HAVING COMPLETED that part of this study that deals exclusively with habits, we now approach a part that requires some attention to exercises with the ultimate object of forming a new set of habits; and thus leaving the work for the future as the adoption of a method of living rather than a system of development. By so doing we shall be able to acquire magnetism as a natural gift and not the result of artificial attention to the causes from which it sprung. Tension energy is found in all persons who are magnetic and successful, whether they have been taught or not. It is an essential part of the power, and is never absent from its use. Therefore if we were to omit it we would leave the student only partly provided with the means of winning success.

Tension of the muscles is a setting of them for some great physical effort.

As all muscular action is impelled by the nerves, it follows that muscular tension has its origin in the nerves.

Tension energy, as the term is used in this study, relates solely to the setting of the nerves for tome great effort, not muscular, but nervous.

In muscular tensing, which is common and necessary with any athlete, the nerves send forth their command in one impulse for each setting.

In tension energy, which is necessary for the expression of the power of magnetism in any form, there is no setting of thenerves, but an increasing flow of nervous force, beginning small and proceeding by building on itself as it is used. This distinction, while seemingly technical, is so important it should bo understood, and for that reason we will repeat it in another way. Take the following description as a further example.

If you set the muscles for some great effort you tense them all at once for the degree of effort at hand. If greater demand is to be made on your muscular power, you set them at still greater tension; but each setting is fixed for the time being.

On the other hand, if you wish to give expression to some magnetic power instead of muscular power, you do not set the nerves, but you start them on the way to flow with greater force as your magnetic uses of them grow in life and vigor. The flow INCREASES as it takes place.

If the flow were to start at a fixed limit, it could not increase unless more was required of it; in which case it would be a series of jumps.

It is the INCREASE in vitality during any tensing progress that generates magnetism. Thus a magnetic person is always improving his power instead of using it up. Here again is another important fact.

Believing that you have not yet grasped the meaning of these distinctions, we will offer you a very familiar illustration in the shape of an exercise, by which we will show the value of increasing the flow of vitality in place of setting its tension to start the action.

Get a small part of a broom handle about six inches long. Hold this in your right hand. Shut your hand over the stick as tightly as you can. This is muscular setting of tension, and has no value in developing magnetism. If you were to hold a full length broom handle in both hands, and someone were to try to take it from you, you would grasp it with both hands and with the muscles set. They are thus tensed, but the tensing has no value. It is never true that muscular or physical power develops magnetism. On the contrary it offsets it, and tends to decrease its growth.

Returning now to the six-inch length of the stick which you areholding in your right hand, instead of grasping it. tightly, take hold of it as lightly as you can and retain it, Here the hand is relaxed. Now add the least bit of power to your hand asyou hold the stick. Then gradually and slowly add more, not by a series of increases, but by a smooth flow of additional force; and keep this going as long as you can do so, without reaching that degree of grasp that is required for muscular tension. When the increase in nervous flow approaches the force used by the muscles, stop. Never go as far with the nerves as the muscles go in their tension. This margin leaves the flow wholly nervous.

Now it is this INCREASE in the nervous flow and the margin that is left without reaching a muscular climax, that generates magnetism. And it generates it rapidly and in great quantity. The question arises, have you caught the meaning and the importance of this distinction?

The principle of life cannot be explained, yet it is a process constantly generating the magnetic power. The author has known of many persons who have so mastered the exercises of this series of lessons that they could easily feel the life principle at work within them. This has proved the seat of life to be co-extensive with the brain and the organs enclosed within the walls of the chest, the spinal column and the diaphragm. Physiologists who analyze this agency will at once comprehend the deeper questions of life.

GRAND PRINCIPLE Tense conditions magnetize.

It is the central law of magnetism. In the first place, it is necessary to understand what is meant by the word tense. The dictionary very nearly expresses it when presenting the definition as not lax. It is also called rigid, or possessing the power of firmness. In this study the meaning of the word tense is this: The power or condition that exists when any part of the body is passing from a state of laxity to a state of rigidity.

It is the opposite of laxity.

It is not rigidity.

In a condition of laxity the muscles are devitalized or devoid of life-expression. In a condition of rigidity the muscles are set; the work is done; the end is attained. Nothing is going on at the time except that the nerves are holding the muscles in place just as a man might hold a stone on a wall. To make this matter clear several principles must be presented at this place and discussed together.

GRAND PRINCIPLE Setting the muscles produces muscular energy only.

We see illustrations of the various uses of the muscles in the way calisthenics are performed in classes, as much in the high schools as elsewhere. When the movements are languid, we call the muscles devitalized or lax. You may try these and see what is meant: Stand; raise the hands to the shoulders; shut up the fingers lightly, half clinching the fists. Extend the arms slowly in the front, oblique front, lateral, and other directions, and back a few times, keeping the motions as languid as possible, and in every sense lazy. Then do them rapidly but lazily. You see it does not make much difference what degree of speed you use, if the muscles are lax.

In such manner are most of the exercises, calisthenics and other movements performed in schools and under the direction of teachers of physical culture, and the time is more than wasted. Lax movements and lax conditions produce weariness. Lax walking is the cause of exhaustion. Like begets like. It is not good logic to suppose that a muscular action can originate of itself; if it can, why will not an amputated arm act as well by itself as when it has life to move it? Or why does an electric current cause a detached leg of a frog to move its muscles?

There must be energy behind the motion, or it will have no vitality, and the nearer we get to the condition of energy the farther we go from the tendency to weariness and exhaustion. For this reason any lax movement is a detriment to the vitality of the body; it is plain to understand that it loses its own stored-up force without having it replenished from the source of supply. Therefore, lazy walking, or lax walking, to use a more polite term, is wearying. Therefore, also, the lax manner in which gymnastics, calisthenics and physical culture movements are performed destroys all their value and even detracts from the condition of the body prior to their employment. This is why so many hundreds of thousands of persons fail to get benefit from the most valuable of all means of health.

If the growth of the muscular strength is what is sought, this end is to be attained under the present grand principle. It is by setting the muscles that we make them strong. The attempt to hang by the arms from a horizontal bar without setting the muscles will tear away tissue that is necessary to health. Pulling in the same way is injurious. But just as soon as the muscles are set the tissue is protected and vitality supplants laxity. Any experienced person knows what we mean. The method by which strength is attained is found in this law; yet nothing but muscular strength comes from such practice. The facts may be concisely stated as follows:

1. Lax movements weary and exhaust.

2. Set movements strengthen the muscles.

3. The continual use of set movements leads to stiffness and awkwardness, unless relieved by counter-movements. The farmer and common laborer never make use of the counter-effects; their bodies lose their graceful shapes; they are strong enough, but never graceful or magnetic. It is almost always possible to find grace among skilled artisans.

Thus we see the importance of tensing for all uses. Nothing can be accomplished with the muscular system, either for exercise or for work, unless it is tensed when it is employed.

But while there is a side relationship between such tensing and that employed for the development of magnetism, it does not generate the latter. It is the setting of the power that defeats its use in magnetism work. What is needed is a progressive increase of tensing for the latter purpose. Being progressive, it is developing, and being developing it builds as it progresses. This progress is what we arc seeking.

A person who works without tensing the muscles is doing worthless work.

One who exercises for health without tensing the muscles is doing worthless exercise, and useless physical culture.

But these matters belong to the physical side of life only.