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Article THE HISTORY OF MAGIC. ← Page 9 of 15 →
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The History Of Magic.
Similar societies were discovered and penetrated into by Leibnitz at Nuremhurg , which appeared to carry on their assemblies in many respects after the model of the ancient initiations . It is from the adepts of these societies that we have acquired the physical and chemical inventions of the Arabs .
We have now to bring down our inquiries to more modern times . Leaving the thirteenth century , in which Roger Bacon nourished , we find that in the fourteenth and fifteenth the sciences of magic , alchemy , and astrology were in common vogue . The philosopher ' s stone , the elixir of life , and the transmutation- of metals , formed the chief objects of pursuit .
The first of these desiderata was said to have been discovered by Nicholas Flamel of Paris , in 1413 . At this period an improvement took place , on the whole , in scientific knowledge . Ordeals went out of use ; although England is the only European country in which judicial torture was not employed . Trial by combat was also abolished in France . * The annals of witchcraft and their eccentricities now become
most painful to the reader of our educational century . In 1515 no less than five hundred persons were executed at Geneva ; in 1589 , in France , fourteen men , certain parts of whose bodies were insensible to feeling , were regarded as sorcerers , and were supposed by that sign to be in compact with Satan , and narrowly escaped death . In the time of
Henry VIII ., witchcraft was adjudged to be punishable as felony , " without benefit of clergy . " In 1617 , a father is recorded to have murdered his daughter , and to have intended the same fate for both wife and sister , on similar suspicion . And yet , contemporary or within a few years of the commission of such atrocities as theselived a Napiera
, , Harvey , a Torricelli , a Newton ! At length , an Act of Parliament in France , 1682 , decreed that none should be persecuted as sorcerers , except on the grounds of deception or poisoning . This was placing the question on its true footing ; for out of the many victims of this superstition , not a few really merited condign punishment as quacks and dispensers of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of Magic.
Similar societies were discovered and penetrated into by Leibnitz at Nuremhurg , which appeared to carry on their assemblies in many respects after the model of the ancient initiations . It is from the adepts of these societies that we have acquired the physical and chemical inventions of the Arabs .
We have now to bring down our inquiries to more modern times . Leaving the thirteenth century , in which Roger Bacon nourished , we find that in the fourteenth and fifteenth the sciences of magic , alchemy , and astrology were in common vogue . The philosopher ' s stone , the elixir of life , and the transmutation- of metals , formed the chief objects of pursuit .
The first of these desiderata was said to have been discovered by Nicholas Flamel of Paris , in 1413 . At this period an improvement took place , on the whole , in scientific knowledge . Ordeals went out of use ; although England is the only European country in which judicial torture was not employed . Trial by combat was also abolished in France . * The annals of witchcraft and their eccentricities now become
most painful to the reader of our educational century . In 1515 no less than five hundred persons were executed at Geneva ; in 1589 , in France , fourteen men , certain parts of whose bodies were insensible to feeling , were regarded as sorcerers , and were supposed by that sign to be in compact with Satan , and narrowly escaped death . In the time of
Henry VIII ., witchcraft was adjudged to be punishable as felony , " without benefit of clergy . " In 1617 , a father is recorded to have murdered his daughter , and to have intended the same fate for both wife and sister , on similar suspicion . And yet , contemporary or within a few years of the commission of such atrocities as theselived a Napiera
, , Harvey , a Torricelli , a Newton ! At length , an Act of Parliament in France , 1682 , decreed that none should be persecuted as sorcerers , except on the grounds of deception or poisoning . This was placing the question on its true footing ; for out of the many victims of this superstition , not a few really merited condign punishment as quacks and dispensers of