WE SPEAK of people as magnetic in a general way.

For the purposes of the present volume we shall class them as having four general tendencies: the light or beautiful; the mental or thoughtful; the deep or dangerous; the rich or luxurious.

Each class is as important as any other. We cannot judge the degree or quality of magnetism by the color of the eyes, or the general complexion; but the character of the magnetic fire is more or less influenced by eye-color.

As a general rule, but by no means a universal one, the dark-eyed person is the opposite of the gray-eyed; and the blue-eyed of the brown. Brown is the rich verdure of the field over which the blue sky is spread. Gray is the cold zone of the north or the morning sky of the east, set against the tropics of the south or the night-laden sky of the west. Thus the four general classes are the completed horizon, the earth and the empyrean.

Despite the fact that these influences are crossed and counter-crossed even in the same individual, and must be separated and studied apart, likewise in the same individual, there is an undercurrent of fixed influence belonging to each class. As such we will consider them for the present.

The blue-eyed person, when magnetic, is light, happy, cheerful, brilliant, active, quick and even effervescent. The muscles and the blood express the magnetic force within. When unmagnetic, the blue eye becomes cold, the nature revengeful, the plans furtive, and the mind unreasonable in its demands.

The gray-eyed person, when magnetic, is cool, calculating, steady in nerve and unflinching in muscle. He talks but little when a purpose is at stake, and looks you coolly in the eye when you address him. You feel compelled to do all the talking, and he does not assist you by a word or a nod. His face never relaxes into an assent, and so you keep on thinking of new ideas and expressing them, in the hope that you will be rewarded by some show of acquiescence. Meanwhile he is looking you steadily in the eye. A stupid person may seem to do all this, but he does not. Stupidity relaxes the muscles of the jaw and draws down the face into a look of perplexity.

The black-eyed person is both dangerous and deep. The eyes are rarely, if ever, a jet black, unless the pupils are large. The color, as a color, is in the iris, or ring that surrounds the pupil. In proportion as the nerves are excited this iris opens, and the cavity behind the pupil shows black on account of its darkness. Nervous excitability and magnetism have been regarded as one and the same thing; but a black-eyed person in ill-health would have less magnetism than the blue, brown or gray-eyed person. Excitability is generally the sign of magnetic weakness. Selfcontainment and steadiness of nerve are surer signs of the power. When a black-eyed person is magnetic, the nature, the eyes, the expression, the grasp, the very presence suggest warmth; when unmagnetic there is a nervous irritability that jars upon the nerves of all who are near.

The brown-eyed person, when magnetic, is affectionate and rich in the expression of energy, but finds it very difficult to hold to a steady purpose, unless fixed habits of life have been educated by circumstances or trained by practice. Brown eyes are akin to black in their deepest hue; but, embracing a score of shades even to a light hazel, they extend toward their opposite pole, the blue.

The general philosophy of personal magnetism may be summed up in a few outlines that present the theoretical rather than the substantial side of the study.

1. All human beings belong to one of the following inherited magnetic temperaments, or to a blend of two or more of them:

(a) The Beautiful, . , . Blue.

(b) The Cold,.....Gray.

(c) The Deep, . . . . . Black.

(d) The Affectionate, . . Brown.

The Blue and Gray may blend; the Gray and Light Brown may blend; and the Brown and Black may blend.

The Blue and Black are opposites; the Blue and Brown are opposites; the Gray and Dark Brown are opposites; and the Gray and Black are opposites.

2. All spontaneous exhibitions of energy must come from the inherited temperament; and the degree of that energy and its success in dealing with others depends upon the stage of its development. Circumstances are educators of men and women to a far greater extent than exact training. The so-called gift of magnetism is always the result of some kind of education. It is true that the inherited temperament may be cultivated by exact training such as this volume affords; but, where we find it in mature life already established, we may suppose that the years past have been fraught with circumstances calculated to bring out the forces within, and to concentrate the individual energies that make up those forces.

3. All deliberate exhibitions of energy must come from acquired temperaments; or else the deliberation would be unnecessary. It is most curious indeed to follow out a line of investigation demonstrating this remarkable law. The acquired temperaments may be highly cultivated, and are most easily assumed in opposites.

4. The following table gives a list of the simple uses of this energy; and, if you wish, you may accept the belief that these uses are all unconsciously employed, whether spontaneous or deliberate; that is, the persons who succeed in managing or controlling others in life's details, are unconscious of any magnetic force at work. The cases stated in this table are realities taken from the experience of a number of people, and they represent what is actually occurring everywhere, every day of the year.

(a) The Beautiful are Muscular.

(b) The Cold are Mental.

(c) The Deep are Nervous.

(d) The Affectionate are Moral.

This table requires explaining or it will be misleading. The beautiful are magnetic in a muscular way; and only so when they are in their inherited temperament. Now muscular does not mean big of muscle but active of what muscle they possess. All beauty is controlled by muscular development.

The flesh is but a mass of very small muscles, as dissection will easily prove. The contour of the body, and all the lines and shapes of beauty are determined by the muscular arrangements of the flesh. The millions times millions of muscular fibres in the fleshy masses of the body are at work concentrating their energiesin this temperament when its magnetism is aroused.

The mentality of cold people has nothing to do with the warmth of the body. It is the steady, far-off, cold ray of an unflickering light. It is not excitable nor impatient. The brain, andnot the muscular system,, exerts the temperamental magnetism; and often with quick, unanswerable blows.

In the nervous temperament, the motor and sensor nerves are all affected. In the affectionate class the moral element predominates; not as a force of superior morality, but as the seatof magnetic activity. There are good morals and bad morals and there are moralizing natures, and natures easily influenced by motives, good or bad, or by inducements to do rightor wrong. All these considerations attach to that class of people who are affectionate in their magnetic temperaments, and their activity is in their moral blends of life. Unless this explanation is early understood, the impression will become fixed in your mind that the moral magnetic temperament represents a high degree of rectitude. It is not true that color affects the ethicaltendencies of the heart.

TABLE OF INHERITED MAGNETIC TEMPERAMENTS

INHERITED ACQUIRED

a. Muscular (may cultivate) Mental, Nervous, Moral.

b. Mental « Muscular, Nervous, Moral.

c. Nervous « Muscular, Mental, Moral.

d. Moral « Muscular, Mental, Nervous.

As the truest, fullest type of life represents culture, we would rarely expect to find an accomplished person exclusively in his native temperament.

The distinctions made in this lesson are intended only as interesting reading of the underlying influences that are at work in every life. If they are not understood at first, they will be found helpful after the study has advanced far enough for you to have met all classes of people, and to have learned that no two persons are exactly alike. One of the most pleasing things in this world, is the opportunity for studying character and temperament in others. By so doing, you will be acquiring new knowledge, and finding new variations of human experience that, after all, is the best teacher one could have.

Therefore if you wish to plunge ahead with great rapidity, you may defer the re-reading of this lesson until you are drawn back to it by your own magnetism.

Great advantage arises from the practice of making yourself familiar with people; seeking to determine their powers of resistance to the influence of magnetism as related to the eye-color. You can easily form the habit of observing the men and women whom you meet from time to time; learning from yourself the answers to the following questions:

1. Is it true that persons of opposite color of eyes are more readily influenced by each other?

2. Is it true that gray eyes are generally studious, calculating and cold by nature?

3. Assuming that man and wife are more contented if they are interested in the same things in life, does it work out in experience that the best marriages are founded on the union of like with like?

By securing the answers by your observation of people, you will soon learn to measure them in all other respects.