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Extraordinary Popular Delusions
and the Madness of Crowds
TO THE READER
In the original edition of EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELU-
SIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS, by Charles Mackay,
published in 1841 ? there were included certain passages and chapters
which were omitted from the edition of 1852, of which this book is a
verbatim reprint.
We have reprinted this deleted material in a separate pamphlet,
with page and line references to the present book.
This pamphlet read in conjunction with otir 1932 edition presents
to the reader the complete text of EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR
DELUSIONS as originally written by Mr. Mackay.
The price of the pamphlet is $1.00.
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
Publishers
53 Beacon Street, Boston
JOHN LAW
(See Pago x)
Extraordinary
Popular Delusions
and the
Madness of Crowds
By
Charles Mackay, LL D,
A verbatim reprint, with reproductions of
original illustrations, of the edition of 1852
With a Foreword by
Bernard ML Baruch
L* C* Page &L Company
Publishers Boston
MCMXXXII
Copyright, 1932
BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
MADE IN U. S. A.
All Rights Reserved
First Impression, October, 1932
MEMOIRS
OP EXTRAORDINARY
POPULAR DELUSIONS.
BY CHARLES MACKAY.
AUTHOR OF
THE THAMES AND ITS TRIBUTARIES," " THE HOPE OF THE WORl, D," ETC,
" II est toon de commitre lea dt-lires a Pesprit hnmain, Chaqne peuple a ses folies plus
ou niolns grossiires,"
b KILLOT,
VOL. I.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLfcY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
tr in <&rtinavj) to
1841.
MEMOIRS
OF
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
AND THE
of
BY CHAELES MAC KAY, LL.D.
AUTHOR OF " EGEBIA," "THE SALAMANDBINE," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
N'en cteplaise h ces fous noramgs sages de Grece,
En ce monde II n*est point de parfaite sagesse;
Tous les hommes sont fous, et raalgr^ tous leurs soins
Ne different entre eux que^ du plus oa da moins.
BOILEAU.
VOL. I
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY,
227 STKANIX
1852.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
ALL credit for the re-issue of this remarkable book is due to
Mr. Bernard M. Baruch. Some months ago our attention was
attracted to an interesting press report of an interview with Mr.
Baruch ? from which we quote as follows:
"As we sat in Mr. Baruch's library, renewing an old
friendship, he reached from a book-shelf a battered calf-
bound volume, the perusal of which he said had saved
him millions of dollars. The name of the book is Mackay's
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions."
We therefore wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr.
Baruch, whose emphatic praise of this remarkable work sug-
gested to us the desirability of making it again available to
the public after it had been out of print for many years.
Believing that they will be of interest to the bibliophile, we
have included facsimile reproductions of the title pages of the
edition of 1852, of which this book is a reprint, and of the
original edition of 1841.
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY.
FOREWORD
ALL economic movements, by their very nature, are moti-
vated by crowd psychology. Graphs and business ratios are, of
course, indispensable in our groping efforts to find dependable
rules to guide us in our present world of alarms. Yet I never
see a brilliant economic thesis expounding, as though they were
geometrical theorems, the mathematics of price movements,
that I do not recall Schiller's dictum: " Anyone taken as an
individual, is tolerably sensible and reasonable as a member
of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead," or Napoleon's
maxim about military masses: "In war, the moral is to the
physical as 3 to i." Without due recognition of crowd-
thinking (which often seems crowd-madness) our theories of
economics leave much to be desired. It is a force wholly im-
palpable perhaps little amenable to analysis and less to guid-
ance and yet, knowledge of it is necessary to right judgments
on passing events.
A proponent of a great organized mass movement, otherwise
not very logical, recently sought to justify it by this colloquy:
"Have you ever seen, in some wood, on a sunny quiet day, a
cloud of flying midges thousands of them hovering, appar-
ently motionless, in a sunbeam? . . . Yes? . . . Well, did
you ever see the whole flight each mite apparently preserving
its distance from all others suddenly move, say three feet, to
one side or the other? Well, what made them do that? A
breeze? I said a quiet day. But try to recall did you ever
see them move directly back again in the same unison? Well,
what made them do that? Great human mass movements are
slower of inception but much more effective."
Entomologists may be able to answer the question about
the midges and to say what force creates such unitary move-
ment by thousands of individuals, but I have never seen the
answer. The migration of some types of birds; the incredible
xfv FOREWORD
mass performance of the whole species of ocean eels; the pre-
historic tribal human eruptions from Central Asia; the Cru-
sades: the mediaeval dance crazes; or, getting closer to eco-
nomics, the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles; the Tulip
Craze; and (are we too close to add?) the Florida boom and
the 1929 market-madness in America and its sequences in 1930
and 1931 all these are phenomena of mass action under im-
pulsions and controls which no science has explored. They
have power unexpectedly to affect any static condition or so-
called normal trend. For that reason, they have place in the
considerations of thoughtful students of world economic condi-
tions.
Some years ago, a friend gave me a copy of this book. In
a vague way I had been familiar with the stark fact of these
events as who is not? But I did not know and I think there
is not elsewhere so engagingly, carefully and comprehensively
related the astonishing circumstances of each of the greater
popular delusions of earlier eras. Mackay is a narrator not a
diagnostician. There are other commentators on crowd-
psychology but, so far as I know, there is none who arrives at
conclusions. The value of all of this literature lies in its
emphasis on forces that are, at all times, functions and that,
at some times, seem to become controlling factors of national
or even racial life.
No preventive is anywhere suggested, but accurate knowl-
edge and popular recognition of them and their early symptoms
should lighten and may even avoid the more harmful of their
full effects.
Although there be no scientific cure, yet, as in all primitive,
unknown (and therefore diabolic) spells, there may be potent
incantations. I have always thought that if, in the lamentable
era of the "New Economics," culminating in 1929, even in
the very presence of dizzily spiralling prices, we had all con-
tinuously repeated, "two and two still make four" much of the
evil might have been averted. Similarly, even in the general
moment of gloom in which this foreword is written, when many
begin to wonder if declines will never halt, the appropriate
abracadabra may be: "They always did! 9
FOREWORD XV
Something of the philosophy just stated is, I think, the out-
standing value of this book. It is bound to produce a con-
firmed and vital conviction of the value and the invariability
of the simpler axioms of human conduct and that, I take it, is,
just now, a consummation devoutly to be wished.
NEW YORK CITY,
October, 1932.
PREFACE
THE object of the Author in the following pages has been to
collect the most remarkable instances of those moral epidemics
which have been excited, sometimes by one cause and some-
times by another, and to show how easily the masses have been
led astray, and how imitative and gregarious men are, even in
their infatuations and crimes.
Some of the subjects introduced may be familiar to the
reader; but the Author hopes that sufficient novelty of detail
will be found even in these, to render them acceptable, while
they could not be wholly omitted in justice to the subject of
which it was proposed to treat. The memoirs of the South Sea
madness and the Mississippi delusion are more complete and
copious than are to be found elsewhere ; and the same may be
said of the history of the Witch Mania, which contains an
account of its terrific progress in Germany, a part of the sub-
ject which has been left comparatively untouched by Sir Wal-
ter Scott, in his "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft," the
most important that have yet appeared on this fearful but most
interesting subject.
Popular delusions began so early, spread so widely, and
have lasted so long, that instead of two or three volumes, fifty
would scarcely suffice to detail their history. The present may
be considered more of a miscellany of delusions than a history,
a chapter only in the great and awful book of human folly
which yet remains to be written, and which Porson once jest-
ingly said he would write in five hundred volumes! Inter-
spersed are sketches of some lighter matters, amusing in-
stances of the imitativeness and wrongheadedness of the peo-
ple, rather than examples of folly and delusion.
Religious manias have been purposely excluded as incom-
XVlii PREFACE
patible with the limits prescribed to the present work; a mere
list of them would alone be sufficient to occupy a volume.
In another volume should these be favourably received, the
Author will attempt a complete view of the progress of Al-
chemy and the philosophical delusions that sprang from it,
including the Rosicrucians of a bygone, and the Magnetisers
of the present, era.
London, April 23rd, 1841.
PREFACE
TO EDITION OF 1852
IN reading the history of nations, we find that, like individ-
uals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their sea-
sons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what
they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their
minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that mil-
lions of people become simultaneously impressed with one
delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some
new folly more captivating than the first. We see one nation
suddenly seized, from its highest to its lowest members, with a
fierce desire of military glory; another as suddenly becoming
crazed upon a religious scruple; and neither of them recovering
its senses until it has shed rivers of blood and sowed a harvest
of groans and tears, to be reaped by its posterity. At an early
age in the annals of Europe its population lost their wits about
the sepulchre of Jesus, and crowded in frenzied multitudes to
the Holy Land; another age went mad for fear of the devil,
and offered up hundreds of thousands of victims to the delusion
of witchcraft* At another time, the many became crazed on the
subject of the philosopher's stone, and committed follies till
then unheard of in the pursuit. It was once thought a venial
offence, in very many countries of Europe, to destroy an enemy
by slow poison. Persons who would have revolted at the idea
of stabbing a man to the heart, drugged his potage without
scruple. Ladies of gentle birth and manners caught the conta-
gion of murder, until poisoning, under their auspices, became
quite fashionable. Some delusions, though notorious to all the
world, have subsisted for ages, flourishing as widely among
civilised and polished nations as among the early barbarians
with whom they originated, that of duelling, for instance, and
the belief in omens and divination of the future, which seem
XX
PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1852
to defy the progress of knowledge to eradicate them entirely
from the popular mind. Money, again, has often been a cause
of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once
become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence
upon the turn of a piece of paper. To trace the history of
the most prominent of these delusions is the object of the
present pages. Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it
will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover
their senses slowly, and one by one.
Some of the subjects introduced may be familiar to the
reader; but the Author hopes that sufficient novelty of detail
will be found even in these, to render them acceptable, while
they could not be wholly omitted in justice to the subject of
which it was proposed to treat. The memoirs of the South-
sea madness and the Mississippi delusion are more complete
and copious than are to be found elsewhere; and the same may
be said of the history of the Witch Mania, which contains an
account of its terrific progress in Germany, a part of the subject
which has been left comparatively untouched by Sir Walter
Scott in his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, the most
important that have yet appeared on this fearful but most
interesting subject.
Popular delusions began so early, spread so widely, and have
lasted so long, that instead of two or three volumes, fifty would
scarcely suffice to detail their history. The present may be
considered more of a miscellany of delusions than a history >
a chapter only in the great and awful book of human folly
which yet remains to be written, and which Porson once jest-
ingly said he would write in five hundred volumes! Inter-
spersed are sketches of some lighter matters, amusing in-
stances of the imitativeness and wrongheadedness of the
people, rather than examples of folly and delusion.
CONTENTS
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME
John Law; his birth and youthful career Duel between Law and
Wilson Law's escape from the King's Bench The "Land-bank"
Law's gambling propensities on the continent, and acquaintance
with the Duke of Orleans State of France after the reign of
Louis XIV. Paper money instituted in that country by Law
Enthusiasm of the French People at the Mississippi Scheme
Marshal Villars Stratagems employed and bribes given for an
interview with Law Great fluctuations in Mississippi stock
Dreadful murders Law created comptroller-general of finances
Great sale for all kinds of ornaments in Paris Financial dif-
ficulties commence Men sent out to work the mines on the Mis-
sissippi, as a blind Payment stopped at the bank Law dis-
missed from the ministry Payments made in specie Law and
the Regent satirised in song Dreadful crisis of the Mississippi
Scheme Law, almost a ruined man, flies to Venice Death of
the Regent Law obliged to resort again to gambling his death
at Venice 1-45
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE
Originated by Harley Earl of Oxford Exchange Alley a scene of
great excitement Mr. Walpole Sir John Blunt Great demand
for shares Innumerable "Bubbles" List of nefarious projects
and bubbles Great rise in South-Sea stock Sudden fall Gen-
eral meeting of the directors Fearful climax of the South-Sea
expedition Its effects on society Uproar in the House of Com-
mons Escape of Knight Apprehension of Sir John Blunt
Recapture of Knight at Tirlemont His second escape Persons
connected with the scheme examined Their respective punish-
ments Concluding remarks 46-88
THE TULIPOMANIA
Conrad Gesner Tulips brought from Vienna to England Rage for
the tulip among the Dutch Its great value Curious anecdote of
a sailor and a tulip Regular marts for tulips Tulips employed
as a means of speculation Great depreciation in their value
End of the mania 89-97
CONTENTS
THE ALCHYMISTS
Introductory remarks Pretended antiquity of the art Geber
Alfarabi Avicenna Albertus Magnus Thomas Aquinas Arte-
phius Alain de Lisle Arnold de Villeneuve Pietro d'Apone
Raymond Lulli Roger Bacon Pope John XXII. Jean de
Meung Nicholas Fiamel George Ripley Basil Valentine
Bernard of Treves Trithemius The Marechal de Rays
Jacques Cceur Inferior adepts Progress of the infatuation dur-
ing the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Augurello Cor-
nelius Agrippa Paracelsus George Agricola Denys Zachaire
Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly The Cosmopolite Sendivogius
The Rosicrucians Michael Mayer Robert Fludd Jacob Boh-
men John Heydon Joseph Francis Borri Alchymical writers
of the seventeenth century Delisle Albert Aluys Count de
St. Germain Cagliostro Present state of the science . . 98-256
MODERN PROPHECIES
Terror of the approaching day of judgment A comet the signal of
that day The prophecy of Whiston The people of Leeds greatly
alarmed at that event The plague in Milan Fortune-tellers
and Astrologers Prophecy concerning the overflow of the
Thames Mother Shipton Merlin Heywood Peter of Pon-
tefract Robert Nixon Almanac-makers .... 257-280
FORTUNE-TELLING
Presumption and weakness of man Union of Fortune-tellers and
Alchymists Judicial astrology encouraged in England from the
time of Elizabeth to William and Mary Lilly the astrologer
consulted by the House of Commons as to the cause of the Fire
of London Encouragement of the art in France and Germany
Nostradamus Basil of Florence Antiochus Tibertus Kep-
ler Necromancy Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Arnold Vil-
leneuve Geomancy Augury Divination: list of various spe-
cies of divination Oneiro-criticism (interpretation of dreams)
Omens 281-303
THE MAGNETISERS
The influence of imagination in curing disease Mineral magnetis-
ers Paracelsus Kircher the Jesuit Sebastian Wirdig William
Maxwell The Convulsionaries of St. Medard Father Hell
Mesmer, the founder of Animal Magnetism D'Eslon, his disciple
M. de Puysegur Dr. Mainauduc's success in London Hollo-
way, Loutherbourg, Mary Pratt, &c, Perkins's "Metallic Trac-
tors"- Decline of the science 304-345
CONTENTS xxiii
INFLUENCE OP POLITICS AND RELIGION ON THE HAIR AND BEARD
Early modes of wearing the hair and beard Excommunication and
outlawry decreed against curls Louis VII. J s submission thereto
the cause of the long wars between England and France Charles
V. of Spain and his courtiers Peter the Great His tax upon
beards Revival of beards and moustaches after the French
Revolution of 1830 The King of Bavaria (1838) orders all
civilians wearing moustaches to be arrested and shaved Ex-
amples from Bayeux tapestry 346-353
THE CRUSADES
Different accounts of the Crusaders derived from History and
Romance Pilgrimages to the Holy Land first undertaken by
converted Jews and the very credulous Increasing number of
pilgrims every year Relics greatly valued Haroun al Res-
chid The pilgrims taxed Robert of Normandy The pilgrims
persecuted by the Turks Peter the Hermit His first idea of
rousing the powers of Christendom His interview with Simeon
Peter the Hermit preaches the Holy War to all the nations of
Christendom The Pope crosses the Alps King Philip accused
of adultery with Bertrade de Montfort The Council of Cler-
mont Oration of Urban II. The "Truce of God" Gautier
sans Avoir, or Walter the Pennyless Gottschalk The arrival
at Semlin Peter the Hermit at Nissa At Constantinople The
Crusaders conducted in safety to Constantinople Fresh hordes
from Germany Godfrey of Bouillon Count of Vermandois
Tancred The siege of Antioch- The Holy LanceFate of Peter
Barthelemy Siege of Jerusalem St. Bernard Second Crusade:
Siege of Damascus Third Crusade: Death of Henry II. Rich-
ard Cceur de Lion Fourth Crusade Fifth Crusade: Constan-
tinople assaulted Sixth Crusade: Camhel and Cohreddin
Seventh Crusade: Departure of Louis IX. for Cyprus For Acre
His death at Carthage End of the Crusades . . . 354-461
THE WITCH MANIA
Popular notions of the devil Inferior demons Demons of both
sexes Demons preferring the night between Friday and Satur-
day The devil in the shape of a goat Sorcery Execution of
Joan of Arc Witches burned in Europe Various charges of
Witchcraft Trois Echelles The Witches of Warbois John
Knox Torture of Dr. Fian The Lancashire Witches Matthew
Hopkins Burnings at Wiirzburg, at Lindheim, at Labourt Re-
quest of the parliament of Rouen to the King, in 1670 Wiirz-
burg the scene of the last case of Witchcraft The Witchcraft
XX J V CONTENTS
PAGE
of Lady Hatton Witchcraft at Hastings and many other parts
of England 462-564
THE SLOW POISONERS
Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury Trial of Weston. Of Sir Jervis
Elwes Poisoning most prevalent in Italy Poisons manufactured
by La Tophania Her death Madame de Brinvilliers The poi-
soning of her father and two brothers Lavoisin and Lavigo-
reux 565-592
HAUNTED HOUSES
The haunted house in Aix-la-Chapelle In Tours The royal palace
of Woodstock a haunted house The supposed ghosts at Ted-
worth At Cock Lane At Stockwell Haunted house at Baldar-
roch 593-618
POPULAR FOLLIES OF GREAT CITIES
Cant phrases "Quoz" "What a shocking bad hat" "Hookey
Walker" "There he goes with his eye out" "Has your mother
sold her mangle?" "Does your mother know you're out?"
"Tom and Jerry" "Jim Crow" 619-631
POPULAR ADMIRATION OF GREAT THIEVES
Robin Hood Claude Duval Dick Turpin Jonathan Wild Jack
Sheppard Vidocq Mausch Nadel The Beggars' Opera Rob
Roy 632-646
DUELS AND ORDEALS
The origin of the Duello All persons engaged in duelling excom-
municated by the Council of Trent The fire ordeal The water
ordeal The Corsned Duel between Ingelgerius and Gontran
Duel between Francois de Vivonne and Guy de Chabot Lisle-
Marivaut and Marolles Richelieu Duel between the Dukes De
Beaufort and De Nemours Laws against duelling Duel between
Lord Sanquir and Turner Between the Duke of Hamilton and
Lord Mohun German students inveterate duellists , , , 647-694
RELICS
The True Cross Tears of our Saviour The Santa Scala, or Holy
Stairs The mad Knight of Malta Shakespeare's Mulberry-
tree 695-702
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
JOHN LAW (see page 1) . . . . Frontispiece
LAW IN A CAR DRAWN BY COCKS .... 43
TREE CARICATURE 62
THE ALCHYMIST 101
INNSPRUCK 206
MOTHER SHIPTON'S HOUSE 277
NOSTRADAMUS 287
POPE URBAN PREACHING THE FIRST CRUSADE . 361
JERUSALEM 405
MATTHEW HOPKINS 513
SIR THOMAS OVERBURY 567
FIGHT BETWEEN DU GUESCLIN AND TROUSSEL . 659
MONEY MANIA. THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME
Some in clandestine companies combine;
Erect new stocks to trade beyond the line;
With air and empty names beguile the town,
And raise new credits first, then cry 'em down;
Divide the empty nothing into shares,
And set the crowd together by the ears. Defoe.
THE personal character and career of one man are so intimately
connected with the great scheme of the years 1719 and 1720,
that a history of the Mississippi madness can have no fitter in-
troduction than a sketch of the life of its great author John
Law. Historians are divided in opinion as to whether they
should designate him a knave or a madman. Both epithets
were unsparingly applied to him in his lifetime, and while the
unhappy consequences of his projects were still deeply felt.
Posterity, however, has found reason to doubt the justice of the
accusation, and to confess that John Law was neither knave
nor madman, but one more deceived than deceiving, more
sinned against than sinning. He was thoroughly acquainted
with the philosophy and true principles of credit. He under-
stood the monetary question better than any man of his day;
and if his system fell with a crash so tremendous, it was not so -
much his fault as that of the people amongst whom he had
erected it. He did not calculate upon the avaricious frenzy of
a whole nation; he did not see that confidence, like mistrust,
could be increased almost ad infinitum, and that hope was as
extravagant as fear. How was he to foretell that the French
people, like the man in the fable, would kill, in their frantic
eagerness, the fine goose he had brought to lay them so many
golden eggs? His fate was like that which may be supposed
to have overtaken the first adventurous boatman who rowed
2 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
from Erie to Ontario. Broad and smooth was the river on
which he embarked; rapid and pleasant was his progress; and
who was to stay him in his career? Alas for him! the cataract
was nigh. He saw, when it was too late, that the tide which
wafted him so joyously along was a tide of destruction; and
when he endeavoured to retrace his way, he found that the cur-
rent was too strong for his weak efforts to stem, and that he
drew nearer every instant to the tremendous falls. Down he
went over the sharp rocks, and the waters with him. He was
dashed to pieces with his bark; but the waters, maddened and
turned to foam by the rough descent, only boiled and bubbled
for a time, and then flowed on again as smoothly as ever. Just
so it was with Law and the French people. He was the boat-
man, and they were the waters.
John Law was born at Edinburgh in the year 1671. His
father was the younger son of an ancient family in Fife, and
carried on the business of a goldsmith and banker. He amassed
considerable wealth in his trade, sufficient to enable him to
gratify the wish, so common among his countrymen, of adding
a territorial designation to his name. He purchased with this
view the estates of Lauriston and Randleston, on the Firth of
Forth, on the borders of West and Mid Lothian, and was
thenceforth known as Law of Lauriston. The subject of
our memoir, being the eldest son, was received into his father's
counting-house at the age of fourteen, and for three years
laboured hard to acquire an insight into the principles of bank-
ing as then carried on in Scotland. He had always manifested
great love for the study of numbers, and his proficiency in the
mathematics was considered extraordinary in one of his tender
years. At the age of seventeen he was tall, strong, and well
made; and his face, although deeply scarred with the small-
pox, was agreeable in its expression, and full of intelligence,
At this time he began to neglect his business, and becoming
vain of his person, indulged In considerable extravagance of
attire. He was a great favourite with the ladies, by whom he
was called Beau Law; while the other sex, despising his fop-
pery, nicknamed him Jessamy John. At the death of his
father, which happened in 1688, he withdrew entirely from
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 3
the desk, which had become so irksome, and being possessed of
the revenues of the paternal estate of Lauriston, he proceeded
to London, t'o see the world.
He was now very young, very vain, good-looking, tolerably
rich, and quite uncontrolled. It is no wonder that, on his ar-
rival in the capital, he should launch out into extravagance. He
soon became a regular frequenter of the gaming-houses, and by
pursuing a certain plan, based upon some abstruse calculation
of chances, he contrived to gain considerable sums. All the
gamblers envied him his luck, and many made it a point to
watch his play, and stake their money on the same chances. In
affairs of gallantry he was equally fortunate; ladies of the first
rank smiled graciously upon the handsome Scotchman the
young, the rich, the witty, and the obliging. But all these suc-
cesses only paved the way for reverses. After he had been for
nine years exposed to the dangerous attractions of the gay life
he was leading, he became an irrecoverable gambler. As his
love of play increased in violence, it diminished in prudence.
Great losses were only to be repaired by still greater ventures,
and one unhappy day he lost more than he could repay without
mortgaging his family estate. To that step he was driven at
last. At the same time his gallantry brought him into trouble.
A love affair, or slight flirtation, with a lady of the name of Vil-
liers,* exposed him to the resentment of a Mr. Wilson, by
whom he was challenged to fight a duel. Law accepted, and
had the ill fortune to shoot his antagonist dead upon the spot.
He was arrested the same day, and brought to trial for murder
by the relatives of Mr. Wilson. He was afterwards found
guilty, and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted
to a fine, upon the ground that the offence only amounted to
manslaughter. An appeal being lodged by a brother of the de-
ceased, Law was detained in the King's Bench, whence, by some
means or other, which he never explained, he contrived to
escape; and an action being instituted against the sheriffs, he
was advertised in the Gazette, and a reward offered for his
apprehension. He was described as "Captain John Law, a
*Miss Elizabeth Villiers, afterwards Countess of Orkney.
4 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Scotchman, aged twenty-six; a very tall, black, lean man;
well shaped, above six feet high, with large pock-holes m his
face; big nosed, and speaking broad and loud." 4 As this was
rather a caricature than a description of him, it has been sup-
posed that it was drawn up with a view to favour his escape.
He succeeded in reaching the Continent, where he travelled for
three years, and devoted much of his attention to the monetary
and banking affairs of the countries through which he passed.
He stayed a few months in Amsterdam, and speculated to some
extent in the funds. His mornings were devoted to the study
of finance and the principles of trade, and his evenings to the
gaming-house. It is generally believed that he returned to
Edinburgh in the year 1700. It is certain that he published
in that city his Proposals and Reasons for constituting a Coun-
cil of Trade. This pamphlet did not excite much attention.
In a short time afterwards he published a project for estab-
lishing what he called a Land-Bank,* the notes issued by
which were never to exceed the value of the entire lands of the
state, upon ordinary interest, or were to be equal in value to
the land, with the right to enter into possession at a certain
time. The project excited a good deal of discussion in the
Scottish Parliament, and a motion for the establishment of
such a bank was brought forward by a neutral party, called
the Squadrone, whom Law had interested in his favour. The
Parliament ultimately passed a resolution to the effect, that,
to establish any kind of paper credit, so as to force it to pass,
was an improper expedient for the nation.
Upon the failure of this project, and of his efforts to procure
a pardon for the murder of Mr. Wilson, Law withdrew to the
Continent, and resumed his old habits of gaming. For fourteen
years he continued to roam about, in Flanders, Holland, Ger-
many, Hungary, Italy, and France. He soon became intimately
acquainted with the extent of the trade and resources of each,
and daily more confirmed in his opinion that no country could
prosper without a paper currency. During the whole of this
time he appears to have chiefly supported himself by success-
* The wits of the day called it a sand-bank, which would wreck the vessel
of the state.
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 5
ful play. At every gambling-house of note in the capitals of
Europe he was known and appreciated as one better skilled in
the intricacies of chance than any other man of the day. It is
stated in the Biograpkie Universette that he was expelled, first
from Venice, and afterwards from Genoa, by the magistrates,
who thought him a visitor too dangerous for the youth of those
cities. During his residence in Paris he rendered himself ob-
noxious to D'Argenson, the lieutenant-general of the police, by
whom he was ordered to quit the capital. This did not take
place, however, before he had made the acquaintance, in the
saloons, of the Duke de Vendome, the Prince de Conti, and of
the gay Duke of Orleans, the latter of whom was destined
afterwards to exercise so much influence over his fate. The
Duke of Orleans was pleased with the vivacity and good sense
of the Scottish adventurer, while the latter was no less pleased
with the wit and amiability of a prince who promised to become
his patron. They were often thrown into each other's society,
and Law seized every opportunity to instil his financial doc-
trines into the mind of one whose proximity to the throne
pointed him out as destined, at no very distant date, to play an
important part in the government.
Shortly before the death of Louis XIV., or, as some say, in
1780, Law proposed a scheme of finance to Desmarets, the
comptroller. Louis is reported to have inquired whether the
projector were a Catholic, and on being answered in the nega-
tive, to have declined having any thing to do with him.*
It was after this repulse that he visited Italy. His mind
being still occupied with schemes of finance, he proposed to
Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, to establish his land-bank in
that country. The duke replied that his dominions were too
circumscribed for the execution of so great a project, and that
he was by far too poor a potentate to be ruined. He advised
*This anecdote, which is related in the correspondence of Madame de
Baviere, Duchess of Orleans and mother of the Regent, is discredited by
Lord John Hussell in his History of the principal States of Europe from the
Peace *of Utrecht; for what reason he does not inform us. There is no
doubt that Law proposed his scheme to Desmarets, and that Louis refused
to hear it. The reason given for the refusal is quite consistent with the
character of that bigoted and tyrannical monarch.
6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
him, however, to try the king of France once more; for he was
sure, if he knew any thing of the French character, that the
people would be delighted with a plan, not only so new, but so
plausible.
Louis XIV. died in 1715, and the heir to the throne being
an Infant only seven years of age, the Duke of Orleans as-
sumed the reins of government, as regent, during his minority.
Law now found himself in a more favourable position. The
tide in his affairs had come, which, taken at the flood, was to
waft him on to fortune. The regent was his friend, already ac-
quainted with his theory and pretensions, and inclined, more-
over, to aid him in any efforts to restore the wounded credit of
France, bowed down to the earth by the extravagance of the
long reign of Louis XIV.
Hardly was that monarch laid in his grave ere the popular
hatred, suppressed so long, burst forth against his memory.
He who, during his life, had been flattered with an excess of
adulation, to which history scarcely offers a parallel, was now
cursed as a tyrant, a bigot, and a plunderer. His statues were
pelted and disfigured; his effigies torn down, amid the execra-
tions of the populace, and his name rendered synonymous with
selfishness and oppression. The glory of his arms was forgot-
ten, and nothing was remembered but his reverses, his extrava-
gance, and his cruelty.
The finances of the country were in a state of the utmost
disorder. A profuse and corrupt monarch, whose profuseness
and corruption were imitated by almost every functionary,
from the highest to the lowest grade, had brought France to the
verge of ruin. The national debt amounted to 3000 millions
of livres, the revenue to 145 millions, and the expenses of gov-
ernment to 142 millions per annum; leaving only three millions
to pay the interest upon 3000 millions. The first care of the
regent was to discover a remedy for an evil of such magnitude,
and a council was early summoned to take the matter into con-
sideration. The Duke de St. Simon was of opinion that nothing
could save the country from revolution but a remedy at once
bold and dangerous. He advised the regent to convoke the
states-general, and declare a national bankruptcy. The Duke
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 7
de Noailles, a man of accommodating principles, an accom-
plished courtier, and totally averse from giving himself any
trouble or annoyance that ingenuity could escape from, opposed
the project of St. Simon with all his influence. He represented
the expedient as alike dishonest and ruinous. The regent was
of the same opinion, and this desperate remedy fell to the
ground.
The measures ultimately adopted, though they promised
fair, only aggravated the evil. The first and most dishonest
measure was of no advantage to the state. A recoinage was
ordered, by which the currency was depreciated one-fifth;
those who took a thousand pieces of gold or silver to the mint
received back an amount of coin of the same nominal value,
but only four-fifths of the weight of metal. By this contrivance
the treasury gained seventy-two millions of livres, and all the
commercial operations of the country were disordered. A
trifling diminution of the taxes silenced the clamours of the
people, and for the slight present advantage the great prospec-
tive evil was forgotten.
A Chamber of Justice was next instituted to inquire into the
malversations of the loan-contractors and the farmers of the
revenues. Tax-collectors are never very popular in any coun-
try, but those of France at this period deserved all the odium
with which they were loaded. As soon as these farmers-gen-
eral, with all their hosts of subordinate agents, called malto-
tiers* were called to account for their misdeeds, the most ex-
travagant joy took possession of the nation. The Chamber of
Justice, instituted chiefly for this purpose, was endowed with
very extensive powers. It was composed of the presidents and
councils of the parliament, the judges of the Courts of Aid and
of Requests, and the officers of the Chamber of Account, under
the general presidence of the minister of finance. Informers
were encouraged to give evidence against the offenders by the
promise of one-fifth part of the fines and confiscations. A tenth
of all concealed effects belonging to the guilty was promised
to such as should furnish the means of discovering them.
* From maltote, an oppressive tax.
g EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
The promulgation of the edict constituting this court caused
a degree of consternation among those principally concerned,
which can only be accounted for on the supposition that their
peculation had been enormous. But they met with no sympa-
thy. The proceedings against them justified their terror. The
Bastille was soon unable to contain the prisoners that were sent
to it, and the gaols all over the country teemed with guilty or
suspected persons. An order was Issued to all innkeepers and
postmasters to refuse horses to such as endeavoured to seek
safety in flight; and all persons were forbidden, under heavy
fines, to harbour them or favour their evasion. Some were
condemned to the pillory, others to the galleys, and the least
guilty to fine and imprisonment. One only, Samuel Bernard,
a rich banker and farmer-general of a province remote from
the capital, was sentenced to death. So great had been the
illegal profits of this man, looked upon as the tyrant and
oppressor of his district, that he offered six millions of livres,
or 250,000. sterling, to be allowed to escape.
His bribe was refused, and he suffered the penalty of death.
Others, perhaps more guilty, were more fortunate. Confisca-
tion, owing to the concealment of their treasures by the de-
linquents, often produced less money than a fine. The severity
of the government relaxed, and fines, under the denomination
of taxes, were indiscriminately levied upon all offenders; but
so corrupt was every department of the administration, that
the country benefited but little by the sums which thus flowed
into the treasury. Courtiers and courtiers' wives and mis-
tresses came in for the chief share of the spoils. One con-
tractor had been taxed, in proportion to his wealth and guilt, at
the sum of twelve millions of livres. The Count * * *, a man
of some weight in the government, called upon him, and offered
to procure a remission of the fine if he would give him a
hundred thousand crowns. "Vous etes trop tard, mon ami;"
replied the financier; "I have already made a bargain with
your wife for fifty thousand."*
*This anecdote is related by M, de la Hode, in his Life of Philippe of
Orleans. It would have looked more authentic if he had given the names
of the dishonest contractor and the still more dishonest minister. But M.
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME g
About a hundred and eighty millions of livres were levied in
this manner, of which eighty were applied in payment of the
debts contracted by the government. The remainder found
its way into the pockets of the courtiers. Madame de Mainte-
non, writing on this subject, says "We hear every day of
some new grant of the regent. The people murmur very much
at this mode of employing the money taken from the pecula-
tors."^ The people, who, after the first burst of their resent-
ment is over, generally express a sympathy for the weak, were
indignant that so much severity should be used to so little pur-
pose. They did not see the justice of robbing one set of rogues
to fatten another. In a few months all the more guilty had
been brought to punishment, and the Chamber of Justice
looked for victims in humbler walks of life. Charges of fraud
and extortion were brought against tradesmen of good character
in consequence of the great inducements held out to common
informers. They were compelled to lay open their affairs be-
fore this tribunal in order to establish their innocence. The
voice of complaint resounded from every side; and at the ex-
piration of a year the government found it advisable to discon-
tinue further proceedings. The Chamber of Justice was sup-
pressed, and a general amnesty granted to all against whom
no charges had yet been preferred.
In the midst of this financial confusion Law appeared upon
the scene. No man felt more deeply than the regent the de-
plorable state of the country, but no man could be more averse
from putting his shoulders manfully to the wheel. He disliked
business; he signed official documents without proper exami-
nation, and trusted to others what he should have undertaken
himself. The cares inseparable from his high office were bur-
densome to him. He saw that something was necessary to be
done; but he lacked the energy to do it, and had not virtue
enough to sacrifice his ease and his pleasures in the attempt.
No wonder that, with this character, he listened favourably to
de la Hode's book is liable to the same objection as most of the French
memoirs of that and of subsequent periods. It is sufficient with most of
them that an anecdote be ben trovato; the vero is but matter of secondary
consideration,
IO
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the mighty projects, so easy of execution, of the clever adven-
turer whom he had formerly known, and whose talents he ap-
preciated.
. When Law presented himself at court he was most cordially
received. He offered two memorials to the regent, in which he
set forth the evils that had befallen France, owing to an insuffi-
cient currency, at different times depreciated. He asserted that
a metallic currency, unaided by a paper money, was wholly
inadequate to the wants of a commercial country, and particu-
larly cited the examples of Great Britain and Holland to shew
the advantages of paper. He used many sound arguments on
the subject of credit, and proposed as a means of restoring that
of France, then at so low an ebb among the nations, that he
should be allowed to set up a bank, which should have the man-
agement of the royal revenues, and issue notes both on that and
on landed security. He further proposed that this bank should
be administered in the king's name, but subject to the control
of commissioners to be named by the States-General.
While these memorials were under consideration, Law trans-
lated into French his essay on money and trade, and used every
means to extend through the nation his renown as a financier.
He soon became talked of. The confidants of the regent spread
abroad his praise, and every one expected great things of Mon-
sieur Lass. 51 '
On the 5th of May, 1716, a royal edict was published, by
which Law was authorised, in conjunction with his brother, to
establish a bank under the name of Law and Company, the
notes of which should be received in payment of the taxes.
The capital was fixed at six millions of livres, in twelve thou-
sand shares of five hundred livres each, purchasable one fpurth
in specie, and the remainder in billets d'etat. It was not thought
expedient to grant him the whole of the privileges prayed for
in his memorials until experience should have shewn their
safety and advantage.
* The French pronounced his name in this manner to avoid the ungallic
sound, aw. After the failure of his scheme, the wags said the nation was
lasse de lui, and proposed that he should in future be known by the name
of Monsieur JHelas!
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME II
Law was now on the high road to fortune. The study of
thirty years was brought to guide him in the management of
his bank. He made all his notes payable at sight, and in the
coin current at the time they were issued. This last was a
master-stroke of policy, and immediately rendered his notes
more valuable than the precious metals. The latter were con-
stantly liable to depreciation by the unwise tampering of the
government. A thousand livres of silver might be worth their
nominal value one day, and be reduced one-sixth the next, but
a note of Law's bank retained its original value. He publicly
declared at the same time, that a banker deserved death if he
made issues without having sufficient security to answer all
demands. The consequence was, that his notes advanced rap-
idly in public estimation, and were received at one per cent
more than specie. It was not long before the trade of the coun-
try felt the benefit. Languishing commerce began to lift up her
head; the taxes were paid with greater regularity and less
murmuring; and a degree of confidence was established that
could not fail, if it continued, to become still more advanta-
geous. In the course of a year, Law's notes rose to fifteen per
cent premium, while the billets d'etat, or notes issued by the
government as security for the debts contracted by the extrava-
gant Louis XIV., were at a discount of no less than seventy-
eight and a half per cent. The comparison was too great in
favour of Law not to attract the attention of the whole king-
dom, and his credit extended itself day by day. Branches of
his bank were almost simultaneously established at Lyons,
Rochelle, Tours, Amiens, and Orleans.
The regent appears to have been utterly astonished at his
success, and gradually to have conceived the idea that paper,
which could so aid a metallic currency, could entirely super-
sede it. Upon this fundamental error he afterwards acted. In
the mean time, Law commenced the famous project which has
handed his name down to posterity. He proposed to the re-
gent (who could refuse him nothing) to establish a company
that should have the exclusive privilege of trading to the great
river Mississippi and the province of Louisiana, on its western
bank. The country was supposed to abound in the precious
12 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
metals; and the company, supported by the profits of their ex-
clusive commerce, were to be the sole farmers of the taxes and
sole coiners of money. Letters patent were issued, incorporat-
ing the company, in August 1717. The capital was divided
into two hundred thousand shares of five hundred livres each,
the whole of which might be paid in billets d'etat, at their nom-
inal value, although worth no more than a hundred and sixty
livres in the market.
It was now that the frenzy of speculating began to seize upon
the nation. Law's bank had effected so much good, that any
promises for the future which he thought proper to make were
readily believed. The regent every day conferred new privi-
leges upon the fortunate projector. The bank obtained the
monopoly of the sale of tobacco, the sole right of refinage of
gold and silver, and was finally erected into the Royal Bank of
France. Amid the intoxication of success, both Law and the
regent forgot the maxim so loudly proclaimed by the former,
that a banker deserved death who made issues of paper with-
out the necessary funds to provide for them. As soon as the
bank, from a private, became a public institution, the regent
caused a fabrication of notes to the amount of one thousand
millions of livres. This was the first departure from sound
principles, and one for which Law is not justly blameable.
While the affairs of the bank were under his control, the issues
had never exceeded sixty millions. Whether Law opposed the
inordinate increase is not known; but as it took place as soon
as the bank was made a royal establishment, it is but fair to
lay the blame on the change of system upon the regent.
Law found that he lived under a despotic government; but
he was not yet aware of the pernicious influence which such a
government could exercise upon so delicate a framework as that
of credit. He discovered it afterwards to his cost, but In the
meantime suffered himself to be impelled by the regent into
courses which his own reason must have disapproved* With a
weakness most culpable, he lent his aid in inundating the
country with paper money, which, based upon no solid founda-
tion, was sure to fall, sooner or later. The extraordinary
present fortune dazzled his eyes, and prevented him from seeing
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 13
the evil day that would burst over Ms head, when once, from
any cause or other, the alarm was sounded. The parliament
were from the first jealous of his influence as a foreigner, and
had, besides, their misgivings as to the safety of his projects.
As his influence extended, their animosity increased. D'Agues-
seau, the chancellor, was unceremoniously dismissed by the re-
gent for his opposition to the vast increase of paper money,
and the constant depreciation of the gold and silver coin of the
realm. This only served to augment the enmity of the parlia-
ment, and when D'Argenson, a man devoted to the interests of
the regent, was appointed to the vacant chancellorship, and
made at the same time minister of finance, they became more
violent than ever. The first measure of the new minister caused
a further depreciation of the coin. In order to extinguish the
billets d'etat, it was ordered that persons bringing to the mint
four thousand livres in specie and one thousand livres in billets
d'&tat, should receive back coin to the amount of five thousand
livres. D'Argenson plumed himself mightily upon thus creat-
ing five thousand new and smaller livres out of the four thou-
sand old and larger ones, being too ignorant of the true principles
of trade and credit to be aware of the immense injury he was in-
flicting upon both.
The parliament saw at once the impolicy and danger of such
a system, and made repeated remonstrances to the regent. The
latter refused to entertain their petitions, when the parliament,
by a bold and very unusual stretch of authority, commanded
that no money should be received in payment but that of the
old standard. The regent summoned a lit de justice, and an-
nulled the decree. The parliament resisted, and issued another.
Again the regent exercised his privilege, and annulled it, till the
parliament, stung to fiercer opposition, passed another decree,
dated August 12th, 1718, by which they forbade the bank of
Law to^have any concern, either direct or indirect, in the ad-
ministration of the revenue; and prohibited all foreigners, under
heavy penalties, from interfering, either in their own names or
in that of others, in the management of the finances of the
state. The parliament considered Law to be the author of all
the evil, and some of the councillors, in the virulence of their
14 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
enmity, proposed that he should be brought to trial, and, if
found guilty, be hung at the gates of the Palais de Justice^
Law, in great alarm, fled to the Palais Royal, and threw him-
self on the protection of the regent, praying that measures
might be taken to reduce the parliament to obedience. The re-
gent had nothing so much at heart, both on that account^ and
because of the disputes that had arisen relative to the legitima-
tion of the Duke of Maine and the Count of Thoulouse, the sons
of the late king. The parliament was ultimately overawed by
the arrest of their president and two of the councillors, who
were sent to distant prisons.
Thus the first cloud upon Law's prospects blew over: freed
from apprehension of personal danger, he devoted his attention
to his famous Mississippi project, the shares of which were rap-
idly rising, TiTspite of the parliament. At the commencement
of the year 1719, an edict was published, granting to the Mis-
sissippi Company the exclusive privilege of trading to the East
Indies, China, and the South Seas, and to all the possessions of
the French East India Company, established by Colbert, The
Company, in consequence of this great increase of their busi-
ness, assumed, as more appropriate, the title of Company of the
Indies, and created fifty thousand new shares. The prospects
now held out by Law were most magnificent. He promised a
yearly dividend of two hundred livres upon each share of five
hundred, which, as the shares were paid for in billets d'&tat, at
their nominal value, but worth only 100 livres, was at the rate of
about 120 per cent profit.
The public enthusiasm, which had been so long rising, could
not resist a vision so splendid. At least three hundred thousand
applications were made for the fifty thousand new shares, and
Law's house in the Rue de Quincampoix was beset from morn-
ing to night by the eager applicants. As it was impossible to
satisfy them all, it was several weeks before a list of the for-
tunate new stockholders could be made out, during which time
the public impatience rose to a pitch of frenzy. Dukes, mar-
quises, counts, with their duchesses, marchionesses, and coun-
tesses, waited in the streets for hours every day before Mr.
Law's door to know the result. At last, to avoid the jostling of
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME ' 15
the plebeian crowd, which, to the number of thousands, filled
the whole thoroughfare, they took apartments In the adjoining
houses, that they might be continually near the temple whence
the new Plutus was diffusing wealth. Every day the value of
the old shares increased, and the fresh applications, induced
by the golden dreams of the whole nation, became so numerous
that it was deemed advisable to create no less than three hun-
dred thousand new shares, at five thousand livres*each, in order
that the regent might take advantage of the popular enthusiasm
to pay off the national debt. For this purpose, the sum of fif-
teen hundred millions of livres was necessary. Such was the
eagerness of the nation, that thrice the sum would have been
subscribed if the government had authorised it.
Law was now at the zenith of his prosperity, and the people
were rapidly approaching the zenith of their infatuation. The
highest and the lowest classes were alike filled with a vision of
boundless wealth. There was not a person of note among the
aristocracy, with the exception of the Duke of St. Simon and
Marshal Villars, who was not engaged in buying or selling stock.
People of every age and sex and condition in life speculated in
the rise and fall of the Mississippi bonds. The Rue de Quin-
campoix was the grand resort of the jobbers, and it being a
narrow, inconvenient street, accidents continually occurred in
it, from the tremendous pressure of the crowd. Houses in it,
worth, in ordinary times, a thousand livres of yearly rent,
yielded as much as twelve or sixteen thousand. A cobbler, who
had a stall in it, gained about two hundred livres a day by let-
ting it out, and furnishing writing materials to brokers and
their clients. The story goes, that a hunchbacked man who
stood in the street gained considerable sums by lending his
hump as a writing-desk to the eager speculators! The great
concourse of persons who assembled to do business brought a
still greater concourse of spectators. These again drew all
the thieves and immoral characters of Pafis to the spot, and
constant riots and disturbances took place. At nightfall, it was
often found necessary to send a troop of soldiers to clear the
street.
Law, finding the inconvenience of his residence, removed
1 6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
to the Place Vendome, whither the crowd of agioteurs followed
him. That spacious square soon became as thronged as the Rue
de Quincampolx: from morning to night it presented the ap-
pearance of a fair. Booths and tents were erected for the trans-
action of business and the sale of refreshments, and gamblers
with their roulette-tables stationed themselves in the very mid-
dle of the place, and reaped a golden, or rather a paper, har-
vest from the throng. The boulevards and public gardens were
forsaken; parties of pleasure took their walks in preference In
the Place Vendome, which became the fashionable lounge of
the Idle as well as the general rendezvous of the busy. The
noise was so great all day, that the chancellor, whose court was
situated In the square, complained to the regent and the munici-
pality that he could not hear the advocates. Law, when applied
to, expressed his willingness to aid in the removal of the nui-
sance, and for this purpose entered into a treaty with the Prince
de Carlgnan for the Hotel de Soissons, which had a garden of
several acres in the rear. A bargain was concluded, by whkh
Law became the purchaser of the hotel at an enormous price,
the prince reserving to himself the magnificent gardens as a new
source of profit. They contained some fine statues and several
fountains, and were altogether laid out with much taste. As
soon as Law was installed in his new abode, an edict was pub-
lished, forbidding all persons to buy or sell stock any where
but in the gardens of the Hotel de Soissons. In the midst,
among the trees, about five hundred small tents and pavilions
were erected, for the convenience of the stock-jobbers. Their
various colours, the gay ribands and banners which floated
from them, the busy crowds which passed continually in and
out the incessant hum of voices, the noise, the music, and the
strange mixture of business and pleasure on the countenances
of the throng, all combined to give the place an air of enchant-
ment that quite enraptured the Parisians. The Prince de
Carignan made enormous profits while the delusion lasted.
Each tent was let at the rate of five hundred livres a month;
and, as there were at least five hundred of them, his monthly
revenue from this source alone must have amounted to 250,000
livres, or upwards of 10,OOOZ. sterling.
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 1 7
The honest old soldier, Marshal Villars, was so vexed to see
the folly which had smitten his countrymen, that he never could
speak with temper on the subject. Passing one day through the
Place Vendome in his carriage, the choleric gentleman was so
annoyed at the infatuation of the people, that he abruptly or-
dered his coachman to stop, and, putting his head out of the
carriage-window, harangued them for full half an hour on their
"disgusting avarice." This was not a very wise proceeding on
his part. Hisses and shouts of laughter resounded from every
side, and jokes without number were aimed at him. There
being at last strong symptoms that something more tangible
was flying through the air in the direction of his head, the mar-
shal was glad to drive on. He never again repeated the experi-
ment.
Two sober, quiet, and philosophic men of letters, M. de la
Motte and the Abbe Terrason, congratulated each other, that
they, at least, were free from this strange infatuation. A few
days afterward, as the worthy abbe was coming out of the
Hotel de Soissons, whither he had gone to buy shares in the
Mississippi, whom should he see but his friend La Motte enter-
ing for the same purpose. "Ha!" said the abbe smiling, "is
that you?" "Yes," said La Motte, pushing past him as fast as
he was able; "and can that be you?" The next time the two
scholars met, they talked of philosophy, of science, and of re-
ligion, but neither had courage for a long time to breathe one
syllable about the Mississippi. At last, when it was mentioned,
they agreed that a man ought never to swear against his doing
any one thing, and that there was no sort of extravagance of
which even a wise man was not capable.
During this time, Law, the new Plutus, had become all at
once the most important personage of the state. The ante-
chambers of the regent were forsaken by the courtiers. Peers,
judges, and bishops thronged to the Hotel de Soissons; officers
of the army and navy, ladies of title and fashion, and every
one to whom hereditary rank or public employ gave a claim
to precedence, were to be found waiting in his ante-chambers to
beg for a portion of his India stock. Law was so pestered
that he was unable to see one-tenth part of the applicants, and
1 8 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
every manoeuvre that ingenuity could suggest was employed to
gain access to Mm. Peers, whose dignity would have been out-
raged if the regent had made them wait half an hour for an in-
terview, were content to wait six hours for the chance of seeing
Monsieur Law. Enormous fees were paid to his servants, if
they would merely announce their names. Ladies of rank em-
ployed the blandishments of their smiles for the same object;
but many of them came day after day for a fortnight before
they could obtain an audience. When Law accepted an invita-
tion, he was sometimes so surrounded by ladies, all asking to
have their names put down in his lists as shareholders in the
new stock, that, in spite of his well-known and habitual gal-
lantry, he was obliged to tear himself away par force. The
most ludicrous stratagems were employed to have an oppor-
tunity of speaking to him. One lady, who had striven in vain
during several days, gave up in despair all attempts to see him
at his own house, but ordered her coachman to keep a strict
watch whenever she was out in her carriage, and if he saw Mr.
Law coming, to drive against a post and upset her. The coach-
man promised obedience, and for three days the lady was driven
incessantly through the town, praying inwardly for the oppor-
tunity to be overturned. At last she espied Mr. Law, and, pull-
ing the string, called out to the coachman, "Upset us now! for
God's sake, upset us now!" The coachman drove against a
post, the lady screamed, the coach was overturned, and Law,
who had seen the accident, hastened to the spot to render as-
sistance. The cunning dame was led into the Hotel de Soissons,
where she soon thought it advisable to recover from her fright,
and, after apologizing to Mr. Law, confessed her stratagem.
Law smiled, and entered the lady in his books as the purchaser
of a quantity of India stock. Another story is told of a Ma-
dame de Boucha, who, knowing that Mr. Law was at dinner at
a certain house, proceeded thither in her carriage, and gave the
alarm of fire. The company started from table, and Law among
the rest; but seeing one lady making all haste into the house
towards him, while everybody else was scampering away, he
suspected the trick, and ran off in another direction.
Many other anecdotes are related, which even though they
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 1 9
may be a little exaggerated, are nevertheless worth preserving,
as shewing the spirit of that singular period.* The regent was
one day mentioning, in the presence of D'Argenson, the Abbe
Dubois, and some other persons, that he was desirous of deput-
ing some lady, of the rank at least of a duchess, to attend upon
his daughter at Modena: "but," added he, "I do not exactly
know where to find one." "No!" replied one, in affected sur-
prise; "I can tell you where to find every duchess in France:
you have only to go to Mr. Law's; you will see them every one
in his ante-chamber."
M. de Chirac, a celebrated physician, had bought stock at
an unlucky period, and was very anxious to sell out. Stock,
however, continued to fall for two or three days, much to his
alarm. His mind was filled with the subject, when he was sud-
denly called upon to attend a lady who imagined herself un-
well. He arrived, was shewn up stairs, and felt the lady's
pulse. "It falls! it falls! good God! it falls continually!" said
he musingly, while the lady looked up in his face all anxiety for
his opinion. "Oh, M. de Chirac," said she, starting to her feet
and ringing the bell for assistance; "I am dying! I am dying!
it falls ! it falls ! it falls ! " "What falls?" inquired the doctor in
amazement. "My pulse! my pulse!" said the lady; "I must
be dying." "Calm your apprehensions, my dear madam," said
M. de Chirac; "I was speaking of the stocks. The truth is, I
have been a great loser, and my mind is so disturbed, I hardly
know what I have been saying."
The price of shares sometimes rose ten or twenty per cent
in the course of a few hours, and many persons in the humbler
walks of life, who had risen poor in the morning, went to bed in
affluence. An extensive holder of stock, being taken ill, sent
his servant to sell two hundred and fifty shares, at eight thou-
sand livres each, the price at which they were then quoted. The
servant went, and, on his arrival in the Jardin de Soissons,
* The curious reader may find an anecdote of the eagerness of the French
ladies to retain Law in their company, which will make him blush or smile
according as he happens to be very modest or the reverse. It is related in
the Letters of Madame Charlotte Elizabeth de Baviere, Duchess of Orleans,
vol. ii, p. 274. 4
20 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
found that In the interval the price had risen to ten thousand
livres The difference of two thousand livres on the two hundred
and fifty shares, amounting to 500,000 livres, or 20,OOW. ster-
ling, he very coolly transferred to his own use, and giving the
remainder to Ms master, set out the same evening for another
country. Law's coachman in a very short time made money
enough to set up a carriage of his own, and requested permis-
sion to leave Ms service. Law, who esteemed the man, begged
of him as a favour that he would endeavour, before he went, to
find a substitute as good as himself. The coachman consented,
and in the evening brought two of his former comrades, telling
Mr. Law to choose between them, and he would take the other.
Cookmaids and footmen were now and then as lucky, and, in
the full-blown pride of their easily-acquired wealth, made the
most ridiculous mistakes. Preserving the language and man-
ners of their old with the finery of their new station, they
afforded continual subjects for the pity of the sensible, the
contempt of the sober, and the laughter of everybody. But
the folly and meanness of the higher ranks of society were still
more disgusting. One instance alone, related by the Duke de
St. Simon, will shew the unworthy avarice which infected the
whole of society. A man of the name of Andre, without
character or education, had, by a series of well-timed specula-
tions in Mississippi bonds, gained enormous wealth in an In-
credibly short space of time. As St. Simon expresses it, "he
had amassed mountains of gold." As he became rich, he
grew ashamed of the lowness of his birth, and anxious above all
things to be allied to nobility. He had a daughter, an infant
only three years of age, and he opened a negotiation with the
aristocratic and needy family of D'Oyse, that this child should,
upon certain conditions, marry a member of that house. The
Marquis D'Oyse, to his shame, consented, and promised to
marry her himself on her attaining the age of twelve, if the
father would pay him down the sum of a hundred thousand
crowns, and twenty thousand livres every year until the cele-
bration of the marriage. The Marquis was himself in his thirty-
third year. This scandalous bargain was duly signed and
sealed, the stockjobber furthermore agreeing to settle upon his
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 21
daughter, on the marriage-day, a fortune of several millions.
The Duke of Brancas, the head of the family, was present
throughout the negotiation, and shared in all the profits. St.
Simon, who treats the matter with the levity becoming what he
thought so good a joke, adds, "that people did not spare their an-
imadversions on this beautiful marriage," and further informs
us "that the project fell to the ground some months afterwards
by the overthrow of Law, and the ruin of the ambitious
Monsieur Andre." It would appear, however, that the noble
family never had the honesty to return the hundred thousand
crowns.
Amid events like these, which, humiliating though they be,
partake largely of the ludicrous, others occurred of a more
serious nature. Robberies in the streets were of daily occur-
rence, in consequence of the immense sums, in paper, which
people carried about with them. Assassinations were also
frequent. One case in particular fixed the attention of the
whole of France, not only on account of the enormity of the
offence, but of the rank and high connexions of the criminal.
The Count d'Horn, a younger brother of the Prince d'Horn,
and related to the noble families of D'Aremberg, DeLigne, and
DeMontmorency, was a young man of dissipated character,
extravagant to a degree, and unprincipled as he was extrava-
gant. In connexion with two other young men as reckless as
himself, named Mille, a Piedmontese captain, and one Des-
tampes, or Lestang, a Fleming, he formed a design to rob a
very rich broker, who was known, unfortunately for himself,
to carry great sums about his person. The count pretended a
desire to purchase of him a number of shares in the Company
of the Indies, and for that purpose appointed to meet him in a
cabaret, or low public-house, in the neighbourhood of the Place
Vendome. The unsuspecting broker was punctual to his ap-
pointment; so were the Count d'Horn and his two associates,
whom he introduced as his particular friends. After a few
moments' conversation, the Count d'Horn suddenly sprang upon
his victim, and stabbed him three times in the breast with a
poniard. The man fell heavily to the ground, and, while the
count was employed in rifling Ms portfolio of bonds in the
22 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Mississippi and Indian schemes to the amount of one hundred
thousand crowns, Mille, the Piedmontese, stabbed the unfor-
tunate broker again and again, to make sure of his death. But
the broker did not fall without a struggle, and his cries brought
the people of the cabaret to his assistance. Lestang, the other
assassin, who had been set to keep watch at a staircase, sprang
from a window and escaped; but Mille and the Count d'Horn
were seized in the very act,
This crime, committed in open day, and in so public a place
as a cabaret, filled Paris with consternation. The trial of the
assassins commenced on the following day; and the evidence
being so clear, they were both found guilty, and condemned
to be broken alive on the wheel. The noble relatives of the
Count d'Horn absolutely blocked up the ante-chambers of the
regent, praying for mercy on the misguided youth, and alleging
that he was insane. The regent avoided them as long as pos-
sible, being determined that, in a case so atrocious, justice
should take its course. But the importunity of these influential
suitors was not to be overcome so silently; and they at last
forced themselves into the presence of the regent, and prayed
him to save their house the shame of a public execution. They
hinted that the Princes d'Horn were allied to the illustrious
family of Orleans; and added, that the regent himself would
be disgraced if a kinsman of his should die by the hands of a
common executioner. The regent, to his credit, was proof
against all their solicitations, and replied to their last argu-
ment in the words of Corneille:
"Le crime fait la honte, et non pas Fechafaud:"
adding, that whatever shame there might be in the punishment
he would very willingly share with the other relatives. Day
after day they renewed their entreaties, but always with the
same result. At last they thought, that if they could interest
the Duke de St. Simon in their favour a man for whom the
regent felt sincere esteem they might succeed in their object.
The duke, a thorough aristocrat, was as shocked as they were
that a noble assassin should die by the same death as a plebeian
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 23
felon, and represented to the regent the impolicy of making
enemies of so numerous, wealthy, and powerful a family. He
urged, too, that in Germany, where the family of D'Aremberg
had large possessions, it was the law, that no relative of a person
broken on the wheel could succeed to any public office or em-
ploy until a whole generation had passed away. For this reason,
he thought the punishment of the guilty might be transmuted
into beheading, which was considered all over Europe as much
less infamous. The regent was moved by this argument, and
was about to consent, when Law, who felt peculiarly interested
in the fate of the murdered man, confirmed him in his former
resolution to let the law take its course.
The relatives of D'Horn were now reduced to the last ex-
tremity. The Prince de Robec Montmorency, despairing of
other methods, found means to penetrate into the dungeon of
the criminal, and offering him a cup of poison, implored him to
save them from disgrace. The Count d'Horn turned away his
head, and refused to take it. Montmorency pressed him once
more; and losing all patience at his continued refusal, turned on
his heel, and exclaiming, "Die, then, as thou wilt, mean-spirited
wretch 1 thou art fit only to perish by the hands of the hang-
man!" left him to his fate.
D'Horn himself petitioned the regent that he might be be-
headed; but Law, who exercised more influence over his mind
than any other person, with the exception of the notorious Abbe
Dubois, his tutor, insisted that he could not in justice succumb
to the self-interested views of the D 'Horns. The regent had
from the first been of the same opinion: and within six days
after the commission of their crime, D'Horn and Mille were
broken on the wheel in the Place de Greve. The other assassin,
Lestang, was never apprehended.
This prompt and severe justice was highly pleasing to the
populace of Paris. Even M. de Quincampoix, as they called
Law, came in for a share of their approbation for having in-
duced the regent to show no favour to a patrician. But the
number of robberies and assassinations did not diminish; no
sympathy was shewn for rich jobbers when they were
plundered. 3?he general laxity of public morals, conspicuous
24 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
enough before, was rendered still more so by Its rapid pervasion
of the middle classes, who had hitherto remained comparatively
pure between the open vices of the class above and the hidden
crimes of the class below them. The pernicious love of gam-
bling diffused itself through society, and bore all public and
nearly all private virtue before it.
For a time, while confidence lasted, an impetus was given to
trade which could not fail to be beneficial. In Paris especially
the good results were felt. Strangers flocked into the capital
from every part, bent not only upon making money, but on
spending it. The Duchess of Orleans, mother of the regent,
computes the increase of the population during this time, from
the great influx of strangers from all parts of the world, at
305,000 souls. The housekeepers were obliged to make up
beds in garrets, kitchens, and even stables, for the accom-
modation of lodgers; and the town was so full of carriages and
vehicles of every description, that they were obliged, in the
principal streets, to drive at a foot-pace for fear of accidents.
The looms of the country worked with unusual activity to
supply rich laces, silks, broad-cloth, and velvets, which being
paid for in abundant paper, increased in price fourfold. Pro-
visions shared the general advance. Bread, meat, and vege-
tables were sold at prices greater than had ever before been
known; while the wages of labour rose in exactly the same
proportion. The artisan who formerly gained fifteen sous per
diem now gained sixty. New houses were built in every
direction; an illusory prosperity shone over the land, and so
dazzled the eyes of the wKble nation, that none could see the
dark cloud on the horizon announcing the storm that was too
rapidly approaching.
Law himself, the magician whose wand had wrought so
surprising a change, shared, of course, in the general prosperity.
His wife and daughter were courted by the highest nobility,
and their alliance sought by the heirs of ducal and princely
houses. He bought two splendid estates in different parts of
France, and entered into a negotiation with the family of the
Duke de Sully for the purchase of the marquisate of Rosny,
His religion being an obstacle to Ms advancement, the regent
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 25
promised, if he would publicly conform to the Catholic faith,
to make him comptroller-general of the finances. Law, who
had no more real religion than any other professed gambler,
readily agreed, and was confirmed by the Abbe de Tencin in
the cathedral of Melun, in presence of a great crowd of spec-
tators.* On the following day he was elected honorary church-
warden of the parish of St. Roch, upon which occasion he made
it a present of the sum of five hundred thousand livres. His
charities, always magnificent, were not always so ostentatious.
He gave away great sums privately, and no tale of real distress
ever reached his ears in vain.
At this time he was by far the most influential person of
the state. The Duke of Orleans had so much confidence in
his sagacity and the success of his plans, that he always con-
sulted him upon every matter of moment. He was by no means
unduly elevated by his prosperity, but remained the same
simple, affable, sensible man that he had shewn himself in ad-
versity. His gallantry, which was always delightful to the fair
objects of it, was of a nature so kind, so gentlemanly, and so
respectful, that not even a lover could have taken offence at it.
If upon any occasion he showed any symptoms of haughtiness,
it was to the cringing nobles who lavished their adulation upon
him till it became fulsome. He often took pleasure in seeing
how long he could make them dance attendance upon him for
a single favour. To such of his own countrymen as by chance
visited Paris, and sought an interview with him, he was, on the
contrary, all politeness and attention. When Archibald Camp-
bell, Earl of Islay, and afterwards Duke of Argyle, called upon
him in the Place Vendome, he had to pass through an ante-
*The following squib was circulated on the occasion:
"Foin de ton zele seraphique,
Malheureux Abbe de Tencin,
Depuis que Law est Catholique,
Tout le royaume est Capucin!"
Thus somewhat weakly and paraphrastically rendered by Justandsond, in his
translation of the Memoirs of Louis XV.:
"Tencin, a curse on thy seraphic zeal,
Which by persuasion hath contrived the means
To make the Scotchman at our altars kneel,
Since which we all are poor as Capucinesl"
2 6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
chamber crowded with persons of the first distinction, all
anxious to see the great financier, and have their names put
down as first on the list of some new subscription. Law him-
self was quietly sitting in his library, writing a letter to the
gardener at his paternal estate of Lauriston, about the planting
of some cabbages ! The earl stayed a considerable time, played
a game of piquet with his countryman, and left him charmed
with his ease, good sense, and good breeding.
Among the nobles who, by means of the public credulity at
this time, gained sums sufficient to repair their ruined fortunes,
may be mentioned the names of the Dukes de Bourbon, de
Guiche, de la Force,* de Chaulnes, and d'Antin; the Marechal
d'Estrees; the Princes de Rohan, de Poix, and de Leon. The
Duke de Bourbon, son of Louis XIV. by Madame de Montes-
pan, was peculiarly fortunate in his speculations in Mississippi
paper. He rebuilt the royal residence of Chantilly in a style
of unwonted magnificence; and being passionately fond of
horses, he erected a range of stables, which were long renowned
throughout Europe, and imported a hundred and fifty of the
finest racers from England to improve the breed in France.
He bought a large extent of country in Picardy, and became
possessed of nearly all the valuable lands lying between the
Oise and the Somme.
When fortunes such as these were gained, it is no wonder
that Law should have been almost worshipped by the mercurial
population. Never was monarch more flattered than he was.
All the small poets and litterateurs of the day poured floods of
adulation upon him. According to them, he was the saviour
of the country, the tutelary divinity of France; wit was in all
his words, goodness in all his looks, and wisdom in all his
actions. So great a crowd followed his carriage whenever he
went abroad, that the regent sent him a troop of horse as his
permanent escort to clear the streets before him.
*The Duke de la Force gained considerable sums, not only by jobbing
in the stocks but in dealing in porcelain, spices, <fec. It was debatcjd for a
length of time in the parliament of Paris whether he had not, in his quality
of spice-merchant, forfeited his rank in the peerage. It was decided in the
negative. A caricature of him was made, dressed as a street-porter, carrying
a large bale of spices on his back, with the inscription, "Admirez LA POECE."
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 2^
It was remarked at this time that Paris had never before been
so full of objects of elegance and luxury. Statues, pictures, and
tapestries were imported in great quantities from foreign
countries, and found a ready market. All those pretty trifles
in the way of furniture and ornament which the French excel
in manufacturing were no longer the exclusive playthings of
the aristocracy, but were to be found in abundance in the houses
of traders and the middle classes in general. Jewellery of the
most costly description was brought to Paris as the most
favourable mart; among the rest, the famous diamond bought
by the regent, and called by his name, and which long adorned
the crown of France. It was purchased for the sum of two
millions of livres, under circumstances which shew that the
regent was not so great a gainer as some of his subjects by the
impetus which trade had received. When the diamond was
first offered to him, he refused to buy it, although he desired
above all things to possess it, alleging as his reason, that his
duty to the country he governed would not allow him to spend
so large a sum of the public money for a mere jewel. This valid
and honourable excuse threw all the ladies of the court into
alarm, and nothing was heard for some days but expressions
of regret that so rare a gem should be allowed to go out of
France, no private individual being rich enough to buy it.
The regent was continually importuned about it, but all in vain,
until the Duke de St. Simon, who with all his ability, was
something of a twaddler, undertook the weighty business. His
entreaties being seconded by Law, the good-natured regent
gave his consent, leaving to Law's ingenuity to find the means
to pay for it. The owner took security for the payment of the
sum of two millions of livres within a stated period, receiving
in the mean time the interest of five per cent upon that amount,
and being allowed, besides, all the valuable clippings of the
gem. St. Simon, in his Memoirs, relates with no little com-
placency his share in this transaction. After describing the
diamond to be as large as a greengage, of a form nearly round,
perfectly white, and without flaw, and weighing more than
five hundred grains, he concludes with a chuckle, by telling the
world "that he takes great credit to himself for having induced
2 g EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the regent to make so illustrious a purchase." In other words,
he was proud that he had induced him to sacrifice his duty, and
buy a bauble for himself at an extravagant price out of the
public money.
Thus the system continued to flourish till the commencement
of the year 1720. The warnings of the Parliament, that too
great a creation of paper money would, sooner or later, bring
the country to bankruptcy, were disregarded. The regent,
who knew nothing whatever of the philosophy of finance,
thought that a system which had produced such good effects
could never be carried to excess. If five hundred millions
of paper had been of such advantage, five hundred millions ad-
ditional would be of still greater advantage. This was the
grand error of the regent, and which Law did not attempt to
dispel. The extraordinary avidity of the people kept up the
delusion; and the higher the price of Indian and Mississippi
stock, the more billets de banque were issued to keep pace with
it. The edifice thus reared might not unaptly be compared to
the gorgeous palace erected by Potemkin, that princely bar-
barian of Russia, to surprise and please his imperial mistress:
huge blocks of ice were piled one upon another; Ionic pillars
of chastest workmanship, in ice, formed a noble portico; and
a dome of the same material, shone in the sun, which had just
strength enough to gild, but not to melt it. It glittered afar,
like a palace of crystals and diamonds; but there came one
warm breeze from the south, and the stately building dissolved
away, till none were able even to gather up the fragments. So
with Law and his paper system. No sooner did the breath of
popular mistrust blow steadily upon it, than it fell to ruins ,
and none could raise it up again.
The first slight alarm that was occasioned was early in 1720.
The Prince de Conti, offended that Law should have denied him
fresh shares in India stock, at his own price, sent to his bank to
demand payment in specie of so enormous a quantity of notes,
that three waggons were required for its transport. Law com-
plained to the regent, and urged on his attention the mischief
that would be done, if such an example found many imitators.
The regent was but too well aware of it, and, sending for the
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 29
Prince de Conti, ordered Mm, under penalty of Ms high dis-
pleasure, to refund to the bank two-thirds of the specie which he
had withdrawn from it. The prince was forced to obey the
despotic mandate. Happily for Law's credit, De Conti was an
unpopular man: everybody condemned his meanness and
cupidity, and agreed that Law had been hardly treated. It is
strange, however, that so narrow an escape should not have
made both Law and the regent more anxious to restrict their
issues. Others were soon found who imitated from motives of
distrust, the example which had been set by De Conti in re-
venge. The more acute stockjobbers imagined justly that prices
could not continue to rise for ever. Bourdon and La Rich-
ardiere, renowned for their extensive operations in the funds,
quietly and in small quantities at a time, converted their notes
into specie, and sent it away to foreign countries. They also
bought as much as they could conveniently carry of plate and
expensive jewellery, and sent it secretly away to England or to
Holland. Vermalet, a jobber, who sniffed the coming storm,
procured gold and silver coin to the amount of nearly a million
of livres, which he packed in a farmer's cart, and covered over
with hay and cow-dung. He then disguised himself in the dirty
smock-frock, or blouse, of a peasant, and drove his precious
load in safety into Belgium. From thence he soon found means
to transport it to Amsterdam.
Hitherto no difficulty had been experienced by any class in
procuring specie for their wants. But this system could not
long be carried on without causing a scarcity. The voice of
complaint was heard on every side, and inquiries being in-
stituted, the cause was soon discovered. The council debated
long on the remedies to be taken, and Law, being called on for
his advice, was of opinion, that an edict should be published,
depreciating the value of coin five per cent below that of paper.
The edict was published accordingly; but failing of its intended
effect, was followed by another, in which the depreciation was
increased to ten per cent. The payments of the bank were at
the same time restricted to one hundred livres in gold, and
ten in silver. All these measures were nugatory to restore con-
fidence in the paper, though the restriction of cash payments
-jO EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
within limits so extremely narrow kept up the credit of the bank.
Notwithstanding every effort to the contrary, the precious
metals continued to be conveyed to England and Holland. The
little coin that was left in the country was carefully treasured,
or hidden until the scarcity became so great, that the operations
of trade could no longer be carried on. In this emergency, Law
hazarded the bold experiment of forbidding the use of specie
altogether. In February 1720 an edict was published, which,
instead of restoring the credit of the paper, as was intended,
destroyed it irrecoverably, and drove the country to the very
brink of revolution. By this famous edict it was forbidden to
any person whatever to have more than five hundred livres
(201.) of coin in his possession, under pain of a heavy fine, and
confiscation of the sums found. It was also forbidden to buy
up jewellery, plate, and precious stones, and informers were
encouraged to make search for offenders, by the promise of one-
half the amount they might discover. The whole country sent
up a cry of distress at this unheard-of tyranny. The most
odious persecution daily took place. The privacy of families
was violated by the intrusion of informers and their agents.
The most virtuous and honest were denounced for the crime of
having been seen with a louis d'or in their possession. Servants
betrayed their masters, one citizen became a spy upon his
neighbour, and arrests and confiscations so multiplied, that
the courts found a difficulty in getting through the immense
increase of business thus occasioned. It was sufficient for an
informer to say that he suspected any person of concealing
money in his house, and immediately a search-warrant was
granted. Lord Stair, the English ambassador, said, that it was
now impossible to doubt of the sincerity of Law's conversion
to the Catholic religion; he had established the inquisition,
after having given abundant evidence of his faith in transub-
stantiation, by turning so much gold into paper.
Every epithet that popular hatred could suggest was showered
upon the regent and the unhappy Law. Coin, to any amount
above five hundred livres, was an illegal tender, and nobody
would take paper if he could help it. No one knew to-day
what his notes would be worth to-morrow. "Never," says
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 31
Duclos, in his Secret Memoirs of the Regency, "was seen a
more capricious government never was a more frantic tyr-
anny exercised by hands less firm. It is inconceivable to those
who were witnesses of the horrors of those times, and who look
back upon them now as on a dream, that a sudden revolution
did not break out that Law and the regent did not perish by
a tragical death. They were both held in horror, but the people
confined themselves to complaints; a sombre and timid de-
spair, a stupid consternation, had seized upon all, and men's
minds were too vile even to be capable of a courageous crime.' 7
It would appear that, at one time, a movement of the people
was organised.^ Seditious writings were posted up against the
walls, and were sent, in hand-bills, to the houses of the most
conspicuous people. One of them, given in the Memoires de la
Regence, was to the following effect: "Sir and madam, This
is to give you notice that a St. Bartholomew's Day wi]|9|&
enacted again on Saturday and Sunday, if affairs do not altejfi
You are desired not to stir out, nor you, nor your servants.
God preserve you from the flames I Give notice to your neigh-
bours. Dated, Saturday, May 25th, 1720." The immense
number of spies with which the city was infested rendered the
people mistrustful of one another, and beyond some trifling
disturbances made in the evening by an insignificant group,
which was soon dispersed, the peace of the capital was not
compromised.
The value of shares in the Louisiana, or Mississippi stock,
had fallen very rapidly, and few indeed were found to believe
the tales that had once been told of the immense wealth of that
region. A last effort was therefore tried to restore the public
confidence in the Mississippi project. For this purpose, a gen-
eral conscription of all the poor wretches in Paris was made
by order of government. Upwards of six thousand of the very
refuse of the population were impressed, as if in time of war,
and were provided with clothes and tools to be embarked for
New Orleans, to work in the gold mines alleged to abound there.
They were paraded day after day through the streets with their
pikes and shovels, and then sent off in small detachments to the
out-ports to be shipped for America. Two-thirds of them never
32 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
reached their destination, but dispersed themselves over the
country, sold their tools for what they could get, and returned
to their old course of life. In less than three weeks afterwards,
one-half of them were to be found again in Paris. The ma-
noeuvre, however, caused a trifling advance in Mississippi stock.
Many persons of superabundant gullibility believed that opera-
tions had begun in earnest in the new Golconda, and that gold
and silvet ingots would again be found in France.
In a constitutional monarchy some surer means would have
been found for the restoration of public credit. In England, at
a subsequent period, when a similar delusion had brought on
similar distress, how different were the measures taken to repair
the evil! but in France, unfortunately, the remedy was left to
the authors of the mischief. The arbitrary will of the regent,
which endeavoured to extricate the country, only plunged it
d&]$er into the mire. All payments were ordered to be made
il^aper, and between the 1st of February and the end of May,
notes were fabricated to the amount of upwards of 1500 mil-
lions of livres, or 60,000,000/. sterling. But the alarm once
sounded, no art could make the people feel the slightest confi-
dence in paper which was not exchangeable into metal. M.
Lambert, the president of the parliament of Paris, told the re-
gent to Ms face that he would rather have a hundred thousand
livres in gold or silver than five millions in the notes of his bank.
When such was the general feeling, the superabundant issues
of paper but increased the evil, by rendering still more enor-
mous the disparity between the amount of specie and notes In
circulation. Coin, which it was the object of the regent to de-
preciate, rose in value on every fresh attempt to diminish it.
In February, it was judged advisable that the Royal Bank
should be incorporated with the Company of the Indies. An
edict to that effect was published and registered by the parlia-
ment. The state remained the guarantee for the notes of the
bank, and no more were to be issued without an order in coun-
cil. All the profits of the bank, since the time it had been taken
out of Law's hands and made a national institution, were given
over by the regent to the Company of the Indies. This measure
had the effect of raising for a short time the value of the
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 33
Louisiana and other shares of the company, but it failed in plac-
ing public credit on any permanent basis.
A council of state was held in the beginning of May, at which
Law, D'Argenson (his colleague in the administration of the
finances), and all the ministers were present. It was then com-
puted that the total amount of notes in circulation was 2600
millions of livres, while the coin in the country was not quite
equal to half that amount. It was evident to the majority of
the council that some plan must be adopted to equalize the
currency. Some proposed that the notes should be reduced to
the value of the specie, while others proposed that the nominal
value of the specie should be raised till it was on an equality
with the paper. Law is said to have opposed both these pro-
jects, but failing in suggesting any other, it was agreed that the
notes should be depreciated one half. On the 21st of May, an
edict was accordingly issued, by which it was decreed that the
shares of the Company of the Indies, and the notes of the bank,,
should gradually diminish in value, till at the end of a year
they should only pass current for one-half of their nominal
worth. The parliament refused to register the edict the great-
est outcry was excited, and the state of the country became so
alarming, that, as the only means of preserving tranquillity,
the council of the regency was obliged to stultify its own pro-
ceedings, by publishing within seven days another edict, re-
storing the notes to their original value.
On the same day (the 27th of May) the bank stopped pay-
ment in specie. Law and D'Argenson were both dismissed
from the ministry. The weak, vacillating, and cowardly regent
threw the blame of all the mischief upon Law, who, upon pre-
senting himself at the Palais Royal, was refused admittance.
At nightfall, however, he was sent for, and admitted into the
palace by a secret door,* when the regent endeavoured to con-
sole him, and made all manner of excuses for the severity with
which in public he had been compelled to treat him. So capri-
cious was his conduct, that, two days afterwards, he took him
publicly to the opera, where he sat in the royal box alongside of
* Duclos, Memoir es Secrets de la E6gence.
34 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the regent, who treated him with marked consideration in face
of all the people. But such was the hatred against Law that
the experiment had well nigh proved fatal to him. The mob
assailed his carriage with stones just as he was entering his own
door; and if the coachman had not made a sudden jerk into
the court-yard, and the domestics closed the gate immediately,
he would, in all probability, have been dragged out and torn to
pieces. On the following day, his wife and daughter were also
assailed by the mob as they were returning in their carriage
from the races. When the regent was informed of these occur-
rences he sent Law a strong detachment of Swiss guards, who
were stationed night and day in the court of his residence. The
public indignation at last increased so much, that Law, finding
his own house, even with this guard, insecure, took refuge in
the Palais Royal, in the apartments of the regent.
The Chancellor, D'Aguesseau, who had been dismissed in
1718 for his opposition to the projects of Law, was now recalled
to aid in the restoration of credit. The regeut acknowledged
too late, that he had treated with unjustifiable harshness and
mistrust one of the ablest, and perhaps the sole honest public
man of that corrupt period. He had retired ever since his dis-
grace to his country house at Fresnes, where, in the midst of
severe but delightful philosophic studies, he had forgotten the
intrigues of an unworthy court. Law himself, and the Cheva-
lier de Conflans, a gentleman of the regent's household, were
despatched in a post-chaise with orders to bring the ex-chan-
cellor to Paris along with them. D'Aguesseau consented to
render what assistance he could, contrary to the advice of his
friends, who did not approve that he should accept any recall to
office of which Law was the bearer. On his arrival in Paris,
five councillors of the parliament were admitted to confer with
the Commissary of Finance; and on the 1st of June an order
was published abolishing the law which made it criminal to
amass coin to the amount of more than five hundred livres.
Every one was permitted to have as much specie as he pleased.
In order that the bank-notes might be withdrawn, twenty-five
millions of new notes were created, on the security of the reve-
nues of the city of Paris, at two and a half per cent. The bank-
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 35
notes withdrawn were publicly burned in front of the Hotel
de Ville. The new notes were principally of the value of ten
livres each; and on the 10th of June the bank was re-opened,
with a sufficiency of silver coin to give in change for them.
These measures were productive of considerable advantage.
All the population of Paris hastened to the bank to get coin for
their small notes; and silver becoming scarce, they were paid
in copper. Very few complained that this was too heavy, al-
though poor fellows might be continually seen toiling and sweat-
ing along the streets, laden with more than they could com-
fortably carry, in the shape of change for fifty livres. The
crowds around the bank were so great that hardly a day passed
that some one was not pressed to death. On the 9th of July,
the multitude was so dense and clamorous that the guards sta-
tioned at the entrance of the Mazarin Gardens closed the gate
and refused to admit any more. The crowd became incensed,
and flung stones through the railings upon the soldiers. The
latter, incensed in their turn, threatened to fire upon the people.
At that instant one of them was hit by a stone, and, taking up
his piece, he fired into the crowd. One man fell dead immedi-
ately, and another was severely wounded. It was every instant
expected that a general attack would have been commenced
upon the bank; but the gates of the Mazarin Gardens being
opened to the crowd, who saw a whole troop of soldiers, with
their bayonets fixed ready to receive them, they contented
themselves by giving vent to their indignation in groans and
hisses.
Eight days afterwar4s the concourse of people was so tre-
mendous that fifteen persons were squeezed to death at the
doors of the bank. The people were so indignant that they took
three of the bodies on stretchers before them, and proceeded,
to the number of seven or eight thousand, to the gardens of the
Palais Royal, that they might show the regent the misfortunes
that he and Law had brought upon the country. Law's coach-
man, who was sitting on the box of his master's carriage, in the
court-yard of the palace, happened to have more zeal than
discretion, and, not liking that the mob should abuse his mas-
3 6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
ter, he said, loud enough to be overheard by several persons,
that they were all blackguards, and deserved to be hanged.
The mob immediately set upon him, and thinking that Law was
in the carriage, broke it to pieces. The imprudent coachman
narrowly escaped with his life. No further mischief was done;
a body of troops making their appearance, the crowd quietly
dispersed, after an assurance had been given by the regent that
the three bodies they had brought to shew him should be de-
cently buried at his own expense. The parliament was sitting
at the time of this uproar, and the president took upon him-
self to go out and see what was the matter. On his return he
informed the councillors that Law's carriage had been broken
by the mob. All the members rose simultaneously, and ex-
pressed their joy by a loud shout, while one man, more zealous
in Ms hatred than the rest, exclaimed, "And Law himself, is he
torn to pieces?"*
Much, undoubtedly, depended on the credit of the Company
of the Indies, which was answerable for so great a sum to the
nation. It was therefore suggested in the council of the min-
istry, that any privileges which could be granted to enable it to
fulfil its engagements, would be productive of the best results.
With this end in view, it was proposed that the exclusive privi-
lege of all maritime commerce should be secured to it, and an
edict to that effect was published. But it was unfortunately
forgotten that by such a measure all the merchants of the coun-
try would be ruined. The idea of such an immense privilege
was generally scouted by the nation, and petition on petition
was presented to the parliament that they would refuse to regis-
ter the decree. They refused accordingly, and the regent, re-
marking that they did nothing but fan the flame of sedition, ex-
iled them to Blois. At the intercession of D'Aguesseau, the place
*The Duchess of Orleans gives a different version of this story; but
whichever be the true one, the manifestation of such feeling in a legislative
assembly was not very creditable. She says that the president was so
transported with joy, that he was seized with a rhyming fit, and returning
into the hall, exclaimed to the members:
"Messieurs! Messieurs! bonne nouvellef
Le carrosse de Lass est reduit en cannelle!"
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 37
of banishment was changed to Pontoise, and thither accordingly
the councillors repaired, determined to set the regent at defi-
ance. They made every arrangement for rendering their tem-
porary exile as agreeable as possible. The president gave the
most elegant suppers, to which he invited all the gayest and
wittiest company of Paris. Every night there was a concert
and ball for the ladies. The usually grave and solemn judges
and councillors joined in cards and other diversions, leading for
several weeks a life of the most extravagant pleasure, for no
other purpose than to show the regent of how little consequence
they deemed their banishment, and that, when they willed it,
they could make Pontoise a pleasanter residence than Paris.
Of all the nations in the world the French are the most re-
nowned for singing over their grievances. Of that country
it has been remarked with some truth, that its whole history
may be traced in its songs. When Law, by the utter failure
of his best-laid plans, rendered himself obnoxious, satire of
course seized hold upon him; and while caricatures of his per-
son appeared in all the shops, the streets resounded with songs,
in which neither he nor the regent was spared. Many of these
songs were far from decent; and one of them in particular
counselled the application of all his notes to the most ignoble
use to which paper can be applied. But the following, pre-
served in the letters of the Duchess of Orleans, was the best and
the most popular, and was to be heard for months in all the
carre fours in Paris. The application of the chorus is happy
enough :
Aussitot que Lass arriva
Dans notre bonne ville,
Monsieur le Regent publia
Que Lass serait utile
Pour r6tablir la nation.
La faridondainef la faridondon!
Mais il nous a tous enrichi,
Biribil
A la fagon de Barbari,
Mon ami
38 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Ce parpaillot, pour attirer
Tout Pargent de la France,
Songea d'abord a s'assurer
De notre confiance.
II fit son abjuration,
La jaridondaine! la jaridondonl
Mais le fourbe s'est convert!,
Biribil
A la jagon de Barbari,
Mon ami!
Lass, le fils aine de Satan
Nous met tous a Paumone,
II nous a pris tout notre argent
Et n'en rend a personne.
Mais le Regent, humain et bon,
La jaridondaine! la jaridondon!
Nous rendra ce qu'on nous a pris,
Biribil
A la fagon de Barbari,
Mon ami!
The following epigram is of the same date:
Lnndi, j'achetai des actions;
Mardi, je gagnai des millions;
Mercredi, j'arrangeai mon menage,
Jeudi, je pris un equipage,
Vendredi, je m'en fus au bal,
Et Samedi, a Phopital.
Among the caricatures that were abundantly published, and
that shewed as plainly as graver matters that the nation had
awakened to a sense of its folly, was one, a fac-simile of which
is preserved in the Memoires de la Regence. It was thus de-
scribed by its author: "The 'Goddess of Shares,' in her tri-
umphal car, driven by the Goddess of Folly, Those who are
drawing the car are impersonations of the Mississippi, with
his wooden leg, the South Sea, the Bank of England, the Com-
pany of the West of Senegal, and of various assurances. Lest
the car should not roll fast enough, the agents of these com-
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 39
panics, known by their long fox-tails and their cunning looks,
turn round the spokes of the wheels, upon which are marked
the names of the several stocks and their value, sometimes
high and sometimes low, according to the turns of the wheel.
Upon the ground are the merchandise, day-books and ledgers
of legitimate commerce, crushed under the chariot of Folly.
Behind is an immense crowd of persons, of all ages, sexes, and
conditions, clamouring after Fortune, and fighting with each
other to get a portion of the shares which she distributes so
bountifully among them. In the clouds sits a demon, blowing
bubbles of soap, which are also the objects of the admiration
and cupidity of the crowd, who jump upon one another's
backs to reach them ere they burst. Right in the pathway of
the car, and blocking up the passage, stands a large building,
with three doors, through one of which it must pass, if it pro-
ceeds farther, and all the crowd along with it. Over the first
door are the words, 'Hopital des Foux,' over the second,
'Hopital des Malades,' and over the third, 'Hopital des
Gueux?" Another caricature represented Law sitting in a
large cauldron, boiling over the flames of popular madness,
surrounded by an impetuous multitude, who were pouring all
their gold and silver into it, and receiving gladly in exchange
the bits of paper which he distributed among them by hand-
Ms.
While this excitement lasted, Law took good care not to
expose himself unguarded in the streets. Shut up in the apart-
ments of the regent, he was secure from all attack; and when-
ever he ventured abroad, it was either incognito, or in one of
the royal carriages, with a powerful escort. An amusing anec-
dote is recorded of the detestation in which he was held by
the people, and the ill-treatment he would have met had he
fallen into their hands. A gentleman of the name of Boursel
was passing in his carriage down the Rue St. Antoine, when
his farther progress was stayed by a hackney-coach that had
blocked up the road. M. Boursel's servant called impatiently
to the hackney-coachman to get out of the way, and, on his
refusal, struck him a blow on the face. A crowd was soon
drawn together by the disturbance, and M. Boursel got out of
40 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the carriage to restore order. The hackney-coachman, imag-
ining that he had now another assailant, bethought him of an
expedient to rid himself of both, and called out as loudly as
he was able, "Help I help! murder! murder! Here are Law
and his servant going to kill me! Help! help!" At^this cry
the people came out of their shops, armed with sticks and
other weapons, while the mob gathered stones to inflict sum-
mary vengeance upon the supposed financier. Happily for M.
Boursel and his servant, the door of the church of the Jesuits
stood wide open, and, seeing the fearful odds against them,
they rushed towards it with all speed. They reached the altar,
pursued by the people, and would have been ill-treated even
there if, finding the door open leading to the sacristy, they had
not sprang through, and closed it after them. The mob were
then persuaded to leave the church by the alarmed and indig-
nant priests, and finding M. BoursePs carriage still in the
streets, they vented their ill-will against it, and did it consid-
erable damage.
The twenty-five millions secured on the municipal revenues
of the city of Paris, bearing so low an interest as two and a
half per cent, were not very popular among the large holders
of Mississippi stock. The conversion of the securities was,
therefore, a work of considerable difficulty; for many pre-
ferred to retain the falling paper of Law's company, in the
hope that a favourable turn might take place. On the 15th of
August, with a view to hasten the conversion, an edict was
passed, declaring that all notes for sums between one thousand
and ten thousand livres should not pass current, except for the
purchase of annuities and bank accounts, or for the payment
of instalments still due on the shares of the company.
In October following another edict was passed, depriving
these notes of all value whatever after the month of November
^af^^SgT "The management of the mint, the farming of
the revenue, and all the other advantages and privileges of
the India, or Mississippi Company, were taken from them, and
they were reduced to a mere private company. This was the
death-blow to the whole system, which had now got into the
hands of its enemies. Law had lost all influence in the Coun-
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 41
cil of Finance, and the company , being despoiled of its im-
munities, could no longer hold out the shadow of a prospect of
being able to fulfil its engagements. All those suspected of
illegal profits at the time the public delusion was at its height,
were sought out and amerced in heavy fines. It was previ-
ously ordered that a list of the original proprietors should be
made out, and that such persons as still retained their shares
should place them in deposit with the company, and that those
who had neglected to complete the shares for which they had
put down their names should now purchase them of the com-
pany, at the rate of 13,500 livres for each share of 500 livres.
Rather than submit to pay this enormous sum for stock which
was actually at a discount, the shareholders packed up all their
portable effects, and endeavoured to find a refuge in foreign
countries. Orders were immediately issued to the authorities
at the ports and frontiers, to apprehend all travellers who
sought to leave the kingdom, and keep them in custody, until
it was ascertained whether they had any plate or jewellery
with them, or were concerned in the late sto'ck-jobbing.
Against such few as escaped, the punishment of death was
recorded, while the most arbitrary proceedings were instituted
against those who remained.
Law himself, in a moment of despair, determined to leave
a country where his life was no longer secure. He at first
only demanded permission to retire from Paris to one of his
country-seats a permission which the regent cheerfully
granted. The latter was much affected at the unhappy turn
affairs had taken, but his faith continued unmoved in the
truth and efficacy of Law's financial system. His eyes were
opened to his own errors; and during the few remaining years
of his life he constantly longed for an opportunity of again
establishing the system upon a securer basis. At Law's last
interview with the prince, he is reported to have said, "I
confess that I have committed many faults. I committed
them because I am a man, and all men are liable to error;
but I declare to you most solemnly that none of them pro-
ceeded from wicked or dishonest motives, and that nothing
of the kind will be found in the whole course of my conduct."
42 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Two or three days after his departure the regent sent him a
very kind letter, permitting him to leave the kingdom when-
ever he pleased, and stating that he had ordered his passports
to be made ready. He at the same time offered him any sum
of money he might require. Law respectfully declined the
money, and set out for Brussels in a post-chaise belonging to
Madame de Prie, the mistress of the Duke of Bourbon, es-
corted by six horse-guards. From thence he proceeded to
Venice, where he remained for some months, the object of the
greatest curiosity to the people, who believed him to be the
possessor of enormous wealth. No opinion, however, could be
more erroneous. With more generosity than could have been
expected from a man who during the greatest part of his life
had been a professed gambler, he had refused to enrich him-
self at the expense of a ruined nation. During the height of
the popular frenzy for Mississippi stock, he had never doubted
of the final success of his projects in making France the rich-
est and most powerful nation of Europe. He invested all his
gains in the purchase of landed property in France a sure
proof of his own belief in the stability of his schemes. He
had hoarded no plate or jewellery, and sent no money, like
the dishonest jobbers, to foreign countries. His all, with the
exception of one diamond, worth about five or six thousand
pounds sterling, was invested in the French soil; and when he
left that country, he left it almost a beggar. This fact alone
ought to rescue his memory from the charge of knavery, so
often and so unjustly brought against him.
As soon as his departure was known, all his estates and his
valuable library were confiscated. Among the rest, an annuity
of 200,000 livres (8000/. sterling) on the lives of his wife and
children, which had been purchased for five millions of livres,
was forfeited, notwithstanding that a special edict, drawn up
for the purpose in the days of his prosperity, had expressly
declared that it should never be confiscated for any cause
whatever. Great discontent existed among the people that
Law had been suffered to escape. The mob and the parlia-
ment would have been pleased to have seen him hanged. The
few who had not suffered by the commercial revolution re-
LAW IN A CAR DRAWN BY COCKS
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 43
joked that the quack had left the country; but all those (and
they were by far the most numerous class) whose fortunes
were implicated regretted that his intimate knowledge of the
distress of the country, and of the causes that had led to it,
had not been rendered more available in discovering a remedy.
At a meeting of the Council of Finance and the General
Council of the Regency, documents were laid upon the table,
from which it appeared that the amount of notes in circu-
lation was 2700 millions. The regent was called upon to
explain how it happened that there was a discrepancy between
the dates at which these issues were made and those of the
edicts by which they were authorised. He might have safely
taken the whole blame upon himself, but he preferred that
an absent man should bear a share of it; and he therefore
stated that Law, upon Ms own authority, had issued 1200
millions of notes at different times, and that he (the regent),
seeing that the thing had been irrevocably done, had screened
Law by antedating the decrees of the council which authorised
the augmentation. It would have been more to his credit if
he had told the whole truth while he was about it, and ac-
knowledged that it was mainly through his extravagance and
impatience that Law had been induced to overstep the bounds
of safe speculation. It was also ascertained that the national
debt, on the 1st of January, 1721, amounted to upwards of
3100 millions of livres, or more than 124,000,000?. sterling,
the interest upon which was 3,196,000?. A commission, or
visa, was forthwith appointed to examine into all the securi-
ties of the state creditors, who were to be divided into five
classes; the first four comprising those who had purchased
their securities with real effects, and the latter comprising
those who could give no proofs that the transactions they had
entered into were real and bond fide. The securities of the
latter were ordered to be destroyed, while those of the first
four classes were subjected to a most rigid and jealous scru-
tiny. The result of the labours of the visa was a report, in
which they counselled the reduction of the interest upon these
securities to fifty-six millions of livres. They justified this
advice by a statement of the various acts of peculation and
44 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
extortion which they had discovered; and an edict to that
effect was accordingly published and duly registered by the
parliaments of the kingdom.
Another tribunal was afterwards established under the title
of the Chambre de I 7 Arsenal, which took cognisance of all the
malversations committed in the financial departments of the
government during the late unhappy period. A Master of
Requests, named Falfaonet, together with the Abbe Clement,
and two clerks In their employ, had been concerned in divers
acts of peculation to the amount of upwards of a million of
livres. The first two were sentenced to be beheaded, and the
latter to be hanged; but their punishment was afterwards
commuted into imprisonment for life in the Bastille. Numer-
ous other acts of dishonesty were discovered, and punished by
fine and imprisonment.
D'Argenson shared with Law and the regent the unpopu-
larity which had alighted upon all those concerned in the
Mississippi madness. He was dismissed from his post of Chan-
cellor to make room for D'Aguesseau; but he retained the
title of Keeper of Seals, and was allowed to attend the
councils whenever he pleased. He thought it better, however,
to withdraw from Paris, and live for a time a life of seclusion
at his country seat. But he was not formed for retirement;
and becoming moody and discontented, he aggravated a disease
under which he had long laboured, and died in less than a
twelve-month. The populace of Paris so detested him, that
they carried their hatred even to his grave. As his funeral pro-
cession passed to the church of St. Nicholas du Chardonneret,
the burying-place of his family, it was beset by a riotous mob;
and his two sons, who were following as chief mourners, were
obliged to drive as fast as they were able down a by-street to
escape personal violence.
As regards Law, he for some time entertained a hope that
he should be recalled to France to aid in establishing its
credit upon a firmer basis. The death of the regent in 1723,
who expired suddenly as he was sitting by the fireside con-
versing with his mistress, the Duchess de Phalaris, deprived
him of that hope, and he was reduced to lead his former life
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME 45
of gambling. He was more than ooce obliged to pawn Ms
diamond, the sole remnant of his vast wealth, but successful
play generally enabled Mm to redeem it. Being persecuted by
Ms creditors at Rome, he proceeded to Copenhagen, where he
received permission from the English ministry to reside in Ms
native country, Ms pardon for the murder of Mr. Wilson
having been sent over to Mm in 1719. He was brought over
in the admiral's ship a circumstance which gave occasion for
a short debate in the House of Lords. Earl Coningsby com-
plained that a man who had renounced both his country and
Ms religion should have been treated with such honour, and
- expressed his belief that Ms presence in England, at a time
when the people were so bewildered by the nefarious prac-
tices of the South-Sea directors, would be attended with no
little danger. He gave notice of a motion on the subject; but
it was allowed to drop, no other member of the House having
the slightest participation in Ms lordship's fears. Law re-
mained for about four years in England, and then proceeded
to Venice, where he died in 1729, in very embarrassed cir-
cumstances. The following epitaph was written at the time:
"Ci git cet Ecossais celebre,
Ce caloilateur sans egal,
Qui, par les regies de Palgebre,
A mis la France a Fhopital."
His brother, William Law, who had been concerned with
him in the administration both of the bank and the Louisiana
Company, was imprisoned in the Bastille for alleged malver-
sation, but no guilt was ever proved against him. He was
liberated after fifteen months, and became the founder of a
family, which is still known in France under the title of Mar-
quises of Lauriston.
In the next chapter will be found an account of the madness
which infected the people of England at the same time, and
under very similar circumstances, but wMch, thanks to the
energies and good sense of a constitutional government, was
attended with results far less disastrous than those which
were seen in France.
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE
At length corruption, like a general flood,
Did deluge all; and avarice creeping on,
Spread, like a low-born misty and hid the sun.
Statesmen and patriots plied alike the stocks,
Peeress and butler shared alike the box;
And judges jobbed, and bishops bit the town,
And mighty dukes packed cards for half-a-crown:
Britain was sunk in lucre's sordid charms. Pope.
THE South-Sea Company was originated by the celebrated
Harley Earl of Oxford, in the year 1711, with the view of
restoring public credit, which had suffered by the dismissal
of the Whig ministry, and of providing for the discharge of
the army and navy debentures, and other parts of the floating
debt, amounting to nearly ten millions sterling. A company
of merchants, at that time without a name, took this debt
upon themselves, and the government agreed to secure them
for a certain period the interest of six per cent. To provide
for this interest, amounting to 600,000/. per annum, the duties
upon wines, vinegar, India goods, wrought silks, tobacco,
whale-fins, and some other articles, were rendered permanent.
The monopoly of the trade to the South Seas was granted,
and the company, being incorporated by act of parliament,
assumed the title by which it has ever since been known.
The minister took great credit to himself for his share in this
transaction, and the scheme was always called by his flatterers
"the Earl of Oxford's masterpiece/ 5
Even at this early period of its history the most visionary
ideas were formed by the company and the public of the
immense riches of the eastern coast of South America. Every
body had heard of the gold and silver mines of Peru and
46
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 47
Mexico; every one believed them to be inexhaustible, and
that it was only necessary to send the manufactures of Eng-
land to the coast to be repaid a hundredfold in gold and silver
ingots by the natives. A report industriously spread, that
Spain was wilMng to concede four ports on the coasts of Chili
and Peru for the purposes of traffic, increased the general
confidence, and for many years the South-Sea Company's
stock was in high favour.
Philip V. of Spain, however, never had any intention of
admitting the English to a free trade in the ports of Spanish
America. Negotiations were set on foot, but their only result
was the assiento contract, or the privilege of supplying the
colonies with negroes for thirty years, and of sending once a
year a vessel, limited both as to tonnage and value of cargo,
to trade with Mexico, Peru, or Chili. The latter permission
was only granted upon the hard condition, that the King of
Spain should enjoy one-fourth of the profits, and a tax of five
per cent on the remainder. This was a great disappointment
to the Earl of Oxford and Ms party, who were reminded much
oftener than they found agreeable of the
"Partwmnt monies, nascitur ridiculus mus"
But the public confidence in the South-Sea Company was not
shaken. The Earl of Oxford declared that Spain would per-
mit two ships, in addition to the annual ship, to carry out
merchandise during the first year; and a list was published,
in which all the ports and harbours of these coasts were
pompously set forth as open to the trade of Great Britain.
The first voyage of the annual ship was not made till the
year 1717, and in the following year the trade was suppressed
by the rupture with Spain.
The king's speech, at the opening of the session of 1717,
made pointed allusion to the state of public credit, and rec-
ommended that proper measures should be taken to reduce
the national debt. The two great monetary corporations, the
South-Sea Company and the Bank of England, made pro-
posals to parliament on the 20th of May ensuing. The South-
48 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Sea Company prayed that their capital stock of ten millions
might be increased to twelve, by subscription or otherwise,
and offered to accept five per cent instead of six upon the
whole amount. The bank made proposals equally advan-
tageous. The house debated for some time, and finally three
acts were passed, called the South-Sea Act, the Bank Act, and
the General Fund Act. By the first, the proposals of the
South-Sea Company were accepted, and that body held itself
ready to advance the sum of two millions towards discharg-
ing the principal and interest of the debt due by the state for
the four lottery funds of the ninth and tenth years of Queen
Anne. By the second act, the bank received a lower rate of
interest for the sum of 1,775,027. 15s. due to it by the state,
and agreed to deliver up to be cancelled as many exchequer
bills as amounted to two millions sterling, and to accept of
an annuity of one hundred thousand pounds, being after the
rate of five per cent, the whole redeemable at one year's
notice. They were further required to be ready to advance,
in case of need, a sum not exceeding 2,5QO,00(K upon the same
terms of five per cent interest, redeemable by parliament. The
General Fund Act recited the various deficiencies, wliich were
to be made good by the aids derived from the foregoing
sources.
The name of the South-Sea Company was thus continually
before the public. Though their trade with the South Ameri-
can States produced little or nt) augmentation of their reve-
nues, they continued to flourish as a monetary corporation.
Their stock was in high request, and the directors, buoyed
up with success, began to think of " new means for extending
their influence. The Mississippi scheme of John Law, which
so dazzled and captivated the French people, inspired them
with an idea that they could carry on the same game in Eng-
land. The anticipated failure of his plans did not divert them
from their intention. Wise in their own conceit, they imag-
ined they could avoid his faults, carry on their schemes for
ever, and stretch the cord of credit to its extremest tension,
without causing it to snap asunder.
It was while Law's plan was at its greatest height of popu-
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 49
lafity, while people were crowding in thousands to the Rue
Quincampoix, and ruining themselves with frantic eagerness,
that the South-Sea directors laid before parliament their
famous plan for paying off the national debt. Visions of
boundless wealth floated before the fascinated eyes of the
people in the two most celebrated countries of Europe. The
English commenced their career of extravagance somewhat
later than the French; but as soon as the delirium seized
them, they were determined not to be outdone. Upon the 22d
of January, 1720, the House of Commons resolved itself into
a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration
that part of the king's speech at the opening of the session
which related to the public debts, and the proposal of the
South-Sea Company towards the redemption and sinking of
the same. The proposal set forth at great length, and under
several heads, the debts of the state, amounting to 30,981,-
712/., which the company were anxious to take upon them-
selves, upon consideration of five per cent per annum, secured*
"to them until Midsummer 1727; after which time, the whole
was to become redeemable at the pleasure of the legislature,
and the interest to be reduced to four per cent. The proposal
was received with great favour; but the Bank of England
had many friends in the House of Commons, who were desir-
ous that that body should share in the advantages that were
likely to accrue. On behalf of this corporation it was repre-
sented, that they had performed greajt and eminent services
to the state in the most difficult times, and deserved, at least,
that if any advantage was to be made by public bargains of
this nature, they should be preferred before a company that
had never done any thing for the nation. The further con-
sideration of the matter was accordingly postponed for five
days. In the mean time a plan was drawn up by the gov-
ernors of the bank. The South-Sea Company, afraid that the
bank might offer still more advantageous terms to the govern-
ment than themselves, reconsidered their former proposal, and
made some alterations in it, which they hoped would render
it more acceptable. The principal change was a stipulation
that the government might redeem these debts at the expira-
5O EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
lion of four years ; Instead of 3even ? as at first suggested. The
bank resolved not to be outbidden In this singular auction,
and the governors also reconsidered their first proposal, and
sent in a new one.
Thus, each corporation having made two proposals, the
house began to deliberate. Mr. Robert Walpole was the
chief speaker in favour of the bank, and Mr. Aislabie, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, the principal advocate on behalf
of the South-Sea Company. It was resolved, on the 2d of
February, that the proposals of the latter were most advan-
tageous to the country. They were accordingly received, and
leave was given to bring in a bill to that effect.
Exchange Alley was in a fever of excitement. The com-
pany's stock, which had been at a hundred and thirty the
previous day, gradually rose to three hundred, and continued
to rise with the most astonishing rapidity during the whole
time that the bill in its several stages was under discussion.
Mr. Walpole was almost the only statesman in the House
who spoke out boldly against it. He warned them, in elo-
quent and solemn language, of the evils that would ensue.
It countenanced, he said, "the dangerous practice of stock-
jobbing, and would divert the genius of the nation from trade
and industry. It would hold out a dangerous lure to decoy the
unwary to their ruin, by making them part with the earnings
of their labour for a prospect of imaginary wealth. The great
principle of the project was an evil of first-rate magnitude; it
was to raise artificially the value of the stock, by exciting and
keeping up a general infatuation, and by promising dividends
out of funds which could never be adequate to the purpose."
In a prophetic spirit he added, that if the plan succeeded, the
directors would become masters of the government, form a
new and absolute aristocracy in the kingdom, and control the
resolutions of the legislature. If it failed, which he was con-
vinced it would, the result would bring general discontent and
ruin upon the country. Such would be the delusion, that when
the evil day came, as come it would, the people would start
up, as from a dream, and ask themselves if thes things
could have been true. All his eloquence was in vain. He
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 51
was looked upon as a false prophet, or compared to the hoarse
raven, croaking omens of evil. His friends, however, com-
pared him to Cassandra, predicting evils which would only be
believed when they come home to men's hearths, and stared
them in the face at their own boards. Although, in former
times, the House had listened with the utmost attention to
every word that fell from his lips, the benches became de-
serted when it was known that he would speak on the South-
Sea question.
The bill was two months in its progress through the House
of Commons. During this time every exertion was made by
the directors and their friends, and more especially by the
chairman, the noted Sir John Blunt, to raise the price of the
stock. The most extravagant rumours were in circulation.
Treaties between England and Spain were spoken of, whereby
the latter was to grant a free trade to all her colonies; and the
rich produce of the mines of Potosi4a-Paz was to be brought
to England until silver should become almost as plentiful as
iron. For cotton and woollen goods, with which we could sup-
ply them in abundance, the dwellers in Mexico were to empty
their golden mines. The company of merchants trading to
the South Seas would be the richest the world ever saw, and
every hundred pounds invested in it would produce hundreds
per annum to the stockholder. At last the stock was raised
by these means to near four hundred; but, after fluctuating
a good deal, settled at three hundred and thirty, at which
price it remained when the bill passed the Commons by a
majority of 172 against 55.
In the House of Lords the bill was hurried through all its
stages with unexampled rapidity. On the 4th of April it was
read a first time; on the 5th, it was read a second time; on
the 6th, it was committed; and on the 7th, was read a third
time and passed.
Several peers spoke warmly against the scheme; but their
warnings fell upon dull, cold ears. A speculating frenzy had
seized them as well as the plebeians. Lord North and Grey
said the biU was unjust in its nature, and might prove fatal
in its consequences, being calculated to enrich the few and
52 EXTEAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
impoverish the many. The Duke of Wharton followed; but,
as he only retailed at second-hand the arguments so eloquently
stated by Walpole in the Lower House, he was not listened
to with even the same attention that had been bestowed upon
Lord North and Grey. Earl Cowper followed on the same
side, and compared the bill to the famous horse of the siege
of Troy. Like that, it was ushered in and received with great
pomp and acclamations of joy, but bore within it treachery
and destruction. The Earl of Sunderland endeavoured to
answer all objections; and on the question being put, there
appeared only seventeen peers against, and eighty-three in
favour of the project. The very same day on which it passed
the Lords, it received the royal assent, and became the law of
the land.
It seemed at that time as if the whole nation had turned
stock-jobbers. Exchange Alley was every day blocked up by
crowds, and Cornhill was impassable for the number of car-
riages. Every body came to purchase stock. "Every fool
aspired to be a knave. 7 ' In the words of a ballad published
at the time, and sung about the streets,*
"Then stars and garters did appear
Among the meaner rabble;
To buy and sell, to see and hear
The Jews and Gentiles squabble.
The greatest ladies tMther came,
And plied in chariots daily,
Or pawned their jewels for a sum
To venture in the Alley."
The inordinate thirst of gain that had afflicted all ranks of
society was not to be slaked even in the South Sea. Other
schemes, of the most extravagant kind, were started. The
share-lists were speedily filled up, and an enormous traffic
carried on in shares, while, of course, every means were re-
*A South-Sea Ballad; or, Merry Remarks upon Exchange-Alley Bub-
bles. To a new Tune called "The Grand Elixir; or, the Philosopher's
Stone discovered."
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 55
sorted to to raise them to an artificial value in the market*
Contrary to all expectations, South-Sea stock fell when the
bill received the royal assent. On the 7th of April the shares
were quoted at three hundred and ten, and on the following
day at two hundred and ninety. Already the directors had
tasted the profits of their scheme, and it was not likely that
they should quietly allow the stock to find its natural level
without an effort to raise it. Immediately their busy emis-
saries were set to work. Every person interested in the suc-
cess of the project endeavoured to draw a knot of listeners
around him, to whom he expatiated on the treasures of the
South American seas. Exchange Alley was crowded with at-
tentive groups. One rumour alone, asserted with the utmost
confidence, had an immediate effect upon the stock. It was
said that Earl Stanhope had received overtures in France
from the Spanish government to exchange Gibraltar and Port
Mahon for some places on the coast of Peru, for the security
and enlargement of the trade in the South Seas. Instead of
one annual ship trading to those ports, and allowing the king
of Spain twenty-five per cent out of the profits, the company
might build and charter as many ships as they pleased, and
pay no per centage whatever to any foreign potentate.
"Visions of ingots danced before their eyes,"
and stock rose rapidly. On the 12th of April, five days after
the bill had become law, the directors opened their books for
a subscription of a million, at the rate of 300. for every 100.
capital. Such was the concourse of persons of all ranks, that
this first subscription was found to amount to above two mil-
lions of original stock. It was to be paid at five payments,
of 60/. each for every 1001. In a few days the stock advanced
to three hundred and forty, and the subscriptions were sold
for double the price of the first payment. To raise the stock
still higher, it was declared, in a general court of directors,
on the 21st of April, that the midsummer dividend should be
ten per cent, and that all subscriptions should be entitled to
the same. These resolutions answering the end designed, the
54 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
directors, to improve the infatuation of the monied men,
opened their books for a second subscription of a million, at
four hundred per cent. Such was the frantic eagerness of
people of every class to speculate in these funds, that in the
course of a few hours no less than a million and a half was
subscribed at that rate.
In the mean time, innumerable joint-stock companies
started up every where. They soon received the name of Bub-
bles, the most appropriate that imagination could devise. The
populace are often most happy in the nicknames they employ.
None could be more apt than that of Bubbles. Some of them
lasted for a week or a fortnight, and were no more heard of,
while others could not even live out that short span of exist-
ence. Every evening produced new schemes, and every morn-
ing new projects. The highest of the aristocracy were as
eager in this hot pursuit of gain as the most plodding jobber
in Cornhill. The Prince of Wales became governor of one
company, and is said to have cleared 40,000/. by his specula-
tions.* The Duke of Bridgewater started a scheme for the
improvement of London and Westminster, and the Duke of
Chandos another. There were nearly a hundred different
projects, each more extravagant and deceptive than the other.
To use the words of the Political State, they were "set on foot
and promoted by crafty knaves, then pursued by multitudes
of covetous fools, and at last appeared to be, in effect, what
their vulgar appellation denoted them to be bubbles and
mere cheats." It was computed that near one million and a half
sterling was won and lost by these unwarrantable practices, to
the impoverishment of many a fool, and the enriching of many
a rogue.
Some of these schemes were plausible enough, and, had they
been undertaken at a time when the public mind was unex-
cited, might have been pursued with advantage to all con-
cerned. But they were established merely with the view of
raising the shares in the market. The projectors took the first
opportunity of a rise to sell out, and next morning the scheme
*Coxe's Walpole, Correspondence between Mr. Secretary Craggs and
Earl Stanhope,
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 55
was at an end. Maitland, In Ms History of London, gravely
informs us, that one of the projects which received great
encouragement, was for the establishment of a company "to
make deal boards out of saw-dust, ?} This is no doubt in-
tended as a joke; but there is abundance of evidence to shew
that dozens of schemes, hardly a whit more reasonable, lived
their little day, ruining hundreds ere they fell. One of them
was for a wheel for perpetual motion capital one million;
another was "for encouraging the breed of horses in England,
and improving of glebe and church lands, and repairing and
rebuilding parsonage and vicarage houses." Why the clergy,
who were so mainly interested in the latter clause, should
have taken so much interest in the first, is only to be explained
on the supposition that the scheme was projected by a knot
of the fox-hunting parsons, once so common in England. The
shares of this company were rapidly subscribed for. But the
most absurd and preposterous of all, and which shewed, more
completely than any other, the utter madness of the people,
was one started by an unknown adventurer, entitled, "A com-
pany for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but
nobody to know what it is! } Were not the fact stated by
scores of credible witnesses, it would be impossible to believe
that any person could have been duped by such a project.
The man of genius who essayed this bold and successful in-
road upon public credulity, merely stated in his prospectus
that the required capital was half a million, in five thousand
shares of 100. each, deposit 21. per share. Each subscriber,
paying his deposit, would be entitled to 100/. per annum per
share. How this immense profit was to be obtained, he did not
condescend to inform them at that time, but promised that in
a month full particulars should be duly announced, and a call
made for the remaining QSL of the subscription. Next morn-
ing, at nine o'clock, this great man opened an office in Corn-
hill. Crowds of people beset his door, and when he shut up
at three o'clock, he found that no less than one thousand
shares had been subscribed for, and the deposits paid. He
was thus, in five hours, the winner of 2000/. He was philoso-
pher enough to be contented with his venture, and set off the
56 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
same evening for the Continent. He was never heard of
again.
Well might Swift exclaim, comparing Change Alley to a
gulf in the South Sea:
"Subscribers here by thousands float,
And jostle one another down,
Each paddling in his leaky boat,
And here they fish for gold and drown.
Now buried in the depths below,
Now mounted up to heaven again,
They reel and stagger to and fro,
At their wits' end, like drunken men.
Meantime, secure on Garraway cliffs,
A savage race, by shipwrecks fed,
Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs,
And strip the bodies of the dead."
Another fraud that was very successful was that of the
"Globe Permits" as they were called. They were nothing
more than square pieces of playing-cards, on which was the
impression of a seal, in wax, bearing the sign of the Globe
Tavern, in the neighbourhood of Exchange Alley, with the
inscription of "Sail-Cloth Permits." The possessors enjoyed
no other advantage from them than permission to subscribe
at some future time to a new sail-cloth manufactory, projected
by one who was then known to be a man of fortune, but who
was afterwards involved in the peculation and punishment of
the South-Sea directors. These permits sold for as much as
sixty guineas in the Alley.
Persons of distinction, of both sexes, were deeply engaged
in all these bubbles; those of the male sex going to taverns
and coffee-houses to meet their brokers, and the ladies resort-
ing for the same purpose to the shops of milliners and haber-
dashers. But it did not follow that all these people believed
in the feasibility of the schemes to which they subscribed; it
was enough for their purpose that their shares would, by stock-
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 57
jobbing arts, be soon raised to a premium, when they got rid
of them with all expedition to the really credulous. So great
was the confusion of the crowd in the alley, that shares in the
same bubble were known to have been sold at the same instant
ten per cent higher at one end of the alley than at the other.
Sensible men beheld the extraordinary infatuation of the peo-
ple with sorrow and alarm. There were some both in and out
of parliament who foresaw clearly the ruin that was impend-
ing. Mr. Walpole did not cease his gloomy forebodings. His
fears were shared by all the thinking few, and impressed most
forcibly upon the government. On the llth of June, the day
the parliament rose, the king published a proclamation, de-
claring that all these unlawful projects should be deemed pub-
lic nuisances, and prosecuted accordingly, and forbidding any
broker, under a penalty of five hundred pounds, from buying
or selling any shares in them. Notwithstanding this proclama-
tion, roguish speculators still carried them on, and the deluded
people still encouraged them. On the 12th of July, an order
of the Lords Justices assembled in privy council was pub-
lished, dismissing all the petitions that had been presented for
patents and charters, and dissolving all the bubble companies.
The following copy of their lordships' order, containing a list
of all these nefarious projects, will not be deemed uninterest-
ing at the present time, when, at periodic intervals, there is
but too much tendency in the public mind to indulge in simi-
lar practices:
"At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 12th day of
July, 1720. Present, their Excellencies the Lords
Justices in Council.
"Their Excellencies the Lords Justices, in council, taking
into consideration the many inconveniences arising to the pub-
lic from several projects set on foot for raising of joint-stock
for various purposes, and that a great many of his majesty's
subjects have been drawn in to part with their money on pre-
tence of assurances that their petitions for patents and char-
ters to enable them to carry on the same would be granted:
58 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
to prevent such impositions, their excellencies this day ordered
the said several petitions, together with such reports from the
Board of Trade, and from his majesty's attorney and solicitor-
general, as had been obtained thereon, to be laid before them;
and after mature consideration thereof, were pleased, by ad-
vice of his majesty's privy council, to order that the said peti-
tions be dismissed, which are as follow:
"1. Petition of several persons, praying letters patent for
carrying on a fishing trade by the name of the Grand Fishery
of Great Britain.
U 2, Petition of the Company of the Royal Fishery of Eng-
land, praying letters patent for such further powers as will
effectually contribute to carry on the said fishery.
"Petition of George James, on behalf of himself and divers
persons of distinction concerned in a national fishery, praying
letters patent of incorporation, to enable them to carry on
the same.
"4. Petition of several merchants, traders, and others,
whose names are thereunto subscribed, praying to be incorpo-
rated for reviving and carrying on a whale fishery to Green-
land and elsewhere.
"5. Petition of Sir John Lambert and others thereto sub-
scribing, on behalf of themselves and a great number of mer-
chants, praying to be incorporated for carrying on a Green-
land trade, and particularly a whale fishery in Davis's Straits.
"6. Another petition for a Greenland trade.
"7, Petition of several merchants, gentlemen, and citizens,
praying to be incorporated for buying and building of ships
to let or freight.
"8, Petition of Samuel Antrim and others, praying for let-
ters patent for sowing hemp and flax.
"9. Petition of several merchants, masters of ships, sail-
makers, and manufacturers of sail-cloth, praying a charter of
incorporation, to enable them to carry on and promote the
said manufactory by a joint-stock.
"10, Petition of Thomas Boyd and several hundred mer-
chants, owners and masters of ships, sail-makers, weavers,
and other traders, praying a charter of incorporation, empow-
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 59
ering them to borrow money for purchasing lands, in order
to the manufacturing sail-cloth and fine holland,
"11. Petition on behalf of several persons interested in a
patent granted by the late King William and Queen Mary for
the making of linen and sail-cloth, praying that no charter
may be granted to any persons whatsoever for making sail-
cloth, but that the privilege now enjoyed by them may be
confirmed, and likewise an additional power to carry on the
cotton and cotton-silk manufactures.
"12. Petition of several citizens, merchants, and traders
in London, and others, subscribers to a British stock for a
general insurance from fire in any part of England, praying
to be incorporated for carrying on the said undertaking.
"13. Petition of several of his majesty's loyal subjects of
the city of London and other parts of Great Britain, praying
to be incorporated for carrying on a general insurance from
losses by fire within the kingdom of England.
"14. Petition of Thomas Surges and others his majesty's
subjects thereto subscribing, in behalf of themselves and
others, subscribers to a fund of 1,200,000^. for carrying on a
trade to his majesty's German dominions, praying to be in-
corporated by the name of the Harburg Company.
"15. Petition of Edward Jones, a dealer in timber, on be-
half of himself and others, praying to be incorporated for
the importation of timber from Germany.
"16. Petition of several merchants of London, praying a
charter of incorporation for carrying on a salt-work.
"17. Petition of Captain Macphedris of London, merchant,
on behalf of himself and several merchants, clothiers, hatters,
dyers, and other traders, praying a charter of incorporation
empowering them to raise a sufficient sum of money to pur-
chase lands for planting and rearing a wood called madder, for
the use of dyers.
"18. Petition of Joseph Galendo of London, snuff-maker,
praying a patent for his invention to prepare and cure Vir-
ginia tobacco for snuff in Virginia, and making it into the
same in all his majesty's dominions."
60 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
LIST OF BUBBLES
The following Bubble-Companies were by the same order
declared to be Illegal; and abolished accordingly:
1. For the importation of Swedish iron.
2. For supplying London with sea-coal. Capital, three mil-
lions.
3. For building and rebuilding houses throughout all Eng-
land. Capital, three millions.
4. For making of muslin.
5. For carrying on and improving the British alum-works.
6. For effectually settling the island of Blanco and Sal Tar-
tagus.
7. For supplying the town of Deal with fresh water.
8. For the importation of Flanders lace.
9. For improvement of lands in Great Britain. Capital,
four millions.
10. For encouraging the breed of horses in England, and
improving of glebe and church lands, and for repairing and
rebuilding parsonage and vicarage houses.
11. For making of iron and steel in Great Britain.
12. For improving the land in the county of Flint. Capital,
one million.
13. For purchasing lands to build on. Capital, two mil-
lions.
14. For trading in hair.
15. For erecting salt-works in Holy Island. Capital, two
millions.
16. For buying and selling estates, and lending money on
mortgage.
17. For carrying on an undertaking of great advantage;
but nobody to know what it is.
18. For paving the streets of London. Capital, two mil-
lions.
19. For furnishing funerals to any part of Great Britain.
20. For buying and selling lands and lending money at In-
terest. Capital, five millions.
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 6l
21. For carrying on the royal fishery of Great Britain.
Capital, ten millions.
22. For assuring of seamen's wages.
23. For erecting loan-offices for the assistance and encour-
agement of the industrious. Capital, two millions.
24. For purchasing and improving leaseable lands. Cap-
ital, four millions.
25. For Importing pitch and tar, and other naval stores,
from North Britain and America.
26. For the clothing, felt,, and pantile trade.
27. For purchasing and improving a manor and royalty in
Essex.
28. For Insuring of horses. Capital, two millions.
29. For exporting the woollen manufacture, and Importing
copper, brass, and iron. Capital, four millions.
30. For a grand dispensary. Capital, three millions.
31. For erecting mills and purchasing lead-mines. Capital,
two millions.
32. For improving the art of making soap.
33. For a settlement on the Island of Santa Cruz.
34. For sinking pits and smelting lead ore in Derbyshire.
35. For making glass bottles and other glass.
36. For a wheel for perpetual motion. Capital, one mil-
lion.
37. For improving of gardens.
38. For insuring and increasing children's fortunes.
39. For entering and loading goods at the Custom-house,
and for negotiating business for merchants.
40. For carrying-on a woollen manufacture in the north of
England.
41. For importing walnut-trees from Virginia. Capital,
two millions.
42. For making Manchester stuffs of thread and cotton.
43. For making Joppa and Castile soap.
44. For improving the wrought-iron and steel manufac-
tures of this kingdom. Capital, four millions.
45. For dealing in lace, hollands, cambrics, lawns, &c. Cap-
ital, two millions.
62 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
46. For trading in and improving certain commodities of
the produce of this kingdom, &c. Capital, three millions.
47. For supplying the London markets with cattle.
48. For making looking-glasses, coach-glasses, &c. Cap-
ital, two millions.
49. For working the tin and lead mines in Cornwall and
Derbyshire.
50. For making rape-oil.
51. For importing beaver fur. Capital, two millions.
52. For making pasteboard and packing-paper.
53. For importing of oils and other materials used in the
woollen manufacture.
54. For improving and increasing the silk manufactures.
55. For lending money on stock, annuities, tallies, &c.
56. For paying pensions to widows and others, at a small
discount. Capital, two millions.
57. For improving malt liquors. Capital, four millions.
58. For a grand American fishery.
59. For purchasing and improving the fenny lands in Lin-
colnshire. Capital, two millions.
60. For improving the paper manufacture of Great Britain.
61. The Bottomry Company.
62. For drying malt by hot air.
63. For carrying on a trade in the river Oronooko.
64. For the more effectual making of baize, in Colchester
and other parts of Great Britain.
65. For buying of naval stores, supplying the victualling,
and paying the wages of the workmen.
66. For employing poor artificers, and furnishing merchants
and others with watches.
67. For improvement of tillage and the breed of cattle.
68. Another for the improvement of our breed in horses.
69. Another for a horse-insurance.
70. For carrying on the corn trade of Great Britain.
71. For insuring to all masters and mistresses the losses
they may sustain by servants. Capital, three millions.
72. For erecting houses or hospitals for taking in and main-
taining illegitimate children. Capital, two millions.
BUBBLE CARDSi
TREE CARICATUEE
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 63
73. For bleaching coarse sugars, without the use of fire or
loss of substance.
74. For building turnpikes and wharfs in Great Britain.
75. For insuring from thefts and robberies.
76. For extracting silver from lead.
77. For making china and delft ware. Capital, one mil-
lion.
78. For importing tobacco, and exporting it again to
Sweden and the north of Europe. Capital, four millions.
79. For making iron with pit coal.
80. For furnishing the cities of London and Westminster
with hay and straw. Capital, three millions.
81. For a sail and packing-cloth manufactory in Ireland.
82. For taking up ballast.
831 For buying and fitting out ships to suppress pirates.
84. For the importation of timber from Wales. Capital,
two millions.
85. For rock-salt.
86. For the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable
fine metaL
Besides these bubbles, many others sprang up daily, in
spite of the condemnation of the government and the ridicule
of the still sane portion of the public. The print-shops teemed
with caricatures, and the newspapers with epigrams and
satires, upon the prevalent folly. An ingenious cardmaker
published a pack of South-Sea playing-cards, which are now
extremely rare, each card containing, besides the usual fig-
ures of a very small size, in one corner, a caricature of a
bubble company, with appropriate verses underneath. One of
the most famous bubbles was "Puckle's Machine Company,"
for discharging round and square cannon-balls and bullets,
and making a total revolution in the art of war. Its preten-
sions to public favour were thus summed up on the eight of
spades:
"A rare invention to destroy the crowd
Of fools at home instead of fools abroad.
Fear not, my friends, this terrible machine,
They're only wounded who have shares therein."
64 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
The nine of hearts was a caricature of the English Copper
and Brass Company, with the following epigram:
"The headlong fool that wants to be a swopper
Of gold and silver coin for English copper,
May, in Change Alley, prove himself an ass,
And give rich metal for adultrate brass."
The eight of diamonds celebrated the company for the
colonisation of Acadia, with this doggrel:
"He that is rich and wants to fool away
A good round sum in North America,
Let Mm subscribe himself a headlong sharer,
And asses' ears shall honour him or bearer."
And in a similar style every card of the pack exposed some
knavish scheme, and ridiculed the persons who were its dupes.
It was computed that the total amount of the sums proposed
for carrying on these projects was upwards of three hundred
millions sterling.
It is time, however, to return to the great South-Sea gulf,
that swallowed the fortunes of so many thousands of the
avaricious and the credulous. On the 29th of May, the stock
had risen as high as five hundred, and about two-thirds of the
government annuitants had exchanged the securities of the
state for those of the South-Sea company. During the whole
of the month of May the stock continued to rise, and on the
28th it was quoted at five hundred and fifty. In four days
after this it took a prodigious leap, rising suddenly from five
hundred and fifty to eight hundred and ninety. It was now
the general opinion that the stock could rise no higher, and
many persons took that opportunity of selling out, with a
view of realising their profits. Many noblemen and persons
in the train of the king, and about to accompany him to Han-
over, were also anxious to sell out. So many sellers, and so
few buyers, appeared in the Alley on the 3d of June, that
the stock fell at once from eight hundred and ninety to six
hundred and forty. The directors were alarmed, and gave
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 05
their agents orders to buy. Their efforts succeeded. Towards
evening, confidence was restored, and the stock advanced to
seven hundred and fifty. It continued at this price, with
some slight fluctuation, until the company closed their books
on the 22d of June.
It would be needless and uninteresting to detail the various
arts employed by the directors to keep up the price of stock.
It will be sufficient to state that it finally rose to one thousand
per cent. It was quoted at this price in the commencement
of August. The bubble was then full-blown, and began to
quiver and shake preparatory to its bursting.
Many of the government annuitants expressed dissatisfac-
tion against the directors. They accused them of partiality
in making out the lists for shares in each subscription. Fur-
ther uneasiness was occasioned by its being generally known
that Sir John Blunt the chairman, and some others, had sold
out. During the whole of the month of August the stock fell,
and on the 2d of September it was quoted at seven hundred
only.
The state of things now became alarming. To prevent, if
possible, the utter extinction of public confidence in their
proceedings, the directors summoned a general court of the
whole corporation, to meet in Merchant Tailors' Hall on the
8th of September. By nine o'clock in the morning, the room
was filled to suffocation; Cheapside was blocked up by a
crowd unable to gain admittance, and the greatest excitement
prevailed. The directors and their friends mustered in great
numbers* Sir John Fellowes, the sub-governor, was called to
the chair. He acquainted the assembly with the cause of their
meeting; read to them the several resolutions of the court of
directors, and gave them an account of their proceedings; of
the taking in the redeemable and unredeemable funds, and of
the subscriptions in money. Mr. Secretary Craggs then made
a short speech, wherein he commended the conduct of the
directors, and urged that nothing could more effectually con-
tribute to the bringing this scheme to perfection than union
among themselves. He concluded with a motion for thanking
the court of directors for their prudent and skilful manage-
66 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
ment, and for desiring them to proceed in such manner as they
should think most proper for the interest and advantage of the
corporation. Mr. Hungerford, who had rendered himself
very conspicuous in the House of Commons for his zea! in
behalf of the South-Sea company, and who was shrewdly sus-
pected to have been a considerable gainer by knowing the
right time to sell out, was very magniloquent on this occasion.
He said that he had seen the rise and fall, the decay and res-
urrection of many communities of this nature, but that, in his
opinion, none had ever performed such wonderful things in
so short a time as the South-Sea company. They had done
more than the crown, the pulpit, or the bench could do. They
had reconciled all parties in one common interest; they had
laid asleep, if not wholly extinguished, all the domestic jars
and animosities of the nation. By the rise of their stock,
monied men had vastly increased their fortunes ; country gen-
tlemen had seen the value of their lands doubled and trebled
in their hands. They had at the same time done good to the
Church, not a few of the reverend clergy having got great
sums by the project. In short, they had enriched the whole
nation, and he hoped they had not forgotten themselves.
There was some hissing at the latter part of this speech, which
for the extravagance of its eulogy was not far removed from
satire; but the directors and their friends, and all the winners
in the room, applauded vehemently. The Duke of Portland
spoke in a similar strain, and expressed his great wonder
why any body should be dissatisfied; of course, he was a win-
ner by his speculations, and in a condition similar to that of
the fat alderman in Joe Miller 7 s Jests, who, whenever he had
eaten a good dinner, folded his hands upon his paunch, and
expressed his doubts whether there could be a hungry man
in the world.
Several resolutions were passed at this meeting, but they
had no effect upon the public. Upon the very same evening
the stock fell to six hundred and forty, and on the morrow
to five hundred and forty. Day after day it continued to fall,
until it was as low as four hundred. In a letter dated Septem-
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 67
her 13th, from Mr. Broderlck, M.P., to Lord Chancellor Mid-
dleton, and published in Coxe 7 s Walpole, the former says:
"Various are the conjectures why the South-Sea directors have
suffered the cloud to break so early. I made no doubt but
they would do so when they found it to their advantage. They
have stretched credit so far beyond what it would bear, that
specie proves insufficient to support it. Their most consid-
erable men have drawn out, securing themselves by the losses
of the deluded ? thoughtless numbers, whose understandings
have been overruled by avarice and the hope of making moun-
tains out of mole-hills. Thousands of families will be reduced
to beggary. The consternation is inexpressible the rage be-
yond description, and the case altogether so desperate, that I
do not see any plan or scheme so much as thought of for
averting the blow; so that I cannot pretend to guess what is
next to be done." Ten days afterwards, the stock still fall-
ing, he writes : "The company have yet come to no determina-
tion, for they are in such a wood that they know not which
way to turn. By several gentlemen lately come to town, I
perceive the very name of a South-Sea-man grows abominable
in every country. A great many goldsmiths are already run
off, and more will daily. I question whether one-third, nay,
one-fourth of them can stand it. From the very beginning,
I founded my judgment of the whole affair upon the unques-
tionable maxim, that ten millions (which is more than our
running cash) could not circulate two hundred millions be-
yond which our paper credit extended. That, therefore, when-
ever that should become doubtful, be the cause what it would,
our noble state machine must inevitably fall to the ground."
On the 12th of September, at the earnest solicitation of
Mr. Secretary Craggs, several conferences were held between
the directors of the South Sea and the directors of the Bank.
A report which was circulated, that the latter had agreed to
circulate six millions of the South-Sea company's bonds,
caused the stock to rise to six hundred and seventy; but in
the afternoon, as soon as the report was known to be ground-
less, the stock fell again to five hundred and eighty; the next
68 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
day to five hundred and seventy, and so gradually to four
hundred.*
The ministry were seriously alarmed at the aspect of af-
fairs. The directors could not appear in the streets without
being insulted; dangerous riots were every moment appre-
hended. Despatches were sent off to the king at Hanover,
praying his immediate return. Mr. Walpole, who was stay-
ing at his country seat, was sent for, that he might employ Ms
known influence with the directors of the Bank of England to
induce them to accept the proposal made by the South-Sea
company for circulating a number of their bonds.
The Bank was very unwilling to mix itself up with the
affairs of the company; it dreaded being involved in calami-
ties which it could not relieve, and received all overtures with
visible reluctance. But the universal voice of the nation
called upon it to come to the rescue. Every person of note
in commercial politics was called in to advise in the emer-
gency. A rough draft of a contract drawn up by Mr. Walpole
was ultimately adopted as the basis of further negotiations,
and the public alarm abated a little.
On the following day, the 20th of September, a general
court of the South-Sea company was held at Merchant Tail-
ors' Hall, in which resolutions were carried, empowering the
directors to agree with the Bank of England, or any other per-
sons, to circulate the company's bonds, or make any other
agreement with the Bank which they should think proper.
One of the speakers, a Mr. Pulteney, said it was most sur-
prising to see the extraordinary panic which had seized upon
the people. Men were running to and fro in alarm and terror,
*Gay (the poet), in that disastrous year, had a present from young
Craggs of some South-Sea stock, and once supposed himself to be master of
twenty thousand pounds. His friends persuaded him to sell his share, but
he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct his
own fortune. He was then importuned to sell as much as would purchase
a hundred a year for life, "which," says Fenton, "will make you sure of a
clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day." This counsel was rejected;
the profit and principal were lost, and Gay sunk under the calamity so low
that his life became in danger.-^ Johnson's Lives of the Poets.
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 69
their imaginations filled with some great calamity, the form
and dimensions of which nobody knew:
"Black it stood as night
Fierce as ten furies terrible as hell."
At a general court of the Bank of England, held two days
afterwards, the governor informed them of the several meet-
ings that had been held on the affairs of the South-Sea com-
pany, adding that the directors had not yet thought fit to
come to any decision upon the matter. A resolution was then
proposed, and carried without a dissentient voice, empower-
ing the directors to agree with those of the South-Sea to cir-
culate their bonds, to what sum, and upon what terms, and
for what time, they might think proper.
Thus both parties were at liberty to act as they might judge
best for the public interest. Books were opened at the Bank
for a subscription of three millions for the support of public
credit, on the usual terms of 151. per cent deposit, 3. per cent
premium, and 51. per cent interest. So great was the concourse
of people in the early part of the morning, all eagerly bring-
ing their money, that it was thought the subscription would be
filled that day; but before noon the tide turned. In spite of
all that could be done to prevent it, the South-Sea company's
stock fell rapidly. Their bonds were in such discredit, that
a run commenced upon the most eminent goldsmiths and
bankers, some of whom, having lent out great sums upon
South-Sea stock, were obliged to shut up their shops and
abscond. The Sword-blade company, who had hitherto been
the chief cashiers of the South-Sea company, stopped pay-
ment. This being looked upon as but the beginning of evil,
occasioned a great run upon the bank, who were now obliged
to pay out money much faster than they had received it upon
the subscription in the morning. The day succeeding was a
holiday (the 29th of September), and the Bank had a little
breathing time. They bore up against the storm; but their
former rivals, the South-Sea company, were wrecked upon it.
Their stock fell to one hundred and fifty, and gradually, after
various fluctuations, to one hundred and thirty-five.
70 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
The Bank finding they were not able to restore public con-
fidence, and stem the tide of rain, without running the risk
of being swept away with those they intended to save, de-
clined to carry out the agreement into which they had par-
tially entered. They were under no obligation whatever to
continue; for the so-called Bank contract was nothing more
than the rough draft of an agreement, in which blanks had
been left for several important particulars, and which con-
tained no penalty for their secession. "And thus/ 7 to use the
words of the Parliamentary History, "were seen, in the space
of eight months, the rise, progress, and fall of that mighty
fabric, which, being wound up by mysterious springs to a
wonderful height, had fixed the eyes and expectations of all
Europe, but whose foundation, being fraud, illusion, credulity,
and infatuation, fell to the ground as soon as the artful man-
agement of its directors was discovered."
In the hey-day of its blood, during the progress of this dan-
gerous delusion, the manners of the nation became sensibly
corrupted. The parliamentary inquiry , set on foot to discover
the delinquents, disclosed scenes of infamy, disgraceful alike
to the morals of the offenders and the intellects of the people
among whom they had arisen. It is a deeply interesting study
to investigate all the evils that were the result. Nations, like
individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity.
Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later. A cele-
brated writer* is quite wrong when he says "that such an era
as this is the most unfavourable for a historian; that no reader
of sentiment and imagination can be entertained or interested
by a detail of transactions such as these, which admit of no
warmth, no colouring, no embellishment; a detail of which
only serves to exhibit an inanimate picture of tasteless vice
and mean degeneracy." On the contrary, and Smollett
might have discovered it, if he had been in the humour, the
subject is capable of inspiring as much interest as even a nov-
elist can desire. Is there no warmth in the despair of a plun-
dered people? no life and animation in the picture which
* Smollett.
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 71
might be drawn of the woes of hundreds of Impoverished and
ruined families? of the wealthy of yesterday become the beg-
gars of to-day? of the powerful and Influential changed Into
exiles and outcasts, and the voice of self-reproach and Impre-
cation resounding from every corner of the land? Is It a dull
or uninstructive picture to see a whole people shaking sud-
denly off the trammels of reason, and running wild after a
golden vision, refusing obstinately to believe that it is not
real, till, like a deluded hind running after an ignis fatuus,
they are plunged Into a quagmire? But In this false spirit
has history too often been written. The intrigues of un-
worthy courtiers to gain the favour of still more unworthy
kings, or the records of murderous battles and sieges, have
been dilated on, and told over and over again, with all the
eloquence of style and all the charms of fancy; while the cir-
cumstances which have most deeply affected the morals and
welfare of the people have been passed over with but slight
notice, as dry and dull, and capable of neither warmth nor
colouring.
During the progress of this famous bubble, England pre-
sented a singular spectacle. The public mind was in a state
of unwholesome fermentation. Men were no longer satis-
fied with the slow but sure profits of cautious industry. The
hope of boundless wealth for the morrow made them heedless
and extravagant for to-day. A luxury, till then unheard of,
was introduced, bringing in its train a corresponding laxity
of morals. The overbearing insolence of ignorant men, who
had arisen to sudden wealth by successful gambling, made
men of true gentility of mind and manners blush that gold
should have power to raise the unworthy in the scale of so-
ciety. The haughtiness of some of these "cyphering cits/' as
they were termed by Sir Richard Stede, was remembered
against them in the day of their adversity. In the parlia-
mentary inquiry, many of the directors suffered more for their
insolence than for their peculation. One of them, who, in
the full-blown pride of an ignorant rich man, had said that
he would feed his horse upon gold, was reduced almost to
bread and water for himself; every haughty look, every over-
72 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
bearing speech, was set down, and repaid tliem a hundredfold
in poverty and humiliation.
The state of matters all over the country was so alarming,
that George I. shortened his intended stay in Hanover, and
returned in all haste to England. He arrived on the llth of
November, and parliament was summoned to meet on the
8th of December. In the mean time, public meetings were
held in every considerable town of the empire, at which peti-
tions were adopted, praying the vengeance of the legislature
upon the South-Sea directors, who, by their fraudulent prac-
tices, had brought the nation to the brink of ruin. Nobody
seemed to imagine that the nation itself was as culpable as
the South-Sea company. Nobody blamed the credulity and
avarice of the people the degrading lust of gain, which had
swallowed up every nobler quality in the national character,
or the infatuation which had made the multitude run their
heads with such frantic eagerness into the net held out for
them by scheming projectors. These things were never men-
tioned. The people were a simple, honest, hard-working peo-
ple, ruined by a gang of robbers, who were to be hanged,
drawn, and quartered without mercy.
This was the almost unanimous feeling of the country. The
two Houses of Parliament were not more reasonable. Before
the guilt of the South-Sea directors was known, punishment
was the only cry. The king, in his speech from the throne,
expressed his hope that they would remember that all their
prudence, temper, and resolution were necessary to find out
and apply the proper remedy for their misfortunes. In the
debate on the answer to the address, several speakers indulged
in the most violent invectives against the directors of the
South-Sea project. The Lord Molesworth was particularly
vehement.
"It had been said by some, that there was no law to punish
the directors of the South-Sea company, who were justly
looked upon as the authors of the present misfortunes of the
state. In his opinion, they ought upon this occasion to fol-
low the example of the ancient Romans, who, having no law
against parricide, because their legislators supposed no son
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 73
could be so unnaturally wicked as to embrue Ms hands in his
father's blood, made a law to punish this heinous crime as
soon as it was committed. They adjudged the guilty wretch
to be sewn in a sack, and thrown alive into the Tiber. He
looked upon the contrivers and executors of the villanous
South-Sea scheme as the parricides of their country, and
should be satisfied to see them tied in like manner in sacks,
and thrown into the Thames. 73 Other members spoke with
as much want of temper and discretion. Mr. Walpole was
more moderate. He recommended that their first care should
be to restore public credit. "If the city of London were on
fire, all wise men would aid in extinguishing the flames, and
preventing the spread of the conflagration, before they in-
quired after the incendiaries. Public credit had received a
dangerous wound, and lay bleeding, and they ought to apply
a speedy remedy to it. It was time enough to punish the
assassin afterwards." On the 9th of December, an address,
in answer to his majesty's speech, was agreed upon, after an
amendment, which was carried without a division, that words
should be added expressive of the determination of the House
not only to seek a remedy for the national distresses, but to
punish the authors of them.
The inquiry proceeded rapidly. The directors were ordered
to lay before the House a full account of all their proceedings.
Resolutions were passed to the effect that the calamity was
mainly owing to the vile arts of stock-jobbers, and that nothing
could tend more to the re-establishment of public credit than
a law to prevent this infamous practice. Mr. Walpole then
rose, and said, that "as he had previously hinted, he had
spent some time upon a scheme for restoring public credit,
but that the execution of it depending upon a position which
had been laid down as fundamental, he thought it proper,
before he opened out Ms scheme, to be informed whether he
might rely upon that foundation. It was, whether the sub-
scription of public debts and encumbrances, money subscrip-
tions, and other contracts, made with the South-Sea company,
should remain in the present state?" This question occasioned
an animated debate. It was finally agreed, by a majority of
74 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
259 against 117, that all these contracts should remain in
their present state, unless altered for the relief of the pro-
prietors by a general court of the South-Sea company, or set
aside by due course of law. On the following day, Mr. Wai-
pole laid before a committee of the whole house his scheme
for the restoration of public credit, which was, in substance,
to engraft nine millions of South-Sea Stock into the Bank of
England, and the same sum into the East India company upon
certain conditions. The plan was favourably received by the-
House. After some few objections, it was ordered that pro-
posals should be received from the two great corporations.
They were both unwilling to lend their aid, and the plan met
with a warm but fruitless opposition at the general courts
summoned for the purpose of deliberating upon it. They,
however, ultimately agreed upon the terms on which they
would consent to circulate the South-Sea bonds, and their
report being presented to the committee, a bill was brought
in under the superintendence of Mr. Walpole, and safely car-
ried through both Houses of Parliament.
A bill was at the same time brought in for restraining the
South-Sea directors, governor, sub-governor, treasurer, cash-
ier, and clerks from leaving the kingdom for a twelvemonth,
and for discovering their estates and effects, and preventing
them from transporting or alienating the same. All the most
influential members of the House supported the bill. Mr.
Shippen, seeing Mr. Secretary Craggs in his place, and be-
lieving the injurious rumours that were afloat of that min-
ister^ conduct in the South-Sea business, determined to touch
Mm to the quick. He said he was glad to see a British House
of Commons resuming its pristine vigour and spirit, and acting
with so much unanimity for the public good. It was neces-
sary to secure the persons and estates of the South-Sea direc-
tors and their officers; "but," he added, looking fixedly at Mr.
Craggs as he spoke, "there were other men in high station,
whom, in time, he would not be afraid to name, who were no
less guilty than the directors." Mr. Craggs arose in great
wrath, and said, that if the inuendo were directed against
him, he was ready to give satisfaction to any man who ques-
IJi bUUIM-bAA JBUJ&bJUb 75
tloned him, either in the House or out of it. Loud cries of
order immediately arose on every side. In the midst of the
uproar. Lord Molesworth got up, and expressed his wonder
at the boldness of Mr. Craggs in challenging the whole House
of Commons. He, Lord Molesworth, though somewhat old,
past sixty, would answer Mr. Craggs whatever he had to say
in the House, and he trusted there were plenty of young men
beside him, who would not be afraid to look Mr. Craggs in
the face out of the House. The cries of order again resounded
from every side; the members arose simultaneously; every-
body seemed to be vociferating at once. The Speaker in vain
called order. The confusion lasted several minutes, during
which Lord Molesworth and Mr. Craggs were almost the only
members who kept their seats. At last, the call for Mr.
Craggs became so violent, that he thought proper to submit
to the universal feeling of the House, and explain his unpar-
liamentary expression. He said, that by giving satisfaction to
the impugners of Ms conduct in that House, he did not mean
that he would fight, but that he would explain his conduct.
Here the matter ended, and the House proceeded to debate
in what manner they should conduct their inquiry into the
affairs of the South-Sea company, whether in a grand or a
select committee. Ultimately, a secret committee of thirteen
was appointed, with power to send for persons, papers, and
records.
The Lords were as zealous and as hasty as the Commons.
The Bishop of Rochester said the scheme had been like a
pestilence. The Duke of Wharton said the House ought to
shew no respect of persons; that, for his part, he would give
up the dearest friend he had, if he had been engaged in the
project. The nation had been plundered in a most shameful
and flagrant manner, and he would go as far as anybody in
the punishment of the offenders. Lord Stanhope said, that
every farthing possessed by the criminals, whether directors
or not directors, ought to be confiscated, to make good the
public losses.
During all this time the public excitement was extreme.
We learn from Coxe's Walpole, that the very name of a South-
76 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Sea director was thought to be synonymous with every species
of fraud and villany. Petitions from counties, cities, and bor-
oughs, in all parts of the kingdom, were presented, crying
for the justice due to an injured nation and the punishment
of the vfllanous peculators. Those moderate men, who would
not go to extreme lengths, even in the punishment of the
guilty, were accused of being accomplices, were exposed to
repeated insults and virulent invectives, and devoted, both in
anonymous letters and public writings, to the speedy ven-
geance of an injured people. The accusations against Mr.
Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. Craggs, an-
other member of the ministry, were so loud, that the House
of Lords resolved to proceed at once into the investigation
concerning them. It was ordered, on the 21st of January,
that all brokers concerned in the South-Sea scheme should
lay before the House an account of the stock or subscriptions
bought or sold by them for any of the officers of the Treasury
or Exchequer, or in trust for any of them, since Michaelmas
1719. When this account was delivered, it appeared that
large quantities of stock had been transferred to the use of
Mr. Aislabie. Five of the South-Sea directors, including Mr,
Edward Gibbon, the grandfather of the celebrated historian,
were ordered into the custody of the black rod. Upon a
motion made by Earl Stanhope, it was unanimously resolved,
that the taking in or giving credit for stock without a valu-
able consideration actually paid or sufficiently secured; or
the purchasing stock by any director or agent of the South-
Sea company, for the use or benefit of any member of the
administration, or any member of either House of Parlia-
ment, during such time as the South-Sea bill was yet pending
in Parliament, was a notorious and dangerous corruption.
Another resolution was passed a few days afterwards, to the
effect that several of the directors and officers of the com-
pany having, in a clandestine manner, sold their own stock to
the company, had been guilty of a notorious fraud and breach
of trust, and had thereby mainly caused the unhappy turn of
affairs that had so much affected public credit. Mr. Aislabie
resigned his office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and ab-
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 77
sented himself from parliament, until the formal inquiry into
his individual guilt was brought under the consideration of
the legislature.
In the mean time. Knight, the treasurer of the company,
and who was entrusted with all the dangerous secrets of the
dishonest directors, packed up his books and documents and
made Ms escape from the country. He embarked in disguise,
in a small boat on the river, and proceeding to a vessel hired
for the purpose, was safely conveyed to Calais. The Com-
mittee of Secrecy informed the House of the circumstance,
when it was resolved unanimously that two addresses should
be presented to the king; the first praying that he would
issue a proclamation offering a reward for the apprehension
of Knight; and the second, that he would give immediate
orders to stop the ports, and to take effectual care of the
coasts, to prevent the said Knight, or any other officers of
the South-Sea company, from escaping out of the kingdom.
The ink* was hardly dry upon these addresses before they
were carried to the king by Mr. Methuen, deputed by the
House for that purpose. The same evening a royal proclama-
tion was issued, offering a reward of two thousand pounds for
the apprehension of Knight. The Commons ordered the
doors of the House to be locked, and the keys to be placed on
the table. General Ross, one of the members of the Commit-
tee of Secrecy, acquainted them that they had already discov-
ered a train of the deepest viHany and fraud that hell had
ever contrived to ruin a nation, which in due time they would
lay before the House. In the mean time, in order to a further
discovery, the Committee thought it highly necessary to se-
cure the persons of some of the directors and principal South-
Sea officers, and to seize their papers. A motion to this effect
having been made, was carried unanimously. Sir Robert
Chaplin, Sir Theodore Janssen, Mr. Sawbridge, and Mr.
F. Eyles, members of the House, and directors of the South-
Sea company, were summoned to appear in their places, and
answer for their corrupt practices. Sir Theodore Janssen
and Mr. Sawbridge answered to their names, and endeavoured
to exculpate themselves. The House heard them patiently,
78 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
and then ordered them to withdraw. A motion was then
made, and carried nemine contradicente, that they had been
guilty of a notorious breach of trust had occasioned much
loss to great numbers of his majesty's subjects, and had highly
prejudiced the public credit. It was then ordered that, for
their offence, they should be expelled the House, and taken
into custody of the sergeant-at-arms. Sir Robert Chaplin and
Mr. Eyles, attending in their places four days afterwards,
were also expelled the House. It was resolved at the same
time to address the king to give directions to his ministers at
foreign courts to make application for Knight, that he might
be delivered up to the English authorities, in case he took
refuge in any of their dominions. The king at once agreed,
and messengers were despatched to all parts of the continent
the same night.
Among the directors taken into custody was Sir John Blunt,
the man whom popular opinion has generally accused of
having been the original author and father of the scheme.
This man, we are informed by Pope, in his epistle to Allen
Lord Bathurst, was a Dissenter, of a most religious deport-
ment, and professed to be a great believer.* He constantly
declaimed against the luxury and corruption of the age, the
partiality of parliaments, and the misery of party-spirit. He
*"'God cannot love/ says Blunt, with tearless eyes,
f The wretch he starves/ and piously denies
Much-injur'd Blunt! why bears he Britain's hate?
A wizard told him in these words our fate :
*At length corruption, like a general flood,
So long by watchful ministers withstood,
Shall deluge all; and avarice, creeping on,
Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun; &
Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks,
Peeress and butler share alike the box,
And judges job, and bishops bite the town,
And mighty dukes pack cards for half-a-erown :
See Britain sunk in Lucre's sordid charms
And France revenged on Anne's and Edward's arms!' . .
Twas no court-badge, great Scrivener ! fir'd thy brain, .
Nor lordly luxury, nor city gain:
No, 'twas thy righteous end, asham'd to see
Senates degen'rate, patriots disagree,
And nobly wishing party-rage to cease,
To buy both sides, and give thy country peace."
Pope's Epistle to Allen Lord Batkurst.
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 79
was particularly eloquent against avarice in great and noble
persons. He was originally a scrivener, and afterwards be-
came not only a director, but the most active manager of the
South-Sea company. Whether it was during his career in this
capacity that he first began to declaim against the avarice of
the great, we are not informed. He certainly must have
seen enough of it to justify Ms severest anathema; but if the
preacher had himself been free from the vice he condemned,
his declamations would have had a better effect. He was
brought up in custody to the bar of the House of Lords, and
underwent a long examination. He refused to answer several
important questions. He said he had been examined already
by a committee of the House of Commons, and as he did
not remember his answers, and might contradict himself, he
refused to answer before another tribunal. This declaration,
in itself an indirect proof of guilt, occasioned some commo-
tion in the House. He was again asked peremptorily whether
he had ever sold any portion of the stock to any member of
the administration^ or any member of either House of Par-
liament, to facilitate the passing of the bill. He again
declined to answer. He was anxious, he said, to treat
the House with all possible respect, but he thought it
hard to be compelled to accuse himself. After several ineffec-
tual attempts to refresh his memory, he was directed to with-
draw. A violent discussion ensued between the friends and
opponents of the ministry. It was asserted that the admin-
istration were no strangers to the convenient taciturnity of Sir
John Blunt. The Duke of Wharton made a reflection upon
the Earl Stanhope, which the latter warmly resented. He
spoke under great excitement, and with such vehemence as to
cause a sudden determination of blood to the head. He felt
himself so ill that he was obliged to leave the House and
retire to his chamber. He was cupped immediately, and also
let blood on the following morning, but with slight relief.
The fatal result was not anticipated. Towards evening he
became drowsy, and turning himself on his face, expired. The
sudden death of this statesman caused great grief to the na-
80 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
tion. George I. was exceedingly affected, and shut himself
up for some hours in Ms closet, inconsolable for his loss.
Knight, the treasurer of the company, was apprehended at
Tirlemont, near Liege, by one of the secretaries of Mr.
Leathes, the British resident at Brussels, and lodged in the
citadel of Antwerp. Repeated applications were made to the
court of Austria to deliver him up, but in vain. Knight threw
himself upon the protection of the states of Brabant, and de-
manded to be tried in that country. It was a privilege granted
to the states of Brabant by one of the articles of the Joyeuse
Entree, that every criminal apprehended in that country
should be tried in that country. The states insisted on their
privilege, and refused to deliver Knight to the British authori-
ties. The latter did not cease their solicitations; but in the
mean time, Knight escaped from the citadel.
On the 16th of February the Committee of Secrecy made
their first report to the House. They stated that their inquiry
had been attended with numerous difficulties and embarrass-
ments; every one they had examined had endeavoured, as
far as in Mm lay, to defeat the ends of justice. In some of the
books produced before them, false and fictitious entries had
been made; in others, there were entries of money with blanks
for the name of the stockholders. There were frequent era-
sures and alterations, and in some of the books leaves were
torn out. They also found that some books of great importance
had been destroyed altogether, and that some had been taken
away or secreted. At the very entrance into their inquiry,
they had observed that the matters referred to them were of
great variety and extent. Many persons had been entrusted
with various parts in the execution of the law, and under
colour thereof had acted in an unwarrantable manner, in dis-
posing of the properties of many thousands of persons
amounting to many millions of money. They discovered that,
before the South-Sea Act was passed, there was an entry in
the company's books of the sum of 1,259,325/., upon account
of stock stated to have been sold to the amount of 574,500^
TMs stock was all fictitious, and had been disposed of with a
view to promote the passing of the bill. It was noted as sold
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 8 1
on various days, and at various prices, from 150 to 325 per
cent. Being surprised to see so large an account disposed of
at a time when the company were not empowered to increase
their capital, the Committee determined to investigate most
carefully the whole transaction. The governor, sub-governor,
and several directors were brought before them, and examined
rigidly. They found that, at the time these entries were made,
the company was not in possession of such a quantity of stock,
having in their own right only a small quantity, not exceeding
thirty thousand pounds at the utmost. Pursuing the inquiry,
they found that this amount of stock was to be esteemed as
taken in or holden by the company for the benefit of the
pretended purchasers, although no mutual agreement was
made for its delivery or acceptance at any certain time. No
money was paid down, nor any deposit or security whatever
given to the company by the supposed purchasers; so that
if the stock had fallen, as might have been expected had the
act not passed, they would have sustained no loss. If, on the
contrary, the price of stock advanced (as it actually did by
the success of the scheme), the difference by the advanced
price was to be made good to them. Accordingly, after the
passing of the act, the account of stock was made up and
adjusted with Mr. Knight, and the pretended purchasers were
paid the difference out of the company's cash. This fictitious
stock, which had been chiefly at the disposal of Sir John Blunt,
Mr. Gibbon, and Mr. Knight, was distributed among several
members of the government and their connexions, by way of
bribe, to facilitate the passing of the bill. To the Earl of
Sunderland was assigned 50,OOOZ. of this stock; to the Duchess
of Kendal, 10,OOOZ.; to the Countess of Platen, 10,000^; to
her two nieces, 10,OOOZ.; to Mr. Secretary Craggs, 30,OOOZ.; to
Mr. Charles Stanhope (one of the secretaries of the Treas-
ury), 10,00(K; to the Sword-blade company, 50,000^ It also
appeared that Mr. Stanhope had received the enormous sum
of 250,QOO. as the difference in the price of some stock,
through the hands of Turner, Caswall, and Co., but that his
name had been partly erased from their books, and altered to
Stangape. Aislabie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had
82 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
made profits still more abominable. He had an account with
the same firm, who were also South-Sea directors, to the
amount of 794,45 If. He had, besides, advised the company
to make their second subscription one million and a half, in-
stead of a million, by their own authority, and without any
warrant. The third subscription had been conducted in a
manner as disgraceful. Mr. Aislabie's name was down for
70,OQO/.; Mr. Craggs, senior, for 659,000/.; the Earl of Sun-
derland's for 160,000/.; and Mr. Stanhope for 47,000/. This re-
port was succeeded by six others, less important. At the end
of the last, the committee declared, that the absence of Knight,
who had been principally entrusted, prevented them from
carrying on their inquiries.
The first report was ordered to be printed, and taken into
consideration on the next day but one succeeding. After a
very angry and animated debate, a series of resolutions were
agreed to, condemnatory of the conduct of the directors, of
the members of the parliament and of the administration con-
cerned with them; and declaring that they ought, each and
all, to make satisfaction out of their own estates for the injury
they had done the public. Their practices were declared to
be corrupt, infamous, and dangerous; and a bill was ordered
to be brought in for the relief of the unhappy sufferers.
Mr. Charles Stanhope was the first person brought to ac-
count for his share in these transactions. He urged in his
defence that, for some years past, he had lodged all the money
he was possessed of in Mr. Knight's hands, and whatever
stock Mr. Knight had taken in for him, he had paid a valu-
able consideration for it. As for the stock that had been
bought for him by Turner, Caswall, and Co., he knew nothing
about it. Whatever had been done in that matter was done
without his authority, and he could not be responsible for it.
Turner and Co. took the latter charge upon themselves; but
it was notorious to every unbiassed and unprejudiced person
that Mr. Stanhope was a gainer qf the 250,000/. which lay in
the hands of that firm, to his credit. He was, however, ac-
quitted by a majority of three only. The greatest exertions
were made to screen him. Lord Stanhope, the son of the
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 83
Earl of Chesterfield; went round to the wavering members^
using all the eloquence he was possessed of to induce them
either to vote for the acquittal, or to absent themselves from
the House. Many weak-headed country gentlemen were led
astray by his persuasions, and the result was as already
stated. The acquittal caused the greatest discontent through-
out the country. Mobs of a menacing character assembled
in different parts of London; fears of riots were generally
entertained, especially as the examination of a still greater
delinquent was expected by many to have a similar termina-
tion. Mr. Aislabie, whose high office and deep responsibilities
should have kept him honest, even had native principle been
insufficient, was very justly regarded as perhaps the greatest
criminal of all. His case was entered into on the day suc-
ceeding the acquittal of Mr. Stanhope. Great excitement pre-
vailed, and the lobbies and avenues of the House were beset
by crowds impatient to know the result. The debate lasted
the whole day. Mr. Aislabie found few friends: his guilt
was so apparent and so heinous that nobody had courage to
stand up in his favour. It was finally resolved, without a
dissentient voice, that Mr. Aislabie had encouraged and pro-
moted the destructive execution of the South-Sea scheme
with a view to his own exorbitant profit, and had combined
with the directors- in their pernicious practices, to the ruin of
the public trade and credit of the kingdom: that he should for
his offences be ignominiously expelled from the House of
Commons, and committed a close prisoner to the Tower of
London; that he should be restrained from going out of the
kingdom for a whole year, or till the end of the next session
of parliament; and that he should make out a correct account
of all his estate, in order that it might be applied to the relief
of those who had suffered by his mal-practices.
This verdict caused the greatest joy. Though it was deliv-
ered at half -past twelve at night, it soon spread over the city.
Several persons illuminated their houses in token of their joy.
On the following day, when Mr. Aislabie was conveyed to the
Tower, the mob assembled on Tower-hill with the intention
of hooting and pelting him. Not succeeding in this, they
84 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
kindled a large bonfire, and danced around it in the exuber-
ance of their delight. Several bonfires were made in other
places; London presented the appearance of a holiday, and
people congratulated one another as if they had just escaped
from some great calamity. The rage upon the acquittal of
Mr. Stanhope had grown to such a height, that none could
tell where it would have ended, had Mr. Aislabie met with the
like indulgence.
To increase the public satisfaction, Sir George Caswall, of
the firm of Turner, Caswall, and Co., was expelled from the
House on the following day, committed to the Tower, and
ordered to refund the sum of 250,00(K
That part of the report of the Committee of Secrecy which
related to the Earl of Sunderland was next taken into consid-
eration. Every effort was made to clear his lordship from
the imputation. As the case against him rested chiefly on
the evidence extorted from Sir John Blunt, great pains were
taken to make it appear that Sir John's word was not to be
believed, especially in a matter affecting the honour of a peer
and privy councillor. All the friends of the ministry rallied
around the earl, it being generally reported that a verdict of
guilty against him would bring a Tory ministry into power.
He was eventually acquitted by a majority of 233 against
172; but the country was convinced of his guilt. The great-
est indignation was everywhere expressed, and menacing mobs
again assembled in London. Happily no disturbance took
place.
This was the day on which Mr. Craggs the elder expired.
The morrow had been appointed for the consideration of his
case. It was very generally believed that he had poisoned
himself. It appeared, however, that grief for the loss of his
son, one of the secretaries of the Treasury, who had died five
weeks previously of the small-pox, preyed much on his mind.
For this son, dearly beloved, he had been amassing vast
heaps of riches: he had been getting money, but not honestly;
and he for whose sake he had bartered his honour and sullied
his fame was now no more. The dread of further exposure
increased Ms trouble of mind, and ultimately brought on an
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 85
apoplectic fit, in which he expired. He left a fortune of a
million and a half, wMch was afterwards confiscated for the
benefit of the sufferers by the unhappy delusion he had been
so mainly instrumental in raising.
One by one the case of every director of the company was
taken into consideration. A sum amounting to two millions
and fourteen thousand pounds was confiscated from their
estates towards repairing the mischief they had done, each
man being allowed a certain residue in proportion to Ms con-
duct and circumstances, with which he might begin the world
anew. Sir John Blunt was only allowed 500Q/. out of Ms for-
tune of upwards of 183,000?.; Sir John Fellows was allowed
10,000 J. out of 243,000?.; Sir Theodore Janssen, 50,QOQ/. out
of 243,000?.; Mr. Edward Gibbon, 10,000?. out of 106,000?.;
Sir John Lambert, 5QOO/. out of 72,000/. Others, less deeply
involved, were treated with greater liberality. Gibbon, the
Mstorian, whose grandfather was the Mr. Edward Gibbon so
severe ly mulcted, has given, in the Memoirs 0/ his Life and
Writings, an interesting account of the proceedings in parlia-
ment at this time. He owns that he is not an unprejudiced
witness; but, as all the writers from wMch it is possible to
extract any notice of the proceedings of these disastrous years
were prejudiced on the other side, the statements of the great
Mstorian become of additional value. If only on the principle
of audi alteram partem, his opinion is entitled to considera-
tion. "In the year 1716," he says, "my grandfather was
elected one of the directors of the South-Sea company, and his
books exMbited the proof that before his acceptance of that
fatal office, he had acquired an independent fortune of 60,000?.
But his fortune was overwhelmed in the shipwreck of the year
1720, and the labours of thirty years were blasted in a single
day. ' Of the use or abuse of the South-Sea scheme, of the guilt
or innocence of my grandfather and Ms brother directors, I
am neither a competent nor a disinterested judge. Yet the
equity of modern times must condemn the violent and arbi-
trary proceedings, which would have disgraced the cause of
justice, and rendered injustice still more odious. No sooner
had the nation awakened from its golden dream, than a popu-
86 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
lar and even a parliamentary clamour demanded Its victims;
but It was acknowledged on all sides, that the directors, how-
ever guilty, could not be touched by any known laws of the
land. The intemperate notions of Lord Molesworth were not
literally acted on; but a bill of pains and penalties was intro-
duced a retroactive statute, to punish the offences which did
not exist at the time they were committed. The legislature
restrained the persons of the directors, imposed an exorbitant
security for their appearance, and marked their character with
a previous note of ignominy. They were compelled to deliver,
upon oath, the strict value of their estates, and were disabled
from making any transfer or alienation of any part of their
property. Against a bill of pains and penalties, it is the com-
mon right of every subject to be heard by his counsel at the
bar. They prayed to be heard. Their prayer was refused,
and their oppressors, who required no evidence, would listen to
no defence. It had been at first proposed, that one-eighth of
their respective estates should be allowed for the future sup-
port of the directors; but it was especially urged that, in the
various shades of opulence and guilt, such a proportion would
be too light for many, and for some might possibly be too
heavy. The character and conduct of each man were sep-
arately weighed; but, instead of the calm solemnity of a ju-
dicial inquiry, the fortune and honour of thirty-three English-
men were made the topics of hasty conversation, the sport of
a lawless majority; and the basest member of the committee,
by a malicious word or a silent vote, might indulge his general
spleen or personal animosity. Injury was aggravated by in-
sult, and insult was embittered by pleasantry. Allowances of
201. or Is. were facetiously moved. A vague report that a
director had formerly been concerned in another project, by
which some unknown persons had lost their money, was ad-
mitted as a proof of his actual guilt. One man was ruined
because he had dropped a foolish speech, that his horses should
feed upon gold; another, because he was grown so proud, that
one day, at the Treasury, he had refused a civil answer to
persons much above him. All were condemned, absent and
unheard, in arbitrary fines and forfeitures, which swept away
THE SOUTH-SEA BUBBLE 87
the greatest part of their substance. Such bold oppression can
scarcely be shielded by the omnipotence of parliament. My
grandfather could not expect to be treated with more lenity
than his companions. His Tory principles and connexions
rendered him obnoxious to the ruling powers. His name was
reported in a suspicious secret. His well-known abilities could
not plead the excuse of ignorance or error* In the first pro-
ceedings against the South-Sea directors, Mr. Gibbon was one
of the first taken into custody, and in the final sentence the
measure of his fine proclaimed him eminently guilty. The
total estimate, which he delivered on oath to the House of
Commons, amounted to 106,543^. 5s. 6d., exclusive of ante-
cedent settlements. Two different allowances of 15,000/. and
of 10,OOQ/. were moved for Mr. Gibbon; but on the question
being put, it was carried without a division for the smaller
sum. On these ruins, with the skill and credit of which par-
liament had not been able to despoil Mm, my grandfather, at
a mature age, erected the edifice of a new fortune. The la-
bours of sixteen years were amply rewarded; and I have rea-
son to believe that the second structure was not much inferior
to the first."
The next consideration of the legislature, after the punish-
ment of the directors, was to restore public credit. The scheme
of Walpole had been found insufficient, and had fallen into dis-
repute. A computation was made of the whole capital stock
of the South-Sea company at the end of the year 1720. It
was found to amount to thirty-seven millions eight hundred
thousand pounds, of which the stock allotted to all the pro-
prietors only amounted to twenty-four millions five hundred
thousand pounds. The remainder of thirteen millions three
hundred thousand pounds belonged to the company in their
corporate capacity, and was the profit they had made by the
national delusion. Upwards of eight millions of this were
taken from the company, and divided among the proprietors
and subscribers generally, making a dividend of about 33L 6s.
8>d. per cent. This was a great relief. It was further ordered,
that such persons as had borrowed money from the South-Sea
company upon stock actually transferred and pledged at the
88 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
time of borrowing to or for the use of the company, should be
free from all demands, upon payment of ten per cent of the
sums so borrowed. They had lent about eleven millions in
this manner, at a time when prices were unnaturally raised;
and they now received back one million one hundred thousand,
when prices had sunk to their ordinary level.
But it was a long time before public credit was thoroughly
restored. Enterprise, like Icarus, had soared too high, and
melted the wax of her wings; like Icarus, she had fallen into
a sea, and learned, while floundering in its waves, that her
proper element was the solid ground. She has never since
attempted so high a flight.
In times of great commercial prosperity there has been a
tendency to over-speculation on several occasions since then.
The success of one project generally produces others of a
similar kind. Popular imitativeness will always, in a trading
nation, seize hold of such successes, and drag a community too
anxious for profits into an abyss from which extrication is
difficult. Bubble companies, of a kind similar to those en-
gendered by the South-Sea project, lived their little day in the
famous year of the panic, 1825. On that occasion, as in 1720,
knavery gathered a rich harvest from cupidity, but both suf-
fered when the day of reckoning came. The schemes of the
year 1836 threatened, at one time, results as disastrous; but
they were happily averted before it was too late.*
*The South-Sea project remained until 1845 the greatest example in
British history of the infatuation of the people for commercial gambling.
The first edition of these volumes was published some time before the out-
break of the Great Bailway Mania of that and the following year.
THE TULIPOMANIA
Quis furor, 6 cives! Lucan.
THE tulip so named, It is said, from a Turkish word, sig-
nifying a turban was introduced into western Europe about
the middle of the sixteenth century. Conrad Gesner, who
claims the merit of having brought it into repute, little
dreaming of the commotion it was shortly afterwards to make
in the world, says that he first saw it in the year 1559, in a
garden at Augsburg, belonging to the learned Counsellor Her-
wart, a man very famous in his day for his collection of rare
exotics. The bulbs were sent to this gentleman by a friend at
Constantinople, where the flower had long been a favourite.
In the course of ten or eleven years after this period, tulips
were much sought after by the wealthy, especially in Holland
and Germany. Rich people at Amsterdam sent for the bulbs
direct to Constantinople, and paid the most extravagant prices
for them. The first roots planted in England were brought
from Vienna in 1600. Until the year 1634 the tulip annually
increased in reputation, until it was deemed a proof of bad
taste in any man of fortune to be without a collection of them.
Many learned men, including Pompeius de Angelis, and the
celebrated Lipsius of Leyden, the author of the treatise "De
Constantia," were passionately fond of tulips. The rage for
possessing them soon caught the middle classes of society, and
merchants and shopkeepers, even of moderate means, began
to vie with each other in the rarity of these flowers and the
preposterous prices they paid for them. A trader at Harlaem
was known to pay one-half of his fortune for a single root, not
with the design of selling it again at a profit, but to keep in
his own conservatory for the admiration of his acquaintance.
One would suppose that there must have been some great
virtue in this flower to have made it so valuable in the eyes
go EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of so prudent a people as the Dutch; but it has neither the
beauty nor the perfume of the rose hardly the beauty of the
"sweet, sweet-pea; ;? neither is it as enduring as either. Cow-
ley, it is true, is loud in its praise. He says
"The tulip next appeared, all over gay,
But wanton, full of pride, and full of play;
The world can't show a dye but here has place;
Nay, by new mixtures, she can change her face;
Purple and gold are both beneath her care,
The richest needlework she loves to wear;
Her only study is to please the eye,
And to outshine the rest in finery."
This, though not very poetical, is the description of a poet.
Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, paints it with more
fidelity, and in prose more pleasing than Cowley's poetry. He
says, "There are few plants which acquire, through accident,
weakness, or disease, so many variegations as the tulip. When
uncultivated, and in its natural state, it is almost of one colour,
has large leaves, and an extraordinarily long stem. When it
has been weakened by cultivation, it becomes more agreeable
in the eyes of the florist. The petals are then paler, smaller,
and more diversified in hue; and the leaves acquire a softer
green colour. Thus this masterpiece of culture, the more
beautiful it turns, grows so much the weaker, so that, with
the greatest skill and most careful attention, it can scarcely
be transplanted, or even kept alive."
Many persons grow insensibly attached to that which gives
them a great deal of trouble, as a mother often loves her sick
and ever-ailing child better than her more healthy offspring.
Upon the same principle we must account for the unmerited
encomia lavished upon these fragile blossoms. In 1634, the
rage among the Dutch to possess them was so great that the
ordinary industry of the country was neglected, and the popu-
lation, even to its lowest dregs, embarked in the tulip trade.
As the mania increased, prices augmented, until, in the year
1635, many persons were known to invest a fortune of 100,000
florins in the purchase of forty roots. It then became neces-
THE TULIPOMANIA gi
sary to sell them by their weight in perits, a small weight less
than a grain. A tulip of the species called Admiral Lief ken,
weighing 400 perits, was worth 4400 florins; an Admiral Van
der Eyck, weighing 446 perits, was worth 1260 florins; a
CMlder of 106 perits was worth 1615 florins; a Viceroy of 400
perits, 3000 florins; and, most precious of all, a Semper Au-
gustus, weighing 200 perits ; was thought to be very cheap at
5500 florins. The latter was much sought after, and even an
inferior bulb might command a price of 2000 florins. It is re-
lated that, at one time 3 early in 1636, there were only two
roots of this description to be had in all Holland, and those
not of the best. One was in the possession of a dealer in
Amsterdam, and the other in Harlaem. So anxious were the
speculators to obtain them, that one person offered the fee-
simple of twelve acres of building-ground for the Harlaem
tulip. That of Amsterdam was bought for 4600 florins, a new
carriage, two grey horses, and a complete set of harness.
Hunting, an industrious author of that day, who wrote a folio
volume of one thousand pages upon the tulipomania, has pre-
served the following list of the various articles, and their
value, which were delivered for one single root of the rare
species called the Viceroy:
florins
Two lasts of wheat 448
Four lasts of rye 558
Four fat oxen . 480
Eight fat swine 240
Twelve fat sheep 120
Two Hogsheads of wine 70
Four tuns of beer 3 2
Two tuns of butter 192
One thousand Ibs. of cheese 120
A complete bed ........... 100
A suit of dothes 80
A silver drinking-cup 60
2500
People who had been absent from Holland, and whose
chance it was to return when this folly was at its maximum,
92 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
were sometimes led into awkward dilemmas by their Ignorance.
There is an amusing instance of the Mnd related in Blainville's
Travels. A wealthy merchant, who prided himself not a little
on Ms rare tulips, received upon one occasion a very valuable
consignment of merchandise from the Levant. Intelligence
of its arrival was brought him by a sailor, who presented him-
self for that purpose at the counting-house, among bales of
goods of every description. The merchant, to reward him for
his news, munificently made him a present of a fine red herring
for his breakfast. The sailor had, it appears, a great partiality
for onions, and seeing a bulb very like an onion lying upon
the counter of this liberal trader, and thinking it, no doubt,
very much out of its place among silks and velvets, he slily
seized an opportunity and slipped it into his pocket, as a relish
for his herring. He got clear off with his prize, and proceeded
to the quay to eat Ms breakfast. Hardly was Ms back turned
when the merchant missed Ms valuable Semper Augustus,
worth three thousand florins, or about 2SQL sterling. The
whole establishment was instantly in an uproar; search was
everywhere made for the precious root, but it was not to be
found. Great was the merchant's distress of mind. The
search was renewed, but again without success. At last some
one thought of the sailor.
The unhappy merchant sprang into the street at the bare
suggestion. His alarmed household followed him. The sailor,
simple soul! had not thought of concealment. He was found
quietly sitting on a coil of ropes, masticating the last morsel
of his "onion. 9 ' Little did he dream that he had been eating
a breakfast whose cost might have regaled a whole ship's crew
for a twelvemonth; or, as the plundered merchant himself
expressed it, "might have sumptuously feasted the Prince of
Orange and the whole court of the Stadtholder." Anthony
caused pearls to be dissolved in wine to drink the health of
Cleopatra; Sir Richard Whittington was as foolishly magnifi-
cent in an entertainment to King Henry V.; and Sir Thomas
Gresham drank a diamond dissolved in wine to the health of
Queen Elizabeth, when she opened the Royal Exchange; but
the breakfast of this roguish Dutchman was as splendid as
THE TULIPOMANIA 93
either. He had an advantage, too, over Ms wasteful prede-
cessors: their gems did not improve the taste or the whole-
someness of their wine, while Ms tulip was quite delicious with
his red herring. The most unfortunate part of the business
for him was, that he remained in prison for some months
on a charge of felony preferred against him by the merchant.
Another story is told of an English traveller, which is
scarcely less ludicrous. This gentleman, an amateur botanist,
happened to see a tulip-root lying in the conservatory of a
wealthy Dutchman. Being ignorant of its quality, he took
out his penknife, and peeled off its coats, with the view of
making experiments upon it. When it was by this means
reduced to half its size, he cut it into two equal sections, mak-
ing all the time many learned remarks on the singular appear-
ances of the unknown bulb. Suddenly the owner pounced
upon him, and, with fury in his eyes, asked him if he knew
what he had been doing? "Peeling a most extraordinary
onion," replied the philosopher. "Hundert tausend duyvell"
said the Dutchman; "it's an Admiral Van der Eyck" "Thank
you/ 1 replied the traveller, taking out his note-book to make a
memorandum of the same; "are these admirals common in
your country?" "Death and the Devil!" said the Dutchman,
seizing the astonished man of science by the collar; "come
before the syndic, and you shall see." In spite of his remon-
strances, the traveller was led through the streets followed
by a mob of persons. When brought into the presence of the
magistrate, he learned, to his consternation, that the root upon
which he had been experimentalising was worth four thousand
florins; and, notwithstanding all he could urge in extenuation,
he was lodged in prison until he found securities for the pay-
ment of this sum.
The demand for tulips of a rare species increased so much
in the year 1636, that regular marts for their sale were estab-
lished on the Stock Exchange of Amsterdam, in Rotterdam,
Harlaem, Leyden, Alkmar, Hoorn, and other towns. Symp-
toms of gambling now became, for the first time, apparent.
The stock-jobbers, ever on the alert for a new speculation,
dealt largely in tulips, making use of all the means they so
94 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
well knew how to employ to cause fluctuations in prices. At
first, as in all these gambling mania, confidence was at its
height, and every body gained. The tulip-jobbers speculated
in the rise and fall of the tulip stocks, and made large profits
by buying when prices fell, and selling out when they rose.
Many individuals grew suddenly rich. A golden bait hung
temptingly out before the people, and one after the other, they
rushed to the tulip-marts, like flies around a honey-pot. Every
one imagined that the passion for tulips would last for ever,
and that the wealthy from every part of the world would send
to Holland, and pay whatever prices were asked for them.
The riches of Europe would be concentrated on the shores of
the Zuyder Zee, and poverty banished from the favoured
clime of Holland. Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, sea-
men, footmen, maid-servants, even chimney-sweeps and old
clotheswomen, dabbled in tulips. People of all grades con-
verted their property into cash, and invested it in flowers.
Houses and lands were offered for sale at ruinously low prices,
or assigned in payment of bargains made at the tulip-mart.
Foreigners became smitten with the same frenzy, and money
poured into Holland from all directions. The prices of the
necessaries of life rose again by degrees: houses and lands,
horses and carriages, and luxuries of every sort, rose in value
with them, and for some months Holland seemed the very
antechamber of Plutus. The operations of the trade became
so extensive and so intricate, that it was found necessary to
draw up a code of laws for the guidance of the dealers.
Notaries and clerks were also appointed, who devoted them-
selves exclusively to the interests of the trade. The designa-
tion of public notary was hardly known in some towns, that
of tulip-notary usurping its place. In the smaller towns,
where there was no exchange, the principal tavern was usually
selected as the "show-place," where high and low traded in
tulips, and confirmed their bargains over sumptuous entertain-
ments. These dinners were sometimes attended by two or
three hundred persons, and large vases of tulips, in full bloom,
were placed at regular intervals upon the tables and side-
boards for their gratification during the repast.
THE TULIPOMANIA 95
At last, however, the more prudent began to see that this
folly could not last for ever. Rich people no longer bought
the flowers to keep them in their gardens, but to sell them
again at cent per cent profit. It was seen that somebody must
lose fearfully in the end. As this conviction spread, prices
fell, and never rose again. Confidence was destroyed, and a
universal panic seized upon the dealers. A had agreed to pur-
chase ten Semper Angus tines from B, at four thousand florins
each, at six weeks after the signing of the contract. B was
ready with the flowers at the appointed time; but the price
had fallen to three or four hundred florins, and A refused
either to pay the difference or receive the tulips. Defaulters
were announced day after day in all the towns of Holland.
Hundreds who, a few months previously, had begun to doubt
that there was such a thing as poverty in the land suddenly
found themselves the possessors of a few bulbs, which nobody
would buy, even though they offered them at one quarter of
the sums they had paid for them. The cry of distress re-
sounded every where, and each man accused his neighbour.
The few who had contrived to enrich themselves hid their
wealth from the knowledge of their fellow-citizens, and in-
vested it in the English or other funds. Many who, for a
brief season, had emerged from the humbler walks of life,
were cast back into their original obscurity. Substantial mer-
chants were reduced almost to beggary, and many a repre-
sentative of a noble line saw the fortunes of his house ruined
beyond redemption.
When the first alarm subsided, the tulip-holders in the sev-
eral towns held public meetings to devise what measures were
best to be taken to restore public credit. It was generally
agreed that deputies should be sent from all parts to Amster-
dam, to consult with the government upon some remedy for
the evil. The government at first refused to interfere, but
advised the tulip-holders to agree to some plan among them-
selves. Several meetings were held for this purpose; but no
measure could be devised likely to give satisfaction to the
deluded people, or repair even a slight portion of the mischief
that had been done. The language of complaint and reproach
Q6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
was in every body's mouth, and all the meetings were of the
most stormy character. At last, however, after much bicker-
ing and ill-will, it was agreed, at Amsterdam, by the assembled
deputies, that all contracts made in the height of the mania, or
prior to the month of November, 1636, should be declared
null and void, and that, in those made after that date, pur-
chasers should be freed from their engagements, on paying ten
per cent to the vendor. This decision gave no satisfaction.
The vendors who had their tulips on hand were, of course,
discontented, and those who had pledged themselves to pur-
chase, thought themselves hardly treated. Tulips which had,
at one time, been worth six thousand florins, were now to be
procured for five hundred; so that the composition of ten per
cent was one hundred florins more than the actual value.,
Actions for breach of contract were threatened in all the courts
of the country; but the latter refused to take cognisance of
gambling transactions.
The matter was finally referred to the Provincial Council
at the Hague, and it was confidently expected that the wisdom
of this body would invent some measure by which credit should
be restored. Expectation was on the stretch for its decision,
but it never came. The members continued to deliberate
week after week, and at last, after thinking about it for three
months, declared that they could offer no final decision until
they had more information. They advised, however, that, in
the meantime, every vendor should, in the presence of wit-
nesses, offer the tulips in natura to the purchaser for the sums
agreed upon. If the latter refused to take them, they might
be put up for sale by public auction, and the original con-
tractor held responsible for the difference between the actual
and the stipulated price. This was exactly the plan recom-
mended by the deputies, and which was already shown to be
of no avail. There was no court in Holland which would en-
force payment. The question was raised in Amsterdam, but
the judges unanimously refused to interfere, on the ground
that debts contracted in gambling were no debts in law.
Thus the matter rested. To find a remedy was beyond the
power of the government. Those who were unlucky enough
THE TULIPOMANIA 97
to have had stores of tulips on hand at the time of the sudden
reaction were left to bear their ruin as philosophically as they
could; those who had made profits were allowed to keep them;
but the commerce of the country suffered a severe shock, from
which it was many years ere it recovered*
The example of the Dutch was imitated to some extent in
England. In the year 1636 tulips were publicly sold in the
Exchange of London, and the jobbers exerted themselves to
the utmost to raise them to the fictitious value they had
acquired in Amsterdam. In Paris also the jobbers strove to
create a tulipomania. In both cities they only partially suc-
ceeded. However, the force of example brought the flowers
into great favour, and amongst a certain class of people tulips
have ever since been prized more highly than any other flow-
ers of the field. The Dutch are still notorious for their par-
tiality to them, and continue to pay higher prices for them
than any other people. As the rich Englishman boasts of his
fine race-horses or his old pictures, so does the wealthy Dutch-
man vaunt him of his tulips.
In England^ in our day, strange as it may appear, a tulip
will produce more money than an oak. If one could be found,
rara in terris, and black as the black swan of Juvenal, its price
would equal that of a dozen acres of standing corn. In Scot-
land, towards the close of the seventeenth century, the highest
price for tulips, according to the authority of a writer in the
supplement to the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britan-
nica } was ten guineas. Their value appears to have diminished
from that time till the year 1769, when the two most valuable
species in England were the Don Quevedo and the Valentinier,
the former of which was worth two guineas and the latter two
guineas and a half. These prices appear to have been the mini-
mum. In the year 1800, a common price was fifteen guineas
for a single bulb. In 1835, a bulb of the species called the
Miss Fanny Kemble was sold by public auction in London for
seventy-five pounds. Still more remarkable was the price of
a tulip in the possession of a gardener in the King's Road,
Chelsea; in Ms catalogues it was labelled at two hundred
guineas.
THE ALCHYMISTS
OR
SEARCHERS FOR THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE AND THE WATER
OF LIFE
Mercury (loquitur) . The mischief a secret any of them know,
above the consuming of coals and drawing of usquebaugh! how-
soever they may pretend, under the specious names of Geber,
Arnold, Lulli, or bombast of Hohenheim, to commit miracles in
art, and treason against nature! As if the title of philosopher,
that creature of glory, were to be fetched out of a furnace! I am
their crude and their sublimate, their precipitate and their
unctions ; their male and their female, sometimes their hermaphro-
dite what they list to style me! They will calcine you a grave
matron, as it might be a mother of the maids, and spring up a
young virgin out of her ashes, as fresh as a phoenix; lay you an
old courtier on the coals, like a sausage or a bloat-herring, and,
after they have broiled him enough, blow a soul into him with a
pair of bellows! See, they begin to muster again, and draw
their forces out against me ! The genius of the place defend me !
BEN JONSON'S Masque: Mercury vindicated from the Al-
ckymists.
DISSATISFACTION with Ms lot seems to be the characteristic
of man in all ages and climates. So far, however, from being
an evil, as at first might be supposed, it lias been the great
civiliser of our race; and has tended, more than any thing
else, to raise us above the condition of the brutes. But the
same discontent which has been the source of all improve-
ment, has been the parent of no small progeny of follies and
absurdities; to trace these latter is our present object. Vast
as the subject appears, it Is easily reducible within such limits
as will make it comprehensive without being wearisome, and
render its study both instructive and amusing.
98
THE ALCHYMISTS 99
Three causes especially have excited the discontent of man-
kind; and, by impelling us to seek for remedies for the ir-
remediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and
error. These are death, toil, and ignorance of the future the
doom of man upon this sphere, and for which he shews his
antipathy by his love of life, his longing for abundance, and
his craving curiosity to pierce the secrets of the days to come.
The first has led many to imagine that they might find means
to avoid death, or, failing in this, that they might, nevertheless,
so prolong existence as to reckon it by centuries instead of
units. From this sprang the search, so long continued and
still pursued, for the elixir vitcz, or water oj life, which has
led thousands to pretend to it and millions to believe in it.
From the second sprang the search for the philosopher's
stone, which was to create plenty by changing all metals into
gold; and from the third, the false sciences of astrology, divi-
nation, and their divisions of necromancy, chiromancy, au-
gury, with all their train of signs, portents, and omens.
In tracing the career of the erring philosophers, or the wil-
ful cheats, who have encouraged or preyed upon the credulity
of mankind, it will simplify and elucidate the subject, if we
divide it into three classes : the first comprising aJchymists, or
those in general who have devoted themselves to the discov-
ering of the philosopher's stone and the water of life; the sec-
ond comprising astrologers, necromancers, sorcerers, geo-
mancers^ and all tEose who pretended to discover futurity;
and the third consisting of the dealers in charms, amulets,
philters^ universal-panacea mongers, touchers for the evil,
seventh sons of a seventh son, sympathetic-powder compound-
ers, hbmceopathists, animal magnetisers, and all the motley
tribe of quacks, empirics, and charlatans.
But in narrating the career of such men, it will be found
that many of them united several or all of the functions just
mentioned; that the alchymist was a fortune-teller, or a necro-
mancer that he pretended to cure all maladies by touch or
charm, and to work miracles of every kind. In the dark and
early ages of European history that is most especially the case.
Even as we advance to more recent periods, we shall find great
IOO EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
difficulty in separating the characters. The alchymist seldom
confined himself strictly to his pretended science the sorcerer
and necromancers to theirs, or the medical charlatan to his.
Beginning with alchymy, some confusion of these classes is
unavoidable; but the ground will clear for us as we advance.
Let us not, in the pride of our superior knowledge, turn with
contempt from the follies of our predecessors. The study of
the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit
of truth can never be uninstructive. As the man looks back
to the days of his childhood and his youth, and recalls to his
mind the strange notions and false opinions that swayed his
actions at that time, that he may wonder at them; so should
society, for its edification, look back to the opinions which
governed the ages fled. He is but a superficial thinker who
would despise and refuse to hear of them merely because they
are absurd. No man is so wise but that he may learn some
wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action, and
no society has made such advances as to be capable of no
improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credul-
ity. And not only is such a study instructive: he who reads
for amusement only will find no chapter in the annals of the
human mind more amusing than this. It opens out the whole
realm of fiction the wild, the fantastic, and the wonderful,
and all the immense variety of things "that are not, and can-
not be; but that have been imagined and believed."
For more than a thousand years the art of alchymy capti-
vated many noble spirits, and was believed in by millions.
Its origin is involved in obscurity. Some of its devotees have
claimed for it an antiquity coeval with the creation of man
himself; others, again, would trace it no further back than
the time of Noah. Vincent de Beauvais argues, indeed, that
all the antediluvians must have possessed a knowledge of
alchymy; and particularly cites Noah as having been ac-
quainted with the elixir vitoe, or he could not have lived to so
prodigious an age, and have begotten children when upwards
of five hundred. Lenglet du Fresnoy, in Ms History of the
Hermetic Philosophy, says "Most of them pretended that
THE ALCHYMIST
THE ALCHYMISTS 101
Shem, or Chem, the son of Noah, was an adept in the art,
and thought It highly probable that the words chemistry and
alckymy are both derived from his name." Others say, the
art was derived from the Egyptians, amongst whom it was
first founded by Hermes Trismegistus. Moses, who is looked
upon as a first-rate alchymist, gained his knowledge in Egypt;
but he kept it all to himself, and would not instruct the chil-
dren of Israel in its mysteries. All the writers upon alchymy
triumphantly cite the story of the golden calf, in the 32d chap-
ter of Exodus, to prove that this great lawgiver was an adept,
and could make or unmake gold at his pleasure. It is re-
corded, that Moses was so wroth with the Israelites for their
idolatry, "that he took the calf which they had made, and
burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed
it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it."
This, say the alchymists, he never could have done had he not
been in possession of the philosopher's stone; by no other
means could he have made the powder of gold float upon the
water. But we must leave this knotty point for the considera-
tion of the adepts in the art, if any such there be, and come
to more modern periods of its history. The Jesuit, Father
Martini, in his Historia Sinica, says, it was practised by the
Chinese two thousand five hundred years before the birth of
Christ; but his assertion, being unsupported, is worth nothing.
It would appear, however, that pretenders to the art of making
gold and silver existed in Rome in the first centuries after
the Christian era, and that, when discovered, they were liable
to punishment as knaves and impostors. At Constantinople^
in the fourth century, the transmutation of metals was very
generally believed in, and many of the Greek ecclesiastics
wrote treatises upon the subject. Their names are preserved,
and some notice of their works given, in the third volume of
Lenglet du Fresnoy's History of the Hermetic Philosophy.
Their notion appears to have been, that all metals were com-
posed of two substances; the one, metallic earth; and the other
a red inflammable matter, which they called sulphur. The
pure union of these substances formed gold; but other metals
were mixed with and contaminated by various foreign ingredi-
102 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
ents. The object of the philosopher's stone was to dissolve
or neutralize all these ingredients, by which iron, lead, copper,
and all metals would be transmuted into the original gold.
Many learned and clever men wasted their time, their health,
and their energies in this vain pursuit; but for several cen-
turies it took no great hold upon the imagination of the people.
The history of the delusion appears, in a manner, lost from
this time till the eighth century, when it appeared amongst
the Arabians. From this period it becomes easier to trace its
progress. A master then appeared, who was long looked upon
as the father of science, and whose name is indissolubly con-
nected with it.
I
GEBER i^X
Of this philosopher, who devoted his life to the study of
alchymy, but few particulars are known. He is thought to
have lived in the year 730. His true name was Abou Moussah
Djafar, to which was added Al Sofi, or "The Wise," and he
was born at Houran, in Mesopotamia.* Some have thought
he was a Greek, others a Spaniard, and others a prince of
Hindostan; but of all the mistakes which have been made
respecting him, the most ludicrous was that made by the
French translator of Sprenger's History of "Medicine, who
thought, from the sound of his name that he was a German,
and rendered it as the "Donnateur," or Giver. No details
of his life are known; but it is asserted that he wrote more
than five hundred works upon the philosopher's stone and
the water of life. He was a great enthusiast in his art, and
compared the incredulous to little children shut up in a narrow
room, without window;s or aperture, who, because they saw
nothing beyond, denied the existence of the great globe itself.
He thought that a preparation of gold would cure all maladies,
not only in man, but in the inferior animals and plants. He
also imagined that all the metals laboured under disease, with
the exception of gold, which was the only one in perfect health.
He affirmed, that the secret of the philosopher's stone had
*Biographie Umverselle,
THE ALCHYMISTS 103
been more than once discovered; but that the ancient and wise
men who had hit upon it would never ? by word or writing,
communicate it to men, because of their unworthiness and
incredulity.* But the life of Geber, though spent in the pur-
suit of this vain chimera, was not altogether useless. He
stumbled upon discoveries which he did not seek; and science
is indebted to him for the first mention of corrosive sublimate,
the red oxide of mercury, nitric acid, and the nitrate of silver. f
For more than two hundred years after the death of Geber,
the Arabian philosophers devoted themselves to the study of
alchymy, joining with it that of astrology. Of these the most
celebrated was
ALFAKABI
Alfarabi flourished at the commencement of the tenth cen-
tury, and enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most
learned men of his age. He spent Ms life in travelling from
country to country, that he might gather the opinions of
philosophers upon the great secrets of nature. No danger
dismayed him; no toil wearied him of the pursuit. Many sov-
ereigns endeavoured to retain him at their courts; but he re-
fused to rest until he had discovered the great object of his
life the art of preserving it for centuries, and of making gold
as much as he "needed. This wandering mode of life at last
proved fatal to him. He had been on a visit to Mecca, not so
much for religious as for philosophical purposes, when, return-
ing through Syria, he stopped at the court of the Sultan
Seifeddoulet, who was renowned as the patron of learning.
He presented himself in his travelling attire in the presence
* His sum "of perfection," or instructions to students to aid them in the
laborious search for the stone and elixir, has been translated into most of
the languages of Europe. An English translation, by a great enthusiast in
alchymy, one Bichard Russell, was published in London in 1686. The
preface is dated eight years previously from the house of the alchymist,
"at the Star, in Newmarket, in Wapping, near the Dock/' His design in
undertaking the translation was, as he informs us, to expose the false pre-
tences of the many ignorant pretenders to the science who abounded ia
his day.
f Article, Geber, Bio&ra$hie Univefselk.
104 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of that monarch and Ms courtiers; and, without invitation,
coolly sat himself down on the sofa beside the prince. The
courtiers and wise men were indignant; and the sultan, who
did not know the intruder, was at first inclined to follow their
example. He turned to one of his officers, and ordered him to
eject the presumptuous stranger from the room; but Alfarabi,
without moving, dared them to lay hands upon him; and, turn-
ing himself calmly to the prince, remarked that he did not
know who was his guest, or he would treat him with honour,
not with violence. The sultan, instead of being still further
incensed, as many potentates would have been, admired his
coolness; and, requesting him to sit still closer to him on the
sofa, entered into a long conversation with him upon science
and divine philosophy. All the court were charmed with the
stranger. Questions for discussion were propounded, on all
of which he showed superior knowledge. He convinced every
one who ventured to dispute with him; and spoke so eloquently
upon the science of alchymy, that he was at once recognised
as only second to the great Geber himself. One of the doctors
present inquired whether a man who knew so many sciences
was acquainted with music? Alfarabi made no reply, but
merely requested that a lute should be brought him. The lute
was brought; and he played such ravishing and tender melo-
dies, that all the court were melted into tears. He then
changed his theme, and played airs so sprightly, that he set
the grave philosophers, sultan and all, dancing as fast as
their legs could carry them. He then sobered them again by
a mournful strain, and made them sob and sigh as if broken-
hearted. The sultan, highly delighted with his powers, en-
treated him to stay, offering him every inducement that
wealth, power, and dignity could supply; but the alchymist
resolutely refused, it being decreed, he said, that he should
never repose till he had discovered the philosopher's stone.
He set out accordingly the same evening, and was murdered
by some thieves in the deserts of Syria. His biographers give
no further particulars of his life beyond mentioning that he
wrote several valuable treatises on his art, all of which, how-
ever, have been lost. His death happened in the year 954.
THE ALCHYMISTS 10$
AVICENNA
Avicenna, whose real name was Ebn Cinna, another great
alchymist, was born at Bokhara in 980. His reputation as a
physician and a man skilled in all sciences was so great, that
the Sultan Magdal Douleth resolved to try his powers in the
great science of government. He was accordingly made Grand
Vizier of that prince, and ruled the state with some advan-
tage; but in a science still more difficult, he failed completely.
He could not rule his own passions, but gave himself up to
wine and women, and led a life of shameless debauchery.
Amid the multifarious pursuits of business and pleasure, he
nevertheless found time to write seven treatises upon the
philosopher's stone, which were for many ages looked upon as
of great value by pretenders to the art. It is rare that an
eminent physician, as Avicenna appears to have been, aban-
dons himself to sensual gratification; but so completely did
he become enthralled in the course of a few years, that he was
dismissed from his high office, and died shortly afterwards of
premature old age and a complication of maladies, brought
on by debauchery. His death took place in the year 1036.
After his time few philosophers of any note in Arabia are
heard of as devoting themselves to the study of alchymy; but
it began shortly afterwards to attract greater attention in
Europe. Learned men in France, England, Spain, and Italy,
expressed their belief in the science, and many devoted their
whole energies to it. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
especially, it was extensively pursued, and some of the bright-
est names of that age are connected with it. Among the most
eminent of them are
ALBERTUS MAGNUS AND THOMAS AQUINAS
The first of these philosophers was born in the year 1193,
of a noble family at Lawingen, in the Duchy of Neuburg, on
the Danube. For the first thirty years of his life he appeared
remarkably dull and stupid, and it was feared by every one
that no good could come of him. He entered a Dominican
106 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
monastery at an early age; but made so little progress in his
studies, that he was more than once upon the point of aban-
doning them in despair, but he was endowed with extraordi-
nary perseverance. As he advanced to middle age, his mind
expanded, and he learned whatever he applied himself to with
extreme facility. So remarkable a change was not in that
age to be accounted for but by a miracle. It was asserted
and believed that the Holy Virgin, touched with his great
desire to become learned and famous, took pity upon his in-
capacity, and appeared to him in the cloister where he sat
almost despairing, and asked him whether he wished to excel
in philosophy or divinity. He chose philosophy, to the chagrin
of the Virgin, who reproached him in mild and sorrowful
accents that he had not made a better choice. She, however,
granted his request, that he should become the most excellent
philosopher of the age; but set this drawback to his pleasure,
that he should relapse, when at the height of his fame, into
his former incapacity and stupidity. Albertus never took the
trouble to contradict the story, but prosecuted his studies with
such unremitting zeal, that his reputation speedily spread over
all Europe. In the year 1244, the celebrated Thomas Aquinas
placed himself under his tuition. Many extraordinary stories
are told of the master and his pupil. While they paid all
due attention to other branches of science, they never neglected
the pursuit of the philosopher's stone and the elixir vitce. Al-
though they discovered neither, it was believed that Albert
had seized some portion of the secret of life, and found means
to animate a brazen statue, upon the formation of which,
under proper conjunctions of the planets, he had been occu-
pied many years of his life. He and Thomas Aquinas com-
pleted it together, endowed it with the faculty of speech, and
made it perform the functions of a domestic servant. In this
capacity it was exceedingly useful; but, through some defect
in the machinery, it chattered much more than was agreeable
to either philosopher. Various remedies were tried to cure it
of its garrulity, but in vain; and one day, Thomas Aquinas
was so enraged at the noise it made when he was in the midst
of a mathematical problem, that he seized a ponderous ham-
THE ALCHYMISTS 107
mer and smashed it to pieces.* He was sorry afterwards for
what he had done, and was reproved by his master for giving
way to Ms anger, so unbecoming in a philosopher. They made
no attempt to reanimate the statue.
Such stories as these shew the spirit of the age. Every great
man who attempted to study the secrets of nature was thought
a magician; and it is not to be wondered at that, when philos-
ophers themselves pretended to discover an elixir for con-
ferring immortality, or a red stone which was to create bound-
less wealth, that popular opinion should have enhanced upon
their pretensions, and have endowed them with powers still
more miraculous. It was believed of Albertus Magnus that
he could even change the course of the seasons, a feat which
the many thought less difficult than the discovery of the grand
elixir. Albertus was desirous of obtaining a piece of ground
on which to build a monastery in the neighbourhod of Cologne.
The ground belonged to William Count of Holland and King
of the Romans, who for some reason or other did not wish to
part with it. Albertus is reported to have gained it by the
following extraordinary method: He invited the prince as
he was passing through Cologne to a magnificent entertain-
ment prepared for him and all his court. The prince accepted
it, and repaired with a lordly retinue to the residence of the
sage. It was in the midst of winter, the Rhine was frozen
over, and the cold was so bitter, that the knights could not
sit on horseback without running the risk of losing their toes
by the frost. Great, therefore, was their surprise, on arriving
at Albert's house, to find that the repast was spread in Ms
garden, in which the snow had drifted to the depth of several
feet. The earl in high dudgeon remounted his steed, but Al-
bert at last prevailed upon him to take his seat at the table.
He had no sooner done so, than the dark clouds rolled away
from the sky a warm sun shone forth the cold north wind
veered suddenly round and blew a mild breeze from the south
the snows melted away the ice was unbound upon the
streams, and the trees put forth their green leaves and their
* Naude, Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses de Magie t chap, xviii.
108 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
fruit flowers sprang up beneath their feet, while larks, night-
ingales, blackbirds, cuckoos, thrushes, and every sweet song-
bird sang hymns from every tree. The earl and his attend-
ants wondered greatly; but they ate their dinner, and in
recompence for it, Albert got Ms piece of ground to build a
convent on. He had not, however, shown them all his power.
Immediately that the repast was over, he gave the word, and
dark clouds obscured the sun the snow fell in large flakes
the singing-birds fell dead the leaves dropped from the trees,
and the winds blew so cold and howled so mournfully, that
the guests wrapped themselves up in their thick cloaks, and
retreated into the house to warm themselves at the blazing
fire in Albert's kitchen.*
Thomas Aquinas also could work wonders as well as his
master. It is related of him that he lodged in a street at
Cologne, where he was much annoyed by the incessant clatter
made by the horses' hoofs, as they were led through it daily
to exercise by their grooms. He had entreated the latter to
select some other spot, where they might not disturb a philoso-
pher; but the grooms turned a deaf ear to all his solicitations.
In this emergency he had recourse to the aid of magic. He
constructed a small horse of bronze, upon which he inscribed
certain cabalistic characters, and buried it at midnight in the
midst of the highway. The next morning a troop of grooms
came riding along as usual; but the horses, as they arrived
at the spot where the magic horse was buried, reared and
plunged violently their nostrils distended with terror their
manes grew erect, and the perspiration ran down their sides
in streams. In vain the riders applied the spur in vain they
coaxed or threatened, the animals would not pass the spot.
On the following day their success was no better. They were
at length compelled to seek another spot for their exercise, and
Thomas Aquinas was left in peace.f
Albertus Magnus was made Bishop of Ratisbon in 1259;
but he occupied the see only four years, when he resigned, on
*Lenglet, Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique. See also Godwin's
Lives of the Necromancers.
t Naude, Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses de Magie, chap. xvii.
THE ALCHYMISTS 1 09
the ground that its duties occupied too much of the time which
he was anxious to devote to philosophy. He died in Cologne
in 1280, at the advanced age of eighty-seven. The Dominican
writers deny that he ever sought the philosopher's stone, but
his treatise upon minerals sufficiently proves that he did.
AUTEPHIUS
Artephius, a name noted in the annals of alchymy, was born
in the early part of the twelfth century. He wrote two famous
treatises: the one upon the philosopher's stone, and the other
on the art of prolonging human life. In the latter he vaunts
his great qualifications for Instructing mankind on such a mat-
ter, as he was at that time in the thousand and twenty-fifth
year of his age! He had many disciples who believed in Ms
extreme age, and who attempted to prove that he was Apol-
lonius of Tyana, who lived soon after the advent of Jesus
Christ, and the particulars of whose life and pretended mir-
acles have been so fully described by Philostratus. He took
good care never to contradict a story which so much increased
the power he was desirous of wielding over his fellow-mortals.
On all convenient occasions he boasted of it; and having an
excellent memory, a fertile imagination, and a thorough
knowledge of all existing history, he was never at a loss for an
answer when questioned as to the personal appearance, the
manners, or the character of the great men of antiquity. He
also pretended to have found the philosopher's stone; and
said that, in search of it, he had descended to hell, and seen
the devil sitting on a throne of gold, with a legion of imps and
fiends around him. His works on alchymy have been trans-
lated into French, and were published in Paris in 1609 or
1610.
ALAIN DE LISLE
Contemporary with Albertus Magnus was Alain de Lisle of
Flanders, who was named, from his great learning, the "uni-
versal doctor." He was thought to possess a knowledge of all
the sciences, and, like Artephius, to have discovered the elixir
HO EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
He became one of the friars of the abbey of Citeaux,
and died in 1298, aged about one hundred and ten years. It
was said of him that he was at the point of death when in his
fiftieth year, but that fortunate discovery of the elixir enabled
him to add sixty years to Ms existence. He wrote a com-
mentary on the prophecies of Merlin.
ARNOLD DE VILLENEUVE
This philosopher has left a much greater reputation. He
was born in the year 1245, and studied medicine with great
success in the university of Paris. He afterwards travelled
for twenty years in Italy and Germany, where he made ac-
quaintance with Pietro d'Apone, a man of a character akin to
his own, and addicted to the same pursuits. As a physician,
he was thought, in his own lifetime, to be the most able the
world had ever seen. Like all the learned men of that day,
he dabbled in astrology and alchymy, and was thought to
have made immense quantities of gold from lead and copper.
When Pietro d'Apone was arrested in Italy, and brought to
trial as a sorcerer, a similar accusation was made against
Arnold; but he managed to leave the country in time and
escape the fate of his unfortunate friend. He lost some credit
by predicting the end of the world, but afterwards regained it.
The time of his death is not exactly known; but it must have
been prior to the year 1311, when Pope Clement V. wrote a
circular letter to all the clergy of Europe who lived under his
obedience, praying them to use their utmost efforts to discover
the famous treatise of Arnold on The Practice of Medicine.
The author had promised, during his lifetime, to make a pres-
ent of the work to the Holy See, but died without fulfilling it.
In a very curious work by Monsieur Longeville Harcouet,
entitled The History of the Persons who have lived several
centuries and then grown young again, there is a receipt, said
to have been given by Arnold de Villeneuve, by means of
which any one might prolong his life for a few hundred years
or so. In the first place, say Arnold and Monsieur Harcouet,
"the person intending so to prolong his life must rub himself
THE ALCHYMISTS III
well, two or three times a week ? with the juice or marrow of
cassia (moelle de la casse). Every night, upon going to bed,
he must put upon Ms heart a plaster, composed of a certain
quantity of oriental saffron, red rose-leaves, sandal-wood ?
aloes, and amber, liquified in oil of roses and the best white
was. In the morning, he must take it off, and enclose it care-
fully in a leaden box till the next night, when it must be
again applied. If he be of a sanguine temperament, he shall
take sixteen chickens; if phlegmatic, twenty-five; and if mel-
ancholy, thirty, which he shall put into a yard where the air
and the water are pure. Upon these he is to feed, eating one
a day; but previously the chickens are to be fattened by a
peculiar method, which will impregnate their flesh with the
qualities that are to produce longevity in the eater. Being
deprived of all other nourishment till they are almost dying of
hunger, they are to be fed upon broth made of serpents and
vinegar, which broth is to be thickened with wheat and bran."
Various ceremonies are to be performed in the cooking of this
mesSj which those may see in the book of M. Harcouet who
are at all interested in the matter; and the chickens are to be
fed upon it for two months. They are then fit for table, and
are to be washed down with moderate quantities of good white
wine or claret. This regimen is to be followed regularly every
seven years, and any one may live to be as old as Methuselah!
It is right to state that M. Harcouet has but little authority
for attributing this precious composition to Arnold of Ville-
neuve. It is not found in the collected works of that philoso-
pher; but was first brought to light by a M. Poirier, at the
commencement of the sixteenth century, who asserted that he
had discovered It in MS. in the undoubted writing of Arnold.
PIETEO B'APONE
This unlucky sage was born at Apone, near Padua, in the
year 1250. Like Ms friend Arnold de Villeneuve, he was an
eminent physician, and a pretender to the arts of astrology
and alchymy. He practised for many years in Paris, and
made great wealth by killing and curing, and telling fortunes.
112 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
In an evil day for him, he returned to his own country, with
the reputation of being a magician of the first order. It was
universally believed that he had drawn seven evil spirits from
the infernal regions, whom he kept enclosed in seven crystal
vases until he required their services, when he sent them forth
to the ends of the earth to execute his pleasure. One spirit ex-
celled in philosophy; a second, in alchymy; a third, in astrol-
ogy; a fourth, in physic; a fifth, in poetry; a sixth, in music;
and the seventh, in painting; and whenever Pietro wished for
information or instruction in any of these arts, he had only to
go to his crystal vase and liberate the presiding spirit. Imme-
diately all the secrets of the art were revealed to him; and
he might, if it pleased him, excel Homer in poetry, Apelles
in painting, or Pythagoras himself in philosophy. Although
he could make gold out of brass, it was said of him that he
was very sparing of his powers in that respect, and kept
himself constantly supplied with money by other and less
creditable means. Whenever he disbursed gold, he muttered
a certain charm, known only to himself, and next morning the
gold was safe again in his own possession. The trader to whom
he gave it might lock it in Ms strong box and have it guarded
by a troop of soldiers, but the charmed metal flew back to its
old master. Even if it were buried in the earth, or thrown into
the sea, the dawn of the next morning would behold it in
the pockets of Pietro. Few people, in consequence, liked to
have dealings with such a personage, especially for gold.
Some, bolder than the rest, thought that his power did not
extend over silver; but, when they made the experiment, they
found themselves mistaken. Bolts and bars could not restrain
it, and it sometimes became invisible in their very hands, and
was whisked through the air to the purse of the magician.
He necessarily acquired a very bad character; and having
given utterance to some sentiments regarding religion which
were the very reverse of orthodox, he was summoned before
the tribunals of the Inquisition to answer for his crimes as a
heretic and a sorcerer. He loudly protested his innocence,
even upon the rack, where he suffered more torture than
nature could support. He died in prison ere Ms trial was
THE ALCHYMISTS 1 13
concluded, but was afterwards found guilty. His bones were
ordered to be dug up and publicly burned. He was also
burned in effigy in the streets of Padua.
RAYMOND LULLI
While Arnold de Villeneuve and Pietro d ? Apone flourished
in France and Italy, a more celebrated adept than either ap-
peared in Spain. This was Raymond Lull!, a name which
stands in the first rank among the alchymists. Unlike many
of Ms predecessors, he made no pretensions to astrology or
necromancy; but, taking Geber for his model, studied intently
the nature and composition of metals, without reference to
charms, incantations, or any foolish ceremonies. It was not,
however, till late in life that he commenced his study of the
art. His early and middle age were spent in a different man-
ner, and his whole history is romantic in the extreme. He
was born of an illustrious family, in Majorca, in the year
1235. When that island was taken from the Saracens by
James I. king of Aragon, in 1230, the father of Raymond, who
was originally of Catalonia, settled there, and received a con-
siderable appointment from the crown. Raymond married at
an early age; and, being fond of pleasure, he left the solitudes
of his native isle, and passed over with his bride into Spain.
He was made Grand Seneschal at the court of King James,
and led a gay life for several years. Faithless to his wife,
he was always in the pursuit of some new beauty, till his
heart was fixed at last by the lovely but unkind Ambrosia
de Castello. This lady, like her admirer, was married; but,
unlike him, was faithful to her vows, and treated all his solici-
tations with disdain. Raymond was so enamoured, that re-
pulse only increased his flame; he lingered all night under
her windows, wrote passionate verses in her praise, neglected
his affairs, and made himself the butt of all the courtiers. One
day, while watching under her lattice, he by chance caught
sight of her bosom, as her neckerchief was blown aside by
the wind. The fit of inspiration came over him, and he sat
down and composed some tender stanzas upon the subject, and
114 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
sent them to the lady. The fair Ambrosia had never before
condescended to answer his letters; but she replied to this.
She told Mm that she could never listen to his suit; that it
was unbecoming in a wise man to fix his thoughts, as he had
done, on any other than his God; and entreated him to devote
himself to a religious life, and conquer the unworthy passion
which he had suffered to consume him. She, however, offered,
if he wished it, to show him the fair bosom which had so
captivated him. Raymond was delighted. He thought the
latter part of this epistle but ill corresponded with the former,
and that Ambrosia, in spite of the good advice she gave him,
had at last relented, and would make him as happy as he
desired. He followed her about from place to place, entreat-
ing her to fulfil her promise: but still Ambrosia was cold, and
implored him with tears to importune her no longer; for that
she never could be his, and never would, if she were free to-
morrow. "What means your letter, then?" said the despairing
lover. "I will shew you!" replied Ambrosia, who immediately
uncovered her bosom, and exposed to the eyes of her horror-
stricken admirer a large cancer which had extended to both
breasts* She saw that he was shocked; and extending her
hand to him, she prayed him once more to lead a religious
life, and set his heart upon the Creator, and not upon the
creature. He went home an altered man. He threw up, on
the morrow, his valuable appointment at the court, separated
from his wife, and took a farewell of his children, after divid-
ing one-half of his ample fortune among them. The other
half he shared among the poor. He then threw himself at
the foot of a crucifix, and devoted himself to the service of
God, vowing, as the most acceptable atonement for his errors,
that he would employ the remainder of his days in the task
of converting the Mussulmans to the Christian religion. In
Ms dreams he saw Jesus Christ, who said to him, "Raymond!
Raymond! follow me!" The vision was three times repeated,
and Raymond was convinced that it was an intimation direct
from heaven. Having put Ms affairs in order, he set out on
a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostello, and
afterwards lived for ten years in solitude amid the mountains
THE ALCHYMISTS IIS
of Aranda. Here he learned the Arabic, to qualify himself
for Ms mission of converting the Mahometans. He also
studied various sciences, as taught in the works of the learned
men of the East 7 and first made acquaintance with the writ-
ings of Geber, which were destined to exercise so much influ-
ence over Ms future life.
At the end of this probation, and when he had entered Ms
fortieth year, he emerged from his solitude into more active
life. With some remains of his fortune, wMch had accumu-
lated during Ms retirement, he founded a college for the study
of Arabic, wMch was approved of by the pope, with many
commendations upon his zeal and piety. At this time he nar-
rowly escaped assassination from an Arabian youth whom he
had taken into Ms service. Raymond had prayed to God, in
some of Ms accesses of fanaticism, that he might suffer mar-
tyrdom in Ms holy cause. His servant had overheard Mm;
and being as great a fanatic as his master, he resolved to
gratify his wish, and punish him at the same time for the
curses wMch he incessantly launched against Mahomet and
all who believed in him, by stabbing him to the heart. He
therefore aimed a blow at Ms master as he sat one day at
table; but the instinct of self-preservation being stronger
than the desire -of martyrdom, Raymond grappled with his
antagonist, and overthrew Mm. He scorned to take his life
Mmself ; but handed him over to the authorities of the town,
by whom he was afterwards found dead in Ms prison.
After this adventure Raymond travelled to Paris, where he
resided for some time, and made the acquaintance of Arnold
de Villeneuve. From him he probably received some encour-
agement to search for the pMlosopher's stone, as he began
from that time forth to devote less of Ms attention to religious
matters, and more to the study of alchymy. Still he never
lost sight of the great object for wMch he lived the conversion
of the Mahometans and proceeded to Rome, to communicate
personally with Pope John XXI. on the best measures to be
adopted for that end. The Pope gave him encouragement in
words, but failed to associate any other persons with him in
the enterprise wMch he meditated. Raymond, therefore, set
1 1 6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
out for Tunis alone, and was kindly received by many Arabian
philosophers, who had heard of his fame as a professor of
alchymy. If he had stuck to alchymy while in their country,
It would have been well for him; but he began cursing Maho-
met, and got himself into trouble. While preaching the doc-
trines of Christianity in the great bazaar of Tunis, he was
arrested and thrown into prison. He was shortly afterwards
brought to trial, and sentenced to death. Some of his philo-
sophic friends interceded hard for him, and he was pardoned
upon condition that he left Africa immediately, and never
again set foot in it. If he was found there again, no matter
what his object might be, or whatever length of time might
intervene, his original sentence would be carried into execu-
tion. Raymond was not at all solicitous of martyrdom when it
came to the point, whatever he might have been when there
was no danger, and he gladly accepted his life upon these con-
ditions, and left Tunis with the intention of proceeding to
Rome. He afterwards changed his plan, and established him-
self at Milan, where, for a length of time, he practised al~
chymy, and some say astrology, with great success.
Most writers who believed in the secrets of alchymy, and
who have noticed the life of Raymond Lulli, assert, that while
in Milan, he received letters from Edward King of England,
inviting him to settle in his states. They add that Lulli gladly
accepted the invitation, and had apartments assigned for his
use in the Tower of London, where he refined much gold;
superintended the coinage of "rose-nobles," and made gold
out of iron, quicksilver, lead, and pewter, to the amount of
six millions. The writers in the Biographic Universette, an
excellent authority in general, deny that Raymond was ever
in England, and say, that in all these stories of his wondrous
powers as an alchymist, he has been mistaken for another
Raymond, a Jew of Tarragona. Naude, in his Apologie, says
simply, "that six millions were given by Raymond Lulli to
King Edward, to make war against the Turks and other infi-
dels:" not that he transmuted so much metal into gold; but,
as he afterwards adds, that he advised Edward to lay a ta^c
upon wool, which produced that amount. To shew that Ray-
THE ALCHYMISTS
mond went to England, Ms admirers quote a work
to Mm, De Transmutatione Metallorum, in which he
expressly says that he was In England at the Intercession of
the king.* The hermetic writers are not agreed whether It
was Edward I. or Edward II. who Invited Mm over; but, by
fixing the date of Ms journey In 1312, they make It appear
that it was Edward II. Edinond Dlckenson, in Ms work on
the Quintessences of the Philosophers, says, that Raymond
worked in Westminster Abbey, where, a long time after Ms
departure, there was found In the cell which he had occupied
a great quantity of golden dust, of wMch the architects made
a great profit. In the biographical sketch of John Cremer,
Abbot of Westminster, given by Lenglet, it is said that it was
cMefly through Ms instrumentality that Raymond came to
England. Cremer had been himself for thirty years occupied
in the vain search for the philosopher's stone, when he acci-
dentally met Raymond in Italy, and endeavoured to Induce
Mm to communicate his grand secret. Raymond told Mm that
he must find it for himself, as all great alchymists had done
before Mm. Cremer, on his return to England, spoke to
King Edward in Mgh terms of the wonderful attainments of
the pMlosopher, and a letter of invitation was forthwith sent
him. Robert Constantinus, In the Nomenclator Scriptomm
Medicorum, published In 1515, says, that after a great deal
of research, he found that Raymond LulE resided for some
time In London, and that he actually made gold, by means of
the pMlosopher's stone, in the Tower; that he had seen the
golden pieces of his coinage, which were still named in Eng-
land the nobles of Raymond, or rose nobles. Lulli himself
appears to have boasted that he made gold; for, in his well-
known Testamentum, he states that "he converted no less than
fifty thousand pounds weight of quicksilver, lead, and pewter
into that metalf It seems highly probable that the English
king, believing In the extraordinary powers of the alchymist,
* Vidimus omnia ista dum ad Angliam transiimus, propter mtercessionem
domini Regis Edoardi tilmtrusimi.
t Convert! una vice in aurum ad L milia pondo argenti vivi, plumbi, et
stanni. LiMii Testamentum.
Il8 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
invited him to England to make test of them, and that he
was employed in refining gold and in coining. Camden, who
is not credulous in matters like these, affords his countenance
to the story of Ms coinage of nobles: and there is nothing at
all wonderful in the fact of a man famous for his knowledge
of metals being employed in such a capacity. Raymond was
at this time an old man, in his seventy-seventh year, and
somewhat in Ms dotage. He was willing enough to have it
believed that he had discovered the grand secret, and sup-
ported the rumour rather than contradicted it. He did not
long remain in England, but returned to Rome to carry out
the projects which were nearer to Ms heart than the profes-
sion of alchymy. He had proposed them to several successive
popes with little or no success. The first was a plan for the
introduction of the oriental languages into all the monasteries
of Europe; the second, for the reduction into one of all the
military orders, that, being united, they might move more
efficaciously against the Saracens; and the third, that the
sovereign pontiff should forbid the works of Averroes to be
read in the schools, as being more favourable to Mahometanism
than to Christianity. The pope did not receive the old man
with much cordiality; and, after remaining for about two
years in Rome, he proceeded once more to Africa, alone and
unprotected, to preach the Gospel of Jesus. He landed at
Bona in 1314, and so irritated the Mahometans by cursing
their prophet, that they stoned him, and left him for dead
on the sea-shore. He was found some hours afterwards by
a party of Genoese merchants, who conveyed him on board
their vessel, and sailed towards Majorca. The unfortunate
man still breathed, but could not articulate. He lingered in
tMs state for some days, and expired just as the vessel ar-
rived within sight of his native shores. His body was con-
veyed with great pomp to the church of St. Eulalia, at Palma,
where a public funeral was instituted in his honour. Miracles
were afterwards said to have been worked at his tomb.
Thus ended the career of Raymond Lulli, one of the most
extraordinary men of his age; and, with the exception of his
last boast about the six millions of gold, the least inclined to
ALCH YMISTS 1 1 9
quackery of any of the professors of alchymy. His writings
were very numerous, and include nearly five hundred vol-
umes, upon grammar, rhetoric, morals, theology, politics, civil
and canon law, physics^ metaphysics, astronomy, medicine,
and chemistry.
ROGER BACON
The powerful delusion of alchymy seized upon a mind still
greater than that of Raymond Lulli. Roger Bacon firmly be-
lieved in the philosopher's stone, and spent much of his time
in search of it. His example helped to render all the learned
men of the time more convinced of its practicability, and more
eager in the pursuit. He was born at Ilchester, in the county
of Somerset, in the year 1214. He studied for some time in
the University of Oxford, and afterwards in that of Paris, in
which he received the degree of doctor of divinity. Returning
to England in 1240, he became a monk of the order of St.
Francis. He was by far the most learned man of Ms age;
and Ms acquirements were so much above the comprehension
of Ms contemporaries, that they could only account for them
by supposing -that he was indebted for them to the devil. Vol-
taire has not inaptly designated Mm "De For encroute de
toutes les ordures de son siecle;" but the crust of superstition
that enveloped Ms powerful mind, though it may have dimmed,
could not obscure the brightness of Ms genius. To him, and
apparently to him only, among all the inquiring spirits of the
time, were known the properties of the concave and convex
lens. He also invented the magic-lantern; that pretty play-
thing of modern days, wMch acquired for Mm a reputation
that embittered Ms life. In a Mstory of alchymy, the name of
tMs great man cannot be omitted, although, unlike many
others of whom we shall have occasion to speak, he only made
it secondary to other pursuits. The love of universal knowl-
edge that filled his mind, would not allow Mm to neglect one
branch of science, of which neither he nor the world could
yet see the absurdity. He made ample amends for Ms time
lost in this pursuit by Ms knowledge in physics and Ms
acquaintance with astronomy. The telescope, burning-glasses,
120 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
and gunpowder, are discoveries which may well carry Ms fame
to the remotest time, and make the world blind to the one spot
of folly' the diagnosis of the age in which he lived, and the
circumstances by which he was surrounded. His treatise on
the Admirable Power of Art and Nature in the Production of
the Philosopher's Stone was translated into French by Girard
de Tonnes, and published at Lyons in 1557. His Mirror oj
Alckymy was also published in French in the same year, and
in Paris in 1612, with some additions from the works of Ray-
mond Lull. A complete list of all the published treatises upon
the subject may be seen in Lenglet du Fresnoy.
POPE JOHN XXII.
This prelate is said to have been the friend and pupil of
Arnold de Villeneuve, by whom he was instructed in all the
secrets of alchymy. Tradition asserts of him, that he made
great quantities of gold, and died as rich as Croesus. He was
born at Cahors, in the province of Guinne, in the year 1244.
He was a very eloquent preacher, and soon reached high dig-
nity in the Church. He wrote a work on the transmutation
of metals, and had a famous laboratory at Avignon. He issued
two bulls against the numerous pretenders to the art, who had
sprung up in every part of Christendom; from which it might
be inferred that he was himself free from the delusion. The
alchymists claim him, however, as one of the most distin-
guished and successful professors of their art, and say that
his bulls were not directed against the real adepts, but the
false pretenders. They lay particular stress upon these words
in his bull, "Spondent, quas non exhibent, divitias, pauperes
alchymistse." These, it is clear, they say, relate only to poor
alchymists, and therefore false ones. He died in the year
1344, leaving in his coffers a sum of eighteen millions of
florins. Popular belief alleged that he had made, and not
amassed, this treasure; and alchymists complacently cite this
as a proof that the philosopher's stone was not such a chimera
as the incredulous pretended. They take it for granted that
John really left this money, and ask by what possible means
he could have accumulated it. Replying to their own question.
THE ALCHYMISTS 121
they say triumphantly, "His book shews it was by alchymy,
the secrets of which he learned from Arnold de Villeneuve
and Raymond Lulli But he was as prudent as all other her-
metic philosophers. Whoever would read Ms book to find out
his secret, would employ all his labour in vain; the pope took
good care not to divulge it." Unluckily for their own credit,
all these gold-makers are in the same predicament; their great
secret loses its worth most wonderfully in the telling, and
therefore they keep it snugly to themselves. Perhaps they
thought that, if every body could transmute metals, gold
would be so plentiful that it would be no longer valuable ? and
that some new art would be requisite to transmute it back
again into steel and iron. If so, society is much indebted to
them for their forbearance.
JEAN DE MEUNG
All classes of men dabbled in the art at this time; the last
mentioned was a pope, the one of whom we now speak was a
poet. Jean de Meung, the celebrated author of the Roman
de la Rose, was born in the year 1279 or 1280, and was a
great personage at the courts of Louis X., Philip the Long,
Charles IV., and Philip de Valois. His famous poem of the
Roman de la Rose, which treats of every subject in vogue
at that day, necessarily makes great mention of alchymy.
Jean was a firm believer in the art, and wrote, besides Ms
Roman, two shorter poems, the one entitled, The Remon-
strance of Nature to the wandering Alchymist and The Reply
of the Alchymist to Nature. Poetry and alchymy were his
delight, and priests and women were his abomination. A
pleasant story is related of him and the ladies of the court of
Charles IV. He had written the following libellous couplet
upon the fair sex:
"Toutes etes, serez, ou f&tes,
Be fait on de volonte, putains;
Et qui tres bien vous chercherait,
Toutes putains vous trouverait" *
* These verses are but a coarser expression of the slanderous line of Pope,
that "every woman is at heart a rake."
122 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR ILLUSIONS
This naturally gave great offence; and being perceived one
day in the king's antechamber, by some ladies who were wait-
ing for an audience, they resolved to punish Mm. To the
number of ten or twelve, they armed themselves with canes
and rods, and surrounding the unlucky poet, called upon the
gentlemen present to strip him naked, that they might wreak
just vengeance upon him, and lash him through the streets of
the town. Some of the lords present were in no wise loath,
and promised themselves great sport from his punishment.
But Jean de Meung was unmoved by their threats, and stood
up calmly in the midst of them, begging them to hear Mm
first, and then, if not satisfied, they might do as they liked
with him. Silence being restored, he stood upon a chair, and
entered on his defence. He acknowledged that he was the
author of the obnoxious verses, but denied that they bore ref-
erence to all womankind. He only meant to speak of the
vicious and abandoned, whereas those whom he saw around
him were patterns of virtue, loveliness,, and modesty. If,
however, any lady present thought herself aggrieved, he would
consent to be stripped, and she might lash him till her arms
were wearied. It is added, that by this means Jean escaped
his flogging, and that the wrath of the fair ones immediately
subsided. The gentlemen present were, however, of opinion,
that if every lady in the room whose character responded with
the verses had taken Mm at his word, the poet would in all
probability have been beaten to death. All his life long he
evinced a great animosity towards the priesthood, and his
famous poem abounds with passages reflecting upon their
avarice, cruelty, and immorality. At his death he left a large
box, filled with some weighty material, which he bequeathed
to the Cordeliers, as a peace-offering for the abuse he had
lavished upon them. As his practice of alchymy was well
known, it was thought the box was filled with gold and silver,
and the Cordeliers congratulated each other on their rich
acquisition. When it came to be opened, they found to their
horror that it was filled only with slates, scratched with hiero-
glyphic and cabalistic characters. Indignant at the insult,
they determined to refuse Mm Christian burial, on pretence
THE ALCHYMISTS 1 23
that he was a sorcerer. He was, however, honourably burled
In Paris, the whole court attending Ms funeral.
NICHOLAS FLAMEL
The story of this alchymist, as handed down by tradition,
and enshrined in the pages of Lenglet du Fresnoy, is not a
little marvellous. He was born at Pontoise, of a poor but
respectable family, at the end of the thirteenth, or beginning
of the fourteenth century. Having no patrimony, he set out
for Paris at an early age, to try his fortune as a public scribe.
He had received a good education, was well skilled in the
learned languages, and was an excellent penman. He soon
procured occupation as a letter-writer and copyist,, and used
to sit at the corner of the Rue de Marivaux, and practise Ms
calling; but he hardly made profit enough to keep body and
soul together. To mend Ms fortunes he tried poetry; but this
was a more wretched occupation still. As a transcriber he
had at least gained bread and cheese; but his rhymes were
not worth a crust. He then tried painting with as little suc-
cess; and as a last resource, began to search for the philoso-
pher's stone and tell fortunes. TMs was a happier idea; he
soon increased in substance, and had wherewithal to live
comfortably. He therefore took unto himself his wife Petro-
nella, and began to save money; but continued to all outward
appearance as poor and miserable as before. In the course of
a few years, he became desperately addicted to the study of
alchymy, and thought of notMng but the philosopher's stone,
the elixir of life, and the universal alkahest. In the year 1257
he bought by chance an old book for two florins, wMch sooi
became Ms sole study. It was written with a steel instrument
upon the bark of trees, and contained twenty-one, or as he
himself always expressed it, three times seven, leaves. The
writing was very elegant and in the Latin language. Each
seventh leaf contained a picture and no writing. On the first
of these was a serpent swallowing rods; on the second, a cross
with a serpent crucified; and on the tMrd, the representation
of a desert, in the midst of wMch was a fountain, with ser~
124 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
crawling from side to side. It purported to be written
by no less a personage than "Abraham, patriarch, Jew, prince,
philosopher, priest, Levite, and astrologer;' 3 and invoked
curses upon any one who should cast eyes upon it, without
being ifc a sacrificer or a scribe." Nicholas Flame! never
thought it extraordinary that Abraham should have known
Latin ? and was convinced that the characters on Ms book had
been traced by the hands of that great patriarch himself. He
was at first afraid to read it, after he became aware of the
curse it contained; but he got over that difficulty by recollect-
ing that, although he was not a sacrifice^ he had practised as
a scribe. As he read he was filled with admiration, and found
that it was a perfect treatise upon the transmutation of metals.
All the processes were clearly explained; the vessels, the re-
torts, the mixtures, and the proper times and seasons for
experiment. But as ill-luck would have it, the possession of
the philosopher's stone, or prime agent in the work, was pre-
supposed. This was a difficulty which was not to be got
over. It was like telling a starving man how to cook a beef-
steak, instead of giving him the money to buy one. But
Nicholas did not despair, and set about studying the hiero-
glyphics and allegorical representations with which the book
abounded. He soon convinced himself that it had been one
of the sacred books of the Jews, and that it was taken from
the temple of Jerusalem on its destruction by Titus. The
process of reasoning by which he arrived at this conclusion is
not stated.
From some expression in the treatise, he learned that the
allegorical drawings on the fourth and fifth leaves enshrined
the secret of the philosopher's stone, without which all the fine
Latin of the directions was utterly unavailing. He invited all
the alchymists and learned men of Paris to come and examine
them, but they all departed as wise as they came. Nobody
could make any thing either of Nicholas or his pictures; and
some even went so far as to say that his invaluable book
was not worth a farthing. This was not to be borne; and
Nicholas resolved to discover the great secret by himself,
without troubling the philosophers. He found on the first
THE ALCHYMISTS 12 5
page of the fourth leaf the picture of Mercury attacked by an
old man resembling Saturn or Time. The latter had an hour-
glass on his head, and in Ms hand a scythe, with which he
aimed a blow at Mercury's feet, The reverse of the leaf
represented a flower growing on a mountaintop, shaken rudely
by the wind, with a blue stalk, red and white blossoms, and
leaves of pure gold. Around it were a great number of drag-
ons and griffins. On the first page of the fifth leaf was a fine
garden, in the midst of which was a rose-tree in full bloom,
supported against the trunk of a gigantic oak. At the foot
of this there bubbled up a fountain of milk-like water, which,
forming a small stream, flowed through the garden, and was
afterwards lost in the sands. On the second page was a king,
with a sword in his hand, superintending a number of soldiers,
who, in execution of Ms orders, were killing a great multitude
of young children, spurning the prayers and fears of their
mothers, who tried to save them from destruction. The blood
of the children was carefully collected by another party of
soldiers, and put into a large vessel, in which two allegorical
figures of the sun and moon were bathing themselves.
For twenty-one years poor Nicholas wearied himself with
the study of these pictures, but still he could make nothing of
them. His wife Petronella at last persuaded him to find out
some learned rabbi; but there was no rabbi in Paris learned
enough to be of any service to Mm. The Jews met but small
encouragement to fix their abode in France, and all the cMefs
of that people were located in Spain. To Spain accordingly
Nicholas Flamel repaired. He left his book in Paris, for fear,
perhaps, that he might be robbed of it on the road; and telling
Ms neighbours that he was going on a pilgrimage to the shrine
of St. James of. Compostello, he trudged on foot towards
Madrid in search of a rabbi. He was absent two years
in that country, and made Mmself known to a great number
of Jews, descendants of those who had been expelled from
France in the reign of Philip Augustus. The believers in the
philosopher's stone give the following account of Ms adven-
tures: They say that at Leon he made the acquaintance of
a converted Jew, named Cauches, a very learned physician,
126 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
to whom be explained the title and nature of Ms little book.
The doctor was transported with joy as soon as he heard it
named, and Immediately resolved to accompany Nicholas to
Paris, that he might have a sight of it. The two set out to-
gether; the doctor on the way entertaining his companion
with the history of his book, which, if the genuine book he
thought it to be, from the description he had heard of it, was
in the handwriting of Abraham himself, and had been in the
possession of personages no less distinguished than Moses,
Joshua, Solomon, and Esdras. It contained all the secrets
of alchymy and of many other sciences, and was the most valu-
able book that had ever existed in this world. The doctor was
himself no mean adept, and Nicholas profited greatly by his
discourse, as in the garb of poor pilgrims they wended their
way to Paris, convinced of their power to turn every old shovel
In that capital into pure gold. But, unfortunately, when they
reached Orleans, the doctor was taken dangerously ill. Nich-
olas watched by his bedside, and acted the double part of a
physician and nurse to him; but he died after a few days,
lamenting with his last breath that he had not lived long
enough to see the precious volume. Nicholas rendered the*
last honours to his body; and with a sorrowful heart, and not
one son in his pocket, proceeded home to Ms wife Petronella.
He immediately recommenced the study of his pictures; but
for two whole years he was as far from understanding them
as ever. At last, in the third year, a glimmer of light stole
over his understanding. He recalled some expression of his
friend the doctor, which had hitherto escaped his memory, and
he found that all his previous experiments had been con-
ducted on a wrong basis. He recommenced them now with re-
newed energy, and at the end of the year had the satisfaction
to see all his toils rewarded. On the 13th January 1382, says
Lenglet, he made a projection on mercury, and had some very
excellent silver. On the 25th April following, he converted a
large quantity of mercury into gold, and the great secret
was his.
Nicholas was now about eighty years of age, and still a
hale and stout old man. His friends say that by a simultane-
1HE ALCHYMISTS 12 7
ous discovery of the elixir of life, he found means to keep
death at a distance for another quarter of a century; and that
he died in 1415, at the age of 116. In this interval he made
immense quantities of gold, though to ail outward appearance
he was as poor as a mouse. At an early period of Ms changed
fortune, he had, like a worthy man, taken counsel with Ms
old wife Petronella, as to the best use he could make of his
wealth. Petronella replied, that as unfortunately they had
no children, the best thing he could do, was to buMd hospitals
and endow churches. Nicholas thought so too, especially
when he began to find that his elixir could not keep off death,
and that the grim foe was making rapid advances upon him.
He richly endowed the church of St. Jacques de la Boucherie,
near the Rue de Marivaux, where he had all his life resided^
besides seven others in different parts of the kingdom. He
also endowed fourteen hospitals, and buUt three chapels.
The fame of his great wealth and his munificent benefac-
tions soon spread over all the country, and he was visited,
among others, by the celebrated doctors of that day, Jean
Gerson, Jean de Courtecuisse, and Pierre d'Ailli. They found
him in Ms humble apartment, meanly clad, and eating por-
ridge out of an earthen vessel; and with regard to Ms secret,
as impenetrable as all Ms predecessors in alchyiny. His fame
reached the ears of the king, Charles VI., who sent M. de
Cramoisi, the Master of Requests, to find out whether Nich-
olas had indeed discovered the pMlosopher ? s stone. But M. de
Cramoisi took notMng by Ms visit; all Ms attempts to sound
the alchymist were unavailing, and he returned to Ms royal
master no wiser than he came. It was in this year, 1414, that
he lost Ms faithful Petronella. He did not long survive her,
but died in the following year, and was buried with great
pomp by the grateful priests of St. Jacques de la Boucherie.
The great wealth of Nicholas Flamel is undoubted, as the
records of several churches and hospitals in France can tes-
tify. That he practiced alchyiny is equally certain, as he left
beMnd several works upon the subject. Those who knew Mm
well, and who were incredulous about the pMlosopher's stone,
give a satisfactory solution of the secret of Ms wealth. They
12 8 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
say that lie was always a miser and a usurer; that his journey
to Spain was undertaken with very different motives from
those pretended by the alchymlsts; that, in fact, he went to
collect debts due from Jews in that country to their brethren
in Paris, and that he charged a commission of fully cent per
cent in consideration of the difficulty of collecting and the
dangers of the road; that when lie possessed thousands, he
lived upon almost nothing; and was the general money-lender,
at enormous profits, to all the dissipated young men at the
French court.
Among the works written by Nicholas Flamel on the subject
of alchymy is The Philosophic Summary, a poem, reprinted in
1735 ? as an appendix to the third volume of the Roman de la
Rose. He also wrote three treatises upon natural philosophy,
and an alchymic allegory, entitled Le Desir desire. Specimens
of his writing, and a fac-simile of the drawings in his book of
Abraham, may be seen in Salmon's Bibliotheque des Philo-
sophes Chimiques. The writer of the article Flamel in the
Biographie Universelle says, that for a hundred years after
the death of Flamel, many of the adepts believed that he was
still alive, and that he would live for upwards of six hundred
years. The house he formerly occupied, at the corner of the
Rue de Marivaux, has been often taken by credulous specu-
lators, and ransacked from top to bottom, in the hopes that
gold might be found. A report was current in Paris, not long
previous to the year 1816, that some lodgers had found in
the cellars several jars filled with a dark-coloured ponderous
matter. Upon the strength of the rumour, a believer in all
the wondrous tales told of Nicholas Flamel bought the house,
and nearly pulled it to pieces in ransacking the walls and
wainscoting for hidden gold. He got nothing for his pains,
however, and had a heavy bill to pay to restore his dilapida-
tions.
GEORGE RIPLEY
While alchymy was thus cultivated on the continent of
Europe, it was not neglected in the isles of Britain. Since
the time of Roger Bacon, it had fascinated the imagination
THE ALCHYMISTS 129
of many ardent men in England. In the year 1404 an act of
parliament was passed declaring the making of gold and silver
to be felony. Great alarm was felt at that time lest any
alchymist should succeed in his projects, and perhaps bring
ruin upon the state by furnishing boundless wealth to some
designing tyrant, who would make use of it to enslave Ms
country. This alarm appears to have soon subsided; for, in
the year 1455, King Henry VI., by advice of Ms council and
parliament, granted four successive patents and commissions
to several knights, citizens of London, chemists, monks, mass-
priests, and others, to find out the philosopher's stone and
elixir^ "to the great benefit/ 7 said the patent., "of the realm,
and the enabling of the king to pay all the debts of the crown
in real gold and silver." Prinn, in Ms Aurum Regince, ob-
serves., as a note to this passage, that the king's reason for
granting this patent to ecclesiastics was, that "they were such
good artists in transubstantiating bread and wine in the
eucharist, and therefore the more likely to be able to effect
the transmutation of baser metals into better." No gold, of
course, was ever made; and next year the king, doubting very
much of the practicability of the thing, took further advice,
and appointed a commission of ten learned men and persons
of eminence to judge and certify to Mm whether the transmu-
tation of metals were a tMng practicable or no. It does not
appear whether the commission ever made any report upon
the subject.
In the succeeding reign an alchymist appeared who pre-
tended to have discovered the secret. TMs was George Rip-
ley, the canon of Bridlington, in YorksMre. He studied for
twenty years in the universities of Italy, and was a great
favourite with Pope Innocent VIII., who made Mm one of
his domestic chaplains, and master of the ceremonies in his
household. Returning to England in 1477, he dedicated to
King Edward IV. his famous work, The Compound of Al-
chymy; or, the Twelve Gates leading to the Discovery of the
Philosopher's Stone. These gates he described to be calcina-
tion, solution, separation, conjunction, putrefaction, congela-
tion, cibation, sublimation, fermentation, exaltation, multipli*
130 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
cation, and projection; to which he might have added bothera-
tion, the most important process of all. He was very rich,
and allowed it to be believed that he could make gold out of
iron. Fuller, in his Worthies of England, says that an Eng-
lish gentleman of good credit reported, that in his travels
abroad he saw a record in the island of Malta which declared
that Ripley gave yearly to the knights of that island^ and of
Rhodes, the enormous sum of one hundred thousand pounds
sterling to enable them to carry on the war against the Turks.
In his old age he became an anchorite near Boston, and wrote
twenty-five volumes upon the subject of aichyiny, the most
important of which is the Duodecim Partamm already men-
tioned. Before he died, he seems to have acknowledged that
he had mis-spent his life in this vain study, and requested that
all men, when they met with any of his books, would burn
them, or afford them no credit, as they had been written
merely from Ms opinion and not from proof; and that sub-
sequent trial had made manifest to him that they were false
and vain.*
BASIL VALENTINE
Germany also produced many famous alchymists in the
fifteenth century, the chief of whom are Basil Valentine, Ber-
nard of Treves, and the abbot Trithemius. Basil Valentine
was born at Mayence, and was made prior of St. Peter's, at
Erfurt, about the year 1414. It was known during his life,
that he diligently sought the philosopher's stone, and that he
had written some works upon the process of transmutation.
They were thought for many years to be lost, but were, after
his death, discovered enclosed in the stonework of one of the
pillars in the abbey. They were twenty-one in number, and
are fully set forth in the third volume of Lenglet's History
of the Hermetic Philosophy. The alchymists asserted that
heaven itself conspired to bring to light these extraordinary
works; and that the pillar in which they were enclosed was
miraculously shattered by a thunderbolt; and that as soon as
* Fuller's Worthies of England
THE ALCHYillSTS 1J1
the manuscripts were liberated, the closed up of
Its own accord!
BERNARD OF TREVES
The life of this philosopher is a remarkable instance of
talent and perseverance misapplied. In the search of Ms
chimera nothing could daunt him. Repeated disappointment
never diminished Ms hopes; and from the age of fourteen
to that of eighty-five he was incessantly employed among the
drugs and furnaces of Ms laboratory, wasting Ms life with
the view of prolonging it, and reducing Mmself to beggary In
the hopes of growing rich.
He was born at either Treves or Padua in the year 1406.
His father Is said by some to have been a physician in the
latter city, and by others to have been Count of the Marches
of Treves, and one of the most wealthy nobles of Ms country.
At all events, whether noble or physician, he was a rich man,
and left his son a magnificent estate. At the age of fourteen
he first became enamoured of the science of alchymy, and
read the Arabian authors In their own language. He Mmself
has left a most Interesting record of Ms labours and wander-
Ings, from wMch the following particulars are cMefly ex-
tracted. The first book wMch fell into his hands was that of
the Arabian pMlosopher Rhazes, from the reading of wMch he
imagined that he had discovered the means of augmenting
gold a hundredfold. For four years he worked in Ms labora-
tory, with the book of Rhazes continually before Mm. At the
end of that time, he found that he had spent no less than eight
hundred crowns upon Ms experiment, and had got nothing but
fire and smoke for Ms pains. He now began to lose confidence
in Rhazes, and turned to the works of Geber. He studied
Mm assiduously for two years; and being young, rich, and
credulous, was beset by all the alchymists of the town, who
kindly assisted him in spending his money. He did not lose
Ms faith In Geber, or patience with Ms hungry assistants,
until he had lost two thousand crowns a very considerable
sum in those days.
152 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Among all the crowd of pretended men of science who sur-
rounded him, there was but one as enthusiastic and as disin-
terested as himself. With this man, who was a monk of the
order of St, Francis, he contracted an intimate friendship, and
spent nearly all Ms time. Some obscure treatises of Rupecissa
and Sacrobosco having fallen into their hands, they were per-
suaded, from reading them 7 that highly rectified spirits of wine
was the universal alkahest, or dissolvent, which would aid
them greatly in the process of transmutation. They rectified
the alcohol thirty times, till they made it so strong as to burst
the vessels which contained it. After they had worked three
years, and spent three hundred crowns in the liquor, they dis-
covered that they were on the wrong track. They next tried
alum and copperas; but the great secret still escaped them.
They afterwards imagined that there was a marvellous virtue
in all excrement, especially the human, and actually employed
more than two years in experimentalising upon it with mer-
cury, salt, and molten lead! Again the adepts flocked around
him from far and near to aid him with their counsels. He
received them all hospitably, and divided his wealth among
them so generously and unhesitatingly, that they gave him
the name of the "Good Trevisan," by which he is still often
mentioned in works that treat on alchymy. For twelve years
he led this life, making experiments every day upon some new
substance, and praying to God night and morning that he
might discover the secret of transmutation.
In this interval he lost Ms friend the monk, and was joined
by a magistrate of the city of Treves, as ardent as himself in
the search. His new acquaintance imagined that the ocean
was the mother of gold, and that sea-salt would change lead or
iron into the precious metals. Bernard resolved to try; and,
transporting his laboratory to a house on the shores of the
Baltic, he worked upon salt for more than a year, melting it,
sublimating it, crystallising it, and occasionally drinking it, for
the sake of other experiments. Still the strange enthusiast
was not wholly discouraged, and his failure in one trial only
made him the more anxious to attempt another.
He was now approaching the age of fifty, and had as yet
THE ALCHYMISTS 133
seen nothing of the world. He therefore determined to travel
through Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. Wherever he
stopped he made inquiries whether there were any akhymists
in the neighbourhood. He invariably sought them out; and if
they were poor, relieved, and if affluent, encouraged them. At
Citeaux he became acquainted with one Geoffrey Leuvier, a
monk of that place, who persuaded him that the essence of egg-
shells was a valuable ingredient. He tried, therefore, what
could be done; and was only prevented from wasting a year
or two on the experiment by the opinions of an attorney, at
Berghem, in Flanders, who said that the great secret resided
in vinegar and copperas. He was not convinced of the ab-
surdity of this idea until he had nearly poisoned himself. He
resided in France for about five years, when, hearing acci-
dentally that one Master Henry, confessor to the Emperor
Frederick III., had discovered the philosopher's stone, he set
out for Germany to pay him a visit. He had, as usual, sur-
rounded himself with a set of hungry dependants, several of
whom determined to accompany him. He had not heart to
refuse them, and he arrived at Vienna with five of them. Ber-
nard sent a polite invitation to the confessor, and gave him
a sumptuous entertainment, at which were present nearly all
the alchymists of Vienna. Master Henry frankly confessed
that he had not discovered the philosopher's stone, but that
he had all his life been employed in searching for it, and would
so continue till he found it, or died. This was a man after
Bernard's own heart, and they vowed with each other an eter-
nal friendship. It was resolved, at supper, that each alchymist
present should contribute a certain sum towards raising forty-
two marks of gold, which, in five days, it was confidently
asserted by Master Henry, would increase, in his furnace, five-
fold. Bernard, being the richest man, contributed the lion's
share, ten marks of gold, Master Henry five, and the others
one or two a-piece, except the dependants of Bernard, who
were obliged to borrow their quota from their, patron. The
grand experiment was duly made; the golden marks were put
into a crucible, with a quantity of salt, copperas, aquafortis,
egg-shells, mercury, lead, and dung. The alchymists watched
134 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
this precious mess with intense interest, expecting that it
would agglomerate into one lump of pure gold. At the end
of three weeks they gave up the trial, upon some excuse that
the crucible was not strong enough, or that some necessary
ingredient was wanting. Whether any thief had put his hands
into the crucible is not known, but it is alleged that the gold
found therein at the close of the experiment was worth only
sixteen marks, instead of the forty-two which were put there
at the beginning.
Bernard, though he made no gold at Vienna, made away with
a very considerable quantity. He felt the loss so acutely that
he vowed to think no more of the philosopher's stone. This
wise resolution he kept for two months; but he was miserable.
He was in the condition of the gambler, who cannot resist the
fascination of the game while he has a coin remaining, but
plays on with the hope of retrieving former losses, till hope
forsakes him, and he can live no longer. He returned once
more to Ms beloved crucibles, and resolved to prosecute his
journey in search of a philosopher who had discovered the
secret, and would communicate it to so zealous and persever-
ing an adept as himself. From Vienna he travelled to Rome,
and from Rome to Madrid. Taking ship at Gibraltar, he pro-
ceeded to Messina; from Messina to Cyprus; from Cyprus to
Greece; from Greece to Constantinople; and thence into
Egypt, Palestine, and Persia. These wanderings occupied
him about eight years. From Persia he made his way
back to Messina, and from thence into France. He after-
wards passed over into England, still in search of his great
chimera; and this occupied four years more of his life. He
was now growing both old and poor; for he was sixty-two
years of age, and had been obliged to sell a great portion of
his patrimony to provide for his expenses. His journey to
Persia had cost upwards of thirteen thousand crowns, about
one-half of which had been fairly melted in his all-devouring
furnaces; the other half was lavished upon the sycophants
that he made it his business to search out in every town he
stopped at.
On his return to Treves he found, to his sorrow, that, if not
THE ALCHYMISTS 135
an actual beggar, he was not much better. His relatives
looked upon Mm as a madman, and refused even to see Mm.
Too proud to ask for favours from any one, and still con-
fident that, some day or other, lie would be the possessor of
unbounded wealth, he made up his mind to retire to the island
of Rhodes, where he might, in the mean time, hide his pov-
erty from the eyes of the world. Here he might have lived
unknown and happy; but, as ill luck would have it, he fell
in with a monk as mad as himself upon the subject of trans-
mutation. They were, however, both so poor that they could
not afford to buy the proper materials to work with. They
kept up each other's spirits by learned discourses on the
hermetic philosophy, and in the reading of all the great
authors who had written upon the subject. Thus did they
nurse their folly, as the good wife of Tarn O'Shanter did her
wrath, to keep it warm. After Bernard had resided about a
year in Rhodes, a merchant, who knew his family, advanced
him the sum of eight thousand florins, upon the security of the
last-remaining acres of his formerly large estate. Once more
provided with funds, he recommenced his labours with all the
zeal and enthusiasm of a young man. For three years he
hardly stepped out of Ms laboratory: he ate there, and slept
there, and did not even give himself time to wash Ms hands
and clean Ms beard, so intense was his application. It is mel-
ancholy to think that such wonderful perseverance should
have been wasted in so vain a pursuit, and that energies so
unconquerable should have had no wortMer field to strive in.
Even when he had fumed away Ms last coin, and had nothing
left in prospective to keep Ms old age from starvation, hope
never forsook Mm. He stilt dreamed of ultimate success, and
sat down a grey-headed man of eighty, to read over all the
authors on the hermetic mysteries, from Geber to his own day,
lest he should have misunderstood some process, which it was
not yet too late to recommence. The alchymists say, that he
succeeded at last, and discovered the secret of transmutation
in his eighty-second year. They add that he lived three years
afterwards to enjoy his wealth. He lived, it is true, to this
great age, and made a valuable discovery more valuable than
136 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
gold or gems. He learned, as he himself Informs us, just be-
fore lie had attained Ms eighty-third year, that the great secret
of philosophy was contentment with our lot. Happy would it
have been for him if he had discovered it sooner 3 and before
he became decrepit, a beggar, and an exile!
He died at Rhodes, in the year 1490 ? and all the alchymists
of Europe sang elegies over Mm, and sounded his praise as
the "good Trevisan." He wrote several treatises upon his
chimera^ the cMef of which are, the Book of Chemistry, the
Verbum dimissum, and an essay De Natura Dm*
TRITHEMIUS
The name of this eminent man has become famous in the
annals of alchymy, although he did but little to gain so ques-
tionable an honour. He was born in the year 1462, at the vil-
lage of Trittheim, in the electorate of Treves. His father was
John Heidenberg, a vine-grower, in easy circumstances, who,
dying when his son was but seven years old, left him to the
care of his mother. The latter married again very shortly
afterwards, and neglected the poor boy, the offspring of her
first marriage. At the age of fifteen he did not even know
Ms letters, and was, besides, half-starved, and otherwise ill-
treated by his step-father; but the love of knowledge germi-
nated in the breast of the unfortunate youth, and he learned
to read at the house of a neighbour. His father-in-law set him
to work in the vineyards, and thus occupied all his days; but
the nights were his own. He often stole out unheeded, when
all the household were fast asleep, poring over his studies in
the fields, by the light of the moon; and thus taught Mmself
Latin and the rudiments of Greek. He was subjected to so
much ill-usage at home, in consequence of this love of study,
that he determined to leave it. Demanding the patrimony
which Ms father had left Mm, he proceeded to Treves; and
assuming the name of Trithemius, from that of his native
village of Trittheim, lived there for some months under the
tuition of eminent masters, by whom he was prepared for the
university. At the age of twenty, he took it into Ms head that
THE ALCHYMISTS 137
he should like to see his mother once more; and he set out on
foot from the distant university for that purpose. On his
arrival near Spannheim, late in the evening of a gloomy win-
ter's day, it came on to snow so thickly, that he could not
proceed onwards to the town. He therefore took refuge for
the night in a neighbouring monastery; but the storm con-
tinued several days, the roads became impassable, and the
hospitable monks would not hear of his departure. He was so
pleased with them and their manner of life, that he suddenly
resolved to fix his abode among them, and renounce the world.
They were no less pleased with him, and gladly received Mm
as a brother. In the course of two years, although still so
young, he was unanimously elected their abbot. The financial
affairs of the establishment had been greatly neglected, the
walls of the building were falling into ruin, and every thing
was in disorder. Tritheinius, by Ms good management and
regularity, introduced a reform in every branch of expendi-
ture. The monastery was repaired, and a yearly surplus,
instead of a deficiency, rewarded him for Hs pains. He did
not like to see the monks idle, or occupied solely between
prayers for their business, and chess for their relaxation. He,
therefore, set them to work to copy the writings of eminent
authors. They laboured so assiduously, that, in the course
of a few years, their library, wMch had contained only about
forty volumes, was enriched with several hundred valuable
manuscripts, comprising many of the classical Latin authors,
besides the works of the early fathers, and the principal Ms-
torians and philosophers of more modern date. He retained
the dignity of Abbot of Spannheim for twenty-one years, when
the monks, tired of the severe discipline he maintained, re-
volted against him, and chose another abbot in his place. He
was afterwards made Abbot of St. James, in Wurzburg, where
he died in 1516.
During Ms learned leisure at Spannheim, he wrote several
works upon the occult sciences, the cMef of which are an
essay on geomansy, or divination by means of lines and circles
on the ground; another upon sorcery; a tMrd upon alchymy;
and a fourth upon the government of the world by its presid-
138 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Ing angels, which was translated into English, and published
by the famous William Lilly in 1647.
It has been alleged by the believers in the possibility of
transmutation, that the prosperity of the abbey of Spannhelm,
while under his superintendence, was owing more to the phil-
osopher's stone than to wise economy. Trithemius, in com-
mon with many other learned men, has been accused of magic;
and a marvellous story is told of his having raised from the
grave the form of Mary of Burgundy, at the intercession of
her widowed husband, the Emperor Maximilian. His work
on steganographia, or cabalistic writing, was denounced to the
Count Palatine, Frederic II., as magical and devilish; and it
was by him taken from the shelves of his library and thrown
into the fire. Trithemius is said to be the first writer who
makes mention of the wonderful story of the devil and Dr.
Faustus, the truth of which he firmly believed. He also re-
counts the freaks of a spirit named Hudekin, by whom he
was at times tormented. 511
THE MARECHAL DE RAYS
One of the greatest encouragers of alchymy in the fifteenth
century was Gilles de Laval, Lord of Rays and a Marshal of
France. His name and deeds are little known; but in the
annals of crime and folly they might claim the highest and
worst pre-eminence. Fiction has never invented any thing
wilder or more horrible than his career; and were not the
details but too well authenticated by legal and other docu-
ments which admit no doubt, the lover of romance might
easily imagine they were drawn to please him from the stores
of the prolific brain, and not from the page of history.
He was born about the year 1420, of one of the noblest
families of Brittany. His father dying when Gilles had at-
tained his twentieth year, he came into uncontrolled posses-
sion, at that early age, of a fortune which the monarchs of
France might' have envied him. He was a near kinsman of
the Montmorencys, the Roncys, and the Craons; possessed
* Biographie Universelle.
THE ALCHYMISTS 139
fifteen princely domains, and had an annual revenue of about
three hundred thousand livres. Besides this, he was hand-
some, learned, and brave. He distinguished himself greatly
in the wars of Charles VII., and was rewarded by that mon-
arch with the dignity of a marshal of France. But he was
extravagant and magnificent in his style of living ? and accus-
tomed from his earliest years to the gratification of every wish
and passion; and this, at last, led him from vice to vice and
from crime to crime, till a blacker name than Ms is not to be
found in any record of human Iniquity.
In Ms castle of Champtoce he lived with all the splendour
of an eastern caliph. He kept up a troop of two hundred
horsemen to accompany Mm wherever he went; and Ms excur-
sions for the purposes of hawking and hunting were the won-
der of all the country around, so magnificent were the capari-
sons of Ms steeds and the dresses of Ms retainers. Day and
night Ms castle was open all the year round to comers of every
degree. He made it a rule to regale even the poorest beggar
with wine and hippocrass. Every day an ox was roasted
whole in Ms spacious kitchens, besides sheep, pigs, and poultry
sufficient to feed five hundred persons. He was equally mag-
nificent in Ms devotions. His private chapel at Champtoce
was the most beautiful in France, and far surpassed any of
those in the ricMy-endowed cathedrals of Notre Dame in
Paris, of Amiens, of Beauvais, or of Rouen. It was hung
with cloth-of-gold and rich velvet. All the chandeliers were
of pure gold curiously inlaid with silver. The great crucifix
over the altar was of solid silver, and the chalices and incense-
burners were of pure gold. He had besides a fine organ,
wMch he caused to be carried from one castle to another on
the shoulders of six men, whenever he changed his residence.
He kept up a choir of twenty-five young children of both
sexes, who were instructed in singing by the first musicians
of the day. The master of Ms chapel he called a bishop, who
had under him Ms deans, arch-deacons, and vicars, each re-
ceiving great salaries; the bishop four hundred crowns a year,
and the rest in proportion.
He also maintained a whole troop of players, including ten
I4O EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
dancing girls and as many ballad-singers, besides morris-
dancers. Jugglers, and mountebanks of every description. The
theatre on which they performed was fitted up without any
regard to expense, and they played mysteries or danced the
morris-dance every evening for the amusement of himself and
household, and such strangers as were sharing his prodigal
hospitality.
At the age of twenty-three he married Catherine, the
wealthy heiress of the house of Touars, for whom he refur-
nished his castle at an expense of a hundred thousand crowns.
His marriage was the signal for new extravagance, and he
launched out more madly than ever he had done before; send-
ing for fine singers or celebrated dancers from foreign coun-
tries to amuse him and his spouse; and instituting tilts and
tournaments in Ms great court-yard almost every week for all
the knights and nobles of the province of Brittany. The
Duke of Brittany's court was not half so splendid as that of
the Marechal de Rays. His utter disregard for wealth was
so well known, that he was made to pay three times its value
for every thing he purchased. His castle was filled with needy
parasites and panderers to his pleasures, amongst whom he
lavished rewards with an unsparing hand. But the ordinary
round of sensual gratification ceased at last to afford him de-
light; he was observed to be more abstemious in the pleasures
of the table, and to neglect the beauteous dancing girls who
used formerly to occupy so much of his attention. He was
sometimes gloomy and reserved, and there was an unnatural
wildness in his eye which gave indications of incipient mad-
ness. Still his discourse was as reasonable as ever, his
urbanity to the guests that flocked from far and near to
Champtoce suffered no diminution; and learned priests, when
they conversed with him, thought to themselves that few of
the nobles of France were so well informed as Gilles de Laval.
But dark rumours spread gradually over the country; murder,
and, if possible, still more atrocious deeds were hinted at; and
it was remarked that many young children of both sexes sud-
denly disappeared, and were never afterwards heard of. One
or two had been traced to the castle of Champtoce, and had
THE ALCHYMISTS 141
never been seen to leave it; but no one to accuse openly
so powerful a man as the Marechal de Rays. Whenever the
subject of the lost children was mentioned in Ms presence,, he
manifested the greatest astonishment at the mystery which
involved their fate, and indignation against those who might
be guilty of kidnapping them. Still the world was not wholly
deceived; his name became as formidable to young children
as that of the devouring ogre in fairy tales^ they were
taught to go miles roiiEd 5 rather than pass under the turrets
of Champtoce.
In the course of a few years, the reckless extravagance of
the marshal drained Mm of all his funds, and he was obliged
to put up some of Ms estates for sale. The Duke of Brittany
entered into a treaty with him for the valuable seignory of
Ingrade; but the heirs of Giles implored the interference
of Charles VII. to stay the sale. Charles immediately issued
an edict, wMch was confirmed by the provincial parliament
of Brittany, forbidding him to alienate his paternal estates.
Gilles had no alternative but to submit. He had nothing to
support his extravagance but his allowance as a marshal of
France, wMch did not cover the one-tenth of his expenses.
A man of Ms habits and character could not retrench his
wasteful expenditure, and live reasonably; he could not dis-
miss without a pang Ms horsemen, Ms jesters, Ms morrls-
dancers, Ms choristers, and Ms parasites, or confine Ms hos-
pitality to those who really needed it. Notwithstanding his
diminished resources, he resolved to live as he had lived be-
fore, and turn alchymist, that he might make gold out of
iron, and be still the wealthiest and most magnificent among
the nobles of Brittany.
In pursuance of this determination, he sent to Paris, Italy,
Germany, and Spain, inviting all the adepts in the science to
visit Mm at Champtoce. The messengers he despatched on
tMs mission were two of Ms most needy and unprincipled de-
pendants, Gilles de Sille and Roger de Bricqueville. The
latter, the obsequious panderer to Ms most secret and abom-
inable pleasures, he had entrusted with the education of his
motherless daughter, a cMld but five years of age, with per-
142 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
mission that he might marry her at the proper time to any
person he chose, or to himself if he liked it better. This man
entered into the new plans of his master with great zeal, and
introduced to him one Prelati, an alchymist of Padua, and a
physician of Poitou, who was adicted to the same pursuits.
The marshal caused a splendid laboratory to be fitted up
for them, and the three commenced the search for the philoso-
pher's stone. They were soon afterwards joined by another
pretended philosopher, named Anthony Palermo, who aided
in their operations for upwards of a year. They all fared
sumptuously at the marshal's expense, draining him of the
ready money he possessed, and leading him on from day to
day with the hope that they would succeed in the object of
their search. From time to time new aspirants from the re-
motest parts of Europe arrived at his castle, and for months
he had upwards of twenty alchymists at work, trying to trans-
mute copper into gold, and wasting the gold which was still
his own jn drugs and elixirs.
But the Lord of Rays was not a man to abide patiently
their lingering processes. Pleased with their comfortable
quarters, they jogged on from day to day, and would have
done so for years, had they been permitted. But he suddenly
dismissed them all, with the exception of the Italian Prelati,
and the physician of Poitou. These he retained to aid him to
discover the secret of the philosopher's stone by a bolder
method. The Poitousan had persuaded him that the devil
was the great depository of that and all other secrets, and that
he would raise him before Gilles, who might enter into any
contract he pleased with him. Gilles expressed his readiness,
and promised to give the devil any thing but his soul, or do
any deed that the arch-enemy might impose upon him. At-
tended solely by the physician, he proceeded at midnight to
a wild-looking place in a neighbouring forest; the physician
drew a magic circle around them on the sward, and muttered
for half an hour an invocation to the evil spirit to arise at
his bidding, and disclose the secrets of alchymy. Gilles looked
on with intense interest, and expected every moment to see
the earth open, and deliver to his gaze the great enemy of
THE ALCHYMISTS 143
mankind. At last the eyes of the physician became fixed, Ms
hair stood on end, and he spoke, as if addressing the fiend.
But Gilles saw nothing except Ms companion. At last the
physician fell down on the sward as if insensible. Gilles
looked calmly on to see the end. After a few minutes the
physician arose, and asked Mm if he had not seen how angry
the devil looked? Gilles replied that he had seen nothing;
upon wMch Ms companion informed him that Beelzebub had
appeared in the form of a wild leopard, growled at Mm sav-
agely, and said nothing; and that the reason why the marshal
had neither seen nor heard Mm was, that he hesitated in
Ms own mind as to devoting Mmself entirely to the service.
De Rays owned that he had indeed misgivings, and inquired
what was to be done to make the devil speak out, and unfold
Ms secret? The physician replied, that some person must go
to Spain and Africa to collect certain herbs which only grew in
those countries, and offered to go himself, if De Rays would
provide the necessary funds. De Rays at once consented; and
the physician set out on the following day with all the gold
that Ms dupe could spare Mm. The marshal never saw his
face again.
But the eager Lord of Champtoce could not rest. Gold was
necessary for his pleasures; and unless by supernatural aid,
he had no means of procuring any further supplies. The
physician was hardly twenty leagues on his journey, before
Gilles resolved to make another effort to force the devil to
divulge the art of gold-making. He went out alone for that
purpose; but all his conjurations were of no effect. Beelze-
bub was obstinate, and would not appear. Determined to
conquer Mm if he could, he unbosomed Mmself to the Italian
alchymist, Prelati. The latter offered to undertake the business,
upon condition that De Rays did not interfere in the conjura-
tions, and consented besides to furnish Mm with all the charms
and talismans that might be required. He was further to open
a vein in his arm, and sign with his blood a contract that "he
would work the devil's will in all things," and offer up to
him a sacrifice of the heart, lungs, hands, eyes, and blood of
a young child. The grasping monomaniac made no hesitation,
144 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
but agreed at once to the disgusting terms proposed to him. On
the following night, Prelati went out alone, and after having
been absent for three or four hours ? returned to Gilles, who
sat anxiously awaiting him. Prelati then informed him that
he had seen the devil in the shape of a handsome youth of
twenty. He further said, that the devil desired to be called
Barron in all future invocations; and had shewn him a great
number of ingots of pure gold, buried under a large oak in
the neighbouring forest, all of which, and as many more as
he desired, should become the property of the Marechal de
Rays if he remained firm, and broke no condition of the con-
tract. Prelati further shewed him a small casket of black
dust, which would turn iron into gold; but as the process was
very troublesome, he advised that they should be contented
with the ingots they found under the oak-tree, and which
would more than supply all the wants that the most extrava-
gant imagination could desire. They were not, however, to
attempt to look for the gold till a period of seven times seven
weeks, or they would find nothing but slates and stones for
their pains. Gilles expressed the utmost chagrin and disap-
pointment, and at once* said that he could not wait for so
long a period; if the devil were not more prompt, Prelati
might tell him that the Marechal de Rays was not to be trifled
with, and would decline all further communication with him.
Prelati at last persuaded him to wait seven times seven, days.
They then went at midnight with picks and shovels to dig
up the ground under the oak, where they found nothing to
reward them but a great quantity of slates, marked with hiero-
glyphics. It was now Prelati's turn to be angry; and he
loudly swore that the devil was nothing but a liar and a cheat.
The marshal joined cordially in the opinion, but was easily
persuaded by the cunning Italian to make one more trial. He
promised at the same time that he would endeavour on the fol-
lowing night to discover the reason why the devil had broken
his word. He went out alone accordingly, and on his return
informed his patron that he had seen Barron, who was exceed-
ingly angry that they had not waited the proper time ere they
looked for the ingots. Barron had also said, that the Marechal
THE ALCHYMISTS I4S
de Rays could hardly expect any favours from Mm, at a time
when he must know that lie had been meditating a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land to make atonement for his sins. The Italian
had doubtless surmised this from some incautious expression
of Ms patron, for De Rays frankly confessed that there were
times when, sick of the world and all its pomps and vanities,
he thought of devoting himself to the service of God.
In this manner the Italian lured on from month to month
his credulous and guilty patron, extracting from him all the
valuables he possessed, and only waiting a favourable oppor-
tunity to decamp with his plunder. But the day of retribution
was at hand for both. Young girls and boys continued to dis-
appear in the most mysterious manner; and the rumours
against the owner of Champtoce grew so loud and distinct, that
the Church was compelled to interfere. Representations were
made by the Bishop of Nantes to the Duke of Brittany, that
it would be a public scandal if the accusations against the
Marechal de Rays were not inquired into. He was arrested
accordingly in his own castle, along with his accomplice Pre-
lati, and thrown into a dungeon at Nantes to await his trial.
The judges appointed to try him were the Bishop of Nantes,
Chancellor of Brittany, the Vicar of the Inquisition in France,
and the celebrated Pierre 1'HdpitaI, the President of the pro-
vincial Parliament. The offences laid to his charge were
sorcery, sodomy, and murder. Gilles, on the first day of his
trial, conducted himself with the utmost insolence. He braved
the judges on the judgment-seat, calling them simoniacs and
persons of impure life, and said he would rather be hanged
by the neck like a dog without trial, than plead either guilty
or not guilty before such contemptible miscreants. But his
confidence forsook him as the trial proceeded, and he was
found guilty on the clearest evidence of all the crimes laid to
his charge. It was proved that he took insane pleasure in
stabbing the victims of his lust and in observing the quiver-
ing of their flesh, and the fading lustre of their eyes as they
expired. The confession of Prelati first made the judges ac-
quainted with this horrid madness, and Gilles himself con-
firmed it before his death. Nearly a hundred children of the
146 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
villagers around Ms two castles of Champtoce and Machecous,
had been missed within three years, the greater part, if riot
all, of whom were immolated to the lust or the cupidity of this
monster. He imagined that he thus made the devil his friend,
and that his recompense would be the secret of the philoso-
pher's stone.
Gilles and Prelati were both condemned to be burned alive.
At the place of execution they assumed the air of penitence
and religion. Gilles tenderly embraced Prelati, saying, "Fare-
well, friend Francis! In this world we shall never meet again;
but let us place our hopes in God; we shall see each other in
Paradise!' Out of consideration for bis high rank and con-
nexions, the punishment of the marshal was so far mitigated,
that he was not burned alive like Prelati. He was first
strangled, and then thrown into the flames: his body, when
half consumed, was given over to his relatives for interment,
while that of the Italian was burned to ashes, and then scat-
tered to the winds.*
JACQUES COEUR
This remarkable pretender to the secret of the philosopher's
stone was contemporary with the last mentioned. He was a
great personage at the court of Charles VII., and in the events
of Ms reign played a prominent part. From a very humble
origin he rose to the highest honours of the state, and amassed
enormous wealth by peculation and plunder of the country
which he should have served. It was to hide Ms delinquencies
in tMs respect, and to divert attention from the real source of
his riches, that he boasted of having discovered the art of
transmuting the inferior metals into gold and silver.
His father was a goldsmith in the city of Bourges; but so
reduced in circumstances towards the latter years of his life,
that he was unable to pay the necessary fees to procure his
son's admission into the guild. Young Jacques became, how-
*For full details of this extraordinary trial, see Lobineau's Nouvelle
Histoire de Bretagne, and D'Argentre's work on the same subject. The
character and life of Gilles de Rays are believed to hare suggested the
famous Blue Beard of the nursery tale.
THE ALCHYMISTS 147
ever, a workman in the Royal Mint of Bourges, in 1428, and
behaved himself so well, and shewed so much knowledge of
metallurgy, that he attained rapid promotion in that estab-
lishment. He had also the good fortune to make the acquain-
tance of the fair Agnes Sorel, by whom he was patronised and
much esteemed. Jacques had now three things in his favour
ability, perseverance, and the countenance of the king's
mistress. Many a man succeeds with but one of these to help
him forward; and it would have been strange indeed if Jacques
Cosur, who had them all, should have languished in obscurity.
While still a young man, he was made master of the mint, in
which he had been a journeyman, and installed at the same
time into the vacant office of grand treasurer of the royal
household.
He possessed an extensive knowledge of finance, and turned
it wonderfully to his own advantage, as soon as he became en-
trusted with extensive funds. He speculated in articles of
the first necessity, and made himself popular by buying up
grain, honey, wines, and other produce, till there was a
scarcity, when he sold it again at enormous profit. Strong in
the royal favour, he did not hesitate to oppress the poor by
continual acts of forestalling and monopoly. As there is no
enemy so bitter as the estranged friend, so, of all the tyrants
and tramplers upon the poor, there is none so fierce and reck-
less as the upstart that sprang from their ranks. The offen-
sive pride of Jacques Coeur to his inferiors was the theme of
indignant reproach in his own city, and his cringing humility
to those above him was as much an object of contempt to the
aristocrats into whose society he thrust himself. But Jacques
did not care for the former, and to the latter he was blind.
He continued his career till he became the richest man in
France, and so useful to the king that no important enterprise
was set on foot until he had been consulted. He was sent,
in 1446, on an embassy to Genoa, and in the following year to
Pope Nicholas V. In both these missions he acquitted himself
to the satisfaction of his sovereign, and was rewarded with a
lucrative appointment, in addition to those which he already
held.
148 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
In the year 1449, the English In Normandy, deprived of
their great general, the Duke of Bedford, broke the truce with
the French king, and took possession of a small town belong-
ing to the Duke of Brittany. This was the signal for the re-
commencement of a war, in which the French regained pos-
session of nearly the whole province. The money for this war
was advanced, for the most part, by Jacques Cceur. When
Rouen yielded to the French, and Charles made his triumphal
entry into that city, accompanied by Dunois and his most
famous generals, Jacques was among the most brilliant of his
cortege. His chariot and horses vied with those of the king
in the magnificence of their trappings; and his enemies said
of him that he publicly boasted that he alone had driven out
the English, and that the valour of the troops would have
been nothing without his gold.
Dunois appears, also, to have been partly of the same opin-
ion. Without disparaging the courage of the army, he
acknowledged the utility of the able financier, by whose means
they had been fed and paid, and constantly afforded him his
powerful protection.
When peace returned, Jacques again devoted himself to
commerce, and fitted up several galleys to trade with the
Genoese. He also bought large estates in various parts of
France; the chief of which were the baronies of St. Fargeau,
Meneton, Salone, Maubranche, Meaune, St. Gerant de Vaux,
and St. Aon de Boissy; the earldoms or counties of La Palisse,
Champignelle, Beaumont, and Villeneuve la Genet, and the
marquisate of Toucy. He also procured for his son, Jean
Cceur, who had chosen the church for his profession, a post
no less distinguished than that of Archbishop of Bourges.
Every body said that so much wealth could not have been
honestly acquired; and both rich and poor longed for the day
that should humble the pride of the man, whom the one class
regarded as an upstart and the other as an oppressor. Jacques
was somewhat alarmed at the rumours that were afloat respect-
ing him, and of dark hints that he had debased the coin of
the realm and forged the king's seal to an important docu-
ment, by which he had defrauded the state of very consider-
THE ALCHYMISTS 149
able sums. To silence these rumours, lie invited many alchy-
mists from foreign countries to reside with him, and circu-
lated a counter rumour, that he had discovered the secret of
the philosopher's stone. He also built a magnificent house in
his native city, over the entrance of which he caused to be
sculptured the emblems of that science. Some time after-
wards he built another, no less splendid, at Montpellier, which
he inscribed in a similar manner. He also wrote a treatise
upon the hermetic philosophy, in which he pretended that
he knew the secret of transmuting metals.
But all these attempts to disguise his numerous acts of pecu-
lation proved unavailing; and he was arrested in 1452, and
brought to trial on several charges. Upon one only, which
the malice of his enemies invented to ruin him, was he ac-
quitted; which was, that he had been accessory to the death,
by poison, of his kind patroness, Agnes Sorel. Upon the
others he was found guilty, and sentenced to be banished the
kingdom, and to pay the enormous fine of four hundred thou-
sand crowns. It was proved that he had forged the king's
seal; that in his capacity of master of the mint of Bourges,
he had debased, to a very great extent, the gold and silver
coin of the realm; and that he had not hesitated to supply the
Turks with arms and money to enable them to carry on war
against their Christian neighbours, for which service he had
received the most munificent recompenses. Charles VII. was
deeply grieved at his condemnation, and believed to the last
that he was innocent. By his means the fine was reduced
within a sum which Jacques Coeur could pay. After remain-
ing for some time in prison, he was liberated, and left France
with a large sum of money, part of which, it was alleged, was
secretly paid him by Charles out of the produce of his con-
fiscated estates. He retired to Cyprus, where he died about
1460, the richest and most conspicuous personage of the
island.
The writers upon alchymy all claim Jacques Coeur as a
member of their fraternity, and treat as false and libellous the
more rational explanation of his wealth which the records of
his trial afford. Pierre Borel, in his AntiquitSs Gauloises,
150 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
maintains the opinion that Jacques was an honest man, and
that he made his gold out of lead and copper by means of
the philosopher's stone. The alchymic adepts in general were
of the same opinion; but they found it difficult to persuade
even his contemporaries of the fact. Posterity is still less
likely to believe it.
INFERIOR ADEPTS OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH
CENTURIES
Many other pretenders to the secrets of the philosopher's
stone appeared in every country in Europe, during the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries. The possibility of transmuta-
tion was so generally admitted, that every chemist was more
or less an alchymist. Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Poland,
France, and England produced thousands of obscure adepts,
who supported themselves, in the pursuit of their chimera, by
the more profitable resources of astrology and divination. The
monarchs of Europe were no less persuaded than their sub-
jects of the possibility of discovering the philosopher's stone.
Henry VI. and Edward IV. of England encouraged alchymy.
In Germany, the Emperors Maximilian, Rodolph, and Fred-
erick TI. devoted much of their attention to it; and every
inferior potentate within their dominions imitated their exam-
ple. It was a common practice in Germany, among the nobles
and petty sovereigns, to invite an alchymist to take up his
residence among them, that they might confine him in a
dungeon till he made gold. enough to pay millions for his
ransom. Many poor wretches suffered perpetual imprisonment
in consequence. A similar fate appears to have been intended
by Edward II. for Raymond Lulli, who, upon the pretence that
he was thereby honoured, was accommodated with apartments
in the Tower of London. He found out in time the trick that
was about to be played him, and managed to make his escape;
some of his biographers say, by jumping into the Thames
and swimming to a vessel that lay waiting to receive him. In
the sixteenth century, the same system was pursued, as will
be shown more fully in the life of Seton the Cosmopolite.
THE A1CHYMISTS
The following is a catalogue of the chief authors upon
alchymy who flourished during this epoch, and whose lives
and adventures are either unknown or are unworthy of more
detailed notice. John Dowston, an Englishman, lived in 1315,
and wrote two treatises on the philosopher's stone. Richard,
or, as some call him Robert, also an Englishman, lived in 1330,
and wrote a work entitled Correct orium AlchymicB, which was
much esteemed till the time of Paracelsus. In the same year
lived Peter of Lombardy, who wrote what he called a Com-
plete Treatise upon the Hermetic Science, an abridgment of
which was afterwards published by Lacini, a monk of Calab-
ria. In 1330 the most famous alchymist of Paris, was one
Odomare, whose work, De Practica Magistri, was for a long
time a hand-book among the brethren of the science. John
de Rupecissa, a French monk of the order of St. Francis,
flourished in 1357, and pretended to be a prophet as well as
an alchymist. Some of his prophecies were so disagreeable
to Pope Innocent VI., that the Pontiff determined to put a
stop to them, by locking up the prophet in the dungeons of
the Vatican. It is generally believed that he died there, though
there is no evidence of the fact. His chief works are, the
Book oj Light, the Five Essences, the Heaven of Philosophers,
and his grand work, De Conjectione Lapidis. He was not
thought a shining light among the adepts. Ortholani was an-
other pretender, of whom nothing is known, but that he exer-
cised the arts of alchymy and astrology at Paris, shortly before
the time of Nicholas Flamel. His work on the practice of
alchymy was written in that city in 1358. Isaac of Holland
wrote, it is supposed, about this time; and his son also de-
voted himself to the science. Nothing worth repeating is
known of their lives. Boerhaave speaks with commendation
of many passages in their works, and Paracelsus esteemed
them highly: the chief are, De Triplici Or dine Elixiris et Lapi-
dis Theoria, printed at Berne, in 1608; and Miner alia Opera,
seu de Lapide P kilos ophico, printed at Middleburg in 1600.
They also wrote eight other works upon the same subject.
Koffstky, a Pole, wrote an alchymical treatise, entitled The
Tincture oj Minerals, about the year 1488. In this list of
152 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
authors a royal name must not be forgotten. Charles VI. of
France, one of the most credulous princes of the day, whose
court absolutely swarmed with alchymists, conjurers, astrolo-
gers, and quacks of every description, made several attempts
to discover the philosopher's stone, and thought he knew so
much about it, that he determined to enlighten the world with
a treatise; it is called the Royal Work of Charles VI. of
France, and the Treasure of Philosophy. It is said to be the
original from which Nicholas Flamel took the idea of his
Desir desire. Lenglet du Fresnoy says it is very allegorical,
and utterly incomprehensible. For a more complete list of
the hermetic philosophers of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies, the reader is referred to the third volume of Lenglet's
History, already quoted.
PROGRESS OF THE INFATUATION DURING THE SIXTEENTH AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES PRESENT STATE OF THE SCIENCE
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the search
for the philosopher's stone was continued by thousands of the
enthusiastic and the credulous; but a great change was intro-
duced during this period. The eminent men who devoted
themselves to the study totally changed its aspect, and re-
ferred to the possession of their wondrous stone and elixir,
not only the conversion of the base into the precious metals,
but the solution of all the difficulties of other sciences. They
pretended that by its means man would be brought into closer
communion with his Maker; that disease and sorrow would be
banished from the world; and that "the millions of spiritual
beings who walk the earth unseen 7 ' would be rendered visible,
and become the friends, companions, and instructors of man-
kind. In the seventeenth century more especially, these
poetical and fantastic doctrines excited the notice of Europe;
and from Germany, where they had been first disseminated by
Rosencreutz, spread into France and England, and ran away
with the sound judgment of many clever but too enthusiastic
searchers for the truth. Paracelsus, Dee, and many others of
less note, were captivated by the grace and beauty of the new
THE ALCHYMISTS 153
mythology, which was arising to adorn the literature of Eu-
rope. Most of the alchymists of the sixteenth century, al-
though ignorant of the Rosicrucians as a sect, were, in some
degree, tinctured with their fanciful tenets: but before we
speak more fully of those poetical visionaries, it will be neces-
sary to resume the history of the hermetic folly, and trace the
gradual change that stole over the dreams of the adepts. It
will be seen that the infatuation increased rather than dimin-
ished as the world grew older.
AUGURELLO
Among the alchymists who were born in the fifteenth, and
distinguished themselves in the sixteenth century, the first in
point of date is John Aurelio Augurello. He was born at
Rimini in 1441, and became professor of the belles lettres at
Venice and Trevisa. He was early convinced of the truth of
the hermetic science, and used to pray to God that he might
be happy enough to discover the philosopher's stone. He was
continually surrounded by the paraphernalia of chemistry,
and expended all his wealth in the purchase of drugs and
metals. He was also a poet, but of less merit than pretensions.
His Crysopeia, in which he pretended to teach the art of mak-
ing gold, he dedicated to Pope Leo X., in the hope that the
pontiff would reward him handsomely for the compliment; but
the pope was too good a judge of poetry to be pleased
with the worse than mediocrity of his poem, and too
good a philosopher to approve of the strange doctrines
which it inculcated; he was, therefore, far from gratified
at the dedication. It is said, that when Augurello applied
to him for a reward, the pope, with great ceremony and much
apparent kindness and cordiality, drew an empty purse from
his pocket, and presented it to the alchymist, saying that since
he was able to make gold, the most appropriate present that
could be made him, was a purse to put it in. This scurvy
reward was all that the poor alchymist ever got either for
his poetry or his aJchymy. He died in a state of extreme pov-
erty, in the eighty-third year of his age.
154 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
CORNELIUS AGRIPPA
TMs alchymist has left a distinguished reputation. The
most extraordinary tales were told and believed of his powers.
He could turn iron into gold by his mere word. All the spirits
of tie air and demons of the earth were under his command,
and bound to obey him in everything. He could raise from
the dead the forms of the great men of other days, and make
them appear, "in their habit as they lived/' to the gaze of the
curious who had courage enough to abide their presence.
He was born at Cologne in I486, and began at an early
age the study of chemistry and philosophy. By some means
or other, which have never been very clearly explained; he
managed to impress his contemporaries with a great idea of
his wonderful attainments. At the early age of twenty, so
great was his reputation as an alchymist, that the principal
adepts of Paris wrote to Cologne, inviting him to settle in
France, and aid them with his experience in discovering the
philosopher's stone. Honours poured upon him in thick suc-
cession; and he was highly esteemed by all the learned men
of his time. Melancthon speaks of him with respect and
commendation. Erasmus also bears testimony in his favour;
and the general voice of his age proclaimed him a light of
literature and an ornament to philosophy. Some men, by dint
of excessive egotism, manage to persuade their contemporaries
that they are very great men indeed: they publish their ac-
quirements so loudly in people's ears, and keep up their own
praises so incessantly, that the world's applause is actually
taken by storm. Such seems to have been the case with
Agrippa. He called himself a sublime theologian, an excel-
lent jurisconsult, an able physician, a great philosopher, and
a successful alchymist. The world at last took him at his
word; and thought that a man who talked so big must have
some merit to recommend Mm, that it was, indeed, a great
trumpet which sounded so obstreperous a blast. He was made
secretary to the Emperor Maximilian, who conferred upon
him the title of chevalier, and gave him the honorary command
of a regiment. He afterwards became professor of Hebrew
THE ALCHYMISTS 155
and the belles lettres at the University of Dole, in France;
but quarrelling with the Franciscan monks upon some knotty
points of divinity, he was obliged to quit the town. He took
refuge in London, where he taught Hebrew and cast nativities,
for about a year. From London he proceeded to Pavia, and
gave lectures upon the writings, real or supposed, of Hermes
Trismegistus; and might have lived there in peace and hon-
our, had he not again quarrelled with the clergy. By their
means his position became so disagreeable that he was glad
to accept an offer made him by the magistracy of Metz, to
become their syndic and advocate-general. Here, again, his
love of disputation made him enemies: the theological wise-
acres of that city asserted that St. Ann had three husbands,
in which opinion they were confirmed by the popular belief
of the day. Agrippa needlessly ran fotd of this opinion, or
prejudice, as he called it, and thereby lost much of his influ-
ence. Another dispute, more creditable to his character, oc-
curred soon after, and sank him for ever in the estimation of
the Metzians. Humanely taking the part of a young girl who
was accused of witchcraft, his enemies asserted that he was
himself a sorcerer, and raised such a stonn over his head, that
he was forced to fly the city. After this he became physician
to Louisa de Savoy, mother of King Francis I. This lady was
curious to know the future, and required her physician to cast
her nativity. Agrippa replied that he would not encourage
such idle curiosity. The result was, he lost her confidence,
and was forthwith dismissed. If it had been through his
belief in the worthlessness of astrology that he had made his
answer, we might admire his honest and fearless indepen-
dence; but when it is known that, at the very same time,
he was in the constant habit of divination and fortune-telling,
and that he was predicting splendid success in all his under-
takings, to the Constable of Bourbon, we can only wonder
at his thus estranging a powerful friend through mere petu-
lance and perversity*
He was about this time invited, both by Henry VIII. of
England, and Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low
Countries, to fix his residence in their dominions. He chose
156 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the service of the latter, by whose influence he was made
historiographer to the Emperor Charles V. Unfortunately
for Agrippa, he never had stability enough to remain long in
one position, and offended his patrons by his restlessness and
presumption. After the death of Margaret he was imprisoned
at Brussels, on a charge of sorcery. He was released after a
year; and quitting the country, experienced many vicissitudes.
He died in great poverty in 1534, aged forty-eight years.
While in the service of Margaret of Austria, he resided prin-
cipally at Louvain, in which city he wrote his famous work on
the Vanity and Nothingness of Human Knowledge. He also
wrote, to please his royal mistress, a treatise upon the Superi-
ority of the Female Sex, which he dedicated to her in token
of his gratitude for the favours she had heaped upon Mm. The
reputation he left behind him in these provinces was anything
but favourable. A great number of the marvellous tales that
are told of him relate to this period of his life. It was said,
that the gold which he paid to the traders with whom he dealt,
always looked remarkably bright, but invariably turned into
pieces of slate and stone in the course of four-and-twenty
hours. Of this spurious gold he was believed to have made
large quantities by the aid of the devil, who, it would appear
from this, had but a very superficial knowledge of alchymy,
and much less than the Marechal de Rays gave him credit
for. The Jesuit Delrio, in his book on magic and sorcery, re-
lates a still more extraordinary story of him. One day,
Agrippa left his house at Louvain, and intending to be absent
for some time, gave the key of his study to his wife, with strict
orders that no one should enter it during his absence. The
lady herself, strange as it may appear, had no curiosity to pry
into her husband's secrets, and never once thought of entering
the forbidden room; but a young student, who had been ac-
commodated with an attic in the philosopher's house, burned
with a fierce desire to examine the study, hoping, perchance,
that he might purloin some book or implement which would
instruct him in the art of transmuting metals. The youth,
being handsome, eloquent, and, above all, highly compli-
mentary to the charms of the lady, she was persuaded without
THE ALCHYMISTS 157
much difficulty to lend him the key, but gave him strict orders
not to remove anything. The student promised implicit obedi-
ence, and entered Agrippa's study. The first object that caught
his attention was a large grimoire, or book of spells, which lay
open on the philosopher's desk. He sat himself down imme-
diately and began to read. At the first word he uttered, he
fancied he heard a knock at the door. He listened, but all
was silent. Thinking that his imagination had deceived him,
he read on, when immediately a louder knock was heard,
which so terrified him, that he started to his feet. He tried
to say "Come in," but his tongue refused its office, and he
could not articulate a sound. He fixed his eyes upon the
door, which, slowly opening, disclosed a stranger of majestic
form, but scowling features, who demanded sternly why he
was summoned? "I did not summon you," said the trembling
student. "You did!" said the stranger, advancing angrily;
"and the demons are not to be invoked in vain." The student
could make no reply; and the demon, enraged that one of
the uninitiated should have summoned him out of mere pre-
sumption, seized him by the throat and strangled him. When
Agrippa returned, a few days afterwards, he found his house
beset with devils. Some of them were sitting on the chimney-
pots, kicking up their legs in the air; while others were play-
ing at leapfrog on the very edge of the parapet. His study
was so filled with them, that he found it difficult to make his
way to his desk. When, at last, he had elbowed his way
through them, he found his book open, and the student lying
dead upon the floor. He saw immediately how the mischief
had been done; and dismissing all the inferior imps, asked the
principal demon how he could have been so rash as to kill the
young man. The demon replied, that he had been needlessly
invoked by an insulting youth, and could do no less than kill
him for his presumption. Agrippa reprimanded him severely,
and ordered him immediately to reanimate the dead body, and
walk about with it in the market-place for the whole of the
afternoon. The demon did so; the student revived, and put-
ting his arm through that of his unearthly murderer, walked
very lovingly with him in sight of all the people. At sunset,
158 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the body fell down again cold and lifeless as before, and was
carried by the crowd to the hospital, it being the general opin*
ion that he had expired in a fit of apoplexy. His conductor
immediately disappeared. When the body was examined, marks
of strangulation were found on the neck, and prints of the
long claws of the demon on various parts of it. These ap-
pearances, together with a story, which soon obtained cur-
rency, that the companion of the young man had vanished in a
cloud of flame and smoke, opened people's eyes to the truth.
The magistrates of Louvain instituted inquiries, and the result
was, that Agrippa was obliged to quit the town.
Other authors besides Delrio relate similar stories of this
philosopher. The world in those days was always willing
enough to believe in tales of magic and sorcery; and when, as
in Agrippa's case, the alleged magician gave himself out for
such, and claimed credit for the wonders he worked, it is not
surprising that the age should have allowed his pretensions.
It was dangerous boasting, which sometimes led to the stake
or the gallows, and therefore was thought to be not without
foundation. Paulus Jovius, in his Eulogia Doctorum Viro-
rum, says, that the devil, in the shape of a large black dog,
attended Agrippa wherever he went. Thomas Nash, in his
Adventures of Jack Wilton, relates, that, at the request of
Lord Surrey, Erasmus, and some other learned men, Agrippa
called up from the grave many of the great philosophers of
antiquity; among others, Tully, whom he caused to re-deliver
his celebrated oration for Roscius. He also shewed Lord
Surrey, when in Germany, an exact resemblance in a glass of
his mistress, the fair Geraldine. She was represented on a
couch weeping for the absence of her lover. Lord Surrey
made a note of the exact time at which he saw this vision, and
ascertained afterwards that his mistress was actually so em-
ployed at the very minute. To Thomas Lord Cromwell,
Agrippa represented King Henry VIII. hunting in Windsor
Park, with the principal lords of his court; and to please the
Emperor Charles V. he summoned King David and King Solo-
mon from the tomb.
Naude, in his Apology for the great Men who have been
THE ALCHYMISTS 159
falsely suspected of Magic, takes a great deal of pains to clear
Agrippa from the imputations cast upon Mm by Delrio, Paulus
Jovius, and other such ignorant and prejudiced scribblers.
Such stories demanded refutation in the days of Naude, but
they may now be safely left to decay in their own absurdity.
That they should have attached, however, to the memory of
a man who claimed the power of making iron obey him when
he told it to become gold, and who wrote such a work as that
upon magic which goes by his name, is not at all surprising.
PAKACELSUS
This philosopher, called by Naude "the zenith and rising
sun of all the alchymists," was born at Einsiedeln, near Zurich,
in the year 1493. His true name was Hohenheim; to which,
as he himself informs us, were prefixed the baptismal names
of Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastes Paracelsus. The last of
these he chose for his common designation while he was yet
a boy; and rendered it, before he died, one of the most famous
in the annals of his time. His father, who was a physician,
educated his son for the same pursuit. The latter was an apt
scholar, and made great progress. By chance the work of
Isaac Hollandus fell into his hands, and from that time he
became smitten with the mania of the philosopher's stone. All
his thoughts henceforth were devoted to metallurgy; and he
travelled into Sweden that he might visit the mines of that
country, and examine the ores while they yet lay in the bowels
of the earth. He also visited Trithemius at the monastery
of Spannheim, and obtained instructions from him in the sci-
ence of alchymy. Continuing his travels, he proceeded
through Prussia and Austria into Turkey, Egypt, and Tartary,
and thence returning to Constantinople, learned, as he boasted,
the art of transmutation, and became possessed of the elixir
mtc&. He then established himself as a physician in his native
Switzerland at Zurich, and commenced writing words upon
alchymy and medicine, which immediately fixed the attention
of Europe. Their great obscurity was no impediment to their
fame; for the less the author was understood, the more the
l6o EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
demonologists, fanatics, and philosopher's-stone hunters
seemed to appreciate him. His fame as a physician kept pace
with that which he enjoyed as an alchymist, owing to his hav-
having effected some happy cures by means of mercury and
opium, drugs unceremoniously condemned by his profes-
sional brethren. In the year 1526, he was chosen professor
of physics and natural philosophy in the University of Basle,
where his lectures attracted vast numbers of students. He
denounced the writings of all former physicians, as tending to
mislead; and publicly burned the works of Galen and Avi-
cenna, as quacks and impostors. He exclaimed, in presence
of the admiring and half-bewildered crowd who assembled to
witness the ceremony, that there was more knowledge in his
shoe-strings than in the writings of these physicians. Con-
tinuing in the same strain, he said, all the Universities in
the world were full of ignorant quacks; but that he, Paracel-
sus, overflowed with wisdom. "You will all follow my new
system/ 3 said he, with furious gesticulations. "Avicenna,
Galen, Rhazis, Montagnana, Meme, you will all follow me,
ye professors of Paris, Montpellier, Germany, Cologne, and
Vienna! and all ye that dwell on the Rhine and the Danube,
ye that inhabit the isles of the sea; and ye also, Italians,
Dalmatians, Athenians, Arabians, Jews, ye will all follow
my doctrines, for I am the monarch of medicine 1"
But he did not long enjoy the esteem of the good people of
Basle. It is said that he indulged in wine so freely, as not
infrequently to be seen in the streets in a state of intoxication.
This was ruinous for a physician, and his good fame decreased
rapidly. His ill fame increased in still greater proportion,
especially when he assumed the airs of a sorcerer. He boasted
of the legions of spirits at his command; and of one especially,
which he kept imprisoned in the hilt of his sword. Wetterus,
who lived twenty-seven months in his service, relates that
he often threatened to invoke a whole army of demons, and
shew him the great authority which he could exercise over
them. He let it be believed that the spirit in his sword had
custody of the elixir of life, by means of which he could make
any one live to be as old as the antediluvians. He also
THE ALCHYMISTS l6l
boasted that he had a spirit at his command, called "Azoth/ 5
whom he kept imprisoned in a jewel; and in many of the old
portraits he is represented with a jewel, inscribed with the
word "Azoth," in his hand.
If a sober prophet has little honour in his own country, a
drunken one has still less. Paracelsus found it at last con-
venient to quit Basle, and establish hmiself at Strasbourg.
The immediate cause of this change of residence was as fol-
lows. A citizen lay at the point of death, and was given over
by all the physicians of the town. As a last resource Paracel-
sus was called in, to whom the sick man promised a magnifi-
cent recompense, if, by his means, he were cured. Paracelsus
gave him two small pills, which the man took, and rapidly re-
covered. When he was quite well, Paracelsus sent for his
fee; but the citizen had no great opinion of the value of a
cure which had been so speedily effected. He had no notion
of paying a handful of gold for two pills, although they had
saved his life, and he refused to pay more than the usual fee
for a single visit. Paracelsus brought an action against him
and lost it. This result so exasperated him, that he left Basle
in high dudgeon. He resumed his wandering life, and travelled
in Germany and Hungary, supporting himself as he went on
the credulity and infatuation of all classes of society. He cast
nativities told fortunes aided those who had money to
throw away upon the experiment, to find the philosopher's
stone prescribed remedies for cows and pigs, and aided in
the recovery of stolen goods. After residing successively at
Nuremburg, Augsburg, Vienna, and Mindelheim, he retired
in the year 1541 to Saltzbourg, and died in a state of abject
poverty in the hospital of that town.
If this strange charlatan found hundreds of admirers during
his life, he found thousands after his death. A sect of Para-
celsists sprang up in France and Germany, to perpetuate the
extravagant doctrines of their founder upon all the sciences,
and upon alchymy in particular. The chief leaders were Bo-
denstein and Dorneus. The following is a summary of his
doctrine, founded upon the supposed existence of the philoso-
pher's stone; it is worth preserving from its very absurdity,
1 62 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
and is altogether unparalleled in the history of philosophy.
First of all, he maintained that the contemplation of the per-
fection of the Deity sufficed to procure all wisdom and knowl-
edge; that the Bible was the key to the theory of all diseases,
and that it was necessary to search into the Apocalypse to
know the signification of magic medicine. The man who
blindly obeyed the will of God, and who succeeded in identi-
fying himself with the celestial intelligences, possessed the
philosopher's stone he could cure all diseases, and prolong
life to as many centuries as he pleased; it being by the very
same means that Adam and the antediluvian patriarchs pro-
longed theirs. Life was an emanation from the stars the sun
governed the heart, and the moon the brain. Jupiter gov-
erned the liver, Saturn the gall, Mercury the lungs, Mars the
bile, and Venus the loins. In the stomach of every human
being there dwelt a demon, or intelligence, that was a sort
of alchymist in his way, and mixed, in their due proportions,
in his crucible, the various ailments that were sent into that
grand laboratory, the belly.* He was proud of the title of
magician, and boasted that he kept up a regular correspond-
ence with Galen from hell; and that he often summoned Avi-
cenna from the same regions to dispute with him on the false
notions he had promulgated respecting alchymy, and especially
regarding potable gold and the elixir of life. He imagined that
gold could cure ossification of the heart, and, in fact, all
diseases, if it were gold which had been transmuted from an
inferior metal by means of the philosopher's stone, and if it
were applied under certain conjunctions of the planets. The
mere list of the works in which he advances these frantic
imaginings, which he called a doctrine, would occupy several
pages.
GEORGE AGRICOLA
This alchymist was born in the province of Misnia, in 1494.
His real name was Bauer, meaning a husbandman, which, in
accordance with the common fashion of his age, he latinised
*See the article "Paracelsus," by the learned Renaudin, in the Bio-
graphie Universelle.
THE ALCHYMISTS 163
Into Agricola. From Ms early youth, lie delighted in the
visions of the hermetic science. Ere he was sixteen, he
longed for the great elixir which was to make him live for
seven hundred years, and for the stone which was to procure
Mm wealth to cheer him in his multiplicity of days. He pub-
lished a small treatise upon the subject at Cologne, in 1531,
which obtained him the patronage of the celebrated Maurice
duke of Saxony. After practising for some years as a physi-
cian at Joachimsthal, in Bohemia, he was employed by Mau-
rice as superintendent of the silver mines of Chemnitz, he led
a happy life among the miners, making various experiments
in alchymy while deep in the bowels of the earth. He acquired
a great knowledge of metals, and gradually got rid of his
extravagant notions about the philosopher's stone. The miners
had no faith in alchymy; and they converted him to their
way of thinking, not only in that but in other respects. From
their legends, he became firmly convinced that the bowels of
the earth were inhabited by good and evil spirits, and that
firedamp and other explosions sprang from no other causes
than the mischievous propensities of the latter. He died in
the year 1555, leaving beMnd Mm the reputation of a very
able and intelligent man.
DENIS ZACHAIRE
Autobiography, written by a wise man who was once a fool,
is not only tie most instructive, but the most delightful of
reading* Denis Zachaire, an alchymist of the sixteenth cen-
tury, has performed this task, and left a record of Ms folly
and infatuation in pursuit of the philosopher's stone, which
well repays perusal. He was born in the year 1510, of an
ancient family in Guienne, and was early sent to the univer-
sity of Bordeaux, under the care of a tutor to direct his
studies. Unfortunately his tutor was a searcher for the grand
elixir, and soon rendered his pupil as mad as himself upon the
subject. With tMs introduction, we will allow Denis Zachaire
to speak for himself, and continue his narrative in Ms own
words: "I received from home/' says he, "the sum of two
1 64 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
hundred crowns for the expenses of myself and master; but
before the end of the year, all our money went away in the
smoke of our furnaces. My master, at the same time, died of
a fever, brought on by the parching heat of our laboratory,
from which he seldom or never stirred, and which was scarcely
less hot than the arsenal of Venice. His death was the more
unfortunate for me, as my parents took the opportunity of
reducing my allowance, and sending me only sufficient for my
board and lodging, instead of the sum I required to continue
my operations in alchymy.
"To meet this difficulty and get out of leading-strings, I
returned home at the age of twenty-five, and mortgaged part
of my property for four hundred crowns. This sum was nec-
essary to perform an operation of the science, which had been
communicated to me by an Italian at Toulouse, and who, as
he said, had proved its efficacy. I retained this man in my
service, that we might see the end of the experiment. I
then, by means of strong distillations, tried to calcinate gold
and silver; but all my labour was in vain. The weight of the
gold I drew out of my furnace was diminished by one-half
since I put it in, and my four hundred crowns were very
soon reduced to two hundred and thirty. I gave twenty of
these to my Italian, in order that he might travel to Milan,
where the author of the receipt resided, and ask him the ex-
planation of some passages which we thought obscure. I
remained at Toulouse all the winter, in the hope of his return;
but I might have remained there till this day if I had waited
for him, for I never saw his face again.
"In the succeeding summer there was a great plague, which
forced me to quit the town. I did not, however, lose sight
of my work. I went to Cahors, where I remained six months,
and made the acquaintance of an old man, who was commonly
known to the people as c the Philosopher;' a name which, in
country places, is often bestowed upon people whose only
merit is, that they are less ignorant than their neighbours.
I shewed him my collection of alchymical receipts, and asked
his opinion upon them. He picked out ten or twelve of them,
merely saying that they were better than the others. When
THE ALCHYMISTS 1 6$
the plague ceased, I returned to Toulouse, and recommenced
my experiments in search of the stone. I worked to such
effect that my four hundred crowns were reduced to, one hun-
dred and seventy.
"That I might continue my work on a safer method, I made
acquaintance, in 1537, with a certain abbe who resided in the
neighbourhood. He was smitten with the same mania as my-
self, and told me that one of his friends, who had followed
to Rome in the retinue of the Cardinal d'Armagnac, had sent
him from that city a new receipt which could not fail to
transmute iron and copper, but which would cost two hun-
dred crowns. I provided half this money, and the abbe the
rest: and we began to operate at our joint expense. As we
required spirits of wine for our experiment, I bought a tun
of excellent vin de Gaillac. I extracted the spirit, and rectified
it several times. We took a quantity of this, into which we
put four marks of silver and one of gold that had been under-
going the process of calcination for a month. We put this
mixture cleverly into a sort of horn-shaped vessel, with another
to serve as a retort; and placed the whole apparatus upon
our furnace to produce congelation. This experiment lasted
a year; but, not to remain idle, we amused ourselves with
many other less important operations. We drew quite as much
profit from these as from our great work.
"The whole of the year 1537 passed over without producing
any change whatever; in fact we might have waited till dooms-
day for the congelation of our spirits of wine. However, we
made a projection with it upon some heated quicksilver; but
all was in vain. Judge of our chagrin, especially of that of
the abbe, who had already boasted to all the monks of his
monastery, that they had only to bring the large pump which
stood in a corner of the cloister, and he would convert it into
gold : but this ill luck did not prevent us from persevering. I
once more mortgaged my paternal lands for four hundred
crowns, the whole of which I determined to devote to a re-
newal of my search for the great secret. The abbe contributed
the same sum; and with these eight hundred crowns I pro-
ceeded to Paris, a city more abounding with alchymists than
1 66 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
any other in the world, resolved never to leave it until I had
either found the philosopher's stone or spent all my money.
This journey gave the greatest offence to all my relations and
friends, who, imagining that I was fitted to be a great lawyer,
were anxious that I should establish myself in that profession.
For the sake of quietness, I pretended, at last, that such was
my object.
"After travelling for fifteen days, I arrived in Paris on the
9th of January 1539. I remained for a month almost un-
known; but I had no sooner begun to frequent the amateurs of
the science, and visited the shops of the furnace-makers, than
I had the acquaintance of more than a hundred operative
alchymists, each of whom had a different theory and a dif-
ferent mode of working. Some of them preferred cementa-
tion; others sought the universal alkahest or dissolvent; and
some of them boasted the great efficacy of the essence of
emery. Some of them endeavoured to extract mercury from
other metals, to fix it afterwards; and, in order that each of
us should be thoroughly acquainted with the proceedings of
the others, we agreed to meet somewhere every night and
report progress. We met sometimes at the house of one, and
sometimes in the garret of another; not only on week-days,
but on Sundays and the great festivals of the Church. 'AhP
one used to say, 'if I had the means of recommencing this
experiment, I should do something/ 'Yes,' said another, 'if
my crucible had not cracked, I should have succeeded before
now;' while a third exclaimed, with a sigh, 'If I had but a
round copper vessel of sufficient strength, I would have fixed
mercury with silver.' There was not one among them who
had not some excuse for his failure; but I was deaf to all
their speeches. I did not want to part with my money to any
of them, remembering how often I had been the dupe of such
promises.
"A Greek at last presented himself; and with him I worked
a long time uselessly upon nails made of cinnabar or vermil-
ion. I was also acquainted with a foreign gentleman newly
arrived in Paris, and often accompanied him to the shops
of the goldsmiths to sell pieces of gold and silver, the produce,
THE ALCHYMISTS 167
as he said, of Ms experiments. I stuck closely to him for a
long time, in the hope that he would impart his secret. He
refused for a long time, but acceded at last on my earnest
entreaty, and I found that it was nothing more than an
ingenious trick. I did not fail to inform my friend the abbe,
whom I had left at Toulouse, of all my adventures; and sent
him, among other matters, a relation of the trick by which
this gentleman pretended to turn lead into gold. The abbe
still imagined that I should succeed at last, and advised me to
remain another year in Paris, where I had made so good a
beginning. I remained there three years; but, notwithstand-
ing all my efforts, I had no more success than I had had
elsewhere.
"I had just got to the end of my money, when I received
a letter from the abbe, telling me to leave every thing, and
join him immediately at Toulouse. I went accordingly, and
found that he had received letters from the king of Navarre
(grandfather of Henry IV.). This prince was a great lover
of philosophy, full of curiosity, and had written to the abbe
that I should visit him at Pau; and that he would give me
three or four thousand crowns if I would communicate the
secret I had learned from the foreign gentleman. The abbe's
ears were so tickled with the four thousand crowns, that he
let me have no peace night or day until he had fairly seen
me on the road to Pau. I arrived at that place in the month
of May 1542. I worked away, and succeeded, according to
the receipt I had obtained. When I had finished to the satis-
faction of the king, he gave me the reward that I expected.
Although he was willing enough to do me further service, he
was dissuaded from it by the lords of his court; even by many
of those who had been most anxious that I should come. He
sent me then about my business, with many thanks; saying,
that if there was any thing in his kingdom which he could
give me such as the produce of confiscations or the like he
should be most happy. I thought I might stay long enough
for these prospective confiscations, and never get them at last;
and I therefore determined to go back to my friend the abbe.
"I learned that, on the road between Pau and Toulouse,
1 68 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
there resided a monk who was very skilful in all matters of
natural philosophy. On my return, I paid him a visit. He
pitied me very much, and advised me, with much warmth and
kindness of expression, not to amuse myself any longer, with
such experiments as these, which were all false and sophisti-
cal; but that I should read the good books of the old philoso-
phers, where I might not only find the true matter of the
science of alchymy, but learn also the exact order of operations
which ought to be followed. I very much approved of this
wise advice; but before I acted upon it, I went back to my
abbe of Toulouse, to give him an account of the eight hundred
crowns which we had had in common, and, at the same time,
share with him such reward as I had received from the king
of Navarre. If he was little satisfied with the relation of
my adventures since our first separation, he appeared still less
satisfied when I told him I had formed a resolution to renounce
the search for the philosopher's stone. The reason was that
he thought me a good artist. Of our eight hundred crowns,
there remained but one hundred and seventy-six. When I
quitted the abbe, I went to my own house with the intention
of remaining there till I had read all the old philosophers, and
of then proceeding to Paris.
"I arrived in Paris on the day after AH Saints, of the year
1546, and devoted another year to the assiduous study of great
authors. Among others, the Turba Philosopkorum of the
Good Trevisan, the Remonstrance of Nature to the Wander-
ing Alchymist, by Jean de Meung, and several others of the
best books; but, as I had no right principles, I did not well
know what course to follow.
"At last I left my solitude, not to see my former acquain-
tances, the adepts and operators, but to frequent the society of
true philosophers. Among them I fell into still greater un-
certainties; being, in fact, completely bewildered by the
variety of operations which they shewed me. Spurred on,
nevertheless, by a sort of frenzy or inspiration, I threw myself
into the works of Raymond Lulli and of Arnold de Villeneuve.
The reading of these, and the reflections I made upon them,
occupied me for another year, when I finally determined on
THE ALCHYMISTS 169
the course I should adopt. I was obliged to wait, however,
until I had mortgaged another very considerable portion of
my patrimony. This business was not settled until the begin-
ning of Lent 1549, when I commenced my operations. I laid
in a stock of all that was necessary, and began to work the
dav after Easter. It was not, however, without some dis-
quietude and opposition from my friends who came about
me; one asking me what I was going to do, and whether I had
not already spent money enough upon such follies? Another
assured me that if I bought so much charcoal, I should
strengthen the suspicion already existing, that I was a coiner
of base money. Another advised me to purchase some place
in the magistracy, as I was already a Doctor of Laws. My
relations spoke in terms still more annoying to me, and even
threatened that, if I continued to make such a fool of myself,
they would send a posse of police-officers into my house, and
break all my furnaces and crucibles into atoms. I was wearied
almost to death by this continued persecution; but I found
comfort in my work and in the progress of my experiment, to
which I was very attentive, and which went on bravely from
day to day. About this time, there was a dreadful plague in
Paris, which interrupted all intercourse between man and man,
and left me as much to myself as I could desire. I soon had
the satisfaction to remark the progress and succession of the
three colours which, according to the philosophers, always
prognosticate the approaching perfection of the work. I ob-
served them distinctly, one after the other; and next day,
being Easter Sunday, 1550, I made the great trial. Some
common quicksilver, which I put into a small crucible on
the fire, was, in less than an hour, converted into very good
gold. You may judge how great was my joy, but I took care
not to boast of it. I returned thanks to God for the favour
he had shown me, and prayed that I might only be permitted
to make such use of it as would redound to his glory.
"On the following day, I went towards Toulouse to find the
abbe, in accordance with a mutual promise, that we should
communicate our discoveries to each other. On my way, I
called in to see the sage monk who had assisted me with his
1 70 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
counsels; but I had the sorrow to learn that they were both
dead. After this, I would not return to my own home, but
retired to another place, to await one of my relations whom
I had left in charge of my estate. I gave him orders to sell
all that belonged to me, as well moveable as immoveable to
pay my debts with the proceeds, and divide all the rest
among those in any way related to me, who might stand in
need of it, in order that they might enjoy some share of the
good fortune which had befallen me. There was a great deal
of talk in the neighbourhood about my precipitate retreat; the
wisest of my acquaintance imagining that, broken down and
ruined by my mad expenses, I sold my little remaining prop-
erty, that I might go and hide my shame in distant countries.
"My relative already spoken of rejoined me on the 1st of
July, after having performed all the business I had entrusted
him with. We took our departure together, to seek a land of
liberty. We first retired to Lausanne, in Switzerland, when,
after remaining there for some time, we resolved to pass the
remainder of our days in some of the most celebrated cities
of Germany, living quietly and without splendour."
Thus ends the story of Denis Zachaire, as written by him-
self. He has not been so candid at its conclusion as at its
commencement, and has left the world in doubt as to his
real motives for pretending that he had discovered the philoso-
pher's stone. It seems probable that the sentence he puts into
the mouths of his wisest acquaintances was the true reason of
Ms retreat: that he was, in fact, reduced to poverty, and hid
his shame in foreign countries. Nothing further is known of
his life, and his real name has never yet been discovered. He
wrote a work on alchymy, entitled The true Natural Philoso-
phy of Metals.
DR. DEE AND EDWARD KELLY
John Dee and Edward Kelly claim to be mentioned together,
having been so long associated in the same pursuits, and un-
dergone so many strange vicissitudes in each other's society.
Dee was altogether a wonderful man, and had he lived in an
THE ALCHYMISTS 171
age when folly and superstition were less rife, he would, with
the same powers which he enjoyed, have left behind him a
bright and enduring reputation. He was bom in London in
the year 1527, and very early manifested a love for study. At
the age of fifteen he was sent to Cambridge, and delighted so
much in his books, that he passed regularly eighteen hours
every day among them. Of the other six, he devoted four to
sleep and two for refreshment. Such intense application did
not injure his health, and could not fail to make him one of
the first scholars of his time. Unfortunately, however, he
quitted the mathematics and the pursuits of true philosophy,
to indulge in the unprofitable reveries of the occult sciences.
He studied alchymy, astrology, and magic, and thereby
rendered himself obnoxious to the authorities at Cambridge.
To avoid persecution, he was at last obliged to retire to the
university of Louvain; the rumours of sorcery that were cur-
rent respecting him rendering his longer stay in England not
altogether without danger. He found at Louvain many kin-
dred spirits who had known Cornelius Agrippa while he re-
sided among them, and by whom he was constantly enter-
tained with the wondrous deeds of that great master of the
hermetic mysteries. From their conversation he received
much encouragement to continue the search for the philoso-
pher's stone, which soon began to occupy nearly all his
thoughts.
He did not long remain on the Continent, but returned to
England in 1551, being at that time in the twenty-fourth year
of his age. By the influence of his friend Sir John Cheek, he
was kindly received at the court of King Edward VI., and
rewarded (it is difficult to say for what) with a pension of
one hundred crowns. He continued for several years to prac-
tise in London as an astrologer; casting nativities, telling for-
tunes, and pointing out lucky and unlucky days. During the
reign of Queen Mary he got into trouble, being suspected of
heresy, and charged with attempting Mary's life by means
of enchantments. He was tried for the latter offence, and
acquitted; but was retained in prison on the former charge,
and left to the tender mercies of Bishop Bonner. He had a
172 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
very narrow escape from being burned in Smithfield, but
he somehow or other contrived to persuade that fierce bigot
that his orthodoxy was unimpeachable, and was set at liberty
in 1555.
On the accession of Elizabeth, a brighter day dawned upon
him. During her retirement at Woodstock, her servants
appear to have consulted him as to the time of Mary's death,
which circumstance no doubt first gave rise to the serious
charge for which he was brought to trial. They now came to
consult him more openly as to the fortunes of their mistress ;
and Robert Dudley, the celebrated Earl of Leicester, was sent
by command of the Queen herself to know the most auspicious
day for her coronation. So great was the favour he enjoyed,
that, some years afterwards, Elizabeth condescended to pay
him a visit at his house in Mortlake, to view his museum of
curiosities, and when he was ill, sent her own physician to at-
tend upon him.
Astrology was the means whereby he lived, and he contin-
ued to practise it with great assiduity; but his heart was in
alchymy. The philosopher's stone and the elixir of life
haunted his daily thoughts and his nightly dreams. The Tal-
mudic mysteries, which he had also deeply studied, impressed
Mm with the belief, that he might hold converse with spirits
and angels, and learn from them all the mysteries of the uni-
verse. Holding the same idea as the then obscure sect of the
Rosicrucians, some of whom he had perhaps encountered in
his travels in Germany, he imagined that, by means of the
philosopher's stone, he could summon these kindly spirits
at his will. By dint of continually brooding upon the subject,
his imagination became so diseased, that he at last persuaded
himself that an angel appeared to him, and promised to be his
friend and companion as long as he lived. He relates that one
day, in November 1582, while he was engaged in fervent
prayer, the window of his museum looking towards the west
suddenly glowed with a dazzling light, in the midst of which,
in all his glory, stood the great angel Uriel. Awe and wonder
rendered him speechless; but the angel smiling graciously
upon him, gave him a crystal, of a convex form, and told him
THE ALCHYMISTS 173
that whenever he wished to hold converse with the beings of
another sphere, he had only to gaze intently upon it, and they
would appear in the crystal, and unveil to him all the secrets
of futurity.* Thus saying, the angel disappeared. Dee found
from experience of the crystal that it was necessary that all
the faculties of the soul should be concentrated upon it, other-
wise the spirits did not appear. He also found that he could
never recollect the conversations he had with the angels. He
therefore determined to communicate the secret to another
person, who might converse with the spirit while he (Dee) sat
in another part of the room, and took down in writing the
revelations which they made.
He had at this time in his service, as Ms assistant, one Ed-
ward Kelly, who, like himself, was crazy upon the subject
of the philosopher's stone. There was this difference, how-
ever, between them, that, while Dee was more of an enthusiast
than an impostor, Kelly was more of an impostor than an
enthusiast. In early life he was a notary, and had the mis-
fortune to lose both his ears for forgery. This mutilation,
degrading enough in any man, was destructive to a philoso-
pher; Kelly, therefore, lest his wisdom should suffer in the
world's opinion, wore a black skull-cap, which, fitting close to
his head, and descending over both his cheeks, not only con-
cealed his loss, but gave him a very solemn and oracular
appearance. So well did he keep his secret, that even Dee,.
with whom he lived so many years, appears never to have
discovered it. Kelly, with this character, was just the man
to carry on any piece of roguery for his own advantage, or to
nurture the delusions of his master for the same purpose. No
sooner did Dee inform him of the visit he had received from
* The "crystal" alluded to appears to have been a black stone, or piece of
polished coaL The following account of it is given in the supplement to
Granger's Biographical History. "The black stone into which Dee used to
call his spirits was in the collection of the Earls of Peterborough, from
whence it came to Lady Elizabeth Germaine. It was next the property of
the late Duke of Argyle, and is now Mr. Walpole's. It appears upon exami-
nation to be nothing more than a polished piece of cannel coal; but this is
what Butler means when he says,
'Kelly did all his feats upon
The devil's looking-glass a stone.'"
174 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the glorious Uriel, than Kelly expressed such a fervour of be-
lief, that Dee's heart glowed with delight. He set about con-
sulting his crystal forthwith, and on the 2d of December, 1581,
the spirits appeared, and held a very extraordinary discourse
with Kelly, which Dee took down in writing. The curious
reader may see this farrago of nonsense among the Harleian
Mss. in the British Museum. The later consultations were
published in a folio volume, in 1659, by Dr. Meric Casaubon,
under the title of A true and faithful Relation of what passed
between Dr. John Dee and some Spirits; tending, had it suc-
ceeded, to a general Alteration of most States and Kingdoms
in the World*
The fame of these wondrous colloquies soon spread over the
country, and even reached the Continent. Dee at the same
time pretended to be in possession of the elixir vitce, which he
stated he had found among the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey,
in Somersetshire. People flocked from far and near to his
house at Mortlake to have their nativities cast, in preference
to visiting astrologers of less renown. They also longed to
see a man who, according to his own account, would never
die. Altogether, he carried on a very profitable trade, but
spent so much in drugs and metals to work out some peculiar
process of transmutation, that he never became rich.
About this time there came into England a wealthy Polish
nobleman, named Albert Laski, Count Palatine of Siradz. His
object was principally, he said, to visit the court of Queen
Elizabeth, the fame of whose glory and magnificence had
reached him in distant Poland. Elizabeth received this flat-
tering stranger with the most splendid hospitality, and ap-
pointed her favourite Leicester to shew Mm all that was worth
* Lilly the astrologer, in his Lije, written by himself, frequently tells of
prophecies delivered by the angels in a manner similar to the angels of Dr.
Dee. He says, "The prophecies were not given vocally by the angels, but
by inspection of the crystal in types and figures, or by apparition the cir-
cular way: where, at some distance, the angels appear, representing by
forms, shapes, and creatures, what is demanded. It is very rare, yea even
in our days/ 7 quoth that wiseacre, "for any operator or master to hear the
angels speak articulately; when they do speak, it is like the Irish, much in
the throat T
THE ALCHYMISTS 175
seeing in England. He visited all the curiosities of London
and Westminster, and from thence proceeded to Oxford and
Cambridge, that he might converse with some of the great
scholars whose writings shed lustre upon the land of their
birth. He was very much disappointed at not finding Dr. Dee
among them, and told the Earl of Leicester that he would not
have gone to Oxford if he had known that Dee was not there.
The earl promised to introduce him to the great alchymist on
their return to London, and the Pole was satisfied. A few
days afterwards, the earl and Laski being in the antechamber
of the Queen, awaiting an audience of her majesty, Dr. Dee
arrived on the same errand, and was introduced to the Pole.f
An interesting conversation ensued, which ended by the
stranger inviting himself to dine with the astrologer at his
house at Mortlake. Dee returned home in some tribulation,
for he found he had not money enough, without pawning his
plate, to entertain Count Laski and his retinue in a manner
becoming their dignity. In this emergency he sent off an
express to the Earl of Leicester, stating frankly the embar-
rassment he laboured under, and praying his good offices in
representing the matter to her majesty. Elizabeth immedi-
ately sent him a present of twenty pounds.
On the appointed day Count Laski came, attended by a
numerous retinue, and expressed such open and warm admira-
tion of the wonderful attainments of his host, that Dee turned
over in his own mind how he could bind irretrievably to his
interests a man who seemed so well inclined to become his
t Albert Laski, son of Jaroslav, was Palatine of Siradz, and afterwards of
Sendomir, and chiefly contributed to the election of Henry of Valois, the
Third of France, to the throne of Poland, and was one of the delegates
who went to France in order to announce to the new monarch his elevation
to the sovereignty of Poland. After the deposition of Henry, Albert Laski
voted for Maximilian of Austria. In 1583 he visited England, when Queen
Elizabeth received him with great distinction. The honours which were
shewn him during his visit to Oxford, by the especial command of the
Queen, were equal to those rendered to sovereign princes. His extraordi-
nary prodigality rendered his enormous wealth insufficient to defray his
expenses, and he therefore became a zealous adept in alchymy, and took
from England to Poland with him two known alchymists. Count Valerian
Krasinski's Historical Sketch of the Reformation in Poland.
176 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
friend. Long acquaintance with Kelly had imbued him with
all the roguery of that personage, and he resolved to make the
Pole pay dearly for his dinner. He found out before many
days that he possessed great estates in his own country, as
well as great influence, but that an extravagant disposition had
reduced him to temporary embarrassment. He also discov-
ered that he was a firm believer in the philosopher's stone
and the water of life. He was therefore just the man upon
whom an adventurer might fasten himself. Kelly thought so
too; and both of them set to work to weave a web, in the
meshes of which they might firmly entangle the rich and
credulous stranger. They went very cautiously about it; first
throwing out obscure hints of the stone and the elixir, and
finally of the spirits, by means of whom they could turn over
the pages of the book of futurity, and read the awful secrets
inscribed therein. Laski eagerly implored that he might be
admitted to one of their mysterious interviews with Uriel and
the angels; but they knew human nature too well to accede
at once to the request. To the count's entreaties they only
replied by hints of the difficulty or impropriety of summon-
ing the spirits in the presence of a stranger, or of one who
might perchance have no other motive than the gratification
of a vain curiosity; but they only meant to whet the edge of
his appetite by this delay, and would have been sorry indeed
if the count had been discouraged. To shew how exclusively
the thoughts both of Dee and Kelly were fixed upon their
dupe at this time, it is only necessary to read the introduction
to their first interview with the spirits, related in the volume
of Dr. Casaubon. The entry made by Dee, under the date
of the 25th of May, 1583, says, that when the spirit appeared
to them, "I [John Dee] and E. K. [Edward Kelly] sat to-
gether, conversing of that noble Polonian Albertus Laski, his
great honour here with us obtained, and of his great liking
among all sorts of the people." No doubt they were discussing
how they might make the most of the "noble Polonian," and
concocting the fine story with which they afterwards excited
his curiosity, and drew him firmly within their toils. "Sud-
denly," says Dee, as they were thus employed, "there seemed
THE ALCHYMISTS 177
to come out of the oratory a spiritual creature, like a pretty
girl of seven or nine years of age, attired on her head, with
her hair rolled up before and hanging down behind, with a
gown of silk, of changeable red and green, and with a train,
She seemed to play up and down, and seemed to go in and
out behind the books; and as she seemed to go between them,
the books displaced themselves, and made way for her."
With such tales as these they lured on the Pole from day to
day, and at last persuaded him to be a witness of their mys-
teries. Whether they played off any optical delusions upon
him, or whether, by the force of a strong imagination, he
deluded himself, does not appear; but certain it is that he
became a complete tool in their hands, and consented to do
whatever they wished him. Kelly, at these interviews, placed
himself at a certain distance from the wondrous crystal, and
gazed intently upon it, while Dee took his place in a corner,
ready to set down the prophecies as they were uttered by the
spirits. In this manner they prophesied to the Pole that he
should become the fortunate possessor of the philosopher's
stone; that he should live for centuries, and be chosen King
of Poland, in which capacity he should gain many great vic-
tories over the Saracens, and make his name illustrious over
all the earth. For this purpose It was necessary, however,
that Laski should leave England, and take them with him,
together with their wives and families; that he should treat
them all sumptuously, and allow them to want for nothing.
Laski at once consented; and very shortly afterwards they
were all on the road to Poland.
It took them upwards of four months to reach the count's
estates in the neighbourhood of Cracow. In the mean time,
they led a pleasant life, and spent money with an unsparing
hand. When once established in the count's palace, they com-
menced the great hermetic operation of transmuting iron into
gold. Laski provided them with all necessary materials, and
aided them himself with his knowledge of alchymy; but, some-
how or other, the experiment always failed at the very moment
it ought to have succeeded, and they were obliged to recom-
mence operations on a grander scale. But the hopes of Laski
1 78 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
were not easily extinguished. Already, in idea, the possessor
of countless millions, he was not to be cast down for fear of
present expenses. He thus continued from day to day, and
from month to month, till he was at last obliged to sell a por-
tion of his deeply-mortgaged estates to find aliment for the
hungry crucibles of Dee and Kelly, and the no less hungry
stomachs of their wives and families. It was not till ruin
stared him in the face that he awoke from his dream of in-
fatuation, too happy, even then, to find that he had escaped
utter beggary. Thus restored to his senses, his first thought
was how to rid himself of his expensive visitors. Not wishing
to quarrel with them, he proposed that they should proceed to
Prague, well furnished with letters of recommendation to the
Emperor Rudolph. Our alchymists too plainly saw that
nothing more was to be made of the almost destitute Count
Laski. Without hesitation, therefore, they accepted the pro-
posal, and set out forthwith to the imperial residence. They
had no difficulty, on their arrival at Prague, in obtaining an
audience of the emperor. They found him willing enough to
believe that such a thing as the philosopher's stone existed,
and flattered themselves that they had made a favourable im-
pression upon him; but, from some cause or other perhaps
the look of low cunning and quackery upon the face of Kelly
the emperor conceived no very high opinion of their abili-
ties. He allowed them, however, to remain for some months
at Prague, feeding themselves upon the hope that he would
employ them; but the more he saw of them, the less he liked
them; and when the pope's nuncio represented to him that he
ought not to countenance such heretic magicians, he gave
orders that they should quit his dominions within four-and-
twenty hours. It was fortunate for them that so little time
was given them; for, had they remained six hours longer,
the nuncio had received orders to procure a perpetual dungeon
or the stake for them.
Not knowing well whither to direct their steps, they resolved
to return to Cracow, where they had still a few friends; but
by this time the funds they had drawn from Laski were almost
exhausted, and they were many days obliged to go dinnerless
THE ALCHYMISTS 179
and supperless. They had great difficulty to keep their pov-
erty a secret from the world; but they managed to bear priva-
tion without murmuring, from a conviction that if the fact
were known, it would militate very much against their preten-
sions. Nobody would believe that they were possessors of the
philosopher's stone, if it were once suspected that they did
not know how to procure bread for their subsistence. They
still gained a little by casting nativities, and kept starvation
at arm's length, till a new dupe, rich enough for their pur-
poses, dropped into their toils, in the shape of a royal person-
age. Having procured an introduction to Stephen king of
Poland, they predicted to him that the Emperor Rudolph
would shortly be assassinated, and that the Germans would
look to Poland for his successor. As this prediction was not
precise enough to satisfy the king, they tried their crystal
again, and a spirit appeared who told them that the new sov-
ereign of Germany would be Stephen of Poland. Stephen was
credulous enough to believe them, and was once present when
Kelly held his mystic conversations with the shadows of Ms
crystal. He also appears to have furnished them with money
to carry on their experiments in alchymy; but he grew tired,
at last, of their broken promises and their constant drains
upon his pocket, and was on the point of discarding them with
disgrace, when they met with another dupe, to whom they
eagerly transferred their services. This was Count Rosen-
berg, a nobleman of large estates at Trebona in Bohemia. So
comfortable did they find themselves in the palace of this
munificent patron, that they remained nearly four years with
him, faring sumptuously, and having an almost unlimited
command of his money. The count was more ambitious than
avaricious: he had wealth enough, and did not care for the
philosopher's stone on account of the gold, but of the length
of days it would bring him. They had their predictions, ac-
cordingly, all ready framed to suit his character. They pro-
phesied that he should be chosen king of Poland; and prom-
ised, moreover, that he should live for five hundred years to
enjoy his dignity, provided always that he found them suffi-
cient money to carry on their experiments.
l8o EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
But now, while fortune smiled upon them, while they rev-
elled in the rewards of successful villany, retributive justice
came upon them in a shape they had not anticipated. Jeal-
ousy and mistrust sprang up between the two confederates,
and led to such violent and frequent quarrels, that Dee was
in constant fear of exposure. Kelly imagined himself a much
greater personage than Dee; measuring, most likely, by the
standard of impudent roguery; and was displeased that on
all occasions, and from all persons, Dee received the greater
share of honour and consideration. He often threatened to
leave Dee to shift for himself; and the latter, who had degen-
erated into the mere tool of his more daring associate, was
distressed beyond measure at the prospect of his desertion.
His mind was so deeply imbued with superstition, that he
believed the rhapsodies of Kelly to be, in a great measure,
derived from his intercourse with angels; and he knew not
where, in the whole world, to look for a man of depth and
wisdom enough to succeed him. As their quarrels every day
became more and more frequent, Dee wrote letters to Queen
Elizabeth to secure a favourable reception on his return to
England, whither he intended to proceed if Kelly forsook
him. He also sent her a round piece of silver, which he pre-
tended he had made of a portion of brass cut out of a warming-
pan. He afterwards sent her the warming-pan also, that she
might convince herself that the piece of silver corresponded
exactly with the hole which was cut into the brass, While thus
preparing for the worst, his chief desire was to remain in
Bohemia with Count Rosenberg, who treated him well, and
reposed much confidence in him. Neither had Kelly any great
objection to remain; but a new passion had taken possession
of his breast, and he was laying deep schemes to gratify it.
His own wife was ill-favoured and ill-natured; Dee's was
comely and agreeable; and he longed to make an exchange
of partners without exciting the jealousy or shocking the
morality of Dee. This was a difficult matter; but to a man
like Kelly, who was as deficient in rectitude and right feeling
as he was full of impudence and ingenuity, the difficulty was
not insurmountable. He had also deeply studied the charac-
THE ALCHYMISTS l8l
ter and the foibles of Dee; and he took his measures accord-
ingly. The next time they consulted the spirits, Kelly pre-
tended to be shocked at their language, and refused to tell
Dee what they had said. Dee insisted, and was informed that
they were henceforth to have their wives in common. Dee, a
little startled, inquired whether the spirits might not mean
that they were to live in common harmony and good-will?
Kelly tried again, with apparent reluctance, and said the spir-
its insisted upon the literal interpretation. The poor fanatic
Dee resigned himself to their will; but it suited Kelly's pur-
pose to appear coy a little longer. He declared that the
spirits must be spirits not of good, but of evil; and refused
to consult them any more. He thereupon took his departure,
saying that he would never return.
Dee, thus left to himself, was in sore trouble and distress
of mind. He knew not on whom to fix as the successor to
Kelly for consulting the spirits; but at last chose his son
Arthur, a boy of eight years of age. He consecrated him to
this service with great ceremony, and impressed upon the
child's mind the dignified and awful nature of the duties he
was called upon to perform; but the poor boy had neither
the imagination, the faith, nor the artifice of Kelly. He looked
intently upon the crystal as he was told; but could see nothing.,
and hear nothing. At last, when his eyes ached, he said he
could see a vague indistinct shadow, but nothing more. Dee
was in despair. The deception had been carried on so long,
that he was never so happy as when he fancied he was hold-
ing converse with superior beings; and he cursed the day that
had put estrangement between him and his dear friend Kelly.
This was exactly what Kelly had foreseen; and, when he
thought the doctor had grieved sufficiently for his absence, he
returned unexpectedly, and entered the room where the little
Arthur was in vain endeavouring to distinguish something in
the crystal. Dee, in entering this circumstance in his journal,
ascribes this sudden return to a "miraculous fortune" and a
"divine fate;" and goes on to record that Kelly immediately
saw the spirits which had remained invisible to little Arthur.
One of these spirits reiterated the previous command, that
1 82 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
they should have their wives in common. Kelly bowed his
head and submitted; and Dee, in all humility, consented to
the arrangement.
This was the extreme depth of the wretched man's degrada-
tion. In this manner they continued to live for three or four
months, when, new quarrels breaking out, they separated once
more. This time their separation was final. Kelly, taking
the elixir which he had found in Glastonbury Abbey, proceeded
to Prague, forgetful of the abrupt mode in which he had
previously been expelled from that city. Almost immediately
after his arrival, he was seized by order of the Emperor Ru-
dolph, and thrown into prison. He was released after some
months' confinement, and continued for five years to lead
a vagabond life in Germany, telling fortunes at one place, and
pretending to make gold at another. He was a second time
thrown into prison, on a charge of heresy and sorcery; and he
then resolved, if ever he obtained his liberty, to return to
England. He soon discovered that there was no prospect of
this, and that his imprisonment was likely to be for life. He
twisted his bed-clothes into a rope, one stormy night in Feb-
ruary 1595, and let himself down from the window of his
dungeon, situated at the top of a very high tower. Being a
corpulent man, the rope gave way, and he was precipitated
to the ground. He broke two of his ribs and both his legs;
and was otherwise so much injured, that he expired a few days
afterwards.
Dee, for a while, had more prosperous fortune. The warm-
ing-pan he had sent to Queen Elizabeth was not without effect.
He was rewarded soon after Kelly had left him with an invi-
tation to return to England. His pride, which had been sorely
humbled, sprang up again to its pristine dimensions, and he
set out from Bohemia with a train of attendants becoming an
ambassador. How he procured the money does not appear,
unless from the liberality of the rich Bohemian Rosenberg, or
perhaps from his plunder. He travelled with three coaches
for himself and family, and three wagons to carry his baggage.
Each coach had four horses, and the whole train was pro-
tected by a guard of four and twenty soldiers. This state-
THE ALCHYMISTS 183
ment may be doubted; but it is on the authority of Dee him-
self, who made it on oath before the commissioners appointed
by Elizabeth to inquire into his circumstances. On his arrival
in England he had an audience of the queen, who received
him kindly, as far as words went, and gave orders that he
should not be molested in his pursuits of chemistry and philos-
ophy. A man who boasted of the power to turn baser metals
into gold, could not, thought Elizabeth, be in want of money;
and she therefore gave him no more substantial marks of her
approbation than her countenance and protection.
Thrown thus unexpectedly upon his own resources. Dee
began in earnest the search for the philosopher's stone. He
worked incessantly among his furnaces, retorts, and crucibles,
and almost poisoned himself with deleterious fumes. He also
consulted his miraculous crystal; but the spirits appeared not
to him. He tried one Bartholomew to supply the place of the
invaluable Kelly; but he being a man of some little probity,
and of no imagination at all, the spirits would not hold any
communication with him. Dee then tried another pretender
to philosophy, of the name of Hickman, but had no better
fortune. The crystal had lost its power since the departure
of its great high priest. From this quarter, then, Dee could
get no information on the stone or elixir of the alchymists, and
all his efforts to discover them by other means were not only
fruitless but expensive. He was soon reduced to great dis-
tress, and wrote piteous letters to the queen, praying relief.
He represented that, after he left England with Count Laski,
the mob had pillaged his house at Mortlake, accusing him of
being a necromancer and a wizard; and had broken all Ms
furniture, burned his library, consisting of four thousand rare
volumes, and destroyed all the philosophical instruments and
curiosities in his museum. For this damage he claimed com-
pensation; and furthermore stated, that, as he had come to
England by the queen's command, she ought to pay the ex-
penses of his journey. Elizabeth sent Mm small sums of
money at various times; but Dee still continuing his com-
plaints, a commission was appointed to inquire into his cir-
cumstances. He finally obtained a small appointment as
1 84 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Chancellor of St. Paul's cathedral, which he exchanged, in
1595, for the wardenship of the college at Manchester. He
remained in this capacity till 1602 or 1603, when his strength
and intellect beginning to fail him, he was compelled to resign.
He retired to his old dwelling at Mortlake, in a state not
far removed from actual want, supporting himself as a com-
mon fortune-teller; and being often obliged to sell or pawn his
books to procure a dinner. James I. was often applied to on his
behalf, but he refused to do anything for him. It may be
said, to the discredit of this king, that the only reward he
would grant the indefatigable Stowe, in his days of old age
and want, was the royal permission to beg; but no one will
blame him for neglecting such a quack as John Dee. He died
in 1608, in the eighty-first year of his age, and was buried
at Mortlake.
THE COSMOPOLITE
Many disputes have arisen as to the real name of the alchy-
mist who wrote several works under the above designation.
The general opinion is that he was a Scotsman named Seton,
and that by a fate very common to alchymists who boasted
too loudly of their powers of transmutation, he ended his days
miserably in a dungeon, into which he was thrown by a Ger-
man potentate until he made a million of gold to pay his
ransom. By some he has been confounded with Michael
Sendivog, or Sendivogius, a Pole, a professor of the same art,
who made a great noise in Europe at the commencement of
the seventeenth century. Lenglet du Fresnoy, who is in gen-
eral well informed with respect to the alchymists, inclines to
the belief that these personages were distinct; and gives the
following particulars of the Cosmopolite, extracted from
George Morhoff, in his Epistola ad Langelottum, and other
writers.
About the year 1600, one Jacob Haussen, a Dutch pilot,
was shipwrecked on the coast of Scotland. A gentleman,
named Alexander Seton, put off in a boat, and saved him from
drowning, and afterwards entertained him hospitably for
THE ALCHYMISTS 185
many weeks at his house on the shore. Haussen saw that he
was addicted to the pursuits of chemistry, but no conversation
on the subject passed between them at the time. About a
year and a half afterwards, Haussen being then at home at
Enkhuysen, in Holland, received a visit from his former host.
He endeavoured to repay the kindness that had been shewn
him; and so great a friendship arose between them that
Seton, on his departure, offered to make him acquainted with
the great secret of the philosopher's stone. In his presence
the Scotsman transmuted a great quantity of base metal into
pure gold, and gave it him as a mark of his esteem. Seton
then took leave of his friend, and travelled into Germany. At
Dresden he made no secret of his wonderful powers, having,
it is said, performed transmutations successfully before a great
assemblage of the learned men of that city. The circumstance
coming to the ears of the Duke or Elector of Saxony, he gave
orders for the arrest of the alchymist. He caused him to be
imprisoned in a high tower, and set a guard of forty men to
watch that he did not escape, and that no strangers were ad*
mitted to his presence. The unfortunate Seton received sev-
eral visits from the elector, who used every art of persuasion
to make him divulge his secret. Seton obstinately refused
either to comunicate his secret, or to make any gold for the
tyrant; on which he was stretched upon the rack, to see if
the argument of torture would render him more tractable.
The result was still the same; neither hope of reward nor
fear of anguish could shake Mm. For several months he re-
mained in prison, subjected alternately to a sedative and a
violent regimen, till his health broke, and he wasted away
almost to a skeleton.
There happened at that time to be at Dresden a learned
Pole, named Michael Sendivogius, who had wasted a good
deal of his time and substance in the unprofitable pursuits of
alchymy. He was touched with pity for the hard fate, and
admiration for the intrepidity of Seton; and determined, if
possible, to aid him in escaping from the clutch of his oppres-
sor. He requested the elector's permission to see the alchy-
mist, and obtained it with some difficulty. He found him
1 86 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
in a state of great wretchedness, shut up from the light of day
in a noisome dungeon, and with no better couch or fare than
those allotted to the worst of criminals. Seton listened eagerly
to the proposal of escape, and promised the generous Pole that
he would make him richer than an eastern monarch if by his
means he were liberated. Sendivogious immediately com-
menced operations; he sold some property which he possessed
near Cracow, and with the proceeds led a merry life at Dres-
den. He gave the most elegant suppers, to which he regularly
invited the officers of the guard, and especially those who did
duty at the prison of the alchymist. He insinuated himself at
last into their confidence, and obtained free ingress to his
friend as often as he pleased; pretending that he was using
his utmost endeavours to conquer his obstinacy and worm his
secret out of him. When their project was ripe, a day was
fixed upon for the grand attempt; and Sendivogious was
ready with a post-chariot to convey him with all speed into
Poland. By drugging some wine which he presented to the
guards of the prison, he rendered them so drowsy that he easily
found means to scale a wall unobserved, with Seton, and effect
his escape. Seton's wife was in the chariot awaiting him, hav-
ing safely in her possession a small packet of a black powder,
which was, in fact, the philosopher's stone, or ingredient for
the transmutation of iron and copper into gold. They all
arrived in safety at Cracow; but the frame of Seton was so
wasted by torture of body and starvation, to say nothing of
the anguish of mind he had endured, that he did not long
survive. He died in Cracow, in 1603 or 1604, and was buried
under the cathedral church of that city. Such is the story
related of the author of the various works which bear the
name of the Cosmopolite. A list of them may be found in
the third volume of the History of the Hermetic Philosophy.
SENDIVOGIUS
On the death of Seton, Sendivogius married his widow,
hoping to learn from her some of the secrets of her deceased
lord in the art of transmutation. The ounce of black powder
THE ALCHYMISTS 187
stood Mm, however, in better service; for the alchymists say,
that by its means he converted great quantities of quicksilver
into the purest gold. It is also said that he performed this
experiment successfully before the Emperor Rudolph II., at
Prague; and that the emperor, to commemorate the circum-
stance, caused a marble tablet to be affixed to the wall of the
room in which it was performed, bearing this inscription,
"Faciat hoc quispiam alius, quod fecit Sendivogius Polonus."
M. Desnoyers, secretary to the Princess Mary of Gonzaga,
Queen of Poland, writing from Warsaw in 1651, says that he
saw this tablet, which existed at that time, and was often
visited by the curious.
The after-life of Sendivogius is related in a Latin memoir
of him by one Brodowski, his steward; and is inserted by
Pierre Borel in his Treasure of Gaulish Antiquities. The Em-
peror Rudolph, according to this authority, was so well pleased
with his success, that he made him one of his councillors of
state, and invited him to fill a station in the royal household
and inhabit the palace. But Sendivogius loved his liberty,
and refused to become a courtier. He preferred to reside on
his own patrimonial estate of Gravarna, where, for many
years he exercised a princely hospitality. His philosophic
powder, which, his steward says, was red, and not black, he
kept in a little box of gold; and with one grain of it he could
make five hundred ducats, or a thousand rix-dollars. He gen-
erally made his projection upon quicksilver. When he trav-
elled, he gave this box to his steward, who hung it round his
neck by a gold chain next his skin. But the greatest part of
the powder he used to hide in a secret place cut into the step
of his chariot. He thought that, if attacked at any time by
robbers, they would not search such a place as that. When
he anticipated any danger, he would dress himself in his
valet's clothes, and, mounting the coach-box, put the valet
inside. He was induced to take these precautions, because it
was no secret that he possessed the philosopher's stone; and
many unprincipled adventurers were on the watch for an op-
portunity to plunder him. A German prince, whose name
Brodowski has not thought fit to chronicle, served him a
1 88 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
scurvy trick, which ever afterwards put him on his guard.
This prince went on his knees to Sendivogius, and entreated
him in the most pressing terms to satisfy his curiosity, by
converting some quicksilver into gold before him. Sendi-
vogius, wearied by his importunity, consented, upon a promise
of inviolable secrecy. After his departure, the prince called
a German alchymist, named Muhlenfels, who resided in his
house, and told him all that had been done. Muhlenfels
entreated that he might have a dozen mounted horsemen at
his command, that he might instantly ride after the philoso-
pher, and either rob him of all his powder, or force from him
the secret of making it. The prince desired nothing better;
Muhlenfels, being provided with twelve men well mounted
and armed, pursued Sendivogius in hot haste. He came up
with him at a lonely inn by the road-side, just as he was
sitting down to dinner. He at first endeavoured to persuade
him to divulge the secret; but finding this of no avail, he
caused his accomplices to strip the unfortunate Sendivogius
and tie him naked to one of the pillars of the house. He
then took from him his golden box, containing a small quan-
tity of the powder; a manuscript book on the philosopher's
stone; a golden medal, with its chain, presented to him by
the Emperor Rudolph; and a rich cap, ornamented with dia-
monds, of the value of one hundred thousand rix-dollars. With
this booty he decamped, leaving Sendivogius still naked and
firmly bound to the pillar. His servant had been treated in
a similar manner; but the people of the inn released them
all as soon as the robbers were out of sight.
Sendivogius proceeded to Prague, and made his complaint
to the emperor. An express was instantly sent off to the
prince, with orders that he should deliver up Muhlenfels and
all his plunder. The prince, fearful of the emperor's wrath,
caused three large gallows to be erected in his court-yard; on
the highest of which he hanged Muhlenfels, with another
thief on each side of him. He thus propitiated the emperor,
and got rid of an ugly witness against himself. He sent back
at the same time, the bejewelled hat, the medal and chain, and
the treatise upon the philosopher's stone, which had been
THE ALCHYMISTS 189
stolen from Sendivogius. As regarded the powder, he said
he had not seen it, and knew nothing about it.
This adventure made Sendivogius more prudent; he would
no longer perform the process of transmutation before any
strangers, however highly recommended. He pretended also
to be very poor; and sometimes lay in bed for weeks together,
that people might believe he was suffering from some danger-
ous malady, and could not therefore, by any possibility, be the
owner of the philosopher's stone. He would occasionally
coin false money, and pass it off as gold; preferring to be
esteemed a cheat rather than a successful alchymist.
Many other extraordinary tales are told of this personage
by his steward Brodowski, but they are not worth repeating.
He died in 1636, aged upwards of eighty, and was buried in his
own chapel at Gravurna. Several works upon alchymy have
been published under his name.
THE ROSICRUCIANS
It was during the time of the last-mentioned author that the
sect of the Rosicrucians first began to create a sensation in
Europe. The influence which they exercised upon opinion
during their brief career, and the permanent impression which
they have left upon European literature, claim for them espe-
cial notice. Before their time, alchymy was but a grovelling
delusion; and theirs is the merit of having spiritualised and
refined it. They also enlarged its sphere, and supposed the
possession of the philosopher's stone to be, not only the means
of wealth, but of health and happiness, and the instrument by
which man could command the services of superior beings,
control the elements to his will, defy the obstructions of time
and space, and acquire the most intimate knowledge of all the
secrets of the universe. Wild and visionary as they were, they
were not without their uses; if it were only for having purged
the superstitions of Europe of the dark and disgusting forms
with which the monks had peopled it, and substituted, in their
stead, a race of mild, graceful, and beneficent beings.
They are said to have derived their name from Christian
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Rosencreutz;, or "Rose-cross/ ? a German philosopher, who
travelled In the Holy Land towards the close of the fourteenth
century. While dangerously ill at a place called Damcar, he
was visited by some learned Arabs, who claimed him as their
brother in science, and unfolded to him, by inspiration, all
the secrets of his past life, both of thought and of action.
They restored him to health by means of the philosopher's
stone, and afterwards instructed him in all their mysteries.
He returned to Europe in 1401, being then only twenty-three
years of age; and drew a chosen number of his friends around
Mm, whom he initiated into the new science, and bound by
solemn oaths to keep it secret for a century. He is said to
have lived eighty-three years after this period, and to have
died in 1484.
Many have denied the existence of such a personage as
Rosencreutz, and have fixed the origin of this sect at a much
later epoch. The first dawning of it, they say, is to be found
in the theories of Paracelsus and the dreams of Dr. Dee, who,
without intending it, became the actual, though never the rec-
ognised founders of the Rosicrucian philosophy. It is now
difficult, and indeed impossible, to determine whether Dee
and Paracelsus obtained their ideas from the then obscure
and unknown Rosicrucians, or whether the Rosicrucians did
but follow and improve upon them. Certain it is, that their
existence was never suspected till the year 1605, when they
began to excite attention in Germany. No sooner were their
doctrines promulgated, than all the visionaries, Paracelsists,
and alchymists, flocked around their standard, and vaunted
Rosencreutz as the new regenerator of the human race.
Michael Mayer, a celebrated physician of that day, and who had
impaired his health and wasted his fortune in searching for the
philosopher's stone, drew up a report of the tenets and ordi-
nances of the new fraternity, which was published at Cologne,
in the year 1615. They asserted, in the first place, "that the
meditations of their founders surpassed every thing that had
ever been imagined since the creation of the world, without even
excepting the revelations of the Deity; that they were destined
to accomplish the general peace and regeneration of man before
THE ALCHYMISTS
the end of the world arrived; that they possessed all wisdom and
piety in a supreme degree; that they possessed all the graces of
nature, and could distribute them among the rest of mankind
according to their pleasure; that they were subject to neither
hunger, nor thirst, nor disease, nor old age, nor to any other in-
convenience of nature; that they knew by inspiration, and at the
first glance, every one who was worthy to be admitted into their
society; that they had the same knowledge then which they
would have possessed if they had lived from the beginning of
the world, and had been always acquiring it; that they had a
volume in which they could read all that ever was or ever would
be written in other books till the end of time; that they could
force to, and retain in their service the most powerful spirits
and demons; that, by the virtue of their songs, they could attract
pearls and precious stones from the depths of the sea or the
bowels of the earth; that God had covered them with a thick
cloud, by means of which they could shelter themselves from
the malignity of their enemies, and that they could thus render
themselves invisible from all eyes; that the first eight brethren
of the 'Rose-cross's had power to cure all maladies; that, by
means of the fraternity, the triple diadem of the pope would be
reduced into dust; that they only admitted two sacraments, with
the ceremonies of the primitive Church, renewed by them; that
they recognised the Fourth Monarchy and the Emperor of the
Romans as their chief and the chief of all Christians; that they
would provide him with more gold, their treasures being inex-
haustible, than the King of Spain had ever drawn from the
golden regions of Eastern and Western Ind." This was their
confession of faith. Their rules of conduct were six in number,
and as follow:
First. That, in their travels, they should gratuitously cure all
diseases.
Secondly. That they should always dress in conformity to the
fashion of the country in which they resided.
Thirdly. That they should, once every year, meet together In
the place appointed by the fraternity, or send in writing an avail-
able excuse.
192 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Fourthly. That every brother, whenever he felt inclined to
die, should choose a person worthy to succeed him.
Fifthly. That the words "Rose-cross's" should be the marks
by which they should recognise each other.
Sixthly. That their fraternity should be kept secret for six
times twenty years.
They asserted that these laws had been found inscribed in a
golden book in the tomb of Rosencreutz, and that the six times
twenty years from his death expired in 1604. They were conse-
quently called upon from that time forth to promulgate their
doctrine for the welfare of mankind.*
For eight years these enthusiasts made converts in Germany,
but they excited little or no attention in other parts of Europe.
At last they made their appearance in Paris, and threw all the
learned, all the credulous, and all the lovers of the marvellous
into commotion. In the beginning of March 1623, the good
folks of that city, when they arose one morning, were surprised
to find all their walls placarded with the following singular mani-
festo:
"We, the deputies of the principal College of the brethren
*The following legend of the tomb of Rosencreutz, written by Eustace
Budgell, appears in No. 379 of the Spectator: "A certain person, having
occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground where this philosopher lay
interred, met with a small door, having a wall on each side of it. His
curiosity, and the hope of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him
to force open the door. He was immediately surprised by a sudden blaze
of light, and discovered a very fair vault. At the upper end of it was a
statue of a man in armour, sitting by a table, and leaning on his left arm.
He held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp burning before him.
The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault, than the statue, erect-
ing itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt upright; and, upon the fel-
low's advancing another step, lifted up the truncheon in his right hand.
The man still ventured a third step ; when the statue, with a furious blow,
broke the lamp into a thousand pieces, and left his guest in sudden dark-
ness. Upon the report of this adventure, the country people came with
lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that the statue, which was made of
brass, was nothing more than a piece of clock-work; that the floor of the
vault was all loose, and underlaid with several springs, which, upon any
man's entering, naturally produced that which had happened.
"Rosicreucius, say his disciples, made use of this method to shew the
world that he had re-invented the ever-burning lamps of the ancients,
though he was resolved no one should reap any advantage from the dis-
covery."
THE ALCHYMISTS 193
of the Rose-cross have taken up our abode, visible and invis-
ible, in this city, by the grace of the Most High, towards whom
are turned the hearts of the just. We shew and teach without
books or signs, and speak all sorts of languages in the countries
where we dwell, to draw mankind, our fellows, from error and
from death."
For a long time this strange placard was the sole topic of con-
versation in all public places. Some few wondered, but the
greater number only laughed at it. In the course of a few weeks
two books were published, which raised the first alarm respect-
ing this mysterious society, whose dwelling-place no one knew,
and no members of which had ever been seen. The first was
called a history of The frightful Compacts entered into between
the Devil and the pretended ' Invisibles' s'; with their damnable
Instructions, the deplorable Ruin of their Disciples, and their
miserable end. The other was called an Examination of the new
unknown Cabala of the Brethren of the Rose-cross, who
have lately inhabited the City of Paris; with the History of their
Manners, the Wonders worked by them, and many other par-
ticulars.
These books sold rapidly. Every one was anxious to know
something of this dreadful and secret brotherhood. The bad-
auds of Paris were so alarmed that they daily expected to see
the arch-enemy walking in propria persona among them. It
was said in these volumes that the Rosicrucian society consisted
of six-and-thirty persons in all, who had renounced their bap-
tism and hope of resurrection. That it was not by means of good
angels, as they pretended, that they worked their prodigies; but
that it was the devil who gave them power to transport them-
selves from one end of the world to the other with the rapidity
of thought; to speak all languages; to have their purses always
full of money, however much they might spend; to be invisible,
and penetrate into the most secret places, in spite of fastenings
of bolts and bars; and to be able to tell the past and future.
These thirty-six bf ethren were divided into bands or companies :
six of them only had been sent on the mission to Paris, six to
Italy, six to Spain, six to Germany, four to Sweden, and two
into Switzerland, two into Flanders, two into Lorraine, and two
194 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Into Tranche Comte. It was generally believed that the mission-
aries to France resided somewhere in the Marais du Temple.
That quarter of Paris soon acquired a bad name, and people
were afraid to take houses in it, lest they should be turned out
by the six invisibles of the Rose-cross. It was believed by the
populace, and by many others whose education should have
taught them better, that persons of a mysterious aspect used to
visit the inns and hotels of Paris, and eat of the best meats and
drink of the best wines, and then suddenly melt away into thin
air when the landlord caine with the reckoning. That gentle
maidens, who went to bed alone, often awoke in the night and
found men in bed with them, of shape more beautiful than the
Grecian Apollo, who immediately became invisible when an
alarm was raised. It was also said that many persons found
large heaps of gold in their houses without knowing from whence
they came. All Paris was in alarm. No man thought himself
secure of his goods, no maiden of her virginity, or wife of her
chastity, while these Rosicrucians were abroad. In the midst of
the commotion, a second placard was issued to the following
effect:
"// any one desires to see the brethren of the Rose-cross
from curiosity only, he will never communicate with us. But
if his will really induces him to inscribe hiz name in the register
of our brotherhood, we, who can judge the thoughts of all men,
will convince him of the truth of our promises. For this rea-
son we do not publish to the world the place of our abode.
Thought alone, in unison with the sincere will of those who de-
sire to know us, is sufficient to make us known to them, and
them to us"
Though the existence of such a society as that of the Rose-
cross was problematical, it was quite evident that somebody or
other was concerned in the promulgation of these placards,
which were stuck up on every wall in Paris. The police endeav-
oured in vain to find out the offenders, and their want of success
only served to increase the perplexity of the public. The Church
very soon took up the question; and the Abbe Gaultier, a Jesuit,
wrote a book to prove that, by their enmity to the pope, they
could be no other than disciples of Luther sent to promulgate
THE ALCHYMISTS 195
Is heresy. Their very name, he added, proved that they were
eretics; a cross surmounted by a rose being the heraldic device
f the arch-heretic Luther. One Garasse said they were a con-
aternity of drunken impostors; and that their name was de-
ved from the garland of roses, in the form of a cross, hung over
le tables of taverns in Germany as the emblem of secrecy, and
*om whence was derived the common saying, when one man
ommunicated a secret to another, that it was said "under the
3se." Others interpreted the letters F. R. C. to mean, not
Brethren of the Rose-Cross, but Fratres Rons Cocti, or Broth-
rs of Boiled Dew; and explained this appellation by alleging
lat they collected large quantities of morning dew, and boiled
, in order to extract a very valuable ingredient in the com-
osition of the philosopher's stone and the water of life.
The fraternity thus attacked defended themselves as well as
icy were able. They denied that they used magic of any kind,
r that they consulted the devil. They said they were all happy ;
lat they had lived more than a century, and expected to live
lany centuries more; and that the intimate knowledge which
ley possessed of all nature was communicated to them by God
imself as a reward for their piety and utter devotion to his
srvice. Those were in error who derived their name from a
ross of roses, or called them drunkards. To set the world right
n the first point, they reiterated that they derived their name
:om Christian Rosencreutz, their founder; and to answer the
itter charge, they repeated that they knew not what thirst was,
nd had higher pleasures than those of the palate. They did
ot desire to meddle with the politics or religion of any man or
st of men, although they could not help denying the supremacy
f the pope, and looking upon him as a tyrant. Many slanders,
ley said, had been repeated respecting them, the most unjust
f which was, that they indulged in carnal appetites, and, under
ie cloak of their invisibility, crept into the chambers of beau-
iful maidens. They asserted, on the contrary, that the first vow
hey took on entering the society was a vow of chastity, and that
ny one among them who transgressed in that particular would
nmediately lose all the advantages he enjoyed, and be exposed
nee more to hunger, woe, disease, and death, like other men.
196 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
So strongly did they feel on the subject of chastity, that they
attributed the fall of Adam solely to his want of this virtue. Be-
sides defending themselves in this manner, they entered into a
further confession of their faith. This discarded for ever all
the old tales of sorcery and witchcraft, and communion with the
devil. They said there were no such horrid, unnatural, and dis-
gusting beings as the incubi and succubi, and the innumerable
grotesque imps that man had believed in for so many ages. Man
was not surrounded with enemies like those, but with myriads
of beautiful and benefident beings, all anxious to do him serv-
ice. The air was peopled with sylphs, the water with undines or
naiads, the bowels of the earth with gnomes, and the fire with
salamanders. All these beings were the friends of man, and de-
sired nothing so much as that man should purge themselves^of
all uncleanness, and thus be enabled to see and converse with
them. They possessed great power, and were unrestrained by
the barriers of space or the obstructions of matter. But man
was in one particular their superior. He had an immortal soul,
and they had not. They might, however, become sharers in
man's immortality if they could inspire one of that race with
the passion of love towards them. Hence it was the constant
endeavour of the female spirits to captivate the admiration of
men, and of the male gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines
to be beloved by a woman. The object of this passion, in re-
turning their love, imparted a portion of that celestial fire, the
soul; and from that time forth the beloved became equal to
the lover, and both, when their allotted course was run, en-
tered together into the mansions of felicity. These spirits,
they said, watched constantly over mankind by night and day.
Dreams, omens, and presentiments were all their works, and
the means by which they gave warning of the approach of
danger. But though so well inclined to befriend man for their
own sakes, the want of a soul rendered them at time capricious
and revengeful; they took offence on slight causes, and heaped
injuries instead of benefits on the heads of those who extin-
guished the light of reason that was in them by gluttony, de-
bauchery, and other appetites of the body.
The excitement produced in Paris by the placards of the
THE ALCHYMISTS 197
brotherhood and the attacks of the clergy wore itself away after
a few months. The stories circulated about them became at
last too absurd even for that age of absurdity, and men began
to laugh once more at those invisible gentlemen and their fan-
tastic doctrines. Gabriel Naude at that conjuncture brought
out his Avis a la France sur les Freres de la Rose-croix, in which
he very successfully exposed the folly of the new sect. This
work, though not well written, was well timed. It quite extin-
guished the Rosicrucians of France; and after that year little
more was heard of them. Swindlers in different parts of the
country assumed the name at times to cloak their depredations;
and now and then one of them was caught and hanged for his too
great ingenuity in enticing pearls and precious stones from the
pockets of other people into his own, or for passing off lumps of
gilded brass for pure gold, made by the agency of the philoso-
pher's stone. With these exceptions, oblivion shrouded them.
The doctrine was not confined to a sphere so narrow as France
alone; it still flourished in Germany, and drew many converts
in England. The latter countries produced two great masters
in the persons of Jacob Bohmen and Robert Fludd pretended
philosophers, of whom it is difficult to say which was the more
absurd and extravagant. It would appear that the sect was
divided into two classes the brothers Rosce Cruds, who de-
voted themselves to the wonders of this sublunary sphere, and
the brothers AUTCB Crucis, who were wholly occupied in the con-
templation of things divine. Fludd belonged to the first class,
and Bohmen to the second. Fludd may be called the father of
the English Rosicrucians, and as such merits a conspicuous niche
in the temple of Folly.
He was born in the year 1574 at Milgate, in Kent, and was
the son of Sir Thomas Fludd, Treasurer of War to Queen Eliza-
beth. He was originally intended for the army; but he was too
fond of study, and of a disposition too quiet and retiring, to shine
in that sphere. His father would not therefore press him to
adopt a course of life for which he was unsuited, and encouraged
him in the study of medicine, for which he early manifested a
partiality. At the age of twenty-five he proceeded to the con-
tinent; and being fond of the abstruse, the marvellous, and the
198 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
incomprehensible, he became an ardent disciple of the school
of Paracelsus, whom he looked upon as the regenerator not only
of medicine, but of philosophy. He remained six years in Italy,
France, and Germany, storing his mind with fantastic notions,
and seeking the society of enthusiasts and visionaries. On his
return to England in 1605, he received the degree of Doctor of
Medicine from the University of Oxford, and began to practise
as a physician in London.
He soon made himself conspicuous. He latinised his name
from Robert Fludd into Robertas a Fluctibus, and began the
promulgation of many strange doctrines. He avowed his belief
in the philosopher's stone, the water of life, and the universal
alkahest; and maintained that there were but two principles of
all things which were, condensation, the boreal or northern
virtue; and rarefaction, the southern or austral virtue. A num-
ber of demons, he said, ruled over the human frame, whom he
arranged in their places in a rhomboid. Every disease had its
peculiar demon who produced it, which demon could only be
combated by the aid of the demon whose place was directly op-
posite to his in the rhomboidal figure. Of his medical notions
we shall have further occasion to speak in another part of this
book, when we consider him in his character as one of the first
founders of the magnetic delusion, and its offshoot, animal mag-
netism, which has created so much sensation in our own day.
As if the doctrines already mentioned were not wild enough,
he joined the Rosicrucians as soon as they began to make a sen-
sation in Europe, and succeeded in raising himself to high con-
sideration among them. The fraternity having been violently
attacked by several German authors, and among others by Li-
bavius, Fludd volunteered a reply, and published, in 1616, his
defence of the Rosicrucian philosophy, under the title of the
Apologia compendiaria Fraternitatem de Rosea-cruce suspici-
onis et inf amice maculis aspersam abluens. This work immedi-
ately procured him great renown upon the Continent, and he
was henceforth looked upon as one of the high-priests of the
sect. Of so much importance was he considered, that Keppler
and Gassendi thought it necessary to refute him; and the latter
wrote a complete examination of Ms doctrine. Mersenne also,
THE ALCHYMISTS 1 99
the friend of Descartes, and who had defended that philosopher
when accused of having joined the Rosicracians, attacked Dr.
a Fluctibus, as he preferred to be called, and shewed the ab-
surdity of the brothers of the Rose-cross in general, and of Dr.
a Fluctibus in particular. Fluctibus wrote a long reply, in
which he called Mersenne an ignorant calumniator, and reiter-
ated that alchymy was a profitable science, and the Rosicrucians
worthy to be the regenerators of the world. This book was pub-
lished at Frankfort, and was entitled Summum Bonum, quod
est Magioe, Cabalce, Alchimice, Fratrnm Rosx-Crucis verorum,
et adversus Mersenium Calumniator em. Besides this, he
wrote several other works upon alchymy, a second answer to
Libavius upon the Rosicrucians, and many medical works.
He died in London in 1637.
After his time there was some diminution of the sect in Eng-
land. They excited but little attention, and made no effort to
bring themselves into notice. Occasionally some obscure and
almost incomprehensible work made its appearance, to shew the
world that the folly was not extinguished. Eugenius Philalethes,
a noted Alchymist, who has veiled his real name under this as-
sumed one, translated The Fame and Confession of the Breth-
ren of the Rosie Cross, which was published in London in 1652.
A few years afterwards, another enthusiast, named John Hey-
don, wrote two works on the subject: the one entitled The Wise
Man's Crown, or the Glory of the Rosie Cross; and the other,
The Holy Guide, leading the way to unite Art and Nature with
the Rosie Cross uncovered. Neither of these attracted much
notice. A third book was somewhat more successful; it was
called A new Method of Rosicrucian Physic; by John Eeydon,
the servant of God and the Secretary of Nature. A few extracts
will shew the ideas of the English Rosicrucians about this
period. Its author was an attorney, "practising (to use Ms
own words) at Westminster Hall all term times as long as he
lived, and in the vacations devoting himself to alchymical and
Rosicrucian meditation." In his preface, called by him an
Apologue for an Epilogue, he enlightens the public upon the
true history and tenets of his sect. Moses, Elias, and Ezekiel
were, he says, the most ancient masters of the Rosicrucian phil-
200 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
osophy. Those few then existing In England and the rest of
Europe, were as the eyes and ears of the great king of the uni-
verse, seeing and hearing all things; seraphically illuminated;
companions of the holy company of unbodied souls and immor-
tal angels; turning themselves, Proteus-like, into any shape,
and having the power of working miracles. The most pious
and abstracted brethren could slack the plague in cities, silence
the violent winds and tempests, calm the rage of the sea and
rivers, walk in the air, frustrate the malicious aspect of witches,
cure all diseases, and turn all metals into gold. He had known
in his time two famous brethren of the Rosie Cross, named Wal-
f ourd and Williams, who had worked miracles in his sight, and
taught him many excellent predictions of astrology and earth-
quakes. "I desired one of these to tell me/' says he, "whether
my complexion were capable of the society of my good genius.
'When I see you again,' said he (which was when he pleased to
come to me, for I knew not where to go to him), *I will tell
you.' When I saw him afterwards, he said, 'You should pray
to God; for a good and holy man can offer no greater or more
acceptable service to God than the oblation of himself his
soul/ He said also, that the good genii were the benign eyes of
God, running to and fro in the world, and with love and pity
beholding the innocent endeavours of harmless and single-
hearted men, ever ready to do them good and to help them."
Heydon held devoutly true that dogma of the Rosicrucians
which said that neither eating nor drinking was necessary to
men. He maintained that any one might exist in the same man-
ner as that singular people dwelling near the source of the Gan-
ges, of whom mention was made in the travels of his namesake,
Sir Christopher Heydon, who had no mouths, and therefore
could not eat, but lived by the breath of their nostrils; except
when they took a far journey, and then they mended their diet
with the smell of flowers. He said that in really pure air "there
was a fine foreign fatness," with which it was sprinkled by the
sunbeams, and which was quite sufficient for the nourishment
of the generality of mankind. Those who had enormous appe-
tites, he had no objection to see take animal food, since they
could not do without it; but he obstinately insisted that there
THE ALCHYMISTS 201
was no necessity why they should eat it. If they put a plaster of
nicely-cooked meat upon their epigastrium, it would be suffi-
cient for the wants of the most robust and voracious! They
would by that means let in no diseases, as they did at the broad
and common gate, the mouth, as any one might see by the ex-
ample of drink; for all the while a man sat in water he was
never athirst. He had known, he said, many Rosicrucians who,
by applying wine in this manner, had fasted for years together.
In fact, quoth Heydon, we may easily fast all our life, though
it be three hundred years, without any kind of meat, and so cut
off all danger of disease.
"This sage philosopher" further informed his wondering con-
temporaries that the chiefs of the doctrine always carried about
with them to their place of meeting their symbol, called the R.
C. which was an ebony cross, flourished and decked with roses
of gold; the cross typifying Christ's sufferings upon the cross
for our sins, and the roses of gold the glory and beauty of his
Resurrection. This symbol was carried alternately to Mecca,
Mount Calvary, Mount Sinai, Haran, and to three other places,
which must have been in mid-air, called Cascle, Apamia, and
Chaulateau Virissa Caunuch, where the Rosicrucian brethren
met when they pleased and made resolution of all their actions.
They always took their pleasures in one of these places, where
they resolved all questions of whatsoever had been done, was
done, or should be done in the world, from the beginning to the
end thereof. "And these/' he concludes, "are the men called
Rosicrucians!"
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, more rational
ideas took possession of the sect, which still continued to boast
of a few members. They appear to have considered that con-
tentment was the true philosopher's stone, and to have Aban-
doned the insane search for a mere phantom of the imagination.
Addison, in The Spectator* gives an account of his conversa-
tion with a Rosicrucian; from which it may be inferred that
the sect had grown wiser in their deeds, though in their talk
they were as foolish as ever. "I was once," says he, "engaged
*No. 574. Friday, July 30th, 1714.
202 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
in discourse with a Rosicrucian about the great secret. He
talked of the secret as of a spirit which lived within an emerald,
and converted every thing that was near it to the highest per-
fection that it was capable of. 'It gives a lustre/ says he, 'to
the sun, and water to the diamond. It irradiates every metal,
and enriches lead with all the properties of gold. It heightens
smoke into flame, flame into light, and light into glory.' He
further added, 'that a single ray of it dissipates pain and care
and melancholy from the person on whom it falls. In short,'
says he, 'its presence naturally changes every place into a kind
of heaven.' After he had gone on for some time in this unin-
telligible cant, I found that he jumbled natural and moral ideas
together into the same- discourse, and that his great secret was
nothing else but content."
JACOB BOHMEN
It is now time to speak of Jacob Bohmen, who thought he
could discover the secret of the transmutation of metals in the
Bible, and who invented a strange heterogeneous doctrine of
mingled alchymy and religion, and founded upon it the sect of
the Aurea-crucians. He was born at Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia,
in 1575, and followed till his thirtieth year the occupation of a
shoemaker. In this obscurity he remained, with the character
of a visionary and a man of unsettled mind, until the promulga-
tion of the Rosicrucian philosophy in Ms part of Germany,
toward the year 1607 or 1608. From that time he began to
neglect his leather, and buried his brain under the rubbish of
metaphysics. The works of Paracelsus fell into his hands; and
these, with the reveries of the Rosicrucians, so completely en-
grossed his attention, that he abandoned his trade altogether,
sinking, at the same time, from a state of comparative inde-
pendence into poverty and destitution. But he was nothing
daunted by the miseries and privations of the flesh; his mind
was fixed upon the beings of another sphere, and in thought he
was already the new apostle of the human race. In the year
1612, after a meditation of four years, Be published Ms first
work, entitled Aurora, or the Rising of the Sun; embodying the
THE ALCHYMISTS 203
ridiculous notions of Paracelsus, and worse confounding the
confusion of that writer. The philosopher's stone might, he
contended, be discovered by a diligent search of the Old and
New Testaments, and more especially of the Apocalypse, which
alone contained all the secrets of alchymy. He contended that
the divine grace operated by the same rules, and followed the
same methods, that the divine providence observed in the nat-
ural world; and that the minds of men were purged from their
vices and corruptions in the very same manner that metals were
purified from their dross, namely, by fire.
Besides the sylphs, gnomes, undines, and salamanders, he
acknowledged various ranks and orders of demons. He pre-
tended to invisibility and absolute chastity. He also said that,
if it pleased him, he could abstain for years from meat and drink,
and all the necessities of the body. It is needless, however, to
pursue his follies any further. He was reprimanded for writing
this -work, by the magistrates of Gorlitz, and commanded to
leave the pen alone and stick to his wax, that his family might
not become chargeable to the parish. He neglected this good
advice, and continued his studies; burning minerals and purify-
ing metals one day, and mystifying the Word of God on the next.
He afterwards wrote three other works, as sublimely ridiculous
as the first. The one was entitled Metallurgies, and has the slight
merit of being the least obscure of his compositions. Another
was called The Temporal Mirror of Eternity; and the last Ms
Theosophy revealed, full of allegories and metaphors,
"All strange and geason,
Devoid of sense and ordinary reason."
Bohmen died in 1624, leaving behind him a considerable num-
ber of admiring disciples. Many of them became, during the
seventeenth century, as distinguished for absurdity as their
master; amongst whom may be mentioned Gifftheil, Wenden-
hagen, John Jacob Zimmermann, and Abraham Frankenberg.
Their heresy rendered them obnoxious to the Church of Rome;
and many of them suffered long imprisonment and torture for
their f aith. One, named Kuhlmann, was burned alive at Mos-
2O4 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
cow, in 1684, on a charge of sorcery. Bohmen's works were
translated into English, and published many years afterwards,
by an enthusiast named William Law.
MOKMIUS
Peter Mormlus, a notorious alchymist and contemporary of
Bohmen, endeavoured, in 1630, to introduce the Rosicrucian
philosophy into Holland. He applied to the States-General to
grant Hm a public audience, that he might explain the tenets of
the sect, and disclose a plan for rendering Holland the happiest
and richest country on the earth, by means of the philosopher's
stone and the service of the elementary spirits. The States-
General wisely resolved to have nothing to do with him. He
thereupon determined to shame them by printing his book,
which he did at Leyden the same year. It was entitled The
Book of the most Hidden Secrets of Nature, and was divided
into three parts; the first treating of "perpetual motion;" the
second of the "transmutation of metals;' 7 and the third of the
"universal medicine." He also published some German works
upon the Rosicrucian philosophy, at Frankfort, in 1617.
Poetry and romance are deeply indebted to the Rosicrucians
for many a graceful creation. The literature of England,
France, and Germany contains hundreds of sweet fictions, whose
machinery has been borrowed from their day-dreams. The
"delicate Ariel" of Shakespeare stands pre-eminent among the
number. From the same source Pope drew the airy tenants of
Belinda's dressing-room, in his charming Rape of the Lock;
and La Motte Fouque, the beautiful and capricious water-
nymph Undine, around whom he has thrown more grace and
loveliness, and for whose imaginery woes he has excited more
sympathy, than ever were bestowed on a supernatural being.
Sir Walter Scott also endowed the White Lady of Avenel with
many of the attributes of the undines or water-sprites. German
romance and lyrical poetry teem with allusions to sylphs,
gnomes, undines, and salamanders; and the French have not
been behind in substituting them, in works of fiction, for the
more cumbrous mythology of Greece and Rome. The sylphs,
THE ALCH YMISTS 2 $
more especially, have been the favourites of the bards, and have
become so familiar to the popular mind as to be, in a manner,
confounded with that other race of ideal beings, the fairies, who
can boast of an antiquity much more venerable in the annals of
superstition. Having these obligations to the Rosicrucians, no
lover of poetry can wish, however absurd they were, that such
a sect of philosophers had never existed.
BORRI
Just at the time that Michael Mayer was making known to
the world the existence of such a body as the Rosicrucians,
there was born in Italy a man who was afterwards destined to
become the most conspicuous member of the fraternity. The
alchymic mania never called forth the ingenuity of a more con-
summate or more successful impostor than Joseph Francis
Borri, He was born in 1616, according to some authorities,
and in 1627 according to others, at Milan; where his father,
the Signor Branda Borri, practised as a physician. At the age
of sixteen Joseph was sent to finish his education at the Jesuits'
college in Rome, where he distinguished himself by his extraor-
dinary memory. He learned every thing to which he applied
himself with the utmost ease. In the most voluminous works no
fact was too minute for his retention, and no study was so ab-
struse but that he could master it; but any advantages he might
have derived from this facility were neutralised by his ungov-
ernable passions and his love of turmoil and debauchery. He
was involved in continual difficulty, as well with the heads of
the college as with the police of Rome, and acquired so bad a
character that years could not remove it. By the aid of his
friends he established himself as a physician in Rome, and also
obtained some situation in the pope's household. In one of Ms
fits of studiousness he grew enamoured of alchymy, and deter-
mined to devote his energies to the discovery of the philosopher's
stone. Of unfortunate propensities he had quite sufficient, be-
sides this, to bring him to poverty. His pleasures were as ex-
pensive as his studies, and both were of a nature to destroy his
health and ruin his fair fame. At the age of thirty-seven he
206 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
found that he could not live by the practice of medicine, and
began to look about for some other employment. He became,
in 1653, private secretary to the Marquis di Mirogli, the min-
ister of the Archduke of Innspriick at the court of Rome. He
continued in this capacity for two years; leading, however, the
same abandoned life as heretofore, frequenting the society of
gamesters, debauchees, and loose women, involving himself in
disgraceful street quarrels, and alienating the patrons who were
desirous to befriend Mm.
All at once a sudden change was observed in his conduct. The
abandoned rake put on the outward sedateness of a philosopher ;
the scoffing sinner proclaimed that he had forsaken his evil ways,
and would live thenceforth a model of virtue. To his friends
this reformation was as pleasing as it was unexpected; and
Borri gave obscure hints that it had been brought about by some
miraculous manifestation of a superior power. He pretended
that he held converse with beneficent spirits; that the secrets of
God and nature were revealed to him; and that he had obtained
possession of the philosopher's stone. Like his predecessor,
Jacob Bohmen, he mixed up religious questions with his philo-
sophical jargon, and took measures for declaring himself the
founder of a new sect. This, at Rome itself, and in the very
palace of the pope, was a hazardous proceeding; and Borri just
awoke to a sense of it in time to save himself from the dungeons
of the Castle of St. Angelo. He fled to Innspriick, where he
remained about a year, and then returned to his native city of
Milan.
The reputation of his great sanctity had gone before him; and
he found many persons ready to attach themselves to his
fortunes. All who were desirous of entering into the new com-
munion took an oath of poverty, and relinquished their posses-
sions for the general good of the fraternity. Borri told them
that he had received from the archangel Michael a heavenly
sword, upon the hilt of which were engraven the names of the
seven celestial intelligences. "Whoever shall refuse/ 7 said
he, "to enter into my new sheepfold shall be destroyed by the
papal armies, of whom God has predestined me to be the chief.
To those who follow me all joy shall be granted. I shall soon
8JLJIluW i.
INNSPRUCK
THE ALCHYMISTS 207
bring my chemical studies to a happy conclusion by the discov-
ery of the philosopher's stone, and by this means we shall all
have as much gold as we desire. I am assured of the aid of the
angelic hosts, and more especially of the archangel Michael's.
When I began to walk in the way of the spirit, I had a vision of
the night, and was assured by an angelic voice that I should be-
come a prophet. In sign of it, I saw a palm-tree surrounded
with all the glory of paradise. The angels come to me when-
ever I call, and reveal to me all the secrets of the universe. The
sylphs and elementary spirits obey me, and fly to the uttermost
ends of the world to serve me, and those whom I delight to hon-
our." By force of continually repeating such stories as these,
Borri soon found himself at the head of a very considerable
number of adherents. As he figures in these pages as an al-
chymist, and not as a religious sectarian, it will be unnecessary
to repeat the doctrines which he taught with regard to some of
the dogmas of the Church of Rome, and which exposed him to
the fierce resentment of the papal authority. They were to the
full as ridiculous as his philosophical pretensions. As the num-
ber of his followers increased, he appears to have cherished the
idea of becoming one day a new Mahomet, and of founding, in
his native city of Milan, a monarchy and religion of which he
should be the king and the prophet. He had taken measures,
in the year 1658, for seizing the guards at all the gates of that
city, and formally declaring himself the monarch of the Milan-
ese. Just as he thought the plan ripe for execution, it was dis-
covered. Twenty of his followers were arrested, and he him-
self managed, with the utmost difficulty, to escape to the neu-
tral territory of Switzerland, where the papal displeasure could
not reach him.
The trial of his followers commenced forthwith, and the
whole of them were sentenced to various terms of imprison-
ment. Borri's trial proceeded in his absence, and lasted for
upwards of two years. He was condemned to death as a here-
tic and sorcerer in 1661, and was burned in effigy in Rome by
the common hangman.
Borri, in the mean time, lived quietly in Switzerland, indulg-
ing himself in railing at the Inquisition and its proceedings.
208 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
He afterwards went to Strasbourg, intending to fix Ms resi-
dence in that town. He was received with great cordiality, as
a man persecuted for his religious opinions, and withal a great
akhymist. He found that sphere too narrow for his aspiring
genius, and retired in the same year to the more wealthy city
of Amsterdam. He there hired a magnificent house, estab-
lished an equipage which eclipsed in brilliancy those of the
richest merchants, and assumed the title of Excellency. Where
he got the money to live in this expensive style was long a
secret: the adepts in alchymy easily explained it, after their
fashion. Sensible people were of opinion that he had come by
it in a less wonderful manner; for it was remembered that
among his unfortunate disciples in Milan, there were many
rich men, who, in conformity with one of the fundamental rules
of the sect, had given up all their earthly wealth into the hands
of their founder. In whatever manner the money was ob-
tained, Borri spent it in Holland with an unsparing hand, and
was looked up to by the people with no little respect and ven-
eration. He performed several able cures, and increased his
reputation so much that he was vaunted as a prodigy. He
continued diligently the operations of alchymy, and was in
daily expectation that he should succeed in turning the inferior
metals into gold. This hope never abandoned him, even in the
worst extremity of his fortunes; and in his prosperity it led
him into the most foolish expenses: but he could not long con-
tinue to live so magnificently upon the funds he had brought
from Italy; and the philosopher's stone, though it promised
all for the wants of the morrow, never brought anything for
the necessities of to-day. He was obliged in a few months to
retrench, by giving up his large house, his gilded coach and
valuable blood-horses, his liveried domestics, and his luxuri-
ous entertainments. With this diminution of splendour came
a diminution of renown. His cures did not appear so miracu-
lous when he went out on foot to perform them, as they had
seemed when "his Excellency" had driven to a poor man's
door in his carriage with six horses. He sank from a prodigy
into an ordinary man. His great friends shewed him the cold
shoulder, and Ms humble flatterers carried their incense to
THE ALCHYMISTS 2 09
some other shrine, Borrl now thought It high time to change
his quarters. With this view he borrowed money wherever
he could get it, and succeeded in obtaining two hundred thou-
sand florins from a merchant named De Meer, to aid, as he
said, in discovering the water of life. He also obtained six
diamonds of great value, on pretence that he could remove
the flaws from them without diminishing their weight. With
this booty he stole away secretly by night, and proceeded to
Hamburgh.
On his arrival in that city, he found the celebrated Christina,
the ex-queen of Sweden. He procured an introduction to her,
and requested her patronage in his endeavour to discover the
philosopher's stone. She gave him some encouragement; but
Borri, fearing that the merchants of Amsterdam, who had con-
nexions in Hamburgh, might expose his delinquencies if he re-
mained in the latter city, passed over to Copenhagen, and
sought the protection of Frederick III., the king of Denmark.
This prince was a firm believer in the transmutation of met-
als. Being in want of money, he readily listened to the plans
of an adventurer who had both eloquence and ability to recom-
mend him. He provided Borri with the means to make experi-
ments, and took a great interest in the progress of his
operations. He expected every month to possess riches that
would buy Peru; and, when he was disappointed, accepted pa-
tiently the excuses of Borri, who, upon every failure, was
always ready with some plausible explanation. He became in
time much attached to him; and defended him from the jealous
attacks of his courtiers, and the indignation of those who were
grieved to see their monarch the easy dupe of a charlatan.
Borri endeavoured, by every means in his power, to find ali-
ment for this good opinion. His knowledge of medicine was
useful to him in this respect, and often stood between him and
disgrace. He lived six years in this manner at the court of
Frederick; but that monarch dying in 1670, he was left with-
out a protector.
As he had made more enemies than friends in Copenhagen,
and had nothing to hope from the succeeding sovereign, he
sought an asylum in another country. He went first to Sax-
210 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
ony; but met so little encouragement and encountered so much
danger from the emissaries of the Inquisition, that he did not
remain there many months. Anticipating nothing but perse-
cution in every country that acknowledged the spiritual author-
ity of the pope, he appears to have taken the resolution to dwell
in Turkey, and turn Mussulman. On his arrival at the Hun-
garian frontier, on his way to Constantinople, he was arrested
on suspicion of being concerned in the conspiracy of the Counts
Nadasdi and Frangipani, which had just been discovered. In
vain he protested his innocence, and divulged his real name and
profession. He was detained in prison, and a letter despatched
to the Emperor Leopold, to know what should be done with
him. The star of his fortunes was on the decline. The letter
reached Leopold at an unlucky moment. The pope's nuncio
was closeted with his majesty; and he no sooner heard the
name of Joseph Francis Borri, than he demanded him as a pris-
oner of the Holy See. The request was complied with; and
Borri, closely manacled, was sent under an escort of soldiers
to the prison of the Inquisition at Rome. He was too much
of an impostor to be deeply tinged with fanaticism, and was
not unwilling to make a public recantation of his heresies, if he
could thereby save his life. When the proposition was made
to him, he accepted it with eagerness. His punishment was to
be commuted into the hardly less severe one of perpetual
imprisonment; but he was too happy to escape the clutch of
the executioner at any price, and he made the amende honor-
able in face of the assembled multitudes of Rome on the 27th
of October 1672. He was then transferred to the prisons of the
Castle of St. Angelo, where he remained till his death, twenty-
three years afterwards. It is said that, towards the close of
his life, considerable indulgence was granted him; that he was
allowed to have a laboratory, and to cheer the solitude of his
dungeon by searching for the philosopher's stone. Queen
Christina, during her residence at Rome, frequently visited the
old man, to converse with him upon chemistry and the doc-
trines of the Rosicrucians. She even obtained permission that
he should leave his prison occasionally for a day or two, and
reside in her palace, she being responsible for his return to
THE ALCHYMISTS 211
captivity. She encouraged Mm to search for the great secret
of the alchymists, and provided him with money for the pur-
pose. It may well be supposed that Borri benefited most by
this acquaintance, and that Christina got nothing but experi-
ence. It is not sure that she gained even that; for until her
dying day she was convinced of the possibility of finding the
philosopher's stone, and ready to assist any adventurer either
zealous or impudent enough to pretend to it.
After Borri had been about eleven years in confinement, a
small volume was published at Cologne, entitled The Key of
the Cabinet of the Chevalier Joseph Francis Borri, in which
are contained many curious Letters upon Chemistry and other
Sciences, written by him, together with a Memoir of his Life.
This book contained a complete exposition of the Rosicrucian
philosophy, and afforded materials to the Abbe de Villars for
his interesting Count de Gabalis, which excited so much atten-
tion at the close of the seventeenth century.
Borri lingered in the prison of St. Angelo till 1695, when
he died, in his eightieth year. Besides The Key of the Cabinet,
written originally in Copenhagen, in 1666, for the edification
of King Frederick III., he published a work upon alchymy and
the secret sciences, under the title of The Mission of Romulus
to the Romans.
INFERIOR ALCHYMISTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Besides the pretenders to the philosopher's stone whose lives
have been already narrated, this and the preceding century
produced a great number of writers, who inundated literature
with their books upon the subject. In fact, most of the learned
men of that age had some faith in it. Van Helmont, Borri-
chius, Kircher, Boerhaave, and a score of others, though not
professed alchymists, were fond of the science and counte-
nanced its professors, Helvetius, the grandfather of the cele-
brated philosopher of the same name, asserts that he saw an
inferior metal turned into gold by a stranger at the Hague, in
1666. He says, that, sitting one day in his study, a man, who
212 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
was dressed as a respectable burgher of North Holland, and
very modest and simple in his appearance, called upon him,
with the intention of dispelling his doubts relative to the phil-
osopher's stone. He asked Helvetius if he thought he should
know that rare gem if he saw it. To which Helvetius replied,
that he certainly should not. The burgher immediately drew
from his pocket a small ivory box, containing three pieces of
metal, of the colour of brimstone, and extremely heavy; and
assured Helvetius, that of them he could make as much as
twenty tons of gold. Helvetius informs us, that he examined
them very attentively; and seeing that they were very brittle,
he took the opportunity to scrape off a small portion with his
thumb-nail. He then returned them to the stranger, with an
entreaty that he would perform the process of transmutation
before him. The stranger replied that he was not allowed to
do so, and went away. After his departure, Helvetius procured
a crucible and a portion of lead, into which, when in a state
of fusion, he threw the stolen grain from the philosopher's
stone. He was disappointed to find that the grain evaporated
altogether, leaving the lead in its original state.
Some weeks afterwards, when he had almost forgotten the
subject, he received another visit from the stranger. He again
entreated him to explain the processes by which he pretended
to transmute lead. The stranger at last consented, and in-
formed him that one grain was sufficient; but that it was neces-
sary to envelope it in a ball of wax before throwing it on the
molten metal; otherwise its extreme volatility would cause it
to go off in vapour. They tried the experiment, and succeeded
to their heart's content. Helvetius repeated the experiment
alone, and converted six ounces of lead into very pure gold.
The fame of this event spread all over the Hague, and all
the notable persons of the town flocked to the study of Hel-
vetius to convince themselves of the fact. Helvetius performed
the experiment again, in the presence of the Prince of Orange,
and several times afterwards, until he exhausted the whole
of the powder he had received from the stranger, from
whom, it is necessary to state, he never received another visit,
THE ALCHYMISTS 213
nor did he ever discover Ms name or condition. In the follow-
ing year, Helvetius published Ms Golden Calj* in wMch he
detailed the above circumstances.
About the same time, the celebrated Father Kircher pub-
lished his Subterranean World, in wMch he called the alchy-
mists a congregation of knaves and impostors, and their science
a delusion. He admitted that he had himself been a diligent
labourer in the field, and had only come to this conclusion
after mature consideration and repeated fruitless experiments.
All the alchymists were in arms immediately, to refute tMs
formidable antagonist. One Solomon de Blauenstein was
the first to grapple with Mm, and attempted to convict him of
wilful misrepresentation, by recalling to Ms memory the trans-
mutations by Sendivogius before the Emperor Frederick III.
and the Elector of Mayence, all performed witMn a recent
period. Zwelfer and Glauber also entered into the dispute,
and attributed the enmity of Father Kircher to spite and jeal-
ousy against adepts who had been more successful than him-
self.
It was also pretended that Gustavus Adolphus transmuted
a quantity of quicksilver into pure gold. The learned Borri-
chius relates, that he saw coins wMch had been struck of this
gold; and Lenglet du Fresnoy deposes to the same circum-
stance. In the Travels of Monconis the story is told in the
following manner: "A merchant of Lubeck, who carried on
but little trade, but who knew how to change lead into very
good gold, gave the King of Sweden a lingot wMch he had
made, weigMng at least one hundred pounds. The king imme-
diately caused it to be coined into ducats; and because he
knew positively that its origin was such as had been stated
to Mm, he had Ms own arms graven upon the one side, and
emblematical figures of Mercury and Venus on the other. I
(continued Monconis) have one of these ducats in my posses-
sion; and was credibly informed that, after the death of the
Lubeck merchant, who had never appeared very rich, a sum
*"Vitulus Aureus quern Mundus adorat et orat, in quo tractate de
naturae miraculo taransmutandi metalla." Hagoe? 1667.
214 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of no less than one million seven hundred thousand crowns
was found in his coffers. 57 *
Such stories as these, confidently related by men high in sta-
tion, tended to keep up the infatuation of the alchymists in
every country of Europe. It is astonishing to see the number
of works which were written upon the subject during the seven-
teenth century alone, and the number of clever men who sacri-
ficed themselves to the delusion. Gabriel de Castaigne, a
monk of the order of St. Francis, attracted so much notice
in the reign of Louis XIII., that that monarch secured him in
his household, and made him his Grand Almoner. He pre-
tended to find the elixir of life, and Louis expected by his
means to have enjoyed the crown for a century. Van Hel-
mont also pretended to have once performed with success the
process of transmuting quicksilver, and was in consequence
invited by the Emperor Rudolph II. to fix his residence at the
court of Vienna. Glauber, the inventor of the salts which still
bear his name, and who practised as a physician at Amsterdam
about the middle of the seventeenth century, established a
public school in that city for the study of alchymy, and gave
lectures himself upon the science. John Joachim Becher of
Spire acquired great reputation at the same period, and was
convinced that much gold might be made out of flint-stones by
a peculiar process, and the aid, of that grand and incompre-
hensible substance the philosopher's stone. He made a propo-
sition to the Emperor Leopold of Austria to aid him in these
experiments : but the hope of success was too remote, and the
present expense too great, to tempt that monarch, and he there-
fore gave Becher much of his praise, but none of his money.
Becher afterwards tried the States-General of Holland with
no better success.
With regard to the innumerable tricks by which impostors
persuaded the world that they had succeeded in making gold,
and of which so many stories were current about this period,
a very satisfactory report was read by M. Geoffroy the elder,
at the sitting of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, on
* Voyages de Monconis, tome iL p. 379.
THE ALCHYMISTS 215
the 15th of April 1722. As It relates principally to the alchymic
cheats of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the follow-
ing abridgment of it may not be out of place in this portion of
our history. The instances of successful transmutation were
so numerous, and apparently so well authenticated, that noth-
ing short of so able an exposure as that of M. Geoffroy could
disabuse the public mind. The trick to which they oftenest
had recourse was to use a double-bottomed crucible, the under
surface being of iron or copper, and the upper one of wax,
painted to resemble the same metal. Between the two they
placed as much gold or silver dust as was necessary for their
purpose. They then put in their lead, quicksilver, or other
ingredients, and placed their pot upon the fire. Of course,
when the experiment was concluded, they never failed to find
a lump of gold at the bottom. The same result was produced
in many other ways. Some of them used a hollow wand,
filled with gold or silver dust, and stopped at the ends with
wax or butter. With this they stirred the boiling metal in their
crucibles, taking care to accompany the operation with many
ceremonies, to divert attention from the real purpose of the
manoeuvre. They also drilled holes in lumps of lead, into
which they poured molten gold, and carefully closed the aper-
ture with the original metal. Sometimes they washed a piece
of gold with quicksilver. When in this state, they found no
difficulty in palming it off upon the uninitiated as an inferior
metal, and very easily transmuted it into fine sonorous gold
again with the aid of a little aquafortis.
Others imposed by means of nails, half iron and half gold
or silver. They pretended that they really transmuted the
precious half from iron, by dipping it in a strong alcohol. M.
Geoffroy produced several of these nails to the Academy of
Sciences, and shewed how nicely the two parts were soldered
together. The golden or silver half was painted black to
resemble iron, and the colour immediately disappeared when
the nail was dipped into aquafortis. A nail of this description
was for a long time in the cabinet of the Grand Duke of Tus-
cany. Such also, said M. Geoffroy, was the knife presented
by a monk to Queen Elizabeth of England; the blade of which
2l6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
was half gold and half steel. Nothing at one time was more
common than to see coins, half gold and half silver, which
had been operated upon by alchymists, for the same purposes
of trickery. In fact, says Mr. Geoffroy, in concluding his long
report, there is every reason to believe that all the famous
histories which have been handed down to us about the trans-
mutation of metals into gold or silver, by means of the powder
of projection or philosophical elixirs, are founded upon some
successful deception of the kind above narrated. These pre-
tended philosophers invariably disappeared after the first or
second experiment, or their powers or elixirs have failed to
produce their effect, either because attention being excited they
have found no opportunity to renew the trick without being
discovered, or because they have not had sufficient gold-dust
for more than one trial.
The disinterestedness of these would-be philosophers looked,
at first sight, extremely imposing. Instances were not rare
in which they generously abandoned all the profits of their
transmutations even the honour of the discovery. But this
apparent disinterestedness was one of the most cunning of their
manoeuvres. It served to keep up the popular expectation;
it seemed to shew the possibility of discovering the philoso-
pher's stone, and provided the means of future advantages,
which they were never slow to lay hold of such as entrances
into royal households, maintenance at the public expense, and
gifts from ambitious potentates, too greedy after the gold they
so easily promised.
It now only remains to trace the progress of the delusion
from the commencement of the eighteenth century until the
present day. It will be seen that, until a very recent period,
there were but slight signs of a return to reason.
JEAN DELISLE
In the year 1705, there was much talk in France of a
blacksmith, named Delisle, who had discovered the philoso-
pher's stone, and who went about the country turning lead
into gold. He was a native of Provence, from which place his
THE ALCHYMISTS 217
fame soon spread to the capital. His early life is involved
in obscurity; but Lenglet du Fresnoy has industriously col-
lected some particulars of Ms later career, which possess con-
siderable interest. He was a man without any education } and
had been servant in his youth to an alchyinist, from whom he
learned many of the tricks of the fraternity. The namfe of his
master has never been discovered; but it is pretended that he
rendered himself in some manner obnoxious to the govern-
ment of Louis XIV., and was obliged, in consequence, to take
refuge in Switzerland, Delisle accompanied him as far as
Savoy, and there, it is said, set upon him in a solitary moun-
tain pass, and murdered and robbed him. He then disguised
himself as a pilgrim, and returned to France. At a lonely inn,
by the road-side, where he stopped for the night, he became
acquainted with a woman, named Aluys; and so sudden a pas-
sion was enkindled betwixt them, that she consented to leave
all, follow him, and share his good or evil fortune wherever he
went. They lived together for five or six years in Provence,
without exciting any attention, apparently possessed of a de-
cent independence. At last, in 1706, it was given out that he
was the possessor of the philosopher's stone; and people from
far and near came flocking to his residence, at the Chateau de
la Palu, at Sylanez, near Barjamont, to witness the wealth
he could make out of pumps and fire-shovels. The following
account of his operations is given in a letter addressed by M.
de Cerisy, the Prior of Chateauneuf, in the Diocese of Riez,
in Provence, to the Vicar of St. Jacques du Hautpas, at Paris,
and dated the 18th of November, 1706:
"I have something to relate to you, my dear cousin, which
will be interesting to you and your friends. The philosopher's
stone, which so many persons have looked upon as a chimera,
is at last found. It is a man named Delisle, of the parish of
Sylanez, and residing within a quarter of a league of me, that
has discovered this great secret. He turns lead into gold, and
iron into silver, by merely heating these metals red-hot, and
pouring upon them in that state some oil and powder he is"
possessed of; so that it would not be impossible for any man
to make a million a day, if he had sufficient of this wondrous
2l8 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
mixture. Some of the pale gold which he had made in this
manner he sent to the jewellers of Lyons, to have their opinion
on its quality. He also sold twenty pounds weight of it to a
merchant of Digne, named Taxis. All the jewellers say they
never saw such fine gold in their lives. He makes nails, part
gold, part iron, and part silver. He promised to give me one
of them, in a long conversation which I had with him the other
day, by order of the Bishop of Senes, who saw his operations
with his own eyes, and detailed all the circumstances to me.
"The Baron and Baroness de Rheinwald shewed me a lingot
of gold made out of pewter before their eyes by M. Delisle.
My brother-in-law Sauveur, who has wasted fifty years of his
life in this great study, brought me the other day a nail which
he had seen changed into gold by Delisle, and fully convinced
me that all his previous experiments were founded on an erro-
neous principle. This excellent workman received, a short
time ago, a very kind letter from the superintendent of the
royal household, which I read. He offered to use all his influ-
ence with the ministers to prevent any attempts upon his lib-
erty, which has twice been attacked by the agents of govern-
ment. It is believed that the oil he makes use of is gold or
silver reduced to that state. He leaves it for a long time ex-
posed to the rays of the sun. He told me that it generally took
Mm six months to make all his preparations. I told him that,
apparently, the king wanted to see him. He replied that he
could not exercise his art in every place, as a certain climate
and temperature were absolutely necessary to his success. The
truth is, that this man appears to have no ambition. He only
keeps two horses and two men-servants. Besides, he loves his
liberty, has no politeness, and speaks very bad French; but his
judgment seems to be solid. He was formerly no more than a
blacksmith, but excelled in that trade without having been
taught it. All the great lords and seigneurs from far and near
come to visit him, and pay such court to him, that it seems
more like idolatry than anything else. Happy would France
be if this man would discover his secret to the king, to whom
the superintendent has already sent some lingots! But the
happiness is too great to be hoped for; for I fear that the work-
THE ALCHYMISTS 2 1 9
man and his secret will expire together. There is no doubt
that this discovery will make a great noise in the kingdom, un-
less the character of the man, which I have just depicted to
you, prevent it. At all events, posterity will hear of Mm."
In another letter to the same person, dated the 27th of Jan-
uary, 1707, M. de Cerisy says, a My dear cousin, I spoke to
you in my last letter of the famous alchymist of Provence, M.
Delisle. A good deal of that was only hearsay, but now I am
enabled to speak from my own experience. I have in my pos-
session a nail, half iron and half silver, which I made myself.
That great and admirable workman also bestowed a still
greater privilege upon me he allowed me to turn a piece of
lead which I had brought with me into pure gold, by means
of his wonderful oil and powder. All the country have their
eyes upon this gentleman; some deny loudly, others are in-
credulous; but those who have seen acknowledge the truth. I
have read the passport that has been sent to him from court,
with orders that he should present himself at Paris early in
the spring. He told me that he would go willingly, and that it
was himself who fixed the spring for his departure; as he
wanted to collect his materials, in order that, immediately on
his introduction to the king, he might make an experiment
worthy of his majesty, by converting a large quantity of lead
into the finest gold. I sincerely hope that he will not allow his
secret to die with him, but that he will communicate it to the
king. As I had the honour to dine with him on Thursday last,
the 20th of this month, being seated at his side, I told him in a
whisper that he could, if he liked, humble all the enemies of
France. He did not deny it, but began to smile. In fact, this
man is the miracle of art. Sometimes he employs the oil and
powder mixed, sometimes the powder only; but in so small
a quantity that, when the liiigot which I made was rubbed all
over with it, it did not shew at all. 5 '
This soft-headed priest was by no means the only person
in the neighbourhood who lost his wits in hopes of the bound-
less wealth held out by this clever impostor. Another priest,
named De Lions, a chanter in the cathedral of Grenoble, writ-
ing on the 30th January, 1707, says: "M. Mesnard, the curate
220 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of Montier, has written to me stating that there is a man, about
thirty-five years of age, named Delisle, who turns lead and
Iron into gold and silver; and that this transmutation is so
veritable and so true, that the goldsmiths affirm that his gold
and silver are the purest and finest they ever saw. For five
years this man was looked upon as a madman or a cheat; but
the public mind is now disabused with respect to Mm. He now
resides with M. de la Palu, at the chateau of the same name.
M. de la Palu is not very easy in his circumstances, and wants
money to portion his daughters, who have remained single till
middle age, no man being willing to take them without a
dowry. M. Delisle has promised to make them the richest
girls in the province before he goes to court, having been sent
for by the king. He has asked for a little time before his
departure, in order that he may collect powder enough to make
several quintals of gold before the eyes of his majesty, to whom
he intends to present them. The principal matter of his won-
derful powder is composed of simples, principally the herbs
Lunaria major and minor. There is a good deal of the first
planted by him in the gardens of La Palu; and he gets the
other from the mountains that stretch about two leagues from
Montier. What I tell you now is not a mere story invented
for your diversion: M. Mesnard can bring forward many wit-
nesses to its truth; among others the Bishop of Senes, who saw
these surprising operations performed; and M. de Cerisy,
whom you know well. Delisle transmutes his metals in public.
He. rubs the lead or iron with his powder, and puts it over
burning charcoal. In a short time it changes colour; the lead
becomes yellow, and is found to be converted into excellent
gold; the iron becomes white, and is found to be pure silver.
Delisle is altogether an illiterate person. M. de St. Auban en-
deavoured to teach him to read and write, but he profited very
little by his lessons. He is unpolite, fantastic, and a dreamer,
and acts by fits and starts."
Delisle, it would appear, was afraid of venturing to Paris.
He knew that his sleight *of hand would be too narrowly
watched in the royal presence; and upon some pretence or
other he delayed the journey for more than two years. Des-
THE ALCHYMISTS 221
marets, the Minister of Finance to Louis XIV., thinking the
"philosopher" dreaded foul play, twice sent him a safe-con-
duct under the king's seal; but Delisle still refused. Upon
this, Desmarets wrote to the Bishop of Senes for his real opin-
ion as to these famous transmutations. The following was the
answer of that prelate:
"Copy of a report addressed to M. Desmarets, Comptroller-
General of the Finances to His Majesty Louis XIV., by
the Bishop of Senes, dated March 1709.
"Sm, A twelvemonth ago, or a little more, I expressed to
you my joy at hearing of your elevation to the ministry; I
have now the honour to write you my opinion of the Sieur De-
lisle, who has been working at the transmutation of metals in
my diocese. I have, during the last two years, spoken of him
several times to the Count de Bontchartrain, because he asked
me; but I have not written to you, sir, or to M, de Chamillart,
because you neither of you requested my opinion upon the
subject. Now, however, that you have given me to understand
that you wish to know my sentiments on the matter, I will un-
fold myself to you in all sincerity, for the interests of the king
and the glory of your ministry.
"There are two things about the Sieur Delisle which, in
my opinion, should be examined without prejudice: the one
relates to his secret; the other, to his person; that is to say,
whether his transmutations are real, and whether his conduct
has been regular. As regards the secret of the philosopher's
stone, I deemed it impossible for a long time; and for more
than three years I was more mistrustful of the pretensions of
this Sieur Delisle than of any other person. During this
period I afforded him no countenance; I even aided a person,
who was highly recommended to me by an influential family of
this province, to prosecute Delisle for some offence or other
which it was alleged he had committed. But this person, in
his anger against Mm, having told me that he had himself
been several times the bearer of gold and silver to the gold-
smiths of Nice, AiXj and Avignon, wHicht had been transmuted
222 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
by Delisle from lead and iron, I began to waver a little in my
opinions respecting Mm. I afterwards met Delisle at the house
of one of my friends. To please me, the family asked Delisle
to operate before me, to which he immediately consented. I
offered him some iron nails, which he changed into silver in
the chimney-place before six or seven credible witnesses. I
took the nails thus transmuted, and sent them by my almoner
to Imbert, the jeweller of Aix, who, having subjected them to
the necessary trial, returned them to me, saying they were very
good silver. Still, however, I was not quite satisfied. M. de
Pontchartrain having hinted to me, two years previously, that
I should do a thing agreeable to his majesty if I examined
into this business of Delisle, I resolved to do so now. I there-
fore summoned the alchymist to come to me at Castellane. He
came; and I had him escorted by eight or ten vigilant men, to
whom I had given notice to watch his hands strictly. Before
all of us he changed two pieces of lead into gold and silver. I
sent them both to M. de Pontchartrain; and he afterwards in-
formed me by letter, now lying before me, that he had shewn
them to the most experienced goldsmiths of Paris, who unani-
mously pronounced them to be gold and silver of the very
purest quality, and without alloy. My former bad opinion of
Delisle was now indeed shaken. It was much more so when
he performed transmutation five or six times before me at
Senes, and made me perform it myself before him without his
putting his hand to any thing. You have seen, sir, the letter
of my nephew, the Pere Berard, of the Oratoire at Paris, on the
experiment that he performed at Castellane, and the truth of
which I hereby attest. Another nephew of mine, the Sieur
Bourget, who was here three weeks ago, performed the same
experiment in my presence, and will detail all the circum-
stances to you personally at Paris. A hundred persons in my
diocese have been witnesses of these things. I confess to you,
sir, that, after the testimony of so many spectators and so
many goldsmiths, and after the repeatedly successful experi-
ments that I saw performed, all my prejudices vanished. My
reason was convinced by my eyes; and the phantoms of im-
THE ALCHYMISTS 223
possibility which I had conjured up were dissipated by the
work of my own hands.
"It now only remains for me to speak to you on the sub-
ject of his person and conduct. Three suspicions have been
excited against him: the first, that he was implicated in some
criminal proceeding at Cisteron, and that he falsified the coin
of the realm; the second, that the king sent him two safe-
conducts without effect; and the third, that he still delays
going to court to operate before the king. You may see, sir,
that I do not hide or avoid any thing. As regards the business
at Cisteron, the Sieur Delisle has repeatedly assured me that
there was nothing against him which could reasonably draw
him within the pale of justice, and that he had never carried on
any calling injurious to the king's service. It was true that,
six or seven years ago, he had been to Cisteron to gather herbs
necessary for his powder, and that he had lodged at the house
of one* Pelouse, whom he thought an honest man. Pelouse was
accused of clipping Louis d'ors; and as he had lodged with him,
he was suspected of being his accomplice. This mere sus-
picion, without any proof whatever, had caused him to be
condemned for contumacy; a common case enough with
judges, who always proceed with much rigour against those
who are absent. During my own sojourn at Aix, it was well
known that a man, named Andre Aluys, had spread about re-
ports injurious to the character of Delisle, because he hoped
thereby to avoid paying him a sum of forty Lows that he owed
him. But permit me, sir, to go further, and to add that, even
if there were well-founded suspicions against Delisle, we should
look with some little indulgence on the faults of a man who
possesses a secret so useful to the state. As regards the two
safe-conducts sent him by the king, I think I can answer cer-
tainly that it was through no fault of his that he paid so little
attention to them. His year, strictly speaking, consists only
of the four summer months; and when by any means he is
prevented from making the proper use of them, he loses a
whole year. Thus the first safe-conduct became useless by the
irruption of the Duke of Savoy in 1707; and the second had
hardly been obtained, at the end of June 1708, when the said
224 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Delisle was insulted by a party of armed men, pretending to
act under the authority of the Count de Grignan, to whom he
wrote several letters of complaint, without receiving any
answer, or promise that his safety would be attended to. What
I have now told you, sir, removes the third objection, and is
the reason why, at the present time, he cannot go to Paris to
the king, in fulfilment of his promises made two years ago.
Two, or even three, summers have been lost to him, owing to
the continual inquietude he has laboured under. He has, in
consequence, been unable to work, and has not collected a suf-
ficient quantity of his oil and powder, or brought what he has
got to the necessary degree of perfection. For this reason also
he could not give the Sieur de Bourget the portion he promised
him for your inspection. If the other day he changed some
lead into gold with a few grains of his powder, they were as-
suredly all he had; for he told me that such was the fact long
before he knew my nephew was coming* Even if he had pre-
served this small quantity to operate before the king, I am
sure that, on second thoughts, he would never have adventured
with so little; because the slightest obstacles in the metals
(their being too hard or too soft, which is only discovered in
operating,) would have caused him to be looked upon as an
imposter, if, in case his first powder had proved ineffectual, he
had not been possessed of more to renew the experiment and
surmount the difficulty.
"Permit me, sir, in conclusion, to repeat, that such an art-
ist as this should not be driven to the last extremity, nor
forced to seek an asylum offered to him in other countries, but
which he has despised, as much from his own inclinations as
from the advice I have given him. You risk nothing in giving
him a little time, and in hurrying him you may lose a great
deal. The genuineness of his gold can no longer be doubted,
after the testimony of so many jewellers of Aix, Lyons, and
Paris in its favour. As it is not Ms fault that the previous
safe-conducts sent to him have been of no service, it will be
necessary to send him another; for the success of which I will
be answerable, if you will confide the matter to me, and trust
to my zeal for the service of Ms majesty, to whom I pray you
THE ALCHYMISTS 2 2 5
to communicate this letter, that I may be spared the just re-
proaches he might one day heap upon me if he remained ig-
norant of the facts I have now written to you. Assure him,
if you please, that, If you send me such a safe-conduct, I will
oblige the Sieur Delisle to depose with me such precious
pledges of his fidelity as shall enable me to be responsible
myself to the king. These are my sentiments, and I submit
them to your superior knowledge ; and have the honour to re-
main, with much respect, &c. "JOHN BISHOP OF SENES."
"To M. Desmarets, Minister of State, and
Comptroller-General of the Finances, at Paris."
That Delisle was no ordinary impostor, but a man of con-
summate cunning and address, is very evident from this letter.
The bishop was fairly taken in by his clever legerdemain, and
when once his first distrust was conquered, appeared as anx-
ious to deceive himself as even Delisle could have wished. His
faith was so abundant that he made the case of his protege his
own, and would not suffer the breath of suspicion to be di-
rected against him. Both Louis and his minister appear to
have been dazzled by the brilliant hopes he had excited, and a
third pass, or safe-conduct, was immediately sent to the alchy-
mist, with a command from the king that he should forthwith
present himself at Versailles, and make public trial of his oil
and powder. But this did not suit the plans of Delisle. In
the provinces he was regarded as a man of no small impor-
tance; the servile flattery that awaited him wherever he went
was so grateful to his mind that he could not willingly re-
linquish it, and run upon certain detection at the court of the
monarch. Upon one pretext or another he delayed his jour-
ney, notwithstanding the earnest solicitations of his good friend
the bishop. The latter had given his word to the minister,
and pledged Ms honour that he would induce Delisle to go, and
he began to be alarmed when he found he could not subdue
the obstinacy of that individual. For more than two years
he continued to remonstrate with him, and was always met by
some excuse, that there was not sufficient powder, or that it
226 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
had not been long enough exposed to the rays of the sun. ^ At
last his patience was exhausted; and fearful that he might
suffer In the royal estimation by longer delay he wrote to the
king for a lettre de cachet, in virtue of which the alchymist
was seized at the castle of La Palu, in the month of June 1711,
and carried off to be imprisoned in the Bastille.
The gendarmes were aware that their prisoner was supposed
to be the lucky possessor of the philosopher's stone, and on
the road they conspired to rob and murder Mm. One of them
pretended to be touched with pity for the misfortunes of the
philosopher, and offered to give him an opportunity of escape
whenever he could divert the attention of his companions.
Delisle was profuse in his thanks, little dreaming of the snare
that was laid for him. His treacherous friend gave notice of
the success of the stratagem so far; and it was agreed that
Delisle should be allowed to struggle with and overthrow one
of them while the rest were at some distance. They were then
to pursue him and shoot him through the heart; and after rob-
bing the corpse of the philosopher's stone, convey it to Paris
on a cart, and tell M. Desmarets that the prisoner had at-
tempted to escape, and would have succeeded if they had not
fired after him and shot him through the body. At a con-
venient place the scheme was executed. On a given signal
from the friendly gendarme, Delisle fled, while another gen-
darme took aim and shot him through the thigh. Some peas-
ants arriving at the instant, they were prevented from killing
him as they intended, and he was transported to Paris, maimed
and bleeding. He was thrown into a dungeon in the Bastille,
and obstinately tore away the bandages which the surgeons
applied to his wound. He never afterwards rose from his bed.
The Bishop of Senes visited him in prison, and promised him
his liberty if he would transmute a certain quantity of lead into
gold before the king. The unhappy man had no longer the
means of carrying on the deception; he had no gold, and no
double-bottomed crucible or hollow wand to conceal it in, even
if he had. He would not, however, confess that he was an im-
postor; but merely said he did not know how to make the pow-
der of projection, but had received a quantity from an Italian
THE ALCHYMISTS 227
philosopher, and had used It all In Ms various transmutations
in Provence. He lingered for seven or eight months in the
Bastille, and died from the effects of his wound, in the forty-
first year of his age.
ALBERT ALUYS
THIS pretender to the philosopher's stone was the son, by a
former husband, of the woman Aluys, with whom Delisle
became acquainted at the commencement of his career, in the
cabaret by the road-side, and whom he afterwards married.
Delisle performed the part of a father towards him, and
thought he could shew no stronger proof of his regard, than by
giving him the necessary instructions to carry on the deception
which had raised himself to such a pitch of greatness. The
young Aluys was an apt scholar, and soon mastered all the
jargon of the alchymists. He discoursed learnedly upon pro-
jections, cimentations, sublimations, the elixir of life, and the
universal alkahest; and on the death of Delisle gave out that
the secret of that great adept had been communicated to him,
and to him only. His mother aided in the fraud, with the hope
they might both fasten themselves, in the true alchymical
fashion, upon some rich dupe, who would entertain them mag-
nificently while the operation was in progress. The fate of
Delisle was no inducement for them to stop in France. The
Provengals, it is true, entertained as high an opinion as ever
of Ms skill, and were well inclined to believe the tales of the
young adept on whom his mantle had fallen; but the dungeons
of the Bastille were yawning for their prey, and Aluys and his
mother decamped with all convenient expedition. They trav-
elled about the Continent for several years, sponging upon
credulous rich men, and now and then performing successful
transmutations by the aid of double-bottomed crucibles and
the like. In the year 1726, Aluys, without his mother, who
appears to have died in the interval, was at Vienna, where he
introduced himself to the Duke de Richelieu, at that time am-
bassador from the court of France. He completely deceived
this nobleman ;\e turned lead into gold (apparently) on sev-
228 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
eral occasions, and even made the ambassador himself turn an
iron nail into a silver one. The duke afterwards boasted to
Lenglet du Fresnoy of his achievements as an alchymist, and
regretted that he had not been able to discover the secret of the
precious powder by which he performed them.
Aluys soon found that, although he might make a dupe of
the Duke de Richelieu, he could not get any money from him.
On the contrary, the duke expected all his pokers and fire-
shovels to be made silver, and all his pewter utensils gold; and
thought the honour of his acquaintance was reward sufficient
for a roturier, who could not want wealth since he possessed
so invaluable a secret. Aluys, seeing that so much was ex-
pected of him, bade adieu to his excellency, and proceeded to
Bohemia accompanied by a pupil, and by a young girl who had
fallen in love with him in Vienna. Some noblemen in Bo-
hemia received him kindly, and entertained him at their houses
for months at a time. It was his usual practice to pretend
that he possessed only a few grains of his powder, with which
he would operate in any house where he intended to fix his
quarters for the season. He would make the proprietor the
present of a piece of gold thus transmuted, and promise him
millions, if he could only be provided with leisure to gather
his lunaria major and minor on their mountain-tops, and
board, lodging, and loose cash for himself, his wife, and his pu-
pil, in the interval.
He exhausted in this manner the patience of some dozen of
people, when, thinking that there was less danger for him in
France under the young king Louis XV. than under his old
and morose predecessor, he returned to Provence. On his
arrival at Aix, he presented himself before M. le Bret, the
president of the province, a gentleman who was much attached
to the pursuits of alchymy, and had great hopes of being him-
self able to find the philosopher's stone, M. le Bret, contrary
to his expectations, received Mm very coolly in consequence of
some rumours that were spread abroad respecting him; and
told him to call upon him on the morrow. Aluys did not like
the tone of the voice, or the expression of the eye of the
learned president, as that functionary looked down upon him.
THE ALCHYMISTS 2 29
Suspecting that all was not right, he left Aix secretly the same
evening, and proceeded to Marseilles. But the police were on
the watch for Mm; and he had not been there four-and-twenty
hours, before he was arrested on a charge of coining, and
thrown into prison,
As the proofs against him were too convincing to leave Mm
much hope of an acquittal, he planned an escape from durance.
It so happened that the gaoler had a pretty daughter, and
Aluys soon discovered that she was tender-hearted. He en-
deavoured to gain her in his favour, and succeeded. The
damsel, unaware that he was a married man, conceived and
encouraged a passion for him, and generously provided him
with the means of escape. After he had been nearly a year
in prison he succeeded in getting free, leaving the poor girl
behind to learn that he was already married, and to lament in
solitude that she had given her heart to an ungrateful
vagabond.
When he left Marseilles, he had not a shoe to his foot or a
decent garment to his back, but was provided with some money
and clothes by his wife in a neighbouring town. They then
found their way to Brussels, and by dint of excessive impu-
dence, brought themselves into notice. He took a house,
fitted up a splendid laboratory, and gave out that he knew the
secret of transmutation. In vain did M. Percel, the brother-
in-law of Lenglet du Fresnoy, who resided in that city, expose
his pretensions, and hold him up to contempt as an ignorant
imposter: the world believed Mm not. They took the alchy-
mist at his word, and besieged Ms doors to see and wonder
at the clever legerdemain by which he turned iron nails into
gold and silver. A rich greffier paid him a large sum of money
that he might be instructed in the art, and Aluys gave Mm
several lessons on the most common principals of chemistry.
The greffier studied hard for a twelvemonth, and then discov-
ered that Ms master was a quack. He demanded Ms money
back again; but Aluys was not inclined to give it to Mm, and
the affair was brought before the civil tribunal of the province.
In the mean time, however, the greffier died suddenly;
poisoned, according to the popular rumour, by Ms debtor, to
230 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
avoid repayment So great an outcry arose in the city, that
Aluys, who may have been innocent of the crime, was never-
theless afraid to remain and brave it. He withdrew secretly
in the night, and retired to Paris. Here all trace of him is lost.
He was never heard of again; but Lenglet du Fresnoy con-
jectures that he ended his days in some obscure dungeon, into
which he was cast for coining or other malpractices.
THE COUNT DE ST. GEKMAIN
THIS adventurer was of a higher grade than the last, and
played a distinguished part at the court of Louis XV. He pre-
tended to have discovered the elixir of life, by means of which
he could make any one live for centuries; and allowed it to
be believed that his own age was upwards of two thousand
years. He entertained many of the opinions of the Rosicru-
cians; boasted of his intercourse with sylphs and salamanders;
and of his power of drawing diamonds from the earth, and
pearls from the sea, by the force of his incantations. He did
not lay claim to the merit of having discovered the philoso-
pher's stone; but devoted so much of his time to the operations
of alchymy, that it was very generally believed, that if such
a thing as the philosopher's stone had ever existed, or could
be called into existence, he was the man to succeed in finding it.
It has never yet been discovered what was his real name, or
in what country he was born. Some believed, from the Jewish
cast of his handsome countenance, that he was the " wander-
ing Jew;" others asserted that he was the issue of an Arabian
princess, and that his father was a salamander; while others,
more reasonable, affirmed him to be the son of a Portuguese
Jew established at Bourdeaux. He first carried on his impos-
ture in Germany, where he made considerable sums by selling
an elixir to arrest the progress of old age. The Marechal de
Belle-Isle purchased a dose of it; and was so captivated with
wit, learning, and good manners of the charlatan, and so con-
vinced of the justice of his most preposterous pretensions, that
he induced him to fix his residence in Paris. Under the mar-
shal's patronage, he first appeared in the gay circles of that
THE ALCHYMISTS 231
capital. Every one was delighted with the mysterious
stranger ; who, at this period of his life, appears to have been
about seventy years of age, but did not look more than forty-
five. His easy assurance imposed upon most people. His
reading was extensive, and his memory extraordinary tena-
cious of the slightest circumstances. His pretension to have
lived for so many centuries naturally exposed him to some
puzzling questions, as to the appearance, life, and conversation
of the great men of former days; but he was never at a loss
for an answer. Many who questioned him for the purpose of
scoffing at him, refrained in perplexity, quite bewildered by his
presence of mind, his ready replies, and his astonishing accu-
racy on every point mentioned in history. To increase the
mystery by which he was surrounded, he permitted no person
to know how he lived. He dressed in a style of the greatest
magnificence; sported valuable diamonds in his hat, on his
fingers, and in his shoe-buckles; and sometimes made the most
costly presents to the ladies of the court. It was suspected by
many that he was a spy, in the pay of the English ministry;
but there never was a tittle of evidence to support the charge.
The king looked upon him with marked favour, was often
closeted with him for hours together, and would not suffer any
body to speak disparagingly of him. Voltaire constantly
turned him into ridicule; and, in one of his letters to the King
of Prussia, mentions him an "un comte pour rire;" and states
that he pretended to have dined with the holy fathers at the
Council of Trent 1
In the Memoirs of Madame du Hausset, chamber-woman to
Madame du Pompadour, there are some amusing anecdotes
of this personage. Very soon after his arrival in Paris, he had
the entree of her dressing-room; a favour only granted to the
most powerful lords at the court of her royal lover. Madame
was fond of conversing with Mm; and, in her presence, he
thought fit to lower his pretensions very considerably; but he
often allowed her to believe that he had lived two of three hun-
dred years at least. "One day," says Madame du Mausset,
"madame said to him, in my presence, 'What was the personal
appearance of Francis L? He was a king I should have liked.'
232 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
c He was, indeed, very captivating,' replied St. Germain; and
he proceeded to describe his face and person, as that of a man
whom he had accurately observed. 'It is a pity he was too
ardent, I could have given him some good advice, which would
have saved Mm from all his misfortunes: but he would not
have followed it; for it seems as if a fatality attended princes,
forcing them to shut their ears to the wisest counsel. 3 Was his
court very brilliant?' inquired Madame du Pompadour. 'Very/
replied the count; 'but those of his grandsons surpassed it. In
the time of Mary Stuart and Margaret of Valois, it was a land
of enchantment a temple sacred to pleasures of every kind.'
Madame said, laughing, 'You seem to have seen all this. 7 'I
have an excellent memory/ said he, 'and have read the history
of France with great care. I sometimes amuse myself, not by
making, but by letting, it be believed that I lived in old times.'
" 'But you do not tell us your age/ said Madame du Pom-
padour to him on another occasion; 'and yet you pretend you
are very old. The Countess de Gergy, who was, I believe, am-
bassadress at Vienna some fifty years ago, says she saw you
there, exactly the same as you now appear.'
" f lt is true, madame/ replied St. Germain; <I knew Ma-
dame de Gergy many years ago.'
" 'But, according to her account, you must be more than a
hundred years old?'
" 'That is not impossible/ said he, laughing; 'but it is much
more possible that the good lady is in her dotage.'
" 'You gave her an elixir, surprising for the effects it pro-
duced; for she says, that during a length of time she only ap-
peared to be eighty-four, the age at which she took it. Why
don't you give it to the king?'
" 'Oh, madame/ he exclaimed, 'the physicians would have
me broken on the wheel, were I to think of drugging his
majesty.' "
When the world begins to believe extraordinary things of
an individual, there is no telling where its extravagance will
stop. People, when once they have taken the start, vie with
each other who shall believe most. At this period all Paris
resounded with the wonderful adventures of the Count de St.
THE AXCHYMISTS 233
Germain; and a company of waggish young men tried the fol-
lowing experiment upon its credulity: A clever mimic, who,
on account of the amusement he afforded, was admitted into
good society, was taken by them, dressed as the Count de St.
Germain, into several houses in the Rue du Marais, He imi-
tated the count's peculiarities admirably, and found his audi-
tors open-mouthed to believe any absurdity he chose to utter.
No fiction was too monstrous for their all-devouring credulity.
He spoke of the Saviour of the world in terms of the greatest
familiarity; said he had supped with Mm at the marriage in
Cana of Galilee, where the water was miraculously turned into
wine. In fact, he said he was an intimate friend of his, and
had often warned Mm to be less romantic and imprudent, or
he would finish Ms career miserably. TMs infamous blas-
phemy, strange to say, found believers; and ere three days
had elapsed, it was currently reported that St. Germain was
born soon after the deluge, and that he would never die!
St. Germain himself was too much a man of the world to
assert anything so monstrous; but he took no pains to contra-
dict the story. In all his conversations with persons of rank
and education, he advanced Ms claims modestly, and as if by
mere inadvertency, and seldom pretended to a longevity be-
yond three hundred years, except when he found he was in
company with persons who would believe any thing. He often
spoke of Henry VIII. as if he had known Mm intimately, and
of the Emperor Charles V. as if that monarch had delighted
in his society. He would describe conversations which took
place with such apparent truthfulness, and be so exceedingly
minute and particular as to the dress and appearance of the
individuals, and even the weather at the time and the furni-
ture of the room, that three persons out of four were generally
inclined to credit him. He had constant applications from
rich old women for an elixir to make them young again, and it
would appear gained large sums in this manner. To those
whom he was pleased to call Ms friends he said his mode of liv-
ing and plan of diet were far superior to any elixir, and that
anybody might attain a patriarchal age by refraining from
drinking at meals, and very sparingly at any other time. The
234 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Baron de Gleichen followed this system, and took great quanti-
ties of senna-leaves, expecting to live for two hundred years.
He died, however, at seventy-three. The Duchess de Choiseul
was desirous of following the same system, but the duke her
husband in much wrath forbade her to follow any system pre-
scribed by a man who had so equivocal a reputation of M. de
St. Germain.
Madame du Hausset says she saw St. Germain and con-
versed with him several times. He appeared to her to be about
fifty years of age, was of the middle size, and had fine expres-
sive features. His dress was always simple, but displayed
much taste. He usually wore diamond rings of great value,
and his watch and snuff-box were ornamented with a profusion
of precious stones. One day, at Madame du Pompadour's
apartments, where the principal courtiers were assembled, St.
Germain made his appearance in diamond knee and shoe
buckles of so fine a water, that madame said she did not think
the king had any equal to them. He was entreated to pass into
the antechamber and undo them, which he did, and brought
them to madame for closer inspection. M. de Gontant, who
was present, said their value could not be less than two hundred
thousand livres, or upwards of eight thousand pounds sterling.
The Baron de Gleichen, in his Memoirs, relates that the count
one day shewed him so many diamonds, that he thought he
saw before him all the treasures of Aladdin's lamp; and adds,
that he had had great experience in precious stones, and was
convinced that all those possessed by the count were genuine.
On another occasion St. Germain shewed Madame du Pompa-
dour a small box, containing topazes, emeralds, and diamonds
worth half a million livres. He affected to despise all this
wealth, to make the world more easily believe that he could,
like the Rosicrucians, draw precious stones out of the earth
by the magic of his song. He gave away a great number of
these jewels to the ladies of the court; and Madame du Pom-
padour was so charmed with Ms generosity, that she gave him
a richly enamelled snuff-box as a token of her regard, on the
lid of which was beautifully painted a portrait of Socrates, or
some other Greek sage, to whom she compared him. He was
THE ALCHYMISTS 235
not only lavish to the mistresses, but to the maids. Madame
du Hausset says: "The count came to see Madame du Pompa-
dour, who was very 111, and lay on the sofa. He shewed her
diamonds enough to furnish a king's treasury. Madame sent
for me to see all those beautiful things, I looked at them with
an air of the utmost astonishment; but I made signs to her
that I thought them all false. The count felt for something in
a pocket-book about twice as large as a spectacle-case, and at
length drew out two or three little paper packets, which he un-
folded, and exhibited a superb ruby. He threw on the table,
with a contemptuous air, a little cross of green and white stones.
I looked at it, and said it was not to be despised. I then put
it on, and admired it greatly. The count begged me to accept
it; I refused. He urged me to take it. At length he pressed
so warmly, that madame, seeing it could not be worth more
than a thousand livres, made me a sign to accept it. I took the
cross, much pleased with the count's politeness. 35
How the adventurer obtained his wealth remains a secret.
He could not have made it all by the sale of his elixir mtce in
Germany, though no doubt some portion of it was derived from
that source. Voltaire positively says he was in the pay of for-
eign governments; and in his letter to the King of Prussia,
dated the 5th of April 1758, says that he was initiated in all
the secrets of Choiseul, Kaunitz, and Pitt. Of what use he
could be to any of those ministers, and to Choiseul especially,
is a mystery of mysteries.
There appears no doubt that he possessed the secret of re-
moving spots from diamonds; and in all probability he gained
considerable sums by buying at inferior prices such as had
flaws in them, and jaf terwards disposing of them at a profit of
cent per cent. Madame du Hausset relates the following anec-
dote on this particular: "The king," says she, "ordered a
middling-sized diamond, which had a flaw in it, to be brought
to him. After having it weighed, his majesty said to the count,
'The value of this diamond as it is, and with the flaw in it,
is six thousand livres; without the flaw, it would be worth at
least ten thousand. Will you undertake to make me a gainer
of four thousand livres?' St. Germain examined it very at-
236 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
tentively, and said, 'It is possible; it may be done. I will
bring it you again in a month.' At the time appointed the
count brought back the diamond without a spot, and gave it
to the king. It was wrapped in a cloth of amianthos, which
he took off. The king had it weighed immediately, and found
it very little diminished. His majesty then sent it to his jew-
eller by M. de Gontant, without telling him of any thing that
had passed. The jeweller gave nine thousand six hundred
livres for it. The king, however, sent for the diamond back
again, and said he would keep it as a curiosity. He could not
overcome his surprise, and said M. de St. Germain must be
worth millions, especially if he possessed the secret of making
large diamonds out of small ones. The count neither said
that he could or could not, but positively asserted that he
knew how to make pearls grow, and give them the finest water.
The king paid him great attention, and so did Madame du
Pompadour. M. du Quesnoy once said that St. Germain was
a quack, but the king reprimanded him. In fact, his majesty
appears infatuated by him, and sometimes talks of him as if
his descent were illustrious."
St. Germain had a most amusing vagabond for a servant, to
whom he would often appeal for corroboration, when -relating
some wonderful event that happened centuries before. The
fellow, who was not without ability, generally corroborated
him in a most satisfactory manner. Upon one occasion, his
master was telling a party of ladies and gentlemen, at dinner,
some conversation he had in Palestine with King Richard I. of
England, whom he described as a very particular friend of his.
Signs of astonishment and incredulity were visible on the faces
of the company; upon which St. Germain very cooly turned to
his servant, who stood behind his chair, and asked him if he
had not spoken truth? "I really cannot say/' replied the
man, without moving a muscle; "you forget, sir, I have only
been five hundred years in your service!" "Ah! true," said
his master; "I remember not; it was a little before your
time!"
Occasionally; when with men whom he could not so easily
dupe, he gave utterance to the contempt with which he could
THE ALCHYMISTS 237
scarcely avoid regarding such gaping credulity." These fools
of Parisians, 7 * said he to the Baron de Gleichen, "believe me
to be more than five hundred years old; and, since they will
have it so, I confirm them in their idea. Not but that I really
am much older than I appear."
Many other stories are related of this strange impostor; but
enough have been quoted to shew his character and preten-
sions. It appears that he endeavored to find the philosopher's
stone; but never boasted of possessing it. The Prince of
Hesse Cassel, whom he had known years before, in Germany,
wrote urgent letters to him, entreating him to quit Paris, and
reside with Mm. St. Germain at last consented. Nothing
further is known of his career. There were no gossiping
memoir-writers at the court of Hesse Cassel to chronicle his
sayings and doings. He died at Sleswig, under the roof of his
friend the prince, in the year 1784.
CAGLIOSTRO
This famous charlatan, the friend and successor of St. Ger-
main, ran a career still more extraordinary. He was the arch-
quack of his age, the last of the great pretenders to the philos-
opher's stone and the water of life, and during his brief sea-
son of prosperity, one of the most conspicuous characters of
Europe.
His real name was Joseph Balsamo. He was born at Pa-
lermo, about the year 1743, of humble parentage. He had the
misfortune to lose his father during his infancy, and his educa-
tion was left in consequence to some relatives of his mother,
the latter being too poor to afford him any instruction beyond
mere reading and writing. He was sent in his fifteenth year
to a monastery, to be taught the elements of chemistry and
physic; but his temper was so impetuous, his indolence so in-
vincible, and his vicious habits so deeply rooted, that he made
no progress. After remaining some years, he left with the
character of an uninformed and dissipated young man, with
good natural talents but a bad disposition. When he became
of age, he abandoned himself to a life of riot and debauchery,
238 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
and entered himself , in fact, into that celebrated fraternity,
known in France and Italy as the "Knights of Industry/ 5 and
in England as the "Swell Mob." He was far from being an
idle or unwilling member of the corps. The first way in which
he distinguished himself was by forging orders of admission
to the theatres. He afterwards robbed his uncle, and counter-
feited a will. For acts like these, he paid frequent compulsory
visits to the prisons of Palermo. Somehow or other he ac-
quired the character of a sorcerer of a man who had failed
in discovering the secrets of alchymy, and had sold his soul
to the devil for the gold which he was not able to make by
means of transmutation. He took no pains to disabuse the
popular mind on this particular, but rather encouraged the
belief than otherwise. He at last made use of it to cheat a
silversmith named Marano, of about sixty ounces of gold, and
was in consequence obliged to leave Palermo. He persuaded
this man that he could shew him a treasure hidden in a cave,
for which service he was to receive the sixty ounces of gold,
while the silversmith was to have all the treasure for the mere
trouble of digging it up. They went together at midnight to
an excavation in the vicinity of Palermo, where Balsamo drew
a magic circle, and invoked the devil to shew his treasures.
Suddenly there appeared half a dozen fellows, the accomplices
of the swindler, dressed to represent devils, with horns on their
heads, claws to their lingers, and vomiting apparently red and
blue flame. They were armed with pitchforks, with which they
belaboured poor Marano till he was almost dead, and robbed
him of his sixty ounces of gold and all the valuables he carried
about his person. They then made off, accompanied by Bal-
samo, leaving the unlucky silversmith to recover or die at his
leisure. Nature chose the former course; and soon after day-
light he was restored to his senses, smarting in body from his
blows, and in spirit for the deception of which he had been the
victim. His first impulse was to denounce Balsamo to the
magistrates of the town; but on further reflection he was afraid
of the ridicule that a full exposure of all the circumstances
would draw upon him; he therefore took the truly Italian reso-
lution of being revenged on Balsamo, by murdering him at the
THE ALCHYMISTS 239
first convenient opportunity. Having given utterance to this
threat in the hearing of a friend of Balsamo, it was reported
to the latter, who immediately packed up Ms valuables and
quitted Europe,
He chose Medina, in Arabia, for his future dwelling-place,
and there became acquainted with a Greek named Altotas, a
man exceedingly well versed in all the languages of the East,
and an indefatigable student of alchymy. He possessed an
invaluable collection of Arabian manuscripts on Ms favourite
science, and studied them with such unremitting industry, that
he found he had not sufficient time to attend to his crucibles
and furnaces without neglecting Ms books. He was looking
about for an assistant, when Balsamo opportunely presented
Mmself , and made so favourable an imptession that he was at
once engaged in that capacity. But the relation of master and
servant did not long subsist between them; Balsamo was too
ambitious and too clever to play a secondary part, and witMn
fifteen days of their first acquaintance they were bound to-
gether as friends and partners. Altotas, in the course of a long
life devoted to alchymy, bad stumbled upon some valuable
discoveries in chemistry, one of which was an ingredient for
improving the manufacture of flax, and imparting to goods of
that material a gloss and softness almost equal to silk. Bal-
samo gave him the good advice to leave the philosopher's stone
for the present undiscovered, and make gold out of their flax.
The advice was taken, and they proceeded together to Alex-
andria to trade, with a large stock of that article. They stayed
forty days in Alexandria, and gained a considerable sum by
their venture. They afterwards visited other cities in Egypt,
and were equally successful. They also visited Turkey, where
they sold drugs and amulets. On their return to Europe, they
were driven by stress of weather into Malta, and were hos-
pitably received by Pinto, the Grand Master of the Knights,
and a famous alchymlst. They worked in his laboratory for
some months, and tried hard to change a pewter platter into a
silver one. Balsamo, having less faith than his companions,
was sooner wearied; and obtaining from his host many letters
of introduction to Rome and Naples, lie left Mm and Altotas
240 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
to find the philosopher's stone and transmute the pewter plat-
ter without him.
He had long since dropped the name of Balsamo on account
of the many ugly associations that clung to it; and during his
travels had assumed at least half a score others, with titles
annexed to them. He called himself sometimes the Chevalier
de Fischio, the Marquis de Melissa, the Baron de Belmonte,
de Pelligrini, d'Anna, de Fenix, de Harat, but most commonly
the Count de Cagliostro. Under the latter title he entered
Rome, and never afterwards changed it. In this city he gave
himself out as the restorer of the Rosicrucian philosophy;
said he could transmute all metals into gold; that he could ren-
der himself invisible, cure all diseases, and administer an elixir
against old age and decay. His letters from the Grand Master
Pinto procured him an introduction into the best families. He
made money rapidly by the sale of his elixir vita; and, like
other quacks, performed many remarkable cures by inspiring
his patients with the most complete faith and reliance upon
his powers; an advantage which the most impudent charlatans
often possess over the regular practitioner.
While thus in a fair way of making his fortune he became
acquainted with the beautiful Lorenza Feliciana, a young lady
of noble birth, but without fortune. Cagliostro soon discov-
ered that she possessed accomplishments that were invaluable.
Besides her ravishing beauty, she had the readiest wit, the
most engaging manners, the most fertile imagination, and the
least principle of any of the maidens of Rome. She was just
the wife for Cagliostro, who proposed himself to her, and was
accepted. After their marriage, he instructed the fair Lorenza
in all the secrets of his calling taught her pretty lips to invoke
angels, and genii, sylphs, salamanders, and undines, and, when
need required, devils and evil spirits. Lorenza was an apt
scholar; she soon learned all the jargon of the alchymists and,
all the spells of the enchanters; and thus accomplished, the
hopeful pair set out on their travels, to levy contributions on
the superstitious and the credulous.
They first went to Sleswig on a visit to the Count de St.
Germain, their great predecessor in the art of making dupes,
THE ALCHYMISTS 241
and were received by Mm In the most magnificent manner*
They no doubt fortified their minds for the career they had
chosen by the sage discourse of that worshipful gentleman;
for immediately after they left him, they began their opera-
tions. They travelled for three or four years in Russia, Po-
land, and Germany, transmuting metals, telling fortunes, rais-
ing spirits, and selling the elixir vitcz wherever they went; but
there is no record of their doings from whence to draw a more
particular detail. It was not until they made their appearance
in England in 1776, that the names of the Count and Countess
de Cagliostro began to acquire a European reputation. They
arrived in London in the July of that year, possessed of prop-
erty, in plate, jewels, and specie, to the account of about three
thousand pounds. They hired apartments in Whitcombe
Street, and lived for some months quietly. In the same house
there lodged a Portuguese woman, named Blavary, who, being
in necessitous circumstances, was engaged by the count as
interpreter. She was constantly admitted into his laboratory,
where he spent much of his time in search of the philosopher's
stone. She spread abroad the fame of her entertainer in re-
turn for his hospitality, and laboured hard to impress every
body with as full a belief in his extraordinary powers as she
felt herself; but as a female interpreter of the rank and appear-
ance of Madame Blavary did not exactly correspond with the
count's notions either of dignity or decorum, he hired a person
named VitelHni, a teacher of languages, to act in that capacity.
Vitellini was a desperate gambler, a man who had tried almost
every resource to repair his ruined fortunes, including among
the rest the search for the philosopher's stone. Immediately
that he saw the count's operations, he was convinced that the
great secret was Ms, and that the golden gates of the palace of
fortune were open to let him in. With still more enthusiasm
than Madame Blavary, he held for to his acquaintance, and
in aU public places, that the count was an extraordinary man,
a true adept, whose fortune was immense, and who could trans-
mute into pure and solid gold as much lead, iron, and copper
as he pleased. The consequence was, that the house of Cagli-
ostro was besieged by crowds of the idle, the credulous, and the
242 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
avaricious, all eager to obtain a sight of the "philosopher," or
to share in the boundless wealth which he could call into exist-
ence.
Unfortunately for Cagliostro, he had fallen into evil hands.
Instead of duping the people of England, as he might have
done, he became himself the victim of a gang of swindlers, who,
with the fullest reliance on his occult powers, only sought to
make money of him. Vitellini introduced to him a ruined
gambler like himself, named Scot, whom he represented as a
Scottish nobleman, attracted to London solely by his desire
to see and converse with the extraordinary man whose fame
had spread to the distant mountains of the north. Cagliostro
received him with great kindness and cordiality; and "Lord"
Scot thereupon introduced a woman named Fry as Lady Scot,
who was to act as chaperone to the Countess de Cagliostro,
and make her acquainted with all the noble families of Brit-
ain. Thus things went swimmingly. "His lordship/' whose
effects had not arrived from Scotland, and who had no banker
in London, borrowed two hundred pounds of the count. They
were lent without scruple, so flattered was Cagliostro by the
attentions they paid him, the respect, nay veneration they
pretended to feel for him, and the complete deference with
which they listened to every word that fell from his lips.
Superstitious like all desperate gamesters, Scot had often
tried magical and cabalistic numbers, in the hope of discov-
ering lucky numbers in the lottery or at the roulette-tables.
He had in his possession a cabalistic manuscript, containing
various arithmetical combinations of the kind, which he sub-
mitted to Cagliostro, with an urgent request that he would se-
lect a number. Cagliostro took the manuscript and studied it,
but, as he himself informs us, with no -confidence in its truth.
He, however, predicted twenty as the successful number for
the 6th of November following. Scot ventured a small sum
upon this number out of the two hundred pounds he had bor-
rowed, and won. Cagliostro, incited by this success, prognos-
ticated number twenty-five for- the next drawing. Scot tried
again, and won a hundred guineas. The numbers fifty-five
and fifty-seven were announced with equal success for the 18th
THE ALCHYMISTS 243
of the same month, to the no small astonishment and delight of
Cagliostro, who thereupon resolved to try fortune for himself,
and not for others. To all the entreaties of Scot and his lady
that he would predict more numbers for them, he turned a
deaf ear, even while he still thought him a lord and a man of
honour; but when he discovered that he was a mere swindler,
and the pretended Lady Scot an artful woman of the town, he
closed his door upon them and on all their gang.
Having complete faith in the supernatural powers of the
count, they were in the deepest distress at having lost his coun-
tenance. They tried by every means their ingenuity could sug-
gest to propitiate Mm again. They implored, they threatened,
and endeavoured to bribe him; but all was vain. Cagliostro
would neither see nor correspond with them. In the mean time
they lived extravagantly, and in the hope of future, exhausted
all their present gains. They were reduced to the last extrem-
ity, when Miss Fry obtained access to the countess, and re-
ceived a guinea from her on the representation that she was
starving. Miss Fry, not contented with this, begged her to
intercede with her husband, that for the last time he would
point out a lucky number in the lottery. The countess prom-
ised to exert her influence; and Cagliostro, thus entreated,
named the number eight, at the same time reiterating his de-
termination to have no more to do with any of them. By an
extraordinary hazard, which filled Cagliostro with surprise and
pleasure, number eight was the greatest prize in the lottery.
Miss Fry and her associates cleared fifteen hundred guineas
by the adventure, and became more than ever convinced of the
occult powers of Cagliostro, and strengthened in their deter-
mination never to quit Mm until they had made their fortunes.
Out of the proceeds Miss Fry bought a handsome necklace at
a pawnbroker's for ninety guineas. She then ordered a richly-
chased gold box, having two compartments, to be made at a
jeweller's, and putting the necklace in the one, filled the other
with a fine aromatic snuff. She then sought another interview
with Madame di Cagliostro, and urged her to accept the box as
a small token of her esteem and gratitude, without mentioning
the valuable necklace that was concealed in it. Madame di
244 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Cagliostro accepted the present, and was from that hour ex-
posed to the most incessant persecution from all the confed-
erates Blavary, Vitdlini, and the pretended Lord and Lady
Scot. They flattered themselves they had regained their lost
footing in the house, and came day after day to know lucky
numbers in the lottery, sometimes forcing themselves up the
stairs, and into the count's laboratory, in spite of the efforts
of the servants to prevent them. Cagliostro, exasperated at
their pertinacity, threatened to call in the assistance of the
magistrates, and taking Miss Fry by the shoulders, pushed her
into the street.
From that time may be dated the misfortunes of Cagliostro.
Miss Fry, at the instigation of her paramour, determined on
vengeance. Her first act was to swear a debt of two hundred
pounds against Cagliostro, and to cause him to be arrested for
that sum. While he was in custody in a sponging-house, Scot,
accompanied by a low attorney, broke into his laboratory, and
carried off a small box, containing, as they believed, the powder
of transmutation, and a number of cabalistic manuscripts and
treaties upon alchymy. They also brought an action against
Mm for the recovery of the necklace; and Miss Fry accused
both him and his countess of sorcery and witchcraft, and of
foretelling numbers in the lottery by the aid of the Devil.
This latter was actually heard before Mr. Justice Miller. The
action of trover for the necklace was tried before the Lord
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who recommended the
parties to submit to arbitration. In the mean time Cagliostro
remained in prison for several weeks, till having procured bail,
he was liberated. He was soon after waited upon by an attor-
ney named Reynolds, also deep in the plot who offered to
compromise all the actions upon certain conditions. Scot, wjio
had accompanied him, concealed himself behind the door, and
suddenly rushing out, presented a pistol at the heart of Cagli-
ostro, swearing he would shoot him instantly, if he would not
tell him truly the art of predicting lucky numbers and of trans-
muting metals. Reynolds pretending to be very angry,
disarmed his accomplice, and entreated the count to satisfy
them by fair means, and disclose his secrets, promising that
THE ALCHYMISTS 245
if he would do so, they would discharge all the actions, and
offer him no further molestation. Cagliostro replied, that
threats and entreaties were alike useless; that he knew no
secrets; and that the powder of transmutation of which they
had robbed him, was of no value to any body but himself. He
offered, however, if they would discharge the actions, and re-
turn the powder and the manuscripts, to forgive them all the
money they had swindled him out of. These conditions were
refused; and Scot and Reynolds, departed, swearing vengeance
against him.
Cagliostro appears to have been quite ignorant of the forms
of law in England, and to have been without a friend to advise
him as to the best course he should pursue. While he was
conversing with his countess on the difficulties that beset them,
one of his bail called, and invited him to ride in a hackney
coach to the house of a person who would see him righted.
Cagliostro consented, and was driven to the King's Bench
prison, where his friend left him. He did not discover for
several hours that he was a prisoner, or, in fact, understand
the process of being surrendered by one's bail.
He regained his liberty in a few weeks; and the arbitrators
between him and Miss Fry made their award against him. He
was ordered to pay two hundred pounds she had sworn against
him, and to restore the necklace and gold box which had been
presented to the countess. Cagliostro was so disgusted, that
he determined to quit England. His pretensions, besides, had
been unmercifully exposed by a Frenchman, named Morande,
the editor of the Courrier de I'Europe, published in London.
To add to his distress, he was recognised in Westminster Hall
as Joseph Balsamo, the swindler of Palermo. Such a com-
plication of disgrace was not to be borne. He and his countess
packed up their small effects, and left England with no more
than fifty pounds, out of the three thousand they had brought
with them.
They first proceeded to Brussels, where fortune was more
auspicious* They sold considerable quantities of the elixir of
life, performed many cures, and recruited their finances.
They then took their course through Germany to Russia, and
246 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
always with the same success. Gold flowed into their coffers
faster than they could count it. They quite forgot all the woes
they had endured in England and learned to be more circum-
spect in the choice of their acquaintance.
In the year 1780, they made their appearance in Strasbourg.
Their fame had reached that city before them. They took a
magnificent hotel, and invited all the principal persons of the
place to their table. Their wealth appeared to be boundless,
and their hospitality equal to it. Both the count and countess
acted as physicians, and gave money, advice, and medicine to
all the necessitous and suffering of the town. Many of the
cures they performed astonished those regular practitioners
who did not make sufficient allowance for the wonderful influ-
ence of imagination in certain cases. The countess, who at
this time was not more than five-and-twenty, and all radiant
with grace, beauty, and cheerfulness, spoke openly of her
eldest son as a fine young man of eight-and-twenty, who had
been for some years a captain in the Dutch service. The trick
succeeded to admiration. All the ugly old women in Stras-
bourg, and for miles around, thronged the saloon of the count-
ess to purchase the liquid which was to make them as blooming
as their daughters; the young women came in equal abundance,
that they might preserve their charms, and when twice as old
as Ninon de TEnclos, be more captivating than she; while men
were not wanting who were fools enough to imagine that they
might keep off the inevitable stroke of the grim foe by a few
drops of the same incomparable elixir. The countess, sooth
to say, looked like an incarnation of immortal loveliness, a very
goddess of youth and beauty; and it is possible that the crowds
of young men and old, who at all convenient seasons haunted
the perfumed chambers of this enchantress, were attracted
less by their belief in her occult powers than from admiration
of her languishing bright eyes and sparkling conversation.
But amid all the incense that was offered at her shrine, Ma-
dame di Cagliostro was ever faithful to her spouse. She en-
couraged hopes, it is true, but she never realised them; she
excited admiration, yet kept it within bounds; and made men
THE ALCHYMISTS 247
her slaves, without ever granting a favour of which the vain-
est might boast.
In this city they made the acquaintance of many eminent
persons, and among others, of the Cardinal Prince de Rohan,
who was destined afterwards to exercise so untoward an influ-
ence over their fate. The cardinal, who seems to have had
great faith in him as a philosopher, persuaded him to visit
Paris in his company, which he did, but remained only thir-
teen days. He preferred the society of Strasbourg, and
returned with the intention of fixing his residence far from the
capital. But he soon found that the first excitement of his ar-
rival had passed away. People began to reason with them-
selves, and to be ashamed of their own admiration. The
populace, among whom he had lavished his charity with a
bountiful hand, accused him of being the Antichrist, the Wan-
dering Jew, the man of fourteen hundred years of age, a demon
in human shape, sent to cure the ignorant to their destruction;
while the more opulent and better informed called him a spy in
the pay of foreign governments, an agent of the police, a
swindler, and a man of evil life. The outcry grew at last so
strong, that he deemed it prudent to try his fortune elsewhere.
He went first to Naples, but that city was too near Palermo;
he dreaded recognition from some of his early friends, and, af-
ter a short stay, returned to France. He choose Bourdeaux
as his next dwelling-place, and created as great a sensation
there as he had done in Strasbourg. He announced himself as
the founder of a new school of medicine and philosophy,
boasted of his ability to cure all diseases, and invited the poor
and suffering to visit him, and he would relieve the distress of
the one class, and cure the ailings of the other. All day long
the street opposite his magnificent hotel was crowded by the
populace; the halt and the blind, women with sick babes in
their arms, and persons suffering under every species of human
infirmity, flocked to this wonderful doctor. The relief he af-
forded in money more than counterbalanced the failure of Ms
nostrums; and the affluence of people from all the surrounding
country became so great, that the jurats of the city granted
him a military guard, to be stationed day and night before Ms
248 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
door, to keep order. The anticipations of Cagliostro were re-
alised. The rich were struck with admiration of his charity
and benevolence, and impressed with a full conviction of his
marvellous powers. The sale of the elixir went on admirably.
His saloons were thronged with wealthy dupes who came to
purchase immortality. Beauty, that would endure for cen-
turies, was the attraction for the fair sex; health and strength
for the same period were the baits held out to the other. His
charming countess, in the meantime, brought grist to the mill
by telling fortunes and casting nativities, or granting attendant
sylphs to any ladies who would pay sufficiently for their ser-
vices. What was still better, as tending to keep up the credit
of her husband, she gave the most magnificent parties in Bour-
deaux.
But as at Strasbourg, the popular delusion lasted for a few
months only, and burned itself out; Cagliostro forgot, in the
intoxication of success, that there was a limit to quackery
which once passed inspired distrust. When he pretended to
call spirits from the tomb, people became incredulous. He was
accused of being an enemy to religion, of denying Christ, and
of being the Wandering Jew. He despised these rumours as
long as they were confined to a few; but when they spread over
the town, when he received no more fees, when his parties were
abandoned, and his acquaintances turned away when they met
him in the street, he thought it high time to shift his quarters.
He was by this tipe wearied of the provinces, and turned
his thoughts to the capital. On his arrival he announced him-
self as the restorer of Egyptian Freemasonry, and the founder
of a new philosophy. He immediately made his way into the
best society by means of his friend the Cardinal de Rohan.
His success as a magician was quite extraordinary: the most
considerable persons of the time visited him. He boasted of
being able, like the Rosicrucians, to converse with the elemen-
tary spirits; to invoke the mighty dead from the grave, to
transmute metals, and to discover occult things by means of
the special protection of God towards him. Like Dr. Dee, he
summoned the angels to reveal the future; and they appeared
THE ALCHYMISTS 249
and conversed with him in crystals and under glass bells.*
"There was hardly/ 7 says the Biographie des Contemporains,
a a fine lady in Paris who would not sup with the shade of Lu-
cretius in the apartments of Cagliostro; a military officer who
would not discuss the art of war with C^sar, Hannibal, or
Alexander; or an advocate or counsellor who would not argue
legal points with the ghost of Cicero." These interviews with
the departed were very expensive; for, as Cagliostro said, the
dead would not rise for nothing. The countess, as usual ex-
ercised all her ingenuity to support her husband's credit. She
was a great favourite with her own sex, to many a delighted
and wondering auditory of whom she detailed the marvellous
powers of Cagliostro. She said he could render himself in-
visible, traverse the world with the rapidity of thought, and
be in several places at the same tinae.f
He had not been long at Paris before he became involved
in the celebrated affair of the queen's necklace. His friend
the Cardinal de Rohan, enamoured of the charms of Marie
Antoinette, was in sore distress at her coldness, and the dis-
pleasures she had so often manifested against him. There was
at that time a lady named La Motte in the service of the
queen, of whom the cardinal was foolish enough to make a
confidant. Madame de la Motte, in return, endeavoured to
make a tool of the cardinal, and succeeded but too well in her
projects. In her capacity of chamber-woman, or lady of hon-
our to the queen, she was present at an interview between her
majesty and M. Boehmer, a wealthy jeweller of Paris, when
the latter offered for sale a magnificent diamond necklace,
valued at 1,600,000 francs, or about 64,000 L sterling. The
queen admired it greatly, but dismissed the jeweller, with the
expression of her regret that she was too poor to purchase it.
Madame de la Motte formed a plan to get this costly ornament
into her own possession, and determined to make the Cardinal
de Rohan the instrument by which to effect it. She therefore
sought an interview with him, and pretending to sympathise
in his grief for the queen's displeasure, told him she knew a
* See the Abbe Fiard, and Anecdotes of the Reign of Louts XVI. p. 400.
fBiographie des Contemporains, article "Cagliostro." See also Histoire
de la Magie en France, par M. Jules Garinet, p. 284.
2 SO EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
way by which he might be restored to favour. She then men-
tioned the necklace, and the sorrow of the queen that she could
not afford to buy it. The cardinal, who was as wealthy as he
was foolish, immediately offered to purchase the necklace, and
make a present of it to the queen. Madame de la Motte told
him by no means to do so, as he would thereby offend her
majesty. His plan would be to induce the jeweller to give her
majesty credit, and accept her promissory note for the amount
at a certain date, to be hereafter agreed upon. The cardinal
readily agreed to the proposal, and instructed the jeweller to
draw up an agreement, and he would procure the queen's sig-
nature. He placed this in the hands of Madame de la Motte,
who returned it shortly afterwards, with the words, "Bon, bon
approuve Marie Antoinette," written in the margin. She
told him at the same time that the queen was highly pleased
with his conduct in the matter, and would appoint a meeting
with him in the gardens of Versailles, when she would present
him with a flower, as a token of her regard. The cardinal
shewed the forged document to the jeweller, obtained the neck-
lace, and delivered it into the hands of Madame de la Motte.
So far all was well. Her next object was to satisfy the card-
inal, who awaited impatiently the promised interview with his
royal mistress. There was at that time in Paris a young
woman named D'Oliva, noted for her resemblance to the
queen; and Madame de la Motte, on the promise of a hand-
some reward, found no difficulty in persuading her to personate
Marie Antoinette, and meet the Cardinal de Rohan at the eve-
ning twilight in the gardens of Versailles. The meeting took
place accordingly. The cardinal was deceived by the un-
certain light, the great resemblance of the counterfeit, and his
own hopes; and having received the flower from Madamoiselle
D'Oliva, went home with a lighter heart than had beat in his
bosom for many a day.*
*The enemies of the unfortunate Queen of France, when the progress
of the Revolution embittered their animosity against her, maintained that
she wag really a party in this transaction ; that she, and not Mademoiselle
D'Olivia, met the cardinal and rewarded him with the flower; and that the
story above related was merely concocted between her, La Motte, and
others to cheat the jeweller of his 1,600,000 francs.
THE ALCHYMISTS 251
In the course of time the forgery of the queen's signature
was discovered. Boehmer the jeweller Immediately named the
Cardinal de Rohan and Madame de la Motte as the persons
with whom he had negotiated, and they were both arrested
and thrown into the Bastille. La Motte was subjected to a
rigorous examination, and the disclosures she made implicat-
ing Cagliostro, he was seized, along with Ms wife, and also sent
to the Bastille. A story involving so much scandal necessarily
excited great curiosity. Nothing was to be heard of in Paris
but the queen's necklace, with surmises of the guilt or inno-
cence of the several parties implicated. The husband of Ma-
dame de la Motte escaped to England, and in the opinion of
many took the necklace with him, and there disposed of it to
different jewellers in small quantities at a time. But Madame
de la Motte insisted that she had entrusted it to Cagliostro,
who had seized and taken it to pieces, to "swell the treasures
of his immense unequalled fortune." She spoke of him as "an
empiric, a mean alchymist, a dreamer on the philosopher's
stone, a false prophet, a profaner of the true worship, the self-
dubbed Count Cagliostro!" She further said that he originally
conceived the project of ruining the Cardinal de Rohan; that
he persuaded her, by the exercise of some magic influence over
her mind, to aid and abet the scheme; and that he was a
robber, a swindler, and a sorcerer!
After all the accused parties had remained for upwards of
six months in the Bastille, the trial commenced. The depo-
sitions of the witnesses having been heard, Cagliostro, as the
principal culprit, was first called upon for his defence. He
was listened to with the most breathless attention. He put
himself into a theatrical attitude, and thus began: "I am
oppressed! I am accused! I am calumniated! Have I de-
served this fate? I descend into my conscience, and I there
find the peace that men refuse me! I have travelled a great
deal I am known over all Europe, and a great part of Asia
and Africa. I have every where shewn myself the friend of my
fellow-creatures. My knowledge, my time, my fortune have
ever been employed in the relief of distress. I have studied
and practised medicine; but I have never degraded that most
2 52 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
noble and most consoling of arts by mercenary speculations of
any kind. Though always giving, and never receiving, I have
preserved my independence. I have even carried my delicacy
so far as to refuse the favours of kings. I have given gratuit-
ously my remedies and my advice to the rich; the poor have
received from me both remedies and money. I have never
contracted any debts, and my manners are pure and uncor-
rupted." After much more self-laudation of the same kind,
he went on to complain of the great hardships he had endured
in being separated for so many months from his innocent and
loving wife, who, as he was given to understand, had been de-
tained in the Bastille, and perhaps chained in an unwholesome
dungeon. He denied unequivocally that he had the necklace,
or that he had ever seen it; and to silence the rumours and
accusations against him, which his own secrecy with regard
to the events of his life had perhaps originated, he expressed
himself ready to satisfy the curiosity of the public, and to give
a plain and full account of his career. He then told a ro-
mantic and incredible tale, which imposed upon no one. He
said he neither knew the place of his birth nor the name of his
parents, but that he spent his infancy in Medina, in Arabia,
and was brought up under the name of Acharat. He lived in
the palace of the Great Muphti in that city, and always had
three servants to wait upon him, besides his preceptor, named
Althotas. This Althotas was very fond of him, and told him
that his father and mother, who were Christians and nobles,
died when he was three months old, and left him in the care
of the Muphti. He could never, he said, ascertain their names,
for whenever he asked Althotas the question, he was told that
it would be dangerous for him to know. Some incautious ex-
pressions dropped by his preceptor gave him reason to think
they were from Malta. At the age of twelve he began his
travels, and learned the various languages of the East. He re-
mained three years in Mecca, where the cherif, or governor,
shewed him so much kindness, and spoke to him so tenderly
and affectionately, that he sometimes thought that personage
was his fattier. He quitted this good man with tears in his eyes,
and never saw him afterwards; but he was convinced that he
THE ALCHYMISTS 253
was, even at that moment, Indebted to Ms care for all the ad-
vantages he enjoyed. Whenever he arrived in any city, either
of Europe or Asia ? he found an account opened for him at the
principal bankers, or merchants'. They could draw upon them
to the amount of thousands and hundreds of thousands; and
no questions were ever asked beyond his name. He had only
to mention the word 'Acharat/ and all his wants were supplied,
He firmly believed that the Cherif of Mecca was the friend to
whom all was owing. This was the secret of his wealth, and
he had no occasion to resort to swindling for a livelihood. It
was not worth his while to steal a diamond necklace when he
had wealth enough to purchase as many as he pleased, and
more magnificent ones than had ever been worn by a queen of
France. As to the other charges brought against him by Ma-
dame de la Motte, he had but a short answer to give. She
had called him an empiric. He was not unfamiliar with the
word. If it meant a man who, without being a physician, had
some knowledge of medicine, and took no fees who cured
both rich and poor, and took no money from either, he con-
fessed that he was such a man, that he was an empiric. She
had also called him a mean alchymist. Whether he were an
alchymist or not, the epithet mean could only be applied to
those who begged and cringed, and he had never done either.
As regarded Ms being a dreamer about the pMlosopher's stone,
whatever Ms opinions upon that subject might be, he had been
silent, and had never troubled the public with Ms dreams.
Then, as to his being a false prophet, he had not always been
so; for he had prophesied to the Cardinal de Rohan, that Ma-
dame de la Motte would prove a dangerous woman, and the
result had verified the prediction. He denied that he was a
profaner of the true worship, or that he had ever striven to
bring religion into contempt; on the contrary, he respected ev-
ery man's religion, and never meddled with it. He also denied
that he was a Rosicrucian, or that he had ever pretended to be
three hundred years of age, or to have had one man in Ms
service for a hundred and fifty years. In conclusion, he said
every statement that Madame de la Motte had made regarding
him was false, and that she was mentiris imfudentissime,
254 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
which two words he begged her counsel to translate for her, as
it was not polite to tell her so in French.
Such was the substance of his extraordinary answer to the
charges against him; an answer which convinced those who
were before doubtful that he was one of the most impudent
impostors that had ever run the career of deception. Counsel
was then heard on behalf of the Cardinal de Rohan and Ma-
dame de la Motte. It appearing clearly that the cardinal was
himself the dupe of a vile conspiracy, and there being no evi-
dence against Cagliostro, they were both acquitted. Madame
de la Motte was found guilty, and sentenced to be publicly
whipped, and branded with a hot iron on the back.
Cagliostro and his wife were then discharged from custody.
On applying to the officers of the Bastille for the papers and
effects which had been seized at his lodgings, he found that
many of them had been abstracted. He thereupon brought an
action against them for the recovery of his Mss. and a small
portion of the powder of transmutation. Before the affair
could be decided, he received orders to quit Paris within f our-
and-twenty hours. Fearing that if he were once more enclosed
in the dungeons of the Bastille he should never see daylight
again, he took his departure immediately and proceeded to
England. On his arrival in London he made the acquaintance
of the notorious Lord George Gordon, who espoused his cause
warmly, and inserted a letter in the public papers, animad-
verting upon the conduct of the Queen of France in the affair
of the necklace, and asserting that she was really the guilty
party. For this letter Lord George was exposed to a prose-
cution at the instance of the French ambassador, found guilty
of libel, and sentenced to fine and a long imprisonment.
Cagliostro and the countess afterwards travelled in Italy,
where they were arrested by the Papal government in 1789,
and condemned to death. The charges against him were, that
he was a freemason, a heretic, and a sorcerer. This unjusti-
fiable sentence was afterwards commuted into one of perpetual
imprisonment in the Castle of St. Angelo. His wife was al-
lowed to escape severer punishment by immuring herself in a
nunnery. Cagliostro did not long survive. The loss of liberty
THE ALCHYMISTS 255
preyed upon Ms mitfd accumulated misfortunes had Injured
Ms health and broken his spirit, and he died early in 1790.
His fate may have been no better than he deserved, but it is
impossible not to feel that his sentence for the crimes assigned
was utterly disgraceful to the government that pronounced it.
PRESENT STATE OF ALCHYMY
WE have now finished the list of the persons who have most
distinguished themselves in this unprofitable pursuit. Among
them are men of all ranks, characters, and conditions: the
truth-seeking but erring pMlosopher; the ambitious prince and
the needy noble, who have believed in it; as well as the de-
signing charlatan, who has not believed in it, but has merely
made the pretension to it the means of cheating his fellows,
and living upon their credulity. One or more of all these classes
will be found in the foregoing pages. It will be seen, from
the record of their lives, that the delusion was not altogether
without its uses. Men, in striving to gain too much, do not
always overreach themselves; if they cannot arrive at the in-
accessible mountain-top, they may perhaps get half-way to-
wards it, and pick up some scraps of wisdom and knowledge
on the road. The useful science of chemistry is not a little
indebted to its spurious brother of aJchymy. Many valuable
discoveries have been made in that search for the impossible,
wMch might otherwise have been hidden for centuries yet to
come. (Roger Bacon, in searching for the pMlosopher's stone,
discovered gunpowder, a still more extraordinary substance.
Van Helmont, in the same pursuit, discovered the properties
of gas; Geber made discoveries in chemistry which were
equally important; and Paracelsus, amidst his perpetual vis-
ions of the transmutation of metals, found that mercury was
a remedy for one of the most odious and excruciating of all the
diseases that afflict humanity.
In our day little mention is made in Europe of any new
devotees of the science, though it is affirmed that one or two
of our most illustrious men of science do not admit the pursuit
to be so absurd and vain as it has been commonly considered
256 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
in recent times. The belief in witchcraft, which is scarcely
more absurd, still lingers in the popular mind; but few are so
credulous as to believe that any elixir could make man live
for centuries, or turn all our iron and pewter into gold. Al-
chymy, in Europe, may be said to be almost wholly exploded;
but in the East it still flourishes in as great repute as ever. Re-
cent travellers make constant mention of it, especially in
China, Hindostan, Persia, Tartary, Egypt, and Arabia.
MODERN PROPHECIES
AN epidemic terror of the end of the world has several times
spread over the nations. The most remarkable was that which
seized Christendom about the middle of the tenth century.
Numbers of fanatics appeared in France, Germany, and Italy
at that time, preaching that the thousand years prophesied in
the Apocalypse as the term of the world's duration were about
to expire, and that the Son of Man would appear in the clouds
to judge the godly and the ungodly. The delusion appears to
have been discouraged by the Church, but it nevertheless
spread rapidly among the people.*
The scene of the last judgment was expected to be at Jeru-
salem. In the year 999, the number of pilgrims proceeding
eastward, to await the coming of the Lord in that city, was so
great that they were compared to a desolating army. Most
of them sold their goods and possessions before they quitted
Europe, and lived upon the proceeds in the Holy Land. Build-
ings of every sort were suffered to faU into ruins. It was
thought useless to repair them, when the end of the world was
so near. Many noble edifices were deliberately pulled down.
Even churches, usually so well maintained, shared the general
neglect. Knights, citizens, and serfs, travelled eastwards in
company, taking with them their wives and children, singing
psalms as they went, and looking with fearful eyes upon the
sky, which they expected each minute to open, to let the Son
of God descend in his glory.
During the thousandth year the number of pilgrims in-
creased. Most of them were smitten with terror as with a
plague. Every phenomenon of nature filled them with alarm.
A thunder-storm sent them all upon their knees in mid march.
*See Gibbon and Voltaire for further notice of tips subject
257
258 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
It was the opinion that thunder was the voice of God, announc-
ing the day of judgment. Numbers expected the earth to
open, and give up its dead at the sound. Every meteor in the
sky seen at Jerusalem brought the whole Christian population
into the streets to weep and pray. The pilgrims on the road
were in the same alarm:
"Lorsque, pendant la nuit, un globe de lumiere
S'echappa quelquefois de la voute de cieux,
Et tra^a dans sa chute un long sillon de feux,
La troupe suspendit sa marche solitaire." *
Fanatic preachers kept up the flame of terror. Every shoot-
ing star furnished occasion for a sermon, in which the sublim-
ity of the approaching judgment was the principal topic.
The appearance of comets has been often thought to foretell
the speedy dissolution of this world. Part of this belief still
exists; but the comet is no longer looked upon as the sign, but
the agent of destruction. So lately as in the year 1832 the
greatest alarm spread over the continent of Europe, especially
in Germany, lest the comet, whose appearance was then fore-
told by astronomers, should destroy the earth. The danger
of our globe was gravely discussed. Many persons refrained
from undertaking or concluding any business during that year,
in consequence solely of their apprehension that this terrible
comet would dash us and our world to atoms.
During seasons of great pestilence, men have often believed
the prophecies of crazed fanatics, that the end of the world
was come. Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity.
During the great plague, which ravaged all Europe between
the years of 1345 and 1350, it was generally considered that
the end of the world was at hand. Pretended prophets were to
be found in all the principal cities of Germany, France, and
Italy, predicting that within ten years the trump of the arch-
angel would sound, and the Saviour appear in the clouds to
call the earth to judgment.
No little consternation was created in London in 1736 by
*jChcvrlemagne: Poeme epique, par Luciem Buonaparte.
MODERN PROPHECIES 259
the prophecy of the famous Whiston, that the world would be
destroyed In that year, on the 13th of October. Crowds of
people went out on the appointed day to Islington, Hampstead,
and the fields Intervening, to see the destruction of London,
which was to be the "beginning of the end, 35 A satirical ac-
count of this folly is given in Swift's Miscellanies , vol. iii., en-
titled A true and faithful Narrative oj what passed in London
on a Rumour of the Day oj Judgment. An authentic narrative
of this delusion would be interesting; but this solemn witicism
of Pope and Gay is not to be depended upon.
In the year 1761 the citizens of London were alarmed by two
shocks of an earthquake, and the prophecy of a third, which
was to destroy them altogether. The first shock was felt on
the 8th of February, and threw down several chimneys in the
neighbourhood of Limehouse and Poplar; the second happened
on the 8th of March, and was chiefly felt in the north of Lon-
don, and towards Hampstead and Highgate. It soon became
the subject of general remark, that there was exactly an in-
terval of a month between the shocks; and a crack-brained
fellow, named Bell, a soldier in the Life Guards, was so im-
pressed with the idea that there would be a third in another
month, that he lost Ms senses altogether, and ran about the
streets predicting the destruction of London on the 5th of
April. Most people thought that the first would have been
a more appropriate day; but there were not wanting thousands
who confidently believed the prediction, and took measures to
transport themselves and families from the scene of the im-
pending calamity. As the awful day approached, the excite-
ment became intense, and great numbers of credulous people
resorted to all the villages within a circuit of twenty miles,
awaiting the doom of London. Islington, Highgate, Hamp-
stead, Harrow, and Blackheath, were crowded with panic-
stricken fugitives, who paid exorbitant prices for accommoda-
tion to the housekeepers of these secure retreats. Such as
could not afford to pay for lodgings at any of those places,
remained in London until two or three days before the time,
and then encamped in the surrounding fields, awaiting the tre-
mendous shock which was to lay their high city all level with
260 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the dust. As happened during a similar panic in the time of
Henry VIII., the fear became contagious, and hundreds who
had laughed at the prediction a week before, packed up their
goods, when they saw others doing so, and hastened away.
The river was thought to be a place of great security, and all
the merchant-vessels in the port were filled with people, who
passed the night between the 4th and 5th on board, expecting
every instant to see St. Paul's totter, and the towers of West-
minster Abbey rock in the wind and fall amid a cloud of dust.
The greater part of the fugitives returned on the following
day, convinced that the prophet was a false one; but many
judged it more prudent to allow a week to elapse before they
trusted their dear limbs in London. Bell lost all credit in a
short time, and was looked upon even by the most credulous as
a mere madman. He tried some other prophecies, but nobody
was deceived by them; and, in a few months afterwards, he
was confined in a lunatic asylum.
A panic terror of the end of the world seized the good people
of Leeds and its neighbourhood in the year 1806. It arose from
the following circumstances. A hen, in a village close by, laid
eggs, on which were inscribed the words, "Christ is coming!'
Great numbers visited the spot, and examined these wondrous
eggs, convinced that the day of judgment was near at hand.
Like sailors in a storm, expecting every instant to go to the
bottom, the believers suddenly became religious, prayed vio-
lently, and flattered themselves that they repented them of
their evil courses. But a plain tale soon put them down, and
quenched their religion entirely. Some gentlemen, hearing of
the matter, went one fine morning, and caught the poor hen
in the act of laying one of her miraculous eggs. They soon
ascertained beyond doubt that the egg had been inscribed
with some corrosive ink, and cruelly forced up again into the
bird's body. At this explanation, tjiose who had prayed, now
laughed, and the world wagged as merrily as of yore.
At the time of the plague & Milan, in 1630, of which so
affecting a description has been left us by Ripamo^e, in his
interesting work, De Pwte Uediolani, the people, in this dis-
tress, listened with avidity to the predictions of astrologers and
MODERN PROPHECIES 261
other impostors. It Is singular enough that the plague was
foretold a year before It broke out. A large comet appearing
in 1628, the opinions of astrologers were divided with regard
to it. Some insisted that it was a forerunner of a bloody war;
others maintained that it predicted a great famine; but the
greater number, founding their judgment upon its pale colour,
thought it portended a pestilence. The fulfilment of their pre-
diction brought them into great repute while the plague was
raging.
Other prophecies were current, which were asserted to have
been delivered hundreds of years previously. They had a most
pernicious effect upon the mind of the vulgar, as they induced
a belief in fatalism. By taking away the hope of recovery
that greatest balm in every malady they increased threefold
the ravages of the disease. One singular prediction almost
drove the unhappy people mad. An ancient couplet, preserved
for ages by tradition, foretold, that in the year 1630 the devil
would poison all Milan. Early one morning in April, and
before the pestilence had reached its height, the passengers
were surprised to see that all the doors in the principal streets
of the city were marked with a curious daub, or spot, as if a
sponge, filled with the purulent matter of the plague-sores, had
been pressed against them. The whole population were speed-
ily in movement to remark the strange appearance, and the
greatest alarm spread rapidly. Every means was taken to dis-
cover the perpetrators, but in vain. At last the ancient
prophecy was remembered, and prayers were offered up in all
the churches, that the machinations of the Evil One might
Hk defeated. Many persons were of opinion that the emis-
saries of foreign powers were employed to spread infectious
poison over the city; but by far the greater number were con-
vinced that the powers of hell had conspired against them,
and that the infection was spread by supernatural agencies.
In the mean time the plague increased fearfully. Distrust and
alarm took possession of every mind. Every thing was be-
lieved to have been poisoned by the Devil; the waters of tfte
wells, the standing corn in the fields, and the fruit upon the
trees. It was believed that all objects of touch were poisoned;
262 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the walls of the houses, the pavements of the streets, and the
very handles of the doors. The populace were raised to a
pitch of ungovernable fury. A strict watch was kept for the
Devil's emissaries, and any man who wanted to be rid of an
enemy, had only to say that he had seen him besmearing a
door with ointment; his fate was certain death at the hands of
the mob. An old man, upwards of eighty years of age, a daily
frequenter of the church of St. Antonio, was seen, on rising
from his knees, to wipe with the skirt of his cloak the stool on
which he was about to sit down. A cry was raised immediately
that he was besmearing the seat with poison. A mob of
women, by whom the church was crowded, seized hold of the
feeble old man, and dragged him out by the hair of his head,
with horrid oaths and imprecations. He was trailed in this
manner through the mire to the house of the municipal judge,
that he might be put to the rack, and forced to discover his
accomplices; but he expired on the way. Many other vic-
tims were sacrificed to the popular fury. One Mora, who ap-
pears to have been half a chemist and half a barber, was
accused of being in league with the Devil to poison Milan.
His house was surrounded, and a number of chemical prepara-
tions were found. The poor man asserted, that they were in-
tended as preservatives against infection; but some physicians,
to whom they were submitted, declared they were poison.
Mora was put to the rack, where he for a long time asserted
his innocence. He confessed at last, when his courage was
worn down by torture, that he was in league with the Devil and
foreign powers to poison the whole city; that he had anointed
the doors, and infected the fountains of water. He named
several persons as his accomplices, who were apprehended and
put to a similar torture. They were all found guilty, and ex-
ecuted. Mora's house was rased to the ground, and a column
erected on the spot, with an inscription to commemorate his
guilt.
While the public mind was filled with these marvellous oc-
currences, the plague continued to increase. The crowds that
were brought together to witness the executions spread the
infection among one another. But the fury of their passions,
MODERN PROPHECIES 263
and the extent of their credulity, kept pace with the violence
of the plague; every wonderful and preposterous story was
believed. One, in particular occupied them to the exclusion,
for a long time, of every other. The Devil himself had been
seen. He had taken a house in Milan, in which he prepared
his poisonous unguents, and furnished them to his emissaries
for distribution. One man had brooded over such tales till
he became firmly convinced that the wild flights of his own
fancy were realities. He stationed himself in the market-place
of Milan, and related the following story to the crowds that
gathered round him. He was standing, he said, at the door
of the cathedral, late in the evening; and when there was
nobody nigh, he saw a dark-coloured chariot, drawn by six-
milk-white horses, stop close beside him. The chariot was
followed by a numerous train of domestics in dark liveries,
mounted on dark-coloured steeds. In the chariot there sat a
tall stranger of a majestic aspect; his long black hair floated
in the wind fire flashed from his large black eyes, and a curl
of ineffable scorn dwelt upon his Kps. The look of the stranger
was so sublime that he was awed, and trembled with fear when
he gazed upon Mm. His complexion was much darker than
that of any man he had ever seen, and the atmosphere around
him was hot and suffocating. He perceived immediately that
he was a being of another world. The stranger, seeing his
trepidation, asked him blandly, yet majestically, to mount
beside him. He had no power to refuse, and before he was
well aware that he had moved, he found himself in the chariot.
Onwards they went, with the rapidity of the wind, the stranger
speaking no word, until they stopped before a door in the
high-street of Milan. There was a crowd of people in the
street, but, to his great surprise, no one seemed to notice the
extraordinary equipage and its numerous train. From this he
concluded that they were invisible. The house at which they
stopped appeared to be a shop, but the interior was like a vast
half -ruined palace. He went with his mysterious guide through
several large and dimly-lighted rooms. In one of them, sur-
rounded by huge pillars of marble, a senate of ghosts was as-
sembled, debating on the progress of the plague. Other parts
264 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of the building were enveloped In the thickest darkness, il-
lumined at intervals by flashes of lightning, which allowed him
to distinguish a number of gibing and chattering skeletons,
running about and pursuing each other, or playing at leap-frog
over one another's backs. At the rear of the mansion was a
wild, uncultivated plot of ground, in the midst of which arose
a black rock. Down its sides rushed with fearful noise a tor-
rent of poisonous water, which, insinuating itself through the
soil, penetrated to all the springs of the city, and rendered
them unfit for use. After he had been shewn all this, the
stranger led him into another large chamber, filled with gold
and precious stones, all of which he offered him if he would
kneel down and worship him, and consent to smear the doors
and houses of Milan* with a pestiferous salve, which he held
out to him. He now knew him to be the Devil, and in that
moment of temptation prayed to God to give him strength to
resist. His prayer was heard he refused the bribe. The
stranger scowled horribly upon him & loud clap of thunder
burst over his head the vivid lightning flashed in his eyes,
and the next moment he found himself standing alone at the
porch of the cathedral. He repeated this strange tale day after
day, without any variation, and all the populace were firm
believers in its truth. Repeated search was made to discover
the mysterious house, but all in vain. The man pointed out
several as resembling it, which were searched by the police;
but the Demon of the Pestilence was not to be found, nor the
hall of ghosts, nor the poisonous fountain. But the minds of
the people were so impressed with the idea, that scores of wit-
nesses, half crazed by disease, came forward to swear that they
also had seen the diabolical stranger, and had heard his char-
iot, drawn by the milk-white steeds, rumbling over the streets
at midnight with a sound louder than thunder.
The number of persons who confessed that they were em-
ployed by the Devil to distribute poison is almost incredible.
An epidemic frenzy was abroad, which seemed to be as con-
tagious as the plague. Imagination was as disordered as the
body, and day after day persons came voluntarily forward
to accuse themselves. They generally had the marks of dis-
MODERN PROPHECIES 265
ease upon them, and some died in the act of confession.
During the great plague of London, in 1665 ? the people
listened with similar avidity to the predictions of quacks and
fanatics. Defoe says, that at that time the people were more
addicted to prophecies and astronomical conjurations, dreams,
and old wives 5 tales than ever they were before or since. Alma-
nacs, and their predictions, frightened them terribly. Even
the year before the plague broke out, they were greatly alarmed
by the comet which then appeared, and anticipated that fam-
ine, pestilence, or fire would follow. Enthusiasts, while yet
the disease had made but little progress, ran about the streets,
predicting that in a few days London would be destroyed.
A still more singular instance of the faith in predictions oc-
curred in London in the year 1524. The city swarmed at that
time with fortune-tellers and astrologers, who were consulted
daily by people of every class in society on the streets of fu-
turity. As early as the month of June 1523, several of them
concurred in predicting that, on the 1st day of February 1524,
the waters of the Thames would swell to such a height as to
overflow the whole city of London, and wash away ten thou-
sand houses. The prophecy met implicit belief. It was reit-
erated with the utmost confidence month after month, until so
much alarm was excited that many families packed up
their goods, and removed into Kent and Essex. As the time
drew nigh, the number of these emigrants increased. In Jan-
uary, droves of workmen might be seen, followed by their
wives and children, trudging on foot to the villages within fif-
teen or twenty miles, to await the catastrophe. People of a
higher class were also to be seen in wagons and other vehicles
bound on a similar errand. By the middle of January, at least
twenty thousand persons had quitted the doomed city, leaving
nothing but the bare walls of their homes to be swept away
by the impending floods. Many of the richer sort took up
their abode on the heights of Highgate, Hampstead, and Black-
heath; and some erected tents as far away as Walthana Abbey
on the north, and Croydon on the south of the Thames. Bol-
ton, the prior of St. Bartholomew's was so alarmed, that he
erected, at a very great expense, a sort of fortress at Harrow-
266 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
on-the-Hill, which he stocked with provisions for two months.
On the 24th of January, a week before the awful day which
was to see the destruction of London, he removed thither, with
the brethren and officers of the priory and all his household. A
number of boats were conveyed in wagons to his fortress, fur-
nished abundantly with expert rowers, in case the flood, reach-
ing so high as Harrow, should force them to go farther for a
resting place. Many wealthy citizens prayed to share his
retreat; but the prior, with a prudent forethought, admitted
only his personal friends, and those who brought stores of eat-
ables for the blockade.
At last the morn, big with the fate of London, appeared in
the east. The wondering crowds were astir at an early hour
to watch the rising of the waters. The inundation, it was pre-
dicted, would be gradual, not sudden; so that they expected to
have plenty of time to escape as soon as they saw the bosom
of old Thames heave beyond the usual mark. But the ma-
jority were too much alarmed to trust to this, and thought
themselves safer ten or twenty miles off. The Thames, un-
mindful of the foolish crowds upon its banks, flowed on quietly
as of yore. The tide ebbed at its usual hour, flowed to its
usual height, and then ebbed again, just as if twenty astrolo-
gers had not pledged their words to the contrary. Blank were
their faces as evening approached, and as blank grew the faces
of the citizens to think that they had made such fools of them-
selves. At last night set in, and the obstinate river would not
lift its waters to sweep away even one house out of ten thou-
sand. Still, however, the people were afraid to go to sleep.
Many hundreds remained up till dawn of the next day, lest the
deluge should come upon them like a thief in the night.
On the morrow, it was seriously discussed whether it would
not be advisable to duck the false prophets in the river. Luck-
ily for them, they thought of an expedient which allayed the
popular fury. They asserted that, by an error (a very slight
one,) of a little figure, they had fixed the date of this awful
inundation a whole century too early. The stars were right
after all, and they, erring mortals, were wrong. The present
generation of cockneys was safe, and London would be washed
MODERN PROPHECIES 267
away, not In 1524, but In 1624. At this announcement, Bolton
the prior dismantled his fortress ? and the weary emigrants
came back.
An eye-witness of the great fire of London, in an account
preserved among the Harleian Mss. in the British Museum,
and published in the transactions of the Royal Society of An-
tiquaries, relates another instance of the credulity of the Lon-
doners. The writer, who accompanied the Duke of York day
by day through the district included between the Fleet-bridge
and the Thames, states that, in their efforts to check the
progress of the flames, they were much impeded by the super-
stition of the people. Mother Shipton, in one of her prophe-
cies, had said that London would be reduced to ashes, and they
refused to make any efforts to prevent it.* A son of the noted
Sir Kenelm Digby, who was also a pretender to the gifts of
prophecy, persuaded them that no power on earth could pre-
vent the fulfilment of the prediction; for it was written in the
great book of fate that London was to be destroyed. Hun-
dreds of persons, who might have rendered valuable assistance,
and saved whole parishes from devastation, folded their arms
and looked on. As many more gave themselves up, with less
compunction, to plunder a city which they could not save.f
* This prophecy seems to have been that set forth at length in the popular
Life of Mother Ship ton:
"When fate to England shall restore
A king to reign as heretofore,
Great death in London shall be though,
And many houses be kid low."
f The London Saturday Journal of March 12th, 1842, contains the fol-
lowing : "An absurd report is gaining ground among the weak-minded, that
London will be destroyed by an earthquake on the 17th of March, or St.
Patrick's day. This rumour is founded on the following ancient prophecies :
one professing to be pronounced in the year 1203; the other, by Dr. Dee
the astrologer, in 1598 :
<f ln eighteen hundred and forty-two
Four things the sun shall view :
London's rich and famous town
Hungry earth shall swallow down.
Storm and rain in France shall be,
Till every river runs a sea.
Spain shall be rent in twain,
And famine waste the land again.
268 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
The prophecies of Mother Shipton are still believed in many
of the rural districts of England. In cottages and servants'
halls her reputation is great; and she rules, the most popular
of British prophets, among all the uneducated, or half-edu-
cated, portions of the community. She is generally supposed
to have been born at Knaresborough, in the reign of Henry
VII., and to have sold her soul to the Devil for the power of
foretelling future events. Though during her lifetime she was
looked upon as a witch, she yet escaped the witch's fate, and
died peaceably in her bed at an extreme old age, near Clifton
in Yorkshire. A stone is said to have been erected to her
memory in the churchyard of that place, with the following
epitaph:
"Here lies she who never lied,
Whose skill often has been tried:
Her prophecies shall still survive,
And ever keep her name alive."
"Never a day passed," says her traditionary biography,
"wherein she did not relate something remarkable, and that
So say I, the Monk of Dree,
In the twelve hundredth year and three."
Harlemn Collection (British Museum), 800 b, fol. 319.
"The Lord have mercy on you all
Prepare yourselves for dreadful fall
Of house and land and human soul
The measure of your sins is full.
In the year one, eight and forty-two,
Of the year that is so new;
In the third month of that sixteen,
It may be a day or two between
Perhaps youll soon be stiff and cold.
Dear Christian, be not stout and bold
The mighty, kingly-proud will see
This comes to pass as my name's Dee."
1598. Ms, in the British Museum.
The alarm of the population of London did not on this occasion extend be-
yond the wide circle of the uneducated classes, but among them it equalled
that recorded in the text. It was soon afterwards stated that BO such
prophecy is to be found in the Harleian Ms,
MODERN PROPHECIES 269
required the most serious consideration. People flocked to her
from fax and near, her fame was so great. They went to her
of all sorts, both old and young, rich and poor, especially
young maidens, to be resolved of their doubts relating to things
to come; and all returned wonderfully satisfied in the explana-
tions she gave to their questions." Among the rest, went the
Abbot of Beverly, to whom she foretold the suppression of the
monasteries by Henry VIII., Ms marriage with Anne Boleyn,
the fires for heretics in Smithfield, and the execution of Mary
Queen of Scots. She also foretold the accession of James I.,
adding that, with him,
"From the cold North
Every evil shall come forth."
On a subsequent visit she uttered another prophecy, which, in
the opinion of her believers, still remains unfulfilled, but may
be expected to be realised during the present century;
"The time shall come when seas of blood
Shall mingle with a greater flood.
Great noise there shall be heard great shouts and cries,
And seas shall thunder louder than the skies;
Then shall three lions fight with three and bring
Joy to a people, honour to a king.
That fiery year as soon as o'er,
Peace shall then be as before;
Plenty shall every where be found,
And men with swords shall plough the ground,"
But the most famous of all her prophecies is one relating to
London. Thousands of persons still shudder to think of the
woes that are to burst over this unhappy realm, when London
and Highgate are joined by one continuous line of houses.
This junction, which, If the rage for building lasts much longer,
in the same proportion as heretofore, bids fair to be soon ac-
complished, was predicted by her shortly before her death.
Revolutions the fall of mighty monarchs, and the shedding
of much blood are to signalise that event. The very angels,
afflicted by our woes, are to turn aside their heads, and weep
for hapless Britain.
270 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
But great as is tiie fame of Mother Shipton, she ranks but
second in the list of British prophets. Merlin, the mighty
Merlin, stands alone in his high pre-eminence the first and
greatest. As old Drayton sings, in his Poly-olbion:
"Of Merlin and his skill what region doth not hear?
The world shall still be full of Merlin every year.
A thousand lingering years his prophecies have run,
And scarcely shall have end till time itself be done."
Spenser, in his divine poem, has given us a powerful descrip-
tion of this renowned seer
"who had in magic more insight
Than ever Mm before, or after, living wight.
For he by words could call out of the sky
Both sun and moon, and make them him obey;
The land to sea, and sea to mainland dry,
And darksome night he eke could turn to day
Huge hosts of men he could, alone, dismay.
And hosts of men and meanest things could frame,
Whenso him list his enemies to fray,
That to this day, for terror of his name,
The fiends do quake, when any him to them does name.
And soothe men say that he was not the sonne
Of mortal sire or other living wighte,
But wondrously begotten and begoune
By false illusion of a guileful sprite
On a faire ladye nun."
In these verses the poet has preserved the popular belief with
regard to Merlin, who is generally supposed to have been a
contemporary of Vortigern. Opinion is divided as to whether
he were a real personage, or a mere impersonation, formed by
the poetic fancy of a credulous people. It seems most prob-
able that such a man did exist, and that, possessing knowledge
as much above the comprehension of his age, as that possessed
by Friar Bacon was beyond the reach of his, he was endowed
by the wondering crowd with the supernatural attributes that
Spenser has enumerated.
MODERN PROPHECIES 2 7 1
Geoffrey of Monmouth translated Merlin's poetical odes, or
prophecleSj into Latin prose; and he was much reverenced not
only by Geoffrey, but by most of the old annalists. In a Life
of Merlin, with Ms Prophecies and Predictions interpreted and
made good by our English Annol, by Thomas Heywood, pub-
lished in the reign of Charles L, we find several of these pre-
tended prophecies. They seem, however, to have been all
written by Heywood himself. They are in terms too plain and
positive to allow any one to doubt for a moment of their having
been composed ex post facto. Speaking of Richard L, he says:
"The Lion's heart will 'gainst the Saracen rise,
And purchase from Mm many a glorious prize;
The rose and lily shall at first unite,
But, parting of the prey prove opposite. * * *
But while abroad these great acts shall be done,
All things at home shall to disorder run.
Cooped up and caged then shall the Lion be,
But, after sufferance, ransomed and set free."
The simple-minded Thomas Heywood gravely goes on to in-
form us, that all these things actually came to pass. Upon
Richard III. he is equally luminous. He says :
"A hunch-backed monster, who with teeth is born,
The mockery of art and nature's scorn;
Who from the womb preposterously is hurled,
And with feet forward thrust into the world,
Shall, from the lower earth on which he stood,
Wade, every step he mounts, knee-deep in blood.
He shall to th' height of all Ms hopes aspire,
And, clothed in state, his ugly shape admire;
But, when he thinks himself most safe to stand,
From foreign parts a, native whelp shall land."
Another of these prophecies after the event tells us that
Henry VIII. should take the power from Rome, "and bring it
home unto his British bower;" that he should "root out from
the land all the razored skulls;" and that he should neither
spare "man in his rage nor woman in Ms lust; n and that, in
272 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the time of Ms next successor but one, "there should come in
the fagot and the stake." Master Heywood closes Merlin's
prophecies at his own day, and does not give even a glimpse
of what was to befall England after his decease. Many other
prophecies, besides those quoted by him, were, he says, dis-
persed abroad, in his day, under the name of Merlin; but he
gives his readers a taste of one only, and that is the following:
"When hempe is ripe and ready to pull,
Then, Englishman, beware thy skull."
This prophecy, which, one would think, ought to have put him
in mind of the gallows, at that time the not unusual fate of
false prophets, he explains thus : "In this word HBMPE be five
letters. Now, by reckoning the five successive princes from
Henry VIII., this prophecy is easily explained: H signifieth
King Henry before-named; E, Edward, his son, the sixth of
that name; M. Mary, who succeeded him; P, Philip of Spain,
who, by marrying Queen Mary, participated with her in the
English diadem; and lastly, E signifieth Queen Elizabeth, after
whose death there was a great feare that some troubles might
have arisen about the crown." As this did not happen, Hey-
wood, who was a sly rogue in a small way, gets out of the
scrape by saying, "Yet proved this augury true, though not ac-
cording to the former expectation; for, after the peaceful
inauguration of King James, there was great mortality, not
in London only, but through the whole kingdom, and from
which the nation was not quite clean in seven years after."
This is not unlike the subterfuge of Peter of Pontefract,
who had prophesied the death and deposition of King John,
and who was hanged by that monarch for his pains. A very
graphic and amusing account of this pretended prophet is
given by Graton, in his Chronicles oj England* "In the mean-
while," says he, "the priestes within England had provided
them a false and counterfeated prophet, called Peter Wake-
fielde, a Yorkshire man, who was an hermite, an idle gadder
about, and a pratlyng marchant. Now, to bring this Peter in
* Chronicles oj Enffland, bjxRichard Graf ton; Loadcm, 1IJ68, p, IQfk
MODERN PROPHECIES 273
credite, and the kyng out of all credite with Ms people, diverse
vaine persons bruted dayly among the commons of the realme,
that Christe had twice appered unto him in the shape of a
childe, between the prieste's handes, once at Yorke, another
tyme at Pomfret; and that he had breathed upon him thrice,
saying, 'Peace, peace, peace? and teachyng many things, which
he anon declared to the bishops, and bid the people amend their
naughtie living. Being rapt also in spirite, they sayde he be-
helde the joyes of heaven and sorrowes of hell; for scant were
there three in the realme, sayde he, that lived christianly.
"This counterfeated soothsayer prophesied of King John,
that he should reigne no longer than the Ascension-day next
following, which was in the yere of our Lord 1211, and was
the thirteenth yere from his coronation; and this, he said, he
had by revelation. Then it was of him demanded, whether
he should be slaine or be deposed, or should voluntarily give
over the crowne? He aunswered, that he could not tdl; but
of this he was sure (he sayd), that neither he nor any of his
stock or lineage should reigne after that day.
"The king, hering of this, laughed much at it, and made but
a scoff thereat. 'Tush! ' saith he, c it is but an ideot knave, and
such an one as lacketh his right wittes. 5 But when this foolish
prophet had so escaped the daunger of the kinge's displeasure,
and that he made no more of it, he gate him abroad, and prated
thereof at large, as he was a very idle vagabond, and used to
trattie and talke more than ynough; so that they which loved
the king caused him anon after to be apprehended as a male-
factor, and to be throwen in prison, the king not yet knowing
thereof.
"Anone after the fame of this phantasticall prophet went all
the reahne over, and his name was knowen every where, as
foolishnesse, is much regarded of the people, where wisdome is
not in place; specially because he was then imprisoned for
the matter, the rumour was the larger, their wonderynges were
the wantoneiy their practises the foolisher, their busye talkes
and other idle doinges the greater. Continually from thence,
as the rude mazier of people is, old gossyps tales went abroad,
new tales were invented, fables wpre added to fables, and lyes
274 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
grew upon lyes. So that every daye newe slanders were laide
upon the king, and not one of them true. Rumors arose, bias-
phemyes were sprede, the enemyes rejoyced, and treasons by
the priestes were mainteyned; and what lykewise was surmised,
or other subtiltye practised, all was then fathered upon this
foolish prophet, as 'thus saith Peter Wakefield;' 'thus hath he
prophesied;' 'and thus it shall come to pass;' yea, many times,
when he thought nothing lesse. And when the Ascension-day
was come, which was prophecyed of before, King John com-
manded his royal tent to be spread In the open fielde, passing
that day with his noble counseyle and men of honour in the
greatest solemnitie that ever he did before; solacing himself
with musickale instrumentes and songs, most in sight among
Ms trustie friendes. When that day was paste in all prosperitie
and myrth, his enemys being confused, turned all into an alle-
gorical understanding to make the prophecie good, and sayde,
'He is no longer king, for the pope reigneth, and not he.' [King
John was labouring under a sentence of excommunication at
the time.]
"Then was the king by his council perswaded that this false
prophet had troubled the realme, perverted the heartes of the
people, and raysed the Commons against him; for his wordes
went over the sea, by the help of his prelates, and came to the
French king's eare, and gave to him a great encouragement
to invade the lande. He had not else done it so sodeinely.
But he was most fowly deceived, as all they are and shall be
that put their truth in such dark drowsye dreames of hipocrites*.
The king therefore commended that he should be hanged up,
and his sonne also with him, lest any more false prophets
should arise of that race."
Heywood, who was a great stickler for the truth of all sorts
of prophecies, gives a much more favourable account of this
Peter of Pomfret, or Pontefract, whose fate he would, in all
probability, have shared, if he had had the misfortune to have
flourished in the same age. He says, that Peter, who was not
only a prophet, but a bard, predicted divers of King John's
disasters, which fell out accordingly. On being taxed for a
lying prophet in having predicted that the king would be de-
MODERN PROPHECIES 2/5
posed before he entered Into the fifteenth year of his reign, he
answered Mm boldly, that all he had said was justifiable and
true; for that, having given up the crown to the pope, and pay-
ing him an annual tribute, the pope reigned, and not he, Hey-
wood thought this explanation to be perfectly-latisfactory, and
the prophet's faith for ever established.
But to return to Merlin. Of him even to this day it may be
said, in the words which Burns has applied to another notori-
ous personage:
"Great was his power and great his fame;
Far kenned and noted is Ms name."
His reputation is by no means confined to the land of his
birth, but extends through most of the nations of Europe. A
very curious volume of Ms Life, Prophecies, and Miracles,
written, it is supposed, by Robert de Bosron, was printed at
Paris in 1498, which states, that the devil himself was his
father, and that he spoke the instant he was born, and assured
his mother, a very virtuous young woman, that she should not
die in childbed with him, as her ill-natured neighbors had pre-
dicted. The judge of the district, hearing of so marvellous an
occurrence, summoned both mother and child to appear before
him; and they went accordingly the same day. To put the
wisdom of the young prophet most effectively to the test,
the judge asked Mm if he knew Ms own father? To wMch the
infant Merlin replied, in a clear sonorous voice, 'Yes, my
father is the Devil; and I have Ms power, and know all things,
past, present, and to come." His worship clapped Ms hands
in astonishment, and took the prudent resolution of not molest-
ing so awful a child or its mother either.
Early tradition attributes the building of Stonehenge to the
power of Merlin. It was believed that those mighty stones
~ W ere w hirled through the air, at his command, from Ireland
to Salisbury Plain, and that he arranged them in the form in
wMch they now stand, to commemorate for ever the unhappy
fate of three hundred British chiefs, who were massacred on
that spot by the Saxons.
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
At Abergwylly, near Carmarthen, is still shewn the cave of
the prophet and the scene of Ms incantations. How beautiful
is the description of it given by Spenser in his Faerie Queene!
The lines need no apology for their repetition here, and any
sketch of the great prophet of Britain would be incomplete
without them:
"There the wise Merlin, whilom wont (they say ? )
To make his wonne low underneath the ground,
In a deep delve far from the view of day,
That of no living wight he mote be found,
Whenso he counselled with his sprites encompassed round.
And if thou ever happen that same way
To travel, go to see that dreadM place;
It is a hideous, hollow cave, they say,
Under a rock that lies a little space
From the swift Barry, tumbling down apace
Amongst the woody Mils of Dynevoure;
But dare thou not, I charge, in any case,
To enter into that same baleful bower,
For fear the cruel fiendes should thee unwares devour!
But, standing high aloft, low lay thine eare,
And there such ghastly noise of iron chaines
And brazen caudrons thou shalt rombling heare,
Which thousand sprites with long-enduring paines
Doe tosse, that it will stun thy feeble braines;
And often times great groans and grievous stownds,
When too huge toile and labour them constraines;
And often times loud strokes and ringing sounds
From under that deep rock most horribly rebounds.
The cause, they say, is this. A little while
Before that Merlin died, he did intend
A brazen wall in compass, to compile
About Cayr Merdin, and did it commend
Unto these sprites to bring to perfect end;
During which work the Lady of the Lake,
Whom long he loved, for him in haste did send,
Who thereby forced his workmen to forsake,
Them bound tiU Ms return their labour not to slake.
MOTHES SHIPTON'S HOUSE
MODEEN PROPHECIES 277
In the mean time, through that false ladle's traine ?
He was surprised, and buried under Were,
Ne ever to his work returned again;
Natheless these fiendes may not their work forbeare,
So greatly Ms commandement they fear,
But there doe toile and travaile day and night,
Until that brazen wall they up doe reare." *
Amongst other English prophets, a belief in whose power
has not been entirely effaced by the light of advancing knowl-
edge, is Robert Nixon, the Cheshire idiot, a contemporary of
Mother Shipton. The popular accounts of this man say, that
he was born of poor parents, not far from Vale Royal, on the
edge of the forest of Delamere. He was brought up to the
plough, but was so ignorant and stupid, that nothing could be
made of Mm. Every body thought Mm irretrievably insane,
and paid no attention to the strange, unconnected discourses
which he held. Many of Ms prophecies are believed to have
been lost in tMs manner. But they were not always destined
to be wasted upon dull and inattentive ears. An incident oc-
curred wMch brought Mm into notice, and established Ms fame
as a prophet of the first calibre. He was plougMng in a field,
when he suddenly stopped from Ms labour, and with a wild
look and strange gesture, exclaimed, "Now, Dick! now, Harry!
O, ill done, Dick! O, well done, Harry! Harry has gained
the day!" His fellow-labourers in the field did not know
what to make of tMs rhapsody; but the next day cleared up
the mystery. News was brought by a messenger, in hot haste,
that at the very instant when Nixon had thus ejaculated, Rich-
ard III. had been slain at the battle of Bosworth, and Henry
VII. proclaimed king of England.
It was not long before the fame of the new prophet reached
the ears of the king, who expressed a wish to see and converse
with Mm. A messenger was accordingly despatched to bring
Mm to court; but long before he reached ChesMre, Nixon
knew and dreaded the honours that awaited him. Indeed it
was said, that at the very instant the king expressed the wish,
* Faerie Queene, b. 3, c. 3, s. 6-13.
278 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Nkon was, by supernatural means y made acquainted with it,
and that he ran about the town of Over in great distress of
mind, calling out, like a madman, that Henry had sent for him,
and that lie must go to court, and be clammed, that is, starved
to death. These expressions excited no little wonder; but, on
the third day, the messenger arrived, and carried him to court,
leaving on the minds of the good people of Cheshire an impres-
sion that their prophet was one of the greatest ever born. On
his arrival King Henry appeared to be troubled exceedingly
at the loss of a valuable diamond, and asked Nixon if he could
inform him where it was to be found. Henry had hidden the
diamond himself, with a view to test the prophet's skill. Great,
therefore^ was Ms surprise when Nkon answered him in the
words of the old proverb, "Those who hide can find." From
that time forth the king implicitly believed that he had the
gift of prophecy, and ordered all his words to be taken down.
During aU the time of his residence at court he was in con-
stant fear of being starved to death, and repeatedly told the
king that such would be Ms fate, if he were not allowed to
depart, and return into Ms own country. Henry would not
suffer it, but gave strict orders to all Ms officers and cooks to
give him as much to eat as he wanted. He lived so well, that
for some time he seemed to be thriving like a nobleman's
steward, and growing as fat as an alderman. One day the king
went out hunting, when Nixon ran to the palace gate, and
entreated on Ms knees that he might not be left beMnd to be
starved. The king laughed, and calling an officer, told him
to take especial care of the prophet during Ms absence, and
rode away to the forest. After Ms departure, the servants of
the palace began to jeer at and insult Nixon, whom they imag-
ined to be much better treated than he deserved, Nixon com-
plained to the officer, who, to prevent Mm from being further
molested, locked Mm up in the king's own doset, and brought
him regularly his four meals a day. But it so happened that
a messenger arrived from the king to this officer, requiring
Ms immediate presence at Winchester, on a matter of life and
death. So great was Ms haste to obey the king's command,
that he mounted on the horse behind the messenger, and rode
MODERN PROPHECIES 279
off, without bestowing a thought upon poor Nixon. He did
not return til three days afterwards ? when, remembering the
prophet for the first time, he went to the king's closet, and
found him lying upon the floor, starved to death, as he had
predicted.
Among the prophecies of his which are believed to have
been fulfilled are the following, which relate to the times of
the Pretender:
U A great man shall come into England,
But the son of a king
Shall take from Mm the victory"
"Crows shall drink the blood of many nobles,
And the North shall rise against the South"
"The cock of the North shall be made to fiee.
And his feather be plucked for his pride,
That he shall almost curse the day that he was born"
All these, say his admirers, are as clear as the sun at noon-
day. The first denotes the defeat of Prince Charles Edward,
at the battle of Culloden, by the Duke of Cumberland; the
second, the execution of Lords Derwentwater, Balmerino, and
Lovat; and the third, the retreat of the Pretender from the
shores of Britain. Among the prophecies that still remain to
be accomplished are the following:
"Between seven, eight, and nine,
In England wonders shall be seen;
Between nine and thirteen
All sorrow shall be done"
#
"Through our own money and our men,
Shall a dreadful mar begin.
Between the sickle and the suck
All England shall have a pluck"
"Foreign nations shall invade England with snow on their helmets^
and shall bring plague, famine, and murder in the skirts of thew
garments. 9 *
"The town of Nantwich shall be- swept away by a flood"
2 80 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Of the two first of these BO explanation has yet been ^at-
tempted; but some event or other will doubtless be twisted into
such a shape as will fit them. The third, relative to the inva-
sion of England by a nation with snow on their helmets, is
supposed by the old women to foretell most clearly a coming
war with Russia. As to the last, there are not a few in the
town mentioned who devoutly believe that such will be its fate.
Happily for their peace of mind, the prophet said nothing of
the year that was to witness the awful calamity; so that they
think it as likely to be two centuries hence as now.
The popular biographers of Nixon conclude their account
of him by saying, that "his prophecies are by some persons
thought fables; yet by what has come to pass, it is now
thought, and very plainly appears, that most of them have
proved, or will prove, true; for which we, on all occasions,
ought not only to exert our utmost might to repel by force our
enemies, but to refrain from our abandoned and wicked course
of life, and to make our continual prayer to God for protec-
tion and safety." To this, though a non sequitur, every one
will cry, Amen!
Besides the prophets, there have been the almanac-makers
Lilly, Poor Robin, Partridge, and Francis Moore, physician,
in England; and Matthew Laensbergh, in France and Bel-
gium. But great as were their pretensions, they were modesty
itself in comparison with Merlin, Shipton, and Nixon, who fixed
their minds upon higher things than the weather, and were
not so restrained as to prophesy for only one year at a time.
After such prophets the almanac-makers hardly deserve to be
mentioned; not even the renowned Partridge, whose prog-
nostications set all England agog in 1708, and whose death
while still alive was so pleasantly and satisfactorily proved by
Isaac Bickerstaff. The anti-climax would be too palpable,
and they and their doings must be left uncommemorated.
FORTUNE-TELLING
And men still grope t j anticipate
The cabinet designs of Fate;
Apply to wizards to foresee
What shall and what shall never be.
HudibraSj part iii. canto 3.
In accordance with the plan laid down, we proceed to the
consideration of the follies into which men have been led by
their eager desire to pierce the thick darkness of futurity. God
himself for his own wise purposes, has more than once un-
drawn the impenetrable veil which shrouds those awful sec-
rets ; and, for purposes just as wise, he has decreed that, except
in those instances, ignorance shall be our lot for ever. It is
happy for man that he does not know*what the morrow is to
bring forth; but, unaware of this great blessing, he has, in all
ages of the world, presumptuously endeavoured to trace the
events of unborn centuries, and anticipate the march of time.
He has reduced this presumption into a study. He has divided
it into sciences and systems without number, employing his
whole life in the vain pursuit. Upon no subject has it been so
easy to deceive the world as upon this. In every breast the
curiosity exists in a greater or less degree, and can only be
conquered by a long course of self-examination, and a firm
reliance that the future would not be hidden from our sight,
if it were right that we should be acquainted with it.
An undue opinion of our own importance in the scale of
creation is at the bottom of all our unwarrantable notions in
this respect. How flattering to the pride of man to think that
the stars in their courses watch over him, and typify, by their
movements and aspects, the joys or the sorrows that await
him! He, less in proportion to the universe than the ail-but
281
282 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Invisible Insects that feed In myriads on a summer's leaf are
to this great globe itselff**fondly imagines that eternal worlds
were chiefly created to prognosticate Ms fate. How we should
pity the arrogance of the worm that crawls at our feet, if we
knew that it also desired to know the secrets of futurity, and
imagined that meteors shot athwart the sky to warn it that a
torn-tit was hovering near to gobble it up; that storms and
earthquakes, the revolutions of empires, or the fall of mighty
monarchs, only happened to predict its birth, its progress, and
its decay! Not a whit less presuming has man shewn himself;
not a whit less arrogant are the sciences, so called, of astrology,
augury, necromancy, geomancy, palmistry, and divination of
every kind.
Leaving out of view the oracles of pagan antiquity and re-
ligious predictions in general, and confining ourselves solely to
the persons who, in modern times, have made themselves most
conspicuous in foretelling the future, we shall find that the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries were the golden age of these
impostors. Many of them have been already mentioned in
their character of alchymists. The union of the two preten-
sions in not at all surprising. It was to be expected that those
who assumed a power so preposterous as that of prolonging
the life of man for several centuries, should pretend, at the
same time, to foretell the events which were to mark that pre-
ternatural span of existence. The world would as readily
beHeve that they had discovered all secrets, as that they had
only discovered one. The most celebrated astrologers of Eu-
rope, three centuries ago, were alchymists. Agrippa, Paracel-
sus, Dr. Dee, and the Rosicrucians, all laid as much stress
upon their knowledge of the days to come, as upon their pre-
tended possession of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of
life. In their time, ideas of the wonderful, the diabolical, and
the supernatural, were rifer than ever they were before. The
devil or the stars were universally believed to meddle con-
stantly in the affairs of men; and both were to be consulted
with proper ceremonies. Those who were of a melancholy and
gloomy temperament betook themselves to mcromancy and
sorcery; those more cheerful and aspiring devoted themselves
FORTUNE-TELLING 283
to astrology. The latter science was encouraged by all the
monarchs and governments of that nge. In England, from the
time of Elizabeth to that of William and Mary, judicial as-
trology was In high repute. During that period flourished Drs.
Dee, Lamb, and Forman; with Lilly, Booker, Gadbuiy, Evans,
and scores of nameless Imposters in every considerable town
and village in the country, who made It their business to cast
nativities, aid In the recovery of stolen goods, prognosticate
happy or unhappy marriages, predict whether journeys would
be prosperous ? and note lucky moments for the commencement
of any enterprise, from the setting up of a cobbler's shop to the
marching of an army. Men who, to use the words of Butler,
did
"Deal in Destiny's dark counsel,
And sage opinion of the moon sell;
To whom all people far and near
On deep Importance did repair,
When brass and pewter pots did stray,
And linen slunk out of the way."
In Lilly's Memoirs of His Life and Times, there are many
notices of the Inferior quacks who then abounded, and upon
whom he pretended to look down with supreme contempt; not
because they were astrologers, but because they debased that
noble art by taking fees for the recovery of stolen property.
From Butler's Hudibras, and its curious notes, we may learn
what immense numbers of these fellows lived upon the credu-
lity of mankind in that age of witchcraft and diablerie. Even
in our day, how great is the reputation enjoyed by the alma-
nac-makers, who assume the name of Francis Moore! But in
the time of Charles L, and the Commonwealth the most
learned, the most noble, and the most conspicuous characters
did not hesitate to consult astrologers in the most open manner.
Lffly, whom Butler has immortalised under the name of .Syd-
rophd, relates, that he proposed to write a work called An
Introduction to Astrology, in which he would satisfy the whole
kingdom of the lawfulness of that art. Many of the soldiers
were for it, he says, and many of the Independent party, and
2 84 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
abundance of worthy men In the House of Commons, Ms as-
sured friends, and able to take Ms part against the Presby-
terians, who would have silenced Ms predictions if they could.
He afterwards carried Ms plan into execution, and when Ms
book was published, went with another astrologer named
Booker to the headquarters of the parliamentary army at
Windsor, where they were welcomed and feasted in the gar-
den where General Fairfax lodged. They were afterwards
introduced to the general, who received them very kindly, and
made allusion to some of their predictions. He hoped their
art was lawful and agreeable to God's word; but he did not
understand it himself. He did not doubt, however, that the
two astrologers feared God, and therefore he had a good opin-
ion of them. Lilly assured Mm that the art of astrology was
quite consonant to the fe Scriptures; and confidently predicted
from Ms knowledge of the stars, that the parliamentary army
would overthrow all Its enemies. In Oliver's Protectorate, tMs
quack informs us that he wrote freely enough. He became an
Independent, and all the soldiery were Ms friends. When he
went to Scotland, he saW a soldier standing in front of the army
with a book of prophecies in his hand, exclaiming to the several
companies as they passed by him, "Lo! hear what Lilly saith;
you are In tMs month promised victory! Fight it out, brave
boys! and then read that month's prediction!"
After the great fire of London, which Lilly said he had f ore-
told, he was sent for by the committee of tie House of Com-
mons appointed to inquire into the causes of the calamity.
In Ms Monarchy or no Monarchy, published in 1651, he had
inserted an heiroglypMcal plate representing on one side per-
sons in winding-sheets digging graves; and on the other a large
city in flames. After the great fire, some sapient member of
the legislature bethought Mm of Lilly's book, and having men-
tioned It in the house, It was agreed that the astrologer should
be summoned. Lilly attended accordingly, when Sir Robert
Brook told Mm the reason of Ms summons, and called upon
Mm to declare what he knew. This was a rare opportunity for
the vain-glorious Lilly to vaunt Ms abilities; and he began a
long speech in praise of himself and his pretended science. He
FORTUNE-TELLING 285
said that, after the execution of Charles L, he was extremely
desirous to know what might from that time forth happen to
the parliament and to the nation in general. He therefore con-
sulted the stars, and satisfied himself. The result of Ms judg-
ment he put into emblems and hieroglyphics, without any
commentary, so that the true meaning might be concealed from
the vulgar, and made manifest only to the wise; imitating in
this the examples of many wise philosophers who had done
the like.
"Did you foresee the year of the fire?" said a member.
"No," quoth Lilly, "nor was I desirous. Of that I made no
scrutiny." After some further parley, the house found they
could make nothing of the astrologer, and dismissed him with
great civility.
One specimen of the explanation of a prophecy given by
Lilly, and related by him with much complacency, will be suf-
ficient to shew the sort of trash by which he imposed upon the
million. "In the year 1588," says he, "there was a prophecy
printed in Greek characters, exactly deciphering the long
troubles of the English nation from 1641 to 1660." And it
ended thus: "And after him shall come a dreadful dead man,
and with him a royal G, of the best blood in the world; and he
shall have the crown, and shall set England on the right way,
and put out all heresies." The following is the explanation of
this oracular absurdity:
"Monkery being extinguished above eighty or ninety years,
and the Lord General's name being Monk, is the dead man.
The royal G or C [it is gamma in the Greek, intending C in
the Latin, being the third letter in the alphabet} is Charles II. ,
who for Ms extraction may be said to be of the best blood of
the world.
In France and Germany astrologers met even more encour-
agement than they received in England. In very early ages
Charlemagne and his successors fulminated their wrath against
them in common with sorcerers. Louis XL, that most super-
stitious of men, entertained great numbers of them at his court;
and Catherine di Medfcis, that most superstitious qf women,
hardly ever undertook .any affair of importance with consulting
286 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
them. She chiefly favoured her own countrymen; and during
the time she governed France, the land was overrun by Italian
conjurorSj necromancers, and fortune-tellers of every kind.
But the chief astrologer of that day, beyond all doubt, was
the celebrated Nostradamus, physician to her husband King
Henry II. He was born in 1503 at the town of St. Remi, in
Provence, where Ms father was a notary. He did not acquire
much fame till he was past his fiftieth year, when Ms famous
Centuries, a collection of verses written in obscure and almost
unintelligible language, began to excite attention. They were
so much spoken of In 1556, that Henry II. resolved to attach
so skilful a man to Ms service, and appointed Mm Ms physician.
In a MograpMcal notice of Mm, prefixed to the edition of Ms
Vraies Centuries, published at Amsterdam in 1668, we are in-
formed that he often discoursed with Ms royal master on the
secrets of futurity, and received many great presents as Ms
reward, besides Ms usual allowance for medical attendance.
After the death of Henry he retired to Ms native place, where
Charles IX. paid Mm a visit in 1564; and was so impressed
with veneration for Ms wondrous knowledge of the things that
were to be, not in France only, but in the whole world for hun-
dreds of years to come, that he made him a counsellor of state
and his own physician, besides treating him in other matters
with a royal liberality, "In fine," continues Ms biographer,
"I should be too prolix were I to tell all the honours conferred
upon Mm, and all the great nobles and learned men that arrived
at Ms house from the very ends of the earth, they converse
with him as if he had been an oracle. Many strangers, in fact,
came to France for no other purpose than to consult Mm."
The prophecies of Nostradamus consist of upwards of a
thousand stanzas, each of four lines, and are to the full as
obscure as the oracles of old. They take so great a latitude,
both as to time and space, that they are almost sure to be ful-
filled somewhere or other in the course of a few centuries. A
little ingenuity, like that evinced by tffly In his explanation
about General Monk and the dreadful dead man, might easily
make events to fit some of fhcoau*
'* Let us fey. la Ms Become! eeatoyv fcrcedicticm 66, He says :
NOSTBADAMUS
From the frontispiece to a collection of his
published at Amsterdam, A* D, 1666
FORTUNE-TELLING 287
He is to this day extremely popular In France and the
Walloon country of Belgium, where old farmer-wives consult
Mm with great confidence and assiduity.
Catherine di Medicis was not the only member of her il-
lustrious house who entertained astrologers. At the beginning
of the fifteenth century there was a man, named Basil, resid-
ing in Florence, who was noted over all Italy for Ms skill in
piercing the darkness of futurity. It is said that he foretold
to Cosmo di Meditis, then a private citizen, that he would at-
tain high dignity, inasmuch as the ascendant of his nativity
was adorned with the same propitious aspects as those of Au-
gustus Caesar and the Emperor Charles V,f Another astrol-
oger foretold the death of Prince Alexander di Medicis; and so
very minute and particular was he in all the circumstances,
that he was suspected of being chiefly instrumental in fulfilling
his own prophecy a very common resource with these fellows
to keep up their credit. He foretold confidently that the prince
should die by the hand of his own familiar friend, a person of
a slender habit of body, a small face, a swarthy complexion,
and of most remarkable taciturnity. So it afterwards hap-
pened, Alexander having been killed in his chamber by his
"From great dangers tlie captive is escaped.
A little time, great fortune changed.
In the palace the people are caught.
By good augury the city is besieged."
"What is this," a believer might exclaim, "but the escape of Napoleon
from Elba his changed fortune, and the occupation of Paris by the allied
armies?"
Let us try again. In his third century, prediction 98, he says :
"Two royal brothers will make fierce war on each other;
So mortal shall be the strife between them.
That each one shall occupy a fort against the other;
For their reign and life shall be the quarrel. 31
Some Lillius Redivivus would find no difficulty in this prediction. To use
a vulgar phrase, it is as clear as a pikestaff. Had not the astrologer in view
Don Miguel and Don Pedro when he penned this stanza, so much less
obscure and oracular than the rest?
t HermippiLS Redivivus , p. 142.
2SS EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Lorenzo^ exactly with the above de-
scription.* The author of Redivivus, in relating
this story, Inclines to the belief that the astrologer was guiltless
of any participation in the crime, but was employed by some
friend of Prince Alexander to warn Mm of Ms danger.
A much more remarkable story is told of an astrologer who
lived in Romagna in the fifteenth century, and whose name was
Antiochus Tibertus.f At that time nearly all the petty sove-
reigns of Italy retained such men in their service; and Tiber-
tus, having studied the mathematics with great success at
Paris, and delivered many predictions, some of which, for
guesses, were not deficient in shrewdness, was taken into the
household of Pandolfo di Malatesta, the sovereign of Rimini.
His reputation was so great, that his study was continually
thronged either with visitors who were persons of distinction,
or with clients who came to him for advice; and in a short
time he acquired a considerable fortune. Notwithstanding all
these advantages, he passed Ms life miserably, and ended it on
the scaffold. The following story afterwards got in circulation,
and has been often triumphantly cited by succeeding astrolo-
gers as an irrefragable proof of the truth of their science. It
was said that, long before he died, he uttered three remarkable
prophecies one relating to himself, another to his friend, and
the third to Ms patron, Pandolfo di Malatesta. The first de-
livered was that relating to Ms friend Guido di Bogni, one of
the greatest captains of the time, Guido was exceedingly de-
sirous to know Ms fortune, and so importuned Tib'ertus, that
the latter consulted the stars and the lines on Ms palm to sat-
isfy him. He afterwards told Mm with a sorrowful face, that,
according to all the rules of astrology and palmistry, he should
be falsely suspected by Ms best friend, and should lose his life
in consequence, Guido then asked the astrologer if he could
foretell Ms own fate; upon which Tibertus again consulted the
stars, and found that it was decreed from all eternity that he
should end his days on the scaffold. Malatesta, when he heard
* Jo v .Stop. p. 320.
f Les Anecdotes de Florence, ou VHutowe secrete de la Mcdson di Med-
iris, p. 318.
FORTUNE-TELLING 2 89
these predictions, so unlikely, to all present appearance, to
prove true, desired Ms astrologer to predict his fate also, and
to hide nothing from Mm, however unfavourable it might be.
Tibertus complied, and told Ms patron, at that time one of the
most flourisMng and powerful princes of Italy, that he should
suffer great want, and die at last like a beggar in the common
hospital of Bologna. And so it happened in all three cases.
Guido dl Bogni was accused by his own father-in-law, the
Count dl Bentivoglio, of a treasonable design to deliver up the
city of Rimini to the papal forces, and was assassinated after
wards, by order of the tyrant Malatesta, as he sat at the sup-
per-table, to which he had been invited in all apparent friend-
sMp. The astrologer was at the same time thrown into prison,
as being concerned in the treason of Ms friend. He attempted
to escape, and had succeeded in letting himself down from Ms
dungeon-window into a moat, when he was discovered by the
sentinels. TMs being reported to Malatesta, he gave orders
for Ms execution on the following morning.
Malatesta had, at this time, no remembrance of the proph-
ecy, and Ms own fate gave Mm no uneasiness; but events were
silently working its fulfilment. A conspiracy had been formed,
though Guido di Bogni was innocent of it, to deliver up Rimini
to the pope; and all the necessary measures having been taken,
the city was seized by the Count de Valentinois. In the con-
fusion, Malatesta had barely time to escape from Ms palace in
disguise. He was pursued from place to place by Ms enemies,
abandoned by all Ms former friends, and, finally, by Ms own
cMldren. He at last fell ill of a languisMng disease, at Bo-
logna; and, nobody caring to afford Ms shelter, he was carried
to the hospital, where he died. The only thing that detracts
from the interest of this remarkable story is the fact, that the
prophecy was made after the event.
For some weeks before the birth of Louis XIV, an astrologer
from Germany, who had been sent for by the Marshal de
Bassompierre and other noblemen of the court, had taken up
his residence in the palace, to be ready, at a moment's notice,
to draw the horoscope of the future sovereign of France.
When the queen was taken in labour, he was ushered into a
290 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
contiguous apartment, that he might receive notice of the very
Instant the child was born. The result of Ms observations were
the three words, din, dure, jelidter; meaning, that the new-
born prince should live and reign long, with much labour, and
with great glory. No prediction less favourable could have
been expected from an astrologer, who had his bread to get,
and who was at the same time a courtier. A medal was after-
wards struck in commemoration of the event; upon one side
of which was figured the nativity of the prince, representing
him as driving the chariot of Apollo, with the inscription
"Ortus solis Gallici," the rising of the Gallic sun.
The best excuse ever made for astrology was that offered
by the great astronomer, Kepler, himself an unwilling practiser
of the art. He had many applications from his friends to cast
nativities for them, and generally gave a positive refusal to
such as he was not afraid of offending by his frankness. In
other cases he accommodated himself to the prevailing delu-
sion. In sending a copy of his Ephemerides to Professor Ger-
lach, he wrote, that they were nothing but worthless conjec-
tures but he was obliged to devote himself to them, or he would
have starved. "Ye overwise philosophers," he exclaimed, in
Ms Tertius Interveniens; "ye censure this daughter of astron-
omy beyond her deserts! Know ye not that she must support
her mother by her charms? The scanty reward of an astrono-
mer would not provide him with bread, if men did not
entertain hopes of reading the future in the heavens."
NECROMANCY was, next to astrology, the pretended science
most resorted to, by those who wished to pry into the future.
The earliest instance upon record is that of the witch of Endor
and the spirit of Samuel. Nearly all the nations of antiquity
believed in the possibility of summoning departed ghosts to
disclose the awful secrets that God made clear to the disem-
bodied. Many passages in allusion to this subject will at once
suggest themselves to the classical reader; but this art was
never carried on openly in any country. All governments
looked upon it as a crime of the deepest dye. While astrology
was encouraged, and its professors courted and rewarded,
necromancers were universally condemned to the stake or the
FORTUNE-TELLING 2 g I
gallows, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Arnold of Ville-
neeve, and many others were accused by the public opinion
of many centuries, of meddling in these unhallowed matters.
So deep-rooted has always been the popular delusion with re-
spect to accusations of this kind, that no crime was ever dis-
proved with such toil and difficulty. That it met great en-
couragement, nevertheless, is evident from the vast numbers of
pretenders to it; who, in spite of the danger, have existed in
all ages and countries.
GEOMAKCY, or the art of foretelling the future by means of
lines and circles, and other mathematical figures drawn on
the earth, is still extensively practised in Asiatic countries, but
is almost unknown in Europe.
AUGURY, from the flight or entrails of birds, so favourite a
study among the Romans, is, in like manner, exploded in Eu-
rope. Its most assiduous professors, at the present day, are
the abominable Thugs of India.
DIVINATION, of which there are many kinds, boasts a more
enduring reputation. It has held an empire over the minds of
men from the earliest periods of recorded history, and is, in
all probability, coeval with time itself. It was practised alike
by the Jews, the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Persians, the
Greeks, and the Romans; is equally known to all modern na-
tions, in every part of the world; and is not unfamiliar to the
untutored tribes that roam in the wilds of Africa and America.
Divination, as practised in civilised Europe at the present day,
is chiefly from cards, the tea-cup, and the lines on the palm of
the hand. Gipsies alone make a profession of it; but there are
thousands and tens of thousands of humble families in which
the good-wife, and even the good-man, resort to the grounds
at the bottom of their tea-cups, to know whether the next har-
vest will be abundant, or their sow bring forth a numerous
litter; and in which the young maidens look to the same place
to know when they are to be married, and whether the man of
their choice is to be dark or fair, rich or poor, kind or cruel.
Divination by cards, so great a favourite among the moderns,
is, of course, a modern science; as cards do not yet boast an
antiquity of much more than four hundred years. Divination
292 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
by the palm, so confidently believed In by half the village lasses
IE Europe, Is of older date, and seems to have been known to
the Egyptians in the time of the patriarchs; as well as divina-
tion by the cup, which, as we are informed in Genesis, was
practised by Joseph. Divination by the rod was also practised
by the Egyptians. In comparatively recent times, it was pre-
tended that by this means hidden treasures could be discov-
ered. It now appears to be altogether exploded in Europe.
Onomancy, or the fortelling a man's fate by the letters of his
naine ? and the various transpositions of which they are cap-
able ? is a more modern sort of divination; but it reckons com-
paratively few believers.
The following list of the various species of divination for-
merly in use, is given by Gaule in Ms Magastromancer y and
quoted in Hone's Year-Book, p. 1517.
Stereomaney, or divining by the elements*
Acromancy, or divining by the air.
Pyromancy j by fire.
Hydromancy y by water.
Geomancy, by earth.
Theomancy, pretending to divine by the revelation of the
Spirit, and the by the Scriptures, or word of God.
Demonomancy, by the aid of devils and evil spirits.
Idolomancy, by idols, images, and figures.
Psychomancy, by soul, affections, or dispositions of men.
Antbropomancy^ by the entrails of human beings.
Tkeriomancy? by beasts.
Ornithomancy, by birds,
Ichthyomancy, by fishes*
Botanomancy, by herbs.
IMhomancy f by stones*
Kleromancy, by lots.
Oneiromancy, by dreams.
Onomancy f by names.
Arithmancy, by numbers.
Logarithmancy, by logarithms.
Sternomancy, by the marks from the breast to the belly,
Gastromancy, by the sound of, or marks upon the belly.
FORTUNE-TELLING 2 93
* by the naval.
Chiromancy 9 by the hands.
Podomancjy by the feet.
Qmchyomamcy, by the nafls.
Cepkaleonomancy, by asses' heads.
Tephromancy, by ashes.
Kapnomancy y by smoke.
Knissomancy, by the burning of incense.
Cefomancy y by the melting of wax,
Lecanomancy, by basins of water.
Katopfromancy y by looking-glasses.
Chartomancy, by writing in papers ? and by Valentines.
Macharomancy, by knives and swords.
Crystollomany, by crystals.
Daclylomancy, by rings.
Koskinomancy, by sieves.
Axinomancy, by saws.
Chalcomancy, by vessels of brass, or other metal.
SpafUomancy, by skins, bones, &c.
Astromancy, by stars.
Sciomancy, by shadows.
Astragalomancy, by dice.
Oinomancy, by the lees of wine.
Sycomancy y by figs.
Tyromancy, by cheese.
Alphitomancy, by meal, flour, or bran,
Krithomancy, by corn br grain.
Alectromancy, by cocks.
Gyromancy, by cirdes.
Lampadomancy, by candles and lamps.
OMEIEO-CKITICISM, or the art of interpreting dreams, is a
relic of the most remote ages, which has subsisted through all
the changes that moral or physical revolutions have operated
in the world. The records of five thousand years bear abund-
ant testimony to the universal diffusion of the belief, that
the skilful could read the future in dreams. The rules of the
art, if any existed in ancient times, are not known; but m our
day, one simple rule opens the whole secret. Dreams, say
2Q4 EXTEAORBINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
all the wiseacres In Christendom, are to be Interpreted by con-
traries. Thus, if you dream of filth, you will acquire some-
thing valuable; if you dream of the dead, you will hear news
of the living; if you dream of gold and silver, you ran a risk of
being without either; and if you dream you have many friends,
you will be persecuted by many enemies. The rule, however,
does not hold good in aU cases. It is fortunate to dream of
little pigs, but unfortunate to dream of big bullocks. If you
dream you have lost a tooth, you may be sure that you will
shortly lose a friend; and if you dream that your house is on
fire, you will receive news from a far country. If you dream
of vermin, it is a sign that there will be sickness in your family;
and if you dream of serpents, you will have friends who, in
the course of time, will prove your bitterest enemies; but, of
all dreams, it is most fortunate if you dream that you are
wallowing up to your neck in mud and mire. Clear water is
a sign of grief; and great troubles, distress, and perplexity are
predicted, if you dream that you stand naked in the public
streets, and know not where to find a garment to shield you
from the gaze of the multitude.
In many parts of Great Britain, and the continents of Eu-
rope and America, there are to be found elderly women in the
villages and country-places whose interpretations of dreams
are looked upon with as much reverence as if they were ora-
cles. In districts remote from towns it is not uncommon to
find the members of a family regularly every morning nar-
rating their dreams at the breakfast-table, and becoming happy
or miserable for the day according to their interpretation.
There is not a flower that blossoms, or f rait that ripens, that,
dreamed of, is not ominous of either good or evil to such peo-
ple. Every tree of the field or the forest is endowed with a
similar Influence over the fate of mortals, if seen in the night-
visions. To dream of the ash, is the sign of a long journey j
and of an oak, prognosticates long Hf e and prosperity. To
dream you stript the bark off any tree, is a sign to a maiden
of an approaching loss of a character; to a married woman,
of a family bereavement; and to a man, of an accession of
fortune. To dream of a leafless tree, is a sign of great sorrow;
FORTUNE-TELLING 295
and of a branchless trunk, a of despair and suicide. The
elder true Is more auspicious to the sleeper; while the fire-tree,
better still, betokens all manner of comfort and prosperity.
The lime-tree predicts a voyage across the ocean; while the
yew and the alder are ominous of sickness to the young and of
death to the old.* Among the flowers and fruits charged with
messages for the future, the following is a list of the most
Important^ arranged from approved sources^ in alphabetical
order:
Asparagus } gathered and tied up in bundles, is an omen of
tears; If you see It growing, In your dreams, it is a sign of
good fortune.
Aloes , without a flower, betokens long life; In flower , betokens
a legacy.
Artichokes. This vegetable Is a sign that you will receive. In
a short time, a favour from the hands of those from whom
you would least expect it.
Agrimony. This herb denotes that there will be sickness in
your house.
Anemone predicts love.
Auriculas y in beds, deno^s luck; in pots, marriage; while to
gather them, foretells widowhood.
Bilberries predict a pleasant excursion.
Broom-flowers an increase of family.
Cauliflowers predict that all your friends will slight you, or
that you will fall Into poverty and find no one to pity you.
Dock-leaves, a present from the country.
* It is quite astonishing to see the great demand there is, both in England
and France, for dream-books, and other trash of the same kind. Two books
in England enjoy an extraordinary popularity, and have run through up-
wards of fifty editions in as many years in London alone, besides being
reprinted in Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin. One is Mother
Bridget's Dream-book and Oracle of Fate; the ot&er is the Norwood
Gipsy. It is stated, on the authority of one who is curious in these matters,
that there is a demand for these works, which are sold at sums varying
from a penny to sixpence, chiefly to servant-girls and imperfectly-educated
people, all over the country, of upwards of eleven thousand annually; and
tixat at no period during the last thirty years has the average number sold
been less than this. The total number during this period would thus amount
to 330,000. , * <
296 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Daffodils. Any maiden who dreams of daffodils is warned by
her good angel to avoid going into a wood with her lover, or
into any dark or retired place where she might not be able to
make people hear her if she cried out. Alas for her if she pay
no attention to the warning!
"Never again shall she put garland on;
Instead of it shell wear sad cypress now,
And bitter elder broken from the bough."
Figs, if green, betoken embarrassment; if dried, money to the
poor, and mirth to the rich.
Heart* s-ease betokens heart's pain.
Lilies predict joy; water-lilies, danger from the sea.
Lemons betoken a separation.
Pomegranates predict happy wedlock to those who are single,
and reconciliation to those who are married and have dis-
agreed.
Quinces prognosticate pleasant company.
Roses denote happy love, not unmixed with sorrow from other
sources.
Sorrel. To dream of this herb is a sign that you will shortly
have occasion to exert all your prudence to overcome some
great calamity.
Sunflowers shew that your pride will be deeply wounded.
Violets predict evil to the single, and joy to the married.
Yellow-flowers of any kind predict jealousy,
Yew-berries predict loss of character to both sexes.
It should be observed that the rules for the interpretation of
dreams are far from being universal. The cheeks of the peas-
ant girl of England glow with pleasure in the morning after
she has dreamed of a rose, while the paysanne of Normandy
dreads disappointment and vexation for the very same reason.
The Switzer who dreams of an oak-tree does not share in the
Englishman's joy; for, he imagines that the vision was a warn-
ing to him that, from some trifling cause, an overwhelming
calamity will burst over him. Thus do the ignorant and the
credulous torment themselves; thus do they spread their nets
FORTUNE-TELLING 297
to catch vexation, and pass their lives between hopes which
are of no value and fears which are a positive evil.
OMENS. Among the other means of self-annoyance upon
which men have stumbled, in their vain hope of discovering
the future, signs and omens hold a conspicuous place. There
is scarcely an occurrence in nature which, happening at a cer-
tain time, is not looked upon by some persons as a prognosti-
cates either of good or evil. The latter are in the greatest
number, so much more ingenious are we in tormenting our-
%elves than in discovering reasons for enjoyment in the things
that surround us. We go out of our course to make ourselves
uncomfortable; the cup of life is not bitter enough to our
palate, and we distill superfluous poison to put into it, or con-
jure up Mdeous things to frighten ourselves at, which would
never exist if we did not make them. "We suffer/ 3 says Ad~
dison,* "as much from trifling accidents as from real evils* I
have known the shooting of a star spoil a night's rest, and
have seen a man in love grow pale and lose his appetite upon
the plucking of a merrythought. A screech-owl at midnight
has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers; nay, the
voice of a cricket has struck more terror than the roaring of
a lion. There is nothing so inconsiderable which may not ap-
pear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and
prognostics. A rusty nail or a crooked pin shoot up into
prodigies."
The century and a quarter that has passed away since Ad-
dison wrote has seen the fall of many errors. Many fallacies
and delusions have been crushed under the foot of Time since
then; but this has been left unscathed, to frighten the weak-
minded and embitter their existence. A belief in omens is
not confined to the humble and uninformed. A general who
led an army with credit has been known to feel alarmed at a
winding-sheet in the candle; and learned men, who had hon-
ourably and fairly earned the highest honours of literature,
have been seen to gather their little ones around them, and
fear that one would be snatched away, because,
* Spectator No. 7, March 8, 1710-11
298 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
"When stole upon the time the dead of night,
And heavy sleep had closed up mortal eyes/'
a dog In the street was howling at the moon. Persons who
would acknowledge freely that the belief in omens was un-
worthy of a man of sense, have yet confessed at the same
time that, in spite of their reason, they have been unable to
conquer their fears of death when they heard the harmless in-
sect called the death-watch ticking in the wall, or saw an ob-
long hollow coal fly out of the fire.
Many other evil omens besides those mentioned above alarm
the vulgar and the weak. If a sudden shivering comes over
such people, they believe that, at that instant, an enemy is
treading over the spot that will one day be their grave. If
they meet a sow when they first walk abroad in the morning,
it is an omen of evil for that day. To meet an ass, is in like
manner unlucky. It is also very unfortunate to walk under
a ladder; to forget to eat goose on the festival of St. Michael;
to tread upon a beetle, or to eat the twin nuts that are some-
times found in one shell. Woe, in like manner, is predicted
to that wight who inadvertently upsets the salt; each grain that
is overthrown will bring to him a day of sorrow. If thirteen
persons sit at table, one of them will die within the year; and
all of them will be unhappy. Of all evil omens this is the
worst. The facetious Dr. Kitchener used to observe that
there was one case in which he believed that it was really un-
lucky for thirteen persons to sit down to dinner, and that was
when there was only dinner enough for twelve. Unfortunately
for their peace of mind, the great majority of people do not
take this wise view of the matter. In almost every country,
of Europe the same superstition prevails, and some carry it so
far as to look upon the number thirteen as in every way omi-
nous of evil; and if they find thirteen coins in their purse, cast
away the odd one like a polluted thing. The philosophic
Beranger, in Ms exquisite song, Thirteen at Table, has taken a
poetical view of this humiliating superstition, and mingled, as
is his wont, a lesson of genuine wisdom in his lay. Being at
dinner, he overthrows the salt, and, looking round the room,
discovers that he is the thirteenth guest. While he is mourn-
FORTUNE-TELLING 2 99
ing Ms unhappy fate, and conjuring up visions of disease
suffering and the grave, he is suddenly startled by the appari-
tion of Death herself, not in the shape of a grim foe 3 with
skeleton-ribs and menacing dart, but an angel of light, who
shews the folly of tormenting ourselves with the dread of her
approach, when she is the friend, rather than the enemy, of
man, and frees us from the fetters which bind us to the dust.
If men could bring themselves to look upon death in this
manner, living well and wisely till her inevitable approach, how
vast a store of grief and vexation would they spare themselves!
Among good omens, one of the most conspicuous is to meet
a piebald horse. To meet two of these animals is still more
fortunate; and if on such an occasion yon spit thrice, and form
any reasonable wish, it will be gratified within three days. It
is also a sign of good fortune if you inadvertently put on your
stocking wrong side out. If you wilfully wear your stocking in
this fashion, no good will come of it. It is very lucky to sneeze
twice; but if you sneeze a third time, the omen loses its power,
and your good fortune will be nipped in the bud. If a strange
dog follow you, and fawn on you, and wish to attach itself
to you, it is a sign of very great prosperity. Just as fortunate
is it if a strange male cat comes to your house and manifests
friendly intentions towards your family. If a she cat, it is an
omen, on the contrary, of very great misfortune. If a swarm
of bees alight in your garden, some very high honour and
great joys await you.
Besides these glimpses of the future, you may know some-
thing of your fate by a diligent attention to every itching that
you may feel in your body. Thus, if the eye or the nose itches,
it Is a sign you will be shortly vexed; if the foot itches, you
will tread upon strange ground; and if the elbow itches, you
will change your bedfellow. Itching of the right hand prog-
nosticates that you will soon have a sum of money; and, of
the left, that you will be called upon to disburse it.
These are but a few of the omens which are generally cred-
ited as modern Europe. A complete list of them would fatigue
from its length, and sicken from its absurdity. It would be
still more unprofitable to attempt to specify the various de-
3OO EXTRAORDINAEY POPULAR DELUSIONS
lusions of the same kind which are believed among oriental
nations. Every reader will remember the comprehensive for-
mula of cursing preserved In Tristram Shandy curse a man
after any fashion you remember or can invent, you will be sure
to find it there. The oriental creed of omens is not less com-
prehensive. Every movement of the body, every emotion of
the mind, is at certain times an omen. Every form and ob-
ject in nature, even the shape of the clouds and the changes
of the weather; every colour, every sound, whether of men
or animals, or birds or insects, or inanimate things, is an
omen. Nothing is too trifling or inconsiderable to inspire a
hope which is not worth cherishing, or a fear which is suf-
ficient to embitter existence.
From the belief in omens springs the superstition that has,
from very early ages, set apart certain days, as more fav-
ourable than others, for prying into the secrets of futurity.
The following, copied verbatim from the popular Dream and
Omen Book of Mother Bridget, will shew the belief of the peo-
ple of England at the present day. Those who are curious
as to the ancient history of these observances, will find abun-
dant aliment in the Every-day Book,
"The ist of January. If a young maiden drink, on going
to bed, a pint of cold spring water, in which is beat up an amu-
let y composed of the yolk of a pullet's egg, the legs of a spider,
and the skin of an eel pounded, her future destiny wUl be
revealed to her in a dream, This charm fails of its effect if
tried any other day of the year.
"Valentine Day. Let a single woman go out of her own
door very early in the morning, and if the first person she
meets be a woman, she will not be married that year; if she
meets a man she will be married within three months,
"Lady Day. The following charm may be tried this day
with certain success: String thirty-one nuts on a string, com-
posed of red worsted mixed with blue silk, and tie it round
your neck on going to bed, repeating these lines :
"Oh, I wish! oh, I wish to see
Who my true love is to be!
FORTUNE-TELLING 3OI
Shortly after midnight, you will see your lover in a dream, and
be informed at the same time of all the principal events of
your future life.
"St. Switkin's JEzie, Select three things you most wish to
know; write them down with a new pen and red ink on a sheet
of fine wove paper, from which you must previously cut off all
the corners and burn them. Fold the paper into a true lover's
knot, and wrap round it three hairs from your head. Place
the paper under your pillow for three successive nights, and
your curiosity to know the future will be satisfied.
"St. Mark's Eve. Repair to the nearest churchyard as the
dock strikes twelve, and take from a grave on the "south side
of the church three tufts of grass (the longer and ranker the
better), and on going to bed place them under your pillow,
repeating earnestly three several times,
"The Eve of St. Mark by prediction is blest,
Set therefore my hopes and my fears all to rest:
Let me know my fate, whether weal or woe;
Whether my rank's to be high or low;
Whether to live single, or be a bride,
And the destiny my star doth provide/
Should you have no dream that night, you will be single and
miserable all your life. If you dream of thunder and light-
ning, your life will be one of great difficulty and sorrow.
"Candlemas Eve. On this night (which is the purification
of the Virgin Mary), let three, five, seven, or nine young
maidens assemble together in a square chamber. Hang in
each corner a bundle of sweet herbs, mixed with rue and
rosemary* Then mix a cake of flour, olive-oil, and white sugar;
every maiden having an equal share in the making and the
expense of it. Afterwards it must be cut into equal pieces,
each one marking the piece as she cuts it with the initials of
her name. It is then to be baked one hour before the fire,
not a word being spoken the whole time, and the maidens sit-
ting with their arms and knees across. Each piece of cake is
then to be wrapped up in a sheet of paper, on which each
maiden shall write the love part of Solomon's Songs. If she
3O2 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
put this under her pillow she will dream true. She will see
her future husband and every one of her children, and will
know besides whether her family will be poor or prosperous,
a comfort to her or the contrary.
"Midsummer. Take three roses, smoke them with sulphur,
and exactly at three in the day bury one of the roses under a
yew-tree; the second in a newly-made grave, and put the third
under your pillow for three nights, and at the end of that
period burn it in a fire of charcoal. Your dreams during that
time will be prophetic of your future destiny, and, what is still
more curious and valuable, says Mother Bridget, the man
whom you are to wed will enjoy no peace till he conies and
visits you. Besides this, you will perpetually haunt his dreams.
"St. John's Eve. Make a new pincushion of the very best
black velvet (no inferior quality will answer the purpose), and
on one side stick your name at full length with the very small-
est pins that can be bought (none other will do) . On the other
side make a cross with some very large pins, and surround
it with a circle. Put this into your stocking when you take it
off at night, and hang it up at the foot of the bed. All your
future life will pass before you in a dream.
"First New Moon of the year. On the first new moon in
the year take a pint of clear spring water, and infuse into it the
white of an egg laid by a white hen, a glass of white wine,
three almonds peeled white, and a tablespoonful of white rose-
water. Drink this on going to bed, not making more nor less
than three draughts of it; repeating the following verses three
several times in a dear distinct voice, but not so loud as to be
overheard by any body:
*If I dream of water pure
Before the coming mom,
Tis a sign I shall be poor,
And unto wealth not born.
If I dream of tasting beer,
Middling then will be my cheer
Chequer'd with the good and bad,
Sometimes joyful, sometimes sad;
FORTUNE-TELLING 303
But should I dream of drinking wine,
Wealth and pleasure will be mine.
The stronger the drinkj the better the cheer
Dreams of my destiny ^ appear, appear! 3
u Twenty-ninth of February. This day, as It only occurs
once IE four years, Is peculiarly auspicious to those who desire
to have a glance at futurity, especially to young maidens burn-
ing with anxiety to know the appearance and complexion of
their future lords. The charm to be adopted is the following:
Stick twenty-seven of the smallest pins that are made, three by
three, into a tallow candle. Light it up at the wrong end,
and then place it in a candlestick made out of day, which
must be drawn from a virgin's grave. Place this on tie chim-
ney-place, in the left-hand corner, exactly as the clock strikes
twelve, and go to bed immediately. When the candle is burnt
out, take the pins and put them into your left shoe; and before
nine nights have elapsed your fate will be revealed to you."
We have now taken a hasty review of the various modes
of seeking to discover the future, especially as practised in
modern times. The main features of the folly appear es-
sentially the same in all countries. National character and pe-
culiarities operate some difference of interpretation. The
mountaineer makes the natural phenomena which he most
frequently witnesses prognosticative of the future. The
dweller in the plains, in a similar manner, seeks to know Ms
fate among the signs of the things that surround him, and
tints Ms superstition with the hues of his own clime. The same
spirit animates them all the same desire to know that which
Infinite Mercy has concealed. There is but little probability
that the curiosity of mankind in this respect will ever be wholly
eradicated. Death and ill fortune are continual bugbears to
the weak-minded, the irreligious, and the ignorant; and while
such exist in the world, divines will preach upon its impiety
and philosophers discourse upon its absurdity in vain. Still
it is evident that these follies have greatly diminished. Sooth-
" sayers and prophets have lost the credit they formerly enjoyed,
and skulk in secret now where they once shewed their faces
in the blaze of day. So far there is manifest improvement.
THE MAGNETISERS
Some deemed them wondrous wise,
And some believed them mad.
Beattie's Minstrel.
THE wonderful influence of imagination in the cure of
diseases is well known. A motion of the hand, or a glance of
the eye, will throw a weak and credulous patient into a fit; and
a pill made of bread, if taken with sufficient faith, will operate
a cure better than all the drugs in the pharmacopoeia. The
Prince of Orange, at the siege of Breda, in 1625, cured all his
soldiers, who were dying of the scurvy, by a philanthropic
piece of quackery, which he played upon them with the knowl-
edge of the physicians, when all other means had failed.* Many
hundreds of instances, of a similar kind, might be related, es-
pecially from the history of witchcraft. The mummeries, strange
gesticulations, and barbarous jargon of witches and sorcerers,
which frightened credulous and nervous women, brought on all
those symptoms of hysteria and other similar diseases, so well
understood now, but which were then supposed to be the work
of the Devil, not only by the victims and the public in general,
but by the operators themselves.
In the age when alchymy began to fall into some disrepute,
* See Van der Mye's account of the siege of Breda. The garrison, being
afflicted with scurvy, the Prince of Orange sent the physicians two or three
small phials, containing a decoction of camomile, wormwood, and camphor,
telling them to pretend that it was a medicine of the greatest value and
extremest rarity, which had been procured with very rnuch danger and
difficulty from the East; and so strong, that two or three drops would im-
part a healing virtue to a gallon, of water. The soldiers had faith in their
commander; they took the medicine with cheerful faces, and grew well
rapidly. They afterwaro> thronged about the prince in. groups of twenty
and thirty at a time, praising his skill, and loading Mm with protestations
of gratitude.
304
THE MAGNETISESS 305
and learning to lift up its voice against it, a new delusion, based
upon this power of imagination, suddenly arose, and found
apostles among all the alchymists. Numbers of them, forsak-
ing their old pursuits, made themselves magnetisers. It ap-
peared first in the shape of mineral, and afterwards of animal,
magnetism, under which latter name it survives to this day,
and numbers its dupes by thousands.
The mineral magnetisers claim the first notice, as the worthy
predecessors of the quacks of the present day. The honour
claimed for Paracelsus, of being the first of the Rosicrucians,
has been disputed; but his daim to be considered the first of
the magnetisers can scarcely be challenged. It has been al-
ready mentioned of him, in the part of this work which treats
of alchymy, that, like nearly all the distinguished adepts, he
was a physician; and pretended, not only to make gold and
confer immortality, but to cure all diseases. He was the first
who, with the latter view, attributed occult and miraculous
powers to the magnet. Animated apparently by a sincere
conviction that the magnet was the philosopher's stone, which,
if it could not transmute metals, could soothe all human suf-
fering and arrest the progress of decay, he travelled for many
years in Persia and Arabia, in search of the mountain of adam-
ant, so famed in oriental fables. When he practised as a phy-
sician at Basle, he called one of Ms nostrums by the name of
azoth a stone or crystal, which, he said, contained magnetic
properties, and cured epilepsy, hysteria, and spasmodic affec-
tions. He soon found imitators. His fame spread far and
near; and thus were sown the first seeds of that error which
has since taken root and flourished so widely. . J& spite of the
denial of modern practitioners, this mii?t be considered the
origin of magnetism; for we find that, beginning with Paracel-
sus, there was a regular succession of mineral magnetisers until
Mesmer appeared, and gave a new feature to the delusion.
Paracelsus boasted of being able to transplant diseases from
tBe human frame into the earth, by means of the magnet He
said there were six ways by which this might be effected. One
of them will be quite sufficient as a spedfpp. "If a person
suffer from disease, either local or gener^/let the following
306 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
remedy be tried. Take a magnet, impregnated with mummy,*
and mixed with rich earth. In this earth sow some seeds that
have a congruity or homogeneity with the disease; then let this
earth, well sifted and mixed with mummy, be laid in an earthen
vessel; and let the seeds committed to it be watered daily with
a lotion in which the diseased limb or body has been washed.
Thus will the disease be transplanted from the human body
to the seeds which are in the earth. Having done this, trans-
plant the seeds from the earthen vessel to the ground, and
wait till they begin to sprout into herbs; as they increase, the
disease will diminish; and when they have arrived at their full
growth, it will disappear altogether."
Kircher the Jesuit, whose quarrel with the alchymists was
the means of exposing many of their impostures, was a firm
believer in the efficacy of the magnet. Having been applied to
by a patient afflicted with hernia, he directed the man to swal-
low a small magnet reduced to powder, while he applied at
the same time to the external swelling, a poultice made of
filings of iron. He expected that by this means the magnet,
when It got to the corresponding place inside, would draw in
the Iron, and with the tumour; which would thus, he said, be
safely and expeditiously reduced.
As this new doctrine of magnetism spread, it was found that
wounds inflicted with any metallic substance could be cured
by the magnet. In process of time, the delusion so increased,
* Mummies were of several kinds, and were all of great use in magnetic
medicines. Paracelsus enumerates six kinds of mummies ; the first four only
differing in the composition used by different people for preserving their
dead, are the Egyptian, Arabian, Pisasphaltos, and Libyan, The fifth
mummy of peculiar power was made from criminals that had been hanged;
"for from such there is a gentle siccation, that expungeth the watery
humour, without destroying the oil and spirituall, which is cherished by
the heavenly luminaries, and strengthened continually by the affluence and
impulses of the celestial spirits; whence it may be properly called by the
name of constellated or celestial mummie." The sixth kind of mummy
was made of corpuscles, or spiritual effluences, radiated from the living
body ; though we cannot get very clear ideas on this head, or respecting the
manner in which they were caught. Medicma Diatastica; or, Sympatheti-
cal Mummie, abstracted from the Works of Paracelsus, and translated out
of the Latin, by Fernando Parkhurst, Gent. London, 1653, pp. 2, 7.
Quoted by the Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. xii, p. 415.
THE MAGNETISERS 307
that it was deemed sufficient to magnetise a sword, to cure any
hurt which that sword might have inflicted! This was the
origin of the celebrated "weapon-salve," which excited so mucE
attention about the middle of the seventeenth century. The
following was the recipe given by Paracelsus for the cure of
any wounds inflicted by a sharp weapon, except such as had
penetrated the heart, the brain, or the arteries. "Take of moss
growing on the head of a thief who has been hanged and left
in the air; of real mummy; of human blood, still warm of
each, one ounce; of human suet, two ounces; of linseed oil,
turpentine, and Armenian bole of each, two drachms. Mix
all well in a mortar, and keep the salve in an oblong, narrow
urn." With this salve the weapon, after being dipped in the
blood from the wound, was to be carefully anointed, and then
laid by in a cool place. In the mean time, the wound was to
be duly washed with fair clean water, covered with a clean,
soft, linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse of purulent
or other matter. Of the success of this treatment, says the
writer of the able article on Animal Magnetism, in the twelfth
volume of the Foreign Quarterly Review, there cannot be the
least doubt; "for surgeons at this moment follow exactly the
same method, except anointing the weapon I"
The weapon-salve continued to be much spoken of on the
Continent, and many eager claimants appeared for the honour
of the invention. Dr. Fludd, or A Fluctibus, the RosicrudaB,
who has been already mentioned in a previous part of this
volume, was very zealous in introducing it Into England. He
tried it with great success in several cases, and no wonder, for
while he kept up the spirits of his patients by boasting of the
great efficacy of the salve, he never neglected those common,
but much more important remedies, of washing, bandaging, &c.
which the experience of all ages had declared sufficient for the
purpose. Fludd moreover declared, that the magnet was a
remedy for all diseases, if properly applied; but that man
having, like the earth, a north and a south pole, magnetism
could only take place when his body was in a boreal position!
In the midst of his popularity, an attack was made upon him
and his favourite remedy, the salve; which, however, did little
308 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
or nothing to diminish the belief in its efficacy. One "Parson
Foster" wrote a pamphlet, entitled Hyplocrisma Spongus; or, a
Spunge to wipe away the Weapon-Salve; in which he declared,
that it was as bad as witchcraft to use or recommend such an
unguent; that it was invented by the Devil, who, at the last
day, would seize upon every person who had given it the
slightest encouragement. "In fact/ 7 said Parson Foster, "the
Devil himself gave it to Paracelsus; Paracelsus to the emperor;
the emperor to the courtier; the courtier to Baptista Porta;
and Baptista Porta to Dr. Fludd, a doctor of physic, yet
living and practising in the famous city of London, who now
stands tooth and nail for it." Dr. Fludd, thus assailed, took
up the pen in defence of his unguent, in a reply called The
Squeezing of Parson Foster's Spiinge; wherein the Spunge-
bearer's immodest carriage and behaviour towards his brethren
is detected; the bitter flames of his slanderous reports are, by
the sharp vinegar of truth, corrected and quite extinguished;
and lastly, the virtuous validity of his spunge in wiping away
the weapon-salve, is crushed out and clean abolished.
Shortly after this dispute a more distinguished believer in
the weapon-salve made his appearance in the person of Sir
Kenelm Digby, the son of Sir Everard Digby, who was exe-
cuted for his participation in the Gunpowder Plot. This gen-
tleman, who, in other respects, was an accomplished scholar
and an able man, was imbued with all the extravagant notions
of the alchjmaists. He believed in the philosopher's stone, and
wished to engage Descartes to devote his energies to the dis-
covery of the elixir of life, or some other means by which the
existence of man might be prolonged to an indefinite period.
He gave Ms wife, the beautiful Venetia Anastasia Stanley, a
dish of capons fed upon vipers, according to the plan supposed
to have been laid down by Arnold of Villeneuve, in the hope
that she might thereby preserve her loveliness for a century.
If such a man once took up the idea of the weapon-salve, it was
to be expected that he would make the most of it. Into his
hands, however, it was changed from an unguent into a powder,
and was called the powder of sympathy. He pretended that
he had acquired the knowledge of it from a Carmelite friar,
THE MAGNETISERS 309
who had learned It in Persia or Armenia, from an oriental
philosopher of great renown. King James, the Prince of
Wales, the Duke of Buchingham, and many other noble per-
sonages, believed In its efficacy. The following remarkable
instance of his mode of cure was read by Sir Kenelm to a
society of learned men at Montpellier. Mr. James Howell, the
well-known author of the Dendrologia, and of various letters,
coining by chance as two of Ms best friends were fighting a
duel ? rushed between them and endeavoured to part them. He
seized the sword of one of the combatants by the hilt, while, at
the same time, he grasped the other by the blade. Being trans-
ported with fury one against the other, they struggled to rid
themselves of the hindrance caused by their friend; and in so
doing, the one whose sword was held by the blade by Mr.
Howell, drew it away roughly, and nearly cut Ms hand off,
severing the nerves and muscles, and penetrating to the bone.
The other, almost at the same instant, disengaged his sword,
and aimed a blow at the head of his antagonist, wMch Mr.
Howell observing, raised his wounded hand with the rapidity of
thought to prevent the blow. The sword fell on the back of
Ms already wounded hand, and cut it severely. "It seemed,"
said Sir Kenelm Digby, "as if some unlucky star raged over
them, that they should have both shed the blood of that dear
friend for whose life they would have given their own, if they
had been in their proper mind at the time." Seeing Mr.
HowelPs face all besmeared with blood from Ms wounded hand,
they both threw down their swords and embraced Mm, and
bound up Ms hand with a garter, to close the veins which
were cut and bled profusely. , They then conveyed him home,
and sent for a surgeon. King James, who was much attached
to Mr. Howell, afterwards sent his own surgeon to attend him.
We must continue the narrative in the words of Sir Kenelm
Digby: "It was my chance/ 5 says he, "to be lodged hard by
Mm; and four or five days after, as I was making myself
ready, he came to my house, and prayed me to view Ms wounds.
Tor I understand,' said he, 'that you have extraordinary
remedies on such occasions; and my surgeons apprehend some
fear that it may grow to a gangrene, and so the hand must be
3IO EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
cut off/ In effect, Ms countenance discovered that he was in
much pain, which, he said, was insupportable in regard of the
extreme Inflammation. I told him I would wilEngly serve him;
but if, haply ? he knew the manner how I could cure him, with-
out touching or seeing him, it might be that he would not
expose himself to my manner of curing; because he would
think it, peradventure, either ineffectual or superstitious. He
replied, The many wonderful things which people have related
unto me of your way of inedicinement makes me nothing doubt
at all of its efficacy; and all that I have to say unto you is
comprehended in the Spanish proverb, Hagase el mttagro y
ftagalo Mahoma Let the miracle be done, though Mahomet
do it. 7
"I asked him then for any thing that had the blood upon
it: so he presently sent for his garter, wherewith his hand was
first bound; and as I called for a basin of water, as if I would
wash my hands, I took a handful of powder of vitriol, which
I had in my study, and presently dissolved it. As soon as the
bloody garter was brought me, I put it in the basin, observing,
in the interim, what Mr. Howell did, who stood talking with
a gentleman in a corner of my chamber, not regarding at all
what I was doing. He started suddenly, as if he had found
some strange alteration in himself. I asked him what he ailed?
<I know not what ails me, but I find that I feel no more pain.
Methinks that a pleasing kind of freshness, 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,
then, you feel already so much good of my medicament, I ad-
vise you to cast away all your plasters; only keep the wound
dean, and in a moderate temper betwixt heat and cold/ This
was presently reported to the Duke of Buchingham, and, a
little after, to the king, who were both very curious to know
the circumstances of the business; 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 before Mr. HowelPs
servant came running, and saying that his master felt as
much burning as ever he had done, if not more; for the heat
was such as if his hand were betwixt coals of fire. I answered
THE M AGNETISERS 311
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 would provide accordingly; for his master should
be free from that inflammation, it might be before he could
possibly return to him. But, in case he found no ease, I
wished him to come presently back again; if not, he might
forbear coining. Thereupon he went, and, at the instant I did
put the garter again into the water; thereupon he found Ms
master without any pain at all. To be brief, there was no
sense of pain afterwards; but within five or six days the
wounds were cicatrised and entirely healed."
Such is the marvellous story of Sir Kenelm Digby. Other
practitioners of that age were not behind Mm in their pre-
tensions. It was not always thought necessary to use either
the powder of sympathy, or the weapon-salve, to effect a cure.
It was sufficient to magnetise the sword with tne hand (the
first faint dawn of the animal theory), to relieve any pain
the same weapon had caused. They asserted, that if they
stroked the sword upwards with their fingers, the wounded
person would feel immediate relief; but if they stroked it
downwards, he would feel intolerable pain.*
Another very singular notion of the power and capabilities
of magnetism was entertained at the same time. It was be-
lieved that a sympathetic alphabet could be made on the flesh,
by means of wMch persons could correspond with each other,
and communicate all their ideas with the rapidity of volition,
although thousands of miles apart. From the arms of two
persons a piece of flesh was cut, and mutually transplanted,
wMle still warm and bleeding. The piece so severed grew to
the new arm on wMch it was placed; but still retained so close
a sympathy with its native limb, that its old possessor was
always sensible of any injury done to it. Upon these trans-
planted pieces were tatooed the letters of the alphabet; so that,
when a communication was to be made, either of the persons,
though the wide Atlantic rolled between them, had only to
prick Ms arm with a magnetic needle, and straightaway his
* Reginald Scott, quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in the notes of the Lay oj
the last Minstrel, c. iii. v. xxiii.
312 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
friend received Intimation that the telegraph was at work.
Whatever letter he pricked on his own arm pained the same
letter on the arm of Ms correspondent.
Contemporary with Sir Kenelm Digby was the no less
famous Mr. Valentine Greatraks, who, without mentioning
magnetism, or laying claim to any theory, practised upon him-
self and others a deception much more akin to the animal
magnetism of the present day than the mineral magnetism it
was then so much the fashion to study. He was the son of
an Irish gentleman, of good education and property. In the
county of Cork. He fell, at an early age, into a sort of melan-
choly derangement. After some time he had an impulse, or
strange persuasion in his mind, which continued to present
itself, whether he were sleeping or waking, that God had given
Mm the power of curing the king's evil. He mentioned this
persuasion to his wife, who very candidly told him that he
was a fool. He was not quite sure of this, notwithstanding
the high authority from which it came, and determined to
make trial of the power that was in him. A few days after-
wards, he went to one William Maher, of Saltersbridge, in
the parish of Lismore, who was grievously afflicted with the
king's evil in his eyes, cheek, and throat. Upon this man, who
was of abundant faith, he laid his hands, stroked him, and
prayed fervently. He had the satisfaction to see him heal
considerably in the course of a few days; and finally, with
the aid of other remedies, to be quite cured. This success
encouraged him in the belief that he had a divine mission.
Day after day he had further impulses from on high that he
was called upon to cure the ague also. In the course of time
lie extended Ms powers to the curing of epilepsy, ulcers, aches,
and lameness. All the county of Cork was in a commotion to
see this extraordinary physician, who certainly operated some
very great benefit in cases where the disease was heightened
by hypochondria and depression of spirits. According to his
own account,* such great multitudes resorted to him from
divers places, that he had no time to follow his own business,
* Greatraks' Account of himself, in a letter to the Honourable Robert
Boyle.
THE MAGNETISERS 313
or enjoy the company of Ms family and friends. He was obliged
to set aside three days in the week, from six in the morning
till six at night, during which time only he laid hands upon
all that came. Still the crowds which thronged around him
were so great, that the neighbouring towns were not able to
accommodate them. He thereupon left his house in the coun-
try, and went to Youghal, where the resort of sick people, not
only from all parts of Ireland, but from England, continued
so great, that the magistrates were afraid they would infect the
place by their diseases. Several of these poor credulous
people no sooner saw him than they fell into fits, and he re-
stored them by waving his hand in their faces, and praying
over them. Nay, he affirmed that the touch of his glove had
driven pains away, and, on one occasion, cast out from a
woman several devils, or evil spirits, who tormented her day
and night. "Every one of these devils," says Greatraks, "was
like to choke her when it came up Into her throat." It is evi-
dent from this that the woman's complaint was nothing but
hysteria.
The clergy of the diocese of Lismore, who seem to have had
much clearer notions of Greatraks' pretensions than their
parishioners, set their faces against the new prophet and worker
of miracles. He was cited to appear in the Dean's Court, and
prohibited from laying on his hands for the future: but he
cared nothing for the Church. He imagined that he derived
Ms powers direct from heaven, and continued to throw people
into fits, and bring them to their senses again, as usual, almost
exactly after the fashion of modern magnetisers. His repu-
tation became, at last, so great, that Lord Conway sent to
him from London, begging that he wmdd come over im-
mediately to cure a grievous headache wMeh Ms lady had
suffered for several years, and which the principal physicians
of England had been unable to relieve.
Greatraks accepted the invitation, and tried his manipula-
tions and prayers upon Lady Conway. He failed, however, in
affording any relief. The poor lady's headache was excited by
causes too serious to allow her any help, even from faith and
a lively imagination. He lived for some months in Lord Con-
314 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
way's house, at Ragley, In Warwickshire, operating cures
similar to those he had performed in Ireland* He afterwards
removed to London, and took a house in Lincoln's-Inn Fields,
which soon became the daily resort of all the nervous and
credulous women of the metropolis. A very amusing account
of Greatraks at this time (1665) is given in the second volume
of the Miscellanies of St. Evremond, under the title of the
Irish prophet. It is the most graphic sketch ever made of this
early magnetiser. Whether his pretensions were more or less
absurd than those of some of his successors, who have lately
made their appearance among us, would be hard to say.
"When M. de Comminges," says St. Evremond, "was am-
bassador from his most Christian majesty to the king of Great
Britain, there came to London an Irish prophet, who passed
himself off as a great worker of miracles. Some persons of
quality having begged M. de Comminges to invite him to his
house, that they might be witnesses of some of his miracles,
the ambassador promised to satisfy them, as much to gratify
Ms own curiosity as from courtesy to his friends; and gave
notice to Greatraks that he would be glad to see him.
"A rumour of the prophet's coming soon spread all over
the town, and the hotel of M. de Comminges was crowded by
sick persons, who came full of confidence in their speedy cure.
The Irishman made them wait a considerable time for him,
but came at last, in the midst of their impatience, with a grave
and simple countenance, that shewed no signs of his being a
cheat. Monsieur de Comminges prepared to question him
strictly, hoping to discourse with him on the matters that he
had read of in Van Helmont and Bodinus; but he was not able
to do so, much to Ms regret, for the crowd became so great, and
cripples and others pressed around so impatiently to be the
first cured, that the servants were obliged to use threats, and
even force, before they could establish order among them, or
place them in proper ranks.
"Hie prophet affirmed that all diseases were caused by evil
spirits. Every infirmity was with Mm a case of diabolical
possession. The first that was presented to him was a man
suffering from gout and rheumatism, and so severely that the
THE MAGNETISERS 315
physicians had been unable to cure Mm. c Ah/ said the miracle-
worker, C I have seen a good deal of this sort of spirits when I
was in Ireland. They are watery spirits, who bring on cold
sMvering, and excite an overflow of agueous humours, in our
poor bodies.' Then addressing the man, he said, 'Evil spirit,
who hast quitted thy dwelling in the waters to come and afflict
this miserable body, I command thee to quit thy new abode,
and to return to thine ancient habitation!' This said, the sick
man was ordered to withdraw, and another was brought for-
ward in Ms place. TMs new comer said he was tormented
by the melancholy vapours. In fact, he looked like a hypo-
chondriac; one of those persons, diseased in imagination, and
who but too often become so in reality. 'Aerial spirit,' said
the Irishman, 'return, I command thee, into the air; exercise
thy natural vocation of raising tempests, and do not excite
any more wind in this sad unlucky body! 5 This man was
immediately turned away to make room for a tMrd patient,
who, in the Irishman's opinion, was only tormented by a little
bit of a sprite, who could not withstand his command for an
instant. He pretended that he recognised tMs sprite by some
marks wMch were invisible to the company, to whom he turned
with a smile, and said, 'This sort of spirit does not often do
much harm, and is always very diverting.' To hear Mm talk,
one would have imagined that he knew all about spirits,
their names, their rank, their numbers, their employment, and
all the functions they were destined to; and he boasted of being
much better acquainted with the intrigues of demons that he
was with the affairs of men. You can hardly imagine what a
reputation he gained .in a short time. Catholics and Protes-
tants visited Mm from every part, all believing that power
from heaven was in Ms hands. 3 '
After relating a rather equivocal adventure of a husband
and wife, who implored Greatraks to cast out the devil of
dissension wMch had crept in between them, St. Evremond
thus sums up the effect he produced on the popular mind: "So
great was the confidence in him, that the blind fancied they
saw the light wMch they did not see the deaf imagined that
they heard the lame that they walked straight, and the
31 6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
paralytic that they had recovered the use of their limbs. An
Idea of health made the sick forget for a while their maladies;
and imagination, which was not less active in those merely
drawn by curiosity than in the sick, gave a false view to the
one class, from the desire of seeing, as it operated a false cure
on the other from the strong desire of being healed. Such was
the power of the Irishman over the mind, and such was the
influence of the mind upon the body. Nothing was spoken of
in London but his prodigies; and these prodigies were sup-
ported by such great authorities, that the bewildered multitude
believed them almost without examination, while more en-
lightened people did not dare to reject them from their own
knowledge. The public opinion, timid and enslaved, respected
this imperious and, apparently, well-authenticated error.
Those who saw through the delusion kept their opinion to
themselves, knowing how useless it was to declare their dis-
belief to a people filled with prejudice and admiration."
About the same time that Valentine Greatraks was thus
magnetising the people of London, an Italian enthusiast, named
Francisco Bagnone, was performing the same tricks in Italy,
and with as great success. He had only to touch weak women
with Ms hands, or sometimes (for the sake of working more
effectively upon their fanaticism) with a relic, to make them
fall into fits, and manifest all the symptoms of magnetism.
Besides these, several learned men, in different parts of Eu-
rope, directed their attention to the study of the magnet,
believing that it might be rendered efficacious in many diseases.
Van Helmont, in particular, published a work on the effects
of magnetism on the human frame; and Balthazar Gracian, a
Spaniard, rendered himself famous for the boldness of his
views on the subject. "The magnet," said the latter, "attracts
iron; iron is found every where; every thing, therefore, is
under the influence of magnetism. It is only a modification
of the general principle, which establishes harmony or foments
divisions among men. It is the same agent that gives rise to
sympathy, antipathy, and the passions. 33 *
* Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism, by Baron Dupotet de
Sennevoy, p. 315.
THE MAGNETISEKS
317
Baptista Porfa, who, In the wMmsIcal genealogy of the
weapon-salve, given by Parson Foster, in Ms attack upon Dr.
a Fiuctibus, is mentioned as one of its fathers, had also great
faith in the efficacy of the magnet, and operated upon the
imagination of his patients in a manner which was then con-
sidered so extraordinary that he was accused of being a magi-
cian, and prohibited from practising by the court of Rome.
Among others who distinguished themselves by their faith in
magnetism, Sebastian Wirdig and William Maxwell claim
especial notice. Wirdig was professor of medicine at the uni-
versity of Rostock in Mecklenburg, and wrote a treatise called
The New Medicine of the Spirits, which he presented to the
Royal Society of London. An edition of this work was printed
in 1673, in which the author maintained that a magnetic in-
fluence took place, not only between the celestial and terres-
trial bodies, but between all living things. The whole world,
he said, was under the influence of magnetism: life was
preserved by magnetism; death was the consequence of
magnetism!
Maxwell, the other enthusiast, was an admiring disciple of
Paracelsus, and boasted that he had irradiated the obscurity
in which too many of the wonder-working recipes of that great
philosopher were enveloped. His works were printed at
Frankfort in 1679. It would seem, from the following passage,
that he was aware of the great influence of imagination, as
well in the production as in the cure of diseases. "If you wish
to work prodigies/ 5 says he, "abstract from the materiality of
beings increase the sum of spirituality in todies rouse the
spirit from its slumbers. Unless you do one or other of these
things unless you can fyiad lie .idea, you can never perform
any thing good or great." Here> in fact, lies the whole secret
of magnetism, and aH (Husloos of a similar kind: increase the
spirituality rouse tie spirit from its slumbers, or, in other
words, worit upon tibte imagination induce belief and blind
and you may do any thing. This passage, which
with approbation by M. Dupotet* in a work, as
* Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism, p. 318.
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
strongly corroborative of the theory now advanced by the
animal magnetists, Is just the reverse. If they believe they
can work all their wonders by the means so dimly shadowed
forth by Maxwell; what becomes of the universal fluid per-
vading all nature, and which they pretend to pour into weak
and diseased bodies from the tips of their fingers?
Early in the eighteenth century the attention of Europe
was directed to a very remarkable instance of fanaticism, which
has been claimed by the animal magnetists as a proof of their
science. The Convulsionaries of St. Medard, as they were
called, assembled in great numbers round the tomb of their
favourite saint ? the Jansenist priest Paris, and taught one
another how to fall into convulsions. They believed that St.
Paris would cure all their infirmities; and the number of
hysterical women and weak-minded persons of all descriptions
that flocked to the tomb from far and near was so great as
daily to block up all the avenues leading to it. Working them-
selves up to a pitch of excitement, they went off one after the
other into fits, while some of them, still in apparent possession
of all their faculties, voluntarily exposed themselves to suffer-
ings which on ordinary occasions would have been sufficient
to deprive them of life. The scenes that occurred were a
scandal to civilisation and to religion a strange mixture of
obscenity, absurdity, and superstition. While some were
praying on bended knees at the shrine of St. Paris, others
were shrieking and making the most Hdeous noises. The
women especially exerted themselves. On one side of the
chapel there might be seen a score of them, all in convulsions;
while at another as many more, excited to a sort of frenzy,
yielded themselves up to gross indecencies. Some of them
took an Insane delight in being beaten and trampled upon. One
in particular, according to Montegre, whose account we quote,*
was so enraptured with this fll-usage, that nothing but the
hardest blows would satisfy her. While a fellow of Herculean
strength was beating her with all his might with a heavy bar
of iron, she kept continually urging him to renewed exertion.
*Dictionncdre des Sciences Medicates Article ConvuXsionnaires, par
Montegre.
THE MAGXETISERS 319
The harder he struck the better she liked It, exclaiming all
the while, "Well done, brother, well done! Oh, how pleasant
it is! what good you are doing me! Courage, my brother,
courage; strike harder, strike harder still! 75 Another of these
fanatics had, if possible, a still greater love for a beating.
Carre de Montgeron, who relates the circumstance, was unable
to satisfy her with sixty blows of a large sledge-hammer. He
afterwards used the same weapon with the same degree of
strength, for the sake of experiment, and succeeded in battering
a hole in a stone wall at the twenty-fifth stroke. Another
woman, named Sonnet, laid herself down on a red-hot brazier
without flinching, and acquired for herself the nickname of
the Salamander; while others, desirous of a more Illustrious
martyrdom, attempted to crucify themselves. M. Deleuze, in
his critical history of Animal Magnetism , attempts to prove
that this fanatical frenzy was produced by magnetism, and
that these mad enthusiasts magnetised each other without being
aware of It. As well might he Insist that the fanaticism which
tempts the Hindoo bigot to keep his arms stretched in a hori-
zontal position till the sinews wither, or his fingers closed upon
Ms palms till the nails grow out of the backs of his hands, is
also an effect of magnetism!
For a period of sixty or seventy years magnetism was almost
wholly confined to Germany. Men of sense and learning
devoted their attention to the properties of the loadstone; and
one Father Hell, a Jesuit, and professor of astronomy at the
University of Vienna, rendered himself famous by his mag-
netic cures. About the year 1771 or 1772 he invented steel-
plates of a peculiar form, which he applied to the naked body
as a cure for several diseases. In the year 1774 he communi-
cated his system to Anthony Mesmer. The latter improved
upon the Ideas of Father Hell, constructed a new theory of
his own, and became the founder of ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
It has been the fashion among the enemies of the new
delusion to decry Mesmer as an unprincipled adventurer,
while his disciples have extolled him to tifc^ as a regen-
erator of fee human race. la pearly tie same words as the
Rosicrudans applied to their founders, he bast been called the
320 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
discoverer of the secret which brings man into more intimate
connexion with his Creator, the deliverer of the soul from the
debasing trammels of the flesh, the man who enables us to set
time at defiance, and conquer the obstructions of space. A
careful sifting of Ms pretensions, and examination of the evi-
dence brought forward to sustain them, will soon shew which
opinion is the more correct. That the writer of these pages
considers Mm in the light of a man who, deluding himself, was
the means of deluding others, may be inferred from his finding
a place in these volumes, and figuring among the Flamels, the
Agrippas, the Borris, the Bohmens, and the Cagliostros.
He was born in May 1734, at Mersburg, in Swabia, and
studied medicine at the University of Vienna. He took his
degrees in 1766, and chose the influence of the planets on the
human body as the subject of his inaugural dissertation.
Having treated the matter quite in the style of the old astro-
logical physicians, he was exposed to some ridicule both then
and afterwards. Even at this early period some faint ideas
of Ms great theory were germinating in his mind. He main-
tained in Ms dissertation "that the sun, moon, and fixed stars
mutually affect each other in their orbits; that they cause and
direct in our earth a flux and reflux not only in the sea, but
in the atmosphere, and affect in a similar manner all organised
bodies through the medium of a subtle and mobile fluid, wMch
pervades the universe, and associates all things together in
mutual intercourse and harmony." TMs influence, he said, was
particularly exercised on the nervous system, and produced two
states, wMch he called intension and remission, wMch seemed
to Mm to account for the different periodical revolutions ob-
servable in several maladies. When in after-life he met with
Father Hell, he was confirmed by that person's observations
in the truth of many of Ms own ideas. Having caused Hell
to make Mm some magnetic plates, he determined to try ex-
periments with them Mmsdf for Ms further satisfaction.
He tried accordingly, and was astonished at Ms success.
The faith of their wearers operated wonders with the metallic
plates. Mesmer made due reports to Father Hell of all he
had done, and the latter published them as the results of his
THE MAGNETISERS 321
own happy invention, and speaking of Mesmer as a physician
whom he had employed to work under Mm. Mesmer took
offence at being thus treated, considering Mmself a far greater
personage than Father HelL He claimed the invention as his
own, accused Hell of a breach of confidence, and stigmatised
Mm as a mean person, anxious to turn the discoveries of others
to Ms own account. Hell replied, and a very pretty quarrel
was the result, wMch afforded small talk for months to the
literati of Vienna. Hell ultimately gained the victory. Mes-
mer, nothing daunted, continued to promulgate Ms views till
he stumbled at last upon the animal theory.
One of Ms patients was a young lady, named (Esterline, who
suffered under a convulsive malady. Her attacks were periodi-
cal, and attended by a rush of blood to the head, followed by
delirium and syncope. These symptoms he soon succeeded in
reducing under his system of planetary influence, and imagined
he could foretell the periods of accession and remission. Hav-
ing thus accounted satisfactorily to Mmself for the origin of
the disease, the idea struck Mm that he could operate a certain
cure if he could ascertain beyond doubt, what he had long
believed, that there existed between the bodies wMch compose
our globe an action equally reciprocal and similar to that of
the heavenly bodies, by means of wMch he could imitate arti-
ficially the periodical revolutions of the flux and reflux before
mentioned. He soon convinced Mmself that this action did
exist. When trying the metallic plates of Father Hell, he
thought their efficacy depended on their form; but he found
afterwards that he could produce the same effects without using
them at all, merely by passing Ms hands downwards towards
the feet of the patient, even when at a considerable distance.
This completed the theory of Mesmer. He wrote an account
of Ms discovery to all the learned societies of Europe, soliciting
their investigation. The Academy of Sciences at Berlin was
the only one that answered Mm, and their answer was any
thing but favourable to Ms system or flattering to Mmsdf .
Still he was not discouraged. He maintained to aH wio would
listen to Mm that the magnetic matter, or fluid, pervaded all
the universe that every Mmm& body contained it, and could
322 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
communicate the superabundance of it to another by an exer-
tion of the will. Writing to a friend from Vienna, he said, "I
have observed that the magnetic Is almost the same thing as
the electric fluid, and that It may be propagated in the same
manner, by means of Intermediate bodies. Steel Is not the only
substance adapted to this purpose. I have rendered paper,
bread, wool, silk, stones, leather, glass, wood, men, and dogs
In short, every thing I touched, magnetic to such a degree,
that these substances produced the same effects as the load-
stone on diseased persons. I have charged jars with magnetic
matter in the same way as Is done with electricity."
Mesmer did not long find his residence at Vienna as agree-
able as he wished. His pretensions were looked upon with
contempt or indifference, and the case of Mademoiselle (Ester-
line brought Mm less fame than notoriety. He determined to
change Ms sphere of action, and travelled into Swabia and
Switzerland. In the latter country he met with the celebrated
Father Gassner, who, like Valentine Greatraks, amused Mmself
by casting out devils, and healing the sick by merely laying
hands upon them. At Ms approach, delicate girls fell into con-
vulsions, and hypochondriacs fancied themselves cured. His
house was daily besieged by the lame, the blind, and the hys-
teric. Mesmer at once acknowledged the efficacy of his cures,
and declared that they were the obvious result of Ms own
newly-discovered power of magnetism. A few of the father's
patients were forthwith subjected to the manipulations of Mes-
mer, and the same symptoms were induced. He then tried his
hand upon some paupers in the hospitals of Berne and Zurich,
and succeeded, according to his own account, but no other
person's, in curing an ophthalmia and a gutta serena. With
memorials of these achievements he returned to Vienna, in
the hope of silencing his enemies, or at least forcing them to
respect his newly-acquired reputation, and to examine Ms sys-
tem more attentively.
His second appearance in that capital was not more auspi-
cious than the first, fie undertook to cure a Mademoiselle
Paridis, who WES quite blind, and subject to convulsions. He
magnetised her several times, and then declared that she was
THE MAGNET1SERS 323
cured; at least, If she was not, it was her fault and not Ms. An
eminent oculist of that day, named Barth, went to visit her,
and declared that she was as blind as ever; whMe her family
said she was as much subject to convulsions as before. Mes-
mer persisted that she was cured. Like the French philoso-
pher, he would not allow facts to interfere with Ms theory.*
He declared that there was a conspiracy against him; and that
Mademoiselle Paradis, at the instigation of her family, feigned
blindness in order to injure Ms reputation!
The consequences of tMs pretended cure taught Mesmer that
Vienna was not the sphere for Mm. Paris, the idle, the de-
bauched, the pleasure-hunting, the novelty-loving, was the
scene for a pMlosopher like Mm, and tMther he repaired ac-
cordingly. He arrived at Paris in 1778, and began modestly
by making Mmself and Ms theory known to the principal phy-
sicians. At first, his encouragement was but slight; he found
people more inclined to laugh at than to patronize Mm. But
he was a man who had great confidence in Mmself, and of a
perseverance wMch no difficulties could overcome. He Mred
a sumptuous apartment, wMch he opened to all comers who
chose to make trial of the new power of nature. M. D'Eslon,
a physician of great reputation, became a convert; and from
that time, animal magnetism, or, as some called it, mesmerism,
became the fashion in Paris. The women were quite enthusi-
astic about it, and their admiring tattle wafted its fame through
every grade of society. Mesmer was the rage; and Mgh and
low, rich and poor, credulous and unbelieving, all hastening to
convince themselves of the power of tMs mighty magician,
who made such magnificent promises. Mesmer, who knew as
well as any man living the influence of the imagination, deter-
mined that, on that score, uotMng should be wanting to
heighten the effect of the magnetic charm. In all Paris, there
was not a house so charmingly furnished as Monsieur Mes-
*An enthuiastic philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had
constructed a very satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was
not a litiie proud of it. "But the facts, my dear fellow," said Ms friend,
"the facts do not agree with your theory/* "Don't they?" replied the philosr
opher, shrugging his shoulders, "then, tawt pis pour le f&itefm much the
worse for the facts I
324 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
mer j s. Richly-stained glass shed a dim religious light on his
spacious saloons, which were almost covered with mirrors.
Orange-blossoms scented all the air of his corridors; incense
of the most expensive kinds burned in antique vases on Ms
chimney-pieces; seolian harps sighed melodious music from dis-
tant chambers; while sometimes a sweet female voice, from
above or below, stole softly upon the mysterious silence that
was kept in the house, and insisted upon from all visitors.
( Was ever any thing so delightful!" cried all the Wittitterleys
of Paris, as they thronged to his house in search of pleasant
excitement; "So wonderful!" said the pseudo-philosophers,
who would believe any thing if it were the fashion; "So amus-
ing!" said the worn-out debauches, who had drained the cup
of sensuality to its dregs, and who longed to see lovely women
in convulsions, with the hope that they might gain some new
emotions from the sight.
The following was the mode of operation: In the centre of
the saloon was placed an oval vessel, about four feet in its
longest diameter, and one foot deep. In this were laid a num-
ber of wine-bottles, filled with magnetised water, well corked-
up, and disposed in radii, with their necks outwards. Water
was then poured into the vessel so as just to cover the bottles,
and filings of iron were thrown in occasionally to heighten the
magnetic effect. The vessel was then covered with an iron
cover, pierced through with many holes, and was called the
baquet. From each hole issued a long movable rod of iron,
which the patients were to apply to such parts of their bodies
as were afflicted. Around this baquet the patients were directed
to sit, holding each other by the hand, and pressing their knees
together as closely as possible, to facilitate the passage of the
magnetic fluid from one to the other.
Then came in the assistant magnetisers, generally strong,
handsome young men, to pour into the patient from their
finger-tips fresh streams of the wondrous fluid. They em-
braced the patient between the knees, rubbed them gently
down the spine and the course of the nerves, using gentle pres-
sure upon the breasts of the ladies, and staring them out of
countenance to magnetise them by the eye! AH this time the
THE MAGNETISERS 325
most rigorous silence was maintained, with the exception of a
few wild notes on the harmonica or the piano-forte, or the melo-
dious voice of a hidden opera-singer swelling softly at long
intervals* Gradually the cheeks of the ladies began to glow,
their imaginations to become inflamed; and off they went, one
after the other, in convulsive fits. Some of them sobbed and
tore their hair, others laughed till the tears ran from their
eyes, while others shrieked and screamed and yelled till they
became insensible altogether.
This was the crisis of the delirium. In the midst of it, the
chief actor made his appearance, waving his wand, like Pros-
pero, to work new wonders. Dressed in a long robe of lilac-
coloured silk richly embroidered with gold flowers, bearing In
his hand a white magnetic rod, and with a look of dignity which
would have sat well on an eastern caliph, he marched with
solemn strides into the room. He awed the still sensible by his
eye, and the violence of their symptoms diminished. He
'stroked the insensible with his hands upon the eyebrows and
down the spine; traced figures upon their breast and abdomen
with his long white wand, and they were restored to conscious-
ness. They became calm, acknowledged Ms power, and said
they felt streams of cold or burning vapour passing through
their frames, according as he waved Ms wand or Ms fingers
before them.
"It is impossible," says M. Dupotet, "to conceive the sensa-
tion which Mesmer's experiments created in Paris. No theo-
logical controversy, in the earlier ages of the Catholic Church,
was ever conducted with greater bitterness." His adversaries
denied the discovery; some calling Mm a quack, others a fool,
and others again, like the Abbe Fiard, a man who had sold
Mmself to the Devil! His friends were as extravagant in their
praise, as Ms foes were in their censure. Paris was inundated
with pamphlets upon the subject, as many defending as
attacking the doctrine. At court, the queen expressed herself
in favour of it, and nothing else was to be heard of ia society.
By the advice of M. D'Eslon, Mesmer challenged an exam-
ination of Ms doctrine by the Faculty of Medicine. He pro-
posed to select twenty-four patients, twelve of whom he would
326 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAK DELUSIONS
treat magnetically, leaving the other twelve to be treated by
the faculty according to the old and approved methods. He
also stipulated that, to prevent disputes, the government should
nominate certain persons who were not physicians, to be pres-
ent at the experiments; and that the object of the inquiry
should be, not how these effects were produced, but whether
they were really afficacious in the cure of any disease. The
faculty objected to limit the inquiry in this manner, and the
proposition fell to the ground.
Mesmer now wrote to Marie Antoinette, with a view of
securing her influence in obtaining for Mm the protection of
government. He wished to have a chateau and Its lands given
to him, witli a handsome yearly income, that he might be
enabled to continue his experiments at leisure, untroubled by
the persecution of his enemies. He hinted the duty of gov-
ernments to support men of science, and expressed his fear,
that if he met no more encouragement, he should be compelled
to carry his great discovery to some other land more willing
to appreciate him. "In the eyes of your majesty," said he,
"four or five hundred thousand francs, applied to a good pur-
pose, are of no account. The welfare and happiness of your
people are every thing. My discovery ought to be received
and rewarded with a munificence worthy of the monarch to
whom I shall attach myself." The government at last offered
him a pension of twenty thousand francs, and the cross of the
order of St. Michael, if he had made any discovery in medicine,
and would communicate it to physicians nominated by the
king. The latter part of the proposition was not agreeable to
Mesiner. He feared the unfavourable report of the king's
physicians; and, breaking off the negotiation, spoke of his
disregard of money, and Ms wish to have Ms discovery at once
recognised by the government. He then retired to Spa, in a
fit of disgust, upon pretence of drinking the waters for the
benefit of Ms health.
After he had left Paris, the Faculty of Medicine called upon
M. D'Eslon, for the tMrd and last time, to renounce the doc-
trine of animal magnetism, or be expelled from their body,
M. D'Eslon, so far from doing this, declared that he had dis-
THE MAGNETISERS 327
covered new secrets, and solicited further examination. A
royal commission of the Faculty of Medicine was, in conse-
quence, appointed on the 12th of March 1784, seconded by
another commission of the Academic des Sciences, to investi-
gate the phenomena and report upon them. The first com-
mission was composed of the principal physicians of Paris;
while, among the eminent men comprised in the latter, were
Benjamin Franklin, Lavoisier, and Bailly the historian of
astronomy. Mesmer was formally invited to appear before
this body, but absented himself from day to day, upon one
pretence or another. M. D'Eslon was more honest, because
he thoroughly believed in the phenomena, which it is to be
questioned if Mesmer ever did, and regularly attended the sit-
tings and performed experiments.
Bailly has thus described the scenes of which he was a wit-
ness in the course of this investigation. "The sick persons,
arranged in great numbers and in several rows around the
baquet, receive the magnetism by all these means : by the iron
rods which convey it to them from the baquet by the cords
wound round their bodies by the connexions of the thumb,
which conveys to them the magnetism of their neighbours
and by the sounds of a piano-forte, or of an agreeable voice,
diffusing the magnetism in the air. The patients were also
directly magnetised by means of the finger and wand of the
magnetiser moved slowly before their faces, above or behind
their heads, and on the diseased parts, always observing the
direction of the holes. The magnetiser acts by fixing his eyes
on them. But above all, they are magnetised by the applica-
tion of his hands and the pressure of Ms fingers on the hypo-
chondres and on the regions of the abdomen; an application
often continued for a long time sometimes for several hours.
"Meanwhile the patients in their different conditions present
a very varied picture. Some are calm, tranquil, and experience
no effect. Others cough, spit, feel slight pains, local or gen-
eral heat, and have sweatings. Others again are agitated and
tormented with convulsions. These convulsions are remark-
able in regard to the number affected with them, to tlieir dura-
tion and force. As soon as one begins to be convulsed, several
328 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
others are affected. The commissioners have observed some
of these convulsions last more than three hours. They are
accompanied with expectorations of a muddy viscous water,
brought away by violent efforts. Sometimes streaks of blood
have been observed in this fluid. These convulsions are char-
acterised by the precipitous, involuntary motion of all the
limbs, and of the whole body; by the contraction of the throat
by the leaping motions of the hypochondria and the epigas-
trium by the dimness and wandering of the eyes by pierc-
ing shrieks, tears, sobbing, and immoderate laughter. They
are preceded or followed by a state of languor or reverie, a
kind of depression, and sometimes drowsiness. The smallest
sudden noise occasions a shuddering; and it was remarked,
that the change of measure in the airs played on the piano-
forte had a great influence on the patients. A quicker motion,
a livelier melody, agitated them more, and renewed the vivacity
of their convulsions.
"Nothing is more astonishing than the spectacle of these
convulsions. One who has not seen them can form no idea
of them. The spectator is as much astonished at the profound
repose of one portion of the patients as at the agitation of the
rest at the various accidents which are repeated, and at the
sympathies which are exhibited. Some of the patients may
be seen devoting their attention exclusively to one another,
rushing towards each other with open arms, smiling, soothing,
and manifesting every symptom of attachment and affection.
All are under the power of the magnetiser; it matters not in
what state of drowsiness they may be, the sound of his voice
a look, a motion of his hand brings them out of it. Among
the patients in convulsions there are always observed a great
many women and very few men/ 7 *
These experiments lasted for about five months. They had
hardly commenced, before Mesmer, alarmed at the loss both
of fame and profit, determined to return to Paris. Some
patients of rank and fortune, enthusiastic believers in his doc-
trine, had followed him to Spa. One of them named Bergasse,
des Commisscdres, redige par M. Bailly. Paris, 1784.
THE HAGNETISERS
329
proposed to open a subscription for him, of one hundred shares,
at one hundred louis each, on condition that he would dis-
close his secret to the subscribers, who were to be permitted
to make whatever use they pleased of it. Mesmer readily
embraced the proposal; and such was the infatuation, that the
subscription was not only filled in a few days, but exceeded by
no less a sum than one hundred and forty thousand francs.
With this fortune he returned to Paris, and recommenced
his experiments, while the royal commission continued theirs.
His admiring pupils, who had paid him so handsomely for Ms
instructions, spread his fame over the country, and established
in all the principal towns of France, "Societies of Harmony/'
for trying experiments and curing all diseases by means of
magnetism. Some of these societies were a scandal to morality,
being joined by profligate men of depraved appetites, who took
a disgusting delight in witnessing young girls in convulsions.
Many of the pretended magnetisers were asserted at the time
to be notorious libertines, who took that opportunity of grat-
ifying their passions.
At last the commissioners published their report, which was
drawn up by the illustrious and unfortunate BaiUy. For clear-
ness of reasoning and strict impartiality it has never been sur-
passed. After detailing the various experiments made, and
their results, they came to the conclusion that the only proof
advanced in support of animal magnetism was the effects it
produced on the human body that those effects could be pro-
duced without passes or other magnetic manipulations that
all these manipulations and passes and ceremonies never pro-
duce any effect at all if employed without the patient's knowl-
edge; and that therefore imagination did, and animal mag-
netism did not, account for the phenomena.
This report was the ruin of Mesmer's reputation in France.
He quitted Paris shortly after, with the three hundred and
forty thousand francs which had been subscribed by his ad-
mirers, and retired to his own country, where he died in 1815,
at the advanced age of eighty-one. But the seeds he had sown
fructified of themselves, nourished and brought to maturity
by the kindly warmth of popular credulity. Imitators sprang
330 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
up In France, Germany, and England, more extravagant than
their master, and claiming powers for the new science which
its founder had never dreamt of. Among others, Cagliostro
made good use of the delusion in extending his claims to be
considered a master of the occult sciences. But he made no
discoveries worthy to be compared to those of the Marquis de
Puysegur and the Chevalier Barbarin, honest men, who began
by deceiving themselves before they deceived others.
The Marquis de Puysegur, the owner of a considerable estate
at Busancy, was one of those who had entered into the sub-
scription for Mesmer. After that individual had quitted
France, he retired to Busancy, with his brother, to try animal
magnetism upon his tenants, and cure the country people of all
manner of diseases. He was a man of great simplicity and
much benevolence, and not only magnetised but fed the sick
that flocked around him. In all the neighbourhood, and in-
deed within a circumference of twenty miles, he was looked
upon as endowed with a power almost divine. His great dis-
covery, as he called it, was made by chance. One day he had
magnetised his gardener; and observing him to fall into a deep
sleep, it occurred to him that he would address a question to
Mm, as he would have done to a natural somnambulist. He
did so, and the man replied with much clearness and precision.
M. de Puysegur was agreeably surprised : he continued his ex-
periments, and found that, in this state of magnetic somnam-
bulism, the soul of the sleeper was enlarged, and brought into
more intimate communion with all nature, and more especially
with him, M. de Puysegur. He found that all further manipu-
lations were unnecessary; that, without speaking or making
any sign, he could convey his will to the patient; that he could,
in fact, converse with him, soul to soul, without the employ-
ment of any physical operation whatever!
Simultaneously with this marvellous discovery he made an-
other, which reflects equal credit upon his understanding.
Like Valentine Greatraks, he found it hard work to magnetise
all that came-^that he had not even time to take the repose
and relaxation which were necessary for his health. In this
emergency he hit upon a clever expedient He had heard Mes-
THE MAGNETISESS 331
met say that he could magnetise bits of wood: why should he
not be able to magnetise a whole tree? It was no sooner
thought than done. There was a large elm on the village green
at Busancy, under which the peasant girls used to dance on
festive occasions, and the old men to sit, drinking their mn
du pays, on the fine summer evenings. M. de Puysegur pro-
ceeded to this tree and magnetised it, by first touching it
with his hands, and then retiring a few steps from it; aH the
while directing streams of the magnetic fluid from the branches
toward the trunk, and from the trunk toward the root. This
done, he caused circular seats to be erected round it, and
cords suspended from it in aU directions. When the patients
had seated themselves, they twisted the cords round the dis-
eased parts of their bodies, and held one another firmly by
their thumbs to form a direct channel of communication for
the passage of the fluid.
M. de Puysegur had now two "hobbies" the man with the
enlarged soul and the magnetic elm* The infatuation of him-
self and his patients cannot be better expressed than in Ms
own words. Writing to Ms brother, on the 17th of May
1784, he says, "If you do not come, my dear friend, you will
not see my extraordinary man, for Ms health is now almost
quite restored. I continue to make use of the happy power for
wMch I am indebted to M. Mesmer. Every day I bless Ms
name; for I am very useful, and produce many salutary effects
on all the sick poor in the neighbourhood. They flock around
my tree; there were more than one hundred and tMrty of
them tMs morning. It is the best baquet possible; not a kaf
of it but communicates health! all fed, more or less, the good
effects of it. You win be delighted to see the charming pic-
ture of humanity wMch this presents. I have only one regret
it is, thiat I cannot touch all who come. But my magnetised
man my intelligence sets me at ease. He teaches me what
conduct I should adopt. According to him, it is not at all nec-
essary that I should touch every one; a look, a gesture, even a
wish, is sufficient. And it is one of the most ignorant peasants
of the country that teaches me this! When he is in a crisis,
332 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
I know of nothing more profound, more prudent, more clear-
sighted (clairvoyant) than he is."
In another letter, describing his first experiment with the
magnetic tree, he says, "Yesterday evening I brought my first
patient to it. As soon as I had put the cord round him he
gazed at the tree; and, with an air of astonishment which I
cannot describe, exclaimed, 'What is it that I see there?' His
head then sunk down, and he fell into a perfect fit of somnam-
bulism. At the end of an hour, I took him home to his house
again, when I restored him to his senses. Several men and
women came to tell him what he had been doing. He main-
tained it was not true; that, weak as he was, and scarcely
able to walk, it would have been scarcely possible for him to
have gone down stairs and walked to the tree. To-day I have
repeated the experiment on him, and with the same success.
I own to you that my head turns round with pleasure to think
of the good I do, Madame de Puysegur, the friends she has
with her, my servants, and, in fact, all who are near me, feel
an amazement, mingled with admiration, which cannot be
described; but they do not experience the half of my sensa-
tions. Without my tree, which gives me rest, and which will
give me still more, I should be in a state of agitation, incon-
sistent, I believe, with my health. I exist too much, if I may
be allowed to use the expression."
In another letter, he descants still more poetically upon his
gardener with the enlarged soul. He says, "It is from this
simple man, this tall and stout rustic, twenty-three years of
age, enfeebled by disease, or rather by sorrow, and therefore
the more predisposed to be affected by any great natural agent
it is from this man, I repeat, that I derive instruction and
knowledge. When in the magnetic state, he is no longer a
peasant who can hardly utter a single sentence; he is a being,
to describe whom I cannot find a name. I need not speak;
I have only to think before him, when he instantly understands
and answers me. Should any body come into the room, he
sees him, if I desire it (but not else), and addresses him, and
says what I wish to say; not indeed exactly as I dictate to
him, but as truth requires. When he wants to add more than
THE MAGNETISERS 333
I deem it prudent strangers should hear, I stop the low of his
Ideas, and of his conversation in the middle of a word, and
give it quite a different turn!"
Among other persons attracted to Busancy by the report
of these extraordinary occurrences was M. Cloquet, the Re-
ceiver of Finance. His appetite for the marvellous being
somewhat insatiable, he readily believed all that was told him
by M. de Puysegur. He also has left a record of what he
saw, and what he credited, which throws a still clearer light
upon the progress of the delusion.^ He says that the patients
he saw in the magnetic state had an appearance of deep sleep,
during which all the physical faculties were suspended, to the
advantage of the intellectual faculties. The eyes of the pa-
tients were closed, the sense of hearing was abolished; and
they awoke only at the voice of their magnetiser. "If any one
touched a patient during a crisis, or even the chair on which he
was seated," says M. Cloquet, "it would cause him much pain
and suffering, and throw him into convulsions. During the
crisis, they possess an extraordinary and supernatural power,
by which, on touching a patient presented to them, they can
feel what part of his body is diseased, even by merely passing
their hand over the clothes." Another singularity was, that
these sleepers who could thus discover diseases, see into the
interior of other men's stomachs, and point out remedies, re-
membered absolutely nothing after the magnetiser thought
proper to disenchant them. The time that elapsed between
their entering the crisis and their coming out of it was oblit-
erated. Not only had the magnetiser the power of making
himself heard by the somnambulists, but he could make them
follow him by merely pointing his finger at them from a dis-
tance, though they had their eyes the whole time completely
closed.
Such was animal magnetism under the auspices of the Mar-
quis de Puysegur. While he was exhibiting these phenomena
around his elm-tree, a magnetiser of another class appeared in
Lyons, in the person of the Chevalier de Barbarin. This
* Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism, by Baron Dupotefc,
p. 73,
334 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
gentleman thought the effort of the will, without any of the
paraphernalia of wands or baquets, was sufficient to throw
patients into the magnetic sleep. He tried it and succeeded.
By sitting at the bedside of his patients, and praying that they
might be magnetised, they went off into a state very similar
to that of the persons who fell under the notice of M. de Puy-
segur. In the course of time a very considerable number of
magnetisers, acknowledging Barbarin for their model, and
called after him Barbarinists, appeared in different parts, and
were believed to have effected some remarkable cures. In
Sweden and Germany this sect of fanatics increased rapidly,
and were called spiritualists, to distinguish them from the fol-
lowers of M. de Puysegur, who were called experimentalists.
They maintained that all the effects of animal magnetism,
which Mesmer believed to be producible by a magnetic fluid
dispersed through nature, were produced by the mere effort of
one human soul acting upon another; that when a connexion
had once been established between a magnetiser and his pa-
tient, the former could communicate his influence to the latter
from any distance, even hundreds of miles, by the will. One
of them thus described the blessed state of a magnetic patient:
"In such a man animal instinct ascends to the highest degree
admissible in this world. The clairvoyant is then a pure ani-
mal, without any admixture of matter. His observations are
those of a spirit. He is similar to God: his eye penetrates all
the secrets of nature. When his attention is fixed on any of
the objects of this world on Ms disease, his death, his well-
beloved, his friends, his relations, his enemies in spirit he
sees them acting; he penetrates into the causes and the con-
sequences of their actions; he becomes a physician, a prophet,
a divinel"*
Let us now see what progress these mysteries made in Eng-
land. In the year 1788 Dr. Mainauduc, who had been a pupil,
first of Mesmer and afterwards of D'Eslon, arrived in Bristol,
and gave public lectures upon magnetism. His success was
quite extraordinary. People of rank and fortune hastened
*See Foreign Review and Continental Miscellany, vol. v. p. 113.
THE MAGNBXISERS 335
from London to Bristol to be magnetised, or to place them-
selves under Ms tuition. Dr. George Winter, in Ms History
of Animal Magnetism, gives the following list of them: "They
amounted to one hundred and twenty-seven, among whom there
were one duke, one duchess, one marcMoness, two countesses,
one earl, one baron, three baronesses, one bishop, five right
honourable gentlemen and ladies, two baronets, seven mem-
bers of parliament, one clergyman, two physicians, seven
surgeons, besides ninety-two gentlemen and ladies of respect-
ability." He afterwards established Mmself in London, where
he performed with equal success.
He began by publisMng proposals to the ladies for the forma-
tion of a Hygeian Society. In tMs paper he vaunted MgMy
the curative effects of animal magnetism, and took great credit
to Mmself for being the first person to introduce it into Eng-
land, and thus concluded: "As tMs method of cure is not
confined to sex or college education, and the fair sex being in
general the most sympathising part of the creation, and most
immediately concerned in the health and care of its offspring,
I tMnk myself bound in gratitude to you, ladies, for the par-
tiality you have shewn me in midwifery, to contribute, as far
as lies in my power, to render you additionally useful and
valuable to the community. With this view I propose forming
my Hygeian Society, to be incorporated with tihat of Paris.
As soon as twenty ladies have given in their names, the day
shall be appointed for the first meeting at my house, when
they are to pay fifteen guineas, wMch will include the whole
expense."
Hannah More, in a letter addressed to Horace Walpole in
September 1788, speaks of the "demoniacal mummeries" of
Dr. Mainauduc, and says he was in a fair way of gaining a
hundred thousand pounds by them, as Mesmer had done by
Ms exhibitions in Paris.
So much curiosity was excited by the subject, that, about
the same time, a man named Holloway gave a course of lec-
tures on animal magnetism in London, at the rate of five
guineas for each pupil, and realised a considerable fortune.
Loutherbourg the painter and Ms wife followed the same
336 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
profitable trade; and such was the infatuation of the people
to be witnesses of their strange manipulations, that at times
upwards of three thousand persons crowded around their house
at Hammer-smith, unable to gain admission. The tickets sold
at prices varying from one to three guineas. Loutherbourg
performed his cures by the touch, after the manner of Val-
entine Greatraks, and finally pretended to a divine mission.
An account of his miracles, as they were called, was published
in 1789, entitled A List of New Cures performed by Mr. and
Mrs. de Loutherbourg, of Hammersmith Terrace, without
Medicine; by a Lover of the Lamb of God. Dedicated to his
Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.
TMs "Lover of the Lamb of God" was a half-crazy old
woman, named Mary Pratt, who conceived for Mr. and Mrs.
de Loutherbourg a veneration which almost prompted her to
worship them. She chose for the motto of her pamphlet a
verse in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:
"Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish! for I will work
a work in your days which ye shall not believe, though a man
declare it unto you." Attempting to give a religious character
to the cures of the painter, she thought a woman was the
proper person to make them known, since the apostle had de-
clared that a man should not be able to conquer the incredu-
lity of the people. She stated that, from Christmas 1788 to
July 1789, De Loutherbourg and his wife had cured two thou-
sand people, "having been made proper recipients to receive
divine manuductions ; which heavenly and divine influx, com-
ing from the radix God, his Divine Majesty had most gra-
ciously bestowed upon them to diffuse healing to all, be they
deaf, dumb, blind, lame, or halt"
In her dedication to the Archbishop of Canterbury she im-
plored Mm to compose a new form of prayer, to be used in all
churches and chapels, that nothing might impede this inestim-
able gift from having its due course. She further entreated
all the magistrates and men of authority in the land to wait on
Mr. and Mrs. de Loutherbourg, to consult with them on the
immediate erection of a large hospital, with a pool of Bethesda
attached to it. All the magnetisers were scandalised at the
THE MAGNETISERS 337
preposterous jabber of this old woman, and De Loutherbonrg
appears to have left London to avoid her continuing, how-
ever, in conjunction with Ms wife, the fantastic tricks wMch
had turned the brain of this poor fanatic, and deluded many
others who pretended to more sense than she had.
From this period until 1798 magnetism excited little or no
attention in England. An attempt to revive the belief in it
was made in that year, but it was In the shape of mineral
rather than of animal magnetism. One Benjamin Douglas
Perkins, an American, practising as a surgeon in Leicester
Square, invented and took out a patent for the celebrated
"Metallic Tractors/' He pretended that these tractors, which
were two small pieces of metal strongly magnetised, something
resembling the steel plates which were first brought into notice
by Father Hell, would cure gout, rheumatism, palsy, and, in
fact, almost every disease the human frame was subject to, if
applied externally to the afflicted part, and moved about gently,
touching the surface only. The most wonderful stories soon
obtained general circulation, and the press groaned with pam-
phlets, all vaunting the curative effects of the tractors, which
were sold at five guineas the pair. Perkins gained money
rapidly. Gouty subjects forgot their pains in the presence of
this new remedy; the rheumatism fled at its approach; and
toothache, which is often cured by the mere sight of a dentist*
vanished before Perkins and Ms marvellous steel-plates. The
benevolent Society of Friends, of 'whose body he was a mem-
ber, warmly patronised the invention. Desirous that the poor,
who could not afford to pay Mr. Perkins five guineas, or even
five shillings for his tractors, should also share in the benefits
of that sublime discovery, they subscribed a large sum, and
built an hospital, called the "Perklnean Institution," in which
all comers might be magnetised free of cost. In the course
of a few months they were in very general use, and their lucky
inventor in possession of five thousand pounds.
Dr. Haygarth, au eminent physician at Bath, recollecting
the influence of imagination in the cure of disease, hit upon
an expedient to try the real value of the tractors, Perkins's
cures were too well established to be doubted; and Dr Hay-
338 EXTRAORDINAEY POPULAR DELUSIONS
garth, without gainsaying them, quietly, but in the face of
numerous witnesses, exposed the delusion under which
people laboured with respect to the curative medium. He
suggested to Dr. Falconer that they should make wooden
tractors, paint them to resemble the steel ones, and see if the
very same effects would not be produced. Five patients were
chosen from the hospital in Bath, upon whom to operate. Four
of them suffered severely from chronic rheumatism in the
ankle, knee, wrist, and hip; and the fifth had been afflicted
for several months with the gout. On the day appointed for
the experiments Dr. Haygarth and his friends assembled at the
hospital, and with much solemnity brought forth the fictitious
tractors. Four out of the five patients said their pains were
immediately relieved; and three of them said they were not
only relieved but very much benefited. One felt his knee
warmer, and said he could walk across the room. He tried
and succeeded, although on the previous day he had not been
able to stir. The gouty man felt his pains diminish rapidly,
and was quite easy for nine hours, until he went to bed, when
the twitching began again. On the following day the real
tractors were applied to all the patients, when they described
their symptoms in nearly the same terms.
To make still more sure, the experiment was tried in the
Bristol infirmary, a few weeks afterwards, on^a man who had
a rheumatic affection in the shoulder, so severe as to incapaci-
tate him from lifting his hand from his knee. The fictitious
tractors were brought and applied to the afflicted part, one
of the physicians, to add solemnity to the scene, drawing a
stop-watch from his pocket to calculate the time exactly, while
another, with a pen in his hand, sat down to write the change
of the symptoms from minute to minute as they occurred. In
less than four minutes the man felt so much relieved, that he
lifted Ms hand several inches without any pain in the shoulder 1
An account of these matters was published by Dr. Haygarth,
in a small volume entitled, Of the Imagination, as a Cause and
Cure of Disorders, exempli fed by Fictitious Tractors. The
exposure was a coup de grace to the system erf Dr. Parkins.
His friends and patrons, still unwilling to confess that they
THE MAGNEXISEBS 339
had been deceived, tried the tractors upon sheep, cows, and
horses, alleging that the animals received benefit from the
metallic plates, but none at all from the wooden ones. But
they found nobody to believe them; the PerMnean institution
fell into neglect; and Perkins made Ms exit from England,
carrying with him about ten thousand pounds, to soothe Ms
declining years in the good city of Pennsylvania,
Thus was magnetism laughed out of England for a time. In
France the revolution left men no leisure for studying it. The
SocUtes de VHormome of Strasbourg, and other great towns
lingered for a while, till sterner matters occupying men's atten-
tion, they were one after the other abandoned, both by pupils
and professors. The system, thus driven from the first two
nations of Europe, took refuge among the dreamy philosophers
of Germany. There the wonders of the magnetic sleep grew
more and more wonderful every day; the patients acquired
the gift of prophecy; their vision extended over all the sur-
face of the globe; they could hear and see with their toes and
fingers, and read unknown languages, and understand them
too, by merely having the book placed on their stomachs.
Ignorant peasants, when once entranced by the grand mesmeric
fluid, could spout philosophy diviner than Plato ever wrote,
descant upon the mysteries of the mind with more eloquence
and truth than the profoundest metaphysicians the world ever
saw, and solve knotty points of divinity with as much ease
as waking men could undo their shoe buckles!
During the first twelve years of the present century little
was heard of animal magnetism in any country of Europe.
Even the Germans forgot their airy fancies, recalled to the
knowledge of this every-day world by the roar of Napoleon's
cannon and the fall or the establishment of kingdoms. Dur-
ing this period a cloud of obscurity hung over the science,
which was not dispersed until M. Deleuze published, in 1813,
his Hktorie Critique du Magnltisme Animal This work gave
a new impulse to the half -forgotten fancy. Newspapers, pam-
phlets, and books again waged war upon each other on the
question of its truth or falsehood; and many eminent men in
340 EXTRAOKDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
the profession of medicine recommenced inquiry with an ear-
nest design to discover the truth.
The assertions made in the celebrated treatise of Deleuze
are thus summed up:* "There is a fluid continually escaping
from the human body," and "forming an atmosphere around
us/* which, as "it has no determined current/' produces no
sensible effects on surrounding individuals. It is, however,
"capable of being directed by the will;" and ? when so directed
"is sent forth in currents/' with a force corresponding to the
energy we possess. Its motion is "similar to that of the rays
from burning bodies;" "it possesses different qualities in dif-
ferent individuals." It is capable of a high degree of concen-
tration, "and exists also in trees." The will of the magnetiser,
"guided by a motion of the hand, several times repeated in
the same direction/ 3 can fill a tree with this fluid. Most per-
sons, when this fluid is poured into them from the body and by
the will of the magnetiser, "feel a sensation of heat or cold"
when he passes his hand before them, without even touching
them. Some persons, when sufficiently charged with this fluid,
fall into a state of somnambulism, or magnetic ecstasy; and
when in this state, "they see the fluid encircling the magnetiser
like a halo of light, and issuing in luminous streams from his
mouth and nostrils, his head and hands, possessing a very
agreeable smell, and communicating a particular taste to food
and water."
One would think that these "notions" were quite enough to
be insisted upon by any physician who wished to be consid-
ered sane; but they form only a small portion of the wondrous
things related by M. Deleuze. He further said, "When mag-
netism produces somnambulism, the person who is in this
state acquires a prodigious extension of all his faculties. Sev-
eral of his external organs, especially those of sight and hear-
ing, become inactive; but the sensations which depend upon
them take place internally. Seeing and hearing are carried on
by the magnetic fluid, which transmits the impressions imme-
diately, and without the intervention of any nerves or organs
*See tiie very dear and dispassionate article upon tke subject in the
fifth volume (1830) of The Foreign Review, p. 96 et seq.
THE MAGNETISERS 341
directly to the brain. Thus the somnambulist, though Ms eyes
and ears are closed, not only sees and hears, but sees and
hears much better than he does when awake. In all things he
feels the will of the magnetiser, although that will be not ex-
pressed. He sees into the interior of his own body, and the
most secret organisation of the bodies of all those who may
be put en rapport, or in magnetic connexion, with him. Most
commonly, he only sees those parts which are diseased and
disordered, and intuitively prescribes a remedy for them. He
has prophetic visions and sensations, which are generally true,
but sometimes erroneous. He expresses himself with aston-
ishing eloquence and facility. He is not free from vanity.
He becomes a more perfect being of Ms own accord for a cer-
tain time, if guided wisely by the magnetiser, but wanders if
he is ill-directed."
According to M. Deleuze, any person could become a mag-
netlser and produce these effects, by conforming to the fol-
lowing conditions, and acting upon the following rules:
"Forget for a wMle all your knowledge of physics and meta-
physics.
"Remove from your mind all objections that may occur.
"Imagine that it is in your power to take the malady in hand,
and throw it on one side.
"Never reason for six weeks after yon have commenced the
study.
"Have an active desire to do good; a firm belief in the power
of magnetism, and an entire confidence in employing it. In
short, repel aU doubts; desire success, and act with simplicity
and attention."
That is to say, "be very credulous; be very persevering;
reject all past experience, and do not listen to reason," and you
are a magnetiser after M. Deleuze's own heart
Having brought yourself into this edifying state, "remove
from the patient all persons who might be troublesome to you;
keep with you only the necessary witnesses a single person
if need be; desire them not to occupy themselves in any way
with the processes you employ and the effects wMch result
from them, but to join with you in the desire of doing good to
342 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
your patient. Arrange yourself so as neither to be too hot
nor too cold, and in such a manner that nothing may obstruct
the freedom of your motions; and take precautions to prevent
interruptions during the sitting. Make your patient then sit
as commodiously as possible, and place yourself opposite to
him, on a seat a little more elevated, in such a manner that
Ms knees may be betwixt yours, and your feet at the side of
Ms. First, request him to resign himself; to think of notMng;
not to perplex himself by examining the effects wMch may be
produced; to banish all fear; to surrender himself to hope, and
not to be disturbed or discouraged if the action of magnetism
should cause in him momentary pains. After having col-
lected yourself, take his thumbs between your fingers in such
a way that the internal part of your thumbs may be in contact
with the internal part of his, and then fix your eyes upon him!
You must remain from two to five minutes in tMs situation,
or until you feel an equal heat between your thumbs and Ms.
This done, you will withdraw your hands, removing them to
the right and left; and at the same time turning them till their
internal surface be outwards, and you will raise them to the
height of the head. You will now place them upon the two
shoulders, and let them remain there about a minute; after-
wards drawing them gently along the arms to the extremities
of the fingers, toucMng very slightly as you go. You will re-
new this pass five or six times, always turning your hands, and
removing them a little from the body before you lift them.
You will then place them above the head; and after holding
them there for an instant, lower them, passing them before
the face, at the distance of one or two indies, down to the pit
of the stomach. There you will stop them two minutes also,
putting your thumbs upon the pit of the stomach and the rest
of your fingers below the ribs. You will then descend slowly
along the body to the knees, or rather, if you can do so with-
out deranging yourself, to the extremity of the feet. You will
repeat the same processes several times during the remainder of
the sitting. You will also occasionally approach your patient
so as to place your hands beMnd his shoulders, in order to
descend slowly along the spine of the back and the tMghs,
THE MAGNETISEES 343
down to the knees or the feet. After the first passes, you may
dispense with putting your hands upon the head, and may make
the subsequent passes upon the arms, beginning at the shoul-
ders, and upon the body, beginning at the stomach. 35
Such was the process of magnetising recommended by De-
leuze. That delicate, fanciful, and nervous women, when sub-
jected to it, should have worked themselves into convulsions
will be readily believed by the sturdiest opponent of animal
magnetism. To sit in a constrained posture be stared out of
countenance by a fellow who enclosed her knees between his,
while he made passes upon different parts of her body, was
quite enough to throw any weak woman into a fit, especially
if she were predisposed to hysteria, and believed in the efficacy
of the treatment. It is just as evident that those of stronger
minds and healthier bodies should be sent to sleep by the
process. That these effects have been produced by these
means, there are thousands of instances to shew. But are
they testimony in favour of animal magnetism? do they prove
the existence of the magnetic fluid? It needs neither mag-
netism, nor ghost from the grave, to tell us that silence, monot-
ony, and long recumbency in one position, must produce sleep;
or that excitement, imitation, and a strong imagination acting
upon a weak body, will bring on convulsions.
M. Deleuze's book produced quite a sensation in France;
the study was resumed with redoubled vigour. In the follow-
ing year, a journal was established devoted exclusively to the
science, under the title of Annales du Magnetisme Animal; and
shortly afterwards appeared the Bibliotheque du Magnetisme
Animal, and many others. About the same time, the Abbe
Faria, "the man of wonders," began to magnetise; and the be-
lief being that he had more of the mesmeric fluid about him,
and a stronger will, than most men, he was very successful
in his treatment. His experiments afford a convincing proof
that imagination can operate all, and the supposed fluid none,
of the results so confidently claimed as evidence of the new
science. He placed Ms patients in an arm-chair; told them
to shut their eyes; and then, in a loud commanding voice,
pronounced the single word, "Sleep 1" He used no manipula-
344 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
tions whatever had no baquet, or conductor of the fluid; but
he nevertheless succeeded In causing sleep in hundreds of pa-
tients. He boasted of having in his time produced five thou-
sand somnambulists by this method. It was often necessary
to repeat the command three or four times; and if the patient
still remained awake, the abbe got out of the difficulty by dis-
missing him from the chair, and declaring that he was incap-
able of being acted on. And it should be especially remarked
that the magnetisers do not lay claim to universal efficacy for
their fluid; the strong and the healthy cannot be magnetised;
the incredulous cannot be magnetised; those who reason upon
it cannot be magnetised; those who firmly believe in it can
be magnetised; the weak in body can be magnetised, and the
weak in mind can be magnetised. And lest, from some cause
or other, individuals of the latter classes should resist the mag-
netic charm, the apostles of the science declare that there are
times when even they cannot be acted upon; the presence of
one scorner or unbeliever may weaken the potency of the fluid
and destroy its efficacy. In M. Deleuze's instructions to a mag-
netiser, he expressly says, "Never magnetise before inquisitive
persons!"*
Here we conclude the subject, as it would serve no good
purpose to extend to greater length the history of Animal Mag-
netism; especially at a time when many phenomena, the real-
ity of which it is impossible to dispute, are daily occurring to
startle and perplex the most learned, impartial, and truth-
loving of mankind. Enough, however, has been stated to shew,
that if there be some truth in magnetism, there has been much
error, misconception, and exaggeration. Taking its history
from the commencement, it can hardly be said to have been
without its uses. To quote the words of Bailly, in 1784,
"Magnetism has not been altogether unavailing to the phil-
osophy which condemns it: it is an additional fact to record
among the errors of the human mind, and a great experiment
on the strength of the imagination." Over that vast inquiry
of the influence of mind over matter an inquiry which the
* Histaire Critique du Magnetisme Animal, p. 60.
THE MAGNETISERS J45
embodied intellect of mankind will never be able to fathom
completely it will at least have thrown a feeble and imperfect
light. It will have afforded an additional proof of the strength
of the unconquerable will, and the weakness of matter as com-
pared with it; another illustration of the words of the inspired
Psalmist, that "we are fearfully and wonderfully made."
INFLUENCE OF POLITICS AND RELIGION
ON THE
HAIR AND BEARD
Speak with respect and honour
Both of the beard and the beard's owner.
Hudibras.
THE famous declaration of St. Paul, "that long hair was a
shame unto a man/' has been made the pretext for many sin-
gular enactments, both of civil and ecclesiastical governments.
The fashion of the hair and the cut of the beard were state
questions in France and England, from the establishment of
Christianity until the fifteenth century.
We find, too, that in much earlier times, men were not per-
mitted to do as they liked with their own hair. Alexander the
Great thought that the beards of the soldiery afforded con-
venient handles for the enemy to lay hold of, preparatory to
cutting off their heads; and, with a view of depriving them
of this advantage, he ordered the whole of his army to be
closely shaven. His notions of courtesy towards an enemy
were quite different from those entertained by the North Amer-
ican Indians, and amongst whom it Is held a point of honour
to allow one "chivalrous lock" to grow, that the foe, in taking
the scalp, may have something to catch hold of.
At one time, long hair was the symbol of sovereignty in
Europe. We learn from Gregory of Tours, that, among the
successors of Clovis, it was the exclusive privilege of the royal
family to have their hair long and curled. The nobles, equal
to kings in power, would not shew any inferiority in this re-
spect, and wore not only their- hair, but their beards of an
enormous length. This fashion lasted, with slight changes, till
346
THE HAIR AKD BEAM) 347
the time of Louis the Bebonnaire; but Ms successors, up to
Hugh Capet, wore their hair short, by way of distinction.
Even the serfs had set all regulations at defiance, and allowed
their locks and beards to grow.
At the time of the invasion of England by William the Con-
queror, the Normans wore their hair very short. Harold, in
Ms progress towards Hastings, sent forward spies to view the
strength and number of the enemy. They reported, amongst
other things, on their return, that a the host did almost seem to
be priests, because they had all their face and both their lips
shaven. 55 The fashion among the English at the time was to
wear the hair long upon the head and the upper lip, but to
shave the chin. When the haughty victors had divided the
broad lands of the Saxon thanes and franklins among them,
when tyranny of every kind was employed to make the Eng-
lish feel that they were indeed a subdued and broken nation,
the latter encouraged the growth of their hair, that they might
resemble as little as possible their cropped and shaven masters.
This fashion was exceedingly displeasing to the dergy, and
prevailed to a considerable extent in France and Germany.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, it was decreed by the
pope, and zealously supported by the ecclesiastical authorities
aU over Europe, that such persons as wore long hair should be
excommunicated while living, and not prayed for when dead.
William of Malmesbury relates, that tie famous St. Wulstan,
Bishop of Worcester, was peculiarly indignant whenever he
saw a man with long hair. He declaimed against the practice
as one highly immoral, criminal, and beastly. He continually
carried a small knife in his pocket, and whenever any body
offending in this respect knelt before Mm to receive Ms bless-
ing, he would wMp it out slily, and cut off a handful, and then,
throwing it in Ms face, tell Mm to cut off all the rest, or he
would go to hell.
But fasMon, wMch at times it is possible to move with a
wisp, stands firm against a lever; and men preferred to ran
the risk of damnation to parting with the superfluity ol their
hair. In the time of Henry I., Anselm, Archbishop 0f Canter-
bury, found it necessary to republish the famous decree of ex-
348 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
communication and outlawry against the offenders; but, as
the court itself had begun to patronise curls, the fulminations
of the Church were unavailing. Henry I. and his nobles wore
their hair in long ringlets down their backs and shoulders, and
became a scandalum magnaium in the eyes of the godly. One
Serlo, the king's chaplain, was so grieved in spirit at the im-
piety of his master, that he preached a sermon from the well-
known text of St. Paul before the assembled court, in which
he drew so dreadful a picture of the torments that awaited
them in the other world, that several of them burst into tears,
and wrung their hair, as if they would have pulled it out by the
roots. Henry himself was observed to weep. The priest, see-
ing the impression he had made, determined to strike while the
iron was hot, and pulling a pair of scissors from his pocket, cut
the king's hair in presence of them all. Several of the princi-
pal courtiers consented to do the like, and for a short time long
hair appeared to be going out of fashion. But the courtiers
thought, after the first glow of their penitence had been cooled
by reflection, that the clerical Delilah had shorn them of
their strength, and in less than six months they were as great
sinners as ever.
Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been a
monk of Bee", in Normandy, and who had signalised himself
at Rouen by his fierce opposition to long hair, was still anxious
to work a reformation in this matter. But his pertinacity was
far from pleasing to the king, who had finally made up his
mind to wear ringlets. There were other disputes, of a more
serious nature, between them; so that when the archbishop
died, the king was so glad to be rid of him, that he allowed the
see to remain vacant for five years. Still the cause had other
advocates, and every pulpit in the land resounded with ana-
themas against that disobedient and long-haired generation.
But all was of no avail. Stowe, in writing of this period, as-
serts, on the authority of some more ancient chronicler, "that
men, forgetting their birth, transformed themselves, by the
length of their haires, into the semblance of woman kind;"
and that when their hair decayed from age, or other causes,
"they knit about their heads certain rolls and braidings of
THE HAIR AND BEAM) 349
false hair." At last accident turned the tide of fashion. A
knight of the court, who was exceeding proud of Ms beauteous
locks, dreamed one night that, as he lay in bed, the devil
sprang upon Mm, and endeavoured to choke Mm with Ms own
hair. He started in affright, and actually found that he had a
great quantity of hair in Ms mouth. Sorely stricken in con-
science, and looking upon the dream as a warning from
heaven, he set about the work of reformation, and cut off his
luxuriant tresses the same night. The story was soon bruited
abroad; of course it was made the most of by the clergy, and
the knight, being a man of influence and consideration, and the
acknowledged leader of the fasMon, Ms example, aided by
priestly exhortations, was very generally imitated. Men ap-
peared almost as decent as St. Wulstan Mmself could have
wished, the dream of a dandy having proved more efficacious
than the entreaties of a saint- But, as Stowe informs us,
"scarcely was one year past, when all that thought themselves
courtiers fell into the former vice, and contended with women
in their long haires." Henry, the king, appears to have been
quite uninfluenced by the dreams of others, for even Ms own
would not induce him a second time to undergo a cropping
from priestly shears. It is said, that he was much troubled at
tMs time by disagreeable visions. Having offended the Church
in tMs and other respects, he could get no sound, refresMng
sleep, and used to imagine that he saw aH the bishops, abbots,
and monks of every degree, standing around Ms bed-side, and
threatening to belabour him with their pastoral staves; wMct
sight, we are told, so frightened Mm, that he often started
naked out of Ms bed, and attacked the phantoms sword IE
hand. Grimbalde, Ms physician, who, like most of Ms fra-
ternity at that day, was an ecclesiastic, never Mnted that Ms
dreams were the result of a bad digestion, but told Mm to
shave Ms head, be reconciled to the Church, and reform Mm-
self with alms and prayer. But he would not take this good
advice, and it was not until he had been nearly drowned a
year afterwards, in a violent storm at sea, that he repented
of Ms evil ways, cut Ms hair short, and paid proper deference
to the wishes of the clergy.
350 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
In France, the thunders of the Vatican with regard to long
airly hair were hardly more respected than in England. Louis
VII., however, was more obedient than his brother-king, and
cropped himself as closely as a monk, to the great sorrow of
all the gallants of his court. His queen, the gay, haughty, and
pleasure-seeking Eleanor of Guienne, never admired him in
this trim, and continually reproached him with imitating, not
only the head-dress, but the asceticism of the monks. From
this cause a coldness arose between them. The lady proving
at last unfaithful to her shaven and indifferent lord, they were
divorced, and the kings of France lost the rich provinces of
Guienne and Poitou, which were her dowry. She soon after
bestowed her hand and her possessions upon Henry Duke of
Normandy, afterwards Henry II. of England, and thus gave
the English sovereigns that strong footing in France which
was for so many centuries the cause of such long and bloody
wars between the nations.
When the Crusades had drawn all the smart young fellows
into Palestine, the clergy did not find it so difficult to convince
the staid burghers, who remained in Europe, of the enormity
of long hair. During the absence of Richard Coeur de Lion,
his English subjects not, only cut their hair close, but shaved
their faces. William f- itzosbert, or Long-beard, the great
demagogue of that day, reintroduced among the people who
claimed to be of Saxon origin the fashion of long hair. He did
this with the view of making them as unlike as possible to the
citizens and the Normans. He wore his own beard hanging
down to Ms waist, from whence the name by which he is best
known to posterity.
The Church never shewed itself so great an enemy to the
beard as to long hair on the head. It generally allowed fashion
to take its own course, both with regard to the chin and the
upper lip. This fashion varied continually; for we find that, in
little more than a century after the time of Richard I., when
beards were short, that they had again become so long as to be
mentioned in the famous epigram made by the Scots who
visited London in 1327, when David, son of Robert Bruce,
was married to Joan, the sister of King Edward. This epi-
THE HAIR AND BEARD
gram, which was stuck OB the church-door of St. Peter Stan-
gate, ran as follows:
a Long beards heartlesse,
Painted hoods witlesse,
Gray coats gracelesse,
Make England thriftlesse."
When the Emperor Charles V, ascended the throne of Spain
he had no beard. It was not to be expected that the obsequi-
ous parasites who always surround a monarch, could presume
to look more virile than their master. Immediately all the
courtiers appeared beardless, with the exception of such few
grave old men as had outgrown the influence of fashion, and
who had determined to die bearded as they had lived. Sober
people in general saw this revolution with sorrow and alarm,
and thought that every manly virtue would be banished with
the beard. It became at the time a common saying,
"Desde que no hay barba, no hay mas alma.' 7
We have no longer souls since we have lost our beards.
In France also the beard fell into disreptrte after the death
of Henry IV., from the mere reason that Ms successor was too
young to have one. Some of the more immediate friends of
the great Beamais, and his minister Sully among the rest, re-
fused to part with their beards, notwithstanding the jeers of
the new generation.
, Who does not remember the division of England into the two
great parties of Roundheads and Cavaliers? In those days
every species of vice and inquity was thought by the Puritans
to lurk in the long curly tresses of the monarchists, while the
latter imagined that their opponents were as destitute of wit,
of wisdom, and of virtue, as they were of hair. A man's locks
were the symbol of Ms creed, both in politics and religion. The
more abundant the hair, the more scant the faith; and the
balder the head, the more sincere the piety.
But among all the instances of the interference of govern-
ments with men's hair, the most extraordinary, not only for
its daring, but for its success, is that of Peter the Great, in
352 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
1705. By this time fashion had condemned the beard in ev-
ery other country In Europe, and with a voice more potent
than popes or emperors, had banished it from civilised society.
But this only made the Russians cling more fondly to their
ancient ornament, as a mark to distinguish them from for-
eigners, whom they hated. Peter, however, resolved that they
should be shaven. If he had been a man deeply read in his-
tory, he might have hesitated before he attempted so despotic
an attack upon the time-hallowed customs and prejudices of
his countrymen; but he was not. He did not know or consider
the danger of the innovation; he only listened to the prompt-
ings of his own indomitable will, and his fiat went forth, that
not only the army, but all ranks of citizens, from the nobles
to the serfs, should shave their beards. A certain time was
given, that people might get over the first throes of their re-
pugnance, after which every man who chose to retain his beard
was to pay a tax of one hundred roubles. The priests and the
serfs were put on a lower footing, and allowed to retain theirs
upon payment of a copeck every time they passed the gate of
a city. Great discontent existed In consequence, but the dread-
ful fate of the Strelitzes was too recent to be forgotten, and
thousands who had the will had not the courage to revolt. As
is well remarked by a writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
they thought It wiser to cut off their beards than to run the risk
of incensing a man who would make no scruple in cutting off
their heads. Wiser, too, than the popes and bishops of a for-
mer age, he did not threaten them with eternal damnation, but
made them pay in hard cash the penalty of their disobedience.
For many years, a very considerable revenue was collected
from this source. The collectors gave in receipt for its pay-
ments a small copper coin, struck expressly for the purpose,
and called the "borodovdia" or < the bearded." On one side
it bore tibe figure of a nose, mouth, and moustaches, with a long
bushy beard, surmounted by the words, "Deuyee Vyeatee"
"money received;" the whole encircled by a wreath, and
stamped with the black eagle of Russia. On the reverse, it
bore the date of the year. Every man who chose to wear a
beard was obliged to produce this receipt on his entry Into a
THE HAIR AND BEARD 3 55
town. Those who were refractory, and refused to pay the tax,
were thrown into prison.
Since that day, the rulers of modem Europe have endeav-
oured to persuade, rather than to force, in all matters pertain-
ing to fashion. The Vatican troubles itself no more about
beards or ringlets, and men may become hairy as bears, if
such is their fancy, without fear of excommunication or de-
privation of their political rights. Folly has taken a new start,
and cultivates the moustache.
Even upon this point governments will not let men alone.
Religion as yet has not meddled with it; but perhaps it will;
and politics already influence it considerably. Before the
revolution of 1830, neither the French nor Belgian citizens
were remarkable for their moustaches; but after that event
there was hardly a shopkeeper either in Paris or Brussels
whose upper lip did not suddenly become hairy with real or
mock moustaches. During a temporary triumph gained by
the Dutch soldiers over the* citizens of Louvain, in October
1830, it became a standing joke against the patriots, that they
shaved their faces clean immediately; and the wits of the
Dutch army asserted that they had gathered moustaches
enough from the denuded lips of the Belgians to stuff mat-
tresses for all the sick and wounded in their hospital.
The last folly of this kind is still more recent. In the Ger-
man newspapers, of August 1838, appeared an ordonnance,
signed by the king of Bavaria, forbidding civilians, on any
pretence whatever, to wear moustaches, and commanding the
police and other authorities to arrest, and cause to be shaved,
the offending parties. "Strange to say/' adds Le Drai^ the
journal from which, this account is taken, "Moustaches dis-
appeared immediately, like leaves from the trees in autumn;
every body made haste to obey the royal order, and not one
person was arrested/ 5
The king of Bavaria, a rhymester of some celebrity, has
taken a good many poetical licenses in his time. His license
in this matter appears neither poetical nor reasonable. It is
to be hoped that he will not take it into his royal head to
make his subjects shave theirs; nothing but tbat is wanting to
complete their degradation.
THE CRUSADES
They heard, and up they sprung upon the wing
Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,
Waved round the coast, up caiPd a pitchy cloud
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and darkened all the realm of Nile,
So numberless were they. * * * *
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand banners rise into the air,
With orient colours waving. With them rose
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms
Appeared, and serried shields, in thick array,
Of depth immeasurable. Paradise Lost.
EVEBY age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or
phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love
of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imi-
tation. Failing in these, it has some madness, to which it is
goaded by political or religious causes, or both combined.
Every one of these causes influenced the Crusades, and con-
spired to render them the most extraordinary instance upon
record of the extent to which popular enthusiasm can be car-
ried. History in her solemn page informs us, that the Cru-
saders were but ignorant and savage men, that their motives
were those of bigotry unmitigated, and that their pathway was
one of blood and tears. Romance, on the other hand, dilates
upon their piety and heroism, and portrays, in her most glow-
ing and impassioned hues, their virtue and magnanimity, the
imperishable honour they acquired for themselves, and the
great services they rendered to Christianity. In the follow-
ing pages we shall ransack the stores of both, to discover the
354
THE CRUSADES 355
true spirit that animated the motley multitude who took up
arms IB the service of the cross, leaving history to vouch for
facts, but not disdaining the aid of contemporary poetry and
romance, to throw light upon feelings, motives, and opinions.
In order to understand thoroughly the state of public feeling
in Europe at the time when Peter the Hermit preached the
holy war, it will be necessary to go back for many years an-
terior to that event. We must mate acquaintance with the
pilgrims of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, and learn
the tales they told of the dangers they had passed and the won-
ders they had seen. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land seem at
first to have been undertaken by converted Jews, and by
Christian devotees of lively imagination, pining with a natural
curiosity to visit the scenes which of all others were most in-
teresting in their eyes. The pious and the impious alike
flocked to Jerusalem, the -one class to feast their sight on the
scenes hallowed by the life and sufferings of their Lord, and
the other, because it soon became a generally received opinion,
that such a pilgrimage was sufficient to rub off the long score
of sins, however atrocious. Another and very numerous dass
of pilgrims were the idle and roving, who visited Palestine
then as the moderns visit Italy or Switzerland now, because
it was the fashion, and because they might please their vanity
by retailing, on their return, the adventures they had met
with. But the really pious formed the great majority. Every
year their numbers increased, until at last they became so
numerous as to be called the "armies of the Lord." Full of
enthusiasm, they set the dangers and difficulties of the way
at defiance, and lingered with holy rapture on every scene de-
scribed by the Evangelists. To them it was bliss indeed to
drink the dear waters of the Jordan, or be baptised in the
same stream where John had baptised the Saviour. They
wandered with a^re and pleasure in the purlieus of the Temple,
on the solemn Mount of Olives, or the awful Calvary, where
a God had bled for sinful men. To these pilgrims every ob-
ject was precious. Relics were eagerly sought after; flagons
of water from Jordan, or panniers of mould f rooi the MS of the
Crucifixion, were brought home, and sold at extmvagairt prices
356 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
to churches arid monasteries. More apocryphal relics, such
as the wood of the true cross, the tears of the Virgin Mary/
the hems of her garments, the toe-nails and hair of the Apos-
tles even the tents that Paul had helped to manufacture
were exhibited for sale by the knavish in Palestine, and brought
back to Europe "with wondrous cost and care." A grove of
a hundred oaks would not have furnished all the wood sold
in little morsels as remnants of the true cross; and the tears
of Mary, if collected together, would have filled a cistern.
For upwards of two hundred years the pilgrims met with no
impediment in Palestine. The enlightened Haroun Al Res-
chid, and his more immediate successors, encouraged the
stream which brought so much wealth into Syria, and treated
the wayfarers with the utmost courtesy. The race of Fatemite
caliphs- who, although in other respects as tolerant, were
more distressed for money, or more unscrupulous in obtain-
ing it, than their predecessors of the house of Abbas imposed
a tax of a bezant for each pilgrim that entered Jerusalem.
This was a serious hardship upon the poorer sort, who had
begged their weary way across Europe, and arrived at the
bourne of all their hopes without a coin. A great outcry was
immediately raised, but still the tax was rigorously levied. The
pilgrims unable to pay were compelled to remain at the gate of
the holy city until some rich devotee arriving with his train,
paid the tax and let them in. Robert of Normandy, father
of William the Conqueror, who in common with many other
nobles of the highest rank, undertook the pilgrimage, found
on Ms arrival scores of pilgrims at the gate, anxiously expect-
ing his coming to pay the tax for them. Upon no occasion
was such a boon refused.
The sums drawn from this source were a mine of wealth to
the Moslem governors of Palestine, imposed as the tax had
been at a time when pilgrimages had become more muaerous
than ever, A straiige idea had taken possession of the popular
mind at the dose of the tenth and commencement of the elev-
enth century. It was universally believed that the end of the
world was at hand; that the thousand years of the Apocalypse
were near completion, and that Jesus Christ would descend
THE CRUSADES 357
upon Jerusalem to judge mankind. All Christendom was In
commotion. A panic terror seized upon the weak, the cred-
ulous, and the guilty, who in those days formed more than
nineteen-twentieths of the population. Forsaking their homes,
kindred, and occupation, they crowded to Jerusalem to await
the coming of the Lord, lightened, as they imagined, of a load
of sin by their weary pilgrimage. To increase the panic, the
stars were observed to fall from heaven, earthquakes to shake
the land, and violent hurricanes to blow down the forests. All
these, and more especially the meteoric phenomena, were
looked upon as the forerunners of the approaching judgments.
Not a meteor shot athwart the horizon that did not fill a dis-
trict with alarm ; and send away to Jerusalem a score of pil-
grims, with staff in hand and wallet on their back, praying as
they went for the remission of their sins. Men, women, and
even children, trudged in droves to the holy city, in expecta-
tion of the day when the heavens would open, and the Son of
God descend in Ms glory. This extraordinary delusion, while
it augmented the numbers, increased also the hardships of the
pilgrims. Beggars became so numerous on all the highways
between the west of Europe and Constantinople, that the
monks, the great almsgivers upon these occasions, would have
brought starvation within sight of their own doors, if they
had not economised their resources, and left the devotees to
shift for themselves as they could. Hundreds of than were
glad to subsist upon the berries that ripened by the road, who,
before this great flux, might have shared the bread and flesh
of the monasteries.
But this was not the greatest of their difficulties. On their
arrival in Jerusalem they found that a sterner race had ob-
tained possession of the Holy Land. The caliphs of Bagdad
had been succeeded by the harsh Turks of the race of Seljook,
who looked upon the pilgrims with contempt and aversion.
The Turks of the eleventh century were more ferocious and
less scrupulous than the Saracens of the tenth. They were
annoyed at the immense number of pilgrims who overran the
country, and still more so because they shewed no intention
of quitting it. The hourly expectation of th^ last judgment
358 EXTBAOBDINABY POPULAR DELUSIONS
kept them waiting; and the Turks, apprehensive of being at
last driven from the soil by the swarms that were still arriving,
heaped up difficulties in their way. Persecution of every kind
awaited them. They were plundered, and beaten with
stripes, and kept in suspense for months at the gates of Jerusa-
lem, unable to pay the golden bezant that was to procure them
admission.
When the first epidemic terror of the day of judgment be-
gan to subside, a few pilgrims ventured to return to Europe,
their hearts big with indignation at the insults they had suf-
fered. Every where as they passed they related to a sympa-
thising auditory the wrongs of Christendom. Strange to say,
even these recitals increased the mania for pilgrimage. The
greater the dangers of the way, the fairer chance that sins
of deep dye would be atoned for. Difficulty and suffering only
heightened the merit, and fresh hordes issued from every town
and viEage, to win favour in the sight of heaven by a visit to
the holy sepulchre. Thus did things continue during the whole
of the eleventh century.
The train that was to explode so fearfully was now laid, and
there wanted but the hand to apply the torch. At last the man
appeared upon the scene. Like all who have ever achieved
so great an end, Peter the Hermit was exactly suited to the age;
neither behind it nor in advance of it; but acute enough to
penetrate Its mystery ere it was discovered by any other. En-
thusiastic, chivalrous, bigoted, and, if not insane, not far
removed from insanity, he was the very prototype of the time.
True enthusiasm is always persevering and always eloquent,
and these two qualities were united in no common degree in
the person of this extraordinary preacher. He was a monk
of Amiens, and ere he assumed the hood had served as a sol-
dier. He is represented as having been ill-favoured and low
in stature, but with an eye of surpassing brightness and in-
telligence. Having been seized with the mania of the age, he
visited Jerusalem, and remained there tiU his blood boiled to
see the cruel persecution heaped upon the devotees. On his
return home he shook the world by the eloquent story of their
wrongs.
THE CRUSADES 359
Before entering Into any further details of the marvellous
results of Ms preaching, it will be advisable to cast a glance
at the state of the mind of Europe, that we may understand all
the better the causes of his success. First of all, there was
the priesthood, which, exercising as it did the most conspicu-
ous influence upon the fortunes of society, claims the largest
share of attention. Religion was the ruling idea of that day,
and the only civiliser capable of taming such wolves as then
constituted the flock of the faithful. The clergy were all in
all; and though they kept the popular mind in the most slavish
subjection with regard to religious matters, they furnished it
with the means of defence against all other oppression except
their own. In the ecclesiastical ranks were concentrated all
the true piety, all the learning, all the wisdom of the time;
and, as a natural consequence, a great portion of power, which
their very wisdom perpetually incited them to extend. The
people knew nothing of kings and nobles, except in the way of
injuries inflicted. The first ruled for, or more properly speak-
ing against, the barons, and the barons only existed to brave
the power of the Mngs, or to trample with their iron heels upon
the neck of prostrate democracy. The latter had no friend but
the clergy, and these, though they necessarily instilled the
superstition from which they themselves were not exempt, yet
taught the cheering doctrine that all men were equal in the
sight of Heaven. Thus, while Feudalism told them they
had no rights in this world, Religion told them they had every
right in the next. With this consolation they were for the
time content, for political ideas had as yet taken no root.
When the clergy, for other reasons, recommended the Crusade,
the people joined in it with enthusiasm. The subject of Pales-
tine filled all minds; the pilgrims' tales of two centuries
wanned every imagination; and when their friends, their
guides, and their instructors preached a war so much in ac-
cordance with their own prejudices and modes of thinking, the
enthusiasm rose into a frenzy.
But while religion inspired the masses, another agent was
at work upon the nobility. These were fierce and lawless;
tainted with every vice, endowed with no virtue, and redeemed
360 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
by one good quality alone, that of courage. The only religion
they felt was the religion of fear. That and their overboiling
turbulence alike combined to guide them to the Holy Land.
Most of them had sins enough to answer for. They lived with
their hand against every man, and with no law but their own
passions. They set at defiance the secular power of the
clergy; but their hearts quailed at the awful denunciations of
the pulpit with regard to the life to come. War was the
business and the delight of their existence; and when they were
promised remission of all their sins upon the easy condition
of following their favourite bent, it is not to be wondered at
that they rushed with enthusiasm to the onslaught, and be-
came as zealous in the service of the cross as the great major-
ity of the people, who were swayed by more purely religious
motives. Fanaticism and the love of battle alike impelled
them to the war, while the kings and princes of Europe had
still another motive for encouraging their zeal. Policy opened
their eyes to the great advantages which would accrue to them-
selves by the absence of so many restless, intriguing, and
bloodthirsty men, whose insolence it required more than the
small power of royalty to restrain within due bounds. Thus
every motive was favourable to the Crusades. Every class of
society was alike incited to join or encourage the war: kings
and the clergy by policy, the nobles by turbulence and the love
of dominion, and the people by religious zeal and the con-
centrated enthusiasm of two centuries, skilfully directed by
their only instructors.
It was in Palestine itself that Peter the Hermit first con-
ceived the grand idea of rousing the powers of Christendom to
rescue the Christians of the East from the thraldom of the
Mussulmans, and the sepulchre of Jesus from the rude hands
of the infidel. The subject engrossed his whole mind. Even
in the visions of the night he was full of it. One dream made
such an impression upon Mm, that he devoutly believed the
Saviour of the world himself appeared before him, and prom-
ised him aid and protection in his holy undertaking. If his
zeal had ever wavered before, this was sufficient to fix it for
ever.
v
POPE URBAN PREACHING THE FIRST CRUSADE
THE CRUSADES 361
Peter, after lie had performed all the penances and duties
of his pilgrimage, demanded an interview with Simeon, the
Patriarch of the Greek Church at Jerusalem. Though the latter
was a heretic In Peter's eyes ? yet he was still a Christian, and
felt as acutely as himself for the persecutions heaped by the
Turks upon the followers of Jesus. The good prelate entered
fully into his views, and, at Ms suggestion, wrote letters to the
pope, and to the most influential monarchs of Christendom,
detailing the sorrows of the faithful, and urging them to take
up arms in their defence. Peter was not a laggard in the work.
Taking an affectionate farewell of the Patriarch, he returned
in all haste to Italy. Pope Urban II. occupied the apostolic
chair. It was at that time far from being an easy seat His
predecessor Gregory had bequeathed him a host of disputes
with the Emperor Henry IV. of Germany, and he had con-
verted Philip L of France into an enemy by Ms strenuous
opposition to an adulterous connexion formed by that monarch.
So many dangers encompassed Mm, that the Vatican was BO
secure abode, and he had taken refuge in Apulia, under the
protection of the renowned Robert Guiscard. Thither Peter
appears to have followed him, though in what spot their
meeting took place is not stated with any precision by andent
chroniclers or modern Mstorians. Urban received Mm most
kindly; read, with tears in Ms eyes, the epistle from the Patri-
arch Simeon, and listened to the eloquent story of the Hermit
with an attention wMch shewed how deeply he sympatMsed
with the woes of the Christian Church. Enthusiasm is contagi-
ous; and the ppe appears to have caught it instantly from one
whose zeal was so unbounded. Giving the Hermit full powers
he sent him abroad to preach the holy war to aH the nations
and potentates of Christendom. The Hermit preached, and
countless thousands answered to Ms call. France, Germany,
and Italy started at Ms voice, and prepared for the deliverance
of Zion. One of the early Mstorians of the Crusade, who was
himself an eye-witness of the rapture of Europe,* describes
the personal appearance of the Hermit at tMs time. He says,
* Guibert de Nogeat.
362 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
that there appeared to be something of divine in everything
which he said or did. The people so highly reverenced him,
that they plucked hairs from the mane of his mule that they
might keep them as relics. While preaching he wore in general
a woollen tunic, with a dark-coloured mantle, which fell down
to his heels. His arms and feet were bare; and he ate neither
flesh nor bread, supporting himself chiefly upon fish and wine.
"He set out/ 3 says the chronicler, "from whence I know not;
but we saw him passing through the towns and villages, preach-
ing everywhere, and the people surrounding him in crowds,
loading Mm with offerings, and celebrating his sanctity with
such great praises, that I never remember to have seen such
honours bestowed upon any one." Thus he went on, untired,
inflexible, and full of devotion, communicating his own mad-
ness to his hearers, until Europe was stirred from its very
depths.
While the Hermit was appealing with such signal success
to the people, the pope appealed with as much success to those
who were to become the chiefs and leaders of the expedition.
His first step was to call a council at Placentia, in the autumn
of the year 1095. Here, in the assembly of the clergy, the
pope debated the grand scheme, and gave audience to emis-
saries who had been sent from Constantinople by the Emperor
of the East, to detail the progress made by the Turks in their
design of establishing themselves in Europe. The clergy were
of course unanimous in support of the Crusade; and the coun-
cil separated, each individual member of it being empowered
to preach it to his people.
But Italy could not be expected to furnish* all the aid re-
quired; and the pope crossed the Alps to inspire the fierce and
powerful nobility and chivalrous population of Gaul. His
boldness in entering the territory, and placing himself in the
power of his foe King Philip of France, is not the least sur-
prising feature of his mission. Some have imagined that cool
policy alone actuated him; while others assert that it was mere
zeal, as warm and as blind as that of Peter the Hermit. The
latter opinion seems to be the true one. Society did not cal-
culate the consequences of what it was doing. Every man
THE CRUSADES 363
seemed to act from impulse only; and the pope, in throwing
himself into the heart of France, acted as much from impulse
as the thousands who responded to Ms call. A council was
eventually summoned to meet him at Clermont, in Auvergre,
to consider the state of the Church, reform abuses, and, above
all, make preparations for the war. It was in the midst of an
extremely cold winter, and the ground was covered with snow.
During seven days the council sat with closed doors, while im-
mense crowds from all parts of France flocked into the town,
in expectation that the pope himself would address the people.
All the towns ami villages for miles around were filled with
the multitude; even the fields were encumbered with people,
who, unable to procure lodging, pitched their tents under the
trees and by the way-side. All the neighbourhood presented
the appearance of a vast camp.
During the seven days' deliberation, a sentence of excom-
munication was passed upon King Philip for adultery with
Bertrade de Montfort, Countess of Anjou, and for disobedi-
ence to the supreme authority of the apostolic see. This bold
step impressed the people with reverence for so stem a
Church, which in the discharge of its duty shewed itself no
respecter of persons. Their love and their fear were alike in-
creased, and they were prepared to listen with more intense de-
votion to the preaching of so righteous and inflexible a pastor.
The great square before the cathedral church of Clermont be-
came every instant more densely crowded as the hour drew
nigh when the pope was to address the populace. Issuing
from the church in his full canonicals, surrounded by his card-
inals and bishops in aU the splendour of Romish ecclesiastical
costume, the pope stood before the populace on a high scaffold-
ing erected for the occasion, and covered with scarlet cloth.
A brilliant array of bishops and cardinals surrounded Mm;
and among them, humbler in rank, but more important in the
world's eye, the Hermit Peter, dressed in his simple and aus-
tere habiliments. Historians differ as to whether or not Peter
addressed the crowd, but as all agree that he was present, it
seems reasonable to suppose that he spoke. But it was the
oration of the pope that was most important; As he lifted
364 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
up Ms hands to ensure attention, every voice Immediately
became still. He began by detailing the miseries endured by
their brethren in the Holy Land; how the plains of Palestine
were desolated by the outrageous heathen, who with the sword
and the firebrand carried wailing into the dwellings and
flames into the possessions of the faithful; how Christian wives
and daughters were defiled by pagan lust; how the altars of
the true God were desecrated, and the relics of the saints trod-
den under foot. "You/' continued the eloquent pontiff (and
Urban II. was one of the most eloquent men of the day), "yon,
who hear me, and who have received the true faith, and
been endowed by God with power, and strength, and great-
ness of soul, whose ancestors have been the prop of Chris-
tendom, and whose kings have put a barrier against the prog-
ress of the infidel, I call upon you to wipe off these impurities
from the face of the earth, and lift your oppressed fellow-
Christians from the depths into which they have been trampled.
The sepulchre of Christ is possessed by the heathen, the sacred
places dishonoured by their vileness. Oh, brave knights and
faithful people! offspring of invincible fathers 1 ye will not
degenerate from your ancient renown. Ye will not be re-
strained from embarking in this great cause by the tender ties
of wife or little ones, but will remember the words of the
Saviour of the world himself, Whosoever loves father and
mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whosoever shall
abandon for my name's sake his house, or his brethren, or his
sisters, or his father, or his mother, or his wife, or his chil-
dren, or his lands, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall in-
herit eternal life. 3 "
The warmth of the pontiff communicated itself to the crowd,
and the enthusiasm of the people broke out several times ere
he concluded his address. He went on to portray, not only the
spiritual but the temporal advantages that would accrue to
those who took up arms in the service of the cross. Palestine
was, he said, a land flowing with milk and honey, mid precious
in the sight of God, as the scene of the grand events which
had saved mankind. That land, he promised, should be divided
among them. Moreover, they should have full pardon for all
THE CRUSADES 365
their offences, either against God or man. "Go, then," lie
added, "in expiation of your sins; and go assured, that after
this world shall have passed away, imperishable glory shall be
yours in the world which is to come." The enthusiasm was
no longer to be restrained, and loud shouts Interrupted the
speaker; the people exclaiming as if with one voice, "Men le
veultf Dieu le veult/" With great presence of mind Urban
took advantage of the outburst, ami as soon as silence was ob-
tained, continued: "Dear brethren, to-day is shewn forth in
you that which the Lord has said by his Evangelist, 'When
two or three are gathered together in my name, there will I
be in the midst of them to bless them.' If the Lord God had
not been in your souls, you would not all have pronounced the
same words; or rather God himself pronounced them by your
lips, for it was he that put them in your hearts. Be they, then,
your war-cry in the combat, for those words came forth from
God. Let tie army of the Lord, when it rushes upon Ms ene-
mies, shout but that one cry, Dieu le veultf Dieu le veuU! f
Let whoever is inclined to devote himself to his holy cause
make it a solemn engagement, and bear the cross of the Lord
either on his breast or his brow till he set out; and let him who
is ready to begin Ms march place the holy emblem on his
shoulders, in memory of that precept of our Saviour, *He who
does not take up Ms cross and follow me is not worthy of
me/ 55
The news of this council spread to the remotest parts of Eu-
rope in an incredibly short space of time. Long before the
fleetest horseman could have brought the intelligence, it was
known by the people in distant provinces; a fact which was
considered as notMng less than supernatural. But the subject
was in every body's mouth, and the minds of men were pre-
pared for the result The enthusiastic merely asserted what
they wished, and the event tallied with their prediction. This
was, however, quite enough in ,those days for a mirade, and
as a mirade every one regarded it.
For several months after the Council of Clermont, France
and Germany presented a singular speotade. The pious, the
fanatic, the needy, the dissolute, the young and the oM, even
366 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
women and children, and the halt and lame, enrolled them-
selves by hundreds. In every village the clergy were busied in
keeping up the excitement, promising eternal rewards to those
who assumed the red cross, and fulminating the most awful
denunciations against all the wordly-minded who refused or
even hesitated. Every debtor who joined the Crusade was
freed by the papal edict from the claims of his creditors; out-
laws of every grade were made equal with the honest upon the
same conditions. The property of those who went was placed
under the protection of the Church, and St. Paul and St. Peter
themselves were believed to descend from their high abode,
to watch over the chattels of the absent pilgrims. Signs and
portents were seen in the air, to increase the fervour of the
multitude. An aurora-borealis of unusual brilliancy appeared,
and thousands of the Crusaders came out to gaze upon it, pros-
trating themselves upon the earth in adoration. It was thought
to be a sure prognostic of the interposition of the Most High,
and a representation of his armies fighting with and over-
throwing the infidels. Reports of wonders were every where
rife. A monk had seen two gigantic warriors on horseback,
the one representing a Christian and the other a Turk, 'fighting
in the sky with flaming swords, the Christian of course over-
coming the Panim. Myriads of stars were said to have fallen
from heaven, each representing the fall of a pagan foe. It
was believed at the same time that the Emperor Charlemagne
would rise from the grave, and lead on to victory the em-
battled armies of the Lord. A singular feature of the popular
madness was the enthusiasm of the women. Every where
they encouraged their lovers and husbands to forsake all things
for the holy war. Many of them burned the sign of the cross
upon their breasts and arms, and coloured the wound with a
red dye, as a lasting memorial of their zeal. Others, still
more zealous, impressed the mark by the same means upon
the tender limbs of young children and infants at the breast.
Guibert de Nogent tells of a monk who made a large incision
upon his forehead in the form of a cross, which he coloured
with some powerful ingredient, telling the people that an angel
had done it when he was asleep. This monk appears to have
THE CRUSADES 367
been more of a rogue than a fool, for he contrived to fare more
sumptuously than any of his brother pilgrims, upon the
strength of his sanctity. The Crusaders every where gave Mm
presents of food and money, and he became quite fat ere he
arrived at Jerusalem, notwithstanding the fatigues of the way.
If he had acknowledged in the first place that he had made the
wound himself, he would not have been thought more holy
than his fellows; but the story of the angel was a clincher.
All those who had property of any description rushed to the
mart to change it into hard cash. Lands and houses could be
had for a quarter of their value, while arms and accoutre-
ments of war rose in the same proportion. Cora, which Jiad
been excessively dear in anticipation of a year of scarcity,
suddenly became plentiful; and such was the diminution in the
value of provisions, that seven sheep were sold for five
denlers^ The nobles mortgaged their estates for mere trifles
to Jews and unbelievers, or conferred charters of immunity
upon the towns and communes within their fiefs, for sums
which, a few years previously, they would have rejected with
disdain. The farmer endeavoured to sell Ms plough, and the
artisan Ms tools, to purchase a sword for the deliverance of
Jerusalem. Women disposed of their trinkets for the same
purpose. During the spring and summer of this year (1096)
the roads teemed with Crusaders, all hastening to the towns
and villages appointed as the rendezvous of the district. Some
were on horseback, some in carts, and some came down the
rivers in boats and rafts, bringing their wives and children,
aU eager to go to Jerusalem. Very few knew where Jerusalem
was. Some thought it fifty thousand miles away, and others
imagined that it was but a month's journey; while at sight of
every town or castle the children exclaimed, "Is that Jeru-
salem? Is that the city?"* Parties of knights and nobles
might be seen travelling eastward, and amusing themselves as
they went with the knightly diversion of hawking, to lighten
the fatigues of the way.
Guibert de Nogent, who did not write from liearsay, but
* Gtaibert de Nogenfc
368 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
from actual observation, says the enthusiasm was so con-
tagious, that when any one heard the orders of the pontiff, he
went Instantly to solicit his neighbours and friends to join
with him in "the way of God," for so they called the proposed
expedition. The counts palatine were full of the desire to un-
dertake the journey, and all the inferior knights were animated
with the same zeal. Even the poor caught the flame so ar-
dently, that no one paused to think of the inadequacy of his
means, or to consider whether he ought to yield up his farm,
Ms vineyard, or Ms fields. Each one set about selling his
property at as low a price as if he had been held in some
horrible captivity, and sought to pay his ransom without loss
of time. Those who had not determined upon the journey
joked and laughed at those who were thus disposing of their
goods at such ruinous prices, prophesying that the expedition
would be miserable and their return worse. But they held tMs
language only for a day; the next they were suddenly seized
with the same frenzy as the rest. Those who had been loudest
in their jeers gave up all their property for a few crowns, and
set out with those they had so laughed at a few hours before.
In most cases the laugh was turned against them; for when
it became known that a man was hesitating, his more zealous
neighbours sent him a present of a knitting-needle or a distaff,
to show their contempt of him. There was no resisting this;
so that the fear of ridicule contributed its fair contingent to
the armies of the Lord.
Another effect of the Crusade was, the religious obedience
with wMch it inspired the people and the nobility for that
singular institution "The Truce of God." At the commence-
ment of the eleventh century, the clergy of France, sympa-
thising for the woes of the people, but unable to diminish them,
by repressing the rapacity and insolence of the feudal cMefs,
endeavoured to promote universal good-will by the promulga-
tion of the famous f< Peace of God." Al who conformed to it
bound themselves by oath not to take revenge for any injury,
not to enjoy the fruits of property usurped from others, nor
to use deadly weapons; in reward of wMch they would receive
remission of all their sins. However benevolent the intention
THE CRUSADES 369
of this "Peace/ 3 It led to nothing but perjury, and violence
reigned as uncontrolled as before. In the year 1041, another
attempt was made to soften the angry passions of the semi-
barbarous chiefs, and the "Trace of God" was solemnly pro-
claimed. The truce lasted from the Wednesday evening to
the Monday morning of every week, In which interval It was
strictly forbidden to recur to violence on any pretext, or to
seek revenge for any injury. It was impossible to civilise men
by these means. Few even promised to become peaceable for
so unconscionable a period as five days a week; or If they did,
they made ample amends on the two days left open to them.
The truce was afterwards shortened from the Saturday evening
to the Monday morning; but little or no diminution of violence
and bloodshed was the consequence. At the council of Cler-
mont, Urban II. again solemnly proclaimed the truce. So
strong was the religious feeling, that every one hastened to
obey. All minor passions disappeared before the grand passion
of crusading. The feudal chief ceased to oppress., the robber
to plunder, the people to complain; but one idea was in* all
hearts, and there seemed to be no room for any other.
The encampments of these heterogeneous multitudes offered
a singular aspect. Those vassals who ranged themselves under
the banners of their lord erected tents around his castle; while
those who undertook the war on their own account constructed
booths and huts in the neighborhood of the towns or villages,
preparatory to their joining some popular leader of the expedi-
tion. The meadows of France were covered with tents. As
the belligerents were to have remission of aH their sins on their
arrival in Palestine, hundreds of them gave themselves up to
the most unbounded licentiousness. The courtesan, with the
red cross upon her shoulders, plied her shameless trade with
sensual pilgrims without scruple on either side; the lover of
good cheer gave loose reign to his appetite, and drunkenness
and debauchery flourished. Their zeal In the service of the
Lord was to wipe out all faults and follies, and they had the
same surety of salvation as the rigid anchorite. This reason-
ing had charms for the ignorant, and the sounds of lewd
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
revelry and the voice of prayer rose at the same instant from
the camp.
It is now time to speak of the leaders of the expedition.
Great multitudes ranged themselves under the command of
Peter the Hermit, whom, as the originator, they considered
the most appropriate leader of the war. Others joined the
banner of a bold adventurer, whom history has dignified with
no other name than that of Gautier sans Avoir, or Walter the
Pennyless, but who is represented as having been of noble
family, and well skilled in the art of war. A third multitude
from Germany flocked around the standard of a monk named
Gottschalk, of whom nothing is known except that he was a
fanatic of the deepest dye. AH these bands, which together
are said to have amounted to three hundred thousand men,
women, and children, were composed of the vilest rascality of
Europe. Without discipline, principle, or true courage, they
rushed through the nations like a pestilence, spreading terror
and death wherever they went. The first multitude that set
forth was led by Walter the Pennyless early in the spring of
1096, within a very few months after the Council of Clermont.
Each man of that irregular host aspired to be his own master.
Like their nominal leader, each was poor to penury, and
trusted for subsistence on his journey to the chances of the
road. Rolling through Germany like a tide, they entered
Hungary, where, at first, they were received with some degree
of kindness by the people. The latter had not yet caught
sufficient of the fire of enthusiasm to join the Crusade them-
selves, but were willing enough to forward the cause by aiding
those embarked in it. Unfortunately this good understanding
did not last long. The swarm were not contented with food
for their necessities, but craved for luxuries also. They at-
tacked and plundered the dwellings of the country people,
and thought nothing of murder where resistance was offered.
On their arrival before Semlin, the outraged Hungarians col-
lected in large numbers, and, attacking the rear of the crusad-
ing host, slew a great many of the stragglers, and, taking away
their arms and crosses, affixed them as trophies to the walls
of the city. Walter appears to have been in no mood or con-
THE CRUSADES 371
ditlon to make reprisals; for Ms army, destructive as a plague
of locusts when plunder urged them on, were useless against
any regular attack from a determined enemy. Their rear
continued to be thus harassed by the wrathful Hungarians
until they were fairly out of their territory. On Ms entrance
into Bulgaria, Walter met with no better fate. The cities and
towns refused to let him pass; the villages denied him pro-
visions; and the citizens and country people uniting, slaugh-
tered his followers by hundreds. The progress of the army
was more like a retreat than an advance; but as it was im-
possible to stand still, Walter , continued his course till he
arrived at Constantinople with a force which famine and the
sword had diminished to one-third of its original number.
The greater multitude, led by the enthusiastic Hermit, fol-
lowed close upon his heels, with a bulky train of baggage, and
women and children sufficient to form a host of themselves.
If it were possible to find a rabble more vile than the army of
Walter the Pennyless, it was that led by Peter the Hermit.
Being better provided with means, they were not reduced to
the necessity of pillage in their progress through Hungary; and
had they taken any other route than that which led through
Semlin, might perhaps have traversed the country without
molestation. On their arrival before that city, their fury was
raised at seeing the arms and red crosses of their predecessors
hanging as trophies over the gates. Their pent-up ferocity
exploded at the sight. The city was tumultuously attacked,
and the besiegers entering, not by dint of bravery, but of
superior numbers, it was given up to all the horrors which
follow when victory, brutality, and licentiousness are linked
together. Every evil passion was allowed to revel with im-
punity, and revenge, lust, and avarice, each had its hundred
victims in unhappy Semlin. Any maniac can kindle a con-
flagration, but it may require many wise men to put it out.
Peter the Hermit had blown the popular fury into a flame, but
to cool it again was beyond his power. His followers rioted
unrestrained, until the fear of retaliation warned them to desist.
When the king of Hungary was informed of the disasters of
Semlin, he marched with a sufficient force to chastise the
37 2 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Hermitj who, at the news, broke up his camp and retreated
towards the Morava, a broad and rapid stream that joins the
Danube a few miles to the eastward of Belgrade. Here a
party of indignant Bulgarians awaited him, and so harassed
him, as to make the passage of the river a task both of difficulty
and danger. Great numbers of his infatuated followers per-
ished in the waters, and many fell under the swords of the
Bulgarians. The ancient chronicles do not mention the amount
of the Hermit's loss at this passage, but represent it in general
terms as very great.
At Nissa, the Duke of Bulgaria fortified himself, in fear
of an assault; but Peter, having learned a little wisdom from
experience, thought it best to avoid hostilities. He passed
three nights in quietness under the walls, and the duke, not
wishing to exasperaite unnecessarily so fierce and rapacious a
host, allowed the townspeople to supply them with provisions.
Peter took his departure peaceably on the following morning;
but some German vagabonds, falling behind the main body
of the army, set fire to the mills and house of a Bulgarian, with
whom, it appears, they had had some dispute on the previous
evening. The citizens of Nissa, who had throughout mistrusted
the Crusaders, and were prepared for the worst, sallied out
immediately, and took signal vengeance. The spoilers were
cut to pieces, and the townspeople pursuing the Hermit, cap-
tured all the women and children who had lagged in the rear,
and a great quantity of baggage. Peter hereupon turned round
and marched back to Nissa, to demand explanation of the
Duke of Bulgaria. The latter fairly stated the provocation
given, and the Hermit could urge nothing in palliation of so
gross an outrage. A negotiation was entered into, which
promised to be successful, and the Bulgarians were about to
deliver up the women and children, when a party of undisci-
plined Crusaders, acting solely upon their own suggestion,
endeavoured to scale the walls and seize upon the town. Peter
in vain exerted his authority; the confusion became general,
and after a short but desperate battle, the Crusaders threw
down their arms, and fled in all directions. Their vast host
was completely routed, the slaughter being so great among
THE CRUSADES 373
them, as to be counted, not by hundreds, but by thousands.
It is said that the Hermit led from this fatal field to a forest
a few miles from Nissa, abandoned by every human creature.
It would be curious to know whether, after so dire a reverse,
"His enplerced breast
Sharp sorrow did in thousand pieces rive/'
or whether his fiery zeal still rose superior to calamity, and
pictured the eventual triumph of his cause. He, so lately the
leader of a hundred thousand men, was now a solitary skulker
in the forests, liable at every instant to be discovered by some
pursuing Bulgarian, and cut off in mid career. Chance at last
brought him within sight of an eminence, where two or three
of his bravest knights had collected five hundred of the
stragglers. These gladly received the Hermit, and a consulta-
tion having taken place, it was resolved to gather together
the scattered remnants of the army. Fires were lighted on the
hill, and scouts sent out in all directions for the fugitives.
Horns were sounded at intervals, to make known that friends
were near; and before nightfall the Hermit saw himself at
the head of seven thousand men. During the succeeding day,
he was joined by twenty thousand more, and with this miser-
able remnant of his force, he pursued Ms route towards Con-
stantinople. The bones of the rest mouldered in the forests
of Bulgaria.
On his arrival at Constantinople, where he found Walter
the Pennyless awaiting him, he was hospitably received by the
Emperor Alexius. It might have been expected that the sad
reverses they had undergone would have taught his followers
common prudence; but, unhappily for them, their turbulence
and love of plunder was not to be restrained. Although they
were surrounded by friends, by whom all their wants were
liberally supplied, they could not refrain from rapine. In
vain the Hermit exhorted them to tranquillity; he possessed
no more power over them, in subduing their passions, than
the obscurest soldier of the host. They set fire to several
public buildings in Constantinople out of pure mischief, and
374 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
stripped the lead from the roofs of the churches, which they
afterwards sold for old metal in the purlieus of the city. From
this time may be dated the aversion which the Emperor Alexius
entertained for the Crusaders, and which was afterwards
manifested in all his actions, even when he had to deal with
the chivalrous and more honourable armies which arrived
after the Hermit. He seems to have imagined that the Turks
themselves were enemies less formidable to his power than
these outpourings of the refuse of Europe: he soon found a
pretext to hurry them into Asia Minor. Peter crossed the
Bosphorus with Walter ; but the excesses of his followers were
such, that, despairing of accomplishing any good end by re-
maining at their head, he left them to themselves, and returned
to Constantinople, on the pretext of making arrangements
with the government of Alexius for a proper supply of pro-
visions. The Crusaders, forgetting that they were in the
enemy's country; and that union, above all things, was desir-
able, gave themselves up to dissensions. Violent disputes arose
between the Lombards and Normans commanded by Walter
the Pennyless, and the Franks and Germans led out by Peter.
The latter separated themselvs from the former, and choos-
ing for their leader one Reinaldo, or Reinhold, marched
forward, and took possession of the fortress of Exorogorgon.
The Sultan Solimaun was on the alert, with a superior force.
A party of Crusaders, which had been detached from the fort,
and stationed at a little distance as an ambuscade, were sur-
prised and cut to pieces, and Exorogorgon invested on all
sides. The siege was protracted for eight days, during which
the Christians suffered the most acute agony from the want
of water. It is hard to say how long the hope of succour or
the energy of despair would have enabled them to hold out:
their treacherous leader cut the matter short by renouncing
the Christian faith, and delivering up the fort into the hands
of the sultan. He was followed by two or three of his officers;
all the rest, refusing to become Mahometans, were ruthlessly
put to the sword. Thus perished the last wretched remnant
of the vast multitude which had traversed Europe with Peter
the Hermit.
THE CRUSADES 375
Walter the Pennyless and Ms multitude met as miserable
a fate. On the news of the disasters of Exorogorgon, they
demanded to be led instantly against the Turks, Walter, who
only wanted good soldiers to have made a good general, was
cooler of head, and saw all the dangers of such a step. His
force was wholly insufficient to make any decisive movement
in a country where the enemy was so much superior, and where,
in case of defeat 3 he had no secure position to fall back upon;
and he therefore expressed his opinion against advancing until
the arrival of reinforcements. This prudent counsel found no
favour: the army loudly expressed their dissatisfaction at
their chief, and prepared to march forward without Mm.
Upon this, the brave Walter put himself at their head, and
rushed to destruction. Proceeding towards Nice, the modern
Isnik, he was intercepted by the army of the sultan: a fierce
battle ensued, in which the Turks made fearful havoc; out of
twenty-five thousand Christians, twenty-two thousand were
slain, and among them Gautier himself, who fell pierced by
seven mortal wounds. The remaining three thousand retreated
upon Civitot, where they entrenched themselves.
Disgusted as was Peter the Hermit at the excesses of the
multitude, who, at Ms call, had forsaken Europe, Ms heart
was moved with grief and pity at their misfortunes. All Ms
former zeal revived; casting himself at the feet of the Emperor
Alexius, he implored him, with tears in his eyes, to send relief
to the few survivors at Civitot. The emperor consented, and
a force was sent, wMch arrived just in time to save them from
destruction. The Turks had beleaguered the place, and the
Crusaders were reduced to the last extremity. Negotiations
were entered into, and the last three thousand were conducted
in safety to Constantinople. Alexius had suffered too much
by their former excesses to be very desirous of retaining them
in his capital; he therefore caused them all to be disarmed,
and, furnishing each with a sum of money, he sent them back
to their own country.
While these events were taking place, fresh hordes were
issuing from the woods and wilds of Germany, all bent for
the Holy Land. They were commanded by a fanatical priest,
376 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
named Gottschalk, who like Gautier and Peter the Hermit,
took his way through Hungary. History is extremely meagre
in her details of the conduct and fate of this host, which
amounted to at least one hundred thousand men. Robbery
and murder seem to have journeyed with them, and the poor
Hungarians were rendered almost desperate by their numbers
and rapacity. Karloman, the king of the country, made a
bold effort to get rid of them; for the resentment of his people
had arrived at such a height, that nothing short of the total
extermination of the Crusaders would satisfy them. Gott-
schalk had to pay the penalty, not only for the ravages of his
own bands, but for those of the swarms that had come before
him. He and his army were induced, by some means or other,
to lay down their arms: the savage Hungarians, seeing them
thus defenceless, set upon them, and slaughtered them in great
numbers. How many escaped their arrows we are not in-
formed; but not one of them reached Palestine.
Other swarms, under nameless leaders, issued from Ger-
many and France, more brutal and more frantic than any that
had preceded them. Their fanaticism surpassed by far the
wildest freaks of the followers of the Hermit. In bands, vary-
ing in numbers from one to five thousand, they traversed the
country in all directions, bent upon plunder and massacre.
They wore the symbol of the Crusade upon their shoulders,
but inveighed against the folly of proceeding to the Holy Land
to destroy the Turks, while they left behind them so many
Jews, the still more inveterate enemies of Christ. They swore
fierce vengeance against this unhappy race, and murdered all
the Hebrews they could lay their hands on, first subjecting
them to the most horrible mutilation. According to the testi-
mony of Albert Aquensis, they lived among each other in the
most shameless profligacy, and their vice was only exceeded by
their superstition. Whenever they were in search of Jews,
they were preceded by a goose and goat, which they believed to
be holy, and animated with divine power to discover the re-
treats of the unbelievers. In Germany alone they slaughtered
more than a thousand Jews, notwithstanding all the efforts of
the clergy to save them. So dreadful was the cruelty of their
THE CRUSADES 377
tormentors, that great numbers of Jews committed self-
destruction to avoid falling into their hands.
Again it fell to the lot of the Hungarians to deliver Europe
from these pests. When there were no more Jews to murder,
the bands collected in one body, and took the old route to the
Holy Land, a route stained with the blood of three hundred
thousand who had gone before, and destined also to receive
theirs. The number of these swarms has never been stated;
but so many of them perished in Hungary, that contemporary
writers, despairing of giving any adequate idea of their multi-
tudes, state that the fields were actually heaped with their
corpses, and that for miles in its course the waters of the
Danube were dyed with their blood. It was at Mersburg, on
the Danube that the greatest slaughter took place, a slaugh-
ter so great as to amount almost to extermination. The Hun-
garians for a while disputed the passage of the river, but the
Crusaders forced their way across, and attacking the city
with the blind courage of madness, succeeded in making a
breach in the walls. At this moment of victory an unaccount-
able fear came ov^f them. Throwing down their arms, they
fled panic-stricken, no one knew why, and no one knew
whither. The Hungarians followed, sword in hand, and cut
them down without remorse, and in such numbers, that the
stream of the Danube is said to have been choked up by their
unburied bodies.
This was the worst paroxysm of the madness of Europe;
and this passed, her chivalry stepped upon the scene. Men
of cool heads, mature plans, and invincible courage stood for-
ward to lead and direct the grand movement of Europe upon
Asia. It is upon these men that romance has lavished her most
admiring epithets, leaving to the condemnation of Mstory the
vileness and brutality of those who went before. Of these
leaders the most distinguished were Godfrey of Bouillon duke
of Lorraine, and Raymond count of Toulouse. Four other
chiefs of the royal blood of Europe also assumed the cross,
and led each his army to the Holy Land; Hugh count of Ver-
mandois, brother of the King of France; Robert duke of
Normandy, the elder brother of William Rufus; Robert count
378 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of Flanders, and Boheniund prince of Tarentum, eldest son
of the celebrated Robert Gulscard. These men were all tinged
with the fanaticism of the age, but none of them acted entirely
from religious motives. They were neither utterly reckless
like Gautier san Avoir, crazy like Peter the Hermit, nor brutal
like Gottschalk the monk, but possessed each of these qualities
in a milder form; their valour being tempered by caution, their
religious zeal by worldly views, and their ferocity by the spirit
of chivalry. They saw whither led the torrent of the public
will ; and it being neither their wish nor their interest to stem
it, they allowed themselves to be carried with it, in the hope
that it would lead them at last to a haven of aggrandisement.
Around them congregated many minor chiefs, the flower of
the nobility of France and Italy, with some few from Germany,
England, and Spain. It was wisely conjectured that armies so
numerous would find a difficulty in procuring provisions if
they all journeyed by the same road. They therefore resolved
to separate; Godfrey de Bouillon proceeding through Hungary
and Bulgaria, the Count of Toulouse through Lombardy and
Dalmatia, and the other leaders through Apulia to Constan-
tinople, where the several divisions were to reunite. The
forces under these leaders have been variously estimated. The
Princess Anna Comnena talks of them as having been as
numerous as the sands on the sea-shore, or the stars in the
firmament. Fulcher of Chartres is more satisfactory, and ex-
aggerates less magnificently, when he states, that all the
divisions, when they had sat down before Nice in Bithynia,
amounted to one hundred thousand horsemen, and six hundred
thousand men on foot, exclusive of the priests, women, and
children. Gibbon is of opinion that this amount is exagger-
ated; but thinks the actual numbers did not fall very short of
the calculation. The Princess Anna afterwards gives the
number of those under Godfrey of Bouillon as eighty thousand
foot and horse; and supposing that each of the other chiefs
led an army as numerous, the total would be near half a
million. This must be over rather than under the mark, as
the army of Godfrey of Bouillon was confessedly the largest
when it set out, and suffered less by the way than any other.
THE CRUSADES 379
The Count of Vermandois was the first who set foot on the
Grecian territory. On his arrival at Durazzo he was received
with every mark of respect and courtesy by the agents of the
emperor, and his followers were abundantly supplied with
provisions. Suddenly , however, and without cause assigned ,
the count was arrested by order of the Emperor Alexius^ and
conveyed a close prisoner to Constantinople. Various motives
have been assigned by different authors as having induced the
emperor to this treacherous and imprudent proceeding. By
every writer he has been condemned for so flagrant a breach
of hospitality and justice. The most probable reason for his
conduct appears to be that suggested by Guibert of Nogent,
who states that Alexius, fearful of the designs of the Crusaders
upon Ms throne, resorted to this extremity in order afterwards
to force the count to take the oath of allegiance to him, as
the price of his liberation. The example of a prince so emi-
nent as the brother of the king of France, would, he thought, be
readily followed by the other chiefs of the Crusade. In the
result he was wofully disappointed, as every man deserves to
be who commits positive evil that doubtful good may ensue.
But this line of policy accorded well enough with the narrow-
mindedness of the emperor, who, in the enervating atmosphere
of his highly civilzed and luxurious court, dreaded the influx
of the hardy and ambitious warriors of the West, and strove to
nibble away by unworthy means the power which he had not
energy enough to confront. If danger to himself had existed
from the residence of the chiefs in his dominions, he might
easily have averted it, by the simple means of placing himself
at the head of the European movement, and directing its
energies to their avowed object, the conquest of the Holy
Land. But the emperor, instead of being, as he might have
been, the lord and leader af the Crusades which he had himself
aided in no inconsiderable degree to suscitate by his embassies
to the Pope, became the slave of men who hated and despised
him. No doubt the barbarous excesses of the followers of
Gautier and Peter the Hermit made him look upon the whole
body of them with disgust, but it was the disgust of a little
380 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
mind, which Is glad of any excuse to palliate or justify its own
irresolution and love of ease.
Godfrey of Bouillon traversed Hungary in the most quiet
and orderly manner. On his arrival at Mersburg he found
the country strewed with the mangled corps'es of the Jew-
killers, and demanded of the king of Hungary for what reason
his people had set upon them. The latter detailed the atroci-
ties they had committed, and made it so evident to Godfrey
that the Hungarians had only acted in self-defence, that the
high-minded leader declared himself satisfied, and passed on
without giving or receiving molestation. On his arrival at
Philippopoli he was informed for the first time of the impris-
onment of the count of Vermandois. He immediately sent
messengers to the emperor, demanding the count's release, and
threatening, in case of refusal, to lay waste the country with
fire and sword. After waiting a day at Philippopoli, he
marched on to Adrianople, wbere he was met by his mes-
sengers returning with the emperor's refusal. Godfrey, the
bravest and most determined of the leaders of the Crusade,
was not a man to swerve from his word, and the country was
given up to pillage. Alexius here committed another blunder.
No sooner did he learn from dire experience that the Crusader
was not an utterer of idle threats, than he consented to the
release of the prisoner. As he had been unjust in the first
instance, he became cowardly in the second, and taught his
enemies (for so the Crusaders were forced to consider them-
selves) a lesson which they took care to remember to his cost,
that they could hope nothing from his sense of justice, but
every thing from his fears. Godfrey remained encamped for
several weeks in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, to the
great annoyance of Alexius, who sought by every means to
extort from him the homage he had extorted from Verman-
dois. Sometimes he acted as if at open and declared war
with the Crusaders, and sent his troops against them. Some-
times he refused to supply them with food, and ordered the
markets to be shut against them, while at other times he
was all for peace and good-will, and sent costly presents to
Godfrey. The honest, straightforward Crusader was at last
THE CRUSADES 381
so wearied by Ms false kindness, and so pestered by Ms at-
tacks, that, allowing Ms indignation to get the better of his
judgment, he gave up the country around Constantinople to
be plundered by Ms soldiers. For six days the flames of the
farm-houses around struck terror into the heart of Alexius;
but, as Godfrey anticipated, they convinced Mm of Ms error.
Fearing that Constantinople itself would be the next object
of attack, he sent messengers to demand an interview with
Godfrey, offering at the same time to leave his son as a
hostage for Ms good faith. Godfrey agreed to meet Mm; and ?
whether to put an end to these useless dissensions, or for
some other unexplained reason, he rendered homage to Alexius
as Ms liege lord. He was thereupon loaded with honours, and,
according to a singular custom of that age, underwent the
ceremony of the "adoption of honour" as son to the emperor.
Godfrey and Ms brother Baudouin de Bouillon conducted
themselves with proper courtesy on this occasion, but were not
able to restrain the insolence of their followers, who did not
conceive themselves bound to keep any terms with a man so
insincere as he had shewn Mmself . Onfe barbarous cMeftain,
Count Robert of Paris, carried Ms insolence so far as to seat
Mmself upon the throne; an insult wMch Alexius merely re-
sented with a sneer, but wMch did not induce Mm to look with
less mistrust upon the hordes that were still advancing. It is
impossible, notwithstanding his treachery, to avoid feeling
some compassion for the emperor, whose life at this time was
rendered one long scene of misery by the presumption of the
Crusaders, and his not altogether groundless fears of the evil
they might inflict upon Mm, should any untoward circum-
stance force the current of their ambition to the conquest of
Ms empire. His daughter Anna Comnena f eelingly deplores Ms
state of life at tMs time, and a learned German,* in a recent
work, describes it, on the authority of the princess, in the
following manner:
"To avoid all occasion of offence to the Crusaders, Alexius
complied with all their whims and their (on many occasions)
unreasonable demands, even at the expense of great bodily
*M. Wilken's Geschichte der Krewzzuge*
382 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
exertion, at a time when he was suffering severely under the
gout, which eventually brought him to his grave. No Cru-
sader who desired an interview with Mm was refused access; he
listened with the utmost patience to the long-winded harangues
which their loquacity or zeal continually wearied him with; he
endured, without expressing any impatience, the unbecoming
and haughty language which they permitted themselves to
employ towards him, and severely reprimanded his officers
when they undertook to defend the dignity of the imperial
station from these rude assaults, for he trembled with appre-
hension at the slightest disputes, lest they might become the
occasion of greater evil. Though the counts often appeared
before him with trains altogether unsuitable to their dignity
and to his sometimes with an entire troop, which completely
filled the royal apartment the emperor held his peace. He
listened to them at all hours; he often seated himself on his
throne at day-break to attend to their wishes and requests, and
the evening twilight saw him still in the same place. Very
frequently he could not snatch time to refresh himself witih
meat and drink. During many nights he could not obtain
any repose, and was obliged to indulge in an unref reshing sleep
upon his throne, with his head resting on his hands. Even this
slumber was continually disturbed by the appearance and
harangues of some newlynarrived rude knights. When all the
courtiers, wearied out by the efforts of the day and by night-
watching, could no longer keep themselves on their feet, and
sank down exhausted some upon benches and others on the
fl oor Alexius still rallied his strength to listen with seeming
attention to tjhe wearisome chatter of the La/tins, that they
might have no occasion or pretext for discontent. In such a
state of fear and anxiety, how could Alexius comport himself
with dignity and like an emperor?"
Alexius, however, had himself to blame, in a great measure,
for the indignities he suffered: owing to his insincerity, the
Crusaders mistrusted him so much, that it became at last a
common saying, that the Turks and Saracens were not such
inveterate foes to the Western or Latin Christians as the
THE CRUSADES 583
Emperor Alexius and the Greeks.* It would be needless In
this sketch, which does not profess to be so much a history
of the Cmsades, as of the madness of Europe ? from which they
sprang, to detail the various acts of bribery and intimidation,
cajolery and hostility, by which Alexius contrived to make each
of the leaders in succession, as they arrived, take the oath of
allegiance to him as their suzerain, One way or another he
exacted from each the barren homage on which he had set Ms
heart, and they were then allowed to proceed into Asia Minor.
One only, Raymond de St. Giles count of Toulouse, obsti-
nately refused the homage.
Their residence in Constantinople was productive of no good
to the armies of the cross. Bickerings and contentions on the
one hand, and the Influence of a depraved and luxurious court
on the other, destroyed the elasticity of their spirits, and cooled
the first ardour of their enthusiasm. At one time the army
of the Count of Toulouse was on the point of disbanding
Itself; and, had not their leader energetically removed them
across the Bosphoras, this would have been the result. Once
in Asia, their spirits In some degree revived, and the presence
of danger and difficulty nerved them to the work they had
undertaken. The first operation of the war was the siege of
Nice, to gain possession of which all their efforts were directed.
Godfrey of Bouillon and the Count of Vermandois were
joined under its walls by each host in succession as It left
Constantinople. Among the celebrated Crusaders who fought
at this siege we find, besides the leaders already mentioned, the
brave and generous Tancred, whose name and fame have been
immortalised in the Gerusalemme Liberate, the valorous
Bishop of Puy, Baldwin, afterwards king of Jerusalem, and
Peter the Hermit, now an almost solitary soldier, shorn of all
the power and influence he had formerly possessed. Kilij
Aslaun the sultan of Roum and chief of the Seljukian Turks,
whose deeds, surrounded by the false halo of romance, are
familiar to the readers of Tasso, under the name of SoKman,
marched to defend this city, but was defeated after several
*Wilken.
384 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
obstinate engagements, in which the Christians shewed a degree
of heroism that quite astonished him. The Turkish chief had
expected to find a wild undisciplined multitude, like that under
Peter the Hermit, without leaders capable of enforcing
obedience; instead of which, he found the most experienced
leaders of the age at the head of armies that had just fanati-
cism enough to be ferocious, but not enough to render them
ungovernable. In these engagements, many hundreds fell on
both sides: and on both sides the most revolting barbarity was
practised : the Crusaders cut off the heads of the fallen Mussul-
mans, and sent them in panniers to Constantinople, as trophies
of their victory. After the temporary defeat of Kilij Aslaun,
the siege of Nice was carried on with redoubled vigour. The
Turks defended themselves with the greatest obstinacy, and
discharged showers of poisoned arrows upon the Crusaders.
When any unfortunate wretch was killed under the walls, they
let down iron hooks from above, and drew the body up, which,
after stripping and mutilating, they threw back again at the
besiegers. The latter were well supplied with provisions, and
for six-and-thirty days the siege continued without any relax-
ation of the efforts on either side. Many tales are told of the
almost superhuman heroism of the Christian leaders how one
man put a thousand to flight; and how the arrows of the faith-
ful never missed their mark. One anecdote of Godfrey of
Bouillon, related by Albert of Aix, is worth recording, not only
as shewing the high opinion entertained of his valour, but as
shewing the contagious credulity of the armies a credulity
which has often led them to the very verge of defeat, as it
incited them to victory. One Turk, of gigantic stature, took
his station day by day on the battlements of Nice, and, bearing
an enormous bow, committed great havoc among the Christian
host. Not a shaft he sped but bore death upon its point; and
although the Crusaders aimed repeatedly at his breast, and he
stood in the most exposed position, their arrows fell harmless
at his feet. He seemed to be invulnerable to attack; and a
report was soon spread abroad, that he was no other than the
Arch Fiend himself, and that mortal hand could not prevail
against him. Godfrey of Bouillon, who had no faith in the
THE CRUSADES 385
supernatural character of the Mussulman, determined, if
possible, to put an end to the dismay which was rapidly par-
alysing the exertions of Ms best soldiers. Taking a huge cross-
bow, he stood forward in front of the army, to try the stead-
iness of his hand against the much-dreaded archer: the shaft
was aimed directly at his heart, and took fatal effect. The
Moslem fell amid the groans of the besieged and the shouts of
Deus adjuva! Deus adjum! the war-cry of the besiegers.
At last the Crusaders imagined that they had overcome all
obstacles, and were preparing to take possession of the city,
when, to their great astonishment they saw the flag of the
Emperor Alexius flying from the battlements. An emissary
of the emperor, named Faticius or Tatln, had contrived to gain
admission with a body of Greek troops, at a point which the
Crusaders had left unprotected, and had persuaded the Turks
to surrender to him rather than to the crusading forces. The
greatest indignation prevailed In the army when this stratagem
was discovered, and the soldiers were, with the utmost diffi-
culty, prevented from renewing the attack and besieging the
Greek emissary.
The army, however, continued Its march, and, by some
means or other, was broken into two divisions ; some historians
say accidentally,* while others affirm by mutual consent, and
for the convenience of obtaining provisions on the way.f The
one division was composed of the forces under Bohemund,
Tancred, and the Duke of Normandy; while the other, which
took a route at some distance on the right, was commanded
by Godfrey of Bouillon and the other chiefs. The Sultan of
Roum, who, after his losses at Nice, had been silently making
great efforts to crush the Crusaders at one blow, collected in a
very short time all the multitudinous tribes that owed Mm
allegiance, and with an army which, according to a moderate
calculation, amounted to two hundred thousand men, chiefly
cavalry, he fell upon the first division of the Christian host in
the valley of Dorylaeum. It was early in the morning of the
1st of July 1097, when the Crusaders saw the first companies
*FuIcher of Chartres; Guibert de Nogent; Vital,
f William of Tyre ; Mills; Wilken, &c.
386 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of the Turkish horsemen pouring down upon them from the
hills. Bohemund had hardly time to set himself in order,
and transport his sick and helpless to the rear, when the over-
whelming force of the Orientals was upon him. The Christian
army, composed principally of men on foot, gave way on all
sides, and the hoofs of the Turkish steeds, and the poisoned
arrows of their bowmen, mowed them down by hundreds.
After having lost the flower of their chivalry, the Christians
retreated upon their baggage, when a dreadful slaughter took
place. Neither women nor children, nor the sick, were spared.
Just as they were reduced to the last extremity, Godfrey of
Bouillon and the Count of Toulouse made their appearance on
the field, and turned the tide of battle. After an obstinate en-
gagement the Turks fled, and their rich camp fell into the
hands of the enemy. The loss of the Crusaders amounted to
about four thousand men, with several chiefs of renown,
among whom were Count Robert of Paris and William the
brother of Tancred. The loss of the Turks, which did not
exceed this number, taught them to pursue a different mode of
warfare. The sultan was far from being defeated. With his
still gigantic army, he laid waste all the country on either side
of the Crusaders. The latter, who were unaware of the tactics
of the enemy, found plenty of provisions in the Turkish camp;
but so far from economising these resources, they gave them-
selves up for several days to the most unbounded extravagance.
They soon paid dearly for their heedlessness. In the ravaged
country of Phrygia, through which they advanced towards
Antiochetta, they suffered dreadfully for want of food for
themselves and pasture for their cattle. Above them was a
scorching sun, almost sufficient of itself to dry up the freshness
of the land, a task which the firebrands of the sultan had but
too surely effected, and water was not to be had after the first
day of their march. The pilgrims died at the rate of five
hundred a day. The horses of the knights perished on the
road, and the baggage which they had aided to transport was
either placed upon dogs, sheep, and swine, or abandoned
altogether. In some of the calamities that afterwards befell
them, the Christians gave themselves up to the most reckless
THE CRUSADES 5&7
profligacy; but upon this occasion, the dissensions which pros-
perity had engendered were all forgotten. Religion, often dis-
regarded, arose in the stern presence of misfortune, and
cheered them as they died by the promises of eternal felicity.
At length they reached Antlocfaetta, where they found water
in abundance, and pastures for their expiring cattle. Plenty
once more surrounded them, and here they pitched their tents.
Untaught by the bitter experience of famine* they again gave
themselves up to luxury and waste.
On the 18th of October they sat down before the strong city
of Antioch, the siege of which, and the events to which it gave
rise, are among the most extraordinary incidents of the
Crusade. The city, which is situated on an eminence, and
washed by the river Orontes, is naturally a very strong posi-
tion, and the Turkish garrison were well supplied with pro-
visions to endure a long siege- In this respect the Christians
were also fortunate, but, unluckily for themselves, unwise,
Their force amounted to three hundred thousand fighting men;
and we are informed by Raymond d'Argilles, that they had so
much provision, that they threw away the greater part of every
animal they killed, being so dainty, that they would only eat
particular parts of the beast. So insane was their extrava-
gance, that in less than ten days famine began to stare them
in the face. After making a fruitless attempt to gain possession
of the city by a coup de main, they, starving themselves, sat
down to starve out the enemy. But with want came a cooling
of enthusiasm. The chiefs began to grow weary of the expe-
dition. Baldwin had previously detached himself from the
main body of the army, and, proceeding to Edessa, had in-
trigued himself into the supreme power in that little princi-
pality. The other leaders were animated with less zeal than
heretofore, Stephen of Chartres and Hugh of Vermandois
began to waver, unable to endure the privations which their
own folly and profusion had brought upon them. Even Peter
the Hermit became sick at heart ere aU was over. When the
famine had become so urgent that they were reduced to eat
human flesh in the extremity of their hunger, Bohemund and
Robert of Flanders set forth on an expedition to procure a
388 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
supply. They were in a slight degree successful; but the
relief they brought was not economised, and in two days they
were as destitute as before. Faticius, the Greek commander
and representative of Alexius, deserted with his division under
pretence of seeking for food, and his example was followed by
various bodies of Crusaders.
Misery was rife among those who remained, and they strove
to alleviate it by a diligent attention to signs and omens.
These, with extraordinary visions seen by the enthusiastic,
alternately cheered and depressed them according as they fore-
told the triumph or pictured the reverses of the cross. At one
time a violent hurricane arose, levelling great trees with the
ground, and blowing down the tents of the Christian leaders.
At another time an earthquake shook the camp, and was
thought to prognosticate some great impending evil to the
cause of Christendom. But a comet which appeared shortly
afterwards raised them from the despondency into which they
had fallen; their lively imaginations making it assume the
form of a flaming cross leading them on to victory. Famine
was not the least of the evils they endured. Unwholesome
food, and the impure air from the neighbouring marshes, en-
gendered pestilential diseases, which carried them off more
rapidly than the arrows of the enemy. A thousand of them
died in a day, and it became at last a matter of extreme
difficulty to afford them burial To add to their misery, each
man grew suspicious of his neighbour; for the camp was in-
fested by Turkish spies, who conveyed daily to the besieged
intelligence of the movements and distresses of the enemy.
With a ferocity, engendered by despair, Bohemund caused
two spies, whom he had detected, to be roasted alive in pres-
ence of the army, and within sight of the battlements of
Antioch. But even this example failed to reduce their num-
bers, and the Turks continued to be as well informed as the
Christians themselves of all that was passing in the camp.
The news of the arrival of a reinforcement of soldiers from
Europe, with an abundant stock of provisions, came to cheer
them when reduced to the last extremity. The welcome suc-
cour landed at St. Simeon, the port of Antioch, and about six
THE CRUSADES 389
miles from that city. Thitherwards the famishing Crusaders
proceeded In tumultuous bands, followed by Bohemnnd and
the ^ Count of Toulouse, with strong detachments of their
retainers and vassals, to escort the supplies In safety to the
camp. The garrison of Antioch, forewarned of this arrival,,
was on the alert, and a corps of Turkish archers was des-
patched to lie in ambuscade among the mountains and
intercept their return. Bohemund ? laden with provisions, was
encountered in the rocky passes by the Turkish host. Great
numbers of his followers were slain, and he himself had just
time to escape to the camp with the news of his defeat. God-
frey of Bouillon, the Duke of Normandy, and the other leaders,
had heard the rumour of this battle, and were at that instant
preparing for the rescue. The army was immediately in
motion, animated both by zeal and by hunger, and marched
so rapidly as to intercept the victorious Turks before they had
time to reach Antioch with their spoil. A fierce battle ensued ,
which lasted from noon till the going down of the SUE. The
Christians gained and maintained the advantage, each man
fighting as if upon himself alone had depended the fortune of
the day. Hundreds of Turks perished in the Orontes 7 and
more than two thousand were left dead upon the field of
battle. All the provision was recaptured and brought in safety
to the camp, whither the Crusaders returned singing AUeluml
or shouting Dem adjuva! Deus adjuva!
This relief lasted for some days, and, tad it been duly econ-
omised, would have lasted much longer; but the chiefs had
no authority, and were unable to exercise any control over its
distribution, Famine again approached with rapid strides,
and Stephen count of Blois> not liking the prospect, withdrew
from the camp with four thousand of his retainers, and estab-
lished himself at Alexandretta. The moral influence of this
desertion was highly prejudicial upon those who remained;
and Bohemund, the most impatient and ambitious of the
chiefs, foresaw that, unless speedily checked, it would lead to
the utter failure of the expedition. It was necessary to act
decisively; the army murmured at the length of the siege, and
the sultan was collecting Ms forces to crush them. Against the
390 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
efforts of the Crusaders Antloch might have held out for
months; but treason within effected that which courage with-
out might have striven for in vain.
Baghasihan, the Turkish prince or emir of Antioch, had
under his command an Armenian of the name of Phirouz,
whom he had entrusted with the defence of a tower on that
part of the city wall which overlooked the passes of the moun-
tains. Bohemund, by means of a spy who had embraced the
Christian religion, and to whom he had given his own name
at baptism, kept up a daily communication with this captain,
and made him the most magnificent promises of reward, if
he would deliver up his post to the Crusaders. Whether the
proposal was first made by Bohemund or by the Armenian is
uncertain, but that a good understanding soon existed be-
tween them is undoubted; and a night, was fixed for the exe-
cution of the project. Bohemund communicated the scheme
to Godfrey and the Count of Toulouse, with the stipulation
that, if the city were won, he, as the soul of the enterprise,
should enjoy the dignity of Prince of Antioch. The other
leaders hesitated: ambition and jealousy prompted them to
refuse their aid in furthering the views of the intriguer. More
mature consideration decided them to acquiesce, and seven
hundred of the bravest knights were chosen for the expedition,
the real object of which, for fear of spies, was kept a pro-
found secret from the rest of the army. When all was ready,
a report was promulgated that the seven hundred were in-
tended to form an ambuscade for a division of the sultan's
army, which was stated to be approaching.
Everything favoured the treacherous project of the Ar-
menian captain, who, on his solitary watch-tower, received due
intimation of the approach of the Crusaders. The night was
dark and stormy; not a star was visible above, and the wind
howled so furiously as to overpower all other sounds : the rain
fell in torrents, and the watchers on the towers adjoining to
that of Phirouz could not hear the tramp of the armed knights
for the wind, nor see them for the obscurity of the night and
the dismalness of the weather. When within shot of the walls,
Bohemund sent forward an interpreter to confer with the Ar-
THE CRUSADES 391
menian. The latter urged them to make haste, and seize the
favourable interval, as armed men, with lighted torches, pa-
trolled the battlements every half-hour, and at that instant
they had just passed. The chiefs were instantly at the foot
of the wall: Phirouz let down a rope; Bohemund attached it
to the end of a ladder of hides, which was then raised by the
Armenian, and held while the knights mounted. A momentary
fear came over the spirits of the adventurers, and every one
hesitated. At last Bohemund,* encouraged by Phirouz from
above, ascended a few steps on the ladder, and was followed
by Godfrey, Count Robert of Flanders, and a number of
other knights. As they advanced, others pressed forward,
until their weight became too great for the ladder, which,
breaking, precipitated about a dozen of them to the ground,
where they fell one upon the other, making a great clatter
with their heavy coats of mail. For a moment they thought
that all was lost; but the wind made so loud a howling as it
swept in fierce gusts through the mountain gorges, and the
Orontes, swollen by the rain, rushed so noisily along, that the
guards heard nothing. The ladder was easily repaired, and
the knights ascended two at a time, and reached the platform
in safety. When sixty of them had thus ascended, the torch
of the coming patrol was seen to gleam at the angle of the wall.
Hiding themselves behind a buttress, they awaited his coming
in breathless silence. As soon as he arrived at arm's length, he
was suddenly seized, and, before he could open his lips to
raise an alarm, the silence of death closed them up for ever.
They next descended rapidly the spiral of the staircase of the
tower, and opening the portal, admitted the whole of their com-
panions. Raymond of Toulouse, who, cognisant of the whole
plan, had been left behind with the main body of the army,
heard at this instant the signal horn, which announced that an
entry had been effected, and, leading on his legions, the town
was attacked from within and without.
Imagination cannot conceive a scene more dreadful than that
presented by the devoted city of Antioch on that night of hor-
*Vide William of Tyre, "
392 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
ror. The Crusaders fought with a blind fury, which fanati-
cism and suffering alike incited. Men, women, and children
were indiscriminately slaughtered, till the streets ran with
blood. Darkness increased the destruction, for when morning
dawned the Crusaders found themselves with their swords at
the breasts of their fellow-soldiers, whom they had mistaken
for foes. The Turkish commander fled, first to the citadel,
and that becoming insecure, to the mountains, whither he was
pursued and slain, and his grey head brought back to Antioch
as a trophy. At daylight the massacre ceased, and the Cru-
saders gave themselves up to plunder. They found gold, and
jewels, and silks, and velvets in abundance, but of provisions,
which were of more importance to them, they found but little
of any kind. Corn was excessively scarce, and they discovered
to their sorrow that in this respect the besieged had been but
little better off than the besiegers.
Before they had time to instal themselves in their new posi-
tion, and take the necessary measures for procuring a supply,
the city was invested by the Turks. The sultan of Persia had
raised an immense army, which he entrusted to the command
of Kerbogha, the emir of Mosul, with instructions to sweep
the Christian locusts from the face of the land. The emir ef-
fected a junction with Kilij Aslaun, and the two armies sur-
rounded the city. Discouragement took complete possession
of the Christian host, and numbers of them contrived to elude
the vigilance of the besiegers, and escape to Count Stephen
of Blois at Alexandretta, to whom they related the most exag-
gerated tales of the misery they had endured, and the utter
hopelessness of continuing the war. Stephen forthwith broke
up his camp and retreated towards Constantinople. On his
way he was met by the Emperor Alexius, at the head of a con-
siderable force, hastening to take possession of the conquests
made by the Christians in Asia. As soon as he heard of their
woeful plight, he turned back, and proceeded with the Count
of Blois to Constantinople, leaving the remnant of the Cru-
saders to shift for themselves.
The news of this defection increased the discouragement at
Antioch. All the useless horses of the army had been slain and
THE CRUSADES 393
eaten, and dogs, cats, and rats were sold at enormous prices.
Even vermin were becoming scarce. With increasing famine
came a pestilence, so that in a short time but sixty thousand
remained of the three hundred thousand that had originally
invested Antioch. But this bitter extremity, while it annihi-
lated the energy of the host, only served to knit the leaders
more firmly together; and Bohemund, Godfrey, and Tancred
swore never to desert the cause as long as life lasted. The
former strove in vain to reanimate the courage of his follow-
ers. They were weary and sick at heart, and his menaces and
promises were alike thrown away. Some* of them had shut
themselves up in the houses, and refused to come forth. Bohe-
mund, to drive them to their duty, set fire to the whole quarter,
and many of them perished in the flames, while the rest of the
army looked on with the utmost indifference. Bohemund, ani-
mated himself by a worldly spirit, did not know the true char-
acter of the Crusaders, nor understand the religious madness
which brought them in such shoals from Europe. A priest,
more clear-sighted, devised a scheme which restored all their
confidence, and inspired them with a courage so wonderful as
to make the poor sixty thousand emaciated, sick, and starv-
ing zealots put to flight the well-fed and six times as numerous
legions of the Sultan of Persia.
This priest, a native of Provence, was named Peter Barthel-
emy, and whether he were a knave or an enthusiast, or both; a
principal, or a tool in the hands of others, will ever remain a
matter of doubt. Certain it is, however, that he was the means
of raising the siege of Antioch, and causing the eventual tri-
umph of the armies of the cross. When the strength of the
Crusaders was completely broken by their sufferings, and hope
had fled from every bosom, Peter came to Count Raymond of
Toulouse, and demanded an interview on matters of serious
moment. He was immediately admitted. He said that, some
weeks previously, at the time the Christians were besieging
Antioch, he was reposing alone in his tent, when he was startled
by the shock of the earthquake which had so alarmed the
whole host. Through violent terror of the shock he could only
ejaculate, God help me! when turning round he saw two men
394 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
standing before Mm, whom lie at once recognised by the halo
of glory around them as beings of another world. One of them
appeared to be an aged man, with reddish hair sprinkled with
grey, black eyes, and a long flowing grey beard. The other
was younger, larger, and handsomer, and had something more
divine in his aspect. The elderly man alone spoke, and in-
formed him that he was the holy apostle St. Andrew, and de-
sired him to seek out the Count Raymond, the Bishop of Puy,
and Raymond of Altapulto, and ask them why the bishop did
not exhort the people, and sign them with the cross which he
bore. The apostle then took him, naked in his shirt as he
was, and transported him through the air into the heart of the
city of Antioch, where he led him into the church of St. Peter,
at that time a Saracen mosque. The apostle made him stop by
the pillar close to the steps by which they ascend on the south
side to the altar, where hung two lamps, which gave out a light
brighter than that of the the noonday sun; the younger man,
whom he did not at that time know, standing afar off, near the
steps of the altar. The apostle then descended into the ground
and brought up a lance, which he gave into his hand, telling
him that it was the very lance that had opened the side whence
had flowed the salvation of the world. With tears of joy he
held the holy lance, and implored the apostle to allow him to
take it away and deliver it into the hands of Count Raymond.
The apostle refused, and buried the lance again in the ground,
commanding him, when the city was won from the infidels, to
go with twelve chosen men, and dig it up again in the same
place. The apostle then transported him back to his tent, and
the two vanished from his sight. He had neglected, he said,
to deliver this message, afraid that his wonderful tale would not
obtain credence from men of such high rank. After some days
he again saw the holy vision, as he was going out of the camp
to look for food. This time the divine eyes of the younger
looked reproachfully upon him. He implored the apostle to
choose some one else more fitted for the mission, but the apostle
refused, and smote him with a disorder of the eyes, as a pun-
ishment for his disobedience. With an obstinacy unaccount-
able even to himself, he had still delayed. A third time the
THE CRUSADES 395
apostle and his companion had appeared to him, as he was in,
a tent with his master William at St. Simeon. On that occa-
sion St. Andrew told him to bear his command to the Count
of Toulouse not to bathe in the waters of the Jordan when he
came to it, but to cross over in a boat, clad in a shirt and
breeches of linen, which he should sprinkle with the sacred
waters of the river. These clothes he was afterwards to pre-
serve along with the holy lance. His master William, al-
though he could not see the saint, distinctly heard the voice
giving orders to that effect. Again he neglected to execute the
commission, and again the saints appeared to him, when he
was at the port of Mamistra, about to sail for Cyprus, and;
St. Andrew threatened him with eternal perdition if he refused
longer. Upon this he made up his mind to divulge all that had
been revealed to him.
The Count of Toulouse, who, in all probability, concocted
this tale with the priest, appeared struck with the recital, and
sent immediately for the Bishop of Puy and Raymond of Alta-
pulto. The bishop at once expressed his disbelief of the whole
story, and refused to have anything to do in the matter. The
Count of Toulouse, on the contrary, saw abundant motives, if
not for believing, for pretending to believe; and, in the end,
he so impressed upon the mind of the bishop the advantage
that might be derived from it, in working up the popular mind
to its former excitement, that the latter reluctantly agreed to
make search in due form for the holy weapon. The day after
the morrow was fixed upon for the ceremony; and, in the mean
time, Peter was consigned to the care of Raymond, the count's
chaplain, in order that no profane ctiriosity might have an
opportunity of cross-examining him, and putting him to a non-
plus.
Twelve devout men were forthwith chosen for the under-
taking, among whom were the Count of Toulouse and his chap-
lain. They began digging at sunrise, and continued unwearied
till near sunset, without finding the lance; they might have
dug till this day with no better success, had not Peter himself
sprung into the pit, praying to God to bring the lance to light,
for the strengthening and victory of his people. Those who
396 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
hide know where to find; and so it was with Peter, for both
he and the lance found their way into the hole at the same
time. On a sudden he and Raymond the chaplain beheld its
point in the earth, and Raymond, drawing it forth, kissed it
with tears of joy, in sight of the multitude which had assem-
bled in the church. It was immediately enveloped in a rich
purple cloth, already prepared to receive it, and exhibited in
this state to the faithful, who made the building resound with
their shouts of gladness.
Peter had another vision the same night, and became from
that day forth "dreamer of dreams" in general to the army.
He stated on the following day, that the Apostle Andrew and
"the youth with the divine aspect" appeared to him again, and
directed that the Count of Toulouse, as a reward for his per-
severing piety, should carry the Holy Lance at the head of
the army, and that the day on which it was found should be
observed as a solemn festival throughout Christendom. St.
Andrew shewed him at the same time the holes in the feet and
hands of his benign companion; and he became convinced that
he stood in the awful presence of THE REDEEMER.
Peter gained so much credit by his visions, that dreaming
became contagious. Other monks beside himself were visited
by the saints, who promised victory to the host if it would
valiantly hold out to the last, and crowns of eternal glory to
those who fell in the fight. Two deserters, wearied of the
fatigues and privations of the war, who had stealthily left the
camp, suddenly returned, and seeking Bohemund, told him
that they had been met by two apparitions, who, with great
anger, had commanded them to return. The one of them said,
that he recognised his brother, who had been killed in battle
some months before, and that he had a halo of glory around
his head. The other, still more hardy, asserted that the appa-
rition which had spoken to him was the Saviour himself, who
had promised eternal happiness as his reward if he returned
to his duty, but the pains of eternal fire if he rejected the cross.
No one thought of disbelieving these men. The courage of the
army immediately revived; despondency gave way to hope;
every arm grew strong again, and the pangs of hunger were
THE CRUSADES 397
for a time disregarded. The enthusiasm which had led them
from Europe burned forth once more as brightly as ever, and
they demanded, with loud cries, to be led against the enemy.
The leaders were not unwilling. In a battle lay their only
chance of salvation; and although Godfrey, Bohemund, and
Tancred received the story of the lance with much suspicion,
they were too wise to throw discredit upon an imposture which
bade fair to open the gates of victory.
Peter the Hermit was previously sent to the camp of Ker-
bogha to propose that the quarrel between the two religions
should be decided by a chosen number of the bravest soldiers
of each army. Kerbogha turned from him with a look of
contempt, and said he could agree to no proposals from a set
of such miserable beggars and robbers. With this uncourteous
answer Peter returned to Antioch. Preparations were imme-
diately commenced for an attack upon the enemy: the latter
continued to be perfectly well informed of all the proceedings
of the Christian camp. The citadel of Antioch, which re-
mained in their possession, overlooked the town, and the
commander of the fortress could distinctly see all that was
passing within. On the morning of the 28th of June, 1098, a
black flag, hoisted from its highest tower, announced to the be-
sieging army that the Christians were about to sally forth.
The Moslem leaders knew the sad inroads that famine and
disease had made upon the numbers of the foe; for they knew
that not, above two hundred of the knights had horses to ride
upon, and that the foot soldiers were sick and enmciated; but
they did not know the almost incredible valour which super-
stition had infused into their hearts. The story of the lance
they treated with the most supreme contempt, and, secure of
an easy victory, they gave themselves no trouble in preparing
for the onslaught. It is related the Kerbogha was playing a
game at chess, when the black flag on the citadel gave warning
of the enemy's approach, and that, with true oriental cool-
ness, he insisted upon finishing the game ere he bestowed any
of his attention upon a foe so unworthy. The defeat of his
advanced post of two thousand men aroused him from his
apathy.
398 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
The Crusaders, after this first victory, advanced joyfully
towards the mountains, hoping to draw the Turks to a place
where their cavalry would be unable to manoeuvre. Their
spirits were light and their courage high, as, led on by the
Duke of Normandy, Count Robert of Flanders, and Hugh
of Vermandois, they came within sight of the splendid camp of
the enemy. Godfrey of Bouillon and Adhemar Bishop of Puy
fallowed immediately after these leaders, the latter clad in
complete armour, and bearing the Holy Lance within sight of
the whole army: Bohemund and Tancred brought up the rear.
Kerbogha, aware at last that his enemy was not so despi-
cable, took vigorous measures to remedy his mistake, and pre-
paring himself to meet the Christians in front, he despatched
the Sultan Soliman of Roum to attack them in the rear. To
conceal this movement, he set fire to the dried weeds and grass
with which the ground was covered, and Soliman, taking a
wide circuit with his cavalry, succeeded, under cover of the
smoke, in making good his position in the rear. The battle
raged furiously in front; the arrows of the Turks fell thick
as hail, and their well-trained squadrons trod the Crusaders
under their hoofs like stubble. Still the affray was doubtful;
for the Christians had the advantage of the ground, and were
rapidly gaining upon the enemy, when the overwhelming
forces of Soliman arrived in the rear. Godfrey and Tancred
flew to the rescue of Bohemund, spreading dismay in the
Turkish ranks by their fierce impetuosity. The Bishop of
Puy was left almost alone with the Provengals to oppose the
legions commanded by Kerbogha in person; but the presence
of the Holy Lance made a hero of the meanest soldier in his
train. Still, however, the numbers of the enemy seemed in-
terminable. The Christians, attacked on every side, began
at last to give way, and the Turks made sure of victory.
At this moment a cry was raised in the Christian host that
the saints were fighting on their side. The battle-field was
clear of the smoke from the burning weeds, which had curled
away, and hung in white clouds of fantastic shape on the brow
of the distant mountains. Some imaginative zealot, seeing
this dimly through the dust of the battle, called out to his f el-
THE CRUSADES 399
lows, to look at the army of saints, clothed in white, and riding
upon white horses, that were pouring over the hills to the
rescue. All eyes were immediately turned to the distant
smoke; faith was in every heart; and the old battle-cry, God
wills it! God wills it! resounded through the field, as every
soldier, believing that God was visibly sending his armies to
his aid, fought with an energy unfelt before. A panic seized
the Persian and Turkish hosts, and they gave way in all direc-
tions. In vain Kerbogha tried to rally them. Fear is more
contagious than enthuiasm, and they fled over the mountains
like deer pursued by the hounds. The two leaders, seeing the
uselessness of further, efforts, fled with the rest; and that im-
mense army was scattered over Palestine, leaving nearly sev-
enty thousand of its dead upon the field of battle.
Their magnificent camp fell into the hands of the enemy,
with its rich stores of corn, and its droves of sheep and oxen.
Jewels, gold, and rich velvets in abundance, were distributed
among the army. Tancred followed the fugitives over the
hills, and reaped as much plunder as those who had remained
in the camp. The way, as they fled, was covered with valu-
ables, and horses of the finest breed of Arabia became so plen-
tiful that every knighit of the Christians was provided with a
steed. The Crusaders, in this battle, acknowledged to have lost
nearly ten thousand men.
Their return to Antioch was one of joy indeed: the citadel
was surrendered at once, and many of the Turkish garrison
embraced the Christian faith, and the rest were suffered to
depart. A solemn thanksgiving was offered up by the Bishop
of Puy, in which the whole army joined, and the Holy Lance
was visited by every soldier.
The enthusiasm lasted for some days, and the army loudly
demanded to be led forward to Jerusalem, the grand goal of
all their wishes: but none of their leaders were anxious to
move the more prudent among them, such as Godfrey and
Tancred, for reasons of expediency; and the more ambitious,
such as the Count of Toulouse and Bohemund, for reasons of
self-interest. Violent dissensions sprajig up again between all
the chiefs. Raymond of Toulouse, who was left at Antioch
400 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
to guard the town, had summoned the citadel to surrender, as
soon as he saw that there was no fear of any attack upon the
part of the Persians; amd the other chiefs found, upon their
return, his banner waving on its walls. This had given great
offence to Bohemund, who had stipulated the principality of
Antioch as his reward for winning the town in the first in-
stance. Godfrey and Tancred supported his claim, and, after
a great deal of bickering, the flag of Raymond was lowered
from the tower, and that of Bohemund hoisted in its stead, who
assumed from that time the title of Prince of Antioch. Ray-
mond, however, persisted in retaining possession of one of the
city gates and its adjacent towers, which he held for several
months, to the great annoyance of Bohemund and the scandal
of the army. The count became in consequence extremely un-
popular, although his ambition was not a whit more unreason-
able than that of Bohemund himself, nor of Baldwin, who had
taken up his quarters at Edessa, where he exercised the func-
tions of a petty sovereign.
The fate of Peter Barthelemy deserves to be recorded.
Honours and consideration had come thick upon him after the
affair of the lance, and he consequently felt bound in con-
science to continue the dreams which had made him a person-
age of so much importance. The mischief of it was, that, like
many other liars, he had a very bad memory, and he contrived
- to make his dreams contradict each other in the most palpable
manner. St. John one night appeared to him, and told one
tale; while, a week after, St. Paul told a totally different story,
and held out hopes quite incompatible with those of his apos-
tolic brother. The credulity of that age had a wide maw,
and Peter's visions must have been absurd and outrageous in-
deed, when the very men who had believed in the lance re-
fused to swallow any moire of his wonders. Bohemund at last,
for the purpose of annoying the Count of Toulouse, challenged
poor Peter to prove the truth of his story of tjie lance by the
fiery ordeal. Peter could not refuse a trial so common in that
age, and being besides encouraged by the count and his chap-
lain Raymond, an early day was appointed for the ceremony.
The previous night was spent in prayer and fasting, according
THE CRUSADES 401
to custom, and Peter came forth in the morning bearing the
lance in his hand, and walked boldly up to the fire. The whole
army gathered round, impatient for the result, many thousands
still believing that the lance was genuine, and Peter a holy
man. Prayers having been said by Raymond d'Agilles, Peter
walked into the flames, and had got nearly through, when pain
caused him to lose his presence of mind: the heat, too, affected
his eyes, and, in his anguish, he turned round unwittingly, and
passed through the fire again, instead of stepping out of it, as
he should have done. The result was, that he was burned so
severely that he never recovered, and, after lingering for some
days, he expired in great agony.
Most of the soldiers were suffering either from wounds, dis-
ease, or weariness; and it was resolved by Godfrey, the tac-
itly acknowledged chief of the enterprise, that the army
should have time to refresh its-elf ere they advanced upon Jeru-
salem. It was now July, and he proposed that they should
pass the hot months of August and September within the walls
of Antioch, and march forward in October with renewed
vigor, and numbers increased by fresh arrivals from Europe.
This advice was finally adopted, although the enthusiasts of
the army continued to murmur at the delay. In the mean time
the Count of Vermandois was sent upon an embassy to the
Emperor Alexius at Constantinople, to reproach him for his
base desertion of the cause, and urge him to send the rein-
forcements he had promised. The count faithfully executed
his mission (of which, by the way, Alexius took no notice
whatever), and remained for some time at Constantinople,
till his zeal, never very violent, totally evaporated. He then
returned to France, sick of the Crusade, and determined to
intermeddle with it no more.
The chiefs, though they had determined to stay at Antioch
for two months, could not remain quiet for so long a time.
They would, in all probability, have fallen upon each other,
had there been no Turks in Palestine upon whom they might
vent their impetuosity. Godfrey proceeded to Edessa, to aid
his brother Baldwin in expelling the Saracens from his prin-
cipality, and the other leaders carried on separate hostilities
402 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
against them as caprice or ambition dictated. At length the
impatience of the army to be led against Jerusalem became so
great that the chiefs could no longer delay, and Raymond,
Tancred, and Robert of Normandy marched forward with
their divisions, and laid siege to the small but strong town of
Marah. With their usual improvidence, they had not food
enough to last a beleaguering army for a week. They suffered
great privations in consequence, till Bohem-und came to their
aid and took the town by storm. In connexion with this siege,
the chronicler, Raymond d'Agilles (the same Raymond the
chaplain who figured in the affair of the holy lance) , relates
a legend in the truth of which he devoutly believed, and upon
which Tasso had founded one of the most beautiful passages
of his poem. It is worith preserving, as shewing the spirit of
the age and the source of the extraordinary courage manifested
by the Cru&aders on occasions of extreme difficulty. "One
day," says Raymond, "Anselme de Ribeaumont beheld young
Engelram, the son of the Count de St. Paul, who had been
killed at Marah, enter his tent. 'How is it,' said Anselme to
him, 'that you, whom I saw lying dead on the field of battle,
are full of life?' 'You must know/ replied Engleram, 'that
those who fight for Jesus Christ never die.' 'But whence,' re-
sum'ed Anselme, 'comes that strange brightness that surrounds
you?' Upon this Engelnam pointed to the sky, where Anselme
saw a palace of diamond and crystal. 'It is thence,' said he,
'that I derive the beauty which surprises you. My dwelling
is there; a still finer one is prepared for you, and you shall
soon come to inhabit it. Farewell! we shall meet again to-
morrow.' With these wo-rds Engelram returned to heaven.
Anselme, struck by the vision, sent th'e next morning for the
priests, received the sacrament, and although full of health,
took a last farewell of all his friends, telling them that he was
about to leave this world. A few hours afterwards, the enemy
having made a sortie, Anselme went out against them sword
in hand, and was struck on the forehead by a stone from a
Turkish sling, which sent him to heaven^ to the beautiful pal-
ace that was prepared for -him."
New disputes arose between the Prince of Antioch and the
THE CRUSADES 403
Count of Toulouse with regard to the capture of this town,
which were with the utmost difficulty appeased by the other
chiefs. Delays also took place in the progress of the army ?
especially before Arcihas, and the soldiery were so exasperated
tibat they were on the point of choosing new leaders to con-
duct them to Jerusalem. Godfrey, upon this, set fire to his
camp at Arcbas, and marched forward. He was immediately
joined by hundreds of the Provencals of the Court of Toulouse.
The latter, seeing the turn affairs were taking, hastened after
them, and the whole host proceeded towards the holy city, so
long desired amid sorrow, and suffering, and danger. At Em-
maus they were met by a deputation from the Christians of
Bethlehem, praying for immediate aid against the oppression
of the infidels. The very name of Bethlehem, the birth-place
of their Saviour, was music to their ears, and many of them
wept with joy to think they were approaching a spot so hallowed.
Albert of Aix informs us that their hearts were so touched
that sleep was banished from the camp, and that, instead of
waiting till the morning's dawn to recommence their march,
they set out shortly after midnight, full of hope and enthusi-
asm. For upwards of four hours the mail-clad legions tramped
steadfastly forward in the dark, and when the sun arose in
unclouded splendour, the towers and pinnacles of Jerusalem
gleamed upon their sight. All the tender feelings of their
nature were touched; no longer brutal fanatics, but meek and
humble pilgrims, they knelt down upon the sod, and with tears
in their eyes, exclaimed to one another, "Jerusalem! Jeru-
salem!' 3 Some of them kissed the holy ground, others stretched
themselves at full length upon it, in order that their bodies
might come in contact with the greatest possible extent of it,
and others prayed aloud. The women and children who had
followed the camp from Europe, and shared in all its dangers,
fatigues, and privations, were more boisterous in their joy;
the former from long-nourished enthusiasm, and the latter
from mere imitation,* and prayed, and wept, and laughed till
they almost put the more sober to the blush.
* Guibert de Nogent relates a curious instance of the imitatireness of
these juvenile Crusaders. He says that, during the siege of Antioch, the
404 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
The first ebullition of their gladness having subsided, the
army marched forward and invested the city on all sides. The
assault was almost immediately begun; but after the Christians
had lost some of their bravest knights, that mode of attack
was abandoned, and the army commenced its preparations for
a regular siege. Mangonels, movable towers, and battering-
rams, together with a machine called a sow, made of wood,
and covered with raw hides, inside of which miners worked to
undermine the walls, were forthwith constructed; and to re-
store the courage and discipline of the army, which had suf-
fered from the unworthy dissensions of the chiefs, the latter
held out the hand of friendship to each other, and Tancred and
the Count of Toulouse embraced in sight of the whole camp.
The clergy aided the cause with their powerful voice, and
preached union and goodwill to the highest and the lowest. A
solemn procession was also ordered round the city, in which
the entire army joined, prayers being offered up at every spot
which gospel records has taught them to consider as peculiarly
sacred.
The Saracens upon the ramparts beheld all these manifesta-
tions without alarm. To incense the Christians, whom they
despised, they constructed rude crosses, and fixed them upon
the walls, and spat upon and pelted them with dirt and stones.
This insult to the symbol of their faith raised the wrath of
the Crusaders to that height that bravery became ferocity, and
enthusiasm madness. When all the engines of war were com-
pleted, the attack was recommenced, and every soldier of the
Christian army fought with a vigour which the sense of private
wrong invariably inspires. Every man had been personally
outraged, and the knights worked at the battering-rams with
as much readiness as the meanest soldiers. The Saracen ar-
rows and balls of fire fell thick and f ast among them, but the
Christian and Saracen boys used to issue forth every evening from the
town and camp in great numbers, under the command of captains chosen
from among themselves. Armed with sticks instead of swords, and stones
instead of arrows, they ranged themselves in battle order, and, shouting
each the war-cry of their country, fought with the utmost desperation.
Some of them lost their eyes, and many became cripples for life from the
injuries they received on these occasions.
THE CRUSADES
405
tremendous ram still heaved against the walls, while the best
marksmen of the host were busily employed in the several
floors of the movable towers in dealing death among the Turks
upon the battlements. Godfrey, Raymond, Tancred, and Rob-
ert of Normandy, each upon his tower, fought for hours with
unwearied energy, often repulsed, but ever ready to renew
the struggle. The Turks, no longer despising the enemy, de-
fended themselves with the utmost skill and bravery till dark-
ness brought a cessation of hostilities. Short was the sleep
that night in the Christian camp. The priests offered up sol-
emn prayers in the midst of the attentive soldiery for the tri-
umph of the cross in this last great struggle; and as soon as
morning dawned, every one was in readiness for the affray.
The women and children lent their aid, the latter running un-
concerned to and fro while the arrows fell fast around them,
bearing water to the thirsty combatants. The saints were be-
lieved to be aiding their efforts, and tte army, impressed with
this idea, surmounted difficulties under which a force thrice
as numerous, but without their faith, would have quailed and
been defeated. Raymond of Toulouse at last forced his way
into the city by escalade, while at the very same moment Tan-
cred and Robert of Normandy succeeded in bursting open one
of the gates. The Turks flew to repair the mischief, and God-
frey of Bouillon, seeing the battlements comparatively de-
serted, let down the drawbright of his movable tower, and
sprang forward, followed by all the knights of his train. In
an instant after, the banner of the cross floated upon the walls
of Jerusalem. The Crusaders, raising once more their re-
doubtable war-cry, rushed on from every side, and the city
was taken. The battle raged in the streets for several hours,
and the Christian's, remembering their insulted faith, gave nc
quarter to young or old, male pr female, sick or strong. Not
one of the leaders thought himself a/t Liberty to issue orders
for staying the carnage, and if he bad, he would not have beer
obeyed. The Saracens fled in great numbers to the mosque
of Soliman, but they bad not time to fortify themselves witihir
it ere the Christians were upan them. Ten thousand, persons
are said to have perished in that buMing alone.
406 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Peter the Hermit,, who had remained so long under the veil
of neglect, was repaid that day for all his zeal and all his suf-
ferings. As soon as the battle was over, the Christians of
Jerusalem issued forth from their hiding-places to welcome
their deliverers. They instantly recognised the Hermit as the
pilgrim who, years before, had spoken to them so eloquently of
the wrongs and insults they had endured, and promised to stir
up the princes and people of Europe in their behalf. They
clung to the skirts of his garments in the fervour of their grat-
itude, and vowed to remember him for ever in their prayers.
Many of them shed tears about his neck, and attributed the
deliverance of Jerusalem solely to his courage and persever-
ance. Peter afterwards held some ecclesiastical office in the
holy city, bust what it was, or what was his ultimate fate, his-
tory has forgotten to inform us. Some say that he returned to
France and founded a monastery, but the story does not rest
upon sufficient authority.
The grand object for which the popular swarms of Europe
had forsaken their homes was now accomplished. The Mos-
lem mosques of Jerusalem were converted into churches for
a purer faith, and the Mount of Calvary and the sepulchre of
Christ were profaned no longer by the presence or the power
of the infidel. Popular frenzy had fulfilled its mission, and,
as a natural consequence, it began to subside from that time
forth. The news of the capture of Jerusalem brought num-
bers of pilgrims from Europe, and, among others, Stephen
count of Chartres and Hugh of Vermandois, to atone for their
desertion, but nothing like the former enthusiasm existed
among the nations.
Thus, then, ends the history of the first Crusade. For the
better understanding of the second, it will be necessary to
describe the interval between them, and to enter into a slight
sketch of the history of Jerusalem under its Latin kings, the
long and fruitless wars they continued to wage with the un-
vanquished Saracens, and the poor and miserable results which
sprang from so vast an expenditure of zeal and so deplorable
a waste of human life.
The necessity of having some recognised chief was soon felt
THE CRUSADES 407
by the Crusaders, and Godfrey de BouiUon, less ambitious
than Bohemund or Raymond of Toulouse, gave his cold con-
sent to wield a sceptre which the latter chiefs would have
clutched with eagerness. He was hardly invested with the
royal mantle before the Saracens menaced his capital. With
much vigour and judgment he exerted himself to follow up
the advantages he had gained, and marching out to meet the
enemy before they had time to besiege him in Jerusalem, he
gave them battle at Ascalon, and defeated them with great
loss. He did not, however, live long to enjoy his new dignity,
being seized with a fatal illness when he had only reigned nine
months. To him succeeded his brother, Baldwin of Edessa.
The latter monarch did much to improve the condition of
Jerusalem and to extend its territory, but was not able to make
a firm footing for his successors. For fifty years, in which the
history of Jerusalem is full of interest to the historical student,
the Crusaders were exposed to fierce and constant hostilities,
often gaining battles and territory, and as often losing them,
but becoming every day weaker and more divided, while the
Saracens became stronger and more united to harass and root
them out. The battles of this period were of the most chiv-
alrous character, and deeds of heroism were done by the hand-
ful of brave knights that remained in Syria which have hardly
their parallel in the annals of war. In the course of time,
however, the Christians could not avoid feeling some respect
for the courage, and admiration for the polished manners and
advanced civilisation of the Saracens, so much superior to the
rudeness and semi-barbarism o| Europe at that day. Differ-
ence of faith did not prevent them from forming alliances with
the dark-eyed maidens of the East. One of the first to set the
example of taking a Paynim spouse was King Baldwin him-
self, and these connexions in time became not only frequent,
but almost universal, among such of the knights as had re-
solved to spend their lives in Palestine. These Eastern ladies
were obliged, however, to submit to the ceremony of baptism
before they could be received to the arms of a Christian lord*
These, and their offspring, naturally looked upoa the Sara-
cens with less hatred than did the zealots who conquered Jem-
408 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
salem, and who thought it a sin deserving the wrath of God to
spare an unbeliever. We find, in consequence, that the most
obstinate battles waged during the reigns of the later kings of
Jerusalem were fought by the new and raw levies who from
time to time arrived from Europe, lured by the hope of glory
or spurred by fanaticism. The latter broke without scruple
the truces established between the original settlers and the
Saracens, and drew down severe retaliation upon many thou-
sands of their brethren in the faith, whose prudence was
stronger than their zeal, and whose chief desire was to live in
peace.
Things remained in this unsatisfactory state till the close
of the year 1145, when Edessa, the strong frontier town of the
Christian kingdom, fell into the hands of the Saracens. The
latter were commanded by Zenghi, a powerful and enterpris-
ing monarch, and, after his death, by his son Nourheddin, as
powerful and enterprising as his father. An unsuccessful at-
tempt was made by the Count of Edessa to regain the f ortress,
but Nourheddin with a large army came to the rescue, and
after defeating the count with great slaughter, marched into
Edessa and caused its fortifications to be razed to the ground,
that the town might never more be a bulwark of defence for
the kingdom of Jerusalem. The road to the capital was now
open, and consternation seized the hearts of the Christians.
Nourheddin, it was known, was only waiting for a favourable
opportunity to advance upon Jerusalem, and the armies of the
cross, weakened and divided, were not in a condition to make
any available resistance. The clergy were filled with grief
and alarm, and wrote repeated letters to the Pope and the sov-
ereigns of Europe, urging the expediency of a new Crusade for
the relief of Jerusalem. By far the greater number of the
priests of Palestine were natives of France, and these naturally
looked first to their own country. The solicitations they sent
to Louis VII. were urgent and oft repeated, and the chivalry
of France began to talk once more of arming in defence of the
birthplace of Jesus. The kings of Europe, whose interest it
had not been to take any part in the first Crusade, began to
bestir themselves in this; and a man appeared, eloquent as
THE CRUSADES 409
Peter the Hermit, to arouse the people as that preacher had
done.
We find, however, that the enthusiasm of the second did
not equal that of the first Crusade; in fact, the mania had
reached its climax in the time of Peter the Hermit, and de-
creased regularly from that period. The third Crusade was
less general than the second, and the fourth than the third, and
so on, until the public enthusiasm was quite extinct, and Jeru-
salem returned at last to the dominion of its old masters with-
out a convulsion in Christendom. Various reasons have been
assigned for this; and one very generally put forward is, that
Europe was wearied with continual struggles, and had become
sick of "precipitating itself upon Asia." M. Guizot, in his
admirable lectures upon European civilisation, successfully
combats this opinion, and offers one of his own, which is far
more satisfactory. He says, in his eighth lecture, "It has been
often repeated that Europe was tired of continually invading
Asia. This expression appears to me exceedingly incorrect,
It is not possible that human beings can be wearied with what
they have not done .that the labours of their forefathers can
fatigue them. Weariness is a personal, not an inherited feel-
ing. The men of the thirteenth century were not fatigued by
the Crusades of the twelfth. They were influenced by another
cause. A great change had taken place in ideas, sentiments,
and social conditions. The same desires and the same wants
were no longer felt. The same things were no longer believed.
The people refused to believe what their ancestors were per-
suaded of."
This is, in fact, the secret of the change; and its truth be-
comes more apparent as we advance in the history of the Cru-
sades> and compare the state of the public mind at the dif-
ferent periods when Godfrey of Bouillon, Louis VII., and
Richard I., were chiefs and leaders of the movement. The
Crusades themselves were the means of operating a great
change in national ideas, and advancing the civilisation of Eu-
rope. In the time of Godfrey, the nobles were all-powerful
and all-oppressive, and equally obnoxious to kings and people.
4IO EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
During their absence along with that portion of the commu-
nity the deepest sunk in ignorance and superstition, both kings
and people fortified themselves against the renewal of aristo-
cratic tyranny, and in proportion as they became free became
civilised. It was during this period that in France, the grand
centre of the crusading madness, the communes began to ac-
quire strength, and the monarch to possess a practical and not
merely a theoretic authority. Order and comfort began to
take root, and, when the second Crusade was preached, men
were in consequence much less willing to abandon their homes
than they had been during the first. Such pilgrims as had
returned from the Holy Land came back with minds more
liberal and expanded than when they set out. They had come
in contact with a people more civilised than themselves; they
had seen something more of the world, and had lost some
portion, however small, of the prejudice and bigotry of igno-
rance. The institution of chivalry had also exercised its
humanising influence, and coming bright and fresh through
the ordeal of the Crusades, had softened the character and im-
proved the hearts of the aristocratic order. The trouv&res
and troubadours, singing of love and war in strains pleasing
to every class of society, helped to root out the gloomy super-
stitions which, at the first Crusade, filled the minds of all those
who were able to think. Men became in consequence less
exclusively under the mental thraldom of the priesthood, and
lost much of the credulity which formerly distinguished them.
The Crusades appear never to have excited so much atten-
tion in England as on the continent of Europe; not because the
people were less fanatical than their neighbours, but because
they were occupied in matters of graver interest. The Eng-
lish were suffering too severely from the recent successful in-
vasion of their soil, to have much sympathy to bestow upon the
distresses of people so far away as the Christians of Palestine;
and we find that they took no part in the first Crusade, and
very little in the second. Even then those ^ho engaged in it
were chiefly Norman knights and their vassals, and not the
Saxon franklins and population, who no doubt thought, in their
THE CRUSADES 411
sorrow, as many wise men have thought since, that charity
should begin at home.
Germany was productive of more zeal in the cause, and her
raw uncivilized hordes continued to issue forth under the
banners of the cross in numbers apparently undiminished,
when the enthusiasm had long been on the wane in other
countries. They were sunk at that time in a deeper slough
of barbarism than the livelier nations around them, and took,
in consequence, a longer period to free themselves from their
prejudices. In fact, the second Crusade drew its chief sup-
plies of men from that quarter, where alone the expedition can
be said to have retained any portion of popularity.
Such was the state of mind of Europe when Pope Eugenius,
moved by the reiterated entreaties of the Christians of Syria,
commissioned St. Bernard to preach a new Crusade. St. Ber-
nard was a man eminently qualified for the mission. He was
endowed with an eloquence of the highest order, could move
an auditory to tears, or laughter, or fury, as it pleased him,
and had led a life of such rigid and self-denying virtue, ttot
not even calumny could lift her finger and point it at him. He
had renounced high prospects in the Church, and contented
himself with the simple abbacy of Clairvaux, in order that he
might have the leisure he desired, to raise his powerful voice
against abuses wherever he found them. Vice met in him an
austere and uncompromising reprover; no man was too high
for his reproach, and none too low for his sympathy. He was
just as well suited for his age as Peter the Hermit had been
for the age preceding. He appealed more to the reason, his
predecessor to the passions; Peter the Hermit collected a mob,
while Sit. Bernard collected an <army. Both were endowed
with equal zeal and perseverance, springing in the one from
impulse, and in -the other from conviction, and a desire to in-
crease the influence of the Church, that great body of which
he was a pillar and an ornament.
One of the first converts he made was in himself a host.
Louis VII. was both superstitious and tyrannical, and, in a
fit of remorse for the infamous slaughter he had authorised at
the sacking of Vitry, he made a vow to undertake the journey
412 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
to the Holy Land.* He was in this disposition when St." Ber-
nard began to preach, and wanted but little persuasion to em-
bark in the cause. His example had great influence upon the
nobility, who, impoverished as many of them were by the
sacrifices made by their fathers in the holy wars, were anxious
to repair their ruined fortunes by conquests on a foreign shore.
These took the field with such vessels as they could command,
and in a very short time an army was raised amounting to
two hundred thousand men. At Vezelai the monarch received
the cross from the hands of St. Bernard, on a platform ele-
vated in sight of all the people. Several nobles, three bishops,
and his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine were present at this cere-
mony, and enrolled themselves under the banner of the cross,
St. Bernard cutting up his red sacerdotal vestments and mak-
ing crosses of them, to be sewn on the shoulders of the people.
An exhortation from the Pope was read to the multitude,
granting remission of their sins to all who should join the
Crusade, and directing that no man on that holy pilgrimage
should encumber himself with heavy baggage and vain super-
fluities; and that the nobles should not travel with dogs or
falcons, to lead them from the direct road, as had happened to
so many during the first Crusade.
The command of the army was offered to St. Bernard; but
he wisely refused to accept a station for which his habits had
unqualified him. After consecrating Louis with great solem-
nity, at St. Denis, as chief of the expedition, he continued his
course through the country, stirring up the people wherever
*The sacking of Vitry reflects indelible disgrace upon Louis VII. His
predecessors had been long engaged in resistance to the outrageous powers
assumed by the Popes, and Louis continued the same policy. The ecclesi-
astical chapter of Bourges, having elected an archbishop without his con-
sent, he proclaimed the election to be invalid, and took severe and prompt
measures against the refractory clergy. Thibault count de Champagne took
up arms in defence of the Papal authority, and entrenched himself in the
town of Vitry. Louis immediately took the field to chastise the rebel, and
he besieged the town with so much vigour that the count was forced to
surrender. Upwards of thirteen hundred of the inhabitants, fully one-half
of whom were women and children, took refuge in the church; and when
the gates of the city were opened, and all resistance had ceased, Louis in-
humanly gave orders to set fire to the sacred edifice, and a thousand persons
perished in the flames.
THE CRUSADES 413
he went. So high an opinion was entertained of his sanctity,
that he was thought to be animated by the spirit of prophecy,
and to be gifted with the power of working miracles. Many
women, excited by his eloquence, "and encouraged by his pre-
dictions, forsook their husbands and children, and, clothing
themselves in male attire, hastened to the war. St. Bernard
himself wrote a letter to the Pope detailing his success, and
stating, that in several towns there did not remain a single
male inhabitant capable of bearing arms, and that everywhere
castles and towns were to be seen filled with women weeping
for their absent husbands. But in spate of this apparent en-
thusiasm, the numbers who really took up arms were incon-
siderable, and not to be compared to the swarms of the first
Crusade. A levy of no more than two hundred thousand men,
which was the utmiost the mmtber amounted to, could hardly
have depopulated a country like France, to the extent men-
tioned by St. Bernard. His description of the state of the
country appears, therefore, to have been much more poetical
than true.
Suger, the able minister of Louis, endeavoured to dissuade
him from undertaking so long a journey at a time when his
own dominions so much needed his presence. But the king
was pricked in his conscience by the cruelties of Vitry, and
was anxious to make the only reparation which the religion of
that day considered sufficient. He was desirous, moreover,
of testifying to the world, that though he could brave the
temporal power of the Church when it eoacroached upon his
prerogatives, he could render all due obedience to its spiritual
decrees whenever it suited his interest or tallied with Ms prej-
udices to do so. Suger, therefore, implored in vain, and Louis
received the pilgrim's staff at St. Denis, and made all prep-
arations for his pilgrimage.
In the mean time St. Bernard passed into Germany, where
similar success attended his preaching. The renown of his
sanctity had gone before him, and he found everywhere an
admiring audience. Thousands of people, who could not un-
derstand a word he said, flocked around him to catch a glimpse
of so holy a man; and the knights enrolled themselves in great
414 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
numbers in the service of the cross, each receiving from his
hands the symbol of the cause. But the people were not led
away as in the days of Gottschalk. We do not find that they
rose in such tremendous masses of two and three hundred
thousand men, swarming over the country like a plague of
locusts. Still the enthusiasm was very great. The extraordi-
nary tales that were told and believed of the miracles worked
by the preacher brought the country people from far and near.
Devils were said to vanish at his sight, and diseases of the
most malignant nature to be cured by his touch.* The Em-
peror Conrad caught at last the contagion from his subjects,
and declared his intention to follow the cross.
The preparations were carried on so vigorously under the
orders of Conrad, that in less than three months he found him-
self at the head of an army containing at least one hundred
and fifty thousand effective men, besides a great number of
women who followed their husbands and lovers to the war.
One troop of them rode in the attitude and armour of men:
their chief wore gilt spurs and buskins, and then acquired the
epithet of the golden-footed lady. Conrad was ready to set
out long before the French monarch, and in the month of June
1147 he arrived before Constantinople, having passed through
Hungary and Bulgaria without offence to the inhabitants.
Manuel Comnenus, the Greek emperor, successor not tmly
to the throne but to the policy of Alexius, looked with alarm
upon the new levies who had come to eat up his capital and
imperil its tranquillity. Too weak to refuse them a passage
through his dominions, too distrustful of them to make them
welcome when they came, and too little assured of the advan-
tages likely to result to himself from the war, to feign a friend-
ship which he did not feel, the Greek emperor gave offense at
the very outset. His subjects, in the pride of superior civilisa-
*PMlip, Archdeacon of the cathedral of Liege, wrote a detailed account
of all the miracles performed by St. Bernard during thirty-four days of his
mission. They averaged about ten per day. The disciples of St. Bernard
complained bitterly that the people flocked around their master in such
numbers, that they could not see half the miracles he performed. But they
willingly trusted the eyes of others, as far as faith in the miracles went, and
seemed to vie with each other whose credulity should be greatest.
THE CRUSADES 415
tion, called the Germans barbarians; while the latter, who, If
semi-barbarous, were at least honest and straightforward, re-
torted upon the Greeks by calling them double-faced knaves
and traitors. Disputes continually arose between them, and
Conrad, who had preserved so much good order among his
followers during their passage, was unable to restrain their
indignation when they arrived at Constantinople. For some
offence or other which the Greeks had given them, but which
is rather hinted at than stated by the scanty historians of the
day, the Germans broke into the magnificent pleasure-garden
of the emperor, where he had a valuable collection of tame
animals, for which the grounds had been laid out in woods,
caverns, groves, and streams, that each might follow in cap-
tivity his natural habits. The enraged Germans, meriting the
name of barbarians that had been bestowed upon them, laid
waste this pleasant retreat, and killed or let loose the valuable
animals it contained. Manuel, Who is said to have beheld the
devastation from his palace-windows without power or cour-
age to prevent it, was completely disgusted with his guests,
and resolved, like his predecessor Alexius, to get rid of them
on the first opportunity. He sent a message to Conrad re-
spectfully desiring an interview, but the German refused to
trust himself within the walls of Constantinople. The Greek
emperor, on his pajrt, thought it compatible neither with his
dignity nor his safety to seek the German, and several days
were spent in insincere negotiations. Manuel at length agreed
to furnish the crusading army with guides to conduct it
througji Asia Minor; and Conrad passed over the Hellespont
with his forces, the advanced guard being commanded by him-
self, and the rear by the Warlike Bishop of Freysinghen.
Historians are almost unanimous in their belief that the
wily Greek gave instructions to his guides to lead the army
of the German emperor into dangers and difficulties. It is
certain that, instead of guiding them through such districts of
Asia Minor as afforded water and provisions, they led them
into the wilds of Cappadocia, where neither was to be pro-
cured, and where they were suddenly attacked by the sultan
of the Seljukian Turks, ait the head of an immense force. The
41 6 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
guides, whose treachery Is apparent from this fact alone, fled
at the first sight of the Turkish army, and the Christians were
left to wage unequal warfare with their enemy, entangled and
bewildered in desert wilds. Toiling in their heavy mail, the
Germans could make but little effective resistance to the at-
tacks of the Turkish light horse, who were down upon them
one instant, and out of sight the next. Now in front and now
in the rear, the agile foe showered his arrows -upon them, en-
ticing them into swamps and hollows, from which they could
only extricate themselves after long struggles -and great losses.
The Germans, confounded by this mode of warfare, lost all
conception of the direction they were pursuing, and went
back instead of forward. Suffering at the same time for want
of provisions, they fell an easy prey to their pursuers. Count
Bernhard, one of the bravest leaders of the German expedi-
tion, was surrounded, with his whole division, not one of whom
escaped the Turkish arrows. The emperor himself had
nearly fallen a victim, and was twice severely wounded. So
persevering was the enemy, <and so little able were the Ger-
mans to make even a show of resistance, that when Conrad
at last reached the city of Nice, he found that, instead of
being at the head of an imposing force of one hundred thou-
sand foot and seventy thousand horse, he had but fifty or
sixty thousand men, and these in the most worn and wearied
condition.
Totally ignorant of the treachery of the Greek emperor,
although he had been warned to beware of it, Louis VII. pro-
ceeded at the head of his army, through Worms and Ratisbon,
towards Constantinople. At Ratisbon, he was met by a depu-
tation from Manuel, bearing letters so full of hyperbole and
flattery, that Louis is reported to have blushed when they were
read to him by the Bishop of Langres. The object of the dep-
utation was to obtain from the French king a promise to pass
through the Grecian territories in a peacable and friendly
manner, -and to yield to the Greek emperor any conquest he
might make in Asia Minor. The first part of the proposition
was immediately acceded to, but no notice was taken of the
second and more unreasonable. Louis marched on, and, pass-
THE CRUSADES 417
Ing through Hungary, pitched Ms tents in the outskirts of
Constantinople.
On his arrival, Manuel sent him a friendly invitation to
enter the city at the head of a small train. Louis at once
accepted it, and was met by the emperor at the porch of his
palace. The fairest promises were made; every art that flat-
tery could suggest was resorted to, and every argument em-
ployed, to induce him to yield his future conquests to the
Greek. Louis obstinately refused to pledge himself, and re-
turned to his army convinced that the emperor was a man not
to be trusted. Negotiations were, however, continued for
several days, to the great dissatisfaction of the French army.
The news that arrived of a treaty entered into between Man-
uel and the Turkish sultan changed their dissatisfaction into
fury, and the leaders demanded to be led against Constan-
tinople, swearing that they would raze the treacherous city
to the ground. Louis did not feel inclined to accede to this
proposal, and, breaking up his camp, he crossed over into
Asia.
Here he heard, for the firsit time, of the mishaps of the
German emperor, whom he found in a woful plight under the
walls of Nice. The two monarchs united their forces, and
marched together along the sea-coast to Ephesus; but Con-
rad, jealous, it would appear, of the superior numbers of the
French, and not liking to sink into a vassal, for the time
being, of his rival, withdrew abruptly with the remnant of his
legions, and returned to Constantinople. Manuel was all
smiles and courtesy. He condoled with the German so feel-
ingly upon his losses^ and cursed the stupidity or treachery of
the guides with such apparent heartiness, that Conrad was
half inclined to believe in his sincerity.
Louis, marching onward in the direction of Jerusalem, came
up with the enemy on the banks of the Meander. The Turks
contested the passage of the river, but the French bribed a
peasant to point out a ford lower down: crossing the river
without difficulty, they attacked the Turks with much vigour,
and put them to flight. Whether the Turks were really de-
feated, or meirely pretended to be so, is doubtful; but the
41 8 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
latter supposition seems to be the true one. It is probable
that it was part of a concerted plan to draw the invaders on-
wards to more unfavourable ground, where their destruction
might be more certain. If such were the scheme, it succeeded
to the heart's wish of its projectors. The Crusaders, on the
third day after their victory, arrived at a siteep mountain-
pass, on the summit of 2 which the Turkish host lay concealed
so artfully, that not the slightest vestige of their presence
could be perceived. "With labouring steps and slow," they
toiled up the steep ascent, when suddenly a tremendous frag-
ment of rock came bounding down the precipices with an
awful crash, bearing dismay and death before it. At the
same instant the Turkish archers started from their hiding-
places, and discharged a shower of arrows upon the foot-
soldiers, who fell by hundreds at a time. The arrows
rebounded harmlessly against the iron mail of the knights
which the Turks observing took aim at their steeds, and
horse and rider fell down the siteep in/to the r#pid torrent
which rushed below. Louis, who commanded the rear-guard,
received the first intimation of the onslaught from the sight
of the wounded and flying soldiers, and, not knowing the num-
bers of the enemy, he pushed vigorously forward to stay, by
his presence, the panic which had taken possession of his
army. All his efforts were in vain. Immense stones con-
tinued to be hurled upon them as they advanced, bearing men
and horse before them; and those who succeeded in forc-
ing their way to the top were met hand-to-hand by the Turks,
and cast down headlong upon their companions. Louis him-
self fought with the energy of desperation, but had great diffi-
culty to avoid falling into the enemy's hands. He escaped
at last under cover of the night, with the remnant of his
forces, and took up his position before Attalia. Here he
restored the discipline and courage of his disorganised and
dishearted followers, and debated with his captains the plan
that was to be pursued. After suffering severely both from
disease and famine, it was resolved that they should march
to Antioch, which still remained an independent principality
under the successors of Bohemund of Tarentum. At this
THE CRUSADES 419
time the sovereignty was vested in the person of Raymond,
the uncle of Eleanor of Aquitaine. This prince, presuming
upon his relationship to the French queen, endeavoured to
withdraw Louis from the grand object of the Crusade the
defence of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and secure his co-opera-
tion in extending the limits and the power of Ms principality
of Antioch. The Prince of Tripoli formed a similar design;
but Louis rejected the offers of both, and .marched, after a
short delay, to Jerusalem. The Emperor Conrad was there
before him, having left Constantinople with promises of assist-
ance^ from Manuel Comnenus assistance which never ar-
rived, and was never intended.
A great council of the Christian princes of Palestine, and
the leaders of the Crusade, was then summoned, to discuss
the future operations of the war. It was ultimately deter-
mined that it would further the cause of the cross in a greater
degree if the united armies, instead of proceeding to Edessa,
laid siege of the city of Damascus, and drove the Saracens
from that strong position. This was a bold scheme, and, had
it been boldly followed out, would have insured, in all prob-
ability, the success of the war. But the Christian leaders
never learned from experience the necessity of union, that
very soul of great enterprises. Though they all agreed upon
the policy of the plan, yet every one had his own notions as
to the means of executing it. The princes of Antioch and
Tripoli were jealous of each either, and of the king of Jeru-
salem. The Emperor Conrad was jealous of the King of
France, and the King of France was disgusted with them all.
But he had come out to Palestine in accordance with a solemn
vow; his religion, though it may be called bigotry, was sin-
cere; and^he determined to remain to the very last moment
that a chance was left of effecting any good for the cause he
had set his heart on.
The siege of Damascus was accordingly commenced, and with
so much ability and vigour that the Christians gained a con-
siderable advantage at the very outset. For weeks the siege
was pressed, till the shattered fortifications and diminisihing
resistance of the besieged gave evidence that the city could
420 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
not hold out much longer. At that moment the insane jeal-
ousy o-f the leaders led to dissensions that soon caused the
utter failure, not only of the siege, but of the Crusade. A
modern cookery-book, in giving a recipe for cooking a hare,
says, "First catch your hare, and then kill it" & maxim of in-
disputable wisdom. The Christian chiefs, on this occasion, had
not so much sagacity, for they began a violent dispute among
themselves for the possession of a city which was still uncon-
quered. There being already a prince of Antioch and a prince
of Tripoli, twenty claimants started for the principality of
Damascus; and a grand council of the leaders was held to
determine the individual on whom the honour should devolve.
Many valuable days were wasted in this discussion, the
enemy in the meanwhile gaining strength for the inactivity.
It was at length, after a stormy deliberation, agreed that
Counit Robert of Flanders, who had twice visited the Holy
Land, should be invested with the dignity. The other claim-
ants refused to recognise him or to co-operate in the siege
until a more equitable arrangement had been made. Suspi-
cion filled the camp; the most sinister rumours of intrigues
and treachery were set afloat; and the discontented candidates
withdrew at last to the other side of the city, and commenced
operations on their own account without a probability of suc-
cess. They were soon joined by the rest of the army. The
consequence was that the weakest side of the city, and that
on which they had already made considerable progress in the
work of demolition, was left uncovered. The enemy was
prompt to profit by the mistake, and received an abundant
supply of provisions, and refortified the walls, before the Cru-
saders came to their senses again. When this desirable even/t
happened, it wias too l&te. Saph Eddin, the powerful emir of
Mousoul, was in the neighbourhood, at the head of a large
army, advancing by forced marches to the relief of the city.
The siege was abruptly abandoned, and the foolish Crusaders
returned to Jerusalem, having done nothing to weaken the
enemy, but everything to weaken themselves.
The freshness of enthusiasm had now completely subsided;
even the meanest soldiers were sick at heart. Conrad, from
THE CRUSADES 421
whose fi-erce zeal at the outset so much might have been ex-
pected, was wearied with reverses, and returned to Europe with
the poor remnant of his host. Louis lingered a short time
longer, for very shame, but the pressing solicitations of his
minister Suger induced him to return to France. Thus ended
the second Crusade. Its history is but a chronicle of defeats.
It left the kingdom of Jerusalem in a worse state than when
it quitted Europe, and gained nothing but disgrace for its
leaders, and discouragement for all concerned.
St. Bernard, who had prophesied a result so different, fell
after this into some disrepute, and experienced, like many
other prophets, the fate of being without honour in his own
country. What made the matter worse, he could not obtain
it in any other. Still, however, there were not wanting zealous
advocates to stand forward in his behalf, and stem the tide
of incredulity, which, unopposed, would have carried away
his reputation. The Bishop of Freysinghen declared that
prophets were not always able to prophesy, and that the vices
of the Crusaders drew down the wrath of Heaven upon them.
But the most ingenious excuse ever made for St. Bernard is
to be found in his life by Geoffroi de Clairvaux, where he
pertinaciously insists that the Crusade was not unfortunate.
St. Bernard, he says, had prophesied a happy result, and that
result could not be considered other than happy which had
peopled heaven with so glorious an army of martyrs. Geoffroi
was a cunning pleader, and, no doubt, convinced a few of the
zealous ; but plain people, who were not wanting even in those
days, retained their own opinion, or, what amounts to the
same thing, "were convinced against their will."
We now come to the consideration of the third Crusade,
and of the causes which rendered it necessary. The epidemic
frenzy, which had been cooling ever since the issue of the
first expedition, was now extinct, or very nearly so, and the
nations of Europe looked with cold indifference upon the arm-
aments of their princes. But chivalry had flourished in its
natural element of wiar, and was now in all its glory. It con-
tinued to supply armies for the Holy Land when the popular
ranks refused to deliver up their able-bodied swaims. Poetry,
422 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
which, more than religion, inspired the third Crusade, was
then but "caviare to the million," who had other matters, of
sterner import, to claim all their attention. But the knights
and their retainers listened with delight to the martial and
amatory strains of the minstrels, minnesangers, trouveres, and
troubadours, and burned to win favor in ladies' eyes by shew-
ing prowess in the Holy Land. The third was truly the ro-
mantic era of the Crusades. Men fought then, not so much
for the sepukhfe of Jesus and the maintenance of a Christian
kingdom in the East, as to gain glory for themselves in the
best and almost only field where glory could be obtained.
They fought, not as zealots, but as soldiers; not for religion,
but for honour; not for the crown of martyrdom, but for the
favour of the lovely.
It is not necessary to enter into a detail of the events by
which Saladin attained the sovereignly of the East, or how,
after a successsion of engagements, he planted the Moslem
banner once more upon the battlements of Jerusalem. The
Christian knights and population, including the grand orders
of St. John, the Hospitallers, and the Templars, were sunk in
an abyss of vice, and, torn by unworthy jealousies and dissen-
sions, were unable to resist the well-trained armies which the
wise and mighty Saladin brought forward to crush them. But
the news of their fall created a painful s'ensation among the
chivalry of Europe, whose noblest mem<be>r$ were linked to
the dwellers in Palestine by many ties, both of blood and
friendship. The news of the great battle of Tiberias, in which
Saladin defeated the Christian host with terrible slaughter, ar-
rived first in Europe, and was followed in quick succession by
that of the capture of Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli, and other
cities. Dismay seized upon the clergy. The Pope (Urban
III.) wias so affeoted by the news that he pined awiay for grief,
and was scarcely seen to smile again, until he sank into the
sleep of d'eath.* His successor, Gregory VIII., felt the loss
as acutely, but had better strength to bear it, and instructed
all the clergy of the Christian world to stir up the people to
* James of Vitry; William de Nangis.
THE CRUSADES 423
arms for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. William, arch-
bishop of Tyre, a humble follower in the path of Peter the
Hermit, left Palestine to preach to the kings of Europe the
miseries he had witnessed, and to incite them to the rescue.
The renowned Frederick Barbarossa, the emperor of Ger-
many, speedily collected an army, and passing over into Syria
with less delay than had ever before awaited a crusading force,
defeated the Saracens, and took possession of the city of
Iconium. He was unfortunately cut off in the middle of his
successful career, by imprudently bathing in the Cydnus*
while he was overheated, and the Duke of Suabia took the
command of the expedition. The latter did not prove so able
a general, and met with nothing but reverses, although he was
enabled to maintain a footing at Antioch until assistance ar-
rived from Europe.
Henry II. of England and Philip Augustus of France, at
the head of their chivalry, supported the Crusade with all
their influence, until wars and dissensions nearer home es-
tranged them from it for a time. The two kings met at Gisors
in Normandy in the month of January, 1188, accompanied by
a brilliant train of knights and warriors. William of Tyre was
present, and expounded the cause of the cross with consider-
able eloquence, and the whole assembly bound themselves by
oath to proceed to Jerusalem. It was agreed at the same
time that a tax, called Saladin's tithe, and consisting of the
tenth part of all possessions, whether landed or personal,
should be enforced over Christendom, upon every one who
was either unable or unwilling to assume the cross. The lord
of every feof, whether lay or ecclesiastical, was charged to
raise the tithe within his own jurisdiction; and any one who
refused to pay his quota became by that act the bondsman and
absolute property of his lord. At the same time the great-
est indulgence was shewn to those who assumed the cross;
*The desire of comparing two great men has tempted many writers to
drown Frederick in the river Cydnus, in which Alexander so imprudently
bathed (Q. Curt. lib. iii. c. 4, 5) ; but, from the march of the emperor, I
rather judge that his Saleph is the Cacadnus, a stream of less fame, but of a
longer course. Gibbon.
424 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
no man was at liberty to stay them by process of any kind,
whether for debt, or robbery, or murder. The king of France
at the breaking up of the conference, summoned a parliament
at Paris, where these resolutions were solemnly confirmed,
while Henry II. did the same for his Norman possessions at
Rouen, and for England at Geddington, in Northampton-
shire. To use the words of an ancient chronicler,* "he held a
parliament about the voyage into the Holy Land, and troubled
the whole land with the paying of tithes towards it."
But it was not England alone that was "troubled" by the
tax. The people of France also looked upon it with no pleas-
ant feelings, and appear from that time forth to have changed
their indifference for the Crusade into aversion. Even the
clergy, who were exceedingly willing that other people should
contribute half, or even all their goods in furtherance of their
favourite scheme, were not at all anxious to contribute a
single sous themselves. Millotf relates that several of them
cried out against the impost. Among the rest the clergy of
Rheims were called upon to pay their quota, but sent a depu-
tation to the king, begging him to be contented with the aid of
their prayers, as they were too poor to contribute in any
other shape. Philip Augustus knew better, and by way of
giving them a lesson, employed three nobles of the vicinity
to lay waste the Church lands. The clergy, informed of the
outrage, applied to the king for redress. "I will aid you with
my prayers, 33 said the monarch, condescendingly, "and will
entreat those gentlemen to let the Church alone.' 3 He did
as he had promised, but in such a manner that the nobles,
who appreciated the joke, continued their devastations as
before. Again the clergy applied to the king. "What would
you have of me?" he replied, in answer to their remon-
strances: "you gave me your prayers in my necessity, and I
have given you mine in yours. 33 The clergy understood the
argument, and thought it the wiser course to pay their quota
of Saladin 3 s tithe without further parley.
This anecdote shews the unpopularity of the Crusade. If
* Stowe.
t EUmens de I'Histoire de France
THE CRUSADES 425
the clergy disliked to contribute, it is no wonder that the peo-
ple felt still greater antipathy. But the chivalry of Europe
was eager for the affray: the tithe was rigorously collected,
and armies from England, France, Burgundy, Italy, Flanders,
and Germany were soon in the field. The two kings who were
to have led it were, however, drawn into broils by an ag-
gression of Richard duke of Guienne, better known as Rich-
ard Coeur de Lion, upon the territory of the Count of Tou-
louse, and the proposed journey to Palestine was delayed.
War continued to rage between France and England, and with
so little probability of a speedy termination, that many of the
nobles, bound to the Crusade, left the two monarchs to settle
the differences at their leisure, and proceeded to Palestine with-
out them.
Death at last stepped in and removed Henry II. from the
hostility of his foes, and the treachery and ingratitude of Ms
children. His son Richard immediately concluded an alliance
with Philip Augustus; and the two young, valiant, and im-
petuous monarchs united all their energies to forward the
Crusade. They met with a numerous and brilliant retinue at
Nonancourt in Normandy, where, In sight of their assembled
chivalry, they embraced as brothers, and swore to live as
friends and true allies, until a period of forty days after their
return from the Holy Land. With a view of purging their
camp from the follies and vices which had proved so ruinous
to preceding expeditions, they drew up a code of laws for the
government of the army. Gambling had been carried to a
great extent, and proved the fruitful source of quarrels and
bloodshed; and one of their laws prohibited any person in the
araiy, beneath the degree of a knight, from playing at any
game for money.* Knights and clergymen might play for
money, but no one was permitted to lose or gain more than
twenty shillings in a day, under a penalty of one hundred
shillings. The personal attendants of the monarchs were also
allowed to play to the same extent. The penalty in their
case for infraction was that they should be whipped naked
*Strutt's Sports and Pastimes*
426 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
through the army for the space of three days. Any Crusader
who struck another and drew blood was ordered to have
his hand cut off; and whoever slew a brother Crusader was
condemned to be tied alive to the corpse of his victim, and
buried with him. No young women were allowed to follow the
army, to the great sorrow of many vicious and of many vir-
tuous dames, who had not courage to elude the decree by dress-
ing in male attire. But many high-minded and affectionate
maidens and matrons, bearing the sword or the spear, followed
their husbands and lovers to the war in spite of King Rich-
ard, and in defiance of danger. The only women allowed to
accompany the army in their own habiliments were wash-
erwomen of fifty years complete, and any others of the fair
sex who had reached the same age.
These rides having been promulgated, the two monarchs
marched together to Lyons, where they separated, agreeing to
meet again at Messina. Philip proceeded across the Alps to
Genoa, where he took ship, and was conveyed in safety to the
place of rendezvous. Richard turned in the direction of Mar-
seilles,^ where he also took ship for Messina. His impetuous
disposition hurried him into many squabbles by the way, and
his knights and followers, for the most part as brave and as
foolish as himself, imitated him very zealously in this particu-
lar. At Messina the Sicilians charged the most exorbitant
prices for every necessary of life. Richard's army in vain
remonstrated. From words they came to blows, and, as a
last resource, plundered the Sicilians, since they could not
trade with them. Continual battles were the consequence, in
one of which Lebrun, the favourite attendant of Richard, lost
his life. The peasantry from far and near came flocking to
the aid of the townspeople, and the battle soon became gen-
eral. Richard, irritated at the loss of his favourite, and in-
cited by a report that Tancred, the king of Sicily, was fight-
ing at the head of his own people, joined the meUe with his
boldest knights, and, beating back the Sicilians, attacked the
city sword in hand, stormed the battlements, tore down the
flag of Sicily, and planted his own in its stead. This collision
gave great offence to the king of France, who became from
THE CRUSADES 427
that time jealous of Richard, and apprehensive that his de-
sign was not so much to re-establish the Christian kingdom
of Jerusalem as to make conquests for himself. He, however,
exerted his influence to restore peace between the English
and Sicilians, and shortly afterwards set sail for Acre, with
distrust of his ally germinating in his heart.
Richard remained behind for some weeks In a state of In-
activity quite unaccountable in one of his temperament. He
appears to have had no more squabbles with the Sicilians, but
to have lived an easy, luxurious life, forgetting, in the lap of
pleasure, the objects for which he had quitted his own domin-
ions and the dangerous laxity he was introducing into his
army. The superstition of his soldiers recalled him at length
to a sense of his duty: a comet was seen for several successive
nights, which was thought to menace them with the vengeance
of Heaven for their delay. Shooting stars gave them similar
warning; and a fanatic, of the name of Joachim, with his
drawn sword in his hand, and his long hair streaming wildly
over his shoulder, went through the camp, howling all night
long, and predicting plague, famine, and every other calamity,
if they did not set out immediately. Richard did not deem
it prudent to neglect the intimations; and, after doing humble
penance for his remissness, he set sail for Acre.
A violent storm dispersed his fleet, but he arrived safely
at Rhodes with the principal part of the armament. Here he
learned that three of his ships had been stranded on the rocky
coasts of Cyprus, and that the ruler of the island, Isaac Com-
nenus, had permitted his people to pillage the unfortunate
crews, and had refused shelter to his betrothed bride, the
Princess Berengaria, and Ms sister, who, in one of the vessels,
had been driven by stress of wesaither into the ptort of Limisso.
The fiery monarch swore to be revenged, and, collecting all his
vessels sailed back to Limisso. Isaac Comnenus refused to
apologise or explain, and Richard, in no mood to be trifled
with, landed on the island, routed with great loss the forces
sent to oppose him, and laid the whole country under contri-
bution.
On his arrival at Acre he found the whole of the chivalry
428 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of Europe there before him. Guy of Lusignan, the king of
Jerusalem, had long before collected the bold Knights of the
Temple, the Hospital, and St. John, and had laid siege to
Acre, which was resolutely defended by the Sultan Saladin,
with an army magnificent both for its numbers and its disci-
pline. For nearly two years the Crusaders had pushed the
siege, and made efforts almost superhuman to dislodge the
enemy. Various battles had taken place in the open fields
with no decisive advantage to either party, and Guy of Lusig-
nan had begun to despair of taking that strong position with-
out aid from Europe. His joy was extreme on the arrival of
Philip with all his chivalry, and he only waited the coming of
Coeur de Lion to make one last decisive attack upon the town.
When the fleet of England was first seen approaching the
shores of Syria, a universal shout arose from the Christian
camp; and when Richard landed with his train, one louder
still pierced to the very mountains of the south, where Saladin
lay with all his army.
It may be remarked as characteristic of this Crusade, that
the Christians and the Moslems no longer looked upon each
other as barbarians, to whom mercy was a crime. Each host
entertained the highest admiration for the bravery and mag-
nanimity of the other, and, in their occasional truces, met
upon the most friendly terms. The Moslem warriors were
full of courtesy to the Christian knights, and had no other
regret than to think that such fine fellows were not Mahome-
dans. The Christians, with a feeling precisely similar, ex-
tolled to the skies the nobleness of the Saracens, and sighed
to think that such generosity and valour should be sullied
by disbelief in the Gospel of Jesus. But when the strife be-
gan, all these feelings disappeared, and the struggle became
mortal.
The jealousy excited in the mind of Philip by the events of
Messina still rankled, and the two monarcfas refused to act
in concert. Instead of making a joint attack upon the town,
the French monarch assailed it atone, and was repulsed.
Richard did the same, and with the same result. Philip
tried to seduce the soldiers of Richard from their allegiance
THE CRUSADES 439
by the offer of three gold pieces per month to every knight
who would forsake the banners of England for those of
France. Richard endeavoured to neutralise the offer by a
larger one, and promised four pieces to every French knight
who should join the Lion of England. In this unworthy
rivalry their time was wasted, to the great detriment of the
discipline and efficiency of their followers. Some good was
nevertheless effected; for the mere presence of two such
armies prevented the besieged city from receiving supplies,
and the inhabitants were reduced by famine to the most wo-
ful straits. Saladin did not deem it prudent to risk a general
engagement by coming to their relief, but preferred to wait
till dissension had weakened his enemy, and made him an
easy prey. Perhaps if he had been aware of the real extent
of the extremity in Acre, he would have changed his plan;
but, cut off from the town, he did not know its misery till
it was too late. After a short truce the city capitulated upon
terms so severe that Saladin afterwards refused to ratify
them. The chief conditions were, that the precious wood of
the true cross, captured by the Moslems in Jerusalem, should
be restored; that a sum of two hundred thousand gold pieces
should be paid; and that all the Christian prisoners in Acre
should be released, together with two hundred knights and a
thousand soldiers detained in captivity by Saladin. The east-
ern monarch, as may be well conceived, did not set much
store on the wood of the cross, but was nevertheless anxious
to keep it, as he knew its possession would do more than a
victory to restore their courage. He refused, therefore, to
deliver it up, or to accede to any of the conditions; and Rich-
ard, as he bad previously threatened, barbarously ordered all
the Saraoen prisoners in Ms power to be put to death.
The possession of the city only caused new and unhappy
dissensions between the Christian leaders. The Archduke of
Austria unjustifiably hoisted his flag on one of the towers of
Acre, which Richard no sooner saw than he tore it down
with his own hands, and trampled it under Ms feet. PMMp,
though he did not sympatMse with the archduke, was piqued
at the assumption of Richard, and the breach between the two
430 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
monarchs became wider than ever. A foolish dispute arose at
the same time between Guy of Lusignan and Conrad of Mont-
ferrat for the crown of Jerusalem. The inferior knights were
not slow to imitate the pernicious example, and jealousy, dis-
trust, and ill-will reigned in the Christian camp. In the midst
of this confusion the king of France suddenly announced his
intention to return to his own country. Richard was filled
with indignation, and exclaimed, "Eternal shame light on
him, and on all France, if, for any cause, he leave this work
unfinished!" But Philip was not stayed. His health had
suffered by his residence in the East; and, ambitious of play-
ing a first part, he preferred to play none at all than to play
second to King Richard. Leaving a small detachment of
Burgundians behind, he returned to France with the re-
mainder of his army; and Coeur de Lion, without feeling, in
the multitude of his rivals, that he had lost the greatest, be-
came painfully convinced that the right arm of the enterprise
was lopped off.
After his departure, Richard refortified Acre, restored the
Christian worship in the churches, and leaving a Christian
garrison to protect it, marched along the sea-coast towards
Ascalon. Saladin was on the alert, and sent his light horse
to attack the rear of the Christian army, while he himself,
miscalculating their weakness since the defection of Philip,
endeavoured to force them to a general engagement. The
rival armies met near Azotus. A fierce battle ensued, in which
Saladin was defeated and put to flight, and the road to Jeru-
salem left free for the Crusaders.
Again discord exerted its baleful influence, and prevented
Richard from following up his victory. His opinion was con-
stantly opposed by the other leaders, all jealous of his bravery
and influence; and the army, instead of marching to Jerusa-
lem, or even to Ascalon, as was first intended, proceeded to
Jaffa, and remained in idleness until Saladin was again in a
condition to wage war against them.
Many months were spent in fruitless hostilities and as fruit-
less negotiations. Richard's wish was to recapture Jerusa-
lem; but there were difficulties in the way, which even his
THE CRUSADES 431
bold spirit could not conquer. His own intolerable pride was
not the least cause of the evil; for it estranged many a gen-
erous spirit, who would have been willing to co-operate with
Mm in all cordiality. At length it was agreed to inarch to
the Holy City; but the progress made was so slow and pain-
ful, that the soldiers murmured, and the leaders meditated
retreat. The weather was hot and dry, and there was little
water to be procured. Saladin had choked up the wells and
cisterns on the route, and the army had not zeal enough to
push forward amid such privation. At Bethlehem a council
was held, to debate whether they should retreat or advance.
Retreat was decided upon, and immediately commenced. It
is said, that Richard was first led to a hill, whence be could
obtain a sight of the towers of Jerusalem, and that he was
so affected at being so near it, and so unable to relieve it, that
he hid his face behind his shield, and sobbed aloud.
The army separated into two divisions, the smaller falling
back upon Jaffa, and the larger, commanded by Richard and
the Duke of Burgundy, returning to Acre. Before the English
monarch had made all his preparations for his return to Eu-
rope, a messenger reached Acre with the intelligence that
Jaffa was besieged by Saladin, and that unless relieved im-
mediately, the city would be taken. The French, under the
Duke of Burgundy, were so wearied with the war that they
refused to aid their brethren in Jaffa. Richard, blushing with
shame at the pusillanimity, called Ms English to the rescue,
and arrived just in time to save the city. His very name put
the Saracens to flight, so great was their dread of his prowess.
Saladin regarded him with the warmest admiration, and when
Richard, after his victory, demanded peace, willingly acceded.
A truce was concluded for three years and eight months, dur-
ing which Christian pilgrims were to enjoy the liberty of visit-
ing Jerusalem without hindrance or payment of any tax. The
Crusaders were allowed to retain the cities of Tyre and Jaffa,
with the country intervening. Saladin, with a princely gen-
erosity, invited many of the Christians to visit Jerusalem;
and several of the leaders took advantage of his offer to feast
their eyes upon a spot which all considered so sacred. Many
432 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
of them were entertained for days in the sultan's own palace,
from which they returned with their tongues laden with the
praises of the noble infidel. Richard and Saladin never met,
though the impression that they did will remain on many
minds, who , have been dazzled by the glorious fiction of Sir
Walter Scott. But each admired the prowess and nobleness
of soul of his rival, and agreed to terms far less onerous
than either would have accepted, had this mutual admiration
not existed.*
The king of England no longer delayed his departure, for
messengers from his <own country brought imperative news
that his presence was required to defeat the intrigues that
were fomenting against his crown. His long imprisonment
in the Austrian dominions and final ransom are too well
known to be dwelt upon. And thus ended the third Crusade,
less destructive of human life than the two first, but quite
as useless.
. The flame of popular enthusiasm now burned pale indeed,
and all the efforts of popes and potentates were insufficient to
rekindle it. At last, after flickering unsteadily, like a lamp
expiring in the socket, it burned up brightly for one final in-
stant, and was extinguished for ever.
The fourth Crusade, as connected with popular feeling, re-
quires little or no notice. At the death of Saladin, which hap-
pened a year after the conclusion of his truce with Richard of
England, his vast empire fell to pieces. His brother Saif
E<Jdin, or Saphaddin, seized upon Syria, in the possession of
which he was troubled foy the sons of Saladin. When this
intelligence reached Europe, the pope, Celestine III., judged
the moment favourable for preaching a new Crusade. But
every nation in Europe was unwilling and cold towards it.
The people had no ardour, and kings were occupied with
* Richard left a high reputation in Palestine. So much terror did hia
name occasion, that the women of Syria used it to frighten their children
for ages afterwards. Every disobedient child became still when told that
King Richard was coming. Even men shared the panic that his name
created; and a hundred years afterwards, whenever a horse shied at any
object in the way, his rider would exclaim, "What I dost thou think King
Richard is in the bush?"
THE CRUSADES 433
more weighty matters at home. The only monarch of Eu-
rope who encouraged It was the Emperor Henry of Germany,
under whose auspices the Dukes of Saxony and Bavaria took
the field at the head of a considerable force. They landed
in Palestine, and found anything but a welcome from the
Christian inhabitants. Under the mild sway of Saladin, they
had enjoyed repose and toleration, and both were endangered
by the arrival of the Germans. They looked upon them in
consequence as over-officious intruders, and gave them no
encouragement in the warfare against Saphaddin. The re-
sult of this Crusade was even more disastrous than the last;
for the Germans contrived not only to embitter the Saracens
against the Christians of Judea, but to lose the strong city of
Jaffa, and cause the destruction of nine-tenths of the army
with which they had quitted Europe. And so ended the fourth
Crusade.
The fifth was more important, and had a result which its
projectors never dreamed of no less than the sacking of
Constantinople, and the placing of a French dynasty upon
the imperial throne of the eastern Caesars. Each succeeding
pope, however much he may have differed from his predeces-
sors on other points, zealously agreed in one, that of maintain-
ing by every possible means the papal ascendency. No
scheme was so likely to aid in this endeavour as the Crusades.
As long as they could persuade the kings and nobles of Eu-
rope to fight and die in Syria, their own sway was secured
over the minds of men at home. Such being their object, they
never inquired whether a Crusade was or was not likely to
be successful, whether the time were well or ill chosen, or
whether men and money could be procured in sufficient abun-
dance. Pope Innocent III. would have been proud if he
could have bent tihe refractory monarchs of England and
France into so much submission. But John and Philip Au-
gustus were both engaged. Both had deeply offended the
Church, and had been laid under her ban, and both were
occupied in important reforms at home; Philip in bestowing
immunities upon his 'subjects, and John in having them forced
from him. The emissaries of the pope therefore plied them in
434 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
vain; but as in the first and second Crusiades, the eloquence
of a powerful preacher incited the nobility, and through them
a certain portion of the people: Foulque bishop of Neuilly,
an ambitious and enterprising prelate, entered fully into the
views of the court of Rome 3 and preached the Crusade wher-
ever he could find an audience. Chance favoured him to a
degree he did not himself expect, for he had in general found
but few proselytes, and those few but cold in the cause.
Theobald count of Champagne had instituted a grand tourna-
ment, to which he had invited all the nobles from far and
near. Upwards of two thousand knights were present with
their retainers, besides a vast concourse of people to witness
the sports. In the midst of the festivities Foulque arrived
upon the spot and conceiving the opportunity to be a favour-
able one, he addressed the multitude in eloquent language, and
passionately called upon them to enrol themselves for the new
Crusade. The Count de Champagne, young, ardent, and eas-
ily excited received the cross at his hands. The enthusiasm
spread rapidly. Charles count of Blois followed the example,
and of the two thousand knights present, scarcely one hundred
and fifty refused. The popular phrensy seemed on the point
of breaking out as in the days of yore. The Count of Flan-
ders, the Count of Bar, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Mar-
quis of Montferrat brought all their vassals to swell the train,
and in a very short space of time an effective army was on
foot and ready to march to Palestine.
The dangers of an overland journey were too well uiider-
stood, and the Crusaders endeavoured to make a contract
with some of the Italian states to convey them over in their
vessels. Dandolo, the aged doge of Venice, offered them the
galleys of the Republic; but the Crusaders, on their arrival in
that city, found themselves too poor to pay even half the
sum demanded. Every means was tried to raise money; the
Crusaders melted down their plate, and ladies gave up their
trinkets. Contributions were solicited from the faithful, but
came in so slowly as to make it evident to all concerned, that
the faithful of Europe were outnumbered by the prudent.
As a last resource, Dandolo offered to convey them to Pales-
THE CRUSADES 435
tine at the expense of the Republic, if they would previously
aid in the recapture of the city of Zara, which had been seized
from the Venetians a short time previously by the king of
Hungary. The Crusaders consented, much to the displeasure
of the pope, who threatened excommunication upon all who
should be turned aside from the voyage to Jerusalem. But
notwithstanding the fulminations of the Church, the expedi-
tion never reached Palestine. The siege of Zara was speedily
undertaken. After a long and brave defence, the city sur-
rendered at discretion, and the Crusaders were free, if they
had so Chosen it, to use their swords against the Saracens.
But the ambition of the chiefs had been directed, by un-
foreseen circumstances, elsewhere.
After the death of Manuel Comnenus, the Greek empire
had fallen a prey to intestine divisions. His son Alexius II.
had succeeded him, but was murdered after a short reign by
his uncle Andronicus, who seized upon the throne. His reign
also was but of short duration. Isaac Angdus, a member of
the same family, took up arms against the usurper, and having
defeated and captured him in a pitched battle, had him put
to death. He also mounted the throne only to be cast down
from it. His brother Alexius deposed him, and to incapaci-
tate him from reigning, put out his eyes, and shut him up in a
dungeon. Neither was Alexius III. allowed to remain in
peaceable possession of the throne; the son of the unhappy
Isaac, whose name also was Alexius, fled from Constanti-
nople, and hearing that the Crusaders had undertaken the
siege of Zara, made them the most magnificent offers if they
would afterwards aid him in deposing his uncle. His offers
were, that if by their means he was re-established in his
father's dominions, he would place the Greek Church under
the authority of the Pope of Rome, lend the whole force of
the Greek empire to the conquest of Palestine, and distribute
two hundred thousand marks of silver among the crusading
army. The offer was accepted, with a proviso on the part of
some of the leaders, that they should be free to abandon the
design, if it met with the disapproval of the pope. But this
was not to be feared. The submission of the schismatic
436 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
Greeks to the See of Rome was a greater bribe to the pon-
tiff than the utter annihilation of the Saracen power in Pales-
tine would have been.
The Crusaders were soon in movement for the imperial
city. Their operations were skilfully and courageously di-
rected, and spread such dismay as to paralyse the efforts of
the usurper to retain possession of his throne. After a vain
resistance, he abandoned the city to its fate, and fled no one
knew whither. The aged and blind Isaac was taken from his
dungeon by his subjects, and placed upon the throne ere
the Crusaders were apprised of the flight of his rival. His son
Alexius IV. was afterwards associated with him in the sover-
eignty.
But the conditions of the treaty gave offence to the Grecian
people, whose prelates refused to place themselves under the
dominion of the See of Rome. Alexius at first endeavoured
to persuade his subjects to submission, and prayed the Cru-
saders to remain in Constantinople until they had fortified
him in the possession of a throne which was yet far from se-
cure. He soon became unpopular with his subjects; and
breaking faith with regard to the subsidies, he offended the
Crusaders. War was at length declared upon him by both
parties; by his people for his tyranny, and by his former
friends for his treachery. He was seized in his palace by
his own guards, and thrown into prison, while the Crusaders
were making ready to besiege his capital. The Greeks im-
mediately proceeded to the election of a new monarch; and
looking about for a man of courage, energy, and persever-
ance, they fixed upon Alexius Ducas, who, with almost every
bad quality, was possessed of the virtues they needed. He
ascended the throne under the name of Murzuphlis. One of
his first acts was to rid himself of his youngest predecessor
a broken heart had already removed the blind old Isaac, no
longer a stumbling-block in his way and the young Alexius
was soon after put to death in his prison.
War to the knife was now declared between the Greeks and
the Franks; and early in the spring of the year 1204, prepa-
rations were commenced for an assault upon Constantinople.
THE CHUSABES 437
The French and Venetians entered Into a treaty for the division
of the spoils among their soldiery; for so confident were they of
success, that failure never once entered into their calculations.
This confidence led them on to victory; while the Greeks,
cowardly as treacherous people always are ? were paralysed by
a foreboding of evil. It has been a matter of astonishment to
all historians, that Murzuphlis, with the reputation for cour-
age which he bad -acquired, and the immense resources at Ms
disposal, took no better measures to repel the onset of the
Crusaders. Their numbers were as a mere handful in com-
parison with those which lie could have brought against
them; and if they had the hopes of plunder to lead them on,
the Greeks had their homes to fight for, and their very ex-
istence as a nastion to protect. After an impetuous assault,
repulsed for one day, but renewed with double impetuosity
on another, the Crusaders lashed their vessels against the
walls, slew every man who opposed them, and, with little loss
to themselves, entered the city, Murzuphlis fled, and Con-
stantinople was given over to be pillaged by the victors. The
wealth they found was enormous. In money alone there was suf-
ficient to distribute twenty marks_of silver to each knight,
ten to each squire or servant at arms, and five to each archer.
Jewels, velvets, silks, and every luxury of attire, with rare
wines and fruits, and valuable merchandise of every descrip-
tion, also fell into their hands, and were bought by the trad-
ing Venetians, and the proceeds distributed among the army.
Two thousand persons were put to the sword; but had there
been less plunder to take up the attention of the victors, the
slaughter would in all probability have been much greater.
In many of the bloody wars which defile the page of his-
tory, we find that soldiers, utterly reckless of the works of
God, will destroy Ms masterpiece, man, with unsparing bru-
tality, but linger with respect round the beautiful works of
art- They will slaughter women and children, but spare a
picture; will hew down the sick, the helpless, and the hoary-
headed, but refrain from injuring a fine piece of sculpture.
The Latins, on their entrance into Constantinople, respected
neither the works of God nor man, but vented their brutal
438 EXTRAQBDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
ferocity upon the one, and satisfied their avarice upon the
other. Many beautiful bronze statues, above all price as
works of art, were broken Into pieces to be sold as old metal.
The finely-chiselled marble, which could be put to no such
vile uses, was also destroyed with a recklessness, if possible, still
more atrocious.*
The carnage being over, and the spoil distributed, six per-
sons were chosen from among the Franks and six from among
the Venetians, who were to meet and elect an emperor, previ-
ously binding themselves by oath to select the individual best
qualified among the candidates. The choice wavered between
Baldwin count of Flanders and Boniface marquis of Mont-
ferratj but fell eventually upon the former. He was straight-
way robed in the imperial purple, and became the founder of
a new dynasty. He did not live long to enjoy his power, or
to consolidate it for his successors, who, in their turn, were
soon swept away. In less than sixty years the rule of the
Franks at Constantinople was brought to as sudden and dis-
astrous a termination as the reign of Murzuphlis: and this
was the grand result of the fifth Crusade.
Pope Innocent III., although he had looked with no very
unfavourable eye upon these proceedings, regretted that noth-
ing had been done for the relief of the Holy Land; still, upon
every convenient occasion, he enforced the necessity of a new
* The following is a list of some of the works of art thus destroyed, from
Nicetas, a contemporary Greek author: 1st. A colossal Juno, from the forum
of Constantine, the head of which was so large that four horses could scarcely
draw it from the place where it stood to the palace. 2d. The statue of Paris,
presenting the apple to Venus. 3d. An immense bronze pyramid, crowned
by a female figure, which turned with the wind. 4th. The colossal statue
of Bellerophon, in bronze, which was broken down and cast into the furnace.
Under the inner nail of the horse's hind foot on the left side, was found a
seal wrapped in a woolen cloth. 5th. A figure of Hercules, by Lysimachus,
of such vast dimensions that the thumb was equal in circumference to the
waist of a man. 6th. The Ass and his Driver, cast by order of Augustus
after the battle of Actium, in commemoration of his having discovered the
position of Anthony through the ineans of an ass-driver. 7th. The Wolf
suckling the Twins of Rome. 8th. The Gladiator in combat with a Lion.
9th, The Hippopotamus. 10th, The Sphinxes, llth. An Eagle fighting
with a Serpent. 12th. A beautiful statue of Helen. 13th. A group, with a
monster somewhat resembling a bull engaged in deadly conflict with a
serpent; and many other works of art, too numerous to mention.
THE CRUSADES 439
Crusade. Until the year 1213, Ms exhortations had no other
effect than to keep the subject in the mind of Europe. Every
spring and summer, detachments of pilgrims continued to set
out for Palestine to the aid of their brethren, but not in suf-
ficient numbers to be of much service. These periodical pas-
sages were called the passagmm Marti$ y or the passage of
March, and the passagmm Johannis, or the passage of the fes-
tival of St. John. These did not consist entirely of soldiers,
armed against the Saracen, but of pilgrims led by devotion,
and in performance of their vows, bearing nothing with them
but their staff and their wallet. Early in the spring of 1213,
a more extraordinary body of Crusaders was raised in France
and Germany. An immense number of boys and girls, amount-
ing, according to some accounts, to thirty thousand, were in-
cited by the persuasion of two monks to undertake the jour-
ney to Palestine. They were no doubt composed of the idle
and deserted children who generally swarm in great cities,
nurtured in vice and daring, and ready for any thing. The
object of the monks seems to have been the atrocious one of
inveigling them into slave-ships, on pretence of sending them
to Syria, and selling them for slaves on the coast of Africa.*
Great numbers of these poor victims were shipped at Mar-
seilles; but the vessels, with the exception of two or three,
were wrecked on the shores of Italy, and every soul perished.
The remainder arrived safely in Africa, and were bought up
as slaves, and sent off into the interior of the country. An-
other detachment arrived at Genoa; but the accomplices in
this horrid plot having taken no measures at that port, expect-
ing them all at Marseilles, they were induced to return to their
homes by the Genoese.
Fuller, in his quaint history of the Holy Warre, says that
this Crusade was done by the instinct of the devil; and he
adds a reason, which may provoke mirth now, but which w'as
put forth by the worthy historian in all soberness and sin-
cerity. He says, "the devil, being cloyed with the murdering
of men, desired a cordial of children's blood to comfort his
* See Jacob de Voragine and Albericus.
440 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
weak stomach;'' as epicures, when tired of mutton, resort
to lamb for a change.
It appears from other authors that the preaching of the
vile monks had such an effect upon these deluded children,
that they ran about the country exclaiming, "O Lord Jesus, re-
store thy cross to us!" and that neither bolts nor bars, the
fear of fathers, nor the love of mothers, was sufficient to
restrain them from journeying to Jerusalem.
The details of these strange proceedings are exceedingly
meagre and confused, and none of the contemporary writers
who mention the subject have thought it worth while to state
the names of the monks who originated the scheme, or the
fate they met for their wickedness. Two merchants of Mar-
seilles, who were to have shared in the profits, were, it is said,
brought to justice for some other crime, and suffered death;
but we are not informed whether they divulged any circum-
stances relating to this matter.
Pope Innocent III. does not seem to have been aware that
the causes of this juvenile Crusade were such as have been
stated, for, upon being informed "that numbers of them had
taken the cross, and were marching to the Holy Land, he
exclaimed, "These children are awake while we sleep!" He
imagined, apparently, that the mind of Europe was still bent
on the recovery of Palestine, and that the zeal of these chil-
dren implied a sort of reproach upon his own lukewarmness.
Very soon afterwards, he bestirred himself with more activity,
and sent an encyclical letter to the clergy of Christendom,
urging them to preach a new Crusade. As usual, a number of
adventurous nobles, who had nothing else to do, enrolled them-
selves with their retainers. At a Council of Lateran, which
was held while these bands were collecting, Innocent an-
nounced that he himself would take the cross, and lead the
armies of Christ to the defence of his sepulchre. In all prob-
ability he would have done so, for he was zealous enough; but
death stepped in, and destroyed his project ere it was ripe.
His successor encouraged the Crusade, though he refused to
accompany it; and the armament continued in France, Eng-
land, and Germany. No leaders of any importance joined it
THE CRUSADES 441
from the former countries, Andrew king of Hungary was the
only monarch who had leisure or Inclination to leave his do-
minions. The Dukes of Austria and Barvaria joined him with
a considerable army of Germans, and marching to Spalatro,
took ship for Cyprus, and from thence to Acre.
The whole conduct of the king of Hungary was marked by
pusillanimity and irresolution. He found himself in the Holy
Land at the head of a very efficient army; the Saracens were
taken by surprise, and were for some weeks unprepared to
offer any resistance to his arms. He defeated the first body
sent to oppose Mm, and marched towards Mount Tabor with
the intention of seizing upon an important fortress which the
Saracens had recently constructed. He arrived without im-
pediment at the mount, and might have easily taken it; but
a sudden fit of cowardice came over him, and he returned to
Acre without striking a blow. He very soon afterwards
abandoned the enterprise altogether, and returned to his own
country.
Tardy reinforcements arrived at intervals from Europe;
and the Duke of Austria, now the chief leader of the expedi-
tion, had still sufficient forces at his command to trouble
the Saracens very seriously. It was resolved by him, in
council with the other chiefs, that the whole energy of the
Crusade should be directed upon Egypt, the seat of the Sara-
cen power in its relationship to Palestine, and from whence
were drawn the continual levies that were brought against
them by the sultan. Damietta, which commanded the river
Nile, and was one of the most important cities of Egypt, was
chosen as the first point of attack. The siege was forthwith
commenced, and carried on with considerable energy, until
the Crusaders gained possession of a tower, which projected
into the middle of the stream, and was looked upon as the
very key of the city.
While congratulating themselves upon this success, and
wasting in revelry the time which should have been employed
in turning it to further advantage, they received the news of
the death of the wise Sultan Saphaddin. His two sons, Cam-
hel and Cohreddin, divided his empire between them. Syria
442 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
and Palestine fell to the share of Cohreddin, while Egypt was
consigned to the other brother, who had for some time ex-
ercised the functions of lieutenant of that country. Being
unpopular among the Egyptians, they revolted against him,
giving the Crusaders a finer opportunity for making a con-
quest than they had ever enjoyed before* But, quarrelsome
and licentious as they had been from time immemorial, they
did not see that the favourable m>oment had come; or seeing,
could not profit by it. While they were revelling or fighting
among themselves under the walls of Damietta, the revolt
was suppressed, and Gamhel firmly established on the throne
of Egypt. In conjunction with his brother Cohreddin, his next
care was to drive the Christians from Damietta, and for up-
wards of three months they bent all their efforts to throw
in supplies to the besieged, or draw on the besiegers to a gen-
eral engagement. In neither were they successful; and the
famine in Damietta became so dreadful, that vermin of every
description were thought luxuries, and sold for exorbitant
prices. A dead dog became more valuable than a live ox
in times of prosperity. Unwholesome food brought on dis-
ease, and the city could hold out no longer for absolute want
of men to defend the walls.
Cohreddin and Camhel were alike interested in the preser-
vation of so important a position, and, convinced of the cer-
tain fate of the city, they opened a conference with the cru-
sading chiefs, offering to yield the whole of Palestine to the
Christians upon the sole condition of the evacuation of Egypt.
With a blindness and wrong-headedness almost incredible,
these advantageous terms were refused, chiefly through the
persuasion of Cardinal Pelagius, an ignorant and obstinate
fanatic, who urged upon the Duke of Austria and the French
and English leaders, that infidels never kept their word; that
their offers were deceptive, and merely intended to betray.
The conferences were brought to an abrupt termination by the
Crusaders, and a last attack made upon the walls of Damietta.
The besieged made but slight resistance, for they had no hope,
and the Christians entered the city, and found, out of seventy
THE CRUSADES 443
thousand people, but three thousand remaining: so fearful
had been the ravages of the twin fiends plague and famine.
Several months were spent in Damietta. The climate
-either weakened the frames or obscured the understandings of
the Christians; for, after their conquest, they lost all energy,
and abandoned themselves more unscrupulously than ever to
riot and debauchery. John of Briennej who by right of Ms
wife was the nominal sovereign of Jerusalem, was so disgusted
with the pusillanimity, arrogance, and dissensions of the
chiefs, that he withdrew entirely from them and retired to
Acre. Large bodies also returned to Europe, and Cardinal
Pelagius was left at liberty to blast the whole enterprise when-
ever it pleased him. He managed to conciliate John of Bri-
enne, and marched forward with these combined forces to
attack Cairo. It was only when he had approached within a
few hours' march of that city that he discovered the inade-
quacy of his army. He turned back immediately; but the
Nile had risen since his departure; the sluices were opened,
and there was no means of reaching Damietta. In this strait,
he sued for the peace he had formerly spurned, and, happily
for himself, found the generous brothers Camhel and Cohred-
din still willing to grant it. Damietta was soon afterwards
given up, and the cardinal returned to Europe. John of Bri-
enne retired to Acre, to mourn the loss of his kingdom, em-
bittered against the folly of his pretended friends, who had
ruined where they should have aided him. And thus ended
the sixth Crusade.
The seventh was more successful. Frederic II. emperor of
Germany, had often vowed to lead his armies to the defence of
Palestine, but was as often deterred from the journey by mat-
ters of more pressing importance. Cohreddin was a mild and
enlightened monarch, and the Christians of Syria enjoyed re-
pose and toleration under his rule: but John of Brienne was
not willing to lose his kingdom without an effort; and the
popes in Europe were ever willing to embroil the nations for
the sake of extending their own power. No monarch of that
age was capable of rendering more effective assistance than
Frederick of Germany. To inspire him with more zeal, it
444 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
was proposed that he should wed the young Princess Vio-
lante, daughter of John of Brienne, and heiress of the king-
dom of Jerusalem. Frederic consented with joy and eager-
ness. The princess was brought from Acre to Rome without
delay, and her marriage celebrated on a scale of great mag-
nificence. Her father, John of Brienne, abdicated all his
rights in favour of his son-in-law, and Jerusalem had once
more a king, who had not only the will, but the power, to en-
force Ms claims. Preparations for the new Crusade were im-
mediately commenced, and in the course of siz months the
emperor was at the head of a well-disciplined army of sixty
-thousand men. Matthew Paris informs us, that an army of
the same amount was gathered in England; and most of the
writers upon the Crusades adopt his statement. When John of
Brienne was in England, before his daughter's marriage with
the emperor was thought of, praying for the aid of Henry III.
and his nobles to recover his lost kingdom, he did not meet with
much encouragement. Grafton, in his Chronicle, says, "he
departed again without any great comfort." But when a man
of more influence in European politics appeared upon the
scene, the English nobles were as ready to sacrifice them-
selves in the cause as they had been the time of Coeur de Lion.
The army of Frederic encamped at Brundusium; but a
pestilential disease having made its appearance among them,
their departure was delayed for several months. In the
meantime the Empress Violante died in childbed. John of
Brienne, who had already repented of his abdication, and was
besides incensed against Frederic for many acts of neglect
and insult, no sooner saw the only tie which bound them
severed by the death of his daughter, than he began to bestir
himself, and make interest with the pope to undo what he had
done, and regain the honorary crown he had renounced. Pope
Gregory IX., a man of a proud, unconciliating, and revengeful
character, owed the emperor a grudge for many an act of
disobedience to his authority, and encouraged the overtures
of John of Brienne more than he should have done. Frederic,
however, despised them both, and, as soon as his army was
convalescent, set sail for Acre. He had not been many days
THE CRUSADES 445
at sea when he was himself attacked with the malady, and
obliged to return to Otranto, the nearest port. Gregory, who
had by this time decided in the interest of John of BrieBne,
excommunicated the emperor for returning from so holy an
expedition on any pretext whatever. Frederic at first treated
the excoiromraf cation with supreme contempt; but when he
got well, he gave his holiness to understand that he was not
to be outraged with impunity, and sent some of his troops to
ravage the papal territories. This, however, only made the
matter worse, and Gregory despatched messengers to Palestine
forbidding the faithful, under severe pains and penalties, to
hold any intercourse with the excommunicated emperor.
Thus, between them both, the scheme which they had so much
at heart bade fair to be as effectually ruined as even the Sara-
cens dould have wished. Frederic still continued his zeal in
the Crusade, for he was now king of Jerusalem, and fought
for himself, and not for Christendom, or its representative,
Pope Gregory. Hearing that John of Brienne was preparing
to leave Europe, he lost no time in taking his own departure,
and arrived safely at Acre. It was here that he first ex-
perienced the evil effects of excommunication. The Christians
of Palestine refused to aid him in any way, and looked with
distrust, if not with abhorrence, upon Mm. The Templars,
Hospitallers, and other knights, shared at first the general
feeling; but they were not men to yield a blind obedience to
a distant potentate, especially when it compromised their own
interests. When, therefore, Frederic prepared to march upon
Jerusalem without them, they joined Ms banners to a man.
It is said that, previous to quitting Europe, the German
emperor had commenced a negotiation with the Sultan Camhd
for the restoration of the Holy Land, and that Camhel, who
was jealous of the ambition of his brother Cohreddin, was
willing to stipulate to that effect, on condition of being secured
by Frederic in the possession of the more important territory
of Egypt. But before the Crusaders reached Palestine, Cam-
hel was relieved from all fears by the death of Ms brother.
He nevertheless did not tMnk it worth while to contest with
the Crusaders the barren corner of the earth which had already
446 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
been dyed with so much Christian and Saracen blood, and
proposed a truce of three years, only stipulating, in addition,
that the Moslems should be allowed to worship freely in the
temple of Jerusalem, This happy termination did not satisfy
the bigoted Christians of Palestine. The tolerance they sought
for themselves, they were not willing to extend to others, and
they complained bitterly of the privilege of free worship al-
lowed to their opponents. Unmerited good fortune had made
them insolent, and they contested the right of the emperor to
become a party to any treaty, as long as he remained under
the ecclesiastical ban. Frederic was disgusted with his new
subjects; but, as the Templars and Hospitallers remained true
to him, he marched to Jerusalem to be crowned. All the
churches were shut against him, and he could not even find
a priest to officiate at his coronation. He had despised the
papal authority too long to quail at it now, when it was so
unjustifiably exerted, and, as there was nobody to crown him,
he very wisely crowned himself. He took the royal diadem
from the altar with his own hands, and boldly and proudly
placed it on his brow. No shouts of an applauding populace
made the welkin ring; no hymns of praise and triumph re-
sounded from the ministers of religion; but a thousand swords
started from their scabbards to testify that their owners would
defend the new monarch to the death.
It was hardly to be expected that he would renounce for any
long period the dominion of his native land for the uneasy
crown and barren soil of Palestine. He had seen quite enough
of his new subjects before he was six months among them,
and more important interests called him home. John of
Brienne, openly leagued with Pope Gregory against him, was
actually employed in ravaging his territories at the head of a
papal army. This intelligence decided his return. As a pre-
liminary step, he made those who had contemned his authority
feel, to their sorrov^ that he was their master. He then set
sail, loaded with the curses of Palestine. And thus ended the
seventh Crusade, which, in spite of every obstacle and disad-
vantage, had been productive of more real service to the Holy
Land than any that had gone before; a result solely attrib-
THE CRUSADES 447
utable to the bravery of Frederic and the generosity of the
Sultan CamheL
Soon after the emperor's departure a new claimant started
for the throne of Jerusalem, in the person of Alice queen of
Cyprus, and half-sister of the Mary who, by her marriage,
had transferred her right to John of Brienne* The grand mili-
tary orders, however, clung to Frederic, and Alice was obliged
to withdraw.
So peaceful a termination to the Crusade did not give un-
mixed pleasure in Europe. The chivalry of France and Eng-
land were unable to rest, and long before the conclusion of
the truce, were collecting their armies for an eighth expedition.
In Palestine also the contentment was far from universal.
Many petty Mahomedan states in the immediate vicinity were
not parties to the truce, and harassed the frontier towns in-
cessantly. The Templars, ever turbulent, waged bitter war
with the sultan of Aleppo, and in the end were almost ex-
terminated. So great was the slaughter among them that
Europe resounded with the sad story of their fate, and many
a noble knight took arms to prevent the total destruction of
an order associated with so many high and inspiring remem-
brances. Camhel, seeing the preparations that were making,
thought that his generosity had been sufficiently shewn, and
the very day the truce was at an end assumed the offensive,
and marching forward to Jerusalem, took possession of it, after
routing the scanty forces of the Christians. Before this
intelligence reached Europe a large body of Crusaders was on
the march, headed by the King of Navarre, the Duke of Bur-
guridy, the Count de Bretagne, and other leaders. On their
arrival, they learned that Jerusalem had been taken, but that
the Wtan was dead, and his kingdom torn by rival claimants
to the supreme power. The dissensions of their foes ought
to have made them united; but, as in all previous Crusades,
each feudal chief was master of his own host, and acted upon
his own responsibility, and without reference to any general
plan. The consequence was that nothing could be done. A
temporary advantage was gained by one leader, who had no
means of improving it; while another was defeated, without
448 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
means of retrieving himself. Thus the war lingered till the
battle of Gaza, when the king of Navarre was defeated with
great loss, and compelled to save himself from total destruction
by entering into a hard and oppressive treaty with the emir
of Karac.
At this crisis aid arrived from England, commanded by
Richard Earl of Cornwall, the namesake of Coeur de Lion, and
inheritor of his valour. His army was strong and full of hope.
They had confidence in themselves and in their leader, and
looked like men accustomed to victory. Their coming changed
the aspect of affairs. The new sultan of Egypt was at war
with the sultan of Damascus, and had not forces to oppose two
enemies so powerful. He therefore sent messengers to meet
the English earl, offering an exchange of prisoners and the
complete cession of the Holy Land, Richard, who had not
come to fight for the mere sake of fighting, agreed at once to
terms so advantageous, and became -the deliverer of Palestine
without striking a blow. The sultan of Egypt then turned his
whole force against his Moslem enemies, and the Earl of Corn-
wall returned to Europe. Thus ended the eighth Crusade,
the most beneficial of all. Christendom had no further pre-
tence for sending her fierce levies to the East. To all appear-
ance the holy wars were at an end: the Christians had entire
possession of Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Edessa, Acre, Jaffa,
and, in fact, of nearly all Judea; and, could they have been
at peace among themselves, they might have overcome, with-
out great difficulty, the jealousy and hostility of their neigh-
bours. A circumstance, as unforeseen as it was disastrous,
blasted this fair prospect, and reillumed, for the last time, the
fervour and fury of the Crusades.
Gengis Khan and his successors had swept over Asia like a
tropical storm, overturning in their progress the landmarks of
ages. Kingdom after kingdom was cast down as they issued,
innumerable, from the far recesses of the North and East, and,
among others, the empire of Korasmin was overrun by these
all-conquering hordes. The Korasmins, a fierce, uncivilised
race, thus driven from their homes, spread themselves, in their
turn, over the south of Asia with fire and sword, in search of
THE CRUSADES 449
a resting-place. In their impetuous course they directed them-
selves towards Egypt, whose sultan, unable to withstand the
swarm that had cast their longing eyes on the fertile valleys
of the Nile, endeavoured to turn them from their course. For
this purpose, he sent emissaries to Barbaquan, their leader,
inviting them to settle in Palestine; and the offer being ac-
cepted by the wild horde, they entered the country before the
Christians received the slightest intimation of their coming.
It was as sudden as it was overwhelming. Onwards, like the
simoom, they came, burning and slaying, and were at the walls
of Jerusalem before the inhabitants had time to look round
them. They spared neither life nor property; they slew women
and children and priests at the altar, and profaned even the
graves of those who had slept for ages. They tore down every
vestige of the Christian faith, and committed horrors un-
paralleled in the history of warfare. About seven thousand of
the inhabitants of Jerusalem sought safety In retreat; but
before they were out of sight, the banner of the cross was
hoisted upon the walls by the savage foe to decoy them back.
The artifice was but too successful. The poor fugitives imag-
ined that help had arrived from another direction, and turned
back to regain their homes. Nearly the whole of them were
massacred, and the streets of Jerusalem ran with blood.
The Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic knights forgot
their long and bitter animosities, and joined hand in hand to
rout out this desolating foe. They entrenched themselves in
Jaffa, with all the chivalry of Palestine that yet remained, and
endeavoured to engage the sultans of Emissa and Damascus to
assist Aem against the common enemy. The aid obtained
from the Moslems amounted at first to only four thousand
men, but with these reinforcements Walter of Brienne, the
lord of Jaffa, resolved to give battle to the Korasmins. The
conflict was as deadly as despair on the one side, and unmiti-
gated ferocity on the other, could make it. It lasted with
varying fortune for two days, when the sultan of Emissa fled
to his fortifications, and Walter of Brienne fell into the enemy's
hands. The brave knight was suspended by the arms to a
cross in sight of the walls of Jaffa, and the Korasminian leader
450 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS
declared that he should remain in that position until the city
surrendered. Walter raised his feeble voice, not to advise
surrender, but to command his soldiers to hold out to the last.
But his gallantry was unavailing. So great had been the
slaughter, that out of the grand array of knights, there now
remained but sixteen Hospitallers, thirty-three Templars, and
three Teutonic cavaliers. These, with the sad remnant of
the army, fled to Acre, and the Korasmins were masters of
Palestine.
The sultans of Syria preferred the Christians to this fierce
horde for their neighbours. Even the sultan of Egypt began
to regret the aid he had given to such barbarous foes, and
united with those of Emissa and Damascus to root them from
the land. The Korasmins amounted to but twenty thousand
men, and were unable to resist the determined hostility which
encompassed them on every side. The sultans defeated them
in several engagements, and the peasantry rose up in masses
to take vengeance upon them. Gradually their numbers were
diminished. No mercy was shewn them in defeat. Barbaquan
their leader was slain; and after five years of desperate
struggles, they were finally extirpated, and Palestine became
once more the territory of the Mussulmans.
A short time previous to this devastating eruption, Louis IX.
fell sick In Paris, and dreamed in the delirium of his fever
that he saw the Christian and Moslem host fighting before
Jerusalem, and the Christians defeated with great slaughter.
The dream made a great impression on his superstitious mind,
and he made a solemn vow, that if ever he recovered his
health, he would take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When
the news of the misfortunes of Palestine, and the awful massa-
cres at Jerusalem and Jaffa, arrived in Europe, St. Louis
remembered him of his dream. More persuaded than ever
that it was an intimation direct from heaven, he prepared to
take the cross at the head of his armies, and march to the
deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre. From that moment he
doffed the royal mantle of purple and ermine, and dressed in
the sober serge becoming a pilgrim. All his thoughts were
directed to the fulfilment of his design, and although his king-
THE CRUSADES 451
dom could but ill spare him, he made every preparation to
leave it. Pope Innocent IV. applauded Ms zeal and afforded
Mm every assistance. He wrote to Henry III. of England
to forward the cause in his dominions, and called upon the
clergy and laity all over Europe to contribute towards it.
William Longsword, the celebrated Earl of Salisbury, took
the cross at the head of a great number of valiant knights and
soldiers. But the fanaticism of the people was not to be
awakened either in France or England, Great armies were
raised, but the masses no longer sympatMsed. Taxation had
been the great cooler of zeal. It was no longer a disgrace even
to a knight if he refused to take the cross* Rutebeuf , a French
minstrel, who flourished about this time (1250), composed a
dialogue between a Crusader and a non-Crusader, which the
reader will find translated in Way's Fabliaux. The Crusader
uses every argument to persuade the non-Crusader to take
up arms, and forsake every tMng in the holy cause; but it is
evident from the greater force of the arguments used by the
non-Crusader, that he was the favourite of the minstrel. To
a most urgent solicitation of his friend the Crusader, he replies :
"I read thee right, thou boldest good
To this same land I straight should hie,
And win it back with mickle blood,
Nor gaine one foot of soil thereby;
While here dejected and forlorn
My wife and babes are left to mourn;
My goodly mansion rudely marred,
All trusted to my dogs to guard.
But I, fair comrade, well I wot
An ancient saw of pregnant wit
Doth bid us keep what we have got;
And troth I mean to follow it."
This being the general feeling, it is not to be wondered at that
Louis IX. w
