EXCURSION TO THE REALMS BELOW. 69 



earlier! periods of time. Probably the young dervife 

 of Fadlalla, king of MoinToul in the Perlian tales, and 

 the Beneficent in the illuftrious fairies of tl).e countefs 

 d'Aulnoy, are unknown to but few of my readers. I 

 content myfelf with adducing thefe two examples, as 

 they are drawn from authorities, the credibility where- 

 of I fuppofe no one will doubt. However^ I cannot 

 omit to obferve, that there is a difference, though of 

 no moment whatever, between the manner of pro- 

 ceeding of thefe two adepts and that followed by me. 

 In the firft place, they, as it appears, could no other- 

 wife difmifs their foul from their body, than by lodg- 

 ing it in fome other animated human or animal body ; 

 and then they brought about this metempfychofis by 

 the help of certain magical words, and indeed the Be- 

 neficent by only pronouncing the word Q,uinbinni» 

 Whereas, I frankly confefs, that the pretended effica- 

 cy of thefe and all other magical terms and forms, by 

 means whereof it is afferted we can fly in the air, live 

 in fire or under water, fee fpectres, and find treafures* 

 are fo much the more fufpicious to me, as it is noto- 

 rious, that all thefe miraculous atchievements are ef- 

 fected by our modern adepts, not through forcery, 

 but by means purely natural, and in the fimpleft man- 

 ner in the world. However it be, my method at leafl 

 is entirely different from their's. I tranlport myfelf 

 out of my own body, without entering into another ; and 

 the whole fecret of the affair is, that my foul, on 

 having quitted her own body, thinks fhe frill has it 

 about her, or rather imagines fhe is in a fantafrical 

 body exactly fimilar to it. Something of this kind the 

 great Swedenborg has already obferved in the newly 



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