FASCINATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19712, 11 August 1927, Page 5

FASCINATION.

If throughout history you study the lives of people who have carried all before them and won the love of all they met, you find that these people were the strangest, most fascinating mixture of self-confidence and self-forgetfulness. They give the impression of an absolutely clear-cut, strong personality without any shadows or vagueness, and in this way convey a sense of beauty and well-being. They are people utterly without eDemies, people able to soothe and heal. If you come to think, what is it that makes people at enmity with one? Isn't it. a sense of combat they spread round about them, a sense of striving for themselves which immediately gets one's back up, puts one on the defensive ? The man or woman who comes into a room bringing an impression of complete confidence in "himself or herself will immediately draw all eyes. Most of us are wobbly, uncertain creatures —it is restful to find s °"\ e " one who trusts in himself in this wobbly world! But if they are bombastic, egotistical, the momentary attraction passes; it is only when you realise that they have reached perfect self-forgetfulness that you feel instinctively the presence of very great beauty in them. Such peoplethere are not many of them, but there could easily be more—are those who carry all before them. They need never worry because their success in life is _ assured nobody is on the defensive against them. But how to get to this desirable state. First of all, self-control is necessary. Uhere is nothing lovelier than the body of an athlete who has every muscle and nerve in his control; but to be beautiful one must manage to control ones emotions and nerves in just the same way, and you can only do this by getting know vourself thoroughly. Will-power will never produce sell-con-trol. It can certainly force you to do difficult things for the time being, but only at great expense to your nervous svstem. 1,1 • „ * Self-control can come only bv knowing vourself thoroughly and understanding why you do things, why you want things, and so on. When you do understand yourself, yon can make your mind control your emotions —and avoid those feelings of denres sion that give a droop to the mouth, draw lines of strain round it and round the eyes, and you can prevent those tempers and fits of annoyance that, each one of them, leave an indelible scar on the henuty of the face. Then for the henntv that comes of nn-sclf-consciousness. The woman who forgets herself is the loveliest. Then, having got yourself "straightened out" mentally, and bavins decided to practise the rules of natural, healthy life, the next thing is to studv vour type and make vour surroundings fit it.