The PREFACE

To the Unprejudiced READER.

A large ornamental drop cap 'A' set within a square woodcut frame decorated with floral and foliate patterns.

Just as the fall of man made himself and all other creatures subject to futility original: "vanity" — in the biblical sense of Ecclesiastes, meaning frailty, emptiness, or the loss of original perfection, so, for that reason, the most noble and excellent arts with which the rational soul was endowed have been brought to corruption by the rusty decay of time. For Magic itself, which the ancients contemplated so divinely, is disgraced by bearing the reputation original: "badge" of all diabolical sorceries. This is an art of which Mirandula Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), a famous Italian Renaissance philosopher who sought to reconcile magic and Christianity says, "Few understand it, many criticize it, and just as dogs always bark at strangers" original Latin: "Pauci intelligunt, multi reprehendunt, & sicut canes ignotos semper allatrant". Few understand it, and many condemn it; and as dogs bark at those they do not know, so many people condemn and hate the things they do not understand. There are many men who abhor the very name and word Magus Magician or Wise Man because of Simon Magus A biblical figure in the Book of Acts associated with sorcery and the sin of "simony". He was not actually a Magus, but a Goes a sorcerer or charlatan dealing in "low" or black magic—meaning someone familiar with evil spirits—who stole that title.

Pliny, Book 30 of Natural History.

But Magic and witchcraft are very different sciences. Pliny, being ignorant of this, scoffs at it; for Nero (according to Pliny), who had the most excellent magicians of the East sent to him by Tiridates, King of Armenia (who held that kingdom under him), found the art completely ridiculous after long study and labor. Now, witchcraft and sorcery are works performed solely by the Devil. In accordance with some covenant original: "covenant" — a formal pact or agreement with a demonic entity made with a human, he acts through men as his instruments to accomplish his evil ends. The histories of all ages, peoples, and countries, as well as the Holy Scriptures, provide us with various examples of these.

But Magus is originally a Persian word, used to describe someone who is entirely well-versed in things divine,