historical lectures and essays(查尔斯金斯利历史讲座)






the operation; but to the intercession of Fray; now Saint Diego; {12} and 

he must have had his thoughts thereon; and may; in an unguarded moment; 

have spoken them。 

     For he was; be it always remembered; a Netherlander。                    The crisis of 

his    country    was    just  at  hand。     Rebellion      was    inevitable;    and;   with 

rebellion;   horrors   unutterable;   and;   meanwhile;   Don   Carlos   had   set   his 

mad brain on having the mand of the Netherlands。                     In his rage; at not 

having it; as all the world knows; he nearly killed Alva with his own hands; 

some two years after。         If it be true that Don Carlos felt a debt of gratitude 

to   Vesalius;   he   may   (after   his   wont)   have   poured   out   to   him   some   wild 

confidence about the Netherlands; to have even heard which would be a 

crime in Philip’s eyes。        And if this be but a fancy; still Vesalius was; as I 

just said; a Netherlander; and one of a brain and a spirit to which Philip’s 

doings;   and   the   air   of   the   Spanish   court;   must   have   been   growing   ever 

more and more intolerable。            Hundreds of his country folk; perhaps men 

and women whom he had known; were being racked; burnt alive; buried 

alive;    at  the  bidding     of  a  jocular    ruffian;   Peter   Titelmann;     the  chief 



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inquisitor。     The 〃day of the MAUBRULEZ;〃 and the wholesale massacre 

which   followed   it;   had   happened   but   two   years   before;   and;   by   all   the 

signs   of   the   times;   these   murders   and   miseries   were   certain   to   increase。 

And why were all these poor wretches suffering the extremity of horror; 

but   because   they  would   not   believe in   miraculous   images;   and   bones   of 

dead   friars;   and   the   rest   of   that   science   of   unreason   and   unfact;   against 

which Vesalius had been fighting all his life; consciously or not; by using 

reason   and     observing     fact?   What     wonder     if;  in   some   burst   of  noble 

indignation   and   just   contempt;   he   forgot   a   moment   that   he   had   sold   his 

soul;   and   his   love   of   science   likewise;   to   be  a   luxurious;   yet   uneasy; 

hanger…on at the tyrant’s court; and spoke unadvisedly some word worthy 

of a German man? 

     As to the story of his unhappy quarrels with his wife; there may be a 

grain of truth in it likewise。        Vesalius’s religion must have sat very lightly 

on   him。     The   man   who   had   robbed   churchyards   and   gibbets   from   his 

youth was not likely to be   much afraid of apparitions and   demons。                     He 

had handled too many human bones to care much for those of saints。                        He 

was probably; like his friends of Basle; Montpellier; and Paris; somewhat 

of a heretic at heart; probably somewhat of a pagan; while his lady; Anne 

van    Hamme;       was    probably     a  strict  Catholic;    as   her   father;   being   a 

councillor and master of the exchequer at Brussels; was bound to be; and 

freethinking in the husband; crossed by superstition in the wife; may have 

caused in them that wretched vie e part; that want of any true munion 

of soul; too mon to this day in Catholic countries。 

     Be these things as they mayand the exact truth of them will now be 

never knownVesalius set out to Jerusalem in the spring of 1564。 On his 

way   he   visited   his   old   friends   at   Venice   to   see   about   his   book   against 

Fallopius。      The    Venetian     republic   received     the  great   philosopher     with 

open arms。       Fallopius was just dead; and the senate offered their guest the 

vacant chair of anatomy。          He accepted it: but went on to the East。 

     He never   occupied that chair;   wrecked   upon the   Isle of Zante;  as   he 

was sailing back from Palestine; he died miserably of fever and want; as 



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thousands of pilgrims returning from the Holy Land had died before him。 

A goldsmith recognised him; buried him in a chapel of the Virgin; and put 

up   over   him   a   simple   stone;   which   remained   till   late   years;   and   may 

remain; for aught I know; even now。 

     So perished; in the prime of life; 〃a martyr to his love of science;〃 to 

quote   the   words   of   M。   Burggraeve   of   Ghent;   his   able   biographer   and 

mentator;   〃the   prodigious   man;   who   created   a   science   at   an   epoch 

when everything was still an obstacle to his progress; a man whose whole 

life was a long struggle of knowledge against ignorance; of truth against 

lies。〃 

     Plaudite:          Exeat:          with     Rondelet      and     Buchanan。        And 

whensoever this poor foolish world needs three such men; may God of His 

great mercy send them。 



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                       PARACELSUS {13} 



     I told you of Vesalius and Rondelet as specimens of the men who three 

hundred years ago were founding the physical science of the present day; 

by patient investigation of facts。        But such an age as this would naturally 

produce men of a very different stamp; men who could not imitate their 

patience and humility; who were trying for royal roads to knowledge; and 

to   the  fame    and   wealth   which    might    be  got   out  of  knowledge;      who 

meddled with vain dreams about the occult sciences; alchemy; astrology; 

magic; the cabala; and so forth; who were reputed magicians; courted and 

feared for awhile; and then; too often; died sad deaths。 

     Such had been; in the century before; the famous Dr。 FaustFaustus; 

who   was   said   to   have   made   a   pact   with   Satanactually   one   of   the 

inventors of printingimmortalised in Goethe’s marvellous poem。 

     Such; in the first half of the sixteenth century; was Cornelius Agrippa 

a doctor of divinity and a knight…at…arms; secret…service diplomatist to the 

Emperor      Maximilian      in  Austria;    astrologer;   though    unwilling;    to  his 

daughter   Margaret;   Regent   of   the   Low   Countries;   writer   on   the   occult 

sciences and of the famous 〃De Vanitate Scientiarum;〃 and what not? who 

died    miserably     at  the  age   of  forty…   nine;   accused    of  magic    by   the 

Dominican monks from whom he had rescued a poor girl; who they were 

torturing on a charge of witchcraft; and by them hunted to death; nor to 

death only; for they spread the fablesuch as you may find in Delrio the 

Jesuit’s 〃Disquisitions on Magic〃 {14}that his little pet black dog was a 

familiar spirit; as Butler has it in 〃Hudibras〃: 

       Agrippa kept a Stygian pug I’ the garb and habit of a dog … That was 

his taste; and the cur Read to th’ occult philosopher; And taught him subtly 

to maintain All other sciences are vain。 

       Such also was Jerome Cardan; the Italian scholar and physician; the 



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father   of   algebraic   science   (you   all   recollect   Cardan’s   rule;)   believer   in 

dreams;   prognostics;   astrology;   who   died;   too;   miserably   enough;   in   old 

age。 

     Cardan’s sad life; and that of Cornelius Agrippa; you can; and ought to 

read for yourselves; in two admirable biographies; as amusing as they are 

learned;     by   Professor      Morley;     of  the   London      University。      I   have    not 

chosen either of them as a subject for this lecture; because Mr。 Morley has 

so exhausted what is to be known about them; that I could tell you nothing 

which I had not stolen from him。 

     But   what   shall   I   say   of   the   most   famous   of   these   menParacelsus? 

whose name you surely know。                 He too has been immortalised in a poem 

which you all ought to have read; one of Robert Browning’s earliest and 

one of his best creations。 

     I   think    we    must    accept    as   true   Mr。    Browning’s      interpretation      of 

Paracelsus’s character。          We must believe that he was at first an honest and 

high…minded; as he was   certainly a   most gifted;  man; that   he went   forth 

into   the   world;   with   an   intense   sense   of   the   worthlessness   of   the   sham 

knowledge of the pedants and quacks of the schools; an intense belief that 

some   higher   and   truer   science   might   be   discovered;   by   which   diseases 

might      be    actually    cured;     and    he