CHAPTER I.

Man is credulous because he is naturally sincere — Men of superior intellect have reduced their fellow-men to submis- sion by acting upon their passions through their credulity — The recitals of marvels which conduced to this end are not wholly inventive — It is useful as well as curious to study the facts contained in these narrations, and their causes.
Man is credulous from the cradle to the grave ; yet this disposition, the consequences of which plunge him into many errors and misfortunes, proceeds from an honourable principle. Naturally sincere, he is desirous of making his words as correct an expression of his feelings, thoughts, and recollections, as his tears and exclamations of grief, and of joy, and, above all, his looks, and the changes of his countenance, are of his sufferings, his fears, or his pleasures. Speech is more frequently deceptive than silent gesticulations ; since it has a greater affinity to art than nature : yet, such
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2 INTRODUCTION.
is the strength of that inclination which attracts us to truth, that the man the most habituated to deceit is the most disposed to believe that others respect truth ; and, before refusing his credit to the statements of others, he must detect something in them which does not accord with his previous knowledge ; or he must have some cause to suspect a design formed to deceive him.
Novelty and the difficulty of reconciling anomalies with experience, will never startle the faith of an une- ducated man. There are, moreover, some impressions which all men are inclined to adopt without investiga- tion ; and the very singularity of these is perhaps a charm which causes them to be received with more delight. Is this taste we may inquire natural ; or is it the result of that education which for so many ages the human race has received from its founders? This is a vast and an unexplored field of inquiry ; but it forms no part of our subject. It is sufficient to observe that the love of the marvellous, and the preference ever given to the extraordinary over the natural, have been the cause why facts have been not only too much disregarded but sometimes altogether set aside. There are instances, nevertheless, and we shall bring forward several, where the simple truth has escaped the power of oblivion.
The man of a confiding disposition may be fre- quently deceived : still his credulity will not be found an instrument sufficiently powerful to govern his whole existence. The marvellous excites but a transient admiration. In 1798, our countrymen observed with surprise how little the sight of balloons affected the
INTRODUCTION. 3
indolent Egyptians. Savages behold Europeans execute feats of skill, and perform physical experiments that they are neither able nor desirous to explain : the exhibition amuses without exciting them, and without invading their tranquil independence.
Man is governed by his passions, and above all by Hope and Fear. What is better able to create, main- tain, and exalt these feelings than unrestrained credu- lity ? Reason is perplexed, and the imagination filled with wonders. It is easy to believe in supernatural events ; we are apt to discern benefits and punishments in them; and to read in them also the mandates and threats of all-powerful beings, whose direful hands hold the destinies of frail mortals.
From the most ancient times, men of superior intellect, desirous of enthralling the human mind, have adduced miracles and prodigies as the certain proof of their missions, and as the inimitable works of the divinities whom they revered. Seized with terror, the multitude have bent beneath the yoke of superstition ; and the proudest man has touched the steps of the altar with his humbled brow.
Ages have passed away, consoled and terrified by turns : sometimes governed by just laws, more fre- quently subject to capricious and ferocious tyrants, the human race has believed and obeyed. The history of every country and of all ages is encumbered with marvellous tales: but, in the present day, we reject them with a disdain not very philosophical. Do not the convictions which have exercised so powerful an in- fluence on the human race merit a high interest ? Shall
b 2
4 INTRODUCTION.
we forget that supreme power of Providence, visible we believe in prodigies and miracles, has been almost always the most powerful means of civilization : that the wisest men have doubted whether it were possible for laws, or for durable institutions to exist with- out the guarantee of an intervention so universally respected ?#
If we consider these facts in connection with their causes, the contempt for them has still less foundation : and the origin of fables which we often deem revolting, merits, perhaps, an honourable place in the History of Mankind. Statements, however incredible they may seem, cannot all be falsehood and illusion. Credulity and invention have alike their limits. Let us study man, not from deceitful traditions, but in his ordinary habits of life, and we shall see that it would be difficult for an imposture to become established if, in our feelings and recollections, we find nothing to second its pre- tensions— nothing to support them. We recur again to our inquiry. Man is credulous because he is naturally sincere. A falsehood can more easily deny, disguise, and set aside truth than imitate it.f
Invention, even in trifles, costs some effort of which the inventor is not always capable. An inventive genius, also, when exercised for our pleasure or for our instruction, yields at every step to the desire of approaching reality ;
* J. J. Rousseau, du Contrat social, liv. iv. c. 8.
t It is with difficulty we can imagine anything full of impro- bability : and we say " a fact of this nature is rarely forged." — St. Croix, Examen critique des historiens d'Alexandre. — Paris, 1804. p. 29.
INTRODUCTION. 5
of mingling truth with its creations; convinced that with- out this artifice, falsehood would find little place in the human mind. With still more reason does the man who has some great interest in practising upon our credulity, rarely revert to a fable which has not for its foundation some fact, or the possibility of which is not at least probable. This skilful attempt appears in referring to distant ages and countries, and to those repetitions with which the histories of prodigies abound, and which so imperfectly 'disguise the alteration of some of the details. This will be obvious if we can convince our readers, that the greater part of marvellous facts may be explained by a small number of causes more or less easy to discern and to develop.
An inquiry into these causes has not for its object merely the gratification of idle curiosity. Prodigies connected with natural phenomena, inventions, impos- tures, the sorcery of thaumaturgy* can, for the most part, be explained by physical science. Viewed in this light, the history of science, its progress, and its variations may furnish valuable ideas respecting the an- tiquity, the changes, and vicissitudes of civilization ; and we may thence draw some curious evidence regarding the sources of part of our knowledge hitherto unsus- pected.
Finally, another advantage will reward our researches : history will be presented to us in a new light. We shall restore to it facts ; give back to historians a character for veracity, without which the whole of the past would be lost to the annals of civilized man : for, convicted of
* From two Greek words signifying a worker of wonders.
6 INTRODUCTION.
falsehood and ignorance in their narrations, and of a constant repetition of marvellous events, what credit would they merit in their accounts even of the most probable occurrences ? Justly denounced as an amal- gamation of truth and error, and devoid of interest moral or political. History would be regarded only as an admitted fiction : and has it not been so designated by the learned ? But a man who has described and studied the manners of his species, is not reduced to the degradation of preserving only the fables in those records which are supposed to give an insight into past ages. Far from presenting merely a collection of false- hoods and folly, the most marvellous or incredible pages of history open to us the archives of a learned and myste- hdus policy, which some wise men in every age have employed to govern the human race ; to lead it to misfortune, or to happiness ; to greatness, or to degradation ; to slavery, or to freedom.
DEFINITION OF MAGIC.