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Article THE HISTORY OF MAGIC. ← Page 12 of 15 →
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The History Of Magic.
should enable him ultimately to attain a high rank in the priesthood . " He was informed that he should possess the power of disturbing the minds of men , of plunging them into brutish , stupidity or ferocious rage . Arbiter of their disputes , a simple ordeal should enable him to distinguish the innocent from the criminal . Woe to the man who should offend him ; he might be struck with leprosy ,
with blindness , or with death . The most terrible of the elements , fire , should be his slave — at his command it would spring up spontaneously ; water should not extinguish it ; it should burst forth awful as thunder against his victims , and tearing open the bosom of the earth , compel it to engulf and devour them . He should have power to still the thunder and to play with the lightning ; while trembling men should believe him to be endowed with the power of hurling it at their heads . Such were the promised gifts of the deity ; and all men were constrained to believe , to adore , and to obey . "
We can recognise , without great difficulty , in this account , a clever adaptation of the mechanical and acoustic arts , combined with the illusions of optics ; and some inventions connected with hydrostatics and chemistry , and the results of observations on the habits and sensations of animals . English travellers have , in examining the vestiges of the
temples , discovered indications of machinery calculated to move the flooring—and the enormous size of the stones used in them , of itself proves that they must have possessed powerful machinery and mechanical appliances . The inventions of Archimedes alone are enough to give credibility to their wonders as regards the motion of heavy masses . Again
, a knowledge of ventriloquism would account for the phenomena of the speaking heads . This art was indisputably known to the ancients . * The Greeks gave the name of Fngastriniythes to the Pythia ? , women who practised divination — which indicates that they employed a similar art . It may also have been
used m the case of the Delphian oracle and the colossal statue of Siva , in which latter is to be found a commodious seat within the head gear of the god . The much-disputed Teraphim are reported by the Rabbins to have been enbalmed heads of the dead , under whose tongues a thin plate of gold was fixed , and who gave wholesome advice to men ; buildings were erected expressly for them , And can we not infer the reason why care should always be taken to fix them against the wall , in a position , doubtless , favourable to a miracle
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of Magic.
should enable him ultimately to attain a high rank in the priesthood . " He was informed that he should possess the power of disturbing the minds of men , of plunging them into brutish , stupidity or ferocious rage . Arbiter of their disputes , a simple ordeal should enable him to distinguish the innocent from the criminal . Woe to the man who should offend him ; he might be struck with leprosy ,
with blindness , or with death . The most terrible of the elements , fire , should be his slave — at his command it would spring up spontaneously ; water should not extinguish it ; it should burst forth awful as thunder against his victims , and tearing open the bosom of the earth , compel it to engulf and devour them . He should have power to still the thunder and to play with the lightning ; while trembling men should believe him to be endowed with the power of hurling it at their heads . Such were the promised gifts of the deity ; and all men were constrained to believe , to adore , and to obey . "
We can recognise , without great difficulty , in this account , a clever adaptation of the mechanical and acoustic arts , combined with the illusions of optics ; and some inventions connected with hydrostatics and chemistry , and the results of observations on the habits and sensations of animals . English travellers have , in examining the vestiges of the
temples , discovered indications of machinery calculated to move the flooring—and the enormous size of the stones used in them , of itself proves that they must have possessed powerful machinery and mechanical appliances . The inventions of Archimedes alone are enough to give credibility to their wonders as regards the motion of heavy masses . Again
, a knowledge of ventriloquism would account for the phenomena of the speaking heads . This art was indisputably known to the ancients . * The Greeks gave the name of Fngastriniythes to the Pythia ? , women who practised divination — which indicates that they employed a similar art . It may also have been
used m the case of the Delphian oracle and the colossal statue of Siva , in which latter is to be found a commodious seat within the head gear of the god . The much-disputed Teraphim are reported by the Rabbins to have been enbalmed heads of the dead , under whose tongues a thin plate of gold was fixed , and who gave wholesome advice to men ; buildings were erected expressly for them , And can we not infer the reason why care should always be taken to fix them against the wall , in a position , doubtless , favourable to a miracle