black art

“Those who practise the black art are all "wizards" or "witches" -- names never given to practisers of the white art.”

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI

“Al – Sahr, magic or the black art proper, gramarye, egromancy, while Al — Simiyá is white magic, electro-biology, a kind of natural and deceptive magic, in which drugs and perfumes exercise an important action.”

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night

“One night, back in acting class, while I am sitting in the dark taking scrupulous notes in the giant black art notebook I am never without, my repetitively Oscar-thanked acting teacher interrupts himself midcritique, of two actors we are barely enduring, to announce, “Moon, you look like a writer.””

Simon & Schuster: Dont You Forget About Me

“Moslem writings; and those who would study the black art at head-quarters are supposed to go there.”

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night

“There were a good many professors of the black art at this date, and Lilly studied under one Evans, a scoundrelly ex-parson from Wales, until, according to Lilly's own account, he discovered Evans to be the cheat he undoubtedly was.”

The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54

“And for many a long day afterwards was he mainly remembered as a co-worker in the black art with Friar BUNGAY, who together with him constructed, by the aid of the devil and diabolical rites, a brazen head which should possess the power of speech -- the experiment only failing through the negligence of an assistant. .173 Such was ROGER BACON in the memory of the later Middle Ages and many succeeding years; he was the typical alchemist, where that term carries with it the depth of disrepute, though indeed alchemy was for him but one, and that not the greatest, of many interests.”

Bygone Beliefs