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ANIMAL MAGNETISM AND MAGIC. 341
that will, which constitutes at once the inner essence of
Man and of the whole of Nature and in the assumption
connected with it that, somehow or other, this omnipotence
might possibly for once make itself felt, even when pro
ceeding from the individual. People were unable to in
vestigate and distinguish the difference between the capa
bilities of the will as thing in itself and the same will in its
individual manifestation ;
but they assumed without fur
ther ado, that under certain circumstances, the will might
be enabled to break through the barriers of individuation.
For the above-mentioned feeling rebelled obstinately
against the knowledge forced upon it by experience, that
" Der Gott der mir im Busen wohnt,
Kann tief mein Innerstes erregen,
Der iiber alien meinen Kraften thront,
Er kann nach Aussen nichts bewegen."
According to the fundamental thought just expounded, we
find that the physical medium used in all attempts at
magic, never was regarded in any other light than in thnt
of a vehicle for a thing metaphysical ; otherwise it coukl
evidently stand in no relation whatever to the effect con
templated. These media consisted in cabalistic words, sym
bolical actions, traced figures, wax images, &c. &c. We see
too that, according to the original feeling, what this vehicle
conveyed, was in the last resort always an act of volition
that had been connected with it. The very natural induce
ment to do this, was the observation, that every moment men
became aware of a completely unaccountable, that is, evi
dently metaphysical, agency of the will, in the movements
or their own bodies. Might not this agency, they thought,
be extended to other bodies also ? To find out a way to
annul the isolation in which the will finds itself in each in
dividual, and to extend the immediate sphere of the will s
action beyond the organism of the person willing, was the
nim of Magic.