ld control his mind and his mind could control his body,
man is master of his fate. Unfortunately, almost in proportion as he
becomes confident of one link in the chain he becomes doubtful of the
other. Nowadays he has quite as many qualms of uncertainty as to whether
he can control his mind as about the power of his mind over his body. By
a strange paradox we are discovering that our most genuine and lasting
control over our minds is to be obtained by modifying the conditions of
our bodies, while the field in which we modify bodily conditions by
mental influence is steadily shrinking.

For centuries we punished the sick in mind, the insane, loading them
with chains, shutting them up in prison-cells, starving, yes, even
flogging them. We exorcised their demons, we prayed over them, we argued
with them,--without the record of a single cure. Now we treat their
sick and ailing bodies just as we would any other class of chronic
patients, with rest, comfortable surroundings, good food, baths, and
fresh air, correction of bad habits, gentleness, and kindness, leaving
their minds and souls practically without treatment, excepting in so far
as ordinary, decent humanity and consideration may be regarded as mental
remedies,--and we cure from thirty to fifty per cent, and make all but
five per cent comfortable, contented, comparatively happy.

We are still treating the inebriate, the habitual drunkard, as a minor
criminal, by mental and moral means--with what hopeful results let the
disgraceful records of our police courts testify. We are now treating
truancy by the removal of adenoids and the fitting of glasses; juvenile
crime by the establishment of playgrounds; poverty and pauperism by
good food, living wages, and decent surroundings; and all for the first
time with success.

In short, not only have all our substantial and permanent victories over
bodily ills been won by physical means, but a large majority of our
successes in mental and moral diseases as well. Yet the obsession
persists, and we long to extend the realm of mental treatment in bodily
disease.

That the mind does exert an influence over the body, and a powerful one,
in both health and disease, is obvious. But what we are apt to forget is
that the whole history of the progress of medicine has been a record of
diminishing resort to this power as a means of cure. The measure of our
success and of our control over disease has been, and is yet, in exact
proportion