The school of Iamblichus was distinct from that of Plotinus and Porphyry, who were strongly against ceremonial magic and practical theurgy as dangerous, though these two eminent men firmly believed in both. “The _theurgic_ or _benevolent_ magic, the Goëtic, or dark and evil necromancy, were alike in preëminent repute _during the first century_ of the Christian era.”[46] But never have any of the highly moral and pious philosophers, whose fame has descended to us spotless of any evil deed, practiced any other kind of magic than the theurgic, or _benevolent_, as Bulwer-Lytton terms it. “Whoever is acquainted with the nature _of divinely luminous appearances_ (φασματα) knows also on what account it is requisite to abstain from all birds (animal food), and especially for him who hastens to be liberated from terrestrial concerns and to be established with the celestial gods,” says Porphyry.[47] Though he refused to practice theurgy himself, Porphyry, in his _Life of Plotinus_, mentions a priest of Egypt, who, “at the request of a certain friend of Plotinus (which friend was perhaps Porphyry himself, remarks T. Taylor), exhibited to Plotinus, in the temple of Isis at Rome, the familiar daimon, or, in modern language, the _guardian angel_ of that philosopher.”[48] The popular, prevailing idea was that the theurgists, as well as the magicians, worked wonders, such as evoking the souls or shadows of the heroes and gods, and doing other thaumaturgic works by supernatural powers. YAJNA.—“The Yajna,” say the Brahmans, exists from eternity, for it {xliv} proceeded forth from the Supreme One, the _Brahma-Prajapâti_, in whom it lay dormant from “_no_ beginning.” It is the key to the TRAIVIDYA, the thrice sacred science contained in the Rig verses, which teaches the Yagus or sacrificial mysteries. “The Yajna” exists as an invisible thing at all times; it is like the latent power of electricity in an electrifying machine, requiring only the operation of a suitable apparatus in order to be elicited. It is supposed to extend from the _Ahavaniya_ or sacrificial fire to the heavens, forming a bridge or ladder by means of which the sacrificer can communicate with the world of gods and spirits, and even ascend when alive to their abodes.[49] This _Yajna_ is again one of the forms of the Akása, and the mystic word calling it into existence and pronounced mentally by the initiated Priest is the _Lost Word_ receiving impulse through WILL-POWER. To complete the list, we will now add that in the course of the following chapters, whenever we use the term _Archaic_, we mean before the time of Pythagoras; when _Ancient_, before the time of Mahomet; and when _Mediæval_, the period between Mahomet and Martin Luther. It will only be necessary to infringe the rule when from time to time we may have to speak of nations of a pre-Pythagorean antiquity, and will adopt the common custom of calling them “ancient.” * * * * *