On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient...

[283] French chemists likewise say: "Il est évident que les métaux ne sont pas tous également avides d'oxygène." ... "La difficulté de la réduction devait correspondre nécessairement à une avidité fort grande du métal pour l'oxygène."—(See Paul de Rémusat, "La Chimie à l'Exposition." "L'Aluminium," "Revue des Deux Mondes," 1855, p. 649).

Vaninus ("De Amirandis Naturæ Arcanis," p. 170) had said: "Argentum vivum etiam in aqua conglobatur, quemadmodum et in plumbi scobe etiam: at a scobe non refugit (this is directed against an opinion expressed by Cardanus) imo ex ea quantum potest colligit: quod nequit (scil. colligere), ut censeo, invitum relinquit: natura enim et sua appetit, et vorat." This is evidently more than a form of words. He here quite decidedly attributes a will to quicksilver. And thus it will invariably be found that where, in physical and chemical processes, there is a reference to elementary forces of Nature and to the primary qualities of bodies which cannot be further deduced, these are always expressed by words which belong to the will and its manifestations. [Add. to 3rd ed.]

[284] I only mention one work which has recently appeared, the explicit object of which is to show that the magnetiser's will is the real agent: "Qu'est ce que le Magnétisme?" par E. Gromier. (Lyon, 1850.)

[285] Puységur himself says in the year 1784: "Lorsque vous avez magnétisé le malade, votre but était de l'endormir, et vous y avez réussi par le seul acte de votre volonté; c'est de même par un autre acte de volonté que vous le réveillez." (Puységur, "Magnét. Anim." 2me édit. 1820, "Catéchisme Magnétique," p. 150-171.) [Add. to 3rd ed.]

[286] Kieser, "Tellur." vol. i. p. 400, et seqq.

[287] See "Wahrheit aus Jean Paul's Leben," vol. viii. p. 120.

[288] I had the good fortune in the year 1854 myself to witness some extraordinary feats of this kind, performed here by Signor Regazzoni from Bergamo, in which the immediate, i.e. magical, power of his will over other persons was unmistakeable, and of which no one, excepting perhaps those to whom Nature has denied all capacity for apprehending pathological conditions, could doubt the genuineness. There are nevertheless such persons: they ought to become lawyers, clergymen, merchants or soldiers, but in heaven's name not doctors; for the result would be homicidal, diagnosis being the principal thing in medicine.—Regazzoni was able at will to throw the somnambulist who was under his influence into a state of complete catalepsy, nay, he could make her fall down backwards, when he stood behind her and she was walking before him, by his mere will, without any gestures. He could paralyze her, give her tetanos, with the dilated pupils, the complete insensibility, and in short, all the unmistakeable symptoms of complete catalepsy. He made one of the lady spectators first play the piano; then standing fifteen paces behind her, he so completely paralyzed her by his will and gestures, that she was unable to continue playing.

He next placed her against a column and charmed her to the spot, so that she was unable to move in spite of the strongest efforts.—According to my own observation, nearly all his feats are to be explained by his isolating the brain from the spinal marrow, either completely, in which case the sensible and motor nerves become paralyzed, and total catalepsy ensues; or partially, by the paralysis only affecting the motor nerves while sensibility remains—in other words, the head keeps its consciousness, while the body is apparently lifeless. This is precisely the effect of strychnine: it paralyzes the motor nerves only, even to complete tetanos, which induces death by asphyxia; but it leaves the sensible nerves, and with them consciousness, intact. Regazzoni does this same thing by the magic influence of his will. The moment at which this isolation takes place is distinctly visible in a peculiar trembling of the patient. I recommend a small French publication entitled "Antoine Regazzoni de Bergame à Francfort sur Mein," by L. A. V. Dubourg (Frankfurt, Nov. 1854, 31 pages in 8vo.) on Regazzoni's feats and the unmistakeably genuine character they bear for everyone who is not entirely devoid of all sense for organic Nature.

In the "Journal du Magnétisme," edit. Dupotet, of the 15th August, 1856, in criticizing a treatise: "De la Catalepsie, mémoire couronné," 1856, in 4to, the reviewer, Morin, says: "La plupart des caractères qui distinguent la catalepsie, peuvent être obtenus artificiellement et sans danger sur les sujets magnétiques, et c'est même là une des expériences les plus ordinaires des séances magnétiques." [Add. to 3rd ed.]

[289] "Mittheilungen über die Somnambüle, Auguste K., in Dresden." 1845, pp. 115, 116, and 318.

[290] See extract from the English periodical "Britannia," in "Galignani's Messenger," of the 23rd October, 1851.

[291] Szapary, "Ein Wort über Animalischen Magnetismus, Seelenkörper and Lebensessenz" (1840).

[292] "Oder physische Beweise, dass der Animalisch-magnetische Strom das Element, and der Wille das Princip alles geistigen und Körperlichen Lebens sei."

[293] Bacon, "Instaur. Magna," L. III.

[294] Plin. hist. nat. L. 30, c. 3. [Add. to 3rd ed.]

[295] Apuleius, "Oratio de Magia," p. 104. Bip.

[296] Bacon, "Silva Silvarum," § 997.

[297] In the "Times" of June the 12th, 1855, we find, p. 10, the following:—

"A Horse-charmer.

"On the voyage to England the ship 'Simla' experienced some heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay, in which the horses suffered severely, and some, including a charger of General Scarlett, became unmanageable. A valuable mare was so very bad, that a pistol was got ready to shoot her and to end her misery; when a Russian officer recommended a Cossak prisoner to be sent for, as he was a 'juggler' and could, by charms, cure any malady in a horse. He was sent for, and immediately said he could cure it at once. He was closely watched, but the only thing they could observe him do was to take his sash off and tie a knot in it three several times. However the mare, in a few minutes, got on her feet and began to eat heartily, and rapidly recovered." [Add. to 3rd ed.]

[298] Kieser, "Archiv, für den thierischen Magnetismus," vol. v. heft 3, p. 106; vol. viii. heft 3, p. 145; vol. ix. heft 2, p. 172; and vol. ix. heft 1, p. 128; Dr. Most's book likewise: "Über Sympathetische Mittel und Kuren," 1842, may be used as an introduction to this matter. (And even Pliny indicates a number of charm-cures in the 28th Book, chaps. 6 to 17. [Add. to 3rd ed.])

[299] Delrio. "Disqu. Mag." L. III. P. 2, q. 4. 4, s. 7—and Bodinus, "Mag. Dæmon," iii. 2.

[300] See note 2, p. 334, especially pp. 40, 41, and Nos. 89, 91, and 97 of Most's book.

[301] Kieser, "Archiv. f. t. M." See the account of Bende Bensen's illness, vol. ix. to vol. xii.

[302] Plutarch, "Symposiacæ quæstionis," qu. v. 7. 6.

[303] Kant, "First Principles of Ethical Metaphysic," 3rd edition, p. 105.

[304] D. Tiedemann, "Disputatio de quæstione, quæ fuerit artum magicarum origo." Marb. 1787. A prize-essay written for the Göttingen Society.

[305] Here and there, Plotinus betrays a more correct knowledge, for instance, "Enn." ii. lib. iii. c. 7; "Enn." iv. lib. iii. c. 12, et lib. ix. c. 3.

[306] Delrio, "Disq. mag." L. ii. qu. 2. Agrippa a Nettesheym, "De Vanit. Scient." c. 45.

[307] Roger Bacon already in the thirteenth century said: ... "Quod si ulterius aliqua anima maligna cogitat fertiter de infectione alterius atque ardenter desideret et certitudinaliter intendat, atque vehementer consideret se posse nocere, non est dubium quin natura obediet cogitationibus animæ." (See Rogeri Bacon, "Opus Majus," Londini, 1733, p. 252.)

[308] Theophrastus Paracelsus, Strassburg edition in two folio vols., vol. i, pp. 91, 353, et seqq. and p. 789; vol. ii. pp. 362, 496.

[309] Vol. i. p. 19.

[310] "De occulta philosophia," lib. 1, c. 66.

[311]Ibid. c. 67.

[312] "De occulta philosophia," lib. 1, cc. 66, 67 et 68.

[313]Ibid. p. 440: Addunt Avicennæ dictum: "Ad validam alicujus imaginationem cadit camelus." Ibid. p. 478, speaking of charms: fascinatio ne quis cum muliere coeat, he says: Equidem in Germania complures allocutus sum vulgari cognomento Necromantistas, qui ingenue confessi sunt, se firme satis credere, meras fabulas esse opiniones, quæ de dæmonibus vulgo circumferuntur, aliquid tamen ipsos operari, vel vi herbarum commovendo phantasiam, vel vi imaginationis et fidei vehementissimæ, quam ipsorum nugacissimis confictis excantationibus adhibent ignaræ mulieres, quibus persuadent, recitatis magna cum devotione aliquibus preculis, statim effici fascinum, quare credulæ ex intimo cordis effundunt excantationes, atque ita, non vi verborum, neque caracterum, ut ipsæ existimant, sed spiritibus[314], fascini inferendi percupidis exsufflatis proximos effascinant. Hinc fit, ut ipsi Necromantici, in causa propria, vel aliena, si soli sint operarii, nihil unquam mirabile præstiterint: carent enim fide, quæ cuncta operatur. [Add. to 3rd ed.]

[314] Schopenhauer has added to spiritibus in parenthesis (sc. vitalibus et animalibus).

"Der Teufel hat sie's zwar gelehrt;

Allein der Teufel kann's nicht machen."—Faust.

[Add. to 3rd ed.]