Charles Mackay (
1814-
1889), from
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds
The first of these
philosophers was born in the year
1193, of a noble family at
Lawingen, in the
duchy of
Neuburg, on the
Danube. For the first thirty years of his life, he appeared remarkably dull and stupid, and it was feared by every one that no good could come of him. He entered a
Dominican monastery at an early age; but made so little progress in his studies, that he was more than once upon the point of abandoning them in despair; but he was endowed with extraordinary perseverance. As he advanced to middle age, his mind expanded, and he learned whatever he applied himself to with extreme facility. So remarkable a change was not, in that age, to be accounted for but by a miracle. It was asserted and believed that the
Holy Virgin, touched with his great desire to become learned and famous, took pity upon his incapacity, and appeared to him in the cloister where he sat, almost despairing, and asked him whether he wished to excel in philosophy or
divinity. He chose philosophy, to the chagrin of the Virgin, who reproached him in mild and sorrowful accents that he had not made a better choice. She, however, granted his request that he should become the most excellent philosopher of the age; but set this drawback to his pleasure, that he should relapse, when at the height of his fame, into his former incapacity and stupidity. Albertus never took the trouble to contradict the story, but prosecuted his studies with such unremitting zeal that his reputation speedily spread over all
Europe. In the year
1244, the celebrated
Thomas Aquinas placed himself under his tuition. Many extraordinary stories are told of the master and his pupil. While they paid all due attention to other branches of science, they never neglected the pursuit of the
philosopher's stone and the
elixir vitae. Although they discovered neither, it was believed that Albert had seized some portion of the
secret of life, and found means to animate a brazen statue, upon the formation of which, under proper conjunctions of the planets, he had been occupied many years of his life. He and Thomas Aquinas completed it together, endowed it with the faculty of speech, and made it perform the functions of a domestic servant. In this capacity it was exceedingly useful; but, through some defect in the machinery, it chattered much more than was agreeable to either philosopher. Various remedies were tried to cure it of its garrulity, but in vain; and one day Thomas Aquinas was so enraged at the noise it made, when he was in the midst of a mathematical problem, that he seized a ponderous hammer and smashed it to pieces.
1 He was sorry afterwards for what he had done, and was reproved by his master for giving way to his anger, so unbecoming in a philosopher. They made no attempt to re-animate the statue.
Such stories as these show the spirit of the age. Every great man who attempted to study the secrets of nature was thought a
magician; and it is not to be wondered at that, when philosophers themselves pretended to discover an
elixir for conferring
immortality, or a red stone which was to create boundless wealth, that popular opinion should have enhanced upon their pretensions, and have endowed them with powers still more miraculous. It was believed of
Albertus Magnus that he could even change the course of the seasons; a feat which the many thought less difficult than the discovery of the
grand elixir. Albertus was desirous of obtaining a piece of ground on which to build a monastery, in the neighbourhood of
Cologne. The ground belonged to William,
Count of
Holland and King of the
Romans, who, for some reason or other, did not wish to part with it. Albertus is reported to have gained it by the following extraordinary method: He invited the Prince, as he was passing through Cologne, to a magnificent entertainment prepared for him and all his court. The Prince accepted it, and repaired with a lordly retinue to the residence of the
sage. It was in the midst of winter; the
Rhine was frozen over, and the cold was so bitter that the knights could not sit on horseback without running the risk of losing their toes by the frost. Great, therefore, was their surprise, on arriving at Albert's house, to find that the repast was spread in his garden, in which the snow had drifted to the depth of several feet. The
Earl, in high dudgeon, remounted his steed; but Albert at last prevailed upon him to take his seat at the table. He had no sooner done so, than the dark clouds rolled away from the sky -- a warm sun shone forth -- the cold
north wind veered suddenly round, and blew a mild breeze from the south -- the snows melted away -- the ice was unbound upon the streams, and the trees put forth their green leaves and their fruit -- flowers sprang up beneath their feet, while
larks,
nightingales,
blackbirds,
cuckoos,
thrushes, and every sweet
song-bird, sang
hymns from every tree. The Earl and his attendants wondered greatly; but they ate their dinner, and in recompence for it, Albert got his piece of ground to build a
convent on. He had not, however, shown them all his power. Immediately that the repast was over, he gave the word, and dark clouds obscured the sun -- the snow fell in large flakes -- the singing-birds fell dead -- the leaves dropped from the trees, and the winds blew so cold, and howled so mournfully, that the guests wrapped themselves up in their thick cloaks, and retreated into the house to warm themselves at the blazing fire in Albert's kitchen.
2
Thomas Aquinas also could work wonders as well as his master. It is related of him, that he lodged in a street at Cologne, where he was much annoyed by the incessant clatter made by the horses' hoofs, as they were led through it daily to exercise by their grooms. He had entreated the latter to select some other spot where they might not disturb a philosopher, but the grooms turned a deaf ear to all his solicitations. In this emergency he had recourse to the aid of magic. He constructed a small horse of bronze, upon which he inscribed certain
cabalistic characters, and buried it at midnight in the midst of the highway. The next morning, a troop of grooms came riding along as usual; but the horses, as they arrived at the spot where the magic horse was buried, reared and plunged violently -- their nostrils distended with terror -- their manes grew erect, and the perspiration ran down their sides in streams. In vain the riders applied the spur -- in vain they coaxed or threatened, the animals would not pass the spot. On the following day, their success was no better. They were at length compelled to seek another spot for their exercise, and Thomas Aquinas was left in peace.
3
Albertus Magnus was made Bishop of
Ratisbon in
1259; but he occupied the
See only four years, when he resigned, on the ground that its duties occupied too much of the time which he was anxious to devote to philosophy. He died in Cologne in
1280, at the advanced age of eighty-seven. The Dominican writers deny that he ever sought the philosopher's stone, but his treatise upon minerals sufficiently proves that he did.
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1 Naudé,
Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses de Magie, chap. xviii.
2Lenglet,
Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique. See also,
Godwin's
Lives of the Necromancers.
3Naudé,
Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses de Magie, chap. xvii.