friend of the skylights. Most of us are far too serious. The
slumberers will slumber on, and the worriers will worry, the serious
people will go ponderously about until some one shows them how
ridiculous they are and how pitiful.

IX

REGRETS AND FOREBODINGS

Regret avails little--still less remorse--the one keeps alive
the old offense, the other creates new offenses.
GOETHE.

The unrepentant sinner walks abroad. Unfortunately for us moralists he
seems to be having a very good time. We must not condone him, though he
may be a very lovable person; neither must we altogether condemn him,
for he may be repentant in the very best way of all ways, the way that
forgets much and leaves behind more, because life is so fine that it
must not be spoiled, and because progress is in every way better than
retrospection. The fact is, that repentance is too often the fear of
punishment, and such fear is, to say the least, unmanly. I would rather
be a lovable sinner than one of the people who repent because they
cannot bear to think of the consequences. Knowledge and fear of
consequences undoubtedly keep a great many young people from the
so-called sins of ignorance. But there must be something behind
knowledge and fear of consequences to stop the youth of spirit from
doing what he is inclined to do. Over and over again we must go back to
the appreciation of life's dignity and beauty--to the consciousness of
the spirit of God behind and in the world if we are to find a balance
and a character that will "deliver us from evil."

When we have found this consciousness--when we live it and breathe it,
we shall be far less apt to sin, and when we have sinned, as we all must
in the course of our blundering lives, we shall not waste our time in
regret or in the fear of consequences. If the God we dream of is as
great as the sea, or as beautiful as a tree, we need not fear Him. He
will be tender, and just at the same time. He will be as forgiving as
He is strong. The best we can do, then, is to leave our sins in the hand
of God and go our way, sadder and wiser, maybe, but not regretting too
much, not fearing any more.

There is a new idea in medicine--the development of which has been one
of the most striking achievements of modern times--the idea of
psychanalysis as taught and advocated by Freud in Germany. The plan
is to study the subconscious mind of the nervous patient by means of
hypnotism, to assist