UNIVERSITIES HAVE RECENTLY been testing the ability of their pupils in quick observation. Instead of showing them in what way this acquisition might be developed, they have merely taken them as they found them, and sought to learn how much they had been educated by Nature andpast habits of association. It was our good fortune to have studied in the office of a most successful lawyer, a man of national reputation; and we noticed that he was ableto read the whole page of a hand-written letter at a glance. He also could read any letter which was upside down; and any printed matter in the same way. Not wishing to intrude questions into his personal habits, we refrained from inquiring in what manner he had attained this efficiency; but in later years he gave us the informatin when he knew we were analyzing the methods of successful men. He had trained himself to do these things. They had lot come to him naturally. In the midst of a large practice he had found time for this training, and also to memorize many books of the Bible. His memory was so remarkable that he could recall persons by name and circumstances, whom he had met only once and then as far back as twenty years.

The vast majority of people are contented with minds that arc developed only far enough to carry on the necessary processes of living and of the chosen avocations of life. But there are vast fields of new adventure.

All these mental acquisitions help each other.

As we have said, we are not teaching memory culture; but if any person desires to acquire a wonderful memory, the Oriental Practice of the preceding lesson will accomplish this and vastly more.

That practice dealt with the quick use of the eye in separating details from a mass; and especially in catching every shade of meaning in the face of a person. The present lesson now deals with the catching of a mass of ideas; but these ideas are really the separate words and thoughts that are expressed on paper. Minds act in several grades of activity. The slow or dull brain gets its ideas very feebly and as the result of effort or waiting. Success is impossible in life under such conditions.

Another brain will grasp a meaning in less time, yet may be very slow and dull. Still another works faster. As soon as we reach the brain that takes in ideas and conditions rapidly, we approach the magnetic power.

Speed may be cultivated, and dull minds converted into alert ones. It is very rare to meet a man or woman in England who possesses personal magnetism; for they catch thoughts very slowly as a rule. Of course there are notable exceptions. But an exception seems to rise as if by magic over the heads of all others. We would not seek to teach the present lesson to the average man and woman in England; but in the United States and Canada, it is probable that practically every person would easily understand and profit by this lesson. The same is true in the English speaking provinces everywhere; alert minds are there.

The test is how much progress a person can make in the following exercises:

1. Take a large sheet of paper, say about 8,1/2 inches wide and 11 inches long. On this sheet print in letters about the size of capitals used on typewriters, about fifteen lines, occupying the whole page. These lines are separated so as not to crowd the vision; and the words are in letters large enough to be seen readily,

2. Lay this paper on a table, having the printed side facing down. As you approach thetable, take the paper in your hand and turn it over, and then turn it back, leaving it there while you sit down at another table and write down as many of the words as you can recall, framing the sentences nearly like those on the sheet that you glanced at as you turned it over. It is best to have the lines that are placed on the paper put there by some other person so that you may not know what they are. After you have glanced at them during a brief second, and have written down what you saw in that time, you should report to your assistant what you have reproduced. Do so always in writing. The first effort may not be fruitful, depending not so much on the power of your mind as on your experience.

3. Repeat the test in the same manner, and make a separate report in writing of what you have caught by a second glance. This method is to be repeated as on the first occasion until you are wearied. On some other day when you are not mentally tired, repeat it. Do not try to do too much at one time. Keep at it however until you can reproduce every idea that is contained in the lines on the paper. That will finish the first stage.

4. After this, have a second piece of paper prepared like the first but with different lines and ideas; and proceed until you are able to secure at a glance lasting not more than a second of time, all that is on the paper. Keep a record of the number of efforts which have been required in each stage; and see if you have made progress. Like the game of golf the less times you are compelled to try to reach the end of the course, the more progress you are making. Thus will end the second stage.

5. Now the lines instead of being far apart, making about fifteen to a page, should be placed in the usual distance, making thirty lines on a page. Still the capitals should be employed in this third stage. You will have twice as many lines to see at a glance, and twice as many ideas probably. This stage will take more time and a number more efforts.

6. The fourth and last stage in straight reading at a glance is to be made with thirty lines on a page, and capitals used only when they are ordinarily employed. This means that you are to face the usual kind of typewriting matter. By this time your eyes should have a very keen power, and the lower case letters should be as easily read as capitals.

7. We come now to reverse reading. This is done by taking a piece of paper of the size stated, and writing in fifteen lines some new matter with which the experimenter is not familiar.

This exercise is not glance work, but must follow that. It should not be tried until the four stages are mastered perfectly; for progress will be very slow until then. In reverse reading after your assistant has placed the fifteen lines in capitals on the paper, this is to be left upside down on the table, and turned over when you are seated with the paper placed so that the page itself is upside down. This means that the upper lines are nearest to you but the lower lines are farthest from you, which is the reverse of the usual position. You may take all the time you need, and read aloud every word on the page. This is the fifth stage of this lesson.

8. The next stage consists in placing thirty lines of new matter in capitals on another sheet of paper, upside down as before, and reading it from a reverse position. This is the sixth stage.

9. The next step consists in placing thirty lines in the usual letters including capitals and lower case letters as in ordinary text, and reading them from a reverse position. This is the seventh stage.

10. Now, instead of using typewritten matter for the lines, cut an advertisement from any newspaper and read it from the reverse position. A very interesting way of doing this is to have your assistant hold the advertisement in the usual way so that he may read it in the proper position, while you are reading it from a reverse position. We have known students to become so adept in this manner of reading that they can repeat aloud every word from a piece of newspaper as freely as if holding it in the usual manner. We have also witnessed races between two persons, each reading at a normal rate of speed, one in the reverse way, and the other in the usual way. This training proves in time to be of the utmost value and highest usefulness.

11. The final stage makes use of handwritten letters, which the expert will be able to read when in the hands of another person who does not suspect that they could be read upside down.

No business man, and especially no financier of large activities, nor a lawyer, would wish to make known the fact that they can read letters and documents at a glance when held in the hands of an opponent; but we have Men this done many timet , yet if the fact were known these opponents would not

Only be on guard, but would entertain unpleasant feelings towards those who used such methods. Therefore we are not teaching these things to enable a person to take advantage of Others; but to develop in the brain and eye the highest power of magnetism, in order that the expert in these qualities may read humanity as an open book rather than their private papers and letters.

This is a direct source of power.

But sometimes injustice may be prevented by these very methods of catching the ideas that are contained in a letter or document. We were present in a trial where an unprincipled lawyer held in his possession a paper that contained evidence needed by the other side, but which was being concealed. By chance this lawyer unfolded the paper and showed it to his client who was seeking to gain by this injustice. The attorney who represented the plaintiff, was able to read any letter or document at a glance; he saw this paper; caught its contents; put the defendant on the stand and demanded the reading of the paper. By this means he won a just case, which otherwise he would have lost. We have witnessed many other instances of the usefulness of this accomplishment in securing justice for those who might otherwise have been defenceless.

The eye-power stimulates and fires the brain.

Our main purpose, however, is to train the mind to become keen and alert, and the eye to become powerfully magnetic.

When we can do these things by methods that bring other benefits, we feel that the time has been well spent by any indent who persists in the practice.

Many enjoyable hours follow.

The benefits are self-evident. That they would be forthcoming is also self-evident. Then another law comes into force that will be fully explained in the next lesson that follows this. It is the law that tells us that an excitant of the eye-power brings to that organ in a collective form a great amount of the diffused magnetism of the body. Here we have one of the most effective methods of building personal magnetism as a natural gift.

What we call exercises soon blend into habits, and from habits come the same natural powers that, attend the activities of great men and women.