Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/759

* MAGIC. 677 MAGIC LANTERN. many of the patron divinities of ancient sorcery were deities of decaying or imported cults. In antiquity there were two main types of tliis magic of names, a Semitic and an Egyptian, lamblichus, early in the fourth century, noted that the invocations of Chald;can magicians were addressed to gods and always assumed the form of a supplication, whereas the Egyptians addressed their incantations to demons or lesser divinities, couched them in mandatory language, and fre- quently accompanied them with threats. The Egj'ptians did this because of their superstition that knowledge of esoteric names gave control of spirit. The Chaldaeans, while they believed that there is a name which could it be known would control the highest of the gods, held that knowl- edge of it is possessed by only one deity. This belief persists among Mohammedan sorcerers to- day, the supreme spell being pronounced "in the great and unknown name of Allah." In Europe, however, the Egyptian type prevailed, and the black art of mediieval magicians consisted largely in a supposed control of demons by means of occult names. Often, however, the names of Jehovah and the Christian saints were used to command evil spirits, being supposed to inflict torment upon the demons and to serve as scourges by means of which the magiciiin could control them. Connected with this use of names were all sorts of symbolical practices, assuming the likeness of Christian or pagan worship. See Sat. ism. The third element in media?val magic came from Xorthern Europe, from Druid and Teutonic sources. It assumed the form of clairvoyance, or feysightedness; thence divination by seers and various forms of enchantment. In principle it differs from the Oriental type in that the magi- cian is conceived to attain power less by control of demons than as a personal possession: the magician becomes a witch, able to blast by a glance or a touch, as well as able to cure disease and to foresee the future by clairvoyance. Witch- craft was intimately associated with diabolism, but appears rather as the magic of the lower classes of Western Europe, to whom occult lore was sealed. It was also peculiar in that the vast majority of witches were women or girls: a fact which seems to hark liack to the function of the seeress in pre-Christian ages. It may therefore be considered the native magic of Western Europe. Like the art of the educated magician, it was proscribed by the Church, and perhaps because of numljers, perhaps because of greater hold upon the people, was subjected to cruel per- secutions by Protestants and Catholics alike, thousands of 'witches' being burned, hanged, and strangled during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and sev- enteenth centuries. See Witchcraft. With the rtenaissance. magic in its ancient sense practically disappears from Europe. Xot that superstitious beliefs, charms, divinations, and spells then came to an end or have even yet come to an end ; but in the struggle with Christianity magic had ceased to be an institu- tion of the social organism. Among savages it is of the utmost importance, the chief sanction of society and intimately interbound with religion. In the civilized nations of antiqiiity the political organization of the State became very largely freed from its control, but religion and a large measure of the social life of the people still rested upon the basis of magical belief. Chris- tianity appeared as the natural opponent of this belief, and in the long struggle jiractically eradi- cated magic as an element of religion or learning and so prepared the way for modern science. Consult: Maury, La magie ct raslrologie (4th ed., Paris, 1877) ; Lehmann, AhcnjUiuhc tend Zau- berei von den iiUeMen Zvilen an hix in die Gegenimrt (Stuttgart, 1898) ; Uellwald, Za-u- beret itnd Magie ( L'lm, 1001); Ennemoser, Oc- schichte der Magie (English trans., Bohn'3 Librarj) ; Jlichelet, La sorciire (Paris, 1862); Frazer, The Golden Bough (enl. ed., London, 1900) ; Lang, Magic and Religion (London, 1901) ; Elworthy. The Evil Eye (London, 1895) ; Lenormant, Clidlihean Magic (London, 1877). MAGICIAN OF THE NORTH. A name ap- plied to Sir Walter Scott. It was also used by Johann Georg Hamann of himself. MAGIC LANTERN. An optical instrument by means of which magnified images of small transparent pictures can be thrown upon a white wall or screen in a darkened I'oom. It consists of some powerful source of illumination such as an oxyhydrogen or electric light, though in a small hall or room and with an instrument of limited power it is possible to employ an Argand or incandescent gas burner, or an acetylene or oil lamp, which is contained in a box of wood or sheet metal. The ravs from the illuminant fall MAGIC LANTERN. , electric arc inclined so as to have the crater of the arc at the focus of the condenser ; B. reflector ; C, C lenses of condenser ; E, E', mounting for lenses : .S. slide ; O, O', pro- jecting lens or objective point ; I, where rays cross. upon a lens known as a condenser, which is either a thick convex lens. or. better, two plano-convex lenses with their curved surfaces in close prox- imity, and whose function is to collect the rays, and transmitting them in either a parallel or slightly converging beam to illuminate the slide, as the transparent picture on glass is termed. The slide is usually a transparent photographic positive, or a drawing or painting on glass, and is inserted in an inverted position in a frame in front of the condenser. To produce an image of the picture, another lens or system of lenses known as the objective is used, which must be achromatic and free from distortion, so as to form an image with a flat field. By varying the distance between the slide and the objective, the image on the screen is brought to a focus, and in modern instruments great magnification and sharpness are secured. Jlany improvements have been made in the magic lantern, and it now is considered a necessary adjunct to lectures and scientific demonstrations, as. in addition to the presentation of photographs and diagrams, nu- merous experiments in physical science can be shown on such a scale as to be visible to a large audience. There are also arrangements known as anoraatographs. vitascopes. biographs. kineto- scopes. etc. (see Kixetoscope). whereby mov- ing pictures can be shown in the ma^ic lan- tern by using in place of a slide a rapidly mov-