BOOKS PUBLISHED
BY
LACKINGTON, HUGHES, HARDING, MAVOR, AND JONES,
FINSBURY SQUARE, LONDON.
THE MAGUS or Celestial Intelligencer; a complete System of Occult Philosophy, being a Summary of all the best Writers on the subjects of Magic, Alchymy, Magnetism, the Cabala, &c. viz. Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Hermes Trismegistus, Lilly, Dee, &c. with an Account of their Lives, and a great variety of new matter, and rare and curious experiments. By Francis Barrett. With 23 very curious copper-plates, several of them in colours. 4to. 1l. 7s.
There was a time when a treatise written on this subject would have exposed even the person in whose possession it might have been found to the rack or the flames. But an age of good sense having succeeded that of credulity and ignorance, the publication of books on what is called Occult Philosophy can be injurious neither to the authors nor the readers; but, on the contrary, may afford great amusement to the inquisitive mind, without raising up any phantoms of terror before the imagination. In this point of view may be considered the elaborate system compiled by Mr. Barrett. It contains the secrets of most of the celebrated magicians, from Zoroaster to Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus. The work is extremely curious and entertaining; and should it fail of enabling men to perform all the wonders it professes to do, it will at least give them an idea of the pursuits of many ancient philosophers, and make them acquainted with all those supernatural mysteries, which, in different periods of the world, were objects of research, of reverence, of terror, and of persecution.
LIVES of ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS, with a Critical Catalogue of Books on Occult Chemistry, and a Selection of the most celebrated Treatises on the Theory and Practice of the Hermetic Art. 8vo. 10s 6d.
"As far as we have been able to judge from a general survey, this Biography is executed with sufficient fidelity, and, though many of the lives are short, they are probably copious enough to satisfy the curiosity of the reader. It is not a little amusing to observe in what excessive terms of commendation the author speaks of the learning and acquirements of the Alchymists."—Vide Monthly Review.
