PREFACE.

From this, there arise, at different periods, completely different and sometimes contradictory notions regarding the probability or the possibility of certain alleged facts.“No one can learn what he is not prepared to learn. A chemist may tell his most precious secrets to a carpenter, and the carpenter will be no wiser; secrets the chemist would not reveal to another chemist for a fortune. God always shields us from premature ideas. Our eyes are restrained so that we cannot see things that stare us in the face until the hour arrives when the mind is matured; then we behold them, and the time when we did not see them is like a dream.”—EMERSON; Essay on Spiritual Laws.

Even during such times when the phenomena that now form the basis of magnetic doctrines were generally known and recognized, they were, unfortunately, enlisted in the service of superstition and regarded as far too sacred to be investigated based on the principles of profane science. Mankind is unwilling to look at the phenomena of nature except through the clouded spectacles of their prejudices; accordingly, even the most simple facts are frequently wrapped in a shroud of mysticism and fallacy. From this source of illusion, all the fables of magic and sorcery—once so prevalent throughout the world—appear to have derived their origin. Ages frequently pass in this state of mental darkness and delusion, and mankind actually becomes afraid of even attempting