But really, my dear sir, my process for the extirpation of thoughts was but the most obvious consequence of the discovery that different classes of sensations and ideas are localized in the brain, and are permanently identified with particular groups of corpuscles of the grey matter.

As soon as that was known, the extirpating of special clusters of thoughts became merely a question of mechanical difficulties to be overcome, merely a nice problem in surgery, and not more complex than many which my brethren have solved in lithotomy and lithotrity, for instance." "I suppose what makes the idea a little more startling," said Henry, "is the odd intermingling of moral and physical conceptions in the idea of curing pangs of conscience by a surgical operation." "I should think that intermingling ought not to be very bewildering," replied the doctor, "since it is the usual rule.

Why is it more curious to cure remorse by a physical act than to cause remorse by a physical act?
And I believe such is the origin of most remorse." "Yes," said Henry, still struggling to preserve his mental equilibrium against this general overturning of his prejudices.

"Yes, but the mind consents to the act which causes the remorse, and I suppose that is what gives it a moral quality." "Assuredly," replied the doctor; "and I take it for granted that patients don't generally come to me unless they have experienced very genuine and profound regret and sorrow for the act they wish to forget.

They have already repented it, and, according to every theory of moral accountability, I believe it is held that repentance balances the moral accounts.