education.
Indeed, we constantly see men of mediocre ability but with fine
personal presence, superb manner, and magnetic qualities, being rapidly
advanced over the heads of those who are infinitely their superiors in
mental endowments.

A good illustration of the influence of personal atmosphere is found in
the orator who carries his audience with him like a whirlwind, while he
is delivering his speech, and yet so little of this personal element
adheres to his cold words in print that those who read them are
scarcely moved at all. The influence of such speakers depends almost
wholly upon their presence,--the atmosphere that emanates from them.
They are much larger than anything they say or do.

Certain personalities are greater than mere physical beauty and more
powerful than learning. Charm of personality is a divine gift that
sways the strongest characters, and sometimes even controls the
destinies of nations.

We are unconsciously influenced by people who possess this magnetic
power. The moment we come into their presence we have a sense of
enlargement. They unlock within us possibilities of which we
previously had no conception. Our horizon broadens; we feel a new
power stirring through all our being; we experience a sense of relief,
as if a great weight which long had pressed upon us had been removed.

We can converse with such people in a way that astonishes us, although
meeting them, perhaps, for the first time. We express ourselves more
clearly and eloquently than we believed we could. They draw out the
best that is in us; they introduce us, as it were, to our larger,
better selves. With their presence, impulses and longings come
thronging to our minds which never stirred us before. All at once life
takes on a higher and nobler meaning, and we are fired with a desire to
do more than we have ever before done, and to be more than we have been
in the past.

A few minutes before, perhaps, we were sad and discouraged, when,
suddenly, the flashlight of a potent personality of this kind has
opened a rift in our lives and revealed to us hidden capabilities.
Sadness gives place to joy, despair to hope, and disheartenment to
encouragement. We have been touched to finer issues; we have caught a
glimpse of higher ideals; and, for the moment, at least, have been
transformed. The old commonplace life, with its absence of purpose and
endeavor, has dropped out of sight, and we resolve, with better heart
and n