Part 10 (1/2)

Ovid[177] attributes to the enchantments of magic the evocation of the infernal powers, and their dismissal back to h.e.l.l; storms, tempests, and the return of fine weather. They attributed to it the power of changing men into beasts by means of certain herbs, the virtues of which are known to them.[178]

Virgil[179] speaks of serpents put to sleep and enchanted by the magicians. And Tibullus says that he has seen the enchantress bring down the stars from heaven, and turn aside the thunderbolt ready to fall upon the earth--and that she has opened the ground and made the dead come forth from their tombs.

As this matter allows of poetical ornaments, the poets have vied with each other in endeavoring to adorn their pages with them, not that they were convinced there was any truth in what they said; they were the first to laugh at it when an opportunity presented itself, as well as the gravest and wisest men of antiquity. But neither princes nor priests took much pains to undeceive the people, or to destroy their prejudices on those subjects. The Pagan religion allowed them, nay, authorized them, and part of its practices were founded on similar superst.i.tions.

Footnotes:

[168] Plin. lib. iii. c. 2.

[169] Philost. Vit. Apollon.

[170] Lactant. lib. vi. Divin. Inst.i.t. c. 13.

[171] Aug. ad Simplic.

[172] Tertull. de Anima, c. 57.

[173] Lucan. Pharsal. lib. vi. 450, _et seq._

[174]

”Cessavere vices rerum, dilataque longa, Haesit nocte dies; legi non paruit aether; Torpuit et praeceps audito carmine mundus; Et tonat ignaro coelum Jove.”

[175]

”Cantat et e curro tentat deducere Lunam Et faceret, si non aera repulsa sonent.”

_Tibull._ lib. i. Eleg. ix. 21.

[176] Pietro della Valle, Voyage.

[177]

”.... Obscurum verborum ambage nervorum Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.

Jam ciet infernas magico stridore catervas, Jam jubet aspersum lacte referre pedem.

c.u.m libet, haec tristi depellit nubila coelo; c.u.m libet, aestivo provocat orbe nives.”

_Ovid. Metamorph._ 14.

[178]

”Nas nam ut cantu, nimiumque potentibus herbis Verterit in tacitos juvenilia corpora pisces.”

[179]

”Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris Spargere qui somnos cantuque manque solebat,”

CHAPTER XV.