Man wird sich öfters nicht enthalten können

Man wird sich öfters nicht enthalten können, die Worte Physiognomie, Physiognomik in einem ganz weiten Sinne zu brauchen. Diese Wissenschaft schließt vom Äußern aufs Innere. Aber was ist das Äußere am Menschen? Wahrlich nicht seine nackte Gestalt, unbedachte Gebärden, die seine innern Kräfte und deren Spiel bezeichnen! Stand, Gewohnheit, Besitztümer, Kleider, alles modifiziert, alles verhüllt ihn. Durch alle diese Hüllen bis auf sein Innerstes zu dringen, selbst in diesen fremden Bestimmungen feste Punkte zu finden, von denen sich auf sein Wesen sicher schließen läßt, scheint äußerst schwer, ja unmöglich zu sein. Nur getrost! Was den Menschen umgibt, wirkt nicht allein auf ihn, er wirkt auch wieder zurück auf selbiges, und indem er sich modifizieren läßt, modifiziert er wieder rings um sich her. So lassen Kleider und Hausrat eines Mannes sicher auf dessen Charakter schließen. Die Natur bildet den Menschen, er bildet sich um, und diese Umbildung ist doch wieder natürlich; er, der sich in die große weite Welt gesetzt sieht, umzäunt, ummauert sich eine kleine drein, und staffiert sie aus nach seinem Bilde.

Goethe. Anteil an Lavaters Physiognomischen Fragmenten.

Qu'était-il donc venu faire

Qu'était-il donc venu faire en cette France du XVIIIe siècle qui ne le prévoyait certes pas et l'attendait moins encore?

Rien d'autre que ceci : Un Geste de Dieu par les Francs, pour que les hommes de toute la terre n'oubliassent pas qu'il y a vraiment un Dieu et qu'il doit venir comme un larron, à l'heure qu'on ne sait pas, en compagnie d'un Etonnement définitif qui procurera rexinanition de l'univers. Il convenait sans doute que ce geste fût accompli par un homme qui croyait à peine en Dieu et ne connaissait pas ses Commandements. N'ayant pas l'investiture d'un Patriarche ni d'un Prophète, il importait qu'il fût inconscient de sa Mission, autant qu'une tempête ou un tremblement de terre, au point de pouvoir être assimilé par ses ennemis à un Antéchrist ou à un démon. Il fallait surtout et avant tout que, par lui, fût consommée la Révolution française, l'irréparable ruine de l'Ancien monde. Evidemment Dieu n'en voulait plus de cet ancien monde. Il voulait des choses nouvelles et il fallait un Napoléon pour les instaurer. Exode qui coûta la vie à des millions d'hommes.

Léon Bloy. L'âme de Napoléon. Paris: Mercure de France, 1912. P. 19-20

After gaining this victory over Maximus

After gaining this victory over Maximus, and after the arrival of Theodosius at Rome, when the emperor was on the point of taking his departure thence, a new and strange star was seen in the sky, which announced the coming of very great calamities upon the world. It appeared first at midnight, near the east, in the very circle which is called the Zodiac. It was large and bright, and in brilliance it was not much inferior to the morning star. After this, a concourse of stars gathered around it on every side, like a swarm of bees gathering in a cluster round their queen. Then, as if impelled, by some mutual collision, the light of all the stars mingled  together, and shone forth in a single flame, assuming the shape of a double-edged sword, huge and terrible. But that one star which first appeared seemed like the hilt of the sword above mentioned, or rather like a root shooting up the large body of light, from what appeared to be a star, surmounted with flowers darting up like the flame from a lamp. Such was the novel and wondrous sight exhibited by the star which then appeared. Its course, moreover, was very different from that of the rest of the stars ; for from the time of its first appearing in the place where we have said, and moving on from thence, it began to rise and set together with the morning star. Afterwards, however, receding by little and little, it went up towards the north, advancing slowly and gradually, and following its own course with a slight deflection towards the left of those who beheld it, but in reality it pursued in the same course as the other stars, with which it came into contact from time to time. At length, having completed its course in the space of forty days, it suddenly passed on into the sign of the Great Bear, and was last seen in the very centre of it, where, soon afterwards, it was extinguished. In addition to these particulars, Philostorgius gives us many other wonderful details concerning this star in the shape of a sword.

Focio. Epítome de la Historia eclesiástica de Filostorgio, XI, 7.

At the time that Cyril administered the church

At the time that Cyril administered the church of Jerusalem after Maximus, the sign of the cross appeared in the heavens. It shone brilliantly, not with divergent rays like a comet, but with the concentration of a great deal of light, apparently dense and yet transparent. Its length was about fifteen stadia from Calvary to the Mount of Olives, and its breadth was in proportion to its length. So extraordinary a phenomenon excited universal terror. Men, women, and children left their houses, the market-place, or their respective employments, and ran to the church, where they sang hymns to Christ together, and voluntarily confessed their belief in God. The intelligence disturbed in no little measure our entire dominions, and this happened rapidly; for, as the custom was, there were travelers from every part of the world, so to speak, who were dwelling at Jerusalem for prayer, or to visit its places of interest, these were spectators of the sign, and divulged the facts to their friends at home. The emperor was made acquainted with the occurrence, partly by numerous reports concerning it which were then current, and partly by a letter from Cyril the bishop. It was said that this prodigy was a fulfillment of an ancient prophecy contained in the Holy Scriptures. It was the means of the conversion of many pagans and Jews to Christianity.

Hermias Sozomen. Historia eclesiástica, IV, 5.

He says that a Heliopolis

'He says that at Heliopolis in Syria Asklepiades made the ascent of Mount Libanos and saw many of the so-called baitylia or baityloi concerning which he reports countless marvels worthy of an unhallowed tongue. He declares too that he himself and Isidoros subsequently witnessed these things with their own eyes....

I saw, he says, the baity los moving through the air. It was sometimes concealed in its garments, sometimes again carried in the hands of its ministrant. The ministrant of the baity los was named Eusebios^. This man stated that there had once come upon him a sudden and unexpected desire to roam at midnight away from the town of Emesa as far as he could get towards the hill on which stands the ancient and magnificent temple of Athena. So he went as quickly as possible to the foot of the hill, and there sat down to rest after his journey. Suddenly he saw a globe of fire leap down from above, and a great lion standing beside the globe. The lion indeed vanished immediately, but he himself ran up to the globe as the fire died down and found it to be the batty los. He took it up and asked it to which of the gods it might belong. It replied that it belonged to Gemiaios., the "Noble One." (Now the men of Heliopolis worship this Gennaios and have set up a lion-shaped'' image of him in the temple of Zeus.) He took it home with him the self-same night, travelling, so he said, a distance not less than two hundred and ten furlongs. Eusebios, however, was not master of the movements of his baitylos, as others are of theirs ; but he offered petitions and prayers, while it answered with oracular responses.

Having told us this trash and much more to the same effect, our author, who is veritably worthy of his own baitylia, adds a description of the stone and its appearance. It was, he says, an exact globe, whitish in colour, three hand- breadths across. But at times it grew bigger, or smaller ; and at other times it took on a purple hue. He showed us, too, letters that were written on the stone, painted in the pigment called tingdbari, "cinnabar." Also it knocked on a wall ; for this was the means by which it gave the enquirer his desired response, uttering a low hissing sound, which Eusebios interpreted.

After detailing these marvels and many others even more remarkable concerning the baitylos this empty-headed fellow continues : " I thought the whole business of the baitylos savoured of some god; but Isidoros ascribed it rather to a daimon. There was, he said, a daitnon who moved it — not one of the harmful nor of the over-material kind, yet not of those either that have attained to the immaterial kind nor of those that are altogether pure." He adds in his blasphemous way that different baityloi are dedicated to different deities — Kronos, Zeus, Helios, etc'

Arthur Bernard Cook. Zeus: a study in ancient religion, III. Cambridge: University Press, 1940.

In Antioch a star appeared

In Antioch a star appeared in the eastern part of the sky during the day, emitting much
smoke as though from a furnace, from the third to the fifth hour.

Teófanes. Cronografía, A.C. 326.

Transformations of kiao into human shapes

Transformations of kiao (scaled dragon) into human shapes are the subjects of several tales. The Wu ki'" tells the following: "Under the Emperor Ta Ti of the Wu dynasty (A. D. 228—251), in the seventh month of the third year of the Ch'ih-wu era (A. D. 240), there was a certain Wang Shuh who gathered medicinal herbs on T'ieu Tai mountain. At the hottest time of the day he took a rest under a bridge, when suddenly he saw a little blue boy, over a foot long, in the brook. The boy held a blue rush in his hand and rode on a red carp. The fish straightly entered a cloud and disappeared little by little. After a good while Shuh climbed upon a high mountain top and looked to all four sides. He saw wind and clouds arising above the sea, and in a moment a thunderstorm broke forth. Suddenly it was about to reach Shuh, who terrified hid himself in a hollow tree. When the sky cleared up, he again saw the red carp on which the boy rode and the little boy returning and entering the brook. It was a black Kiao!"

M. W. De Visser. The Dragon in China and Japan. Amsterdam: Johannes Muller, 1913. P. 80-81.