Page:The council of seven.djvu/137

 of wonders, they say. The elixir of youth has been found. There shall be length of days for those who desire it. A remarkable vista is opened up by these recent discoveries. Here is a most fascinating book, a translation from the Chinese, which is causing a great stir."

Helen was shown the small volume in his hand.

"Lien Weng, I see," was her comment. "They were talking about him the other evening at the Bryants. He has revolutionized psychology, they say, whatever that may mean. One hasn't the mental machinery really to get at this sort of thing."

"It's beyond me, too," said John. "One can't quite reach to what he's driving at, although the translation seems pretty exact."

Helen read aloud the title of the book: ''New Uses for the Will''.

"Or how to interpose your own upon the lives of others—that's what it seems to boil down to, as far as one can make out."

Helen could not withhold a slight shudder. "The idea sounds distinctly unpleasant to me. Instinctively one shuns it."

"It may have its ugly side," John agreed. "But it's reassuring to know that for the practice of this new and ticklish science, certain conditions have to be present in the mind of the subject to start with."

"Sounds like the old-fashioned hypnotism."

"Lien Weng claims more for it than that, much more.