2'xi S. No 68., Feb. 7. '57. ] ' 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



105 



High-Priest with a gorgeous cincture called The 

 Golden Girdle* 



I shall now give the titles of such books as I am 

 acquainted with, which have been named with re- 

 ference to the Homeric Chain : 



Andrewes (John). A Golden Chaine to Linke the Peni- 

 tent Sinner unto Almighty God. Black letter, 12mo. 

 [Query, the date?] 



Renecher (Herman). Golden Chayne of Salvation. Lond. 

 1604, 8vo. 



Perkins (Wm.). A Golden Chaine ; or The Description of 

 Theologie, containing the Order of the Causes of Sal- 

 vation and Damnation, according to God's Word. Lond. 

 1600. 4to. 



A Gold Chain of Four Links, to draw poor Souls to their 

 desired Habitation, or Four Last Things briefly dis- 

 coursed of. I'imo. (Chap-book.) 



Gerhard (John). Golden Chaine of Divine Aphorisms, 

 translated by Ralph Winterton. Lond. 1632, 12mo. 



Nisbet (Wm.). Golden Chaine of Time leading unto 

 Christ. Edinb. 1650, Svo.f 



The Catena Aurea of St. Thos. Aquinas I need 

 not adduce, as this title is not likely to have any 

 reference to Homer's Chain. I may refer, how- 

 ever, to " The Chain of Salvation " given in " N. 

 & Q." 1" S. vi. 268., and taken from the title- 

 page of that once popular Compendium, WoUe- 

 bius's Christian Divinity, trans, by Alex. Ross, 

 Lond. 1(J50, 12mo. 



The Golden Chain of Homer is sometimes called 

 The Hermetic or Mercurial Chain. Thus Eu- 

 napius, eulogising Porphyry, says that he, " like a 

 Mercurial Chain let down for the benefit of mor- 

 tals, by the assistance of universal erudition, ex- 

 plained everything with clearness and precision." \ 

 — De Vitis, Philos. et Sophist. Gr. et Lat. Antv. 

 1568. 8vo. 



Hermes or Mercury among the Ancients was 

 ,the personification of that pure ^ther or invisible 

 Fire which ensouls and concatenates all things in 

 Nature :§ that Intellectual and Winged Spirit 

 which illuminates, vivifies, and flashes through, 

 all things : that Universal Being or Plastic Spirit 

 in Nature, that mysterious, all-pervading, all- 

 constraining Magnetic Influence, which being itself 

 One, unites in One the Protean Forms of the 

 Universe through which it passes, — that Inform- 

 ing, Unifying Spirit of which Virgil speaks : 



* See Philo-Judaeus, On Monarchy, § vi. ; St. Thos. 

 Aquin., Sum. Theol. ; Becani (Martin, Soc. Jesu), Opera, 

 torn. iii. Opusc. vii. cap. 5. ; and Samuel Mather on " The 

 Figures and Types of the O. T., 2nd edn., Lond. 1705." 



"t This title reminds me of the last stanza of a very 

 beautiful little poem which appeared about a year ago in 

 Household Words, entitled " One by One ;" 



" Hours are Golden Links — God's Token 

 Reaching Heaven — but, one by one; 

 Take them, — lest the Chain be broken 

 Ere the pilgrimage be done." 

 X Quoted by Taylor, in his Introduction to Select Works 

 of Plotinus. Lond. 1817, p. xxi. 



§ Cf. Bp. Berkeley's Siris ; and the Suggestive Inquiry 

 into the Hermetic Mystery, pp. 68 — 98. 



" Principio caelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, 

 Lucentemque globum Luna?, Titaniaque astra, 

 Spiritus intus alit ; totamque inl'usa per artus 

 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet." 



^n. lib. vi. 724. 



Here, then, we have the Mystic Fire of the 

 Eastern Sages, the Astral Spirit in Man, of Para- 

 celsus, the Anima Mundi, The Golden Chain of 

 Homer, The Mercury of the Philosophers, The 

 Gold of the Alchymists, The Magical Quintessence, 

 — for, according to the old maxim, "All is in 

 Mercury which the Wise men seek." "" 



Thus Scarlatini says : 



" Mercurius ob vigorem suum dictus est Causa agens, 

 Anima informansj et metallorum, et mineralium, et mix- 

 torum, imo et fructuum et florura : verus Spiritus Astralia 

 Hominis, sicut Astra dici queunt Spiritus Mercurialea 

 Cceli." 



Speaking of the Caduceus or Hermetic Wand, 

 the same writer observes : 



" Significat illud, prseter applicationes a Pierio adductus, 

 vim inevitabilem Fati, seu quendam quasi flatum, quo 

 mentes nostrce non solum, sed res omnes creatce unanimiter 

 movejitur et gubernantur; estque quasi Vincidum quo nos 

 Deo, ipsique inter nos ipsos colligati sumus : Certa quadam 

 necessitas est, qua res omnes mutuo eonstricia percipiuntur. 

 Videtur ea hand dubie intellexisse Virgilius, cum suaviter, 

 non minus quam eleganter, cecinit : 



' Tunc Virgam capit ; hac animas ille evocat Oreo,' &e. 



Hoc modo intima ilia rerum inter se connexio descripta: 

 cui hoc additum speciale ex Macrobii testimonio, quod 

 serpentum illorum alter mas fuerit, alter foemina, qui circa 

 dimidium spirarum erant mutuo connexi per modum 

 [nodum ?] qui Herculis dicebatur. Hanc rerum copulam 

 (quo magis apposite loquamur) dicam non aliud esse, quam 

 Communis Natural indissolubilem societatem, ita ab Altis- 

 sim.0 ordinatam pro beneficio et auxilio Universi. De hujus 

 infinita Providentia, ita Spiritus Sanctus disseruit : Attin- 

 git a fine usque ad finem fortiter et disponit omnia suaviter. 

 " Per unionem seu copulam hanc serpentium, non re- 

 rum solum Unto Intellecta ; sed insuper Vinculum Concordice 

 et Pads : idcirco qui pro hujus negotiatione mittebantur 

 legati, Caduceatores appellati sunt." f 



The Doctrine of One Gradual Scale, One Un- 

 broken Chain in Nature, extending from Infinite 

 Being to Nonentity, was held by all Antiquity. 

 The ancients regarded the World as a Kosmos or 

 Orderly System, in which there was no vacuum, 

 but all the parts of which were linked closely 

 together, and each link subordinate, fixed, and 

 necessary. To this doctrine in great measure 



* Cf. Suggestive Inquiry, pp. 286. 301—4. 316—18. 326. 

 332. 338. 352. 361—2. 380. 



See also " Mercury's Caducean Rod, or the Great and 

 Wonderful Office of the Universal Mercury, or God's Vice- 

 gerent Displayed. Lond. 1704," sm. Svo. 



f L'Huomo Symbolico, ex Ital. Idiom. Latin, dat. a R. 

 D. M. Honcamp. Aug. Vind. 1695. folio, torn. li. pp. 60, 

 210—211. 



Scarlatini, in this interesting work, enters somewhat 

 fully into the significance of the old Myth of Hermes. 

 Nor does he omit a sly smile at the slippery tricks which 

 this roguish and volatile God played upon his credulous 

 devotees, the Alchemysts or Hermetic Philosophers. 



