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John Lothrop Motley - "The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1567"

Daniel Defoe - "Moll Flanders"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: Lives of the Necromancers

W >> William Godwin >> Lives of the Necromancers




A striking illustration of the state of Egypt in that respect in early
times, occurs incidentally in the history of Joseph in the Bible. Jacob
had twelve sons, among whom his partiality for Joseph was so notorious,
that his brethren out of envy sold him as a slave to the wandering
Midianites. Thus it was his fortune to be placed in Egypt, where in
the process of events he became the second man in the country, and
chief minister of the king. A severe famine having visited these
climates, Jacob sent his sons into Egypt to buy corn, where only it
was to be found. As soon as Joseph saw them, he knew them, though they
knew not him in his exalted situation; and he set himself to devise
expedients to settle them permanently in the country in which he
ruled. Among the rest he caused a precious cup from his stores to be
privily conveyed into the corn-sack of Benjamin, his only brother by
the same mother. The brothers were no sooner departed, than Joseph
sent in pursuit of them; and the messengers accosted them with the
words, "Is not this the cup in which my lord drinketh, and whereby
also he divineth? Ye have done evil in taking it away." [19] They
brought the strangers again into the presence of Joseph, who addressed
them with severity, saying, "What is this deed that ye have done? Wot
ye not that such a man as I could certainly divine?" [20]

From this story it plainly appears, that the art of divination was
extensively exercised in Egypt, that the practice was held in honour,
and that such was the state of the country, that it was to be presumed
as a thing of course, that a man of the high rank and distinction of
Joseph should professedly be an adept in it.

In the great contention for supernatural power between Moses and the
magicians of Egypt, it is plain that they came forward with confidence,
and did not shrink from the debate. Moses's rod was turned into a
serpent; so were their rods: Moses changed the waters of Egypt into
blood; and the magicians did the like with their enchantments: Moses
caused frogs to come up, and cover the land of Egypt; and the magicians
also brought frogs upon the country. Without its being in any way
necessary to enquire how they effected these wonders, it is evident
from the whole train of the narrative, that they must have been much
in the practice of astonishing their countrymen with their feats in
such a kind, and, whether it were delusion, or to whatever else we may
attribute their success, that they were universally looked up to for
the extraordinariness of their performances.

While we are on this subject of illustrations from the Bible, it may
be worth while to revert more particularly to the story of Balaam.
Balak the king of Moab, sent for Balaam that he might come and curse
the invaders of his country; and in the sequel we are told, when the
prophet changed his curses into a blessing, that he did not "go forth,
as at other times, to seek for enchantments." It is plain therefore
that Balak did not rely singly upon the eloquence and fervour of
Balaam to pour out vituperations upon the people of Israel, but that
it was expected that the prophet should use incantations and certain
mystical rites, upon which the efficacy of his foretelling disaster
to the enemy principally depended.


STATUE OF MEMNON.

The Magi of Egypt looked round in every quarter for phenomena that
might produce astonishment among their countrymen, and induce them to
believe that they dwelt in a land which overflowed with the testimonies
and presence of a divine power. Among others the statue of Memnon,
erected over his tomb near Thebes, is recorded by many authors. Memnon
is said to have been the son of Aurora, the Goddess of the morning;
and his statue is related to have had the peculiar faculty of uttering
a melodious sound every morning when touched by the first beams of
day, as if to salute his mother; and every night at sunset to have
imparted another sound, low and mournful, as lamenting the departure
of the day. This prodigy is spoken of by Tacitus, Strabo, Juvenal and
Philostratus. The statue uttered these sounds, while perfect; and,
when it was mutilated by human violence, or by a convulsion of nature,
it still retained the property with which it had been originally
endowed. Modern travellers, for the same phenomenon has still been
observed, have asserted that it does not owe its existence to any
prodigy, but to a property of the granite, of which the statue or its
pedestal is formed, which, being hollow, is found in various parts of
the world to exhibit this quality. It has therefore been suggested,
that the priests, having ascertained its peculiarity, expressly formed
the statue of that material, for the purpose of impressing on it a
supernatural character, and thus being enabled to extend their
influence with a credulous people. [21]


TEMPLE OF JUPITER AMMON: ITS ORACLES.

Another of what may be considered as the wonders of Egypt, is the
temple of Jupiter Ammon in the midst of the Great Desert. This temple
was situated at a distance of no less than twelve days' journey from
Memphis, the capital of the Lower Egypt. The principal part of this
space consisted of one immense tract of moving sand, so hot as to be
intolerable to the sole of the foot, while the air was pregnant with
fire, so that it was almost impossible to breathe in it. Not a drop of
water, not a tree, not a blade of grass, was to be found through this
vast surface. It was here that Cambyses, engaged in an impious
expedition to demolish the temple, is said to have lost an army of
fifty thousand men, buried in the sands. When you arrived however,
you were presented with a wood of great circumference, the foliage of
which was so thick that the beams of the sun could not pierce it. The
atmosphere of the place was of a delicious temperature; the scene was
every where interspersed with fountains; and all the fruits of the
earth were found in the highest perfection. In the midst was the
temple and oracle of the God, who was worshipped in the likeness of a
ram. The Egyptian priests chose this site as furnishing a test of the
zeal of their votaries; the journey being like the pilgrimage to
Jerusalem or Mecca, if not from so great a distance, yet attended in
many respects with perils more formidable. It was not safe to attempt
the passage but with moderate numbers, and those expressly equipped
for expedition.

Bacchus is said to have visited this spot in his great expedition to
the East, when Jupiter appeared to him in the form of a ram, having
struck his foot upon the soil, and for the first time occasioned that
supply of water, with which the place was ever after plentifully
supplied. Alexander the Great in a subsequent age undertook the same
journey with his army, that he might cause himself to be acknowledged
for the son of the God, under which character he was in all due form
recognised. The priests no doubt had heard of the successful battles
of the Granicus and of Issus, of the capture of Tyre after a seven
months' siege, and of the march of the great conqueror in Egypt, where
he carried every thing before him.

Here we are presented with a striking specimen of the mode and spirit
in which the oracles of old were accustomed to be conducted. It may be
said that the priests were corrupted by the rich presents which
Alexander bestowed on them with a liberal hand. But this was not the
prime impulse in the business. They were astonished at the daring with
which Alexander with a comparative handful of men set out from Greece,
having meditated the overthrow of the great Persian empire. They were
astonished with his perpetual success, and his victorious progress
from the Hellespont to mount Taurus, from mount Taurus to Pelusium,
and from Pelusium quite across the ancient kingdom of Egypt to the
Palus Mareotis. Accustomed to the practice of adulation, and to the
belief that mortal power and true intellectual greatness were the
same, they with a genuine enthusiastic fervour regarded Alexander as
the son of their God, and acknowledged him as such.--Nothing can be
more memorable than the way in which belief and unbelief hold a
divided empire over the human mind, our passions hurrying us into
belief, at the same time that our intervals of sobriety suggest to
us that it is all pure imposition.


CHALDEA AND BABYLON.

The history of the Babylonish monarchy not having been handed down to
us, except incidentally as it is touched upon by the historians of
other countries, we know little of those anecdotes respecting it which
are best calculated to illustrate the habits and manners of a people.
We know that they in probability preceded all other nations in the
accuracy of their observations on the phenomena of the heavenly
bodies. We know that the Magi were highly respected among them as an
order in the state; and that, when questions occurred exciting great
alarm in the rulers, "the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers,
and the Chaldeans," were called together, to see whether by their arts
they could throw light upon questions so mysterious and perplexing,
and we find sufficient reason, both from analogy, and from the very
circumstance that sorcerers are specifically named among the classes
of which their Wise Men consisted, to believe that the Babylonian Magi
advanced no dubious pretensions to the exercise of magical power.


ZOROASTER.

Among the Chaldeans the most famous name is that of Zoroaster, who is
held to have been the author of their religion, their civil policy,
their sciences, and their magic. He taught the doctrine of two great
principles, the one the author of good, the other of evil. He
prohibited the use of images in the ceremonies of religion, and
pronounced that nothing deserved homage but fire, and the sun, the
centre and the source of fire, and these perhaps to be venerated not
for themselves, but as emblematical of the principle of all good
things. He taught astronomy and astrology. We may with sufficient
probability infer his doctrines from those of the Magi, who were his
followers. He practised enchantments, by means of which he would send
a panic among the forces that were brought to make war against him,
rendering the conflict by force of arms unnecessary. He prescribed the
use of certain herbs as all-powerful for the production of supernatural
effects. He pretended to the faculty of working miracles, and of
superseding and altering the ordinary course of nature.--There was,
beside the Chaldean Zoroaster, a Persian known by the same name, who
is said to have been a contemporary of Darius Hystaspes.




GREECE.


Thus obscure and general is our information respecting the
Babylonians. But it was far otherwise with the Greeks. Long before
the period, when, by their successful resistance to the Persian
invasion, they had rendered themselves of paramount importance in the
history of the civilised world, they had their poets and annalists,
who preserved to future time the memory of their tastes, their manners
and superstitions, their strength, and their weakness. Homer in
particular had already composed his two great poems, rendering the
peculiarities of his countrymen familiar to the latest posterity. The
consequence of this is, that the wonderful things of early Greece are
even more frequent than the record of its sober facts. As men advance
in observation and experience, they are compelled more and more to
perceive that all the phenomena of nature are one vast chain of
uninterrupted causes and consequences: but to the eye of uninstructed
ignorance every thing is astonishing, every thing is unexpected. The
remote generations of mankind are in all cases full of prodigies: but
it is the fortune of Greece to have preserved its early adventures, so
as to render the beginning pages of its history one mass of impossible
falsehoods.


DEITIES OF GREECE.

The Gods of the Greeks appear all of them once to have been men. Their
real or supposed adventures therefore make a part of what is recorded
respecting them. Jupiter was born in Crete, and being secreted by his
mother in a cave, was suckled by a goat. Being come to man's estate,
he warred with the giants, one of whom had an hundred hands, and two
others brethren, grew nine inches every month, and, when nine years
old, were fully qualified to engage in all exploits of corporeal
strength. The war was finished, by the giants being overwhelmed with
the thunderbolts of heaven, and buried under mountains.

Minerva was born from the head of her father, without a mother; and
Bacchus, coming into the world after the death of his female parent,
was inclosed in the thigh of Jupiter, and was thus produced at the
proper time in full vigour and strength. Minerva had a shield, in
which was preserved the real head of Medusa, that had the property of
turning every one that looked on it into stone. Bacchus, when a child,
was seized on by pirates with the intention to sell him for a slave:
but he waved a spear, and the oars of the sailors were turned into
vines, which climbed the masts, and spread their clusters over the
sails; and tigers, lynxes and panthers, appeared to swim round the
ship, so terrifying the crew that they leaped overboard, and were
changed into dolphins. Bacchus, in his maturity, is described as
having been the conqueror of India. He did not set out on this
expedition like other conquerors, at the head of an army. He rode in
an open chariot, which was drawn by tame lions. His attendants were
men and women in great multitudes, eminently accomplished in the arts
of rural industry. Wherever he came, he taught men the science of
husbandry, and the cultivation of the vine. Wherever he came, he was
received, not with hostility, but with festivity and welcome. On his
return however, Lycurgus, king of Thrace, and Pentheus, king of
Thebes, set themselves in opposition to the improvements which the
East had received with the most lively gratitude; and Bacchus, to
punish them, caused Lycurgus to be torn to pieces by wild horses, and
spread a delusion among the family of Pentheus, so that they mistook
him for a wild boar which had broken into their vineyards, and of
consequence fell upon him, and he expired amidst a thousand wounds.

Apollo was the author of plagues and contagious diseases; at the same
time that, when he pleased, he could restore salubrity to a climate,
and health and vigour to the sons of men. He was the father of poetry,
and possessed in an eminent degree the gift of foretelling future
events. Hecate, which was one of the names of Diana, was distinguished
as the Goddess of magic and enchantments. Venus was the Goddess of
love, the most irresistible and omnipotent impulse of which the heart
of man is susceptible. The wand of Mercury was endowed with such
virtues, that whoever it touched, if asleep, would start up into life
and alacrity, and, if awake, would immediately fall into a profound
sleep. When it touched the dying, their souls gently parted from their
mortal frame; and, when it was applied to the dead, the dead returned
to life. Neptune had the attribute of raising and appeasing tempests:
and Vulcan, the artificer of heaven and earth, not only produced the
most exquisite specimens of skill, but also constructed furniture that
was endowed with a self-moving principle, and would present itself for
use or recede at the will of its proprietor. Pluto, in perpetrating
the rape of Proserpine, started up in his chariot through a cleft of
the earth in the vale of Enna in Sicily, and, having seized his prize,
disappeared again by the way that he came.

Ceres, the mother of Proserpine, in her search after her lost daughter,
was received with peculiar hospitality by Celeus, king of Eleusis. She
became desirous of remunerating his liberality by some special favour.
She saw his only child laid in a cradle, and labouring under a fatal
distemper. She took him under her protection. She fed him with milk
from her own breast, and at night covered him with coals of fire.
Under this treatment he not only recovered his strength, but shot up
miraculously into manhood, so that what in other men is the effect of
years, was accomplished in Triptolemus in as many hours. She gave him
for a gift the art of agriculture, so that he is said to have been the
first to teach mankind to sow and to reap corn, and to make bread of
the produce.

Prometheus, one of the race of the giants, was peculiarly distinguished
for his proficiency in the arts. Among other extraordinary productions
he formed a man of clay, of such exquisite workmanship, as to have
wanted nothing but a living soul to cause him to be acknowledged as
the paragon of the world. Minerva beheld the performance of Prometheus
with approbation, and offered him her assistance. She conducted him to
heaven, where he watched his opportunity to carry off on the tip of
his wand a portion of celestial fire from the chariot of the sun. With
this he animated his image; and the man of Prometheus moved, and
thought, and spoke, and became every thing that the fondest wishes of
his creator could ask. Jupiter ordered Vulcan to make a woman, that
should surpass this man. All the Gods gave her each one a several
gift: Venus gave her the power to charm; the Graces bestowed on her
symmetry of limb, and elegance of motion; Apollo the accomplishments
of vocal and instrumental music; Mercury the art of persuasive speech;
Juno a multitude of rich and gorgeous ornaments; and Minerva the
management of the loom and the needle. Last of all, Jupiter presented
her with a sealed box, of which the lid was no sooner unclosed, than a
multitude of calamities and evils of all imaginable sorts flew out,
only Hope remaining at the bottom.

Deucalion was the son of Prometheus and Pyrrha, his niece. They
married. In their time a flood occurred, which as they imagined
destroyed the whole human race; they were the only survivors. By the
direction of an oracle they cast stones over their shoulders; when, by
the divine interposition, the stones cast by Deucalion became men, and
those cast by Pyrrha women. Thus the earth was re-peopled.

I have put down a few of these particulars, as containing in several
instances the qualities of what is called magic, and thus furnishing
examples of some of the earliest occasions upon which supernatural
powers have been alleged to mix with human affairs.


DEMIGODS.

The early history of mortals in Greece is scarcely separated from that
of the Gods. The first adventurer that it is perhaps proper to notice,
as his exploits have I know not what of magic in them, is Perseus, the
founder of the metropolis and kingdom of Mycenae. By way of rendering
his birth illustrious, he is said to have been the son of Jupiter, by
Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. The king, being
forewarned by an oracle that his daughter should bear a son, by whose
hand her father should be deprived of life, thought proper to shut her
up in a tower of brass. Jupiter, having metamorphosed himself into a
shower of gold, found his way into her place of confinement, and
became the father of Perseus. On the discovery of this circumstance,
Acrisius caused both mother and child to be inclosed in a chest, and
committed to the waves. The chest however drifted upon the lands of a
person of royal descent in the island of Seriphos, who extended his
care and hospitality to both. When Perseus grew to man's estate, he
was commissioned by the king of Seriphos to bring him the head of
Medusa, one of the Gorgons. Medusa had the wonderful faculty, that
whoever met her eyes was immediately turned into stone; and the king,
who had conceived a passion for Danae, sent her son on this enterprise,
with the hope that he would never come back alive. He was however
favoured by the Gods; Mercury gave him wings to fly, Pluto an invisible
helmet, and Minerva a mirror-shield, by looking in which he could
discover how his enemy was disposed, without the danger of meeting her
eyes. Thus equipped, he accomplished his undertaking, cut off the head
of the Gorgon, and pursed it in a bag. From this exploit he proceeded
to visit Atlas, king of Mauritania, who refused him hospitality, and
in revenge Perseus turned him into stone. He next rescued Andromeda,
daughter of the king of Ethiopia, from a monster sent by Neptune to
devour her. And, lastly, returning to his mother, and finding the king
of Seriphos still incredulous and obstinate, he turned him likewise
into a stone.

The labours of Hercules, the most celebrated of the Greeks of the
heroic age, appear to have had little of magic in them, but to have
been indebted for their success to a corporal strength, superior to
that of all other mortals, united with an invincible energy of mind,
which disdained to yield to any obstacle that could be opposed to him.
His achievements are characteristic of the rude and barbarous age in
which he lived: he strangled serpents, and killed the Erymanthian
boar, the Nemaean lion, and the Hydra.


DAEDALUS.

Nearly contemporary with the labours of Hercules is the history of
Pasiphae and the Minotaur; and this brings us again within the sphere
of magic. Pasiphae was the wife of Minos, king of Crete, who conceived
an unnatural passion for a beautiful white bull, which Neptune had
presented to the king. Having found the means of gratifying her
passion, she became the mother of a monster, half-man and half-bull,
called the Minotaur. Minos was desirous of hiding this monster from
the observation of mankind, and for this purpose applied to Daedalus,
an Athenian, the most skilful artist of his time, who is said to have
invented the axe, the wedge, and the plummet, and to have found out
the use of glue. He first contrived masts and sails for ships, and
carved statues so admirably, that they not only looked as if they were
alive, but had actually the power of self-motion, and would have
escaped from the custody of their possessor, if they had not been
chained to the wall.

Daedalus contrived for Minos a labyrinth, a wonderful structure, that
covered many acres of ground. The passages in this edifice met and
crossed each other with such intricacy, that a stranger who had once
entered the building, would have been starved to death before he could
find his way out. In this labyrinth Minos shut up the Minotaur. Having
conceived a deep resentment against the people of Athens, where his
only son had been killed in a riot, he imposed upon them an annual
tribute of seven noble youths, and as many virgins to be devoured by
the Minotaur. Theseus, son of the king of Athens, put an end to this
disgrace. He was taught by Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, how to
destroy the monster, and furnished with a clue by which afterwards to
find his way out of the labyrinth.

Daedalus for some reason having incurred the displeasure of Minos, was
made a prisoner by him in his own labyrinth. But the artist being
never at an end of his inventions, contrived with feathers and wax to
make a pair of wings for himself, and escaped. Icarus, his son, who
was prisoner along with him, was provided by his father with a similar
equipment. But the son, who was inexperienced and heedless, approached
too near to the sun in his flight; and, the wax of his wings being
melted with the heat, he fell into the sea and was drowned.


THE ARGONAUTS.

Contemporary with the reign of Minos occurred the expedition of the
Argonauts. Jason, the son of the king of Iolchos in Thessaly, was at
the head of this expedition. Its object was to fetch the golden
fleece, which was hung up in a grove sacred to Mars, in the kingdom
of Colchis, at the eastern extremity of the Euxine sea. He enlisted in
this enterprise all the most gallant spirits existing in the country,
and among the rest Hercules, Theseus, Orpheus and Amphion. After having
passed through a multitude of perils, one of which was occasioned by
the Cyanean rocks at the entrance of the Euxine, that had the quality
of closing upon every vessel which attempted to make its way between
them and crushing it to pieces, a danger that could only be avoided by
sending a dove before as their harbinger, they at length arrived.


MEDEA.

The golden fleece was defended by bulls, whose hoofs were brass, and
whose breath was fire, and by a never-sleeping dragon that planted
itself at the foot of the tree upon which the fleece was suspended.
Jason was prepared for his undertaking by Medea, the daughter of the
king of the country, herself an accomplished magician, and furnished
with philtres, drugs and enchantments. Thus equipped, he tamed the
bulls, put a yoke on their necks, and caused them to plough two acres
of the stiffest land. He killed the dragon, and, to complete the
adventure, drew the monster's teeth, sowed them in the ground, and saw
an army of soldiers spring from the seed. The army hastened forward to
attack him; but he threw a large stone into the midst of their ranks,
when they immediately turned from him, and, falling on each other,
were all killed with their mutual weapons.