ABSTRACT
T H E following process appears in several manuscriptcopies of the Key of Solomon, but has been omittedby the English editor of that work, as others are also omitted, presumably as a Goetic interpolation. But we have seen that a Goetic process in a book like the Key of Solomon is not necessarily an interpolation, while as regards this particular instance it is very nearly evident that it is an integral portion of that dubious collection. In the second chapter of the first book we are told that the days and hours of Mars are suitable for overthrowing enemies, while the hours of Saturn and Mars, and also the days on which the Moon is in conjunction with those planets, are excellent for experiments of hatred, enmity, quarrel and discord. In the first chapter of the second book it is said :-As for operations of destruction and desolation, we should put them into execution on the day of Saturn at the first hour, or rather at the eighth or fifteenth of the day, and from the first until the eighth hour of the night. . . . From these statements it seems fair to infer that there must have been a section containing directions as to the performance of such works. In this case, the Key of Solomon is neither better nor worse than any other Grimoire of Black Magic-as indeed we have reason to know by its admitted
sections. The apologists of the Clavicle-if there are any apart from its English editor-will probably cite in defence of it a passage which occurs in Book i. c. 8, in which the author proffers his secr.ets on the express condition that they shall not be used to ruin and destroy one's neighbour. But when every allowance has been made for this stipulation, we shall do well to remember that similar warnings are not wanting in purely Goetic rituals. There is further another test by which the authenticity of the following process may be largely determined, and that is the manner of its wording, which corresponds closely with the prevailing manner of the Clavicle. It is a loose and general wording, covering several classes of experiment, and-if anyone is sufficiently ridictilous or sufficiently ultra-serious to desire that the question be tested-it may be compared with Book I. c. xv., xvi., xvii., in which the same characteristics will be found.
