The Magic Square
We are not arriv’d to a certainty yet, in the settling this great Point, namely, what Magick is? Whether a diabolical Art or a Branch of the Mathematics? Our most learnedLexicon Technicum is of the latter Opinion, and gives the Magic Square and the Magic Lantern, two Terms of Art.
The Magic Square is when Numbers in Arithmetical Proportion are dispos’d into such Parallels or equal Ranks, as that the Sums of each Row as well Diagonally laterally shall be all equal; for Example, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Place these Nine in a Square of three, they will direct and diagonally make 18. Thus,
This he calls the Magic Square, but gives no Reason for the Term, nor any Account of what infernal Operations are wrought by this Concurrence of the Numbers; neither do I see that there can be any such Use made of it.
