till
farther, both speculatively and practically, and its latest writers are
far and away the ablest of the group.[45] It matters nothing that, just
as there are hosts of persons who cannot pray, so there are greater
hosts who cannot by any possibility be influenced by the mind-curers'
ideas. For our immediate purpose, the important point is that so large
a number should exist who CAN be so influenced. They form a psychic
type to be studied with respect.[46]

[45] I refer to Mr. Horatio W. Dresser and Mr. Henry Wood, especially
the former. Mr. Dresser's works are published by G. P. Putnam's Sons,
New York and London; Mr. Wood's by Lee & Shepard Boston.

[46] Lest my own testimony be suspected, I will quote another reporter,
Dr. H. H. Goddard, of Clark University, whose thesis on "the Effects of
Mind on Body as evidenced by Faith Cures" is published in the American
Journal of Psychology for 1899 (vol. x.). This critic, after a wide
study of the facts, concludes that the cures by mind-cure exist, but
are in no respect different from those now officially recognized in
medicine as cures by suggestion; and the end of his essay contains an
interesting physiological speculation as to the way in which the
suggestive ideas may work (p. 67 of the reprint). As regards the
general phenomenon of mental cure itself, Dr. Goddard writes: "In spite
of the severe criticism we have made of reports of cure, there still
remains a vast amount of material, showing a powerful influence of the
mind in disease. Many cases are of diseases that have been diagnosed
and treated by the best physicians of the country, or which prominent
hospitals have tried their hand at curing, but without success. People
of culture and education have been treated by this method with
satisfactory results. Diseases of long standing have been ameliorated,
and even cured.... We have traced the mental element through primitive
medicine and folk-medicine of to-day, patent medicine, and witchcraft.
We are convinced that it is impossible to account for the existence of
these practices, if they did not cure disease, and that if they cured
disease, it must have been the mental element that was effective. The
same argument applies to those modern schools of mental therapeutics--
Divine Healing and Christian Science. It is hardly conceivable that
the large body of intelligent people who comprise the body known
distinctively as Mental Scientists should continue to e