his
disposition and the mysterious traditions of his clime. Dismissing faith
in the confused creeds of the heathen world, he reposed the greatest
faith in the power of human wisdom. He did not know (perhaps no one in
that age distinctly did) the limits which Nature imposes upon our
discoveries. Seeing that the higher we mount in knowledge the more
wonders we behold, he imagined that Nature not only worked miracles in
her ordinary course, but that she might, by the cabala of some master
soul, be diverted from that course itself. Thus he pursued science,
across her appointed boundaries, into the land of perplexity and shadow.
From the truths of astronomy he wandered into astrological fallacy; from
the secrets of chemistry he passed into the spectral labyrinth of magic;
and he who could be sceptical as to the power of the gods, was
credulously superstitious as to the power of man.

The cultivation of magic, carried at that day to a singular height among
the would-be wise, was especially Eastern in its origin; it was alien to
the early philosophy of the Greeks; nor had it been received by them
with favor until Ostanes, who accompanied the army of Xerxes,
introduced, amongst the simple credulities of Hellas, the solemn
superstitions of Zoroaster. Under the Roman emperors it had become,
however, naturalized at Rome (a meet subject for Juvenal's fiery wit).
Intimately connected with magic was the worship of Isis, and the
Egyptian religion was the means by which was extended the devotion to
Egyptian sorcery. The theurgic, or benevolent magic--the goetic, or
dark and evil necromancy--were alike in pre-eminent repute during the
first century of the Christian era; and the marvels of Faustus are not
comparable to those of Apollonius. Kings, courtiers, and sages, all
trembled before the professors of the dread science. And not the least
remarkable of his tribe was the most formidable and profound Arbaces.
His fame and his discoveries were known to all the cultivators of magic;
they even survived himself. But it was not by his real name that he was
honored by the sorcerer and the sage: his real name, indeed, was unknown
in Italy, for 'Arbaces' was not a genuinely Egyptian but a Median
appellation, which, in the admixture and unsettlement of the ancient
races, had become common in the country of the Nile; and there were
various reasons, not only of pride, but of policy (for in youth he had
conspired against the majesty of Rome)