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Leader (1850-1860), 8th November 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1075, Untitled Article

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      enough to render it impossible . Then , for purposes of military defence , the union of the Principalities is essential , unless the Western Powers desire to leave , on the Ottoman frontier , a door perpetually open to the designs of Austria and Russia- # The Turkish and Austrian cabinets , m " malignant conjunction , " to use an astrological phrase , invoke the idea of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire a" -ainst ° thi 8 plan of union . But tte Principalities never have been in the lift of conquered territories , forming integral parts of the Ottoman Empire . They are related to the Porte , not by conquest , but by treaties , which they have kept , and which the Porte has broken . Moreover , their union would not endanger a single interest involved in the maintenance of the Turkish power in Eastern Europe , but would rather constitute a new guarantee in

      favour of that power . A united Moido-Wallachian state : would be a source of security to Turkey ; first , as protecting her against invasion ; and secondly , as relieving her from the discontent of five millions of a brave people , who have incessantly chafed under her authority ; lastly , the Porte has no right to insist that the Itouman race shall suffer itself to be destroyed for the sake of an imperial fiction . It has already been destroyed for all purposes of self-govcrnment . say the Austrian pamphleteers . It is corrupt ^ degenerate , feeble ; hag lost its aspirations , can never again bo exalted to a free political ^ existence . M . Bataillard admits that the privileged classes have been tainted to some extent by Fanariote vice , by venality , by the love of intrigue , by subservience to unpatriotic factions . But he adds an

      eloquent vindication of the vast majority , which , we thinky will satisfy ail impartial reader . From the Bosphorus and the Archijielago , he says , to Eussia , to Prussia , to the Alps , nearly every small nation has succumbed to some foreign power ; but the Moldo-Wallachians never have succumbed , and are now asserting their historical claims in the presence of all Europe . We cannot give too > broad an assent to this triumphant parallel , seeing that the inhabitants of the provinces have been laid prostrate two years successively by two military powers , and are now soliciting a settlement of their destinies from a Congress in Paris . But JM . Bataillard has argued the whole question in a pointed and generally moderate style , which appeals to ilie common sense of the reader .

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      eyes being-washed three times with the water wherein he has washed his feet will never be sore . And a little frog climbing up a tree , if any one shall spit in hia mouth , and then let him escape , is said to cure the cough . Laugh at these we must ; but let us also extract a lesson from them . "Why did men credit such superstitions as these ? For the same reason that men , credit superstitions—different , indeed , but almost as gross—in our own day , namely , because their minds were not trained to consider the evidence by which assertions could be guaranteed . The child implicitly believes in any explanation that is confidently given of what puzzles him ; and men are children in this respect , until they have learned that the value of an explanation wholly depends upon the truth of the inductions which precede it . Observe in the following example how from the real a transition is made to the fantastic ; the two first cases being such as , whether explicable or not , are within the range of vulgar experience , but because they were marvellous they seemed to warrant any other marvel : — '

      Now the passions produce changes in . the body , by way of imitation , as when he who sees another gape , gapes also ; and William of Paris knew a man upon whom any purgative draught would take effect at sight . So Cyppus , after he was chosen king of Italy , dwelt for a whole night upon the vivid recollection and enjoyment of a bull-fight , and in the morning was found horned , no otherwise than by the vegetative power being stirred up by « vehement imagination , elevating coniiferous humours into his head . . Risum ieneuth ? The " corniferous humours" niay excite your scorn , but do you not believe in " the influence of the imagination" of the mother over her unborn child ?

      The passions , following the fancy-when they are most vehement , can not only change their own . body , but can transcend so much , as to work also on another bod } -, to produce wonderful impressions on its elements , and remove or communicate disease . So the soul , being strongly elevated , sends forth health , or sickness t 6 surrounding objects ; andAvicenna believed that with a strong action of the fancy in thi s manner one might kill a camel . Such is the known action of the parent on the unborn child . Yes , such is the known action of the parent on the unborn child ; this and no other ; the one is as absurd as the other ; only in our nineteenth century we have ceased to believe in the one , while devoutly believing in the other . . ' ¦ ' \ ' . ' : ¦¦ : .:. ' . " ¦¦)¦ : ¦ ¦ ¦ . / - . :. ¦ ¦' . '¦'¦ ¦ ' . ¦¦ ¦ ; ¦ .-.. ; ¦ ¦ ¦ . v ¦ ' ¦ Gladly would we have transferred to our columns the greater part of Mr . Morley ' s analysis of Agrippa ' s treatise on " The Pre-eminence of Woman , " and some passages we must throw together : —

      OPINIONS HELD IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . The Life of Cornelius Agrippa von Netteslieim , Doctor and Knight , commonly Tcnonm asa Magician . ByHenry Morley . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . ( Secokp Notice . ) . It is very instructive to look back from time to time , and note , if we can do so without unseemly arrogance , the credulities of learned men . In looking , with Mr . Morley ' aid , into the opinions put forth by Agrippa , -we shall note many curious superstitions -which may suggest an important reflection . For example , there is something more than a laugh to be extracted from passages like this : — ^ Finally , there is a distinction to be made between powers that exist only during the life of the thing operative and those which remain in . force after its death ; It is only when alive that the Echinus can arrest the course of ships . They say also , that in the colic , if a live duck he applied to the stomach it takes away the pain , and the

      duck dies . Generally , parts of animate that are used should he taken from the animal while it still lives and . is in fullest vigour . The right eye of a serpent being applied relieves watering of tlie eyes , if the serpent be let go alive , and the tooth of a mole will be a cure for toothache , if it was taken from a living mole who was allowed to run away after the operation . Some properties remain , however , after death , attached to things hi which some part of the idea remains . So it is that herbs , when dried , retain their virtue , and the skin of a wolf corrodes the 8 khv of a lamb , and acts upon it not only by eontact of suhstance ; for a drum made of the skin of a wolf being beaten will cause that a drum made of a larnb ' a skin shall not sound .

      Or this : — - Then , again , as saith Hermes , there are seven holes iu the head of an animal , distributed to the seven planets . Also among the several signs of the Zodiac is each living body parcelled out for government , and there is the same relation between the parts sb between signs or planets ruling . The agreement of the triplicity in the case of Pisces and Virgo accounts for the fact that , by putting the feet into hot water , one may sometimes relieve pain in the belly . Or in the divisions of things according to Zodiacal influences ; among which . ° The baboon , also , is aolary , because he barks twelve times a day , that is , every hour , and marks smaller intervals of time iu a way that caused his figure to he carved by the Egyptians on their fountainsa point further enforced by the 'fact' that the common division of time vras suggested to man b y the habits of this sacred animal , the baboon .

      Among lunary animals are such as delight to be in man ' s company ; and the panther , which it is said has a spot upon its shoulder waxing and waning as tho moon doth . Cats also are binary , whose eyes become greater or less according to the course of the moon . Lunary also are amphibious animals , and those which are equivocally generated , as mice sometimes are bred from putrefaction of the earth , -wasps are bred of the carcases of horses , bees of tho putrefaction of cows , small flies of sour wine , and ueetles of the flesh of assea . What are we to say to tlie straight gut administered against the injustice and corruption of princes ? or to the great things accomplished "by sufluunuiiH iu uiu air tne 01

      'mB , as nver a ciiaineieon , being burnt on the top of the house , doth , as it is manifest , raise showers and lightnings ? " or to the tact stated on the authority of Proclus , that a spirit was wont to appear in the form of a lion , hut by the setting of a cock before it , it vanished away , because there is a contrariety betwixt a cock and a lion ? or this ?—, * j Swat , also , is the power of fascination , which comes from the spirit of a witch , \ J ™! a v ° ° f tbo eyes in a puro > lucid > 8 UDtl ° vapour , generated of the purer oiood , by the heat of tho heart . And as tho vapour from blear eyes falling upon eyes tuat are sound may corrupt them , so may tho motions and imaginations of one spirit m p ° ur ® d . tnron eh tho oyea and bo the vehiculuin of that spirit through tho eyes of win that is opposite . And this ?—thi 5 * ma ! Vhav 0 aguC l Iet a 11 tho Paring * of his nails bo put into pismires' caves , and th «« i '"¦ t , » t whicU bc S to draw tho nails first must bo taken and bound to we nock , and by thi » means -will tho disease be removed . Alaothoy say that a man ' s

      Even after death nature respects her inherent modesty , fora drowned woman floats on her face , and a drowned man upon his back . The noblest part of a human being is the head ; but the man ' s head is liable to baldness , woman is never seen bald . The man's face is often , made so filthy by a most odious beard , and so covered with sordid hairs , that it is scarcely to be distinguished from the face of a wild beast ; in women , on the other hand , the face always remains pure and decent . "For this reason women were , by the laws of the twelve tables , forbidden to rub their cheeks lest hair should grow and obscure their blushing modesty . But the most evident proof of the innate purity of the female sex is , that a woman having once washed is clean , and if eho wash in second water will not soil it ; but that a man is never clean , though he should wash in ten successive waters , he will cloud and infect them all . ...

      We have all sinned in Adam , not in Eve ; original sin we inherit only from the father of our race . The fruit of the tree of knowledge was forbidden to man only / before woman was made ; woman received no injunction , she was created free . She was not blamed , therefore , for eating , but for causing sin in her husband by giving him to eat ; and she did that not of her own will , hut because the devil tempted her . He chose her as the object of temptation , as St . Bernard 6 ays , because he saw with envy that she was the most perfect of creatures . She erred in ignorance because aha was deceived ; the rnan sinned knowingly . Therefore our Loid made atonement in the figure of the sex'that had sinned , and also for more complete humiliation came in the form of a man , not that of a woman , which is nobler and sublimer . He

      humbled himself as man , but overcame as the descendant of the woman ; for the seed of the woman , it - \ vas said , not the seed of man , should bruise the serpent's head . He would not , therefore , be born of a man ; woman alone was judged worthy to bQ the earthly parent of the Deity . Risen again , he appeared £ rst to women . Mem forsook him , women never . No persecution , heresy , or error in the Church eve * began with tho female sex . They were men who betrayed , sold , bought , accused , condemned , mockod , crucified the Lord . Peter denied him , Ms disciples left him . " Women were at the foot of the cross , women were at the sepulchre . Even Pilate ' s wife , who was a heathen , made more eftbrt to save Jesus than any man among believers . Finally , do not almost all theologians assert that the Church is maintained by the Virgin Mary ?

      Aristotle may say that of all animals the males are stronger and wiser than tho females , but St . Paul writes that weak things have been cliosen to confound the strong . Adam was sublimely endowed , but woman humbled him ; Samson was strong , but woman made him captive ; Lot was chaste , but woman seduced him ; David was religious , but woman disturbed his piety ; Solomon was wise , but woman deceived him ; Job was patient , and was robbed by the devil of fortune and family ; ulcerated , grieved , oppressed , nothing provoked him to angei till a woman did it , therein proving herself stronger than the devil .

      LITERARY WOMEN . ¦\ Vero not women now forbidden to be literary , we should j xt this day have mosl celebrated women , whoso wit would surpass that of men . What is to bo said upon this head , when even by nature women seem to bo born easily superior to practised students in all faculties ? Do not the grammarians entitle themselves masters ol right speaking ? Yet wo learn this far better from our nurses and our mothers than from the grammarians . .... For that reason Plato and Quintilian so solicitously urged a careful choice of children ' s nurses , that the children ' s language might be formed on the best model . Aro not tho poets in tho invention of their whims and

      fables , tho dialecticians in their contentious garrulity , surpassed by women ? Was over orator so good or so successful , that a courtezan could not excel his powers of porsuasion ? "What arithmetician by false calculation would know how to cheat a woman in the payment of a debt' ? What musician equals her in song and in amenity of voice ? Are not philosophers , niathomaticmna , and astrologers often inferior to country-womeu in their divinations and predictions , and does not the old nurse very often beat tho doctor ? Socrates himself , the wisest of men , did not disdain to receive knowledge from Aspadia , nor did Apollo tho Theologian despise the teaching of Priscilla . THE ZOOLOGICAL , FEMALE . Tho queen of all birds , he says , is tho eagle , always of tho female sex , for no male eagles havo been found . Tho phoenix is a femalo always . On the other hand , tho most pestilent of serpents , called tho basilisk , exists only as a male ; it ifl impossible for it to hatch a female .

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      November 8 , 1856 . ] THE LEADEB , 1075 _— r ' — ¦ — ¦ — ~

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 8, 1856, page 1075, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2166/page/19/