Magick Without Tears

186 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS never yields to reason. It destroys aU sense of values. Its origin is usually obscure. The least irrational base of it is the sense ofsmell. It was, ifI remember rightly, the Comte de St. Germain who advised Louise de la Valliere to fix her exquisitely broidered kerchief in such wise that it protected her from contact with her saddle, and then , after a morning's hard gallop, to find an excuse for using it to wipe the brows of the perspiring king. It took him years to recover! The story is well known, and the plan widely adopted with remarkably unvarying success. But be careful not to overdo it; for if the source of the perfume is recognized the consciousness takes charge, and the result is an tipa thy. Many years ago I composed a scent based on similar principles, which I intended to market under the title "Potted Sex Appeal." We tried it out with the assistance of a certain noble Marquess, whose consequent misadventures-won't he laugh when he reads this! But there are other senses: l'amour de l'oreille may refer not only to Othello's way of snaring Desdemona, but subtleties of timbre in the voice ... Yes, yes, you say impatiently, but there isn't any miracle about all this in the ordinary sense of the word. True, but why the devil do you want me, so long as you're getting what you need? Just being childlike, I suppose! No? Merely that you can explain such matters to yourself well enough. All right; on to No.2. Shall we look at levitation for a change? This power-if it be one-is very curious indeed. It connects more directly with magnetism than almost any other. The first thing we think of when someone says "magnet" is picking up iron filings as a child. Age before honesty! Let Father Poulain SJ. speak first! He is obliged to admit the phenomenon, because the Church has done so. But precisely similar accounts of the levitation of pagans and heretics must be, according to him, lies, or Works of the Devil. As for the method, "God employs the