," said Mr
Richards, composedly. "According to your view, could a mortal obtain the
power you speak of, he would necessarily be a malignant and evil being."

"If the power were exercised as I have said, most malignant and most
evil--though I believe in the ancient traditions that he could not
injure the good. His will could only injure those with whom it has
established an affinity, or over whom it forces unresisted sway. I will
now imagine an example that may be within the laws of nature, yet seem
wild as the fables of a bewildered monk.

"You will remember that Albertus Magnus, after describing minutely the
process by which spirits may be invoked and commanded, adds emphatically
that the process will instruct and avail only to the few--that a _man
must be born a magician_!--that is, born with a peculiar physical
temperament, as a man is born a poet. Rarely are men in whose
constitution lurks this occult power of the highest order of
intellect;--usually in the intellect there is some twist, perversity, or
disease. But, on the other hand, they must possess, to an astonishing
degree, the faculty to concentrate thought on a single object--the
energic faculty that we call _will_. Therefore, though their intellect
be not sound, it is exceedingly forcible for the attainment of what it
desires. I will imagine such a person, pre-eminently gifted with this
constitution and its concomitant forces. I will place him in the loftier
grades of society. I will suppose his desires emphatically those of the
sensualist--he has, therefore, a strong love of life. He is an absolute
egotist--his will is concentrated in himself--he has fierce passions--he
knows no enduring, no holy affections, but he can covet eagerly what for
the moment he desires--he can hate implacably what opposes itself to his
objects--he can commit fearful crimes, yet feel small remorse--he
resorts rather to curses upon others, than to penitence for his
misdeeds. Circumstances, to which his constitution guides him, lead him
to a rare knowledge of the natural secrets which may serve his egotism.
He is a close observer where his passions encourage observation, he is a
minute calculator, not from love of truth, but where love of self
sharpens his faculties--therefore he can be a man of science.

"I suppose such a being, having by experience learned the power of his
arts over others, trying what may be the power of will over his own
frame, and studying all that in natural