ambient air, could not be heard of or meditated upon without feelings and speculations arising, which neither the scientific nor the vulgar had indulged before. The eagerness of his contemporaries for knowlege and for novelty, would not allow this retiring student to confine, as he wished, his peculiar ideas to his own bosom; and at length obtained their disclosure from his modest sensibility, which dreaded ridicule for their apparent extravagance.20 Even chimerical ALCHEMY contributed to multiply the intellectual excitement of this all moving period. The enthusiastic dreams of the strong and laborious minds, who were exhausting themselves in its experiments,30 received such authorized and public sanc 23 One of the first great effects of the new doctrine was, as Kepler observes, the abolition and removal out of nature of the nine or ten pellucid spheres, which were before thought to encompass our mundum elementarem, like the coats of an onion. Kepler Diopt. p.60. 29 Copernicus says, 'As I thought within myself what an absurd conjecture they would think it, who knew that for many ages it had been firmly believed that the earth is immoveable in the middle of the heavens, if I should assert the contrary; I hesitated a long time whether I should give my commentaries to the public, or imitate some of the Pythagoreans, who delivered their mysteries of philosophy to their relatives and friends, not by letters, but by personal communication only, as the letter of Lysis to Hipparchus shews; but my friends the cardinal of Capua, and the bishop of Culm, of all good letters most studious, urged me till, &c.' Ded. Revol. But Capua's letter to him in 1536 leads us to infer that his reluctance, which lasted for years, may have saved the world from his more crude speculations, and kept him from publication till he had perfected his theory, for in this the cardinal mentions it as one of the great astronomer's opinions, in 1536, that the moon turned round the sun, between Mars and Venus, ib. He was earnest for his publication, oro vehementer, that you would communicate this thy inventum to the studious.' ib. 30 The chief alchemists, tho eccentric, were men of powerful and unwearied minds, and real lovers of natural knowlege as such, and pursued it for its phenomena, far more than from avarice, from our Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus, to Raymond Lully, Villa Nova, Ripley, Basil Valentine, Paracelsus, and Van Helmont, who all lived between 1300 and 1600. It is remarkable, that most of these, CHAP. BOOK tion, 31 and especially Lully and Villa Nova, were accused of heresy, or new opinions in their religious speculations. Their works show that they united strong feelings of Theism with their researches. But many were in the church. Thus Rupecissa was a Franciscan; Ripley, a canon; and Basil Valentine, a Benedictine. 31 Edward III. in 1329, gave the alchemists the important sanction of his order to bring before him, willingly or by force, two persons who had declared that they could make the precious metals. Rymer Acta. Reg. v. 4. p. 384. In 1476, Edward IV. granted the royal license to exercise the art of alchemy, ib. v. 12. T. Norton, who wrote in 1477, his doggerel Latin poem of Crede Mihi, on alchemy, describes in detail one of Edward's noblemen arresting Daulton, an alchemist, and putting him into prison, to extort from him the secret of his art, but the man chose rather to perish than do so. 2 Mang. Bib. Ch. 294. The art must have been favored by Leo. X., or Augurellas would not have addressed to this elegant pontiff his Chrysopœia ; in which he describes his alchemy in flowing Latin hexameters. See it in 2 Manget, p. 371. 32 Ricardus Anglicus mentions in his Correctorium, that aurum curet infirmitates,' 2 Manget, p. 271; and Bartholomeus, whose work was printed after his death in 1488, inculcated that the filings of gold taken with meat or drink, or as a medicine, are good in leprosy, or at least in effecting a concealment of it, and with the juice of borage and hartshorn, benefits in fainting, and in the cardiac passion. So gold leaf made red hot and extinguished in wine, causes that to be useful against spleen and melancholy. A golden instrument is the best cautery, as it keeps the part free from fetor. Heated gold takes off the hairs from a limb, and prevents them from growing again. De Propriet. rer. 1. 16. chap. 4. It was the Arabians who first introduced into pharmacy the use of leaf gold and silver. Friend's Hist. Phys. 2. p. 206. Innocent V. was supposed to have been cured of the plague by a tincture of gold. Ric. Ang. Correct. It was also used in the gout. Ellis Lett. 3. p. 35. 33 Bartholomeus says, Gold is the most beautiful of metals, and therefore its beauty obtains the first and chief place among all picturabiles formas.' Guainerus mentions one fact which indicates the benefit done by these alchemists to medicine. He knew a hermit who had been so often disappointed from his crucible, that he at last abandoned alchemy, applied himself to the preparation of medicine, and became a physician. G. confesses that he was indebted to him for some good remedies which he had discovered in his experiments. Gain. de Parel. c. 7. 34 The conversion of the earthy oxides of mercury, as calomel and vermilion, into actual quicksilver, and of red powder of lead into its I. continually effusing to society unknown knowlege CHAP. of material qualities 35 and agencies. The congenial delusion, the hope to be as fortunate in discovering that quintessence, that fifth element of things to which Aristotle had briefly alluded, from which they might be enabled to compound some elixir that would restore age to juvenility, and annihilate disease, actuated many sanguine operators to their own disappointment, yet caused them to add to the information of the inquisitive, by the unexpected results of their diversified combinations.36 Greek names were metallic substance, and of steel blade dipped into a bluish fluid, into a surface of actual copper, induced these men to think, according to the chemical facts which they then knew, that in these cases they had transmuted earth to metals, and iron to copper. The additional phenomena observed afterwards, required a new judgment to be formed on the new knowlege, and shewed the preceding one to be erroneous: but this did not make the older judgment absurd, tho wrong. They reasoned to a wrong conclusion, because their facts were too few for a right one. They were as acute and as strong-headed, in the period which is the subject of the present history, as we are now, but being less acquainted with the phenomena of things, they therefore had less right philosophy. 35 In Basil Valentine we have a fair instance how men were led to take up the art and pursue it. He says, after his becoming a monk, 'When I had lived some time in my order, lest my thoughts should from idleness lead me into sin, I resolved to explore nature, and by its anatomy to investigate its secrets. After due attention to the eternal things, I found the height of my wishes in temporal studies. I read many books in our library, which had been written by philosophers who had lived long before me. I happened also to have a colleague, who was very ill of the stone, and whom no one could cure. I then for his sake began the anatomy of herbs. I distilled them, and extracted their salt and quintam essentiam; but I did him no good, tho there was no plant which during six years I did not operate upon. I then turned to learn those qualities which the Creator has hid in metals, and in the minerals of the earth. Here the more I sought, the more I found. A greater stream always was flowing out of what preceded, and I cured my friend.' B. Val. de magno lapide. 2 Mang. 410. 36 Thus Raymond Lully was indefatigable in preparing an 'universal medicine,' as he also was in making gems. So John and Isaac Hollands in 1420 composed their universal elixir, and also educed many valuable facts on distillation, enamels, colored glass, gems, and aqua regia. Paracelsus loudly claimed the credit of possessing an infallible tincture of life, which he called Azoth. He was a visionary, but his extravagancies II. BOOK also attached to the science, which made it more attractive to the scholar." They pursued it, because, unlike the scholastic metaphysics, it concerned real being, and led them to know the phenomena of created matter.38 To be distinguished, and to excel in some line of human action or other, was the general passion; and hence even PULPIT ORATORY practised new exertions, took new fields of display," and ventured to attempt gigantic publicity," and a style, which we enlarged the views of the medical mind which finally condemned them, and his experiments were advantageous to medical chemistry. His opera, tho full of random matter, are yet worth inspection. They form two volumes, Geneva, 1658. 37 I find Democritus Philosophus' quoted in some of the alchemists, and there are still some Greek MSS. existing in the German libraries, attributed to him, which have never been printed. Shaw's Boerhaave, v. 1. Some have thought these to be the compositions of later Grecians. But I observe, that Petronius Arbiter in the time of Nero, notices him in remarking that it was the desire of discovering something useful to mankind, which led Democritus to distil the juices of every kind of plant, and to employ his life in making a great number of experiments to find out the properties of minerals and herbs.' Petron. Satyr. These words imply, that treatises of Democritus on chemical subjects existed in the first century. 38 Their best works make this distinction. Petrus Bonus, of 1330, in his Margarita Pretiosa, lays it down as one of his first principles, that Scientia Alchemiæ sit de ente reali,' and as such discusses it. p. 1. So R. Lully establishes it as his two first principia, that the Deity is the Creator of all things, and their mover; and his third, that matter has been created by him, and that every thing under the globe of the moon has been created and formed as such matter.' On this foundation he proceeds to consider the facts of alchemy as the phenomena or effects of this matter. See his Testamentum, 1 Manget, p. 710. 39 One of the new scenes and uses of preaching was to accompany armies in their campaigns. This habit was noticed by the bishop of Modena, in his letter of May 1542: I have ordered M. Bavadagli to go to the camp in Hungary, where the Lutheran preachers will be, as I am assured that he may induce these preachers to relinquish their dogmas, when they exhort the soldiers to fight. There will be also many Italian soldiers there, with their Catholic preachers.' Ep. Poli. Quern. 3. p. 269. 40 In 1452, the minor fryar John de Capistrano was sent to convert the Bohemians, and to preach in Germany. He visited Thuringia, Saxony, Misnia and Moravia, and was received every where with banners, I. may call, with no intention of abuse, but merely as CHAP. its descriptive character, the field preaching of Popery." Projects of new traffic, and of exploring new regions, if not new worlds; large views, high thoughts and high daring agitated others, as the mysterious direction of the magnet to the Pole, presented to NAVIGATION an invisible guide, which made the mariner an enthusiast, gave security to the boldest adventures, and excited a passion for remote voyages and investigations. The astonishing discoveries which 42 crosses and processions, like a sovereign prince. He preached at Erfurd to SIXTY THOUSAND PERSONS; the men arranged on one side, the women on the other. He only knew Latin; but a doctor interpreted as he went on. Mag. Chron. Belg. 2. This far outdid our Whitfield, whose clearest or fullest exertion of voice did not reach beyond 20,000 people. The Magnum Chronicon mentions that 'more Italico he preached with his hands and feet, as well as with his voice.' p. 382. This corresponds with Henry Wharton's account of him; He itinerated thro the cities and towns, addressing sermons to the people, in the highways and market places, against the enemies of the Roman Church. Among the Germans and those who were ignorant of Italian, he is said to have affected the minds of his audience in a wonderful manner, by using gesticulations instead of words.' Cave's Script. Eccl. add. p. 98. How he managed to teach the papal faith, and to confute heresy by stage acting and dumb show, has not been recorded. Yet nothing else could have had any effect on the largest half of an audience of sixty thousand persons. The most violent exertion of manual eloquence, among the Roman orators, was that of striking the thigh. But Capistrano must have multiplied his oratorical gestures far beyond this small circumstance. 42 The conquest of Ceuta on the Morocco coast, by the Portuguese in 1415, under John I. began the taste for African discoveries and possessions; and his intelligent son Henry cherished the new maritime passion. He saw how effectually the magnetic compass would assist in exploring new and distant lands. His pilots soon doubled both Cape Noir and Cape Bajedor, and by 1420 had discovered the Isle of Madeira and the Canaries. The Azores and the Cape de Verd islands only stimulated curiosity to advance, and before Henry's death, in 1463, Šierra Leone was reached and passed. By 1484, they had explored and began to conquer in the kingdom of Congo, to the surprise and gratification of Europe; and twelve years afterwards, under John II. the intrepid Diez surmounted the stormy Cape, now of Good Hope. Following his steps, in the reign of Emanuel the Great, the Greater Vasco de Gama in 1498, astonished, and delighted all the thinking world by sailing to the East |