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November 8,1856.] THE LEADER. 1075
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OPINIONS HELD IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Foetry And Politics On The Danube. Itoum...
enough to render it impossible . Then , for purposes of military defence , the uniouof the Principalities , is essential , unless the Western Powers desire to leave , on the Ottoman frontier , a door perpetually open to the designs of Austria and Russia . The Turkish and Austrian cabinets , in " malignant conjunction , " to use an astrological phrase , invoke the idea of the integrity-of the Ottoman Empire against this plan of union . But the Principalities never have been in the lift of conquered territories , forming integral parts of the Ottoman Empire . They are related to the Porte , not by conquest , but by treaties , which they have kept , and which the Porte has broken . Moreover , their union would not endanger a single interest involved in the maintenance of the Turkish power in Eastern ^ Europe , but would rather constitute a new guarantee in favour of that power . A united Moldo-Wallachian state would be a source of security to Turkey ; first , as protecting hex * against invasion ; and
secondly , as relieving heir from , the discontent of five millions of a brave people , who have incessantly chafed under her authority ; lastly , the Porte lias no right to insist that the llouman race shall suffer itself to be destroyed for the sake of an imperial fiction . It has already been destroyed for all purposes of self-government , say the Austrian pamphleteers . It is corrupt , degenerate , feeble ; has lost its aspirations , can neveivagain be exalted to a free politicalexistence . M . Bataillard admits that the privileged classes have been tainted to some extent by Fanariote vice , by venality , by the love of intrigue , by subservience to unpatriotic factions . But he adds an eloquent vindication of the vast majority , winch , we think , will satisfy an
impartial reader . From the Bosphorus and the Archipelago , he says , to Eussia , to Prussia , to the Alps , nearly every small nation has succumbed to -some foreiga power ; but ^ the Moldo-Wallachians never have succumbed , and are how asserting their historical claims in the presence of all Europe . We cannot give too broad an assent to this triumphant parallel , seeing that the inhabitants of the provinces have been laid prostrate two years successively by two military powers , and are now soliciting a settlement of their destinies from a Congress in Paris . But M . Bataillard has argued the . whole : question in a pointed and generally moderate style , which appeals to the common sense of the reader ;
November 8,1856.] The Leader. 1075
November 8 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 1075
Opinions Held In The Sixteenth Century. ...
OPINIONS HELD IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . The Life of Cornelius Agrippa von NettesTieiin , Doctor and Knight , commonly known as a Magician . ByHenryMorley . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . ¦
' ' m - ^ ( Second USTotice . ) It is very instructive to look back from time to time , and note , if we can do so without unseemly arrogance , the credulities of learned men . In looking , with Mr . Morley ' s aid , into the opinions put forth by Agrippa , we shall note many curious superstitions which may suggest an important reflection . For example , there is something- more than a laugh to be extracted from passages like this : — Finally , there is a distinction to "be made between powers that exist only during the life of the thing operative and those which remain in force after its death . It is
only when alive that the Echinus can . arrest the course of ships . They say also , that in the colic , if a liv « duck be applied to the stomach it takes away the pain , and the duck dies . _ Generally , parts of animals that are used should bo taken from the animal While it still lives and is in fullest vigour . The right eye of a serpent being applied relieves watering of the eyes , if the serpent be let go alive , and the tooth of a mole ¦ will be a cure for toothache , it was taken from a living mole who was allowed to run away after the operation . Some properties remain , however , after death , attached to things in which some part of the idea remains . So it is that herbs , when dried , retain their virtue , and the skin of a wolf corrodes the skin , of a lamb , and acts upon it not only by aontact of substance ; for a drum made of the skin of a wolf being beaten will cause tha . t a drum made of a lanib ' a skin shall not sound . Or this :-
—Then , again , as saith Hermes , there are seven holes in the head of an animal , distributed to the seven planets . Also among the several signs of the Zodiac is each living body parcelled out for government , and there is the same relation between the parts as between signs or planets ruling . The agreement of the triplicity in the case of Pisces and Yirgo accounts for the fact that , by putting the feet into hot water , one may sometimes relieve pain in the belly . Or m the divisions of things according to Zodiacal influences : among which ° j o ¦ The baboon , also , is solary , because he barks twelve times a day , that is , every iiour , and marks smaller intervals of time in a wav that caused his figure to be carved by the Egyptians on their fountains— * a point further enforced by the 'fact' that the common division of time was suggested to man by the habits of this sacred animal , the baboon .
Among lunary animals are such as delight to be in man ' s company ; and the panther which it is said has a spot upon its shoulder waxing and waning as tho moon < iotd . Cats also are lunary , whose eyes become greater or less according to the course « t the moon . Lunary also aro amphibious animals , and those which are equivocally generated , as mico sometimes aro bred from putrefaction of the earth , wasps are bred ! of the carcases of horses , bees of the putrefaction of cows , small flies of sour wine , and Beetles of the flesh of asses . What are we to say to the straight gut administered against the injustice and corruption of i to
princes or the great things accomplished " by suflumigations in tho air , as the liver of a chameleon , being burnt on the top of tue house , doth , as it is manifest , raise showers and lightnings ? " or to the [ ac t stated on the authority of Proclus , that a spirit was wont to appear in tue lorm of a lion , but by the setting of a cock before it , it vanished away , Decause there is a contrariety betwixt a cock and a lion ? or this ?—WmS JF ° ) als ° J is tlxo power o fascination , which comes from the spirit of a witch , blood hiV" ! ° * i ? , , e 8 in a P « lucid > subtl ° vapour , generated of the purer 7 ™! 5 ° i ieat of tho hoartl And as tho vapour from blear eyes falling upon eyes be nourJ ^ m ? y ° Orru Pt them , so may tho motions and imaginations of one spirit Wm that is « ° " ^ ° ° and bC th ° vcuiculum of thafc B P irit through tho oyca of And this ?—they " so ^ wT ? ¥ * % ¦ * ?\ a 11 tU ^^ ° hia nailH bo P into Pores' caves , and the uS ^ h . ^ began to draw the nail * firs t must bo taken and bound to ue nocK , wad by thw moana will tho diaeaso be removed . Alao they say that a man ' s
eyes being washed three times with the water wherein he has washed his feet will never "be sore . And a little frog climbing up a tree , if any one shall spit in his mouth , and then let him escape , is said to cure the cough . Laugh at these we must ; but let us also extract a lesson from them . TVhy did nien credit such superstitions as these ? For the same reason that men credit superstitions—different , indeed , but almost as gross—in our own day , namely , because their minds were not trained to consider the evidence by which assertions could be guaranteed . The child implicitly believes in any explanation that is confidently given of what puzzles him ; and men are children in this respect , until they have learned that the value of an explanation wholly depends upon the truth of the inductions which precede it . Observe inthe following example how from , the real a transition is made to the fantastic ; the two first cases being such as , whether explicable or not , are within the range of vul gar experience , but because they were marvellous they seemed to warrant any other marvel : —
Now the passions produce changes in the body , by way of imitation , as when he -who sees another gape , gapes also ; and William of Paris knew a man upon whom any purgative draught would take effect at sight . So Cyppus , after he was chosen king of Italy , dwelt for a whole night upon the vivid recollection and enjoyment of a bull-fight , and in the morning was found horned , no otherwise than , by the vegetative power being sthxed up by a vehement imagination , elevating corniferous humours into hia head . ' Risiim teneutis ? The " corniferous humours" excite your scorn , hut do you not believe in " the influence of the imagination" of the mother over bcr unborn child ?
The passions , following the fancy when they axe most vehement , can not only change their own body , but can transcend so much as to work also on anothor body , to produce wonderful impressions on its elements , ana remove or communicate disease . So the soul , being strongly elevated , sends forth health or sickness to surrounding objects ; and Avicenna believed that with a strong action of the fancy in this manner one might kill a camel . Such is the known action of the parent on the unborn cliild . Yes , such is the known action of the parent on the unborn child ; this and no other ; the one is asabsurd as the other ; onlyin our nineteenth century we have ceased to believe in the one , while devoutly believing in the other . ; . . •¦ ¦ ... . . •¦ . ¦ .. . ¦ ' , ' ¦ . ¦ ¦ : ¦ . ¦ . ¦ ' .. ¦¦ '¦ . •• : . . - . . ; ¦ • ¦ . . ¦ Gladly would we have transferred to our columns the greater part of Mr . Movley ' s analysis of Agrippa ' s treatise on" The Pre-eminence of Woman , " and some passages we must throw together : ¦—
Even after death nature respects her inherent modesty , for a drowned woman floats on her face , and a drowned man upon his back . Tie noblest part of a human being is the head ; but the man ' s head is liable to baldness , woman is never seen bald . The man ' s face is often made so filthy by amost odious beard , and so covered with sordid hairs , that it is scarcely to be distinguished from th e face of a wild beast ; in women , on the other hand , the face always remains pure and decent . For this reason women were , by the laws of the twelve tables , forbidden to rub their cheeks lest hair should grow and obscure their blushing modesty . But the most evident proof of the innate purity of the female sex is , that a -woman , having once washed is clean , and if she wash in second ' water will not soil it ; but that a man is never clean , thoughhe should wash iii ten successive waters , he will cloud and infect them all . . . .
We have all sinned m Adam , not in Eve ¦ original sin we inherit only from the father of our lace . The fruit of the tree of knowledge was forbidden toman only , before woman was made ; woman received no injunction , she was created free . She was not blamed , therefore , for eating , but for causing sin in her husband by giving him to eat ; and she did that not of her own will , but because the devil tempted her . He chose her as the object of temptation , as St . Bernard says , because he saw with envy that she was the most perfect of creatures . She erred in ignorance because she was deceived ; the man sinned knowingly . Therefore our Lord made atonement in the figure of tlie sex that had sinned , and also for more complete humiliation came in the form of a man , not that of a . woman , which is nobler and sublimer . He
humbled himself as man , but overcame as the descendant of the woman ; for the seed of the woman , it was said , not : the . seed of man , should bruise the serpent ' s head . He would not , therefore , be born of a man ; woman alone was judged worthy to ba the earthly parent of the Deity . Risen ngain , he appeared first to women . Men forsook him , women never . No persecution , heresy , or error in the Church ever began with tho female sex . They were men who betrayed , sold , bought , accused , condemned , mocked , crucified the Lord . Peter denied him , his disciples left him . Women were at the foot of the cross , women were at the sepulchre . Even Pilate's wife , who -was a heathen , made more effort to save Jesus than any mall among believers . Finally , do not almost all theologians assert that the Church is maintained by the Tirgiu Mary ?
Aristotle may say that of all animals the males are stronger and wiser than the females , but St . Paul writes that weak things have been chosen to confound the strong . Adam was sublimely endowed , but woman humbled him ; Samson was strong , but woman made him captive ; Lot was chaste , but woman seduced him j David was religious , but woman disturbed his piety ; Solomon was wise , but woman deceived him ; Job was patient , and was robbed by the devil of fortune and family ; ulcerated , grieved , oppressed , nothing provoked him to anger till a woman did it , therein proving herself stronger than the devil .
LITERAnY WOMEN . Were not women now . forbidden to bo literary , we should at this day have moat celebrated women , whoso wit would surpass that « f men . "What is to bo said upon this head , wh « n even by nature women seem to bo born easily superior to practised students in all faculties ? Do not the grammarians entitle themselves masters ot right speaking ? Yet we learn this far better from our nurses and our mothers than from the grammarians For that reason Plato and Quintilian so solicitously urged a careful choico of children ' s nurses , that the children ' s language might bo formed on the best model . -Are not the poets in the invention of their whims and
fables , the dialecticians in their contentious garrulity , surpassed by women ? Waa over orator so good or so successful , that a courtezan could not excel his powers of persuasion ? What arithmetician by false calculation would know how to cheat a woman in tho payment of a debt ? What musician equals her in song and in amenity of voicoV Are not philosophers , mathematicians , find astrologers often inferior to country-women in their divinations ami predictions , and does not tho old nurse very often beat the doctor ? Socrates himself , the wisest of men , did not disdain to receive knowledge fro m Aspasia , nor did ' Apollo tho Theologian dospiso th « teaching of Pjiscilla .
THE ZOOLOOIOAL FE 3 UACE . Th-o queen of all birds , he says , is tho eagle , ulways of tho female sex , for no malo eagles lmvo been found . Tho phoenix is a femalo always . On tho othoi hand , tho . most pestilent of serpents , called tho basilisk , exists only as a male : it ia impossible * for it to hatch a female .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 8, 1856, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08111856/page/19/
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