Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/165

charms" and "powders" in existence, for these are mainly errant cheats and swindles, and when they do apparently succeed the thing is accomplished by other means. . . . One thing I cannot too strongly impress, and that is: The body, as well as the mind, must be kept in a healthful, magnetic state, or the magnetic power cannot be rendered positive and effectual; and not only the face and hands, but other parts of the body, should be regularly purified, not merely for the purpose of cleanliness, but for the sake of the electro-magnetic properties of water. . . . The nest thing in order to perfect physical health and condition is fixedness — stability of purpose — to cultivate the power of keeping the mind steadily for a time upon one object, that object being, if you please, a recreant husband, a false and straying lover, or a man for whom your heart yearns (of course the law is quite as applicable to one sex as the other), and think of him amatively, sweetly, tenderly, lovingly, either when he is present or absent (for the will can be projected to any distance, no matter how great), and the desire to impress a man will reach him wherever he may be, even beyond the foaming seas or the still wider gulf of death! Soul bids defiance to time and space, and there is no limit to its flight or power. Will steadily, tenderly, frequently, and the very same emotion, or its cognate, will be brought forth in him whoever, whatever, wherever he may be! It cannot be achieved in an hour. Nothing of this recondite nature can; and, as in the case of angry separations, the will must overcome the established repugnance; but will can do that, for soul is equal to the task. . . . Many yield to a second attack of will, love, or beauty, who firmly resist the first. True, it is said that love is blind; certain it is that he makes people so; yet the being lives not who is impregnable to this sort of magnetic attack, even if blinded in a certain sense. ... A woman is more forceful and powerful in both will, personal magnetism, and in tenderness, therefore, love, just a little before and after the catamenial period, than at any other time; and her power culminates and is most effective in the evening, in the twilight, than at any other period of the day. . . . Every woman who pursues an unusual work steadily and faithfully, and shows that she can remain as modest, gentle, and tender as when she plied the needle, or cooked the home dinner, is doing a real service to her sex, very different from vague, frenzied 2