the
Mazdean religion we have unfortunately no records; in the time of the
decadence of the national religion, especially in the Thousand and One
Nights, the fire-worshiper or Magian is commonly a wicked magician, as
was natural since he belonged to a faith hostile to Islam, and the
practicer of good magic is generally a Moslem.[1581] The early Greeks
and Romans appear not to have been greatly interested in magical
practices, though these existed.[1582] But a great outburst of magic
occurred in the Graeco-Roman world in the first and second centuries of
our era, the magician being, however, generally not Greek or Roman, but
of an inferior alien race.[1583] Among the old Hebrews we have no
details of magical procedure except in the invocation of the dead;[1584]
this procedure was denounced by the prophets as hostile to the worship
of the national god, but it continued among the people a long
time.[1585] The practice of magic existed abundantly among the early
peoples of Europe, the Teutons, and others. The primacy, however, in
magic belongs to the Finns and Lapps, alien races regarded as inferior
in civilization.

+903+. The hold of magic on the minds of men is shown by the fact that
it has persisted up to the present day. Its basis is a belief in occult
powers and the conviction that man may attain to mastery over them.
Certain forms of this belief, called theosophical, are held by many at
the present day; it is supposed that men are capable of transcending the
ordinary limitations of humanity. In general, however, the whole system
of magic yielded gradually to the organized religions, the essence of
which was a friendly and rational relation with the deity. Religion has
organized itself in accord with the general organization of human social
systems. It has seen the necessity of getting rid of force, of depending
on humane feeling, cultivating simply friendly relations, attempting a
unity of work, a cooeperation of divine and human forces. All this has
worked against magic. In addition to these tendencies the constantly
growing belief in the domination of natural forces has made it
impossible in civilized societies to accept the powers called
magical.[1586]

+904+. To sum up: magic is a means of securing superhuman results by
adopting the methods of the superhuman Powers.[1587] It may be coeval
with religion proper or may have preceded it in human religious
organization. In any case it has been, up to the present day,