disease. Fatigue, for example, "is evidently due to the
calling of power into a new direction. It [evidently the power] comes
into contact with dense matter, with an uncultivated portion of the
being, physical as well as mental, and meeting with resistance friction
of some sort is the natural result." One has only to compare a statement
like that with Cannon's careful study of bodily changes under emotional
states, to see the difference between speculation controlled by analogy
and the illuminating experimental methods of modern science.

When Dresser adds that "we shall eliminate disease not by fighting it,
not by studying its causes, or doctoring its physical effects, but by
seeing the wisdom of the better way," he is on dangerous ground, for if
we are not to study the causes of disease but to take as our guide the
serene generalizations of a speculative mind we are shutting in our
faces one of the doors by which we enter into that knowledge of the mind
of God, of which New Thought makes so much. How shall we know the mind
of God except as we ask endless patient and careful questions of every
revelation of the divine method, whether in sickness or health?

New Thought, however, takes a far more constructive view of suffering
than Christian Science. For New Thought suffering is at least
disciplinary and instructive: it compels reflection: it brings us to a
knowledge of the law. It is certainly, therefore, just and it may be
kind. Indeed, New Thought occasionally goes so far as to say that
suffering is also a revelation of love and must be so accepted and
entertained. Its general conclusions in this region are far more safe
than its insistence upon vibration and friction and its spacious
technicalities.

When Dresser says that there is a difference "between ignoring a
trouble, between neglecting to take proper care of ourselves and that
wise direction of thought which in no way hinders while it most surely
helps to remedy our ills," he is on perfectly safe ground. When he adds
that there is a strong reason for believing that "there is a simple,
natural way out of every trouble, that kind nature, which is another
name for an omniscient God, is ever ready to do her utmost for us" he is
speaking with a wise and direct helpfulness, though here as generally
New Thought errs on the side of too great a simplification. There is a
way out of every trouble but it is not always simple, it is often
laborious and challenging. We h