you can find some one to "prove" your relaxation, so much the
better. Let your friend lift an arm, bending it at the different
joints, and then carefully lay it down. See if you can give its
weight entirely to the other person, so that it seems to be no part
of you, but as separate as if it were three bags of sand, fastened
loosely at the wrist, the elbow, and the shoulder; it will then be
full of life without tension. You will find probably, either that
you try to assist in raising the arm in your anxiety to make it
heavy, or you will resist so that it is not heavy with its own
weight but with I your personal effort. In some cases the nervous
force is so active that the arm reminds one of a lively eel.

Then have your legs treated in the same way. It is good even to have
some one throw your arm or your leg up and catch it; also to let it
go unexpectedly. Unnecessary tension is proved when the limb,
instead of dropping by the pure force of gravity, sticks fast
wherever it was left. The remark when the extended limb is brought
to the attention of its owner is, "Well, what did you want me to do?
You did not say you wanted me to drop it,"--which shows the habitual
attitude of tension so vividly as to be almost ridiculous; the very
idea being, of course, that you are not wanted to do anything but
_let go,_ when the arm would drop of its own accord. If the person
holding your arm says, "Now I will let go, and it must drop as if a
dead weight," almost invariably it will not be the force of gravity
that takes it, but your own effort to make it a dead weight; and it
will come down with a thump which shows evident muscular effort, or
so slowly and actively as to prove that you cannot let it alone.
Constant and repeated trial, with right thought from the pupil, will
be certain to bring good results, so that at least he or she can be
sure of better power for rest in the limbs. Unfortunately this first