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Article THE HISTORY OF MAGIC. ← Page 7 of 15 →
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The History Of Magic.
tinctivc art , that of fortune-telling by tho hand , or chiromancy , is of early date— -lectures were delivered upon it in the schools prior to the appearance of the Zingari in Europe . Following the thread of our inquiries , we find the fall of polytheism receiving a hastening impetus in many quarters . In 186 , A . a , the Roman magistrates denounced the
representations of the mysteries , which seem to have been connected with the ancient mystic orgies . Their religious ceremonies had , about thirteen years before Christ , been corrupted by the introduction of Egyptian mystical rites . Again , in the ¦ second century lived Lucius Apuleius , a Platonic philosopher , who had studied magic in CarthageRomeand Athensand
, , , who wrote the celebrated romance of the Golden Ass , a satire on the absurdities of magic and the crimes of the priesthood . The downfall of magianism was completed by Mahomet . This man abnegated all pretensions to miraculous power , stating that his God had refused him supernatural gifts . His enthusiastic followers , having vanquished Persia , savagely
persecuted the Magi ; and , in 6 S 0 , A . C , Mahomedanism may be considered to have wholly overcome magianism , which was subsequently followed by a few Ghebres only in remote provinces . Again , in the name of Islamism the Turks overran the continent of Asia , and it was in these two epochs that the secrets of the occult sciences were widely scattered . After the talcing of Constantinople , the progress of magic in the west becomes more difficult to follow *
At the commencement of our era , magic was admired by religious philosophers , one of whom describes it as "the science which unveils the operations of Nature , and leads to the contemplation of celestial powers . " This shews a juster estimate of the true importance of science . One hundred and fifty years later , however , the worthlessness of charlatans rendered it contemptible , and though in the darkness of the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of Magic.
tinctivc art , that of fortune-telling by tho hand , or chiromancy , is of early date— -lectures were delivered upon it in the schools prior to the appearance of the Zingari in Europe . Following the thread of our inquiries , we find the fall of polytheism receiving a hastening impetus in many quarters . In 186 , A . a , the Roman magistrates denounced the
representations of the mysteries , which seem to have been connected with the ancient mystic orgies . Their religious ceremonies had , about thirteen years before Christ , been corrupted by the introduction of Egyptian mystical rites . Again , in the ¦ second century lived Lucius Apuleius , a Platonic philosopher , who had studied magic in CarthageRomeand Athensand
, , , who wrote the celebrated romance of the Golden Ass , a satire on the absurdities of magic and the crimes of the priesthood . The downfall of magianism was completed by Mahomet . This man abnegated all pretensions to miraculous power , stating that his God had refused him supernatural gifts . His enthusiastic followers , having vanquished Persia , savagely
persecuted the Magi ; and , in 6 S 0 , A . C , Mahomedanism may be considered to have wholly overcome magianism , which was subsequently followed by a few Ghebres only in remote provinces . Again , in the name of Islamism the Turks overran the continent of Asia , and it was in these two epochs that the secrets of the occult sciences were widely scattered . After the talcing of Constantinople , the progress of magic in the west becomes more difficult to follow *
At the commencement of our era , magic was admired by religious philosophers , one of whom describes it as "the science which unveils the operations of Nature , and leads to the contemplation of celestial powers . " This shews a juster estimate of the true importance of science . One hundred and fifty years later , however , the worthlessness of charlatans rendered it contemptible , and though in the darkness of the