Cause Principle Unity

On magic
twofold. Sometimes the agent is mediated, as when a man uses sounds or
appearances to bring about stimulations through the eyes or ears. And sometimes
the agent is unmediated, as when a spirit, rational soul or demon
acts on the imagination of someone, asleep or awake, to produce internal
images in such a way that something seems to have been apprehended by
the external senses.
Consequently, some possessed people seem to see certain sights and hear
certain sounds and words which they truly think are caused by external
subjects. Hence, they strongly and persistently assert that what they have
seen and heard is true, when it is their reason which is deceived, and not
their senses, for they do hear what they hear, and they do see what they see.
But the very same thing which they think they see as derived from external
sounds in their ears and from external sights absorbed by their vision
are fantasy images presented to their internal sense. However, they think
that these impressions of the internal sense are the real things. Thus, it happens
that they refuse to be recalled to a healthier point of view by actual
witnesses, whom they prefer to reject in favour of their own imagination,
and who they truly think are deaf and dumb. Medically these matters are
cases of mania and melancholy, and are called ‘the dreams of the wakeful’.
Further, this type of bonding is not due simply to a material principle,
as is believed by certain well-known medical people with an obstinacy
which is most crude and oppressive. Nor is it due simply to demonic or diabolical
efficient causes, as is believed on their part by some theologians.
Rather, both causes co-operate. The material factor is a melancholic
humour, which we call the kitchen or the bathhouse of the saturnalian
demons. But the efficient cause and moving spirit is a demon who does not
have a completely immaterial substance, because these demons seem to be
endowed with many animal affections and have definite properties of
denseness. Although they are spiritual substances, nature has given them
a body which is very thin and is not endowed with senses. They belong to
that genus of animal which, as was said, has more species than do living,
composite and sensory animals.
Now, a specific soul comes to a specific seed which has been properly
deposited in a specific place, or conversely, a body makes or produces from
itself, as it were, a specific animal form or living thing. For example, from
one seed the olive is born, from another a dog, from another a human, and
in general one thing or another is suited to be born from a body which is
structured in one way or another. As the poet says, ‘The eggs come more
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