being able to succeed, sought the reason; and
having seen that new star appear in the heavens, they conjectured that
"He who was to command all spirits was born," which decided them to go
and adore him.

St. Athanasius, in his treatise on the Incarnation, teaches that the
Saviour has delivered all creatures from the deceits and illusions of
Satan, and that he has enriched himself, as St. Paul says, with the
spoils of principalities and powers. "When is it," he says afterwards,
"that the oracles have ceased to reply throughout all Greece, but
since the advent of the Saviour on earth? When did they begin to
despise the magic art? Is it not since mankind began to enjoy the
divine presence of the Word? Formerly," he continues, "the demons
deluded men by divers phantoms, and attaching themselves to rivers and
fountains, stones and wood, they drew by their allusions the
admiration of weak mortals; but since the advent of the Divine Word,
all their stratagems have passed away." A little while after, he adds,
"But what shall we say of that magic they held in such admiration?
Before the incarnation of the Word, it was in honor among the
Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Indians, and won the admiration of those
nations by prodigies; but since the Truth has come down to earth, and
the Word has shown himself amongst men, this power has been destroyed,
and is itself fallen into oblivion." In another place, refuting the
Gentiles, who ascribed the miracles of the Saviour to magic, "They
call him a magician," says he, "but can they say that a magician would
destroy all sorts of magic, instead of working to establish it?"

In his Commentary on Isaiah, St. Jerome joins this interpretation to
several passages in the prophet--"Since the advent of the Saviour, all
that must be understood in an allegorical sense; for all the error of
the waters of Egypt, and all the pernicious arts which deluded the
nations who suffered themselves to be infatuated by them, have been
destroyed by the coming of Jesus Christ." A little after, he
adds--"That Memphis was also strongly addicted to magic, the vestiges
which subsist at this day of her ancient superstitions allow us not to
doubt." Now this informs us in a few words, or in the approach of the
desolation of Babylon, that all the projects of the magicians, and of
those who promise to unveil the future, are a pure folly, and dissolve
like smoke at the presence of Jesus Christ. Again, he says elsewhere,
tha