The Conjuror’s Magazine, 2: 24 (July 1793) pp.518-9.
GEORGEAN PLANET AND PLATINA.1
As several astrologers have taken upon them to assert, that because the Georgean is small and distant he is insignificant nearly; they must excuse my imperiously telling them that he is Omnipotent.
Others have said he is of the nature of Saturn and Mars; but this will be better understood if they erect a figure for his first discovery at Bath, where they will find him in the 8th house, in opposition to Saturn and Mars, and in square to the Sun, viz. to kings, monks, and soldiers.
The new Metal Platina has, in like manner, been called the Devil of Metals, and the French Republicans Devils of Men. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
So, at a period when mankind looked for ‘the Redemption of the Body,’ they are given up to a new discovered devil in the celestial, human, and mineral worlds; I repeat Honi soit qui mal y pense. It is the Royal Anglo-Gallican motto, and that venerable character, an English royalist, cannot refuse bending his knee to it.
I will invite my friends to observe the reason, and the weight and bearing, of this imputation.
The reason why the Georgean is said to be malefic is, because he is in direct opposition to those that are, and kills them with their own weapons.
The reason why Platina is called the Devil, is, because, being of equal if not superior weight and purity to gold, superior lustre to silver, and superior hardness to iron and the best tempered steel; he does not dissolve with every vulgar menstruum, to please every puny blockhead, or impertinent experimenter.
The French will not let ‘great villains enjoy the world in state;’ 2 they will ‘give soldiers blood to drink, for they are worthy;’ 3 and they have desolated the houses and estates of those, who, by their immense estates in mortmain, their celibacy and their avarice, have left desolate, heirless, and without inhabitant, many houses, and many estates, great and fair—This is the reason why the French are called Devils.
Having done with the reasons, I come to the weight and bearing—‘If I by the finger of God cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?’ ‘Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven to men’—and I assert this to be a universal blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, or a mad and irretrievable conversion of consummate good into consummate appropriated evil.
Let it be known, that this reverse to evil is also a reverse of qualities. As Platina is superlatively pure and strong, so these are superlatively filthy and weak.
Platina is black and white, a side of no light and a side of all light, the two extremes of colours; black, which imbibes all rays and burns; and white, which displays all rays and enlightens; the excess of heat, and perfection of temper.
B.
Notes
- [EDITOR: Georgean Planet – Uranus. Platina – platinum]. ↩︎
- [EDITOR: “Where little villains must submit to fate, / That great ones may enjoy the world in state”. Samuel Garth’s satire, ‘The Dispensary’, referring to the London law court, the Old Bailey]. ↩︎
- [EDITOR: Revelation 16: 6.’ For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy’]. ↩︎