And that their
having sometimes other different forms proceedeth from the phantastic
power of the soul itself, which can at pleasure transform the spirituous
body into any shape. For being airy, when it is condensed and fixed, it
becometh visible, and again invisible and vanishing out of sight when it
is expanded and rarified." Proem in Arist. de Anima. And Cudworth
says, "Though spirits or ghosts had certain supple bodies which they
could so far condense as to make them sometimes visible to men, yet is
it reasonable enough to think that they could not constipate or fix them
into such a firmness, grossness and solidity, as that of flesh and bone
is to continue therein, or at least not without such difficulty and pain
as would hinder them from attempting the same. Notwithstanding which it
is not denied that they may possibly sometimes make use of other solid
bodies, moving and acting them, as in that famous story of Phlegons when
the body vanished not as other ghosts use to do, but was left a dead
carcase behind."
In all these speculations the Anima Mundi plays a conspicuous part.
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