Victorian England witnessed the curious intellectual union of scientific naturalism and the belief in magic as these two seemingly opposed systems of thought rose to prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century. The doctrine of the former was formulated in part by the demands of scientists such as Thomas Huxley and John Tyndall. Naturalist thinkers wished to establish a scientifically directed culture and to eradicate religious belief and other such ‘superstitious’ thought entirely. Scientific naturalism maintained that belief in any non-physical agencies was superstitious and indicative of a culturally dysfunctional society. The doctrine of the latter was expressed in esoteric societies such as the Theosophical Society and the Hermetic Society and sought to establish, within the natural world and governed by natural laws, the mystery and spirituality traditionally associated with religious thinking and belief in magic. The people who belonged to these esoteric and magical societies that were springing up at the end of the century understood magic as the interaction of the human will and imagination with visible and invisible correspondences within the natural world in order to effect change.