The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

6—;soBAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION.Then follow certain ceremonies, such as blowing threetimes into the water, incensing the font, and pouring in oilin the form of a cross ; after which the incantation is concludedas follows :"Mingle, O thou holy chrism ;Blessed oil, I mingle thee ;Mingle, water of baptism.Mingle, all ye sacred threeSlingle, mingle, mingle ye,In the name of +, and of t, and of +.Now this appears to us to embody the very soul of magic.The only two spiritual agencies known to man,—the moraland supernatural agency of the Divine Spirit, and the intellectualand natural agency of truth,—are here set aside,and a third sort of agency, that of spells and incantations,is called into requisition. Is not this witchcraft ? Of whom,then, are the priests of Rome the successors ? Manifestlyof the ancient diviners and wizards. Nor could anythingbe finer, as a piece of the histrionic, than the scene just described.The ancient models have been carefully studied,and their forms as well as spirit preserved. The obscurityproduced by the incense and the tapers,—the mystic dresses,with their hieroglyphical signs,—the crossings and blowings,—the mixing and mingling of various substances,—the intonedincantations,—the dread names employed to conjure with,—all combine to form a scene such as might have been beheldin the observatory of some ancient Chaldean astrologer,in the cell of some Egyptian soothsayer ; or such as thepoor infatuated monarch witnessed in the sorceress''s cot atEnd or ; or, to come nearer home, such as the great Hecateand her three bedlamite attendants celebrated at midnighton the bleak heath of Forres, so powerfully painted by thegenius of Shakspeare. The one set of rites are equallyimportant and dignified as the other ; and both occupy themind with precisely the same feeling,—that feeling beingone of vague, hurtful, and demoralizing awe.or