PARACELSUS.
That our ordinary consciousness or Waking Intellect, and what is
generally recognized as Mind or Soul, includes whatever has been taken
in by sensation and reflection and assimilated to daily wants, or
shows itself in bad or good memories and thought, is evident. Not
less clear is it that there is another hidden Self--a power which,
recognizing much which is evil in the Mind, would fain reject, or
rule, or subdue it. This latent, inner Intelligence calls into action
the Will. All of this is vague, and, it may be, unscientific. It is
more rational to believe in many faculties or functions, but the
classification here suggested may serve as a basis. It is effectively
that of GRASSNER, or of all who have recognized the power of the Will
to work "miracles," guided by a higher morality. And it is very
curious that PARACELSUS based his whole system of nervous cure, at
least, on this theory. Thus, in the _Liber Entium Morborum, de Ente
Spirituali_, chap, iii, he writes:
"As we have shown that there are two _Subjecta_, this will we assume
as our ground. Ye know that there is in the Body a Soul. (_Geist_.)
Now reflect, to what purpose? Just that it may sustain life, even as
the air keeps animals from dying for want of breath. So we know what
the soul is. This soul in Man is actually clear, intelligible and
sensible to the other soul, and, classing them, they are to be
regarded as allied, even as bodies are. I have a soul--the _other_
hath also one."
PARACELSUS is here very obscure, but he manifestly means by "the
other," the Body. To resume:
"The Souls know one another as 'I,' and 'the other.' They converse
together in their language, not by necessity according to our
thoughts, but what _they_ will. And note, too, that there may be anger
between them, and one may belittle or injure the other; this injury is
in the Soul, the Soul in the body. Then the body suffers and is ill--
not materially or from a material _Ens_, but from the Soul. For this
we need spiritual remedy. Ye are two who are dear unto one another;
great in affinity. The cause is not in the body, nor is it from
without; it comes from your souls (_Geisten_), who are allied.
The same pair may become inimical, or remain so. And that ye may
understand a cause for this, note that the Spirit (_Geist_) of the
Reasoning Faculty (_Vernunft_) is not born, save from the _Will_,
therefore the Will and the Reason are separate. What exists and acts
according to the Will lives in the Spirit; what only according to
the Reason lives against the Spirit. For the Reason brings forth no
spirit, only the Soul (_Seel_) is born of it--from Will comes the
Spirit, the essence of which we describe and let the Soul be."
In this grandly conceived but most carelessly written passage the
author, in the beginning thereof, makes such confusion in expressing
both Soul and Spirit with the one word, _Geist_, that his real meaning
could not be intelligible to the reader who had not already mastered
the theory. But, in fact, the whole conception is marvelous, and
closely agreeing with the latest discoveries in Science, while
ignoring all the old psychological system.
Very significant is what PARACELSUS declares in his _Fragmenta
Medicina de Morbis Somnii_, that so many evils beset us, "caused by
the coarseness of our ignorance, because we know not what is born in
us." That is to say, if we knew our mental power, or what we are
capable of, we could cure or control all bodily infirmities. And how
to rule and form this power, and make it obey the _Geist_ or Will
which PARACELSUS believed was born of the common conscious Soul--that
is the question.
For PARACELSUS truly believed that out of this common Soul, the result
of Sensation and Reflection, and all we pick up by Experience and
Observation (and such as makes all that there is of Life for most
people), there is born, or results, a perception of Ideas, of right
and wrong, of mutual interests; a certain subtle, moral conscience
or higher knowledge. "The Souls may become inimical;" that is, the
Conscience, or Spirit, may differ or disagree with the Soul, as a son
may be at variance with his father. So the flower or fruit may oft
despise the root. The Will is allied to Conscience or a perception of
the Ideal. When a man finds out that he knows more or better than he
has hitherto done: as, for instance, when a thief learns that it is
wrong to steal, and feels it deeply, he endeavors to reform, although
he _feels_ all the time old desires and temptations to rob. Now, if
he resolutely subdue these, his Will is born. "The spirit of the
Reasoning faculty is not born, save of the Will. . . . what exists and
acts according to the Will lives in the spirit." The perception of
ideals is the bud, Conscience the flower, and the Will the fruit. A
pure Will must be _moral_, for it is _the_ result of the perception of
Ideals, or a Conscience. The world in general regards Will as mere
blind force, applicable to good or bad indifferently. But the more
truly and fully it is developed, or as Orson is raised to Valentine,
the more moral and optimistic does it become. _Will_ in its perfection
is Genius, spontaneous originality, that is Voluntary; not merely a
power to lift a weight, or push a load, or force others to yield, but
the Thought itself which suggests the deed and finds a _reason_ for
it. Now the merely unscrupulous use of Opportunity and Advantage, or
Crime, is popularly regarded as having a strong Will; but this, as
compared to a Will with a conscience, is as the craft of the fox
compared to that of the dragon, and that of the dragon to Siegfried.
And here it may be observed as a subtle and strange thing, approaching
to magic apparently, as understood by HARTMANN and his school, that
the Will sometimes, when much developed, actually manifests something
like an independent personality, or at least seems to do so, to an
acute observer. And what is more remarkable, it can have this freedom
of action and invention delegated to it, and will act on it.
Thus, in conversation with HERKOMER, the Artist, and Dr. W. W.
BALDWIN, Nov. 2d, 1878, the former explained to me that when he would
execute a work of art, he just determined it with care or Forethought
in his mind, and gave it a rest, as by sleep, during which time it
unconsciously fructified or germinated, even as a seed when planted in
the ground at last grows upward into the light and air. Now, that the
entire work should not be too much finished or quite completed, and to
leave room for after-thoughts or possible improvements, he was wont,
as he said, to give the Will some leeway, or freedom; which is the
same thing as if, before going to sleep, we _Will_ or determine that
on the following day our Imagination, or Creative Force, or Inventive
Genius, shall be unusually active, which will come to pass after some
small practice and a few repetitions, as all may find for themselves.
Truly, it will be according to conditions, for if there be but little
in a man, either he will bring but little out, or else he must wait
until he can increase what he hath. And in this the Will _seems_ to
act like an independent person, ingeniously, yet withal obedient. And
the same also characterizes images in dreams, which sometimes appear
to be so real that it is no wonder many think they are spirits from
another world, as is true of many haunting thoughts which come
unbidden. However, this is all mere Thaumaturgy, which has been so
deadly to Truth in the old _à priori_ psychology, and still works
mischief, albeit it has its value in suggesting very often in Poetry
what Science afterwards proves in Prose.
To return to PARACELSUS, HEINE complains that his German is harder to
understand than his Latin. However, I think that in the following
passages he shows distinctly a familiarity with hypnotism, or
certainly, passes by hand and suggestion. Thus, chap, x, _de Ente
Spirituali_, in which the Will is described, begins as follows: "Now
shall ye mark that the Spirits rule their subjects. And I have shown
intelligibly how the _Ens Spirituale_, or Spiritual Being, rules so
mightily the body that many disorders may be ascribed to it. Therefore
unto these ye should not apply ordinary medicine, but heal the
spirit--therein lies the disorder."
PARACELSUS clearly states that by the power of Foresight--he uses the
exact word, _Fürsicht_--Man may, aided by Sleep, attain to knowledge--
past, present or future--and achieve Telepathy, or communion at a
distance. In the _Fragmenta, Caput de Morbis Somnii_ he writes:
"Therefore learn, that by Foresight man can know future things; and,
from experience, the past and present. Thereby is man so highly gifted
in Nature that he knows or perceives (_sicht_), as he goes, his
neighbor or friend in a distant land. Yet, on waking, he knows nothing
of all this. For God has given to us all--Art, Wisdom, Reason--to know
the future, and what passes in distant lands; but we know it not, for
we fools, busied in common things, sleep away, as it were, what is in
us. Thus, seeing one who is a better artist than thou art, do not say
that he has more gift or grace than thou; for thou hast it also, but
hast not tried, and so is it with all things. What Adam and Moses did
was to _try_, and they succeeded, and it came neither from the Devil
nor from Spirits, but from the Light of Nature, which they developed
in themselves. But we do _not_ seek for what is in us, therefore we
remain nothing, and are nothing."
Here the author very obscurely, yet vigorously, declares that we can
do or learn what we _will_, but it must be achieved by foresight,
will, and the aid of sleep.
It seems very evident, after careful study of the text, that here, as
in many other places, our author indicates familiarity with the method
of developing mental action in its subtlest and most powerful forms.
Firstly, by determined Foresight, and, secondly, by the aid of sleep,
corresponding to the bringing a seed to rest a while, and thereby
cause it to germinate; the which admirable simile he himself uses in a
passage which I have not cited.
PARACELSUS was the most original thinker and the worst writer of a
wondrous age, when all wrote badly and thought badly. There is in
his German writings hardly one sentence which is not ungrammatical,
confused, or clumsy; nor one without a vigorous idea, which shows the
mind or character of the man.
As a curious instance of the poetic originality of PARACELSUS we may
take the following:
"It is an error to suppose that chiromancy is limited to the hand, for
there are significant lines (indicating character), all over the body.
And it is so in vegetable life. For in a plant every leaf is a hand.
Man hath two; a tree many, and every one reveals its anatomy--a
hand-anatomy. Now ye shall understand that in double form the lines
are masculine or feminine. And there are as many differences in these
lines on leaves as in human hands."
GOETHE has the credit that he reformed or advanced the Science of
Botany, by reducing the plant to the leaf as the germ or type; and
this is now further reduced to the cell, but the step was a great one.
Did not PARACELSUS, however, give the idea?
"The theory of signatures," says VAUGHAN, in his _Hours with the
Mystics_, "proceeded on the supposition that every creatures bears in
some part of its structure . . . the indication of the character or
virtue inherent in it--the representation, in fact, of its ideal or
soul. . . . The student of sympathies thus essayed to read the
character of plants by signs in their organization, as the professor
of palmistry announced that of men by lines in the hand." Thus, to a
degree which is very little understood, PARACELSUS took a great
step towards modern science. He disclaimed Magic and Sorcery, with
ceremonies, and endeavored to base all cure on human will. The name of
PARACELSUS is now synonymous with Rosicrucianism, Alchemy, Elementary
Spirits and Theurgy, when, in fact, he was in his time a bold
reformer, who cast aside an immense amount of old superstition, and
advanced into what his age regarded as terribly free thought. He was
compared to LUTHER, and the doing so greatly pleased him; he dwells on
it at length in one of his works.
What PARACELSUS really believed in at heart was nothing more or less
than an unfathomable Nature, a _Natura naturans_ of infinite resource,
connected with which, as a microcosm, is man, who has also within him
infinite powers, which he can learn to master by cultivating the will,
which must be begun at least by the aid of sleep, or letting the
resolve ripen, as it were, in the mind, apart from Consciousness.
I had written every line of my work on the same subject and principles
long before I was aware that I had unconsciously followed exactly in
the footprints of the great Master; for though I had made many other
discoveries in his books, I knew nothing of this.