PNEUMATOLOGY 1 19 



everything that such spirits say. Sach spirits often 

 teach those persons who deal with them to perform cer- 

 tain ceremonies, to speak certain words and names in 

 which there is no meaning, and they do all such things 

 for their own amusement, and to have some sport at the 

 expense of credulous persons. They are seldom what 

 they pretend to be ; they accept names, and one will use 

 the name of another, or they will assume the mask and the 

 ways of acting of another. If a person has such a spirit, 

 belonging to a better class, he may make a good fortune- 

 teller ; but one who has a lying spirit will hear nothing 

 but lies ; and, on the whole, all these spirits surpass each 

 other in deception and lies" {Philosophia Sagax).'^ 



" Man is an instrument through which all the three 

 worlds — the spiritual, the astral, and the elementary 

 world — are acting. In him are beings from all these 

 worlds, reasonable and unreasonable, intelligent and unin- 

 telligent creatures. A person without any self-knowledge 

 and self-control is made to act according to the will of these 

 creatures; but the true philosopher acts according to the 

 will of the Supreme, the Creator, in him. If the masters 

 whom man obeys are foolish, their servants will also act 

 foolishly. It is true that every one thinks that he is the 

 master, and that he does what he pleases ; but he does 

 not see the fool within him, who is his master, and by 

 whom he becomes a fool himself " {De Meteoris "), 



There is another class of spirits, the Saganas or Ele- 

 mental Spirits of Nature. Paracelsus says about their 

 bodies : " There are two kinds of flesh — one that comes 

 from Adam and another that does not come from Adam. 

 The former is gross material, visible and tangible for us ; 

 the other one is not tangible and not made from earth. 

 If a man who is a descendant from Adam wants to pass 



^ Those who have some experience in modem spiritualism will recog- 

 nise the truth of this description. Spiritualists should not act upon 

 the advices of spirits, if such advices are against their own reason, and 

 scientists should not rely on the opinions of others, if such opinions are 

 against common sense. 



