St. Paul daily globe., 1893-04-03
FASCINATION POWER.
Beyond the Range Of Reason
to Determine as to What
1t Consists.
The Power Of Fascination
Plays an Important Part
in Life.
What Is 1t That Attracts Us
in One Face and RepelS
Us in Another.
The Practical Part Which
This Psychological Pow
er Plays.

This Psychological Pow
er Plays.
What is it? Whence does it spring?
In what uneXplored region of the mind
or body are its roots to be found? We
understand it is living fact, but OF its
why, its wherefore, and whether it be
an affinity purely spiritual or partly
physical, we know absolutely nothing.
Yet it exists; and most of us have
succombed to its power, says a writer
in the Queen. Few, indeed, are
so poor in Imagination, so arid in
sympathes, as not to have become
fascinated by some one or something at
one time of life. Aud naturally youth
is the time most fertile in these eXtraor-
dnary outburstS of self-surrender,w when
| that one special person is the center OF
the universe for the fascinated soul, the
absolute point of perfection, and the
| flawless being who can do no wrong.
| Little children who are in the mental
condition OF savages. find this strange
|
| 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 doll or a fur rabbit, ball or bit
OF blanket. All who have to do with
children know that this queer attrac-
ton exists in lifeless. formless things as
we'll as in those to which it would be more
easy to give that occult grace. One sturdy
little fellow, who once caught a 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 mus t
nave filled his callow soul with some
strange suggestions of exquisite beauty
some subtle scene of far-Otf divinity,
for the moment incorporate in
those Shiny, shining scales. AS
early civilization goes back for its
gods to beasts and birds and fishes.
so children find their friends and secret
cOnfdantS, their loves and mental mar
vels, in their hairy playmates OF their
feathertd captives. We are never SO
near the lower creatures as when sWe
are chlldren. We never understand
them so well or love them so much, for
the tie of community and affection be-
tween child and dog, or child and
cat. is stronger than any made between
an adult master and a fOur-fOoted fol-
lower, Or becapped old mistress and
furry favOrite-one Of the little lions.
small, and dainty sweet" for which
ArthOe flung over her old lover and
took "far-traveled Niclas'' instead.
What is it that attracts us in one face
and repeIS us in another? We might
say the plain impress of the spirit with
in If we were all attracted by the same
person and all repeled by the same.
But, as with that homely old adage
which sets forth how lone mans meat
is another mans poison" so the face
the persOn-WhOm we loathe an
other pasSiOnately desires, and that
which we desire another passOnately
loathes. The cause lies deeper than
this. 1t has its beginning in some Sc
cret sOurce-SOme Stra nge. undetected
science of which we have not got the
key. These subtle harmonies. and no
less subtle diScOrdS, have their own "Un
SOrung,' and we have 10 go further yet
into the mysteries Of psychO-physiolOgy
before we come upon that well-cOn-
cealed original cause, Magnetic" some
call it, which is merely resting the ele-
phant on the back of the tortoise and
and the tortoise OH what? When we say
magnetic" how much nearer to the
absolute cause of this harmony-this
dfScord-are we? We have given a name,
but the name wants its definition, and
then the definitlOn must be reduced to
Its elements. For, after all, what is this
"magnetism?" which we say we see be-
cause we feel? Is it chemical affinity
or geom etrical harmony? And in any
case how is it that one person can faSci-
nate many ana so prove an indefinite
amount of chemical affinity or
strangely complex geOmetrical arrange
ment of atoms?
This power of fascination plays an
important part in the lives of men and
women. Too often the effects are disaS
trous, though at times as in the leaders
OF large and righteous movements. or of
purer spiritual aspirations-it has been
one of the workers Of salvation for the
world. Yet tor one man who is elevated
and made heroic by the personal fasci-
nation of woman, say, thousands are
degraded and ruined. The George Barn
wells of life are more numerous than
the OrsOns, and the Omphales and Deli
labs are more potent to reduce the
strength of heroes than are the women
of heroic mould to strengthen and en-
noble towards. The fascination, to
which we all, more or less, at some time
or another, yield ourselves, has its ter
rible side as we'll as its 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 weak to the SOULS perdition
and the body's ruin of the
one who yields. For, indeed, what
IS love but fascination in its highest
sense and 10 the supTemeSt degree?
If it were not so. how should such and
such be loved with all the fervor of
life? We see honorable men fascinated
into degradation by an utterly unworthy
wOman-a woman without heart, pity,
sentiment or morality; 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 posi-
ton, who lose Themselves body