204 



THE OCCULT SCIENCES. 



It would be superfluous to refute such a folly, but it may be remarked that 

 two centuries later the Arabic was, so to speak, the key and the first instru- 

 ment of study for penetrating the mysterious sanctuary of hidden sciences. 



This was, perhaps, what brought about the secret introduction into the 

 Christian, and even into the monastic schools, of this language which was so 

 little diffused throughout Europe. Most of the savants who dabbled in these 

 mysterious sciences, which were proscribed and condemned by the Church, 

 learnt Arabic as well as Hebrew and Syriac, a knowledge of which was 

 necessary to become initiated into the mysteries of cabalism. This was why 

 any one who knew Arabic or Hebrew was suspected of magic, and even of 



Fig. 151." How Alexander engaged in Combat with Men having Horses' Heads and vomiting 

 Smoke from their Mouths." Miniature of a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, No. 11,040. 

 In the Burgundy Library, Brussels. 







sorcery. From the time of Plotinus and Porphyrus to that of Cardan and 

 Paracelsus, no man of eminence could assist the progress of science or make 

 any great scientific discovery without being reputed a magician, or stigma- 

 tized as a sorcerer a fatal appellation which, attached to the name of a noble 

 victim of his love for science, disturbed his repose, often interrupted his 

 labours, and sometimes put his liberty and life in peril. Raymond Lulli, 

 Albertus Magnus^ Roger Bacon, Vincent of Beauvais, and many others, after 

 having composed a great number of remarkable works upon scholastic 

 philosophy, could not escape these unjust suspicions and persecutions. The 

 Florentine encyclopaedist, Cecco d'Ascoli, whose cabalistic studies had excited 



