124 Heredity and Social Progress 



break one current, and the growth of another 

 to permit new ideas or to bring them back 

 to normal channels. These physical changes 

 due to emotion are, I take it, the causes of 

 the cures of every deep religious awakening 

 of the past, now so often heard of in connec- 

 tion with Christian Science. Ideas move 

 through structure; morbid structure forces 

 thought into depressing channels, but excise 

 this structure, and a new growth will bring 

 back the elation of health and its faiths and 

 convictions. 



It is a mistake to assume that a sudden 

 cure must have some powerful cause. In 

 truth, the slightest causes are likely to pro- 

 duce emotional effects ; the only condition for 

 their efficiency is that they shall be unex- 

 pected and shall strike bodily structure ad- 

 versely and without warning. However slight 

 this disturbance may be, the principle of 

 equilibrium will do the rest. Disease is not 

 necessarily decay ; it is sometimes a false 

 growth and follows the laws of growth. Devo- 

 lution must precede any normal growth, and 

 for this end emotion is most effective. 



