Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-06-17

bound to affect not only her own fu.
ture but the future of many who were
dependent upon her in vital matters.
She looked across at me from the tcle-
phone in the pause of the momentous
conversation with her Questioner at the
other end Of the wire and said
"Vhat would do without religion?
How do people get along without it?'
I had been asking that same ques-
tion of myself during rather sleep
less night. The sleep essness was the
result of book had read the previous
I evening on the general subject Of psy-
! cho analysis and the modern discover
,ics from Freud's time to this, Of the
subconscious self. which is popularity
! supposed to have SO large part in the
! decisions and the thoughts back OF the
decisions of the individual.
| The book gave great deal of advice
as to the understanding and the utiliz-
\ ing of that unconscious or subconSciOus
self for the purpose Of development of
, the conscious self--the conscious self
! being the part of one that says "1'
I when one Is awake. and the subcon-
scious self being the part of one that
says or when one is asleep. Ihe ar
gument of the book was that the SUD-
conscious sef was immoral and In It's
realm unassailable, bu; that its con-
ncction md influence with the conscious
self could be greatly modified If its
character and its reasoning and its bias,
for or against. were fully nnalyzed ana
recognized and discounted by the wax
ing self.
VTHIS had to be accomplished by men,
i orv chiefly. memory Of dreams and
memory of childish impressions slowed
away in some recess of the brain ana
almost completely forgotten by the
everyday mind. -,
This process of disintcrring old i'm
pressions and evanesccnt dreams was
Acknowledged by the writer OF the pooK
to be an arduous and painstaking one
but he was very serious about lts oelns
also a most necessary labor. on the part
of the mind, rs a cure for every form of
abnormality. for many forms of hys-
term and neurosis and insanity and for
misfitted energy and misplaced afec-
tions and for habits of revolt against
the laws of health or of human So
ciety.
What made me sleepless. l suppose.
was the cumulative effect of these fu-
tile remedies for a cure of evil by the
Interpretation of dreams and the at
tempt of the author to marshal the sins
of us mortals with the physical dis
orders we are subject TO under one gen.
sral head Of disease.
As physician he blamed the Chris
tian Scientists for calling disease sin
But he equally blamed Christians for
calling their conscious breaking Of the
laws of God sins! In fact, there was
no God on his horizon apparently. the
nearest thing to Be all and End
all' for human endeavor was an i'm
aginary being which he spoke of con-
stantly as n perfectly normal man.
TIME book had been we'll read by some
i body. all it's leaves were cut and
some were turned down and it had
stood on night stand by bed when
! came across It.. as though 1t had
place with the books OF devotion that
were near by. I found later that It
had no place with them in the mind of
its owner. but she had picked it up ns
being the popular version of the hour
on much talked of subject.
Just at present the words nor
malcy." balance" "functioning." are
much used TO define what used to be in
cluded in the term goodIcss. We are
not told to strive after perfection. but
we are urged to be normal. If there Is
any hint that We can attain n higher
level than that of normalcy, it Is not by
a spiritual process. but by a physical
asccndency of becoming supermen: NOT
by being n little lower than the angels,
but by being considerably like Her
culps or Siegfried or even Napoleon.
But | am quite sure that for most
of us the word normal does not answer
the wish within us. aS the word good
ness does. And the idea conjured up
BY the word superman does not meas
ure up to the word perfection. Back
of all our physical illnesses is the ideal
of health. back Of all our misdeeds of
mind Is the word goodness. And back
of all our unhapppinesses is the word
perfection. And we haven't got those
words from one another. they have
come straight from some one who Is
good and who Is perfect. Nor is n
superman like Hercules or Napoleon Of
any real use to us in striving for good
ness and in believing in perfection.
Power cannot help US as just power. 1t
has got to be power and goodness. which
II why the one who called Himself not
'the superman," hut "the Son Of God, y
can help us.
FINALLY put myself TO sleep, not
L by remembering my dreams and sub
jecting them to the analysis of the
dream interpreter. but by saying from
my heart the great confession of a soul
that recognized in God Himself the
great Psyche Analyst of all time.
God-the Psyche. Analyst Of Man
80 Lord, thou has searched me and
known me, Thou knowest my down
sitting and mine uprising, Thou under
standest my thought afar off Thou
compassest my path and my lying down
and art acquainted with all my ways,
For there is not word in my tongue,
but 10, o Lord thou knowest it alto
gether. Thou has beset me behind and
before and laid thine hand upon me.
"Such knowledge Is too wonderful
for me, it is high. l cannot affair
unto it,
Always just here In that 139th Psalm
q memory comes back to me out of the
far recesses of my childhood, Of the
first time that ] sensel the meaning
Of the words. 1t was on a Sunday
morning and my grandfather was read :
ing the Psalm in the sitting room
while the family. his children and his
grandchildren sat decorously by al
"family worship" Over the fireplace
Of that room and directly back Of his
big chair, therefore. on the wall was
very large engraving Of the Guide
Aurora, the god Phoebus driving the
horses Of the day across the skies with
the hours flying about his chariot
while beneath the clouds was the sea
breaking on deserted shore. l sup
pose some grown up had explained the
picture to me. but as my grandfather