WE will come closer to the work at hand, step by step, and chapter by chapter, until the reader will be found in the midst of it and far advanced along the highway of success. In fact it is the author's purpose to conceal from the pupil the exact stage where the development begins. The reading of ideas may result in the creation of this power. You ask how that can be. How can reading a book make a singer, a speaker, or a soldier? Of course all art must be put into practice; but a guide post may start a traveler on the right road. For instance, look at the case of a man who showed evidence of having enough vitality to base magnetism upon; but who leaked out all his energy in little motions. He was nervous and fidgety and had neither control over himself nor any one else.We told him one day that he wasted enough electricity to give two persons sufficient magnetism for successful lives. That was enough. He caught the remark as a thunder­bolt of information and acted upon it. The saying or the printing of the idea would have been the same in result. Had he read it he would probably have taken lesson by it just as well as by having heard it. The reduction of his wasting movements, of his uneasiness, his lack of nervous control, re-quired no more time than it did to give way to them. He resolved to master himself. That was to be done by destroying every one of those little motions of hands, head, knees, feet and general body. He set about doing it. Not a minute of time was devoted to practice. When his fidgety movements had been conquered his leakage of vitality ceased. He was soon full of vitality, of nerve force, of energy, of electricity; but not of magnetism, for he had not learned how to use the power.

He proved the wonderful value of storing up electrical vitality. He acted upon advice. An engine that makes steam with all escapes open; he was such a machine at first.

Then, when he learned how to shut off the escapes, he was an engine of great power with no engineer to run it. To him the development of the most powerful and most dangerous form of personal magnetism would have been but a brief and easy step, had he taken the trouble to learn the simple process whereby it could have been accomplished.

Thus we see that reading may of itself start a person into habits that lead to the acquisition of this power. In such case the practice requires no time, for it is merely doing in a certain way the things that have to be done in any event. We come now to some important laws.

TWENTY-FOURTH GRAND PRINCIPLE Mental electricity expends itself in the action of eye, voice and touch.

The power of the eye is greatest, for it is almost a part of the brain itself. That the voice may have mind in it is amply proved every day in every life. How a thing is said may be more important than what is said. The maiden may say to her lover, "I do not like you," in such a tone as to convey the deepest love. The man who referred to the canine pet of an old maid by saying, "That is a pretty dog," in a tone of sarcasm made her angry, for he so colored an innocent statement that it took a meaning opposite to what it would have borne if in print or writing. The mind may do anything with the voice. It often magnetizes it.

TWENTY-FIFTH GRAND PRINCIPLE Personal magnetism is a concentration of the body's energies.

As long as the powers and faculties of the body remain scattered, no matter how strong they are they will accomplish no great purpose in life for they are not acting together. One ofthe most skillful and most telling of the arts of magnetic control is that which whips into line for one great end the scattered powers of the faculties. This is acquired by the mere resolution to acquire it, and by constant watchfulness over every act of the day. Soon the mind becomes an engine of tremendous force.

TWENTY-SIXTH GRAND PRINCIPLE Concentrated energies act as a single whole.

The mind is the best engineer for this union of the multi­tude of powers that live within the body. Let the mental control be lost and the whole force scatters into opposing energies. A mob is dangerous to itself if there is no leading impulse directing it to some fixed end; and a rabble of twenty thousand strong men may be annihilated by a regiment of armed soldiers obeying the orders of a single officer.

Already we have suggested the tremendous results that follow the stoppage of all leakage of nervous electricity. Yet we said that the accumulation of power was not enough with­out the knowledge of how to use it. Now add to that result the ability to concentrate all the energies of the body to the accomplishment of a single purpose; and we have two ele­ments of power that of themselves will elevate their possessor to the loftiest realms of influence; yet neither of them will re­quire time from other duties or exercises for practice. They only shape the current of each day's duties, and march the details of events into more promising highways.

TWENTY-SEVENTH GRAND PRINCIPLE Every microscopic cell is a generator of electricity.

It has a value in that it tells us that we are always devel­oping the very power which we seek. A woman wrote most energetically saying, "Oh, if I could only generate this force in my own body, I would give everything." We wrote her that she was doing it all the time. "Why, madam," we said, "you have countless millions of life cells in your body, and each one hasa vital center where electrical energy is always developing, as the cells come and go." Then she asked, "What becomes of this electricity?" And we answered, "That is the question."

What, indeed, becomes of the countless millions of little throbs of electrical vitality that are born every second in your body? They disappear, dissipate, vanish away and are lost. Look into the power-house of a great electric plant. A vast amount of this energy is generated. Suppose there were wires leaking it out in hundreds of ways how much would the concern have for driving its cars or lighting the homes of the people ? None at all; the fluid is wasted as fast as it is developed. Yet the engines are strong, the plant is a mighty one and the quantity of the fluid that is collected is all that could be asked for. Not until the leakage is stopped will the energy be controlled; then its usefulness will be immediately apparent. This is the story of many a human life; the vital energy is developed, wasted and lost.

To a man or woman of intelligent ambition we need not say that the two ideas already suggested are sufficient to change a life from one of failure to one of mighty successes; prevention of waste and concentration of energies. Yet while enough has been presented to make this course of training exceedingly valuable even if we were to stop here, we are but on the threshold of the work. Before we finish this volume we will have presented a complete and thorough system of magnetic development

TWENTY-EIGHTH GRAND PRINCIPLE

The ganglia are storage batteries.

This introduces the word ganglia, which is a plural form of the Greek ganglion, or nerve cell. A microscopic flesh cell is so small that thousands of millions of them might be contained in a drop of blood no larger than that which could be held on the point of the finest cambric needle. A ganglion is a large cell, composed of gray matter and charged with electricity; not mechanical, but animal and mental elec­tricity. Wherever in the body these cells exist there is thought. As more of them are found in the brain than else­where, that organ is properly called the seat of the mind; but all scientists agree that where there are ganglia there the intellect exists.

These electric cells serve the purpose of collecting enough of the generated energies of the smaller microscopic cells to carry on the functions of life. But they may be weak and helpless storage batteries, nearly empty, in which case the body and its organs are sickly; or they may be strong, full, enlarged, even supercharged batteries, in which case the bod) and nervous system are bright, buoyant and filled with super­abundant vitality. As we have seen, the various forms of energy are co-existent and co-related; although their uses may be wide apart or may be controlled by the different pur­poses of the individual.

TWENTY-NINTH GRAND PRINCIPLE

The nerves are electric wires.

We see now the facts. While natural electricity is free and at large, vegetable electricity is confined to structures that obey a blind intelligence, and flesh organisms are veritable electrical machines. It is a fact that the bones are the stanch columns and supports of the body, without which there could be no strength. It is a fact that the bones are pulled in every direction possible to them by cords or muscles, whose sole office is to move the various parts of the body at will. Then comes the stranger fact that the muscles are excited to action by currents of electricity that travel along wires, just exactly as messages and energy are sent along the mechanical wires.

As these wires cannot generate, collect or hold the fluid in their own limited dimensions, they must be supplied from some means of storage, in the same way that the wires of the mechanical world are supplied; and the ganglia are cell-batteries that do nothing else but collect and hold the energy.

But they do not generate it, any more than do the batteries of commerce generate their supply of the fluid.

It is not then enough that this wonderful body of flesh is a constantly active electrical machine with all the appliancesknown to such machinery; but the power to get the fluid and place it in the batteries is a matter of important consideration. Health of the nervous system must be sought and secured, after which the functions of generation, develop­ment and storage are to be stimulated to the highest degree necessary. Our present purpose is to show that we are made for electric and magnetic life, because we are built for no other kind of existence. The fact that we have allowed our­selves to be useless in great part in these lines of development, should not deter us from returning to the enjoyment of the powers which a kind Providence has conferred upon us.

THIRTIETH GRAND PRINCIPLE Self-maintenance is the smallest duty of the human species.

Although it seems like a proposition in philosophy, it is really the warning cry of this volume. When the question arises, What is the chief function of all these electrical powers of the body? We are tempted to reply that their only pur­pose it to sustain the life of the individual. For what is that life given? To keep the organs active, the heart beating, the lungs breathing, the digestive tract in operation, to supply thought and feeling, purpose and execution; but for what end?

When a man dies what has he accomplished if his life has been successful? He has clothed his body; but what for? So that it may be protected from the storms and cold, in order merely to exist and have the ability to get more cloth­ing for the same circuitous purpose. He has fed the body; but what for? So that it may get strength to keep up the battle of life and thus secure more food for the same end. He has sheltered the body in a home. He has earned pleas­ures to give variety to his mind. He may have attained contentment and satisfaction. He may have provided for his family; hut he cannot give them more than these things which we have enumerated.

When he has done all that he could have hoped to do, there comes the realization that he has not done much. A machine that cannot do more than to keep itself going is of no value whatever. So the best life is empty unless it can pass beyond the line of self-support and self-satisfaction. The same faculties that serve to sustain the body's needs, are given double and triple uses. No doubt the sense of smell in its animal realm gives knowledge of the fitness of foods to be eaten; we catch the odor of tainted meat, sour milk and numberless things ere they are received into the mouth, for the nose stands sentinel just over the lips. No doubt the sense of sight is designed to espy the presence of food and materials needed for the body just as the sense of hearing is employed to lead us into the presence of life, of running water, of animate nature where the supplies of the body are to be found.

But these are material uses only. The nose scents the delightful fragrance of flowers; things that do not grow to please the stomach or to sustain life. The eye witnesses the beauties of color and form, in flower, sky, human face and rich art. The ear is the avenue of exquisite music, sweet voices, tender tones, love and melody. Thus we see that we have other uses for these senses.

What is true of one faculty is true of another. The power of the electric system in the body serves the purposes of the life of flesh; but it has been proved and is now being proved every day that there are higher and grander uses for it. No person has a right to live for the mere renewal of the daily needs of the flesh. The vast majority of humanity will do no better or will fall far short of even this accomplishment and it is a sad reflection that they cannot keep the machine in order that has no ambition to do more than ruin itself. They cannot perform the smallest duties assigned to the human species.

END OF THE third step