ne that it would be amenable to soft
influences. But I have studied this inert mass, and, as each person
has special characteristics, some being more partial than others to,
say, Literary pursuits, Athletics, Music, Poetry, Engineering,
Science, or Metaphysics, so I am able to show that this iron mass has
not only a number of these "partials," some of which are
extraordinarily beautiful and powerful, audible over long distances,
but that by the lightest touch of certain small generating rubbers,
not more than an ounce in weight and tipped with cork or leather,
each of which has been put into perfect sympathy with one of those
traits, I can make that mass demonstrate them both optically and
audibly; but, without those special sympathetic touches, it is silent
and remains an inert mass. This result is obtained by physical contact
between the instrument and the mass, but we will now carry this
another step forward and deal with the subject of the action of
Influence at a distance, or what may be called Prayer, between two of
these rigid masses. From what we have already seen, it is clear that
the Soul of man could not possibly pray with efficacy to a graven
image; there is nothing in sympathy between them, and, without
sympathetic action, influence is impossible; but it is quite possible
for Matter to pray with efficacy to Matter, provided the material
soul, if we may use the analogy, is brought into perfect sympathy with
the material god, and I can now put before you an experiment showing
this taking place.

I have another heavy bar of iron, not so long but of the same
thickness as the one already described, and have found its strongest
characteristic; I have another small rubber, fashioned so that its
characteristic is in perfect sympathy with that of the bar, namely,
that the number of vibrations, in a second, of the instrument are
exactly equal to those of the iron mass, and it is, therefore, as we
saw in the last experiment, able by contact to influence the bar
sympathetically. The slightest touch throws the bar into such violent
vibration that a great volume of sound is produced, which can be heard
a quarter of a mile away. The result of this sympathetic touch is far
from being transient, in fact, the bar will continue to move, audibly,
for a long time. This movement in the mass of iron was started by
physical contact, but having once started the bar praying, willing, or
thinking, whichever you like to call it, that