Christian science and the Catholic faith

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Preface

Why deal once more with Christian Science? With so many works already on the market, why increase the output by another study on this much debated subject? Christian Science will run its course, as other systems of thought, once much in evidence, have run theirs, and will not be materially influenced by the discussions to which it has given rise. Yet to discuss the subjects of the day is an intellectual need. The process of winnowing out truth from error must go on without interruption, the more so in this case, as Christian Science skims over many subjects of the very highest importance, opening up to controversial minds fair vistas of debatable ground.

But why associate New Thought with its traditional foe? The answer must be sought in the treatise itself, which makes plain that, whatever minor differences there may be between these two organizations, their wider aims and common pursuits unite them in a clearly defined group, and blend together naturally in a common discussion.

Mind healing is not exactly an American invention or monopoly. We shall see that it is practically coeval and coextensive with the human race. Yet in our own days and place it has taken on hues and shapes that differentiate it radically both from its remoter and its nearer ancestors, and it is assuming proportions that may yet put its European prototypes completely in the shade. In its American dress, it has crossed both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and is making a successful bid for world supremacy in its chosen field. Under these circumstances, an inquiry into the origin, the underlying principles, and the methods of these movements must prove of interest, even if, from a religious point of view, they are not of sufficient moment to claim attention.

Such an investigation is no longer a pioneer work. Many Protestant authors have turned their attention to this newer viii Preface

Protestantism. Not a few scent, in this new gospel of health, danger for what they are pleased to call orthodox Christianity;. their works are polemical in character, and, on the whole, of but little intrinsic worth. Others, not particularly interested in the Churches, have been attracted by the psychological problems which the real or pretended successes of these mind-healers have forced on their consideration. These, though pursuing strictly scientific methods of investigation, but too often mar their work by an ill-disguised hostility, or a studied indifference to revealed religion, so that hardly any work of either class could be unreservedly recommended.

From the Catholic viewpoint, few of the publications that have appeared, valuable though they are in their own way, can be said to do justice to the subject. A fairly complete list of these books, pamphlets and articles will be found in the bibliography, page 262. Among these we might single out, as of greater excellence, Father Lambert's Christian Science before the Bar of Reason, Fr. Thurston's Christian Science, in Lectures on the History of Religions, Fr. Searle's work entitled The Truth about Christian Science, and especially — in its scientific aspect — Dr. Walsh's various Avorks on psychotherapy. The present essay proposes, besides giving a short historical survey of mental healing, followed by a discussion of the causes that may serve to account for whatever success the movement has achieved, to discuss from the Catholic standpoint more fully than has as } T et been done, its philosophical and religious presuppositions, implications and doctrinal statements.

There yet remains for me to fulfill the pleasant duty of thanking all those who have helped me in the preparation of this essay in any way whatever, by counsel, correction, or revision of the manuscript. I desire more particularly to express my sincere thanks to Rev. Charles C. Aiken, D.D., Dean of the Faculty of Sacred Sciences at the Catholic University of America, who suggested this work and who, by advice, encouragement, and kind interest, very materially cooperated in its completion.

CONTENTS CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Extent of Mental Healing. Mind-healing in Assyria and Babylonia. In Persia. In Egypt. Modern parallels. Egyptian beliefs about sickness and healing. Greek Mental Cures. iEsculapius Apollonius of Tyana. Epidaurus. Mental healing in the Roman Empire. Effects of Christianity on Pagan superstitions. Christian miracles not on a par with Pagan cures. Celsus attacks Christian miracles. Magic in Christian antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Theodosius II. Why people resorted to magic. Views of so-called scientists. Avicenna and menticulture. Prayer and mental healing. Delrio on superstitions. Christian Science no new discovery.

CHAPTER II. The Modern Mind-Cure Movements 10

Mental healing in modern times. Gassner's cures. Podmore on Gassner and Mesmer. Mesmer's "baquet." His philosophical views. Animal Magnetism. Mesmer's followers, Deslon and the marquis de Puysegur. The abbe Faria. Mesmerism after the French Revolution. The Academie des Sciences on animal magnetism. Bertrand and Dr. Braid. Mesmerism in America. Poyen and Collyer. "Dr." Quimby and his control, Lucius Burkmar. Quimby's theories. Evans popularizes Quimbyism. Mrs. Eddy. Her early life. She marries George Washington Glover. Her widowhood and second marriage to Dr. Patterson. He abandons her. Mrs. Eddy's partnership with Richard Kennedy. Her third marriage, to Asa Gilbert Eddy. After his death Calvin A. Frye becomes Mrs. Eddy's manager. She adopts a foster son. Mrs. Eddy's literary activities. Her death. Spread of Christian Science. Social status of Christian Scientists. Christian Science proves profitable. Mrs.

Contents

Eddy's greed for money. Origin of Christian Science. Julius A. Dresser. The New Thought movement under way. H. Wood and R. W. Trine. The new philosophy of life. Greenacre Conferences. The Metaphysical Club. New Thought conventions. Mind-healing in Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, Cleveland. New Thought organization and congresses. Mental science literature. Charcot and Bernheim. Suggestion as a therapeutic agent. Dubois and Freud. Mental healing in Protestant Churches. Mr. Hickson. The Emmanuel movement.

CHAPTER III. True Origin of Christian Science 35

Claims of Mrs. Eddy. Her apotheosis among her followers. Mary Baker's physical and mental endowments. Her schooling. Her religious dispositions. Did she hear voices and have a dispute with her pastor? The date of her alleged revelation. The fall at Lynn. How Science and Health was written. Subsequent changes. Its relation to Quimby's "Essays." Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Spofford. Malicious Animal Magnetism. Mr. Wiggin's revision. Importance of the "textbook." The textbook and the Bible. The Church Manual and the textbook. The textbook is ordained Pastor. Christian Science services. CommerciaUsm in Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy's ideas concerning revelation. Prohibition to teach for a year. Christian Science spoons. Mr. Peabody on Mrs. Eddy's alleged revelation.

CHAPTER IV. Metaphysical Basis of Christian Science and New

Thought 60

Difficulty of understanding Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Eddy's terminology. Difference between Mind and mind. Mrs. Eddy's conception of the Deity. Is Christian Science Pantheistic? Unreality of matter. God and the material world. Untrustworthiness of our senses. A direct refutation not possible. Mrs. Eddy's inconsistencies.

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Mrs. Eddy's idealism not essentially different from other idealistic philosophies. New Thought and Idealism. The Oversoul. Things are thoughts and thoughts are things. Mysticism of Christian Science.

Chapter V

Mrs. Eddy's psychology. Description of belief. Three groups of false beliefs so-called. Reductio ad absurdum. Mortal Mind. Mrs. Eddy no puritan on close definitions. The works of mortal mind so-called. Mortal mind creates all the organism. A Pandora box of all evils. Creates an unhealthy atmosphere. How a mother's fears may create her child's illness. Mortal mind, mind-cures and medicine. Mortal mind vs. human mind. Human belief an autocrat. Sickness preferable to erroneous beliefs. Why Mrs. Eddy discredits other mental healing. Faith as a curative factor. Distinction between faith and belief. What is meant by understanding. Struggle between belief and understanding both in the individual and in the race. Purgation continues in the hereafter. Understanding establishes new relations. Truth and error in Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy's relations to Liberalism in Theology. Her extravagances.

Chapter VI

Malicious Animal Magnetism is Mrs. Eddy's chief invention. History of the term. W. W. Wright attacks Eddyism. Mrs. Eddy condemns manipulation. Mrs. Eddy must explain her former conduct. How the chapter on malicious animal magnetism got into the first edition of Science and Health. Richard Kennedy and malicious animal magnetism. M. A. M. becomes a lifelong obsession. Not inconsistent with Christian Science teaching. Legislation against mental malpractice. M. A. M. and the civil courts. The famous witchcraft case in Salem, Mass. Two brands of malicious animal magnetism. Mrs. Eddy's changes of residence due to her fear of M. A. M. M. A. M. and inanimate objects. It interferes with the printing of the magazine.

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Mrs. Eddy's sufferings caused by M. A. M. Her household. Adverse treatment against M. A. M. The new freedom. Mr. Eddy and the new freedom. Mrs. Eddy summons a physician. Her husband dies. An autopsy. Mrs. Eddy's frantic fears. Mrs. Eddy's need of the doctrine of malicious animal magnetism.

Chapter VII

Division of modern mind-cures. Mrs. Eddy claims unlimited healing powers. Mr. Evans and mind-cures. Christian Science cures reported in the "textbook," in the "Journal" and in the "Congressional Record." Senator Works pleads for Christian Science in the U. S. Senate. Miss Meek. The infant child of Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Wine. Dr. Burton's cure. A summary of cures. Healing as a religious rite. Expert opinion. Professor William James on healthy-mindedness. Failures are no absolute refutation. Dr. Reed on the success of Christian Science. Dr. James J. Walsh. Extent of mental healing. Are organic diseases open to mental influences? Views of physicians contrasted with those of modern mind healers. Sadler, Walsh, Bernheim, Worcester. The practice of modern mind-healers conflicts with their theories. Practitioners are advised to decline infectious diseases, may consult M.D.'s. Alleged dangers of diagnosing a case. Condemnation of the medical profession. Physicians qualify their statements, as to organic diseases. Dr. Cabot and Dr. Paget on Christian Science cures. The challenge of Dr. Townsend.

Chapter VIII

A variety of methods. Practice less radical than theory. Food and drink. Mrs. Eddy's views on hygiene. Her practice. Classification of mental healing methods. "Doctoring" the soul. Mrs. Eddy's instructions to practitioners. Faith a factor in cures. Need of a spiritual housecleaning. How to treat a relapse. Difference between hypnotic cures and modern mind-healing. The tactual and the visual method. The silent treatment. Distant treatment. The verbal or vocal treatment. These methods become a rule of life.

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Chapter IX. Page

The real explanation to be sought in the intimate relations between mind and body. The Scholastic philosophy avoids both materialism and excessive idealism. The soul as the forma substantialis of the body. The intellectual soul as the principle of all activity in the human compound. Scholasticism vs. Platonism. Distinction of faculties. The imagination as mediating between sense and intellect. The bodily organism is affected by the imagination. The Scholastics were chary about practical application of their theory. Excessive claims for the imagination. A certain influence admitted by all.

CHAPTER X. Explanation or Mental Cures 153

Mrs. Eddy's explanations do not explain. Are Christian Science cures natural or supernatural? Christian Science vs. hypnotic cures. Mrs. Eddy's opposition to hypnotism. The effect of waking suggestions and auto-suggestion. Meaning of suggestion and of subconscious mind. Effects of suggestion. Mechanism of mental healing. Respective claims of the intellect and the will. The will according to Mrs. Eddy is essentially evil. The will as a therapeutic agent. Its limits. The will open to suggestion. The intellect, inasmuch as it perceives things as either good or bad. The imagination as a therapeutic agent. Benedict XIV. on the power of the imagination. The heart in mind-healing. Modern mind-cures explained according to these principles. Christian Science causes a real mental revolution in many persons.

CHAPTER XL

The Religious Tenets of the New Movement . . . . 172 The Spirit of the new movement is towards liberal Christianity. Religion subordinated to the pursuit of health. Christian dogmas rejected or minimized or perverted. The modern mind-movements are ingrafted on historical Christianity. Mrs. Eddy's liberal Chris-

Contents tianity not undogmatic. Christian Science and ancient heresies. Gnosticism, Docetism. Christian Science is anti-Trinitarian in belief. The Virgin-Birth retained. The Atonement explained away. Christian Science rejects all sacraments. Their view of salvation, of heaven and hell. Intellectual chaos in the New Thought movement.

CHAPTER XII. Prayer and Christian Science 182

Is Christian Science a religion of prayer? Who was right, the Publican or the Pharisee? Sin is not forgiven through prayer. Forgiveness does not mean a dispensation to commit sin. Mrs. Eddy confounds sin and evil habits. Mrs. Eddy's objections against impetrative prayers. Prayer for health is not only useless, but harmful. Mrs. Eddy's objections against audible prayers. What is the meaning of prayer in Christian Science? Prayer is desire. Christian Science Church services. Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation caricatures the Lord's Prayer.

Chapter XIII

Pragmatism of the modern mind movements. To health is assigned the very highest rank. Sin classed with physical evils. Sickness deemed essentially evil. Is Christian Science really antinomian ? Antinomianism lurks not in Mrs. Eddy's direct teaching, but may be fostered by her principles. Sin is punished as long as it lasts. Mrs. Eddy's own sense of sin. Her teaching concerning marriage not always flippant. Her objections to material generation. Mrs. Woodbury and the Prince of Peace. The moral Code of Christian Scientists not an exalted one. It represents a refined epicureanism. They misinterpret the goodness of God. Their end in view lowers their moral standard. Difference between Christian Science and Christian Asceticism. Fillmore on Thought-Causes. To ban all worry is to stunt the conscience. Christian Science teaching and objective truth. The praise of Love. Their lives belie their profession.

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Chapter XIV. Page

The New Movement vs. Miracles 208

The supernatural character of Christ's miracles denied. Quimby's views. Evans on Christ's miracles. Mrs. Eddy and the miracles of Christ. The authors of the Emmanuel movement. The denial of miracles based on false philosophical principles. How Christ is classed with the mind healers. Some classes of diseases excluded by some. The man stricken with the palsy. Necessity of faith. Unity with God another requisite. This explanation widely accepted. Are miracles evidence for the truth of Christianity? How Hudson reverses this proof. Christ's humanity exalted, the better to deny His Divinity. The objections to miracles mainly philosophical. If Christ is God, we must expect divine works. The preternatural character of Christ's works conceded by earlier opponents of Christianity. How the methods of attack have varied throughout the centuries. What is a miracle? Various ways to establish the natural or supernatural character of a fact. How miracles are differentiated from merely mental cures. A biased mind cannot admit these distinctions. The appeal to unknown laws. Did Christ work His miracles as credentials to His Mission and Person? The witness of St. John. The testimony of the Synoptics. The fallacy of the critical contentions. Taken as recorded, Christ's miracles are undoubtedly supernatural. Conclusion. The gift of miracles in the Church. The miracles of Lourdes.

Chapter XV

Conclusion: The Latest Events in Christian Science 235 Losses and gains. Symptoms of original fervor and symptoms of revolt. The lawsuit of the "next friends." Retrospect: the year 1878. Mrs. Eddy's desire to see her son. Mr. Glover's last visit to his mother. Mrs. Eddy removes to Boston. Mrs. Augusta Stetson. Her noonday meetings. Overflow meetings prohibited. Plans for a new church building. How Boston met this challenge. Mrs. Stetson replies. The spontaneous expression of gratitude. Mrs. Eddy accepts the gift and censures the giver. The "Findings and Orders." Mrs.

Contents

Stetson is disciplined. The New York revolt. The Board of Directors and the Christian Science Publishing Society. Mr. Rowlands removed by the Board. What results from Mr. Dittemore's protest. The trustees sue the Board. Outcrop of these legal contentions. Mrs. Stetson's grievances. Conclusion.

Bibliography Index .

249 263

Chapter I

From the world's grayest antiquity down to our own days, man made use of mental powers in the healing of disease. Mental healing has held, and is holding to-day, a well-nigh worldwide sway which links together, in a common practice and belief, reputably the highest with the very lowest types of humanity. To show this relationship between the past and the present, between the practices of civilized nations and those of savages, we must perforce extend the range of our survey and take in subjects which have but a remote connection with the modern mind-movements.

The two main features that characterize these modern healing cults are (1) their preoccupation about health, and (2) the religious element which they contain. Religion differentiates them from scientific psychotherapeutics (mind-healing) and from psycho-analysis (healing by mind analysis), from which the religious element may be conspicuously absent, while preoccupation about health distinguishes them from religions whose principal aim and object is something quite different from mere bodily well-being. This alliance between religion and medicine is at least as old as the oldest written records we possess of man. If Assyria and Babylonia are to us memories with a hazy impression of unimaginable antiquity, we must learn to look upon these nations as young, when we compare them with the Accadians or Sumerians who had occupied their country before them. Mind-healing was in a flourishing condition even at that early date. This we may learn from the Sumerian language which, in the seventh century before Christ, had become a sacred tongue, unintelligible to the masses, yet still in use for religious rites and incantations in the temples. The Sumerian texts, which the last century has unearthed, take us back to the days when Sumerian was as living a tongue as English is to us, and prove beyond doubt that even at that early date the very closest relation existed between religion and healing: the priests were the physicians, and regaining health was, partly at least, a religious exercise ; incantations took the place of suggestions, and the expectation of health from the spiritual world advantageously replaced a similar expectation in our own day from mind, be it human or Divine.

The empires of the Medes and the Persians either shared these usages or inherited them at the time when they subdued the earlier kingdoms. Under their scepter, these practices obtained such a vogue that in Roman times, occult arts became all but identified with the Persian priests, or Magi. The very word magic is derived from the Persian and remains in our modern tongues as a historical monument, reminding us of the beliefs and practices of those superstitious ages. 1

But the countries now known as Mesopotamia possessed no monopoly on mental healing. Egypt shared with them the doubtful honor of seeking protection and relief from bodily disease by religious and mental means.

"Diseases and pain," writes Dr. Renouf, "being caused by the intervention of some god, the efficacy of the medicines which are taken is chiefly owing to the prayers or incantations which are said over them. Isis is the great enchantress and she delivers the sick and suffering from the gods and goddesses who afflict them, even as she delivered her son Horus from his wounds received in his battle with Set." 2

There is a certain charm, as well as intellectual and moral profit, in this work of comparison between the past and the

x On this subject may be consulted Lenormant: Chaldean Magic, Its Origin and Development' (London, 1877); Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria (New York, 1892); Morris Jastrow, Jr.: Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria (New York, 1911).

2 Renouf: The Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of Ancient Egypt, Hibbert Lectures for 1879 (New York, 1880), p. 220.

present. Especially at a time when, from every popular source of information, it is unceasingly dinned into the ears of the great public that ours is an age of unlimited progress and immeasurably superior to any that preceded it, it is well to learn humbler sentiments by a backward glance, that reveals, in the remotest past, if not absolutely identical institutions and sentiments, — a thing that no one could reasonably expect, — yet withal recognizable parallels. Not only the modern vogue of mind-healing, but even the underlying sentiments on which the practice is grounded, are a case in point. Of the ancient Egyptians Maspero writes:

"The Egyptians are not yet resigned to think that illness and death are natural and inevitable. They think that life, once commenced, should be indefinitely prolonged ; if no accident intervened, what reason could there be for its ceasing? In Egypt, therefore, man does not die, but some one or something assassinates him. The murderer often belongs to our world and can be easily pointed out : another man, an animal, an inanimate object, a stone detached from the mountain, a tree falling upon a traveler and crushing him. Often, though, it belongs to the invisible world and only reveals itself by the malignity of its attacks : it is a god, a spirit, the soul of a dead man that has cunningly entered a living person or that throws itself upon him with irresistible violence. Once in possession of the body, the evil influence breaks the bones, sucks out the marrow, drinks the blood, gnaws the intestines and the heart and devours the flesh. The invalid perishes according to the progress of this destructive work and death speedily ensues unless the evil genius can be driven out before it has committed irreparable damage." x

As disease was something mental, so also was its treatment. Maspero continues :

''Whoever treats a sick person has, therefore, two equally important duties to perform. He must first discover the nature of the spirit in possession and, if necessary, its name, and then attack it, drive it out or even destroy it. He can only succeed by powerful magic, so he must be an expert in

1 Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt avd Assyria (New York, 1892), p. 118.

reciting incantations, and skillful in making amulets. He must then use medicine to contend with the disorders which the presence of the strange being has produced in the body ; this is done by a finely graduated regime and various remedies. The cure-workers are, therefore, divided into several categories. Some incline towards sorcery and have faith in formulas and talismen only; they think they have done enough if they have driven out the spirit. Others extol the use of drugs. . . . The best doctors carefully avoid binding themselves to either method ; they carefully distinguish between those cases in which magic is sovereign and those in which natural methods suffice, whilst their treatment is a mixture of remedies and exorcisms which vary from patient to patient." x

If now we pass over from Africa to Europe we meet with similar conditions among the Greeks. Famous in the annals of medicine is the Greek god of the healing art, ^Esculapius. If Egypt had its Serapiums or temples dedicated to the god Serapis, where wonderful cures are said to have taken place, Greece numbered among its temples many famous sanctuaries dedicated to .Esculapius, and, preeminent among them, those of Epidauros in Argolis, Greece, and of JEgse in Cilicia, Asia Minor, where Apollonius of Tyana is credited with having performed some wonderful cures.- The sick would resort to these temples, sleep there one or several nights, and not unfrequently recover their health, as it was believed, through remedies indidated in their dreams by the god of health. No one nowadays doubts that the trustful expectation which brought the patients to the temples — an attitude which we now would call auto-suggestion — was a most important factor in their eventual recovery.

The Roman Empire, too, proved a very fertile field for the spread of these beliefs and practices. From everywhere

x Maspero: op. cit., p. 119. Cf. George Rawlinson: History of Ancient Egypt (New York, 1886), Vol. II, p. 269: "Asia poured the fetid stream of her manifold superstitions into Africa, and to the old theology was added a wild and weird demonology which proved wonderfully attractive to the now degenerated Egyptians."

2 Cf. Farnell, L. R.: Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality (London, 1921).

superstition flocked to Rome, and from Rome, in turn, it radiated in all directions. But a check now begins to make itself felt against all brands of superstition. About this time a fact penetrates into history, small in appearance but mighty in its future possibilities. Boldly it confronts ancient civilization, its corruptions and superstitions, with a new order in which, too, cures play a prominent part. Christianity, slowly but surely, is leavening the ancient mind with new ideas ; it sets its miracles against the claims and achievements of the past, and it conquers.

To group together Christian miracles and Pagan marvels with modern mental cures is now looked upon as scientific, as though everything extraordinary must necessarily flow from the same source. At the time, however, when the two civilizations, Pagan and Christian, flourished side by side, people were not caught by superficial resemblances that might exist between the works of God and the works of charlatans. A Simon Magus saw at a glance the differences between his trade and that of the preachers of the Gospel. When, later, a Celsus attempted to do what now modern Christians do without scruple, and, in his attacks on Christianity, sought to identify the miracles of Christ with the performances of Pagan jugglers, he found an Origen who brilliantly refuted the fallacies of his Pagan antagonist. 1 While in the miracles of their Lord the Christians found solid ground for their faith, they either saw in Pagan marvels nothing else but feats of skill or ascribed them to the power of evil spirits. 2 Works must be weighed in the scales

1 Origen: Against Celsus, Book I, chap. 6, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IV, p. 399: "He (Celsus) next proceeds to bring a charge against the Savior Himself, alleging that it was by means of sorcery that He was able to accomplish the wonders which He performed." Ibid., p. 413 (chap. 38). "He desires to throw discredit on them as being done by the help of magic and not by divine power." Ibid., p. 427 (chap. 68) : "He immediately compares them to the tricks of jugglers who profess to do more wonderful things and to the feats performed by those who have been taught by Egyptians." The Greek original is to be found in Migne's Patrologia Oraeca, Vol. XI. The whole treatment of this subject by Origen is well worth perusing.

a Tertullian: Apologeticus adversus Gentes, chap. 22, says in relation to this: "They (the evil spirits) first harm, then prescribe astonishing remedies, then cease to harm and are believed to have cured. Laedunt enim primo, dehinc remedia praecipiunt ad miracula nova, sive contraria, post quae desinunt laedere, et curasse creduntur."

6 Christian Science and tfie Catholic Faith

of a dispassionate judgment; such superficial resemblances as may be established between modern mind-cures and those of Christ do not, on that account, place them in the same rank.

The magical practices of the Pagan world never disappeared entirely. The Church inveighed against them; her ministers warned the faithful against this danger to their faith ; even in such intimate matters as that of bodily health, we find St. Augustine giving detailed directions to the Christians ; the State undertook to suppress the Pagan cults, but all in vain. When the temples were closed in the cities, the Pagan priests and sorcerers found an asylum in remote country places and continued their practices. 1 When Theodosius II in the first half of the fifth century undertook to clear up also the country places, by destroying the temples and erecting the Cross on their location, 2 the magical practices continued to flourish in secret, adopting gradually certain features borrowed from Christianity, but, on the whole, remaining essentially Pagan. 3

Among the causes that made people resort to superstitious practices, the desire to secure, protect, and safeguard health must have held a prominent place. It can hardly be doubted that self-deception and self-suggestion played an important part in rendering occult means efficacious and in strengthening by this very success the ancient superstitious beliefs. A good many factors contributed to widen this sway of superstition. There is the question of heredity and tribal solidarity. Clusters of young and impulsive nations, not yet emerged out of barbarism, about this time came to be gathered into the folds of the Church, and, among them, many a deep-seated, long-cherished superstition continued to flourish despite the Church. It might

1 These districts were called pagi; hence about this time the unbelievers came to be called pagani or Pagans.

s Cf. Maury: La Magie et I'Astrologie dans I' Antiquity et au Moyen Age (Paris, 1864), pp. 14.5 ff. Leuba, in American Anthropologist, Vol. XIV (1912), pp. 333 ff., "The Varieties, Classification and Origin of Magic." Saintyves: La Force Magique (Paris, 1914). Cf. especially St. Augustine: De Doctrina Christiana, lib. I., cap. 23, 29.

change its garment for something more acceptable to Christian minds, but this outward covering could not conceal its Pagan origin. Again, there is the question of ignorance. Not that fabulous absolute darkness which, in certain quarters, has earned for this period the unenviable name of Dark Ages, but that relative ignorance of the laws of nature, which made every disease a mysterious visitation either from on high or from below. It were a vain dream to expect that the learned would rise so high above the common beliefs and fears and hopes of their times as to remain uninfluenced by all their cruder and more immature conceptions. A universal Cartesian doubt was unknown to them. They were men of their own times and of their own stock. Some few might rise head and shoulders above their fellows : an Albert the Great or Roger Bacon might appear who would astonish future ages even more than their contemporaries ; x yet they remain, in some respects, brilliant exceptions, and in others, children of their own age. 2

There is a third cause which contributed perhaps as much as the other two combined, if not more, to perpetuate this state of affairs. It was the learned arrogance of the pretended scholars of the day, of the physician who spoke in high-sounding terms and with bold assurance, and of the philosopher who prided himself on knowing all the secrets of the universe. A man like Ibn Sina, better known to the Western World as Avicenna, is a typical representative of this class of men. 3 Considering the extent of the powers which, in his work on the soul, he ascribes