represent the doctrine of the Pythagorean and the
Platonist, in Tasso, cant. xiv. stanzas xli. to xlvii. ("Ger. Lib.")
They are beautifully translated by Wiffen.), but the perception of the
secret powers of the fountain and the herb,--the Arcana of the unknown
nature and the various motions of the stars. His, the holy haunts of
Lebanon and Carmel,--beneath his feet he saw the clouds, the snows, the
hues of Iris, the generations of the rains and dews. Did the Christian
Hermit who converted that Enchanter (no fabulous being, but the type of
all spirit that would aspire through Nature up to God) command him to
lay aside these sublime studies, 'Le solite arte e l' uso mio'? No! but
to cherish and direct them to worthy ends. And in this grand conception
of the poet lies the secret of the true Theurgia, which startles your
ignorance in a more learned day with puerile apprehensions, and the
nightmares of a sick man's dreams."

Again Zanoni paused, and again resumed:--

"In ages far remote,--of a civilisation far different from that which
now merges the individual in the state,--there existed men of ardent
minds, and an intense desire of knowledge. In the mighty and solemn
kingdoms in which they dwelt, there were no turbulent and earthly
channels to work off the fever of their minds. Set in the antique mould
of casts through which no intellect could pierce, no valour could force
its way, the thirst for wisdom alone reigned in the hearts of those who
received its study as a heritage from sire to son. Hence, even in your
imperfect records of the progress of human knowledge, you find that, in
the earliest ages, Philosophy descended not to the business and homes of
men. It dwelt amidst the wonders of the loftier creation; it sought to
analyse the formation of matter,--the essentials of the prevailing soul;
to read the mysteries of the starry orbs; to dive into those depths
of Nature in which Zoroaster is said by the schoolmen first to have
discovered the arts which your ignorance classes under the name of
magic. In such an age, then, arose some men, who, amidst the vanities
and delusions of their class, imagined that they detected gleams of a
brighter and steadier lore. They fancied an affinity existing among all
the works of Nature, and that in the lowliest lay the secret attraction
that might conduct them upward to the loftiest. (Agreeably, it would
seem, to the notion of Iamblichus and Plotinus, that the universe is as
an anim