"Once convince a man," Mr. Bomford continued, "that you are offering
him something which will improve his health, and he is yours, or rather
his money is--his two and sixpence or whatever particular sum you may
have designed to relieve him of. It is for that reason that you see the
pages of the magazines and newspapers filled with advertisements of new
cures for ancient diseases. There is more money in the country than
there has ever been, but there are just the same number of real and
fancied diseases. Mankind is, if possible, more credulous to-day than
at any epoch during our history. There are millions who will snatch at
the slightest chance of getting rid of some real or fancied ailment.
Great journals have endeavored to persuade us that you can attain
perfect health by standing on your head in the bathroom for ten minutes
before breakfast. A million bodies, distorted into strange shapes, can
be seen every morning in the domestic bed-chamber. A health-food made
from old bones has been one of the brilliant successes of this
generation. Now listen to my motto. This is what I want to bring home
to every inhabitant of this country. This is what I want to see in
great black type in every newspaper, on every hoarding, and if possible
flashed at night upon the sky: 'Cure the mind first; the mind will cure
the body.' That," Mr. Bomford concluded, modestly, "is my idea of one
of our preliminary advertisements."

The professor nodded approvingly. Burton glanced from one to the other
of the two men with an air of almost pitiful non-comprehension. Mr.
Bomford, having emptied his glass of claret, started afresh.

"My idea, in short," he went on, "is this. Let us three join forces.
Let us analyze this marvelous product, into the possession of which you,
Mr. Burton, have so mysteriously come. Let us, blending its
constituents as nearly as possible, place upon the market a health-food
not for the body but for the mind. You follow me now, I am sure?
Menti-culture is the craze of the moment. It would become the craze of
the million but for a certain vagueness in its principles, a certain
lack of appeal to direct energies. We will preach the cause. We will
give the public something to buy. We will ask them ten and sixpence a
time and they will pay it gladly. What is more, Mr. Burton, the public
will pay it all over the world. America will become our greatest
market. Nothing like this has ever before been conceived, 'Leave your
bo