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From: john@cisden.UUCP (John Woolley)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Metaphysicians
Message-ID: <551@cisden.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Mar-86 12:22:34 EST
Article-I.D.: cisden.551
Posted: Wed Mar 12 12:22:34 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 21:06:12 EST
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Reply-To: john@cisden.UUCP (John Woolley)
Organization: ConTel Information Systems, Denver
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Keywords: metaphysics, metapsychics, occult
Xref: watmath net.sci:591 net.philosophy:4455 net.nlang:4292

I can find no use of the word "metapsychics" outside the Heinlein story
Laura Creighton mentions, and my dictionary.  (G&C Merriam's 2nd Unabridged
Dictionary of the American Language, with postwar supplement -- a really
wonderful dictionary.)

"Metaphysical" began to be misused to mean "non-physical" about the 17th
century or so.  You occasionally run into the contrast "physical and
metaphysical" in 17th- and 18th-century things.

The earliest use I can find of "metaphysical" to mean something like
"occult", "weird", "magical" is in 1590 or so, in Christopher Marlowe's
_Tamburlaine_the_Great_, Part 2, Act 4, scene 3, beginning at line 59.  
Olympia is speaking, and refers to
	"An ointment which a cunning alchemist
	Distilled from the purest balsamum
	And simplest extracts of all minerals,
	In which the essential form of marble stone,
	Tempered by science metaphysical
	And spells of magic from the mouths of spirits,
	With which if thou but 'noint thy tender skin
	Nor pistol, sword, nor lance can pierce your flesh."

Shakespeare also uses "metaphysical" to mean "preternatural" (as Dr. Johnson,
the greatest man who ever lived, notes in his unsurpassable _Dictionary_), as
in the passage from _Macbeth_, Act 1, scene 5 (date probably 1606), where
Lady Macbeth refers to the witches' help as "metaphysical":
			"Hie thee hither
	That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
	And chastise with the valour of my tongue
	All that impedes thee from the golden round
	Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
	To have thee crown'd withal."

But this use is rare until the 20th century.

Notice that "occult" has lost its meaning, too, in much the same way.  It
properly means "hidden" or "secret", and has come to mean "weird" or 
"strange".  The eternal Gnosis has been replaced by the Bermuda Triangle!
-- 
				Peace and Good!,
				      Fr. John Woolley
"Compared to what I have seen, all that I have written is straw." -- St. Thomas