614 



MAGDEBURG MAGIC. 



&c. In 1743, a canal was constructed uniting the 

 Elbe and Havel, and, therefore, the Elbe and Oder. 

 Magdeburg was the favourite residence of Otho I. 

 The town took an active part in the reformation. It 

 was taken by assault, May 20 (10), 1631, by the 

 Catholic generals Tilly and Pappenheim, and was 

 Uie scene of great cruelties. In 1806, it was dis- 

 honourably surrendered, by general Ivleist, to Ney, 

 after the battle of Jena. By the peace of Tilsit, it 

 was ceded to France, which annexed it to the king- 

 dom of Westphalia, and, by the peace of Paris, it 

 was restored to Prussia. Carnot lived here, when 

 in banishment as a regicide, and died here. 



MAGDEBURG, CENTURIES OF. See Centuries 

 of Magdeburg. 



MAGELLAN. See Magalhaens. 



MAGELLAN, STRAITS OF; the passage between 

 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, at the southern 

 extremity of the continent of America ; upwards of 

 300 miles in length, from cape Virgin, in the Atlantic, 

 to cape Desire, in the Pacific ocean, in some places 

 several leagues over, and in others not half a league. 

 The passage through these straits is difficult and 

 dangerous. Lon. 70 to 77 W.; lat. 52 30' to 

 54 S. 



MAGELLANIC CLOUDS; whitish appearances, 

 like clouds, seen in the heavens towards the south 

 pole, and having the same apparent motion as the 

 stars. They are three in number, two of them near 

 each other. The largest lies far from the south pole; 

 but the other two are about 11 distant. They may 

 be multitudes of stars, like the milky way. 



MAGELLONA THE BEAUTIFUL; the name 

 of an old French novel, reproduced in various forms, 

 in many languages, probably composed in the eleventh 

 or twelfth century, by a Provencal minstrel. Magel- 

 lona is the daughter of the king of Naples ; Peter, 

 son of the count of Provence, is her lover. Petrarch 

 is said to have given the present form to the novel. 

 Its title is L'Histoire du noble et vaillant Chevalier 

 Pierre de Provence et aussi de la belle Maguellone, 

 Fille du Roy de Naples (1496, 1524, 1625). There 

 are other editions, without year and place. The duke 

 of Marlborough paid, in 1813, for a copy in folio, 

 22 Is. Lope de Vega made use of the subject in 

 his drama, the Three Diamonds. See Millin's Voyage 

 en France, vol. iv, p. 354 ; also Gorres's Deutsche 

 Volksbucher. 



MAGGJORE, LAKE. See Lago Maggiore. 



MAGIANS (Magi) derive their name from mog or 

 mag, which signifies priest in the Pehlvi language. 

 (See Indian Languages.) They were the caste of 

 priests with the Persians and Medians. They were 

 in exclusive possession of scientific knowledge. As 

 sacrifices and prayers could be offered to Ormuzd 

 only through them; as Ormuzd revealed his will 

 only to them, and they therefore could pry into 

 futurity ; in short, as they were considered mediators 

 between the people and the Deity, they necessarily 

 possessed great authority, which they abused. Zo- 

 roaster was their reformer. He divided them into 

 learners, teachers, and perfect teachers. For the 

 doctrine of Zoroaster, see the article. 



MAGIC. Men, as soon as they began to observe 

 the phenomena around them, could not help seeing 

 the close connexion which exists between man and 

 external nature. When the sun sets, he wants rest, 

 and sleep approaches with night; atmospheric changes 

 affect his health; certain wounds become painful with 

 the change of weather, or at certain phases of the 

 moon ; some men are painfully affected in the pre- 

 sence of particular animals (see Antipathy); certain 

 liquids exhilarate, others destroy life. Such and 

 similar observations, combined with many of an 

 erroneous and exaggerated character, springing from 



credulity and ignorance, soon led men to treat this 

 mysterious connexion of man and nature, and the 

 influence of tilings or causes without him, upon his 

 mind and body, as a peculiar science, which, when 

 occupations were not yet divided, of course belonged 

 to the priests, whose exclusive possession of know 

 ledge made them the guides of men in science and 

 the arts as well as in religion. This is considered, 

 by some, the natural origin of supernatural magic ; 

 others, on the contrary, believe that there once 

 actually existed a deeper knowledge of the powers 

 and influences of nature, transmitted from earlier and 

 purer ages, but lost with increasing folly and guilt; 

 and others believe that men once possessed the means 

 of producing supernatural effects with the assistance 

 of evil spirits, as those particularly gifted by Provi- 

 dence were able to produce supernatural effects with 

 the assistance of God. Maia, the eternal mother of 

 things, is, in the Indian mythology, the goddess of 

 intellectual as well as of sensual love. In another 

 signification, she is the muse, the goddess of pro- 

 phecy and poetry, and also of deception; and the 

 word magic seems to be connected with this root, of 

 so various, yet easily conjoined meanings. Media, 

 Persia, and the neighbouring countries, famous for 

 their knowledge of astronomy and astrology, are de- 

 scribed as the chief seats of the ancient magi, whose 

 doctrine seems to be, in part, of great antiquity. 

 This doctrine represented opposition or strife as the 

 parent and original cause of all things. After the 

 opposition between light and darkness, Ormuzd and 

 Ahriman, was established, the whole series of finite 

 beings, the whole sensual world, proceeded from this 

 constant struggle of light and darkness, good and 

 evil. The change of day arid night, light and dark- 

 ness, the whole series of ages, time itself, is only a 

 consequence of this struggle, in which sometimes 

 light, sometimes darkness, appears victorious, until 

 finally light shall conquer for ever. If all finite things 

 stand under the influence of preserving and destroy- 

 ing powers in nature, it is clear that he who could 

 master these powers could dispose, at his pleasure, 

 of the things subject to them; and the doctrine of the 

 Magians was, that, by prayer and a true knowledge 

 of those laws of opposition, love and hatred, light 

 and darkness, such power could be obtained; and 

 that thus, also, it was possible to pry into futurity. 

 But it was believed that as the world became sinful, 

 the light of the ancient doctrine of the magi was 

 obscured, and those who bore the name became, at 

 last, only evil-disposed sorcerers. One important 

 branch of their art was, now, the excitement of love 

 by potions and enchantments. Their love-potions 

 consisted partly of ingredients, which are still known 

 to physicians as stimulants, partly of parts of animals 

 who had died longing for food or air, or the saliva of 

 hungry dogs, and other still more disgusting sub- 

 stances. Magic, at this period, also occupied itself 

 with fortune-telling, calling up the dead, bewitching 

 by the look (with the Romans and Greeks, jettatura) 

 a superstition which we find existing in the pro- 

 cesses against witches in modern times, with the pre- 

 paration of amulets, the inflicting of pain on a person 

 by correspondent applications to his image in wax, 

 &c. He who wishes to become acquainted with the 

 poetical side of magic, ought to read the Arabian 

 Nights. It can hardly be doubted, that the art of 

 the ancient magicians was founded, to a considerable 

 degree, upon a superior'knowledge of the powers of 

 nature. The name of the magnet, magnes, or en- 

 chanting stone (according to one derivation,) seems 

 to indicate that it was not unknown to the magi; and 

 some of their phenomena seem referable to galvan- 

 ism. Interesting information on this subject is con- 

 tained in Kleuker's Zendavesta, and still more in his 



