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this matter. I am convinced it would repay the labor. The dif- 

 ferent effects produced by different sorts of stimulants would 

 make a valuable contribution to this subject : for instance, coffee 

 seems to awaken almost as many doubts as it lays, while alcoholic 

 stimulants seem invariably to dispel doubt and enthrone certitude. 



Some men depend upon their pipe to give them the needed 

 start to the conclusion of problems. I confess that I seldom feel 

 so sure of the solidity and reality of the world as when I have 

 my favorite amber stem firm set between my teeth. And much 

 of the tenacity of religious conviction of our Methodist and Bap- 

 tist brethren is due to conceiving the articles of their creed with 

 passion bred in the excitement of camp meetings. 



Perhaps more marked than any of these is the effect of sexual 

 feeling. It is practically impossible for either of two people to 

 believe in the love of the other without feeling some warmth of 

 feeling himself. It is the feeling that awakens doubt or con- 

 viction. 



This leads naturally to the interrelation of feelings and be- 

 liefs. The close relation of love and religion has been a topic 

 for ages. It is, I think, remarkable how many women disap- 

 pointed in love turn to religion for consolation. Girls and women 

 who have never revealed the slightest interest in church or creed 

 become, under the influence of an unrequited passion, the most 

 ardent believers. There is no reason in such cases to charge 

 hypocrisy. They only show how much belief depends upon emo- 

 tion. It is as if the feelings, deeply stirred, must react strongly. 

 So long as the nature is left passive, belief, whether about love, 

 politics, or religion, seems needless ; but once the feelings are 

 aroused, a hunger appears that demands satisfaction in some con- 

 viction or other. 



The physiological conditions of belief, then, are, in a word, 

 stimulation excitement. There are also, as we agreed, mental 

 conditions of belief. These are, as follows from the volitional 

 nature of the function, such as conduce to a heightened state 

 of all the mental activities, but especially the imagination and 

 the affections. 



Repetition or pondering over a matter helps us to believe it. 

 We accept many a thing by its familiarity. Many of our creeds 

 are believed in this way. The mental condition of acquiescence 

 is brought about by frequent repetition, just as memory is made 

 firm by the same means. Pondering over things, themselves 

 imaginary, makes them real to us. Prophets come to believe in 

 themselves and their mission, not so much by reasoning about it, 

 but by steadfastly fixing the goal of their desire in the mind 

 until, out of a fancy, it grows to a clear conception, and from a 

 conception becomes, for them at least, a reality. So with us all ; 



