BOOK VII. — Magic in the 19th Century.

CHAPTER I. — Mystic Magnetizers and Materialists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Contagious follies of Charles Fourier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
The dogma of hell explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
An evocation by Mr. OEgger, vicar of Notre-Dame . . . . . . 476
The grotesque false gods. : Ganneau, Cheneau, Tourreil, Auguste Comte, and Wronski. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
CHAPTER II. — On Hallucinations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
History of the hallucinated Eugène Vintras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
CHAPTER III. — Magnetizers and Somnambulists. . . . . . . 491
Just distrust of the Church against the abuses of somnambulism Somnambulism here refers to the trance states of animal magnetism or mesmerism. . 491
Remarkable work by Baron Du Potet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
The turning tables fatal to Victor Hennequin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
A Russian lady, finding that her pedestal table is heretical, carries it to Rome and obtains permission from the Holy Father to burn it. . . . . 495
Serious reflections regarding a diabolical and burlesque melodrama 496
CHAPTER IV. — Magic Fantasists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Alphonse Esquiros invents a romantic and fantastic magic. 498
Henri Delaage becomes the successor of Alphonse Esquiros . . . . 498
His scientific and literary naiveties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Count d'Ourches and his wonders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Baron de Guldenstubbe and his miraculous writings . . . . . . . . 505
The man buried alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
A vampire story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
The cartomancer Edmond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
CHAPTER V. — Intimate Memories of the Author . . . . . . . . . . . 519
The author is presented by the magician Esquiros to the god Ganneau. . . 520
The eccentric doctrines of the Mapah The "Mapah" was a title taken by Ganneau, a mystical figure who claimed to be a new messiah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Unfortunate consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Unknown cause of the revolution of 1848 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
The posthumous magician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
CHAPTER VI. — On the Occult Sciences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Recapitulation of principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
CHAPTER VII. — Summary and Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
The riddle of the sphinx and its solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
The eight paradoxical questions with their answers . . . . . . . . . . 549
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Why he who knows must believe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Result of discoveries in magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Curious passage from Vincent of Lérins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Citation from Count Joseph de Maistre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Remarkable text from Saint Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Probable future of science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Purpose of the work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

END OF THE ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.

HISTORY

OF MAGIC.

INTRODUCTION.

For too long, magic has been confused with the trickery of charlatans, with the hallucinations of the sick, and with the crimes of certain exceptional evildoers. Many people, moreover, would readily define magic as the art of producing effects without causes. According to this definition, the crowd will say, with the common sense that characterizes it even in its greatest injustices, that magic is an absurdity.

Magic cannot be what those who do not know it make of it. Furthermore, it belongs to no one to make it this or that; it is what it is, it exists by itself, like mathematics, for it is the exact and absolute science of nature and its laws.

Magic is the science of the ancient mages; and the Christian religion, which imposed silence on the lying oracles and put an end to all the tricks of the false gods, itself reveres those mages who came from the East, guided by a star, to worship the Savior of the world in his cradle.

Tradition further gives these mages the title of kings,