[291] Robert Fludd: “Treatise III.”
[292] Prof. J. P. Cooke: “New Chemistry.”
[293] In the “Bulletin de l’Academie de Medecine,” Paris, 1837, vol. i., p. 343 et seq., may be found the report of Dr. Oudet, who, to ascertain the state of insensibility of a lady in a magnetic sleep, pricked her with pins, introducing a long pin in the flesh up to its head, and held one of her fingers for some seconds in the flame of a candle. A cancer was extracted from the right breast of a Madame Plaintain. The operation lasted twelve minutes; during the whole time the patient talked very quietly with her mesmerizer, and never felt the slightest sensation (“Bul. de l’Acad. de Med.,” Tom. ii., p. 370).
[294] Prophecy, Ancient and Modern, by A. Wilder: “Phrenological Journal.”
[295] The theory that the sun is an incandescent globe is—as one of the magazines recently expressed it—“going out of fashion.” It has been computed that if the sun—whose mass and diameter is known to us—“were a solid block of coal, and sufficient amount of oxygen could be supplied to burn at the rate necessary to produce the effects we see, it would be completely consumed in less than 5,000 years.” And yet, till comparatively a few weeks ago, it was maintained—nay, is still maintained, that the sun is a reservoir of vaporized metals!
[296] See Youmans: “Chemistry on the Basis of the New System—Spectrum Analysis.”
[297] Professor of Physics in the Stevens Institute of Technology. See his “The Earth a Great Magnet,“a lecture delivered before the Yale Scientific Club, 1872. See, also, Prof. Balfour Stewart’s lecture on “The Sun and the Earth.”
[298] “De Magnetica Vulner Curatione,” p. 722, l. c.
[299] See “On the Influence of the Blue Ray.”
[300] Ennemoser: “History of Magic.”
[301] “Du Magnetisme Animal, en France.” Paris, 1826.
[302] “The Conservation of Energy.” N. Y., 1875.
[303] “Fundamental Principles of Natural Philosophy.”
[304] “Simpl. in Phys.,” 143; “The Chaldean Oracles,” Cory.
[305] Draper: “Conflict between Religion and Science.”
[306] J. R. Buchanan, M.D.: “Outlines of Lectures on the Neurological System of Anthropology.”
[307] W. and Elizabeth M. F. Denton: “The Soul of Things; or Psychometric Researches and Discoveries.” Boston, 1873.
[308] “Religion of Geology.”
[309] “Principles of Science,” vol. ii., p. 455.
[310] J. W. Draper: “Conflict between Religion and Science,” pp. 132, 133.
[311] “Unseen Universe,” p. 159.
[312] F. R. Marvin: “Lecture on Mediomania.”
[313] “Unseen Universe,” p. 84, et seq.
[314] Ibid., p. 89.
[315] Behold! great scientists of the nineteenth century, corroborating the wisdom of the Scandinavian fable, cited in the preceding chapter. Several thousand years ago, the idea of a bridge between the visible and the invisible universes was allegorized by ignorant “heathen,” in the “Edda-Song of Völuspa,” “The Vision of Vala, the Seeress.” For what is this bridge of Bifrost, the radiant rainbow, which leads the gods to their rendezvous, near the Urdar-fountain, but the same idea as that which is offered to the thoughtful student by the authors of the “Unseen Universe?”
[316] “L’Ami des Sciences,” March 2, 1856, p. 67.
[317] Cooke: “New Chemistry,” p. 113.
[318] Ibid., pp. 110-111.
[319] Ibid., p. 106.
[320] “De Secretis Adeptorum.” Werdenfelt; Philalethes; Van Helmont; Paracelsus.
[321] Youmans: “Chemistry,” p. 169; and W. B. Kemshead, F. R. A. S.: “Inorganic Chemistry.”
[322] “Origin of Metalliferous Deposits.”
[323] John Bumpus: “Alchemy and the Alkahest,” 85, J. S. F., edition of 1820.
[324] See Boyle’s works.
[325] Deleuze: “De l’Opinion de Van Helmont sur la Cause, la Nature et les Effets du Magnetisme.” Anim. Vol. i., p. 45, and vol. ii., p. 198.
[326] A. R. Wallace: “An Answer to the Arguments of Hume, Lecky, etc., against Miracles.”
[327] Crookes: “Researches, etc.,” p. 96.
[328] Lucian: “Pharsalia,” Book v.
[329] “De Divinatio,” Book i., chap. 3.
[330] “De Occulta Philosoph.,” p. 355.
[331] Plato: “Timæus,” vol. ii., p. 563.
[332] Crookes: “Researches, etc.,” p. 101.
[333] Ibid., p. 101.
[334] Crookes: “Researches, etc.,” p. 83.
[335] In 1854, M. Foucault, an eminent physician and a member of the French Institute, one of the opponents of de Gasparin, rejecting the mere possibility of any such manifestations, wrote the following memorable words: “That day, when I should succeed in moving a straw under the action of my will only, I would feel terrified!” The word is ominous. About the same year, Babinet, the astronomer, repeated in his article in the “Revue des Deux Mondes,” the following sentence to exhaustion: “The levitation of a body without contact is as impossible as the perpetual motion, because on the day it would be done, the world would crumble down.” Luckily, we see no sign as yet of such a cataclysm; yet bodies are levitated.
[336] “Researches, etc.,” p. 91.
[337] Ibid., pp. 86-97.
[338] Ibid., p. 94.
[339] Ibid., p. 95.
[340] Ibid., p. 94.
[341] “Antidote,” lib. i., cap. 4.
[342] “Letter to Glanvil, the author of ‘Sadducismus Triumphatus,’ May 25, 1678.”
[343] “History of Magic,” vol. ii., p. 272.
[344] “Apologie pour tous les grands personnages faussement accusés de magie.”
[345] Berlin, 1817.
[346] “Nova Medicina Spirituum,” 1675.
[347] “History of Magic.”
[348] It would be a useless and too long labor to enter here upon the defence of Kepler’s theory of relation between the five regular solids of geometry and the magnitudes of the orbits of five principal planets, rather derided by Prof. Draper in his “Conflict.” Many are the theories of the ancients that have been avenged by modern discovery. For the rest, we must bide our time.
[349] “Magia Naturalis,” Lugduni, 1569.
[350] Athanasis Kircher: “Magnes sive de arte magnetici, opus tripartitum.” Coloniæ, 1654.
[351] Lib. iii., p. 643.
[352] “Notes from a New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam,” by de la Loubère, French Ambassador to Siam in the years 1687-8. Edition of 1692.
[353] Baptist Van Helmont: “Opera Omnia,” 1682, p. 720, and others.
[354] De la Loubère: “Notes,” etc. (see ante), p. 115.
[355] Ibid., p. 120.
[356] Ibid., p. 63.
[357] See his “Conf.,” xiii., l. c. in præfatione.
[358] 1 Samuel, xvi. 14-23.
[359] “Aphorisms,” 22.
[360] Ibid., p. 69.
[361] Ibid., p. 70.
[362] “Philosophie des Sciences Occultes.”
[363] 1 Kings, i. 1-4, 15.
[364] Josephus: “Antiquities,” viii. 2.
[365] “The Diakka and their Victims; an Explanation of the False and Repulsive in Spiritualism.”
[366] See Chapter on the human spirits becoming the denizens of the eighth sphere, whose end is generally the annihilation of personal individuality.
[367] Porphyry: “On the Good and Bad Demons.”
[368] “De Mysteriis Egyptorum,” lib. iii., c. 5.
[369] Epes Sargent: “Proof Palpable of Immortality,” p. 45.
[370] See Matthew xxiv. 26.
[371] See Wallace, “Miracles and Modern Spiritualism,” and W. Howitt, “History of the Supernatural,” vol. ii.
[372] See Wallace’s paper read before the Dialectical Society, in 1871: “Answer to Hume, etc.”
[373] “Φιλολογος” (Bailey’s), second edition.
[374] See Art. on “Æthrobacy.”
[375] Psalm cv. 23. “The Land of Ham,” or chem, Greek χημι, whence the terms alchemy and chemistry.
[376] “Œdipi Ægyptiaci Theatrum Hieroglyphicum,” p. 544.
[377] “Lib. de Defectu Oraculorum.“
[378] Lib. i., Class 3, Cap. ult.
[379] The details of this story may be found in the work of Erasmus Franciscus, who quotes from Pflaumerus, Pancirollus, and many others.
[380] ”Sulphur. Alum ust. a ℥ iv.; sublime them into flowers to ℥ ij., of which add of crystalline Venetian borax (powdered) ℥ j.; upon these affuse high rectified spirit of wine and digest it, then abstract it and pour on fresh; repeat this so often till the sulphur melts like wax without any smoke, upon a hot plate of brass: this is for the pabulum, but the wick is to be prepared after this manner: gather the threads or thrums of the Lapis asbestos, to the thickness of your middle and the length of your little finger, then put them into a Venetian glass, and covering them over with the aforesaid depurated sulphur or aliment, set the glass in sand for the space of twenty-four hours, so hot that the sulphur may bubble all the while. The wick being thus besmeared and anointed, is to be put into a glass like a scallop-shell, in such manner that some part of it may lie above the mass of prepared sulphur; then setting this glass upon hot sand, you must melt the sulphur, so that it may lay hold of the wick, and when it is lighted, it will burn with a perpetual flame and you may set this lamp in any place where you please.”
The other is as follows:
“℞ Salis tosti, lb. j.; affuse over it strong wine vinegar, and abstract it to the consistency of oil; then put on fresh vinegar and macerate and distill it as before. Repeat this four times successively, then put into this vinegar vitr. antimonii subtilis lœvigat, lb. j.; set it on ashes in a close vessel for the space of six hours, to extract its tincture, decant the liquor, and put on fresh, and then extract it again; this repeat so often till you have got out all the redness. Coagulate your extractions to the consistency of oil, and then rectify them in Balneo Mariæ (bain Marie). Then take the antimony, from which the tincture was extracted, and reduce it to a very fine meal, and so put it into a glass bolthead; pour upon it the rectified oil, which abstract and cohobate seven times, till such time as the powder has imbibed all the oil, and is quite dry. This extract again with spirit of wine, so often, till all the essence be got out of it, which put into a Venice matrass, well luted with paper five-fold, and then distill it so that the spirit being drawn off, there may remain at the bottom an inconsumable oil, to be used with a wick after the same manner with the sulphur we have described before.”
“These are the eternal lights of Tritenheimus,” says Libavius, his commentator, “which indeed, though they do not agree with the pertinacy of naphtha, yet these things can illustrate one another. Naphtha is not so durable as not to be burned, for it exhales and deflagrates, but if it be fixed by adding the juice of the Lapis asbestinos it can afford perpetual fuel,” says this learned person.
We may add that we have ourselves seen a lamp so prepared, and we are told that since it was first lighted on May 2, 1871, it has not gone out. As we know the person who is making the experiment incapable to deceive any one, being himself an ardent experimenter in hermetic secrets, we have no reason to doubt his assertion.
[381] “Commentary upon St. Augustine’s ‘Treatise de Civitate Dei.’”
[382] The author of “De Rebus Cypriis,” 1566 A.D.
[383] “Book of Ancient Funerals.”
[384] “Comment. on the 77th Epigram of the IXth Book of Martial.”
[385] “De Defectu Oraculorum.”
[386] “Vulgar Errors,” p. 124.
[387] “London Dialectical Society’s Report on Spiritualism,” p. 229.
[388] Ibid., p. 230.
[389] Ibid., p. 265.
[390] Ibid., p. 266.
[391] Draper: “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 121.
[392] Milton: “Paradise Lost.”
[393] See Ennemoser: “History of Magic,” vol. ii., and Schweigger: “Introduction to Mythology through Natural History.”
[394] “History of Magic,” vol. ii.
[395] B. Jowett, M. A.: “The Dialogues of Plato,” vol. ii., p. 508.
[396] “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 240.
[397] “Plutarch,” translated by Langhorne.
[398] Some kabalistic scholars assert that the Greek original Pythagoric sentences of Sextus, which are now said to be lost, existed still, in a convent at Florence, at that time, and that Galileo was acquainted with these writings. They add, moreover, that a treatise on astronomy, a manuscript by Archytas, a direct disciple of Pythagoras, in which were noted all the most important doctrines of their school, was in the possession of Galileo. Had some Ruffinas got hold of it, he would no doubt have perverted it, as Presbyter Ruffinas has perverted the above-mentioned sentences of Sextus, replacing them with a fraudulent version, the authorship of which he sought to ascribe to a certain Bishop Sextus. See Taylor’s Introduction to Iamblichus’ “Life of Pythagoras,” p. xvii.
[399] Jowett: Introduction to the “Timæus,” vol. ii., p. 508.
[400] Ibid.
[401] “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 14.
[402] “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 311.
[403] “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v., p. 88.
[404] W. R. Grove: “Preface to the Correlation of Physical Forces.”
[405] “Timæus,” p. 22.
[406] Beginning with Godfrey Higgins and ending with Max Müller, every archæologist and philologist who has fairly and seriously studied the old religions, has perceived that taken literally they could only lead them on a false track. Dr. Lardner disfigured and misrepresented the old doctrines—whether unwittingly or otherwise—in the grossest manner. The pravritti, or the existence of nature when alive, in activity, and the nirvritti, or the rest, the state of non-living, is the Buddhistic esoteric doctrine. The “pure nothing,” or non-existence, if translated according to the esoteric sense, would mean the “pure spirit,” the NAMELESS or something our intellect is unable to grasp, hence nothing. But we will speak of it further.
[407] This is the exact opposite of the modern theory of evolution.
[408] Ficinus: See “Excerpta” and “Dissertation on Magic;” Taylor: “Plato,” vol. i., p. 63.
[409] “Modern American Spiritualism,” p. 119.
[410] The full and correct name of this learned Society is—“The American Association for the Advancement of Science.” It is, however, often called for brevity’s sake, “The American Scientific Association.”
[411] See Taylor’s translation of “Select Works of Plotinus,” p. 553, etc.
[412] Iamblichus: “De Vita Pythag.,” additional notes (Taylor).
[413] “The National Quarterly Review,” Dec., 1875.
[414] Ibid., p. 94.
[415] “Force and Matter,” p. 151.
[416] Burnouf: “Introduction,” p. 118.
[417] “The National Quarterly Review,” Dec., 1875, p. 96.
[418] “De Anima,” lib. i., cap. 3.
[419] De Maistre: “Soirées de St. Petersburg.”
[420] We need not go so far back as that to assure ourselves that many great men believed the same. Kepler, the eminent astronomer, fully credited the idea that the stars and all heavenly bodies, even our earth, are endowed with living and thinking souls.
[421] We are not aware that a copy of this ancient work is embraced in the catalogue of any European library; but it is one of the “Books of Hermes,” and it is referred to and quotations are made from it in the works of a number of ancient and mediæval philosophical authors. Among these authorities are Arnoldo di Villanova’s “Rosarium philosoph.;” Francesco Arnolphim’s “Lucensis opus de lapide,” Hermes Trismegistus’ “Tractatus de transmutatione metallorum,” “Tabula smaragdina,” and above all in the treatise of Raymond Lulli, “Ab angelis opus divinum de quinta essentia.”
[422] Quicksilver.
[423] “Hermes,” iv. 6. Spirit here denotes the Deity—Pneuma, ὁ θέος.
[424] “Magia Adamica,” p. 11.
[425] The ignorance of the ancients of the earth’s sphericity is assumed without warrant. What proof have we of the fact? It was only the literati who exhibited such an ignorance. Even so early as the time of Pythagoras, the Pagans taught it, Plutarch testifies to it, and Socrates died for it. Besides, as we have stated repeatedly, all knowledge was concentrated in the sanctuaries of the temples from whence it very rarely spread itself among the uninitiated. If the sages and priests of the remotest antiquity were not aware of this astronomical truth, how is it that they represented Kneph, the spirit of the first hour, with an egg placed on his lips, the egg signifying our globe, to which he imparts life by his breath. Moreover, if, owing to the difficulty of consulting the Chaldean “Book of Numbers,” our critics should demand the citation of other authorities, we can refer them to Diogenes Laertius, who credits Manetho with having taught that the earth was in the shape of a ball. Besides, the same author, quoting most probably from the “Compendium of Natural Philosophy,” gives the following statements of the Egyptian doctrine: “The beginning is matter Αρχῆν μὲν εῖναι ὕλην ἴλλεσθα, and from it the four elements separated.... The true form of God is unknown; but the world had a beginning and is therefore perishable.... The moon is eclipsed when it crosses the shadow of the earth” (Diogenes Laertius: “Proœin,” §§ 10, 11). Besides, Pythagoras is credited with having taught that the earth was round, that it rotated, and was but a planet like any other of these celestial bodies. (See Fenelon’s “Lives of the Philosophers.”) In the latest of Plato’s translations (“The Dialogues of Plato,” by Professor Jowett), the author, in his introduction to “Timæus,” notwithstanding “an unfortunate doubt” which arises in consequence of the word ἵλλεσθαι capable of being translated either “circling” or “compacted,” feels inclined to credit Plato with having been familiar with the rotation of the earth. Plato’s doctrine is expressed in the following words: “The earth which is our nurse (compacted or) circling around the pole which is extended through the universe.” But if we are to believe Proclus and Simplicius, Aristotle understood this word in “Timæus” “to mean circling or revolving” (De Cœlo), and Mr. Jowett himself further admits that “Aristotle attributed to Plato the doctrine of the rotation of the earth.” (See vol. ii. of “Dial. of Plato.” Introduction to “Timæus,” pp. 501-2.) It would have been extraordinary, to say the least, that Plato, who was such an admirer of Pythagoras and who certainly must have had, as an initiate, access to the most secret doctrines of the great Samian, should be ignorant of such an elementary astronomical truth.
[426] “Wisdom of Solomon,” xi. 17.
[427] Eugenius Philalethes: “Magia Adamica.”
[428] Hargrave Jennings: “The Rosicrucians.”
[429] “Timæus.”
[430] “Our Place among Infinities,” p. 313.
[431] Ibid.
[432] Ibid., p. 314.
[433] The library of a relative of the writer contains a copy of a French edition of this unique work. The prophecies are given in the old French language, and are very difficult for the student of modern French to decipher. We give, therefore, an English version, which is said to be taken from a book in the possession of a gentleman in Somersetshire, England.