III. Pliny's Account of Magic.

Oriental Pliny supplies some account of the origin and spread of
magic. magic ^ but a rather confused and possibly unreliable one, as
he mentions two Zoroasters separated by an interval of five or six thousand years, and two Osthaneses, one of whom accompanied Xerxes, and the other Alexander, in their re- spective expeditions. He says, indeed, that it is not clear whether one or two Zoroasters existed. In any case magic has flourished greatly the world over for many centuries, and was founded in Persia by Zoroaster. Some other ma- gicians of Media, Babylonia, and Assyria are mere names to Pliny; later he mentions others like Apollobeches and Dar- danus. Although he thus derives magic from the orient, he appears to make no distinction, as we shall find other writers doing, between the Magi of Persia and ordinary magicians, nor does he employ the word magic in two senses. He makes it evident, however, that there have been other men who have regarded magic more favorably than he does.
Its spread Pliny next traces the spread of magic among the Greeks.
Greeks. -^^ marvels at the lack of it in the Iliad and the abundance of it in the Odyssey. He is uncertain whether to class Or- pheus as a magician, and mentions Thessaly as famous for its witches at least as early as the time of Menander who named one of his comedies after them. But he regards the Osthanes who accompanied Xerxes as the prime introducer of magic to the Greek-speaking world, which straightway went mad over it. In order to learn more of it, the philos- ophers Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato went into distant exile and on their return disseminated their lore. Pliny regards the works of Democritus as the greatest single factor in that dissemination of the doctrines of magic which occurred at about the same time that medicine was being developed by the works of Hippocrates. Some
* In the opening chapters of Book XXX, unless otherwise indicated by- specific citation.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 59
regarded the books on magic ascribed to Democritus as spurious, but Pliny insists that they are genuine.^
Outside of the Greek-speaking world, whence of course Its spread magic spread to Rome, Pliny mentions Jewish magic, repre- Qraeco- sented by such names as Moses, Tannes, and Lotapes. But Roman
-1 • • 1 TT 1 world.
he holds that magic did not originate among the Hebrews until long after Zoroaster. He also speaks of the magic of Cyprus; of the Druids, who were the magicians, diviners, and medicine men of Gaul until the emperor Tiberius sup- pressed them ; and of distant Britain. ^ Thus discordant na- tions and even those ignorant of one another's existence agree the world over in their devotion to magic. From what Pliny tells us elsewhere of the Scythians we can see that the nomads of the Russian steppes and Turkestan were devoted to magic too.
It has been shown that Pliny regarded magic as a mass Failure of doctrines formulated by a single founder and not as a stand its' gradual social evolution, just as the Greeks and Romans as- true origin. cribed their laws and customs to some single legislator. He admits in a way, however, the great antiquity claimed by magic for itself, although he questions how the bulky dicta of Zoroaster and Dardanus could have been handed down by memory during so long a period. This remark again shows how little he thinks of magic as a set of social customs and attitudes perpetuated through constant and universal prac- tice from generation to generation. Yet what he says of its v/idespread prevalence among unconnected peoples goes to prove this.
Pliny has a clearer comprehension of the extensive scope Magic and of magic and of its essential characteristics, at least as it was divination, in his day. "No one should wonder," he says, "that its au- thority has been very great, since alone of the arts it has
*Aulus Gellius, X, 12, and wrote the works of alchemy at-
Columella, VII, 5, dispute this tributed to Democritus as well as
(Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie the books of medical and magical
grecque, p. 519). Berthelot {Ori- recipes which are quoted in the
gines de I'alchimie, p. 145) believes Geoponica and the Natural His-
in a Democritan school at the be- tory.
ginning of the Christian era which ^ XVI, 95.
6o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic and religion.
Magic and medicine.
Magic and philos- ophy.
embraced and united with itself the three other subjects which make the greatest appeal to the human mind," namely, medicine, religion, and the arts of divination, especially as- trology. That his phrase artes mathematicas has reference to astrology is shown by his immediately continuing, "since there is no one who is not eager to learn the future about himself and who does not think that this is most truly re- vealed by the sky." But magic further "promises to reveal the future by water and spheres and air and stars and lamps and basins and the blades of axes and by many other methods, besides conferences with shades from the infernal regions." There can therefore be no doubt that Pliny re- gards the various arts of divination as parts of magic.
While we have heard Pliny assert in general the close connection between magic and religion, the character of the Natural History, which deals with natural rather than re- ligious matters, does not lead him to enter into much further detail upon this point. His occasional mention of religious usages in his own day, however, supports our information from other sources that the original Roman religion was very largely composed of magic forces, rules, and cere- monial.
Nearly half the books of the Natural History deal in whole or in part with remedies for diseases, and it is there- fore of the relations between magic and natural science, and more particularly between magic and medicine, that Pliny gives us the most detailed information. Indeed, he asserts that "no one doubts" that magic "originally sprang from medicine and crept in under the show of promoting health as a loftier and more sacred medicine." Magic and medi- cine have developed together, and the latter is now in immi- nent danger of being overwhelmed by the follies of magic, which have made men doubt whether plants possess any medicinal properties.
In the opinion of many, however, magic is sound and beneficial learning. In antiquity, and for that matter at almost all times, the height of literary fame and glory has
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 6i "
been sought from that science.^ Eudoxus would have it the most noted and useful of all schools of philosophy. Em- pedocles and Plato studied it; Pythagoras and Democritus perpetuated it in their writings.
But Pliny himself feels that the assertions of the books Falseness of magic are fantastic, exaggerated, and untrue. He re- ° "lag^c. peatedly brands the magi or magicians as fools or impostors, and their statements as absurd and impudent tissues of lies.^ Vanitas, or "nonsense," is his stock-word for their beliefs.* Some of their writings must, in his opinion, have been dic- tated by a feeling of contempt and derision for humanity.* Nero proved the falseness of the art, for although he studied magic eagerly and with his unlimited wealth and power had every opportunity to become a skilful practitioner, he was unable to work any marvels and abandoned the attempt.^ Pliny therefore comes to the conclusion that magic is "in- valid and empty, yet has some shadows of truth, which however are due more to poisons than to magic." ^
The last remark brings us to charges of evil practices Crimes made against the magicians. Besides poisons, they special- ° "lagic. ize in love-potions and drugs to produce abortions ; ''' and some of their operations are inhuman or obscene and abom- inable. They attempt baleful sorcery or the transfer of dis- ease from one person to another.^ Osthanes and even Dem- ocritus propound such remedies as drinking human blood or utilizing in magic compounds and ceremonies parts of the corpses of men who have been violently slain. ^ Pliny thinks that humanity owes a great debt to the Roman government
' XXX, 2. ". . . quamquam ani- XXIX, 26 ; XXX, 7 ; XXXVII,
madverto summam Htterarum 14.
claritatem gloriamque ex ea sci- ■* XXXVII, 40.
entia antiquitus et paene semper » XXX 5-6.
petitam." «XXx', 6.' "Proinde ita per-
Examples are : XXV, 59, Sed ^^^^^^ ^j^ intestabilem, inritam.
magi utique circa banc insaniunt ; j^^^^^^ ^^^^^ habentem tamen
XXIX, 20 magorum mendacia ; q^asdam veritatis umbras, sed in
XXXVII, 60, magorum inpuden- j^j^ veneficas artis pollere, non
tiae vel manifestissimum . . . ex- niagicas "
emplum"; XXXVII, 72), "dira 'XXV 7
mendacia magorum." , :L ' ;"
'See XXII, 9; XXVI, 9; * XXVIII, 23.
XXVII, 6s; XXVIII, 2.^ and 27; " XXVIII, 2.
62
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Pliny's censure of magic is mainly in- tellectual.
Vagueness of Pliny's scepticism.
for abolishing those monstrous rites of human sacrifice, "in which to slay a man was thought most pious ; nay more, to eat men was thought most wholesome." ^
Pliny nevertheless lays less stress upon the moral argu- ment against magic as criminal or indecent than he does upon the intellectual objection to it as untrue and unscientific. Indeed, so far as decency is concerned, his own medicine will be seen to be far from prudish, while he elsewhere gives in- stances of magicians guarding against defilement.^ More- over, among the methods employed and the results sought by magic which he frequently mentions there are compara- tively few that are morally objectionable, although they seem without exception false. But many of their recipes aim at the cure of disease and other worthy, or at least admissible, objects. Possibly Pliny has somewhat censored their lore and tried to exclude all criminal secrets, but his censure seems more intellectual than moral. For instance, he fills a long chapter with extracts from a treatise on the virtues of the chameleon and its parts by Democritus, whom he regards as a leading purveyor of magic lore.^ In opening the chap- ter Pliny hails "with great pleasure" the opportunity to ex- pose "the lies of Greek vanity," but at its close he expresses a wish that Democritus himself had been touched with the branch of a palm which he said prevents immoderate loquac- ity. Pliny then adds more charitably, "It is evident that this man, who in other respects was a wise and most useful member of society, has erred from too great zeal in serving humanity."
Pliny himself fails to maintain a consistently sceptical at- titude towards magic. His exact attitude is often hard to de- termine. Often it is difficult to say whether he is speaking in sober earnest or in a tone of light and easy pleasantry and sarcasm, as in the passage just cited concerning Democ- ritus. Another puzzling point is his frequent excuse that he will list certain assertions of the magicians in order to
*XXX, 4. 'XXVIII, 19; XXX, 6. 'XXVIII, 29.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 63
expose or confute them. But really he usually simply sets them forth, apparently expecting that their inherent and patent absurdity will prove a sufficient refutation of them. On the rare occasions when he undertakes to indicate in what the absurdity consists his reasoning is scarcely scientific or convincing. Thus he affirms that "it is a peculiar proof of the vanity of the magicians that of all animals they most admire moles who are condemned by nature in so many ways, to perpetual blindness and to dig in the darkness as if they were buried." ^ And he assails the belief of the magi ^ that an owl's egg is good for diseases of the scalp by asking, "Who, I beg, could ever have seen an owl's e.gg, since it is a prodigy to see the bird itself?" Moreover, he sometimes cites assertions of the magicians without any censure, apol- ogy, or expression of disbelief; and there are many other passages where it is practically impossible to tell whether he is citing the magicians or not. Sometimes he will apparently continue to refer to them by a pronoun in chapters where they have not been mentioned by name at all.^ In other places he will imperceptibly cease to quote the magi and after an interval perhaps as imperceptibly resume citation of their doctrines.* It is also difficult to determine just when writers like Democritus and Pythagoras are to be regarded as representatives of magic and when their statements are accepted by Pliny as those of sound philosophers.
Perhaps, despite Pliny's occasional brave efforts to with- j^agic and stand and even ridicule the assertions of the magicians, he science could not free himself from a secret liking for them aiid guishable. more than half believed them. At any rate he believed very similar things. Even more likely is it that previous works on nature were so full of such material and the readers of his own day so interested in it, that he could not but include
^XXX, 7. we must look back three chapters *XXIX, 26. for the antecedent of corum. ^Fot instance, XXX, 27, he * XXXVII, 14, he says that he is mentions the magi, but not in going to confute "the unspeakable XXX, 28. Nor are they mentioned nonsense of the magicians" con- in XXX, 29, but in XXX, 30 cerning gems, but makes no spe- "plura eorum remedia ponemus" cific citation from them until the seems to refer to them, although thirty-seventh chapter on jasper.
64 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
much of it. Once he explains ^ that certain statements are scarcely to be taken seriously, yet should not be omitted, be- cause they have been transmitted from the past. Again he begs the reader's indulgence for similar "vanities of the Greeks," "because this too has its value that we should know whatever marvels they have transmitted." ^ The truth of the matter probably is that Pliny rejected some assertions of the magicians but found others acceptable; that he gets his occasional attitude of scepticism and ridicule of their doctrines from one set of authorities, and his moments of unquestioning acceptance of their statements from other authors on whom he relies. Very likely in the books which he used it often was no clearer than it is in the Natural History whether a statement was to be ascribed to the magi or not. Very possibly Pliny was as confused in his own mind concerning the entire business as he seems to be to us. He could no more keep magic out of his Natural History than poor Mr, Dick could keep Charles the First's head out of his book. One fact at any rate stands out clearly, the prominence of magic in his encyclopedia and in the learning of his age.