ABSTRACT
I T is only within recent times that the attempt to commu-nicate with the dead has been elevated to the dignity ofWhite Magic. Here it is necessary to affirm that the phenomena of Modern Spiritualism are to be distinguished clearly from those of old Necromancy. The identity of purpose is apt to connect the methods, but the latter differ generically. To compare them would be almost equivalent to saying that the art of physical Alchemy is similar to mercantile pursuits because the acquisition of wealth is the end in either case. To appreciate the claim of Modern Spiritualism would be to exceed the limits of this inquiry; it is mentioned only with the object of setting it quite apart. It should, however, be added that occult writers-with the indiscrimination which is common to their kind-s-have sometimes sought ambitiously to represent the communication with departed souls by means of Ceremonial Magic as something much more exalted than mere Spiritualism, whereas the very opposite is nearer the truth. Ancient Necromancy was barbarous and horrible in its rites; it is only under the auspices of Eliphas Levi and Pierre Christian that it has been purged and civilised, but in the hands of these elegant magicians it has become simply a process of auto-hallucination, having no scientific consequence whatever. The secret of true evocation belongs to the occult sanctuaries, by the hypothesis of those who are their spokesmen; it is not the process
of Spiritualism, and still less, so far as may be gleaned, IS It that of the magical Rituals, nor would the secret at best seem respected by those who possess it, because the higher soul of man transcends evocation, and that which does respond ought to be beneath the initiate. The claim, however, is naturally one of delusion complicated by imposture.
