182 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



were but the far echo of the music heard in heaven, 

 the music of the spheres. 



So far, indeed, this was but common doctrine, 

 shared by all the science of the time, and eminently 

 expounded in every astrological system. The magic 

 founded upon it began with the notion that this close 

 correspondence between heaven and earth might 

 carry an influence able to react in an upward, con- 

 trary, and unnatural direction. Plants and precious 

 stones, rightly employed, might prove able to bind 

 the stellar powers on which all depended. Names 

 and forms of conjuration might control the superior 

 spirits which the stars represented. Hence arose 

 a whole system of magical practice, in which, from 

 the circle of the sorcerer a symbol representing 

 on earth the motion of the upper spheres the 

 vapour of mingled herbs and minerals rose to 

 heaven above the glowing brazier, accompanied by 

 recited spells. It is curious to notice that when, 

 after several ages, this essentially Eastern and 

 theurgic necromancy 1 gave place to the witchcraft 

 of the North, with its dark demonolatry, the essen- 

 tial idea of the Arabian magicians still survived. 

 Its influence may be traced in the importance 

 always attached in popular belief to the reversal 

 of natural practice, as a means of securing super- 

 natural power and effect. Hence the bizarre details 

 which crowd the witch trials of the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries : how hags walked back- 

 wards, or wither shins > that is, against the course of 

 the sun, or changed a prayer into a spell by mutter- 

 ing it in a contrary sense. 



1 I use this word in the general sense then given to it, which seems 

 to indicate how little the Greek language was understood in those days. 



