MAGIC AND SORCERY 137 



because they forgot that faith is necessary to obtain 

 success." ^ 



A strong faith and a powerful imagination are the 

 two pillars supporting the door to the temple of magic, 

 and without which nothing can be accomplished. Ima- 

 gination is the formative power of man ; it often acts 

 instinctively and without any conscious effort of the 

 will. " Man has a visible and an invisible workshop. 

 The visible one is his body, the invisible one his ima- 

 gination (mind). The sun gives light, and this light 

 is not tangible, bnt its heat may be felt, and if the 

 rays are concentrated it may set a house on fire. The 

 imagination is a sun in the soul of man, acting in its 

 own sphere as the sun of the earth acts in that of the 

 earth. Wherever the sun shines, germs planted in the 

 soil grow and vegetation springs up, and the sun of 

 the soul acts in a similar manner, and calls the forms 

 of the soul into existence. Visible and tangible forms 

 grow into existence from invisible elements by the power 

 of the sunshine. Invisible vapours are attracted and 

 collected together into visible mists by the power of 

 the sun of the outer world, and the inner sun of man 

 performs similar wonders. The great world is only a 

 product of the imagination of the universal mind, and 

 man is a little world of its own that imagines and 

 creates by the power of imagination. If man's ima- 

 gination is strong enough to penetrate into every comer 

 of his interior world, it will be able to create things 

 in those comers, and whatever man thinks will take 

 form in his soul. But the imagination of Nature is like 

 a monkey aping the actions of man. That which man 

 does is imitated by the monkey, and the pictures formed 



^ All such practices have a certain scientific reason. The experiments 

 of Reichenbach with the magnetic or odic emanations of persons and 

 objects have shown the great eflfect they have upon sensitive organisms ; 

 but to try such experiments upon hardened sceptics an<l habitual deniers 

 is like testing the powers of a magnet upon a piece of wood. 



