2 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



to that which you have contributed to the Family 

 Library, yet the popular character of some of the 

 topics which belong to this branch of Demonology 

 may atone for the defects of the following Letters ; 

 and I shall deem it no slight honour if they shall 

 be considered as forming an appropriate supple- 

 ment to your valuable work. 



The subject of Natural Magic is one of great 

 extent as well as of deep interest. In its widest 

 range, it embraces the history of the governments 

 and the superstitions of ancient times, of the 

 means by which they maintained their influence 

 over the human mind, of the assistance which 

 they derived from the arts and the sciences, and 

 from a knowledge of the powers and phenomena 

 of nature. When the tyrants of antiquity were 

 unable or unwilling to found their sovereignty on 

 the affections and interests of their people, they 

 sought to entrench themselves in the strongholds 

 of supernatural influence, and to rule with the 

 delegated authority of Heaven. The prince, the 

 priest, and the sage, were leagued in a dark con- 

 spiracy to deceive and enslave their species ; and 

 man, who refused his submission to a being like 

 himself, became the obedient slave of a spiritual 

 despotism, and willingly bound himself in chains 

 when they seemed to have been forged by the 

 gods. 



This system of imposture was greatly favoured 

 by the ignorance of these early ages. The human 

 mind is at all times fond of the marvellous, and 

 the credulity of the individual may be often 

 measured by his own attachment to the truth. 

 When knowledge was the property of only one 

 caste, it was by no means difficult to employ it in 



