we believe, as HEINE prettily suggests, that something of the life or
the being of the owner or wearer has passed into the talisman, we are
not far off from the suggestion that our feelings are allied. All over
Italy, or over the world, pebbles of precious stone, flint or amber,
rough topaz or agate, are esteemed as lucky; all things of the kind
lead to suggestiveness, and may be employed in suggestion.

What was originally known as Fascination, of which the German,
FROMANN, wrote a very large volume which I possess, is simply
Hypnotism without the putting to sleep. It is direct Suggestion. Where
there is a natural sympathy of like to like, soul answering soul, such
suggestion is easily established. Among people of a common, average,
worldly type who are habitually sarcastic, jeering, chaffing, and
trifling, or those whose idea of genial or agreeable companionship is
to "get a rise" out of all who will give and take irritations equally,
there can be no sympathy of gentle or refined emotions. Experiments,
whose whole nature presupposes earnest thought, cannot be tried with
any success by those who live habitually in an atmosphere of small
talk and "rubbishy" associations. Fascination should be mutual; to
attempt to exert it on anyone who is not naturally in sympathy is a
crime, and I believe that all such cases lead to suffering and
remorse.

But where we perceive that there is an undoubted mutual liking and
good reason for it, fascination, when perfectly understood and
sympathetically used, facilitates and increases love and friendship,
and may be most worthily and advantageously employed. Unto anyone who
could, for example, merely skim over all that I have written, catching
an idea here and there, and then expect to master all, I can clearly
say that I can give him or her no definite idea of fascination. For