Witch, Warlock, and Magician. W. H. Davenport Adams. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: W. H. Davenport Adams
Издательство: Bookwire
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Жанр произведения: Зарубежная психология
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isbn: 4064066051693
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divining by means of a crystal globe, mirror, or beryl. Of this science of prediction, Dr. Dee was the great English professor; but the reader will doubtless remember the story of the Earl of Surrey and his fair ‘Geraldine.’

      Geomancy, divination by casting pebbles on the ground.

      Hydromancy, divination by water, in which the diviner showed the figure of an absent person. ‘In this you conjure the spirits into water; there they are constrained to show themselves, as Marcus Varro testifieth, when he writeth how he had seen a boy in the water, who announced to him in a hundred and fifty verses the end of the Mithridatic war.’

      Oneiromancy, divination by dreams, is still credited by old women of both sexes. Absurdly baseless as it is, it found believers in the old time among men of culture and intellectual force. Archbishop Laud attached so much importance to his dreams that he frequently recorded them in his diary; and even Lord Bacon seems to have thought that a prophetic meaning was occasionally concealed in them.

      Onychomancy, or Onymancy, divination by means of the nails of an unpolluted boy.

      Pyromancy, divination by fire. ‘The wife of Cicero is said, when, after performing sacrifice, she saw a flame suddenly leap forth from the ashes, to have prophesied the consulship to her husband for the same year.’ Others resorted to the blaze of a torch of pitch, which was painted with certain colours. It was a good omen if the flame ran into a point; bad when it divided. A thin-tongued flame announced glory; if it went out, it signified danger; if it hissed, misfortune.

      Rabdomancy, divination by the rod or wand, is mentioned by Ezekiel. The use of a hazel-rod to trace the existence of water or of a seam of coal seems a survival of this practice. But enough of these follies:

      ‘Necro-, pyro-, geo-, hydro-, cheiro-, coscinomancy,

       With other vain and superstitious sciences.’

       Tomkis, ‘Albumazar,’ ii. 3.

      FOOTNOTES

      2. Epistola Fratris Rogerii Baconis de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturæ et de Nullitate Magiæ.

      ‘Of whom if I the namès calle,

       Hermes was one the first of alle,

       To whom this Art is most applied.’

      The name of Hermes was chosen because of the supposed magical powers of the god of the caduceus.

      10. Bad puns were evidently common on the stage before the days of Victorian burlesque.

      ‘Save the nightingale alone:

       She, poor bird, as all forlorn,

       Leaned her breast uptill a thorn.’

      ‘Great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night,

       At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight.’

      Milton, in ‘Paradise Lost,’ alludes to ‘the dreaded name of Demogorgon.’ Dryden says: ‘When the moon arises, and Demogorgon walks his round.’ And he is one of the dramatis personæ of Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound’: ‘Demogorgon, a tremendous gloom.... A mighty Darkness, filling the seat of power.’