CHAPTER VIII.

Safeguards of the mystery that surrounded the Occult Sciences — Hieroglyphics, idioms, and sacred writing — Not understood by the uninitiated — Enigmatical language of the invocations — Gradual and partial revelations known in their plenitude only to a small number of priests — Oaths, and falsehoods respecting the nature of the processes, and the extent of Magical opera- tions— Consequences of this mystery:' — I. The Science of
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Magic was reduced, in the hands of the Thaumaturgists, to a practice, the nature of which, devoid of theory, hecame in time unintelligible — II. Great errors universally prevailed, owing to ignorance of the limits that circumscribed this power; the desire to penetrate into secrets of Magic, and the habit of attri- buting its efficacy to the visible and ostensible processes of Science .... 169—201