historical lectures and essays(查尔斯金斯利历史讲座)
hundred。 He spoke his mind fiercely to them。 I believe; according to
one story; he drew his long sword on the Canon。 His best friends told
him he must leave the place; and within two years; seemingly; after his
first triumph at Basle; he fled from it a wanderer and a beggar。
The rest of his life is a blank。 He is said to have remenced his
old wanderings about Europe; studying the diseases of every country; and
writing his books; which were none of them published till after his death。
His enemies joyfully trampled on the fallen man。 He was a 〃dull rustic; a
monster; an atheist; a quack; a maker of gold; a magician。〃 When he was
drunk; one Wetter; his servant; told Erastus (one of his enemies) that he
used to offer to call up legions of devils to prove his skill; while Wetter; in
abject terror of his spells; entreated him to leave the fiends alonethat he
had sent his book by a fiend to the spirit of Galen in hell; and challenged
him to say which was the better system; his or Paracelsus’; and what not?
His books were forbidden to be printed。 He himself was refused a
hearing; and it was not till after ten years of wandering that he found rest
and protection in a little village of Carinthia。
Three years afterwards he died in the hospital of St。 Sebastian at
Salzburg; in the Tyrol。 His death was the signal for empirics and
visionaries to foist on the public book after book on occult philosophy;
written in his nameof which you may see ten folios not more than a
quarter; I believe; genuine。 And these foolish books; as much as anything;
have helped to keep up the popular prejudice against one who; in spite of
all his faults was a true pioneer of science。 {15} I believe (with those
moderns who have tried to do him justice) that under all his verbiage and
confusion there was a vein of sound scientific; experimental mon
sense。
When he talks of astronomy as necessary to be known by a physician;
it seems to me that he laughs at astrology; properly so called; that is; that
the stars influence the character and destiny of man。 Mars; he says; did not
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make Nero cruel。 There would have been long… lived men in the world if
Saturn had never ascended the skies; and Helen would have been a wanton;
though Venus had never been created。 But he does believe that the
heavenly bodies; and the whole skies; have a physical influence on climate;
and on the health of men。
He talks of alchemy; but he means by it; I think; only that sound
science which we call chemistry; and at which he worked; wandering; he
says; among mines and forges; as a practical metallurgist。
He tells uswhat sounds startling enoughthat magic is the only
preceptor which can teach the art of healing; but he means; it seems to me;
only an understanding of the invisible processes of nature; in which sense
an electrician or a biologist; a Faraday or a Darwin; would be a magician;
and when he pares medical magic to the Cabalistic science; of which I
spoke just now (and in which he seems to have believed); he only means; I
think; that as the Cabala discovers hidden meaning and virtues in the text
of Scripture; so ought the man of science to find them in the book of
nature。 But this kind of talk; wrapt up too in the most confused style; or
rather no style at all; is quite enough to account for ignorant and envious
people accusing him of magic; saying that he had discovered the
philosopher’s stone; and the secret of Hermes Trismegistus; that he must
make gold; because; though he squandered all his money; he had always
money in hand; and that he kept a 〃devil’s…bird;〃 a familiar spirit; in the
pommel of that famous long sword of his; which he was only too ready to
lug out on provocationthe said spirit; Agoth by name; being probably
only the laudanum bottle with which he worked so many wondrous cures;
and of which; to judge from his writings; he took only too freely himself。
But the charm of Paracelsus is in his humour; his mother…wit。 He was
blamed for consorting with boors in pot…houses; blamed for writing in racy
German; instead of bad school…Latin: but you can hardly read a chapter;
either of his German or his dog…Latin; without finding many a good thing…
…witty and weighty; though often not a little coarse。 He talks in parables。
He draws illustrations; like Socrates of old; from the monest and the
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oddest matters to enforce the weightiest truths。 〃Fortune and
misfortune;〃 he says; for instance nobly enough; 〃are not like snow and
wind; they must be deduced and known from the secrets of nature。
Therefore misfortune is ignorance; fortune is knowledge。 The man who
walks out in the rain is not unfortunate if he gets a ducking。〃
〃Nature;〃 he says again; 〃makes the text; and the medical man adds the
gloss; but the two fit each other no better than a dog does a bath;〃 and
again; when he is arguing against the doctors who hated chemistry〃Who
hates a thing which has hurt nobody? Will you plain of a dog for
biting you; if you lay hold of his tail? Does the emperor send the thief to
the gallows; or the thing which he has stolen? The thief; I think。
Therefore science should not be despised on account of some who know
nothing about it。〃 You will say the reasoning is not very clear; and
indeed the passage; like too many more; smacks strongly of wine and
laudanum。 But such is his quaint racy style。 As humorous a man; it
seems to me; as you shall meet with for many a day; and where there is
humour there is pretty sure to be imagination; tenderness; and depth of
heart。
As for his notions of what a man of science should be; the servant of
God; and of Naturewhich is the work of Godusing his powers not for
money; not for ambition; but in love and charity; as he says; for the good
of his fellow…manon that matter Paracelsus is always noble。 All that Mr。
Browning has conceived on that point; all the noble speeches which he has
put into Paracelsus’s mouth; are true to his writings。 How can they be
otherwise; if Mr。 Browning set them fortha genius as accurate and
penetrating as he is wise and pure?
But was Paracelsus a drunkard after all?
Gentlemen; what concern is that of yours or mine? I have gone into
the question; as Mr。 Browning did; cannot say; and don’t care to say。
Oporinus; who slandered him so cruelly; recanted when Paracelsus
was dead; and sang his praisestoo late。 But I do not read that he
recanted the charge of drunkenness。 His defenders allow it; only saying
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that it was the fault not of him alone; but of all Germans。 But if so; why
was he specially blamed for what certainly others did likewise? I cannot
but fear from his writings; as well as from mon report; that there was
something wrong with the man。 I say only something。 Against his
purity there never was a breath of suspicion。 He was said to care nothing
for women; and even that was made the subject of brutal jests and lies。
But it may have been that; worn out with toil and poverty; he found
fort in that laudanum which he believed to be the arcanumthe very
elixir of life; that he got more and more into the habit of exciting his
imagination with the narcotic; and then; it may be; when the fit of
depression followed; he strung his nerves up again by wine。 It may have
been so。 We have had; in the last generation; an exac