Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/384

 THE WILL IN NATURE.

et deinceps corpus movendo foret? At extemplo contra hanc magicam motricem obicies istam esse intra concretum sibi suumque hospitium naturale, idcirco hanc, etsi magicam vocitemus, tantum erit nominis detorsio et abusus, siquidem vera et superstitiosa magica non ex anima basin desumit; cum eadem haec nil quidquam valeat, extra corpus suum movere altera re aut ciere. Respondeo vim et magicam illam naturalem animae, quae extra se agat virtute imaginis Dei latere iam obscuram in homine velut obdormire (post praevaricationem) excitationisque indigam: quae eadem, utut somnolenta, ac velut ebria, alioqui sit in nobis cottidie: sufficit tamen ad obeunda munia in corpore suo: dormit itaque scientia et potestas magica et solo nutu actrix in homine. [The soul, which is absolutely and entirely spirit, would never be able to move or excite the breath of life (which is thus physical and material) and still less flesh and bones, unless a certain power, naturally inherent in it, yet magical and spiritual, descended from the soul into the spirit and body. Just tell me, in what way could the bodily spirit obey the command of the soul, unless such a command existed to move the spirit, and thereafter the body? But you will at once object to this magic power of movement that it must remain within that which is peculiar to it and within its natural domain. Therefore you will say that, although we call it magical, this is only a misrepresentation and misuse of the name. For true and superstitious magic cannot derive its basis from the soul, since this very soul would not in any way be able to move, change, or excite something outside its body. My reply is that that power and magic, natural to the soul, which operate outward, lie already hidden and obscured in humans by virtue of God's image. They slumber (after the Fall) and require stimulation; but although they are always present within us in a drowsy and, as it were, intoxicated form, they are always sufficient to carry out the functions. Consequently, magic knowledge and power are asleep, and only on stimulation do they become effective in humans.]

§ 102. Satan itaque vim magicam hanc excitat (secus dormientem et scientia exterioris hominis impeditam) in suis mancipiis et inservit eadem illis ensis vice in manu potentis, id est sagae. Nec aliud prorsus Satan ad homicidium affert praeter excitationem dictae potestatis somnolentae. [Therefore it is Satan who excites this magic power (which usually slumbers and is impeded by the outer person's consciousness) in those who have sold themselves to him; and it is at their command as is a sword in a strong and powerful hand, in other words, of the sorceress. And actually Satan contributes nothing further to homicide except to stimulate that slumbering force.]

§ 106. Saga in stabulo absente occidit equum: virtus quaedam naturalis a spiritu sagae, et non a Satana derivatur, quae opprimat vel strangulet spiritum vitalem equi. [The sorceress can kill a horse in a distant stable; a certain natural effective force comes from the spirit of the sorceress and not from Satan. Such a force is capable of smothering and strangling the horse.]

§ 139. Spiritus voco magnetismi patronos non, qui ex caelo demittuntur multoque minus de infernalibus sermo est, sed de iis, qui fiunt in ipso homine sicut ex silice ignis: ex voluntate hominis nempe aliquantillum spiritus vitalis influentis desumitur et id ipsum assumit idealem entitatem, tanquam formam ad complementum. Qua nacta perfectione spiritus mediam sortem inter corpora et non corpora assumit. Mittitur autem eo, quo voluntas ipsum dirigit: idealis igitur entias . . . nullis stringitur locorum, temporum aut dimensionum imperiis, ea nec daemon est nec eius ullus effectus, sed spiritualis quaedam est actio illius, nobis plane naturalis et vernacula. [I describe as the guardian spirits of magnetism not those arising who descend from heaven, and eve less do I speak here of those from infernal regions. On the contrary, I speak of those arising in humans themselves, just as fire originates in a flintstone. Thus from the will of the human a little of the influential vital spirit is drawn, and it is just this which assumes an ideal entity or essentially, a form, as it were, in order to complete itself. After the spirit has attained this completion, it assumes a kind of middle state between the corporeal and the incorporeal. But it can be sent whither the will directs it; and so that ideal entity is not &hellip; stopped by any barrier of place, time, or distance; it is not a demon or the effect of such, but a spiritual effect of the thing in question, and to us this is quite natural and familiar.]

§ 168. Ingens mysterium propalare hactenus distuli, ostendere videlicet ad manum in homine sitam esse energiam, qua solo nutu et phantasia sua, queat