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was that death never occurred until the spinal column collapsed.
No treatment could be found even to prolong the agony by an hour.
This being recognised, sufferers were thrown from the cliffs at
the first sign of the malady. In this way too were all other
corpses disposed. It was the most honourable death possible, for
becoming 'bread from heaven' for the serviles, they were again
worked up into Zro itself, a transmutation which in their view
would be well worth all the "resurrections of the body" and
"immortalities of the soul" of the theoretical, dogmatic, hearsay
religions. So much then concerning Zro, and the matters
immediately connected with it.
.pa
IV.
OF THE SO CALLED
MAGIC OF THE ATLANTEANS.
Magic in Atlas was a 'Science of Sciences'. It was the final
integration of all knowledge. In method its theory was
differentiation, and in theory its method was integration. For
example, the fifth of the great philosophers indicated
"Everything is Zro" to the Keeper of the Speech at the annual
sacrifice. This in spite of the fact that in that very year two
new forms of Zro had been discovered by that same philosopher. It
was the third of the galaxy who announced "The ultimate analysis
of sensation is pain; that of thought, madness; that of super-
consciousness (a state of trance induced by Zro and valued above
all things) annihilation."
His successor had retorted that in this was implicit a
postulate that pain, madness and annihilation were undesirable.
The third admitted that he had so meant his phrase, but
destroying the postulate, still stuck to it. All this was the
foundation of much magical theory, and on these purely
psychological researches was based the whole magical practice.
'There is no God' was a commonplace. It only implied that
the mind was wrong to try to conceive within it what was by
definition without it. To set limits to anything whatever seemed
to them the greatest of crimes, the exact opposite of the true
path to the Sun.
The practical side of magic was for the most part a mere
utilization of known forces, such as are employed by modern
science. But the resources of Atlas were as great, and the
advantages incomparably greater. The whole archipelago was a
laboratory. There was no question of the 'cost of research';
every man was devoted to it. Every man thought only of the main
problem 'How to reach Venus' and its sub-issues. Further, the
main laws of magic had always been found to govern and include
chemical and physical laws.
In the early days of colonization Zro was only known in its
crude state; it was the genius of a single man that obtained the
third state in its purity. From this state to the seventh it
moved almost of itself, very much as radium does. The genius,
having sufficient in this seventh state, made a sword, and
completed in three days the subjugation of the servile races. It
was a stroke of fortune, this quickness, for on the fourth day
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