IT works upon, and affects, others as well as ourselves, and operates in the very Soul, as well as Body of Man; moving the Powers of all the Passions of the Mind.

AS it happens frequently by reason of the Similitude of things; that by seeing or imagining One to eat some sharp or sour Matter, or hearing it only mention’d, Another’s Teeth may be set on edge, and his Tongue wax tart; so by seeing One gape, Another often falls a yawning. In like manner, as the sight of any filthy Thing causeth Nauseousness; so the sight of Man’s Blood, makes many Persons fall a-swooning.

GUILLAUME de Paris writes, that he saw a Man, who at the SIGHT of a Medicine, went to Stool as oft as he pleas’d, tho’ it neither in Substance, Odour, or Taste, did affect him; but only by an Apprehension of a kind of Resemblance. Which is much the same Case of one in a Dream, who thinks he burns and is in a Fire, or as much tormented, as if he did really burn, tho’ far enough from any Substance of Fire; only because of a Resemblance apprehended by the Strength of IMAGINATION.

AND besides, this IMAGINATION hath not only such Power over the Body, but also over the very Soul of Man; which Power of the Soul, hath its respective Influence upon the Body: As Avicen remarkably describes a certain Man, who (when he pleas’d) could affect his Body with the Palsy.

IT is wonderfully related of Gallus Vibius, that he became Mad, not casually, but on purpose; for whilst he imitated Mad-Men, he so assimilated their Madness to himself by the Counterfeit, that he fell at last into real Madness.

St. AUSTIN mentions some Men, who could move their Ears; and others who could move the Crown of their Heads to their Foreheads, and replace them at Pleasure. He writes of Another also, who could sweat whenever he had a mind.

I have likewise known some Persons myself, who could weep and shed abundance of Tears at Will and Pleasure; others, who could bring up what they had swallow’d of any kind, as Gold, Silver, &c; and others again, who could so naturally imitate and express the Voices of Birds, Cattle, Dogs, &c; that they could not easily be distinguished.

YEA, and farther yet, many Learned Authors[[43]] testify by divers Examples (of Cajetava, Æmilia, &c.) that Women have been turn’d into Men: Which some would persuade us to believe, to be an Effect of the Force of a vehement IMAGINATION, acting upon the Soul, with which it is of a near Affinity, beyond all the Power of Sense.

AS to this Point, I am no ways to question the Veracity of what so many excellent Men have confirmed; but (granting it to be so) I think we may find more probable Reasons for it, than all the Powers of IMAGINATION, how great soever and marvellous they may be: Whereof I shall mention That, which seems to be the most rational Cause; viz. An extinguish’d or latent forming Faculty[[44]], which (however) sometimes has exerted itself again, like the Blazing of a raked or resuscitated Fire.

FOR as our Teeth take their Beginning in the Womb, but are perfected without, as Bartholomæus Eustachius teacheth; and as the Teeth, call’d Dentes sapientiæ, are generated, and break out, even after the 30th Year of our Age: So it may be, that the virile Genitals have been imperfectly begun in the Womb, and that this forming Faculty has only perfected them by little and little; so that at last they have sprung forth and appear’d, after shaking off the Pudendum. And consequently such Women as Those (upon Dancing-Bouts, or the like, when the Blood and natural Heat had been strongly exagitated) have turned into Men.