Bygone Beliefs: Being a Series of Excursions in the Byways of Thought — H. Stanley Redgrove
Bygone Beliefs Being a Series of Excursions in the Byways Of Thought, by Stanley Redgrove You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Bygone Beliefs: Being a Series of Excursions in the Byways of Thought Author : H. Stanley Redgrove Release date : April 1, 1998 [eBook #1271] Most recently updated: October 29, 2024 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1271 Credits : Produced by Charles Keller, and David Widger *** START OF Stanley Redgrove Alle Erfahrung ist Magic, und nur magisch erklarbar . NOVALIS (Friedrich von Hardenberg). Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth. WILLIAM BLAKE. TO MY WIFE Transcriber's Note: [.] = coordinate covalent bond. [#s] = subscripted #. [#S] = superscripted #. {} mark non-ascii characters. "Emphasis" italics have a * mark. @@@ marks a reference to internal page numbers. Comments and guessed at characters in {braces} need stripped/fixed. Footnotes have not been re-numbered, however, (#) are moved to EOParagraph. The footnotes that have duplicate numbers across 2 pages are "a" and "b". "Protected" indentations have a space before the [Tab]. EOL - have been converted to ([Soft Hyphen]). Greek letters are encoded in [gr ] brackets, and the letters are based on Adobe's Symbol font. Hebrew letters are encoded in [hb ] brackets. PREFACE THESE Excursions in the Byways of Thought were undertaken at different times and on different occasions; consequently, the reader may be able to detect in them inequalities of treatment. He may feel that I have lingered too long in some byways and hurried too rapidly through others, taking, as it were, but a general view of the road in the latter case, whilst examining everything that could be seen in the former with, perhaps, undue care. As a matter of fact, how ever, all these excursions have been undertaken with one and the same object in view, that, namely, of understanding aright and appreciating at their true worth some of the more curious byways along which human thought has travelled. It is easy for the superficial thinker to dismiss much of the thought of the past (and, indeed, of the present) as mere superstition, not worth the trouble of investigation: but it is not scientific. There is a reason for every belief, even the most fantastic, and it should be our object to discover this reason. How far, if at all, the reason in any case justifies us in holding a similar belief is, of course, another question. Some of the beliefs I have dealt with I have treated at greater length than others, because it seems to me that the truths of which they are the images—vague and distorted in many cases though they be—are truths which we have either forgotten nowadays, or are in danger of forgetting. We moderns may, indeed, learn something from the thought of the past, even in its most fantastic aspects. In one excursion at least, namely, the essay on "The Cambridge Platonists," I have ventured to deal with a higher phase—perhaps I should say the highest phase—of the thought of a bygone age, to which the modern world may be completely debtor. "Some Characteristics of Mediaeval Thought," and the two essays on Alchemy, have appeared in The Journal of the Alchemical Society . In others I have utilised material I have contributed to The Occult Review , to the editor of which journal my thanks are due for permission so to do. I have also to express my gratitude to the Rev. A. H. COLLINS, and others to be referred to in due course, for permission here to reproduce illustrations of which they are the copyright holders. I have further to offer my hearty thanks to Mr B. R. ROWBOTTOM and my wife for valuable assistance in reading the proofs. H. S. R. BLETCHLEY, BUCKS, December 1919. CONTENTS PREFACE BYGONE BELIEFS I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDAEVAL THOUGHT II. PYTHAGORAS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY III. MEDICINE AND MAGIC IV. SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING BIRDS V. THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY: A CURIOUS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION VI. THE BELIEF IN TALISMANS VII. CEREMONIAL MAGIC IN THEORY AND PRACTICE VIII. ARCHITECTURAL SYMBOLISM IX. THE QUEST OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE X. THE PHALLIC ELEMENT IN ALCHEMICAL DOCTRINE XI. ROGER BACON: AN APPRECIATION XII. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS BYGONE BELIEFS I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDAEVAL THOUGHT IN the earliest days of his upward evolution man was satisfied with a very crude explanation of natural phenomena—that to which the name "animism" has been given. In this stage of mental development all the various forces of Nature are personified: the rushing torrent, the devastating fire, the wind rustling the forest leaves—in the mind of the animistic savage all these are personalities, spirits, like himself, but animated by motives more or less antagonistic to him. I suppose that no possible exception could be taken to the statement that modern science renders animism impossible. But let us inquire in exactly what sense this is true. It is not true that science robs natural phenomena of their spiritual significance. The mistake is often made of supposing that science explains, or endeavours to explain, phenomena. But that is the business of philosophy. The task science attempts is the simpler one of the correlation of natural phenomena, and in this effort leaves the ultimate problems of metaphysics untouched. A universe, however, whose phenomena are not only capable of some degree of correlation, but present the extraordinary degree of harmony and unity which science makes manifest in Nature, cannot be, as in animism, the product of a vast number of inco-ordinated and antagonistic wills, but must either be the product of one Will, or not the product of will at all. The latter alternative means that the Cosmos is inexplicable, which not