CHAPTER II FIRES OF MAGNETISM
WE SPEAK of people as
magnetic in a general way. For the purposes of the present volume we shall
class them as having four general tendencies: the light or beautiful; the
mental or thoughtful; the deep or dangerous; the rich or luxurious.
Each class is as important as any other. We
cannot judge the degree or quality of magnetism by the color of the eyes, or
the general complexion; but the character of the magnetic fire is more or less
influenced by eye-color.
As a general rule, but by no means a universal
one, the dark-eyed person is the opposite of the gray-eyed; and the blue-eyed
of the brown. Brown is the rich verdure of the field over which the blue sky is
spread. Gray is the cold zone of the north or the morning sky of the east, set
against the tropics of the south or the night-laden sky of the west. Thus the four
general classes are the completed horizon, the earth and the empyrean.
Despite the fact that these influences are
crossed and counter-crossed even in the same individual, and must be separated
and studied apart, likewise in the same individual, there is an undercurrent of
fixed influence belonging to each class. As such we will consider them for the present
The blue-eyed person, when magnetic, is light,
happy, cheerful, brilliant, active, quick and even effervescent. The muscles
and the blood express the magnetic force within. When unmagnetic, the blue eye
becomes cold, the nature revengeful, the plans furtive, and the mind
unreasonable in its demands.
The gray-eyed person, when magnetic, is cool,
calculating, steady in nerve and unflinching in muscle. He talks but. little
when a purpose is at stake, and looks you coolly in the eye when you address
him. You feel compelled to do all the talking, and he does not assist you by a
word or a nod. His face never relaxes into an assent, and so you keep on thinking
of new ideas and expressing them, in the hope that you will be rewarded by some
show of acquiescence. Meanwhile he is looking you steadily in the eye. A
stupid person may seem to do all this, but he does not. Stupidity relaxes the
muscles of the jaw and draws down the face into a look of perplexity, while the
pupils of the eyes are parallel.
The black-eyed person is both dangerous and
deep. The eyes are rarely, if ever, a jet black, unless the pupils are large.
The color, as a color, is in the iris, or ring that surrounds the pupil. In
proportion as the nerves are excited this iris opens, and the cavity behind the
pupil shows black on account of its darkness. Nervous excitability and
magnetism have been regarded as one and the same thing; but a black-eyed person
in ill-health would have less magnetism than the blue, brown or gray-eyed
person. Excitability is generally the sign of magnetic weakness.
Self-containment and steadiness of nerve are surer signs of the power. When a
black-eyed person is magnetic, the nature, the eyes, the expression, the grasp,
the very presence suggest warmth; when unmagnetic there is a nervous
irritability that jars upon the nerves of all who are near.
The brown-eyed person, when magnetic, is
affectionate and rich in the expression of energy, but finds it very difficult
to hold to a steady purpose, unless fixed habits of life have been educated by
circumstances or trained by practice. Brown eyes are akin to black in their
deepest hue; but, embracing a score of shades even to a light hazel, they
extend toward their opposite pole, the blue.
The general philosophy of personal magnetism
may be summed up in a few outlines that present the theoretical rather than the
substantial side of the study.
1. All human beings belong to one of the
following inherited magnetic temperaments, or to a blend of two or more of
them:
(a)
The Beautiful, . . . Blue.
(b) The Cold, ..... Gray.
(c)
The Deep, ..... Black.
(d) The Affectionate, . . Brown.
The Blue and Gray may blend; the Gray and Light
Brown may blend; and the Brown and Black may blend.
The Blue and Black are opposites; the Blue and
Brown are opposites; the Gray and Dark Brown are opposites; and the Gray and
Black are opposites.
2.
All spontaneous exhibitions of energy must come from the inherited
temperament; and the degree of that energy and its success in dealing with
others depends upon the stage of its development. Circumstances are educators
of men and women to a far greater extent than exact training. The so-called
gift of magnetism is always the result of some kind of education. It is true
that the inherited temperament may be cultivated by exact training such as this
volume affords; but, where we find it in mature life already established, we
may suppose that the years past have been fraught with circumstances calculated
to bring out the forces within, and to concentrate the individual energies that
make up those forces.
3.
All deliberate exhibitions of energy must come from acquired temperaments;
or else the deliberation would be unnecessary. It is most curious indeed to
follow out a line of investigation demonstrating this remarkable law. The
acquired temperaments may be highly cultivated, and are most easily assumed in
opposites.
4.
The following table gives a list of the simple uses of this energy; and,
if you wish, you may accept the belief that these uses are all unconsciously
employed, whether spontaneous or deliberate; that is, the persons who succeed
in
managing or controlling others in life's
details, are unconscious of any magnetic force at work. The cases stated in
this table are realities taken from the experience of a number of people, and
they represent what is actually occurring everywhere, every day of the year.
(a)The Beautiful are Muscular.
(b) The Cold are Mental.
(c)
The Deep are Nervous.
(d) The Affectionate are Moral.
This table requires explaining or it will be
misleading. The beautiful are magnetic in a muscular way; and only so when they
are in their inherited temperament. Now muscular does not mean big of
muscle but active of what muscle they possess. All beauty is controlled by
muscular development. The flesh is but a mass of very small muscles, as
dissection will easily prove. The contour of the body, and all the lines and
shapes of beauty are determined by the muscular arrangements of the flesh. The
millions times millions of muscular fibres in the fleshy masses of the body are
at work concentrating their energies in this temperament when its magnetism is
aroused.
The mentality of cold people has nothing to do
with the warmth of the body. It is the Steady, far-off, cold ray of an
unflickering light. It is not excitable nor impatient. The brain, and not the
muscular system, exerts the temperamental magnetism; and often with quick,
unanswerable blows.
In the nervous temperament, the motor and
sensor nerves are all affected. In the affectionate class the moral element
predominates; not as a force of superior morality, but as the seat of magnetic
activity. There are good morals and bad morals, and there are moralizing
natures, and natures easily influenced by motives, good or bad, or by
inducements to do right or wrong. All these considerations attach to that class
of people who are affectionate in their magnetic
temperaments, and their activity is in their
moral blends of
life. Unless this explanation is early
understood, the impression
will become fixed in your mind that the moral
magnetic
temperament represents a high degree of
rectitude. It is
not true that color affects the ethical
tendencies of the heart.
Table of inherited
magnetic temperaments

The words used in the foregoing table have not
the same
meaning
that is attributed to them in common
parlance;
therefore the preceding explanations should be
carefully read.
TABLE OF ACQUIRED MAGNETIC TEMPERAMENTS
|
INHERITED
|
ACQUIRED
|
|
a. Muscular (may cultivate)
|
Mental, Nervous, Moral.
|
|
b. Mental
|
Muscular, Nervous, Moral.
|
|
c. Nervous
|
Muscular, Mental, Moral.
|
|
d. Moral
|
Muscular, Mental, Nervous.
|
As the truest, fullest type of life represents
culture, we would rarely expect to
find an accomplished person exclusively in his native temperament.
|