 Chapter 5, Part 1 of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are on the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1. By Charles Mackay. Modern Prophecies, Part 1. An epidemic terror of the end of the world has several times spread over the nations. The most remarkable was that which seized Christendom about the middle of the 10th century. Numbers of phonetics appeared in France, Germany and Italy at that time, preaching that the thousand years prophesied in the Apocalypse as a term of the world's duration were about to expire and that the Son of Man would appear in the clouds to judge the godly and the ungodly. The delusion appears to have been discouraged by the church, but it nevertheless spread rapidly among the people. The scene of the last judgment was expected to be at Jerusalem. In the year 999 the number of pilgrims proceeding eastward to await the coming of the Lord in that city was so great that they were compared to a desolating army. Most of them sold their goods and possessions before they quitted Europe and lived upon the proceeds in the Holy Land. The buildings of every sort were suffered to fall into ruins. It was thought useless to repair them when the end of the world was so near. Many noble edifices were deliberately pulled down. Even churches, usually so well maintained, shared the general neglect. Knights, citizens and serfs travelled eastwards in company, taking with them their wives and children, singing psalms as they went and looking with tearful eyes upon the sky which they expected each minute to open to let the Son of God descend in his glory. During the thousandth year the number of pilgrims increased. Most of them were smitten with terror as with a plague. Every phenomenon of nature filled them with alarm. A thunderstorm sent them all upon their knees in mid-March. It was the opinion that thunder was the voice of God announcing the day of judgment. Numbers expected the earth to open and give up its dead at the sound. Every meteor in the sky seen at Jerusalem brought the whole Christian population into the streets to weep and pray. The pilgrims on the road were in the same alarm. Quote Footnote Fanatic preachers kept up the flame of terror. Every shooting star furnished occasion for a sermon in which the sublimity of the approaching judgment was the principal topic. The appearance of comets has been often thought to foretell the speedy dissolution of this world. Part of this belief still exists, but the comet is no longer looked upon as a sign but the agent of destruction. So lately, as in the year 1832, the greatest alarm spread over the continent of Europe, especially in Germany, lest the comet whose appearance was then foretold by astronomers should destroy the earth. The danger of our globe was gravely discussed. Many persons refrained from undertaking or concluding any business during that year, the consequence solely of their apprehension that this terrible comet would dash us and our world to atoms. During seasons of great pestilence, men have often believed the prophecies of crazed fanatics the end of the world was come. Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity. During the Great Plague, which ravaged all Europe between the years 1345 and 1350, it was generally considered that the end of the world was at hand. Pretended prophets were to be found in all the principal cities of Germany, France and Italy, predicting that within ten years the trump of the archangel would sound and the Saviour appear in the clouds to call the earth to judgement. No little consternation was created in London in 1736 by the prophecy of the famous Wishton that the world would be destroyed in that year, on the 13th of October. Crowds of people went out on the appointed day to see the destruction of London, which was to be the beginning of the end. A satirical account of this folly is given in Swift's Miscellaneous, Volume 3, entitled A true and faithful narrative of what passed in London on a rumour of the day of judgement. An authentic narrative of this delusion would be interesting, but this solemn witticism of pope and gay is not to be depended upon. In the year 1761 the citizens of London were alarmed by two shocks of an earthquake and the prophecy of a third which was to destroy them altogether. The first shock was felt on the 8th of February and threw down several chimneys in the neighbourhood of Limehouse and Poplar. The second happened on the 8th of March and was chiefly felt in the north of London and towards Hampstead and Highgate. It soon became the subject of general remark that there was exactly an interval of a month between the shocks and the crack-brained fellow named Bell, a soldier in the lifeguards, was so impressed with the idea that there would be a third in another month that he lost his senses altogether and ran about the streets predicting the destruction of London on the 5th of April. Most people thought that the first would have been a more appropriate day but they were not wanting thousands who confidently believed the prediction and took measures to transport themselves and families from the scene of the impending calamity. As the awful day approached the excitement became intense and great numbers of credulous people resorted to all the villages within a circuit of 20 miles awaiting the doom of London. Islington, Highgate, Hampstead, Harrow and Blackheath were crowded with panic-stricken fugitives who paid exorbitant prizes for accommodation to the housekeepers of these secure retreats. Such as could not afford to pay for lodgings at any of those places remained in London until two or three days before the time and then encamped in the surrounding fields awaiting the tremendous shock which was to lay their highest city all level with the dust. As happened during a similar panic in the time of Henry VIII the fear became contagious and hundreds who had laughed at the prediction a week before packed up their goods when they saw others doing so and hastened away. The river was thought to be a place of great security and all the merchant vessels in the port were filled with people who passed the night between the IV and V on board expecting every instant to see St. Paul's tottle and the towers of Westminster Abbey rock in the wind and fall amid a cloud of dust. A greater part of the fugitives returned on the following day convinced that the Prophet was a false one but many judged it more prudent to allow a week to elapse before they trusted their dear limbs in London. Bell lost all credit in a short time and was looked upon even by the most creditors as a mere madman. He tried some other prophecies but nobody was deceived by them and in a few months afterwards he was confined in a lunatic asylum. A panic terror of the end of the world seized the good people of Leeds and its neighbourhood in the year 1806. It arose from the following circumstances a hen in a village close by laid eggs which were inscribed the words Christ is coming. Great numbers visited this spot and examined these wondrous eggs convinced that the day of judgement was near at hand. Like sailors in a storm expecting every instant to go to the bottom the believers suddenly became religious, prayed violently and flattered themselves that they repented them of their evil causes. But a plain tale soon put them down and quenched their religion entirely. Some gentlemen hearing of the matter went one fine morning and caught the poor hen in the act of laying one of her miraculous eggs. They soon ascertained beyond doubt that the egg had been inscribed with some corrosive ink and cruelly forced up again into the bird's body. At this explanation those who had prayed now laughed and the world wagged as merrily as of yore. At the time of the plague in Milan in 1630 of which so affecting a description has been left as by Ripper Monte in his interesting work De Peste Mediolani. The people in their distress listened with avidity to the predictions of astrologers and other impostors. It is singular enough that the plague was foretold a year before it broke out. A large comment appearing in 1628 the opinions of astrologers were divided with regard to it. Some insisted that it was a forerunner of a bloody war. Others maintained that it predicted a great feminine but the greater number founding their judgment upon its pale colour thought it pretended a pestilence. The fulfilment of their prediction brought them into great repute while the plague was raging. Other prophecies were current which were asserted to have been delivered hundreds of years previously. They had a most pernicious effect upon the mind of the vulgar as they induced of belief in fatalism. By taking away the hope of recovery that greatest balm in every melody they increased threefold the ravages of the disease. One singular prediction almost drove the unhappy people mad. An ancient couplet preserved for ages by tradition foretold that in the year 1630 the devil would poison all Milan. Early one morning in April and before the pestilence had reached its height the passengers were surprised to see that all the doors of the principal streets of the city were marked with a curious dot or spot as if a sponge filled with a purulent matter of the plague souls had been pressed against them. The whole population was speedily in movement to remark the strange appearance and the greatest alarm spread rapidly. Every means was taken to discover the perpetrators but in vain. At last the ancient prophecy was remembered and prayers were offered up in all the churches that the machinations of the evil one might be defeated. Many persons were of opinion that the emissaries of foreign powers were employed to spread infectious poison over the city but by far the greater number were convinced that the powers of hell had conspired against them and that the infection was spread by supernatural agencies. In the meantime the plague increased fearfully. Distrust and alarm took possession of every mind. Everything was believed to have been poisoned by the devil. The waters of the wells, the standing corn in the fields and the fruit upon the trees. It was believed that all objects of touch were poisoned the walls of the houses, the pavements of the streets and the very handles of the doors. The populace were raised to a pitch of ungovernable fury. A strict watch was kept for the devil's emissaries and any man who wanted to be rid of an enemy had only to say that he'd seen him besmearing a door with ointment. His fate was certain death at the hands of the mob. An old man, upwards of eighty years of age a daily frequenter of the Church of St. Antonio was seen on rising from his knees to wipe with the skirt of his cloak the stool on which he was about to sit down. A cry was raised immediately that he was besmearing the seat with poison. A mob of women by whom the church was crowded seized hold of the feeble old man and dragged him out by the hair of his head with horrid oats and implications. He was trailed in this manner through the mire to the house of the municipal church that he might be put to the wreck and force to discover his accomplices but he expired on the way. Many other victims were sacrificed to the popular fury. One mora who appears to have been half a chemist and half a barber was accused of being in league with the devil to poison Milan. His house was surrounded and the number of chemical preparations were found. The poor man asserted that they were intended as preservatives against infection but some physicians to whom they were submitted declared they were poison. Mora was put to the wreck where he for a long time asserted his innocence. He confessed at last when his courage was worn down by torture that he was in league with the devil and foreign powers to poison the whole city that he had anointed the doors and infected the fountains of water. He named several persons as his accomplices who were apprehended and put to a similar torture. They were all found guilty and executed. Mora's house was raised to the ground and a column erected on the spot with an inscription to commemorate his guilt. While the public mind was filled with these marvellous occurrences the plague continued to increase. The crowds that were brought together to witness the executions spread the infection among one another but the fury of their passions and the extent of their credulity kept pace with the violence of the plague. A wonderful and preposterous story was believed. One in particular occupied them to the exclusion for a long time of every other. The devil himself had been seen. He had taken a house in Milan in which he prepared his poisonous engines and furnished them to his emissaries for distribution. One man had brooded over such tales till he became firmly convinced that the wild knights of his own fancy were realities. He stationed himself in the marketplace of Milan and related the following story to the crowds that gathered round him. He was standing, he said, at the door of the cathedral late in the evening and when there was nobody nigh he saw a dark-collared chariot drawn by six milk-white horses stop closed beside him. The chariot was followed by a numerous train of domestics in dark liveries mounted on dark-collared steeds. In the chariot there set a tall stranger of a majestic aspect. His long black hair floated in the wind. Fire flashed from his large black eyes and a curl of ineffable scorn dwelled upon his lips. The look of the stranger was so sublime that he was awed and trembled with fear when he gazed upon him. His complexion was much darker than that of any man he had ever seen and the atmosphere around him was hot and suffocating. He perceived immediately that he was a being of another world. The stranger seeing his trepidation asked him bluntly, yet majestically, to mount beside him. He had no power to refuse and before he was well aware that he had moved he found himself in the chariot. Onwards they went with the rapidity of the wind the stranger speaking no word until they stopped before a door in the high seat of Milan. There was a crowd of people in the street but to his great surprise no one seemed to notice the extraordinary acrobat and its numerous train. From this he concluded that they were invisible. The house at which they stopped appeared to be his shop but the interior was like a vast half-ruined palace. He went with his mysterious guide through several large and dimly lighted rooms. In one of them surrounded by huge pillars of marble a senate of ghosts was assembled debating on the progress of the plague. Other parts of the building were enveloped in the thickest darkness illumined at intervals by flashes of lightning which allowed him to distinguish a number of gybing and chattering skeletons running about and pursuing each other or playing at leapfrog over one another's backs and the rear of the mansion was a wild uncultivated plot of ground in the midst of which arose a black rock down its sides rushed with fearful noise a torrent of poisonous water which insinuating itself through the soil penetrated to all the springs of the city and rendered them unfit for use. After he'd been shown all this the stranger let him into another large chamber filled with gold and precious stones all of which he offered him if he would kneel down and worship him and consent to smear the doors and houses of Milan with a pestiferous salve which he held out to him. He now knew him to be the devil and in that moment of temptation prayed to God to give him strength to resist. His prayer was heard he refused to bribe the stranger scowled horribly upon him a loud clap of thunder burst over his head the vivid lightning flashed in his eyes and the next moment he found himself standing alone at the porch of the cathedral he repeated this strange tale day after day without any variation and all the populace were firm believers in its truth repeated search was made to discover the mysterious house but all in vain the man pointed out several as resembling it which was searched by the police but the demon of the pestilence was not to be found nor the hall of ghosts nor the poisonous fountain but the minds of the people were so impressed with the idea that scores of witnesses half crazed by disease came forward to swear that they also had seen the diabolical stranger and had heard his chariot drawn by the milk-white steeds rumbling over the streets at midnight with a sound louder than thunder the number of persons who confessed that they were employed by the devil to distribute poison is almost incredible an epidemic frenzy was abroad which seemed to be as contagious as the plague imagination was as disordered as the body and day after day persons came voluntarily forward to accuse themselves they generally had the marks of disease upon them and some died in the act of confession during the great plague of London in 1665 the people listened with similar ofidity to the predictions of quacks and fanatics the foe says that at that time the people were more addicted to prophecies and astronomical conjurations dreams and old wives tales than ever they were before or since almanacs and their predictions frightened them terribly even the year before the plague broke out they were greatly alarmed by the comet which then appeared and anticipated that famine, pestilence or fire would follow enthusiasts, while yet the disease had made progress, ran about the streets predicting that in a few days London would be destroyed a still more singular instance of their faith in predictions occurred in London in the year 1524 the city swarmed at that time with fortune tellers and astrologers who were consulted daily by people of every class in society on the secrets of futurity as early as the month of June 1523 several of them concurred in predicting that on the first day of February 1524 the waters of the Thames would swell at such a height as to overflow the whole city of London and wash away 10,000 houses the prophecy met implicit belief it was reiterated with the utmost confidence month after month until so much alarm was excited that many families packed up their goods and removed into Kent and Essex as the time to deny the number of these emigrants increased in January droves of workmen might be seen followed by their wives and children trudging on foot to the villages within 15 or 20 miles to await the catastrophe people of a higher class were also to be seen in wagons and other vehicles bound on a similar errand by the middle of January at least 20,000 persons had quitted the doomed city leaving nothing but the bare walls of their homes to be swept away by the impending floods many of the richest sort took up their abode on the heights of Highgate, Hemsett and Blackheath and some erected tents as far away as Waltham Abbey on the north and Croydon on the south of the Thames Bolton, the prior of some Bartholomews was so alarmed that he erected at a very great expense a sort of fortress at Harrow on the Hill which he stocked with provisions for two months on the 24th of January a week before the awful day of the destruction of London he removed Thither with the brethren and officers of the priory and all his household a number of boats were conveyed in wagons to his fortress furnished abundantly with expert rowers in case the flood reaching so high as Harrow should force him to go farther for a resting place many wealthy citizens prayed to share his retreat but the prior with a prudent forethought admitted only his personal friends and those who brought stores of eatables for the blockade at last the morn big with the fate of London appeared in the east the wandering crowds were astir at an early hour to watch the rising of the waters the inundation it was predicted would be gradual, not sudden so that they expected to have plenty of time to escape as soon as they saw the bosom of old Thames heave beyond the usual mark but the majority were too much alarmed to trust to this and thought themselves to save her ten or twenty miles off the Thames, unmindful of the foolish crowds upon his banks flowed on quietly as of yore though the tide ebbed at its usual hour flowed to its usual height and then ebbed again just as if twenty astrologers had not pledged their words to the contrary blank where their faces as evening approached and as blank grew the faces of the citizens to think that they had made such fools of themselves at last night set in and the obstinate river would not lift its waters to sweep away even one house out of the ten thousand still however the people were afraid to go to sleep many hundreds remained up till dawn of the next day lest the deluge should come upon them like a thieve in the night on the morrow it was seriously discussed whether it would not be advisable to duck the false prophets in the river luckily for them they thought of an expedient which allayed the popular fury they asserted that by an error a very slight one of a little figure they had fixed the date of this awful inundation a whole century too early the stars were right after all and they, erring mortals were wrong the present generation of cockneys was safe and London would be washed away not in 1524 but in 1624 at this announcement Bolton the prior dismantled his fortress and the wary emigrants came back an eyewitness of the great fire of London in an account preserved among the herlion manuscripts in the British Museum and published in the transactions of the Royal Society of Antiquaries relates another instance of the fragility of the Londoners the writer who accompanied the Duke of York day by day through the district included between the fleet bridge and the Thames states that in their efforts to check the progress of the flames was completed by the superstition of the people Mother Shipton in one of her prophecies had said that London would be reduced to ashes and they refused to make any efforts to prevent it footnote this prophecy seems to have been that set forth at length in the popular life of Mother Shipton when fate to England shall restore a king terrain is here to fall great death in London shall be though and many houses be laid low and footnote a son of the noted Sir Kenom Dickby who was also a pretender to the gifts of prophecy persuaded them that no power on earth could prevent the fulfilment of the prediction for it was written in the great book of fate that London was to be destroyed hundreds of persons who might have rendered valuable assistance and saved whole parishes from devastation folded their arms and looked on as many more gave themselves up with a less compunction to plunder a city which they could not save footnote the London Saturday Journal of March 12, 1842 contains the following an absurd report is gaining ground among the weak-minded that London will be destroyed by an earthquake on the 17th of March or St. Patrick's Day this rumour is founded on the following ancient prophecies one professing to be pronounced the year 1203 the other by Dr. D. the astrologer in 1598 quote in 1842 four things the sun shall view London's rich and famous town hungry earth shall swallow down storm and rain in front shall be till every river runs a sea Spain shall be rent in twain and famine waste the land again so say I the monk of tree in the 1200 year and three end quote Harlean Collection British Museum 800B Folio 319 quote the Lord have mercy on you all prepare yourselves for dreadful fall of house and land and human soul the measure of your sins is full in the year 1842 of the year that is so new in the third month of that 16 it may be a day or two between perhaps you'll soon be stiff and cold dear Christian be not stout and bold the mighty kingly proud will see this comes to pass as my name's D end quote 1598 manuscript in the British Museum the alarm of the population of London did not on this occasion extend beyond the wide circle of the uneducated classes but among them it equaled that recorded in the text it was soon afterwards stated that no such prophecy is to be found in the Harlean and footnote the prophecies of Mother Shipton are still believed in many of the rural districts of England in cottages and servants halls her reputation is great and she rules the most popular of British prophets among all the uneducated or half educated portions of the community she is generally supposed to have been born at Nairsboro in the reign of Henry the 7th and have sold her soul to the devil for the power of foretelling future events though during her lifetime she was looked upon as a witch she yet escaped the witch's fate and died peaceably in her bed at an extreme old age near Clifton in Yorkshire a stone is said to have been erected to her memory in the church out of that place with the following epitaph quote here lies she who never lied whose skill often has been tried her prophecies shall still survive and ever keep her name alive end quote never a day passed says her traditionary biography quote wherein she did not relate something remarkable and that required the most serious consideration people flocked to her from far and near her fame was so great they went to her of all sorts both old and young rich and poor especially young maidens to be resolved of their doubts relating to things to come and all returned wonderfully satisfied with the explanations she gave to their questions end quote among the rest went the abbot of Beverly to whom she foretold the suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII his marriage with Anne Boleyn the fires of heretics in Smithfield and the execution of Mary Queen of Scots she also foretold the accession of James I adding that with him quote from the cold north every evil should come forth end quote and visit she added another prophecy which in the opinion of her believers still remains unfulfilled but may be expected to be realized during the present century quote end quote but the most famous of all her prophecies is one relating to London thousands of persons still shuttered to think of the woes that are to burst over this unhappy realm when London and Highgate are joined by one continuous line of houses this junction which if the rage for building lasts much longer and the same proportion as here to fall bits fared to be soon accomplished was predicted by her shortly before death revolutions the fall of mighty monarchs and the shedding of much blood are to signalize that event the very angels afflicted by our woes are to turn aside their heads and weep for hapless Britain end of chapter 5 part 1 chapter 5 part 2 of memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds volume 1 this is a lipovox recording all lipovox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit lipovox.org memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds volume 1 by Charles Mackay modern prophecies part 2 but great as is the fame of mother Shipton she ranks but second in the list of British prophets Merlin, the mighty Merlin stands alone in his high preeminence the first and greatest as old Drayton sings in his Polly Albion quote of Merlin and a skill what region doth not hear the world shall still be full of Merlin every year a thousand lingering years his prophecies have run and scarcely shall end till time itself be done end quote Spencer in his divine poem in his divine poem has given us a powerful description of this renown seer quote who had in magic more insight than ever him before or after living white for he by words could call out of the sky both sun and moon and make them him obey the land to sea and sea to mainland dry and dark some night he could turn today huge hosts of men he could alone dismay and hosts of men and meanest things could frame when so him list his enemies to fray that to this day for terror of his name the fiends do quake when any him to them disname and soothe men say that he was not the son of mortal seer or other living right but wondrously begotten and be gone by false illusion of a guileful sprite on a fair lady nun end quote the poet has preserved the popular belief with regard to Merlin who's generally supposed to have been a contemporary of vortigaun opinion is divided as to whether he were a real personage or a mere impersonation formed by the poetic fancy of a credulous people it seems most probable that such a man did exist and that possessing knowledge as much above the comprehension of his age as that possessed by fryer bacon was beyond the reach of his he was endowed by the wandering crowd with the supernatural attributes that spencer has enumerated jeffrey of monmouth translated merlin's poetical oaths or prophecies into latin prose and he was much reverenced not only by jeffrey but by most of the old analysts in a life of merlin with his prophecies and predictions interpreted and made good by our english annals by thomas haywood published in the reign of charles the first we find several of these pretended prophecies they seem however to have been all written by haywood himself they are in terms too plain and positive to allow anyone to doubt for a moment of their having been composed exposed facto speaking of rigid the first he says quote the lion's heart will against the serocin rise and purchase from him many a glorious prize the rose and lily shall at first unite but parting of the prey prove opposite but while abroad these great acts shall be done all things at home shall to disorder run cooped up and Kate then shall the lion be but after sufferance ransomed and set free end quote the simple minded thomas haywood gravely goes on to inform us that all these things actually came to pass upon Richard the third he's equally luminous he says quote a hunchbacked monster who with teeth is born the mockery of art and natures scorn who from the womb preposterously is hurled and with the feet forward thrust into the world shell from the lower earth on which he stood weighed every step he mounts knee deep in blood he shall to the height of all his hopes aspire and clothed in state his ugly shape admire but when he thinks himself most safe to stand from foreign parts and native well shall end quote another of these prophecies after the event tells us that Henry VIII should take the power from Rome quote and bring it home and to his British Bower end quote that he should quote root out from the land all the razored skulls end quote and that he should neither spare quote man in his rage nor woman in his lust end quote and that in the time of his next successor but one quote there should come in the faggot and the steak end quote Master Hayward closes Merlin's prophecies at his own day and does not give even a glimpse of what was to be full England after his disease many other prophecies besides those quoted by him were he says dispersed abroad in his day under the name of Merlin but he gives his readers a taste of one only and that is the following quote when hemp is ripe and ready to pull then Englishman beware thy skull end quote this prophecy which one would think or to have put him in mind of the gallows at that time the not unusual fate of false prophets he explains thus quote in this word hemp be five letters now by reckoning the five successive princes from Henry VIII this prophecy is easily explained age signified King Henry before named E. Edward his son the six of that name M. Mary who succeeded him P. Philip of Spain who by marrying Queen Mary participated with her in the English diadem and lastly E. signified Queen Elizabeth after his death there was a great fear that some troubles might have arisen about the crown end quote as this did not happen Hayward who was a sly rogue in a small way gets out of the scrape by saying quote yet prove this augury true though not according to the former expectation for after the peaceful inauguration of King James there was a great mortality not in London only but through the whole kingdom and from which the nation was not quite clean in seven years after end quote this is not unlike the subterfuge of Peter of Pontefact who had prophesied the death and disposition of King John and who was hanged by that monarch for his pains a very graphic and amusing account of this pretended prophet is given by King John in his chronicles of England in the meanwhile says he quote the priests within England had provided them a false and counterfeited prophet called Peter Wakefield a Yorkshire man who was in Hermite an idle gather about and a predling merchant now to bring this Peter in credit and the king out of all credit with his people diverse vain persons brooded daily among the commons of the realm that Christ had twice appeared unto him in the shape of a child between the priests hand once at York another time at Pomfret and that he had breathed upon him thrice saying peace peace peace and teaching many things which he and I declared to the bishops and bit the people and men they're naughty living being wrapped also in spirit they said he beheld the joys of heaven and sorrows of hell for scant where the three in the realm said he that lived christianly this counterfeited sooth there prophesied of King John that he should reign no longer than the ascension day next following which was in the year of our Lord 1211 and was the 13th year from his coronation and this he said he had by revelation then it was of him demanded whether he should be slain or be deposed or should voluntarily give over the crown he answered that he could not tell but of this he was sure he said that neither he nor any of his stock or lineage should reign after that day the king hearing of this laughed much at it and made but a scoff there at this but an idiot nave and such a one as lacked his right wits but when this foolish prophet had so escaped the danger of the king's displeasure and that he made no more of it he gave him abroad and prayed at the realm at large as he was a very idle vagabond and used to trattle and talk more than enough so that they which love the king caused him a nun after to be apprehended as a malefactor and to be thrown in prison the king not yet knowing thereof. A nun after the fame of this fantastical prophet went all the realm over and his name was known everywhere as foolishness is much regarded to the people where wisdom is not in place especially because he was then imprisoned for the matter the rumour was the larger their wanderings were the wantoner their practices the foolisher their busy talks and other idle doings the greater continually from thence as the rude manner of people is old gossip tales went abroad new tales were invented fables were added to fables and lies grew upon lies so that every day new slanders were laid upon the king and not one of them true rumours arose blasphemies were spread the enemies rejoiced and treasons by the priests were maintained and what likewise was surmised or other subtlety practiced all was then fathered upon this foolish prophet as thus see Peter Wakefield thus hath he prophesied and thus shall come to pass many times when he thought nothing less and when the ascension day was come which was prophesied of before King John commanded his royal tent to be spread in the open field passing that day with his noble council and men of honour in the greatest solemnity that ever he did before solacing himself with musical instruments and songs most inside upon his trusty friends when that day was passed in all prosperity and mirth his enemies being confused turned all into an allegorical understanding to make the prophecy good and said he is no longer king for the pope reigned and not he King John was labouring under a sentence of excommunication at that time then was the king by his council persuaded that this false prophet had troubled the realm perverted the hearts of the people and gave the garments against him for his words went over the sea by the help of his prelates and came to the French king's ear and gave to him a great encouragement to invade the land he had not else done it so suddenly but it was most fouly deceived as all they are and shall be that put their trust in such dark drowsy dreams of hypocrites the king therefore commanded that he should be hanged up and his son also with him end quote Heywood who was a great stickler for the truth of all sorts of prophecies gives a much more favourable account of this Peter of Pomfret or Pontifract whose fate he would in all probability has shared if he had had the misfortune to have flourished in the same age he says that Peter who was not only a prophet but a bard predicted diverse of King John's disasters which fell out accordingly on being taxed for a lying prophet in having predicted that the king would be deposed before he entered into the fifteenth year of his reign he answered him boldly that all he had said was justifiable and true for that having given up his crown to the pope and paying him an annual tribute the pope reigned and not he Heywood thought this explanation to be perfectly satisfactory and the prophet's faith forever established but to return to Merlin of him even to this day it may be said in the words which Burns has applied to another notorious personage quote his reputation is by no means confined to the land of his birth but extends through most of the nations of Europe a very curious volume of his life prophecies and miracles written and disposed by Robert de Bossrand was printed in Paris in 1498 which states that the devil himself was his father and that he spoke the instant he was born and assured his mother a very virtuous young woman that she should not die in child-bed with him as our ill-natured neighbours had predicted the judge of the district hearing of so marvellous in occurrence summoned both mother and child to appear before him and they went accordingly the same day to put the wisdom of the young prophet most effectually to the test the judge asked him if he knew his own father to which the infant Merlin replied in a clear, sonorous voice quote his worship clapped his hands in astonishment and took the prudent resolution of not molesting so awful a child or its mother either early tradition attributed the building of Stonehenge to the power of Merlin it was believed that those mighty stones were rolled through the air at his command from Ireland to Salesbury Plain and that he arranged them in the form in which they now stand to commemorate forever the unhappy fate of 300 British chiefs who were massacred on that spot by the Saxons at Abergwilly, near Carmarthen is still shown the cave of the prophet and the scene of his incantations how beautiful is the description of it given by Spencer in his fairy queen the lines need no apology for their repetition here and any sketch of the great prophet of Britain would be incomplete without them quote there the wise Merlin while on want they say to make his one low underneath the ground in a deep delve far from the view of day that of no living white he might be found went so he cancelled with his sprites and compassed round and if that ever happened that same way to travel go to see that dreadful place it is a hideous hollow cave they say under a rock that lies a little space from the swift berry tumbling down a pace amongst the woody hills of Danefur but there thou not I charge in any case to enter into that same baleful bower for fear the cruel fiends should the unwares devour but standing high aloft low lay thine ear and there such ghastly noise of iron chains and brazen cauldrons thou shalt rumbling hear which thousand sprites with long and during pains do toss that it will stun thy feeble brains and often times great groans and grievous stounds when too huge toil and labour them constraints and often times loud strokes and ringing sounds from under that deep rock most horribly rebounds the cause they say is this a little while before that Merlin died he did intend a brazen wall and compass to compile about care-murden and did it commandant to these sprites to bring to perfect end during which work the lady of the lake whom long he loved for him in haste it sent who thereby forced his workmen to forsake them bound till his return their labour not to slake in the meantime through that false lady's train he was surprised and buried under buyer no ever to his work returned again nevertheless these fiends may not their work for bear so greatly as commandment they fear but there do toil travel day and night until that brazen wall they up do rear end quote fairy queen book 3 chapter 3 section 6 to 13 amongst other English prophets a believe in whose power has not been entirely afaced by the light of advancing knowledge is Robert Nixon the Cheshire Idiot a contemporary of mother Shipton the popular accounts of this man say that he was born of poor parents not far from Vale Royal on the edge of the forest of Delamere he was brought up to the plow but was so ignorant and stupid that nothing could be made of him everybody thought him irretrievably insane and paid no attention to the strange unconnected discourses which he held many of his prophecies are believed to have been lost in this manner but they were not always dissented to be wasted upon dull and inattentive ears an incident occurred which brought him into notice and established his fame as a prophet he was plowing in a field when he suddenly stopped from his labour and with a wild look and strange gesture exclaimed now dick now Harry oh ill done dick oh well done Harry Harry was gained the day his fellow labourers in the field did not know what to make of his rhapsody but the next day cleared up the mystery news was brought by a messenger in hot haste that at the very instant when Nixon had this ejaculated the third had been slain at the battle of Bossworth and Henry VII proclaimed King of England it was not long before the fame of the new prophet reached the ears of the king who expressed a wish to see and converse with him a messenger was accordingly dispatched to bring him to court but long before he reached Cheshire Nixon knew and dreaded the honors that awaited him indeed it was said that at the very instant the king expressed the wish Nixon was by supernatural means made acquainted with it and that he ran about the town of Over in great distress of mind calling out like a madman that Henry had sent for him that he must go to court and be clamped that is starved to death these expressions excited no little wonder but on the third day the messenger arrived and carried him to court leaving on the minds of the good people of Cheshire an impression that their prophet was one of the greatest ever born on his arrival King Henry appeared to be troubled exceedingly at the loss of a valuable diamond and asked Nixon if he could inform him where it was to be found Henry had hidden the diamond himself with a view to test the prophet's skill great therefore was his surprise when Nixon answered him in the words of the old prophet those who hide can find from that time forth the king implicitly believed that he had a gift of prophecy and ordered all his words to be taken down during all the time of his residence at court he was in constant fear of being starved to death and repeatedly told the king that such would be his fate if he were not allowed to depart and return into his own country Henry would not suffer it but gave strict orders to all his officers in cooks to give him as much to eat as he wanted he lived so well that for some time he seemed to be thriving like a nobleman's steward and growing as fat as an older man one day the king went out hunting on the palace gate and then treated on his knees that he might not be left behind to be starved the king laughed and calling an officer told him to take a special care of the prophet during his absence and rode away to the forest after his departure the servants of the palace began to jeer at and insult Nixon whom they imagined to be much better treated than he deserved Nixon complained to the officer who to prevent him from being further molested locked him up in the king's own closet for four meals a day but it so happened that the messenger arrived from the king to this officer requiring his immediate presence at Winchester on a matter of life and death so great was his haste to obey the king's command that he mounted on the horse behind the messenger and rode off without bestowing a thought upon poor Nixon he did not return till three days afterwards when remembering the prophet for the first time he went to the king's closet and found him lying upon the floor starved to death as he had predicted among the prophecies of his which are believed to have been fulfilled are the following which relate to the times of the pretender quote a great man shall come into England but the son of a king shall take from him the victory end quote quote crowds shall drink the blood of many nobles and the north shall rise against the south end quote quote the coke of the north shall be made to flee and his feather be plucked for his pride that he shall almost curse the day that he was born end quote all these say his admirers are as clear as the sun at noonday the first denotes the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at the battle of Culloden by the Duke of Cumberland the second the execution of Lord Durandwater Belmarino and Lovett and the third the retreat of the pretender from the shores of Britain among the prophecies that still remain to be accomplished are the following quote quote between seven eight and nine in England oneness shall be seen between nine and thirteen all sorrow shall be done end quote quote through our own money and our men shall a dreadful war begin between the sickle and the suck all England shall have a pluck end quote quote foreign nations shall invade England with snow on their helmets and shall bring plague, famine and murder in the skirts of their garments end quote quote the town of Nantwich shall be swept away by a flood end quote of the two first of these no explanation has yet been attempted but some event or other will doubtless be twisted into such shape as will fit them the third relative to the invasion of England by a nation with snow on their helmets is supposed by the old women to foretell most clearly a coming war with Russia as to the last there are not a few the town mentioned who devoutly believe that such will be its fate happily for their peace of mind the Prophet said nothing of the year that was to witness the awful calamity so that they think it is likely to be two centuries hence as now the popular biographers of Nixon conclude their account of him by saying that quote his prophecies are by some persons thought fables yet by what has come to pass it is now thought and very plainly appears that most of them have proved or will prove true for which we on all occasions ought not only to exert our utmost might to repel by false our enemies but to refrain from our abandoned and wicked cause of life and to make our continual prayer to God for protection and safety end quote to this though a non sequitur everyone will cry amen besides the prophets there have been the almanac makers Lily, poor Robin, Partridge and Francis Moore Physician in England and Matthew Landsberg in France and Belgium but great as were their pretensions they were modesty itself in comparison with Merlin, Shipton and Nixon who fixed their minds upon higher things than the weather and were not so restrained as to prophecy for only one year at a time after such prophets the almanac makers hardly deserved to be mentioned not even a renowned Partridge whose prognostications set all Englander Gog in 1708 and whose death while still alive was so pleasantly and satisfactorily proved by Isaac Biggerstaff the anti-climax would be too palpable and they and their doings must be left uncommerated End of Chapter 5 Part 2 Chapter 6 Part 1 of memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions of the madness of crowds Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recorded by Anne Cheng London, England Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds Volume 1 by Charles McKay Fortune Telling Part 1 And men still groped anticipate the cabinet designs of fate apply to wizards to foresee what shall and what shall never be Who did we ask? Part 3 Canto 3 In accordance with the plan laid down we proceed to the consideration of the follies into which men have been led by their eager desire to pierce the thick darkness of futurity God himself for his own wise purposes has more than once undrawn the impenetrable veil which shrouds those awful secrets and for purposes just as wise he has decreed that except in these instances ignorance shall be a lot for ever It is happy for man that he does not know what the morrow is to bring forth but unaware of this great blessing he has in all ages of the world presumptuously endeavour to trace the events of unborn centuries and anticipate the march of time he has reduced this presumption into a study he has divided it into sciences systems without number employing his whole life in the vain pursuit upon no subject has it been so easy to deceive the world as upon this in every breast the curiosity exists in a greater or less degree and can only be conquered by a long course of self-examination and a firm reliance that the future would not be hidden from our sight if it were right that we should be acquainted with it an undue opinion of our own importance in the scale of creation is at the bottom of all our unwarrantable notions in this respect how flattering to the pride of man to think that the stars in their courses watch over him and typify by their movements and aspects the joys or the sorrows that await him he, less in proportion to the universe than the all but invisible insects that feed in myriads on a summer's leaf are to this great globe itself fondly imagined that eternal worlds were chiefly created to prognosticate his fate how we should pity the arrogance of the worm that crawls at our feet if we knew that it also desired to know the secrets of futurity and imagined that meteors shot a thought the sky to warn it that a tom tit was hovering near to gobble it up that storms and earthquakes the revolutions of empires or the fall of mighty monarchs only happened to predict its birth its progress and its decay not a wit less presuming as man shone himself not a wit less arrogant are the sciences so called of astrology, augury necromancy, geomancy, palmistry and divination of every kind leaving out a view the oracles of pagan antiquity and religious predictions in general and confining ourselves solely to the persons who in modern times had made themselves most conspicuous in foretelling the future we shall find that the 16th and 17th centuries were the golden age of these imposters many of them have already been mentioned in their character of alchemists the union of the two pretensions is not at all surprising it was to be expected that those who assumed a power so preposterous as that of prolonging the life of man for several centuries should pretend at the same time to foretell the events which were to mark that preternatural span of existence the world would as readily believe that they had discovered all secrets as that they had only discovered one the most celebrated astrologers of Europe three centuries ago were alchemists Agrippa, Paracelsus, Dr. D and the Rosicrucians all laid as much stress upon their knowledge of the days to come as upon their pretended possession of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life in their time ideas of the wonderful the diabolical and the supernatural were rougher than ever they were before the devil or the stars were universally believed to meddle constantly in the affairs of men and both were to be consulted with proper ceremonies those who were of a melancholy and gloomy temperament betook themselves to necromancy and sorcery those more cheerful and aspiring devoted themselves to astrology the latter science was encouraged by all the monarchs and governments of that age in England from the time of Elizabeth to that of William and Mary judicial astrology was in high repute during that period flourished doctors D, Lamb and Foreman with Lily, Booker, Gadbury Evans and scores of nameless imposters in every considerable town and village in the country who made it their business to cast nativities aid in the recovery of stolen goods prognosticate happy or unhappy marriages predict whether journeys would be prosperous and a note lucky moments for the commencement of any enterprise from the setting up of a cobbler's shop to the marching of an army men who to use the words of Butler did deal in Destiny's dark council and sage opinion of the moon cell to whom all people far and near on deep importance did repair when brass and pewter pots did stray and linen slunk out of the way in Lily's memoirs of his life and times there are many notices of the inferior quacks who then abounded at a pond whom he pretended to look down with supreme contempt not because they were astrologers but because they debased that noble art by taking fees for the recovery of stolen property from butler's who did brass and its curious notes we may learn what immense numbers of these fellows lived upon the credulity of mankind at that age of witchcraft and diablory even in our day how great is the reputation enjoyed by the almanac makers who assume the name of France's maul but in the time of Charles I and the Commonwealth the most learned the most noble and the most conspicuous characters did not hesitate to consult astrologers in the most open manner Lily whom butler has immortalized under the name of Sidra fell relates that he proposed to write a work called an introduction to astrology in which he would satisfy the whole kingdom of the lawfulness of that art many of the soldiers were for it he says and many of the independent party and abundance of worthy men in the House of Commons his assured friends and able to take his part against the Presbyterians who would have silenced his predictions if they could he afterwards carried his plan into execution and when his book was published went with another astrologer named Booker to the headquarters of the parliamentary army at Windsor where they were welcomed and feasted in the garden where General Fairfax lodged they were afterwards introduced to the general who received them very kindly and made allusion to some of their predictions he hoped their art was lawful and agreeable to God's word but he did not understand it himself he did not doubt however that the two astrologers feared God and therefore he had a good opinion of them Lillia assured him that the art of astrology was quite consonant to the scriptures and confidently predicted from his knowledge of the stars that the parliamentary army would overthrow all its enemies in Oliver's protectorate this quack informs us that he wrote freely enough he became an independent and all the soldiery were his friends when he went to Scotland he saw a soldier standing in front of the army with a book of prophecies in his hand exclaiming to the several companies as they passed by him Lo, hear what Lily saith you are in this month promised victory fight it out brave boys and then read that month's prediction after the great fire of London which Lily said he had foretold he was sent for by the committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the causes of the calamity in his monarchy or no monarchy published in 1651 he had inserted an hieroglyphical plate representing on one side persons in winding sheets digging graves and on the other a large city in flames after the great fire some sapient member of the legislature bethought him of Lily's book and having mentioned it in the House it was agreed that the astrology should be summoned Lily attended accordingly when Sir Robert Brooke told him the reason of his summons and called upon him to declare what he knew this was a rare opportunity for the vain glorious Lily to vaunt his abilities and he began a long speech and praise of himself and his pretending to silence he said that after the execution of Charles I he was extremely desirous to know what might from that time forth happen to the parliament and to the nation in general he therefore consulted the stars and satisfied himself the result of his judgment he put into emblems of the hieroglyphics without any commentary so that their true meaning might be concealed from the vulgar and made manifest only to the wise imitating in this the example of many wise philosophers who had done the like did you foresee the year of the fire? said a member no Guof Lily nor was I desirous of that I made no scrutiny after some further parley the House found they could make nothing of the astrology and dismissed him with great civility one specimen of the explanation of a prophecy given by Lily and related by him with much complacency will be sufficient to show the sort of trash by which he imposed upon the million in the year 1588 says he there was a prophecy printed in Greek characters exactly deciphering the long troubles of the English nation from 1641 to 1660 and it ended thus and after him shall come a dreadful dead man and with him a royal G of the best blood in the world and he shall have the crown and shall set England on the right way and put out all heresies the following is the explanation of this oracular absurdity monkry being extinguished above 80 or 90 years and the Lord General's name being monk is a dead man the royal G or C it is gamma in the Greek intending C in Latin being the third letter in the alphabet is Charles II who for his extraction may be said to be of the best blood of the world in France and Germany astrologers met even more encouragement than they received in England in very early ages Charmaine and his successors fulminated their wrath against them in common with sorcerers Louis XI that most superstitious of men entertained great numbers of them at his court and Catherine de Medici that most superstitious of women hardly ever undertook any affair of importance without consulting them she chiefly favoured her own countrymen and during the time she governed France the land was overrun by Italian conjurers necromancers and fortune tellers of every kind but the chief astrologer of that day beyond all doubt was a celebrated nostradamus physician to her husband King Henry II he was born in 1503 at the town of Saint-Rémy in Provence where his father was a notary he did not acquire much fame for he was past his fiftieth year when his famous centuries a collection of verses written in obscure and almost unintelligible language began to excite attention there was so much spoken of in 1556 that Henry II resolved to attach so stilful a man to his service and appointed him his physician in a biographical notice of him prefixed the edition of his Ray centuries published at Amsterdam in 1668 we are informed that he often discourse with his royal master on the secrets of futurity and received many great presents as his reward besides his usual allowance for medical attendance after the death of Henry he retired to his native place where Charles the Knight paid him a visit in 1564 and was so impressed with veneration for his wondrous knowledge of the things that were to be not in France only but in the whole world for hundreds of years to come that he made him a counselor of state and his own physician besides treating him in other matters with a royal liberality for I should be too prolix where I could tell all the honours conferred upon him and all the great nobles and learned men that arrived at his house from the very ends of the earth to see and converse with him as if he had been an oracle many strangers in fact came to France for no other purpose than to consult him the prophecies of Nostradamus consist of upwards of a thousand stanzas each of four lines full as obscure as oracles of old they take so great a latitude both at a time and space that they are almost sure to be fulfilled somewhere or other in the course of a few centuries a little ingenuity like that evinced by Lily in his explanation about General Monk and the dreadful dead man might easily make events to fit some of them 58 let us try in his second century prediction 66 he says from great dangers the captive is escaped a little time great fortune changed in the palace the people are caught by good orgery the city is besieged what is this a believer might exclaim but the escape of Napoleon from Elba his changed fortune and the occupation of Paris by the allied armies let us try again in his third century prediction 98 he says two royal brothers will make fierce war on each other so mortal shall be the strife between them that each one shall occupy a fort against the other for their reign and life shall be the quarrel some lineas redivibus would find no difficulty in this prediction to use a vulgar phrase it is as clear as a pike staff had not the astrologer in view Don Miguel and Don Pedro so much less obscure and irregular than the rest he is to this day extremely popular in France and the Walloon country of Belgium where old farmer wives consult him with great confidence and aciduity Catherine de Medici was not the only member of her illustrious house who entertained astrologers at the beginning of the 15th century there was a man named Basil residing in Florence who was noted over all Italy in piercing the darkness of futurity it is said that he foretold to Cosmo de Medici then a private citizen that he would attain high dignity in as much as the ascendant of his activity was adorned with the same propitious aspects as those of Augustus Caesar and the emperor Charles V another astrologer foretold the death of Prince Alexander de Medici and so very minute and particularly was he in all the circumstances suspected of being chiefly instrumental in fulfilling his own prophecy a very common resource with these fellows to keep up their credit he foretold confidently that the prince should die by the hand of his own familiar friend a person of a slender habit of body a small face a swarmy complexion and of most remarkable tussiturnity so it afterwards happened and Alexander having been murdered in his chamber by his cousin Lorenzo he lived exactly with the above description the author of her Mipus redivivus in relating this story inclines to the belief that the astrologer was guilt-less of any participation in the crime but was employed by some friend of Prince Alexander to warn him of his danger a much more remarkable story is told of an astrologer who lived in Rumania in the 15th century and whose name was Antiochus Tibertus note 61 at that time nearly all the petty sovereigns of Italy retained such men in their service Antiochus having studied the mathematics with great success at Paris and delivered many predictions some of which for guesses were not deficient in shrewdness was taken into the household of Pandolfo de Malatesta the sovereign of Rumania his reputation was so great that his study was continually thronged either with visitors who were persons of distinction or with clients who came to him for advice and in a short time he acquired a considerable fortune notwithstanding all these advantages he passed his life miserably and ended it on the scaffold the following story afterwards got into circulation and has been often triumphantly cited by succeeding astrologers as an irrefragable proof of the truth of their science it was said that long before he died he uttered three remarkable prophecies one relating to himself another to his friend and the third to his patron Pandolfo de Malatesta the first delivered was that relating to his friend Guido de Bonny one of the greatest captains of the time Guido was exceedingly desirous to know his fortune and so importunetibertis that the latter consulted the stars and the minds on his palm to satisfy him he afterwards told him that according to all the rules of astrology and palmistry he should be falsely suspected by his best friend and should lose his life in consequence Guido then asked the astrologer if he could foretell his own fate upon which tibetis again consulted the stars and found that it was decreed from all eternity that he should end his days on the scaffold Malatesta when he heard these predictions so unlikely to all present appearance to prove true desired his astrologer to predict his fate also and to hide nothing from him however unfavorable it might be tibetis complied and told his patron at that time one of the most flourishing and powerful princes of Italy that he should suffer great want and die at last like a beggar in the common hospital of Bologna and so it happened in all three cases Guido de Bonny was accused by his own father-in-law the county ventivolio of a treasurable design to deliver up the city arrimony to the papal forces and was assassinated afterwards by order of the tyrant Malatesta as he sat at the supper table to which he had been invited in all apparent friendship the astrologer was at the same time thrown into prison as being concerned in the treason of his friend he attempted to escape and had succeeded in letting himself down from his dungeon window into a moat and he was discovered by the sentinels this being reported to Malatesta he gave orders for his execution on the following morning Malatesta had at this time no remembrance of the prophecy and his own fate gave him no uneasiness but events were silently working its fulfillment a conspiracy had been formed though Guido de Bonny was innocent of it to deliver up rimony to the pope and all the necessary measures having been taken the city was seized by the Count de Valentinois in the conversion Malatesta had barely time to escape from his palace in disguise he was pursued from place to place by his enemies abandoned by all his former friends and finally by his own children he at last fell ill of a languishing disease at Bologna and nobody caring to afford him shelter he was carried to the hospital where he died the only thing that detracts from the interest of his remarkable story is the fact that the prophecy was made after the event for some weeks before the birth of Louis XIV an astrologer from Germany who had been sent for by the Marshal de Basse-en-Pierre and other noble men of the court had taken up his residence in the palace to be ready at a moment's notice to draw the horoscope of the future sovereign of France when the queen was taken in labour he was ushered into a contiguous apartment that he might receive notice of the very instant the child was born the result of his observations were the three words du, dur, felicité meaning that the newborn prince should live and reign long with much labour and with great glory no prediction less favourable could have been expected from an astrologer who had his bread to get and he was at the same time a courtier a medal was afterwards struck in commemoration of the event upon one side of which was figured an activity of the prince representing him as drying the chariot of Apollo with the inscription autosoulis gallici the rising of the Gallic sun the best excuse ever made for astrology was that offered by the great astronomer Kepler himself an unwilling practicer of the art he had many applications from his friends to cast activities for them he literally gave a positive refusal to such as he was not afraid of offending by his frankness in other cases he accommodated himself to the prevailing delusion in sending a copy of his ephemerides to professor Gerlach he wrote that there were nothing but worthless conjectures but he was obliged to devote himself to them or he would have starved he overwised philosophers he exclaimed in his terseus interveniens he censured this daughter of astronomy beyond her desserts know ye not that she must support her mother by her charms the scanty reward of an astronomer would not provide him with bread if men did not entertain hopes of reading the future in the heavens necromancy was, next to astrology the pretended science most resorted to by those who wished to pry into the future the earliest instance upon record is that of the witch of Endor and the spirit of Samuel nearly all the nations of antiquity believed in the possibility of summoning departed ghosts to disclose the awful secrets that God made clear to the disembodied many passages in allusion to this subject would at once suggest themselves to the classical reader but this art was never carried on openly in any country all governments looked upon it as a crime of the deepest die while astrology was encouraged and its professors courted and rewarded were universally condemned to the steak or the gallows Roger Bacon, Albertus Nagnus Arnold of Villeneuve and many others were accused by the public opinion of many centuries of meddling in these unhallowed matters so deep rooted has always been the popular delusion with respect to accusations of this kind that no crime was ever disproved with such toil and difficulty that it met great encouragement nevertheless is evident from the vast numbers of pretenders to it who in spite of the danger have existed in all ages and countries Geomancy, or the art of telling the future by means of lines and circles and other mathematical figures drawn on the earth is still extensively practised in Asiatic countries but its almost unknown in Europe Augury, from the flight or entrails of birds so favourite a study among the Romans is in like manner exploded in Europe its most assiduous professors at the present day are the abominable thugs of India Divination of which there are many kinds boasts a more enduring reputation it has held an empire over the minds of men from the earliest periods of recorded history and is in all probability co-evil with time itself it was practised alike by the Jews, the Egyptians the Chaldeans, the Persians the Greeks and the Romans is equally known to all modern nations in every part of the world and is not unfamiliar to the untutored tribes that roam in the wilds of Africa and America Divination, as practised in civilised Europe at the present day is chiefly from cards the tea cup and the lines on the palm of the hand Gypsies alone make a profession of it but there are thousands and tens of thousands of humble families in which the good wife and even the good man resort to the grounds at the bottom of their tea cups to know whether the next harvest will be abundant or their sell bring forth a numerous litter and in which the young maidens look to the same place to know when they are to be married and whether the man of their choice is to be dark or fair rich or poor, kind or cruel Divination by cards so great a favourite among the moderns is of course a modern science as cards do not yet boast an antiquity of much more than 400 years Divination by the palm so confidently believed by half the village Lasses in Europe is of older date and seems to have been known to the Egyptians in the time of the patriarchs as well as divination by the cup which, as we are informed in Genesis was practised by Joseph Divination by the rod was also practised by the Egyptians and comparatively recent times it was pretended that by this means hidden treasures can be discovered it now appears to be altogether exploded in Europe Onomancy or the foretelling of a man's fate by the letters of his name and the various transmissions of which they are capable is a more modern sort of divination but it reckons comparatively few believers The following list of the various species of divination formerly in use is given by Gaul in his Magastra Mansa and quoted in Hone's yearbook page 1517 Stereomancy or divining by the elements Aeromancy or divining by the air Pyromancy by fire Hydromancy by water Geomancy by earth Theomancy pretending to divine by the revelation of the spirit and by the scriptures The word of God Demonomancy by the aid of devils and evil spirits Idolomancy by idols, images and figures Cyclomancy by the soul, affections or dispositions of men Anthropomancy by the entrails of human beings Theoromancy by beasts Ornithomancy by birds Ichtheomancy by fishes Botanomancy by herbs Arithomancy by stones Cleromancy by lots Oniromancy by dreams Onomancy by names Arithomancy by numbers Logorithomancy by logarithms Sternomancy by the marks from the breast of the belly Gastromancy by the sound of or marks upon the belly Ompfellomancy by the navel Chyromancy by the hands Chyromancy by the feet Onkyomancy by the nails Kefaleonomancy by ashes heads Tefromancy by ashes Capnomansy by smoke Knisoomancy by the burning of incense Keromansy by the melting of wax Lekanomancy by basins of water Kotoptromansy by looking glasses Khatromansy by writing in papers and by valentines Makaromancy by knives and swords Krystallomancy by crystals Dactylamansy by rings Koskinomancy by sieves Aksinomancy by saws Kalmancy by vessels of brass or other metal Spatillomancy by skins bones etc Astromansy by stars Skiomancy by shadows Astragalomancy by dice Oinomancy by the lease of wine Sikomancy by figs Tyromansy by cheese Alphitomansy by meal flour or bran Krythomansy by corn or grain Electromansy by cocks Gyromansy by circles Lempadomansy by candles and lamps End of Chapter 6 Part 1 Chapter 6 Part 2 of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org This is the story of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Volume 1 by Charles McKay Fortune telling Part 2 On Nirocriticism or The Art of Interpreting Dreams is a relic of the most remote ages which is subsisted through all the changes that moral or physical revolutions have operated in the world. The records of 5,000 years bear abundant testimony to the universal diffusion of the belief that the skillful could read the future skillful could read the future in dreams. The rules of the art, if any existed in ancient times, are not known, but in our day one simple rule opens the whole secret. Dreams, say all the Wise Acres and Christendom, are to be interpreted by contraries. Thus, if you dream of filth, you will acquire something valuable. If you dream of the dead, you will hear news of the living. If you dream of gold and silver, you run a risk of being without either. And if you dream you have many friends, you will be persecuted by many enemies. The rule, however, does not hold good in all cases. It is fortunate to dream of little pigs, but unfortunate to dream of big bullocks. If you dream you have lost a tooth, you may be sure that you will shortly lose a friend. And if you dream that your house is on fire, you will receive news from a far country. If you dream of vermin, it is a sign that there will be sickness in your family. And if you dream of serpents, you will have friends who in the course of time will prove your bitterest enemies. But of all dreams it is most fortunate if you dream that you are wallowing up to your neck in mud and mire. Clear water is a sign of grief, and great troubles, distress and perplexity are predicted if you dream that you stand naked in the public streets, and know not where to find a garment to shield you from the gaze of the multitude. In many parts of Great Britain and the continents of Europe and America, there are to be found elderly women in the villages and country places whose interpretations of dreams are looked upon with as much reverence as if they were oracles. In districts remote from towns it is not uncommon to find the members of a family regularly every morning narrating their dreams at the breakfast table, and becoming happy or miserable for the day according to their interpretation. There is not a flower that blossoms or fruit that ripens that dream of is not ominous of either good or evil to such people. Every tree of the field or the forest is endowed with a similar influence over the fate of mortals if seen in the night visions. To dream of the ash is the sign of a long journey, and of an oak prognosticates long life and prosperity. To dream you strip the bark of any tree is a sign to a maiden of an approaching lot of character, to a married woman of a family bereavement, and to a man of an accession of fortune. To dream of a leafless tree is a sign of great sorrow, and of a branchless trunk a sign of despair and suicide. The elder tree is more auspicious to the sleeper, while the fir tree, better still, betokens all manner of comfort and prosperity. The lime tree predicts a voyage across the ocean, while the you and the elder are ominous of sickness to the young, and of death to the old. It is quite astonishing to see the great demand there is, both in England and France, for dream books and other trash of the same kind. Two books in England enjoy an extraordinary popularity, and have run through upwards of 50 editions in as many years in London alone, besides being reprinted in Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin. One is Mother Bridget's dream book and Oracle of Fate. The other is the Norwood Gypsy. It is stated on the authority of one who is curious in these matters that there is a demand for these works which are sold at sums varying from a penny to sixpence, chiefly to servant girls and imperfectly educated people all over the country, of upwards of eleven thousand annually, and that at no period during the last thirty years has the average number sold been less than this. The total number during this period would thus amount to three hundred and thirty thousand. Among the flowers and fruits charged with messages of the future, the following is a list of the most important, arranged from approved sources in alphabetical order. Asparagus. Gathered and tied up in bundles is an omen of tears. If you see it growing in your dreams, it is a sign of good fortune. Allows without a flower betokens long life. In flower betokens a legacy. Artichokes. This vegetable is a sign that you will receive, in a short time, a favour from the hands of those from whom you would least expect it. Agrimony. This herb denotes that there will be sickness in your house. Anemone predicts love. Our rickunas in beds denote luck in pots, marriage, while to gather them foretells widowhood. Bilberry's predict a pleasant excursion. Broom flowers and increase the family. Collie flowers predict that all your friends will slight you or that you will fall into poverty and find no one to pity you. Dock leaves are present from the country. Daffodils. Any maiden who dreams of daffodils is warned by her good angel to avoid going into a wood with her lover, or into any dark or retired place where she might not be able to make people hear her, she cried out. Alas for her, she paid no attention to the warning. Never again shall she put garland on, instead of it she'll wear sad cypress now and bitter elder broken from the bow. Figs if green, betoken embarrassment if dried, money to the poor and mirth to the rich. Hearts ease betokens hearts pain. Lillies predict joy. Water lilies danger from the sea. Lemons betoken a separation. Pomegranates predict happy wedlock to those who are single and reconciliation to those who are married and have disagreed. Quintzes prognosticate pleasant company. Roses denote happy love, not unmixed with sorrow from other sources. Sorrel, to dream of this herb is a sign that you will shortly have occasion to exert all your prudence to overcome some great calamity. Sunflowers show that your pride will be deeply wounded. Violets predict evil to the single and joy to the married. Yellow flowers of any kind predict jealousy. Uberies predict loss of character to both sexes. It should be observed that the rules for the interpretation of dreams are far from being universal. The cheeks of the peasant girl of England glow with pleasure in the morning after she has dreamed of a rose, while the peasant of Normandy dreads disappointment and vexation for the very same reason. The switzer who dreams of an oak tree does not share in the Englishman's joy, for he imagines that the vision was a warning to him that from some trifling cause an overwhelming calamity will burst over him. Thus do the ignorant and the credulous torment themselves. Thus do they spread their nets to catch vexation and pass their lives between hopes which are of no value and fears which are positive evil. Omens, among the other means of self annoyance upon which men have stumbled in their vain hope of discovering the future, signs and omens hold a conspicuous place. There is scarcely an occurrence in nature which happening at a certain time is not looked upon by some persons as a prognosticator either of good or evil. The latter are in the greatest number, so much more ingenious are we in tormenting ourselves than in discovering reasons for enjoyment in the things that surround us. We go out of our course to make ourselves uncomfortable. The cup of life is not bitter enough to our palate, and we distill supleurfluous poison to put into it or conjure up hideous things to frighten ourselves at, which would never exist if we did not make them. We suffer, says Addison, as much from trifling accidents as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a star, spoil a night's rest, and have seen a man in love grow pale and lose his appetite upon the plucking of a merry thought. A screech out at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers. Nay, the voice of a cricket has struck more terror than the roaring of a lion. There is nothing so inconsiderable which may not appear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and prognostics. A rusty nail or a crooked pin shoot up into prodigies. The century and a quarter that has passed away, since Addison wrote, has seen the fall of many eras. Many fallacies and delusions have been crushed under the foot of time since then, but this has been left unscathed to frighten the weak-minded and embitter their existence. Belief in omens is not confined to the humble and uninformed. A general who led an army with credit has been known to feel alarmed at a winding sheet in the candle, and learned men who had honourably and fairly earned the highest honours of literature have been seen to gather the little ones around them, and fear that one would be snatched away, because, when stole upon the time the dead of night and heavy sleep had closed up mortal eyes, a dog in the street was howling at the moon. Persons who would have knowledge freely that the belief in omens was unworthy of a man of sense have yet confessed at the same time that, in spite of their reason, they have been unable to conquer their fears of death when they heard the harmless insect called the death watch ticking in the wall, or saw an oblong hollow coal fly out of the fire. Many other evil omens, besides those mentioned above, alarm the vulgar and the weak. If a sudden shivering comes over such people, they believe that at that instant, an enemy is treading over the spot that will one day be their grave. If they meet a sow when they first walk abroad in the morning, it is an omen of evil for that day. To meet an ass is in like manner unlucky. It is also very unfortunate to walk under a ladder, to forget to eat goose on the festival of St. Michael, to tread upon a beetle, or to eat the twin nuts that are sometimes found in one shell. Woe, in like manner, is predicted to that white who inadvertently upsets the salt. Each grain that is overthrown will bring to him a day of sorrow. If 13 persons sit at table, one of them will die within the year, and all of them will be unhappy. Of all evil omens, this is the worst. The facetious Dr. Kitchener used to observe that there was one case in which he believed that it was really unlucky for 13 persons to sit down to dinner. And that was when there was only dinner enough for 12. Unfortunately, for their peace of mind, the greater majority of people do not take this wise view of the matter. In almost every country of Europe, the same superstition prevails and some carry it so far as to look upon the number 13 as in every way omnes of evil. And if they find 13 coins in their purse, cast away the odd one like a polluted thing. The philosophic beranger in his exquisite song, 13 at table, has taken a poetical view of this humiliating superstition, and mingled as is his won't, a lesson of genuine wisdom in his lay. Being at dinner, he overthrows the salt, and looking round the room discovers that he is the 13th guest. While he is mourning his unhappy fate, and conjuring up visions of disease and suffering and the grave, he is suddenly startled by the apparition of death herself. Not in the shape of a grim foe with skeleton ribs and menacing dart, but of an angel of light who shows the folly of tormenting ourselves with the dread of her approach, when she is a friend rather than the enemy of man, and frees us from the fetters which bind us to the dust. If men could bring themselves to look upon death in this manner, living well and wisely till her inevitable approach, how vast a store of grief and vexation would they spare themselves. Among good omens, one of the most conspicuous is to meet a pie-bold horse. To meet two of these animals is still more fortunate, and if on such an occasion you spit thrice and form any reasonable wish, it will be gratified within three days. It is also a sign of good fortune if you inadvertently put on your stocking wrong side out. If you willfully wear your stocking in this fashion, no good will come of it. It is very lucky to sneeze twice, but if you sneeze a third time, the omen loses its power, and your good fortune will be nipped in the bud. If a strange dog follow you and fawn on you and wish to attach itself to you, it is a sign of very great prosperity. Just as fortunate is it if a strange male cat comes to your house and manifests friendly intentions towards your family. If a she-cat it is an omen, on the contrary, of very great misfortune. If a swarm of bees and light in your garden, some very high honour and great joys await you. Besides these glimpses of the future, you may know something of your fate by a diligent attention to every itching that you may feel in your body. Thus, if the eye or the nose itches, it is a sign you will be shortly vexed. If the foot itches, you will tread upon strange ground, and if the elbow itches, you will change your bed-fellow. Itching of the right hand, prognosticings that you will soon have a sum of money, and of the left that you will be called upon to disperse it. These are but a few of the omen which are generally credited in modern Europe. A complete list of omen would fatigue from its length and sicken from its absurdity. It would be still more unprofitable to attempt to specify the various delusions of the same kind, which are believed among oriental nations. Every reader will remember the comprehensive formula of cursing, preserved in Tristan Shandy. Curse a man after any fashion you remember or can invent. You will be sure to find it there. The oriental creed of omens is not less comprehensive. Every movement of the body, every emotion of the mind is at certain times an omen. Every form and object in nature, even the shape of the clouds and the changes of the weather, every color, every sound, whether of men or animals or birds or insects, or inanimate things is an omen. Nothing is too trifling or inconsiderable to inspire hope which is not worth cherishing, or fear which is sufficient to embitter existence. From the belief in omens springs a superstition that has from very early ages set apart certain days as more favorable than others were prying into the secrets of futurity. The following copied verbatim from the popular dream and omen book of Mother Bridget will show the belief of the people of England at the present day. Those who are curious as to the ancient history of these observances will find abundant element in the everyday book. The 1st of January. If a young maiden drink on going to bed, a pint of cold spring water, in which is beat up an amulet composed of the yoke of a pullet's egg, the legs of a spider, and the skin of an eel pounded, her future destiny will be revealed to her in a dream. This charm fails of its effect if tried any other day of the year. Valentine day. Let a single woman go out of her own door very early in the morning, and if the first person she meets be a woman she will not be married that year. If she meet a man she will be married within three months. Lady day. The following charm may be tried this day with certain success. String thirty-one nuts on a string composed of red worsted mixed with blue silk and tied around your neck on going to bed, repeating these lines. Oh I wish, oh I wish to see whom I true love is to be. Shortly after midnight you will see your lover in a dream and be informed at the same time of all the principal events of your future life. St. Swiven's Eve. Select three things you most wish to know. Write them down with a new pen and red ink on a sheet of fine wove paper, from which you must previously cut off all the corners and burn them. Fold the paper into a true lover's knot and wrap round it three hairs from your head. Place the paper under your pillow for three successive nights, and your curiosity to know the future will be satisfied. St. Mark's Eve. Repair to the nearest churchyard as the clock strikes twelve, and take from a grave on the south side of the church three tufts of grass. The longer and rancour the better, and on going to bed place them under your pillow, repeating earnestly three several times. The eve of St Mark by prediction is blessed. Set therefore my hopes and my fears all to rest. Let me know my fate, whether wheel or woe, whether my ranks to be high or low, whether to live single or be a bride, and the destiny my star doth provide. Should you have no dream that night, you will be single and miserable all your life. If you dream of thunder and lightning, your life will be one of great difficulty and sorrow. Candlemas Eve. On this night which is the purification of the Virgin Mary, let three, five, seven or nine young maidens assemble together in a square chamber. Hang in each corner a bundle of sweet herbs mixed with rue and rosemary. Then mix a cake of flour, olive oil and white sugar. Every maiden having an equal share in the making and the expense of it. Afterwards it must be cut into equal pieces, each one marking the piece as she cuts it with the initials of her name. It is then to be baked one hour before the fire, not a word being spoken the whole time, and the maidens sitting with their arms and knees across. Each piece of cake is then to be wrapped up in a sheet of paper, on which each maiden shall write the love part of Solomon's songs. She put this under her pillow, she will dream true. She will see her future husband and every one of her children, and will know besides whether her family will be poor or prosperous, a comfort to her or the contrary. Midsummer. Take three roses, smoke them of sulphur, and exactly at three in the day, bury one of the roses under a yew tree. The second in a newly made grave and put the third under your pillow for three nights, and at the end of that period burn it in a fire of charcoal. Your dreams during that time will be prophetic of your future destiny, and what is still more curious and valuable says Mother Bridget, the man whom you are to wed will enjoy no peace till he comes and visits you. Besides this, you will perpetually haunt his dreams. St John's Eve. Make a new pin cushion of the very best black velvet. No inferior quality will answer the purpose, and on one side stick your name at full length with the very smallest pins that can be bought. None other will do. On the other side make a cross with some very large pins and surround it with a circle. Put this into your stocking when you take it off at night and hang it up at the foot of your bed. All your future life will pass before you in a dream. First new moon of the year. On the first new moon in the year take a pint of clear spring water and infuse into it the white of an egg laid by a white hen, a glass of white wine, three almonds peeled white, and a tablespoonful of white rose water. Drink this on going to bed, not making more nor less than three dras of it, repeating the following verses three several times in a clear distinct voice, but not so loud as to be overheard by anybody. If I dream of water pure before the coming morn, it is a sign I shall be poor and unto wealth not born. If I dream of tasting beer, middling then will be my cheer. Checkered with a good and bad, sometimes joyful, sometimes sad, but should I dream of drinking wine, wealth and pleasure will be mine. The stronger the drink, the better the cheer. Dreams of my destiny appear, appear. 29th February. This day as it only occurs once in four years is peculiarly auspicious to those who decide to have a glance at futurity, especially to young maidens burning with anxiety to know the appearance and complexion of their future lords. The charm to be adopted is the following. Stick twenty-seven of the smallest pins that are made, three by three, into a tallow candle. Light it up at the wrong end, and then place it in a candlestick made out of clay, which must be drawn from a virgin's grave. Place this on the chimney-place and in the left-hand corner, exactly as the clock strikes twelve, and go to bed immediately. When the candle is burnt out, take the pins and put them into your left shoe, and before nine nights have elapsed your fate will be revealed to you. We have now taken a hasty review of the various modes of seeking to discover the future, especially as practiced in modern times. The main features of the folly appear essentially the same in all countries. National character and peculiarities operate some difference of interpretation. The mountaineer makes the natural phenomena which he most frequently witnesses prognosticative of the future. The dweller in the plains in a similar manner seeks to know his fate among the signs of the things that surround him, and tints his superstition with the hues of his own climb. The same spirit animates them all, the same desire to know that which infinite mercy has concealed. There is but little probability that the curiosity of mankind in this respect will ever be wholly eradicated. Tef and ill fortune are continual bug bears of the weak-minded, the irreligious and the ignorant, and while such exists in the world divines will preach upon its imparity and philosophers discourse upon its absurdity in vain. Still it is evident that these prollies have greatly diminished. Suve says and prophets have lost the credit they formerly enjoyed, and skulk in secret now where they once showed their faces in the blaze of day. So far there is manifest improvement.