" Those who wish to be more thoroughly informed on the
subject, will do well to consult the learned Father Athanasius
Kirker's treatise on the Cabala Sarracenica.
A word more to the curious reader. There are many persons in these
skeptical times who affect to deride every thing connected with the
occult sciences, or black art; who have no faith in the efficacy of
conjurations, incantations or divinations; and who stoutly contend
that such things never had existence. To such determined unbelievers
the testimony of past ages is as nothing; they require the evidence of
their own senses, and deny that such arts and practices have prevailed
in days of yore, simply because they meet with no instance of them
in the present day. They cannot perceive that, as the world became
versed in the natural sciences, the supernatural became superfluous
and fell into disuse, and that the hardy inventions of art
superseded the mysteries of magic. Still, say the enlightened few,
those mystic powers exist, though in a latent state, and untasked by
the ingenuity of man. A talisman is still a talisman, possessing all
its indwelling and awful properties, though it may have lain dormant
for ages at the bottom of the sea, or in the dusty cabinet of the
antiquary.
The signet of Solomon the Wise, for instance, is well known to
have held potent control over genii, demons, and enchantments; now who
will positively assert that the same mystic signet, wherever it may
exist, does not at the present moment possess the same marvellous
virtues which distinguished it in the olden time? Let those who
doubt repair to Salamanca, delve into the cave of San Cyprian, explore
its hidden secrets, and decide.
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