CHAPTER XII.

Acoustics — Imitation of thunder — Organs — Resounding chests — Androïdes, or speaking heads — The statue of Memnon.
Imposture always betrays itself. However much the mind of the candidate might have been preoccu- pied ; the creaking of the pullies ; the coiling of cordage ; the clicking of wheels ; and the noise of the machines ; must necessarily have struck upon his ear, and disclosed the weak hand of man in those exhibitions, which were intended to excite admiration as the work of superna- tural powers. This danger was felt and foreseen ; but far from seeking to deaden the sound of the machines, those who worked them studied to augment it, sure of increasing the terror intended to be excited. The tre- mendous thunder accompanied with lightning was regarded by the vulgar as the arm of the avenging Gods ; and the Thaumaturgists were careful to make it heard when they spoke in the name of the Gods.
The labyrinth of Egypt enclosed many palaces so constructed that their doors could not be opened without the most terrific report of thunder resounding from
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within.* When Darius, the son of Hystaspes, mounted the throne, his new subjects fell prostrate before him, and worshipped him as the elect of the Gods, and as a God himself; and at the same moment, thunder rolled and they saw the lightning flash.f
The art of charming the ears was as important to the Thaumaturgists as alarming the multitude with awful noises. Pausanias who seriously recounts so many fabulous miracles, nevertheless taxes Pindar with having invented the fable of the golden virgins,vtho were endowed with a ravishing voice, and, according to the Theban poet, adorned the roof of the temple of Delphi.! Less incredulous than Pausanias, we may suppose that behind the statues of the virgins, or within the gilded bas-relie- vos, was concealed a musical instrument, the sounds of which imitated the human voice. A simple organ would suffice for this purpose, and hydraulic organs were well- known to the ancients. A passage in the writings of St. Augustin seems even to indicate that organs with blowers were not unknown to them.
An invention much less familiar is noticed in the history of a wonderful stone, said to have been found in the Pactolus. This stone, when placed at the entrance to a treasure, kept away thieves whose fears were aroused by hearing the loudest tones of a trumpet issue from it.§ There are strong coffers made at the present
* Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvi. cap. xiii.
f Tzetzès. Chiliad.
X Pausanias. Phocic. cap. v.
§ Treatise on Rivers and Mountains, attributed to Plutarch,
§ VIII.
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day, which, when clandestinely opened, produce loud sounds.* The Phrygian inventor of the first of these won- ders of mechanism had, perhaps, as we are led to believe, veiled his secret under a fable ; for, if he had described it literally, it would not have been credited that a stone found on the shores, or the neighbouring mountains of Pactolus could possess such a power. As to its pro- perties of sound, they were only possessed in common with the sounding stone preserved at Megara ;f the red granite of Egypt; the stones employed in China for making musical instruments ; the sparkling green stone of which a statue found in the ruins of Palenqui-viejo was made ;| and the basalt, of which there are large blocks existing in Brasil, from which a very distinct sound is awakened whenever they are struck. § The rest is due to ignorance and a love of the marvellous.
It is often related in ancient history, that distinct words have been uttered by a child at the moment of its birth ; that trees also and statues have spoken ; and that sounds have been spontaneously uttered in the sombre gloom of a temple. The phenomena of ventriloquism affords a satisfactory explanation for many of these stories ; but not for all of them. It is, therefore, more natural to admit that these sounds, the origin of which is not perceptible, are
* Louis XV. possessed one, and one was offered to Napoleon in 1809.
f Pausanias. Attic, cap. xlii.
% Revue Encyclopédique, tomexxxi. p. 850.
§ Mawe's Journey into the Interior of Brazil, vol. i. chap. v. p. 158.
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the effects of art ; and to attribute these to the inven- tion of the Androïdes, which, although, in our own times, explained in well-known works,# yet has, under the name of the Invisible Girl, excited the admiration of the vulgar, and even of those who are unwilling to class themselves among the ignorant. Questions are ad- dressed, in a low tone, to a doll, or a head made of card-board or of metal, or even to a glass-box ; in a short time replies are heard which appear to proceed from the inanimate object. Acoustics teach us the methods which enable a person, at some distance, to hear and to be heard as distinctly as if he occupied the place whence the doll apparently speaks. It is not at all a modern invention ; for more than two centuries have elapsed since Portaf explained the principles of this invention in his Natural Magic :| but, in more ancient times, its principles were kept secret and only the wonders performed by it presented for the admiration of the multitude.
Towards the end of the fourteenth century, a speak- ing head, made of earthenware, excited in England * Encyclopédie, art. Androide.
f Giambatista Porta, a Neapolitan, in the 16th century, wrote, at a very early age, the first books of his work on Natural Magic, which accounts for the many absurd and fantastic notions which, mixed up with deductions of true science, they contain. He was, however, a man of learning and genius, and did much in his time to forward the pursuit of science. He invented the camera ob- scura. His " Magia Naturalis," is a compilation from both ancient and modern authors, and contains much curious matter, badly put together. Besides many philosophical treatises, he wrote several dramatic works. — Ed.
% Porta. De Magia Naturali. Pancirol. Rerum recens invent. Giambatista, tit. x. For the explanation of the Invisible Girl, see Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic.
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258 SPEAKING HEADS AND STATUES.
the astonishment of the curious. The one made by Albertus Magnus,* in the thirteenth century, was
* Albertus, surnamed Magnus, from the Latinizing of his sur- name, which was Great, was a native of Swabia, and born in 1205. He was ardently desirous of acquiring knowledge, and studied with assiduity; but being of slow comprehension, his progress was not adequate to his expectations, and, therefore, in despair, he resolved to relinquish books, and bury himself in retirement. One night, however, he saw a vision of a beautiful woman, who accosted him, and inquired the cause of his grief. He replied, that in spite of all his efforts to acquire information, he feared he should always remain ignorant. "Have you so little faith," replied the lady, " as to suppose that your prayers will not obtain what you cannot of yourself accomplish ? I am the Holy Virgin, and I have heard your prayers." The young man prostrated him- self at the feet of the Virgin, who promised him all that he desired, but added that, as he preferred philosophy to theology, he should lose his faculties before his death. She then disap- peared ; and the prediction was accomplished. Albertus became unwillingly Bishop of Ratisbon, but he relinquished the See within three years, and resided chiefly at Cologne, where he produced many wonderful works. It was said that he constructed an automaton which both walked and spoke, answered questions, and solved problems submitted to it. Thomas Aquinas, who was the pupil of Albertus, was so alarmed on seeing this automaton, which he conceived to be the work of the Devil, that he broke it to pieces and committed it to the flames. When William, Count of Holland and King of the Romans, was at Cologne, Albertus invited him to a banquet, and promised that his table should be laid out in the middle of his garden, although it was then winter, and severe weather. William accepted the invitation ; and, on arriving at the house of Albertus, was surprised to find the tempe- rature of the ^ air as mild as in summer, and the banquet laid out in an arbour formed of trees and shrubs covered with leaves and flowers, exhaling the most delicious odours, which filled the whole of the garden. Albertus was reputed a magician ; but, neverthe- less, after his death, which occurred in 1282, in his seventy-seventh year, he was canonized. — Ed.
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of the same material. Gerbert, who under the name of Sylvester the Second, occupied the papal throne from the years 199 to 1003, constructed a brazen head pos- sessing a similar property.* This master-piece of art was the cause of his being accused of magic ; perhaps the accusation was not unfounded, if they applied the same meaning to the word as we do ; it was the result of science concealed from the knowledge of the common people.
The philosophers, in these inventions, made no new discovery ; they had received from their ancient prede- cessors a secret which surpassed and alarmed the weak understandings of their cotemporaries.
Odin, who implanted among the Scandinavians a religion and magical secrets borrowed from Asia, pos- sessed a speaking head. It was said to be the head of the wise Mirme, which Odin after the death of that hero, had caused to be encased in gold. He consulted it, and the replies which he was supposed to have received were revered as the oracles of a superior being.
Besides the Northern legislator there were others who had endeavoured to render credulity more eager and submissive, by asserting that the speaking heads they served had always been animated by the spirits of living men.
We shall not, however, quote, in this sense, the story of the child that was devoured whole by the ghost of Polycritus, with the exception of its head, which uttered prophecies that were afterwards verified : f
* Elias Schedius. De Diis Germants, p. 572 — 573. t Phlego. De Mirahilibvs Noël. Dictionnaire de la Fable, art. Polycrite.
s 2
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this fable is most probably an allegory. But at Lesbos a speaking head delivered oracles ; it predicted to the great Cyrus, (in rather equivocal terms, it is true,) the bloody death which should terminate his expedition against the Scythians. It was the head of Orpheus ; and it was so celebrated for its oracular responses among the Persians, and also among the Greeks, from the time of the Trojan war, that Apollo himself became jealous of its fame.*
According to many Rabbins, the Theraphim consisted of the embalmed heads of the dead, under whose tongues a thin plate of gold was fixed,f and, like the head of Mirme, also incased in gold. Other Rabbins report that the Theraphim were phantoms, who, having received the influence of powerful stars, conversed with men and gave them wholesome advice.f We are led from the expressions of Maimonides, on this subject to infer that buildings were erected expressly to contain these speaking images ; a circumstance which explains why so much care was taken to place the images against the wall ; . a certain position being absolutely neces- sary to produce an apparent miracle depending on acoustics. This miracle was not unknown in that country of wonders, whence the Hebrews acquired their knowledge. The priests (Mercurius Trismegis-
* Philostrat. Vit. Apollon, lib. iv. cap. iv. Philostrat. Heroic in. Philoctete.
f Fromann. Tract, de Fasc. p. 682 — 683.
% R. Maimonides. More Nevochim, part in. cap. xxx. " Et cedificaverunt palatia et posuerunt in eis imagines." Elias Schedius De Diis Germanis, p. 568 — 569.
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tus# is our authority) possessed the art of making Godsf and statues endowed with understanding ; who predicted future events and interpreted dreams. It was even asserted that the Theurgists, who were addicted to doctrines less pure, knew also how to make Gods and statues animated by demons, that were, little inferior in their supernatural powers to those made by the real priests. In other words, the same physical secrets were known and practised by the rival priesthoods.
The ancients, as we are informed, were acquainted with the art of constructing Androïdes,| and this art has been preserved and handed down to our work- shops from their temples. Through the dark period of the middle ages, we draw this conclusion from what has preceded ; and it seems more admissible than the supposition of impostures and gross deceptions§ constantly renewed. We may inquire whether it was an applica-
* The Egyptian Hermes, who is reported to have invented writing, and first taught astrology and the science of astronomy. —Ed.
f " Artem quel deos efficerent." Mercurii Trismegisti Pymander. Asclepius, pp, 145, 146, et 165, (in 12mo. Basilese, 1532.)
I We believe this explanation sufficient ; but to render it more complete, we may cite the speaking heads presented by the Abbé Mical to the Académie des Sciences in 1783. They pronounced words and phrases, but did not produce an exact imitation of the human voice.
§ Far from exaggerating the knowledge possessed by the ancients in acoustics, we do not go so far as Fontenelle, who -suspects (Histoire des Oracles, part i. chap, xm.) that the ancient priests were acquainted with the use of the speaking- trumpet. Kircher thinks Alexander made use of a speaking- trumpet, that he might be heard at the same moment by the whole of his army. It does not seem very probable.
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tion of science, superior or equal to those we have enumerated, that produced in Egypt the wonder of the statue of Memnon, which every morning raised its har- monious voice to welcome the rising sun? Was the secret of this apparent miracle derived from an art inge- niously concealed, or only from a phenomenon, which the spectators, eager for miracles, did not attempt to unfathom? It seems to me, that all the conjectures that have been hazarded on this subject are reduced to this alternative. # The second supposition furnishes us with another ex- ample of the artifice which the priests employed to convert into apparent miracles extraordinary facts, calculated to astonish the vulgar. The first opinion has been adopted
* See note B, yol. n. on the statue of Memnon. Wonderful as many of the automata of the ancients were, they yield the palm to some of the modern. I must refer the reader to Dr. Brewster's "Letters on Natural Magic" for a de- scription of several, and among them the Automaton Chess- player, which was some years since exhibited in London, and excited much astonishment. I shall notice here only the Flute- player of Vaucauson, which was exhibited in Paris in 1736. It was seen and described by M. d'Alembert,a who says, " it really played on the flute ;" that is, it projected the air with its lips against the embouchure, producing the different octaves by expand- ing and contracting their opening, forcing more or less air, in the manner of living performers, and regulating the tones by its fingers. It commanded these octaves, the fullest scale of the instrument, containing several notes of great difficulty to most performers. It articulated the notes with the lips. Its height was nearly five and a half feet, and was placed on a pedestal, in which some of the machinery was contained. Dr. Brewster15 has given a popular description of the machinery. — Ed.
a Encyclop. Math. art. Androide. b Letters on Natural Magic, p. 204.
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by many cotemporary authors ; and it was what I believe the priests themselves were anxious should prevail.
Juvenal denominates the sounds that issued from the statue, magical ;* and we have mentioned that among the ancients, magic was the art of working wonders by scientific means, unknown to the multitude. A scho- liast of the Latin satirist is still more explicit ; for, in commenting on this passage, he speaks of the wonder- ful mechanism in the construction of 'the statue ;f and adds that its voice was clearly the result of the working of machinery. When this writer thus reduced to the per- formance of mechanism the wonder of Memnon's statue, he spoke undoubtedly from the authority of ancient tra- dition. This tradition, however, never lessened the senti- ments of admiration and piety, which were awakened by the sacred voice in the souls of its auditors ; j they recog- nized in it a miracle according to the primitive meaning of the word. A wonderful circumstance, the invention of which they delighted to ascribe to the inspiration of the Gods, but which, we need scarcely add, was not at all supernatural. In the end, the idea of its divine origin darkened the minds of the multitude ; and, per- haps, without the priests having attempted to deceive the worshippers, this wonder of art would have become transformed into a religious prodigy, which was every day renewed.
* " Dimidio magicœ resonant ubi Memnone chorda." f Quoted by J. Phil. Casselius. Dissertation sur les pierres vocales ou parlantes, p. 8. Langlès, Dissertation sur la statue vocale de Memnon. Voyage de Norden, tome il. p. 237.
X See the inscriptions engraved on the colossal statue. M. Le Tronne has reunited and explained them in a work entitled la statue de Memnon (in-4to. Paris, 1833), p. 113—240.
264 OPTICAL EXHIBITIONS,