this is found not only in nations whose history is known to us, but also is shown to the same degree in whatsoever state of civilization man is, or whatsoever zone he may inhabit. Whether a country is in childhood or old age, whether it is renowned or not in history, whether its manners are still barbarous or enlightened, in all degrees of outward knowledge and science the most remarkable generic similarity. breaks out in the conditions and phenomena. It is always the same spirit which whispers into the ear of Socrates, Plotin, and Swedenborg, and acts in ecstatic visions and words, which, though varied in form and expression, yet are always evidently founded upon the same outlines. It is that something which raises the same misty forms from the abyss of the mind in the Jewish Possessed, in the Siberian Schaman, in the Pythonesses and Sibyls, in the Indian fakir, in the temple-sleepers, in the witches of the middle ages, in the modern clairvoyants, or in the women troubled by evil spirits; and these forms are varied as living beings by the movement, the activity of the mind, and the taste of the age. In professors of the black art and fortunetellers, in ecstatic persons and ghost-seers of all ages and countries, a species of fantastic drama is performed, which in model, invention, and even in the scenery itself, is always the same, though represented according to the costume and expression of the age. As in the sleep-waking of ignorant persons, feeling and expression are often elevated and ennobled much above the average of their waking state, so shall we meet with thoughts and images of surprising depth and poetic bearing in the mythologies and dæmonologies of the most rude and sunken nations. And as, on the contrary, the educated somnambule does not carry the amount of education into the paroxysm, but is involuntarily seized on by the dæmon and drawn into the whirl of one-sided magical feelings, so does education in no wise dispel those forms which rise up from the night-side of humanity. Even in our age, which labours so hopelessly for each day's sustenance, these ancient messengers from heaven or hell, which lie side by side in the human breast, step into the path, now comforting and illumined, now supernatural and frightful. The phenomena of somnambulism, and, to speak distinctly, the poetic history of nations, point out clearly that the ex

tremes of human existence are conjoined. On one side, in equal relations between the vital power and the conditions of nature, the same primeval form springs up; or, to speak with Pythagoras and Jacob Böhme, the same numeral and signature, in an indistinct consciousness. The feelings retire under the same circumstances,—as it were, in the same corners, constructing the same figures; and the soul practises divination ut apes geometriam. But these images remain unembodied as long as the outer sense, turned towards the light, does not attract them, or explains and expresses them individually. Hence the outward difference of all supernatural representations, of all poetry and philosophy, even with the greatest inward similarity: everything which rests upon the movements of history, which is drawn through any stage of civilization, through the changes of government, of morals and faith, as the enduring characteristic, to the creation of the lower pole, while the other produces the endless variety in the existence of nations, the innumerable developments of the same fixed capabilities, the progress and the decline of nations. That steady characteristic forms the obscure but uniform foundation of all history; as it were, the warp through which the active spirit of nations and ages throws the weaver's shuttle with visible freedom of motion.

"In this manner, the observations which the somnambulic states of modern times afford us may bear important fruits for historic inquiry. This is satisfied, provisionally, with the light which animal magnetism throws into the dark chasms and hollows of history, where, before, the torch of human understanding only served to make the obscurity more visible. It is certainly a great gain that we are able to recognise the grand ideas of the great architect, in the mystically confused images which accompany all portions of the temple of history, or in the grimacing and distorted figures which here and there serve to sustain the arches; although we may not be able to decipher the hieroglyphic writings on the walls with any facility. Their investigation is immediately the business of natural philosophy, and the philosophy of history silently follows its footsteps. This progress has, as yet, been but unimportant; even the theory of the dream-states has been for some time stationary.

The great thing is, to seize upon the physiological roots, through all the deceit and untruth which accompany these appearances as necessarily as shadow does light.'

As it is not exactly our province to treat, in a history of magic, of the definitions, explanations, and differences of all those mutually connected conditions, visions, hallucinations, dreams, somnambulism, ecstasy, and clairvoyance, with all their accompanying transitions and reciprocities, we must regard them, in the mass, as a generic complication of facts and phenomena; the phantom as well as the reality; the passing vision as the durable ecstasy, which is but seldom observed, although it is produced in some, where a suitable disposition exists as a normal development of nature; in others, by disease or art: we cannot give direct criterions by which the false may be distinguished from the true, and the possible deceits, which are so frequent, from the real facts. But as I intend giving an historical account of all phenomena proceeding from the somnambulic element, whose sources and conditions may be at the same time inquired into, according to the peculiarities of place, time, and both natural and mental character, in the course of this work I shall, also, not entirely exclude these scientific investigations.

The following may be laid down as an axiom: that all magical phenomena of visions, dæmons, and spirits, of witchcraft and possession, of dreams and clairvoyance, depend upon a natural, and instinctive inclination of the soul to be placed in such conditions, as well as upon the outward natural conditions, and artificial means of producing and controlling them, just spoken of. Whilst seeking these instinctive movements in variously constituted nations, we may regard former opinions respecting the supernatural, and the state of civilization, and also the outward geographical conditions with which the instinctive feelings are sympathetically and anti-pathetically connected, as well as others communicating more comprehensively with the powers of nature, in which these almost inexplicable sympathies have their reciprocal influence between spirit and nature, between the soul and the body; for the mental element of the father continues typically active in the fixed style, as the seed set in the plantation, upon which surrounding circumstances

have more or less influence. Religious views play a prominent part everywhere, and it is evident that they have often derived their shape from the inward visionary spirit, as, in return, religion influences the visionary element, by which the various dramatic scenes of national romance are performed in tragic, epic, or comic poetry. Upon the dark ground of the soul, the magical characters are, as it were, inscribed in fixed types, and it only requires an inward and outward impulse to burn up and become active. Either through inward psychological or physiological causes, in a vision with sound outward senses, and with the power of distant or pre-vision, or as hallucinations in pathological disturbances of the body, where the spirits of within and without show themselves in every variety of form, which, however, a somewhat mature reason may with some consciousness be able to distinguish; or as ecstasy of religious enthusiasm, which possesses the miraculous power, like a far-spreading miasma, to affect others directly, and unfold the germs of somnambulism contained in them. This infection is an historical phenomenon of all ages, and belongs, indubitably, to the most inexplicable problems which the philosophy of history either entirely ignores as a noli me tangere, or passes over with a hasty side glance. We, instructed by the phenomena of magnetism, shall endeavour to penetrate deeper into this obscurity, and to procure a satisfactory explanation of much which, under the guise of terror and dismay, passed through countries, crying ravenously for human blood; those death-fires by which, even in the past century, the whole of Europe emulated to show its piety and enlightenment.

In passing to the special observation of magical appearances in the various ancient nations, we need only attend to the results already deduced, to gain fixed resting-places of enlightenment and true discernment.

They are very much as follows :—

1. The somnambulic element lies dormant in the human mind as an instinctive faculty, and only occasionally appears under certain conditions.

2. The conditions are either general and normal, or special and abnormal. To the former belong dreams and presentiments, the subjective production of the inward

senses and imagination, which arise more or less vividly in all men. To the latter belong the pathological conditions of hallucinations, spectral visions, somnambulism, ecstatic and magnetic clairvoyance, which usually present themselves, as nocturnal phenomena, during the inactivity of the outward senses; in rarer cases, however, even during the waking state, so that the inner and outer images alternate in the imagination, or become fused. In rare instances, even waking and conscious persons become aware of things which are unknown to others. The imagination is, moreover, a double power,-it is an "imaginatio activa et passiva." That which the fancy sees is, however, always internal, never external, although not alone, "ex propria phantasiæ operatione, sed spiritus fatidici-or-pythonici," which spirit influences the imagination of men.

3. The subjective images of the imagination are often so clear and vivid to the fancy, that they not only take their place among objective realities, but entirely supplant these, where by complete madness is caused; as even the very feeling of identity becomes extinct, and the idea takes its place which characterises dæmoniac possession.

4. The conceptions of supernatural things and religious belief give the colour and the scene to the creations of the fancy, which never makes anything wholly, but only combines the present and the traditional according to a subjective regularity, and often transforms them in the strangest manner. Jacob Böhme says, man cannot create by his imagination, but imagines dominantly that which is created." Thereby the various gradations of spirits become angelic or dæmoniac, heavenly or hellish, according to the national romance of peoples and individuals.

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5. The somnambulic element, lying hidden in every man, may remain dormant for a long time, especially with an entirely outwardly directed occupation of the senses,—and even be not at all exhibited in individuals (as in nations) excepting in dreams. But it may suddenly and unexpectedly show itself, and the newly awakened poet now poetically creates in his own manner, and sets fire like a small spark to his neighbourhood, and even whole ages, in far-spreading circles.

6. The causes of the more frequent or rare development of the magical states lie partly in hereditary disposition,