Ans. Yes, sir! I know that.
Doctor. Do you not remember seeing, many times, people suffering dreadfully from toothache, coming to us to have their teeth extracted, who were suddenly cured at the sight of the knives and other surgical instruments we put upon the table for use?
I answered, with a laugh, “Yes, sir. I have seen that very often, and it has occurred to me once.”
Doctor. Do you think that there was a supernatural power, then, in the surgical implements, and that those sudden cures of toothache were miraculous?
Ans. No, sir.
Doctor. Have you not read the volume of the Medical Directory I lent you, on typhoid fever, where several cures exactly like yours are reported?
Ans. Yes, sir.
Then, addressing the physicians, Dr. Douglas said to them:
“We must not exhaust our dear Father Chiniquy. We are too happy to see him full of life again, but from his answers you understand that there is no miracle here. His happy and sudden cure is a very natural and common thing. The vision was what we call the turning-point of the disease, when the mind is powerfully bent on some very exciting object, when that mysterious thing of which we know so little as yet, called the will, the spirit, the soul, fights as a giant against death, in which battle, pains, diseases, and even death, are put to flight and conquered.
“My dear Father Chiniquy, from your own lips we have it; you have fought, last night, the fever and approaching death, as a giant. No wonder that you won the victory, and I confess, it is a great victory. I know it is not the first victory you have gained, and I am sure it will not be the last. It is surely God who has given you that irresistible will. In that sense only does your cure come from Him. Continue to fight and conquer as you have done last night, and you will live a long life. Death will long remember its defeat of last night, and will not dare approach you any more, except when you will be so old that you will ask it to come as a friend, and put an end to the miseries of this present life. Good-bye.”