26 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



entity of these forces, as if they were independent 

 of the matter whence they issue ; they are simply 

 determinate and determinate modes of motions, of 

 actions, and reactions in the elements of the world. 

 For if magnetism appears to reveal itself in deter- 

 minate elements, its modes of manifestation are 

 peculiar to itself, and its efficacy with respect to 

 other forces is also peculiar ; yet it by no means 

 follows that it possesses a substantial entity, or, as 

 it were, displays personal activity among phenomena ; 

 it rather indicates that the elements of the world 

 will, under given circumstances, act reciprocally in 

 such a manner that we perceive phenomena which 

 group themselves together and which we call mag- 

 netic or magnetism. And this explanation applies 

 to other cases. 



I therefore, speaking of psychical force in general, 

 used the same terms ; I certainly did not wish to 

 constitute it into a personal and material entity of 

 the universe, but I intended to assert that among the 

 manifestations of the various forces of the world, 

 defined as above, there is also this psychical force, 

 characterized by phenomena and laws peculiar to 

 itself, and which, as I have shown, is when exercised 

 one of the greatest factors of the world. I repeat 

 tliat if this force varies with the greater or less per- 

 iVction of the organisms in which it is manifested, 

 yet it possesses a law and fundamental elements by 

 which it is so constituted that the same results will 



