Magic and Rhetoric

I thought this reading was really interesting. I was surprised to see words like magic and rhetoric pared together and it really sparked my interest. The whole idea of suppressing enthusiasm written about on page 354 seemed like a rather dark historical moment. I also find it interesting that religion was involved with the destruction of this "magical model of the universe." These concepts are very new to me. I've never heard of rhetoric described in these magical and powerful terms. This strikes me as an idea for a final project, but I don't know exactly what I would study or how I'd go about it. I was interested by the phrase, "words are lifeless" and "'witchery' of language" words like "phantasms" and the secret societies that kept magic alive like the Freemasons (a group I've heard of) and the Rosicrucians (a group I have not heard of.)