64 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cision," and not getting much-needed relief from remedies directed even 

 legitimately to organs and functions of the body alone, often grasps 

 naturally enough at shrewdly proffered " cures " or " healings " which 

 promise satisfaction beyond doubt from no matter what irresponsible 

 source, and with an avidity which, if "foolish," is certainly excusable, 

 if nothing more. Nor can anything else be expected when such a suf- 

 ferer so painfully remembers that in his great and anxious need he has 

 been time after time to a " regular " physician, only to have the real 

 significance of his mental distress misapprehended, or to have it char- 

 acterized as " silly," or " imaginary," or " not for me," or of " no con- 

 sequence whatever," or, as was the case with Lady Macbeth's physician, 

 to hear him affirm that therein the sufferer " must cure herself " ; or, 

 perhaps worse still, to be treated by heartless "bluff," placebos, or pos- 

 sibly by hints of a normal defection that needs a priest rather than a 

 physician ! Nor, again, can anything better be expected, when possibly 

 in obedience to this same distracting hint, such a sufferer has sought his 

 church, only, as it has seemed to him, to be fed with stones, to be 

 treated with indifference, or to be poisoned with doubts and insincerity, 

 to say nothing of the chill that so naturally comes from sham brotherli- 

 ness, untrustworthy sisterliness, and all the pain that these mean to the 

 hungry distressed soul. If in such a case the " unorthodox " either in 

 medicine or religion can " make good " where the " orthodox " fails, let 

 there not be unseemly surprise, or charges of foolishness or worse, 

 against those who in spite of such neglect and misunderstanding actu- 

 ally do need relief and must seek relief, even until they find it. Instead, 

 let there prevail everywhere the full measure of righteous humility 

 which is so often really due in the premises. The great " irregular " 

 of all time, it must be remembered, was Jesus of Nazareth ; and it was 

 He who is said to have healed the people up and down the whole land, 

 in spite of the " regular " doctors, medical and ecclesiastical, of the 

 time. Of course, this is no tribute to quackery as such, either within 

 or without the " professions " ; it simply teaches that any one who 

 would really do right in this important field must by every possible 

 endowment and preparation be first and fully possessed, not only of 

 the proper spirit, the needed sympathy, the untiring determination to 

 understand the actual need and provide the real remedy, but addition- 

 ally, of the most perfect knowledge of human nature and all its woes 

 that can be obtained by patient, skillful investigation, and by most 

 rational induction from well-authenticated facts. Mere one-sided, in- 

 competent, or vain " irregularity " does not by itself suffice, any more 

 than mere self-sufficient or negligent " regularity." In either case, the 

 deeper the insight, the wider the comprehension, the truer the knowl- 

 edge, the more direct the skill, the better the results achieved. 



When the rightly endowed, fully prepared ministrant to a mind 



