NewThoughtLibrary.com / DivineLibrary.org

almost wholly among strongly superstitious people, who are ready to accept certain beliefs with all the energy of their being.

It is a truism today to affirm that miracles are impossible. The whole fabric of nineteenth century science rests on the knowledge that law is universal. If then, such cures occur -- and they are too widely attested to doubt them--they must take place in accordance with a certain principle. This principle is evidently the one already suggested; namely, that the bodily condition changes when the emotions are touched, -- not only in sudden cures, but in all that constitutes the emotional life.
 
The stronger the emotion, other things being equal, the more remarkable the effect or cure. Emotion of a certain sort--noticeably, expectant attention accompanied by implicit faith on the   part of an invalid before a sacred relic -- has a wonderfully expansive and liberating effect on the   body. The entire attention is concentrated on what is about to occur; the thought is lifted above self by the emotional experience; and the physical forces are no longer hampered by fear, morbid awareness of sensation, and the thousand and one feelings which interfere with the natural restorative power of the body. The emotion frees, "opens" the body; density is broken up; and a process of change which ordinarily would