tches and wizards were innocent even of
this.

However, it would, I think, be unwise to disregard the existence of
another side to the question of the validity and ethical value of
magic, and to use the word only to stand for something essentially evil.
SWEDENBORG, we may note, in the course of a long passage from the work
from which I have already quoted, says that by "magic" is signified "the
science of spiritual things"(1) His position appears to be that there is
a genuine magic, or science of spiritual things, and a false magic, that
science perverted: a view of the matter which I propose here to adopt.
The word "magic" itself is derived from the Greek "magos," the wise man
of the East, and hence the strict etymological meaning of the term is
"the wisdom or science of the magi"; and it is, I think, significant
that we are told (and I see no reason to doubt the truth of it) that the
magi were among the first to worship the new-born CHRIST.(2)

(1) _Op. cit_., SE 5223.

(2) See The Gospel according to MATTHEW, chap. ii., verses 1 to 12.

If there be an abuse of correspondences, or symbols, there surely must
also be a use, to which the word "magic" is not inapplicable. As such,
religious ritual, and especially the sacraments of the Christian Church,
will, no doubt, occur to the minds of those who regard these symbols
as efficacious, though they would probably hesitate to apply the term
"magical" to them. But in using this term as applying thereto, I do
not wish to suggest that any such rites or ceremonies possess, or can
possess, any CAUSAL efficacy in the moral evolution of the soul. The
will alone, in virtue of the power vouchsafed to it by the Source of all
power, can achieve this; but I do think that the soul may be assisted by
ritual, harmoniously related to the states of mind which it is desired
to induce. No doubt there is a danger of religious ritual, especially
when its meaning is lost, being engaged in for its own sake. It is then
mere superstition;(1) and, in view of the danger of this degeneracy,
many robust minds, such as the members of the Society of Friends, prefer
to dispense with its aid altogether. When ritual is associated with
erroneous doctrines, the results are even more disastrous, as I have
indicated in "The Belief in Talismans". But when ritual is allied with,
and based upon, as adequately symbolising, the high teaching of genuine
religion, it may be, and, in fact, is, found very helpful