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SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY
SECOND EDITION

Richard A. Dunlap
Sustainable
Energy Second Edition

Richard A. Dunlap
Dalhousie University

Australia ● Brazil ● Mexico ● Singapore ● United Kingdom ● United States

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Sustainable Energy, Second Edition © 2019, 2015 Cengage Learning, Inc.
Richard A. Dunlap
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In Memory of my Father
Robert Bennett Dunlap

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Contents

Preface viii 3.7 Enhanced Oil Recovery 99


About the Author xvi 3.8 Oil Shale 99
3.9 Extra-Heavy Oil and Tar Sands 103
PART I 3.10 
Coal Liquefaction and Gasification 106
Summary 109
Background 2 Problems 110
Bibliography 112
Chapter 1 Energy Basics 4
1.1 Introduction 4 Chapter 4 Environmental Consequences
1.2 Work, Energy, and Power 5 of Fossil Fuel Use 113
1.3 Forms of Energy 6 4.1 Introduction 113
1.4 Some Basic Thermodynamics 13 4.2 Thermal Pollution 113
1.5 Heat Engines and Heat Pumps 16 4.3 
Chemical and Particulate Matter Pollution 115
1.6 Electricity Generation 19 4.4 The Greenhouse Effect 127
Summary 27 4.5 Climate Change 131
Problems 27 4.6 Carbon Sequestration 142
Bibliography 29 4.7 
International Climate Change Initiatives 145
Summary 150
Chapter 2 Past, Present, and Future World
Problems 151
Energy Use 30
Bibliography 153
2.1 Introduction 30
2.2 Past and Present Energy Use 31
PART III
2.3 Exponential Growth 37
2.4 
The Hubbert Model of Resource Utilization 43 Nuclear Energy 156
2.5 
Challenges for Sustainable Energy Development 46
Summary 67 Chapter 5 Some Basic Nuclear Physics 158
Problems 67 5.1 Introduction 158
Bibliography 69 5.2 The Structure of the Nucleus 158
5.3 Binding Energy 161
PART II 5.4 Nuclear Decays 163
5.5 Nuclear Reactions 168
Fossil Fuels 70 Summary 169
Problems 170
Chapter 3 Fossil Fuel Resources and Use 72
Bibliography 172
3.1 Introduction 72
3.2 Oil 72 Chapter 6 Energy from Nuclear Fission 173
3.3 Refining 78 6.1 Introduction 173
3.4 Natural Gas 82 6.2 The Fission of Uranium 174
3.5 Coal 84 6.3 Nuclear Reactor Design 177
3.6 Overview of Fossil Fuel Resources 87 6.4 Fission Reactor Control 183

iv
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Contents v

6.5 Types of Thermal Neutron 9.3 Photovoltaic Devices 305


Reactors 184 9.4 
Application of Photovoltaic Devices 314
6.6 Current Use of Fission Energy 191 9.5 Global Use of Photovoltaics 324
6.7 Uranium Resources 197 Summary 326
6.8 Nuclear Safety 200 Problems 327
6.9 Risk Assessment 210 Bibliography 330
6.10 Waste Disposal 216
Chapter 10 Wind Energy 331
6.11 Advanced Reactor Design 221
10.1 Introduction 331
6.12 Fast Breeder Reactors 223
10.2 Wind Turbine Design 331
Summary 230
Problems 232 10.3 Obtaining Energy from the Wind 336
Bibliography 234 10.4 Applications of Wind Power 345
Summary 355
Chapter 7 Energy from Nuclear Fusion 236 Problems 356
7.1 Introduction 236 Bibliography 359
7.2 Fusion Energy 237
7.3 Magnetic Confinement Reactors 240 Chapter 11 Hydroelectric Energy 360
7.4 Inertial Confinement Reactors 244 11.1 Introduction 360
7.5 Progress Toward a Fusion Reactor 248 11.2 Energy from Water 360
Summary 255 11.3 Turbine Design 364
Problems 255 11.4 High Head Systems 368
Bibliography 257 11.5 
Low Head and Run-of-the-River Systems 370
11.6 Utilization of Hydroelectric Power 375
PART IV 11.7 
Environmental Consequences
of Hydroelectric Energy 380
Renewable Energy 258 Summary 384
Problems 385
Chapter 8 Direct Use of Solar Energy 260 Bibliography 387
8.1 Introduction 260
8.2 Properties of Sunlight 261 Chapter 12 Wave Energy 388
8.3 Heat Transfer 263 12.1 Introduction 388
8.4 Solar Collector Design 270 12.2 Energy from Waves 389
8.5 Residential Heating Needs 275 12.3 Wave Power Devices 392
8.6 Heat Storage 282 12.4 Wave Energy Resources 402
Summary 402
8.7 Passive Solar Heating 284
Problems 403
8.8 Transpired Solar Collectors 286
Bibliography 406
Summary 290
Problems 290 Chapter 13 Tidal Energy 407
Bibliography 293 13.1 Introduction 407
Chapter 9 Electricity from Solar Energy 294 13.2 Energy from the Tides 408
9.1 Introduction 294 13.3 Barrage Systems 411
9.2 Solar Electric Generation 294 13.4 Nonbarrage Tidal Power Systems 421

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vi Contents

Summary 432 PART V


Problems 433
Bibliography 435
Energy Conservation, Energy
Storage, and Transportation 508
Chapter 14 Ocean Thermal Energy
Conversion and Ocean Chapter 17 Energy Conservation 510
Salinity Gradient Energy 436
17.1 Introduction 510
14.1 Introduction 436
17.2 Approaches to Energy Conservation 511
14.2 
Basic Principles of Ocean Thermal
17.3 Cogeneration 518
Energy Conversion 437
17.4 Smart Grid 523
14.3 OTEC System Design 439
17.5 
Energy Conservation in the
14.4 Physics of the Operation of an
Community—LED Streetlights 524
OTEC System 443
17.6 Home Heating and Cooling 530
14.5 Implementation of OTEC Systems 446
17.7 Residential Lighting 548
14.6 
Ocean Salinity Gradient Energy:
Basic Principles 449 17.8 Transportation 553
14.7 
Applications of Ocean Salinity Summary 565
Gradient Energy 452 Problems 566
Summary 454 Bibliography 569
Problems 455
Chapter 18 Energy Storage 570
Bibliography 458
18.1 Introduction 570
Chapter 15 Geothermal Energy 459 18.2 Pumped Hydroelectric Power 571
15.1 Introduction 459 18.3 Compressed Air Energy Storage 575
15.2 Basics of Geothermal Energy 459 18.4 Flywheels 578
15.3 Direct Use of Geothermal Energy 465 18.5 
Superconducting Magnetic Energy
15.4 Geothermal Electricity 468 Storage (SMES) 582
15.5 Utilization of Geothermal Resources Summary 587
and Environmental Consequences 474 Problems 588
Summary 479 Bibliography 592
Problems 480
Chapter 19 Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) 593
Bibliography 483
19.1 Introduction 593
Chapter 16 Biomass Energy 484 19.2 Battery Types 594
16.1 Introduction 484 19.3 BEV Requirements and Design 597
16.2 Wood 484 19.4 History of BEVs 605
16.3 Ethanol Production 487 19.5 Supercapacitors 614
16.4 Biodiesel 495 Summary 617
16.5 Biogas 499 Problems 618
16.6 Municipal Solid Waste 500 Bibliography 620
Summary 504
Chapter 20 Hydrogen 621
Problems 504
20.1 Introduction 621
Bibliography 507
20.2 Properties of Hydrogen 622

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Contents vii

20.3 Hydrogen Production Methods 623 21.3 Key Considerations 663


20.4 
Storage and Transportation of Hydrogen 627 21.4 Overview of Future Energy Technologies 670
20.5 
Hydrogen Internal Combustion Vehicles 634 21.5 Efficient Energy Utilization 676
20.6 Fuel Cells 639 21.6 Conclusions 679
20.7 Fuel Cell Vehicles 643 Bibliography 680
20.8 Hydrogen: Present and Future 646 Appendices
20.9 
Efficiency of Different Transportation Appendix I: Powers of Ten A-2
Technologies 648
Appendix II: Physical Constants A-3
Summary 653
Appendix III: Energy Conversion Factors A-4
Problems 654
Bibliography 657 Appendix IV: Miscellaneous Conversion Factors A-5
Appendix V: Energy Content of Fuels A-6
PART VI Appendix VI: R-values in Metric and British Units A-7
Appendix VII: The Elements A-9
The Future 658 Appendix VIII: Table of Acronyms A-11

Chapter 21 Future Prospects and Research Index I-1


and ­Design Projects 660
21.1 Introduction 660
21.2 
Approaches to Future Energy Production 661

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Preface

Our society uses substantial quantities of energy. This energy use amounts to about
6.131020 J, or 570 quads (1 quad 5 1015 Btu), per year worldwide, or an average of
8.131010 J (or 7.73107 Btu) per year per person. Between 80 and 85% of the world’s
energy comes from fossil fuels, which are preferred because they are inexpensive (rel-
atively speaking), are readily available (at least at present), and have a high energy
density. As a result, an enormous infrastructure has been established for the location,
production, and use of fossil fuels. The fuel of choice is oil because it is convenient, and
the gasoline and diesel fuel it produces are portable and constitute our major source of
fuel for transportation.
For the purpose of planning for methods to meet our future energy needs, it is
important to begin by asking two questions: How long will our fossil fuel reserves last?
Is it wise, from an environmental perspective, to continue to use fossil fuels?
The answers to both questions are not simple. The answer to the first question
can be several tens of years or several hundreds of years depending on the conditions
that are put on our fossil fuel use. Will fossil fuels continue to supply 80 to 85% of our
energy needs? Will a fossil fuel–derived product be required to fulfill our needs for a
portable transportation fuel? Perhaps most importantly, how much are we willing to pay
for fuel? There is certainly some limit to how much we, as individuals, are willing or
able to pay for the gasoline for our automobiles or for the oil or natural gas to heat our
homes. However, it is important to realize that the cost of fuel is not only a financial
cost. Producing fossil fuels in a form that is suitable for our needs requires energy input
in order to undertake exploration to locate new fuel reserves, the extraction of the fuel
from those reserves, and the subsequent processing of the fuel. If the energy needed
to produce a liter of fuel is greater than the energy we obtain from burning it, then the
process is not only economically unattractive but is ultimately not energy productive. If
only the use of oil in the traditional sense, from known and economically recoverable
reserves, is considered, then the longevity of fossil fuels will certainly be at the low end
of the timescale. If coal and less traditional oil reserves are also considered, then the
answer can be near the upper end of the timescale. This will be especially true if alterna-
tive sources are used to supply a substantial fraction of our energy needs.
The answer to the second question is also not straightforward. There is over-
whelming evidence that the emission of greenhouse gases that results from the burning
of fossil fuels has a severe impact on the environment. The magnitude and the timescale
of this impact are not fully understood. If the use of fossil fuels continues for an ex-
tended period of time, then our willingness or even our ability to take steps to mitigate
the effects on the environment are also unclear.
To ensure an adequate supply of energy in the future and to avoid causing a nega-
tive impact on our environment, it is important to understand how energy is utilized
at present, our future energy needs, and the options for fulfilling these needs. Design-
ing an appropriate energy structure for the future requires, not only a consideration of
appropriate energy sources, but the implementation of suitable strategies to minimize
energy requirements through conservation efforts.
In terms of our reliance on fossil fuels, two extreme approaches can be taken: to
stop using fossil fuels now or to stop using fossil fuels when our supply is exhausted.
The first approach would certainly minimize the environmental impact of fossil fuel
use but would be impossible to implement because of our lack of infrastructure for the

viii
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Preface ix

use of other energy sources. The latter approach would maximize the environmental
effects and would best make use of the resources available. Whatever the final course
of events, it is essential that steps toward eliminating our dependence on fossil fuel be
taken immediately by developing and implementing alternative energy sources so that
the environmental impact of our fossil fuel use is minimized. The latter would involve
the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by not only a reduction in fossil fuel use but
also by processes such as carbon sequestration.
To put the magnitude of this task (however it is approached) into perspective, it
is necessary to consider the current world power requirement of about 1.9 3 1013 W. In
50 years (roughly the time scale set by the recent Paris Agreement for a carbon neutral
society), the world power requirement might be more than twice the current amount
(primarily as a result of increased energy needs in developing countries). This is a rough
goal that should be kept in mind when assessing the viability of any energy policy.
These power requirements can be related to the output of a typical large electric gener-
ating station. These stations most commonly use fossil fuels (mostly coal and natural
gas) to produce electricity and might have a typical output of about 109 W. The conver-
sion to a nonfossil fuel energy economy on a timescale of about 50 years will require
the construction of about (4 3 1013 W)/(109 W) 5 40,000 large replacement facilities
(or a corresponding number of smaller facilities). These might be large nuclear power
plants, large hydroelectric stations, or equivalent-capacity facilities utilizing solar en-
ergy, wave energy, wind energy, and other sources. This amounts to the construction of
more than two major nonfossil fuel power stations every day for the next five decades.
Clearly, this task requires a substantial commitment.

Sustainable Energy’s Purpose


The textbook Sustainable Energy considers in detail our present and future energy
needs, options for continued use of fossil fuels, and options for establishing an alterna-
tive energy economy. This text was developed out of a course entitled “Energy and
the Environment” that has been taught in the Department of Physics and Atmospheric
Science at Dalhousie University since 2003. This one-semester introductory course is
aimed at undergraduate science and engineering students and is taught at the sopho-
more level. Most students have taken freshman-level chemistry and physics, and most
have had some introductory calculus. These prior courses make a suitable prerequisite
for a course taught from the present text. The course at Dalhousie is taught as a follow-
up to a course on climate change to give students the overall picture of how humanity
interacts with the environment, although this previous course is not a necessary prereq-
uisite for a course taught from Sustainable Energy. Although such a course is intended
to be introductory, there is enough technical detail that upper-level science or engineer-
ing will find it a useful and informative elective.
The purpose of this textbook is to fill a niche between a significant number of texts
on similar topics at a very descriptive level intended for freshmen survey courses and a
few advanced (and often fairly specialized) texts aimed at senior undergraduate or begin-
ning graduate students in engineering. The textbook is useful for science and engineering
students with an interest in energy-related matters, particularly those looking to pursue
a professional career in a related field, to take an introductory energy course with some
reasonable technical content. In addition to filling a mostly unfilled gap in the field, the
present text also provides an up-to-date introduction to a fairly rapidly changing field.

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x Preface

Organization
This text begins with an overview of the basic science needed for the remainder of
the book, as well as a summary of our past, present, and anticipated future energy
needs. The technologies currently in use to meet our energy needs are described,
and the need for the development of new energy technologies on the basis of future
resource availability and environmental concerns is emphasized. The text includes a
separate chapter on every future renewable energy technology that could be viewed
as a viable option for the production of a significant portion of our energy needs. How
these developing technologies can be integrated efficiently with existing technolo-
gies is discussed, as well as approaches to conserving available energy resources.
Finally, the text considers options for perhaps our greatest energy-related challenge:
transportation. The viability of any alternative energy technologies is determined by
its ability to fulfill various criteria. The important criteria are described in this text
by the acronym CURVE, for clean, unlimited, renewable, versatile, and economical.
This acronym makes it easy for students to appreciate how different technologies
may, or may not, play an important role in our future energy production. The final
chapter of the book summarizes the various alternative energy sources that have been
presented and analyzes how these different technologies succeed or fail in satisfying
the various CURVE criteria.
Throughout the text, the complexity of energy issues is emphasized, as is the
need for a multidisciplinary approach to solving our energy problems. This approach
provides students with an appreciation for the real problems that are encountered in
the understanding of how we produce and use energy, as well as the realization that,
while exact calculations are important and necessary, a broadly based analysis is often
most appropriate. The text also stresses the fact that solutions to our energy prob-
lems, both now and in the future, are not straightforward and do not have simple,
well-defined solutions, and that the way ahead is far from certain. The book contains
enough material for a typical one-semester (12- to 14-week) course with about 20%
excess material to allow the instructor some flexibility in course design. This cover-
age of material allows about 2–3 hours of lecture, on average, per chapter. Instructors
may also focus on specific topics to provide a more in-depth picture of certain aspects
of energy. This approach may include a more detailed and probing look at some of
the topics presented in the Energy Extra boxes and may require the omission of other
components of the text. Some chapters from the text can be covered in less detail and/
or even eliminated. Chapters 7, 12, 13, 14, and 20 can be skipped with minimal effect
on continuity. Certain approaches to sustainable energy may be more or less relevant
from some national and/or regional perspectives and may warrant more or less de-
tailed course coverage.
Finally, Chapter 21 acts as a summary of the ideas presented in the text and
shows how they can be integrated into our approach to future energy production. This
chapter includes a number of research and design projects that provide the student
with the challenge of integrating information presented throughout the text to the
solution of practical problem related to energy production and use. These projects
give the student the opportunity to assess information and to make decisions about
the most reasonable approach to energy production and use. Such decisions often
involve a consideration of scientific, technological, environmental, and economic
factors and illustrate not only the complexity but the multidisciplinary nature of sus-
tainable energy.

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Preface xi

Chapter Pedagogical Elements


● Learning Objectives. Each chapter starts with a bulleted list of learning objec-
tives, making it very clear to both instructors and students what is covered in the
chapter.
● Examples: The text includes numerous worked examples to provide the student
with the basic approach to deal with end-of-chapter problems
● Energy Extra Boxes. Energy Extra boxes are included in nearly all chapters.
These boxes provide insight into details of specific aspects of energy and often
emphasize the complex nature of the decisions required to plan for our future
energy needs. They also stress that ostensibly advantageous approaches to en-
ergy are often not as beneficial as they seem and that a critical analysis is neces-
sary to understand all aspects of the topic.
● End-of-chapter Problems. The end-of-chapter problems are predominantly
quantitative in nature. However, most are not straightforward calculations based
on substituting values from the chapter into the appropriate formulas. The prob-
lems are designed to require the students to analyze information, to make use of
material from previous chapters, to correlate data from various sources (not only
from the textbook itself but from library, Internet, or other sources), and in many
cases to estimate quantities based on interpretation of graphical data, interpola-
tion of values, and sometimes just plain common sense.

New to This Edition


●● Updated data tables and graphs with the most current information and
developments.
●● Doubled the number of end-of-chapter exercises for each chapter.
●● Developed more than 30 new examples throughout the text.
●● Added new Energy Extra boxes.
●● Expanded coverage of alternative energy methods and feasibility analysis.
New additions to each chapter include:
Chapter 1: New content on diesel generators.
Chapter 2: Energy Extra box on rare earth elements.
Chapter 3: Added operation of an oil well, transport methods for oil and natural
gas, and expanded application of the Hubbert model.
Chapter 4: Added discussion on acid rain and ocean acidification; added Energy
Extra box on natural vs anthropogenic climate change, added new
sections on methanol production from CO2 and international climate
change initiatives.
Chapter 6: Added Energy Extra boxes on Watts Bar Reactor, and thorium reac-
tors and the Indian reactor program, expanded sections on fast breeder
reactors.
Chapter 7: Expanded section on design of inertial confinement fusion reactors.
Chapter 8: Added Energy Extra box on evacuated tube solar collectors; and
added section on transpired solar collectors.

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xii Preface

Chapter 9: Expanded discussion of parabolic trough collectors; expanded section


on central receivers; added section on solar ponds; added Energy Extra
box on solar updraft towers.
Chapter 10: Added Energy Extra box on wind turbine safety.
Chapter 12: Added discussion on integrated wind/wave generation.
Chapter 13: Added discussion on Sihwa Lake Tidal Station.
Chapter 14: Added section on details of physical principles of ocean thermal energy
conversion.
Chapter 16: Added section on biogas.
Chapter 17: Added Energy Extra boxes on cogeneration in Iceland and thermoelec-
tric generators; expanded section on hybrid vehicles.
Chapter 19: Expanded section on commercial availability of battery electric vehicles.
Chapter 20: Added Energy Extra box on hydrogen storage in fullerenes;
Expanded section on commercial availability of fuel cell vehicles.

Ancillaries
A variety of ancillaries are available to accompany this book to supplement your course.
These supplements include:
● An Instructor’s Solution Manual.
● Annotated Lecture Note PowerPoint Slides, which include suggestions for teach-
ing the material in the book.
● Sample test items for instructors.
● Additional practice problems for students.
● Image Bank of figures and tables from the book.

Custom Options for Sustainable Energy


Would you prefer to easily create your own personalized text, choosing the elements
that best serve your course’s unique learning objectives?
Cengage’s Compose platform provides the full range of Cengage content, allow-
ing you to create exactly the textbook you need. The Compose website lets you quickly
review materials to select everything you need for your text. You can even seamlessly
add your own materials, like exercises, notes, and handouts! Easily assemble a new
print or eBook and then preview it on our site.
Cengage offers the easiest and fastest way to create custom learning materials that
are as unique as your course is. To learn more customizing your book with Compose,
visit compose.cengage.com, or contact your Cengage Learning Consultant.

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Preface xiii

MindTap Online Course


Sustainable Energy, 2e is also available
with MindTap, Cengage’s digital learn-
ing experience. The textbook’s carefully-
crafted pedagogy and exercises are made
even more effective by an interactive, cus-
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xiv Preface

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Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the assistance of many individuals during the development of this text.
First, I am indebted to the students who have taken courses and whom I have taught at
Dalhousie University on Sustainable Energy. They have served as the inspiration for
this textbook and have provided feedback on the course material. I would also like to
thank Jeff Dahn for numerous discussions over the years on energy related matters and
Harm Rotermund for his continued encouragement and comments during the writing
of the manuscript. I am also grateful to Ewa Dunlap for assistance, support, and advice
throughout this project, and to German Rojas Orozco for checking the accuracy of
the Examples and the Solutions to the Problems. I would like to thank the Global En-
gineering team at Cengage Learning for their dedication to this new edition: Timothy
Anderson, Product Director: Mona Zeftel, Senior Content Developer; Teresa Versaggi,

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Preface xv

Product Assistant; and Rose Kernan of RPK Production. Finally, I would like to thank
the following reviewers who provided invaluable comments on the manuscript:
● Julie Albertson, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
● Prabhakar Bandaru, University of California, San Diego
● Ronald Besser, Stevens Institute of Technology
● Christopher Bull, Brown University
● Larry Caretto, California State University, Northridge
● Kip Carrico, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
● Gerald Cecil, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
● Chih-hung Chang, Oregon State University
● Timothy J. Cochran, Alfred State College
● Tim Healy, Santa Clara University
● Jin Jiang, University of Western Ontario
● Charles Knisely, Bucknell University
● David Marx, Illinois State University
● Chiang Shih, Florida A&M University and Florida State University
● Robert J. Stevens, Rochester Institute of Technology
● Wencong Su, University of Michigan—Dearborn
● Eric Stuve, University of Washington
● Thomas Ortmeyer, Clarkson University
● Songgang Qiu, Temple University

R. A. Dunlap
Halifax, Nova Scotia

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About the Author

Richard A. Dunlap is a research professor in the Department of Physics and Atmo-


spheric ­Science at Dalhousie University. He received a B.S. in Physics from Worcester
Polytechnic Institute (1974), an A.M. in Physics from Dartmouth College (1976), and
a Ph.D. in Physics from Clark University (1981). Since 1981 he has been on the fac-
ulty at Dalhousie University. From 2001 to 2006 he was Killam Research Professor
of Physics, and since 2009 to 2015 he was the Director of the Dalhousie University
Institute for Research in Materials. Prof. Dunlap is author of three previous textbooks,
Experimental Physics: Modern Methods (Oxford 1988), The Golden Ratio and Fibo-
nacci Numbers (World Scientific 1997), and An Introduction to the Physics of Nuclei
and Particles (Brooks/Cole 2004). Over the years his research interests have included
critical phenomena, magnetic materials, amorphous materials, quasicrystals, hydrogen
storage, superconductivity, and materials for advanced rechargeable batteries. He has
published more than 300 refereed research papers.

xvi
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Part I

Background
Energy is an essential component of our daily lives. Throughout human history, our
energy use has increased, and we now depend on a complex energy infrastructure
to meet our needs for heating, lighting, transportation, and the production and
distribution of all manufactured materials. Our increased energy needs have put
increasing demands on the earth’s resources and have had increasingly adverse
effects on our environment. We are now at a stage of human development where our
energy use must be critically analyzed to determine suitable future approaches to the
production and use of this vital component of our lives.
Chapter 1 of this text begins with an overview of the basic scientific principles
related to energy and a description of the quantitative scientific tools needed to
analyze our energy use. This overview includes a summary of the various forms
of energy and a quantitative description of the processes by which energy can
be converted from one form to another. Also included is a survey of fundamental
thermodynamics and a description of the basic principles of electricity distribution.
An overview of energy use throughout history is presented in Chapter 2. The
chapter also provides the mathematical basis needed to assess future energy needs
and a summary of the factors that need to be evaluated when considering possible
future energy production methods.
The photograph at the beginning of this part of the text shows the Gordon Dam
in Tasmania. This high head hydroelectric dam is 192 m long and 140 m high and has a
maximum capacity of 432 MWe. It became operational in 1978 and was one of the last
major hydroelectric facilities to be constructed during an era of hydroelectric power
development in Tasmania that began in the 1950s and continued until the 1980s. This
trend in major hydroelectric development is paralleled in many other parts of the
world. ■
Tim Collins/Shutterstock.com

2
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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Suidas, &c. this theology, or worship of the gods, as it was called,
about which the magi were employed, was little more than the
diabolical art of divination; for that μαγεια, strictly taken, was the art
of divination.
Porphyry defines the magi well; Cicero calls them divina
sapientes, &c. in iisdem ministrantes; adding, that the word magus
implied as much in the Persian tongue. These people, he says, are
held in such veneration among the Persians, that Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, among other things, had it engraved on his monument,
that he was master of the magi.
Philo Judas describe the magi to be diligent enquirers into nature,
out of the love they bear to truth; and who, setting themselves apart
from other things, contemplate the divine virtues the more clearly,
and initiate others in the same mysteries.
Their descendants, the modern magi, or fire worshippers, are
divided into three classes; whereof the first and most learned,
neither ate nor kill animals; but adhere to the old institution of
abstaining from living creatures. The magi of the second class,
refrain only from tame animals; nor do the last kill all indifferently, it
being the firm distinguishing dogma of them all, τκν μετεμχυωσιυ
ειναι, that there is a transmigration of souls.
To intimate the similitude between animals and men, they used to
call the latter by the name of the former; thus, their fellow priests
they called lions; the priestesses, lionesses; the servants, cows, &c.
MAGIC, MAGIA, MATEIA,

In its ancient sense, implies the science, or discipline, or doctrine,


of the magi, or wise men of Persia. The origin of magic, and the
magi, is ascribed to Zoroaster; Salmasius derives the very name from
Zoroaster, who, he says, was surnamed Mog, whence magus. Others,
instead of making him the author of the Persian philosophy, make
him only the restorer and improver thereof; alleging, that many of
the Persian rites in use among the magi, were borrowed from the
Zabii, among the Chaldeans, who agreed in many things with the
magi of the Persians; whence some make the name magus common
to both the Chaldeans and Persians. Thus Plutarch mentions, that
Zoroaster instituted magi among the Chaldeans; in imitation
whereof the Persians had theirs too.
Magic, in a more modern sense, is a science which teaches to
perform wonderful and surprising effects.
The word magic originally carried along with it a very innocent,
nay, a very laudable meaning; being used purely to signify the study
of wisdom, and the more sublime parts of knowledge; but in regard
to the ancient magi, engaged themselves in astrology, divination,
sorcery, &c. the term magic in time became odious, and was only
used to signify an unlawful and diabolical kind of science, depending
on the devil and departed souls.
If any wonder how vain and deceitful a science should gain so
much credit and authority over men’s minds, Pliny gives the reason
of it. ’Tis, says he, because it has possessed itself of three sciences of
the most esteem among men, taking from each all that is great and
marvellous in it. Nobody doubts but that it had its first origin in
medicine, and that it insinuated itself into the minds of the people,
under pretence of affording extraordinary remedies. To these fine
promises it added every thing in religion that is pompous and
splendid, and that appears calculated to blind and captivate
mankind. And, lastly, it mingled judiciary astrology with the rest,
persuading people curious of futurity, that it saw every thing to come
in the heavens. Agrippa divided magic into three kinds, natural,
celestial, and ceremonial or superstitious.
Natural Magic, is no more than the application of natural active
causes to passive things, or subjects; by means whereof many
surprising, but yet natural effects are produced.
Baptista Porta has a treatise of natural magic, or of secrets for
performing very extraordinary things by natural causes. The natural
magic of the Chaldæans was nothing but the knowledge of the
powers of simples and minerals. The magic which they call theurgia,
consisted wholly in the knowledge of the ceremonies to be observed
in the worship of the gods, in order to be acceptable to them. By the
virtue of these ceremonies, they believed they could converse with
spiritual beings and cure diseases.
Celestial Magic borders nearly on judiciary astrology; it
attributes to spirits a kind of rule or dominion over the planets; and
to the planets, a dominion over men; and, on these principles, builds
a ridiculous kind of system.
Superstitious, or geotic Magic, consists in the invocation of
devils: its effects are usually evil and wicked, though very strange,
and seemingly surpassing the powers of nature: they are supposed to
be produced by virtue of some compact, either tacit or express, with
evil spirits; but the truth is, these supposed compacts have not the
power that is usually imagined; nor do they produce half those
effects ordinarily ascribed to them.
Naude has published an apology for all the great men suspected of
magic. Agrippa says, that the words used by those in compact with
the devil, to invoke him, and to succeed in what they undertake, are,
dies, mies, jesquet, benedoefet, douvima, enitemaus. There are a
hundred other superstitious formulæ of words prescribed for the
same occasion, composed of pleasure, or gathered from several
different languages; or patched from the Hebrew, or framed in
imitation of it.
Magic of the Eastern nations,—a brief view
of the origin and progress of Magic, &c.
Chaldeans and Persians.—The origin of almost all our knowledge
may be traced to the earlier periods of antiquity. This is peculiarly
the case with respect to the acts denominated magical. There were
few ancient nations, however barbarous, which could not furnish
many individuals to whose spells and enchantments the powers of
nature and the immaterial world were supposed to be subjected. The
Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and, indeed, all the oriental nations, were
accustomed to refer all natural effects for which they could not
account, to the agency of Demons. Demons were believed (See
Demonology,) to preside over herbs, trees, rivers, mountains, and
animals; every member of the human body was under their power,
and all corporeal diseases were produced by their malignity. For
instance, if any happened to be afflicted with a fever, little anxiety
was manifested to discover its cause, or to adopt rational measures
for its cure; it must no doubt have been occasioned by some evil
spirit residing in the body, or influencing in some mysterious way the
fortunes of the sufferer. That influence could be counteracted only by
certain magical rites,—hence the observance of those rites soon
obtained a permanent establishment in the East.
Even at the present day many uncivilized people hold that all
nature is filled with genii, of which some exercise a beneficent, and
others a destructive power. All the evils with which man is afflicted,
are considered the work of these imaginary beings, whose favour
must be propitiated by sacrifices, incantations, songs. If the
Greenlander be unsuccessful in fishing, the Huron in hunting, or in
war; if even the scarcely half-reasoning Hottentot finds every thing is
not right in his mind, body, or fortune, no time must be lost before
the spirit be invoked. After the removal of some present evil, the next
strongest desire in the human mind is the attainment of some future
good. This good is often beyond the power, and still oftener beyond
the inclination of man, to bestow; it must therefore be sought from
beings which are supposed to possess considerable influence over
human affairs, and which being elevated above the baser passions of
our nature, were thought to regard with peculiar favour all who
acknowledged their power, or invoked their aid; hence the numerous
rites which have in all ages and countries been observed in
consulting superior intelligences, and the equally numerous modes
in which their pleasure has been communicated to mortals.
The Chaldeans were more celebrated for their skill in Astrology
than Magic; of the former, they were beyond doubt the inventors: so
famous did they become in divining from aspects, positions, and
influences of the stars, that all Astrologers were termed Chaldeans,
particularly by the Jews and Romans.
Of all species of idolatry, the worship of the heavenly bodies
appears to have been among the most ancient. The Babylonians soon
perceived that these bodies continually changed their places, and
that some of them moved in regular orbits; they concluded,
therefore, that this regularity of motion must necessarily imply some
designing cause—something superior to mere inert matter: but the
primeval notion of one supreme being presiding over the universe,
was almost extinct, from a period little subsequent to the deluge, to
the vocation of Abraham. Hence arose the belief that the stars were
genii, of which some were the friends, and others the enemies of
men; that they possessed an incontrollable power over human
affairs; and that to their dominion were subjected, not only the
vicissitudes of the seasons, of the atmosphere, and the productions of
the earth, but also the dispositions and thoughts of mortals. They
were supposed to delight in sacrifices and prayers. Hence a species of
worship, subordinate to that of the gods, was established in their
honour. It was believed that no event could be foreknown, no
magical operation performed, without their aid; and they conferred
extraordinary and supernatural powers on all who sought their
favour. Men eminent for authority or wisdom, were thought, after
their decease, to be incorporated with the race of genii, and
sometimes even of gods.
There is little doubt that the Baal of the Scriptures, is the same
with the Belus of profane historians. Like Atlas, king of Mauritania,
he excelled in the knowledge of Astronomy; but superstition has
assigned to the celebrated founder of the Babylonian monarchy a
greater dignity than to his western rival; the former was long
worshipped by the Assyrians as one of their chief gods, while to the
latter was committed the laborious and no very enviable task of
supporting the earth on his shoulders. Indeed all the successors of
Belus enjoyed the rare felicity of being honoured both living and
dead. On leaving the globe, their souls being transformed into genii,
were distributed through the immensity of space, to superintend the
nations, and to direct the influence of the heavenly orbs. The
Chaldean magii was chiefly founded on Astrology, and was much
conversant with certain animals, metals and plants, which were
employed in all their incantations, and the virtue of which was
derived from Stellar influence. Great attention was always paid to the
positions and configurations presented by the celestial sphere; and it
was only at favourable seasons that the solemn rites were celebrated.
Those rites were accompanied with many peculiar and fantastic
gestures, by leaping, clapping of hands, prostrations, loud cries, and
not unfrequently unintelligible exclamations[25]. Sacrifices and burnt-
offerings were used to propitiate superior powers; but our knowledge
of the magical rites exercised by certain Oriental nations, the Jews
only excepted, is extremely limited. All the books professedly written
on the subject, have been swept away by the torrent of time. We
learn, however, that the professors among the Chaldeans were
generally divided into three classes; the Ascaphim, or charmers,
whose office it was to remove present, and to avert future contingent
evils; to construct talismans, &c.; the Mecaschephim, or magicians
properly so called, who were conversant with the occult powers of
nature, and the supernatural world; and the Chasdim, or astrologers,
who constituted by far the most numerous and respectable class. And
from the assembling of the wise men on the occasion of the
extraordinary dream of Nebuchadnezzar, it would appear that
Babylon had also her Oneicrotici, or interpreters of dreams—a
species of diviners indeed to which almost every nation of antiquity
gave birth.
The talisman is probably a Chaldean invention. It was generally a
small image of stone, or of any metallic substance, and was of various
forms. On it were several mysterious characters, which were cut
under a certain configuration of the planets, and some believed to be
powerfully efficacious, not only in averting evils, but in unfolding the
dark and distant picture. Some learned men have lately expressed
their doubts as to the antiquity of the talisman, and have even
contended that it is not older than the Egyptian Amulet, which was
probably invented but a short time before the Christian era; but we
have the authority of the sacred writings for asserting that the
Seraphim, which, according to the Jewish Doctors, gave oracular
answers, and which, both in form and use, bore a great resemblance
to the talisman, was known at an early period. There is no slight
reason for concluding that the latter is either an imitation of the
former, or that both are one and the same device.—Like the Chaldean
Astrologers, the Persian Magi, from whom our word Magic is
derived, belongs to the priesthood. But the worship of the gods, was
not their chief occupation; they were great proficients in the arts of
which we are now treating. At first they were distinguished for their
ardour in the pursuit of knowledge; they endeavoured to penetrate
the secrets of nature by the only way in which those secrets can be
discovered—experiment and reason. The former furnished them with
facts; the latter taught them how these facts might be made the
foundation of higher researches, and rendered subservient to the
public utility. While they continued in this innocent and laudable
career, devoting, like the druids, no inconsiderable portion of their
time to the cure of diseases, by means of herbs and other natural
productions, they deserved and obtained the gratitude of their
countrymen; but in process of time they became desirous of
increasing the reverence with which they were regarded by all ranks:
they grew ambitious of higher honours, to direct the counsels of the
state, and to render even their sovereigns subject to their sway. They
joined therefore to the worship of the gods, and to the profession of
medicine and natural magic, a pretended familiarity with superior
powers, from which they boasted of deriving all their knowledge.
Like Plato, who probably imbibed many of their notions, they taught
that Demons hold a middle rank between gods and men; that they
(the Demons) presided not only over divinations, auguries,
conjurations, oracles, and every species of magic, but also over
sacrifices and prayer, which in behalf of men they presented, and
rendered acceptable to the gods. Hence they were mediators, whose
ministry was thought indispensable in all magical and religious rites.
The magi constantly persuaded their credulous countrymen, that to
them alone was conceded the high privilege of communicating with
gods and demons, and of being thereby enabled to foretel future
events; they even went so far as to assert that by means of their
incantations, they obliged the latter to execute all their commands,
and to serve them with the same deference as servants do their
masters. The austerity of their lives was well calculated to strengthen
the impression which their cunning had already made on the
multitude, and to prepare the way for whatever impositions they
might afterwards wish to practise.
All the three order of Magi enumerated by Porphyry, abstained
from wine and women, and the first of these orders from animal
food. These were indulgences which they considered too vulgar for
men who were the favourites of Orosmades, Aremanius, and of the
inferior Deities, and who were so intimately connected with the
offspring of those Deities, the numerous hosts of Genii and Demon.
Three kinds of divination were chiefly cultivated by the Magi;
necromancy, which appears to have been twofold; the predicting of
future events by the inspection of dead bodies, and the invoking of
departed spirits, which were forced to unfold the dark decrees of fate
—a science which has in all ages been almost universally diffused
over the earth; lecanomancy, by which demons, in obedience to
certain powerful songs, were obliged to enter a vessel filled with
water, and to answer whatever questions were put to them; and
hydromancy, which differs from lecanomancy in this, that the voice
of the demon was not heard, but his form was perceptible in the
water, in which he represented, either by means of his satellites, or
by written verses, the cause and issue of any particular event.
Whether the celebrated Zoroaster was acquainted with these three
species, cannot be well determined. He has been called the inventor
of magic; with what justice, is quite as doubtful. It has been inferred,
and perhaps with greater plausibility, that he did not as much invent
as methodize the art. He may likewise have so extended its bounds as
to eclipse the fame of his predecessors; and from that, as well as from
the other consideration, the honour of the invention may have been
assigned him.
Indians.—Of Indian magic we know even less than we do of that
exercised by any other ancient nation. We have however reason to
conclude that much of it was similar to that for which the magi, from
whom it was probably derived, were held in so high estimation. But
the divination of the Indians differed in one respect from that of all
other people; they admitted in it affairs of public moment, but
rigorously excluded it from all private concerns. The reason of this
prohibition probably was, that the science was esteemed too sacred
to be employed on the ordinary occurrences of life. Their
Gymnosophists, or Brachmans, (it is not clear that there was any
distinction between them) were regarded with as much reverence as
the magi, and were probably more worthy of it. Some of them dwelt
in woods, and others in the immediate vicinity of cities. They
performed the ceremonies of religion; by them indeed kings
worshipped the deities of the country; not a few pretended to
superior powers, to cure diseases by enchantments, and to foretel
future events by the stars; but generally speaking, they were a useful
and honourable body of men. Their skill in medicine was great: the
care which they took in educating youth, in familiarizing it with
generous and virtuous sentiments, did them peculiar honour; and
their maxims and discourses, as recorded by historians, (if indeed
those historians be deserving of full credit) prove that they were
much accustomed to profound reflection on the principles of civil
polity, morality, religion, and philosophy. They preserved their
dignity under the sway of the most powerful princes, whom they
would not condescend to visit, or to trouble for the slightest favour. If
the latter desired the advice or the prayers of the former, they were
obliged either to go themselves, or to send messengers.
Egyptians.—The Egyptians also had their magicians from the
remotest antiquity. Though these magicians were unable to contend
with Moses, they were greatly superior to the Chaldean Astrologers,
the Persian Magi, and the Indian Gymnosophists; they appear to
have possessed a deeper insight into the arcana of nature than any
other professors of the art. By what extraordinary powers their rods
were changed into serpents, the waters of the Nile into blood, and the
land of Egypt covered with frogs, has much perplexed wise and good
men. Of all the methods of solution which the learning and piety of
either Jewish or Christian commentators have applied to this
difficult problem, none appears so consonant with the meaning of
the sacred text, and at the same time liable to so few objections, as
this; that the magicians were not, in the present case, impostors, and
that they really accomplished, by means of supernatural agents, the
wonders recorded by the inspired penman[26]. Earth, air, and ocean,
may contain many things of which our philosophy has never dreamt.
If this consideration should humble the pride of learning, it may
remind the Christian that secret things belong not to him, but to a
higher power.
It was maintained by the Egyptians that besides the Gods, there
were many demons which communicated with mortals, and which
were often rendered visible by certain ceremonies and songs; that
genii exercised an habitual and powerful influence over every particle
of matter; that thirty-six of these beings presided over the various
members of the human body; and that by magical incantations it
might be strengthened, or debilitated[27], afflicted with, or delivered
from diseases. Thus, in every case of sickness, the spirit of presiding
over the afflicted part, was first duly invoked. But the magicians did
not trust solely to their vain invocations; they were well acquainted
with the virtues of certain herbs, which they wisely employed in their
attempts at healing. These herbs were greatly esteemed: thus the
cynocephalia, or as the Egyptians themselves termed the asyrites,
which was used as a preventive against witchcraft; and the
nepenthes, which Helen presented in a potion to Menelaus, and
which was believed to be powerful in banishing sadness, and in
restoring the mind to its accustomed, or even to greater cheerfulness,
were of Egyptian growth[28]. But whatever might be the virtues of
such herbs, they were used rather for their magical than for their
medicinal qualities; every cure was cunningly ascribed to the
presiding demons, with which not a few boasted that they were, by
means of their art, intimately connected.
The Egyptian amulets are certainly not so ancient as the
Babylonian Talisman, but in their uses they were exactly similar.
Some little figures, supposed to have been intended as charms, have
been formed on several mummies, which have at various times been
brought into Europe. Plutarch informs us, that the soldiers wore
rings, on which the representation of an insect, resembling our
beetle, was inscribed; and we learn from Ælian, that the judges had
always suspended round their necks a small image of truth formed of
emeralds[29]. The superstitious belief in the virtues of Amulets is far
from extinct in the present age; the Cophts, the Arabians, and
Syrians, and, indeed, almost all the inhabitants of Asia, west of the
Ganges, whether Christians or Mahometans, still use them against
possible evils.
The descendants of the Pharaohs, like the Chaldean kings, were
always great encouragers of Astronomy; and though the subjects of
the latter were not so eminent as those of the former in the sister
science, we have good reason to conclude that they made no
inconsiderable progress in it. Herodotus, and other ancient
historians, assert that Astrology was, from the remotest times,
cultivated by that people. They usually, indeed, prognosticated the
general course of life, the disposition, and even the manner of death,
of any one, by reference to the deity presiding over the day on which
he was born; and not unfrequently by their eastern neighbours, by
determining the position of the stars at the moment of delivery.
As Moses passed the greatest part of his life in Egypt, and as he
could know little by personal experience of other nations, it may
perhaps be inferred that generally when he warns the Israelites
against prevailing superstitions, he has a particular eye to those
observed in the country in which the posterity of Adam had so long
resided. He makes frequent allusion, indeed, to the magical rites and
idolatrous practices of the Canaanites; but in this case he appears to
speak rather from the information he had acquired from others than
from his own experience. Should this inference be admitted, we shall
have reason for believing that both Witchcraft and Necromancy were
known to the Egyptians; and that some days were considered lucky,
and others unfavorable, for the prosecution of any important affair.
A careful perusal of the Pentateuch, and a reference to the Greek
Historians who have written on the affairs of Egypt, and whose
works are necessary to elucidate many obscure allusions in the
sacred text, will furnish the more curious reader with information on
some minor points, which our limits, as a miscellaneous work,
necessarily oblige us to omit.
Jews[30].—We have hitherto had too much reason to complain of
the paucity of information afforded by ancient writers on the magic
of the Eastern nations; but when we come to consider that of the
Jews, we no longer labour under so heavy a disadvantage. The Holy
Scriptures, the works of native writers, and above all, the laborious
researches of learned Christian commentators, furnish us with
abundant materials, from which we shall select such as appear best
adapted to give an intelligible, but necessarily brief, view of the
subject.—Many Jewish Doctors assign to their magic a preposterous
antiquity. They assert that it is of divine origin; that it was known to
Adam and Abraham, both of whom were animated by the same soul;
that the latter taught it by means of his concubines to his children;
and that he wore round his neck a precious stone, the bare sight of
which cured every disease, and which, after his death, God hung on
the sun! But leaving these wild fables, we have sufficient authority
for saying, that the Jews were at a very early period addicted to the
magical arts. This propensity, which first originated in Egypt, was
much increased by their subsequent intercourse with the inhabitants
of Syria, and above all, with their Chaldean conquerors. Thus we
read in the Book of Kings, that they used divination, and observed
the cry of birds. Hence the frequent and awful denunciations
employed by the inspired writers against the practisers of their
forbidden arts.
Lightfoot has proved, that the Jews, after their return from
Babylon, having entirely forsaken idolatry, and being no longer
favoured with the gift of prophecy, gradually abandoned themselves,
before the coming of our Saviour, to sorcery and divination. The
Talmud, which they still regard with a reverence bordering on
idolatry, abounds with instructions for the due observance of
superstitious rites. After the destruction of their city and temple,
many Israelitish impostors were highly esteemed for their pretended
skill in magic. Under pretence of interpreting dreams, they met with
daily opportunities of practising the most shameful frauds. Many
Rabbins were quite as well versed in the school of Zoroaster as in
that of Moses. They prescribed all kinds of conjuration, some for the
cure of wounds, some against the dreaded bite of serpents, and
others against thefts and enchantments. Like the Magi, they boasted
that by means of their art they held an intercourse with superior
beings. Thus Bath-kool, daughter of the voice, is the name given by
them to the echo: they regarded it as an oracle, which in the second
temple, was destined to supply the defect of the Urim and
Thummim, the mysterious oracles of the first. Of Bath-kool many
absurd stories are related. Thus when two Rabbins went to consult
her concerning the fate of another Rabbin, Samuel, the Babylonian,
they passed before a school, in which they heard a boy reading aloud,
and Samuel died. (Sam. ch. xxv. v. 1.) On enquiry they subsequently
found that the object of their anxiety was no longer an inhabitant of
the earth; and thus a casual coincidence, of which no reasonable man
would have been surprised, was confidently ascribed to the oracular
powers of Bath-kool. Two other Rabbins, Jona and Josa, went to visit
Acha in his sickness; as they proceeded on their way they said, “let us
hear what sentence Bath-kool will pronounce on the fate of our
brother.” Immediately they heard a voice, as if addressed by a
woman to her neighbour—“the candle is going out; let not the light
be extinguished in Israel.” (Lightfoot, vol. II. p. 267.) No more doubt
was entertained that these words proceeded from Bath-kool, than
that Elias now assists at the circumcision of every Jewish child.
The divinations of the Israelites were founded on the influence of
the stars, and on the operations of spirits: that singular people did
not, indeed, like the Chaldeans and Magi, regard the heavenly bodies
as gods and genii; but they ascribed to them a great power over the
actions and opinions of men. Hence the common proverb, ‘such a
one may be thankful to his stars,’ when spoken of any person
distinguished for his wealth, power, or wisdom. The mazzal-tool was
the happy, and the mazzal-ra the malignant influence; and the fate of
every one was supposed to be regulated by either one or the other.
Like the notions from which their superstitious opinions were
derived, the Jews constructed horoscopes, and predicted the fate of
every one from his birth. Thus if any one were born under the
dominion of the sun, it was prognosticated that he would be fair,
generous, open-hearted, and capricious; under Venus, rich and
wanton; under Mercury, witty, and of a retentive memory; under the
Moon, sickly, and inconstant; under Saturn, unfortunate; under
Jupiter, just, and under Mars, successful.
As to the spirits whose agency was so often employed in
divination, we have full information from Manasseh, Ben Israel, and
others. “Of wicked spirits,” says the author, “there are several
varieties, of which some are intelligent and cunning, others ignorant
and stupid. The former flying from one extent of the earth to the
other, become acquainted with the general cause of human events,
both past and present, and sometimes with those of the future.
Hence many mortals conjure these spirits, by whose assistance they
effect wonderful things. The books of the cabalists, and of some other
writers, contain the names of the spirits usually invoked, and a
particular account of the ceremonies are accompanied. If (continues
the same author,) these spirits appear to one man alone, they
portend no good; if to two persons together, they presage no evil:
they were never known to appear to three mortals assembled
together.”
The magical rites of the Jews were, and indeed are still, chiefly
performed on various important occasions, as on the birth of a child,
a marriage, &c. On such occasions the evil spirits are believed to be
peculiarly active in their malignity, which can only be counteracted
by certain enchantments[31]. Thus Tobit, according to the directions
of the angel Raphael, exorcised the demon Asmodeus, whom he
compelled, by means of the perfume of the heart and liver of a fish,
to fly into upper Egypt. (Tobit, ch. viii. v. 2 and 3.)
Josephus does not think magic so ancient as many writers of this
nation do; he makes Solomon the first who practised an art which is
so powerful against demons; and the knowledge of which, he asserts,
was communicated to that prince by immediate inspiration. The
latter, continues the weakly credulous historian, invented and
transmitted to posterity in his writings, certain incantations, for the
cure of diseases, and for the expulsion and perpetual banishment of
wicked spirits from the bodies of the possessed. This mode of cure,
he further observes, is very prevalent in our nation. It consisted,
according to his description, in the use of a certain root, which was
sealed up, and held under the nose of the person possessed; the
name of Solomon, with the words prescribed by him, was then
pronounced, and the demon forced immediately to retire. He does
not even hesitate to assert, that he himself has been an eye-witness of
such an effect produced on a person named Eleazar, in presence of
the emperor Vespasian and his sons. Nor will this relation surprise
us, when we consider the deep malignity entertained by a Jew to the
Christian religion, and his ceaseless attempts to depreciate the
miracles of our Saviour, by ascribing them to magical influence, and
by representing them as easy of accomplishment to all acquainted
with the occult sciences.
We should scarcely credit the account, were it not founded on
unquestionable authority, that on the great day of propitiations, the
Jews of the sixteenth century, in order to avert the angel of Samuel,
endeavoured to appease him by presents. On that day, and on no
other throughout the year, they believed that power was given him to
accuse them before the judgment-seat of God. They aimed, therefore,
to prevent their grand enemy from carrying accusations against
them, by rendering it impossible for him to know the appointed day.
For this purpose they used a somewhat singular stratagem; in
reading the usual portion of the law, they were careful to leave out
the beginning and the end,—an omission which the devil was by no
means prepared to expect on so important an occasion. They
entertained no doubt that their cunning, in this instance, had been
more than a match for him.
The cabal is chiefly conversant with enchantments, which are
effected by a certain number of characters. It gives directions how to
select and combine some passages and proper names of Scripture,
which are believed both to render supernatural beings visible, and to
produce many wonderful and surprising effects. In this manner the
Malcha-sheva, (the queen of Sheba who visited Solomon,) who has
often been invoked, and as often made to appear. But the most
famous wonders have been effected by the name of God. The sacred
word Jehovah, is, when read with points, multiplied by the Jewish
doctors into twelve, forty-two, and seventy-two letters, of which
words are composed that are thought to possess miraculous energy.
By these Moses slew the Egyptians; by these Israel was preserved
from the destroying angel of the Wilderness; by these Elijah
separated the waters of the river, to open a passage for himself and
Elisha; and by these it has been daring and impiously asserted, that
the Eternal Son of God cast out evil spirits. The name of the devil is
likewise used in magical devices. The five Hebrew letters of which
that name is composed, exactly constitute the number 364, one less
than the days in the whole year. Now the Jews pretended, that owing
to the wonderful virtue of the number comprised in the name of
satan, he is prevented from accusing them for an equal number of
days: hence the stratagem of which we have before spoken, for
depriving him of the power to injure them on the only day in which
that power is granted him.
Innumerable are the devices contained in the Cabal for averting
possible evils, as the plague, disease, and sudden death. But we see
no necessity, nor even utility, in prosecuting the subject further. We
have said enough to convince the reader of the gross superstition and
abominable practice of those who, even in their present state of
degradation and infamy, have the arrogance to style themselves
God’s peculiar people,—as so many lights to enlighten the Gentiles.
PREDICTION.

Prophecy, Divination, or foretelling future events, either by divine


Revelation, by art and human invention, or by conjecture.—See
Divination, page 142.
Few great moral or political revolutions have occurred which have
not had their accompanying prognostic; and men of a philosophic
cast of mind, in the midst of their retirement, freed from the
delusions of parties and of sects, while they are withdrawn from their
conflicting interests, have rarely been confounded by the
astonishment which overwhelms those who, absorbed in active life,
are the mere creatures of sensation, agitated by the shadows of truth,
the unsubstantial appearances of things. Intellectual nations are
advancing in an eternal circle of events and passions which succeed
each other, and the last is necessarily connected with its antecedent:
the solitary force of some fortuitous incident only can interrupt this
concatinated progress of human affairs. That every great event has
been accompanied by a presage or prognostic, has been observed by
Lord Bacon. “The shepherds of the people should understand the
prognostics of state tempests; hollow blasts of wind, seemingly at a
distance, and secret swellings of the sea, often precede a storm.”
Such were the prognostics discerned by the politic Bishop Williams,
in Charles the First’s time, who clearly foresaw and predicted the
final success of the puritanic party in our country: attentive to his
own security, he abandoned the government and sided with the
rising opposition, at a moment when such a change in the public
administration was by no means apparent. (See Rushworth, vol. i. p.
420.)
Dugdale, our contemplative antiquary, in the spirit of foresight,
must have anticipated the scene which was approaching in 1641, in
the destruction of our ancient monuments in cathedral churches. He
hurried on his itinerant labours of taking draughts and transcribing
inscriptions, as he says, “to preserve them for future and better
times.” It is to the prescient spirit of Dugdale that posterity is
indebted for the ancient monuments of England, which bear the
marks of the haste, as well as the zeal, which have perpetuated them.
Sir Thomas More was no less prescient in his views; for when his son
Roper was observing to him that the Catholic religion, under the
“Defender of the Faith,” was in a most flourishing state, the answer
of More was an evidence of political foresight:—“True it is, son
Roper! and yet I pray God that we may not live to see the day that we
would gladly be at league and competition with heretics, to let them
have their churches quietly to themselves, so that they would be
contented to let us have ours quietly to ourselves.” The minds of men
of great political sagacity were at that moment, unquestionably, full
of obscure indications of the approaching change. Erasmus, when
before the tomb of Becket, at Canterbury, observing it loaded with a
vast profusion of jewels, wished that those had been distributed
among the poor, and that the shrine had only been adorned with
boughs and flowers:—“For,” said he, “those who have heaped up all
this mass of treasure, will one day be plundered, and fall a prey to
those who are in power.” A prediction literally fulfilled about twenty
years after it was made. The fall of the religious houses was predicted
by an unknown author, (see Visions of Pier’s Ploughman,) who wrote
in the reign of Edward the Third. The event, in fact, with which we
are all well acquainted, was realized two hundred years afterwards,
by our Henry VIII. Sir Walter Raleigh foresaw the consequences of
the separatists and the sectaries in the National Church, which
occurred about the year 1530. His memorable words are, “Time will
even bring it to pass, if it were not resisted, that God would be turned
out of churches into barns, and from thence again into the fields and
mountains, and under hedges. All order of discipline and church
government, left to newness of opinion, and men’s fancies, and as
many kinds of religion spring up as there are parish churches within
England.” Tacitus also foresaw the calamities which so long
desolated Europe on the fall of the Roman empire, in a work written
five hundred years before the event! In that sublime anticipation of
the future, he observed, “When the Romans shall be hunted out from
those countries which they have conquered, what will then happen?
The revolted people, freed from their master-oppressor, will not be
able to subsist without destroying their neighbours, and the most
cruel wars will exist among all these nations.” Solon, at Athens,
contemplating on the port and citadel of Munychia, suddenly
exclaimed, “how blind is man to futurity! could the Athenians foresee
what mischief this will do, they would even eat it with their own
teeth, to get rid of it.” A prediction verified more than two hundred
years afterwards! Thales desired to be buried in an obscure quarter
of Milesia, observing that that very spot would in time be the forum.
Charlemagne, in his old age, observing from the window of a castle a
Norman descent on his coast, tears started in the eyes of the aged
monarch. He predicted, that since they dared to threaten his
dominions while he was yet living, what would they do when he
should be no more! A melancholy prediction of their subsequent
incursions, and of the protracted calamities of the French nation
during a whole century.
In a curious treatise on “Divination,” or the knowledge of future
events, Cicero has preserved a complete account of the state
contrivances practised by the Roman government, to instil among
the people those hopes and fears by which they regulated public
opinion. The Pagan creed, now become obsolete and ridiculous, has
occasioned this treatise to be rarely consulted; it remains, however,
as a chapter in the history of man!
There appears to be something in minds which take in extensive
views of human nature, which serves them as a kind of Divination,
and the consciousness of this faculty has been asserted by some.
Cicero appeals to Atticus how he had always judged of the affairs of
the republic as a good diviner; and that its overthrow had happened,
as he had foreseen, fourteen years before. (Ep. ad Att. lib. 10, ep. 4.)
Cicero had not only predicted what had happened in his own
times, but also what occurred long after, according to Cornelius
Nepos. The philosopher, indeed, affects no secret revelation, nor
visionary second-sight;—he honestly tells us, that that art had been
acquired merely by study, and the administration of public affairs,
while he reminds his friend of several remarkable instances of his
successful predictions. “I do not,” says Cicero, “divine human events
by the arts practised by the augurs; but I use other signs.” Cicero
then expresses himself with the guarded obscurity of a philosopher
who could not openly ridicule the prevailing superstitions, although
the nature of his “signs” are perfectly comprehensible, when in the
great pending events of the rival conflicts of Pompey and Cæsar, he
shewed the means he used for his purpose: “On one side I consider
the humour and genius of Cæsar, and on the other, the condition and
manner of civil wars.” (Ep. ad. Att. lib. 6, ep. 6.) In a word, the
political diviner, by his experience of the personal character,
anticipated the actions of the individual. Others, too, have asserted
the possession of this faculty. Du Vard, an eminent chancellor of
France, imagined the faculty to be intuitive with him; from
observations made by his own experience. “Born,” says he, “with
constitutional infirmity, a mind and body but ill adapted to be
laborious, with a most treacherous memory, enjoying no gift of
nature, yet able at all times to exercise a sagacity so great that I do
not know, since I have reached manhood, that any thing of
importance has happened to the state, to the public, or to myself in
particular, which I had not foreseen[32].” The same faculty appears to
be described by a remarkable expression employed by Thucidides, in
his character of Themistocles, of which the following is a close
translation. “By a species of sagacity peculiarly his own, for which he
was in no degree indebted either to early education or after study, he
was supereminently happy in forming a prompt judgment in matters
that admitted but little time for deliberation; at the same time that
he far surpassed all his deductions of the future from the PAST; or was
the best guesser of the future from the past.”
Should this faculty of moral and political prediction be ever
considered as a science, it may be furnished with a denomination, for
the writer of the life of Thomas Brown, prefixed to his works, in
claiming the honour for that philosopher, calls it the “Stochastic,” a
term derived from the Greek and from Archery, meaning to “shoot at
the mark.”
Aristotle, who collected all the curious knowledge of his times, has
preserved some remarkable opinions on the art of divination. In
detailing the various subterfuges practised by the pretended diviners
of the present day, he reveals the secret principle by which one of
them regulated his predictions. He frankly declared that the FUTURE
being always very obscure, while the PAST was easy to know, his
predictions had never the future view; for he decided from the PAST,

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