AN aggregate of more curious facts, of information in a higher degree calculated to exalt our estimate of the vast conquests of human science, has perhaps never been given to the world, than Sir David Brewster's recently published Letters to Sir Walter Scott on what he appropriately terms "Natural Magic," forming an unpretending volume of Mr. Murray's valuable Family Library.* It is a companion and counterpart to Sir Walter's amusing Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, in the same collection; the latter containing "the history of a dark chapter in human nature;" the former explaining and demonstrating, on scientific principles, those "prodigies of the material world" which, when unexplained, have driven credulous and even firm minds into conclusions of supernatural influence. "The subject of Natural Magic," observes Sir David Brewster, "is one of great extent, as well as of deep interest. In its widest range, it embraces the history of the governments and the superstitions of ancient times,—of the means by which they maintained their influence over the human mind,—of the assistance which they derived from the arts and sciences, and from a knowledge of the powers and phenomena of nature. The prince, the priest, and the sage, were leagued in a dark conspiracy to deceive and enslave their species; and man, who refused his submission to a being like himself, became the obedient slave of a spiritual despotism, and willingly bound himself in chains, when they seemed to have been forged by the gods." There is ample ground to conclude that the miracles and magical exhibitions of the ancients are neither pure inventions of the writers who have recorded them, as some believe, nor were the fruits of direct diabolical agency, as other well-meaning persons assume; but that they were results derived by the ancient sorcerers from their superior and occult knowledge of the * Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Bart. By Sir DAVID BREWSTER, K.H., LL.D., &c. Vol. XXXIII. of the Family Library. London, 1832. Murray. Asiat.Journ. N.S. VOL. 9. No.33. B sciences, particularly optics and acoustics,-the eye and the ear having been erroneously supposed, in early times, to be senses scarcely susceptible of deception. The descriptions of these feats are generally imperfect and sometimes incorrect. We shall not wonder at this when we consider how often persons, who have been present at performances of this kind, at the present day, misrepresent, unintentionally, perhaps, the very circumstance by which a feat could be explained. On the first exhibition in England of that ingenious acoustical deception termed the Invisible Girl, the mechanism of which is now well-understood, the writer of these remarks received an account of it from a gentleman of veracity who had been present. The writer suggested immediately, from his informant's description of the machine, that a tube conveyed the sound inside the frame, beneath the floor, into an adjoining apartment, which is now known to be the fact. The relator, however, replied that this was impossible, since the machine was moveable! This circumstance he had hastily inferred, and incautiously suffered it to be impressed upon his mind, from the appearance of the machine itself, which had the likeness of a bedstead on moveable castors. Of the extent of the scientific knowledge actually possessed by the ancient philosophers we have no satisfactory data. We cannot doubt that much of that knowledge was retained in secret, and withheld from even the respectable classes of society. The phenomena of the celestial bodies, for example, were understood by the ancient astronomers; yet this knowledge was scarcely pervulgata so late as Seneca, who ingenuously confesses that the cause of the moon's waxing and waning had been only recently known with certainty; and Livy relatest that Sulpitius Gallus, the astrologer, who accompanied the consul Paulus mylius against Perseus, prognosticated, the night before the battle with the Macedonians, that there would be an eclipse of the moon, which happening as he predicted, the soldiers believed him super-human: "editá horâ, luna cùm defecisset, Romanis militibus Galli sapientia prope divina videri." Lucretius exults that the arcana of nature, imperfectly as he could explain them, were then first revealed by him to his countrymen : Denique natura hæc rerum ratioque reperta est Wonderful as are some of the accounts given by ancient writers of the exploits of sorcerers and the interior wonders of their temples, they all fall short of the performances of the eastern magi. We have no doubt, however, that deducting somewhat from the accounts of those performances given by spectators, on the score of imagination and unintentional exaggeration, they might be traced to scientific principles, combined with great manual dexterity. We subjoin a few specimens of the proverbial skill of the Bengal jugglers, as recorded in the Toozook-i-Jehangeery, or Autobiographical Memoirs of the Emperor Jehangeer. They stated, that of any tree that should be named they would set the seed in the earth, and that I should immediately witness the extraordinary result. * "Cur luna deficiat, hoc apud nos quoque nuper ratio ad certum perduxit." Nat. Quæst. vii. 25. t Lib. xliv. c. 37. Khaun-e-Jahaun, one of the nobles present, observed, that if they spoke truly, he should wish them to produce for his conviction a mulberry tree. The men arose without hesitation, and having in ten separate spots set some seed in the ground, they recited among themselves, in cabalistical language unintelligible to the standers-by, when instantly a plant was seen springing from each of the ten places, and each proved the tree required by Khaun-e-Jahaun. In the same manner they produced a mango, an apple tree, a cypress, a pineapple, a fig tree, an almond, a walnut, and many more trees, and this without any attempt at concealment in the operation; but open to the observation of all present, the trees were perceived gradually and slowly springing from the earth, to the height of one, or perhaps of two cubits, when they shot forth leaves and branches: the apple tree, in particular, producing fruit, which fruit was brought to me, and I can attest to its fragrance. The seven men stood close together in a group, and without moving either lips or tongue, produced between them such harmony and sweetness of modulation, as if the whole seven had but one voice, and that forming the most delightful unison. It was at the same time distinctly ascertained that the mouth and tongue had not the slightest share in the operation. One of the seven men stood upright before us, a second passed upwards along his body and, head to head, placed his feet upwards in the air. A third managed to climb up in the same manner, and planting his feet to those of the second, stood with his head upwards, and so alternately to the seventh, who crowned this extraordinary human pillar with his head uppermost; and what excited an extraordinary clamour of surprise, was to observe the first man, who thus supported on the crown of his head the whole of the other six, lift one foot as high as the shoulder, standing thus upon one leg, and exhibiting a degree of strength and steadiness not exactly within the scope of my comprehension. They produced a man whom they divided limb from limb, actually severing his head from the body. They scattered these mutilated members along the ground, and in this state they lay for some time. They then extended a sheet or curtain over the spot, and one of the men putting himself under the sheet, in a few minutes came from below, followed by the individual supposed to have been cut into joints, in perfect health and condition, and one might have safely sworn that he had never received wound or injury whatever. They filled a large vessel full of water perfectly transparent, and placed it on the floor before me. One of them held in his hand a red rose, which he said, by giving it a dip into the water, he would bring out of any colour I chose to mention. Accordingly he gave the rose a plunge, and out it came of a bright yellow; and thus at every dip he brought it out of a different kind and colour; at one time a gûlaul, at another an orange blossom. In short, a hundred times repeated he would have produced at each a flower of a different kind and colour. They then plunged a skein of white thread into the vessel, and brought it first of a red, then of a yellow colour, and so of a different colour a hundred times repeated, if required so to do. Some of these feats are still performed in India, and Major Price, the translator of the Memoirs, declares that he has been witness to the operation by which the trees are produced (the first feat), and that "he has no conception of the means by which it was accomplished, unless the jugglers had the trees about them, in every stage, from the seedling to the fruit.” The second trick is evidently the effect of ventriloquism. The third is like the feats performed by Eckeberg, and explained on mechanical principles. It is curious to remark the opinion of the imperial autobiographer respecting those performances: "in very truth, however we may have bestowed upon these performances the character of trick or juggle, they very evidently partake of the nature of something beyond the exertion of human energy; at all events, such performances were executed with inimitable skill, and if there were in the execution any thing of facility, what should prevent their accomplishment by any man of ordinary capacity? I have heard it stated that the art has been called the Semnainan (perhaps asmaunian, 'celestial'), and I am informed that it is also known and practised to a considerable extent among the nations of Europe." Astonishing as these appearances must have been to the spectators, we will venture to say that Sir D. Brewster's volume contains appearances still more extraordinary, which are satisfactorily assigned to natural causes. The fear indeed is, that minds of a certain standard will be led to infer, from the facts recorded in it, that human science is omnipotent, or at least bounded only by the law which Epicurus and the ancient philosophers prescribed to the Deity, namely, the inability to produce matter from, or reduce it to, nothing. Automata can be made, which act and seem to think. The chessplayer, invented by M. Kempelen, of Presburg, the little conjurer of M. Maillardet, both of which contrivances have been exhibited in this country, and are minutely explained by Sir David Brewster, were astonishing examples of the skill by which deceptions might be practised upon the eye. Not only is the ear liable, in like manner, to be deceived by sounds, but singing birds, like the humming-bird of M. Maillardet, and figures which play on wind-instruments, like M. Vaucanson's flute-player, are made to utter sounds accompanied by the corresponding natural actions. Nay, science has gone a step further, and invented talking machines. In the year 1779, the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh proposed, as a subject for one of their annual prizes, an inquiry into the nature of the vowel sounds, and the construction of an instrument for artificially imitating them. The prize was gained by M. Kratzenstein, who showed that all the vowels could be distinctly pronounced by blowing through a reed into the lower ends of pipes in certain shapes. M. Kempelen, about the same time, succeeded in producing the vowel sounds and those of some consonants by means of a box, divided into two portions, attached by a hinge so as to resemble jaws. He met with great difficulties in attempting to give the articulation of words. "These difficulties he contrived with much labour to surmount, and he found it necessary to imitate the human organs of speech by having only one mouth and one glottis. The mouth consisted of a funnel or bell-shaped piece of elastic gum, which approximated, by its physical properties, to the softness and flexibility of the human organs. To the mouth-piece was added a nose, made of two tin tubes, which communicated with the mouth. When both these tubes were open and the mouth-piece closed, a perfect M was produced; and when one was closed and the other open, an N was sounded." Sir David says that there seems to be no doubt that he at last was able to produce entire words and sentences. Both these ingenious artists were dissatisfied with and abandoned their inven |