XVI. Two occult Seals are shewn in the left compartment; the first represents the Great Work; the second is that of Black Magic. Both are from the _Grimoire of Honorius_. The right hand compartment contains primitive Egyptian Tarots—the 2 of Cups at the top and beneath this, specimens of the Ace of Cups 298 XVII. The Seven Planets and their Genii, according to the Magic of Paracelsus 340 XVIII. The Great Hermetic Arcanum, according to Basil Valentine 394 XIX. A general plan of Kabalistic Doctrine 454 XX. Apocalyptic Key: the Seven Seals of St. John 502 THE HISTORY OF MAGIC INTRODUCTION Magic has been confounded too long with the jugglery of mountebanks, the hallucinations of disordered minds and the crimes of certain unusual malefactors. There are otherwise many who would promptly explain Magic as the art of producing effects in the absence of causes; and on the strength of such a definition it will be said by ordinary people—with the good sense which characterises the ordinary, in the midst of much injustice—that Magic is an absurdity. But it can have no analogy in fact with the descriptions of those who know nothing of the subject; furthermore, it is not to be represented as this or that by any person whomsoever: it is that which it is, drawing from itself only, even as mathematics do, for it is the exact and absolute science of Nature and her laws.