cial beauty and physical
prowess all made way for the kind of magnetism that Socrates, George
Sand, Julius Caesar, Henry VIII, Paganini, Emerson, Dean Swift or Richard
Wagner possessed.

More wonderful still is the fact that magnetism is by no means confined
to those who have finely trained intellects or who have achieved great
reputations. Some vaudeville buffoon or some gypsy fiddler may have
more attractive power than the virtuoso who had spent years in
developing his mind and his technic. The average virtuoso thinks far
more of his "geist," his "talent" (or as Emerson would have it, "the
shadow of the soul--the otherwise") than he does of his technic, or his
cadenzas. By what mystic means magnetism may be developed, the writer
does not pretend to know. Possibly by placing one's deeper self (shall
we say "subconscious self") in closer communion with the great throbbing
problems of the invisible though perpetually evident forces of nature
which surround us we may become more alive, more sensitively vivified.
What would it mean to the young virtuoso if he could go to some occult
master, some seer of a higher thought, and acquire that lode-stone*
which has drawn fame and fortune to the blessed few? Hundreds have spent
fortunes upon charlatans in the attempt.

All artists know the part that the audience itself plays in falling
under the magnetic spell of the performer. Its connection with the
phenomena of autosuggestion is very clear. Dr. Wundt, the famous German
psychologist, showed a class of students how superstitions unconsciously
acquired in early life affect sensible adults who have long since passed
the stage at which they might put any credence in omens. At a concert
given by a famous player, the audience has been well schooled in
anticipation. The artist always appears under a halo his reputation has
made for him. This very reputation makes his conquest far easier than
that of the novice who has to prove his ability before he can win the
sympathy of the audience. He is far more likely to find the audience _en
rapport_ than indifferent. Sometime, at the play in a theater, watch how
the audience will unconsciously mirror the facial expressions of the
forceful actor. In some similar manner, the virtuoso on the concert
platform sensitizes the minds and emotions of the sympathetic audience.
If the effect is deep and lasting, the artist is said to possess that
Kohinoor of virtuosodom--magnetism.

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