level country, must have soon applied themselves to the
study, so useful to their interests, of their brilliant expanse
of heavens. By a prolonged and 'daily observation,' considerable
knowledge must have been attained; but in the infancy of the
science astronomy necessarily took the form of an empirical art
which, under the name of astrology, engaged the serious attention
and perplexed the brains of the mediaeval students of science or
magic (nearly synonymous terms), and which still survives in
England in the popular almanacks. The natural objects of
veneration to the inhabitants of Assyria were the glorious
luminaries of the sun and moon; and if their worship of the stars
and planets degenerated into many absurd fancies, believing an
intimate connection and subordination of human destiny to
celestial influences, it may be admitted that a religious
sentiment of this kind in its primitive simplicity was more
rational, or at least sublime, than most other religious systems.

It is not necessary to trace the oriental creeds of magic further
than they affected modern beliefs; but in the divinities and
genii of Persia are more immediately traced the spiritual
existences of Jewish and Christian belief. From the Persian
priests are derived both the name and the practice of magic. The
Evil Principle of the Magian, of the later Jewish, and thence of
the western world, originated in the system (claiming Zoroaster
as its founder), which taught a duality of Gods. The philosophic
lawgiver, unable to penetrate the mystery of the empire of evil
and misery in the world, was convinced that there is an equal and
antagonistic power to the representative of light and goodness.
Hence the continued eternal contention between Ormuzd with the
good spirits or genii, Amchaspands, on one side, and Ahriman with
the Devs (who may represent the infernal crew of Christendom) on
the other. Egypt, in the Mosaic and Homeric ages, seems to have
attained considerable skill in magic, as well as in chymistry and
astrology. As an abstruse and esoteric doctrine, it was strictly
confined to the priests, or to the favoured few who were admitted
to initiation. The magic excellence of the magicians, who
successfully emulated the miracles of Moses, was apparently
assisted by a legerdemain similar to that of the Hindu jugglers
of the present day.[5]

[5] The names of two of these magicians, Jannes and Jambres,
have been preserved by revelation or traditi