Curiosities of Literature Volume I Part 39

Mrs. Thomas, the Corinna of Dryden, in her Life, has recorded one of the delusions of alchymy.

An infatuated lover of this delusive art met with one who pretended to have the power of trans.m.u.ting lead to gold; that is, in their language, the _imperfect_ metals to the _perfect one_. The hermetic philosopher required only the materials, and time, to perform his golden operations.

He was taken, to the country residence of his patroness. A long laboratory was built, and that his labours might not be impeded by any disturbance, no one was permitted to enter into it. His door was contrived to turn on a pivot; so that, unseen and unseeing, his meals were conveyed to him without distracting the sublime meditations of the sage.

During a residence of two years, he never condescended to speak but two or three times in a year to his infatuated patroness. When she was admitted into the laboratory, she saw, with pleasing astonishment, stills, cauldrons, long flues, and three or four Vulcanian fires blazing at different corners of this magical mine; nor did she behold with less reverence the venerable figure of the dusty philosopher. Pale and emaciated with daily operations and nightly vigils, he revealed to her, in unintelligible jargon, his progresses; and having sometimes condescended to explain the mysteries of the arcana, she beheld, or seemed to behold, streams of fluid and heaps of solid ore scattered around the laboratory. Sometimes he required a new still, and sometimes vast quant.i.ties of lead. Already this unfortunate lady had expended the half of her fortune in supplying the demands of the philosopher. She began now to lower her imagination to the standard of reason. Two years had now elapsed, vast quant.i.ties of lead had gone in, and nothing but lead had come out. She disclosed her sentiments to the philosopher. He candidly confessed he was himself surprised at his tardy processes; but that now he would exert himself to the utmost, and that he would venture to perform a laborious operation, which hitherto he had hoped not to have been necessitated to employ. His patroness retired, and the golden visions resumed all their l.u.s.tre.

One day, as they sat at dinner, a terrible shriek, and one crack followed by another, loud as the report of cannon, a.s.sailed their ears.

They hastened to the laboratory; two of the greatest stills had burst, and one part of the laboratory and the house were in flames. We are told that, after another adventure of this kind, this victim to alchymy, after ruining another patron, in despair swallowed poison.

Even more recently we have a history of an alchymist in the life of Romney, the painter. This alchymist, after bestowing much time and money on preparations for the grand projection, and being near the decisive hour, was induced, by the too earnest request of his wife, to quit his furnace one evening, to attend some of her company at the tea-table.

While the projector was attending the ladies, his furnace blew up! In consequence of this event, he conceived such an antipathy against his wife, that he could not endure the idea of living with her again.[80]

Henry VI., Evelyn observes in his Numismata, endeavoured to recruit his empty coffers by _alchymy_. The _record_ of this singular proposition contains "the most solemn and serious account of the feasibility and virtues of the _philosopher's stone_, encouraging the search after it, and dispensing with all statutes and prohibitions to the contrary." This record was probably communicated by Mr. Selden to his beloved friend Ben Jonson, when the poet was writing his comedy of the Alchymist.

After this patent was published, many promised to answer the king's expectations so effectually, that the next year he published _another patent_; wherein he tells his subjects, that the _happy hour_ was drawing nigh, and by means of THE STONE, which he should soon be master of, he would pay all the debts of the nation in real _gold and silver_.

The persons picked out for his new operators were as remarkable as the patent itself, being a most "miscellaneous rabble" of friars, grocers, mercers, and fishmongers!

This patent was likewise granted _authoritate Parliamenti_; and is given by Prynne in his _Aurum Reginae_, p. 135.

Alchymists were formerly called _multipliers_, although they never could _multiply_; as appears from a statute of Henry IV. repealed in the preceding record.

"None from henceforth shall use to _multiply_ gold or silver, or use the _craft of multiplication_; and if any the same do, he shall incur the pain of felony." Among the articles charged on the Protector Somerset is this extraordinary one:--"You commanded _multiplication_ and _alc.u.mestry_ to be practised, thereby _to abate the king's coin_."

Stowe, p. 601. What are we to understand? Did they believe that alchymy would be so productive of the precious metals as to _abate_ the value of the coin; or does _multiplication_ refer to an arbitrary rise in the currency by order of the government?

Every philosophical mind must be convinced that alchymy is not an art, which some have fancifully traced to the _remotest times_; it may be rather regarded, when opposed to such a distance of time, as a modern imposture. Caesar commanded the treatises of alchymy to be burnt throughout the Roman dominions: Caesar, who is not less to be admired as a philosopher than as a monarch.

Gibbon has this succinct pa.s.sage relative to alchymy:--"The ancient books of alchymy, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or the abuse of chemistry. In that immense register where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of the trans.m.u.tations of metals; and the persecution of Diocletian is the first authentic event in the history of alchymy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs diffused that vain science over the globe. Congenial to the avarice of the human heart, it was studied in China, as in Europe, with equal eagerness and equal success. The darkness of the middle ages ensured a favourable reception to every tale of wonder; and the revival of learning gave new vigour to hope, and suggested more specious arts to deception. Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchymy; and the present age, however desirous of riches, is content to seek them by the humbler means of commerce and industry."

Elias Ashmole writes in his diary--"May 13, 1653. My father Backhouse (an astrologer who had adopted him for his son, a common practice with these men) lying sick in Fleet-street, over against St. Dunstan's church, and not knowing whether he should live or die, about eleven of the clock, told me in _syllables_ the true matter of the _philosopher's stone_, which he bequeathed to me as a _legacy_." By this we learn that a miserable wretch knew the art of _making gold_, yet always lived a beggar; and that Ashmole really imagined he was in possession of the _syllables of a secret_! He has, however, built a curious monument of the learned follies of the last age, in his "Theatrum Chemic.u.m Britannic.u.m." Though Ashmole is rather the historian of this vain science than an adept, it may amuse literary leisure to turn over this quarto volume, in which he has collected the works of several English alchymists, subjoining his commentary. It affords a curious specimen of Rosicrucian mysteries; and Ashmole relates several miraculous stories.

Of the philosopher's stone, he says he knows enough to hold his tongue, but not enough to speak. This stone has not only the power of trans.m.u.ting any imperfect earthy matter into its utmost degree of perfection, and can convert the basest metals into gold, flints into stone, &c.; but it has still more occult virtues, when the arcana have been entered into by the choice fathers of hermetic mysteries. The vegetable stone has power over the natures of man, beast, fowls, fishes, and all kinds of trees and plants, to make them flourish and bear fruit at any time. The magical stone discovers any person wherever he is concealed; while the angelical stone gives the apparitions of angels, and a power of conversing with them. These great mysteries are supported by occasional facts, and ill.u.s.trated by prints of the most divine and incomprehensible designs, which we would hope were intelligible to the initiated. It may be worth showing, however, how liable even the latter were to blunder on these mysterious hieroglyphics. Ashmole, in one of his chemical works, prefixed a frontispiece, which, in several compartments, exhibited Phoebus on a lion, and opposite to him a lady, who represented Diana, with the moon in one hand and an arrow in the other, sitting on a crab; Mercury on a tripod, with the scheme of the heavens in one hand, and his caduccus in the other. These were intended to express the materials of the stone, and the season for the process.

Upon the altar is the bust of a man, his head covered by an astrological scheme dropped from the clouds; and on the altar are these words, "Mercuriophilus Anglicus," _i.e._, the English lover of hermetic philosophy. There is a tree, and a little creature gnawing the root, a pillar adorned with musical and mathematical instruments, and another with military ensigns. This strange composition created great inquiry among the chemical sages. Deep mysteries were conjectured to be veiled by it. Verses were written in the highest strain of the Rosicrucian language. _Ashmole_ confessed he meant nothing more than a kind of _pun_ on his own name, for the tree was the _ash_, and the creature was a _mole_. One pillar tells his love of music and freemasonry, and the other his military preferment and astrological studies! He afterwards regretted that no one added a second volume to his work, from which he himself had been hindered, for the honour of the family of Hermes, and "to show the world what excellent men we had once of our nation, famous for this kind of philosophy, and masters of so transcendant a secret."

Modern chemistry is not without a _hope_, not to say a _certainty_, of verifying the golden visions of the alchymists. Dr. Girtanner, of Gottingen, not long ago adventured the following prophecy: "In the _nineteenth century_ the trans.m.u.tation of metals will be generally known and practised. Every chemist and every artist will _make gold_; kitchen utensils will be of silver, and even gold, which will contribute more than anything else to _prolong life_, poisoned at present by the oxides of copper, lead, and iron, which we daily swallow with our food." Phil.

Mag. vol. vi., p. 383. This sublime chemist, though he does not venture to predict that universal _elixir_, which is to prolong life at pleasure, yet approximates to it. A chemical friend writes to me, that "The _metals_ seem to be _composite bodies_, which nature is perpetually preparing; and it may be reserved for the future researches of science to trace, and perhaps to imitate, some of these curious operations." Sir Humphry Davy told me that he did not consider this undiscovered art an impossible thing, but which, should it ever be discovered, would certainly be useless.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 80: He was a.s.sisted in the art by one Williamson, a watchmaker, of Dalton, Lancas.h.i.+re, with whom Romney lived in constant companions.h.i.+p. They were partners in a furnace, and had kept the fire burning for nine months, when the contents of the crucible began to a.s.sume the yellow hue which excited all their hopes; a few moments of neglect led to the catastrophe narrated above.]

t.i.tLES OF BOOKS.

Were it inquired of an ingenious writer what page of his work had occasioned him most perplexity, he would often point to the _t.i.tle-page_. The curiosity which we there would excite, is, however, most fastidious to gratify.

Among those who appear to have felt this irksome situation, are most of our periodical writers. The "Tatler" and the "Spectator," enjoying priority of conception, have adopted t.i.tles with characteristic felicity; but perhaps the invention of the authors begins to fail in the "Reader," the "Lover," and the "Theatre!" Succeeding writers were as unfortunate in their t.i.tles, as their works; such are the "Universal Spectator," and the "Lay Monastery." The copious mind of Johnson could not discover an appropriate t.i.tle, and indeed in the first "Idler"

acknowledged his despair. The "Rambler" was so little understood, at the time of its appearance, that a French journalist has translated it as "_Le Chevalier Errant_;" and when it was corrected to _L'Errant_, a foreigner drank Johnson's health one day, by innocently addressing him by the appellation of Mr. "Vagabond!" The "Adventurer" cannot be considered as a fortunate t.i.tle; it is not appropriate to those pleasing miscellanies, for any writer is an adventurer. The "Lounger," the "Mirror," and even the "Connoisseur," if examined accurately, present nothing in the t.i.tles descriptive of the works. As for the "World," it could only have been given by the fas.h.i.+onable egotism of its authors, who considered the world as merely a circuit round St. James's Street.

When the celebrated father of reviews, _Le Journal des Scavans_, was first published, the very t.i.tle repulsed the public. The author was obliged in his succeeding volumes to soften it down, by explaining its general tendency. He there a.s.sures the curious, that not only men of learning and taste, but the humblest mechanic, may find a profitable amus.e.m.e.nt. An English novel, published with the t.i.tle of "The Champion of Virtue," could find no readers; but afterwards pa.s.sed through several editions under the happier invitation of "The Old English Baron." "The Concubine," a poem by Mickle, could never find purchasers, till it a.s.sumed the more delicate t.i.tle of "Sir Martyn."

As a subject of literary curiosity, some amus.e.m.e.nt may be gathered from a glance at what has been doing in the world, concerning this important portion of every book.

The Jewish and many oriental authors were fond of allegorical t.i.tles, which always indicate the most puerile age of taste. The t.i.tles were usually adapted to their obscure works. It might exercise an able enigmatist to explain their allusions; for we must understand by "The Heart of Aaron," that it is a commentary on several of the prophets.

"The Bones of Joseph" is an introduction to the Talmud. "The Garden of Nuts," and "The Golden Apples," are theological questions; and "The Pomegranate with its Flower," is a treatise of ceremonies, not any more practised. Jortin gives a t.i.tle, which he says of all the fantastical t.i.tles he can recollect is one of the prettiest. A rabbin published a catalogue of rabbinical writers, and called it _l.a.b.i.a Dormientium_, from Cantic. vii. 9. "Like the best wine of my beloved that goeth down sweetly, causing _the lips of those that are asleep to speak_." It hath a double meaning, of which he was not aware, for most of his rabbinical brethren talk very much like _men in their sleep_.

Almost all their works bear such t.i.tles as bread--gold--silver--roses--eyes, &c.; in a word, anything that signifies nothing.

Affected t.i.tle-pages were not peculiar to the orientals: the Greeks and the Romans have shown a finer taste. They had their Cornucopias, or horns of abundance--Limones, or meadows--Pinakidions, or tablets--Pancarpes, or all sorts of fruits; t.i.tles not unhappily adapted for the miscellanists. The nine books of Herodotus, and the nine epistles of aeschines, were respectively honoured by the name of a Muse; and three orations of the latter, by those of the Graces.

The modern fanatics have had a most barbarous taste for t.i.tles. We could produce numbers from abroad, and at home. Some works have been called, "Matches lighted at the Divine Fire,"--and one "The Gun of Penitence:" a collection of pa.s.sages from the fathers is called "The Shop of the Spiritual Apothecary:" we have "The Bank of Faith," and "The Sixpennyworth of Divine Spirit:" one of these works bears the following elaborate t.i.tle: "Some fine Biscuits baked in the Oven of Charity, carefully conserved for the Chickens of the Church, the Sparrows of the Spirit, and the sweet Swallows of Salvation." Sometimes their quaintness has some humour. Sir Humphrey Lind, a zealous puritan, published a work which a Jesuit answered by another, ent.i.tled "A Pair of Spectacles for Sir Humphrey Lind." The doughty knight retorted, by "A Case for Sir Humphrey Lind's Spectacles."

Some of these obscure t.i.tles have an entertaining absurdity; as "The Three Daughters of Job," which is a treatise on the three virtues of patience, fort.i.tude, and pain. "The Innocent Love, or the Holy Knight,"

is a description of the ardours of a saint for the Virgin. "The Sound of the Trumpet," is a work on the day of judgment; and "A Fan to drive away Flies," is a theological treatise on purgatory.

We must not write to the utter neglect of our t.i.tle; and a fair author should have the literary piety of ever having "the fear of his t.i.tle-page before his eyes." The following are improper t.i.tles. Don Matthews, chief huntsman to Philip IV. of Spain, ent.i.tled his book "The Origin and Dignity of the Royal House," but the entire work relates only to hunting. De Chantereine composed several moral essays, which being at a loss how to ent.i.tle, he called "The Education of a Prince." He would persuade the reader in his preface, that though they were not composed with a view to this subject, they should not, however, be censured for the t.i.tle, as they partly related to the education of a prince. The world was too sagacious to be duped, and the author in his second edition acknowledges the absurdity, drops "the magnificent t.i.tle," and calls his work "Moral Essays." Montaigne's immortal history of his own mind, for such are his "Essays," has a.s.sumed perhaps too modest a t.i.tle, and not sufficiently discriminative. Sorlin equivocally ent.i.tled a collection of essays, "The Walks of Richelieu," because they were composed at that place; "The Attic Nights" of Aulus Gellius were so called, because they were written in Attica. Mr. Tooke, in his grammatical "Diversions of Purley," must have deceived many.

A rhodomontade t.i.tle-page was once a great favourite. There was a time when the republic of letters was over-built with "Palaces of Pleasure,"

"Palaces of Honour," and "Palaces of Eloquence;" with "Temples of Memory," and "Theatres of Human Life," and "Amphitheatres of Providence;" "Pharoses, Gardens, Pictures, Treasures." The epistles of Guevara dazzled the public eye with their splendid t.i.tle, for they were called "Golden Epistles;" and the "Golden Legend" of Voragine had been more appropriately ent.i.tled leaden.

They were once so fond of novelty, that every book recommended itself by such t.i.tles as "A new Method; new Elements of Geometry; the new Letter Writer, and the new Art of Cookery."

To excite the curiosity of the pious, some writers employed artifices of a very ludicrous nature. Some made their t.i.tles rhyming echoes; as this one of a father, who has given his works under the t.i.tle of _Scalae Alae animi_; and _Jesus esus novus...o...b..s_. Some have distributed them according to the measure of time, as one Father Nadasi, the greater part of whose works are _years_, _months_, _weeks_, _days_, and _hours_. Some have borrowed their t.i.tles from the parts of the body; and others have used quaint expressions, such as--_Think before you leap_--_We must all die_--_Compel them to enter_. Some of our pious authors appear not to have been aware that they were burlesquing religion. One Ma.s.sieu having written a moral explanation of the solemn anthems sung in Advent, which begin with the letter O, published this work under the punning t.i.tle of _La douce Moelle, et la Sauce friande des os Savoureux de l'Avent_.[81]

The Marquis of Carraccioli a.s.sumed the ambiguous t.i.tle of _La Jouissance de soi-meme_. Seduced by the epicurean t.i.tle of self-enjoyment, the sale of the work was continual with the libertines, who, however, found nothing but very tedious essays on religion and morality. In the sixth edition the marquis greatly exults in his successful contrivance; by which means he had punished the vicious curiosity of certain persons, and perhaps had persuaded some, whom otherwise his book might never have reached.

If a t.i.tle be obscure, it raises a prejudice against the author; we are apt to suppose that an ambiguous t.i.tle is the effect of an intricate or confused mind. Baillet censures the Ocean Macromicrocosmic of one Sachs.

To understand this t.i.tle, a grammarian would send an inquirer to a geographer, and he to a natural philosopher; neither would probably think of recurring to a physician, to inform one that this ambiguous t.i.tle signifies the connexion which exists between the motion of the waters with that of the blood. He censures Leo Allatius for a t.i.tle which appears to me not inelegantly conceived. This writer has ent.i.tled one of his books the _Urban Bees_; it is an account of those ill.u.s.trious writers who flourished during the pontificate of one of the Barberinis.

The allusion refers to the _bees_ which were the arms of this family, and Urban VIII. is the Pope designed.

The false idea which a t.i.tle conveys is alike prejudicial to the author and the reader. t.i.tles are generally too prodigal of their promises, and their authors are contemned; but the works of modest authors, though they present more than they promise, may fail of attracting notice by their extreme simplicity. In either case, a collector of books is prejudiced; he is induced to collect what merits no attention, or he pa.s.ses over those valuable works whose t.i.tles may not happen to be interesting. It is related of Pinelli, the celebrated collector of books, that the booksellers permitted him to remain hours, and sometimes days, in their shops to examine books before he purchased. He was desirous of not injuring his precious collection by useless acquisitions; but he confessed that he sometimes could not help being dazzled by magnificent t.i.tles, nor being mistaken by the simplicity of others, which had been chosen by the modesty of their authors. After all, many authors are really neither so vain, nor so honest, as they appear; for magnificent, or simple t.i.tles, have often been given from the difficulty of forming any others.

It is too often with the t.i.tles of Books, as with those painted representations exhibited by the keepers of wild beasts; where, in general, the picture itself is made more striking and inviting to the eye, than the inclosed animal is always found to be.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 81: Religious parody seems to have carried no sense of impropriety with it to the minds of the men of the 15th and 16th centuries. Luther was an adept in this art, and the preachers who followed him continued the practice. The sermons of divines in the following century often sought an attraction by quaint t.i.tles, such as--"Heaven ravished"--"The Blacksmith, a sermon preached at Whitehall before the King," 1606. Beloe, in his _Anecdotes of Literature_, vol. 6, has recorded many of these quaint t.i.tles, among them the following:--"_The Nail hit on the head_, and driven into the city and cathedral wall of Norwich. By John Carter, 1644." "_The Wheel turned_ by a voice from the throne of glory. By John Carter, 1647." "_Two Sticks made one_, or the excellence of Unity. By Matthew Mead, 1691." "_Peter's Net let downe_, or the Fisher and the Fish, both prepared towards a blessed haven. By R. Matthew, 1634." In the middle of the last century two religious tracts were published, one bearing the alarming t.i.tle, "Die and be d.a.m.ned," the other being termed, "A sure Guide to h.e.l.l." The first was levelled against the preaching of the Methodists, and the t.i.tle obtained from what the author a.s.serts to be the words of condemnation then frequently applied by them to all who differed from their creed. The second is a satirical attack on the prevalent follies and vices of the day, which form the surest "guide," in the opinion of the author, to the bottomless pit.]

LITERARY FOLLIES.

The Greeks composed lipogrammatic works; works in which one letter of the alphabet is omitted. A lipogrammatist is a letter-dropper. In this manner Tryphiodorus wrote his Odyssey; he had not [Greek: alpha] in his first book, nor [Greek: beta] in his second; and so on with the subsequent letters one after another. This Odyssey was an imitation of the lipogrammatic Iliad of Nestor. Among other works of this kind, Athenaeus mentions an ode by Pindar, in which he had purposely omitted the letter S; so that this inept ingenuity appears to have been one of those literary fas.h.i.+ons which are sometimes encouraged even by those who should first oppose such progresses into the realms of nonsense.