_necromancy_, which appears to have been twofold; the predicting of
future events by the inspection of dead bodies, and the invoking of
departed spirits, which were forced to unfold the dark decrees of fate—a
science which has in all ages been almost universally diffused over the
earth; _lecanomancy_, by which demons, in obedience to certain powerful
songs, were obliged to enter a vessel filled with water, and to answer
whatever questions were put to them; and _hydromancy_, which differs
from _lecanomancy_ in this, that the voice of the demon was not heard,
but his form was perceptible in the water, in which he represented,
either by means of his satellites, or by written verses, the cause and
issue of any particular event. Whether the celebrated Zoroaster was
acquainted with these three species, cannot be well determined. He has
been called the inventor of magic; with what justice, is quite as
doubtful. It has been inferred, and perhaps with greater plausibility,
that he did not as much invent as methodize the art. He may likewise
have so extended its bounds as to eclipse the fame of his predecessors;
and from that, as well as from the other consideration, the honour of
the invention may have been assigned him.
INDIANS.—Of Indian magic we know even less than we do of that exercised
by any other ancient nation. We have however reason to conclude that
much of it was similar to that for which the magi, from whom it was
probably derived, were held in so high estimation. But the divination of
the Indians differed in one respect from that of all other people; they
admitted in it affairs of public moment, but rigorously excluded it from
all private concerns. The reason of this prohibition probably was, that
the science was esteemed too sacred to be employed on the ordinary
occurrences of life. Their Gymnosophists, or Brachmans, (it is not clear
that there was any distinction between them) were regarded with as much
reverence as the magi, and were probably more worthy of it. Some of them
dwelt in woods, and others in the immediate vicinity of cities. They
performed the ceremonies of religion; by them indeed kings worshipped
the deities of the country; not a few pretended to superior powers, to
cure diseases by enchantments, and to foretel future events by the
stars; but generally speaking, they were a useful and honourable body of
men. Their skill in medicine was great: the care which they took in
educating youth, in familiarizing it with generous and virtuous
sentiments, did them peculiar honour; and their maxims and discourses,
as recorded by historians, (if indeed those historians be deserving of
full credit) prove that they were much accustomed to profound reflection
on the principles of civil polity, morality, religion, and philosophy.
They preserved their dignity under the sway of the most powerful
princes, whom they would not condescend to visit, or to trouble for the
slightest favour. If the latter desired the advice or the prayers of the
former, they were obliged either to go themselves, or to send
messengers.
EGYPTIANS.—The Egyptians also had their magicians from the remotest
antiquity. Though these magicians were unable to contend with Moses,
they were greatly superior to the Chaldean Astrologers, the Persian
Magi, and the Indian Gymnosophists; they appear to have possessed a
deeper insight into the arcana of nature than any other professors of
the art. By what extraordinary powers their rods were changed into
serpents, the waters of the Nile into blood, and the land of Egypt
covered with frogs, has much perplexed wise and good men. Of all the
methods of solution which the learning and piety of either Jewish or
Christian commentators have applied to this difficult problem, none
appears so consonant with the meaning of the sacred text, and at the
same time liable to so few objections, as this; that the magicians were
not, in the present case, impostors, and that they really accomplished,
by means of supernatural agents, the wonders recorded by the inspired
penman[26]. Earth, air, and ocean, may contain many things of which our
philosophy has never dreamt. If this consideration should humble the
pride of learning, it may remind the Christian that secret things belong
not to him, but to a higher power.
It was maintained by the Egyptians that besides the Gods, there were
many demons which communicated with mortals, and which were often
rendered visible by certain ceremonies and songs; that genii exercised
an habitual and powerful influence over every particle of matter; that
thirty-six of these beings presided over the various members of the
human body; and that by magical incantations it might be strengthened,
or debilitated[27], afflicted with, or delivered from diseases. Thus, in
every case of sickness, the spirit of presiding over the afflicted part,
was first duly invoked. But the magicians did not trust solely to their
vain invocations; they were well acquainted with the virtues of certain
herbs, which they wisely employed in their attempts at healing. These
herbs were greatly esteemed: thus the _cynocephalia_, or as the
Egyptians themselves termed the _asyrites_, which was used as a
preventive against witchcraft; and the _nepenthes_, which Helen
presented in a potion to Menelaus, and which was believed to be powerful
in banishing sadness, and in restoring the mind to its accustomed, or
even to greater cheerfulness, were of Egyptian growth[28]. But whatever
might be the virtues of such herbs, they were used rather for their
magical than for their medicinal qualities; every cure was cunningly
ascribed to the presiding demons, with which not a few boasted that they
were, by means of their art, intimately connected.
The Egyptian amulets are certainly not so ancient as the Babylonian
Talisman, but in their uses they were exactly similar. Some little
figures, supposed to have been intended as charms, have been formed on
several mummies, which have at various times been brought into Europe.
Plutarch informs us, that the soldiers wore rings, on which the
representation of an insect, resembling our beetle, was inscribed; and
we learn from Ælian, that the judges had always suspended round their
necks a small image of truth formed of emeralds[29]. The superstitious
belief in the virtues of Amulets is far from extinct in the present age;
the Cophts, the Arabians, and Syrians, and, indeed, almost all the
inhabitants of Asia, west of the Ganges, whether Christians or
Mahometans, still use them against possible evils.
The descendants of the Pharaohs, like the Chaldean kings, were always
great encouragers of Astronomy; and though the subjects of the latter
were not so eminent as those of the former in the sister science, we
have good reason to conclude that they made no inconsiderable progress
in it. Herodotus, and other ancient historians, assert that Astrology
was, from the remotest times, cultivated by that people. They usually,
indeed, prognosticated the general course of life, the disposition, and
even the manner of death, of any one, by reference to the deity
presiding over the day on which he was born; and not unfrequently by
their eastern neighbours, by determining the position of the stars at
the moment of delivery.
As Moses passed the greatest part of his life in Egypt, and as he could
know little by personal experience of other nations, it may perhaps be
inferred that generally when he warns the Israelites against prevailing
superstitions, he has a particular eye to those observed in the country
in which the posterity of Adam had so long resided. He makes frequent
allusion, indeed, to the magical rites and idolatrous practices of the
Canaanites; but in this case he appears to speak rather from the
information he had acquired from others than from his own experience.
Should this inference be admitted, we shall have reason for believing
that both Witchcraft and Necromancy were known to the Egyptians; and
that some days were considered lucky, and others unfavorable, for the
prosecution of any important affair. A careful perusal of the
Pentateuch, and a reference to the Greek Historians who have written on
the affairs of Egypt, and whose works are necessary to elucidate many
obscure allusions in the sacred text, will furnish the more curious
reader with information on some minor points, which our limits, as a
miscellaneous work, necessarily oblige us to omit.
JEWS[30].—We have hitherto had too much reason to complain of the
paucity of information afforded by ancient writers on the magic of the
Eastern nations; but when we come to consider that of the Jews, we no
longer labour under so heavy a disadvantage. The Holy Scriptures, the
works of native writers, and above all, the laborious researches of
learned Christian commentators, furnish us with abundant materials, from
which we shall select such as appear best adapted to give an
intelligible, but necessarily brief, view of the subject.—Many Jewish
Doctors assign to their magic a preposterous antiquity. They assert that
it is of divine origin; that it was known to Adam and Abraham, both of
whom were animated by the same soul; that the latter taught it by means
of his concubines to his children; and that he wore round his neck a
precious stone, the bare sight of which cured every disease, and which,
after his death, God hung on the sun! But leaving these wild fables, we
have sufficient authority for saying, that the Jews were at a very early
period addicted to the magical arts. This propensity, which first
originated in Egypt, was much increased by their subsequent intercourse
with the inhabitants of Syria, and above all, with their Chaldean
conquerors. Thus we read in the Book of Kings, that they used
divination, and observed the cry of birds. Hence the frequent and awful
denunciations employed by the inspired writers against the practisers of
their forbidden arts.
Lightfoot has proved, that the Jews, after their return from Babylon,
having entirely forsaken idolatry, and being no longer favoured with the
gift of prophecy, gradually abandoned themselves, before the coming of
our Saviour, to sorcery and divination. The Talmud, which they still
regard with a reverence bordering on idolatry, abounds with instructions
for the due observance of superstitious rites. After the destruction of
their city and temple, many Israelitish impostors were highly esteemed
for their pretended skill in magic. Under pretence of interpreting
dreams, they met with daily opportunities of practising the most
shameful frauds. Many Rabbins were quite as well versed in the school of
Zoroaster as in that of Moses. They prescribed all kinds of conjuration,
some for the cure of wounds, some against the dreaded bite of serpents,
and others against thefts and enchantments. Like the Magi, they boasted
that by means of their art they held an intercourse with superior
beings. Thus Bath-kool, _daughter of the voice_, is the name given by
them to the echo: they regarded it as an oracle, which in the second
temple, was destined to supply the defect of the Urim and Thummim, the
mysterious oracles of the first. Of Bath-kool many absurd stories are
related. Thus when two Rabbins went to consult her concerning the fate
of another Rabbin, Samuel, the Babylonian, they passed before a school,
in which they heard a boy reading aloud, and _Samuel died_. (Sam. ch.
xxv. v. 1.) On enquiry they subsequently found that the object of their
anxiety was no longer an inhabitant of the earth; and thus a casual
coincidence, of which no reasonable man would have been surprised, was
confidently ascribed to the oracular powers of Bath-kool. Two other
Rabbins, Jona and Josa, went to visit Acha in his sickness; as they
proceeded on their way they said, “let us hear what sentence Bath-kool
will pronounce on the fate of our brother.” Immediately they heard a
voice, as if addressed by a woman to her neighbour—“the candle is going
out; let not the light be extinguished in Israel.” (Lightfoot, vol. II.
p. 267.) No more doubt was entertained that these words proceeded from
Bath-kool, than that Elias now assists at the circumcision of every
Jewish child.
The divinations of the Israelites were founded on the influence of the
stars, and on the operations of spirits: that singular people did not,
indeed, like the Chaldeans and Magi, regard the heavenly bodies as gods
and genii; but they ascribed to them a great power over the actions and
opinions of men. Hence the common proverb, ‘such a one may be thankful
to his stars,’ when spoken of any person distinguished for his wealth,
power, or wisdom. The mazzal-tool was the happy, and the mazzal-ra the
malignant influence; and the fate of every one was supposed to be
regulated by either one or the other. Like the notions from which their
superstitious opinions were derived, the Jews constructed horoscopes,
and predicted the fate of every one from his birth. Thus if any one were
born under the dominion of the sun, it was prognosticated that he would
be fair, generous, open-hearted, and capricious; under Venus, rich and
wanton; under Mercury, witty, and of a retentive memory; under the Moon,
sickly, and inconstant; under Saturn, unfortunate; under Jupiter, just,
and under Mars, successful.
As to the spirits whose agency was so often employed in divination, we
have full information from Manasseh, Ben Israel, and others. “Of wicked
spirits,” says the author, “there are several varieties, of which some
are intelligent and cunning, others ignorant and stupid. The former
flying from one extent of the earth to the other, become acquainted with
the general cause of human events, both past and present, and sometimes
with those of the future. Hence many mortals conjure these spirits, by
whose assistance they effect wonderful things. The books of the
cabalists, and of some other writers, contain the names of the spirits
usually invoked, and a particular account of the ceremonies are
accompanied. If (continues the same author,) these spirits appear to one
man alone, they portend no good; if to two persons together, they
presage no evil: they were never known to appear to three mortals
assembled together.”
The magical rites of the Jews were, and indeed are still, chiefly
performed on various important occasions, as on the birth of a child, a
marriage, &c. On such occasions the evil spirits are believed to be
peculiarly active in their malignity, which can only be counteracted by
certain enchantments[31]. Thus Tobit, according to the directions of the
angel Raphael, exorcised the demon Asmodeus, whom he compelled, by means
of the perfume of the heart and liver of a fish, to fly into upper
Egypt. (Tobit, ch. viii. v. 2 and 3.)
Josephus does not think magic so ancient as many writers of this nation
do; he makes Solomon the first who practised an art which is so powerful
against demons; and the knowledge of which, he asserts, was communicated
to that prince by immediate inspiration. The latter, continues the
weakly credulous historian, invented and transmitted to posterity in his
writings, certain incantations, for the cure of diseases, and for the
expulsion and perpetual banishment of wicked spirits from the bodies of
the possessed. This mode of cure, he further observes, is very prevalent
in our nation. It consisted, according to his description, in the use of
a certain root, which was sealed up, and held under the nose of the
person possessed; the name of Solomon, with the words prescribed by him,
was then pronounced, and the demon forced immediately to retire. He does
not even hesitate to assert, that he himself has been an eye-witness of
such an effect produced on a person named Eleazar, in presence of the
emperor Vespasian and his sons. Nor will this relation surprise us, when
we consider the deep malignity entertained by a Jew to the Christian
religion, and his ceaseless attempts to depreciate the miracles of our
Saviour, by ascribing them to magical influence, and by representing
them as easy of accomplishment to all acquainted with the occult
sciences.
We should scarcely credit the account, were it not founded on
unquestionable authority, that on the great day of propitiations, the
Jews of the sixteenth century, in order to avert the angel of Samuel,
endeavoured to appease him by presents. On that day, and on no other
throughout the year, they believed that power was given him to accuse
them before the judgment-seat of God. They aimed, therefore, to prevent
their grand enemy from carrying accusations against them, by rendering
it impossible for him to know the appointed day. For this purpose they
used a somewhat singular stratagem; in reading the usual portion of the
law, they were careful to leave out the beginning and the end,—an
omission which the devil was by no means prepared to expect on so
important an occasion. They entertained no doubt that their cunning, in
this instance, had been more than a match for him.
The cabal is chiefly conversant with enchantments, which are effected by
a certain number of characters. It gives directions how to select and
combine some passages and proper names of Scripture, which are believed
both to render supernatural beings visible, and to produce many
wonderful and surprising effects. In this manner the _Malcha-sheva_,
(the queen of Sheba who visited Solomon,) who has often been invoked,
and as often made to appear. But the most famous wonders have been
effected by the name of God. The sacred word Jehovah, is, when read with
points, multiplied by the Jewish doctors into twelve, forty-two, and
seventy-two letters, of which words are composed that are thought to
possess miraculous energy. By these Moses slew the Egyptians; by these
Israel was preserved from the destroying angel of the Wilderness; by
these Elijah separated the waters of the river, to open a passage for
himself and Elisha; and by these it has been daring and impiously
asserted, that the Eternal Son of God cast out evil spirits. The name of
the devil is likewise used in magical devices. The five Hebrew letters
of which that name is composed, exactly constitute the number 364, one
less than the days in the whole year. Now the Jews pretended, that owing
to the wonderful virtue of the number comprised in the name of satan, he
is prevented from accusing them for an equal number of days: hence the
stratagem of which we have before spoken, for depriving him of the power
to injure them on the only day in which that power is granted him.
Innumerable are the devices contained in the Cabal for averting possible
evils, as the plague, disease, and sudden death. But we see no
necessity, nor even utility, in prosecuting the subject further. We have
said enough to convince the reader of the gross superstition and
abominable practice of those who, even in their present state of
degradation and infamy, have the arrogance to style themselves _God’s
peculiar people_,—as so many _lights to enlighten the Gentiles_.
PREDICTION.
Prophecy, Divination, or foretelling future events, either by divine
Revelation, by art and human invention, or by conjecture.—See
_Divination_, page 142.
Few great moral or political revolutions have occurred which have not
had their accompanying _prognostic_; and men of a philosophic cast of
mind, in the midst of their retirement, freed from the delusions of
parties and of sects, while they are withdrawn from their conflicting
interests, have rarely been confounded by the astonishment which
overwhelms those who, absorbed in active life, are the mere creatures of
sensation, agitated by the shadows of truth, the unsubstantial
appearances of things. Intellectual nations are advancing in an eternal
circle of events and passions which succeed each other, and the last is
necessarily connected with its antecedent: the solitary force of some
fortuitous incident only can interrupt this concatinated progress of
human affairs. That every great event has been accompanied by a presage
or prognostic, has been observed by Lord Bacon. “The shepherds of the
people should understand the prognostics of _state tempests_; hollow
blasts of wind, seemingly at a distance, and secret swellings of the
sea, often precede a storm.” Such were the prognostics discerned by the
politic Bishop Williams, in Charles the First’s time, who clearly
foresaw and predicted the final success of the puritanic party in our
country: attentive to his own security, he abandoned the government and
sided with the rising opposition, at a moment when such a change in the
public administration was by no means apparent. (See Rushworth, vol. i.
p. 420.)