The Sympathetic and Occult Virtues of Plants, Animals, Metals, &c.—In these few remarks on the sympathetic influences I have ventured to turn the light of a great central and positive science upon the mysteries, which all men, who dare think, are anxious to penetrate—for illustration:
If we bury a crab for three months in horse-dung, he will turn to a scorpion. But if you thus bury a scorpion or lizard, he will die instantly. Some, by the use of eels and brandy, cure a person of drunkenness. But how? Why, simply by the power of sympathy. But once for all, let me here say, that this knowledge I cheerfully impart for the good of mankind. And every wise person will see in a moment that great care must be exerted where knowledge might be used for a bad purpose. But to proceed. A black cat drops dead at the sight of a Bengal tiger; a cat of any other color is not affected in the least. A snake will kill a bird by looking at it for the space of fifteen minutes; but a snake can produce no effect on men or animals. Why? Because the proper sympathies are not brought into action. A rat will die by being compelled to look at or be near an English ferret. If an ox is killed, and let lie in a tight house with plenty of glass windows to admit the light, he will in a short time be converted into millions of bees. If he is killed and let lie upon an open field, he will soon be converted into millions of maggots.
Behold the beautiful doctrine of universal affinity or sympathy! If a lady, with a fresh breast of milk, shall milk a portion of it into a bag of corks, very soon thereafter her milk will all dry away. Any person who will wear an eelskin around his body will never have a cramp. But there is the gut of the ourang-outang, if worn around the body, will cause a cramp as long as the person shall wear it. Persons might be killed in this way, and they would be ignorant of the true cause. If one have a severe colic, and hold a live duck to the belly, the colic will immediately remove, but the duck dies. If a chicken, or any other living thing, is thus held to the belly, it produces no visible effect, either one way or the other.
The head of a hare being burned, will bring serpents together; but a fume of peacock feathers being made, will disperse the serpents. If a piece of meat is thrown to the dogs, they will seize it with great avidity; but if a jasper stone be thrown out with the meat, the dogs will instantly run away, with very great fright. Fenelon says that if we wear the clothing of the dead, that it does wonderfully shorten our lives.
The Cure of Diseases by Magical, Celestial, and Sympathetic Means.—Among a variety of examples, the loadstone is one most remarkable proof of the sympathy we speak of. However to hasten to the point. Among stones, those which resemble the rays of the sun by their golden sparkling prevent the falling-sickness and poisons, if worn on the finger. The stone which is called oculis folis, being in figure like the apple of the eye, from which shines forth a ray, comforts the brain and strengthens sight. The carbuncle, which shines by night, has a virtue against all airy and vaporous poisons. The chrysolite stone, of a light green color, when held against the sun, there shines in it a ray like a star of gold; this is singularly good for the lungs, and cures asthmatical complaints; and if it be bored through, and the hollow filled with the mane of an ass, and bound to the left arm, it chases away all foolish and idle imaginations and melancholy fears, and drives away folly. The stone called iris, which is like crystal in color, being found with six corners, when held in the shade, and the sun suffered to shine through it, represents a natural rainbow in the air. The stone heliotropium, green, like a jasper or emerald, beset with red specks, makes the wearer constant, renowned, and famous, and conduces to long life; there is likewise another wonderful property in this stone, and that is, that it so dazzles the eyes of men that it causes the bearer to be invisible; but there must be applied to it the herb bearing the same name, viz., heliotropium, or the sunflower; and these kind of virtues Albertus Magnus and William of Paris mention in their writings. The jacinth also possesses virtue from the sun against poisons, pestilences, and pestiferous vapors; likewise it renders the bearer pleasant and acceptable; conduces also to gain money; being simply held in the mouth, it wonderfully cheers the heart and strengthens the mind. Then there is the pyrophi, of a red mixture, which Albertus Magnus reports that Æsculapius makes mention of in one of his epistles to Octavious Cæsar, saying: “There is a certain poison, so intensely cold, which preserves the heart of man” being taken out from burning; so that if it be put into the fire for any time, it is turned into a stone, which stone is called hyrophilus. It possesses a wonderful virtue against poison, and it infallibly renders the wearer thereof renowned and dreadful to his enemies. Apollonius is reported to have found a stone (which will attract other stones, as the loadstone does iron) most powerful against all poisons; it is spotted like the panther, and therefor some naturalists have given this stone the name of pantherur; Aaron calls it evanthum; and some, on accunt of its variety, call it pantochras. It is by such and similar methods the magicians, prophets, and seers of the Middle Ages and biblical times, and many of the magi or wise men of ancient ages, succeeded in curing numbers of diseases, without any medicine whatever; these men were the true magicians, or ancient physicians, and of the race of Hindoos, Israelites, Jews, Arabians, Chinese, Assyrians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and many of our own times. They were usually named Signa Magna, to distinguish them from the jugglers and sleight-of-hand tricksters, who exhibited themselves for money, and whose performances of Legerdemain consisted of a blustering volubility of words, thus diverting the attention of their audiences while they, or their accomplices, of which they traveled with one or more, made the necessary changes in their paraphernalia to deceive the sense of vision, and apparently reverse the order of things. No uncommon part of their programme was to obtain the loan of large sums of money from the wealthy and moneyed classes, thus getting a knowledge of the fact of such a sum being in their possession, and afterward by fraud, violence, or digital dexterity, securing it to themselves. The modern conjurer is, however, usually a gentleman of the highest principle, and always prefaces his exhibitions by the statement, that by dexterity he proposes to deceive. Most of the apparatus employed is double, or contains two partitions, which by simple turning, the contents are apparently changed.
Allumina Changed to Silver—Late Process.—Put it into a crucible, first breaking it into small fragments, bring it to a white heat for five or six hours, until the metal will stand firm on a red-hot plate of iron; then sprinkle it with a mixture of vinegar and sal ammoniac (parts equal), when it is cold, put it again into the furnace, and keep at a white heat for three days and three nights, the last three or four hours adding a little pure lead to make it ductile; you now break it once more into small fragments and replace it in the furnace, adding to it little pills made of lime, saltpetre, and brimstone, and by this means our mixture becomes incorporated into a pretty good silver.
To Cause Letters, Papers, &c., to Disappear.—Valivoni, an old magician, of the time of Agrippa, says: “If you take uphorbium, bdellium, gum armoniac, the roots of both hellebores, the loadstone, and a little sulphur, and incorporate them altogether with the blood of a hart, the blood of an elephant, and the blood of a black cat, and sprinkle it near the papers to be removed, that it unseals them and brings them to your presence, or just where you desire.”