CHAPTER IL

Difference between Miracles and Prodigies — Circumstances that render marvellous Histories credible — 1st. The number and agreement of the narrations, and the confidence which the observers and witnesses of them merit. — 2nd. The possibility of tracing out some one or other of the principal causes that may have given a miraculous colouring to a natural event.
The dominion of the marvellous may be divided into two parts : that of prodigies, and that of magical works.
Independent of all human action, prodigies are singu- lar events that nature produces, apparently deviating from those laws which invariably regulate her operations.
Every thing is a prodigy in the eyes of the ignorant man, who sees the universe only in the narrow circle of his existence. The philosopher beholds no prodigies : he knows that a monstrous birth, or the sudden crumbling of the hardest rock, result from causes as natural as the alternate return of night and day.*
* Our author's assertion in this paragraph is too general. Prodigies are, undoubtedly, traceable to natural causes ; but not to these in their regular and ordinary operation : on the contrary, they are truly attributable to decided deviations from it. In a
8 DEFINITION OF MAGIC.
Those prodigies, once so powerfully acting upon the fears, desires, and resolutions of mankind, awaken in the present day only incredulity, and excite the investigation of the learned. In the infancy of society, men possessed themselves of rare facts, and of all real or apparent wonders, in order to hold them up to the eyes of the vulgar, as signs of the anger, the threats, promises, or the benevolence of the Gods.
Miracles and marvellous events, equally in connection with supernatural influence, are often wonders worked by men, whether they pretend that a benevolent or a terrible Divinity employs them as instruments ; or whether, by the study of the transcendental sciences, they assume that they have subjected to their empire, spirits endowed with some power over the phenomena of the visible world.
Every miracle impresses a religious man with a sense of veneration ; at the same time he bestows this name on those supernatural operations only that are consecrated by his belief. We shall, therefore, apply the name magic to the art of working wonders; and in so doing we shall digress from received opinions, and recal the ancient ideas of faith.
monstrous birth, the same organic force and formative power are exerted in the development of the germ as in ordinary cases ; but, in the progress of the development, something occurs to interrupt the action of the organizing principle, and a monster is the result. The formative power is a creative faculty, stamped upon organic matter by the Deity, which modifies it, but operates " blind- ly and unconsciously, according to the laws of adaptation."3 — Ed.
* Midler's Physiology, trans, vol. i. p. 25.
CREDIBILITY OF THE MARVELLOUS. 9
In the absence of religious revelation to regulate the thoughts, what proof of credibility, we may inquire, would be sufficient to make the thinking mind admit the existence of prodigies and marvellous events?
The calculation of the probabilities will serve as a guide.
It appears to a superficial view much more probable that a man should be deceived by appearances more or less specious, or, that having some interest to deceive, he should himself endeavour to impose, than that there should be perfect agreement in a relation which involves something miraculous. But, if in different times and places many men should have seen the same thing; and if their recitals agree among themselves, then the case is altered.
That which seemed incredible to the wise, and mira- culous to the vulgar, becomes a curious but undeniable fact : the vulgar are amused by it ; the learned study it, and endeavour to develop its cause.
A single question remains then to be resolved in order to form a just estimate of the past. Must we admit that men have imprudently uttered and recorded falsehoods, and have found other men, in all times, ready to believe absurdities? Is it not more rational to conclude that those recitals, in appearance marvellous, are founded on reality, particularly when they can be explained sometimes by the human passions, occasionally by the state of science in former times ?
I shall fearlessly cite those witnesses hitherto regarded with suspicion ; although they have narrated events that have been reputed impossible. The discredit into which
b 3.
10 CREDIBILITY OF THE MARVELLOUS.
they have fallen makes part of our argument which goes to show that discredit cannot be justly opposed to their narrations.
Is it credible, I may ask, that, in the year a.d. 197, a shower of quicksilver could have fallen in the Forum of Augustus at Rome ?
Dion Cassius,* who relates the event, did not see it fall, but he observed it immediately after its descent: he collected some of the drops, and rubbed them upon a piece of copper in order to give to it the appearance of silver, which he affirms it preserved for three entire days.f Glycas also speaks of a shower of quicksilver, which fell in the reign of Aurelian.j But the authority of this annalist is weak, and there is reason to believe, that he has only disfigured the account of Dion by an anachronism. The rarity and value of mercury at
* Dion Cassius Cocceianus, the son of Cassius Apronianus, a Roman Senator, was born at Nicsea in Bithynia, a.d. 155. Although, he was on his mother's side of Greek descent, and wrote in the language of his native province, yet he was truly a Roman ; and enjoyed the rank of a Senator under Commodus. He also held several important official situations under Alexander Severus. His History of Rome, from the period of Augustus to his own age, is justly esteemed. — En.
•f- " Coelo sereno pluvia rori simillima, colorisque argentei, informa Augusti defiuxit, quam ego, et si non vidi cum caderet, tamen ut ceciderat, inveni ; eaque, ita ut si esset argentum, oblivi monetam exœre, mansitque is color très dies ; quarto vero die quidquid oblitum fuerat evanuit." — Xiphilinus, in Severo.
X " Aureliano imperante argenti guttas decidisse sunt qui tra- dant." (Glycas. Annal, lib. in.) Little is known about this author. He wrote a Chronicle of events from the Creation to the year a.d. 1118. It has been valued on account of its Biblical references. — Ed.
CREDIBILITY OF THE MARVELLOUS. 11
Rome, in both reigns, set aside the possibility that the quantity necessary to represent rain could have been thrown by any one into the Forum. This story is, indeed, too strange to be believed in the present day. Must it then be absolutely rejected ? Any one may say, it is impossible — it never could occur: but to whom does it belong to determine the limits of possibility, those limits which science is extending every day under our own eyes? Let us examine, let us doubt, but let us not be too hasty in denying the possibility of such an occurrence.*
If a similar prodigy had been related at different times by different writers ; if it had been renewed in our own times, beneath the eyes of experienced observers ; it would no longer be regarded as a fable or an illusion, but as a phenomenon, which would have a place in those records to which science consigns facts, which she has recognized as certain without being able to explain them.
We at one time regarded as fables all that the ancients recorded respecting the falling of stones from the sky. In the commencement of the nineteenth century, the
* There are many reasons for disbelieving the account of Dion. In the first place, he did not see the shower fall ; he gives no idea of the quantity of the quicksilver precipitated; and he collected only some drops ; but, as the metal fell in a shower, and as it would not sink into the ground nor evaporate like water, the quantity must have been too considerable to require it to be collected in drops. In the second place, metallic mercury is rarely found any where in large quantity; and it must have been elevated into the atmosphere in the form of vapour, and condensed there, before it could descend in a shower. The story is altogether unworthy of credit. — Ed.
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most distinguished of the French philosophers rejected, with some degree of harshness, the relation of a shower of aerolites; but a few days afterwards they were forced to acknowledge its truth : and the narration has been verified by the frequent repetition of this pheno- menon.*
On the 27th of May, 1819, a violent hail-storm
* Although the fall of aerolites, or meteoric stones is not now doubted, yet it does not augment the credibility of the shower of quicksilver related by Dion ; it only shows us how cautious we ought to be in rejecting the accounts of ancient writers, however inconsistent with our experience. The most authentic account of a fall of aerolites is that which describes the phenomenon as it occurred near L'Aigle, in Normandy, in 1803. About one o'clock in the afternoon, the sky being clear, a ball of fire was observed in the atmosphere in different parts in Nor- mandy, and, at the same time, loud explosions were heard in the district of L'Aigle. These lasted for five or six minutes, resem- bling the discharges of cannon and musketry, followed by a long, rolling noise like that of many drums. The meteor, whence the noise seemed to proceed, was like a small triangular cloud, which remained stationary ; but vapour seemed to issue from it after each explosion. Throughout the whole district a hissing noise, like that caused by stones thrown from a sling, was heard ; and a great number of stones fell to the ground. Above two thousand were collected : they varied in weight from two drachms to seventeen pounds and a half. Aerolites, in whatever part of the world they have fallen, resemble one another in composition, and consist of silica, iron, magnesia, nickel, and sulphur ; but in proportions different from those in any stones known on the sur- face of our globe. Numerous conjectures have been advanced respecting the source of these stones. They have been supposed to be projected from the moon ; or from volcanoes ; or to be formed in the atmosphere ; the most probable theory is that proposed by Chladni, namely, that these meteors are either
CREDIBILITY OF THE MARVELLOUS. 13
devastated the country of Grignoncourt.* The mayor of the place had some of the hail-stones collected ; they weighed upwards of a pound avoirdupois; and when they were dissolved, he found in the centre of each a stone of a clear coffee colour, from about six to eight- tenths of an inch in thickness ; flat, round, polished, and with a hole in the centre, into which the little finger could be inserted.f Such stones had never been observed before in the country : they were seen scattered upon the ground wherever the hail had fallen. I read the ac- count of the phenomenon in a memorial (Procès verbal), addressed to the sub-prefect of Neufchâteau by the mayor, who viva voce related the same details to me ; and the clergyman of the parish confirmed the account. It might be said that the tempest and violent fall of the hail had forced up to the surface stones previously buried in the earth. The personal observation of the mayor, however, refutes this hypothesis. Curious to know the truth, I examined the soil at the time where the plough opened it more deeply than the hail could possibly have done, and I could not discover a single stone similar to those that the mayor described in his narration.!
• original, small, solid bodies, or fragments separated from larger masses moving in space round the earth in eccentric orbits ; and containing, according to Sir H. Davy, combustible or elastic matter. — Ed.
* Neufchâteau in the department of the Vosges.
f Upon the banks of the Ognon, a river flowing about ten leagues from Grignoncourt, a great quantity of similar stones was found. Could they also be the product of a hail- storm charged with aerolites ?
Î It is not likely that he could discover any; for, although the fall
14 CREDIBILITY OF THE MARVELLOUS.
Shall we reject a fact attested in so precise a manner ? In Russia, in 1825, a fall of hail-stones, in which were enclosed meteoric stones, took place. The stones were sent to the Academy at St. Petersburg.* On the 4th of July, 1833, in the district of Tobolsk, enormous hail-stones were seen to fall simultaneously with cubical aerolites. Macrisius relates, that in the year 723, of the Hegira, an enormous-hail shower fell, the stones of which weighed from one to thirty rotts.f
With what disdain, what ridicule, should we treat an ancient author if he told us that a woman had a breast on her left thigh, with which she nourished her own and several other children : yet, this phenomenon has been vouched for by the Academy of Sciences at Paris, j The known correctness of the philosopher who examined it, and the value of the testimonials upon which he rested
of aerolites be true, yet the improbability of the stones being such as stated is evident. The story is thus justly criticized in the North British Review, vol. in. p. 7. " The phenomenon," says the critic, " was never seen in any other place, and the enveloped stone was not a substance known to have a separate existence like quicksilver. A great quantity of circular, perforated discs of a polished and transparent mineral, could only have come from a jeweller's shop in the moon, consigned to another jeweller in the atmosphere, who set them in ice for the benefit of the Mayor of Grignoncourt." — Ed.
* Chemical analysis gave the composition of these stones — 70 per cent, of red oxide of iron ; 7.50 manganese ; 7.50 silex ; 6.25 micaceous earth ; 3.75 argil; 6 sulphur. — Bulletin Universel des Sciences, 1825, tome m. p. 117. No. 137. 1826, tome vin. p. 343.
f Kitab-at-Solouk. Quoted by M. Et. Quatremère. — Mémoires sur l'Egypte, vol. n. p. 489—490.
% Séance du 25 Juin, 1827. See Revue Encyclopédique, tome xxxv. p. 244.
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his veracity, would have been sufficient to have placed the matter beyond a doubt.#
There is still one cause which diminishes and destroys much of the improbability of marvellous events : it is the facility which one finds in stripping these events of every thing monstrous, such as at first provoked a challenge. In order to effect this, it is always necessary to allow for that spirit of exaggeration peculiar to the human mind. It is ignorance which prepares credulity to receive prodigies and apparent miracles ; curiosity excites ; pride interests ; the love of the marvellous misleads ; anticipa- tion carries us on ; fear subdues ; and enthusiasm intoxi- cates us ; whilst chance, that is to say, a succession of events, the connection of which we do not perceive, and which also permits us to attribute effects to erroneous causes, seconding all these agents of error, sports with human credulity.
Apparent miracles have been produced by the science, or by the address of able men, who, in order to rule the people, have worked upon their credulity ; or the same individuals have made use of those prodigies which strike the eyes of the vulgar ; of those real or apparent miracles, the existence of which is rooted in their minds. Both cases will enter into our discussions. We will develop also the progress of a class of men, who, founding their empire upon the marvellous, are anxious
* This was one of those sports of nature, which are not unfre- quently seen, and which cannot be reasoned upon. As it may be a solitary instance of the kind, there might have been indeed, and properly, much doubt respecting the credibility of the narrative mentioning it, had the phenomenon not been seen, and the nature of it investigated by those well qualified for the task. — Ed.
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that it should be recognised in every thing ; and as anxious to dupe the stupid multitude, who so easily consent to see the marvellous every where.
We shall narrow also the domain of the Occult Sciences within its true limits ; the principal end of our investi- gations, if we can exactly point out the causes, which, with the efforts of Science and the works of Nature, concur in producing apparent miracles, or even in deter- mining the importance, and solving the nature of the prodigies which thaumaturgists employ, prompt to bolster up their real powerlessness by the efforts of their ingenuity.
In this discussion, we shall not be afraid of multiplying examples, nor of hearing the reader exclaim : I know all that ! He, doubtless, may know it ; but has he deduced from it the consequences ? It is not enough to offer a plausible explanation of some solitary facts : we must collect and compare a considerable mass of them, in order to be able to draw the conclusion, that, as in each branch of our system, our explanations tend to preserve the foundation of truth, and to remove the marvellous from a great number of events, it is extremely probable this system has truth for its foundation, and that there are no facts to which it may not apply.
CAUSES OF HISTORICAL FICTIONS. 17