BUSY PEOPLE IN THIS AGE of haste and hurry do not take much interest in a course of training that is founded on nothing but exercises. Such a profession as that of singing or playing a musical instrument will, from its very nature, require long and tedious application to exercises which would not be performed if there were any other way to reach the desired end. Very few young folks like to practice on a piano, or violin, or other thing hours and hours every week; and some of them rebel against it most vigorously. But the woman who has been told that she possesses a charming voice, and that she could earn a living by having it cultivated so that she could sing in public, faces a different proposition. Her name and fame, if not her livelihood, are the goals. She knows from reading and being told that the road to any art is long and time is fleeting; so she is willing to be taught the many exercises that lay the foundation for a finished voice; in some cases requiring from five to seven or more years of hard work. With her it is practice, practice, practice. Men singers also must practice long and tediously before they can secure opportunities for displaying their gifts.

Few indeed of the world's vocal artists have leaped out of the uncultured class of natural singers into the accomplished class of successful performers. Art as developed among painters requires from five to ten years of practice, and some after years of experience. Even the prize fighter must go through a process of training to become recognized as fit for fighting; and before each important engagement he must again devote weeks or months to renewed training. All sports today require some development and some drilling as may be seen in both the amateur and professional ranks.

When a prospective student of personal magnetism is asked to enter upon this study, he naturally wishes to know what he has to do, and how long he must devote himself to it before he shows results. Before an answer is given, it should be understood that personal magnetism is life itself. It enters into every moment and second of the waking hours of the day and night, and it keeps companionship with every man and woman down to the last days of existence. It is a part of them. It is engrafted into their blood, their nerves, their brain, their thoughts, their activities, and their associations with all other human beings in all phases of life.

A habit is a manner of living.

Personal magnetism is a habit.

Therefore it is and should be a manner of living.

Living includes the expression of thoughts, of feelings, the activities of solitude and of association with others, and the operations of life that are going on within the body and all its parts and functions.

Personal magnetism becomes a vital part of living in all these phases.

Therefore it is not the result of exercises, but of habits.

It is true that there are qualities that may be acquired in shorter time when they are aided by exercises that stimulate them into action; but the entire scope of the study may be made to include only habits without the aid of exercises.

Nearly every great man and woman has been started on a successful career by reading. Sometimes it is biography; often other lines of reading. We know of the sailor who found a book that told of the life of a great man; he left the sea and became one of the most famous preachers of his time. He always said the book did it. We have read of a carpenter who was loaned a book which described the struggles of another great man and his ultimate success; the tools were thrown aside, and the carpenter entered upon a new career in which he won great triumphs. Henry Wilson, the cobbler of Natick, Massachusetts, stopped some school children afternoons on their way home, and asked them to explain to him the letters of the alphabet. In time he learned to read. He was Vice President of the United States when he died in 1875. Daniel Webster, the greatest of American lawyers and statesmen, was loaned a copy of Milton's Paradise Lost," and he memorized every word of it. This work led to his desire to know more, and he entered Dartmouth.

But the style and inspiration of Milton followed him all through life, and prevailed in his great orations. It has been claimed that not a single great man or woman has been born great, but that their inherent powers have been stimulated into action by What they have read.

Biography is full of such incidents.

These facts being so, and it being true that personal magnetism is a part of the act of living, the conclusion was not difficult to reach that almost all the help that a man or woman needs in acquiring or developing this power can come from reading a book that presents a complete system on the subject. Exercises may help to hurry the development; but they cannot do more.

Reading alone may accomplish vast results.

Our New Method therefore consists chiefly in showing the way by the instructions contained in the lessons; from which we form the vital habits that bring the results required. But we add all the necessary exercises for those ambitious students who wish to make all the speed possible.

A single idea has inspired many a person.

A word or two may change a habit.

A word or two may completely turn the individual around and face him in the right direction when we see him going in the wrong direction. A very good singer who was too poor to pay for lessons in vocal culture, was filling the position of soprano in a city choir, but with poor success. A friend told her that she was trying to make her notes with her throat in the wrong position; she was told what was correct; to use a figure of speech she had been going in the wrong direction, and was turned around and faced in the right direction. A faulty tone is rasping, harsh to listen to, and repellant. All per as far as personal magnetism is concerned, are either:

1. Attractive;

2. Neutral; or

3. Repellant.

Whatever will irritate the brain of another person will irritate the nervous system. A harsh tone or faulty note is irritating. You cannot irritate and attract. But we will see more of this later as we proceed.

The purpose of this lesson is to prepare the ground for the development of instantaneous personal magnetism; by which we mean the formation of magnetic habits without the trouble and delay of practicing exercises. It is easily possible to acquire some useful degree of this power in one day after you have finished a careful reading of the book. Further it is easily possible to know that you have acquired this first degree; to be conscious of the fact that you have become partly attractive, less repellant, and have ceased to remain neutral. But you must read every word of the book before you begin the new life, for such it will prove to be.

Read slowly, not in the desire to get through, but with the purpose of understanding every word, every idea, every suggestion. It will pay you to do this. Become a good reader, and you will become a good thinker. Go off by yourself, or else keep the companionship, if in the evening, of some loved member of your family, and read aloud if permitted and desired, or to yourself otherwise. When you have given the first thorough reading of the book your absorbed attention, you will have become worth to yourself fully twenty-five percent more than you were before. This is gain. It has always been our practice to read an important book twice. If you do this, your gain will be still greater. Then you will be ready for the progress that we call instantaneous personal magnetism, which will begin in the next lesson.

This progress will be so great in a very short time that it will be known to yourself, and to others who meet you in the daily activities of life. Let it then be understood that the exercises of this book are designed for those who are exceedingly ambitious, while all others will develop this power by change of habits through reading alone.