CHAPTER X.

Compositions similar to gunpowder — Mines worked by it under Herod ; by the Christian priests under the Emperor Julian at Jerusalem ; and in Syria under the Caliph Motassem ; and by the priests of Delphi in order to repulse the Persians and Gauls — Antiquity of the invention of Gunpowder ; its probable origin in Hindostan ; it has been known from time immemorial in China — Tartar army repelled by artillery — Priests of India employed the same means to hurl thunder upon their enemies —The thunder of Jupiter compared to our fire-arms — Many assumed miracles explained by the use of these arms — Gun- powder was known in the latter empire, probably until the twelfth century.
Physical phenomena, and the services that Science extracts from them, link the one to the other. The exa- mination of the brilliant apparent miracles effected by spontaneous inflammations, leads us to a discussion of the resources that the Thaumaturgists employed in war to turn fire into an offensive or defensive weapon. From the facts which we have already quoted, we may presume that very anciently they were in possession of some in- flammable composition more or less similar to gunpow-
GUNPOWDER KNOWN TO THE MAGI. 227
der ;* and that those tubes which threw out a brilliant fire, with a noise like that of thunder, may have been the first rough delineations of our canons and fire-arms.f We could not then have been accused of romancing, if we had said that the ancients possessed, by these means, the power of imitating the most formidable scourges ; whether by shaking the earth by mines they saw it open in chasms at their enemies' feet; or by sending from afar bolts as burning, speedy, and inevitably fatal as lightning.
Herod descended into the monument of David in the hope of finding treasure there. His cupidity not being satisfied with what he had already found, he extended his researches, and caused the vaults, in which the remains of David and Solomon were laid, to be opened. A fierce flame suddenly burst out ; two of the king's guards, suffocated and burnt by it, perished, j Michaelis attributes this prodigy to the gas, which, escaping from the vault, was kindled by the torches destined to light the workmen, who were employed in clearing an entrance.! But if such had been the case, these latter would have been the first victims, as the expansion of the gas must have taken place as soon as an opening had been
* Dutens, p. 194, supposes that they were actually acquainted with gunpowder. — Ed.
f Bacon is inclined to think that the Macedonians had a kind of magic powder, in its effects approaching to those of gunpowder. (Encyclop. method. Philosophie, vol. i. page 341. column 1.
% Josephus. Ant. Jud. lib. xvi. cap. lit.
I| Magasin Scientifique de Gottingue. nie année. 6e cahier, 1783.
Q 2
228 GUNPOWDER KNOWN TO THE MAGI.
effected in the vault. We should rather think that the priests, who had more than one motive for hating Herod, and who, looked upon the treasures enclosed in David's monument, as the property of the theocratic govern- ment, being justly indignant at the sacrilegious pillage which the Idumean Prince was committing; sought, by stimulating his cupidity, to attract him into the inte- rior vault, where they had prepared the certain means for his destruction, if, as they expected, he should be the first to enter it.*
Michaelisf explains, in the same manner, by the inflammation of subterraneous gas, the miracle which interrupted the works ordered by the Em- peror Julian for the restoration of the Temple of Jerusalem, and at which the Christians rejoiced so exceedingly, that they were suspected to have been the authors of it. This explanation seems to us even less plausible than the former. If in the globes of fire which shot out from the midst of the rubbish, wounding and putting the workmen to flight — if in the shaking of the ground, and the overthrow of several buildings, we are
* The conjecture of Michaelis is much more probable than the explanation of our author. In long shut up vaults and caverns, carburitted hydrogen gas, fire-damp as it is termed by miners, frequently forms in large quantity, and is instantly fired on coming into contact with a torch or any burning body. Now, as the torches must have been in the hands of the soldiers, not in those of the workmen who preceded them, the gas would pass unin- flamed over the workmen and be ignited only when it reached those who held the torches. — Ed.
f Magasin Scientifique de Gottingue, loc. cit.
EXPLOSIONS APPARENTLY SUPERNATURAL. 229
not to recognise the springing of a mine — we ask, what are the signs by which the springing of a mine is to be recognized ?*
* This opinion, so confidently advanced by our author, is not authorized by the account of Ammianus Marcellinus, who witnessed the event, and who, being inimical to the Christians, was not likely to conceal the opinion, if it existed, that the explosions, and emissions of fire, which defeated the intention of Julian to rebuild the Jewish temple, were the result of art. The Jews, also, who were eager for the restoration of the temple, would have searched out the artifice and exposed it, had any existed : besides, had the cause, which forced Alypius to discontinue the work, been a mine which was sprung, although it might have overthrown the build- ings and killed the labourers, yet, it would not have been constantly repeated in the manner described by the historian, who, indeed, evidently ascribes the event to the elements in these expressions : " hocque modo elemento obstinatius repellente.a And also by his statement that " the victorious elements continuing in this man- ner obstinately and resolutely bent in driving them (the workmen) to a distance, Alypius thought proper to abandon the enterprize." Had the materials for springing several mines been placed in a limited space, and the eruptions confined to one spot, the destruction caused by the first explosion would have rendered any after attempts to produce the same ineffective. Again, were we to admit that new explosive materials were employed in the sub- sequent explosions, new excavations must have been made; but any attempts to effect such a purpose could not have been carried on unknown to the Jews and the Pagans assembled on the spot ; yet the eruptions were constantly renewed as soon as the labour was resumed, until they effectually constrained the abandonment of the enterprise. The Editor has no hesitation in saying, that if these explosions, and earthquakes were not a real miracle, as he firmly believes they were, there are no data, whatever, for asserting that they were produced by human art as our author would imply ; and, consequently, although they
a Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xxxiii. c. i.
230 EXPLOSIONS APPARENTLY SUPERNATURAL.
We may observe, that neither the Jews of Jerusalem, the Emperor Julian, nor Ammianus Marcellinus, who has transmitted the account of it to us, were converted to Christianity by this miracle.
If we consult the annals of Greece, we shall find that the priests of Apollo at Delphi, after having announced by the voice of the oracle, that their God knew well how- to save his temple, did, in fact, preserve it from the inva- sion of the Persians, and then from that of the Gauls,
may ever remain otherwise unexplained, yet, they certainly cannot be regarded as the result of the springing of a mine. In favour of their being a real miracle, the prohibition of our Saviour, with re- gard to the restoration of the temple, required to be fulfilled, and it has been accomplished up to the present time ; hence we see a purpose which the miracle was intended to fulfil : and, in the event, the operation of a power adequate to the effect. To borrow the language of Dr. Thomas Brown, " the possibility of the occasional direct operation of the power which formed the world, in varying the usual course of its events D it would be iu the highest degree unphilosophical to deny; nor even, we presume, to estimate the degree of its probability ; since, in many cases, of the wide bearings of wbich on human happiness we must be ignorant, it might be the result of the same bene- volent motives, which we must suppose to have influenced the Divine mind, in the original act of creation itself. "'* Such is, also, the firm belief of the Editor ; and, in the events detailed, he perceives no law of nature violated ; and certainly no reason to withhold our faith in the testimony of the historian of the event; on the contrary, we may rationally suppose that the statement given of it by Ammianus, was in opposition to his personal interest. The phenomena presented no violation of nature ; but, as in every real miracle, it was an extraordinary event, the result of new and peculiar circumstances, and a display intended to sanction the revelations of that Being by whom the universe itself was called into existence. — En.
' An Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect, p. 500, notes.
EXPLOSIONS APPARENTLY SUPERNATURAL. 231
by the explosion of mines placed in the rocks that sur- rounded it. The assailants were crushed by the fall of innumerable blocks of stone, which, in the midst of devouring flames, were rained upon them by an invisible hand.*
Pausanias, who attributes the defeat of the Gauls to an earthquake and a miraculous storm, thus described their effects : " The lightning not only killed those who were struck by it, but an inflammable exhalation was communicated to those who were near, and reduced them to powder."f
The explosion, however, of many mines, as violent as we could imagine, could not have produced that total destruction of the assailants depicted by the historians. On the contrary, we hear of the same Gauls imme- diately afterwards making a successful incursion into Asia. They had been repulsed, not exterminated, at Delphi.
With regard to the cause assigned for their repulsion, would not the construction, it may be argued, of consi- derable mines, hollowed in the rocks of Delphi, have required the aid of too many co-operators for the secret to have been so long kept ? To this argument it may be answered, that the more simple and toilsome details must have been confided to rude workmen, who could neither dream, guess, nor divulge the intention of them ; and that these excavations were probably commenced long beforehand, as in the defensive works of modern
* Herodot. lib. vm. cap. xxxvn — xxxix; Justin, lib. xxiv. cap. vm.
t Pausanias. Phoc. cap. xxin.
232 EXPLOSIONS APPARENTLY SUPERNATURAL.
strong places, and merely required the fulminating com- position to be deposited in them when needed. Historical tradition furnishes us, however, with a more decisive answer. Every Greek, from Delphi to Thermopylse, was initiated in the mysteries of the Temple of Delphi.* Their secresy upon every point, where silence was commanded, was guaranteed, therefore, by a fear of the evils threat- ened to a perjured revelation, and by a general confes'sion required from each aspirant to this initiation ; a confes- sion which rather caused them to fear the indiscretion of the priests than to give the latter occasion to doubt theirs.
We may finally remark, that the God of Delphi, so powerful in protecting his temple from strangers, made no attempt to rescue its wealth from the hands of the Phocians. When these latter drained its resources, in order to defend their country against the hypocritical ambition of Philip, they had probably either obtained or compelled the acquiescence of the priests, and no longer feared a destructive apparent miracle, which could hardly be effected without the consent or the aid of their chiefs.
So customary is it to deem the use of gunpowder of a very modern date, that these remarkable facts have remained unnoticed, or, at least, have merely led to the supposition that ancient nations were acquainted with some composition almost as deadly.f " All that has been
* Plutarch. De Oracul. Defect.
f Various explosive substances are as destructive as gun- powder, and some of them might have been known to the ancients. When a solution of gold in aqua regia, is precipitated by ammonia, and the product washed and dried without heat, it becomes fulmi- nating gold. It is exploded by the slightest friction, and even
INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER. 233
written," says M. Napione, " by Egidio Colonna,* on instruments of war employed at the end of the thirteenth century, gives rise to a suspicion that the invention of gunpowder is of much more ancient date than we are accustomed to believe, and that this formidable compo- sition was perhaps nothing more than a modification or perfection of the Greek fire, known many centuries before gunpowder was invented in Europe."
cannot be put into a bottle witb a glass stopper without the greatest danger. It explodes with a loud noise.
When nitrate of silver is acted upon by nitric acid and alcohol at the same time, a grey powder is procured, which, being washed and dried, is fulminating silver. The explosive force of this powder is great ; it detonates with a tremendous noise on being touched with a glass rod dipped in sulphuric acid.
When mercury is dissolved in nitric acid, and afterwards alcohol added, effervescence takes place, and a precipitate is thrown down, which, after being washed and dried with a very gentle heat, forms detonating mercury. It explodes with the least friction.
A mixture of chlorate of potassa and sulphur detonates with friction, and even evolves flame. The noise caused by the explo- sion of a few grains is equal to that of a musket.
The choride of nitrogen, which was discovered by M. Dulong, in 1812, is one of the most violent of all detonating substances. It is procured in the form of an oil, and requires the utmost caution both to make it and to preserve it. If a small globule of it be thrown into olive oil, the most violent explosion takes place, and this also happens when it is brought into contact with phos- phorus, naptha, volatile oils, and many other matters.
All these compounds may have been unknown to the ancients ; but they are mentioned to show the probability of our ancestors having an acquaintance with many detonating powders besides those which we possess. — Ed.
* A Roman monk, who had a share in the education of Philip- le-Bel. Memorie della reale Accidentia delle Scienze di Torino, tome xxix. Revue Encyclopédique, torn. xxx. p. 42.
234 INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER.
We have established the fact, that the invention of the Greek fire belongs to a remote antiquity ; and we think that Langles was right in placing that of gunpowder in an equally distant period. The following is the substance of the facts by which he supports his opinion.* The Moors in Spain made use of gunpowder at the commencement of the fourteenth century. From the year 1 292, a poet of Grenada celebrated this means of destruction in his verses. There is also some reason for believing that the Arabs had made use of it against the fleet of the Crusaders in the time of St. Louis; and in 690 they employed it in the siege of Mecca. Missionaries have undeniably proved that gunpowder has been known in China from time immemorial. It was also known in Thibet and in Hin- dustan, where fireworks and jire-halls have been always used in war, and in public rejoicings. In districts of that vast country, where neither Mussulmen nor Euro- peans had ever penetrated, iron fusees, attached to a dart, which carried them into the enemy's ranks by the violence of the powder have been found. The laws collected in the code of the Gentoos, the antiquity of which is lost in the obscurity of the times, forbids the use of fire- arms (a prohibition which, no doubt, prevented them from becoming common).
These laws make a distinction between darts of fire and those bolts that killed a hundred men at once : the latter remind us of the effects of our own cannon. The Hindoos, though unacquainted with mortars, hollowed
* Dissertation inserted in the Magasin Encyclopédique, fourth year, torn. i. pp. 333—338.
INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER, 235
out holes in the rocks, and, filling them with powder, rained down stones upon their enemies, precisely like the hail which the priests of Delphi sent down upon the Persians and Gauls. Finally, a commentator of the Vedas attributes the invention of gunpowder to Visva- carma,* the artist God, who is said to have manufactured arrows which the Gods made use of when fighting against the evil Genii.
From this feature of the Hindoo mythology, learnt from travellers, is it not likely, we may ask, that Milton derived the idea of attributing to the rebel angels the invention of gunpowder and fire-arms ? Langles has omitted to notice this resemblance ; and, doubtless, the right of poets to invent, appeared to him to weaken very much the authority of their narrations. It was, nevertheless, easy for him to find in unexceptionable authorities on physical facts, the confirmation of his conjectures. He might have observed that, in China and in Hindustan, the soil is so impregnated with salt- petre, that this salt frequently effloresces on the surface of the earth: a phenomenon which must have early suggested and facilitated the confection of pyrotechnical composi- tions ; and, at the same time, have rendered the know- ledge of them common, in spite of their importance, as a part of the sacred and Occult Sciences. It is this, also, that has given to the Asiatic pyrotechnics so great a pre- ponderance over the European, and a superiority scarcely yet controverted. Both the one and the other advantages
* If this name has, as we are tempted to believe, furnished the etymology of a French word (vacarme), but little known, it would be inaptly translated " burning power."
236 INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER.
have often excited our incredulity, and prevented us from confessing, that others may be able to perform feats of which we know nothing. Fontenelle says that in China, according to the annals of that empire, " Thou- sands of stars are seen to fall at once from the heavens into the sea, with a great noise, or to dissolve away into rain. One star went bursting towards the east, like a fusee, and always with a great noise."# How came it that the ingenious philosopher did not recognise the effects of fusees and firework bombsf in this description ? It was well known that the Chinese excelled in composing both ; but Fontenelle preferred jesting on the pretended astronomical science of the Chinese.
With more reason has a remarkable passage from the voyages of Plancarpinus been turned into ridicule. The Tartars informed this monk that Prester-John, King of Great India, (probably a chief of Thibet, or of some nation professing the Lamich religion), when attacked by Tossuch, son of Tchinggis-Khan, led against his assailants figures of bronze mounted on horseback. In the interior of these figures was fire, and behind each a a man, who threw within them something, which imme- diately produced an immense smoke, and enabled the
* Fontenelle. De la Pluralité des Mondes. Sixième soir, (vers la fin).
f " A very brilliant meteor, as large as the moon, was seen finally splitting into sparks, and illuminating the whole valley." Ross's Second Voyage to the North Pole, chap, xlviii. We might have thought that the Chinese tradition related to some fact simi- lar to that which Ross had observed ; but no European had seen such meteors in China, and every traveller boasts of the fireworks of that country.
INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER. 237
enemies of the Tartars to massacre them.* It is diffi- cult to believe that an intense smoke would be sufficient to put to flight the companions in arms of Tchinggis.
It is less repugnant to one's prejudices to suppose that these bronze figures might be either small swivel guns, or cannon similar to those used in China, which, by being taken to pieces, could be easily transported about on horses ;f pieces of artillery, in short, that most certainly emitted something else besides smoke. Tossuch's soldiers unacquainted with these arms, and having in their flight abandoned their dead and wounded, could only tell Plancarpinus of the flames and smoke they had seen ; but we can recognize the real cause of their defeat, which was neither difficult to understand nor miraculous. We know the intercourse that Thibet, and the nations fol- lowing the religion of the Lamas, have always held with China. Now, a grandson of Tchinggis-Khan, in 1245, had in his army a body of Chinese matrosses ; and, from the tenth century, they had in China thunder chariots (chars à foudre), producing, from the same causes, the same effects as our cannon. | Being unable to fix the period when the use of gunpowder, fire-arms, and artillery was commenced in that empire, national tradition has ascribed the invention to the first King of the country. || Now, as this Prince was much versed in magic arts,§ it
* Voyage de Plancarpin, art. v. p. 42.
f P. Maffei. Hist. Indie, lib. vi. p. 256.
% Abel Remusat's Memoirs upon the Political Relations of the Kings of France to the Mongol Emperors. — Asiatic Journal, vol. i. p. 137.
|| P. Maffei. Hist. Indie, loc. cit.
§ Linschott's Travels in China, 3rd edit. p. 53.
238 INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER.
was not without some reason, that we ranked the disco- very, of which he has the honour, among the means employed for working apparent miracles.
These affinities strengthen, instead of affecting the opinion of Langles, which ascribed the invention of gunpowder to the Hindoos, from whom China, no doubt, received her civilization and arts, as well as her popular religion.
The Greeks were not ignorant of the formidable power of the weapons which were prepared in India by a secret process. Philostrates describes the sages who dwelt between the Hyphasis and the Ganges, as launching forth with redoubled fury lightning upon their enemies, and thus repelling the aggressions of Bacchus and the Egyptian Hercules.*
We may recal to remembrance the particular arrows with which the Gods of Hindustan armed themselves against the evil genii. In the Greek mythology, dis- tantly, but decidedly derived from the Hindoo, the Gods are described as fighting against the rebellious Titans, and securing their victory by similar terrible arms. The numerous points of resemblance, indeed, in the details of these battles assimilate the weapons of the King of the Gods and men to modern artillery. " The Cyclops," says the historian Castor,f " assisted Jupiter against the Titans with dazzling lightnings and thunder."
* Philostrat. vit Apollon, lib. n. cap. xiv. lib. in. cap. in. — Themist. Oral. xxvn.
t Euseb. Chronic. Canon, lib. i. cap. xni. — Nota. This im- portant passage is only found in the Armenian version published by Zorhab and Mai.
INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER. 239
In the war of the Gods against the giants, Vulcan, ac- cording to Apollodorus, killed Clytius,# by sending fiery stones against him. Typhon, brought forth by the earth, to avenge the giants, sent fiery stones flying against the heavens, whilst from his mouth issued flames of fire. " The brothers of Saturn," says Hesiod,f " freed from their bonds by Jupiter, gave to him the thunder, the dazzling lightnings, and thunder-bolt, which had been enclosed in the centre of the earth ; and by these weapons secured to this God his empire over men and immortals."
It is from the bosom of the earth that saltpetre, sulphur, and bitumen, which most probably composed the fulminating substance of the ancients, are taken. Minerva alone, of all the divinities, knew where the thunder! was kept ; the Cyclops alone understood the manufacture of it ; and Jupiter severely punished Apollo for having attempted the life of these invaluable artists. Now, if we set aside the mythological ideas attached to these names and recitals, we shall fancy that we are reading the history of a Prince, to whom some indivi- dual, from gratitude, had imparted the secret of fabricat- ing gunpowder, and who was as jealous of the exclusive possession of it, as the Byzantine Emperors were of reserving to themselves the secret of the Greek fire.
The resemblance between the effects of thunder and those of the inflammable compound we have noticed is so striking, that it has been recorded in all the historical and mythological narrations : nor did it escape the obser-
* Apollodor. Bibliothec. lib, i. cap. v. f Hesiod. Theogon. vers. 502—507. X vEschyl. Eumenid. vers. 829 — 831.
240 INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER.
vation of the natives of the new continent discovered by Christopher Columbus, and conquered by Cortes and Pizarro. These unfortunate people took their conquerors for Gods, armed with thunder, until they obtained the knowledge, for which they had paid dearly, namely, the right of knowing in their persecutors only malevolent spirits and enemies to humanity.
This resemblance explains a passage which Pliny probably borrowed from some ancient poet, and which has been the torment of his commentators. In treating of the origin of magic, Pliny expresses his surprise that this art had been dispersed over Thessaly from the time of the siege of Troy, before which time Mars alone directed the thunder (solo Marte fulminante). Is there not a visible allusion to the power possessed by the Sacred Science ; and which magic, originating in the temples, aimed at arrogating to itself the power of producing lightning, as well as that of arming itself with it in battle, and of producing explosions equal- ling claps of thunder.
Finally, it explains the death of Alexander's soldiers, who, having penetrated into the temple of the Ca- bira, near Thebes, perished there, struck by light- ning and thunder :* and also the story of Porsennaf killing, with one stroke of lightning, a monster which ravaged the lands of his subjects. In addition to these, we may mention the presumption of the Estrus- can magicians who, when Rome was threatened with a siege from Alaric, offered to repel the enemy, by send-
* Pausanias. Baetic. cap. xxv.
f Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii, cap. lui.
COMBUSTIBLES INFLAMED BY MOISTURE. 241
ing down upon him lightning and thunder ; boasting that they had effected this miracle at Narnia, a town which did not in fact fall into the power of the Gothic King.#
But, it may be asked, how came an art which was known to the Christians of the fourth century ; to the Etruscan magicians at the end of the fifth ; and preserved until the ninth century in Syria, to fall into oblivion ? And why, for instance, did the historian Ducas describe the falconets used against Amurat the Second, by the defenders of Belgrade,! as a novel invention, utterly un- known to his countrymen ? In reply, I may inquire, how have so many other arts perished which were more widely dispersed, and more immediately useful, than those referred to ? And, besides, the secret imposed by severe laws against revealing the composition of the Greek fire, may have existed as strictly with respect to other im- portant compositions.
I may, nevertheless, venture to affirm that this art was not lost until a more recent period in the latter empire. In the fifth century, Claudian describes in verse fireworks, and particularly the burning suns.\ Anthemus
* Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. ix. cap. vi. — If we may believe Zozimus (Hist. Rom. lib. v.) the Bishop of Rome had consented that the magicians should attempt the fulfilment of their promises; but they were sent away, on account of the repugnance of the people to their proposal, and the town capitulated, f Ducas. Hist. Imp. Joann, fyc, cap. xxx. X " Inque chori speciem spargentes ardua fiammas Scena rotet : varios effingat Mulciber orbes, Per tabulas impunè vagus ; pictseque citato Ludent igne trabes ; et non permissa morari, Fida per innocuas errent incendia turres."
(Claudian. De Mall. Theodos. consulat, ver. 325 — 329.) VOL. II. R
242 COMBUSTIBLES INFLAMED BY MOISTURE.
of Tralles, the architect, who, under Justinian, traced out the designs and directed the construction of the church of St. Sophia,* is reported to have sent lightning and thunder upon the house adjoining his own.f Another learned man points out a process for the manufacture of fire to be sent against the enemy, which reminds us of the composition of our gunpowder, f In short, the same composition for making it, and in the proportions used in the present day, is described by Marcus Grgecus,|| who certainly did not live later than the twelfth cen- tury, and has been thought by some to have existed before the ninth. It would, no doubt, be curious to trace out these inventions from the period when they still existed in the latter empire to that in which they became spread over Europe. One obstacle, difficult to overcome, is opposed to this investigation, namely, that ignorance which, disdaining the simple truth, and eager after the marvellous, first treated as miracles, and then rejected as fabulous, the very histories that might have instructed us.
* Procop. De JEdific. Justiniani, lib. i. cap. xxn.
f Agathias. De Rebus Justiniani, lib. v. cap. iv.
X Julius Africanus, cap. xliv. — Veter. Mathem. edit. Paris, p. 303.
|| Marcus Grœcus. Liber Ignium ad comburendos hostes. Edi- tion de La Porte du Theil, Paris, 1804.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE AFFORDS AID TO MAGIC. 243