HISTORY OF MAGIC.

the science of government, whether in politics or in marriage. It leads to the discovery of occult medicine in all its branches, whether magnetism, homœopathie homeopathy, or moral influence. Furthermore, as we shall explain, the law of equilibrium in analogy leads to the discovery of a universal agent. This was the grand arcane great secret of the alchemists and magicians of the Middle Ages. We have said that this agent is a light of life with which living beings are magnetized, and of which electricity is only an accidental and temporary disturbance. Everything relating to the practice of the marvelous Kabbalah, which we will soon address, relates to the knowledge and use of this agent. This will satisfy the curiosity of those who seek emotions rather than wise teachings in the secret sciences.

The religion of the Kabbalists is at once entirely based on hypothesis and entirely certain, for it proceeds by analogy from the known to the unknown. They recognize religion as a need of humanity, as an evident and necessary fact. For them, that is where the divine revelation is found, permanent and universal. They contest nothing that exists, but they provide a reason for everything. Thus, their doctrine, by clearly marking the line of separation that must eternally exist between science and faith, provides the highest reason as a basis. This guarantees it an eternal and incontestable duration. Next come the popular formulas of dogma which alone can vary and destroy each other. The Kabbalist is not shaken by such things and immediately finds a reason for the most astonishing formulas of the mysteries. Thus, his prayer can join with that of all men

INTRODUCTION.

to guide it, illuminating it with science and reason, and bringing it to orthodoxie orthodoxy, or traditional belief. If one speaks to him of Mary, he will bow before this realization of all that is divine in the dreams of innocence and all that is adorable in the holy folly of the hearts of all mothers. He is not the one who will refuse flowers to the altars of the mother of God, white ribbons to her chapels, or even tears to her naive legends! He is not the one who will laugh at the whimpering God of the manger and the bloody victim of Calvary. However, he repeats in the depths of his heart, with the sages of Israel and the true believers of Islam: "There is no God but God"; which means for an initiate into the true sciences: "There is only one Being, and it is Being!" But is not all that is political and touching in beliefs, the splendor of cults, the pomp of divine creations, the grace of prayers, and the magic of the hopes of heaven, a radiance of the moral being in all its youth and beauty? Yes, if anything can distance the true initiate from public prayers and temples, or raise in him disgust or indignation against any religious form, it is the visible unbelief of the ministers or the people. It is the lack of dignity in the ceremonies of worship. It is, in a word, the profanation of holy things. God is truly present when recollected souls and touched hearts adore Him. He is sensibly and terribly absent when one speaks of Him without fire and without light, that is to say, without intelligence and without love.

The idea that one must have of God, according to the wise