The Project Gutenberg eBook, Thaumaturgia, by An Oxonian

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Title: Thaumaturgia

Author: An Oxonian

Release Date: November 15, 2003 [eBook #10088]

Language: English

Chatacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THAUMATURGIA***

E-text prepared by Carlo Traverso, Eric Casteleijn, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr.

[Transcriber's note: The spelling peculiarities of the original have been retained in this etext.]

THAUMATURGIA,

OR

ELUCIDATIONS OF THE MARVELLOUS.

BY

AN OXONIAN.

1835

 "Bombastes kept the devil's bird,
  Shut in the pommel of his sword,
  And taught him all the cunning pranks,
  Of past and future mountebanks."
    Hudibras.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Demonology—The Devil, a most unaccountable personage—Who is he?—His predilection for old women—Traditions concerning evil spirits &c.

CHAPTER II.

Magic and Magical rites.

Jewish magi.

CHAPTER III.

On the several kinds of magic.

Augury, or divinations drawn from the flight and feeding of birds.

Aruspices, or divinations drawn from brute or human sacrifices.

Divisions of divination by the ancients—prodigies, etc.

CHAPTER IV.

History of Oracles—The principal oracles of antiquity.

The oracle of Jupiter Hammon. The oracle of Delphos, or Pythian Apollo.

Ceremonies practised on consulting oracles.

Oracles often equivocal and obscure.

Urim and Thummim.

Reputation of oracles, how lost.

Cessation of oracles.

Had demons any share in the oracles?

Of oracles, the artifices of priests of false divinities.

CHAPTER V.

The British Druids, or magi—Origin of fairies—Ancient superstitions—Their skill in medicine, etc.

The British magi.

CHAPTER VI.

Aesculapian mysteries, etc.

CHAPTER VII.

Inferior deities attending mankind from their birth to their decease.

CHAPTER VIII.

Judicial astrology—Its chemical application to the prolongation of life and health—Alchymical delusions.

CHAPTER IX

Alchymical and astrological chimera.

The Horoscope, a tale of the stars.

The Fated Parricide; an oriental tale of the stars.

Application of astrology to the prolongation of life, etc.

Advertisement.

Spring. \
Summer. |_ influences of,
Autumn. |
the winter quarter. /

CHAPTER X.

Oneirocritical presentiment, illustrating the cause, effects, principal phenomena, and definition of dreams, etc.

Cause of Dreams.

Poetical illustrations of the effects of the imagination in dreams.

Principal phenomena in dreaming.

Definition of dreams.

CHAPTER XI.

On Incubation, or the art of healing by visionary divination.

CHAPTER XII.

On amulets, charms, talismans—Philters, their origin and imaginary efficacy, etc.

Amulets used by the common people.

Eccentricities, caprices, and effects, of the imagination.

Doctrine of Effluvia—Miraculous cures by means of charms, amulets, etc.

CHAPTER XIII.

On talismans—some curious natural ones, etc.

CHAPTER XIV.

On the medicinal powers attributed to music by the ancients.

CHAPTER XV.

Presages, prodigies, presentiments, etc.

CHAPTER XVI.

Phenomena of meteors, optic delusions, spectra, etc.

CHAPTER XVII.

Elucidation of some ancient prodigies.

Magical pretensions of certain herbs, etc.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The practice of Obeah, or negro witchcraft—charms—their knowledge of vegetable poison—secret poisoning.

CHAPTER XIX.

On the origin and superstitious influence of rings.

CHAPTER XX.

Celestial influences—omens—climacterics—predominations.—Lucky and unlucky days.—Empirics, etc.

Absurdities of Paracelsus, and Van Helmont.

CHAPTER XXI.

Modern empiricism.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Rosicrucians or Theosophists.

THAUMATURGIA,

OR

ELUCIDATIONS OF THE MARVELLOUS.

CHAPTER I.

DEMONOLOGY—THE DEVIL, A MOST UNACCOUNTABLE PERSONAGE—WHO IS HE?—HIS
PREDILECTION FOR OLD WOMEN—TRADITIONS CONCERNING EVIL SPIRITS, &C.

Children and old women have been accustomed to hear so many frightful things of the cloven-footed potentate, and have formed such diabolical ideas of his satanic majesty, exhibiting him in so many horrible and monstrous shapes, that really it were enough to frighten Beelzebub himself, were he by any accident to meet his prototype in the dark, dressed up in the several figures in which imagination has embodied him. And as regards men themselves, it might be presumed that the devil could not by any means terrify them half so much, were they actually to meet and converse with him face to face: so true it is that his satanic majesty is not near so black as he is painted.

However useful the undertaking might prove, to give a true history of this "tyrant of the air," this "God of the world," this "terror and overseer of mankind," it is not our intention to become the devil's biographer, notwithstanding the facility with which the materials might be collected. Of the devil's origin, and the first rise of his family, we have sufficient