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ANIMAL MAGNETISM AND MAGIC. 357
much is at any rate certain, that at the bottom of all the
experiments, successful or unsuccessful, which have ever
been made in Magic, there lies an anticipation of my Meta-
physic. For in them is expressed the consciousness, that
the causal law only connects phenomena, while the inner
nature of things remains independent of it; and also,
that if any direct influence on Nature be possible from
the will itself. But
within, it can only take place through
even if Magic were to be ranked as practical Metaphysic,
according to Bacon s classification, it is certain that no
other theoretical Metaphysic would stand in the right
relation to it but mine, by which the world is resolved into
"Will and Representation.
The zealous cruelty with which Magic has always been
persecuted by the Church and to which the papal malleus
maleficarum bears terrible evidence, seems not to have for
its sole basis the criminal purposes often associated with
the practice of Magic or the part assumed to be played
by the Devil, but rather to proceed partly from a vague
foreboding and fear lest Magic should trace back its
original power to its true source ; whereas the Church has
assigned to it a 1
place outside Nature. The detestation
shown by the cautious clergy of England towards Animal
tends to confirm this supposition, and also
Magnetism 2
the active zeal with which they oppose table-turning,
which at any rate is harmless, yet which, for the same
1
They scent something of the
" Nos habitat, non tartara sed nee sidera coeli :
Spiritus in nobis qui viget,
ilia facit."
(Not in the heavens it lives, nor yet in hell ;
The spirit that does it all, doth in us dwell.)
Compare Johann Beaumont,
"
Historisch-Physiologisch-und Theolo-
gischer Tractat von Geistern, Erscheinungen, Hexereyen und andern
Zauber-Handeln, Halle im Magdeburgischen, 1721," p. 281. [Add. to
3rd ed.]
a
Compare Parerga, vol. i. p. 257 (2nd ed. vol. i. p. 286).