STIGMATIZATION. 673 



by seeking the excitement of a quarrel witli some other patient. 

 Without such assistance, she could also, by the mere effort of will, 

 produce the mental condition from which the bleeding resulted. 

 There is an "absolute identity in all essential respects of the 



cases of Maria K and Louise Lateau," and, it may be added, 



of Francis Bernardone and all other stigmatists. Many other in- 

 stances like that of Maria K are mentioned by dermatologists. 



The stigmata are worthless except as proving the influence of 

 the mind over the body, and in this influence the power of thought, 

 affection, and will upon its nutrition, force, and availability for 

 service, or the contrary. They prove nothing in favor of Chris- 

 tianity as divine, nor of the superiority of one form of Christianity 

 over another, or over any system of religion and ethics. They un- 

 questionably prove nothing in favor of the moral excellence of the 

 subjects, and certainly not that the stigmata of Francis were, as 

 the popes declared, " the special and wonderful favor vouchsafed 

 to him in Christ." He was not, even in later years, an ideally good 

 man; Lateau is not of the loftiest character; Palma and the 

 Stumbele woman were vile, and the Swedish girl utterly unscru- 

 pulous. The stigmata are useful, if useful at all, simply because 

 they furnish material for scientific investigation, and because they 

 warn against the dangerous material and moral conditions under 

 which such abnormal phenomena become possible. The " Liber 

 Conf ormitatum" and many other volumes exemplify the tendencies 

 of ignorant superstition. Francis was exalted above Christ. His 

 worship in prayer and in picture vied with that of the Redeemer. 

 Indignant reaction from the degrading absurdity was attended by 

 the bitterest satire and the rudest burlesque, and wrought fearful 

 damage alike to reason, religion, and good morals. 



Truth is only for those who supremely desire it. Belief, if not 

 faith, is largely a matter of inheritance, of education, of circum- 

 stance, of preference, of will. In the debate which followed the 

 presentation of M. Warlomont's report to the Royal Academy of 

 Medicine of Belgium on the subject of Louise Lateau, the opinions 

 of the speakers were in agreement with their predilections. " M. 

 Lefebvre held to his view of miracle in the case, and M. Crocq 

 declared that it did not pass beyond the category of pathological 

 occurrences." Finally, the Academy decided to have nothing 

 more to do with the matter. 



CoNCEBNiNo the relative value of classical and modern language studies, Prof. 

 Seeley thinks that much depends on how far the classical method is pursued, 

 whether it be first rate or not. For persons intended for an early apprenticeship 

 to active life and business, a good knowledge of English and of modern languages 

 may be made a much more effective instrument of culture than the very bad 

 knowledge of Latin and Greek which is all that they usually acquire. 

 VOL. XXXIII. — 43 



