the idea that God could possibly display his power in any other way than by some signal violation of his own laws.

It will thus be seen that the Christian religion not only had its inception in psychic phenomena, but that faith in it has been perpetuated largely by a misapprehension of the real significance of the psychic manifestations of Jesus. If, however, the miracles alone had constituted the evidence of the truth of Christianity, it would have long since perished as a system of religion. For no system of religion which is founded upon a fundamental error can long withstand the assaults of scientific scepticism, in an enlightened age and nation, where truth is left free to combat error. In a primitive age a claim to supernatural power may serve to impose almost any system of religion upon a people. In an enlightened age such a claim is an element of weakness; and a theology founded upon that alone must eventually perish and be forgotten. The assaults of scepticism upon the Christian religion have been almost exclusively upon the dogma of supernaturalism; and had its claims to a divine origin rested alone upon that, it must have yielded to the first onslaught of scientific scepticism. That it has sustained the shock of scientific criticism, and is still a great and growing power in the most enlightened age the world has ever seen, and is now the most potential force in the social systems of the most enlightened nations of the earth, is indubitable evidence that it possesses an inherent vitality that must be looked for outside the domain of the supernatural. In the ensuing chapter I propose briefly to inquire into the secret of the wonderful vitality of the Christian religion.

CHAPTER IX.

THE INTUITIVE PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.

Books that thrill the Reader with Pleasurable Emotions.

IT

- Theories The

to account for it. — Literary Style. - Personal Magnetism. Soul's Love of Truth.- Books Popular in proportion to their Truth. — The Scriptures. — The Philosophy of Jesus. — Intuitional Perception of its Truth. - Evolution of Religion. - Christianity the Final Goal. The Impossibility of improving upon True Christianity. The Absolute Religion.

T has often been remarked by intelligent readers of books that some authors have a faculty of impressing their personality upon their literary productions; so that one experiences, when reading them, a thrill of pleasure and satisfaction akin to that felt when listening to an orator who possesses what is known as great "personal magnetism." Some have attributed this feeling wholly to the literary style of the author; whilst others, more prone to suspect that an occult force is concealed behind every phenomenon, have held that the "personal magnetism" of every author is, in some inexplicable way, impressed upon the pages of his book. It seems obvious that neither of these explanations can possibly be the true one.

The first cannot be true, for the reason that it often happens that works which create the deepest impression upon mankind are written in a very unattractive style; whilst other works leave no lasting impression upon the minds of their readers, although couched in terms of faultless elegance. The second explanation is defective,

even to absurdity; for whatever occult force, personal magnetism, or psychometric or telepathic impression might be supposed to accompany an author's personal manuscript, it is obvious that it could not be transmitted to the printed page which the author never saw or handled. Besides, it often happens that editions of an author's works are printed hundreds of years after he is dead; but it has never been noted that the element of so-called "personal magnetism" diminishes in force or intensity as the editions of his works are multiplied. The thrill of satisfaction which every man of intelligence feels when reading the lines of Shakespeare is not diminished in intensity as the years go by; nor does it suffer any appreciable change since it has been claimed that they were written by the "greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind." It is evident, therefore, that we must seek elsewhere than in elegance of diction or personal magnetism for an explanation of the secret of the permanent popularity of a book.

Broadly speaking, a book is permanently popular in proportion to the amount of truth it contains. Works of fiction constitute no exception to this rule; for our appreciation of a novel is in exact proportion to the fidelity to nature with which its characters are portrayed. What is true of a work of fiction is necessarily true of a work professing to deal with facts, as in history, or with principles, as in science, in philosophy, or in religion.

The love of truth is inherent in the normal human soul, and its recognition of truth is instinctive. This in itself constitutes a psychic phenomenon of the utmost importance; and it is one which must enter as a factor into every correct diagnosis of the attributes of the psychic entity. It is this instinctive perception or recognition of truth when it is presented that gives rise to that emotional thrill of pleasure and satisfaction which one experiences when reading the statement of a vital truth. It is the soul's response to

a suggestion which is in accord with its own deductions from the facts of its own experience. In this connection it must be remembered that the memory of the subjective mind is perfect, and that its power of deductive reasoning is also perfect. It is, however, devoid of the power of induction proper, being constantly amenable to control by suggestion. When, therefore, a suggestion is imparted to it that corresponds to its own deductions, it instantly recognizes its truth and responds with a thrill of pleasurable emotion. This emotion alone is indubitable evidence that it is a purely subjective experience, since the subjective mind or soul is the seat of the emotions as well as the storehouse of memory.

This phenomenon is experienced in a greater or less degree upon the perusal of any book which contains what the reader recognizes as truth; and the intensity of the emotion experienced is in proportion to his estimate of the degree of importance to be attached to it as affecting himself. For the purpose of this inquiry, however, books must be divided into two general classes. Those which treat of temporal affairs belong to one class, and those which deal with questions pertaining to the attributes, powers, and destiny of the soul belong to the other. Those belonging to the first class never produce the phenomenon proper of which we speak. Such books may be never so interesting or important to the temporal well-being of man, yet they rarely, if ever, produce other than a purely intellectual enjoyment.

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On the other hand, that which pertains to the soul is taken cognizance of by the soul, which is moved to emotion, pleasurable or otherwise, just in proportion to its recognition of the vital truths which a book contains. this it is not meant to convey the implication that the emotions experienced on reading a book are infallible standards of truth. On the contrary, our subjective perception of

truth is oftentimes neutralized by our objective perceptions or prejudices, or from those primordial anterior suggestions arising from fixed habits of thought or moral principles. But truth possesses an inherent vitality which no amount of error can wholly extinguish. In the long run truth must prevail, in spite of passion and prejudice. Hence it is that books which contain vital truths, however modest their pretensions or homely their style, will be enshrined and live forever in the hearts of their readers, whilst the more pretentious volume, devoid of the vitalizing element of truth, though adorned with all the perfections which learning and eloquence may impart, makes no permanent impression upon the souls of men, and is soon forgotten by the intellectual world.

The faculty of perceiving those truths which affect the human soul is inherent in the soul, although it is in rare cases only that it is largely developed in any one individual. Jesus was probably the only man who was endowed with this faculty in perfection; that is, he was the only one, of whose life we have any record, who possessed the power of independent perception of the laws of the soul. Others possess that power only in the limited sense that they are able to grasp and comprehend the truth when it is presented to them. But in that sense it is so generally diffused among mankind that in the aggregate it must be counted as a most important factor in the social, moral, and religious world; and in an enlightened community it prevents any radical misconception of the fundamental principles of morality and religion.

The intelligent reader will have anticipated me in what I am to say regarding the practical application of these observations to the fundamental principles of the Christian religion. It seems to me, that is to say, that the fact that Christianity still exists as a system of religion, is evidence, little short of demonstrative, that it is founded upon the