consideration. The Magi, who adore and keep up the perpetual
fire, which is regarded by the Persians as their principal divinity,
were jealous at this, and concealed underground an apostate, who,
knowing that the king was to come and pay his adoration to the
(sacred) fire, was to cry out from the depth of his cavern that the
king must be deprived of his throne because he esteemed the Christian
priest as a friend of the gods. The king was alarmed at this, and
wished to send Maruthas away; but the latter discovered to him the
imposture of the priests; he caused the ground to be turned up where
the man's voice had been heard, and there they found him from whom it
proceeded.

This example, and those of the Babylonish priests spoken of by Daniel,
and that of some others, who, to satisfy their irregular passions,
pretended that their God required the company of certain women, proved
that what is usually taken for the effect of the black art is only
produced by the knavishness of priests, magicians, diviners, and all
kinds of persons who impose on the simplicity and credulity of the
people; I do not deny that the devil sometimes takes part in it, but
more rarely than is imagined.

Footnotes:

[145] Apud Syncell.

[146] Matt. iii. 1, 7, 36.

[147] Lev. xix. 31; xx.

[148] Acts viii. 9; xiii. 8.

[149] Porph. de Abstinent. lib. iv. Sec. 16. Vid. et Ammian. Marcell.
lib. xxiii.

[150] Numb. xxiii. 1-3.

[151] Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 5.

[152] Ezek. xxi. 21.

CHAPTER XII.

MAGIC AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

The Greeks have always boasted that they received the art of magic
from the Persians, or the Bactrians. They affirm that Zoroaster
communicated it to them; but when we wish to know the exact time at
which Zoroaster lived, and when he taught them these pernicious
secrets, they wander widely from the truth, and even from probability;
some placing Zoroaster 600 years before the expedition of Xerxes into
Greece, which happened in the year of the world 3523, and before Jesus
Christ 477; others 500 years before the Trojan war; others 5000 years
before that famous war; others 6000 years before that great event.
Some believe that Zoroaster is the same as Ham, the son of Noah.
Lastly, others maintain that there were several Zoroasters. What
appears indubitably true is, that the worship of a plurality of gods,
as also magic, superstition, and oracles, came from the Egyptians and
Chaldeans, or Persians, to