"Stand close to all, but lean on none, And if the crowd desert you, Stand just as fearlessly alone As if the throng begirt you; And learn, what long the wise have known, William S. Shurtlef. "The things that are really for thee, gravitate to thee. Oh believe, as thou livest, that every sound that is spoken over the round world which thou oughtest to hear, will vibrate on thine ear. Every proverb, every book, every by-word that belongs to thee for aid or comfort, shall surely come home through open or winding passages.' -Emerson. "He only is the growing man who gives himself repeated opportunity to change even his most sacred convictions." -Dresser. "A truth is a truth no matter by whom discovered." -- Leavitt. "By their fruits, and not by their roots, we shall know them. "Helpfulness stands like a maid at your gate; Why should you think you will find her by roving? Never was greater mistake than to hate- CHAPTER XII. THE QUESTION OF ADOPTION OF PSYCHO-THERAPEUTICS BY THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. It Belongs to the Profession. It belongs to the medical profession and can be better utilized by the trained physician and surgeon than by any one else-provided always, however, that he give it the place it rightly claims by virtue of its superior nature and high possibilities. It is a child of noble parentage and fine organization, quite unlike the gross helps hitherto our hope and stay. But it is a thing of energy-A MIGHTY ENGINE OF POWER. Best of all, it comes not to supplant, but to take the materials in which a certain degree of potency has been demonstrated to reside and make of them, by virtue of an alchemy all its own, things effectual for good. Says Dr. A. T. Schofield: "It may be asked, Why was not an attempt made sooner to give these unconscious faculties their proper place? It was made determinedly years ago in Germany and since then in England by men who, to their honor, undeterred by ridicule and contempt, made noble and partially successful efforts to establish the truth. But it is only now that the pendulum-so long swayed over to the materialistic side of the world's clock, under the pressure of Huxley, Tyndall and others whose great works on this side (England) led all men for a time to forget almost that there was another-has begun to swing back and men's ears are now open to hear and their hearts to believe spirit truths, especially when they are supported, as they now are, from the other side by the best physiologists." The leaven of truth has been at work and I verily believe that the time is now ripe for incorporating psycho-therapeutics into legitimate medical practice. It is all a process of evolution, the characteristic course of which is from the lower to the higher. Says Hartmann in his "Philosophy of the Unconscious": "What Schopenhauer calls unconscious rumination' regularly happens to me when I have read a work which presents new points of view essentially opposed to my previous opinions. After days, weeks or months we find, to our astonishment, that the old opinions that we had held up to that moment have been entirely rearranged and that new ones have been already lodged there. This unconscious mental process of digestion and assimilation I have several times experienced in my own case." Even yet the advocate of psychic measures for human ills must expect to suffer more or less obloquy; but it is to be hoped that a spirit of tolerance has become strongly implanted in the professional mind that the world has not been accustomed to witness. After all, he who is deterred from embracing a truth by fear of what others may think or say is a craven. 66 'They say. "Let them say. The Success of Charlatanry. Here and there great masters in medicine have admitted the enormous value of mental therapeutics, but the subject has not been followed up save for the sake of filthy lucre by quackery. Speaking of mental therapy, Dr. Maudsley, in his splendid work entitled "Mind and Body," says: "Quackery seems to have got hold of a truth which legitimate medicine fails to appreciate or use adequately." If any additional evidence were required to establish the value of the means in question it could easily be adduced from the remarkable success which has attended the practice of irregular practitioners. When we reflect that the giant thing in the curative field today (psycho-therapeutics), known by different titles because seen from different angles and in varied light, has attained its present proportions in the face of unmasked derision and open opposition, there is just cause for asSchofield is quite right when he tonishment. says: Quackery would soon come to an end and fade away before the spread of knowledge and the decay of superstition, under the fostering care of the School Board and the higher educational system, but for one thing. It can show real cures, both undeniable and numerous, in spite of the vast number that may not bear scrutiny." Conservatism. Conservatism is a commendable trait. I reckon myself a conservative in my attitude toward everything which has a pronounced bearing on life's methods. But conservatism which shuts its eyes to truth, presenting from any point of the compass, is reprehensible. Be not the first by whom the new is tried; Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. "A full recognition of mental causation for all outward phenomena will necessitate a re-examination of systems |