fact we do
not even know whether Simon did or pretended to do any of the precise
things mentioned. All we are competent to decide is the general
question, viz., that any use of abnormal power is pernicious if done for
a personal motive, and will assuredly, sooner or later, react on the
doer.

Here and there in the patristic accounts we light on a fact worthy of
consideration, as, for example, when Simon is reported to have denied
that the real soul of a boy could be exorcised, and said that it was
only a daemon, in this case a sub-human intelligence or elemental, as
the Mediaeval Kabalists called them. Again the Simonians are said to have
expelled any from their Mysteries who worshipped the statues of Zeus or
Athena as being representatives of Simon and Helen; thus showing that
they were symbolical figures for some purpose other than ordinary
worship; and probably the sect in its purity possessed a body of
teaching which threw light on many of the religious practices of the
times, and gave them a rational interpretation, quite at variance with
the fantastic diabolism which the Fathers have so loudly charged against
them.

The legends of magic are the same in all countries, fantastic enough to
us in the nineteenth century, in all conscience, and most probably
exaggerated out of all correct resemblance to facts by the excited
imagination of the legend-tellers, but still it is not all imagination,
and after sifting out even ninety-nine per cent of rubbish, the residue
that remains is such vast evidence to the main facts that it is fairly
overwhelming, and deserves the investigation of every honest student.

But the study is beset with great difficulty, and if left in the hands
of untrained thinkers, as are the majority of those who are interested
in such matters in the present day, will only result in a new phase of
credulity and superstition. And such a disastrous state of affairs will
be the distinct fault of the leaders of thought in the religious,
philosophical, and scientific world, if they refuse the task which is
naturally theirs, and if they are untrue to the responsibility of their
position as the directors, guardians, and adjusters of the popular mind.
Denial is useless, mere condemnation is of small value, explanation
alone will meet the difficulty.

Thus when we are brought face to face with the recital of magical
wonders as attributed to Simon in the patristic legends, it is not
sufficient to sweep them o