Enchantment

“ The splendor of the whole spectacle, when the sun streams all the magic of his beams to cast upon the land an enchantment greater than its own, is such as to overwhelm the soul with admiration and astonishment. ”

“ SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Thus do the mindless minions of the spell In mechanized enchantment sway and show A Will that wills above the will of each, Yet but the will of all conjunctively; A fabric of excitement, web of rage, That permeates as one stuff the weltering whole. ”

“ Ah, master of the good enchantment, you have given us hours of ease and joy, and we thank you for them. But there is a greater gift than that. You have made us more willing to go cheerfully and comradely along the strange, crowded, winding way of human life, because you have deepened our faith that there is something of the divine on earth, and something of the human in heaven. ”

“ And as for the powers of enchantment, as they can only be used for good or bad purposes, it seems to me that to employ them for the first, would be to accuse the Divinity of an insufficient benevolence; while to exercise them for the last, would imply a supposition that heaven had not all men equally under its protection. ”

“ And yet there is no place of Scripture that telleth us what an enchantment is. If therefore enchantment be not, as many think it, a working of strange effects by spells and words, but imposture and delusion wrought by ordinary means; and so far from supernatural, as the impostors need not the study so much of natural causes, but the ordinary ignorance, stupidity, and superstition of mankind, to do them; those texts that seem to countenance the power of magic, witchcraft, and enchantment must needs have another sense than at first sight they seem to bear. ”

“ Of such names and invocations, together with words unintelligible to the uninitiated in this science, passages from the Ḳur-án, mysterious combinations of numbers, and peculiar diagrams and figures, are chiefly composed written charms employed for good purposes. Enchantment, when used for benevolent purposes, is regarded by the vulgar as a branch of lawful or divine magic; but not so by the learned: and the same remark applies to the science of divination. ”

“ Who takes one wrong step, gets out of it by another; and so I went on from enchantment to enchantment, and fell out of the frying-pan into the fire. If I stood erect, and no longer groveled, if I was not any more a beast, I became like the devils which possessed them. ”

“ Now this unconventionality of art, which disregards ranks and titles, even those of its own making, and finds the beautiful and the absurd, the grotesque and the picturesque, the noble and the base, not according to the programme but according to the fact, is precisely the essence of good enchantment. ”

“ We shall see how infinitely passionate a thing religion at its highest flights can be. Like love, like wrath, like hope, ambition, jealousy, like every other instinctive eagerness and impulse, it adds to life an enchantment which is not rationally or logically deducible from anything else. ”

“ This enchantment, coming as a gift when it does come,—a gift of our organism, the physiologists will tell us, a gift of God's grace, the theologians say,—is either there or not there for us, and there are persons who can no more become possessed by it than they can fall in love with a given woman by mere word of command. ”

“ The first of these desires is the parent of divination, augury, chiromancy, astrology, and the consultation of oracles; and the second has been the prolific source of enchantment, witchcraft, sorcery, magic, necromancy, and alchemy, in its two branches, the unlimited prolongation of human life, and the art of converting less precious metals into gold. ”

“ To dream of being under the spell of enchantment, denotes that if you are not careful you will be exposed to some evil in the form of pleasure. The young should heed the benevolent advice of their elders. ”

“ But in proportion as this kind of fascination is vile and mean, that which may be called altruistic or sympathetic attraction, or Enchantment, is noble and pure, because it acquires strength in proportion to the purity and beauty of the soul or will which inspires it. It is as real and has as much power, and can be exercised by any honest person whatever with wonderful effect, even to the performing what are popularly called "miracles," which only means wonderful works beyond our power of explanation. ”

“ They say that by enchantment we have tamed the elephants; by enchantment we have kept the rain from falling near the sea-coast, and interrupting our work in the pass; by enchantment we have made the locusts disappear the moment we came up on to the high country ”

“ The sight of a beggar suddenly enriched, as it were by enchantment, goes far to make the ignorant multitude believe in miracles. The miracle of the loaves and fishes was scarcely more marvellous than the changing of tenpence into two hundred and fifty pounds. ”

“ The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. ”

“ Sorcery, magic, enchantment, witchcraft; the use of supposed supernatural powers by the agency of evil spirits called forth by spells, incantations, &c., on the part of the magician, sorcerer or witch. ”

“ As those [Pg 485] of magic, because it is a knowledge of more than is lawful to be known; divination, from a revealing of things past, present, or to come; enchantment, from a working by charms or ceremonious rites; sorcery, from the casting of lots to bring hidden things to light; necromancy, from the calling up and consulting the devil, in form of some dead person; fascination, from the hurting creatures by envious looks, and eye-biting, or by words, etc. Those who practise this art are, in like manner, termed witches, magicians, diviners, enchanters, sorcerers, necromancers, fascinaters. ”

“ The Conjuror, the Enchanter, the Sorcerer, the Diviner, and whatsoever other sort there is, are indeed encompassed within this circle. The Devil doth (no doubt) after divers forms, deal in these. But no man is able to show an essential difference in each of them from the rest. I hold it no wisdom or labor well spent to travel much therein. One artificer had devised them all.”
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”—Exodus xxii. 18. “Neither shall ye use enchantment.”—Levit. xix. 26. “Regard not them which have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them.”—Ibid. ver. ”

“ The power of enchantment is specially attributed to gipsy-women and men whose eyebrows are grown together. If, when throwing the glowing cinders into the water, two pieces sink to the bottom, the spell comes from a man; if only one, the patient has been bewitched by a woman. ”

“ It becomes legible in the middle of a list of magical formulæ.)
30 The chiefest talisman, the mighty talisman, the engraved talisman, the talisman is the binder, with enchantment. 31 The repetition of the enchantment (is) baneful to man. 32 The curses of the gods. 33 ... the binder with enchantment. 34 (With enchantment) his hands (and) his feet he binds. 35 Merodach, the son of Hea, the prince, with his holy hands cuts the knots. 36 May the enchantment cause this talisman to the desert among the wild beasts to go forth. 37 May the baneful enchantment seize upon others. ”

“ Associated words: cloisonné, champlevé.
enchant, v. bewitch, charm, enrapture, captivate, enravish, transport, delight.
enchantment, n. charm, witchery, fascination, glamour, illusion; sorcery, conjuration, witchcraft, spell. Antonyms: disenchantment, disillusionment.
enchantress, n. siren, inamorata, charmer, sorceress, witch.
encircle, v. environ, encompass, surround, gird, circumscribe, enfold.
encounter, n. meeting, collision, rencounter; battle, contest, conflict, onslaught, attack. ”

“ The marvellousness of the subject, the charm of the descriptions, the fantasticalness of the enchantments, make these tales powerfully interesting, so that the reader can scarcely leave off before he reaches the conclusion. If his works seem frivolous to some persons who disdain all which belongs not to high literature, there are others who will be much gratified in the opportunity of indulging, after their more grave occupations in the perusal of these tales, and will be glad to experience again in mature age some of the sensations which charmed their youthful days. ”

“ He had employed his mind chiefly on works of fiction, and subjects of fancy; and, by indulging some peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a passive acquiescence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the waterfalls of Elysian gardens. ”

“ They are mightily given to divination, and foretell future events, and employ themselves either by purifications, sacrifices, or other enchantments to avert evils, or procure good fortune and success. They are skilful, likewise, in the art of divination by the flying of birds, and interpreting of dreams and prodigies ”

“ Magi.
wish, v. desire, aspire; invoke, imprecate; congratulate, felicitate (wish happiness to) .
wish, n. desire, longing, aspiration, hankering.
wishbone, n. merry thought, furculum; fourchette.
wishing, n. longing, aspiration.
wit, n. sense, understanding; repartee, drollery, facetiousness, jocularity, waggishness; wag, humorist.
witch, n. sorceress, enchantress; hag; siren; warlock (male witch) .
witchcraft, n. sorcery, enchantments, necromancy, black art, conjuration, incantation; fascination, witchery.
witchery, n. witchcraft, sorcery; fascination, spell, charm, entrancement. ”

“ The use of charms, rites and spells, having been established in one department—say, hunting—may be extended to others by analogy, and is confirmed there in the same way, namely, by still doing one’s best. Having obtained the charms and learnt, or invented, the rites and spells, one applies them, but at the same time makes war or love as cunningly as one can, cultivates one’s garden, drives a bargain, and so forth, and ascribes all good results to the Magic. ”

“ Behold, I am against your magic charms, by which ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly. ”

“ Every voice in the great bright house was a call to the ingenuities and impunities of pleasure; every echo was a defiance of difficulty, doubt or danger; every aspect of the picture, a glowing plea for the immediate, and as with plenty more to come, was another phase of the spell. For a world so constituted was governed by a spell, that of the smile of the gods and the favour of the powers; the only handsome, the only gallant, in fact the only intelligent acceptance of which was a faith in its guarantees and a high spirit for its chances. ”

“ But I cannot venture to discuss such subjects with you. It is only the skilled enchanter who can stand safely in the magic circle, and compel the spirits that he summons, even if they are evil, to minister to ends in which he foresees a good. ”

“ An enchanter’s mirror, on which, with a word, could be made to rise all apparitions of the universe, grouped in new relations; a magic ring, that could transport the wearer, himself invisible, into each region of grandeur or beauty ”

“ All stages of proficiency may be traced from the simple layman who swings a bull-roarer to raise the wind, to the wizard who lives by his art, and is feared by all his tribe and far beyond it, or to the erudite magician who controls the demons and vies with the gods.
Magical things, objects or actions, in their simplest forms, are charms, spells and rites; and since the ends for which they can be used are either to protect oneself or to exert power over other persons or things, each of these kinds of magic-thing may be defensive or offensive. A defensive charm is called an amulet ”

“ This word enshrines the fact that magic and medicine were once united. The charm, i.e. song, was a spell, whether of words, philtres, or figures, as thus:—
“With the charmes that she saide,
A fire down fro’ the sky alight.” —Gower.
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Charms, amulets, characts, talismans, and the like, are found amongst all peoples and in all times. They unite in one bond of superstitious brotherhood the savage and the philosopher, the Sumatrans and the Egyptians, the Malay and the Jew, the Catholic and the Protestant. The charm differs from the amulet merely in the fact that it need not be suspended. ”

“ All the charms of the magicians,
All the magic powers of evil;
Come to me; ascend, Osseo!
⁠"'Taste the food that stands before you:
It is blessed and enchanted,
It has magic virtues in it,
It will change you to a spirit. ”

“ In such a place, at such an hour, one feels the most subtle and the most searching spell which Nature ever throws over those that seek her; a spell woven of many charms, magical potions, and powerful incantations. ”

“ Woe to the women that sew magic charms on all wrists, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come to you? ”

“ There shall not be found with thee any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that useth divination, one that practiseth augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. ”

“ Of that dream also those skilled in the signification of dreams could tell me nothing.”
“And yet the dream is plain,” said the Enchanter, looking full into the eyes of the King. “A laden ass signifies a treasure found—your dream is of a treasure being brought into your palace.”
“It is so,” said the ancient dwarf with the crown of scarlet feathers upon his head. “In dreams an ass is always laden with treasure.” ”