MDDM18: Cryptoscope

[Dave Monroe]

   "'In my Circumferentor Box, I learn'd to read what
Shapes lay beneath the Earth, all in the Needle's
Dance...?  Upon the Fell, as if there were not enough
alreadyb out there to bring me anxiety, I discover'd
my Instrument acting as a Cryptoscope, into Powers
hidden and waiting the Needles of Intruders, set up as
a picket to warn Something within of any unannounc'd
wishes to enter.   No Creatures of the Fell I'd ever
heard of enjoy'd that much Protection,--'" (M&D, Ch,
30, p. 301)

Circumferentor (Page: 258)
Cir*cum`fer*en"tor (?), n. [See Circumfer.] 

1. A surveying instrument, for taking horizontal
angles and bearings; a surveyor's compass. It consists
of a compass whose needle plays over a circle
graduated to 360°, and of a horizontal brass bar at
the ends of which are standards with narrow slits for
sighting, supported on a tripod by a ball and socket
joint. 

2. A graduated wheel for measuring tires; a tire
circle. 

http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=Circumferentor

And see as well ...

http://www.may.ie/museum/circumfer.html

http://www.gemmary.com/instcat/06/p17-058-06.html

http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/museum/ordsvy/images/nav1373.jpg

Not to mention ...

http://www.orbitals.com/pic/survey/

"what Shapes lay beneath the Earth"

"Powers hidden and waiting the Needles of Intruders"

>From Patricia Fara, Sympathetic Attractions: Magnetic
Practices, Beliefs, and Symbolism in Eighteenth-
Century England (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
UP, 1996), Ch. 6, "God's Mysterious Creation: The
Divine Attraction of Natural Knowledge," pp. 146-70
...

   "Whereas we live in a world shaped by
electromagnetic fields, many educated people of the
eighteenth century perceived a universe permeated with
a divine magnetic power.  Like God himself, magnetic
effects were mysterious....  Ontologies varied .... To
understand magnetic texts, being aware of these
differences in theoretical approach is often less
important than appreciating the cultural implications
of the magnetic vocabulary.  Magnetic terms were laden
with inherited connotations which enriched people's
discussions but can be difficult to retrieve." (p.
147)

   "The words 'magnetic' and 'sympathetic' were used
interchangeably in some contexts, echoing earlier
Neoplatonic beliefes in an animistic, synchronized
universe." (p. 149)

   "Natural philosophers explored the earth's magnetic
past to gain information about fluctuating patterns of
etrrestrial magnetism.  Once a law had been deduced,
some investigators applied it retrospectively as a
clock to synchronize biblical and mythological
accounts with other forms of historical evidence....
As they perused magnetic records, they concerned
themselves with topics modern scholars perceive as
distinct ...." (p. 151)

THE MAGNETIC TERRAQUEOUS GLOBE

"Addressing a Royal Society audience steeped in
classical culture, [Edmond] Halley ... quoted Latin
descriptions of the underworld to corroborate his new
magnetic model of the earth.  'I am sure,' he claimed,
'the Poets Virgil and Claudian have gone before me in
this Thought, inlightning their Elysian Fields with
Sun and Stars proper to those infernal, or rather
internal, Regions.'  His infernal pun exemplifies the
religious ramifications of terrestrial magnetism. 
Writers realted the earth's structure to biblical
narratives and to the location of hell; they sought to
reconscile the irregular patterns of terrestrial
magnetism with their conviction of a perfect
creation." (p. 152)

"[Thomas] Burnet maintained that the current magnetic
imbalance characterized the chaotic terraqueous globe
before the millenial reign of Christ." (p. 153)

"... Halley suggested that the earth contains not just
a single nucleus but three concentric shells
proportional in diameter to the planets Venus, Mars,
and Mercury.... the strong 'Magnetical Matter'
constituting hollow rotating spheres.
   "Halley cited Newton to support his claimns, but
his major arguments were religious ones....  Just as
city dwellers built multistory houses, he argued, so
God provided additional living space by using the
interior of the globe....  For this subterranean life
to survive, he suggested the existence of unknown
sources of light." (p. 155)

   "In theological debates during the eighteenth
century, people rarely wrote about the location and
nature of hell: Halley's own allusion leant on Latin
mythology rather than on scriptural texts.  But they
did incorporate questions about eternal damnation in
their discussions of divine mercy and individuals'
relationship to society.  Turning to Halley's model,
[William] Whiston used ancient texts to conjecture
that Hades is located in the illuminated space between
Halley's central nucleus and the earth's outer shell:
'[N]othing seems so agreaable both to Nature and
Revelation, as this Hypothesis; which supposes such a
Receptacle for Invisible Beings beneath.'" (p. 156)

And (SPOILER WARNING) see also M&D, pp. 548, 603, 707
and 739.  Okay, just a little clean-up to bat tonight,
and then ...





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