all that was required of them, though as their sole employment (after
having arrived to a certain degree of perfection, by fasting, prayer,
and other methods of purification) was the study of universal nature,
they might gain such an insight into physical causes, as would enable
them to perform actions, that should fill the vulgar with astonishment;
and it is hardly to be doubted, but this was all the knowledge that many
of them aspired to. In this sort of magic, Hermes Tresmegistus and
Zoroaster excelled, and indeed it gained great reputation among the
Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, Indians and Jews. In times of ignorance,
a piece of clock-work, or some other curious machine, was sufficient to
entitle the inventor to the works of magic; and some have even asserted,
that the Egyptian magic, rendered so famous by the writings of the
ancients, consisted only in discoveries drawn from the mathematics, and
natural philosophy, since those Greek philosophers who travelled into
Egypt, in order to obtain a knowledge of the Egyptian sciences, returned
with only a knowledge of nature and religion, and some rational ideas
of their ancient symbols.

But it can hardly be doubted, that magic in its grossest and most
ridiculous sense was practised in Egypt, at least among some of the
vulgar, long before Pythagoras or Empedocles travelled into that
country. The Egyptians had been very early accustomed to vary the
signification of their symbols, by adding to them several plants, ears
of corn, or blades of grass, to express the different employments of
husbandry; but understanding no longer their meaning nor the words that
had been made use of on these occasions, which were equally
unintelligible, the vulgar might mistake these for so many mysterious
practices observed by their fathers; and hence they might conceive the
notion, that a conjunction of plants, even without being made use of as
a remedy, might be of efficacy to preserve or procure health. "Of