226 PARACELSUS 



the spirit of envious, jealous, revengeful, and wicked 

 persons can, even if they are ignorant of the practices 

 of sorcery, injure those who are the objects of their 

 evil will while the body is asleep; for dreams which 

 come from the spirit are actually enacted, but dreams 

 which do not come from the spirit are only plays of 

 fancy." 



"One poison will render another poison harmless, 

 and thus the effect of the imagination of one person 

 neutralises the effects of the imagination of another. 

 If any one can make an image of wax to injure my 

 body, I may make another image to attract the evil 

 spell. His image obtains its power by the force of 

 his faith, and my image obtains its virtue by the 

 power of my faith ; and the injuries inflicted by my 

 enemy upon the image will leave me unharmed, and 

 the curses that he heaps upon me will return to him 

 and leave me unhurt." 



" If a person is gloomy and despondent, he ought 

 not to be left alone, but he ought to have some one 

 to cheer him up and to explain to him that he must 

 free himself of his own morbid thoughts. There are 

 some who believe that it is possible for witches to 

 pass through doors and to vampirise people ; but no 

 witch can bodily (physically) pass through a closed door 

 in the way in which this is done by sylphs and pigmies ; 

 they do such things in their astral forms." 



" you doubtful man, you Peter of little faith, who 

 are moved by each wind and sink easily ! You are your- 

 self the cause of all such diseases, because your faith 

 is so little and feeble, and your own evil thoughts are 

 your enemies. Moreover, you have hidden within your- 

 self a magnet which attracts those influences which cor- 

 respond to your will, and this celestial magnet is of such 

 power that for more than a hundred or even thousands 

 of miles, it attracts that which your spirit desires out of 

 the four elements" {Philos. Occulta). 



