PERHAPS THE MOST pleasing and exhilarating of all habits is that of the tense walk. It combines the tense eye as taught in the Department of the Magnetic Eye; the tense neck; the tense diaphragm and the tense chest. These seem like a ponderous combination of new habits to be learned and acquired; but they fall into place naturally and simply in a very short time. They hardly involve as much work as would be needed to master a few lessons on the piano. When once adopted they come about as habits justas easily as the habit of good manners may be acquired in any one line of conduct.

Tense walking is a rapid generator of magnetism.

Here we have the most wholesome and healthful of all exercises, and the one that is most easily adopted, for all persons who hope to possess vitality in a strong degree must depart, to some extent from a purely sedentary life, and walking is common to all.

We have watched those women who, as queens of their homes or in the fashionable drawing-rooms, take leadership because of that commanding charm which the world calls personal magnetism, and they have never been the weak affecters of dignity, nor the set muscular types of strength; but they always have shown unmistakable evidences of the tense character. We have closely studied many a speaker who has aroused his audience to the highest realms of pleasure and enthusiasm by the same quality; and we never yet have seen one who did not gradually become tense as the magnetic vitality grew and increased. We haveobserved the men and women of the great activities of life, as they were engaged in the commonest duties, and the same law held true. Even in walking they are different from the lax and lazy, on the one hand, and from the stiff and muscular on the other hand.

There are two kinds of magnetic walking; the plain method is that of easy and gentle tensing; the beautiful method is that of alternating tenseness and release. Both are very valuable as means of culture as well as of development in vitality. The reader of these pages who is able to adopt as the fixed habit of life either one of these two styles of walking, has already gone a long way toward victory in the present study; for the practice of such walking is like an electric generator that is always creating the needed power. Habitual tense walking takes the place of nearly all other practice in this period. Continue with it the two other great exercises, and you have THE MAGNETIC TRINITY

1. Maintain vital organ muscles as a permanent habit.

2. The tense chest as a permanent habit.

3. Tense walking as a permanent habit.

And the advantage is that they do not require a minute of time, nor take you from the regular duties of life.

The tense walk is acquired at first by comparisons. The beginning of the practice is in the lazy walk, which represents the languid condition of the body. This is always wearying. The next effort is to take rigid steps, allowing the knee to spring back with firmness as the weight comes wholly on each leg. Then increase the speed a little, and avoid springing the knee fully back. Here we have an excellent example of tensing in walking. To set the muscles firmly on each step will accomplish the same results provided there is not great rigidity; and this permits of slow walking. Rapid lax walking is injurious to the nervous powers. Rapid set walking exhausts the muscles. Rapid tense walking is midway between the two, and is highly beneficial to the health and nervous system. Let some form of tense walking be made a habit.

TENSE AND RELEASE

The most beautiful and most valuable type of walking is that which embodies the same practice as is seen in the tensing of the arm preceded and followed by laxity; each change gradual. To do this in walking the whole leg is devitalized as it becomes free after the weight leaves it; and is tensed as it again assumes the weight; each action being gradual, although done quickly. When properly executed the walk has every appearance of being unstudied and easy; although a crude experimenter would make it labored and unnatural. There is nothing gained by lifting a free foot tensed; and the more this walk is considered the more natural it seems. A compromise is secured by the following method:

Walk slowly and firmly with a tension in both legs, made stronger on each alternate leg as the body passes the weight over it in walking. Thus it will be noticed, that, while the tension is to be kept great during the entire exercise, it becomes greater while the leg carries the weight of the body, as is done in every step. The will power should be kept constantly on this slight increase of tension at these times.

When several weeks have been spent in this practice, the habit should be formed and applied permanently to everyday pedestrianism. It then, of course, becomes more rapid, and varies itself with the circumstances attending each mode of walking

A magnetic person is known by his walk.

At first the new method may seem awkward, but when it has become a habit, it is the most graceful carriage of the body known.

This line of development, like all else in the study of personal magnetism, brings with it every kind of advantage, even if the specific purpose of the instruction were not sought. It proves that what is acquired for establishing a personal attainment, if it becomes useful in every phase of life, is a part of Nature's purposes and plans to better humanity.

But the present Department of tensing stands in the foreground of value and importance, as it brings results rapidly and they are absorbed into permanent habits. One of the most skillful, successful and wealthiest psychologists now living, has said of our present line of instruction:

"Any person could safely offer the sum of $10,000.00 to any man or woman who failed to acquire magnetism by the tensing methods alone; and these are but a contributory part to the magnificent system which they serve."