Page:Magician 1908.djvu/52

 The other shrugged his shoulders.

“What else is the world than a figure? Life itself is but a symbol. You must be a wise man if you can tell us what is reality.”

“When you begin to talk of magic and mysticism I confess that I am out of my depth.”

“Yet magic is no more than the art of employing consciously invisible means to produce visible effects. Will, love, and imagination are magic powers that everyone possesses; and whoever knows how to develop them to their fullest extent is a magician. Magic has but one dogma, namely, that the seen is the measure of the unseen.”

“Will you tell us what the powers are that the adept possesses?”

“They are enumerated in a Hebrew manuscript of the sixteenth century, which is in my possession. The privileges of him who holds in his right hand the Keys of Solomon and in his left the Branch of the Blossoming Almond, are twenty-one. He beholds God face to face without dying, and converses intimately with the Seven Genii who command the celestial army. He is superior to every affliction and to every fear. He reigns with all heaven and is served by all hell. He holds the secret of the resurrection of the dead, and the key of immortality.”

“If you possess even these you have evidently the most varied attainments,” said Arthur ironically.

“Everyone can make game of the unknown,” retorted Haddo, with a shrug of his massive shoulders.

Arthur did not answer. He looked at Haddo