On the other hand, perhaps, it may be an unconscious form of _mesmerism_, the mesmerist being as totally unaware of his gift as the mesmerised is of his power. But if we cannot break up Charm into its component parts, we can, at least, say definitely what it is not. It cannot be cultivated, for one thing, though life and experience may help to make it finer, more exquisite. Nor is it necessarily the natural possession of either beautiful or clever people. Most of us have met men and women who were both mediocre in appearance and uncultivated in mind, who nevetheless were charming in no slight degree, in that the evidence of charm be admiration and friendship. The natural gift they possessed was the power to make all those with whom they came in contact _feel charming_ too, and this, after all, may or may not be the great secret of Charm? Beauty is delightful to gaze upon; but it is, as it were, a self‐contained quality—we cannot share in it except as spectators. But the genius of a charming man or woman is that they help to bring out all that is best in other people. Beauty only makes other people feel more beautiful or infinitely plainer and either is a very lonely feeling. But in Charm we seem to share; it seems to mingle us, not only with the charmer, but with all the world around them. Beauty is like a wonderful jewel; but Charm, if I may refer to it in metaphor, resembles an ideal home. And who would not rather pawn their jewellery than break up a happy domesticity? It is perhaps this feeling which Charm gives us of being perfectly “at home” that is its most precious possession. So, may be, it is really the one word we give to that quality of the mind and heart which mingles both sympathy and understanding in equal quantities. Most women, when they desire to cultivate Charm, read up the Memoirs of Ninon de l’Enclos, whereas they would be much wiser to analyze the attractive qualities of the dog! Animals are always charming, because they are always natural; and to be _natural_ is ninety per cent of fascination. The reason so many men and women are bores is because so many men and women are never content to make the best of what they are, but are always pretending to be what they are not, generally ending their performance by giving a dismal caricature of the Ideal they have tried so vainly to emulate. Even honesty in this world of masks is charming. I don’t, of course, mean that honesty which will scrupulously repay threepenny bits, but the honesty which will be content to be exactly what it is, without pretence or disguise, and with no additional trimming in the way of either gold lace or sackcloth and ashes. An artificial person is never charming, though they may sometimes achieve a charming effect. An honest wrongdoer is infinitely more attractive than a Saint who pretends that he has done no wrong. The great charm of a charming person is that he can mingle the most diverse human elements, bringing them down to the one