Awful forms of mystery,
And spirits, all unknown to thee:
Guard with prayer, and heed with care,
Ere thou wak'st them from their lair!"

The records of the human race, however written, show that Man has
always regarded himself as possessed of latent faculties, or
capacities of a mysterious or extraordinary nature: that is to say,
transcending in scope or power anything within the range of ordinary
conscious mental capacity. Such for example is the Dream, in which
there occurs such a mingling of madness with mysterious intuitions or
memories that it is no wonder it has always been regarded as allied to
supernatural intelligence. And almost as general as the faith in
dreams as being _weird_ (in the true sense of the much-abused word) or
"strangely prophetic," is that in _fascination_, or that one human
being can exercise over another by a mystic will and power a strong
influence, even to the making the patient do whatever the actor or
superior requires.

However interesting it may be, it is quite needless for the purpose
which I have in view to sketch the history of occultism, magic or
sorcery from the earliest times to the present day. Fascination was,
however, its principal power, and this was closely allied to, or the
parent of, what is now known as Suggestion in Hypnotism. But ancient
magic in its later days certainly became very much mixed with
magnetism in many phases, and it is as an off-shoot of Animal
Magnetism that Hypnotism is now regarded, which is to be regretted,
since it is in reality radically different from it, as several of the
later writers of the subject are beginning to protest. The definition
and differences of the two are as follows: Animal Magnetism, first