to be used, an incorrectness in the magic circle, or the displacing of the innumerable characters surrounding the circle, both within and without, subjected the soul of the magician to be instantly seized on by his malignant foe.

So commanding is the influence of mental superiority, that, the profession of magic notwithstanding its admitted unlawfulness, was never deemed dishonourable; on the contrary, its practice was accepted as evidence of erudition and ability which demanded deference and respect from less cultivated and feebler understandings. Presuming on the popular disposition to the subject, Shakspeare adopted a magician as the hero of a drama, and invested magic with a grandeur such as it had never known. With an exalted dignity of demeanour, which commands respect while it forbids familiarity, Prospero does not disgrace the super-human powers with which he is invested. Without any other object in view in the practice of his art, but that of facilitating the march of retributive justice, his decrees are founded in, and strictly compatible with, equity. Almost unlimited in power, he is not terrific in its exercise; for judgment, not passion, is the director of his actions. Not from sudden ebullitions of arbitrary feeling are his commands peremptory; but, habituated to sway, and

conscious of infallibility, he admits no question of obedience to, or delay in the execution of, his determinations.

་

Purified from the admixture of sordid motives, the character of the magician is in Prospero's person eminent and imposing. Scientific knowledge is the foundation of his practice of magic; and his high attainments in the art result from the depth of his erudition :

neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate

To closeness and the bettering of his mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er priz'd all popular rate,"

"

his library is dukedom large enough," and prized above his dukedom :" "for the liberal arts" he is reputed "without a parallel; those being all his study."*

Magic, in its best sense, was always deemed the perfection of natural philosophy; and their books and studies are, consequently, always prominent features in the histories of magicians: "I'll to my book," says Prospero,

"For yet, ere supper time, must I perform
Much business appertaining."+

* Act I. sc. 2.

+ Act III. sc. 1.

The importance of a book in magical operations is inseparably connected with a superstition as remarkable for its antiquity as its universality. Almost every nation used to make pretensions to the possession of volumes of anti-diluvian antiquity, divine origin, or super-human knowledge. History, theology, ethics, astronomy, and natural philosophy were the subjects of which they treated; and they disclosed the occult secrets of nature, and taught the acquisition of supernatural power by their use.* Nor were these extravagant notions confined to the primitive ages; but a belief of perfection in every branch of human science was long liberally conceded to extraordinary mental abilities, and erudite treatises on philosophy, natural and moral, were attributed to their possessors. It was the fable, in many instances, that these works were irrecoverably lost; in some, that their contents were partially preserved; and in others, that whatever remained of them, whether much or little, was shadowed out in mystic doctrines, or concealed

*The vulgar faith in the efficacy of the retrograde reading of the Bible has clearly reference to the oriental languages, always supposed the repositories of much occult and mysterious knowledge, and which, being read from right to left, beginning at what is commonly considered the end of the volume, would obviously suggest to an ignorant person the idea of reading backwards.

under hieroglyphical characters, intelligible only To all but the learned, there

to the initiated. fore, the wisdom of the sages was involved in obscurity and mystery: they alone were masters of the supernatural knowledge that it taught. But so abstruse was the subject, and so difficult of comprehension and interpretation were the mysticism and symbols under which it was charactered, that unremitting assiduity was indispensable to the success of the student who aspired to the exercise of super-human powers. We have here the complete theory, and obtain some insight into the practice also, of the use of a book in magical operations. Thrice does Caliban urge on Stephano and Trinculo the necessity of depriving Prospero of his books:

"'Tis a custom with him

I'the afternoon to sleep: there thou may'st brain him,
Having first seiz'd his books"

Burn but his books.

Remember,

First to possess his books; for without them
He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not

One spirit to command."

Demons are perpetually evoked, and the souls of the dead compelled to speak, both in eastern

and western romance, by reading from a magical book. Prospero absolves all his attendant spirits from their allegiance to him, at the same time abjuring magic, and expressing his determination to "drown his book."*

The characters of priest, philosopher, and magician were identified by the heathens; but Christianity disclaimed the disgraceful union; and at the first dawn of enlightened philosophy, its professors denied the possibility of the ministers of the true God holding communion with the devil. The grossness of popular perception, however, persisted in entertaining many ideas in common of each, long after the characters of conjurer and divine had been separated. Purity, both moral and personal, was always justly deemed essential in the life of the philosopher and priest; who frequently withdrew from intimate commerce with the world; and, immured in the obscurity of cells, or secluded in spots far removed from the habitation of man, dedicated their time to the acquisition of knowledge and the cultivation of the few virtues that can be nourished in solitude. Hence the magician's power was estimated by the extent of his virtue, as well as of his mental attainments.

Than the life of Prospero, nothing can be * Act V. sc. 1.