Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/545

Rh trying to make it "regular" and to conform to what is known of psychological causes and effects.

These various efforts to investigate the source and workings of an elusive healing principle are not without their value, even if the actual practice is more often based upon enthusiasm than upon any exact knowledge. They serve to emphasise both the benefits of psychical treatment and the harm which may rise from its ignorant or exclusive application in radical cases. But, from the nature of the subject, it is certain that the permanent value of suggestive therapeutics will ultimately be determined, not by the inexperienced or the overzealous in any walk of life, but through the slow and patient experiments of medical science; and this, too, will be the final test of the value of Mrs. Eddy's life-work.