The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-01-13
HIDDEN MAGNETISM.
PERSONAL FASCINATION AND SOME
EXAMPLES OF ITS POWER.

Personal Magnetisin--The Part 1t Plays In
Our Daily Llfe--An Unknown and Inex-
plalnable Force That Attracts and Re-
pels and Defies Analysis.
Personal magnetism What is itY Whence
docs it springS In what unexplored region
Of the mind or body are its roots TO be
found? We understand it as living fact,
but OF its why, it's wherefore, and whether
it 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 sympathies,
as not to have become fascinated by some
one or something at one time of life. And
naturally youth is the time most fertile in
these extraordinary outbursts Of self sur
render, when that one special person is the
center of the universe for the fascinated
soul, the absolute point of perfection, and
the fawless being who can do no wrong.
Little children, who are in the mental con-
dition Of sayages. find this strange property
of fascination in things more than in per-
sons. To them matter has attributes which
are lost when reason takes the place Of i'm
agination. 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 fur rabbit, 4 ball or a
bit Of blanket. All who have to do with
children know that this queer attraction ex-
lists 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
gasp 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 himY Something quite out of
the power of reason to determine.
1t must have filled his callow soul with
some strange suggestion of exquisite beau
ty-some subtle sense Of a faroff divinity,
for the moment incorporate in those Shiny,
shiny scales. As early civilization goes
back for its gods to beasts and birds and
fishes, so children find their friends and Sc
cret confdants, their loves and mental
marvels in their hairy playmates or their
feathered captives. We are never SO near
to the lower creatures as when we are chill
dren. We never understand them so well
nor love them so much, for the tie of com
munity and affection between a child and
dog, or q child and cat, is stronger than
any made between an adult master and o
4-footed follower, or bedapped old mis-
tress and furry favorite-one OF the "lit
tie lions, small and dainty sweet" fol
which Arsinoe flung over her old lover ant
took far travelled Nicias" instead.
What is it that attracts US In one face
and repels us in anotherY We might say
the plain impress of the spirit within IL w
were all attracted by the same person ant
all repelled by the same. But as with thai
homely old adage which sets forth how
"one mans meat is another mans poison,
so the face-the person--whom we loath
another passionately desires, and tina
which we desire another as passionatel!
loathes. The cause iies deeper than this
1t has its beginnings in some secret sourc
some strange, undetected science Of whicl
we have not got the key.
These subtle harmonies and no less subtl
discords have their own "Unsprung" ant
we have to go farther yet into the mysterie
of psyche physiology before we come upol
that well concealed original cause. Mag
netic," some people call 1t, which is merel
resting the elephant on the back Of the tol
toise--and the tortoise on whatp When W
say yS'magnetic, how much nearer to th
absolute cause of this harmonS--this di;
cord--are weP We have given a name, bu
the name wants Its definition, and the