ristianity,
citizenship, government, health, happiness and progress are all
dependent upon the character of the ideals and purposes and daily life
of the individual.

"When Christ told the lawyer that to 'love thy neighbor as thyself' was
one of the essentials of salvation, he laid the corner-stone for a pure
and honest democracy, without which underlying principle there can be no
lasting democratic government. We now know, in medicine, that much of
longevity and good health and power of recuperation depend upon the
ideals of the individual, and their inspiring influence.

"It is too bad that with all our tremendous progress we allow bigotry
and prejudice to hamper us in getting the most out of the wisdom around
us as well as that of the ages, all of which is correlated. Yet very
often the orthodox Christian, who believes that Christ not only healed
the sick but also raised the dead, decries the Christian Scientist who
only professes to restore the sick on the theory that disease cannot
exist in an individual properly imbued with Christ's teachings. Too
often the orthodox doctor of medicine denounces the healer who overcomes
apparent disease through mental suggestion or arrests a nervous
breakdown in a patient by teaching that patient how to relax, when the
doctor himself does not hesitate to give bread pills in the first
instance and to recommend a sanitarium where relaxation is the only
thing attempted in the second. And I presume this quotation from the
Dhamma-pada, which is many centuries older than the Christian religion,
would be denounced as heresy by some of the Christian Scientists,
although it embodies the spirit and almost the words of their own
teachings: 'All that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is
founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speak
or act with an evil thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the
foot of the ox that draws the carriage.'"

Presently Dr. Earl hailed a passing taxi-cab, and gave the order to be
taken to the Whittier Studios. The drive home was silent. Once or twice
Silvia looked at her tall companion. She was frankly curious about the
Paris case, but something in the quiet, self-contained face of the man
beside her did not invite questions. On his part, John Earl was asking
himself why he should have given his confidence to this comparative
stranger, and the longer he thought about it the less able was he to
answer his question.