ithout any adequate cause; explosions took place spontaneously. So much
that was unexpected and unaccountable justified the title of "the occult
science," "the black art." From being isolated marvels unconnected with
one another, these facts had been united. The Chaldee notions of a soul
of the world, and of indwelling spirits, had furnished a thread on which
all these pearls, for such they proved to be, might be strung.

[Sidenote: The Arabians fall into these delusions,]

With avidity--for there is ever a charm in the supernatural--did the
Arabs receive from their Nestorian and Jewish medical instructors these
mystical interpretations along with true knowledge. And far from resting
satisfied with what their masters had thus delivered, they proceeded
forthwith to improve and extend it for themselves. They submitted all
kinds of substances to all kinds of operations, greatly improving the
experimental process they had been taught. By exposing various bodies to
the fire, they found it possible to extract from them more refined
portions, which seemed to concentrate in themselves the qualities
pertaining in a more diffuse way to the substances from which they had
been drawn. These, since they were often invisible at their first
disengagement, yet capable of bursting open the strongest vessels, and
sometimes of disappearing in explosions and flames, they concluded must
be the indwelling spirit or soul of the body, from which the fire had
driven them forth. It was the Chaldee doctrine realized. Thus they
obtained the spirit of wine, the spirit of salt, the spirit of nitre. We
still retain in commerce these designations, though their significance
is lost. When first introduced they had a strictly literal meaning.
Alchemy, with its essences, quintessences, and spirits, was Pantheism
materialized. God was seen to be in everything, in the abstract as well
as the concrete, in numbers as well as realities.

[Sidenote: and the Christians also.]

Anticipating what will have hereafter to be considered in detail, I may
here remark that it was not the Mohammedan alone who delivered himself
up to these mystic delusions; Christendom was prepared for them also. In
its opinion, the earth, the air, the sea, were full of invisible forms.
With more faith than even by paganism itself was the supernatural power
of the images of the gods accepted, only it was imputed to the influence
of devils. The lunatic was troubled by a like possession. If