The Humbugs of the World · Chapter
Magical Humbugs: Virgil, Agrippa, Faustus, and the Devil's Tricks explained
This chapter explores the history and nature of magical humbugs, including sorcery, witchcraft, and necromancy, as manifestations of humanity's tendency to believe in supernatural powers.
What happens
This chapter explores the history and nature of magical humbugs, including sorcery, witchcraft, and necromancy, as manifestations of humanity's tendency to believe in supernatural powers. It recounts legends about Virgil as a magician, Cornelius Agrippa and his black dog, Doctor Faustus's tricks, and other tales of conjurers and enchanted objects, illustrating how such deceptions have persisted across cultures and centuries.
Themes in this chapter
Definition and Nature of Humbug
The chapter opens by defining magic, sorcery, and related practices as humbugs, emphasizing how they exploit human credulity and the desire for supernatural explanations.
Universality of Deception
The text asserts that belief in magic and witchcraft is universal across history and cultures, with examples from ancient times through the Middle Ages and into Christian countries.
Gullibility and Human Nature
Stories of Virgil, Agrippa, and Faustus illustrate how even learned individuals (e.g., Melanchthon and Luther) can be deceived, showing the deep-rooted human tendency to believe in the supernatural.
Characters to notice
- Virgil
Roman poet commonly believed in the Middle Ages to be a great magician; legends attribute to him a brass fly that repelled insects, a brazen head that prophesied, and a failed attempt to regain youth through a pickling ritual.
- Cornelius Agrippa
Celebrated 16th-century magician from Cologne, said to have a magic glass for showing dead or absent persons, an attendant devil in the form of a black dog, and students who nearly came to grief meddling with his spells.
- Faust
Doctor Faustus, a 16th-century juggler and legendary magician, known for selling a horse that vanished in water and for tricks involving the devil; his story influenced Goethe and others.
- Master Joe
Mentioned as a student of Agrippa who accidentally summoned a devil while reading spells, leading to his strangulation and later reanimation.
Key passages
“Magic, sorcery, witchcraft, enchantment, necromancy, conjuring, incantation, soothsaying, divining, the black art, are all one and the same humbug.”
All forms of magic and supernatural practices are essentially the same kind of deception.
Opening statement defining the chapter's subject.
“They show how prone men are to believe in some supernatural power, in some beings wiser and stronger than themselves, but at the same time how they stop short, and find satisfaction in some debasing humbug, instead of looking above and beyond it all to God.”
These beliefs reveal humanity's tendency to seek supernatural explanations and settle for degrading illusions rather than turning to God.
Reflection on the psychological appeal of magical humbugs.
“So strong a hold does humbug often obtain even upon the noblest and clearest and wisest minds!”
Even the most intelligent and virtuous people can fall prey to deception.
Comment on the power of humbug over great minds like Melanchthon and Luther.