From the second part of Goethe’s Faust the reader may remember Doctor Wagner, Faust’s former famulus, busily engaged at the alchemic furnace in preparing a homunculus, an artificial man. The same “Magia Divina” from which we have quoted the preceding directions, allows us also to trace the secret of the learned Wagner: the art of producing “homunculos philosophicos.” In a retort of the most beautiful crystal glass is poured one measure of the purest May-dew, collected when the moon is crescent, and two measures of blood from a youth, or three measures from a girl. Both the boy and the girl must be hale and, “if possible,” chaste. When this mixture has fomented during a month, and been transformed into a reddish clay, the menstruum which is formed on the top is drawn off by means of tubes hermetically attached to the retort, gathered into a clean glass vessel, mixed with one drachm animal tincture, and the mixture is again poured into the retort where it is kept during a month in gentle heat. A sort of bladder will have then formed which is soon gradually covered with an organic net of little veins and nerves. Sprinkled every fourth week with the menstruum above quoted, the bladder grows during four months. When now you notice a peeping sound and movements of vitality in the glass, look into it and you will discover to your joy and amazement a most beautiful pair, a boy and a girl, which you can contemplate with heart-felt admiration for this lovely work of nature, though their height is but six inches. They move and walk about in the glass, where in the midst there is a tree growing with all kinds of pleasant fruits. If now you pour into the retort every month, two grains of animal tincture, you can keep them alive six whole years. When one year old they can inform you of many secrets of nature. They are benevolent in their disposition, and obey you in every thing. But at the end of the sixth year you will find that this beautiful pair who have eaten hitherto of all kinds of fruit, except those growing on the tree which sprang up in the midst of the retort, now begin to eat also the fruit of that. Then a vapor is found in the retort, which grows denser, assumes a blood-red color and emits flashes. The two homunculi are terrified, and try to hide themselves. Finally every thing around them is parched, they die, and the whole is changed into a fuming mass. If the glass is not very large and strong it explodes, causing great damage.

[33] Every planet had among the twelve signs of the Zodiac its own house, and it was especially propitious when in any of those abodes. The following table shows the order:—

SaturndwellsinCapricornus.
Jupiter""Pisces and Sagittarius.
Mars""Aries and Scorpio.
The Sun""Leo.
Venus""Taurus and Ursa Major.
Mercurius""Virgo and Gemini.
The Moon""Cancer.

Each of the twelve signs (thirty degrees on the arc of the heavens) was divided into three “faces” (ten degrees). The position of the planet was most auspicious when in the first face of the house; if in the third its favorable influence was doubtful.

As the reader will see from the first table given above, the signs of the Zodiac were supposed to sustain a relation to the elements and to temperaments. Aries, Leo and Sagittarius were warm, dry, fiery and choleric. Mars entering these signs—excepting that of Aries which was his own house, in which he was auspicious—must therefore bode draught, conflagration and pestilence. Taurus, Virgo and Capricornus, were cold, dry, earthy, melancholic. Saturn in the second sign of Taurus might consequently betoken a severe winter. The signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces were cold, damp, watery and sanguine. The dominion of the Zodiacal constellations over the human body was divided as follows: Aries presided over the head and face, Taurus over the neck and throat, Gemini over the shoulders, arms and hands, Cancer over the breast, ribs, lungs and spleen, Leo over the upper part of the stomach, back and side, Virgo over the lower part of the stomach and intestines, Scorpio over the generative organs, Sagittarius over the anus, Capricornus over the knees, Aquarius over the thighs, Pisces over the feet. The planets exercised the same influence as their houses, and all elementary things subordinated to a planet were considered to be, during auspicious aspects, excellent remedies for affections in the limbs presided over by that planet. The series of analogies, of which we have given an example above, were therefore inexhaustible mines even for the physicians of the Middle Ages. Since, for instance, Capricornus which presided over the knees, is the house of Saturn, and all crawling animals are connected with this planet, the fat of snakes is an effective remedy against gout in the knees, especially on Saturday, the day of Saturn.

[34] The days bear yet, in many languages, the names of the planets which were assigned to them in gray antiquity by Astrology.

Sunday, dies Solis, is the day of the Sun.
Monday, dies Lunæ, is the day of the Moon.
Tuesday, dies Martis, is the day of Mars, i. e., Tiw.
Wednesday, dies Mercurii, is the day of Mercury.
Thursday, dies Jovis, is the day of Jupiter, i. e., Thor.
Friday, dies Veneris, is the day of Venus, i. e., Freja.
Saturday, dies Saturni, is the day of Saturn.

The original names seem to have been introduced by the Romans during the later period of the republic. That the idea is derived from Egypt is shown by a passage in Dion Cassius [l. XLIII., c. 26; compare E. Roth, “Geschichte userer abendländischer Philosophie,” I., pag. 211]. The question when and how they were introduced by our forefathers will perhaps remain forever a matter only of conjecture. It has caused astonishment that the order in which the days were named after the planets, though the same with all nations, is not the order in which they were supposed to be placed in the universe (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon). This riddle is solved by the passage in Dion Cassius referred to, in a manner such that the astrological origin of this nomenclature must be undoubted. He relates, namely, that the Egyptians devoted every one of the twenty-four hours to a certain planet. The first hour of the first week-day (Saturday) was given to the uppermost planet, Saturn, the second to Jupiter, the third to Mars and so on, according to the order of the planets. The 24th hour of Saturday consequently fell also to Mars, and the first hour of the succeeding day to the Sun, by which that day was therefore named Sunday. The 24th hour of Sunday falls according to the same calculation to Mercury, and the first hour of Monday to the Moon; and so on. The astrological distribution of the hours between the planets according to their successive order in the heavens thus explains the apparent disorder which occurs in the week. In the magical works by Cornelius Agrippa, Peter de Albano and others, of which the author has availed himself, tables concerning the distribution of the hours are found. These writers have collected from all quarters, and not least from Ptolemy and the Alexandrians, materials for their magical apparatus.

[35] The prescriptions for these perfumes are found in Cornelius Agrippa’s “Occulta Philosophia,” l. I., c. 44.

[36] They are found in Agrippa’s “Occulta Philosophia,” l. III. cc. 25, 26, 27, 28.