Paul Kleber Monod’s book starts out on a humorous note. The
alchemists of the middle ages were after the legendary “philosopher’s stone”
that would turn base metals into gold. The Protestant enlightenment of the time
was ripe for a pipe dream like this, and even the kind of England got involved.
It didn’t work, but along the way the alchemists discovered new alloys,
pigments, and many other metal-based chemicals that are still in use today.
Now let’s look at
John Webster, alchemist and astrologer. He spoke out against witchcraft in in
England, while enjoying the attention of people fascinated by his kooky
scientific studies. Keep in mind that these famous scholars were all
upper-class Englishmen, and they wanted to keep all the credit for themselves.
In fact most of the great scientists, writers, and explorers of the era were
from the upper classes, not the lower ones. But the author tells how this would
end.
The American
Revolution really wounded the confidence of the British. Into that era came
Ebeneezer Sibly, who wrote a bestselling book on mysticism. He published the
names of “demons” that only he knew about, gathered from “texts” that only he’d
seen. He had his own printer to churn it out, and aimed it at lowbrow readers,
releasing the book in the form of installments that the poor could afford. He
used this market to sell his own quack medicines.
Today we have
horror writers like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, and countless
others, some of whom write stories for paperbacks that you see in the airport
news stand. A genre that was once seen as fact is now popular fiction. If
Stephen King had written ‘Salem’s Lot
in 1650, he could’ve claimed it was true and everyone would’ve believed it.
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