SELF-PRESERVATION AND THE MENTAL LIFE 165 



and when brilliant or cultivated, seldom possess 

 creative power or logical quality. Many of the 

 devotees of Christian Science and of the Emmanuel 

 Church movement are discouraged and exhausted by 

 disease. They welcome relief from the unsuccessful 

 effort to think clearly about their troubles, and freely 

 surrender themselves to the mental control of those 

 who assert a narrow and intense faith in ideas and 

 procedures that are out of the ordinary. A sharp 

 analysis by the subjects of the methods used would 

 be fatal to even a very moderate degree of success, 

 for that would be destructive of delusion and sugges- 

 tion. It is for this reason that persons who have 

 been trained in the methods of experimental science, 

 or are in the habit of tracing the relation between 

 cause and effect, seldom fall under the spell of pro- 

 cedures of this nature. An impersonal attitude to- 

 wards things and the ability to see the wonders of 

 the world in commonplace unfits man and woman to 

 yield to such influences. On the other hand, those 

 who wish to be made much of personally, who desire 

 that their troubles should be given importance, and 

 who, seeing nothing in the ordinary, are in search 

 of sensations, are most likely to prove satisfactory 

 patients. 



Despite these common features, it would be unfair 

 to further identify the Emmanuel Church movement 

 with that of the Christian Scientists. In the absurd- 

 ities of their doctrines and in their disregard for the 

 facts of nature and of human history, the Christian 



