220 THE INTEUvECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



drive him from his kindred, habitation and country.'' It is 

 both a test of connubial fidelity and a potent means of 

 effecting marital reconciliations. It takes away fears and 

 jealousies and renders a person " gracious, persuasive and 

 elegant in his conversation." It is the especial friend of 

 burglars; because, u if burned in the corners of a house, it 

 causes the inmates to believe that the building is falling; 

 and so terrified are they with fancies, that they fly out, 

 leaving everything behind them, and, by this artifice, 

 thieves seize on goods." Such were the typical absurdi- 

 ties which filled people's minds at the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century. At about the middle of the same period, 

 they received a vast accession of others, which, if not 

 more absurd, were far more pestilent for then began many 

 of the delusions and deceptions which still prevail under 

 the generic name of u animal magnetism." 



To the arch impostor Bombast of Hohenheim, or, as he 

 is commonly called, Paracelsus, the conception of these 

 last is chiefly due; and as we shall encounter more or less 

 of his influence in tracing further developments, some brief 

 consideration may be given to his magnetic theories. He 

 had learned the rudiments of medicine from his father; 

 but he became by choice a professed astrologer, alchemist 

 and magician, traveled widely u to observe the secrets of 

 nature and the famous mountain of lodestone," l and 

 eventually imbibed, from the East, a rude sort of theoso- 

 phy. This, mingled with the mysticism of Europe, pro- 

 duced a new and complicated form of quackery which, 

 being less comprehensible than any which had preceded 

 it, found especial favor with the fanatics, demonologists 

 and philosopher' s-stone hunters. Thus encouraged, he 

 denounced Galen, Hippocrates and Averrhoes and all their 

 adherents as imbeciles, claimed the discovery of the elixir 

 of life, asserted communication with spirits, and entered 

 upon a career of the grossest dissipation. Finally, he lost 

 the support of the more intelligent portion of his followers, 



1 Biographic Univ., Paris, 1822. 



