harms, therefore, did not derive their powers from the
material substance of which they consisted, but from this indwelling
spirit. In the case of man, his immaterial principle was believed to
correspond to his personal bodily form. Of the two great sects into
which the Jewish nation had been divided, the Pharisees accepted the
Assyrian doctrine; but the Sadducees, who denied the existence of any
such spirit, boasted that theirs was the old Mosaic faith, and denounced
their antagonists as having been contaminated at the time of the
Babylonian captivity, before which catastrophe, according to them, these
doctrines were unheard of in Jerusalem. In Alexandria, among the
leading men there were many adherents to these opinions. Thus Plotinus
wrote a book on the association of daemons with men, and his disciple
Porphyry proved practically the possibility of such an alliance; for,
repairing to the temple of Isis along with Plotinus and a certain
Egyptian priest, the latter, to prove his supernatural power, offered to
raise up the spirit of Plotinus himself in a visible form. A magical
circle was drawn on the ground, surrounded with the customary
astrological signs, the invocation commenced, the spirit appeared, and
Plotinus stood face to face with his own soul. In this successful
experiment it is needless to inquire how much the necromancer depended
upon optical contrivances, and how much upon an alarmed imagination. But
if thus the spirit of a living man could be called up, how much more
likely the souls of the dead.

[Sidenote: These ideas originate in Pantheism.]

In reality, these wild doctrines were connected with Pantheism, which
was secretly believed in everywhere; for, though, in a coarse mode of
expression, a distinction seemed thus to be made between matter and
spirit, or body and soul, it was held by the initiated that matter
itself is a mere shadow of the spirit, and the body a delusive semblance
of the soul.

[Sidenote: The black art.]

In the eighth century, many natural facts of a surprising and
unaccountable description, well calculated to make a profound impression
upon those who witnessed them, had accumulated. They were such as are
now familiar to chemists. Vessels tightly closed were burst open when
tormented in the fire, apparently by some invisible agency; intangible
vapours condensed into solids; from colourless liquids gaudy
precipitates were suddenly called into existence; flames were disengaged
w