From The Dublin University Magazine. THE SCIENCE AND TRADITIONS OF THE SUPERNATURAL.

MAGIC, SORCERY, AND WITCHCRAFT.

of entering. From Zoroaster to the man who subjects household furniture to sleight-ofhand tricks, all professors and disciples of forbidden arts are obnoxious to be ranged in one of these categories.

It would take us out of our way to examine the various processes through which the clear insight, accorded to our first parents of the relation in which all creatures stand to the Creator, passed in degenerating to the worship of created things, human passions, the functions of nature, and the souls of departed heroes. It is merely requisite for our purpose to say that the heavenly bodies, so mysterious in their unapproachableness, and in their motions, and the undoubted influence of the apparently largest two on the condition of the parent earth, became chief objects of adoration. The prolific earth, which appeared to give birth to all living beings, to furnish them with food, and all things essential to their existence, and in whose bosom all seek their final rest, was the loved, the genial Alma Mater. Her handmaidens, the subtle and (as was supposed) simple elements, the water, the fire, and the air, came in for their measure of worship. The original notion of the heavenly messengers and guardian angels became deteriorated in time to that of dæmons or genii. Our modern verse-makers, when

THE wide and full view of nature and its operations enjoyed by our first parents was probably much contracted after their fall, and only descended in a fragmentary manner to their posterity. After the flood, this treasure, diminished and broken up, was far from being common property to the sons of the children of Noah. It remained in greatest fulness among the heads of families of the descent of Heber; and, when idolatry began to prevail, it continued in an inferior and perverted form among the Assyrian and Egyptian priests. Among them were known, or believed to be known, all means by which knowledge of present and future things, and of the cure of diseases, could be innocently obtained, or evilly wrung from spiritual powers. This knowledge got in time the name of magic, for which different derivations have been given. Priestly knowledge" is probably the best equivalent. When any one gifted with a portion of this science chose to exert it for the mere attainment of power or temporal possessions, or for the destruction or harm of others, he was looked on as a malignant sorcerer or witch would be in modern times. Sir Edward Bulwer, who has made mentioning the genius of Rome, the genius magic, in its use and abuse, his particular study, has well individualized the higher class of sages in the noble-minded Zanoni, and the evil-disposed professors in Arbaces, priest of Isis, and the poison-concocting witch of Vesuvius.

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There were at all times individuals tormented with a desire to penetrate the designs of Providence, the cause and mode of natural processes ever before their eyes, the dark mysteries of life, and of the union of mind and matter, and they ardently longed that these deep and inexplicable arcana should become intelligible to their intellect.

of Cæsar, etc., scarcely reflect that what to them is a mere poetic image, was an existing, potent being to the contemporaries of the Tarquinii, the Fabii, and the Julian family.

As has been observed, nothing evil was necessarily connected with the word magic. The Persian Magi were well qualified to rule their subjects by their superior attainments in science. They sacrificed to the gods; they consulted them on their own affairs, but particularly as to the issue of events pregnant with the weal or woe of their people. The Egyptian priests were depositories of all the knowledge that had survived the dispersion at Babel in a fragmentary form. Both priests and Magi had recourse to rites in presence of the people for the foreknowledge of future events. This, in fact, formed a portion of the state religion; but an acquaintance with more recondite and solemn ceremonies, which they practised in secret, was carefully kept from the commonalty.

These classes of men saw within the range of their mental and bodily faculties no means of gratifying their wishes. Unblessed with patience or acquiescence in the Divine Vill, or faith in the power, or confidence in the goodness of the Creator, they determined on devising some means to oblige those beings whose presence cannot be detected by bodily organs, to be their guides through the laby- While the Greeks and Romans paid divine rinth which they never should have thought | honors to Jupiter and Juno, or their doubles,

Zeus and Héré, and the other divinities, great | the goddess Circe, who can do nothing better and less great, some tradition of the primeval than direct him to sail to the confines of Ortruth held its ground among the more intel-cus, situate on the outer rim of the earth-enligent, and the existence of a Supreme Ruler circling ocean stream, and consult the shade was acknowledged. With some Destiny was of the blind Seer Tiresias. He arrives at the chief ruler, and an uneasy feeling was abroad gloomy beach that never basked in the warm that Jove would be deprived of power some light of the sun, scoops an ell-wide trench, day. It was the same in the Scandinavian pours into it milk, honey, water, wine, and mythology. The giants and the wolf Fenris meal, and last, the blood of the black ewe were to prevail against the Æsir, though and ram given him by the enchantress. No themselves were, in turn, to perish also, and sooner has the blood been poured in than the after this twilight of the gods, the world was poor spectres of the mighty dead-hungry to be renewed under the sway of the All-Fa- and wan-crowd round the pit to drink the ther. blood. The sage warrior's heart aches when the shade of his revered mother presses forward, impelled by hunger, and all ignorant and regardless of the presence of her unhappy son. Oh, stern destiny! he knows her well enough, but is forced to keep her off at the sword's point till Tiresias has satisfied his thirst in the sacrificial gore. Then after learning the destiny of his house, he may permit the poor maternal shade to come and satisfy her unnatural appetite.

Nearly everything in the mythologies was a corruption, or a distortion, or shadow of some primeval revelation or religious ceremonial, or commandment solemnly given.

The dread inhabitants of Jotunheim, though inferior to Odin and his family in Asgard, were an enduring trouble to them, especially as they were aware of the dreadful strife when the horrible twilight was to come. This had a parallel in the Grecian mythology. The Titans, though subdued and bound, could not be destroyed: and Prometheus, suffering tortures on his rock, was less in awe of Zeus than Zeus was of him. These views, both Grecian and Scandinavian, were the remains of early traditions of truths debased and disfigured. The powers of evil were permitted to exert their forces to contravene the designs of Providence in reference to the human race. Towards the end of the world their baleful energies will be exerted with their fullest force, but to be finally crushed; and then God's kingdom will indeed come, and all, except the thoroughly reprobate, will have no will but his.

Etherealized beings as they were, the gods might perhaps be happy in Olympus feasting on their nectar and ambrosia; but for their own meagre, shivering shades, once this life was past, they expected but a chill, comfortless existence. A long life on the warm, genial bosom of mother Earth formed their most cherished wish, and the spiritual beings that ruled the air, the earth, and hades, were invoked and questioned as to the future earthly weal and woe of the consulters.

This may be said to be the earliest account of a necromantic rite, which was not, however, practicable in ordinary cases. If the body had not obtained sepulchral rites, the poor, shivering soul could not cross the Styx, and perhaps it might avail itself of the opportunity to appal some late relative by its ghastly presence, exhort him to collect its mortal relics, burn them, move three times round the pyre, and pronounce the farewell charm which privileged the poor shade to cross in Charon's cranky cockle-shell, and enjoy the sad comforts of Elysium. Once there, the shade was deaf to the voices of all mortal charmers,* and the curious inquirer into futurity either consulted an oracle, or employed the legal trafficker in omens, or made solemn perquisitions to the evil or good genius who was born at the same moment, and would at the same moment perish with him. The system of paganism, being based in error could not be expected to be consistent. Whatever the Grecian poets might think concerning the state of the separated souls, their

* There were exceptions, however, to this general rule. Some terrible adepts in magic incantations were even powerful enough to draw down dread Hecate from her sphere; nay the Dii Majores themselves were obnoxious to their hellish charms. In the Hindoo mythology such power could be obtained by severe penances. Witness Southey's Ke

What a disheartening picture is given in the eleventh book of the Odyssey of the existence after death, and of the gloomy rites performed by Odysseus in order to know his own future fortunes. He leaves the abode of hama.

Roman brethren would persist in considering riod from wine, to drink water, to bathe, to the spirits of the good as taking interests in the weal of their native cities or their own surviving families. They hovered unseen near the family hearths, and were believed to dwell in the little images, the Lares, which were placed near the kitchen fires. These loved and reverenced little images resembled monkeys rather than men. They were appropriately clad in the skins of the dog, the faithful house-guard, and their festivals were held in the genial month sacred to Maia. The souls of wicked men, the Larvæ or Lemures, employed themselves on the other hand in working evil to their survivors, whose lot they envied. They received a kind of worship arising from fear. They were besought not to work harm to the house nor its inmates, but to be their defence against stranger beings of their class. The homage paid to them had thus a Fetish character. Frightful little idols were made to propitiate them, and probably to frighten away strange Larvæ. Teraphim* of this class have been discovered under entrances to buildings at Nineveh. Some have thought that the little idols carried away by Rachel were of this frightful character. We incline rather to suppose them to belong to the class of the benevolent and protecting Lares.†

As all the knowledge possessed by the priests and philosophers of heathen times and in which the generality of men did not share was properly magic, the name was not connected with any idea of evil. It was the abuse of this knowledge, such as causing, by incantations, gods or demi-gods, or souls of departed men to appear, and do for the theurgist something evil and out of the ordinary course of nature; this was what was odious, to which they gave the name goetia, and which was continued under the Christian dispensation by the title of "sorcery." In the Egyptian temples, and in those raised to Appollo, Esculapius, and others, were dormitories devoted to the convenience of patients, who, previous to a near approach to the divinity were required to abstain for some short time from food, for a longer pe

* Repheh-one who relaxes with fear, or strikes with terror.

+In Russian cottages were to be seen not long since the tutelar Obross. In an islet off one of the British isles, an unshapely stone is, or was some time ago, propitiated with libations, so that he might send some good shipwrecks.

be fumigated, to be rubbed well, and in fact to observe a regimen similar to what a skilful physician of modern times would recommend. The sick man was put to rest (generally on the skin of a black ram) * where no glimpse of heaven's light could penetrate, and where no sound from the outer world could be heard. Next day he was questioned by the priests as to how the night had passed; and in most cases he had a vision of the god to communicate. The heavenly visitor had appeared in such or such a guise, and had prescribed such and such remedies. These remedies, mostly extracted from herbs, and generally accompanied with superstitious circumstances and charms, were resorted to with a most unhesitating faith on the part of the invalid. The cures were numerous, and the failures but few. Access to the adytum of the god was out of the question. It was a great privilege to be allowed to approach the apartment of high priest or priestess, and all the active agencies of the secret machinery of the establishment were religiously kept a mystery to the profane. † Hence the management of the sick worshippers can only be guessed at. One of these two theories may be rationally adopted. The priests, well acquainted with the science of optics, and the other divisions of natural philosophy, as well as the skilful treatment of the sick, would find it a matter of little difficulty to present to the patient under the influence of a narcotic, amid fumigations and sweet music, a personification of the deity of the temple, and make him listen entranced to the words of wisdom, and the health-imparting oracles proceeding from his sacred lips.

Theory number two supposes the existence of animal magnetism.

After the skilful preparation of the patient already described, and while his faith was strong, and his expectation of seeing glorious sights was eager and intense, and while his senses of smelling and hearing were entranced, he was subjected to a process of animal magnetism. Then, while gifted with

*When the highland chief wished his seer to bring him information from the world of spirits, he caused him to take his unhallowed rest on the hide of a newly-slain bull, and within hearing of a cataract. The rite was in force when Herodotus was collecting materials for his history, a black sheepskin being the bed-sheet in the earlier period.

† Pro Fanum-before or outside the temple.

clairvoyance, and his attention powerfully | Now perceive I an odor-an odor it seemeth of directed to this or that matter connected

with his complaint, he gave utterance to the As boiling-as boiling in bronze—and mixed with names or descriptions of the medicines on which depended his cure. Of course, when the wise priests lighted on a happily-conditioned subject, they did not neglect to direct his regards to scenes and events about which they required some definite information. If the passive instrument of the skill and knowledge of the priests retained any memory of his experience next morning, he of course gave credit to the god for the fancied visions or ecstacies. His cure followed. Isis, or Horus, or Ceres, or Apollo, was powerful and propitious; the priests were their wise and benevolent ministers and favorites, and greater lustre and glory were shed on the