Extraordinary Popular Delusions Vol 3 | Page 7

to have been,
abandons himself to sensual gratification; but so completely did he
become enthralled in the course of a few years, that he was dismissed
from his high office, and died shortly afterwards, of premature old age
and a complication of maladies, brought on by debauchery. His death
took place in the year 1036. After his time, few philosophers of any
note in Arabia are heard of as devoting themselves to the study of
alchymy; but it began shortly afterwards to attract greater attention in
Europe. Learned men in France, England, Spain, and Italy expressed
their belief in the science, and many devoted their whole energies to it.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries especially, it was extensively
pursued, and some of the brightest names of that age are connected
with it. Among the most eminent of them are
ALBERTUS MAGNUS and THOMAS AQUINA.
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. [Naude, "Apologie des Grands
Hommes accuses de Magie ;" chap. xviii.] 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