io8 The Law of the Rhythmic Breath 



trik philosophers held the firm conviction that if 

 the human mind were steadfastly fixed upon any ob- 

 ject for a certain time it was absolutely sure by very 

 force of will to attain that object. 



Now, tell me, is there anything new under the 

 sun? I must here enter my protest against this 

 age-honored belief in the power of mind being in 

 our day mis-called " New Thought." Its proper 

 name, giving it something of the dignity its due in 

 the revived cult which is mercifully encircling the 

 earth, is " Higher Thought," as distinguished from 

 the stultifying bondage of materialism. It is older 

 far than materialism (only a passing phase of way- 

 ward human struggles to know all things marking 

 the close of the Black Age). Why belittle the 

 golden light of the Truth by the term " new," as 

 if it were but half-known and untried? 



The therapeutic effect of happiness has been long 

 recognized, and every physician feels that his bat- 

 tle with disease is half-won when he can keep his 

 patient in a happy, cheerful frame of mind. Yet 

 the vital significance of this favorable mental state 

 has probably never been even surmised in Occiden- 

 tal practice. It will advance the science of medi- 

 cine (purely empiric now) more than any discovery 

 since Harvey's of the circulation of the blood, when 

 it is known that instead of being itself, " a direct 

 product from blood," as noted physiologists have 

 maintained, the nerve-force (called by them " nerv- 



