of superstitious practices of the
grossest absurdity, but on the other hand it may be made the basis of
a lofty system of transcendental philosophy, as, for instance, that of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, whose ontology resembles in some respects that of
the Neo-Platonists. AGRIPPA uses the theory to explain all the marvels
which his age accredited, marvels which we know had for the most part no
existence outside of man's imagination. I suggest, on the contrary, that
the theory is really needed to explain the commonplace, since, in the
last analysis, every bit of experience, every phenomenon, be it ever
so ordinary--indeed the very fact of experience itself,--is most truly
marvellous and magical, explicable only in terms of spirit. As ELIPHAS
LEVI well says in one of his flashes of insight: "The supernatural
is only the natural in an extraordinary grade, or it is the exalted
natural; a miracle is a phenomenon which strikes the multitude because
it is unexpected; the astonishing is that which astonishes; miracles are
effects which surprise those who are ignorant of their causes, or assign
them causes w hich are not in proportion to such effects."(1b) But I am
anticipating the sequel.

(1) H. C. AGRIPPA: _Occult Philosophy_, bk. i., chap. xiii. (WHITEHEAD'S
edition, pp. 67-68).

(1b) ELIPHAS LEVI: _Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual_
(trans. by A. E. WAITE, 1896), p. 192.

The doctrine of emanations makes the universe one vast harmonious whole,
between whose various parts there is an exact analogy, correspondence,
or sympathetic relation. "Nature" (the productive principle), says
IAMBLICHOS (3rd-4th century), the Neo-Platonist, "in her peculiar way,
makes a likeness of invisible principles through symbols in visible
forms."(2) The belief that seemingly similar things sympathetically
affect one another, and that a similar relation holds good between
different things which have been intimately connected with one another
as parts within a whole, is a very ancient one. Most primitive peoples
are very careful to destroy all their nail-cuttings and hair-clippings,
since they believe that a witch gaining possession of these might work
them harm. For a similar reason they refuse to reveal their REAL names,
which they regard as part of themselves, and adopt nicknames for common
use. The belief that a witch can torment an enemy by making an image of
his person in clay or wax, correctly naming it, and mutilating it with
pin