is  said  that  there  is  only 
one  in  existence  in  the  whole  world,  and  that  that 
one  has  not  been  seen  very  often.  We  are  told  that 
this  bird  is  of  the  size  of  an  eagle,  and  has  a  brilliant 
golden  plumage  around  the  neck,  while  the  rest  of 
the  body  is  of  a  purple  colour  ;    except  the  tail, 

1  John  Gerarde  :  The  Herhall ;  or,  Generall  Historie  of 
Plantes  (1597)  >  ^391. 


To  face  />.  40. 


PLATE    7. 


o 

s 

<  ^ 

>    M 

O    1- 

0  J:i 


< 


en  -9 
S3 

a 


SUPERSTITIONS  CONCERNING  BIRDS    41 

which  is  azure,  with  long  feathers  intermingled  of 
a  roseate  hue  ;  the  throat  is  adorned  with  a  crest, 
and  the  head  with  a  tuft  of  feathers.  The  first 
Roman  who  described  this  bird  .  .  .  was  the  senator 
ManiHus.  ...  He  tells  us  that  no  person  has  ever 
seen  this  bird  eat,  that  in  Arabia  it  is  looked  upon 
as  sacred  to  the  sun,  that  it  lives  five  hundred  and 
forty  years,  that  when  it  becomes  old  it  builds  a 
nest  of  cassia  and  sprigs  of  incense,  which  it  fills  with 
perfumes,  and  then  lays  its  body  down  upon  them 
to  die  ;  that  from  its  bones  and  marrow  there  springs 
at  first  a  sort  of  small  worm,  which  in  time  changes 
into  a  little  bird  ;  that  the  first  thing  that  it  does  is 
to  perform  the  obsequies  of  its  predecessor,  and  to 
carry  the  nest  entire  to  the  city  of  the  Sun  near 
Panchaia,  and  there  deposit  it  upon  the  altar  of  that 
divinity. 

**  The  same  Manilius  states  also,  that  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  great  year  is  completed  with  the  life  of 
this  bird,  and  that  then  a  new  cycle  comes  round 
again  with  the  same  characteristics  as  the  former 
one,  in  the  seasons  and  the  appearance  of  the  stars. 
.  .  .  This  bird  was  brought  to  Rome  in  the  censor- 
ship of  the  Emperor  Claudius  .  .  .  and  was  ex- 
posed to  public  view.  .  .  .  This  fact  is  attested  by 
the  public  Annals,  but  there  is  no  one  that  doubts 
that  it  was  a  fictitious  phoenix  only."^ 

The  description  of  the  plumage,  etc.y  of  this  bird 
applies  fairly  well,  as  Cuvier  has  pointed  out ,2  to 

^  Pliny:  Natural  History,  bk.  x.  chap.  ii.  (Bostock  and 
Riley's  trans.,  vol.  ii.,  1855,  pp.  479-481). 

*  See  Cuvier's  The  Animal  Kingdom,  Griffith's  trans., 
vol.  viii.  (1829),  p.  23. 


42  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

the  golden  pheasant,  and  a  specimen  of  the  latter 
may  have  been  the  *'  fictitious  phoenix  ''  referred  to 
above.  That  this  bird  should  have  been  credited 
with  the  extraordinary  and  wholly  fabulous  pro- 
perties related  by  Pliny  and  others  is  not,  however, 
easy  to  understand.  The  phoenix  was  frequently 
used  to  illustrate  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  {e.g.  in  Clement's  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians),  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  originally 
it  was  nothing  more  than  a  symbol  of  immortality 
which  in  time  became  to  be  believed  in  as  a  really 
existing  bird.  The  fact,  however,  that  there  was 
supposed  to  be  only  one  phoenix,  and  also  that  the 
length  of  each  of  its  lives  coincided  with  what  the 
ancients  termed  a  **  great  year,"  may  indicate  that 
the  phoenix  was  a  symbol  of  cosmological  periodicity. 
On  the  other  hand,  some  ancient  writers  {e.g.  Tacitus, 
A.D.  55-120)  explicitly  refer  to  the  phoenix  as  a  symbol 
of  the  sun,  and  in  the  minds  of  the  ancients  the  sun 
was  closely  connected  with  the  idea  of  immortality. 
Certainly  the  accounts  of  the  gorgeous  colours  of  the 
plumage  of  the  phoenix  might  well  be  descriptions 
of  the  rising  sun.     It  appears,  moreover,  that  the 

Egyptian  hieroglyphic  benu,  IL  j  which  is  a  figure 

of  a  heron  or  crane  (and  thus  akin  to  the  phoenix), 
was  employed  to  designate  the  rising  sun. 

There  are  some  curious  Jewish  legends  to  account 
for  the  supposed  immortality  of  the  phoenix.  Accord- 
ing to  one,  it  was  the  sole  animal  that  refused  to  eat 
of  the  forbidden  tree  when  tempted  by  Eve.  Accord- 
ing to  another,  its  immortality  was  conferred  on  it 
by  Noah  because  of  its  considerate  behaviour  in  the 


SUPERSTITIONS  CONCERNING  BIRDS    43 

Ark,  the  phoenix  not  clamouring  for  food  like  the 
other  animals. 1 

There  is  a  celebrated  bird  in  Chinese  tradition, 
the  Fung  Hwang ,  which  some  sinologues  identify 
with  the  phoenix  of  the  West.^  According  to  a  com- 
mentator on  the  'Rh  Ya,  this  "  felicitous  and  perfect 
bird  has  a  cock's  head,  a  snake's  neck,  a  swallow's 
beak,  a  tortoise's  back,  is  of  five  different  colours 
and  more  than  six  feet  high." 

Another  account  (that  in  the  Lun  Yu  Tseh  Shwai 
Shing)  tells  us  that  "  its  head  resembles  heaven,  its 
eye  the  sun,  its  back  the  moon,  its  wings  the  wind, 
its  foot  the  ground,  and  its  tail  the  woof."  Further- 
more, "  its  mouth  contains  commands,  its  heart  is 
conformable  to  regulations,  its  ear  is  thoroughly  acute 
in  hearing,  its  tongue  utters  sincerity,  its  colour  is 
luminous,  its  comb  resembles  uprightness,  its  spur  is 
sharp  and  curved,  its  voice  is  sonorous,  and  its  belly 
is  the  treasure  of  literature."  Like  the  dragon, 
tortoise,  and  unicorn,  it  was  considered  to  be  a 
spiritual  creature  ;  but,  unlike  the  Western  phoenix, 
more  than  one  Fung  Hwang  was,  as  I  have  pointed 
out,  believed  to  exist.  The  birds  were  not  always 
to  be  seen,  but,  according  to  Chinese  records,  they 
made  their  appearance  during  the  reigns  of  certain 

*  The  existence  of  such  fables  as  these  shows  how  grossly 
the  real  meanings  of  the  Sacred  Writings  have  been  misunder- 
stood. 

2  Mr  Chas.  Gould,  B.A.,  to  whose  book  Mythical  Monsters 
(1886)  I  am  very  largely  indebted  for  my  account  of  this  bird, 
and  from  which  I  have  culled  extracts  from  the  Chinese,  is  not 
of  this  opinion.  Certainly  the  fact  that  we  read  of  Fung 
Hwangs  in  the  plural,  wliilst  tradition  asserts  that  there  is 
only  one  phoenix,  seems  to  point  to  a  difference  in  origin. 


44  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

sovereigns.  The  Fung  Hwang  is  regarded  by  the 
Chinese  as  an  omen  of  great  happiness  and  pro- 
sperity, and  its  Hkeness  is  embroidered  on  the  robes 
of  empresses  to  ensure  success.  Probably,  if  the  bird 
is  not  to  be  regarded  as  purely  mythological  and 
symbolic  in  origin,  we  have  in  the  stories  of  it  no 
more  than  exaggerated  accounts  of  some  species  of 
pheasant.  Japanese  literature  contains  similar  stories. 
Of  other  fabulous  bird-forms  mention  may  be 
made  of  the  griffin  and  the  harpy.  The  former  was 
a  creature  half  eagle,  half  lion,  popularly  supposed  to 
be  the  progeny  of  the  union  of  these  two  latter.  It 
is  described  in  the  so-called  Voiage  and  Travaile  of 
Sir  John  Maundeville  in  the  following  terms  ^ : — 
**  Sum  men  seyn,  that  thei  han  the  Body  upward,  as 
an  Egle,  and  benethe  as  a  Lyoun  :  and  treuly  thei 
seyn  sothe,  that  thei  ben  of  that  schapp.  But  o 
Griffoun  hathe  the  body  more  gret  and  is  more  strong 

1  The  Voiage  and  Travaile  of  Sir  John  Maundeville,  Kt. 
Which  treateth  of  the  Way  to  Hierusalem  ;  and  of  Marvayles  of 
Inde,  with  other  Hands  and  Countryes.  Now  Published  entire 
from  an  Original  MS.  in  The  Cotton  Library  (London,  1727), 
cap.  xxvi.  pp.  325  and  326. 

"  This  work  is  mainly  a  compilation  from  the  writings  of 
William  of  Boldensele,  Friar  Odoric  of  Pordenone,  Hetoum  of 
Armenia,  Vincent  de  Beauvais,  and  other  geographers.  It  is 
probable  that  the  name  John  de  Mandeville  should  be  regarded 
as  a  pseudonym  concealing  the  identity  of  Jean  de  Bourgogne, 
a  physician  at  Liege,  mentioned  under  the  name  of  Joannes 
ad  Barbam  in  the  vulgate  Latin  version  of  the  Travels."  (Note 
in  British  Museum  Catalogue).  The  work,  which  was  first 
published  in  French  during  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  achieved  an  immense  popularity,  the  marvels  that  it 
relates  being  readily  received  by  the  credulous  folk  of  that  and 
many  a  succeeding  day. 


To  face  p.  44. 


PLATE    8. 


Fig.  13. 

The  Fung  Hwang,  according  to  the  'Rh   Ya,  from  Gould's 
Mythical  Monsters. 


SUPERSTITIONS  CONCERNING  BIRDS    45 

thanne  8  Lyouns,  of  suche  Lyouns  as  ben  o  this  half  ; 
and  more  gret  and  strongere,  than  an  100  Egles, 
suche  as  we  han  amonges  us.  For  o  Griff oun  there 
will  here,  fleynge  to  his  Nest,  a  gret  Hors,  or  2  Oxen 
zoked  to  gidere,  as  thei  gon  at  the  Plowghe.  For  he 
hathe  his  Talouns  so  longe  and  so  large  and  grete, 
upon  his  Feet,  as  thoughe  thei  weren  Homes  of  grete 
Oxen  or  of  Bugles  or  of  Kyzn  ;  so  that  men  maken 
Cuppes  of  hem,  to  drynken  of  :  and  of  hire  Ribbes 
and  of  the  Pennes  of  hire  Wenges,  men  maken  Bowes 
fulle  strong,  to  schote  with  Arwes  and  Quarelle." 
The  special  characteristic  of  the  griffin  was  its  watch- 
fulness, its  chief  function  being  thought  to  be  that 
of  guarding  secret  treasure.  This  characteristic,  no 
doubt,  accounts  for  its  frequent  use  in  heraldry  as  a 
supporter  to  the  arms.  It  was  sacred  to  Apollo, 
the  sun-god,  whose  chariot  was,  according  to  early 
sculptures,  drawn  by  griffins.  Pliny,  who  speaks 
of  it  as  a  bird  having  long  ears  and  a  hooked  beak, 
regarded  it  as  fabulous. 

The  harpies  {i.e,  snatchers)  in  Greek  mythology  are 
creatures  like  vultures  as  to  their  bodies,  but  with 
the  faces  of  women,  and  armed  with  sharp  claws. 

*'  Of  Monsters  all,  most  Monstrous  this  ;  no  greater  Wrath 
God  sends  'mongst  Men  ;    it  comes  from  depth  of  pitchy 
Hell: 
And  Virgin's  Face,  but  Womb  like  Gulf  unsatiate  hath, 
Her  Hands  are  griping  Claws,  her  Colour  pale  and  fell."  * 

We  meet  with  the  harpies  in  the  story  of  Phineus, 
a  son  of  Agenor,  King  of  Thrace.  At  the  bidding 
of  his  jealous  wife,  Id^^a,  daughter  of  Dardanus, 

^  Quoted  from  Vergil  by  John  Guillim  in  his  A  Display 
of  Heraldry  (sixth  edition,  1724),  p.  271. 


46  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Phineus  put  out  the  sight  of  his  children  by  his 
former  wife,  Cleopatra,  daughter  of  Boreas.  To 
punish  this  cruelty,  the  gods  caused  him  to  become 
bHnd,  and  the  harpies  were  sent  continually  to  harass 
and  affright  him,  and  to  snatch  away  his  food  or 
defile  it  by  their  presence.  They  were  afterwards 
driven  away  by  his  brothers-in-law,  Zetes  and 
Calais.  It  has  been  suggested  that  originally  the 
harpies  were  nothing  more  than  personifications  of 
the  swift  storm-winds ;  and  few  of  the  old  natural- 
ists, credulous  as  they  were,  regarded  them  as  real 
creatures,  though  this  cannot  be  said  of  all.  Some 
other  fabulous  bird-forms  are  to  be  met  with  in 
Greek  and  Arabian  mythologies,  etc.,  but  they  are 
not  of  any  particular  interest.  And  it  is  time  for  us 
to  conclude  our  present  excursion,  and  to  seek  for 
other  byways. 


THE    POWDER    OF    SYMPATHY: 

A   CURIOUS  MEDICAL  SUPERSTITION 

Out  of  the  superstitions  of  the  past  the  science  of 
the  present  has  gradually  evolved.  In  the  Middle 
Ages,  what  by  courtesy  we  may  term  medical  science 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  little  better  than  a  heterogeneous 
collection  of  superstitions,  and  although  various 
reforms  were  instituted  with  the  passing  of  time, 
superstition  still  continued  for  long  to  play  a  promi- 
nent part  in  medical  practice. 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  these  old  medical  (or 
perhaps  I  should  say  surgical)  superstitions  was  that 
relating  to  the  Powder  of  Sympathy,  a  remedy  (?) 
chiefly  remembered  in  connection  with  the  name  of 
Sir  Kenelm  Digby  (1603-1665),  though  he  was  prob- 
ably not  the  first  to  employ  it.  The  Powder  itself, 
which  was  used  as  a  cure  for  wounds,  was,  in  fact, 
nothing  else  than  common  vitriol,^  though  an  im- 

1  Green  vitriol,  ferrous  sulphate  heptahydrate,  a  compound 
of  iron,  sulphur,  and  oxygen,  crystallised  with  seven  molecules 
of  water,  represented  by  the  formula  FeSO^ .  7H2O.  On  ex- 
posure to  the  air  it  loses  water,  and  is  gradually  converted  into 
basic  ferric  sulphate.  For  long,  green  vitriol  was  confused 
with  blue  vitriol,  which  generally  occurs  as  an  impurity  in 
crude  green  vitriol.  Blue  vitriol  is  copper  sulphate  penta- 
hydrate,  CUSO4 .  5H2O. 

47 


48  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

proved  and  more  elegant  form  (if  one  may  so  describe 
it)  was  composed  of  vitriol  desiccated  by  the  sun's 
rays,  mixed  with  gum  tragacanth.  It  was  in  the 
application  of  the  Powder  that  the  remedy  w^as 
peculiar.  It  was  not,  as  one  might  expect,  applied 
to  the  wound  itself,  but  any  article  that  might  have 
blood  from  the  wound  upon  it  was  either  sprinkled 
with  the  Powder  or  else  placed  in  a  basin  of  water 
in  which  the  Powder  had  been  dissolved,  and  main- 
tained at  a  temperate  heat.  Meanwhile,  the  wound 
was  kept  clean  and  cool. 

Sir  Kenelm  Digby  appears  to  have  delivered  a 
discourse  dealing  with  the  famous  Powder  before  a 
learned  assembly  at  Montpellier  in  France  ;  at  least 
a  work  purporting  to  be  a  translation  of  such  a  dis- 
course was  published  in  1658,^  and  further  editions 
appeared  in  1660  and  1664.  Kenelm  was  a  son 
of  the  Sir  Everard  Digby  (i  578-1 606)  who  was 
executed  for  his  share  in  the  Gunpowder  Plot.  In 
spite  of  this  fact,  however,  James  I.  appears  to  have 
regarded  him  with  favour.  He  was  a  man  of  roman- 
tic temperament,  possessed  of  charming  manners, 
considerable  learning,  and  even  greater  credulity. 
His  contemporaries  seem  to  have  differed  in  their 
opinions  concerning  him.  Evelyn  (1620- 1706),  the 
diarist,  after  inspecting  his  chemical  laboratory, 
rather  harshly  speaks  of  him  as  "  an  errant  mounte- 
bank ".     Elsewhere  he  well  refers  to  him  as  *'  a  teller 

^  A  late  Discourse  .  .  .  by  Sir  Kenelm  Digpy,  Kt.  &c. 
Touching  the  Cure  of  Wounds  by  the  Powder  of  Sympathy  .  .  . 
rendered  .  .  .  out  of  French  into  English  by  R.  White,  Gent. 
(1658).  This  is  entitled  the  second  edition,  but  appears  to 
have  been  the  first. 


To  face  ^,48. 


PLATE   0. 


Sir  Kenei.m  Dighv 


Fig.  15. 

from  an  engraved  Portrait 
after  Vandyke. 


bv    HOUBRAKEN. 


THE  POWDER  OF  SYMPATHY        49 

of  strange  things  '' — this  was  on  the  occasion  of 
Digby's  relating  a  story  of  a  lady  who  had  such  an 
aversion  to  roses  that  one  laid  on  her  cheek  produced 
a  blister  ! 

To  return  to  the  Late  Discourse  :  after  some  pre- 
liminary remarks,  Sir  Kenelm  records  a  cure  which 
he  claims  to  have  effected  by  means  of  the  Powder. 
It  appears  that  James  Howell  (i 594-1 666,  after- 
wards historiographer  royal  to  Charles  H.),  had, 
in  the  attempt  to  separate  two  friends  engaged  in 
a  duel,  received  two  serious  wounds  in  the  hand. 
To  proceed  in  the  writer's  own  words : — '*  It  was 
my  chance  to  be  lodged  hard  by  him ;  and  four  or 
five  days  after,  as  I  was  making  myself  ready,  he 
[Mr  Howell]  came  to  my  House,  and  prayed  me 
to  view  his  wounds ;  for  I  understand,  said  he, 
that  you  have  extraordinary  remedies  upon  such 
occasions,  and  my  Surgeons  apprehend  some  fear, 
that  it  may  grow  to  a  Gangrene,  and  so  the  hand 
must  be  cut  off.  .  .  . 

"  I  asked  him  then  for  any  thing  that  had  the  blood 
upon  it,  so  he  presently  sent  for  his  Garter,  where- 
with his  hand  was  first  bound  :  and  having  called 
for  a  Bason  of  water,  as  if  I  would  wash  my  hands ; 
I  took  an  handfull  of  Powder  of  Vitrol,  which  I  had 
in  my  study,  and  presently  dissolved  it.  As  soon 
as  the  bloody  garter  was  brought  me,  I  put  it  within 
the  Bason,  observing  in  the  interim  what  Mr  Howel 
did,  who  stood  talking  with  a  Gentleman  in  the  corner 
of  my  Chamber,  not  regarding  at  all  what  I  was 
doing  :  but  he  started  suddenly,  as  if  he  had  found 
some  strange  alteration  in  himself;  I  asked  him 
what  he  ailed  ?      I  know  not  what  ailes  me,  but  I 

4 


50     I  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

find  that  I  feel  no  more  pain,  methinks  that  a 
pleasing  kind  of  freshnesse,  as  it  were  a  wet  cold 
Napkin  did  spread  over  my  hand,  which  hath  taken 
away  the  inflammation  that  tormented  me  before  ;  I 
replied,  since  that  you  feel  already  so  good  an  effect 
of  my  medicament,  I  advise  you  to  cast  away  all 
your  Plaisters,  onely  keep  the  wound  clean,  and  in  a 
moderate  temper  'twixt  heat  and  cold.  This  was 
presently  reported  to  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  ^ 
and  a  little  after  to  the  King  [James  I.],  who  were 
both  very  curious  to  know  the  issue  of  the  businesse, 
which  was,  that  after  dinner  I  took  the  garter  out 
of  the  water,  and  put  it  to  dry  before  a  great  fire  ;  it 
was  scarce  dry,  but  Mr  Howels  servant  came  run- 
ning [and  told  me] ,  that  his  Master  felt  as  much  burn- 
ing as  ever  he  had  done,  if  not  more,  for  the  heat 
was  such,  as  if  his  hand  were  betwixt  coales  of  fire : 
I  answered,  that  although  that  had  happened  at 
present,  yet  he  should  find  ease  in  a  short  time  ;  for 
I  knew  the  reason  of  this  new  accident,  and  I  would 
provide  accordingly,  for  his  Master  should  be  free 
from  that  inflammation,  it  may  be,  before  he  could 
possibly  return  unto  him :  but  in  case  he  found  no 
ease,  I  wished  him  to  come  presently  back  again, 
if  not  he  might  forbear  coming.  Thereupon  he 
went,  and  at  the  instant  I  did  put  again  the  garter 
into  the  water  ;  thereupon  he  found  his  Master 
without  any  pain  at  all.  To  be  brief,  there  was 
no  sense  of  pain  afterward  :  but  within  five  or 
six  dayes  the  wounds  were  cicatrized,  and  entirely 
healed."  i 

Sir  Kenelm  proceeds,  in  this  discourse,  to  relate 
1  Ihid.,  pp.  7-1 1. 


To  face  p.  50. 


PLATE   10. 


Fig.  16. 

James  Howell,  from  an  engraved  Portrait  b}-  Claude  Melan  and 
Abraham  Bosse. 


(By  permission  of  the  British  Mtisetim.     Photo  by  Donald  Macbeth,  London.) 


THE  POWDER  OF  SYMPATHY        51 

that  he  obtained  the  secret  of  the  Powder  from  a 
CarmeHte  who  had  learnt  it  in  the  East.  Sir 
Kenelm  says  that  he  told  it  only  to  King  James  and 
his  celebrated  physician,  Sir  Theodore  Mayerne 
(1573-1655).  The  latter  disclosed  it  to  the  Duke  of 
Mayerne,  whose  surgeon  sold  the  secret  to  various 
persons,  until  ultimately,  as  Sir  Kenelm  remarks,  it 
became  known  to  every  country  barber.  However, 
Digby's  real  connection  with  the  Powder  has  been 
questioned.  In  an  Appendix  to  Dr  Nathanael 
Highmore's  (1613-1685)  The  History  of  Generation, 
published  in  1651,  entitled  A  Discourse  of  the  Cure 
of  Wounds  by  Sympathy,  the  Powder  is  referred 
to  as  Sir  Gilbert  Talbot's  Powder;  nor  does  it 
appear  to  have  been  Digby  who  brought  the  claims 
of  the  Sympathetic  Powder  before  the  notice  of 
the  then  recently-formed  Royal  Society,  although 
he  was  a  by  no  means  inactive  member  of  the 
Society.  Highmore,  however,  in  the  Appendix  to 
the  work  referred  to  above,  does  refer  to  Digby's 
reputed  cure  of  Howell's  wounds  already  men- 
tioned ;  and  after  the  publication  of  Digby's  Dis- 
course the  Powder  became  generally  known  as 
Sir  Kenelm  Digby's  Sympathetic  Powder.  As 
such  it  is  referred  to  in  an  advertisement  appended 
to  Wit  and  Drollery  {1661)  by  the  bookseller, 
Nathanael  Brook. ^ 

^  This  advertisement  is  as  follows  :  "  These  are  to  give 
notice,  that  Sir  Kenelme  Digbies  Sympathetica!  Powder  pre- 
par'd  by  Promethean  fire,  curing  all  green  wounds  that  come 
within  the  compass  of  a  Remedy ;  and  likewise  the  Tooth-ache 
infaUibly  in  a  very  short  time  :  Is  to  be  had  at  Mr  Nathanael 
Brook's  at  the  Angel  in  Cornhil." 


52  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

The  belief  in  cure  by  sympathy,  however,  is  much 
older  than  Digby's  or  Talbot's  Sympathetic  Powder. 
Paracelsus  described  an  ointment  consisting  essenti- 
ally of  the  moss  on  the  skull  of  a  man  who  had  died 
a  violent  death,  combined  with  boar's  and  bear's  fat, 
burnt  worms,  dried  boar's  brain,  red  sandal-wood 
and  mummy,  which  was  used  to  cure  (?)  wounds  in 
a  similar  manner,  being  applied  to  the  weapon  with 
which  the  hurt  had  been  inflicted.  With  reference 
to  this  ointment,  readers  will  probably  recall  the 
passage  in  Scott's  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  (canto 
3,  stanza  23),  respecting  the  magical  cure  of 
William  of  Deloraine's  wound  by  ''  the  Ladye  of 
Branksome  "  : — 

"  She  drew  the  splinter  from  the  wound 

And  with  a  charm  she  stanch'd  the  blood  ; 
She  bade  the  gash  be  cleans'd  and  bound  : 

No  longer  by  his  couch  she  stood  ; 
But  she  had  ta'en  the  broken  lance, 

And  washed  it  from  the  clotted  gore 

And  salved  the  splinter  o'er  and  o'er. 
William  of  Deloraine,  in  trance, 

Whene'er  she  turned  it  round  and  round. 

Twisted  as  if  she  gall'd  his  wound. 
Then  to  her  maidens  she  did  say 

That  he  should  be  whole  man  and  sound 
Within  the  course  of  a  night  and  day. 
Full  long  she  toil'd  ;  for  she  did  rue 
Mishap  to  friend  so  stout  and  true." 

Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626)  writes  of  sympathetic 
cures  as  follows  : — "  It  is  constantly  Received,  and 
Avouched,  that  the  Anointing  of  the  Weapon^  that 
maketh  the  Wound ^  wil  heale  the  Wound  it  selfe.  In 
this  Experiment^  upon  the  Relation  of  Men  of  Credit, 


To  face  p.  52. 


PLATE   11. 


Fig.  17. 
Nathanael  Highmore,  M.D.,  from  an  engraved  Tortrait  by  A.  Blooteling. 

(By  permission  of  the  British  Museum.     Photo  by  Lonxld  Macbeth,  London.) 


THE  POWDER  OF  SYMPATHY        53 

(though  my  selfe,  as  yet,  am  not  fully  inclined  to 
beleeve  it,)  you  shal  note  the  Points  following  ;  First, 
the  Ointment  ...  is  made  of  Divers  ingredients  \ 
whereof  the  Strangest  and  Hardest  to  come  by,  are 
the  Mosse  upon  the  Skull  of  a  dead  Man,  Vnburied  ; 
And  the  Fats  of  a  Boare,  and  a  Beare,  killed  in  the 
Act  of  Generation.  These  Two  last  I  could  easily 
suspect  to  be  prescribed  as  a  Starting  Hole  ;  That  if 
the  Experiment  proved  not,  it  mought  be  pretended, 
that  the  Beasts  were  not  killed  in  due  Time  ;  For  as 
for  the  Mosse,  it  is  certain  there  is  great  Quantity  of 
it  in  Ireland,  upon  Slain  Bodies,  laid  on  HeapSy 
Vnburied.  The  other  Ingredients  are,  the  B loud- 
Stone  in  Powder,  and  some  other  Things,  which 
seeme  to  have  a  Vertue  to  Stanch  Bloud;  As  also 
the  Mosse  hath.  .  .  .  Secondly,  the  same  kind  of 
Ointment,  applied  to  the  Hurt  it  selfe,  worketh  not 

the  Effect ;  but  onely  applied  to  the  Weapon 

Fourthly,  it  may  be  applied  to  the  Weapon,  though 
the  Party  Hurt  be  at  a  great  Distance.  Fifthly,  it 
seemeth  the  Imagination  of  the  Party,  to  be  Cured,  is 
not  needfull  to  Concurre  ;  For  it  may  be  done  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  Party  Wounded  ;  And  thus 
much  hath  been  tried,  that  the  Ointment  (for  Experi- 
ments sake,)  hath  been  wiped  off  the  Weapon,  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  Party  Hurt,  and  presently  the 
Party  Hurt,  hath  been  in  great  Rage  of  Paine,  till  the 
Weapon  was  Reannointed.  Sixthly,  it  is  affirmed, 
that  if  you  cannot  get  the  Weapon,  yet  if  you  put  an 
Instrument  of  Iron,  or  Wood,  resembling  the  Weapon, 
into  the  Wound,  whereby  it  bleedeth,  the  Annointing 
of  that  Instrument  will  serve,  and  work  the  Effect, 
This  I  doubt  should  be  a  Device,  to  keep  this  strange 


54  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Forme  of  Curey  in  Request,  and  Use  ;  Because  many 
times  you  cannot  come  by  the  Weapon  it  selve. 
Seventhly,  the  Wound  be  at  first  Washed  clean  with 
White  Wine  or  the  Parties  own  Water  ;  And  then 
bound  up  close  in  Fine  Linen  and  no  more  Dressing 
renewed,  till  it  be  wholes  ^ 

Owing  to  the  demand  for  making  this  ointment, 
quite  a  considerable  trade  was  done  in  skulls  from 
Ireland  upon  which  moss  had  grown  owing  to  their 
exposure  to  the  atmosphere,  high  prices  being 
obtained  for  fine  specimens. 

The  idea  underlying  the  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
sympathetic  remedies,  namely,  that  by  acting  on  part 
of  a  thing  or  on  a  symbol  of  i!,  one  thereby  acts 
magically  on  the  whole  or  the  thing  symbolised,  is 
the  root-idea  of  all  magic,  and  is  of  extreme  antiquity. 
DiGBY  and  others,  however,  tried  to  give  a  natural 
explanation  to  the  supposed  efficacy  of  the  Powder. 
They  argued  that  particles  of  the  blood  would  ascend 
from  the  bloody  cloth  or  weapon,  only  coming  to  rest 
when  they  had  reached  their  natural  home  in  the 
wound  from  which  they  had  originally  issued.  These 
particles  would  carry  with  them  the  more  volatile 
part  of  the  vitriol,  which  would  effect  a  cure  more 
readily  than  when  combined  with  the  grosser  part 
of  the  vitriol.  In  the  days  when  there  was  hardly 
any  knowledge  of  chemistry  and  physics,  this 
theory  no  doubt  bore  every  semblance  of  truth. 
In  passing,  however,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
Digby's  Discourse  called  forth  a  reply  from  J.  F. 

^  Francis  Bacon  :  Sylva  Sylvarmn :  or,  A  Natural  History 
,  .  .  Published  after  the  Authors  death  .  .  .  The  sixt  Edition 
.  .  .  (1651),  p.  217. 


To  face  ^.54. 


PLATE   12. 


Fig.  18. 

Francis  Bacon,  from  the  Frontispiece  to  his  Sylva  Sylvarum 
(6th  edition,  165 1). 


THE  POWDER  OF  SYMPATHY        55 

Helvetius  (or  Schweitzer,  1625-1709),  physician 
to  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who  afterwards  became 
celebrated  as  an  alchemist  who  had  achieved  the 
magnum  optis.^ 

Writing  of  the  Sympathetic  Powder,  Professor  De 
Morgan  wittily  argues  that  it  must  have  been  quite 
efficacious.  He  says :  "  The  directions  were  to 
keep  the  wound  clean  and  cool,  and  to  take  care 
of  diet,  rubbing  the  salve  on  the  knife  or  sword. 
If  we  remember  the  dreadful  notions  upon  drugs 
which  prevailed,  both  as  to  quantity  and  quality, 
we  shall  readily  see  that  any  way  of  not  dress- 
ing the  wound  would  have  been  useful.  If  the 
physicians  had  taken  the  hint,  had  been  careful  of 
diet,  etc.,  and  had  poured  the  little  barrels  of  medicine 
down  the  throat  of  a  practicable  doll,  they  would  have 
had  their  magical  cures  as  well  as  the  surgeons."  ^  As 
Dr  Pettigrew  has  pointed  out,^  Nature  exhibits  very 
remarkable  powers  in  effecting  the  healing  of  wounds 
by  adhesion,  when  her  processes  are  not  impeded. 
In  fact,  many  cases  have  been  recorded  in  which 
noses,  ears,  and  fingers  severed  from  the  body  have 
been  re-joined  thereto,  merely  by  washing  the  parts, 
placing  them  in  close  continuity,  and  allowing  the 
natural  powers  of  the  body  to  effect  the  healing. 
Moreover,  in  spite  of  Bacon's  remarks  on  this  point, 
the  effect  of  the  imagination  of  the  patient,  who  was 

1  See  my  Alchemy  :  Ancient  and  Modern  (191 1),  §§  63-67. 

2  Professor  Augustus  De  Morgan  :  A  Budget  of  Paradoxes 
(1872),  p.  66. 

3  Thomas  Joseph  Pettigrew,  F.R.S.  :  On  Superstitions 
connected  with  the  History  and  Practice  of  Medicine  and  Surgery 
(1844),  pp.  164-167. 


S6  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

usually  not  ignorant  that  a  sympathetic  cure  was  to 
be  attempted,  must  be  taken  into  account ;  for, 
without  going  to  the  excesses  of  *'  Christian  Science  '' 
in  this  respect,  the  fact  must  be  recognised  that  the 
state  of  the  mind  exercises  a  powerful  effect  on  the 
natural  forces  of  the  body,  and  a  firm  faith  is  un- 
doubtedly helpful  in  effecting  the  cure  of  any  sort 
of  ill. 


VI 

THE    BELIEF    IN   TALISMANS 

The  word  "  talisman  "  is  derived  from  the  Arabic 
**  tilsam,"  '*  a  magical  image,"  through  the  plural 
form  "  tilsamen/'  This  Arabic  word  is  itself  prob- 
ably derived  from  the  Greek  TeXeor/ma  in  its  late 
meaning  of  "  a  religious  mystery  "  or  "  consecrated 
object  '\  The  term  is  often  employed  to  designate 
amulets  in  general,  but,  correctly  speaking,  it  has  a 
more  restricted  and  special  significance.  A  talisman 
may  be  defined  briefly  as  an  astrological  or  other 
symbol  expressive  of  the  influence  and  power  of  one 
of  the  planets,  engraved  on  a  sympathetic  stone  or 
metal  (or  inscribed  on  specially  prepared  parchment) 
under  the  auspices  of  this  planet. 

Before  proceeding  to  an  account  of  the  preparation 
of  talismans  proper,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to 
notice  some  of  the  more  interesting  and  curious  of 
other  amulets.  All  sorts  of  substances  have  been 
employed  as  charms,  sometimes  of  a  very  unpleasant 
nature,  such  as  dried  toads.  Generally,  however, 
amulets  consist  of  stones,  herbs,  or  passages  from 
Sacred  Writings  written  on  paper.  This  latter  class 
are  sometimes  called  '*  characts,"  as  an  example  of 
which  may  be  mentioned  the  Jewish  phylacteries. 

57 


58 


BYGONE  BELIEFS 


Every  precious  stone  was  supposed  to  exercise  its 
own  peculiar  virtue ;  for  instance,  amber  was 
regarded  as  a  good  remedy  for  throat  troubles,  and 
agate  was  thought  to  preserve  from  snake-bites. 
Elihu  Rich  ^  gives  a  very  full  list  of  stones  and  their 
supposed  virtues.  Each  sign  of  the  zodiac  was  sup- 
posed to  have  its  own  particular  stone  ^  (as  shown  in 
the  annexed  table),  and  hence  the  superstitious 
though  not  inartistic  custom  of  wearing  one's  birth- 


Month  (com- 

Astro- 

mencing 

Sign  of  the  Zodiac. 

logical 
Symbol. 

about  the 

2ist  of 
preceding 
month) . 

Stone. 

Aries,  the  Ram 

T 

April 

Sardonyx. 

Taurus,  the  Bull 

^ 

May 

CorneHan. 

Gemini,  the  Twins 

n 

June 

Topaz. 

Cancer,  the  Crab 

OS 

July 

Chalcedony. 

Leo,  the  Lion    . 

ft 

August 

Jasper. 

Virgo,  the  Virgin 

^ 

September 

Emerald. 

Libra,  the  Balance 

-''^ 

October 

Beryl. 

Scorpio,  the  Scorpior 

I     111 

November 

Amethyst. 

Sagittarius,  the  Arche 

r        t 

December 

Hyacinth 
(= Sapphire). 

Capricorn,  the  Goat 

n 

January 

Chrysoprase. 

Aquarius,  the  Water- 

xc 

February 

Crystal. 

bearer 

Pisces,  the  Fishes 

K 

March 

Sapphire 
(= Lapis 
lazuli). 

1  Elihu  Rich:  The  Occult  Sciences  {Encyclopoidia  Metro- 
politana,  1855),  pp.  348  et  seq. 

^  With  regard  to  these  stones,  however,  there  is  much  con- 
fusion and  dilierence  of  opinion.  The  arrangement  adopted 
in  the  table  here  given  is  that  of  Cornelius  Agrippa  {Occult 
Philosophy,  bk.  ii.).     A  comparatively  recent  work,  esteemed 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         59 

stone  for  ''  luck  '\  The  belief  in  the  occult  powers 
of  certain  stones  is  by  no  means  non-existent  at  the 
present  day ;  for  even  in  these  enlightened  times 
there  are  not  wanting  those  who  fear  the  beautiful 
opal,  and  put  their  faith  in  the  virtues  of  New  Zealand 
green-stone. 

Certain  herbs,  culled  at  favourable  conjunctions  of 
the  planets  and  worn  as  amulets,  were  held  to  be  very 
efficacious  against  various  diseases.  Precious  stones 
and  metals  were  also  taken  internally  for  the  same 

by  modem  occultists,  namely,  The  Light  of  Egypt,  or  the  Science 
of  the  Soul  and  the  Stars  (1889),  gives  the  following  scheme  : — 

T  =  Amethyst.  s[Z5= Emerald.  =:i:= Diamond.  ]^=Onyx  (Chalce- 
dony). 

tt  =  Agate.  £=Ruby.  n]^=Topaz.  05= Sapphire  (sky- 
blue). 

n=  Beryl.         nj= Jasper.      I' =  Carbuncle.  K=  Chrysolite. 

Common  superstitious  opinion  regarding  birth-stones,  as 
reflected,  for  example,  in  the  "lucky  birth  charms"  exhibited 
in  the  windows  of  the  jewellers'  shops,  considerably  diverges 
in  this  matter  from  the  views  of  both  these  authorities.  The 
usual  scheme  is  as  follows  : — 

Jan.  =Garnet.  May  =Emerald.  Sept. = Sapphire. 

Feb.  =  Amethyst.  June= Agate.  Oct.  =Opal. 

Mar.  =  Bloodstone.  July  =Ruby.  Nov.  =Topaz. 

Apr.  =  Diamond.  Aug.  =  Sardonyx.  Dec.  =  Turquoise. 

The  bloodstone  is  frequently  assigned  either  to  Aries  or 
Scorpio,  owing  to  its  symbolical  connection  with  Mars  ;  and 
the  opal  to  Cancer,  which  in  astrology  is  the  constellation  of 
the  moon. 

Confusion  is  rendered  still  worse  by  the  fact  that  the  ancients, 
whilst  in  some  cases  using  the  same  names  as  ourselves,  applied 
them  to  different  stones ;  thus  their  "  hyacinth "  is  our 
"  sapphire,"  whilst  their  "sapphire"  is  our  "  lapis  lazuli". 


6o  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

purpose — "  remedies  ''  which  in  certain  cases  must 
have  proved  exceedingly  harmful.  One  theory  put 
forward  for  the  supposed  medical  value  of  amulets 
was  the  Doctrine  of  Effluvia.  This  theory  supposes 
the  amulets  to  give  off  vapours  or  effluvia  which 
penetrate  into  the  body  and  effect  a  cure.  It  is,  of 
course,  true  that  certain  herbs,  etc.^  might,  under  the 
heat  of  the  body,  give  off  such  effluvia,  but  the  theory 
on  the  whole  is  manifestly  absurd.  The  Doctrine 
of  Signatures,  which  we  have  already  encountered  in 
our  excursions,^  may  also  be  mentioned  in  this  con- 
nection as  a  complementary  and  equally  untenable 
hypothesis. 

According  to  Elihu  Rich,^  the  following  were  the 
commonest  Egyptian  amulets  : — 

1.  Those  inscribed  with  the  figure  of  Serapisy 
used  to  preserve  against  evils  inflicted  by  earth. 

2.  Figure  of  CanopuSy  against  evil  by  water. 

3.  Figure  of  a  hawky  against  evil  from  the  air. 

4.  Figure  of  an  asp,  against  evil  by  fire. 

Paracelsus  believed  there  to  be  much  occult 
virtue  in  an  alloy  of  the  seven  chief  metals,  which  he 
called  Electrum.  Certain  definite  proportions  of 
these  metals  had  to  be  taken,  and  each  was  to  be 
added  during  a  favourable  conjunction  of  the  planets. 
From  this  electrum  he  supposed  that  valuable  amulets 
and  magic  mirrors  could  be  prepared. 

A  curious  and  ancient  amulet  for  the  cure   of 

various  diseases,  particularly  the  ague,  was  a  triangle 

formed  of  the  letters  of  the  word  "  Abracadabra." 

The  usual  form  was  that  shown  in  fig.  19,  and  that 

1  See  "  Medicine  and  Magic.*'  *  Op.  cit.,  p.  343. 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS 


6i 


shown  in  fig.  20  was  also  known.    The  origin  of  this 
magical  word  is  lost  in  obscurity. 

The  belief  in  the  horn  as  a  powerful  amulet, 
especially  prevalent  in  Italy,  where  is  it  the  custom 
of  the  common  people  to  make  the  sign  of  the  mano 
cornuto  to  avoid  the  consequence  of  the  dreaded 


ABRACADABRA 

ABRACADABR 

ABRACADAB 

ABRACADA 

ABRACAD 

ABRACA 

ABRAC 

ABRA 

ABR 

AB 

A 


ABRACADABRA 
BRACADABRA 
RACADABRA 
ACADABRA 
CADABRA 
ADABRA 
DABRA 
ABRA 
BRA 
RA 
A 


Fig.  19. 


Fig,  20. 


"  Abracadabra  "  Amulets. 


jettatore  or  evil  eye,  can  be  traced  to  the  fact  that 
the  horn  was  the  symbol  of  the  Goddess  of  the  Moon. 
Probably  the  belief  in  the  powers  of  the  horse-shoe  ^ 
had  a  similar  origin.  Indeed,  it  seems  likely  that 
not  only  this,  but  most  other  amulets,  like  talismans 
proper — as  will  appear  below, — were  originally  de- 
signed as  appeals  to  gods  and  other  powerful  spiritual 
beings. 

^  See  Frederick  T.  Elworthy's  Horns  of  Honour  (1900), 
especially  pp.  56  et  seq. 


62 


BYGONE  BELIEFS 


To  turn  our  attention,  however,  to  the  art  of  pre- 
paring taHsmans  proper  :  I  may  remark  at  the  outset 
that  it  was  necessary  for  the  taHsman  to  be  prepared 
by  one's  own  self — a  task  by  no  means  easy  as  a  rule. 
Indeed,  the  right  mental  attitude  of  the  occultist  was 
insisted  upon  as  essential  to  the  operation. 

As  to  the  various  signs  to  be  engraven  on  the 
talismans,  various  authorities  differ,  though  there  are 
certain  points  connected  with  the  art  of  talismanic 
magic  on  which  they  all  agree.  It  so  happened  that 
the  ancients  were  acquainted  with  seven  metals  and 
seven  planets  (including  the  sun  and  moon  as  planets), 
and  the  days  of  the  week  are  also  seven.  It  was 
concluded,  therefore,  that  there  was  some  occult  con- 
nection between  the  planets,  metals,  and  days  of  the 
week.  Each  of  the  seven  days  of  the  week  was 
supposed  to  be  under  the  auspices  of  the  spirits  of 
one  of  the  planets  ;  so  also  was  the  generation  in  the 
womb  of  Nature  of  each  of  the  seven  chief  metals. 

In  the  following  table  are  shown  these  particulars 
in  detail : — 


I. 

2. 

Planet. 

Symbol. 

Sun 

Moon    . 
Mars     . 
Mercury 

0 
D 

Jupiter 

Venus 
Saturn . 

h 

Day  of 
Week. 

4- 
Metal. 

Sunday 
Monday 
Tuesday 
Wednesday 

Gold 
Silver 
Iron 
^Mercury 

Thursday 

Friday 

Saturday 

Tin 

Copper 

Lead 

5- 
Colour. 


Gold  or  yellow. 

Silver  or  white. 

Red. 

Mixed    colours    or 

purple. 
Violet  or  blue. 
Turquoise  or  green. 
Black. 


Used  in  the  form  of  a  solid  amalgam  for  talismans. 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         63 

Consequently,  the  metal  of  which  a  talisman  was  to 
be  made,  and  also  the  time  of  its  preparation,  had  to 
be  chosen  with  due  regard  to  the  planet  under  which 
it  was  to  be  prepared.^  The  power  of  such  a  talisman 
was  thought  to  be  due  to  the  genie  of  this  planet — a 
talisman,  was,  in  fact,  a  silent  evocation  of  an  astral 
spirit.  Examples  of  the  belief  that  a  genie  can  be 
bound  up  in  an  amulet  in  some  way  are  afforded 

1  In  this  connection  a  rather  surprising  discovery  made  by 
Mr  W.  GORN  Old  (see  his  A  Manual  of  Occultism,  1911,  pp. 
7  and  8)  must  be  mentioned.  The  ancient  Chaldeans  appear 
invariably  to  have  enumerated  the  planets  in  the  following 
order:  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Sun,  Veniis,  Mercury,  Moon — 
which  order  was  adopted  by  the  mediaeval  astrologers.  Let 
us  commence  with  the  Sun  in  the  above  sequence,  and  write 
down  every  third  planet ;  we  then  have — 


Sun 

.    Sunday. 

Moon 

.     Monday. 

Mars 

.     Tuesday. 

Mercury . 

.     Wednesday 

Jupiter   . 

.     Thursday. 

Venus     . 

.     Friday. 

Saturn    . 

.     Saturday. 

That  is  to  say,  we  have  the  planets  in  the  order  in  which  they 
were  supposed  to  rule  over  the  days  of  the  week.  This  is, 
perhaps,  not  so  surprising,  because  it  seems  probable  that,  each 
day  being  first  divided  into  twenty-four  hours,  it  was  assumed 
that  the  planets  ruled  for  one  hour  in  turn,  in  the  order  first 
mentioned  above.  Each  day  was  then  named  after  the  planet 
which  ruled  during  its  first  hour.  It  will  be  found  that  if  we 
start  with  the  Sun  and  write  down  every  twenty-fourth 
planet,  the  result  is  exactly  the  same  as  if  we  write  down 
every  third.  But  Mr  Old  points  out  further,  doing  so  by 
means  of  a  diagram  which  seems  to  be  rather  cumbersome, 
that  if  we  start  with  Saturn  in  the  first  place,  and  write  down 
every  fifth  planet,  and  then  for  each  planet  substitute  the 


64 


BYGONE  BELIEFS 


by  the  story  of  Aladdin's  lamp  and  ring  and  other 
stories  in  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights.  Sometimes 
the  talismanic  signs  were  engraved  on  precious  stones, 
sometimes  they  were  inscribed  on  parchment  ;  in 
both  cases  the  same  principle  held  good,  the  nature 
of  the  stone  chosen,  or  the  colour  of  the  ink  employed, 
being  that  in  correspondence  with  the  planet  under 
whose  auspices  the  talisman  was  prepared. 

All  the  instruments  employed  in  the  art  had  to  be 
specially  prepared  and  consecrated.  Special  rob^s 
had  to  be  worn,  perfumes  and  incense  burnt,  and 
invocations,  conjurations,  etc.^  recited,  all  of  which 
depended  on  the  planet  ruling  the  operation.     A 

metal  over  which  it  was  supposed  to  rule,  we  then  have  these 
metals  arranged  in  descending  order  of  atomic  weights,  thus  : — 

Saturn        ....  Lead  (=207). 

Mercury      ....  Mercury  (=200). 

Sun Gold  (=197). 

Jupiter       ....  Tin  (=119). 

Moon  ....  Silver  (=108). 

Venus         ....  Copper  (=64).  - 

Mars Iron  (=56). 

Similarly  we  can,  starting  from  any  one  of  these  orders, 
pass  to  the  other  two.  The  fact  is  a  very  surprising  one, 
because  the  ancients  could  not  possibly  have  been  acquainted 
with  the  atomic  weights  of  the  metals,  and,  it  is  important  to 
note,  the  order  of  the  densities  of  these  metals,  which  might 
possibly  have  been  known  to  them,  is  by  no  means  the  same 
as  the  order  of  their  atomic  weights.  Whether  the  fact  indi- 
cates a  real  relationship  between  the  planets  and  the  metals, 
or  whether  there  is  some  other  explanation,  I  am  not  prepared 
to  say.  Certainly  some  explanation  is  needed  :  to  say  that 
the  fact  is  mere  coincidence  is  unsatisfactory,  seeing  tha*^ 
the  odds  against,  not  merely  this,  but  any  such  regularity 
occurring  by  chance  —  as  calculated  by  the  mathematical 
theory  of  probability — are  119  to  i. 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         65 

description  of  a  few  typical  talismans  in  detail  will 
not  here  be  out  of  place. 

In  The  Key  of  Solomon  the  King  (translated  by 
S.  L.  M.  Mathers,  1889)^  ^^^  described  five,  six,  or 

^  The  Clavicula  Salomonis,  or  Key  of  Solomon  the  King,  con- 
sists mainly  of  an  elaborate  ritual  for  the  evocation  of  the 
various  planetary  spirits,  in  which  process  the  use  of  talismans 
or  pentacles  plays  a  prominent  part.  It  is  claimed  to  be  a 
work  of  white  magic,  but,  inasmuch  as  it,  like  other  old  books 
making  the  same  claim,  gives  descriptions  of  a  pentacle  for 
causing  ruin,  destruction,  and  death,  and  another  for  causing 
earthquakes — to  give  only  two  examples, — the  distinction 
between  black  and  white  magic,  which  we  shall  no  doubt 
encounter  again  in  later  excursions,  appears  to  be  somewhat 
arbitrary. 

Regarding  the  authorship  of  the  work,  Mr  Mathers,  trans- 
lator and  editor  of  the  first  printed  copy  of  the  book,  says, 
"  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  the  tradition  which  assigns  the 
autl^orship  of  the  *  Key  '  to  King  Solomon."  If  this  view  be 
accepted,  however,  it  is  abundantly  evident  that  the  Key  as 
it  stands  at  present  {in  which  we  find  S.  John  quoted,  and 
mention  made  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul)  must  have  received 
some  considerable  alterations  and  additions  at  the  hands  of 
later  editors.  But  even  if  we  are  compelled  to  assign  the 
Clavicula  Salomonis  in  its  present  form  to  the  fourteenth  or 
fifteenth  century,  we  must,  I  think,  allow  that  it  was  based 
upon  traditions  of  the  past,  and,  of  course,  the  possibility 
remains  that  it  might  have  been  based  upon  some  earlier  work. 
With  regard  to  the  antiquity  of  the  planetary  sigils,  Mr 
Mathers  notes  '*  that,  among  the  Gnostic  talismans  in  the 
British  Museum,  there  is  a  ring  of  copper  with  the  sigils  of 
^  Venus,  which  are  exactly  the  same  as  those  given  by  mediaeval 
writers  on  magic." 

In  spite  of  the  absurdity  of  its  claims,  viewed  in  the  light  of 
modern  knowledge,  the  Clavicula  Salomonis  exercised  a  con- 
siderable influence  in  the  past,  and  is  to  be  regarded  as  one  of 
the  chief  sources  of  mediaeval  ceremonial  magic.  Historically 
speaking,  therefore,  it  is  a  book  of  no  little  importance. 

5 


66  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

seven  talismans  for  each  planet.  Each  of  these  was 
supposed  to  have  its  own  peculiar  virtues,  and  many 
of  them  are  stated  to  be  of  use  in  the  evocation  of 
spirits.  The  majority  of  them  consist  of  a  central 
design  encircled  by  a  verse  of  Hebrew  Scripture. 


Fig.  21. 
The  First  Pentacle  of  the  Sun,  from  Clavicula  Salomonis. 

The  central  designs  are  of  a  varied  character,  generally 
geometrical  figures  and  Hebrew  letters  or  words,  or 
magical  characters.  Five  of  these  talismans  are  here 
portrayed,  the  first  three  described  differing  from 
the  above.  The  translations  of  the  Hebrew  verses, 
etc.,  given  below  are  due  to  Mr  Mathers. 

The  First  Pentacle  of  the  Sun, — "  The  Countenance 
of  Shaddai  the  Almighty,  at  Whose  aspect  all  creatures 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         67 

obey,  and  the  Angelic  Spirits  do  reverence  on  bended 
knees."  About  the  face  is  the  name  "  El  Shaddai  ". 
Around  is  written  in  Latin  :  "  Behold  His  face  and 
form  by  Whom  all  things  were  made,  and  Whom  all 
creatures  obey  ''  (see  fig.  21). 


Fig.  22. 
The  Fifth  Pentacle  of  Mars,  from  Clavicula  Salomonis. 

The  Fifth  Pentacle  of  Mars. — "  Write  thou  this 
Pentacle  upon  virgin  parchment  or  paper  because  it 
is  terrible  unto  the  Demons,  and  at  its  sight  and 
aspect  they  will  obey  thee,  for  they  cannot  resist  its 
presence.''  The  design  is  a  Scorpion,^  around  which 
the  word  Hvl  is  repeated.     The  Hebrew  versicle 

^  In  astrology  the  zodiacal  sign  of  the  Scorpion  is  the 
"  night  house  "  of  the  planet  Mars. 


68  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

is  from  Psalm  xci.  13  :  "  Thou  shalt  go  upon  the 
lion  and  adder,  the  young  lion  and  the  dragon  shalt 
thou  tread  under  thy  feet  "  (see  fig.  22). 

The  Third  Pentacle  of  the  Moon. — '*  This  being 
duly  borne  with  thee  when  upon  a  journey,  if  it  be 


Fig.  23. 
The  Third  Pentacle  of  the  Moon,  from  Clavicula  Salomonis. 

properly  made,  serveth  against  all  attacks  by  night, 
and  against  every  kind  of  danger  and  peril  by  Water." 
The  design  consists  of  a  hand  and  sleeved  forearm 
(this  occurs  on  three  other  moon  talismans),  together 
with  the  Hebrew  names  Aub  and  Vevaphel.  The 
versicle  is  from  Psalm  xl.  13  :  'Be  pleased  O  Ihvh 
to  deliver  me,'^0  Ihvh  make  haste  to  help  me  ''  (see 
%•  23). 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         69 

The  Third  Pentacle  of  Venus, — "  This,  if  it  be  only 
shown  unto  any  person,  serveth  to  attract  love.  Its 
Angel  Monachiel  should  be  invoked  in  the  day  and 
hour  of  Venus,  at  one  o'clock  or  at  eight."  The 
design  consists  of  two  triangles  joined  at  their  apices, 


Fig.  24. 
The  Third  Pentacle  of  Venus,  from  Clavicula  Salomonis. 

with  the  following  names — Ihvh,  Adonai,  Ruach, 
Achides,  i^galmiel,  Monachiel,  and  Degaliel.  The 
versicle  is  from  Genesis  i.  28  :  "  And  the  Elohim 
blessed  them,  and  the  Elohim  said  unto  them.  Be  ye 
fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and 
subdue  it  ''  (see  fig.  24). 

The  Third  Pentacle  of  Mercury. — '*  This  serves  to 
invoke   the    Spirits   subject   unto    Mercury ;     and 


70  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

especially  those  who  are  written  in  this  Pentacle." 
The  design  consists  of  crossed  lines  and  magical 
characters  of  Mercury.  Around  are  the  names  of 
the  angels,  Kokaviel,  Ghedoriah,  Savaniah,  and 
Chokmahiel  (see  fig.  25). 


Fig.  25. 
The  Third  Pentacle  of  Mercury,  from  Clavicula  Salomonis. 

Cornelius  Agrippa,  in  his  Three  Books  of  Occult 
Philosophy^  describes  another  interesting  system  of 
talismans.  Francis  Barrett's  Magus,  or  Celestial 
Intelligencer,  sl  well-known  occult  work  published 
in  the  first  year  of  the  nineteenth  century,  I  may 
mention,  copies  Agrippa 's  system  of  talismans,  with- 
out acknowledgment,  almost  word  for  word.  To 
each  of  the  planets  is  assigned  a  magic  square  or 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         71 

table,  i.e.  a  square  composed  of  numbers  so  arranged 
that  the  sum  of  each  row  or  column  is  always  the 
same.  For  example,  the  table  for  Mars  is  as 
follows  : — 


II 

24 

7 

20 

3 

4 

12 

25 

8 

16 

17 

5 

13 

21 

9 

10 

18 

I 

14 

22 

23 

6 

19 

2 

15 

It  will  be  noticed  that  every  number  from  i  up  to 
the  highest  possible  occurs  once,  and  that  no  number 
occurs  twice.  It  will  also  be  seen  that  the  sum  of 
each  row  and  of  each  column  is  always  65.  Similar 
squares  can  be  constructed  containing  any  square 
number  of  figures,  and  it  is,  indeed,  by  no  means 
surprising  that  the  remarkable  properties  of  such 
"  magic  squares,"  before  these  were  explained 
mathematically,  gave  rise  to  the  belief  that  they  had 
some  occult  significance  and  virtue.  From  the 
magic  squares  can  be  obtained  certain  numbers 
which  are  said  to  be  the  numbers  of  the  planets ; 
their  orderliness,  we  are  told,  reflects  the  order 
of  the  heavens,  and  from  a  consideration  of  them 
the  magical  properties  of  the  planets  which  they 
represent  can  be  arrived  at.  For  example,  in 
the  above  table  the  number  of  rows  of  numbers 
is  5.  The  total  number  of  numbers  in  the  table 
is  the  square  of  this  number,  namely,  25,  which  is 
also  the  greatest  number  in  the  table.  The  sum 
of  any  row  or  column  is  65.  And,  finally,  the  sum 
of  all  the  numbers  is  the  product  of  the  number  of 
rows  (namely,  5)  and  the  sum  of  any  row  (namely, 
65),  i-e.  325.     These  numbers,  namely,  5,  25,  65,  and 


72  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

325,  are  the  numbers  of  Mars.  Sets  of  numbers  for 
the  other  planets  are  obtained  in  exactly  the  same 
manner.^ 

Now  to  each  planet  is  assigned  an  Intelligence  or 
good  spirit,  and  an  Evil  Spirit  or  demon  ;  and  the 
names  of  these  spirits  are  related  to  certain  of  the 
numbers  of  the  planets.  The  other  numbers  are 
also  connected  with  holy  and  magical  Hebrew  names. 
Agrippa,  and  Barrett  copying  him,  gives  the  follow- 
ing table  of  *'  names  answering  to  the  numbers  of 
Mars  "  :— 

5.  He,  the  letter  of  the  holy  name.  n 

25.  -rr^ 

65.  Adonai.  ^d*tn 

325.  Graphiel,  the  Intelligence  of  Mars.  ^N^DNnJi 

325.  Barzabel,  the  Spirit  of  Mars.  Snini^ii 

Similar  tables  are  given  for  the  other  planets.  The 
numbers  can  be  derived  from  the  names  by  regarding 
the  Hebrew  letters  of  which  they  are  composed  as 
numbers,  in  which  case  n  (Aleph)  to  id  (Teth) 
represent  the  units  i  to  9  in  order,  ^  (Jod)  to  i? 
(Tzade)  the  tens  10  to  90  in  order,  p  (Koph)  to  n 
(Tau)  the  hundreds  100  to  400,  whilst  the  hundreds 
500  to  900  are  represented  by  special  terminal  forms 
of  certain  of  the  Hebrew  letters.^     It  is  evident  that 

^  Readers  acquainted  with  mathematics  will  notice  that  if  n 
is  the  number  of  rows  in  such  a  "  magic  square,"  the  other 
numbers  derived  as  above  will  be  w^,  ^n{n^-\-i),  and  ^n^{n^-\-i). 
This  can  readily  be  proved  by  the  laws  of  arithmetical  pro- 
gressions. Rather  similar  but  more  complicated  and  less 
uniform  "  magic  squares"  are  attributed  to  Paracelsus. 

^  It  may  be  noticed  that  this  makes  SnIni^II  equal  to  326, 
one  unit  too  much.    Possibly  an  Aleph  should  be  omitted. 


To  face  p.  72. 

Seal  of  /Cars 


Fig.  26. 


®t  bis  Intelligence 


PLATE   13. 
Qt  bid  Spirit. 


Fig. 


Fig.  28. 


The  Seals^of  Mars,  his  InteUigence,  and  his  Spirit,  from  Barrett' 
Magus  (1801). 


Seal  of  /liars— tlron. 

Fig.  29. 
The  Tahsman  of  Mars,  from  Barrett's  Magus. 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         73 

no  little  wasted  ingenuity  must  have  been  employed 
in  working  all  this  out. 

Each  planet  has  its  own  seal  or  signature,  as  well 
as  the  signature  of  its  intelligence  and  the  signature 
of  its  demon.  These  signatures  were  supposed  to 
represent  the  characters  of  the  planets'  intelligences 
and  demons  respectively.  The  signature  of  Mars  is 
shown  in  fig.  26,  that  of  its  intelligence  in  fig.  27, 
and  that  of  its  demon  in  fig.  28. 

These  various  details  were  inscribed  on  the  talis- 
mans— each  of  which  was  supposed  to  confer  its 
own  peculiar  benefits — as  follows  :  On  one  side 
must  be  engraved  the  proper  magic  table  and  the 
astrological  sign  of  the  planet,  together  with  the 
highest  planetary  number,  the  sacred  names  corre- 
sponding to  the  planet,  and  the  name  of  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  planet,  but  not  the  name  of  its  demon. 
On  the  other  side  must  be  engraved  the  seals  of  the 
planet  and  of  its  intelligence,  and  also  the  astrological 
sign.  Barrett  says,  regarding  the  demons :  ^  **  It  is 
to  be  understood  that  the  intelligences  are  the  pre- 
siding good  angels  that  are  set  over  the  planets  ;  but 
that  the  spirits  or  daemons,  with  their  names,  seals, 
or  characters,  are  never  inscribed  upon  any  Talisman, 
except  to  execute  any  evil  effect,  and  that  they  are 
subject  to  the  intelligences,  or  good  spirits  ;  and 
again,  when  the  spirits  and  their  characters  are  used, 
it  will  be  more  conducive  to  the  effect  to  add  some 
divine  name  appropriate  to  that  effect  which  we 
desire."  Evil  talismans  can  also  be  prepared,  we 
are  informed,  by  using  a  metal  antagonistic  to  the 

^  Francis  Barrett:  The  Magus,  or  Celestial  Intelligencer 
(1801),  bk.  i.  p.  146. 


74  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

signs  engraved  thereon.  The  complete  taUsman  of 
Mars  is  shown  in  fig.  29. 

Alphonse  Louis  Constant/  a  famous  French 
occultist  of  the  nineteenth  century,  who  wrote  under 
the  name  of  **  6liphas  Levi/'  describes  yet  another 
system  of  talismans.  He  says  :  "  The  Pentagram 
must  be  always  engraved  on  one  side  of  the  talisman, 
with  a  circle  for  the  Sun,  a  crescent  for  the  Moon,  a 
winged  caduceus  for  Mercury,  a  sword  for  Mars,  a 
G  for  Venus,  a  crown  for  Jupiter,  and  a  scythe  for 
Saturn.  The  other  side  of  the  talisman  should  bear 
the  sign  of  Solomon,  that  is,  the  six-pointed  star 
formed  by  two  interlaced  triangles  ;  in  the  centre 
there  should  be  placed  a  human  figure  for  the  sun 
talismans,  a  cup  for  those  of  the  Moon,  a  dog's  head 
for  those  of  Jupiter,  a  lion  for  those  of  Mars,  a  dove's 
for  those  of  Venus,  a  bull's  or  goat's  for  those  of 
Saturn.  The  names  of  the  seven  angels  should  be 
added  either  in  Hebrew,  Arabic,  or  magic  characters 
similar  to  those  of  the  alphabets  of  Trimethius.  The 
two  triangles  of  Solomon  may  be  replaced  by  the 
double  cross  of  Ezekiel's  wheels,  this  being  found  on 
a  great  number  of  ancient  pentacles.  All  objects  of 
this  nature,  whether  in  metals  or  in  precious  stones, 
should  be  carefully  wrapped  in  silk  satchels  of  a 
colour  analogous  to  the  spirit  of  the  planet,  perfumed 
with  the  perfumes  of  the  corresponding  day,  and 
preserved  from  all  impure  looks  and  touches."^ 

^LiFHAs  L6vi,  following  Pythagoras  and  many 

*  For  a  biographical  and  critical  account  of  this  extra- 
ordinary personage  and  his  views,  see  Mr  A.  E.  Waite's  The 
Mysteries  of  Magic  :  a  Digest  of  the  Writings  of  £liphas  Levi 
(1897).  ^  Op.  cit.,  p.  204. 


To  face  /?.  74. 


PLATE    14. 


Fig.  30. 

The  Pentagram  embellished  according  to 
^LIPHAS  Livi. 


Fig.  31. 

The  Hexagram,  or  Seal  of  Solomon,  embellished 
according  to  Eliphas  L6vi. 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         75 

of  the  medigeval  magicians,  regarded  the  pentagram, 
or  five-pointed  star,  as  an  extremely  powerful 
pentacle.  According  to  him,  if  with  one  horn  in  the 
ascendant  it  is  the  sign  of  the  microcosm — Man. 
With  two  horns  in  the  ascendant,  however,  it  is  the 
sign  of  the  Devil,  "  the  accursed  Goat  of  Mendes," 
and  an  instrument  of  black  magic.  We  can,  indeed, 
trace  some  faint  likeness  between  the  pentagram  and 
the  outline  form  of  a  man,  or  of  a  goat's  head,  accord- 
ing to  whether  it  has  one  or  two  horns  in  the  ascen- 
dant respectively,  which  resemblances  may  account 
for  this  idea.  Fig.  30  shows  the  pentagram  embel- 
lished with  other  symbols  according  to  £liphas  Li^vi, 
whilst  fig.  31  shows  his  embellished  form  of  the  six- 
pointed  star,  or  Seal  of  Solomon.  This,  he  says, 
is  "  the  sign  of  the  Macrocosmos,  but  is  less  power- 
ful than  the  Pentagram,  the  microcosmic  sign,''  thus 
contradicting  Pythagoras,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
regarded  the  pentagram  as  the  sign  of  the  Macro- 
cosm. £liphas  LiEVi  asserts  that  he  attempted  the 
evocation  of  the  spirit  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  in 
London  on  24th  July  1854,  by  the  aid  of  a  pentagram 
and  other  magical  apparatus  and  ritual,  apparently 
with  success,  if  we  may  believe  his  word.  But  he 
sensibly  suggests  that  probably  the  apparition  which 
appeared  was  due  to  the  effect  of  the  ceremonies 
on  his  own  imagination,  and  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  such  magical  experiments  are  injurious  to 
health.  1 

Magical  rings  were  prepared  on  the  same  principle 
as  were  talismans.    Says  Cornelius  Agrippa:  "  The 
manner  of  making  these  kinds  of  Magical  Rings  is  this, 
^  Op.  cit.,  pp.  446-450. 


76  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

viz. :  When  any  Star  ascends  fortunately,  with  the 
fortunate  aspect  or  conjunction  of  the  Moon,  we  must 
take  a  stone  and  herb  that  is  under  that  Star,  and  make 
a  ring  of  the  metal  that  is  suitable  to  this  Star,  and  in 
it  fasten  the  stone,  putting  the  herb  or  root  under  it— 
not  omitting  the  inscriptions  of  images,  names,  and 
characters,  as  also  the  proper  suffumigations.  .  .  ."  ^ 
Solomon's  ring  was  supposed  to  have  been  pos- 
sessed of  remarkable  occult  virtue.  Says  Josephus 
{c.  A.D.  37-100)  :  *'  God  also  enabled  him  [Solomon] 
to  learn  that  skill  which  expels  demons,  which  is  a 
science  useful  and  sanative  to  men.  He  composed 
such  incantations  also  by  which  distempers  are 
alleviated.  And  he  left  behind  him  the  manner  of 
using  exorcisms,  by  which  they  drive  away  demons, 
so  that  they  never  return  ;  and  this  method  of  cure 
is  of  great  force  unto  this  day  ;  for  I  have  seen  a 
certain  man  of  my  own  country,  whose  name  was 
Eleazar,  releasing  people  that  were  demoniacal  in  the 
presence  of  Vespasian,  and  his  sons,  and  his  captains, 
and  the  whole  multitude  of  his  soldiers.  The 
manner  of  the  cure  was  this  ;  he  put  a  ring  that  had 
under  the  seal  a  root  of  one  of  those  sorts  mentioned 
by  Solomon,  to  the  nostrils  of  the  demoniac,  after 
which  he  drew  out  the  demon  through  his  nostrils  : 
and  when  the  man  fell  down  immediately,  he  abjured 
him  to  return  unto  him  no  more,  making  still  mention 
of  Solomon,  and  reciting  the  incantations  which  he 
composed."  ^ 

^  H.  C.  Agrippa:  Occult  Philosophy,  bk.  i.  chap,  xlvii. 
(Whitehead's  edition,  pp.  141  and  142). 

'^  Flavius  Josephus  :  The  Antiquities  of  the  Jews  (trans,  by 
W.  Whiston),  bk.  viii.  chap,  ii.,  §  5  (45)  to  (47). 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         77 

Enough  has  been  said  already  to  indicate  the 
general  nature  of  talismanic  magic.  No  one  could 
maintain  otherwise  than  that  much  of  it  is  pure 
nonsense ;  but  the  subject  should  not,  therefore,  be 
dismissed  as  valueless,  or  lacking  significance.  It  is 
past  belief  that  amulets  and  talismans  should  have 
been  believed  in  for  so  long  unless  they  appeared  to 
be  productive  of  some  of  the  desired  results,  though 
these  may  have  been  due  to  forces  quite  other  than 
those  which  were  supposed  to  be  operative.  Indeed, 
it  may  be  said  that  there  has  been  no  widely  held 
superstition  which  does  not  embody  some  truth, 
like  some  small  specks  of  gold  hidden  in  an  uninviting 
mass  of  quartz.  As  the  poet  Blake  put  it :  *'  Every- 
thing possible  to  be  believ'd  is  an  image  of  truth  "  ;  ^ 
and  the  attempt  may  here  be  made  to  extract  the 
gold  of  truth  from  the  quartz  of  superstition  concern- 
ing talismanic  magic.  For  this  purpose  the  various 
theories  regarding  the  supposed  efficacy  of  talismans 
must  be  examined. 

Two  of  these  theories  have  already  been  noted, 
but  the  doctrine  of  effluvia  admittedly  applied  only 
to  a  certain  class  of  amulets,  and,  I  think,  need  not 
be  seriously  considered.  The  *'  astral-spirit  theory  *' 
(as  it  may  be  called),  in  its  ancient  form  at  any  rate, 
is  equally  untenable  to-day.  The  discoveries  of  new 
planets  and  new  metals  seem  destructive  of  the  belief 
that  there  can  be  any  occult  connection  between 
planets,  metals,  and  the  days  of  the  week,  although 
the  curious  fact  discovered  by  Mr  Old,  to  which  I 
have  referred  (footnote,  p.  63),  assuredly  demands 
an  explanation,  and  a  certain  validity  may,  perhaps, 

^  "  Proverbs  of  Hell  "  (The  Marriage  of  Heaven  and  Hell). 


78  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

be  allowed  to  astrological  symbolism.  As  concerns 
the  belief  in  the  existence  of  what  may  be  called 
(although  the  term  is  not  a  very  happy  one)  ''  dis- 
carnate  spirits,"  however,  the  matter,  in  view  of  the 
modern  investigation  of  spiritistic  and  other  abnormal 
psychical  phenomena,  stands  in  a  different  position. 
There  can,  indeed,  be  little  doubt  that  very  many  of 
the  phenomena  observed  at  spiritistic  seances  come 
under  the  category  of  deliberate  fraud,  and  an  even 
larger  number,  perhaps,  can  be  explained  on  the 
theory  of  the  subconscious  self.  I  think,  however, 
that  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  there  is  a  residuum 
of  phenomena  which  can  only  be  explained  by  the 
operation,  in  some  way,  of  discarnate  intelligences.^ 
Psychical  research  may  be  said  to  have  supplied  the 
modern  world  with  the  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
discarnate  personalities,  and  of  their  operation  on 
the  material  plane,  which  the  ancient  w^orld  lacked. 
But  so  far  as  our  present  subject  is  concerned,  all 
the  evidence  obtainable  goes  to  show  that  the  pheno- 
mena in  question  only  take  place  in  the  presence  of 
what  is  called  "  a  medium  '' — a  person  of  peculiar 
nervous  or  psychical  organisation.  That  this  is  the 
case,  moreover,  appears  to  be  the  general  belief  of 
spiritists  on  the  subject.  In  the  sense,  then,  in  which 
**  a  talisman  "  connotes  a  material  object  of  such  a 
nature  that  by  its  aid  the  powers  of  discarnate  intel- 

^  The  publications  of  The  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
and  Frederick  Myers'  monumental  work  on  Human  Person- 
ality and  its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,  should  be  specially 
consulted.  I  have  attempted  a  brief  discussion  of  modern 
spiritualism  and  psychical  research  in  my  Matter,  Spirit,  and 
the  Cosmos  (1910),  chap.  ii. 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         79 

ligences  may  become  operative  on  material  things, 
we  might  apply  the  term  **  taHsman  ''  to  the  nervous 
system  of  a  medium  :  but  then  that  would  be  the  only 
talisman.  Consequently,  even  if  one  is  prepared  to 
admit  the  whole  of  modern  spiritistic  theory,  nothing 
is  thereby  gained  towards  a  belief  in  talismans,  and 
no  light  is  shed  upon  the  subject. 

Another  theory  concerning  talismans  which  com- 
mended itself  to  many  of  the  old  occult  philosophers, 
Paracelsus  for  instance,  is  what  may  be  called  the 
"  occult  force  "  theory.  This  theory  assumes  the 
existence  of  an  occult  mental  force,  a  force  capable 
of  being  exerted  by  the  human  will,  apart  from  its 
usual  mode  of  operation  by  means  of  the  body.  It 
was  believed  to  be  possible  to  concentrate  this  mental 
energy  and  infuse  it  into  some  suitable  medium, 
with  the  production  of  a  talisman,  which  was  thus 
regarded  as  a  sort  of  accumulator  for  mental  energy. 
The  theory  seems  a  fantastic  one  to  modern  thought, 
though,  in  view  of  the  many  startling  phenomena 
brought  to  light  by  psychical  research,  it  is  not 
advisable  to  be  too  positive  regarding  the  limitations 
of  the  powers  of  the  human  mind.  However,  I 
think  we  shall  find  the  element  of  truth  in  the  other- 
wise absurd  belief  in  talismans  by  means  of  what 
may  be  called,  not  altogether  fancifully  perhaps,  a 
transcendental  interpretation  of  this  "  occult  force  " 
theory.  I  suggest,  that  is,  that  when  a  believer  makes 
a  talisman,  the  transference  of  the  occult  energy  is 
ideal,  not  actual  ;  that  the  power,  believed  to  reside 
in  the  talisman  itself,  is  the  power  due  to  the  reflex 
action  of  the  believer's  mind.  The  power  of  what 
transcendentalists  call  '*  the  imagination  ''  cannot  be 


8o  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

denied ;  for  example,  no  one  can  deny  that  a  man 
with  a  firm  conviction  that  such  a  success  will  be 
achieved  by  him,  or  such  a  danger  avoided,  will  be 
far  more  likely  to  gain  his  desire,  other  conditions 
being  equal,  than  one  of  a  pessimistic  turn  of  mind. 
The  mere  conviction  itself  is  a  factor  in  success,  or 
a  factor  in  failure,  according  to  its  nature  ;  and  it 
seems  likely  that  herein  will  be  found  a  true  explana- 
tion of  the  effects  believed  to  be  due  to  the  power  of 
the  tahsman. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  we  must  beware  of 
the  exaggerations  into  which  certain  schools  of 
thought  have  fallen  in  their  estimates  of  the  powers 
of  the  imagination.  These  exaggerations  are  par- 
ticularly marked  in  the  views  which  are  held  by  many 
nowadays  with  regard  to  ''  faith-healing,"  although 
the  **  Christian  Scientists  ''  get  out  of  the  difficulty — 
at  least  to  their  own  satisfaction — by  ascribing  their 
alleged  cures  to  the  Power  of  the  Divine  Mind,  and 
not  to  the  power  of  the  individual  mind. 

Of  course  the  real  question  involved  in  this  *'  tran- 
scendental theory  of  talismans  "  as  I  may,  perhaps, 
call  it,  is  that  of  the  operation  of  incarnate  spirit  on 
the  plane  of  matter.  This  operation  takes  place 
only  through  the  medium  of  the  nervous  system,  and 
it  has  been  suggested,^  to  avoid  any  violation  of  the 
law  of  the  conservation  of  energy,  that  it  is  effected, 
not  by  the  transference,  as  is  sometimes  supposed, 
of  energy  from  the  spiritual  to  the  material  plane,  but 
merely  by  means  of  directive  control  over  the  ex- 
penditure of  energy  derived  by  the  body  from  purely 

1  Cf.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge:  Life  and  Matter  (1907),  especially 
chap.  ix.  ;  and  W.  Hibbert,  F.I.C.  :  Life  and  Energy  (1904). 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         8i 

physical  sources,  e.g,  the  latent  chemical  energy 
bound  up  in  the  food  eaten  and  the  oxygen  breathed. 
I  am  not  sure  that  this  theory  really  avoids  the 
difficulty  which  it  is  intended  to  obviate  ;  ^  but  it  is 
at  least  an  interesting  one,  and  at  any  rate  there  may 
be  modes  in  which  the  body,  under  the  directive  con- 
trol of  the  spirit,  may  expend  energy  derived  from 
the  material  plane,  of  which  we  know  little  or  nothing. 
We  have  the  testimony  of  many  eminent  authorities  ^ 
to  the  phenomenon  of  the  movement  of  physical 
objects  without  contact  at  spiritistic  seances.  It 
seems  to  me  that  the  introduction  of  discarnate  in- 
telligences to  explain  this  phenomenon  is  somewhat 
gratuitous — the  psychic  phenomena  which  yield 
evidence  of  the  survival  of  human  personality  after 
bodily  death  are  of  a  different  character.  For  if  we 
suppose  this  particular  phenomenon  to  be  due  to 
discarnate  spirits,  we  must,  in  view  of  what  has  been 
said  concerning  **  mediums,"  conclude  that  the 
movements  in  question  are  not  produced  by  these 
spirits  directly,  but  through  and  by  means  of  the 
nervous  system  of  the  medium  present.  Evidently, 
therefore,  the  means  for  the  production  of  the  phe- 
nomenon reside  in  the  human  nervous  system  (or, 
at  any  rate,  in  the  peculiar  nervous  system  of 
''  mediums  "),  and  all  that  is  lacking  is  intelligence 

1  The  subject  is  rather  too  technical  to  deal  with  here.  I 
have  discussed  it  elsewhere;  see  " Thermo-Dynamical  Objec- 
tions to  the  Mechanical  Theory  of  Life,"  The  Chemical  News, 
vol.  cxii.  pp.  271  et  seq.  (3rd  December  1915). 

2  For  instance,  the  well-known  physicist,  Sir  W.  F.  Barrett, 
F.R.S.  {late  Professor  of  Experimental  Physics  in  The  Royal 
College  of  Science  for  Ireland).  See  his  On  the  Threshold  of  a 
New  World  of  Thought  (1908),  §  10. 

6 


82  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

or  initiative  to  use  these  means.  This  intelHgence 
or  initiative  can  surely  be  as  well  supplied  by  the 
sub -consciousness  as  by  a  discarnate  intelligence. 
Consequently,  it  does  not  seem  unreasonable  to 
suppose  that  equally  remarkable  phenomena  may 
have  been  produced  by  the  aid  of  talismans  in  the 
days  when  these  were  believed  in,  and  may  be  pro- 
duced to-day,  if  one  has  sufficient  faith — that  is  to 
say,  produced  by  man  when  in  the  peculiar  condi- 
tion of  mind  brought  about  by  the  intense  belief  in 
the  power  of  a  talisman.  And  here  it  should  be 
noted  that  the  term  '*  talisman  ''  may  be  applied  to 
any  object  (or  doctrine)  that  is  believed  to  possess 
peculiar  power  or  efficacy.  In  this  fact,  I  think,  is 
to  be  found  the  peculiar  danger  of  erroneous  doctrines 
which  promise  extraordinary  benefits,  here  and  now 
on  the  material  plane,  to  such  as  believe  in  them. 
Remarkable  results  may  follow  an  intense  belief  in 
such  doctrines,  which,  whilst  having  no  connection 
whatever  with  their  accuracy,  being  proportional 
only  to  the  intensity  with  which  they  are  held,  cannot 
do  otherwise  than  confirm  the  believer  in  the  validity 
of  his  beliefs,  though  these  may  be  in  every  way 
highly  fantastic  and  erroneous.  Both  the  Roman 
Catholic,  therefore,  and  the  Buddhist  may  admit 
many  of  the  marvels  attributed  to  the  relics  of  each 
other's  saints  ;  though,  in  denying  that  these  marvels 
prove  the  accuracy  of  each  other's  religious  doctrines, 
each  should  remember  that  the  same  is  true  of  his 
own. 

In  illustration  of  the  real  power  of  the  imagination, 
I  may  instance  the  Maori  superstition  of  the  Taboo. 
According  to  the  Maories,  anyone  who  touches  a 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         83 

tabooed  object  will  assuredly  die,  the  tabooed  object 
being  a  sort  of  '*  anti-talisman  ".  Professor  Frazer  ^ 
says  :  *'  Cases  have  been  known  of  Maories  dying 
of  sheer  fright  on  learning  that  they  had  unwittingly 
eaten  the  remains  of  a  chief's  dinner  or  handled 
something  that  belonged  to  him/'  since  such  objects 
were,  ipso  facto,  tabooed .  He  gives  the  following  case 
on  good  authority  :  "A  woman,  having  partaken  of 
some  fine  peaches  from  a  basket,  was  told  that  they 
had  come  from  a  tabooed  place.  Immediately  the 
basket  dropped  from  her  hands  and  she  cried  out  in 
agony  that  the  atua  or  godhead  of  the  chief,  whose 
divinity  had  been  thus  profaned,  would  kill  her. 
That  happened  in  the  afternoon,  and  next  day  by 
twelve  o'clock  she  was  dead."  For  us  the  power  of 
the  taboo  does  not  exist ;  for  the  Maori,  who  im- 
plicitly believes  in  it,  it  is  a  very  potent  reality,  but 
this  power  of  the  taboo  resides  not  in  external 
objects  but  in  his  own  mind. 

Dr  Haddon  2  quotes  a  similar  but  still  more  re- 
markable story  of  a  young  Congo  negro  which  very 
strikingly  shows  the  power  of  the  imagination.  The 
young  negro,  "  being  on  a  journey,  lodged  at  a 
friend's  house  ;  the  latter  got  a  wild  hen  for  his 
breakfast,  and  the  young  man  asked  if  it  were  a 
wild  hen.  His  host  answered  '  No.'  Then  he  fell 
on  heartily,  and  afterwards  proceeded  on  his  journey. 
After  four  years  these  two  met  together  again,  and 
his  old  friend  asked  him  *  if  he  would  eat  a  wild 
hen,'  to  which  he  answered  that  it  was  tabooed  to 

1  Professor  J.  G.  Frazer,  D.C.L.  :  Psyche's  Task  (1909),  p.  7. 

2  Alfred  C.  Haddon,  Sc.D.,  F.R.S.  :  Magic  and  Fetishism 
(1906),  p.  56. 


84  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

him.  Hereat  the  host  began  immediately  to  laugh, 
inquiring  of  him,  *  What  made  him  refuse  it  now, 
when  he  had  eaten  one  at  his  table  about  four  years 
ago  ?  '  At  the  hearing  of  this  the  negro  immediately 
fell  a-trembling,  and  suffered  himself  to  be  so  far 
possessed  with  the  effects  of  imagination  that  he 
died  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours  after." 

There  are,  of  course,  many  stories  about  amulets, 
etc,  which  cannot  be  thus  explained.  For  example, 
Elihu  Rich  gives  the  following  : — 

"  In  1568,  we  are  told  (Transl.  of  Salverte,  p.  196) 
that  the  Prince  of  Orange  condemned  a  Spanish 
prisoner  to  be  shot  at  Juliers.  The  soldiers  tied  him 
to  a  tree  and  fired,  but  he  was  invulnerable.  They 
then  stripped  him  to  see  what  armour  he  wore,  but 
they  found  only  an  amulet  bearing  the  figure  of  a 
lamb  (the  Agnus  Dei,  we  presume).  This  was  taken 
from  him,  and  he  was  then  killed  by  the  first  shot. 
De  Baros  relates  that  the  Portuguese  in  like  manner 
vainly  attempted  to  destroy  a  Malay,  so  long  as  he 
wore  a  bracelet  containing  a  bone  set  in  gold,  which 
rendered  him  proof  against  their  swords.  A  similar 
marvel  is  related  in  the  travels  of  the  veracious 
Marco  Polo.  '  In  an  attempt  of  Kublai  Khan  to 
make  a  conquest  of  the  island  of  Zipangu,  a  jealousy 
arose  between  the  two  commanders  of  the  expedition, 
which  led  to  an  order  for  putting  the  whole  garrison 
to  the  sword.  In  obedience  to  this  order,  the  heads 
of  all  were  cut  off  excepting  of  eight  persons,  who  by 
the  efficacy  of  a  diabolical  charm,  consisting  of  a  jewel 
or  amulet  introduced  into  the  right  arm,  between  the 
skin  and  the  flesh,  were  rendered  secure  from  the 
effects  of  iron,  either  to  kill  or  wound.     Upon  this 


THE  BELIEF  IN  TALISMANS         85 

discovery  being  made,  they  were  beaten  with  a  heavy 
wooden  club,  and  presently  died.'  "  ^  I  think,  how- 
ever, that  these,  and  many  similar  stories,  must  be 
taken  cum  grano  salts. 

In  conclusion,  mention  must  be  made  of  a  very  in- 
teresting and  suggestive  philosophical  doctrine — the 
Law  of  Correspondences, — due  in  its  explicit  form 
to  the  Swedish  philosopher,  who  was  both  scientist 
and  mystic,  Emanuel  Swedenborg.  To  deal  in 
any  way  adequately  with  this  important  topic  is 
totally  impossible  within  the  confines  of  the  present 
discussion. 2  But,  to  put  the  matter  as  briefly  as 
possible,  it  may  be  said  that  Swedenborg  maintains 
(and  the  conclusion,  I  think,  is  valid)  that  all  causa- 
tion is  from  the  spiritual  world,  physical  causation 
being  but  secondary,  or  apparent — that  is  to  say,  a 
mere  reflection,  as  it  were,  of  the  true  process.  He 
argues  from  this,  thereby  supplying  a  philosophical 
basis  for  the  unanimous  belief  of  the  nature-mystics, 
that  every  natural  object  is  the  symbol  (because  the 
creation)  of  an  idea  or  spiritual  verity  in  its  widest 
sense.  Thus,  there  are  symbols  which  are  inherent 
in  the  nature  of  things,  and  symbols  which  are  not. 
The  former  are  genuine,  the  latter  merely  artificial. 
Writing  from  the  transcendental  point  of  view, 
^LiPHAS  Levi  says :  **  Ceremonies,  vestments,  per- 
fumes, characters  and  figures  being  .  .  .  necessary 
to  enlist  the  imagination  in  the  education  of  the  will, 
the  success  of  magical  works  depends  upon  the  faith- 
ful observance  of  all  the  rites,  which  are  in  no  sense 

^  Elihu  Rich  :  The  Occult  Sciences,  p.  346. 
2  I  may  refer  the  reader  to  my  A  Mathematical  Theory  of 
Spirit  (1912),  chap,  i.,  for  a  more  adequate  statement. 


86  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

fantastic  or  arbitrary,  having  been  transmitted  to  us 
by  antiquity,  and  permanently  subsisting  by  the 
essential  laws  of  analogical  realisation  and  of  the 
correspondence  which  inevitably  connects  ideas 
and  forms/'  ^  Some  scepticism,  perhaps,  may  be 
permitted  as  to  the  validity  of  the  latter  part  of  this 
statement,  and  the  former  may  be  qualified  by  the 
proviso  that  such  things  are  only  of  value  in  the  right 
education  of  the  will,  if  they  are,  indeed,  genuine, 
and  not  merely  artificial,  symbols.  But  the  writer, 
as  I  think  will  be  admitted,  has  grasped  the  essential 
point,  and,  to  conclude  our  excursion,  as  we  began 
it,  with  a  definition,  I  will  say  that  the  power  of  the 
talisman  is  the  power  of  the  mind  {or  imagination) 
brought  into  activity  by  means  of  a  suitable  symbol. 

^  fiLiPHAs  Levi  :  Transcendental  Magic  :    its  Doctrine  and 
Ritual  {trans,  by  A.  E.  Waite,  1896),  p.  234. 


VII 

CEREMONIAL    MAGIC    IN 
THEORY   AND    PRACTICE 

The  word  "  magic,"  if  one  may  be  permitted  to  say 
so,  is  itself  almost  magical — magical  in  its  power  to 
conjure  up  visions  in  the  human  mind.  For  some 
these  are  of  bloody  rites,  pacts  with  the  powers  of 
darkness,  and  the  lascivious  orgies  of  the  Saturnalia 
or  Witches'  Sabbath  ;  in  other  minds  it  has  pleasant er 
associations,  serving  to  transport  them  from  the 
world  of  fact  to  the  fairyland  of  fancy,  where  the 
purse  of  FoRTUNATUS,  the  lamp  and  ring  of  Aladdin, 
fairies,  gnomes,  jinn,  and  innumerable  other  strange 
beings  flit  across  the  scene  in  a  marvellous  kaleido- 
scope of  ever-changing  wonders.  To  the  study  of 
the  magical  beliefs  of  the  past  cannot  be  denied  the 
interest  and  fascination  which  the  marvellous  and 
wonderful  ever  has  for  so  many  minds,  many  of 
whom,  perhaps,  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of 
thinking  that  there  may  be  some  element  of  truth  in 
these  wonderful  stories.  But  the  study  has  a  greater 
claim  to  our  attention  ;  for,  as  I  have  intimated 
already,  magic  represents  a  phase  in  the  develop- 
ment of  human  thought,  and  the  magic  of  the  past 

87 


88  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

was  the  womb  from  which  sprang  the  science  of  the 
present,  unUke  its  parent  though  it  be. 

What  then  is  magic  ?  According  to  the  dictionary 
definition — and  this  will  serve  us  for  the  present — it 
is  the  (pretended)  art  of  producing  marvellous  results 
by  the  aid  of  spiritual  beings  or  arcane  spiritual  forces. 
Magic,  therefore,  is  the  practical  complement  of 
animism.  Wherever  man  has  really  believed  in  the 
existence  of  a  spiritual  world,  there  do  we  find 
attempts  to  enter  into  communication  with  that 
world's  inhabitants  and  to  utilise  its  forces.  Pro- 
fessor Leuba^  and  others  distinguish  between  propi- 
tiative  behaviour  towards  the  beings  of  the  spiritual 
world,  as  marking  the  religious  attitude,  and  coercive 
behaviour  towards  these  beings  as  characteristic  of 
the  magical  attitude  ;  but  one  form  of  behaviour 
merges  by  insensible  degrees  into  the  other,  and  the 
distinction  (though  a  useful  one)  may,  for  our  present 
purpose,  be  neglected. 

Animism,  "  the  Conception  of  Spirit  everywhere  " 
as  Mr  Edward  Clodd  ^  neatly  calls  it,  and  perhaps 
man's  earliest  view  of  natural  phenomena,  persisted 
in  a  modified  form,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  **  Some 
Characteristics  of  Mediaeval  Thought,"  throughout 
the  Middle  Ages.  A  belief  in  magic  persisted  like- 
wise. In  the  writings  of  the  Greek  philosophers  of 
the  Neo-Platonic  school,  in  that  curious  body  of 
esoteric  Jewish  lore  known  as  the  Kabala,  and  in  the 
works  of  later  occult  philosophers  such  as  Agrippa 

^  James  H.  Leuba  :  The  Psychological  Origin  and  the 
Nature  of  Religion  (1909),  chap.  ii. 

*  Edward  Clodd:  Animism  the  Seed  of  Religion  (1905), 
p.  26. 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  89 

and  Paracelsus,  we  find  magic,  or  rather  the  theory 
upon  which  magic  as  an  art  was  based,  presented  in 
its  most  philosophical  form.  If  there  is  anything 
of  value  for  modern  thought  in  the  theory  of  magic, 
here  is  it  to  be  found  ;  and  it  is,  I  think,  indeed  to  be 
found,  absurd  and  fantastic  though  the  practices 
based  upon  this  philosophy,  or  which  this  philosophy 
was  thought  to  substantiate,  most  certainly  are.  I 
shall  here  endeavour  to  give  a  sketch  of  certain  of 
the  outstanding  doctrines  of  magical  philosophy, 
some  details  concerning  the  art  of  magic,  more  especi- 
ally as  practised  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe, 
and,  finally,  an  attempt  to  extract  from  the  former 
what  I  consider  to  be  of  real  worth.  We  have  already 
wandered  down  many  of  the  byways  of  magical  belief, 
and,  indeed,  the  word  ''  magic  "  may  be  made  to 
cover  almost  every  superstition  of  the  past.  To 
what  we  have  already  gained  on  previous  excursions 
the  present,  I  hope,  will  add  what  we  need  in  order 
to  take  a  synthetic  view  of  the  whole  subject. 

In  the  first  place,  something  must  be  said  concern- 
ing what  is  called  the  Doctrine  of  Emanations,  a  theory 
of  prime  importance  in  Neo-Platonic  and  Kabalistic 
ontology.  According  to  this  theory,  everything  in 
the  universe  owes  its  existence  and  virtue  to  an  emana- 
tion from  God,  which  divine  emanation  is  supposed 
to  descend,  step  by  step  (so  to  speak),  through  the 
hierarchies  of  angels  and  the  stars,  down  to  the  things 
of  earth,  that  which  is  nearer  to  the  Source  con- 
taining more  of  the  divine  nature  than  that  which  is 
relatively  distant.  As  Cornelius  Agrippa  expresses 
it  :  "  For  God,  in  the  first  place  is  the  end  and 
beginning  of  all  Virtues  ;    he  gives  the  seal  of  the 


90  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Ideas  to  his  servants,  the  Intelligences  ;  who  as 
faithful  officers,  sign  all  things  intrusted  to  them 
with  an  Ideal  Virtue  ;  the  Heavens  and  Stars,  as 
instruments,  disposing  the  matter  in  the  mean  while 
for  the  receiving  of  those  forms  which  reside  in 
Divine  Majesty  (as  saith  Plato  in  Timeus)  and  to 
be  conveyed  by  Stars  ;  and  the  Giver  of  Forms 
distributes  them  by  the  ministry  of  his  Intelligences, 
which  he  hath  set  as  Rulers  and  Controllers  over  his 
Works,  to  w^hom  such  a  power  is  intrusted  to  things 
committed  to  them  that  so  all  Virtues  of  Stones, 
Herbs,  Metals,  and  all  other  things  may  come  from 
the  Intelligences,  the  Governors.  The  Form,  there- 
fore, and  Virtue  of  things  comes  first  from  the  IdeaSy 
then  from  the  ruling  and  governing  Intelligences, 
then  from  the  aspects  of  the  Heavens  disposing,  and 
lastly  from  the  tempers  of  the  Elements  disposed, 
answering  the  influences  of  the  Heavens,  by  which 
the  Elements  themselves  are  ordered,  or  disposed. 
These  kinds  of  operations,  therefore,  are  performed 
in  these  inferior  things  by  express  forms,  and  in  the 
Heavens  by  disposing  virtues,  in  Intelligences  by 
mediating  rules,  in  the  Original  Cause  by  Ideas  and 
exemplary  forms,  all  which  must  of  necessity  agree 
in  the  execution  of  the  effect  and  virtue  of  every 
thing. 

"  There  is,  therefore,  a  wonderful  virtue  and  opera- 
tion in  every  Herb  and  Stone,  but  greater  in  a  Star, 
beyond  which,  even  from  the  governing  Intelligences 
everything  receiveth  and  obtains  many  things  for 
itself,  especially  from  the  Supreme  Cause,  with  whom 
all  things  do  mutually  and  exactly  correspond,  agree- 
ing in  an  harmonious  consent,  as  it  were  in  hymns 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  91 

always  praising  the  highest  Maker  of  all  things.  .  .  . 
There  is,  therefore,  no  other  cause  of  the  necessity 
of  effects  than  the  connection  of  all  things  with  the 
First  Cause,  and  their  correspondency  with  those 
Divine  patterns  and  eternal  Ideas  whence  every  thing 
hath  its  determinate  and  particular  place  in  the 
exemplary  world,  from  whence  it  lives  and  receives 
its  original  being  :  And  every  virtue  of  herbs,  stones, 
metals,  animals,  words  and  speeches,  and  all  things 
that  are  of  God,  is  placed  there."  ^  As  compared 
with  the  ex  nihilo  creationism  of  orthodox  theology, 
this  theory  is  as  light  is  to  darkness.  Of  course, 
there  is  much  in  Cornelius  Agrippa's  statement  of 
it  which  is  inacceptable  to  modern  thought  ;  but 
these  are  matters  of  form  merely,  and  do  not  affect 
the  doctrine  fundamentally.  For  instance,  as  a 
nexus  between  spirit  and  matter  Agrippa  places  the 
stars  :  modern  thought  prefers  the  ether.  The 
theory  of  emanations  may  be,  and  was,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  made  the  justification  of  superstitious  prac- 
tices of  the  grossest  absurdity,  but  on  the  other 
hand  it  may  be  made  the  basis  of  a  lofty  system  of 
transcendental  philosophy,  as,  for  instance,  that  of 
Emanuel  Swedenborg,  whose  ontology  resembles 
in  some  respects  that  of  the  Neo-Platonists.  Agrippa 
uses  the  theory  to  explain  all  the  marvels  which  his 
age  accredited,  marvels  which  we  know  had  for  the 
most  part  no  existence  outside  of  man's  imagination. 
I  suggest,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  theory  is  really 
needed  to  explain  the  commonplace,  since,  in  the 
last  analysis,  every  bit  of  experience,  every  pheno- 

1  H.  C.   Agrippa:    Occult  Philosophy,  bk.   i.,  chap.  xiii. 
(Whitehead's  edition,  pp.  67-68). 


92  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

menon,  be  it  ever  so  ordinary — indeed  the  very  fact 
of  experience  itself, — is  most  truly  marvellous  and 
magical,  explicable  only  in  terms  of  spirit.  As 
Eliphas  Levi  well  says  in  one  of  his  flashes  of  in- 
sight :  *'  The  supernatural  is  only  the  natural  in  an 
extraordinary  grade,  or  it  is  the  exalted  natural ;  a 
miracle  is  a  phenomenon  which  strikes  the  multi- 
tude because  it  is  unexpected  ;  the  astonishing  is 
that  which  astonishes  ;  miracles  are  effects  which 
surprise  those  who  are  ignorant  of  their  causes,  or 
assign  them  causes  which  are  not  in  proportion  to 
such  effects.''  ^     But  I  am  anticipating  the  sequel. 

The  doctrine  of  emanations  makes  the  universe 
one  vast  harmonious  whole,  between  whose  various 
parts  there  is  an  exact  analogy,  correspondence,  or 
sympathetic  relation.  "  Nature  (the  productive  prin- 
ciple)," says  Iamblichos  (3rd-4th  century),  the 
Neo-Platonist,  "  in  her  peculiar  way,  makes  a  like- 
ness of  invisible  principles  through  symbols  in 
visible  forms."  ^  The  belief  that  seemingly  similar 
things  sympathetically  affect  one  another,  and  that  a 
similar  relation  holds  good  between  different  things 
which  have  been  intimately  connected  with  one 
another  as  parts  within  a  whole,  is  a  very  ancient 
one.  Most  primitive  peoples  are  very  careful  to 
destroy  all  their  nail-cuttings  and  hair-clippings, 
since  they  believe  that  a  witch  gaining  possession 
of  these  might  work  them  harm.  For  a  similar 
reason  they  refuse  to  reveal  their  real  names,  which 

1  ^iLiPHAS  L6vi :  Transcendental  Magic,  its  Doctrine  and 
Ritual  (trans,  by  A.  E.  Waite,  1896),  p.  192. 

2  Iamblichos  :  Theurgia,  or  the  Egyptian  Mysteries  (trans. 
by  Dr  Alex.  Wilder,  New  York,  1911),  p.  239. 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  93 

they  regard  as  part  of  themselves,  and  adopt  nick- 
names for  common  use.  The  beHef  that  a  witch 
can  torment  an  enemy  by  making  an  image  of  his 
person  in  clay  or  wax,  correctly  naming  it,  and 
mutilating  it  with  pins,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  waxen 
image,  melting  it  by  fire,  is  a  very  ancient  one,  and 
was  held  throughout  and  beyond  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  Sympathetic  Powder  of  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  we 
have  already  noticed,  as  well  as  other  instances  of 
the  belief  in  **  sympathy,*'  and  examples  of  similar 
superstitions  might  be  multiplied  almost  indefinitely. 
Such  are  generally  grouped  under  the  term  '*  sympa- 
thetic magic  "  ;  but  inasmuch  as  all  magical  practices 
assume  that  by  acting  on  part  of  a  thing,  or  a  symbolic 
representation  of  it,  one  acts  magically  on  the  whole, 
or  on  the  thing  symbolised,  the  expression  may  in 
its  broadest  sense  be  said  to  involve  the  whole  of 
magic. 

The  names  of  the  Divine  Being,  angels  and  devils, 
the  planets  of  the  solar  system  (including  sun  and 
moon)  and  the  days  of  the  week,  birds  and  beasts, 
colours,  herbs,  and  precious  stones — all,  according 
to  old-time  occult  philosophy,  are  connected  by  the 
sympathetic  relation  believed  to  run  through  all 
creation,  the  knowledge  of  which  was  essential  to 
the  magician  ;  as  well,  also,  the  chief  portions  of  the 
human  body,  for  man,  as  we  have  seen,  was  believed 
to  be  a  microcosm — a  universe  in  miniature.  I  have 
dealt  with  this  matter  and  exhibited  some  of  the  sup- 
posed correspondences  in  "  The  Belief  in  Talismans  ". 
Some  further  particulars  are  shown  in  the  annexed 
table,  for  which  I  am  mainly  indebted  to  Agrippa. 
But,  as  in  the  case  of  the  zodiacal  gems  already  dealt 


94 


BYGONE  BELIEFS 


with,  the  old  authorities  by  no  means  agree  as  to  the 
majority  of  the  planetary  correspondences. 

Table  of  Occult  Correspondences 


Arch- 
angel. 

Raphael 

Gabriel 

Camael 

Michael 
Zadikel 

Haniel 
Zaphkiel 

Angel. 

Planet. 

Part  of 

Human 

Body. 

Ani- 
mal. 

Bird. 

Swan 

Owl 

Vulture 

Stork 
Eagle 

Dove 
Hoopoe 

Precious 
Stone. 

Michael 
Gabriel 
Zamael 

Raphael 
Sachiel 

Anael 
Cassiel 

Sun 

Moon 

Mars 

Mercury 
Jupiter 

Venus 
Saturn 

Heart 
Left  foot 
Right 
hand 
Left  hand 
Head 

Generative 

organs 
Right  foot 

Lion 

Cat 

Wolf 

H?rt 

Goat 
Mole 

Carbuncle 

Crystal 

Diamond 

Agate 

Sapphire 
(= Lapis 
lazuU) 

Emerald 

Onyx 

The  names  of  the  angels  are  from  Mr  Mather's  translation  of  Clavicula 
Salomonis ;  the  other  correspondences  are  from  the  second  book  of 
Agrippa's  Occult  Philosophy,  chap.  x. 

In  many  cases  these  supposed  correspondences  are 
based,  as  will  be  obvious  to  the  reader,  upon  purely 
trivial  resemblances,  and,  in  any  case,  whatever  may 
be  said — and  I  think  a  great  deal  may  be  said — in 
favour  of  the  theory  of  symbology,  there  is  little  that 
may  be  adduced  to  support  the  old  occultists'  appli- 
cation of  it. 

So  essential  a  part  does  the  use  of  symbols  play  in 
all  magical  operations  that  we  may,  I  think,  modify 
the  definition  of  *'  magic  ''  adopted  at  the  outset,  and 
define  "  magic "  as  *'  an  attempt  to  employ  the 
powers  of  the  spiritual  world  for  the  production  of 
marvellous  results,  by  the  aid  of  symbols.''  It  has, 
on  the  other  hand,  been  questioned  whether  the 
appeal  to  the  spirit-world  is  an  essential  element  in 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  95 

magic.  But  a  close  examination  of  magical  practices 
always  reveals  at  the  root  a  belief  in  spiritual  powers 
as  the  operating  causes.  The  belief  in  talismans  at 
first  sight  seems  to  have  little  to  do  with  that  in  a 
supernatural  realm  ;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  the  talis- 
man was  always  a  silent  invocation  of  the  powers  of 
some  spiritual  being  with  which  it  was  symbolically 
connected,  and  whose  sign  was  engraved  thereon. 
And,  as  Dr  T.  Witton  Davies  well  remarks  with 
regard  to  *'  sympathetic  magic  "  :  **  Even  this 
could  not,  at  the  start,  be  anything  other  than 
a  symbolic  prayer  to  the  spirit  or  spirits  having 
authority  in  these  matters.  In  so  far  as  no  spirit 
is  thought  of,  it  is  a  mere  survival,  and  not  magic 
at  all.  ..."  1 

What  I  regard  as  the  two  essentials  of  magical 
practices,  namely,  the  use  of  symbols  and  the  appeal 
to  the  supernatural  realm,  are  most  obvious  in  what 
is  called  ''  ceremonial  magic ".  Mediaeval  cere- 
monial magic  was  subdivided  into  three  chief 
branches — White  Magic,  Black  Magic,  and  Necro- 
mancy. White  magic  was  concerned  with  the  evoca- 
tions of  angels,  spiritual  beings  supposed  to  be  essen- 
tially superior  to  mankind,  concerning  which  I  shall 
give  some  further  details  later — and  the  spirits  of 
the  elements, — which  were,  as  I  have  mentioned  in 
**  Some  Characteristics  of  Mediaeval  Thought,"  per- 
sonifications of  the  primeval  forces  of  Nature.  As 
there  were  supposed  to  be  four  elements,  fire,  air, 
water,  and  earth,  so  there  were  supposed  to  be  four 
classes  of  elementals  or  spirits  of  the  elements,  namely, 

1  Dr  T.  Witton  Davies  :  Magic,  Divination,  and  Demon- 
ology  among  the  Hebrews  and  their  Neighbours  (1898),  p.  17. 


96     '  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Salamanders,  Sylphs,  Undines,  and  Gnomes,  inhabit- 
ing these  elements  respectively,  and  deriving  their 
characters  therefrom.  Concerning  these  curious 
beings,  the  inquisitive  reader  may  gain  some  infor- 
mation from  a  quaint  little  book,  by  the  Abbe  de 
MoNTFAUCON  DE  ViLLARS,  entitled  The  Count  of 
Gahalis,  or  Conferences  about  Secret  Sciences  (1670), 
translated  into  English  and  published  in  1680,  which 
has  recently  been  reprinted.  The  elementals,  we 
learn  therefrom,  were,  unlike  other  supernatural 
beings,  thought  to  be  mortal.  They  could,  how- 
ever, be  rendered  immortal  by  means  of  sexual 
intercourse  with  men  or  women,  as  the  case  might 
be  ;  and  it  was,  we  are  told,  to  the  noble  end  of 
endowing  them  with  this  great  gift,  that  the  sages 
devoted  themselves. 

Goety,  or  black  magic,  was  concerned  with  the 
evocation  of  demons  and  devils — spirits  supposed 
to  be  superior  to  man  in  certain  powers,  but  utterly 
depraved.  Sorcery  may  be  distinguished  from 
witchcraft,  inasmuch  as  the  sorcerer  attempted  to 
command  evil  spirits  by  the  aid  of  charms,  etc., 
whereas  the  witch  or  wizard  was  supposed  to  have 
made  a  pact  with  the  Evil  One  ;  though  both  terms 
have  been  rather  loosely  used,  "  sorcery "  being 
sometimes  employed  as  a  synonym  for  **  necro- 
mancy ".  Necromancy  was  concerned  with  the 
evocation  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  :  etymologically, 
the  term  stands  for  the  art  of  foretelling  events  by 
means  of  such  evocations,  though  it  is  frequently 
employed  in  the  wider  sense. 

It  would  be  unnecessary  and  tedious  to  give  any 
detailed  account  of  the  methods  employed  in  these 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  97 

magical  arts  beyond  some  general  remarks.  Mr 
A.  E.  Waite  gives  full  particulars  of  the  various 
rituals  in  his  Book  of  Ceremonial  Magic  (191 1),  to 
which  the  curious  reader  may  be  referred.  The 
following  will,  in  brief  terms,  convey  a  general  idea 
of  a  magical  evocation  : — 

Choosing  a  time  when  there  is  a  favourable  con- 
junction of  the  planets,  the  magician,  armed  with 
the  implements  of  magical  art,  after  much  prayer 
and  fasting,  betakes  himself  to  a  suitable  spot,  alone, 
or  perhaps  accompanied  by  two  trusty  companions. 
All  the  articles  he  intends  to  employ,  the  vestments, 
the  magic  sword  and  lamp,  the  talismans,  the  book 
of  spirits,  etc.,  have  been  specially  prepared  and 
consecrated.  If  he  is  about  to  invoke  a  martial 
spirit,  the  magician's  vestment  will  be  of  a  red  colour, 
the  talismans  in  virtue  of  which  he  may  have  power 
over  the  spirit  will  be  of  iron,  the  day  chosen  a  Tues- 
day, and  the  incense  and  perfumes  employed  of  a 
nature  analogous  to  Mars.  In  a  similar  manner  all 
the  articles  employed  and  the  rites  performed  must 
in  some  way  be  symbolical  of  the  spirit  with  which 
converse  is  desired.  Having  arrived  at  the  spot,  the 
magician  first  of  all  traces  the  magic  circle  within 
which,  we  are  told,  no  evil  spirit  can  enter ;  he  then 
commences  the  magic  rite,  involving  various  prayers 
and  conjurations,  a  medley  of  meaningless  words, 
and,  in  the  case  of  the  black  art,  a  sacrifice.  The 
spirit  summoned  then  appears  (at  least,  so  we  are 
told),  and,  after  granting  the  magician's  request,  is 
licensed  to  depart — a  matter,  we  are  admonished,  of 
great  importance. 

The   question   naturallv   arises,   What   were   the 

7 


98  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

results  obtained  by  these  magical  arts  ?  How  far, 
if  at  all,  was  the  magician  rewarded  by  the  attainment 
of  his  desires  ?  We  have  asked  a  similar  question 
regarding  the  belief  in  talismans,  and  the  reply  which 
we  there  gained  undoubtedly  applies  in  the  present 
case  as  well.  Modern  psychical  research,  as  I  have 
already  pointed  out,  is  supplying  us  with  further 
evidence  for  the  survival  of  human  personality  after 
bodily  death  than  the  innate  conviction  humanity  in 
general  seems  to  have  in  this  belief,  and  the  many 
reasons  which  idealistic  philosophy  advances  in 
favour  of  it.  The  question  of  the  reality  of  the 
phenomenon  of  "  materialisation,''  that  is,  the  bodily 
appearance  of  a  discarnate  spirit,  such  as  is  vouched 
for  by  spiritists,  and  which  is  what,  it  appears, 
was  aimed  at  in  necromancy  (though  why  the  dis- 
carnate should  be  better  informed  as  to  the  future 
than  the  incarnate,  I  cannot  suppose),  must  be  re- 
garded as  sub  judice}  Many  cases  of  fraud  in  con- 
nection with  the  alleged  production  of  this  pheno- 
menon have  been  detected  in  recent  times  ;  but, 
inasmuch  as  the  last  word  has  not  yet  been  said  on 
the  subject,  we  must  allow  the  possibility  that  necro- 
mancy in  the  past  may  have  been  sometimes  success- 
ful. But  as  to  the  existence  of  the  angels  and  devils 
of  magical  belief — as  well,  one  might  add,  of  those 
of  orthodox  faith, — nothing  can  be  adduced  in  evi- 
dence of  this  either  from  the  results  of  psychical 
research  or  on  a  priori  grounds. 

Pseudo-DiONYSius  classified  the  angels  into  three 

1  The  late  Sir  William  Crookes'  Experimental  Researches 
in  the  Phenomena  of  Spiritualism  contains  evidence  in  favour 
of  the  reaUty  of  this  phenomenon  very  difficult  to  gainsay. 


V 


To  face  p.  98. 


PLATE    15, 


Fig.  32. 
Magical  Circle,  from  The  Lesser  Key  of  Solomon  the  King. 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  99 

hierarchies,  each  subdivided  into  three  orders, 
as  under  : — 

First    Hierarchy.  —  Seraphim,     Cherubim,    and 

Thrones ; 
Second    Hierarchy,  —  Dominions,    Powers,    and 

Authorities  (or  Virtues) ; 
Third  Hierarchy. — PrincipaHties,  Archangels,  and 

Angels, — 

and  this  classification  was  adopted  by  Agrippa  and 
others.  Pseudo-DiONYSius  explains  the  names  of 
these  orders  as  follows  :**...  the  holy  designation 
of  the  Seraphim  denotes  either  that  they  are  kindling 
or  burning  ;  and  that  of  the  Cherubim,  a  fulness  of 
knowledge  or  stream  of  wisdom.  .  .  .  The  appella- 
tion of  the  most  exalted  and  pre-eminent  Thrones 
denotes  their  manifest  exaltation  above  every  grovel- 
ling inferiority,  and  their  super-mundane  tendency 
towards  higher  things  ;  .  .  .  and  their  invariable  and 
firmly-fixed  settlement  around  the  veritable  Highest, 
with  the  whole  force  of  their  powers.  .  .  .  The 
explanatory  name  of  the  Holy  Lordships  [Dominions] 
denotes  a  certain  unslavish  elevation  .  .  .  superior 
to  every  kind  of  cringing  slavery,  indomitable  to 
every  subserviency,  and  elevated  above  every  dis- 
simularity,  ever  aspiring  to  the  true  Lordship  and 
source  of  Lordship.  .  .  .  The  appellation  of  the 
Holy  Powers  denotes  a  certain  courageous  and  un- 
flinching virility  .  .  .  vigorously  conducted  to  the 
Divine  imitation,  not  forsaking  the  Godlike  move- 
ment through  its  own  unmanliness,  but  unflinchingly 
looking  to  the  super-essential  and  powerful-making 
power,  and  becoming  a  powerlike  image  of  this,  as 


loo  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

far  as  is  attainable.  .  .  .  The  appellation  of  the 
Holy  Authorities  .  .  .  denotes  the  beautiful  and  un- 
confused  good  order,  with  regard  to  Divine  receptions, 
and  the  discipline  of  the  super-mundane  and  in- 
tellectual authority  .  .  .  conducted  indomitably,  with 
good  order  towards  Divine  things.  .  .  .  [And  the 
appellation]  of  the  Heavenly  Principalities  manifests 
their  princely  and  leading  function,  after  the  Divine 
example.  .  .  ."  ^  There  is  a  certain  grandeur  in 
these  views,  and  if  we  may  be  permitted  to  under- 
stand by  the  orders  of  the  hierarchy,  ''  discrete  " 
degrees  (to  use  Swedenborg's  term)  of  spiritual 
reality  —  stages  in  spiritual  involution, —  we  may 
see  in  them  a  certain  truth  as  well.  As  I  said,  all 
virtue,  power,  and  knowledge  which  man  has  from 
God  was  believed  to  descend  to  him  by  way  of  these 
angelical  hierarchies,  step  by  step  ;  and  thus  it  was 
thought  that  those  of  the  lowest  hierarchy  alone  were 
sent  from  heaven  to  man.  It  was  such  beings  that 
white  magic  pretended  to  evoke.  But  the  practical 
occultists,  when  they  did  not  make  them  altogether 
fatuous,  attributed  to  these  angels  characters  not 
distinguishable  from  those  of  the  devils.  The 
description  of  the  angels  in  the  Heptameroriy  or 
Magical  Elements,^  falsely  attributed  to  Peter  de 

^  On  the  Heavenly  Hierarchy.  See  the  Rev.  John  Parker's 
translation  of  The  Works  of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  vol.  ii. 
(1889),  pp.  24,  25,  31,  32,  and  36. 

2  The  book,  which  first  saw  the  light  three  centuries  after 
its  alleged  author's  death,  was  translated  into  English  by 
Robert  Turner,  and  published  in  1655  ^^  3-  volume  containing 
the  spurious  Fourth  Book  of  Occult  Philosophy,  attributed  to 
Cornelius  Agrippa,  and  other  magical  works.  It  is  from 
this  edition  that  I  quote. 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  loi 

Abano  (1250-13 1 6),  may  be  taken  as  fairly  charac- 
teristic. Of  Michael  and  the  other  spirits  of  Sunday 
he  writes :  **  Their  nature  is  to  procure  Gold, 
Gemmes,  Carbuncles,  Riches ;  to  cause  one  to 
obtain  favour  and  benevolence ;  to  dissolve  the 
enmities  of  men  ;  to  raise  men  to  honors  ;  to  carry 
or  take  away  infirmities."  Of  Gabriel  and  the 
other  spirits  of  Monday,  he  says  :  ''  Their  nature  is 
to  give  silver  ;  to  convey  things  from  place  to  place  ; 
to  make  horses  swift,  and  to  disclose  the  secrets  of 
persons  both  present  and  future."  Of  Samael  and 
the  other  spirits  of  Tuesday  he  says  :  **  Their  nature 
is  to  cause  wars,  mortality,  death  and  combustions  ; 
and  to  give  two  thousand  Souldiers  at  a  time  ;  to 
bring  death,  infirmities  or  health,"  and  so  on  for 
Raphael,  Sachiel,  Anael,  Cassiel,  and  their 
colleagues.^ 

Concerning  the  evil  planetary  spirits,  the  spurious 
Fourth  Book  of  Occult  Philosophy,  attributed  to 
Cornelius  Agrippa,  informs  us  that  the  spirits  of 
Saturn  **  appear  for  the  most  part  with  a  tall,  lean, 
and  slender  body,  with  an  angry  countenance,  having 
four  faces  ;  one  in  the  hinder  part  of  the  head,  one 
on  the  former  part  of  the  head,  and  on  each  side 
nosed  or  beaked  :  there  likewise  appeareth  a  face 
on  each  knee,  of  a  black  shining  colour  :  their  motion 
is  the  moving  of  the  winde,  with  a  kinde  of  earth- 
quake :  their  signe  is  white  earth,  whiter  than  any 
Snow."  The  writer  adds  that  their  "  particular 
forms  are, — 

A  King  having  a  beard,  riding  on  a  Dragon. 

An  Old  man  with  a  beard. 

^  Op.  cU„  pp.  90,  92,  and  94. 


102  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

An  Old  woman  leaning  on  a  staffe. 

A  Hog. 

A  Dragon. 

An  Owl. 

A  black  Garment. 

A  Hooke  or  Sickle. 

A  Juniper-tree." 
Concerning  the  spirits  of  Jupiter,  he  says  that  they 
"  appear  with  a  body  sanguine  and  cholerick,  of  a 
middle  stature,  with  a  horrible  fearful  motion  ;  but 
with  a  milde  countenance,  a  gentle  speech,  and  of  the 
colour  of  Iron.  The  motion  of  them  is  flashings  of 
Lightning  and  Thunder  ;  their  signe  is,  there  will 
appear  men  about  the  circle,  who  shall  seem  to  be 
^  devoured  of  Lions,'*  their  particular  forms  being — 

"  A  King  with  a  Sword  drawn,  riding  on  a  Stag. 

A  Man  wearing  a  Mitre  in  long  rayment. 

A    Maid    with    a    Laurel-Crown    adorned    with 
Flowers. 

A  Bull. 

A  Stag. 

A  Peacock. 

An  azure  Garment. 

A  Sword. 

A  Box-tree." 
As  to  the  Martian  spirits,  we  learn  that  "  they  appear 
in  a  tall  body,  cholerick,  a  filthy  countenance,  of 
colour  brown,  swarthy  or  red,  having  horns  like 
Harts  horns,  and  Griphins  claws,  bellowing  like 
wilde  Bulls.  Their  Motion  is  like  fire  burning  ; 
their  signe  Thunder  and  Lightning  about  the  Circle. 
Their  particular  shapes  are, — 

A  King  armed  riding  upon  a  Wolf. 


To  face  p.  102. 


PLATE   16. 


Fig.  33- 

Magical  Instruments— Lamp.  Rod,  Sword,  and  Dagger— according  to 

Eliphas  Levi. 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  103 

A  Man  armed. 

A  Woman  holding  a  buckler  on  her  thigh. 

A  Hee-goat. 

A  Horse. 

A  Stag. 

A  red  Garment. 

Wool. 

A  Cheeslip."  1 
The  rest  are  described  in  equally  fantastic  terms. 

I  do  not  think  I  shall  be  accused  of  being  unduly 
sceptical  if  I  say  that  such  beings  as  these  could  not 
have  been  evoked  by  any  magical  rites,  because  such 
beings  do  not  and  did  not  exist,  save  in  the  magician's 
own  imagination.  The  proviso,  however,  is  impor- 
tant, for,  inasmuch  as  these  fantastic  beings  did 
exist  in  the  imagination  of  the  credulous,  therein 
they  may,  indeed,  have  been  evoked.  The  whole 
of  magic  ritual  was  well  devised  to  produce  halluci- 
nation. A  firm  faith  in  the  ritual  employed,  and  a 
strong  effort  of  will  to  bring  about  the  desired  result, 
were  usually  insisted  upon  as  essential  to  the  success 
of  the  operation. 2  A  period  of  fasting  prior  to  the 
experiment  was  also  frequently  prescribed  as  neces- 

1  Op.  cif.,  pp.  43-45. 

2  "  Magical  Axiom.  In  the  circle  of  its  action,  every  word 
creates  that  which  it  affirms. 

"  Direct  Consequence.  He  who  affirms  the  devil,  creates 
or  makes  the  devil. 

"  Conditions  of  Success  in  Infernal  Evocations,  i.  Invincible 
obstinacy  ;  2,  a  conscience  at  once  hardened  to  crime  and 
most  subject  to  remorse  and  fear;  3,  affected  or  natural 
ignorance  ;  4,  blind  faith  in  all  that  is  incredible  ;  5,  a  com- 
pletely false  idea  of  God."  (fiLiPHAS  L^vi :  Op.  cit.,  pp.  297 
and  298.) 


104  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

sary,  which,  by  weakening  the  body,  must  have  been 
conducive  to  hallucination.  Furthermore,  absten- 
tion from  the  gratification  of  the  sexual  appetite  was 
stipulated  in  certain  cases,  and  this,  no  doubt,  had 
a  similar  effect,  especially  as  concerns  magical  evoca- 
tions directed  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  sexual  impulse. 
Add  to  these  factors  the  details  of  the  ritual  itself, 
the  nocturnal  conditions  under  which  it  was  carried 
out,  and  particularly  the  suffumigations  employed, 
which,  most  frequently,  were  of  a  narcotic  nature, 
and  it  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  almost  any  type 
of  hallucination  may  have  occurred.  Such,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  ^liphas  Levi's  view  of  ceremonial 
magic  ;  and  whatever  may  be  said  as  concerns  his 
own  experiment  therein  (for  one  would  have  thought 
that  the  essential  element  of  faith  was  lacking  in  this 
case),  it  is  undoubtedly  the  true  view  as  concerns 
the  ceremonial  magic  of  the  past.  As  this  author 
well  says  :  *'  Witchcraft,  properly  so-called,  that  is 
ceremonial  operation  with  intent  to  bewitch,  acts 
only  on  the  operator,  and  serves  to  fix  and  confirm 
his  will,  by  formulating  it  with  persistence  and  labour, 
the  two  conditions  which  make  volition  efficacious.''  ^ 
Emanuel  Swedenborg  in  one  place  writes : 
"  Magic  is  nothing  but  the  perversion  of  order  ;  it  is 
especially  the  abuse  of  correspondences."  ^  A  study 
of  the  ceremonial  magic  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the 
following  century  or  two  certainly  justifies  Sweden- 
borg in  writing  of  magic  as  something  evil.  The 
distinction,  rigid  enough  in  theory,  between  white 
and  black,  legitimate  and  illegitimate,  magic,  was, 

^  ^LiPHAS  L6vi :  Op.  cit.,  pp.  130  and  131. 

2  Emanuel  Swedenborg  :  Arcana  Ccelestia,  §  6692. 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  105 

as  I  have  indicated,  extremely  indefinite  in  practice. 
As  Mr  A.  E.  Waite  justly  remarks :  ''  Much  that 
passed  current  in  the  west  as  White  {i.e.  permissible) 
Magic  was  only  a  disguised  goeticism,  and  many  of 
the  resplendent  angels  invoked  with  divine  rites 
reveal  their  cloven  hoofs.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  a  large  majority  of  past  psychological  experi- 
ments were  conducted  to  establish  communication 
with  demons,  and  that  for  unlawful  purposes.  The 
popular  conceptions  concerning  the  diabolical  spheres, 
which  have  been  all  accredited  by  magic,  may  have 
been  gross  exaggerations  of  fact  concerning  rudi- 
mentary and  perverse  intelligences,  but  the  wilful 
viciousness  of  the  communicants  is  substantially  un- 
touched thereby."  ^ 

These  ''  psychological  experiments "  were  not, 
save,  perhaps,  in  rare  cases,  carried  out  in  the  spirit 
of  modern  psychical  research,  with  the  high  aim  of 
the  man  of  science.  It  was,  indeed,  far  otherwise  ; 
selfish  motives  were  at  the  root  of  most  of  them  ; 
and,  apart  from  what  may  be  termed  **  medicinal 
magic,"  it  was  for  the  satisfaction  of  greed,  lust, 
revenge,  that  men  and  women  had  recourse  to  magical 
arts.  The  history  of  goeticism  and  witchcraft  is 
one  of  the  most  horrible  of  all  histories.  The 
"  Grimoires,"  witnesses  to  the  superstitious  folly  of 
the  past,  are  full  of  disgusting,  absurd,  and  even 
criminal  rites  for  the  satisfaction  of  unlawful  desires 
and  passions.  The  Church  was  certainly  justified  in 
attempting  to  put  down  the  practice  of  magic,  but 
the  means  adopted  in  this  design  and  the  results  to 

1  Arthur  Edward  Waite:  The  Occult  Sciences  (1891), 
p.  51. 


io6  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

which  they  led  were  even  more  abominable  than 
witchcraft  itself.  The  methods  of  detecting  witches 
and  the  tortures  to  which  suspected  persons  were 
subjected  to  force  them  to  confess  to  imaginary 
crimes,  employed  in  so-called  civilised  England  and 
Scotland  and  also  in  America,  to  say  nothing  of 
countries  in  which  the  *'  Holy  "  Inquisition  held  un- 
disputed sway,  are  almost  too  horrible  to  describe. 
For  details  the  reader  may  be  referred  to  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  Letters  on  Demonology  and  Witchcraft  (1830), 
and  (as  concerns  America)  Cotton  Mather's  The 
Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World  (1692).  The  credu- 
lous Church  and  the  credulous  people  were  terribly 
afraid  of  the  power  of  witchcraft,  and,  as  always,  fear 
destroyed  their  mental  balance  and  made  them  totally 
disregard  the  demands  of  justice.  The  result  may 
be  well  illustrated  by  what  almost  inevitably  happens 
when  a  country  goes  to  war  ;  for  war,  as  the  Hon. 
Bertrand  Russell  has  well  shown,  is  fear's  offspring. 
Fear  of  the  enemy  causes  the  military  party  to  perse- 
cute in  an  insensate  manner,  without  the  least  regard 
to  justice,  all  those  of  their  fellow-men  whom  they 
consider  are  not  heart  and  soul  with  them  in  their 
cause ;  similarly  the  Church  relentlessly  persecuted 
its  supposed  enemies,  of  whom  it  was  so  afraid.  No 
doubt  some  of  the  poor  wretches  that  were  tortured 
and  killed  on  the  charge  of  witchcraft  really  believed 
themselves  to  have  made  a  pact  with  the  devil,  and 
were  thus  morally  depraved,  though,  generally  speak- 
ing, they  were  no  more  responsible  for  their  actions 
than  any  other  madmen.  But  the  majority  of  the 
persons  persecuted  as  witches  and  wizards  were 
innocent  even  of  this. 


CEREMONIAL  MAGIC  107 

However,  it  would,  I  think,  be  unwise  to  disregard 
the  existence  of  another  side  to  the  question  of  the 
vaHdity  and  ethical  value  of  magic,  and  to  use  the 
word  only  to  stand  for  something  essentially  evil. 
SwEDENBORG,  we  may  note,  in  the  course  of  a  long 
passage  from  the  work  from  which  I  have  already 
quoted,  says  that  by  "  magic  ''  is  signified  "  the 
science  of  spiritual  things  ".^  His  position  appears 
to  be  that  there  is  a  genuine  magic,  or  science  of 
spiritual  things,  and  a  false  magic,  that  science  per- 
verted :  a  view  of  the  matter  which  I  propose  here 
to  adopt.  The  word  **  magic  "  itself  is  derived  from 
the  Greek  "  /xayo?,''  the  wise  man  of  the  East,  and 
hence  the  strict  etymological  meaning  of  the  term 
is  "  the  wisdom  or  science  of  the  magi  "  ;  and  it  is,  I 
think,  significant  that  we  are  told  (and  I  see  no  reason 
to  doubt  the  truth  of  it)  that  the  magi  were  among 
the  first  to  worship  the  new-born  Christ. ^ 

If  there  be  an  abuse  of  correspondences,  or  symbols, 
there  surely  must  also  be  a  use,  to  which  the  word 
"  magic  "  is  not  inapplicable.  As  such,  religious 
ritual,  and  especially  the  sacraments  of  the  Christian 
Church,  will,  no  doubt,  occur  to  the  minds  of  those 
who  regard  these  symbols  as  efiicacious,  though  they 
would  probably  hesitate  to  apply  the  term  "  magical '' 
to  them.  But  in  using  this  term  as  applying  thereto, 
I  do  not  wish  to  suggest  that  any  such  rites  or  cere- 
monies possess,  or  can  possess,  any  causal  efficacy  in 
the  moral  evolution  of  the  soul.  The  will  alone,  in 
virtue  of  the  power  vouchsafed  to  it  by  the  Source 

1  op.  cit.,  §  5223. 

2  See  The  Gospel  according  to  Matthew,  chap,  ii.,  verses 
I  to  12. 


io8  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

of  all  power,  can  achieve  this  ;  but  I  do  think  that 
the  soul  may  be  assisted  by  ritual,  harmoniously 
related  to  the  states  of  mind  which  it  is  desired  to 
induce.  No  doubt  there  is  a  danger  of  religious 
ritual,  especially  when  its  meaning  is  lost,  being 
engaged  in  for  its  own  sake.  It  is  then  mere  super- 
stition ;  ^  and,  in  view  of  the  danger  of  this  de- 
generacy, many  robust  minds,  such  as  the  members 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  prefer  to  dispense  with 
its  aid  altogether.  When  ritual  is  associated  with 
erroneous  doctrines,  the  results  are  even  more 
disastrous,  as  I  have  indicated  in  **  The  Belief  in 
Talismans  ".  But  when  ritual  is  allied  with,  and 
based  upon,  as  adequately  symbolising,  the  high 
teaching  of  genuine  religion,  it  may  be,  and,  in  fact, 
is,  found  very  helpful  by  many  people.  As  such  its 
efficacy  seems  to  me  to  be  altogether  magical,  in  the 
best  sense  of  that  word. 

But,  indeed,  I  think  a  still  wider  application  of 
the  word  "  magic  ''  is  possible.  **  All  experience  is 
magic,"  says  Novalis  (i 772-1801), "  and  only  magic- 
ally explicable  "  ;  ^  and  again  :  "  It  is  only  because  of 
the  feebleness  of  our  perceptions  and  activity  that 
we  do  not  perceive  ourselves  to  be  in  a  fairy  world." 
No  doubt  it  will  be  objected  that  the  common  ex- 
periences of  daily  life  are  ''  natural,"  whereas  magic 
postulates  the  "  supernatural  ".  If,  as  is  frequently 
done,  we  use  the  term  "  natural,"  as  relating  exclus- 

^  As  "  £;liphas  L6vi"  well  says:  "  Superstition  ...  is  the 
sign  surviving  the  thought  ;  it  is  the  dead  body  of  a  religious 
rite."     {Op  cit.,  p.  150.) 

2  Novalis:   Schriften  (ed.   by    Ludwig    Tieck    and    Fr. 

SCHLEGEL,   1805),  vol.  ii.  p.   I95. 


CEREMONIAL   MAGIC  109 

ively  to  the  physical  realm,  then,  indeed,  we  may  well 
speak  of  magic  as  "  supernatural,"  because  its  aims  are 
psychical.  On  the  other  hand,  the  term  "  natural  " 
is  sometimes  employed  as  referring  to  the  whole 
realm  of  order,  and  in  this  sense  one  can  use  the  word 
*'  magic  "  as  descriptive  of  Nature  herself  when  viewed 
in  the  light  of  an  idealistic  philosophy,  such  as  that 
of  SwEDENBORG,  in  which  all  causation  is  seen  to  be 
essentially  spiritual,  the  things  of  this  world  being 
envisaged  as  symbols  of  ideas  or  spiritual  verities, 
and  thus  physical  causation  regarded  as  an  appear- 
ance produced  in  virtue  of  the  magical,  non-causal 
efficacy  of  symbols. ^  Says  Cornelius  Agrippa  : 
"...  every  day  some  natural  thing  is  drawn  by  art 
and  some  divine  thing  is  drawn  by  Nature  which, 
the  Egyptians,  seeing,  called  Nature  a  Magicianess 
(i.e.)  the  very  Magical  power  itself,  in  the  attracting 
of  like  by  like,  and  of  suitable  things  by  suitable."  ^ 
I  would  suggest,  in  conclusion,  that  there  is  nothing 
really  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  modern  science  in  the 
thesis  that  '*  all  experience  is  magic,  and  only  magic- 
ally explicable."  Science  does  not  pretend  to  reveal 
the  fundamental  or  underlying  cause  of  phenomena, 
does  not  pretend  to  answer  the  final  Why  }  This  is 
rather  the  business  of  philosophy,  though,  in  thus 
distinguishing  between  science  and  philosophy,  I  am 
far  from  insinuating  that  philosophy  should  be  other- 
wise than  scientific.  We  often  hear  religious  but 
non-scientific  men  complain  because  scientific  and 
perhaps  equally  as  religious   men  do  not  in  their 

^  For  a  discussion  of  the  essentially  magical  character  of  in- 
ductive reasoning,  see  my  The  Magic  of  Experience  (1915). 
2  Op.  cit.,  bk.  i.  chap,  xxxvii.  p.  119. 


no  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

books  ascribe  the  production  of  natural  phenomena 
to  the  Divine  Power.  But  if  they  were  so  to 
do  they  would  be  transcending  their  business  as 
scientists.  In  every  science  certain  simple  facts 
of  experience  are  taken  for  granted  :  it  is  the 
business  of  the  scientist  to  reduce  other  and  more 
complex  facts  of  experience  to  terms  of  these  data, 
not  to  explain  these  data  themselves.  Thus  the 
physicist  attempts  to  reduce  other  related  phenomena 
of  greater  complexity  to  terms  of  simple  force  and 
motion  ;  but,  What  are  force  and  motion  }  Why 
does  force  produce  or  result  in  motion  ?  are  questions 
which  lie  beyond  the  scope  of  physics.  In  order  to 
answer  these  questions,  if,  indeed,  this  be  possible, 
we  must  first  inquire,  How  and  why  do  these  ideas 
of  force  and  motion  arise  in  our  minds  ?  These 
problems  land  us  in  the  psychical  or  spiritual  world, 
and  the  term  "  magic ''  at  once  becomes  significant. 
"  If,"  says  Thomas  Carl YLE, "  .  .  .  we  .  .  .  have 
led  thee  into  the  true  Land  of  Dreams  ;  and  .  .  . 
thou  lookest,  even  for  moments,  into  the  region  of 
the  Wonderful,  and  seest  and  feelest  that  thy  daily 
life  is  girt  with  Wonder,  and  based  on  Wonder,  and 
thy  very  blankets  and  breeches  are  Miracles, — then 
art  thou  profited  beyond  money's  worth.  .  .  ."  ^ 

^  Thomas  Carlyle  :  Sartor  Resartus,  bk.  iii.  chap.  ix. 


VIII 
ARCHITECTURAL    SYMBOLISM 

I  WAS  once  rash  enough  to  suggest  in  an  essay  "  On 
SymboHsm  in  Art "  ^  that  "  a  true  work  of  art  is  at 
once  realistic,  imaginative,  and  symbolical,''  and  that 
its  aim  is  to  make  manifest  the  spiritual  significance 
of  the  natural  objects  dealt  with.  I  trust  that  those 
artists  (no  doubt  many)  who  disagree  v^ith  me  will 
forgive  me — a  man  of  science — for  having  ventured 
to  express  any  opinion  v^hatever  on  the  subject. 
But,  at  any  rate,  if  the  suggestions  in  question  are 
accepted,  then  a  criterion  for  distinguishing  between 
art  and  craft  is  at  once  available  ;  for  we  may  say  that, 
whilst  craft  aims  at  producing  works  which  are  physi- 
cally useful,  art  aims  at  producing  works  which  are 
spiritually  useful.  Architecture,  from  this  point  of 
view,  is  a  combination  of  craft  and  art.  It  may,  in- 
deed, be  said  that  the  modern  architecture  which 
creates  our  dwelling-houses,  factories,  and  even  to 
a  large  extent  our  places  of  worship,  is  pure  craft 
unmixed  with  art.  On  the  other  hand,  it  might  be 
argued  that  such  works  of  architecture  are  not  always 

1  Published  in  The  Occult  Review  for  August  1912,  vol.  xvi. 
pp.  98  to  102. 


112  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

devoid  of  decoration,  and  that  "  decorative  art/' 
even  though  the  ''  decorative  artist  ''  is  unconscious 
of  this  fact,  is  based  upon  rules  and  employs  symbols 
which  have  a  deep  significance.  The  truly  artistic 
element  in  architecture,  however,  is  more  clearly 
manifest  if  we  turn  our  gaze  to  the  past.  One  thinks 
at  once,  of  course,  of  the  pyramids  and  sphinx  of 
Egypt,  and  the  rich  and  varied  symbolism  of  design 
and  decoration  of  antique  structures  to  be  found  in 
Persia  and  elsewhere  in  the  East.  It  is  highly  prob- 
able that  the  Egyptian  pyramids  were  employed 
for  astronomical  purposes,  and  thus  subserved 
physical  utility,  but  it  seems  no  less  likely  that  their 
shape  was  suggested  by  a  belief  in  some  system  of 
geometrical  symbolism,  and  was  intended  to  embody 
certain  of  their  philosophical  or  religious  doctrines. 

The  mediaeval  cathedrals  and  churches  of  Europe 
admirably  exhibit  this  combination  of  art  with  craft. 
Craft  was  needed  to  design  and  construct  permanent 
buildings  to  protect  worshippers  from  the  inclemency 
of  the  weather  ;  art  was  employed  not  only  to  deco- 
rate such  buildings,  but  it  dictated  to  craft  many 
points  in  connection  with  their  design.  The  builders 
of  the  mediaeval  churches  endeavoured  so  to  con- 
struct their  works  that  these  might,  as  a  whole  and 
in  their  various  parts,  embody  the  truths,  as  they 
believed  them,  of  the  Christian  religion  :  thus  the 
cruciform  shape  of  churches,  their  orientation,  etc. 
The  practical  value  of  symbolism  in  church  archi- 
tecture is  obvious.  As  Mr  F.  E.  Hulme  remarks, 
"  The  sculptured  fonts  or  stained-glass  windows 
in  the  churches  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  full  of 
teaching  to   a   congregation   of  whom    the  greater 


To  face  p.  112. 


PLATE   17. 


Fig.  34. 

Agnus  Dei,  Sixteenth-century  Font,  Southfleet,  Kent,  from 

Collins'  Symbolism  of  Animals. 

{By  kind  permission  of  the  Author.) 


FIG-  35- 

Unicom,  Sixteenth-century  Font,  Southfleet,  Kent,  from 

Collins'  Symbolism  of  Animals. 

(By  kind  permission  of  the  Author.) 


ARCHITECTURAL   SYMBOLISM       113 

part  could  not  read,  to  whom  therefore  one  great 
avenue  of  knowledge  was  closed.  The  ignorant  are 
especially  impressed  by  pictorial  teaching,  and  grasp 
its  meaning  far  more  readily  than  they  can  follow  a 
written  description  or  a  spoken  discourse/'  ^ 

The  subject  of  symbolism  in  church  architecture 
is  an  extensive  one,  involving  many  side  issues.  In 
these  excursions  we  shall  consider  only  one  aspect 
of  it,  namely,  the  symbolic  use  of  animal  forms  in 
English  church  architecture. 

As  Mr  Collins,  who  has  written,  in  recent  years, 
an  interesting  work  on  this  topic  of  much  use  to 
archaeologists  as  a  book  of  data,^  points  out,  the  great 
sources  of  animal  symbolism  were  the  famous 
Physiologus  and  other  natural  history  books  of  the 
Middle  Ages  (generally  called  "  Bestiaries  "),  and 
the  Bible,  mystically  understood.  The  modern  ten- 
dency is  somewhat  unsympathetic  towards  any 
attempt  to  interpret  the  Bible  symbolically,  and 
certainly  some  of  the  interpretations  that  have  been 
forced  upon  it  in  the  name  of  symbolism  are  crude 
and  fantastic  enough.  But  in  the  belief  of  the 
mystics,  culminating  in  the  elaborate  system  of  cor- 
respondences of  SwEDENBORG,  that  every  natural 
object,  every  event  in  the  history  of  the  human  race, 
and  every  word  of  the  Bible,  has  a  symbolic  and 
spiritual  significance,  there  is,  I  think,  a  fundamental 
truth.  We  must,  however,  as  I  have  suggested 
already,  distinguish  between  true  and  forced  symbol- 

1  F.  Edward  Hulme,  F.L.S.,  F.S.A. :  The  History,  Prin- 
ciples, and  Practice  of  Symbolism  in  Christian  Art  (1909),  p.  2. 

2  Arthur  H.  Collins,  M.A.  :  Symbolism  of  Animals  and 
Birds  represented  in  English  Church  Architecture  (1913). 

8 


114  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

ism.  The  early  Christians  employed  the  fish  as  a 
symbol  of  Christ,  because  the  Greek  word  for  fish, 
^X'^vs,  is  obtained   by  notariqon  ^  from   the   phrase 

'IricTOvg  Xpia-TO^,  Oeov  YI69,  ^cory'ip — '*  JeSUS  ChRIST,  the 

Son  of  God,  the  Saviour."  Of  course,  the  obvious 
use  of  such  a  symbol  was  its  entire  unintelligibility 
to  those  who  had  not  yet  been  instructed  in  the 
mysteries  of  the  Christian  faith,  since  in  the  days  of 
persecution  some  degree  of  secrecy  was  necessary. 
But  the  symbol  has  significance  only  in  the  Greek 
language,  and  that  of  an  entirely  arbitrary  nature. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  fish,  apart  from 
its  name  in  Greek,  which  renders  it  suitable  to  be 
used  as  a  symbol  of  Christ.  Contrast  this  pseudo- 
symbol,  however,  with  that  of  the  Good  Shepherd, 
the  Lamb  of  God  (fig.  34),  or  the  Lion  of  Judah. 
Here  we  have  what  may  be  regarded  as  true 
symbols,  something  of  whose  meanings  are  clear  to 
the  smallest  degree  of  spiritual  sight,  even  though 
the  second  of  them  has  frequently  been  badly 
misinterpreted. 

It  was  a  belief  in  the  spiritual  or  moral  significance 
of  nature  similar  to  that  of  the  mystical  expositors 
of  the  Bible,  that  inspired  the  mediaeval  naturalists. 
The  Bestiaries  almost  invariably  conclude  the  account 
of  each  animal  with  the  moral  that  might  be  drawn 
from  its  behaviour.  The  interpretations  are  fre- 
quently very  far-fetched,  and  as  the  writers  were 
more  interested  in  the  morals  than  in  the  facts  of 
natural  history  themselves,  the  supposed  facts  from 
which  they  drew  their  morals  were  frequently  very 

^  A  Kabalistic  process  by  which  a  word  is  formed  by  taking 
the  initial  letters  of  a  sentence  or  phrase. 


To  face  p.  114. 


PLATE   18. 


O  (o 

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<^ 

■3  I 

£  o 

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ARCHITECTURAL  SYMBOLISM       115 

far  from  being  of  the  nature  of  facts.  Sometimes 
the  product  of  this  inaccuracy  is  grotesque,  as  shown 
by  the  following  quotation  :  "  The  elephants  are  in 
an  absurd  way  typical  of  Adam  and  Eve,  who  ate  of 
the  forbidden  fruit,  and  also  have  the  dragon  for 
their  enemy.  It  was  supposed  that  the  elephant  .  .  . 
used  to  sleep  by  leaning  against  a  tree.  The  hunters 
would  come  by  night,  and  cut  the  trunk  through. 
Down  he  would  come,  roaring  helplessly.  None  of 
his  friends  would  be  able  to  help  him,  until  a  small 
elephant  should  come  and  lever  him  up  with  his 
trunk.  This  small  elephant  was  symbolic  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Who  came  in  great  humility  to  rescue  the 
human  race  which  had  fallen  *  through  a  tree.'  "  ^ 

In  some  cases,  though  the  symbolism  is  based  upon 
quite  erroneous  notions  concerning  natural  history, 
and  is  so  far  fantastic,  it  is  not  devoid  of  charm.  The 
use  of  the  pelican  to  symbolise  the  Saviour  is  a  case 
in  point.  Legend  tells  us  that  when  other  food  is 
unobtainable,  the  pelican  thrusts  its  bill  into  its 
breast  (whence  the  red  colour  of  the  bill)  and  feeds 
its  young  with  its  life-blood.  Were  this  only  a  fact, 
the  symbol  would  be  most  appropriate.  There  is 
another  and  far  less  charming  form  of  the  legend, 
though  more  in  accord  with  current  perversions  of 
Christian  doctrine,  according  to  which  the  pelican 
uses  its  blood  to  revive  its  young,  after  having  slain 
them  through  anger  aroused  by  the  great  provoca- 
tion which  they  are  supposed  to  give  it.  For  an 
example  of  the  use  of  the  pelican  in  church  archi- 
tecture see  fig.  36. 

Mention  must  also  be  made  of  the  purely  fabulous 
^  A.  H.  Collins  :  Symbolism  of  Animals,  etc,  pp.  4i^and  42. 


ii6  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

animals  of  the  Bestiaries,  such  as  the  basilisk,  centaur, 
dragon,  griffin,  hydra,  mantichora,  unicorn,  phoenix, 
etc.  The  centaur  (fig.  39)  was  a  beast,  half  man, 
half  horse.  It  typified  the  flesh  or  carnal  mind  of 
man,  and  the  legend  of  the  perpetual  war  between 
the  centaur  and  a  certain  tribe  of  simple  savages 
who  were  said  to  live  in  trees  in  India,  symbolised 
the  combat  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit.^ 

With  bow  and  arrow  in  its  hands  the  centaur  forms 
the  astrological  sign  Sagittarius  (or  the  Archer). 
An  interesting  example  of  this  sign  occurring  in 
church  architecture  is  to  be  found  on  the  western 
doorway  of  Portchester  Church — a  most  beautiful 
piece  of  Norman  architecture.  "  This  sign  of  the 
Zodiac,''  writes  the  Rev.  Canon  Vaughan,  M.A.,  a 
former  Vicar  of  Portchester,  **  was  the  badge  of 
King  Stephen,  and  its  presence  on  the  west  front  [of 
Portchester  Church]  seems  to  indicate,  what  was  often 
the  case  elsewhere,  that  the  elaborate  Norman  carving 
was  not  carried  out  until  after  the  completion  of  the 
building."  ^  The  facts,  however,  that  this  Sagit- 
tarius is  accompanied  on  the  other  side  of  the  door- 
way by  a  couple  of  fishes,  which  form  the  astrological 
sign  Pisces  (or  the  Fishes),  and  that  these  two  signs 
are  what  are  termed,  in  astrological  phraseology, 
the  "  houses  ''  of  the  planet  Jupiter,  the  **  Major 
Fortune,"  suggest  that  the  architect  responsible  for 
the  design,  influenced  by  the  astrological  notions  of 
his  day,  may  have  put  the  signs  there  in  order  to 

1  A.  H.  Collins:  Symbolism  of  Animals,  etc.,  pp.  150  and 

153. 

2  Rev.  Canon  Vaughan,  M.A.  :  A  Short  History  of  Port- 
chester Castle,  p.  14. 


To  face  p.  ii6. 


PLATE  19. 


Fig.  38. 

Western  Doorway  of  Porch  ester  Church,  Hants, 
showing  Sagittarius  and  Pisces. 


ARCHITECTURAL  SYMBOLISM       117 

attract  Jupiter's  beneficent  influence.  Or  he  may 
have  had  the  Sagittarius  carved  for  the  reason  Canon 
Vaughan  suggests,  and  then,  remembering  how  good 
a  sign  it  was  astrologically,  had  the  Pisces  added  to 
complete  the  effect.^ 

The  phoenix  and  griflin  we  have  encountered 
already  in  our  excursions.  The  latter,  we  are  told, 
inhabits  desert  places  in  India,  where  it  can  find 
nothing  for  its  young  to  eat.  It  flies  away  to  other 
regions  to  seek  food,  and  is  sufficiently  strong  to 
carry  off  an  ox.  Thus  it  symbolises  the  devil,  who 
is  ever  anxious  to  carry  away  our  souls  to  the  deserts 
of  hell.  Fig.  37  illustrates  an  example  of  the  use 
of  this  symbolic  beast  in  church  architecture. 

^  Two  other  possible  explanations  of  the  Pisces  have  been 
suggested  by  the  Rev.  A.  Headley.  In  his  MS.  book  written 
in  1888,  when  he  was  Vicar  of  Po richest er,  he  writes  :  "  I  have 
discovered  an  interesting  proof  that  it  [the  Church]  was  finished 
in  Stephen's  reign,  namely,  the  figure  of  Sagittarius  in  the 
Western  Doorway. 

"  Stephen  adopted  this  as  his  badge  for  the  double  reason 
that  it  formed  part  of  the  arms  of  the  city  of  Blois,  and  that 
the  sun  was  in  Sagittarius  in  December  when  he  came  to  the 
throne.  I,  therefore,  conclude  that  this  badge  was  placed 
where  it  is  to  mark  the  completion  of  the  church. 

"  There  is  another  sign  of  the  Zodiac  in  the  archway, 
apparently  Pisces.  This  may  have  been  chosen  to  mark  the 
month  in  which  the  church  was  finished,  or  simply  on  account 
of  its  nearness  to  the  sea.  At  one  time  I  fancied  it  might 
refer  to  March,  the  month  in  which  Lady  Day  occurred,  thus 
referring  to  the  Patron  Saint,  St  Mary.  As  the  sun  leaves 
Pisces  just  before  Lady  Day  this  does  not  explain  it.  Possibly 
in  the  old  calendar  it  might  do  so.  This  is  a  matter  for  further 
research."  (I  have  to  thank  the  Rev.  H.  Lawrence  Fry, 
present  Vicar  of  Portchester,  for  this  quotation,  and  the  Rev. 
A.  Headley  for  permission  to  utilise  it.) 


ii8  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

The  mantichora  is  described  by  Pliny  (whose 
statements  were  unquestioningly  accepted  by  the 
mediaeval  naturaUsts),  on  the  authority  of  Ctesias 
(fl,  400  B.C.),  as  having  "  A  triple  row  of  teeth,  which 
fit  into  each  other  like  those  of  a  comb,  the  face  and 
ears  of  a  man,  and  azure  eyes,  is  the  colour  of  blood, 
has  the  body  of  the  lion,  and  a  tail  ending  in  a  sting, 
like  that  of  the  scorpion.  Its  voice  resembles  the 
union  of  the  sound  of  the  flute  and  the  trumpet  ;  it 
is  of  excessive  swiftness,  and  is  particularly  fond  of 
human  flesh."  ^ 

Concerning  the  unicorn,  in  an  eighteenth-century 
work  on  natural  history  we  read  that  this  is  "  a 
Beast,  which  though  doubted  of  by  many  Writers, 
yet  is  by  others  thus  described  :  He  has  but  one 
Horn,  and  that  an  exceedingly  rich  one,  growing  out 
of  the  middle  of  his  Forehead.  His  Head  resembles 
an  Hart's,  his  Feet  an  Elephant's,  his  tail  a  Boar's, 
and  the  rest  of  his  Body  an  Horse's.  The  Horn  is 
about  a  Foot  and  half  in  length.  His  Voice  is  like 
the  Lowing  of  an  Ox.  His  Mane  and  Hair  are  of  a 
yellowish  Colour.  His  Horn  is  as  hard  as  Iron,  and 
as  rough  as  any  File,  twisted  or  curled,  like  a  flaming 
Sword  ;  very  straight,  sharp,  and  every  where  black, 
excepting  the  Point.  Great  Virtues  are  attributed 
to  it,  in  expelling  of  Poison  and  curing  of  several 
Diseases.  He  is  not  a  Beast  of  prey."  ^  The  method 
of  capturing  the  animal  believed  in  by  mediaeval 
writers  was  a  curious  one.     The  following  is  a  literal 

1  Pliny:  Natural  History,  bk.  viii.  chap,  xxx.  (Bostock 
and  Riley's  trans.,  vol.  ii.,  1855,  p.  280.) 

2  [Thomas  Boreman]  :  A  Description  of  Three  Hundred 
Animals  (1730),  p.  6. 


To  face  p.  ill 


PLATE   20. 


Fig.  39. 
Centaur,  from  Vlyssis  Aldrovandi's  Monstrorum  Historia  (1642). 


Fig.  40. 
Mantichora,  from  A  Description  of  Three  Hundred  Animals  (1730). 


ARCHITECTURAL  SYMBOLISM       119 

translation  from  the  Bestiary  of  Philippe  de  Thaun 
(i2th  century)  : — 

*'  Monosceros  is  an  animal  which  has  one  horn  on  its  head, 
Therefore  it  is  so  named  ;   it  has  the  form  of  a  goat, 
It  is  caught  by  means  of  a  virgin,  now  hear  in  what  manner. 
When  a  man  intends  to  hunt  it  and  to  take  and  ensnare  it 
He  goes  to  the  forest  where  is  its  repair  ; 
There  he  places  a  virgin,  with  her  breast  uncovered. 
And  by  its  smell  the  monosceros  perceives  it ; 
Then  it  comes  to  the  virgin,  and  kisses  her  breast. 
Falls  asleep  on  her  lap,  and  so  comes  to  its  death  ; 
The  man  arrives  immediately,  and  kills  it  in  its  sleep, 
Or  takes  it  alive  and  does  as  he  likes  with  it. 
It  signifies  much,  I  will  not  omit  to  tell  it  you. 

"  Monosceros  is  Greek,  it  means  one  horn  in  French  : 
A  beast  of  such  a  description  signifies  Jesus  Christ ; 
One  God  he  is  and  shall  be,  and  was  and  will  continue  so  ; 
He  placed  himself  in  the  virgin,  and  took  flesh  for  man's  sake. 
And  for  virginity  to  show  chastity  ; 
To  a  virgin  he  appeared  and  a  virgin  conceived  him, 
A  virgin  she  is,  and  will  be,  and  will  remain  always. 
Now  hear  briefly  the  signification. 

"  This  animal  in  truth  signifies  God  ; 
Know  that  the  virgin  signifies  St  Mary  ; 
By  her  breast  we  understand  similarly  Holy  Church  ; 
And  then  by  the  kiss  it  ought  to  signify. 
That  a  man  when  he  sleeps  is  in  semblance  of  death  ; 
God  slept  as  man,  who  suffered  death  on  the  cross. 
And  his  destruction  was  our  redemption. 
And  his  labour  our  repose. 

Thus  God  deceived  the  Devil  by  a  proper  semblance  ; 
Soul  and  body  were  one,  so  was  God  and  man, 
And  this  is  the  signification  of  an  animal  of  that  description."^ 

^  Popular  Treatises  on  Science  written  during  the  Middle 
Ages  in  Anglo-Saxon,  Anglo-Norman,  and  English,  ed.  by 
Thomas  Wright  (Historical  Society  of  Science,  1841),  pp.  81-82. 


120  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

This  being  the  current  belief  concerning  the  sym- 
bolism of  the  unicorn  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  this  animal  utilised  in  church 
architecture  ;  for  an  example  see  fig.  35. 

The  belief  in  the  existence  of  these  fabulous  beasts 
may  very  probably  have  been  due  to  the  materialising 
of  what  were  originally  nothing  more  than  mere  arbit- 
rary symbols,  as  I  have  already  suggested  of  the 
phoenix.^  Thus  the  account  of  the  mantichora  may, 
as  BosTOCK  has  suggested,  very  well  be  a  description 
of  certain  hieroglyphic  figures,  examples  of  which 
are  still  to  be  found  in  the  ruins  of  Assyrian  and 
Persian  cities.  This  explanation  seems,  on  the 
whole,  more  likely  than  the  alternative  hypothesis 
that  such  beliefs  were  due  to  mal-observation ; 
though  that,  no  doubt,  helped  in  their  formation. 

It  may  be  questioned,  however,  whether  the  archi- 
tects and  preachers  of  the  Middle  Ages  altogether 
believed  in  the  strange  fables  of  the  Bestiaries.  As 
Mr  Collins  says  in  reply  to  this  question  :  '*  Prob- 
ably they  were  credulous  enough.  But,  on  the 
whole,  we  may  say  that  the  truth  of  the  story  was 
just  what  they  did  not  trouble  about,  any  more  than 
some  clergymen  are  particular  about  the  absolute 
truth  of  the  stories  they  tell  children  from  the  pulpit. 
The  application,  the  lesson,  is  the  thing  !  ''  With 
their  desire  to  interpret  Nature  spiritually,  we  ought, 
I  think,  to  sympathise.  But  there  was  one  truth 
they  had  yet  to  learn,  namely,  that  in  order  to  in- 
terpret Nature  spiritually,  it  is  necessary  first  to 
understand  her  aright  in  her  literal  sense. 
^  "  Superstitions  concerning  Birds." 


IX 

THE    QUEST    OF     THE 
PHILOSOPHER'S    STONE 

The  need  of  unity  is  a  primary  need  of  human 
thought.  Behind  the  varied  muItipHcity  of  the 
world  of  phenomena,  primitive  man,  as  I  have  in- 
dicated on  a  preceding  excursion,  begins  to  seek, 
more  or  less  consciously,  for  that  Unity  which  alone 
is  Real.  And  this  statement  not  only  applies  to  the 
first  dim  gropings  of  the  primitive  human  mind,  but 
sums  up  almost  the  whole  of  science  and  philosophy ; 
for  almost  all  science  and  philosophy  is  explicitly  or 
implicitly  a  search  for  unity,  for  one  law  or  one  love, 
one  matter  or  one  spirit.  That  which  is  the  aim  of 
the  search  may,  indeed,  be  expressed  under  widely 
different  terms,  but  it  is  always  conceived  to  be  the 
unity  in  which  all  multiplicity  is  resolved,  whether 
it  be  thought  of  as  one  final  law  of  necessity,  which 
all  things  obey,  and  of  which  all  the  various  other 
**  laws  of  nature  ''  are  so  many  special  and  limited 
applications  ;  or  as  one  final  love  for  which  all 
things  are  created,  and  to  which  all  things  aspire  ; 
as  one  matter  of  which  all  bodies  are  but  varying 
forms  ;  or  as  one  spirit,  which  is  the  life  of  all  things, 


122  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

and  of  which  all  things  are  so  many  manifestations. 
Every  scientist  and  philosopher  is  a  merchant  seeking 
for  goodly  pearls,  willing  to  sell  every  pearl  that  he 
has,  if  he  may  secure  the  One  Pearl  beyond  price, 
because  he  knows  that  in  that  One  Pearl  all  others 
are  included. 

This  search  for  unity  in  multiplicity,  however,  is 
not  confined  to  the  acknowledged  scientist  and  philo- 
sopher. More  or  less  unconsciously  everyone  is 
engaged  in  this  quest.  Harmony  and  unity  are  the 
very  fundamental  laws  of  the  human  mind  itself, 
and,  in  a  sense,  all  mental  activity  is  the  endeavour 
to  bring  about  a  state  of  harmony  and  unity  in  the 
mind.  No  two  ideas  that  are  contradictory  of  one 
another,  and  are  perceived  to  be  of  this  nature,  can 
permanently  exist  in  any  sane  man's  mind.  It  is 
true  that  many  people  try  to  keep  certain  portions  of 
their  mental  life  in  water-tight  compartments  ;  thus 
some  try  to  keep  their  religious  convictions  and  their 
business  ideas,  or  their  religious  faith  and  their 
scientific  knowledge,  separate  from  another  one — and, 
it  seems,  often  succeed  remarkably  well  in  so  doing. 
But,  ultimately,  the  arbitrary  mental  walls  they  have 
erected  will  break  down  by  the  force  of  their  own 
ideas.  Contradictory  ideas  from  different  compart- 
ments will  then  present  themselves  to  consciousness 
at  the  same  moment  of  time,  and  the  result  of  the 
perception  of  their  contradictory  nature  will  be  mental 
anguish  and  turmoil,  persisting  until  one  set  of  ideas 
is  conquered  and  overcome  by  the  other,  and  harmony 
and  unity  are  restored. 

It  is  true  of  all  of  us,  then,  that  we  seek  for  Unity — 
unity  in  mind  and  life.     Some  seek  it  in  science  and 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     123 

a  life  of  knowledge ;  some  seek  it  in  religion  and  a 
life  of  faith ;  some  seek  it  in  human  love  and  find  it 
in  the  life  of  service  to  their  fellows  ;  some  seek  it  in 
pleasure  and  the  gratification  of  the  senses'  demands  ; 
some  seek  it  in  the  harmonious  development  of  all  the 
facets  of  their  being.  Many  the  methods,  right  and 
wrong  ;  many  the  terms  under  which  the  One  is 
conceived,  true  and  false — in  a  sense,  to  use  the 
phraseology  of  a  bygone  system  of  philosophy,  we 
are  all,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  following  paths 
that  lead  thither  or  paths  that  lead  away,  seekers  in 
the  quest  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone. 

Let  us,  in  these  excursions  in  the  byways  of 
thought,  consider  for  a  while  the  form  that  the  quest 
of  fundamental  unity  took  in  the  hands  of  those 
curious  mediaeval  philosophers,  half  mystics,  half 
experimentalists  in  natural  things — that  are  known 
by  the  name  of  "  alchemists." 

The  common  opinion  concerning  alchemy  is  that 
it  was  a  pseudo-science  or  pseudo-art  flourishing 
during  the  Dark  Ages,  and  having  for  its  aim  the 
conversion  of  common  metals  into  silver  and  gold 
by  means  of  a  most  marvellous  and  wholly  fabulous 
agent  called  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  that  its  devotees 
were  half  knaves,  half  fools,  whose  views  concerning 
Nature  were  entirely  erroneous,  and  whose  objects 
were  entirely  mercenary.  This  opinion  is  not  abso- 
lutely destitute  of  truth  ;  as  a  science  alchemy  in- 
volved many  fantastic  errors  ;  and  in  the  course  of 
its  history  it  certainly  proved  attractive  to  both  knaves 
and  fools.  But  if  this  opinion  involves  some  element 
of  truth,  it  involves  a  far  greater  proportion  of  error. 
Amongst  the  alchemists  are  numbered  some  of  the 


124  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

greatest  intellects  of  the  Middle  Ages  —  Roger 
Bacon  {c.  1214-1294),  for  example,  who  might 
almost  be  called  the  father  of  experimental  science. 
And  whether  or  not  the  desire  for  material  wealth 
was  a  secondary  object,  the  true  aim  of  the  genuine 
alchemist  was  a  much  nobler  one  than  this — as  one 
of  them  exclaims  with  true  scientific  fervour : 
"  Would  to  God  ...  all  men  might  become  adepts 
in  our  Art — for  then  gold,  the  great  idol  of  mankind, 
would  lose  its  value,  and  we  should  prize  it  only  for 
its  scientific  teaching."  ^  Moreover,  recent  develop- 
ments in  physical  and  chemical  science  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  the  alchemists  were  not  so  utterly  wrong  in 
their  concept  of  Nature  as  has  formerly  been  supposed 
— that,  whilst  they  certainly  erred  in  both  their 
methods  and  their  interpretations  of  individual 
phenomena,  they  did  intuitively  grasp  certain  funda- 
mental facts  concerning  the  universe  of  the  very 
greatest  importance. 

Suppose,  however,  that  the  theories  of  the  al- 
chemists are  entirely  erroneous  from  beginning  to 
end,  and  are  nowhere  relieved  by  the  merest  glimmer 
of  truth.  Still  they  were  believed  to  be  true,  and 
this  belief  had  an  important  influence  upon  human 
thought.  Many  men  of  science  have,  I  am  afraid, 
been  too  prone  to  regard  the  mystical  views  of  the 
alchemists  as  unintelligible  ;  but,  whatever  their 
theories  may  be  to  us,  these  theories  were  certainly 
very  real  to  them  :  it  is  preposterous  to  maintain 
that  the  writings  of  the  alchemists  are  without  mean- 

1  EiRENiEUS  Philalethes  :  An  Open  Entrance  to  the  Closed 
Palace  of  the  King.  (See  The  Hermetic  Museum,  Restored  and 
Enlarged,  ed.  by  A.  E.  Waite,  1893,  vol.  ii.  p.  178.) 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     125 

ing,  even  though  their  views  are  altogether  false. 
And  the  more  false  their  views  are  believed  to  be, 
the  more  necessary  does  it  become  to  explain  why 
they  should  have  gained  such  universal  credit. 
Here  we  have  problems  into  which  scientific  inquiry 
is  not  only  legitimate,  but,  I  think,  very  desirable, — 
apart  altogether  from  the  question  of  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  alchemy  as  a  science,  or  its  utility  as  an 
art.  What  exactly  was  the  system  of  beliefs  grouped 
under  the  term  "  alchemy,"  and  what  was  its  aim  ? 
Why  were  the  beliefs  held  ?  What  was  their  precise 
influence  upon  human  thought  and  culture  ? 

It  was  in  order  to  elucidate  problems  of  this  sort, 
as  well  as  to  determine  what  elements  of  truth,  if 
any,  there  are  in  the  theories  of  the  alchemists,  that 
The  Alchemical  Society  was  founded  in  19 12,  mainly 
through  my  own  efforts  and  those  of  my  confreres, 
and  for  the  first  time  someting  like  justice  was  being 
done  to  the  memory  of  the  alchemists  when  the 
Society's  activities  were  stayed  by  that  greatest 
calamity  of  history,  the  European  War. 

Some  students  of  the  writings  of  the  alchemists 
have  advanced  a  very  curious  and  interesting  theory 
as  to  the  aims  of  the  alchemists,  which  may  be  termed 
**  the  transcendental  theory  ".  According  to  this 
theory,  the  alchemists  were  concerned  only  with  the 
mystical  processes  affecting  the  soul  of  man,  and  their 
chemical  references  are  only  to  be  understood 
symbolically.  In  my  opinion,  however,  this  view 
of  the  subject  is  rendered  untenable  by  the  lives  of 
the  alchemists  themselves  ;  for,  as  Mr  Waite  has 
very  fully  pointed  out  in  his  Lives  of  Alchemystical 
Philosophers  (1888),  the  lives  of  the  alchemists  show 


126  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

them  to  have  been  mainly  concerned  with  chemical 
and  physical  processes  ;  and,  indeed,  to  their  labours 
we  owe  many  valuable  discoveries  of  a  chemical 
nature.  But  the  fact  that  such  a  theory  should  ever 
have  been  formulated,  and  should  not  be  altogether 
lacking  in  consistency,  may  serve  to  direct  our  atten- 
tion to  the  close  connection  between  alchemy  and 
mysticism. 

If  we  wish  to  understand  the  origin  and  aims  of 
alchemy  we  must  endeavour  to  recreate  the  atmo- 
sphere of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  to  look  at  the  subject 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  alchemists  themselves. 
Now,  this  atmosphere  was,  as  I  have  indicated  in  a 
previous  essay,  surcharged  with  mystical  theology 
and  mystical  philosophy.  Alchemy,  so  to  speak, 
was  generated  and  throve  in  a  dim  religious  light. 
We  cannot  open  a  book  by  any  one  of  the  better  sort 
of  alchemists  without  noticing  how  closely  their 
theology  and  their  chemistry  are  interwoven,  and 
what  a  remarkably  religious  view  they  take  of  their 
subject.  Thus  one  alchemist  writes :  "  In  the  first 
place,  let  every  devout  and  God-fearing  chemist  and 
student  of  this  Art  consider  that  this  arcanum  should 
be  regarded,  not  only  as  a  truly  great,  but  as  a  most 
holy  Art  (seeing  that  it  typifies  and  shadows  out  the 
highest  heavenly  good).  Therefore,  if  any  man 
desire  to  reach  this  great  and  unspeakable  Mystery, 
he  must  remember  that  it  is  obtained  not  by  the 
might  of  man,  but  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  that  not 
our  will  or  desire,  but  only  the  mercy  of  the  Most 
High,  can  bestow  it  upon  us.  For  this  reason  you 
must  first  of  all  cleanse  your  heart,  lift  it  up  to  Him 
alone,  and  ask  of  Him  this  gift  in  true,  earnest  and 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     127 

undoubting  prayer.  He  alone  can  give  and  bestow 
it."  1  Whilst  another  alchemist  declares  :  "  I  am 
firmly  persuaded  that  any  unbeliever  who  got  truly 
to  know  this  Art,  would  straightway  confess  the 
truth  of  our  Blessed  Religion,  and  believe  in  the 
Trinity  and  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  ^ 

Now,  what  I  suggest  is  that  the  alchemists  con- 
structed their  chemical  theories  for  the  main  part 
by  means  of  a  priori  reasoning,  and  that  the  premises 
from  which  they  started  were  (i.)  the  truth  of  mystical 
theology,  especially  the  doctrine  of  the  souFs  re- 
generation, and  (ii.)  the  truth  of  mystical  philosophy, 
which  asserts  that  the  objects  of  Nature  are  symbols 
of  spiritual  verities.  There  is,  I  think,  abundant 
evidence  to  show  that  alchemy  was  a  more  or  less 
deliberate  attempt  to  apply,  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  analogy,  the  doctrines  of  religious  mysti- 
cism to  chemical  and  physical  phenomena.  Some 
of  this  evidence  I  shall  attempt  to  put  forward  in 
this  essay. 

In  the  first  place,  however,  I  propose  to  say  a  few 
words  more  in  description  of  the  theological  and 
philosophical  doctrines  which  so  greatly  influenced 
the  alchemists,  and  which,  I  believe,  they  borrowed 
for  their  attempted  explanations  of  chemical  and 
physical  phenomena.  This  system  of  doctrine  I 
have  termed  **  mysticism  " — a  word  which  is  un- 
fortunately equivocal,  and  has  been  used  to  denote 
various  systems  of  religious  and  philosophical  thought, 

^  The  Sophie  Hydrolith  ;  or,  Water  Stone  of  the  Wise.  (See 
The  Hermetic  Museum,  vol.  i.  pp.  74  and  75.) 

2  Peter  Bonus  :  The  New  Pearl  of  Great  Price  (trans,  by 
A.  E.  Waite,  1894),  p.  275. 


128  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

from  the  noblest  to  the  most  degraded.  I  have, 
therefore,  further  to  define  my  usage  of  the  term. 

By  mystical  theology  I  mean  that  system  of  religious 
thought  which  emphasises  the  unity  between  Creator 
and  creature,  though  not  necessarily  to  the  extent 
of  becoming  pantheistic.  Man,  mystical  theology 
asserts,  has  sprung  from  God,  but  has  fallen  away 
from  Him  through  self-love.  Within  man,  however, 
is  the  seed  of  divine  grace,  whereby,  if  he  will  follow 
the  narrow  road  of  self-renunciation,  he  may  be 
regenerated,  born  anew,  becoming  transformed  into 
the  likeness  of  God  and  ultimately  indissolubly 
united  to  God  in  love.  God  is  at  once  the  Creator 
and  the  Restorer  of  man's  soul.  He  is  the  Origin 
as  well  as  the  End  of  all  existence  ;  and  He  is  also 
the  Way  to  that  End.  In  Christian  mysticism, 
Christ  is  the  Pattern,  towards  which  the  mystic 
strives  ;  Christ  also  is  the  means  towards  the  attain- 
ment of  this  end. 

By  mystical  philosophy  I  mean  that  system  of 
philosophical  thought  which  emphasises  the  unity 
of  the  Cosmos,  asserting  that  God  and  the  spiritual 
may  be  perceived  immanent  in  the  things  of  this 
world,  because  all  things  natural  are  symbols  and 
emblems  of  spiritual  verities.  As  one  of  the  Golden 
Verses  attributed  to  Pythagoras,  which  I  have 
quoted  in  a  previous  essay,  puts  it  :  *'  The  Nature 
of  this  Universe  is  in  all  things  alike  '';  commenting 
upon  which,  Hierocles,  writing  in  the  fifth  or  sixth 
century,  remarks  that  **  Nature,  in  forming  this  Uni- 
verse after  the  Divine  Measure  and  Proportion,  made 
it  in  all  things  conformable  and  like  to  itself,  analogi- 
cally  in   different   manners.     Of  all   the   different 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     129 

species,  diffused  throughout  the  whole,  it  made,  as 
it  were,  an  Image  of  the  Divine  Beauty,  imparting 
variously  to  the  copy  the  perfections  of  the  Original."^ 
We  have,  however,  already  encountered  so  many  in- 
stances of  this  belief,  that  no  more  need  be  said  here 
concerning  it. 

In  fine,  as  Dean  Inge  well  says:  *'  Religious  Mysti- 
cism may  be  defined  as  the  attempt  to  realise  the 
presence  of  the  living  God  in  the  soul  and  in  nature, 
or,  more  generally,  as  the  attempt  to  realise,  in  thought 
and  feeling,  the  immanence  of  the  temporal  in  the 
eternal,  and  of  the  eternal  in  the  temporal''  ^ 

Now,  doctrines  such  as  these  were  not  only  very 
prevalent  during  the  Middle  Ages,  when  alchemy 
so  greatly  flourished,  but  are  of  great  antiquity,  and 
were  undoubtedly  believed  in  by  the  learned  class 
in  Egypt  and  elsewhere  in  the  East  in  those  remote 
days  when,  as  some  think,  alchemy  originated, 
though  the  evidence,  as  will,  I  hope,  become  plain 
as  we  proceed,  points  to  a  later  and  post- Christian 
origin  for  the  central  theorem  of  alchemy.  So  far  as 
we  can  judge  from  their  writings,  the  more  important 
alchemists  were  convinced  of  the  truth  of  these  doc- 
trines, and  it  was  with  such  beliefs  in  mind  that  they 
commenced  their  investigations  of  physical  and 
chemical  phenomena.  Indeed,  if  we  may  judge  by 
the  esteem  in  which  the  Hermetic  maxim,  "  What  is 
above  is  as  that  which  is  below,  what  is  below  is  as 
that  which  is  above,  to  accomplish  the  miracles  of 

^  Commentary  of  Hierocles  on  the  Golden  Verses  of  Pytha- 
goras (trans,  by  N.  RowE,  1906),  pp.  loi  and  102. 

2  William  Ralph  Inge,  M.A.  :  Christian  Mysticism  (the 
Bampton  Lectures,  1899),  p.  5. 


130  BYGONE   BELIEFS 

the  One  Thing,"  was  held  by  every  alchemist,  we 
are  justified  in  asserting  that  the  mystical  theory  of 
the  spiritual  significance  of  Nature — a  theory  with 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  closely  connected  the 
Neoplatonic  and  Kabalistic  doctrine  that  all  things 
emanate  in  series  from  the  Divine  Source  of  all 
Being — was  at  the  very  heart  of  alchemy.  As  writes 
one  alchemist  :**...  the  Sages  have  been  taught  of 
God  that  this  natural  world  is  only  an  image  and 
material  copy  of  a  heavenly  and  spiritual  pattern  ; 
that  the  very  existence  of  this  world  is  based  upon 
the  reality  of  its  celestial  archetype  ;  and  that  God 
has  created  it  in  imitation  of  the  spiritual  and  in- 
visible universe,  in  order  that  men  might  be  the 
better  enabled  to  comprehend  His  heavenly  teaching, 
and  the  wonders  of  His  absolute  and  ineffable  power 
and  wisdom.  Thus  the  sage  sees  heaven  reflected 
in  Nature  as  in  a  mirror  ;  and  he  pursues  this  Art, 
not  for  the  sake  of  gold  or  silver,  but  for  the  love 
of  the  knowledge  which  it  reveals  ;  he  jealously 
conceals  it  from  the  sinner  and  the  scornful,  lest 
the  mysteries  of  heaven  should  be  laid  bare  to  the 
vulgar  gaze."  ^ 

The  alchemists,  I  hold,  convinced  of  the  truth  of 
this  view  of  Nature,  i.e,  that  principles  true  of  one 
plane  of  being  are  true  also  of  all  other  planes, 
adopted  analogy  as  their  guide  in  dealing  with  the 
facts  of  chemistry  and  physics  known  to  them.  They 
endeavoured  to  explain  these  facts  by  an  application 
to  them  of  the  principles  of  mystical  theology,  their 

^  Michael  Sendivogius  (?) :  The  New  Chemical  Light,  Pt. 
II.,  Concerning  Sulphur.     (See  The  Hermetic  Museum,  vol.  ii. 

p.  138.) 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     131 

chief  aim  being  to  prove  the  truth  of  these  principles 
as  applied  to  the  facts  of  the  natural  realm,  and  by 
studying  natural  phenomena  to  become  instructed  in 
spiritual  truth.  They  did  not  proceed  by  the  sure, 
but  slow,  method  of  modern  science,  i.e.  the  method 
of  induction,  which  questions  experience  at  every 
step  in  the  construction  of  a  theory  ;  but  they  boldly 
allowed  their  imaginations  to  leap  ahead  and  to 
formulate  a  complete  theory  of  the  Cosmos  on  the 
strength  of  but  few  facts.  This  led  them  into  many 
fantastic  errors,  but  I  would  not  venture  to  deny  them 
an  intuitive  perception  of  certain  fundamental  truths 
concerning  the  constitution  of  the  Cosmos,  even  if 
they  distorted  these  truths  and  dressed  them  in  a 
fantastic  garb. 

Now,  as  I  hope  to  make  plain  in  the  course  of 
this  excursion,  the  alchemists  regarded  the  discovery 
of  the  Philosopher's  Stone  and  the  transmutation  of 
*'  base  "  metals  into  gold  as  the  consummation  of 
the  proof  of  the  doctrines  of  mystical  theology  as 
applied  to  chemical  phenomena,  and  it  was  as  such 
that  they  so  ardently  sought  to  achieve  the  magnum 
opuSy  as  this  transmutation  was  called.  Of  course, 
it  would  be  useless  to  deny  that  many,  accepting  the 
truth  of  the  great  alchemical  theorem,  sought  for 
the  Philosopher's  Stone  because  of  what  was  claimed 
for  it  in  the  way  of  material  benefits.  But,  as  I  have 
already  indicated,  with  the  nobler  alchemists  this 
was  not  the  case,  and  the  desire  for  wealth,  if  present 
at  all,  was  merely  a  secondary  object. 

The  idea  expressed  in  D Alton's  atomic  hypo- 
thesis (1802),  and  universally  held  during  the  nine- 
teenth century,  that  the  material  world  is  made  up 


/ 


132  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

of  a  certain  limited  number  of  elements  unalterable 
in  quantity,  subject  in  themselves  to  no  change  or 
development,  and  inconvertible  one  into  another,  is 
quite  alien  to  the  views  of  the  alchemists.  The 
alchemists  conceived  the  universe  to  be  a  unity  ; 
they  believed  that  all  material  bodies  had  been  de- 
veloped from  one  seed  ;  their  elements  are  merely 
different  forms  of  one  matter  and,  therefore,  con- 
vertible one  into  another.  They  were  thorough- 
going evolutionists  with  regard  to  the  things  of  the 
material  world,  and  their  theory  concerning  the 
evolution  of  the  metals  was,  I  believe,  the  direct  out- 
come of  a  metallurgical  application  of  the  mystical 
doctrine  of  the  soul's  development  and  regeneration. 
The  metals,  they  taught,  all  spring  from  the  same 
seed  in  Nature's  womb,  but  are  not  all  equally 
matured  and  perfect  ;  for,  as  they  say,  although 
Nature  always  intends  to  produce  only  gold,  various 
impurities  impede  the  process.  In  the  metals  the 
alchemists  saw  symbols  of  man  in  the  various  stages 
of  his  spiritual  development.  Gold,  the  most 
beautiful  as  well  as  the  most  untarnishable  metal, 
keeping  its  beauty  permanently,  unaffected  by  sul- 
phur, most  acids,  and  fire — indeed,  purified  by  such 
treatment, — gold,  to  the  alchemist,  was  the  symbol 
of  regenerate  man,  and  therefore  he  called  it  *'  a 
noble  metal  '\  Silver  was  also  termed  **  noble  "  ; 
but  it  was  regarded  as  less  mature  than  gold,  for, 
although  it  is  undoubtedly  beautiful  and  withstands 
the  action  of  fire,  it  is  corroded  by  nitric  acid  and  is 
blackened  by  sulphur  ;  it  was,  therefore,  considered 
to  be  analogous  to  the  regenerate  man  at  a  lower 
stage  of  his  development.     Possibly^ we  shall  not  be 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE    133 

far  wrong  in  using  Swedenborg*s  terms, ''  celestial  " 
to  describe  the  man  of  gold, ''  spiritual ''  to  designate 
him  of  silver.  Lead,  on  the  other  hand,  the  al- 
chemists regarded  as  a  very  immature  and  impure 
metal :  heavy  and  dull,  corroded  by  sulphur  and 
nitric  acid,  and  converted  into  a  calx  by  the  action 
of  fire, — lead,  to  the  alchemists,  was  a  symbol  of 
man  in  a  sinful  and  unregenerate  condition. 

The  alchemists  assumed  the  existence  of  three 
principles  in  the  metals,  their  obvious  reason  for 
so  doing  being  the  mystical  threefold  division  of 
man  into  body,  soul  (i.e.  affections  and  will),  and 
spirit  {i.e,  intelligence),  though  the  principle  corre- 
sponding to  body  was  a  comparatively  late  intro- 
duction in  alchemical  philosophy.  This  latter  fact, 
however,  is  no  argument  against  my  thesis  ;  because, 
of  course,  I  do  not  maintain  that  the  alchemists 
started  out  with  their  chemical  philosophy  ready 
made,  but  gradually  worked  it  out,  by  incorporating 
in  it  further  doctrines  drawn  from  mystical  theology. 
The  three  principles  just  referred  to  were  called 
**  mercury,''  **  sulphur,"  and  **  salt  "  ;  and  they 
must  be  distinguished  from  the  common  bodies  so 
designated  (though  the  alchemists  themselves  seem 
often  guilty  of  confusing  them).  "  Mercury  "  is 
the  metallic  principle  par  excellence,  conferring  on 
metals  their  brightness  and  fusibility,  and  corre- 
sponding to  the  spirit  or  intelligence  in  man.^ 
*'  Sulphur,"  the  principle  of  combustion  and  colour, 
is  the  analogue  of  the  soul.  Many  alchemists  postu- 
lated two  sulphurs  in  the  metals,  an  inward  and  an 

^  The  identification  of  the  god  Mercury  with  Thoth,  the 
Egyptian  god  of  learning,  is  worth  noticing  in  this  connection. 


134  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

outward.^  The  outward  sulphur  was  thought  to  be 
the  chief  cause  of  metallic  impurity,  and  the  reason 
why  all  (known)  metals,  save  gold  and  silver,  were 
acted  on  by  fire.  The  inward  sulphur,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  regarded  as  essential  to  the  development 
of  the  metals  :  pure  mercury,  we  are  told,  matured 
by  a  pure  inward  sulphur  yields  pure  gold.  Here 
again  it  is  evident  that  the  alchemists  borrowed 
their  theories  from  mystical  theology  ;  for,  clearly, 
inward  sulphur  is  nothing  else  than  the  equivalent 
to  love  of  God  ;  outward  sulphur  to  love  of  self. 
Intelligence  (mercury)  matured  by  love  to  God  (in- 
ward sulphur)  exactly  expresses  the  spiritual  state 
of  the  regenerate  man  according  to  mystical  theology. 
There  is  no  reason,  other  than  their  belief  in  analogy, 
why  the  alchemists  should  have  held  such  views 
concerning  the  metals.  "  Salt,''  the  principle  of 
solidity  and  resistance  to  fire,  corresponding  to  the 
body  in  man,  plays  a  comparatively  unimportant 
part  in  alchemical  theory,  as  does  its  prototype  in 
mystical  theology. 

Now,  as  I  have  pointed  out  already,  the  central 
theorem  of  mystical  theology  is,  in  Christian  termin- 
ology, that  of  the  regeneration  of  the  soul  by  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.  The  corresponding  process  in 
alchemy  is  that  of  the  transmutation  of  the  "  base  " 
metals  into  silver  and  gold  by  the  agency  of  the 
Philosopher's  Stone.  Merely  to  remove  the  evil 
sulphur  of  the  **base"  metals,  thought  the  alchemists, 
though  necessary,  is  not  sufficient  to  transmute  them 

^  Pseudo-GEBER,  whose  writings  were  liighly  esteemed,  for 
instance.  See  R.  Russel's  translation  of  his  works  (1678), 
p.  160. 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE    135 

into  "  noble  "  metals  ;  a  maturing  process  is  essential, 
similar  to  that  which  they  supposed  was  effected  in 
Nature's  womb.  Mystical  theology  teaches  that  the 
powers  and  life  of  the  soul  are  not  inherent  in  it, 
but  are  given  by  the  free  grace  of  God.  Neither, 
according  to  the  alchemists,  are  the  powers  and  life 
of  nature  in  herself,  but  in  that  immanent  spirit, 
the  Soul  of  the  World,  that  animates  her.  As 
writes  the  famous  alchemist  who  adopted  the  pleasing 
pseudonym  of  "  Basil  Valentine  "  {c.  1600),  "  the 
power  of  growth  ...  is  imparted  not  by  the  earth, 
but  by  the  life-giving  spirit  that  is  in  it.  If  the  earth 
were  deserted  by  this  spirit,  it  would  be  dead,  and 
no  longer  able  to  afford  nourishment  to  anything. 
For  its  sulphur  or  richness  would  lack  the  quickening 
spirit  without  which  there  can  be  neither  life  nor 
growth."  ^  To  perfect  the  metals,  therefore,  the 
alchemists  argued,  from  analogy  with  mystical 
theology,  which  teaches  that  men  can  be  regenerated 
only  by  the  power  of  Christ  within  the  soul,  that  it 
is  necessary  to  subject  them  to  the  action  of  this 
world-spirit,  this  one  essence  underlying  all  the 
varied  powers  of  nature,  this  One  Thing  from 
which  '*  all  things  were  produced  ...  by  adaption, 
and  which  is  the  cause  of  all  perfection  throughout 
the  whole  world."  2  "This,"  writes  one  alchemist, 
"  is  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  which  the  world  cannot 
comprehend  without  the  interposition  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  or  without  the  instruction  of  those  who  know 

^  Basil  Valentine  :  The  Twelve  Keys.  (See  The  Hermetic 
Museum,  voL  i.  pp.  333  and  334.) 

*  From  the  "  Smaragdine  Table,"  attributed  to  Hermes 
Trismegistos  (ie.  Mercury  or  Thoth).  ..r,..-^  v^ 


136  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

it.  The  same  is  of  a  mysterious  nature,  wondrous 
strength,  boundless  power.  ...  By  Avicenna  this 
Spirit  is  named  the  Soul  of  the  World.  For,  as  the 
Soul  moves  all  the  limbs  of  the  Body,  so  also  does 
this  Spirit  move  all  bodies.  And  as  the  Soul  is  in 
all  the  limbs  of  the  Body,  so  also  is  this  Spirit  in  all 
elementary  created  things.  It  is  sought  by  many 
and  found  by  few.  It  is  beheld  from  afar  and  found 
near  ;  for  it  exists  in  every  thing,  in  every  place,  and 
at  all  times.  It  has  the  powers  of  all  creatures  ;  its 
action  is  found  in  all  elements,  and  the  qualities  of 
all  things  are  therein,  even  in  the  highest  perfection 
...  it  heals  all  dead  and  living  bodies  without  other 
medicine  .  .  .  converts  all  metallic  bodies  into  gold, 
and  there  is  nothing  like  unto  it  under  Heaven."  ^ 
It  was  this  Spirit,  concentrated  in  all  its  potency  in 
a  suitable  material  form,  which  the  alchemists  sought 
under  the  name  of ''  the  Philosopher's  Stone  ''.  Now, 
mystical  theology  teaches  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
by  which  alone  the  soul  of  man  can  be  tinctured 
and  transmuted  into  the  likeness  of  God,  is  Goodness 
itself ;  consequently,  the  alchemists  argued  that 
the  Philosopher's  Stone  must  be,  so  to  speak.  Gold 
itself,  or  the  very  essence  of  Gold  :  it  was  to  them, 
as  Christ  is  of  the  soul's  perfection,  at  once  the 
pattern  and  the  means  of  metallic  perfection.  **  The 
Philosopher's  Stone,"  declares  '*  Eiren^eus  Phila- 
LETHES  "   (nat,   c,    1623),   *'  is   a   certain   heavenly, 

^  The  Book  of  the  Revelation  of  Hermes,  interpreted  by  Theo- 
PHRASTUS  Paracelsus,  concerning  the  Supreme  Secret  of  the 
World.  (See  Benedictus  Figulus,  A  Golden  and  Blessed 
Casket  of  Nature's  Marvels,  trans,  by  A.  E.  Waite,  1893, 
pp.  36,  37>  and  41.) 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE    137 

spiritual,  penetrative,  and  fixed  substance,  which 
brings  all  metals  to  the  perfection  of  gold  or  silver 
(according  to  the  quality  of  the  Medicine),  and  that 
by  natural  methods,  v^hich  yet  in  their  effects  tran- 
scend Nature.  .  .  .  Know,  then,  that  it  is  called 
a  stone,  not  because  it  is  like  a  stone,  but  only  be- 
cause, by  virtue  of  its  fixed  nature,  it  resists  the  action 
of  fire  as  successfully  as  any  stone.  In  species  it  is 
gold,  more  pure  than  the  purest  ;  it  is  fixed  and  in- 
combustible like  a  stone  [i.e.  it  contains  no  outward 
sulphur,  but  only  inward,  fixed  sulphur],  but  its 
appearance  is  that  of  a  very  fine  powder,  impalpable 
to  the  touch,  sweet  to  the  taste,  fragrant  to  the  smell, 
in  potency  a  most  penetrative  spirit,  apparently  dry 
and  yet  unctuous,  and  easily  capable  of  tingeing  a 
plate  of  metal.  ...  If  we  say  that  its  nature  is 
spiritual,  it  would  be  no  more  than  the  truth  ;  if 
we  described  it  as  corporeal  the  expression  would 
be  equally  correct ;  for  it  is  subtle,  penetrative,  glori- 
fied, spiritual  gold.  It  is  the  noblest  of  all  created 
things  after  the  rational  soul,  and  has  virtue  to 
repair  all  defects  both  in  animal  and  metallic  bodies, 
by  restoring  them  to  the  most  exact  and  perfect 
temper  ;  wherefore  is  it  a  spirit  or  '  quintessence.'  "  ^ 
In  other  accounts  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  or  at 
least  the  materia  prima  of  which  it  is  compounded, 
is  spoken  of  as  a  despised  substance,  reckoned  to  be 
of  no  value.  Thus,  according  to  one  curious  al- 
chemistic  work,  '*  This  matter,  so  precious  by  the 
excellent  Gifts,  wherewith  Nature  has  enriched  it, 
is  truly  mean,  with  regard  to  the  Substances  from 

^  EiREN^us  Philalethes  :   A  Brief  Guide  to  the  Celestial 
Ruby.     (See  The  Hermetic  Museum,  vol.  ii.  pp.  246  and  249.) 


138  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

whence  it  derives  its  Original.  Their  price  is  not 
above  the  AbiHty  of  the  Poor.  Ten  Pence  is  more 
than  sufficient  to  purchase  the  Matter  of  the  Stone. 
.  .  .  The  matter  therefore  is  mean,  considering  the 
Foundation  of  the  Art  because  it  costs  very  Httle  ; 
it  is  no  less  mean,  if  one  considers  exteriourly  that 
which  gives  it  Perfection,  since  in  that  regard  it 
costs  nothing  at  all,  in  as  much  as  all  the  World  has 
it  in  its  Power  ...  so  that  ...  it  is  a  constant 
Truth,  that  the  Stone  is  a  Thing  mean  in  one  Sense, 
but  that  in  another  it  is  most  precious,  and  that  there 
are  none  but  Fools  that  despise  it,  by  a  just  Judgment 
of  God."  1  And  Jacob  Boehme  (1575-1624)  writes  : 
"  The  philosopher's  stone  is  a  very  dark,  disesteemed 
stone,  of  a  grey  colour,  but  therein  lieth  the  highest 
tincture.'' 2  In  these  passages  there  is  probably 
some  reference  to  the  ubiquity  of  the  Spirit  of  the 
World,  already  referred  to  in  a  former  quotation. 
But  this  fact  is  not,  in  itself,  sufficient  to  account  for 
them.  I  suggest  that  their  origin  is  to  be  found  in 
the  religious  doctrine  that  God's  Grace,  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  that  is  the  means  of  the  transmutation  of 
man's  soul  into  spiritual  gold,  is  free  to  all  ;  that  it 
is,  at  once,  the  meanest  and  the  most  precious  thing 
in  the  whole  Universe.  Indeed,  I  think  it  quite 
probable  that  the  alchemists  who  penned  the  above- 
quoted  passages  had  in  mind  the  words  of  Isaiah, 
''  He  was  despised  and  we  esteemed  him  not."     And 

^  A  Discourse  between  Eudoxus  and  Pyrophilus,  upon  the 
Ancient  War  of  the  Knights.  See  The  Hermetical  Triumph :  or, 
the  Victorious  Philosophical  Stone  (1723),  pp.  10 1  and  102. 

2  Jacob  Boehme  :  Epistles  (trans,  by  J.  E.,  1649,  reprinted 
1886),  Ep.  iv.,  §  III. 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     139 

if  further  evidence  is  required  that  the  alchemists 
beUeved  in  a  correspondence  between  Christ — 
"  the  Stone  which  the  builders  rejected  '' — and  the 
Philosopher's  Stone,  reference  may  be  made  to  the 
alchemical  work  called  The  Sophie  Hydrolith  :  or 
Water  Stone  of  the  Wise,  a  tract  included  in  The 
Hermetic  Museum,  in  which  this  supposed  corre- 
spondence is  explicitly  asserted  and  dealt  with  in 
some  detail. 

Apart  from  the  alchemists'  belief  in  the  analogy 
between  natural  and  spiritual  things,  it  is,  I  think, 
incredible  that  any  such  theories  of  the  metals  and 
the  possibility  of  their  transmutation  or  "  regenera- 
tion "  by  such  an  extraordinary  agent  as  the  Philo- 
sopher's Stone  would  have  occurred  to  the  ancient 
investigators  of  Nature's  secrets.  When  they  had 
started  to  formulate  these  theories,  facts  ^  were  dis- 

^  One  of  those  facts,  amongst  many  others,  that  appeared 
to  confirm  the  alchemical  doctrines,  was  the  ease  with  which 
iron  could  apparently  be  transmuted  into  copper.  It  was 
early  observed  that  iron  vessels  placed  in  contact  with  a  solu- 
tion of  blue  vitriol  became  converted  (at  least,  so  far  as  their 
surfaces  were  concerned)  into  copper.  This  we  now  know  to 
be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  copper  originally  contained  in  the 
vitriol  is  thrown  out  of  solution,  whilst  the  iron  takes  its  place. 
And  we  know,  also,  that  no  more  copper  can  be  obtained 
in  this  way  from  the  blue  vitriol  than  is  actually  used  up  in 
preparing  it ;  and,  further,  that  all  the  iron  which  is  apparently 
converted  into  copper  can  be  got  out  of  the  residual  solution 
by  appropriate  methods,  if  such  be  desired ;  so  that  the  facts 
really  support  D Alton's  theory  rather  than  the  alchemical 
doctrines.  But  to  the  alchemist  it  looked  like  a  real  transmuta- 
tion of  iron  into  copper,  confirmation  of  his  fond  belief  that 
iron  and  other  base  metals  could  be  transmuted  into  silver 
and  gold  by  the  aid  of  the  Great  Arcanum  of  Nature. 


140  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

covered  which  appeared  to  support  them  ;  but  it  is, 
I  suggest,  practically  impossible  to  suppose  that  any 
or  all  of  these  facts  would,  in  themselves,  have  been 
sufficient  to  give  rise  to  such  wonderfully  fantastic 
theories  as  these  :  it  is  only  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  theory  that  alchemy  was  a  direct  offspring  of 
mysticism  that  its  origin  seems  to  be  capable  of 
explanation. 

In  all  the  alchemical  doctrines  mystical  connec- 
tions are  evident,  and  mystical  origins  can  generally 
be  traced.  I  shall  content  myself  here  with  giving 
a  couple  of  further  examples.  Consider,  in  the 
first  place,  the  alchemical  doctrine  of  purification 
by  putrefaction,  that  the  metals  must  die  before 
they  can  be  resurrected  and  truly  live,  that  through 
death  alone  are  they  purified — in  the  more  prosaic 
language  of  modern  chemistry,  death  becomes 
oxidation,  and  rebirth  becomes  reduction.  In  many 
alchemical  books  there  are  to  be  found  pictorial 
symbols  of  the  putrefaction  and  death  of  metals 
and  their  new  birth  in  the  state  of  silver  or  gold,  or 
as  the  Stone  itself,  together  with  descriptions  of  these 
processes.  The  alchemists  sought  to  kill  or  destroy 
the  body  or  outward  form  of  the  metals,  in  the  hope 
that  they  might  get  at  and  utilise  the  living  essence 
they  believed  to  be  immanent  within.  As  Para- 
celsus put  it  :  **  Nothing  of  true  value  is  located  in 
the  body  of  a  substance,  but  in  the  virtue  .  .  .  the 
less  there  is  of  body,  the  more  in  proportion  is  the 
virtue."  It  seems  to  me  quite  obvious  that  in  such 
ideas  as  these  we  have  the  application  to  metallurgy 
of  the  mystic  doctrine  of  self-renunciation — that  the 
soul  must  die  to  self  before  it  can  live  to  God  ;  that 


To  face  p.  140. 


PLATE   21. 


Fig.  41 


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Fig.  42. 

Symbolical  Representations  of  the  Alchemical  Principle  of  Purification 
by  Putrefaction,  from  "  Basil  Valentine's"  Twelve  Keys. 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     141 

the  body  must  be  sacrificed  to  the  spirit,  and  the 
individual  will  bowed  down  utterly  to  the  One 
Divine  Will,  before  it  can  become  one  therewith. 

In  the  second  place,  consider  the  directions  as  to 
the  colours  that  must  be  obtained  in  the  preparation 
of  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  if  a  successful  issue  to 
the  Great  Work  is  desired.  Such  directions  are 
frequently  given  in  considerable  detail  in  alchemical 
works  ;  and,  without  asserting  any  exact  uniformity, 
I  think  that  I  may  state  that  practically  all  the  al- 
chemists agree  that  three  great  colour- stages  are 
necessary — (i.)  an  inky  blackness,  which  is  termed 
the  "  Crow's  Head  "  and  is  indicative  of  putrefac- 
tion ;  (ii.)  a  white  colour  indicating  that  the  Stone 
is  now  capable  of  converting  **  base  "  metals  into 
silver ;  this  passes  through  orange  into  (iii.)  a  red 
colour,  which  shows  that  the  Stone  is  now  perfect, 
and  will  transmute  "  base  "  metals  into  gold.  Now, 
what  was  the  reason  for  the  belief  in  these  three 
colour-stages,  and  for  their  occurrence  in  the  above 
order  ?  I  suggest  that  no  alchemist  actually  ob- 
tained these  colours  in  this  order  in  his  chemical 
experiments,  and  that  we  must  look  for  a  speculative 
origin  for  the  belief  in  them.  We  have,  I  think, 
only  to  turn  to  religious  mysticism  for  this  origin. 
For  the  exponents  of  religious  mysticism  unani- 
mously agree  to  a  threefold  division  of  the  life  of  the 
mystic.  The  first  stage  is  called  '*  the  dark  night  of 
the  soul,"  wherein  it  seems  as  if  the  soul  were  deserted 
by  God,  although  He  is  very  near.  It  is  the  time  of 
trial,  when  self  is  sacrificed  as  a  duty  and  not  as  a 
delight.  Afterwards,  however,  comes  the  morning 
light  of  a  new  intelligence,  which  marks  the  com- 


142  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

mencement  of  that  stage  of  the  soul's  upward  pro- 
gress that  is  called  the  "  illuminative  life  *'.  All  the 
mental  powers  are  now  concentrated  on  God,  and 
the  struggle  is  transferred  from  without  to  the  inner 
man,  good  works  being  now  done,  as  it  were,  spon- 
taneously. The  disciple,  in  this  stage,  not  only 
does  unselfish  deeds,  but  does  them  from  unselfish 
motives,  being  guided  by  the  light  of  Divine  Truth. 
The  third  stage,  which  is  the  consummation  of  the 
process,  is  termed  "  the  contemplative  life  ".  It  is 
barely  describable.  The  disciple  is  wrapped  about 
with  the  Divine  Love,  and  is  united  thereby  with 
his  Divine  Source.  It  is  the  life  of  love,  as  the  illumi- 
native life  is  that  of  wisdom.  I  suggest  that  the  al- 
chemists, believing  in  this  threefold  division  of  the 
regenerative  process,  argued  that  there  must  be  three 
similar  stages  in  the  preparation  of  the  Stone,  which 
was  the  pattern  of  all  metallic  perfection  ;  and  that 
they  derived  their  beliefs  concerning  the  colours, 
and  other  peculiarities  of  each  stage  in  the  supposed 
chemical  process,  from  the  characteristics  of  each 
stage  in  the  psychological  process  according  to 
mystical  theology. 

Moreover,  in  the  course  of  the  latter  process  many 
flitting  thoughts  and  affections  arise  and  deeds  are 
half- wittingly  done  which  are  not  of  the  soul's  true 
character  ;  and  in  entire  agreement  with  this,  we 
read  of  the  alchemical  process,  in  the  highly  esteemed 
**  Canons  ''  of  D'Espagnet  :  *'  Besides  these  decre- 
tory signs  [i.e.  the  black,  white,  orange,  and  red 
colours]  which  firmly  inhere  in  the  matter,  and  shew 
its  essential  mutations,  almost  infinite  colours  appear, 
and  shew  themselves  in  vapours,  as  the  Rainbow  in 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     143 

the  clouds,  which  quickly  pass  away  and  are  expelled 
by  those  that  succeed,  more  affecting  the  air  than 
the  earth  :  the  operator  must  have  a  gentle  care  of 
them,  because  they  are  not  permanent,  and  proceed 
not  from  the  intrinsic  disposition  of  the  matter,  but 
from  the  fire  painting  and  fashioning  everything 
after  its  pleasure,  or  casually  by  heat  in  slight 
moisture."  ^  That  D'Espagnet  is  arguing,  not  so 
much  from  actual  chemical  experiments,  as  from 
analogy  with  psychological  processes  in  man,  is,  I 
think,  evident. 

As  well  as  a  metallic,  the  alchemists  believed  in  a 
physiological,  application  of  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  mysticism  :  their  physiology  was  analogi- 
cally connected  with  their  metallurgy,  the  same  prin- 
ciples holding  good  in  each  case.  Paracelsus,  as 
we  have  seen,  taught  that  man  is  a  microcosm,  a 
world  in  miniature  ;  his  spirit,  the  Divine  Spark 
within,  is  from  God  ;  his  soul  is  from  the  Stars, 
extracted  from  the  Spirit  of  the  World  ;  and  his 
body  is  from  the  earth,  extracted  from  the  elements 
of  which  all  things  material  are  made.  This  view 
of  man  was  shared  by  many  other  alchemists.  The 
Philosopher's  Stone,  therefore  (or,  rather,  a  solution 
of  it  in  alcohol)  was  also  regarded  as  the  Elixir  of 
Life  ;  which,  thought  the  alchemists,  would  not 
endow  man  with  physical  immortality,  as  is  some- 
times supposed,  but  restore  him  again  to  the  flower 
of  youth,  *'  regenerating  "  him  physiologically.  Fail- 
ing this,  of  course,  they  regarded  gold  in  a  potable 

^  Jean  D'Espagnet:  Hermetic  Arcanum,  canon  65.  (See 
Collectanea  Hermetica,  ed.  by  W.  Wynn  Westcott,  vol.  i.,  1893, 
pp.  28  and  29.) 


144  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

form  as  the  next  most  powerful  medicine — a  belief 
which  probably  led  to  injurious  effects  in  some  cases. 

Such  are  the  facts  from  which  I  think  we  are 
justified  in  concluding,  as  I  have  said,  *'  that  the  al- 
chemists constructed  their  chemical  theories  for  the 
main  part  by  means  of  a  priori  reasoning,  and  that 
the  premises  from  which  they  started  were  (i.)  the 
truth  of  mystical  theology,  especially  the  doctrine 
of  the  soul's  regeneration,  and  (ii.)  the  truth  of 
mystical  philosophy,  which  asserts  that  the  objects 
of  nature  are  symbols  of  spiritual  verities."  ^ 

It  seems  to  follow,  ex  hypothesis  that  every  al- 
chemical work  ought  to  permit  of  two  interpretations, 
one  physical,  the  other  transcendental.  But  I  would 
not  venture  to  assert  this,  because,  as  I  think,  many 
of  the  lesser  alchemists  knew  little  of  the  origin  of 
their  theories,  nor  realised  their  significance.  They 
were  concerned  merely  with  these  theories  in  their 
strictly  metallurgical  applications,  and  any  tran- 
scendental meaning  we  can  extract  from  their  works 
was  not  intended  by  the  writers  themselves.  How- 
ever, many  alchemists,  I  conceive,  especially  the 
better  sort,  realised  more  or  less  clearly  the  dual 
nature  of  their  subject,  and  their  books  are  to  some 
extent  intended  to  permit  of  a  double  interpretation, 
although  the  emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  physical  and 
chemical  application  of  mystical  doctrine.  And  there 
are  a  few  writers  who  adopted  alchemical  termin- 
ology on  the  principle  that,  if  the  language  of  theology 

^  In  the  following  excursion  we  will  wander  again  in  the 
alchemical  bypaths  of  thought,  and  certain  objections  to  this 
view  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  alchemy  will  be  dealt  with 
and,  I  hope,  satisfactorily  answered. 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE    145 

is  competent  to  describe  chemical  processes,  then, 
conversely,  the  language  of  alchemy  must  be  com- 
petent to  describe  psychological  processes :  this  is 
certainly  and  entirely  true  of  Jacob  Boehme,  and, 
to  some  extent  also,  I  think,  of  Henry  Khunrath 
(1560-1605)  and  Thomas  Vaughan  (1622-1666). 

As  may  be  easily  understood,  many  of  the  al- 
chemists led  most  romantic  lives,  often  running  the 
risk  of  torture  and  death  at  the  hands  of  avaricious 
princes  who  believed  them  to  be  in  possession  of 
the  Philosopher's  Stone,  and  adopted  such  pleasant 
methods  of  extorting  (or,  at  least,  of  trying  to  extort) 
their  secrets.  A  brief  sketch,  which  I  quote  from 
my  Alchemy  :  Ancient  and  Modern  (1911),  §  54,  of 
the  lives  of  Alexander  Sethon  and  Michael 
Sendivogius,  will  serve  as  an  example  : — 

"  The  date  and  birthplace  of  Alexander  Sethon, 
a  Scottish  alchemist,  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
recorded,  but  Michael  Sendivogius  was  probably 
born  in  Moravia  about  1566.  Sethon,  we  are  told, 
was  in  possession  of  the  arch-secrets  of  Alchemy. 
He  visited  Holland  in  1602,  proceeded  after  a  time 
to  Italy,  and  passed  through  Basle  to  Germany  ; 
meanwhile  he  is  said  to  have  performed  many  trans- 
mutations. Ultimately  arriving  at  Dresden,  how- 
ever, he  fell  into  the  clutches  of  the  young  Elector, 
Christian  II.,  who,  in  order  to  extort  his  secret,  cast 
him  into  prison  and  put  him  to  the  torture,  but  with- 
out avail.  Now  it  so  happened  that  Sendivogius, 
who  was  in  quest  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  was 
staying  at  Dresden,  and  hearing  of  Sethon's  im- 
prisonment    obtained     permission    to    visit    him. 

Sendivogius   offered   to   effect    Sethon's   escape   in 

10 


146  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

return  for  assistance  in  his  alchemistic  pursuits,  to 
which  arrangement  the  Scottish  alchemist  wilHngly 
agreed.  After  some  considerable  outlay  of  money 
in  bribery,  Sendivogius's  plan  of  escape  was  success- 
fully carried  out,  and  Sethon  found  himself  a  free 
man ;  but  he  refused  to  betray  the  high  secrets  of 
Hermetic  philosophy  to  his  rescuer.  However,  before 
his  death,  which  occurred  shortly  afterwards,  he  pre- 
sented him  with  an  ounce  of  the  transmutative 
powder.  Sendivogius  soon  used  up  this  powder, 
we  are  told,  in  effecting  transmutations  and  cures, 
and,  being  fond  of  expensive  living,  he  married 
Sethon 's  widow,  in  the  hope  that  she  was  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  transmutative  secret.  In  this,  how- 
ever, he  was  disappointed  ;  she  knew  nothing  of  the 
matter,  but  she  had  the  manuscript  of  an  alchemistic 
work  written  by  her  late  husband.  Shortly  after- 
wards Sendivogius  printed  at  Prague  a  book  entitled 
The  New  Chemical  Light  under  the  name  of  *  Cosmo- 
polita,'  which  is  said  to  have  been  this  work  of 
Sethon 's,  but  which  Sendivogius  claimed  for  his 
own  by  the  insertion  of  his  name  on  the  title  page, 
in  the  form  of  an  anagram.  The  tract  On  Sulphur 
which  was  printed  at  the  end  of  the  book  in  later 
editions,  however,  is  said  to  have  been  the  genuine 
work  of  the  Moravian.  Whilst  his  powder  lasted, 
Sendivogius  travelled  about,  performing,  we  are  told, 
many  transmutations.  He  was  twice  imprisoned  in 
order  to  extort  the  secrets  of  alchemy  from  him,  on 
one  occasion  escaping,  and  on  the  other  occasion 
obtaining  his  release  from  the  Emperor  Rudolph. 
Afterwards,  he  appears  to  have  degenerated  into  an 
impostor,  but  this  is  said  to  have  been  a  finesse  to 


QUEST  OF  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE     147 

hide  his  true  character  as  an  alchemistic  adept.  He 
died  in  1646.'* 

However,  all  the  alchemists  were  not  of  the 
apparent  character  of  Sendivogius — many  of  them 
leading  holy  and  serviceable  lives.  The  alchemist- 
physician  J.  B.  Van  Helmont  (1577-1644),  who 
was  a  man  of  extraordinary  benevolence,  going  about 
treating  the  sick  poor  freely,  may  be  particularly 
mentioned.  He,  too,  claimed  to  have  performed 
the  transmutation  of  "  base  "  metal  into  gold,  as 
did  also  Helvetius  (whom  we  have  already  met), 
physician  to  the  Prince  of  Orange,  with  a  wonderful 
preparation  given  to  him  by  a  stranger.  The  testi- 
mony of  these  two  latter  men  is  very  difficult  either 
to  explain  or  to  explain  away,  but  I  cannot  deal  with 
this  question  here,  but  must  refer  the  reader  to  a 
paper  on  the  subject  by  Mr  Gaston  De  Mengel, 
and  the  discussion  thereon,  published  in  vol.  i.  of 
The  Journal  of  the  Alchemical  Society. 

In  conclusion,  I  will  venture  one  remark  dealing 
with  a  matter  outside  of  the  present  inquiry.  Al- 
chemy ended  its  days  in  failure  and  fraud  ;  charlatans 
and  fools  were  attracted  to  it  by  purely  mercenary 
objects,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  high  aims  of  the 
genuine  alchemists,  and  scientific  men  looked  else- 
where for  solutions  of  Nature's  problems.  Why  did 
alchemy  fail }  Was  it  because  its  fundamental 
theorems  were  erroneous  ?  I  think  not.  I  consider 
the  failure  of  the  alchemical  theory  of  Nature  to  be 
due  rather  to  the  misapplication  of  these  fundamental 
concepts,  to  the  erroneous  use  of  a  priori  methods 
of  reasoning,  to  a  lack  of  a  sufficiently  wide  knowledge 
of  natural  phenomena  to  which  to  apply  these  con- 


148  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

cepts,  to  a  lack  of  adequate  apparatus  with  which  to 
investigate  such  phenomena  experimentally,  and  to 
a  lack  of  mathematical  organons  of  thought  with 
which  to  interpret  such  experimental  results  had 
they  been  obtained.     As  for  the  basic  concepts  of 
alchemy  themselves,  such  as  the  fundamental  unity 
of  the  Cosmos  and  the  evolution  of  the  elements,  in 
a  word,  the  applicability  of  the  principles  of  mysti- 
cism to  natural  phenomena  :    these  seem  to  me  to 
contain  a  very  valuable  element  of  truth — a  state- 
ment  which,    I    think,    modern   scientific   research 
justifies  me  in  making, — though  the  alchemists  dis- 
torted this  truth  and  expressed  it  in  a  fantastic  form. 
I  think,  indeed,  that  in  the  modern  theories  of  energy 
and  the  all-pervading  ether,  the  etheric  and  electrical 
origin  and  nature  of  matter  and  the  evolution  of  the 
elements,  we  may  witness  the  triumphs  of  mysticism 
as  applied  to  the  interpretation  of  Nature.     Whether 
01   not  we  shall  ever  transmute  lead  into  gold,  I 
believe  there  is  a  very  true  sense  in  which  we  may 
say  that  alchemy,  purified  by  its  death,  has  been 
proved  true,  whilst  the  materialistic  view  of  Nature 
has  been  proved  false. 


X 

THE    PHALLIC    ELEMENT    IN 
ALCHEMICAL    DOCTRINE 

The  problem  of  alchemy  presents  many  aspects  to 
our  view,  but,  to  my  mind,  the  most  fundamental  of 
these  is  psychological,  or,  perhaps  I  should  say,  epis- 
temological.  It  has  been  said  that  the  proper  study 
of  mankind  is  man  ;  and  to  study  man  we  must 
study  the  beliefs  of  man.  Now  so  long  as  we  neglect 
great  tracts  of  such  beliefs,  because  they  have- been, 
or  appear  to  have  been,  superseded,  so  long  will  our 
study  be  incomplete  and  ineffectual.  And  this,  let 
me  add,  is  no  mere  excuse  for  the  study  of  alchemy, 
no  mere  afterthought  put  forward  in  justification  of 
a  predilection,  but  a  plain  statement  of  fact  that 
renders  this  study  an  imperative  need.  There  are 
other  questions  of  interest — of  very  great  interest — 
concerning  alchemy :  questions,  for  instance,  as  to 
the  scope  and  validity  of  its  doctrines  ;  but  we  ought 
not  to  allow  their  fascination  and  promise  to  distract 
our  attention  from  the  fundajgaental  problem,  whose 
solution  is  essential  to  their  elucidation. 

In  the  preceding  essay  on  "  The  Quest  of  the 
Philosopher's  Stone,"  which  was  written  from  the 
standpoint  I  have  sketched  in  the  foregoing  words, 

149 


ISO  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

my  thesis  was  "  that  the  alchemists  constructed  their 
chemical  theories  for  the  main  part  by  means  of 
a  priori  reasoning,  and  that  the  premises  from  which 
they  started  were  (i.)  the  truth  of  mystical  theology, 
especially  the  doctrine  of  the  souFs  regeneration, 
and  (ii.)the  truth  of  mystical  philosophy,  which  asserts 
that  the  objects  of  nature  are  symbols  of  spiritual 
verities."  Now,  I  wish  to  treat  my  present  thesis, 
which  is  concerned  with  a  further  source  from  which 
the  alchemists  derived  certain  of  their  views  and 
modes  of  expression  by  means  of  a  priori  reasoning, 
in  connection  with,  and,  in  a  sense,  as  complementary 
to,  my  former  thesis.  I  propose  in  the  first  place, 
therefore,  briefly  to  deal  with  certain  possible  objec- 
tions to  this  view  of  alchemy. 

It  has,  for  instance,  been  maintained  ^  that  the 
assimilation  of  alchemical  doctrines  concerning  the 
metals  to  those  of  mysticism  concerning  the  soul 
was  an  event  late  in  the  history  of  alchemy,  and  was 
undertaken  in  the  interests  of  the  latter  doctrines. 
Now  we  know  that  certain  mystics  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  did  borrow  from  the  al- 
chemists much  of  their  terminology  with  which  to 
discourse  of  spiritual  mysteries — Jacob  Boehme, 
Henry  Khunrath,  and  perhaps  Thomas  Vaughan, 
may  be  mentioned  as  the  most  prominent  cases  in 
point.  But  how  was  this  possible  if  it  were  not, 
as  I  have  suggested,  the  repayment,  in  a  sense,  of 
a  sort  of  philological  debt  ?  Transmutation  was  an 
admirable  vehicle  of  language  for  describing  the 

^  See,  for  example,  Mr  A.  E.  Waite's  paper,  "  The  Canon 
of  Criticism  in  respect  of  Alchemical  Literature,"  The  Journal 
of  the  Alchemical  Society,  vol.  i.  (1913),  pp.  17-30. 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    151 

soul's  regeneration,  just  because  the  doctrine  of 
transmutation  was  the  result  of  an  attempt  to  apply 
the  doctrine  of  regeneration  in  the  sphere  of  metal- 
lurgy ;  and  similar  remarks  hold  of  the  other  promi- 
nent doctrines  of  alchemy. 

The  wonderful  fabric  of  alchemical  doctrine  was 
not  woven  in  a  day,  and  as  it  passed  from  loom  to 
loom,  from  Byzantium  to  Syria,  from  Syria  to  Arabia, 
from  Arabia  to  Spain  and  Latin  Europe,  so  its 
pattern  changed  ;  but  it  was  always  woven  a  priori^ 
in  the  belief  that  that  which  is  below  is  as  that  which 
is  above.  In  its  final  form,  I  think,  it  is  distinctly 
Christian. 

In  the  Turha  Philosophorum^  the  oldest  known 
work  of  Latin  alchemy — a  work  which,  claiming  to 
be  of  Greek  origin,  whilst  not  that,  is  certainly  Greek 
in  spirit, — we  frequently  come  across  statements  of 
a  decidedly  mystical  character.  **  The  regimen," 
we  read,  "  is  greater  than  is  perceived  by  reason, 
except  through  divine  inspiration."  ^  Copper,  it  is 
insisted  upon  again  and  again,  has  a  soul  as  well  as  a 
body ;  and  the  Art,  we  are  told,  is  to  be  defined  as 
"  the  liquefaction  of  the  body  and  the  separation  of 
the  soul  from  the  body,  seeing  that  copper,  like  a 
man,  has  a  soul  and  a  body."  ^  Moreover,  other 
doctrines  are  here  propounded  which,  although  not 
so  obviously  of  a  mystical  character,  have  been  traced 
to  mystical  sources  in  the  preceding  excursion. 
There  is,  for  instance,  the  doctrine  of  purification 
by  means  of  putrefaction,  this  process  being  likened 

^  The  Turha  Philosophorum,  or  Assembly  of  the  Sages  (trans. 
by  A.  E.  Waite,  1896),  p.  128. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  193,  cf.  pp.  102  and  152. 


152  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

to  that  of  the  resurrection  of  man.  "  These  things 
being  done,''  we  read,  *'  God  will  restore  unto  it  [the 
matter  operated  on]  both  the  soul  and  the  spirit 
thereof,  and  the  weakness  being  taken  away,  that 
matter  will  be  made  strong,  and  after  corruption 
will  be  improved,  even  as  a  man  becomes  stronger 
after  resurrection  and  younger  than  he  was  in  this 
world.*'  ^  The  three  stages  in  the  alchemical  work — 
black,  white,  and  red — corresponding  to,  and,  as  I 
maintain,  based  on  the  three  stages  in  the  life  of  the 
mystic,  are  also  more  than  once  mentioned.  "  Cook 
them  [the  king  and  his  wife],  therefore,  until  they 
become  black,  then  white,  afterwards  red,  and  finally 
until  a  tingeing  venom  is  produced."  ^ 

In  view  of  these  quotations,  the  alliance  (shall  I 
say  ?)  between  alchemy  and  mysticism  cannot  be 
asserted  to  be  of  late  origin.  And  we  shall  find 
similar  statements  if  we  go  further  back  in  time. 
To  give  but  one  example  :  *'  Among  the  earliest 
authorities,"  writes  Mr  Waite,  *'  the  Book  of  Crates 
says  that  copper,  like  man,  has  a  spirit,  soul,  and 
body,"  the  term  *'  copper  "  being  symbolical  and 
applying  to  a  stage  in  the  alchemical  work.  But 
nowhere  in  the  Turha  do  we  meet  with  the  concept 
of  the  Philosopher's  Stone  as  the  medicine  of  the 
metals,  a  concept  characteristic  of  Latin  alchemy, 
and,  to  quote  Mr  Waite  again,  ''  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  conception  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone  as  a 
medicine  of  metals  and  of  men  was  familiar  to  Greek 
alchemy."  ^ 

^  The  Turha  Philosophorum,  or  Assembly  of  the  Sages  (trans, 
by  A.  E.  Waite),  p.  loi,  of.  pp.  27  and  197. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  98,  of.  p.  29.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  71. 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY     153 

All  this  seems  to  me  very  strongly  to  support  my 
view  of  the  origin  of  alchemy,  which  requires  a 
specifically  Christian  mysticism  only  for  this  specific 
concept  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone  in  its  fully- 
fledged  form.  At  any  rate,  the  development  of  al- 
chemical doctrine  can  be  seen  to  have  proceeded 
concomitantly  with  the  development  of  mystical 
philosophy  and  theology.  Those  who  are  not  pre- 
pared here  to  see  effect  and  cause  may  be  asked  not 
only  to  formulate  some  other  hypothesis  in  explana- 
tion of  the  origin  of  alchemy,  but  also  to  explain 
this  fact  of  concomitant  development. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  transcendental  theory 
of  alchemy  it  has  been  urged  "  that  the  language  of 
mystical  theology  seemed  to  be  hardly  so  suitable  to 
the  exposition  [as  I  maintain]  or  concealment  of 
chemical  theories,  as  the  language  of  a  definite  and 
generally  credited  branch  of  science  was  suited  to  the 
expression  of  a  veiled  and  symbolical  process  such 
as  the  regeneration  of  man.''  ^  But  such  a  statement 
is  only  possible  with  respect  to  the  latest  days  of 
alchemy,  when  there  was  a  science  of  chemistry, 
definite  and  generally  credited.  The  science  of 
chemistry,  it  must  be  remembered,  had  no  growth 
separate  from  alchemy,  but  evolved  therefrom.  Of 
the  days  before  this  evolution  had  been  accomplished, 
it  would  be  in  closer  accord  with  the  facts  to  say  that 
theology,  including  the  doctrine  of  man's  regenera- 
tion, was  in  the  position  of  **  a  definite  and  generally 
credited  branch  of  science,"  whereas  chemical  pheno- 
mena were  veiled  in  deepest  mystery  and  tinged  with 

1  Philip  S.  Wellby,  M.A.,  in  The  Journal  of  the  Alchemical 
Society,  vol.  ii.  (1914),  p.  104. 


154  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

the  dangers  appertaining  to  magic.  As  concerns  the 
origin  of  alchemy,  therefore,  the  argument  as  to 
suitability  of  language  appears  to  support  my  own 
theory  ;  it  being  open  to  assume  that  after  formula- 
tion— that  is,  in  alchemy 's  latter  days  —  chemical 
nomenclature  and  theories  were  employed  by  certain 
writers  to  veil  heterodox  religious  doctrine. 

Another  recent  writer  on  the  subject,  my  friend 
the  late  Mr  Abdul-Ali,  has  remarked  that  "  he 
thought  that,  in  the  mind  of  the  alchemist  at  least, 
there  was  something  more  than  analogy  between 
metallic  and  psychic  transformations,  and  that  the 
whole  subject  might  well  be  assigned  to  the  doctrinal 
category  of  ineffable  and  transcendent  Oneness. 
This  Oneness  comprehended  all — soul  and  body, 
spirit  and  matter,  mystic  visions  and  waking  life — 
and  the  sharp  metaphysical  distinction  between  the 
mental  and  the  non-mental  realms,  so  prominent 
during  the  history  of  philosophy,  was  not  regarded 
by  these  early  investigators  in  the  sphere  of  nature. 
There  was  the  sentiment,  perhaps  only  dimly  ex- 
perienced, that  not  only  the  law,  but  the  substance 
of  the  Universe,  was  one  ;  that  mind  was  everywhere 
in  contact  with  its  own  kindred  ;  and  that  metallic 
transmutation  would,  somehow,  so  to  speak,  signalise 
and  seal  a  hidden  transmutation  of  the  soul."  ^ 

I  am  to  a  large  extent  in  agreement  with  this 
view.  Mr  Abdul-Ali  quarrels  with  the  term 
"  analogy,"  and,  if  it  is  held  to  imply  any  merely 
superficial  resemblance,  it  certainly  is  not  adequate 
to  my  own  needs,  though  I  know  not  what  other 

1  SijiL  Abdul-Ali,  in  The  Journal  of  the  Alchemical  Society, 
vol.  ii.  (1914),  p.  102. 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT  IN  ALCHEMY    155 

word  to  use .  S  wedenborg's  term  *  *  correspondence ' ' 
would  be  better  for  my  purpose,  as  standing  for  an 
essential  connection  between  spirit  and  matter,  arising 
out  of  the  causal  relationship  of  the  one  to  the  other. 
But  if  SwEDENBORG  believed  that  matter  and  spirit 
were  most  intimately  related,  he  nevertheless  had 
a  very  precise  idea  of  their  distinctness,  which  he 
formulated  in  his  Doctrine  of  Degrees — a  very  exact 
metaphysical  doctrine  indeed.  The  alchemists,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  no  such  clear  ideas  on  the  subject. 
It  would  be  even  more  absurd  to  attribute  to  them  a 
Cartesian  dualism.  To  their  ways  of  thinking,  it 
was  by  no  means  impossible  to  grasp  the  spiritual 
essences  of  things  by  what  we  should  now  call 
chemical  manipulations.  For  them  a  gas  was  still  a 
ghost  and  air  a  spirit.  One  could  quote  pages  in 
support  of  this,  but  I  will  content  myself  with  a  few 
words  from  the  Turba — the  antiquity  of  the  book 
makes  it  of  value,  and  anyway  it  is  near  at  hand. 
*'  Permanent  water,"  whatever  that  may  be,  being 
pounded  with  the  body,  we  are  told,  *'  by  the  will 
of  God  it  turns  that  body  into  spirit."  And  in 
another  place  we  read  that  "  the  Philosophers  have 
said  :  Except  ye  turn  bodies  into  not-bodies,  and 
incorporeal  things  into  bodies,  ye  have  not  yet  dis- 
covered the  rule  of  operation."  ^  No  one  who 
could  write  like  this,  and  believe  it,  could  hold 
matter  and  spirit  as  altogether  distinct.  But  it  is 
equally  obvious  that  the  injunction  to  convert  body 
into  spirit  is  meaningless  if  spirit  and  body  are  held 
to  be  identical.  I  have  been  criticised  for  crediting 
the  alchemists  "  with  the  philosophic  acumen  of 
^  Op.  ciL,  pp.  65  and  no,  cf.  p.  154. 


156  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Hegel,"  1  but  that  is  just  what  I  think  one  ought  to 
avoid  doing.  At  the  same  time,  however,  it  is  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  give  a  precise  account  of  views 
which  are  very  far  from  being  precise  themselves. 
But  I  think  it  may  be  said,  without  fear  of  error, 
that  the  alchemist  who  could  say,  *'  As  above,  so 
below,''  ipso  facto  recognised  both  a  very  close  con- 
nection between  spirit  and  matter,  and  a  distinction 
between  them.  Moreover,  the  division  thus  im- 
plied corresponded,  on  the  whole,  to  that  between 
the  realms  of  the  known  (or  what  was  thought  to  be 
known)  and  the  unknown.  The  Church,  whether 
Christian  or  pre-Christian,  had  very  precise  (com- 
paratively speaking)  doctrine  concerning  the  soul's 
origin,  duties,  and  destiny,  backed  up  by  tremendous 
authority,  and  speculative  philosophy  had  advanced 
very  far  by  the  time  Plato  began  to  concern  himself 
with  its  problems.  Nature,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
a  mysterious  world  of  magical  happenings,  and  there 
was  nothing  deserving  of  the  name  of  natural  science 
until  alchemy  was  becoming  decadent.  It  is  not 
surprising,  therefore,  that  the  alchemists — these  men 
who  wished  to  probe  Nature's  hidden  mysteries — 
should  reason  from  above  to  below  ;  indeed,  unless 
they  had  started  de  novo — as  babes  knowing  nothing, 
— there  was  no  other  course  open  to  them.  And  that 
they  did  adopt  the  obvious  course  is  all  that  my 
former  thesis  amounts  to.  In  passing,  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  a  sixteenth-century  alchemist,  who 
had  exceptional  opportunities  and  leisure  to  study 
the  works  of  the  old  masters  of  alchemy,  seems  to 

^  Vide  a  rather  frivolous  review  of  my  Alchemy :  Ancient 
and  Modern  in  The  Outlook  for  14th  January  191 1. 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    157 

have  come  to  a  similar  conclusion  as  to  the  nature 
of  their  reasoning.  He  writes  :  "  The  Sages  .  .  . 
after  having  conceived  in  their  minds  a  Divine  idea 
of  the  relations  of  the  whole  universe  .  .  .  selected 
from  among  the  rest  a  certain  substance,  from  which 
they  sought  to  elicit  the  elements,  to  separate  and 
purify  them,  and  then  again  put  them  together  in  a 
manner  suggested  by  a  keen  and  profound  observa- 
tion of  Nature.'*  ^ 

In  describing  the  realm  of  spirit  as  ex  hypothesi 
known,  that  of  Nature  unknown,  to  the  alchemists, 
I  have  made  one  important  omission,  and  that,  if  I 
may  use  the  name  of  a  science  to  denominate  a  com- 
plex of  crude  facts,  is  the  realm  of  physiology,  which, 
falling  within  that  of  Nature,  must  yet  be  classed  as 
ex  hypothesi  known.  But  to  elucidate  this  point 
some  further  considerations  are  necessary  touching 
the  general  nature  of  knowledge.  Now,  facts  may 
be  roughly  classed,  according  to  their  obviousness 
and  frequency  of  occurrence,  into  four  groups.  There 
are,  first  of  all,  facts  which  are  so  obvious,  to  put  it 
paradoxically,  that  they  escape  notice ;  and  these 
facts  are  the  commonest  and  most  frequent  in  their 
occurrence.  I  think  it  is  Mr  Chesterton  who  has 
said  that,  looking  at  a  forest  one  cannot  see  the  trees 
because  of  the  forest  ;  and,  in  The  Innocence  of 
Father  Brown,  he  has  a  good  story  (**  The  Invisible 
Man '')  illustrating  the  point,  in  which  a  man 
renders  himself  invisible  by  dressing  up  in  a  post- 
man's uniform.     At  any  rate,  we  know  that  when  a 

^  Edward  Kelly  :  The  Humid  Path.  (See  The  Alchemical 
Writings  of  Edward  Kelly,  edited  by  A.  E.  Waite,  1893, 
pp.  59-60.) 


iS8  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

phenomenon  becomes  persistent  it  tends  to  escape 
observation  ;  thus,  continuous  motion  can  only  be 
appreciated  with  reference  to  a  stationary  body,  and 
a  noise,  continually  repeated,  becomes  at  last  in- 
audible. The  tendency  of  often-repeated  actions 
to  become  habitual,  and  at  last  automatic,  that  is  to 
say,  carried  out  without  consciousness,  is  a  closely 
related  phenomenon.  We  can  understand,  there- 
fore, why  a  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  atmo- 
sphere, as  distinct  from  the  wind,  came  late  in  the 
history  of  primitive  man,  as,  also,  many  other  curious 
gaps  in  his  knowledge.  In  the  second  group  we  may 
put  those  facts  which  are  common,  that  is,  of  fre- 
quent occurrence,  and  are  classed  as  obvious.  Such 
facts  are  accepted  at  face-value  by  the  primitive 
mind,  and  are  used  as  the  basis  of  explanation  of 
facts  in  the  two  remaining  groups,  namely,  those 
facts  which,  though  common,  are  apt  to  escape  the 
attention  owing  to  their  inconspicuousness,  and  those 
which  are  of  infrequent  occurrence.  When  the  mind 
takes  the  trouble  to  observe  a  fact  of  the  third  group, 
or  is  confronted  by  one  of  the  fourth,  it  feels  a  sense 
of  surprise.  Such  facts  wear  an  air  of  strangeness, 
and  the  mind  can  only  rest  satisfied  when  it  has  shown 
them  to  itself  as  in  some  way  cases  of  the  second 
group  of  facts,  or,  at  least,  brought  them  into  rela- 
tion therewith.  That  is  what  the  mind — at  least 
the  primitive  mind — means  by  "  explanation  ".  "It 
is  obvious,''  we  say,  commencing  an  argument, 
thereby  proclaiming  our  intention  to  bring  that 
which  is  at  first  in  the  category  of  the  not-obvious, 
into  the  category  of  the  obvious.  It  remains  for  a 
more   sceptical  type  of  mind — a  later   product  of 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    159 

human  evolution — to  question  obvious  facts,  to  ex- 
plain them,  either,  as  in  science,  by  estabHshing 
deeper  and  more  far-reaching  correlations  between 
phenomena,  or  in  philosophy,  by  seeking  for  the 
source  and  purpose  of  such  facts,  or,  better  still,  by 
both  methods. 

Of  the  second  class  of  facts — those  common  and 
obvious  facts  which  the  primitive  mind  accepts  at 
face-value  and  uses  as  the  basis  of  its  explanations 
of  such  things  as  seem  to  it  to  stand  in  need  of  ex- 
planation— one  could  hardly  find  a  better  instance 
than  sex.  The  universality  of  sex,  and  the  inter- 
mittent character  of  its  phenomena,  are  both  re- 
sponsible for  this.  Indeed,  the  attitude  of  mind  I 
have  referred  to  is  not  restricted  to  primitive  man  ; 
how  many  people  to-day,  for  instance,  just  accept 
sex  as  a  fact,  pleasant  or  unpleasant  according  to 
their  predilections,  never  querying,  or  feeling  the 
need  to  query,  its  why  and  wherefore  ?  It  is  by  no 
means  surprising,  that  when  man  first  felt  the  need 
of  satisfying  himself  as  to  the  origin  of  the  universe, 
he  should  have  done  so  by  a  theory  founded  on  what 
he  knew  of  his  own  generation.  Indeed,  as  I  queried 
on  a  former  occasion,  what  other  source  of  explana- 
tion was  open  to  him  ?  Of  what  other  form  of  origin 
was  he  aware  }  Seeing  Nature  springing  to  life  at 
the  kiss  of  the  sun,  what  more  natural  than  that  she 
should  be  regarded  as  the  divine  Mother,  who  bears 
fruits  because  impregnated  by  the  Sun-God  ?  It  is 
not  difficult  to  understand,  therefore,  why  primitive 
man  paid  divine  honours  to  the  organs  of  sex  in  man 
and  woman,  or  to  such  things  as  he  considered 
symbolical  of  them — that  is  to  say,  to  understand 


i6o  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

the  extensiveness  of  those  religions  which  are  grouped 
under  the  term  ''  phalHcism  ".  Nor,  to  my  mind,  is 
the  symbol  of  sex  a  wholly  inadequate  one  under 
which  to  conceive  of  the  origin  of  things.  And,  as 
I  have  said  before,  that  phallicism  usually  appears 
to  have  degenerated  into  immorality  of  a  very  pro- 
nounced type  is  to  be  deplored,  but  an  immoral  view 
of  human  relations  is  by  no  means  a  necessary  corol- 
lary to  a  sexual  theory  of  the  universe.^ 

^  "  The  reverence  as  well  as  the  worship  paid  to  the  phallus, 
in  early  and  primitive  days,  had  nothing  in  it  which  partook 
of  indecency  ;  all  ideas  connected  with  it  were  of  a  reverential 
and  religious  kind.  .  .  . 

"  The  indecent  ideas  attached  to  the  representation  of  the 
phallus  were,  though  it  seems  a  paradox  to  say  so,  the  results 
of  a  more  advanced  civilization  verging  towards  its  decline, 
as  we  have  evidence  at  Rome  and  Pompeii.  .  .  . 

"  To  the  primitive  man  [the  reproductive  force  which  per- 
vades all  nature]  was  the  most  mysterious  of  all  manifesta- 
tions. The  visible  physical  powers  of  nature — the  sun,  the  sky, 
the  storm — naturally  claimed  his  reverence,  but  to  him  the 
generative  power  was  the  most  mysterious  of  all  powers.  In 
the  vegetable  world,  the  live  seed  placed  in  the  ground,  and 
hence  germinating,  sprouting  up,  and  becoming  a  beautiful 
and  umbrageous  tree,  was  a  mystery.  In  the  animal  world, 
as  the  cause  of  all  life,  by  which  all  beings  came  into  existence, 
this  power  was  a  mystery.  In  the  view  of  primitive  man 
generation  was  the  action  of  the  Deity  itself.  It  was  the 
mode  in  which  He  brought  aU  things  into  existence,  the  sun, 
the  moon,  the  stars,  the  world,  man  were  generated  by  Him. 
To  the  productive  power  man  was  deeply  indebted,  for  to  it 
he  owed  the  harvests  and  the  flocks  which  supported  his  life  ; 
hence  it  naturally  became  an  object  of  reverence  and  worship. 

"  Primitive  man  wants  some  object  to  worship,  for  an 
abstract  idea  is  beyond  his  comprehension,  hence  a  visible 
representation  of  the  generative  Deity  was  made,  with  the 
organs  contributing  to  generation  most  prominent,  and  hence 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY     i6i 

The  Aruntas  of  Australia,  I  believe,  when  dis- 
covered by  Europeans,  had  not  yet  observed  the 
connection  between  sexual  intercourse  and  birth. 
They  believed  that  conception  was  occasioned  by 
the  woman  passing  near  a  churinga — a  peculiarly 
shaped  piece  of  wood  or  stone,  in  which  a  spirit- 
child  was  concealed,  which  entered  into  her.  But 
archaeological  research  having  established  the  fact 
that  phallicism  has,  at  one  time  or  another,  been 
common  to  nearly  all  races,  it  seems  probable  that 
the  Arunta  tribe  represents  a  deviation  from  the 
normal  line  of  mental  evolution.  At  any  rate,  an 
isolated  phenomenon,  such  as  this,  cannot  be  held  to 
controvert  the  view  that  regards  phallicism  as  in  this 
normal  line.  Nor  was  the  attitude  of  mind  that  not 
only  accepts  sex  at  face-value  as  an  obvious  fact, 
but  uses  the  concept  of  it  to  explain  other  facts,  a 
merely  transitory  one.  We  may,  indeed,  not  diffi- 
cultly trace  it  throughout  the  history  of  alchemy, 
giving  rise  to  what  I  may  term  ''  The  Phallic  Element 
in  Alchemical  Doctrine ''. 

In  aiming  to  establish  this,  I  may  be  thought  to 
be  endeavouring  to  establish  a  counter-thesis  to  that 
of  the  preceding  essay  on  alchemy,  but,  in  virtue  of 
the  alchemists'  belief  in  the  mystical  unity  of  all 
things,  in  the  analogical  or  correspondential  relation- 
ship of  all  parts  of  the  universe  to  each  other,  the 
mystical  and  the  phallic  views  of  the  origin  of  alchemy 
are  complementary,  not  antagonistic.  Indeed,  the 
assumption  that  the  metals  are  the  symbols  of  man 

the  organ  itself  became  a  symbol  of  the  power." — H.  M. 
Westropp  :  Primitive  Symbolism  as  Illustrated  in  Phallic 
Worship,  or  the  Reproductive  Principle  (1885),  pp.  47,  48,  and  57. 

II 


i62  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

almost  necessitates  the  working  out  of  physiological 
as  well  as  mystical  analogies,  and  these  two  series  of 
analogies  are  themselves  connected,  because  the  prin- 
ciple '*  As  above,  so  below  "  was  held  to  be  true  of 
man  himself.  We  might,  therefore,  expect  to  find 
a  more  or  less  complete  harmony  between  the  two 
series  of  symbols,  though,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  con- 
tradictions will  be  encountered  when  we  come  to 
consider  points  of  detail .  The  undoubtable  antiquity 
of  the  phallic  element  in  alchemical  doctrine  pre- 
cludes the  idea  that  this  element  was  an  adventitious 
one,  that  it  was  in  any  sense  an  afterthought ;  not- 
withstanding, however,  the  evidence,  as  will,  I  hope, 
become  apparent  as  we  proceed,  indicates  that 
mystical  ideas  played  a  much  more  fundamental  part 
in  the  genesis  of  alchemical  doctrine  than  purely 
phallic  ones — mystical  interpretations  fit  alchemical 
processes  and  theories  far  better  than  do  sexual  in- 
terpretations ;  in  fact,  sex  has  to  be  interpreted  some- 
what mystically  in  order  to  work  out  the  analogies 
fully  and  satisfactorily. 

As  concerns  Greek  alchemy,  I  shall  content  myself 
with  a  passage  from  a  work  On  the  Sacred  Art, 
attributed  to  Olympiodorus  (sixth  century  a.d.), 
followed  by  some  quotations  from  and  references  to 
the  Turba,  In  the  former  work  it  is  stated  on  the 
authority  of  HoRUS  that  "  The  proper  end  of  the 
whole  art  is  to  obtain  the  semen  of  the  male  secretly, 
seeing  that  all  things  are  male  and  female.  Hence 
[we  read  further]  Horus  says  in  a  certain  place  : 
Join  the  male  and  the  female,  and  you  will  find 
that  which  is  sought ;  as  a  fact,  without  this 
process  of  re-union,  nothing  can  succeed,  for  Nature 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    163 

charms  Nature,"  etc.  The  Turba  insistently  com- 
mands those  who  would  succeed  in  the  Art,  to  con- 
join the  male  with  the  female, ^  and,  in  one  place, 
the  male  is  said  to  be  lead  and  the  female  orpiment.^ 
We  also  find  the  alchemical  work  symbolised  by  the 
growth  of  the  embryo  in  the  womb.  **  Know,''  we 
are  told,  "...  that  out  of  the  elect  things  nothing 
becomes  useful  without  conjunction  and  regimen, 
because  sperma  is  generated  out  of  blood  and  desire. 
For  the  man  mingling  with  the  woman,  the  sperm 
is  nourished  by  the  humour  of  the  womb,  and  by 
the  moistening  blood,  and  by  heat,  and  when  forty 
nights  have  elapsed  the  sperm  is  formed.  .  .  .  God 
has  constituted  that  heat  and  blood  for  the  nourish- 
ment of  the  sperm  until  the  foetus  is  brought  forth. 
So  long  as  it  is  little,  it  is  nourished  with  milk,  and 
in  proportion  as  the  vital  heat  is  maintained,  the 
bones  are  strengthened.  Thus  it  behoves  you  also 
to  act  in  this  Art.''  ^ 

The  use  of  the  mystical  symbols  of  death  (putre- 
faction) and  resurrection  or  rebirth  to  represent 
the  consummation  of  the  alchemical  work,  and  that 
of  the  phallic  symbols  of  the  conjunction  of  the  sexes 
and  the  development  of  the  foetus,  both  of  which  we 
have  found  in  the  Turba,  are  current  throughout  the 
course  of  Latin  alchemy.  In  The  Chymical  Marriage 
of  Christian  Rosencreutz,  that  extraordinary  document 
of  what  is  called  "  Rosicrucianism  " — a  symbolic 
romance  of  considerable  ability,  whoever  its  author 

1  Vide  pp.  60,  92,  96,  97,  134,  135  and  elsewhere  in  Mr 
Waite's  translation. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  57. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  179-181  (second  recension) ;  cf.  pp.  103-104. 


i64  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

was,^ — an  attempt  is  made  to  weld  the  two  sets  of 
symbols — the  one  of  marriage,  the  other  of  death  and 
resurrection  unto  glory — into  one  allegorical  narrative ; 
and  it  is  to  this  fusion  of  seemingly  disparate  concepts 
that  much  of  its  fantasticality  is  due.  Yet  the  con- 
cepts are  not  really  disparate  ;  for  not  only  is  the 
second  birth  like  unto  the  first,  and  not  only  is  the 
resurrection  unto  glory  described  as  the  Bridal  Feast 
of  the  Lamb,  but  marriage  is,  in  a  manner,  a  form  of 
death  and  rebirth.  To  justify  this  in  a  crude  sense,  I 
might  say  that,  from  the  male  standpoint  at  least,  it 
is  a  giving  of  the  life-substance  to  the  beloved  that  life 
may  be  born  anew  and  increase.  But  in  a  deeper 
sense  it  is,  or  rather  should  be,  as  an  ideal,  a  mutual 
sacrifice  of  self  for  each  other's  good — a  death  of  the 
self  that  it  may  arise  with  an  enriched  personality. 

It  is  when  we  come  to  an  examination  of  the  ideas 
at  the  root  of,  and  associated  with,  the  alchemical 
concept  of  *'  principles,"  that  we  find  some  difficulty 
in  harmonising  the  two  series  of  symbols — the 
mystical  and  the  phallic.  In  one  place  in  the  Turha 
we  are  directed  **  to  take  quicksilver,  in  which  is  the 
male  potency  or  strength  "  ;  ^  and  this  concept  of 
mercury  as  male  is  quite  in  accord  with  the  mystical 
origin  I  have  assigned  in  the  preceding  excursion 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  alchemical  principles.  I  have 
shown,  I  think,  that  salt,  sulphur,  and  mercury  are 
the  analogues  ex  hypothesi  of  the  body,  soul  (aff^ection 
and  volition),  and  spirit  (intelligence  or  understand- 

^  See  Mr  Waite's  The  Real  History  of  the  Rosicrucians  (1887) 
for  translation  and  discussion  as  to  origin  and  significance. 
The  work  was  first  published  (in  German)  at  Strassburg  in 
1616.  *  Mr  Waite's  translation,  p.  79. 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    165 

ing)  in  man  ;  and  the  affections  are  invariably  re- 
garded as  especially  feminine,  the  understanding  as 
especially  masculine.  But  it  seems  that  the  more 
common  opinion,  amongst  Latin  alchemists  at  any 
rate,  was  that  sulphur  was  male  and  mercury  female. 
Writes  Bernard  of  Trevisan  :  *'  For  the  Matter 
suffereth,  and  the  Form  acteth  assimulating  the 
Matter  to  itself,  and  according  to  this  manner  the 
Matter  naturally  thirsteth  after  a  Form,  as  a  Woman 
desireth  an  Husband,  and  a  Vile  thing  a  precious  one, 
and  an  impure  a  pure  one,  so  also  ^r^^w^-^/^^  covet eth 
a  Sulphur,  as  that  which  should  make  perfect  which 
is  imperfect  :  So  also  a  Body  freely  desireth  a  Spirit, 
whereby  it  may  at  length  arrive  at  its  perfection."  ^ 
At  the  same  time,  however,  Mercury  was  regarded  as 
containing  in  itself  both  male  and  female  potencies 
— it  was  the  product  of  male  and  female,  and,  thus, 
the  seed  of  all  the  metals.  "  Nothing  in  the  World 
can  be  generated,''  to  repeat  a  quotation  from 
Bernard,  ''  without  these  two  Substances,  to  wit  a 
Male  and  Female  :  From  whence  it  appeareth,  that 
although  these  two  substances  are  not  of  one  and 
the  same  species,  yet  one  Stone  doth  thence  arise, 
and  although  they  appear  and  are  said  to  be  two 
Substances,  yet  in  truth  it  is  but  one,  to  wit.  Argent- 
vive.  But  of  this  Argent-vive  a  certain  part  is  fixed 
and  digested.  Masculine,  hot,  dry  and  secretly  in- 
forming. But  the  other,  which  is  the  Female,  is 
volatile,  crude,  cold,  and  moyst."  ^     Edward  Kelly 

^  Bernard,  Earl  of  Trevisan  :  A  Treatise  of  the  Philo- 
sopher s  Stone,  1683.  (See  Collectanea  Chymica  :  A  Collection 
of  Ten  Several  Treatises  ifi  Chymistry,  1684,  p.  92.) 

2  Ihid.,  p.  91. 


i66  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

(^5S5~^S95)>  who  is  valuable  because  he  summarises 
authoritative  opinion,  says  somewhat  the  same  thing, 
though  in  clearer  words  :  "  The  active  elements  .  .  . 
these  are  water  and  fire  .  .  .  may  be  called  male, 
while  the  passive  elements  .  .  .  earth  and  air  .  .  . 
represent  the  female  principle.  .  .  .  Only  two 
elements,  water  and  earth,  are  visible,  and  earth  is 
called  the  hiding-place  of  fire,  water  the  abode  of 
air.  In  these  two  elements  we  have  the  broad  law 
of  limitation  which  divides  the  male  from  the  female. 
.  .  .  The  first  matter  of  minerals  is  a  kind  of 
viscous  water,  mingled  with  pure  and  impure  earth. 
...  Of  this  viscous  water  and  fusible  earth,  or  sul- 
phur, is  composed  that  which  is  called  quicksilver, 
the  first  matter  of  the  metals.  Metals  are  nothing 
but  Mercury  digested  by  different  degrees  of  heat."  ^ 
There  is  one  difference,  however,  between  these 
two  writers,  inasmuch  as  Bernard  says  that  "  the 
Male  and  Female  abide  together  in  closed  Natures  ; 
the  Female  truly  as  it  were  Earth  and  Water,  the  Male 
as  Air  and  Fire."  Mercury  for  him  arises  from  the 
two  former  elements,  sulphur  from  the  two  latter.^ 
And  the  difference  is  important  as  showing  beyond 
question  the  a  priori  nature  of  alchemical  reasoning. 
The  idea  at  the  back  of  the  alchemists'  minds  was 
undoubtedly  that  of  the  ardour  of  the  male  in  the 
act  of  coition  and  the  alleged,  or  perhaps  I  should 

^  Edward  Kelly  :  The  Stone  of  the  Philosophers.  (See  The 
Alchemical  Writings  0/ Edward  Kelly,  edited  by  A.  E.  Waite, 
1893,  pp.  9  and  II  to  13.) 

2  The  Answer  of  Bernardus  Trevisanus,  to  the  Epistle  of 
Thomas  of  Bononia,  Physician  to  K.  Charles  the  8th.  (See 
John  Frederick  Houpreght:  Aurifontina  Chymica,  1680, 
p.  208.) 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    167 

say  apparent,  passivity  of  the  female.  Consiequently, 
sulphur,  the  fiery  principle  of  combustion,  and  such 
elements  as  were  reckoned  to  be  active,  were  denomi- 
nated "  male,''  whilst  mercury,  the  principle  acted 
on  by  sulphur,  and  such  elements  as  were  reckoned 
to  be  passive,  were  denominated  "  female  ".  As  to 
the  question  of  origin,  I  do  not  think  that  the  palm 
can  be  denied  to  the  mystical  as  distinguished  from 
the  phallic  theory.  And  in  its  final  form  the  doctrine 
of  principles  is  incapable  of  a  sexual  interpretation. 
Mystically  understood,  man  is  capable  of  analysis 
into  two  principles — since  **  body  "  may  be  neglected 
as  unimportant  (a  false  view,  I  think,  by  the  way) 
or  "  soul  "  and  "  spirit  "  may  be  united  under  one 
head — or  into  three  ;  whereas  the  postulation  of 
three  principles  on  a  sexual  basis  is  impossible. 
Joannes  Isaacus  Hollandus  (fifteenth  century)  is 
the  earliest  author  in  whose  works  I  have  observed 
explicit  mention  of  three  principles,  though  he  refers 
to  them  in  a  manner  seeming  to  indicate  that  the 
doctrine  was  no  new  one  in  his  day.  I  have  only  read 
one  little  tract  of  his ;  there  is  nothing  sexual  in  it, 
and  the  author's  mental  character  may  be  judged  from 
his  remarks  concerning  ''  the  three  flying  spirits  " — 
taste,  smell,  and  colour.  These,  he  writes,  "  are  the 
life,  soule,  and  quintessence  of  every  thing,  neither 
can  these  three  spirits  be  one  without  the  other,  as 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  are  one,  yet 
three  Persons,  and  one  is  not  without  the  other."  ^ 

1  One  Hundred  and  Fourteen  Experiments  and  Cures  of  the 
Famous  Physitian  Theophrastus  Paracelsus.  Whereunto  is 
added  .  .  .  certain  Secrets  of  Isaac  Hollandus,  concerning  the 
Vegetall  and  Animall  Work  (1652),  pp.  29  and  30. 


1 68  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

When  the  alchemists  described  an  element  or 
principle  as  male  or  female,  they  meant  what  they 
said,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  to  the  extent,  at 
least,  of  firmly  believing  that  seed  was  produced  by 
the  two  metallic  sexes.  By  their  union  metals  were 
thought  to  be  produced  in  the  womb  of  the  earth  ; 
and  mines  were  shut  in  order  that  by  the  birth  and 
growth  of  new  metal  the  impoverished  veins  might 
be  replenished.  In  this  way,  too,  was  the  magnum 
opus,  the  generation  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone — in 
species  gold,  but  purer  than  the  purest — to  be  accom- 
plished. To  conjoin  that  which  Nature  supplied, 
to  foster  the  growth  and  development  of  that  which 
was  thereby  produced  ;  such  was  the  task  of  the 
alchemist.  "  For  there  are  Vegetables,''  says 
Bernard  of  Trevisan  in  his  Answer  to  Thomas  of 
Bononia,  "  but  Sensitives  more  especially,  which  for 
the  most  part  beget  their  like,  by  the  Seeds  of  the 
Male  and  Female  for  the  most  part  concurring  and 
conmixt  by  copulation  ;  which  work  of  Nature  the 
Philosophick  Art  imitates  in  the  generation  of 
gold."  1 

Mercury,  as  I  have  said,  was  commonly  regarded 
as  the  seed  of  the  metals,  or  as  especially  the  female 
seed,  there  being  two  seeds,  one  the  male,  according 
to  Bernard,  "  more  ripe,  perfect  and  active,"  the 
other  the  female.  **  more  immature  and  in  a  sort 
passive. 2  **  .  .  .  our  Philosophick  Art,"  he  says  in 
another  place,  following  a  description  of  the  genera- 
tion of  man,  *'  .  .  .is  like  this  procreation  of  Man  ; 
for  as  in  Mercury  (of  which  Gold  is  by  Nature 
generated  in  Mineral  Vessels)  a  natural  conjunction 
^  Op.  cit.,  p.  2i6.  2  2i)i^^^  p,  217  ;    cf.  p.  236. 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT  IN  ALCHEMY    169 

is  made  of  both  the  Seeds,  Male  and  Female,  so  by 
our  artifice,  an  artificial  and  like  conjunction  is  made 
of  Agents  and  Patients.''  ^  "  All  teaching,''  says 
Kelly,  "  that  changes  Mercury  is  false  and  vain, 
for  this  is  the  original  sperm  of  metals,  and  its  mois- 
ture must  not  be  dried  up,  for  otherwise  it  will  not 
dissolve,"  2  and  quotes  Arnold  {ob.  c.  13 10)  to  a 
similar  effect.^  One  wonders  how  far  the  fact  that 
human  and  animal  seed  is  fluid  influenced  the 
alchemists  in  their  choice  of  mercury,  the  only 
metal  liquid  at  ordinary  temperatures,  as  the  seed 
of  the  metals.  There  are,  indeed,  other  good 
reasons  for  this  choice,  but  that  this  idea  played 
some  part  in  it,  and,  at  least,  was  present  at  the  back 
of  the  alchemists'  minds,  I  have  little  doubt. 

The  most  philosophic  account  of  metallic  seed  is 
that,  perhaps,  of  the  mysterious  adept  **  Eiren^us 
Philalethes,"  who  distinguishes  between  it  and 
mercury  in  a  rather  interesting  manner.  He  writes  : 
''  Seed  is  the  means  of  generic  propagation  given  to 
all  perfect  things  here  below  ;  it  is  the  perfection  of 
each  body  ;  and  anybody  that  has  no  seed  must  be 
regarded  as  imperfect.  Hence  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  metallic  seed.  .  .  .  All 
metallic  seed  is  the  seed  of  gold  ;  for  gold  is  the  in- 
tention of  Nature  in  regard  to  all  metals.  If  the  base 
metals  are  not  gold,  it  is  only  through  some  accidental 
hindrance  ;  they  are  all  potentially  gold.  But,  of 
course,  this  seed  of  gold  is  most  easily  obtainable 
from  well-matured  gold  itself.  .  .  .  Remember  that 
I  am  now  speaking  of  metallic  seed,  and  not  of 

^  The  Answer  of  Bernardus  Trevisanus,  etc.  Op.  cit., 
p.  218.  2  Qp  f^n^^  p  22.  3  iijI^^^  ^   i5^ 


170  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Mercury.  .  .  .  The  seed  of  metals  is  hidden  out  of 
sight  still  more  completely  than  that  of  animals  ; 
nevertheless,  it  is  within  the  compass  of  our  Art  to 
extract  it.  The  seed  of  animals  and  vegetables  is 
something  separate,  and  may  be  cut  out,  or  other- 
wise separately  exhibited  ;  but  metallic  seed  is  dif- 
fused throughout  the  metal,  and  contained  in  all  its 
smallest  parts  ;  neither  can  it  be  discerned  from  its 
body  :  its  extraction  is  therefore  a  task  which  may 
well  tax  the  ingenuity  of  the  most  experienced  philo- 
sopher ;  the  virtues  of  the  whole  metal  have  to  be 
intensified,  so  as  to  convert  it  into  the  sperm  of  our 
seed,  which,  by  circulation,  receives  the  virtues  of 
superiors  and  inferiors,  then  next  becomes  wholly 
form,  or  heavenly  virtue,  which  can  communicate 
this  to  others  related  to  it  by  homogeneity  of  matter. 
.  .  .  The  place  in  which  the  seed  resides  is — approxi- 
mately speaking — water  ;  for,  to  speak  properly  and 
exactly,  the  seed  is  the  smallest  part  of  the  metal, 
and  is  invisible  ;  but  as  this  invisible  presence  is 
diffused  throughout  the  water  of  its  kind,  and  exerts 
its  virtue  therein,  nothing  being  visible  to  the  eye 
but  water,  we  are  left  to  conclude  from  rational 
induction  that  this  inward  agent  (which  is,  properly 
speaking,  the  seed)  is  really  there.  Hence  we  call 
the  whole  of  the  water  seed,  just  as  we  call  the  whole 
of  the  grain  seed,  though  the  germ  of  life  is  only  a 
smallest  particle  of  the  grain."  ^ 

To  say  that  "  Philalethes'  "  seed  resembles  the 
modern  electron  is,  perhaps,  to  draw  a  rather  fanciful 
analogy,  since  the  electron  is  a  very  precise  idea,  the 

^  EiREN^us  Philalethes  :  The  Metamorphosis  of  Metals. 
(See  The  Hermetic  Museum,  vol.  ii.  pp.  238-240.) 


To  face  p.  170. 


PLATE 


Fig.  43. 

Symbolic  Alchemical  Design  illustrating  the  Conjunction  of  Brother  and 
Sister,  from  Michael  Maier's  Atalanta  Fugiens  (161 7). 

{By  permission  of  the  British  Museum.     Photo  by  Donald  Macbeth,  London.) 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    171 

result  of  the  mathematical  interpretation  of  the  results 
of  exact  experimentation.  But  though  it  would  be 
absurd  to  speak  of  this  concept  of  the  one  seed  of  all 
metals  as  an  anticipation  of  the  electron,  to  apply 
the  expression  "  metallic  seed  "  to  the  electron,  now 
that  the  concept  of  it  has  been  reached,  does  not 
seem  so  absurd. 

According  to  "  Philalethes,"  the  extraction  of 
the  seed  is  a  very  difficult  process,  accomplishable, 
however,  by  the  aid  of  mercury — the  water  homo- 
geneous therewith.  Mercury,  again,  is  the  form  of 
the  seed  thereby  obtained.  He  writes  :  **  When 
the  sperm  hidden  in  the  body  of  gold  is  brought  out 
by  means  of  our  Art,  it  appears  under  the  form  of 
Mercury,  whence  it  is  exalted  into  the  quintessence 
which  is  first  white,  and  then,  by  means  of  con- 
tinuous coction,  becomes  red."  And  again  :  "  There 
is  a  womb  into  which  the  gold  (if  placed  therein) 
will,  of  its  own  accord,  emit  its  seed,  until  it  is  de- 
bilitated and  dies,  and  by  its  death  is  renewed  into 
a  most  glorious  King,  who  thenceforward  receives 
power  to  deliver  all  his  brethren  from  the  fear  of 
death.''  1 

The  fifteenth-century  alchemist  Thomas  Norton 
was  peculiar  in  his  views,  inasmuch  as  he  denied 
that  metals  have  seed.  He  writes  :  "  Nature  never 
multipHes  anything,  except  in  either  one  or  the  other 
of  these  two  ways  :  either  by  decay,  which  we  call 
putrefaction,  or,  in  the  case  of  animate  creatures,  by 
propagation.  In  the  case  of  metals  there  can  be  no 
propagation,  though  our  Stone  exhibits  something 

^  EiRENiEUS  Philalethes  I  The  Metamorphosis  of  Metals. 
(See  The  Hermetic  Museum,  vol.  ii.  pp.  241  and  244.) 


172  BYGONEIBELIEFS 

like  it.  .  .  .  Nothing  can  be  multiplied  by  inward 
action  unless  it  belong  to  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
or  the  family  of  sensitive  creatures.  But  the  metals 
are  elementary  objects,  and  possess  neither  seed  nor 
sensation."  ^ 

His  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  metals  is  ^.stral  rather 
than  phallic.  **  The  only  efficient  cause  of  metals,'* 
he  says,  '*  is  the  mineral  virtue,  which  is  not  found 
in  every  kind  of  earth,  but  only  in  certain  places  and 
chosen  mines,  into  which  the  celestial  sphere  pours 
its  rays  in  a  straight  direction  year  by  year,  and 
according  to  the  arrangement  of  the  metallic  sub- 
stance in  these  places,  this  or  that  metal  is  gradually 
formed."  2 

In  view  of  the  astrological  symbolism  of  these 
metals,  that  gold  should  be  masculine,  silver  feminine, 
does  not  surprise  us,  because  the  idea  of  the  mas- 
culinity of  the  sun  and  the  femininity  of  the  moon 
is  a  bit  of  phallicism  that  still  remains  with  us.  It 
was  by  the  marriage  of  gold  and  silver  that  very 
many  alchemists  considered  that  the  magnum  opus 
was  to  be  achieved.  Writes  Bernard  of  Trj^visan  : 
*'  The  subject  of  this  admired  Science  [alchemy]  is 
Sol  and  Luna,  or  rather  Male  and  Female,  the  Male 
is  hot  and  dry,  the  Female  cold  and  moyst."  The 
aim  of  the  work,  he  tells  us,  is  the  extraction  of  the 
spirit  of  gold,  which  alone  can  enter  into  bodies  and 
tinge  them.  Both  Sol  and  Luna  are  absolutely 
necessary,  and  '*  whoever  .  .  .  shall  think  that  a 
Tincture  can  be  made  without  these  two  Bodyes, 

^  Thomas  Norton  :    The  Ordinal  of  Alchemy.     (See  The 
Hermetic  Museum,  vol.  ii.  pp.  15  and  16.) 
*  Ihid.,  pp.  15  and  16. 


To  face  p.  172 


PLATE   23. 


Fig.  44. 

Symbolic  Alchemical  Design  illustrating  Lactation,  from  Maier's 

Atalanta  Fugiens. 

(By  permission  of  the  British  Museum.     Photo  by  Donald  Macbeth,  London.) 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN   ALCHEMY     173 

...  he  proceedeth  to  the  Practice  Hke  one  that  is 
blind."  1 

Kelly  has  teaching  to  the  same  effect,  the  Mercury 
of  the  Philosophers  being  for  him  the  menstruum  or 
medium  wherein  the  copulation  of  Gold  with  Silver 
is  to  be  accomplished.  Mercury,  in  fact,  seems  to 
have  been  everything  and  to  have  been  capable  of 
effecting  everything  in  the  eyes  of  the  alchemists. 
Concerning  gold  and  silver,  Kelly  writes  :  ''  Only 
one  metal,  viz.  gold,  is  absolutely  perfect  and  mature. 
Hence  it  is  called  the  perfect  male  body.  .  .  Silver 
is  less  bounded  by  aqueous  immaturity  than  the  rest 
of  the  metals,  though  it  may  indeed  be  regarded  as 
to  a  certain  extent  impure,  still  its  water  is  already 
covered  with  the  congealing  vesture  of  its  earth,  and 
it  thus  tends  to  perfection.  This  condition  is  the 
reason  why  silver  is  everywhere  called  by  the  Sages 
the  perfect  female  body.''  And  later  he  writes  : 
"  In  short,  our  whole  Magistery  consists  in  the  union 
of  the  male  and  female,  or  active  and  passive,  elements 
through  the  mediation  of  our  metallic  water  and  a 
proper  degree  of  heat.  Now,  the  male  and  female 
are  two  metallic  bodies,  and  this  I  will  again  prove 
by  irrefragable  quotations  from  the  Sages."  Some 
of  the  quotations  will  be  given :  "  Avicenna  : 
*  Purify  husband  and  wife  separately,  in  order  that 
they  may  unite  more  intimately  ;  for  if  you  do  not 
purify  them,  they  cannot  love  each  other.  By  con- 
junction of  the  two  natures  you  get  a  clear  and  lucid 
nature,  which,  when  it  ascends,  becomes  bright  and 
serviceable.'  .  .  .     Senior  :    *  I,  the   Sun,   am  hot 

^  Bernard,  Earl  of  Tr^visan  :  A  Treatise,  etc.,  Op.  cit., 
pp.  83  and  87. 


174  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

and  dry,  and  thou,  the  Moon,  are  cold  and  moist  ; 
when  we  are  wedded  together  in  a  closed  chamber,  I 
will  gently  steal  away  thy  soul.'  .  .  .  Rosinus  : 
'  When  the  Sun,  my  brother,  for  the  love  of  me 
(silver)  pours  his  sperm  {i.e.  his  solar  fatness)  into 
the  chamber  {i.e.  my  Lunar  body),  namely,  when  we 
become  one  in  a  strong  and  complete  complexion 
and  union,  the  child  of  our  wedded  love  will  be  born.' 
.  .  .  '  Rosary  '  :  '  Th^^rment  of  jthe  Sun  is  the 
spjerntof  the~-4rian,  the_ierment_Qf -the ^jVIoon ,  the 
sperm. of Jjiejwoman .  Of  both  we^t  a  chaste  union 
mid  a  true  generation.'  .  .  .  Aristotle  :  '  Take  your 
beloved  son,  and  wed  him  to  his  sister,  his  white 
sister,  in  equal  marriage,  and  give  them  the  cup  of 
love,  for  it  is  a  food  which  prompts  to  union.'  "  ^ 
Kelly,  of  course,  accepts  the  traditional  authorship 
of  the  works  from  which  he  quotes,  though  in  many 
cases  such  authorship  is  doubtful,  to  say  the  least. 
The  alchemical  works  ascribed  to  Aristotle  (384-322 
B.C.),  for  instance,  are  beyond  question  forgeries.  In- 
deed, the  symbol  of  a  union  between  brother  and 
sister,  here  quoted,  could  hardly  be  held  as  acceptable 
to  Greek  thought,  to  which  incest  was  the  most 
abominable  and  unforgiveable  sin.  It  seems  likelier 
that  it  originated  with  the  Egyptians,  to  whom  such 
unions  were  tolerable  in  fact.  The  symbol  is  often 
met  with  in  Latin  alchemy.  Michael  Maier  (1568- 
1622)  also  says  :  "  Conjunge  fratrem  cum  sorore  et 
propina  illis  poculum  amoris^^  the  words  forming  a 
motto  to  a  picture  of  a  man  and  woman  clasped  in 
each  other's  arms,  to  whom  an  older  man  offers  a 

^  Edward  Kelly  :  The  Stone  of  the  Philosophers,  Op.  cit., 
pp.  13,  14,  33,  35,  36,  38-40,  and  47. 


To  face  p.  174. 


PLATE   24. 


Fig.  45. 

Symbolic  Alchemical  Design  illustrating  the  Conjunction  of  Gold  and 
Silver  (or  Sun  and  Moon),  from  Maier's  Atalanta  Fugiens. 

(By  permission  of  the  British  Museum.     Phcto  by  Donald  Macbeth,  London.) 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    175 

goblet.  This  symbolic  picture  occurs  in  his  Atalanta 
Fugiens,  hoc  est,  Emhlemata  nova  de  Secretis  Naturce 
Chymica,  etc.  (Oppenheim,  1617).  This  work  is  an 
exceedingly  curious  one.  It  consists  of  a  number  of 
carefully  executed  pictures,  each  accompanied  by  a 
motto,  a  verse  of  poetry  set  to  music,  with  a  prose 
text.  Many  of  the  pictures  are  phallic  in  conception, 
and  practically  all  of  them  are  anthropomorphic. 
Not  only  the  primary  function  of  sex,  but  especially 
its  secondary  one  of  lactation,  is  made  use  of.  The 
most  curious  of  these  emblematic  pictures,  perhaps, 
is  one  symbolising  the  conjunction  of  gold  and  silver. 
It  shows  on  the  right  a  man  and  woman,  representing 
the  sun  and  moon,  in  the  act  of  coition,  standing  up 
to  the  thighs  in  a  lake.  On  the  left,  on  a  hill  above 
the  lake,  a  woman  (with  the  moon  as  halo)  gives  birth 
to  a  child.  A  boy  is  coming  out  of  the  water  towards 
her.  The  verse  informs  us  that  :  **  The  bath  glows 
red  at  the  conception  of  the  boy,  the  air  at  his  birth." 
We  learn  also  that  "  there  is  a  stone,  and  yet  there  is 
not,  which  is  the  noble  gift  of  God.  If  God  grants 
it,  fortunate  will  be  he  who  shall  receive  it."  ^ 

Concerning  the  nature  of  gold,  there  is  a  discussion 
in  The  Answer  o/Bernardus  Trevisanus  to  the  Epistle 
of  Thomas  of  Bononia,  with  which  I  shall  close  my 
consideration  of  the  present  aspect  of  the  subject. 
Its  interest  for  us  lies  in  the  arguments  which  are 
used  and  held  to  be  valid.  **  Besides,  you  say  that 
Gold,  as  most  think,  is  nothing  else  than  Quick-silver 
coagulated  naturally  by  the  force  of  Sulphur  ;  yet 
so,  that  nothing  of  the  Sulphur  which  generated  the 
Gold,  doth  remain  in  the  substance  of  the  Gold  :  as 
1  Op,  cit.,  p.  145. 


176  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

in  an  humane  Embryo,  when  it  is  conceived  in  the 
Womb,  there  remains  nothing  of  the  Father's  Seed, 
according  to  Aristotle's  opinion,  but  the  Seed  of  the 
Man  doth  only  coagulate  the  menstrual  blood  of  the 
Woman :  in  the  same  manner  you  say,  that  after 
Quick-silver  is  so  coagulated,  the  form  of  Gold  is 
perfected  in  it,  by  virtue  of  the  Heavenly  Bodies,  and 
especially  of  the  Sun."  ^  Bernard,  however,  decides 
against  this  view,  holding  that  gold  contains  both 
mercury  and  sulphur,  for  **  we  must  not  imagine, 
according  to  their  mistake  who  say,  that  the  Male 
Agent  himself  approaches  the  Female  in  the  coagu- 
lation, and  departs  afterwards  ;  because,  as  is  known 
in  every  generation,  the  conception  is  active  and 
passive  :  Both  the  active  and  the  passive,  that  is,  all 
the  four  Elements,  must  always  abide  together, 
otherwise  there  would  be  no  mixture,  and  the  hope  of 
generating  an  off-spring  would  be  extinguished."  ^ 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  say  something  of  the  role 
of  sex  in  spiritual  alchemy.  But  in  doing  this  I  am 
venturing  outside  the  original  field  of  inquiry  of 
this  essay  and  making  a  by  no  means  necessary 
addition  to  my  thesis  ;  and  I  am  anxious  that  what 
follows  should  be  understood  as  such,  so  that  no 
confusion  as  to  the  issues  may  arise. 

In  the  great  alchemical  collection  of  J.  J.  Manget, 
there  is  a  curious  work  (originally  published  in  1677), 
entitled  Mutus  Liber,  which  consists  entirely  of 
plates,  without  letterpress.  Its  interest  for  us  in 
our  present  concern  is  that  the  alchemist,  from  the 
commencement  of  the  work  until  its  achievement,  is 

^  Op.  cit.,  pp.  206  and  207. 
2  Ibid.,  pp.  212  and  213. 


To  face  p.  176. 


PLATE   25 


Fig.  46. 
Symbolic  Alchemical  Design  from  Mutus  Liber  (1677). 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN   ALCHEMY    177 

shown  working  in  conjunction  with  a  woman.  We 
are  reminded  of  Nicolas  Flamel  (1330-1418), 
who  is  reputed  to  have  achieved  the  magnum  opus 
together  with  his  wife  Pernelle,  as  well  as  of  the 
many  other  women  workers  in  the  Art  of  whom  we 
read.  It  would  be  of  interest  in  this  connection  to 
know  exactly  what  association  of  ideas  was  present 
in  the  mind  of  Michael  Maier  when  he  commanded 
the  alchemist  :  ''  Perform  a  work  of  women  on  the 
molten  white  lead,  that  is,  cook,''  ^  and  illustrated 
his  behest  with  a  picture  of  a  pregnant  woman  watch- 
ing a  fire  over  which  is  suspended  a  cauldron  and 
on  which  are  three  jars.  There  is  a  cat  in  the  back- 
ground, and  a  tub  containing  two  fish  in  the  fore- 
ground, the  whole  forming  a  very  curious  collection 
of  emblems.  Mr  Waite,  who  has  dealt  with  some 
of  these  matters,  luminously,  though  briefly,  says  : 
"  The  evidences  with  which  we  have  been  dealing 
concern  solely  the  physical  work  of  alchemy  and 
there  is  nothing  of  its  mystical  aspects.  The  Mutus 
Liber  is  undoubtedly  on  the  literal  side  of  metallic 
transmutation  ;  the  memorials  of  Nicholas  Flamel  are 
also  on  that  side,"  etc.  He  adds,  however,  that  *'  It 
is  on  record  that  an  unknown  master  testified  to  his 
possession  of  the  mystery,  but  he  added  that  he 
had  not  proceeded  to  the  work  because  he  had  failed 
to  meet  with  an  elect  woman  who  was  necessary 
thereto  ''  ;  and  proceeds  to  say  :  **  I  suppose  that 
the  statement  will  awaken  in  most  minds  only  a  vague 
sense  of  wonder,  and  I  can  merely  indicate  in  a  few 
general  words  that  which  I  see  behind  it.  Those 
Hermetic  texts  which  bear  a  spiritual  interpretation 

^  Michael  Maier:  Atalanta  Fugiens  (1617),  p.  97. 

12 


178  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

and  are  as  if  a  record  of  spiritual  experience  present, 
like  the  literature  of  physical  alchemy,  the  following 
aspects  of  symbolism  :  (a)  the  marriage  of  sun  and 
moon  ;  (b)  of  a  mystical  king  and  queen  ;  (c)  an 
union  between  natures  which  are  one  at  the  root  but 
diverse  in  manifestation  ;  (d)  a  transmutation  which 
follows  this  union  and  an  abiding  glory  therein.  It 
is  ever  a  conjunction  between  male  and  female  in  a 
mystical  sense  ;  it  is  ever  the  bringing  together  by 
art  of  things  separated  by  an  imperfect  order  of 
things  ;  it  is  ever  the  perfection  of  natures  by  means 
of  this  conjunction.  But  if  the  mystical  work  of 
alchemy  is  an  inward  work  in  consciousness,  then 
the  union  between  male  and  female  is  an  union  in 
consciousness  ;  and  if  we  remember  the  traditions 
of  a  state  when  male  and  female  had  not  as  yet  been 
divided,  it  may  dawn  upon  us  that  the  higher  alchemy 
was  a  practice  for  the  return  into  this  ineffable  mode 
of  being.  The  traditional  doctrine  is  set  forth  in 
the  Zohar  and  it  is  found  in  writers  like  Jacob 
Boehme  ;  it  is  intimated  in  the  early  chapters  of 
Genesis  and,  according  to  an  apocryphal  saying  of 
Christ,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  will  be  manifested 
when  two  shall  be  as  one,  or  when  that  state  has  been 
once  again  attained.  In  the  light  of  this  construction 
we  can  understand  why  the  mystical  adept  went  in 
search  of  a  wise  woman  with  whom  the  work  could 
be  performed  ;  but  few  there  be  that  find  her,  and 
he  confessed  to  his  own  failure.  The  part  of 
woman  in  the  physical  practice  of  alchemy  is  like  a 
reflection  at  a  distance  of  this  more  exalted  process, 
and  there  is  evidence  that  those  who  worked  in 
metals  and  sought  for  a  material  elixir  knew  that 


To  face  p.  178. 


PLATE   26. 


Fig.  47. 

Symbolic  Alchemical  Design  illustrating  the  Work  of  Woman,  from 
Maier's  Atalanta  Fugiens. 

{By  permission  of  the  British  Museum.     Photo  by  Donald  Macbeth,  London. ) 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT   IN  ALCHEMY    179 

there  were  other  and  greater  aspects  of  the  Hermetic 
mystery."  ^ 

So  far  Mr  Waite,  whose  impressive  words  I  have 
quoted  at  some  length  ;  and  he  has  given  us  a  fuller 
account  of  the  theory  as  found  in  the  Zohar  in  his 
valuable  work  on  The  Secret  Doctrine  in  Israel  (19 13). 
The  Zohar  regards  marriage  and  the  performance 
of  the  sexual  function  in  marriage  as  of  supreme  im- 
portance, and  this  not  merely  because  marriage 
symbolises  a  divine  union,  unless  that  expression  is 
held  to  include  all  that  logically  follows  from  the 
fact,  but  because,  as  it  seems,  the  sexual  act  in 
marriage  may,  in  fact,  become  a  ritual  of  tran- 
scendental magic. 

At  least  three  varieties  of  opinion  can  be  traced 
from  the  view  of  sex  we  have  under  consideration, 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  perfect  man,  and  hence  of  the 
most  adequate  symbol  for  transmutation.  Accord- 
ing to  one,  and  this  appears  to  have  been  Jacob 
Boehme's  view,  the  perfect  man  is  conceived  of  as 
non-sexual,  the  male  and  female  elements  united  in 
him  having,  as  it  were,  neutralised  each  other. 
According  to  another,  he  is  pictured  as  a  hermaphro- 
ditic being,  a  concept  we  frequently  come  across  in 
alchemical  literature.  It  plays  a  prominent  part  in 
Maier's  book  Atalanta  Fugiens,  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made.  Maier's  hermaphrodite 
has  two  heads,  one  male,  one  female,  but  only  one 
body,  one  pair  of  arms,  and  one  pair  of  legs.  The  two 
sexual  organs,  which  are  placed  side  by  side,  are 
delineated  in  the  illustrations  with  considerable  care, 

^  A.  E.  Waite  :  "  Woman  and  the  Hermetic  Mystery/'  The 
Occult  Review  (June  1912),  vol.  xv.  pp.  325  and  326. 


i8o  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

showing  the  importance  Maier  attached  to  the  idea. 
This  concept  seems  to  me  not  only  crude,  but  un- 
natural and  repellent.  But  it  may  be  said  of  both 
the  opinions  I  have  mentioned,  that  they  confuse 
between  union  and  identity.  It  is  the  old  mistake, 
with  respect  to  a  lesser  goal,  of  those  who  hope  for 
absorption  in  the  Divine  Nature  and  consequent  loss 
of  personahty.  It  seems  to  be  forgotten  that  a 
certain  degree  of  distinction  is  necessary  to  the  joy 
of  union.  ''  Distinction ''  and  "  separation,"  it 
should  be  remembered,  have  different  connotations. 
If  the  supreme  joy  is  that  of  self-sacrifice,  then  the 
self  must  be  such  that  it  can  be  continually  sacrificed, 
else  the  joy  is  a  purely  transitory  one,  or  rather,  is 
destroyed  at  the  moment  of  its  consummation. 
Hence,  though  sacrificed,  the  self  must  still  remain 
itself. 

The  third  view  of  perfection,  to  which  these  re- 
marks naturally  lead,  is  that  which  sees  it  typified 
in  marriage.  The  mystic-philosopher  Sweden- 
BORG  has  some  exceedingly  suggestive  things  to  say 
on  the  matter  in  his  extraordinary  work  on  Conjugial 
Love,  which,  curiously  enough,  seem  largely  to 
have  escaped  the  notice  of  students  of  these  high 
mysteries. 

Swedenborg's  heaven  is  a  sexual  heaven,  because 
for  him  sex  is  primarily  a  spiritual  fact,  and  only 
secondarily,  and  because  of  what  it  is  primarily,  a 
physical  fact ;  and  salvation  is  hardly  possible, 
according  to  him,  apart  from  a  genuine  marriage 
(whether  achieved  here  or  hereafter).  Man  and 
woman  are  considered  as  complementary  beings, 
and  it  is  only  through  the  union  of  one  man  with 


To  face  p.  i8o. 


PLATE   27. 


Fig.  48. 

Symbolic  Alchemical  Design,  Hermaphrodite,  from  Maier's  Atalanta 

Fugiens. 

{By  permission  of  the  British  Museum.     Pfioto  by  Donald  Macbeth,  London.) 


PHALLIC  ELEMENT  IN  ALCHEMY    i8i 

one  woman  that  the  perfect  angel  results.  The  altru- 
istic tendency  of  such  a  theory  as  contrasted  with 
the  egotism  of  one  in  which  perfection  is  regarded 
as  obtainable  by  each  personality  of  itself  alone,  is  a 
point  worth  emphasising.  As  to  the  nature  of  this 
union,  it  is,  to  use  Swedenborg's  own  terms,  a  con- 
junction of  the  will  of  the  wife  with  the  understanding 
of  the  man,  and  reciprocally  of  the  understanding 
of  the  man  with  the  will  of  the  wife.  It  is  thus  a 
manifestation  of  that  fundamental  marriage  be- 
tween the  good  and  the  true  which  is  at  the  root 
of  all  existence ;  and  it  is  because  of  this  funda- 
mental marriage  that  all  men  and  women  are  born 
into  the  desire  to  complete  themselves  by  con- 
junction. The  symbol  of  sexual  intercourse  is  a 
legitimate  one  to  use  in  speaking  of  this  heavenly 
union  ;  indeed,  we  may  describe  the  highest  bliss 
attainable  by  the  soul,  or  conceivable  by  the  mind, 
as  a  spiritual  orgasm.  Into  conjugial  love  **  are 
collected,"  says  Swedenborg,  *'  all  the  blessednesses, 
blissfulnesses,  delightsomenesses,  pleasantnesses, 
and  pleasures,  which  could  possibly  be  conferred 
upon  man  by  the  Lord  the  Creator."  ^  In  another 
place  he  writes  :  **  Married  partners  [in  heaven]  enjoy 
similar  intercourse  with  each  other  as  in  the  world, 
but  more  delightful  and  blessed  ;  yet  without  proli- 
fication,  for  which,  or  in  place  of  which,  they  have 
spiritual  prolification,  which  is  that  of  love  and  wis- 
dom." "  The  reason,"  he  adds,  "  why  the  inter- 
course then  is  more  delightful  and  blessed  is,  that 
when  conjugial  love  becomes  of  the  spirit,  it  becomes 

1  Emanuel  Swedenborg  :  The  Delights  of  Wisdom  relating 
to  Conjugial  Love  (trans,  by  A.  H.  Searle,  1891),  §  68. 


i82  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

more  interior  and  pure,  and  consequently  more  per- 
ceptible; and  every  delightsomeness  grows  accord- 
ing to  the  perception,  and  grows  even  until  its  blessed- 
ness is  discernible  in  its  delightsomeness."  ^  Such 
love,  however,  he  says,  is  rarely  to  be  found  on  earth. 
A  learned  Japanese  speaks  with  approval  of 
Idealism  as  a  "  dream  where  sensuousness  and 
spirituality  find  themselves  to  be  blood  brothers  or 
sisters."  2  It  is  a  statement  which  involves  either 
the  grossest  and  most  dangerous  error,  or  the  pro- 
foundest  truth,  according  to  the  understanding  of  it. 
Woman  is  a  road  whereby  man  travels  either  to  God 
or  the  devil.  The  problem  of  sex  is  a  far  deeper 
problem  than  appears  at  first  sight,  involving 
mysteries  both  the  direst  and  most  holy.  It  is  by 
no  means  a  fantastic  hypothesis  that  the  inmost 
mystery  of  what  a  certain  school  of  mystics  calls  **  the 
Secret  Tradition  "  was  a  sexual  one.  At  any  rate, 
the  fact  that  some  of  those,  at  least,  to  whom  alchemy 
connoted  a  mystical  process,  were  alive  to  the  pro- 
found spiritual  significance  of  sex,  renders  of  double 
interest  what  they  have  to  intimate  of  the  achieve- 
ment of  the  Magnum  Opus  in  man. 

*  Emanuel  Swedenborg  :  Op.  cit.,  §  51. 

2  YoNE  NoGUCHi :  The  Spirit  of  Japanese  AH  (1915),  p.  37. 


XI 

ROGER  BACON  :  AN 
APPRECIATION 

It  has  been  said  that  "  a  prophet  is  not  without 
honour,  save  in  his  own  country.'*  Thereto  might 
be  added,  "  and  in  his  own  time  "  ;  for,  whilst 
there  is  continuity  in  time,  there  is  also  evolution, 
and  England  of  to-day,  for  instance,  is  not  the  same 
country  as  England  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  his 
own  day  Roger  Bacon  was  accounted  a  magician, 
whose  heretical  views  called  for  suppression  by  the 
Church.  And  for  many  a  long  day  afterwards  was 
he  mainly  remembered  as  a  co-worker  in  the  black 
art  with  Friar  Bungay,  who  together  with  him  con- 
structed, by  the  aid  of  the  devil  and  diabolical  rites, 
a  brazen  head  which  should  possess  the  power  of 
speech — the  experiment  only  failing  through  the 
negligence  of  an  assistant.^  Such  was  Roger  Bacon 
in  the  memory  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  and  many 
succeeding  years  ;    he  was  the  typical   alchemist, 

^  The  story,  of  course,  is  entirely  fictitious.  For  further 
particulars  see  Sir  J.  E.  Sandys'  essay  on  "  Roger  Bacon  in 
English  Literature,"  in  Roger  Bacon  Essays  (1914),  referred  to 
below. 

183 


i84  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

where  that  term  carries  with  it  the  depth  of  disrepute, 
though  indeed  alchemy  was  for  him  but  one,  and 
that  not  the  greatest,  of  many  interests. 

Ilchester,  in  Somerset,  claims  the  honour  of  being 
the  place  of  Roger  Bacon's  birth,  which  interesting 
and  important  event  occurred,  probably,  in  1214. 
Young  Bacon  studied  theology,  philosophy,  and 
what  then  passed  under  the  name  of  *'  science,"  first 
at  Oxford,  then  the  centre  of  liberal  thought,  and 
afterwards  at  Paris,  in  the  rigid  orthodoxy  of  whose 
professors  he  found  more  to  criticise  than  to  admire. 
Whilst  at  Oxford  he  joined  the  Franciscan  Order, 
and  at  Paris  he  is  said,  though  this  is  probably  an 
error,  to  have  graduated  as  Doctor  of  Theology. 
During  1 250-1 256  we  find  him  back  in  England, 
no  doubt  engaged  in  study  and  teaching.  About 
the  latter  year,  however,  he  is  said  to  have  been 
banished — on  a  charge  of  holding  heterodox  views 
and  indulging  in  magical  practices — to  Paris,  where 
he  was  kept  in  close  confinement  and  forbidden  to 
write.  Mr  Little,^  however,  believes  this  to  be  an 
error,  based  on  a  misreading  of  a  passage  in  one  of 
Bacon's  works,  and  that  Roger  was  not  imprisoned, 
but  stricken  with  sickness.  At  any  rate  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  some  restrictions  as  to  his  writing 
were  placed  on  him  by  his  superiors  of  the  Franciscan 
Order.  In  1266  Bacon  received  a  letter  from  Pope 
Clement  asking  him  to  send  His  Holiness  his  works 
in  writing  without  delay.  This  letter  came  as  a  most 
pleasant  surprise  to  Bacon  ;  but  he  had  nothing  of 
importance  written,  and  in  great  haste  and  excite- 

^  See  his  contribution,  "  On  Roger  Bacon's  Life  and  Works," 
to  Roger  Bacon  Essays. 


To  face  />.  184 


PLATE 


|mti0:S>^  A€>.\>tktu  ^smgrn.^  t  fmitmatart 


Fig.  49. 

Roger  Bacon  presenting  a  Book  to  a  King,  from  a  Fifteenth-century 

Miniature  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford. 

[Note. — There  is  no  contemporary  portrait  of  Roger  Bacon  known,  so  that  the  authenticity 
of  every  one  of  the  portraits  alleged  to  be  of  him  is  open  to  doubt.  The  two  reproduced  in 
figs.  49  and  50  are  probably  the  oldest  extant,  and  are  therefore  the  most  worthy  of  respect. 
That  from  the  Bodleian  Library  is  reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  the  authorities,  and  is,  I 
think,  the  earliest  known  portrait  of  Bacon.  The  Knole  Castle  portrait  (fig.  50)  is  by  an  un- 
known artist,  probably  of  the  Elizabethan  period.  It  is  reproduced  by  permission  of  Ladv 
Sackville,] 


ROGER  BACON:    AN  APPRECIATION     185 

ment,  therefore,  he  composed  three  works  expUcating 
his  philosophy,  the  Opus  Majus,  the  Opus  Minus,  and 
the  Opus  TertiuMy  which  were  completed  and  dis- 
patched to  the  Pope  by  the  end  of  the  following  year. 
This,  as  Mr  Rowbottom  remarks,  is  ''  surely  one 
of  the  literary  feats  of  history,  perhaps  only  surpassed 
by  Swedenborg  when  he  wrote  six  theological  and 
philosophical  treatises  in  one  year."  ^ 

The  works  appear  to  have  been  well  received. 
We  next  find  Bacon  at  Oxford  writing  his  Compen- 
dium Studii  Philosophice,  in  which  work  he  indulged 
in  some  by  no  means  unjust  criticisms  of  the  clergy, 
for  which  he  fell  under  the  condemnation  of  his 
order,  and  was  imprisoned  in  1277  ^^  ^  charge  of 
teaching  *^  suspected  novelties  ".  In  those  days  any 
knowledge  of  natural  phenomena  beyond  that  of  the 
quasi-science  of  the  times  was  regarded  as  magic, 
and  no  doubt  some  of  Roger  Bacon's  **  suspected 
novelties  ''  were  of  this  nature  ;  his  recognition  of 
the  value  of  the  writings  of  non- Christian  moralists 
was ,  no  doubt ,  another  '  *  suspected  novelty ' ' .  Appeals 
for  his  release  directed  to  the  Pope  proved  fruitless, 
being  frustrated  by  Jerome  D'Ascoli,  General  of 
the  Franciscan  Order,  who  shortly  afterwards  suc- 
ceeded to  the  Holy  See  under  the  title  cf  Nicholas 
IV.  The  latter  died  in  1292,  whereupon  Raymund 
Gaufredi,  who  had  been  elected  General  of  the 
Franciscan  Order,  and  who,  it  is  thought,  was  well 
disposed  towards  Bacon,  because  of  certain  alchemical 
secrets  the  latter  had  revealed  to  him,  ordered  his 
release.    Bacon  returned  to  Oxford,  where  he  wrote 

1  B.  R.  Rowbottom  :  "  Roger  Bacon,"  The  Journal  of  the 
Alchemical  Society,  vol.  ii.  (1914),  p.  yj. 


i86  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

his  last  work,  the  Compendium  Studii  Theologice, 
He  died  either  in  this  year  or  in  1294.^ 

It  was  not  until  the  publication  by  Dr  Samuel 
Jebb,  in  1733,  of  the  greater  part  of  Bacon's  Opus 
Majus,  nearly  four  and  a  half  centuries  after  his 
death,  that  anything  like  his  rightful  position  in  the 
history  of  philosophy  began  to  be  assigned  to  him. 
But  let  his  spirit  be  no  longer  troubled,  if  it  were 
ever  troubled  by  neglect  or  slander,  for  the  world, 
and  first  and  foremost  his  own  country,  has  paid 
him  due  honour.  His  septcentenary  was  duly  cele- 
brated in  19 14  at  his  alma  mater,  Oxford,  his  statue 
has  there  been  raised  as  a  memorial  to  his  greatness, 
and  savants  have  meted  out  praise  to  him  in  no 
grudging  tones. ^  Indeed,  a  voice  has  here  and  there 
been  heard  depreciating  his  better-known  namesake 
Francis,^  so  that  the  later  luminary  should  not, 
standing  in  the  way,  obscure  the  light  of  the  earlier ; 
though,  for  my  part,  I  would  suggest  that  one  need 
not  be  so  one-eyed  as  to  fail  to  see  both  lights  at  once. 

To  those  who  like  to  observe  coincidences,  it  may 

1  For  further  details  concerning  Bacon's  life,  Emile 
Charles:  Roger  Bacon,  sa  Vie,  ses  Ouvrages,  ses  Doctrines 
(1861)  ;  J.  H.  Bridges  :  The  Life  &  Work  of  Roger  Bacon,  an 
Introduction  to  the  Opus  Majus  (edited  by  H.  G.  Jones,  1914)  ; 
and  Mr  A.  G.  Little's  essay  in  Roger  Bacon  Essays,  may  be 
consulted. 

2  See  Roger  Bacon,  Essays  contributed  by  various  Writers  on 
the  Occasion  of  the  Commemoration  of  the  Seventh  Centenary  of 
his  Birth.  Collected  and  edited  by  A.  G.  Little  (1914) ;  also 
Sir  J.  E.  Sandys'  Roger  Bacon  (from  The  Proceedings  of  the 
British  Association,  vol.  vi.,  1914). 

3  For  example,  that  of  Ernst  Duhring.  See  an  article 
entitled  "  The  Two  Bacons,"  translated  from  his  Kritische 
Geschichte  der  Philosophic  in  The  Open  Court  for  August  1914. 


ROGER  BACON:    AN  APPRECIATION     187 

be  of  interest  that  the  septcentenary  of  the  discoverer 
of  gunpowder  should  have  coincided  with  the  out- 
break of  the  greatest  war  under  which  the  world  has 
yet  groaned,  even  though  gunpowder  is  no  longer 
employed  as  a  military  propellant. 

Bacon's  reference  to  gunpowder  occurs  in  his 
Epistola  de  Secretis  Operibus  Artis  et  Naturce,  et  de 
Nullitate  Magice  (Hamburg,  16 18)  a  little  tract 
written  against  magic,  in  which  he  endeavours  to 
show,  and  succeeds  very  well  in  the  first  eight 
chapters,  that  Nature  and  art  can  perform  far  more 
extraordinary  feats  than  are  claimed  by  the  workers 
in  the  black  art.  The  last  three  chapters  are  written 
in  an  alchemical  jargon  of  which  even  one  versed 
in  the  symbolic  language  of  alchemy  can  make  no 
sense.  They  are  evidently  cryptogramic,  and  prob- 
ably deal  with  the  preparation  and  purification  of 
saltpetre,  which  had  only  recently  been  discovered 
as  a  distinct  body.^  In  chapter  xi.  there  is  refer- 
ence to  an  explosive  body,  which  can  only  be  gun- 
powder ;  by  means  of  it,  says  Bacon,  you  may,  "  if 
you  know  the  trick,  produce  a  bright  flash  and  a 
thundering  noise."  He  mentions  two  of  the  in- 
gredients, saltpetre  and  sulphur,  but  conceals  the 
third  {i.e,  charcoal)  under  an  anagram.  Claims 
have,  indeed,  been  put  forth  for  the  Greek,  Arab, 
Hindu,  and  Chinese  origins  of  gunpowder,  but  a 
close  examination  of  the  original  ancient  accounts 
purporting    to    contain    references    to    gunpowder, 

r  ^  For  an  attempted  explanation  of  this  cryptogram,  and 
evidence  that  Bacon  was  the  discoverer  of  gunpowder,  see 
Lieut.-Col.  H.  W.  L.  Hime's  Gunpowder  and  Ammuniticn:  their 
Origin  and  Progress  (1904). 


i88  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

shows  that  only  incendiary  and  not  explosive 
bodies  are  really  dealt  with.  But  whilst  Roger 
Bacon  knew  of  the  explosive  property  of  a  mixture 
in  right  proportions  of  sulphur,  charcoal,  and  pure 
saltpetre  (which  he  no  doubt  accidentally  hit  upon 
whilst  experimenting  with  the  last-named  body),  he 
was  unaware  of  its  projective  power.  That  dis- 
covery, so  detrimental  to  the  happiness  of  man  ever 
since,  was,  in  all  probability,  due  to  Berthold 
ScHWARZ  about  1330. 

Roger  Bacon  has  been  credited  ^  with  many  other 
discoveries.  In  the  work  already  referred  to  he 
allows  his  imagination  freely  to  speculate  as  to  the 
wonders  that  might  be  accomplished  by  a  scientific 
utilisation  of  Nature's  forces — marvellous  things  with 
lenses,  in  bringing  distant  objects  near  and  so  forth, 
carriages  propelled  by  mechanical  means,  flying 
machines  .  .  . — ^but  in  no  case  is  the  word  "  dis- 
covery '^  in  any  sense  applicable,  for  not  even  in  the 
case  of  the  telescope  does  Bacon  describe  means  by 
which  his  speculations  might  be  realised. 

On  the  other  hand,  Roger  Bacon  has  often  been 
maligned  for  his  beliefs  in  astrology  and  alchemy,  but, 
as  the  late  Dr  Bridges  (who  was  quite  sceptical  of  the 
claims  of  both)  pointed  out,  not  to  have  believed  in 
them  in  Bacon's  day  would  have  been  rather  an 
evidence  of  mental  weakness  than  otherwise.  What 
relevant  facts  were  known  supported  alchemical  and 
astrological  hypotheses.  Astrology,  Dr  Bridges 
writes,    "  conformed  to  the   first  law  of    Comte's 

1  For  instance  by  Mr  M.  M.  P.  MuiR.  See  his  contribution, 
on  "  Roger  Bacon  :  His  Relations  to  Alchemy  and  Chemistry/' 
to  Roger  Bacon  Essays. 


To  face  p.  i88. 


PLATE   29. 


Fig.  50. 

Roger  Bacon,  from  a  Portrait  in  Knole  Castle. 

(Copyrighi  by  C.  Essenheigh-Corke,  Sevenoaks.     See  Note  on  Plate  28.) 


ROGER  BACON:    AN  APPRECIATION     189 

philosophia  primal  as  being  the  best  hypothesis  of 
which  ascertained  phenomena  admitted."  ^  And  in 
his  alchemical  speculations  Bacon  was  much  in 
advance  of  his  contemporaries,  and  stated  problems 
which  are  amongst  those  of  modern  chemistry. 

Roger  Bacon's  greatness  does  not  lie  in  the  fact 
that  he  discovered  gunpowder,  nor  in  the  further 
fact  that  his  speculations  have  been  validated  by 
other  men.     His  greatness  lies  in  his  secure  grip  of 
scientific  method  as  a  combination  of  mathematical 
reasoning  and  experiment.     Men  before  him  had 
experimented,  but  none  seemed  to  have  realised  the 
importance  of  the  experimental  method.     Nor  was 
he,  of  course,  by  any  means  the  first  mathematician — 
there  was  a  long  line  of  Greek  and  Arabian  mathema- 
ticians behind  him,  men  whose  knowledge  of  the 
science  was  in  many  cases  much  greater  than  his — 
or  the  most  learned  mathematician  of  his  day  ;   but 
none  realised  the  importance  of  mathematics  as  an 
organon  of  scientific  research  as  he  did  ;  and  he  was 
assuredly  the  priest  who  joined  mathematics  to  ex- 
periment in  the  bonds  of  sacred  matrimony.     We 
must  not,  indeed,  look  for  precise  rules  of  inductive 
reasoning  in  the  works  of  this   pioneer  writer  on 
scientific    method.      Nor   do   we   find  really  satis- 
factory rules  of  induction    even  in   the   works    of 
Francis    Bacon.      Moreover,   the    latter    despised 
mathematics,  and  it  was  not  until  in  quite  recent 
years  that  the  scientific  world  came  to  realise  that 
Roger's  method  is  the  more  fruitful — witness  the 
modern  revolution  in   chemistry  produced  by  the 
adoption  of  mathematical  methods. 
1  Op.  cit,  p.  84. 


190  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Roger  Bacon,  it  may  be  said,  was  many  centuries 
in  advance  of  his  time  ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  he 
was  the  child  of  his  time  ;  this  may  account  for  his 
defects  judged  by  modern  standards.  He  owed  not 
a  little  to  his  contemporaries  :  for  his  knowledge  and 
high  estimate  of  philosophy  he  was  largely  indebted 
to  his  Oxford  master  Grosseteste  (c.  i  175-1253), 
whilst  Peter  Peregrinus,  his  friend  at  Paris,  fostered 
his  love  of  experiment,  and  the  Arab  mathematicians, 
whose  works  he  knew,  inclined  his  mind  to  mathe- 
matical studies.  He  was  violently  opposed  to  the 
scholastic  views  current  in  Paris  at  his  time,  and 
attacked  great  thinkers  like  Thomas  Aquinas  {c,  1225- 
1274)  and  Albertus  Magnus  (i  193-1280),  as  well 
as  obscurantists,  such  as  Alexander  of  Hales  {ob, 
1245).  ^^^  he  himself  was  a  scholastic  philosopher, 
though  of  no  servile  type,  taking  part  in  scholastic 
arguments.  If  he  declared  that  he  would  have  all 
the  works  of  Aristotle  burned,  it  was  not  because 
he  hated  the  Peripatetic's  philosophy — though  he 
could  criticise  as  well  as  appreciate  at  times, — but 
because  of  the  rottenness  of  the  translations  that 
were  then  used.  It  seems  commonplace  now,  but 
it  was  a  truly  wonderful  thing  then  :  Roger  Bacon 
believed  in  accuracy,  and  was  by  no  means  destitute 
of  literary  ethics.  He  believed  in  correct  translation, 
correct  quotation,  and  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
sources  of  one's  quotations — unheard-of  things, 
almost,  in  those  days.  But  even  he  was  not  free 
from  all  the  vices  of  his  age  :  in  spite  of  his  insistence 
upon  experimental  verification  of  the  conclusions  of 
deductive  reasoning,  in  one  place,  at  least,  he  adopts 
a  view  concerning  lenses  from  another  writer,  of 


ROGER  BACON:    AN  APPRECIATION     191 

which  the  simplest  attempt  at  such  verification  would 
have  revealed  the  falsity.  For  such  lapses,  however, 
we  can  make  allowances. 

Another  and  undeniable  claim  to  greatness  rests 
on  Roger  Bacon's  broad-mindedness.  He  could 
actually  value  at  their  true  worth  the  moral  philo- 
sophies of  non- Christian  writers — Seneca  {c.  5  b.c- 
A.D.  65)  and  Al  Ghazzali  (1058-1111),  for  instance. 
But  if  he  was  catholic  in  the  original  meaning  of  that 
term,  he  was  also  catholic  in  its  restricted  sense.  He 
was  no  heretic  :  the  Pope  for  him  was  the  Vicar  of 
Christ,  whom  he  wished  to  see  reign  over  the  whole 
world,  not  by  force  of  arms,  but  by  the  assimilation 
of  all  that  was  worthy  in  that  world.  To  his  mind — 
and  here  he  was  certainly  a  child  of  his  age,  in  its  best 
sense,  perhaps — all  other  sciences  were  handmaidens 
to  theology,  queen  of  them  all.  All  were  to  be  sub- 
servient to  her  aims  :  the  Church  he  called  "  Catho- 
lic "  was  to  embrace  in  her  arms  all  that  was  worthy 
in  the  works  of  **  profane  "  writers — true  prophets 
of  God,  he  held,  in  so  far  as  writing  worthily  they 
unconsciously  bore  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity,— and  all  that  Nature  might  yield  by  patient 
experiment  and  speculation  guided  by  mathematics. 
Some  minds  see  in  this  a  defect  in  his  system,  which 
limited  his  aims  and  outlook  ;  others  see  it  as  the 
unifying  principle  giving  coherence  to  the  whole. 
At  any  rate,  the  Church,  as  we  have  seen,  regarded 
his  views  as  dangerous,  and  restrained  his  pen  for 
at  least  a  considerable  portion  of  his  life. 

Roger  Bacon  may  seem  egotistic  in  argument,  but 
his  mind  was  humble  to  learn.  He  was  not  super- 
stitious, but  he  would  listen  to  common  folk  who 


192  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

worked  with  their  hands,  to  astrologers,  and  even 
magicians,  denying  nothing  which  seemed  to  him 
to  have  some  evidence  in  experience :  if  he  denied 
much  of  magical  belief,  it  was  because  he  found  it 
lacking  in  such  evidence.  He  often  went  astray  in 
his  views ;  he  sometimes  failed  to  apply  his  own 
method,  and  that  method  was,  in  any  case,  primitive 
and  crude.  But  it  was  the  right  method,  in  embryo 
at  least,  and  Roger  Bacon,  in  spite  of  tremendous 
opposition,  greater  than  that  under  which  any  man 
of  science  may  now  suffer,  persisted  in  that  method 
to  the  end,  calling  upon  his  contemporaries  to  adopt 
it  as  the  only  one  which  results  in  right  knowledge. 
Across  the  centuries — or,  rather,  across  the  gulf  that 
divides  this  world  from  the  next — let  us  salute  this 
great  and  noble^spirit. 


XII 
THE    CAMBRIDGE    PLATONISTS 

There  is  an  opinion,  unfortunately  very  common, 
that  religious  mysticism  is  a  product  of  the  emotional 
temperament,  and  is  diametrically  opposed  to  the 
spirit  of  rationalism.  No  doubt  this  opinion  is  not 
without  some  element  of  justification,  and  one  could 
quote  the  works  of  not  a  few  religious  mystics  to  the 
effect  that  self-surrender  to  God  implies,  not  merely 
a  giving  up  of  will,  but  also  of  reason.  But  that  this 
teaching  is  not  an  essential  element  in  mysticism, 
that  it  is,  indeed,  rather  its  perversion,  there  is 
adequate  evidence  to  demonstrate.  Swedenborg  is, 
I  suppose,  the  outstanding  instance  of  an  intellectual 
mystic  ;  but  the  essential  unity  of  mysticism  and 
rationalism  is  almost  as  forcibly  made  evident  in  the 
case  of  the  Cambridge  Platonists.  That  little  band 
of  **  Latitude  men,''  as  their  contemporaries  called 
them,  constitutes  one  of  the  finest  schools  of  philo- 
sophy that  England  has  produced  ;  yet  their  works 
are  rarely  read,  I  am  afraid,  save  by  specialists. 
Possibly,  however,  if  it  were  more  commonly 
known  what   a   wealth  of  sound   philosophy  and 

193  ^3 


194  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

true  spiritual  teaching  they  contain,  the  case  would 
be  otherwise. 

The  Cambridge  Platonists — Benjamin  Which- 
coTE,  John  Smith,  Nathanael  Culverwel,  Ralph 
CuDWORTH,  and  Henry  More  are  the  more  out- 
standing names — were  educated  as  Puritans  ;  but 
they  clearly  realised  the  fundamental  error  of  Puri- 
tanism, which  tended  to  make  a  man's  eternal  salva- 
tion depend  upon  the  accuracy  and  extent  of  his 
beliefs  ;  nor  could  they  approve  of  the  exaggerated 
import  given  by  the  High  Church  party  to  matters 
of  Church  polity.  The  term  **  Cambridge  Platon- 
ists "  is,  perhaps,  less  appropriate  than  that  of 
**  Latitudinarians,''  which  latter  name  emphasises 
their  broad-mindedness  (even  if  it  carries  with  it 
something  of  disapproval).  For  although  they  owed 
much  to  Plato,  and,  perhaps,  more  to  Plotinus 
{c,  A.D.  203-262),  they  were  Christians  first  and 
Platonists  afterwards,  and,  with  the  exception, 
perhaps,  of  More,  they  took  nothing  from  these 
philosophers  which  was  not  conformable  to  the 
Scriptures. 

Benjamin  Whichcote  was  born  in  1609,  at 
Whichcote  Hall,  in  the  parish  of  Stoke,  Shropshire. 
In  1626  he  entered  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge, 
then  regarded  as  the  chief  Puritan  college  of  the 
University.  Here  his  college  tutor  was  Anthony 
TucKNEY  (1599-1670),  a  man  of  rare  character,  com- 
bining learning,  wit,  and  piety.  Between  Which- 
cote and  TuCKNEY  there  grew  up  a  firm  friendship, 
founded  on  mutual  affection  and  esteem.  But 
TuCKNEY  was  unable  to  agree  with  all  Whichcote's 
broad-minded  views  concerning  reason  and  authority; 


To  face  p.  194. 


PLATE  SO. 


n 


Beiiianiin  WfiicJico t  ^.J^'.T. Hv/e/jor 


Fig.  51. 
Benjamin  Whichcote,  from  an  engraved  Portrait  by  Robert  White. 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  PLATONISTS     195 

and  in  later  years  this  gave  rise  to  a  controversy 
between  them,  in  which  Tuckney  sought  to  contro- 
vert Whichcote's  opinions  :  it  was,  however,  carried 
on  without  acrimony,  and  did  not  destroy  their 
friendship. 

Whichcote  became  M.A.,  and  was  elected  a  fellow 
of  his  college,  in  1633,  having  obtained  his  B.A. 
four  years  previously.  He  was  ordained  by  John 
Williams  in  1636,  and  received  the  important 
appointment  of  Sunday  afternoon  lecturer  at  Trinity 
Church.  His  lectures,  which  he  gave  with  the  object 
of  turning  men's  minds  from  polemics  to  the  great 
moral  and  spiritual  realities  at  the  basis  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  from  mere  formal  discussions  to  a  true 
searching  into  the  reason  of  things,  were  well  attended 
and  highly  appreciated  ;  and  he  held  the  appoint- 
ment for  twenty  years.  In  1634  he  became  college 
tutor  at  Emmanuel.  He  possessed  all  the  charac- 
teristics that  go  to  make  up  an  efficient  and  well- 
beloved  tutor,  and  his  personal  influence  was  such 
as  to  inspire  all  his  pupils,  amongst  whom  were  both 
John  Smith  and  Nathanael  Culverwel,  who  con- 
siderably amplified  his  philosophical  and  religious 
doctrines.  In  1640  he  became  B.D.,  and  nine  years 
after  was  created  D.D.  The  college  living  of  North 
Cadbury,  in  Somerset,  was  presented  to  him  in  1643, 
and  shortly  afterwards  he  married.  In  the  next 
year,  however,  he  was  recalled  to  Cambridge,  and 
installed  as  Provost  of  King's  College  in  place  of 
the  ejected  Dr  Samuel  Collins.  But  it  was  greatly 
against  his  wish  that  he  received  the  appointment, 
and  he  only  consented  to  do  so  on  the  condition  that 
part  of  his  stipend  should  be  paid  to  Collins — an 


196  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

act  which  gives  us  a  good  insight  into  the  character 
of  the  man.  In  1650  he  resigned  North  Cadbury, 
and  the  Hving  was  presented  to  Cudworth  (see 
below),  and  towards  the  end  of  this  year  he  was 
elected  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  in  suc- 
cession to  TucKNEY.  It  was  during  his  Vice- 
Chancellorship  that  he  preached  the  sermon  that 
gave  rise  to  the  controversy  with  the  latter.  About 
this  time  also  he  was  presented  with  the  living 
of  Milton,  in  Cambridgeshire.  At  the  Restoration 
he  was  ejected  from  the  Provostship,  but,  having 
complied  with  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  he  was,  in 
1662,  appointed  to  the  cure  of  St  Anne's,  Blackfriars. 
This  church  being  destroyed  in  the  Great  Fire, 
Whichcote  retired  to  Milton,  where  he  showed 
great  kindness  to  the  poor.  But  some  years  later 
he  returned  to  London,  having  received  the  vicarage 
of  St  Lawrence,  Jewry.  His  friends  at  Cambridge, 
however,  still  saw  him  on  occasional  visits,  and  it 
was  on  one  such  visit  to  Cudworth,  in  1683,  ^^^^ 
he  caught  the  cold  which  caused  his  death. 

John  Smith  was  born  at  Achurch,  near  Oundle, 
in  1618.  He  entered  Emmanuel  College  in  1636, 
became  B.A.  in  1640,  and  proceeded  to  M.A.  in 
1644,  in  which  year  he  was  appointed  a  fellow  of 
Queen's  College.  Here  he  lectured  on  arithmetic 
with  considerable  success.  He  was  noted  for  his 
great  learning,  especially  in  theology  and  Oriental 
languages,  as  well  as  for  his  justness,  uprightness, 
and  humility.     He  died  of  consumption  in  1652. 

Nathanael  Culverwel  was  probably  born  about 
the  same  year  as  Smith.  He  entered  Emmanuel 
College   in    1633,   gained    his    B.A.   in    1636,   and 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  PLATONISTS      197 

became  M.A.  in  1640.  Soon  afterwards  he  was 
elected  a  fellow  of  his  college.  He  died  about 
1 65 1.  Beyond  these  scant  details,  nothing  is  known 
of  his  life.  He  was  a  man  of  very  great  erudition, 
as  his  posthumous  treatise  on  The  Light  of  Nature 
makes  evident. 

Henry  More  was  born  at  Grantham  in  1614. 
From  his  earliest  days  he  was  interested  in  theological 
problems,  and  his  precociousness  in  this  respect 
appears  to  have  brought  down  on  him  the  wrath  of 
an  uncle.  His  early  education  was  conducted  at 
Eton.  In  1 63 1  he  entered  Christ's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, graduated  B.A.  in  1635,  and  received  his 
M.A.  in  1639.  In  the  latter  year  he  was  elected  a 
fellow  of  Christ's  and  received  Holy  Orders.  He 
lived  a  very  retired  life,  refusing  all  preferment, 
though  many  valuable  and  honourable  appointments 
were  offered  to  him.  Indeed,  he  rarely  left  Christ's, 
except  to  visit  his  "  heroine  pupil,"  Lady  Conway, 
whose  country  seat,  Ragley,  was  in  Warwickshire. 
Lady  Conway  (pb.  1679)  appears  to  be  remembered 
only  for  the  fact  that,  dying  whilst  her  husband  was 
away,  her  physician,  F.  M.  van  Helmont  (1618-1699) 
(son  of  the  famous  alchemist,  J.  B.  van  Helmont, 
whom  we  have  met  already  on  these  excursions), 
preserved  her  body  in  spirits  of  wine,  so  that  he 
could  have  the  pleasure  of  beholding  it  on  his  return. 
She  seems  to  have  been  a  woman  of  considerable 
learning,  though  not  free  from  fantastic  ideas.  Her 
ultimate  conversion  to  Quakerism  was  a  severe  blow 
to  More,  who,  whilst  admiring  the  holy  lives  of  the 
Friends,  regarded  them  as  enthusiasts.  More  died 
in  1687. 


198  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

More's  earliest  works  were  in  verse,  and  exhibit 
fine  feeling.  The  following  lines,  quoted  from  a 
poem  on  "  Charitie  and  Humilitie,"  are  full  of  charm, 
and  well  exhibit  More's  character  : — 

"  Farre  have  I  clambred  in  my  mind 
But  nought  so  great  as  love  I  find  : 
Deep-searching  wit,  mount-moving  might, 
Are  nought  compar'd  to  that  great  spright. 
Life  of  DeHght  and  soul  of  blisse  ! 
Sure  source  of  lasting  happinesse  ! 
Higher  than  Heaven  !  lower  than  hell ! 
What  is  thy  tent  ?     Where  maist  thou  dwell  ? 

My  mansion  hight  humilitie. 
Heaven's  vastest  capabilitie 
The  further  it  doth  downward  tend 
The  higher  up  it  doth  ascend  ; 
If  it  go  down  to  utmost  nought 
It  shall  return  with  that  it  sought."  ^ 

Later  he  took  to  prose,  and  it  must  be  confessed 
that  he  wrote  too  much  and  frequently  descended 
to  polemics  (for  example,  his  controversy  with  the 
alchemist  Thomas  Vaughan,  in  which  both  com- 
batants freely  used  abuse). 

Although  in  his  main  views  More  is  thoroughly 
characteristic  of  the  school  to  which  he  belonged, 
many  of  his  less  important  opinions  are  more  or  less 
peculiar  to  himself. 

The  relation  between  More's  and  Descartes' 
( 1 596-1 650)  theories  as  to  the  nature  of  spirit  is 
interesting.    When    More    first    read    Descartes' 

1  See  The  Life  of  the  Learned  and  Pious  Dr  Henry  More 
.  .  ,  by  Richard  Ward,  A.M.,  to  which  are  annexed  Divers 
Philosophical  Poems  and  Hymns.  Edited  by  M.  F.  Howard 
(1911),  pp.  250  and  251. 


To  face  p.  198. 


PLATE   31 


Fig.  52. 
Henry  More,  from  a  Portrait  by  David  Loggan,  engraved  ad  vivum,  1679. 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  PLATONISTS      199 

works  he  was  favourably  impressed  with  his  views, 
though  without  entirely  agreeing  with  him  on  all 
points  ;  but  later  the  difference  became  accentuated. 
Descartes  regarded  extension  as  the  chief  charac- 
teristic of  matter,  and  asserted  that  spirit  was  extra- 
spatial.  To  More  this  seemed  like  denying  the 
existence  of  spirit,  which  he  regarded  as  extended, 
and  he  postulated  divisibility  and  impenetrability  as 
the  chief  characteristics  of  matter.  In  order,  how- 
ever, to  get  over  some  of  the  inherent  difficulties  of 
this  view,  he  put  forward  the  suggestion  that  spirit 
is  extended  in  four  dimensions  :  thus,  its  apparent 
{i.e,  three-dimensional)  extension  can  change,  whilst 
its  true  {t,e,  four-dimensional)  extension  remains  con- 
stant ;  just  as  the  surface  of  a  piece  of  metal  can  be 
increased  by  hammering  it  out,  without  increasing 
the  volume  of  the  metal.  Here,  I  think,  we  have  a 
not  wholly  inadequate  symbol  of  the  truth  ;  but  it 
remained  for  Berkeley  (1685-1753)  to  show  the 
essential  validity  of  Descartes'  position,  by  de- 
monstrating that,  since  space  and  extension  are 
perceptions  of  the  mind,  and  thus  exist  only  in 
the  mind  as  ideas,  space  exists  in  spirit :  not 
spirit  in  space. 

More  was  a  keen  believer  in  witchcraft,  and 
eagerly  investigated  all  cases  of  these  and  like  marvels 
that  came  under  his  notice.  In  this  he  was  largely 
influenced  by  Joseph  Glanvil  (1636-1680),  whose 
book  on  witchcraft,  the  well-known  Saducismus 
Triumphatus,  More  largely  contributed  to,  and  prob- 
ably edited.  More  was  wholly  unsuited  for  psy- 
chical research  ;  free  from  guile  himself,  he  was 
too  inclined  to  judge  others  to  be  of  this  nature  also. 


200  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

But  his  common  sense  and  critical  attitude  towards 
enthusiasm  saved  him,  no  doubt,  from  many  falls 
into  the  mire  of  fantasy. 

As  Principal  Tulloch  has  pointed  out,  whilst 
More  is  the  most  interesting  personality  amongst 
the  Cambridge  Platonists,  his  works  are  the  least 
interesting  of  those  of  his  school.  They  are  dull 
and  scholastic,  and  More's  retired  existence  pre- 
vented him  from  grasping  in  their  fulness  some  of 
the  more  acute  problems  of  life.  His  attempt  to 
harmonise  catastrophes  with  Providence,  on  the 
ground  that  the  evil  of  certain  parts  may  be  neces- 
sary for  the  good  of  the  whole,  just  as  dark  colours, 
as  well  as  bright,  are  essential  to  the  beauty  of  a 
picture — a  theory  which  is  practically  the  same  as 
that  of  modern  Absolutism,^ — is  a  case  in  point. 
No  doubt  this  harmony  may  be  accomplished,  but 
in  another  key. 

Ralph  Cud  worth  was  born  at  AUer,  in  Somerset- 
shire, in  1 617.  He  entered  Emmanuel  College  in 
1632,  three  years  afterwards  gained  his  B.A.,  and 
became  M .A.  in  1639.  In  the  latter  year  he  was 
elected  a  fellow  of  his  college.  Later  he  obtained 
the  B.D.  degree.  In  1645  ^^  was  appointed  Master 
of  Clare  Hall,  in  place  of  the  ejected  Dr  Pashe,  and 
was  elected  Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew.  On  31st 
March  1647  he  preached  a  sermon  of  remarkable 
eloquence  and  power  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
which  admirably  expresses  the  attitude  of  his  school 
as  concerns  the  nature  of  true  religion.  I  shall  refer 
to  it  again  later.     In  1650  Cud  worth  was  presented 

^  Cf.  Bernard  Bosanquet,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.  :  The  Principle 
of  Individuality  and  Value  (1912). 


To  face  p.  200. 


PLATE   32. 


Fig.  53. 

Ralph  Cudworth,  from  an  engraved  Portrait  by  Vertue,  after  Loggan, 
forming  the  Frontispiece  to  Cudworth's  Treatise  Concerning 
Morality  (1731). 

{By  permission  of  the  British  Museum.     Photo  by  Donald  Macbeth,  London.) 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  PLATONISTS     201 

with  the  college  living  of  North  Cadbury,  which 
Whichcote  had  resigned,  and  was  made  D.D.  in  the 
following  year.  In  1654  he  was  elected  Master  of 
Christ's  College,  with  an  improvement  in  his  financial 
position,  there  having  been  some  difficulty  in  obtain- 
ing his  stipend  at  Clare  Hall.  In  this  year  he  married. 
In  1662  Bishop  Sheldon  presented  him  with  the 
rectory  of  Ashwell,  in  Hertfordshire.  He  died  in 
1688.  He  was  a  pious  man  of  fine  intellect ;  but 
his  character  was  marred  by  a  certain  suspiciousness 
which  caused  him  wrongfully  to  accuse  More,  in 
1665,  of  attempting  to  forestall  him  in  writing  a  work 
on  ethics,  which  should  demonstrate  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christian  morality  are  not  based  on  any 
arbitrary  decrees  of  God,  but  are  inherent  in  the 
nature  and  reason  of  things.  Cudworth's  great 
work — or,  at  least,  the  first  part,  which  alone  was 
completed, — The  Intellectual  System  of  the  Worldy 
appeared  in  1678.  In  it  Cudworth  deals  with 
atheism  on  the  ground  of  reason,  demonstrating  its 
irrationality.  The  book  is  remarkable  for  the  fair- 
ness and  fulness  with  which  Cudworth  states  the 
arguments  in  favour  of  atheism. 

So  much  for  the  lives  and  individual  characteristics 
of  the  Cambridge  Platonists  :  what  were  the  great 
principles  that  animated  both  their  lives  and  their 
philosophy  ?  These,  I  think,  were  two :  first,  the 
essential  unity  of  religion  and  morality  ;  second,  the 
essential  unity  of  revelation  and  reason. 

With  clearer  perception  of  ethical  truth  than  either 
Puritan  or  High  Churchman,  the  Cambridge  Platon- 
ists saw  that  true  Christianity  is  neither  a  matter 
of  mere  belief,  nor  consists  in  the  mere  performance 


202  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

of  good  works ;  but  is  rather  a  matter  of  character. 
To  them  Christianity  connoted  regeneration.  **  Re- 
ligion," says  Whichcote,  **  is  the  Frame  and  Temper 
of  our  Minds,  and  the  Rule  of  our  Lives  " ;  and 
again, ''  Heaven  isjfir^^  a  Temper,  and  then  a  Place."  ^ 
To  the  man  of  heavenly  temper,  they  taught,  the 
performance  of  good  works  would  be  no  irksome 
matter  imposed  merely  by  a  sense  of  duty,  but  would 
be  done  spontaneously  as  a  delight.  To  drudge  in 
religion  may  very  well  be  necessary  as  an  initial 
stage,  but  it  is  not  its  perfection. 

In  his  sermon  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
CuDWORTH  well  exposes  the  error  of  those  who  made 
the  mere  holding  of  certain  beliefs  the  essential 
element  in  Christianity.  There  are  many  passages 
I  should  like  to  quote  from  this  eloquent  discourse, 
but  the  following  must  suffice  :  "  We  must  not  judge 
of  our  knowing  of  Christ,  by  our  skill  in  Books  and 
Papers,  but  by  our  keeping  of  his  Commandments. 
...  He  is  the  best  Christian,  whose  heart  beats  with 
the  truest  pulse  towards  heaven  ;  not  he  whose  head 
spinneth  out  the  finest  cobwebs.  He  that  endeavours 
really  to  mortifie  his  lusts,  and  to  comply  with  that 
truth  in  his  life,  which  his  Conscience  is  convinced 
of ;  is  neerer  a  Christian,  though  he  never  heard  of 
Christ ;  then  he  that  believes  all  the  vulgar  Articles 
of  the  Christian  faith,  and  plainly  denyeth  Christ  in 
his  life.  .  .  .  The  great  Mysterie  of  the  Gospel,  it 
doth  not  lie  only  in  Christ  without  us,  (though  we 
must  know  also  what  he  hath  done  for  us)  but  the 

^  My  quotations  from  Whichcote  and  Smith  are  taken  from 
the  selection  of  their  discourses  edited  by  E.  T.  Campagnac, 
M.A.  (1901). 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  PLATONISTS     203 

very  Pith  and  Kernel  of  it,  consists  in  Christ  inwardly 
formed  in  our  hearts.  Nothing  is  truly  Ours,  but 
what  lives  in  our  Spirits.  Salvation  it  self  cannot 
save  us,  as  long  as  it  is  onely  without  us  ;  no  more 
then  Health  can  cure  us,  and  make  us  sound,  when  it 
is  not  within  us,  but  somewhere  at  distance  from 
us  ;  no  more  than  Arts  and  Sciences,  whilst  they  lie 
onely  in  Books  and  Papers  without  us  ;  can  make  us 
learned."  ^ 

The  Cambridge  Platonists  were  not  ascetics  ;  their 
moral  doctrine  was  one  of  temperance.  Their  sound 
wisdom  on  this  point  is  well  evident  in  the  following 
passage  from  Whichcote  :  **  What  can  be  alledged 
for  Intemperance  ;  since  Nature  is  content  with  very 
few  things  ?  Why  should  any  one  over-do  in  this 
kind  ?  A  Man  is  better  in  Health  and  Strength,  if  he 
be  temperate.  We  enjoy  ourselves  more  in  a  sober 
and  temperate  Use  of  ourselves."  ^ 

The  other  great  principle  animating  their  philo- 
sophy was,  as  I  have  said,  the  essential  unity  of  reason 
and  revelation.  To  those  who  argued  that  self- 
surrender  implied  a  giving  up  of  reason,  they  replied 
that  "To  go  against  Reason,  is  to  go  against  God : 
it  is  the  self  same  thing,  to  do  that  which  the  Reason 
of  the  Case  doth  require  ;  and  that  which  God  Him- 
self doth  appoint :  Reason  is  the  Divine  Governor  of 
Man's  Life  ;  it  is  the  very  Voice  of  God."  ^    Reason, 

1  Ralph  Cudworth,  B.D.  :  A  Sermon  Preached  before  the 
Honourable  House  of  Commons  at  Westminster,  Mar,  31,  1647 
(ist  edn.),  pp.  3,  14,  42,  and  43. 

^  Benjamin  Whichcote  :  The  Venerable  Nature  and  Tran-^ 
scendant  Benefit  of  Christian  Religion.    Op.  cit.,  p.  40. 

3  Benjamin  Whichcote  :  Moral  and  Religious  Aphorisms. 
Op.  cit.,  p.  67. 


204  BYGONE  BELIEFS 

Conscience,  and  the  Scriptures,  these,  taught  the 
Cambridge  Platonists,  testify  of  one  another  and 
are  the  true  guides  which  alone  a  man  should  follow. 
All  other  authority  they  repudiated.  But  true  reason 
is  not  merely  sensuous,  and  the  only  way  whereby  it 
may  be  gained  is  by  the  purification  of  the  self  from 
the  desires  that  draw  it  away  from  the  Source  of  all 
Reason.  ''  God,"  writes  More,  **  reserves  His 
choicest  secrets  for  the  purest  Minds,"  adding  his 
conviction  that  "  true  Holiness  [is]  the  only  safe 
Entrance  into  Divine  Knowledge."  Or  as  Smith, 
who  speaks  of  "  a  Good  life  as  the  Prolepsis  and 
Fundamental  principle  of  Divine  Science^''  puts  it, 
'*  .  .  .  if  ...  Knowledge  be  not  attended  with 
Humility  and  a  deep  sense  of  Self-penury  and  Self- 
emptinesSy  we  may  easily  fall  short  of  that  True 
Knowledge  of  God  which  we  seem  to  aspire 
after."  ^  Right  Reason,  however,  they  taught,  is 
the  product  of  the  sight  of  the  soul,  the  true 
mystic  vision. 
\  In  what  respects,  it  may  be  asked  in  conclusion, 
is  the  philosophy  of  the  Cambridge  Platonists  open 
to  criticism  }  They  lacked,  perhaps,  a  sufficiently 
clear  concept  of  the  Church  as  a  unity,  and  although 
they  clearly  realised  that  Nature  is  a  symbol  which 
it  is  the  function  of  reason  to  interpret  spiritually, 
they  failed,  I  think,  to  appreciate  the  value  of  symbols. 
Thus  they  have  little  to  teach  with  respect  to  the 
Sacraments  of  the  Church,  though,  indeed,  the 
highest  view,  perhaps,  is  that  which  regards  every  act 

^  John  Smith  :  A  Discourse  concerning  the  true  Way  or 
Method  of  attaining  to  Divine  Knowledge.  Op.  cit.,  pp.  80 
and  96. 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  PLATONISTS     205 

as  potentially  a  sacrament;  and,  whilst  admiring 
his  morality,  they  criticised  Boehme  as  an  enthusiast. 
But,  although  he  spoke  in  a  very  different  language, 
spiritually  he  had  much  in  common  with  them. 
Compared  with  what  is  of  positive  value  in  their 
philosophy,  however,  the  defects  of  the  Cambridge 
Platonists  are  but  comparatively  slight.  I  commend 
their  works  to  lovers  of  spiritual  wisdom. 


THE   END 


P1UVTB0   IN    GRSAT   BRITAIN    BY    NBILL    AND    CO.,   LXn.,    BniNBUROH, 


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