ABSTRACT
The changed meaning of the word Enthusiasm is an example of the change of belief in modern times. Its ancient meaning was its literal one, “God-in-us,” its modern meaning is “ardent zeal.” To a large number of the ablest class of mankind the idea of an indwelling divine Spirit is so habitual and vivid as to be an axiomatic truth to them. It has been a real and almost life-long subject of thought, whether or no and to what degree the strong subjective views of the pious are trustworthy. An instance of the purely physiological origin of ideas was seen in those twins who are characterised by simultaneity of conceptions; the same notion occurring at the same moment to both, and both responding in nearly the same words and at the same moment to the person who addresses them, so that the twins appear like a double individual.
