"This is to me a new way of reasoning on this subject, and yet I do not know but you are correct. I confess, that on reflection, I do not find positive evidence that any good has been done to Mr. Browning. It may be so, or it may not. And yet the story of his cure is told all over the neighborhood and for many miles around, and Mrs. Lovejoy gets great credit by it."
"No doubt she does; and thousands obtain both credit and cash in a similar way. Much of the reputation of our wonderful cure-alls, advertised in the newspapers, comes in a similar way."
"Do you really think so?"
"It can be demonstrated."
"Why, then, is it not oftener done?"
"It has been done, again and again."
"Are the public, then, fully determined to act against their own interest? Do they choose to be humbugged?"
"It seems so."
"But can you do nothing with my face?"
"I can try. I will do what I can. But I must first tell you what I cannot do. I cannot pronounce your disease to be cancer. I cannot say positively that my method of treatment will cure it. I cannot say, moreover, that somebody else cannot cure you, even if I cannot. If, however, I prescribe for you, you must consent to follow me for the time most implicitly, and let everybody else alone."