CHAPTER XVIII

THE SUN-DIAL OF AHAZ
When Joshua Fought Against his Enemies' Force
Bright Sol and Luna sudden stopt Their Course
And Jael's Female Strength had Sis'ra found ;
The Stars Assisted in his Fatal Wound,
And Hezekiah's Suit for Life was Done,
Then Ten Degrees Quite Backward Went the Sun.
— Motto on Dial at The Isle, Shrewsbury, England,
HERE lived in America, in New England, in Boston, a much-loved writer, Dr. Oli- ver Wendell Holmes, who found great and constant amusement in the last linger- ing years of his busy life, and I believe to some extent throughout the whole of that long and happy life, in the
noting of coincidences. These coincidences are simply one of Carlyle's "reciprocities and muta- bilities, slight traceable threads," to which I refer in the preceding chapter. It is in that same spirit of pleasure in coincidences that I have noted and shall relate in this chapter the place and relation of the sun-dial and the Rose in a very interesting series
39°
The Sun-dial of Ahaz 391
of historical incidents beginning with the first dial on historical record, that of Judah in the eighth cen- tury B.C., and ending on the peaceful banks of the Wissahickon, in the settlement of Pennsylvania in our own new world.
In 2 Kings xx. 9—11, we read of this first dial: —
41 9. And Isaiah said, This sign shah thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken : shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees ?
44 i o. And Hezekiah answered: It is a light thing for a shadow to go down ten degrees ; nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
44 1 1. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord : and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz."
This miracle is told with equal explicitness in Isaiah xxxviii. 8 : —
44 8. Behold I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees by which degrees it was gone dow" '
It is impossible to estimate the attention which has been given to this phenomenon in nature, known as the greatest miracle of Isaiah, not only by Bib- lical expositors, but by men of science to whom a study of this great reversal of the forces of nature was more attractive and more profound than a search into the more personal miracles of the Bible. I have seen many infinitely learned demonstrations in ad- vanced mathematics to try to prove this miracle pos-
392 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
sible and also to prove it impossible ; and it would be amusing, were it not so solemn, to read the elaborate explanations and reasons given for the possibility of this miracle.
Ahaz, eleventh king of Judah, ruled over his land in the eighth century B.C. Being forced in war by the kings of Syria and Israel, he sought alliance with Tiglath-Pileser II, king of Assyria, who aided him, but in return enforced a heavy tribute and imposed upon him the religious belief of the Babylonish church. The Babylonians were the first people who divided time by any mechanical contrivance ; and the rectification of the Babylonian calendar had been made only nineteen years before the accession of Ahaz ; doubtless the invention of the pole and of the gnomon were both connected with this rectifica- tion. Observation chambers for astronomical re- search were in use in the East until the middle of the eighteenth century, and " the altars at the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz " which Josiah pulled down were doubtless those observation chambers, which Ahaz had adopted with the Babylonian religion and the Babylonian sun-dial.
It seems a long step from Ahaz and Tiglath- Pileser to America and Benjamin Franklin, but in that long interval appear before us a band of actors to play their parts : the Rosicrucians. One of the most interesting epochs of the existence of that society was in our own country in colonial days. It was a touching one as well, for it marked the decay and extinction of the ancient band. The jaded excitement seekers of Paris of the nineteenth cen-
Horologium Achaz.
The Sun-dial of Ahaz 393
tury, the grotesque grooms of Sar Peladan, are not the true Rosicrucians. It is unknown to most of us that there is preserved in Philadelphia a unique relic of those mystics, the most interesting memorial of them that there is now in the entire world. This relic is called the Horologium Achaz, the Sun- dial of Ahaz ; in it is performed the miracle of Isaiah, — the shadow is cast backward ten degrees by the refraction of water.
This instrument is shown facing this page. It consists of two finely wrought plates, made of an alloy chiefly of copper and silver ; the smaller measures five and three-quarters inches in diameter, and forms the base or standard of the instrument. In the centre is a tiny compass an inch in diameter. There are two encircling bands of wrought and
^D ^j
chased work, representing mythological characters and mythical monsters ; the under part of this base is even more interesting than the upper por- tion. It is depicted on page 395. It has a finely engraved and gilded plate, divided into four outer and one middle parts. Two of these are graduated for different elevations, and two contain most inter- esting panels. One of these represents the king Ahaz sick in bed, while the prophet Isaiah points to a drawing on the wall of the sun and a vertical sun-dial. The other panel apparently figures the twenty-first verse of the chapter of Isaiah which I have just quoted. This verse reads: —
" For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover."
394 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
I cannot refrain from saying that in all my old herbals, arts of simpling, and ancient Family Cbirur- geons figs are recommended precisely as in Isaiah's recipe, and for the same affliction. In this realistic panel Ahaz is thrusting out his aching leg to be poulticed, while an attendant waits, bearing, appar- ently, a basket of figs. The fifth and central panel bears a Latin inscription, which may be translated thus : —
"This semicircular shell explains the miracle of the 38th chapter of Isaiah. For if you fill it to the brim with water, the shadow of the sun is borne backward ten or twenty degrees. Moreover it indicates any common hour of the day, with what is called the hours of the planets."
The upper plate is the sun-dial proper ; it is basin- shaped, ten inches in diameter, with flat, movable rim an inch wide. It is shown on page 396. Upon the upper part of the rim are engraved the signs of the zodiac ; underneath is this inscription, Christo- pborus Schissler Geometricus ac Astronomicus Artifex Augusts Vindelicorum Faciebat Anno 1578. The central plate is divided into the different planetary houses ; it is about one and three-quarters of an inch in depth. Upon the rim stands a brass figure representing an astrologer, with extended left hand to hold the gnomon, which is, however, now missing.
By filling this shallow basin with water or any transparent liquid, it can readily be seen that the indicated time was advanced or retarded as much as the angle of refraction ; thus was the miracle consum- mated. This instrument was used doubtless in the
The Sun-dial of Ahaz
395
calculating of nativities, and for various solar obser- vations ; and above all for the astrological uses which would make it so valuable to its early owners, the Rosicrucians.
In the name of the maker, Christopher Schissler, we have a clew to its manufacture and history.
Base of Horologium Achaz.
Schissler was a great mathematician in the days when to be that meant much to all men. He called himself a geometric and astronomical master me- chanic, and he was an apprenticed brass worker by trade. That he was a skilful artificer, we need only
396 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
this beautiful and ingenious dial to show. He made likewise a fine quadrant, alleged to be of solid gold, for the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England. This
Basin of Horologium Achaz.
was a Rhenish foot square, and weighed several pounds. It was easy to use gold by the pound when you were wise as to the philosopher s stone.
The Sun-dial of Ahaz 397
I am sorry to spoil this tale of the luxury of old- time science by telling that the custodian at the Bodleian Library assures me that the quadrant is only gilt-brass, which any poor simple soul might employ for his instrument. A very good illustration is shown of this interesting quadrant on page 399 of this book, from a full-size photograph taken specially for me at the Bodleian Library.
This instrument is wholly unlike any quadrant I have ever seen ; but it is certainly a beautiful exam- ple of the engraver's art, which, however, does not show in the reduced illustration. It proves Schissler what he is termed in contemporary biography,- -a master brass worker. I have also given in enlarged form, on pages 401 and 403, the panel of engraving seen at the base of the quadrant ; for it shows so clearly the tools and belongings of a sixteenth century dialler and alchemist. On one panel is seen, partly concealed by a curtain, a furnace ; while at a table sits the old dialler in fur cap and gown with furred sleeves. It is of interest to note his chair, of nearly four centuries ago ; that it has claw feet and legs, and back and arms shaped much like the well-made office- chairs of our own day. The table, too, might be a modern dining table. All the instruments are of interest, but I see among them no Sun-dial of Achaz. In the second panel is given the inscrip- tion, which is the same as that upon the Horo- logium Achaz, and a younger dialler in bombasted breeches and jerkin and a smarter hat. The in- strument on which his hands rest might be, from its appearance, a modern typewriter ; it may be a
398 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
waywiser. Nor can I tell the significance of the vase of coruscating lines of light which appears in both designs. These two dial-makers, as well as Nicholas Kratzer, and our nineteenth century horologier, John S. Bailey, whose home is so near the settlement of " The Woman in the Wilder- ness," all have their heads closely covered while at work.
Schissler made much ingenious apparatus and in- teresting automata for Emperor Rudolphus II ; and he made an armillary sphere for his native town, where it was proudly exhibited for many years ; but Mr. Sachse, in his fine paper upon "The Horolo- gium Achaz," says it is now missing. He also made the sun-dials on the Perlachthurm at Augs- burg, a great tower built as a watch-tower, but now used as a fire lookout. One of these dial-faces can be plainly seen in the picture on page 405. Among other instruments he tried his hand, too, at a waywiser. The Emperor Rudolphus II had a curious waywiser or odometer which is attributed to Schissler.
Let us trace the journey of this unique sun-dial from Schissler's workshop hither. When the Rosi- crucians were under social and religious proscription in Germany, they thought and dreamed, as did enthusiasts of every belief at that day, of the new world. In Pennsylvania liberty of conscience was promised to all men, and thither the persecuted Mystics turned their tired feet. Forty was the mystic number of the pilgrims — the " Chamber of Perfection." Six of this band were pastors — one
The Sun-dial of Ahaz
399
was Zimmerman, and he owned the Horologium Achaz. He was a famous astronomer, a brilliant creature, and he knew, as did all these adepts, the
Schissler's Quadrant ; Bodleian Library.
knowledge of living forever; " nathless he died " (as said an old ballad). Sadly was Johannes Kelpius, a young man but twenty-four years old, but of serious nature, made Magister in his stead, and bravely they embarked,
400 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
On June 23, 1696, there landed at Philadelphia the ship which bore these forty men, some in pil- grim garb, some in student dress, all in " Out-Land- ish attire." By tradition, that night, St. John's Eve, members of the band repaired to the highlands northwest of the city, and there the mystic rites of St. John's Eve were first performed in the new world ; the blazing boughs were cast down the hill, as had been done since heathen days in the old world, and as was still done till our own day in Pennsylvania. Under the leadership of solemn Kelpius, the pilgrims soon were settled in German- town, and the society known as " The Woman in the Wilderness " was established.
The brothers soon broke from their vows of celibacy ; it was hard for a man to exist as a colo- nist without a wife. Wives were entreated to come hither, were married in astounding haste, after pre- posterous courtships ; they were bought from ship- loads brought hither from England and France simply to become wives for the eager emigrants. Widowers joined in the chase with bachelors with most undignified celerity. A widower of a twelve- month was far rarer than one who married in six months after the loss of his partner. The Rosicru- cian brothers could not withstand the general trend, and soon had some very pretty courtships of as much worldly romance as if they had never seen visions and formed the Chamber of Perfection.
Kelpius was a devout student of the Book of Revelation and the Morgen-Rotbe of Jacob Behmen. He thought the Quakers too exclusive as to their
The Sun-dial of Ahaz 401
preachers, and had no sympathy with the severity of Calvin and Luther. For eleven years he led his little band, and it is a wonder he lived so long, for he fasted and prayed in a cave in the earth, suffering " a great cold," which finally ended his days. He believed for many years that he would be translated, as was Elijah, but at the last he told his faithful servant that that happiness was to be denied him. He gave this follower a casket,
Engraved Band on Quadrant of Christopher Schissler.
in which was his magic crystal, and told him to cast it in Schuylkill. It exploded, when it touched the water, with flashes like lightning and rumbles like thunder.
This crystal was the stone of wisdom, a mystic souvenir of the times of Van Helmont, Paracelsus, and Agrippa, with which Kelpius had seen strange sights and had known strange things. It lies in the Pennsylvanian river, waiting, I suppose, a resur- rection by some new and, I fear, less picturesque prophet.
Kelpius died in 1704, sitting, so it is told, in his little garden, surrounded by his grieving disciples, and was buried in that garden. It is pleasant to
2 D
402, Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
know that memorial tablets to him and to the other Mystics are being placed upon the spots which were their homes and meeting-places.
In the stories of the civilization of the new world there is none so full of charm as that of Pennsyl- vania. Penn's settlement is replete with pleasant detail and incident, but the story of the later bands of gentle German Christians never fails to touch me. It is uplifting in its faith and trust, in its mutual kindliness, the charity and friendliness of each with all the others. Something of the spirit of these colonists has entered into Whittier's peaceful poem, The Pennsylvania Pilgrim. Here are his lines on Kelpius : —
" Or painful Kelpius from his hermit den By Wissahickon — maddest of good men - Dreamed o'er the Chiliast dreams of Petersen.
" Deep in the woods, where the small river slid Snake-like in shade, the Helmstadt Mystic hid, Weird as a wizard over arts forbid.
" Reading the books of Daniel and of John, And Behmen's Morning-Redness, through the Stone Of Wisdom, vouchsafed to his eyes alone.
" Whereby he read what man ne'er read before, And saw the visions man shall see no more Till the great angel, striding sea and shore
" Shall bid all flesh await, on land or ships, The warning Trump of the Apocalypse Shattering the heavens before the dread eclipse."
Other religious enthusiasts had come to the Wis- sahickon before the Rosicrucians, — such believers as
The Sun-dial of Ahaz
403
the Labadists and Mennonites ; and shortly after them followed quickly Moravians, Dunkers, the Ephrata Community — all sturdy Christians and splendid colonists, great housekeepers, prodigious workers.
Here the followers of the Rosy + Cross soon established all the beloved emblems of their secret belief, and carried out all its customs. They had at once, the very first year, an observatory with a chamber like that of Ahaz, — the first regular obser- vatory in the colonies, and possibly the first in North
Inscription on Quadrant of Schissler.
America, — and an ancient telescope, which may still be seen keeping lonely and musing company with the Horologium Achaz over all the changes it has seen. Through this they watched the stars, and thus cast the wondrous horoscopes upon which they made so much of their everyday life depend. For they and their children's children all carried astrolog- ical amulets, — small sheets of paper or parchment inscribed with simple horoscopes and astrological signs ; pilgrims' tokens, like those borne by the pil- grims and crusaders to Jerusalem. These were worn around the neck of new-born babes, and even
404 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
placed in the bosom of the dead. These amulets were prepared at midnight in the philosopher's chamber, and assumed on St. John's Eve. They gathered herbs in the dark of the moon, and dis- tilled them with painful care ; some of their de- scendants do so still. They ever searched for the philosopher's stone, and distilled and boiled and stewed and brayed in a mortar for it with as simple faith as they brought to the concoction of thorough- wort and tansy teas. Some of the mystic signets of these simple saints still are in existence, — bits of thin metal, engraved with Rosicrucian symbols. These signets cured disease in man or beast, being pressed on the affected spots, and chanted and in- canted over.
Another curious custom which they had was the distribution of printed cards bearing a moral couplet or a verse from the Bible. Two or three hundred of these cards were kept in little boxes and carried by the faithful. Whenever an oath or ill word was uttered in the presence of the cas- ket-bearer he offered one of these slips of paper, chosen at random, to the offender. If he were a brother, he read it carefully and placed it on his tongue. From this arose the grotesque notion that the Pietists ate their religion. This custom con- tinued for many years among the Pennsylvania Germans ; and these " moral cards " were printed on their presses.
They all looked to the millennium, and some vast sign was to be given on the opening day of the new century after their coming ; but they fancied the year
The Sun-dial of Ahaz
405
1700 began the cen- tury, and disappoint- ment was their lot. Here in our new world the mysteries, rites, and customs of what we now term occult philosophy and eso- teric theosophy were practised and carried on by these German pilgrims. It forms to me a strange and in- teresting picture, the most romantic episode in the planting and growth of our colo- nies ; I love to picture its details. The curi- ous reader may learn in full of the daily manners and religious customs of these vari- ous German sects from two massive books of Mr. Julius F. Sachse — namely, The German Pietists in Pennsylvania, and The German Sectaries in Pennsylvania, for in these two compre-
Perlachthurm, Augsburg.
406 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
hensive volumes are gathered most ample details. I like better myself, however, to trace their story in various old books, in copies of old manuscripts, in articles of their household and domestic use pre- served in the various collections in Pennsylvania, and above all in visits to the little towns which formed their homes, where still lingers much evi- dence and exist many of the customs of pilgrim days. In Bethlehem and Zoar and Ephrata the imaginative visitor still may meet the spirit of Conrad Beissel or Kelpius or Zinzendorf in the old streets.
The last magister of this faithful band was Conrad Matthai ; like the prophets of old, he came with san- dalled feet and long cloak, and bearing scrip and staff. In his hat he wore a shell like a holy pilgrim, in this case one of the common shells of that vicinity. In Erasmus one says to the Pilgrim : —
" What kind of apparel hast them on ? Thou art beset with semicircular shells, art covered on every side with images of tin and lead, twined with straw chains and thy arm hath a bracelet of beads."
One faithful follower survived Matthai — Dr. Christopher Witt, "a very pleasant facetious and plaint old man " who lived to be ninety. A man after my own heart, fond of books, fond of music, fond of flowers, fond of wonders and symbols and emblems and mystic things. When he died he left " an old Virginal," on which he had been wont to play ; " a Lot of Old Brass Things," one of these being per- haps none other than the Horologium Achaz ; "Be-
The Sun-dial of Ahaz 407
longings Apothecaries ways and Belongings Doctors ways," and an old "Chrinter" whose significance I cannot decipher. He founded a Botanic Garden twenty years before that of his friend Bartram, in whose correspondence with the English botanist Col- linson his name often appears. Shrewd old Quakers these were ; much of human life is in their letters. They all exchanged slips and seeds and flowers, like any three old maids in a country village, and had some jealousies and slyness over their flowers, too. Collinson wrote of Witt in one flower exchange, " the old gentleman has been too cunning for thee." A pretty picture is shown in one of Bartram's letters, of the twain, Bartram and Dr. Witt, walking happily in the garden ; and then talking divinity within the house to some disagreement ; and then going out again among the flowers and talking botany to make friends again. Bartram says : —
" This afforded me a convenient opportunity of asking whether he observed any kind of wild Rose in this Country that was double. He said he could not remember that he ever had. When upon the topic of astrology, magic and mystic divinity, I am apt to be a little troublesome by in- quiring into the foundation and reasonableness of these notions, which thee knows, will not bear to be searched into, though I handle these fancies with him with more tenderness than I should with many others so supersti- tiously inclined, because I respect the man."
Blindness came to him in his last years. Bartram took him through his garden and showed him the gayest new carnations, but he " couldn't tell a leaf
408 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
from a flower." " A well-spent life will give him consolation, and illuminate his darkness," piously wrote the English botanist.
The scientific belongings of the last of the Rosi- crucians came into the keeping of a new and strong light in science, albeit not at all a mystic, Dr. -Ben- jamin Franklin. His love for sun-dials is shown in his introduction of it as a symbol in the first coinage of the new nation. I have also wondered whether the waywiser which the doctor had attached to his chaise, by which, when he was postmaster, he set all the mile-stones on the post-roads — I wonder whether this American waywiser was of the " Old Brass Things " and had been made by Christopher Schissler. It was natural that Dr. Franklin's pet, the American Philosophical Association, should have the antiquated treasures of the Rosicrucians, among them the Horologium Achaz. A good custodian has the society proved itself.
War soon filled the land, and the Revolutionary War ended the existence of this Pietist sect, but the Rosicrucian teachings of Kelpius had been carried from the banks of the Wissahickon to those of the Cocalico at Ephrata. Conrad Beissel had been initiated into a Rosicrucian chapter at Heidelberg, and having thereby lost employment he, with several brother pilgrims, crossed the ocean in 17 20 to join Kelpius in his tabernacle. They found the taber- nacle deserted, Kelpius dead, and his followers scattered and, alas, nearly all married. Seetig and Matthai and Witt remained. At the advice of Matthai, Beissel then helped to found the Ephrata
The Sun-dial of Ahaz
409
Community. On Christmas Day, 1 7 23, fires were lighted on the hills and twenty-three members were admitted, six in midwinter be- ing baptized by immersion. Love-feasts and foot-washings soon began; these are still part of the ser- vices of some of the Ephrata and other of the German sectaries. The love-feast con- sists of coffee and unleavened bread, or some- times lamb soup, to the communicants ; while bread and apple-butter is served to visi- tors. Under
Sun-dial, Church of Our Lady, Munich.
41 o Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
Beissel the sect grew wondrously, and he was one of the earliest patrons of Franklin's printing-press and had strong longings to have Franklin join the com- munity. But I can imagine nothing less to Frank- lin's taste and nature. As a Christian evangelist Beissel curiously combined mystic theosophy with his teachings in such a way as to be intensely allur- ing. Some of his disciples carried Rosicrucianism further than he approved ; for some returned too close to nature, clinging to the teaching that the Oak furnished the first food for mankind, giving acorns for food and honey-dew for drink, while the rustling of the branches plainly indicated the pres- ence of God. They ate only bread and porridge made of acorn flour, deemed reasonably palatable by hungry brothers. When roasted like coffee, acorns made an excellent drink, and a sour mash of acorns afforded whiskey, since even saints must have that comfort.
Substantial houses were built at Ephrata, — " Brother Houses " and " Sister Houses " ; a pecu- liarity of them was their construction without iron. Wooden pins were used everywhere instead of nails. In cabalistic and Rosicrucian teachings iron was the product of the powers of darkness. In the love-feasts platters of wood were used, and wooden candlesticks were made for the religious meetings ; the communion vessels still in use were of wood turned with bronze tools ; the linen altar-cloth, even to the present day, after being washed, is smoothed with the wooden flat-irons made and used of old.