[128-1] Aurelii Augustini, _De Dono Perseverantiæ_, cap. xx. Comte remarks “Depuis St. Augustin toutes les âmes pures ont de plus en plus senti, à travers l’égoisme Chrétien, que prier peut n’être pas demander.” _Système de Politique Positive_, I., p. 260. Popular Protestantism has retrograded in this respect. [129-1] Plath, _Die Religion und Cultus der alten Chineser_, s. 836. This author observes that the Chinese prayers are confined to temporal benefits only, and are all either prayers of petition or gratitude. Prayers of contrition are unknown. [130-1] Numerous examples can be found in medical text books, for instance in Dr. Tuke’s, _The Influence of the Mind on the Body_. London, 1873. [131-1] The commission appointed by the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium on Louise Lateau reported in March, 1875, and most of the medical periodicals of that year contain abstracts of its paper. [131-2] They may be found in the life of Pascal, written by his sister, and in many other works of the time. [131-3] It is worthy of note, as an exponent of the condition of religious thought in 1875, that in May of that year the Governor of the State of Missouri appointed by official proclamation a day of prayer to check the advance of the grasshoppers. He should also have requested the clergy to pronounce the ban of the Church against them, as the Bishop of Rheims did in the ninth century. [132-1] Tyndall, _On Prayer and Natural Law_, 1872. [134-1] S. M. Hodgson, _An Inquiry into the Theory of Practice_, pp. 329, 330. [135-1] The Rev. Dr. Thomas K. Conrad, _Thoughts on Prayer_, p. 54: New York, 1875. [135-2] I. John, v. 15. “There are millions of prayers,” says Richard Baxter, “that will all be found answered at death and judgment, which we know not to be answered any way but by believing it.” _A Christian Directory_, Part II. chap. xxiii. [137-1] “So wie das Gebet ein Hauptwurzel alter Lehre war, so war das Deuten und Offenbaren ihre ursprüngliche Form.” Creuzer, _Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker_, Bd. I., s. 10. It were more accurate to say that divination is the answer to, rather than a form of prayer. [138-1] Joseph John Gurney, _The Distinguishing Views and Practices of the Society of Friends_, pp. 58, 59, 76, 78. An easy consequence of this view was to place the decrees of the internal monitor above the written word. This was advocated mainly by Elias Hicks, who expressed his doctrine in the words: “As no spring can rise higher than its fountain, so likewise the Scriptures can only direct to the fountain whence they originated--the Spirit of Truth.” _Letters of Elias Hicks_, p. 228 (Phila., 1861). [139-1] _Address to the Clergy_, p. 67. [140-1] See an intelligent note on this subject in the Rev. Wm. Lee’s work, entitled _The Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures_, pp. 44, 47 (London and New York, 1857). [140-2] Rev. William Lee, _u. s._, p. 243. [141-1] Blunt, _Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology_, s. v.