Survivals of this view
are found to this day among savages and barbarians left behind
in the evolution of civilization, and especially is this the
case among the tribes of Australia, Africa, and the Pacific
coast of America. Even in the most enlightened nations still
appear popular beliefs, observances, or sayings, drawn from this
earlier phase of thought.
Between the prehistoric savage developing this theory, and
therefore endeavouring to deal with the powers of Nature by
magic, and the modern man who has outgrown it, appears a long
line of nations struggling upward through it. As the
hieroglyphs, cuneiform inscriptions, and various other records
of antiquity are read, the development of this belief can be
studied in Egypt, India, Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, and
Phoenicia. From these civilizations it came into the early
thought of Greece and Rome, but especially into the Jewish and
Christian sacred books. Both in the Old Testament and in the New
we find magic, witchcraft, and soothsaying constantly referred
to as realities.
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