senate and the tribune of the people determined that the books themselves should be burned, which was done in public.*
Magic was considered a divine science which led to a participation in the attributes of Divinity itself. "It unveils the operations of nature," says Philo Judæus, "and leads to the contemplation of celestial powers."† In later periods its abuse and degeneration into sorcery made it an object of general abhorrence. We must therefore deal with it only as it was in the remote past, during those ages when every true religion was based on a knowledge of the occult powers of nature. It was not the sacerdotal class in ancient Persia that established magic, as it is commonly thought, but the Magi, who derive their name from it. The Mobeds, priests of the Parsis—the ancient Ghebers—are named, even at the present day, Magoï, in the dialect of the Pehlvi.‡ Magic appeared in the world with the earlier races of men. Cassien mentions a treatise, well-known in the fourth and fifth centuries, which was accredited to Ham, the son of Noah, who in his turn was reputed to have received it from Jared, the fourth generation from Seth, the son of Adam.§
Moses was indebted for his knowledge to the mother of the Egyptian princess, Thermuthis, who saved him from the waters of the Nile. The wife of Pharaoh,∫ Batria, was an initiate herself, and the Jews owe to her the possession of their prophet, "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in words and deeds."¶ Justin Martyr, giving as his authority Trogus Pompeius, shows Joseph as having acquired a great knowledge in magical arts with the high priests of Egypt.**
The ancients knew more concerning certain sciences than our modern savants have yet discovered. Reluctant as many are to confess as much, it has been acknowledged by more than one scientist. "The degree of scientific knowledge existing in an early period of society was much greater than the moderns are willing to admit"; says Dr. A. Todd Thomson, the editor of Occult Sciences, by Salverte; "but," he adds, "it was confined to the temples, carefully veiled from the eyes of the people and opposed only to the priesthood." Speaking of the Kabala, the learned Franz von Baader remarks that "not only our salvation and wisdom, but our science itself came to us from the Jews." But why not complete the sentence and tell the reader from whom the Jews got their wisdom? Origen, who had belonged to the Alexandrian school of Platonists,
* "Hist. of Magic," vol. i, p. 3.
† Philo Jud.: "De Specialibus Legibus."
‡ Zend-Avesta, vol. ii., p. 506.
§ Cassian: "Conference," i., 21.
∫ "De Vita et Morte Mosis," p. 199.
¶ Acts of the Apostles, vii., 22.
** Justin, xxxvi., 2.
