OUR PRESENT LESSON brings us to a discussion of the power that develops magnetism collectively from the diffused state in which it exists in the body. The latter, as has been stated, is composed of chemical elements which are created by the formation of molecules through the law of cohesion into fixed combinations, each remaining the same unless affected by some such law as radio-activity. Each molecule is made of a certain number of atoms; the kind of element depending on the number of atoms in each; although the claim is being made that the number of electrons in each atom determines the kind of chemical element. In any event it is said to come down to electrons as the basis of all matter, and all else. These being wholly electrical it follows that the human body is a composite organism consisting of nothing but magnetic forces.

Each unit is capable of developing a tremendous force in and of itself.

As the human body is made up solely of electrical units, and as the magnetism that is everywhere present in the body is diffused, it follows that some agency must be invoked to bring these diffused forces of magnetism into mass-control; and the natural agency is the power of tensing the nerves, as distinguished from tensing the muscles. We have seen that the latter must be tensed either for work or exercise in their lines; so the nerves must be tensed, but in a wholly different way, in order to develop magnetism.

GRAND PRINCIPLE

Magnetic tensing is the transit from laxity to rigidity.

The tensing is not the laziness of devitalization, nor is it the stiffness of rigidity. In other words, it is not a condition of rest or of fixed strength, but a process of change. It is the progressive increase of energy. The process is one that may be easily understood. When nerves and muscles are lazy, they depend upon no supply of power from the vital sources of the body. When they are set, they-are held by a fixed degree of energy, which is alive but not progressive. When the muscles are taken from a lax condition to one of strength, but not allowed to reach a limit or to become set, the nerves are kept in a progressive condition. This ever-changing effort makes a continual demand on the source of supply, and the creation of energy is the result of that demand.

There can be no growth of vitality where there is no occasion for its use. Nature ordains that a demand shall be necessary to create a supply. The same law holds true everywhere. The muscles will not grow at all if they are not used. Being used, they break down their tissue; the blood is excited toward this breakdown, and it leaves its nutrition to repair the waste, a thing it would not do had there been no effort, no breakdown, no waste.

The only process by which man is able to generate electricity within his body is by tensing. This consists in many ways of using the body. We see the most noticeable examples of it in persons who appear before audiences to speak, sing, act or otherwise hold the interest. They are more readily observed, more readily singled out, and we find their actions more generally understood. A person possessed of magnetism does not tense and set the body all at once, for, if he were to do this, the influence would soon be gone.

We recall hundreds of cases of lost magnetism owing to this mistake. Here is a lawyer, young and inexperienced; he rises to address the jury on an issue of great importance; he is full of his case; his magnetism springs from eye and voice and bewilders his listeners in the opening sentences; he does not begin easily increasing his energy gradually, as one of skill in the magnetic art would be sure to do; he plunges into the case with pent-up power blowing off all its steam on the first words; he holds all hearers in thralldom; then, in five minutes he feels that it is all gone, and the interest flags. His case is lost. He wearied the jury. He commenced like an Alexnder and ended like a tired child. When his magnetism was blown off in the first few minutes all his zeal, his earnestness, his power had to vent itself in force; he shouted and gestured vehemently; having allowed his magnetism to escape, he wearied the jury.

Many and many a speaker has told us that this has been a common experience. They did not know the cause or the process of the loss, but they knew that they began with a magnetic charm and soon felt its collapse; then how empty and hollow the voice sounded. Speakers who know nothing of the technical laws of magnetism are obeying those laws on the negative or the affirmative side; they are failing or succeeding by them. To commence any effort with a full head of energy means a blow-off, and no opportunity is afforded for generating the power, for there is no tensing.

All greatness is plain, simple, humble and quiet in its introductory efforts. This allows opportunity for tensing, for growth, for an increase. Whether a conversation, a transaction or a speech, it is to be likened to movements of the arm, thus:

1. When the lax arm and hand are pressed forward and back as in calisthenics, no energy is expressed, and this would represent the indifferent speaker.

2. When the fist is held tightly clinched in the movements, the physical and noisy speaker is represented.

When each motion of the arm begins languidly and energy is called in gradually and increasingly instead of all at once, the magnetic speaker is represented.

It is worth one's while to watch such a person, whether speaker, actor or conversationalist. Let us look at the first named, the speaker. He steps forward on the platform, calm and easy. The audience may be regarded as strangers to him, or he to them. What will his effort prove to be? We cannot tell as yet, for we know nothing of him by reputation or experience; but the student of magnetism may delect in his repose and coolness the evidence of a magnetic power yet to show itself.

This however, may be born of stupidity and cheap conceit.

A few minutes of time will tell; for, if he is of the latter mold, the moment he attempts to warm up he will evince nervousness, and he will warm up suddenly.

He proceeds as easily as he began, but he has not displayed anyevidence of the great orator. To be sure he speaks fluently andsteadily, if somewhat slowly. His language is interesting; it shows thought, care in preparation and a belief in its declarations. The audience listens well. They really know that it is notabove the average quiet efforts of oratory, but it seems smoother and pleasanter. They like it. They feel that it is going to be more interesting; that something greater is at hand. The very atmosphere seems to contain that information.

Soon the interest deepens. It appears to be in the facts presented, but the voice and manner present them so pleasingly that the audience would rather hear them than read them. Now the student of magnetism notices that the eyes of the speaker have darkened; no one else pays any attention to the tiny fact. The gray or brown or blue or hazel has not changed, but the pupil has distended, and this always appears black. Then the student of magnetism, sitting on the platform or in the front row, has observed that the body of this speaker, untrained in the art as he probably is, has changed; the chest is gradually, very slowly indeed, solidifying; it is full, large and firm, but motionless; the arms no longer hang devitalized, nor have they suddenly become rigid. The shifting from the easy repose of the opening lines to the energy that follows has been imperceptible to everybody except the keenest observer. The speaker is not only holding his magnetism, he is collecting more, generating it rapidly by slow tensing; and soon it is felt in his voice.

Every ear is attentive. Little by little, unconsciously to the audience, the speaker has increased the tension of every part of his body and of every faculty. He himself may have no knowledge of it, for he may not think of it, but the fact exists in him as in all magnetic persons, that there can be no increase of power unless it is accompanied by a corresponding increase of tensing. How was this fact ever seized upon for exercises in this art? Simply because it was universally noticed that all men and women who were possessed of personal magnetism were always in a tensed condition while under perfect control