Magic and Natural Science in German Baroque Literature: A Study in the Prose Forms of the Later Seventeenth Century 9780231885928

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MAGIC AND NATURAL SCIENCE IN GERMAN BAROQUE LITERATURE

NUMBER THIRTEEN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY EDITED

OF T H E

GERMANIC

BY R O B E R T HERNDON NEW

SERIES

STUDIES FIFE

MAGIC AND NATURAL SCIENCE IN GERMAN BAROQUE LITERATURE Α STUDY IN THE PROSE FORMS OF THE LATER SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

FREDERICK HERBERT WAGMAN

Ζλζειν York

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1942

COPYRIGHT COLUMBIA

UNIVERSITY

1942 PRESS, N E W

Y O R K

Foreign agents: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Humphrey Miljord, Amen House, London, E.C. 4, England, AND Β. I. Building, Nicol Road, Bombay,

India; MARUZEN COMPANY, LTD., 6

Nihonbashi,

Tori-Nichome, Tokyo, Japan Manufactured in the United States of America

T O MY P A R E N T S

PREFACE to elucidate the attitude toward the natural sciences expressed in German baroque prose was undertaken several years ago. It was hoped that such an anlysis would indicate fairly to what extent the German intellectual laity of the Seventeenth Century had been influenced by the great scientific advance of the era, and that a small contribution might be made thereby to our understanding of the emergence of the modern world-view in Germany. Chief among the difficulties which delayed completion of the work in its present form was the inaccessibility of source material in this country. I wish to express my thanks to the Ottendorfer Memorial Fellowship Committee for aiding in the solution of this problem by making possible a year of research in libraries abroad. Most of the research for this study was done at the libraries of Columbia University, the Universities of Minnesota, Chicago, and Göttingen, and at the Zentralbibliothek in Zurich. I am grateful to various members of the staffs of these libraries for their courteous aid with technical problems. Mention must be made of my debt to the numerous friends with whom aspects of the problem were discussed: to Professor Martin Sommerfeld and Dr. Clemens Lugowski for helpful bibliographical references, to Professor Frederick W. J. Heuser for his thoughtful suggestions, and to Dr. Carl Klitzke for his kind assistance in the technical preparation of the manuscript. Finally I must mention my deep gratitude to Professor Robert Herndon Fife, who gave my work throughout its development the benefit of his scholarly advice and critical insight. Without his constant encouragement and generous assistance this study would not have been written.

T H E PRESENT ATTEMPT

F.H. W.

University of Minnesota, October, 1941.

CONTENTS PREFACE I. INTRODUCTION: AIMS AND MATERIALS II. THE HERITAGE OF IDEAS III. MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND INTERVENTION IV. THE PERSISTENCE OF MAGIC IN NATURE V. AUTONOMOUS FORCE IN NATURE VI. PANSOPHISTIC IDEAS VII. THE SEARCH FOR RATIONAL CAUSALITY

52 66 91

VIII. EXPERIMENT AND EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD OF NATURE IX. EXPERIMENT AND EXPERIENCE IN SOCIETY X. CONCLUSION

113 135 150

BIBLIOGRAPHY

161

INDEX

173

MAGIC A N D N A T U R A L SCIENCE IN G E R M A N BAROQUE

LITERATURE

I INTRODUCTION: AIMS A N D MATERIALS THE NUMEROUS researches which have resulted during the past two decades from the rise of interest in the literature of the German Baroque period have clearly demonstrated the significance of the period from Opitz to the early Enlightenment for the continuity of German literature. 1 As is true of every other age, one may trace in this epoch the intensification of tendencies derived from the immediate past, the modification of the ideological and stylistic heritage by forces peculiar to the time, and more important, the emergence or expansion of trends which were to achieve dominance in the ensuing era. Thus far the last aspect, the transitional nature of German literature in the latter part of the Seventeenth Century, has not yet been sufficiently explored. There are great problems involved in any effort to find in it the beginnings, or perhaps better, an early stage of the modern world view. The sociological background is still not fully defined, the influence of certain philosophers, such as Bacon and Descartes, on the German authors of the late Baroque and early Enlightenment is not yet clear, the relationship of the German literati to the secret natural-philosophical societies requires investigation, to mention only a few of the difficulties. One may, however, point to several noteworthy and concrete contributions in this field. F. Brüggemann, for example, has given a brief analysis of qualities in the work of Thomasius and Christian Weise which anticipate the Enlightenment and developments beyond it.2 Erika Vogt, although not specifically concerned 1 For those who are familiar with recent trends in German literary investigation the use of the term "baroque" to identify the period here studied needs, of course, no justification. Other readers of the following pages, especially students of French or English literature, may not understand how universally the word has been adopted by German literary historians to designate the style and the form of Weltanschauung that marked the literature of the Seventeenth Century. While opinions differ widely as to the spiritual characteristics of the period intervening between the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, Barock is now generally accepted as a convenient title for this epoch in German literature. ' F. Briiggeman, Aus der Frühseit der deutschen Aufklärung. "Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Aufklärung," Bd. I, Weimar und Leipzig: Herrn. Böhlaus Nachf., 1928, Introduction.

[3]

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MATERIALS

in her excellent dissertation with the question of transition, traces clearly the Protestant, anti-courtly attitudes of such authors as Moscherosch and Logau and demonstrates their stress of moral virtues, which were now to be accented more than a century later.3 Richard Alewyn in his path-breaking presentation of Johann Beer indicates the orientation toward the burgeois in the novel of the later Seventeenth Century and the emergence of realism in Beer's style. 4 Arnold Hirsch demonstrates at length the growing trend in the popular novel toward Diesseitigkeit in philosophy, Bürgerlichkeit in social orientation, and realism in style. 5 Previously the empiricism of Weise's novels and of the popular novels under Weise's influence had been brought out by Rudolph Becker, although he failed to interpret correctly the importance of that empirical tendency." Hankamer, on the other hand, finds that in certain respects the transition to the Enlightenment began with Weise. 7 One of the many problems which still remain unsolved concerns the influence of the scientific theories and discoveries of the Seventeenth Century on the literature of the time. As yet we do not know what impression the experimental approach of the outstanding foreign and German scientists of the age made upon contemporary German authors, or whether the revolutionary theories of Kepler and Galileo, which introduced the modern era of the natural sciences and involved entirely new conceptions of the animate and inanimate, influenced even slightly the nature-view of the baroque authors. Were their conceptions merely derivatives of neoAristotelian scholasticism, of Renaissance nature philosophy? In the latter case, to what extent were they influenced by Renaissance empiricism? In general, do the German authors of the Seventeenth * Erika Vogt, Die gegenhöfische Strömung m der deutschen Barockliteratur, "Von deutscher Poeterey," Bd. n , Leipzig: J. J. Weber, 1932. 'Richard Alewyn, Johann Beer, "Palaestra," No. 181, Leipzig: Mayer & Müller, 193a· 'Arnold Hirsch, Bürgertum und Barock im deutschen Roman, Frankfurt a. M . : J. Baer & Co., 1934. * Rudolf Becker, Christian Weises Romane und ihre Nachwirkung, Berlin Diss., 1910. ' Paul Hankamer, Deutsche Gegenreformation und deutsches Barock (Stuttgart: Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 193s), pp. 35 & 39-

INTRODUCTION: AIMS AND MATERIALS

5

Century evince any attitudes or subscribe to any ideas pertaining to the realm of the natural sciences, to the problems of nature, which anticipate the modern view? Thus far only very few investigations have shed any light on these questions. Gertrud Bieder has examined the lyrics of the middle portion of the century for their view of nature.8 Willi Flemming has attempted to formulate the dominant nature-theory of the time from the writings of a few outstanding literary figures.® The contribution of both of these students will be considered in some detail in Chapter V, below. Emil Ermatinger has analyzed the philosophical implications of the nature-symbolism in Grimmelshausen's Sitnplicissimus, and most illuminating of all, Christof Junker has investigated the theory of the cosmos expressed in the lyrics from Opitz to Klopstock.10 The present essay will attempt a presentation of the attitudes toward the natural phenomenon expressed in a cross-section of baroque literature in an effort to discover what elements were retained from the heritage of the past, what modifications those ideas underwent in the period of our interest, what new tendencies are apparent. Limitation of the period investigated must, to a certain extent, be arbitrary. I have chosen to begin with the fourth decade of the Seventeenth Century, when the great advance in the physical sciences was well under way. By that time both Kepler's and Galileo's major works had been published, and a Latin translation of Galileo's Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo by the German scholar Matthias Bernegger had appeared in Germany (1635). Most of the material here used, however, was published after 1660. There are several reasons for this concentration on the latter part of the Seventeenth Century. First, it allows approximately half a century or more for the dissemination of the ideas of Kepler and Galileo and a consequent possible modification in the ' G. Bieder, Natur und Landschaft in der deutschen Barocklyrik, Zürich Diss., Mulhouse: Editions "Alsatia," 1927. ' W . Flemming, Der Wandel des deutschen NaturgefüUs vom 15. zum 18. Jh. "Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft, Buchreihe," No. 18, Halle: M. Niemeyer, 1931. 10 Chr. Junker, Das Weltraumbild in der deutschen Lyrik von Opitz bis Klopttock, Berlin: E. Ebering, 1932.

6

I N T R O D U C T I O N : AIMS AND MATERIALS

popular attitude toward the problems of physical occurrence. Second, the analyses of the transitional sociological and stylistic aspects of the novel literature in the last three decades had led me to expect that there might be evidence there of a changing attitude toward the problems of nature also. Finally, it was that period which saw the major development of the novel, a literary form which was sufficiently loose and discursive to permit lengthy discussion of scientific questions. The last of the works examined fall in the first decade of the Eighteenth Century, just before the advent of the English moral weeklies, when the baroque period was entering its decadence, with certain of its tendencies continued chiefly by the Hamburg opera and the "gallant" novel. Thomasius had already published his rationalistic attack on the prevailing attitude toward witchcraft, Weise and some of his successors in the field of the burgeois-political novel had discarded the artificial conventions and conceptions of the "high baroque" and were concerned with reason and experience drawn from daily life as the basic principles for the practical guidance of their burgeois society. The material chosen for this investigation falls into two categories. For several reasons the major part of it has been taken from the novel of the "high baroque" and "late baroque." As has been mentioned, the lyric has already been the subject of related investigations. Further, one is much more able to determine an author's attitude toward the questions which concern us from statements in prose fiction than in verse. Of course the novel also was dominated by conventions, and an author's choice of material or restatement of traditional lore may lead to erroneous conclusions concerning personal conceptions and beliefs. Nevertheless, one is less likely to misinterpret the prose than the verse because of the former's relative freedom from metaphoric usage. The looseness of the novel form in the Seventeenth Century, its discursive and digressive tendency made it a vehicle in which contemporary ideas on many topics could find a place. A completely exhaustive survey would, of course, have been out of the question. It was possible to sample only a cross-section of the vast novel-literature, making selections in each of the various genres, the pastoral, heroic-gallant, polyhistoric, bourgeois-political, picaresque, etc. The authors

INTRODUCTION: AIMS AND MATERIALS

7

whose work has been examined include those whom research students have regarded as outstanding representatives of the German Roman in the second half of the Seventeenth Century. The second source of quotations is the body of popular, generally instructive literature. This category includes the works in conversational form, such as Harsdörfer's Frauenzimmer-Gesprächspiele, which were intended to impart to the reader in a painless fashion at least part of the author's store of information on all conceivable subjects, as well as to teach the art of graceful and interesting social conversation. Here too fall the pseudo-scientific compendia of geography, meteorology, geology, astronomy, etc. by Eberhard Werner Happel and the collections of historical, scientific, and fictional curiosities by Harsdörfer, Erasmus Francisci, and Happel, the last two being perhaps the most prolific authors of such works in their period. In this category also I trust that the material used offers an adequate sample of the total production. The authors most frequently cited are representative types of their time. To consider a few of them: Daniel Casper von Lohenstein (1635-1683), perhaps the most erudite literary man of his age, was the most prominent of the authors in the second Silesian school. A jurist in Breslau, proprietor of several estates, diplomatic envoy to the imperial court at Vienna, honored with the title of Imperial Councillor, author of dramas, verse, and an enormous polyhistoric novel, Lohenstein represents the baroque ideal of the learned, socially skillful, diplomatic, political man of the world. Georg Philipp Harsdörfer (1607-1658), a generation older than Lohenstein, studied law under Matthias Bernegger, became a public official in Nürnberg, belonged to both the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft and the Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft, and was one of the founders of the Blumenorden an der Pegnitz (1644). A man of wide interests and personal acquaintance, Harsdörfer wrote over forty volumes of poetry and prose, including a handbook for poets, Der poetische Trichter (1647-1653), a work which has become notorious among literary historians as an extreme example of the mechanical view of the poet's art. Harsdörfer was, however, an author of exceptional knowledge in an encyclopedic age. His wide contemporary fame was probably in great part due to his popular,

8

I N T R O D U C T I O N : AIMS AND

MATERIALS

instructive Frauenzimmer-Gesprächspiele (1624-1649). Johann Rist (1607-1667), the pastor of Wedel, founded the Hamburg Elbschwanenorden, wrote poetry and dramas and was an amateur of medicine and chemistry. Eberhard Werner Happel (16481690), one of the most prolific and popular authors of his time, supported himself in part by teaching mathematics and law and by the publication of twenty "gallant" novels as well as a fivevolume work on the wonders of the world. Happel definitely catered to the taste of the broad reading public, but his encyclopedic works show a far from mean acquaintance with the sciences and an interest in them which can perhaps be traced to his early medical studies. Erasmus Francisci (1627-1694) is said to have been the second German literary man to support himself by the sale of his writings, his older contemporary Zesen having been the first. Like Lohenstein, Harsdörfer, and Happel, he studied law at the university. Like Lohenstein he travelled abroad as Hofmeister to a young nobleman. Francisci's works are all popularizations; his chief interest lay, not in writing fiction, but in compiling compendia of curiosities. About Johann Christian Ettner (later von Ettner und Eittritz) we have no biographical data. From his works, however, it is clear that he was an experienced physician, an opponent of alchemy, and an early protagonist of the progressive ideas of the Enlightenment, which were already becoming apparent in the bourgeois literature of the late Seventeenth Century. Christian Weise (1642-1708), perhaps the first important literary figure of the early Enlightenment, was professor of Politik, Eloquenz, and Poesie at the Weissenfels Gymnasium and Rektor at Zittau. Poet, dramatist, novelist, Weise was an opponent of the scholasticism of the German universities, and the outstanding proponent and popularizer of the guiding principle of Politik in middle-class life. His "political" revue-novels exerted a powerful influence on contemporary fiction and called forth numerous direct imitations. Johann Riemer (1648-1714), Weise's colleague and successor at the Weissenfels Gymnasium, superintendent at Hildesheim, and later a pastor in Hamburg, produced several theoretical writings as well as the novels for which he is of literary importance. Riemer, who possessed much more talent as a narrator than Weise, took over

INTRODUCTION: AIMS AND

MATERIALS

the letter's concept of the "political" and the form of the revuenovel. Johann Beer (1655-1700), a friend of Riemer, was a cultured musician and composer with gifts as a humorist. Although Beer was the author of eighteen novels, his work was scarcely known until recently when he was revealed by Richard Alewyn as one of the most interesting and gifted authors of the Seventeenth Century. Although associated with the Weissenf els literary circle (Weise, Riemer, J. G. Olearius, Bohse), and under the influence of the "political" tradition fostered by Weise and Riemer, Beer still was completely at home in the world of beggars, picaresque adventurers, wandering students, the milieu of the lowest social group. Among all his contemporaries Beer was unique in that, although he resided at court and was a member of cultured society, he was nevertheless able to bridge the gap between the court and the masses.11 Johann Christoph Grimmelshausen, one of the few baroque authors valued by previous generations of literary historians, the son of an innkeeper (as was Beer) who earned his living as a regimental secretary, steward, and innkeeper, the author of the Simplicissimus, needs no introduction at this date. It should be pointed out, however, that Grimmelshausen cannot be grouped with the authors mentioned above. Whether they were members of the landed gentry like Lohenstein, teachers like Weise and Riemer, preachers like Rist, public officials like Lohenstein and Harsdörfer, professional literary men such as Happel and Francisci, they were all representative of the learned, "courtly" society which dominated the baroque era. Grimmelshauen alone of the authors who provide the bulk of the material used in this investigation belonged to a different social and intellectual sphere. His work is firmly rooted in the world of the non-humanistic lower class, his philosophy of life culminates in Catholic asceticism and renunciation of this world. One cannot expect the scientific interest of the educated, worldly, political contemporary in the phenomena of nature to be apparent in his writings. Grimmelshausen was much more concerned with folklore than with science, with natural phenomena as divine symbols or fantastic curiosities. In conclusion it should be said that the author of the present " A l e w y n , Beer, p. i22f.

I N T R O D U C T I O N : AIMS AND MATERIALS work is fully conscious of its limitations. T h e reason for them lies in the material itself. The prose literature of Germany in the Seventeenth Century is just being opened by research on a broader scale. The approach to it is beset by peculiar difficulties, since the works are difficult of access and very little of this literature has been republished. Thus far the wealth of ideological material— scientific or pseudoscientific, social, political—contained in the "three-decker" novels and in the great encyclopedic works intended for popular information and entertainment has hardly been appreciated by students of literature. Until further studies have been made it will be impossible to lay bare the roots of the Aujklärung in Germany as has been done for France, and to some extent for England, in Paul Hazard's La crise de la conscience europeenne.12 The present work is offered as a modest beginning in one aspect of a field which will require the labors of many investigators for satisfactory exploration. 11

Paul Hazard, La crise de la conscience europienne,

Paris: Boivin & Cie, 1935.

II

THE HERITAGE OF

IDEAS

ANY ATTEMPT to evaluate material in seventeenth-century German literature involving ideas and theories concerning natural phenomena plunges us at once into questions concerning the evolution of scientific thought, the persistence of magical beliefs and techniques, the position of theology and church authority, and a number of other attitudes and tendencies prevalent in the period under investigation. Each of these has a history of its own, and they unite to form a great stream of ideologies respecting the processes of nature which descends through the ages. Various efforts have been made to trace the course of this development and to unravel the intricate and often contradictory tendencies that form the history of the rise of natural science. There are specialized histories of the individual sciences, and there are also attempts to explain the historical inter-relation of some of the elements mentioned above, such as Thorndike's monumental work on magic and science in the Middle Ages 1 and Maury's study of the relations of magic to early Christianity. 2 Any specialized approach to the subject runs the risk of overemphasis, while the problem of the evolution of natural science in its totality is so complex that it has thus far defied comprehensive and unified treatment. Obviously the period that we have in hand can be viewed only as a cross-section of a stream of ideas and tendencies from the 1 L y n n T h o m d i k e , A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vols. I a n d I I , 2nd ed. N e w Y o r k : Macmillan, 1929. Vols. I l l and I V , Columbia University Press, 1934. A n y o n e attempting to summarize the scientific development during the first fifteen centuries of the Christian Era or to clarify the pattern of relationship between the experimental and occult sciences during that period must find T h o r n dike's four volumes a treasure of ideas and indispensable basic materials. N o t only does T h o m d i k e re-evaluate the m a j o r w o r k s in these fields—sometimes with startling results—but he also analyses a great m a n y minor ones, which had p r e v i ously been almost unknown or neglected, as to their authorship, historical relationships, and possible influences.

Volumes V and V I ( C o l u m b i a University Press, IQ41) appeared too late to be consulted in the preparation of this w o r k . ' L - F . Alfred M a u r y , La magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquite el au moyen age ou £tude sur les superstitions paennes, 3d ed., P a r i s : Didier & Cie., 1864. [11]

12

T H E H E R I T A G E OF

IDEAS

remote past. T h e conceptions of nature and man's relation to it held by the intellectual classes and the masses in the Seventeenth Century derive from the Age of the Renaissance and ultimately from the Middle Ages, and even in some respects from antiquity. T o attempt even a brief survey of the evolution of the philosophy of nature in Germany antecedent to the epoch of our study would, of course, far transcend the purpose of this investigation. Furthermore, such an undertaking would need to draw on secondary sources in a field where many problems are still unsolved and where generalizations are especially hazardous. It may, however, be worth while to point out some well-recognized facts regarding the general trend of development in the centuries preceding the Seventeenth, for these will be of aid in our analysis of tendencies and attitudes found in the literature of the Baroque Age. T h e bases and early development of nature interpretation in Germany can hardly be differentiated from those elsewhere in Europe. Powerful roots of animistic ideas concerning supernatural and occult forces reach back everywhere into the early stages of primitive culture, and everywhere the magical techniques by which primitive man has sought to control the workings of nature attained a tenacious grip on the human mind and continue to show themselves in the survival of magical procedures that may be observed even today in areas which are generally considered highly civilized. With Christianity came an interweaving of pagan customs and traditions with the new beliefs and formulas. In the course of time the subordination of primitive occultism to Christian theology created a demonology of hierarchical character dominated by the Arch Fiend, Satan, and opened a terrifying chapter in the history of the Middle Ages which did not close until well down into the Eighteenth Century. 3 In the mind of the ordinary man of the Middle Ages, and indeed, with all but a selected few, the resulting philosophy of nature was a theory of divine and Satanic interventions. On this dark background, where nature's processes appear as ' Several witches were burned in Germany in the Eighteenth Century. C f . Hans Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch d. deutschen Aberglaubens (Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, ig27ff.): s. v. Hexe. Cf. below, p. 98η.

THE H E R I T A G E OF

IDEAS

13

the result of miraculous activities and interferences, the historian discerns a thin but recognizable thread of objective thought, which shows itself in repeated efforts toward a more rational interpretation of natural phenomena. Here attach themselves names like those of Robert Grossteste, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon, in the era of full scholasticism. Empirical observation and investigation begin to emerge; and as the Fourteenth Century advanced, the beginnings of the application of mathematics to the problems of nature. 4 T h a t the Italian Renaissance, with its voyages and inventions and its general stimulation of interest in mundane affairs, tended to free natural science from the restrictions of theology is a historical commonplace. This secularization of nature showed itself, however, as illusory to a great degree, for the nature-philosophy of the Renaissance was heavily freighted with religious mysticism as well as other elements: magical, alchemical, astrological, neo-pythagorean, cabalistic, and theosophical. In the welter of fantastic theories in Italy, the empirical attitude was, to be sure, apparent, 5 but was strongly intermingled with mystical and magical ideas, such as the conception of "natural magic," to be sought in the observation of nature itself, which captured the imagination of philosophers like Bruno. 6 In the service of "natural magic," empiricism remained unproductive, for in spite of persistent efforts in the collection of countless experiments, no effective criterion of experience could be provided, and it was impossible to distinguish between the realms of actuality and the fantastic. Germany in the Sixteenth Century saw a continuation of various aspects of earlier thought regarding the processes of nature. Medie4 " T h e attempt of Oresme and Henry of Hesse (1325-1397) to apply the current fourteenth-century 'art of latitudes,' theoretical as it was, to the solution of natural problems must be regarded . . . as an imperfect first step toward the development of modern mathematical method and its application to scientific questions." Thomdike, op. cit.. I l l , 492. "Notably in Telesius. Cf. Ernst Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance. "Studien der Bibliothek Warburg," ed. Fritz Saxl, No. 10 (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1927), pp. iS3f. ' Pico della Mirandola had defined natural magic in his 900 theses as the "practical and most noble part of natural science." Cf. Thorndike, op. cit., IV, 495. Vol. IV, chaps, lix, Ixi, give an excellent analysis of Pico's early and later views on magic and astrology.

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val animistic lore was still popular, as one may observe in the Volksbücher. Religious conceptions continued to dominate the minds of the masses, and belief in miraculous intervention in the world order was also general among the intellectual classes, including the humanists. Christian demonology flourished as vigorously among the younger followers of the new theology as among older men, like Luther, whose intellectual roots went back into pre-Reformation soil.7 Melanchthon in his Initio doctrinae physicae (1549) treats of the influence of the devil on the weather, the air, etc. Humanistic studies of the Cabala by Reuchlin and other humanists re-enforced the existing interest in magic, and pointed to the theosophical mysticism of Sebastian Franck. Mystical concepts of the unity of nature, of the world-soul, derived from Italy but developed further by the German philosophers, found an exponent in the theosophy of Paracelsus. 8 This famous Swiss physician was, however, the outstanding German representative of the empirical tendency which was so influential on Italian natural philosophy." Nevertheless, in Germany as in Italy, the empiricism of the Renaissance does not seem to have provided the bridge to the modern scientific approach. 10 Before the practical and theoretical 1 F o r Luther, cf. E . Klingner, Luther und der deutsche Volksaberglaube. "Palaest r a , " N o . 56. B e r l i n : M a y e r und Müller, 1912. Luther's ideas on nature were based on his university studies of Aristotle mingled with a wealth of popular superstitions, crossed and overridden b y Biblical interpretations, more or less literal. In general, he seems to have been more conservative than the humanists. H e rejected the Copernican ideas, which Melanchthon viewed w i t h f a v o r . On the other hand, he opposed beliefs in reading future events from the stars at a time w h e n the faith in astrology w a s widely held b y humanistic writers. Luther regarded this an infringement on the power of God.

' It has been suggested that the influence of Paracelsus imposed a severe restraint on the development of a mathematical and mechanistic approach to the natural sciences. On the other hand, his efforts to convert alchemy into a science of chemico-therapy and his a d v o c a c y of plant investigation and of careful observation in medicine made him something of a modern pioneer in medicine and chemistry. ° T h e investigator seeking evidence f o r g r o w t h of the observational attitude t o w a r d nature in G e r m a n y in the Sixteenth Century finds confirmation in the herbals of that period, such as the Neu-Kreuterbuch (Strassburg, 1549) b y Jerome B o c k ( H i e r o n y m u s T r a g u s ) . T h i s describes plants f r o m nature without the use of pictures, which up to that time were largely patterned on Dioscorides and T h e o phrastus. 10 A t t e m p t s t o trace the ideological currents that lead f r o m the later Middle

T H E H E R I T A G E OF I D E A S development of science could begin, it was necessary to cast off the burden of animistic ideas and of supernatural creative forces. Historians of science are accustomed to regard Descartes as the one who first developed a truly mechanistic nature view. German science of the Seventeenth Century did not produce a parallel figure, but did make a contribution to the progress of the objective approach, notably, as will be pointed out below, through the great Joachim Jungius ( 1 5 8 7 - 1 6 5 7 ) , famous as botanist and mathematician, who stressed the necessity of experience and quantitative determination in the investigation of nature. The literature which we shall examine is not by scientists nor was it addressed to scholars. Its objective was entertainment and the dissemination in popular form of ideas current among the intellectual laity of its day. Its authors received as a heritage from the past a richly varied store of concepts. Some of these belonged to the oldest traditions of the German people; some were the outgrowth of the transitional age in which the authors lived. Animistic explanations of natural phenomena; medieval Christian supernaturalism and demonology; metaphysical analyses of substances in terms of hypothetical qualities, derived from the Aristotelian scholastic conception; the doctrine of signatures; mystical explanations of the universe; the concept of a creative force within nature: •—all of these were a part of the cultural inheritance and equipment which existed at that time, and in part still exists among vast groups of people who live on a high level of technological civilization which has been made possible by the rejection of precisely Ages down to Descartes have not been lacking. For those interested in such hypotheses, two essays of this kind may be mentioned. Ernst Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance, treats this development as something of a problem in epistemology. From this standpoint he follows the trend of astrological currents away from the magical in the direction of a mathematical basis, tracing the development of mathematical idealism from Nicolas Cusanus to Galileo. In Kepler he recognizes a development in the same general direction through the effort to establish a cosmology based on quantitative relationships. The other theorist, G. F. Lipps, Das Wirken als Grund des Geisteslebens und des Naturgeschehens (Leipzig: Joh. Ambrosius Barth, IQ31), pursues an even more subtle analysis, which develops the concept of an active, creative nature to the point of its evolution in Descartes into a mechanistic conception of the world. Cf. regarding the position of the Cusan, Thorndike (op. cit., IV, 76 and 388-392), who differs somewhat from Cassirer as concerns the advanced character of Nicolas' ideas.

ιό

T H E H E R I T A G E OF I D E A S

these superstitions and fantastic ideas on the part of a small advance-guard of Uluminati through the ages. That these conceptions should be richly represented in the literature of the Seventeenth Century is to be expected. Nevertheless that century was already an era of great scientific advance in practical achievement as well as in theory. It won a great number of enthusiasts for the experimental method. It improved mathematical techniques and provided instruments for accurate observation and measurement. It produced revolutionary cosmological theories which have been but little improved to the present.11 Led by England, almost every nation of Europe made important contributions to the store of scientific information, although Germany's contribution, for reasons which will be discussed later, was comparatively slight. It will now be our task to ascertain to what extent the old ideas retained their place in the minds of the German writers of the later Seventeenth Century, when prose literature had developed so as to afford room for expression, and how strong was the influence exerted by the discoveries and new conceptions in a period which saw the dissemination of the theories of Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, and Leibnitz. 11 Cf. Martha Ornstein, The Role of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth Century, 3d ed. (University of Chicago Press, 1938), p. 3.

III MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND

INTERVENTION

THE DIMINUTION of the importance attributed to the role played by the supernatural in causation can be roughly divided into several main stages. In the first, the causual nexus can be very simple; divine or diabolical will stands in immediate relation to terrestrial phenomena. God miraculously created the physical world, endowed its objects and creatures with mutability and established creative forces necessary to the perpetuation of order. B u t H e reserved the right of performing fresh though minor acts of creation, that is, of producing something from nothing, of taking out of existence that which already exists, and of miraculously although temporarily interfering with all phenomena for His own purposes. In large measure the activity of the devil is taken to be directed toward the upsetting of the world-order and the turning of phenomena to man's disadvantage. Satan is aided by a large corps of assistants, who possess no significance in themselves and are conceived as representing merely an extension of the diabolical power. Thus, for example, when an evil spirit enters a stable and kills the horses, or another, appearing as a will-o'-the-wisp, leads a traveller astray, it is the devil who is credited with the act. Since God stands in such immediate relation to the world, frequently intervening (in a manner quite beyond man's comprehension) in its natural order for the purpose of making known His wishes, improving man's lot, or to punish him for his transgressions, it is relatively easy to establish communication with Him in order to plead for His favorable intervention. The technique, of course, is prayer. Similarly the devil and his agents can be constrained or requested to intervene in terrestrial affairs; here the technique is black magic. This in general terms was a conception widely prevalent in the later Middle Ages, also among those who had enjoyed the best training the universities afforded. Luther expresses it fully in his own attitude. For Luther the omnipresent Satan was the cause of

[17]

i8

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND

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all dread diseases, of storms, hail, noxious vapors, ruined crops, diseases of cattle, etc. 1 His power to injure man was imparted to him by God as a test for the godly and as punishment for the sinner. Whereas all good on earth occurs through God and the angels, all evil is brought about by the activity of Satan and his servants, the human witches and sorcerers and the demonic spirits. 2 Even these demonic spirits, which fill the forests, fields, rivers, and the air, are merely emanations of the devil, in Luther's conception. "His demonology is merely an extension of his belief in the devil." 3 T o such a mind the problem of causation, when an obvious solution is lacking, can always be settled with the very simple statement: the phenomenon is because God willed it. It was produced either directly by Him or by secondary creative forces deriving from His will and partaking of the element of the miraculous. In either case there can be no answer to the question how, for the supernatural and miraculous lie beyond our understanding. The problem of terrestrial phenomena, therefore, reduces itself to a search for an answer to the question, why? Thus theology plays the role that is today taken by science. It goes without saying that this was by no means the exclusive view held in the Middle Ages. In medieval medicine and physics there are sufficient instances of belief in non-theological causation. Further, a great many traditional fragments of magical lore and numerous supernatural beliefs were present in thought during the Middle Ages and after, which were not consciously fitted into the simplified system of direct causation by God and devil, or by creative nature. Whereas, in general, the prevailing theory may hold that a disease results from direct intervention by God (with punitive intent) or by Satan, it may still be mentioned that the specific illness is curable through application of a traditional magical formula which is not necessarily explained in terms of the divine or the diabolical. T o suppose that the medieval lay-mind was constantly aware of direct divine or diabolical causation with respect to every magical belief or practice to which it was ad1

Klingner,

1

Ibid.,

p. 46.

'Ibid.,

p. 65.

Luther

und

der

deutsche

Volksaberglaube,

p. 3gf.

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND INTERVENTION

19

dieted would be far too extreme. T h e material in which we find evidence that we are ascribing to the medieval period divides, consequently, into two categories. First, the statements indicating subscription to the unified and simplified theological thesis of direct causation by the representatives of the good-evil dualism, and second, the references to magical and wonderful lore which do not directly touch on the question of divine or diabolical causation. T h e view of a supernatural causality behind the unusual or unexpected phenomenon, characteristic of the Middle Ages, persisted through the centuries that followed, and may be found today in certain religious groups and in individuals of simple faith. In German literature of the second half of the Seventeenth Century, however, examples of credence in contemporary divine creation appear to be extremely rare. One is compelled to assume that the idea of God continuing to create (to produce something from nothing or to take out of creation something which already exists) found little favor among these authors. Erasmus Francisci, the author of several compendia of anecdotes and pseudo-scientific discussions intended to entertain and instruct, does offer a passage containing this idea in his long work on the nature and the marvels of the air. Der Wunderreiche Überzug unserer Nider-Welt (1680). T o be sure, Francisci does not give the following as his own observation; on the other hand he makes no statement doubting its probability. Bodinus writes of other mice, which God at times makes the scourge of a country and produces in unusual numbers, that they are created b y His omnipotence without the orderly action of nature and also are caused to disappear so completely that after they have destroyed the fruits of the field, not a single one is to be seen dead or alive. And this He does out of His gracious providence because otherwise they would destroy all lands either by their stench or their increase, and we people would think the superfluity or scarcity of grain was only according to the course of nature and not according to His command or express will. 4

If references of this sort to a continued and contemporary creative activity by God are rare, there are numerous statements of the ' E . Francisci, Der Wunderreiche Überzug unserer Nider-Welt oder Lußt-Kreys ( N ü r n b e r g : W o l f f g a n g M o r i t z Endter, 1680), p. 783^

Erd-umgebende

20

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND

INTERVENTION

theory that God does intervene in terrestrial affairs, utilizing natural forces or inexplicable powers to alter, temporarily, the natural order for his own purposes. Sometimes the author analyses His motive as the desire to punish, reward, or threaten man. In his novel, Der Bayerische Max (1692), Eberhard W . Happel, a popular geographer and cosmographer as well as novelist, analyses the invasions of mice as a natural occurrence used by God to punish man for his sins. "When God wishes to punish a land," said Max, "he has all manner of scourges for the purpose and even those creatures which are usually most despicable and wretched, such as mice, must serve . . . " An officer sitting at the table commented to Max: "I am more inclined to the opinion that the multitude of mice is a natural condition, inasmuch as these vermin are very fertile and multiply rapidly in a short time." Max immediately answered, "I do not disagree with this nor with the fact that their great number is natural. But it should be borne in mind that God often makes use of natural means in punishing man. Bolts, hail, earthquakes, failure of crops, floods, pestilence, etc., all have their causes in nature, yet they serve God as a scourge in chastising man."8 In the same novel Happel attributes to God the cause of all earthquakes: " I think I am least likely to err when I say the only cause is God, who causes them mostly because of men's sins, not only as a warning and an admonition to atone, but also as punishment." Earthquakes, according to Happel, can be either "natural" or "supernatural and miraculous." T h e distinction between the terms is curious, but slight. One assumes the author meant that God may produce earthquakes by utilizing means already present in nature, or he may shake the earth directly, without setting off a chain of explicable causes and effects, culminating in the calamity. " I consider earthquakes to be in part natural and in part supernatural and miraculous phenomena, as I could demonstrate from the Holy Scripture itself as well as from those earthquakes already mentioned and many other wonderful and frightful ones."® Another natural phenomenon which God may use to punish the sinner is will-o'-the-wisps. In Pamphilus Castimonius's Das Poli* E. W . Happel, Der Bayerische Max 336f. 'Ibid., I, 2 3 9 f .

( U l m : M a t t h a e u s Wagner, 1692), I I I ,

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND INTERVENTION

21

tische Hof-Mädgen (1685) a horseman, riding at night, is terrorized by them and asserts they are sent by God in vengeance for his sins.T God does not limit himself to terrestrial phenomena in punishing and warning us. In his volume devoted to explaining the activity of the devil and his assistants, Der Höllische Proteus, Francisci informs his readers that demons serve the same purpose. For the evil spirits try to frighten people by their appearance and commotion. Their purpose is manifold [and varied] according to the individual's nature—namely, to win men's confidence and cause them to doubt God, or to lead them into delusion and loss of faith, sometimes by amazing them with divination to seduce them into inquiring about future or lost things . . . And this is inflicted by God that the pious may fortify and exercise their faith and prayer and be more careful in their conduct because they may hereby see more clearly how Satan moves about, watching over mankind as over Job. For the godless, however, it [the activity of the evil spirits] is [intended as] punishment and for the atheists especially, as a cause of reflection and fear or future persuasion of their profligacy. 8

If God intervenes in nature or uses means beyond the natural order (e.g., demons) to punish man for his sins, it is to be expected that prayer and repentance may move Him to re-intervene and end the punishment. Francisci supplies confirmation of this assumption in Der Wunderreiche Überzug: An honorable and trustworthy preacher named Schancke told Wormio that approximately fifty years ago one saw such a number of these little creatures [mice] that all the crops and grass were destroyed by them and the inhabitants were helpless. After they had tried all natural means, they finally made vows to God, dispensed alms, and established days of general prayer. When they went to church, they saw all the fields filled and covered with mice, but after prayer, as they were going home again, they observed that the mice had plunged into the sea in great hordes and scarcely a trace of one was to be seen. 9

Again, in Der Wunderreiche Überzug, Francisci relates the story of a man who was terrorized by will-o'-the-wisps and drove them ' Pamphilus Castimonius, Das Politische Hof-Mädgen (Freistadt an der Gehl, 1685), p. 52. 1 Ε. Francisci, Der Höllische Proteus (Nürnberg: Wolffgang Moritz Endter, 1690), Preface. 'Francisci, Der Wunderreiche Überzug, p. 786.

22

MIRACULOUS

CAUSATION

AND

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off b y prayer. O n e of the characters comments: " . . . these will-o'the-wisps remained a w a y for good a f t e r their second departure. T h e r e can be no question that the man's prayer brought this about. A n d it can have been nothing natural." In the same discussion it is suggested that God may intervene to free us from other than supernatural afflictions: Prayer can relieve us of natural inconvenience also. When naive children are frightened by something of strange appearance, their mother removes the object from their sight. Thus God releases us, in our simplicity, from fear when we, through a misunderstanding, are afraid of things which are not unnatural but which merely seem frightful to our minds. N o t only is it possible that the will-o'-the-wisps were a natural phenomenon, Francisci concludes, but it is not at all certain that this incident actually involves an example of divine intervention. " . . . the will-o'-the-wisps m a y have been prevented from returning b y some other [and] natural reason." 1 0 T o Christian Weise it m a k e s no difference whatever the nature of the t e r r i f y i n g phenomenon m a y be for, " a reverent prayer and a gracious God can easily avert all fearful things." 1 1 God utilizes nature to indicate not only punishment, according to Francisci: " T h e air c a n arouse in us not less but more and clearer motives for consideration of the divine miraculous powers in n a t u r e — b e c a u s e the kind Creator uses them to show man not only horrible punishments but also delightful beneficences." 1 2 W h e n God wishes to symbolize a future calamity H e

may

intervene in the natural order and immediately divert a natural process or phenomenon from its normal pattern or H e m a y release mysterious, supernatural forces to produce prophetic phenomena f r o m natural substance. There is a great difference between the [types of] miraculous signs. For some come entirely from nature, although they are rare. In this group belong the comets. . . . Sometimes a whale, swimming naturally, reaches unaccustomed shores . . . but rarely . . . and signifies foreign, unwanted, and troublesome guests for that land. Does the gentleman know what " Ibid., p. 564. 11 Christian Weise, Die drey ärgsten Ertz-Narren In der gantzen Welt. "Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke des X V I . und X V I I . Jahrhunderts," No. 9 (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1878), p. 107. "Francisci, Der Wunderreiche Überzug, Vor-Bericht.

MIRACULOUS

CAUSATION

AND

INTERVENTION

23

thick swarms of grasshoppers were seen in the air shortly before the present ravages of war? T h e y undoubtedly had their origin in natural substance but it seems they indicated the terrible devastation of the land, the destruction of the precious grain. . . . Therefore they may be considered correctly as the miraculous prophets of divine wrath. . . . Just as God, to announce his punishment, causes unusually violent thunderbolts, earthquakes, and floods which have only natural causes and yet prophesy ill changes and great defeats. . . . Some marvelous signs of the air, although they likewise are formed out of nature [i.e., natural substance], namely out of the vapors we have mentioned, are not formed by nature itself, as these others are [at God's command], but by a supernatural force in the substance of natural vapors so that the surface (Tafel) and the colors are natural but the master and the picture which he paints in the air with such natural colors are unnatural. 1 3 The

theory that God utilizes both natural and

supernatural

p h e n o m e n a as s y m b o l s e n a b l e s F r a n c i s c i to s o l v e t h e k n o t t y p r o b l e m i n v o l v e d in t h e c a u s e of the r a i n b o w . H e a d m i t s t h a t v a r i o u s i n t e l l i g e n t t h e o r i e s c o n c e r n i n g it h a v e b e e n a d v a n c e d : But God says H e placed this, His arch in the clouds, as a sign of the bond and a promise that henceforth there should be no recurrence of the flood... . N o w if it rained during certain seasons before the flood and no rainbow appeared, then all the natural causes [of the rainbow] that have been proposed hitherto become dubious and uncertain and it would appear that the occurrence of the rainbow has significance only as a reminder of the divine promise. . . . B u t if r a i n b o w s h a d o c c u r r e d b e f o r e the time of t h e flood, no c o n t r a d i c t i o n of t h e B i b l e is i n d i c a t e d b e c a u s e " I t is m y opinion t h a t G o d c a n employ natural as well as supernatural things as s y m bols."14 I t is s o m e t i m e s difficult to d e t e r m i n e w h e t h e r t h e d i v i n e

or

d i a b o l i c a l a g e n c y is r e s p o n s i b l e f o r a m a r v e l o u s s i g n or w a r n i n g , e s p e c i a l l y in m i n o r c a s e s w h e n a lesser spirit is e n t r u s t e d w i t h t h e execution. Who can know whether God or the devil is responsible for this, that the death of prominent people is sometimes indicated beforehand b y the extinguishing of lights in the church or the house. We know that shortly before the death of a very learned and pious cleric in this town the "Ibid., p. 612f. " Francisci, Der Wunder-reiche

Überzug,

p. 548.

24

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND

INTERVENTION

candle on the altar went out by itself, without [a] wind [blowing]. Whether it was blown out by a good or bad angel remains a mystery.15 Leaving the passages concerned directly with the purpose of God's intervention, we turn to another group of references relating to the field of medicine. In the novel, Des getreuen Eckharts unwürdiger Doctor ( 1 6 9 7 ) , by Johann Christian Ettner, physician and literateur, we find the statement that the plagues are sent by God. " W h e n God wishes it the pestilences occur which penetrate into the most secret rooms." 18 Ettner makes no reference to an intermediate natureagency carrying out the divine will. God himself a c t s — b y producing the plague and visiting it on hapless man. Ettner's ideas, as they are revealed in his popular medical novels, 17 represent a blending of the old and the new. In regard to the place and importance of experience and observation in medical practice, his attitude was extremely progressive; but he never seems to have doubted that disease in certain cases was caused directly by the devil or one of his agents (a sorcerer or witch). Thus he relates, at second hand, a specific instance in which a woman was afflicted with a disease as a result of the machinations of a witch. T h e witch was compelled to summon the devil to undo her work, and the devil restored the ailing woman to health. 18 In a discussion of insanity contained in the same novel, which is quite enlightened in that it recommends a gentle process of suggestion to remove misconceptions from the mind of the afflicted individual, Ettner ascribes one of the causes of insanity to constant brooding over some unattainable desire and adds: " . . . the devil, whose chief support this brooding is, infuses more and more desire into the spirit of such a person but deprives him of all means and methods of attain"Ibid., p. 585. " Johann Christian Ettner, Des Getreuen Eckharts unwürdiger Doctor (Augspurg u. Leipzig: Lorentz Kröniger und Gottlieb Göbels Seel. Erben, 1697), pp. 43sff. " I.e., Des getreuen Eckharts: Medicinischen Maul-Α β ens Erster Theil (Franckfurt und Leipzig: Michael Rorlachs Seel. Erben, 1694); Entlaugener Chymicus (Augspurg und Leipzig: Lorentz Kröniger und Gottlieb Göbels Seel. Erben, 1696); Verwegener Chirurgus (Augspurg und Leipzig: Lorentz Kröniger und Gottlieb Göbels Seel. Erben, 1698); Ungewissenhaffter Apotecker (Augsburg und Leipzig: Lorentz Kröniger und Gottlieb Göbels Seel. Erben, 1700); Unvorsichtige HebAmme (Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Braun, 1715). 11 Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 271.

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND INTERVENTION

25

ing the desired object." A cure, further, is not possible without " G o d ' s gracious assistance," in addition to natural psychological and physical therapy. 1 " Unlike some of his contemporaries, Ettner does not accept the notion that the devil and his agents have only natural power and that whatever they accomplish lies completely within the framework of the natural, even though our knowledge may not yet have progressed to an understanding of the method. This other approach Georg Philipp Harsdörfer makes when he relates in his Grosser Schau-Platz (1650-51) 2 0 an almost identical story with that just cited from Eckharts Doctor. Ettner, however, accepts the possibility of immediate supernatural causation and is concerned only with the ethical problem involved. He repudiates, purely on a moral basis, all cures undertaken in the devil's name. For, as he comments elsewhere, it is better to be ill and wretched and earn the devil's ire than to live in health but lose one's soul and merit God's wrath. It is better to die under torture a thousand times than retain life and health by means of the devil's intervention. 21 In his Aller Edelste Thorheit der Gantzen Welt (1664) Johann Rist tells an interesting story, at second hand, of an alchemist who prayed for divine assistance in his search for the philosopher's stone. His prayer was heard and under divine guidance his researches had already progressed so far that the sick of the city were being refreshed by the aroma exuded from his laboratory when God observed that the conduct of the alchemist's sons had grown offensively arrogant. As punishment He caused the death of their father, but an oil and a powder had resulted from the illfated research, and with these a local physician effected wonderful cures. 22 Immediate divine intervention is used here twice—in the direct miraculous aid to the alchemist and in the manner of that individual's death. Analogous to this story is one contained in Die Verderbte

Jugend

"Ibid., pp. 287ff. K Georg Philipp Harsdörfer, Der grosse Schau-Platz Lust- und Lehrreicher Geschichte, 7th ed. (Franckfurt und Hamburg: Gottfried Liebezeit, 1683), section 61, ΡΡ· 43-44· " Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 26g. " Johann Rist, Die Aller Edelste Thorheit der Gantzen Welt (Franckfurt, Joh. Georg Schiele, 1669), pp. 244ft.

26

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND

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(1685), an anonymous translation and enlargement of Lazarillo de Tormes, which was evidently intended to pass as an original story. It involves a beggar who could prescribe for any illness and had attracted a great following for, the reader is informed, everyone believed in his words as in the Gospels and considered it a divine ordinance that he was so gifted. 23 Here God does not Himself Intervene directly in specific cases of illness, but the connection between the divinity and the beggar's talent is one of miraculous immediacy. T h e beggar is really an extension of the divine. His curative power is entirely outside the realm of comprehension. Christian Weise, whose general approach to the problem of the supernatural was extremely enlightened for his time, makes a statement in his novel Die Drey Klügsten Leute in der Gantzen Welt ( 1 6 7 5 ) indicative of an intermediate stage in the changing view, to the effect that humpbacked, lame, one-eyed, consumptive, and otherwise physically afflicted individuals owe their afflictions to God. Nature, which is beyond our power, visited their maladies upon them because God willed it, and the sufferers cannot be aided by us. " W h a t nature does is not censurable, for it is not within our power. One should let the individuals who are humpbacked, lame, one-eyed, tubercular, or otherwise afflicted bear their burden. God will have it so. He [the afflicted person] can do nothing about it." 24 In Weise's case the feeling for the miraculous is far from dissipated. Nor is it in the case of Grimmelshausen, who distinguishes between God's intervention and natural means. When young Simplicissimus' pastor informs him that the governor of Hanau intends to prepare him for the role of court fool by first depriving him of his reason, he comments: " . . . in that school they will torment you so horribly that you will without doubt become a madman (Phantast) if God and natural means do not prevent i t . . . Therefore follow my advice and swallow this powder." 25 Leaving the field of medicine for the problem of magnetic "Die Verderbte Jugend. Bound in one volume with Michael Kautzsch, Das Frisch und Voll eingeschenckte Bier-Glaß (Merseburg: Christian Gottschick, 1685), P· i73f"Christian Weise, Die Drey Klügsten Leute in der Gantzen Welt (Leipzig, 1679), p. 61. M J . J. C. von Grimmelshausen, Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, ed. by Η. Η. Borcherdt (Berlin: Bong & Co.), I, Bk. 2, chap, ν, p. 94.

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND INTERVENTION

27

attraction, we find an interesting comment by Harsdörfer. Some people, he informs us in his Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele (16411649), hold that the reason why the magnet points north is as impossible to comprehend as the reason for the course of the planets. He himself feels one can say with certainty only that the magnet points north because God willed it so in order to aid man in navigation. 26 In other words, Harsdörfer here displays a readiness to convert the question of manner of causation into one of purpose, and by omitting mention of an intermediate stage between God's will and the phenomenon he implies direct linkage. Harsdörfer was given to the ancient notion that God may reveal information directly to man through dreams, if one may draw a logical inference from a story he relates in his Grosser Schau-Platz. T h e author hears he has been libelled but has no notion who the guilty person is. One night the identity of the culprit is revealed to him in a dream and later the dream proves to have been correct. He concludes: "Accordingly nothing can remain hidden from God; His eyes are brighter than the sun and see all that men do, even into the secret places." 27 Johann Rist, who seems to have toyed frequently with the idea of miraculous intervention by God in man's struggle with terrestrial phenomena, voices the theory, in his Aller Edelste Thorheit, that it is by no means incredible that God might grant to some contemporary mortal the talent necessary for the performance of wondrous feats such as the invention of a flying machine. 28 Whether to his mind the construction of the apparatus would be beyond the pale of the natural, it is impossible to say. It is quite clear how we are to understand the granting of that talent, however. Finally, two of the clearest examples illustrating the idea we are discussing are contained in anecdotes related by Bucholtz in Herkules und Valiska (1659) by H. Stockfleth in Macarie M G. Harsdörfer, Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele ( N ü r n b e r g : W o l f f g a n g Endter, 1641-1649), V I I I , Appendix X X V , p. 493f. T h i s attitude of Harsdörfer represents quite well an important aspect of the nature-view of the Eighteenth Century, the teleological interpretation of nature so characteristic of Brockes and other poets of the early Enlightenment. 27 Harsdörfer, Der grosse Schau-Platz, sec. qs, pp. 344-345. a Rist, Aller Edelste Thorheit, p. 145.

28

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND

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( 1 6 6 9 ) . Bucholtz relates how unseen spirits visit a castle, kill twenty-four horses, and tear the roof off the stable. During the night Herkules, sleeping in the castle, has bad dreams of a symbolic nature. In the morning he announces to Ladisla: ". . . to spite the devil we will scorn and scoff at all this and speak no word of it; let him disport himself in the stinking stable." 29 In Macarie Stockfleth permits one of the characters to state a point of view which had been elaborated in the most notorious treatise on witchcraft of the later Middle Ages, Malleus maleficarum,30 and which Stockfleth evidently felt was sufficiently widespread and influential to merit a long and earnest refutation. A group of people are rescued from imprisonment by means which are incomprehensible to them and which appear to have been magical. One of the characters asserts that their deliverance had been effected by a spirit, and goes on to explain that good or evil spirits can move through the entire world within an hour, as is evidenced by the holy spirits and angels in heaven. T h e evil spirit can cast fire from heaven, raise terrific winds, thunderstorms and hailstorms, cause mountain-destroying earthquakes, transport men, cattle, etc. to distant places, as is supported by the fact that we frequently see fiery serpents, dragons, and human figures hovering in the air, and also by Albertus' testimony that the devil, through trickery, once caused it to rain oxen and calves. T h e devil, further, has the power of making objects invisible (evidence is provided by Gyges, Plato, and Cicero), and of causing them to disappear. And, as Pliny and Cicero testify, it lies within the realm of diabolical power to transmute substances. 31 Stockfleth's own view is that the devil can work only with natural means. T h e seemingly miraculous aspect of his activity rests on deception. But the author's lengthy enumeration of the powers falsely attributed to Satan and the extent of his refutation indicate that these misconceptions must have been extremely widespread. " Andr. H. Bucholtz, Des Christlichen Teutschen Gross-Fürsten Herkules und der Böhmischen Königlichen Fräulein Valiska Wunder-Geschichte (Braunschweig: Ludolph Schröder, 1728), p. 238. " J. Sprenger, Malleus maleficarum. Translated by Montague Summers. London: J. Rodker, 1928. " Η. A. Stockfleth, Die Kunst- und Tugend-gezierte Macarie (Nürnberg, 1669), pp. 3o8ff.

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND INTERVENTION

29

Occasionally one is struck by a passage which calls to mind Der ältere Physiologus of the early Middle Ages, in that it treats natural phenomena as religious symbols, seeking analogies in the Scriptures. Lohenstein, for example, asserts in his Arminias that the unfailing rivers are a symbol of the divine eternity, the medicinal springs represent God's beneficence, the wonderful springs in the world are a symbol of God, the Creator: " . . . an indicator that there is something transcending the common course of nature, namely a creator . . . visibly revealed in His creations." 32 A t another point, in a discussion of eyes, he explains that blue eyes shine with the color of heaven, black eyes with that of hell. 33 On occasion, problems raised by terrestrial phenomena are dismissed with the assertion that the phenomena represent the gratitude of all creation to the Creator, or the beneficence of God in providing for man's welfare. T h u s Lohenstein unites all botanical phenomena on a common basis. The "Trauer-Baum" which by day sheds its leaves and withers, by night however bears fresh and fragrant flowers, the "Glantz-Baum" which by night illuminates the darkness with its light, indeed every and all plants indicate their gratitude to their eternal Creator through their wonderful characteristics which are still largely unknown to unobservant men.34 T h e acceptance of the Bible as final authority in both scientific and supernatural matters was, of course, normal for the mass of the seventeenth-century population, as it still is for a percentage of our population today; and it even found its way, occasionally, into the writings of scientists such as T y c h o Brahe and of authors whose connection with the sciences was a close one, or who elsewhere give evidence of their subscription to the new empirical tendency. In a discussion of the nature of pygmies, nymphs, "Bergmännlein," etc., Ettner argues that these creatures are not supernatural but merely sub-human creations of God, destined to suffer the same post-mortem fate as animals. He admits their existence readily; he admits also the folly of ascribing all abnormal phenomena to the devil and diabolical agents and that the "Bergmännlein" probably have a hand in many seemingly super" Daniel Caspers von Lohenstein, Armimus Gleditschcns sei. Sohn, 1 7 3 1 ) , I, B k . V , 515. 11 Lohenstein, Arminius, I, B k . V , 510. M Ibid., I, B k . V , 514.

und

Thusnelda

( L e i p z i g : J o h . Fr.

30

MIRACULOUS CAUSATION AND

INTERVENTION

natural occurrences. The opinion, advanced by Paracelsus, that these creatures are supernatural, he denounces vigorously as mere superstition, and finds proof of his contention in the fact that in the Scriptures no evidence appears as to the existence of any supernatural beings other than devils and angels; that Isaiah distinguishes between "Feldteufel" and goblins; that Job refers to subterranean creatures without linking them to the devil— " . . . and that which does not agree with the Scriptures, I reject entirely." 3 5 For a final example we may turn to Christian Weise, who attempts, in the story referred to above, to support a teleological theory, that the world contains so many different foodstuffs because man requires variety in his diet and God arranged matters in man's best interest. Weise relates that he once heard a cleric interpret the eighth Psalm as expressing the same idea.36 There seems to be little evidence from which one might deduce belief in the idea of contemporaneous divine creation, although the new star of 1572 should have provided a basis for such belief. On the other hand, it seems likely that more extensive investigation than could be undertaken in this work would undoubtedly reveal further statements evincing belief in supernatural intervention (miraculous alteration of already existing phenomena). As it is, there is no doubt that this belief colored the natural philosophy of a sizable and varied group of baroque authors—Happel, Francisci, Ettner, Harsdörfer, Rist, Weise, Bucholtz, and several of the numerous writers who remain anonymous. Lohenstein also shows the influence of the traditional theological interpretation of natural phenomena. It cannot be asserted, however, that this theory was the major element in the nature-view of these authors. Nor should one assume that entertainment of this philosophically primitive idea signifies exclusion of more modern concepts, for almost none of the baroque authors can be accused of consistency in this realm of thought. Unconscious self-contradictions are too frequent to be startling, and confusion such as that displayed by Francisci, in the passage quoted on the distinction between the natural and supernatural means at God's disposal, is far from unusual. " E t t n e r , Eckharts Doctor, pp. 108-113. " Weise, Die Drey Klügsten Leute, p. 34.

IV T H E PERSISTENCE OF MAGIC IN NATURE glance it is apparent that literature in the later Seventeenth Century was heavily charged with supernatural and magical elements, and one is apt to fall into an erroneous hypothesis of dichotomy between current scientific thought and traditional magical approach. Actually, closer inspection reveals that the magical idea had been given a peculiar turn which eventually made possible its elimination from the realm of the nature-view, as we shall note later. Many of the supernatural and fantastic elements, furthermore, possess no more than traditional significance. It was an age which saw the early stirrings of the Enlightenment and the ebbing violence of the witch-hunt, when popular literature could present objectively medieval and modern explanations of natural occurrence in the same paragraph and admit as possible the validity of either. In short, the old and new co-exist here, as in all periods; and a brief examination of the type and range of traditional supernatural elements presenting themselves in a cross section of the literature is in order. Many of these elements were derived from the novelistic literature of Spain, France, and Italy. Sometimes they are used only as literary devices for effect. Sometimes they represent the author's own attitude. Frequently it is impossible to say what the author's own opinion is, when he has several of his characters discuss a phenomenon and offer varying views as to its nature. A T FIRST

One of the most firmly rooted of all superstitions is the belief in possible activity of the soul on earth after the death of the body. In the course of a serious discussion on this subject in Arminias, Lohenstein permits one of his characters to state a common explanation : Since the soul alone is the entire man, the body is merely its prison and grave, by which the soul is prevented from choosing the light of truth. This being the case, it is no wonder that after the death of the body the freed spirit is so much more active; and frequent experience testifies

[31]

32

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C IN

NATURE

how restlessly diligent disembodied spirits often are in guarding their graves, how the ghosts of the godless are active in upsetting their "dwellings," how the souls of the pious are frequently engaged in consoling troubled people.1 Ghost stories, anecdotes concerning encounters with spooks, are numerous indeed. Erasmus Francisci's Lustige Schau-Bühne (1690), a compendium, as its name indicates, of endless anecdotes, tidbits of information and misinformation, and discussions of the nature and cause of various phenomena, alone contains over thirty references to, or stories concerning, ghostly apparitions. Several others occur in Happel's novel, Der Bayerische Max.2 Harsdörfer also is not above relating a few incidents of this character in a very casual manner, for the sake of their interest as extraordinary occurrences. 3 For the most part, these ghost tales are introduced quite gratuitously. T h e author makes little effort to develop any specific mood in the reader through their use. Only rarely do they further the action. As a rule they are digressive, rapidly related, undetailed, and trite. Their function, it seems, was chiefly to help sate the seventeenth-century reader's appetite for curiosities, for phenomena beyond the realm of his (or anyone's) daily experience. Whether or not the authors made mental reservations in so catering to popular taste, it is usually impossible to say. It may be assumed that the majority of them, however, had by no means freed themselves from all subscription to the general superstitions concerning ghosts, even though their literary treatment of them had lost almost all the element of horror, the uncanny, and had become flat and colorless. A s an example one passage should suffice. It occurs in Daniel Speer's Ungarischer Simplicissimus (1683). . . . I jump into the church-yard, but when I had taken scarcely ten strides and come to a narrow passage, a long ghost, tall and moving with long strides, comes to meet me. In terror I don't know whether to turn back or not, but I run past the spook, brushing it, and fortunately manage to reach the marketplace.4 Lohenstein, Armimus, I, Bk. 2, 162. ' C f . I l l , 37off. " I n Der Grosse Schau-Platz. See section 178, 2948. 'Daniel Speer, Ungarischer oder Dacianischer Simplicissimus 1

(1683), p. 62.

PERSISTENCE OF MAGIC IN

NATURE

T h e r e are exceptions to this generalization concerning the objective and mechanical presentation of the ghost-theme. Most notable is Johann Beer, who, in the preface to his Welt-Kucker,

II, 5 relates

how in his student d a y s he feared going to bed before midnight because on numerous occasions there was a ghostly tumult in his room from ten-thirty until a quarter of twelve. On this author Richard A l e w y n comments: Beer made literary use of ghosts, but he still believed in their existence, and therefore in his works they are not as pale as they later became in the Trivialroman in the daylight of the Enlightenment. They are products of the old superstition, forms in which the horror of the night and the uncanniness of certain places were mingled.® Ghost stories involving buried treasure are not infrequent. Grimmelshausen relates one containing several fairy-tale elements. Simplicissimus enters the ghost-ridden cellar of a deserted house, shoots holes in a wall, and discovers treasure behind the broken plaster. Later he learns of a legend to the effect that the treasure there was guarded by an accursed virgin; a young noble who knew neither his mother nor his father was to release the virgin and unlock the treasure-vault with a fiery key. Once previously the spirit of the maiden had appeared to a young goose-girl, to w h o m she gave cherries which turned into gold-pieces. 7 Ettner, in his rambling and discursive medical novel, Doctor,

Eckharts

has one of his characters relate an anecdote concerning a

woman who on three occasions was carried from her bed by spirits and set down upon a loose stone in the hall of her castle. L a t e r another individual discovered a treasure under the stone. 8 T h e Bergmännlein,

Ettner believed, were the custodians of buried gold.

T h e introduction of spirits, as in this episode, is unusual for him. In fact he is sceptical concerning the details of the story, but only because the Bergmännlein

certainly know the stone-mason's art

and would not have left the stone lying loose over the treasure in the hall of the castle. T h e s e Bergmännlein seem to have been one 5 Johann Beer, Des Simplicianischen Welt-Kuckers/Oder/Abentheuerlichcn Rebhu Anderer Theil, H a l l e : Simon Johann Hübner, 1678. ' A l e w y n , Johann Beer, p. 226. ' Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, I I I , chap, xii, 214ft. " E t t n e r , Eckharts Doctor, pp. 1 1 4 8 .

Jan

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C IN

NATURE

of the special interests of Ettner, for he discusses their nature at great length, takes issue with Paracelsus on the subject, and relates anecdotes linking them to hidden treasure. 8 Francisci also discusses them in Der Höllische Proteus}0 Grimmelshausen adds a moral to an anecdote of a ghost and buried treasure when Simplicissimus is visited in his island-hermitage by the spook of his former comrade. T h e friend had formerly concealed a treasure there in which he had placed more reliance than in God, and, as a consequence, was condemned to haunt the spot. 11 The utilization of the spectre-motif to carry a religio-moralistic message is best represented in a drama, Gryphius' Cardenio und Celinde, when, as punishment for Cardenio's sinful love of Olympia, a spectre appears to him in Olympia's guise, makes love to him, and then turns into a threatening skeleton; and again in the churchyard scene, when a corpse walks to the grave from which it has been removed, terrorizing both Cardenio and Celinde. Of course the threatening skeleton is a traditional symbol, but that does not necessarily preclude the possibility that Gryphius believed that such an occurrence as he describes might actually take place. A theme somewhat similar to the one just mentioned, but lacking the moralistic effect, appears in Beer's Teutsche Winternächte in the tale of a ghoul who is foiled in his attempt to wrest a dead child from its dead mother's arms when the latter clings stubbornly to the infant and finally opens her eyes. 12 An occasional spook is introduced for semi-comic effect in the picaresque literature, as in Simplicissimus' tale of the ghost who threatens to barber him, 13 and the Ungarischer Simplicissimus' story of the female spook which treats itself to a very domestic evening in the kitchen while he and the maid lie behind the stove, shivering apprehensively. 14 • Ibid., pp. 14ft & io8f. 10 Pp- S69ff·

" Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, VI, " Johann Beer, Zendorii a Zendoriis mann, 1682), pp. 47gff. 11 Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, VI, "Speer, Ungarischer Simplicissimus, p.

chap, xxiii, 254. Teutsche Winternächte chap, xv, 228. 21.

(Nürnberg: Hoff-

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C IN N A T U R E

35

T h e use of the term Gespenst is frequent in literary figures; as a rule, such usage has little significance. Occasionally, however, its application is concrete enough to allow conjecture as to the author's attitude toward the possibility of ghostly phenomena. Christian Weise, for example, gives us an analogy: " T h e y are like people who would like to see a ghost, but when they do see one wish themselves a thousand miles away." 1 5 On the existence and function of Schutz-Geister we find an interesting discussion in Lohenstein's Arminius, containing the following: ". . . there is no doubt that the faithful guardian spirits do not tear the bond of friendship simultaneously with the thread of life, as men do, but are busily engaged in aiding the dead . . Lohenstein offers "historical proof," mentioning the spirit that spoke from the skull of the priest Cercidas, the guardian angel which fought for Theseus at Marathon, etc. Even nations have their guardian angels, which are animated by the sun and moon and the twelve zodiacal symbols. 16 Francisci, in Der Wunderreiche Überzug, also states his belief that guardian angels are provided by God for certain localities, 17 and relates a story concerning a mournful apparition which visited a general in the army of K i n g Sebastian of Portugal on the eve of a fateful battle with the Moors. There is some doubt in Francisci's mind whether this really was a guardian angel or merely a Schrecken-Geist,18 Turning to material dealing with witchcraft, sorcery, and the art of magic generally, we find numerous references linking magical techniques with pregnancy, sterility, and parturition. In the Thesaurus Exoticorum (1688), a compendium of fact, scientific theory, folk-lore and fancy, Happel refers, without stating his own attitude on the subject, to the magic potions which Japanese women utilize for causing abortions. 19 Francisci gives a traditional anecdote concerning a queen who caused sterility in her daughter-in-law by means of some magical method so potent that its effect lasted 15

Weise, Die Drey Klügsten Leute, p. 79. " L o h e n s t e i n , Arminius, I, Bk. 2, 161.

17

P. 441. " p. 440. " E. W. Happel, Thesaurus

Ρ· 3&·

Exoticorum

( H a m b u r g : T h o m a s v o n Wiering,

1688),

36

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C IN N A T U R E

until the queen's death. The story is put into the mouth of a character who claims that there have been many such cases.20 Lohenstein mentions one magical procedure for instilling aversion to adultery into any woman and another for compelling her to reveal her innermost secrets.21 He does not indicate whether he believes or disbelieves in the efficacy of the processes. The idea of witchcraft employed to cause illness and death in an enemy or to effect recovery from disease—one of the most universal of magical beliefs—is represented throughout the field of seventeenth-century prose. In Der Grosse Schau-Platz, a miscellany of anecdotes and discussions of great variety, Harsdörfer relates in good faith how a witch, applying sympathetic magic to a few hairs from a man's body, caused him great agony; 22 and again, how another witch, by magical treatment of hairs, caused the object from which they had been plucked to be carried off by a black ghost.23 In Der Politische Maul-A fie (1679) Riemer mentions, though satirically, two students who undertook to earn their living by selling powders to farmers which would prevent the bewitching of their cattle.24 The satire is directed at the peasants who would buy the useless powder, not necessarily against the idea of counteracting witchcraft by some specific substance. In another satirical novel, Die Politische Colica (1680), Riemer works in an extraneous incident (probably of foreign origin) concerning an Italian who induced madness in a girl by planting a magical Spanish herb at the foot of a fig tree in her yard. 35 As has already been mentioned, Beer tells how a ghoul dug up corpses in order to prepare a powder from the hearts which might be strewn on the streets to exert a lethal effect on passers-by.29 Eras. Francisci seriously ponders the ethics of permitting oneself to be freed from " E. Francisci, Die Lustige Schau-Bühne allerhand Curiositäten (Nürnberg: Wolffgang Moritz Endter, 1690), I, 533. " Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. 5, 65Q. 21 Harsdörfer, Der Crosse Schau-Platz, sec. 61, 43-44. " Ibid., sec. 61, 42-43. " J o h a n n Riemer, Der Politische Maul-Aße (Leipzig: Johann Fritzsche, 1679), p. 89. " J o h a n n Riemer, Die Politische Colica (Leipzig: Johann Fritzsche, 1680), p. 329. " Beer, Winternächte, pp. 479ft.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C I N N A T U R E

37

a magic spell by the witch who originally had cast it.17 Ettner, a convinced believer in the supernatural power of witches, relates several anecdotes in traditional vein. One concerns a magical cure. ". . . through juridical compulsion a witch was forced to help a woman who had been bewitched by her, whereupon she called to the devil in a loud voice and with unintelligible words; he gave the afflicted woman a piece of bread to eat, smeared with blood of murdered and unbaptized children, whereby she regained her health." 28 Elsewhere in the same volume Ettner insinuates that a certain physician used magical means to kill a patient. 2 ' One instance he relates from his personal experience: T h e question occurred to me whether witchcraft was not behind this disease, inasmuch as his wife told me how on their wedding d a y she had found all sorts of knotted bundles and that there had been a nurse in the house to whom he was not well disposed. This nurse finally had to find employment elsewhere, and as soon as she was out of the house the good man was afflicted with the disease mentioned above. 30

Examples of the use of sympathetic magic to constrain the affections are provided by Harsdörfer. In one of his twice-told stories, offered for its entertainment and didactical value in Der Grosse Schau-Platz, the sexual passions of a certain man are directed toward every woman who wears a specific charmed ring. Destruction of the ring releases the man, kills one of the women, and causes illness in the others.31 There is little question that Harsdörfer accepted the possibility of such phenomena, whether or not he regarded this specific tale as fictional. Happel also subscribed to the theory that one's sexual desires can be constrained by magic.32 In Der Bayerische Max he distinguishes between natural and magic love philtres. The magical means are either indirect or direct. In the indirect group the sorcerers use unusual plants and herbs, the stone Asteritis, the brains of black animals, the arrows, splinters, bullets, and hairs taken from wounds in " Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, I, 533. !S Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 271. "Ibid., p. 190. 3" Ibid., p. 181. 31 Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, " Cf. Der Bayerische Max, II, igsf.

sec. 37, 138ft.

38

P E R S I S T E N C E OF MAGIC I N N A T U R E

human bodies. Further, they utilize fruits and flowers treated with magical substances. The direct means include magical incantations, devilish prayers, symbols and characters which are often introduced into one's food, drink, clothing, bed. Further, the sorcerers and witches often make figures of wax which they baptize blasphemously. Hearts for such figures are formed of a certain substance, warmed at a fire, and then thrust into the open breast (of a wax figure) with certain magical words. The heart of the person intended is thereby inflamed with love. The so-called "virgin's parchment," made of the skin of an infant which died unbaptized and adorned with strange magical characters, letters, and names, is especially misused for such magical practices. Other methods include love-compelling rings in which little diabolical spirits reside and by means of which respectable people are seduced and dishonored. Little love-bags, magically prepared and worn in the left armpit are also common. When they become warm, the person on whom one is casting the spell cannot rest until he or she has sought out the malefactor wearing the bag. Happel relates numerous examples of these practices, involving Caligula, Vitellius, Charlemagne, as well as several contemporary stories illustrating these techniques. 33 In the same novel a few cases are mentioned in which lascivious efforts to constrain an innocent person's affections turn out badly for the miscreant. In one, a lecher with designs on a young woman who is nursing an infant, bribes her maid to procure him a few drops of the young mother's milk. The maid substitutes goat's milk, which is given to a sorcerer or witch for treatment. The goat follows the man everywhere until he buys it and has it killed. 34 In another tale the incidents are identical except that a sow is substituted for the goat. 35 A third story offers a variation on the two above, although its elements are no less traditional. It tells of a Prague colonel's cast-off mistress who tries to bring him back to her by paying a witch to try her arts on a few of the colonel's hairs. The colonel's servant gives her a few hairs from a bearskin instead "II, 226-228. "II,

igif.

•II, 192.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C IN N A T U R E

39

of from his master's head. T h a t night a black demon whisks the bearskin out of the colonel's apartment and brings it to the whore. 36 T o mention a few other traditional bits of magical lore: Harsdörfer devotes one of the many unrelated chapters in Der Grosse Schau-Platz to full instructions for the forging of a magical sword, and speaks of the necessary symbols to be engraved on the blade. Procedures which deviate from his formula are mentioned in the use of metal for the blade from a wheel on which several people have been broken, metal for the handle from chains with which someone has been strangled. Three snake tongues in the butt of the hilt will cause an opponent's sword to shatter, etc. In the same chapter he also gives the detailed recipe for a magical fluid which will weaken one's enemies and strengthen one's horse.37 Although Harsdörfer here is not offering magical practices on his own authority, he mentions no doubts as to their fundamental efficacy. T h e presentation is extremely matter-of-fact. T h e episodes involving the persons of witches or sorcerers are generally colorless narrations of material avowedly obtained at second hand. Grimmelshausen, with his narration in the first person and the incorporation of traditional material into the story proper rather than into speculative digressions, imbues such episodes with vividness and importance. The account in Book V of Sitnplicissimus of the public exorcism at Einsiedeln, during which the evil spirit in the possessed person berates Simplicissimus for his godlessness so effectively as to bring about his conversion to Catholicism, is unusually effective in its crude vigor. 38 His tale (also in the fifth book) of Simplicissimus' attempt to turn a sorcerer from allegiance to the devil by outwitting him at his own game, 38 mixes comedy with moralizing and makes literary capital of the idea, as do the episode of the conjurer creating puppies out of thin air40 and the grotesquerie of the witches' sabbath, both in Book II. 41 T h e humorous elements in these episodes should not, Mir,

193-195·

" Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, sec. 109, 36ff. 38 Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, B k . V , chap, ii, 88f. "Ibid., B k . V', chap, vi, i o i f . '" Ibid., B k . I I , chap, xxii, 144. "Ibid., B k . I I , chap, xvii, 128ft'.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF MAGIC IN

NATURE

however, lead one to assume that Grimmelshausen did not believe in sorcery and the witches' sabbath. A far more representative example of the material in this category is given by Johann Riemer in his Politischer Stock-Fisch. In that novel the author mentions an episode involving a traditional pact with the devil, said to have been made b y a certain Due de L., who bartered his soul for four magical but unexciting talents, power over women, cards, duelling opponents, and the king's favor. T h e reporting of the pact is as dull as that of a transaction between tradesmen. Riemer is careful to explain that the protagonist of his own story did not utilize such damnable means to achieve success, but relied on his own wits and on luck. 42 Occasionally the baroque authors use the device of supernatural omen in their stories. Bucholtz offers an instance when he has his Herkules accidentally find a blood-red rose in a bush of white roses. Herkules announces, since he wishes to avoid furthering superstition, that it is a natural phenomenon, but he is afraid at heart and begs God to avert all evil. 43 This phenomenon is linked with a bad dream of the night before. Ordinarily such an incident in the plot of a heroic novel could be dismissed as an insignificant, borrowed device. It might well be that Herkules' intellectual denial of any hidden significance in the phenomenon is a half-hearted apology by the author for the inclusion of this bit of superstitious nonsense. On the other hand, Bucholtz, although his Herkules und Valiska is relatively free from superstition, believed in the traditional activities of the devil, and might well have subscribed to some of the popular notions concerning omens. Riemer offers an example of oneiromantic lore in his Politischer Stock-Fisch when he indicates that a dream of a pregnant woman concerning a rose which turned to a thistle in her hand and then to a "Lilien-Busch," signified three stages in the future life of her yet unborn son.44 In " J o h a n n Riemer, Der Politische Stock-Fisch (Merseburg: Christian Forberger, I68I), p. 6; Cf. Gustav Freytag, Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit, Vol. III. Aus dem Jahrhundert des grossen Krieges (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1908), chap, ii, for indication of the extent to which the notion was current during the Thirty Years W a r that weapons could be imbued with magical qualities or that the individual could make himself proof, by magic, against shot or sword. " B u c h o l t z , Herkules und Valiska, I, chap, xxv, 238. " J . Riemer, Der Politische Stock-Fisch, p. 8.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF MAGIC IN N A T U R E

41

his Adriatische Rosemund (1645) Zesen narrates how the events of a bad dream actually occurred on the following day.45 In neither of these last two cases can one determine whether the author is merely using a literary device for its effect, or whether the incident lies, for him, within the realm of probability. Turning to astrology, it must first be admitted that only the very exceptional individual in the Seventeenth Century denied that the stars exerted at least preternatural influence on the earth. The astrological superstitions seem to have been most stubborn in resisting the attacks of scepticism, and few of the relatively enlightened men of the era could bring themselves to the point of admitting that the heavens contained no key to man's future. The coincidence of comets and the numerous seventeenth-century calamities was too striking to be rationally explained away. Johann Rist defends the science of astrology in no uncertain terms: " I shall never be persuaded that this wonderful science is the noblest folly in the world—rather I consider it the greatest and noblest wisdom [although] the true worth of this beautiful art is understood by so f e w . " " Happel indicates in his encyclopedic and rambling geography, Mundus MirabUis Tripartitus, how profoundly he was influenced by the prognostications of the Swedish astrologer, Johann Heinrich Voigt, on the consequences of the comet of 1680.47 In a discussion of omens, Lohenstein passes on the report that the important dates of Romulus' life were said to have been marked by an eclipse of the sun, those of Mithridates by a comet which lasted seventy days and nights and covered a fourth of the heavens. In his own opinion, however, these astronomical occurrences were not supernatural but derived from the immutable course of the stars.48 Lohenstein permits several of his characters to express the opinion on comets and earthquakes that although they proceed from natural, secondary causes, they are " P h . v. Zesen, Adriatische Rosemund, ed. Μ . Η. Jellinek, "Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke," Nr. 160-163 (Halle a. S.: Max Niemeyer, 1899), p. 69. " Johann Rist, Die Aller Edelste Thorheit der Gantzen Welt (Franckfurt: Joh. G. Schiele, 1669), p. 103. Happel, Mundus Mirabilis Tripartitus Oder Wunderbare Welt (Ulm: M a t thaeus Wagner, 1687), chap, χ ix, 48. , s Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. IV, 391.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C I N

NATURE

used by Divine Providence to indicate future misfortune. Thus one specific comet, it is explained, . . . not only plunged General Malorich into his grave, but half the world into a woeful blood-bath. And [the appearance of] this evil star was accompanied by the tragic collapse of a mountain, whose cliffs, falling in an avalanche, instantaneously buried a whole city; accordingly it indicated the disruption of many kingdoms soon to follow.49 Lohenstein also incidentally expresses the following opinions in a discussion of parental love and of attraction and antipathy in general: that a mysterious influence of the stars sometimes causes us to give our love to a stranger; that the difference between the countries of the Britons and Caledonians is in measure due to astral influence. 50 In a passage on fraudulent foreign medicines he states that the stars have instilled medicinal and nutritive qualities into domestic plants as valuable as those in plants of exotic species. 51 Finally, to emphasize that vice in high places is more dangerous than when practiced by those of low station, he mentions, as a simile, the fact that the poison of the astral scorpion is more harmful than that of the earthly one.52 Ettner also gives a long discussion of astral influence, and finally concludes that it is important for the lower orders of animal and plant life. 53 T h e belief in chiromancy was almost equally widespread, but less interesting to the seventeenth-century author. T h e most familiar use of the chiromantic theme is, of course, Simplicissimus' account of the old Herzbruder's talent in this field, and his sudden murder by an impetuous officer whose bad fortune he had just read from his palm. 54 T h e most ardent support of the practice is again offered by Rist, who proves its validity by stating that he himself had on several occasions accurately predicted precise events from palm readings. 55 "Ibid., I, Bk. II, 177: The city meant is probably Fliirs, Switzerland. The calamity occurred Aug. 25, 1618. " Lohenstein, Arminias, I, Bk. V, 480. " Ibid., I, Bk. II, 98. "Ibid., I, Bk. II, 80. M Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 440. M Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, II, chap, xxiv, 147ft. " Rist, AUer Edelste Thorheit, p. iojf.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C IN N A T U R E

43

In Der Bayerische Max, Happel has occasion to use the device of a magic mirror which can reflect the image of any absent person.56 He rejects such devices; not, however, on the ground of incredibility, but because they are devilish and unreliable. " I have no regard for such devilish black arts, looking into magic mirrors and crystal balls, because it all rests on satanic deception by which he [the devil] seeks to deceive his own creatures, the sorcerers and diviners, as well as those who listen to and have faith in them." 51 The value of divining rods is asserted by Ettner in a discussion on that subject contained in his Eckharts Doctor.™ He accounts for their failure in so many instances with a traditional excuse for all magical techniques when they fail to give desired results, namely incorrect usage.59 Scepticism concerning the philosopher's stone was prevalent during the later Seventeenth Century. Most thinking concerning it had undergone a change peculiar to the period. In the minds of some, however, the alchemist's activities in his quest for the universal panacea still were mysterious and wonderful. Rist is an example, even though he paid lip-service to the current scepticism toward the supernatural with the term, "natural mysteries." His anecdote concerning miraculous cures effected by the results of alchemical experiments has already been mentioned. Another passage from his Aller Edelste Thorheit might well be introduced here. These [Rist's stepfather and others] in addition to myself have seen with their own eyes that when I collected, with no little difficulty, the true spiritum auram, air, or spirit, in M a y , put it into a rather large and wide vial, and set it out in the noon-day sun, the elements in it finally separated from each other so that one was able to see, down below in the vessel, the earth surrounded by water; above, the cloudy air mingled with rays of fire. T h e earth produced its grass and flowers and even several different crawling animals, the water produced various fishes. In the air one saw little birds. T h e air gave off subtle rays, and one saw a rainbow hovering almost constantly between the air and the water. 60 "II, 51

247f. & I I I , 182.

Happel, Der

Bayerische

Max,

II, 24g.

" P p . 3, 9, Ι3· - P. 3fw

Rist, Aller

Edelste

Thorheit,

p. 264.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C I N N A T U R E Wonderful plants seem to have had a place in the popular fancy. They are occasionally introduced as a device to further some element of the plot, as in Ziegler's Asiatische Banise (1689), where exotic leaves which change not only the coloration but the entire cast of the countenance are used for purposes of disguise."1 Generally they find their way into discursive digressions; their exotic quality seems to be the main interest they held for the author and audience. Grimmelshausen offers an exceptional case when in a symbolic passage he introduces a tree bearing the inscription, " I am like Circe, the witch and whore." The fruits of this strange tree cause a form of insanity that is curable only by the stones of the same fruits.62 Happel offers a more representative example. As one of the items in his Thesaurus Exoticorum he describes a plant which Egyptian women place in water in a corner of the room where parturition is taking place, and he mentions that the Egyptians ascribe to its effect the expediting of parturition; twins or triplets sometimes are born because of its influence and premature children are enabled to live. Those who are unfertile have a process of inducing fertility by heating an Arabian balsam and exposing the genitals to its smoke.63 Happel neither supports these claims nor scoffs at them. He merely reports the practices for what they may be worth. In Der Bayerische Max, Happel has one of the characters state that certain roots are said to make the chamois and other animals proof against shot. Other herbs put dragons to sleep, etc.64 Lohenstein, in concluding a discussion of the sensitivity of plants as compared with animals, writes of a Scythian lamb-bearing plant and of flowers from which complete birds grow. One of the characters of the novel asserts he observed both phenomena with his own eyes.65 Lohenstein also informs us of "an . . . herb . . . from whose nodes one is said to be able to " H. A. v. Ziegler u. Kliphausen, Die Asiatische Banise, ed. F. Bobertag. "Deutsche National-Literatur," No. 37, ed. J . Kürschner (Berlin u. Stuttgart: W. Spemann, 1883), pp. 383-384. " Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, VI, chap, xxv, 263: This passage is analyzed by E . Ermatinger in his Weltdeutung in Grimmelshausens Simplicissmus, Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1925. " Happel, Thesaurus Exoticorum, p. 48. "Happel, Der Bayerische Max, II, 197. "Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. V, 567.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF MAGIC IN N A T U R E

45

ascertain how many tempests would occur in the following year and in which months."68 Occasionally mention is made of wonderful plants in order to provide a vivid figure of speech. For example, in a novel by Crinioaldus Celidonius a comparison is drawn between Wollust and the sweet grass of Ireland which causes sheep that eat too much of it to burst.67 Wonderful animals or wonderful traits of common beasts receive their share of attention. Lohenstein, whose novel is almost a compendium of popular superstitions, mentions, in a discussion of the love of animals for human beings, the dolphin's pleasure in the human voice and the notion that dolphins die if they touch land. The love of dolphins for human beings is, for some obscure reason, compared with that of the peacock for the dove and the turtledove for the parrot.08 He also records, in a passage on the question whether animals have emotions and moods, that a hind was once famed as a prophetess, another because it had learned to understand Greek.69 In the Arminius, also, there occurs a wild aurochs which seems to be proof against arrows, since one of the characters could not fell it although several arrows struck its forehead. The incident is discussed, and it is mentioned that the chamois is believed to make itself shot-proof by eating "DoranichWurtzel." Confirmation is not supplied, however.70 Grimmelshausen informs us in a passage asserting the intelligence of animals in general that the eagle uses the "Alderstein" to help lay her eggs, the pelican bleeds itself, etc.71 Francisci contributes a bit of well-known superstition concerning the tarantula—its bite introduces a poison into the human system which compels one to dance madly until he is overcome by exhaustion.72 Happel tells, at second hand, of an unusual type of dog found in Japan which can be transformed into a fish by frequent bathing. He knows also of two dogs which were found alive in a stone quarry in a block of solid " Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. V, SQ6. " Crinioaldus Celidonius, Die Drey Laster hag tigsten (Hamburg, 1685), p. 85. "Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. IV, 361. "Ibid., I, Bk. II, 85. 10 Ibid., I, Bk. II, 80. "Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, II, chap, xii, 115. " Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, I, 676.

Leute

der gantzen

Welt

46

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C IN

NATURE

stone. " T h e y were not unlike greyhounds, but more defiant, and gave off a bad odor. They had no hair, and one died as soon as he was brought into the open air. Henry, bishop at Winthon in this kingdom, kept the other one as a rarity for a long time." 73 Another story, which Francisci relates at second-hand, involves prophetic conversations between two nightingales. But the author finds it difficult to believe that mere birds should have such wonderful powers. " T h i s sounds fantastic, to be sure, but it was told by writers who are learned and respected . . . how should the nightingales have acquired knowledge of future things? Therefore I suspect it was a fairy tale, or (if true) a work of the devil." 74 Mention of stones with wonderful properties is relatively rare. Grimmelshausen, in the Mummelsee episode, uses the idea of a wonderful stone, given Simplicissimus by the prince of Mummelsee, which will sink into the ground and give rise to a medicinal spring. 75 He tells of another stone, in the possession of the king of the salamanders, which can make the human body impervious to fire.76 Happel knows of one with equally fantastic powers. ". . . and he remembered he had information that on a mountain in a certain French province a stone was to be found which would make a man invisible as soon as he trod upon it with his left foot, and, what was more, that man would immediately find himself a devil's disciple with comprehension of all manner of magical, diabolical tricks.'" 7 Wonderful lakes, springs, and rivers occur more frequently. T h e best example is perhaps Simplicissimus's Mummelsee, which apparently had its model in the folklore concerning the Pilatus lake near Lucerne, as well as that of the area Halle-Wittenberg. Francisci discusses the Pilatus See and its strange behavior at some length in Der Wunder-reiche Überzug. He is sceptical of its wonderful characteristics, but unwilling to believe that the numerous stories concerning it have no foundation in fact. 78 Luther also " H a p p e l , Der Bayerische Max, I, 21. " Francisci, Der Wunderreiche Überzug, p. 9. " Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, V, chap, xvii, 138. "Ibid., V, chap, χ vi, 137. " Happel, Der Bayerische Max, III, 186. "Francisci, Der Wunder-reiche Überzug, p. 1240.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF MAGIC IN N A T U R E

47

knew of a lake near Mansfeld exactly like the Mummelsee. When a stone was cast into it, the injured or insulted demonic spirits residing in the water caused a storm to rise in the vicinity." Grimmelshausen uses this device to launch into an involved explanation of the unity of the world's oceans, lakes, springs, etc., and to provide a framework for a satiric comparison of man's ways with the rational behavior of the subject of the Mummelsee prince. He may well have believed literally in the unusual phenomena connected with the Mummelsee, however. Also in the Mummelsee episode Simplicissimus gives a list of wonderful springs, and inquires of the prince concerning their cause. Among them he mentions the "Schändelbach bei Obernähenheim," which flows only when a misfortune is to come upon the land.80 In the preface to his Corylo I ( 1 6 7 9 ) , Beer states that reading the same book may profit one man but ruin another, just as the Syracusan well caused consumption in all the healthy who drank of it but effected a miraculous cure in consumptives. 81 Crinioaldus Celidonius compares Wollust not only to the sweet grass of Ireland, as we have mentioned above, but also to the HypanisBrunnen, which flows sweet for five days, then bitter, and causes insanity in all who drink of it.82 N o conclusions may be drawn safely from this and the example immediately preceding it, however, as both are obviously rhetorical figures. But Lohenstein discusses wonderful wells seriously. Among them he mentions the Jupiter-well of antiquity, which ignited unlit torches thrust into it but extinguished burning ones.83 T h e sixth book of the Simplicissimus contains another geological marvel, the island cave in which ordinary speech reverberates so violently as to shake the whole island. 84 Grimmelshausen indicates his source for this concept, a cave near Viborg in Finland, described by Johann Rauhe in the twenty-second chapter of his Cosmographia. " Cf. Erich Klingner, Luther und der deutsche Volksaberglaube, p. 53. "Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, V, chap, xiv, 128. " J o h a n n Beer, Die vollkommene Comische Geschickt des Corylo (1679). " Celidonius, Die Drey Laster haßtigsten Leute, p. 85. M Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. IV, 458. " Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, VI, chap, xxvi, 266.

48

PERSISTENCE

OF M A G I C IN

NATURE

Legendary creatures are frequently presented, sometimes quite casually, as in Hunold's Der Helden-Geschichte,

Europäischen

Höfe

Liebes-und

where the author states, as proof of a prince's

knightly prowess: " . . . at full gallop he decapitated a mermaid lying on the ground as swiftly as lightning without anyone noticing any especial movement of his body." 8 5 T h e author here is undoubtedly incorporating a bit of inherited French or Spanish novelistic material with little concern for its relation to reality. Sometimes the phenomenon is treated with lavish description, as in an instance from the

Arminius:

We sailed twenty days without any notable occurrence except that I [saw] at the gold-rich island of Catacaumene a mermaid approaching our ship which was almost as large as a camel, had an ox-head, a fishtail, perfect breasts and arms, but duck-feet instead of fingers. The general interrupted here, " . . . our German sea has more beautiful tritons and sirens than the Red Sea. For at my cousin's—the Duke of Codanonia86 — I have seen a pair of the most perfect sea-marvels, half-fish and halfhuman, whose upper half was lacking only in speech; but when one approached them closely, one saw that their skin was covered with delicate, white scales. Their tails, however, were divided into two parts." He had caught these on the Cimbrian shore and kept them in a pleasant pond.87 Whether Lohenstein really believed in the existence of these creatures which he has his central character vouch for or whether he is merely catering to his reader's delight in fantastic novelties, it is impossible to say. Forest apparitions are mentioned b y both Beer and Lohenstein; but whereas in Beer's case they are demonic, uncanny, romantic, 88 in Lohenstein's novel they are drily related as curiosities. For example, Lohenstein tells, for what it is worth, the legend of a goddess of the forest riding a strange beast, who appeared to a prince in the Frisian wilds and offered him a magic drink which would assure him family and descendants of great rank and power. Suspicious, the prince poured the fluid on the ground. Some of it ** Christian Fr. Hunold, Der Europaeischen Höfe Liebes- und ( H a m b u r g : Gottfried Liebernickels Seel. W i t w e , 170g), p. 4 1 . " T h e king of D e n m a r k . " Lohenstein, Arminius, I, B k . V , 63if. " A l e w y n , Johann Beer, 226L

Helden-Geschichte

P E R S I S T E N C E OF MAGIC IN N A T U R E

49

accidentally splattered on his horse, removing the hair from the moistened areas." T h e author's interest in the story is slight and coolly intellectual. Sometimes miraculous powers or qualities are ascribed to human organs or excretory products. Without discussing them, Lohenstein mentions cases of hereditary ability to cure snake-bite and various diseases with a touch of the hand, the big toe, by application of spittle, etc.90 In a section devoted to the qualities of the eye he relates also a superstition to the effect that the pupils of the human eyes cease reflecting images three days before death: " F o r which reason one considers the disappearance of their reflection as an infallible indication of death [in the offing]."®1 Finally, the action of supra-natural forces frequently receives comment. Grimmelshausen assures us, in an aside, of the truth of the old idea that before fortune plunges anyone into the depths, it raises him to the heights." 2 Lohenstein informs his readers that good or bad fortune are just as inheritable as physiognomic characteristics. Further, misfortune frequently is bound to a specific name. 93 Francisci relates several stories illustrative of the old superstition that there is a force which causes blood to flow from the wounds of a murdered person if the murderer approaches the corpse; he has one of his characters suggest that this force is perhaps a desire for revenge which has been instilled into the blood of the victim and remains active in the dead body. T h e author himself evidently does not accept this explanation, for another of his characters attempts a rational refutation of it.®4 It is usually difficult and frequently impossible to ascertain the author's own attitude toward the magical elements or incidents which he introduces. Sometimes a statement such as the following by Happel in Der Bayerische Max is helpful. He reasons that it is useless to deny the specific magical powers of certain herbs and " Lohenstein, Arminias, I, B k . I I , 86. "Ibid., I, B k . I l l , 277. "Ibid., I, B k . V , s i i . K Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, I I I , chap, xix, 236f. T h e theme of a sudden rise to dizzy heights of prosperity and an equally abrupt fall has often been noted as one of the favorite themes of baroque imaginative literature. " L o h e n s t e i n , Arminius, I, B k . Ι Π , 210. " F r a n c i s c i , Lustige Schau-Bühne, I, 657.

SO

PERSISTENCE OF MAGIC IN NATURE

stones. Man is a brief summation of the entire cosmos, consequently it is unthinkable that man should not have greater powers than the herbs or stones or even the stars, which are ignoble by comparison with him."5 But a clearly pansophistic explanation of real magic, such as this one, is indeed rare. In the compendia, such as the Grosser Schau-Platz, Thesaurus Exoticorum, or the Lustige Schau-Bühne, the context is seldom helpful. The material, intended not only to instruct but even more to entertain by catering to the reader's delight in the exotic and weird, is usually presented in the form of unrelated anecdotes or discussions in which the author does not always make his own attitude clear. In Lohenstein's Armintus the commentary is extremely protracted, but it is put into the mouths of the numerous characters engaged in discussion with each other. The author who, like his contemporaries, suffered from an insatiable Stoßhunger, presents as many attitudes on each problem as he is aware of, and it is often impossible to determine which view he himself holds. From the dry, intellectual manner with which the magical elements, wonderful phenomena, traditional occult material are usually treated, one might be led to assume that most of the authors were merely exploiting the taste of the time. In part this is undoubtedly true; in part the manner of presentation may be due to a lack of descriptive talent, in part to the encyclopedic tendency to include everything and anything, to achieve an effect by mass of material rather than by careful selection and literary devices. Nevertheless, one must be careful not to assume too readily a superior or cynical attitude on the part of the baroque literati toward traditional occult ideas. Actually there was little doubt in the seventeenth-century German's mind as to the existence of the devil, of demonic spirits, ghosts, apparitions, etc. Reports of their activities by "eye-witnesses" were frequent and strengthened the conviction as to their activity. Balthasar Bekker and Christian Thomasius had not yet published their attacks on the popular conceptions of witchcraft and the activities of the devil. One might point out that the traditional magical elements in Simplicissimus are introduced either for their entertainment-value or as profound sym"II, 197.

P E R S I S T E N C E OF M A G I C I N N A T U R E

51

bolical devices. Nevertheless, there is no reason to assume that Grimmelshausen did not believe in the actuality of similar phenomena, quite apart from the symbolic or literary use he makes of them. In conclusion, it is safe to say that whatever the attitude of these writers toward the truth or falsity of the supernatural events which they relate or the efficacy of the magical practices they describe, the sheer wealth of such material is an assurance of the deep interest and credulity of the reading public of the day in this kind of lore. Obviously the cases which we have collected as samples in this chapter can not offer a complete picture of the great complex of magical elements in the literature of the period. It should be stressed again that we are dealing here with traditional material which responded to deep and longstanding infixes of the German soul. We shall now see in how far these were becoming modified through efforts to interpret phenomena in the light of Renaissance natural-philosophical doctrines or by a rational analysis under the influence of the rising scepticism.

ν AUTONOMOUS F O R C E IN

NATURE

TURNING from the evidence as to the prevalence of traditional theory concerning the relationship between God, devil, and mundane phenomena, we find, emerging in the Seventeenth Century, a more advanced concept of phenomenal causation in respect to the world of nature. T o the present there have been two major attempts to formulate the German baroque attitude toward nature on the basis of literary evidence. One, by Gertrud Bieder, Natur und Landschaft in der deutschen Barocklyrik, drawing its material from lyrics published between the years 1635 and 1674, arrives at several conclusions which are substantiated by our findings in the prose, and others which seem to be only partially correct. Miss Bieder makes little allowance for traditional metaphor or for the extremely devout character of many of the poems she cites. She applies the term "baroque" to the type of Weltanschauung apparent in most of the poetry published during the period she has selected, and when an author's deviation from this type is so marked that it cannot be ignored, it is explained away on the basis of his membership in a younger generation which (by 1664) had begun to turn away from the baroque view. 1 Miss Bieder is perfectly correct in asserting that the rationalism of Holland and France was to influence Germany at a later date, and that the English, Dutch, and French scholars believed reason would eventually subjugate the phenomenal world long before the same optimistic idea was current in Germany. But the attitude of several German writers of the Seventeenth Century was not so antithetic to that just stated as she implies. Lohenstein is not to be dismissed as belonging to another 1 This is the technique used by H. Cysarz in order to bring all the lyric poetry of the Seventeenth Century under the caption "baroque." In the series Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Barock, these poets are classified under five "baroque'' groups: Vor-, FrühHoch-, Schwund-, and Kirchenbarock. It is evident, as has been already suggested above, that a good deal of hocuspocus goes on with respect to the use of "baroque."

[52]

AUTONOMOUS

FORCE IN N A T U R E

53

generation when, in his poem commemorating the death of G r y phius in 1664, he s a y s : Die Sonne der Vernunft, das Auge des Gemütes, Macht uns zu Herrn der Welt, zu Meistern der Natur, then goes on to praise technology, the natural sciences, and

finally

adds, Die Welt, das große Buch, steckt in gelehrten Schriften, Daraus uns der Natur Geheimnüs wird bekannt.2 Miss Bieder's contention that knowledge of recent and contemporary scientific developments did not strongly influence the worldview of the lyricists whom she discusses is supported b y their adherence

to

the pre-Copernican

geocentric

theory.

Christof

Junker in his work on this problem as it concerns lyric poetry, Das Weltraumbild stock,3

in der deutschen

Lyrik

von Opitz

also demonstrates that the old Weltraumbild

bis

Klop~

obtained until

the third decade of the Eighteenth Century, but he stresses the exceptions far more than M i s s Bieder. Her denial of any such influence is too categorical. It is quite true and rather surprising, that it is only Gryphius who praises Copernicus unequivocally. In a poem first published in 1643 he hails him as sage of sages: Du dreymal weiser geist! du mehr denn großer mann! Dem nicht die nacht der zeit, die alles pochen kan,4 Dem nicht der herbe neid die sinnen hat gebunden, Die sinnen, die den lauff der erden neu gefunden; 5 Der du der alten träum und dünckel widerlegt Und recht uns® dargethan, was lebt und was sich regt: Schau! itzund blüht dein rühm, den als auf einem wagen Der kreiß, auf dem wir sind, muß um die sonnen tragen! Wann diß, was irrdisch ist, wird mit der zeit vergehn, Soll dein lob unbewegt7 mit seiner sonnen stehn.8 ' D a n i e l C . v o n Lohenstein, Blumen (Breslau, 1689), Hyazinthen, pp. 23ft. ' " G e r m a n i s c h e Studien,'' N o . H I , Berlin: E . Ebering, 1932. 4 In the original version of 1643: dem nicht der blinde wahn. 1 In the original version of 1643 : schnellen erden funden. ' In the original version of 1643 : uns recht. ' I n the original version of 1643: Sol unbewegt dein lob. ' A n d r e a s G r y p h i u s , Lyrische Gedichte, ed. Η P a l m . "Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in S t u t t g a r t , " Nr. 171 (Tübingen, 1884), p. 393.

54

AUTONOMOUS FORCE IN

NATURE

Among the poets only Logau and Fleming, besides Gryphius, indicate a knowledge of the heliocentric theory. A certain ambiguous passage in the Cherubinischer Wandersmann indicates what may have been a heretical rejection of the Ptolemaic theory on Scheffler's part before his conversion to Catholicism: Du sprichst, im Firmament sei eine Sonn' allein; Ich aber sage, daß viel tausend Sonnen sein.· Nevertheless, there is evidence in another literary genre that the Copernican view was not entirely without influence on German authors before the last quarter of the century. Harsdörfer discusses the question at great length, not on the basis of ecclesiastical authority but of reason. He personally refuses to take a stand, but is impressed by the accuracy with which devotees of the heliocentric theory can, through their calculations, predict lunar and solar eclipses. 10 Happel, only twelve years after the close of the period which Miss Bieder investigated, comments that although he is incapable of discussing the problem, nevertheless he must admit "that today one almost refuses to recognize a philosopher as a subtle man if he does not support the Copernican system!" 1 1 And as for the seeming contradiction of that theory in the Scriptures, Happel admits, as does Harsdörfer, that the heliocentrists have an answer for that also. If Miss Bieder's conclusion is correct, and if Happel's statement is to be trusted, it would seem that the Copernican doctrine gained a strangely sudden influence among the German intellectual laity within a very few years after 1674.

T h e findings which Miss Bieder presents—that in the conception of her poets God stands immediately behind all phenomena and all phenomena are considered as His word to m a n — by no means hold good for a fair share of the prose after the fourth decade. She derives her conclusion in part from the observation that natural catastrophies were often considered a warning sent by God. It was thus, she states, that the baroque individual attempted to satisfy his desire "to comprehend the innermost * Johann Scheffler, Der cherubinische Wandersmann, "Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke," Nos. 135-8 (Halle a. S.: M . Niemeyer, 1895), Ii No. 41. ™ Harsdörfer, Gesprächspiele, VIII, S04f. 11 Happel, Mundus Mirabüis, p. 159.

A U T O N O M O U S FORCE I N N A T U R E

55

meaning—the deepest cause." 11 Fundamentally, she asserts, all natural phenomena were considered miraculous, incomprehensible to reason except to a certain degree. But because there was a certain slight possibility of rational comprehension, the exercise of one's intellect on the problems of nature was considered to have some value, and consequently the great seventeenth-century development of interest in the sciences was made possible. Her conclusions as to the interpretation of phenomena in the light of the miraculous are based on numerous enthusiastic and perhaps metaphorically felt lines to the effect that no man can understand the world which God created, nor can one recreate the lowliest blade of grass (Arndt, Spee, Gryphius). Finally, in her effort to deny any tendency toward acceptance of a "gefühlloses Naturgesetz," Miss Bieder presents, as typical, a view of God and nature which is somewhat at variance with our findings in the prose. In the work mentioned above she declares: " T o be sure God punishes, but when the punishment becomes too hard on man, He lets Himself be mollified by prayer. This does not necessarily signify a denial of the orderliness of nature, but the natural order is by no means rigid. God can interrupt it at any time." 13 Willi Flemming's investigation of nature-feeling in the Seventeenth Century, Der Wandel des deutschen Naturgefühls vom 15. zum 18. Jahrhundert,1* extends to several of the prose writers as well as to poets, and his somewhat oversimplified conclusions give a quite different interpretation of the current nature-concept. His contribution lies in revealing the prevalence of a teleological dynamism, the theory of nature as an intermediary with a high degree of independence, carrying out God's will to benefit man in his mundane existence. Flemming endeavors to demonstrate that the current seventeenth-century view held every object of the world to be a symbol of divine benevolence and providence, but no longer standing in direct relation to its original and remote creator. As illustration he compares the nature-concepts of Lohenstein and Luther.15 Bieder, Natur und Landschaft, p. 18. Bieder, Natur und Landschaft, p. 25. 14 Halle, 1931. " Flemming, Wandel des Naturgefühls, p. 49. 11

11

56

AUTONOMOUS

FORCE IN

NATURE

The evidence contained in the baroque prose which might be cited in support of Miss Bieder's thesis has already been presented in the chapter on miraculous intervention. There are also several passages which give evidence in support of Flemming's theory. Lohenstein, who provided the outstanding exception to Miss Bieder's theory, offers a disproportionately large share of this evidence, but the clearest of the statements in support of Flemming's interpretation is to be found in Johann Beer's Der verliebte Europaeer (1682): It is certain that nothing in nature seems more wonderful to us and harder to fathom than the causes of sympathy and antipathy . . . but because God works not directly but naturally, this [the manifestations of sympathy and antipathy] must occur in a natural fashion, no matter if we do not understand it. For if we human beings knew that which still remains hidden from us in nature, then our contemporary knowledge would be only fragmentary. 1 "

It is worth noting that in the original the author qualifies the fact that so much is unknown with the adverb annoch. Recognition of the vastness of man's ignorance was not a deterrent but an incitement in the quest for knowledge. The creative activity of nature in behalf of the greater comfort and happiness of man, and the lower creatures as well, is repeatedly mentioned by Lohenstein, who took elaborate pains to include in his Arminius17 as many theories as possible on every con" J o h a n n Beer, Der verliebte Europaeer (Wien & Gotha, 1682), p. 299. " This work has been carefully analyzed by Luise Laporte in her excellent study: Lohensteins Arminius, "Germanische Studien," No. 48 (Berlin: Emil Ebering, 1927). Miss Laporte breaks down the heroic ideal of the novel into its antithetic constituent elements: mystical pantheism and rationalism, reason and passion, the sense of helplessness before fate and the desire for honor, fame, and power; asceticism on one hand and an intense interest in this world and the ideal of Weltklugheit on the other. In short she demonstrates the predominance in the novel of those ideological tendencies which we have come to consider basic in the baroque Weltanschauung. Miss Laporte is less interested, however, in another aspect of Lohenstein's novel, which is of greater importance for this study, namely, the reflection of the didactic, pansophistic current of the era. It may be said that the movement best represented by Amos Comenius in pedagogy is also noticeable in the literature, in the encyclopedic, instructive volumes, the cosmographies and thesauruses produced by Rist, Harsdörfer, and Happel among others. T o be sure, Lohenstein does not consciously attempt to embrace all organized knowledge within the covers of this one novel, but he misses no opportunity to digress from his story on any subject which takes his fancy and to display an amazing range of interest and information

AUTONOMOUS F O R C E IN N A T U R E

57

ceivable subject and whose great novel-compendium is a treasure of information on the thought of the day. He informs us specifically, during a theoretical discussion of eyes, their perfection, unusual qualities, etc., that nature placed the eyes deep in the skull and provided them with protective arrangements for their greater security. Provision has even been made by nature, the foresighted as well as kind mother, for retention of the sense of sight in case of accident to one eye. Nature had placed the eyes so deep within the bone structure in order to keep these priceless organs safe, and had provided them with eyebrows, lids, and double lashes, so that in case one [eye] suffered injury the other might retain the priceless [sense of] sight; and she had made that incomparable masterpiece, the head, tumable only that the eyes might thereby be able to look about in all directions.18 Similarly, he informs us in the same discussion that nature which, it would appear, was able to exercise discretion and choice in the matter, placed the brain where it is situated to afford it proximity to the windows of the soul. 16 But if nature is foresighted in her provision for man's welfare, her power is elastic enough, also, to permit compensation to man for accidents which rob him of one of his senses. " M a n y powers of the soul, ordinarily dissipated in the process of seeing, remain intact in blind people, improve their other senses and even their reason, so that generally, because nature, like a kind mother, endeavors to compensate for one's disability with other advantages, blind people hear more sharply, feel more sensitively, etc." 20 Again, the feeling of nature's beneficence is so strong it leads Lohenstein, in a discussion of the talents and proclivities of animals, to the conclusion that by virtue of her kindness she must have endowed concerning them. These digressions, invariably in the form of speculative conversations between the various characters, are so numerous and extended that they tend at times to submerge the plot completely. Actually the Arminius is two books in one—a heroic, polyhistoric, gallant novel and a badly ordered and thinly disguised didactic book, related to Harsdörfer's Gesprächspiele, Happel's Thesaurus Ezoticorum and Mundus Mirabilis Tripartitus, etc. For a treatment of this aspect of Lohenstein's novel see Max VVehrli, Das barocke Geschichtsbild in Lohensteins Arminius, "Wege zur Dichtung," No. 3 1 , Frauenfeld/Leipzig: Huber & Co., 1938. "Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. 5, 508. "Ibid., I, Bk. 5, so7f. "Ibid., I, Bk. s, 507.

58

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the otherwise nearly complete beasts with at least a certain amount of reason. 11 When the alleged behavior of creatures in the animal kingdom is inexplicable on the basis of known fact and observation, Lohenstein tends, as do most of his contemporaries, to attribute it to secret forces, qualities, and instincts which nature implanted in the animals. Even when the precise purpose of such natural provisions is unclear, it is nonetheless felt that the endowment was a wise one. In a discussion of the psychology and anatomy of animals, the reason elephants and camels fear human beings is traced to the fact that nature endowed them with eyes possessing a magnifying quality. The attraction and enmity between certain animals is explained on a like basis. Accordingly he had to believe that just as the largest animals, such as elephants and camels, are afraid of man because nature put the property of a magnifying glass into their eyes, for which reason they see us as larger than we really are, similarly she had imbued certain animals with a secret instinct such as iron has towards the magnet. . . .22 On the other hand, in treating the properties and effect of fear he declares: "Nature had held a mirror of sagacity before us in [the example o f ] the most courageous animals when she provided that the lion should fear the crowing of a cock, the elephant the grunting of a swine or the sight of a ram, the tiger the sound of a drum," etc. 23 In a long passage on the art of gold-making, Lohenstein again mentions the wisdom of nature in preparing the rich ores of the mountains. This time he refers to it as unerfor schliche Weisheit, and for the purpose of refutation ventures the argument that goldmaking is an impossibility since it ostensibly attempts to reproduce a process for which nature herself requires years in spite of all her wisdom.24 The answer to this objection, however, follows immediately and gives us his attitude toward the practical sciences generally. This science neither attempts to dispense with natural n Ibid., a

I, Bk. s, 568. lbid., I, Bk. 4, 361. "Ibid., I, Bk. 4, 422. "Ibid., I, Bk. 2, 169.

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law nor to imitate the natural process. Rather it is to be considered " a servant of nature and eulogist of the divine omnipotence." 25 Nature has left work for man to do in his own behalf. " F o r . . . art comes to nature's assistance in many things, improves fruit trees by grafting, by transplantation of bulbs makes their blossoms more beautiful, ripens melons and other plants more quickly by the use of certain glasses."" The practical application of the sciences completes the natural process. Since by carrying out the last stages of that activity man necessarily arrives at a deeper appreciation of nature, he is imbued with proper awe at the final c a u s e — G o d — t h a t established her. Far from evoking criticism, the fact that so many processes are left incomplete and require human participation can be considered merely further evidence of nature's wisdom. Nature, for Lohenstein, is by no means wilful, yet her independence and the flexibility of the processes in the exercise of her function of benevolent provision for human welfare is great. It even enables her to make adjustments that will gratify man's predilections beyond the realm of his well-being. In treating the question of the influence exerted by the mind and emotions on the body, Lohenstein mentions that the Amazons had at one time cut off their right breasts but now—and direct observation supports this—nature intervenes to provide the desired physical mutation in their case. " B u t it was certain, and his eyes had given him positive evidence of it, that nature itself now helped them with this desired defect, the cause of which . . . was nothing other than imagination." 27 T h e implication seems to be that the physical mutation is accomplished pre-natally, with nature's aid, through the mother's state of mind, or else that the mental attitude of the young Amazon retards the development of her right breast. That Lohenstein's concept of natural law has its roots deep in his moral view is apparent from his extended treatment of the paternal and filial emotions in the Arminius. It is in accordance with nature that parents and children should love each other and "'Ibid., I, Bk. 2, 170. "Ibid., I, Bk. 2, 170. Ibid., I, Bk. 5, 471.

6o

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that this natural emotional fire should be guarded by reason ( Vernunft). In the event that reason falters and gives way to depravity {Laster), then not only the individual's human nature (Menschheit) but all of nature (die ganze Natur) is drawn out of him and he falls out of the framework of the natural world. 28 T h e exercise of reason is man's moral duty; thereby he helps maintain the divine cosmic plan. His freedom of choice between reason and depravity in no way runs counter to natural law. Nature, in this specific case, merely provides him with a good instinct; he may choose between supporting and developing it rationally or thwarting it. Lohenstein alone gives us sufficiently numerous statements of his nature-view to permit a satisfactory analysis. In other authors the God-nature-phenomena nexus is too often confusedly indicated. It may vary from a statement that God is responsible for some phenomenal arrangement of benefit to man, implying direct intervention of the divinity by omission of any reference to the nature-intermediary (as has already been discussed at length), to a statement such as Happel's: " T h e y [the Indian rivers] overflow at certain seasons in order to irrigate the adjacent land." 29 Here the purposefulness seems almost to be ascribed to the river itself. Sometimes the incontrovertibility of natural law is expressed in a negative fashion, for example, a line of Weise: " W h a t nature does is not censurable, for it is not subject to our power." 30 In some cases, where it is not certain that nature is clearly conceived as an independent entity standing between God and man, nevertheless the term natürlich is used as the antithesis of direct divine intervention, and the supernatural is denied. Thus, as has been mentioned above, in a discussion of sympathia and antipathia, Johann Beer informs us no one can deny the fact that God implanted these forces in His creations, but because God works in those creations, not directly but naturally ("nicht unmittelbar " Lohenstein, Arminias, I, B k . 5, 480. 29 Ε. G . Happel, Thesaurus Exoticorum ( H a m b u r g , 1688), p. 7. " C h r i s t i a n Weise, Die Drey Klügsten Leute, p. 61.

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sondern natürlich"), the action of attraction and repulsion must be natural, even though we yet fail to understand it. 31 T h e most complete denial of diabolical interference with the natural order on the part of the devil is offered by Heinrich Arnold Stockfleth in his pastoral novel, Macarie (1669), during a protracted discussion by several of his characters on the powers of the devil and his agents. Not content with general statements, Stockfleth lists at great length all the powers Satan and the lesser demons are falsely alleged to possess. T h e devil cannot make two objects occupy the same space at the same time or cause an object to appear in a spot remote from its original position without causing it to traverse the intervening distance. He cannot raise the dead. Further, he cannot produce life without seed nor hasten the process of organic growth extraordinarily . . . "but he must permit nature to take its course; he will never compel it to act against itself [i.e., against its own order]. He must accordingly abide in everything by the order which nature demands." T h e devil has no power over the individual's will or power of action . . . "he cannot prevent anyone from doing what orderly [natural] means permit him to do and what he wishes to do, provided he is not lacking in anything that might hinder him" [i.e., the lack of which might hinder him]. But since the devil has great knowledge of natural processes that are still unknown to us, we are inclined to think of his activity as miraculous, although it is only seemingly inexplicable. 32 On occasion, an author who admits the possibility of immediate divine or diabolical intervention in general may tend toward scepticism in specific instances. Thus Ettner, in discussing contemporary difficulties in mining, comments that lack of success in that industry is generally ascribed, and perhaps not incorrectly, to God's having withdrawn His blessing because of the vices of the miners. Nevertheless, the most important contributing factor is negligence in the investigation and study of nature. 33 " Johann Beer, Der verliebte Europaeer, " Stockileth, Macarie, pp. 3o8ff. " Iittner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 4.

p. 29g.

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Francisci suggests an aesthetic reason for a divinely-created but autonomous nature. Actually, he believed in the possibility of divine intervention, as numerous references in our third chapter indicate. In Der Wunderreiche Überzug he discusses Bodinus' theory that God sends the invasions of mice to destroy the crops and then removes all trace of them very suddenly, lest we think that the superfluity or shortage of grain was according to nature and not according to His specific command and express will. This, Francisci comments, is a Christian sentiment, but one should not exclude the possibility of natural causes. For, as Fromondus correctly thinks, it would be worse if God accomplished such a wonderful thing merely through His omnipotence than if He imbued the natural causes with such powers that they could serve the supreme cause in such wonderful activity—just as it is more artistic to fashion a clock which will tell time than with one's own hand to strike a bell [thereby indicating the hour].34 This, it will be noted, sounds quite like one of the formulations of the rationalistic philosopher Christian Wolf half a century later. Occasionally it is difficult to determine whether or not an author is merely paying lip-service to current philosophy. For example, Willi Flemming mistakenly uses the following passage from Harsdörfer to indicate that he too, along with Lohenstein, held to a view of nature as a separate, independent realm, in which God no longer miraculously interferes: "We well know that God is the highest cause of all causes and that everything natural comes from His omnipotence, but not in a supernatural way." 35 It may be that Harsdörfer's other, contradictory statements indicate that his position was a transitory stage between the old and new conceptions. On the other hand, he may have failed to grasp fully the implications of the phrases he utilizes. At any rate, we have previously mentioned a passage in his Grosser Schau-Platz which would seem to indicate faith in direct divine intervention. God sends him a dream in which the identity of a libellous person is revealed to him. 36 Further, in Der Grosse Schau-Platz, he explains that God "P. 7»3f-

" Harsdörfer, Gesprächspiele, VIII, 500. " Harsdorf er, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, sec. 95, 344-345.

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works through causas secundas, but we should pray Him to avert misfortunes." In other words, it would seem that nature by no means continues independently on her divinely predetermined course, since the divinity can interfere to alter particulars by natural means. Y e t in the same work Harsdörfer mentions that "the God of nature is not accustomed to act on nature whenever we wish." 38 The entire question of natural and supernatural seems to have been a bit beyond him. On the one hand, he informs us that God works through natural means, that "the causes of all natural things are natural," 39 that "the evil spirit cannot accomplish supernatural things." 40 On the other hand, he informs the reader "the devil frequently works through natural causes which are unknown to us, since everything that happens is either natural or supernatural." 41 Immediately after the last sentence he relates a tale of witchcraft, and announces that it is for the reader to decide whether the Würckung was natural or supernatural. It would not be amiss to consider Harsdörfer as representative of the confusion in many minds arising from the conflict of the old and the new interpretations of the causal nexus between the divine and the mundane. Miss Bieder's generalizations on the nature-view of the German lyric poets from 1635 to 1674 are undoubtedly very apt. Nevertheless, they cannot be applied to the prose from 1640 to 1700 without strong qualification. Flemming's treatment of the problem amounts to an oversimplification. It is Lohenstein chiefly who represents the tendency which Flemming considers dominant in baroque literature. One may say that although very few baroque authors indicated belief that God continues to exert a creative function (by producing something from nothing or removing from existence that which already is), a considerable number entertained little doubt that both God and the devil continued to intervene in terrestrial occurrence either directly or through supernatural intermediaries. As we have seen, statements by Bucholtz, Ibid., sec. 68, 241. " Ibid., sec. 109, 36. "Harsdörfer, Gesprächspiele, I, 217. "Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, " Ibid., sec. 37, I38f. 31

sec. 109, 36.

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Ettner, Francisci, Happel, Harsdörfer, Rist, and Weise, to omit anonymous writers, present this point of view directly or imply it. On the other hand, the influence of the theory of an autonomous nature and a more remote God who no longer interferes supernaturally with terrestrial phenomena, makes itself felt. In Lohenstein's Arminius this view predominates. Beer states it clearly, as does Stockfleth. The writings of others indicate that its influence was strong, although insufficient to eliminate the older doctrine. Rist and Harsdöfer offer statements which seem to imply subscription to the theory of autonomous nature, but which are, in fact, misleading. Harsdörfer was unable to settle the problem to his own satisfaction and returns to it again and again. Ettner implies that divine intervention is too often given as the cause of quite natural phenomena. Francisci definitely subscribes to the older view, but finds that the idea of an autonomous nature is more pleasing to his aesthetic sense or his sense of craftsmanship than the notion of God intervening directly in terrestrial affairs. In general, the nature-view seems to be in a transitional stage in this era. The various elements which conflict with the orthodox view of the God-phenomena relationship can be pieced together to give a picture of an autonomous, self-continuing nature, which God created and imbued with the necessary Willensantrieb before H e retreated from active participation in individual mundane phenomena. In such a mosaic of opinion God no longer has need to interfere with the established course of nature, for in all its functions it merely carries out the divine will. The assertions that God's mercy, benevolence, etc. are to be perceived in the individual phenomena are not indicative of a pantheistic tendency, for, although the natural phenomena symbolically represent divine kindness, they are no longer immediately related to God. Rather, they are controlled by a functionally independent nature. This natureindependence is felt so strongly that the benevolence one expects to find ascribed to God may now be transferred to her. In some cases reference is even made to her wisdom. Matter in itself, though not dead, is activated by forces or qualities with which nature imbues it, and it is a laudable activity on man's part to inquire into those forces and qualities. In fact, insofar as the

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miracle no longer figures in phenomenal occurrence, the entire world is open to man's inspection. T h e devil, too, when he wishes to pervert natural phenomena, must have recourse to natural means. These means, by which nature works, are co-ordinated, and it is possible, bit by bit, to learn to know that relationship, in short, to understand the world-order. T h e significance of this attitude is that it gave philosophic justification to the growing attention to mundane matters, to the world of tangible phenomena. The idea that by His original creative act God had provided a dynamic nature to behave in man's best interest freed the human mind to struggle with the problem of secondary causes, independent of external revelation, relying on its own rational powers and the evidence of the senses. Even the question of moral justification of such activity raised no difficulties, for it was discovered that nature demands man's aid, since her activities in man's behalf usually stop short of completion. Ores require refining, trees must be pruned, gems need cutting, etc. In brief, the composite statement of the progressive ideas on the God-nature-phenomenon relationship expressed by a select group of baroque authors carries well into the Enlightenment. None of these writers can have understood the significance of this view in its entirety, and there is an almost equal division in number between those who remain rooted in the medieval concept and those who demonstrate the disturbing influence of the new thought, whereas the individuals who clearly anticipate the tendency which was to prevail in the Eighteenth Century are rare.

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So FAR we have noted the presence of several contradictory elements in the prose of the period—the retention to no small extent of the medieval belief in the possibility of miraculous intervention in terrestrial phenomena, the existence, on the other hand, of the concept of an autonomous nature and a natural order, which divine or diabolical beings never interrupt, and finally, the presence of traditional magical and occult elements. The latter, as has been noted, occur chiefly in digressions and non-narrative passages, less for the sake of evoking a mood of awe before the awful and unknowable or for the purpose of furthering the plot of a narrative than to offer the reader fantastic curiosities for his delectation and instruction. We turn now to another tendency in the material under discussion: the influence, retention, and modification of pansophistical ideas, of the theories which combine in the mystical worldview. This had been given its greatest impetus and most convincing expression in Germany by Paracelsus in the Sixteenth Century, and was then diffused by him and his numerous followers over Western Europe. Fundamentally Paracelsus' theories are the result of: i . his profound participation in the universal human feeling of the essential unity of all nature and, with this, his imperative need for a union of the subjectively felt with the objectively perceived, the union of spirit and world; 2. his subscription to the theory of creative forces in nature; 3. his tendency to assume real associations on the basis of thought-associations. The first aspect underlies his mystical theory. The second led to his simplification and renaming of the miraculous principle involved in the nature-concept throughout the Middle Ages. The third enabled him to take over the heritage of occult ideas and techniques, give them logical credibility and justification on the basis of his cosmological hypotheses. It is not to be assumed by any means that he was an innovator in this last regard. W. Windelband stresses the favor [66]

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which magic enjoyed during the Renaissance and the efforts to systematize superstitution. This development, which is well known, of course, was touched on briefly above in our second chapter. Astrology, the doctrine of signatures, dream-interpretation, necromancy, etc. flourished then. Pico and Reuchlin united these arts with numerology. Agrippa attacked the possibility of rational knowledge, sought mystical revelation, and practiced magical arts. Cardanus tried to demonstrate the regularity of magical action. Campanella gave magic and the supernatural a position of importance in his philosophy. 1 Nevertheless, it was Paracelsus' influence, direct or indirect, which brought system into the body of occult ideas and popularized them in Germany. W.-E. Peuckert gives an interesting hypothesis to explain the reason for the popularity of Paracelsus' works as compared with that, for example, of those of Agrippa von Nettesheim, whose theories differed but little from those of Paracelsus. Germany at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century was overwrought by the contemporary political, economic, and most of all, religious differences—the last arising from the gulf between the Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist churches. According to Peuckert, fear of revolt among the peasantry, fear of a sudden end of the world, disgust at widespread disunity and distress led to a burning desire for a spiritual reformation. In the minds of some the reform was to come through education ( R a t k e ) . Others accented a reformation of the state (More, Bacon). Still others sought religious reformation and unification, and most important among these was the small group of neo-Paracelsists. 2 Paracelsus thus became the symbol for the ardent desire to capture, to systematize all knowledge of God and both worlds, the spiritual and the terrestrial. In his system lay the older magical theories, an accumulation of folklore, fundamentally the same material used by Trithemius and Agrippa. B u t Agrippa was a ' W . Wmdelband, Geschichte der Philosophie (Freiburg i. Β . : J. C. B. Möhr, P. Siebeck, 1892), p. 294t. 2 A few of the outstanding neo-Paracelsists were: Leonard Thurneysser (15301595), A. Ellinger (d. 1582), Heinrich Kunrath (1560-1605), Marcus Marci von Kronland (1595-C.1667), Seb. Wirdig (1613-1687). The most famous of those influenced by Paracelsus and at the same time an original spirit was Johann Baptista van Helmont (1577-1644) See K . Kiesewetter, Geschichte des neuren Okkultismus, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: W. Friedrich, 1909), pp. 126Ü

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magician solely; both he and Trithemius wrote in cold, humanistic language. Paracelsus made his learning the means of reaching G o d ; he wrote as he felt and it was his books which the simple man could read. 3 It was undoubtedly this last fact which was of highest importance. Paracelsus' direct appeal lay in his emotional approach and in his use of the vernacular. It was inevitable, as Windelband has pointed out, that casting off theological dogma and authority should lead to a metaphysical interpretation of the problems of natural phenomena in view of the absence of an established observational approach to those problems. T h e old preconceptions, the magical techniques, the occult forces and virtues all remained, but were not explained by the natural philosophers in terms of miraculous, external, incomprehensible influence. If the transmutation of substances had formerly been an awful, occult, and unpredictable phenomenon, involving an agency or force beyond comprehension, it now permitted of metaphysical explanation on the basis of the fundamental postulates concerning the cosmos and could be deduced from the natural and fundamental sameness of objects, which in turn, resulted from their formation out of common

elements.

Further, the concept of the creative and causative forces which, for some minds, God still exerted, for others were exerted b y nature upon matter, was now altered in that it was made internal, innate in all matter. In other words, all phenomenal formation and development came from within, a view more in keeping with man's sensory experience of the process of growth and development. Paracelsus'greatest specific influence on theory was perhaps his popularization of the concept of essential relationships and the doctrine of signatures, which he may have derived for himself from ' W i l l - E r i c h Peuckert, Die Rosenkreutzer ( J e n a : E. Diederichs, 1928), p. 2of. See a l s o : A. Lehmann, Aberglaube und Zauberei von den ältesten Zeiten an bis in die Gegenwart. Translated by D. Petersen. 2nd ed. ( S t u t t g a r t : F . E n k c , 1908), pp. IQ5-202, and J. M . Stillman, Paracelsus ( C h i c a g o - L o n d o n : Open C o u r t Publ. C o . , 1Q20), pp. 3off. F o r further analyses of Paracelsus' theories and evaluation of his influence, cf. Franz Strunz, Theophrastus Paracelsus; Idee und Problem seiner Weltanschauung (Salzburg & L e i p z i g : A. Pustet, 1 9 3 7 ) ; W i l l - E r i c h Peuckert, Leben, Künste und Meinungen des viel beschneenen Theophrastus Paracelsus von Hohenheim ( J e n a : E. Diederichs, 1928); W . - E . Peuckert, Pansophie ( S t u t t g a r t : Kohlhammer, 1936), passim.

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that concept. Every object, Paracelsus believed, expresses its inner nature or soul through an outward sign. Every part of the body is in essential correspondence with some part of the macrocosm. Diseases are curable by the essences of the plants or minerals in correspondence with the affected parts or organs. The practical application of this idea deviates little, if at all, from the ancient occult doctrine of signatures, and the similarity between the concepts of essential correspondence and occult sympathy is obvious. In fact, Paracelsus merely gave a philosophical explanation and justification for ancient magical practices; but through his attempt to explain the process involved in terms of essences and qualities he raised it from the realm of the supernatural to that of the metaphysical. In the Seventeenth Century the doctrine of signatures was given strong support by another Pansophist, Oswald Croll, whose treatise, Von den innerlichen Signaturn oder Zeichen aller Dinge (1608), may have been even more widely known in Germany than Paracelsus' statements on the same subject. If we turn to the German prose written between ca. 1640 and 1700, we find numerous striking examples of this retention of magical technique with the addition of a metaphysical interpretation of the process involved. As an example take the following passage from Lohenstein's A rminius: Finally a British physician 4 announced himself to the emperor who promised to cure us both in a short time . . . He tore all the plasters off Lucius and me and washed out our wounds with a certain wine. T h e n he asked for the dagger with which we had both been injured, cleansed it most diligently, applied salve to it and bound it up in a moistened cloth; our wounds he bandaged with a dry cloth. In a few hours all the fever left Lucius and me and Dido as well, who had previously worsened her condition by tearing off her plaster. After this physician had washed our wounds three times and had powdered the dagger with a certain dust and bandaged it the same number of times, not only the swelling but also our pain receded. When Lucius heard this he asked the Briton if the bandaging of the weapon aided the wound by natural action. T h e physi1 Perhaps Sir Kenelm D i g b y is meant, author of On the Cure of Wounds Powder of Sympathy, L o n d o n : 1660, R . Lowndes.

by

the

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cian affirmed this and asserted that this cure occurred by means of the secret relationship of certain things; indeed he confirmed the truth of this statement through the fact that when he held the bandaged dagger over the coal-fire Lucius' wound grew feverish, when he moistened it the pain ceased again.5 It is to be noted that the process involved is conceived as arising from a natural, qualitative relationship which, though still unclear, does not lie beyond the realm of comprehension. The action of the commonplace process of heating and cooling on this commonly-shared quality in the steel produces analogous results in the flesh. T h e question of the unknown is merely disposed of in terms which are acceptable to the intellect and do not require the exercise of faith. Had the few lines of explanation by the physician been omitted, however, there would have been nothing to distinguish the procedure from one taken from a witch's repertoire. Erasmus Francisci relates a sympathetic cure of a wound by dipping, not the wounded member, but the previously-used bandage into a basin containing no mysterious substance, but merely "Victril." 6 Twice in Peter Squentz Gryphius has his characters inform the audience that arrow wounds are to be cured by placing the arrow in grease. T h e wound thereafter requires not one day, not two or four, but three days in which to heal. 7 N o explanation is offered for the phenomenon. The casualness of its presentation suggests that conscious association of it with occult notions was gone. T h e insistence on the number three seems to be a survival of significance to the author. Ettner doubts strongly that axlegrease has qualities which can be efficacious in the cure of disease, or at least that the customary practice of staring at a dishful of the substance will relieve jaundice, and he suggests with insight that where relief is obtained by such therapy the factors involved were the patient's faith and the action of nature, unaided by remedies. . . . but to put axle-grease into a dish and stare at it all day or to drink from a waxen cup is old wives' folly. In the case of recovery following Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. IV, 446. * Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, I, 635S. ' Andreas Gryphius, Herr Peter Squentz, in Lustspiele, ed. Η. Palm. "Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart," Nr. 138 (1878), pp. 38 & 50. 1

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[such procedure], faith and the fact that the disease had already been overcome by nature and was taking leave of the body, are mostly responsible in my opinion.8 E v i d e n t l y Ettner's scorn of this procedure derives f r o m his inability to see either ideal or factual connection b e t w e e n the disease, the substance of the grease, and the act of scrutinizing it. O n the other hand, the cure per sympathiam

is possible in jaundice.

O t h e r elements are involved however. Concealed in ash-wood there lies a tested magnetic quality and the excellent English physician, Willis," reminds us that if one takes the burnt ash of this wood and mixes it with the patient's urine, presses it into balls, then places these balls in a warm place where they will become smoked, the jaundice will disappear after they are dried out. This (method) I have often tried and found good, along with the internal cures. Once I had a gentleman in Poland under my care for this disease and because he claimed it was impossible for him to take various medicaments internally, I used this method. The gentleman had commanded his servant to place the balls on the oven in the room where he lay. The following morning when I visited him I was greatly frightened when I saw that he looked much uglier and yellower than on the preceding day. I asked what the reason was and where he had had the spheres placed. He answered "On the oven in the room." Accordingly I saw that the miasma ex Urina had entered his body per sympathiam and ordered that in the future he should place these spheres in a warm spot on the kitchen hearth and let the urine be smoked out. He promised to do this and was therewith successfully cured. But at all meals I had him eat cooked plums and peach blossoms so that his body would be mildly purged. Some people fill a pig's bladder with [the patient's] urine and hang it in the smoke of the chimney. This is not a bad method . . , 10 I t is noteworthy that Ettner recommends t h e external s y m p a thetic cure in collaboration with internal remedies and supports the whole procedure with direct experience. In the method which he rejects as an old wives' tale there was no physical process observable (such as heating) which might effect the interaction of the substances in sympathetic relation. T h e practice of curing b y staring at a plate of grease (even though there might h a v e been • Ettner, •Thomas Physicians, "Ettner,

Eckharts Doctor, p. 2isf. Willis (1621-1675). Cf. William Münk, Roll of the Royal College of London, 2nd ed., (London: Publ. by the College, 1878), I. Eckharts Doctor, p. 2isf.

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a supposed reason, originally, for associating the grease with some aspect of the disease) is closer to the occult conception of therapy in that it seems to involve direct and inexplicable action of the will on matter. The method which Ettner approves with qualifications is based on association of elements and forces which his intellect can grasp and which consequently seem not at all preternatural. Reference to the force of sympathy is frequent in other than medical passages. T o its influence Moscherosch attributes the fact that people tend to take sides emotionally when they witness a duel, even when both contestants are strangers to the audience. He says in his Frauenlob ( 1 6 4 0 ) : There are many hidden things in nature the causes of which we cannot discover. This is a major one, that we often wish one man well (even though we have never seen or heard of him before) and hope that fortune will aid him against another [his opponent], and don't know why ourselves. I deem it [due to] a hidden similarity in the blood and nature [of the contestant and his sympathizer]. 1 1

Moscherosch does not use the term Sympathie, here. Harsdörfer, to refute those who will believe only what they can see, points out that many natural phenomena are invisible, such as the transmission of the plague from one person to another. Just as we see many rivers whose sources are unknown, he mentions, similarly we observe many cases of phenomenal action for which no cause can be found. T h e specific cases which Harsdörfer relates might all very easily be taken as examples of occult sympathy. One has already been mentioned above in Chapter IV. T o win the love of a woman who is nursing a child, a lustful priest tries to procure some of her milk. That of a goat is substituted. T h e priest treats the fluid in a mysterious way and thereafter the animal follows him about until it is killed. T h e explanation which the author gives is the natural incorporation of one substance into another. 12 Another example of this process is to be observed if one warms bread in one's armpit and feeds it to a dog. The animal thereafter will 11 Hans Michael Moscherosch, Gesichte Philanders von Sittewald, ed. F. Bobertag. "Deutsche National-Literatur," No. 32, ed. J. Kürschner (Berlin und Stuttgart: W . Spemann, 1883), p. 204. 11 Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, sec. 112, 45ft.

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follow one about "because the sweat is absorbed by him and remains in his nose."1® Harsdörfer's conviction that natural causation is involved extends even to certain cases on which he dares not speculate. In Franconia a thief was brought back to beg mercy by heating some ashes in which he had unwittingly left his footprints. For, while the heating continued, the blood in his body boiled agonizingly. 14 Grimmelshausen gives an example of sympathta between two persons resulting in a sudden discharge of blood, when Simplicissimus, incognito, kisses his own son.15 There is no attempt to explain the incident, however, in terms of either occult or natural physical forces. In Chapter III we have already mentioned Beer's insistence on the natural interpretation of the forces of sympathy and antipathy. He uses the terms, evidently, to include all attraction and repulsion in the organic world, and states that in the animal kingdom, antipathy is mixed with the desire for prey or food (as in the cat-and-mouse relationship). The sympathy between man and dog, on the other hand, is too difficult to analyze. Where the sympathia exists between objects which once stood in organic relation, Beer feels safe in suggesting a current and closer description of the process, mentioning specific cases. A disfigured soldier had a false nose grafted on his countenance from the flesh of a laborer's arm. When the laborer died, the nose rotted away. Beer comments: "It is not to be discovered how this may come about unless one hypothesize with some that in the piece of flesh which had been cut from the arm of the day-laborer many subtle Geisterlein had remained which later died, simultaneously with [the laborer]. 16 What Beer here suggests as an explanation obviously "Ibid., sec. 112, 45ft. " Ibid., sec. 112, 4 5 f r " Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, V , chap, vi, 100. " Beer, Der verliebte Europaeer, p. 304. Analogous stories are still current in various areas of this c o u n t r y . One hears of individuals w h o experienced a painful or itching sensation in the toes or fingers of an amputated arm or leg. On investigating it was discovered that dirt, leaves, or some other substance had intruded itself between the fingers or toes of the buried member. Cleansing of the limb and reburial in a c o m f o r t a b l e position brought relief. Sometimes the discomfort arises f r o m the fact that the limb w a s buried pointing north and south instead of east and west (or vice versa).

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is not one at all, since the introduction of the Geisterlein1T as the common sympathetic element in the removed part and the whole body still contributes nothing toward an understanding of the action involved. B y assuming a common qualitative content in the two parts it does, however, seem to lend itself more readily to the process of association. The author explains that the sympathia of these Geisterlein also accounts for a phenomenon which is even closer in form to the magical stage. " I f people, because of a disease [i.e., to attempt a cure], infuse some of their blood into a tree, then it is said that when the tree withers the person must die also." 18 Evidently the Geisterlein of the tree are assumed to be sympathetic to those of the blood and the entire body, and the addition of a third stage to the process seems to complicate the problem not at all. Beer offers another contribution in this field with the assertion that people who are most closely related to those already ill of the plague are most apt to become infected. T h e explanation is to be sought in the similarity of the blood or in the hidden sympathy between such relatives. 1 * Lohenstein explains magnetic attraction in compasses on the basis of two distinct elements in all molten iron which stand in sympathetic relation to the north and south respectively. This affinity is instilled into iron, not by magic, but by nature: After he had observed that all molten iron contains, without the intent of the smelter, two kinds of qualities, some of which are inclined toward the north, some toward the south and therefore the iron-threads, either suspended in the air or floating on water, constantly turn one end toward the north and the other southward, he firmly believed that this characteristic came from a secret impulse of nature but not from witchcraft.20 As has been mentioned above, in Chapter I V , Francisci offers (although he himself does not accept it) an interesting explana11 O n e m a y see a similarity between these Geisterlein and the "particles" of Girolamo Fracastoro (1483-1553). In his De sympathia et antipathia rerum ( 1 5 4 5 ) , Fracastoro states that for the explanation of mutual action of bodies on each other at a distance (magnet and iron) one must assume t h a t small particles leave each b o d y and enter through openings of the other. T h e cause of this m o v e m e n t of particles between bodies lies in the s y m p a t h y and antipathy of things. u Beer, Der verliebte Europaeer, p. 304. " Ibid., pp. 2g2ff. " Lohenstein, Arminius, I, B k . I I , 124.

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tion of the phenomenon involved in the old superstition that blood flows from the wound of a murdered person when the murderer approaches the corpse: In such cases the blood of those who are now killed is imbued with a desire for revenge which, in the presence of the murderer, makes the blood surge and flow again. From this it appears that not only sympathy but also antipathy can cause a movement and collision of the atoms.21 Francisci tries to refute this theory in spite of the fact that "it is given by Helmont and others." 22 In Der Bayerische Max, Happel speaks of the natural powers in the human blood which make possible the manufacture of the "sympathetic lamp." Such a lamp, prepared with human blood, will burn brightly as long as the person whose blood was used in its preparation enjoys good health, wherever he may be; when he is ill it burns dimly. There are many mysterious powers in the human blood which might be deemed devilish, Happel explains, if one were not cognizant of their true cause, that is, if one did not know that they have their basis in nature and not in superstition. He makes no effort to explain the sympathetic relationship but seems concerned chiefly with stressing its naturalness. Ia Another of the "mysteries and sympathies in nature" which Happel mentions concerns the art of inquiring into the welfare of an absent person by the use of a plant. In the novel mentioned above, a lady inquires of a physician if there may not be some natural art for ascertaining whether or not a person journeying in remote regions is still alive. After a short disquisition on nature's deep, hidden powers, which one would never believe in were it not that experience confirms them, the physician answers that " Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, I, 657. 23 Johann Β. van Helmont ( 1 5 7 7 - 1 6 4 4 ) w a s one of the most important physicians and chemists of the 17th century. Strongly influenced b y Paracelsus, H e l m o n t , however, took water and air as the basic elements. In his theory the Paracelsian basic substances, salt, mercury, and sulphur, are derived f r o m water and can be changed back to fire. T h e third aggregate state he labelled "gas." According to H e l m o n t there are numerous archei, one in each part of every organism. A b o v e them is the chief archeus, aura Vitalis, the cause of all organic activity. T h i s chief archeus is located in the spleen. Its activity is dependent on the " B i a s , " an astral emanation by which all astrological influence is transmitted. C f . Ueberweg, Grundriss, I I I , 12sf. " I l l , 88.

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there is such a technique. If one's father, mother, son, daughter, etc. leave the house on a journey and one wishes information concerning their welfare, one can make use of a certain herb which contains a powerful balsam. The lady is told to break off a stalk of this specific plant, keeping in mind the questions she wishes to have answered, and put it under the roof of the castle in which she is residing. If the person of whom she desires news is alive, the plant will remain green for a time and will grow new leaves at the top while the lower leaves gradually wither. If the person is dead, then the plant will wither immediately. The woman undertakes the experiment when the physician assures her that nothing superstitious or magical is involved and that it is all entirely natural." It is not clear whether Happel considered the natural mystery involved here to be a sympathetic one or not. The sympathetic relationship certainly is not apparent. As in the case mentioned above, he is not interested in attempting an explanation of the phenomenon. In the Gesprächspiele Harsdörfer offers a clear example of adherence to the doctrine of signatures, although his understanding of that doctrine seems to be superficial. " . . . smallpox can be cured by lentils or the water in which they have been boiled, leprosy by the strawberry . . . and many other medicaments heal the diseases with which their forms have visual similarity." 25 Again, the same author offers, as one among several, an explanation of magnetic attraction on the basis of intrinsic sameness. Phenomenal action for him is really interaction of the common qualities of substances instilled into them by nature. This reason must be added to the one given above—that everything has its effect on its counterpart; accordingly the action of fire is on wood which it can consume, but not on stones. The odor of herbs works on, and in, fire, sight by means of light, etc. The reason why this happens is the natural property with which nature related all things to each other and this links the magnet with iron (in so far as it is an incomplete iron and can easily become iron in the earth) as one flame easily unites with another and one water with another, thus also these two [are united] as like with like. 29 " Happel, Der Bayerische Max, III, 74. "Harsdörfer, Gesprächspiele, I, 217. "Ibid., VIII, 491·

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Along with the Paracelsian therapeutical doctrine of similars, we note the retention of the Galenic theory, contraria contrariis curantur. Both these ideas are contained in Grimmelshausen's anecdote concerning the marvelous plums which has already been mentioned. Eating the meat of the fruit induces madness, which can be ended only by eating another part of the same fruit, namely the kernel. Grimmelshausen finds the explanation in an analogy with the constitution of the peach. T h e flesh of the peach contains the quality of heat which counteracts the cold. Grimmelshausen, however, unlike many of his contemporaries and most of his successors, is unsatisfied by his explanation in terms of natural qualities alone. He retains the occult element by letting the reader infer from an inscription on the plum tree that the effect of fruit is still a magical one.27 T h u s it might be stated, perhaps, that the author of Simplicissimus had not yet reached the stage of logical confusion which led so many of our seventeenth-century authors to suppose that by describing phenomenal action in terms of hypothetical qualities they were getting at the cause of the action. Grimmelshausen seems to feel that the very counter-activity of the opposite qualities in the plums is inexplicable; he has no scruples against falling back on the old explanatory aid that has ever rendered service where ignorance obtained— the thesis of miraculous or magical force. It may be an interesting, intermediate stage between the feeling that the occult is involved in a specific phenomenon and the attitude that the phenomenon is explicable entirely in terms of natural, physical forces which is represented by the current attitude toward pre-natal influence on the human foetus through visual impression during pregnancy. Peculiarly, this theory, which finds wide acceptance even today, is usually very casually introduced in our sources. Weise, Francisci, Lohenstein, Riemer, for example, mention it either generally or with a specific case in mind, but make no effort to describe the process. In Weise's Ertz-Narren, a man with a speech-defect asks the aid of a physician, who informs the afflicted person that his mother might have " " V e r w u n d e r dich über meine N a t u r , Ich mach es wie Circe, die zaubrisch H u r . "

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received an impression, while pregnant with him, from another tongue-tied person. What is made part of one's nature while one is yet in the womb cannot be altered. 28 Francisci gives several stories in the Schau-Bühne to demonstrate that pregnant women can influence the appearance of their children by staring at beautiful statues, objects, e t c . " In the Politische Colica, Riemer states that peasants are stupid by nature even though their mothers are likely to have received impressions from rats and foxes, which are sly animals. 30 Lohenstein mentions the case of the Moorish queen Persina who bore a snow-white child as a result of staring, during her pregnancy, at a marble statue of Andromeda. 31 These authors do not indicate that there is a problem involved meriting discussion. T h e attitude toward the question seems quite neutral; on the one hand there is no indication that such an influence was conceived as being the result of other than natural forces or qualitative relationships—on the other, the impulse to explain all difficult phenomenal problems in natural terms seems lacking. This generalization, however, does not apply to Harsdörfer, who mentions as an explanation of hirsuteness in a young girl, the probability that "the mother may have impressed the daughter prenatally by seeing a bear, a wolf, or a shaggy dog." Unlike most of his contemporaries, Harsdörfer makes an effort to describe the process involved. The optical image (or even the mental image in some cases) overstimulates the flow of that specific moisture from which hair develops into the foetus by way of the umbilicus and the child develops excessive hirsuteness as a consequence. 32 Just "P.

228

" 1,657· " Riemer, Die Politische Colica, p. 318. " Lohenstein, Arminius, I, B k . 5, 471. " Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, sec. 68, 246: T h i s differs from the Paracelsian theory. T h e imagination has an equal influence in both, but whereas Harsdörfer thinks of the process in tangible, physiological, and anatomical terms, for Paracelsus it involves an abnormal union of man's invisible and visible bodies. He says of the origin of Missgeburten: " D e n n so sich die zween L e i b vereinigen, der sichtbar und unsichtbar, und gehen in die N a t u r durch Einbildung oder Lust wider die natürliche O r d n u n g : So wisset, dieweil es sich selbst in der Statt der E m p f a n g n u s erhalt, so m u ß es in ein G e w ä c h s gehen, es w e r d dann daraus w a s wolle, nach Art und Formierung derselbigen Imagination." Quoted by Hans K a y s e r , Schriften Theophrasts von Hohenheim genannt Paracelsus ( L e i p z i g : Insel Verlag, 1 9 2 1 ) , p. 240, f r o m Huser's quarto edition of Paracelsus' w o r k s ( B a s e l : 1589-91), I, Opus Paramirum, De tnorbis inviHbilibus, p. 286.

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w h a t the n a t u r e of the s t i m u l u s is seems t o b e b e y o n d t h e r a n g e of H a r s d ö r f e r ' s i m a g i n a t i o n . T h e a s t r o l o g i c a l coins, m i c r o c o s m and m a c r o c o s m , u b i q u i t o u s in t h e philosophical c u r r e n c y of t h e late

are

still

Baroque

b u t their f e a t u r e s h a v e been w o r n smooth. F r e q u e n t l y one feels t h a t o n l y m e t a p h o r i c f o r c e is retained in the p h r a s e , kleine Welt, s o glibly is it u s e d . L o h e n s t e i n , h o w e v e r , gives a s t r i k i n g p r e s e n t a tion of t h e literally c o n c e i v e d , f u n c t i o n a l relation b e t w e e n individual

c o r p o r a l o r g a n s a n d t h e astral bodies. F u r t h e r ,

the he

points o u t the a n a l o g y b e t w e e n the organic order in t h e h u m a n b o d y a n d sidereal order. For if the Saturnal influences, to be sure, do great damage in those bodies which contain elements susceptible to their poison, yet they purge other bodies which are less susceptible to poison and drive the evil humors into the organ destined by nature for that purpose to the benefit of the other viscera. Since the earth is to the world what the stomach, which digests the food, is to the man; the area of humoral activity in animals is the brain, in the heavens it is the moon; the source of the vital spirits in the microcosm is the heart, in the macrocosm, the sun. T h e liver imparts, with the blood, force and strength to the limbs; starry Jupiter does the same for all creatures. T h e lung draws air and cools the heat of the heart as does Mercury among the stars. T h e kidneys are the sieve which differentiates the pure from the impure and fare] the organ of fertility. Starry Venus also effects this in the world. And as the gall draws bitter and sulphurous blood to itself, so does the Martial star act in the heavens. As the spleen, to the benefit of the body, partially absorbs all the other injurious humors, partially forces them out in excretion, so does starry Saturn affect the great world—not to mention that it restricts the volatile spirits, collects everything superfluous fin the body] and prepares man for the investigation of problematic things. 33 E v e n the g e n e r a l course of m a n ' s m o r t a l existence finds a s t r a l analogy according to Lohenstein. On the other hand the moon is the mirror of the smaller world, namely of man, in that both of them now increase, now diminish, now are born, now die, now are all, now naught; both obtain their light from the sun and not from themselves. When they are at their fullest they both have most blemishes and they are both darkened by the earth. 34 M Lohenstein, Arminius, "Ibid., I, B k . V , 516.

I, B k . V , 534f.

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T h e spread of Paracelsus' doctrine which held that the earth and heavens are in complete correspondence—that there is something in the heavens to correspond to everything on earth and vice versa—had given strong support, for more than a hundred years, to the basic notion of astral influence on this world, a view prevalent since earliest antiquity. But Ettner seems a bit dubious concerning Paracelsus' theories. He institutes a debate between several of his characters, during which attitudes are presented representing various degrees of acceptance of the doctrine of astral influence, and the protagonist is chided for doubting the verity of Theophrastus' doctrines. The final note, however, is one of conservative scepticism. Although Ettner could by no means cast off the old astrological approach to the problems of disease, he felt that it was inadequate, and he stressed the practical, observational aspect of Paracelsus' theory far more than the speculative. One gathers that he admits the possibility that the stars may foretell future events and influence the lower organisms, that he agrees with the doctrine ascribed to Helmont by one of the debaters, astra inclinant, non necessitant. It is certain, however, that he despises the physicians who base their remedies on astrological theories solely. 35 Ettner would never use the definition for a physician to be found in Arminias, "ein Kräuter- und SternVerständiger." 38 T h e Paracelsian elements receive frequent mention in the literature of the period. It is on the basis of these elements that Lohenstein explains the permutation of metals. Salt, sulphur, and mercury are the substance of all metals; the permutation of one into another, therefore, is merely a quantitative not a qualitative change. He goes on in a Paracelsian vein to explain that nothing exists in this world which is not to be found in everything else. The water of the river Granua in Pannonia changes iron to copper, as the eye can observe! Elsewhere wood can be changed to stone, etc.37 In a discussion of the philosopher's stone, Rist writes in a vein reminiscent of Hohenheim. On the basis of the Paracelsian docEttner, Eckharls Doctor, pp. 435-440. ** Lohenstein, Arminius, I, B k . I I , 97. "Ibid., I, B k . II, 170. M

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trine it could well be concluded that a great vital essence existed which was, by nature, in sympathetic relation to physical man as a whole and could thus be specific against every disease. T h e greatest folly in the world, we hear from Rist, is by no means the search for lapis pkilosophorum. T o be sure, investigators have committed one of the greatest follies through seeking it in fantastic objects, 38 but they misunderstood its nature. The substance of this universal panacea is air or spirit ("Lufft oder Geist"). This is the air . . . which not only produces everything that exists but also maintains that which has been produced. This air is of such great excellence, powerful virtue, and forceful effect that if it were to be restrained for only a few moments and if this lower world were to be deprived of it, then all men, all four-footed creatures, all birds and fishes, all worms, indeed everything that lives, breathes, and moves would of necessity die within the hour.39 T h e similarity to Paracelsus' Archeus, the creative and maintaining force in everything, is apparent. 40 Rist has made the term refer, not to an unknown stimulus on the universal vital force, but to that force itself. What interests us, however, is his acceptance of the notion that the all-curative spirit is natural, innate in nau

Rist, Aller Edelste Thorheit, p. 252. "Ibid.., p. 2 3 1 . Cf. also Philosophischer Phoenix (Hamburg, 1636). " T h e lapis philosophorum for Paracelsus w a s one of four arcana. Its action w a s that of a purifying fire. "Lapis Philosophorum, der dann das ander Arcanum ist, h a t sein Wirkung in einer andern Gestalt und Gebärd, und das ist also. Gleich w i e ein Feuer, das da aussäubert die beschissen und vermackelt H a u t Salamandrae, u n d sie rein und sauber machet, als ein N e u g e b o m e s : Allso der Lapis P h i l o s o p h o r u m den ganzen Corpus reiniget und säubert v o n allem seinem Unflat, mit ganzen neuen und jungen Kräfften, die er zu seiner N a t u r bringt . . . . S o ist er d o c h weiter zu merken, d a ß sein Ingression durchgehet und durchdringet den Leib, u n d alles d a s im Leib ist: Durch welch durchdringen er restauriert und erneuert dasselbig. N i c h t daß es das Alt h i n w e g tue, und ein N e u e s a n die Statt setze: Oder das es wie die Prima Materia, die spermatisch Arcanen eingüsse: Sondern es m a c h t das Alt also sauber und rein wie ein Salamander mit seiner Haut gereiniget wird, ohn allen Schaden und Faulen, und bleibt d o c h allemal die alte H a u t , in ihrem Wesen und F o r m e n : Also auch Lapis Philosophorum der ist, der also das Herz reiniget und die Hauptglieder all: Darzu das Geäder und Mark u n d w a s darin begriffen ist, d a ß kein M a c u l in ihnen erfunden werd, v o n keiner Ungesundheit. Denn da weicht Podagra, Hydropsis, Icterus, Colica passio: U n d alle Ungeschicklichkeit der vier H u m o r e s läutert es, als ob sie gleich sein der ersten Geburt. D e n n ihm weichen alle die D i n g , die die N a t u r unterstehen zu verderben: Wie die Würm das Feuer fliehen, also fleucht auch die Krankheit und Ungesundheit diese Erneuerung." H . Kayser, Theophrasts Schriften, pp. 2giff. Quoted f r o m Huser's edition, VI, Von den Geheimnissen der Arcana, pp. 44-45 & 48-49.

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ture generally, something quite distinct from the external influence which disrupts natural process and which is classified, without being comprehended, as occult. It should not be supposed that the explanation of phenomenal action in terms of metaphysical qualities was worked out in great detail, nor that new qualities were invented, or even new terms devised. In medicine the ancient qualities of heat and cold, wetness and dryness, are mentioned in almost every case. Galenic humoralism is still widespread; hot and cold moistures, vapors, mucus are involved in almost all diseases, and therapy usually consists in offsetting the effects of the evil humors. The Geisterlein, which have been mentioned in connection with sympathy and antipathy, break down into spiritus vitales and animales. Terms like Lebens-Licht are common. The bulk of the speculation, however, does not extend beyond mention of these ubiquitous qualities and substances and a superficial analysis of their effect on certain organs. An example may be taken from Harsdörfer. He explains that apoplexy and encephalitis are due to a cold and viscous mucus, the rising vapors of which darken the brain and settle on all the limbs, paralyzing them.41 Not all mucus is deleterious in its effect, however, for moisture mixed with mucus is the natural cause of growth. From this it is apparent why fishes grow so rapidly There are various types of vapors. Those arising from nutriment are heavy and differ from those which rise rapidly to the brain and (in the opinion of some) cause sleep.43 Again, vapors are the cause of the fact that some women are more frequently afflicted with headaches than are men. The female brain, like that of a goat, is so small and the cranium is so completely closed that the rising vapors are prevented from evaporating. The similarity between women and goats in respect of lasciviousness results from their both having "hot" and "sharp" blood.44 Harsdörfer is not altogether clear in his distinction between the two types of Geisterlein. The heart is the source of "the little " Harsdörfer, Der Grosse 0 Ibid., sec. 144, 157. " Ibid., sec. 114, 52. ** Ibid., sec. 67, 23g.

Schau-Platz,

sec. 196, 356.

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spirits in which life consists," he informs us at one point, 45 but a t another, it is the Geisterlein of the brain, " t h e animal spirits," which are the "most important organs of life," whereas those of the heart, "vital spirits," express themselves in our emotions of joy, anger, and grief. 48 N a t u r a l warmth and vital light, Riemer announces, are vitiated b y sexual intercourse. 47 T h e former, according to H a r s d ö r f e r , can be completely extinguished by the action of some poison, although certain poisons work by a drying action in the body. In general it is the cold of the poison which is fatal; thus a poisoned heart cannot be burned since the cold of the poison resists the heat of the fire.48 E t t n e r explains the stroke as follows: If I am to pass judgment briefly on the case I should guess it is a repeated blocking of the little arteries as well as a compression of the nerves because of which the spirits residing within them are denied their usual circulation. These, when they are held back because of the viscosity of the lymph and sera and accumulate, try to force a passage. Sometimes it happens that they push the blocking substance further and cause a heavier stoppage until finally continued accumulation presses more and more heavily and holds up more and more. But because it is impossible [for these substances to move], the patient is prostrated so that neither the vital nor animal spirits can continue their movement and the patient is left lifeless—for one sees that choleric individuals and those addicted to strong drink, but mostly the Phlegmatki (among whom are to be reckoned those termed melancholies by the ancients) are subject [to the condition described above]. But as for the Cholericos and Sanguineos, they . . . are afflicted with this disease because of the too great agitation and frenzy of the animal spirits.4® A better illustration of the more general theorizing in vogue can be taken from Lohenstein's analysis of the question why lovers are prone to weep and swoon. . . . because lovers separate so unwillingly from each other their souls rise up to their eyelids to escort their sweethearts as far as sight permits. " Ibid., sec. 131, 112. 44 Ibid., sec. 114, 52. "Riemer, Der Politische Stock-Fisch, "Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, "Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 224.

p. 122. sec. 193, 345f.

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. . . But at an unexpected meeting of lovers, their hearts become inflamed and open, their souls unite with the pupils of their eyes and are anxious to unite, through their pleasant (annehmlich) rays, with the object of their affections. Because the eyes are unable to transfer the entire essence of the soul into another body, a great number of fiery and moist spirits gather, out of love and anger, in these earthly stars which open the blocked or frozen tubes of the heart and the water-pearls which roll out drip down the cheeks. . . . For the life-spirits, which are at one and the same time the soul of thought and the second beginning of life, dissipate themselves to such an extent that no other indication [of life] is retained other than a weak heart-beat, which is nothing other than an anxious throbbing and call for aid by the departing soul. This swooning of lovers occurs in the case of immoderate desire or joy, when the heart suddenly opens all its portals wide so that the spirits, the very volatile activators of movement, the springs in the clock-works of the senses, rush forth to unite with the loved one and thereby deprive the heart of all strength and almost draw the soul entirely out of the lover.60 From the manner in which disease is explained it might be inferred how the question of therapy is approached by authors of the late Baroque. Disease generally breaks down into the presence or activity of qualities which are injurious to certain other qualities already present in the body (the animal and vital spirits) or which affect the action of certain organs. Just how this influence actually occurs seems to be of no interest. T h e qualities themselves are conceived as elemental. No further explanation in other terms is necessary. T h e physician's task, after diagnosing an ailment, is to prescribe those remedies which will counteract the hypothetical qualities and others which will strengthen the organs and spirits. Here too the nature of the counteraction remains mysterious. When the remedy is described, it is invariably a purgative, astringent, or resuscitant. T h e function of sweatingpowders, Riemer explains, is to drive out the evil humors, 51 and their usefulness is apparently unquestionable in every case involving humors. Often one remedy may contain almost all therapeutic properties, such as certain nameless little pills which, according to Happel, through their purgative and strengthening action prevent the decay of any humors in the stomach, fortify the heart, prevent Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. Ill, 308-g. " J . Riemer, Die Politische Colica (Leipzig, 1680), p. 2.

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headache, stomach disorder, depression, hepatic inflammation; they cleanse the kidneys and the e y e s . " Agate, according to Happel, has a drying and astringent effect and is not only useful in checking hemorrhages but "when drunk, it stills all stomach-flow, running sores," etc. 53 Ettner mentions the purgative, strengthening, and generally curative action commonly attributed to gold, which (through a false analogy based on the monetary value of the metal) is deemed efficacious in fevers, measles, chicken-pox, strokes, and generally in epilepsy (schwere Noth).54 T h e strengthening of the vital spirits (Lebensgeisterlein) is most frequently accomplished by the external application of salves or liquids. Thus, when a character in a novel by Riemer is rescued after thirteen days of imprisonment in a box, "Castrette ran to fetch balsam and strengthening fluids and poured them over his whole body. These spirits aided the vitiated vital spirits so greatly that Solande opened his eyes." 5 5 T h e doctrine of specificity is a natural derivative of the theory of essential relationship and the art of signatures. Mention of specifics is quite frequent; often one remedy is effective in a great variety of diseases, as, for example, a remarkable Violen-Essentz known to Rist, which has therapeutic value in illnesses ranging from respiratory inflammations to liver ailments. 50 Occasionally, however, the use of specifics is made an element in a satiric passage, as when Beer relates in Teutsche Winternächte how a boy is kicked in the side and then dosed with liquid (which costs more than he is worth) against the eventuality of his having suffered a rupture of the spleen. 57 Or when Riemer recounts a narrative of a lascivious woman who is locked into a little house on wheels together with her lover and rolled into a lake. She returns, drenched, to her distraught, cuckolded husband who hangs a Schreckstein (amulet!) about her neck and doses her with bezoar. 58 It cannot " Happel, Mundus Mirabilis, p. 298. 13 Ibid., p. 298. " E t t n e r , Eckharts Doctor, p. 148. " Riemer, Der Politische Stock-Fisch, p. 181. M Rist, Aller Edelste Thorheil, pp. 8-10. 17 Beer, Teutsche Winternächte, p. 394. M Riemer, Der Politische Maul-Aße, p. 306.

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be said on the strength of these passages that either Beer or Riemer is scornful of the use of specifics. B u t in introducing them in such connection, in making their use seem stupid in these instances, the superficial implication, at least, is that the authors are disparaging their use in general. Similarly in Daniel Speer's Simplicianischer, Lustig-Politischer Haspel-Hanß, a humorous passage describes how a deformed boy was relieved of his extreme physical deformities through purging, baths, fasting, exercise, beatings, and salves. "Through treatment of this sort after two years my figure was completely transformed." 5 ' Although specifics were conceived in terms of natural though hypothetical properties and although, on rare occasions, one finds evidence of what may possibly have been a rather scornful attitude toward certain of them, for the great majority of individuals the problem of the nature of their action was non-existent, and as much faith was placed in the sulphur vitriol prescribed by the seventeenth-century physician for insanity 80 as had once been given the salves, amulets, and incantations of the witch. Indeed an explanation of the curative property involved would undoubtedly have effaced to some extent the illusion of efficacy for most people. T h e quack, with his appeal to fancy, exerted a powerful influence; the average individual preferred to accept a specific for a heartailment from a notorious, blind beggar who purveyed nostrums 81 rather than from a physician who could explain the action of his remedy in such terms as resuscitation of the vital or animal spirits. For in spite of considerable evidence of an interest in, and insistence on, a natural interpretation of everything, the fantastic, exotic, marvelous still exerted a powerful influence on the seventeenthcentury German mind. W e have not attempted to establish a direct influence of pansophistic philosophers on the individual authors in. our period. Personal relationships between certain writers of the Seventeenth Century and contemporaries with definite cabalistic or pansophistical leanings have been shown by various scholars. Paul Hanka™ Daniel Speer, Simplicianischer/Lustig-Politischer " Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 34. " Die Verderbte Jugend, p. 1 .

Haspel

Hannß

(1684), p. 46.

PANSOPHISTIC

IDEAS

»7

mer discusses the influence of the current, mystical, natural-philosophical ideas on Paul Fleming, 82 as does Karl Vietor.* 3 Will-Erich Peuckert 64 and G. Ellinger 65 establish relationship between Scheffler and Oswald Croll, the Neo-Paracelsist. Karl A . Kroth treats the general influence of contemporary mysticism on Harsdörfer and gives material on Harsdörfer's interest in Raimund Lull. 66 G. A. Narciss discusses Harsdörfer's interest in numerology and Rosicrucianism. 6 ' Vietor offers a note on Harsdörfer's interest in the Cabala and on the literary transmitters of interest in the Cabala (including Grimmelshausen's cabalistic source). 68 Vietor also takes up the problem of natural-philsophical influence on Gryphius." The inevitability of such influences on Zesen, Harsdörfer, and Rist through their membership in the Sprachgesellschaften and their association with pansophists and Rosicrucians there is brought out by Peuckert. 70 In general, however, the ground of this field remains almost unturned. But it seems safe to generalize from our findings that even if specific pansophistical theories were not demonstrable in the writings of any given baroque author, the chance would be very slight indeed that he might have escaped completely the influence of the mystical, philosophic movement given its German impetus b y Paracelsus. Leibnitz and Newton reveal interest in the current of emotionalized theory which began with Theophrastus. 71 Even Goethe's scientific theories, a century later, are tinged with pansophism and those of the Romanticists even more strongly. 72 But in the third and last quarters of the " Paul Hankamer, Die Sprache, ihr Begriff und ihre Deutung im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert ( B o n n : F. Cohen, 1927), p. i8gf. " Karl Vietor, Probleme der deutschen Barockliteratur. "Von deutscher Poeterey," No. 3 (Leipzig: J . J . Weber, 1928), pp. 55t. " P e u c k e r t , Die Rosenkreutzer, p. 171. " G. Ellinger in the introduction to J . Scheffler, Cherubinischer Wandersmann. " Karl A. Kroth, Die mystischen und mythischen Wurzeln der ästhetischen Tendenzen Harsdörfers (Munich typewritten diss., 1922), pp. 16-33 & 7 1 · 01 G. A. Xarciss, Studien zu den Frauenzimmergesprächspielen Harsdörfers. " F o r m und Geist," No. 5 (Leipzig: H. Eichblatt, 1928), pp. 24ft. Vietor, Probleme, p. 59. " Ibid., p. 40. '"Peuckert, Rosenkreutzer, p. 351. " Ibid., p. 381. " Cf. A Gode-von Aesch, Natural Science in German Romanticism, "Germanic Studies, New Series," No. 11 (Columbia University Press, 1941), p. 78η.

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century the mysticism of the pansophistical doctrines is not apparent in the sources we have examined. The urge to study and speculate on terrestrial phenomena in order thereby to realize emotionally the organic conception between man, world, and God has been vitiated for the most part. True, the slogan is prevalent that through even superficial observation of phenomena one is filled with an awareness of God's beneficence, but as a rule this refers to the original creation. Interest in natural phenomena is now academic rather than fervent, dilettantish rather than a vital necessity arising from the individual's innate need to achieve the sensation of immediacy with the divine, as, for example, it was for Böhme. In short, the spread of pansophism was due to its mystical, emotional aspect (its theoretical side contained little that was new); but its influence on the literary men with whom we are dealing, disregarding for the moment Paracelsus' observational tendency, is to be reckoned mainly in terms of stimulus to interest in the material world. It gave the minutest aspects of both microcosm and macrocosm new significance, brought them well within the realms of speculation and indicated that they merited man's closest scrutiny. Previously we mentioned the simplifying and unifying effect of church dogma and authority on the mass of traditional, supernatural lore and on the questions of causation and phenomenal action or change. But if formerly the assumption of the supernatural character of causation and change made difficult the investigation of specific phenomena, now the simplification which followed from the spread of the pansophist philosophy was an incentive to a close consideration of terrestrial phenomena and to an attempt at uncovering the fundamental forces and qualities characterizing it. The formerly inimical and damnable world had assumed a more friendly aspect and one felt himself in organic relation with it, a relation which could be observed and "understood." Superficially this would seem to represent a break with the past and progress toward what is sometimes called "modern science," and it is, of course, a sine qua non that the natural sciences could rise from the Middle Ages only after a revaluation of the importance of this world, even in its most minor aspects.

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From the point of view of the theory concerning phenomenal action, however, our seventeenth-century literati can hardly be said to have approached much closer to the present than had their remote predecessors. In the Middle Ages two elements enter into the theory of phenomenal action. One is the animistic belief in the power of good and evil spirits and forces which can miraculously create substance, remove from existence that which already exists, and interrupt the processes of natural order. The other is the belief in essential positive and negative relationships which can be recognized but not understood. T h e magical techniques usually involve the formulistic persuading or compelling of spirits or forces either to produce something which had not existed or, on the basis of mysterious essential relationship, to effect an alteration of condition in that which already did exist. What changes are to be noted in the seventeenth-century theory so far as our sources are concerned? Primarily, creation is no longer deemed credible; there is confusion and division of opinion as to the possibility of divine interference with the natural order. Concern is chiefly with phenomenal change. But the concept of essential relationship is still present, still the basis of phenomenal action. Paracelsus and the pansophists had borrowed the idea from traditional occult theory and imbued it with religious, mystical significance, given it credibility and importance by making it a cornerstone of their cosmological systems. Now again the religious emotional content has largely filtered out. Its appeal is mainly to the intellect and logic alone is applied to support it in its function of clarifying the problems of phenomenal alteration. Thus it is no longer felt by most of the men whom we are investigating that sympathy and antipathy are by nature incomprehensible. An effort is made to explain these forces, to break them down, as it were. The result, of course, is merely the substitution of other terms, other hypothetical qualities which the baroque author somehow found more satisfactory. For example, it might be stated that if one burns a human hair, then the individual whose hair it had been would suffer burning physical pangs. The explanation might be, typically, that the hair and the whole individual are in sympathetic relation, that is, both contain Geisterlein which have a na-

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tural affinity for each other. Injury to the Geisterlein of one occasions similar effect on the other. It is inconsequential that the affinity between the Geisterlein is precisely the same thing as the original sympathy and that the author is therefore defining the force in terms of itself. The substitution of another name which the author preferred, for whatever connotative reasons, constituted an explanation for him. It is noteworthy that although the form of the magical technique is clearly visible, the absence of supernatural forces and the naturalness of the process is stressed; that no conjuring of spirits, no incomprehensible treatment of the hair is required; that the whole occurrence is expressed in metaphysical terms which, it was assumed, lay within the range of rational comprehension. But to regard this influence exerted by the natural-philosophical school on the view of nature as a step toward the modern understanding of natural phenomena is patently false. Most of the preconceptions introduced by it which were unconfirmed and unconformable had to be sloughed off as cleanly as those of theological kind before the great development of experimental sciences could occur. The establishment of the concept of mechanical interaction of substances according to simply formulated, mathematical laws was possible only after this repudiation.

VII THE SEARCH FOR RATIONAL

CAUSALITY

THE FICTIONAL and didactic material of the second half of the Seventeenth Century demonstrates the currency in that era of attitudes deriving from the beliefs of primitive, animistically-inclined societies, from the dogma of the medieval church, from Aristotelian cosmogony, from the ideas of the neo-Platonic sixteenth-century philosophers. One finds some statements, also, which might well be attributed to eighteenth-century deists and an occasional statement which might be put into the mouth of a scientist of today, fully aware of the experimental method and its implications. The transitional aspect of the period is best indicated by the fact that it is not unusual for a single author to express several of these contradictory views in a single paragraph and indicate the difficulty of choosing between them. In itself the welter of ideas is of little significance. T o d a y there is a similar confusion in the popular mind concerning the sciences. In medicine, for example, the mechanistic working-hypothesis, which is characteristic of our time and with which so many successes have been achieved, competes in the minds of both intelligentsia and masses with vitalism as well as with a metaphysical concept of entity-diseases and the suspicion that there may be virtue in certain semi-occult therapeutical practices. There is no doubt, however, as to which tendency has contributed most to the body of scientific knowledge in our times, and, looking back to the baroque period, we believe we can follow the trend which leads into the present. It should be stated at the outset that in tracing this process of change we are compelled to involve an element that cannot be adequately explained here, namely scepticism, the tendency to doubt—the doubting, first, of authority; secondly, the doubting of the sole efficacy of that human faculty which is the source of the process of doubting, namely reason. Thus far we have demonstrated in the period under discussion the tendency toward "confirmation" of hypotheses through depen-

[91]

SEARCH FOR RATIONAL CAUSALITY dence on reason. That, in essence, is the significance of the change in the view of nature, of the intense insistence on the natural as opposed to the supernatural. The dissatisfaction with a view of nature which made necessary the explanation of numerous phenomena and natural processes in terms of the supernatural, that is, in terms of forces beyond the realm of the knowable, forces which could abrogate natural law, may be considered as a manifestation of the rationalistic current which was to reach its culmination in Germany during the next century. In the minds of such exponents as Leibnitz and Wolf, the natural world which worked only with means that could eventually be understood, even if they still seemed preternatural in many instances, had of course been miraculously created by God. Similarly, Vernunft was God-given. But with the creation of nature and the gift of Vernuft divine creation had ended. The miraculously established laws and means by which nature worked were not to be abrogated either by God or devil. All phenomena could be expressed in terms of these laws, and their recognition and description was possible to human reason. As has been pointed out, a renunciation of the hypothesis of supernatural action by no means signified scepticism toward the inherited magical techniques per se. Many of the occult practices were merely put on another basis, which was labelled "natural," and stripped of their uncanny, supracomprehensible aspect. But now there is observable a tendency to seek an explanation in terms of particular modes of metaphysical qualities and forces which somehow held a greater appeal for the mind. The interest of the baroque individual in the phenomena of the world about him and their explanation is amazing even to us in the age of such extreme popularization of science. The change of attitude may be explained in terms of the attitude toward the hypothesis. Previously a hypothesis was considered acceptable if it was in keeping with dogma. Now a hypothesis was satisfactory if it seemed reasonable, quite apart from religious authority. The endless speculations and asides in the fiction of the period dealing with natural phenomena, frequently revolve about that one problem: does the hypothesis offered in explanation of some phenomenon seem logical on the basis of what is already

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known, of what has been reported b y older and contemporary scientific authorities, of logical analogy with other phenomena and other processes?

Previously

the supernatural

hypothesis

had

exerted an obviously negative influence on scientific theorizing. E v e n the profounder and freer spirits in the Middle A g e s who subscribed to the theory of a miraculously creative nature controlling the world had been handicapped b y the inevitable fact that the miraculous, the creative, cannot be explained in more tangible terms. B u t now the barriers begin to come down; the hypothesis of natural action opened the blocked end of the theoretical cul-de-sac and countless minor hypotheses for each specific phenomenon become possible. A n y adequate discussion of the problem had to consider each of them and support or refute them on the basis of plausibility. L e t us consider a specific e x a m p l e — t h e phenomenon of insanity. T . F . Troels-Lund points out that the sixteenth-century theory as to the cause of disease in general gave first place to the notion that disease is visited on man b y God as punishment or warning. Cures could be effected through penance, prayer, the intercession of the Church. Second, the devil and his agents cause disease. In such instances both white and black magic are efficacious. Third, disease is due to sidereal influence. Fourth, disease arises from humoral disturbance (Galenic doctrine). Finally, disease arises from bodily deficiencies;

the pharmacopeia can remedy

such

cases. 1 In the Seventeenth Century, whereas priests and numerous laymen still insisted that insanity was a divine visitation, the enlightened individual was, it appears, more apt to declare that insanity resulted from natural physical processes. T h e fault might lie in abnormal activity of the affected organ, i.e., the brain; it might arise from suppressed desires, from the presence of injurious vapors, humors, excess internal cold or heat, from the morbid condition of some other organ, etc. It will be recalled that even in the symbolic passage dealing with the effect of the insanityproducing plums on the Dutch sailors who visit Simplicissimus on his island, Grimmelshausen gives as a medical analogy the theory 1 Gesundheit und Krankheit (Leipzig, 1901), pp. 41ft.

in der Anschauung alter Zeiten. Transl. by Leo Bloch

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that peach-flesh contains an injurious cold and peach-pit a healthful warmth. 2 It may be asserted that seventeenth-century theorizing bears little resemblance to modern doctrines. T h e tendency to speculate on disease in terms of qualities, elements, humors and spirits—to accept hypotheses which are incapable of confirmation—is hardly indicative of advancement beyond ancient metaphysical medicine. But it must be pointed out that there is no gainsaying the improvement in the attitude of the intelligent laity over the approach to the sciences prevalent in the foregoing period of almost a thousand years. And the seventeenth-century scepticism which denied all contemporary action outside the realm of rational comprehension was to continue and turn against the faith in reason alone as the means of discovering the natural laws of the universe. Meanwhile the variety of possible hypotheses (there being no confirmation of a hypothesis except in terms of the few extant scientific facts and in terms of other unconfirmed hypotheses), augmented by intense humanistic interest in the theories of the past, the struggle of the rising tide of scepticism against that love of the exotic and bizarre, which is certainly present today but which in the baroque era was intensified as never before or since and seems to have provided an aesthetic and emotional release, frequently gives the present-day reader the sensation of being lost in a maze of contradictions, fantasies, and nonsense. The predilection for the fantastic is everywhere apparent in baroque prose works and involves many fields of natural phenomena. Harsdörfer, giving his source in every case, tells the story, in Der Grosse Schau-Platz,3 of a criminal who was found during 1 Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, V I , chap. 25, 263. ' H a r s d ö r f e r , Der Grosse Schau-Platz, sec. 131, 113. Johann Reiche, Unterschiedliche Schrifften von Unfug des Hexen-Processes, I V , Inquisitions-Acta v o n dem Laster der Zauberey (Halle, 1703), mentions that during a witch trial in 1676 a learned physician, questioned as to the death of a child, gave an opinion ascribing the cause to w o r m s and claimed that he himself had had a case in which a patient passed a long black w o r m w i t h legs and a red head. According to the physician, such things are caused not naturally, but b y witchcraft. F r o m A . C . H o w l a n d , Materials toward a History of Witchcraft Collected by Henry Charles Lea (Philadelphia: Univ. of Penn. Press, 1939), I I I , p. I244f. In 1676 during a witch trial (evidently in the vicinity of H a l l e ) , testimony w a s offered that at the funeral of a child a gray w o r m w i t h m a n y legs and a red, horned head crept out of the

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autopsy to have possessed a hairy heart, and of a young prince who was killed by a heartworm equipped with a pointed beak like that of a young chicken. Lest this anecdote fail of its intended effect on the reader, Harsdörfer mentions that other individuals have carried eels, otters, lizards, and toads within their bodies/ H e also tells of an old man who, at the age of 100, shed his skin like a snake and became rejuvenated. 5 In the Thesaurus Exoticorum, Happel lifts the New World out of the realm of the prosaic by attributing huge dimensions to it. It is larger, he says, than Asia and Africa together.® Lohenstein contributes to the misinformation concerning the N e w World with the announcement in Arminius that it possesses rivers of such magnitude as to make the Danube, Ganges, Rhine, and Euphrates seem rain-rivulets by comparison. 7 He informs us also that China contains two rivers with water so light neither wood nor hay can float on it,8 that some elephants (this is supported by the direct observation of one of the characters in the Arminius) can speak a few words and write in the dust with their trunks, that they pray to the rising sun and the new moon." In the Scythian "Chersonesus," we are told, children are born blind like puppies. 10 An idea which Lohenstein repeats on several occasions is that animals have taught man such useful practices as plowing, blood-letting, and the use of the clyster. From observing them we have learned the value of numerous herbal medicaments. 11 Such passages as we have mentioned are very frequent. How corpse. Another worm, seen lying on the child's eyes, was killed. The first was put into a tin box and brought to the burgomaster, but when the box was opened the worm had disappeared. Howland, Materials, III, 1241Γ Antonio Benivieni (14401502) in his work, On Some Hidden and Marvelous Causes of Sickness and Healing (1506), "tells of a patient's vomiting a worm four fingers long with a red head, a bifurcated tail like a new moon, and four legs. In another instance a friend of Benivieni escaped death by voiding a worm longer than a palm from his right nostril." L. Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, IV, 587. 4 Harsdörfer, Der Crosse Schau-Platz, sec. 162 (misnumbered as 62), 237. 'Ibid., sec. 163, 240. * Happel, Thesaurus Exoticorum, p. 89. ' Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. II, 118. 'Ibid., I, Bk. V, 545. 'Ibid., I, Bk. V, 570. 10 Ibid., I, Bk. V, 507. "Ibid., I, Bk. II, 82 & 8 4 f., Bk. V, 569.

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often the author believes the "facts" he quotes from other sources is impossible to say; but in contrast to this evident credulity and difficult to reconcile with it, one finds in the very same authors an attitude of scepticism which may vary from a polite denial of traditional attitudes and theories to a grimacing satire on them. The extent of this scepticism is occasionally and indirectly indicated. Moscherosch, in his Schergen-Teuffel, has an evil spirit announce that when questioned in hell as to why he had depicted the evil spirits so horribly, strangely, and falsely in his picture of the Last Judgment, Michelangelo had answered, because throughout his whole life he had never seen a devil and had not believed that either devil or hell had really existed. The evil spirit adds that this is the case with most painters, artists, courtiers, and scholars.12 Rist denounces the widespread tendency to accept no authority in scientific matters and to trust only to one's inefficient senses. W e p o o r people are generally so constituted that w e immediately censure a n d denounce a s monstrous lies w h a t e v e r sounds strange and w o n d e r f u l a n d w h i c h w e c a n n o t see immediately b e f o r e us with our great c o w - e y e s nor c o m p r e h e n d w i t h our stupid minds, a n d all people do this

who

h a v e never y e t taken a real tour through the secret halls of a r t a n d nature . . .13

Actually Rist's attack on dogmatic faith in the power of reason is not based on the result of his epistemological convictions as much as on his previously-mentioned predilection for the fantastic and preternatural. That the movement, if it can be so termed, " Moscherosch, Philanders Gesichte, I, Schergen-Teufel, p. 20. This scepticism is hardly to be considered peculiar to the period of our investigation. According to Lynn Thomdike, Jean Gerson ( 1 3 6 3 - 1 4 2 9 ) gives "testimony that there was a considerable scepticism as to the reality of demons—presumably among the men of science and medical men of his day. Although to deny the existence of demons and that they are the operators of multitudinous effects, is condemned among Christians as erroneous and impious and contrary to the Bible, yet there are, he says, those who deride theologians as soon as they begin to speak of demons and to ascribe certain effects to them. Such persons look upon demons as fabulous." History of Magic and Experimental Science, I V , 127t. Approximately a generation later than Gerson, Raphael of Pornasio (ca. 1450), a liberal inquisitor, "grants that many of the operations of magic and of demons are illusory and fantastic . . . he both admits the existence of a considerable scepticism as to the truth of magic, and displays a relatively tolerant attitude toward his opponents and readiness to hear their arguments." Ibid., I V , 3 1 1 & 3 1 3 . " Rist, Aller Edelste Thorheit, p. 145.

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which he denounces is sufficiently strong to merit his attack, is of vital interest. Grimmelshausen gives us an insight into the cynical reason for the prevalence of wonderful material in his work (and incidentally throws light on the baroque attitude toward the question of Wahrheit oder Dichtung). For him, this invention of extraordinary incidents is lying, and when he indulges in the pastime, he is merely catering to vulgar taste with a condescending shrug. " B u t I went on lying because I saw that he [a wealthy citizen of Schaffhausen at whose home S. is a guest] wished to have it so, since he let himself be worked up by such chatter, as children are by fairy tales.'" 4 Again: But whenever any inquisitive individual entertained me because of my oddity in order to hear something extraordinary from my lips, I treated him as he wished me to and told him all manner of stories, which I pretended to have seen, heard, and experienced on my distant travels, and was not at all ashamed to narrate as truthful the ideas, lies, and crotchets of the old scribes and poets as if I had been present everywhere and witnessed t h e m — i n short, I not only knew how to lie concerning strange and remarkable things, but I had seen everything with my own eyes. 15

In a sense these passages form a confession. One seems to read in them a sense of guilt for falsification or invention. Grimmelshausen applies to the ancient story-tellers the same standards as to himself. Precisely why he privately scoffs at the fantasies of the ancients is not revealed, but it is evident that it is not the character of Simplicissimus here who is mocking the gullibility of those who believed him. It is Grimmelshausen attacking the credulity of his own readers, since he himself is using the same technique as the "shameless" protagonist of his novel. In another interesting paragraph Grimmelshausen also indicates the extent of disbelief in the existence of witches and witchcraft. Since there are some dignified and learned people . . . who do not believe that witches or demons exist, to say nothing of their flying about in the air, consequently I do not doubt several will be found who will say Simplicius is telling a very tall tale. 18 " Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, V I , chap, xi, 206. Ibid., V I , chap. X I V , 219-223. "Ibid., II, chap, xviii, 130. B y the third quarter of the 17th century the witch-craze had begun to slacken.

15

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Happel indicates, in Der Bayerische Max, that there are people who deny all ghostly phenomena and call them all mere phantasy and deceptive illusion. These people, however, are in far greater error than those who foolishly give credence to all reports of ghostly activity, for that teacher, thousandfold experience, demonstrates that ghosts do exist and gives us substantial reason for belief in them. 17 Howland, Materials, III, 1241. After that time the number of recorded executions decreases; and from the accounts of the trials it is apparent that the accused were sometimes allowed the form of a defense. In Central Europe, however, executions for witchcraft during this period were far from rare. Two people were condemned to death at Calw (Württemberg) in 1677. Howland, Materials, III, 1167. In Braunsberg-Neustadt (Polish Prussia) there was a witch-buming in 1686. Howland, Materials, III, 1233. In 1689 there was a witch-burning in Altendorf. Howland, Materials, III, 1248. In Meran (Tyrol) ten were executed in 1679 and three in 1680. The year 1678 saw at least 76 and perhaps as many as ninety persons burnt at Salzburg. A special jail had to be built to accommodate the prisoners awaiting trial for witchcraft. Howland, Materials, III, 1133, and Montague Summers, The Geography of Witchcraft, "The History of Civilization," ed. C. K. Ogden (New York: Knopf, 1927), p. 495. Thirty-five women and one man perished in Nördlingen between 1690 and 1694. Summers, Geography, p. 495. At Geisling, sixteen were executed in 1689. Howland, Materials, III, 1133. Eight boys under seventeen and a girl of twelve were burnt at Burghausen (Bavaria.) in 1698. Summers, Geography, p. 502. Executions continued until late in the Eighteenth Century. Some of those which occurred in Southern Germany follow: Wasserburg (Bavaria): 1715—one person beheaded; Freising (Bavaria): 1717—three beheaded; Salzburg: 1717—nine condemned to the Venetian galleys—one beheaded in 1720; Moosburg (Bavaria): 1722—one beheaded; Freising: 1721-1722—eleven executed. Howland, Materials, III, 1134. Eichstätt (Bavaria): 1723—one beheaded; Augsburg: 1728-34—twenty people involved in one case. Some were executed, others received less severe punishment. Landshut: 1754—two persons burnt. Howland, Materials, III, 1166. In 1744 three men were executed at Karpfen. Two years later three men died in Mühlbach (Saxony) and in 1752 there was another execution in Mühlbach. One woman perished at Würzburg in 1749, another at Salzburg in 1751. From 1772 to 1774 over one hundred Satanists died in the Netherlands district of Roldyck. In 1775 the last execution for witchcraft in Germany took place at Lachen near Memmingen. Summers, Geography, p. 503. This was 93 years after the last execution for the same offense in England, 53 years after the last execution in Scotland, and 57 years after the last in France. Summers, Geography, pp. 149 & 249 and Carl Meyer, Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters (Basel, 1884), Ρ· 335- Of the larger German states Prussia led the way in enlightenment. In 1714 King Friedrich Wilhelm I ordered that all witchcraft cases involving the death penalty be reported to him in writing and that no death-warrants were to be valid in such cases without his signature. In 1721 he announced that no more charges of witchcraft were to be heard by the magistrates. In 1728, at Berlin, a girl swore she had made a compact with the devil. The king ordered her sent to the asylum at Spandau. Joseph I of Austria, however, revived the old witchcraft laws in 1707, adding certain regulations forbidding the use of torture. Summers, Geography, p. 503. " Happel, Der Bayerische Max, III, 36gi.

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In Der Höllische Proteus Francisci is troubled by the fact that so very many people are completely sceptical of all ghostly phenomena: In order that many incredulous people may not suspect that I am writing of vain illusions or fairy tales—since there is a greater superfluity than dearth of such people who ascribe everything which one says or writes of ghosts to poetry, dreams, perverted imagination or visual or auditory delusion, and who refuse completely to believe in ghosts— it seems necessary to prove first that ghosts often make themselves seen, heard, or felt. Francisci goes on to mention the reasons for disbelief in ghosts. The sceptics claim that all cases of ghostly activity can be traced to insanity, sensory defects on the part of the observer or reporter, or to false contentions and tricks played by pranksters and unscrupulous individuals. Therefore there are no ghosts, they say. The author points out the illogicality of this argument. He might have mentioned that even if every ghostly phenomenon were disproved, it still would not prove that ghosts could not, and do not, exist. Actually, Francisci does not go so far. He gives the analogy of the circulation of numerous counterfeit coins. The fact that so many coins are counterfeit does not argue that there is no honest coinage. Further, he argues, to deny the existence of spirits is to call the Scriptures false. Having thus defeated the sceptics, the author goes on to "prove" the existence of spirits in the usual manner—by relating traditional material on the presence of ghosts at the scene of crime and violence, their appearance during the hour in which someone is to die, etc.18 The roots of the scepticism expressed in our material are often difficult to unearth, but occasionally one feels the case is clear. Occasionally scepticism is evinced toward a phenomenon which seems to contradict something in the Scriptures. Happel, for example, lets one of the characters of Der Bayerische Max assert that there is a technique for increasing the height of little animals and people beyond the normal growth-expectation. An objection is raised by another character since, according to the Scriptures, no one can add a cubit to his height. For a moment it seems as though the " Francisci, Der Höllische

Proteus,

Preface.

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possibility of such a technique will have to be denied, inasmuch as the Bible, in Happel's opinion as well as that of every other author who entered our investigation, maintains its position of final authority. Fortunately, an explanation is forthcoming. N o contradiction of Holy Writ is involved. It is quite true that any attempt to alter the height of a person who is fully grown would be futile, but one can affect the height of a person who is still in the process of growing! 1 * On rather rare occasion a sceptical attitude toward supernatural phenomena seems to be the result of experience and observation. Weise, in the Ertz-Narren, points out that superstition was the basis of the old German belief that fortune favors the righteous cause in a duel. N o w experience assures us that the worst individuals are superior as duelists to the most innocent and pious people. 20 There seems to be a similar basis for Happel's conviction that "stories about spirits dancing in the air, presidents and councillors in fiery garments [in the air], are due to the maliciousness of various peasants who took pleasure in spreading such reports." " I n general." he says, "people usually add thousands of details to such stories" [as they pass them on] . . . Similarly, one should not always believe common, current stories about ghosts . . . Obviously not everything is a ghost which is thought to be one. Often malicious deception is involved . . . In many cases the proverb applies that when ghosts are making a rumpus [in one's house], one should observe his maids carefully. They have a habit of becoming pregnant as a result of such nocturnal visitations.21 In the Wunderreiche Überzug Francisci reports that one daring individual tested the old legend that a stone thrown into the Pilatus lake at Lucerne roils the water and brings on a violent storm. Although he tossed several large stones into the lake, nothing untoward occurred, whereupon the experimenter concluded that the story concerning this lake's unusual characteristics was based solely on the silly chatter of the unintelligent rabble. Francisci is unwilling, however, to accept the result of this experiment " H a p p e l , Der Bayerische Max, I, i8f. " W e i s e , Ertz-Narren, p. 22. " H a p p e l , Der Bayerische Max, III, 368-370.

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as final. The fact that so many people confirm the unusual behavior of the lake indicates that at one time the stories probably had a basis in fact, even if experience indicates that the lake now behaves normally. Further, it is generally accepted that certain other lakes have the same peculiarity as the Pilatus. 12 The tendency to scoff at exotic drugs and physicians is in part based on nationalistic feeling. For example, Riemer mocks a physician who feels himself superior to any German medical practitioner because he studied medicine at Padua. 23 Ettner compares the Germans to Aesop's dog who dropped the meat he held in his mouth in order to snap at the shadow of it, and announces that Germany is more than richly blessed with medicinal herbs, animals, gums, etc., which are in no way inferior to the Oriental remedies.24 Lohenstein announces that the stars have imbued the German herbs with the same qualities as those elsewhere, and scoffs at the purchase of common dust from the Arabs under the illusion that it is Phoenix-ashes.25 This attitude, essentially, is part of the Paracelsian heritage and merely reflects one aspect of Paracelsus' attitude toward the pharmacopoeia. Frequently one of our pre-Enlightenment authors undertakes to satirize the exaggerated claims of quack physicians or of individuals who capitalize on belief in certain superstitions. One cannot discern, in many cases, why these contentions or beliefs should arouse their scorn. When in his Politischer Näscher (1679) Christian Weise scoffs at a physician who brags of knowing specific medicinal cures for various diseases,26 it would be dangerous to assume that Weise was above the medical metaphysics of his time and refused to admit the possibility of specific remedies for diseases. His scepticism was probably aroused, not by the nature of the faker's individual claims, but by the fact that he made so many of them as to violate one's sense of probability. Riemer, similarly, satirizes the braggart physician who exaggerates his diagnostic ability to the point of fantasy. Francisci, Der Wunderreiche Überzug, p. i24of. " Riemer, Der Politische Maul-Affe, p. 3i6f. * Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 55. u Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. 2, 98. " W e i s e , Der Politische Näscher (Leipzig, 1686), p. 257. n

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He bragged that he had lately examined the urine of a woman who had fallen downstairs and from that analysis alone had been able to tell her how many steps she had fallen down. Also he could tell from anyone's urine on what day and hour he had been born. All the planets appeared to him in the urine-glass. He claimed he was able to tell from urinalysis if anyone's father and mother were still alive, etc.27 I t might be ventured that Riemer is attacking the pretended abilities which seem extra-natural in that they link incongruous facts. There are several logical steps missing in the relationship. One's reason, therefore, cannot follow; the claims are false because they are extra-rational. The same author, also, expresses his contempt through the term einfältige Leute, for those who are taken in by claims as to the properties of divining rods, the ability to interpret the message of the planets, etc. 28 In Corylo, Beer includes a long farcical satire on dream interpretation. At its end Corylo interprets a young lady's dream as signifying that she would befoul her underclothing. The prediction proves correct, and the author moralizes: "Such a result may those expect from their dreams if they build castles on them and firmly believe it could not and would not be otherwise than as the dream-book of Jacobus Lupius says."2® The scornful term Aberglaube is frequently applied to beliefs or practices differing in no important respect from others which seemed credible enough to our authors. In one chapter of his Grosser Schau-Platz, after giving detailed information concerning the technique for forging magic swords (see Chapter IV above), Harsdörfer mentions the story of the Pied Piper of Hameln. In reference only to the latter he comments, for some reason, " I t all sounds very fabulous. Credulous people are easily taken in." 30 In discussing the mandrake, Rist says: " I assure the gentlemen that if fantastic superstition were not involved, one would not bother for a moment to look at it. That the common man makes much of fabulous and superstitious things is well known." He goes on, however, to mention several wonderful plants which he has read about " Riemer, Der Politische Maul-Age, p. 32of.

"Ibid.,

p. 8g.

"Beer, Corylo, p. 173.

"Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, sec. 10g, 36-39.

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in "reliable" authorities. 31 Grimmelshausen applies the term aufschneiderisch to a tale of a priest who drank his own blood and consequently forgot how to read and write. In the same paragraph he attributes greater credibility to Johann Wierus' [Wier] 3 2 assertion that eating bear's brain causes one to be obsessed with the notion that one has been transformed into a bear. 33 A t one point Grimmelshausen gives serious utterance to his scepticism concerning the validity of astrology and the magical arts in general: . . . but as soon as I was led from these (i.e., mathematics and geometry) to astronomy, I gave up the former and pursued the study of the latter for a time, together with astrology, both of which delighted me greatly. Finally they seemed to me to be false and uncertain [sciences] so that I didn't care to drag along with them but turned to the art of Raymond Lull. But in that I found much smoke and little fire and . . . I gave it up and investigated the Hebrew Cabala and Egyptian hieroglyphics. But I found that the final and best art of all my arts and sciences was theology, if one loves God and serves Him through it.34 T h e last few phrases provide the key to this passage. Grimmelshausen is not necessarily denying all validity to the magical arts. T h e y suffer in comparison with theology of course, but so do all other arts. If we read too much into the phrases above, it would compel us to assume that all the occult and wonderful passages in the Simplicissimus are merely literary devices and, despite the obvious symbolical aspect of many of them, such an assumption is patently unsatisfactory. In spite of the fact that credulous attitudes toward the phenomenon of dreaming are expressed by the characters in Arminius, Lohenstein also indicates disbelief in the wonderful aspect of dreams. Again the term "superstition" is applied to belief in an extra-rational association. "Dreams might well give information as to the constitution of the body and the inclination of the spirit. As regards that, however, which occurs through chance or fate, 31

R i s t , Aller

K

Physician

Edelste and

the m o s t i m p o r t a n t De betooverde

Thorheit,

author attack

Weereld,

of

pp. 212 & De

praestigiis

o n t h e belief

217. (Frankfort

a.M.:

N.

Basse,

in w i t c h c r a f t b e f o r e B a l t h a s a r

A m s t e r d a m : D . van den Dalen,

33

G r i m m e l s h a u s e n , Simplicissimus,

I I , c h a p , viii,

104.

3*

G r i m m e l s h a u s e n , Simplicissimus,

V , chap, xix,

I44f.

1691-1693.

1575), Bekker's

104

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one cannot base [his opinions or predictions] on dreams without involving superstition." 35 Lohenstein's scepticism of the supernatural is expressed also in reference to the marvels of magic rings. " H e willingly admitted that in precious gems, into which nature had compressed [and infused] her art and splendor, there were unusual forces, just as in a magnet, but these forces were natural and commensurable with reason."39 Evidently because it seems to him unnatural and not in accord with reason, Lohenstein considers it ridiculous to believe that snakes can cause pregnancy in women, 37 and denies completely the possibility of exorcism. The conjuring of spirits was a deception, since neither stones, herbs, nor [verbal] conjuring had any power over the spirits even though the evil ones sometimes fooled superstitious people by their obedient appearance and spoke from figures carved by human hands, just as if they could be imprisoned by man in material containers.38 Sometimes the seeming scepticism is based on a preconception as false as the notion under attack. Rist, for example, suggests, as one reason for the impossibility of perfecting a perpetual-motion apparatus, the idea that man cannot dispense with beasts of burden in accomplishing work. 39 T h e rise of the sceptical, challenging spirit in the Seventeenth Century has been frequently regarded as something inexplicable. L e c k y , as an example, ventures no explanation for the dissipation, during the early Enlightenment, of the medieval credulity regarding witchcraft and supernatural action beyond the rather selfevident assertion that there was a change in the intellectual climate W h y , in a brief space of time that which had formerly been accepted as a matter of course should turn into the ridiculous—why the formerly unquestioned and unquestionable should suddenly become the butt of scornful attack—it is difficult to say. But one is too apt to overstress the suddenness of that intellectual change. ™ Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. V, 477. " Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. II, 94: Lohenstein's sceptical rejection of many miracles and his explanation of much that is generally termed supernatural on a rational, physical basis is discussed briefly by Luise Laporte, Lohensteins Arminius,

P· 73*·

"Ibid., I, Bk. II, 163. "Ibid., I, Bk. II, 162. " Rist, Aller Edelste Thorheit,

p. 131.

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In fact if we discard the theory of the early Enlightenment as the beginning of a new and modern era and consider the rise of scepticism and rationalism as an aspect of the individualistic current which manifested itself in the great Renaissance-humanistic and Reformation movements as well as in the thinking of scattered independent spirits throughout the Middle Ages,40 then our picture becomes somewhat clearer.41 It was undoubtedly a combination of tendencies—the growth of self-reliance and of the sense of the individual's worth, the practical necessity for increased knowledge concerning natural phenomena, the broadening of horizons through invention, discovery, and exploration which gradually destroyed faith in the hypothesis (made a dogma by the church) of supernatural intervention in mundane affairs and led to the substitution of the more practically useful doctrine of a divinely established but currently autonomous natural order. And when, as is frequently the case, one is struck by the scepticism concerning witchcraft and the miraculous, it is invariably the new nature-concept that underlies the incredulity. There is no other explanation for Heinrich Arnold Stockfleth's attack on the superstitions concerning the 40 For example, in the third quarter of the Fourteenth Century a "criticism of occult science was launched . . . by . . . Nicholas Oresme and Henry of Hesse." Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, III, 398. According to Thorndike, Oresme "opposes astrology because its rules and techniques seem to him in large measure unscientific and irrational, and because he prefers to account for terrestrial phenomena by natural reasons rather than by an occult celestial influence. He finds much of magic accountable, if not defensible, on natural grounds. . . . Another very noticeable and commendable feature of his treatises is his consistent belittling of the activity and importance of demons. . . . His normal attitude is, why resort for explanation to a remote cause, such as the sky or demons, when natural phenomena close at hand provide a sufficient explanation?" Ibid., III, 438. "Oresme . . . minimizes their [demons'] activity and rejects every argument for their existence except that of sacred Scripture and the Catholic faith." Ibid., III, 466. Henry of Hesse (1325-1397) "adopts the same general attitude as Oresme of endeavoring to explain natural phenomena by ordinary causes and process of nature, and in terms of the four primary qualities and elements, without recourse—if it can be avoided—to occult virtues, marvelous explanations, far-fetched celestial influences, and the activity of demons." Ibid., III, 475. "Henry . . . holds that the four primary qualities and their derivatives are sufficient to account for all such strange occurrences in nature without necessity of an appeal to occult virtue either in the stars or inferior objects." Ibid., III, 481. Unfortunately, however, the scepticism of Oresme and Henry of Hesse toward the occult arts was not notably influential. Ibid., IV, 1 3 1 . " Cf. Robert H. Fife, "Epochs in German Literature,'' Germanic Review, X I V (April, 1939), 2.

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devil and his powers. Satan, Stockfleth asserts in his Macarie (1669), is part of the world, consequently he has no power over the whole of it. Nor can he interfere with the natural order which God established, nor perform anything miraculous—i.e., he cannot create (produce something from nothing). He can only alter and then only by natural means." Thomasius, forty years later, gives an insight into the vogue of the mathematical approach to the problems of nature when he announces his inability to disprove the devil's power in a mathematical demonstration: " . . . among the philosophers the devil is something which has no place in mathematics and is not compatible with demonstration." The implication seems to be that for these individuals the devil does not exist, or at least is not a factor in their considerations. Thomasius does, however, utilize the experimental method! But first he deduces that Satan lacks the powers usually attributed to him from the assumption that the devil cannot interrupt or stop the power and order of nature. "If the devil cannot hinder or stop the power and order of invisible nature, then he cannot assume corporal form, transport a human being through the air," etc.43 It is true that Thomasius introduces other types of argument in support of his thesis—Christ's statement that a spirit has neither flesh nor bone, the fact that it is stupid to believe that Satan, in human or other form, would make pacts with those who are already in his power because of their vices;" finally, the erronous deduction that because Satan never has assumed human form, he is therefore unable to do so.45 Lohenstein gives evidence of scepticism arising from his conviction concerning the immutability of natural order. He mentions that Mithridates' birth is said to have been indicated by a comet which covered a fourth of the sky for forty days and nights. He qualifies this, however, with the following: ". . . yet this [pheStockfleth, Macarie, pp. 3088. " Christian Thomasius, Vom Teufel, von Zauberern und Hexen, Ausgewählte Stücke aus Kurtze Lehrsätze von dem Laster der Zauberei vom Jahre 1703, ed. F. BrÜRgeman. "Deutsche Literatur: Aus der Frühzeit der Aufklärung" (Weimar & Leipzig: H. Böhlaus Nachf., 1928), pp. 101-102. " Ibid., p. 104. "Ibid., p. 101. 41

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nomenon] had to occur because of the unalterable course of the stars." 4 " Again, we hear that when Carneades took his life, the moon is said to have gone into eclipse, "although this would have taken place even if Carneades had gone on living for another hundred years." 4 7 Several cases have already been mentioned in which theories or reported occurrences are rejected because of their extra-rationality. Although occasionally one finds the idea expressed that there is much Vernunftgemäßes still not understood in nature, which merely seems wonderful as a consequence of man's ignorance, still the stronger tendency was to accept as a possibility only that which admitted of logical explanation. Where reason could evolve no logical explanation, the reported phenomenon was at times rejected, regardless of the trustworthiness or authority of the reporter. Thus Lohenstein accepts the report of: 1 . a spring on the river Bätis which rises and falls contrary to the tides; 2. a Swiss Pfeffer-Bad which is full early in M a y but dry by the middle of November. The first, he says, can be explained by a system of involved underground passages through which the spring is flooded by the sea; the water pouring into the passages during high tide takes so long to reach the spring that by then the tide is ebbing. The second can be explained by the melting of snow. B u t — . . . he considered much to be fiction, namely that one well, on the island of Cöa, makes everyone gloomy who drinks its water; another, in Cilicia, makes people lively. The Leontine well makes one learned. One Sicilian well makes the drinker weep, another makes him laugh. One, I don't know where, makes people fall in love. The water of a well on the island of Bonicca has a rejuvenating effect. The river Selemnus in Achaia, however, deprives one of amatory inclinations.48 Here, evidently, Lohenstein's intellect was unable to supply transitional stages between the springs and their incongruous effects. Where such lacunae could not be bridged by reason, scepticism arose. Eras. Francisci, similarly, scoffs at Pliny's unsatisfactory ex" Lohenstein, Arminius, "Ibid., I, Bk. IV, 391. 41 Ibid., I, Bk. II, 95.

I, Bk. IV, 391.

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planation of thunder, and gives a current one which involves the qualities of heat and cold, the element of sulphur, the notion of subtle vapors. With deference, he introduces Aristotle's explanation for the fact that a thunderbolt will split a tree but pass through a man without leaving a visible sign. The thunderbolt is subtle stuff and so is the human body. Aristotle's example of a thunderbolt melting the iron of a shield but leaving the wood intact is also mentioned.49 Strangely, the incongruity of the split tree and the unharmed wood of the shield doesn't occur to Francisci. Scepticism concerning explanations of phenomena or reported occurrences is frequently due to the illogicality rather than extralogicality of the explanation or story. Thus Ettner (who believed in the existence of pygmaei and their function as guardians of buried treasure) gently mocks a tale involving the discovery of a treasure hidden under a loose paving-block by pointing out that the goblins who guarded it would have sealed the stone and not left it noticeably loose, for they are masters of every art in nature and certainly know that of the stonemason.50 Francisci, as has been mentioned in the two preceding chapters, relates several stories to support the theory that blood flows from the wounds of a murdered person when the murderer approaches, and offers an explanation involving a desire for vengeance, instilled into the atoms of the blood, and the force of antipathy. But he doubts the validity of the explanation of this curious phenomenon, in spite of Helmont's authority, for such an explanation is refuted by the cases in which men are murdered by unseen assailants without ever learning their attacker's identity. 51 The substitution of a rational explanation for superstition concerning unusual phenomena is well exemplified by an attack in Arminius on the possibility of an ever-burning fire. Lohenstein points out the prevalence of oil, pitch, and resin in the areas where such fires are said to exist and suggests that the explanation is undoubtedly a simple and prosaic one.52 Again, Lohenstein con" Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, I, 203. 10 Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, pp. 114ft. "Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, I, 657. " Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. II, 174.

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tends that it would be strange if among so many thousand dreams which men experience, some few did not coincide with future occurrences, and suggests that this is the real basis for the startling phenomenon of dream-fulfillment. If a thousand blind men were to shoot arrows at a target, some would strike it by chance. If dreams were divine warnings they would occur less frequently to the evil and stupid than to the wise. Further, their significance would not be so veiled and mysterious. 53 Perhaps the best logical analysis of common superstitions is offered by Christian Weise in his Drey ärgsten Ertz-Narren ( 1 6 7 2 ) . After a long list of the stupid beliefs, he mentions that he has long pondered their origin (note that the approach to the question is through speculation alone—investigation is not involved) and has decided that some originated as jokes which were taken seriously. For example: . . . it is the custom in several places to put a special mark on the loaf of bread which was put into the oven last and to call it " t h e host" ( W i r t h ) . T h e y believe that as long as "the host" remains in the house they will not lack bread; further, if the earmarked loaf is cut into before it should be, then hard times will follow. Such stupidity! As long as the bread is there, it isn't lacking—like the man who had a coin sewn into his trousers and boasted that he always had money with him.

B u t such silly beliefs derive mostly from the efforts of parents to impress their children with a point of conduct or a moral. Everyone knows how dangerous it is to lay a knife with its cutting edge upward, for someone might easily take hold of it and hurt himself. Therefore the father said: " D e a r child, don't lay the knife down in that position. T h e dear angels will step on it." N o w the belief has so intrenched itself that I know a priest in an important city who said openly at a banquet that if one were to see, simultaneously, a child in the fire and a knife lying on its back, one should run to the knife first rather than to the child. Doesn't such a fellow deserve that one seat him with his back bare in hot ashes and let him writhe there until one had laid a knife down in proper position? 54

This scepticism of the irrational and extra-rational (of explanations and theories which were not logically deduced from accepted " Ibid., I, B k . V , 478. " Weise, Ertz-Narren, pp. ι z6 Q.

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theory or which bore no apparent relation to known facts) was related intimately to the speculative tendency we have previously mentioned. T h e enthronement of Vernunft,

which had obviously

begun to take place long before the beginning of the period arbitrarily denoted as the Enlightenment, was the event that underlay both tendencies. God-given Vernunft

was the key to man's relation

to the finite. But I know nothing about eternity, says Grimmelshausen, and shall not mention it here because we are not able to enjoy it but [can] only [enjoy] this present world, in which our most kind Creator has endowed us sufficiently with a healthy rational faculty, with as much knowledge of God's holy will as is necessary, with healthy bodies, with long life, noble freedom, with sufficient science, art, and understanding of all natural things." M a n possessed, constitutionally, the ability to understand natural phenomena. T o that end it was necessary for him only to exercise his reason, to consider scientific problems strictly logically, mathematically. Lohenstein, for example, arrives at the conclusion that spiritual sterility is linked with sexual sterility. A eunuch, he says, cannot possess the manly virtue of c o u r a g e — i t is contrary to reason. 56 W e are not told whether it is contrary to experience. N o r would it have seemed necessary to Lohenstein to inquire into the effect of castration on fortitude. T h i s approach sometimes led to violently contradictory conclusions drawn from one hypothesis. Assuming a divine providence which guards over man's welfare, Lohenstein assumes further, on the one hand, that it could not have been so inimical to man as to require the exercise of great art on his part or the importation of foreign foodstuffs to sustain himself. Therefore, he concludes (with no curiosity concerning actual conditions), no forest nourishes such unfruitful trees, no desert such thorny thistles as fail to provide the inhabitants with both medicine and food. 57 On the other hand, he assumes that in man's interest Providence must have provided for the promotion of friendly relations between peoples. Since this is possible only if the various peoples are interdependent, it follows that there can "Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, V, chap, xiii, 125. M Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. V, 509. "Ibid., I, Bk. II, 97.

S E A R C H FOR R A T I O N A L C A U S A L I T Y

HI

be no land in which everything necessary for the sustenance of its inhabitants flourishes." In Riemer's Politischer Maul-Affe we find an interesting satire on a gardener who cautiously ascribes all botanic phenomena which he doesn't understand to the way of nature. He had heard that we were concerned over the reason why so many colors blossomed from one root. Therefore he answered: "I will tell you the reason—namely, that's the way it is in nature." Certainly a beautiful demonstration to satisfy a curious natural scientist. We asked, further, why the pomegranates do not ripen in Morbonella as they do in Italy. He said: "I will tell you that also. That's the way of it." In short, no matter what we asked him the answer was always: "That's the way it is in nature or that's the way of it," and this poor bungler boasted that among a hundred gardeners not one would be found who could give as basic and detailed answers to all questions on gardening.59 Riemer's barb is aimed at the braggadocio as well as the ignorance of the gardener, who could have satisfied him easily by vain speculation concerning the phenomena mentioned. Such caution as the gardener displays is rare. For Riemer, however, it was indicative of stupidity, since the fellow couldn't even think up a credible theory. Quite in contrast to Riemer's gardener, E. G. Happel proposes a theory (from Kircher) to explain the origin of dragons. In a cold, clear manner he strips the subject of all its traditional and wonderful aspects and reasons that since such creatures sometimes have wings, sometimes lion's or eagle's feet, etc., they (analogous to mules, camelopards, etc.) must be composite monsters. Further, since as is well known, they are always found in remote caves, deserts where eagles and vultures nest, and since birds of prey carry all manner of creatures to their nests, the dragons must be a result of the mixtures of various animal Saamen aided by the fermented rot in the eagles' eyries. T h e fact that dragons spew fire can also be explained on a natural basis. Their bodies are filled with slimy substance and the seeming fire is similar to the phosphorescence of rotten wood. 60 "Ibid.,

5"

I, B k . II, 97f.

Riemer, Der Politische Maul-Aße, p . 314. " Happel, Mundus mirabilis, pp. 179-80.

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In spite of their conception of scientific method, the seventeenthcentury literati by no means considered themselves expert in the field of the natural sciences. Frequently they announce that ultimate decisions should rest with the natural scientists, but they are in no way hampered by feelings concerning their deficiencies in their own theorizing or speculation on natural phenomena. E. G. Happel frequently displays respect for the opinions of the natural scientists. In Der Bayerische Max he mentions reading about an old school-teacher who had remained quite healthy and lively. T h e chief cause of the teacher's unusual condition at his advanced age was ascribed to the fact that for so many years he had been inhaling the breath of so many young boys. " B u t , " says Happel, " I leave this to the learned investigators of nature." 6 1 Happel ventures, however, to provide commentary and his own ideas in his compendia, Mundus Mirabilis Tripartitus and Thesaurus Exoticorum, whenever he disagrees with current scientific theory. Where there are several hypotheses which seem logical to him, he gives them all and leaves a choice to the reader. T h u s in the matter of the number of the fixed stars, he presents the conjectures of Ptolemy, Grienberger, Bayer, and Kepler. 62 In respect to the remoteness of the fixed stars from the earth he quotes equally from Copernicus, Herigonius, Galileo, Bullialdus, Lambergius, Kepler, and Wendelinus. 63 Harsdörfer, in treating of the problem of the earth's relation to the sun, lists numerous reasons advanced in support of both the geocentric and heliocentric theories—all of equal value since they all seem quite logical. In such cases the inability to support one theory over the others was natural, for in our sense there was yet little confirmation of hypotheses. Often the test of logicality alone seemed to establish as satisfactory many hypotheses for one phenomenon. Our dilettantes of science were content, in such cases, to wait patiently until someone might demonstrate which of the many was correct—one presumes by discovering obscure errors in the reasoning that supported the others. "Happel, Der Bayerische Max, III, 272. "Happel, Mundus Mirabilis, p. 4. "Ibid., p. 12.

VIII E X P E R I M E N T A N D E X P E R I E N C E IN T H E FIELD OF NATURE IN CONTRAST to preceding eras, the Seventeenth Century produced so many contributions to the natural sciences that in a study such as this, one cannot do more than indicate briefly their extent and importance. In that period efficient instruments of observation and measurement were produced—the microscope, telescope, thermometer, barometer, air pump, and the pendulum. In various aspects of dynamics, knowledge was raised to its present level. In pneumatics, contributions were made toward an understanding of atmospheric pressure and the properties of a vacuum were analyzed. Various major principles of hydrostatics were discovered. In optics, information on the focal properties of lenses was provided; refraction and diffraction were explained; the nature of white light was analyzed ; an explanation of light by the theory of undulation was advanced. The well-informed scientist at the end of the Seventeenth Century understood terrestrial magnetism, magnetic inclination and declination, and was acquainted with numerous substances possessing electric properties. In astronomy he was conversant with the laws of Kepler; with the laws of motion of celestial bodies; with Newton's proof of the formula that attraction varies inversely as the square of distance; with investigations explaining the paths of comets. In chemistry he could profit from a modern conception of elements and of the nature of chemical combination. In botany and zoology he had been provided with a precise botanical nomenclature and with classifications of plants and animals on the basis of anatomical difference. He was aware of the sex of plants. Microscopic observations during the century offered new information on insects and the lower forms of animal life and laid the foundation of histology. Similarly, the science of plant anatomy was established. In medicine the discovery of the circulation of the blood marked the beginning of modern physiology. T h e structure of the lungs was investigated, the existence of capillary vessels

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had been demonstrated, and the lymphatic system discovered. Various scientists had contributed information concerning the brain, nerves, and numerous other organs. Many specialized studies of varied diseases were published.1 The great body of knowledge thus at the command of students of nature around 1700 was largely the result of the investigations and experiments of the preceding century. To these all the countries of Central and Western Europe had made some contribution. There is little question, however, that England's importance for the development of the sciences during this era overshadows that of any other nation. Although such comparisons are of limited value, it may be of interest to contrast the achievements of England and Germany during the sixty years covered by this investigation, namely 1640-1700. This is the period in which Robert Boyle, "the founder of empirical chemistry," 2 carried on his many famous experiments. In 1660 he published his barometric experiments and his investigation into the function of air in animal respiration. In 1661 his Sceptical Chymist appeared, presenting modern conceptions of an element and of chemical composition. In 1662 Boyle stated his famous law. Other important publications by the same investigator came in 1665, 1669, 1675, and 1684. This is the period in which Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation and the most important laws of optics. His Princtpia appeared in 1681. Robert Hooke's innumerable experiments were carried on from 1662 to 1703. In 1665 his Micographia appeared, containing one of the earliest accounts of crystals, the first description of the cellular structure of plants, valuable microscopic biological studies, researches into combustion and respiration. In 1681-2 he published further analyses of combustion and respiration, indicating the analogy between the two processes. In 1651 William Harvey published his work on the generation of animals, 1 Cf. Martha Omstein, The Role of Scientific Societies, chap. i. B y comparing "the information of a man familiar with the whole range of science in 1600 with that of a man in 1700, similarly instructed in the entire scientific knowledge of his time," Miss Omstein sums up admirably the scientific advance in the Seventeenth Century. For an elaborate analysis of scientific contributions during the Seventeenth Century, cf. A. Wolf, A History of Science, Technology, and philosophy in the 16 and 17th Centuries. London: Allen & Unwin, 1935. ' A. Wolf, A History of Science, p. 449.

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stating the doctrine Omnia ex ovo for the first time. Nehemiah Grew brought out his microscopic observations on the anatomy of plants and his discovery of the sex of plants in 1671 and 1682. John Ray published his Historia Planiarum in 1686, the first work to enumerate the great natural groups of plants and to formulate the modern conception of the nature of a biological species. In 1693 R a y offered a systematic classification of animals. Specialized medical studies were frequent in this era. Francis Glisson gave an account of rickets in 1650 and set forth in detail the anatomy of the liver, intestines, and stomach in 1659. Thomas Wharton gave a careful description of the pancreas, kidneys, thyroid, and other glands in 1656. In 1664 Thomas Willis carried on experimental studies of the nerves and their influence on the heart and lungs. In 1667 the same scientist gave an account of the brain. In 1670 he wrote of skin diseases and of his studies in diabetes. In his treatise on the heart (1669) Richard Lower showed experimentally that the blood in the veins and arteries is the same and ascribed its color change to the effect of the air in the lungs. In 1683 Thomas Sydenham, perhaps the greatest physician of the Seventeenth Century, published descriptions of gout, chorea, and hysteria. In other years during the same period he described fevers, measles, scarlatina, and other diseases. In 1689 Richard Morton wrote of consumption, asserting that it always develops from tubercles. Other than Otto von Guericke, Germany had no name to rival Newton, Hooke, Boyle, and Sydenham. Nevertheless, many important contributions to the sciences were made by German investigators between 1640 and 1700. T h e publication of Helmont's works after 1640 brought recognition of the existence of numerous gases. In 1648 Johann Glauber made noteworthy chemical discoveries. In 1650 Bernhard Varen published his Geographie Generalis, which remained an authoritative work for many decades. In 1654 Otto von Guericke demonstrated his air pump and conducted various pneumatic experiments. In 1658 Johann Wepfer made the first special study of apoplexy and the effect of that disease on brain tissue. In 1657 Wolfgang Höfer described cretinism. In 1660 Conrad Schneider demonstrated the function of the

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mucous membrane in relation to mucous discharge, refuting the ancient doctrines regarding catarrhal diseases. In 1671 Athanasius Kircher gave an account of microscopic organisms in the blood of plague victims. In 1678 Joachim Jungius' contribution to scientific botanical terminology appeared. In 1682 Johann Becher demonstrated that only fluids containing sugar can ferment. In 1690 Christian Schellhammer showed that tone consists of sound waves. In 1692 Georg Stahl published a notable treatise on mental diseases. In the following year the many-sided Leibnitz proposed his theory of the structure of the earth. In 1698 Stahl described maladies of the portal vein. In 1694 Rudolf Camerarius dealt with the sexuality of plants more fully than had been done previously b y Nehemiah Grew. 3 Achievements like these show that German scholars and their laboratories were highly productive in the period of our interest, even though their discoveries in the physical and biological fields were less important than those of their British contemporaries. In Germany there seems to have been but little popular interest in the progress of experimental science and this may have been due in part to the lack of co-operative effort among investigators. T h e Seventeenth Century saw the origin and growth of scientific societies which fostered the experimental method and encouraged the co-operation of leading scientists in their research. Further, they provided extensive laboratory facilities, published journals, and disseminated news of discoveries by researchers in other countries. It is noteworthy that there were no German scientific societies in the Seventeenth Century to compare with the Accademia del Cimento, the Royal Society, or the Academie des Sciences. In her study of the scientific societies of the Seventeenth Century, Miss Ornstein discusses these three in great detail. Of the Accademia she says: " I n books on the history of physics and experimentation, it is generally admitted that it forms an epoch in these sciences. It is the beginning of modern physics." 4 T h e members of the Royal Society, the same author points out, "created a center where the ' Compiled from A. Wolf, A History of Science and Ludwig Darmstaedter, Handbuch zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik. Berlin: J. Springer, 1908. * M . Omstein, The Röle of Scientific Societies, p. 89.

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new science could be fostered." They devised laboratory facilities, made and improved instruments, experimented in varied fields, communicated with foreign investigators, established the Philosophical Transactions, "the first organ of international scientific communication." They helped "the cause of science by encouraging workers and by publishing their works . . . supplying that most essential aid without which the progress of science would have undoubtedly been delayed for decades . . . The Royal Society must . . . be reckoned as first among the pioneer reforming bodies of the century." 5 B y 1700 the Academie des Sciences was still in its infancy and its finest accomplishments were the result of individual discoveries. "But the scientific method of exactness was highly advanced; astronomical instruments were immensely improved. . . . The chemists had fostered love and interest in their experiments; the anatomists had won even from the geometricians sympathetic interest for their researches. The co-operation of the physicists with the physicians resulted . . . in the latter often adopting physical methods in their study of organisms, a proof of a beneficent exchange of ideas."® In Germany the role played by these organizations, which elsewhere made such a fundamental contribution to scientific progress, was of slight importance. Joachim Jungius established a scientific society, the Societas Ereunetica, at Rostock in 1622. It seems to have lasted only two years, although, as will be pointed out below (p. 159), its program, formulated by Jungius, expressed an advanced ideal of scientific research. In 1651 the Collegium Naturae Curiosorum was established. This was not a society which held meetings to show experiments or transact business, but "was merely a society of physicians which had its headquarters wherever its president happened to be located. Its main function was the publication of a scientific paper [Miscellanea curiosa sive Ephemeridum medico physicorum Germanorum] containing the original researches of its members and other investigations of importance to medicine. It is apparent that in type of membership, and in method, it differed fundamentally from the 'Ibid., 'Ibid.,

p. 138. p. 163.

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Cimento or English or French societies.'" According to R. Prutz, the historian of German journalism, its publication might have gone on a hundred years without the general public's learning of its existence! 8 The only German society of importance, the Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale, was established at Altdorf in 1672 by Christopher Sturm. Its original twenty members were Sturm's students at the university there. Two volumes describing thirtyone excellent physical experiments of the society were published at Altdorf in 1676 and 1683 under the title, Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale, Altdorf, 1672. This society "spread interest and science and trained skilled experimenters"" but it cannot be compared with the societies of England and France. Indeed, inasmuch as the Berlin Academy was not established until 1700, "we may say . . . that at the opening of the Eighteenth Century, no place in Germany existed where experimental science was fostered and cultivated as it was in the Royal Society and Academie des Sciences. It is perhaps in consequence of this that Germany remained for many decades on a lower level in experimental science than France and England." 10 In the field of scientific publication Germany did make a notable contribution with the Acta Eruditorum, published monthly at Leipzig from 1682. To be sure, the articles were in Latin and much space was devoted to theology and law, but the greatest scientists of Europe were among the contributors to its pages. The Acta "constituted a forum for the exchange of ideas . . . published works of scientists . . . reviewed the scientific work of foreign nations . . . and thus made Germany acquainted with the scientific accomplishments of the world." 11 Miss Ornstein finds that "during the last decades of the century, traces of interest in science are to be found in most [English] universities." 12 "In Italy experimental physics was taught in Italian universities, even at the Jesuit school at Bologna." 13 Numerous * Ibid., p. 169. ' R. Prutz, Geschichte des deutschen ' Μ . Ornstein, The Role of Scientific "Ibid., p. iQ7. 11 Ibid., p. 163. " Ibid., p. 206. "Ibid., p. 218f.

Journalismus (Hanover, 1845), p. 275. Societies, p. 175.

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prominent Italian scientists were professors at Pisa, Padua, Messina, Pavia, Bologna. In the German universities, however, the atmosphere was anything but conducive to scientific progress. With the exception of Halle (founded 1690) and Altdorf, where laboratories for experimental research were provided during the last quarter of the century, the prevailing scholasticism, the control of the Jesuits and of the Lutheran theologians and clergy made the university atmosphere ill suited for the growth of scientific interest and intolerable to those Germans who may be considered important scientists of the century—Kepler, Guericke, Hevelius, Leibnitz. There were, to be sure, ardent efforts to free inquiry in natural science from the shackles of tradition on the part of men like Jungius (cf. below, p. 1 5 9 ) , but in the main, the scholastic edifice in the universities resisted attack until the Seventeenth Century was nearing its close. Outside the universities the same factors militated against the spread of scientific information in Germany. Religious inhibitions seem to have been stronger there than in England or France. At a time when the intelligentsia of England and France were giving their enthusiasm and energy to the "new science," in Germany they were banding together in the Sprachgesellschaften with the primary purpose of fostering and cultivating the use of their own language. That the linguistic societies had an importance also in promoting the exchange of scientific knowledge can not be doubted. Their function in this respect demands further investigation; but they were, at best, a weak substitute for the great national scientific organizations of England, France, and Italy. 13 " The persistence of the German intellectuals and scientists in the use of Latin instead of the vernacular maintained the cleavage between the learned and lay classes and delayed the popularizing of scientific information. 14 It seems clear that in comparison with certain other nations, For the importance of the personal relationships, established in part through the Sprachgesellschaften, cf. below, p. i s 8 f . 14 There is nothing in German literature comparable to the interest in microscopic and telescopic observation which Marjorie Nicolson has found in English literature of the Seventeenth Century. Cf. " T h e Microscope and English Imagination," Smith College Studies in Modern Languages, X V I , No. 4, and " A World in the Moon," Smith College Studies in Modern Languages, X V I I , No. 2.

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seventeenth-century Germany was rather backward in cultivating the natural sciences. Nevertheless, as we have seen, it did make several important contributions; Altdorf offered the splendid example of laboratories financed by a university; the Acta Eruditorum provided a means of disseminating current scientific theories and data; numerous German intellectuals corresponded with scientists of foreign countries and were conversant with the new theories and discoveries. If the great scientific advances in England, Italy, Holland, and France can be ascribed to some new stimulus, a changed attitude, perhaps, and a better method of procedure, then there is a little doubt that, to some extent, the same stimulus must have affected Germany also. In general, the search for that stimulus has seemed to lead to the rising empiricism of the era, to the spread of what is termed the inductive method, to the influence of Francis Bacon. This is very controversial ground. Bacon's contribution to the methodology of the sciences is still a matter of dispute, as is the question of the so-called inductive process. But if it is true that the scientific development was not merely accidental or the result of a slow accumulation of information during the foregoing eras, if a new idea or a new emphasis on an old theory was its source, is there any evidence of it in the German literature of the Seventeenth Century? What new ideas or emphasis are discernible in the prose of the period? A t first glance the trend toward empiricism credited to this period would seem to be indicated by the accent on the principle of experience. T h e term Erfahrung occurs with great frequency in discussions of scientific matters. Practically all our authors who have occasion to express an opinion on physicians and the practice of medicine, insist that experience and close observation are necessary in that field of activity. Johann Ettner asserts in his Eckharts Doctor that physicians are not born, but made and confirmed by successful experience. 15 Harsdörfer, discussing dropsy in his " Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 65. It is not astonishing that Ettner, w h o w a s a physician, should have a commendable attitude t o w a r d the role of experience and observation in the practice of medicine. In f a c t , one might find better statements made by physicians long before Ettner's d a y . L y n n T h o r n d i k e points out, for example, that Michael Savonarola "displays an independent attitude t o w a r d authority a n d a reliance upon personal experience and testing in his w o r k on baths. . . . In

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Grosser Schau-Platz, strikes a modern note when he tells us that the intelligent physician should observe closely how nature tries to eliminate the harmful fluid and should endeavor to serve nature b y making her task easier. 16 In the Politische Colica, Riemer points out that a physician's greatest art lies in recognizing the disease in each case or establishing its cause. This he can best accomplish by examination and close questioning of the patient. B y no means should he base his diagnosis on only one element of his investigation (such as urinalysis). 1 ' Johann Beer echoes Riemer with the now self-evident contention that a physician must recognize the nature of a disease before he can successfully attempt a cure. 18 Grimmelshausen's agreement with this theory may be mentioned here. He also believes that a physician's greatest art lies in his recognizing the symptoms of the various diseases. He adds a naively sanguine note in the third book of his Simplicissimus—"for they say if one recognizes a disease, then the patient has already been half cured." 1 9 T h e fact that the necessity for experience and observation in the practice of medicine was accepted as a truism at the time is perhaps indicated by Christian Weise's metaphoric employment of the idea in Die Drey Klügsten Leute. In questioning the efficacy of consolation proffered to one disappointed in love, he comments that the sympathetic person could not prove that he himself had ever been in the same situation and had demonstrated the efficacy of his remedy through his own experience. 20 In the Politischer Näscher Weise indicates not only the value to the physician of collecting his own observations over a long period but also of utilizing the observations reported by colleagues. " I believe he would in time have become one of the most famous physicians because he had inherited all the observations of his his w o r k he prefers experience to reason as a criterion and arbiter . . . since the physician is a sensual artificer." History oj Magic and Experimental Science, I V , 201f. It is n o t e w o r t h y , h o w e v e r , that this conception of the importance of experience in medicine had become quite widespread among the educated laity of the late Seventeenth C e n t u r y . " Harsdörfer, Grosser Schau-Platz, sec. 172, 275. " Riemer, Politische Colica, p. 4. "Andere Ausfertigung Neugefangener Politischer Maul-Affen. (1683). " Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, III, chap, xfciii, 252. " W e i s e , Die Urey Klügsten Leute, p. 156.

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cousin as [well as?] of a man who had been a practitioner for fifty years, in addition to many fine specifics. . Finally, in a discussion of the medicinal value of gold, Ettner states that the RabenDucaten are reputed to strengthen the heart. In practice, however, they show no effect which is not, in his opinion, common to other metals. T h e idea is, consequently, nothing more than an old woman's fancy, although it is not to be denied that mere possession of several thousand ducats would serve to strengthen anyone's heart and his whole body as well. 22 Nor was the necessity for direct experience and close observation in the sciences limited to medicine. Ettner, for example, analyzes failures in mining as attributable to carelessness and laziness in investigating the nature of the terrain and ores, etc. 23 T h e stress on experience was accompanied by a reaction against theorists who proceded on the basis of their own ideas or the precepts of others without regard for actual phenomena. Ettner points out that there is a great difference between a theoretician and a practitioner, between a thoroughly experienced and exact researcher in medicine and a slave to books and precepts. 24 In fact, he asserts that in general, and in any field, one can learn more easily from a man who has had direct experience (von einem selbst-erfahmen) than one can from books. 25 A t another point in his Eckharts Doctor, Ettner again mentions the clash between the theoreticians and the empiricists when they meet in consultation: " . . . the one tries to demonstrate that he is more learned, the other that he has had more experience." 26 He makes no statement, however, concerning his interpretation of the terms "theory" and "experience." Perhaps the most clear-sighted advocate of close observation in the sciences is E. W . Happel who, in his Mundus Mirabilis Tripartitus, displays avid interest in the assembling of recorded observations, devotes pages to tide charts, and gives his sources " Weise, Politischer Näscher, p. 308. Etner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 146. " Ibid., p. 4. "Ibid., p. 3. "Ibid., p. 14. M Ibid., p. 277.

n

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for his statements concerning the geography of foreign lands. In discussing the whale, Happel points out that the ancients made many false statements concerning that creature because they had never examined one. Only recently, he explains, had whales been caught in any number and, as a consequence, the true form and nature of the whale might now be explained for the first time.17 It is not enough for Happel that physicians claim an important role for proper diet in all cases of longevity. He accepts the theory because experience shows it to be true.28 Experience is important for Weise, outside the realm of the sciences, as a guide to ethical conduct in everyday life. It is experience with evil which teaches us to choose the good. Some people prefer the evil to the good out of simplicity and ignorance, as a child is deceived by the beautiful glow of a fire, reaches into it and burns his fingers, or as an inexperienced boy can be led astray into danger by the semblance of friendship. For such people know no better and cannot know better because they are not trained by experience.29

Experience also can be used in refuting "pagan" superstition, according to Weise. Evidently unfamiliar with the institution of trial by combat in medieval Christian Europe, he points out, as has been mentioned previously, that the duel flourished among the old Germans who lived in blind heathendom, for they held the superstitious notion that fortune favors the righteous cause. "Now, however, we Christians are assured by clear experience that the worst quarrelers and offensive individuals are often superior [in dueling] to the most innocent and pious people."30 The implication seems to be that whereas superstition is connected with paganism, experience is linked with Christian thought. Weise also finds experience helpful in deciding certain highly specialized problems. In making a choice among several relatively unsatisfactory candidates for a minor pastorate, he prefers a mere postillion who affected a pious and ingenious manner to the empty wind-bag who pretends special knowledge and incomparable dili" Happel, Mundus Mirabilis, p. 254. " H a p p e l , Der Bayerische Max, I I I , p. 266. " W e i s e , Ertz-Narren, p. 223. " Ibid., p. 22.

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gence but produces only empty words. For, according to Weise, although the latter type is entertaining, "one knows from experience that such preachers are . . . injurious in their influence on their audience, especially on simple people."31 Even fools in Weise's Ertz-Narren offer "experience" in support of their stupid notions. One of these, who is late for an appointment with the wise Hofmeister of the story, apologizes for his tardiness by explaining that on his way to the meeting place he had met an old woman, a sign of bad luck, as the fool "knew from experience," and had consequently felt it necessary to return home and set out anew. The Hofmeister merely laughs at the superstition.32 Evidently Weise found it too silly to refute, and one may assume his contention would have been that the "experience" was purely imaginary. It should be noted, however, that even this moronic individual in the story feels it is more convincing to assert an empirical basis for his fears than to call on tradition or the opinion of some more authoritative personage. Weise sometimes strengthens a very dubious theory with the contention that experience supports it. Whether or not he is falsifying his own observations is of little importance. It is significant that he relies on the term "experience" to impress his reader rather than on citations from "authorities" or on any other means when he asserts, "Daily experience proves, more than enough, that unjustly acquired property is not inherited by the third heir [generation]." 33 Just what these authors meant by experience, what they understood its function to be, is not always perfectly clear. One of the characters in Lohenstein's Arminius refutes the story that the people dwelling at the origin of the Ganges lived on the sweet scent of flowers but were killed by repulsive odors, with the statement that he himself had been at that spot but he had heard nothing to that effect. Consequently the story is not true.34 But if Lohenstein here seems willing to trust to casual observation, at Ibid., "Ibid., " Ibid., 31

188. i25f. p. Q4.

"Lohenstein,

Arminius,

I, Bk.

$,

62g.

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another point in the same novel he indicates that visual sense-impression alone is perhaps not to be trusted in all cases: " I should observe from shipboard the falsity of my visual impression in distinguishing the movement of objects, since it would seem that the shore was receding from me and not that I was moving away from it." 35 He also claims that physicians sometimes falsely attribute therapeutic virtues to certain herbs when a patient recovers after taking them medicinally. In certain cases it only seems that the medicament has been effective; actually "experience shows" that desperate diseases are often cured by the patient's strong faith or by "schlechte Worte und seltzame Kennzeichen." 3 6 Just how it is determined which element effected the cure in a case involving both faith and herbs, is not divulged. A t any rate we have here an example of scepticism concerning the validity of the assumption of cause-and-effect relationship between the uncontrolled administration of drugs and subsequent recovery from disease. Grimmelshausen, in the Mummelsee episode of his Simplicissimus, makes an interesting statement concerning the method of arriving at conclusions concerning the causes underlying the unique qualities of various springs and wells. These causes are guessed by natural scientists from the odors, tastes, powers, and effects of the various waters. 37 In other words, one of several hypotheses is selected on the basis of sense-impression and the result of experiment. One may use the term "experiment" here because in order to observe the effects of the waters it would be necessary to alter certain of their existential conditions to produce those effects. Ettner makes a statement concerning the relation of experience and theory in medicine. " T h e physician," he says in Eckharts Doctor, "should diligently turn his efforts and thoughts every day, in his diagnoses, to the problem of refuting the bad 'aphorisms' [i.e., wrong hypotheses] and adding to the good ones, otherwise these 'aphorisms' would be nothing but asyla "Ibid.,

I, Bk. s, S36f.

"Ibid., I, Bk. 5, 471. " G r i m m e l s h a u s e n , Simplicissimwi,

V , chap, xiv, 128.

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ignoranticB for the destruction of the patient and the Schola Salemitana would become a 'Schola Salpateriana' [Salpeteriana?]." 38

Frequently experience is offered in support of a fantastic and improbable phenomenon. In such cases it generally means a report (probably altered) concerning someone else's experience. T h u s , Lohenstein points out that frequent experience testifies how restlessly the spirits of the dead guard the graves of the bodies they have left.3® A t another point one of the characters in Arminius

states that thousandfold experience has long

since

confirmed that no comet had ever appeared without being followed b y sanguinary political alterations. 40 In a discussion of the superstition that misfortunes invariably follow the loss of a stone from a ring or the cracking of a ring, one of Lohenstein's characters voices the theory that such correlations are mere coincidence and that to consider the loss of a precious stone from a ring as an omen of ill-fortune is pure superstition. Another character points out, to the contrary, that experience confirms this theory. N o one had ever lost a gem from a ring without subsequently suffering misfortune. 4 1 In the same vein Harsdörfer informs us that experience substantiates the theory that magicians have power over the bodies of the godless. 42 Harsdörfer also believed that experience confirms the doctrine of signatures. One observes that lentils (or the water in which they are boiled) are good for smallpox, strawberries for a rash, etc. 43 A s might be expected, the sceptical tendency discussed in the last chapter made itself felt in the attitude toward authority. It is true that, frequently, authors with little or no claim to scientific knowledge are cited in support of theories concerning natural phenomena. Sometimes fantastic tales from popular compendia are accepted and offered as evidence. Grimmelshausen, for example, during a discussion of memory in the Simpltcissimus,

uses a state-

ment from Pliny to strengthen his assertion that one's memory can * Ettner, Eckharts Doctor, p. 227. u Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. 2, 162. "Ibid., I, Bk. 2, 177. "Ibid., I, Bk. 2, 95. " Harsdörfer, Grosser Schau-Platz, sec. 37, 138. "Harsdörfer, Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele, I, 217. Cf. above, p. 76.

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be intentionally weakened or made to fail altogether. 44 There is no indication on his part as to why he considered that author an expert in such matters. Evidently Pliny's antiquity and literary prestige were qualification enough. In the Lustige Schau-Bühne Francisci narrates a fantastic story of miscegenation between a woman and an ape, and comments that the story is by no means impossible, since in Peru, as is well known from the histories, women breed with apes and produce monstrosities which are part human, part anthropoid ape. 45 He does not find it necessary to mention the histories b y name. But this attitude is what one expects to find. A t times one is struck by a statement which is the result of a definitely sceptical attitude toward the dicta of prominent individuals. Weise, for example, sneers at the notion that one should accept a speaker's distinction alone as a guarantee of credibility. "One man told something and said it was true of a certainty ; he had heard it from a distinguished man. Another added, 'You fool, a distinguished man can afford to talk. He knows that you must believe him." 48 Even more significant are the occasional challenges to intrenched authority in scientific matters. As was true of the stress on observation and experience, these passages invariably relate to medicine. Ettner, in discussing a specific case, remarks cynically that numerous physicians who were disciples of medical authorities, of Jonston, Fernel, Galen, Sylvius, and Helmont, all failed to alleviate that patient's suffering in the least, "no matter how exact they were as observers of their teachers." 47 Ettner also attacks sharply the absence of a critical attitude in his profession in deciding which statements are authoritative. " I t is to be regretted that physicians believe all stories and incorporate them into their writings as pure truth." 48 Christian Weise criticizes those who feel they must observe the precepts of all noted authorities. One of the characters in his Politischer Näscher boasts, "When I am a physician, no one will compel me to proceed accordGrimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, "Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, " Weise, Ertz-Narren, p. 209. 44

Ettner, Eckharts "Ibid., p. i48f. 47

Doctor,

pp. igff

II, chap, viii, I03f. I, 122I.

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i n g to the p r i n c i p l e s of b o t h G a l e n a n d P a r a c e l s u s . I t is s u f f i c i e n t if I m a i n t a i n the h e a l t h [of m y p a t i e n t s ] , w h e r e v e r I o b t a i n the m e a n s . If I find P a r a c e l s u s u s e f u l , t h e n I m a y n o t i n q u i r e a s t o G a l e n ' s t h e r a p e u t i c a l m e t h o d s . " 4 8 B u t t h e m o s t e x t r e m e a t t a c k on s l a v i s h o b s e r v a n c e of a u t h o r i t y in m e d i c i n e is m a d e b y E t t n e r : It is to be deplored how physicians make themselves slaves to the opinions of certain authors, as if all diseases must be overcome by their prescriptions, without considering the fact of climatic variation or that a single disease varies so much in different cases that what might be harmful to one person would be beneficial to another and vice versa. H e o f f e r s a s u b s t i t u t e f o r blind a c c e p t a n c e of a u t h o r i t y : Exact investigation carried out by the physician himself brings results . . . and it seems almost ridiculous to me when a physician apologizes, " T h i s and that author found this useful, therefore it should alleviate [the present case o f ] the previously described disease . . . It has aided my father, sister, brother-in-law, brother?—then it will not do you harm." It is stupid to bring forward such authority. T o read the authors carefully, evaluate their opinions exactly, and benefit from them is praiseworthy, but to build on their opinions as on a foundation is careless and irresponsible in case a cure is not affected. E t t n e r does not b y a n y m e a n s u n d e r s t a n d t h e w o r d " i n v e s t i g a t i o n " (.Untersuchung)

a s t h e e q u i v a l e n t of e x p e r i m e n t . R a t h e r , it signi-

fies o b s e r v a t i o n a n d s p e c u l a t i o n o n t h e b a s i s of t h e o b s e r v a t i o n , as is i n d i c a t e d w h e n h e c o n t i n u e s , " F o r G o d , w h o g a v e s o m e the i n t e l l i g e n c e n e c e s s a r y f o r r e f l e c t i o n , will n o t r e f u s e it to o t h e r s w h o are d i l i g e n t in their efforts a n d p r a y e r s , b u t one m a y n o t b e uno b s e r v a n t or l a z y . " 5 0 L o h e n s t e i n m a k e s a t h r u s t a t the r e l i a b i l i t y of t h e t e s t i m o n y of t h e a n c i e n t s in g e n e r a l w h e n , i n a d i s c u s s i o n of the a r t of g o l d m a k i n g , one of the c h a r a c t e r s in Arminius

suggests that

their

s t a t e m e n t s on t h e s u b j e c t a r e as s u s p i c i o u s a s t h o s e of c o n t e m p o r a r y liars. " F o r d e c e i t a n d lies a r e j u s t a s old a s t r u t h . " 5 1 Occasionally, after a speculative passage concerning some natural p h e n o m e n o n one finds a s t a t e m e n t of t h e p r i n c i p l e t h a t scientific m a t t e r s are best l e f t to s p e c i a l i s t s . T h u s , a f t e r a d i s c u s s i o n " W e i s e , Politischer Näscher, p. 375. " E t t n e r , Eckkarts Doctor, p. 21. M

Lohenstein, Arminius, I, Bk. 2, 171.

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of brain diseases in Der Grosse Schau-Platz, Harsdörfer says, " W e leave this to the physicians and willingly admit our ignorance, inasmuch as it is no disgrace to a shoemaker if he cannot make a dress nor to a tailor that he cannot make shoes." 52 Again, in a discussion of insanity and its causes, Harsdörfer states, " B u t it is in the province of physicians to pass judgment on this." 53 It is interesting that Harsdörfer in his discussion of the geocentric and heliocentric theories (in the Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele) makes no effort to distinguish between various types of evidence or authority. T h e Bible's authority is stressed as much as the evidence offered by one's senses. It is only when he mentions the evidence supporting the heliocentric theory that he seems to be approaching a modern attitude, for actually what he offers is the use and result of the experimental method. On the basis of the heliocentric theory, he declares notable astronomers have predicted eclipses of the sun and moon with great accuracy. 5 * But there is no indication that Harsdörfer had any comprehension of the relationship between hypothesis, prediction, and experiment performed to test the hypotheses. Evidently he saw little difference between the procedure of the noted astronomers and his own approach to scientific problems. Their confirmed hypotheses are given no more weight than either the Bible's statements or the evidence of one's eyes. Inquiry as to the attitude of German authors of the late Seventeenth Century toward experiment yields mainly negative results. Only an occasional author is conscious of experiment as a means of supporting or eliminating his suppositions. And occasionally an author will pass on as fact some ancient but fallacious notion which he might have investigated with almost no inconvenience. It would be too much to expect Lohenstein, for example, to have ascertained experimentally whether man could subsist solely on wine diluted with water, as he asserts in Arminias,™ or whether the dolphin inevitably dies as a result of contact with the earth, 58 Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, " Ibid., sec. 75, 274. 53

sec. 196, 357.

" Harsdörfer, Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele, "Lohenstein, Arminias, I, Bk. 5, 542. "Ibid., I, Bk. 4, 361.

V I I I , 508.

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or whether a pig can live after the loss of an eye, 57 yet he might have cast some doubt on the theory that garlic deprives a magnet of its attraction by merely procuring a magnet and garlic and bringing them together. But he merely makes that assertion 58 without the least urge to try out the theory in practice. Harsdörfer similarly informs the reader of his Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele that magnets which no longer attract iron can be made magnetic again by the odor of onions. Further, he finds it remarkable that a knife rubbed with a magnet will cause no pain to anyone whom it cuts or stabs. Evidently he expected that assertion to reach incredulous readers, although he himself entertained no doubt in the matter, for he appends the statement, "Anyone who likes may try it." 59 One wonders also if Harsdörfer ever conceived of asking a jaundiced patient whether everything really seemed yellow to his eyes, as he assures the readers of his Grosser SchauPlatz.™ In his Politische Colica, Riemer illustrates the completely unscientific approach that permits individuals to cling to their preconceptions without any interest in the relation of these to facts. He relates that a miserly individual trained his children to live on bread alone, and comments with assurance that far from suffering because of their inadequate diet, the children thrived as well as others might on soups and roast kidneys. 61 B u t obviously, experimentation to confirm a hypothesis was by no means new in the Seventeenth Century, nor at any other time. Its significance was always vaguely appreciated by the masses. T h e blind beggar in Die Verderbte Jugend, who was famed for his astounding cures, recommended his remedies with the phrase, " I t has been tried" (Es ist probat).62 Simplicissimus, in the role of nostrum-peddler, tricks the French peasantry into thinking that his false theriak is an antidote to poison by demonstrating a faked experiment. He substitutes alcohol for his nostrum and drops a " Ibid., I, B k . 5, 508. "Ibid., I, B k . 2, 132. "Harsdörfer, Gesprächspiele, Vin, 492. "Harsdörfer, Der Grosse Schau-Platz, sec. " Riemer, Politische Colica, p. isof. ''Die Verderbte Jugend, ρ. 173f,

114, 51.

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toad into it. The toad, a supposedly poisonous creature, dies in the alcohol, and the observers are convinced that Simplicissimus' theriak counteracts poison. 83 Chicanery and several false assumptions were involved in the process that led the peasants to believe Simplicissimus' claims, but they demanded experimental confirmation of his assertion without realizing the significance of their demand. Similarly, Lohenstein has one of the characters in his Armtnius assert that fire does not deprive objects of their innate qualities or reproductive power, and then attempts to confirm his contention. He cuts an herb to pieces, burns the fragments, and then plants the ashes in a vessel filled with earth, with the assurance that in a few days shoots of the same herb would spring up.64 Of course the conception of fire as an element and the idea of reproductive power are faulty. The experiment is by no means controlled. There is no indication that the earth did not already contain seeds or bulbs of that herb when the ashes were introduced. Nevertheless, it is an example of a very crude experimental approach. In Der Wunderreiche Überzug, Francisci describes in outline several scientific experiments performed at a meeting of the English Royal Society to determine whether fish can live without air. He also speaks of Otto Guericke's experiments to determine the effect of the lack of air on various fishes and on a sparrow. 85 Elsewhere in the same work Francisci indicates an interest in the current controversy over spontaneous generation. He describes Thomas Henshaw's experiments with May-dew and concludes, "Since it is clear from these and like experiments that dew, rain, and the substance from which both are derived, namely the vapors which have arisen from the earth, . . . can produce living worms or vermin, I firmly believe that many kinds of vermin can be produced in the clouds and can be let fall from them." 68 This passage is unusual in its mention of contemporary scientific research. In general, the authors who enter this investigation seem ™ Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, V , chap, viii, 30ft. " L o h e n s t e i n , Arminius, I, B k . 5, 624. " F r a n c i s c i , Der Wunderreiche Uberzug, pp. 454-5. -Ibid., p. 803.

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to have been unfamiliar with the scientific achievements of the Seventeenth Century and with the new instruments which made so many of them possible. Francisci also gives evidence of some comprehension of the experimental procedure in his Lustige Schau-Bühne. In a discussion of amber he points out that amber cannot be a type of birddung, as is often suggested, because no bird-dung melts and flows in fire, and amber does.67 Obviously the experiments involving amber and fire were an attempt to confirm a hypothesis deduced from several false assumptions, namely that fire is a constant element (or at least is of constant temperature), that all types of bird-dung had been tested in fire, etc. But it is noteworthy that Francisci appreciates to some extent the value of experiment in obtaining data and confirming hypotheses. E. W . Happel evinces respect for the experimental method in Der Bayerische Max. During a discussion of the possibility of stunting the growth of animals and human beings through artifice, one of the characters in the story asserts that there is an effective technique which involves the application of certain strong spirits to the joints, spine, and limbs. Another character, a lady, is sceptical. The first person assures the lady that he himself has seen the operation performed and has observed the results. Out of politeness, the lady declares herself satisfied, but she stipulates that the experiment be performed for her edification as soon as an opportunity presents itself. 68 Happel was not only well acquainted with, but also admired, the astronomers of his and the preceding era. He mentions in his Mundus Mirabilis that they have progressed so far, it seems as though they had ascended to the very firmament. And their accomplishments are due both to their unusual experience and their wonderful instruments. 69 This recognition of the importance of the instruments is, in a sense, recognition of the experimental method, since through the use of his instruments the astronomer alters the conditions of his observation of the stars—a process comparable " Francisci, Lustige Schau-Bühne, II, 628. 68 Happel, Der Bayerische Max, I, 18. 69 Happel, Mundus Mirabilis, p. 12.

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with the alteration of the existing conditions of a phenomenon, the basis of experiment in the natural sciences. A n example of the use of the experimental method is provided by Chr. Thomasius in his Kurtze Lehrsätze von dem Laster der Zauberei ( 1 7 0 3 ) . He relates how several persons had been condemned for witchcraft on the fantastic testimony of several boys. Their evidence had been allowed on the supposition that the Holy Ghost, always active in defending God's honor against Satan, would never permit the boys to lie in such a matter. After several people had been executed, one sceptic proceeded, with the consent of the prosecution, to test this assumption by offering one of the boys a bribe to alter his testimony. T h e ruse was successful, and it immediately became clear that the assumption was false—the Holy Ghost had not spoken through the mouths of the boys. The other unfortunates were freed. 70 Is there anything in the material we have presented that might indicate the philosophical impulse responsible for the scientific and technological productivity of the era? Certainly a critical attitude toward the intrenched authorities would be a contributing factor; and there is sufficient evidence of a strong tendency to put old, authoritative precepts to the test of observation and experience. One feels occasionally that some of the baroque intelligentsia were not far from rejecting the acceptance of any authority which had not been so confirmed. T h e occasional and slightly diffident comment that speculation on scientific matters is best left to specialists is a foreshadowing of a laudable attitude, which is yet to make itself more prominent, and points to the time when the transference of authority would be at an end, when respect for a man's opinions in the field of theology, history, belles lettres, etc., would not suffice to cause the unqualified acceptance of his theories on the natural sciences. The substitution of reliance on observation and experience for slavish observance of authority is a promising sign; but it is interesting to note that nowhere does one find a statement concerning the nature of this experience or of the method of observing and experiencing. Occasionally one feels that "P.

107.

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the word "experience" is meant to include inquiry; but controlled inquiry as a concept or method was apparently unknown to the authors we have investigated, if not to many of their contemporaries engaged in scientific research. Actually, for many, the term "experience" was a catchword, as glib and as popular at the timeas "natural," and almost equally meaningless, philosophically. The empiricism of the era was undoubtedly important in both the sciences and social thought, but its role in the sciences was not clear to the layman. If one considers that the empirical doctrine had been given its first modern expression in the Italian Renaissance, its great German impetus by Paracelsus in the preceding century, its greatest elaboration by Francis Bacon approximately half a century before, one might find it rather astonishing that a clearer and more widespread appreciation of the empirical approach to the problems of nature did not make itself felt in German literature of the late Seventeenth Century. But the lay population is always slow to comprehend new developments in scientific thought, and even imperfect lip-service to the empirical doctrine at this late date is to be considered something of a triumph over the tenacious tendency toward a priori reasoning and speculation.

IX E X P E R I M E N T A N D E X P E R I E N C E IN S O C I E T Y THE DOCTRINE of direct experience and observation was of major importance to the German bourgeoisie in the realm of social living; and the reflection on the lay mind is to be sought less in the material dealing with the sciences than in that which treats of the rules of conduct, of social philosophy, and even in literary form. In fact, it might not be amiss to assert that the antithesis of the metaphysical a priori and the empirical had its counterpart in the contrast between the aristocratic, courtly form of the novel which flourished during this era and the "political" revue-novels of the category begun by Christian Weise. T h e "political" 1 novel, which flourished in Saxony and Thuringia in the 1670's and 1680's, bears a fundamental relationship in its world-view to the aristocratic fiction of the Baroque. Weise and the authors of his generation (this might well be made a generalization for all the popular fiction of the time) also conceived of the world as ephemeral, sinful, uncertain. It was not merely deference to convention which prompted Weise to include a long poem expressing this view in his Drey Haupt-Verderber.2 ' T h e term "political" (politisch) so frequently used in Germany during the last third of the Seventeenth Century seems to have denoted a combination of virtues: a shrewd understanding of the difficulties encountered in daily life and the ability to turn them to one's advantage; a knowledge of etiquette and grace in social behavior; worldly wisdom, in short, enabling one to make use of circumstances and people for his personal advancement and happiness. 'Christian Weise, Die drey Haupt-Verderber in Teutsckland (1673), pp. i o f f : Ach was ist der Menschen Leben Anders/als ein Wirbelwind/ Da wir stets in Sorgen schweben/ Und niemahls zu frieden sind/ Da wir zwischen Angst und Schmertzen/ Zwischen Furcht und Hoffnung stehn/ Und mit unvergnügtem Herzen Unserm T o d entgegen gehn. Da regiert das blinde Glücke/ Welches nie beständig liebt/ Und die angenehmsten Blicke Nur auß falschem Hertzen giebt [ 135]

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T h e y too subscribed to the political ideal of worldly wisdom which dominates the aristocratic literature of the era. 3 A c t u a l l y Weise may be considered the first bourgeois adapter of that ideal. He too valued and emphasized the advantages accruing from diplomatic behavior, skillful social address, rhetorical adroitness, and all the virtues which were necessary for success and happiness at the absolutist courts. B u t the aristocratic and bourgeois spheres differed radically and that difference is reflected in the aristocratic and bourgeois novels. T h e conception of the nature of mundane existence which dominated the baroque Weltanschauung

led in various directions. In

some cases the baroque author avoids the problem of

man's

attitude toward the evils and trials of existence by proposing ascetic withdrawal. Simplicissimus

provides the best example here.

B u t this Catholic solution of turning one's back on society and finding happiness in God had little appeal for the northern authors of the aristocratic, heroic art-novels. For them happiness is not to be sought in renunciation of this world and devotion to a religious ideal but rather in maintenance or attainment of two worldly desirables—political position and power and virtuous sexual gratification.

T h e baroque man's feeling of helplessness before unpre-

dictable and unfriendly fate led to a stoic ethos which idealizes heroic, dignified resignation to adverse fortune and spiritual constancy, both in enduring its incredible blows and in withstanding strong temptations to immoral conduct. T h i s resignation is not entirely passive, for the constancy of the heroic figures in their rejection of everything unchaste or otherwise dishonorable which would damage their integrity is, in a sense, defiance of the accepted pattern of occurrence. Examples of this idealization of constancy and stoic resignation may be sought not only in the novels of Welche sich darum bemühen/ Finden lauter Ungemach Denen/so d a v o r entfliehen Folgt es offtmahls selber nach. etc. 3 E r i k a V o g t , Die gegenhöfische Strömung, p. 50, points out Weise's basic relation to the ideal of the courtly novel. A l e w y n , Beer, pp. 171ft, analyzes the ideological agreement of the heroic-gallant and the naturalistic novels as exemplified in their respective treatment of women.

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Zesen, Bucholtz, Anton Ulrich, and Ziegler, but also in the drama. The protagonist of the aristocratic heroic novel is an extremely select individual. His hardships, accordingly, bear little relation to everyday life. To the trials of fate he can oppose only the tenacity and nobility of spirit (which is the heritage of his birth) and his social adroitness. The world of the bourgeois novel, however, is far from that of the absolutist court. The characters are not those few individuals who are born to rule and therefore, representing the absolute monarchy, are superhumanly beautiful, brave, virtuous, etc. The difficulties and temptations which the bourgeois novel depicts are by no means fantastic, but of the sort one may work actively to alleviate and utilize. Thus in his preface to Der Politische, possierliche, und doch manierliche Simplicianische Hasen-Kopß (1689), Erasmus Grillandus explains that his hero, like Simplicissimus, was often in extreme difficulties, but knew how to adapt himself "manierlich und possierlich" and to turn the most unusual tribulations to his benefit. The world of the aristocratic novel, and especially of those in the heroic-gallant category, is one of almost complete irreality. For all its bulk and complexity of plot, it represents a preconceived and ridiculous simplification of character, morality, and events. In it the earth is really a tiny place; all roads and byways cross and run into each other. It is inevitable rather than accidental that the various characters encounter each other constantly in fantastic places. The stories are peopled by hosts of characters whose relationship is incredibly involved. The Aramena contains over three hundred of them. The confusion in this respect is increased by the constant use of disguise, unknown or mistaken identity. But here too the seeming complexity is false, just as the seeming limitation of the world is false. Minor characters usually have no personality at all, or represent the virtues of faithfulness, true friendship or the vice of treachery, or merely repeat the theme of the main figures on a smaller scale. The central characters are representatives of the simplified, baroque, aristocratic ideal—nobles and noble ladies, who through constancy of spirit endure great hardship«, inflicted upon them either by evil characters or gratuitously by adverse fate, but maintain their virtue, retain their heroic

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dignity, and finally are rewarded in the arms of their beloved. T h e chief hardships, apart from the mechanics of the shipwrecks, kidnapings, etc. are loss of the beloved, loss of position, threats to chastity through torture, imprisonment, and tempation by insanely passionate seducers and sirens. This theme has few important variations, but is repeated in the lives of numerous minor characters. The effect is cumulative, for the same incidents are repeated over and over with only a change of place or a substitution of one group of hero, heroine, and villain for another. There is no tragedy, very little comedy, and no interest in any recognizable aspect of life. Relief from the suspense of the plot is afforded by the formal, exaggerated speeches, courtly rhetoric, or by descriptions of exotic elements in the story—plants, creatures, furnishings of all sorts—by an intense interest in the exotic and bizarre.* The didactic element is not in the foreground. T h e reader is to appreciate the traits of character necessary for virtuous existence in this world from the example set by the protagonists of the story and to observe their graceful and skillful behavior. Occasionally, but not often, a passage is devoted to the details of some natural phenomenon, as though the author's purpose is to give his reader whatever information he himself possesses. Mention that the hero is afflicted with illness, for example, may be followed b y an incongruous listing of the pathological symptoms. Although almost all the authors of baroque prose evidence to some degree the Stoßhunger so characteristic of the age, the tendency toward detailed information on every possible topic is b y no means strongly developed in most of the novels in the heroic-courtly category. Lohenstein's Arminius differs from the strictly heroic-gallant type, ' Hankamer attributes this interest in the curious and unusual (which is best reflected in the various compendia of curiosities) to the baroque awareness of the limitation of knowledge and of the enormity of the still unexplained and still unknown. In the vast field of the still inexplicable, abnormality became the distinguishing characteristic. Paul Hankamer, Deutsche Gegenreformation und deutsches Barock (Stuttgart: Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 193s), p. 404f. At any rate it seems certain that the layman's interest in natural phenomena was one which resulted in a pushing back of the frontiers of the imagination more than the frontiers of knowledge. The seeking was not after the elements of sameness of relationship, the common denominators underlying various phenomena, as much as it was for exotic divergence in nature. Hence the selection of the foreign scene and characters: Arabia, Persia, Africa; and of a remote age.

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and from the other polyhistoric novels also, in the extent of its didactic, encyclopedic aspect, its long digressions on every conceivable subject, its detailed presentation of every scrap of information in the author's erudite but cluttered mind. But although the intense interest in terrestrial phenomena displayed by Lohenstein confirms the hypothesis as to the Diesseitigkeit of his philosophical outlook, it should be borne in mind that the fundamental irreality of the world in the whole genre of heroic-gallant novels is reflected in the polyhistoric Arminius also. Fundamentally, Armittius is just as remote from reality as Aramena. The entire historical concept of the work is the same sort of reductio ad. absurdum as underlies the other novels of its class, an a priori formulation in which historical fact and perspective surrender completely to wishful thinking. In short, this category of the novel, with its preconceptions as to the nature of terrestrial existence, its simplification of psychology and social and personal morality, its unreal conception of time, space, and the law of probability, its lack of interest in real event and character, represents the same state of mind as produced the endless, superficial speculation on natural phenomena running through the literature of at least two-thirds of the Seventeenth Century. As has been mentioned, the political, bourgeois novel introduced by Christian Weise contains a view of the world which has its roots in the same pessimism as one finds in the other important literary categories, but the political novel offers a new departure in that it aims at the goal of preparation to meet and overcome the inevitable hardships of life. It tries to present, in Weise's words, "a doctrine which will indicate to every person how he can maintain his Privat-Glück and cleverly avoid all troublesome mischance." 5 The hero of the gallant novel stands above the mass through his possession of spiritual qualities which enable him to maintain his integrity and dignity in the face of hardship and temptation. The protagonist of the political novel tries to achieve a maximum of happiness through the acquisition of experience ' W e i s e , Politischer

Näscher,

Preface.

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which gives him an understanding of the difficulties that beset him and which inspires ingenuity and diligence in counteracting them. Knowledge for the former type is necessary for the maintenance of his position as an aristocrat above the mass of the population. Further, knowledge is a mental satisfaction in that it provides a constant in such an ephemeral world of instability and endless, unpredictable change; but it by no means aids him in achieving his position, for that is his by right of birth and by virtue of his measuring up to the heroic ideal. Knowledge is acquired by instruction through variants of the scholastic forms of lectio and disputatto. Authority is of great importance. Thus the endless discussions in Arminius (which lead absolutely nowhere) and the constant references to authorities are meant, to a certain extent, as instruction. Knowledge to the bourgeois political hero, however, is infinitely more practical, not merely a requisite for maintenance of his position, but the weapon with which he may combat the forces that threaten his Privat-Glück. His knowledge, consequently, must be not ornamental but practical and social. He must know the nature of the society of which he is a member, of the people whom he must use, of the social and moral pitfalls which he must evade. The aristocratic here gives way to the bourgeois, the unreal to the practical and realistic. To be sure, one may not speak of realism in any broad sense here, for the world of the bourgeois political novel is also extremely one-sided and narrow. Its elements, however, are recognizable, even though the picture does not give the impression of completeness, and are not hypothetical and unreal, as in the heroic forms. Finally, we see here the retreat of the a priori before a growing empiricism. For the worldly wisdom that makes one politic is acquired, not through speculative discussion, not from the theories of authorities, but through the experience of the person to be educated with the problems, follies, and vicissitudes of life. Here, according to Weise, no scholastic discipline with its empty definitions and divisions can apply, for human life must conform to circumstances.® The protagonist of the political novel in the form given it by Weise, learns from direct observation what to avoid and * Weise, Politischer Näscher, Preface.

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reject and how to conduct himself in order to attain the maximum of success and happiness. Sometimes the protagonist sets out on a journey accompanied by an older and wiser man, meets a succession of fools, and from observation of their behavior is expected to acquire wisdom. The prototype here is Weise's Ertz-Narren, the framework of which reminds one of Moscherosch's AlamodeKehraus, in which a king sends his son into the world with a wise companion to give a golden apple to the greatest fool he can find. In the Ertz-Narren a young man inherits an estate on the condition that he have a painting made of the three greatest fools in the world. He makes an extended journey with a wise tutor, a secretary, a manager, and a painter in search of them. Daily new fools are encountered, and the guardian (Weise) {joints the moral. The fools are of varied types. In succession the little company observes: an innkeeper who married a termagant for the sake of economic security and puts up with her scolding and beatings. A lace dealer who beats his wife because she stubbornly refuses to repeat after a profitable transaction, "Thank God, the lace is sold." A cavalier who, against his better judgment, gives in to every foolish desire of his whining wife. Florindo himself, the youth on whose behalf the educational journey was undertaken, who becomes involved in a duel through his own arrogance and bad manners. In this one episode Florindo learns, not from the example of others, but from his own mistakes. Then follow: a fantastic court-fool who hopes to achieve fame and wealth by presenting mad schemes to the rulers of the various European states (e.g., to build a dam across the English Channel leaving an opening only at the Isle of Wight). A bibliophile who is inordinately proud of his library, but has not mastered the contents of his books. The painter of the company, a simple person, who becomes too inquisitive concerning a letter Florindo has received and who, in punishment, is made the butt of a practical joke. A fop. The painter again, who, through his own example, demonstrates the folly of gambling. Three travelling companions, one of whom has spent his youth and fortune journeying abroad without acquiring a profession or any other means of support. The second has lost large sums and his health in pursuing a military career. The third has spent his youth as a

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wastrel, lost a large fortune, and let himself be tricked into an unfortunate marriage. The procedure varies here in that these three relate their autobiographies to each other in private while the members of our company eavesdrop. Next come: a fool who is converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism for the sake of material advantages. Two fools who quarrel over the question as to how they should spend a large but quite hypothetical sum of money. A young writer of repulsively effulgent and affected love letters. A miser who is enslaved by his love of money. A literary purist who writes in an unintelligible style, eliminating loan words with ridiculous results. Here Zesen may be meant. Weise challenges the purist's authority to make such changes and argues that usage should prevail. An old fool of love. A young, immature fool of love. A teacher who thinks that education consists in learning formulas sine judtcio and in parroting Latin phrases. A cowardly braggart who is unacquainted with the happy mean between fortissime and ttmidissime. A group of simpletons who buy a cure-all from a quack. An individual who will pay no debts except upon court order. His brother, who forsakes the study of theology for alchemy. Fools who acquire money dishonestly and inhumanely in order to provide a rich legacy for their children. A cut-purse. Another Horribilicribrifax. An affected young fool who cannot decide on a profession because all are attended by fantastic dangers. A student who plans to instruct himself in all branches of learning by studying a confused collection of extracts from various tracts. The son of a merchant who pretends he is a prince. A tongue-tied individual who hopes to be freed from his handicap in order to seek favors from the ladies. A man who appropriates the place of honor at the dining table of an inn because his father is a noted personage. A lover of delicacies who steals the food of his neighbors at table. An outwardly righteous traveller who secretly makes love to the whoring maid of the inn. Numerous other fools are observed and discussed before the journey is over. It must be said that although Weise explains the purpose of these travels as instructive to young Florindo, in that they are to teach him what to avoid in his own behavior, he does

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not indicate the effect of these experiences on his protagonist, who remains a shadowy figure throughout. Also, there is no question that the commentary on each specific case provided by Gelanor, the guardian, is almost as important as the individual experience. This, of course, is not a criticism of the method, since it is necessary, even in the laboratory, to point out to the inexperienced student how the results of his directed experiments may be interpreted. T h e weakness of this novel by Weise lies in its conclusion. A t the termination of the journey Gelanor does not attempt to decide the problem as to who are the three greatest fools through use of his and Florindo's observations. Instead, he dispatches one of the company to lay the question before a Collegium Prudentium, and accepts the conclusions of that body. T h e greatest fool, it turns out, is the man who throws away his hope of heaven for temporal filth. Next in degree of folly come the men who endanger health and life or honor and good name through their dissoluteness. Obviously, the manner of finally solving the problem is in direct conflict with Weise's own plea for experience over against scholastic, a priori disputation. Perhaps on reviewing the material he had introduced into the novel, Weise saw no logical way of drawing such a conclusion from his examples of vice and folly, inasmuch as they are mainly petty and social by nature. But since he had intended all along to lead up to that conclusion and had no desire to rewrite his book, he decided on the unhappy expedient of the Collegium Prudentium. Quite apart from the forced conclusion, however, there is no denying that Florindo, given a normal intelligence, must have learned to distinguish a great many common and uncommon minor vices and errors of social as well as ethical judgment. His worldly wisdom would be somewhat shallow, but quite practical. A t the end of Der Politische Maul-Aße, Riemer manages a much better conclusion than does Weise. T h e youthful protagonists of his story profit from the experience acquired on their journey to the extent that they become moderately successful financially and socially and acquire the ability, from their observa-

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tion of human behavior, to bring all their undertakings to a successful conclusion in half the time required by those who are learned enough but have not experienced enough in wordly affairs.7 There are several political novels which retain the strict form of Weise's Ertz-Narren, but in which the revue is devoted to one category of fools. Thus, in Der Gute Mann oder Der wohlbegabte Hörner-Träger by Archiero Cornemico (1680), the revue is entirely of cuckolds. In Die Böse Frau by Pheroponandro (1683), a youth is sent into the world with a travelling companion, continually encounters shrews, termagants, etc. on his travels and learns to distinguish them. Die Gute Frau by Patientia (1684)—apparently another pen-name used by the author of Die Böse Frau—has a revue of bad husbands and their long-suffering, good wives. Sometimes the form is varied and the individual cases are not observed on a journey but are presented by various experienced individuals in conversation. Such a type is Der Politische Leyermann by Sincero Candidaeo (1683). Occasionally the revue-form is altered in that the journey is omitted, but a series of letters is read in which the case-histories of fools are presented; for example, see the anonymous Der geplünderte Postillion (1699). Weise's Die Drey Klügsten Leute established this technique. There are several novels which do not utilize the formal observational journey of the protagonist, but retain the same experiential basis, in that they depict his development toward political-social orientation through his own experiences. Here the function of the wise guardian is taken over by an experienced friend and companion. In Johann Beer's Der Politische Feuermäuer-Kehrer (1682), a simple youth gains access to various houses as a chimney-sweep's apprentice. Together with an older and wiser colleague he encounters sexual license in its various aspects and learns to know and avoid verdorbene Frauenzimmer. Beer wrote two other novels in this category: Der Politische Bratenwender (1682) and Der Deutsche Kleider-Affe (1685). In some cases the "political" journey is undertaken after the author has narrated novelistic episodes. One may mention as an example, Die Drey Lasterhafftig* Riemer, Politischer

Maul-Affe,

p. 333.

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sten Leute der gantzen Welt by Crinioaldus Celidonius (1685). An interesting deviation from the "political" form is provided by Johann Kuhnau's Der Musikalische Quacksalber (1700), in which the experience is derived, not from numerous observations of varied people and events, but from the episodes in the biography of a single unpolitic musician.8 Another variation is provided by Happel in his Akademischer Roman, in that each of his characters, travelling students, represents a separate vice. They move from one university to another until they have given the reader an adequate picture of student-life through their own representative behavior. In his preface, Happel comments, as is customary in this type of novel, that he is presenting these episodes only that the reader may draw a lesson from them. Strictly speaking, however, Happel's novel does not belong in the political group. We have, in the better examples of this novel-genre, the same collecting of observations that most of the authors of the Seventeenth Century considered necessary for every physician, the technique of learning basic principles from specific examples, not from authoritative statements or speculative theorizing alone. To be sure, the didactic aspect is subordinate in many of the works to the purely fictional. Occasionally one feels that the author was more concerned with the entertainment-value of his book than with its function in spreading the doctrine of worldly wisdom. Certain of these novels degenerate from the genuine revue-type to a rogue-story with revue elements. In some cases the author gave a political title to a volume which does not fall under that category, a testimonial to the popularity of this literary genre, whose basic difference from the aristocratic novel is well indicated in a passage by Johann Beer: Natural things are not offensive, and such things are told us that we may be on our guard against them when occasion arises. Heretofore I have read a great amount of stuff concerning lofty and great love stories, but they were things that could never happen, consequently the time I * For a list and discussion of some of the novels in this category see Arnold Hirsch, Bürgertum und Barock im deutschen Roman, chap. v. For Johann Beer's political novels, see Alewyn's Johann Beer. Rudolf Becker's early work, Christian Weise's Romane und ihre Nachwirkung, is also of interest. Many of his errors have been corrected by Alewyn and Hirsch.

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devoted to reading such writings was badly spent because there was no opportunity to make use of such things as were contained in that book.® This practical and realistic rejection of the substance of the heroic-gallant novel is expressed also by Weise in his Politischer Näscher. In that novel an individual who is lacking in worldly wisdom displays the constancy and chastity of the baroque gallant hero in withstanding trials and temptations for the sake of his beloved. In fact, we have here the standard theme of the heroicgallant novel in a bourgeois environment. But far from praising those qualities in his protagonist, Weise says of him: . . . "that man must have been a sehnsüchtiger Näscher, because he endured so much for the sake of a girl, when one sees a whole world full of that species before him." 10 It is true, of course, that the revue-form is not peculiar to this last third of the Seventeenth Century, that the Standesrevue and the Speculum vitae humanae had been well-known and favored forms long before Weise gave the revue new popularity. 11 One may mention as a few examples: Albrecht von E y b ' s Spiegel der Sitten ( 1 4 7 5 ; publ. 1 5 1 1 ) , Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff (1494), Thomas Murner's Narrenbeschwörung (1512), Schelmenzunft ( 1 5 1 2 ) , and Geuchmat ( 1 5 1 9 ) , Jost Amman's Eygentliche Beschreibung Aller Stände auff Erden ( 1 5 8 6 ) , G. F. Messerschmid's Spital Unheylsamer Narren und Närinnen ( 1 6 1 8 ) . Becker in his Christian Weises Romane sees something of a paradox in the utilization of the revue-form by Weise, also, one may assume, by Riemer, Beer, and other lesser authors. For in his effort to illusstrate "practical rules by concrete cases, allegedly observed in actual life, Weise follows the general desire of the time to forsake scholastic dogmatism for exact observation." 12 On the other hand, Becker feels that the use of the revue represents adherence to the "medieval . . . principle of a complete survey, an encyclopedia of life from a special point of view." In this respect "Weise is in the grip of the scholasticism which he is combatting." 1 3 " I n his novels ' Johann Beer, Teutsche Winternächte, p. 376. " W e i s e , Politischer Näscher, chap, xxvii. " For a list of works using the revue to 1710, see Becker, Weises Romane, pp. 12 ff. " Becker, Weises Romane, p. 8sf. " Becker, Tsetses Romane, p. 55.

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he [Weise] intends to analyze life experimentally, almost like a chemist, and falls into the medieval revue of fools." 14 Elsewhere Becker indicates an awareness of important differences between the use of the revue in Weise's novels (we might add Riemer's, Beer's and others) and in the later Middle Ages, but he seems to underestimate the significance of those differences and to overstress the similarity, which is probably due to literary convention and tradition as well as to the fact that Weise had little inventive talent, rather than to any more profound cause. Actually, the revue in many of the "political" novels bears less resemblance to the old Speculum vitae humanae than to a collection of comically elaborated case-histories in a medical text. In fact, an interesting combination of the revue-form and a collection of medical case-histories is afforded by the novels of Johann Ettner, which have as framework the instructive journey through Europe of two students accompanied by a sage physician named Eckhardt. Although the supposed purpose of the trip is to give the young men knowledge of the world, Ettner is less concerned with "political" wisdom than with the science of medicine. T o be sure, numerous and extended discussions are given on non-medical subjects, but at every halt in the journey Eckhardt's professional services are called upon, sometimes by a sick guest at the inn where Eckhardt and his companions are staying, sometimes by the local physician who wants help in diagnosing a troublesome case. Patients present themselves constantly. Their medical histories are given, their symptoms are described, diagnoses are made. Usually Eckhardt then relates similar cases from his own experience or from the reports of medical authorities and discusses the specific diseases more generally. In this way the little group traverses not only the continent of Europe but almost the entire field of medicine as well. The contrast between the newer revue and the old is immediately apparent. T o take Brant's Narrenschij) as an example, one observes that an attempt is made to include all categories of fools. Each category is described, and in representative, general adjectival terms. The figures have neither individuality, nor character, nor "Ibid.,

p. 88.

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existence of any sort. Only the accompanying woodcuts provide any element of concreteness. The didactic effectiveness lies in the familiarity of the sermon, in the cleverness of the language and graphic illustration. The moral is a religious one. This applies also to Murner's Narrenbeschwörung and Schelmenzunft, except that here the humorous element comes to the fore. Mosherosch offers a transitional form in his Wunderliche Gesichte Philanders von Sittewald. There the inexperienced person is led about to view various fools, who are not exactly in action, but in some cases are caused to demonstrate their folly. The newer revue introduced by Weise purports to draw its material from bourgeois life. Consider these people and their behavior, it implies, and draw the inevitable, social rather than religious, moral. On the surface, at least, the procedure is inductive. The reader learns to distinguish vice and folly, not from hearing them described and censured in general terms but from observing them in practice, in the affairs of daily life. The cases offered are specific and concrete. True, the characters are usually stereotyped, but that, as a rule, is due to the author's lack of talent. Here and there uniqueness and individuality of character are apparent, just as in medical casehistories some offer only the classical symptoms for the specific disease, whereas others show certain deviations. There must inevitably be some question as to how much of the popularity of the "political" revue was due to more than the age-old predilection for the revue-form, its convenience to authors of only slight literary talent, and its inclusion of satiric-comic characters and situations. But it may be taken, and to no small extent, as a reflection of the tendency in the Seventeenth Century which produced the empiricism of the natural sciences in contrast to the purely metaphysical and speculative attitude, the ideal of practical, bourgeois worldly wisdom as an answer to the problem of existence, in contrast to the artistocratic, stoic virtues. We observe a movement toward the introduction of elements of realism into literary style15 and the first steps to draw upon the bourgeois milieu and aspects of bourgeois life18 as opposed to the funda" In this connection see Alewyn's Johann Beer, passim. u See Arnold Hiisch, Bürgertum und Barock im deutschen Roman.

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mental unreality of world, character, situation, and language of the heroic novel and the earlier pastoral novel as well. A question arises concerning the extent of influence exerted by the empiricism of the sciences on the "political" novel. If the treatment of scientific questions in the literature itself is any criterion, the answer must be, "relatively little." T o be sure, this literary genre, which is in itself a product of the empirical tendency, displays a slightly better understanding of the importance of observation and experience in the sciences than does the courtly, heroic genre, but there is little evidence here of information concerning the scientific discoveries of the era. In his study of the social ideal and the social novel in the Seventeenth Century, Egon Cohn generalizes that it is characteristic of this age that "natural scientific thinking comes into its own—only one's own senses are considered trustworthy—hence the preference for realia, the inflexible commandment to make knowledge useful." 11 In part this is true. T h e educative plan of the political novel is based on sensory experience. The empirical approach (evidently Cohn means "empirical" by the term "natural scientific") does make itself felt in the literature in respect to the problems involved in leading a wise and successful existence. There is tremendous interest in realia, but only rarely is it empirically or "scientifically" treated. Both the empiricism of the sciences and the empiricism reflected in the social literature are aspects of the same intellectual tendency, but it would be difficult to establish that the scientific thinking of the day influenced the fictional literature to any important extent.18 " Egon Cohn, Gesellschaftsideal und Gesellschaftsroman des 17. Jahrhunderts. "Germanische Studien," No. 13 (Berlin: E. Ebering, 1921), p. 74. " O n political experience as a correlate of the natural sciences of the time, cf. Arnold Hirsch, Bürgertum und Barock, p. 76.

χ CONCLUSION FOR A considerable number of years almost all analyses of German baroque literature have found in it the reflection of the conflict between various antithetic tendencies—Reformation versus Counter-Reformation, Diesseitigkeit versus asceticism, intense individualism and the will to express it in terms of power and prestige versus a feeling of helplessness against unpredictable fate, mystical pantheism versus an increasingly rationalistic world-view, etc. At first glance, the material in the prose literature dealing with natural phenomona presents a confused picture which seems to indicate the prevalence of similarly antithetic ideas. Every third passage presents itself as a paradoxical compendium of conflicting theories and attitudes. This confusion is, to a certain extent, the result of the authors' failure to define their terms adequately; in part the cause may be attributed to cultural lag, for the clarifying theories already promulgated by Kepler and Galileo and employed successfully by the physicists of the day were unknown to the baroque literateurs.1 In general, the lack of any understanding of the experimental method to qualify the belief that the human ratio was the key to all problems of nature led to a confused eclecticism, in which the sole test of any hypothesis was its seeming logicality. One encounters ideas from every stage in the history 1 Similarly Christof Junker in Das Weltraumbild finds almost no mention of Descartes, Kepler, or Newton in the German lyrics of the Seventeenth Century. In a curious passage contained in the Ertz-Narren, Weise indicates some knowledge of Descartes, Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe. It is of no consequence, he states, whether one assumes a materiam primam or maieriam simplicem or whether one enters the precincts of Descartes and assumes no other substance than matter and the human soul. In the main one will succeed as well with the one assumption as with the other, just as in astronomy it is of no consequence whether one assumes the system of Copernicus or that of Tycho. Whatever the assumptions, it is important only that the conclusions be correct. It is a matter of indifference whether one lets the earth stand still or revolve, provided that in both cases the phenomena come out the same! P. 1 6 3 ! Happel in his Mundus Mirabilis indicates familiarity with Copernicus, Kepler, and other astronomers; Francisci, in Der Wunderreiche Überzug quotes Descartes on the nature of wind. Cf. pp. 986 & 1002.

[ISO]

CONCLUSION of scientific development, but the emphasis given certain of them does enable one to distinguish dominant trends from insignificant traditional retentions. T h e material may be divided into three broad categories. T h e first involves the primitive, animistic conception of nature-phenomena and its unification and systematization by the medieval church. It is interesting that the possibility of contemporary divine creative activity no longer seems to be given much credence. Nevertheless, although few authors thought that God still continued miraculously to bring new objects into existence or to remove those which already existed, belief in the possibility of divine or diabolical intervention in terrestrial occurrence is shown by several of our writers, sometimes directly but more often by implication. T h e y mention both God's direct and contemporary activity on man's behalf 2 and the work of the devil or lesser agents of evil to man's detriment. On rare occasions one finds a passage in which some phenomenon of nature is "explained" in terms of a theological analogy with a passage from Scripture. Apart from this holdover of belief in the miraculous activity of the God-devil dualism the literature contains very numerous remnants of unsystematized, traditional, occult lore. There are references to, and descriptions of, magical techniques and formulas, wonderful properties of stones, animals, springs, metals, powders, etc. A number of illustrations of such material have been cited above in Chapter III, but, as pointed out there, those selections hardly give an adequate idea of the wealth of the lore of this character with which the writers instructed or entertained their public. It appears that a few of our authors definitely retained a belief in the various magical arts, but the majority, from their statements and their dry, matter-of-fact treatment of such material, indicate that they use it merely to cater to the baroque delight in the fantastic and extraordinary. On the whole, the au' C. L. Homaday in Nature in the German Novel oj the Late iSth Century (1770-1800), "Columbia University Germanic Studies, New Series," No. 10 (New Y o r k : Columbia University Press, 1940), has found that the orthodox belief concerning God's use of nature to punish sinners is retained in certain of the novels written between 1770 and 1800. Even the noted scientist, Albrecht Haller, subscribed to it. Cf. p. 192.

CONCLUSION thor's own interest in these survivals seems to be purely intellectual and academic. When an explanation is offered for what we today label a magical practice or phenomenon, it is almost invariably on a rational basis. Infinitely more important than the vestiges of the medievaltheological or the primitive-occult views of nature is the tendency which we have seen in the literature of the second half of the century to regard nature as an autonomous intermediary between God and the world. To be sure, it is often pointed out that every individual aspect of nature is a symbol of the divine beneficence, but the concept seems now fairly widespread that God no longer intervenes in terrestrial affairs. Nature, having been imbued with the divine will, is now independent and regulates terrestrial occurrence in man's behalf on principles correlated into an orderly system. Just as nature, so too the human ratio was created by God and is capable of comprehending those principles and the order according to which nature functions. There is considerable emphasis on the naturalness of mundane occurrence. Nature works only with natural means, never with supernatural ones, that is, according to principles comprehensible to man's mind, not involving miraculous forces (those beyond the realm of human comprehension). Vernunft is the means whereby man can decipher nature's mysteries. As is to be expected, this attitude is sometimes accompanied by an intense interest in natural phenomena and the optimistic assurance that although contemporary knowledge is fragmentary, through reason man will eventually be able to understand the secondary causes, the causas secundas, underlying natural phenomena. To a certain extent this view of an autonomous nature operating on rational principles was responsible for an increased interest in this world; it is more likely that this concept arose to fill the need for a theory that would supplant the scholastic-theological view and justify the interest in this world and this life which had already developed under the influence of the individualism of the Renaissance, the weakening of theological preoccupations, the sixteenth-century explorations, and technological progress. At any rate, it is obvious that there had been little possibility of

CONCLUSION a scientific attitude as long as the supra-rational or miraculous had been permitted to enter the question of causation. The significance of the rejection of the miraculous and of the recognition of a natural causality lies in the fact that it prepared the way for other more important and productive hypotheses. In itself it was unable to make any practical contribution, for, obviously, logical speculation alone is far from a scientific approach. Faced with the task of analyzing the principles underlying natural occurrence, the intelligentsia of the era could do no more than erect new hypotheses or restate old ones; they were quite unable to confirm them, nor did they appreciate the necessity for such a confirmation. With our authors, scientific investigation seems to have meant speculation in terms of the metaphysical qualities of antiquity, Galenic humoralism, Paracelsus' elements, hypothetical forces, the vital and animal spirits, etc. The unifying principle running through almost all phenomenal occurrence was found to be the doctrine of essential relationships, which is at the root of most of the natural philosophical doctrines. But whereas Paracelsus codified various traditional, occult, and cabalistic ideas into an emotionally charged, mystical system, now only certain of the external forms are retained—the mysticism, the emotional quality is gone. When an individual occult practice or theory is retained, it is couched in metaphysical terms. Apart from the theory of essential relationships, the theory of sympathy and antipathy, of signatures and sidereal influence (also "explained" on a natural basis), the natural philosophical accent on the need for close observation and experience is observable in our literature. One finds it chiefly in reference to the practice of medicine; occasionally it is stressed as important for some other art. One would expect more evidence of a growing empiricism in this literature. It is true that the catchwords "experience" and "observation" are to be found everywhere, but except in discussions of medical diagnosis it is rarely certain what the individual author meant by the terms. Interestingly enough, the clearest evidence of seventeenth-century empiricism is to be found in the social field, in the so-called "political" novel, established by Weise and popular in the 1670's and 1680's, which has as its central

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idea the education of a youth through his direct observation from life of numerous examples of vice and folly. But the social doctrine of acquiring knowledge and an understanding of society and human behavior through direct experience rather than from precepts and admonitions alone seems to be an autonomous development, by no means traceable to the influence of any scientific empiricism, although undoubtedly an aspect of the same intellectual movement that produced the approach to problems of nature advocated by Bacon. It is noteworthy to what extent the spirit of scepticism had spread among the writers of the period. In some unimportant cases it can be attributed to nationalistic feeling, as when Ettner derides the use of fantastic foreign drugs because local contributions to the pharmacopoeia are equally effective. Sometimes the scepticism is quite inexplicable, as when an author jeers, for no apparent reason, at one fantastic explanation of some natural occurrence but accepts another equally fantastic. On the whole, however, it may be said that the majority of the authors whom we have investigated were sceptical of all phenomena or theories that seemed extra-rational or illogical, that involved miraculous, incomprehensible elements. This scepticism was, of course, corollary to the assumption of a natural basis for all phenomena. Almost any explanation in terms of the traditional metaphysical forces and qualities was acceptable; even traditional occult techniques explained on this basis seemed reasonable. To a small extent one finds statements of scepticism based on the incompatibility of a theory with experience, namely sensory observation; and occasionally doubt is raised as to the reliability of the senses alone. Authorities are usually accepted or rejected according to the nature of their theories or attitudes. Those that are in keeping with the speculative-metaphysical tendency of the time meet with approval. In general one notes a growing tendency against the transference of authority, i.e., denial that because a man is noted as a statesman, philosopher, literateur, or historian, he is necessarily expert also in scientific matters. Also, one meets occasional statements to the effect that the scientific specialist is better able to decide a scientific problem than the layman. Finally, in regard

CONCLUSION to the practice of medicine, one notes an almost exaggerated lack of respect for the theories of authorities and a reliance on the physician's own experience and observation. The idea of controlled experiment seems to have been almost entirely unknown. One or two cases occur in which respect is paid to certain astronomers because they predicted astronomical events by deduction from their hypotheses long before the event and thereby demonstrated that their hypotheses were correct. And it goes without saying also that a primitive form of desire for experimental confirmation of hypotheses is manifested now, as it always had been, specifically in regard to claims for medical remedies. On rare occasions an author will support a theory with the data acquired by crude and uncontrolled experiment. In the main, however, it is astonishing how unconcerned the layman of this period was with confirmation of his ideas by any test other than that of the logicality of his reasoning. Reduced to its fundamentals the picture afforded by the material dealing with natural phenomena shows the following aspects: i. A waning influence of the medieval (and more primitive) belief in miraculous intervention and influence in nature and of the theological interpretation of phenomena. Abundant remnants of occult lore, though no longer unified under the God-devil dualism, are still present. 2. A dominant rationalistic, speculative-metaphysical tendency, 3 deriving from the optimistic faith in man's God-given power of reason to solve the problems of divinely created nature and to comprehend the principles by which nature works. The idea is present that nature is autonomous in its control over mundane and sidereal phenomena, free from intervention by either divine or diabolical agency. Generally, occurrence is explained in terms of hypothetical qualities, forces, and elements; even the occult techniques are reduced to this basis. The influence of Paracelsus and the natural philosophers is felt in the retention of specific doctrines which are explained in terms of these forces and elements, but the mysticism of the Renaissance and earlier seventeenth-century natural philosophy does not make itself felt * In Christian Lehmann's phrase, "Omnia dubia sunt et disputationem admittunt." Quoted from Egon Cohn, Gesellschaftsideale, p. 199.

CONCLUSION in this predominantly rationalistic literature. The scepticism current at the time is also an outgrowth of the tendency to enthrone reason, for it extends chiefly to those reports and explanations of phenomena which are couched in terms deemed extra-rational and incomprehensible according to the habit of thought prevailing at the time. 3. An empirical tendency. T h e emphasis on the importance of direct observation is stronger in regard to knowledge of social phenomena than it is with respect to natural occurrences. Nevertheless, a certain confused empiricism in many of the statements on scientific problems must be recognized. It is often said that the Seventeenth Century saw a revolution in the approach to the problems of nature, brought about by the rise of empiricism and the Baconian statement of the inductive method, which led into the era of "modern" science. 4 In keeping with this view it might be argued that the tendency, in the literature under discussion, to appreciate the importance of observation and experience in the sciences may be taken as a progressive, transitional stage in the development from the exclusively metaphysical, speculative a priori toward the modern attitude. Empirical observation is obviously necessary for any scientific method,, but the tendency to supplant intrenched and erroneous theories with the results of direct observation was by no means a new development in this era. Mention has already been made of the empirical tendency permeating the natural philosophy of the Italian 4 Thomas Davidson, A History of Education (New Y o r k : Scribner's Sons, 1901), p. 192, says of Bacon: " [ H e ] . . . may be called the father of modern science. . . . T o Bacon belongs the credit of having secured currency and following for the experimental and inductive method of science." Cf. Elwood P. Cubberley, History of Education (Boston, New Y o r k : Houghton Mifflin, 1920), p. 3 9 i f : " T o the English statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon more than to anyone else, we are indebted for the proper formulation and statement of this new scientific method. Though not a scientist himself, he has often been termed 'the father of modern science.' . . . The Novum Organum showed the means of escape from the errors of 2,000 years by means of a new method of thinking and work. Bacon did not invent the new method . . . but he was the first to formulate it clearly and to point out the vast field of new and useful knowledge that might be opened up by applying human reason along inductive lines to the investigation of the phenomena of nature." Cf also Fred N. Robinson, "Francis Bacon," Encyclopedia Americana (New York, Chicago, 1938), III, 22: ". . . there is much justification for the traditional view of him [Bacon] as the father of modem philosophy and the primary instigator of modern scientific progress."

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Renaissance. Paracelsus had taught the lesson of direct contact with the phenomena of nature rather than the reliance on authorities, and, through his own activities guided by that principle, had renovated the pharmacopoeia and given an impetus to chemistry and to experimentation in general. Nor is it to be supposed that there was ever a time when there were not practitioners of an observational and even experimental method. In his Scicttce and Thought in the 15th Century, Lynn Thorndike discusses two anonymous medical treatises written in Florence between 1460 and 1 5 1 2 which, in his opinion, are a fair reflection of the ordinary medical thought and literature of that time, and points out that although they contain numerous superstitious characteristics, nevertheless there is a markedly empirical tendency in both of them.5 Even in the Thirteenth and earlier centuries there were precise observers and tireless experimenters,6 but their records indicate that, unfortunately, their observations and experiments were, for the most part, bound by false preconceptions. Similarly, the majority of biological, chemical, and medical specialists of the Seventeenth Century were in a blind alley of false fundamental hypotheses involving non-existent forces, qualities, spirits, etc. Their observations and experiments were, as a result, mistakenly interpreted. If a physician observed that patients suffering from certain heart ailments were aided by dried leaves of fox-glove, he added to the practical therapeutical art; but he was not at all scientific in assuming he had confirmed the hypothesis that fox-glove strengthened the vital spirits resident in the heart. It was certainly not the emphasis on experience alone that can be credited with effecting the transition to the era of "modern science," nor was it the expression that Francis Bacon gave to the already developing scepticism and empiricism which provided the necessary impetus. Because there were sudden and great advances and because Bacon offered a striking and ponderous theory of scientific method, Baconian induction has somehow become associ* Cf. L y n n Thorndike, Science and Thought in the 15th Century (New Y o r k : Columbia University Press, 192p), passim. 1 Cf. Henry Osborn Taylor, The Medieval Mind, 3rd ed. (N'ew Y o r k . Macmillan, 19:9), Π, 531.

CONCLUSION ated in popular imagination with modern scientific method. W h a t of the actual influence in Germany of Francis Bacon and his great innovation, the inductive method? G. E . Guhrauer, in his volume on Joachim Jungius, points out that Bacon's works were not well received at the German universities. Quite the contrary: they were attacked because of their treatment of ancient authorities. In general, Bacon's influence on Germany in the Seventeenth Century is apt to be exaggerated; his importance was far greater for the following hundred years. 7 And we have next to no indications, in the works of the authors who have entered our discussion, of Baconian influence. Harsdörfer knew certain of his works, 8 but any influence on Harsdörfer's treatment of scientific problems is not apparent. Among the German intellectuals of the Seventeenth Century the influence of another scientist was probably of much greater significance than that of Bacon. Joachim Jungius ( 1 5 8 7 - 1 6 5 7 ) , one of the most advanced intellects of his day, whom Leibnitz valued no less highly than he did Galileo, Campanella, and Pascal,® gave his numerous pupils a live interest in nature and in the practice of observing natural phenomena. These pupils, bringing their vital, new attitude to the universities of Wittenberg, Jena, Altdorf, Strassburg, and Leipzig, among others, when they in turn entered the academic profession, led attacks on the doctrines of scholastic physics and on the reverence for Aristotle which obtained there. 10 B u t the most important influences on German scientific thought of the Seventeenth Century came, not from the universities, but through the relations and intellectual exchange of the German intellectuals with each other and with foreigners of international prominence. The Sprachgesellschaften and the natural philosophic ' G. E . Guhrauer, Joachim Jungius und sein Zeitalter (Stuttgart und Tübingen: Cotta'scher Verlag, 1850), Beilage 29, p. 230. • Cf. Harsdörfer's Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele I, 39; IV, 258; V, 16g, for his familiarity with the De dignitate et augmentis scientarum. See VII, 189 for his acquaintance with the Nova Atlantis. See I, 30, for his knowledge of the Novum Organon. In the same work are two extended quotations from Bacon: IV, 258, and V I I , 189. For evidence that Christian G. Bessel, Balthasar Schupp, Aegidius Henning, and Thomasius knew some of Bacon's works, see Egon Cohn, Cesellschaftsideale, p. 211. In 1654 a translation of some of Bacon's essays was published in Nürnberg. 'Guhrauer, Jungius, p. 141. Cf. Chapter I of this work. 10 Ibid., p. 124.

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societies provided the medium. Information concerning these relations is far from satisfactory, but there is no doubt as to the existence of intellectual and sometimes personal relations between such men as Joh. Amos Comenius, Matthias Bernegger, G. W. Leibnitz, Joachim Jungius, Galileo, Campanella, Johann Rist, Georg Harsdörfer, Joh. Jonston, Ph. v. Zesen, Michael Dilherr, among others. Bernegger, for example, who corresponded with both Galileo and Campanella, was Harsdörfer's teacher in Strassburg. Zesen was acquainted with Comenius in Amsterdam, etc. 11 What brought these men together was their opposition to the scholastic sciences of the universities and to the reverence of the university faculties for Aristotle, 12 which had, according to Jungius, brought about the neglect of the observational method." The first constitution of Jungius' Ereunetic Society (founded ca. 1622) mentions, as the purpose of the organization, the discovery of truth through reason and experience, or the endeavor to free all the arts and sciences from sophistry. 14 Jungius demanded for his century full independence from the authority of the ancients in the field of investigation and observation; nevertheless, he was aware of the positive contribution that Aristotle and Galen had made.15 Briefly, he represented a highly commendable attitude toward the problem of scientific authority—an attitude which Johann Ettner seems to have tried, a bit confusedly, to express.18 " Ludwig Keller, Comenius und die Akademien der Naturphilosophen des 17. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Comenius-Gesellschaft, 1895), pp. 3-7, 21, 25, 33, 44, 48-50, 54-60, 83, 88, 90, 97-98. "Keller, Comenius und die Akademien, p. 3. " Guhrauer, Jungius, p. 148. "Keller, Comenius und die Akademien, p. 59. Ct. above, pp. iiyf. u Guhrauer, Jungius, p. 145. "According to Guhrauer's analysis, Jungius conceived of scientific truth as having its source neither in a priori thought and reason alone, nor in experience alone, but in a necessary union of both. Jungius, p. 152. The essence of Jungius' conception of scientific method is briefly stated in one of his aphorisms: "The science of nature consists in one's not adapting the phenomenon to preconceived theories but rather in adapting the hypothesis to the phenomenon." Ibid., p. 166. Actually, Jungius here states one aspect of what we today term scientific procedure, if his sentence means that observations made in the effort to confirm a hypothesis may indicate that the hypothesis is faulty in part or is totally false. Had he said that hypotheses were to be derived from observation of phenomena, it might be considered that he was proposing the inductive method to which so much lip-service is paid. Logically, it is impossible to proceed from particulars to a general hypothe-

ι6ο

CONCLUSION

In general, as regards theory concerning scientific method, the situation which we find today undoubtedly obtained in the Seventeenth Century. Very few men who were pursuing the scientific method and achieving excellent results would have been able to give a philosophical analysis of their procedure. How much less would such speculations have entered the consciousness of the average intellectual layman, usually remote from practical contact with the sciences. Furthermore, as has been pointed out above, the remoteness of the universities from popular contacts in Germany and the well-nigh universal use of Latin for scientific discussion raised a bar between the scholarly world and popular literature which was not withdrawn until the age of Wolf and Gottsched. We have seen how little reflection of any technological progress appears in the literature of the Baroque. The interest of the authors who enter our investigation lay mainly in medicine (the slowest of the sciences in casting off ancient doctrines), in anthropology, in the broader aspects of astronomy. Actually, it cannot even be said that many of them were convinced of the validity of the heliocentric theory as opposed to the geocentric. 17 Only the trend toward the sceptical questioning of authority, the insistence that empirical observation plays an important röle in science (although just what that role is, is clear to none of them) contrast with the fundamentally metaphysical, speculative tendency which dominated their thinking on the problems of natural occurrence. sis, and even though psychologically it is possible that from contemplation of particular phenomena one may jump to a hypothesis which one had not previously entertained, nevertheless, analysis of actual scientific procedure indicates that this procedure from particular to general is by no means the great new development that marks the beginning of a new era in science, nor is it alone scientific method. T h e process of induction—the process of reaching a hypothesis from observation of phenomena—is and always has been psychologically unavoidable, and is meaningless without experimental confirmation. T h e importance of the inductive method for the sciences lay in the fact that it emphasized the technique of close observation, which, apart from the consideration of how hypotheses are drawn, is vitally necessary in the confirmation-aspect of the technique we today consider scientific procedure. " T h e emergence of the Copernican world-view in the lyric does not occur until the third decade of the Eighteenth Century, according to Junker, Das Weltraumbild.

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INDEX Acadimie des Sciences, 116, 118 Accademia del Cimento, 116, 118 Acta Eruditorum, 118, 120 Aesop, 101

Agrippa von Nettesheim, Henrich, 67f. Air pump, 113 Albertus Magnus, 13, 28 Alchemy, 13; see Ettner, Paracelsus, Rist Alewyn, Richard, 4, 9, 33, 48η., 145η., 148, ι 6 ι

Amazons, 59 Amersbach, Κ., ι6ι Amman, Jost, 146, 161 Animism, 12, i4f., 89, 91, 151 Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig, i37ff., 161

Aristotle, 4, 14η., 15, g i , 108, is8f. Arndt, Johann, 55 Astral Influence, see Astrology Astrology, 13, 41, 67, 103, 153; see Ettner, Lohnstein, Luther, Pico della Mirandola, Rist Astronomy, 113, 117 Atkinson, Geoffroy, 161

Bessel, Christian, 158η. Bible, 23, 29f., 54, 96η., 99f., 105η., 129, i5i Bieder, Gertrud, 5, S2ff., 63, 161 Biese, Alfred, 161 Blumenorden, 7 Bobertag, Felix, 162 Bock, Jerome, 14η. Bodinus, Jean, 19, 62 Böhme, Jakob, 88 Bohse, August, 9 Borcherdt, Hans, 162 Botany, 113ft. Boyle, Robert, H4f., 162 Brandl, Karl, 162 Brant, Sebastian, 146ft., 162 Brehme, Christian, 171 Brockes, Barthold Η., 27η. Brüggemann, Fritz, 3, 162 Bruno, Giordano, 13 Bucholtz, Andreas, 137, 162; divine and diabolical intervention, 27t., 30, 63; omens, 40 Bullialdus, 112 Burtt, Ε. Α., iö2

Bacon, Francis, 3, 16, 67, 120, 134, 154, Cabala, i3f., 103, 153 Cajori, Florian, 162 Caligula, 38 Camerarius, Rudolf, 116 Campanella, Tomaso, 67, is8f. Candidaeus, Sincerus, 144, 162 Cardanus (Girolamo Cardano), 67 Cassirer, Emst, 13η., 15η., ι62 Castimonius, Pamphilus, 2of., 162 Celidonius, Crinioaldus, 45, 47, 145, 162 Charlemagne, 38 Chemistry, H3f. Chiromancy, 42 Cholevius, L., 162 Cicero, 28 Circe, 44, 77η. Cohn, Egon, 149, 155η., 158, 162 Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale,

1568., 161

Bacon, Roger, 13 Bächtold-Stäubli, Hans, 161 Barometer, n j f . Barthold, Friedrich, 161 Becher, Johann, 116 Becker, Rudolf, 4, 145η., 146t., 161 Beer, Johann, 9, 47f., 56, 14S. l 6 l > ί autonomous nature, 64; dreams, 102; experience and observation, 121; ghosts, 33f.; magic, 36; realism, 4; revue, 144, 147; satire, 85, 102; specifics, 85f.; sympathy and antipathy, 6o, 7 3 ; W O R K S : Welt-Kucker,

II,

33;

Teutsche Winternächte, 34, 36, 85; Corylo, I, 47, 102; Verliebter Europaeer, 56, 6of., 73f. Bekker, Balthasar, 50, 103η., ι6ι Benivieni, Antonio, 95η. Bergmännlein, see Ettner, Paracelsus Bernegger, Matthias, 5, 7, 159

118

Collegium Naturae Curiosorum, Comenius, Arnos, 56η., 15g 173

117

174 Constancy, as baroque virtue, 136 Contraria contrarias curantur, 77 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 114η., 53t., 150η., i6o Comemicus, Archierus, 144, 162 Counter-Reformation, 150 Croll, Oswald, 69, 87, 162 Crystallography, 114 Cubberley, El wood, 156η., 162 Cumston, Charles, 163 Cusanus, Nicolaus, 15η. Cysarz, Herbert, 52η., 163

INDEX

IIJ>

Dannemann, F., 163 Darmstaedter, Ludwig, 116η. Davidson, Thomas, 156η., 163 De la Grise, 171 Demonology, 12, i4f. Descartes, Renέ, 3, i5f., ijon. Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft, 7 Digby, Kenelm, 6qn., 163 Dilherr, Michael, 159 Dilthey, Wilhelm, 163 Dioscorides, 14η. Divining rods, 43, 102 Dreams, 27f., 41, 67, 107, 109 Duhem, Pierre, 163 Dürer, Hieronymus, 171 Dynamics, 113 Earthquakes, 20, 23 Elbschwanenorden, 8 Ellinger, Α., 67η. Ellinger, G., 87 Eloesser, Arthur, 163 Empiricism, 120, I48f., iJ3f., 1 s6f.; medieval, 13; Paracelsus, 14; in "political" novel, i4of., 149; Renaissance, 4. 13. 14 Enlightenment, 3f., 8, ίο, 27η., 31, 33, 65, 105 Ermatinger, Emil, 5, 163 Ettner, Johann, 24f., 42, 83, 85, 86n.; alchemy, 8; animal and vital spirits, 83; astral influence, 42, 80; attitude toward scientific authority, 127; Bergmännlein, iqf., 33t., 108; divine and diabolical intervention, 53, 61, 64; experience and observation, 120, 122, I25f., 128; ghosts, 33; magic, 37; nationalism, 101, 154; Paracelsus, 80; revue, 147; scepticism, 108, 122, 154; sympathy and antipathy, 70S.

Exorcism, see Grimmelshausen Experience and Observation, 120S., 133t., I40f., 153, 156Γ Experiment, 16, 100, 106, 116, u8f., I29ff., 150, 155, 157 Eyb, Albrecht von, 146, 164 Femel, Jean, 127 Fife, Robert Herndon, 105η., 164 Fischer, Kuno, 164 Fleming, Paul, 54, 87 Flemming, Willi, 5, ssf., 62t., 164 Fracastoro, Girolamo, 74η., 164 Francisci, Erasmus, 7ff., 4$f., 49, 101, 127, 150η., 164; Bergmännlein, 34; devil and evil spirits, 2if.; divine creation, 19; divine and diabolical intervention, 30, 62, 64; experiment, 100, 13if.; ghosts, 32, 99; guardian spirits, 35; magic, 35t.; miraculous power in nature, 22t.; pre-natal impression, 77f.; prayer, 2if.; scepticism, 99ft., 107t.; sympathy and antipathy, 70, 74f.; WORKS: Lustige Schaubühne, 32, 35t., 37f., 45f., 49, 75, 78, io7f., 127, 132; Proteus, 21, 34, 99; Überzug, ig, 2iff., 35, 46, 62, 70, ι oof., 131 Franck, Sebastian, 14 Freytag, Gustav, 40, 164 Friedrich Wilhelm I, 98η. Frost, Walter, 164 Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, 7 Galen, 77, 82, 93, 127t., 153, 159 Galileo Galilei, 4f., 15η., i6, 112, 150, i58f. Garrison, Fielding H., 164 Gebauer, Curt, 164 Germanicus, Veritanus, 171 Gerson, Jean, 96η. Ghosts, 79; see Beer, Ettner, Francisci, Grimmelshausen, Gryphius, Happel, Harsdörfer, Lohenstein, Speer, Weise Glauber, Johann, 115 Glisson, Francis, 115 Gode-von Aesch, Alexander, 87η., 164 Goethe, Johann W. von, 87 Gottsched, Johann Christoph, 160 Gravitation; law of universal gravitation, 114 Grew, Nehemiah, u s f . Grülandus, Erasmus, 137, 164

INDEX Grimmelshausen, J. J. C. von, g, 440., 49. 93f·. 97'·. " O . " 6 ' · . 164; asceticism, 136; chiromancy, 42; contraria contraria curantur, 77; divine intervention, 26; divine symbolism, 5, so f.; exorcism, 39; experience and observation, 121; experiment, 125, i3of.; ghosts, 33f.; magic, 51, 77; scepticism, 103; sympathy, 73; witches' sabbath, 39fGrosseteste, Robert, 13 Gryphius, Andreas, 538., 87, 164; ghosts, 34; sympathy, 70 Guericke, Otto von, 115, 119, 165 Guhrauer, G., 158, 165 Gverjero, Giovani, 171 Gyges, 28 Gynecophilus, Seladon, 171 Haller, Albrecht von, 151η. Hamelstern, Cyrus von, 171 Hankamer, Paul, 4, 86f., 138, 165 Hansen, Joseph, 165 Happel, Eberhard W., 7ff., 44B., 56η., 6o, g8ff., i n f . , 150η., i65, 171; asstrology, 41; Copemican system, 54; divine and diabolical intervention, 20, 30, 64; experience and observation, i22f.; experiment, 132; the fantastic, 95; ghosts, 32, 98; magic, 35, 37ff., 43, 46, 49f.; revue, 145; scepticism, 100; specifics, 84; sympathy, 75f.; w o r k s : Bayerischer Max, 20, 32. 37ff·, 43f·, 49f·. 75'-» 98ff., 112, 123, 132; Mundus Mirabüis, 41, 85, i n f . , i22f., 132; Thesaurus Exoticorum, 35, 44, 5°, 60, 95 Harsdörfer, Georg Philipp, 7ff., 25, 27, 56η., 87, i58f., 165; animal and vital spirits, 82t.; attitude toward scientific authority, 129; confusion of nature-view, 6jff.; Copemican theory, 54, 112; divine and diabolical intervention, 30, 64; experience and observation, 12of., 126; experiment, I29f; the fantastic, 94f.; ghosts, 32; humoralism, 82; pre-natal impression, 78f.; scepticism, 102; signatures, 126; sympathy and antipathy, 72f.; w o r k s : Gesprächspiele, 7f., 62f., 76, 126, I29f.; Poetischer Trichter, 7; Grosser Schau-Platt, 36f., 39, 50, 62f., ηιί., 78, 82f., Q4f., 102, 121, 126, i2gf.

*7S

Hartmann, Andreas, 171 Harvey, William, H4f., 165 Hazard, Paul, 10, 165 Helmont, Johann Β. von, 67, 75, 108, US. " 7 Henning, Aegidius, 158η. Henry, Bishop of Winthon, 46 Henry of Hesse, 13η., 105η. Henshaw, Thomas, 13 t Herigonius, 112 Heveüus, Johann, 119 Hirsch, Arnold, 4, 145η., 148η., 149η., lös Höfer, Wolfgang, 115 Hoemer, M., 16s Hooke, Robert, H4f. Hornaday, Clifford L., 151η., i6s Horst, Georg, 16s Howland, A. C., 94η., 98η., i6s Humoralism, 828., 93 Hunold, Christian, 48, 165 Hydrostatics, 113 Insanity, 24, 93 Jericke, Alfred, 166 Jones, Richard F., 166 Jonston, J., 127, 159 Joseph I of Austria, 98η. Jungius, Joachim, is, n6f., 119, 1 s8f. Junker, Christof, 5, S3. 150η., i6on., 166 Kautzsch, Michael, 172 Kayser, Hans, 78η., 8in., 166 Keller, Ludwig, 166 , Kepler, Johann, 4t., 15η., i6, ii2f., 119, ISO Kiesewetter, K., 67, 166 Kircher, Athanasius, i n , 116 Klingner, Ε., 14η., i66 Klopstock, Friedrich G., s, 53 Körnchen, Hans, 166 Kronland, Marcus Marä von, 67η. Kroth, Karl Α., 87, i66 Kuhnau, Johann, 14s, 166 Kunrath, Heinrich, 67η. Laporte, Luise, 56η., 104η., ι66 Lea, Henry Charles, 94η. Lecky, William E., 104, 166 Lehmann, Α., 68n., 166 Lehmann, Christian, 155η.

176

INDEX

Leibniz, Gottfried W., 16, 87, 92, 119, iS8f. Lemcke, Carl, 166 Lipps, G. F., 15η., i66 Locy, William, 166 Logau, Friedrich von, 4, 54 Lohenstein, Daniel C. von, 7ff., 3off., 44f., 47ff., s s , 80, 83f., n o f . , 166; astrology, 4if., 79; didactiveness, 1388.; divine symbolism, 29; encyclopedic discussions, 139; experience and observation, 1248.; experiment, 129ft.; the fantastic, 95, Gryphius, 52f.; guardian spirits, 35; magic, 36, 6gf.; microcosm and macrocosm, 79; nature-view, s6ff., 63f.; omens, 41, 126; pre-natal impression, 77f.; scepticism, 101, io3f., io6ff., u s , u 8 ; sympathy, 74 Lower, Richard, 115 Lull, Raimund, 87 Lupius, Jacobus, 102 Luther, Martin, 46f., 55; astrology, 14η.; demonology, 14, 17t. Magic, 14, 17, 31, 35, 51, 89f., 105η., i S i f . , 15s; in disease, 18, 24, 36, 93; in Renaissance, 13, 67; in Thirty Years War, 40η.; natural, 13; persistence of, ι i f . ; relation to Christianity, ι i f . ; scepticism towards, 1038.; treatment in baroque novel, 66, 68f., 92; see Beer, Ettner, Francisci, Grimmelshausen, Happel, Harsdörfer, Lohenstein, Riemer, TCiomasius Magnetism, 74, 113 Mandrake, 102 Mathematics, 13, 15η., ι6, 90, 106 Maury, L - F . Alfred, 11, 167 Medicine, 24, 69, 82, 84, 91, 93, 114, u s f . , i2of., 160; experience and observation, i2off., 125; medieval, 18; nationalism in, 101; physiology, 113; vitalism, 9 1 ; see signatures Melanchthon, Phillip, 14 Mentz, Georg, 167 Mermaids, 48 Messerschmid, G. F., 146 Meyer, Carl, 98η., 167 Meyer Heinrich, 167 Michelangelo, 96 Microcosm and Macrocosm, 69, 79 Microscope, H3f., 116, 119η.

Mithridates, 106 Moral Weeklies, 6 More, Thomas, 67 Morton, Richard, 115 Moscherosch, Hans, 4, 96, 141, 148, 167; sympathy and antipathy, 72 Müller, Günther, 167 Münk, William, 71η., 167 Murner, Thomas, 146, 148, 167 Mysticism, 88, 153, 155; in Franck, 14; in German baroque literature, 150; in Renaissance nature-philosophy, 13; in Paracelsus, 66 Narciss, G. Α., 87, 167 Nationalism, see Ettner Necromancy, 67 Newton, Isaac, 87, 1138., 150η. Nicolson, Marjorie, 119η., 167 Oeftering, Michael, 167 Olearius, Johann G., 9 Omens, see Bucholts, Lohenstein, Riemer, Zesen Opera, 6 Opitz, Martin, 3, 5, 53 Optics, i i 3 f . Oresme, Nicholas, 13η., 105η. Omstein, Martha, 16η., 114, 116, 118, 167 Paracelsus, 80, 87f., 128, 153. ISS. 157, 167; alchemy, 14η.; Bergmännlein, 30, 34; elements, 80; empiricism, 134; Helmont, 75η.; nature-philosophy, 14; pansophistic ideas, 66S.; pharmacopoeia, 101; philosophers stone, 8of.; pre-natal impression, 78η.; signatures, 68f„ 77 Pascal, Blaise, 158 Patientia, 144, 168 Paulsen, Fr., 168 Pendulum, 113 Peters, Hermann, 168 Petersen, D., 68n. Peuckert, Will-Erich, 67f., 87, 168 Pheroponandrus, 144, 172 Philosophers Stone, see Rist, Scepticism Philosophical Transactions, 117 Physics, medieval, 18, 158 Phystologus, 29 Physiology, 82f., 113, 115 Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, 67; astrology, 13η.

INDEX Pinkerton, John, 168 Plagues, 24 Plato, 28 Pliny, Gaius Plinius Secundus, 28, 107, 126L

Pneumatics, 113 Poggendorf, J. C., 168 Poison, 83 Politik, see Weise Prayer, see Francisci Price, Lawrence, 168 Prutz, Robert, 118, 168 Ptolemy, 54, i i ! Puschmann, Theodor, 168 Raphael of Pornasio, 96η. Rationalism, 52, 92, 105, 15°. iSS Ratke, Ratich, Wolfgang R., 67 Rauhe, Johann, 47 R a y , John, 115, 168 Reformation, 105, 150 Reiche, Johann, 94, 168 Renaissance, 3η., 13, 67, 152, i s s ; empiricism, 4, 134; individualism, 105; nature-philosophy, 4, i2f. Reuchlin, Johann, 14, 67 Revue, 144S., 148; see Beer, Riemer, Weise Riemer, Johann, 8f., 130, 143, 168; dreams, 40; experience and observation, H i , 143; humoralism, 83f.; magic, 36, 40; omens, 40; pre-natal impression, 77f.; revue, 147; satire, 85, 101, 1 1 1 ; scepticism, 102; vital spirits, 85; WORKS: Politische Colica, 36, 78, 84, 121, 130; Politischer ΜauiAffe, 36, 85, i o i f . , i n ; Politischer Stock-Fisch, 40, 83, 8s Rist, Johann, 8f., 56η., 87, 96, io2, 159, 168; alchemy, 25; astrology, 4 1 ; chiromancy, 42; divine and diabolical intervention, 25, 27, 30, 64; natureview, 64; philosophers stone, 25, 43, 8of.; scepticism, 104; specifics, 85 Robinson, Fred, 156η., i68 Rohde, Erwin, 168 Romulus, 41 Royal Society, i i ö f f . Savonarola, Michael, 120 Sarton, George, 168 Scepticism, 43, 94, 978., ioiff., 105, I2 5ff., 154, 156; see Ettner, Francisci,

177

Grimmelshausen, Happel, Haisdörfer, Lohenstein, Riemer, Rist, Weise Scheffler, Johannes, 54, 87, 168 Schellhammer, Christian, 116 Schneider, Conrad, u s f . Schneider, Ferdinand, 169 Scholasticism, 4, 8, 13, 15, 119, 140, 146, 152. i58f· Schupp, Balthasar, 158η. Scientific Method, is6ff. Sebastian, King of Portugal, 35 Siegel, Carl, 169 Signatures, doctrine of, i s , 67, 69, 123, " 6 , ι S3 Societas Erevnetica, 117, 159 Societies, natural-philosophical, 3, 1 S8f.; linguistic, 7f., 87, 119, is8f.; scientific, n 6 f f . , 119 Soldan, Wilhelm, 169 Spee, Friedrich von, S5 Speer, Daniel, 32, 34, 86, 169 Spirits, animal and vital, 82, 86, 153; see Ettner, Harsdörfer, Riemer; guardian, see Francisci, Lohenstein Sprenger, Jacob, 28, 169 Stahl, Georg, 116 Steinhausen, Georg, 169 Stillman, J. Μ., 68n., 169 Stockfleth, Heinrich, 169; autonomous nature, 64; diabolical intervention, 27f., 6i, iosf. Stoicism, 137 Strunz, Franz, 68n., 169 Sturm, Christopher, 118 Sudhoff, Karl, 169 Summers, Montague, 28η., 98η., 169 Superstition, 14η., 32, ιοο, 102, iosf., 109, I23f. Sydenham, Thomas, u s Sylvius, F., 127 Symbolism, divine, see Grimmelshausen, Lohenstein Sympathy and Antipathy, 82, 89, 153; see Beer, Ettner, Francisci, Grimmelshausen, Gryphius, Happel, Harsdörfer, Moscherosch Taylor, Henry O., 169 Telescope, 113, 119η. Telesius, 13η. Theology, relation to natural science in Reiaissance, 13 Theophrastus, 14η., 87

178

INDEX

Theosophy, in natural philosophy of Renaissance, 13 Thermometer, 113 Theseus, 35 Thomasius, Christian, 3, 50, 133, 158, 169; experiment, 106; magic, 6 Thorndike, Lynn, 11, 13, 15η., 95η., 96η., iojn., 120η., 157η., i6g Turchetto, Antonino, 172 Thurneyaer, Leonard, 67η. Trithemius, 67f. Tragus, Hieronymus, see Bock, Jerome Troels-Lund, T. F., 93, 16g Tycho Brahe, 29, 150η. Tylor, Edward, 170 Ueberweg, F., 75η., 170 Universities, in Seventeenth Ii8f. Unwerth, Wolf von, 170

Century,

Varen, Bernhard, 115, 170 Vietor, Karl, 87, 170 Vitellius, Aulus, 38 Vogt, Erika, 3, 4η., 136η., 170 Voigt, Johann Η., 41 Volksbücher, 14 Wartreu, 172 Waterhouse, G., 170 Wehrli, Max, 57η., 170 Weisbach, Werner, 170 Weise, Christian, 3 ! , 6, 8f., 30, 146,

150, 170; attitude towards authority, 127t.; divine and diabolical intervention, 26, 30, 64; experience and observation, 121, 123t., i4off.; ghosts, 35; Politik and political novel, 8, 135®-. I39&, IS3; prayer, 22; prenatal impression, 77f.; revue, Miff.; scepticism, ioof., 127; superstition, 109; WORKS: Erts-Narren, 22, 77t., 100, 109, I23f., 127; Klügste Leute, 26, 34, 61, 121; Politischer Näscher, ioif., I2lf., 128 Wendelinus, 112 Wepfer, Johann, 115 Wharton, Thomas, 115 Wier, Johann, 103, 170 Willis, Thomas, 71η., 115 Will-o'-the-wisp, 17, ιοί. Windelband, W., 66ff., 170 Wirdig, Sebastian, 67η. Witch burnings, 98η. Witchcraft, see Magic Witches' Sabbath, see Grimmelshausen Wolf, Α., 114η., n6n., 170t. Wolf, Christian, 92, 160 Zesen, Philipp von, 8, 87, 137, 142, 159, 171; dreams, 41; omens, 41 Ziegler und Kliphausen, Η. Α. von, 44· 171 Zinner, Ernst, 171 Zoology, 113