At the meeting a pressing invitation was given to all persons present to give themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ with the assurance that He would save them. A bed was given him in the Mission-house. While his room-mate lay drunk, he sat up or paced the room all night long in a sullen, despairing mood. Some one lent him a Bible; he tried to read it, but his thoughts were too disturbing. That which he had heard in the meeting had brought to his mind recollections of youth, the thought of the young* wife he had left in England, of his family, etc. He realized that there was no hope, that if he died then he would go to hell. He prayed, asking God to take him as he was, saying that if He was willing to save him he would let Him. "I said, here I am." At about 6 A. M. he felt that God had pardoned him. The anguish of the night had passed, and he found himself calm and peaceful. That very morning he told a companion that he was converted, that he had given his heart to God. Terrible were the temptations that day, as he passed before the saloon doors; but he was kept They recurred day after day for more than a week.

The lady's continued sympathy was a great comfort to him.

Three months after his conversion, he opened a Mission, which progressed rapidly, and is now doing very good work among the outcasts. (Written from detailed notes taken while he was relating his conversion to me.)

As our purpose in this pager is to investigate the nature of the forces at play in conversion, it would be advantageous to choose for our observation material, sudden and well marked instances, for the psycho-physiological machinery ,if we may be allowed the expression, appears much more clearly in these than in the slower and less complete cases. But it will be better still if we consider the conditions and circumstances under which large numbers of striking conversions take place, i. e., "Revival" meetings. The limited space at our disposal will not make it possible for us to do much more than hint at facts which would need elucidation to gain their full weight in the mind of the reader. Before we proceed, however, two points should be agreed upon:

(1) Sudden transformations in the intellectual, affective, and even in the moral life are by no means limited to religious influences, as it is sometimes believed. The student of insanity and of the disorders of the nervous system in general, is familiar with character-transformations which, in point of depth and extent, leaving out the question of direction, do not yield to the most astonishing examples of Christian conversion. We recall, for instance, the numerous cases of multiple personalities carefully reported in scientific publications during the last few decades. There is a class of mental disorders called Circular Insanity, because the patient passes periodically through a cycle including melancholia, comparative equilibrium and mania. Instances of this disorder may be found in almost every insane hospital. Similar, but less intense changes, will be a familiar experience with nearly all normal persons in the habit of taking notice of their moods.

(2) Transformations similar to those just mentioned may be artificially induced especially, but not exclusively, by suggestion practiced during hypnosis. We mention only the remarkable case of Lucie in whom Pierre Janet brought to light, by means of hypnotic suggestion, three distinct personalities. *

That the physiological activities can be powerfully altered by means of suggestion either during hypnotic sleep, or outside of it, is to-day a universally acknowledged fact. Of particular interest to us are the remarkable results obtained in the treatment of dypsomaniacs and drunkards. We quote from the tabulated report of Dr. Ch. Lloyd Tuckey (London), to the third Congress of Psychology. "Out of 65 cases treated (39 men, 26 women), cured, 15; relapsed after apparent cure of two years, 2; died six months after apparent cure, 1; much benefited permanently, 7; relapsed after three to six months, 30; no effect, 10. At the same congress, Dr. Bramwell (London) reported a case of seven-teen years' duration which has remained cured now for seven years. Family history very bad, a brother died from drink, a cousin drank to excess and committed suicide. Forel, in his book, "der Hypnotismus," relates the beautiful cure of a confirmed drunkard, 70 years old, who had twice attempted suicide.

Not one of the Missions opened in the dark portions of our large cities meet with an equal degree of success in their effort to save drunkards.

It is only very recently that the students of "suggestion." have turned their attention to its moral therapeutic value. In the Revue d'Hypnotisme and the Zeitschrift fur Hypnotismus, Lie-baux Voisin, Berillon, Ladame, and many others, have reported many cures of ethical defects and vices, wrathfulness, jealousy, deceitfulness, laziness, timorousness, stubbornness, etc. Dr. Berillon has even opened a clinic to which children of the public schools of Paris are regularly sent for treatment.1 That the improvement does not bear merely on some specific evil habit, but may be a re-forming, a re-casting of the character will be made evident by the following instance reported by Aug. Voisin: 2

* L'Automatism Psychologique.

1. See his pamphlet, "L,' Orthopelie Mentale," Rueff & Co., Paris, in which are gathered the best results of his own practice.

2. Revue de l'Hypnotisme, 1899, p. 130-132.

A boy 16 years of age was brought to Dr. Voisin to be cured of bad instincts. "Since the age of 13, when he suffered from tetanus, he had nystagmus and a pronounced lisp, but before that disease, and already from the age of 6 or 7, he had an insufferable disposition. He was deceitful, disobedient, cruel and. moreover, a thief. Year by year his bad instincts grew worse. He was sent back home from several institutions.

"During the two last years, his thieving propensities have much increased and he gave himself up to debauchery. He steals from his mother to indulge his sexual vice. Onanism has moreover become a passion to which he yields even before his mother. He prides himself upon his wickedness.

"After three seances, he fell into hypnosis. From the very-first following seance, the young man ceased to steal and his character improved. He was hypnotized every three days; the suggestions were made to bear successively upon his bad character and upon his several vicious instincts. On the 6th of July, the young man was completely transformed. The desire to do evil had disappeared and was replaced by the wish to do good. He had now the earnest intention to obey and otherwise please his mother. He was in a way no more the same youth. As soon as he had entered my office, he would tell me of the happiness he felt at his change."

On the 20th of October, after an interruption of six weeks in the treatment, he had not fallen back, and on the 13th of July last, 1899, a student of the "Ecole Normale Superieure" who had taken an interest in the young man, wrote to Dr. Voisin : "I have again seen intimately, the young man of whom we spoke together, and my first impressions have been confirmed. The transformation appears to me to be now complete; he wants to do right and strives for success. He speaks with horror of his past life. Moreover, he is fully awake to the beauty and desirableness of the new life opening before him ,and he desires it with all his heart. It seems even that he is no more tempted."