________________
CHAPTER III
MAGIC
No kind of Life has ever been explained in terms of Matter
As part of my bulky correspondence I have lately received several communications from a friend who belongs to the order of the Magi, who claim to be in possession of many of the secrets of the Ancient Egyptians. There can be little doubt that magic, as the Greek writer Psellus affirmed, "is a thing of a very powerful nature”. Magic, he tells us, “investigates the nature, power, and quality of everything sublimary; viz., of the elements, and parts of animals, and various plants and their fruits ; of stones also and herbs; in short, it explores the essence and power of everything; hence, therefore it produces its effects.”
It should be noted that a name, according to Ancient Egyptian symbology and, later, the Kabalistic system of interpretation, can be regarded as a mathematical formula expressing
52