Magia Naturalis, oder Hauß-, Kunst- und Wunder-Buch

Magi are such people as those who among the Latins were called Sapientes, or Sages; among the Greeks (since the time of Pythagoras, who, as Diogenes writes, first bore this name), Philosophi, or Lovers of Wisdom; among the Indians, Brachmanes (or as they are called today, Brahmins, and in Greek Gymnosophistæ, that is, naked teachers); among the Babylonians and Assyrians, Chaldeans, from the land of that name situated in Asia; among the Celts and Gauls, Druids, Bards, and Semnothei; among the Egyptians, Sacerdotes, or Priests: and among the Jews, Cabbalists and Prophets. And thus Magic, or the Art of Wonders, has among every nation

Chapter II.

What Magic, or the so-called Art of Wonders, actually is.

Ornamental drop cap DMagic and the Art of Wonders is divided into two kinds: one of which has an ill reputation, in that it has to do with unclean spirits, and is patched together from all manner of incantations and illicit arts of curiosity, and is called Γοητεία, the Art of Sorcery; to which all learned and upright people are entirely opposed, inasmuch as it brings forth nothing true, substantial, or according to reason, but consists of sheer delusions, of which not the sligh-

as it were, a peculiar name.

7. We find, however, that most who were famous therein understood the nature of all things most profoundly; as then, as mentioned, there was among the Persians Zoroaster, the son of Oromasias; among the Romans, Numa Pompilius; among the Indian Gymnosophists, Tespion; among the Thracians, Zamolxis; among the Hyperboreans or High-Northerners, Abaris; among the Egyptians, Hermes; among the Babylonians, Buddha. Besides whom, Apuleius also mentions by name Carinondas, Damigeron, Hismoses, Apollonius, and Dardanus, after Zoroaster and Osthanes.

(a) Libro de mysteriis Ægyptiorum.
-est sign remains, as Jamblichus (a) writes.

2. The other is natural Magic, which every truly wise man loves, esteems, and honors as something very lofty and exceedingly becoming to all who are devoted to the arts.

3. To learn and explore this, the most excellent among the philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato, are said to have voluntarily left their fatherland and with great toil traveled into foreign