inferior quacks who then abounded, and upon whom he pretended to look down
with supreme contempt; not because they were astrologers, but because they
debased that noble art by taking fees for the recovery of stolen property.
From Butler's _Hudibras_, and its curious notes, we may learn what immense
numbers of these fellows lived upon the credulity of mankind in that age
of witchcraft and diablerie. Even in our day, how great is the reputation
enjoyed by the almanac-makers, who assume the name of Francis Moore! But
in the time of Charles I. and the Commonwealth the most learned, the most
noble, and the most conspicuous characters did not hesitate to consult
astrologers in the most open manner. Lilly, whom Butler has immortalised
under the name of Sydrophel, relates, that he proposed to write a work
called _An Introduction to Astrology_, in which he would satisfy the whole
kingdom of the lawfulness of that art. Many of the soldiers were for it,
he says, and many of the Independent party, and abundance of worthy men in
the House of Commons, his assured friends, and able to take his part
against the Presbyterians, who would have silenced his predictions if they
could. He afterwards carried his plan into execution, and when his book
was published, went with another astrologer named Booker to the
headquarters of the parliamentary army at Windsor, where they were
welcomed and feasted in the garden where General Fairfax lodged. They were
afterwards introduced to the general, who received them very kindly, and
made allusion to some of their predictions. He hoped their art was lawful
and agreeable to God's word; but he did not understand it himself. He did
not doubt, however, that the two astrologers feared God, and therefore he
had a good opinion of them. Lilly assured him that the art of astrology
was quite consonant to the Scriptures; and confidently predicted from his
knowledge of the stars, that the parliamentary army would overthrow all
its enemies. In Oliver's Protectorate, this quack informs us that he wrote
freely enough. He became an Independent, and all the soldiery were his
friends. When he went to Scotland, he saw a soldier standing in front of
the army with a book of prophecies in his hand, exclaiming to the several
companies as they passed by him, "Lo! hear what Lilly saith: you are in
this month promised victory! Fight it out, brave boys! and then read that
month's prediction!"
After the great fire of London, which Lilly said he had foretold, he was
sent for by the committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire
into the causes of the calamity. In his _Monarchy or no Monarchy_,
published in 1651, he had inserted an hieroglyphical plate representing on
one side persons in winding-sheets digging graves; and on the other a
large city in flames. After the great fire, some sapient member of the
legislature bethought him of Lilly's book, and having mentioned it in the
house, it was agreed that the astrologer should be summoned. Lilly
attended accordingly, when Sir Robert Brook told him the reason of his
summons, and called upon him to declare what he knew. This was a rare
opportunity for the vainglorious Lilly to vaunt his abilities; and he
began a long speech in praise of himself and his pretended science. He
said that, after the execution of Charles I., he was extremely desirous to
know what might from that time forth happen to the parliament and to the
nation in general. He therefore consulted the stars, and satisfied
himself. The result of his judgment he put into emblems and hieroglyphics,
without any commentary, so that the true meaning might be concealed from
the vulgar, and made manifest only to the wise; imitating in this the
example of many wise philosophers who had done the like.
"Did you foresee the year of the fire?" said a member. "No," quoth Lilly,
"nor was I desirous. Of that I made no scrutiny." After some further
parley, the house found they could make nothing of the astrologer, and
dismissed him with great civility.
One specimen of the explanation of a prophecy given by Lilly, and related
by him with much complacency, will be sufficient to shew the sort of trash
by which he imposed upon the million. "In the year 1588," says he, "there
was a prophecy printed in Greek characters, exactly deciphering the long
troubles of the English nation from 1641 to 1660." And it ended thus: "And
after him shall come a dreadful dead man, and with him a royal G, of the
best blood in the world; and he shall have the crown, and shall set
England on the right way, and put out all heresies." The following is the
explanation of this oracular absurdity:
"_Monkery being extinguished above eighty or ninety years, and the Lord
General's name being Monk, is the dead man. The royal G or C [it is gamma
in the Greek, intending C in the Latin, being the third letter in the
alphabet] is Charles II., who for his extraction may be said to be of the
best blood of the world._"
In France and Germany astrologers met even more encouragement than they
received in England. In very early ages Charlemagne and his successors
fulminated their wrath against them in common with sorcerers. Louis XI.,
that most superstitious of men, entertained great numbers of them at his
court; and Catherine de Medicis, that most superstitious of women, hardly
ever undertook any affair of importance without consulting them. She
chiefly favoured her own countrymen; and during the time she governed
France, the land was overrun by Italian conjurors, necromancers, and
fortune-tellers of every kind. But the chief astrologer of that day,
beyond all doubt, was the celebrated Nostradamus, physician to her
husband, King Henry II. He was born in 1503 at the town of St. Remi, in
Provence, where his father was a notary. He did not acquire much fame till
he was past his fiftieth year, when his famous _Centuries_, a collection
of verses, written in obscure and almost unintelligible language, began to
excite attention. They were so much spoken of in 1556, that Henry II.
resolved to attach so skilful a man to his service, and appointed him his
physician. In a biographical notice of him, prefixed to the edition of his
_Vraies Centuries_, published at Amsterdam in 1668, we are informed that
he often discoursed with his royal master on the secrets of futurity, and
received many great presents as his reward, besides his usual allowance
for medical attendance. After the death of Henry he retired to his native
place, where Charles IX. paid him a visit in 1564; and was so impressed
with veneration for his wondrous knowledge of the things that were to be,
not in France only, but in the whole world for hundreds of years to come,
that he made him a counsellor of state and his own physician, besides
treating him in other matters with a royal liberality. "In fine,"
continues his biographer, "I should be too prolix were I to tell all the
honours conferred upon him, and all the great nobles and learned men that
arrived at his house from the very ends of the earth, to see and converse
with him as if he had been an oracle. Many strangers, in fact, came to
France for no other purpose than to consult him."
[Illustration: NOSTRADAMUS.--FROM THE FRONTISPIECE TO A COLLECTION OF HIS
PROPHECIES, PUBLISHED AT AMSTERDAM, A.D. 1666.]
The prophecies of Nostradamus consist of upwards of a thousand stanzas,
each of four lines, and are to the full as obscure as the oracles of old.
They take so great a latitude, both as to time and space, that they are
almost sure to be fulfilled somewhere or other in the course of a few
centuries. A little ingenuity, like that evinced by Lilly in his
explanation about General Monk and the dreadful dead man, might easily
make events to fit some of them.[58]
[58] Let us try. In his second century, prediction 66, he says:
"From great dangers the captive is escaped.
A little time, great fortune changed.
In the palace the people are caught.
By good augury the city is besieged."
"What is this," a believer might exclaim, "but the escape of
Napoleon from Elba--his changed fortune, and the occupation
of Paris by the allied armies?"
Let us try again. In his third century, prediction 98, he
says:
"Two royal brothers will make fierce war on each other;
So mortal shall be the strife between them,
That each one shall occupy a fort against the other;
For their reign and life shall be the quarrel."
Some Lillius Redivivus would find no difficulty in this
prediction. To use a vulgar phrase, it is as clear as a
pikestaff. Had not the astrologer in view Don Miguel and Don
Pedro when he penned this stanza, so much less obscure and
oracular than the rest?
He is to this day extremely popular in France and the Walloon country of
Belgium, where old farmer-wives consult him with great confidence and
assiduity.
Catherine di Medicis was not the only member of her illustrious house who
entertained astrologers. At the beginning of the fifteenth century there
was a man, named Basil, residing in Florence, who was noted over all Italy
for his skill in piercing the darkness of futurity. It is said that he
foretold to Cosmo di Medicis, then a private citizen, that he would attain
high dignity, inasmuch as the ascendant of his nativity was adorned with
the same propitious aspects as those of Augustus Cæsar and the Emperor
Charles V.[59] Another astrologer foretold the death of Prince Alexander
di Medicis; and so very minute and particular was he in all the
circumstances, that he was suspected of being chiefly instrumental in
fulfilling his own prophecy--a very common resource with these fellows to
keep up their credit. He foretold confidently that the prince should die
by the hand of his own familiar friend, a person of a slender habit of
body, a small face, a swarthy complexion, and of most remarkable
taciturnity. So it afterwards happened, Alexander having been murdered in
his chamber by his cousin Lorenzo, who corresponded exactly with the above
description.[60] The author of _Hermippus Redivivus_, in relating this
story, inclines to the belief that the astrologer was guiltless of any
participation in the crime, but was employed by some friend of Prince
Alexander to warn him of his danger.
[59] _Hermippus Redivivus_, p. 142.
[60] _Jovii Elog._ p. 320.
A much more remarkable story is told of an astrologer who lived in Romagna
in the fifteenth century, and whose name was Antiochus Tibertus.[61] At
that time nearly all the petty sovereigns of Italy retained such men in
their service; and Tibertus, having studied the mathematics with great
success at Paris, and delivered many predictions, some of which, for
guesses, were not deficient in shrewdness, was taken into the household of
Pandolfo di Malatesta, the sovereign of Rimini. His reputation was so
great, that his study was continually thronged either with visitors who
were persons of distinction, or with clients who came to him for advice;
and in a short time he acquired a considerable fortune. Notwithstanding
all these advantages, he passed his life miserably, and ended it on the
scaffold. The following story afterwards got into circulation, and has
been often triumphantly cited by succeeding astrologers as an irrefragable
proof of the truth of their science. It was said that, long before he
died, he uttered three remarkable prophecies--one relating to himself,
another to his friend, and the third to his patron, Pandolfo di Malatesta.
The first delivered was that relating to his friend Guido di Bogni, one of
the greatest captains of the time. Guido was exceedingly desirous to know
his fortune, and so importuned Tibertus, that the latter consulted the
stars and the lines on his palm to satisfy him. He afterwards told him
with a sorrowful face, that, according to all the rules of astrology and
palmistry, he should be falsely suspected by his best friend, and should
lose his life in consequence. Guido then asked the astrologer if he could
foretell his own fate; upon which Tibertus again consulted the stars, and
found that it was decreed from all eternity that he should end his days on
the scaffold. Malatesta, when he heard these predictions, so unlikely, to
all present appearance, to prove true, desired his astrologer to predict
his fate also, and to hide nothing from him, however unfavourable it might
be. Tibertus complied, and told his patron, at that time one of the most
flourishing and powerful princes of Italy, that he should suffer great
want, and die at last like a beggar in the common hospital of Bologna. And
so it happened in all three cases. Guido di Bogni was accused by his own
father-in-law, the Count di Bentivoglio, of a treasonable design to
deliver up the city of Rimini to the papal forces, and was assassinated
afterwards, by order of the tyrant Malatesta, as he sat at the
supper-table, to which he had been invited in all apparent friendship. The
astrologer was at the same time thrown into prison, as being concerned in
the treason of his friend. He attempted to escape, and had succeeded in
letting himself down from his dungeon-window into a moat, when he was
discovered by the sentinels. This being reported to Malatesta, he gave
orders for his execution on the following morning.
[61] _Les Anecdotes de Florence, ou l'Histoire secrète de la
Maison di Medicis_, p. 318.
Malatesta had, at this time, no remembrance of the prophecy; and his own
fate gave him no uneasiness; but events were silently working its
fulfilment. A conspiracy had been formed, though Guido di Bogni was
innocent of it, to deliver up Rimini to the pope; and all the necessary
measures having been taken, the city was seized by the Count de
Valentinois. In the confusion, Malatesta had barely time to escape from
his palace in disguise. He was pursued from place to place by his enemies,
abandoned by all his former friends, and, finally, by his own children. He
at last fell ill of a languishing disease, at Bologna; and, nobody caring
to afford him shelter, he was carried to the hospital, where he died. The
only thing that detracts from the interest of this remarkable story is the
fact, that the prophecy was made after the event.
For some weeks before the birth of Louis XIV., an astrologer from Germany,
who had been sent for by the Marshal de Bassompierre and other noblemen of
the court, had taken up his residence in the palace, to be ready, at a
moment's notice, to draw the horoscope of the future sovereign of France.
When the queen was taken in labour, he was ushered into a contiguous
apartment, that he might receive notice of the very instant the child was
born. The result of his observations were the three words, _diu, durè,
feliciter_; meaning, that the new-born prince should live and reign long,
with much labour, and with great glory. No prediction less favourable
could have been expected from an astrologer, who had his bread to get, and
who was at the same time a courtier. A medal was afterwards struck in
commemoration of the event; upon one side of which was figured the
nativity of the prince, representing him as driving the chariot of Apollo,
with the inscription "Ortus solis Gallici,"--the rising of the Gallic sun.
The best excuse ever made for astrology was that offered by the great
astronomer, Kepler, himself an unwilling practiser of the art.
He had many applications from his friends to cast nativities for them, and
generally gave a positive refusal to such as he was not afraid of
offending by his frankness. In other cases he accommodated himself to the
prevailing delusion. In sending a copy of his _Ephemerides_ to Professor
Gerlach, he wrote, that _they were nothing but worthless conjectures_; but
he was obliged to devote himself to them, or he would have starved. "Ye
overwise philosophers," he exclaimed, in his _Tertius Interveniens_; "ye
censure this daughter of astronomy beyond her deserts! _Know ye not that
she must support her mother by her charms?_ The scanty reward of an
astronomer would not provide him with bread, if men did not entertain
hopes of reading the future in the heavens."
NECROMANCY was, next to astrology, the pretended science most resorted to,
by those who wished to pry into the future. The earliest instance upon
record is that of the witch of Endor and the spirit of Samuel. Nearly all
the nations of antiquity believed in the possibility of summoning departed
ghosts to disclose the awful secrets that God made clear to the
disembodied. Many passages in allusion to this subject will at once
suggest themselves to the classical reader; but this art was never carried
on openly in any country. All governments looked upon it as a crime of the
deepest dye. While astrology was encouraged, and its professors courted
and rewarded, necromancers were universally condemned to the stake or the
gallows. Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Arnold of Villeneuve, and many
others, were accused by the public opinion of many centuries, of meddling
in these unhallowed matters. So deep-rooted has always been the popular
delusion with respect to accusations of this kind, that no crime was ever
disproved with such toil and difficulty. That it met great encouragement,
nevertheless, is evident from the vast numbers of pretenders to it; who,
in spite of the danger, have existed in all ages and countries.
GEOMANCY, or the art of foretelling the future by means of lines and
circles, and other mathematical figures drawn on the earth, is still
extensively practised in Asiatic countries, but is almost unknown in
Europe.
AUGURY, from the flight or entrails of birds, so favourite a study among
the Romans, is, in like manner, exploded in Europe. Its most assiduous
professors, at the present day, are the abominable Thugs of India.
DIVINATION, of which there are many kinds, boasts a more enduring
reputation. It has held an empire over the minds of men from the earliest
periods of recorded history, and is, in all probability, coeval with time
itself. It was practised alike by the Jews, the Egyptians, the Chaldeans,
the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans; is equally known to all modern
nations, in every part of the world; and is not unfamiliar to the
untutored tribes that roam in the wilds of Africa and America. Divination,
as practised in civilised Europe at the present day, is chiefly from
cards, the tea-cup, and the lines on the palm of the hand. Gipsies alone
make a profession of it; but there are thousands and tens of thousands of
humble families in which the good-wife, and even the good-man, resort to
the grounds at the bottom of their tea-cups, to know whether the next
harvest will be abundant, or their sow bring forth a numerous litter; and
in which the young maidens look to the same place to know when they are to
be married, and whether the man of their choice is to be dark or fair,
rich or poor, kind or cruel. Divination by cards, so great a favourite
among the moderns, is, of course, a modern science; as cards do not yet
boast an antiquity of much more than four hundred years. Divination by the
palm, so confidently believed in by half the village lasses in Europe, is
of older date, and seems to have been known to the Egyptians in the time
of the patriarchs; as well as divination by the cup, which, as we are
informed in Genesis, was practised by Joseph. Divination by the rod was
also practised by the Egyptians. In comparatively recent times, it was
pretended that by this means hidden treasures could be discovered. It now
appears to be altogether exploded in Europe. Onomancy, or the foretelling
a man's fate by the letters of his name, and the various transpositions of
which they are capable, is a more modern sort of divination; but it
reckons comparatively few believers.
The following list of the various species of divination formerly in use,
is given by Gaule in his _Magastromancer_, and quoted in Hone's
_Year-Book_, p. 1517.
_Stereomancy_, or divining by the elements.
_Aeromancy_, or divining by the air.
_Pyromancy_, by fire,
_Hydromancy_, by water.
_Geomancy_, by earth.
_Theomancy_, pretending to divine by the revelation of the Spirit,
and by the Scriptures, or word of God.
_Demonomancy_, by the aid of devils and evil spirits.
_Idolomancy_, by idols, images, and figures.
_Psychomancy_, by the soul, affections, or dispositions of men.
_Anthropomancy_, by the entrails of human beings.
_Theriomancy_, by beasts.
_Ornithomancy_, by birds.
_Ichthyomancy_, by fishes.
_Botanomancy_, by herbs.
_Lithomancy_, by stones.
_Kleromancy_, by lots.
_Oneiromancy_, by dreams.
_Onomancy_, by names.
_Arithmancy_, by numbers.
_Logarithmancy_, by logarithms.
_Sternomancy_, by the marks from the breast to the belly.
_Gastromancy_, by the sound of, or marks upon the belly.
_Omphalomancy_, by the navel.
_Chiromancy_, by the hands.
_Podomancy_, by the feet.
_Onchyomancy_, by the nails.
_Cephaleonomancy_, by asses' heads.
_Tephromancy_, by ashes.
_Kapnomancy_, by smoke.
_Knissomancy_, by the burning of incense.
_Ceromancy_, by the melting of wax.
_Lecanomancy_, by basins of water.
_Katoptromancy_, by looking-glasses.
_Chartomancy_, by writing in papers, and by Valentines.
_Macharomancy_, by knives and swords.
_Crystallomancy_, by crystals.
_Dactylomancy_, by rings.
_Koskinomancy_, by sieves.
_Axinomancy_, by saws.
_Chalcomancy_, by vessels of brass, or other metal.
_Spatilomancy_, by skins, bones, &c.
_Astromancy_, by stars.
_Sciomancy_, by shadows.
_Astragalomancy_, by dice.
_Oinomancy_, by the lees of wine.
_Sycomancy_, by figs.
_Tyromancy_, by cheese.
_Alphitomancy_, by meal, flour, or bran.
_Krithomancy_, by corn or grain.
_Alectromancy_, by cocks.
_Gyromancy_, by circles.
_Lampadomancy_, by candles and lamps.
ONEIRO-CRITICISM, or the art of interpreting dreams, is a relic of the
most remote ages, which has subsisted through all the changes that moral
or physical revolutions have operated in the world. The records of five
thousand years bear abundant testimony to the universal diffusion of the
belief, that the skilful could read the future in dreams. The rules of the
art, if any existed in ancient times, are not known; but in our day, one
simple rule opens the whole secret. Dreams, say all the wiseacres in
Christendom, are to be interpreted by contraries. Thus, if you dream of
filth, you will acquire something valuable; if you dream of the dead, you
will hear news of the living; if you dream of gold and silver, you run a
risk of being without either; and if you dream you have many friends, you
will be persecuted by many enemies. The rule, however, does not hold good
in all cases. It is fortunate to dream of little pigs, but unfortunate to
dream of big bullocks. If you dream you have lost a tooth, you may be sure
that you will shortly lose a friend; and if you dream that your house is
on fire, you will receive news from a far country. If you dream of vermin,
it is a sign that there will be sickness in your family; and if you dream
of serpents, you will have friends who, in the course of time, will prove
your bitterest enemies; but, of all dreams, it is most fortunate if you
dream that you are wallowing up to your neck in mud and mire. Clear water
is a sign of grief; and great troubles, distress, and perplexity are
predicted, if you dream that you stand naked in the public streets, and
know not where to find a garment to shield you from the gaze of the
multitude.
In many parts of Great Britain, and the continents of Europe and America,
there are to be found elderly women in the villages and country-places
whose interpretations of dreams are looked upon with as much reverence as
if they were oracles. In districts remote from towns it is not uncommon to
find the members of a family regularly every morning narrating their
dreams at the breakfast-table, and becoming happy or miserable for the day
according to their interpretation. There is not a flower that blossoms, or
fruit that ripens, that, dreamed of, is not ominous of either good or evil
to such people. Every tree of the field or the forest is endowed with a
similar influence over the fate of mortals, if seen in the night-visions.
To dream of the ash, is the sign of a long journey; and of an oak,
prognosticates long life and prosperity. To dream you stript the bark off
any tree, is a sign to a maiden of an approaching loss of a character; to
a married woman, of a family bereavement; and to a man, of an accession of
fortune. To dream of a leafless tree, is a sign of great sorrow; and of a
branchless trunk, a sign of despair and suicide. The elder-tree is more
auspicious to the sleeper; while the fir-tree, better still, betokens all
manner of comfort and prosperity. The lime-tree predicts a voyage across
the ocean; while the yew and the alder are ominous of sickness to the
young and of death to the old.[62] Among the flowers and fruits charged
with messages for the future, the following is a list of the most
important, arranged from approved sources, in alphabetical order:
_Asparagus_, gathered and tied up in bundles, is an omen of tears.
If you see it growing in your dreams, it is a sign of good
fortune.
_Aloes_, without a flower, betokens long life; in flower, betokens
a legacy.
_Artichokes_. This vegetable is a sign that you will receive, in a
short time, a favour from the hands of those from whom you
would least expect it.
_Agrimony_. This herb denotes that there will be sickness in your
house.
_Anemone_ predicts love.
_Auriculas_, in beds, denote luck; in pots, marriage; while to
gather them, foretells widowhood.
_Bilberries_ predict a pleasant excursion.
_Broom-flowers_ an increase of family.
_Cauliflowers_ predict that all your friends will slight you, or
that you will fall into poverty and find no one to pity you.
_Dock-leaves_, a present from the country.