Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay (whitelam books txt) 📕
He was now very young, very vain, good-looking, tolerably rich, and quite uncontrolled. It is no wonder that, on his arrival in the capital, he should launch out into extravagance. He soon became a regular frequenter of the gaming-houses, and by pursuing a certain plan, based upon some abstruse calculation of chances, he contrived to gain considerable sums. All the gamblers envied him his luck, and many made it a point to watch his play,
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Neck or nothing, or downfall of the Mississippi Company.—From a Print in Mr. Hawkins’ Collection.
ReturnA South-Sea Ballad; or, Merry Remarks upon Exchange-Alley Bubbles. To a new Tune called “The Grand Elixir; or, the Philosopher’s Stone discovered.”
ReturnCoxe’s Walpole, Correspondence between Mr. Secretary Craggs and Earl Stanhope.
ReturnStock-jobbing Card, or the humours of Change Alley. Copied from a print called Bubblers’ Medley, published by Carrington Bowles.
ReturnTree, surrounded by water; people climbing up the tree. One of a series of bubble cards, copied from the Bubblers’ Medley, published by Carrington Bowles.
ReturnGay (the poet), in that disastrous year, had a present from young Craggs of some South-Sea stock, and once supposed himself to be master of twenty thousand pounds. His friends persuaded him to sell his share, but he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not hear to obstruct his own fortune. He was then importuned to sell as much as would purchase a hundred a year for life, “which,” says Fenton, “will make you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day.” This counsel was rejected; the profit and principal were lost, and Gay sunk under the calamity so low that his life became in danger.—Johnson’s Lives of the Poets
ReturnSmollett.
ReturnCaricature, copied from Bubblers’ Medley, published by Carrington Bowles.
ReturnBritannia stript by a South-Sea Director. From Het groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid.
Return“‘God cannot love,’ says Blunt, with tearless eyes,
‘The wretch he starves, and piously denies.’ …
Much-injur’d Blunt! why bears he Britain’s hate?
A wizard told him in these words our fate:
‘At length corruption, like a gen’ral flood,
So long by watchful ministers withstood,
Shall deluge all; and av’rice, creeping on,
Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun;
Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks,
Peeress and butler share alike the box,
And judges job, and bishops bite the Town,
And mighty dukes pack cards for half-a-crown:
See Britain sunk in Lucre’s forbid charms,
And France reveng’d of Ann’s and Edward’s arms!’
’Twas no court-badge, great Scriv’ner! fir’d thy brain,
Nor lordly luxury, nor city gain:
No, ’twas thy righteous end, asham’d to see
Senates degen’rate, patriots disagree,
And nobly wishing party-rage to cease,
To buy both sides, and give thy country peace.”
Pope’s Epistle to Allen Lord Bathurst.
ReturnThe Brabant Screen. This caricature represents the Duchess of Kendal behind the “Brabant Screen,” supplying Mr. Knight with money to facilitate his escape; and is copied from a rare print of the time, in the collection of E. Hawkins, Esq. F.S.A.
ReturnEmblematic print of the South-Sea Scheme. By W. Hogarth.
ReturnThe South-Sea project remained until 1845 the greatest example in British history of the infatuation of the people for commercial gambling. The first edition of these volumes was published some time before the outbreak of the Great Railway Mania of that and the following year.
ReturnBiographie Universelle.
ReturnHis sum “of perfection,” or instructions to students to aid them in the laborious search for the stone and elixir, has been translated into most of the languages of Europe. An English translation, by a great enthusiast in alchymy, one Richard Russell, was published in London in 1686. The preface is dated eight years previously from the house of the alchymist, “at the Star, in Newmarket, in Wapping, near the Dock.” His design in undertaking the translation was, as he informs us, to expose the false pretences of the many ignorant pretenders to the science who abounded in his day.
ReturnArticle, Geber, Biographie Universelle.
ReturnNaudé, Apologie des Grands Hommes accusés de Magie, chap. xviii.
ReturnLenglet, Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique. See also Godwin’s Lives of the Necromancers.
ReturnNaudé, Apologie des Grands Hommes accusés de Magie, chap. xvii.
ReturnVidimus omnia ista dum ad Angliam transiimus, propter intercessionem domini Regis Edoardi illustrissimi.
ReturnConverti una vice in aurum ad L millia pondo argenti vivi, plumbi, et stanni.—Lullii Testamentum.
ReturnThese verses are but a coarser expression of the slanderous line of Pope, that “every woman is at heart a rake.”
ReturnFuller’s Worthies of England.
ReturnBiographie Universelle.
ReturnFor full details of this extraordinary trial, see Lobineau’s Nouvelle Histoire de Bretagne, and D’Argentré’s work on the same subject. The character and life of Gilles de Rays are believed to have suggested the famous Blue Beard of the nursery tale.
ReturnSee the article “Paracelsus,” by the learned Renaudin, in the Biographie Universelle.
ReturnThe “crystal” alluded to appears to have been a black stone, or piece of polished coal. The following account of it is given, in the supplement to Granger’s Biographical History. “The black stone into which Dee used to call his spirits was in the collection of the Earls of Peterborough, from whence it came to Lady Elizabeth Germaine. It was next the property of the late Duke of Argyle, and is now Mr. Walpole’s. It appears upon examination to be nothing more than a polished piece of cannel coal; but this is what Butler means when he says,
‘Kelly did all his feats upon
The devil’s looking-glass—a stone.’”
ReturnLilly the astrologer, in his Life, written by himself, frequently tells of prophecies delivered by the angels in a manner similar to the angels of Dr. Dee. He says, “The prophecies were not given vocally by the angels, but by inspection of the crystal in types and figures, or by apparition the circular way; where, at some distance, the angels appear, representing by forms, shapes, and creatures, what is demanded. It is very rare, yea even in our days,” quoth that wiseacre, “for any operator or master to hear the angels speak articulately: when they do speak, it is like, the Irish, much in the throat!”
ReturnAlbert Laski, son of Jaroslav, was Palatine of Siradz, and afterwards of Sendomir, and chiefly contributed to the election of Henry of Valois, the Third of France, to the throne of Poland, and was one of the delegates who went to France in order to announce to the new monarch his elevation to the sovereignty of Poland. After the deposition of Henry, Albert Laski voted for Maximilian of Austria. In 1583 he visited England, when Queen Elizabeth received him with great distinction. The honours which were shewn him during his visit to Oxford, by the especial command of the Queen, were equal to those rendered to sovereign princes. His extraordinary prodigality rendered his enormous wealth insufficient to defray his expenses, and he therefore became a zealous adept in alchymy, and took from England to Poland with him two known alchymists.—Count Valerian Krasinski’s Historical Sketch of the Reformation in Poland.
ReturnThe following legend of the tomb of Rosencreutz, written by Eustace Budgell, appears in No. 379 of the Spectator:—“A certain person, having occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground where this philosopher lay interred, met with a small door, having a wall on each side of it. His curiosity, and the hope of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him to force open the door. He was immediately surprised by a sudden blaze of light, and discovered a very fair vault. At the upper end of it was a statue of a man in armour, sitting by a table, and leaning on his left arm. He held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp burning before him. The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault, than the statue, erecting itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt upright; and, upon the fellow’s advancing another step, lifted up the truncheon in his right hand. The man still ventured a third step; when the statue, with a furious blow, broke the lamp into a thousand pieces, and left his guest in sudden darkness. Upon the report of this adventure, the country people came with lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that the statue, which was made of brass, was nothing more than a piece of clock-work; that the floor of the vault was all loose, and underlaid with several springs, which, upon any man’s entering, naturally produced that which had happened.
“Rosicreucius, say his disciples, made use of this method to shew the world that he had re-invented the ever-burning lamps of the ancients, though he was resolved no one should reap any advantage from the discovery.”
ReturnNo. 574. Friday, July 30th, 1714.
Return“Vitulus Aureus quem Mundus adorat et orat, in quo tractatur de naturæ miraculo transmutandi metalla.” Hagæ, 1667.
ReturnVoyages de Monconis, tome ii. p. 379.
ReturnSee the Abbé Fiard, and Anecdotes of the Reign of Louis XVI. p. 400.
ReturnBiographie des Contemporains, article “Cagliostro.” See also Histoire de la Magie en France, par M. Jules Garinet, p. 284.
ReturnThe enemies of the unfortunate Queen of France, when the progress of the Revolution embittered their animosity against her, maintained that she was really a party in this transaction; that she, and not Mademoiselle D’Oliva, met the cardinal and rewarded him with the flower; and that the story above related was merely concocted between her La Motte, and others to cheat the jeweller of his 1,600,000 francs.
ReturnSee Gibbon and Voltaire for further notice of this subject.
ReturnCharlemagne: Poëme épique par Lucien Buonaparte.
ReturnThis prophecy seems to have been that set forth at length in the popular Life of Mother Shipton:
“When fate to England shall restore
A king to reign as heretofore,
Great death in London shall be though,
And many houses be laid low.”
ReturnThe London Saturday Journal of March 12th, 1842, contains the following:—“An absurd report is gaining ground among the weak-minded, that London will be destroyed by an earthquake on the 17th of March, or St. Patrick’s day. This rumour is founded on the following ancient prophecies: one professing to be pronounced in the year 1203; the other, by Dr. Dee the astrologer, in 1598:
“In eighteen hundred and forty-two
Four things the sun shall view;
London’s rich and famous town
Hungry earth shall swallow down.
Storm and rain in France shall be,
Till every river runs a sea.
Spain shall be rent in twain,
And famine waste the land again.
So say I, the Monk of Dree,
In the twelve hundredth year and three.”
Harleian Collection (British Museum), 800 b, fol. 319.
“The Lord have mercy on you all—
Prepare yourselves for dreadful fall
Of house and land and human soul—
The measure of your sins is full.
In the year one, eight, and forty-two,
Of the year that is so new;
In the third
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