M the artful use of words, incantations, names as essences, oratory, poetry, and is this not word magic? Is not the effect of harmony and melody magic? And is there not an elemental magic in the intuition of the craftsman, even in the "feel" of the technician for his machine, though it be a product of the highest technology? To say nothing of common sense? Surely the answer to all these questions is yes. Then these are nothing but the well-known elements of natural magic stripped of their superstitious and supernatural patina. Magic, thus defined, is the complement of science. It acts, not on material objects, but on human sensibility. At its highest intellectual development, reached in the seventeenth century just when science was beginning, magical theory could describe a cosmos full of meaning to the human spirit, a latter day Theory of Everything. Appealing to human sensibility, magicians demonstrate magical truths not only through their manipulations of the animate and inanimate but also through the power of their charisma and the ritualistic atmosphere of their performances. Ultimately, Ridley says, magic is about those things that are timelessly unique, and that makes magic an elixir of life. He explains: Magical truth and scientific truth are complementary in their respective limits, the former associated timelessly with the unique, the latter timelessly with the recurrent. The timeless- BAC Figure 26. "Magic is everywhere" can be written three different ways in Egyptian hieroglyphics: left-to-right (A), right-to-left (B), and top-to-bottom (C). This figure is based upon an illustration in Ancient Egyptian Magic by Bob Brier (1980).