The mysteries and secrets of magic / by C.J.S. Thompson.

  • Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel), 1862-1943.
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The mysteries and secrets of magic / by C.J.S. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The inStinft of mystery, common to mankind among civilized and uncivilized communities, appears to have arisen primarily from ignorance or limitation of know¬ ledge and fear of the unknown future. These faculties men of greater intelligence than their fellows soon recognized, and turned belief in the mysterious to their own account. As the practice of magic meant interference with the regular operations of Nature, the magician had first to appeal to some deity and propitiate it by prayers, offerings and perfumes that would render his appeal acceptable, and then call in the aid of supernatural powers, good or evil. Some authorities are of the opinion that magic was the primary form of religion ; that it has existed among all peoples and at every period, and that faith in magic is probably older than a belief in spirits. The whole doCtrine of magic, according to Wiedmann, formed not a part of superstition, but an essential con¬ stituent of religious faith, which to a great extent rested dire&ly on magic and always remained closely bound up with it. On the other hand, Frazer observes, that in the evolution of thought, magic, as representing a lower intellectual Stratum, has probably everywhere preceded religion. It has also been suggested that in man’s emotional response to his environment, in his interpretation in the terms of personality of the objefts which encumbered his attention, and in their investiture by him with potentiality, we have the common root of magic and religion.