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ANIMAL MAGNETISM AND MAGIC. 329
here the will operates in its primariness, as thing in itself ;
and this demands the exclusion, as far as possible, of repre
sentation, as a different sphere, as secondary to the will.
Facts to prove that the real agent in magnetising is the
will and each outward act only its vehicle, may be found
in all the more recent and more trustworthy writings upon
Magnetism, and it would be needless prolixity to repeat
them here. Nevertheless I will quote one case, not as
being especially striking, but as furnished by a remarkable
person and having a peculiar interest as his testimony.
x "
Twice in a large company I
Jean Paul says in a letter :
have made Frau von K. nearly go to sleep by merely look
ing at her with a firm will, no one else knowing anything
about it, and before that, I had brought on palpitation of
the heart and pallor to such a degree that Dr. S. had to
be summoned to her assistance." 2
Nowadays too, merely
laying and keeping hold of the patient s hands while fixing
1 See
"
Wahrheit aus Jean Paul s Leben," vol. viii. p. 120.
2 I had the good fortune in the year 1854 myself to witness soms
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 appre
bending 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 insensi
bility, 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
\vas 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