“The age of inconsequence and shallowness, in theology as well as in sciences, is past, and since that revolutionary rationalism has left nothing behind but its own emptiness, after having destroyed everything positive, it seems now to be the time to direct our attention anew to that mysterious revelation which is the living spring whence our salvation must come ... the Mysteries of ancient Israel, which contain all secrets of modern Israel, would be particularly calculated to ... found the fabric of theology upon its deepest theosophical principles, and to gain _a firm basis_ to all ideal sciences. It would open a new path ... to the obscure labyrinth of the myths, mysteries and constitutions of primitive nations.... In these traditions alone are contained the system of the schools of the prophets, which the prophet Samuel did not found, _but only restored_, whose end was no other than to lead the scholars to wisdom and the highest knowledge, and when they had been found worthy, to induct them _into deeper mysteries_. Classed with these mysteries was _magic_, which was of a double nature—divine magic, and evil magic, or the black art. Each of these is again divisible into two kinds, the active and seeing; in the first, man endeavors to place himself _en rapport_ with the world to learn hidden things; in the latter he endeavors to gain power over spirits; in the former, to perform _good and beneficial_ acts; in the latter to do all kinds of diabolical and unnatural deeds.”[89]