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98 GREEK DIVINATION chap, v

language of Egypt or Palestine. Formalism finds its apotheosis in the Egyptian books of magic and the word of power.1 But if we cast our eyes backward through the mists of antiquity the mantis looms a more imposing figure. The farther back you trace his history, the smaller is the part played by his art, and the more important his personality, power, or mana. Prophecy in his case at any rate begins in magic, and ends degenerate in a formal art.

1 Lukian, Philopseiides \ 31, 35.