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346 THE WILL IN NATURE.
although
he "believed he had convinced himself of the im
possibility of all such things, yet he continued goodnaturedly
to comply with their wish as usual, and indeed
often succeeded in relieving them. This success he ascribed
to his peasants firm belief, forgetting that a similar faith
ought also to bring success to the medical treatment which
is so often applied with complete inefficacy to believing
patients.
Now, if Theurgy and Demonomagic, as described above,
were but the mere interpretation and outward trappings of
the thing, the mere husk, at which the majority were con
tent to stop short there were nevertheless ;
some, who went
below the surface and quite recognised that the agent in
influences supposed to proceed from magic, was absolutely
nothing but the will. We must not however look for such
deeper observers as these among the discountenancers and
antagonists of Magic, and the majority of the writers on
this subject belong precisely to these : they derived their
knowledge exclusively from Courts of Justice and from
the examination of witnesses, so that they merely describe
the outside of the matter ; and, if at any time they chanced,
through confessions, to gain an insight into the inner
processes, they took good care not to betray that knowledge,
lest, by doing so, they should contribute to diffuse the
terrible vice of sorcery. To this class belong Bodinus,
Delrio, Bindsfeldt, and others. For information as to the
real nature of the thing, we must on the contrary go to
philosophers and investigators of Nature, who wrote in
those times of prevailing superstition. Now, from wliat
they say, it clearly follows, that the real agent in Magic,
just as in Animal Magnetism, is nothing but the will.
Here I must quote some passages in support of this
assertion. 1
1
Theophrastus Paracelsus especially discloses
Roger Bacon already in the thirteenth century said :...." Quod si
ultcrius aligua anima maligna cogitat ftrtiter de infectione altcrius,