224 PARACELSUS 



Thought alone produces no spirit, but it determines the 

 qualities of the will." 



" There is no spiritual power in children, because they 

 have no perfect will-power; he whose will is perfected 

 gives birth to a spirit, as a pebble produces a spark, 

 and this spiritual power partakes of the nature of his 

 will. He who lives in the will, possesses the spirit 

 — ^.e., the Ens spirituale. There is a corporeal world 

 and a spiritual world, and the two are one, and the 

 spiritual beings live in their own spiritual world as 

 we live in ours. They have their likes and dislikes, 

 their sympathies and antipathies, like ourselves, and 

 they do not always correspond to the likes and dislikes 

 of the bodily forms. Men may quarrel and fight with 

 each other and their spirits nevertheless be in harmony, 

 but if a spirit injures another spirit, the material body 

 of the latter will becomes also affected." 



" The spirits of a man may act upon another with- 

 out the other man's consent or intention, unconsciously 

 and involuntarily to him ; but if man's will is in 

 unity with his thought and desire, a spirit (force) will 

 be produced which can be employed for good or for evil. 

 If two such spiritual forces battle with each other, the 

 weaker one, or the one which does not defend itself 

 sufficiently, will be overcome, and bodily diseases may be 

 the result. An evil-disposed person may throw the force 

 of his will upon another person and injure him, even if 

 the latter is stronger than the former, because the latter 

 does not expect and is not prepared for the attack; but 

 if the other is stronger and resists successfully, then a 

 force will be kindled in him which will overcome his 

 enemy and which may destroy him " ^ (Bepercicssio). 



^ Here is the whole philosophy of what is now called " hypnotic sug- 

 gestion" outlined. Men's thoughts constantly act upon each other, be 

 it knowingly or without their knowledge, and the stronger overcomes 

 and overawes the weaker ; but the strength of the thought depends upon 

 the force of the will by which it is endowed, and the strength of will 

 depends upon the amount of its consciousness." 



