{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_3187/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_3187","id":"gutenberg_3187","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3187","summary":null,"tags":["Category: American Literature","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Humour","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian Science -- Controversial literature","Eddy, Mary Baker, 1821-1910"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTIAN SCIENCE\n\nby Mark Twain\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nBook I of this volume occupies a quarter or a third of the volume,\nand consists of matter written about four years ago, but not hitherto\npublished in book form. It contained errors of judgment and of fact. I\nhave now corrected these to the best of my ability and later knowledge.\n\n\nBook II was written at the beginning of 1903, and has not until\nnow appeared in any form. In it my purpose has been to present a\ncharacter-portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own acts and words\nsolely, not from hearsay and rumor; and to explain the nature and scope\nof her Monarchy, as revealed in the Laws by which she governs it, and\nwhich she wrote herself.\n\nMARK TWAIN\n\nNEW YORK. January, 1907.\n\n\n\n\n\nBOOK I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE\n\n     \u201cIt is the first time since the dawn-days of Creation that\n     a Voice has gone crashing through space with such\n     placid and complacent confidence and command.\u201d\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nVIENNA 1899.\n\nThis last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the\nAppetite-Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and\nbroke some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was\nfound by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the\nnearest habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed\nfarm-houses, with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning\nlittle porch under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored\nflowers and cats; on the ground floor a large and light sitting-room,\nseparated from the milch-cattle apartment by a partition; and in the\nfront yard rose stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the\nmanure-pile. That sentence is Germanic, and shows that I am acquiring\nthat sort of mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables\na man to travel all day in one sentence without changing cars.\n\nThere was a village a mile away, and a horse doctor lived there, but\nthere was no surgeon. It seemed a bad outlook; mine was distinctly\na surgery case. Then it was remembered that a lady from Boston was\nsummering in that village, and she was a Christian Science doctor and\ncould cure anything. So she was sent for. It was night by this time, and\nshe could not conveniently come, but sent word that it was no matter,\nthere was no hurry, she would give me \u201cabsent treatment\u201d now, and come\nin the morning; meantime she begged me to make myself tranquil and\ncomfortable and remember that there was nothing the matter with me. I\nthought there must be some mistake.\n\n\u201cDid you tell her I walked off a cliff seventy-five feet high?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd struck a boulder at the bottom and bounced?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd struck another one and bounced again?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd struck another one and bounced yet again?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd broke the boulders?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat accounts for it; she is thinking of the boulders. Why didn't you\ntell her I got hurt, too?\u201d\n\n\u201cI did. I told her what you told me to tell her: that you were now\nbut an incoherent series of compound fractures extending from your\nscalp-lock to your heels, and that the comminuted projections caused you\nto look like a hat-rack.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd it was after this that she wished me to remember that there was\nnothing the matter with me?\u201d\n\n\u201cThose were her words.\u201d\n\n\u201cI do not understand it. I believe she has not diagnosed the case with\nsufficient care. Did she look like a person who was theorizing, or did\nshe look like one who has fallen off precipices herself and brings to\nthe aid of abstract science the confirmations of personal experience?\u201d\n\n\u201cBitte?\u201d\n\nIt was too large a contract for the Stubenmadchen's vocabulary; she\ncouldn't call the hand. I allowed the subject to rest there, and asked\nfor something to eat and smoke, and something hot to drink, and a basket\nto pile my legs in; but I could not have any of these things.\n\n\u201cWhy?\u201d\n\n\u201cShe said you would need nothing at all.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut I am hungry and thirsty, and in desperate pain.\u201d\n\n\u201cShe said you would have these delusions, but must pay no attention\nto them. She wants you to particularly remember that there are no such\nthings as hunger and thirst and pain.''\n\n\u201cShe does does she?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is what she said.\u201d\n\n\u201cDoes she seem to be in full and functionable possession of her\nintellectual plant, such as it is?\u201d\n\n\u201cBitte?\u201d\n\n\u201cDo they let her run at large, or do they tie her up?\u201d\n\n\u201cTie her up?\u201d\n\n\u201cThere, good-night, run along, you are a good girl, but your mental\nGeschirr is not arranged for light and airy conversation. Leave me to my\ndelusions.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nIt was a night of anguish, of course--at least, I supposed it was, for\nit had all the symptoms of it--but it passed at last, and the Christian\nScientist came, and I was glad She was middle-aged, and large and bony,\nand erect, and had an austere face and a resolute jaw and a Roman beak\nand was a widow in the third degree, and her name was Fuller. I was\neager to get to business and find relief, but she was distressingly\ndeliberate. She unpinned and unhooked and uncoupled her upholsteries one\nby one, abolished the wrinkles with a flirt of her hand, and hung the\narticles up; peeled off her gloves and disposed of them, got a book out\nof her hand-bag, then drew a chair to the bedside, descended into it\nwithout hurry, and I hung out my tongue. She said, with pity but without\npassion:\n\n\u201cReturn it to its receptacle. We deal with the mind only, not with its\ndumb servants.\u201d\n\nI could not offer my pulse, because the connection was broken; but she\ndetected the apology before I could word it, and indicated by a negative\ntilt of her head that the pulse was another dumb servant that she had no\nuse for. Then I thought I would tell her my symptoms and how I felt, so\nthat she would understand the case; but that was another inconsequence,\nshe did not need to know those things; moreover, my remark about how I\nfelt was an abuse of language, a misapplication of terms.\n\n\u201cOne does not feel,\u201d she explained; \u201cthere is no such thing as\nfeeling: therefore, to speak of a non-existent thing as existent is a\ncontradiction. Matter has no existence; nothing exists but mind; the\nmind cannot feel pain, it can only imagine it.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut if it hurts, just the same--\u201d\n\n\u201cIt doesn't. A thing which is unreal cannot exercise the functions of\nreality. Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot hurt.\u201d\n\nIn making a sweeping gesture to indicate the act of shooing the illusion\nof pain out of the mind, she raked her hand on a pin in her dress, said\n\u201cOuch!\u201d and went tranquilly on with her talk. \u201cYou should never allow\nyourself to speak of how you feel, nor permit others to ask you how\nyou are feeling; you should never concede that you are ill, nor permit\nothers to talk about disease or pain or death or similar nonexistences\nin your presence. Such talk only encourages the mind to continue its\nempty imaginings.\u201d Just at that point the Stuben-madchen trod on the\ncat's tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of cat-profanity. I asked, with\ncaution:\n\n\u201cIs a cat's opinion about pain valuable?\u201d\n\n\u201cA cat has no opinion; opinions proceed from mind only; the lower\nanimals, being eternally perishable, have not been granted mind; without\nmind, opinion is impossible.\u201d\n\n\u201cShe merely imagined she felt a pain--the cat?\u201d\n\n\u201cShe cannot imagine a pain, for imagining is an effect of mind; without\nmind, there is no imagination. A cat has no imagination.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen she had a real pain?\u201d\n\n\u201cI have already told you there is no such thing as real pain.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is strange and interesting. I do wonder what was the matter with\nthe cat. Because, there being no such thing as a real pain, and she not\nbeing able to imagine an imaginary one, it would seem that God in His\npity has compensated the cat with some kind of a mysterious emotion\nusable when her tail is trodden on which, for the moment, joins cat and\nChristian in one common brotherhood of--\u201d\n\nShe broke in with an irritated--\n\n\u201cPeace! The cat feels nothing, the Christian feels nothing. Your empty\nand foolish imaginings are profanation and blasphemy, and can do you an\ninjury. It is wiser and better and holier to recognize and confess that\nthere is no such thing as disease or pain or death.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am full of imaginary tortures,\u201d I said, \u201cbut I do not think I could\nbe any more uncomfortable if they were real ones. What must I do to get\nrid of them?\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is no occasion to get rid of them since they do not exist. They\nare illusions propagated by matter, and matter has no existence; there\nis no such thing as matter.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt sounds right and clear, but yet it seems in a degree elusive; it\nseems to slip through, just when you think you are getting a grip on\nit.\u201d\n\n\u201cExplain.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, for instance: if there is no such thing as matter, how can matter\npropagate things?\u201d\n\nIn her compassion she almost smiled. She would have smiled if there were\nany such thing as a smile.\n\n\u201cIt is quite simple,\u201d she said; \u201cthe fundamental propositions of\nChristian Science explain it, and they are summarized in the four\nfollowing self-evident propositions: 1. God is All in all. 2. God is\ngood. Good is Mind 3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter 4. Life,\nGod, omnipotent Good, deny death, evil, sin, disease.\n\n\u201cThere--now you see.\u201d\n\nIt seemed nebulous; it did not seem to say anything about the difficulty\nin hand--how non-existent matter can propagate illusions I said, with\nsome hesitancy:\n\n\u201cDoes--does it explain?\u201d\n\n\u201cDoesn't it? Even if read backward it will do it.\u201d\n\nWith a budding hope, I asked her to do it backwards.\n\n\u201cVery well. Disease sin evil death deny Good omnipotent God life matter\nis nothing all being Spirit God Mind is Good good is God all in All is\nGod. There do you understand now?\n\n\u201cIt--it--well, it is plainer than it was before; still--\u201d\n\n\u201cWell?\u201d\n\n\u201cCould you try it some more ways?\u201d\n\n\u201cAs many as you like; it always means the same. Interchanged in any way\nyou please it cannot be made to mean anything different from what it\nmeans when put in any other way. Because it is perfect. You can jumble\nit all up, and it makes no difference: it always comes out the way it\nwas before. It was a marvelous mind that produced it. As a mental tour\nde force it is without a mate, it defies alike the simple, the concrete,\nand the occult.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt seems to be a corker.\u201d\n\nI blushed for the word, but it was out before I could stop it.\n\n\u201cA what?\u201d\n\n\u201cA--wonderful structure--combination, so to speak, of profound\nthoughts--unthinkable ones--um--\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is true. Read backward, or forward, or perpendicularly, or at any\ngiven angle, these four propositions will always be found to agree in\nstatement and proof.\u201d\n\n\u201cAh--proof. Now we are coming at it. The statements agree; they agree\nwith--with--anyway, they agree; I noticed that; but what is it they\nprove I mean, in particular?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, nothing could be clearer. They prove:\n\n\u201c1. GOD--Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind. Do you get\nthat?\u201d\n\n\u201cI--well, I seem to. Go on, please.\u201d\n\n\u201c2. MAN--God's universal idea, individual, perfect, eternal. Is it\nclear?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt--I think so. Continue.\u201d\n\n\u201c3. IDEA--An image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding. There\nit is--the whole sublime Arcana of Christian Science in a nutshell. Do\nyou find a weak place in it anywhere?\u201d\n\n\u201cWell--no; it seems strong.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well There is more. Those three constitute the Scientific\nDefinition of Immortal Mind. Next, we have the Scientific Definition\nof Mortal Mind. Thus. FIRST DEGREE: Depravity I. Physical-Passions and\nappetites, fear, depraved will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge,\nsin, disease, death.\u201d\n\n\u201cPhantasms, madam--unrealities, as I understand it.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery one. SECOND DEGREE: Evil Disappearing. I. Moral-Honesty,\naffection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. Is it clear?\u201d\n\n\u201cCrystal.\u201d\n\n\u201cTHIRD DEGREE: Spiritual Salvation. I. Spiritual-Faith, wisdom, power,\npurity, understanding, health, love. You see how searchingly and\nco-ordinately interdependent and anthropomorphous it all is. In this\nThird Degree, as we know by the revelations of Christian Science, mortal\nmind disappears.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot earlier?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, not until the teaching and preparation for the Third Degree are\ncompleted.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is not until then that one is enabled to take hold of Christian\nScience effectively, and with the right sense of sympathy and kinship,\nas I understand you. That is to say, it could not succeed during the\nprocesses of the Second Degree, because there would still be remains\nof mind left; and therefore--but I interrupted you. You were about\nto further explain the good results proceeding from the erosions and\ndisintegrations effected by the Third Degree. It is very interesting; go\non, please.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, as I was saying, in this Third Degree mortal mind disappears.\nScience so reverses the evidence before the corporeal human senses as\nto make this scriptural testimony true in our hearts, 'the last shall\nbe first and the first shall be last,' that God and His idea may be to\nus--what divinity really is, and must of necessity be all-inclusive.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is beautiful. And with what exhaustive exactness your choice and\narrangement of words confirm and establish what you have claimed for\nthe powers and functions of the Third Degree. The Second could probably\nproduce only temporary absence of mind; it is reserved to the Third to\nmake it permanent. A sentence framed under the auspices of the\nSecond could have a kind of meaning--a sort of deceptive semblance of\nit--whereas it is only under the magic of the Third that that defect\nwould disappear. Also, without doubt, it is the Third Degree that\ncontributes another remarkable specialty to Christian Science--viz.,\nease and flow and lavishness of words, and rhythm and swing and\nsmoothness. There must be a special reason for this?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes--God--all, all--God, good God, non-Matter, Matteration, Spirit,\nBones, Truth.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat explains it.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is nothing in Christian Science that is not explicable; for God\nis one, Time is one, Individuality is one, and may be one of a series,\none of many, as an individual man, individual horse; whereas God is one,\nnot one of a series, but one alone and without an equal.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese are noble thoughts. They make one burn to know more. How does\nChristian Science explain the spiritual relation of systematic duality\nto incidental deflection?\u201d\n\n\u201cChristian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and body--as\nastronomy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar\nsystem--and makes body tributary to the Mind. As it is the earth which\nis in motion, While the sun is at rest, though in viewing the sun rise\none finds it impossible to believe the sun not to be really rising, so\nthe body is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems\notherwise to finite sense; but we shall never understand this while we\nadmit that soul is in body, or mind in matter, and that man is included\nin non-intelligence. Soul is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man\ncoexists with and reflects Soul, for the All-in-all is the Altogether,\nand the Altogether embraces the All-one, Soul-Mind, Mind-Soul, Love,\nSpirit, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and without an equal.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is the origin of Christian Science? Is it a gift of God, or did it\njust happen?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn a sense, it is a gift of God. That is to say, its powers are from\nHim, but the credit of the discovery of the powers and what they are for\nis due to an American lady.\u201d\n\n\u201cIndeed? When did this occur?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn 1866. That is the immortal date when pain and disease and death\ndisappeared from the earth to return no more forever. That is, the\nfancies for which those terms stand disappeared. The things themselves\nhad never existed; therefore, as soon as it was perceived that there\nwere no such things, they were easily banished. The history and nature\nof the great discovery are set down in the book here, and--\u201d\n\n\u201cDid the lady write the book?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, she wrote it all, herself. The title is Science and Health, with\nKey to the Scriptures--for she explains the Scriptures; they were not\nunderstood before. Not even by the twelve Disciples. She begins thus--I\nwill read it to you.\u201d\n\nBut she had forgotten to bring her glasses.\n\n\u201cWell, it is no matter,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember the words--indeed, all\nChristian Scientists know the book by heart; it is necessary in our\npractice. We should otherwise make mistakes and do harm. She begins\nthus: 'In the year 1866 I discovered the Science of Metaphysical\nHealing, and named it Christian Science.' And She says quite\nbeautifully, I think--'Through Christian Science, religion and medicine\nare inspired with a diviner nature and essence, fresh pinions are\ngiven to faith and understanding, and thoughts acquaint themselves\nintelligently with God.' Her very words.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is elegant. And it is a fine thought, too--marrying religion to\nmedicine, instead of medicine to the undertaker in the old way; for\nreligion and medicine properly belong together, they being the basis of\nall spiritual and physical health. What kind of medicine do you give for\nthe ordinary diseases, such as--\u201d\n\n\u201cWe never give medicine in any circumstances whatever! We--\u201d\n\n\u201cBut, madam, it says--\u201d\n\n\u201cI don't care what it says, and I don't wish to talk about it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am sorry if I have offended, but you see the mention seemed in some\nway inconsistent, and--\u201d\n\n\u201cThere are no inconsistencies in Christian Science. The thing is\nimpossible, for the Science is absolute. It cannot be otherwise, since\nit proceeds directly from the All-in-all and the Everything-in-Which,\nalso Soul, Bones, Truth, one of a series, alone and without equal. It is\nMathematics purified from material dross and made spiritual.\u201d\n\n\u201cI can see that, but--\u201d\n\n\u201cIt rests upon the immovable basis of an Apodictical Principle.\u201d\n\nThe word flattened itself against my mind in trying to get in, and\ndisordered me a little, and before I could inquire into its pertinency,\nshe was already throwing the needed light:\n\n\u201cThis Apodictical Principle is the absolute Principle of Scientific\nMind-healing, the sovereign Omnipotence which delivers the children of\nmen from pain, disease, decay, and every ill that flesh is heir to.\u201d\n\n\u201cSurely not every ill, every decay?\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery one; there are no exceptions; there is no such thing as decay--it\nis an unreality, it has no existence.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut without your glasses your failing eyesight does not permit you\nto--\u201d\n\n\u201cMy eyesight cannot fail; nothing can fail; the Mind is master, and the\nMind permits no retrogression.\u201d\n\nShe was under the inspiration of the Third Degree, therefore there could\nbe no profit in continuing this part of the subject. I shifted to other\nground and inquired further concerning the Discoverer of the Science.\n\n\u201cDid the discovery come suddenly, like Klondike, or after long study and\ncalculation, like America?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe comparisons are not respectful, since they refer to\ntrivialities--but let it pass. I will answer in the Discoverer's own\nwords: 'God had been graciously fitting me, during many years, for the\nreception of a final revelation of the absolute Principle of Scientific\nMind-healing.'\u201d\n\n\u201cMany years. How many?\u201d\n\n\u201cEighteen centuries!\u201d\n\n\u201cAll--God, God--good, good--God, Truth, Bones, Liver, one of a series,\nalone and without equal--it is amazing!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou may well say it, sir. Yet it is but the truth This American lady,\nour revered and sacred Founder, is distinctly referred to, and her\ncoming prophesied, in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; she could\nnot have been more plainly indicated by St. John without actually\nmentioning her name.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow strange, how wonderful!\u201d\n\n\u201cI will quote her own words, from her Key to the Scriptures: 'The\ntwelfth chapter of the Apocalypse has a special suggestiveness in\nconnection with this nineteenth century.' There--do you note that?\nThink--note it well.\u201d\n\n\n\u201cBut--what does it mean?\u201d\n\n\u201cListen, and you will know. I quote her inspired words again: 'In the\nopening of the Sixth Seal, typical of six thousand years since Adam,\nthere is one distinctive feature which has special reference to the\npresent age. Thus:\n\n\u201c'Revelation xii. I. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven--a\nwoman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her\nhead a crown of twelve stars.'\n\n\u201cThat is our Head, our Chief, our Discoverer of Christian\nScience--nothing can be plainer, nothing surer. And note this:\n\n\u201c'Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she\nhad a place prepared of God.'\n\n\u201cThat is Boston. I recognize it, madam. These are sublime things, and\nimpressive; I never understood these passages before; please go on with\nthe--with the--proofs.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well. Listen:\n\n\u201c'And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a\ncloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the\nsun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he held in his hand a little\nbook.'\n\n\u201cA little book, merely a little book--could words be modester? Yet how\nstupendous its importance! Do you know what book that was?\u201d\n\n\u201cWas it--\u201d\n\n\u201cI hold it in my hand--Christian Science!\u201d\n\n\u201cLove, Livers, Lights, Bones, Truth, Kidneys, one of a series, alone and\nwithout equal--it is beyond imagination for wonder!\u201d\n\n\u201cHear our Founder's eloquent words: 'Then will a voice from harmony cry,\n\u201cGo and take the little book: take it and eat it up, and it shall make\nthy belly bitter; but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.\u201d\n Mortal, obey the heavenly evangel. Take up Divine Science. Read it from\nbeginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be, indeed, sweet at its\nfirst taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find\nits digestion bitter.' You now know the history of our dear and holy\nScience, sir, and that its origin is not of this earth, but only its\ndiscovery. I will leave the book with you and will go, now; but give\nyourself no uneasiness--I will give you absent treatment from now till I\ngo to bed.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nUnder the powerful influence of the near treatment and the absent\ntreatment together, my bones were gradually retreating inward and\ndisappearing from view. The good work took a brisk start, now, and went\non swiftly. My body was diligently straining and stretching, this way\nand that, to accommodate the processes of restoration, and every minute\nor two I heard a dull click inside and knew that the two ends of\na fracture had been successfully joined. This muffled clicking and\ngritting and grinding and rasping continued during the next three\nhours, and then stopped--the connections had all been made. All except\ndislocations; there were only seven of these: hips, shoulders, knees,\nneck; so that was soon over; one after another they slipped into their\nsockets with a sound like pulling a distant cork, and I jumped up as\ngood as new, as to framework, and sent for the horse-doctor.\n\nI was obliged to do this because I had a stomach-ache and a cold in\nthe head, and I was not willing to trust these things any longer in the\nhands of a woman whom I did not know, and whose ability to successfully\ntreat mere disease I had lost all confidence. My position was justified\nby the fact that the cold and the ache had been in her charge from the\nfirst, along with the fractures, but had experienced not a shade of\nrelief; and, indeed, the ache was even growing worse and worse, and more\nand more bitter, now, probably on account of the protracted abstention\nfrom food and drink.\n\nThe horse-doctor came, a pleasant man and full of hope and professional\ninterest in the case. In the matter of smell he was pretty aromatic--in\nfact, quite horsy--and I tried to arrange with him for absent treatment,\nbut it was not in his line, so, out of delicacy, I did not press it.\nHe looked at my teeth and examined my hock, and said my age and general\ncondition were favorable to energetic measures; therefore he would give\nme something to turn the stomach-ache into the botts and the cold in\nthe head into the blind staggers; then he should be on his own beat\nand would know what to do. He made up a bucket of bran-mash, and said\na dipperful of it every two hours, alternated with a drench with\nturpentine and axle-grease in it, would either knock my ailments out of\nme in twenty-four hours, or so interest me in other ways as to make me\nforget they were on the premises. He administered my first dose himself,\nthen took his leave, saying I was free to eat and drink anything I\npleased and in any quantity I liked. But I was not hungry any more, and\ndid not care for food.\n\nI took up the Christian Science book and read half of it, then took a\ndipperful of drench and read the other half. The resulting experiences\nwere full of interest and adventure. All through the rumblings and\ngrindings and quakings and effervescings accompanying the evolution of\nthe ache into the botts and the cold into the blind staggers I could\nnote the generous struggle for mastery going on between the mash and the\ndrench and the literature; and often I could tell which was ahead, and\ncould easily distinguish the literature from the others when the others\nwere separate, though not when they were mixed; for when a bran-mash\nand an eclectic drench are mixed together they look just like the\nApodictical Principle out on a lark, and no one can tell it from that.\nThe finish was reached at last, the evolutions were complete, and a\nfine success, but I think that this result could have been achieved with\nfewer materials. I believe the mash was necessary to the conversion of\nthe stomach-ache into the botts, but I think one could develop the blind\nstaggers out of the literature by itself; also, that blind staggers\nproduced in this way would be of a better quality and more lasting than\nany produced by the artificial processes of the horse-doctor.\n\nFor of all the strange and frantic and incomprehensible and\nuninterpretable books which the imagination of man has created, surely\nthis one is the prize sample. It is written with a limitless confidence\nand complacency, and with a dash and stir and earnestness which often\ncompel the effects of eloquence, even when the words do not seem to\nhave any traceable meaning. There are plenty of people who imagine they\nunderstand the book; I know this, for I have talked with them; but in\nall cases they were people who also imagined that there were no such\nthings as pain, sickness, and death, and no realities in the world;\nnothing actually existent but Mind. It seems to me to modify the value\nof their testimony. When these people talk about Christian Science\nthey do as Mrs. Fuller did: they do not use their own language, but the\nbook's; they pour out the book's showy incoherences, and leave you to\nfind out later that they were not originating, but merely quoting;\nthey seem to know the volume by heart, and to revere it as they would\na Bible--another Bible, perhaps I ought to say. Plainly the book was\nwritten under the mental desolations of the Third Degree, and I feel\nsure that none but the membership of that Degree can discover meanings\nin it. When you read it you seem to be listening to a lively and\naggressive and oracular speech delivered in an unknown tongue, a speech\nwhose spirit you get but not the particulars; or, to change the figure,\nyou seem to be listening to a vigorous instrument which is making a\nnoise which it thinks is a tune, but which, to persons not members of\nthe band, is only the martial tooting of a trombone, and merrily stirs\nthe soul through the noise, but does not convey a meaning.\n\nThe book's serenities of self-satisfaction do almost seem to smack of\na heavenly origin--they have no blood-kin in the earth. It is more than\nhuman to be so placidly certain about things, and so finely superior,\nand so airily content with one's performance. Without ever presenting\nanything which may rightfully be called by the strong name of Evidence,\nand sometimes without even mentioning a reason for a deduction at all,\nit thunders out the startling words, \u201cI have Proved\u201d so and so. It takes\nthe Pope and all the great guns of his Church in battery assembled to\nauthoritatively settle and establish the meaning of a sole and single\nunclarified passage of Scripture, and this at vast cost of time and\nstudy and reflection, but the author of this work is superior to all\nthat: she finds the whole Bible in an unclarified audition, and at small\nexpense of time and no expense of mental effort she clarifies it from\nlid to lid, reorganizes and improves the meanings, then authoritatively\nsettles and establishes them with formulas which you cannot tell from\n\u201cLet there be light!\u201d and \u201cHere you have it!\u201d It is the first time since\nthe dawn-days of Creation that a Voice has gone crashing through space\nwith such placid and complacent confidence and command.\n\n[January, 1903. The first reading of any book whose terminology is\nnew and strange is nearly sure to leave the reader in a bewildered and\nsarcastic state of mind. But now that, during the past two months,\nI have, by diligence gained a fair acquaintanceship with Science and\nHealth technicalities, I no longer find the bulk of that work hard to\nunderstand.--M. T.]\n\nP.S. The wisdom harvested from the foregoing thoughts has already done\nme a service and saved me a sorrow. Nearly a month ago there came to me\nfrom one of the universities a tract by Dr. Edward Anthony Spitzka on\nthe \u201cEncephalic Anatomy of the Races.\u201d I judged that my opinion was\ndesired by the university, and I was greatly pleased with this attention\nand wrote and said I would furnish it as soon as I could. That night\nI put my plodding and disheartening Christian Science mining aside and\ntook hold of the matter. I wrote an eager chapter, and was expecting to\nfinish my opinion the next day, but was called away for a week, and my\nmind was soon charged with other interests. It was not until to-day,\nafter the lapse of nearly a month, that I happened upon my Encephalic\nchapter again. Meantime, the new wisdom had come to me, and I read it\nwith shame. I recognized that I had entered upon that work in far from\nthe right temper--far from the respectful and judicial spirit which was\nits due of reverence. I had begun upon it with the following paragraph\nfor fuel:\n\n\u201cFISSURES OF THE PARIETAL AND OCCIPITAL LOBES (LATERAL SURFACE).--The\nPostcentral Fissural Complex--In this hemicerebrum, the postcentral and\nsubcentral are combined to form a continuous fissure, attaining a length\nof 8.5 cm. Dorsally, the fissure bifurcates, embracing the gyre\nindented by the caudal limb of the paracentral. The caudal limb of the\npostcentral is joined by a transparietal piece. In all, five additional\nrami spring from the combined fissure. A vadum separates it from the\nparietal; another from the central.\u201d\n\nIt humiliates me, now, to see how angry I got over that; and how\nscornful. I said that the style was disgraceful; that it was labored and\ntumultuous, and in places violent, that the treatment was involved and\nerratic, and almost, as a rule, bewildering; that to lack of simplicity\nwas added a lack of vocabulary; that there was quite too much feeling\nshown; that if I had a dog that would get so excited and incoherent over\na tranquil subject like Encephalic Anatomy I would not pay his tax; and\nat that point I got excited myself and spoke bitterly of these mongrel\ninsanities, and said a person might as well try to understand Science\nand Health.\n\n[I know, now, where the trouble was, and am glad of the interruption\nthat saved me from sending my verdict to the university. It makes me\ncold to think what those people might have thought of me.--M. T.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nNo one doubts--certainly not I--that the mind exercises a powerful\ninfluence over the body. From the beginning of time, the sorcerer, the\ninterpreter of dreams, the fortune-teller, the charlatan, the quack,\nthe wild medicine-man, the educated physician, the mesmerist, and the\nhypnotist have made use of the client's imagination to help them in\ntheir work. They have all recognized the potency and availability of\nthat force. Physicians cure many patients with a bread pill; they know\nthat where the disease is only a fancy, the patient's confidence in the\ndoctor will make the bread pill effective.\n\nFaith in the doctor. Perhaps that is the entire thing. It seems to look\nlike it. In old times the King cured the king's evil by the touch of the\nroyal hand. He frequently made extraordinary cures. Could his footman\nhave done it? No--not in his own clothes. Disguised as the King, could\nhe have done it? I think we may not doubt it. I think we may feel sure\nthat it was not the King's touch that made the cure in any instance,\nbut the patient's faith in the efficacy of a King's touch. Genuine and\nremarkable cures have been achieved through contact with the relics of a\nsaint. Is it not likely that any other bones would have done as well if\nthe substitution had been concealed from the patient? When I was a boy a\nfarmer's wife who lived five miles from our village had great fame as\na faith-doctor--that was what she called herself. Sufferers came to\nher from all around, and she laid her hand upon them and said, \u201cHave\nfaith--it is all that is necessary,\u201d and they went away well of their\nailments. She was not a religious woman, and pretended to no occult\npowers. She said that the patient's faith in her did the work. Several\ntimes I saw her make immediate cures of severe toothaches. My mother was\nthe patient. In Austria there is a peasant who drives a great trade in\nthis sort of industry, and has both the high and the low for patients.\nHe gets into prison every now and then for practising without a diploma,\nbut his business is as brisk as ever when he gets out, for his work\nis unquestionably successful and keeps his reputation high. In Bavaria\nthere is a man who performed so many great cures that he had to retire\nfrom his profession of stage-carpentering in order to meet the demand\nof his constantly increasing body of customers. He goes on from year\nto year doing his miracles, and has become very rich. He pretends to no\nreligious helps, no supernatural aids, but thinks there is something in\nhis make-up which inspires the confidence of his patients, and that it\nis this confidence which does the work, and not some mysterious power\nissuing from himself.\n\nWithin the last quarter of a century, in America, several sects of\ncurers have appeared under various names and have done notable things in\nthe way of healing ailments without the use of medicines. There are the\nMind Cure the Faith Cure, the Prayer Cure, the Mental Science Cure, and\nthe Christian-Science Cure; and apparently they all do their miracles\nwith the same old, powerful instrument--the patient's imagination.\nDiffering names, but no difference in the process. But they do not give\nthat instrument the credit; each sect claims that its way differs from\nthe ways of the others.\n\nThey all achieve some cures, there is no question about it; and the\nFaith Cure and the Prayer Cure probably do no harm when they do no good,\nsince they do not forbid the patient to help out the cure with medicines\nif he wants to; but the others bar medicines, and claim ability to cure\nevery conceivable human ailment through the application of their mental\nforces alone. There would seem to be an element of danger here. It has\nthe look of claiming too much, I think. Public confidence would probably\nbe increased if less were claimed.\n\nThe Christian Scientist was not able to cure my stomach-ache and my\ncold; but the horse-doctor did it. This convinces me that Christian\nScience claims too much. In my opinion it ought to let diseases alone\nand confine itself to surgery. There it would have everything its own\nway.\n\nThe horse-doctor charged me thirty kreutzers, and I paid him; in fact,\nI doubled it and gave him a shilling. Mrs. Fuller brought in an itemized\nbill for a crate of broken bones mended in two hundred and thirty-four\nplaces--one dollar per fracture.\n\n\u201cNothing exists but Mind?\u201d\n\n\u201cNothing,\u201d she answered. \u201cAll else is substanceless, all else is\nimaginary.\u201d\n\nI gave her an imaginary check, and now she is suing me for substantial\ndollars. It looks inconsistent.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nLet us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to\neach other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple\nmany things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties\nand obscurities now.\n\nThose of us who are not in the asylum, and not demonstrably due there,\nare nevertheless, no doubt, insane in one or two particulars. I think\nwe must admit this; but I think that we are otherwise healthy-minded.\nI think that when we all see one thing alike, it is evidence that, as\nregards that one thing, our minds are perfectly sound. Now there are\nreally several things which we do all see alike; things which we all\naccept, and about which we do not dispute. For instance, we who are\noutside of the asylum all agree that water seeks its level; that the\nsun gives light and heat; that fire consumes; that fog is damp; that six\ntimes six are thirty-six, that two from ten leaves eight; that eight\nand seven are fifteen. These are, perhaps, the only things we are agreed\nabout; but, although they are so few, they are of inestimable value,\nbecause they make an infallible standard of sanity. Whosoever accepts\nthem him we know to be substantially sane; sufficiently sane; in the\nworking essentials, sane. Whoever disputes a single one of them him we\nknow to be wholly insane, and qualified for the asylum.\n\nVery well, the man who disputes none of them we concede to be entitled\nto go at large. But that is concession enough. We cannot go any further\nthan that; for we know that in all matters of mere opinion that same man\nis insane--just as insane as we are; just as insane as Shakespeare was.\nWe know exactly where to put our finger upon his insanity: it is where\nhis opinion differs from ours.\n\nThat is a simple rule, and easy to remember. When I, a thoughtful\nand unblessed Presbyterian, examine the Koran, I know that beyond any\nquestion every Mohammedan is insane; not in all things, but in religious\nmatters. When a thoughtful and unblessed Mohammedan examines the\nWestminster Catechism, he knows that beyond any question I am\nspiritually insane. I cannot prove to him that he is insane, because\nyou never can prove anything to a lunatic--for that is a part of his\ninsanity and the evidence of it. He cannot prove to me that I am insane,\nfor my mind has the same defect that afflicts his. All Democrats are\ninsane, but not one of them knows it; none but the Republicans and\nMugwumps know it. All the Republicans are insane, but only the Democrats\nand Mugwumps can perceive it. The rule is perfect: in all matters of\nopinion our adversaries are insane. When I look around me, I am often\ntroubled to see how many people are mad. To mention only a few:\n\nThe Atheist, The Theosophists, The Infidel, The Swedenborgians, The\nAgnostic, The Shakers, The Baptist, The Millerites, The Methodist, The\nMormons, The Christian Scientist, The Laurence Oliphant Harrisites, The\nCatholic, and the 115 Christian sects, the Presbyterian excepted,\nThe Grand Lama's people, The Monarchists, The Imperialists, The 72\nMohammedan sects, The Democrats, The Republicans (but not the\nMugwumps), The Buddhist, The Blavatsky-Buddhist, The Mind-Curists, The\nFaith-Curists, The Nationalist, The Mental Scientists, The Confucian,\nThe Spiritualist, The Allopaths, The 2000 East Indian sects, The\nHomeopaths, The Electropaths, The Peculiar People, The--\n\nBut there's no end to the list; there are millions of them! And all\ninsane; each in his own way; insane as to his pet fad or opinion,\nbut otherwise sane and rational. This should move us to be charitable\ntowards one another's lunacies. I recognize that in his special belief\nthe Christian Scientist is insane, because he does not believe as I\ndo; but I hail him as my mate and fellow, because I am as insane as he\ninsane from his point of view, and his point of view is as authoritative\nas mine and worth as much. That is to say, worth a brass farthing. Upon\na great religious or political question, the opinion of the dullest head\nin the world is worth the same as the opinion of the brightest head in\nthe world--a brass farthing. How do we arrive at this? It is simple.\nThe affirmative opinion of a stupid man is neutralized by the negative\nopinion of his stupid neighbor no decision is reached; the affirmative\nopinion of the intellectual giant Gladstone is neutralized by the\nnegative opinion of the intellectual giant Newman--no decision is\nreached. Opinions that prove nothing are, of course, without value any\nbut a dead person knows that much. This obliges us to admit the truth\nof the unpalatable proposition just mentioned above--that, in disputed\nmatters political and religious, one man's opinion is worth no more than\nhis peer's, and hence it followers that no man's opinion possesses any\nreal value. It is a humbling thought, but there is no way to get around\nit: all opinions upon these great subjects are brass-farthing opinions.\n\nIt is a mere plain, simple fact--as clear and as certain as that eight\nand seven make fifteen. And by it we recognize that we are all insane,\nas concerns those matters. If we were sane, we should all see a\npolitical or religious doctrine alike; there would be no dispute: it\nwould be a case of eight and seven--just as it is in heaven, where all\nare sane and none insane. There there is but one religion, one belief;\nthe harmony is perfect; there is never a discordant note.\n\nUnder protection of these preliminaries, I suppose I may now repeat\nwithout offence that the Christian Scientist is insane. I mean him\nno discourtesy, and I am not charging--nor even imagining--that he\nis insaner than the rest of the human race. I think he is more\npicturesquely insane than some of us. At the same time, I am quite sure\nthat in one important and splendid particular he is much saner than is\nthe vast bulk of the race.\n\nWhy is he insane? I told you before: it is because his opinions are not\nours. I know of no other reason, and I do not need any other; it is the\nonly way we have of discovering insanity when it is not violent. It\nis merely the picturesqueness of his insanity that makes it more\ninteresting than my kind or yours. For instance, consider his \u201clittle\nbook\u201d; the \u201clittle book\u201d exposed in the sky eighteen centuries ago by\nthe flaming angel of the Apocalypse, and handed down in our day to Mrs.\nMary Baker G. Eddy, of New Hampshire, and translated by her, word for\nword, into English (with help of a polisher), and now published and\ndistributed in hundreds of editions by her at a clear profit per volume,\nabove cost, of seven hundred per cent.!--a profit which distinctly\nbelongs to the angel of the Apocalypse, and let him collect it if he\ncan; a \u201clittle book\u201d which the C.S. very frequently calls by just that\nname, and always enclosed in quotation-marks to keep its high origin\nexultantly in mind; a \u201clittle book\u201d which \u201cexplains\u201d and reconstructs\nand new-paints and decorates the Bible, and puts a mansard roof on it\nand a lightning-rod and all the other modern improvements; a \u201clittle\nbook\u201d which for the present affects to travel in yoke with the Bible and\nbe friendly to it, and within half a century will hitch the Bible in the\nrear and thenceforth travel tandem, itself in the lead, in the coming\ngreat march of Christian Scientism through the Protestant dominions of\nthe planet.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\n\u201cHungry ones throng to hear the Bible read in connection with the\ntext-book of Christian Science, Science and Health, with Key to the\nScriptures, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. These are our only preachers. They\nare the word of God.\u201d \u201cChristian Science Journal\u201d, October, 1898.\n\nIs that picturesque? A lady has told me that in a chapel of the Mosque\nin Boston there is a picture or image of Mrs. Eddy, and that before it\nburns a never-extinguished light. Is that picturesque? How long do you\nthink it will be before the Christian Scientist will be worshipping that\npicture or image and praying to it? How long do you think it will\nbe before it is claimed that Mrs. Eddy is a Redeemer, a Christ, and\nChrist's equal? Already her army of disciples speak of her reverently as\n\u201cOur Mother.\u201d\n\nHow long will it be before they place her on the steps of the Throne\nbeside the Virgin--and, later, a step higher? First, Mary the Virgin and\nMary the Matron; later, with a change of precedence, Mary the Matron\nand Mary the Virgin. Let the artist get ready with his canvas and his\nbrushes; the new Renaissance is on its way, and there will be money in\naltar-canvases--a thousand times as much as the Popes and their Church\never spent on the Old Masters; for their riches were poverty as\ncompared with what is going to pour into the treasure-chest of the\nChristian-Scientist Papacy by-and-by, let us not doubt it. We will\nexamine the financial outlook presently and see what it promises. A\nfavorite subject of the new Old Master will be the first verse of the\ntwelfth chapter of Revelation--a verse which Mrs. Eddy says (in her\nAnnex to the Scriptures) has \u201cone distinctive feature which has special\nreference to the present age\u201d--and to her, as is rather pointedly\nindicated:\n\n\u201cAnd there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the\nsun, and the moon under her feet,\u201d etc.\n\nThe woman clothed with the sun will be a portrait of Mrs. Eddy.\n\nIs it insanity to believe that Christian-Scientism is destined to make\nthe most formidable show that any new religion has made in the world\nsince the birth and spread of Mohammedanism, and that within a century\nfrom now it may stand second to Rome only, in numbers and power in\nChristendom?\n\nIf this is a wild dream it will not be easy to prove it so just yet, I\nthink. There seems argument that it may come true. The Christian-Science\n\u201cboom,\u201d proper, is not yet five years old; yet already it has two\nhundred and fifty churches.\n\nIt has its start, you see, and it is a phenomenally good one. Moreover,\nit is latterly spreading with a constantly accelerating swiftness. It\nhas a better chance to grow and prosper and achieve permanency than any\nother existing \u201cism\u201d; for it has more to offer than any other. The past\nteaches us that in order to succeed, a movement like this must not be\na mere philosophy, it must be a religion; also, that it must not claim\nentire originality, but content itself with passing for an improvement\non an existing religion, and show its hand later, when strong and\nprosperous--like Mohammedanism.\n\nNext, there must be money--and plenty of it.\n\nNext, the power and authority and capital must be concentrated in the\ngrip of a small and irresponsible clique, with nobody outside privileged\nto ask questions or find fault.\n\nNext, as before remarked, it must bait its hook with some new and\nattractive advantages over the baits offered by its competitors. A new\nmovement equipped with some of these endowments--like spiritualism, for\ninstance may count upon a considerable success; a new movement equipped\nwith the bulk of them--like Mohammedanism, for instance--may count upon\na widely extended conquest. Mormonism had all the requisites but one it\nhad nothing new and nothing valuable to bait with. Spiritualism lacked\nthe important detail of concentration of money and authority in the\nhands of an irresponsible clique.\n\nThe above equipment is excellent, admirable, powerful, but not perfect.\nThere is yet another detail which is worth the whole of it put together\nand more; a detail which has never been joined (in the beginning of\na religious movement) to a supremely good working equipment since the\nworld began, until now: a new personage to worship. Christianity had\nthe Saviour, but at first and for generations it lacked money and\nconcentrated power. In Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science possesses the new\npersonage for worship, and in addition--here in the very beginning--a\nworking equipment that has not a flaw in it. In the beginning,\nMohammedanism had no money; and it has never had anything to offer its\nclient but heaven--nothing here below that was valuable. In addition to\nheaven hereafter, Christian Science has present health and a cheerful\nspirit to offer; and in comparison with this bribe all other this-world\nbribes are poor and cheap. You recognize that this estimate is\nadmissible, do you not?\n\nTo whom does Bellamy's \u201cNationalism\u201d appeal? Necessarily to the few:\npeople who read and dream, and are compassionate, and troubled for the\npoor and the hard-driven. To whom does Spiritualism appeal? Necessarily\nto the few; its \u201cboom\u201d has lasted for half a century, and I believe it\nclaims short of four millions of adherents in America. Who are attracted\nby Swedenborgianism and some of the other fine and delicate \u201cisms\u201d? The\nfew again: educated people, sensitively organized, with superior mental\nendowments, who seek lofty planes of thought and find their contentment\nthere. And who are attracted by Christian Science? There is no limit;\nits field is horizonless; its appeal is as universal as is the appeal\nof Christianity itself. It appeals to the rich, the poor, the high, the\nlow, the cultured, the ignorant, the gifted, the stupid, the modest,\nthe vain, the wise, the silly, the soldier, the civilian, the hero, the\ncoward, the idler, the worker, the godly, the godless, the freeman, the\nslave, the adult, the child; they who are ailing in body or mind,\nthey who have friends that are ailing in body or mind. To mass it in a\nphrase, its clientage is the Human Race. Will it march? I think so.\n\nRemember its principal great offer: to rid the Race of pain and disease.\nCan it do so? In large measure, yes. How much of the pain and disease in\nthe world is created by the imaginations of the sufferers, and then kept\nalive by those same imaginations? Four-fifths? Not anything short of\nthat, I should think. Can Christian Science banish that four-fifths? I\nthink so. Can any other (organized) force do it? None that I know of.\nWould this be a new world when that was accomplished? And a pleasanter\none--for us well people, as well as for those fussy and fretting sick\nones? Would it seem as if there was not as much gloomy weather as there\nused to be? I think so.\n\nIn the mean time, would the Scientist kill off a good many patients? I\nthink so. More than get killed off now by the legalized methods? I will\ntake up that question presently.\n\nAt present, I wish to ask you to examine some of the Scientist's\nperformances, as registered in his magazine, The Christian Science\nJournal--October number, 1898. First, a Baptist clergyman gives us this\ntrue picture of \u201cthe average orthodox Christian\u201d--and he could have\nadded that it is a true picture of the average (civilized) human being:\n\n\u201cHe is a worried and fretted and fearful man; afraid of himself and his\npropensities, afraid of colds and fevers, afraid of treading on serpents\nor drinking deadly things.\u201d\n\nThen he gives us this contrast:\n\n\u201cThe average Christian Scientist has put all anxiety and fretting under\nhis feet. He does have a victory over fear and care that is not achieved\nby the average orthodox Christian.\u201d\n\nHe has put all anxiety and fretting under his feet. What proportion of\nyour earnings or income would you be willing to pay for that frame of\nmind, year in, year out? It really outvalues any price that can be put\nupon it. Where can you purchase it, at any outlay of any sort, in any\nChurch or out of it, except the Scientist's?\n\nWell, it is the anxiety and fretting about colds, and fevers, and\ndraughts, and getting our feet wet, and about forbidden food eaten in\nterror of indigestion, that brings on the cold and the fever and the\nindigestion and the most of our other ailments; and so, if the Science\ncan banish that anxiety from the world I think it can reduce the world's\ndisease and pain about four-fifths.\n\nIn this October number many of the redeemed testify and give thanks;\nand not coldly, but with passionate gratitude. As a rule they seem\ndrunk with health, and with the surprise of it, the wonder of it, the\nunspeakable glory and splendor of it, after a long, sober spell spent in\ninventing imaginary diseases and concreting them with doctor-stuff.\nThe first witness testifies that when \u201cthis most beautiful Truth first\ndawned on him\u201d he had \u201cnearly all the ills that flesh is heir to\u201d; that\nthose he did not have he thought he had--and this made the tale about\ncomplete. What was the natural result? Why, he was a dump-pit \u201cfor all\nthe doctors, druggists, and patent medicines of the country.\u201d Christian\nScience came to his help, and \u201cthe old sick conditions passed away,\u201d and\nalong with them the \u201cdismal forebodings\u201d which he had been accustomed\nto employ in conjuring up ailments. And so he was a healthy and cheerful\nman, now, and astonished.\n\nBut I am not astonished, for from other sources I know what must have\nbeen his method of applying Christian Science. If I am in the right, he\nwatchfully and diligently diverted his mind from unhealthy channels and\ncompelled it to travel in healthy ones. Nothing contrivable by human\ninvention could be more formidably effective than that, in banishing\nimaginary ailments and in closing the entrances against sub-sequent\napplicants of their breed. I think his method was to keep saying, \u201cI\nam well! I am sound!--sound and well! well and sound! Perfectly sound,\nperfectly well! I have no pain; there's no such thing as pain! I have no\ndisease; there's no such thing as disease! Nothing is real but Mind; all\nis Mind, All-Good Good-Good, Life, Soul, Liver, Bones, one of a series,\nante and pass the buck!\u201d\n\nI do not mean that that was exactly the formula used, but that it\ndoubtless contains the spirit of it. The Scientist would attach value to\nthe exact formula, no doubt, and to the religious spirit in which it was\nused. I should think that any formula that would divert the mind from\nunwholesome channels and force it into healthy ones would answer every\npurpose with some people, though not with all. I think it most likely\nthat a very religious man would find the addition of the religious\nspirit a powerful reinforcement in his case.\n\nThe second witness testifies that the Science banished \u201can old organic\ntrouble,\u201d which the doctor and the surgeon had been nursing with drugs\nand the knife for seven years.\n\nHe calls it his \u201cclaim.\u201d A surface-miner would think it was not\nhis claim at all, but the property of the doctor and his pal the\nsurgeon--for he would be misled by that word, which is Christian-Science\nslang for \u201cailment.\u201d The Christian Scientist has no ailment; to him\nthere is no such thing, and he will not use the hateful word. All that\nhappens to him is that upon his attention an imaginary disturbance\nsometimes obtrudes itself which claims to be an ailment but isn't.\n\nThis witness offers testimony for a clergyman seventy years old who had\npreached forty years in a Christian church, and has now gone over to the\nnew sect. He was \u201calmost blind and deaf.\u201d He was treated by the C. S.\nmethod, and \u201cwhen he heard the voice of Truth he saw spiritually.\u201d Saw\nspiritually? It is a little indefinite; they had better treat him again.\nIndefinite testimonies might properly be waste-basketed, since there is\nevidently no lack of definite ones procurable; but this C. S. magazine\nis poorly edited, and so mistakes of this kind must be expected.\n\nThe next witness is a soldier of the Civil War. When Christian Science\nfound him, he had in stock the following claims:\n\nIndigestion, Rheumatism, Catarrh, Chalky deposits in Shoulder-joints,\nArm-joints, Hand-joints, Insomnia, Atrophy of the muscles of Arms.\nShoulders, Stiffness of all those joints, Excruciating pains most of the\ntime.\n\nThese claims have a very substantial sound. They came of exposure in the\ncampaigns. The doctors did all they could, but it was little. Prayers\nwere tried, but \u201cI never realized any physical relief from that source.\u201d\n After thirty years of torture, he went to a Christian Scientist and took\nan hour's treatment and went home painless. Two days later, he \u201cbegan\nto eat like a well man.\u201d Then \u201cthe claims vanished--some at once, others\nmore gradually\u201d; finally, \u201cthey have almost entirely disappeared.\u201d\n And--a thing which is of still greater value--he is now \u201ccontented and\nhappy.\u201d That is a detail which, as earlier remarked, is a Scientist\nChurch specialty. And, indeed, one may go further and assert with\nlittle or no exaggeration that it is a Christian-Science monopoly. With\nthirty-one years' effort, the Methodist Church had not succeeded in\nfurnishing it to this harassed soldier.\n\nAnd so the tale goes on. Witness after witness bulletins his claims,\ndeclares their prompt abolishment, and gives Mrs. Eddy's Discovery the\npraise. Milk-leg is cured; nervous prostration is cured; consumption is\ncured; and St. Vitus's dance is made a pastime. Even without a fiddle.\nAnd now and then an interesting new addition to the Science slang\nappears on the page. We have \u201cdemonstrations over chilblains\u201d and such\nthings. It seems to be a curtailed way of saying \u201cdemonstrations of\nthe power of Christian-Science Truth over the fiction which masquerades\nunder the name of Chilblains.\u201d The children, as well as the adults,\nshare in the blessings of the Science. \u201cThrough the study of the 'little\nbook' they are learning how to be healthful, peaceful, and wise.\u201d\n Sometimes they are cured of their little claims by the professional\nhealer, and sometimes more advanced children say over the formula and\ncure themselves.\n\nA little Far-Western girl of nine, equipped with an adult vocabulary,\nstates her age and says, \u201cI thought I would write a demonstration to\nyou.\u201d She had a claim, derived from getting flung over a pony's head and\nlanded on a rockpile. She saved herself from disaster by remembering to\nsay \u201cGod is All\u201d while she was in the air. I couldn't have done it.\nI shouldn't even have thought of it. I should have been too excited.\nNothing but Christian Science could have enabled that child to do that\ncalm and thoughtful and judicious thing in those circumstances. She came\ndown on her head, and by all the rules she should have broken it;\nbut the intervention of the formula prevented that, so the only claim\nresulting was a blackened eye. Monday morning it was still swollen and\nshut. At school \u201cit hurt pretty badly--that is, it seemed to.\u201d So \u201cI was\nexcused, and went down to the basement and said, 'Now I am depending on\nmamma instead of God, and I will depend on God instead of mamma.'\u201d No\ndoubt this would have answered; but, to make sure, she added Mrs. Eddy\nto the team and recited \u201cthe Scientific Statement of Being,\u201d which\nis one of the principal incantations, I judge. Then \u201cI felt my eye\nopening.\u201d Why, dear, it would have opened an oyster. I think it is one\nof the touchingest things in child-history, that pious little rat down\ncellar pumping away at the Scientific Statement of Being.\n\nThere is a page about another good child--little Gordon. Little Gordon\n\u201ccame into the world without the assistance of surgery or anaesthetics.\u201d\n He was a \u201cdemonstration.\u201d A painless one; therefore, his coming evoked\n\u201cjoy and thankfulness to God and the Discoverer of Christian Science.\u201d\n It is a noticeable feature of this literature--the so frequent linking\ntogether of the Two Beings in an equal bond; also of Their Two Bibles.\nWhen little Gordon was two years old, \u201che was playing horse on the bed,\nwhere I had left my 'little book.' I noticed him stop in his play, take\nthe book carefully in his little hands, kiss it softly, then look about\nfor the highest place of safety his arms could reach, and put it there.\u201d\n This pious act filled the mother \u201cwith such a train of thought as I had\nnever experienced before. I thought of the sweet mother of long ago\nwho kept things in her heart,\u201d etc. It is a bold comparison; however,\nunconscious profanations are about as common in the mouths of the lay\nmember ship of the new Church as are frank and open ones in the mouths\nof its consecrated chiefs.\n\nSome days later, the family library--Christian-Science books--was lying\nin a deep-seated window. This was another chance for the holy child to\nshow off. He left his play and went there and pushed all the books to\none side, except the Annex \u201cIt he took in both hands, slowly raised\nit to his lips, then removed it carefully, and seated himself in the\nwindow.\u201d It had seemed to the mother too wonderful to be true, that\nfirst time; but now she was convinced that \u201cneither imagination nor\naccident had anything to do with it.\u201d Later, little Gordon let the\nauthor of his being see him do it. After that he did it frequently;\nprobably every time anybody was looking. I would rather have that child\nthan a chromo. If this tale has any object, it is to intimate that the\ninspired book was supernaturally able to convey a sense of its sacred\nand awful character to this innocent little creature, without\nthe intervention of outside aids. The magazine is not edited with\nhigh-priced discretion. The editor has a \u201cclaim,\u201d and he ought to get it\ntreated.\n\nAmong other witnesses there is one who had a \u201cjumping toothache,\u201d\n which several times tempted her to \u201cbelieve that there was sensation in\nmatter, but each time it was overcome by the power of Truth.\u201d She would\nnot allow the dentist to use cocaine, but sat there and let him\npunch and drill and split and crush the tooth, and tear and slash its\nulcerations, and pull out the nerve, and dig out fragments of bone; and\nshe wouldn't once confess that it hurt. And to this day she thinks it\ndidn't, and I have not a doubt that she is nine-tenths right, and that\nher Christian Science faith did her better service than she could have\ngotten out of cocaine.\n\nThere is an account of a boy who got broken all up into small bits by\nan accident, but said over the Scientific Statement of Being, or some of\nthe other incantations, and got well and sound without having suffered\nany real pain and without the intrusion of a surgeon.\n\nAlso, there is an account of the restoration to perfect health, in\na single night, of a fatally injured horse, by the application of\nChristian Science. I can stand a good deal, but I recognize that the ice\nis getting thin, here. That horse had as many as fifty claims; how\ncould he demonstrate over them? Could he do the All-Good, Good-Good,\nGood-Gracious, Liver, Bones, Truth, All down but Nine, Set them up on\nthe Other Alley? Could he intone the Scientific Statement of Being?\nNow, could he? Wouldn't it give him a relapse? Let us draw the line at\nhorses. Horses and furniture.\n\nThere is plenty of other testimonies in the magazine, but these quoted\nsamples will answer. They show the kind of trade the Science is driving.\nNow we come back to the question, Does the Science kill a patient here\nand there and now and then? We must concede it. Does it compensate\nfor this? I am persuaded that it can make a plausible showing in that\ndirection. For instance: when it lays its hand upon a soldier who has\nsuffered thirty years of helpless torture and makes him whole in body\nand mind, what is the actual sum of that achievement? This, I think:\nthat it has restored to life a subject who had essentially died ten\ndeaths a year for thirty years, and each of them a long and painful one.\nBut for its interference that man in the three years which have since\nelapsed, would have essentially died thirty times more. There are\nthousands of young people in the land who are now ready to enter upon a\nlife-long death similar to that man's. Every time the Science\ncaptures one of these and secures to him life-long immunity from\nimagination-manufactured disease, it may plausibly claim that in his\nperson it has saved three hundred lives. Meantime, it will kill a man\nevery now and then. But no matter, it will still be ahead on the credit\nside.\n\n[NOTE.--I have received several letters (two from educated and\nostensibly intelligent persons), which contained, in substance, this\nprotest: \u201cI don't object to men and women chancing their lives with\nthese people, but it is a burning shame that the law should allow them\nto trust their helpless little children in their deadly hands.\u201d Isn't it\ntouching? Isn't it deep? Isn't it modest? It is as if the person said:\n\u201cI know that to a parent his child is the core of his heart, the apple\nof his eye, a possession so dear, so precious that he will trust its\nlife in no hands but those which he believes, with all his soul, to be\nthe very best and the very safest, but it is a burning shame that the\nlaw does not require him to come to me to ask what kind of healer I will\nallow him to call.\u201d The public is merely a multiplied \u201cme.\u201d--M.T.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\n\u201cWe consciously declare that Science and Health, with Key to the\nScriptures, was foretold, as well as its author, Mary Baker Eddy, in\nRevelation x. She is the 'mighty angel,' or God's highest thought to\nthis age (verse 1), giving us the spiritual interpretation of the\nBible in the 'little book open' (verse 2). Thus we prove that Christian\nScience is the second coming of Christ-Truth-Spirit.\u201d--Lecture by Dr.\nGeorge Tomkins, D.D. C.S.\n\nThere you have it in plain speech. She is the mighty angel; she is the\ndivinely and officially sent bearer of God's highest thought. For the\npresent, she brings the Second Advent. We must expect that before she\nhas been in her grave fifty years she will be regarded by her following\nas having been herself the Second Advent. She is already worshiped, and\nwe must expect this feeling to spread, territorially, and also to deepen\nin intensity.\n\nParticularly after her death; for then, as any one can foresee,\nEddy-Worship will be taught in the Sunday-schools and pulpits of the\ncult. Already whatever she puts her trade-mark on, though it be only\na memorial-spoon, is holy and is eagerly and gratefully bought by the\ndisciple, and becomes a fetish in his house. I say bought, for the\nBoston Christian-Science Trust gives nothing away; everything it has\nis for sale. And the terms are cash; and not only cash, but cash in\nadvance. Its god is Mrs. Eddy first, then the Dollar. Not a spiritual\nDollar, but a real one. From end to end of the Christian Science\nliterature not a single (material) thing in the world is conceded to be\nreal, except the Dollar. But all through and through its advertisements\nthat reality is eagerly and persistently recognized.\n\nThe Dollar is hunted down in all sorts of ways; the Christian-Science\nMother-Church and Bargain-Counter in Boston peddles all kinds of\nspiritual wares to the faithful, and always on the one condition--cash,\ncash in advance. The Angel of the Apocalypse could not go there and get\na copy of his own pirated book on credit. Many, many precious Christian\nScience things are to be had there for cash: Bible Lessons; Church\nManual; C. S. Hymnal; History of the building of the Mother-Church; lot\nof Sermons; Communion Hymn, \u201cSaw Ye My Saviour,\u201d by Mrs. Eddy, half a\ndollar a copy, \u201cwords used by special permission of Mrs. Eddy.\u201d Also we\nhave Mrs. Eddy's and the Angel's little Blue-Annex in eight styles\nof binding at eight kinds of war-prices; among these a sweet thing in\n\u201clevant, divinity circuit, leather lined to edge, round corners, gold\nedge, silk sewed, each, prepaid, $6,\u201d and if you take a million you get\nthem a shilling cheaper--that is to say, \u201cprepaid, $5.75.\u201d Also we\nhave Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, at 'andsome big prices, the\ndivinity-circuit style heading the exertions, shilling discount where\nyou take an edition Next comes Christ and Christmas, by the fertile Mrs.\nEddy--a poem--would God I could see it!--price $3, cash in advance. Then\nfollow five more books by Mrs. Eddy, at highwayman's rates, some of\nthem in \u201cleatherette covers,\u201d some of them in \u201cpebble cloth,\u201d with\ndivinity-circuit, compensation-balance, twin-screw, and the other modern\nimprovements; and at the same bargain-counter can be had The Christian\nScience Journal.\n\nChristian-Science literary discharges are a monopoly of the\nMother-Church Headquarters Factory in Boston; none genuine without the\ntrade-mark of the Trust. You must apply there and not elsewhere.\n\nOne hundred dollars for it. And I have a case among my statistics where\nthe student had a three weeks' course and paid three hundred for it.\n\nThe Trust does love the Dollar, when it isn't a spiritual one.\n\nIn order to force the sale of Mrs Eddy's Bible-Annex, no healer,\nMetaphysical-College-bred or other, is allowed to practice the game\nunless he possesses a copy of that book. That means a large and\nconstantly augmenting income for the Trust. No C.S. family would\nconsider itself loyal or pious or pain-proof without an Annex or two in\nthe house. That means an income for the Trust, in the near future, of\nmillions; not thousands-millions a year.\n\nNo member, young or old, of a branch Christian-Scientist church can\nacquire and retain membership in the Mother-Church unless he pay\n\u201ccapitation tax\u201d (of \u201cnot less than a dollar,\u201d say the By-Laws) to the\nBoston Trust every year. That means an income for the Trust, in the near\nfuture, of--let us venture to say--millions more per year.\n\nIt is a reasonably safe guess that in America in 1920 there will be ten\nmillion Christian Scientists, and three millions in Great Britain;\nthat these figures will be trebled in 1930; that in America in 1920\nthe Christian Scientists will be a political force, in 1930 politically\nformidable, and in 1940 the governing power in the Republic--to remain\nthat, permanently. And I think it a reasonable guess that the Trust\n(which is already in our day pretty brusque in its ways) will then be\nthe most insolent and unscrupulous and tyrannical politico-religious\nmaster that has dominated a people since the palmy days of the\nInquisition. And a stronger master than the strongest of bygone times,\nbecause this one will have a financial strength not dreamed of by any\npredecessor; as effective a concentration of irresponsible power as any\npredecessor has had; in the railway, the telegraph, and the subsidized\nnewspaper, better facilities for watching and managing his empire\nthan any predecessor has had; and, after a generation or two, he will\nprobably divide Christendom with the Catholic Church.\n\nThe Roman Church has a perfect organization, and it has an effective\ncentralization of power--but not of its cash. Its multitude of Bishops\nare rich, but their riches remain in large measure in their own hands.\nThey collect from two hundred millions of people, but they keep the\nbulk of the result at home. The Boston Pope of by-and-by will draw his\ndollar-a-head capitation-tax from three hundred millions of the human\nrace, and the Annex and the rest of his book-shop stock will fetch in as\nmuch more; and his Metaphysical Colleges, the annual Pilgrimage to Mrs.\nEddy's tomb, from all over the world-admission, the Christian-Science\nDollar (payable in advance)--purchases of consecrated glass beads,\ncandles, memorial spoons, aureoled chrome-portraits and bogus autographs\nof Mrs. Eddy; cash offerings at her shrine no crutches of cured cripples\nreceived, and no imitations of miraculously restored broken legs and\nnecks allowed to be hung up except when made out of the Holy Metal\nand proved by fire-assay; cash for miracles worked at the tomb: these\nmoney-sources, with a thousand to be yet invented and ambushed upon the\ndevotee, will bring the annual increment well up above a billion. And\nnobody but the Trust will have the handling of it. In that day, the\nTrust will monopolize the manufacture and sale of the Old and New\nTestaments as well as the Annex, and raise their price to Annex rates,\nand compel the devotee to buy (for even to-day a healer has to have the\nAnnex and the Scriptures or he is not allowed to work the game), and\nthat will bring several hundred million dollars more. In those days, the\nTrust will have an income approaching five million dollars a day, and\nno expenses to be taken out of it; no taxes to pay, and no charities\nto support. That last detail should not be lightly passed over by the\nreader; it is well entitled to attention.\n\nNo charities to support. No, nor even to contribute to. One searches in\nvain the Trust's advertisements and the utterances of its organs for\nany suggestion that it spends a penny on orphans, widows, discharged\nprisoners, hospitals, ragged schools, night missions, city missions,\nlibraries, old people's homes, or any other object that appeals to a\nhuman being's purse through his heart.\n\nI have hunted, hunted, and hunted, by correspondence and otherwise, and\nhave not yet got upon the track of a farthing that the Trust has spent\nupon any worthy object. Nothing makes a Scientist so uncomfortable as to\nask him if he knows of a case where Christian Science has spent money\non a benevolence, either among its own adherents or elsewhere. He is\nobliged to say \u201cNo\u201d And then one discovers that the person questioned\nhas been asked the question many times before, and that it is getting to\nbe a sore subject with him. Why a sore subject? Because he has written\nhis chiefs and asked with high confidence for an answer that will\nconfound these questioners--and the chiefs did not reply. He has written\nagain, and then again--not with confidence, but humbly, now--and has\nbegged for defensive ammunition in the voice of supplication. A reply\ndoes at last come to this effect: \u201cWe must have faith in Our Mother, and\nrest content in the conviction that whatever She does with the money\nit is in accordance with orders from Heaven, for She does no act of any\nkind without first 'demonstrating over' it.\u201d\n\nThat settles it--as far as the disciple is concerned. His mind\nis satisfied with that answer; he gets down his Annex and does an\nincantation or two, and that mesmerizes his spirit and puts that to\nsleep--brings it peace. Peace and comfort and joy, until some inquirer\npunctures the old sore again.\n\nThrough friends in America I asked some questions, and in some cases\ngot definite and informing answers; in other cases the answers were not\ndefinite and not valuable. To the question, \u201cDoes any of the money go to\ncharities?\u201d the answer from an authoritative source was: \u201cNo, not in\nthe sense usually conveyed by this word.\u201d (The italics are mine.) That\nanswer is cautious. But definite, I think--utterly and unassailably\ndefinite--although quite Christian-Scientifically foggy in its phrasing.\nChristian-Science testimony is generally foggy, generally diffuse,\ngenerally garrulous. The writer was aware that the first word in his\nphrase answered the question which I was asking, but he could not help\nadding nine dark words. Meaningless ones, unless explained by him. It is\nquite likely, as intimated by him, that Christian Science has invented\na new class of objects to apply the word \u201ccharity\u201d to, but without an\nexplanation we cannot know what they are. We quite easily and naturally\nand confidently guess that they are in all cases objects which will\nreturn five hundred per cent. on the Trust's investment in them,\nbut guessing is not knowledge; it is merely, in this case, a sort\nof nine-tenths certainty deducible from what we think we know of the\nTrust's trade principles and its sly and furtive and shifty ways.\n\nSly? Deep? Judicious? The Trust understands its business. The Trust does\nnot give itself away. It defeats all the attempts of us impertinents to\nget at its trade secrets. To this day, after all our diligence, we have\nnot been able to get it to confess what it does with the money. It does\nnot even let its own disciples find out. All it says is, that the matter\nhas been \u201cdemonstrated over.\u201d Now and then a lay Scientist says, with\na grateful exultation, that Mrs. Eddy is enormously rich, but he stops\nthere; as to whether any of the money goes to other charities or not,\nhe is obliged to admit that he does not know. However, the Trust is\ncomposed of human beings; and this justifies the conjecture that if it\nhad a charity on its list which it was proud of, we should soon hear of\nit.\n\n\u201cWithout money and without price.\u201d Those used to be the terms. Mrs.\nEddy's Annex cancels them. The motto of Christian Science is, \u201cThe\nlaborer is worthy of his hire.\u201d And now that it has been \u201cdemonstrated\nover,\u201d we find its spiritual meaning to be, \u201cDo anything and everything\nyour hand may find to do; and charge cash for it, and collect the money\nin advance.\u201d The Scientist has on his tongue's end a cut-and-dried,\nBoston-supplied set of rather lean arguments, whose function is to show\nthat it is a Heaven-commanded duty to do this, and that the croupiers of\nthe game have no choice but to obey.\n\nThe Trust seems to be a reincarnation. Exodus xxxii. 4.\n\nI have no reverence for the Trust, but I am not lacking in reverence for\nthe sincerities of the lay membership of the new Church. There is every\nevidence that the lay members are entirely sincere in their faith, and\nI think sincerity is always entitled to honor and respect, let the\ninspiration of the sincerity be what it may. Zeal and sincerity can\ncarry a new religion further than any other missionary except fire and\nsword, and I believe that the new religion will conquer the half of\nChristendom in a hundred years. I am not intending this as a compliment\nto the human race; I am merely stating an opinion. And yet I think that\nperhaps it is a compliment to the race. I keep in mind that saying of\nan orthodox preacher--quoted further back. He conceded that this new\nChristianity frees its possessor's life from frets, fears, vexations,\nbitterness, and all sorts of imagination-propagated maladies and pains,\nand fills his world with sunshine and his heart with gladness. If\nChristian Science, with this stupendous equipment--and final salvation\nadded--cannot win half the Christian globe, I must be badly mistaken in\nthe make-up of the human race.\n\nI think the Trust will be handed down like the other Papacy, and will\nalways know how to handle its limitless cash. It will press the button;\nthe zeal, the energy, the sincerity, the enthusiasm of its countless\nvassals will do the rest.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nThe power which a man's imagination has over his body to heal it or make\nit sick is a force which none of us is born without. The first man had\nit, the last one will possess it. If left to himself, a man is most\nlikely to use only the mischievous half of the force--the half which\ninvents imaginary ailments for him and cultivates them; and if he is\none of these--very wise people, he is quite likely to scoff at the\nbeneficent half of the force and deny its existence. And so, to heal\nor help that man, two imaginations are required: his own and some\noutsider's. The outsider, B, must imagine that his incantations are the\nhealing-power that is curing A, and A must imagine that this is so. I\nthink it is not so, at all; but no matter, the cure is effected, and\nthat is the main thing. The outsider's work is unquestionably valuable;\nso valuable that it may fairly be likened to the essential work\nperformed by the engineer when he handles the throttle and turns on the\nsteam; the actual power is lodged exclusively in the engine, but if\nthe engine were left alone it would never start of itself. Whether the\nengineer be named Jim, or Bob, or Tom, it is all one--his services are\nnecessary, and he is entitled to such wage as he can get you to pay.\nWhether he be named Christian Scientist, or Mental Scientist, or Mind\nCurist, or King's-Evil Expert, or Hypnotist, it is all one; he is merely\nthe Engineer; he simply turns on the same old steam and the engine does\nthe whole work.\n\nThe Christian-Scientist engineer drives exactly the same trade as the\nother engineers, yet he out-prospers the whole of them put together.\n\nIs it because he has captured the takingest name? I think that that is\nonly a small part of it. I think that the secret of his high prosperity\nlies elsewhere.\n\nThe Christian Scientist has organized the business. Now that was\ncertainly a gigantic idea. Electricity, in limitless volume, has\nexisted in the air and the rocks and the earth and everywhere since\ntime began--and was going to waste all the while. In our time we have\norganized that scattered and wandering force and set it to work,\nand backed the business with capital, and concentrated it in few and\ncompetent hands, and the results are as we see.\n\nThe Christian Scientist has taken a force which has been lying idle in\nevery member of the human race since time began, and has organized it,\nand backed the business with capital, and concentrated it at Boston\nheadquarters in the hands of a small and very competent Trust, and there\nare results.\n\nTherein lies the promise that this monopoly is going to extend its\ncommerce wide in the earth. I think that if the business were conducted\nin the loose and disconnected fashion customary with such things, it\nwould achieve but little more than the modest prosperity usually secured\nby unorganized great moral and commercial ventures; but I believe that\nso long as this one remains compactly organized and closely concentrated\nin a Trust, the spread of its dominion will continue.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nFour years ago I wrote the preceding chapters. I was assured by the wise\nthat Christian Science was a fleeting craze and would soon perish. This\nprompt and all-competent stripe of prophet is always to be had in the\nmarket at ground-floor rates. He does not stop to load, or consider, or\ntake aim, but lets fly just as he stands. Facts are nothing to him, he\nhas no use for such things; he works wholly by inspiration. And so, when\nhe is asked why he considers a new movement a passing fad and quickly\nperishable, he finds himself unprepared with a reason and is more or\nless embarrassed. For a moment. Only for a moment. Then he waylays the\nfirst spectre of a reason that goes flitting through the desert places\nof his mind, and is at once serene again and ready for conflict. Serene\nand confident. Yet he should not be so, since he has had no chance\nto examine his catch, and cannot know whether it is going to help his\ncontention or damage it.\n\nThe impromptu reason furnished by the early prophets of whom I have\nspoken was this:\n\n\u201cThere is nothing to Christian Science; there is nothing about it\nthat appeals to the intellect; its market will be restricted to the\nunintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not think.\u201d\n\nThey called that a reason why the cult would not flourish and endure. It\nseems the equivalent of saying:\n\n\u201cThere is no money in tinware; there is nothing about it that appeals to\nthe rich; its market will be restricted to the poor.\u201d\n\nIt is like bringing forward the best reason in the world why Christian\nScience should flourish and live, and then blandly offering it as a\nreason why it should sicken and die.\n\nThat reason was furnished me by the complacent and unfrightened\nprophets four years ago, and it has been furnished me again to-day. If\nconversions to new religions or to old ones were in any considerable\ndegree achieved through the intellect, the aforesaid reason would be\nsound and sufficient, no doubt; the inquirer into Christian Science\nmight go away unconvinced and unconverted. But we all know that\nconversions are seldom made in that way; that such a thing as a serious\nand painstaking and fairly competent inquiry into the claims of a\nreligion or of a political dogma is a rare occurrence; and that the\nvast mass of men and women are far from being capable of making such\nan examination. They are not capable, for the reason that their minds,\nhowsoever good they may be, are not trained for such examinations. The\nmind not trained for that work is no more competent to do it than\nare lawyers and farmers competent to make successful clothes without\nlearning the tailor's trade. There are seventy-five million men and\nwomen among us who do not know how to cut out and make a dress-suit, and\nthey would not think of trying; yet they all think they can competently\nthink out a political or religious scheme without any apprenticeship to\nthe business, and many of them believe they have actually worked that\nmiracle. But, indeed, the truth is, almost all the men and women of our\nnation or of any other get their religion and their politics where they\nget their astronomy--entirely at second hand. Being untrained, they are\nno more able to intelligently examine a dogma or a policy than they are\nto calculate an eclipse.\n\nMen are usually competent thinkers along the lines of their specialized\ntraining only. Within these limits alone are their opinions and\njudgments valuable; outside of these limits they grope and are\nlost--usually without knowing it. In a church assemblage of five hundred\npersons, there will be a man or two whose trained minds can seize upon\neach detail of a great manufacturing scheme and recognize its value\nor its lack of value promptly; and can pass the details in intelligent\nreview, section by section, and finally as a whole, and then deliver a\nverdict upon the scheme which cannot be flippantly set aside nor easily\nanswered. And there will be one or two other men there who can do the\nsame thing with a great and complicated educational project; and one\nor two others who can do the like with a large scheme for applying\nelectricity in a new and unheard-of way; and one or two others who can\ndo it with a showy scheme for revolutionizing the scientific world's\naccepted notions regarding geology. And so on, and so on. But the\nmanufacturing experts will not be competent to examine the educational\nscheme intelligently, and their opinion about it would not be valuable;\nneither of these two groups will be able to understand and pass upon the\nelectrical scheme; none of these three batches of experts will be able\nto understand and pass upon the geological revolution; and probably not\none man in the entire lot will be competent to examine, capably, the\nintricacies of a political or religious scheme, new or old, and deliver\na judgment upon it which any one need regard as precious.\n\nThere you have the top crust. There will be four hundred and\nseventy-five men and women present who can draw upon their training and\ndeliver incontrovertible judgments concerning cheese, and leather,\nand cattle, and hardware, and soap, and tar, and candles, and patent\nmedicines, and dreams, and apparitions, and garden trucks, and cats, and\nbaby food, and warts, and hymns, and time-tables, and freight-rates, and\nsummer resorts, and whiskey, and law, and surgery, and dentistry, and\nblacksmithing, and shoemaking, and dancing, and Huyler's candy, and\nmathematics, and dog fights, and obstetrics, and music, and sausages,\nand dry goods, and molasses, and railroad stocks, and horses, and\nliterature, and labor unions, and vegetables, and morals, and lamb's\nfries, and etiquette, and agriculture. And not ten among the five\nhundred--let their minds be ever so good and bright--will be competent,\nby grace of the requisite specialized mental training, to take hold of a\ncomplex abstraction of any kind and make head or tail of it.\n\nThe whole five hundred are thinkers, and they are all capable\nthinkers--but only within the narrow limits of their specialized\ntrainings. Four hundred and ninety of them cannot competently examine\neither a religious plan or a political one. A scattering few of them do\nexamine both--that is, they think they do. With results as precious as\nwhen I examine the nebular theory and explain it to myself.\n\nIf the four hundred and ninety got their religion through their minds,\nand by weighed and measured detail, Christian Science would not be a\nscary apparition. But they don't; they get a little of it through their\nminds, more of it through their feelings, and the overwhelming bulk of\nit through their environment.\n\nEnvironment is the chief thing to be considered when one is proposing to\npredict the future of Christian Science. It is not the ability to reason\nthat makes the Presbyterian, or the Baptist, or the Methodist, or the\nCatholic, or the Mohammedan, or the Buddhist, or the Mormon; it is\nenvironment. If religions were got by reasoning, we should have the\nextraordinary spectacle of an American family with a Presbyterian in it,\nand a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Mohammedan, a Buddhist, and\na Mormon. A Presbyterian family does not produce Catholic families\nor other religious brands, it produces its own kind; and not\nby intellectual processes, but by association. And so also with\nMohammedanism, the cult which in our day is spreading with the sweep of\na world-conflagration through the Orient, that native home of profound\nthought and of subtle intellectual fence, that fertile womb whence has\nsprung every great religion that exists. Including our own; for with all\nour brains we cannot invent a religion and market it.\n\nThe language of my quoted prophets recurs to us now, and we wonder to\nthink how small a space in the world the mighty Mohammedan Church would\nbe occupying now, if a successful trade in its line of goods had been\nconditioned upon an exhibit that would \u201cappeal to the intellect\u201d instead\nof to \u201cthe unintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not\nthink.\u201d\n\nThe Christian Science Church, like the Mohammedan Church, makes no\nembarrassing appeal to the intellect, has no occasion to do it, and can\nget along quite well without it.\n\nProvided. Provided what? That it can secure that thing which is\nworth two or three hundred thousand times more than an \u201cappeal to the\nintellect\u201d--an environment. Can it get that? Will it be a menace\nto regular Christianity if it gets that? Is it time for regular\nChristianity to get alarmed? Or shall regular Christianity smile a smile\nand turn over and take another nap? Won't it be wise and proper for\nregular Christianity to do the old way, Me customary way, the historical\nway--lock the stable-door after the horse is gone? Just as Protestantism\nhas smiled and nodded this long time (while the alert and diligent\nCatholic was slipping in and capturing the public schools), and is now\nbeginning to hunt around for the key when it is too late?\n\nWill Christian Science get a chance to show its wares? It has already\nsecured that chance. Will it flourish and spread and prosper if it\nshall create for itself the one thing essential to those conditions--an\nenvironment? It has already created an environment. There are families\nof Christian Scientists in every community in America, and each family\nis a factory; each family turns out a Christian Science product at the\ncustomary intervals, and contributes it to the Cause in the only way\nin which contributions of recruits to Churches are ever made on a large\nscale--by the puissant forces of personal contact and association.\nEach family is an agency for the Cause, and makes converts among the\nneighbors, and starts some more factories.\n\nFour years ago there were six Christian Scientists in a certain town\nthat I am acquainted with; a year ago there were two hundred and fifty\nthere; they have built a church, and its membership now numbers four\nhundred. This has all been quietly done; done without frenzied revivals,\nwithout uniforms, brass bands, street parades, corner oratory, or any of\nthe other customary persuasions to a godly life. Christian Science, like\nMohammedanism, is \u201crestricted\u201d to the \u201cunintelligent, the people who\ndo not think.\u201d There lies the danger. It makes Christian Science\nformidable. It is \u201crestricted\u201d to ninety-nine one-hundredths of the\nhuman race, and must be reckoned with by regular Christianity. And will\nbe, as soon as it is too late.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBOOK II\n\n\u201cThere were remarkable things about the stranger called the\nMan--Mystery-things so very extraordinary that they monopolized\nattention and made all of him seem extraordinary; but this was not so,\nthe most of his qualities being of the common, every-day size and like\nanybody else's. It was curious. He was of the ordinary stature, and had\nthe ordinary aspects; yet in him were hidden such strange contradictions\nand disproportions! He was majestically fearless and heroic; he had\nthe strength of thirty men and the daring of thirty thousand; handling\narmies, organizing states, administering governments--these were\npastimes to him; he publicly and ostentatiously accepted the human race\nat its own valuation--as demigods--and privately and successfully dealt\nwith it at quite another and juster valuation--as children and slaves;\nhis ambitions were stupendous, and his dreams had no commerce with the\nhumble plain, but moved with the cloud-rack among the snow-summits.\nThese features of him were, indeed, extraordinary, but the rest of\nhim was ordinary and usual. He was so mean-minded, in the matter of\njealousy, that it was thought he was descended from a god; he was vain\nin little ways, and had a pride in trivialities; he doted on ballads\nabout moonshine and bruised hearts; in education he was deficient, he\nwas indifferent to literature, and knew nothing of art; he was dumb upon\nall subjects but one, indifferent to all except that one--the Nebular\nTheory. Upon that one his flow of words was full and free, he was a\ngeyser. The official astronomers disputed his facts and deeded his\nviews, and said that he had invented both, they not being findable in\nany of the books. But many of the laity, who wanted their nebulosities\nfresh, admired his doctrine and adopted it, and it attained to great\nprosperity in spite of the hostility of the experts.\u201d--The Legend of the\nMan-Mystery, ch. i.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nJANUARY, 1903. When we do not know a public man personally, we guess him\nout by the facts of his career. When it is Washington, we all arrive\nat about one and the same result. We agree that his words and his acts\nclearly interpret his character to us, and that they never leave us in\ndoubt as to the motives whence the words and acts proceeded. It is the\nsame with Joan of Arc, it is the same with two or three or five or six\nothers among the immortals. But in the matter of motives and of a few\ndetails of character we agree to disagree upon Napoleon, Cromwell, and\nall the rest; and to this list we must add Mrs. Eddy. I think we can\npeacefully agree as to two or three extraordinary features of her\nmake-up, but not upon the other features of it. We cannot peacefully\nagree as to her motives, therefore her character must remain crooked to\nsome of us and straight to the others.\n\nNo matter, she is interesting enough without an amicable agreement. In\nseveral ways she is the most interesting woman that ever lived, and the\nmost extraordinary. The same may be said of her career, and the same\nmay be said of its chief result. She started from nothing. Her enemies\ncharge that she surreptitiously took from Quimby a peculiar system of\nhealing which was mind-cure with a Biblical basis. She and her friends\ndeny that she took anything from him. This is a matter which we\ncan discuss by-and-by. Whether she took it or invented it, it\nwas--materially--a sawdust mine when she got it, and she has turned it\ninto a Klondike; its spiritual dock had next to no custom, if any at\nall: from it she has launched a world-religion which has now six hundred\nand sixty-three churches, and she charters a new one every four days.\nWhen we do not know a person--and also when we do--we have to judge his\nsize by the size and nature of his achievements, as compared with the\nachievements of others in his special line of business--there is no\nother way. Measured by this standard, it is thirteen hundred years\nsince the world has produced any one who could reach up to Mrs. Eddy's\nwaistbelt.\n\nFiguratively speaking, Mrs. Eddy is already as tall as the Eiffel tower.\nShe is adding surprisingly to her stature every day. It is quite within\nthe probabilities that a century hence she will be the most imposing\nfigure that has cast its shadow across the globe since the inauguration\nof our era. I grant that after saying these strong things, it is\nnecessary that I offer some details calculated to satisfactorily\ndemonstrate the proportions which I have claimed for her. I will do that\npresently; but before exhibiting the matured sequoia gigantea, I believe\nit will be best to exhibit the sprout from which it sprang. It may save\nthe reader from making miscalculations. The person who imagines that a\nBig Tree sprout is bigger than other kinds of sprouts is quite mistaken.\nIt is the ordinary thing; it makes no show, it compels no notice, it\nhasn't a detectible quality in it that entitles it to attention, or\nsuggests the future giant its sap is suckling. That is the kind of\nsprout Mrs. Eddy was.\n\nFrom her childhood days up to where she was running a half-century a\nclose race and gaining on it, she was most humanly commonplace.\n\nShe is the witness I am drawing this from. She has revealed it in her\nautobiography not intentionally, of course--I am not claiming that. An\nautobiography is the most treacherous thing there is. It lets out\nevery secret its author is trying to keep; it lets the truth shine\nunobstructed through every harmless little deception he tries to play;\nit pitilessly exposes him as a tin hero worshipping himself as Big Metal\nevery time he tries to do the modest-unconsciousness act before the\nreader. This is not guessing; I am speaking from autobiographical\npersonal experience; I was never able to refrain from mentioning, with\na studied casualness that could deceive none but the most incautious\nreader, that an ancestor of mine was sent ambassador to Spain by Charles\nI., nor that in a remote branch of my family there exists a claimant\nto an earldom, nor that an uncle of mine used to own a dog that was\ndescended from the dog that was in the Ark; and at the same time I was\nnever able to persuade myself to call a gibbet by its right name when\naccounting for other ancestors of mine, but always spoke of it as the\n\u201cplatform\u201d--puerilely intimating that they were out lecturing when it\nhappened.\n\nIt is Mrs. Eddy over again. As regards her minor half, she is as\ncommonplace as the rest of us. Vain of trivial things all the first half\nof her life, and still vain of them at seventy and recording them with\nnaive satisfaction--even rescuing some early rhymes of hers of the sort\nthat we all scribble in the innocent days of our youth--rescuing them\nand printing them without pity or apology, just as the weakest and\ncommonest of us do in our gray age. More--she still frankly admires\nthem; and in her introduction of them profanely confers upon them the\nholy name of \u201cpoetry.\u201d Sample:\n\n     \u201cAnd laud the land whose talents rock\n     The cradle of her power,\n     And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock\n     From erudition's bower.\u201d\n\n     \u201cMinerva's silver sandals still\n     Are loosed and not effete.\u201d\n\nYou note it is not a shade above the thing which all human beings churn\nout in their youth.\n\nYou would not think that in a little wee primer--for that is what the\nAutobiography is--a person with a tumultuous career of seventy years\nbehind her could find room for two or three pages of padding of this\nkind, but such is the case. She evidently puts narrative together with\ndifficulty and is not at home in it, and is glad to have something\nready-made to fill in with. Another sample:\n\n     \u201cHere fame-honored Hickory rears his bold form,\n     And bears a brave breast to the lightning and storm,\n     While Palm, Bay, and Laurel in classical glee,\n     Chase Tulip, Magnolia, and fragrant Fringe-tree.\u201d\n\nVivid? You can fairly see those trees galloping around. That she\ncould still treasure up, and print, and manifestly admire those Poems,\nindicates that the most daring and masculine and masterful woman that\nhas appeared in the earth in centuries has the same soft, girly-girly\nplaces in her that the rest of us have.\n\nWhen it comes to selecting her ancestors she is still human, natural,\nvain, commonplace--as commonplace as I am myself when I am sorting\nancestors for my autobiography. She combs out some creditable Scots, and\nlabels them and sets them aside for use, not overlooking the one to whom\nSir William Wallace gave \u201ca heavy sword encased in a brass scabbard,\u201d\n and naively explaining which Sir William Wallace it was, lest we get\nthe wrong one by the hassock; this is the one \u201cfrom whose patriotism\nand bravery comes that heart-stirring air, 'Scots wha hae wi' Wallace\nbled.'\u201d Hannah More was related to her ancestors. She explains who\nHannah More was.\n\nWhenever a person informs us who Sir William Wallace was, or who wrote\n\u201cHamlet,\u201d or where the Declaration of Independence was fought, it fills\nus with a suspicion wellnigh amounting to conviction, that that person\nwould not suspect us of being so empty of knowledge if he wasn't\nsuffering from the same \u201cclaim\u201d himself. Then we turn to page 20 of the\nAutobiography and happen upon this passage, and that hasty suspicion\nstands rebuked:\n\n\u201cI gained book-knowledge with far less labor than is usually requisite.\nAt ten years of age I was as familiar with Lindley Murray's Grammar as\nwith the Westminster Catechism; and the latter I had to repeat every\nSunday. My favorite studies were Natural Philosophy, Logic, and Moral\nScience. From my brother Albert I received lessons in the ancient\ntongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.\u201d\n\nYou catch your breath in astonishment, and feel again and still again\nthe pang of that rebuke. But then your eye falls upon the next sentence\nbut one, and the pain passes away and you set up the suspicion again\nwith evil satisfaction:\n\n\u201cAfter my discovery of Christian Science, most of the knowledge I had\ngleaned from school-books vanished like a dream.\u201d\n\nThat disappearance accounts for much in her miscellaneous writings. As I\nwas saying, she handles her \u201cancestral shadows,\u201d as she calls them, just\nas I do mine. It is remarkable. When she runs across \u201ca relative of my\nGrandfather Baker, General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame,\u201d she sets\nhim down; when she finds another good one, \u201cthe late Sir John Macneill,\nin the line of my Grandfather Baker's family,\u201d she sets him down, and\nremembers that he \u201cwas prominent in British politics, and at one time\nheld the position of ambassador to Persia\u201d; when she discovers that her\ngrandparents \u201cwere likewise connected with Captain John Lovewell, whose\ngallant leadership and death in the Indian troubles of 1722-25 caused\nthat prolonged contest to be known historically as Lovewell's War,\u201d\n she sets the Captain down; when it turns out that a cousin of her\ngrandmother \u201cwas John Macneill, the New Hampshire general, who fought at\nLundy's Lane and won distinction in 1814 at the battle of Chippewa,\u201d\n she catalogues the General. (And tells where Chippewa was.) And then she\nskips all her platform people; never mentions one of them. It shows that\nshe is just as human as any of us.\n\nYet, after all, there is something very touching in her pride in these\nworthy small-fry, and something large and fine in her modesty in not\ncaring to remember that their kinship to her can confer no distinction\nupon her, whereas her mere mention of their names has conferred upon\nthem a faceless earthly immortality.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nWhen she wrote this little biography her great life-work had already\nbeen achieved, she was become renowned; to multitudes of reverent\ndisciples she was a sacred personage, a familiar of God, and His\ninspired channel of communication with the human race. Also, to them\nthese following things were facts, and not doubted:\n\nShe had written a Bible in middle age, and had published it; she had\nrecast it, enlarged it, and published it again; she had not stopped\nthere, but had enlarged it further, polished its phrasing, improved\nits form, and published it yet again. It was at last become a compact,\ngrammatical, dignified, and workman-like body of literature. This was\ngood training, persistent training; and in all arts it is training that\nbrings the art to perfection. We are now confronted with one of the most\nteasing and baffling riddles of Mrs. Eddy's history--a riddle which may\nbe formulated thus:\n\nHow is it that a primitive literary gun which began as a hundred-yard\nflint-lock smooth-bore muzzle-loader, and in the course of forty years\nhas acquired one notable improvement after another--percussion cap;\nfixed cartridge; rifled barrel; efficiency at half a mile how is it that\nsuch a gun, sufficiently good on an elephant hunt (Christian Science)\nfrom the beginning, and growing better and better all the time during\nforty years, has always collapsed back to its original flint-lock\nestate the moment the huntress trained it on any other creature than an\nelephant?\n\nSomething more than a generation ago Mrs. Eddy went out with her\nflint-lock on the rabbit range; and this was a part of the result:\n\n\u201cAfter his decease, and a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful\nphysicians, we discovered that the Principle of all healing and the law\nthat governs it is God, a divine Principle, and a spiritual not material\nlaw, and regained health.\u201d--Preface to Science and Health, first\nrevision, 1883.\n\nN.B. Not from the book itself; from the Preface.\n\nYou will notice the awkwardness of that English. If you should carry\nthat paragraph up to the Supreme Court of the United States in order\nto find out for good and all whether the fatal casualty happened to the\ndead man--as the paragraph almost asserts--or to some person or persons\nnot even hinted at in the paragraph, the Supreme Court would be obliged\nto say that the evidence established nothing with certainty except that\nthere had been a casualty--victim not known.\n\nThe context thinks it explains who the victim was, but it does nothing\nof the kind. It furnishes some guessing-material of a sort which enables\nyou to infer that it was \u201cwe\u201d that suffered the mentioned injury, but if\nyou should carry the language to a court you would not be able to prove\nthat it necessarily meant that. \u201cWe\u201d are Mrs. Eddy; a funny little\naffectation. She replaced it later with the more dignified third person.\n\nThe quoted paragraph is from Mrs. Eddy's preface to the first revision\nof Science and Health (1883). Sixty-four pages further along--in the\nbody of the book (the elephant-range), she went out with that same\nflint-lock and got this following result. Its English is very nearly\nas straight and clean and competent as is the English of the latest\nrevision of Science and Health after the gun has been improved from\nsmooth-bore musket up to globe-sighted, long distance rifle:\n\n\u201cMan controlled by his Maker has no physical suffering. His body is\nharmonious, his days are multiplying instead of diminishing, he is\njourneying towards Life instead of death, and bringing out the new man\nand crucifying the old affections, cutting them off in every material\ndirection until he learns the utter supremacy of Spirit and yields\nobedience thereto.\u201d\n\nIn the latest revision of Science and Health (1902), the perfected\ngun furnishes the following. The English is clean, compact, dignified,\nalmost perfect. But it is observable that it is not prominently better\nthan it is in the above paragraph, which was a product of the primitive\nflint-lock:\n\n\u201cHow unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing out life and\nhastening to death, and at the same time we are communing with\nimmortality? If the departed are in rapport with mortality, or matter,\nthey are not spiritual, but must still be mortal, sinful, suffering,\nand dying. Then wherefore look to them--even were communication\npossible--for proofs of immortality and accept them as oracles?\u201d\n --Edition of 1902, page 78.\n\nWith the above paragraphs compare these that follow. It is Mrs. Eddy\nwriting--after a good long twenty years of pen-practice. Compare also\nwith the alleged Poems already quoted. The prominent characteristic of\nthe Poems is affectation, artificiality; their makeup is a complacent\nand pretentious outpour of false figures and fine writing, in the\nsophomoric style. The same qualities and the same style will be found,\nunchanged, unbettered, in these following paragraphs--after a lapse of\nmore than fifty years, and after--as aforesaid--long literary training.\nThe italics are mine:\n\n1. \u201cWhat plague spot or bacilli were [sic] gnawing [sic] at the heart of\nthis metropolis... and bringing it [the heart] on bended knee? Why, it\nwas an institute that had entered its vitals--that, among other things,\ntaught games,\u201d et cetera.--C.S. Journal, p. 670, article entitled \u201cA\nNarrative--by Mary Baker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\n2. \u201cParks sprang up [sic]... electric-cars run [sic] merrily through\nseveral streets, concrete sidewalks and macadamized roads dotted [sic]\nthe place,\u201d et cetera.--Ibid.\n\n3. \u201cShorn [sic] of its suburbs it had indeed little left to admire, save\nto [sic] such as fancy a skeleton above ground breathing [sic] slowly\nthrough a barren [sic] breast.\u201d--Ibid.\n\nThis is not English--I mean, grown-up English. But it is\nfifteen-year-old English, and has not grown a month since the same\nmind produced the Poems. The standard of the Poems and of the\nplague-spot-and-bacilli effort is exactly the same. It is most strange\nthat the same intellect that worded the simple and self-contained and\nclean-cut paragraph beginning with \u201cHow unreasonable is the belief,\u201d\n should in the very same lustrum discharge upon the world such a verbal\nchaos as the utterance concerning that plague-spot or bacilli which\nwere gnawing at the insides of the metropolis and bringing its heart on\nbended knee, thus exposing to the eye the rest of the skeleton breathing\nslowly through a barren breast.\n\nThe immense contrast between the legitimate English of Science and\nHealth and the bastard English of Mrs. Eddy's miscellaneous work, and\nbetween the maturity of the one diction and the juvenility of the other,\nsuggests--compels--the question, Are there two guns? It would seem so.\nIs there a poor, foolish, old, scattering flint-lock for rabbit, and a\nlong-range, centre-driving, up-to-date Mauser-magazine for elephant?\nIt looks like it. For it is observable that in Science and Health (the\nelephant-ground) the practice was good at the start and has remained so,\nand that the practice in the miscellaneous, outside, small-game field\nwas very bad at the start and was never less bad at any later time.\n\nI wish to say that of Mrs. Eddy I am not requiring perfect English,\nbut only good English. No one can write perfect English and keep it\nup through a stretch of ten chapters. It has never been done. It was\napproached in the \u201cwell of English undefiled\u201d; it has been approached\nin Mrs. Eddy's Annex to that Book; it has been approached in several\nEnglish grammars; I have even approached it myself; but none of us has\nmade port.\n\nNow, the English of Science and Health is good. In passages to be found\nin Mrs. Eddy's Autobiography (on pages 53, 57, 101, and 113), and on\npage 6 of her squalid preface to Science and Health, first revision, she\nseems to me to claim the whole and sole authorship of the book. That\nshe wrote the Autobiography, and that preface, and the Poems, and the\nPlague-spot-Bacilli, we are not permitted to doubt. Indeed, we know she\nwrote them. But the very certainty that she wrote these things compels\na doubt that she wrote Science and Health. She is guilty of little\nawkwardnesses of expression in the Autobiography which a practiced pen\nwould hardly allow to go uncorrected in even a hasty private letter,\nand could not dream of passing by uncorrected in passages intended for\nprint. But she passes them placidly by; as placidly as if she did not\nsuspect that they were offenses against third-class English. I think\nthat that placidity was born of that very unawareness, so to speak. I\nwill cite a few instances from the Autobiography. The italics are mine:\n\n\u201cI remember reading in my childhood certain manuscripts containing\nScriptural Sonnets, besides other verses and enigmas,\u201d etc. Page 7.\n\n[On page 27.] \u201cMany pale cripples went into the Church leaning on\ncrutches who came out carrying them on their shoulders.\u201d\n\nIt is awkward, because at the first glance it seems to say that the\ncripples went in leaning on crutches which went out carrying the\ncripples on their shoulders. It would have cost her no trouble to\nput her \u201cwho\u201d after her \u201ccripples.\u201d I blame her a little; I think her\nproof-reader should have been shot. We may let her capital C pass, but\nit is another awkwardness, for she is talking about a building, not\nabout a religious society.\n\n\u201cMarriage and Parentage\u201d [Chapter-heading. Page 30]. You imagine that\nshe is going to begin a talk about her marriage and finish with\nsome account of her father and mother. And so you will be deceived.\n\u201cMarriage\u201d was right, but \u201cParentage\u201d was not the best word for the rest\nof the record. It refers to the birth of her own child. After a certain\nperiod of time \u201cmy babe was born.\u201d Marriage and Motherhood--Marriage and\nMaternity--Marriage and Product--Marriage and Dividend--either of these\nwould have fitted the facts and made the matter clear.\n\n\u201cWithout my knowledge he was appointed a guardian.\u201d Page 32.\n\nShe is speaking of her child. She means that a guardian for her child\nwas appointed, but that isn't what she says.\n\n\u201cIf spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the\nnexus is lost, and the argument with its rightful conclusions, becomes\ncorrespondingly obscure.\u201d Page 34.\n\nWe shall never know why she put the word \u201ccorrespondingly\u201d in\nthere. Any fine, large word would have answered just as well:\npsychosuperintangibly--electroincandescently--oligarcheologically--\nsanchrosynchro-stereoptically--any of these would have answered,\nany of these would have filled the void.\n\n\u201cHis spiritual noumenon and phenomenon silenced portraiture.\u201d Page 34.\n\nYet she says she forgot everything she knew, when she discovered\nChristian Science. I realize that noumenon is a daisy; and I will not\ndeny that I shall use it whenever I am in a company which I think I can\nembarrass with it; but, at the same time, I think it is out of place\namong friends in an autobiography. There, I think a person ought not\nto have anything up his sleeve. It undermines confidence. But my\ndissatisfaction with the quoted passage is not on account of noumenon;\nit is on account of the misuse of the word \u201csilenced.\u201d You cannot\nsilence portraiture with a noumenon; if portraiture should make a noise,\na way could be found to silence it, but even then it could not be done\nwith a noumenon. Not even with a brick, some authorities think.\n\n\u201cIt may be that the mortal life-battle still wages,\u201d etc. Page 35.\n\nThat is clumsy. Battles do not wage, battles are waged. Mrs. Eddy has\none very curious and interesting peculiarity: whenever she notices that\nshe is chortling along without saying anything, she pulls up with a\nsudden \u201cGod is over us all,\u201d or some other sounding irrelevancy, and for\nthe moment it seems to light up the whole district; then, before you can\nrecover from the shock, she goes flitting pleasantly and meaninglessly\nalong again, and you hurry hopefully after her, thinking you are going\nto get something this time; but as soon as she has led you far enough\naway from her turkey lot she takes to a tree. Whenever she discovers\nthat she is getting pretty disconnected, she couples-up with an\nostentatious \u201cBut\u201d which has nothing to do with anything that went\nbefore or is to come after, then she hitches some empties to the\ntrain-unrelated verses from the Bible, usually--and steams out of sight\nand leaves you wondering how she did that clever thing. For striking\ninstances, see bottom paragraph on page 34 and the paragraph on page\n35 of her Autobiography. She has a purpose--a deep and dark and artful\npurpose--in what she is saying in the first paragraph, and you guess\nwhat it is, but that is due to your own talent, not hers; she has\nmade it as obscure as language could do it. The other paragraph has\nno meaning and no discoverable intention. It is merely one of her\nGod-over-alls. I cannot spare room for it in this place.\n\n\u201cI beheld with ineffable awe our great Master's marvelous skill in\ndemanding neither obedience to hygienic laws nor,\u201d etc. Page 41.\n\nThe word is loosely chosen-skill. She probably meant judgment,\nintuition, penetration, or wisdom.\n\n\u201cNaturally, my first jottings were but efforts to express in feeble\ndiction Truth's ultimate.\u201d Page 42.\n\nOne understands what she means, but she should have been able to say\nwhat she meant--at any time before she discovered Christian Science and\nforgot everything she knew--and after it, too. If she had put \u201cfeeble\u201d\n in front of \u201cefforts\u201d and then left out \u201cin\u201d and \u201cdiction,\u201d she would\nhave scored.\n\n\u201c... its written expression increases in perfection under the guidance\nof the great Master.\u201d Page 43.\n\nIt is an error. Not even in those advantageous circumstances can\nincrease be added to perfection.\n\n\u201cEvil is not mastered by evil; it can only be overcome with Good.\nThis brings out the nothingness of evil, and the eternal Somethingness\nvindicates the Divine Principle and improves the race of Adam.\u201d Page 76.\n\nThis is too extraneous for me. That is the trouble with Mrs. Eddy when\nshe sets out to explain an over-large exhibit: the minute you think the\nlight is bursting upon you the candle goes out and your mind begins to\nwander.\n\n\u201cNo one else can drain the cup which I have drunk to the dregs, as the\ndiscoverer and teacher of Christian Science\u201d Page 47.\n\nThat is saying we cannot empty an empty cup. We knew it before; and we\nknow she meant to tell us that that particular cup is going to remain\nempty. That is, we think that that was the idea, but we cannot be sure.\nShe has a perfectly astonishing talent for putting words together\nin such a way as to make successful inquiry into their intention\nimpossible.\n\nShe generally makes us uneasy when she begins to tune up on her\nfine-writing timbrel. It carries me back to her Plague-Spot and Poetry\ndays, and I just dread those:\n\n\u201cInto mortal mind's material obliquity I gazed and stood abashed.\nBlanched was the cheek of pride. My heart bent low before the\nomnipotence of Spirit, and a tint of humility soft as the heart of\na moonbeam mantled the earth. Bethlehem and Bethany, Gethsemane and\nCalvary, spoke to my chastened sense as by the tearful lips of a babe.\u201d\n Page 48.\n\nThe heart of a moonbeam is a pretty enough Friendship's-Album\nexpression--let it pass, though I do think the figure a little strained;\nbut humility has no tint, humility has no complexion, and if it had it\ncould not mantle the earth. A moonbeam might--I do not know--but she\ndid not say it was the moonbeam. But let it go, I cannot decide it, she\nmixes me up so. A babe hasn't \u201ctearful lips,\u201d it's its eyes. You find\nnone of Mrs. Eddy's kind of English in Science and Health--not a line of\nit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nSetting aside title-page, index, etc., the little Autobiography begins\non page 7 and ends on page 130. My quotations are from the first forty\npages. They seem to me to prove the presence of the 'prentice hand. The\nstyle of the forty pages is loose and feeble and 'prentice-like. The\nmovement of the narrative is not orderly and sequential, but rambles\naround, and skips forward and back and here and there and yonder,\n'prentice-fashion. Many a journeyman has broken up his narrative and\nskipped about and rambled around, but he did it for a purpose, for\nan advantage; there was art in it, and points to be scored by it; the\nobservant reader perceived the game, and enjoyed it and respected it, if\nit was well played. But Mrs. Eddy's performance was without intention,\nand destitute of art. She could score no points by it on those terms,\nand almost any reader can see that her work was the uncalculated\nputtering of a novice.\n\nIn the above paragraph I have described the first third of the booklet.\nThat third being completed, Mrs. Eddy leaves the rabbit-range,\ncrosses the frontier, and steps out upon her far-spreading big-game\nterritory--Christian Science and there is an instant change! The style\nsmartly improves; and the clumsy little technical offenses disappear. In\nthese two-thirds of the booklet I find only one such offence, and it has\nthe look of being a printer's error.\n\nI leave the riddle with the reader. Perhaps he can explain how it is\nthat a person-trained or untrained--who on the one day can write nothing\nbetter than Plague-Spot-Bacilli and feeble and stumbling and wandering\npersonal history littered with false figures and obscurities and\ntechnical blunders, can on the next day sit down and write fluently,\nsmoothly, compactly, capably, and confidently on a great big thundering\nsubject, and do it as easily and comfortably as a whale paddles around\nthe globe.\n\nAs for me, I have scribbled so much in fifty years that I have become\nsaturated with convictions of one sort and another concerning a\nscribbler's limitations; and these are so strong that when I am familiar\nwith a literary person's work I feel perfectly sure that I know enough\nabout his limitations to know what he can not do. If Mr. Howells should\npretend to me that he wrote the Plague-Spot Bacilli rhapsody, I should\nreceive the statement courteously; but I should know it for a--well, for\na perversion. If the late Josh Billings should rise up and tell me that\nhe wrote Herbert Spencer's philosophies; I should answer and say that\nthe spelling casts a doubt upon his claim. If the late Jonathan Edwards\nshould rise up and tell me he wrote Mr. Dooley's books, I should answer\nand say that the marked difference between his style and Dooley's is\nargument against the soundness of his statement. You see how much I\nthink of circumstantial evidence. In literary matters--in my belief--it\nis often better than any person's word, better than any shady\ncharacter's oath. It is difficult for me to believe that the same hand\nthat wrote the Plague-Spot-Bacilli and the first third of the little\nEddy biography wrote also Science and Health. Indeed, it is more than\ndifficult, it is impossible.\n\nLargely speaking, I have read acres of what purported to be Mrs. Eddy's\nwritings, in the past two months. I cannot know, but I am convinced,\nthat the circumstantial evidence shows that her actual share in the\nwork of composing and phrasing these things was so slight as to be\ninconsequential. Where she puts her literary foot down, her trail\nacross her paid polisher's page is as plain as the elephant's in a\nSunday-school procession. Her verbal output, when left undoctored by\nher clerks, is quite unmistakable It always exhibits the strongly\ndistinctive features observable in the virgin passages from her pen\nalready quoted by me:\n\nDesert vacancy, as regards thought. Self-complacency. Puerility.\nSentimentality. Affectations of scholarly learning. Lust after eloquent\nand flowery expression. Repetition of pet poetic picturesquenesses.\nConfused and wandering statement. Metaphor gone insane. Meaningless\nwords, used because they are pretty, or showy, or unusual. Sorrowful\nattempts at the epigrammatic. Destitution of originality.\n\nThe fat volume called Miscellaneous Writings of Mrs. Eddy contains\nseveral hundred pages. Of the five hundred and fifty-four pages of prose\nin it I find ten lines, on page 319, to be Mrs. Eddy's; also about a\npage of the preface or \u201cProspectus\u201d; also about fifteen pages scattered\nalong through the book. If she wrote any of the rest of the prose, it\nwas rewritten after her by another hand. Here I will insert two-thirds\nof her page of the prospectus. It is evident that whenever, under the\ninspiration of the Deity, she turns out a book, she is always allowed to\ndo some of the preface. I wonder why that is? It always mars the work.\nI think it is done in humorous malice I think the clerks like to see\nher give herself away. They know she will, her stock of usable materials\nbeing limited and her procedure in employing them always the same,\nsubstantially. They know that when the initiated come upon her first\nerudite allusion, or upon any one of her other stage-properties, they\ncan shut their eyes and tell what will follow. She usually throws off\nan easy remark all sodden with Greek or Hebrew or Latin learning; she\nusually has a person watching for a star--she can seldom get away\nfrom that poetic idea--sometimes it is a Chaldee, sometimes a Walking\nDelegate, sometimes an entire stranger, but be he what he may, he is\ngenerally there when the train is ready to move, and has his pass in his\nhat-band; she generally has a Being with a Dome on him, or some other\ncover that is unusual and out of the fashion; she likes to fire off a\nScripture-verse where it will make the handsomest noise and come nearest\nto breaking the connection; she often throws out a Forefelt, or a\nForesplendor, or a Foreslander where it will have a fine nautical\nforeto'gallant sound and make the sentence sing; after which she is\nnearly sure to throw discretion away and take to her deadly passion,\nIntoxicated Metaphor. At such a time the Mrs. Eddy that does not\nhesitate is lost:\n\n\u201cThe ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olympiad. The Chaldee\nwatched the appearing of a star; to him no higher destiny dawned on the\ndome of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heavens. The meek\nNazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers, said, 'Ye can discern the face\nof the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?'--for He\nforefelt and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated by\nsinners.\n\n\u201cTo kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the new idea that comes\nwelling up from infinite Truth needs to be understood. The seer of this\nage should be a sage.\n\n\u201cHumility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition of Deity. The\nmounting sense gathers fresh forms and strange fire from the ashes\nof dissolving self, and drops the world. Meekness heightens immortal\nattributes, only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness reveals\nanother scene and another self seemingly rolled up in shades, but\nbrought to light by the evolutions of advancing thought, whereby we\ndiscern the power of Truth and Love to heal the sick.\n\n\u201cPride is ignorance; those assume most who have the least wisdom or\nexperience; and they steal from their neighbor, because they have so\nlittle of their own.\u201d--Miscellaneous Writings, page 1, and six lines at\ntop of page 2.\n\nIt is not believable that the hand that wrote those clumsy and affected\nsentences wrote the smooth English of Science and Health.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nIt is often said in print that Mrs. Eddy claims that God was the Author\nof Science and Health. Mr. Peabody states in his pamphlet that \u201cshe says\nnot she but God was the Author.\u201d I cannot find that in her autobiography\nshe makes this transference of the authorship, but I think that in\nit she definitely claims that she did her work under His\ninspiration--definitely for her; for as a rule she is not a very\ndefinite person, even when she seems to be trying her best to be clear\nand positive. Speaking of the early days when her Science was beginning\nto unfold itself and gather form in her mind, she says (Autobiography,\npage 43):\n\n\u201cThe divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh\nuniverse--old to God, but new to His 'little one.'\u201d\n\nShe being His little one, as I understand it.\n\nThe divine hand led her. It seems to mean \u201cGod inspired me\u201d; but when\na person uses metaphors instead of statistics--and that is Mrs. Eddy's\ncommon fashion--one cannot always feel sure about the intention.\n\n[Page 56.] \u201cEven the Scripture gave no direct interpretation of the\nScientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual Principle of healing,\nuntil our Heavenly Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in\nScience and Health, to unlock this 'mystery of godliness.'\u201d\n\nAnother baffling metaphor. If she had used plain forecastle English,\nand said \u201cGod wrote the Key and I put it in my book\u201d; or if she had said\n\u201cGod furnished me the solution of the mystery and I put it on paper\u201d;\nor if she had said \u201cGod did it all,\u201d then we should understand; but her\nphrase is open to any and all of those translations, and is a Key\nwhich unlocks nothing--for us. However, it seems to at least mean \u201cGod\ninspired me,\u201d if nothing more.\n\nThere was personal and intimate communion, at any rate we get that\nmuch out of the riddles. The connection extended to business, after the\nestablishment of the teaching and healing industry.\n\n[Page 71.] \u201cWhen God impelled me to set a price on my instruction,\u201d etc.\nFurther down: \u201cGod has since shown me, in multitudinous ways, the wisdom\nof this decision.\u201d\n\nShe was not able to think of a \u201cfinancial equivalent\u201d--meaning a\npecuniary equivalent--for her \u201cinstruction in Christian Science\nMind-healing.\u201d In this emergency she was \u201cled\u201d to charge three hundred\ndollars for a term of \u201ctwelve half-days.\u201d She does not say who led her,\nshe only says that the amount greatly troubled her. I think it means\nthat the price was suggested from above, \u201cled\u201d being a theological term\nidentical with our commercial phrase \u201cpersonally conducted.\u201d She \u201cshrank\nfrom asking it, but was finally led, by a strange providence, to accept\nthis fee.\u201d \u201cProvidence\u201d is another theological term. Two leds and\na providence, taken together, make a pretty strong argument for\ninspiration. I think that these statistics make it clear that the price\nwas arranged above. This view is constructively supported by the fact,\nalready quoted, that God afterwards approved, \u201cin multitudinous\nways,\u201d her wisdom in accepting the mentioned fee. \u201cMultitudinous\nways\u201d--multitudinous encoring--suggests enthusiasm. Business enthusiasm.\nAnd it suggests nearness. God's nearness to his \u201clittle one.\u201d Nearness,\nand a watchful personal interest. A warm, palpitating, Standard-Oil\ninterest, so to speak. All this indicates inspiration. We may assume,\nthen, two inspirations: one for the book, the other for the business.\n\nThe evidence for inspiration is further augmented by the testimony of\nRev. George Tomkins, D.D., already quoted, that Mrs. Eddy and her book\nwere foretold in Revelation, and that Mrs. Eddy \u201cis God's brightest\nthought to this age, giving us the spiritual interpretation of the Bible\nin the 'little book'\u201d of the Angel.\n\nI am aware that it is not Mr. Tomkins that is speaking, but Mrs. Eddy.\nThe commissioned lecturers of the Christian Science Church have to be\nmembers of the Board of Lectureship. (By-laws Sec. 2, p. 70.) The Board\nof Lectureship is selected by the Board of Directors of the Church.\n(By-laws, Sec. 3, p. 70.) The Board of Directors of the Church is the\nproperty of Mrs. Eddy. (By-laws, p. 22.) Mr. Tomkins did not make that\nstatement without authorization from headquarters. He necessarily got it\nfrom the Board of Directors, the Board of Directors from Mrs. Eddy, Mrs.\nEddy from the Deity. Mr. Tomkins would have been turned down by that\nprocession if his remarks had been unsatisfactory to it.\n\nIt may be that there is evidence somewhere--as has been claimed--that\nMrs. Eddy has charged upon the Deity the verbal authorship of Science\nand Health. But if she ever made the charge, she has withdrawn it (as it\nseems to me), and in the most formal and unqualified; of all ways. See\nAutobiography, page 57:\n\n\u201cWhen the demand for this book increased... the copyright was infringed.\nI entered a suit at Law, and my copyright was protected.\u201d\n\nThus it is plain that she did not plead that the Deity was the (verbal)\nAuthor; for if she had done that, she would have lost her case--and with\nrude promptness. It was in the old days before the Berne Convention and\nbefore the passage of our amended law of 1891, and the court would have\nquoted the following stern clause from the existing statute and frowned\nher out of the place:\n\n\u201cNo Foreigner can acquire copyright in the United States.\u201d\n\nTo sum up. The evidence before me indicates three things:\n\n1. That Mrs. Eddy claims the verbal author ship for herself. 2. That she\ndenies it to the Deity. 3. That--in her belief--she wrote the book under\nthe inspiration of the Deity, but furnished the language herself.\n\nIn one place in the Autobiography she claims both the language and\nthe ideas; but when this witness is testifying, one must draw the line\nsomewhere, or she will prove both sides of her case-nine sides, if\ndesired.\n\nIt is too true. Much too true. Many, many times too true. She is a most\ntrying witness--the most trying witness that ever kissed the Book, I am\nsure. There is no keeping up with her erratic testimony. As soon as you\nhave got her share of the authorship nailed where you half hope and half\nbelieve it will stay and cannot be joggled loose any more, she joggles\nit loose again--or seems to; you cannot be sure, for her habit of\ndealing in meaningless metaphors instead of in plain, straightforward\nstatistics, makes it nearly always impossible to tell just what it\nis she is trying to say. She was definite when she claimed both the\nlanguage and the ideas of the book. That seemed to settle the matter.\nIt seemed to distribute the percentages of credit with precision between\nthe collaborators: ninety-two per cent. to Mrs. Eddy, who did all the\nwork, and eight per cent. to the Deity, who furnished the inspiration\nnot enough of it to damage the copyright in a country closed against\nForeigners, and yet plenty to advertise the book and market it at famine\nrates. Then Mrs. Eddy does not keep still, but fetches around and comes\nforward and testifies again. It is most injudicious. For she resorts to\nmetaphor this time, and it makes trouble, for she seems to reverse the\npercentages and claim only the eight per cent. for her self. I quote\nfrom Mr. Peabody's book (Eddyism, or Christian Science. Boston: 15 Court\nSquare, price twenty-five cents):\n\n\u201cSpeaking of this book, Mrs. Eddy, in January last (1901) said: 'I\nshould blush to write of Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,\nas I have, were it of human origin, and I, apart from God, its author;\nbut as I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of Heaven in\ndivine metaphysics, I cannot be supermodest of the Christian Science\ntext-book.\u201d'\n\nMr. Peabody's comment:\n\n\u201cNothing could be plainer than that. Here is a distinct avowal that the\nbook entitled Science and Health was the work of Almighty God.\u201d\n\nIt does seem to amount to that. She was only a \u201cscribe.\u201d Confound the\nword, it is just a confusion, it has no determinable meaning there, it\nleaves us in the air. A scribe is merely a person who writes. He may be\na copyist, he may be an amanuensis, he may be a writer of originals, and\nfurnish both the language and the ideas. As usual with Mrs. Eddy, the\nconnection affords no help--\u201cechoing\u201d throws no light upon \u201cscribe.\u201d A\nrock can reflect an echo, a wall can do it, a mountain can do it, many\nthings can do it, but a scribe can't. A scribe that could reflect\nan echo could get over thirty dollars a week in a side-show. Many\nimpresarios would rather have him than a cow with four tails. If we\nallow that this present scribe was setting down the \u201charmonies of\nHeaven\u201d--and certainly that seems to have been the case then there was\nonly one way to do it that I can think of: listen to the music and put\ndown the notes one after another as they fell. In that case Mrs.\nEddy did not invent the tune, she only entered it on paper. Therefore\ndropping the metaphor--she was merely an amanuensis, and furnished\nneither the language of Science and Health nor the ideas. It reduces her\nto eight per cent. (and the dividends on that and the rest).\n\nIs that it? We shall never know. For Mrs. Eddy is liable to testify\nagain at any time. But until she does it, I think we must conclude\nthat the Deity was Author of the whole book, and Mrs. Eddy merely His\ntelephone and stenographer. Granting this, her claim as the Voice of God\nstands-for the present--justified and established.\n\n\n\n\nPOSTSCRIPT\n\nI overlooked something. It appears that there was more of that utterance\nthan Mr. Peabody has quoted in the above paragraph. It will be found\nin Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science Journal (January, 1901) and\nreads as follows:\n\n\u201cIt was not myself... which dictated Science and Health, with Key to the\nScriptures.\u201d\n\nThat is certainly clear enough. The words which I have removed from that\nimportant sentence explain Who it was that did the dictating. It was\ndone by\n\n\u201cthe divine power of Truth and Love, infinitely above me.\u201d\n\nCertainly that is definite. At last, through her personal testimony,\nwe have a sure grip upon the following vital facts, and they settle the\nauthorship of Science and Health beyond peradventure:\n\n1. Mrs. Eddy furnished \u201cthe ideas and the language.\u201d 2. God furnished\nthe ideas and the language.\n\nIt is a great comfort to have the matter authoritatively settled.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nIt is hard to locate her, she shifts about so much. She is a shining\ndrop of quicksilver which you put your finger on and it isn't there.\nThere is a paragraph in the Autobiography (page 96) which places in\nseemingly darkly significant procession three Personages:\n\n1. The Virgin Mary 2. Jesus of Nazareth. 3. Mrs. Eddy.\n\nThis is the paragraph referred to:\n\n\u201cNo person can take the individual place of the Virgin Mary. No person\ncan compass or fulfil the individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth.\nNo person can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the\ndiscoverer and founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill\nhis own niche in time and eternity.\u201d\n\nI have read it many times, but I still cannot be sure that I rightly\nunderstand it. If the Saviour's name had been placed first and the\nVirgin Mary's second and Mrs. Eddy's third, I should draw the inference\nthat a descending scale from First Importance to Second Importance and\nthen to Small Importance was indicated; but to place the Virgin first,\nthe Saviour second, and Mrs. Eddy third, seems to turn the scale the\nother way and make it an ascending scale of Importances, with Mrs. Eddy\nranking the other two and holding first place.\n\nI think that that was perhaps the intention, but none but a seasoned\nChristian Scientist can examine a literary animal of Mrs. Eddy's\ncreation and tell which end of it the tail is on. She is easily the most\nbaffling and bewildering writer in the literary trade.\n\nEddy is a commonplace name, and would have an unimpressive aspect in the\nlist of the reformed Holy Family. She has thought of that. In the book\nof By-laws written by her--\u201cimpelled by a power not one's own\u201d--there is\na paragraph which explains how and when her disciples came to confer a\ntitle upon her; and this explanation is followed by a warning as to what\nwill happen to any female Scientist who shall desecrate it:\n\n\u201cThe title of Mother. Therefore if a student of Christian Science shall\napply this title, either to herself or to others, except as the term for\nkinship according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an\nindication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus, and unfitness to be\na member of the Mother-Church.\u201d\n\nShe is the Pastor Emeritus.\n\nWhile the quoted paragraph about the Procession seems to indicate that\nMrs. Eddy is expecting to occupy the First Place in it, that expectation\nis not definitely avowed. In an earlier utterance of hers she is\nclearer--clearer, and does not claim the first place all to herself, but\nonly the half of it. I quote from Mr. Peabody's book again:\n\n\u201cIn the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her\nproperty, and published by her, it was claimed for her, and with her\nsanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made\nto establish the claim.\n\n\u201cMrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf that she\nherself was the chosen successor to and equal of Jesus.\u201d\n\nIn her Miscellaneous Writings (using her once favorite \u201cWe\u201d for \u201cI\u201d) she\nsays that \u201cWhile we entertain decided views... and shall express them as\nduty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine origin,\u201d\n etc.\n\nOur divine origin. It suggests Equal again. It is inferable, then,\nthat in the near by-and-by the new Church will officially rank the Holy\nFamily in the following order:\n\n1. Jesus of Nazareth.--1. Our Mother. 2. The Virgin Mary.\n\n\n\n\nSUMMARY\n\nI am not playing with Christian Science and its founder, I am examining\nthem; and I am doing it because of the interest I feel in the inquiry.\nMy results may seem inadequate to the reader, but they have for me\nclarified a muddle and brought a sort of order out of a chaos, and so I\nvalue them.\n\nMy readings of Mrs. Eddy's uninspired miscellaneous literary efforts\nhave convinced me of several things:\n\n1. That she did not write Science and Health. 2. That the Deity did (or\ndid not) write it. 3. That She thinks She wrote it. 4. That She believes\nShe wrote it under the Deity's inspiration. 5. That She believes She is\na Member of the Holy Family. 6. That She believes She is the equal of\nthe Head of it.\n\nFinally, I think She is now entitled to the capital S--on her own\nevidence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nThus far we have a part of Mrs. Eddy's portrait. Not made of fictions,\nsurmises, reports, rumors, innuendoes, dropped by her enemies; no, she\nhas furnished all of the materials herself, and laid them on the canvas,\nunder my general superintendence and direction. As far as she has gone\nwith it, it is the presentation of a complacent, commonplace, illiterate\nNew England woman who \u201cforgot everything she knew\u201d when she discovered\nher discovery, then wrote a Bible in good English under the inspiration\nof God, and climbed up it to the supremest summit of earthly grandeur\nattainable by man--where she sits serene to-day, beloved and worshiped\nby a multitude of human beings of as good average intelligence as is\npossessed by those that march under the banner of any competing cult.\nThis is not intended to flatter the competing cults, it is merely a\nstatement of cold fact.\n\nThat a commonplace person should go climbing aloft and become a god or\na half-god or a quarter-god and be worshiped by men and women of average\nintelligence, is nothing. It has happened a million times, it will\nhappen a hundred million more. It has been millions of years since the\nfirst of these supernaturals appeared, and by the time the last one in\nthat inconceivably remote future shall have performed his solemn little\nhigh-jinks on the stage and closed the business, there will be enough\nof them accumulated in the museum on the Other Side to start a heaven of\ntheir own-and jam it.\n\nEach in his turn those little supernaturals of our by-gone ages and\naeons joined the monster procession of his predecessors and marched\nhorizonward, disappeared, and was forgotten. They changed nothing,\nthey built nothing, they left nothing behind them to remember them by,\nnothing to hold their disciples together, nothing to solidify their work\nand enable it to defy the assaults of time and the weather. They passed,\nand left a vacancy. They made one fatal mistake; they all made it,\neach in his turn: they failed to organize their forces, they failed to\ncentralize their strength, they failed to provide a fresh Bible and a\nsure and perpetual cash income for business, and often they failed to\nprovide a new and accepted Divine Personage to worship.\n\nMrs. Eddy is not of that small fry. The materials that go to the\nmaking of the rest of her portrait will prove it. She will furnish them\nherself:\n\nShe published her book. She copyrighted it. She copyrights everything.\nIf she should say, \u201cGood-morning; how do you do?\u201d she would copyright\nit; for she is a careful person, and knows the value of small things.\n\nShe began to teach her Science, she began to heal, she began to gather\nconverts to her new religion--fervent, sincere, devoted, grateful\npeople. A year or two later she organized her first Christian Science\n\u201cAssociation,\u201d with six of her disciples on the roster.\n\nShe continued to teach and heal. She was charging nothing, she says,\nalthough she was very poor. She taught and healed gratis four years\naltogether, she says.\n\nThen, in 1879-81 she was become strong enough, and well enough\nestablished, to venture a couple of impressively important moves. The\nfirst of these moves was to aggrandize the \u201cAssociation\u201d to a \u201cChurch.\u201d\n Brave? It is the right name for it, I think. The former name suggests\nnothing, invited no remark, no criticism, no inquiry, no hostility; the\nnew name invited them all. She must have made this intrepid venture on\nher own motion. She could have had no important advisers at that early\nday. If we accept it as her own idea and her own act--and I think we\nmust--we have one key to her character. And it will explain subsequent\nacts of hers that would merely stun us and stupefy us without it. Shall\nwe call it courage? Or shall we call it recklessness? Courage observes;\nreflects; calculates; surveys the whole situation; counts the cost,\nestimates the odds, makes up its mind; then goes at the enterprise\nresolute to win or perish. Recklessness does not reflect, it plunges\nfearlessly in with a hurrah, and takes the risks, whatever they may be,\nregardless of expense. Recklessness often fails, Mrs. Eddy has never\nfailed--from the point of view of her followers. The point of view of\nother people is naturally not a matter of weighty importance to her.\n\nThe new Church was not born loose-jointed and featureless, but had a\ndefined plan, a definite character, definite aims, and a name which was\na challenge, and defied all comers. It was \u201ca Mind-healing Church.\u201d It\nwas \u201cwithout a creed.\u201d Its name, \u201cThe Church of Christ, Scientist.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy could not copyright her Church, but she chartered it, which\nwas the same thing and relieved the pain. It had twenty-six charter\nmembers. Mrs. Eddy was at once installed as its pastor.\n\nThe other venture, above referred to, was Mrs. Eddy's Massachusetts\nMetaphysical College, in which was taught \u201cthe pathology of spiritual\npower.\u201d She could not copyright it, but she got it chartered. For\nfaculty it had herself, her husband of the period (Dr. Eddy), and her\nadopted son, Dr. Foster-Eddy. The college term was \u201cbarely three\nweeks,\u201d she says. Again she was bold, brave, rash, reckless--choose for\nyourself--for she not only began to charge the student, but charged him\na hundred dollars a week for the enlightenments. And got it? some may\nask. Easily. Pupils flocked from far and near. They came by the hundred.\nPresently the term was cut down nearly half, but the price remained as\nbefore. To be exact, the term-cut was to seven lessons--price,\nthree hundred dollars. The college \u201cyielded a large income.\u201d This is\nbelievable. In seven years Mrs. Eddy taught, as she avers, over four\nthousand students in it. (Preface to 1902 edition of Science and\nHealth.) Three hundred times four thousand is--but perhaps you can\ncipher it yourself. I could do it ordinarily, but I fell down yesterday\nand hurt my leg. Cipher it; you will see that it is a grand sum for a\nwoman to earn in seven years. Yet that was not all she got out of her\ncollege in the seven.\n\nAt the time that she was charging the primary student three hundred\ndollars for twelve lessons she was not content with this tidy\nassessment, but had other ways of plundering him. By advertisement she\noffered him privileges whereby he could add eighteen lessons to his\nstore for five hundred dollars more. That is to say, he could get a\ntotal of thirty lessons in her college for eight hundred dollars.\n\nFour thousand times eight hundred is--but it is a difficult sum for a\ncripple who has not been \u201cdemonstrated over\u201d to cipher; let it go.\nShe taught \u201cover\u201d four thousand students in seven years. \u201cOver\u201d is not\ndefinite, but it probably represents a non-paying surplus of learners\nover and above the paying four thousand. Charity students, doubtless. I\nthink that as interesting an advertisement as has been printed since the\nromantic old days of the other buccaneers is this one from the Christian\nScience Journal for September, 1886:\n\n\n\u201cMASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE\n\n\u201cRev. MARY BAKER G. EDDY, PRESIDENT\n\n\u201c571 Columbus Avenue, Boston\n\n\u201cThe collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysical healing\nincludes twelve lessons. Tuition, three hundred dollars.\n\n\u201cCourse in metaphysical obstetrics includes six daily lectures, and is\nopen only to students from this college. Tuition, one hundred dollars.\n\n\u201cClass in theology, open (like the above) to graduates, receives six\nadditional lectures on the Scriptures, and summary of the principle and\npractice of Christian Science, two hundred dollars.\n\n\u201cNormal class is open to those who have taken the first course at this\ncollege; six daily lectures complete the Normal course. Tuition, two\nhundred dollars.\n\n\u201cNo invalids, and only persons of good moral character, are accepted\nas students. All students are subject to examination and rejection; and\nthey are liable to leave the class if found unfit to remain in it.\n\n\u201cA limited number of clergymen received free of charge.\n\n\u201cLargest discount to indigent students, one hundred dollars on the first\ncourse.\n\n\u201cNo deduction on the others.\n\n\u201cHusband and wife, entered together, three hundred dollars.\n\n\u201cTuition for all strictly in advance.\u201d\n\nThere it is--the horse-leech's daughter alive again, after a\nthree-century vacation. Fifty or sixty hours' lecturing for eight\nhundred dollars.\n\nI was in error as to one matter: there are no charity students.\nGratis-taught clergymen must not be placed under that head; they are\nmerely an advertisement. Pauper students can get into the infant class\non a two-third rate (cash in advance), but not even an archangel can get\ninto the rest of the game at anything short of par, cash down. For it is\n\u201cin the spirit of Christ's charity, as one who is joyful to hear healing\nto the sick\u201d that Mrs. Eddy is working the game. She sends the healing\nto them outside. She cannot bear it to them inside the college, for the\nreason that she does not allow a sick candidate to get in. It is true\nthat this smells of inconsistency, but that is nothing; Mrs. Eddy\nwould not be Mrs. Eddy if she should ever chance to be consistent about\nanything two days running.\n\nExcept in the matter of the Dollar. The Dollar, and appetite for power\nand notoriety. English must also be added; she is always consistent,\nshe is always Mrs. Eddy, in her English: it is always and consistently\nconfused and crippled and poor. She wrote the Advertisement; her\nliterary trade-marks are there. When she says all \u201cstudents\u201d are subject\nto examination, she does not mean students, she means candidates for\nthat lofty place When she says students are \u201cliable\u201d to leave the class\nif found unfit to remain in it, she does not mean that if they find\nthemselves unfit, or be found unfit by others, they will be likely to\nask permission to leave the class; she means that if she finds them\nunfit she will be \u201cliable\u201d to fire them out. When she nobly offers\n\u201ctuition for all strictly in advance,\u201d she does not mean \u201cinstruction\nfor all in advance-payment for it later.\u201d No, that is only what she\nsays, it is not what she means. If she had written Science and Health,\nthe oldest man in the world would not be able to tell with certainty\nwhat any passage in it was intended to mean.\n\nHer Church was on its legs.\n\nShe was its pastor. It was prospering.\n\nShe was appointed one of a committee to draught By-laws for its\ngovernment. It may be observed, without overplus of irreverence, that\nthis was larks for her. She did all of the draughting herself. From the\nvery beginning she was always in the front seat when there was business\nto be done; in the front seat, with both eyes open, and looking sharply\nout for Number One; in the front seat, working Mortal Mind with fine\neffectiveness and giving Immortal Mind a rest for Sunday. When her\nChurch was reorganized, by-and-by, the By-laws were retained. She saw\nto that. In these Laws for the government of her Church, her empire, her\ndespotism, Mrs. Eddy's character is embalmed for good and all. I think\na particularized examination of these Church-laws will be found\ninteresting. And not the less so if we keep in mind that they were\n\u201cimpelled by a power not one's own,\u201d as she says--Anglice--the\ninspiration of God.\n\nIt is a Church \u201cwithout a creed.\u201d Still, it has one. Mrs. Eddy draughted\nit--and copyrighted it. In her own name. You cannot become a member of\nthe Mother-Church (nor of any Christian Science Church) without signing\nit. It forms the first chapter of the By-laws, and is called \u201cTenets.\u201d\n \u201cTenets of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist.\u201d It\nhas no hell in it--it throws it overboard.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PASTOR EMERITUS\n\nAbout the time of the reorganization, Mrs. Eddy retired from her\nposition of pastor of her Church, abolished the office of pastor in\nall branch Churches, and appointed her book, Science and Health, to be\npastor-universal. Mrs. Eddy did not disconnect herself from the office\nentirely, when she retired, but appointed herself Pastor Emeritus. It is\na misleading title, and belongs to the family of that phrase \u201cwithout\na creed.\u201d It advertises her as being a merely honorary official, with\nnothing to do, and no authority. The Czar of Russia is Emperor Emeritus\non the same terms. Mrs. Eddy was Autocrat of the Church before, with\nlimitless authority, and she kept her grip on that limitless authority\nwhen she took that fictitious title.\n\nIt is curious and interesting to note with what an unerring instinct the\nPastor Emeritus has thought out and forecast all possible encroachments\nupon her planned autocracy, and barred the way against them, in the\nBy-laws which she framed and copyrighted--under the guidance of the\nSupreme Being.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOARD OF DIRECTORS\n\nFor instance, when Article I. speaks of a President and Board of\nDirectors, you think you have discovered a formidable check upon the\npowers and ambitions of the honorary pastor, the ornamental pastor, the\nfunctionless pastor, the Pastor Emeritus, but it is a mistake. These\ngreat officials are of the phrase--family of the Church-Without-a-Creed\nand the Pastor-With-Nothing-to-Do; that is to say, of the family of\nLarge-Names-Which-Mean-Nothing. The Board is of so little consequence\nthat the By-laws do not state how it is chosen, nor who does it; but\nthey do state, most definitely, that the Board cannot fill a vacancy in\nits number \u201cexcept the candidate is approved by the Pastor Emeritus.\u201d\n\nThe \u201ccandidate.\u201d The Board cannot even proceed to an election until the\nPastor Emeritus has examined the list and squelched such candidates as\nare not satisfactory to her.\n\nWhether the original first Board began as the personal property of Mrs.\nEddy or not, it is foreseeable that in time, under this By-law, she\nwould own it. Such a first Board might chafe under such a rule as that,\nand try to legislate it out of existence some day. But Mrs. Eddy was\nawake. She foresaw that danger, and added this ingenious and effective\nclause:\n\n\u201cThis By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of\nMrs. Eddy, the Pastor Emeritus.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTHE PRESIDENT\n\nThe Board of Directors, or Serfs, or Ciphers, elects the President.\n\nOn these clearly worded terms: \u201cSubject to the approval of the Pastor\nEmeritus.\u201d\n\nTherefore She elects him.\n\nA long term can invest a high official with influence and power, and\nmake him dangerous. Mrs. Eddy reflected upon that; so she limits the\nPresident's term to a year. She has a capable commercial head, an\norganizing head, a head for government.\n\n\n\n\nTREASURER AND CLERK\n\nThere are a Treasurer and a Clerk. They are elected by the Board of\nDirectors. That is to say, by Mrs. Eddy.\n\nTheir terms of office expire on the first Tuesday in June of each year,\n\u201cor upon the election of their successors.\u201d They must be watchfully\nobedient and satisfactory to her, or she will elect and install their\nsuccessors with a suddenness that can be unpleasant to them. It goes\nwithout saying that the Treasurer manages the Treasury to suit Mrs.\nEddy, and is in fact merely Temporary Deputy Treasurer.\n\nApparently the Clerk has but two duties to perform: to read messages\nfrom Mrs. Eddy to First Members assembled in solemn Council, and provide\nlists of candidates for Church membership. The select body entitled\nFirst Members are the aristocracy of the Mother-Church, the Charter\nMembers, the Aborigines, a sort of stylish but unsalaried little\nCollege of Cardinals, good for show, but not indispensable. Nobody is\nindispensable in Mrs. Eddy's empire; she sees to that.\n\nWhen the Pastor Emeritus sends a letter or message to that little\nSanhedrin, it is the Clerk's \u201cimperative duty\u201d to read it \u201cat the place\nand time specified.\u201d Otherwise, the world might come to an end. These\nare fine, large frills, and remind us of the ways of emperors and such.\nSuch do not use the penny-post, they send a gilded and painted special\nmessenger, and he strides into the Parliament, and business comes to\na sudden and solemn and awful stop; and in the impressive hush that\nfollows, the Chief Clerk reads the document. It is his \u201cimperative\nduty.\u201d If he should neglect it, his official life would end. It is\nthe same with this Mother-Church Clerk; \u201cif he fail to perform this\nimportant function of his office,\u201d certain majestic and unshirkable\nsolemnities must follow: a special meeting \u201cshall\u201d be called; a member\nof the Church \u201cshall\u201d make formal complaint; then the Clerk \u201cshall\u201d be\n\u201cremoved from office.\u201d Complaint is sufficient, no trial is necessary.\n\nThere is something very sweet and juvenile and innocent and pretty about\nthese little tinsel vanities, these grave apings of monarchical fuss and\nfeathers and ceremony, here on our ostentatiously democratic soil. She\nis the same lady that we found in the Autobiography, who was so naively\nvain of all that little ancestral military riffraff that she had dug up\nand annexed. A person's nature never changes. What it is in childhood,\nit remains. Under pressure, or a change of interest, it can partially or\nwholly disappear from sight, and for considerable stretches of time, but\nnothing can ever permanently modify it, nothing can ever remove it.\n\n\n\n\nBOARD OF TRUSTEES\n\nThere isn't any--now. But with power and money piling up higher and\nhigher every day and the Church's dominion spreading daily wider and\nfarther, a time could come when the envious and ambitious could start\nthe idea that it would be wise and well to put a watch upon these\nassets--a watch equipped with properly large authority. By custom, a\nBoard of Trustees. Mrs. Eddy has foreseen that probability--for she is\na woman with a long, long look ahead, the longest look ahead that ever a\nwoman had--and she has provided for that emergency. In Art. I., Sec.\n5, she has decreed that no Board of Trustees shall ever exist in the\nMother-Church \u201cexcept it be constituted by the Pastor Emeritus.\u201d\n\nThe magnificence of it, the daring of it! Thus far, she is:\n\nThe Massachusetts Metaphysical College; Pastor Emeritus; President;\nBoard of Directors; Treasurer; Clerk; and future Board of Trustees;\n\nand is still moving onward, ever onward. When I contemplate her from\na commercial point of view, there are no words that can convey my\nadmiration of her.\n\n\n\n\nREADERS\n\nThese are a feature of first importance in the church-machinery of\nChristian Science. For they occupy the pulpit. They hold the place\nthat the preacher holds in the other Christian Churches. They hold that\nplace, but they do not preach. Two of them are on duty at a time--a man\nand a woman. One reads a passage from the Bible, the other reads\nthe explanation of it from Science and Health--and so they go on\nalternating. This constitutes the service--this, with choir-music. They\nutter no word of their own. Art. IV., Sec. 6, closes their mouths with\nthis uncompromising gag:\n\n\u201cThey shall make no remarks explanatory of the Lesson-Sermon at any time\nduring the service.\u201d\n\nIt seems a simple little thing. One is not startled by it at a first\nreading of it; nor at the second, nor the third. One may have to read it\na dozen times before the whole magnitude of it rises before the mind.\nIt far and away oversizes and outclasses the best business-idea yet\ninvented for the safe-guarding and perpetuating of a religion. If it had\nbeen thought of and put in force eighteen hundred and seventy years ago,\nthere would be but one Christian sect in the world now, instead of ten\ndozens of them.\n\nThere are many varieties of men in the world, consequently there are\nmany varieties of minds in its pulpits. This insures many differing\ninterpretations of important Scripture texts, and this in turn insures\nthe splitting up of a religion into many sects. It is what has happened;\nit was sure to happen.\n\nMrs. Eddy has noted this disastrous result of preaching, and has put up\nthe bars. She will have no preaching in her Church. She has explained\nall essential Scriptures, and set the explanations down in her book. In\nher belief her underlings cannot improve upon those explanations, and\nin that stern sentence \u201cthey shall make no explanatory remarks\u201d she has\nbarred them for all time from trying. She will be obeyed; there is no\nquestion about that.\n\nIn arranging her government she has borrowed ideas from various\nsources--not poor ones, but the best in the governmental market--but\nthis one is new, this one came out of no ordinary business-head, this\none must have come out of her own, there has been no other commercial\nskull in a thousand centuries that was equal to it. She has borrowed\nfreely and wisely, but I am sure that this idea is many times\nlarger than all her borrowings bulked together. One must respect the\nbusiness-brain that produced it--the splendid pluck and impudence that\nventured to promulgate it, anyway.\n\n\n\n\nELECTION OF READERS\n\nReaders are not taken at hap-hazard, any more than preachers are taken\nat hap-hazard for the pulpits of other sects. No, Readers are elected by\nthe Board of Directors. But--\n\n\u201cSection 3. The Board shall inform the Pas. for Emeritus of the names\nof candidates for Readers before they are elected, and if she objects to\nthe nomination, said candidates shall not be chosen.\u201d\n\nIs that an election--by the Board? Thus far I have not been able to\nfind out what that Board of Spectres is for. It certainly has no real\nfunction, no duty which the hired girl could not perform, no office\nbeyond the mere recording of the autocrat's decrees.\n\nThere are no dangerously long office-terms in Mrs. Eddy's government.\nThe Readers are elected for but one year. This insures their\nsubserviency to their proprietor.\n\nReaders are not allowed to copy out passages and read them from the\nmanuscript in the pulpit; they must read from Mrs. Eddy's book itself.\nShe is right. Slight changes could be slyly made, repeated, and in time\nget acceptance with congregations. Branch sects could grow out of these\npractices. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race, and how far to trust it. Her\nlimit is not over a quarter of an inch. It is all that a wise person\nwill risk.\n\nMrs. Eddy's inborn disposition to copyright everything, charter\neverything, secure the rightful and proper credit to herself for\neverything she does, and everything she thinks she does, and everything\nshe thinks, and everything she thinks she thinks or has thought or\nintends to think, is illustrated in Sec. 5 of Art. IV., defining the\nduties of official Readers--in church:\n\n\u201cNaming Book and Author. The Reader of Science and Health, with Key\nto the Scriptures, before commencing to read from this book, shall\ndistinctly announce its full title and give the author's name.\u201d\n\nOtherwise the congregation might get the habit of forgetting who\n(ostensibly) wrote the book.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ARISTOCRACY\n\nThis consists of First Members and their apostolic succession. It is a\nclose corporation, and its membership limit is one hundred. Forty will\nanswer, but if the number fall below that, there must be an election, to\nfill the grand quorum.\n\nThis Sanhedrin can't do anything of the slightest importance, but it\ncan talk. It can \u201cdiscuss.\u201d That is, it can discuss \u201cimportant questions\nrelative to Church members\u201d, evidently persons who are already Church\nmembers. This affords it amusement, and does no harm.\n\nIt can \u201cfix the salaries of the Readers.\u201d\n\nTwice a year it \u201cvotes on\u201d admitting candidates. That is, for Church\nmembership. But its work is cut out for it beforehand, by Art. IX.:\n\n\u201cEvery recommendation for membership In the Church 'shall be\ncountersigned by a loyal student of Mrs. Eddy's, by a Director of this\nChurch, or by a First Member.'\u201d\n\nAll these three classes of beings are the personal property of Mrs.\nEddy. She has absolute control of the elections.\n\nAlso it must \u201ctransact any Church business that may properly come before\nit.\u201d\n\n\u201cProperly\u201d is a thoughtful word. No important business can come before\nit. The By laws have attended to that. No important business goes before\nany one for the final word except Mrs. Eddy. She has looked to that.\n\nThe Sanhedrin \u201cvotes on\u201d candidates for admission to its own body. But\nis its vote worth any more than mine would be? No, it isn't. Sec. 4, of\nArt. V.--Election of First Members--makes this quite plain:\n\n\u201cBefore being elected, the candidates for First Members shall be\napproved by the Pastor Emeritus over her own signature.\u201d\n\nThus the Sanhedrin is the personal property of Mrs. Eddy. She owns it.\nIt has no functions, no authority, no real existence. It is another\nBoard of Shadows. Mrs. Eddy is the Sanhedrin herself.\n\nBut it is time to foot up again and \u201csee where we are at.\u201d Thus far,\nMrs. Eddy is:\n\nThe Massachusetts Metaphysical College; Pastor Emeritus, President;\nBoard of Directors; Treasurer; Clerk; Future Board of Trustees;\nProprietor of the Priesthood: Dictator of the Services; Proprietor of\nthe Sanhedrin. She has come far, and is still on her way.\n\n\n\n\nCHURCH MEMBERSHIP\n\nIn this Article there is another exhibition of a couple of the large\nfeatures of Mrs. Eddy's remarkable make-up: her business-talent and her\nknowledge of human nature.\n\nShe does not beseech and implore people to join her Church. She knows\nthe human race better than that. She gravely goes through the motions of\nreluctantly granting admission to the applicant as a favor to him. The\nidea is worth untold shekels. She does not stand at the gate of the fold\nwith welcoming arms spread, and receive the lost sheep with glad emotion\nand set up the fatted calf and invite the neighbor and have a time. No,\nshe looks upon him coldly, she snubs him, she says:\n\n\u201cWho are you? Who is your sponsor? Who asked you to come here? Go away,\nand don't come again until you are invited.\u201d\n\nIt is calculated to strikingly impress a person accustomed to Moody and\nSankey and Sam Jones revivals; accustomed to brain-turning appeals to\nthe unknown and unendorsed sinner to come forward and enter into the\njoy, etc.--\u201cjust as he is\u201d; accustomed to seeing him do it; accustomed\nto seeing him pass up the aisle through sobbing seas of welcome, and\nlove, and congratulation, and arrive at the mourner's bench and be\nreceived like a long-lost government bond.\n\nNo, there is nothing of that kind in Mrs. Eddy's system. She knows that\nif you wish to confer upon a human being something which he is not sure\nhe wants, the best way is to make it apparently difficult for him to get\nit--then he is no son of Adam if that apple does not assume an interest\nin his eyes which it lacked before. In time this interest can grow into\ndesire. Mrs. Eddy knows that when you cannot get a man to try--free of\ncost--a new and effective remedy for a disease he is afflicted with, you\ncan generally sell it to him if you will put a price upon it which he\ncannot afford. When, in the beginning, she taught Christian Science\ngratis (for good reasons), pupils were few and reluctant, and required\npersuasion; it was when she raised the limit to three hundred dollars\nfor a dollar's worth that she could not find standing room for the\ninvasion of pupils that followed.\n\nWith fine astuteness she goes through the motions of making it difficult\nto get membership in her Church. There is a twofold value in this\nsystem: it gives membership a high value in the eyes of the applicant;\nand at the same time the requirements exacted enable Mrs. Eddy to keep\nhim out if she has doubts about his value to her. A word further as to\napplications for membership:\n\n\u201cApplications of students of the Metaphysical College must be signed by\nthe Board of Directors.\u201d\n\nThat is safe. Mrs. Eddy is proprietor of that Board.\n\nChildren of twelve may be admitted if invited by \u201cone of Mrs. Eddy's\nloyal students, or by a First Member, or by a Director.\u201d\n\nThese sponsors are the property of Mrs. Eddy, therefore her Church is\nsafeguarded from the intrusion of undesirable children.\n\nOther Students. Applicants who have not studied with Mrs. Eddy can get\nin only \u201cby invitation and recommendation from students of Mrs. Eddy....\nor from members of the Mother-Church.\u201d\n\nOther paragraphs explain how two or three other varieties of applicants\nare to be challenged and obstructed, and tell us who is authorized to\ninvite them, recommend them endorse them, and all that.\n\nThe safeguards are definite, and would seem to be sufficiently\nstrenuous--to Mr. Sam Jones, at any rate. Not for Mrs. Eddy. She adds\nthis clincher:\n\n\u201cThe candidates be elected by a majority vote of the First Members\npresent.\u201d\n\nThat is the aristocracy, the aborigines, the Sanhedrin. It is Mrs.\nEddy's property. She herself is the Sanhedrin. No one can get into the\nChurch if she wishes to keep him out.\n\nThis veto power could some time or other have a large value for her,\ntherefore she was wise to reserve it.\n\nIt is likely that it is not frequently used. It is also probable that\nthe difficulties attendant upon getting admission to membership have\nbeen instituted more to invite than to deter, more to enhance the\nvalue of membership and make people long for it than to make it really\ndifficult to get. I think so, because the Mother. Church has many\nthousands of members more than its building can accommodate.\n\n\n\n\nAND SOME ENGLISH REQUIRED\n\nMrs. Eddy is very particular as regards one detail curiously so, for\nher, all things considered. The Church Readers must be \u201cgood English\nscholars\u201d; they must be \u201cthorough English scholars.\u201d\n\nShe is thus sensitive about the English of her subordinates for cause,\npossibly. In her chapter defining the duties of the Clerk there is an\nindication that she harbors resentful memories of an occasion when the\nhazy quality of her own English made unforeseen and mortifying trouble:\n\n\u201cUnderstanding Communications. Sec. 2. If the Clerk of this Church shall\nreceive a communication from the Pastor Emeritus which he does not fully\nunderstand, he shall inform her of this fact before presenting it to\nthe Church, and obtain a clear understanding of the matter--then act in\naccordance therewith.\u201d\n\nShe should have waited to calm down, then, but instead she added this,\nwhich lacks sugar:\n\n\u201cFailing to adhere to this By-law, the Clerk must resign.\u201d\n\nI wish I could see that communication that broke the camel's back.\nIt was probably the one beginning: \u201cWhat plague spot or bacilli were\ngnawing at the heart of this metropolis and bringing it on bended knee?\u201d\n and I think it likely that the kindly disposed Clerk tried to translate\nit into English and lost his mind and had to go to the hospital.\nThat Bylaw was not the offspring of a forecast, an intuition, it was\ncertainly born of a sorrowful experience. Its temper gives the fact\naway.\n\nThe little book of By-laws has manifestly been tinkered by one of Mrs.\nEddy's \u201cthorough English scholars,\u201d for in the majority of cases its\nmeanings are clear. The book is not even marred by Mrs. Eddy's peculiar\nspecialty--lumbering clumsinesses of speech. I believe the salaried\npolisher has weeded them all out but one. In one place, after referring\nto Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy goes on to say \u201cthe Bible and the\nabove-named book, with other works by the same author,\u201d etc.\n\nIt is an unfortunate sentence, for it could mislead a hasty or careless\nreader for a moment. Mrs. Eddy framed it--it is her very own--it bears\nher trade-mark. \u201cThe Bible and Science and Health, with other works by\nthe same author,\u201d could have come from no literary vacuum but the one\nwhich produced the remark (in the Autobiography): \u201cI remember reading,\nin my childhood, certain manuscripts containing Scriptural Sonnets,\nbesides other verses and enigmas.\u201d\n\nWe know what she means, in both instances, but a low-priced Clerk would\nnot necessarily know, and on a salary like his he could quite excusably\naver that the Pastor Emeritus had commanded him to come and make\nproclamation that she was author of the Bible, and that she was thinking\nof discharging some Scriptural sonnets and other enigmas upon the\ncongregation. It could lose him his place, but it would not be fair, if\nit happened before the edict about \u201cUnderstanding Communications\u201d was\npromulgated.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cREADERS\u201d AGAIN\n\nThe By-law book makes a showy pretence of orderliness and system, but it\nis only a pretence. I will not go so far as to say it is a harum-scarum\njumble, for it is not that, but I think it fair to say it is at least\njumbulacious in places. For instance, Articles III. and IV. set forth\nin much detail the qualifications and duties of Readers, she then\nskips some thirty pages and takes up the subject again. It looks\nlike slovenliness, but it may be only art. The belated By-law has a\nsufficiently quiet look, but it has a ton of dynamite in it. It makes\nall the Christian Science Church Readers on the globe the personal\nchattels of Mrs. Eddy. Whenever she chooses, she can stretch her long\narm around the world's fat belly and flirt a Reader out of his pulpit,\nthough he be tucked away in seeming safety and obscurity in a lost\nvillage in the middle of China:\n\n\u201cIn any Church. Sec. 2. The Pastor Emeritus of the Mother-Church shall\nhave the right (through a letter addressed to the individual and Church\nof which he is the Reader) to remove a Reader from this office in any\nChurch of Christ, Scientist, both in America and in foreign nations;\nor to appoint the Reader to fill any office belonging to the Christian\nScience denomination.\u201d\n\nShe does not have to prefer charges against him, she does not have to\nfind him lazy, careless, incompetent, untidy, ill-mannered, unholy,\ndishonest, she does not have to discover a fault of any kind in him,\nshe does not have to tell him nor his congregation why she dismisses and\ndisgraces him and insults his meek flock, she does not have to explain\nto his family why she takes the bread out of their mouths and turns them\nout-of-doors homeless and ashamed in a strange land; she does not have\nto do anything but send a letter and say: \u201cPack!--and ask no questions!\u201d\n\nHas the Pope this power?--the other Pope--the one in Rome. Has he\nanything approaching it? Can he turn a priest out of his pulpit and\nstrip him of his office and his livelihood just upon a whim, a caprice,\nand meanwhile furnishing no reasons to the parish? Not in America. And\nnot elsewhere, we may believe.\n\nIt is odd and strange, to see intelligent and educated people among\nus worshipping this self-seeking and remorseless tyrant as a God. This\nworship is denied--by persons who are themselves worshippers of Mrs.\nEddy. I feel quite sure that it is a worship which will continue during\nages.\n\nThat Mrs. Eddy wrote that amazing By-law with her own hand we have much\nbetter evidence than her word. We have her English. It is there. It\ncannot be imitated. She ought never to go to the expense of copyrighting\nher verbal discharges. When any one tries to claim them she should call\nme; I can always tell them from any other literary apprentice's at a\nglance. It was like her to call America a \u201cnation\u201d; she would call a\nsand-bar a nation if it should fall into a sentence in which she was\nspeaking of peoples, for she would not know how to untangle it and get\nit out and classify it by itself. And the closing arrangement of that\nBy-law is in true Eddysonian form, too. In it she reserves authority to\nmake a Reader fill any office connected with a Science church-sexton,\ngrave-digger, advertising-agent, Annex-polisher, leader of the choir,\nPresident, Director, Treasurer, Clerk, etc. She did not mean that.\nShe already possessed that authority. She meant to clothe herself with\npower, despotic and unchallengeable, to appoint all Science Readers to\ntheir offices, both at home and abroad. The phrase \u201cor to appoint\u201d\n is another miscarriage of intention; she did not mean \u201cor,\u201d she meant\n\u201cand.\u201d\n\n\nThat By-law puts into Mrs. Eddy's hands absolute command over the most\nformidable force and influence existent in the Christian Science kingdom\noutside of herself, and it does this unconditionally and (by auxiliary\nforce of Laws already quoted) irrevocably. Still, she is not quite\nsatisfied. Something might happen, she doesn't know what. Therefore she\ndrives in one more nail, to make sure, and drives it deep:\n\n\u201cThis By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of\nthe Pastor Emeritus.\u201d\n\nLet some one with a wild and delirious fancy try and see if he can\nimagine her furnishing that consent.\n\n\n\n\nMONOPOLY OF SPIRITUAL BREAD\n\nVery properly, the first qualification for membership in the\nMother-Church is belief in the doctrines of Christian Science.\n\nBut these doctrines must not be gathered from secondary sources. There\nis but one recognized source. The candidate must be a believer in the\ndoctrines of Christian Science \u201caccording to the platform and teaching\ncontained in the Christian Science text-book, 'Science and Health, with\nKey to the Scriptures,' by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\nThat is definite, and is final. There are to be no commentaries, no\nlabored volumes of exposition and explanation by anybody except Mrs.\nEddy. Because such things could sow error, create warring opinions,\nsplit the religion into sects, and disastrously cripple its power. Mrs.\nEddy will do the whole of the explaining, Herself--has done it, in fact.\nShe has written several books. They are to be had (for cash in advance),\nthey are all sacred; additions to them can never be needed and will\nnever be permitted. They tell the candidate how to instruct himself,\nhow to teach others, how to do all things comprised in the business--and\nthey close the door against all would-be competitors, and monopolize the\ntrade:\n\n\u201cThe Bible and the above--named book [Science and Health], with\nother works by the same author,\u201d must be his only text-books for the\ncommerce--he cannot forage outside.\n\nMrs. Eddy's words are to be the sole elucidators of the Bible and\nScience and Health--forever. Throughout the ages, whenever there is\ndoubt as to the meaning of a passage in either of these books the\ninquirer will not dream of trying to explain it to himself; he would\nshudder at the thought of such temerity, such profanity, he would be\nhaled to the Inquisition and thence to the public square and the stake\nif he should be caught studying into text-meanings on his own hook; he\nwill be prudent and seek the meanings at the only permitted source, Mrs.\nEddy's commentaries.\n\nValue of this Strait-jacket. One must not underrate the magnificence\nof this long-headed idea, one must not underestimate its giant\npossibilities in the matter of trooping the Church solidly together and\nkeeping it so. It squelches independent inquiry, and makes such a thing\nimpossible, profane, criminal, it authoritatively settles every dispute\nthat can arise. It starts with finality--a point which the Roman Church\nhas travelled towards fifteen or sixteen centuries, stage by stage,\nand has not yet reached. The matter of the Immaculate Conception of\nthe Virgin Mary was not authoritatively settled until the days of Pius\nIX.--yesterday, so to speak.\n\nAs already noticed, the Protestants are broken up into a long array of\nsects, a result of disputes about the meanings of texts, disputes made\nunavoidable by the absence of an infallible authority to submit doubtful\npassages to. A week or two ago (I am writing in the middle of January,\n1903), the clergy and others hereabouts had a warm dispute in the papers\nover this question: Did Jesus anywhere claim to be God? It seemed an\neasy question, but it turned out to be a hard one. It was ably and\nelaborately discussed, by learned men of several denominations, but in\nthe end it remained unsettled.\n\nA week ago, another discussion broke out. It was over this text:\n\n\u201cSell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor.\u201d\n\nOne verdict was worded as follows:\n\n\u201cWhen Christ answered the rich young man and said for him to give to the\npoor all he possessed or he could not gain everlasting life, He did not\nmean it in the literal sense. My interpretation of His words is that we\nshould part with what comes between us and Christ.\n\n\u201cThere is no doubt that Jesus believed that the rich young man thought\nmore of his wealth than he did of his soul, and, such being the case, it\nwas his duty to give up the wealth.\n\n\u201cEvery one of us knows that there is something we should give up for\nChrist. Those who are true believers and followers know what they have\ngiven up, and those who are not yet followers know down in their hearts\nwhat they must give up.\u201d\n\nTen clergymen of various denominations were interviewed, and nine of\nthem agreed with that verdict. That did not settle the matter, because\nthe tenth said the language of Jesus was so strait and definite that it\nexplained itself: \u201cSell all,\u201d not a percentage.\n\nThere is a most unusual feature about that dispute: the nine persons\nwho decided alike, quoted not a single authority in support of their\nposition. I do not know when I have seen trained disputants do the like\nof that before. The nine merely furnished their own opinions, founded\nupon--nothing at all. In the other dispute (\u201cDid Jesus anywhere claim to\nbe God?\u201d) the same kind of men--trained and learned clergymen--backed up\ntheir arguments with chapter and verse. On both sides. Plenty of verses.\nWere no reinforcing verses to be found in the present case? It looks\nthat way.\n\nThe opinion of the nine seems strange to me, for it is unsupported\nby authority, while there was at least constructive authority for the\nopposite view.\n\nIt is hair-splitting differences of opinion over disputed text-meanings\nthat have divided into many sects a once united Church. One may\ninfer from some of the names in the following list that some of\nthe differences are very slight--so slight as to be not distinctly\nimportant, perhaps--yet they have moved groups to withdraw from\ncommunions to which they belonged and set up a sect of their own. The\nlist--accompanied by various Church statistics for 1902, compiled by\nRev. Dr. H. K. Carroll--was published, January 8, 1903, in the New York\nChristian Advocate:\n\nAdventists (6 bodies), Baptists (13 bodies), Brethren (Plymouth) (4\nbodies), Brethren (River) (3 bodies), Catholics (8 bodies), Catholic\nApostolic, Christadelphians, Christian Connection, Christian Catholics,\nChristian Missionary Association, Christian Scientists, Church of God\n(Wine-brennarian), Church of the New Jerusalem, Congregationalists,\nDisciples of Christ, Dunkards (4 bodies), Evangelical (2 bodies),\nFriends (4 bodies), Friends of the Temple, German Evangelical\nProtestant, German Evangelical Synod, Independent congregations, Jews (2\nbodies), Latter-day Saints (2 bodies), Lutherans (22 bodies), Mennonites\n(12 bodies), Methodists (17 bodies), Moravians, Presbyterians (12\nbodies), Protestant Episcopal (2 bodies), Reformed (3 bodies),\nSchwenkfeldians, Social Brethren, Spiritualists, Swedish Evangelical\nMiss. Covenant (Waldenstromians), Unitarians, United Brethren (2\nbodies), Universalists.\n\nTotal of sects and splits--139.\n\nIn the present month (February), Mr. E. I. Lindh, A.M., has communicated\nto the Boston Transcript a hopeful article on the solution of the\nproblem of the \u201cdivided church.\u201d Divided is not too violent a term.\nSubdivided could have been permitted if he had thought of it. He came\nnear thinking of it, for he mentions some of the subdivisions himself:\n\u201cthe 12 kinds of Presbyterians, the 17 kinds of Methodists, the 13 kinds\nof Baptists, etc.\u201d He overlooked the 12 kinds of Mennonites and the 22\nkinds of Lutherans, but they are in Rev. Mr. Carroll's list. Altogether,\n76 splits under 5 flags. The Literary Digest (February 14th) is pleased\nwith Mr. Lindh's optimistic article, and also with the signs of the\ntimes, and perceives that \u201cthe idea of Church unity is in the air.\u201d\n\nNow, then, is not Mrs. Eddy profoundly wise in forbidding, for all time,\nall explanations of her religion except such as she shall let on to be\nher own?\n\nI think so. I think there can be no doubt of it. In a way, they will be\nher own; for, no matter which member of her clerical staff shall furnish\nthe explanations, not a line of them will she ever allow to be printed\nuntil she shall have approved it, accepted it, copyrighted it, cabbaged\nit. We may depend on that with a four-ace confidence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW INFALLIBILITY\n\nAll in proper time Mrs. Eddy's factory will take hold of that\nCommandment, and explain it for good and all. It may be that one member\nof the shift will vote that the word \u201call\u201d means all; it may be that ten\nmembers of the shift will vote that \u201call\u201d means only a percentage; but\nit is Mrs. Eddy, not the eleven, who will do the deciding. And if she\nsays it is percentage, then percentage it is, forevermore--and that\nis what I am expecting, for she doesn't sell all herself, nor any\nconsiderable part of it, and as regards the poor, she doesn't declare\nany dividend; but if she says \u201call\u201d means all, then all it is, to the\nend of time, and no follower of hers will ever be allowed to reconstruct\nthat text, or shrink it, or inflate it, or meddle with it in any way at\nall. Even to-day--right here in the beginning--she is the sole person\nwho, in the matter of Christian Science exegesis, is privileged to\nexploit the Spiral Twist. The Christian world has two Infallibles now.\n\nOf equal power? For the present only. When Leo XIII. passes to his rest\nanother Infallible will ascend his throne; others, and yet others, and\nstill others will follow him, and be as infallible as he, and decide\nquestions of doctrine as long as they may come up, all down the far\nfuture; but Mary Baker G. Eddy is the only Infallible that will ever\noccupy the Science throne. Many a Science Pope will succeed her, but\nshe has closed their mouths; they will repeat and reverently praise and\nadore her infallibilities, but venture none themselves. In her grave she\nwill still outrank all other Popes, be they of what Church they may.\nShe will hold the supremest of earthly titles, The Infallible--with\na capital T. Many in the world's history have had a hunger for such\nnuggets and slices of power as they might reasonably hope to grab out\nof an empire's or a religion's assets, but Mrs. Eddy is the only person\nalive or dead who has ever struck for the whole of them. For small\nthings she has the eye of a microscope, for large ones the eye of a\ntelescope, and whatever she sees, she wants. Wants it all.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SACRED POEMS\n\nWhen Mrs. Eddy's \u201csacred revelations\u201d (that is the language of the\nBy-laws) are read in public, their authorship must be named. The By-laws\ntwice command this, therefore we mention it twice, to be fair.\n\nBut it is also commanded that when a member publicly quotes \u201cfrom the\npoems of our Pastor Emeritus\u201d the authorship shall be named. For these\nare sacred, too. There are kindly people who may suspect a hidden\ngenerosity in that By-law; they may think it is there to protect the\nOfficial Reader from the suspicion of having written the poems himself.\nSuch do not know Mrs. Eddy. She does an inordinate deal of protecting,\nbut in no distinctly named and specified case in her history has Number\nTwo been the object of it. Instances have been claimed, but they have\nfailed of proof, and even of plausibility.\n\n\u201cMembers shall also instruct their students\u201d to look out and advertise\nthe authorship when they read those poems and things. Not on Mrs. Eddy's\naccount, but \u201cfor the good of our Cause.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHURCH EDIFICE\n\n1. Mrs. Eddy gave the land. It was not of much value at the time, but it\nis very valuable now. 2. Her people built the Mother-Church edifice on\nit, at a cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 3. Then they\ngave the whole property to her. 4. Then she gave it to the Board of\nDirectors. She is the Board of Directors. She took it out of one pocket\nand put it in the other. 5. Sec. 10 (of the deed). \u201cWhenever said\nDirectors shall determine that it is inexpedient to maintain preaching,\nreading, or speaking in said church in accordance with the terms of this\ndeed, they are authorized and required to reconvey forthwith said lot\nof land with the building thereon to Mary Baker G. Eddy, her heirs and\nassigns forever, by a proper deed of conveyance.\u201d\n\nShe is never careless, never slipshod, about a matter of business.\nOwning the property through her Board of Waxworks was safe enough, still\nit was sound business to set another grip on it to cover accidents,\nand she did it. Her barkers (what a curious name; I wonder if it is\ncopyrighted); her barkers persistently advertise to the public her\ngenerosity in giving away a piece of land which cost her a trifle, and\na two--hundred--and--fifty--thousand--dollar church which cost her\nnothing; and they can hardly speak of the unselfishness of it without\nbreaking down and crying; yet they know she gave nothing away, and never\nintended to. However, such is the human race. Often it does seem such a\npity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.\n\nSome of the hostiles think that Mrs. Eddy's idea in protecting this\nproperty in the interest of her heirs, and in accumulating a great money\nfortune, is, that she may leave her natural heirs well provided for when\nshe goes. I think it is a mistake. I think she is of late years giving\nherself large concern about only one interest-her power and glory, and\nthe perpetuation and worship of her Name--with a capital N. Her Church\nis her pet heir, and I think it will get her wealth. It is the torch\nwhich is to light the world and the ages with her glory.\n\nI think she once prized money for the ease and comfort it could bring,\nthe showy vanities it could furnish, and the social promotion it could\ncommand; for we have seen that she was born into the world with little\nways and instincts and aspirations and affectations that are duplicates\nof our own. I do not think her money-passion has ever diminished in\nferocity, I do not think that she has ever allowed a dollar that had no\nfriends to get by her alive, but I think her reason for wanting it\nhas changed. I think she wants it now to increase and establish and\nperpetuate her power and glory with, not to add to her comforts and\nluxuries, not to furnish paint and fuss and feathers for vain display.\nI think her ambitions have soared away above the fuss-and-feather stage.\nShe still likes the little shows and vanities--a fact which she\nexposed in a public utterance two or three days ago when she was not\nnoticing--but I think she does not place a large value upon them now.\nShe could build a mighty and far-shining brass-mounted palace if she\nwanted to, but she does not do it. She would have had that kind of an\nambition in the early scrabbling times. She could go to England to-day\nand be worshiped by earls, and get a comet's attention from the\nmillion, if she cared for such things. She would have gone in the early\nscrabbling days for much less than an earl, and been vain of it, and\nglad to show off before the remains of the Scotch kin. But those things\nare very small to her now--next to invisible, observed through the\ncloud-rack from the dizzy summit where she perches in these great days.\nShe does not want that church property for herself. It is worth but a\nquarter of a million--a sum she could call in from her far-spread flocks\nto-morrow with a lift of her hand. Not a squeeze of it, just a lift. It\nwould come without a murmur; come gratefully, come gladly. And if her\nglory stood in more need of the money in Boston than it does where her\nflocks are propagating it, she would lift the hand, I think.\n\nShe is still reaching for the Dollar, she will continue to reach for it;\nbut not that she may spend it upon herself; not that she may spend it\nupon charities; not that she may indemnify an early deprivation and\nclothe herself in a blaze of North Adams gauds; not that she may have\nnine breeds of pie for breakfast, as only the rich New-Englander can;\nnot that she may indulge any petty material vanity or appetite that once\nwas hers and prized and nursed, but that she may apply that Dollar to\nstatelier uses, and place it where it may cast the metallic sheen of her\nglory farthest across the receding expanses of the globe.\n\n\n\n\nPRAYER\n\nA brief and good one is furnished in the book of By-laws. The Scientist\nis required to pray it every day.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LORD'S PRAYER-AMENDED\n\nThis is not in the By-laws, it is in the first chapter of Science and\nHealth, edition of 1902. I do not find it in the edition of 1884. It\nis probable that it had not at that time been handed down. Science and\nHealth's (latest) rendering of its \u201cspiritual sense\u201d is as follows:\n\n\u201cOur Father-Mother God' all-harmonious, adorable One. Thy kingdom is\nwithin us, Thou art ever-present. Enable us to know--as in heaven, so\non earth--God is supreme. Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished\naffections. And infinite Love is reflected in love. And Love leadeth us\nnot into temptation, but delivereth from sin, disease, and death. For\nGod is now and forever all Life, Truth, and Love.\u201d\n\nIf I thought my opinion was desired and would be properly revered, I\nshould say that in my judgment that is as good a piece of carpentering\nas any of those eleven Commandment--experts could do with the material\nafter all their practice. I notice only one doubtful place. \u201cLead us not\ninto temptation\u201d seems to me to be a very definite request, and that the\nnew rendering turns the definite request into a definite assertion. I\nshall be glad to have that turned back to the old way and the marks of\nthe Spiral Twist removed, or varnished over; then I shall be satisfied,\nand will do the best I can with what is left. At the same time, I do\nfeel that the shrinkage in our spiritual assets is getting serious.\nFirst the Commandments, now the Prayer. I never expected to see these\nsteady old reliable securities watered down to this. And this is not\nthe whole of it. Last summer the Presbyterians extended the Calling and\nElection suffrage to nearly everybody entitled to salvation. They did\nnot even stop there, but let out all the unbaptized American infants\nwe had been accumulating for two hundred years and more. There are some\nthat believe they would have let the Scotch ones out, too, if they could\nhave done it. Everything is going to ruin; in no long time we shall have\nnothing left but the love of God.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW UNPARDONABLE SIN\n\n\u201cWorking Against the Cause. Sec. 2. If a member of this Church shall\nwork against the accomplishment of what the Discoverer and Founder of\nChristian Science understands is advantageous to the individual, to this\nChurch, and to the Cause of Christian Science\u201d--out he goes. Forever.\n\nThe member may think that what he is doing will advance the Cause,\nbut he is not invited to do any thinking. More than that, he is not\npermitted to do any--as he will clearly gather from this By-law. When a\nperson joins Mrs. Eddy's Church he must leave his thinker at home. Leave\nit permanently. To make sure that it will not go off some time or other\nwhen he is not watching, it will be safest for him to spike it. If he\nshould forget himself and think just once, the By-law provides that he\nshall be fired out-instantly-forever-no return.\n\n\u201cIt shall be the duty of this Church immediately to call a meeting, and\ndrop forever the name of this member from its records.\u201d\n\nMy, but it breathes a towering indignation!\n\nThere are forgivable offenses, but this is not one of them; there are\nadmonitions, probations, suspensions, in several minor cases; mercy is\nshown the derelict, in those cases he is gently used, and in time he can\nget back into the fold--even when he has repeated his offence. But let\nhim think, just once, without getting his thinker set to Eddy time,\nand that is enough; his head comes off. There is no second offence, and\nthere is no gate open to that lost sheep, ever again.\n\n\u201cThis rule cannot be changed, amended, or annulled, except by unanimous\nvote of all the First Members.\u201d\n\nThe same being Mrs. Eddy. It is naively sly and pretty to see her keep\nputting forward First Members, and Boards of This and That, and other\nbroideries and ruffles of her raiment, as if they were independent\nentities, instead of a part of her clothes, and could do things all by\nthemselves when she was outside of them.\n\nMrs. Eddy did not need to copyright the sentence just quoted, its\nEnglish would protect it. None but she would have shovelled that\ncomically superfluous \u201call\u201d in there.\n\nThe former Unpardonable Sin has gone out of service. We may frame the\nnew Christian Science one thus:\n\n\u201cWhatsoever Member shall think, and without Our Mother's permission act\nupon his think, the same shall be cut off from the Church forever.\u201d\n\nIt has been said that I make many mistakes about Christian Science\nthrough being ignorant of the spiritual meanings of its terminology.\nI believe it is true. I have been misled all this time by that word\nMember, because there was no one to tell me that its spiritual meaning\nwas Slave.\n\n\n\n\nAXE AND BLOCK\n\nThere is a By-law which forbids Members to practice hypnotism; the\npenalty is excommunication.\n\n1. If a member is found to be a mental practitioner--2. Complaint is to\nbe entered against him--3. By the Pastor Emeritus, and by none else;\n4. No member is allowed to make complaint to her in the matter; 5. Upon\nMrs. Eddy's mere \u201ccomplaint\u201d--unbacked by evidence or proof, and without\ngiving the accused a chance to be heard--his name shall be dropped from\nthis Church.\n\nMrs. Eddy has only to say a member is guilty--that is all. That ends\nit. It is not a case of he \u201cmay\u201d be cut off from Christian Science\nsalvation, it is a case of he \u201cshall\u201d be. Her serfs must see to it, and\nnot say a word.\n\nDoes the other Pope possess this prodigious and irresponsible power?\nCertainly not in our day.\n\nSome may be curious to know how Mrs. Eddy finds out that a member is\npracticing hypnotism, since no one is allowed to come before her throne\nand accuse him. She has explained this in Christian Science History,\nfirst and second editions, page 16:\n\n\u201cI possess a spiritual sense of what the malicious mental practitioner\nis mentally arguing which cannot be deceived; I can discern in the human\nmind thoughts, motives, and purposes, and neither mental arguments nor\npsychic power can affect this spiritual insight.\u201d\n\nA marvelous woman; with a hunger for power such as has never been seen\nin the world before. No thing, little or big, that contains any seed or\nsuggestion of power escapes her avaricious eye; and when once she gets\nthat eye on it, her remorseless grip follows. There isn't a Christian\nScientist who isn't ecclesiastically as much her property as if she had\nbought him and paid for him, and copyrighted him and got a charter.\nShe cannot be satisfied when she has handcuffed a member, and put a\nleg-chain and ball on him and plugged his ears and removed his thinker,\nshe goes on wrapping needless chains round and round him, just as a\nspider would. For she trusts no one, believes in no one's honesty,\njudges every one by herself. Although we have seen that she has absolute\nand irresponsible command over her spectral Boards and over every\nofficial and servant of her Church, at home and abroad, over every\nminute detail of her Church's government, present and future, and can\npurge her membership of guilty or suspected persons by various plausible\nformalities and whenever she will, she is still not content, but must\nset her queer mind to work and invent a way by which she can take a\nmember--any member--by neck and crop and fling him out without anything\nresembling a formality at all.\n\nShe is sole accuser and sole witness, and her testimony is final and\ncarries uncompromising and irremediable doom with it.\n\nThe Sole-Witness Court! It should make the Council of Ten and the\nCouncil of Three turn in their graves for shame, to see how little they\nknew about satanic concentrations of irresponsible power. Here we have\none Accuser, one Witness, one Judge, one Headsman--and all four bunched\ntogether in Mrs. Eddy, the Inspired of God, His Latest Thought to His\nPeople, New Member of the Holy Family, the Equal of Jesus.\n\nWhen a Member is not satisfactory to Mrs. Eddy, and yet is blameless in\nhis life and faultless in his membership and in his Christian Science\nwalk and conversation, shall he hold up his head and tilt his hat over\none ear and imagine himself safe because of these perfections? Why,\nin that very moment Mrs. Eddy will cast that spiritual X-ray of hers\nthrough his dungarees and say:\n\n\u201cI see his hypnotism working, among his insides--remove him to the\nblock!\u201d\n\nWhat shall it profit him to know it isn't so? Nothing. His testimony is\nof no value. No one wants it, no one will ask for it. He is not present\nto offer it (he does not know he has been accused), and if he were there\nto offer it, it would not be listened to.\n\nIt was out of powers approaching Mrs. Eddy's--though not equalling\nthem--that the Inquisition and the devastations of the Interdict grew.\nShe will transmit hers. The man born two centuries from now will think\nhe has arrived in hell; and all in good time he will think he knows it.\nVast concentrations of irresponsible power have never in any age been\nused mercifully, and there is nothing to suggest that the Christian\nScience Papacy is going to spend money on novelties.\n\nSeveral Christian Scientists have asked me to refrain from prophecy.\nThere is no prophecy in our day but history. But history is a\ntrustworthy prophet. History is always repeating itself, because\nconditions are always repeating themselves. Out of duplicated conditions\nhistory always gets a duplicate product.\n\n\n\n\nREADING LETTERS AT MEETINGS\n\nI wonder if there is anything a Member can do that will not raise Mrs.\nEddy's jealousy? The By-laws seem to hunt him from pillar to post all\nthe time, and turn all his thoughts and acts and words into sins against\nthe meek and lowly new deity of his worship. Apparently her jealousy\nnever sleeps. Apparently any trifle can offend it, and but one penalty\nappease it--excommunication. The By-laws might properly and reasonably\nbe entitled Laws for the Coddling and Comforting of Our Mother's Petty\nJealousies. The By-law named at the head of this paragraph reads its\ntransgressor out of the Church if he shall carry a letter from Mrs. Eddy\nto the congregation and forget to read it or fail to read the whole of\nit.\n\n\n\n\nHONESTY REQUISITE\n\nDishonest members are to be admonished; if they continue in dishonest\npractices, excommunication follows. Considering who it is that draughted\nthis law, there is a certain amount of humor in it.\n\n\n\n\nFURTHER APPLICATIONS OF THE AXE\n\nHere follow the titles of some more By-laws whose infringement is\npunishable by excommunication:\n\n\nSilence Enjoined. Misteaching. Departure from Tenets. Violation of\nChristian Fellowship. Moral Offences. Illegal Adoption. Broken By-laws.\nViolation of By-laws. (What is the difference?) Formulas Forbidden.\nOfficial Advice. (Forbids Tom, Dick, and Harry's clack.) Unworthy of\nMembership. Final Excommunication. Organizing Churches.\n\nThis looks as if Mrs. Eddy had devoted a large share of her time and\ntalent to inventing ways to get rid of her Church members. Yet in\nanother place she seems to invite membership. Not in any urgent way,\nit is true, still she throws out a bait to such as like notice and\ndistinction (in other words, the Human Race). Page 82:\n\n\u201cIt is important that these seemingly strict conditions be complied\nwith, as the names of the Members of the Mother-Church will be recorded\nin the history of the Church and become a part thereof.\u201d\n\nWe all want to be historical.\n\n\n\n\nMORE SELF-PROTECTIONS\n\nThe Hymnal. There is a Christian Science Hymnal. Entrance to it was\nclosed in 1898. Christian Science students who make hymns nowadays may\npossibly get them sung in the Mother-Church, \u201cbut not unless approved by\nthe Pastor Emeritus.\u201d Art. XXVII, Sec. 2.\n\nSolo Singers. Mrs. Eddy has contributed the words of three of the hymns\nin the Hymnal. Two of them appear in it six times altogether, each of\nthem being set to three original forms of musical anguish. Mrs. Eddy,\nalways thoughtful, has promulgated a By-law requiring the singing of one\nof her three hymns in the Mother Church \u201cas often as once each month.\u201d\n It is a good idea. A congregation could get tired of even Mrs. Eddy's\nmuse in the course of time, without the cordializing incentive of\ncompulsion. We all know how wearisome the sweetest and touchingest\nthings can become, through rep-rep-repetition, and still\nrep-rep-repetition, and more rep-rep-repetition-like \u201cthe sweet\nby-and-by, in the sweet by-and-by,\u201d for instance, and \u201cTah-rah-rah\nboom-de-aye\u201d; and surely it is not likely that Mrs. Eddy's machine has\nturned out goods that could outwear those great heart-stirrers, without\nthe assistance of the lash. \u201cO'er Waiting Harpstrings of the Mind\u201d is\npretty good, quite fair to middling--the whole seven of the stanzas--but\nrepetition would be certain to take the excitement out of it in the\ncourse of time, even if there were fourteen, and then it would sound\nlike the multiplication table, and would cease to save. The congregation\nwould be perfectly sure to get tired; in fact, did get tired--hence the\ncompulsory By-law. It is a measure born of experience, not foresight.\n\nThe By-laws say that \u201cif a solo singer shall neglect or refuse to sing\nalone\u201d one of those three hymns as often as once a month, and oftener if\nso directed by the Board of Directors--which is Mrs. Eddy--the singer's\nsalary shall be stopped. It is circumstantial evidence that some\nsoloists neglected this sacrament and others refused it. At least that\nis the charitable view to take of it. There is only one other view to\ntake: that Mrs. Eddy did really foresee that there would be singers\nwho would some day get tired of doing her hymns and proclaiming the\nauthorship, unless persuaded by a Bylaw, with a penalty attached. The\nidea could of course occur to her wise head, for she would know that a\nseven-stanza break might well be a calamitous strain upon a soloist, and\nthat he might therefore avoid it if unwatched. He could not curtail it,\nfor the whole of anything that Mrs. Eddy does is sacred, and cannot be\ncut.\n\n\n\n\nBOARD OF EDUCATION\n\nIt consists of four members, one of whom is President of it. Its members\nare elected annually. Subject to Mrs. Eddy's approval. Art. XXX., Sec.\n2.\n\nShe owns the Board--is the Board.\n\nMrs. Eddy is President of the Metaphysical College. If at any time she\nshall vacate that office, the Directors of the College (that is to say,\nMrs. Eddy) \u201cshall\u201d elect to the vacancy the President of the Board of\nEducation (which is merely re-electing herself).\n\nIt is another case of \u201cPastor Emeritus.\u201d She gives up the shadow of\nauthority, but keeps a good firm hold on the substance.\n\n\n\n\nPUBLIC TEACHERS\n\nApplicants for admission to this industry must pass a thorough three\ndays' examination before the Board of Education \u201cin Science and Health,\nchapter on 'Recapitulation'; the Platform of Christian Science; page 403\nof Christian Science Practice, from line second to the second paragraph\nof page 405; and page 488, second and third paragraphs.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nBOARD OF LECTURESHIP\n\nThe lecturers are exceedingly important servants of Mrs. Eddy, and she\nchooses them with great care. Each of them has an appointed territory\nin which to perform his duties--in the North, the South, the East, the\nWest, in Canada, in Great Britain, and so on--and each must stick to\nhis own territory and not forage beyond its boundaries. I think it goes\nwithout saying--from what we have seen of Mrs. Eddy--that no lecture is\ndelivered until she has examined and approved it, and that the lecturer\nis not allowed to change it afterwards.\n\nThe members of the Board of Lectureship are elected annually--\n\n\u201cSubject to the approval of Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nMISSIONARIES\n\nThere are but four. They are elected--like the rest of the\ndomestics--annually. So far as I can discover, not a single servant of\nthe Sacred Household has a steady job except Mrs. Eddy. It is plain that\nshe trusts no human being but herself.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BY-LAWS\n\nThe branch Churches are strictly forbidden to use them.\n\nSo far as I can see, they could not do it if they wanted to. The By-laws\nare merely the voice of the master issuing commands to the servants.\nThere is nothing and nobody for the servants to re-utter them to.\n\nThat useless edict is repeated in the little book, a few pages farther\non. There are several other repetitions of prohibitions in the book that\ncould be spared-they only take up room for nothing.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CREED It is copyrighted. I do not know why, but I suppose it is to\nkeep adventurers from some day claiming that they invented it, and\nnot Mrs. Eddy and that \u201cstrange Providence\u201d that has suggested so many\nclever things to her.\n\nNo Change. It is forbidden to change the Creed. That is important, at\nany rate.\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT\n\nI can understand why Mrs. Eddy copyrighted the early editions\nand revisions of Science and Health, and why she had a mania for\ncopyrighting every scrap of every sort that came from her pen in those\njejune days when to be in print probably seemed a wonderful distinction\nto her in her provincial obscurity, but why she should continue this\ndelirium in these days of her godship and her far-spread fame, I cannot\nexplain to myself. And particularly as regards Science and Health. She\nknows, now, that that Annex is going to live for many centuries; and so,\nwhat good is a fleeting forty-two-year copyright going to do it?\n\nNow a perpetual copyright would be quite another matter. I would like to\ngive her a hint. Let her strike for a perpetual copyright on that book.\nThere is precedent for it. There is one book in the world which bears\nthe charmed life of perpetual copyright (a fact not known to twenty\npeople in the world). By a hardy perversion of privilege on the part of\nthe lawmaking power the Bible has perpetual copyright in Great Britain.\nThere is no justification for it in fairness, and no explanation of it\nexcept that the Church is strong enough there to have its way, right\nor wrong. The recent Revised Version enjoys perpetual copyright, too--a\nstronger precedent, even, than the other one.\n\nNow, then, what is the Annex but a Revised Version itself? Which of\ncourse it is--Lord's Prayer and all. With that pair of formidable\nBritish precedents to proceed upon, what Congress of ours--\n\nBut how short-sighted I am. Mrs. Eddy has thought of it long ago. She\nthinks of everything. She knows she has only to keep her copyright of\n1902 alive through its first stage of twenty-eight years, and perpetuity\nis assured. A Christian Science Congress will reign in the Capitol then.\nShe probably attaches small value to the first edition (1875). Although\nit was a Revelation from on high, it was slim, lank, incomplete, padded\nwith bales of refuse rags, and puffs from lassoed celebrities to fill\nit out, an uncreditable book, a book easily sparable, a book not to\nbe mentioned in the same year with the sleek, fat, concise, compact,\ncompressed, and competent Annex of to-day, in its dainty flexible\ncovers, gilt--edges, rounded corners, twin screw, spiral twist,\ncompensation balance, Testament-counterfeit, and all that; a book just\nborn to curl up on the hymn-book-shelf in church and look just too sweet\nand holy for anything. Yes, I see now what she was copyrighting that\nchild for.\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION\n\nIt is true in matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. She\nthought of an organ, to disseminate the Truth as it was in Mrs. Eddy.\nStraightway she started one--the Christian Science Journal.\n\nIt is true--in matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. As\nsoon as she had got the Christian Science Journal sufficiently in debt\nto make its presence on the premises disagreeable to her, it occurred\nto her to make somebody a present of it. Which she did, along with\nits debts. It was in the summer of 1889. The victim selected was\nher Church--called, in those days, The National Christian Scientist\nAssociation.\n\nShe delivered this sorrow to those lambs as a \u201cgift\u201d in consideration of\ntheir \u201cloyalty to our great cause.\u201d\n\nAlso--still thinking of everything--she told them to retain Mr. Bailey\nin the editorship and make Mr. Nixon publisher. We do not know what it\nwas she had against those men; neither do we know whether she scored on\nBailey or not, we only know that God protected Nixon, and for that I am\nsincerely glad, although I do not know Nixon and have never even seen\nhim.\n\nNixon took the Journal and the rest of the Publishing Society's\nliabilities, and demonstrated over them during three years, then brought\nin his report:\n\n\u201cOn assuming my duties as publisher, there was not a dollar in the\ntreasury; but on the contrary the Society owed unpaid printing and\npaper bills to the amount of several hundred dollars, not to mention\na contingent liability of many more hundreds\u201d--represented by\nadvance--subscriptions paid for the Journal and the \u201cSeries,\u201d the which\ngoods Mrs. Eddy had not delivered. And couldn't, very well, perhaps, on\na Metaphysical College income of but a few thousand dollars a day, or a\nweek, or whatever it was in those magnificently flourishing times. The\nstruggling Journal had swallowed up those advance-payments, but its\n\u201cclaim\u201d was a severe one and they had failed to cure it. But Nixon cured\nit in his diligent three years, and joyously reported the news that he\nhad cleared off all the debts and now had a fat six thousand dollars in\nthe bank.\n\nIt made Mrs. Eddy's mouth water.\n\nAt the time that Mrs. Eddy had unloaded that dismal gift on to her\nNational Association, she had followed her inveterate custom: she had\ntied a string to its hind leg, and kept one end of it hitched to her\nbelt. We have seen her do that in the case of the Boston Mosque. When\nshe deeds property, she puts in that string-clause. It provides that\nunder certain conditions she can pull the string and land the property\nin the cherished home of its happy youth. In the present case she\nbelieved that she had made provision that if at any time the National\nChristian Science Association should dissolve itself by a formal vote,\nshe could pull.\n\nA year after Nixon's handsome report, she writes the Association that\nshe has a \u201cunique request to lay before it.\u201d It has dissolved, and she\nis not quite sure that the Christian Science Journal has \u201calready fallen\ninto her hands\u201d by that act, though it \u201cseems\u201d to her to have met with\nthat accident; so she would like to have the matter decided by a formal\nvote. But whether there is a doubt or not, \u201cI see the wisdom,\u201d she says,\n\u201cof again owning this Christian Science waif.\u201d\n\nI think that that is unassailable evidence that the waif was making\nmoney, hands down.\n\nShe pulled her gift in. A few years later she donated the Publishing\nSociety, along with its real estate, its buildings, its plant, its\npublications, and its money--the whole worth twenty--two thousand\ndollars, and free of debt--to--Well, to the Mother-Church!\n\nThat is to say, to herself. There is an account of it in the Christian\nScience Journal, and of how she had already made some other handsome\ngifts--to her Church--and others to--to her Cause besides \u201can almost\ncountless number of private charities\u201d of cloudy amount and otherwise\nindefinite. This landslide of generosities overwhelmed one of her\nliterary domestics. While he was in that condition he tried to express\nwhat he felt:\n\n\u201cLet us endeavor to lift up our hearts in thankfulness to... our Mother\nin Israel for these evidences of generosity and self-sacrifice that\nappeal to our deepest sense of gratitude, even while surpassing our\ncomprehension.\u201d\n\nA year or two later, Mrs. Eddy promulgated some By-laws of a\nself-sacrificing sort which assuaged him, perhaps, and perhaps enabled\nhis surpassed comprehension to make a sprint and catch up. These are to\nbe found in Art. XII., entitled.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING SOCIETY\n\nThis Article puts the whole publishing business into the hands of a\npublishing Board--special. Mrs. Eddy appoints to its vacancies.\n\nThe profits go semi-annually to the Treasurer of the Mother-Church. Mrs.\nEddy owns the Treasurer.\n\nEditors and publishers of the Christian Science Journal cannot be\nelected or removed without Mrs. Eddy's knowledge and consent.\n\nEvery candidate for employment in a high capacity or a low one, on the\nother periodicals or in the publishing house, must first be \u201caccepted\nby Mrs. Eddy as suitable.\u201d And \u201cby the Board of Directors\u201d--which is\nsurplusage, since Mrs. Eddy owns the Board.\n\nIf at any time a weekly shall be started, \u201cit shall be owned by The\nFirst Church of Christ, Scientist\u201d--which is Mrs. Eddy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nI think that any one who will carefully examine the By-laws (I have\nplaced all of the important ones before the reader), will arrive at the\nconclusion that of late years the master-passion in Mrs. Eddy's heart is\na hunger for power and glory; and that while her hunger for money still\nremains, she wants it now for the expansion and extension it can furnish\nto that power and glory, rather than what it can do for her towards\nsatisfying minor and meaner ambitions.\n\nI wish to enlarge a little upon this matter. I think it is quite clear\nthat the reason why Mrs. Eddy has concentrated in herself all powers,\nall distinctions, all revenues that are within the command of the\nChristian Science Church Universal is that she desires and intends\nto devote them to the purpose just suggested--the upbuilding of her\npersonal glory--hers, and no one else's; that, and the continuing of her\nname's glory after she shall have passed away. If she has overlooked a\nsingle power, howsoever minute, I cannot discover it. If she has found\none, large or small, which she has not seized and made her own, there is\nno record of it, no trace of it. In her foragings and depredations she\nusually puts forward the Mother-Church--a lay figure--and hides behind\nit. Whereas, she is in manifest reality the Mother-Church herself. It\nhas an impressive array of officials, and committees, and Boards of\nDirection, of Education, of Lectureship, and so on--geldings, every one,\nshadows, spectres, apparitions, wax-figures: she is supreme over them\nall, she can abolish them when she will; blow them out as she would a\ncandle. She is herself the Mother-Church. Now there is one By-law which\nsays that the Mother-Church:\n\n\u201cshall be officially controlled by no other church.\u201d\n\nThat does not surprise us--we know by the rest of the By-laws that that\nis a quite irrelevant remark. Yet we do vaguely and hazily wonder why\nshe takes the trouble to say it; why she wastes the words; what her\nobject can be--seeing that that emergency has been in so many, many\nways, and so effectively and drastically barred off and made impossible.\nThen presently the object begins to dawn upon us. That is, it does after\nwe have read the rest of the By-law three or four times, wondering\nand admiring to see Mrs. Eddy--Mrs. Eddy--Mrs. Eddy, of all\npersons--throwing away power!--making a fair exchange--doing a fair\nthing for once more, an almost generous thing! Then we look it through\nyet once more unsatisfied, a little suspicious--and find that it is\nnothing but a sly, thin make-believe, and that even the very title of it\nis a sarcasm and embodies a falsehood--\u201cself\u201d government:\n\n\u201cLocal Self-Government. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in\nBoston, Massachusetts, shall assume no official control of other\nchurches of this denomination. It shall be officially controlled by no\nother church.\u201d\n\nIt has a most pious and deceptive give-and-take air of perfect fairness,\nunselfishness, magnanimity--almost godliness, indeed. But it is all art.\n\n\nIn the By-laws, Mrs. Eddy, speaking by the mouth of her other self, the\nMother-Church, proclaims that she will assume no official control of\nother churches-branch churches. We examine the other By-laws, and they\nanswer some important questions for us:\n\n1. What is a branch Church? It is a body of Christian Scientists,\norganized in the one and only permissible way--by a member, in good\nstanding, of the Mother-Church, and who is also a pupil of one of Mrs.\nEddy's accredited students. That is to say, one of her properties. No\nother can do it. There are other indispensable requisites; what are\nthey?\n\n2. The new Church cannot enter upon its functions until its members have\nindividually signed, and pledged allegiance to, a Creed furnished by\nMrs. Eddy.\n\n3. They are obliged to study her books, and order their lives by them.\nAnd they must read no outside religious works.\n\n4. They must sing the hymns and pray the prayers provided by her, and\nuse no others in the services, except by her permission.\n\n5. They cannot have preachers and pastors. Her law.\n\n6. In their Church they must have two Readers--a man and a woman.\n\n7. They must read the services framed and appointed by her.\n\n8. She--not the branch Church--appoints those Readers.\n\n9. She--not the branch Church--dismisses them and fills the vacancies.\n\n10. She can do this without consulting the branch Church, and without\nexplaining.\n\n11. The branch Church can have a religious lecture from time to time. By\napplying to Mrs. Eddy. There is no other way.\n\n12. But the branch Church cannot select the lecturer. Mrs. Eddy does it.\n\n13. The branch Church pays his fee.\n\n14. The harnessing of all Christian Science wedding-teams, members\nof the branch Church, must be done by duly authorized and consecrated\nChristian Science functionaries. Her factory is the only one that makes\nand licenses them.\n\n[15. Nothing is said about christenings. It is inferable from this that\na Christian Science child is born a Christian Scientist and requires no\ntinkering.]\n\n[16. Nothing is said about funerals. It is inferable, then, that a\nbranch Church is privileged to do in that matter as it may choose.]\n\nTo sum up. Are any important Church-functions absent from the list? I\ncannot call any to mind. Are there any lacking ones whose exercise\ncould make the branch in any noticeable way independent of the Mother.\nChurch?--even in any trifling degree? I think of none. If the named\nfunctions were abolished would there still be a Church left? Would there\nbe even a shadow of a Church left? Would there be anything at all left?\neven the bare name?\n\nManifestly not. There isn't a single vital and essential Church-function\nof any kind, that is not named in the list. And over every one of them\nthe Mother-Church has permanent and unchallengeable control, upon\nevery one of them Mrs. Eddy has set her irremovable grip. She holds,\nin perpetuity, autocratic and indisputable sovereignty and control over\nevery branch Church in the earth; and yet says, in that sugary, naive,\nangel-beguiling way of hers, that the Mother-Church:\n\n\u201cshall assume no official control of other churches of this\ndenomination.\u201d\n\nWhereas in truth the unmeddled-with liberties of a branch Christian\nScience Church are but very, very few in number, and are these:\n\n1. It can appoint its own furnace-stoker, winters. 2. It can appoint\nits own fan-distributors, summers. 3. It can, in accordance with its own\nchoice in the matter, burn, bury, or preserve members who are pretending\nto be dead--whereas there is no such thing as death. 4. It can take up a\ncollection.\n\nThe branch Churches have no important liberties, none that give them an\nimportant voice in their own affairs. Those are all locked up, and Mrs.\nEddy has the key. \u201cLocal Self-Government\u201d is a large name and sounds\nwell; but the branch Churches have no more of it than have the privates\nin the King of Dahomey's army.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cMOTHER-CHURCH UNIQUE\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy, with an envious and admiring eye upon the solitary and\nrivalless and world-shadowing majesty of St. Peter's, reveals in her\nBy-laws her purpose to set the Mother-Church apart by itself in a\nstately seclusion and make it duplicate that lone sublimity under the\nWestern sky. The By-law headed \u201cMother-Church Unique\u201d says--\n\n\u201cIn its relation to other Christian Science churches, the Mother-Church\nstands alone.\n\n\u201cIt occupies a position that no other Church can fill.\n\n\u201cThen for a branch Church to assume such position would be disastrous to\nChristian Science,\n\n\u201cTherefore--\u201d\n\nTherefore no branch Church is allowed to have branches. There shall\nbe no Christian Science St. Peter's in the earth but just one--the\nMother-Church in Boston.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cNO FIRST MEMBERS\u201d\n\nBut for the thoughtful By-law thus entitled, every Science branch in the\nearth would imitate the Mother-Church and set up an aristocracy. Every\nlittle group of ground-floor Smiths and Furgusons and Shadwells and\nSimpsons that organized a branch would assume that great title, of\n\u201cFirst Members,\u201d along with its vast privileges of \u201cdiscussing\u201d the\nweather and casting blank ballots, and soon there would be such a\nlocust-plague of them burdening the globe that the title would lose its\nvalue and have to be abolished.\n\nBut where business and glory are concerned, Mrs. Eddy thinks of\neverything, and so she did not fail to take care of her Aborigines,\nher stately and exclusive One Hundred, her college of functionless\ncardinals, her Sanhedrin of Privileged Talkers (Limited). After taking\naway all the liberties of the branch Churches, and in the same breath\ndisclaiming all official control over their affairs, she smites them on\nthe mouth with this--the very mouth that was watering for those nobby\nground-floor honors--\n\n\u201cNo First Members. Branch Churches shall not organize with First\nMembers, that special method of organization being adapted to the\nMother-Church alone.\u201d\n\nAnd so, first members being prohibited, we pierce through the cloud\nof Mrs. Eddy's English and perceive that they must then necessarily\norganize with Subsequent Members. There is no other way. It will occur\nto them by-and-by to found an aristocracy of Early Subsequent Members.\nThere is no By-law against it.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cTHE\u201d\n\nI uncover to that imperial word. And to the mind, too, that conceived\nthe idea of seizing and monopolizing it as a title. I believe it is Mrs.\nEddy's dazzlingest invention. For show, and style, and grandeur, and\nthunder and lightning and fireworks it outclasses all the previous\ninventions of man, and raises the limit on the Pope. He can never put\nhis avid hand on that word of words--it is pre-empted. And copyrighted,\nof course. It lifts the Mother-Church away up in the sky, and\nfellowships it with the rare and select and exclusive little company of\nthe THE's of deathless glory--persons and things whereof history and\nthe ages could furnish only single examples, not two: the Saviour, the\nVirgin, the Milky Way, the Bible, the Earth, the Equator, the Devil,\nthe Missing Link--and now The First Church, Scientist. And by clamor of\nedict and By-law Mrs. Eddy gives personal notice to all branch Scientist\nChurches on this planet to leave that THE alone.\n\nShe has demonstrated over it and made it sacred to the Mother-Church:\n\n\u201cThe article 'The' must not be used before the titles of branch\nChurches--\n\n\u201cNor written on applications for membership in naming such churches.\u201d\n\nThose are the terms. There can and will be a million First Churches\nof Christ, Scientist, scattered over the world, in a million towns and\nvillages and hamlets and cities, and each may call itself (suppressing\nthe article), \u201cFirst Church of Christ. Scientist\u201d--it is permissible,\nand no harm; but there is only one The Church of Christ, Scientist, and\nthere will never be another. And whether that great word fall in the\nmiddle of a sentence or at the beginning of it, it must always have its\ncapital T.\n\nI do not suppose that a juvenile passion for fussy little worldly shows\nand vanities can furnish a match to this, anywhere in the history of\nthe nursery. Mrs. Eddy does seem to be a shade fonder of little special\ndistinctions and pomps than is usual with human beings.\n\nShe instituted that immodest \u201cThe\u201d with her own hand; she did not wait\nfor somebody else to think of it.\n\n\n\n\nA LIFE-TERM MONOPOLY\n\nThere is but one human Pastor in the whole Christian Science world; she\nreserves that exalted place to herself.\n\n\n\n\nA PERPETUAL ONE\n\nThere is but one other object in the whole Christian Science world\nhonored with that title and holding that office: it is her book, the\nAnnex--permanent Pastor of The First Church, and of all branch Churches.\n\nWith her own hand she draughted the By-laws which make her the only\nreally absolute sovereign that lives to-day in Christendom.\n\nShe does not allow any objectionable pictures to be exhibited in the\nroom where her book is sold, nor any indulgence in idle gossip there;\nand from the general look of that By-law I judge that a lightsome and\nimproper person can be as uncomfortable in that place as he could be in\nheaven.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SANCTUM SANCTORUM AND SACRED CHAIR\n\nIn a room in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, there is a museum\nof objects which have attained to holiness through contact with Mrs.\nEddy--among them an electrically lighted oil-picture of a chair which\nshe used to sit in--and disciples from all about the world go softly\nin there, in restricted groups, under proper guard, and reverently gaze\nupon those relics. It is worship. Mrs. Eddy could stop it if she was not\nfond of it, for her sovereignty over that temple is supreme.\n\nThe fitting-up of that place as a shrine is not an accident, nor a\ncasual, unweighed idea; it is imitated from age--old religious custom.\nIn Treves the pilgrim reverently gazes upon the Seamless Robe, and\nhumbly worships; and does the same in that other continental church\nwhere they keep a duplicate; and does likewise in the Church of the\nHoly Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, where memorials of the Crucifixion are\npreserved; and now, by good fortune we have our Holy Chair and things,\nand a market for our adorations nearer home.\n\nBut is there not a detail that is new, fresh, original? Yes, whatever\nold thing Mrs. Eddy touches gets something new by the contact--something\nnot thought of before by any one--something original, all her own, and\ncopyrightable. The new feature is self worship--exhibited in permitting\nthis shrine to be installed during her lifetime, and winking her sacred\neye at it.\n\nA prominent Christian Scientist has assured me that the Scientists do\nnot worship Mrs. Eddy, and I think it likely that there may be five or\nsix of the cult in the world who do not worship her, but she herself\nis certainly not of that company. Any healthy-minded person who will\nexamine Mrs. Eddy's little Autobiography and the Manual of By-laws\nwritten by her will be convinced that she worships herself; and that she\nbrings to this service a fervor of devotion surpassing even that which\nshe formerly laid at the feet of the Dollar, and equalling any which\nrises to the Throne of Grace from any quarter.\n\nI think this is as good a place as any to salve a hurt which I was the\nmeans of inflicting upon a Christian Scientist lately. The first third\nof this book was written in 1899 in Vienna. Until last summer I had\nsupposed that that third had been printed in a book which I published\nabout a year later--a hap which had not happened. I then sent the\nchapters composing it to the North American Review, but failed in one\ninstance, to date them. And so, in an undated chapter I said a lady told\nme \u201clast night\u201d so and so. There was nothing to indicate to the reader\nthat that \u201clast night\u201d was several years old, therefore the phrase\nseemed to refer to a night of very recent date. What the lady had told\nme was, that in a part of the Mother-Church in Boston she had seen\nScientists worshipping a portrait of Mrs. Eddy before which a light was\nkept constantly burning.\n\nA Scientist came to me and wished me to retract that \u201cuntruth.\u201d He said\nthere was no such portrait, and that if I wanted to be sure of it I\ncould go to Boston and see for myself. I explained that my \u201clast night\u201d\n meant a good while ago; that I did not doubt his assertion that there\nwas no such portrait there now, but that I should continue to believe it\nhad been there at the time of the lady's visit until she should retract\nher statement herself. I was at no time vouching for the truth of the\nremark, nevertheless I considered it worth par.\n\nAnd yet I am sorry the lady told me, since a wound which brings me no\nhappiness has resulted. I am most willing to apply such salve as I can.\nThe best way to set the matter right and make everything pleasant and\nagreeable all around will be to print in this place a description of the\nshrine as it appeared to a recent visitor, Mr. Frederick W. Peabody, of\nBoston. I will copy his newspaper account, and the reader will see that\nMrs. Eddy's portrait is not there now:\n\n\u201cWe lately stood on the threshold of the Holy of Holies of the\nMother-Church, and with a crowd of worshippers patiently waited for\nadmittance to the hallowed precincts of the 'Mother's Room.' Over the\ndoorway was a sign informing us that but four persons at a time would be\nadmitted; that they would be permitted to remain but five minutes only,\nand would please retire from the 'Mother's Room' at the ringing of the\nbell. Entering with three of the faithful, we looked with profane\neyes upon the consecrated furnishings. A show-woman in attendance\nmonotonously announced the character of the different appointments.\nSet in a recess of the wall and illumined with electric light was an\noil-painting the show-woman seriously declared to be a lifelike and\nrealistic picture of the Chair in which the Mother sat when she composed\nher 'inspired' work. It was a picture of an old-fashioned? country, hair\ncloth rocking-chair, and an exceedingly commonplace-looking table with a\npile of manuscript, an ink-bottle, and pen conspicuously upon it. On\nthe floor were sheets of manuscript. 'The mantel-piece is of pure onyx,'\ncontinued the show-woman, 'and the beehive upon the window-sill is made\nfrom one solid block of onyx; the rug is made of a hundred breasts of\neider-down ducks, and the toilet-room you see in the corner is of the\nlatest design, with gold-plated drain-pipes; the painted windows are\nfrom the Mother's poem, \u201cChrist and Christmas,\u201d and that case contains\ncomplete copies of all the Mother's books.' The chairs upon which the\nsacred person of the Mother had reposed were protected from sacrilegious\ntouch by a broad band of satin ribbon. My companions expressed their\nadmiration in subdued and reverent tones, and at the tinkling of the\nbell we reverently tiptoed out of the room to admit another delegation\nof the patient waiters at the door.\u201d\n\nNow, then, I hope the wound is healed. I am willing to relinquish the\nportrait, and compromise on the Chair. At the same time, if I were going\nto worship either, I should not choose the Chair.\n\nAs a picturesquely and persistently interesting personage, there is no\nmate to Mrs. Eddy, the accepted Equal of the Saviour. But some of her\ntastes are so different from His! I find it quite impossible to imagine\nHim, in life, standing sponsor for that museum there, and taking\npleasure in its sumptuous shows. I believe He would put that Chair in\nthe fire, and the bell along with it; and I think He would make the\nshow-woman go away. I think He would break those electric bulbs, and the\n\u201cmantel-piece of pure onyx,\u201d and say reproachful things about the golden\ndrain-pipes of the lavatory, and give the costly rug of duck-breasts to\nthe poor, and sever the satin ribbon and invite the weary to rest and\nease their aches in the consecrated chairs. What He would do with the\npainted windows we can better conjecture when we come presently to\nexamine their peculiarities.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PASTOR-UNIVERSAL\n\nWhen Mrs. Eddy turned the pastors out of all the Christian Science\nchurches and abolished the office for all time as far as human occupancy\nis concerned--she appointed the Holy Ghost to fill their place. If this\nlanguage be blasphemous, I did not invent the blasphemy, I am merely\nstating a fact. I will quote from page 227 of Science and Health\n(edition 1899), as a first step towards an explanation of this startling\nmatter--a passage which sets forth and classifies the Christian Science\nTrinity:\n\n\u201cLife, Truth, and Love constitute the triune God, or triply divine\nPrinciple. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one--the same in\nessence, though multiform in office: God the Father; Christ the type of\nSonship; Divine Science, or the Holy Comforter....\n\n\u201cThe Holy Ghost, or Spirit, reveals this triune Principle, and (the Holy\nGhost) is expressed in Divine Science, which is the Comforter,\nleading into all Truth, and revealing the divine Principle of the\nuniverse--universal and perpetual harmony.\u201d\n\nI will cite another passage. Speaking of Jesus--\n\n\u201cHis students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by\nall they had witnessed and suffered they were roused to an enlarged\nunderstanding of Divine Science, even to the spiritual interpretation..\n... of His teachings,\u201d etc.\n\nAlso, page 579, in the chapter called the Glossary:\n\n\u201cHOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the developments of Life, Truth, and Love.\u201d\n\nThe Holy Ghost reveals the massed spirit of the fused trinity; this\nmassed spirit is expressed in Divine Science, and is the Comforter;\nDivine Science conveys to men the \u201cspiritual interpretation\u201d of\nthe Saviour's teachings. That seems to be the meaning of the quoted\npassages.\n\nDivine Science is Christian Science; the book \u201cScience and Health\u201d is a\n\u201crevelation\u201d of the whole spirit of the Trinity, and is therefore \u201cThe\nHoly Ghost\u201d; it conveys to men the \u201cspiritual interpretation\u201d of the\nBible's teachings and therefore is \u201cthe Comforter.\u201d\n\nI do not find this analyzing work easy, I would rather saw wood; and a\nperson can never tell whether he has added up a Science and Health sum\nright or not, anyway, after all his trouble. Neither can he easily find\nout whether the texts are still on the market or have been discarded\nfrom the Book; for two hundred and fifty-eight editions of it have been\nissued, and no two editions seem to be alike. The annual changes--in\ntechnical terminology; in matter and wording; in transpositions of\nchapters and verses; in leaving out old chapters and verses and putting\nin new ones--seem to be next to innumerable, and as there is no index,\nthere is no way to find a thing one wants without reading the book\nthrough. If ever I inspire a Bible-Annex I will not rush at it in a\nhalf-digested, helter-skelter way and have to put in thirty-eight years\ntrying to get some of it the way I want it, I will sit down and think it\nout and know what it is I want to say before I begin. An inspirer cannot\ninspire for Mrs. Eddy and keep his reputation. I have never seen such\nslipshod work, bar the ten that interpreted for the home market the\n\u201csell all thou hast.\u201d I have quoted one \u201cspiritual\u201d rendering of the\nLord's Prayer, I have seen one other one, and am told there are\nfive more. Yet the inspirer of Mrs. Eddy the new Infallible casts a\ncomplacent critical stone at the other Infallible for being unable to\nmake up its mind about such things. Science and Health, edition 1899,\npage 33:\n\n\u201cThe decisions, by vote of Church Councils, as to what should and\nshould not be considered Holy Writ, the manifest mistakes in the ancient\nversions: the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament\nand the three hundred thousand in the New--these facts show how a mortal\nand material sense stole into the divine record, darkening, to some\nextent, the inspired pages with its own hue.\u201d\n\nTo some extent, yes--speaking cautiously. But it is nothing, really\nnothing; Mrs. Eddy is only a little way behind, and if her inspirer\nlives to get her Annex to suit him that Catholic record will have to \u201cgo\n'way back and set down,\u201d as the ballad says. Listen to the boastful song\nof Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science Journal for March, 1902,\nabout that year's revamping and half-soling of Science and Health,\nwhose official name is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and who is now\nthe Official Pastor and Infallible and Unerring Guide of every Christian\nScience church in the two hemispheres, hear Simple Simon that met the\npieman brag of the Infallible's fallibility:\n\n\u201cThroughout the entire book the verbal changes are so numerous as to\nindicate the vast amount of time and labor Mrs. Eddy has devoted to this\nrevision. The time and labor thus bestowed is relatively as great as\nthat of--the committee who revised the Bible.... Thus we have additional\nevidence of the herculean efforts our beloved Leader has made and is\nconstantly making for the promulgation of Truth and the furtherance of\nher divinely bestowed mission,\u201d etc.\n\nIt is a steady job. I could help inspire if desired; I am not doing\nmuch now, and would work for half-price, and should not object to the\ncountry.\n\n\n\n\nPRICE OF THE PASTOR-UNIVERSAL\n\nThe price of the Pastor-Universal, Science and Health, called in Science\nliterature the Comforter--and by that other sacred Name--is three\ndollars in cloth, as heretofore, six when it is finely bound, and shaped\nto imitate the Testament, and is broken into verses. Margin of profit\nabove cost of manufacture, from five hundred to seven hundred per\ncent., as already noted In the profane subscription-trade, it costs\nthe publisher heavily to canvass a three-dollar book; he must pay the\ngeneral agent sixty per cent. commission--that is to say, one dollar and\neighty-cents. Mrs. Eddy escapes this blistering tax, because she owns\nthe Christian Science canvasser, and can compel him to work for nothing.\nRead the following command--not request--fulminated by Mrs. Eddy, over\nher signature, in the Christian Science Journal for March, 1897, and\nquoted by Mr. Peabody in his book. The book referred to is Science and\nHealth:\n\n\u201cIt shall be the duty of all Christian Scientists to circulate and to\nsell as many of these books as they can.\u201d\n\nThat is flung at all the elect, everywhere that the sun shines, but no\npenalty is shaken over their heads to scare them. The same command was\nissued to the members (numbering to-day twenty-five thousand) of The\nMother-Church, also, but with it went a threat, of the infliction, in\ncase of disobedience, of the most dreaded punishment that has a place\nin the Church's list of penalties for transgressions of Mrs. Eddy's\nedicts--excommunication:\n\n\u201cIf a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, shall fail to\nobey this injunction, it will render him liable to lose his membership\nin this Church. MARY BAKER EDDY.\u201d\n\nIt is the spirit of the Spanish Inquisition.\n\nNone but accepted and well established gods can venture an affront like\nthat and do it with confidence. But the human race will take anything\nfrom that class. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race; knows it better than\nany mere human being has known it in a thousand centuries. My confidence\nin her human-beingship is getting shaken, my confidence in her godship\nis stiffening.\n\n\n\n\nSEVEN HUNDRED PER CENT.\n\nA Scientist out West has visited a bookseller--with intent to find fault\nwith me--and has brought away the information that the price at which\nMrs. Eddy sells Science and Health is not an unusually high one for the\nsize and make of the book. That is true. But in the book-trade--that\nprofit-devourer unknown to Mrs. Eddy's book--a three-dollar book that\nis made for thirty-five or forty cents in large editions is put at\nthree dollars because the publisher has to pay author, middleman, and\nadvertising, and if the price were much below three the profit accruing\nwould not pay him fairly for his time and labor. At the same time, if\nhe could get ten dollars for the book he would take it, and his morals\nwould not fall under criticism.\n\nBut if he were an inspired person commissioned by the Deity to receive\nand print and spread broadcast among sorrowing and suffering and poor\nmen a precious message of healing and cheer and salvation, he would have\nto do as Bible Societies do--sell the book at a pinched margin above\ncost to such as could pay, and give it free to all that couldn't; and\nhis name would be praised. But if he sold it at seven hundred per cent.\nprofit and put the money in his pocket, his name would be mocked and\nderided. Just as Mrs. Eddy's is. And most justifiably, as it seems to\nme.\n\nThe complete Bible contains one million words. The New Testament by\nitself contains two hundred and forty thousand words.\n\nMy '84 edition of Science and Health contains one hundred and twenty\nthousand words--just half as many as the New Testament.\n\nScience and Health has since been so inflated by later inspirations that\nthe 1902 edition contains one hundred and eighty thousand words--not\ncounting the thirty thousand at the back, devoted by Mrs. Eddy to\nadvertising the book's healing abilities--and the inspiring continues\nright along.\n\nIf you have a book whose market is so sure and so great that you\ncan give a printer an everlasting order for thirty or forty or fifty\nthousand copies a year he will furnish them at a cheap rate, because\nwhenever there is a slack time in his press-room and bindery he can\nfill the idle intervals on your book and be making something instead\nof losing. That is the kind of contract that can be let on Science and\nHealth every year. I am obliged to doubt that the three-dollar Science\nand Health costs Mrs. Eddy above fifteen cents, or that the six dollar\ncopy costs her above eighty cents. I feel quite sure that the average\nprofit to her on these books, above cost of manufacture, is all of seven\nhundred per cent.\n\nEvery proper Christian Scientist has to buy and own (and canvass for)\nScience and Health (one hundred and eighty thousand words), and he must\nalso own a Bible (one million words). He can buy the one for from three\nto six dollars, and the other for fifteen cents. Or, if three dollars is\nall the money he has, he can get his Bible for nothing. When the Supreme\nBeing disseminates a saving Message through uninspired agents--the New\nTestament, for instance--it can be done for five cents a copy, but when\nHe sends one containing only two-thirds as many words through the shop\nof a Divine Personage, it costs sixty times as much. I think that\nin matters of such importance it is bad economy to employ a wild-cat\nagency.\n\nHere are some figures which are perfectly authentic, and which seem to\njustify my opinion.\n\n\u201cThese [Bible] societies, inspired only by a sense of religious duty,\nare issuing the Bible at a price so small that they have made it the\ncheapest book printed. For example, the American Bible Society offers an\nedition of the whole Bible as low as fifteen cents and the New Testament\nat five cents, and the British Society at sixpence and one penny,\nrespectively. These low prices, made possible by their policy of selling\nthe books at cost or below cost,\u201d etc.--New York Sun, February 25, 1903.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nWe may now make a final footing-up of Mrs. Eddy, and see what she is, in\nthe fulness of her powers. She is:\n\nThe Massachusetts Metaphysical College Pastor Emeritus; President; Board\nof Directors; Board of Education; Board of Lectureships; Future Board of\nTrustees, Proprietor of the Publishing-House and Periodicals; Treasurer;\nClerk; Proprietor of the Teachers; Proprietor of the Lecturers;\nProprietor of the Missionaries; Proprietor of the Readers; Dictator of\nthe Services; sole Voice of the Pulpit; Proprietor of the Sanhedrin;\nSole Proprietor of the Creed. (Copyrighted.); Indisputable Autocrat\nof the Branch Churches, with their life and death in her hands; Sole\nThinker for The First Church (and the others); Sole and Infallible\nExpounder of Doctrine, in life and in death; Sole permissible\nDiscoverer, Denouncer, Judge, and Executioner of Ostensible Hypnotists;\nFifty-handed God of Excommunication--with a thunderbolt in every hand;\nAppointer and Installer of the Pastor of all the Churches--the Perpetual\nPastor-Universal, Science and Health, \u201cthe Comforter.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nThere she stands-painted by herself. No witness but herself has been\nallowed to testify. She stands there painted by her acts, and decorated\nby her words. When she talks, she has only a decorative value as\na witness, either for or against herself, for she deals mainly in\nunsupported assertion; and in the rare cases where she puts forward a\nverifiable fact she gets out of it a meaning which it refuses to furnish\nto anybody else. Also, when she talks, she is unstable, she wanders,\nshe is incurably inconsistent; what she says to-day she contradicts\ntomorrow.\n\nBut her acts are consistent. They are always faithful to her, they never\nmisinterpret her, they are a mirror which always reflects her exactly,\nprecisely, minutely, unerringly, and always the same, to date, with only\nthose progressive little natural changes in stature, dress, complexion,\nmood, and carriage that mark--exteriorly--the march of the years and\nrecord the accumulations of experience, while--interiorly--through all\nthis steady drift of evolution the one essential detail, the commanding\ndetail, the master detail of the make-up remains as it was in the\nbeginning, suffers no change and can suffer none; the basis of the\ncharacter; the temperament, the disposition, that indestructible iron\nframework upon which the character is built, and whose shape it must\ntake, and keep, throughout life. We call it a person's nature.\n\nThe man who is born stingy can be taught to give liberally--with his\nhands; but not with his heart. The man born kind and compassionate\ncan have that disposition crushed down out of sight by embittering\nexperience; but if it were an organ the post-mortem would find it still\nin his corpse. The man born ambitious of power and glory may live long\nwithout finding it out, but when the opportunity comes he will know,\nwill strike for the largest thing within the limit of his chances at the\ntime-constable, perhaps--and will be glad and proud when he gets it,\nand will write home about it. But he will not stop with that start; his\nappetite will come again; and by-and-by again, and yet again; and when\nhe has climbed to police commissioner it will at last begin to dawn upon\nhim that what his Napoleon soul wants and was born for is something away\nhigher up--he does not quite know what, but Circumstance and Opportunity\nwill indicate the direction and he will cut a road through and find out.\n\nI think Mrs. Eddy was born with a far-seeing business-eye, but did not\nknow it; and with a great organizing and executive talent, and did not\nknow it; and with a large appetite for power and distinction, and did\nnot know it. I think the reason that her make did not show up until\nmiddle life was that she had General Grant's luck--Circumstance and\nOpportunity did not come her way when she was younger. The qualities\nthat were born in her had to wait for circumstance and opportunity--but\nthey were there: they were there to stay, whether they ever got a chance\nto fructify or not. If they had come early, they would have found her\nready and competent. And they--not she--would have determined what they\nwould set her at and what they would make of her. If they had elected to\ncommission her as second-assistant cook in a bankrupt boarding-house,\nI know the rest of it--I know what would have happened. She would have\nowned the boarding-house within six months; she would have had the late\nproprietor on salary and humping himself, as the worldly say; she would\nhave had that boarding-house spewing money like a mint; she would have\nworked the servants and the late landlord up to the limit; she would\nhave squeezed the boarders till they wailed, and by some mysterious\nquality born in her she would have kept the affections of certain of the\nlot whose love and esteem she valued, and flung the others down the back\narea; in two years she would own all the boarding-houses in the town, in\nfive all the boarding-houses in the State, in twenty all the hotels in\nAmerica, in forty all the hotels on the planet, and would sit at home\nwith her finger on a button and govern the whole combination as easily\nas a bench-manager governs a dog-show.\n\nIt would be a grand thing to see, and I feel a kind of\ndisappointment--but never mind, a religion is better and larger; and\nthere is more to it. And I have not been steeping myself in Christian\nScience all these weeks without finding out that the one sensible thing\nto do with a disappointment is to put it out of your mind and think of\nsomething cheerfuler.\n\nWe outsiders cannot conceive of Mrs. Eddy's Christian Science Religion\nas being a sudden and miraculous birth, but only as a growth from a seed\nplanted by circumstances, and developed stage by stage by command and\ncompulsion of the same force. What the stages were we cannot know, but\nare privileged to guess. She may have gotten the mental-healing idea\nfrom Quimby--it had been experimented with for ages, and was no one's\nspecial property. [For the present, for convenience' sake, let us\nproceed upon the hypothesis that that was all she got of him, and that\nshe put up the rest of the assets herself. This will strain us, but\nlet us try it.] In each and all its forms and under all its many names,\nmental healing had had limits, always, and they were rather narrow\nones--Mrs. Eddy, let us imagine, removed the fence, abolished the\nfrontiers. Not by expanding mental-healing, but by absorbing its small\nbulk into the vaster bulk of Christian Science--Divine Science, The Holy\nGhost, the Comforter--which was a quite different and sublimer force,\nand one which had long lain dormant and unemployed.\n\nThe Christian Scientist believes that the Spirit of God (life and love)\npervades the universe like an atmosphere; that whoso will study Science\nand Health can get from it the secret of how to inhale that transforming\nair; that to breathe it is to be made new; that from the new man all\nsorrow, all care, all miseries of the mind vanish away, for that only\npeace, contentment and measureless joy can live in that divine fluid;\nthat it purifies the body from disease, which is a vicious creation of\nthe gross human mind, and cannot continue to exist in the presence of\nthe Immortal Mind, the renewing Spirit of God.\n\nThe Scientist finds this reasonable, natural, and not harder to believe\nthan that the disease germ, a creature of darkness, perishes when\nexposed to the light of the great sun--a new revelation of profane\nscience which no one doubts. He reminds us that the actinic ray, shining\nupon lupus, cures it--a horrible disease which was incurable fifteen\nyears ago, and had been incurable for ten million years before; that\nthis wonder, unbelievable by the physicians at first, is believed by\nthem now; and so he is tranquilly confident that the time is coming when\nthe world will be educated up to a point where it will comprehend and\ngrant that the light of the Spirit of God, shining unobstructed upon the\nsoul, is an actinic ray which can purge both mind and body from disease\nand set them free and make them whole.\n\nIt is apparent, then, that in Christian Science it is not one man's mind\nacting upon another man's mind that heals; that it is solely the Spirit\nof God that heals; that the healer's mind performs no office but to\nconvey that force to the patient; that it is merely the wire which\ncarries the electric fluid, so to speak, and delivers the message.\nTherefore, if these things be true, mental-healing and Science-healing\nare separate and distinct processes, and no kinship exists between them.\n\nTo heal the body of its ills and pains is a mighty benefaction, but in\nour day our physicians and surgeons work a thousand miracles--prodigies\nwhich would have ranked as miracles fifty years ago--and they have so\ngreatly extended their domination over disease that we feel so well\nprotected that we are able to look with a good deal of composure and\nabsence of hysterics upon the claims of new competitors in that field.\n\nBut there is a mightier benefaction than the healing of the body, and\nthat is the healing of the spirit--which is Christian Science's other\nclaim. So far as I know, so far as I can find out, it makes it good.\nPersonally I have not known a Scientist who did not seem serene,\ncontented, unharassed. I have not found an outsider whose observation\nof Scientists furnished him a view that differed from my own. Buoyant\nspirits, comfort of mind, freedom from care these happinesses we all\nhave, at intervals; but in the spaces between, dear me, the black hours!\nThey have put a curse upon the life of every human being I have ever\nknown, young or old. I concede not a single exception. Unless it might\nbe those Scientists just referred to. They may have been playing a part\nwith me; I hope they were not, and I believe they were not.\n\nTime will test the Science's claim. If time shall make it good; if time\nshall prove that the Science can heal the persecuted spirit of man and\nbanish its troubles and keep it serene and sunny and content--why, then\nMrs. Eddy will have a monument that will reach above the clouds. For if\nshe did not hit upon that imperial idea and evolve it and deliver it,\nits discoverer can never be identified with certainty, now, I think.\nIt is the giant feature, it is the sun that rides in the zenith of\nChristian Science, the auxiliary features are of minor consequence [Let\nus still leave the large \u201cif\u201d aside, for the present, and proceed as if\nit had no existence.]\n\nIt is not supposable that Mrs. Eddy realized, at first, the size of her\nplunder. (No, find--that is the word; she did not realize the size of\nher find, at first.) It had to grow upon her, by degrees, in accordance\nwith the inalterable custom of Circumstance, which works by stages, and\nby stages only, and never furnishes any mind with all the materials for\na large idea at one time.\n\nIn the beginning, Mrs. Eddy was probably interested merely in the\nmental-healing detail, and perhaps mainly interested in it pecuniary,\nfor she was poor.\n\nShe would succeed in anything she undertook. She would attract pupils,\nand her commerce would grow. She would inspire in patient and pupil\nconfidence in her earnestness, her history is evidence that she would\nnot fail of that.\n\nThere probably came a time, in due course, when her students began to\nthink there was something deeper in her teachings than they had\nbeen suspecting--a mystery beyond mental-healing, and higher. It is\nconceivable that by consequence their manner towards her changed little\nby little, and from respectful became reverent. It is conceivable that\nthis would have an influence upon her; that it would incline her to\nwonder if their secret thought--that she was inspired--might not be a\nwell-grounded guess. It is conceivable that as time went on the\nthought in their minds and its reflection in hers might solidify into\nconviction.\n\nShe would remember, then, that as a child she had been called, more\nthan once, by a mysterious voice--just as had happened to little Samuel.\n(Mentioned in her Autobiography.) She would be impressed by that ancient\nreminiscence, now, and it could have a prophetic meaning for her.\n\nIt is conceivable that the persuasive influences around her and within\nher would give a new and powerful impulse to her philosophizings, and\nthat from this, in time, would result that great birth, the healing of\nbody and mind by the inpouring of the Spirit of God--the central and\ndominant idea of Christian Science--and that when this idea came she\nwould not doubt that it was an inspiration direct from Heaven.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\n[I must rest a little, now. To sit here and painstakingly spin out a\nscheme which imagines Mrs. Eddy, of all people, working her mind on\na plane above commercialism; imagines her thinking, philosophizing,\ndiscovering majestic things; and even imagines her dealing in\nsincerities--to be frank, I find it a large contract But I have begun\nit, and I will go through with it.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nIt is evident that she made disciples fast, and that their belief in her\nand in the authenticity of her heavenly ambassadorship was not of the\nlukewarm and half-way sort, but was profoundly earnest and sincere.\nHer book was issued from the press in 1875, it began its work of\nconvert-making, and within six years she had successfully launched a new\nReligion and a new system of healing, and was teaching them to crowds of\neager students in a College of her own, at prices so extraordinary\nthat we are almost compelled to accept her statement (no, her guarded\nintimation) that the rates were arranged on high, since a mere human\nbeing unacquainted with commerce and accustomed to think in pennies\ncould hardly put up such a hand as that without supernatural help.\n\nFrom this stage onward--Mrs. Eddy being what she was--the rest of the\ndevelopment--stages would follow naturally and inevitably.\n\nBut if she had been anybody else, there would have been a different\narrangement of them, with different results. Being the extraordinary\nperson she was, she realized her position and its possibilities;\nrealized the possibilities, and had the daring to use them for all they\nwere worth.\n\nWe have seen what her methods were after she passed the stage where her\ndivine ambassadorship was granted its executer in the hearts and minds\nof her followers; we have seen how steady and fearless and calculated\nand orderly was her march thenceforth from conquest to conquest; we have\nseen her strike dead, without hesitancy, any hostile or questionable\nforce that rose in her path: first, the horde of pretenders that sprang\nup and tried to take her Science and its market away from her--she\ncrushed them, she obliterated them; when her own National Christian\nScience Association became great in numbers and influence, and loosely\nand dangerously garrulous, and began to expound the doctrines according\nto its own uninspired notions, she took up her sponge without a tremor\nof fear and wiped that Association out; when she perceived that\nthe preachers in her pulpits were becoming afflicted with\ndoctrine-tinkering, she recognized the danger of it, and did not\nhesitate nor temporize, but promptly dismissed the whole of them in a\nday, and abolished their office permanently; we have seen that, as fast\nas her power grew, she was competent to take the measure of it, and that\nas fast as its expansion suggested to her gradually awakening native\nambition a higher step she took it; and so, by this evolutionary\nprocess, we have seen the gross money-lust relegated to second place,\nand the lust of empire and glory rise above it. A splendid dream; and by\nforce of the qualities born in her she is making it come true.\n\nThese qualities--and the capacities growing out of them by the nurturing\ninfluences of training, observation, and experience seem to be clearly\nindicated by the character of her career and its achievements. They seem\nto be:\n\nA clear head for business, and a phenomenally long one; Clear\nunderstanding of business situations; Accuracy in estimating the\nopportunities they offer; Intelligence in planning a business move;\nFirmness in sticking to it after it has been decided upon; Extraordinary\ndaring; Indestructible persistency; Devouring ambition; Limitless\nselfishness; A knowledge of the weaknesses and poverties and docilities\nof human nature and how to turn them to account which has never been\nsurpassed, if ever equalled.\n\nAnd--necessarily--the foundation-stone of Mrs. Eddy's character is a\nnever-wavering confidence in herself.\n\nIt is a granite character. And--quite naturally--a measure of the talc\nof smallnesses common to human nature is mixed up in it and distributed\nthrough it. When Mrs. Eddy is not dictating servilities from her throne\nin the clouds to her official domestics in Boston or to her far-spread\nsubjects round about the planet, but is down on the ground, she is kin\nto us and one of us: sentimental as a girl, garrulous, ungrammatical,\nincomprehensible, affected, vain of her little human ancestry, unstable,\ninconsistent, unreliable in statement, and naively and everlastingly\nself-contradictory-oh, trivial and common and commonplace as the\ncommonest of us! just a Napoleon as Madame de Remusat saw him, a brass\ngod with clay legs.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nIn drawing Mrs. Eddy's portrait it has been my purpose to restrict\nmyself to materials furnished by herself, and I believe I have done\nthat. If I have misinterpreted any of her acts, it was not done\nintentionally.\n\nIt will be noticed that in skeletonizing a list of the qualities which\nhave carried her to the dizzy summit which she occupies, I have not\nmentioned the power which was the commanding force employed in achieving\nthat lofty flight. It did not belong in that list; it was a force that\nwas not a detail of her character, but was an outside one. It was\nthe power which proceeded from her people's recognition of her as\na supernatural personage, conveyer of the Latest Word, and divinely\ncommissioned to deliver it to the world. The form which such a\nrecognition takes, consciously or unconsciously, is worship; and worship\ndoes not question nor criticize, it obeys. The object of it does not\nneed to coddle it, bribe it, beguile it, reason with it, convince\nit--it commands it; that is sufficient; the obedience rendered is not\nreluctant, but prompt and whole-hearted. Admiration for a Napoleon,\nconfidence in him, pride in him, affection for him, can lift him high\nand carry him far; and these are forms of worship, and are strong\nforces, but they are worship of a mere human being, after all, and are\ninfinitely feeble, as compared with those that are generated by that\nother worship, the worship of a divine personage. Mrs. Eddy has this\nefficient worship, this massed and centralized force, this force which\nis indifferent to opposition, untroubled by fear, and goes to battle\nsinging, like Cromwell's soldiers; and while she has it she can command\nand it will obey, and maintain her on her throne, and extend her empire.\n\nShe will have it until she dies; and then we shall see a curious and\ninteresting further development of her revolutionary work begin.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nThe President and Board of Directors will succeed her, and the\ngovernment will go on without a hitch. The By-laws will bear that\ninterpretation. All the Mother-Church's vast powers are concentrated in\nthat Board. Mrs. Eddy's unlimited personal reservations make the Board's\nostensible supremacy, during her life, a sham, and the Board itself a\nshadow. But Mrs. Eddy has not made those reservations for any one but\nherself--they are distinctly personal, they bear her name, they are not\nusable by another individual. When she dies her reservations die, and\nthe Board's shadow-powers become real powers, without the change of\nany important By-law, and the Board sits in her place as absolute and\nirresponsible a sovereign as she was.\n\nIt consists of but five persons, a much more manageable Cardinalate than\nthe Roman Pope's. I think it will elect its Pope from its own body, and\nthat it will fill its own vacancies. An elective Papacy is a safe and\nwise system, and a long-liver.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nWe may take that up now.\n\nIt is not a single if, but a several-jointed one; not an oyster, but a\nvertebrate.\n\n1. Did Mrs. Eddy borrow from Quimby the Great Idea, or only the little\none, the old-timer, the ordinary mental-healing-healing by \u201cmortal\u201d\n mind?\n\n2. If she borrowed the Great Idea, did she carry it away in her head, or\nin manuscript?\n\n3. Did she hit upon the Great Idea herself? By the Great Idea I mean, of\ncourse, the conviction that the Force involved was still existent, and\ncould be applied now just as it was applied by Christ's Disciples and\ntheir converts, and as successfully.\n\n4. Did she philosophize it, systematize it, and write it down in a book?\n\n5. Was it she, and not another, that built a new Religion upon the book\nand organized it?\n\nI think No. 5 can be answered with a Yes, and dismissed from the\ncontroversy. And I think that the Great Idea, great as it was, would\nhave enjoyed but a brief activity, and would then have gone to sleep\nagain for some more centuries, but for the perpetuating impulse it got\nfrom that organized and tremendous force.\n\nAs for Nos. 1, 2, and 4, the hostiles contend that Mrs. Eddy got the\nGreat Idea from Quimby and carried it off in manuscript. But their\ntestimony, while of consequence, lacks the most important detail; so far\nas my information goes, the Quimby manuscript has not been produced. I\nthink we cannot discuss No. 1 and No. 2 profitably. Let them go.\n\nFor me, No. 3 has a mild interest, and No. 4 a violent one.\n\nAs regards No. 3, Mrs. Eddy was brought up, from the cradle, an\nold-time, boiler-iron, Westminster-Catechism Christian, and knew\nher Bible as well as Captain Kydd knew his, \u201cwhen he sailed, when he\nsailed,\u201d and perhaps as sympathetically. The Great Idea had struck a\nmillion Bible-readers before her as being possible of resurrection and\napplication--it must have struck as many as that, and been cogitated,\nindolently, doubtingly, then dropped and forgotten--and it could have\nstruck her, in due course. But how it could interest her, how it\ncould appeal to her--with her make this a thing that is difficult to\nunderstand.\n\nFor the thing back of it is wholly gracious and beautiful: the power,\nthrough loving mercifulness and compassion, to heal fleshly ills and\npains and grief--all--with a word, with a touch of the hand! This power\nwas given by the Saviour to the Disciples, and to all the converted.\nAll--every one. It was exercised for generations afterwards.\nAny Christian who was in earnest and not a make-believe, not a\npolicy--Christian, not a Christian for revenue only, had that healing\npower, and could cure with it any disease or any hurt or damage possible\nto human flesh and bone. These things are true, or they are not. If they\nwere true seventeen and eighteen and nineteen centuries ago it would be\ndifficult to satisfactorily explain why or how or by what argument that\npower should be nonexistent in Christians now.\n\nTo wish to exercise it could occur to Mrs. Eddy--but would it?\n\nGrasping, sordid, penurious, famishing for everything she sees--money,\npower, glory--vain, untruthful, jealous, despotic, arrogant, insolent,\npitiless where thinkers and hypnotists are concerned, illiterate,\nshallow, incapable of reasoning outside of commercial lines,\nimmeasurably selfish--\n\nOf course the Great Idea could strike her, we have to grant that, but\nwhy it should interest her is a question which can easily overstrain the\nimagination and bring on nervous prostration, or something like that,\nand is better left alone by the judicious, it seems to me--\n\nUnless we call to our help the alleged other side of Mrs. Eddy's\nmake and character the side which her multitude of followers see, and\nsincerely believe in. Fairness requires that their view be stated\nhere. It is the opposite of the one which I have drawn from Mrs. Eddy's\nhistory and from her By-laws. To her followers she is this:\n\nPatient, gentle, loving, compassionate, noble hearted, unselfish,\nsinless, widely cultured, splendidly equipped mentally, a profound\nthinker, an able writer, a divine personage, an inspired messenger whose\nacts are dictated from the Throne, and whose every utterance is the\nVoice of God.\n\nShe has delivered to them a religion which has revolutionized their\nlives, banished the glooms that shadowed them, and filled them and\nflooded them with sunshine and gladness and peace; a religion which has\nno hell; a religion whose heaven is not put off to another time, with\na break and a gulf between, but begins here and now, and melts into\neternity as fancies of the waking day melt into the dreams of sleep.\n\nThey believe it is a Christianity that is in the New Testament; that\nit has always been there, that in the drift of ages it was lost through\ndisuse and neglect, and that this benefactor has found it and given it\nback to men, turning the night of life into day, its terrors into myths,\nits lamentations into songs of emancipation and rejoicing.\n\nThere we have Mrs. Eddy as her followers see her. She has lifted\nthem out of grief and care and doubt and fear, and made their lives\nbeautiful; she found them wandering forlorn in a wintry wilderness, and\nhas led them to a tropic paradise like that of which the poet sings:\n\n     \u201cO, islands there are on the face of the deep\n     Where the leaves never fade and the skies never weep.\u201d\n\nTo ask them to examine with a microscope the character of such a\nbenefactor; to ask them to examine it at all; to ask them to look at a\nblemish which another person believes he has found in it--well, in their\nplace could you do it? Would you do it? Wouldn't you be ashamed to do\nit? If a tramp had rescued your child from fire and death, and saved its\nmother's heart from breaking, could you see his rags? Could you smell\nhis breath? Mrs. Eddy has done more than that for these people.\n\nThey are prejudiced witnesses. To the credit of human nature it is not\npossible that they should be otherwise. They sincerely believe that\nMrs. Eddy's character is pure and perfect and beautiful, and her history\nwithout stain or blot or blemish. But that does not settle it. They\nsincerely believe she did not borrow the Great Idea from Quimby, but hit\nupon it herself. It may be so, and it could be so. Let it go--there\nis no way to settle it. They believe she carried away no Quimby\nmanuscripts. Let that go, too--there is no way to settle it. They\nbelieve that she, and not another, built the Religion upon the book, and\norganized it. I believe it, too.\n\nFinally, they believe that she philosophized Christian Science,\nexplained it, systematized it, and wrote it all out with her own hand in\nthe book Science and Health.\n\nI am not able to believe that. Let us draw the line there. The known\nand undisputed products of her pen are a formidable witness against\nher. They do seem to me to prove, quite clearly and conclusively, that\nwriting, upon even simple subjects, is a difficult labor for her: that\nshe has never been able to write anything above third-rate English; that\nshe is weak in the matter of grammar; that she has but a rude and\ndull sense of the values of words; that she so lacks in the matter of\nliterary precision that she can seldom put a thought into words that\nexpress it lucidly to the reader and leave no doubts in his mind as to\nwhether he has rightly understood or not; that she cannot even draught a\nPreface that a person can fully comprehend, nor one which can by any\nart be translated into a fully understandable form; that she can\nseldom inject into a Preface even single sentences whose meaning is\nuncompromisingly clear--yet Prefaces are her specialty, if she has one.\n\nMrs. Eddy's known and undisputed writings are very limited in bulk;\nthey exhibit no depth, no analytical quality, no thought above school\ncomposition size, and but juvenile ability in handling thoughts of even\nthat modest magnitude. She has a fine commercial ability, and could\ngovern a vast railway system in great style; she could draught a set\nof rules that Satan himself would say could not be improved on--for\ndevilish effectiveness--by his staff; but we know, by our excursions\namong the Mother-Church's By-laws, that their English would discredit\nthe deputy baggage-smasher. I am quite sure that Mrs. Eddy cannot write\nwell upon any subject, even a commercial one.\n\nIn the very first revision of Science and Health (1883), Mrs. Eddy wrote\na Preface which is an unimpeachable witness that the rest of the book\nwas written by somebody else. I have put it in the Appendix along with a\npage or two taken from the body of the book, and will ask the reader to\ncompare the labored and lumbering and confused gropings of this Preface\nwith the easy and flowing and direct English of the other exhibit, and\nsee if he can believe that the one hand and brain produced both.\n\nAnd let him take the Preface apart, sentence by sentence, and\nsearchingly examine each sentence word by word, and see if he can find\nhalf a dozen sentences whose meanings he is so sure of that he can\nrephrase them--in words of his own--and reproduce what he takes to be\nthose meanings. Money can be lost on this game. I know, for I am the one\nthat lost it.\n\nNow let the reader turn to the excerpt which I have made from the\nchapter on \u201cPrayer\u201d (last year's edition of Science and Health), and\ncompare that wise and sane and elevated and lucid and compact piece of\nwork with the aforesaid Preface, and with Mrs. Eddy's poetry concerning\nthe gymnastic trees, and Minerva's not yet effete sandals, and the\nwreaths imported from Erudition's bower for the decoration of Plymouth\nRock, and the Plague-spot and Bacilli, and my other exhibits (turn back\nto my Chapters I. and II.) from the Autobiography, and finally with\nthe late Communication concerning me, and see if he thinks anybody's\naffirmation, or anybody's sworn testimony, or any other testimony of\nany imaginable kind would ever be likely to convince him that Mrs. Eddy\nwrote that chapter on Prayer.\n\nI do not wish to impose my opinion on any one who will not permit\nit, but such as it is I offer it here for what it is worth. I cannot\nbelieve, and I do not believe, that Mrs. Eddy originated any of the\nthoughts and reasonings out of which the book Science and Health is\nconstructed; and I cannot believe, and do not believe that she ever\nwrote any part of that book.\n\nI think that if anything in the world stands proven, and well and\nsolidly proven, by unimpeachable testimony--the treacherous testimony of\nher own pen in her known and undisputed literary productions--it is that\nMrs. Eddy is not capable of thinking upon high planes, nor of reasoning\nclearly nor writing intelligently upon low ones.\n\nInasmuch as--in my belief--the very first editions of the book Science\nand Health were far above the reach of Mrs. Eddy's mental and literary\nabilities, I think she has from the very beginning been claiming as\nher own another person's book, and wearing as her own property laurels\nrightfully belonging to that person--the real author of Science and\nHealth. And I think the reason--and the only reason--that he has not\nprotested is because his work was not exposed to print until after he\nwas safely dead.\n\nThat with an eye to business, and by grace of her business talent,\nshe has restored to the world neglected and abandoned features of the\nChristian religion which her thousands of followers find gracious and\nblessed and contenting, I recognize and confess; but I am convinced that\nevery single detail of the work except just that one--the delivery of\nthe Product to the world--was conceived and performed by another.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX A\n\nORIGINAL FIRST PREFACE TO SCIENCE AND HEALTH\n\nThere seems a Christian necessity of learning God's power and purpose to\nheal both mind and body. This thought grew out of our early seeking\nHim in all our ways, and a hopeless as singular invalidism that drugs\nincreased instead of diminished, and hygiene benefited only for a\nseason. By degrees we have drifted into more spiritual latitudes of\nthought, and experimented as we advanced until demonstrating fully the\npower of mind over the body. About the year 1862, having heard of a\nmesmerist in Portland who was treating the sick by manipulation, we\nvisited him; he helped us for a time, then we relapsed somewhat. After\nhis decease, and a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful physicians,\nwe discovered that the Principle of all healing and the law that governs\nit is God, a divine Principle, and a spiritual not material law, and\nregained health.\n\nIt was not an individual or mortal mind acting upon another so-called\nmind that healed us. It was the glorious truths of Christian Science\nthat we discovered as we neared that verge of so-called material life\nnamed death; yea, it was the great Shekinah, the spirit of Life, Truth,\nand Love illuminating our understanding of the action and might of\nOmnipotence! The old gentleman to whom we have referred had some very\nadvanced views on healing, but he was not avowedly religious neither\nscholarly. We interchanged thoughts on the subject of healing the sick.\nI restored some patients of his that he failed to heal, and left in\nhis possession some manuscripts of mine containing corrections of his\ndesultory pennings, which I am informed at his decease passed into the\nhands of a patient of his, now residing in Scotland. He died in 1865 and\nleft no published works. The only manuscript that we ever held of his,\nlonger than to correct it, was one of perhaps a dozen pages, most of\nwhich we had composed. He manipulated the sick; hence his ostensible\nmethod of healing was physical instead of mental.\n\nWe helped him in the esteem of the public by our writings, but never\nknew of his stating orally or in writing that he treated his patients\nmentally; never heard him give any directions to that effect; and have\nit from one of his patients, who now asserts that he was the founder of\nmental healing, that he never revealed to anyone his method. We refer\nto these facts simply to refute the calumnies and false claims of our\nenemies, that we are preferring dishonest claims to the discovery and\nfounding at this period of Metaphysical Healing or Christian Science.\n\nThe Science and laws of a purely mental healing and their method of\napplication through spiritual power alone, else a mental argument\nagainst disease, are our own discovery at this date. True, the Principle\nis divine and eternal, but the application of it to heal the sick had\nbeen lost sight of, and required to be again spiritually discerned\nand its science discovered, that man might retain it through the\nunderstanding. Since our discovery in 1866 of the divine science of\nChristian Healing, we have labored with tongue and pen to found this\nsystem. In this endeavor every obstacle has been thrown in our path that\nthe envy and revenge of a few disaffected students could devise. The\nsuperstition and ignorance of even this period have not failed to\ncontribute their mite towards misjudging us, while its Christian\nadvancement and scientific research have helped sustain our feeble\nefforts.\n\nSince our first Edition of Science and Health, published in 1875, two\nof the aforesaid students have plagiarized and pirated our works. In the\nissues of E. J. A., almost exclusively ours, were thirteen paragraphs,\nwithout credit, taken verbatim from our books.\n\nNot one of our printed works was ever copied or abstracted from the\npublished or from the unpublished writings of anyone. Throughout our\npublications of Metaphysical Healing or Christian Science, when writing\nor dictating them, we have given ourselves to contemplation wholly apart\nfrom the observation of the material senses: to look upon a copy would\nhave distracted our thoughts from the subject before us. We were seldom\nable to copy our own compositions, and have employed an amanuensis\nfor the last six years. Every work that we have had published has been\nextemporaneously written; and out of fifty lectures and sermons that we\nhave delivered the last year, forty-four have been extemporaneous. We\nhave distributed many of our unpublished manuscripts; loaned to one of\nour youngest students, R. K--------y, between three and four hundred\npages, of which we were sole author--giving him liberty to copy but not\nto publish them.\n\nLeaning on the sustaining Infinite with loving trust, the trials of\nto-day grow brief, and to-morrow is big with blessings.\n\nThe wakeful shepherd, tending his flocks, beholds from the mountain's\ntop the first faint morning beam ere cometh the risen day. So from\nSoul's loftier summits shines the pale star to prophet-shepherd, and\nit traverses night, over to where the young child lies, in cradled\nobscurity, that shall waken a world. Over the night of error dawn the\nmorning beams and guiding star of Truth, and \u201cthe wise men\u201d are led by\nit to Science, which repeats the eternal harmony that it reproduced, in\nproof of immortality. The time for thinkers has come; and the time for\nrevolutions, ecclesiastical and civil, must come. Truth, independent of\ndoctrines or time-honored systems, stands at the threshold of history.\nContentment with the past, or the cold conventionality of custom, may no\nlonger shut the door on science; though empires fall, \u201cHe whose right it\nis shall reign.\u201d Ignorance of God should no longer be the stepping-stone\nto faith; understanding Him, \u201cwhom to know aright is Life eternal,\u201d is\nthe only guaranty of obedience.\n\nThis volume may not open a new thought, and make it at once familiar. It\nhas the sturdy task of a pioneer, to hack away at the tall oaks and cut\nthe rough granite, leaving future ages to declare what it has done.\nWe made our first discovery of the adaptation of metaphysics to the\ntreatment of disease in the winter of 1866; since then we have tested\nthe Principle on ourselves and others, and never found it to fail to\nprove the statements herein made of it. We must learn the science of\nLife, to reach the perfection of man. To understand God as the Principle\nof all being, and to live in accordance with this Principle, is the\nScience of Life. But to reproduce this harmony of being, the error\nof personal sense must yield to science, even as the science of music\ncorrects tones caught from the ear, and gives the sweet concord of\nsound. There are many theories of physic and theology, and many calls in\neach of their directions for the right way; but we propose to settle the\nquestion of \u201cWhat is Truth?\u201d on the ground of proof, and let that method\nof healing the sick and establishing Christianity be adopted that is\nfound to give the most health and to make the best Christians; science\nwill then have a fair field, in which case we are assured of its triumph\nover all opinions and beliefs. Sickness and sin have ever had their\ndoctors; but the question is, Have they become less because of them? The\nlongevity of our antediluvians would say, No! and the criminal records\nof today utter their voices little in favor of such a conclusion. Not\nthat we would deny to Caesar the things that are his, but that we\nask for the things that belong to Truth; and safely affirm, from the\ndemonstrations we have been able to make, that the science of man\nunderstood would have eradicated sin, sickness, and death, in a less\nperiod than six thousand years. We find great difficulties in starting\nthis work right. Some shockingly false claims are already made to a\nmetaphysical practice; mesmerism, its very antipodes, is one of them.\nHitherto we have never, in a single instance of our discovery, found\nthe slightest resemblance between mesmerism and metaphysics. No especial\nidiosyncrasy is requisite to acquire a knowledge of metaphysical\nhealing; spiritual sense is more important to its discernment than the\nintellect; and those who would learn this science without a high moral\nstandard of thought and action, will fail to understand it until they\ngo up higher. Owing to our explanations constantly vibrating between the\nsame points, an irksome repetition of words must occur; also the use of\ncapital letters, genders, and technicalities peculiar to the science.\nVariety of language, or beauty of diction, must give place to close\nanalysis and unembellished thought. \u201cHoping all things, enduring all\nthings,\u201d to do good to our enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to\nbear to the sorrowing and the sick consolation and healing, we commit\nthese pages to posterity.\n\nMARY BAKER G. EDDY.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX B\n\nThe Gospel narratives bear brief testimony even to the life of our great\nMaster. His spiritual noumenon and phenomenon, silenced portraiture.\nWriters, less wise than the Apostles, essayed in the Apocryphal New\nTestament, a legendary and traditional history of the early life of\nJesus. But Saint Paul summarized the character of Jesus as the model\nof Christianity, in these words: \u201cConsider Him who endured such\ncontradictions of sinners against Himself. Who for the joy that was set\nbefore Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at\nthe right hand of the throne of God.\u201d\n\nIt may be that the mortal life battle still wages, and must continue\ntill its involved errors are vanquished by victory-bringing Science; but\nthis triumph will come! God is over all. He alone is our origin, aim,\nand Being. The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created\nthrough the flesh; for his father and mother are the one Spirit, and his\nbrethren are all the children of one parent, the eternal Good.\n\nAny kind of literary composition was excessively difficult for Mrs.\nEddy. She found it grinding hard work to dig out anything to say. She\nrealized, at the above stage in her life, that with all her trouble she\nhad not been able to scratch together even material enough for a child's\nAutobiography, and also that what she had secured was in the main not\nvaluable, not important, considering the age and the fame of the person\nshe was writing about; and so it occurred to her to attempt, in that\nparagraph, to excuse the meagreness and poor quality of the feast she\nwas spreading, by letting on that she could do ever so much better if\nshe wanted to, but was under constraint of Divine etiquette. To feed\nwith more than a few indifferent crumbs a plebeian appetite for personal\ndetails about Personages in her class was not the correct thing, and she\nblandly points out that there is Precedent for this reserve. When Mrs.\nEddy tries to be artful--in literature--it is generally after the manner\nof the ostrich; and with the ostrich's luck. Please try to find the\nconnection between the two paragraphs.--M. T.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX C\n\nThe following is the spiritual signification of the Lord's Prayer:\n\nPrinciple, eternal and harmonious, Nameless and adorable Intelligence,\nThou art ever present and supreme. And when this supremacy of\nSpirit shall appear, the dream of matter will disappear. Give us the\nunderstanding of Truth and Love. And loving we shall learn God, and\nTruth will destroy all error. And lead us unto the Life that is Soul,\nand deliver us from the errors of sense, sin, sickness, and death, For\nGod is Life, Truth, and Love for ever.--Science and Health, edition of\n1881.\n\nIt seems to me that this one is distinctly superior to the one that was\ninspired for last year's edition. It is strange, but to my mind plain,\nthat inspiring is an art which does not improve with practice.--M. T.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX D\n\n\u201cFor verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain,\nBe thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in\nhis heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come\nto pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you,\nWhat things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,\nand ye shall have them.\n\n\u201cYour Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask\nHim.\u201d--CHRIST JESUS.\n\nThe prayer that reclaims the sinner and heals the sick, is an absolute\nfaith that all things are possible to God--a spiritual understanding of\nHim--an unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say or think\non this subject, I speak from experience. This prayer, combined with\nself-sacrifice and toil, is the means whereby God has enabled me to do\nwhat I have done for the religion and health of mankind.\n\nThoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer;\nand no less can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may\nbe moulded and exalted before they take form in audible word, and in\ndeeds.\n\nWhat are the motives for prayer? Do we pray to make ourselves better, or\nto benefit those that hear us; to enlighten the Infinite, or to be heard\nof men? Are we benefited by praying? Yes, the desire which goes forth\nhungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not\nreturn unto us void.\n\nGod is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already\ndone; nor can the Infinite do less than bestow all good, since He is\nunchanging Wisdom and Love. We can do more for ourselves by humble\nfervent petitions; but the All-loving does not grant them simply on the\nground of lip-service, for He already knows all.\n\nPrayer cannot change the Science of Being, but it does bring us into\nharmony with it. Goodness reaches the demonstration of Truth. A request\nthat another may work for us never does our work. The habit of pleading\nwith the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the\nbelief in God as humanly circumscribed--an error which impedes spiritual\ngrowth.\n\nGod is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is Intelligence. Can we\ninform the infinite Mind, or tell Him anything He does not already\ncomprehend? Do we hope to change perfection? Shall we plead for more\nat the open fount, which always pours forth more than we receive? The\nunspoken prayer does bring us nearer the Source of all existence and\nblessedness.\n\nAsking God to be God is a \u201cvain repetition.\u201d God is \u201cthe same yesterday,\nand to-day, and forever\u201d; and He who is immutably right will do right,\nwithout being reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not\nsufficient to warrant him in advising God.\n\nWho would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of\nmathematics to work out the problem? The rule is already established,\nand it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine\nPrinciple of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done; and\nwe have only to avail ourselves of God's rule, in order to receive the\nblessing thereof.\n\nThe divine Being must be reflected by man--else man is not the image and\nlikeness of the patient, tender, and true, the one \u201caltogether lovely\u201d;\nbut to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute\nconcentration of thought and energy.\n\nHow empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit theoretically that\nGod is good, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, and then we try to give\ninformation to this infinite Mind; and plead for unmerited pardon, and a\nliberal outpouring of benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good\nalready received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we\nhave, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a\nverbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.\n\nIf we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and yet return thanks to\nGod for all blessings, we are insincere; and incur the sharp censure\nour Master pronounces on hypocrites. In such a case the only acceptable\nprayer is to put the finger on the lips and remember our blessings.\nWhile the heart is far from divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the\ningratitude of barren lives, for God knoweth all things.\n\nWhat we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace,\nexpressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds. To keep the\ncommandments of our Master and follow his example, is our proper debt to\nHim, and the only worthy evidence of our gratitude for all He has\ndone. Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to express loyal\nand heartfelt gratitude, since He has said: \u201cIf ye love Me, keep My\nCommandments.\u201d\n\nThe habitual struggle to be always good, is unceasing prayer. Its\nmotives are made manifest in the blessings they bring--which, if\nnot acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be made\npartakers of Love.\n\nSimply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the\nlonging to be better and holier--expressed in daily watchfulness, and in\nstriving to assimilate more of the divine character--this will mould and\nfashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the Science\nof Christianity through demonstration of the divine nature; but in this\nwicked world goodness will \u201cbe evil spoken of,\u201d and patience must work\nexperience.\n\nAudible prayer can never do the works of spiritual understanding, which\nregenerates; but silent prayer, watchfulness, and devout obedience,\nenable us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers, ecclesiasticism, and\ncreeds, have clipped the divine pinions of Love, and clad religion in\nhuman robes. They materialize worship, hinder the Spirit, and keep man\nfrom demonstrating his power over error.\n\nSorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform, and the very\neasiest step. The next and great step required by Wisdom is the test of\nour sincerity--namely, reformation. To this end we are placed under the\nstress of circumstances. Temptation bids us repeat the offence, and woe\ncomes in return for what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that\nthere is no discount in the law of justice, and that we must pay \u201cthe\nuttermost farthing.\u201d The measure ye mete \u201cshall be measured to you\nagain,\u201d and it will be full \u201cand running over.\u201d\n\nSaints and sinners get their full award, but not always in this world.\nThe followers of Christ drank His cup. Ingratitude and persecution\nfilled it to the brim; but God pours the riches of His love into the\nunderstanding and affections, giving us strength according to our day.\nSinners flourish \u201clike a green bay-tree\u201d; but, looking farther, the\nPsalmist could see their end--namely, the destruction of sin through\nsuffering.\n\nPrayer is sometimes used, as a confessional to cancel sin. This error\nimpedes true religion. Sin is forgiven, only as it is destroyed by\nChrist-Truth and Life. If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is\ncancelled, and that man is made better by merely praying, it is an evil.\nHe grows worse who continues in sin because he thinks himself forgiven.\n\nAn apostle says that the Son of God (Christ) came to \u201cdestroy the\nworks of the devil.\u201d We should follow our divine Exemplar, and seek the\ndestruction of all evil works, error and disease included. We cannot\nescape the penalty due for sin. The Scriptures say, that if we deny\nChrist, \u201cHe also will deny us.\u201d\n\nThe divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may pardon, but this\ndivine Principle alone reforms the sinner. God is not separate from the\nwisdom He bestows. The talents He gives we must improve. Calling on\nHim to forgive our work, badly done or left undone, implies the vain\nsupposition that we have nothing to do but to ask pardon, and that\nafterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence.\n\nTo cause suffering, as the result of sin, is the means of destroying\nsin. Every supposed pleasure in sin will furnish more than its\nequivalent of pain, until belief in material life and sin is destroyed.\nTo reach heaven, the harmony of Being, we must understand the divine\nPrinciple of Being.\n\n\u201cGod is Love.\u201d More than this we cannot ask; higher we cannot look;\nfarther we cannot go. To suppose that God forgives or punishes sin,\naccording as His mercy is sought or unsought, is to misunderstand Love\nand make prayer the safety-valve for wrong-doing.\n\nJesus uncovered and rebuked sin before He cast it out. Of a sick woman\nHe said that Satan had bound her; and to Peter He said, \u201cThou art an\noffense unto me.\u201d He came teaching and showing men how to destroy sin,\nsickness, and death. He said of the fruitless tree, \u201cIt is hewn down.\u201d\n\nIt is believed by many that a certain magistrate, who lived in the time\nof Jesus, left this record: \u201cHis rebuke is fearful.\u201d The strong language\nof our Master confirms this description.\n\nThe only civil sentence which He had for error was, \u201cGet thee behind\nMe, Satan.\u201d Still stronger evidence that Jesus' reproof was pointed and\npungent is in His own words--showing the necessity for such forcible\nutterance, when He cast out devils and healed the sick and sinful. The\nrelinquishment of error deprives material sense of its false claims.\n\nAudible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary solemnity and elevation\nto thought; but does it produce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply into\nthese things, we find that \u201ca zeal... not according to knowledge,\u201d gives\noccasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve,\nand wholesome perception of God's requirements. The motives for verbal\nprayer may embrace too much love of applause to induce or encourage\nChristian sentiment.\n\nPhysical sensation, not Soul, produces material ecstasy, and emotions.\nIf spiritual sense always guided men at such times, there would grow out\nof those ecstatic moments a higher experience and a better life, with\nmore devout self-abnegation, and purity. A self-satisfied ventilation\nof fervent sentiments never makes a Christian. God is not influenced by\nman. The \u201cdivine ear\u201d is not an auditorial nerve. It is the all-hearing\nand all-knowing Mind, to whom each want of man is always known, and by\nwhom it will be supplied.\n\nThe danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temptation.\nBy it we may become involuntary hypocrites, uttering desires which\nare not real, and consoling ourselves in the midst of sin, with the\nrecollection that we have prayed over it--or mean to ask forgiveness at\nsome later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.\n\nA wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-justification, though it\nmakes the sinner a hypocrite. We never need despair of an honest heart,\nbut there is little hope for those who only come spasmodically face to\nface with their wickedness, and then seek to hide it. Their prayers are\nindexes which do not correspond with their character. They hold secret\nfellowship with sin; and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as \u201clike\nunto whited sepulchres... full of all uncleanness.\u201d\n\nIf a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful, is impure, and\ntherefore insincere, what must be the comment upon him? If he had\nreached the loftiness of his prayer, there would be no occasion for such\ncomment. If we feel the aspiration, humility, gratitude, and love\nwhich our words express--this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to\ndeceive ourselves or others, for \u201cthere is nothing covered that shall\nnot be revealed.\u201d Professions and audible prayers are like charity in\none respect--they \u201ccover a multitude of sins.\u201d Praying for humility,\nwith whatever fervency of expression, does not always mean a desire\nfor it. If we turn away from the poor, we are not ready to receive the\nreward of Him who blesses the poor. We confess to having a very wicked\nheart, and ask that it may be laid bare before us; but do we not already\nknow more of this heart than we are willing to have our neighbor see?\n\nWe ought to examine ourselves, and learn what is the affection and\npurpose of the heart; for this alone can show us what we honestly are.\nIf a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen to the rebuke patiently,\nand credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are \u201cnot\nas other men?\u201d During many years the author has been most grateful for\nmerited rebuke. The sting lies in unmerited censure--in the falsehood\nwhich does no one any good.\n\nThe test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we\nlove our neighbor better because of this asking? Do we pursue the old\nselfishness, satisfied with having prayed for something better,\nthough we give no evidence of the sincerity of our requests by living\nconsistently with our prayer? If selfishness has given place to\nkindness, we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that\ncurse us; but we shall never meet this great duty by simply asking that\nit may be done. There is a cross to be taken up, before we can enjoy the\nfruition of our hope and faith.\n\nDost thou \u201clove the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy\nsoul, and with all thy mind?\u201d This command includes much--even the\nsurrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This\nis the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life,\nand recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, wherein Soul is our\nmaster, and material sense and human will have no place.\n\nAre you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and so be counted\namong sinners? No! Do you really desire to attain this point? No! Then\nwhy make long prayers about it, and ask to be Christians, since you care\nnot to tread in the footsteps of our dear Master? If unwilling to follow\nHis example, wherefore pray with the lips that you may be partakers of\nHis nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right. Prayer means\nthat we desire to, and will, walk in the light so far as we receive it,\neven though with bleeding footsteps, and waiting patiently on the Lord,\nwill leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him.\n\nThe world must grow to the spiritual understanding of prayer. If good\nenough to profit by Jesus' cup of earthly sorrows, God will sustain us\nunder these sorrows. Until we are thus divinely qualified, and willing\nto drink His cup, millions of vain repetitions will never pour into\nprayer the unction of Spirit, in demonstration of power, and \u201cwith signs\nfollowing.\u201d Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the\nworld, the flesh and evil, and thus destroying all error.\n\nSeeking is not sufficient. It is striving which enables us to enter.\nSpiritual attainments open the door to a higher understanding of the\ndivine Life.\n\nOne of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a praying-machine\nthrough the streets, and stop at the doors to earn a penny by grinding\nout a prayer; whereas civilization pays for clerical prayers, in lofty\nedifices. Is the difference very great, after all?\n\nExperience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask\nfor in prayer.\n\nThere is some misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness\nand blessedness, or we should certainly receive what we ask for. The\nScriptures say: \u201cYe ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye\nmay consume it upon your lusts.\u201d What we desire and ask for it is not\nalways best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will not grant\nthe request. Do you ask Wisdom to be merciful and not punish sin? Then\n\u201cye ask amiss.\u201d Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer,\n\u201cforgive us our debts,\u201d specified also the terms of forgiveness. When\nforgiving the adulterous woman He said, \u201cGo, and sin no more.\u201d\n\nA magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this may be no moral\nbenefit to the criminal; and at best, it only saves him from one form\nof punishment. The moral law, which has the right to acquit or condemn,\nalways demands restitution, before mortals can \u201cgo up higher.\u201d Broken\nlaw brings penalty, in order to compel this progress.\n\nMere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine Principle never\npardons our sins or mistakes till they are corrected) leaves the\noffender free to repeat the offense; if, indeed, he has not already\nsuffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing.\nTruth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most\neffectual manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine\nsentence against an individual's sin, but to show that sin must bring\ninevitable suffering.\n\nPetitions only bring to mortals the results of their own faith. We know\nthat a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain it; but if we\ndesire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it.\nWe must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only\npractical road to holiness. Prayer alone cannot change the unalterable\nTruth, or give us an understanding of it; but prayer coupled with a\nfervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God will bring us\ninto all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible expression. It\nis best expressed in thought and life.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX E\n\nReverend Heber Newton on Christian Science:\n\nTo begin, then, at the beginning, Christian Science accepts the work\nof healing sickness as an integral part of the discipleship of Jesus\nChrist. In Christ it finds, what the Church has always recognized,\ntheoretically, though it has practically ignored the fact--the Great\nPhysician. That Christ healed the sick, we none of us question. It\nstands plainly upon the record. This ministry of healing was too large\na part of His work to be left out from any picture of that life. Such\nservice was not an incident of His career--it was an essential\nelement of that career. It was an integral factor in His mission. The\nEvangelists leave us no possibility of confusion on this point. Co-equal\nwith his work of instruction and inspiration was His work of healing.\n\nThe records make it equally clear that the Master laid His charge upon\nHis disciples to do as He had done. \u201cWhen He had called unto Him His\ntwelve disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them\nout, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.\u201d In\nsending them forth, \u201cHe commanded them, saying,... As ye go, preach,\nsaying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the\nlepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.\u201d\n\nThat the twelve disciples undertook to do the Master's work of healing,\nand that they, in their measure, succeeded, seems beyond question. They\nfound in themselves the same power that the Master found in Himself,\nand they used it as He had used His power. The record of The Acts of the\nApostles, if at all trustworthy history, shows that they, too, healed\nthe sick.\n\nBeyond the circle of the original twelve, it is equally clear that the\nearly disciples believed themselves charged with the same mission, and\nthat they sought to fulfil it. The records of the early Church make it\nindisputable that powers of healing were recognized as among the gifts\nof the Spirit. St. Paul's letters render it certain that these gifts\nwere not a privilege of the original twelve, merely, but that they were\nthe heritage into which all the disciples entered.\n\nBeyond the era of the primitive Church, through several generations, the\nearly Christians felt themselves called to the same ministry of healing,\nand enabled with the same secret of power. Through wellnigh three\ncenturies, the gifts of healing appear to have been, more or less,\nrecognized and exercised in the Church. Through those generations,\nhowever, there was a gradual disuse of this power, following upon a\nfailing recognition of its possession. That which was originally the\nrule became the exception. By degrees, the sense of authority and power\nto heal passed out from the consciousness of the Church. It ceased to be\na sign of the indwelling Spirit. For fifteen centuries, the recognition\nof this authority and power has been altogether exceptional. Here and\nthere, through the history of these centuries, there have been those who\nhave entered into this belief of their own privilege and duty, and have\nused the gift which they recognized. The Church has never been left\nwithout a line of witnesses to this aspect of the discipleship of\nChrist. But she has come to accept it as the normal order of things that\nwhat was once the rule in the Christian Church should be now only\nthe exception. Orthodoxy has framed a theory of the words of Jesus to\naccount for this strange departure of His Church from them. It teaches\nus to believe that His example was not meant to be followed, in this\nrespect, by all His disciples. The power of healing which was in Him\nwas a purely exceptional power. It was used as an evidence of His divine\nmission. It was a miraculous gift. The gift of working miracles was not\nbestowed upon His Church at large. His original disciples, the twelve\napostles, received this gift, as a necessity of the critical epoch of\nChristianity--the founding of the Church. Traces of the power lingered\non, in weakening activity, until they gradually ceased, and the normal\ncondition of the Church was entered upon, in which miracles are no\nlonger possible.\n\n\nWe accept this, unconsciously, as the true state of things in\nChristianity. But it is a conception which will not bear a moment's\nexamination. There is not the slightest suggestion upon record that\nChrist set any limit to this charge which He gave His disciples. On the\ncontrary, there are not lacking hints that He looked for the possession\nand exercise of this power wherever His spirit breathed in men.\n\nEven if the concluding paragraph of St. Mark's Gospel were a later\nappendix, it may none the less have been a faithful echo of words of\nthe Master, as it certainly is a trustworthy record of the belief of the\nearly Christians as to the thought of Jesus concerning His followers.\nIn that interesting passage, Jesus, after His death, appeared to the\neleven, and formally commissioned them, again, to take up His work in\nthe world; bidding them, \u201cGo ye into all the world and preach the gospel\nto every creature.\u201d \u201cAnd these signs,\u201d He tells them, \u201cshall follow them\nthat believe\u201d--not the apostles only, but \u201cthem that believe,\u201d without\nlimit of time; \u201cin My name they shall cast out devils... they shall lay\nhands on the sick and they shall recover.\u201d The concluding discourse to\nthe disciples, recorded in the Gospel according to St. John, affirms the\nsame expectation on the part of Jesus; emphasizing it in His solemn way:\n\u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that\nI do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX F\n\nFew will deny that an intelligence apart from man formed and governs the\nspiritual universe and man; and this intelligence is the eternal\nMind, and neither matter nor man created this intelligence and divine\nPrinciple; nor can this Principle produce aught unlike itself. All that\nwe term sin, sickness, and death is comprised in the belief of matter.\nThe realm of the real is spiritual; the opposite of Spirit is matter;\nand the opposite of the real is unreal or material. Matter is an error\nof statement, for there is no matter. This error of premises leads to\nerror of conclusion in every statement of matter as a basis. Nothing\nwe can say or believe regarding matter is true, except that matter is\nunreal, simply a belief that has its beginning and ending.\n\nThe conservative firm called matter and mind God never formed. The\nunerring and eternal Mind destroys this imaginary copartnership,\nformed only to be dissolved in a manner and at a period unknown. This\ncopartnership is obsolete. Placed under the microscope of metaphysics\nmatter disappears. Only by understanding there are not two, matter\nand mind, is a logical and correct conclusion obtained by either one.\nScience gathers not grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Intelligence\nnever produced non-intelligence, such as matter: the immortal never\nproduced mortality, good never resulted in evil. The science of Mind\nshows conclusively that matter is a myth. Metaphysics are above physics,\nand drag not matter, or what is termed that, into one of its premises\nor conclusions. Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges\nthe objects of sense for the ideas of Soul. These ideas are perfectly\ntangible and real to consciousness, and they have this advantage--they\nare eternal. Mind and its thoughts comprise the whole of God, the\nuniverse, and of man. Reason and revelation coincide with this\nstatement, and support its proof every hour, for nothing is harmonious\nor eternal that is not spiritual: the realization of this will bring\nout objects from a higher source of thought; hence more beautiful and\nimmortal.\n\nThe fact of spiritualization produces results in striking contrast to\nthe farce of materialization: the one produces the results of chastity\nand purity, the other the downward tendencies and earthward gravitation\nof sensualism and impurity.\n\nThe exalting and healing effects of metaphysics show their fountain.\nNothing in pathology has exceeded the application of metaphysics.\nThrough mind alone we have prevented disease and preserved health. In\ncases of chronic and acute diseases, in their severest forms, we have\nchanged the secretions, renewed structure, and restored health; have\nelongated shortened limbs, relaxed rigid muscles, made cicatrized joints\nsupple; restored carious bones to healthy conditions, renewed that\nwhich is termed the lost substance of the lungs; and restored healthy\norganizations where disease was organic instead of functional.\n\n\n\n\nMRS. EDDY IN ERROR\n\nI feel almost sure that Mrs. Eddy's inspiration--works are getting out\nof repair. I think so because they made some errors in a statement which\nshe uttered through the press on the 17th of January. Not large ones,\nperhaps, still it is a friend's duty to straighten such things out and\nget them right when he can. Therefore I will put my other duties aside\nfor a moment and undertake this helpful service. She said as follows:\n\n\u201cIn view of the circulation of certain criticisms from the pen of Mark\nTwain, I submit the following statement:\n\n\u201cIt is a fact, well understood, that I begged the students who first\ngave me the endearing appellative 'mother' not to name me thus. But,\nwithout my consent, that word spread like wildfire. I still must think\nthe name is not applicable to me. I stand in relation to this century as\na Christian discoverer, founder, and leader. I regard self-deification\nas blasphemous; I may be more loved, but I am less lauded, pampered,\nprovided for, and cheered than others before me--and wherefore? Because\nChristian Science is not yet popular, and I refuse adulation.\n\n\u201cMy visit to the Mother-Church after it was built and dedicated pleased\nme, and the situation was satisfactory. The dear members wanted to greet\nme with escort and the ringing of bells, but I declined, and went alone\nin my carriage to the church, entered it, and knelt in thanks upon the\nsteps of its altar. There the foresplendor of the beginnings of truth\nfell mysteriously upon my spirit. I believe in one Christ, teach one\nChrist, know of but one Christ. I believe in but one incarnation, one\nMother Mary, and know I am not that one, and never claimed to be. It\nsuffices me to learn the Science of the Scriptures relative to this\nsubject.\n\n\u201cChristian Scientists have no quarrel with Protestants, Catholics,\nor any other sect. They need to be understood as following the divine\nPrinciple God, Love and not imagined to be unscientific worshippers of a\nhuman being.\n\n\u201cIn the aforesaid article, of which I have seen only extracts, Mark\nTwain's wit was not wasted In certain directions. Christian Science\neschews divine rights in human beings. If the individual governed human\nconsciousness, my statement of Christian Science would be disproved, but\nto understand the spiritual idea is essential to demonstrate Science\nand its pure monotheism--one God, one Christ, no idolatry, no human\npropaganda. Jesus taught and proved that what feeds a few feeds all. His\nlife-work subordinated the material to the spiritual, and He left\nthis legacy of truth to mankind. His metaphysics is not the sport of\nphilosophy, religion, or Science; rather it is the pith and finale of\nthem all.\n\n\u201cI have not the inspiration or aspiration to be a first or second\nVirgin-Mother--her duplicate, antecedent, or subsequent. What I am\nremains to be proved by the good I do. We need much humility, wisdom,\nand love to perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting\nheaven within us. This glory is molten in the furnace of affliction.\u201d\n\nShe still thinks the name of Our Mother not applicable to her; and she\nis also able to remember that it distressed her when it was conferred\nupon her, and that she begged to have it suppressed. Her memory is at\nfault here. If she will take her By-laws, and refer to Section 1 of\nArticle XXII., written with her own hand--she will find that she has\nreserved that title to herself, and is so pleased with it, and so--may\nwe say jealous?--about it, that she threatens with excommunication any\nsister Scientist who shall call herself by it. This is that Section 1:\n\n\u201cThe Title of Mother. In the year 1895 loyal Christian Scientists\nhad given to the author of their text-book, the Founder of Christian\nScience, the individual, endearing term of Mother. Therefore, if a\nstudent of Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself\nor to others, except as the term for kinship according to the flesh, it\nshall be regarded by the Church as an indication of disrespect for their\nPastor Emeritus, and unfitness to be a member of the Mother-Church.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy is herself the Mother-Church--its powers and authorities are\nin her possession solely--and she can abolish that title whenever it may\nplease her to do so. She has only to command her people, wherever they\nmay be in the earth, to use it no more, and it will never be uttered\nagain. She is aware of this.\n\nIt may be that she \u201crefuses adulation\u201d when she is not awake, but when\nshe is awake she encourages it and propagates it in that museum called\n\u201cOur Mother's Room,\u201d in her Church in Boston. She could abolish that\ninstitution with a word, if she wanted to. She is aware of that. I will\nsay a further word about the museum presently.\n\nFurther down the column, her memory is unfaithful again:\n\n\u201cI believe in... but one Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, and\nnever claimed to be.\u201d\n\nAt a session of the National Christian Science Association, held in the\ncity of New York on the 27th of May, 1890, the secretary was \u201cinstructed\nto send to our Mother greetings and words of affection from her\nassembled children.\u201d\n\nHer telegraphic response was read to the Association at next day's\nmeeting:\n\n\u201cAll hail! He hath filled the hungry with good things and the sick hath\nHe not sent empty away.--MOTHER MARY.\u201d\n\nWhich Mother Mary is this one? Are there two? If so, she is both\nof them; for, when she signed this telegram in this satisfied and\nunprotesting way, the Mother-title which she was going to so strenuously\nobject to, and put from her with humility, and seize with both hands,\nand reserve as her sole property, and protect her monopoly of it with\na stern By-law, while recognizing with diffidence that it was \u201cnot\napplicable\u201d to her (then and to-day)--that Mother--title was not yet\nborn, and would not be offered to her until five years later. The date\nof the above \u201cMother Mary\u201d is 1890; the \u201cindividual, endearing title of\nMother\u201d was given her \u201cin 1895\u201d--according to her own testimony. See her\nBy-law quoted above.\n\nIn his opening Address to that Convention of 1890, the President\nrecognized this Mary--our Mary-and abolished all previous ones. He said:\n\n\u201cThere is but one Moses, one Jesus; and there is but one Mary.\u201d\n\nThe confusions being now dispersed, we have this clarified result:\n\nThere had been a Moses at one time, and only one; there had been a Jesus\nat one time, and only one; there is a Mary and \u201conly one.\u201d She is not a\nHas Been, she is an Is--the \u201cAuthor of Science and Health; and we cannot\nignore her.\u201d\n\n1. In 1890, there was but one Mother Mary. The President said so. 2.\nMrs. Eddy was that one. She said so, in signing the telegram. 3. Mrs.\nEddy was not that one for she says so, in her Associated Press utterance\nof January 17th. 4. And has \u201cnever claimed to be that one\u201d--unless the\nsignature to the telegram is a claim.\n\nThus it stands proven and established that she is that Mary and isn't,\nand thought she was and knows she wasn't. That much is clear.\n\nShe is also \u201cThe Mother,\u201d by the election of 1895, and did not want the\ntitle, and thinks it is not applicable to her, and will excommunicate\nany one that tries to take it away from her. So that is clear.\n\nI think that the only really troublesome confusion connected with these\nparticular matters has arisen from the name Mary. Much vexation, much\nmisunderstanding, could have been avoided if Mrs. Eddy had used some of\nher other names in place of that one. \u201cMother Mary\u201d was certain to stir\nup discussion. It would have been much better if she had signed\nthe telegram \u201cMother Baker\u201d; then there would have been no Biblical\ncompetition, and, of course, that is a thing to avoid. But it is not too\nlate, yet.\n\nI wish to break in here with a parenthesis, and then take up this\nexamination of Mrs. Eddy's Claim of January 17th again.\n\nThe history of her \u201cMother Mary\u201d telegram--as told to me by one who\nought to be a very good authority--is curious and interesting. The\ntelegram ostensibly quotes verse 53 from the \u201cMagnificat,\u201d but really\nmakes some pretty formidable changes in it. This is St. Luke's version:\n\n\u201cHe hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent\nempty away.\u201d\n\nThis is \u201cMother Mary's\u201d telegraphed version:\n\n\u201cHe hath filled the hungry with good things, and the sick hath He not\nsent empty away.\u201d\n\nTo judge by the Official Report, the bursting of this bombshell in that\nmassed convention of trained Christians created no astonishment, since\nit caused no remark, and the business of the convention went tranquilly\non, thereafter, as if nothing had happened.\n\nDid those people detect those changes? We cannot know. I think they must\nhave noticed them, the wording of St. Luke's verse being as familiar to\nall Christians as is the wording of the Beatitudes; and I think that the\nreason the new version provoked no surprise and no comment was, that the\nassemblage took it for a \u201cKey\u201d--a spiritualized explanation of verse 53,\nnewly sent down from heaven through Mrs. Eddy. For all Scientists study\ntheir Bibles diligently, and they know their Magnificat. I believe that\ntheir confidence in the authenticity of Mrs. Eddy's inspirations is so\nlimitless and so firmly established that no change, however violent,\nwhich she might make in a Bible text could disturb their composure or\nprovoke from them a protest.\n\nHer improved rendition of verse 53 went into the convention's report and\nappeared in a New York paper the next day. The (at that time) Scientist\nwhom I mentioned a minute ago, and who had not been present at the\nconvention, saw it and marvelled; marvelled and was indignant--indignant\nwith the printer or the telegrapher, for making so careless and so\ndreadful an error. And greatly distressed, too; for, of course, the\nnewspaper people would fall foul of it, and be sarcastic, and make fun\nof it, and have a blithe time over it, and be properly thankful for the\nchance. It shows how innocent he was; it shows that he did not know the\nlimitations of newspaper men in the matter of Biblical knowledge. The\nnew verse 53 raised no insurrection in the press; in fact, it was not\neven remarked upon; I could have told him the boys would not know there\nwas anything the matter with it. I have been a newspaper man myself, and\nin those days I had my limitations like the others.\n\nThe Scientist hastened to Concord and told Mrs. Eddy what a disastrous\nmistake had been made, but he found to his bewilderment that she was\ntranquil about it, and was not proposing to correct it. He was not able\nto get her to promise to make a correction. He asked her secretary if\nhe had heard aright when the telegram was dictated to him; the secretary\nsaid he had, and took the filed copy of it and verified its authenticity\nby comparing it with the stenographic notes.\n\nMrs. Eddy did make the correction, two months later, in her official\norgan. It attracted no attention among the Scientists; and, naturally,\nnone elsewhere, for that periodical's circulation was practically\nconfined to disciples of the cult.\n\nThat is the tale as it was told to me by an ex-Scientist. Verse\n53--renovated and spiritualized--had a narrow escape from a tremendous\ncelebrity. The newspaper men would have made it as famous as the\nassassination of Caesar, but for their limitations.\n\nTo return to the Claim. I find myself greatly embarrassed by Mrs. Eddy's\nremark: \u201cI regard self-deification as blasphemous.\u201d If she is right\nabout that, I have written a half-ream of manuscript this past week\nwhich I must not print, either in the book which I am writing, or\nelsewhere: for it goes into that very matter with extensive elaboration,\nciting, in detail, words and acts of Mrs. Eddy's which seem to me to\nprove that she is a faithful and untiring worshipper of herself, and has\ncarried self-deification to a length which has not been before ventured\nin ages. If ever. There is not room enough in this chapter for that\nSurvey, but I can epitomize a portion of it here.\n\nWith her own untaught and untrained mind, and without outside help,\nshe has erected upon a firm and lasting foundation the most minutely\nperfect, and wonderful, and smoothly and exactly working, and best\nsafe-guarded system of government that has yet been devised in the\nworld, as I believe, and as I am sure I could prove if I had room for my\ndocumentary evidences here.\n\nIt is a despotism (on this democratic soil); a sovereignty more absolute\nthan the Roman Papacy, more absolute than the Russian Czarship; it has\nnot a single power, not a shred of authority, legislative or executive,\nwhich is not lodged solely in the sovereign; all its dreams, its\nfunctions, its energies, have a single object, a single reason for\nexisting, and only the one--to build to the sky the glory of the\nsovereign, and keep it bright to the end of time.\n\nMrs. Eddy is the sovereign; she devised that great place for herself,\nshe occupies that throne.\n\nIn 1895, she wrote a little primer, a little body of autocratic laws,\ncalled the Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and put\nthose laws in force, in permanence. Her government is all there; all\nin that deceptively innocent-looking little book, that cunning little\ndevilish book, that slumbering little brown volcano, with hell in its\nbowels. In that book she has planned out her system, and classified and\ndefined its purposes and powers.\n\n\n\n\nMAIN PARTS OF THE MACHINE\n\nA Supreme Church. At Boston. Branch Churches. All over the world One\nPastor for the whole of them: to wit, her book, Science and Health. Term\nof the book's office--forever.\n\nIn every C.S. pulpit, two \u201cReaders,\u201d a man and a woman. No talkers,\nno preachers, in any Church-readers only. Readers of the Bible and her\nbooks--no others. No commentators allowed to write or print.\n\nA Church Service. She has framed it--for all the C.S. Churches--selected\nits readings, its prayers, and the hymns to be used, and has appointed\nthe order of procedure. No changes permitted.\n\nA Creed. She wrote it. All C.S. Churches must subscribe to it. No other\npermitted.\n\nA Treasury. At Boston. She carries the key.\n\nA C.S. Book--Publishing House. For books approved by her. No others\npermitted.\n\nJournals and Magazines. These are organs of hers, and are controlled by\nher.\n\nA College. For teaching C.S.\n\n\n\n\nDISTRIBUTION OF THE MACHINE'S POWERS AND DIGNITIES\n\nSupreme Church. Pastor Emeritus--Mrs. Eddy. Board of Directors. Board\nof Education. Board of Finance. College Faculty. Various Committees.\nTreasurer. Clerk. First Members (of the Supreme Church). Members of the\nSupreme Church.\n\nIt looks fair, it looks real, but it is all a fiction.\n\nEven the little \u201cPastor Emeritus\u201d is a fiction. Instead of being merely\nan honorary and ornamental official, Mrs. Eddy is the only official in\nthe entire body that has the slightest power. In her Manual, she has\nprovided a prodigality of ways and forms whereby she can rid herself of\nany functionary in the government whenever she wants to. The officials\nare all shadows, save herself; she is the only reality. She allows no\none to hold office more than a year--no one gets a chance to become\nover-popular or over-useful, and dangerous. \u201cExcommunication\u201d is the\nfavorite penalty-it is threatened at every turn. It is evidently the pet\ndread and terror of the Church's membership.\n\nThe member who thinks, without getting his thought from Mrs. Eddy before\nuttering it, is banished permanently. One or two kinds of sinners can\nplead their way back into the fold, but this one, never. To think--in\nthe Supreme Church--is the New Unpardonable Sin.\n\nTo nearly every severe and fierce rule, Mrs. Eddy adds this rivet: \u201cThis\nBy-law shall not be changed without the consent of the Pastor Emeritus.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy is the entire Supreme Church, in her own person, in the matter\nof powers and authorities.\n\nAlthough she has provided so many ways of getting rid of unsatisfactory\nmembers and officials, she was still afraid she might have left a\nlife-preserver lying around somewhere, therefore she devised a rule to\ncover that defect. By applying it, she can excommunicate (and this is\nperpetual again) every functionary connected with the Supreme Church,\nand every one of the twenty-five thousand members of that Church, at an\nhour's notice--and do it all by herself without anybody's help.\n\nBy authority of this astonishing By-law, she has only to say a\nperson connected with that Church is secretly practicing hypnotism or\nmesmerism; whereupon, immediate excommunication, without a hearing,\nis his portion! She does not have to order a trial and produce\nevidence--her accusation is all that is necessary.\n\nWhere is the Pope? and where the Czar? As the ballad says:\n\n     \u201cAsk of the winds that far away\n     With fragments strewed the sea!\u201d\n\nThe Branch Church's pulpit is occupied by two \u201cReaders.\u201d Without them\nthe Branch Church is as dead as if its throat had been cut. To have\ncontrol, then, of the Readers, is to have control of the Branch\nChurches. Mrs. Eddy has that control--a control wholly without limit, a\ncontrol shared with no one.\n\n1. No Reader can be appointed to any Church in the Christian Science\nworld without her express approval.\n\n2. She can summarily expel from his or her place any Reader, at home or\nabroad, by a mere letter of dismissal, over her signature, and without\nfurnishing any reason for it, to either the congregation or the Reader.\n\nThus she has as absolute control over all Branch Churches as she has\nover the Supreme Church. This power exceeds the Pope's.\n\nIn simple truth, she is the only absolute sovereign in all Christendom.\nThe authority of the other sovereigns has limits, hers has none, none\nwhatever. And her yoke does not fret, does not offend. Many of the\nsubjects of the other monarchs feel their yoke, and are restive under\nit; their loyalty is insincere. It is not so with this one's human\nproperty; their loyalty is genuine, earnest, sincere, enthusiastic.\nThe sentiment which they feel for her is one which goes out in sheer\nperfection to no other occupant of a throne; for it is love, pure from\ndoubt, envy, exaction, fault-seeking, a love whose sun has no\nspot--that form of love, strong, great, uplifting, limitless, whose vast\nproportions are compassable by no word but one, the prodigious word,\nWorship. And it is not as a human being that her subjects worship her,\nbut as a supernatural one, a divine one, one who has comradeship with\nGod, and speaks by His voice.\n\nMrs. Eddy has herself created all these personal grandeurs and\nautocracies--with others which I have not (in this article) mentioned.\nThey place her upon an Alpine solitude and supremacy of power and\nspectacular show not hitherto attained by any other self-seeking\nenslaver disguised in the Christian name, and they persuade me that,\nalthough she may regard \u201cself-deification as blasphemous,\u201d she is as\nfond of it as I am of pie.\n\nShe knows about \u201cOur Mother's Room\u201d in the Supreme Church in\nBoston--above referred to--for she has been in it. In a recently\npublished North American Review article, I quoted a lady as saying Mrs.\nEddy's portrait could be seen there in a shrine, lit by always-burning\nlights, and that C.S. disciples came and worshiped it. That remark hurt\nthe feelings of more than one Scientist. They said it was not true, and\nasked me to correct it. I comply with pleasure. Whether the portrait was\nthere four years ago or not, it is not there now, for I have\ninquired. The only object in the shrine now, and lit by electrics--and\nworshiped--is an oil-portrait of the horse-hair chair Mrs. Eddy used\nto sit in when she was writing Science and Health! It seems to me that\nadulation has struck bottom, here.\n\nMrs. Eddy knows about that. She has been there, she has seen it, she has\nseen the worshippers. She could abolish that sarcasm with a word. She\nwithholds the word. Once more I seem to recognize in her exactly the\nsame appetite for self-deification that I have for pie. We seem to be\ncuriously alike; for the love of self-deification is really only the\nspiritual form of the material appetite for pie, and nothing could be\nmore strikingly Christian-Scientifically \u201charmonious.\u201d\n\nI note this phrase:\n\n\u201cChristian Science eschews divine rights in human beings.\u201d\n\n\u201cRights\u201d is vague; I do not know what it means there. Mrs. Eddy is not\nwell acquainted with the English language, and she is seldom able to say\nin it what she is trying to say. She has no ear for the exact word, and\ndoes not often get it. \u201cRights.\u201d Does it mean \u201chonors?\u201d \u201cattributes?\u201d\n\n\u201cEschews.\u201d This is another umbrella where there should be a torch; it\ndoes not illumine the sentence, it only deepens the shadows. Does she\nmean \u201cdenies?\u201d \u201crefuses?\u201d \u201cforbids?\u201d or something in that line? Does she\nmean:\n\n\u201cChristian Science denies divine honors to human beings?\u201d Or:\n\n\u201cChristian Science refuses to recognize divine attributes in human\nbeings?\u201d Or:\n\n\u201cChristian Science forbids the worship of human beings?\u201d\n\nThe bulk of the succeeding sentence is to me a tunnel, but, when I\nemerge at this end of it, I seem to come into daylight. Then I seem to\nunderstand both sentences--with this result:\n\n\u201cChristian Science recognizes but one God, forbids the worship of human\nbeings, and refuses to recognize the possession of divine attributes by\nany member of the race.\u201d\n\nI am subject to correction, but I think that that is about what Mrs.\nEddy was intending to convey. Has her English--which is always difficult\nto me--beguiled me into misunderstanding the following remark, which she\nmakes (calling herself \u201cwe,\u201d after an old regal fashion of hers) in her\npreface to her Miscellaneous Writings?\n\n\u201cWhile we entertain decided views as to the best method for elevating\nthe race physically, morally, and spiritually, and shall express these\nviews as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine\norgan, no supernatural power.\u201d\n\nWas she meaning to say:\n\n\u201cAlthough I am of divine origin and gifted with supernatural power, I\nshall not draw upon these resources in determining the best method of\nelevating the race?\u201d\n\nIf she had left out the word \u201cour,\u201d she might then seem to say:\n\n\u201cI claim no especial or unusual degree of divine origin--\u201d\n\nWhich is awkward--most awkward; for one either has a divine origin or\nhasn't; shares in it, degrees of it, are surely impossible. The idea of\ncrossed breeds in cattle is a thing we can entertain, for we are used to\nit, and it is possible; but the idea of a divine mongrel is unthinkable.\n\nWell, then, what does she mean? I am sure I do not know, for certain. It\nis the word \u201cour\u201d that makes all the trouble. With the \u201cour\u201d in, she is\nplainly saying \u201cmy divine origin.\u201d The word \u201cfrom\u201d seems to be intended\nto mean \u201con account of.\u201d It has to mean that or nothing, if \u201cour\u201d is\nallowed to stay. The clause then says:\n\n\u201cI shall claim no especial gift on account of my divine origin.\u201d\n\nAnd I think that the full sentence was intended to mean what I have\nalready suggested:\n\n\u201cAlthough I am of divine origin, and gifted with supernatural power, I\nshall not draw upon these resources in determining the best method of\nelevating the race.\u201d\n\nWhen Mrs. Eddy copyrighted that Preface seven years ago, she had long\nbeen used to regarding herself as a divine personage. I quote from Mr.\nF. W. Peabody's book:\n\n\u201cIn the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her\nproperty, and published by her, it was claimed for her, and with her\nsanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made\nto establish the claim.\u201d\n\n\u201cMrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf, that she\nherself was the chosen successor to and equal of Jesus.\u201d\n\nThe following remark in that April number, quoted by Mr. Peabody,\nindicates that her claim had been previously made, and had excited\n\u201chorror\u201d among some \u201cgood people\u201d:\n\n\u201cNow, a word about the horror many good people have of our making the\nAuthor of Science and Health 'equal with Jesus.'\u201d\n\nSurely, if it had excited horror in Mrs. Eddy also, she would have\npublished a disclaimer. She owned the paper; she could say what she\npleased in its columns. Instead of rebuking her editor, she lets him\nrebuke those \u201cgood people\u201d for objecting to the claim.\n\nThese things seem to throw light upon those words, \u201cour [my] divine\norigin.\u201d\n\nIt may be that \u201cChristian Science eschews divine rights in human\nbeings,\u201d and forbids worship of any but \u201cone God, one Christ\u201d; but, if\nthat is the case, it looks as if Mrs. Eddy is a very unsound Christian\nScientist, and needs disciplining. I believe she has a serious\nmalady--\u201cself-deification\u201d; and that it will be well to have one of the\nexperts demonstrate over it.\n\nMeantime, let her go on living--for my sake. Closely examined,\npainstakingly studied, she is easily the most interesting person on the\nplanet, and, in several ways, as easily the most extraordinary woman\nthat was ever born upon it.\n\n\nP.S.--Since I wrote the foregoing, Mr. McCrackan's article appeared\n(in the March number of the North American Review). Before his article\nappeared--that is to say, during December, January, and February--I had\nwritten a new book, a character-portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her\nown acts and words, and it was then--together with the three brief\narticles previously published in the North American Review--ready to\nbe delivered to the printer for issue in book form. In that book, by\naccident and good luck, I have answered the objections made by Mr.\nMcCrackan to my views, and therefore do not need to add an answer here.\nAlso, in it I have corrected certain misstatements of mine which he has\nnoticed, and several others which he has not referred to. There are\none or two important matters of opinion upon which he and I are not\nin disagreement; but there are others upon which we must continue to\ndisagree, I suppose; indeed, I know we must; for instance, he believes\nMrs. Eddy wrote Science and Health, whereas I am quite sure I can\nconvince a person unhampered by predilections that she did not.\n\nAs concerns one considerable matter I hope to convert him. He believes\nMrs. Eddy's word; in his article he cites her as a witness, and takes\nher testimony at par; but if he will make an excursion through my book\nwhen it comes out, and will dispassionately examine her testimonies as\nthere accumulated, I think he will in candor concede that she is by a\nlarge percentage the most erratic and contradictory and untrustworthy\nwitness that has occupied the stand since the days of the lamented\nAnanias.\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nBroadly speaking, the hostiles reject and repudiate all the pretensions\nof Christian Science Christianity. They affirm that it has added nothing\nnew to Christianity; that it can do nothing that Christianity could not\ndo and was not doing before Christian Science was born.\n\nIn that case is there no field for the new Christianity, no opportunity\nfor usefulness, precious usefulness, great and distinguished usefulness?\nI think there is. I am far from being confident that it can fill it,\nbut I will indicate that unoccupied field--without charge--and if it can\nconquer it, it will deserve the praise and gratitude of the Christian\nworld, and will get it, I am sure.\n\nThe present Christianity makes an excellent private Christian, but its\nendeavors to make an excellent public one go for nothing, substantially.\n\nThis is an honest nation--in private life. The American Christian is a\nstraight and clean and honest man, and in his private commerce with his\nfellows can be trusted to stand faithfully by the principles of honor\nand honesty imposed upon him by his religion. But the moment he comes\nforward to exercise a public trust he can be confidently counted upon\nto betray that trust in nine cases out of ten, if \u201cparty loyalty\u201d shall\nrequire it.\n\nIf there are two tickets in the field in his city, one composed of\nhonest men and the other of notorious blatherskites and criminals, he\nwill not hesitate to lay his private Christian honor aside and vote for\nthe blatherskites if his \u201cparty honor\u201d shall exact it. His Christianity\nis of no use to him and has no influence upon him when he is acting in\na public capacity. He has sound and sturdy private morals, but he has no\npublic ones. In the last great municipal election in New York, almost\na complete one-half of the votes representing 3,500,000 Christians were\ncast for a ticket that had hardly a man on it whose earned and proper\nplace was outside of a jail. But that vote was present at church next\nSunday the same as ever, and as unconscious of its perfidy as if nothing\nhad happened.\n\nOur Congresses consist of Christians. In their private life they are\ntrue to every obligation of honor; yet in every session they violate\nthem all, and do it without shame; because honor to party is above honor\nto themselves. It is an accepted law of public life that in it a man\nmay soil his honor in the interest of party expediency--must do it when\nparty expediency requires it. In private life those men would bitterly\nresent--and justly--any insinuation that it would not be safe to leave\nunwatched money within their reach; yet you could not wound their\nfeelings by reminding them that every time they vote ten dollars to the\npension appropriation nine of it is stolen money and they the marauders.\nThey have filched the money to take care of the party; they believe it\nwas right to do it; they do not see how their private honor is affected;\ntherefore their consciences are clear and at rest. By vote they do\nwrongful things every day, in the party interest, which they could not\nbe persuaded to do in private life. In the interest of party expediency\nthey give solemn pledges, they make solemn compacts; in the interest\nof party expediency they repudiate them without a blush. They would not\ndream of committing these strange crimes in private life.\n\nNow then, can Christian Science introduce the Congressional Blush? There\nare Christian Private Morals, but there are no Christian Public Morals,\nat the polls, or in Congress or anywhere else--except here and there\nand scattered around like lost comets in the solar system. Can Christian\nScience persuade the nation and Congress to throw away their public\nmorals and use none but their private ones henceforth in all their\nactivities, both public and private?\n\nI do not think so; but no matter about me: there is the field--a grand\none, a splendid one, a sublime one, and absolutely unoccupied. Has\nChristian Science confidence enough in itself to undertake to enter in\nand try to possess it?\n\nMake the effort, Christian Science; it is a most noble cause, and it\nmight succeed. It could succeed. Then we should have a new literature,\nwith romances entitled, How To Be an Honest Congressman Though a\nChristian; How To Be a Creditable Citizen Though a Christian.","title":"Christian Science","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":59813}