The Black Art [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONIT gives me very great pleasure to introduce this book because, to some extent, I am responsible for it.Last year my " Black Magic" romance. The Devil Rides Out, aroused such widespread interest that Messrs. John Long asked me if I would write a serious book upon the subject for them.That I could not do. All the data that went into my novel was acquired from old treatises or from conversations with occultists to whom I secured introductions for the purpose of obtaining such information as would enable me to build up an accurate background for my story. To this day my practical knowledge of magic remains absolutely nil.However, the genius of publishing lies in the ability of the publisher to sense and supply a public demand. Messrs. John Long were not put off by my inability to attempt such a book as this, and they asked me if I could suggest a serious student of the subject who would write a full account of the history and practice of the Black Art.That was altogether a different matter; I had met numerous occultists during my search for genuine local colour for my book, and several of them might have produced a very readable study of this kind, but one stood out beyond all the rest as a man of profound knowledge and one whose very presence radiates power.In Mr. Rollo Ahmed I introduced to Messrs. John Long no student who has confined himself only to dusty books and minor experiments, but a Master, who has devoted a Ufetime to acquiring a first-hand knowledge of that grim " other world " which lies so far from ordinary experience, and yet is so very near for those who have the power to pierce the veil.Mr. Rollo Ahmed is a member of that ancient race which possessed by far the greatest and longest enduring civilisation of all known antiquitythe Egyptians. They