EDITOR'S TABLE. 



269 



might succumb. And then, after all, 

 why go to all this trouble of focaliza- 

 tion, etc., when it is just as easy, gener- 

 ally speaking, not to sit in a draught ? 

 It seems to us that in point of sim- 

 plicity materialistic teaching has, in 

 this matter at least, a decided superi- 

 ority over the spiritualistic. The be- 

 liever in the laws of matter says : " If 

 you sit in a draught, particularly 

 when you are heated and perspiring, 

 you will be in danger of catching cold, 

 which may take the form of pneu- 

 monia, pleurisy, lumbago, or some- 

 thing else both dangerous and pain- 

 ful ; therefore don't sit in a draught if 

 you can possibly help it." The spir- 

 itual philosopher says : " Don't sit in 

 a draught unless you are sure of your 

 subjective conditions. Draughts do 

 not cause illness ; it is your suscepti- 

 bility does that, and it should be your 

 aim to get rid of sucli susceptibility by 

 pursuing ideals and getting your at- 

 titude of mind properly focalized." 

 A poet already quoted, who gives us 

 many a shrewd hint, tells of a i)hilos- 

 opher who, while gazing at the stars, 

 walked into a well; and we should 

 be inclined to dread some not alto- 

 gether dissimilar catastrophe for the 

 devotee of this exalted doctrine. 



It is a great mistake, we are told, 

 to say, "J am cold," "/ am ill," "J 

 have hurt myself." The proper 

 phrases to use are not given, but it 

 is implied that, if we would express 

 the truth, w^e should say, " The plas- 

 tic material which I, a soul, have 

 picked up is cold, ill, etc." The body 

 is the wicked j)artner that gets into 

 these scrapes, and we should remind 

 ourselves continually that the soul 

 has no complicity in such misdoings. 

 A man " may mentally say to him- 

 self even mechanically at first until 

 the habit is formed I, the real ego^ 

 am well, I am strong, I am pure, I 

 am perfect, disregarding adverse 

 physical sensations." Ordinary com- 

 mon sense tells us that "adverse 



physical sensations" ought not to 

 be disregarded, but on the contrary 

 ought to be taken as warnings that 

 we have violated in some way the 

 laws of our physical nature. If we 

 have an acute indigestion caused by 

 taking food excessive in quantity or 

 unsuitable in quality, we should, 

 according to the above teaching, 

 meet the emergency by eulogizing 

 our soul for its strength, its purity, 

 and its perfection, for its oneness 

 "with the divine spirit of whole- 

 ness." Not occupying so exalted a 

 plane as the advocate of mental 

 healing, we should be disposed to 

 consider the occasion a very unsuit- 

 able one for eulogizing the soul. If 

 the soul does not direct or control 

 the voluntai'y actions of the body, it 

 is hard to see what good it is ; and if 

 our soul has allowed us to make a 

 beast of ourselves, it would be better, 

 it seems to us, to tell it some home 

 truths. It is really almost too ridicu- 

 lous to say that if a man gets drunk 

 he is to ' disregard adverse physical 

 sensations," and sing a paean, how- 

 ever huskily, to his ego ; yet, where 

 is the line to be drawn ? 



But again, what degree of tri- 

 umph over physical phenomena may 

 we expect to achieve ? It was prom- 

 ised to the early believers in Chi'is- 

 tianity that they should be able to 

 take up serpents with impunity, and 

 that if they drank any deadly thing 

 it should not hurt them. Is some- 

 thing like this the goal of the system 

 we are discussing ? Once take the 

 position that the material is the un- 

 substantial, and all the foundations 

 of our everyday life give way. The 

 " plastic material " which the soul 

 appropriated in order to acquire 

 "articulate manifestation" loses all 

 definite properties ; and how that 

 would answer the purposes of the 

 soul is a very obscure question. As 

 we have hinted in our headline, the 

 whole theory under discussion lies 



