M. MAXWELL. 257

particular star. The pole-star is that expressly appointed to the magnet.
Man, as a little world, is endowed with a magnetic power (magnetica virtus microcosmica) . This power, how- ever, is subjected to the same laws as is the power on the large scale of the universe. In the emotions of joy the heart expands, and sends its spirit from the centre to the circumference. In hatred it contracts, as in antipathy, and holds back its spirits. Man, like the earth, has his poles, riudd adopts two main streams, the northern and the southern. Man, as the little world, is also divided by his perpendicular line into two equal parts. This line forma in the middle the equator ; therefore, he says, man should place himself with his face to the east and his back to the west.
When two men approach each other, their magnetism is either active or passive ; that is, positive or negative. If the emanations which they send out are broken or thrown back, there arises antipathy, or Magnetisvius negativus : but when the emanations pass through each other from both, sides, then there is positive magnetism, for the rays proceed from the centre to the circumference. In this case they not only affect sicknesses but also moral sentiments. This magnetism or sympathy is found not only amongst animals, but also in plants and in animals.
As even bodies, such as the earth and the magnet, which appear to be dead and inert substances, have their ema- nations and their poles, so much the more must these exist in living things, and above all in man. He gives many ex- amples of sympathy and antipathy amongst animals and plants ; speaks of talismans, and loses himself in a labyrinth of superstitions ; speaks of spirits, of devils and their exor- cism ; so that with his noblest views are mixed common superstitions of the vulgar.