90 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC 



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 super- 

 stitions of ancient times,-^ pf 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 them- 

 selves 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 conspiracy 

 to deceive and enslave their species ; and man who re- 

 fused 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 the 

 subjugation of the great mass of society. An acquaintance 

 with the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the varia- 

 tions in the state of the atmosphere, enabled its possessor 

 to predict astronomical and meteorological phenomena 

 with a frequency and an accuracy which could not fail 

 to invest him with a divine character. The power of 

 bringing down fire from the heavens, even at times when 

 the electric influence was itself in a state of repose, could 

 be regarded only as a gift from heaven. The power of 

 rendering the human body insensible to fire was an irre- 

 sistible instrument of imposture ; and in the combinations 



