[51]. By Mumia is here understood, that which was used by some ancient physicians for some kind of implanted spirit, found chiefly in carcases, when the infused spirit is fled; or kind of sympathetic influence, communicated from one body to another, by which magnetic cures, &c. were said to be performed. Now, however, deservedly exploded.
[52]. For a curious specimen of this odium theologicum, see the “Censure” of the Sorbonne on Marmontel’s Belisarius.
[53]. This king is invoked in the first part of Shakspeare’s play of Henry the Sixth, after the following manner:—
“You speedy helpers that are substitutes
Under the lordly monarch of the North—
Appear!”
[54]. This description is taken from an ancient Latin poem, describing the lamentable vision of a devoted hermit, and supposed to have been written by St. Bernard, in the year 1238; a translation of which was printed for private distribution by William Yates, Esq. of Manchester.
[55]. Sir Thomas Brown, who thinks that this view may be confirmed by expositions of Holy Scripture, remarks, that, “whereas it is said, thou shalt not offer unto devils; (the original word is seghuirim), that is, rough and hairy goats, because in that shape the devil must have often appeared, as is expounded by the Rabin; as Tremellius hath also explained; and as the word Ascemah, the god of Emath, is by some conceived.”
[56]. See an interesting dissertation on this subject, in Douce’s Illustrations of Shakspeare, Vol. i. p. 382. It is also noticed in the Border Minstrelsy, Vol. ii. p. 197.
[57]. Dio of Syracuse was visited by one of the furies in person, whose appearance the soothsayers regarded as indicative of the death which occurred of his son, as well as his own dissolution.