The influence exerted by man over spiritual beings was 

 thought to be consistent with natural laws; Paracelsus 

 taught that the will of man had effect on the behavior of 

 invisible beings, because the latter were inferior, and the 

 lower is always subject to the higher. "The thought of man 

 is as potent to impress a spirit as the spoken word is to 

 impress the mind of man, for spirits have no physical ears 

 to hear physical sounds, and the voice is only needed for 

 those who cannot hear with the spirit." Warrant for a 

 belief in theurgy and in goety was found in the Holy Scrip- 

 tures ; it was pointed out that by the exercise of supernatural 

 powers the magicians of Pharaoh, and of Moses the man of 

 God, changed rods into serpents, that the Hebrew plagued 

 Egypt with bloody waters, frogs, lice, flies, murrain, emerods, 

 hail, locusts and pestilence, parted the Red Sea, and caused 

 water to flow from a rock in the desert. That by the same 

 art Joshua stayed the Sun, that Elijah called down fire from 

 Heaven and raised the dead to life, that Daniel muzzled the 

 lions, and the three children escaped destruction in a fiery 

 furnace. It was confidently claimed that Solomon excelled 

 in magical arts and that his power, wealth, and eminence 

 were secured by their exercise; moreover the experience of 

 King Saul at En-Dor, with the woman that had a familiar 

 spirit, and the appearance of the Eastern Magi at Bethlehem, 

 were accounted incontestable proofs of the highest activity 

 in occult science. 



Many of the extravagant superstitions about the magical 

 properties of natural objects that obtained credence in 

 Rudolph's reign might have been traced to the famous 

 writings of Pliny. For example, Pliny stated that the 

 precious diamond placed on an anvil resisted the stoutest 

 blows of a hammer, or put in a furnace withstood the 

 intensest heat, but that if steeped in the blood of a he-goat 



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