l6o PARACELSUS 



should not be permitted to nurse and educate infants, 

 because the impressions which their imagination creates 

 unconsciously impresses itself and acts injuriously upon 

 the minds of the children. The imagination is the 

 cause that beings have been created out of the ^ Mumia 

 spiritualis,' which possesses great powers " ^ (Fragment : 

 De Virtute Imaginationce). 



" By the power of the imagination foreign bodies are 

 transferred invisibly into the bodies of human beings, in 

 the same manner as if I take a stone in my hand and 

 put it into a tub of water, and, withdrawing my hand, 

 I leave the stone in the water. Menstruating witches 

 especially may dissolve (dematerialise) bodies by the 

 power of their imagination. They make a figure of 

 wax representing the person whom they wish to injure, 

 and they tie a cloth spotted with menstrual blood around 

 the neck of that figure, and attach it there by means of 

 a string drawn through the pulpy mass of a crushed 

 spider. They then take a bow and an arrow made of a 

 certain kind of wood ; they tie pieces of glass, or nails, 

 or bristles, or anything else, to that arrow, and shoot it 

 into the waxen image ; and in this way the articles dis- 

 solved by their imagination are by the power of the 

 Mumia transmitted into the body of the sensitive person, 

 and there they will be found in a corporeal form " (De 

 Sagis). 



"The power of the imagination is a great factor in 

 medicine. It produces diseases in man and in animals, 



1 According to Paracelsus, the characteristic signs by which witches 

 can be known, or which justify the suspicion of a person being a witch, 

 are as follows : — 



1. They avoid the company of men and lead solitary lives. 



2. They especially venerate certain days, such as Thursday, Friday, and 



Saturday. 



3. They avoid sexual intercourse. 



4. They often have special marks, such as certain deformities and 



physiognomical characteristics. 



5. They practise certain ceremonies, and seek to associate with thise 



who practise such arts, 



