elements of nature might unravel, and thereby lift the veil of the future."[1] He also dabbled in alchemy, believed in relations of occult sympathy between "the ethereal and elementary worlds," and filled his mind with the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, Geber, Arnald of Villanova, Raymond Lullius, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus.
Finally, even Francis Bacon, famed as the draughtsman of the chart which henceforth guided explorers in the domain of science, thought that there was considerable value in physiognomy and the interpretation of natural dreams, though the superstition and phantasies of later ages had debased those subjects;[2] and in divination if not "conducted by blind authority."[3] He said that by a reformed astrology one might predict plagues, famines, wars, seditions, sects, great human migrations and "all great disturbances or innovations in both natural and civil affairs."[4]
Such are the beliefs which for a long time pervaded the thought and learning of Europe; beliefs of the widespread acceptance of which we have noted but a few striking illustrations. They constitute a varied and formidable class of convictions. There was the notion that from such things as the marks upon one's body, or from one's dreams, or from peals of thunder, flight of birds, entrails of sacrificial victims and the movements of the stars, we can foretell the future. There was the assumption that certain precious stones, certain plants and trees and fountains, certain animals or parts of animals have strange and wonderful virtues. There was the idea that man, too, possesses marvel-
- ↑ J. L. E. Dreyer, Tycho Brahe. A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 56. A valuable book.
- ↑ De Augmentis Scientiarum, bk. iv, ch. 1.
- ↑ Ibid., bk iv, ch. 3.
- ↑ Ibid., bk. iii, ch. 4.
