We
dislike such nonsensical gossip as is not supported by symptoms,
but only by faith--a thing which is not human, whereon the gods
themselves set no value."
Such were the words which Paracelsus addressed to his
contemporaries, who were, as yet, incapable of appreciating
doctrines of this sort; for the belief in enchantment still
remained everywhere unshaken, and faith in the world of spirits
still held men's minds in so close a bondage that thousands were,
according to their own conviction, given up as a prey to the
devil; while at the command of religion, as well as of law,
countless piles were lighted, by the flames of which human society
was to be purified.
Paracelsus divides the St. Vitus's dance into three kinds. First,
that which arises from imagination (Vitista, Chorea imaginativa,
aestimativa), by which the original Dancing Plague is to be
understood. Secondly, that which arises from sensual desires,
depending on the will (Chorea lasciva). Thirdly, that which
arises from corporeal causes (Chorea naturalis, coacta), which,
according to a strange notion of his own, he explained by
maintaining that in certain vessels which are susceptible of an
internal pruriency, and thence produce laughter, the blood is set
in commotion in consequence of an alteration in the vital spirits,
whereby involuntary fits of intoxicating joy and a propensity to
dance are occasioned.
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