Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-08-26
THE POWER OF FASCINATION.


be an affinity purely spiritual or partly
physical, we know absolutely nothing.
Yet it exists; and most Of us have sue
cumbed to its power. Few, indeed, are
so poor in imagination, so arid in SYM
pathies, as not to have become fasci-
mated by some one or something at one
time of life. And naturally youth is
the time most fertile in these extraor-
binary outbursts of self-surrender,
when that one special person is the
center of the universe for the fasci-
mated soul, the absolute point of per-
fection and the fiawless being who can
do no wrong.
Little children, who are in the mental
condition of savages, find this strange
property of fascination in things more
than in persons. To them matter has
attributes which are lost when reason
takes the place of Imagination. A child
falls in love with bit Of dead material
and will not be parted from it. 1t does
not signify what the thing Is. 1t may
be a doll or fur rabbit, a ball or
bit Of blanket. All who have to do
with children know that this queer at
traction exists in lifeless, formless
things as well as in those to which it
would be more easy to give that occult
grace. One sturdy little fellow, who
once caught small silver fish, would
not let the slippery creature out of his
chubby hand till sleep relaxed his
grasp. And then in the morning, when
he found that his scaly Charm had
gone, heaven and earth came together
and he broke his little heart in howls.
What did that dead, Shiny, strong
smelling Charm represent to him?
Something quite out Of the power of
reason to determine. 1t must have
lifted his callow soul with some strange
suggestion of exquisite beauty-some
subtle sense Of a far-off divinity, for
the moment incorporate in those Shiny,
shining scales. AS early civilization
goes back for it's gods to beasts and
birds and fishes so children find their
friends and secret confidantS, their
loves and mental marvelS in their hairy
playmates or their feathered captives.
We are never so near to the lower crea-
lures as when we are children. We
never understand them so well nor love
them so much, for the tie of community
and affection between a child and a
dog, or a child and cat, is stronger
than any made between an adult mas
ter and a four-footed follower, or Il be-
capped old mistress and a furry favor
ite-one of the little lions, small, and
dainty sweet" for which Arsinoe flung
over her old lover and took "far-tra
elled Nicias'' instead
What is it that attracts us In one face
and repels us in another? We might
say the plain impress of the spirit
within If we were all attracted by the
same person and all repealed by the
pt,t viii @1,nf II =
adage which sets forth how "one mans
meat is another mans poison" so the
face-the person-whom we loathe an
other passionately desires, and that
which we desire another as passion
ately loathes. The cause lies deeper
than this. 1t has it's beginnings in some
science Of which we have not got the
Key. These subtle harmonies and no
less subtle discords have their own
"Ursorung," and we have to go fur
ther yet into the mysteries of psyche
physiology before we come upon that
well-concealed original cause. Mag
netic," some call it, which is merely
resting the elephant on the back of the
tortoise-and the tortoise on what?
When we say magnetic" how much
nearer to the absolute cause of this
harmony-this discord-are we? We
have given name, but the name
wants its definition, and then that def
milton must be reduced to its elements.
For, after all, what is this magnetism"
which we say we see because we feel?
Is it chemical affinity or geometri-
cal harmony? And In any case how
IS 1t that one person can fascinate many
and SO prove an indefinite amount of
chemical affinity or strangely COM
plex geometr1cal arrangement of atoms?
This power Of fascination plays an
important part in the lives of men and
women. Too often the effects are dis
astrous, though at times-as in the lead
erS of large and righteous movements,
or of purer spiritual aspira tions-it has
been one of the workers Of salvation
for the world. Yet for one man who
Is elevated and made heroic by the
personal fascination Of a woman, say,
thousands are degraded and ruined.
The George Barnwells Of life are more
numerous than the Orsons, and the
Omphales and Delilahs are more po-
tent to reduce the strength of heroes
than are the women of heroic mould
to strengthen and ennoble towards.
This fascination, to which we all, more
or less, at some time or another, yield
ourselves, has its terrible side as well
as it's lovely. The demon lover" of
the old poem was but an over true
type Of the fatal power which can be
used by strong mind over a weak, to
the souls perdition and the body's ruin
of the one who yields. For, indeed.
what Is love but fascination In its high
est sense and to the supremest degree:
If 1t were not SO, how should such and
such be loved with all the fervor of
life2 We see honorable men fascinated
into degradation by an utterly un-
worthy Woman-a woman without
heart, pity, sentiment or morality; a
woman who knows no more of love
than she does of virtue. Yet she has
power to attract, keep. and ruin strong
men and noble lives, We see, ON the
other hand, women of character and
position. who lose themselves. body and
soul, for some worthless vulgarian who
has nothing, apparently, to recommend
him. Hateful to one, he is fascinating
to another; and the mystery why re-
mains unsOlved and insoluble. A wife
clings to a drunken, dissipated hus-
band, not from sense of duty, which
Is heroic, but from abject love-the dog
like love of one hopelessly subdued and
Fascinated to the point which lies be-
yOnd self-respect. A husband adores
a woman who has not a charm, physi-
cal or moral that an outsider can dis
cover-and so on through the scale of
human emotions. We have this power
as clue to many strange stories in
history which however. does NOT adj