Demonologia

by J. S. Forsyth

JUDICIAL OR JUDICIARY ASTROLOGY

Is a further pretence to discover or foretel MORAL EVENTS, or such as have a dependence on the FREEDOM OF THE WILL. In this department of astrology we meet with all the idle conceits about the HORARY REIGN of planets, the DOCTRINE OF HOROSCOPES, the DISTRIBUTION OF THE HOUSES, the CALCULATION OF NATIVITIES, FORTUNES, LUCKY and UNLUCKY HOURS, and other ominous fatalities.

The professors of this conjectural science maintain “that the Heavens are one great book, wherein God has written the history of the world; and in which every man may read his own fortune and the transactions of his time. This art, say they, had its rise from the same hands as Astronomy itself: while the ancient Assyrians, whose serene unclouded sky favoured their celestial observations, were intent on tracing the paths and periods of the heavenly bodies; they discovered a constant settled relation or analogy between them and things below; and hence were led to conclude these to be the parcæ, or fates or destinies, so much talked of, which preside at our birth, and dispose of our future fate.”

The study of Astrology, so flattering to human curiosity, got early admission into the favour of mankind, especially of the weak, ignorant, and effeminate, whose follies induced the avaricious, crafty, and designing knaves, to recommend and promote it for their own private interest and advantage.

Origin of Astrology.

We meet with the first accounts of Astrology in Chaldea; and at Rome it was known by the name of the Babylonish calculation; against which Horace very wisely cautioned his readers—

—— nec Babylonios

Tentaris numeros.—Lib. l. od. xi.

that is, consult not the tables or planetary calculations used by Astrologers of Babylonish origin. This therefore was the opinion of the Romans on the subject of Astrology. Others have ascribed the invention of this deception to the Arabs: be this as it may, judicial Astrology has been too much used by the priests of all nations to increase their own power and emoluments.

The Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks and Romans, furnish us with innumerable instances of the extent to which Astrology was carried for interested purposes. Brahmins in India, who take upon themselves to be the arbiters of good and evil hours, and who set an extravagant price upon their pretended knowledge of planetary influence and predictions, maintain their authority at the present day by similar means. Nor among the Christians, notwithstanding the enlightened era in which we live, are we without our Astrologers, as well as its admirers and advocates; for though they may not have all pursued and adopted the same technical method, still it is certain, that whoever pretends to discover future events by other means than through the light of Divine revelation, may be properly classed under the species of judicial Astrologers.

Astrological Schemes, &c.

Those who pretend to reduce the practice of Astrology to a system, present the world with certain schemes formed upon the Aspects of the planets, and attribute certain qualities or powers to each sign. Thus, to discover the influence of the heavens over the life of a person, they erect a THEME, at the given time of the moment the person was born, by which the Astrologers pretend to discover the star that presided, or in what part of the hemisphere it was placed, when the individual came into the world. The erection of this THEME they perform, or at least pretend to reform, with the assistance of the celestial globe, or planisphere, with regard to the fixed stars; but with respect to the planets, they do it with Astronomical tables. To accomplish these, they have recourse to a semi-circle, which they call POSITION, by which they represent the six great circles passing through the intersection of the Meridian and Horizon, and dividing the Equator into twelve equal parts. The spaces included between these circles, are what they call the twelve HOUSES; which they refer to the twelve triangles marked in their theme; placing six of those HOUSES above and six underneath the horizon.

The first of the HOUSES under the horizon toward the East, they call the Horoscope, or House of Life; the second, the House of Wealth; the third, the House of Brothers; the fourth, the House of Parents, &c.; as is clearly expressed in the following lines:

Vita, lucrum, fratres, genitor, natique Valetud,

Uxor, Mors, pietas, et munia, amici inimici.

Which, translated by some English students in Astrology, runs thus:

The first house shews life, the second wealth doth give;

The third how brethren, fourth how parents live;

Issue the fifth; the sixth diseases bring;

The seventh wedlock, and the eighth death’s sting;

The ninth religion; the tenth honour shews;

Friendship the eleventh, and twelfth our woes.

Table of the Twelve Houses.

Astrologers draw their table of the TWELVE HOUSES into a triple quadrangle prepared for the purpose, of which there are four principal angles, two of them falling equally upon the horizon, and the other two upon the meridian, which angles are sudivided into 12 triangles for the 12 houses, in which they place the 12 signs of the Zodiac, to each of which is attributed a particular quality,—viz.

1.— Aries, denoted by the sign ♈︎, is, in their extravagant opinion, a masculine, diurnal, cardinal, equinoctial, easterly sign, hot and dry,—the day house of Mars.

Having thus housed their signs and directed them in their operations, they afterwards come to enquire of their tenants, what planet and fixed stars they have for LODGERS, at the moment of the nativity of such person; from whence they draw conclusions with regard to the future incident of that person’s life. For if at the time of that person’s nativity they find Mercury in 27° 52 min. of Aquarius, and in the sextile aspect of the horoscope, they pretend to foretel that that infant will be a person of great sagacity, genius, and understanding; and therefore capable of learning the most sublime sciences.

Astrologers have also imagined, for the same ridiculous purpose, to be in the same houses different positions of the signs and planets, and from their different aspects, opposition and conjunction, and according to the rules and axioms they have prescribed to themselves and invented, have the sacrilegious presumption to judge, in dernier resort, of the fate of mankind, though their pretended art or science is quite barren either of proofs or demonstrations.

Signs to the Houses of the Planets.

The planets have allowed themselves each, except Sol and Luna, two signs for their houses; to Saturn, Capricorn and Aquarius; to Jupiter, Sagittarius and Pisces; to Mars, Aries and Scorpio; to Sol, Leo; to Venus, Taurus and Libra; to Mercury, Gemini and Virgo; and to Luna, Cancer.

Angles or Aspects of the Planets.

By their continual mutations among the twelve signs, the planets make several angles or aspects; the most remarkable of which are the five following, viz.—

☌ Conjunction.—Δ Trine.—☐ Quadrate.—⚹ Sextile.—☍ Opposition.

A Conjunction is when two planets are in one and the same degree and minute of a sign; and this, according to Astrological cant, either good or bad, as the planets are either friends or enemies.

A Trine is when two planets are four signs, or 120 degrees distant, as Mars in twelve degrees of Aries, and Sol in twelve degrees of Leo. Here Sol and Mars are said to be in Trine Aspect. And this is an aspect of perfect love and friendship.

A Quadrate Aspect is when two planets are three signs, or 90 degrees distant, as Mars in 10 degrees, and Venus in 10 degrees of Leo. This particular aspect is of imperfect enmity, and Astrologers say, that persons thereby signified, may have jars at sometime, but of such a nature as may be perfectly reconciled.

A Sextile Aspect, is when two planets are two signs, or 60 degrees distant, as Jupiter in 15 degrees of Aries; and Saturn in 15 degrees of Gemini; here Jupiter is in a sextile aspect to Saturn. This is an aspect of friendship.

An Opposition is, when two planets are diametrically opposite, which happens when they are 6 signs, or 180 degrees (which is one half of the circle) asunder; and this is an aspect of perfect hatred.

A Partile Aspect, is when two planets are in a perfect aspect to the very same degree and minute.

Dexter Aspects, are those which are contrary to the succession of signs; as a planet, for instance, in Aries, casts its sextile dexter to Aquarius.

Sinister Aspect, is with the succession of signs, as a planet in Aries, for example, casts its sextile sinister in Gemini.

In addition to these, Astrologers play a number of other diverting tricks; hence we read of the Application—Prohibition—Translation—Refrenation—Combustion—Exception—Retrogradation, &c. of planets.

The Application of Planets.

Application of the planets is performed by Astrologers in three different ways.

1. When a light planet, direct and swift in its motion, applies to a planet more ponderous and slow in motion; as Mercury in 8° of Aries, and Jupiter in 12° of Gemini, and both direct; here Mercury applies to a sextile of Jupiter, by direct application.

2. When they are both retrograde, as Mercury in 20° of Aries, and Jupiter in 15° of Gemini; here Mercury, the lighter planet, applies to the sextile aspect of Jupiter; and this is by retrogradation.

3. When one of the planets is direct, and the other retrograde; for example, if Mercury were retrograde in 18° of Aries, and Jupiter direct in 14° of Gemini; in this case Mercury applies to a sextile of Jupiter, by a retrograde motion.

Prohibition,

is when two planets are applying either by body or aspect; and before they come to their partile aspect, another planet meets with the aspect of the former and prohibits it.

Separation,

is when two planets have been lately in conjunction, or aspect, and are separated from it.

Translation of Light and Virtue,

is when a lighter planet separates from the body or aspect of a heavier one, and immediately applies to another superior planet, and so translates the light and virtue of the first planet to that which it applies to.

Refrenation,

is when a planet is applied to the body or aspect of another; and, before it comes to it, falls retrograde, and so refrains by its retrograde motion.

Combustion.

A planet is said to be combust of Sol, when it is within 8° 30″ of his body, either before or after his conjunction: but Astrologers complain, that a planet is more afflicted when it is applying to the body of Sol, than when it is separating from combustion.

Reception,

is when two planets are in each other’s dignities, and it may either be by house, exultation, triplicity, or term.

Retrogradation,

is when a planet moves backward from 20° to 9°, 8°, 7°, and so out of Taurus into Aries.

Frustration,

is when a swift planet applies to the body or aspect of a superior planet; and before it comes to it, the superior planet meets with the body or aspect of some other planet.

The Dragon’s Head and Tail.

To the seven planets, viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna; Astrologers add, two certain nodes or points, called the Dragon’s head, distinguished by this sign ☋, and the Dragon’s tail by ☊. In those two extremities of the beast, our students in Astrology place such virtues, that they can draw from thence wealth, honour, preferments, &c. enough to flatter the avarice, ambition, vanity, &c. of the fools who follow them. Sensible, however, that the admirers of this art support their principles and defend their doctrines by examples founded on their own experience and on the authority of history; there is no necessity for us here to expose the weakness and futility of their arguments. Tully’s proof will suffice; who, amidst the darkest clouds of superstition and ignorance, and in the very heyday of paganism and idolatry, and whilst religion itself seemed to countenance Astrology, inveighs severely against it in Lib. 2, de devinat. “Quam multa ego Pompeis, quam multa Crasso, quam multa huic ipsi Cæsari a Chaldæis dicta memini, neminem eorum nisi senectute, nisi domi, nisi cum clantate esse moriturum? ut mihi per Mirum videatur quem quam extare, qui etiam nunc credastis, quorum predicta quotidie videat re et eventis refelli[^[9]].”

Climacteric.

Astrologers have used their best artifices, and employed all the rules of their art, to render those years of our age, which they call climacterics, dangerous and formidable.

Climacterick from the Greek, κλιμακτης, which means by a scale or ladder, is a critical year, or a period in a man’s age, wherein, according to Astrological juggling, there is some notable alteration to arise in the body; and a person stands in great danger of death. The first climacterick, say they, is the seventh year of a man’s life; the rest are multiples of the first, as 21, 49, 56, 63, and 84; which two last are called the grand climactericks, and the danger more certain.

Marc Ficinus accounts for the foundation of this opinion: he tells us there is a year assigned for each planet to rule over the body of a man, each in his turn; now Saturn being the most maleficent (malignant) planet of all, every seventh year, which falls to its lot, becomes very dangerous; especially those of 63 and 84, when the person is already advanced in years. According to this doctrine, some hold every seventh year an established climacteric; but others only allow the title to those produced by the multiplication of the climacterical space by an odd number, 3, 5, 7, 9, &c. Others observe every ninth year as a climacterick.

There is a work extant, though rather scarce, by Hevelius, under the title of Annus Climactericus, wherein he describes the loss he sustained by his observatory, &c. being burnt; which, it would appear, happened in his grand climacterick. Suetonius says, that Augustus congratulated his nephew upon his having passed his first grand climacterick, of which he was very apprehensive.

Some pretend that the climacterick years are fatal to political bodies, which perhaps may be granted, when they are proved to be so to natural ones; for it must be obvious that the reason of such danger can by no means be discovered, nor what relation it can have with any of the numbers above-mentioned. Though this opinion has a great deal of antiquity on its side; Aulus Gellius says, it was borrowed from the Chaldeans, who, possibly, might receive it from Pythagoras, whose philosophy turned much on numbers, and who imagined an extraordinary virtue in the number 7.

The principal authors on the subject of climactericks, are Plato, Cicero, Macrobius, Aulus Gellius, among the ancients; Argol, Magirus, and Salmatius, among the moderns. St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, Beda, and Bœtius, all countenance the opinion.

Lucky and Unlucky Days.

Astrologers have also brought under their inspection and controul the days of the year, which they have presumed to divide into lucky and unlucky days; calling even the sacred scriptures, and the common belief of Christians, in former ages, to their assistance for this purpose. They pretend that the 14th day of the first month was a blessed day among the Israelites, authorised therein, as they pretend, by the several following passages out of Exodus, c. xii. v. 18, 40, 41, 42, 51. Leviticus, c. xxiii. v. 5. Numbers, c. xxviii. v. 16. “Four hundred and thirty years being expired of their dwelling in Egypt, even in the self same day departed they thence.”

With regard to evil days and times, Astrologers refer to Amos, c. 5, v. 13, and c. vi. v. 3. Ecclesiasticus, c. ix. v. 12. Psalm, xxxvii. v. 19. Obadiah, c. xii. Jeremiah, c. xlvi. v. 21, and to Job cursing his birth day, chap. iii. v. 1 to 11. In confirmation of which they also quote a calendar, extracted out of several ancient Roman catholic prayer books, written on vellum, before printing was invented, in which were inserted the unfortunate days of each month, as in the following verses;—

January.—Prima dies mensis, et septima truncat ensis.

February.—Quarta subit mortem, prosternit tertia fortem.

March.—Primus mandentem, disrumpit quarta bibentem.

April.—Denus et undenus est mortis vulnere plenus.

May.—Tertius occidit, et Septimus ora relidit.

June.—Denus Pallescit, quindenus fædera nescit.

July.—Ter denus mactat, Julii denus labefactat.

August.—Prima necat fortem, perditque secunda cohortem.

September.—Tertia Septembris, et denus fert mala membris.

October.—Tertius et denus, est sicut mors alienus.

November.—Scorpius est quintus, et tertius est vita tinctus.

December.—Septimus exanguis, virosus denus ut Anguis.

This poetry is a specimen of the rusticity and ignorance at least of the times; and is a convincing proof that Christianity had yet a very strong tincture of the Pagan superstitions attached to it, and which all the purity of the gospel itself, to this very day, has not been able entirely to obliterate.

That the notion of lucky and unlucky days owes its origin to paganism, may be proved from Roman history, where it is mentioned that that very day four years, the civil wars were begun by Pompey the father; Cæsar made an end of them with his son, Cneius Pompeius being then slain; and that the Romans accounted the 13th of February an unlucky day, because on that day they were overthrown by the Gauls at Allia; and the Fabii attacking the city of the Recii, were all slain with the exception of one man: from the calendar of Ovid’s “Fastorum,” Aprilis erat mensis Græcis auspicatissimus; and from Horace, lib. 2, ode 13, cursing the tree that had nearly fallen upon it; ille nefasto posuit die.

The number of remarkable events that happened on some particular days have been the principal means of confirming both Pagans and Christians in their opinion on this subject. For example, Alexander the Great, who was born on the 6th of April, conquered Darius and died on the same day. The Emperor Bassianus Caracalla was born and died on a sixth day of April. Augustus was adopted on the 19th of August, began his Consulate, conquered the Triumviri, and died the same day.

The Christians have observed that the 24th of February was four times fortunate to Charles the Fifth. That Wednesday was a fortunate day to Pope Sixtus V. for on a Wednesday he was born, on that day made a Monk, on the same day made a General of his order, on that day created a Cardinal, on that day elected Pope, and also on that day inaugurated. That Thursday was a fatal day to Henry VIII. King of England, and his posterity, for he died on a Thursday; King Edward VI. on a Thursday; Queen Mary on a Thursday; and Queen Elizabeth on a Thursday. The French have observed that the feast of Pentecost had been lucky to Henry III. King of France, for on that day he was born, on that day elected king of Poland, and on that day he succeeded his brother Charles IX. on the throne of France.

Genethliaci.

(From γενεθλη, origin, generation, nativity.)

These, so called in Astrology, are persons who erect Horoscopes; or pretend what shall befal a man, by means of the stars which presided at his nativity[^[10]]. The ancients called them Chaldæi, and by the general name mathematici: accordingly the several civil and canon laws, which we find made against the mathematicians, only respect the Genethliaci, or Astrologers; who were expelled Rome by a formal decree of the senate, and yet found so much protection from the credulity of the people, that they remained unmolested. Hence an ancient author speaks of them as hominum genus, quod in civitate nostra sempe et vetabitur, et retinebitur.

Genethliacum, (Genethliac poem,)

Is a composition in verse, on the birth of some prince, or other illustrious person; in which the poet promises him great honours, advantages, successes, victories, &c. by a kind of prophecy or prediction. Such, for instance, is the eclogue of Virgil to Pollio, beginning

Sicelides Musæ, paulo majora Canamus.

There are also Genethliac speeches or orations, made to celebrate a person’s birth day.

Barclay’s Refutation of Astrology.

Astrological superstition, it is said, transcended from the Chaldeans, who transmitted it to the Egyptians, from whom the Greeks derived it, whence it passed to the Romans, who, doubtless, were the first to disseminate it over Europe, though some will have it to be of Egyptian origin, and ascribe the invention to Cham; but it is to the Arabs that we owe it. At Rome, the people were so infatuated with it, the Astrologers, or, as they are called, the mathematicians, maintained their ground in spite of all the edicts to expel them out of the city[^[11]].

The Brahmins introduced and practised this art among the Indians, and thereby constituted themselves the arbiters of good and evil hours, which gives them vast authority, and in consequence of this supererogation, they are consulted as Oracles, and take good care they never sell their answers but at a good price.

The same superstition, as we have already shewn, has prevailed in more modern ages and nations. The French historians remark, that, in the time of Queen Catherine of Medicis, Astrology was in so great repute, that the most inconsiderable thing was not undertaken or done without consulting the stars. And in the reigns of king Henry III. and IV. of France, the predictions of Astrologers were the common theme of the court conversation.

This predominant humour in the French court was well rallied by Barclay in his Argenis, lib. ii, on account of an Astrologer who had undertaken to instruct king Henry in the event of a war then threatened by the faction of the Guises.

“You maintain,” says Barclay, “that the circumstances of life and death depend on the place and influence of the celestial bodies, at the time when the child first comes to light; and yet you own, that the heavens revolve with such vast rapidity that the situation of the stars is considerably changed in the least moment of time. What certainty then can be in your art, unless you suppose the midwives constantly careful to observe the clock, that the minute of time may be conveyed to the infant, as we do his patrimony? How often does the mother’s danger prevent this care? And how many are there who are not touched with this superstition? But suppose them watchful to your wish; if the child be long in delivery; if, as is often the case, a hand or the head come first, and be not immediately followed by the rest of the body; which state of the stars is to determine for him; that, when the head made its appearance, or when the whole body was disengaged? I say nothing of the common errors of clocks, and other time-keepers, sufficient to elude all your cares.

“Again, why are we to regard only the stars at his nativity, and not those rather which shone when the fœtus was animated in the womb? and why must those others be excluded, which presided while the body remained tender, and susceptible of the weakest impression, during gestation?

“But setting this aside, and supposing, withal, the face of the heavens accurately known, whence arises this dominion of the stars over our bodies and minds, that they must be the arbiters of our happiness, our manner of life, and death? Were all those who went to battle, and died together, born under the same position of the heavens? and when a ship is to be cast away, shall it admit no passengers but those doomed by the stars to suffer shipwreck? or rather, do not persons born under every planet go into the combat, or aboard the vessel; and thus, notwithstanding the disparity of their birth, perish alike? Again, all who were born under the same configuration of the stars do not live or die in the same manner. All, who were born at the same time with the king, monarchs? Or are all even alive at this day? I saw M. Villeroy here; nay, I saw yourself: were all that came into the world with him as wise and virtuous as he; or all born under your own stars, astrologers like you? If a man meet a robber, you will say he was doomed to perish by a robber’s hand; but did the same stars, which, when the traveller was born, subjected him to the robber’s sword, did they likewise give the robber, who perhaps was born long before, a power and inclination to kill him? For you will allow that it is as much owing to the stars that the one kills, as that the other is killed. And when a man is overwhelmed by the fall of a house, did the walls become faulty, because the stars had doomed him to perish thereby; or rather, was his death not owing to this, that the walls were faulty? The same may be said with regard to honours or employ: because the stars which shone at a man’s nativity, promised him preferment; could those have an influence over other persons not born under them, by whose suffrages he was to rise? or how do the stars at one man’s birth annul, or set aside, the contrary influences of other stars, which shone at the birth of another?

“The truth is, supposing the reality of all the planetary powers; as the sun which visits an infinity of bodies with the same rays, has not the same effect on all, as some things are hardened thereby, as clay; others softened, as wax; some seeds cherished, others destroyed; the tender herbs scorched up, others secured by their coarser juice: so, where so many children are born together, like a field tilled so many different ways, according to the various health, habitude, and temperament of the parents, the same celestial influx must operate differently. If the genius be suitable and towardly, it must predominate therein: if contrary, it will only correct it. So that to foretel the life and manners of a child, you are not only to look into the heavens, but into the parents, into the fortune which attended the pregnant mother, and a thousand other circumstances utterly inaccessible.

“Further, does the power that portends the new-born infant a life, for instance of forty years; or perhaps a violent death at thirty; does that power I say, endure and reside still in the heavens, waiting the destined time, when, descending upon earth, it may produce such an effect? Or is it infused into the infant himself; so that being cherished, and gradually growing up together with him, it bursts forth at the appointed time, and fulfils what the stars had given it in charge? Exist in the heavens it cannot; in that depending immediately on a certain configuration of the stars; when that is changed the effect connected with it must cease, and a new, perhaps a contrary one, takes place. What repository have you for the former power to remain in, till the time comes for its delivery? If you say it inherits or resides in the infant, not to operate on him till he be grown to manhood; the answer is more preposterous than the former; for this, in the instance of a shipwreck, you must suppose the cause why the winds arise, and the ship is leaky, or the pilot, through ignorance of the place, runs on a shoal or a rock. So the farmer is the cause of the war that impoverishes him; or of the favourable season, which brings him a plenteous harvest.

“You boast much of the event of a few predictions, which, considering the multitude of those your art has produced, plainly confess its impertinency. A million of deceptions are industriously hidden and forgot, in favour of some eight or ten things which have succeeded[^[12]]. Out of so many conjectures, it must be preternatural if some do not hit; and it is certain, that, by considering you only as guessers, there is no room to boast you have been successful therein. Do you know what fate awaits France in this war; and yet are not apprehensive what shall befal yourself? Did you not foresee the opposition I was this day to make you? If you can say whether the king will vanquish his enemies, find out first whether he will believe you.

Des Cartes and Agrippa, as they inveigh much against some other sciences, especially Agrippa, so the latter of them does not favour or spare astronomy, but particularly astrology, which he says, is an art altogether fallacious, and that all vanities and superstitions flow out of the bosom of astrology, their whole foundation being upon conjectures, and comparing future occurrences by past events, which they have no pretence for, since they allow that the heavens never have been, nor ever will be, in one exact position since the world commenced, and yet they borrow the effects and influence of the stars from the most remote ages in the world, beyond the memory of things, pretending themselves able to display the hidden natures, qualities, &c. of all sorts of animals, stones, metals, and plants, and to shew how the same does depend on the skies, and flow from the stars. Still Eudoxus, Archelaus, Cassandrus, Halicarnassus, and others, confess it is impossible, that any thing of certainty should be discovered by the art of judicial astrology, in consequence of the innumerable co-operating causes that attend the heavenly influences; and Ptolemy is also of this opinion. In like manner those who have prescribed the rules of judgments, set down their maxims so various and contradictory, that it is impossible for a prognosticator out of so many various and disagreeable opinions, to be able to pronounce any thing certain, unless he is inwardly inspired with some hidden instinct and sense of future things, or unless by some occult and latent communication with the devil. And antiquity witnesseth that Zoroaster, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Cæsar, Crassus, Pompey, Diatharus, Nero, Julian the Apostate, and several others most addicted to astrologers’ predictions, perished unfortunately, though they were promised all things favourable and auspicious. And who can believe that any person happily placed under Mars, being in the ninth, shall be able to cast out devils by his presence only; or he who hath Saturn happily constituted with Leo at his nativity, shall, when he departs this life, immediately return to heaven, yet are the heresies maintained by Petrus Aponensis, Roger Bacon, Guido, Bonatus, Arnoldus de Villanova, philosophers; Aliacensis, cardinal and divine, and many other famous Christian doctors, against which astrologers the most learned Picus Mirandola wrote twelve books, so fully as scarcely one argument is omitted against it, and gave the death blow to astrology! Amongst the ancient Romans it was prohibited, and most of the holy fathers condemned, and utterly banished it out of the territories of Christianity, and in the synod of Martinus it was anathematized. As to the predictions of Thales, who is said to have foretold a scarcity of olives and a dearth of oil, so commonly avouched by astrologers to maintain the glory of their science, Des Cartes answers with an easy reason and probable truth, that Thales being a great natural philosopher, and thereby well acquainted with the virtue of water, (which he maintained was the principle of all things,) he could not be ignorant of the fruits that stood the most in need of moisture, and how much they were beholden to rain for their growth, which then being wanting, he might easily know there would be a scarcity without the help of astrology; yet if they will have it that Thales foreknew it only by the science of this art, why are not others who pretend to be so well skilled in its precepts, as able to have the same opportunities of enriching themselves? As for the foretelling the deaths of emperors and others, it was but conjectures, knowing most of them to be tyrants, and hated, and thereupon would they pretend to promise to others the empires and dignities, which sometimes spurring up ambitious minds, they neglected no attempts to gain the crown, the astrologers thereby occasioning murders, add advancements by secret instructions, rather than by any rules of art, which they publicly pretended to, to gloss their actions and advance the honour of their conjecturing science: by the same manner might Ascletarion have foretold the death of Domitian, and as for himself being torn to pieces by dogs, it was but a mere guess, for astrologers do not extend their predictions beyond death, and therefore he did not suppose his body would be torn to pieces after his death, as it proved, but alive as a punishment for his boldness in foretelling the death of the emperor, which being a common punishment, had it proved so, it had been by probability from custom, but not of the rules of astrology.—See Blome’s Body of Philosophy, pt. iii. chap. 14, in the history of Nature.

ON THE ORIGIN AND IMAGINARY EFFICACY OF
AMULETS & CHARMS,

In the Cure of Diseases, Protection from Evil Spirits, &c.

Amulets are certain substances to which the peculiar virtue of curing, removing, or preventing diseases, was attached by the superstitious and credulous; for which purpose they were usually worn about the neck or other parts of the body. The council of Laodicea prohibited ecclesiastics from wearing amulets and phylacteries, under pain of degradation. St. Chrysostome and Jerome were likewise zealous against the same practice. “Hoc apud nos,” says the latter, “superstitiosæ mulierculæ in parvulis evangeliis, et in crucis ligno, et istiusmodi rebus, quæ habent quidam zelum Dei, sed non juxta scientiam usque hodie factitant.”—Vide Kirch. Oedip. Egypt.

At the present day, although by no means entirely extinct, amulets have fallen into disrepute; the learned Boyle nevertheless considered them as an instance of the ingress of external effluvia into the habit, in order to shew the great porosity of the human body. He moreover adds, that he is persuaded “some of these external medicaments do answer;” for that he was himself subject to a bleeding from the nose; and being obliged to use several remedies to check this discharge, he found the moss of a dead man’s skull, though only applied so as to touch the skin until the moss became warm from being in contact with it, to be the most efficacious remedy. A remarkable instance of this nature was communicated to Zwelfer, by the chief physician to the states of Moravia, who, having prepared some troches, or lozenges of toads, after the manner of Van Helmont, not only found that being worn, as amulets, they preserved him, his domestics, and friends, from the plague, but when applied to the carbuncles or buboes, a consequence of this disease, in others, they found themselves greatly relieved, and many even saved by them. Mr. Boyle also shews how the effluvia, even of cold amulets, may, in the course of time, pervade the pores of the living animal, by supposing an agreement between the pores of the skin and the figure of the corpuscules. Bellini has demonstrated the possibility of this occurrence, in his last proposition de febribus; the same has also been shewn by Dr. Wainwright, Dr. Keil, and others. There were also verbal or lettered charms, which were frequently sung or chaunted, and to which a greater degree of efficacy was ascribed; and a belief in the curative powers of music has even extended to later times. In the last century, Orazio Benevoli composed a mass for the cessation of the plague at Rome. It was performed in St. Peter’s church, of which he was maestro di capella, and the singers, amounting to more than two hundred, were arranged in different circles of the dome; the sixth choir occupying the summit of the cupola.

The origin of amulets may be traced to the most remote ages of mankind. In our researches to discover and fix the period when remedies were first employed for the alleviation of bodily suffering, we are soon lost in conjecture, or involved in fable; we are unable to reach the period in any country, when the inhabitants were destitute of medical resources, and we find among the most uncultivated tribes, that medicine is cherished as a blessing, and practised as an art, as by the inhabitants of New Holland and New Zealand, by those of Lapland and Greenland, of North America and the interior of Africa. The personal feelings of the sufferer, and the anxiety of those about him, must, in the rudest state of society, have incited a spirit of industry and research to procure alleviation, the modification of heat and cold, of moisture and dryness; and the regulation and change of diet and habit, must intuitively have suggested themselves for the relief of pain, and when these resources failed, charms, amulets, and incantations, were the natural expedients of the barbarians, ever more inclined to indulge the delusive hope of superstition than to listen to the voice of sober reason. Traces of amulets may be discovered in very early history. The learned Dr. Warburton is evidently wrong, when he assigns the origin of these magical instruments to the age of the Ptolemies, which was not more than 300 years before Christ; this is at once refuted by the testimony of Galen, who tells us that the Egyptian king, Nechepsus, who lived 630 years before the Christian era, had written, that a green jasper cut into the form of a dragon surrounded with rays, if applied externally, would strengthen the stomach and organs of digestion. We have moreover the authority of the Scriptures in support of this opinion: for what were the ear-rings which Jacob buried under the oak of Sechem, as related in Genesis, but amulets? and we are informed by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, (lib. viii. c. 2, 5,) that Solomon discovered a plant efficacious in the cure of epilepsy, and that he employed the aid of a charm or spell for the purpose of assisting its virtues; the root of the herb was concealed in a ring[^[13]], which was applied to the nostrils of the demoniac; and Josephus himself remarks, that he himself saw a Jewish priest practise the art of Solomon with complete success in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, and the tribunes of the Roman army. Nor were such means confined to dark and barbarous ages; Theophrastus pronounced Pericles to be insane, because he discovered that he wore an amulet about his neck; and in the declining era of the Roman empire, we find that this superstitious custom was so general, that the Emperor Caracalla was induced to make a public edict, ordaining, that no man should wear any superstitious amulets about his person.

In the progress of civilization, various fortuitous incidents[^[14]], and even errors in the choice and preparation of aliments, must gradually have unfolded the remedial powers of many natural substances: these were recorded, and the authentic history of medicine may date its commencement from the period when such records began.

We are told by Herodotus, that the Chaldeans and Babylonians carried their sick to the public roads and markets, that travellers might converse with them, and communicate any remedies which had been successfully used in similar cases; this custom continued during many ages in Assyria: Strabo states that it also prevailed among the ancient Lusitanians, or Portuguese: in this manner, however, the results of experience descended only by oral tradition. It was in the temple of Æsculapius in Greece, that medical information was first recorded; diseases and cures were then registered on durable tablets of marble; the priests and priestesses, who were the guardians of the temple, prepared the remedies and directed their application; and as these persons were ambitious to pass for the descendants of Æsculapius, they assumed the name of the Asclepiades. The writings of Pausanias, Philostratus, and Plutarch, abound with the artifices of those early physicians. Aristophanes describes in a truly comic manner, the craft and pious avarice of these godly men, and mentions the dexterity and promptitude with which they collected and put into bags the offerings on the altar. The patients, during this period, reposed on the skins of sacrificed rams, in order that they might procure celestial visions. As soon as they were believed to be asleep, a priest, clothed in the dress of Æsculapius, imitating his manners, and accompanied by the daughters of the God, that is, by young actresses, thoroughly instructed in their parts, entered and delivered a medical opinion.

Definition of Amulets, &c.

All remedies working as it were sympathetically, and plainly unequal to the effect, may be termed Amulets; whether used at a distance by another person, or immediately about the patient: of these various are related. By the Jews, they were called Kamea; by the Greeks, Phylacteries, as already mentioned; and by the Latins, Amuleta or Ligatura; by the Catholics, Agnus Dei, or consecrated relicts, and by the natives of Guinea, where they are still held in great veneration, Fetishes. Different kinds of materials by these different people, have been venerated and supposed capable of preserving from danger and infection, as well as to remove diseases when actually present.

Plutarch relates of Pericles, an Athenian general, that when a friend came to see him, and inquiring after his health, he reached out his hand and shewed him his Amulet; by which he meant to intimate the truth of his illness, and, at the same time, the confidence he placed in these ordinary remedies.

Amulets still continue among us to the present day, indeed there are few instances of ancient superstition some parcel of which has not been preserved, and not unfrequently they have been adapted by men of otherwise good understanding, who plead in excuse, that they are not nauseous, cost little, and if they can do no good they can do no harm. Lord Bacon, whom no one can suspect of being an ignorant man, says, that if a man wear a bone ring or a planet seal, strongly believing, by that means, that he might obtain his mistress, or that it would preserve him unhurt at sea, or in battle, it would probably make him more active and less timid; as the audacity they might inspire would conquer and bind weaker minds in the execution of a perilous duty.

There are a variety of Amulets used by the common people for the cure of ague; and however this may be accounted for, whether by the imagination or the disease subsiding of its own accord, many have been apparently cured by them, when the Peruvian bark had previously failed. Agues, says Dr. Willis, resisting Amulets have often been applied to the wrist with success. Abracadabra written in a conical form, i. e. in the shape of an Isoceles triangle, beginning with A, then A B, A B R, and so on, and placed under each other, will have a good effect. The herb Lunaria, gathered by moonlight, we are assured by very respectable authorities, has performed some surprising cures. Naaman, we are told (numero deus impare gaudet) was cured by dipping seven times in the river Jordan. An old gentleman, of eighty years of age, who had nearly exhausted his substance upon physicians, was cured of a strangury, by a new glass bottle that had never been wet inside, only by making water in it, and burying it in the earth. There were also certain formalities performed at the pool of Bethseda for the cure of diseases. Dr. Chamberlayne’s Anodyne necklace for a long time was the sina qua non of mothers and nurses, until its virtue was lost by its reverence being destroyed; and those which have succeeded it have nearly run their race. The Grey Liverwort was at one time thought not only to have cured hydrophobia, but, by having it about the person, to have prevented mad dogs from biting them. Calvert paid devotions to St. Hubert for the recovery of his son, who was cured by this means. The son also performed the necessary rites at the shrine, and was cured not only of the hydrophobia, “but of the worser phrensy with which his father had instilled him.” Cramp rings were also used, and eel skins tied round the limbs, to prevent this spasmodic affection; and also by laying the sticks across on the floor in going to bed, have also performed cures this way. Numerous are the charms, amulets, and incantations, used even in the present day for the removal of warts. We are told by Lord Verulam (vol. iii. p. 234,) that when he was at Paris he had above an hundred warts on his hands; and that the English Ambassador’s lady, then at court, and a woman far above all superstition, removed them all only by rubbing them with the fat side of the rind of a piece of bacon, which they afterwards nailed to a post, with the fat side towards the south. In five weeks, says my Lord, they were all removed.

As Lord Verulam is allowed to have been as great a genius as this country ever produced, it may not be irrelevant to the present subject, to give, in his own words, what he has observed relative to the power of Amulets. After deep metaphysical observations in nature, and arguing in mitigation of sorcery, witchcraft, and divination, effects that far outstrip the belief in Amulets, he observes “we should not reject all of this kind, because it is not known how far those contributing to superstition depend on natural causes. Charms have not their power from contracts with evil spirits, but proceed wholly from strengthening the imagination; in the same manner that images and their influence, have prevailed in religion; being called from a different way of use and application, sigils, incantations, and spells.

Effect of the Imagination on the Mind, &c.

Imagination, indubitably, has a powerful effect on the mind, and in all these miraculous cures is by far the strongest ingredient. Dr. Strother says, the influence of the mind and passions works upon the body in sensible operations like a medicine, and is of far the greater force upon the juices than exercise. The countenance, he observes, betrays a good or wicked intention; and that good or wicked intention will produce in different persons a strength to encounter, or a weakness to yield to the preponderating side. “Our looks discover our passions; there being mystically in our faces, says Dr. Brown, certain characters, which carry in them the motto of our souls, and therefore probably work secret effects in other parts,” or, as Garth, in his “Dispensatory,” so beautifully illustrates the idea:

“Thus paler looks impetuous rage proclaim,

And chilly virgins redden into flame:

See envy oft transformed in wan disguise,

And mirth sits gay and smiling in the eyes:

Oft our complexions do the soul declare,

And tell what passions in the features are.

Hence ’tis we look, the wond’rous cause to find,

How body acts upon impassive mind.”

Addison, on the power and pleasure of the imagination (Spect. vol. vi.) concludes, from the pleasure and pain it administers here below, that God, who knows all the ways of afflicting us, may so transport us hereafter with such beautiful and glorious visions, or torment us with such hideous and ghastly spectres, as might even of themselves suffice to make up the entire of Heaven or Hell of any future being.

St. Vitus’ dance was cured by visiting the tomb of the saint, near Ulm, every May. Indeed, there is some reason in this assertion; for exercise and change of scene and air will cure many obstinate diseases. The bite of the Tarantula is cured by music; and what is more wonderful still, persons bitten by this noxious animal are only to be cured by certain tunes; thus, for instance, one might be cured with “Nancy Dawson,” while another could only reap a similar benefit from “Moll in the wood,” or “Off she goes.”

The learned Dr. Willis, whom we have already mentioned, in his treatise on Nervous diseases, does not hesitate to recommend Amulets in epileptic disorders. “Take,” says he, “some fresh Pæony roots, cut them into square bits, and hang them round the neck, changing them as often as they dry. In all probability the hint from this circumstance was taken for the Anodyne necklaces, which was in such strong requisition some time ago, and which produced so much benefit to the proprietors; as the doctor, a little further on, prescribes the same root for the looseness, fevers, and convulsions of children during the time of dentition, mixed, to make it appear more miraculous, with some elk’s hoof.

Turner, whose ideas on hydrophobia are so absurd, where he asserts, that the symptoms may not appear for forty years after the bite; and who asserts, “that the slaver or breath of such a dog is infectious; and that men bit, will bite like dogs again, and die mad; although he laughs at the Anodyne necklace, argues much in the same manner. It is not so very strange that the effluvia from external medicines entering our bodies, should effect such considerable changes, when we see the efficient cause of apoplexy, epilepsy, hysterics, plague, and a number of other disorders, consists, as it were in imperceptible vapours.

Lapis Ætites (blood stone) hung about the arm, by some similar secret means is said to prevent abortion, and to facilitate delivery, when worn round the thigh. Dr. Sydenham, in the iliac passion, orders a live kitten to be laid constantly on the abdomen; others have used pigeons split alive, and applied to the soles of the feet with success, in pestilential fevers and convulsions. The court of king David thought that relief might be obtained by external agents; otherwise they would not have advised him to seek a young virgin; doubtless thereby imagining that the virgin of youth would impart a portion of its warmth and strength to the decay of age. “Take the heart and liver of the fish and make a smoke, and the devil shall smell it and flee away.” (Tobit, c. vi.)

During the plague of London, arsenic was worn as an amulet against infection. During this melancholy period, Bradley says, that Bucklersbury was not visited with this scourge, which was attributed to the number of druggists and apothecaries living there.

During the plague at Marseilles, which Belort attributed to the larvæ of worms infecting the saliva, food, and chyle; and which, he says, were hatched by the stomach, took their passage into the blood, at a certain size, hindering the circulation, affecting the juices and solid parts, advised amulets of mercury to be worn in bags suspended at the chest and nostrils, either as a safeguard or as a means of cure; by which method, through the admissiveness of the pores, effluvia specially destructive of all venemous insects, were received into the blood. “An illustrious prince,” continues Belort, “by wearing such an amulet, escaped the small-pox.”

An Italian physician (Clognini) ordered two or three drachms of crude mercury to be worn as a defensive against the jaundice; and also as a preservative against the noxious vapours of inclement seasons: “it breaks,” he observes, “and conquers the different figured seeds of pestilential distempers floating in the air; or else, mixing with the air, kills them where hatched.”

Other philosophers have ascribed the power of mercury in these cases, to an elective faculty given out by the warmth of the body; which attracts the infectious particles outwards. For, say they, all bodies are continually emitting effluvia more or less around them, and some whether they be external or internal. The Bath waters change the colour of silver in the pockets of those who use them; mercury the same; cantharides applied externally (or taken inwardly) affects the urinary organ; and camphor, in the same manner, is said to be an antiphrodesiac. Quincey informs us, that by only walking in a newly-painted room, a whole company had the smell of turpentine in their urine. Yawning and laughing are infectious; so is fear and shame. The sight of sour things, or even the idea of them, will set the teeth on edge. Small-pox, itch, and other diseases, are infectious; if so, mercurial amulets bid fair to destroy the germ of some complaints when used only as an external application, either by manual attrition or worn as an amulet, or inhaled by the nose. One word for all; amulets, medicated or not, are precarious and uncertain; and, now a-day, are seldom resorted to, much less confided in.

Baglivi refines on the doctrine of effluvia, by ascribing his cures of the bite of the tarantula to the peculiar undulation any instrument or tune makes by its strokes in the air; which, vibrating upon the external parts of the patient, is communicated to the whole nervous system, and produces that happy alteration in the solids and fluids which so effectually contributes to the cure. The contraction of the solids, he says, impresses new mathematical motions and directions to the fluids; in one or both of which, is seated all distempers, and without any other help than a continuance of faith, will alter their quality, a philosophy as wonderful and intricate as the nature of the poison it is intended to expel; but which, however, supplies this observation, that, if the particles of sound can do so much, the effluvia of amulets may do more.

The Moors of Barbary, and generally throughout the Mahomedan dominions, the people are remarkably attached to charms, to which and nature they leave the cure of almost every distemper; and this is the more strongly impressed on them from the belief in predestination; which, according to this sect, stipulates the evils a man is to suffer, as well as the length of time it is ordained he should live upon the land of his forefathers: consequently, they conceive that the interference of secondary means would avail them nothing, an opinion said to have been entertained by King William, but by no means calculated for nations, liberty, and commerce; upon the principle, that when the one was entrenched upon, men would probably be more sudden in their revenge and dislike physic and its occupation, and when actuated with religious enthusiasm, nothing could stand them in any service.

“A long and intense passion on one object,” observes an old navy surgeon[^[15]], “whether of pride, love, anger, fear, or envy, we see have brought on some universal tremors; on others, convulsions, madness, melancholy, consumption, hecticks, or such a chronical disorder, as has wasted their flesh or their strength, as certainly as the taking in of any poisonous drugs would have done. Any thing frightful, sudden, and surprising, upon soft, timorous natures, not only shews itself in the countenance, but produces sometimes very troublesome consequences; for instance, a parliamentary fright will make even grown men sh-t themselves, scare them out of their wits, turn the hair grey. Surprise removes the hooping-cough; looking from precipices, or seeing wheels turn swiftly, gives giddiness, &c. Shall then these little accidents or the passions, (from caprice or humour perhaps,) produce those effects, and not be able to do any thing by amulets? No, as the spirits in many cases resort in plenty, we find where the fancy determines, giving joy and gladness to the heart, strength and fleetness to the limbs, lust a flagrancy to the eyes, palpitation, and priapism; so amulets, under strong imagination, is carried with more force to a distempered part; and, under these circumstances, its natural powers exert better to a discussion.

“The cures compassed in this manner are not more admirable than many of the distempers themselves. Who can apprehend by what impenetrable method the bite of a mad dog[^[16]] or tarantula should produce their symptoms? The touch of a torpedo, numbness? or a woman impress the marks of her longings and her frights on her fœtus? If they are allowed to do these, doubtless they may the other; and not by miracles, which Spinoza denies the possibility of, but by natural and regular causes, though inscrutable to us.

“The best way, therefore, in using amulets, must be in squaring them to the imagination of patients: let the newness and the surprise exceed the invention, and keep up the humour by a long roll of cures and vouchers: by these and such means many distempers, especially of women, that are ill all over, or know not what they ail, have been cured, I am apt to think, more by a fancy to the physician than his prescription; which hangs on the file like an amulet. Quacks again, according to their boldness and way of addressing (velvet and infallibility particularly) command success by striking the fancies of an audience. If a few, more sensible than the rest, see the doctor’s miscarriages, and are not easily gulled at first sight, yet when they see a man is never ashamed, in time jump in to his assistance.”

Our inability upon all occasions to appreciate the efforts of nature in the cure of disease, must always render our notions, with respect to the powers of art, liable to numerous errors and multiplied deceptions. Nothing is more natural, and at the same time more erroneous, than to attribute the cure of a disease to the last medicine that had been employed; the advocates of amulets and charms[^[17]] have ever been thus enabled to appeal to the testimony of what they are pleased to call experience, in justification of their superstitions; and cases which in truth ought to have been considered lucky escapes, have been triumphantly puffed off as skilful cures; and thus have medicines and practitioners alike acquired unmerited praise or unjust censure.