ed so many great cures that he had to retire
from his profession of stage-carpentering in order to meet the demand
of his constantly increasing body of customers. He goes on from year
to year doing his miracles, and has become very rich. He pretends to no
religious helps, no supernatural aids, but thinks there is something in
his make-up which inspires the confidence of his patients, and that it
is this confidence which does the work, and not some mysterious power
issuing from himself.

Within the last quarter of a century, in America, several sects of
curers have appeared under various names and have done notable things in
the way of healing ailments without the use of medicines. There are the
Mind Cure the Faith Cure, the Prayer Cure, the Mental Science Cure, and
the Christian-Science Cure; and apparently they all do their miracles
with the same old, powerful instrument--the patient's imagination.
Differing names, but no difference in the process. But they do not give
that instrument the credit; each sect claims that its way differs from
the ways of the others.

They all achieve some cures, there is no question about it; and the
Faith Cure and the Prayer Cure probably do no harm when they do no good,
since they do not forbid the patient to help out the cure with medicines
if he wants to; but the others bar medicines, and claim ability to cure
every conceivable human ailment through the application of their mental
forces alone. There would seem to be an element of danger here. It has
the look of claiming too much, I think. Public confidence would probably
be increased if less were claimed.

The Christian Scientist was not able to cure my stomach-ache and my
cold; but the horse-doctor did it. This convinces me that Christian
Science claims too much. In my opinion it ought to let diseases alone
and confine itself to surgery. There it would have everything its own
way.

The horse-doctor charged me thirty kreutzers, and I paid him; in fact,
I doubled it and gave him a shilling. Mrs. Fuller brought in an itemized
bill for a crate of broken bones mended in two hundred and thirty-four
places--one dollar per fracture.

"Nothing exists but Mind?"

"Nothing," she answered. "All else is substanceless, all else is
imaginary."

I gave her an imaginary check, and now she is suing me for substantial
dollars. It looks inconsistent.

CHAPTER V

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to
e