428 Flint's natueal history. [Book XXX. 



superstition, however barbarous and ferocious the rites which 

 it sanctions, that is not more tolerant than the imaginations 

 which he conceived, and owing to which, by a series of blood- 

 stained crimes, our abodes were peopled with ghosts. 



CHAP. 6. — THE SUBTERFUGES PBACTISED BY THE MAGICIANS. 



The magicians, too, have certain modes of evasion, as, for 

 instance, that the gods will not obey, or even appear to, persons 

 who have freckles upon the skin. Was this perchance the 

 obstacle*" in Nero's way ? As for his limbs, there was^^ nothing 

 deficient in them. And then, besides, he was at liberty to 

 make choice of the days prescribed by the magic ritual : it 

 was an easy thing for him to make choice of sheep whose 

 colour was no other than perfectly black : and as to sacrificing 

 human beings, there was nothing in the world that gave him 

 greater pleasure. The Magian Tiridates" was at his court, 

 having repaired thither, in token of our triumph over Armenia, 

 accompanied by a train which cost dear to the provinces through 

 which it passed. Tor the fact was, that he was unwilling to 

 travel by water, it being a maxim with the adepts in this art 

 that it is improper to spit into the sea or to profane that element 

 by any other of the evacuations that are inseparable from the 

 infirmities of human nature. He brought with him, too, 

 several other Magi, and went so far as to initiate the emperor 

 in the repasts'*^ of the craft ; and yet the prince, for all he had 

 bestowed a kingdom upon the stranger, found himself unable 

 to receive at his hands, in return, this art. 



We may rest fully persuaded then, that magic is a thing 

 detestable in itself. Frivolous and lying as it is, it still bears, 

 however, some shadow of truth upon it ; though reflected, in 

 reality, by the practices of those who study the arts of secret 

 poisoning, and not the pursuits of magic. Let any one picture 

 to himself the lies of the magicians of former days, when he 

 learns what has been stated by the grammarian Apion,*^ a 



^'^ Suetonius says that his body was full of foul spots. 



*' It was probably a doctrine of Magic, that an adept must not be d(;- 

 ficient in any of his limbs, 



^* After being conquered by the Eoman general, Corbulo, he received 

 the crown of Armenia from Nero, a.d. 63. 



*5 All vegetable substances were divided, according to their doctrine, into 

 the pure and the impure, the rule being strictly observed at their rcpa>ts. 



■'^ See end of this Book. 



