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ANIMAL MAGNETISM AND MAGIC. 343
netic rods he held in his hands, instead of to his will which
was the real agent. It was in this sense that all poly
theistic nations took the matter, and even Plotinus, 1
but
more especially lamblichns, understood : Magic that is, as
Theurgy, an expression which Porphyry was the first to
use. That divine aristocracy, Pantheism, was favourable to
this interpretation, since it distributed the dominion over
the different forces of Nature among as many gods and
demons mostly mere personifications of natural forces
and the magician, by persuasion or by force, subjected now
one, now the other of these divinities to his power and
made them do his bidding. But in a Divine Monarchy,
where all Nature obeys a single ruler, the thought of con
tracting a private alliance with the Almighty, let alone of
exercising sovereignty over him, would have been too auda
cious. Therefore where Judaism, Christianity or Islam
prevailed, the omnipotence of the one God stood in the
way of this interpretation of Magic : an omnipotence which
the magician could not venture to attack. He had no
alternative therefore, but to take refuge with the Devil,
and with this rebellious spirit perhaps even direct de
scendant of Ahriman to whom some power over Nature
was still attributed, he now entered into a compact, by
which he ensured to himself his assistance. This was
"necromancy" (the black art ). Its antithesis, white
Magic, was opposed to it by the circumstance that, in it,
the magician did not make friends with the Devil, but
rather solicited the permission, not to say co-operation,
of the Almighty himself, to intercede with the angels ;
oftener still, he invoked devils by pronouncing the rarer
Hebrew names and titles of the One God, such as Adon-Ai,
&c. &c., and compelled them to obey him, without promising
1 Here and there, Plotinus betrays a more correct knowledge, for
instance,
c.3.
"
Enn." ii. lib. iii. c. 7 j
"
Enn." iv. lib. iii. c. 12, et lib. ix.