Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/361

 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 representation, 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. Jean Paul [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter] says in a letter: "Twice in a large company I have made Frau von K. nearly go to sleep by merely looking 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." 1 Nowadays too, merely laying and keeping hold of the patient's hands while fixing

1 See Wahrheit aus Jean Pauls Leben, vol. viii. p. 120.

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