

MAGIC. 



MAGIC, originally signified only the 

 knowledge of the more sublime parts 

 of philosophy ; but as the magi like- 

 wise professed astrology, divination, and 

 sorcery, the term magi became odious, 

 being used to signify an unlawful dia- 

 bolical kind of science, acquired by 

 the assistance of the devil and departed 

 souls. See ASTROLOGY, NECROMANCY, 

 &c. 



Natural magic is only the application 

 of natural philosophy to the production of 

 surprising but yet natural effects. The 

 common natural magic, found in books, 

 gives us merely some childish and super- 

 stitious traditions of the sympathies and 

 antipathies of things, or of their occult 

 and peculiar properties ; which are usu- 

 ally intermixed with many trifling experi- 

 ments, admired rather for their disguise 

 than for themselves. 



MAGIC lantern. See LANTERN. 



MAGIC square t in arithmetic, a square 

 figure made up of numbers in arithme- 

 tical proportion, so disposed in parallel 

 and equal ranks, that the sums of each 

 row, taken either perpendicularly, hori- 

 zontally, or diagonally, are equal : thus, 



Natural square. 



Magic square. 



Magic squares seem to have been so 

 called, from their being used in the con- 

 struction of talismans. 



Take another instance : 



Natural square. 



Magic square. 



2223 



9J10 



1415 



12 



171819120 



where every row and diagonal in the 

 magic square makes just the sum 65, be- 

 ing the same as the two diagonals of the 

 ;i square. 

 IV. 



It is probable that these magic squares 

 were so called, both because of this pro- 

 perty in them, viz- that the ranks in every 

 direction make the same sum, appeared 

 extremely surprising, especially in the 

 more ignorant ages, when mathematics 

 passed for magic, and because also of the 

 superstitious operations they were em- 

 ployed in, as the construction of talismans, 

 &.C.; for, according to the childish philo- 

 sophy of those clays, which ascribed vir- 

 tues to numbers, what might not be ex- 

 pected from numbers so seemingly wonder- 

 ful ? The magic square was held in great 

 veneration among the Egyptians, and 

 the Pythagoreans, their disciples, who, to 

 add more efficacy and virtue to this square, 

 dedicated it to the then known seven 

 planets divers ways, and engraved it upon 

 a plate of the metal that was esteemed in 

 sympathy with the planet. The square, 

 thus dedicated, was inclosed by a regular 

 polygon, inscribed in a circle, which was 

 divided into as many equal parts as there 

 were units in the side of the square ; with 

 the names of the angles of the planet, and 

 the signs of the zodiac, written upon the 

 void spaces between the polygon and the 

 circumference of the circumscribed circle. 

 Such a talisman or metal they vainly ima- 

 gined would, upon occasion, befriend the 

 person who carried it about him. To Sa- 

 turn they attributed the square of 9 places 

 or cells, the side being 3, and the sum of 

 the numbers in every row 15 : to Jupiter 

 the square of 16 places, the side being 4, 

 and the amount of each row 34 : to Mars 

 the square of 25 places, the side being 5, 

 and the amount of each row 65: to the 

 sun the square with 36 places, the side 

 being 6, and the sum of each row 111 : 

 to \ r enus the square of 49 places, the 

 side being 7, and the amount of each row 

 175: to Mercury the square with 64 

 places, the side being 8, and the sum of 

 each row 260 : and to the moon the square 

 of 81 places, the side being 9, and the 

 amount of each row 369. Finally, they 

 attributed to imperfect matter, the square 

 with 4 divisions, having 2 for its side; 

 and to God, the square of only one cell, 

 the side of which is also an unit, which 

 multiplied by itself undergoes no change. 

 To form a magic square of an odd num- 

 ber of terms in the arithmetic progression 

 1, 2, 3, 4, Sec. place the least term 1 in 

 the ceil immediately under the middle or 

 central one ; and the rest of the terms, 

 in their natural order, in a descending 

 diagonal direction, till they run off either 

 at the bottom, or on the side : when the 



Bb 



