wondrous man declared--the magician can force them by means of his secret
lore to do his will. Therefore, he who knows and can call the gods and
spirits by the right name, him they must obey, as the slave his master.
The sages who served the Pharaohs in the gray dawn of time succeeded in
fathoming the mystery of these names given to the everlasting ones at
their birth, and their wisdom has come down to him through the
generations as a priceless secret. But it is not sufficient to murmur
the name to one's self, or be able to write it down. Every syllable has
its special meaning like every member of the human frame. It depends,
too, on how it is pronounced and where the emphasis lies; and this true
name, containing in itself the spiritual essence of the immortals, and
the outward sign of their presence, is different again from the names by
which they are known among men.

"Could I have any suspicion--and here Serapion addressed himself to me--
which god he forced to obey him when he uttered the words, 'Abar Barbarie
Eloce Sabaoth Pachnuphis,' and more like it! I have only remembered the
first few words. But, he continued, it was not enough to be able to
pronounce these words. The heavenly spirits would submit only to those
mortals who shared in some of their highest characteristics. Before the
Magian dared to call them, he must purify his soul from all sensual
taint, and sanctify his body by long and severe fasting. When the Magian
succeeded, as he had done in these days, in rendering himself impervious
to the allurements of the senses, and in making his soul, as far as was
humanly possible, independent of the body, only then had he attained to
that degree of godliness which entitled him to have intercourse with the
heavenly ones and the entire spirit-world as with his equals, and to
subdue them to his will.

"He exerted his power, and we saw with our bodily eyes that the spirits