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DE THOME’S REMARKS ON MAGNETISM. 253
ticles, it will be so much the more disposed to admit
them, &c. &c.; whence it follows, that magnetical sub
stances are such merely by virtue of the element whose
existence Swedenborg has demonstrated, and thus that
the magnetism of bodies depends, not on their substance,
but on their form ;—a truth which is hinted at by the
learned Alstedius in his excellent Encyclopædia, printed
at Lyons in 1649, in which, drawing a comparison be
tween electricity and magnetism, he says, Motiones
electrica à materia magneticæ vero à forma pendent.’
" To ascertain the influence of the magnetic element
on the question of animal magnetism, suppose we apply
the result of the summary view that I have given of it to
the three kingdoms of nature. It will be easy to con
vince ourselves, that of these, the mineral kingdom is
the least favourable to this element, by reason of its in
ertness, of the irregularity of its pores, of its angular
forms, and of the rigidity of its parts : hence, were it not
for iron and the loadstone, magnetism would be almost
entirely banished from this kingdom. Proceeding to the
vegetable, we may easily perceive, that its more regular
pores, its rounder forms, its more flexible parts, the
sphere of activity which results from its organisation,
and from the circulation which takes place within it, offer
much greater facilities to the operations of the magnetical
fluid. Arriving at the animal kingdom , which is the
quintessence of them all, as being more rich in volatile
spirits, and approaching thereby more nearly to elemental
nature, and which is gifted more eminently, according to
the perfection of its organs, with the same advantages
which we have just observed in the vegetable kingdom;
we find that this kingdom , by the exalted life of some of
its subjects, is clearly the most active centre that the
magnetic element can lay hold of ; and as, besides, it
presents it, in the abundance of its fluids, in its circular
vessels and veins, and in its spiral fibres, with nothing
but analogous forms, of an extreme flexibility and capa
city of motion, we cannot but conclude, that this is the
kingdom which favours in the highest degree the admis
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