OF ALL the facts that operate to make our lives doubtful in their success or failure, is the appall­ing ease with which, on some unforeseen occasion, and in some unexpected and unexplainable man­ner, we yield advantages that our better judgment should have clung to and held in its keeping. In other words we are not always able to take care of ourselves. The loss of control is not due so much to our breaking down after a certain amount of resistance, as to our willingness to yield. Often our minds are led to think that it is the right thing to do. Startling propositions contain elements of conviction that rush us to a change of view, almost before we know it. Let us see what these are.

At the present stage of our study we may regard mag­netism as a central trunk of influence, having four branches; each individual being capable of using, as well as controlled by, any one or all of the four, although his or her tempera­ment may prevail in one only. The arrangement is not a scientific one; but, being correct in fact and illustrating the true relationship of life more accurately than science may do in this part of our study, we are compelled to adopt it.

In every created being there is an aggregation of individual energies left to drift. They furnish the general basis of power. When properly excited they become concentrated and, for a time, are irresistible. So it occurs that many unmagnetic persons are sometimes "aroused," as they choose to call it, and show a force that had never been credited to them.

The energies of the body that arouse magnetism, show themselves very distinctly in one way or another.

The pupil of the eye indicates the magnetic condition. The eye presents to an observer some part of its ball, the iris and the pupil. The ball is supposed to be white, but it is veined and tinted with a delicate shade that generally coin­cides with the color of the iris. The latter gives name to the color of the eye. The iris is a band that surrounds the hole, aperture or pupil. Through this hole the light travels to the brain, exciting the optic nerve and receiving interpretations at the end of the journey. If the band is blue, the eye is called blue; or brown, then the eye is brown; and so on.

The pupil of the eye is not supposed to have color. It is a dark hole, and all dark holes show absence of color, for absence of light can have no other result; and absence of color always means the appearance of black. An orator whose eyes were a brilliant blue, addressed an audience with eloquent passion. To the surprise of those who knew him in private life only, his blue eyes had disappeared; they were dis­placed by great orbs of black. These friends sat directly in front of him, and were sure of the fact. An actor likewise surprised some acquaintances; his gray eyes shifting to black under the excitement of the evening.

But then the occurrence is a very common one, although it may not be observed as often as it transpires. The pupil of the eye indicates the magnetic condition. When the en­ergy is lacking or is held in abeyance, the pupil is exceedingly small, unless the person is subject to abnormal nervous con­ditions. The small size of the pupil is due to lack of vitality in the optic nerve and brain as applied to the eye. The most magnetic men we have met were accustomed to carry the eyes as though they were dead; the fires slumbered, but had not gone out. Blue eyes show a large field of blue when the pupils are contracted. So do gray eyes, or those of any color. But as the magnetic fire is kindled the field is les­sened because the pupil of the eye expands, the aperture is enlarged just in proportion as the energy within takes possession of the orb; and, under great nervous excitement, the pupil, black, blazing and intense, drives the curtain widely apart until there is no trace of the iris, and consequently no color to the eye. It is jet black.

Under such circumstances the effect is sometimes awful, especially if the fire is kept within steady control.

Some persons who are able to master the wills of others depend solely on this power of expanding the pupil of the eye.

The beholder realizes that a change is taking place in the character of the face before him, but he does not analyze its nature.

He may be influenced to a degree that leaves him practically helpless, yet he is not by any means put into a hypnotic sleep.

In the attempt to explain the difference between exert­ing an influence that is magnetic, and one that is hypnotic, many seeming contradictions will arise; but the student is even more apt to become confused when he reads that persons may possess the hypnotic power, and yet are not able to produce the hypnotic sleep. While magnetism is a universal condition, hypnotism is comparatively limited, for its subjects are few and scattered.

It is not possible to hypnotize a person unless there is a tendency in that person toward catalepsy, which is a morbid condition of the nerves. It is true that the disease may be invited by certain exercises; but then it takes a long time and does a permanent injury. These facts should be considered when you propose to induce the hypnotic sleep in one who has been in good health. We believe it to be a crime. By hypnotism in this sense we mean to put into the sleep called hypnotic, where normal consciousness is submerged.

You may take lessons, become an expert, and possess the full power, yet where are your subjects? The healthy man or woman will not permit you to manipulate the senses, nor could you succeed if you were to try. That weakling who is to be pitied because of a deficient vitality is your only prey.

The triumph is void of honor. The king has conquered a rag doll. There are schools of hypnotism, but their pupils practice upon cataleptics, upon diseased people, and, after graduation, they are powerless, for they have not ac­quired magnetism. The latter power is universal. All the world is its teachers, and all the world its subjects.

A hypnotic subject is quickly put to sleep by glancing at any expanding eye-pupil; and this would take place even if the operator had no intention of causing such result. Very few persons can long gaze into the eye of one who, while looking at them, controls the lens-muscles of the eyeball so as to open the central aperture, without a feeling of strange­ness creeping over them. You cannot maintain such gaze, except at a loss of some of your will-power. Why this is so we will see later on. The hypnotic subject—that is, one who is of cataleptic tendencies—will fall asleep. He will do the same thing if he looks steadily for a few minutes at a small silver or white ivory ball, suspended in front of him at a slight elevation above the height of the eyes, so that the subject whom the hypnotic operator put to sleep by the usual methods will fall asleep of his own volition under cer­tain exciting causes. How much credit, then, is to be given to the powers of the hypnotist? Very little indeed.

Another phase of the present question needs a word or two of explanation. While the hypnotist may put fixed subjects to sleep, the magnetic person may work in two ways: He may exert a depressing or an elevating influence over those about him. We prefer to teach only the elevating uses of this power, and we have often advised our readers to avoid gazing long into the eyes of those who seem powerless to remove their glance.

What the individual is able to find out for himself will not be told him by instinct or nature. God does nothing for humanity that it is able to do for itself. The life of the race is made necessary, and the impulses of instinct and desire are accordingly given first place in the habits and cravings of the mind and body. With animals below man this rule is re­versed. With them, as with man, gain is sought, but for the purpose of maintaining life. Every beast, bird and serpent plays some important part in the plan of existence. Life dies most happily and most easily in the clutches of other life. The bird that must end its days in the slow processes of old suffers many a month of torture waiting for the end; but in the jaws of the cat or the fangs of the snake it finds a pleasurable release from the agonies of living; an enjoyment that is participated in by the victim as much as by the devourer.

To effect this purpose it is essential that the bird should be trapped by a power that paralyzes his wings. The chatter of the cat is done to catch the ear, and thence the eye of the bird. Magnetism does the rest. Until the birds sees the explanded pupil of the eye of the cat, it is free; but after that it is lost. The snake likewise draws its prey by the same law.

Fish in the sea are known to hold their victims by a similar use of the eye. The nobler of the savage beasts, such as the lion, the tiger, the hyena, and countless others, are all given the magnetic power as an aid to their purpose of gain. Ascending still higher up the ladder of animal life we find that the valuable dog and the spirited horse have the same power. Without it the supreme qualities of these better companions of man would be dulled. In each and every instance where the lower forms of life, or humanity itself, may be seen to give evidence of the power of magnetism, the proof is present in the expanded eye-pupil. It does not follow that any man or woman can, at will, cause the eye-pupil to expand, but it is invariably true that the normal expansion of this part of the eye is the result of excessive magnetism. The abnormal expansion is due to the nervous powers running wild; the latent energy is let loose and is uncontrolled. One is the valued steed obeying the command of its master; the other is the valued steed running away with his master.

The increase of magnetism leads to the power of expansion; but it does not follow that the power is to be always employed. On the other hand the most magnetic men and women do not allow this power to manifest itself except when they choose to call it into use; they seem to be the very oppo­sites of what they are, for their eyes are apparently lifeless, and even droop like those in a half-sleep. They are in a state of resting most of the time, thus being better prepared for the lightning energy that may be called forth by some special need.

The normal or healthful expansion of the pupil is always due to personal magnetism, and it may be controlled at will. This being true, it must follow that a magnetic person may expand or contract the pupil at will.

Outward light expands and contracts the eye-pupil; but this is a mechanical action. The cat closes its iris to a vertical line, when it is out in the sun; but let a bird come near by and the iris will instantly give way, allowing the pupil to ex­pand so as to cover the whole area, even in the brightest glare of sunlight. Here we see the inward power out-weigh­ing the outward power.

Although the conscious insensibility to pain that accom­panies the capture of a human being by a wild animal is ascribed to fright, the best knowledge on the subject makes it clear that this release from suffering is due to a wise pro­vision of Nature that couples mercy with necessity. That life must eat life in order to live, is a law of the very first importance among the vast majority of the species. With­out its aid man must have perished, and the fact that civili­zation is assisting him to rely chiefly on the vegetable king­dom for sustenance shows that he is a progressive being.

The authenticated cases of freedom from pain while in the clutches of savage beasts are too numerous to admit of question. The hunter who said, "I was quite conscious of the tiger's teeth penetrating my shoulder, but, instead of hurting me, they seemed devoid of pain," voiced the expe­rience of many others. The bird suffers nothing while in the jaws of the cat. Something in the expanded pupils and glaring balls of the captor has lessened the will of the prey, and the sensation of drowsiness that follows may deaden the feeling in the nerves.

The power referred to is not only natural, but is as common as anything in Nature. It is said that a man who faces a wild animal can hold it at bay by a steadfast gaze; yet few persons are willing to depend upon so frail a defense. The statement is correct only so far as the man is able to maintain an energy of power in the eye under the present prin­ciple. If the animal magnetism of the beast is of a more en­during quality, the vitality of the man will soon be broken; and this the beast expects and looks for. A quick drowsiness follows, and soon all is over. There are, however, instances well verified where men have not only withstood the gaze of savage beasts, but have actually cowed them by the eye, and this in the haunts of Nature.