leave him to make what use he likes of it.

This is what happens when the body is cured through the stomach; even if the servant does not make much use of the food or the drug, it cheers him up. Or the matter may be set right by moving the car and its occupants to a better environment: a change brightens up both master and servant, and fresh air has wonderful effects upon this sort of motor. Often, again, the doctor has only to give the servant a few hints and that intermediary takes up the idea with enthusiasm and puts things to rights. We call this suggestion: sometimes it is conveyed by words, sometimes by touch, sometimes by manner, and sometimes by the moral effect of drugs, but it is always an idea that is really conveyed. But the breakdown may be largely the fault of the owner, who has utterly demoralised his servant. Then the doctor gives the owner a good talking to, or tries to encourage him; for he sees that conscious mind has been the real cause of the disease.

At last the car really does wear out past repairing. Master and servant tear themselves away from it with great regrets, and the poor old car is scrapped" by Nature.

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This parable does not need any explanation. Every doctor knows that, however great a share he may have in a cure, he is only co-operating with the patient.1 He may call it the vis medicatrix naturæ, he may say that Nature does her work, but he is only using the vague expression which was inevitable

1" But for the natural tendencies of the body towards health when disturbed by disease, the art of healing could not exist." Dr. A. K. Carter, British Medical Journal, Nov. 3rd, 1900 (p. 1300).

before we knew that it is the subliminal part of the man himself that does it. The doctor assists the undermind, and his assistance is often utterly indispensable for instance, he "sets" a broken limb, and gives the undermind every assistance, but it is that mind which brings up the necessary material to the fracture and so joins the bone together. Or the surgeon performs an operation which easily cures a disease that otherwise would result in death. Now, even an operation is not a purely material thing it is a co-operation of the surgeon's highly competent mind with the undermind of the patient. The surgeon's overmind uses his undermind, his undermind uses his muscles, his muscles use his instruments. The patient's overmind is put on one side by the anesthetic ; but his undermind is busy looking after his body all the time-the master is asleep, but not the servant.

Now, it is always wise to call in the best advice. we can, when we need it. If we want a piece of Greek explained, we ask a scholar; if we need spiritual assistance we get help from a priest; if physical, we get it from a doctor. I know many people don't; and I know they can always plead that there are silly parsons and incompetent practitioners, and that history is strewn with the mistakes of priests and doctors—perhaps I am the victim of prejudice when I say that it would be easier to defend the religion of past ages than its science. But as a matter of fact we cannot know everything ourselves, and each year our personal faction becomes smaller because knowledge increases; and civilisation does consist in the differentiation of

knowledge among experts. Therefore, if we are wise, we shall get the best advice we can.

In minor therapeutic matters we may not need advice. If my undermind has been weak enough to admit an invasion of those small enemies who give me a cold, I leave my undermind to recover its equilibrium, while the phagocytes pursue them till they are utterly devoured. Yet even here how many of us do need the advice of the expert to make us understand that the cold was not due to a draught or to wet feet; and that the best way to avoid colds is to have as much fresh air as possible!

CHAPTER IX

THE MATERIAL FACTOR

THERE are many sincere and intelligent people who think that all material methods of treating disease are wrong. Personally I have no doubt that they are mistaken, because their principle is built on an outworn theological heresy. But I would say to them, as to those who are impatient with them, let us seek the truth, let us "try the spirits." And I would add this that supposing all they say is true and supposing that with sufficient faith all disease could be prevented or cured by spiritual methods alone, yet it would remain certain that for a long time to come only a small minority will have sufficient faith, and therefore that to ignore the material methods would be to condemn thousands upon thousands of people to death.

Meanwhile the hygienic factor in health and in recovery will increase, and the mental factor will increase, and the spiritual factor will increase. For myself I clearly believe that God gives us all things both material and spiritual to be rightly used, and that he sees them that they are very good.

We should indeed be flying in the face of both truth and providence, if we pushed the possibilities of the subliminial region so far as to deny that it could be helped by material means, or to assert that,

unaided, it could cure all diseases. If we acted on such a principle as this we should in plain English, be murderers. I have already instanced surgery in this connection; and it is easy to show the marvellous effects of certain drugs in destroying parasites or in neutralising their toxins. Can any reasonable person object to such things?

And, be it remembered, the great majority of the diseases that afflict mankind are due to the invasion of microscopic organisms the best known as yet being the vegetable microbes called bacteria. Ultimately the power to resist them lies with the "constitution," that is with the undermind; but they can be prevented from ever reaching us at all by the habitual practice of cleanliness and by the special use of disinfectants; and, if they do reach us, they can in many cases already be destroyed or rendered harmless by the use of antitoxins, or even by the injection of other microbes which destroy them. By the spread of cleanliness some of the most terrible scourges of humanity have been removed from amongst us; by the use of disinfectants other so-called zymotic diseases are prevented from spreading and are being rapidly reduced.

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To shut one's eyes, as many do, to these things because they are material" is certainly foolish, and it is as certainly unchristian. Our whole earthly life is lived under material conditions and the essence of Christianity is that it recognises the spiritual significance of these conditions and uses them to the highest ends as sacraments of the eternal. It is no doubt true that drugs have been glorified exces