186 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



crets of the temple. The integrity of the pontifical order in Egypt was broken 

 up by the consequences of the Roman conquest. Christianity, while as yet 

 undebased by the juggles of the clergy, had no mysteries but moral ones; 

 and all men were invited to enter within its pale without money and without 

 price. 



" The mystic union of the Magi, however, still livedfor a while in the various 

 secret societies of Europe ; and the wandering priest of Egypt, who had fled 

 from his impoverished country, with no other riches than his manuscript of 

 occult science, became the ancestor of the modern sorcerer, and his magic 

 book. 



" The portrait I have desired to draw of a Magician in the foregoing work, 

 comprehends, as I have said, the general historical features of the class, al- 

 though the individual is a real personage. His magical tricks I have rendered 

 few and unimportant ; because the very best I could describe might be per- 

 formed as well by any natural philosopher of the present day. His moral 

 power, however and in this I have exaggerated nothing could only have been 

 acquired and preserved by the union I have assumed to exist, of the highest 

 qualities of intellect with the utmost depravity of mind. 



" The odours made use of in the Magician's study were well known to the 

 miracle-workers. Jamblichus informs us that certain perfumes rendered the 

 mind more fit to receive the inspiration of the Deity ; and Broclus describes a 

 composition of this kind, made up of the amalgamation of various different 

 odours, which were used by the institutors of the ancient priesthood. The 

 property of the fumes of henbane, as disposing to strife and anger, it may be 

 mentioned by way of illustration, is well known to modern medicine. A hus- 

 band and wife supposed themselves to be under the influence of witchcraft, 

 because, although agreeing perfectly well on other occasions, they never could 

 remain long at work together without a violent quarrel. On a packet of the 

 troublesome grains being removed from the stove where it lay, peace was in- 

 stantaneously restored in the family. Of all the magical agents fire is the most 

 common. A box of phosphorus, or, still better, of Lucifer matches, now in 

 the hands of every old woman, would have terrified half the ancient world. 

 Spontaneous combustion sometimes produces as disastrous effects as if it had 

 been the work of sorcery. Some years ago a man was tried in London for 

 setting fire to a floor-cloth manufactory, which there was as good reason to 

 believe had set fire to itself by the casual meeting of different chemical sub- 

 stances. And the poor wretch (who was hanged), it is hardly uncharitable to 

 believe, fell a victim to the ignorance of the nineteenth century, and the stupid 

 brutality still remaining in the criminal laws of England. 



" The flame that does not burn, and the artificial earthquake, are well 

 known to the readers of different little treatises on chemical recreations. 



" The impositions of Orosmandel, if more refined, would have been less true 

 both to the manners of the epoch and in fact ; for, after the above extract, 

 even the least informed reader will not be surprised to hear that there rs am- 

 ple foundation for the wildest pages in the book. 



" The following is an account of Gilles de Retz, taken from a memoir of an 

 excursion I made some years ago among the localities of the story. It ap- 

 peared in a publication which is now only to be found in the cabinets of the 

 lovers of the arts, and which was discontinued because the taste of the general 

 public was not sufficiently refined to appreciate justly the drawings of Turner. 



" ' The Bay of La Verriere, beyond the Cens, exhibited, in its traits of mud 

 and shallow and stagnant waters, a striking picture of the fertility of nature. 

 These are covered with vegetation, and present the botanist with a remarkable 

 variety of curious plants. Near it an ancient ruin, concealed among the thickets, 

 andj scarcely distinguishable from the rocks on which it is raised, recals to our 

 memory a character remarkable for the same rank growth, and which, although 

 now forgotten, the interest of all enquirers into the mysteries of the human 

 mind. 



