§4 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



able ; at least she had no encouragement to think 

 that there would be any improvement in it. Sud- 

 denly a wonderful change came over that house- 

 hold. She faced the fact that if she did not 

 overcome the pernicious conditions, no one would. 

 So far as could be seen, jiot one human influence 

 touched her that had not been upon her for many 

 years. By a simple act of will she decided that 

 a new domestic life must begin ; and it did. A 

 more superb act of will I have never known. This 

 could scarcely have been atavism, for long before 

 that time her physical constitution had matured; 

 and it was not environment, for that was strongly 

 against the course which she adopted. Here is 

 a signal fact well worthy of scientific study, a fact 

 which those who were most perfectly acquainted 

 with it saw to be unrelated to any physical or 

 social cause. Maudsley insists that the will is 

 determined by causes rather than by motives ; in 

 this case no new cause for the new action is dis- 

 coverable. It was an act of will, due to motives, 

 but not to any physical or social cause. 



Whatever unbelievers in Christianity may assert 

 concerning other things, they would not deny that 

 great changes are wrought in character and con- 

 duct by what is called conversion. The super- 

 natural cause would doubtless be denied, but the 



