hat we may be enabled to
ward off evils, and to cure diseases, otherwise fatal to us, by the gift
of Uriel and the charm of the Cabala?"

"Surely," replied the visionary; "but then I opine that the discovery of
these precious secrets was foretold to us by the Omniscient Book at our
nativity; and, therefore, though the menace of evils be held out to us,
so also is the probability of their correction or our escape. And I
must own (pursued the enthusiast) that, to me, the very culture of those
divine arts hath given a consolation amidst the evils to which I have
been fated; so true seems it, that it is not in the outer nature, in
the great elements, and in the bowels of the earth, but also within
ourselves that we must look for the preparations whereby we are to
achieve the wisdom of Zoroaster and Hermes. We must abstract ourselves
from passion and earthly desires. Lapped in a celestial reverie, we must
work out, by contemplation, the essence from the matter of things: nor
can we dart into the soul of the Mystic World until we ourselves have
forgotten the body; and by fast, by purity, and by thought, have become,
in the flesh itself, a living soul."

Much more, and with an equal wildness of metaphysical eloquence, did the
astrologer declare in praise of those arts condemned by the old Church;
and it doth indeed appear from reference to the numerous works of the
alchymists and magians yet extant, somewhat hastily and unjustly. For
those books all unite in dwelling on the necessity of virtue,
subdued passions and a clear mind, in order to become a fortunate and
accomplished cabalist--a precept, by the way, not without its policy;
for, if the disciple failed, the failure might be attributed to his
own fleshly imperfections, not to any deficiency in the truth of the
science.

The young man listened to the visionary with an earnest and fascinated
attention. Independent of the dark interest always attached to
discourses of supernatural things more especially, we must allow, in the
mouth of a fervent and rapt believer, there was that in the language and
very person of the astrologer which inexpressibly enhanced the effect
of the theme. Like most men acquainted with the literature of a country,
but not accustomed to daily conversation with its natives, the English
words and fashion of periods that occurred to Volktman were rather those
used in books than in colloquy; and a certain solemnity and slowness of
tone accompanied with