The first of which was given by our illustrious countryman, Roger
Bacon, called the Wonderful Doctor, who died A. D. 1278; previous to
which period, gunpowder must have existed. The other account is by
Albertus Magnus, in a work published in 1612.
It is said to be doubted whether Albertus was the author of the book
which bears his name; but that he, whoever he may have been, and Bacon,
are presumed to have taken their information from the same identical
source. About the period of the invention of gunpowder, it appears
the art of making the Greek fire began to be lost. In the works of
Roger Bacon, the term occurs three times. According to Casiri, the
term _pulvis nitratus_, is to be found in an Arabic MS. the author of
which existed about 1249. If the work of Geber, _De Investigatione
Perfectionis_, be genuine, and if this writer lived, as has been
thought, in the eighth century, it would be the oldest where saltpetre
is mentioned, in a prescription for an _aqua solutiva_, which appears
to be almost _aqua regia_.
We are inclined to believe, however, from various authorities,
that gunpowder was invented in India, as it was proved in a paper
read before the French National Institute, by M. Langles, that the
Arabians obtained a knowledge of gunpowder from the Indians, who had
been acquainted with it from the earliest periods. The use of it in
war is said to have been prohibited them in their sacred books. It
was employed in 690 at a battle near Mecca, by the Arabians. It was
brought by the Saracens from Africa to the Europeans, who improved
the preparation, and first discovered various ways of employing
it in war. In no country could saltpetre and its various uses be
more easily discovered than in India, where the soil is so rich in
nitrous particles that nothing is necessary but lixiviation to obtain
saltpetre; and where this substance is so abundant, that almost all the
gunpowder used in different wars, with which European sovereigns have
tormented themselves, burdened their subjects with intolerable taxes,
and cursed the world from its invention--has been made from Indian
saltpetre. Had not saltpetre been known previous to the thirteenth
century, neither could gunpowder or aquafortis have existed; and for
the best of all reasons, that neither of them could be made without
saltpetre or nitre. But should it appear that this neutral salt was
known in India long prior to that period, and used by Indians as well
as Arabians before they were employed by Europeans, and considering
the former to have practised chemistry previous to the latter; should
this have been proved, perhaps a similar proof will necessarily await
upon the articles aquafortis and gunpowder. Because if this affirmation
be established, it will be discovered that Europeans knew nothing of
aquafortis until after the Arabian chemists.
Probability appears to favour the idea, that at or about the twelfth
century the accumulated number of consequents, from the improvement
in European science, the arts we now possess were introduced into our
catalogue, _i. e._, nitre, aquafortis, and gunpowder.
After the period that saltpetre became necessary to governments for
the manufacture of gunpowder, they endeavoured to obtain it at a cheap
rate; and for that purpose were guilty in some countries of the most
violent and oppressive measures, intruding upon private property of
every description to furnish it, hunting for the effervescence even in
old walls, to the great annoyance of individuals. But after repeated
acts of the most flagrant oppression from the public officers, and from
farmers, to whom this iniquitous practice was entrusted, they could not
procure a sufficiency; but were obliged to have recourse to traffic in
India for that purpose.
GUNS.
That these dangerous weapons were not known in Europe previous to the
introduction of gunpowder may be safely inferred; as without that
substance their necessity or utility is wanting.
At first the construction of this machine was characterised by that
awkward, rude, and cumbersome appearance which generally distinguished
all inventions in their infancy; reminding us of those very rude
instruments brought from the Sandwich Islands, and deposited in our
Museum.
The first portable fire-arms were discharged by a match; in course of
time this was fastened to a cock, for the greater security of the hand
whilst discharging the piece. Afterwards a fire-stone was attached,
screwed into a cock, with a steel plate before it, and fixed in a small
wheel, which could be wound up by a key, affixed to the barrel. This
fire-stone was not at first of a vitreous nature, like that now in
use for striking fire, but a compact pyrites, long known as such, and
called a fire-stone. As an instrument so furnished was often liable
to miss fire, till a late period a match was still continued with the
wheel; and it was not till a considerable time after that, instead of
a friable pyrites, so much exposed to effloresce, a vitreous stone
was affixed to the improvement of the lock, somewhat resembling our
own gun-lock. But these progressive improvements advanced slowly,
because as recently as the early part of the last century these clumsy
contrivances were in use. During that period, those instruments were
denominated by various names, chiefly German and Dutch, such as
_buchse_, _hakenbuchse_, _arquebuss_, musket, martinet, pistol, &c. The
first of these names arose from the oldest portable kind of fire-arms
having a similarity to a box. There were long and short _buchse_, the
latter of which were peculiar to cavalry; the longest kind also, from
their resemblance to a pipe, were called in Germany, _rohr_.
Large pieces, which were conveyed on carriages, were called _Karren
buchse_, from the action of conveyance. Soon afterwards cannon were
introduced, at first called _canna_; now known as artillery. However,
artillery-men, and others concerned in those employments, still use the
terms previously mentioned. The hackenbuchse were so very large and
unwieldy, that if carried in the hand, they could not be used manually
alone; they were, therefore, supported by a post or stay, called a
_bock_, because it had a forked end, somewhat resembling the horns of
the buck, between which the piece was fixed by a hook projecting from
the stock. There is still preserved in the Tower of London, an old
_buchse_; a specimen of every species of our national arms may be seen
in the same place.
From those terms before-mentioned, it would appear, that not only the
English, but also the French, and most other European nations, took the
names of their fire-arms.
It appears that pistols were first used in Germany; they had a wheel
attached to them. Bellay mentions them in the year 1544, in the
time of Francis I.; and under Henry II., the German horsemen were
called _pistoliers_. Several historians think that the name came from
Pistolia, in Tuscany, because there they were first made; and, if
we might hazard an opinion, we think this conjecture right. Hence,
although Germany might first have generally used them, we think they
were an Italian invention.
Muskets are said to have received their name from either the French
_mouchet_, or else from the Latin _muschetus_; however, we are of
opinion that neither of these terms gave its original; and submit that
it is derived from the Latin _muscarium_,--the fall of men being as
sudden after the explosion of this deadly weapon, as the death of a
fly after it is flapped by that instrument, which was common in the
butcher’s shambles of ancient Rome.
Daniel proves they were known in France as early as the period of
Francis I. Brandome, however, asserts they were introduced by the
Duke of Alva--that cruel monster in human shape--that tool of a
blood-thirsty tyrant--whose name has its full merit when it has eternal
execration, as the exploits of that diabolical character in the
Spanish Netherlands bear indubitable testimony: that wretch existed in
1507; and they were not known in France at that period, as Brandome
endeavours to prove, or we should have had more intelligence handed
down to posterity by the commentators of one who would so willingly
have used such an instrument. The _lock_ is said to have been invented
in the city of Nuremberg, in Germany, about 1517; but that cannot be
considered as the lock of the present day, as even in Germany the
fire-lock is known by the name of the French-lock, which certainly
militates against the previous assertion, the one giving the name
perhaps to the other.
Beckmann says, “In the history of the Brunswick military it is stated,
that the soldiers of that Duchy first obtained flint-locks instead
of match-locks in 1687. It has often been asserted,” he continues,
“that fire-tubes which took fire of themselves were forbidden first in
Bohemia and Moravia, and afterwards in the whole German empire, under
a severe penalty, by the Emperor Maximilian I.; but I have not found
any allusion to this circumstance in the different police laws of that
emperor.”
That the first fire-stones were pyrites appears from various sources,
and afterwards a vitreous kind of stone was introduced in its stead;
this circumstance is said to have produced some kind of confusion, as
in many instances the properties were applied to that stone which
were related by the Germans of antiquity as belonging to pyrites. In
Germany, this vitreous stone was called _vlint_; in Sweden and Denmark,
_flinta_; and in England, _flint_. This appellation is of great
antiquity.
Anciently, in Germany, as it appears from the song of Hildebrand, a
metrical romance of very early date, that Hildebrand and Hudebrand, a
father and son, and, at the moment, ignorant of their affinity, agreed
to fight for each other’s armour; and it is said “They let fly their
ashen spears with such force, that they stuck in the shields, and they
thrust resounding axes of flint against each other, having uplifted
their shields previously; but the Lady Ulta rushed in between them--‘I
know the cross of gold,’ said she, ‘which I gave him for his shield;
this is my Hildebrand. You, Hudebrand, sheath your sword; this is your
father!’ Then she led both champions into the hall, and gave them meat
and wine with many embraces.”
Besides these proofs that the ancient name of the stone was known
in Germany by the appellation _vlint_--which species of stone may,
perhaps, without hazarding the danger of error, be conceived to be the
same which Zipporah, the wife of Moses, is represented to have used,
in the 25th verse of the 4th chapter of Exodus: “Then Zipporah took a
sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his
feet, and said,--Surely a bloody husband thou art to me.” And it is
added she said so, on account of the circumcision.
In addition to what has appeared, let us add, it cannot be doubted that
the instrument fired by this stone first obtained for it, in Germany,
the name of _vlint_; as the ancient name may, in general, be now lost,
it is commonly called flint-stone. Those people acquainted with the
northern, Scandinavian, and German antiquities, know that the knives
employed in ancient sacrifices, and other sharp instruments, were made
of this stone, as appears from the remains being yet discovered in old
barrows, and between urns.
It is also presumed that the Ethiopian stone, mentioned as used by
one of the Egyptian embalmers, first to open the body to get at the
intestines, was a flint-stone. The soil being in some places siliceous
or chalky, naturally produces such stones in common with that earth.
The flint is a stone indigenous in most European countries; they are
commonly collected and manufactured by people whose occupation allows
them much spare time. The easiest mode to shape them is with a species
of pillow of saw-dust, or some other soft material, sown up in coarse
cloth, held upon the knees, and with a hammer having a bevil edge, they
may be broken into almost any form or size by those accustomed to the
practice.
The great quantity of the material from whence they are composed
allows for any waste which accident may produce. In several counties
of England they are so plentiful, that they are the common material
employed for mending the public roads. But we are informed that this
is not the case in France, where, in time of war, the people were
prohibited from exporting them. The Dutch are commonly large dealers in
this article.
Flint is a large component in the manufacture of glass.
Gun flints are now, however, comparatively little used, as percussion
caps are generally substituted, which act with more certainty, and
require a great deal less trouble.
ASTRONOMY.
Not being greedy of delusion ourselves, neither would we lead others
into error; but, on the contrary, are desirous to avoid all deception,
as we may be considered over studious to give the most rational
origin, and where we cannot get at the history of those objects which
engage our attention--whenever this is uncertain we resort to nature,
experience, and reason, and furnish the most correct explanation our
contracted circle of information will permit. Whenever we discover the
clue of history, we collect the most satisfactory detail our limits
will afford us to insert. Guided by the preceding notions, and directed
by those principles, we have endeavoured correctly to conceive,
and faithfully to portray our own conceptions in the best manner
our experience might enable us, to make a just distinction between
metaphorical allusion and literal application; ever endeavouring to
discriminate between serious assertion and studied fable.
We fully coincide with the just remark of the learned author of “Indian
Antiquities,” who says “that in respect to the early ages of the world,
all the remains of genuine history, except that contained in the sacred
annals, is only to be obtained through the mazes of Mythology.”
It must be confessed, that to sift this grain of corn from the bushel
of chaff with which it is surrounded, where every effort which the
ingenuity of Greece could devise to render fable as current as truth,
was resorted to, is no small task; that it requires the operation
of the best exercised reason, and the assistance of extraordinary
judgment, which is only to be attained through the medium of extensive
experience and the exercise of clear and discriminative powers: then
we pretend not to possess the best of possible acquisitions of this
kind, but the best in our power, we have endeavoured to collect, and
summoned to our assistance; and the value of our labours we will leave
the public to judge.
If the application of observations like the preceding ever come
_apropos_, surely they apply to the present article; since from the
_sideral_ science, all the errors of an idolatrous race proceeded in
the major part of the population of the ancient world: from thence also
proceeded the most sublime imagery which embellishes the syren voice
of poetic song, the grandest metaphors, and the sweetest allegories,
which ornament the transendent eloquence of the most able rhetoricians
of Greece and Rome; the fire of exquisitely natural and most noble
allusions which enliven and embellish their historic pages. The
sweetest philosophical explications also flowed from thence, which
ornament the various immortal works of their most excellent poets,
orators, historians, natural and moral philosophers; and, in brief, of
every description of the sublimest genius of ancient Greece and Rome,
in their most divine effusions.
It will appear, we believe, that the first astronomers of Chaldea,
Phœnicia, and Egypt, are not now known as astronomers, by name, if we
except the person of the royal Nimrod, the founder of the Chaldean
empire, which name is often confounded with Belus; sometimes one is
put for the other, and often Belus is called the son of Nimrod. How
the truth of this was, we shall not at present determine: be it as it
may, it is allowed on all hands that the sideral science claims for its
inventor no less a person than the founder of the first monarchy in the
world. That this science was first introduced by the founder of the
Tower of Babel is not questioned, because it is more evident, that in
that country there must have existed from necessity, the expediency of
the most approved observation, which could be made upon this eminently
useful science; where, on account of the excessive solar heat, people
generally travel by night: where, for hundreds of miles, are nothing
but pathless deserts, with a horizon as boundless and little impeded
as that of the ocean; assuredly under such circumstances, the local
situation of the site of the immense Observatory of Babel must point
out the expediency of procuring some intelligence from the position
which the inhabitants discovered the host of heaven to appear in at
the rising, setting, &c.; for from what will appear in the course of
this article, it will be very evident that the Tower of Babel was
constructed for the purpose of an astronomical observatory; farther,
that the climate of Chaldea was most favourable to the exercise of
that sublime art, will not admit of a question, when we consider the
atmosphere is so pure, so clear, so free from exhalation, that at
night the sky is said to resemble an immense canopy of black velvet
studded with embossed gold, from the appearance of the stars; and that
it was not only the appearance of the stars, their rising, setting,
and motion, by which they knew time was to be measured; but also the
distinction between one star and another could be correctly ascertained
from the usual colour--here it was the various planets, zodiacal
constellations, and the other asterisms in both hemispheres, received
their primary names.
The preceding circumstance, it is conceived, fixes the local place
where the science had its origin.
The Tower of Babel was a parallelogram, with sides of unequal length.
Herodotus thus describes it.--“The Temple of Jupiter Belus occupies the
other [square of the city], whose huge gates of brass may be seen. It
is a square building; in the midst rises a tower of the height of one
furlong, upon which resting as a base, seven other turrets are built in
regular succession. The ascent is on the outside, which, winding from
the ground, is continued to the highest tower: in the middle of the
whole structure there is a convenient resting place.”
Diodorus Siculus says, this tower was decayed in his time; but, in his
description of Babylon, he thus speaks of it--describing it as the act
of Semiramis, who flourished two thousand nine hundred and forty-four
years before Christ:--“In the middle of the city, she built a temple to
Jupiter-Belus; of which, since writers differ amongst themselves, and
the work is now wholly decayed through length of time, there is nothing
that can with certainty be related concerning it; yet it is apparent
it was of an exceeding great height; and that, by the advantage of it,
the Chaldean astrologers exactly observed the rising and setting of the
stars. The whole was built of brick, cemented with bitumen, with great
art and cost. Upon the top she placed three statues of beaten gold, of
Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea: that of Jupiter stood upright, in the posture
as if he was walking; it was forty feet in height, and weighed one
thousand Babylonish talents. The statue of Rhea was of the same weight,
sitting on a golden throne, having two lions standing on either side,
one at her knees, and near to them were two exceeding great serpents
of silver, weighing thirty talents each. Here, too, the image of Juno
stood upright, and weighed eight hundred talents, grasping a serpent by
the head in her right hand, and holding a sceptre adorned with precious
stones in her left. For all these deities there was placed a table
made of beaten gold, forty feet long and fifteen broad, weighing five
hundred talents, upon which stood two cups, weighing thirty talents,
and near to them as many censers, weighing three hundred talents: there
were likewise placed three drinking bowls of gold--the one to Jupiter
weighed two hundred talents, and the others six hundred each.”
We have been thus circumstantial in our description of Babylon,
for obvious reasons. First--that it was the first local situation
where, since the deluge, men had associated for civil purposes; and
secondly--because it was the original station where the astronomical
science was cultivated. From Chaldea, Astronomy travelled to Egypt,
where she was studied for many ages; she also went to Phœnicia, where
she was regarded with equal attention. But the peculiar occasion which
the Phœnician people had to improve their acquaintance with this
science, will appear, upon reflecting that these people occupied a
narrow and barren tract of land between the Mediterranean and Arabian
seas; therefore, they found it essentially necessary to improve their
situation by those means which Divine Providence had apparently marked
out for them to resort unto; we accordingly find them applying to
mercantile industry; as a commercial people, in this character, they
were the ready medium of communication between every part of the then
known world. In consequence, they had factories or mercantile stations
up the Mediterranean; but particularly on its European side, on the
shores of the Atlantic, and even in the British sea: we recognise their
occupying Marseilles, and others, on the coast of France; Cadiz, on
that of Spain; the Lizard Point, and other places, in Cornwall, where
they traded for tin in the British Isles. In brief, their commercial
spirit carried them to every part of the globe: by the by, admitting
that rational belief be allowed to Plato and Solon, we shall find that
they had, in the first ages, explored the Atlantic Ocean, and even
discovered America. A great variety of authorities may be adduced to
prove the assertion--that the Phœnicians made three descents on the
American coast; and others, who say that the inhabitants discovered
there by the Spaniards, gave the same names to the plants as had been
assigned them in Asia; that their religious rites were similar, and
general customs and manners the same,--we refer to Joseph Da Costa’s
“History of the Indies,” published in 1694.
This author was an eye-witness, and wrote from actual observation. The
Phœnicians, in the exercise of their mercantile functions, had the most
obvious necessity to cultivate the sideral science. We find that they
accordingly did so, and made various improvements and very important
discoveries by their exercise. From the northern hemisphere being
more known to them than it was to the Chaldeans, they discovered that
splendid and beautiful asterism, _Cynosuræ_, or the polar-star,--an
asterism of the most singular service, before the properties of the
magnet were discovered, and which star was sometimes called, from them,
Phœnice.
From Phœnicia and Egypt the celestial science of astronomy was brought
into Greece, with which people the Phœnicians were intimate; for they,
by trade, having occasion to converse with the Greeks, and also from
uniting in one national resemblance, the three opposite characteristics
of soldiers, sailors, and men of science, the communications between
the two people were very frequent. At every period, from the first
establishment of the Grecian states, that highly eminent and
intellectual people collected from all others every particular they
could obtain in all matters having relation to sciences and arts; those
they cultivated with a success worthy of the motive which first induced
them to make these collections.--Loving Knowledge for herself, they
succeeded beyond all others in obtaining her favours.