Fascination really is effectively what the old philosophers, who
had given immense study and research to the subject in ages when
susceptibility to suggestiveness went far beyond anything now known,
all knew and declared; that is to say, it existed, but that it
required a peculiar mind, and very certainly one which is not
frivolous, to understand its nature, and much more to master it.

He who has by foresight, or previous consideration of a subject or
desire, allied to a vigorous resolution (which is a kind of projection
of the mind by will--and then submitting it to sleep), learned how to
bring about a wished-for state of mind, has, in a curious manner, made
as it were of his hidden self a conquest yet a friend. He has brought
to life within himself a Spirit, gifted with greater powers than those
possessed by Conscious Intellect. By his astonishing and unsuspected
latent power, Man can imagine and then create, even a spirit within
the soul. We make at first the sketch, then model it in clay, then
cast it in gypsum, and finally sculpture it in marble.

I read lately, in a French novel, a description of a young lady, by
herself, in which she assumed to have within her two souls, one good,
of which she evidently thought very little, and another brilliantly
diabolical, capricious, vividly dramatic and interesting _esprit_--to
which she gave a great deal of attention. He who will begin by merely
_imagining_ that he has within him a spirit of beauty and light, which
is to subdue and extinguish the other or all that is in him of what is
low, commonplace, and mean, may bring this idea to exert a marvelous
influence. He can increase the conception, and give it reality, by
treating it with forethought and will, by suggestion, until it gives
marvellous result. This better self may be regarded as a guardian
angel, in any case it is a power by means of which we can learn