acy of a diabolical charm, consisting of a jewel or amulet
introduced into the right arm, between the skin and the flesh, were
rendered secure from the effects of iron, either to kill or wound. Upon
this discovery being made, they were beaten with a heavy wooden club,
and presently died.'"

(1) I think, however, that these, and many similar stories, must be
taken _cum grano salis_.

In conclusion, mention must be made of a very interesting and suggestive
philosophical doctrine--the Law of Correspondences,--due in its explicit
form to the Swedish philosopher, who was both scientist and mystic,
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. To deal in any way adequately with this important
topic is totally impossible within the confines of the present
discussion.(2) But, to put the matter as briefly as possible, it may be
said that SWEDENBORG maintains (and the conclusion, I think, is valid)
that all causation is from the spiritual world, physical causation being
but secondary, or apparent--that is to say, a mere reflection, as it
were, of the true process. He argues from this, thereby supplying a
philosophical basis for the unanimous belief of the nature-mystics, that
every natural object is the symbol (because the creation) of an idea or
spiritual verity in its widest sense. Thus, there are symbols which are
inherent in the nature of things, and symbols which are not. The
former are genuine, the latter merely artificial. Writing from the
transcendental point of view, ELIPHAS LEVI says: "Ceremonies, vestments,
perfumes, characters and figures being...necessary to enlist the
imagination in the education of the will, the success of magical works
depends upon the faithful observance of all the rites, which are in
no sense fantastic or arbitrary, having been transmitted to us
by antiquity, and permanently subsisting by the essential laws of
analogical realisation and of the correspondence which inevitably
connects ideas and forms."(1b) Some scepticism, perhaps, may be
permitted as to the validity of the latter part of this statement, and
the former may be qualified by the proviso that such things are only of
value in the right education of the will, if they are, indeed, genuine,
and not merely artificial, symbols. But the writer, as I think will
be admitted, has grasped the essential point, and, to conclude our
excursion, as we began it, with a definition, I will say that _the power
of the talisman is the power of the mind (or imagination) brought in