Chapter VI (3)

[540] 'Nam Petrus Cirvellus Hispanorum omnium sui temporis doctissimus,
cum theologiæ, in almo Complutensi gymnasio, lectoris munere
fungeretur, et vero multos, ut ipsemet inquit, fluviis vel mari
finitimos populos, jam stupido metu perculsos, domicilia ac sedes
mutare vidisset, ac prædia, supellectilem, bonaque omnia, contra
justum valorem sub actione distrahere, ac alia loca vel
altitudine, vel siccitate magis secura requirere, sui officii
esse putavit, in publica illa consternatione, quam de nihilo
excitare persuasum non habebat,' &c. _Bayle_, note B.

[541] Ibid.

[542] In addition to the account in Bayle, the reader may refer to
_Biog. Univ._ vol. iii. p. 88, vol. xxxi. p. 283, vol. xliii. pp.
577, 578; _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iii. p. 251;
_Delambre_, _Hist. de l'Astronomie du Moyen Age_, Paris, 1819,
4to, p. 376; _Montucla_, _Hist. des Mathématiques_, vol. i. p.
622; _Dict. Philosoph._, article _Astrologie_, in _[OE]uvres de
Voltaire_, vol. xxxvii. pp. 148, 149.

About seventy years after this alarm had passed away, there happened another circumstance, which for a time afforded occupation to the most celebrated men in one of the principal countries of Europe. At the end of the sixteenth century, terrible excitement was caused by a report that a golden tooth had appeared in the jaw of a child born in Silesia. The rumour, on being investigated, turned out to be too true. It became impossible to conceal it from the public; and the miracle was soon known all over Germany, where, being looked on as a mysterious omen, universal anxiety was felt as to what this new thing might mean. Its real import was first unfolded by Dr. Horst. In 1595, this eminent physician published the result of his researches, by which it appears that, at the birth of the child, the sun was in conjunction with Saturn, at the sign Aries. The event, therefore, though supernatural, was by no means alarming. The golden tooth was the precursor of a golden age, in which the emperor would drive the Turks from Christendom, and lay the foundations of an empire that would last for thousands of years. And this, says Horst, is clearly alluded to by Daniel, in his well-known second chapter, where the prophet speaks of a statue with a golden head.[543]

[543] This history of the golden tooth is partly related by De Thou: see
his _Hist. Univ._ vol. xi. pp. 634, 635. And on the controversy
to which it gave rise, compare _Hist. des Oracles_, chap. iv., in
_[OE]uvres de Fontenelle_, vol. ii. pp. 219, 220, ed. Paris,
1766; _Sprengel_, _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. iii. pp. 247-249;
_Biog. Univ._, vol. xx. p. 579.