as well as to act magically above and below (according to Jacob Böhmen, into the realms of light and darkness). "As the Almighty fills the whole universe, beholds and yet is unseen, so does the soul-N'schamach-fill the whole body, and itself sees without being visible." The soul looks also where the bodily eye is unable to see. Occasionally a sudden terror falls upon man without his being able to divine the cause (presentiments), from the fact that the soul foresees a misfortune. The soul also possesses the power of acting upon the materials of this world, to destroy one form and to create another. Man is even able to injure other things, or to destroy men by his imagination. (The New Platonists, Paracelsus and others, make the same remarks.)

There have always been men, says the Cabbalah, who have been furnished with greater or lesser powers for good or evil; for as a preeminence in good or evil requires a peculiar strength of mind, we find that such men are the heroes and priests in the kingdom of Tumah (that is, of the pure or impure.) When, therefore, man directs his strivings towards the divine, he is, in the degree to which he does not act egotistically, but looks unswervingly towards the heavenly, filled by divine grace with supernatural power. And if such a man has the natural disposition, he may by the power of his soul communicate with the divine and angelic world, (religious mystics, Swedenborg) and then, according to his greater or less capacity and the divine intentions, receive impressions and revelations, and at the same time, according to the strength of these circumstances, be filled with a higher spiritual energy. "For it is the highest and last end of our existence, that man should again be placed in connection with his original source, and raised from the material earthy to the highest step of spiritual existence. This higher step of spiritual existence is called especially the pure divine mania. An insufficient disposition for higher impressions may, however, be remedied by the divine pleasure; for we often see that God calls those to him who were straying from him, and endows them with extraordinary powers.'

A difference must be drawn between that gift of the seer which perceives things concealed from the senses by the material obstacles of space or time, and that higher species

of divination which recognises events to be brought about in the future through man's free will. It is true that, by means of the inner sense, man, when he is freed from the outer senses, becomes easily influenced by spiritual powers, and thereby is enabled to look into hidden things, and foretel their intrinsic qualities,-their consequent results. Therefore, the Cabbalah teaches, that not alone does every human action produce its consequences, but that each event since the beginning of the world inscribes itself in a higher sphere, and that thus future events may be foretold through the reading of the past.

But there are limits to this species of vision; since the inner man is alone affected by that to which he is kindred. The freer, purer, is the inner man, the wider is his immediate sphere of vision and sphere of action. When his own power

no longer avails him he requires the assistance of foreign spiritual influence, in order that his inward vision may be extended. Thus it becomes clear why, either under natural or induced circumstances, foreign spiritual agency is generally present.

But the decrees of God can never be fathomed by man, unless God deigns to vouchsafe a revelation. Otherwise the power of prophecy would be no operation of the divine power, but simply the natural consequence of the exaltation of mind which momentarily has penetrated into the sphere of eternity, and there recognised the far distant future-and such is the belief of the Indian seers. This view of prophecy would be entirely opposed to all religious fath.

The divine power reveals itself both in an inner subjective, and in an external objective manner by means of the first.

Although this power of vision and divination is a universal one in human nature, it is found, however, in very various degrees of intensity. In order to produce magical results, according to the Cabbalah, a very firm will is requisite-as Paracelsus teaches-so as to attract the very highest spiritual influence, and to react upon it. The will of the

operator must also be completely in harmony with his object, and alone be directed towards it. A very powerful and vivid imagination is also requisite. The same qualities are required in the seer. The seer's spirit, body, and soul, must

be in the most harmonious accord with the objects of his vision. The soul must not, therefore, busy itself too much with external matters. The imagination must be strong, lively, and clear, in order that the impression of the spiritual world may remain clear and sharp, and be not destroyed by foreign images. It is on this account that enchanters love solitude, and seek in every way to withdraw themselves from the outward, and to cultivate their imagination.

Especially does the. Cabbalah teach that "the man must be fitted for such things:" Balaam was so, but with a false power, for he had a defect in his sight, which, according to Sohar, is to say that he had an imperfection in his spirit, of which the external imperfection was but the objective expression.' In this sense the Cabbalah maintains that every follower of the Black Art must have something imperfect or diseased about him.

Very remarkable are the teachings of the Cabbalah regarding the weak points at times offered to Satan through the actions of man, regarding citation of the dead, and uncleanness, especially in the case of the woman. With regard to the latter, man is the positive and operative principle, and therefore compared with the sun and light. Woman stands opposed to him as a restraining power, without whom he would be lost in an immeasurable and boundless speculation, forgetful of his highest relationship. Woman is man reversed, his mirrored image: whilst he is a self-acting principle, productively striving outwards, and ever seeking the universal, the infinite, the woman is the negative principle, acting from without inwards, from the circumference to the centre, receptive, ready from man's expansive energy to reduce concrete forms. Thus by the Jews is woman called the house of the man, and the Talmud designates woman as the wall which is created around man.

Man and woman are an inseparable whole,-one forming the ideal, the other the real. In man the ideal has swayin woman feeling: thus she adheres more to the concrete and external, and has an innate living sense. She is possessed of an inward presentiment of the world: thus she is endowed with unerring tact, and arrives at maturity sooner than man, who desires to attain all knowledge through his own exertions.

The aspiration of woman is towards the pure and the noble; and she attracts to herself man, who is ever seeking after that peculiar nature with which she as woman is endowed. And this she does, not in order to retain him in a lower sphere, but to ascend with him into a higher. And if on one hand woman is an encircling wall to man, on the other she is his guide, wandering by his side through the labyrinths of life, and by her gentleness, patience, and love, softening and restraining his fiery impatience of character. In this sense woman is called "the crown of man."

High as is the destiny of woman, yet she has a closer affinity to the night-side of nature than man, and is especially exposed to the temptations of Satan. Deceit, curiosity, indiscretion, the desire to enslave man by her charms, and to see the creations of her imagination realized, are the shadow-side, and incline her to the study and practice of forbidden knowledge.

Night, sleep and dreams, affect woman also more than man, and therefore the power of the seer is of commoner occurrence with her than with man.

According to the Cabbalah, besides angels there are intermediate spirits the spirits of the elements-the Schedim of the Jews, and divided into four classes, the chief of whom is Asmodi. The first class contains the spirits of the fire; the second, of fire and air; the third, of fire, air, and water; the fourth have a mineral ingredient. This is completely the doctrine of Paracelsus. The spirits of the two last classes are possessed mostly of evil natures, and are fond of causing injury to man. The other two are possessed of greater wisdom, and knowing many of the secrets of nature willingly disclose them to man. The lower class of elementspirits, coming into frequent contact with man, are at times dangerous and spiteful, and thus man sacrifices to them in order to gain their favour.

According to the Cabbalah, everything that exists, whether great or small, stands in a magical union with the rest of nature. Everywhere is the external the operation of the internal, and the external reacts upon the internal.

Magic, as well as seeing, is directed towards the earthly as well as towards the supernatural. External magical vision consists in reading the future through the aspects

and changes of objects, and which is subdivided into earthly and heavenly objects. The one is called Monen-computation of time, and comprehends astrology; the other is called Nichusch-prophetic indication.

Secondly, soothsaying teaches that nothing occurs accidentally, but that events and all nature stand in secret connection with each other. Thus the career of clouds, as well as the flight of birds, and the cries and movements of animals, become objects of soothsaying, and it asserts that the animal sees more than the external eye of ordinary man. Birds especially standing in connection with the spirits of the air are prophetic-birds of prey being peculiarly adapted to Nichusch. All events occurring to man, and which produce agreeable or disagreeable impressions, belong to the same class. Man can convert himself into Nichusch, by saying, if so and so happen to me it will be either a good or bad omen.

The inward visionary natural magic consists in man being brought into connection with the spiritual world through artificial means: and here also are various degrees. The lowest degree of this magic is the withdrawing the soul from the outer world through external means and manipulation: the means are various. According to Maimonides and others, to this species of magic belong digging in sand, the casting of lots, reading cards, gazing in mirrors, in polished blades and arrows, or in anything that is bright. This diving by lots is only brought about through the correspondence of the external art with the inner arrangement of things.

A second higher degree is necromancy, questioning of the dead, for which the preparation of fasting is necessary. It is also customary to sleep upon the graves, or to burn incense upon them, repeating certain formulæ the while.

The third and highest is when man, after necessary preparation and the withdrawal of himself from external objects, unites himself with the spirits of nature to receive revelations from them.

Active magic is divided into a lower natural and a higher spiritual magic. The first consists in exciting magical rapport by physical means. To this belongs first sympathetic healing.