e effects of which I never knew exemption until
I had dissolved partnership with worry. Since then, lightning and
thunder have been encountered under conditions which would formerly
have caused great depression and discomfort, without [my] experiencing
a trace of either. Surprise is also greatly modified, and one is less
liable to become startled by unexpected sights or noises.

"As far as I am individually concerned, I am not bothering myself at
present as to what the results of this emancipated condition may be. I
have no doubt that the perfect health aimed at by Christian Science may
be one of the possibilities, for I note a marked improvement in the way
my stomach does its duty in assimilating the food I give it to handle,
and I am sure it works better to the sound of a song than under the
friction of a frown. Neither am I wasting any of this precious time
formulating an idea of a future existence or a future Heaven. The
Heaven that I have within myself is as attractive as any that has been
promised or that I can imagine; and I am willing to let the growth lead
where it will, as long as the anger and their brood have no part in
misguiding it."[95]

[95] H. Fletcher: Menticulture, or the A-B-C of True Living, New York
and Chicago, 1899, pp. 26, 36, abridged.

The older medicine used to speak of two ways, lysis and crisis, one
gradual, the other abrupt, in which one might recover from a bodily
disease. In the spiritual realm there are also two ways, one gradual,
the other sudden, in which inner unification may occur. Tolstoy and
Bunyan may again serve us as examples, examples, as it happens, of the
gradual way, though it must be confessed at the outset that it is hard
to follow these windings of the hearts of others, and one feels that
their words do not reveal their total secret.

Howe'er this be, Tolstoy, pursuing his unending questioning, {181}
seemed to come to one insight after another. First he perceived that
his conviction that life was meaningless took only this finite life
into account. He was looking for the value of one finite term in that
of another, and the whole result could only be one of those
indeterminate equations in mathematics which end with infinity. Yet
this is as far as the reasoning intellect by itself can go, unless
irrational sentiment or faith brings in the infinite. Believe in the
infinite as common people do, and life grows possible again.

"Since mankind has existed,