Extraordinary Popular Delusions Vol 3 | Page 8

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. [Lenglet, "Histoire de la Philosophie
Hermetique." See also, Godwin's "Lives of the Necromancers."]
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. [Naude, "Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses de
Magie;" chap. xvii.]
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.
ARTEPHIUS.
Artephius, a name noted in the annals of alchymy, was born in the early
part of the twelfth century. He wrote two famous treatises; the one upon
the philosopher's stone, and the other on the art of prolonging human
life. In the latter he vaunts his great qualifications for instructing
mankind on such a matter, as he was at that time in the thousand and
twenty-fifth year of his age! He had many disciples who believed in his
extreme age, and who attempted to prove that he was Apollonius of
Tyana, who lived soon after the advent of Jesus Christ, and the
particulars of whose life and pretended miracles have been so fully
described by Philostratus. He took good care never to contradict a story,
which so much increased the power he was desirous of wielding over
his fellow-mortals. On all convenient occasions, he boasted of it; and
having an excellent memory, a fertile imagination, and a thorough
knowledge of all existing history, he was never at