Tried Before and Found Wanting.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 19, 10 May 1911, Page 54

Tried Before and Found Wanting.

The Divine reminder that’ no man by taking thought can add to his stature is as salutary to-day as it was in the days of the Great Healer, and this in spite of the specious promises that bombard the credulous passer-by from every hoarding. The framers of. these delusions know per- - iectTv well that they are appealing to two permanent human, weaknesses —temperamental discontent arising” from a variety .of causes, and’, an unhealthy - craze for novelty which' is bred by the spirit of the age Unfortunately, there ■> is a tendency to mix up two kinds of •• case— the sort that lends, itself to,.treat- ~ _ment ' unde’r ' discreet " and ‘ experienced JSfergftidanee, ami the.-otber,-which B ? - nieef anything but disapppifltriient; arid playing. upon the debatable; ground betweeji;tb’e.-two,; there is-jil-ways the fas-cinatioh-tjiat, attaches to faith-healing aud its meyiods.- An example in each of these fields, the practical and the impos- ). sibie,-has just come to light. I'A doctor in Touraine'has hit upon a new variety of- rest-cure, which ‘ commences by stripping the patient as far as possible of his old personality, arid'investing him with a" new name and character, as also what Sam Weller called “a regular new fit-out of clothes.” On the other hand, we learn of an American lady doctor who has just invaded London with a New Thought gospel which is to eliminate sickness an I worry and poverty, simply by convincing its converts that no such things exist. The catechumen subscribes to a new formula, and becomes straightway a plump and pleasing person, with an all-pervasive ‘■'aura” and a balance at the bank. ft likes us well, but we have an inconvenient recollection that this sort of insurance by optimism has been tried b.’fore, and found to be wanting.