xist if the
whole thing were a delusion. It is not a thing of a day; it is not
confined to a few; it is not local. It is true that many failures are
recorded, but that only adds to the argument. There must be many and
striking successes to counterbalance the failures, otherwise the
failures would have ended the delusion.... Christian Science, Divine
Healing, or Mental Science do not, and never can in the very nature of
things, cure all diseases; nevertheless, the practical applications of
the general principles of the broadest mental science will tend to
prevent disease.... We do find sufficient evidence to convince us that
the proper reform in mental attitude would relieve many a sufferer of
ills that the ordinary physician cannot touch; would even delay the
approach of death to many a victim beyond the power of absolute cure,
and the faithful adherence to a truer philosophy of life will keep many
a man well, and give the doctor time to devote to alleviating ills that
are unpreventable" (pp. 33, 34 of reprint).

To come now to a little closer quarters with their creed. The
fundamental pillar on which it rests is nothing more than the general
basis of all religious experience, the fact that man has a dual nature,
and is connected with two spheres of thought, a shallower and a
profounder sphere, in either of which he may learn to live more
habitually. The shallower and lower sphere is that of the fleshly
sensations, instincts, and desires, of egotism, doubt, and the lower
personal interests. But whereas Christian theology has always
considered FROWARDNESS to be the essential vice of this part of human
nature, the mind-curers say that the mark of the beast in it is FEAR;
and this is what gives such an entirely new religious turn to their
persuasion.

"Fear," to quote a writer of the school, "has had its uses in the
evolutionary process, and seems to constitute the whole of forethought
in most animals; but that it should remain any part of the mental
equipment of human civilized life is an absurdity. I find that the
fear clement of forethought is not stimulating to those more civilized
persons to whom duty and attraction are the natural motives, but is
weakening and deterrent. As soon as it becomes unnecessary, fear
becomes a positive deterrent, and should be entirely removed, as dead
flesh is removed from living tissue. To assist in the analysis of fear
and in the denunciation of its expressions, I have c