INTRODUCTORY 11 



arrive at the robust stage expressed in political, 

 religious, and philosophical convictions, be they 

 true or false, they cause a real cerebral state, and 

 to attempt to change them is like trying to alter 

 the anatomy of the encephalus or to change a 

 personality. It is certain that the brain of a 

 positivist does not function like the brain of a 

 spiritualist, and the physiological differences which 

 distinguish the two forcibly imply structural 

 difference, which could only be overcome at the 

 cost of much time and hard contra-suggestive 

 labour. For the protoplasmic and nervous expan- 

 sions are as slow in forming and establishing 

 new associations as they are reluctant to withdraw 

 or change them." 



This fine paragraph seems to exhaust all that 

 can be said on routine. 



I am impelled to the publication of these remarks 

 by the constant spectacle of human pain and sad- 

 ness ; the perennial tragedy of life, the dramas of 

 misery whose cries of woe echo through the press 

 of all nations; the chronic and dreadful but im- 

 placable misery to which millions of victims succumb 

 in silent neglect ; the infinity of children who die 

 for the want of every kind of care, and who, having 

 come into the world, have to submit to the pauperism 

 which prematurely cuts short their lives ; and the 



