Having reverently placed it
on a small table, the boy, at a signal from his master, drew forth a
phial and dropped its contents into a bronze vat or brazier which stood
at the far end of the room. Instantly clouds of perfumed vapour filled
the air, and as these dispersed it was seen that the black hangings of
the walls had vanished with them, and the spectators found themselves
seated in a kind of open temple through which the eye travelled down
colonnaded vistas set with statues and fountains. This magical prospect
was bathed in sunlight, and Odo observed that, though the lamps had gone
out, the same brightness suffused the room and illuminated the wondering
faces of the audience. The little prince uttered a cry of delight, and
the magician stepped forward, raising a long white wand in his hand.
"This," said he, in measured accents, "is an evocation of the Temple of
Health, into whose blissful precincts the wisdom of the ancients was
able to lead the sufferer who put his trust in them. This deceptio
visus, or product of rhabdomancy, easily effected by an adept of the
Egyptian mysteries, is designed but to prefigure the reality which
awaits those who seek health through the ministry of the disciples of
Iamblichus. It is no longer denied among men of learning that those who
have been instructed in the secret doctrine of the ancients are able, by
certain correspondences of nature, revealed only to the initiated, to
act on the inanimate world about them, and on the animal economy, by
means beyond the common capabilities of man.
Pages:
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298