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Article THE HISTORY OF MAGIC. ← Page 2 of 15 →
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The History Of Magic.
tion into which the ancients were led by such exercise of the occult sciences . Credulity is natural to man , and leads to superstition among the unenlightened—nay even in those otherwise highest in the scale of reasoning beings . With such a fact in remembrance , we no longer ridicule the improbability of the mystic transactions described by the
ancients ; indeed we can readily conceive that certain natural phenomena might even have been mistaken by the ignorant historian , and recorded as miracles . Thus , some were led to state that the heavens rained blood—that on certain occasions flour bread became imbued with blood , and occasioned severe diseases to man . Many causes are capable of giving red
stains to stone-buildings and walls , yet some supposed them to have been the results of a Moody shower . In 1825 , M . de Candolle , the distinguished botanist , examined the water of the Lake of Morat , which , appeared coloured with blood ; and found the phenomenon to be caused by myriads of the Oscellatoria Rubescens , a creature half vegetable , half animal , of a bright purple colour . Again , the grain of the bearded darnel mixed with wheat , gives a reddish tinge to bread—and this if eaten will produce violent giddiness ; here we have the
second assertion accounted for . At the springs of Baden , and on the waters of Ischia ( an island in the kingdom of Naples ) , the zoogene is gathered—a strange substance resembling human flesh and skin ; hence we may understand the accounts of showers of human flesh , regarded as the manifestations of Divine wrath . In 1824 and 1828 , a shower ,
supposed to be of bread , fell in a district of Persia ; this proved to be a well-known lichen , devoured greedily by cattle , and forming a very eatable kind of bread . Upon Mount Erycus , in Sicily , an unextinguishable flame burnt night and day in the open air , without Avood , cinders , or coal , and in spite of dew and rain . Doubtless this w as a similar escape of carburetted
hydrogen to those at Pietramala , in Tuscany , the salt-mine of Szalina , and other places . Democritus states that by an inspection of the entrails of animals sacrificed , colonizers might draw an omen as to the soil and climate they were to encounter . These were judged of from the appearance and condition of the liver ; and thus some of the ancient religious
usages exhibit traces of genuine philosophy . Plutarch says , " In the vicinity of the Red Sea are seen creeping from the bodies of some diseased people , little snakes , which , on any attempt to seize them , re-enter the body , and cause insupportable suffering to the wretched beings . " Instead of being a con-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of Magic.
tion into which the ancients were led by such exercise of the occult sciences . Credulity is natural to man , and leads to superstition among the unenlightened—nay even in those otherwise highest in the scale of reasoning beings . With such a fact in remembrance , we no longer ridicule the improbability of the mystic transactions described by the
ancients ; indeed we can readily conceive that certain natural phenomena might even have been mistaken by the ignorant historian , and recorded as miracles . Thus , some were led to state that the heavens rained blood—that on certain occasions flour bread became imbued with blood , and occasioned severe diseases to man . Many causes are capable of giving red
stains to stone-buildings and walls , yet some supposed them to have been the results of a Moody shower . In 1825 , M . de Candolle , the distinguished botanist , examined the water of the Lake of Morat , which , appeared coloured with blood ; and found the phenomenon to be caused by myriads of the Oscellatoria Rubescens , a creature half vegetable , half animal , of a bright purple colour . Again , the grain of the bearded darnel mixed with wheat , gives a reddish tinge to bread—and this if eaten will produce violent giddiness ; here we have the
second assertion accounted for . At the springs of Baden , and on the waters of Ischia ( an island in the kingdom of Naples ) , the zoogene is gathered—a strange substance resembling human flesh and skin ; hence we may understand the accounts of showers of human flesh , regarded as the manifestations of Divine wrath . In 1824 and 1828 , a shower ,
supposed to be of bread , fell in a district of Persia ; this proved to be a well-known lichen , devoured greedily by cattle , and forming a very eatable kind of bread . Upon Mount Erycus , in Sicily , an unextinguishable flame burnt night and day in the open air , without Avood , cinders , or coal , and in spite of dew and rain . Doubtless this w as a similar escape of carburetted
hydrogen to those at Pietramala , in Tuscany , the salt-mine of Szalina , and other places . Democritus states that by an inspection of the entrails of animals sacrificed , colonizers might draw an omen as to the soil and climate they were to encounter . These were judged of from the appearance and condition of the liver ; and thus some of the ancient religious
usages exhibit traces of genuine philosophy . Plutarch says , " In the vicinity of the Red Sea are seen creeping from the bodies of some diseased people , little snakes , which , on any attempt to seize them , re-enter the body , and cause insupportable suffering to the wretched beings . " Instead of being a con-