Page:The place of magic in the intellectual history of Europe.djvu/34

26 nature Natural Magic. Lord Bacon chose to understand magic "in its ancient and honorable significance" among the Persians as "a sublimer wisdom or a knowledge of universal nature." He said that as physics, investigating efficient and material causes, produced mechanics, so metaphysics, studying into forms, produced magic.

Apparently, then, magic has a broad significance and a long history. The word itself takes us back to the Magi of ancient Persia; the thing it represents is older yet. It will form the theme of our next chapter, where we shall discuss its history and its meaning, and then the particular significance of those beliefs accepted by men of learning which have been enumerated in the present chapter.