M. SALVERTE,

FROM AN ORATION SPOKEN OVER HIS GRAVE
BY M. FRANCOIS ARAGO,
MEMBER OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES AND OF THE INSTITUTE.
Salverte was born at Paris in 1771. His father, who filled a high situation in the administration of finance, destined him for the magistracy. At eighteen, after a brilliant course of study, at the College of Juilly, Salverte entered at the Châtelet, as an avocat du roi. At this period France awoke from a long and profound torpor. With the calmness which is always the true characteristic of strength, but with the energy which a good cause cannot fail to inspire, her children demanded on all sides, the abolition of despotic government. The voice of the people proclaimed that the distinction of
X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SALVERTE.
caste wounded at once human dignity and common sense; that all men should weigh equally in the scale of justice ; that religious opinions cannot, without crime, be subject to the investigation of political autho- rity.
Salverte had too much penetration not to perceive the vast extent of reform which these great principles would introduce, and not to foresee that the brilliant career, on which he had just entered, might be closed to him for ever. Behold, then, the young avocat du roi, from his first entrance into life, obliged to weigh his opinions as a citizen against his private interest. A thousand examples demonstrate that in these circumstances the ordeal is harsh, the decision doubtful ; let us hasten to declare that the patriotism of Salverte carried it by main force ; our colleague, without a moment's hesitation, ranked himself with the most eager and conscientious partizans of our glorious political regeneration. When after a time, a culpable opposition and the insolent interference of foreigners had thrown the country into disorder, Salverte, with all the superior classes was deeply afflicted. He foresaw the advantage that would be taken of it, sooner or later, by the enemies of the liberty of the people ; but his reasonable grief did not detach him from the cause of progression. He was deprived of the situation he held in the office of foreign affairs ; he answered this unmerited brutality, by re-
BI0GRAPH1CA.L SKETCH OF SALVERTE. XI
questing an examination by a commission, as an officer of engineers, and a mission to the army. The pre- judices of the time caused the son of a fermier- général to be refused military service ; Salverte, however, not discouraged, requested at least to be allowed to be useful to his country, in a civil career. He entered, therefore, as a pupil, the College of Civil Engineers ; and, soon afterwards, became one of its most zealous tutors.
Salverte was too good a Frenchman to remain insen- sible to the glories of the empire ; he was, on the other hand, too friendly to liberty, not to perceive the heavy and firmly riveted chains, that covered the abundant harvests of laurels. He never let fall from his lips or his pen, a word of praise that could swell the torrent of adulation, which so soon led astray the hero of Cas- tiglione and of Rivoli.
Our colleague devoted the whole period of the existence of the empire to retirement and study. During that time he became, by persevering labour, one of the most learned men of our age, in languages, science, and political economy.
Salverte was not mistaken as to the reaction of the measures, into which the second restoration would be inevitably led to precipitate itself. He thought, that in spite of the explicit wording of the capitulation of Paris, the thunderbolt of political passions would fall upon many of our military leaders ; he guessed that
Xll BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SALVE RTE.
these sanguinary acts would be excited, or at least en- couraged by the allied generals, he foresaw that in the south, those odious dragonnades would be renewed which history has ranked among the darkest stains in the reign of Louis XIV. He felt his heart oppressed by the prospect of so direful a future. He resolved above all to avoid the humiliating spectacle of the military occupation of France, and he, therefore, set out for Geneva. Madame Salverte, so eminently distin- guished, so capable of understanding and of entering into his noble feelings : whose fate it had been to be united to two men,# who in different modes, have done equal honour to France, accompanied her husband in this voluntary exile, which lasted for five years ,
The public and political life of Salverte only com- menced, properly speaking, in 1828. In that year one of the electoral districts, composed of the third and fifth municipal districts of Paris, confided to our friend the honour of representing it in the Chamber of Depu- ties. With a few weeks' interruption, he ever afterwards retained this honour :f and during the eleven years of
* M. de Fleurieu, who was successively Ministre de la Marine, Sénateur, and Governor of the Tuileries .... and M. E. Sal- verte.
t In 1839, at the time of the general election, M. E. Salverte was paralysed, almost dying; the electors of the fifth district of Paris, who knew the desperate state of their former deputy, wished nevertheless to render him a last homage, in again
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SALVERTE. Xlll
his legislative career, he was a model of honesty and independence, zeal and assiduity.
Our age is essentially a writing age. Many persons have doubted the necessity of the innumerable official distribution of speeches, reports, tables, and statistics of all kinds, which daily overrun our abodes. It is even said that not one deputy has ever had the time or the per- severance to read the whole of these pamphlets ; but I am mistaken, gentlemen, one exception is cited by the public, and that exception is M. Salverte.
There is not a single person, who, casting aside party- feeling does not hasten to do homage to the integrity of the Deputy of the fifth district of Paris. Perhaps the same justice has not been rendered in other particulars. The ambitious Salverte, since I am forced to connect two words so little suited to each other, never accepted a single one of those gewgaws, which, under the name of decorations, crosses, and ribands, are so strenuously sought after by all classes of society. The ambitious Salverte, after the three im- mortal days, refused the important place of director- general of the posts. Still later, the ambitious Salverte replied to an offer of a ministerial appointment,
choosing him to represent them ; and M. Salverte, without the slightest canvass, was re-elected by an immense majority. This homage, so rare at the period in which we live, was as honourable to those who bestowed it, as to him who received it.
XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SALVERTE.
by demanding conditions so distinct, so precise, so liberal, that they were in his opinion, as they proved to be in fact, equivalent to a formal refusal. When we recollect the excessive readiness of legislative votes on matters of taxation, the reserve, the rigidness of Sal- verte, far from being a cause of reproach, presents to me the most honourable feature of his parliamentary career. On questions where the honour, the dignity or the liberty of France was concerned, the vote of our colleague was certain.
Is it not principally to the deep indignation, to the passionate repugnance, that every institution opposed to the strict rules of morality, that existed in the noble and elevated heart of our friend, that the town of Paris owes the suppression of those privileged houses, peopled by agents of the police, which were hideous gaming houses, in which the honour and fortune of families were daily swallowed up ? The memory of Salverte has nothing to fear from the poisoned darts of calumny.
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
The Author of the following work, one of great erudition and research, has endeavoured to establish a theory which maintains that the improbability of the prodigies and assumed miracles related by the ancients is not sufficient to authorize their being regarded as fabulous, "if that improbability be proved to be only apparent." He founds his reasoning on the fact, that the degree of scientific knowledge existing in an early period of society, was much greater than the moderns are willing to admit ; but that it was confined to the temples, carefully veiled from the eyes of the people, and exposed only to the priesthood. This fact was well exemplified in Egypt, where the ascendency of the priesthood, from this cause, was so paramount, that a Prince could not be established on his throne until he was initiated into the greater mysteries of the temples : yet, prior to that period, if the royal personage happened to be a member of the military order, he could not be a partaker of these important secrets until he became King.*
* Clement, of Alexandria, bears evidence to this fact.
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The priests, consequently, were justly esteemed to possess all the knowledge that could be acquired by a peculiar education engrafted upon superior understand- ing: and they constituted a hierarchy, having almost unbounded influence in the civil as well as the religious polity of the state. As priests, they were the interpreters of the sacred books, the confidential advisers of the monarch, and the regulators of his conduct. They were also the judges of the land, and filled most of the important offices of the government. Their great object was to maintain their influence over the multitude ; for which purpose, they not only preserved all knowledge in their own body, but entrusted the higher mysteries of their faith only to such individuals, even of the priest- hood, as were known to excel in virtue and wisdom. To render their ascendency, also, over the minds of the people more secure, they pretended to skill in divination ; to be able to presage future events ; to foresee and to avert impending calamities, and to bring down the vengeance of the gods upon the profane for every dere- liction of duty, or neglect of their service.
It must be evident that such a state of mental con- trol could not be preserved without operating on the superstitious feelings of the multitude; consequently, sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies were instituted; and displays of sacerdotal power over the elements of nature which appear altogether improbable were witnessed. The object of our Author, as I have already -said, was to explain the character of that power, and to remove the effects produced by it from the region of fable, by demonstrating that their improbability can be proved to
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XVII
be only apparent. How far he has succeeded I shall leave to the readers of his proofs to determine ; but, like all promulgators of a theory, he has attempted to extend it too far, and has supposed it capable of explaining not only the apparent miracles of Polytheism, but even those which, in a great degree, form the foundation of our purer faith, and which the benevolence of the Deity deigned to mortals as a revelation, and the best sanction of its Divine origin.
For the above reasons, in undertaking the task of editing these volumes, I have felt it my duty to expunge from their pages every passage referring to the sacred volume ; and, at the same time, to change somewhat the title of the work, by substituting the words, " apparent miracles," for the word " miracles." This has not been done without due consideration, and from a conviction that the author had no correct idea of miracles, and, consequently, could not be supposed to regard those of the Bible as objects of belief. I consider it necessary, however, after this assertion, to lay before the reader my own opinions of the distinction between real and apparent miracles. But, before doing so, I must disown my belief in an opinion often put forth, that the indul- gence of a certain degree of scepticism tends to improve argumentative acuteness ; on the contrary, in clouding with a doubtful light both truth and error, it creates a tendency to make error as worthy of assent as truth.
We may define a real miracle, a new and extraordi- nary event, added to the ordinary series of events ; the result of extraordinary circumstances, and such as may be reasonably supposed to proceed directly from the
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Divine will operating on the usual phenomena of the universe : certainly " not a violation of the laws of nature."*
The recitals of real miracles that have been witnessed, and the opinion that they are likely again, at any time, to be witnessed, I may unhesitatingly assert can only be denied by him who is sceptical as to the direct operation of the Supreme Power which created the world, the greatest, and assuredly the most incomprehensible of all miracles. In every real miracle, the Deity must directly act ; as it cannot be regarded otherwise than " as a new event resulting from a new antecedent,"! depending wholly on the will of the Omnipotent, in the same manner as the creation of the world.
One of the greatest miracles, next to that of the creation, is the universal deluge, a miracle anterior to all existing records, and yet universally believed by every nation and people on the face of the globe. It is, indeed, remarkable that a theological philosopher, an amiable and pious dignitary of the Church of England, Bishop Burnet, should have laboured to explain this awful catastrophe upon physical principles. It is unnecessary to enter upon any refutation of the absurd, hypothetical romance of this worthy divine. He conceived that this globe consisted of a nucleus of waters, surrounded by a crust of solid earth, which "at a time appointed by Divine Providence, and from causes made ready to do that great execution upon a sinful world," fell into the
* Browns Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect. — Notes E.F. p. 500—540.
f Dr. Brown, 1. c. ■
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XIX
immense abyss, the waters of which, rushing out, over- flowed " all the parts and regions of the broken earth, during the great commotion and agitation of the abyss."
Another theory, advanced by Mr. Whiston, although more plausible, yet is not more difficult of refutation than that of Burnet. He attributed the awful phenomenon to the near approach of a comet. I have said it is more plausible than that of the Bishop, because the effect of such a shock might be, as La Place has stated (sup- posing it possible), to change the axis and motion of rotation of the globe ; and, consequently, not only to overthrow everything upon its surface, but to cause the waters to abandon their ancient beds, and to precipitate themselves upon the equator, drowning every man and animal in their progress. But this opinion cannot be supported, even upon the physical proofs that are so plausibly and ingeniously advanced. In the first place there is every astronomical certainty that no change has taken place in the axis of the globe ; in the second place, the deluge, as it is recorded in the Bible, continued only one hundred and fifty days, a period not of sufficient du- ration to cause the extensive deposits in the crust of the earth detected by geologists, which must therefore be re- ferred to some prior catastrophe. Neither have any human bones been found in these deposits, although the bones of many other mammalia, equally perishable, are abundantly scattered through them. Indeed it is pro- bable that the bones and debris of any animals destroyed by the deluge would not be preserved ; as the bodies of both man and animals being exposed to the air when the
c 2
XX PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
waters retired, they would undergo rapid decomposition and return to their primeval earth. In the third place, La Grange and La Place have demonstrated that, although, as Sir Isaac Newton conjectured, great irregu- larities and disturbances may occur in the action of one planet upon another, yet they are counterbalanced by the period of every planet's revolution, and its mean distance from the sun being unassailable by any of the causes of change. From these elements, therefore, we are authorized to affirm that the utmost order and regularity must be preserved in our system, and disorder so excluded, that neither a universal deluge, nor any extraneous cause of destruction to this globe, can ever occur without the immediate interposition of the Creator; or, in other words, without a direct miracle. In this great miracle, however, it must not be supposed that there was any violation of the laws of nature, but that a new event was required for a special purpose, and that it was effected by a direct act of the Deity.
In contemplating the tremendous, and awfully sublime nature of the universal deluge, the magnitude of the catastrophe — the overthrow of a world — it cannot but be regarded as an essential ingredient in constituting it a miracle. But such sublime effects are not necessary to constitute a miracle; the transmutation of water into wine at Canna ; the healing of the sick ; and the raising of Lazarus from the grave, with the other extraordinary actions of our Saviour, are equally deserving the name of miracles, and equally inexplicable upon every principle except that which has been already stated as consti- tuting a miracle. The Divine will that preceded them
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XXI
may be safely regarded as the efficient cause of their miraculous results ; and none but an atheist would exclude the exercise of Omnipotence in producing new events, at any period, as well as at that of the creation. But it may be justly argued that every hitherto unobserved, and, therefore, new and extraordinary event, which is inexplicable by our experience, cannot be regarded as a miracle. Certainly not. The fall of aerolites has frequently taken place, although we are utterly ignorant of the peculiar combination of circum- stances that physically precede them; and, when first observed, they must not only have excited the utmost astonishment, but given sufficient occasion for belief in their miraculous character. They have, now, so frequently been observed, that the phenomenon can no longer be doubted ; they cannot, therefore, be regarded as miracles, because, " the necessary combination, whatever it may have been, must previously have taken place ;" and al- though they were not observed, yet there is much pro- bability that they must have frequently before fallen. The physical probabilities, therefore, have only to be weighed, as in the case of every other extraordinary event related to us ; and, according to the result, our belief or disbelief will be fixed. If the event, however extraordinary, can be explained by physical causes, it cannot be regarded as supernatural, and, consequently, not as a miracle.
An apparent miracle may be defined an extraor- dinary, and, as far as the knowledge of those who wit- ness it for the first time extends, an unprecedented event ; but when it is carefully examined, it can be ex- plained upon ordinary physical principles, and, if not a
XX11 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
natural event, it may be performed by any one who is in possession of the method of working it.
The first attempt, which succeeded, to attract light- ning from the clouds, when witnessed by those igno- rant of the method of effecting it, was proclaimed as a miracle, and consistently regarded as such by the ignorant multitude. Nothing, indeed, could be better calculated to subdue and enchain their minds in the bondage of superstition ; but, since the principles upon which the phenomenon depends are well under- stood, it has ceased to be regarded as miraculous, and is classed among the other remarkable discoveries of physical science. Many of the astounding phenomena of initiation into the mysteries of the temples, and those intended to be considered as supernatural when displayed before the people in ancient times, and even, proh pudor ! some in our own times, especially in the legends and the rituals of the Church of Rome, are readily explained upon physical principles, and may be confi- dently classed as sacred frauds. Nothing can be more unworthy of the Church who sends them forth. Well may the scoffer at religion exclaim, does the honour and the worship of the Deity require for its advancement the aid of falsehood and imposture !
Such is my opinion of the distinction between real and apparent miracles. With reference to the former, the Supreme Being may will, as he possesses the power, to perform everything, at any time, that is truly mira- culous ; and we can always trace the intention to some gracious purpose. But, however closely the ingenuity of man mav imitate real miracles, and however the results
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XX1U
of his operations may appear miraculous, yet, when they are examined, they can be referred, as I have already said, to physical causes ; and their influence is found not to be directed to the beneficent and gracious ends, which follow, as a regular sequence, every real miracle. The apparent miracle is worked, not for an act worthy of the Divinity, but to elevate the dignity of certain individuals, or to augment the consequence of particular classes of men, in the eyes of the ignorant; or to forward some other object not extending to general good, but confined in its influence to comparatively narrow limits ; namely, to satisfy ambition and the love of power.
To affirm positively that an event which is conso- nant with the ordinary powers of nature, is the imme- diate result of the intervention of Divine agency, displays an arrogant assumption of superior wisdom, and of such an acquaintance with all the tendencies of the operations of the works of nature as to pronounce them inadequate, and must consequently lead to the suspicion of impos- ture ; but to presume to imitate the awful phenomena of nature, and to pronounce these imitations the result of supernatural agency, deserves no other appellation than that of actual imposture. Such attempts for the purposes of ambition, and for the promotion of sacerdotal control over the minds of the mass of mankind, are those which our Author has endeavoured to expose ; and, when he has confined himself to these alone, his object has been accomplished.
With respect to another description of pretended miracles in our own times, namely, those which occupied
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the public mind in 1820, during the career of Prince Hohenlohe, who assumed to himself the miraculous gift of healing ; and also some cures which were alleged to have been obtained through prayer, and published in a periodical called the Morning Watch, in 1830 : these appear not to have been known to our Author. They are only mentioned here to show that credulity and superstition belong to no particular age ; and to demonstrate the powerful influence of confidence in bestowing tone and energy upon the hu- man frame, after long continued chronic diseases have worn themselves out, and have left the individual in a state of debility which only requires the action of some powerful excitement to set the machine again in action.
" Of all moral agents," says Mr. Travers, in a letter relative to the cure of a Miss Fancourt of a spine com- plaint, in answer to the prayer of a Mr. Greaves, " I conceive that faith which is inspired by a religious creed to be the most powerful ; and Miss Fancourt's case, there can be no doubt, was one of many instances of sudden recovery from a passive form of nervous ailment, brought about by the powerful excitement of this extraordinary stimulus, compared to which, in her predisposed frame of mind, ammonia and quina would have been mere trifling." On the same principles may be justly ascribed the cure of Miss Martineau, so con- fidently ascribed by that highly talented lady to the influence of mesmerism. It is a melancholy reflection that in so advanced a period of civilization as the above- named period, dupes should be found to believe, or self- constituted miracle-workers presume, to operate upon the credulity of mankind.
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XXV
The ascribing of such events to the intercession of the sanctified dead, or to the prayers of the living, or to the particular intervention of the Deity called forth by them, can be neither justified by sound reason nor approved by true religion. The cures, really accom- plished, can be explained by the operation of ade- quate natural causes; and, consequently, require no miraculous interposition. It may be argued that the testimony of credible witnesses may be adduced in support of such apparent miracles ; but, before ad- mitting such testimony, we must take into account the condition of mind of the witnesses ; for, when there is a tendency in the mind, either from its original structure, or from the nurture of improper education, to believe in miraculous events, a spirit of self-decep- tion is practised, and appearances are adopted as truths, without the smallest feeling of doubt, and assuredly without any attempt to estimate their degree of proba- bility. Under such circumstances, the respectability of the witnesses does not enhance the value of the testimony if, after weighing all the probabilities, we are satisfied that they concur against the truth of the event having really happened. Do not, we may inquire, the strongest minds sometimes, in such cases, demonstrate that the most perfect specimens of human intellect, like the sun, have their spots, since we find the immortal Newton himself paying the penalty to mortal weakness on the subject of prophetical interpretations? Selden, in his apology for the law against witches, displayed a lurking belief in witchcraft; and both Sir Thomas Brown and Sir Mathew Hale were believers in that absurd infatuation.
XXVI PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
Indeed, the extraordinary extent to which the belief in witchcraft existed during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the north of Europe, and in Great Britain, is almost incredible. Like the spectres which it was sup- posed to invoke, it vanished before the light which experimental science threw upon those events, natural or artificial, that were previously considered to depend on supernatural interposition.
On that portion of his subject which treats of Magic, and its modifications, sorcery and witchcraft, our Author has displayed much research ; but he has scarcely noticed the opinion which at one time very generally prevailed, and which still forms part of the Roman Catholic faith, that every man at his nativity has a good and a bad angel assigned to him. This belief was probably a remnant of that part of the doctrine of Zoroaster, which describes the Supreme Being as assigning, at the Creation, the government of the world to two principles, one of good, and the other of evil ; which originated the Pagan doc- trine of the agency of good and evil genii, to which als o the Grecian philosophers were addicted.
This belief seems to have prevailed even in the time of Shakspeare, who refers to it in several of his dramas, and especially in the following passage :
"Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is Noble, courageous, high, untameable When Caesar's is not ; but, near him, thy angel Becomes a Fear, as being overpowered —
I say again thy spirit Is all abroad to govern thee near him ; But be aware, 'tis noble."*
* Anthony and CUopatra, act vu. scene 3.
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XXV11
It is not my intention, as it would be out of place here, to comment upon this subject, although one of considerable interest, and still entertained by several good and pious individuals, who ascribe all evil thoughts and temptations to the immediate instigation of the devil. It is also a curious fact that the act of suicide, which too frequently is the consequence of insanity, is often caused by the illusion of a voice constantly whispering in the ear of the unfortunate individual, and urging the committal of the crime.
On the subject of prodigies, and visions, our Author is not so copious as the title of his work would lead the reader to anticipate : those
" Signs, Abortions, presages, and tongues of heaven,"
that in spite of the rapid advancement and extension of knowledge, so characteristic of the present period, still press like an incubus upon the minds of many persons, and a total freedom from which can be conscientiously boasted of only by a few. In confirmation of this asser- tion, it is not necessary that I should prove a belief in spectral appearanecs, although there are spectral illusions occurring when the nervous system is deranged in any one labouring under febrile disease, or in a healthy person exhausted with long and anxious watching by the bed of sickness, which might be regarded as predic- tive of death ; nor is it requisite that I should refer to the belief in screams and fearful noises heard at the dead of night ; corpse candles, nor tomb fires ; nor those altera- tions in the burning of lights which a guilty conscience fancies may take place at midnight, and which are
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omens of some approaching disaster, the merited punishment of crime.
" The lights burn blue : it is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd Came to my tent."*
But independent of any belief in these visions — these aerial simulacra — there are certain feelings of the mind which seem to indicate disaster, and which to a certain degree influence more or less the belief of every man.
Much might be said upon the Second Sight, a pro- perty of recognising " the coming events which cast their shadow before," and which is still believed to be possessed by some persons in the remote parts of the Highlands of Scotland. The second sight is a species of divination ; a gift of prophecy, or of prediction from visions. One writer on the Highlands, a man of genius and high acquirements, Doctor Macculloch, treats the whole as a fanciful romance ; a mere specimen of super- stition in the believers, and of impudent assumption of a possession which never existed only in the declaration of the seers ; and the trick of which, in truth, might be acquired by any one in the Island of Sky for a mere trifle. The object seen by the mountain seer is often a close resemblance of himself, at whatever period of life he may be ; and upon this fact, believing that the object is really seen, I have attempted an expla-
* Richard III., act v. scene 3.
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. xxix
nation in a note upon it. How far I have succeeded I leave to the judgment of the reader. Certain con- ditions of the nervous system, also, especially hypo- chondriacal affections, cause spectral illusions, which the patient in some degree believes to be real. My explanation, however, refers to those visions only that are seen of the seers themselves ; not to those which display the whole machinery of the predicted event, whether disastrous or joyful. In this respect I am inclined to think, with Dr. Macculloch, that the honesty of the seers may be placed on a parallel with that of the Delphian Pythoness ; and it is of little consequence what the cause of the excitement is, whether whisky, or carbonic acid gas.
In the exercise of the second sight, the predictions have been usually accomplished before the seer has published his anticipatory knowledge ; hence the faci- lity with which predictions may be at any time announced. The wonder is that the impudent assertions of their being known before hand should find believers ; it can only be affirmed that the credulity balances the imposture. Absurd as these facts show this assumed gift of divination to have been, the belief in it was at one time universal; but it is now, happily, on the wane, and practised only in the remote Hebrides. If at any period those predictive visions really occurred, they must be viewed only as reveries, the sports of mental association in a state between sleeping and waking.
With respect to other omens, they are nearly the same over all the world, as well as in the Highlands. " A spark of fire," says Dr. Macculloch, in treating of
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Sky, "falling on the breast or arms of a woman, was the omen of a dead child. Certain sounds were the omens of death ;" and these are certainly not confined to Sky ; we find them prevailing among the uneducated classes, even in England, and, what is more remarkable, among some whose education should have placed them above lending an ear of credence to such absurdities. Many of these forebodings attract the attention of the individuals merely from that listless, dozing con- dition which is the result of want of occupation. The vision is, in truth, the recollection of something that has previously occurred, which begins a series of associations, or false ideas, that impress and keep their hold of the imagination in hours between sleeping and watchfulness.
It might be supposed that the seers could not believe, and that, like the augurs of old, who laughed in each others faces when they met, the seers, also, must have felt strange emotions on encountering one an- other; but this idea does not always hold. How many confessions of witchcraft were made at the time when that delusion enchained the human mind in its bondage may be seen in the pages of our Author. These confessions may be regarded as a species of insanity, especially when those who uttered them were carried to the stake, or were suffering under the most horrific tortures of breaking on the wheel. The argument in favour of witchcraft resting on evidence is valid for every absurdity detailed of it ; but it is almost degrading to condescend to prove the small value of human testimony upon numerous points, when we see
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XXXI
men of every rank and denomination deceiving their eyesight, and believing that they have seen what never existed. Instances of this extraordinary fact are abun- dantly scattered through the following volumes ; and it has been well remarked, that " when once the minds of a people are prepared with a solution for every event, there will never be wanting events adapted to the si- tuation."*
With regard to the predictions of the temples, I am of opinion that our Author ascribes too much knowledge to the priesthood. In their own operations, there is no reason why their predictions should not be fulfilled ; but, in the series of natural events, where all things are so mingled together, and the untwining of the complication so much beyond our power, that to predict the manner and the particular moment in which the anticipated effect will take place cannot be supposed possible, Long experience, and the constant observation of natural events, may do much in enabling truth to be approxi- mated under such circumstances ; but even these aids are not adequate to insure its full attainment.
To suppose, however, that the fulfilment of a predic- tion of a supernatural character can depend, in any degree, on the interposition of the individual who has hazarded it, must be regarded as absurd ; and as resting upon the same ground as the belief in witchcraft ; the stories of men without heads, described by St. Augus- tine as having been seen by himself; or the satyrs of St.
* Macculloch's Highlands and Western Islands, &c. vol. ir, p. 86.
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Jerome ;* mermaids ; the clairvoyance of mesmerisers ; the cures of Prince Hohenlohe, performed at two thou- sand miles from the patient ; or those fictitious ones now enslaving the minds of many whose rank in life and edu- cation should have prevented them from becoming the dupes of so silly an imposture — I refer to the gift of heal- ing possessed by a young French woman, Mademoiselle Julie, now in the British metropolis. She professes to judge of diseases, when placed in the mesmeric slumber, by feeling a few hairs from the head of the sick person, who is not required to be present ; and prescribing for them ; — a most impudent impos- ture, which has been justly exposed by Doctor John Forbes.f
A considerable portion of these volumes is occupied in tracing many of the extraordinary apparent miracles of antiquity to mechanical and scientific sources ; but the knowledge of the erudite Author is not very profound on this part of his subject ; and here I trust my Notes shall be found to illustrate his remarks ; as well as to clear up many obscure passages; to explain processes which seem to have been little known to him ; and to correct errors into which he has been led from being only superficially acquainted with the subject. I have, also, added many brief biographical notices of the principal individuals mentioned in the text, chiefly for the sake of the general English reader, whose moderate acquaintance with clas-
* St. Jerome averred that there were actual satyrs, men with goats' legs and tails, exhibited at Alexandria ; and that one was pickled and sent in a cask to Constantine.
f See British and Foreign Medical Review.
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XXX111
sical antiquity may require such an aid. It is not for me to say how much the Notes may be thought to add to the value of the work ; they have been written with the intention of rendering the whole subject better understood. I contemplated adding to the Illustrations at the conclusion of the second volume, an Essay on Credulity in Medicine, tracing it to its course, and giving an exposition of the various successful efforts of charlatanism, which have at various times imposed upon the understanding of mankind, and contributed to the stability of the empire of superstition. But on looking over my materials for such a dissertation, collected during many years, I was convinced that the subject could not be embraced within any reasonable compass to serve as an appendage to these volumes ; I have therefore determined to lay it, at some future time, before the public as a distinct work.
In conclusion, I have no hesitation in declaring my opinion that M. Salverte has performed a beneficial service to mankind in throwing open the gates of the ancient sanctuaries. The benefit would have been enhanced had he extended his researches from the falla- cies of polytheism to the pious frauds which disfigure the middle age of the Christian world ; " and from which," to borrow the language of Paley, " Christianity has suffered more injury than from all other causes put together;" another proof, were it required, that Cre- dulity and Superstition belong to no particular age nor country. Their labours constitute a large portion of the history of the human race, which may be re- garded as little more than a record of the follies and
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XXXIV PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
vices of man, rather than a display of his virtues and intellectual energies. Whatever may be our religious faith, we drink in, almost with our mother's milk, an admiration of classic antiquity ; and from the influence of early education we are insensibly led to give some degree of credence to its mythology. One beneficial effect, however, it must be confessed, results from tracing traditions; namely, the tendency which they have, in many important particulars, to confirm the truths of the Bible. Whether disgraced by the cruel and remorseless absurdities that deform the Hindoo rites ; or emerging from the frowning darkness that shrouded Egyptian mysticism ; or concealed by the graceful drapery which decorated Grecian poly- theism; we may discover in all of them nearly the same account of the infant condition of the world ; the creation of the human race ; and the catastrophe of the deluge ; thence a confirmation of the cos- mogony of the book of Genesis. The Hindoos, for example, divide the creation into six successive periods, the last of which terminates with the formation of ,man ; and, in the Purana, amidst the wildest allegories and most fanciful exuberance of machinery, we discover evident traces of the universal flood, and the preservation of one family destined to renew and to continue the human race. Among the Parsees, the followers of Zoroaster, the belief in one Supreme Being, and of a good and an evil principle, con- stitutes their primitive faith ; the superstitions now mingled with the fire worship having originated in the ambition of the priesthood for power, rather
PHEFACE BY THE EDITOR. XXXV
than in the tenets of its original founder. The sun of Christianity has dispersed the darkness of paganism ; and, as knowledge extends sufficiently to dissipate the divisions introduced, unhappily, into the Christian churches, the blessings that result more and more from its influence, will aiford only additional evi- dence of its divine origin.
A. T. T.
30, WELBECK STREET, JUNE 1846.
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CONTENTS
FIRST VOLUME.