CHAPTER IX,

Notwithstanding the rivahy of religious sects, the spirit of a fixed form of civilization existed — Mystery in the schools of philo- sophy was ultimately banished by the influence of more perfect civilization'-ln the first epoch there was an habitual communi- cation of the Ghreeks with the successors of the Magi, who were dispersed through Asia after the death of Smerdis — First the revelation of Magic — Second, the impoverishing of Egypt, after the conquest of the Romans caused priests of inferior grades, who trafficked in the secrets of the temples, to abound in Rome^ Third, the polytheists who were converted to Christianity, carried into its bosom the knowledge of the magic which they possessed — In the second epoch, the remains only of the sacred science existed; first, in the schools of the Theurgian philosophy; secondly, in the possession of wandering priests, and, above all, of Egyptian priests. As successors to the former may be assigned, with much probability, the secret societies of Europe ; to the latter, the modem jugglers.
The mystery which had enveloped the sacred science, like the type of civilization^ of which it was one of the principle foundations, has submitted to the power of time : the veil is torn from it ; the statue of Silence, seated for so many centuries before the door of the sanc- tuaries and of the philosophic schools, has been over- thrown.
202 MYSTERY IN THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY.
We may inquire, when was this revolution effected ? Was it when rival religions were at war with each other; before the inflexible Zoroaster and his succes- sors, and the worship of fire, and Sabaism,* and the adoration of Siva, Vishnu, and Bramah, had received a check? I reply, no. Persecuted as magicians, the Hindoo and the Chaldean priests carried their sacred arts and their inviolable silence into exile.
The invasion of the Hebrews had dispersed the pagan priests of Canaan, — ^Moses having declared sentence of death against whoever should declare oracles, or work miracles, in the name of a strange God. But the entire conquest of Palestine was but slowly achieved. The Hebrews, unfaithful to the law, and living among indige- nous tribes, often consulted the priests and the diviners of their neighbours. The diviners, in particular, were renowned, and even revered; and, when they died, be- queathed their secrets to adepts only, who often found in them a source of wealth and of profit, if not the means of obtaining power. Their last successors may be recognized in those whom Saul persecuted with so much zeal, that, when he£^ himsdif into the error fi*om which he had wished to preserve his people, he with difficulty
* The word, correctly written, should be Tsabaism. It was a religious system prevalent to a great extent in Arabia, in which, althoii^h one supreme Deity was acknowledged, yet adoration was paid to all the stars, or the lower divinities supposed to reside in them, and to aid in governing the world. Their religious books were written in Syriac. Their fasts and prayers were numerous ; they believed in future punishments for the wicked, but, at the same time, that after 4000 years they should be pardoned. — £d.
MYSTERY IN THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY. 203
found a woman who professed the art of invoking the shades of the dead.
In Judea, these pretended prophets were divided amongst tiiemselves, and were at variance with each other ; some espousing the rival claims of Jerusalem ; others those of Samaria ; but neither anathema nor per- secution could unveil the sources from which their inspi- rations flowed in the time of need.
The fierce Cambyses, in killing Apis, insulted the supreme God of Egypt, typified by that sacred bull. He condemned the ^priests and the worshippers of Apis to the torture, and despoiled the tonples. He died, leaving behind him an execrable name, without having, notwith- standing so much violence, struck one blow at the reli- gious mysteries of the sanctuaries."*^
The spirit of the fixed type hovered over the theatres
* This conqueror was well aware of the height of superstition which enslaved the people whom he sought to suhdue. It is even said that, knowing the veneration in which the dog and the cat were held by the Egyptians, when he attacked Pdusium, he placed a number of these animals in the front of his army, and by this means easily became master of the place. In his attempt to send an army of 50,000 men into Upper Egypt, in order to destroy the temple of Jupiter Ammon, his object was defeated by the over- whelming of the troops in a whirlwind of sand, a circumstance which was attributed to the vengeance of the God whose sanctuary was threatened. An oracle predicted that he should die atEcba- tana : and, by a remarkable coincidence, his death occurred at a small town of that name, from a wound which he received from his own sword, when mounting on horseback. It happened in the year 521, a.c. He left no issue ; and his throne was usurped by the Magi, whom, dxuing his life-time, he had severely persecuted. —Ed.
204 MYSTERY IN THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY.
of these diverse events, and permitted only one new light to shine in the eyes of the people, who themselves never desired anything further. For several centuries, however, a revolution of which neither the cause, the activity, nor even the existence had been suspected, was gradually taking place among the inhabitants of the earth ; and which five-and-thirty or forty centuries have not been able to overturn. In the colonies, which the Phoenician navi- gators had founded on distant shores, they had introduced, unknown to themselves, the germ of progressive civiliza- tion. Too wealthy, and too much occupied by mercan- tile interests to desire to subjugate by force of arms, and too little instructed to found civilization upon religiqn and sacred science, they were contented to blend their own customs with those of the tribes amongst whom they settled for commercial purposes.
It may be said, that man, for the first time, then learned that the mode of life which he had received from his ancestors might be ameliorated by the result of his free will, and not by a course of blind obe- dience to assumed supernatural beings. Curiosity is the first effect of the desire for mental perfection; and when this is even moderately satisfied, it teaches us to appreciate the value of knowledge, and does not relax in the pursuit, from the conviction that it must be sought for and obtained from distant sources. A long voyage does not alarm the philosopher impatient to instruct himself; nevertheless, he is not always able to break the seal of mystery. The instructions obtained in India, Chaldea, and in Egypt, bound the ancient sages, as far as we can judge, to particular opinions inde-
MYfiTKRY IN THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY. 205
pendent of theory. Thales, indeed, was enabled to pre- dict an eclipse, but only one ;* and Pythagoras found, by
* There is much reason for believing that Chaldea was the cradle of Astronomy, the origin of which has been fixed at a period so remote as 2,232 years before the birth of our Saviour. The ajBtronomical learning was obtained from Chaldea ; and, in every problem of difficulty the Egyptians were forced to have recourse to the assistance of the Chaldean astronomers. But what Ija Place has designated as the most ancient monument of astronomical knowledge, namely,' the invention of the period of fieven days of the week, is said to be due to the £g3rptian8. ' It is, nevertheless, remarkable, that the names of the days among the Brahmans, are the same as those in Egypt, and correspond to the same physical portions of time. Thales, who was a native of Miletus in Ionia, acquired, according to the custom of his day, the greater part of his knowledge by travelling, and was taught geo- metry and astronomy by the priests of Memphis. He soon, how- ever, outstripped his instructors in the race of knowledge; and, by the mere force of his genius, invented several fundamental propo- sitions which were afterwards incorporated into the Elements of Euclid. Tliere is little doubt that the true doctrine of the motion of the earth was promulgated in the schools of Thales and Pytha- goras ; and it is equally certain that Thales introduced into Greece the prediction of solar eclipses, and the explanation of their real cause ;" although it has, with much probability, been sup- posed that the method of working the problem was borrowed from the Chaldeans, who were enabled to arrive at it by an extensive series of observations, conducted with great care and regularity, which they possessed. Thales also corrected the Ghreek calendar, and determined the length of the year to be 365 days. He died in the 96th year of his age, about 548 years before Christ; one proof, among a thousand, that the exercise of the mental energies is fieivourable to longevity. — ^Ed.
• Syst. du Monde, 1. v. c. 1 .
»» Plutarch, de Placit. Phihsoph. 1. ii. p. 24.
206 MYSTERY IN THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY.
force of genius alone, the demonstration of the theorem that had been revealed to him, of the equality of the square of the hypothenuse to the sum of the squares of the two other sides of the rectangular triangle. Philoso- phers, besides, looked upon themselves as the initiated ; the pride of exclusive possession exalted them like their institutors : and the disciples of Pythagoras received his revelations, not in proportion to their capacity, but according to the elevation in rank to which they had attained in a doctrine, which, like the initiations, had its prefixed duration, its language, and its proofs. It was only by gradual steps, and by the exterior influence of progressive civilization, that the same discretion which regulated the temples ceased to govern the schools of philosophy.
Thus, even in those countries where protecting civili- zation showered down its blessings abundantly, where the cultivation of the art of writing and the sciences opened the way for brilliant fame, the doctrines of the sanctua- ries and the Occult Science, that had emigrated from Thrace or Egypt, remained impenetrable. The priests maintained around them the most profound obscurity, the density of which was proportioned to the power and the veneration which they could obtain.
Demosthenes is the first author who noticed the exist- ence of sorcerers in Greece.* At that time Occult Science had ceased to be centered in the temples ; and some shreds of it had fallen into the hands, of pro-
* Demosthen. in Aristogit, 1 ; M. Tiedmann. de Quastionef etc., p. 46.
MYSTERY IN THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY. 207
fane and obscure men^ who were complete sttangers to the sacred mysteries, and who had dared to profess the art of working miracles. We must retrace more than thirty- five lustres, and recal to recollection one of the most remarkable events of ancient history, the massacre of the magi, after the Ml of Smerdis,* in order to assign the cause of this fact. This sacerdotal tribe, very numerous and very powerful, could not be entirely annihilated. It was dispersed, without doubt^ to all parts; and when the political views of Darius made him anxious to re-assemble it, we may believe that all the Magi were not equally desirous of becoming the supporters of the assassin. To these fugitives, successors were often foimd amongst men bom in a period of higher civiliza*-
* Smerdis was the name of the brother of Cambyses, who was privately put to death by the order of that monarch, and who was represented after his death by an impostor of the same name, who greatly resembled him in person. This Smerdis, the im- postor, was one of the Magi, and the person referred to in the text. He had been deprived of his ears by Cyrus, on account of some atrocity which he had committed. On the death of Cambyses, he usurped the throne, under the cover of his resemblance to the real Smerdis, whose death was only known to him. The fraud, however, was suspected, and discovered by PhsBdyma, one of the wives of the late monarch, who, at her fether's request, took an opportunity of examining the head of the usurper when he was asleep, and ascertained that he had no ears. A con- spiracy was immediately formed, which accomplished not only his destruction, but terminated in the massacre of the Magi, and the elevation of Darius to the throne of Persia. The term Magi is of Ghreek derivation, and implies men devoted to study, and meditation ; but my friend. Major Moor, suspects it is derived from the Sanscrit Mahaji, and means great, or wise men. — Eb,
208 ORIGIN OF THE NAME MAGIC.
tion, especially amongst the Greeks, scattered over the vast empire of Persia, as commanders and soldiers in the auxili- ary troops of Darius, Governors of his provinces, and active agents of commerce in his ports, who, in the centre of Asiatic Greece, and under the yoke of the great King, maintained both the culture and the idiom of European Greece, with the spirit of perfectible civilization.* To these they transmitted their hatred and their secrets.
The subsequent events, and the war of Cyrus the younger against Artaxerxes, above all, the ascendancy which the King of Persia had obtained over Greece, both during and after the Peloponesian war, had increased the intimate communication between the Greeks and the interior of the empire. They ad- mired the wonders performed by the Magi, and from the name of these priests they gave the title of magic to the art of working miracles ; and this title soon became sufficiently celebrated for Euripides to impose it on the celestial inspiration with which Orpheus had been animated. The Greeks in Persia, both curious and rapa- cious, drew near to the proscribed Magi and their descendants, and profited, without doubt, by the frequent
* A powerful evidence supports our assertion. If the poem attributed to Phocylides, was really written by that author, and in which he says, " Abstain from the books of the Magi/' (verse 138.) He was bom at Miletium, in Asiatic Grreece, 637 years before our era. According to Suidas. Phocyhdes must have written his moral precepts at a mature age, and consequently when the fugitive Magi were twenty or thirty years in communication with the Greeks of Asia.
EXTENSION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAGIC. 209
occasions that they had of instructing themselves ;* so that, on returning to Greece, they were enabled to cariy on a lucrative trade, by employing the secrets they had acquired for the purposes of vengeance and wickedness.f
The conquests of Alexander established the power of the Greeks over those parts of Asia, where every temple had its peculiar mysteries ; whilst the numerous priests of Phrygia and of Syria threw open their sanc- tuaries to the conquerors, and were eager to initiate them into their creeds.
The second Idyl of Theocritus presents a picture of a conjuration, or enchantment, worked by an ordinary female, thus showing that the use of magic had, long before that period, been practised by the Greeks. The Idyl concludes with the threat of poisoning which it is the object of the magical incantation to eflfect.J The simple idea is thus succeeded by one of superstition ; and the language peculiar to the temples in the expression of
* Tlie communications of the Magi with the philosophers of Greece soon became frequent. Plato, in one of his dialogues, (in Axiocho), introduces the Magus Gobry as revealing religious secrets to Socrates.
t One learned man whom I have already mentioned, M. G. C. Horst, states, in his BibUotk^que Magiqtie, and has proved, that Italy and Greece received from Asia, and from the followers of the two principles (tiiat is to say, the worshippers of Ormusd and his opponent Arhiman), the magic doctrines which were gradually blended with the ancient mythology, founded in both countries upon the worship of divine nature. It will be seen that this opi- nion relates to the time when the doctrines of magic had penetrated into the temples, an epoch much anterior to the period when the magic arts ceased to be concentrated there.
X Theocrit. Eidyll. ii. v. 160. VOL. I. P
210 PRESERVATION OF THE EGYPTIAN FAITH.
the fact which alone had been employed by the Greeks before their intercourse with a people, governed by the depositaries of the Occult Science. An atrocious crime was, therefore, no longer to be regarded as the work of man, but as the result of the intervention of supernatural beings. In the same manner, Theocritus transforms Agamede, a woman, celebrated for her knowledge of medicine, into a sorceress.
The religion of Egypt, which Cambyses had attacked in vain, and which had never been disturbed by Alex- ander,* was preserved, and honoured by the Ptolemies ;
* The peaceable possession of their religion, and the sacred mysteries, which Alexander conferred upon the Egyptians after his conquest of Egypt, arose, in a great measure, from the adulation paid by the priests to the conqueror. On visiting the temple of Jupiter Ammon, he bribed the priests to salute him as the son of their God ; and, through their influence, his army was induced to pay him divine honours. It is also well known that, after he overcame Darius, he ordered himself to be worshipped as a God ; and when Callisthenes, a philosopher of Olynthus, who accom- panied him as a preceptor in his Oriental expedition, and to whom he had been recommended by Aristotie, refused to degrade him- self by obe3ring this command, the unfortunate philosopher was accused of a conspiracy, mutilated, exposed to vnld beasts, and dragged about in chains, until Lysimachus relieved him of his per- secutions by giving him poison. We can readily conceive that an individual spoiled by a successful career of glory, such as fell to the lot of Alexander, and elated with such a degree of pride as led him to assume divine honours, would not only protect but warmly patronize a fraudulent priesthood, who might aid in securing the object of his ambition. The most curious fact in the history of this great and bad man, is the part which the priests most pro- bably played in causing his death, which occurred exacUy as the Magi had predicted, on his entering the city of Babylon, after his
DECLINE OF POLYTHEISM. 211
and, as masters of £gypt> the Romans allowed it to reign in peace over their new subjects. But external waf^ and internal feuds had ruined the people, and impo- verished the temples. The ancient religion of the country, like the country itself, languished under the influence of a foreign yoke. The priesthood was no longer the first body in the state : it had lost too much of its dignity, its power, and its riches, to preserve its numerous hierarchy unsullied. On this account, oppressed by want, priests of inferior orders repaired in crowds to the capital of the world ; and, to the super- stition and credulity already almost predominant there, they added jugglery and oracles. The enlightened classes of the people had the same contempt for these sacred mendicants as for those who flocked from Syria and from Phrygia. Occupied with other interests of too much importance, and nourished with too independent a philosophy, the contemporaries of Cicero* and of Caesar held the Thaumaturgian subalterns in little or no esti- mation.
The multitude, doubtless, still followed them, when,
Indian expedition, loaded with the spoils of the East. His death happened in the month of April, 323 b.c, in the 32nd year of his age, and was very likely the eflfect of poison. — ^Ed.
* To Cicero has been attributed the remark, "that two auruspices, or augurs, cannot pass each other in the street without thrusting their tongues into their cheeks :" but
Faith — ^fematic faith — once wedded fest To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last. — Ed.
p2
212 DECLINE OP POLYTHEISM.
for a few pieces of money, they displayed their juggling in the public places, and engaged the attention of the people by oracles, cures, and wonderful apparitions:"^ but the general improvement of intellect could not fail to increase the degradation of the sacred science. The prodigies that it had formerly offered to the public vene- ration, now encountered many sceptics; and when a mirade is either denied or discussed, the little reality that it possesses enables the fraud to be easily unveiled. The priests, whose tact had been successful in upholding their deceptions under a fixed form of civilization, soon experienced how much their influence was lessened under a civilization which was progressive. They strove with difficulty against the latter, chiefly because its influence was founded upon an extension of knowledge. The oracles were silenced ; prodigies became more rare, and the obscurity of the sanctuaries and the mystidsm of superstition alike diminished, when the triumph of Christianity imparted a new impulse to the mind, and propagated a higher creed. Behold on one side, the temples destroyed ; the priests dispersed ; SQme doomed to ignominy and to indigence, and others reduced at last to traffic for their livelihood with the sacred science : and on the other side, persuasion, enthusiasm, interest, ambition, and persecution at last, causing num- berless desertions from the old faith, whilst they aug- mented the ranks of the proselytes under the banners
* Origen. Contr. Celsum, lib. i ; Plutarch, Cur nunc Pythia non edit oracuh cannine.
DECLINE OP POLYTHEISM. 213
of the new religion ; among these proselytes there were many who were ready and desirous of carrying with them those secrets of magic, which belonged to the different creeds that they had abandoned. The miracle which dispersed the workmen, sent by Julian to raze the Temple of Jerusalem, proved that the Christians also were tainted with the knowledge of the processes, which the ancient Thaumaturgists had used with such brilliant success."*^ Then, the old religion received a mortal blow : its adversaries could combat it
* The great efforts which the Emperor Julian made at this time to restore Paganism in all its brilliancy and power, proved wiavail- ing ; not on account of any deficiency of talent, or feebleness oi energy in that extraordinary man, but because the faith which he was anxious to press was destitute of theological principles and moral precepts. It was the object of that Emperor to remedy these defects ; and laws were enacted to reform morals, and to promote the practice of benevolence and charity, which he was wise enough to admire in the Christians. But this was impos- sible ; tlie union of fraud and truth could never be effected ; and whilst the priests of restored Paganism were selected from amongst the philosophers and Magi, who were deeply skilled in magic and . divination, and who dealt openly in impostures, it was impossible to oppose the progress of the new faith, based upon truth and purity of morals. It is, nevertheless, melancholy to reflect upon the apostacy of many Christians, who, from mere prudential motives, embraced the religion of their sovereign. The crafty monarch even went so far as to dream of rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, which was not only " destroyed by the arms of Titus and Hadrian, but a ploughshare had been drawn over the ground, as a sign of perpetual interdiction."' He hoped to establish in it
' Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2nd edit, vol. IV. p. 100.
214 DECLINE OF POLYTHEISM.
with its own weapons, or unveil to the day the weakness of its impostures.
As long as Polytheism existed, detested but not yet proscribed by supreme authority — as long as its temples stood, or their recent ruins recalled a worship to which so many recollections were attached — the most earnest endeavour of its adversaries was to demonstrate the falsehood of its miracles, as well as the absurdity of its dogmas. But gradually the ivy and moss covered the rubbish, in the midst of which persevering zeal no longer
all the ceremonials of an imposing faith, which should eclipse those of the Church of the Resurrection on the adjacent hill of Calvary. The Jews assembled to aid this object, intent alone on exasperating the Christians, without reflecting on the ultimate aim of the Emperor. It was on this occasion, when the workmen of Julian, and the infatuated Jews, were equally engaged in clear- ing away the ruins of the former edifice, and founding the new temple, that an earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, destroyed the enthusiastic labourers, scattered the foundations of the projected edifice, and overthrew for ever the triumphs and hopes of Poljrtheism. Our author has raised some doubts respect- ing the supernatural character of this event ; but it was not at the time disputed by the infidels ;• and notwithstanding the scep- ticism of Gibbon, and the doubts of the pious Dr. Lardner/ there is not the smallest evidence to prove that it was the result of artifice or of Occult Science. " The horrible balls of fire," says Ammianus Marcellus, " bursting forth near the foundations, with frequent reiterations, rendered the place from time to time inac- cessible to the scorched and blasted workmen ..." and " the undertaking was abandoned."*^ — Ed.
• Gregory Nazianzen. Orat. iv. p. 110. ** Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. xxiv.
* Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv.pp, 47 — 71.
DECLINE OF POLYTHEISM. 215
re-assembled its worshippers. Habit, the course of things, and necessity, drove whole populations into the new faith : they ceased to combat that which they had ceased to disbelieve; they ceased to arm them- selves against that reason which one day might extend itself beyond the end prescribed to its efforts. The remains of the sacred science then rested in the hands of two classes of men, very different from one another.
To priests of a superior order, to the enlightened dis- ciples of the sages of Babylon, of Etruria, of Persia, of Egypt, and of Hindostan, were united the successors of the Theurgian philosophers, who, since the second cen- tury, had attempted to raise up Polytheism by transform- ing its legends into moral allegories, and its impostures into divine acts, effected at the commands of virtuous men, through the celestial powers. All of them together pro- fessing the ancient Polytheism less than the worship of one Divinity, which they adored under a thousand different names in different religions, opened the schools of philosophy to the Christians ; who, being the friends of knowledge, believed themselves permitted to search for it. A Platonic theosophy, with austere and exalted morals, formed the foundation of the doctrines. But they revered also the memory of men who had been, in consequence of their piety, in communication, as they believed, with supernatural beings, and had obtained the gift of miraculous works. The just dread of hearing their miracles discussed, denied, or vilified, by their too power- fid adversaries, re-animated the ancient spirit of mystery ; and they made it a religious duty, more than ever, to be
216, DECLINE OF POLYTHEISM.
silent on all that they still possessed of their knowledge. Synesius* bitterly reproaches one of his friends for having revealed to uninitiated auditors^ a part of the secret doc- trine of the philosophers.f The entire work of Lydus upon (HTodigieSy and the passage that we have quoted from Damascius,{ prove how far the two latter bdieved themselves still strictly bound by their promises of silence.^ The initiated of Memphis,|| the disciples of
* Synesius was bom at Cyrene in Africa, in the year 378. He attached himself to the school of the New Platonists, but was converted to Christianity when little more than twenty years of age, by Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria. He was a most re- markable man, both for learning and piety ; and although, after his conversion, he still retained a fondness for the New Platonism, yet, Theophilus urged him to permit him to consecrate him for a Bishopric. The entreaties of the Bishop were long resisted, on accoimt of the affection he bore for his wife ; but he at length yielded, was separated from her, and became Bishop of Ptolemais in 410. He was the author of many curious and learned disqui- sitions. — ^Ed.
t Synes, p. 143.
X Damascius, the Stoic. He was a native of Damascus, and wrote several works, some of which are now lost. Those writings by which he is best known, are four books on extraordinary events which occurred in the age of Justinian. — £d.
§ The trace of this custom of mystery is found at a much later period. It was only in the 12th century that Tzetzes and Zonaras revealed the secret of the mirror of Archimedes, although this mir- ror had been employed by Proclus, at the beginning of the sixth century, to burn the fleet of Vitelhus, who besieged Con- stantinople.
II Memphis situated on the banks of the Nile, near the Pyramids, was the capital of Egypt before Alexandria was built, and contained the Temple or Apis, the Ox- God, the type of Osiris, whose soul the Egyptians believed passed into the body of
DECLINE OF POLYTHEISM. 217
the Etruscan priests could not have held a more reserved language.
In noticing the philosophic dogmas, we shall be able to follow into Greece, and then into Italy, after the capture
an ox. The great festival of this God was performed with the most magnificent ceremonies at Memphis, at the commencement of the annual inundation by the Nile, and lasted seven days. The ox, selected to represent the God, was distinguished by par- ticular marks, which were most probably, the ingenious produc- tions of the priests ; the whole animal was black, except a white crescent, or a mark resembling the figure of a man, on the right side ; and on the back, the figure of an eagle ; on the forehead was a white square spot ; under the tongue a knot resembling a beetle ; and the hairs of the tail were double. This ox was led in solemn procession, and having made the round of the city in order that those who smelt his breath, might gain a knowledge of futurity; and, after a variety of other absurd ceremonies, he was led to the river, and if he had attained to twenty-five years of age, he was drowned, and a new Apis elected. On this occasion, although the God was purposely drowned, the priests shaved their heads as an indication of mourning ; cries, and lamentations resounded through the city ; and these continued until a new Apis, with all the characteristic marks, was found. This new representative of Osiris had to perform a probation of forty days, before being initiated in all his dignities ; during which time, women only admi- nistered to him.
Bull and kine worship passed into Egypt, from Hindostan ; and it is still retained in the East ; for Siva rides upon a white bull, called Hand! ; and Brahmany, or sacred Bulls, are seen wandering unmolested in all the cities of Hindostan. But the most curious circumstance relating to Bovine worship, is the fact that it was practised in England, in the fifteenth century. Another proof among many, of the difiiculty of shaking off old habits, and a verification of the remark, that the early Christians had ingrafted some of the abominations of Paganism on their ritual. Major Moor, in his Oriental Fragments p. 516, has given the following translation of a register of the monastery of St. Edmondsbury,
218 DECLINE OF POLYTHEISM.
of Constantinople, the traces of the existing influence of the schools. This will be, however, less easy in all that concerns Occult Science : the founders of the school cer- tainly possessed it, but its transmission is only probable.
contained in a volume entitled Corolla varia, by the Rev. William Hawkins, of Hadleigh, Suffolk, printed at Cambridge, 1634.
" This indenture certifies, that Master John Swarsham, sacrist, with the consent of the prior, and convent demise and let
to the manor called Hahyrden in Bury,
and the said his executors, &c.
shall find, or cause to be found, one White Bull, every year of his term, so often as it shall happen that any gentlewoman {mulierem generosum,) or any other woman from devotion, or vows by them made, shall visit the tomb of the gloriocis maxtyr St. Edmund, to make the oblation of the said white Bull, etc. Dated the 4th of June, in the second year of Henry vii. (a.d. 1487)." Two other indentures nearly similar, are of the 11th and 25th of Henry viix. Now the worthy Mr. Hawkins informs us, that when a married woman wished to make this oblation ; " the white Bull, who was never yoked to the plough, nor baited, was led in procession through the principal streets of the town» to the principal gate of the monastery, attended by all the monks singing, and a shouting crowd : the woman walking by him, and stroking his milk white sides, and pendent dewlaps. The bull being then dismissed, the woman entered the church, and paid her vows at the altar of St. Edmund, kissing the stone, and entreating with tears the blessing of a child." It is not easy to say how many other equally ridicu- lous Pagan superstitions deformed the purity of Christianity before this period. I will mention one only at present. When Clovis, the first Christian King of France was baptised, the vial contain- ing the sacred unction was stated to have been dropped from Heaven, into the hands of St. Remigius, then Bishop of Rheims, about the end of the fifth century ; where it has ever since been preserved for the purpose of anointing all succeeding Kings. To confirm its divine descent, as soon as the coronation is over, the oil in the vial begins to waste and vanish, but is again renewed of
DECLINE OF POLYTHEISM. 219
How many accidents might have buried it in the mystery from whidi it must have escaped, but for the great pre- cautions that wCTe observed to secure it I Some facts remain, however, to shed a little light upon this interest- ing problem.
The doctrines of the Theurgists, which transfc»ined into supernatural beings and genii both those substances which serve and are made use of in experimental science, as well as the men who employed them, was entirely revived in the cabalistic doctrines of modem times.* To produce miraculous works, science also caused the genii to act, and to submit to the power of the philosopher whom she enlightened with her rays* Genii of the earth, of the air, of the water, and of fire were dispersed in the four elements which physics, at that period, consi- dered the bases of all bodies ; and have we not discovered in the gnomes, the labourers who worked mines ?* The brilliant and romantic details with which a lively imagi- nation has embellished the principles of the cabalists, do not prevent the identity of the two doctrines from being easily recognised.
It is known what sublime power is attached to OM (oum), which designates the Hindoo Trinity, composed
itself, for the service of every succeeding coronation. By such falsehoods has the Church of Rome defiled a faith which requires nothing but the simple light of truth to display and uphold its divine origin.' — ^Ed.
* The four elements were personified by Sylphs, Nymphs^ Gnomes and Salamanders, The Ghiomes were the evil demons of the earth. — En.
* Nic. de Brain de St, Remigio,
220 SECRET SOCIETIES.
of Siva, VishmLy and Bramah, in pronouncing which the pious Magi are raised to the intellectual knowledge of the three united Gods. This divine name, and its mys- terious energy, were again brought forth in two books of magic, published in Germany at the beginning of the sixteenth century.* .We may regard these as the last link of the chains still remaining, in spite of the remote- ness of countries and of ages, and in spite of the difference of idioms and of religions, a remaining link of that chain which binds to the transcendental doctrines of Hindo- stan the wrecks which modem adepts have preserved of them.
Of those inventions which anciently produced so many miracles, some are to be found in the writings of men whom, as being versed in the Occult Science, the middle age either admired or persecuted.! It is certain that in that age of ignorance learned men have often conveyed the charge of their knowledge to 'secret societies, which have existed almost in our day, under the name of Rosi- crucians,J or under other names equally enigmatical.
* They are quoted in the " BihliotKkque Magique" of M. Horst.
t Alhertus Magnus, VAhhi Trithhne, the Franciscan BartMemi, Robert Fludd, Roger Bacon, &c.
X Rosicrucians, or brothers of the Rosy Cross, were a sect of hermitical philosophers, who first appeared in Germany, at the beginning of the 14tii century.
ITieir chief was a German gentleman, called Christian Rosen- cruz, educated in a monastery, where he learned the languages.
About the close of the 14th century, he went to the Holy Land, where, falling sick, he consulted the Arabs at Damascus, and other eastern philosophers ; and by them he was supposed to be ini-
\
SECRET SOCIETIES. 221
One of the brightest geniuses who shed honour upon Europe and the human race, Leibnitz, penetrated into one of these societies at Nuremberg, and, from the avowal of his panegyrist,* obtained there instruction which, perhaps, he might have sought for in vain else- where. Were these mysterious reunions the remains of
tiated into the mysteries he professed. On his return to Ger- many he formed a society, to which he communicated his secrets, and died in 1484.
The whole of this account is generally regarded as fabulous. The members of the society bound themselves to secrecy, and certain rules. They professed to know all sciences, but especially medicine ; and they pretended to have their traditionary know- ledge from Egyptians, Chaldaeans, and others. They have been called Immortals, Illuminati, Invisible Brothers, and from signing themselves F.R.C., also Fratus Roris Cocti; it being pretended that the philosopher's stone is concocted dew. They have been confounded with the Freemasons.
The Rosicrucians have had some respectability, because Luther's arms were a cross and a rose ; and as it was assumed by chemical druggists, it was asserted to be derived from chemical signs. Dew, ros was esteemed the best solvent of gold ; and the cross, or crux, is the S3rmbol for light in chemistry. Now light, according to this sect, is rarefied gold ; and thus the name arose. A Rosicrucian is one, therefore, who by dew seeks light (gold).
At the head of these fanatics was Robert Fludd, an English physician, Jacob Behmen, and Michael Mayer. They all main- tained that the dissolution of bodies by fire is the only way that man can arrive at wisdom and obtain the first principles of things. They taught that there was a certain harmony in creation ; that even the Deity rules the kingdom of grace by the same chemical laws as those by which he rules the kingdom of nature ; and they therefore expressed religious truths by chemical signs, and various oth^ strange incomprehensible doctrines. — ^Ed.
* Fontenelle, Elogede Leibnitz. Elogesdes Academiciens, tome. i. pp, 464—465.
222 SECRET SOCIETIES.
the ancient initiations? Everything conduces to the belief that they were : not only the ordeal and the exami- nations to which it was necessary to submit before obtaining an entrance to them ; but, above all, the nature of the secrets they possessed, and the means that they appear to have employed to preserve them. Some- times, indeed, there is found in' the writings of the authors of the twelfth and thirteenth century indications of the knowledge of Thaumaturgy, and its application ; but more frequently merely the remembrance of the wonders that they had formerly worked, and scarcely throwing a gleam of light on the oblivion into which the means by which they have fallen were performed.
It is thus, at least, that we are tempted to interpret these authors erroneously when they describe such marvellous works and pronounce them possible to their art ; usurping the glory of having revived many of the old inventions — for example, having re-discovered, before Buffon, the burning mirror of Archimedes, of having invented the telegraph, &c., &c. ; but, with their pretensions, they have not indicated the method of eflfecting these wonders.
Their silence, however, is not a decisive proof of their j
ignorance:— ^loving mystery, and proud of exclusive posses- j
sion, they were learned but for themselves and a small num- 1
her of adepts; they were silent also, or expressed themselves only in allegories.* But this silence, this love of mys- \
* In the 16th century, Leopold of Austria, son of Duke Albert the Second, published a picture of the Paranatellons des D^cans, (printed at Venice, in 1520. See Dupuis Origine de tous les Cultes, vol. XII. pp. 127, 128). It is an extract of the Persian sphere;
RISE OF MAHOMMEDANISM. 223
tery, are but traits of resemblance which recal the Theurgic schools, in whose bosom the expiring secrets of polytheism were deposited.
That we may assign the same origin to the know- ledge possessed by the members of the secret societies, is rendered probable from the horror, the fear, and the spirit of persecution which their science inspired ; feel- ings much stronger than if the science had been more extended. They were designated the descendants of the polytheist priests, — the ministers of those dethroned Gods who were but the genii of the wicked and of the ignorant.*
but Leopold, instead of transcribing positive indications from them, has drawn only the emblematical figures.
* The accusations against these secret societies ought not to surprise us ; and although much falsehood may have been pro- pagated respecting the views and the proceedings of the initiated, yet it should be recollected that suspicion cannot ^ to be awakened where secrecy is cherished ; and charges will be made that something exists which cannot be exposed to the light of day, nor to general observation. The chief secret societies in Europe have been the Templars : the Secret Tribunals of Westphalia ; the Freemasons ; and the lUuminati of Germany. It would be impossible, in a note, to do justice even to a slight sketch of these mysterious societies ; and, therefore. I will only adjoin the initia- tion of an assessor, or Schoppe, into the Fehmgerichte of Westphalia, an institution of Charlemagne. The person to be received ap- peared bare-headed before the assembled tribunal, and kneeling down, with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand on a naked sword and a halter, he pronounced the following oath, after the Court, or the President of the Assembly ;—
'* I promise, on the holy marriage, that I will from henceforth aid, help, and conceal the holy Fehms, from wife and child, from father and mother, from sister and brother, from fire and
224 RISE OF MAHOMMEDANISM.
Christianity having maintained powerful pre-eminence for more than six centuries, and having carried her con- quests farther than the Romans had extended their empire, becoming the conquerors even of the Romans themselves, seemed to have nothing to fear except from the unceasing doctrinal dissensions springing up among her children. At length, upon an almost unknown part of the globe, a man appeared, a stranger to the resources of the Occult Sciences, in the person of Mahomet.* He had the
wind, from all that the sun shines on, and the rain covers, from all that is between sky and ground, especially from the man who knows the law ; and I will bring before this free tribunal, under which I sit, all that belongs to the secret jurisdiction of the Emperor, whether I know it to be true myself, or have heard it from trustworthy people, whatever requires correction or punishment, whatever is Fehm-free (i.e. a crime committed in the county), that it may be judged, or, with the consent of the accuser, be put off in grace ; and will not cease to do so, for love or for fear, for gold or for silver, or for precious stones ; and will strengthen this tri- bunal and jurisdiction, with all my live senses and power ; and that I do not take on me this office for any other cause than for the sake of right and justice ; moreover that I will ever further and honour this free tribunal more than any other free tribunals ; and what I thus promise will I steadfastly and firmly keep, So help me God and his holy Gospel."' However harshly stigmatized secret societies may have been, I have no hesitation in saying, that the imposition of such an oath as the above could scarcely fail of throwing a suspicion of illegal practices upon them, and consequently that they were properly suppressed. — ^Ed .
* Mohammed, or Mahomet, was the son of a noble Arab, Abd- Aliah, of the tribe of Koreish, and Amineh, the daughter of a
• Secret Societies of the Middle Ages, Lond. 1837, p. 349.
RISE OF MAHOMMEDANISM. 225
courage to reject them, and to establish a belief in revela- tion, and to found a religion by declaring that the God whom he preached had refused him the gift of workingmi- racles. In Syria, Egypt, and Persia, which were rapidly con- quered, his fierce followers overturned civilization ; and in Persia especially their fanaticism pursued the magii, the depositaries of the sacred science, with implacable rage.
Four hundred years later again, in the name of Islamism, and animated with that enthusiasm for destruc- tion that seldom fails to excite savage hordes, the Turks overran Asia, from the foot of the Caucasus to the
chief of high rank. He was, however, left an orphan with a veiy small patrimony of five camels and a female Ethiopian slave, and was brought up by his uncle, Aboo Talib. At the age of twenty- five, he became the confidential servant of Khadijah, a wealthy widow, whom he afterwards married, although she was fifteen years his senior. At this time the Arabs were idolaters ; and even Christianity was corrupted by many superstitions, llie ardent spirit and ambitious mind of Mohammed led him to regard him- self as a mortal selected by Heaven to correct these evils ; but it was not imtil he attained his fortieth year that he revealed his pretended divine mission to his wife and friends. For the 300 Gods of the Caaba, worshipped by the Arabs, he substituted the adoration of one God, and taught the doctrine of future rewards and punishments ; but his ideas of the rewards were sensual, and of the punishment, those only that are ofi^ensive to the body. It is probable that, deluded into the belief of his mission, his views at first were honest, and his object was to check the evil propensities of his coimtrymen. But elated by the success in his attainment of temporal power, he diffused his tenets by the sword, and to ele- vate their origin, declared that each sura, or revelation of the Koran, was brought to him from heaven by the angel Gabriel. That he was an impostor there is no doubt ; but it might become a question whether his appearance had not greatly contributed to the fail of polytheism. — Bo.
VOL. I. Q
226 , MOORISH SCHOOLS.
shores of the Red Sea; from the Persian Gulf to the Euxine; and over those countries, barharism seemed always to have reigned with them. Similar causes produce similar effects; and in these two epochs the secrets of the Occult Science were spread abroad in consequence of the dispersion of its possessors.
Prom the eighth century, when, tranquil in the bosom of their conquests, the Arabs gave themselves up with ardour to the study of magic, they sought to obtain from it the art of making gold and of discovering hidden treasures — a wish natural in a people enervated by luxury, and for whom despotism rendered all property precarious, but that which could be carried with them.
In the eleventh century, when in their turn the civi- lized Moslems dreaded the frinaticism of their new brethren, the intercourse between Europeans and the Arabs and Moors became very active ; and it may be observed, that this commercial communication of the lat- ter infested the sciences, that they had carried to the west, with magical superstitions.* Students from divers countries of Europe hastened to frequent the schools of the professors of the Occult Science which were opened at Toledo,! Seville, and Salamanca.} The School of Toledo was the most celebrated, and continued to be so from the twelfth until the end of the fifteenth century.^
* Tiedmann. De QtuBstione, &c., &c. page 97.
t " Complures ex diversis regionibus scholares apud Toletum student in arte necromantic^, " are the expressions of Geesar Heis- terbach, a writer at the end, or the commencement of the thir- teenth century. Illustr, Mirac, et Hist. Mir, lib. v. cap. iv. page 207, (edit, of 1605.)
t Fromann. Tract, de Fascin, pages 173 — 174.
§ See the Commentaire de Leduchat sur Rabelais, liv. iii. chap.