Preface

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TIE OCCJLT SCIENCES.
THE
PHILOSOPHY OF MAGIC,
PRODIGIES AND APPARENT MIRACLES.
FROM THE FRENCH OF
EUSEBE SALVERTE.
WITH NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE, EXPLANATORY, AND CRITICAL
BY ANTHONY TODD THOMSON, M.D.
F.L.S., &c.
" Non igitur oportet nos magicis illusionibus uti, cum potestas philosophica doceat operari quod sufficit."— Roo. Bacon, De seer. oper. art. et nat. c. v.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, ^u&ttsfar in ©rtiinari) to 1er Jïlajest».
M.D.CCC.XLVI.
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LOND on: Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
Is not the history of civilization, in the most ex- tended sense of this word, the history of mankind in a social state, one of the most important of all our studies ?
About twenty years ago, consulting less my talents than my zeal, I undertook to retrace this history, and in 1813 I published an introduction,* in order to give an idea of the manner in which I thought it should be treated.
This essay received some encouragement, which only convinced me of the necessity of examining more profoundly so important a subject. The history and origin of the sciences occupied a large place in those researches, in which I was engaged, and I was soon
* De la Civilisation depuis les premiers Temps historiques jusqu à la fin du xvme siècle . . . Introduction.
VI PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
convinced that it was impossible to have a just idea of the extent to which the sciences had been carried, among the ancients, without examining the kind of knowledge employed by the founders of those sciences, in working the wonders related in their annals. In the course of this inquiry, I discovered that much informa- tion was shut up in the temples, and employed there, during many ages, to excite either wonder or fear ; but, in the flight of time, decaying and at last fading alto- gether away, leaving behind only imperfect traditions, which have since been ranked as fables. The attempts to restore life to these ancient intellectual monuments, accomplished a part of my task which, at the same time, filled up a great period in the history of the human mind. My treatise on this object soon became too ample to form merely a part of the principal work for which it was originally intended. It was easy to detach it, al- though connected with the object which I had proposed to myself to attain; and thus separated, it forms a whole, susceptible of special interest.
I shall content myself with bearing in remembrance the principle which has guided me in my various researches : that principle which distinguishes two very strongly marked forms of civilization, the fixed form, which formerly governed almost the whole world, and which still subsists in Asia ; and — the perfectible form, which more or less reigns throughout Europe, although
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. Vil
it is not there fully developed ; nor has it as yet, borne all those fruits which its elements permit us to antici- pate in its progress to perfection.
In 1817 I published in the " Esprit des Journaux" (July volume), an article in which those principles were pointed out, which are here more fully developed, and many of the facts and arguments on which they rest. I only mention this on account of the date, that I may not be accused of having borrowed, from some works which have appeared more recently, those ideas and explanations which I have now a right to reproduce, since they were originally my own. Far from deceiving myself otherwise on the insufficiency of this first essay, I have remodelled it entirely and looked it over several times, with the assistance and advice of learned and benevolent men.
The first edition of this book published in 1829, being entirely sold, I found it necessary, in preparing a second to take advantage of those criticisms which had been addressed to me, and of the numerous observations that my subsequent studies had furnished. The theory which guided me remains the same ; I shall sum it up in a few words.
1. When the improbability of a fact is the chief objec- tion to the belief in its reality, the evidence which attests it, regains all its value, if the improbability be proved to
Vlll PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
be only apparent. Can a similar test be applied with suc- cess to the greater part of the prodigies and assumed miracles related by the ancients ? It is more reason- able, then, to admit the truth of the facts, and the accuracy of their explanation, than to condemn as im- postures those recitals, of which modern discoveries have frequently demonstrated the truth.
2. It is an incontestable fact, that anciently science, and more especially that science which was confined to the temples, was enveloped in a thick veil to conceal it from the eyes of the vulgar ; and that it was employed to produce wonderful works fitted to subdue the obsti- nacy and credulity of the people, is a supposition so natural, that it will be difficult to oppose it, at least by any sound reasons. In the marvellous recitals which have been handed down to our times, some of this mystical learning may be discovered ; and in prosecuting the research, we endeavour to complete the history of science and of mankind.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH