Let the fact be here stated that Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of
Christian Science. This woman lived long and well.
She was alert, earnest, highly intelligent, receptive. She was ever
discovering. We know this because she put out a new message every little
while, or modified an old one, having come in the meantime into a
position to get a nearer and clearer view of the fact. The last edition
of "Science and Health" is a different book from the first one.
Christian Science is not a fixed, formed, fossilized, ossified
structure. Possibly it may become so. But the probabilities are it will
grow, expand, advance. Life and growth consist in eliminating dead
matter and evolving new tissue. The institution, commercial, artistic,
social, political, religious, that has ceased to grow has begun to
disintegrate.
Christian Scientists do not flee the world, renouncing and denouncing
it. As a people they are well, happy, hopeful, enthusiastic and
successful. I am fairly well informed on the history of all great
religions. In degree I know the character of intellect possessed by the
folks who make or made up their membership. And my opinion is, that no
religion that has ever existed contained so large a percentage of
intelligent people, competent, safe and sane, as does Christian Science.
There is an adage to the effect that a prophet is not without honor save
in his own country.
In the case of Mary Baker Eddy, the adage just quoted goes awry. Mrs.
Eddy as long as she lived, retained the good-will of Concord, Boston and
Brookline, where she chose to make her home. Very many of the leading
men and women of each of these cities are Christian Scientists.
The Christian Science Church at Concord cost upwards of two hundred
thousand dollars, and was the gift of Mrs. Eddy. Over the entrance, cut
deep in granite, are the words, "Presented by Mary Baker Eddy,
Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science." As to the argument that
the truths of Christian Science have always been known and practised by
a few, Mrs. Eddy issued her direct challenge. In all of her literature
she set out the unqualified statement that she was "The Discoverer and
the Founder." She was never apologetic; she assumed no modesty she did
not feel; she spoke as one having authority, as did Moses of old, "Thus
saith the Lord!"
She entered into no joint debates; she did not answer back. This intense
conviction which admits of no parley was one of the secrets of her
power. For many years the Billingsgate Calendar was directed at her upon
every possible occasion.
But Mrs. Eddy won out, and legislation and courts were compelled to
whistle in their hounds. Your right to keep well in your own way is now
fully recognized. Doctors are not liable when they give innocent
sweetened water and call it medicine, nor do we place Christian
Scientists on trial if their patients die, any more than we do the M.
D.'s.
In fact, Mrs. Eddy influenced both of the so-called sciences of medicine
and theology. Even those who are perfectly willing to deny her, and
noisily discard her tenets, are debtors to her.
Homeopathy modified the dose of all the Allopaths; and Christian Science
has attenuated the Hahnemannian theory of attenuations, it having been
found that the blank tablet often cures quite as effectively as the one
that is medicated. Christian Science does not shout, rant, defy nor
preach. It is poised, silent, sure, and the flagellants, like the
dervishes, are noticeable by their absence.
The Reverend Billy Sunday is not a Christian Scientist. The Christian
Scientist does not cut into the grape; specialize on the elevated
spheroid; devote his energies to bridge whist; cultivate the scandal
microbe; join the anvil chorus, nor shake the red rag of wordy warfare.
He is diligent in business, fervent in spirit, and accepts what comes
without protest, finding it good.
Mary Baker Eddy lived a human life. Through her manifold experiences she
gathered gear--she was a very great and wise woman. She was so great
that she kept her own counsel, received no visitors, made no calls, had
no Thursday, wrote no letters, and even never went to the church that
she presented to her native town. Mrs. Eddy's step was ever light, her
form erect--a slender, handsome, queenly woman. When she passed on, in
December, Nineteen Hundred Ten, in her ninetieth year, she looked scarce
more than sixty. Her face showed experience, but not extreme age. The
day I saw her, a few years before her death, she was dressed all in
white satin and looked like a girl going to a ball.
Her eyes were not dimmed nor her face wrinkled.
Her hat was a milliner's dream; her gloves came to the elbow and were
becomingly wrinkled; her form was the form of Bernhardt. Her secretary
stood by the carriage-door, his head bared. He did not offer his hand to
the lady nor seek to assist her into the carriage. He knew his
business--a sober, silent, muscular, bronzed, farmer-like man, who
evidently saw everything and nothing.
He closed the carriage-door and took his seat by the side of the driver,
who wore no livery. The men looked like brothers. The big, brown horses
started slowly away; they wore no blinders nor check-reins--they, too,
had banished fear. The coachman drove with a loose rein. The next day I
waited in Concord to see Mrs. Eddy again. At exactly two-fifteen the
big, brown, slow-going horses turned into Main Street. Drays pulled in
to the curb, automobiles stopped, people stood on the street corners,
and some--the pilgrims--uncovered.
Mrs. Eddy sat back in the carriage, holding in her white-gloved hands a
big spray of apple-blossoms, the same half-smile of satisfaction on her
face--the smile of Pope Leo the Thirteenth. The woman was a veritable
queen, and some of her devotees, not without reason, called her the
Queen of the World.
Some doubtless prayed to her--and may yet, for that matter. Mrs. Eddy
was married three times. First, to Colonel George W. Glover, an
excellent and worthy man, who was the father of her only child, a son.
On the death of Glover, the child was taken by Glover's mother and
secreted so effectually that his mother did not see him until he was
thirty-four years old, and the father of a family.
Her second husband was Daniel Patterson, who was not only a rogue but
also a fool--a flashy one, who turned the head of a lone, lorn young
widow, who certainly was not infallible in judgment. In two years the
wife got a divorce from him, on the grounds of cruelty and desertion, at
Salem, Massachusetts. Her third marital venture was Doctor Asa G. Eddy,
a practising physician--a man of much intelligence and worth. From him
Mrs. Eddy learned that the Science of Medicine was not much of a science
after all. Mrs. Eddy used to say that her husband was her first convert;
certain it is that Dr. Eddy gave up his practise to assist his wife in
putting before the world the unreality of disease. That he did not fully
grasp the idea is shown by the fact that he died of pneumonia. This,
however, did not shake the faith of Mrs. Eddy in the doctrine that
sickness was an error of mortal mind. For a good many years Mrs. Eddy
drove the memory of her two good husbands tandem, hitched by a hyphen,
thus: Mary Baker Glover-Eddy. Many a woman has joined her own name to
that of her husband, but what woman ever before so honored the two men
she had loved by coupling their names! Getting married is a bad habit,
Mrs. Eddy would probably have said, but you have to get married to find
it out.
In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-nine, Mrs. Eddy organized the First Church
of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and became its pastor. In Eighteen
Hundred Eighty-one, being then sixty years of age, she founded the
Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in Boston. For fifteen years she had
been speaking in public, affirming that health was our normal condition
and that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. From her forty-fifth
to her sixtieth year she was glad to speak for what was offered,
although I believe that even then she had discarded the good old
priestly plan of taking up a collection. The Metaphysical College was
started to prepare students for teaching Mrs. Eddy's doctrines.
The business ability of the woman was shown in thus organizing and
allowing no one to teach who was not duly prepared. These students were
obliged to pay a good stiff tuition, which fact made them appreciative.
In turn they went out and taught; all students paid the tidy sum of one
hundred dollars for the lessons, which fee was later cut to fifty.
Salvation may be free, but Christian Science costs money. The
theological genus piker, with his long, wrinkled, black coat, his collar
buttoned behind, and his high hat, has been eliminated.
Mrs. Eddy was manager of the best-methodized institution in the world,
save only the Roman Catholic Church and the Standard Oil Company. How
many million copies of "Science and Health" have been sold, no man can
say. What percentage of the money from the lessons went to Mrs. Eddy,
only an Armstrong Committee could ascertain, and really it was nobody's
business but hers.
That Mrs. Eddy had some very skilful helpers goes without saying. But
here is the point--she selected them, and reigned supreme. That the
student who paid fifty dollars got his money's worth, I have no doubt.
Not that he understood the lessons, but he received a feeling of courage
and a oneness with the whole which caused health to flow through his
veins and his heart to beat with joy. The lesson might have been to him
a jumble of words, but he lived in hopes that he would soon grow to a
point where the lines were luminous.
In the meantime, all he knew was that whereas he was once lame he could
now walk. Even the most bigoted and prejudiced now agree that the cures
of Christian Science are genuine. People who think they have trouble
have it, and it is the same with pain. Imagination is the only
sure-enough thing in the world. Mrs. Eddy's doctrines abolish pain and
therefore abolish poverty, for poverty, in America at least, is a
disease. Mrs. Eddy's chief characteristics were:
First, Love of Beauty as manifest in bodily form, dress and
surroundings.
Second, A zeal for system, order and concentrated effort on the
particular business she undertakes.
Third, A dignity, courage, self-sufficiency and self-respect that comes
from a belief in her own divinity.
Fourth, An economy of time, money, materials, energy and emotion that
wastes nothing, but which continually conserves and accumulates.
Fifth, A liberality, when advisable, which is only possible to those who
also economize.
Sixth, Yankee shrewdness, great commonsense, all flavored with a dash of
mysticism and indifference to physical scientific accuracy.
In other words, Christian Science is a woman's science--she knows! And
it is good because it is good--this is a science sound enough for
anybody--I guess so! Christian Science is scientific, but not for the
reasons that its promoters maintain. Male Christian Scientists do not
growl and kick the cat.
Women Christian Scientists do not nag. Christian Scientists do not have
either the grouch or the meddler's itch. Among them there are no
dolorosos, grumperinos or beggars. They respect all other denominations,
having a serene faith that all will yet see the light--that is to say,
adopt their doctrines. The most radical among old-school doctors could
not deny that Mrs. Eddy's own life was conducted on absolutely
scientific lines. She never answered the telephone, never fussed nor
fumed.
She hired big, safe people and paid them a big wage. She gave her
coachman fifty dollars a week, and her cook in proportion, and thus
secured people who gave her peace. She went to bed with the birds and
awoke with the dawn. At seven o'clock she was at her desk, dictating
answers to the very few letters her secretary deemed it advisable she
should see. She had breakfast at nine o'clock--ate anything she liked,
taking her time and fletcherizing. After breakfast she worked upon her
manuscripts until it was time for the daily ride.
At four o'clock she dined--two meals a day being the rule. If, however,
she cared to dissipate a little and eat three meals a day, she was not
afraid to do so.
She knew her horses and cows and sheep by name, and gave requests as to
their care, holding that the laws of mind obtain as to dumb animals the
same as man. Dogs she did not care for, and if she ever had an aversion
it would have been cats. Her servants she called "My helpers."
Christian Scientists very naturally believe in the equality of the
sexes. When girl babies are born to them they bless God, just the same
as when boy babies are born. In truth they bless God for everything, for
to them all is beautiful and all is good. Paid preachers they do not
have; they do not believe in priests or certain men who are nearer to
God than others. All have access to Eternal Truth, and thus is the
ecclesiastic excluded. To eliminate the theological middleman is well,
and as for the Church itself, surely Mrs. Eddy eliminated it also; for
she never entered a church, or at least not more than once a year, and
then it was only in deference to the architect. A Church! Is it
necessary? For herself Mrs. Eddy said, No.
But as for others, she said, Yes, a church is good for those who need
it. Mrs. Eddy was the most successful author in the world, or, indeed,
that the world has ever seen. No other writer ever made so much money as
she, none is more devoutly read.
Shakespeare, with his fortune of a quarter of a million dollars, fades
into comparative failure; and Arthur Brisbane, with his salary of
seventy-five thousand a year, is an office-boy compared with this regal
woman, who gave fifty thousand dollars a year for good roads.
* * * * *
The valuable truths and distinguishing features of Christian Science are
not to be found in Mrs. Eddy's books, but in Mrs. Eddy's life. She was a
much bigger woman than she was a writer. Emerson says that every great
institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. Every great
business enterprise has a soul--one man's spirit animates, pervades and
tints the whole. You can go into any hotel or store, and behold! the
nature or character of the owner or manager is everywhere proclaimed.
You do not have to see the man, and the bigger the institution the less
need is there for the man to show himself. His work proclaims him, just
as a farmer's livestock all moo, whinny and squeal his virtues--or lack
of them. As a boy of ten I learned to know all of our neighbors by their
horses. The horses of a drunkard, blanketless, hungry, shivering,
outside of the village tavern, do they not proclaim the poor, despised
owner within?
You can walk through the passenger-coaches of a train made up at a
terminal and read the character unmistakably of the general
passenger-agent. The soul of John Wesley ran through Methodism and made
it what it was. The Lutheranism of Luther yet lives; Calvinism the same;
and the soul of John Knox still goes marching on, carrying the
Presbyterian banner.
Every religion partakes of the nature of its founder, until this
religion is mixed with that of another and its character lost, as
happened to the religion of Christ when it was launched by Paul and was
finally fused with Paganism by the Roman Emperor, Constantine.
Christian Science is as yet the lengthened shadow of Mary Baker Eddy.
Her own immediate, personal pupils are still teaching, and her life and
characteristics impressed upon them are given out to each and all. Every
phase of life is solved by answering the question, "What would Mrs. Eddy
do?" Mrs. Eddy's ideas about dress, housekeeping, business, food,
health, the management of servants, the care of children--all are
blended into a composite, and this composite is the Christian Scientist
as we see and know him.
The fact that Mrs. Eddy was methodical, industrious, economical,
persevering, courageous, hopeful, helpful, neat in her attire and
smiling, makes all Christian Scientists exactly so. She did not play
cards and indulge in the manifold silliness of so-called good society,
and neither do they. Indeed, that one thing which has been referred to
as "the plaster-of-Paris smile," the one feature in Christian Science to
which many good people object, is the direct legacy of Mrs. Eddy to her
pupils. "Science and Health" says nothing about it; no edict has been
put forth recommending it; but all good Christian Scientists take it
on--the smile that refuses to vacate the premises. And to some it is
certainly very becoming. Mrs. Eddy's self-reliant, silent, smiling
personality has given the key to conduct for the hundreds of thousands
of people who love her and revere her memory.
Mrs. Eddy was a rare good listener. She did not argue. Once upon a time,
indeed, she was guilty of waving the red flag of wordy warfare; but the
passing of the years brought her wisdom, and then her only answer to
impatience was the quiet smile. As for eating, her table always had
enough, but it stopped short of surfeit; the service was dainty, and all
these things are now seen in the homes of Christian Scientists. Always
in the home of a good Christian Scientist the bathroom is as complete as
the library, and both are models of good housekeeping, seemingly always
in order for the inspection committee.
Mrs. Eddy did not say much about hot water, soap and clean towels; but
the idea, regardless of the non-existence of matter, is fixed in the
consciousness of every Christian Scientist that absolute bodily
cleanliness, fresh linen and fresh air are not only next to godliness,
but elements of it. All of which you could never work out of "Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in a lifetime of study, any more
than you could mine and smelt the Westminster Catechism out of the
Bible.
The vital truths of right living come to us as a precious heritage from
the character of this great woman. She, herself, perhaps may not have
known this; but before she wrote her book and formulated her religion,
she lived her life. Her book was an endeavor to explain her life, and
as her life grew better, stronger and more refined, she changed her
book. Her book reacted on her life, and the person who got the most good
out of "Science and Health" was Mary Baker Eddy herself.
"Science and Health" is mystical and beautifully human. The author's oar
often fails to catch the water. For instance, she tries to show that
animal magnetism, spiritualism, mental science, theosophy, agnosticism,
pantheism and infidelity are all bad things and opposed to the science
of "true being."
This statement presupposes that animal magnetism, infidelity, theosophy
and agnosticism are specific entities or things, whereas they are only
labels that are clapped quite indiscriminately on empty casks or full
ones; and the contents of the casks may be sea-water or wine, and are
really unknown to both mortal and divine mind, whatever these things
are. Theosophists like Annie Besant, Spiritualists like Alfred Russel
Wallace, Agnostics like Huxley and Ingersoll, are very noble and
beautiful people. They are good neighbors and useful citizens.
"Science and Health" is an attempt to catch and hold in words the
secrets of an active, honest, healthful, seeking, restless, earnest
life, and as such is more or less of a failure.
Our actions are right, but our reasons seldom are.
Christian Science as a plan of life, embodying the great yet simple
virtues, is beautiful. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"
does not explain the Scriptures. The book, as an attempt to explain and
crystallize truth, is a failure. It ranks with that great mass of
literature, written and copied at such vast pains and expense, bearing
the high-sounding title, "Writings of the Saints."
* * * * *
All publishers are familiar with inspired manuscripts. Such work always
has one thing in common--unintelligibility. Good literature is lucid to
the average mind. In fact, that is its distinguishing feature. We
understand what the man means. No able writer uses the same word over
and over with varying sense. Alfred Henry Lewis and William Marion Reedy
use the mortal mind, and their work is understandable. You can sit in
judgment on their conclusions and weigh, sift and decide for yourself.
They make an appeal to your intellect.
But you can not sit in judgment on "Science and Health," because its
language is not the language we use in our common, every-day intercourse
with one another. It speaks of Christ as a person, a principle, a
spirit, a motive; as "Truth"; as one who was born of one parent or no
parents; who lived, died, or never lived, never was born, and can not
die.
Metaphysics is an attempt to explain a thing and thereby evade the
trouble of understanding it. You throw the burden of proof on the other
fellow--and make him believe he does not comprehend because he is too
stupid. This is not fair!
Language is simply an agreement between people that certain vocal
sounds, or written symbols, shall stand for certain ideas, thoughts or
things. Inspired writers string intelligent words together in an
unintelligent manner, and thereby give the reader an opportunity to
read anything into them that his preconceived thoughts may dictate.
Metaphysical gibberish is a rudimentary survival of the practise of
reading to the people in a dead language. The doctors continue the plan
by writing prescriptions in Latin.
I once worked in a studio where the boys scraped their palette-knives on
a convenient board. One day we took the board out and had it framed
under glass, with a double, deep-shadow box. We gave it the best place
in the studio and labeled it, "A Sunset at Sea--an Impression in
Monochrome."
The picture attracted much attention and great admiration from certain
symbolists. It also created so much controversy that we were obliged to
take it down in the interests of amity.
To assume that God inspired the Scriptures, and did the work so ill
that, after more than two thousand years, it was necessary to inspire
another person to make a "Key" to them, is hardly worthy of our serious
attention. If God, being all-wise, all-powerful and all-loving, turns
author, why does He produce work so muddy that it requires a "Key"?
Individuals may use a code that requires a "Key," because they wish to
keep their matter secret from others. There may be for them a penalty on
truth, but why Deity should write in a secret language, and then wait
two thousand years before making the matter plain, and then to one
single woman in Boston, is incomprehensible. What the world wants now
is a Key to "Science and Health." In reading a book, the question that
interests us is not, "Is it inspired?" but, "Is it true?"
Mrs. Eddy's ranks are recruited almost entirely from Orthodox
Christianity. On page six hundred eight of "Science and Health," pocket
edition of Nineteen Hundred Six, a lawyer gives testimony to the good he
has gotten from Christian Science, and explains that he has long been a
member of the Episcopal Church. He is delighted to know that he has not
had to relinquish any of his old faith, but has simply kept the old and
added to it the new.
This explains, in great degree, the popularity of Christian Science.
People cling to the religious superstitions into which they were born.
Mrs. Eddy's recruits were not from theosophy, spiritualism, agnosticism,
unitarianism, universalism or infidelity. You can't give a freethinker a
book with a statement of what he must find in it.
He has acquired the habit of thinking for himself.
Mrs. Eddy had no faith in Darwin, Spencer or Haeckel. She quoted Moses,
Jesus and Paul to disprove the evolutionists, sat back and smiled
content, innocently unaware that citations from Scriptures are in no
sense proof to free minds. All of the Bible she wished to waive, she
did. The cruelty and bestiality of Jehovah were nothing to her. Her
"Key" does not unlock the secrets of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, nor
does it shed light on the doctrines of eternal punishment, the vicarious
atonement, or the efficacy of baptism as a saving ordinance.
Explanations about mortal mind, divine mind and human mind, citing
specific errors of the human mind, with a calm codicil to the effect
that the human mind has no existence, are not what you might call
illuminating literature. The stuff is simply "inspired." Mrs. Eddy was
very wise in not allowing her "readers" or followers to sermonize or
explain her writings. These writings are simply to be read. And so the
hearers sit steeped in mist and wrapped in placidity, returning to their
work rested and refreshed, without being influenced in any way, save by
the soothing calm of forceful fog and mental vacuity.
The rest and relief from all thought is good. The related experiences of
Christian Scientists are the things that convince and carry weight, not
"Science and Health." "Science and Health" was made to sell. It was not
given to you to be understood: it was to be bought and believed. If you
doubt any portion of it, at once you are told that this is the work of
your mortal mind, which is filled with error. Good Christian Scientists
do not try to understand "Science and Health"--they just accept and
believe it. "It is inspired," they say, "so it must be true--you will
know when you are worthy to know."
And so we see our old friend Intellectual Tyranny come back in another
form, not with cowl and cape, but tricked out with feminine finery and
jewelry and gems that lure and dazzle. There is one thing quite as
valuable as health, and that is intellectual integrity. To say, "Oh,
'Science and Health' is certainly inspired--just see how old Mrs.
Johnson was cured of the rheumatism!" is not reasoning.
And it has given the scoffers excuse for calling it woman's logic. Such
reasoning is on the plane of, "Why, Jesus must have been the only
begotten son of God, born of a virgin, for if you don't believe it, just
see the hospitals, orphan asylums and homes for the aged that
Christianity has built!" Mrs. Johnson was surely cured of the rheumatism
all right, but that does not prove that Mrs. Eddy is correct in her
claim that Eve was made from Adam's rib; that agamogenesis is a fact in
Nature; that to till the soil will not always be necessary; that human
life in these bodies will have no end; and that an absent person can
poison your health and happiness through malicious animal magnetism; or
that a good person can give you absent treatment and cure your
indigestion.
I agree with Mrs. Eddy as to the necessity of eliminating a medical
fetish, but I disagree with her about religiously preserving a
theological one. I have read "Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures" for twenty years, and I have also read the Scriptures for a
much longer period. Also, I have lived in the same house for many
months with very intelligent Christian Scientists.
And after mature consideration I regard both the Scriptures and "Science
and Health" as largely made up of the errors of mortal mind. My
intuitions are just as valuable to me as Mrs. Eddy's were to her.
My conscience is quite as sacred to me as hers was to her. And in being
an agnostic I object to being classed as blind, stubborn, wilful,
malicious and degenerate.
We should honor our Creator by cleaving to the things that seem to us to
be true, and not abandon the rudder of our minds to any man or any
woman, be they living or dead. Let us not be dishonest with ourselves,
even to rid us of our physical diseases. As for health, I have all of it
that Christian Science ever gave or can give. I have no "testimony" of
healing to relate, for I have never been sick an hour. And I think I
know how I have kept well. I make no secret of it. It is all very
simple--nothing miraculous.
My knowledge of how to keep well is not inspired knowledge, save as all
men are inspired who study and know the Laws of Nature. Health, after
all, is largely a matter of habit.
* * * * *
Back of the reading-desks, in the "Mother Church," at Boston, are
quotations from Paul and Mrs. Eddy, side by side. But the quotation from
Paul, which is behind the desk of the woman reader, is not this: "Let
women keep silence in the churches."
Mrs. Eddy believed the Scriptures are all true, word for word. Yet when
she quoted Paul she picked the thing she wanted and avoided all that did
not apply to her case. Personally, I like the plan. I do it myself. But
I do not believe the Scriptures are inspired by an all-wise Deity. So
far as I know, all books were written by men, and very often by faulty,
human men at that. Mrs. Eddy's "Key" does not unlock anything; and she
did not try to unlock any passages except the passages that seemingly
had a bearing on her belief. That is, Mrs. Eddy believed things first,
and then skirmished for proof. This is a very old plan. Says
Shakespeare: "In religion what damned error but some somber brow will
bless it and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness thereof with
fair ornament." Let no one read "Science and Health" in the hope of
finding in it simple and sensible statements concerning life and its
duties. They are not there.
I append a few quotations, and in mentioning the page I refer to the
pocket or "Oxford" edition of Nineteen Hundred Six. On page one hundred
eighty-three of "Science and Health" I find, "The Scriptures inform us
that sin, or error, first caused the condemnation of man to till the
ground, and indicate that obedience to God will remove this necessity."
Mrs. Eddy evidently believed that work is a punishment, and that the day
will come when God will remove the necessity of farming and making
garden. Can a sane person reply to such lack of logic?
On page five hundred forty-seven is this: "If one of the statements in
this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from its
system and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of
healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct
interpretation of Scripture."
This is evidently inspired by Paul's quibble, "If the dead rise not from
the grave, then is our religion vain." Lincoln once referred to this
kind of reasoning by saying, "I object to the assumption that my
ambition is to have my son marry a negress, simply because I am
struggling for emancipation." Mrs. Eddy may heal you, but that does not
prove that her interpretation of Scripture is true. Because this
happens, that does not necessarily follow. Neither, because a thing
precedes a thing or goes with a thing, is the thing the cause of the
thing. On page five hundred fifty-three is this: "Adam was created
before Eve. Herein it is seen that the maternal egg never brought forth
Adam. Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a fetal ovum."
In reading things like this in "Science and Health," let us not be too
severe on Mrs. Eddy, but just bear in mind that such silly superstitions
and barbaric folklore are yet officially believed by all orthodox
clergymen and members of orthodox churches. You can accept a belief in
Adam's fall and the vicarious atonement and still make money and have
good health.
Page one hundred two: "The mild forms of animal magnetism are
disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. The
looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every
hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are its present
methods that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very
apathy on this subject which the criminal desires."
This passage reveals the one actually dangerous thing in Christian
Science--the fallacy that one mind can weave a web that will work the
undoing of another. This is the basis of a belief in witchcraft, and
justifies the hangings at Salem. On page one hundred three I find this:
"As used in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the
specific term for error, or mortal mind."
"It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and both evil and good;
that evil is as real as goodness, and more powerful. This belief has not
one quality of truth or good. It is either ignorant or malicious. The
malicious form of animal magnetism ultimates in moral idiocy. The
truths of immortal mind sustain man; and they annihilate the fables and
mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy pretensions, like silly moths, singe
their own wings and fall into dust. In reality there is no mortal mind,
and consequently no transference of mortal thought and will-power." Page
five hundred two: "Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the
history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This
deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves the spiritual actuality of
man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. When the crude forms of
human thought take on higher symbols and significations, the
scientifically Christian views of the universe will appear, illuminating
time with the glory of eternity."