280
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
Bewitch hermetic men to run[1]
Stark staring mad with manicon;
Believe mechanic virtuosi 325
Can raise 'em mountains in Potosi;[2]
And sillier than the antic fools,
Take treasure for a heap of coals;[3]
Seek out for plants with signatures,
To quack of universal cures;[4] 330
With figures, ground on panes of glass,
Make people on their heads to pass;[5]
Stark staring mad with manicon;
Believe mechanic virtuosi 325
Can raise 'em mountains in Potosi;[2]
And sillier than the antic fools,
Take treasure for a heap of coals;[3]
Seek out for plants with signatures,
To quack of universal cures;[4] 330
With figures, ground on panes of glass,
Make people on their heads to pass;[5]
- ↑ Alchymists were called hermetic philosophers. Manicon (or strychnon) is another narcotic, and is so called from its power of causing madness. Authors differ as to its modern name, some supposing it to be the Physalis, or winter-cherry, others the black night-shade, See Pliny's Natural Hist. (Bohn's edit.) vol. v. p. 241, 266. Banquo, in Shakspeare's Macbeth, seems to allude to it when he says:Were such things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root,
That takes the reason prisoner?Act i. - ↑ A banter on the pretended Discoverers of the Philosopher's Stone, one of whom, Van Helmont, asserted in his book, that he had made nearly eight ounces of gold by projecting a grain of his powder upon eight ounces of quicksilver.
- ↑ The alchymists pretended to be able to transmute the baser metals into gold. Antic means antique or ancient, perhaps quizzing the Royal Society; or Butler might mean those dreamers among the ancients, who gave occasion to the proverb, "pro thesauro carbones;" they dreamed of gold, but on examination found coals; it is frequently applied by Lucian and Phedrus. It must be borne in mind, however, that Carbon is the constituent part of diamonds and gold as well as of coal.
- ↑ The signatures of plants were marks or figures upon them, which were thought to point out their medicinal qualties. Thus Wood-sorrel was used as a cordial, because its leaf is shaped like a heart. Liverwort was given for disorders of the liver. The herb Dragon was employed to counteract the effects of poison, because its stem is speckled like some serpents. The yellow juice of the Celandine recommended it for the cure of the jaundice, and Paracelsus said, that the spots on the leaves of the Persicaria maculosa proved its efficacy in the scurvy.
- ↑ The multiplying glass, concave mirror, camera obscura, and other inventions, which were new in our author's time, passed with the vulgar for enchantments: and as the law against witches was then in force, the ex-
Natural Order of Night-shades, all of which are extremely narcotic, and by some old writer said to be intoxicating and aphrodisiac. Stramonium is the English species. One of the inquiries of the time, instigated by the Royal Society, was as to the properties of Datura. See Sprat's History of the Royal Society, p. 161, et seq. Advrowtry signifies adultery, and is so used by Bacon, in his Life of Henry VII.
