Children are natural metaphysicians. A little four-years-old child of a Christian Scientist, overheard talking to herself, her father said. " Susie, what are you talking about?" "Oh," she replied, "I was only telling this headache to go off, and it has all gone." The same little one, hearing her father sneeze, said, "You don't need to sneeze unless you want to, papa; you jes think you are not going to, and you won't." So little Susie brings her theory into practice, and has already learned what many an older and wiser one has failed to learn. If she falls, she does not admit she is hurt, but jumps up and goes about her play again. In this way she forgets her ailments, proving the power of mind over the body.
Now a word to the parents of these little ones. Can you not see that this is much more salutary than educating your child into the fear and belief of disease? and, if she has a headache, watching her anxiously until you notice, perhaps, what you term too much color in the face; then you take the little hands in yours, and look and feel for signs of fever, and you begin to conjure up the cause of all this, and wonder if she has taken cold, or eaten something that is indigestible, or has overplayed, until your fears and mental images are reflected, and bring out just the result you are looking for.
