Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-09-09
A SUBTLE POWER.
is IT PERSONAL. OR ANIMAL,
MAGNETISM

Shows How Little is Known of
Human Impulse. Despite the In.
Junction. Man, Know Thysclf."
Personal magnetism; What is it!
Whence does it spring? In what un.
explored region or the mind or body
are its roots to be found? We under.
stand it as 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
snccumbed to its power. Few indeed
are so lacking in imagination, so arid
i'll sympathies as not to have become
fascinated by some trivial thing at
one time or another, and yet who can
account for it?
We are in absolute darkness us re.
CARDS the scientific or philosophical OF
this-shall we call it phenomena OF
the mind? We are very little better
than in absolute ignorance of this
flawlcss being so generously endowed.
Little children who are in the con-
dition OF savages, find strange and
wOndrous fascination in things for
which they can give no reasons. To
them matter has attributes which are
lost when reason takes the place OF
Imagination.
A child falls in love with a bit of
dead material and will not be parted
from it. 1t does not signify what the
thing is.
1t may be n doll or a fur rabbit, a
ball or bit of blanket. All who
have to do with children know that
this queer attraction exists in lifeless,
formless things rs we'll as in those to
which it would be more easy to give
occult grace.
AS early civilization goes back for
its gods to beasts, birds and fishes, 50
children find their friends and secret
cOntidants, their loves and mental
marvels in their hairy playmates or
feathered cnptives; we are never SO
near the lower creatures as when we
are children. We never understand
them half so we'll nor love them SO
much, for the tie of community and
affection between child and dog
and cat, is stronger than any made
between an adult master and four.
footed follower, or a be-capped old
mistress and furry iavorite-one Of
the little lions, small and dainty sweet
for which Arsinoe flung over her lover
and took far-travelled Meas" in.
stead.
What is it that attracts us to one
face and rcpels us in another? We
might say the plain impress of the
spiritual within, if we were attracted
by the same and repelled by the same
But AS with the homely old adage
which sets forth how one mans meat
is another mans poison" so the face
the person-whom we loathe another
passionately desires, and that which
we desire another passionately loathes
The cause is deeper than this. 1t has
its beginnings in some secret source
some strange heretofore undctected
science of which we have the key in
magnetism.
These snbtle harmonies and no less
subtle discords have their own " I'm.
sprung." and we have to go farther
yet into the mysteries of psyche
physiology before We come upon that
we'll concealed original cause. mag.
netic," some people call it, which is
merely resting the elephant on the
back OF the tortoise and the tortoise
on the back Of-what? When we say
magnetic" how much nearer to this
absolute harmony-this discOrd-are
we? We have given a name, but tho
name now wants a definition, and
then that definition 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 a geometrical harmonyi
And, in any case, how is it that one
person can fascinate many and sc
prove an indefinite amount of chemical
affinity of strangely complex
geometrical arrangement of atoms?
This magnetism plays an important
part in the lives of men and women
Often its effects are disastrous, though
at times among the leaders of large
and righteous movements, or of purel
spiritual aspiration-it has been one
of the workers of salvation. Yet fol
one man who is elevated and made
heroic by the personal destinations ol
woman, say, thousands are degraded
and ruined. This magnetism to which
we all more or less yield ourselves, has
its terrible side as we'll as lovely.
The "demon lover" of the old
poems was but another true type oi
the fatal power which can be used to
the souls rerdition and the body's
ruin of the one who yields. For in.
deed, what is love but magnetism in
in its highest sense and supremesi