348 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



to," and prolonged in no slight degree the average term 

 of our existence. 



Thus far the pursuits of the alchemist were honourable 

 and useful; but when his calling was followed, as it 

 soon was, by men prodigal of fortune and of character, 

 science became an instrument of crime ; secrets unattained 

 were bartered for the gold of the credulous and the igno- 

 rant, and books innumerable were composed to teach these 

 pretended secrets to the world. An intellectual reaction, 

 however, soon took place, and those very princes who had 

 sought to fill their exhausted treasuries at the furnace of 

 the chemist, were the first to enact laws against the frauds 

 which they had encouraged, and to dispel the illusions 

 which had so long deceived their subjects. 



But even when the moral atmosphere of Europe was 

 thus disinfected, chemistry supplied the magician with his 

 most lucrative wonders, and those who could no longer 

 delude the public with dreams of wealth and longevity, 

 now sought to amuse and astonish them by the exhibition 

 of their skill. The narrow limits of this volume will not 

 permit me to give even a general view of those extra- 

 ordinary effects which this popular science can display. 

 I must therefore select from its inexhaustible stores those 

 topics which are most striking in their results, and most 

 popular in their details. 



One of the most ancient feats of magic was the art of 

 breathing flame an art which even now excites the asto- 

 nishment of the vulgar. During the insurrection of the 

 slaves in Sicily in the second century before Christ, a 

 Syrian named Eunus acquired by his knowledge the rank 

 of their leader. In order to establish his influence over 

 their minds, he pretended to possess miraculous power. 

 When he wished to inspire his followers with courage, he 

 breathed flames or sparks among them from his mouth, at 

 the same time that he was rousing them by his eloquence 



