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Post by James on Mar 12, 2013 5:13:02 GMT -5
An excerpt from:
A Treatise on the Great Necessity of Secrecy
by Mr Christopher May
July, 1814
A man of science and a man of religion stand at the threshold of a room. It may be a beautiful room with wondrous carvings of Biblical proportions. Perhaps, a fresco on the wall may depict a parting sea. The floor may in fact be a mosaic scene of a Shakespearian play. Or it may be a very dull room where men are oft taken with the notion that it would be a fine place to read a newspaper in. The state of the room does not matter. What does matter, for this discussion, is the woman that lay dead within it.
The two men are quarrelling. Oh, they are not arguing over how to save the poor girl upon the ground. She is dead, deceased, departed and various other words and phrases. No, they are quarrelling on whether the room is empty. It is a strange dance for neither the man of science nor the man of religion is prepared to lead. They both think that the room is empty and occupied. The man of science argues that if we are talking of consciousness then the room is empty. However, if it is simply a case of physical matter, the room is obviously not empty. There is a corpse in it and various other materials of the universe naked to the eye. The man of religion says that the room is of course not empty for the woman’s body lies awaiting her funeral rites. And yet, the room is devoid of any soul since the woman has passed onto a better place. The room is both empty and is not. The two men happily agree upon such a compromise.
The problem with introducing magic to society is not one borne from the backs of various practitioners of the arts. As a collective group, they have waited centuries to rise to the forefront of society. In every waking second, and many sleeping ones too, they are consumed with a desire that their profession might one day be treated with the same level of respect that is gifted to lawyers and merchants.
Indeed, the problem doesn’t necessarily arise from the scared layman. In the mediaeval era, it would be of far more of a concern. A magician would have been harassed by an angry, uncontrollable mob. In this present day, he or she would find their days filled with delighting and disappointing a rabble of eager consumers. Market forces are kinder to the magician than religious forces.
No, the problem is of a far more theoretical nature. Magic is simply foreign. It is unknown. People would struggle to adapt to this new way of life. They cannot think in terms of magic.
Let us return to that beautiful room where the sea parts and Brutus stabs at Caesar and men are prone to read newspapers. There is now, though, a third man who has joined the party of learned men. He is a man of magic.
Where the others find themselves tentative, he is bold. He declares that the room is of course not empty. Nor will it ever be. The woman’s soul can be returned from that Other Place. Her consciousness too can be drawn back into her body. Even if the man of magic decides not to do so, a room with a corpse is a room of possibilities. Imagine all the rituals and spells he could perform. A single lock of hair from her head might create a love potion so strong that an Englishman and a Frenchwoman would take off together without a moment of indecision. Her eyelashes mixed with water would give a person a vision from miles away. Perhaps, if the man of magic was so wicked and foolish, her body could summon a great being into the world.
Men are prone to bouts of irrationality when presented with their own shortcomings and so the man of science and the man of religion remove the body from the room. “Ha,” they declare triumphantly, “the room is surely empty now.” But not so, says the man of magic. Within the empty room, he could conjure flame or rain. A circle could be drawn and a fay creature summoned. The air itself could be drawn into such a tightly compressed shape that one could sit on it and read their newspaper. Now, the man of magic reveals the final twist in the argument. The room can never be empty. Magic ensures it.
Magic is the source of unlimited potential but Man does not take kindly to things he does not understand. Hence, they must mix seldom.
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