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
difficulties commence—Men sent out to work the mines on the
Mississippi, as a blind—Payment stopped at the bank—Law dismissed
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
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—General meeting of
the directors—Fearful climax of the South-sea expedition—Its effects
on society—Uproar in the House of Commons—Escape of
Knight—Apprehension of Sir John Blunt—Recapture of Knight at
Tirlemont—His second escape—Persons connected with the scheme
examined—Their respective punishments—Concluding remarks
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
Introductory remarks—Pretended antiquity of the
art—Geber—Alfarabi—Avicenna—Albertus Magnus—Thomas
Aquinas—Artephius—Alain de Lisle—Arnold de Villeneuve—Pietro
d’Apone—Raymond Lulli—Roger Bacon—Pope John XXII.—Jean de Meung—Nicholas
Flamel—George Ripley—Basil Valentine—Bernard of
Trèves—Trithemius—The Maréchal de Rays—Jacques Cœur—Inferior
adepts—Progress of the infatuation during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries—Augurello—Cornelius Agrippa—Paracelsus—George
Agricola—Denys Zachaire—Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly—The
Cosmopolite—Sendivogius—The Rosicrucians—Michael Mayer—Robert
Fludd—Jacob Böhmen—John Heydon—Joseph Francis Borri—Alchymical
writers of the seventeenth century—Delisle—Albert Aluys—Count de St.
Germain—Cagliostro—Present state of the science
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 Pontefract—Robert
Nixon—Almanac-makers
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—Kepler—Necromancy—Roger Bacon, Albertus
Magnus, Arnold Villeneuve—Geomancy—Augury—Divination: list of
various species of divination—Oneiro-criticism (interpretation of
dreams)—Omens
The influence of imagination in curing diseases—Mineral
magnetisers—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—Holloway, Loutherbourg, Mary Pratt,
&c.—Perkins’s “Metallic Tractors”—Decline of the science
Early modes of wearing the hair and beard—Excommunication and
outlawry decreed against curls—Louis VII.’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—Examples from Bayeux tapestry