ts, if they
believed they were near veritable relics."

What seemed to be a movement whereby mental healing should be divided
so that only a portion of it should be connected with religion proved
to be too far in advance of its time, and not until the advent of
Mesmer was this accomplished. Healing other than mental, however, did
obtain its freedom at this time. While Mesmer and his followers
emphasized non-religious mental healing, it should not be thought that
mental therapeutics was ever entirely separated from the church. There
have always been found some sects which laid particular emphasis on
it, and both Roman Catholic and Protestant orthodox Christianity have
always admitted it. It has been considered, even if not admitted, that
the power of the Infinite was more clearly shown by the healing of the
body than by the restoration of the moral life. It is natural, then,
that the sects which showed this special proof of God's presence and
power would grow faster than their spiritual competitors, but that
they would decline more rapidly and surely than those which espoused
more spiritual doctrines.

On the other hand, it is not difficult to see why mental healing would
be helped by its connection with religion. Religion grips the whole
mind more firmly than any other subject has ever done, and when one
accepts the orthodox conception of God, he naturally expects to come
in contact with One whose sympathies are in favor of the cure of his
diseases, and whose power is sufficient to bring about this cure. With
this basis there is set up in the mind of the patient an expectancy
which has always proven to be a most valuable precursor of a cure. The
devout religious attitude of mind is one most favorable for the
working of suggestion, and persons of the temperament adapted to the
religious expression most valued in the past are those who could be
most readily affected by mental means. For these reasons, it can be
easily understood why mental healing has continued to be associated
with religion, and why when thus associated it has been so successful.

To those not very familiar with mental healing, it has seemed strange
that any law could be formulated which would comprehend every variety.
In the following pages many different forms will be described, and in
examining the subject it will be found that many and varied are the
explanations given for the results produced. We find also a general
distrust of all the others, or