l and shields him from all morbid repining at his
distance from the infinite. We have in him an excellent example of the
optimism which may be encouraged by popular science.

To my mind a current far more important and interesting religiously
than that which sets in from natural science towards healthy-mindedness
is that which has recently poured over America and seems to be
gathering force every day--I am ignorant what foothold it may yet have
acquired in Great Britain--and to which, for the sake of having a brief
designation, I will give the title of the "Mind-cure movement." There
are various sects of this "New Thought," to use another of the names by
which it calls itself; but their agreements are so profound that their
differences may be neglected for my present purpose, and I will treat
the movement, without apology, as if it were a simple thing.

It is a deliberately optimistic scheme of life, with both a speculative
and a practical side. In its gradual development during the last
quarter of a century, it has taken up into itself a number of
contributory elements, and it must now be reckoned with as a genuine
religious power. It has reached the stage, for example, when the
demand for its literature is great enough for insincere stuff,
mechanically produced for the market, to be to a certain extent
supplied by publishers--a phenomenon never observed, I imagine, until a
religion has got well past its earliest insecure beginnings.

One of the doctrinal sources of Mind-cure is the four Gospels; another
is Emersonianism or New England transcendentalism; another is
Berkeleyan idealism; another is spiritism, with its messages of "law"
and "progress" and "development"; another the optimistic popular
science evolutionism of which I have recently spoken; and, finally,
Hinduism has contributed a strain. But the most characteristic feature
of the mind-cure movement is an inspiration much more direct. The
leaders in this faith have had an intuitive belief in the all-saving
power of healthy-minded attitudes as such, in the conquering efficacy
of courage, hope, and trust, and a correlative contempt for doubt,
fear, worry, and all nervously precautionary states of mind.[44] Their
belief has in a general way been corroborated by the practical
experience of their disciples; and this experience forms to-day a mass
imposing in amount.

[44] "Cautionary Verses for Children": this title of a much used work,
published earl