HAVING READ THIS BOOK through very carefully and patiently, the student is now to learn what is meant by instantaneous personal magnetism. It means the immediate beginning of its development, the consciousness of possessing it, and the use of it in every phase of life. We have learned that young people generate vast quantities of magnetism, and lose it all by the waste of youth; or the uncontrolled activities that use up all the dynamic energy of carly life in those who are normal. It is the superabundant vitality running itself without a controlling and directing engineer.

This is called leakage.

It is not possible to check it in youth, nor is it desirable to do so. . Nature is taking its course.

But this leaking continues into maturity and keeps up the waste without check, although the wastage is far less then, or death would come in the form of fatal nervous prostration. That malady is due to the continued unchecked loss of magnetism, while neither the patient nor the doctor knows how to stop it. No physician has ever learned how. Medicines, drugs, pills and electric treatments have been tried without success to effect a cure. Change of climate, change of living conditions, change of diet and of habits have been tried, but all have failed. The victim of nervous prostration or neurasthenia goes on slowly to the grave. Magnetism is being wasted faster than it is being generated; this is the whole story.

It has been proved that if all the abnormal leakage of the body can be stopped, there will occur an immediate accumulation of magnetism. We say of the boy whose vitality is one hundred percent that it must have vent. If the grown-up person accumulates magnetism, which is the vitality of that age, it may seek opportunities for giving itself vent; and these come naturally in the prolific thinking of the mind, the thirst for real knowledge in place of sensational news and worthless books, the desire to do something instead of sitting around aimlessly, and the wish to bring light and sunshine into the lives of others who are near and dear to us. Unselfishness takes the place of the narrow conception of duty to those who can be made more appreciative of interest in them.

The possession of magnetism is generally the difference between success and failure. A lawyer who believed in himself and who was somewhat magnetic and knew it, complained that he was not winning his way as he should, and asked why. "You are too fidgety," was the reply. This means that his magnetism was being wasted by useless motions of hands and feet, and of the whole body at times. A fidgety man is unattractive, and all persons are either attractive, neutral or repellant. There never was and never will be a man or woman of fidgety habits, who can attract. Here is a double loss. The irritating motions repel of themselves; and they cause leakage as well; hence such a person fails to get on in the world. A very brief reminder is all that is necessary to cure the fault. In the case of the lawyer it made so much difference that, when he had caught its meaning, he instantly rectified the trouble, and from that time he became successful. From this account it might seem that this single fault was all that stood in the way of becoming magnetic. It is one, at least, of the many faults.

A woman complained that she could not win friends of the right kind, and was told that she distressed them by using a high pitched voice. This kind of a voice is merely one that makes use of the upper notes such as are found in the musical scale, but spoken instead of being sung. In order to know just what is meant, turn to the Department of the Magnetic Voice and there find the nine pitches with their quotations. Then repeat the quotations of the four highest pitches, or the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth. Imagine a woman carrying on a conversation lasting minutes or hours and employing no other pitchesthan one or more of these four upper ones.

It is well recognized fact that the higher the pitch of the speaking voice the greater the irritation on the ear-nerves of thelisteners.

These ear-nerves communicate with the brain centers and there transfer the vibrations or waves received by the ear. In a high pitched speaking voice as well as singing voice, there are many more vibrations of sound than are found in the lower pitches. Thus a person who avoids the upper pitches and uses the middle or lower ones, relieves the listener of many vibrations in each and every second of time; and as a person may engage in a conversation that lasts for minutes or hours, the accumulated number of vibrations that are escaped are a great relief to the nerves and brain of those to whom the remarks are made while the conversation is in progress. The woman to whom we refer caught the idea in the briefest possible time, and mended her ways. It required no exercises, no training, no time spent inbuilding up something different from what she was naturally.

It was the suggestion that showed her doing the wrong thing, and told her what was the right thing. Then her cleverness did the rest.

Another woman complained that she did not win friends and seemed to be repelling those whom she sought. She was told that she talked too fast, and too much. Much as we do not like to say it, no man or woman who talks too fast or too much is magnetic. Here again we see the irritating effect of the accumulated number of voice vibrations that attack the ear-nerves, and through them the brain itself. Many thousands of these vibrations strike small but decisive blows against the ear-nerves and the brain, and it is like so many strokes of a microscopic hammer hitting these sensitive parts. There is a normal rate of speed that is readily made magnetic; but when you double it, you double the thousands of hammer strokes that are thrust against the brain of the listener, and irritation ensues. It requires a genius of the highest order to speak rapidly and effectively; and such methods must be varied by modulation of the best quality. Bernhardt could do it, but she had few imitators. Soprano singers need longer periods of absolute silence than others; and the best of them refrain from using the voice for hours and sometimes days before a public appearance. They talk with pad and pencil.

The woman to whom we referred as talking too fast made an effort to talk slowly, but could not maintain it. Her husband used to sit within range of her vision when they were with others, so that he could signal her to reduce her rate of speed. But a person who must be coached in this way is hopeless as far as overcoming this fault is concerned.

A minister said that he had no magnetic control over his hearers. We attended his church one Sunday, and the next day told him that he used a monotonous pitch. He did not know what that was. He knew that he was not using too high a pitch, but the idea that, while he kept the pitch down, he made it monotonous, was new to him. Anything that is monotonous strikes the brain nerves too often in one way. It concentrates as it were on one spot. The old incident of driving a man insane by forcing him to sit under a tank of water placed above him, from which a single drop fell upon one spot on his head, at the rate of one a second, carries in it the real principle that affects all faults along this line.

If you are compelled to hear one note all the time, the blow falling on the nerves of the brain will make you insane. A very small noise at night, if it is the same all the time without the relief of variation, will so irritate the brain as to do it injury. A man who plays one tune without change, even if it is melodious and pleasing for a while, will nearly drive everyone crazy who is compelled to listen to it. The human brain cannot long endure monotony in any form. There is more insanity among the women of the farms than among those of the cities, because they lead a life of dreary monotony.

It is for these reasons that the minister whom we have mentioned was unmagnetic. He preached along one part of the pitch, even if it were the pleasing part which is around the middle of the vocal range, known as the magnetic pitch. Relief from this kind of monotony is secured by the cultivation of modulation, or the movements of the speaking voice that employ a variety of pitches for the expression of thought. More than this the really magnetic speakers and conversationalists employ the movements of modulation in harmony with the variations of thought.

This is getting too deep for the ordinary student, and we will pass it on for a laterlesson. It involves the finest points in voice training, and is fascinating as well as magnetic; but it requires practice, and we have agreed to avoid the practice part of our method as much as possible. In the Department of the Magnetic Voice we furnish training that will need some practice;and this will be fully provided in the latter part of this The point we are making here is that any kind of monotony irritates the listener, and no persons can be attracted to you if youirritate them. This is common sense. The minister learned to use his voice with proper modulation and soon became very successful in his work.

Another man who was in business complained that he seemed to drive customers away, and that his efforts to increase patron-age failed at every turn. We studied him from a vantage place in his store and found that he used his voice with four faults: the pitch was too high, the tones were unvaried and monotonous, the rate of speed much too fast, and he closed the upper part of his throat in talking, making a guttural barking sound as he spoke.

This brings us to one of the most unmagnetic faults of the human voice; a fault that repels instead of attracting. When the voice is developed by the drifting methods of Nature, it runs to some kind of faults, just as a beautiful garden, left to the management of Nature, will destroy itself by weeds. Many thoughtless people say they prefer to remain natural than to cultivate good habits; and their argument seems unanswerable, which is: "Nature knows what she is about, and the only proper way of living is to let her do as she pleases."—But when this argument is applied to the raising of flowers, fruits or foods, it shows Nature as an unruly impulse in all departments of living things and living organisms. This unruly impulse when controlling the human voice, brings into it as many faults as it brings into the garden which is left to itself.

There is no vocal fault so common and so almost universal as that of closing the upper part of the throat in speaking or in singing. The skilled teacher of the coming genius of opera, attacks this fault first. One of the methods is to place the end of the handle of a teaspoon on the back of the tongue, and bo force down the roots of the tongue, with the results that the throat will open in its upper part. Another method that is employed by teachers is to direct that the student swallow, and note the position of the larynx, or Adam's apple, in the throat; and in tone production keep that organ down where it went in the act of swallowing. This last process may be misleading, for the larynx tries to rise just before it performs the real act of swallowing, and it is the latter part of this act that is helpful in getting the throat open. So another plan was adopted, and it proved a better one. It was that of imitating the gape; or trying to open the back of the mouth and upper throat as a person does who gapes. This succeeded. When once it can be done voluntarily, which should require but a few minutes of practice, it can be done always at will.

The closed upper throat is an effectual barrier to a decent singing voice; but it is a common fault in speaking.

It produces voices that irritate and repel in every department of life, and that therefore are non-magnetic.

In a state of Nature this closed position means dislike, and under more pressure it means hatred. It can be seen at once that such a mood is unattractive; and although it cannot be translated by a non-expert, it is felt instinctively as a repellant tone position. Among beasts it produces the hiss of the cat and all cat-like animals; and the warning hatred of other life below the human species. The growl of the dog has its origin in the same position. Hence to hear it in the voice of man or woman, is to feel as if there were more of the growl and threat there than of attractiveness. The health of the throat, also, becomes involved in this closed position, for it rasps the membrane which is very delicate at that place.

This does not imply that every repellant voice is rasping. Any tone that is produced with the upper throat closed is disagreeable, even if it is merely a closed tone. The natural impulse that causes the closing of the throat is born of a disagreeable temperament, and this influence is always repellant.

The cure of this trouble is to be found in correcting the throat position in the manner we have described. It is a very quick proceeding if our instructions are followed as given. Just as soon as the upper throat is opened, it should be held flexibly open all the time you are talking; and this applies also to public speaking; and is absolutely necessary in singing. There can be no real singing voice until this position is acquired and made an easy habit.

As soon as you master this simple matter, you will notice thatthe character of your voice will at once undergo a change that is revolutionary in its nature. Every harsh and repellant notewill disappear. Better volume, which before was wholly impossible, will follow. Then there will be purity, attractiveneseand winning qualities to reward your brief effort at mending a fault that stands between you and success in your influence over others. The closed throat fault reacts upon every person who possesses it, and it is present in ninety percent of all voices.

Very few persons are free from it. Hence we seek to eliminate it at once.

The troubles that are cited in this lesson are not all by any means. There are many others, and they must be given consideration as we proceed. Like the garden that is left to the drifting impulses of Nature, humanity collects multitudes of weeds, and also like the garden which is overrun with weeds when left to Nature, humanity needs a bit of cultivating.

Human intercourse is so constituted that the means of communication between one person and another are confined ordinarily to the use of the eyes and of the voice. These furnish the channels for the exercise of the power of personal magnetism.

Incidental to them are the uses of touch and of thought. Luther Burbank by placing one hand on the chest of a person, and the other hand on the back, was able to throw so powerful a current of magnetism into a person that cures were effected that defied all treatments of science or medicine. This is the use of touch.

Ideas are also tremendously magnetic.

But in the wear and tear of life, in the multitudinous activities of the day, the voice becomes the agency of magnetic control in ninety percent of all communications; and so simple an idea as to allow it to develop itself into an instrument of wondrous beauty by merely adopting the habit of maintaining the open throat in order to give forth pure tones, and of acquiring a pleasing and harmonious modulation in speech, is charged with the potency of a complete revolution of the life-habits of an individual, and this change may begin in a single day.