THE WILL IN NATURE.
in illa hora, quando ipsam appetitus eiusmodi maxime invadit, tum ab opportunitate et influxu caelesti animum tunc taliter movente." [All that is dictated by the spirit of one who feels intense hatred has the effect of damaging and destroying; and it is much the same with everything that the spirit does and dictates by means of written characters, figures, words, conversations, gestures, and the like, all this supports the desire of the soul and obtains certain extraordinary powers, whether on the part of him who acts at this hour when an ardent desire of this kind especially fills his soul, or on the part of a celestial occasion and influence that then raises the spirit to such excitement.] 1 Chapter 68: "Inest hominum animis virtus quaedam immutandi et ligandi res et homines ad id, quod desiderat, et omnes res oboediunt illi, quando fertur in magnum excessum alicuius passionis vel virtutis in tantum, ut superet eos, quos ligat. Radix eiusmodi ligationis ipsa est affectio animae vehemens et exterminata" [There dwells within the spirit of humans a certain power to determine things and persons, and to bind them to what it desires, and all things obey it when it is deeply stirred by some passion or energy to such an extent that it overcomes those whom it binds. The cause of such a binding is the violent and immoderate excitement of the soul itself.]
And likewise Julius Caesar Vanini, De admirandis naturae arcanis, Lib. iv. dialogue 5, p. 434: "Vehementem imaginationem, cui spiritus et sanguis oboediunt, rem mente conceptam realiter efficere non solum intra, sed et extra" 2 [That a vivid imagination, obeyed by blood and spirit, can really affect a thing that is conceived in the mind not only inwardly but also outwardly.]
1 De occulta philosophia, lib. 1, cc. 66, 67 et 68.
2 Ibid. p. 440: Addunt Avicenna dictum: "Ad validam alicuius imaginationem cadit camelus." [By vigorous thought a camel can be brought down.] Ibid. p. 478, speaking of a charm that prevents a married couple from begetting children: "fascinatio ne quis cum muliere coeat" [The charm or spell so that no one can cohabit with a woman], he says: "Equidem in Germania complures allocutus sum vulgari cognomento Necromantistas, qui ingenue confessi sunt se firme satis credere meras fabulas esse opiniones, quae de daemonibus vulgo circumferuntur, aliquid tamen ipsos operari vel vi herbarum commovendo phantasiam vel vi imaginationis et fidei vehementissimae, quam ipsorum nugacissimis confictis excantationibus adhibent ignarae mulieres, quibus persuadent, recitatis magna cum devotione aliquibus preculis statim effici fascinum, quare credulae ex intimo cordis effundunt excantationes atque ita, non vi verborum, neque caracterum, ut ipsae existimant, sed spiritibus *), fascini inferendi percupidis exsufflatis proximos effascinant. Hinc fit, ut ipsi Necromantici, in causa propria vel aliena, si soli sint operarii, nihil unquam mirabile praestiterint: carent enim fide, quae cuncta operatur." [In Germany I have spoken to many so–called necromancers who openly confessed their firm conviction that the opinions were mere idle talk that was current among the people regarding demons. They themselves, however, confessed that they could have some success either by their exciting the imagination through certain herbs, or even only by the power of the imagination and of a very firm belief in the extremely absurd magic formulas devised by them, if they inflict these on ignorant women. They make such women believe that, by repeating certain prayers with great devotion, the magician will at once act. Then if in their credulity they express the exorcisms from the bottom of their hearts, it happens that those in their vicinity are charmed or bewitched not so much by the power of words or written characters as the women believe, but by the [vital and animal — A.S.] exhalations that they breathe out with the ardent desire to bewitch. It therefore happens that, when the necromancers themselves go to work alone in their own affairs or other people's, they never produce anything wonderful because they lack the faith that is capable of doing everything.] [Add. to 3rd ed.j
- Schopenhauer has added to spiritibus in parenthesis (sc. vitalibus et
animalibus [vital and animal]).
ANIMAL
