The Poetry of Life's Sterner Prose
Magic Amongst the Greeks and Romans - The Mysteries of Samothrace and Eleusis - The Grecian Sibyls and Delphic Oracle - Sorcery and the Dark Side of Spiritism.
Magic in the classical lands of Greece and Rome becomes so thoroughly transformed from the solemn metaphysics of India, the semi-savagism of Arabia, and the profound mysticism of Egypt, by the young life, blossoming intellect, and love of the beautiful which characterized Grecian genius, and in a measure imparted its grace to the sterner spirit of Rome, that no attempt to condense descriptions of their spiritism could do justice to the subject. On the other hand our available space has been too much taken up with analyses of the underlying principles of magical history in the Orient - the true fatherland of magic - either to permit of, or to need our dwelling at any length upon these fascinating themes, so clearly defined as the poetry of life's sterner prose.
Magic, sorcery and the correspondingly dark shades of Spiritism, were not in harmony with the graceful and elastic character of classic lands. Their peoples loved philosophy, and revealed in the subtleties of thought, as portrayed through the brilliant ideality of Greek and Roman history with stars of immortal lustre.
Strictly speaking, no well marked systems of religious belief prevailed in Greece and Rome. Their Pantheon of countless Gods and Goddesses were too closely allied with humanity to impress their votaries with the awe and majesty appropriate to the idea of Deity, and even their most exalted flights of imagination could not embody the creative principle in aught beyond an impersonated Demiurgus.