Ye Magick Mirrour of Old Japan

Part I. Real Magic Mirrors.

BREWSTER, SIR DAVID. Account of a curious Chinese Mirror, etc. Philosophical Magazine, vol. i., p. 438, 1832. See also Poggendorff’s Annalen, xxvii., pp. 485-489, 1833. [Translation of the preceding], and Journal Franklin Institution, vol. xv., p. 128, 1832.

PRINSEP, JAMES. On the Magic Mirror of Japan. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i., p. 242, 1832 (1 plate).

ARAGO, F. [Showed at meeting of Académie des Sciences (Paris), a mirror brought from China by M. Arosa]. Comptes Rendus, xix., p. 234, 1844. [Bertin, see 31 below, says that this mirror was brought by Admiral Mouchez from Nankin; not by M. Arosa.]

JULIEN, STANISLAS. Notice sur les miroirs magiques des Chinois et leur fabrication. Comptes Rendus, xxiv., p. 999, June 7, 1847. [This is a translation of a Chinese writer, Ou-tseu-hing (1260-1340), who wrote on this subject in a Chinese Encyclopædia. Also showed mirror belonging to La Grange.]

SÉGUIER. [A note following the preceding.] Comptes Rendus, xxiv., p. 1001, June 7, 1847.

PERSON. Observations faites sur un des miroirs chinois dits miroirs magiques. Comptes Rendus, xxiv., p. 1110, June 21, 1847.

MAILLARD. Note sur la fabrication des miroirs magiques chinois. Comptes Rendus, xxxix., pp. 178-180, 1853. [See also Journal Franklin Institution, lvi., 281, 409, 1853.]

GOVI, G. Gli specchi magici dei Cinesi. Notizia storica della R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, 1864-65, pp. 67-74.

GOVI, G. Chinese Magic Mirrors [a translation of the Italian memoir of Nov. 20, 1864]. The Scientific Review and Journal (London), vol. i., April 1, 1865, p. 19.

GOVI, G. Nuove esperienze sugli specchi magici dei Cinesi. Torino Atti Accad. Sci., ii., 1866-67, pp. 357-362 (1 plate). See also Torino Lavori Sci. Fis. Mat., 1869, pp. 67-75.

BREWSTER, SIR D. Observation on the preceding paper [on Chinese Magic Mirrors]. The Scientific Review and Journal, vol. i., April 1, 1865, p. 20.

PARNELL, J. Chinese Mirrors, The Reader, vol. vii., p. 233, March 3, 1866.

PEPPER, J. H. Cyclopædic Science Simplified (London, 1869, F. Warne and Co.). A passage on Magic Mirrors on pp. 35-39, with 5 figures [some copied from Prinsep].

JULIEN, STANISLAS, and CHAMPION, PAUL. Les industries anciennes et modernes de l’empire Chinois (Paris, 1869), containing a short article on Les miroirs magiques des Chinois, et leur fabrication. (Quotation from the memoir of M. Julien of 1847, supra.)

SATOW, ERNEST. The Shiñ-tau Temples of Isé. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. i., 1874. Reprinted 1882, p. 101. Gives, p. 114-119, an account of the myth of the sun-goddess, and of the making of the first mirror. Also speaks of the use of mirrors in the Shiñ-tau religion.

GEERTS, DR. Useful Metals and Metallurgy of the Japanese. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. iv., 1875-76, p. 39. [An article on the Japanese uses of Mercury. Appendix, p. 39-41, on Mirrors.]

ATKINSON, R. W. (Professor of the Tokio Dai Gaku, or Imperial University). Letter in Nature, May 24, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 62.

HIGHLEY, SAMUEL. Letter in Nature, June 14, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 132.

DARBISHIRE, R. D. Letter in Nature, June 21, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 142.

THOMPSON, SILVANUS P. Letter in Nature, June 28, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 163.

PARNELL, J. Letter in Nature, July 19, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 227.

MASSE, E. Miroirs Japonais. Journal de Physique, t. vi., p. 320, 1877.

STERNE, CARUS. Article on Japanese Mirrors in Gartenlaube, Jahrg. xxv., 1877, No. 29, p. 487 (1 cut).

AYRTON, WILLIAM E., and PERRY, JOHN (Professors in the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokio). The Magic Mirror of Japan, part i. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, No. 191, 1878, p. 127-148.

AYRTON, WILLIAM E. The Mirror of Japan and its Magic Quality. Journal of the Royal Institution, vol. ix., p. 25, 1879, being a Lecture delivered January 24, 1879. [See also Nature, vol. xix., p. 539-542, April 10, 1879, and Chambers’s Journal, vol. lvi., p. 591, 1879.]

AYRTON, WILLIAM E., and PERRY, JOHN. Sur les miroirs magiques du Japon. [Translation of their paper of 1878, with cuts added.] Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 5^e Série, xx. p. 110, 1880.

AYRTON, WILLIAM E. La Nature, 1880, May 1, p. 514. (Report of Lecture given in Paris.)

GOVI, G. Les miroirs magiques des Chinois. Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 5^e Série, xx., p. 99, 1880.

GOVI, G. Nouvelles expériences sur les miroirs magiques. Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 5^e Série, xx., p. 106, 1880.

BERTIN, A., et DUBOSCQ, J. Production artificielle des miroirs magiques. Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 5^e Série, t. xx., p. 143, 1880.

BERTIN, A. Note sur les miroirs magiques. Journal de Physique, tome ix., pp. 401-407, 1880.

LAURENT, L. Miroirs magiques en verre argenté. Journal de Physique, tome x., pp. 474-479, 1881; also Comptes Rendus, xcii., 21 février, 21 mars, et 4 avril, 1881, p. 412-413.

BERTIN, A. Les miroirs magiques. Revue Scientifique, vol. l., 1881, p. 258-263. (Lecture to the Association Scientifique de France).

BERTIN, A. Etude sur les miroirs magiques. Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 5^e Série, t. xxii., p. 472-513, 1881 (avec 1 planche).

MENDENHALL, T. C. Proc. American Assoc. for Advancement of Science (Cincinnati, 1881), vol. xxx., p. 57.

PERSON. Gakugeishirm, No. 39, quoted by Muraoka; see infra.

GOTO, MAKITA. Tokio-Gakugeisassi, No. 22, p. 35, quoted by Muraoka; see infra.

MURAOKA, HANICHI. Herstellung der japanesischen magischen Spiegel, etc. Wied. Annalen, xxii., p. 246-252, 1884. (From the Tokio-Gakugeisassi.) [See also Mittheil. der Deutschen Gesellschaft Ostasiens, heft 31, 1884].

MURAOKA, HANICHI. Ueber den japanesischen magischen Spiegel. Wied. Annalen, xxv., 138, 1885.

ANDERSON, WILLIAM, F.R.C.S. Description and Historical Catalogue of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum (London, 1886). (On P. 398, § 1905, is a description of a picture representing the myth of the sun-goddess.)

AYRTON, WILLIAM E., and PERRY, JOHN. On the expansion produced by Amalgamation. Proc. Physical Society of London, vol. viii., p. 88-9, 1886.

Part Ii. Alleged References to Magic Mirrors.

(i.) THE MIRROR OF PYTHAGORAS. The passage in question is in the Physica Curiosa of Gaspard Schottus (4to Edition, Herbipolis, 1667), p. 538, referring to his own book on magic, and runs as follows:

“Ibidem mentionem fecimus speculi Pythagorae, in quo sanguine dicitur scripsisse quae volebat significare, et eo ad Lunam obverso commonstrasse res exaratas stanti a tergo in disco Lunae.”

The reference is to another passage on page 553 of Schottus’ Magia Divinatoria (Herbip., 1657-59, par. iv.), in the chapter De Catoptromantia:

“Huc referunt aliqui speculum Pythagorae cujus meminit Agrippa in Retractat. de Magia, cap. de Prestigiis, qui sanguine perscripsisse dicitur, quae collibuisset, in speculo et eo ad Lunam obverso, commonstrasse res exaratas stanti a tergo in disco Lunae. Hoc si verum est, utique non naturaliter contingit sed ope Daemonis.”

In the same work, par. i., p. 438-440, is a discussion of the proposition: “Utrum in lunari disco aliquid legendum exhiberi potest arte catoptrographica.” He says that Baptista Porta maintained this in his Natural Magic (cap. xvii., lib. 17). He also quotes from the Philosophia Occulta of Cornelius Agrippa (lib. i., cap. 6) as follows:

“Si litteras parabolico speculo inscripseris idque tempori plenilunii Lunae exposueris eae litterae ceu in vasto quodam speculo impressae reflexaeque ubilibet locorum legi poterunt. Ita Pythagoram aiunt, dum Hydrunti moraretur, litteras Lunae inscriptas Constantinopoli amicis legendas dedisse.”

There is also a passage in Dr. Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia Epidemica (Vulgar Errours), p. 60 (Edition of 1650), in reference to this myth: “Which is a way of intelligence very strange; and would requite the Art of Pythagoras; who could read a reverse in the Moon.”

Other references in occult literature to the alleged mirror of Pythagoras are as follows:

ATHANASIUS KIRCHER. Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (Cryptologia, cap. i.) (Romae, 1646, fol.), p. 908. (Quotes from Cornelius Agrippa and Porta, and denounces the account as absurd, and against natural possibility.)

BUBALUS. Commentationem de Angelis (Lugduni, 1622, fol.), 9-50, art. 1, quaesito 2, difficult. 2, § 3, pp. 64-66. (Combats views of Paracelsus.)

PARACELSUS. Magia, lib. 5, de Speculi constitutione. (Distinguishes five kinds of alleged magic mirrors; none of them, however, having any optical significance.)

BOISSARDUS. Tractatus de Divinatione (Oppenheim, 1616, folio), p. 297.

(ii.) AULUS GELLIUS. Carus Sterne (Gartenlaube, 1877) and Ayrton (Journal Royal Institution, 1879) refer to Aulus Gellius as having written of mirrors which “sometimes reflected their backs and sometimes did not.” The reference appears to be a mistaken one; for all I have been able to find in Aulus Gellius is the following passage in the Noctes Atticæ, bk. xvi., ch. xviii. (which is upon that branch of Geometry called [Greek: optikê]):

The passage which I have put into italics appears to have been mistaken in meaning. In Beloe’s translation, vol. iii., p. 249, this clause is rendered as follows: “A glass placed in a certain position shows nothing. Turn it, and it shows many things.” This is hardly adequate. More accurately it should run: “A mirror set in a certain place shows no image, but when transferred to another position produces images.” There is nothing in this at all suggestive of the mirror reflecting from its face the pattern on its back.

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