HISTORY OF MAGIC.

The mysteries of Eleusis an ancient Greek initiatory cult and Thebes an ancient Egyptian center of wisdom preserved some symbols among the nations, though they were already altered. Their mysterious key was becoming lost among the instruments of an ever-growing superstition. Jerusalem, the murderer of her prophets and so often prostituted to the false gods of the Syrians and Babylonians, had finally lost the holy word in her turn. Then a savior, announced to the Magi the priestly cast of Persia by the sacred star of initiation, came to tear the worn veil of the old temple. He gave the Church a new fabric of legends and symbols that still hides the truth from the profane while preserving it for the elect.

This is what our learned and unfortunate Charles-François Dupuis, 1742–1809, a French scholar who argued that all religions were based on astronomical myths. Dupuis should have read in the Indian planispheres and on the tables of Dendera an Egyptian temple complex known for its zodiac. Faced with the unanimous affirmation of all nature and the monuments of science from all ages, he would not have concluded with the negation of truly Catholic—that is to say, universal and eternal—worship!

It was the memory of this scientific and religious absolute, of this doctrine summarized in a single word, of this word, finally, alternately lost and found, that was transmitted to the elect of all ancient initiations. It was this same memory, preserved or perhaps profaned in the famous Order of the Templars the Knights Templar, which became the reason for the bizarre rites, the more or less conventional signs, and especially the mutual devotion and power of all the secret associations of the Rosicrucians an esoteric brotherhood, the Illuminati, and the Freemasons.

The doctrines and mysteries of magic have been profaned, we do not wish to deny it, and this very profanation, renewed from age to age, has been a great and terrible lesson for

INTRODUCTION.

rash revealers. The Gnostics early Christian mystics caused Gnosis secret knowledge to be proscribed by the Christians, and the official sanctuary was closed to high initiation. Thus the hierarchy of knowledge was compromised by the attacks of usurping ignorance, and the disorders of the sanctuary were reproduced in the State. For always, whether one likes it or not, the king depends on the priest, and the powers of the earth will always look to the eternal sanctuary of divine teaching for their consecration and strength to make themselves lasting.

The key of science was abandoned to children, and, as was to be expected, this key is currently misplaced and seemingly lost. However, a man of high intuition and great moral courage, Count Joseph de Maistre A French-speaking Savoyard philosopher and diplomat who defended traditional authority., the determined Catholic, confessed that the world was without religion and could not long remain so. He involuntarily turned his eyes toward the last sanctuaries of occultism the study of hidden things and prayed for the day when the natural affinity between science and faith would finally unite them in the mind of a man of genius. "That man will be great!" he exclaimed, "and he will bring an end to the 18th century, which still lasts... We will then speak of our current stupidity as we speak of the barbarism of the Middle Ages!" A small decorative flourish or scroll marking the end of the paragraph.

The prediction of Count de Maistre is being realized. The alliance of science and faith, long since consummated, has finally shown itself. It was not shown to a man of genius, for one does not need genius to see the light, and besides, genius has never proven anything except its exceptional greatness and its lights which are inaccessible to the crowd. Great truth only requires that one find it, and then the