*.] MYSTERIES AND MAGIC. 237 



them all the prevailing tone of fear and sadness. And 

 to their own superstitions they added those of the 

 Rome which they conquered. They dreaded the Roman 

 she-poisoners and witches, who, like Horace's Canidia, 

 still performed horrid rites in graveyards and dark 

 places of the earth. They dreaded as magical the 

 delicate images engraved on old Greek gems. They 

 dreaded the very Roman cities they had destroyed. 

 They were the work of enchanters. Like the ruins of 

 St. Albans here in England, they were all full of devils, 

 guarding the treasures which the Romans had hidden. 

 The Caesars became to them magical man-gods. The 

 poet Virgil became the prince of necromancers. If the 

 secrets of Nature were to be known, they were to be 

 known by unlawful means, by prying into the mysteries 

 of the old heathen magicians, or of the Mohammedan 

 doctors of Cordova and Seville ; and those who dared 

 to do so were respected and feared, and often came to 

 evil ends. It needed moral courage, then, to face and 

 interpret fact. Such brave men as Pope Gerbert, 

 Roger Bacon, Galileo, even Kepler, did not lead happy 

 lives ; some of them found themselves in prison. All 

 the medieval sages even Albertus Magnus were 

 stigmatised as magicians. One wonders that more of 

 them did not imitate poor Paracelsus, who, unable to 

 get a hearing for his coarse common sense, took vain 

 and sensual to drinking the laudanum which he 

 himself had discovered, and vaunted as a priceless 

 boon to men ; and died as the fool dieth, in spite of 

 all his wisdom. For the " Romani nominis umbra," 

 the shadow of the mighty race whom they had 

 conquered, lay heavy on our forefathers for centuries. 

 And their dread of the great heathens was really a 



