Then may'st thou to the mountain tend, Keep watch and ward, thyself regard.” Having prayed for advice how to act, he is instructed in a vision what will happen to him; he then wakes and prepares for his journey, "putting on a white garment, girding his loins with a blood-red ribbon, bound crosswise over his shoulders, and in his hat were stuck four red roses, that he might be the sooner taken notice of by this token among the throng." This sect became a secret society; it originated in Germany, and attracted the attention of all Europe for twenty-five years. Part of their mystery consisted in an almost miraculous method of curing diseases. Some of their pretensions were explained by one John Hayden, servant of God and secretary of nature, in a book, intitled, "A new method for the cure of all diseases, freely given to inspired Christians." In an "Apologue for an Epilogue," he saith, "I shall here tell you what Rosiecrusians are, and that Moses was their father, and he was the child of God. Some say they were of the order of Elias, some of Ezechiel, others define them to be the officers of the generalissimo of the world; that are as the eyes and ears of the great king, seeing and hearing all things, for they are seraphically illuminated as Moses was, according to this order of the elements, earth refined to water, water to air, air to fire." Such is the gibberish which could once not only find readers, but even dupes to follow in the train of the writers. In later times there have been a few believers in transmutation. In the year 1782, Dr. Price, of Guildford, by means of a white and red powder, professed to convert mercury into silver and gold; and he is said to have convinced many disbelievers of the possibility of such a change. His experiments were repeated seven times before learned and intelligent persons, who themselves furnished all the materials except the powders, which were to operate the transmutation. These powders were in very small quan tity. By whatever means it may have been accomplished, it is certain that gold and silver were produced. But, admitting that, with respect to its production, Price was an impostor, it is indubitable that he must have been in possession of one valuable secret, that of fixing mercury, so as not to evaporate in a red heat. Price published an account of these experiments, but stated that he had expended the whole of his powder, and that he could not obtain more, except by a tedious process, which had already injured his health, and which, therefore, he would not repeat. He died in the following year, and his death was attributed to his having swallowed laurelwater, in order to evade further scrutiny and the detection of his imposture. The fact of his having poisoned himself is at least doubtful. Another true believer in the mysteries of this art, says Mr. Brande, was Peter Woulfe. He occupied chambers in Barnard's Inn, when he resided in London. His rooms, which were extensive, were so filled with furnaces and apparatus, that it was difficult to reach his fireside. A gentleman once put down his hat, and never could find it again, such was the confusion of boxes, packages, and parcels, that lay about the chamber. Woulfe had long vainly searched for the elixir, and attributed his repeated failures to the want of due preparation by pious and charitable acts. Some of his apparatus is said to have been extant since his death, upon which are supplications for success, and for the welfare of the adepts. He had an heroic remedy for illness; when he felt himself seriously indisposed, he took a place in the Edinburgh mail, and, having reached that city, immediately came back in the returning coach to London. He died in 1805. The last of the English alchemists seems to have been a gentleman of the name of Kellerman, who, as lately as 1828, was living at Lilley, a village between Luton and Hitchin. He was a singular character, who shunned all society, carried six loaded pistols in his pockets, barricaded his house, and filled his grounds with spring-guns. The interior of his dilapidated mansion was a complete chaos. He pretended to have discovered the universal solvent, the art of fixing mercury, and the powder of projection. With the last of these he had, he said, made gold, and could make as much as he pleased. He kept eight men for the purpose of superintending his crucibles, two at a time being employed, who were relieved every six hours. He had one characteristic of a disturbed intellect, that of believing that all the world was in a confederacy against him, and that there was a conspiracy to assassinate him. CHAPTER XXV. ASTROLOGY. Supposed Origin of Astrology-Butler on the Transmission of Astrological Knowledge-Remarks on Astrology by HerveyPetrarch's Opinion of Astrology-Catherine of Mediciз-Casting of Nativities in England-Moore's Almanack-Writers for and against Astrology-Horoscope of Prince Frederick of Denmark -Astrologers contributed sometimes to realize their own Predictions Caracalla-Mr. Turner-Woman who foretold, from a Portrait, the time when the Original would die-Stiff the Fortune Teller and his Foolish Pupils-Expulsion of the Cholera from Jeypore-Cingalese Astrological Instructions. ASTROLOGY has been divided into natural and judiciary, or judicial; but it is only the latter division which will come under present consideration, and its definition has been said to be the art of foretelling future events, from the aspects, positions, and influences of the heavenly bodies. The idea that they should have any influence, direct. or indirect, on our actions in this nether world, or that they obliged us to the performance of any act, however extraordinary, may have been originally supposed, by those who were familiar with the figurative language of the Prophets, to receive confirmation from the facts, and the style of the predictions, recorded in sacred history. They would find, for instance, that the Star in the East was foretold, which at its coming was to announce peace and goodwill towards men; and the later and more solemn revelations, concerning the final consummation of all things, typified that awful event by signal appearances in the heavens. Traditionary knowledge of these events and predictions, coupled with ignorance of the causes of meteorological phenomena, now better understood, might easily lead the timid and superstitious to forebode evil, from the disastrous twilight of the eclipse, or to impute a favouring influence to the rising of certain stars at particular seasons. The universal custom of traversing the deserts, or navigating ships across the pathless ocean, by the observation of the stars, previously to the discovery of the compass, led the imaginative to conceive, that the moral path of life was equally to be regulated by astral indications. It must be owned, too, that it was not unnatural for simple unreasoning minds thus to connect the glorious sun, the moon, when walking in brightness, queen of heaven*, and the host of stars, with the destinies of man. Fear, it is said, first deified the ancient heroes. It was a storm and an eclipse that first consecrated Romulus; nor had Jupiter himself been master of heaven, or worshipped on earth, if the terrors of his thunders had not advanced the conceit of his divinity. It is quite certain that, by degrees, a system was formed, which took hold of the imaginations of all classes of *The queen of heaven is a more poetical idea than the man in the moon; though it must be confessed, in indulgence to the popular opinion, the appearances on the surface of the moon do not unaptly suggest such an outline. In Ceylon, however, they place a hare instead of a man in the moon; and thus very satisfactorily account for this circumstance :-" Buddha, their deity, when a hermit on earth, lost himself in a wood, when he met a hare, who showed him the way; Buddha thanked the animal, and added, Mr. Hare, I am both hungry and poor, and cannot reward you.' 'If you are hungry,' replied the hare, I am at your service; make a fire, kill, and roast me.' Buddha made the fire, and the hare instantly jumped into it, but Buddha caught hold of it, and flung it into the moon, where it still remains." A French gentleman, returned lately from Ceylon, says, "The Cingalese would often beg permission to look at the hare through my telescope, and would exclaim in raptures that they saw it." |