690 The American Naturalist. [July, 
But we can, I think, establish it as a law that “supernatural revela- 
tions” invariably take their colour from the preconceived ideas of the 
recipients. Probably, upon any hypothesis, they could do no other- 
wise. 
One antecedent factor, in sudden conversions from the worldly to 
the religious life is often found in the physical effect of a severe illness ; 
also those who have been rich in spiritual (?) experiences have often 
had indifferent health from childhood, with a liability to neurotic 
attacks. Butthere are too many exceptions to spiritual (?) experiences 
being the result of either temporary or permanent ill health, to enable 
us to say that such experiences are simply the result of disordered 
health, though they may be coincident with it. 
I suppose that Socrates would universally be accepted as a type of 
moral and physical healthiness. Yet throughout his life he was sub- 
ject to the promptings of what he himself calls an “ inner, divine voice,” 
which warned him if any evil were likely to befall him. In his sub- 
lime address to the judges who had just condemned him to die Socrates 
said that his “inner divine voice” had given him no warning of evil 
when he had left his house that day on which he was condemned to 
death, yet as it had always hitherto warned him of danger even on the 
most trifling occasions, he took its silence to mean that death was a good 
and not an evil. For even if death be a dreamless sleep, is it not a real 
and precious boon; and if it be as some say (and as Socrates himself 
hoped) only a passage from one state of being to another, to a place 
where all who have left this life are assembled, what greater good could 
man desire? To attain such happiness, Socrates would himself die 
many times.? Only in his own mind could the great philosopher seek 
for evidence of the one Supreme Being; for he could not believe in the 
popular theology which accepted gods who had committed acts which 
would have been disgraceful in the vilest of men. Therefore, it is not 
surprising that his “inner divine voice ” did not profess to come from 
any supernatural power, but simply warned him of evil. 
In the case of Mahomet we have a man of great strength of constitu- 
tion, but one who was subject to strange attack, whether of epilepsy, 
catalepsy or hysteria is still a subject of doubt. What is certain is that 
he had a tendency to see visions, and suffered from fits which threw 
him at times into a swoon without loss of inner consciousness. 
Through his intercourse with certain holy ascetics of the desert 
known as Hanifs, Mahomet became possessed with a profound sense of 
dependence on the omnipresent and omnipotent God. He withdrew to 
2 Apologia, XXXI, XXXII. 
ay BO oes ei 
Bi ae Aa N ga a E 
