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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +Christian Science + +by Mark Twain + + + + +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE + +PREFACE + +BOOK I of this volume occupies a quarter or a third of the volume, +and consists of matter written about four years ago, but not hitherto +published in book form. It contained errors of judgment and of fact. +I have now corrected these to the best of my ability and later knowledge. + + +Book II was written at the beginning of 1903, and has not until now +appeared in any form. In it my purpose has been to present a character- +portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own acts and words solely, not from +hearsay and rumor; and to explain the nature and scope of her Monarchy, +as revealed in the Laws by which she governs it, and which she wrote +herself. + +MARK TWAIN +NEW YORK. January, 1907. + + + + + +BOOK I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE + + "It is the first time since the dawn-days of Creation that + a Voice has gone crashing through space with such + placid and complacent confidence and command." + + + +CHAPTER I +VIENNA 1899. + +This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite- +Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and broke +some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was found +by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest +habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed farm-houses, +with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning little porch +under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored flowers and +cats; on the ground floor a large and light sitting-room, separated from +the milch-cattle apartment by a partition; and in the front yard rose +stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the manure-pile. +That sentence is Germanic, and shows that I am acquiring that sort of +mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables a man to +travel all day in one sentence without changing cars. + +There was a village a mile away, and a horse doctor lived there, but +there was no surgeon. It seemed a bad outlook; mine was distinctly a +surgery case. Then it was remembered that a lady from Boston was +summering in that village, and she was a Christian Science doctor and +could cure anything. So she was sent for. It was night by this time, +and she could not conveniently come, but sent word that it was no matter, +there was no hurry, she would give me "absent treatment" now, and come +in the morning; meantime she begged me to make myself tranquil and +comfortable and remember that there was nothing the matter with me. +I thought there must be some mistake. + +"Did you tell her I walked off a cliff seventy-five feet high?" + +"Yes." + +"And struck a boulder at the bottom and bounced?" + +"Yes." + +"And struck another one and bounced again?" + +"Yes." + +"And struck another one and bounced yet again?" + +"Yes." + +"And broke the boulders?" + +"Yes." + +"That accounts for it; she is thinking of the boulders. Why didn't you +tell her I got hurt, too?" + +"I did. I told her what you told me to tell her: that you were now but +an incoherent series of compound fractures extending from your scalp-lock +to your heels, and that the comminuted projections caused you to look +like a hat-rack." + +"And it was after this that she wished me to remember that there was +nothing the matter with me?" + +"Those were her words." + +"I do not understand it. I believe she has not diagnosed the case with +sufficient care. Did she look like a person who was theorizing, or did +she look like one who has fallen off precipices herself and brings to the +aid of abstract science the confirmations of personal experience?" + +"Bitte?" + +It was too large a contract for the Stubenmadchen's vocabulary; she +couldn't call the hand. I allowed the subject to rest there, and asked +for something to eat and smoke, and something hot to drink, and a basket +to pile my legs in; but I could not have any of these things. + +"Why?" + +"She said you would need nothing at all." + +"But I am hungry and thirsty, and in desperate pain." + +"She said you would have these delusions, but must pay no attention to +them. She wants you to particularly remember that there are no such +things as hunger and thirst and pain.'' + +"She does does she?" + +"It is what she said." + +Does she seem to be in full and functionable possession of her +intellectual plant, such as it is?" + +"Bitte?" + +"Do they let her run at large, or do they tie her up?" + +"Tie her up?" + +"There, good-night, run along, you are a good girl, but your mental +Geschirr is not arranged for light and airy conversation. Leave me to my +delusions." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +It was a night of anguish, of course-at least, I supposed it was, for it +had all the symptoms of it--but it passed at last, and the Christian +Scientist came, and I was glad She was middle-aged, and large and bony, +and erect, and had an austere face and a resolute jaw and a Roman beak +and was a widow in the third degree, and her name was Fuller. I was +eager to get to business and find relief, but she was distressingly +deliberate. She unpinned and unhooked and uncoupled her upholsteries one +by one, abolished the wrinkles with a flirt of her hand, and hung the +articles up; peeled off her gloves and disposed of them, got a book out +of her hand-bag, then drew a chair to the bedside, descended into it +without hurry, and I hung out my tongue. She said, with pity but without +passion: + +"Return it to its receptacle. We deal with the mind only, not with its +dumb servants." + +I could not offer my pulse, because the connection was broken; but she +detected the apology before I could word it, and indicated by a negative +tilt of her head that the pulse was another dumb servant that she had no +use for. Then I thought I would tell her my symptoms and how I felt, so +that she would understand the case; but that was another inconsequence, +she did not need to know those things; moreover, my remark about how I +felt was an abuse of language, a misapplication of terms. + +"One does not feel," she explained; "there is no such thing as feeling: +therefore, to speak of a non-existent thing as existent is a +contradiction. Matter has no existence; nothing exists but mind; the +mind cannot feel pain, it can only imagine it." + +"But if it hurts, just the same--" + +"It doesn't. A thing which is unreal cannot exercise the functions of +reality. Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot hurt." + +In making a sweeping gesture to indicate the act of shooing the illusion +of pain out of the mind, she raked her hand on a pin in her dress, said +"Ouch!" and went tranquilly on with her talk. "You should never allow +yourself to speak of how you feel, nor permit others to ask you how you +are feeling; you should never concede that you are ill, nor permit others +to talk about disease or pain or death or similar nonexistences in your +presence. Such talk only encourages the mind to continue its empty +imaginings." Just at that point the Stuben-madchen trod on the cat's +tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of cat-profanity. I asked, with +caution: + +"Is a cat's opinion about pain valuable?" + +"A cat has no opinion; opinions proceed from mind only; the lower +animals, being eternally perishable, have not been granted mind; without +mind, opinion is impossible." + +"She merely imagined she felt a pain--the cat?" + +"She cannot imagine a pain, for imagining is an effect of mind; without +mind, there is no imagination. A cat has no imagination." + +"Then she had a real pain?" + +"I have already told you there is no such thing as real pain." + +"It is strange and interesting. I do wonder what was the matter with the +cat. Because, there being no such thing as a real pain, and she not +being able to imagine an imaginary one, it would seem that God in His +pity has compensated the cat with some kind of a mysterious emotion +usable when her tail is trodden on which, for the moment, joins cat and +Christian in one common brotherhood of--" + +She broke in with an irritated-- + +"Peace! The cat feels nothing, the Christian feels nothing. Your empty +and foolish imaginings are profanation and blasphemy, and can do you an +injury. It is wiser and better and holier to recognize and confess that +there is no such thing as disease or pain or death." + +"I am full of imaginary tortures," I said, "but I do not think I could be +any more uncomfortable if they were real ones. What must I do to get rid +of them?" + +"There is no occasion to get rid of them. since they do not exist. They +are illusions propagated by matter, and matter has no existence; there is +no such thing as matter." + +"It sounds right and clear, but yet it seems in a degree elusive; it +seems to slip through, just when you think you are getting a grip on it." + +"Explain." + +"Well, for instance: if there is no such thing as matter, how can matter +propagate things?" + +In her compassion she almost smiled. She would have smiled if there were +any such thing as a smile. + +"It is quite simple," she said; "the fundamental propositions of +Christian Science explain it, and they are summarized in the four +following self-evident propositions: +1. God is All in all. +2. God is good. Good is Mind +3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter +4. Life, God, omnipotent Good, deny death, evil, sin, disease. + +There--now you see." + +It seemed nebulous; it did not seem to say anything about the difficulty +in hand--how non-existent matter can propagate illusions I said, with +some hesitancy: + +"Does--does it explain?" + +"Doesn't it? Even if read backward it will do it." + +With a budding hope, I asked her to do it backwards. + +"Very well. Disease sin evil death deny Good omnipotent God life matter +is nothing all being Spirit God Mind is Good good is God all in All is +God. There do you understand now? + +"It--it--well, it is plainer than it was before; still-- " + +"Well?" + +"Could you try it some more ways?" + +"As many as you like; it always means the same. Interchanged in any way +you please it cannot be made to mean anything different from what it +means when put in any other way. Because it is perfect. You can jumble +it all up, and it makes no difference: it always comes out the way it was +before. It was a marvelous mind that produced it. As a mental tour de +force it is without a mate, it defies alike the simple, the concrete, and +the occult." + +"It seems to be a corker." + +I blushed for the word, but it was out before I could stop it. + +"A what?" + +"A--wonderful structure--combination, so to speak, of profound thoughts-- +unthinkable ones--um--" + +It is true. Read backward, or forward, or perpendicularly, or at any +given angle, these four propositions will always be found to agree in +statement and proof." + +"Ah--proof. Now we are coming at it. The statements agree; they agree +with--with--anyway, they agree; I noticed that; but what is it they prove +I mean, in particular?" + +"Why, nothing could be clearer. They prove: + +1. GOD--Principle, Life, +Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind. Do you get that?" + +"I--well, I seem to. Go on, please." + +"2. MAN--God's universal idea, individual, perfect, eternal. Is it +clear?" + +"It--I think so. Continue." + +"3. IDEA--An image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding. +There it is--the whole sublime Arcana of Christian Science in a nutshell. +Do you find a weak place in it anywhere?" + +"Well--no; it seems strong." + +"Very well There is more. Those three constitute the Scientific +Definition of Immortal Mind. Next, we have the Scientific Definition of +Mortal Mind. Thus. FIRST DEGREE: Depravity I. Physical-Passions and +appetites, fear, depraved will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, +sin, disease, death." + +"Phantasms, madam--unrealities, as I understand it." + +"Every one. SECOND DEGREE: Evil Disappearing. I. Moral-Honesty, +affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. Is it clear?" + +"Crystal." + +"THIRD DEGREE: Spiritual Salvation. I. Spiritual-Faith, wisdom, power, +purity, understanding, health, love. You see how searchingly and co- +ordinately interdependent and anthropomorphous it all is. In this Third +Degree, as we know by the revelations of Christian Science, mortal mind +disappears." + +"Not earlier?" + +"No, not until the teaching and preparation for the Third Degree are +completed." + +"It is not until then that one is enabled to take hold of Christian +Science effectively, and with the right sense of sympathy and kinship, +as I understand you. That is to say, it could not succeed during the +processes of the Second Degree, because there would still be remains of +mind left; and therefore--but I interrupted you. You were about to +further explain the good results proceeding from the erosions and +disintegrations effected by the Third Degree. It is very interesting; +go on, please." + +"Yes, as I was saying, in this Third Degree mortal mind disappears. +Science so reverses the evidence before the corporeal human senses as to +make this scriptural testimony true in our hearts, 'the last shall be +first and the first shall be last,' that God and His idea may be to us-- +what divinity really is, and must of necessity be all-inclusive." + +"It is beautiful. And with what exhaustive exactness your choice and +arrangement of words confirm and establish what you have claimed for the +powers and functions of the Third Degree. The Second could probably +produce only temporary absence of mind; it is reserved to the Third to +make it permanent. A sentence framed under the auspices of the Second +could have a kind of meaning--a sort of deceptive semblance of it-- +whereas it is only under the magic of the Third that that defect would +disappear. Also, without doubt, it is the Third Degree that contributes +another remarkable specialty to Christian Science--viz., ease and flow +and lavishness of words, and rhythm and swing and smoothness. There must +be a special reason for this?" + +"Yes--God-- all, all--God, good God, non-Matter, Matteration, Spirit, +Bones, Truth." + +"That explains it." + +"There is nothing in Christian Science that is not explicable; for God is +one, Time is one, Individuality is one, and may be one of a series, one +of many, as an individual man, individual horse; whereas God is one, not +one of a series, but one alone and without an equal." + +"These are noble thoughts. They make one burn to know more. How does +Christian Science explain the spiritual relation of systematic duality to +incidental deflection?" + +"Christian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and body--as +astronomy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar +system--and makes body tributary to the Mind. As it is the earth which +is in motion, While the sun is at rest, though in viewing the sun rise +one finds it impossible to believe the sun not to be really rising, so +the body is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems +otherwise to finite sense; but we shall never understand this while we +admit that soul is in body, or mind in matter, and that man is included +in non-intelligence. Soul is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man +coexists with and reflects Soul, for the All-in-all is the Altogether, +and the Altogether embraces the All-one, Soul-Mind, Mind-Soul, Love, +Spirit, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and without an equal." + +"What is the origin of Christian Science? Is it a gift of God, or did it +just happen?" + +"In a sense, it is a gift of God. That is to say, its powers are from +Him, but the credit of the discovery of the powers and what they are for +is due to an American lady." + +"Indeed? When did this occur?" + +"In 1866. That is the immortal date when pain and disease and death +disappeared from the earth to return no more forever. That is, the +fancies for which those terms stand disappeared. The things themselves +had never existed; therefore, as soon as it was perceived that there were +no such things, they were easily banished. The history and nature of the +great discovery are set down in the book here, and--" + +"Did the lady write the book?" + +"Yes, she wrote it all, herself. The title is Science and Health, with +Key to the Scriptures-- for she explains the Scriptures; they were not +understood before. Not even by the twelve Disciples. She begins thus-- +I will read it to you." + +But she had forgotten to bring her glasses. + +"Well, it is no matter," she said. "I remember the words--indeed, all +Christian Scientists know the book by heart; it is necessary in our +practice. We should otherwise make mistakes and do harm. She begins +thus: ' In the year 1866 I discovered the Science of Metaphysical +Healing, and named it Christian Science.' And She says quite beautifully, +I think--' Through Christian Science, religion and medicine are inspired +with a diviner nature and essence, fresh pinions are given to faith and +understanding, and thoughts acquaint themselves intelligently with God.' +Her very words." + +"It is elegant. And it is a fine thought, too--marrying religion to +medicine, instead of medicine to the undertaker in the old way; for +religion and medicine properly belong together, they being the basis of +all spiritual and physical health. What kind of medicine do you give for +the ordinary diseases, such as--" + +"We never give medicine in any circumstances whatever! We--" + +"But, madam, it says--" + +"I don't care what it says, and I don't wish to talk about it." + +"I am sorry if I have offended, but you see the mention seemed in some +way inconsistent, and--" + +"There are no inconsistencies in Christian Science. The thing is +impossible, for the Science is absolute. It cannot be otherwise, since +it proceeds directly from the All-in-all and the Everything-in-Which, +also Soul, Bones, Truth, one of a series, alone and without equal. It is +Mathematics purified from material dross and made spiritual." + +"I can see that, but--" + +"It rests upon the immovable basis of an Apodictical Principle." + +The word flattened itself against my mind in trying to get in, and +disordered me a little, and before I could inquire into its pertinency, +she was already throwing the needed light: + +"This Apodictical Principle is the absolute Principle of Scientific Mind- +healing, the sovereign Omnipotence which delivers the children of men +from pain, disease, decay, and every ill that flesh is heir to." + +"Surely not every ill, every decay?" + +"Every one; there are no exceptions; there is no such thing as decay--it +is an unreality, it has no existence." + +"But without your glasses your failing eyesight does not permit you to--" + +"My eyesight cannot fail; nothing can fail; the Mind is master, and the +Mind permits no retrogression." + +She was under the inspiration of the Third Degree, therefore there could +be no profit in continuing this part of the subject. I shifted to other +ground and inquired further concerning the Discoverer of the Science. + +"Did the discovery come suddenly, like Klondike, or after long study and +calculation, like America?" + +"The comparisons are not respectful, since they refer to trivialities-- +but let it pass. I will answer in the Discoverer's own words: 'God had +been graciously fitting me, during many years, for the reception of a +final revelation of the absolute Principle of Scientific Mind-healing." + +"Many years. How many?" + +"Eighteen centuries!" + +"All--God, God--good, good--God, Truth, Bones, Liver, one of a series, +alone and without equal--it is amazing!" + +"You may well say it, sir. Yet it is but the truth This American lady, +our revered and sacred Founder, is distinctly referred to, and her coming +prophesied, in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; she could not have +been more plainly indicated by St. John without actually mentioning her +name." + +"How strange, how wonderful!" + +"I will quote her own words, from her Key to the Scriptures: 'The twelfth +chapter of the Apocalypse has a special suggestiveness in connection with +this nineteenth century.' There--do you note that? Think--note it well." + + +"But--what does it mean?" + +"Listen, and you will know. I quote her inspired words again: 'In the +opening of the Sixth Seal, typical of six thousand years since Adam, +there is one distinctive feature which has special reference to the +present age. Thus: + +"'Revelation xii. I. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven--a +woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her +head a crown of twelve stars.' + +"That is our Head, our Chief, our Discoverer of Christian Science-- +nothing can be plainer, nothing surer. And note this: + +"'Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she +had a place prepared of God.' + +"That is Boston. I recognize it, madam. These are sublime things, and +impressive; I never understood these passages before; please go on with +the--with the--proofs." + +"Very well. Listen: + +"'And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a +cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the +sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he held in his hand a little +book.' + +"A little book, merely a little book--could words be modester? Yet how +stupendous its importance! Do you know what book that was?" + +"Was it--" + +"I hold it in my hand--Christian Science!" + +"Love, Livers, Lights, Bones, Truth, Kidneys, one of a series, alone and +without equal-- it is beyond imagination for wonder!" + +"Hear our Founder's eloquent words: 'Then will a voice from harmony cry, +"Go and take the little book: take it and eat it up, and it shall make +thy belly bitter; but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortal, +obey the heavenly evangel. Take up Divine Science. Read it from +beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be, indeed, sweet at its +first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find +its digestion bitter.' You now know the history of our dear and holy +Science, sir, and that its origin is not of this earth, but only its +discovery. I will leave the book with you and will go, now; but give +yourself no uneasiness-- I will give you absent treatment from now till I +go to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Under the powerful influence of the near treatment and the absent +treatment together, my bones were gradually retreating inward and +disappearing from view. The good work took a brisk start, now, and went +on swiftly. My body was diligently straining and stretching, this way +and that, to accommodate the processes of restoration, and every minute +or two I heard a dull click inside and knew that the two ends of a +fracture had been successfully joined. This muffled clicking and +gritting and grinding and rasping continued during the next three hours, +and then stopped--the connections had all been made. All except +dislocations; there were only seven of these: hips, shoulders, knees, +neck; so that was soon over; one after another they slipped into their +sockets with a sound like pulling a distant cork, and I jumped up as good +as new, as to framework, and sent for the horse-doctor. + +I was obliged to do this because I had a stomach-ache and a cold in the +head, and I was not willing to trust these things any longer in the hands +of a woman whom I did not know, and whose ability to successfully treat +mere disease I had lost all confidence. My position was justified by the +fact that the cold and the ache had been in her charge from the first, +along with the fractures, but had experienced not a shade of relief; and, +indeed, the ache was even growing worse and worse, and more and more +bitter, now, probably on account of the protracted abstention from food +and drink. + +The horse-doctor came, a pleasant man and full of hope and professional +interest in the case. In the matter of smell he was pretty aromatic--in +fact, quite horsy--and I tried to arrange with him for absent treatment, +but it was not in his line, so, out of delicacy, I did not press it. He +looked at my teeth and examined my hock, and said my age and general +condition were favorable to energetic measures; therefore he would give +me something to turn the stomach-ache into the botts and the cold in the +head into the blind staggers; then he should be on his own beat and would +know what to do. He made up a bucket of bran-mash, and said a dipperful +of it every two hours, alternated with a drench with turpentine and axle- +grease in it, would either knock my ailments out of me in twenty-four +hours, or so interest me in other ways as to make me forget they were on +the premises. He administered my first dose himself, then took his +leave, saying I was free to eat and drink anything I pleased and in any +quantity I liked. But I was not hungry any more, and did not care for +food. + +I took up the Christian Science book and read half of it, then took a +dipperful of drench and read the other half. The resulting experiences +were full of interest and adventure. All through the rumblings and +grindings and quakings and effervescings accompanying the evolution of +the ache into the botts and the cold into the blind staggers I could note +the generous struggle for mastery going on between the mash and the +drench and the literature; and often I could tell which was ahead, and +could easily distinguish the literature from the others when the others +were separate, though not when they were mixed; for when a bran-mash and +an eclectic drench are mixed together they look just like the Apodictical +Principle out on a lark, and no one can tell it from that. The finish +was reached at last, the evolutions were complete, and a fine success, +but I think that this result could have been achieved with fewer +materials. I believe the mash was necessary to the conversion of the +stomach-ache into the botts, but I think one could develop the blind +staggers out of the literature by itself; also, that blind staggers +produced in this way would be of a better quality and more lasting than +any produced by the artificial processes of the horse-doctor. + +For of all the strange and frantic and incomprehensible and +uninterpretable books which the imagination of man has created, surely +this one is the prize sample. It is written with a limitless confidence +and complacency, and with a dash and stir and earnestness which often +compel the effects of eloquence, even when the words do not seem to have +any traceable meaning. There are plenty of people who imagine they +understand the book; I know this, for I have talked with them; but in all +cases they were people who also imagined that there were no such things +as pain, sickness, and death, and no realities in the world; nothing +actually existent but Mind. It seems to me to modify the value of their +testimony. When these people talk about Christian Science they do as +Mrs. Fuller did: they do not use their own language, but the book's; they +pour out the book's showy incoherences, and leave you to find out later +that they were not originating, but merely quoting; they seem to know the +volume by heart, and to revere it as they would a Bible-- another Bible, +perhaps I ought to say. Plainly the book was written under the mental +desolations of the Third Degree, and I feel sure that none but the +membership of that Degree can discover meanings in it. When you read it +you seem to be listening to a lively and aggressive and oracular speech +delivered in an unknown tongue, a speech whose spirit you get but not the +particulars; or, to change the figure, you seem to be listening to a +vigorous instrument which is making a noise which it thinks is a tune, +but which, to persons not members of the band, is only the martial +tooting of a trombone, and merrily stirs the soul through the noise, but +does not convey a meaning. + +The book's serenities of self-satisfaction do almost seem to smack of a +heavenly origin-- they have no blood-kin in the earth. It is more than +human to be so placidly certain about things, and so finely superior, and +so airily content with one's performance. Without ever presenting +anything which may rightfully be called by the strong name of Evidence, +and sometimes without even mentioning a reason for a deduction at all, it +thunders out the startling words, "I have Proved" so and so. It takes +the Pope and all the great guns of his Church in battery assembled to +authoritatively settle and establish the meaning of a sole and single +unclarified passage of Scripture, and this at vast cost of time and study +and reflection, but the author of this work is superior to all that: she +finds the whole Bible in an unclarified audition, and at small expense of +time and no expense of mental effort she clarifies it from lid to lid, +reorganizes and improves the meanings, then authoritatively settles and +establishes them with formulas which you cannot tell from "Let there be +light!" and "Here you have it!" It is the first time since the dawn-days +of Creation that a Voice has gone crashing through space with such placid +and complacent confidence and command. + +[January, 1903. The first reading of any book whose terminology is +new and strange is nearly sure to leave the reader in a bewildered and +sarcastic state of mind. But now that, during the past two months, I +have, by diligence gained a fair acquaintanceship with Science and Health +technicalities, I no longer find the bulk of that work hard to +understand.--M. T.] + +P.S. The wisdom harvested from the foregoing thoughts has already done +me a service and saved me a sorrow. Nearly a month ago there came to me +from one of the universities a tract by Dr. Edward Anthony Spitzka on +the "Encephalic Anatomy of the Races." I judged that my opinion was +desired by the university, and I was greatly pleased with this attention +and wrote and said I would furnish it as soon as I could. That night I +put my plodding and disheartening Christian Science mining aside and took +hold of the matter. I wrote an eager chapter, and was expecting to +finish my opinion the next day, but was called away for a week, and my +mind was soon charged with other interests. It was not until to-day, +after the lapse of nearly a month, that I happened upon my Encephalic +chapter again. Meantime, the new wisdom had come to me, and I read it +with shame. I recognized that I had entered upon that work in far from +the right temper --far from the respectful and judicial spirit which was +its due of reverence. I had begun upon it with the following paragraph +for fuel: + +"FISSURES OF THE PARIETAL AND OCCIPITAL LOBES (LATERAL SURFACE).--The +Postcentral Fissural Complex--In this hemicerebrum, the postcentral and +subcentral are combined to form a continuous fissure, attaining a length +of 8.5 cm. Dorsally, the fissure bifurcates, embracing the gyre indented +by the caudal limb of the paracentral. The caudal limb of the +postcentral is joined by a transparietal piece. In all, five additional +rami spring from the combined fissure. A vadum separates it from the +parietal; another from the central." + +It humiliates me, now, to see how angry I got over that; and how +scornful. I said that the style was disgraceful; that it was labored and +tumultuous, and in places violent, that the treatment was involved and +erratic, and almost, as a rule, bewildering; that to lack of simplicity +was added a lack of vocabulary; that there was quite too much feeling +shown; that if I had a dog that would get so excited and incoherent over +a tranquil subject like Encephalic Anatomy I would not pay his tax; and +at that point I got excited myself and spoke bitterly of these mongrel +insanities, and said a person might as well try to understand Science and +Health. + +[I know, now, where the trouble was, and am glad of the interruption that +saved me from sending my verdict to the university. It makes me cold to +think what those people might have thought of me.--M. T.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +No one doubts--certainly not I--that the mind exercises a powerful +influence over the body. From the beginning of time, the sorcerer, the +interpreter of dreams, the fortune-teller, the charlatan, the quack, the +wild medicine-man, the educated physician, the mesmerist, and the +hypnotist have made use of the client's imagination to help them in their +work. They have all recognized the potency and availability of that +force. Physicians cure many patients with a bread pill; they know that +where the disease is only a fancy, the patient's confidence in the doctor +will make the bread pill effective. + +Faith in the doctor. Perhaps that is the entire thing. It seems to look +like it. In old times the King cured the king's evil by the touch of the +royal hand. He frequently made extraordinary cures. Could his footman +have done it? No--not in his own clothes. Disguised as the King, could +he have done it? I think we may not doubt it. I think we may feel sure +that it was not the King's touch that made the cure in any instance, but +the patient's faith in the efficacy of a King's touch. Genuine and +remarkable cures have been achieved through contact with the relics of a +saint. Is it not likely that any other bones would have done as well if +the substitution had been concealed from the patient? When I was a boy a +farmer's wife who lived five miles from our village had great fame as a +faith-doctor--that was what she called herself. Sufferers came to her +from all around, and she laid her hand upon them and said, "Have faith-- +it is all that is necessary," and they went away well of their ailments. +She was not a religious woman, and pretended to no occult powers. She +said that the patient's faith in her did the work. Several times I saw +her make immediate cures of severe toothaches. My mother was the +patient. In Austria there is a peasant who drives a great trade in this +sort of industry, and has both the high and the low for patients. He +gets into prison every now and then for practising without a diploma, but +his business is as brisk as ever when he gets out, for his work is +unquestionably successful and keeps his reputation high. In Bavaria +there is a man who performed so many great cures that he had to retire +from his profession of stage-carpentering in order to meet the demand of +his constantly increasing body of customers. He goes on from year to +year doing his miracles, and has become very rich. He pretends to no +religious helps, no supernatural aids, but thinks there is something in +his make-up which inspires the confidence of his patients, and that it is +this confidence which does the work, and not some mysterious power +issuing from himself. + +Within the last quarter of a century, in America, several sects of curers +have appeared under various names and have done notable things in the way +of healing ailments without the use of medicines. There are the Mind +Cure the Faith Cure, the Prayer Cure, the Mental Science Cure, and the +Christian-Science Cure; and apparently they all do their miracles with +the same old, powerful instrument--the patient's imagination. Differing +names, but no difference in the process. But they do not give that +instrument the credit; each sect claims that its way differs from the +ways of the others. + +They all achieve some cures, there is no question about it; and the Faith +Cure and the Prayer Cure probably do no harm when they do no good, since +they do not forbid the patient to help out the cure with medicines if he +wants to; but the others bar medicines, and claim ability to cure every +conceivable human ailment through the application of their mental forces +alone. There would seem to be an element of danger here. It has the +look of claiming too much, I think. Public confidence would probably be +increased if less were claimed. + +The Christian Scientist was not able to cure my stomach-ache and my cold; +but the horse-doctor did it. This convinces me that Christian Science +claims too much. In my opinion it ought to let diseases alone and +confine itself to surgery. There it would have everything its own way. + +The horse-doctor charged me thirty kreutzers, and I paid him; in fact, I +doubled it and gave him a shilling. Mrs. Fuller brought in an itemized +bill for a crate of broken bones mended in two hundred and thirty-four +places--one dollar per fracture. + +"Nothing exists but Mind?" + +"Nothing," she answered. "All else is substanceless, all else is +imaginary." + +I gave her an imaginary check, and now she is suing me for substantial +dollars. It looks inconsistent. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to +each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple +many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and +obscurities now. + +Those of us who are not in the asylum, and not demonstrably due there, +are nevertheless, no doubt, insane in one or two particulars. I think we +must admit this; but I think that we are otherwise healthy-minded. I +think that when we all see one thing alike, it is evidence that, as +regards that one thing, our minds are perfectly sound. Now there are +really several things which we do all see alike; things which we all +accept, and about which we do not dispute. For instance, we who are +outside of the asylum all agree that water seeks its level; that the sun +gives light and heat; that fire consumes; that fog is damp; that six +times six are thirty-six, that two from ten leaves eight; that eight and +seven are fifteen. These are, perhaps, the only things we are agreed +about; but, although they are so few, they are of inestimable value, +because they make an infallible standard of sanity. Whosoever accepts +them him we know to be substantially sane; sufficiently sane; in the +working essentials, sane. Whoever disputes a single one of them him we +know to be wholly insane, and qualified for the asylum. + +Very well, the man who disputes none of them we concede to be entitled to +go at large. But that is concession enough. We cannot go any further +than that; for we know that in all matters of mere opinion that same man +is insane--just as insane as we are; just as insane as Shakespeare was. +We know exactly where to put our finger upon his insanity: it is where +his opinion differs from ours. + +That is a simple rule, and easy to remember. When I, a thoughtful and +unblessed Presbyterian, examine the Koran, I know that beyond any +question every Mohammedan is insane; not in all things, but in religious +matters. When a thoughtful and unblessed Mohammedan examines the +Westminster Catechism, he knows that beyond any question I am spiritually +insane. I cannot prove to him that he is insane, because you never can +prove anything to a lunatic--for that is a part of his insanity and the +evidence of it. He cannot prove to me that I am insane, for my mind has +the same defect that afflicts his. All Democrats are insane, but not one +of them knows it; none but the Republicans and Mugwumps know it. All the +Republicans are insane, but only the Democrats and Mugwumps can perceive +it. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are +insane. When I look around me, I am often troubled to see how many +people are mad. To mention only a few: + +The Atheist, The Theosophists, The Infidel, The Swedenborgians, The +Agnostic, The Shakers, The Baptist, The Millerites, The Methodist, The +Mormons, The Christian Scientist, The Laurence Oliphant Harrisites, The +Catholic, and the 115 Christian sects, the Presbyterian excepted, The +Grand Lama's people, The Monarchists, The Imperialists, The 72 Mohammedan +sects, The Democrats, The Republicans (but not the Mugwumps), The +Buddhist, The Blavatsky-Buddhist, The Mind-Curists, The Faith-Curists, +The Nationalist, The Mental Scientists, The Confucian, The Spiritualist, +The Allopaths, The 2000 East Indian sects, The Homeopaths, The +Electropaths, The Peculiar People, The---- + +But there's no end to the list; there are millions of them! And all +insane; each in his own way; insane as to his pet fad or opinion, but +otherwise sane and rational. This should move us to be charitable +towards one another's lunacies. I recognize that in his special belief +the Christian Scientist is insane, because he does not believe as I do; +but I hail him as my mate and fellow, because I am as insane as he insane +from his point of view, and his point of view is as authoritative as mine +and worth as much. That is to say, worth a brass farthing. Upon a great +religious or political question, the opinion of the dullest head in the +world is worth the same as the opinion of the brightest head in the +world--a brass farthing. How do we arrive at this? It is simple. The +affirmative opinion of a stupid man is neutralized by the negative +opinion of his stupid neighbor no decision is reached; the affirmative +opinion of the intellectual giant Gladstone is neutralized by the +negative opinion of the intellectual giant Newman--no decision is +reached. Opinions that prove nothing are, of course, without value any +but a dead person knows that much. This obliges us to admit the truth of +the unpalatable proposition just mentioned above --that, in disputed +matters political and religious, one man's opinion is worth no more than +his peer's, and hence it followers that no man's opinion possesses any +real value. It is a humbling thought, but there is no way to get around +it: all opinions upon these great subjects are brass-farthing opinions. + +It is a mere plain, simple fact--as clear and as certain as that eight +and seven make fifteen. And by it we recognize that we are all insane, +as concerns those matters. If we were sane, we should all see a +political or religious doctrine alike; there would be no dispute: it +would be a case of eight and seven--just as it is in heaven, where all +are sane and none insane. There there is but one religion, one belief; +the harmony is perfect; there is never a discordant note. + +Under protection of these preliminaries, I suppose I may now repeat +without offence that the Christian Scientist is insane. I mean him no +discourtesy, and I am not charging--nor even imagining--that he is +insaner than the rest of the human race. I think he is more +picturesquely insane than some of us. At the same time, I am quite sure +that in one important and splendid particular he is much saner than is +the vast bulk of the race. + +Why is he insane? I told you before: it is because his opinions are not +ours. I know of no other reason, and I do not need any other; it is the +only way we have of discovering insanity when it is not violent. It is +merely the picturesqueness of his insanity that makes it more interesting +than my kind or yours. For instance, consider his "little book"; the +"little book" exposed in the sky eighteen centuries ago by the flaming +angel of the Apocalypse, and handed down in our day to Mrs. Mary Baker G. +Eddy, of New Hampshire, and translated by her, word for word, into +English (with help of a polisher), and now published and distributed in +hundreds of editions by her at a clear profit per volume, above cost, of +seven hundred per cent.!--a profit which distinctly belongs to the angel +of the Apocalypse, and let him collect it if he can; a "little book" +which the C.S. very frequently calls by just that name, and always +enclosed in quotation-marks to keep its high origin exultantly in mind; a +"little book" which "explains" and reconstructs and new-paints and +decorates the Bible, and puts a mansard roof on it and a lightning-rod +and all the other modern improvements; a "little book" which for the +present affects to travel in yoke with the Bible and be friendly to it, +and within half a century will hitch the Bible in the rear and +thenceforth travel tandem, itself in the lead, in the coming great march +of Christian Scientism through the Protestant dominions of the planet. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"Hungry ones throng to hear the Bible read in connection with the text- +book of Christian Science, Science and Health, with Key to the +Scriptures, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. These are our only preachers. They +are the word of God. "Christian Science Journal", October, 1898. + +Is that picturesque? A lady has told me that in a chapel of the Mosque +in Boston there is a picture or image of Mrs. Eddy, and that before it +burns a never-extinguished light. Is that picturesque? How long do you +think it will be before the Christian Scientist will be worshipping that +picture or image and praying to it? How long do you think it will be +before it is claimed that Mrs. Eddy is a Redeemer, a Christ, and Christ's +equal? Already her army of disciples speak of her reverently as "Our +Mother." + +How long will it be before they place her on the steps of the Throne +beside the Virgin--and, later, a step higher? First, Mary the Virgin and +Mary the Matron; later, with a change of precedence, Mary the Matron and +Mary the Virgin. Let the artist get ready with his canvas and his +brushes; the new Renaissance is on its way, and there will be money in +altar-canvases--a thousand times as much as the Popes and their Church +ever spent on the Old Masters; for their riches were poverty as compared +with what is going to pour into the treasure-chest of the Christian- +Scientist Papacy by-and-by, let us not doubt it. We will examine the +financial outlook presently and see what it promises. A favorite subject +of the new Old Master will be the first verse of the twelfth chapter of +Revelation--a verse which Mrs. Eddy says (in her Annex to the Scriptures) +has "one distinctive feature which has special reference to the present +age"--and to her, as is rather pointedly indicated: + +"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the +sun, and the moon under her feet," etc. + +The woman clothed with the sun will be a portrait of Mrs. Eddy. + +Is it insanity to believe that Christian Scientism is destined to make +the most formidable show that any new religion has made in the world +since the birth and spread of Mobammedanism, and that within a century +from now it may stand second to Rome only, in numbers and power in +Christendom? + +If this is a wild dream it will not be easy to prove it so just yet, I +think. There seems argument that it may come true. The Christian- +Science "boom," proper, is not yet five years old; yet already it has two +hundred and fifty churches. + +It has its start, you see, and it is a phenomenally good one. Moreover, +it is latterly spreading with a constantly accelerating swiftness. It +has a better chance to grow and prosper and achieve permanency than any +other existing "ism"; for it has more to offer than any other. The past +teaches us that in order to succeed, a movement like this must not be a +mere philosophy, it must be a religion; also, that it must not claim +entire originality, but content itself with passing for an improvement on +an existing religion, and show its hand later, when strong and +prosperous--like Mohammedanism. + +Next, there must be money--and plenty of it. + +Next, the power and authority and capital must be concentrated in the +grip of a small and irresponsible clique, with nobody outside privileged +to ask questions or find fault. + +Next, as before remarked, it must bait its hook with some new and +attractive advantages over the baits offered by its competitors. A new +movement equipped with some of these endowments--like spiritualism, for +instance may count upon a considerable success; a new movement equipped +with the bulk of them--like Mohammedanism, for instance-- may count upon +a widely extended conquest. Mormonism had all the requisites but one it +had nothing new and nothing valuable to bait with. Spiritualism lacked +the important detail of concentration of money and authority in the hands +of an irresponsible clique. + +The above equipment is excellent, admirable, powerful, but not perfect. +There is yet another detail which is worth the whole of it put together +and more; a detail which has never been joined (in the beginning of a +religious movement) to a supremely good working equipment since the world +began, until now: a new personage to worship. Christianity had the +Saviour, but at first and for generations it lacked money and +concentrated power. In Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science possesses the new +personage for worship, and in addition--here in the very beginning--a +working equipment that has not a flaw in it. In the beginning, +Mohammedanism had no money; and it has never had anything to offer its +client but heaven-- nothing here below that was valuable. In addition to +heaven hereafter, Christian Science has present health and a cheerful +spirit to offer; and in comparison with this bribe all other this-world +bribes are poor and cheap. You recognize that this estimate is +admissible, do you not? + +To whom does Bellamy's "Nationalism" appeal? Necessarily to the few: +people who read and dream, and are compassionate, and troubled for the +poor and the hard-driven. To whom does Spiritualism appeal? Necessarily +to the few; its "boom" has lasted for half a century, and I believe it +claims short of four millions of adherents in America. Who are attracted +by Swedenborgianism and some of the other fine and delicate "isms"? The +few again: educated people, sensitively organized, with superior mental +endowments, who seek lofty planes of thought and find their contentment +there. And who are attracted by Christian Science? There is no limit; +its field is horizonless; its appeal is as universal as is the appeal of +Christianity itself. It appeals to the rich, the poor, the high, the +low, the cultured, the ignorant, the gifted, the stupid, the modest, the +vain, the wise, the silly, the soldier, the civilian, the hero, the +coward, the idler, the worker, the godly, the godless, the freeman, the +slave, the adult, the child; they who are ailing in body or mind, they +who have friends that are ailing in body or mind. To mass it in a +phrase, its clientage is the Human Race. Will it march? I think so. + +Remember its principal great offer: to rid the Race of pain and disease. +Can it do so? In large measure, yes. How much of the pain and disease +in the world is created by the imaginations of the sufferers, and then +kept alive by those same imaginations? Four-fifths? Not anything short +of that, I should think. Can Christian Science banish that four-fifths ? +I think so. Can any other (organized) force do it? None that I know of. +Would this be a new world when that was accomplished? And a pleasanter +one--for us well people, as well as for those fussy and fretting sick +ones? Would it seem as if there was not as much gloomy weather as there +used to be? I think so. + +In the mean time, would the Scientist kill off a good many patients? I +think so. More than get killed off now by the legalized methods ? I +will take up that question presently. + +At present, I wish to ask you to examine some of the Scientist's +performances, as registered in his magazine, The Christian Science +Journal --October number, 1898. First, a Baptist clergyman gives us this +true picture of "the average orthodox Christian"--and he could have added +that it is a true picture of the average (civilized) human being: + +"He is a worried and fretted and fearful man; afraid of himself and his +propensities, afraid of colds and fevers, afraid of treading on serpents +or drinking deadly things." + +Then he gives us this contrast: + +"The average Christian Scientist has put all anxiety and fretting under +his feet. He does have a victory over fear and care that is not achieved +by the average orthodox Christian." + +He has put all anxiety and fretting under his feet. What proportion of +your earnings or income would you be willing to pay for that frame of +mind, year in, year out? It really outvalues any price that can be put +upon it. Where can you purchase it, at any outlay of any sort, in any +Church or out of it, except the Scientist's? + +Well, it is the anxiety and fretting about colds, and fevers, and +draughts, and getting our feet wet, and about forbidden food eaten in +terror of indigestion, that brings on the cold and the fever and the +indigestion and the most of our other ailments; and so, if the Science +can banish that anxiety from the world I think it can reduce the world's +disease and pain about four-fifths. + +In this October number many of the redeemed testify and give thanks; and +not coldly, but with passionate gratitude. As a rule they seem drunk +with health, and with the surprise of it, the wonder of it, the +unspeakable glory and splendor of it, after a long, sober spell spent in +inventing imaginary diseases and concreting them with doctor-stuff. The +first witness testifies that when "this most beautiful Truth first dawned +on him" he had "nearly all the ills that flesh is heir to"; that those he +did not have he thought he had --and this made the tale about complete. +What was the natural result? Why, he was a dump-pit "for all the +doctors, druggists, and patent medicines of the country." Christian +Science came to his help, and "the old sick conditions passed away," and +along with them the "dismal forebodings" which he had been accustomed to +employ in conjuring up ailments. And so he was a healthy and cheerful +man, now, and astonished. + +But I am not astonished, for from other sources I know what must have +been his method of applying Christian Science. If I am in the right, he +watchfully and diligently diverted his mind from unhealthy channels and +compelled it to travel in healthy ones. Nothing contrivable by human +invention could be more formidably effective than that, in banishing +imaginary ailments and in closing the entrances against sub-sequent +applicants of their breed. I think his method was to keep saying, "I am +well! I am sound!--sound and well! well and sound! Perfectly sound, +perfectly well! I have no pain; there's no such thing as pain! I have +no disease; there's no such thing as disease! Nothing is real but Mind; +all is Mind, All-Good Good-Good, Life, Soul, Liver, Bones, one of a +series, ante and pass the buck!" + +I do not mean that that was exactly the formula used, but that it +doubtless contains the spirit of it. The Scientist would attach value to +the exact formula, no doubt, and to the religious spirit in which it was +used. I should think that any formula that would divert the mind from +unwholesome channels and force it into healthy ones would answer every +purpose with some people, though not with all. I think it most likely +that a very religious man would find the addition of the religious spirit +a powerful reinforcement in his case. + +The second witness testifies that the Science banished "an old organic +trouble," which the doctor and the surgeon had been nursing with drugs +and the knife for seven years. + +He calls it his "claim." A surface-miner would think it was not his +claim at all, but the property of the doctor and his pal the surgeon--for +he would be misled by that word, which is Christian-Science slang for +"ailment." The Christian Scientist has no ailment; to him there is no +such thing, and he will not use the hateful word. All that happens to +him is that upon his attention an imaginary disturbance sometimes +obtrudes itself which claims to be an ailment but isn't. + +This witness offers testimony for a clergyman seventy years old who had +preached forty years in a Christian church, and has now gone over to the +new sect. He was "almost blind and deaf." He was treated by the C. S. +method, and "when he heard the voice of Truth he saw spiritually." Saw +spiritually? It is a little indefinite; they had better treat him again. +Indefinite testimonies might properly be waste-basketed, since there is +evidently no lack of definite ones procurable; but this C. S. magazine +is poorly edited, and so mistakes of this kind must be expected. + +The next witness is a soldier of the Civil War. When Christian Science +found him, he had in stock the following claims : + +Indigestion, +Rheumatism, +Catarrh, +Chalky deposits in +Shoulder-joints, +Arm-joints, +Hand-joints, +Insomnia, +Atrophy of the muscles of +Arms. +Shoulders, +Stiffness of all those joints, +Excruciating pains most of the time. + +These claims have a very substantial sound. They came of exposure in the +campaigns. The doctors did all they could, but it was little. Prayers +were tried, but "I never realized any physical relief from that source." +After thirty years of torture, he went to a Christian Scientist and took +an hour's treatment and went home painless. Two days later, he "began to +eat like a well man." Then "the claims vanished--some at once, others +more gradually"; finally, "they have almost entirely disappeared." And-- +a thing which is of still greater value--he is now "contented and happy." +That is a detail which, as earlier remarked, is a Scientist-Church +specialty. And, indeed, one may go further and assert with little or no +exaggeration that it is a Christian-Science monopoly. With thirty-one +years' effort, the Methodist Church had not succeeded in furnishing it to +this harassed soldier. + +And so the tale goes on. Witness after witness bulletins his claims, +declares their prompt abolishment, and gives Mrs. Eddy's Discovery the +praise. Milk-leg is cured; nervous prostration is cured; consumption is +cured; and St. Vitus's dance is made a pastime. Even without a fiddle. +And now and then an interesting new addition to the Science slang appears +on the page. We have "demonstrations over chilblains" and such things. +It seems to be a curtailed way of saying "demonstrations of the power of +Christian-Science Truth over the fiction which masquerades under the name +of Chilblains." The children, as well as the adults, share in the +blessings of the Science. "Through the study of the 'little book' they +are learning how to be healthful, peaceful, and wise." Sometimes they +are cured of their little claims by the professional healer, and +sometimes more advanced children say over the formula and cure +themselves. + +A little Far-Western girl of nine, equipped with an adult vocabulary, +states her age and says, "I thought I would write a demonstration to +you." She had a claim, derived from getting flung over a pony's head and +landed on a rockpile. She saved herself from disaster by remembering to +say "God is All" while she was in the air. I couldn't have done it. I +shouldn't even have thought of it. I should have been too excited. +Nothing but Christian Science could have enabled that child to do that +calm and thoughtful and judicious thing in those circumstances. She came +down on her head, and by all the rules she should have broken it; but the +intervention of the formula prevented that, so the only claim resulting +was a blackened eye. Monday morning it was still swollen and shut. At +school "it hurt pretty badly--that is, it seemed to." So "I was excused, +and went down to the basement and said, 'Now I am depending on mamma +instead of God, and I will depend on God instead of mamma.'" No doubt +this would have answered; but, to make sure, she added Mrs. Eddy to the +team and recited "the Scientific Statement of Being," which is one of the +principal incantations, I judge. Then "I felt my eye opening." Why, +dear, it would have opened an oyster. I think it is one of the +touchingest things in child-history, that pious little rat down cellar +pumping away at the Scientific Statement of Being. + +There is a page about another good child--little Gordon. Little Gordon +"came into the world without the assistance of surgery or anaesthetics." +He was a "demonstration." A painless one; therefore, his coming evoked +"joy and thankfulness to God and the Discoverer of Christian Science." +It is a noticeable feature of this literature--the so frequent linking +together of the Two Beings in an equal bond; also of Their Two Bibles. +When little Gordon was two years old, "he was playing horse on the bed, +where I had left my 'little book.' I noticed him stop in his play, take +the book carefully in his little hands, kiss it softly, then look about +for the highest place of safety his arms could reach, and put it there." +This pious act filled the mother "with such a train of thought as I had +never experienced before. I thought of the sweet mother of long ago who +kept things in her heart," etc. It is a bold comparison; however, +unconscious profanations are about as common in the mouths of the lay +member ship of the new Church as are frank and open ones in the mouths of +its consecrated chiefs. + +Some days later, the family library--Christian-Science books--was lying +in a deep-seated window. This was another chance for the holy child to +show off. He left his play and went there and pushed all the books to +one side, except the Annex "It he took in both hands, slowly raised it to +his lips, then removed it carefully, and seated himself in the window." +It had seemed to the mother too wonderful to be true, that first time; +but now she was convinced that "neither imagination nor accident had +anything to do with it." Later, little Gordon let the author of his +being see him do it. After that he did it frequently; probably every +time anybody was looking. I would rather have that child than a chromo. +If this tale has any object, it is to intimate that the inspired book was +supernaturally able to convey a sense of its sacred and awful character +to this innocent little creature, without the intervention of outside +aids. The magazine is not edited with high-priced discretion. The +editor has a "claim," and he ought to get it treated. + +Among other witnesses there is one who had a "jumping toothache," which +several times tempted her to "believe that there was sensation in matter, +but each time it was overcome by the power of Truth." She would not +allow the dentist to use cocaine, but sat there and let him punch and +drill and split and crush the tooth, and tear and slash its ulcerations, +and pull out the nerve, and dig out fragments of bone; and she wouldn't +once confess that it hurt. And to this day she thinks it didn't, and I +have not a doubt that she is nine-tenths right, and that her Christian- +Science faith did her better service than she could have gotten out of +cocaine. + +There is an account of a boy who got broken all up into small bits by an +accident, but said over the Scientific Statement of Being, or some of the +other incantations, and got well and sound without having suffered any +real pain and without the intrusion of a surgeon. + +Also, there is an account of the restoration to perfect health, in a +single night, of a fatally injured horse, by the application of Christian +Science. I can stand a good deal, but I recognize that the ice is +getting thin, here. That horse had as many as fifty claims; how could he +demonstrate over them? Could he do the All-Good, Good-Good, Good- +Gracious, Liver, Bones, Truth, All down but Nine, Set them up on the +Other Alley? Could he intone the Scientific Statement of Being? Now, +could he? Wouldn't it give him a relapse? Let us draw the line at +horses. Horses and furniture. + +There is plenty of other testimonies in the magazine, but these quoted +samples will answer. They show the kind of trade the Science is driving. +Now we come back to the question, Does the Science kill a patient here +and there and now and then? We must concede it. Does it compensate for +this? I am persuaded that it can make a plausible showing in that +direction. For instance: when it lays its hand upon a soldier who has +suffered thirty years of helpless torture and makes him whole in body and +mind, what is the actual sum of that achievement? This,.I think: that it +has restored to life a subject who had essentially died ten deaths a year +for thirty years, and each of them a long and painful one. But for its +interference that man in the three years which have since elapsed, would +have essentially died thirty times more. There are thousands of young +people in the land who are now ready to enter upon a life-long death +similar to that man's. Every time the Science captures one of these and +secures to him life-long immunity from imagination-manufactured disease, +it may plausibly claim that in his person it has saved three hundred +lives. Meantime, it will kill a man every now and then. But no matter, +it will still be ahead on the credit side. + +[NOTE.--I have received several letters (two from educated and ostensibly +intelligent persons), which contained, in substance, this protest: "I +don't object to men and women chancing their lives with these people, but +it is a burning shame that the law should allow them to trust their +helpless little children in their deadly hands. "Isn't it touching? +Isn't it deep? Isn't it modest? It is as if the person said: "I know +that to a parent his child is the core of his heart, the apple of his +eye, a possession so dear, so precious that he will trust its life in no +hands but those which he believes, with all his soul, to be the very best +and the very safest, but it is a burning shame that the law does not +require him to come to me to ask what kind of healer I will allow him to +call." The public is merely a multiplied "me."--M.T.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"We consciously declare that Science and Health, with Key to the +Scriptures, was foretold, as well as its author, Mary Baker Eddy, in +Revelation x. She is the 'mighty angel,' or God's highest thought to +this age (verse 1), giving us the spiritual interpretation of the Bible +in the 'little book open' (verse 2). Thus we prove that Christian +Science is the second coming of Christ-Truth-Spirit." --Lecture by Dr. +George Tomkins, D.D. C.S. + +There you have it in plain speech. She is the mighty angel; she is the +divinely and officially sent bearer of God's highest thought. For the +present, she brings the Second Advent. We must expect that before she +has been in her grave fifty years she will be regarded by her following +as having been herself the Second Advent. She is already worshiped, and +we must expect this feeling to spread, territorially, and also to deepen +in intensity. + +Particularly after her death; for then, as any one can foresee, Eddy- +Worship will be taught in the Sunday-schools and pulpits of the cult. +Already whatever she puts her trade-mark on, though it be only a +memorial-spoon, is holy and is eagerly and gratefully bought by the +disciple, and becomes a fetish in his house. I say bought, for the +Boston Christian-Science Trust gives nothing away; everything it has is +for sale. And the terms are cash; and not only cash, but cash in +advance. Its god is Mrs. Eddy first, then the Dollar. Not a spiritual +Dollar, but a real one. From end to end of the Christian Science +literature not a single (material) thing in the world is conceded to be +real, except the Dollar. But all through and through its advertisements +that reality is eagerly and persistently recognized. + +The Dollar is hunted down in all sorts of ways; the Christian-Science +Mother-Church and Bargain-Counter in Boston peddles all kinds of +spiritual wares to the faithful, and always on the one condition--cash, +cash in advance. The Angel of the Apocalypse could not go there and get +a copy of his own pirated book on credit. Many, many precious Christian- +Science things are to be had there for cash: Bible Lessons; Church +Manual; C. S. Hymnal; History of the building of the Mother-Church; lot +of Sermons; Communion Hymn, "Saw Ye My Saviour," by Mrs. Eddy, half a +dollar a copy, "words used by special permission of Mrs. Eddy." Also we +have Mrs. Eddy's and the Angel's little Blue-Annex in eight styles of +binding at eight kinds of war-prices; among these a sweet thing in +"levant, divinity circuit, leather lined to edge, round corners, gold +edge, silk sewed, each, prepaid, $6," and if you take a million you get +them a shilling cheaper --that is to say, "prepaid, $5.75." Also we have +Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, at 'andsome big prices, the divinity- +circuit style heading the exertions, shilling discount where you take an +edition Next comes Christ and Christmas, by the fertile Mrs. Eddy--a +poem--would God I could see it! --price $3, cash in advance. Then +follow five more books by Mrs. Eddy, at highwayman's rates, some of them +in "leatherette covers," some of them in "pebble cloth," with divinity- +circuit, compensation-balance, twin-screw, and the other modern +improvements; and at the same bargain-counter can be had The Christian +Science Journal. + +Christian-Science literary discharges are a monopoly of the Mother-Church +Headquarters Factory in Boston; none genuine without the trade-mark of +the Trust. You must apply there and not elsewhere. + +One hundred dollars for it. And I have a case among my statistics where +the student had a three weeks' course and paid three hundred for it. + +The Trust does love the Dollar, when it isn't a spiritual one. + +In order to force the sale of Mrs Eddy's Bible-Annex, no healer, +Metaphysical-College-bred or other, is allowed to practice the game +unless he possesses a copy of that book. That means a large and +constantly augmenting income for the Trust. No C.S. family would +consider itself loyal or pious or pain-proof without an Annex or two in +the house. That means an income for the Trust, in the near future, of +millions; not thousands-millions a year. + +No member, young or old, of a branch Christian-Scientist church can +acquire and retain membership in the Mother-Church unless he pay +"capitation tax" (of "not less than a dollar," say the By-Laws) to the +Boston Trust every year. That means an income for the Trust, in the near +future, of--let us venture to say--millions more per year. + +It is a reasonably safe guess that in America in 1920 there will be ten +million Christian Scientists, and three millions in Great Britain; that +these figures will be trebled in 1930; that in America in 1920 the +Christian Scientists will be a political force, in 1930 politically +formidable, and in 1940 the governing power in the Republic--to remain +that, permanently. And I think it a reasonable guess that the Trust +(which is already in our day pretty brusque in its ways) will then be the +most insolent and unscrupulous and tyrannical politico-religious master +that has dominated a people since the palmy days of the Inquisition. And +a stronger master than the strongest of bygone times, because this one +will have a financial strength not dreamed of by any predecessor; as +effective a concentration of irresponsible power as any predecessor has +had; in the railway, the telegraph, and the subsidized newspaper, better +facilities for watching and managing his empire than any predecessor has +had; and, after a generation or two, he will probably divide Christendom +with the Catholic Church. + +The Roman Church has a perfect organization, and it has an effective +centralization of power--but not of its cash. Its multitude of Bishops +are rich, but their riches remain in large measure in their own hands. +They collect from two hundred millions of people, but they keep the bulk +of the result at home. The Boston Pope of by-and-by will draw his +dollar-a-head capitation-tax from three hundred millions of the human +race, and the Annex and the rest of his book-shop stock will fetch in as +much more; and his Metaphysical Colleges, the annual Pilgrimage to Mrs. +Eddy's tomb, from all over the world-admission, the Christian-Science +Dollar (payable in advance)-- purchases of consecrated glass beads, +candles, memorial spoons, aureoled chrome-portraits and bogus autographs +of Mrs. Eddy; cash offerings at her shrine no crutches of cured cripples +received, and no imitations of miraculously restored broken legs and +necks allowed to be hung up except when made out of the Holy Metal and +proved by fire-assay; cash for miracles worked at the tomb: these money- +sources, with a thousand to be yet invented and ambushed upon the +devotee, will bring the annual increment well up above a billion. And +nobody but the Trust will have the handling of it. In that day, the +Trust will monopolize the manufacture and sale of the Old and New +Testaments as well as the Annex, and raise their price to Annex rates, +and compel the devotee to buy (for even to-day a healer has to have the +Annex and the Scriptures or he is not allowed to work the game), and that +will bring several hundred million dollars more. In those days, the +Trust will have an income approaching five million dollars a day, and no +expenses to be taken out of it; no taxes to pay, and no charities to +support. That last detail should not be lightly passed over by the +reader; it is well entitled to attention. + +No charities to support. No, nor even to contribute to. One searches in +vain the Trust's advertisements and the utterances of its organs for any +suggestion that it spends a penny on orphans, widows, discharged +prisoners, hospitals, ragged schools, night missions, city missions, +libraries, old people's homes, or any other object that appeals to a +human being's purse through his heart. + +I have hunted, hunted, and hunted, by correspondence and otherwise, and +have not yet got upon the track of a farthing that the Trust has spent +upon any worthy object. Nothing makes a Scientist so uncomfortable as to +ask him if he knows of a case where Christian Science has spent money on +a benevolence, either among its own adherents or elsewhere. He is +obliged to say "No" And then one discovers that the person questioned has +been asked the question many times before, and that it is getting to be a +sore subject with him. Why a sore subject? Because he has written his +chiefs and asked with high confidence for an answer that will confound +these questioners--and the chiefs did not reply. He has written again, +and then again--not with confidence, but humbly, now--and has begged for +defensive ammunition in the voice of supplication. A reply does at last +come to this effect: "We must have faith in Our Mother, and rest content +in the conviction that whatever She does with the money it is in +accordance with orders from Heaven, for She does no act of any kind +without first 'demonstrating over' it." + +That settles it--as far as the disciple is concerned. His mind is +satisfied with that answer; he gets down his Annex and does an +incantation or two, and that mesmerizes his spirit and puts that to +sleep--brings it peace. Peace and comfort and joy, until some inquirer +punctures the old sore again. + +Through friends in America I asked some questions, and in some cases got +definite and informing answers; in other cases the answers were not +definite and not valuable. To the question, "Does any of the money go to +charities?" the answer from an authoritative source was: "No, not in the +sense usually conveyed by this word." (The italics are mine.) That +answer is cautious. But definite, I think--utterly and unassailably +definite--although quite Christian-Scientifically foggy in its phrasing. +Christian-Science testimony is generally foggy, generally diffuse, +generally garrulous. The writer was aware that the first word in his +phrase answered the question which I was asking, but he could not help +adding nine dark words. Meaningless ones, unless explained by him. It +is quite likely, as intimated by him, that Christian Science has invented +a new class of objects to apply the word "charity" to, but without an +explanation we cannot know what they are. We quite easily and naturally +and confidently guess that they are in all cases objects which will +return five hundred per cent. on the Trust's investment in them, but +guessing is not knowledge; it is merely, in this case, a sort of nine- +tenths certainty deducible from what we think we know of the Trust's +trade principles and its sly and furtive and shifty ways. + +Sly? Deep? Judicious? The Trust understands its business. The Trust +does not give itself away. It defeats all the attempts of us +impertinents to get at its trade secrets. To this day, after all our +diligence, we have not been able to get it to confess what it does with +the money. It does not even let its own disciples find out. All it says +is, that the matter has been "demonstrated over." Now and then a lay +Scientist says, with a grateful exultation, that Mrs. Eddy is enormously +rich, but he stops there; as to whether any of the money goes to other +charities or not, he is obliged to admit that he does not know. However, +the Trust is composed of human beings; and this justifies the conjecture +that if it had a charity on its list which it was proud of, we should +soon hear of it. + +"Without money and without price." Those used to be the terms. Mrs. +Eddy's Annex cancels them. The motto of Christian Science is, "The +laborer is worthy of his hire." And now that it has been "demonstrated +over," we find its spiritual meaning to be, "Do anything and everything +your hand may find to do; and charge cash for it, and collect the money +in advance." The Scientist has on his tongue's end a cut-and-dried, +Boston-supplied set of rather lean arguments, whose function is to show +that it is a Heaven-commanded duty to do this, and that the croupiers of +the game have no choice but to obey. + +The Trust seems to be a reincarnation. Exodus xxxii. 4. + +I have no reverence for the Trust, but I am not lacking in reverence for +the sincerities of the lay membership of the new Church. There is every +evidence that the lay members are entirely sincere in their faith, and I +think sincerity is always entitled to honor and respect, let the +inspiration of the sincerity be what it may. Zeal and sincerity can +carry a new religion further than any other missionary except fire and +sword, and I believe that the new religion will conquer the half of +Christendom in a hundred years. I am not intending this as a compliment +to the human race; I am merely stating an opinion. And yet I think that +perhaps it is a compliment to the race. I keep in mind that saying of an +orthodox preacher--quoted further back. He conceded that this new +Christianity frees its possessor's life from frets, fears, vexations, +bitterness, and all sorts of imagination-propagated maladies and pains, +and fills his world with sunshine and his heart with gladness. If +Christian Science, with this stupendous equipment--and final salvation +added--cannot win half the Christian globe, I must be badly mistaken in +the make-up of the human race. + +I think the Trust will be handed down like Me other Papacy, and will +always know how to handle its limitless cash. It will press the button; +the zeal, the energy, the sincerity, the enthusiasm of its countless +vassals will do the rest. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The power which a man's imagination has over his body to heal it or make +it sick is a force which none of us is born without. The first man had +it, the last one will possess it. If left to himself, a man is most +likely to use only the mischievous half of the force--the half which +invents imaginary ailments for him and cultivates them; and if he is one +of these--very wise people, he is quite likely to scoff at the beneficent +half of the force and deny its existence. And so, to heal or help that +man, two imaginations are required: his own and some outsider's. The +outsider, B, must imagine that his incantations are the healing-power +that is curing A, and A must imagine that this is so. I think it is not +so, at all; but no matter, the cure is effected, and that is the main +thing. The outsider's work is unquestionably valuable; so valuable that +it may fairly be likened to the essential work performed by the engineer +when he handles the throttle and turns on the steam; the actual power is +lodged exclusively in the engine, but if the engine were left alone it +would never start of itself. Whether the engineer be named Jim, or Bob, +or Tom, it is all one--his services are necessary, and he is entitled to +such wage as he can get you to pay. Whether he be named Christian +Scientist, or Mental Scientist, or Mind Curist, or King's-Evil Expert, or +Hypnotist, it is all one; he is merely the Engineer; he simply turns on +the same old steam and the engine does the whole work. + +The Christian-Scientist engineer drives exactly the same trade as the +other engineers, yet he out-prospers the whole of them put together. + +Is it because he has captured the takingest name? I think that that is +only a small part of it. I think that the secret of his high prosperity +lies elsewhere. + +The Christian Scientist has organized the business. Now that was +certainly a gigantic idea. Electricity, in limitless volume, has existed +in the air and the rocks and the earth and everywhere since time began-- +and was going to waste all the while. In our time we have organized that +scattered and wandering force and set it to work, and backed the business +with capital, and concentrated it in few and competent hands, and the +results are as we see. + +The Christian Scientist has taken a force which has been lying idle in +every member of the human race since time began, and has organized it, +and backed the business with capital, and concentrated it at Boston +headquarters in the hands of a small and very competent Trust, and there +are results. + +Therein lies the promise that this monopoly is going to extend its +commerce wide in the earth. I think that if the business were conducted +in the loose and disconnected fashion customary with such things, it +would achieve but little more than the modest prosperity usually secured +by unorganized great moral and commercial ventures; but I believe that so +long as this one remains compactly organized and closely concentrated in +a Trust, the spread of its dominion will continue. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Four years ago I wrote the preceding chapters. I was assured by the wise +that Christian Science was a fleeting craze and would soon perish. This +prompt and all-competent stripe of prophet is always to be had in the +market at ground-floor rates. He does not stop to load, or consider, or +take aim, but lets fly just as he stands. Facts are nothing to him, he +has no use for such things; he works wholly by inspiration. And so, when +he is asked why he considers a new movement a passing fad and quickly +perishable, he finds himself unprepared with a reason and is more or less +embarrassed. For a moment. Only for a moment. Then he waylays the +first spectre of a reason that goes flitting through the desert places of +his mind, and is at once serene again and ready for conflict. Serene and +confident. Yet he should not be so, since he has had no chance to +examine his catch, and cannot know whether it is going to help his +contention or damage it. + +The impromptu reason furnished by the early prophets of whom I have +spoken was this: + +"There is nothing to Christian Science; there is nothing about it that +appeals to the intellect; its market will be restricted to the +unintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not think." + +They called that a reason why the cult would not flourish and endure. It +seems the equivalent of saying: + +"There is no money in tinware; there is nothing about it that appeals to +the rich; its market will be restricted to the poor." + +It is like bringing forward the best reason in the world why Christian +Science should flourish and live, and then blandly offering it as a +reason why it should sicken and die. + +That reason was furnished me by the complacent and unfrightened prophets +four years ago, and it has been furnished me again to-day. If +conversions to new religions or to old ones were in any considerable +degree achieved through the intellect, the aforesaid reason would be +sound and sufficient, no doubt; the inquirer into Christian Science might +go away unconvinced and unconverted. But we all know that conversions +are seldom made in that way; that such a thing as a serious and +painstaking and fairly competent inquiry into the claims of a religion or +of a political dogma is a rare occurrence; and that the vast mass of men +and women are far from being capable of making such an examination. They +are not capable, for the reason that their minds, howsoever good they may +be, are not trained for such examinations. The mind not trained for that +work is no more competent to do it than are lawyers and farmers competent +to make successful clothes without learning the tailor's trade. There +are seventy-five million men and women among us who do not know how to +cut out and make a dress-suit, and they would not think of trying; yet +they all think they can competently think out a political or religious +scheme without any apprenticeship to the business, and many of them +believe they have actually worked that miracle. But, indeed, the truth +is, almost all the men and women of our nation or of any other get their +religion and their politics where they get their astronomy--entirely at +second hand. Being untrained, they are no more able to intelligently +examine a dogma or a policy than they are to calculate an eclipse. + +Men are usually competent thinkers along the lines of their specialized +training only. Within these limits alone are their opinions and +judgments valuable; outside of these limits they grope and are lost-- +usually without knowing it. In a church assemblage of five hundred +persons, there will be a man or two whose trained minds can seize upon +each detail of a great manufacturing scheme and recognize its value or +its lack of value promptly; and can pass the details in intelligent +review, section by section, and finally as a whole, and then deliver a +verdict upon the scheme which cannot be flippantly set aside nor easily +answered. And there will be one or two other men there who can do the +same thing with a great and complicated educational project; and one or +two others who can do the like with a large scheme for applying +electricity in a new and unheard-of way; and one or two others who can do +it with a showy scheme for revolutionizing the scientific world's +accepted notions regarding geology. And so on, and so on. But the +manufacturing experts will not be competent to examine the educational +scheme intelligently, and their opinion about it would not be valuable; +neither of these two groups will be able to understand and pass upon the +electrical scheme; none of these three batches of experts will be able to +understand and pass upon the geological revolution; and probably not one +man in the entire lot will be competent to examine, capably, the +intricacies of a political or religious scheme, new or old, and deliver a +judgment upon it which any one need regard as precious. + +There you have the top crust. There will be four hundred and seventy- +five men and women present who can draw upon their training and deliver +incontrovertible judgments concerning cheese, and leather, and cattle, +and hardware, and soap, and tar, and candles, and patent medicines, and +dreams, and apparitions, and garden trucks, and cats, and baby food, and +warts, and hymns, and time-tables, and freight-rates, and summer resorts, +and whiskey, and law, and surgery, and dentistry, and blacksmithing, and +shoemaking, and dancing, and Huyler's candy, and mathematics, and dog +fights, and obstetrics, and music, and sausages, and dry goods, and +molasses, and railroad stocks, and horses, and literature, and labor +unions, and vegetables, and morals, and lamb's fries, and etiquette, and +agriculture. And not ten among the five hundred--let their minds be ever +so good and bright--will be competent, by grace of the requisite +specialized mental training, to take hold of a complex abstraction of any +kind and make head or tail of it. + +The whole five hundred are thinkers, and they are all capable thinkers-- +but only within the narrow limits of their specialized trainings. Four +hundred and ninety of them cannot competently examine either a religious +plan or a political one. A scattering few of them do examine both--that +is, they think they do. With results as precious as when I examine the +nebular theory and explain it to myself. + +If the four hundred and ninety got their religion through their minds, +and by weighed and measured detail, Christian Science would not be a +scary apparition. But they don't; they get a little of it through their +minds, more of it through their feelings, and the overwhelming bulk of it +through their environment. + +Environment is the chief thing to be considered when one is proposing to +predict the future of Christian Science. It is not the ability to reason +that makes the Presbyterian, or the Baptist, or the Methodist, or the +Catholic, or the Mohammedan, or the Buddhist, or the Mormon; it is +environment. If religions were got by reasoning, we should have the +extraordinary spectacle of an American family with a Presbyterian in it, +and a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Mohammedan, a Buddhist, and a +Mormon. A Presbyterian family does not produce Catholic families or +other religious brands, it produces its own kind; and not by intellectual +processes, but by association. And so also with Mohammedanism, the cult +which in our day is spreading with the sweep of a world-conflagration +through the Orient, that native home of profound thought and of subtle +intellectual fence, that fertile womb whence has sprung every great +religion that exists. Including our own; for with all our brains we +cannot invent a religion and market it. + +The language of my quoted prophets recurs to us now, and we wonder to +think how small a space in the world the mighty Mohammedan Church would +be occupying now, if a successful trade in its line of goods had been +conditioned upon an exhibit that would "appeal to the intellect" instead +of to "the unintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not +think." + +The Christian Science Church, like the Mohammedan Church, makes no +embarrassing appeal to the intellect, has no occasion to do it, and can +get along quite well without it. + +Provided. Provided what? That it can secure that thing which is worth +two or three hundred thousand times more than an "appeal to the +intellect"--an environment. Can it get that? Will it be a menace to +regular Christianity if it gets that? Is it time for regular +Christianity to get alarmed? Or shall regular Christianity smile a smile +and turn over and take another nap? Won't it be wise and proper for +regular Christianity to do the old way, Me customary way, the historical +way--lock the stable-door after the horse is gone? Just as Protestantism +has smiled and nodded this long time (while the alert and diligent +Catholic was slipping in and capturing the public schools), and is now +beginning to hunt around for the key when it is too late? + +Will Christian Science get a chance to show its wares? It has already +secured that chance. Will it flourish and spread and prosper if it shall +create for itself the one thing essential to those conditions--an +environment? It has already created an environment. There are families +of Christian Scientists in every community in America, and each family is +a factory; each family turns out a Christian Science product at the +customary intervals, and contributes it to the Cause in the only way in +which contributions of recruits to Churches are ever made on a large +scale--by the puissant forces of personal contact and association. Each +family is an agency for the Cause, and makes converts among the +neighbors, and starts some more factories. + +Four years ago there were six Christian Scientists in a certain town that +I am acquainted with; a year ago there were two hundred and fifty there; +they have built a church, and its membership now numbers four hundred. +This has all been quietly done; done without frenzied revivals, without +uniforms, brass bands, street parades, corner oratory, or any of the +other customary persuasions to a godly life. Christian Science, like +Mohammedanism, is "restricted" to the "unintelligent, the people who do +not think." There lies the danger. It makes Christian Science +formidable. It is "restricted" to ninety-nine one-hundredths of the +human race, and must be reckoned with by regular Christianity. And will +be, as soon as it is too late. + + + + + + +BOOK II + +There were remarkable things about the stranger called the Man--Mystery- +things so very extraordinary that they monopolized attention and made all +of him seem extraordinary; but this was not so, the most of his qualities +being of the common, every-day size and like anybody else's. It was +curious. He was of the ordinary stature, and had the ordinary aspects; +yet in him were hidden such strange contradictions and disproportions! +He was majestically fearless and heroic; he had the strength of thirty +men and the daring of thirty thousand; handling armies, organizing +states, administering governments--these were pastimes to him; he +publicly and ostentatiously accepted the human race at its own valuation- +-as demigods--and privately and successfully dealt with it at quite +another and juster valuation--as children and slaves; his ambitions were +stupendous, and his dreams had no commerce with the humble plain, but +moved with the cloud-rack among the snow-summits. These features of him +were, indeed, extraordinary, but the rest of him was ordinary and usual. +He was so mean-minded, in the matter of jealousy, that it was thought he +was descended from a god; he was vain in little ways, and had a pride in +trivialities; he doted on ballads about moonshine and bruised hearts; in +education he was deficient, he was indifferent to literature, and knew +nothing of art; he was dumb upon all subjects but one, indifferent to all +except that one--the Nebular Theory. Upon that one his flow of words was +full and free, he was a geyser. The official astronomers disputed his +facts and deeded his views, and said that he had invented both, they not +being findable in any of the books. But many of the laity, who wanted +their nebulosities fresh, admired his doctrine and adopted it, and it +attained to great prosperity in spite of the hostility of the experts."-- +The Legend of the Man-Mystery, ch. i. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +JANUARY, 1903. When we do not know a public man personally, we guess him +out by the facts of his career. When it is Washington, we all arrive at +about one and the same result. We agree that his words and his acts +clearly interpret his character to us, and that they never leave us in +doubt as to the motives whence the words and acts proceeded. It is the +same with Joan of Arc, it is the same with two or three or five or six +others among the immortals. But in the matter of motives and of a few +details of character we agree to disagree upon Napoleon, Cromwell, and +all the rest; and to this list we must add Mrs. Eddy. I think we can +peacefully agree as to two or three extraordinary features of her make- +up, but not upon the other features of it. We cannot peacefully agree as +to her motives, therefore her character must remain crooked to some of us +and straight to the others. + +No matter, she is interesting enough without an amicable agreement. In +several ways she is the most interesting woman that ever lived, and the +most extraordinary. The same may be said of her career, and the same may +be said of its chief result. She started from nothing. Her enemies +charge that she surreptitiously took from Quimby a peculiar system of +healing which was mind-cure with a Biblical basis. She and her friends +deny that she took anything from him. This is a matter which we can +discuss by-and-by. Whether she took it or invented it, it was-- +materially--a sawdust mine when she got it, and she has turned it into a +Klondike; its spiritual dock had next to no custom, if any at all: from +it she has launched a world-religion which has now six hundred and sixty- +three churches, and she charters a new one every four days. When we do +not know a person--and also when we do--we have to judge his size by the +size and nature of his achievements, as compared with the achievements of +others in his special line of business--there is no other way. Measured +by this standard, it is thirteen hundred years since the world has +produced any one who could reach up to Mrs. Eddy's waistbelt. + +Figuratively speaking, Mrs. Eddy is already as tall as the Eiffel tower. +She is adding surprisingly to her stature every day. It is quite within +the probabilities that a century hence she will be the most imposing +figure that has cast its shadow across the globe since the inauguration +of our era. I grant that after saying these strong things, it is +necessary that I offer some details calculated to satisfactorily +demonstrate the proportions which I have claimed for her. I will do that +presently; but before exhibiting the matured sequoia gigantea, I believe +it will be best to exhibit the sprout from which it sprang. It may save +the reader from making miscalculations. The person who imagines that a +Big Tree sprout is bigger than other kinds of sprouts is quite mistaken. +It is the ordinary thing; it makes no show, it compels no notice, it +hasn't a detectible quality in it that entitles it to attention, or +suggests the future giant its sap is suckling. That is the kind of +sprout Mrs. Eddy was. + +From her childhood days up to where she was running a half-century a +close race and gaining on it, she was most humanly commonplace. + +She is the witness I am drawing this from. She has revealed it in her +autobiography not intentionally, of course--I am not claiming that. An +autobiography is the most treacherous thing there is. It lets out every +secret its author is trying to keep; it lets the truth shine unobstructed +through every harmless little deception he tries to play; it pitilessly +exposes him as a tin hero worshipping himself as Big Metal every time he +tries to do the modest-unconsciousness act before the reader. This is +not guessing; I am speaking from autobiographical personal experience; I +was never able to refrain from mentioning, with a studied casualness that +could deceive none but the most incautious reader, that an ancestor of +mine was sent ambassador to Spain by Charles I., nor that in a remote +branch of my family there exists a claimant to an earldom, nor that an +uncle of mine used to own a dog that was descended from the dog that was +in the Ark; and at the same time I was never able to persuade myself to +call a gibbet by its right name when accounting for other ancestors of +mine, but always spoke of it as the "platform"--puerilely intimating that +they were out lecturing when it happened. + +It is Mrs. Eddy over again. As regards her minor half, she is as +commonplace as the rest of us. Vain of trivial things all the first half +of her life, and still vain of them at seventy and recording them with +naive satisfaction--even rescuing some early rhymes of hers of the sort +that we all scribble in the innocent days of our youth--rescuing them and +printing them without pity or apology, just as the weakest and commonest +of us do in our gray age. More--she still frankly admires them; and in +her introduction of them profanely confers upon them the holy name of +"poetry." Sample: + + "And laud the land whose talents rock + The cradle of her power, + And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock + From erudition's bower." + + "Minerva's silver sandals still + Are loosed and not effete." + +You note it is not a shade above the thing which all human beings churn +out in their youth. + +You would not think that in a little wee primer--for that is what the +Autobiography is--a person with a tumultuous career of seventy years +behind her could find room for two or three pages of padding of this +kind, but such is the case. She evidently puts narrative together with +difficulty and is not at home in it, and is glad to have something ready- +made to fill in with. Another sample: + + "Here fame-honored Hickory rears his bold form, + And bears a brave breast to the lightning and storm, + While Palm, Bay, and Laurel in classical glee, + Chase Tulip, Magnolia, and fragrant Fringe-tree." + +Vivid? You can fairly see those trees galloping around. That she could +still treasure up, and print, and manifestly admire those Poems, +indicates that the most daring and masculine and masterful woman that has +appeared in the earth in centuries has the same soft, girly-girly places +in her that the rest of us have. + +When it comes to selecting her ancestors she is still human, natural, +vain, commonplace--as commonplace as I am myself when I am sorting +ancestors for my autobiography. She combs out some creditable Scots, and +labels them and sets them aside for use, not overlooking the one to whom +Sir William Wallace gave "a heavy sword encased in a brass scabbard," and +naively explaining which Sir William Wallace it was, lest we get the +wrong one by the hassock; this is the one "from whose patriotism and +bravery comes that heart-stirring air, 'Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled.'" +Hannah More was related to her ancestors. She explains who Hannah More +was. + +Whenever a person informs us who Sir William Wallace was, or who wrote +"Hamlet," or where the Declaration of Independence was fought, it fills +us with a suspicion wellnigh amounting to conviction, that that person +would not suspect us of being so empty of knowledge if he wasn't +suffering from the same "claim" himself. Then we turn to page 20 of the +Autobiography and happen upon this passage, and that hasty suspicion +stands rebuked: + +"I gained book-knowledge with far less labor than is usually requisite. +At ten years of age I was as familiar with Lindley Murray's Grammar as +with the Westminster Catechism; and the latter I had to repeat every +Sunday. My favorite studies were Natural Philosophy, Logic, and Moral +Science. From my brother A1bert I received lessons in the ancient +tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin." + +You catch your breath in astonishment, and feel again and still again the +pang of that rebuke. But then your eye falls upon the next sentence but +one, and the pain passes away and you set up the suspicion again with +evil satisfaction: + +"After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the knowledge I had +gleaned from school-books vanished like a dream." + +That disappearance accounts for much in her miscellaneous writings. As I +was saying, she handles her "ancestral shadows," as she calls them, just +as I do mine. It is remarkable. When she runs across "a relative of my +Grandfather Baker, General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame," she sets +him down; when she finds another good one, "the late Sir John Macneill, +in the line of my Grandfather Baker's family," she sets him down, and +remembers that he "was prominent in British politics, and at one time +held the position of ambassador to Persia"; when she discovers that her +grandparents "were likewise connected with Captain John Lovewell, whose +gallant leadership and death in the Indian troubles of 1722-25 caused +that prolonged contest to be known historically as Lovewell's War," she +sets the Captain down; when it turns out that a cousin of her grandmother +"was John Macneill, the New Hampshire general, who fought at Lundy's Lane +and won distinction in 1814 at the battle of Chippewa," she catalogues +the General. (And tells where Chippewa was.) And then she skips all her +platform people; never mentions one of them. It shows that she is just +as human as any of us. + +Yet, after all, there is something very touching in her pride in these +worthy small-fry, and something large and fine in her modesty in not +caring to remember that their kinship to her can confer no distinction +upon her, whereas her mere mention of their names has conferred upon them +a faceless earthly immortality. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +When she wrote this little biography her great life-work had already been +achieved, she was become renowned; to multitudes of reverent disciples +she was a sacred personage, a familiar of God, and His inspired channel +of communication with the human race. Also, to them these following +things were facts, and not doubted: + +She had written a Bible in middle age, and had published it; she had +recast it, enlarged it, and published it again; she had not stopped +there, but had enlarged it further, polished its phrasing, improved its +form, and published it yet again. It was at last become a compact, +grammatical, dignified, and workman-like body of literature. This was +good training, persistent training; and in all arts it is training that +brings the art to perfection. We are now confronted with one of the most +teasing and baffling riddles of Mrs. Eddy's history--a riddle which may +be formulated thus: + +How is it that a primitive literary gun which began as a hundred-yard +flint-lock smooth-bore muzzle-loader, and in the course of forty years +has acquired one notable improvement after another--percussion cap; fixed +cartridge; rifled barrel; efficiency at half a mile how is it that such a +gun, sufficiently good on an elephant hunt (Christian Science) from the +beginning, and growing better and better all the time during forty years, +has always collapsed back to its original flint-lock estate the moment +the huntress trained it on any other creature than an elephant? + +Something more than a generation ago Mrs. Eddy went out with her flint- +lock on the rabbit range; and this was a part of the result: + +"After his decease, and a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful +physicians, we discovered that the Principle of all healing and the law +that governs it is God, a divine Principle, and a spiritual not material +law, and regained health."--Preface to Science and Health, first +revision, 1883. + +N.B. Not from the book itself; from the Preface. + +You will notice the awkwardness of that English. If you should carry +that paragraph up to the Supreme Court of the United States in order to +find out for good and all whether the fatal casualty happened to the dead +man--as the paragraph almost asserts--or to some person or persons not +even hinted at in the paragraph, the Supreme Court would be obliged to +say that the evidence established nothing with certainty except that +there had been a casualty--victim not known. + +The context thinks it explains who the victim was, but it does nothing of +the kind. It furnishes some guessing-material of a sort which enables +you to infer that it was "we" that suffered the mentioned injury, but if +you should carry the language to a court you would not be able to prove +that it necessarily meant that. "We" are Mrs. Eddy; a funny little +affectation. She replaced it later with the more dignified third person. + + +The quoted paragraph is from Mrs. Eddy's preface to the first revision of +Science and Health (1883). Sixty-four pages further along--in the body +of the book (the elephant-range), she went out with that same flint-lock +and got this following result. Its English is very nearly as straight +and clean and competent as is the English of the latest revision of +Science and Health after the gun has been improved from smooth-bore +musket up to globe-sighted, long distance rifle: + +"Man controlled by his Maker has no physical suffering. His body is +harmonious, his days are multiplying instead of diminishing, he is +journeying towards Life instead of death, and bringing out the new man +and crucifying the old affections, cutting them off in every material +direction until he learns the utter supremacy of Spirit and yields +obedience thereto." + +In the latest revision of Science and Health (1902), the perfected gun +furnishes the following. The English is clean, compact, dignified, +almost perfect. But it is observable that it is not prominently better +than it is in the above paragraph, which was a product of the primitive +flint-lock: + +"How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing out life and +hastening to death, and at the same time we are communing with +immortality? If the departed are in rapport with mortality, or matter, +they are not spiritual, but must still be mortal, sinful, suffering, and +dying. Then wherefore look to them--even were communication possible-- +for proofs of immortality and accept them as oracles?"--Edition of 1902, +page 78. + +With the above paragraphs compare these that follow. It is Mrs. Eddy +writing--after a good long twenty years of pen-practice. Compare also +with the alleged Poems already quoted. The prominent characteristic of +the Poems is affectation, artificiality; their makeup is a complacent and +pretentious outpour of false figures and fine writing, in the sophomoric +style. The same qualities and the same style will be found, unchanged, +unbettered, in these following paragraphs--after a lapse of more than +fifty years, and after--as aforesaid--long literary training. The +italics are mine: + +1. "What plague spot or bacilli were [sic] gnawing [sic] at the heart of +this metropolis . . . and bringing it [the heart] on bended knee? +Why, it was an institute that had entered its vitals--that, among other +things, taught games," et cetera.--C.S. Journal, p. 670, article +entitled "A Narrative--by Mary Baker G. Eddy." + +2. "Parks sprang up [sic] . . . electric-cars run [sic] merrily +through several streets, concrete sidewalks and macadamized roads dotted +[sic] the place," et cetera.--Ibid. + +3. "Shorn [sic] of its suburbs it had indeed little left to admire, save +to [sic] such as fancy a skeleton above ground breathing [sic] slowly +through a barren [sic] breast."--Ibid. + +This is not English--I mean, grown-up English. But it is fifteen-year-- +old English, and has not grown a month since the same mind produced the +Poems. The standard of the Poems and of the plague-spot-and-bacilli +effort is exactly the same. It is most strange that the same intellect +that worded the simple and self-contained and clean-cut paragraph +beginning with "How unreasonable is the belief," should in the very same +lustrum discharge upon the world such a verbal chaos as the utterance +concerning that plague-spot or bacilli which were gnawing at the insides +of the metropolis and bringing its heart on bended knee, thus exposing to +the eye the rest of the skeleton breathing slowly through a barren +breast. + +The immense contrast between the legitimate English of Science and Health +and the bastard English of Mrs. Eddy's miscellaneous work, and between +the maturity of the one diction and the juvenility of the other, +suggests--compels--the question, Are there two guns? It would seem so. +Is there a poor, foolish, old, scattering flint-lock for rabbit, and a +long-range, centre-driving, up-to-date Mauser-magazine for elephant? It +looks like it. For it is observable that in Science and Health (the +elephant-ground) the practice was good at the start and has remained so, +and that the practice in the miscellaneous, outside, small-game field was +very bad at the start and was never less bad at any later time. + +I wish to say that of Mrs. Eddy I am not requiring perfect English, but +only good English. No one can write perfect English and keep it up +through a stretch of ten chapters. It has never been done. It was +approached in the "well of English undefiled"; it has been approached in +Mrs. Eddy's Annex to that Book; it has been approached in several English +grammars; I have even approached it myself; but none of us has made port. + +Now, the English of Science and Health is good. In passages to be found +in Mrs. Eddy's Autobiography (on pages 53, 57, 101, and 113), and on page +6 of her squalid preface to Science and Health, first revision, she seems +to me to claim the whole and sole authorship of the book. That she wrote +the Autobiography, and that preface, and the Poems, and the Plague-spot- +Bacilli, we are not permitted to doubt. Indeed, we know she wrote them. +But the very certainty that she wrote these things compels a doubt that +she wrote Science and Health. She is guilty of little awkwardnesses of +expression in the Autobiography which a practiced pen would hardly allow +to go uncorrected in even a hasty private letter, and could not dream of +passing by uncorrected in passages intended for print. But she passes +them placidly by; as placidly as if she did not suspect that they were +offenses against third-class English. I think that that placidity was +born of that very unawareness, so to speak. I will cite a few instances +from the Autobiography. The italics are mine: + +"I remember reading in my childhood certain manuscripts containing +Scriptural Sonnets, besides other verses and enigmas," etc. Page 7. + +[On page 27.] "Many pale cripples went into the Church leaning on +crutches who came out carrying them on their shoulders." + +It is awkward, because at the first glance it seems to say that the +cripples went in leaning on crutches which went out carrying the cripples +on their shoulders. It would have cost her no trouble to put her "who" +after her "cripples." I blame her a little; I think her proof-reader +should have been shot. We may let her capital C pass, but it is another +awkwardness, for she is talking about a building, not about a religious +society. + +"Marriage and Parentage "[Chapter-heading. Page 30]. You imagine that +she is going to begin a talk about her marriage and finish with some +account of her father and mother. And so you will be deceived. +"Marriage" was right, but "Parentage" was not the best word for the rest +of the record. It refers to the birth of her own child. After a certain +period of time "my babe was born." Marriage and Motherhood-Marriage and +Maternity-Marriage and Product-Marriage and Dividend--either of these +would have fitted the facts and made the matter clear. + +"Without my knowledge he was appointed a guardian." Page 32. + +She is speaking of her child. She means that a guardian for her child +was appointed, but that isn't what she says. + +"If spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is +lost, and the argument with its rightful conclusions, becomes +correspondingly obscure." Page 34. + +We shall never know why she put the word "correspondingly" in there. Any +fine, large word would have answered just as well: psychosuperintangibly +--electroincandescently--oligarcheologically--sanchrosynchro- +stereoptically--any of these would have answered, any of these would have +filled the void. + +"His spiritual noumenon and phenomenon silenced portraiture." Page 34. + +Yet she says she forgot everything she knew, when she discovered +Christian Science. I realize that noumenon is a daisy; and I will not +deny that I shall use it whenever I am in a company which I think I can +embarrass with it; but, at the same time, I think it is out of place +among friends in an autobiography. There, I think a person ought not to +have anything up his sleeve. It undermines confidence. But my +dissatisfaction with the quoted passage is not on account of noumenon; it +is on account of the misuse of the word "silenced." You cannot silence +portraiture with a noumenon; if portraiture should make a noise, a way +could be found to silence it, but even then it could not be done with a +noumenon. Not even with a brick, some authorities think. + +"It may be that the mortal life-battle still wages," etc. Page 35. + +That is clumsy. Battles do not wage, battles are waged. Mrs. Eddy has +one very curious and interesting peculiarity: whenever she notices that +she is chortling along without saying anything, she pulls up with a +sudden "God is over us all," or some other sounding irrelevancy, and for +the moment it seems to light up the whole district; then, before you can +recover from the shock, she goes flitting pleasantly and meaninglessly +along again, and you hurry hopefully after her, thinking you are going to +get something this time; but as soon as she has led you far enough away +from her turkey lot she takes to a tree. Whenever she discovers that she +is getting pretty disconnected, she couples-up with an ostentatious "But" +which has nothing to do with anything that went before or is to come +after, then she hitches some empties to the train-unrelated verses from +the Bible, usually--and steams out of sight and leaves you wondering how +she did that clever thing. For striking instances, see bottom paragraph +on page 34 and the paragraph on page 35 of her Autobiography. She has a +purpose--a deep and dark and artful purpose--in what she is saying in the +first paragraph, and you guess what it is, but that is due to your own +talent, not hers; she has made it as obscure as language could do it. +The other paragraph has no meaning and no discoverable intention. It is +merely one of her God-over-alls. I cannot spare room for it in this +place. + +"I beheld with ineffable awe our great Master's marvelous skill in +demanding neither obedience to hygienic laws nor," etc. Page 4I. + +The word is loosely chosen-skill. She probably meant judgment, +intuition, penetration, or wisdom. + +"Naturally, my first jottings were but efforts to express in feeble +diction Truth's ultimate." Page 42. + +One understands what she means, but she should have been able to say what +she meant--at any time before she discovered Christian Science and forgot +everything she knew--and after it, too. If she had put "feeble" in front +of "efforts" and then left out "in" and "diction," she would have scored. + +" . . . its written expression increases in perfection under the +guidance of the great Master." Page 43. + +It is an error. Not even in those advantageous circumstances can +increase be added to perfection. + +"Evil is not mastered by evil; it can only be overcome with Good. This +brings out the nothingness of evil, and the eternal Somethingness +vindicates the Divine Principle and improves the race of Adam." Page 76. + +This is too extraneous for me. That is the trouble with Mrs. Eddy when +she sets out to explain an over-large exhibit: the minute you think the +light is bursting upon you the candle goes out and your mind begins to +wander. + +"No one else can drain the cup which I have drunk to the dregs, as the +discoverer and teacher of Christian Science" Page 47. + +That is saying we cannot empty an empty cup. We knew it before; and we +know she meant to tell us that that particular cup is going to remain +empty. That is, we think that that was the idea, but we cannot be sure. +She has a perfectly astonishing talent for putting words together in such +a way as to make successful inquiry into their intention impossible. + +She generally makes us uneasy when she begins to tune up on her fine- +writing timbrel. It carries me back to her Plague-Spot and Poetry days, +and I just dread those: + +"Into mortal mind's material obliquity I gazed and stood abashed. +Blanched was the cheek of pride. My heart bent low before the +omnipotence of Spirit, and a tint of humility soft as the heart of a +moonbeam mantled the earth. Bethlehem and Bethany, Gethsemane and +Calvary, spoke to my chastened sense as by the tearful lips of a babe." +Page 48. + +The heart of a moonbeam is a pretty enough Friendship's-Album expression +--let it pass, though I do think the figure a little strained; but +humility has no tint, humility has no complexion, and if it had it could +not mantle the earth. A moonbeam might--I do not know--but she did not +say it was the moonbeam. But let it go, I cannot decide it, she mixes me +up so. A babe hasn't "tearful lips," it's its eyes. You find none of +Mrs. Eddy's kind of English in Science and Health--not a line of it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Setting aside title-page, index, etc., the little Autobiography begins on +page 7 and ends on page 130. My quotations are from the first forty +pages. They seem to me to prove the presence of the 'prentice hand. The +style of the forty pages is loose and feeble and 'prentice-like. The +movement of the narrative is not orderly and sequential, but rambles +around, and skips forward and back and here and there and yonder, +'prentice-fashion. Many a journeyman has broken up his narrative and +skipped about and rambled around, but he did it for a purpose, for an +advantage; there was art in it, and points to be scored by it; the +observant reader perceived the game, and enjoyed it and respected it, if +it was well played. But Mrs. Eddy's performance was without intention, +and destitute of art. She could score no points by it on those terms, +and almost any reader can see that her work was the uncalculated +puttering of a novice. + +In the above paragraph I have described the first third of the booklet. +That third being completed, Mrs. Eddy leaves the rabbit-range, crosses +the frontier, and steps out upon her far-spreading big-game territory-- +Christian Science and there is an instant change! The style smartly +improves; and the clumsy little technical offenses disappear. In these +two-thirds of the booklet I find only one such offence, and it has the +look of being a printer's error. + +I leave the riddle with the reader. Perhaps he can explain how it is +that a person-trained or untrained--who on the one day can write nothing +better than Plague-Spot-Bacilli and feeble and stumbling and wandering +personal history littered with false figures and obscurities and +technical blunders, can on the next day sit down and write fluently, +smoothly, compactly, capably, and confidently on a great big thundering +subject, and do it as easily and comfortably as a whale paddles around +the globe. + +As for me, I have scribbled so much in fifty years that I have become +saturated with convictions of one sort and another concerning a +scribbler's limitations; and these are so strong that when I am familiar +with a literary person's work I feel perfectly sure that I know enough +about his limitations to know what he can not do. If Mr. Howells should +pretend to me that he wrote the Plague-Spot Bacilli rhapsody, I should +receive the statement courteously; but I should know it for a--well, for +a perversion. If the late Josh Billings should rise up and tell me that +he wrote Herbert Spencer's philosophies; I should answer and say that the +spelling casts a doubt upon his claim. If the late Jonathan Edwards +should rise up and tell me he wrote Mr. Dooley's books, I should answer +and say that the marked difference between his style and Dooley's is +argument against the soundness of his statement. You see how much I +think of circumstantial evidence. In literary matters--in my belief--it +is often better than any person's word, better than any shady character's +oath. It is difficult for me to believe that the same hand that wrote +the Plague-Spot-Bacilli and the first third of the little Eddy biography +wrote also Science and Health. Indeed, it is more than difficult, it is +impossible. + +Largely speaking, I have read acres of what purported to be Mrs. Eddy's +writings, in the past two months. I cannot know, but I am convinced, +that the circumstantial evidence shows that her actual share in the work +of composing and phrasing these things was so slight as to be +inconsequential. Where she puts her literary foot down, her trail across +her paid polisher's page is as plain as the elephant's in a Sunday-school +procession. Her verbal output, when left undoctored by her clerks, is +quite unmistakable It always exhibits the strongly distinctive features +observable in the virgin passages from her pen already quoted by me: + +Desert vacancy, as regards thought. +Self-complacency. +Puerility. +Sentimentality. +Affectations of scholarly learning. +Lust after eloquent and flowery expression. +Repetition of pet poetic picturesquenesses. +Confused and wandering statement. +Metaphor gone insane. +Meaningless words, used because they are pretty, or showy, or unusual. +Sorrowful attempts at the epigrammatic. +Destitution of originality. + +The fat volume called Miscellaneous Writings of Mrs. Eddy contains +several hundred pages. Of the five hundred and fifty-four pages of prose +in it I find ten lines, on page 319, to be Mrs. Eddy's; also about a page +of the preface or "Prospectus"; also about fifteen pages scattered along +through the book. If she wrote any of the rest of the prose, it was +rewritten after her by another hand. Here I will insert two-thirds of +her page of the prospectus. It is evident that whenever, under the +inspiration of the Deity, she turns out a book, she is always allowed to +do some of the preface. I wonder why that is? It always mars the work. +I think it is done in humorous malice I think the clerks like to see her +give herself away. They know she will, her stock of usable materials +being limited and her procedure in employing them always the same, +substantially. They know that when the initiated come upon her first +erudite allusion, or upon any one of her other stage-properties, they can +shut their eyes and tell what will follow. She usually throws off an +easy remark all sodden with Greek or Hebrew or Latin learning; she +usually has a person watching for a star--she can seldom get away from +that poetic idea--sometimes it is a Chaldee, sometimes a Walking +Delegate, sometimes an entire stranger, but be he what he may, he is +generally there when the train is ready to move, and has his pass in his +hat-band; she generally has a Being with a Dome on him, or some other +cover that is unusual and out of the fashion; she likes to fire off a +Scripture-verse where it will make the handsomest noise and come nearest +to breaking the connection; she often throws out a Forefelt, or a +Foresplendor, or a Foreslander where it will have a fine nautical +foreto'gallant sound and make the sentence sing; after which she is +nearly sure to throw discretion away and take to her deadly passion, +Intoxicated Metaphor. At such a time the Mrs. Eddy that does not +hesitate is lost: + +"The ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olympiad. The Chaldee +watched the appearing of a star; to him no higher destiny dawned on the +dome of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heavens. The meek +Nazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers, said, 'Ye can discern the face of +the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?'--for He forefelt +and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated by sinners. + +"To kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the new idea that comes +welling up from infinite Truth needs to be understood. The seer of this +age should be a sage. + +"Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition of Deity. The +mounting sense gathers fresh forms and strange fire from the ashes of +dissolving self, and drops the world. Meekness heightens immortal +attributes, only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness reveals +another scene and another self seemingly rolled up in shades, but brought +to light by the evolutions of advancing thought, whereby we discern the +power of Truth and Love to heal the sick. + +"Pride is ignorance; those assume most who have the least wisdom or +experience; and they steal from their neighbor, because they have so +little of their own."--Miscellaneous Writings, page 1, and six lines at +top of page 2. + +It is not believable that the hand that wrote those clumsy and affected +sentences wrote the smooth English of Science and Health. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +It is often said in print that Mrs. Eddy claims that God was the Author +of Science and Health. Mr. Peabody states in his pamphlet that "she says +not she but God was the Author." I cannot find that in her autobiography +she makes this transference of the authorship, but I think that in it she +definitely claims that she did her work under His inspiration--definitely +for her; for as a rule she is not a very definite person, even when she +seems to be trying her best to be clear and positive. Speaking of the +early days when her Science was beginning to unfold itself and gather +form in her mind, she says (Autobiography, page 43): + +"The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh +universe--old to God, but new to His 'little one.'" + +She being His little one, as I understand it. + +The divine hand led her. It seems to mean "God inspired me"; but when a +person uses metaphors instead of statistics--and that is Mrs. Eddy's +common fashion--one cannot always feel sure about the intention. + +[Page 56.] "Even the Scripture gave no direct interpretation of the +Scientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual Principle of healing, +until our Heavenly Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in +Science and Health, to unlock this 'mystery of godliness.'" + +Another baffling metaphor. If she had used plain forecastle English, and +said "God wrote the Key and I put it in my book"; or if she had said "God +furnished me the solution of the mystery and I put it on paper"; or if +she had said "God did it all," then we should understand; but her phrase +is open to any and all of those translations, and is a Key which unlocks +nothing--for us. However, it seems to at least mean "God inspired me," +if nothing more. + +There was personal and intimate communion, at any rate we get that much +out of the riddles. The connection extended to business, after the +establishment of the teaching and healing industry. + +[Page 71.] "When God impelled me to set a price on my instruction," etc. +Further down: "God has since shown me, in multitudinous ways, the wisdom +of this decision." + +She was not able to think of a "financial equivalent"--meaning a +pecuniary equivalent--for her "instruction in Christian Science Mind- +healing." In this emergency she was "led" to charge three hundred +dollars for a term of "twelve half-days." She does not say who led her, +she only says that the amount greatly troubled her. I think it means +that the price was suggested from above, "led" being a theological term +identical with our commercial phrase "personally conducted." She "shrank +from asking it, but was finally led, by a strange providence, to accept +this fee." "Providence" is another theological term. Two leds and a +providence, taken together, make a pretty strong argument for +inspiration. I think that these statistics make it clear that the price +was arranged above. This view is constructively supported by the fact, +already quoted, that God afterwards approved, "in multitudinous ways," +her wisdom in accepting the mentioned fee. "Multitudinous ways"-- +multitudinous encoring--suggests enthusiasm. Business enthusiasm. And +it suggests nearness. God's nearness to his "little one." Nearness, and +a watchful personal interest. A warm, palpitating, Standard-Oil +interest, so to speak. All this indicates inspiration. We may assume, +then, two inspirations: one for the book, the other for the business. + +The evidence for inspiration is further augmented by the testimony of +Rev. George Tomkins, D.D., already quoted, that Mrs. Eddy and her book +were foretold in Revelation, and that Mrs. Eddy "is God's brightest +thought to this age, giving us the spiritual interpretation of the Bible +in the ' little book'" of the Angel. + +I am aware that it is not Mr. Tomkins that is speaking, but Mrs. Eddy. +The commissioned lecturers of the Christian Science Church have to be +members of the Board of Lectureship. (By-laws Sec. 2, p. 70.) The +Board of Lectureship is selected by the Board of Directors of the Church. +(By-laws, Sec. 3, p. 70.) The Board of Directors of the Church is the +property of Mrs. Eddy. (By-laws, p. 22.) Mr. Tomkins did not make that +statement without authorization from headquarters. He necessarily got it +from the Board of Directors, the Board of Directors from Mrs. Eddy, Mrs. +Eddy from the Deity. Mr. Tomkins would have been turned down by that +procession if his remarks had been unsatisfactory to it. + +It may be that there is evidence somewhere--as has been claimed--that +Mrs. Eddy has charged upon the Deity the verbal authorship of Science and +Health. But if she ever made the charge, she has withdrawn it (as it +seems to me), and in the most formal and unqualified; of all ways. See +Autobiography, page 57: + +"When the demand for this book increased . . . the copyright was +infringed. I entered a suit at Law, and my copyright was protected." + +Thus it is plain that she did not plead that the Deity was the (verbal) +Author; for if she had done that, she would have lost her case--and with +rude promptness. It was in the old days before the Berne Convention and +before the passage of our amended law of 1891, and the court would have +quoted the following stern clause from the existing statute and frowned +her out of the place: + +"No Foreigner can acquire copyright in the United States." + +To sum up. The evidence before me indicates three things: + +1. That Mrs. Eddy claims the verbal author ship for herself. +2. That she denies it to the Deity. +3. That--in her belief--she wrote the book under the inspiration of the +Deity, but furnished the language herself. + +In one place in the Autobiography she claims both the language and the +ideas; but when this witness is testifying, one must draw the line +somewhere, or she will prove both sides of her case-nine sides, if +desired. + +It is too true. Much too true. Many, many times too true. She is a +most trying witness--the most trying witness that ever kissed the Book, I +am sure. There is no keeping up with her erratic testimony. As soon as +you have got her share of the authorship nailed where you half hope and +half believe it will stay and cannot be joggled loose any more, she +joggles it loose again--or seems to; you cannot be sure, for her habit of +dealing in meaningless metaphors instead of in plain, straightforward +statistics, makes it nearly always impossible to tell just what it is she +is trying to say. She was definite when she claimed both the language +and the ideas of the book. That seemed to settle the matter. It seemed +to distribute the percentages of credit with precision between the +collaborators: ninety-two per cent. to Mrs. Eddy, who did all the work, +and eight per cent. to the Deity, who furnished the inspiration not +enough of it to damage the copyright in a country closed against +Foreigners, and yet plenty to advertise the book and market it at famine +rates. Then Mrs. Eddy does not keep still, but fetches around and comes +forward and testifies again. It is most injudicious. For she resorts to +metaphor this time, and it makes trouble, for she seems to reverse the +percentages and claim only the eight per cent. for her self. I quote +from Mr. Peabody's book (Eddyism, or Christian Science. Boston: 15 Court +Square, price twenty-five cents): + +"Speaking of this book, Mrs. Eddy, in January last (I901) said: 'I should +blush to write of Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, as I +have, were it of human origin, and I, apart from God, its author; but as +I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of Heaven in divine +metaphysics, I cannot be supermodest of the Christian Science text- +book."' + +Mr. Peabody's comment: + +"Nothing could be plainer than that. Here is a distinct avowal that the +book entitled Science and Health was the work of Almighty God." + +It does seem to amount to that. She was only a "scribe." Confound the +word, it is just a confusion, it has no determinable meaning there, it +leaves us in the air. A scribe is merely a person who writes. He may be +a copyist, he may be an amanuensis, he may be a writer of originals, and +furnish both the language and the ideas. As usual with Mrs. Eddy, the +connection affords no help--"echoing" throws no light upon "scribe." A +rock can reflect an echo, a wall can do it, a mountain can do it, many +things can do it, but a scribe can't. A scribe that could reflect an +echo could get over thirty dollars a week in a side-show. Many +impresarios would rather have him than a cow with four tails. If we +allow that this present scribe was setting down the "harmonies of +Heaven"--and certainly that seems to have been the case then there was +only one way to do it that I can think of: listen to the music and put +down the notes one after another as they fell. In that case Mrs. Eddy +did not invent the tune, she only entered it on paper. Therefore +dropping the metaphor--she was merely an amanuensis, and furnished +neither the language of Science and Health nor the ideas. It reduces her +to eight per cent. (and the dividends on that and the rest). + +Is that it? We shall never know. For Mrs. Eddy is liable to testify +again at any time. But until she does it, I think we must conclude that +the Deity was Author of the whole book, and Mrs. Eddy merely His +telephone and stenographer. Granting this, her claim as the Voice of God +stands-for the present--justified and established. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT + +I overlooked something. It appears that there was more of that utterance +than Mr. Peabody has quoted in the above paragraph. It will be found in +Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science Journal (January, I901) and +reads as follows: + +"It was not myself . . . which dictated Science and Health, with Key +to the Scriptures." + +That is certainly clear enough. The words which I have removed from that +important sentence explain Who it was that did the dictating. It was +done by + +"the divine power of Truth and Love, infinitely above me." + +Certainly that is definite. At last, through her personal testimony, we +have a sure grip upon the following vital facts, and they settle the +authorship of Science and Health beyond peradventure: + +1. Mrs. Eddy furnished "the ideas and the language." +2. God furnished the ideas and the language. + +It is a great comfort to have the matter authoritatively settled. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +It is hard to locate her, she shifts about so much. She is a shining +drop of quicksilver which you put your finger on and it isn't there. +There is a paragraph in the Autobiography (page 96) which places in +seemingly darkly significant procession three Personages: + +1. The Virgin Mary +2. Jesus of Nazareth. +3. Mrs. Eddy. + +This is the paragraph referred to: + +"No person can take the individual place of the Virgin Mary. No person +can compass or fulfil the individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No +person can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the +discoverer and founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill +his own niche in time and eternity." + +I have read it many times, but I still cannot be sure that I rightly +understand it. If the Saviour's name had been placed first and the +Virgin Mary's second and Mrs. Eddy's third, I should draw the inference +that a descending scale from First Importance to Second Importance and +then to Small Importance was indicated; but to place the Virgin first, +the Saviour second, and Mrs. Eddy third, seems to turn the scale the +other way and make it an ascending scale of Importances, with Mrs. Eddy +ranking the other two and holding first place. + +I think that that was perhaps the intention, but none but a seasoned +Christian Scientist can examine a literary animal of Mrs. Eddy's creation +and tell which end of it the tail is on. She is easily the most baffling +and bewildering writer in the literary trade. + +Eddy is a commonplace name, and would have an unimpressive aspect in the +list of the reformed Holy Family. She has thought of that. In the book +of By-laws written by her--"impelled by a power not one's own"--there is +a paragraph which explains how and when her disciples came to confer a +title upon her; and this explanation is followed by a warning as to what +will happen to any female Scientist who shall desecrate it: + +"The title of Mother. Therefore if a student of Christian Science shall +apply this title, either to herself or to others, except as the term for +kinship according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an +indication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus, and unfitness to be a +member of the Mother-Church." + +She is the Pastor Emeritus. + +While the quoted paragraph about the Procession seems to indicate that +Mrs. Eddy is expecting to occupy the First Place in it, that expectation +is not definitely avowed. In an earlier utterance of hers she is +clearer--clearer, and does not claim the first place all to herself, but +only the half of it. I quote from Mr. Peabody's book again: + +"In the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her +property, and published by her, it was claimed for her, and with her +sanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to +establish the claim. + +"Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf that she +herself was the chosen successor to and equal of Jesus." + +In her Miscellaneous Writings (using her once favorite "We" for "I") she +says that "While we entertain decided views . . . and shall express +them as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine +origin," etc. + +Our divine origin. It suggests Equal again. It is inferable, then, that +in the near by-and-by the new Church will officially rank the Holy Family +in the following order: + +1. Jesus of Nazareth. --1. Our Mother. +2. The Virgin Mary. + + + + +SUMMARY + +I am not playing with Christian Science and its founder, I am examining +them; and I am doing it because of the interest I feel in the inquiry. +My results may seem inadequate to the reader, but they have for me +clarified a muddle and brought a sort of order out of a chaos, and so I +value them. + +My readings of Mrs. Eddy's uninspired miscellaneous literary efforts have +convinced me of several things: + +1. That she did not write Science and Health. +2. That the Deity did (or did not) write it. +3. That She thinks She wrote it. +4. That She believes She wrote it under the Deity's inspiration. +5. That She believes She is a Member of the Holy Family. +6. That She believes She is the equal of the Head of it. + +Finally, I think She is now entitled to the capital S--on her own +evidence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Thus far we have a part of Mrs. Eddy's portrait. Not made of fictions, +surmises, reports, rumors, innuendoes, dropped by her enemies; no, she +has furnished all of the materials herself, and laid them on the canvas, +under my general superintendence and direction. As far as she has gone +with it, it is the presentation of a complacent, commonplace, illiterate +New England woman who "forgot everything she knew" when she discovered +her discovery, then wrote a Bible in good English under the inspiration +of God, and climbed up it to the supremest summit of earthly grandeur +attainable by man--where she sits serene to-day, beloved and worshiped by +a multitude of human beings of as good average intelligence as is +possessed by those that march under the banner of any competing cult. +This is not intended to flatter the competing cults, it is merely a +statement of cold fact. + +That a commonplace person should go climbing aloft and become a god or a +half-god or a quarter-god and be worshiped by men and women of average +intelligence, is nothing. It has happened a million times, it will +happen a hundred million more. It has been millions of years since the +first of these supernaturals appeared, and by the time the last one in +that inconceivably remote future shall have performed his solemn little +high-jinks on the stage and closed the business, there will be enough of +them accumulated in the museum on the Other Side to start a heaven of +their own-and jam it. + +Each in his turn those little supernaturals of our by-gone ages and aeons +joined the monster procession of his predecessors and marched +horizonward, disappeared, and was forgotten. They changed nothing, they +built nothing, they left nothing behind them to remember them by, nothing +to hold their disciples together, nothing to solidify their work and +enable it to defy the assaults of time and the weather. They passed, and +left a vacancy. They made one fatal mistake; they all made it, each in +his turn: they failed to organize their forces, they failed to centralize +their strength, they failed to provide a fresh Bible and a sure and +perpetual cash income for business, and often they failed to provide a +new and accepted Divine Personage to worship. + +Mrs. Eddy is not of that small fry. The materials that go to the making +of the rest of her portrait will prove it. She will furnish them +herself: + +She published her book. She copyrighted it. She copyrights everything. +If she should say, "Good-morning; how do you do?" she would copyright it; +for she is a careful person, and knows the value of small things. + +She began to teach her Science, she began to heal, she began to gather +converts to her new religion--fervent, sincere, devoted, grateful people. +A year or two later she organized her first Christian Science +"Association," with six of her disciples on the roster. + +She continued to teach and heal. She was charging nothing, she says, +although she was very poor. She taught and healed gratis four years +altogether, she says. + +Then, in 1879-81 she was become strong enough, and well enough +established, to venture a couple of impressively important moves. The +first of these moves was to aggrandize the "Association" to a "Church." +Brave? It is the right name for it, I think. The former name suggests +nothing, invited no remark, no criticism, no inquiry, no hostility; the +new name invited them all. She must have made this intrepid venture on +her own motion. She could have had no important advisers at that early +day. If we accept it as her own idea and her own act--and I think we +must--we have one key to her character. And it will explain subsequent +acts of hers that would merely stun us and stupefy us without it. Shall +we call it courage? Or shall we call it recklessness? Courage observes; +reflects; calculates; surveys the whole situation; counts the cost, +estimates the odds, makes up its mind; then goes at the enterprise +resolute to win or perish. Recklessness does not reflect, it plunges +fearlessly in with a hurrah, and takes the risks, whatever they may be, +regardless of expense. Recklessness often fails, Mrs. Eddy has never +failed--from the point of view of her followers. The point of view of +other people is naturally not a matter of weighty importance to her. + +The new Church was not born loose-jointed and featureless, but had a +defined plan, a definite character, definite aims, and a name which was a +challenge, and defied all comers. It was "a Mind-healing Church." It +was "without a creed." Its name, "The Church of Christ, Scientist." + +Mrs. Eddy could not copyright her Church, but she chartered it, which was +the same thing and relieved the pain. It had twenty-six charter members. +Mrs. Eddy was at once installed as its pastor. + +The other venture, above referred to, was Mrs. Eddy's Massachusetts +Metaphysical College, in which was taught "the pathology of spiritual +power." She could not copyright it, but she got it chartered. For +faculty it had herself, her husband of the period (Dr. Eddy), and her +adopted son, Dr. Foster-Eddy. The college term was "barely three +weeks," she says. Again she was bold, brave, rash, reckless--choose for +yourself--for she not only began to charge the student, but charged him a +hundred dollars a week for the enlightenments. And got it? some may +ask. Easily. Pupils flocked from far and near. They came by the +hundred. Presently the term was cut down nearly half, but the price +remained as before. To be exact, the term-cut was to seven lessons-- +price, three hundred dollars. The college "yielded a large income." +This is believable. In seven years Mrs. Eddy taught, as she avers, over +four thousand students in it. (Preface to 1902 edition of Science and +Health.) Three hundred times four thousand is--but perhaps you can cipher +it yourself. I could do it ordinarily, but I fell down yesterday and +hurt my leg. Cipher it; you will see that it is a grand sum for a woman +to earn in seven years. Yet that was not all she got out of her college +in the seven. + +At the time that she was charging the primary student three hundred +dollars for twelve lessons she was not content with this tidy assessment, +but had other ways of plundering him. By advertisement she offered him +privileges whereby he could add eighteen lessons to his store for five +hundred dollars more. That is to say, he could get a total of thirty +lessons in her college for eight hundred dollars. + +Four thousand times eight hundred is--but it is a difficult sum for a +cripple who has not been "demonstrated over" to cipher; let it go. She +taught "over" four thousand students in seven years. "Over" is not +definite, but it probably represents a non-paying surplus of learners +over and above the paying four thousand. Charity students, doubtless. I +think that as interesting an advertisement as has been printed since the +romantic old days of the other buccaneers is this one from the Christian +Science Journal for September, 1886: + + +"MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE + +"REV. MARY BAKER G. EDDY, PRESIDENT + +"571 Columbus Avenue, Boston + +"The collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysical healing includes +twelve lessons. Tuition, three hundred dollars. + +"Course in metaphysical obstetrics includes six daily lectures, and is +open only to students from this college. Tuition, one hundred dollars. + +"Class in theology, open (like the above) to graduates, receives six +additional lectures on the Scriptures, and summary of the principle and +practice of Christian Science, two hundred dollars. + +"Normal class is open to those who have taken the first course at this +college; six daily lectures complete the Normal course. Tuition, two +hundred dollars. + +"No invalids, and only persons of good moral character, are accepted as +students. All students are subject to examination and rejection; and +they are liable to leave the class if found unfit to remain in it. + +"A limited number of clergymen received free of charge. + +"Largest discount to indigent students, one hundred dollars on the first +course. + +"No deduction on the others. + +"Husband and wife, entered together, three hundred dollars. + +"Tuition for all strictly in advance." + + +There it is--the horse-leech's daughter alive again, after a three- +century vacation. Fifty or sixty hours' lecturing for eight hundred +dollars. + +I was in error as to one matter: there are no charity students. Gratis- +taught clergymen must not be placed under that head; they are merely an +advertisement. Pauper students can get into the infant class on a two- +third rate (cash in advance), but not even an archangel can get into the +rest of the game at anything short of par, cash down. For it is "in the +spirit of Christ's charity, as one who is joyful to bear healing to the +sick " that Mrs. Eddy is working the game. She sends the healing to them +outside. She cannot bear it to them inside the college, for the reason +that she does not allow a sick candidate to get in. It is true that this +smells of inconsistency, but that is nothing; Mrs. Eddy would not be Mrs. +Eddy if she should ever chance to be consistent about anything two days +running. + +Except in the matter of the Dollar. The Dollar, and appetite for power +and notoriety. English must also be added; she is always consistent, she +is always Mrs. Eddy, in her English: it is always and consistently +confused and crippled and poor. She wrote the Advertisement; her +literary trade-marks are there. When she says all "students" are subject +to examination, she does not mean students, she means candidates for that +lofty place When she says students are "liable" to leave the class if +found unfit to remain in it, she does not mean that if they find +themselves unfit, or be found unfit by others, they will be likely to ask +permission to leave the class; she means that if she finds them unfit she +will be "liable" to fire them out. When she nobly offers "tuition for +all strictly in advance," she does not mean "instruction for all in +advance-payment for it later." No, that is only what she says, it is not +what she means. If she had written Science and Health, the oldest man in +the world would not be able to tell with certainty what any passage in it +was intended to mean. + +Her Church was on its legs. + +She was its pastor. It was prospering. + +She was appointed one of a committee to draught By-laws for its +government. It may be observed, without overplus of irreverence, that +this was larks for her. She did all of the draughting herself. From the +very beginning she was always in the front seat when there was business +to be done; in the front seat, with both eyes open, and looking sharply +out for Number One; in the front seat, working Mortal Mind with fine +effectiveness and giving Immortal Mind a rest for Sunday. When her +Church was reorganized, by-and-by, the By-laws were retained. She saw to +that. In these Laws for the government of her Church, her empire, her +despotism, Mrs. Eddy's character is embalmed for good and all. I think a +particularized examination of these Church-laws will be found +interesting. And not the less so if we keep in mind that they were +"impelled by a power not one's own," as she says--Anglice. the +inspiration of God. + +It is a Church "without a creed." Still, it has one. Mrs. Eddy +draughted it--and copyrighted it. In her own name. You cannot become a +member of the Mother-Church (nor of any Christian Science Church) without +signing it. It forms the first chapter of the By-laws, and is called +"Tenets." "Tenets of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, +Scientist." It has no hell in it--it throws it overboard. + + + + +THE PASTOR EMERITUS + +About the time of the reorganization, Mrs. Eddy retired from her position +of pastor of her Church, abolished the office of pastor in all branch +Churches, and appointed her book, Science and Health, to be pastor- +universal. Mrs. Eddy did not disconnect herself from the office +entirely, when she retired, but appointed herself Pastor Emeritus. It is +a misleading title, and belongs to the family of that phrase "without a +creed." It advertises her as being a merely honorary official, with +nothing to do, and no authority. The Czar of Russia is Emperor Emeritus +on the same terms. Mrs. Eddy was Autocrat of the Church before, with +limitless authority, and she kept her grip on that limitless authority +when she took that fictitious title. + +It is curious and interesting to note with what an unerring instinct the +Pastor Emeritus has thought out and forecast all possible encroachments +upon her planned autocracy, and barred the way against them, in the By- +laws which she framed and copyrighted--under the guidance of the Supreme +Being. + + + + +THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS + +For instance, when Article I. speaks of a President and Board of +Directors, you think you have discovered a formidable check upon the +powers and ambitions of the honorary pastor, the ornamental pastor, the +functionless pastor, the Pastor Emeritus, but it is a mistake. These +great officials are of the phrase--family of the Church-Without-a-Creed +and the Pastor-With-Nothing-to-Do; that is to say, of the family of +Large-Names-Which-Mean-Nothing. The Board is of so little consequence +that the By-laws do not state how it is chosen, nor who does it; but they +do state, most definitely, that the Board cannot fill a vacancy in its +number "except the candidate is approved by the Pastor Emeritus." + +The "candidate." The Board cannot even proceed to an election until the +Pastor Emeritus has examined the list and squelched such candidates as +are not satisfactory to her. + +Whether the original first Board began as the personal property of Mrs. +Eddy or not, it is foreseeable that in time, under this By-law, she would +own it. Such a first Board might chafe under such a rule as that, and +try to legislate it out of existence some day. But Mrs. Eddy was awake. +She foresaw that danger, and added this ingenious and effective clause: + +"This By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of +Mrs. Eddy, the Pastor Emeritus" + + + + +THE PRESIDENT + +The Board of Directors, or Serfs, or Ciphers, elects the President. + +On these clearly worded terms: "Subject to the approval of the Pastor +Emeritus." + +Therefore She elects him. + +A long term can invest a high official with influence and power, and make +him dangerous. Mrs. Eddy reflected upon that; so she limits the +President's term to a year. She has a capable commercial head, an +organizing head, a head for government. + + + + +TREASURER AND CLERK + +There are a Treasurer and a Clerk. They are elected by the Board of +Directors. That is to say, by Mrs. Eddy. + +Their terms of office expire on the first Tuesday in June of each year, +"or upon the election of their successors." They must be watchfully +obedient and satisfactory to her, or she will elect and install their +successors with a suddenness that can be unpleasant to them. It goes +without saying that the Treasurer manages the Treasury to suit Mrs. Eddy, +and is in fact merely Temporary Deputy Treasurer. + +Apparently the Clerk has but two duties to perform: to read messages from +Mrs. Eddy to First Members assembled in solemn Council, and provide lists +of candidates for Church membership. The select body entitled First +Members are the aristocracy of the Mother-Church, the Charter Members, +the Aborigines, a sort of stylish but unsalaried little College of +Cardinals, good for show, but not indispensable. Nobody is indispensable +in Mrs. Eddy's empire; she sees to that. + +When the Pastor Emeritus sends a letter or message to that little +Sanhedrin, it is the Clerk's "imperative duty" to read it "at the place +and time specified." Otherwise, the world might come to an end. These +are fine, large frills, and remind us of the ways of emperors and such. +Such do not use the penny-post, they send a gilded and painted special +messenger, and he strides into the Parliament, and business comes to a +sudden and solemn and awful stop; and in the impressive hush that +follows, the Chief Clerk reads the document. It is his "imperative +duty." If he should neglect it, his official life would end. It is the +same with this Mother-Church Clerk; "if he fail to perform this important +function of his office," certain majestic and unshirkable solemnities +must follow: a special meeting "shall" be called; a member of the Church +"shall" make formal complaint; then the Clerk "shall" be "removed from +office." Complaint is sufficient, no trial is necessary. + +There is something very sweet and juvenile and innocent and pretty about +these little tinsel vanities, these grave apings of monarchical fuss and +feathers and ceremony, here on our ostentatiously democratic soil. She +is the same lady that we found in the Autobiography, who was so naively +vain of all that little ancestral military riffraff that she had dug up +and annexed. A person's nature never changes. What it is in childhood, +it remains. Under pressure, or a change of interest, it can partially or +wholly disappear from sight, and for considerable stretches of time, but +nothing can ever permanently modify it, nothing can ever remove it. + + + + +BOARD OF TRUSTEES + +There isn't any--now. But with power and money piling up higher and +higher every day and the Church's dominion spreading daily wider and +farther, a time could come when the envious and ambitious could start the +idea that it would be wise and well to put a watch upon these assets-- +a watch equipped with properly large authority. By custom, a Board of +Trustees. Mrs. Eddy has foreseen that probability--for she is a woman +with a long, long look ahead, the longest look ahead that ever a woman +had--and she has provided for that emergency. In Art. I., Sec. 5, she +has decreed that no Board of Trustees shall ever exist in the Mother- +Church "except it be constituted by the Pastor Emeritus." + +The magnificence of it, the daring of it! Thus far, she is + +The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; +Pastor Emeritus; +President; +Board of Directors; +Treasurer; +Clerk; +and future Board of Trustees; + +and is still moving onward, ever onward. When I contemplate her from a +commercial point of view, there are no words that can convey my +admiration of her. + + + + +READERS + +These are a feature of first importance in the church-machinery of +Christian Science. For they occupy the pulpit. They hold the place that +the preacher holds in the other Christian Churches. They hold that +place, but they do not preach. Two of them are on duty at a time--a man +and a woman. One reads a passage from the Bible, the other reads the +explanation of it from Science and Health--and so they go on alternating. +This constitutes the service--this, with choir-music. They utter no word +of their own. Art. IV., Sec. 6, closes their mouths with this +uncompromising gag: + +"They shall make no remarks explanatory of the Lesson-Sermon at any time +during the service." + +It seems a simple little thing. One is not startled by it at a first +reading of it; nor at the second, nor the third. One may have to read it +a dozen times before the whole magnitude of it rises before the mind. It +far and away oversizes and outclasses the best business-idea yet invented +for the safe-guarding and perpetuating of a religion. If it had been +thought of and put in force eighteen hundred and seventy years ago, there +would be but one Christian sect in the world now, instead of ten dozens +of them. + +There are many varieties of men in the world, consequently there are many +varieties of minds in its pulpits. This insures many differing +interpretations of important Scripture texts, and this in turn insures +the splitting up of a religion into many sects. It is what has happened; +it was sure to happen. + +Mrs. Eddy has noted this disastrous result of preaching, and has put up +the bars. She will have no preaching in her Church. She has explained +all essential Scriptures, and set the explanations down in her book. In +her belief her underlings cannot improve upon those explanations, and in +that stern sentence "they shall make no explanatory remarks" she has +barred them for all time from trying. She will be obeyed; there is no +question about that. + +In arranging her government she has borrowed ideas from various sources-- +not poor ones, but the best in the governmental market--but this one is +new, this one came out of no ordinary business-head, this one must have +come out of her own, there has been no other commercial skull in a +thousand centuries that was equal to it. She has borrowed freely and +wisely, but I am sure that this idea is many times larger than all her +borrowings bulked together. One must respect the business-brain that +produced it--the splendid pluck and impudence that ventured to promulgate +it, anyway. + + + + +ELECTION OF READERS + +Readers are not taken at hap-hazard, any more than preachers are taken at +hap-hazard for the pulpits of other sects. No, Readers are elected by +the Board of Directors. But-- + +"Section 3. The Board shall inform the Pas. for Emeritus of the names +of candidates for Readers before they are elected, and if she objects to +the nomination, said candidates shall not be chosen." + +Is that an election--by the Board? Thus far I have not been able to find +out what that Board of Spectres is for. It certainly has no real +function, no duty which the hired girl could not perform, no office +beyond the mere recording of the autocrat's decrees. + +There are no dangerously long office-terms in Mrs. Eddy's government. +The Readers are elected for but one year. This insures their +subserviency to their proprietor. + +Readers are not allowed to copy out passages and read them from the +manuscript in the pulpit; they must read from Mrs. Eddy's book itself. +She is right. Slight changes could be slyly made, repeated, and in time +get acceptance with congregations. Branch sects could grow out of these +practices. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race, and how far to trust it. Her +limit is not over a quarter of an inch. It is all that a wise person +will risk. + +Mrs. Eddy's inborn disposition to copyright everything, charter +everything, secure the rightful and proper credit to herself for +everything she does, and everything she thinks she does, and everything +she thinks, and everything she thinks she thinks or has thought or +intends to think, is illustrated in Sec. 5 of Art. IV., defining the +duties of official Readers--in church: + +"Naming Book and Author. The Reader of Science and Health, with Key to +the Scriptures, before commencing to read from this book, shall +distinctly announce its full title and give the author's name." + +Otherwise the congregation might get the habit of forgetting who +(ostensibly) wrote the book. + + + + +THE ARISTOCRACY + +This consists of First Members and their apostolic succession. It is a +close corporation, and its membership limit is one hundred. Forty will +answer, but if the number fall below that, there must be an election, to +fill the grand quorum. + +This Sanhedrin can't do anything of the slightest importance, but it can +talk. It can "discuss." That is, it can discuss "important questions +relative to Church members", evidently persons who are already Church +members. This affords it amusement, and does no harm. + +It can "fix the salaries of the Readers." + +Twice a year it "votes on" admitting candidates. That is, for Church +membership. But its work is cut out for it beforehand, by Sec. , Art. +IX.: + +"Every recommendation for membership In the Church 'shall be +countersigned by a loyal student of Mrs. Eddy's, by a Director of this +Church, or by a First Member.'" + +All these three classes of beings are the personal property of Mrs. Eddy. +She has absolute control of the elections. + +Also it must "transact any Church business that may properly come before +it." + +"Properly" is a thoughtful word. No important business can come before +it. The By laws have attended to that. No important business goes +before any one for the final word except Mrs. Eddy. She has looked to +that. + +The Sanhedrin "votes on" candidates for admission to its own body. But +is its vote worth any more than mine would be? No, it isn't. Sec. 4, +of Art. V.--Election of First Members--makes this quite plain: + +"Before being elected, the candidates for First Members shall be approved +by the Pastor Emeritus over her own signature." + +Thus the Sanhedrin is the personal property of Mrs. Eddy. She owns it. +It has no functions, no authority, no real existence. It is another +Board of Shadows. Mrs. Eddy is the Sanhedrin herself. + +But it is time to foot up again and "see where we are at." Thus far, +Mrs. Eddy is + +The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; +Pastor Emeritus, +President; +Board of Directors; +Treasurer; +Clerk; +Future Board of Trustees; +Proprietor of the Priesthood: +Dictator of the Services; +Proprietor of the Sanhedrin. She has come far, and is still on her way. + + + + +CHURCH MEMBERSHIP + +In this Article there is another exhibition of a couple of the large +features of Mrs. Eddy's remarkable make-up: her business-talent and her +knowledge of human nature. + +She does not beseech and implore people to join her Church. She knows +the human race better than that. She gravely goes through the motions of +reluctantly granting admission to the applicant as a favor to him. The +idea is worth untold shekels. She does not stand at the gate of the fold +with welcoming arms spread, and receive the lost sheep with glad emotion +and set up the fatted calf and invite the neighbor and have a time. No, +she looks upon him coldly, she snubs him, she says: + +"Who are you? Who is your sponsor? Who asked you to come here? Go +away, and don't come again until you are invited." + +It is calculated to strikingly impress a person accustomed to Moody and +Sankey and Sam Jones revivals; accustomed to brain-turning appeals to the +unknown and unendorsed sinner to come forward and enter into the joy, +etc.-- "just as he is"; accustomed to seeing him do it; accustomed to +seeing him pass up the aisle through sobbing seas of welcome, and love, +and congratulation, and arrive at the mourner's bench and be received +like a long-lost government bond. + +No, there is nothing of that kind in Mrs. Eddy's system. She knows that +if you wish to confer upon a human being something which he is not sure +he wants, the best way is to make it apparently difficult for him to get +it--then he is no son of Adam if that apple does not assume an interest +in his eyes which it lacked before. In time this interest can grow into +desire. Mrs. Eddy knows that when you cannot get a man to try--free of +cost--a new and effective remedy for a disease he is afflicted with, you +can generally sell it to him if you will put a price upon it which he +cannot afford. When, in the beginning, she taught Christian Science +gratis (for good reasons), pupils were few and reluctant, and required +persuasion; it was when she raised the limit to three hundred dollars for +a dollar's worth that she could not find standing room for the invasion +of pupils that followed. + +With fine astuteness she goes through the motions of making it difficult +to get membership in her Church. There is a twofold value in this +system: it gives membership a high value in the eyes of the applicant; +and at the same time the requirements exacted enable Mrs. Eddy to keep +him out if she has doubts about his value to her. A word further as to +applications for membership: + +"Applications of students of the Metaphysical College must be signed by +the Board of Directors." + +That is safe. Mrs. Eddy is proprietor of that Board. + +Children of twelve may be admitted if invited by "one of Mrs. Eddy's +loyal students, or by a First Member, or by a Director." + +These sponsors are the property of Mrs. Eddy, therefore her Church is +safeguarded from the intrusion of undesirable children. + +Other Students. Applicants who have not studied with Mrs. Eddy can get +in only "by invitation and recommendation from students of Mrs. Eddy . . +. or from members of the Mother-Church." + +Other paragraphs explain how two or three other varieties of applicants +are to be challenged and obstructed, and tell us who is authorized to +invite them, recommend them endorse them, and all that. + +The safeguards are definite, and would seem to be sufficiently strenuous +--to Mr. Sam Jones, at any rate. Not for Mrs. Eddy. She adds this +clincher: + +"The candidates be elected by a majority vote of the First Members +present." + +That is the aristocracy, the aborigines, the Sanhedrin. It is Mrs. +Eddy's property. She herself is the Sanhedrin. No one can get into the +Church if she wishes to keep him out. + +This veto power could some time or other have a large value for her, +therefore she was wise to reserve it. + +It is likely that it is not frequently used. It is also probable that +the difficulties attendant upon getting admission to membership have been +instituted more to invite than to deter, more to enhance the value of +membership and make people long for it than to make it really difficult +to get. I think so, because the Mother. Church has many thousands of +members more than its building can accommodate. + + + + +AND SOME ENGLISH REQUIRED + +Mrs. Eddy is very particular as regards one detail curiously so, for her, +all things considered. The Church Readers must be "good English +scholars"; they must be "thorough English scholars." + +She is thus sensitive about the English of her subordinates for cause, +possibly. In her chapter defining the duties of the Clerk there is an +indication that she harbors resentful memories of an occasion when the +hazy quality of her own English made unforeseen and mortifying trouble: + +"Understanding Communications. Sec. 2. If the Clerk of this Church +shall receive a communication from the Pastor Emeritus which he does not +fully understand, he shall inform her of this fact before presenting it +to the Church, and obtain a clear understanding of the matter--then act +in accordance therewith." + +She should have waited to calm down, then, but instead she added this, +which lacks sugar: + +"Failing to adhere to this By-law, the Clerk must resign." + +I wish I could see that communication that broke the camel's back. It +was probably the one beginning: "What plague spot or bacilli were gnawing +at the heart of this metropolis and bringing it on bended knee?" and I +think it likely that the kindly disposed Clerk tried to translate it into +English and lost his mind and had to go to the hospital. That Bylaw was +not the offspring of a forecast, an intuition, it was certainly born of a +sorrowful experience. Its temper gives the fact away. + +The little book of By-laws has manifestly been tinkered by one of Mrs. +Eddy's " thorough English scholars," for in the majority of cases its +meanings are clear. The book is not even marred by Mrs. Eddy's peculiar +specialty--lumbering clumsinesses of speech. I believe the salaried +polisher has weeded them all out but one. In one place, after referring +to Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy goes on to say "the Bible and the above- +-named book, with other works by the same author," etc. + +It is an unfortunate sentence, for it could mislead a hasty or careless +reader for a moment. Mrs. Eddy framed it--it is her very own--it bears +her trade-mark. "The Bible and Science and Health, with other works by +the same author," could have come from no literary vacuum but the one +which produced the remark (in the Autobiography): "I remember reading, in +my childhood, certain manuscripts containing Scriptural Sonnets, besides +other verses and enigmas." + +We know what she means, in both instances, but a low-priced Clerk would +not necessarily know, and on a salary like his he could quite excusably +aver that the Pastor Emeritus had commanded him to come and make +proclamation that she was author of the Bible, and that she was thinking +of discharging some Scriptural sonnets and other enigmas upon the +congregation. It could lose him his place, but it would not be fair, if +it happened before the edict about "Understanding Communications" was +promulgated. + + + + +"READERS" AGAIN + +The By-law book makes a showy pretence of orderliness and system, but it +is only a pretence. I will not go so far as to say it is a harum-scarum +jumble, for it is not that, but I think it fair to say it is at least +jumbulacious in places. For instance, Articles III. and IV. set forth +in much detail the qualifications and duties of Readers, she then skips +some thirty pages and takes up the subject again. It looks like +slovenliness, but it may be only art. The belated By-law has a +sufficiently quiet look, but it has a ton of dynamite in it. It makes +all the Christian Science Church Readers on the globe the personal +chattels of Mrs. Eddy. Whenever she chooses, she can stretch her long +arm around the world's fat belly and flirt a Reader out of his pulpit, +though he be tucked away in seeming safety and obscurity in a lost +village in the middle of China: + +"In any Church. Sec. 2. The Pastor Emeritus of the Mother-Church shall +have the right (through a letter addressed to the individual and Church +of which he is the Reader) to remove a Reader from this office in any +Church of Christ, Scientist, both in America and in foreign nations; or +to appoint the Reader to fill any office belonging to the Christian +Science denomination." + +She does not have to prefer charges against him, she does not have to +find him lazy, careless, incompetent, untidy, ill-mannered, unholy, +dishonest, she does not have to discover a fault of any kind in him, she +does not have to tell him nor his congregation why she dismisses and +disgraces him and insults his meek flock, she does not have to explain to +his family why she takes the bread out of their mouths and turns them +out-of-doors homeless and ashamed in a strange land; she does not have to +do anything but send a letter and say: "Pack! --and ask no questions!" + +Has the Pope this power? --the other Pope --the one in Rome. Has he +anything approaching it? Can he turn a priest out of his pulpit and +strip him of his office and his livelihood just upon a whim, a caprice, +and meanwhile furnishing no reasons to the parish? Not in America. And +not elsewhere, we may believe. + +It is odd and strange, to see intelligent and educated people among us +worshipping this self-seeking and remorseless tyrant as a God. This +worship is denied--by persons who are themselves worshippers of Mrs. +Eddy. I feel quite sure that it is a worship which will continue during +ages. + +That Mrs. Eddy wrote that amazing By-law with her own hand we have much +better evidence than her word. We have her English. It is there. It +cannot be imitated. She ought never to go to the expense of copyrighting +her verbal discharges. When any one tries to claim them she should call +me; I can always tell them from any other literary apprentice's at a +glance. It was like her to call America a "nation"; she would call a +sand-bar a nation if it should fall into a sentence in which she was +speaking of peoples, for she would not know how to untangle it and get it +out and classify it by itself. And the closing arrangement of that By- +law is in true Eddysonian form, too. In it she reserves authority to +make a Reader fill any office connected with a Science church-sexton, +grave-digger, advertising-agent, Annex-polisher, leader of the choir, +President, Director, Treasurer, Clerk, etc. She did not mean that. She +already possessed that authority. She meant to clothe herself with +power, despotic and unchallengeable, to appoint all Science Readers to +their offices, both at home and abroad. The phrase "or to appoint" is +another miscarriage of intention; she did not mean "or," she meant "and." + + +That By-law puts into Mrs. Eddy's hands absolute command over the most +formidable force and influence existent in the Christian Science kingdom +outside of herself, and it does this unconditionally and (by auxiliary +force of Laws already quoted) irrevocably. Still, she is not quite +satisfied. Something might happen, she doesn't know what. Therefore she +drives in one more nail, to make sure, and drives it deep: + +"This By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of +the Pastor Emeritus." + +Let some one with a wild and delirious fancy try and see if he can +imagine her furnishing that consent. + + + + +MONOPOLY OF SPIRITUAL BREAD + +Very properly, the first qualification for membership in the Mother- +Church is belief in the doctrines of Christian Science. + +But these doctrines must not be gathered from secondary sources. There +is but one recognized source. The candidate must be a believer in the +doctrines of Christian Science "according to the platform and teaching +contained in the Christian Science text-book, 'Science and Health, with +Key to the Scriptures,' by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy." + +That is definite, and is final. There are to be no commentaries, no +labored volumes of exposition and explanation by anybody except Mrs. +Eddy. Because such things could sow error, create warring opinions, +split the religion into sects, and disastrously cripple its power. Mrs. +Eddy will do the whole of the explaining, Herself--has done it, in fact. +She has written several books. They are to be had (for cash in advance), +they are all sacred; additions to them can never be needed and will never +be permitted. They tell the candidate how to instruct himself, how to +teach others, how to do all things comprised in the business--and they +close the door against all would-be competitors, and monopolize the +trade: + +"The Bible and the above--named book [Science and Health], with other +works by the same author," must be his only text-books for the commerce-- +he cannot forage outside. + +Mrs. Eddy's words are to be the sole elucidators of the Bible and Science +and Health --forever. Throughout the ages, whenever there is doubt as to +the meaning of a passage in either of these books the inquirer will not +dream of trying to explain it to himself; he would shudder at the thought +of such temerity, such profanity, he would be haled to the Inquisition +and thence to the public square and the stake if he should be caught +studying into text-meanings on his own hook; he will be prudent and seek +the meanings at the only permitted source, Mrs. Eddy's commentaries. + +Value of this Strait-jacket. One must not underrate the magnificence of +this long-headed idea, one must not underestimate its giant possibilities +in the matter of trooping the Church solidly together and keeping it so. +It squelches independent inquiry, and makes such a thing impossible, +profane, criminal, it authoritatively settles every dispute that can +arise. It starts with finality --a point which the Roman Church has +travelled towards fifteen or sixteen centuries, stage by stage, and has +not yet reached. The matter of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin +Mary was not authoritatively settled until the days of Pius IX.-- +yesterday, so to speak. + +As already noticed, the Protestants are broken up into a long array of +sects, a result of disputes about the meanings of texts, disputes made +unavoidable by the absence of an infallible authority to submit doubtful +passages to. A week or two ago (I am writing in the middle of January, +1903), the clergy and others hereabouts had a warm dispute in the papers +over this question: Did Jesus anywhere claim to be God? It seemed an +easy question, but it turned out to be a hard one. It was ably and +elaborately discussed, by learned men of several denominations, but in +the end it remained unsettled. + +A week ago, another discussion broke out. It was over this text: + +"Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor." + +One verdict was worded as follows: + +"When Christ answered the rich young man and said for him to give to the +poor all he possessed or he could not gain everlasting life, He did not +mean it in the literal sense. My interpretation of His words is that we +should part with what comes between us and Christ. + +"There is no doubt that Jesus believed that the rich young man thought +more of his wealth than he did of his soul, and, such being the case, it +was his duty to give up the wealth. + +"Every one of us knows that there is something we should give up for +Christ. Those who are true believers and followers know what they have +given up, and those who are not yet followers know down in their hearts +what they must give up." + +Ten clergymen of various denominations were interviewed, and nine of them +agreed with that verdict. That did not settle the matter, because the +tenth said the language of Jesus was so strait and definite that it +explained itself: "Sell all," not a percentage. + +There is a most unusual feature about that dispute: the nine persons who +decided alike, quoted not a single authority in support of their +position. I do not know when I have seen trained disputants do the like +of that before. The nine merely furnished their own opinions, founded +upon--nothing at all. In the other dispute ("Did Jesus anywhere claim to +be God?") the same kind of men--trained and learned clergymen--backed up +their arguments with chapter and verse. On both sides. Plenty of +verses. Were no reinforcing verses to be found in the present case? It +looks that way. + +The opinion of the nine seems strange to me, for it is unsupported by +authority, while there was at least constructive authority for the +opposite view. + +It is hair-splitting differences of opinion over disputed text-meanings +that have divided into many sects a once united Church. One may infer +from some of the names in the following list that some of the differences +are very slight--so slight as to be not distinctly important, perhaps-- +yet they have moved groups to withdraw from communions to which they +belonged and set up a sect of their own. The list--accompanied by +various Church statistics for 1902, compiled by Rev. Dr. H. K. +Carroll--was published, January 8, 1903, in the New York Christian +Advocate: + +Adventists (6 bodies), Baptists (13 bodies), Brethren (Plymouth) (4 +bodies), Brethren (River) (3 bodies), Catholics (8 bodies), Catholic +Apostolic, Christadelphians, Christian Connection, Christian Catholics, +Christian Missionary Association, Christian Scientists, Church of God +(Wine-brennarian), Church of the New Jerusalem, Congregationalists, +Disciples of Christ, Dunkards (4 bodies), Evangelical (2 bodies), Friends +(4 bodies), Friends of the Temple, German Evangelical Protestant, German +Evangelical Synod, Independent congregations, Jews (2 bodies), Latter-day +Saints (2 bodies), Lutherans (22 bodies), Mennonites (12 bodies), +Methodists (17 bodies), Moravians, Presbyterians (12 bodies), Protestant +Episcopal (2 bodies), Reformed (3 bodies), Schwenkfeldians, Social +Brethren, Spiritualists, Swedish Evangelical Miss. Covenant +(Waldenstromians), Unitarians, United Brethren (2 bodies), Universalists, + +Total of sects and splits--139. + +In the present month (February), Mr. E. I. Lindh, A..M., has +communicated to the Boston Transcript a hopeful article on the solution +of the problem of the "divided church." Divided is not too violent a +term. Subdivided could have been permitted if he had thought of it. He +came near thinking of it, for he mentions some of the subdivisions +himself: "the 12 kinds of Presbyterians, the 17 kinds of Methodists, the +13 kinds of Baptists, etc." He overlooked the 12 kinds of Mennonites and +the 22 kinds of Lutherans, but they are in Rev. Mr. Carroll's list. +Altogether, 76 splits under 5 flags. The Literary Digest (February 14th) +is pleased with Mr. Lindh's optimistic article, and also with the signs +of the times, and perceives that "the idea of Church unity is in the +air." + +Now, then, is not Mrs. Eddy profoundly wise in forbidding, for all time, +all explanations of her religion except such as she shall let on to be +her own? + +I think so. I think there can be no doubt of it. In a way, they will be +her own; for, no matter which member of her clerical staff shall furnish +the explanations, not a line of them will she ever allow to be printed +until she shall have approved it, accepted it, copyrighted it, cabbaged +it. We may depend on that with a four-ace confidence. + + + + +THE NEW INFALLIBILITY + +All in proper time Mrs. Eddy's factory will take hold of that +Commandment, and explain it for good and all. It may be that one member +of the shift will vote that the word "all" means all; it may be that ten +members of the shift will vote that "all" means only a percentage; but it +is Mrs. Eddy, not the eleven, who will do the deciding. And if she says +it is percentage, then percentage it is, forevermore --and that is what I +am expecting, for she doesn't sell all herself, nor any considerable part +of it, and as regards the poor, she doesn't declare any dividend; but if +she says "all" means all, then all it is, to the end of time, and no +follower of hers will ever be allowed to reconstruct that text, or shrink +it, or inflate it, or meddle with it in any way at all. Even to-day-- +right here in the beginning--she is the sole person who, in the matter of +Christian Science exegesis, is privileged to exploit the Spiral Twist. +The Christian world has two Infallibles now. + +Of equal power? For the present only. When Leo XIII. passes to his +rest another Infallible will ascend his throne; others, and yet others, +and still others will follow him, and be as infallible as he, and decide +questions of doctrine as long as they may come up, all down the far +future; but Mary Baker G. Eddy is the only Infallible that will ever +occupy the Science throne. Many a Science Pope will succeed her, but she +has closed their mouths; they will repeat and reverently praise and adore +her infallibilities, but venture none themselves. In her grave she will +still outrank all other Popes, be they of what Church they may. She will +hold the supremest of earthly titles, The Infallible--with a capital T. +Many in the world's history have had a hunger for such nuggets and slices +of power as they might reasonably hope to grab out of an empire's or a +religion's assets, but Mrs. Eddy is the only person alive or dead who has +ever struck for the whole of them. For small things she has the eye of a +microscope, for large ones the eye of a telescope, and whatever she sees, +she wants. Wants it all. + + + + +THE SACRED POEMS + +When Mrs. Eddy's "sacred revelations" (that is the language of the By- +laws) are read in public, their authorship must be named. The By-laws +twice command this, therefore we mention it twice, to be fair. + +But it is also commanded that when a member publicly quotes "from the +poems of our Pastor Emeritus" the authorship shall be named. For these +are sacred, too. There are kindly people who may suspect a hidden +generosity in that By-law; they may think it is there to protect the +Official Reader from the suspicion of having written the poems himself. +Such do not know Mrs. Eddy. She does an inordinate deal of protecting, +but in no distinctly named and specified case in her history has Number +Two been the object of it. Instances have been claimed, but they have +failed of proof, and even of plausibility. + +"Members shall also instruct their students" to look out and advertise +the authorship when they read those poems and things. Not on Mrs. Eddy's +account, but "for the good of our Cause." + + + + +THE CHURCH EDIFICE + +1. Mrs. Eddy gave the land. It was not of much value at the time, but +it is very valuable now. +2. Her people built the Mother-Church edifice on it, at a cost of two +hundred and fifty thousand dollars. +3. Then they gave the whole property to her. +4. Then she gave it to the Board of Directors. She is the Board of +Directors. She took it out of one pocket and put it in the other. +5. Sec. 10 (of the deed). "Whenever said Directors shall determine +that it is inexpedient to maintain preaching, reading, or speaking in +said church in accordance with the terms of this deed, they are +authorized and required to reconvey forthwith said lot of land with the +building thereon to Mary Baker G. Eddy, her heirs and assigns forever, +by a proper deed of conveyance." + +She is never careless, never slipshod, about a matter of business. +Owning the property through her Board of Waxworks was safe enough, still +it was sound business to set another grip on it to cover accidents, and +she did it. Her barkers (what a curious name; I wonder if it is +copyrighted); her barkers persistently advertise to the public her +generosity in giving away a piece of land which cost her a trifle, and a +two--hundred--and--fifty--thousand--dollar church which cost her nothing; +and they can hardly speak of the unselfishness of it without breaking +down and crying; yet they know she gave nothing away, and never intended +to. However, such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity +that Noah and his party did not miss the boat. + +Some of the hostiles think that Mrs. Eddy's idea in protecting this +property in the interest of her heirs, and in accumulating a great money +fortune, is, that she may leave her natural heirs well provided for when +she goes. I think it is a mistake. I think she is of late years giving +herself large concern about only one interest-her power and glory, and +the perpetuation and worship of her Name--with a capital N. Her Church +is her pet heir, and I think it will get her wealth. It is the torch +which is to light the world and the ages with her glory. + +I think she once prized money for the ease and comfort it could bring, +the showy vanities it could furnish, and the social promotion it could +command; for we have seen that she was born into the world with little +ways and instincts and aspirations and affectations that are duplicates +of our own. I do not think her money-passion has ever diminished in +ferocity, I do not think that she has ever allowed a dollar that had no +friends to get by her alive, but I think her reason for wanting it has +changed. I think she wants it now to increase and establish and +perpetuate her power and glory with, not to add to her comforts and +luxuries, not to furnish paint and fuss and feathers for vain display. I +think her ambitions have soared away above the fuss-and-feather stage. +She still likes the little shows and vanities--a fact which she exposed +in a public utterance two or three days ago when she was not noticing-- +but I think she does not place a large value upon them now. She could +build a mighty and far-shining brass-mounted palace if she wanted to, but +she does not do it. She would have had that kind of an ambition in the +early scrabbling times. She could go to England to-day and be worshiped +by earls, and get a comet's attention from the million, if she cared for +such things. She would have gone in the early scrabbling days for much +less than an earl, and been vain of it, and glad to show off before the +remains of the Scotch kin. But those things are very small to her now-- +next to invisible, observed through the cloud-rack from the dizzy summit +where she perches in these great days. She does not want that church +property for herself. It is worth but a quarter of a million--a sum she +could call in from her far-spread flocks to-morrow with a lift of her +hand. Not a squeeze of it, just a lift. It would come without a murmur; +come gratefully, come gladly. And if her glory stood in more need of the +money in Boston than it does where her flocks are propagating it, she +would lift the hand, I think. + +She is still reaching for the Dollar, she will continue to reach for it; +but not that she may spend it upon herself; not that she may spend it +upon charities; not that she may indemnify an early deprivation and +clothe herself in a blaze of North Adams gauds; not that she may have +nine breeds of pie for breakfast, as only the rich New-Englander can; not +that she may indulge any petty material vanity or appetite that once was +hers and prized and nursed, but that she may apply that Dollar to +statelier uses, and place it where it may cast the metallic sheen of her +glory farthest across the receding expanses of the globe. + + + + +PRAYER + +A brief and good one is furnished in the book of By-laws. The Scientist +is required to pray it every day. + + + + +THE LORD'S PRAYER-AMENDED + +This is not in the By-laws, it is in the first chapter of Science and +Health, edition of 1902. I do not find it in the edition of 1884. It is +probable that it had not at that time been handed down. Science and +Health's (latest) rendering of its "spiritual sense" is as follows: + +"Our Father-Mother God' all-harmonious, adorable One. Thy kingdom is +within us, Thou art ever-present. Enable us to know--as in heaven, so on +earth--God is supreme. Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished +affections. And infinite Love is reflected in love. And Love leadeth us +not into temptation, but delivereth from sin, disease, and death. For +God is now and forever all Life, Truth, and Love." + +If I thought my opinion was desired and would be properly revered, I +should say that in my judgment that is as good a piece of carpentering as +any of those eleven Commandment--experts could do with the material after +all their practice. I notice only one doubtful place." Lead us not into +temptation" seems to me to be a very definite request, and that the new +rendering turns the definite request into a definite assertion. I shall +be glad to have that turned back to the old way and the marks of the +Spiral Twist removed, or varnished over; then I shall be satisfied, and +will do the best I can with what is left. At the same time, I do feel +that the shrinkage in our spiritual assets is getting serious. First the +Commandments, now the Prayer. I never expected to see these steady old +reliable securities watered down to this. And this is not the whole of +it. Last summer the Presbyterians extended the Calling and Election +suffrage to nearly everybody entitled to salvation. They did not even +stop there, but let out all the unbaptized American infants we had been +accumulating for two hundred years and more. There are some that believe +they would have let the Scotch ones out, too, if they could have done it. +Everything is going to ruin; in no long time we shall have nothing left +but the love of God. + + + + +THE NEW UNPARDONABLE SIN + +"Working Against the Cause. Sec. 2. If a member of this Church shall +work against the accomplishment of what the Discoverer and Founder of +Christian Science understands is advantageous to the individual, to this +Church, and to the Cause of Christian Science"--out he goes. Forever. + +The member may think that what he is doing will advance the Cause, but he +is not invited to do any thinking. More than that, he is not permitted +to do any--as he will clearly gather from this By-law. When a person +joins Mrs. Eddy's Church he must leave his thinker at home. Leave it +permanently. To make sure that it will not go off some time or other +when he is not watching, it will be safest for him to spike it. If he +should forget himself and think just once, the By-law provides that he +shall be fired out-instantly-forever-no return. + +"It shall be the duty of this Church immediately to call a meeting, and +drop forever the name of this member from its records." + +My, but it breathes a towering indignation! + +There are forgivable offenses, but this is not one of them; there are +admonitions, probations, suspensions, in several minor cases; mercy is +shown the derelict, in those cases he is gently used, and in time he can +get back into the fold--even when he has repeated his offence. But let +him think, just once, without getting his thinker set to Eddy time, and +that is enough; his head comes off. There is no second offence, and +there is no gate open to that lost sheep, ever again. + +"This rule cannot be changed, amended, or annulled, except by unanimous +vote of all the First Members." + +The same being Mrs. Eddy. It is naively sly and pretty to see her keep +putting forward First Members, and Boards of This and That, and other +broideries and ruffles of her raiment, as if they were independent +entities, instead of a part of her clothes, and could do things all by +themselves when she was outside of them. + +Mrs. Eddy did not need to copyright the sentence just quoted, its English +would protect it. None but she would have shovelled that comically +superfluous "all" in there. + +The former Unpardonable Sin has gone out of service. We may frame the +new Christian Science one thus: + +"Whatsoever Member shall think, and without Our Mother's permission act +upon his think, the same shall be cut off from the Church forever." + +It has been said that I make many mistakes about Christian Science +through being ignorant of the spiritual meanings of its terminology. I +believe it is true. I have been misled all this time by that word +Member, because there was no one to tell me that its spiritual meaning +was Slave. + + + + +AXE AND BLOCK + +There is a By-law which forbids Members to practice hypnotism; the +penalty is excommunication. + +1. If a member is found to be a mental practitioner-- +2. Complaint is to be entered against him-- +3. By the Pastor Emeritus, and by none else; +4. No member is allowed to make complaint to her in the matter; +5. Upon Mrs. Eddy's mere "complaint"--unbacked by evidence or proof, and +without giving the accused a chance to be heard--" his name shall be +dropped from this Church." + +Mrs. Eddy has only to say a member is guilty--that is all. That ends it. +It is not a case of he "may" be cut off from Christian Science salvation, +it is a case of he "shall" be. Her serfs must see to it, and not say a +word. + +Does the other Pope possess this prodigious and irresponsible power? +Certainly not in our day. + +Some may be curious to know how Mrs. Eddy finds out that a member is +practicing hypnotism, since no one is allowed to come before her throne +and accuse him. She has explained this in Christian Science History, +first and second editions, page 16: + +"I possess a spiritual sense of what the malicious mental practitioner is +mentally arguing which cannot be deceived; I can discern in the human +mind thoughts, motives, and purposes, and neither mental arguments nor +psychic power can affect this spiritual insight." + +A marvelous woman; with a hunger for power such as has never been seen in +the world before. No thing, little or big, that contains any seed or +suggestion of power escapes her avaricious eye; and when once she gets +that eye on it, her remorseless grip follows. There isn't a Christian +Scientist who isn't ecclesiastically as much her property as if she had +bought him and paid for him, and copyrighted him and got a charter. She +cannot be satisfied when she has handcuffed a member, and put a leg-chain +and ball on him and plugged his ears and removed his thinker, she goes on +wrapping needless chains round and round him, just as a spider would. +For she trusts no one, believes in no one's honesty, judges every one by +herself. Although we have seen that she has absolute and irresponsible +command over her spectral Boards and over every official and servant of +her Church, at home and abroad, over every minute detail of her Church's +government, present and future, and can purge her membership of guilty or +suspected persons by various plausible formalities and whenever she will, +she is still not content, but must set her queer mind to work and invent +a way by which she can take a member--any member--by neck and crop and +fling him out without anything resembling a formality at all. + +She is sole accuser and sole witness, and her testimony is final and +carries uncompromising and irremediable doom with it. + +The Sole-Witness Court! It should make the Council of Ten and the +Council of Three turn in their graves for shame, to see how little they +knew about satanic concentrations of irresponsible power. Here we have +one Accuser, one Witness, one Judge, one Headsman--and all four bunched +together in Mrs. Eddy, the Inspired of God, His Latest Thought to His +People, New Member of the Holy Family, the Equal of Jesus. + +When a Member is not satisfactory to Mrs. Eddy, and yet is blameless in +his life and faultless in his membership and in his Christian Science +walk and conversation, shall he hold up his head and tilt his hat over +one ear and imagine himself safe because of these perfections? Why, in +that very moment Mrs. Eddy will cast that spiritual X-ray of hers through +his dungarees and say: + +"I see his hypnotism working, among his insides--remove him to the +block!" + +What shall it profit him to know it isn't so? Nothing. His testimony is +of no value. No one wants it, no one will ask for it. He is not present +to offer it (he does not know he has been accused), and if he were there +to offer it, it would not be listened to. + +It was out of powers approaching Mrs. Eddy's--though not equalling them +--that the Inquisition and the devastations of the Interdict grew. She +will transmit hers. The man born two centuries from now will think he +has arrived in hell; and all in good time he will think he knows it. +Vast concentrations of irresponsible power have never in any age been +used mercifully, and there is nothing to suggest that the Christian +Science Papacy is going to spend money on novelties. + +Several Christian Scientists have asked me to refrain from prophecy. +There is no prophecy in our day but history. But history is a +trustworthy prophet. History is always repeating itself, because +conditions are always repeating themselves. Out of duplicated conditions +history always gets a duplicate product. + + + + +READING LETTERS AT MEETINGS + +I wonder if there is anything a Member can do that will not raise Mrs. +Eddy's jealousy? The By-laws seem to hunt him from pillar to post all +the time, and turn all his thoughts and acts and words into sins against +the meek and lowly new deity of his worship. Apparently her jealousy +never sleeps. Apparently any trifle can offend it, and but one penalty +appease it--excommunication. The By-laws might properly and reasonably +be entitled Laws for the Coddling and Comforting of Our Mother's Petty +Jealousies. The By-law named at the head of this paragraph reads its +transgressor out of the Church if he shall carry a letter from Mrs. Eddy +to the congregation and forget to read it or fail to read the whole of +it. + + + + +HONESTY REQUISITE + +Dishonest members are to be admonished; if they continue in dishonest +practices, excommunication follows. Considering who it is that draughted +this law, there is a certain amount of humor in it. + + + + +FURTHER APPLICATIONS OF THE AXE + +Here follow the titles of some more By-laws whose infringement is +punishable by excommunication: + + +Silence Enjoined. +Misteaching. +Departure from Tenets. +Violation of Christian Fellowship. +Moral Offences. +Illegal Adoption. +Broken By-laws. +Violation of By-laws. (What is the difference?) +Formulas Forbidden. +Official Advice. (Forbids Tom, Dick, and Harry's clack.) +Unworthy of Membership. +Final Excommunication. +Organizing Churches. + +This looks as if Mrs. Eddy had devoted a large share of her time and +talent to inventing ways to get rid of her Church members. Yet in +another place she seems to invite membership. Not in any urgent way, it +is true, still she throws out a bait to such as like notice and +distinction (in other words, the Human Race). Page 82: + +"It is important that these seemingly strict conditions be complied with, +as the names of the Members of the Mother-Church will be recorded in the +history of the Church and become a part thereof." + +We all want to be historical. + + + + +MORE SELF-PROTECTIONS + +The Hymnal. There is a Christian Science Hymnal. Entrance to it was +closed in 1898. Christian Science students who make hymns nowadays may +possibly get them sung in the Mother-Church, "but not unless approved by +the Pastor Emeritus." Art. XXVII, Sec. 2. + +Solo Singers. Mrs. Eddy has contributed the words of three of the hymns +in the Hymnal. Two of them appear in it six times altogether, each of +them being set to three original forms of musical anguish. Mrs. Eddy, +always thoughtful, has promulgated a By-law requiring the singing of one +of her three hymns in the Mother Church "as often as once each month." +It is a good idea. A congregation could get tired of even Mrs. Eddy's +muse in the course of time, without the cordializing incentive of +compulsion. We all know how wearisome the sweetest and touchingest +things can become, through rep-rep-repetition, and still rep-rep- +repetition, and more rep-rep-repetition-like "the sweet by-and-by, in the +sweet by-and-by," for instance, and "Tah-rah-rah boom-de-aye"; and surely +it is not likely that Mrs. Eddy's machine has turned out goods that could +outwear those great heart-stirrers, without the assistance of the lash. +"O'er Waiting Harpstrings of the Mind" is pretty good, quite fair to +middling--the whole seven of the stanzas--but repetition would be certain +to take the excitement out of it in the course of time, even if there +were fourteen, and then it would sound like the multiplication table, and +would cease to save. The congregation would be perfectly sure to get +tired; in fact, did get tired--hence the compulsory By-law. It is a +measure born of experience, not foresight. + +The By-laws say that "if a solo singer shall neglect or refuse to sing +alone" one of those three hymns as often as once a month, and oftener if +so directed by the Board of Directors--which is Mrs. Eddy--the singer's +salary shall be stopped. It is circumstantial evidence that some +soloists neglected this sacrament and others refused it. At least that +is the charitable view to take of it. There is only one other view to +take: that Mrs. Eddy did really foresee that there would be singers who +would some day get tired of doing her hymns and proclaiming the +authorship, unless persuaded by a Bylaw, with a penalty attached. The +idea could of course occur to her wise head, for she would know that a +seven-stanza break might well be a calamitous strain upon a soloist, and +that he might therefore avoid it if unwatched. He could not curtail it, +for the whole of anything that Mrs. Eddy does is sacred, and cannot be +cut. + + + + +BOARD OF EDUCATION + +It consists of four members, one of whom is President of it. Its members +are elected annually. Subject to Mrs. Eddy's approval. Art. XXX., Sec. +2. + +She owns the Board--is the Board. + +Mrs. Eddy is President of the Metaphysical College. If at any time she +shall vacate that office, the Directors of the College (that is to say, +Mrs. Eddy) "shall" elect to the vacancy the President of the Board of +Education (which is merely re-electing herself). + +It is another case of "Pastor Emeritus." She gives up the shadow of +authority, but keeps a good firm hold on the substance. + + + + +PUBLIC TEACHERS + +Applicants for admission to this industry must pass a thorough three +days' examination before the Board of Education "in Science and Health, +chapter on 'Recapitulation'; the Platform of Christian Science; page 403 +of Christian Science Practice, from line second to the second paragraph +of page 405; and page 488, second and third paragraphs." + + + + +BOARD OF LECTURESHIP + +The lecturers are exceedingly important servants of Mrs. Eddy, and she +chooses them with great care. Each of them has an appointed territory in +which to perform his duties--in the North, the South, the East, the West, +in Canada, in Great Britain, and so on--and each must stick to his own +territory and not forage beyond its boundaries. I think it goes without +saying--from what we have seen of Mrs. Eddy--that no lecture is delivered +until she has examined and approved it, and that the lecturer is not +allowed to change it afterwards. + +The members of the Board of Lectureship are elected annually-- + +"Subject to the approval of Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy." + + + + +MISSIONARIES + +There are but four. They are elected--like the rest of the domestics-- +annually. So far as I can discover, not a single servant of the Sacred +Household has a steady job except Mrs. Eddy. It is plain that she trusts +no human being but herself. + + + + +THE BY-LAWS + +The branch Churches are strictly forbidden to use them. + +So far as I can see, they could not do it if they wanted to. The By-laws +are merely the voice of the master issuing commands to the servants. +There is nothing and nobody for the servants to re-utter them to. + +That useless edict is repeated in the little book, a few pages farther +on. There are several other repetitions of prohibitions in the book that +could be spared-they only take up room for nothing. + + + + +THE CREED +It is copyrighted. I do not know why, but I suppose it is to keep +adventurers from some day claiming that they invented it, and not Mrs. +Eddy and that "strange Providence" that has suggested so many clever +things to her. + +No Change. It is forbidden to change the Creed. That is important, at +any rate . + + + +COPYRIGHT + +I can understand why Mrs. Eddy copyrighted the early editions and +revisions of Science and Health, and why she had a mania for copyrighting +every scrap of every sort that came from her pen in those jejune days +when to be in print probably seemed a wonderful distinction to her in her +provincial obscurity, but why she should continue this delirium in these +days of her godship and her far-spread fame, I cannot explain to myself. +And particularly as regards Science and Health. She knows, now, that +that Annex is going to live for many centuries; and so, what good is a +fleeting forty-two-year copyright going to do it? + +Now a perpetual copyright would be quite another matter. I would like to +give her a hint. Let her strike for a perpetual copyright on that book. +There is precedent for it. There is one book in the world which bears +the charmed life of perpetual copyright (a fact not known to twenty +people in the world). By a hardy perversion of privilege on the part of +the lawmaking power the Bible has perpetual copyright in Great Britain. +There is no justification for it in fairness, and no explanation of it +except that the Church is strong enough there to have its way, right or +wrong. The recent Revised Version enjoys perpetual copyright, too--a +stronger precedent, even, than the other one. + +Now, then, what is the Annex but a Revised Version itself? Which of +course it is--Lord's Prayer and all. With that pair of formidable +British precedents to proceed upon, what Congress of ours-- + +But how short-sighted I am. Mrs. Eddy has thought of it long ago. She +thinks of everything. She knows she has only to keep her copyright of +1902 alive through its first stage of twenty-eight years, and perpetuity +is assured. A Christian Science Congress will reign in the Capitol then. +She probably attaches small value to the first edition (1875). Although +it was a Revelation from on high, it was slim, lank, incomplete, padded +with bales of refuse rags, and puffs from lassoed celebrities to fill it +out, an uncreditable book, a book easily sparable, a book not to be +mentioned in the same year with the sleek, fat, concise, compact, +compressed, and competent Annex of to-day, in its dainty flexible covers, +gilt--edges, rounded corners, twin screw, spiral twist, compensation +balance, Testament-counterfeit, and all that; a book just born to curl up +on the hymn-book-shelf in church and look just too sweet and holy for +anything. Yes, I see now what she was copyrighting that child for. + + + + +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION + +It is true in matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. She +thought of an organ, to disseminate the Truth as it was in Mrs. Eddy. +Straightway she started one--the Christian Science Journal. + +It is true--in matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. As +soon as she had got the Christian Science Journal sufficiently in debt to +make its presence on the premises disagreeable to her, it occurred to her +to make somebody a present of it. Which she did, along with its debts. +It was in the summer of 1889. The victim selected was her Church-- +called, in those days, The National Christian Scientist Association. + +She delivered this sorrow to those lambs as a "gift" in consideration of +their "loyalty to our great cause." + +Also--still thinking of everything--she told them to retain Mr. Bailey in +the editorship and make Mr. Nixon publisher. We do not know what it was +she had against those men; neither do we know whether she scored on +Bailey or not, we only know that God protected Nixon, and for that I am +sincerely glad, although I do not know Nixon and have never even seen +him. + +Nixon took the Journal and the rest of the Publishing Society's +liabilities, and demonstrated over them during three years, then brought +in his report: + +"On assuming my duties as publisher, there was not a dollar in the +treasury; but on the contrary the Society owed unpaid printing and paper +bills to the amount of several hundred dollars, not to mention a +contingent liability of many more hundreds"--represented by advance-- +subscriptions paid for the Journal and the "Series," the which goods Mrs. +Eddy had not delivered. And couldn't, very well, perhaps, on a +Metaphysical College income of but a few thousand dollars a day, or a +week, or whatever it was in those magnificently flourishing times. The +struggling Journal had swallowed up those advance-payments, but its +"claim" was a severe one and they had failed to cure it. But Nixon cured +it in his diligent three years, and joyously reported the news that he +had cleared off all the debts and now had a fat six thousand dollars in +the bank. + +It made Mrs. Eddy's mouth water. + +At the time that Mrs. Eddy had unloaded that dismal gift on to her +National Association, she had followed her inveterate custom: she had +tied a string to its hind leg, and kept one end of it hitched to her +belt. We have seen her do that in the case of the Boston Mosque. When +she deeds property, she puts in that string-clause. It provides that +under certain conditions she can pull the string and land the property in +the cherished home of its happy youth. In the present case she believed +that she had made provision that if at any time the National Christian +Science Association should dissolve itself by a formal vote, she could +pull. + +A year after Nixon's handsome report, she writes the Association that she +has a "unique request to lay before it." It has dissolved, and she is +not quite sure that the Christian Science Journal has "already fallen +into her hands" by that act, though it "seems" to her to have met with +that accident; so she would like to have the matter decided by a formal +vote. But whether there is a doubt or not, "I see the wisdom," she says, +"of again owning this Christian Science waif." + +I think that that is unassailable evidence that the waif was making +money, hands down. + +She pulled her gift in. A few years later she donated the Publishing +Society, along with its real estate, its buildings, its plant, its +publications, and its money--the whole worth twenty--two thousand +dollars, and free of debt--to --Well, to the Mother-Church! + +That is to say, to herself. There is an act count of it in the Christian +Science Journal, and of how she had already made some other handsome +gifts --to her Church--and others to --to her Cause besides "an almost +countless number of private charities" of cloudy amount and otherwise +indefinite. This landslide of generosities overwhelmed one of her +literary domestics. While he was in that condition he tried to express +what he felt: + +"Let us endeavor to lift up our hearts in thankfulness to . . . our +Mother in Israel for these evidences of generosity and self-sacrifice +that appeal to our deepest sense of gratitude, even while surpassing our +comprehension." + +A year or two later, Mrs. Eddy promulgated some By-laws of a self- +sacrificing sort which assuaged him, perhaps, and perhaps enabled his +surpassed comprehension to make a sprint and catch up. These are to be +found in Art. XII., entitled. + + + + +THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING SOCIETY + +This Article puts the whole publishing business into the hands of a +publishing Board--special. Mrs. Eddy appoints to its vacancies. + +The profits go semi-annually to the Treasurer of the Mother-Church. Mrs. +Eddy owns the Treasurer. + +Editors and publishers of the Christian Science Journal cannot be elected +or removed without Mrs. Eddy's knowledge and consent. + +Every candidate for employment in a high capacity or a low one, on the +other periodicals or in the publishing house, must first be "accepted by +Mrs. Eddy as suitable." And "by the Board of Directors"--which is +surplusage, since Mrs. Eddy owns the Board. + +If at any time a weekly shall be started, "it shall be owned by The First +Church of Christ, Scientist"--which is Mrs. Eddy. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +I think that any one who will carefully examine the By-laws (I have +placed all of the important ones before the reader), will arrive at the +conclusion that of late years the master-passion in Mrs. Eddy's heart is +a hunger for power and glory; and that while her hunger for money still +remains, she wants it now for the expansion and extension it can furnish +to that power and glory, rather than what it can do for her towards +satisfying minor and meaner ambitions. + +I wish to enlarge a little upon this matter. I think it is quite clear +that the reason why Mrs. Eddy has concentrated in herself all powers, all +distinctions, all revenues that are within the command of the Christian +Science Church Universal is that she desires and intends to devote them +to the purpose just suggested--the upbuilding of her personal glory-- +hers, and no one else's; that, and the continuing of her name's glory +after she shall have passed away. If she has overlooked a single power, +howsoever minute, I cannot discover it. If she has found one, large or +small, which she has not seized and made her own, there is no record of +it, no trace of it. In her foragings and depredations she usually puts +forward the Mother-Church--a lay figure--and hides behind it. Whereas, +she is in manifest reality the Mother-Church herself. It has an +impressive array of officials, and committees, and Boards of Direction, +of Education, of Lectureship, and so on--geldings, every one, shadows, +spectres, apparitions, wax-figures: she is supreme over them all, she can +abolish them when she will; blow them out as she would a candle. She is +herself the Mother-Church. Now there is one By-law which says that the +Mother-Church: + +"shall be officially controlled by no other church." + +That does not surprise us--we know by the rest of the By-laws that that +is a quite irrelevant remark. Yet we do vaguely and hazily wonder why +she takes the trouble to say it; why she wastes the words; what her +object can be--seeing that that emergency has been in so many, many ways, +and so effectively and drastically barred off and made impossible. Then +presently the object begins to dawn upon us. That is, it does after we +have read the rest of the By-law three or four times, wondering and +admiring to see Mrs. Eddy--Mrs. Eddy--Mrs. Eddy, of all persons--throwing +away power!-- making a fair exchange--doing a fair thing for once more, +an almost generous thing! Then we look it through yet once more +unsatisfied, a little suspicious--and find that it is nothing but a sly, +thin make-believe, and that even the very title of it is a sarcasm and +embodies a falsehood--"self" government: + +"Local Self-Government. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in +Boston, Massachusetts, shall assume no official control of other churches +of this denomination. It shall be officially controlled by no other +church." + +It has a most pious and deceptive give-and-take air of perfect fairness, +unselfishness, magnanimity--almost godliness, indeed. But it is all art. + + +In the By-laws, Mrs. Eddy, speaking by the mouth of her other self, the +Mother-Church, proclaims that she will assume no official control of +other churches-branch churches. We examine the other By-laws, and they +answer some important questions for us: + +1. What is a branch Church? It is a body of Christian Scientists, +organized in the one and only permissible way--by a member, in good +standing, of the Mother-Church, and who is also a pupil of one of Mrs. +Eddy's accredited students. That is to say, one of her properties. No +other can do it. There are other indispensable requisites; what are +they? + +2. The new Church cannot enter upon its functions until its members have +individually signed, and pledged allegiance to, a Creed furnished by Mrs. +Eddy. + +3. They are obliged to study her books, and order their lives by them. +And they must read no outside religious works. + +4. They must sing the hymns and pray the prayers provided by her, and +use no others in the services, except by her permission. + +5. They cannot have preachers and pastors. Her law. + +6. In their Church they must have two Readers--a man and a woman. + +7. They must read the services framed and appointed by her. + +8. She--not the branch Church --appoints those Readers. + +9. She--not the branch Church--dismisses them and fills the vacancies. + +1O. She can do this without consulting the branch Church, and without +explaining. + +11. The branch Church can have a religious lecture from time to time. +By applying to Mrs. Eddy. There is no other way. + +12. But the branch Church cannot select the lecturer. Mrs. Eddy does +it. + +13. The branch Church pays his fee. + +14. The harnessing of all Christian Science wedding-teams, members of +the branch Church, must be done by duly authorized and consecrated +Christian Science functionaries. Her factory is the only one that makes +and licenses them. + +[15. Nothing is said about christenings. It is inferable from this that +a Christian Science child is born a Christian Scientist and requires no +tinkering.] + +[16. Nothing is said about funerals. It is inferable, then, that a +branch Church is privileged to do in that matter as it may choose.] + +To sum up. Are any important Church-functions absent from the list? I +cannot call any to mind. Are there any lacking ones whose exercise could +make the branch in any noticeable way independent of the Mother. Church? +--even in any trifling degree? I think of none. If the named functions +were abolished would there still be a Church left? Would there be even a +shadow of a Church left? Would there be anything at all left? even the +bare name? + +Manifestly not. There isn't a single vital and essential Church-function +of any kind, that is not named in the list. And over every one of them +the Mother-Church has permanent and unchallengeable control, upon every +one of them Mrs. Eddy has set her irremovable grip. She holds, in +perpetuity, autocratic and indisputable sovereignty and control over +every branch Church in the earth; and yet says, in that sugary, naive, +angel-beguiling way of hers, that the Mother-Church: + +"shall assume no official control of other churches of this +denomination." + +Whereas in truth the unmeddled-with liberties of a branch Christian +Science Church are but very, very few in number, and are these: + +1. It can appoint its own furnace-stoker, winters. +2. It can appoint its own fan-distributors, summers. +3. It can, in accordance with its own choice in the matter, burn, bury, +or preserve members who are pretending to be dead--whereas there is no +such thing as death. +4. It can take up a collection. + +The branch Churches have no important liberties, none that give them an +important voice in their own affairs. Those are all locked up, and Mrs. +Eddy has the key. "Local Self-Government " is a large name and sounds +well; but the branch Churches have no more of it than have the privates +in the King of Dahomey's army. + + + + +"MOTHER-CHURCH UNIQUE" + +Mrs. Eddy, with an envious and admiring eye upon the solitary and +rivalless and world-shadowing majesty of St. Peter's, reveals in her By- +laws her purpose to set the Mother-Church apart by itself in a stately +seclusion and make it duplicate that lone sublimity under the Western +sky. The By-law headed "Mother-Church Unique "says-- + +"In its relation to other Christian Science churches, the Mother-Church +stands alone. + +"It occupies a position that no other Church can fill. + +"Then for a branch Church to assume such position would be disastrous to +Christian Science, + +"Therefore--" + +Therefore no branch Church is allowed to have branches. There shall be +no Christian Science St. Peter's in the earth but just one --the Mother- +Church in Boston. + + + + +"NO FIRST MEMBERS" + +But for the thoughtful By-law thus entitled, every Science branch in the +earth would imitate the Mother-Church and set up an aristocracy. Every +little group of ground-floor Smiths and Furgusons and Shadwells and +Simpsons that organized a branch would assume that great title, of "First +Members," along with its vast privileges of "discussing" the weather and +casting blank ballots, and soon there would be such a locust-plague of +them burdening the globe that the title would lose its value and have to +be abolished. + +But where business and glory are concerned, Mrs. Eddy thinks of +everything, and so she did not fail to take care of her Aborigines, her +stately and exclusive One Hundred, her college of functionless cardinals, +her Sanhedrin of Privileged Talkers (Limited). After taking away all the +liberties of the branch Churches, and in the same breath disclaiming all +official control over their affairs, she smites them on the mouth with +this--the very mouth that was watering for those nobby ground-floor +honors-- + +"No First Members. Branch Churches shall not organize with First +Members, that special method of organization being adapted to the Mother- +Church alone." + +And so, first members being prohibited, we pierce through the cloud of +Mrs. Eddy's English and perceive that they must then necessarily organize +with Subsequent Members. There is no other way. It will occur to them +by-and-by to found an aristocracy of Early Subsequent Members. There is +no By-law against it. + + + + +"THE" + +I uncover to that imperial word. And to the mind, too, that conceived +the idea of seizing and monopolizing it as a title. I believe it is Mrs. +Eddy's dazzlingest invention. For show, and style, and grandeur, and +thunder and lightning and fireworks it outclasses all the previous +inventions of man, and raises the limit on the Pope. He can never put +his avid hand on that word of words--it is pre-empted. And copyrighted, +of course. It lifts the Mother-Church away up in the sky, and +fellowships it with the rare and select and exclusive little company of +the THE's of deathless glory--persons and things whereof history and the +ages could furnish only single examples, not two: the Saviour, the +Virgin, the Milky Way, the Bible, the Earth, the Equator, the Devil, the +Missing Link --and now The First Church, Scientist. And by clamor of +edict and By-law Mrs. Eddy gives personal notice to all branch Scientist +Churches on this planet to leave that THE alone. + +She has demonstrated over it and made it sacred to the Mother-Church: + +"The article 'The' must not be used before the titles of branch +Churches-- + +"Nor written on applications for membership in naming such churches." + +Those are the terms. There can and will be a million First Churches of +Christ, Scientist, scattered over the world, in a million towns and +villages and hamlets and cities, and each may call itself (suppressing +the article), "First Church of Christ. Scientist"--it is permissible, +and no harm; but there is only one The Church of Christ, Scientist, and +there will never be another. And whether that great word fall in the +middle of a sentence or at the beginning of it, it must always have its +capital T. + +I do not suppose that a juvenile passion for fussy little worldly shows +and vanities can furnish a match to this, anywhere in the history of the +nursery. Mrs. Eddy does seem to be a shade fonder of little special +distinctions and pomps than is usual with human beings. + +She instituted that immodest "The" with her own hand; she did not wait +for somebody else to think of it. + + + + +A LIFE-TERM MONOPOLY + +There is but one human Pastor in the whole Christian Science world; she +reserves that exalted place to herself. + + + + +A PERPETUAL ONE + +There is but one other object in the whole Christian Science world +honored with that title and holding that office: it is her book, the +Annex --permanent Pastor of The First Church, and of all branch Churches. + +With her own hand she draughted the By-laws which make her the only +really absolute sovereign that lives to-day in Christendom. + +She does not allow any objectionable pictures to be exhibited in the room +where her book is sold, nor any indulgence in idle gossip there; and from +the general look of that By-law I judge that a lightsome and improper +person can be as uncomfortable in that place as he could be in heaven. + + + + +THE SANCTUM SANCTORUM AND SACRED CHAIR + +In a room in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, there is a museum of +objects which have attained to holiness through contact with Mrs. Eddy-- +among them an electrically lighted oil-picture of a chair which she used +to sit in-- and disciples from all about the world go softly in there, in +restricted groups, under proper guard, and reverently gaze upon those +relics. It is worship. Mrs. Eddy could stop it if she was not fond of +it, for her sovereignty over that temple is supreme. + +The fitting-up of that place as a shrine is not an accident, nor a +casual, unweighed idea; it is imitated from age--old religious custom. +In Treves the pilgrim reverently gazes upon the Seamless Robe, and humbly +worships; and does the same in that other continental church where they +keep a duplicate; and does likewise in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, +in Jerusalem, where memorials of the Crucifixion are preserved; and now, +by good fortune we have our Holy Chair and things, and a market for our +adorations nearer home. + +But is there not a detail that is new, fresh, original? Yes, whatever +old thing Mrs. Eddy touches gets something new by the contact-- something +not thought of before by any one --something original, all her own, and +copyrightable. The new feature is self worship--exhibited in permitting +this shrine to be installed during her lifetime, and winking her sacred +eye at it. + +A prominent Christian Scientist has assured me that the Scientists do not +worship Mrs. Eddy, and I think it likely that there may be five or six of +the cult in the world who do not worship her, but she herself is +certainly not of that company. Any healthy-minded person who will +examine Mrs. Eddy's little Autobiography and the Manual of By-laws +written by her will be convinced that she worships herself; and that she +brings to this service a fervor of devotion surpassing even that which +she formerly laid at the feet of the Dollar, and equalling any which +rises to the Throne of Grace from any quarter. + +I think this is as good a place as any to salve a hurt which I was the +means of inflicting upon a Christian Scientist lately. The first third +of this book was written in 1899 in Vienna. Until last summer I had +supposed that that third had been printed in a book which I published +about a year later--a hap which had not happened. I then sent the +chapters composing it to the North American Review, but failed. in one +instance, to date them. And so, In an undated chapter I said a lady told +me "last night" so and so. There was nothing to indicate to the reader +that that "last night" was several years old, therefore the phrase seemed +to refer to a night of very recent date. What the lady had told me was, +that in a part of the Mother-Church in Boston she had seen Scientists +worshipping a portrait of Mrs. Eddy before which a light was kept +constantly burning. + +A Scientist came to me and wished me to retract that "untruth." He said +there was no such portrait, and that if I wanted to be sure of it I could +go to Boston and see for myself. I explained that my "last night" meant +a good while ago; that I did not doubt his assertion that there was no +such portrait there now, but that I should continue to believe it had +been there at the time of the lady's visit until she should retract her +statement herself. I was at no time vouching for the truth of the +remark, nevertheless I considered it worth par. + +And yet I am sorry the lady told me, since a wound which brings me no +happiness has resulted. I am most willing to apply such salve as I can. +The best way to set the matter right and make everything pleasant and +agreeable all around will be to print in this place a description of the +shrine as it appeared to a recent visitor, Mr. Frederick W. Peabody, of +Boston. I will copy his newspaper account, and the reader will see that +Mrs. Eddy's portrait is not there now: + +"We lately stood on the threshold of the Holy of Holies of the Mother- +Church, and with a crowd of worshippers patiently waited for admittance +to the hallowed precincts of the 'Mother's Room.' Over the doorway was a +sign informing us that but four persons at a time would be admitted; that +they would be permitted to remain but five minutes only, and would please +retire from the 'Mother's Room' at the ringing of the bell. Entering +with three of the faithful, we looked with profane eyes upon the +consecrated furnishings. A show-woman in attendance monotonously +announced the character of the different appointments. Set in a recess +of the wall and illumined with electric light was an oil-painting the +show-woman seriously declared to be a lifelike and realistic picture of +the Chair in which the Mother sat when she composed her 'inspired' work. +It was a picture of an old-fashioned? country, hair cloth rocking-chair, +and an exceedingly commonplace-looking table with a pile of manuscript, +an ink-bottle, and pen conspicuously upon it. On the floor were sheets +of manuscript. 'The mantel-piece is of pure onyx,' continued the show- +woman, 'and the beehive upon the window-sill is made from one solid block +of onyx; the rug is made of a hundred breasts of eider-down ducks, and +the toilet-room you see in the corner is of the latest design, with gold- +plated drain-pipes; the painted windows are from the Mother's poem, +"Christ and Christmas," and that case contains complete copies of all the +Mother's books.' The chairs upon which the sacred person of the Mother +had reposed were protected from sacrilegious touch by a broad band of +satin ribbon. My companions expressed their admiration in subdued and +reverent tones, and at the tinkling of the bell we reverently tiptoed out +of the room to admit another delegation of the patient waiters at the +door." + +Now, then, I hope the wound is healed. I am willing to relinquish the +portrait, and compromise on the Chair. At the same time, if I were going +to worship either, I should not choose the Chair. + +As a picturesquely and persistently interesting personage, there is no +mate to Mrs. Eddy, the accepted Equal of the Saviour. But some of her +tastes are so different from His! I find it quite impossible to imagine +Him, in life, standing sponsor for that museum there, and taking pleasure +in its sumptuous shows. I believe He would put that Chair in the fire, +and the bell along with it; and I think He would make the show-woman go +away. I think He would break those electric bulbs, and the "mantel-piece +of pure onyx," and say reproachful things about the golden drain-pipes of +the lavatory, and give the costly rug of duck-breasts to the poor, and +sever the satin ribbon and invite the weary to rest and ease their aches +in the consecrated chairs. What He would do with the painted windows we +can better conjecture when we come presently to examine their +peculiarities. + + + + +THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PASTOR-UNIVERSAL + +When Mrs. Eddy turned the pastors out of all the Christian Science +churches and abolished the office for all time as far as human occupancy +is concerned--she appointed the Holy Ghost to fill their place. If this +language be blasphemous, I did not invent the blasphemy, I am merely +stating a fact. I will quote from page 227 of Science and Health +(edition 1899), as a first step towards an explanation of this startling +matter--a passage which sets forth and classifies the Christian Science +Trinity: + +"Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune God, or triply divine +Principle. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one --the same in +essence, though multiform in office: God the Father; Christ the type of +Sonship; Divine Science, or the Holy Comforter. . . + +"The Holy Ghost, or Spirit, reveals this triune Principle, and (the Holy +Ghost) is expressed in Divine Science, which is the Comforter, leading +into all Truth, and revealing the divine Principle of the universe-- +universal and perpetual harmony." + +I will cite another passage. Speaking of Jesus-- + +"His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by +all they had witnessed and suffered they were roused to an enlarged +understanding of Divine Science, even to the spiritual interpretation . +. . of His teachings," etc. + +Also, page 579, in the chapter called the Glossary: + +"HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the developments of Life, Truth, and Love." + +The Holy Ghost reveals the massed spirit of the fused trinity; this +massed spirit is expressed in Divine Science, and is the Comforter; +Divine Science conveys to men the "spiritual interpretation" of the +Saviour's teachings. That seems to be the meaning of the quoted +passages. + +Divine Science is Christian Science; the book Science and Health is a +"revelation" of the whole spirit of the Trinity, and is therefore "The +Holy Ghost"; it conveys to men the "spiritual interpretation" of the +Bible's teachings. and therefore is "the Comforter." + +I do not find this analyzing work easy, I would rather saw wood; and a +person can never tell whether he has added up a Science and Health sum +right or not, anyway, after all his trouble. Neither can he easily find +out whether the texts are still on the market or have been discarded from +the Book; for two hundred and fifty-eight editions of it have been +issued, and no two editions seem to be alike. The annual changes--in +technical terminology; in matter and wording; in transpositions of +chapters and verses; in leaving out old chapters and verses and putting +in new ones--seem to be next to innumerable, and as there is no index, +there is no way to find a thing one wants without reading the book +through. If ever I inspire a Bible-Annex I will not rush at it in a +half-digested, helter-skelter way and have to put in thirty-eight years +trying to get some of it the way I want it, I will sit down and think it +out and know what it is I want to say before I begin. An inspirer cannot +inspire for Mrs. Eddy and keep his reputation. I have never seen such +slipshod work, bar the ten that interpreted for the home market the "sell +all thou hast." I have quoted one "spiritual" rendering of the Lord's +Prayer, I have seen one other one, and am told there are five more. Yet +the inspirer of Mrs. Eddy the new Infallible casts a complacent critical +stone at the other Infallible for being unable to make up its mind about +such things. Science and Health, edition 1899, page 33: + +"The decisions, by vote of Church Councils, as to what should and should +not be considered Holy Writ, the manifest mistakes in the ancient +versions: the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament and +the three hundred thousand in the New--these facts show how a mortal and +material sense stole into the divine record, darkening, to some extent, +the inspired pages with its own hue." + +To some extent, yes--speaking cautiously. But it is nothing, really +nothing; Mrs. Eddy is only a little way behind, and if her inspirer lives +to get her Annex to suit him that Catholic record will have to "go 'way +back and set down," as the ballad says. Listen to the boastful song of +Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science Journal for March, 1902, about +that year's revamping and half-soling of Science and Health, whose +official name is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and who is now the +Official Pastor and Infallible and Unerring Guide of every Christian +Science church in the two hemispheres, hear Simple Simon that met the +pieman brag of the Infallible's fallibility: + +"Throughout the entire book the verbal changes are so numerous as to +indicate the vast amount of time and labor Mrs. Eddy has devoted to this +revision. The time and labor thus bestowed is relatively as great as +that of --the committee who revised the Bible.... Thus we have +additional evidence of the herculean efforts our beloved Leader has made +and is constantly making for the promulgation of Truth and the +furtherance of her divinely bestowed mission," etc. + +It is a steady job. I could help inspire if desired; I am not doing much +now, and would work for half-price, and should not object to the country. + + + + +PRICE OF THE PASTOR-UNIVERSAL + +The price of the Pastor-Universal, Science and Health, called in Science +literature the Comforter--and by that other sacred Name --is three +dollars in cloth, as heretofore, six when it is finely bound, and shaped +to imitate the Testament, and is broken into verses. Margin of profit +above cost of manufacture, from five hundred to seven hundred per cent., +as already noted In the profane subscription-trade, it costs the +publisher heavily to canvass a three-dollar book; he must pay the general +agent sixty per cent. commission--that is to say, one dollar and eighty- +cents. Mrs. Eddy escapes this blistering tax, because she owns the +Christian Science canvasser, and can compel him to work for nothing. +Read the following command--not request --fulminated by Mrs. Eddy, over +her signature, in the Christian Science Journal for March, 1897, and +quoted by Mr. Peabody in his book. The book referred to is Science and +Health: + +"It shall be the duty of all Christian Scientists to circulate and to +sell as many of these books as they can." + +That is flung at all the elect, everywhere that the sun shines, but no +penalty is shaken over their heads to scare them. The same command was +issued to the members (numbering to-day twenty-five thousand) of The +Mother-Church, also, but with it went a threat, of the infliction, in +case of disobedience, of the most dreaded punishment that has a place in +the Church's list of penalties for transgressions of Mrs. Eddy's edicts +--excommunication: + +"If a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, shall fail to obey +this injunction, it will render him liable to lose his membership in this +Church. MARY BAKER EDDY." + +It is the spirit of the Spanish Inquisition. + +None but accepted and well established gods can venture an affront like +that and do it with confidence. But the human race will take anything +from that class. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race; knows it better than +any mere human being has known it in a thousand centuries. My confidence +in her human-beingship is getting shaken, my confidence in her godship is +stiffening. + + + + +SEVEN HUNDRED PER CENT. + +A Scientist out West has visited a bookseller--with intent to find fault +with me--and has brought away the information that the price at which +Mrs. Eddy sells Science and Health is not an unusually high one for the +size and make of the book. That is true. But in the book-trade--that +profit-devourer unknown to Mrs. Eddy's book--a three-dollar book that is +made for thirty-five or forty cents in large editions is put at three +dollars because the publisher has to pay author, middleman, and +advertising, and if the price were much below three the profit accruing +would not pay him fairly for his time and labor. At the same time, if he +could get ten dollars for the book he would take it, and his morals would +not fall under criticism. + +But if he were an inspired person commissioned by the Deity to receive +and print and spread broadcast among sorrowing and suffering and poor men +a precious message of healing and cheer and salvation, he would have to +do as Bible Societies do--sell the book at a pinched margin above cost to +such as could pay, and give it free to all that couldn't; and his name +would be praised. But if he sold it at seven hundred per cent. profit +and put the money in his pocket, his name would be mocked and derided. +Just as Mrs. Eddy's is. And most justifiably, as it seems to me. + +The complete Bible contains one million words. The New Testament by +itself contains two hundred and forty thousand words. + +My '84 edition of Science and Health contains one hundred and twenty +thousand words --just half as many as the New Testament. + +Science and Health has since been so inflated by later inspirations that +the 1902 edition contains one hundred and eighty thousand words--not +counting the thirty thousand at the back, devoted by Mrs. Eddy to +advertising the book's healing abilities--and the inspiring continues +right along. + +If you have a book whose market is so sure and so great that you can give +a printer an everlasting order for thirty or forty or fifty thousand +copies a year he will furnish them at a cheap rate, because whenever +there is a slack time in his press-room and bindery he can fill the idle +intervals on your book and be making something instead of losing. That +is the kind of contract that can be let on Science and Health every year. +I am obliged to doubt that the three-dollar Science and Health costs Mrs. +Eddy above fifteen cents, or that the six dollar copy costs her above +eighty cents. I feel quite sure that the average profit to her on these +books, above cost of manufacture, is all of seven hundred per cent. + +Every proper Christian Scientist has to buy and own (and canvass for) +Science and Health (one hundred and eighty thousand words), and he must +also own a Bible (one million words). He can buy the one for from three +to six dollars, and the other for fifteen cents. Or, if three dollars is +all the money he has, he can get his Bible for nothing. When the Supreme +Being disseminates a saving Message through uninspired agents--the New +Testament, for instance --it can be done for five cents a copy, but when +He sends one containing only two-thirds as many words through the shop of +a Divine Personage, it costs sixty times as much. I think that in +matters of such importance it is bad economy to employ a wild-cat agency. + +Here are some figures which are perfectly authentic, and which seem to +justify my opinion. + +"These [Bible] societies, inspired only by a sense of religious duty, are +issuing the Bible at a price so small that they have made it the cheapest +book printed. For example, the American Bible Society offers an edition +of the whole Bible as low as fifteen cents and the New Testament at five +cents, and the British Society at sixpence and one penny, respectively. +These low prices, made possible by their policy of selling the books at +cost or below cost," etc.--New York Sun, February 25, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +We may now make a final footing-up of Mrs. Eddy, and see what she is, in +the fulness of her powers. She is + +The Massachusetts Metaphysical College +Pastor Emeritus; +President; +Board of Directors; +Board of Education; +Board of Lectureships; +Future Board of Trustees, +Proprietor of the Publishing-House and Periodicals; +Treasurer; +Clerk; +Proprietor of the Teachers; +Proprietor of the Lecturers; +Proprietor of the Missionaries; +Proprietor of the Readers; +Dictator of the Services; sole Voice of the Pulpit; +Proprietor of the Sanhedrin; +Sole Proprietor of the Creed. (Copyrighted.); +Indisputable Autocrat of the Branch Churches, with their life and death +in her hands; +Sole Thinker for The First Church (and the others); +Sole and Infallible Expounder of Doctrine, in life and in death; +Sole permissible Discoverer, Denouncer, Judge, and Executioner of +Ostensible Hypnotists; +Fifty-handed God of Excommunication--with a thunderbolt in every hand; +Appointer and Installer of the Pastor of all the Churches--the Perpetual +Pastor-Universal, Science and Health, "the Comforter." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +There she stands-painted by herself. No witness but herself has been +allowed to testify. She stands there painted by her acts, and decorated +by her words. When she talks, she has only a decorative value as a +witness, either for or against herself, for she deals mainly in +unsupported assertion; and in the rare cases where she puts forward a +verifiable fact she gets out of it a meaning which it refuses to furnish +to anybody else. Also, when she talks, she is unstable, she wanders, she +is incurably inconsistent; what she says to-day she contradicts tomorrow. + +But her acts are consistent. They are always faithful to her, they never +misinterpret her, they are a mirror which always reflects her exactly, +precisely, minutely, unerringly, and always the same, to date, with only +those progressive little natural changes in stature, dress, complexion, +mood, and carriage that mark--exteriorly--the march of the years and +record the accumulations of experience, while --interiorly--through all +this steady drift of evolution the one essential detail, the commanding +detail, the master detail of the make-up remains as it was in the +beginning, suffers no change and can suffer none; the basis of the +character; the temperament, the disposition, that indestructible iron +framework upon which the character is built, and whose shape it must +take, and keep, throughout life. We call it a person's nature. + +The man who is born stingy can be taught to give liberally--with his +hands; but not with his heart. The man born kind and compassionate can +have that disposition crushed down out of sight by embittering +experience; but if it were an organ the post-mortem would find it still +in his corpse. The man born ambitious of power and glory may live long +without finding it out, but when the opportunity comes he will know, will +strike for the largest thing within the limit of his chances at the time- +constable, perhaps--and will be glad and proud when he gets it, and will +write home about it. But he will not stop with that start; his appetite +will come again; and by-and-by again, and yet again; and when he has +climbed to police commissioner it will at last begin to dawn upon him +that what his Napoleon soul wants and was born for is something away +higher up--he does not quite know what, but Circumstance and Opportunity +will indicate the direction and he will cut a road through and find out. + +I think Mrs. Eddy was born with a far-seeing business-eye, but did not +know it; and with a great organizing and executive talent, and did not +know it; and with a large appetite for power and distinction, and did not +know it. I think the reason that her make did not show up until middle +life was that she had General Grant's luck --Circumstance and Opportunity +did not come her way when she was younger. The qualities that were born +in her had to wait for circumstance and opportunity--but they were there: +they were there to stay, whether they ever got a chance to fructify or +not. If they had come early, they would have found her ready and +competent. And they--not she--would have determined what they would set +her at and what they would make of her. If they had elected to +commission her as second-assistant cook in a bankrupt boarding-house, +I know the rest of it--I know what would have happened. She would have +owned the boarding-house within six months; she would have had the late +proprietor on salary and humping himself, as the worldly say; she would +have had that boarding-house spewing money like a mint; she would have +worked the servants and the late landlord up to the limit; she would have +squeezed the boarders till they wailed, and by some mysterious quality +born in her she would have kept the affections of certain of the lot +whose love and esteem she valued, and flung the others down the back +area; in two years she would own all the boarding-houses in the town, in +five all the boarding-houses in the State, in twenty all the hotels in +America, in forty all the hotels on the planet, and would sit at home +with her finger on a button and govern the whole combination as easily as +a bench-manager governs a dog-show. + +It would be a grand thing to see, and I feel a kind of disappointment-- +but never mind, a religion is better and larger; and there is more to it. +And I have not been steeping myself in Christian Science all these weeks +without finding out that the one sensible thing to do with a +disappointment is to put it out of your mind and think of something +cheerfuler. + +We outsiders cannot conceive of Mrs. Eddy's Christian Science Religion as +being a sudden and miraculous birth, but only as a growth from a seed +planted by circumstances, and developed stage by stage by command and +compulsion of the same force. What the stages were we cannot know, but +are privileged to guess. She may have gotten the mental-healing idea +from Quimby--it had been experimented with for ages, and was no one's +special property. [For the present, for convenience' sake, let us +proceed upon the hypothesis that that was all she got of him, and that +she put up the rest of the assets herself. This will strain us, but let +us try it.] In each and all its forms and under all its many names, +mental healing had had limits, always, and they were rather narrow ones-- +Mrs. Eddy, let us imagine, removed the fence, abolished the frontiers. +Not by expanding mental-healing, but by absorbing its small bulk into the +vaster bulk of Christian Science--Divine Science, The Holy Ghost, the +Comforter--which was a quite different and sublimer force, and one which +had long lain dormant and unemployed. + +The Christian Scientist believes that the Spirit of God (life and love) +pervades the universe like an atmosphere; that whoso will study Science +and Health can get from it the secret of how to inhale that transforming +air; that to breathe it is to be made new; that from the new man all +sorrow, all care, all miseries of the mind vanish away, for that only +peace, contentment and measureless joy can live in that divine fluid; +that it purifies the body from disease, which is a vicious creation of +the gross human mind, and cannot continue to exist in the presence of the +Immortal Mind, the renewing Spirit of God. + +The Scientist finds this reasonable, natural, and not harder to believe +than that the disease germ, a creature of darkness, perishes when exposed +to the light of the great sun--a new revelation of profane science which +no one doubts. He reminds us that the actinic ray, shining upon lupus, +cures it--a horrible disease which was incurable fifteen years ago, and +had been incurable for ten million years before; that this wonder, +unbelievable by the physicians at first, is believed by them now; and so +he is tranquilly confident that the time is coming when the world will be +educated up to a point where it will comprehend and grant that the light +of the Spirit of God, shining unobstructed upon the soul, is an actinic +ray which can purge both mind and body from disease and set them free and +make them whole. + +It is apparent, then, that in Christian Science it is not one man's mind +acting upon another man's mind that heals; that it is solely the Spirit +of God that heals; that the healer's mind performs no office but to +convey that force to the patient; that it is merely the wire which +carries the electric fluid, so to speak, and delivers the message. +Therefore, if these things be true, mental-healing and Science-healing +are separate and distinct processes, and no kinship exists between them. + +To heal the body of its ills and pains is a mighty benefaction, but in +our day our physicians and surgeons work a thousand miracles--prodigies +which would have ranked as miracles fifty years ago--and they have so +greatly extended their domination over disease that we feel so well +protected that we are able to look with a good deal of composure and +absence of hysterics upon the claims of new competitors in that field. + +But there is a mightier benefaction than the healing of the body, and +that is the healing of the spirit--which is Christian Science's other +claim. So far as I know, so far as I can find out, it makes it good. +Personally I have not known a Scientist who did not seem serene, +contented, unharassed. I have not found an outsider whose observation of +Scientists furnished him a view that differed from my own. Buoyant +spirits, comfort of mind, freedom from care these happinesses we all +have, at intervals; but in the spaces between, dear me, the black hours! +They have put a curse upon the life of every human being I have ever +known, young or old. I concede not a single exception. Unless it might +be those Scientists just referred to. They may have been playing a part +with me; I hope they were not, and I believe they were not. + +Time will test the Science's claim. If time shall make it good; if time +shall prove that the Science can heal the persecuted spirit of man and +banish its troubles and keep it serene and sunny and content--why, then +Mrs. Eddy will have a monument that will reach above the clouds. For if +she did not hit upon that imperial idea and evolve it and deliver it, its +discoverer can never be identified with certainty, now, I think. It is +the giant feature, it is the sun that rides in the zenith of Christian +Science, the auxiliary features are of minor consequence [Let us still +leave the large "if" aside, for the present, and proceed as if it had no +existence.] + +It is not supposable that Mrs. Eddy realized, at first, the size of her +plunder. (No, find--that is the word; she did not realize the size of +her find, at first.) It had to grow upon her, by degrees, in accordance +with the inalterable custom of Circumstance, which works by stages, and +by stages only, and never furnishes any mind with all the materials for a +large idea at one time. + +In the beginning, Mrs. Eddy was probably interested merely in the mental- +healing detail And perhaps mainly interested in it pecuniary, for she was +poor. + +She would succeed in anything she undertook. She would attract pupils, +and her commerce would grow. She would inspire in patient and pupil +confidence in her earnestness, her history is evidence that she would not +fail of that. + +There probably came a time, in due course, when her students began to +think there was something deeper in her teachings than they had been +suspecting--a mystery beyond mental-healing, and higher. It is +conceivable that by consequence their manner towards her changed little +by little, and from respectful became reverent. It is conceivable that +this would have an influence upon her; that it would incline her to +wonder if their secret thought--that she was inspired--might not be a +well-grounded guess. It is conceivable that as time went on the thought +in their minds and its reflection in hers might solidify into conviction. + +She would remember, then, that as a child she had been called, more than +once, by a mysterious voice --just as had happened to little Samuel. +(Mentioned in her Autobiography.) She would be impressed by that ancient +reminiscence, now, and it could have a prophetic meaning for her. + +It is conceivable that the persuasive influences around her and within +her would give a new and powerful impulse to her philosophizings, and +that from this, in time, would result that great birth, the healing of +body and mind by the inpouring of the Spirit of God--the central and +dominant idea of Christian Science--and that when this idea came she +would not doubt that it was an inspiration direct from Heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +[I must rest a little, now. To sit here and painstakingly spin out a +scheme which imagines Mrs. Eddy, of all people, working her mind on a +plane above commercialism; imagines her thinking, philosophizing, +discovering majestic things; and even imagines her dealing in +sincerities--to be frank, I find it a large contract But I have begun it, +and I will go through with it.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +It is evident that she made disciples fast, and that their belief in her +and in the authenticity of her heavenly ambassadorship was not of the +lukewarm and half-way sort, but was profoundly earnest and sincere. Her +book was issued from the press in 1875, it began its work of convert- +making, and within six years she had successfully launched a new Religion +and a new system of healing, and was teaching them to crowds of eager +students in a College of her own, at prices so extraordinary that we are +almost compelled to accept her statement (no, her guarded intimation) +that the rates were arranged on high, since a mere human being +unacquainted with commerce and accustomed to think in pennies could +hardly put up such a hand as that without supernatural help. + +From this stage onward--Mrs. Eddy being what she was--the rest of the +development--stages would follow naturally and inevitably. + +But if she had been anybody else, there would have been a different +arrangement of them, with different results. Being the extraordinary +person she was, she realized her position and its possibilities; realized +the possibilities, and had the daring to use them for all they were +worth. + +We have seen what her methods were after she passed the stage where her +divine ambassadorship was granted its executer in the hearts and minds of +her followers; we have seen how steady and fearless and calculated and +orderly was her march thenceforth from conquest to conquest; we have seen +her strike dead, without hesitancy, any hostile or questionable force +that rose in her path: first, the horde of pretenders that sprang up and +tried to take her Science and its market away from her--she crushed them, +she obliterated them; when her own National Christian Science Association +became great in numbers and influence, and loosely and dangerously +garrulous, and began to expound the doctrines according to its own +uninspired notions, she took up her sponge without a tremor of fear and +wiped that Association out; when she perceived that the preachers in her +pulpits were becoming afflicted with doctrine-tinkering, she recognized +the danger of it, and did not hesitate nor temporize, but promptly +dismissed the whole of them in a day, and abolished their office +permanently; we have seen that, as fast as her power grew, she was +competent to take the measure of it, and that as fast as its expansion +suggested to her gradually awakening native ambition a higher step she +took it; and so, by this evolutionary process, we have seen the gross +money-lust relegated to second place, and the lust of empire and glory +rise above it. A splendid dream; and by force of the qualities born in +her she is making it come true. + +These qualities--and the capacities growing out of them by the nurturing +influences of training, observation, and experience seem to be clearly +indicated by the character of her career and its achievements. They seem +to be: + +A clear head for business, and a phenomenally long one; +Clear understanding of business situations; +Accuracy in estimating the opportunities they offer; +Intelligence in planning a business move; +Firmness in sticking to it after it has been decided upon; +Extraordinary daring; +Indestructible persistency; +Devouring ambition; +Limitless selfishness; +A knowledge of the weaknesses and poverties and docilities of human +nature and how to turn them to account which has never been surpassed, if +ever equalled; + +And--necessarily--the foundation-stone of Mrs. Eddy's character is a +never-wavering confidence in herself. + +It is a granite character. And--quite naturally--a measure of the talc +of smallnesses common to human nature is mixed up in it and distributed +through it. When Mrs. Eddy is not dictating servilities from her throne +in the clouds to her official domestics in Boston or to her far-spread +subjects round about the planet, but is down on the ground, she is kin to +us and one of us: sentimental as a girl, garrulous, ungrammatical, +incomprehensible, affected, vain of her little human ancestry, unstable, +inconsistent, unreliable in statement, and naively and everlastingly +self-contradictory-oh, trivial and common and commonplace as the +commonest of us! just a Napoleon as Madame de Remusat saw him, a brass +god with clay legs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +In drawing Mrs. Eddy's portrait it has been my purpose to restrict myself +to materials furnished by herself, and I believe I have done that. If I +have misinterpreted any of her acts, it was not done intentionally. + +It will be noticed that in skeletonizing a list of the qualities which +have carried her to the dizzy summit which she occupies, I have not +mentioned the power which was the commanding force employed in achieving +that lofty flight. It did not belong in that list; it was a force that +was not a detail of her character, but was an outside one. It was the +power which proceeded from her people's recognition of her as a +supernatural personage, conveyer of the Latest Word, and divinely +commissioned to deliver it to the world. The form which such a +recognition takes, consciously or unconsciously, is worship; and worship +does not question nor criticize, it obeys. The object of it does not +need to coddle it, bribe it, beguile it, reason with it, convince it--it +commands it; that is sufficient; the obedience rendered is not reluctant, +but prompt and whole-hearted. Admiration for a Napoleon, confidence in +him, pride in him, affection for him, can lift him high and carry him +far; and these are forms of worship, and are strong forces, but they are +worship of a mere human being, after all, and are infinitely feeble, as +compared with those that are generated by that other worship, the worship +of a divine personage. Mrs. Eddy has this efficient worship, this massed +and centralized force, this force which is indifferent to opposition, +untroubled by fear, and goes to battle singing, like Cromwell's soldiers; +and while she has it she can command and it will obey, and maintain her +on her throne, and extend her empire. + +She will have it until she dies; and then we shall see a curious and +interesting further development of her revolutionary work begin. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +The President and Board of Directors wil1 succeed her, and the government +will go on without a hitch. The By-laws will bear that interpretation. +All the Mother-Church's vast powers are concentrated in that Board. Mrs. +Eddy's unlimited personal reservations make the Board's ostensible +supremacy, during her life, a sham, and the Board itself a shadow. But +Mrs. Eddy has not made those reservations for any one but herself--they +are distinctly personal, they bear her name, they are not usable by +another individual. When she dies her reservations die, and the Board's +shadow-powers become real powers, without the change of any important By- +law, and the Board sits in her place as absolute and irresponsible a +sovereign as she was. + +It consists of but five persons, a much more manageable Cardinalate than +the Roman Pope's. I think it will elect its Pope from its own body, and +that it will fill its own vacancies. An elective Papacy is a safe and +wise system, and a long-liver. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +We may take that up now. + +It is not a single if, but a several-jointed one; not an oyster, but a +vertebrate. + +1. Did Mrs. Eddy borrow from Quimby the Great Idea, or only the little +one, the old-timer, the ordinary mental-healing-healing by "mortal" mind? + +2. If she borrowed the Great Idea, did she carry it away in her head, or +in manuscript? + +3. Did she hit upon the Great Idea herself? By the Great Idea I mean, +of course, the conviction that the Force involved was still existent, and +could be applied now just as it was applied by Christ's Disciples and +their converts, and as successfully. +4. Did she philosophize it, systematize it, and write it down in a book? + +5. Was it she, and not another, that built a new Religion upon the book +and organized it? + +I think No. 5 can be answered with a Yes, and dismissed from the +controversy. And I think that the Great Idea, great as it was, would +have enjoyed but a brief activity, and would then have gone to sleep +again for some more centuries, but for the perpetuating impulse it got +from that organized and tremendous force. + +As for Nos. 1, 2, and 4, the hostiles contend that Mrs. Eddy got the +Great Idea from Quimby and carried it off in manuscript. But their +testimony, while of consequence, lacks the most important detail; so far +as my information goes, the Quimby manuscript has not been produced. I +think we cannot discuss No. 1 and No. 2 profitably. Let them go. + +For me, No. 3 has a mild interest, and No. 4 a violent one. + +As regards No. 3, Mrs. Eddy was brought up, from the cradle, an old- +time, boiler-iron, Westminster-Catechism Christian, and knew her Bible as +well as Captain Kydd knew his, "when he sailed, when he sailed," and +perhaps as sympathetically. The Great Idea had struck a million Bible- +readers before her as being possible of resurrection and application--it +must have struck as many as that, and been cogitated, indolently, +doubtingly, then dropped and forgotten--and it could have struck her, in +due course. But how it could interest her, how it could appeal to her-- +with her make this a thing that is difficult to understand. + +For the thing back of it is wholly gracious and beautiful: the power, +through loving mercifulness and compassion, to heal fleshly ills and +pains and grief --all--with a word, with a touch of the hand! This power +was given by the Saviour to the Disciples, and to all the converted. +All--every one. It was exercised for generations afterwards. Any +Christian who was in earnest and not a make-believe, not a policy-- +Christian, not a Christian for revenue only, had that healing power, and +could cure with it any disease or any hurt or damage possible to human +flesh and bone. These things are true, or they are not. If they were +true seventeen and eighteen and nineteen centuries ago it would be +difficult to satisfactorily explain why or how or by what argument that +power should be nonexistent in Christians now. + +To wish to exercise it could occur to Mrs. Eddy--but would it? + +Grasping, sordid, penurious, famishing for everything she sees--money, +power, glory-- vain, untruthful, jealous, despotic, arrogant, insolent, +pitiless where thinkers and hypnotists are concerned, illiterate, +shallow, incapable of reasoning outside of commercial lines, immeasurably +selfish-- + +Of course the Great Idea could strike her, we have to grant that, but why +it should interest her is a question which can easily overstrain the +imagination and bring on nervous prostration, or something like that, and +is better left alone by the judicious, it seems to me-- + +Unless we call to our help the alleged other side of Mrs. Eddy's make and +character the side which her multitude of followers see, and sincerely +believe in. Fairness requires that their view be stated here. It is the +opposite of the one which I have drawn from Mrs. Eddy's history and from +her By-laws. To her followers she is this: + +Patient, gentle, loving, compassionate, noble hearted, unselfish, +sinless, widely cultured, splendidly equipped mentally, a profound +thinker, an able writer, a divine personage, an inspired messenger whose +acts are dictated from the Throne, and whose every utterance is the Voice +of God. + +She has delivered to them a religion which has revolutionized their +lives, banished the glooms that shadowed them, and filled them and +flooded them with sunshine and gladness and peace; a religion which has +no hell; a religion whose heaven is not put off to another time, with a +break and a gulf between, but begins here and now, and melts into +eternity as fancies of the waking day melt into the dreams of sleep. + +They believe it is a Christianity that is in the New Testament; that it +has always been there, that in the drift of ages it was lost through +disuse and neglect, and that this benefactor has found it and given it +back to men, turning the night of life into day, its terrors into myths, +its lamentations into songs of emancipation and rejoicing. + +There we have Mrs. Eddy as her followers see her. She has lifted them +out of grief and care and doubt and fear, and made their lives beautiful; +she found them wandering forlorn in a wintry wilderness, and has led them +to a tropic paradise like that of which the poet sings: + + "O, islands there are on the face of the deep + Where the leaves never fade and the skies never weep." + +To ask them to examine with a microscope the character of such a +benefactor; to ask them to examine it at all; to ask them to look at a +blemish which another person believes he has found in it--well, in their +place could you do it? Would you do it? Wouldn't you be ashamed to do +it? If a tramp had rescued your child from fire and death, and saved its +mother's heart from breaking, could you see his rags? Could you smell +his breath? Mrs. Eddy has done more than that for these people. + +They are prejudiced witnesses. To the credit of human nature it is not +possible that they should be otherwise. They sincerely believe that Mrs. +Eddy's character is pure and perfect and beautiful, and her history +without stain or blot or blemish. But that does not settle it. They +sincerely believe she did not borrow the Great Idea from Quimby, but hit +upon it herself. It may be so, and it could be so. Let it go--there is +no way to settle it. They believe she carried away no Quimby +manuscripts. Let that go, too--there is no way to settle it. They +believe that she, and not another, built the Religion upon the book, and +organized it. I believe it, too. + +Finally, they believe that she philosophized Christian Science, explained +it, systematized it, and wrote it all out with her own hand in the book +Science and Health. + +I am not able to believe that. Let us draw the line there. The known +and undisputed products of her pen are a formidable witness against her. +They do seem to me to prove, quite clearly and conclusively, that +writing, upon even simple subjects, is a difficult labor for her: that +she has never been able to write anything above third-rate English; that +she is weak in the matter of grammar; that she has but a rude and dull +sense of the values of words; that she so lacks in the matter of literary +precision that she can seldom put a thought into words that express it +lucidly to the reader and leave no doubts in his mind as to whether he +has rightly understood or not; that she cannot even draught a Preface +that a person can fully comprehend, nor one which can by any art be +translated into a fully understandable form; that she can seldom inject +into a Preface even single sentences whose meaning is uncompromisingly +clear--yet Prefaces are her specialty, if she has one. + +Mrs. Eddy's known and undisputed writings are very limited in bulk; they +exhibit no depth, no analytical quality, no thought above school +composition size, and but juvenile ability in handling thoughts of even +that modest magnitude. She has a fine commercial ability, and could +govern a vast railway system in great style; she could draught a set of +rules that Satan himself would say could not be improved on-- for +devilish effectiveness--by his staff; but we know, by our excursions +among the Mother-Church's By-laws, that their English would discredit the +deputy baggage-smasher. I am quite sure that Mrs. Eddy cannot write well +upon any subject, even a commercial one. + +In the very first revision of Science and Health (1883), Mrs. Eddy wrote +a Preface which is an unimpeachable witness that the rest of the book was +written by somebody else. I have put it in the Appendix along with a +page or two taken from the body of the book, and will ask the reader to +compare the labored and lumbering and confused gropings of this Preface +with the easy and flowing and direct English of the other exhibit, and +see if he can believe that the one hand and brain produced both. + +And let him take the Preface apart, sentence by sentence, and searchingly +examine each sentence word by word, and see if he can find half a dozen +sentences whose meanings he is so sure of that he can rephrase them--in +words of his own--and reproduce what he takes to be those meanings. +Money can be lost on this game. I know, for I am the one that lost it. + +Now let the reader turn to the excerpt which I have made from the chapter +on "Prayer" (last year's edition of Science and Health), and compare that +wise and sane and elevated and lucid and compact piece of work with the +aforesaid Preface, and with Mrs. Eddy's poetry concerning the gymnastic +trees, and Minerva's not yet effete sandals, and the wreaths imported +from Erudition's bower for the decoration of Plymouth Rock, and the +Plague-spot and Bacilli, and my other exhibits (turn back to my Chapters +I. and II.) from the Autobiography, and finally with the late +Communication concerning me, and see if he thinks anybody's affirmation, +or anybody's sworn testimony, or any other testimony of any imaginable +kind would ever be likely to convince him that Mrs. Eddy wrote that +chapter on Prayer. + +I do not wish to impose my opinion on any one who will not permit it, but +such as it is I offer it here for what it is worth. I cannot believe, +and I do not believe, that Mrs. Eddy originated any of the thoughts and +reasonings out of which the book Science and Health is constructed; and I +cannot believe, and do not believe that she ever wrote any part of that +book. + +I think that if anything in the world stands proven, and well and solidly +proven, by unimpeachable testimony--the treacherous testimony of her own +pen in her known and undisputed literary productions--it is that Mrs. +Eddy is not capable of thinking upon high planes, nor of reasoning +clearly nor writing intelligently upon low ones. + +Inasmuch as--in my belief--the very first editions of the book Science +and Health were far above the reach of Mrs. Eddy's mental and literary +abilities, I think she has from the very beginning been claiming as her +own another person's book, and wearing as her own property laurels +rightfully belonging to that person-- the real author of Science and +Health. And I think the reason--and the only reason--that he has not +protested is because his work was not exposed to print until after he was +safely dead. + +That with an eye to business, and by grace of her business talent, she +has restored to the world neglected and abandoned features of the +Christian religion which her thousands of followers find gracious and +blessed and contenting, I recognize and confess; but I am convinced that +every single detail of the work except just that one--the delivery of the +Product to the world--was conceived and performed by another. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +ORIGINAL FIRST PREFACE TO SCIENCE AND HEALTH + +There seems a Christian necessity of learning God's power and purpose to +heal both mind and body. This thought grew out of our early seeking Him +in all our ways, and a hopeless as singular invalidism that drugs +increased instead of diminished, and hygiene benefited only for a season. +By degrees we have drifted into more spiritual latitudes of thought, and +experimented as we advanced until demonstrating fully the power of mind +over the body. About the year 1862, having heard of a mesmerist in +Portland who was treating the sick by manipulation, we visited him; he +helped us for a time, then we relapsed somewhat. After his decease, and +a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful physicians, we discovered that +the Principle of all healing and the law that governs it is God, a divine +Principle, and a spiritual not material law, and regained health. + +It was not an individual or mortal mind acting upon another so-called +mind that healed us. It was the glorious truths of Christian Science +that we discovered as we neared that verge of so-called material life +named death; yea, it was the great Shekinah, the spirit of Life, Truth, +and Love illuminating our understanding of the action and might of +Omnipotence! The old gentleman to whom we have referred had some very +advanced views on healing, but he was not avowedly religious neither +scholarly. We interchanged thoughts on the subject of healing the sick. +I restored some patients of his that he failed to heal, and left in his +possession some manuscripts of mine containing corrections of his +desultory pennings, which I am informed at his decease passed into the +hands of a patient of his, now residing in Scotland. He died in 1865 and +left no published works. The only manuscript that we ever held of his, +longer than to correct it, was one of perhaps a dozen pages, most of +which we had composed. He manipulated the sick; hence his ostensible +method of healing was physical instead of mental. + +We helped him in the esteem of the public by our writings, but never knew +of his stating orally or in writing that he treated his patients +mentally; never heard him give any directions to that effect; and have it +from one of his patients, who now asserts that he was the founder of +mental healing, that he never revealed to anyone his method. We refer to +these facts simply to refute the calumnies and false claims of our +enemies, that we are preferring dishonest claims to the discovery and +founding at this period of Metaphysical Healing or Christian Science. + +The Science and laws of a purely mental healing and their method of +application through spiritual power alone, else a mental argument against +disease, are our own discovery at this date. True, the Principle is +divine and eternal, but the application of it to heal the sick had been +lost sight of, and required to be again spiritually discerned and its +science discovered, that man might retain it through the understanding. +Since our discovery in 1866 of the divine science of Christian Healing, +we have labored with tongue and pen to found this system. In this +endeavor every obstacle has been thrown in our path that the envy and +revenge of a few disaffected students could devise. The superstition and +ignorance of even this period have not failed to contribute their mite +towards misjudging us, while its Christian advancement and scientific +research have helped sustain our feeble efforts. + +Since our first Edition of Science and Health, published in 1875, two of +the aforesaid students have plagiarized and pirated our works. In the +issues of E. J. A., almost exclusively ours, were thirteen paragraphs, +without credit, taken verbatim from our books. + +Not one of our printed works was ever copied or abstracted from the +published or from the unpublished writings of anyone. Throughout our +publications of Metaphysical Healing or Christian Science, when writing +or dictating them, we have given ourselves to contemplation wholly apart +from the observation of the material senses: to look upon a copy would +have distracted our thoughts from the subject before us. We were seldom +able to copy our own compositions, and have employed an amanuensis for +the last six years. Every work that we have had published has been +extemporaneously written; and out of fifty lectures and sermons that we +have delivered the last year, forty-four have been extemporaneous. We +have distributed many of our unpublished manuscripts; loaned to one of +our youngest students, R. K c . . . . . y, between three and four +hundred pages, of which we were sole author--giving him liberty to copy +but not to publish them. + +Leaning on the sustaining Infinite with loving trust, the trials of to- +day grow brief, and to-morrow is big with blessings. + +The wakeful shepherd, tending his flocks, beholds from the mountain's top +the first faint morning beam ere cometh the risen day. So from Soul's +loftier summits shines the pale star to prophet-shepherd, and it +traverses night, over to where the young child lies, in cradled +obscurity, that shall waken a world. Over the night of error dawn the +morning beams and guiding star of Truth, and "the wise men" are led by it +to Science, which repeats the eternal harmony that it reproduced, in +proof of immortality. The time for thinkers has come; and the time for +revolutions, ecclesiastical and civil, must come. Truth, independent of +doctrines or time-honored systems, stands at the threshold of history. +Contentment with the past, or the cold conventionality of custom, may no +longer shut the door on science; though empires fall, "He whose right it +is shall reign." Ignorance of God should no longer be the stepping-stone +to faith; understanding Him, "whom to know aright is Life eternal," is +the only guaranty of obedience. + +This volume may not open a new thought, and make it at once familiar. It +has the sturdy task of a pioneer, to hack away at the tall oaks and cut +the rough granite, leaving future ages to declare what it has done. We +made our first discovery of the adaptation of metaphysics to the +treatment of disease in the winter of 1866; since then we have tested the +Principle on ourselves and others, and never found it to fail to prove +the statements herein made of it. We must learn the science of Life, to +reach the perfection of man. To understand God as the Principle of all +being, and to live in accordance with this Principle, is the Science of +Life. But to reproduce this harmony of being, the error of personal +sense must yield to science, even as the science of music corrects tones +caught from the ear, and gives the sweet concord of sound. There are +many theories of physic and theology, and many calls in each of their +directions for the right way; but we propose to settle the question of +"What is Truth?" on the ground of proof, and let that method of healing +the sick and establishing Christianity be adopted that is found to give +the most health and to make the best Christians; science will then have a +fair field, in which case we are assured of its triumph over all opinions +and beliefs. Sickness and sin have ever had their doctors; but the +question is, Have they become less because of them? The longevity of our +antediluvians would say, No! and the criminal records of today utter +their voices little in favor of such a conclusion. Not that we would +deny to Caesar the things that are his, but that we ask for the things +that belong to Truth; and safely affirm, from the demonstrations we have +been able to make, that the science of man understood would have +eradicated sin, sickness, and death, in a less period than six thousand +years. We find great difficulties in starting this work right. Some +shockingly false claims are already made to a metaphysical practice; +mesmerism, its very antipodes, is one of them. Hitherto we have never, +in a single instance of our discovery, found the slightest resemblance +between mesmerism and metaphysics. No especial idiosyncrasy is requisite +to acquire a knowledge of metaphysical healing; spiritual sense is more +important to its discernment than the intellect; and those who would +learn this science without a high moral standard of thought and action, +will fail to understand it until they go up higher. Owing to our +explanations constantly vibrating between the same points, an irksome +repetition of words must occur; also the use of capital letters, genders, +and technicalities peculiar to the science. Variety of language, or +beauty of diction, must give place to close analysis and unembellished +thought. "Hoping all things, enduring all things," to do good to our +enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to bear to the sorrowing and +the sick consolation and healing, we commit these pages to posterity. + +MARY BAKER G. EDDY. + + + + +APPENDIX B + +The Gospel narratives bear brief testimony even to the life of our great +Master. His spiritual noumenon and phenomenon, silenced portraiture. +Writers, less wise than the Apostles, essayed in the Apocryphal New +Testament, a legendary and traditional history of the early life of +Jesus. But Saint Paul summarized the character of Jesus as the model of +Christianity, in these words: "Consider Him who endured such +contradictions of sinners against Himself. Who for the joy that was set +before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at +the right hand of the throne of God." + +It may be that the mortal life battle still wages, and must continue till +its involved errors are vanquished by victory-bringing Science; but this +triumph will come! God is over all. He alone is our origin, aim, and +Being. The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created through +the flesh; for his father and mother are the one Spirit, and his brethren +are all the children of one parent, the eternal Good. + +Any kind of literary composition was excessively difficult for Mrs. Eddy. +She found it grinding hard work to dig out anything to say. She +realized, at the above stage in her life, that with all her trouble she +had not been able to scratch together even material enough for a child's +Autobiography, and also that what she had secured was in the main not +valuable, not important, considering the age and the fame of the person +she was writing about; and so it occurred to her to attempt, in that +paragraph, to excuse the meagreness and poor quality of the feast she was +spreading, by letting on that she could do ever so much better if she +wanted to, but was under constraint of Divine etiquette. To feed with +more than a few indifferent crumbs a plebeian appetite for personal +details about Personages in her class was not the correct thing, and she +blandly points out that there is Precedent for this reserve. When Mrs. +Eddy tries to be artful --in literature --it is generally after the +manner of the ostrich; and with the ostrich's luck. Please try to find +the connection between the two paragraphs.--M. T. + + + + +APPENDIX C + +The following is the spiritual signification of the Lord's Prayer: + +Principle, eternal and harmonious, +Nameless and adorable Intelligence, +Thou art ever present and supreme. +And when this supremacy of Spirit shall appear, the dream of matter will +disappear. +Give us the understanding of Truth and Love. +And loving we shall learn God, and Truth will destroy all error. +And lead us unto the Life that is Soul, and deliver us from the errors of +sense, sin, sickness, and death, +For God is Life, Truth, and Love for ever. +--Science and Health, edition of 1881. + +It seems to me that this one is distinctly superior to the one that was +inspired for last year's edition. It is strange, but to my mind plain, +that inspiring is an art which does not improve with practice.--M. T. + + + + +APPENDIX D + +"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, +Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in +his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come +to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, +What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, +and ye shall have them. + +Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." +--CHRIST JESUS. + +The prayer that reclaims the sinner and heals the sick, is an absolute +faith that all things are possible to God--a spiritual understanding of +Him--an unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say or think on +this subject, I speak from experience. This prayer, combined with self- +sacrifice and toil, is the means whereby God has enabled me to do what I +have done for the religion and health of mankind. + +Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; +and no less can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may +be moulded and exalted before they take form in audible word, and in +deeds. + +What are the motives for prayer? Do we pray to make ourselves better, or +to benefit those that hear us; to enlighten the Infinite, or to be heard +of men? Are we benefited by praying? Yes, the desire which goes forth +hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not +return unto us void. + +God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already +done; nor can the Infinite do less than bestow all good, since He is +unchanging Wisdom and Love. We can do more for ourselves by humble +fervent petitions; but the All-loving does not grant them simply on the +ground of lip-service, for He already knows all. + +Prayer cannot change the Science of Being, but it does bring us into +harmony with it. Goodness reaches the demonstration of Truth. A request +that another may work for us never does our work. The habit of pleading +with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the +belief in God as humanly circumscribed--an error which impedes spiritual +growth. + +God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is Intelligence. Can we +inform the infinite Mind, or tell Him anything He does not already +comprehend? Do we hope to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at +the open fount, which always pours forth more than we receive? The +unspoken prayer does bring us nearer the Source of all existence and +blessedness. + +Asking God to be God is a "vain repetition." God is "the same yesterday, +and to-day, and forever"; and He who is immutably right will do right, +without being reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not +sufficient to warrant him in advising God. + +Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of +mathematics to work out the problem? The rule is already established, +and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine +Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done; and we +have only to avail ourselves of God's rule, in order to receive the +blessing thereof. + +The divine Being must be reflected by man--else man is not the image and +likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the one "altogether lovely"; +but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute +concentration of thought and energy. + +How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit theoretically that God +is good, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, and then we try to give +information to this infinite Mind; and plead for unmerited pardon, and a +liberal outpouring of benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good +already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we +have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a +verbal expression of thanks Action expresses more gratitude than speech. + +If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and yet return thanks to +God for all blessings, we are insincere; and incur the sharp censure our +Master pronounces on hypocrites. In such a case the only acceptable +prayer is to put the finger on the lips and remember our blessings. +While the heart is far from divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the +ingratitude of barren lives, for God knoweth all things. + +What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, +expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds. To keep the +commandments of our Master and follow his example, is our proper debt to +Him, and the only worthy evidence of our gratitude for all He has done. +Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to express loyal and +heartfelt gratitude, since He has said: "If ye love Me, keep My +Commandments." + +The habitual struggle to be always good, is unceasing prayer. Its +motives are made manifest in the blessings they bring --which, if not +acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be made partakers +of Love. + +Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the +longing to be better and holier--expressed in daily watchfulness, and in +striving to assimilate more of the divine character--this will mould and +fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the Science of +Christianity through demonstration of the divine nature; but in this +wicked world goodness will "be evil spoken of," and patience must work +experience. + +Audible prayer can never do the works of spiritual understanding, which +regenerates; but silent prayer, watchfulness, and devout obedience, +enable us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers, ecclesiasticism, and +creeds, have clipped the divine pinions of Love, and clad religion in +human robes. They materialize worship, hinder the Spirit, and keep man +from demonstrating his power over error. + +Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform, and the very +easiest step. The next and great step required by Wisdom is the test of +our sincerity--namely, reformation. To this end we are placed under the +stress of circumstances. Temptation bids us repeat the offence, and woe +comes in return for what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that +there is no discount in the law of justice, and that we must pay "the +uttermost farthing." The measure ye mete "shall be measured to you +again," and it will be full "and running over." + +Saints and sinners get their full award, but not always in this world. +The followers of Christ drank His cup. Ingratitude and persecution +filled it to the brim; but God pours the riches of His love into the +understanding and affections, giving us strength according to our day. +Sinners flourish "like a green bay-tree"; but, looking farther, the +Psalmist could see their end--namely, the destruction of sin through +suffering. + +Prayer is sometimes used, as a confessional to cancel sin. This error +impedes true religion. Sin is forgiven, only as it is destroyed by +Christ-Truth and Life If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is +cancelled, and that man is made better by merely praying, it is an evil. +He grows worse who continues in sin because he thinks himself forgiven. + +An apostle says that the Son of God (Christ) came to "destroy the works +of the devil." We should follow our divine Exemplar, and seek the +destruction of all evil works, error and disease included. We cannot +escape the penalty due for sin. The Scriptures say, that if we deny +Christ, "He also will deny us." + +The divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may pardon, but this +divine Principle alone reforms the sinner. God is not separate from the +wisdom He bestows. The talents He gives we must improve. Calling on Him +to forgive our work, badly done or left undone, implies the vain +supposition that we have nothing to do but to ask pardon, and that +afterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence. + +To cause suffering, as the result of sin, is the means of destroying sin. +Every supposed pleasure in sin will furnish more than its equivalent of +pain, until belief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach +heaven, the harmony of Being, we must understand the divine Principle of +Being. + +"God is Love." More than this we cannot ask; higher we cannot look; +farther we cannot go. To suppose that God forgives or punishes sin, +according as His mercy is sought or unsought, is to misunderstand Love +and make prayer the safety-valve for wrong-doing. + +Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before He cast it out. Of a sick woman +He said that Satan had bound her; and to Peter He said, "Thou art an +offense unto me." He came teaching and showing men how to destroy sin, +sickness, and death. He said of the fruitless tree, "It is hewn down." + +It is believed by many that a certain magistrate, who lived in the time +of Jesus, left this record: "His rebuke is fearful." The strong language +of our Master confirms this description. + +The only civil sentence which He had for error was, "Get thee behind Me, +Satan." Still stronger evidence that Jesus' reproof was pointed and +pungent is in His own words--showing the necessity for such forcible +utterance, when He cast out devils and healed the sick and sinful. The +relinquishment of error deprives material sense of its false claims. + +Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary solemnity and elevation +to thought; but does it produce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply into +these things, we find that "a zeal . . . not according to knowledge," +gives occasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober +resolve, and wholesome perception of God's requirements. The motives for +verbal prayer may embrace too much love of applause to induce or +encourage Christian sentiment. + +Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ecstasy, and emotions. +If spiritual sense always guided men at such times, there would grow out +of those ecstatic moments a higher experience and a better life, with +more devout self-abnegation, and purity. A self-satisfied ventilation of +fervent sentiments never makes a Christian. God is not influenced by +man. The "divine ear" is not an auditoria! nerve. It is the all- +hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each want of man is always known, +and by whom it will be supplied. + +The danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temptation. +By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, uttering desires which are +not real, and consoling ourselves in the midst of sin, with the +recollection that we have prayed over it --or mean to ask forgiveness at +some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion. + +A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-justification, though it +makes the sinner a hypocrite. We never need despair of an honest heart, +but there is little hope for those who only come spasmodically face to +face with their wickedness, and then seek to hide it. Their prayers are +indexes which do not correspond with their character. They hold secret +fellowship with sin; and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as "like +unto whited sepulchres . . . full of all uncleanness." + +If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful, is impure, and +therefore insincere, what must be the comment upon him? If he had +reached the loftiness of his prayer, there would be no occasion for such +comment. If we feel the aspiration, humility, gratitude, and love which +our words express--this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to deceive +our. selves or others, for "there is nothing covered that shall not be +revealed." Professions and audible prayers are like charity in one +respect --they "cover a multitude of sins." Praying for humility, with +whatever fervency of expression, does not always mean a desire for it. +If we turn away from the poor, we are not ready to receive the reward of +Him who blesses the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart, and +ask that it may be laid bare before us; but do we not already know more +of this heart than we are willing to have our neighbor see? + +We ought to examine ourselves, and learn what is the affection and +purpose of the heart; for this alone can show us what we honestly are. +If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen to the rebuke patiently, +and credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are "not +as other men?" During many years the author has been most grateful for +merited rebuke. The sting lies in unmerited censure--in the falsehood +which does no one any good. + +The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we love +our neighbor better because of this asking? Do we pursue the old +selfishness, satisfied with having prayed for something better, though we +give no evidence of the sincerity of our requests by living consistently +with our prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness, we shall +regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that curse us; but we +shall never meet this great duty by simply asking that it may be done. +There is a cross to be taken up, before we can enjoy the fruition of our +hope and faith. + +Dost thou "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy +soul, and with all thy mind?" This command includes much--even the +surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This +is the E1 Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and +recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, wherein Soul is our master, +and material sense and human will have no place. + +Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and so be counted +among sinners? No! Do you really desire to attain this point? No! +Then why make long prayers about it, and ask to be Christians, since you +care not to tread in the footsteps of our dear Master? If unwilling to +follow His example, wherefore pray with the lips that you may be +partakers of His nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right. +Prayer means that we desire to, and will, walk in the light so far as we +receive it, even though with bleeding footsteps, and waiting patiently on +the Lord, will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him. + +The world must grow to the spiritual understanding of prayer. If good +enough to profit by Jesus' cup of earthly sorrows, God will sustain us +under these sorrows. Until we are thus divinely qualified, and willing +to drink His cup, millions of vain repetitions will never pour into +prayer the unction of Spirit, in demonstration of power, and "with signs +following." Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the +world, the flesh and evil, and thus destroying all error. + +Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving which enables us to enter. +Spiritual attainments open the door to a higher understanding of the +divine Life. + +One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a praying-machine +through the streets, and stop at the doors to earn a penny by grinding +out a prayer; whereas civilization pays for clerical prayers, in lofty +edifices. Is the difference very great, after all? + +Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask +for in prayer. + +There is some misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness and +blessedness, or we should certainly receive what we ask for. The +Scriptures say: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye +may consume it upon your lusts." What we desire and ask for it is not +always best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will not grant +the request. Do you ask Wisdom to be merciful and not punish sin? Then +"ye ask amiss." Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer, +"forgive us our debts," specified also the terms of forgiveness. When +forgiving the adulterous woman He said, "Go, and sin no more." + +A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this may be no moral +benefit to the criminal; and at best, it only saves him from one form of +punishment. The moral law, which has the right to acquit or condemn, +always demands restitution, before mortals can "go up higher." Broken +law brings penalty, in order to compel this progress. + +Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine Principle never +pardons our sins or mistakes till they are corrected) leaves the offender +free to repeat the offense; if, indeed, he has not already suffered +sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing. Truth +bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual +manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence +against an individual's sin, but to show that sin must bring inevitable +suffering. + +Petitions only bring to mortals the results of their own faith. We know +that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain it; but if we +desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We +must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only +practical road to holiness. Prayer alone cannot change the unalterable +Truth, or give us an understanding of it; but prayer coupled with a +fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God will bring us into +all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible expression. It is +best expressed in thought and life. + + + + +APPENDIX E + +Reverend Heber Newton on Christian Science: + +To begin, then, at the beginning, Christian Science accepts the work of +healing sickness as an integral part of the discipleship of Jesus Christ. +In Christ it finds, what the Church has always recognized, theoretically, +though it has practically ignored the fact--the Great Physician. That +Christ healed the sick, we none of us question. It stands plainly upon +the record. This ministry of healing was too large a part of His work to +be left out from any picture of that life. Such service was not an +incident of His career--it was an essential element of that career. It +was an integral factor in His mission. The Evangelists leave us no +possibility of confusion on this point. Co-equal with his work of +instruction and inspiration was His work of healing. + +The records make it equally clear that the Master laid His charge upon +His disciples to do as He had done. "When He had called unto Him His +twelve disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them +out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." In +sending them forth, "He commanded them, saying, . . . As ye go, +preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse +the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons." + +That the twelve disciples undertook to do the Master's work of healing, +and that they, in their measure, succeeded, seems beyond question. They +found in themselves the same power that the Master found in Himself, and +they used it as He had used His power. The record of The Acts of the +Apostles, if at all trustworthy history, shows that they, too, healed the +sick. + +Beyond the circle of the original twelve, it is equally clear that the +early disciples believed themselves charged with the same mission, and +that they sought to fulfil it. The records of the early Church make it +indisputable that powers of healing were recognized as among the gifts of +the Spirit. St. Paul's letters render it certain that these gifts were +not a privilege of the original twelve, merely, but that they were the +heritage into which all the disciples entered. + +Beyond the era of the primitive Church, through several generations, the +early Christians felt themselves called to the same ministry of healing, +and enabled with the same secret of power. Through wellnigh three +centuries, the gifts of healing appear to have been, more or less, +recognized and exercised in the Church. Through those generations, +however, there was a gradual disuse of this power, following upon a +failing recognition of its possession. That which was originally the +rule became the exception. By degrees, the sense of authority and power +to heal passed out from the consciousness of the Church. It ceased to be +a sign of the indwelling Spirit. For fifteen centuries, the recognition +of this authority and power has been altogether exceptional. Here and +there, through the history of these centuries, there have been those who +have entered into this belief of their own privilege and duty, and have +used the gift which they recognized. The Church has never been left +without a line of witnesses to this aspect of the discipleship of Christ. +But she has come to accept it as the normal order of things that what was +once the rule in the Christian Church should be now only the exception. +Orthodoxy has framed a theory of the words of Jesus to account for this +strange departure of His Church from them. It teaches us to believe that +His example was not meant to be followed, in this respect, by all His +disciples. The power of healing which was in Him was a purely +exceptional power. It was used as an evidence of His divine mission. It +was a miraculous gift. The gift of working miracles was not bestowed +upon His Church at large. His original disciples, the twelve apostles, +received this gift, as a necessity of the critical epoch of Christianity +--the founding of the Church. Traces of the power lingered on, in +weakening activity, until they gradually ceased, and the normal condition +of the Church was entered upon, in which miracles are no longer possible. + + +We accept this, unconsciously, as the true state of things in +Christianity. But it is a conception which will not bear a moment's +examination. There is not the slightest suggestion upon record that +Christ set any limit to this charge which He gave His disciples. On the +contrary, there are not lacking hints that He looked for the possession +and exercise of this power wherever His spirit breathed in men. + +Even if the concluding paragraph of St. Mark's Gospel were a later +appendix, it may none the less have been a faithful echo of words of the +Master, as it certainly is a trustworthy record of the belief of the +early Christians as to the thought of Jesus concerning His followers. In +that interesting passage, Jesus, after His death, appeared to the eleven, +and formally commissioned them, again, to take up His work in the world; +bidding them, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every +creature." "And these signs," He tells them, "shall follow them that +believe"--not the apostles only, but "them that believe," without limit +of time; "in My name they shall cast out devils . . . they shall lay +hands on the sick and they shall recover." The concluding discourse to +the disciples, recorded in the Gospel according to St. John, affirms the +same expectation on the part of Jesus; emphasizing it in His solemn way: +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that +I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do." + + + + +APPENDIX F + +Few will deny that an intelligence apart from man formed and governs the +spiritual universe and man; and this intelligence is the eternal Mind, +and neither matter nor man created this intelligence and divine +Principle; nor can this Principle produce aught unlike itself. All that +we term sin, sickness, and death is comprised in the belief of matter. +The realm of the real is spiritual; the opposite of Spirit is matter; and +the opposite of the real is unreal or material. Matter is an error of +statement, for there is no matter. This error of premises leads to error +of conclusion in every statement of matter as a basis. Nothing we can +say or believe regarding matter is true, except that matter is unreal, +simply a belief that has its beginning and ending. + +The conservative firm called matter and mind God never formed. The +unerring and eternal Mind destroys this imaginary copartnership, formed +only to be dissolved in a manner and at a period unknown. This +copartnership is obsolete. Placed under the microscope of metaphysics +matter disappears. Only by understanding there are not two, matter and +mind, is a logical and correct conclusion obtained by either one. +Science gathers not grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Intelligence +never produced non-intelligence, such as matter: the immortal never +produced mortality, good never resulted in evil. The science of Mind +shows conclusively that matter is a myth. Metaphysics are above physics, +and drag not matter, or what is termed that, into one of its premises or +conclusions. Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges +the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul. These ideas are perfectly +tangible and real to consciousness, and they have this advantage --they +are eternal. Mind and its thoughts comprise the whole of God, the +universe, and of man. Reason and revelation coincide with this +statement, and support its proof every hour, for nothing is harmonious or +eternal that is not spiritual: the realization of this will bring out +objects from a higher source of thought; hence more beautiful and +immortal. + +The fact of spiritualization produces results in striking contrast to the +farce of materialization: the one produces the results of chastity and +purity, the other the downward tendencies and earthward gravitation of +sensualism and impurity. + +The exalting and healing effects of metaphysics show their fountain. +Nothing in pathology has exceeded the application of metaphysics. +Through mind alone we have prevented disease and preserved health. In +cases of chronic and acute diseases, in their severest forms, we have +changed the secretions, renewed structure, and restored health; have +elongated shortened limbs, relaxed rigid muscles, made cicatrized joints +supple; restored carious bones to healthy conditions, renewed that which +is termed the lost substance of the lungs; and restored healthy +organizations where disease was organic instead of functional. + + + + +MRS. EDDY IN ERROR + +I feel almost sure that Mrs. Eddy's inspiration--works are getting out of +repair. I think so because they made some errors in a statement which +she uttered through the press on the 17th of January. Not large ones, +perhaps, still it is a friend's duty to straighten such things out and +get them right when he can. Therefore I will put my other duties aside +for a moment and undertake this helpful service. She said as follows: + +"In view of the circulation of certain criticisms from the pen of Mark +Twain, I submit the following statement: + +"It is a fact, well understood, that I begged the students who first gave +me the endearing appellative 'mother' not to name me thus. But, without +my consent, that word spread like wildfire. I still must think the name +is not applicable to me. I stand in relation to this century as a +Christian discoverer, founder, and leader. I regard self-deification as +blasphemous; I may be more loved, but I am less lauded, pampered, +provided for, and cheered than others before me--and wherefore? Because +Christian Science is not yet popular, and I refuse adulation. + +"My visit to the Mother-Church after it was built and dedicated pleased +me, and the situation was satisfactory. The dear members wanted to greet +me with escort and the ringing of bells, but I declined, and went alone +in my carriage to the church, entered it, and knelt in thanks upon the +steps of its altar. There the foresplendor of the beginnings of truth +fell mysteriously upon my spirit. I believe in one Christ, teach one +Christ, know of but one Christ. I believe in but one incarnation, one +Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, and never claimed to be. It +suffices me to learn the Science of the Scriptures relative to this +subject. + +"Christian Scientists have no quarrel with Protestants, Catholics, or any +other sect. They need to be understood as following the divine Principle +God, Love and not imagined to be unscientific worshippers of a human +being. + +"In the aforesaid article, of which I have seen only extracts, Mark +Twain's wit was not wasted In certain directions. Christian Science +eschews divine rights in human beings. If the individual governed human +consciousness, my statement of Christian Science would be disproved, but +to understand the spiritual idea is essential to demonstrate Science and +its pure monotheism--one God, one Christ, no idolatry, no human +propaganda. Jesus taught and proved that what feeds a few feeds all. +His life-work subordinated the material to the spiritual, and He left +this legacy of truth to mankind. His metaphysics is not the sport of +philosophy, religion, or Science; rather it is the pith and finale of +them all. + +"I have not the inspiration or aspiration to be a first or second Virgin- +Mother--her duplicate, antecedent, or subsequent. What I am remains to +be proved by the good I do. We need much humility, wisdom, and love to +perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting heaven within us. +This glory is molten in the furnace of affliction." + +She still thinks the name of Our Mother not applicable to her; and she is +also able to remember that it distressed her when it was conferred upon +her, and that she begged to have it suppressed. Her memory is at fault +here. If she will take her By-laws, and refer to Section 1 of Article +XXII., written with her own hand--she will find that she has reserved +that title to herself, and is so pleased with it, and so--may we say +jealous?--about it, that she threatens with excommunication any sister +Scientist who shall call herself by it. This is that Section 1: + +"The Title of Mother. In the year 1895 loyal Christian Scientists had +given to the author of their text-book, the Founder of Christian Science, +the individual, endearing term of Mother. Therefore, if a student of +Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself or to others, +except as the term for kinship according to the flesh, it shall be +regarded by the Church as an indication of disrespect for their Pastor +Emeritus, and unfitness to be a member of the Mother-Church." + +Mrs. Eddy is herself the Mother-Church--its powers and authorities are in +her possession solely --and she can abolish that title whenever it may +please her to do so. She has only to command her people, wherever they +may be in the earth, to use it no more, and it will never be uttered +again. She is aware of this. + +It may be that she "refuses adulation" when she is not awake, but when +she is awake she encourages it and propagates it in that museum called +"Our Mother's Room," in her Church in Boston. She could abolish that +institution with a word, if she wanted to. She is aware of that. I will +say a further word about the museum presently. + +Further down the column, her memory is unfaithful again: + +"I believe in . . . but one Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, +and never claimed to be." + +At a session of the National Christian Science Association, held in the +city of New York on the 27th of May, 1890, the secretary was "instructed +to send to our Mother greetings and words of affection from her assembled +children." + +Her telegraphic response was read to the Association at next day's +meeting: + +"All hail! He hath filled the hungry with good things and the sick hath +He not sent empty away.--MOTHER MARY." + +Which Mother Mary is this one? Are there two? If so, she is both of +them; for, when she signed this telegram in this satisfied and +unprotesting way, the Mother-title which she was going to so strenuously +object to, and put from her with humility, and seize with both hands, and +reserve as her sole property, and protect her monopoly of it with a stern +By-law, while recognizing with diffidence that it was "not applicable" to +her (then and to-day)--that Mother--title was not yet born, and would not +be offered to her until five years later. The date of the above "Mother +Mary" is 1890; the "individual, endearing title of Mother" was given her +"in 1895"--according to her own testimony. See her By-law quoted above. + +In his opening Address to that Convention of 1890, the President +recognized this Mary--our Mary-and abolished all previous ones. He said: + +"There is but one Moses, one Jesus; and there is but one Mary." + +The confusions being now dispersed, we have this clarified result: + +Were had been a Moses at one time, and only one; there had been a Jesus +at one time, and only one; there is a Mary and "only one." She is not a +Has Been, she is an Is--the "Author of Science and Health; and we cannot +ignore her." + +1. In 1890, there was but one Mother Mary. The President said so. +2. Mrs. Eddy was that one. She said so, in signing the telegram. +3. Mrs. Eddy was not that one for she says so, in her Associated Press +utterance of January 17th. +4. And has "never claimed to be "that one--unless the signature to the +telegram is a claim. + +Thus it stands proven and established that she is that Mary and isn't, +and thought she was and knows she wasn't. That much is clear. + +She is also "The Mother," by the election of 1895, and did not want the +title, and thinks it is not applicable to her, end will excommunicate any +one that tries to take it away from her. So that is clear. + +I think that the only really troublesome confusion connected with these +particular matters has arisen from the name Mary. Much vexation, much +misunderstanding, could have been avoided if Mrs. Eddy had used some of +her other names in place of that one. "Mother Mary" was certain to stir +up discussion. It would have been much better if she had signed the +telegram "Mother Baker"; then there would have been no Biblical +competition, and, of course, that is a thing to avoid. But it is not too +late, yet. + +I wish to break in here with a parenthesis, and then take up this +examination of Mrs. Eddy's Claim of January 17th again. + +The history of her "Mother Mary" telegram--as told to me by one who ought +to be a very good authority--is curious and interesting. The telegram +ostensibly quotes verse 53 from the "Magnificat," but really makes some +pretty formidable changes in it. This is St. Luke's version: + +"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent +empty away." + +This is "Mother Mary's" telegraphed version: + +"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the sick hath He not +sent empty away." + +To judge by the Official Report, the bursting of this bombshell in that +massed convention of trained Christians created no astonishment, since it +caused no remark, and the business of the convention went tranquilly on, +thereafter, as if nothing had happened. + +Did those people detect those changes? We cannot know. I think they +must have noticed them, the wording of St. Luke's verse being as +familiar to all Christians as is the wording of the Beatitudes; and I +think that the reason the new version provoked no surprise and no comment +was, that the assemblage took it for a "Key"--a spiritualized explanation +of verse 53, newly sent down from heaven through Mrs. Eddy. For all +Scientists study their Bibles diligently, and they know their Magnificat. +I believe that their confidence in the authenticity of Mrs. Eddy's +inspirations is so limitless and so firmly established that no change, +however violent, which she might make in a Bible text could disturb their +composure or provoke from them a protest. + +Her improved rendition of verse 53 went into the convention's report and +appeared in a New York paper the next day. The (at that time) Scientist +whom I mentioned a minute ago, and who had not been present at the +convention, saw it and marvelled; marvelled and was indignant--indignant +with the printer or the telegrapher, for making so careless and so +dreadful an error. And greatly distressed, too; for, of course, the +newspaper people would fall foul of it, and be sarcastic, and make fun of +it. and have a blithe time over it, and be properly thankful for the +chance. It shows how innocent he was; it shows that he did not know the +limitations of newspaper men in the matter of Biblical knowledge. The +new verse 53 raised no insurrection in the press; in fact, it was not +even remarked upon; I could have told him the boys would not know there +was anything the matter with it. I have been a newspaper man myself, and +in those days I had my limitations like the others. + +The Scientist hastened to Concord and told Mrs. Eddy what a disastrous +mistake had been made, but he found to his bewilderment that she was +tranquil about it, and was not proposing to correct it. He was not able +to get her to promise to make a correction. He asked her secretary if he +had heard aright when the telegram was dictated to him; the secretary +said he had, and took the filed copy of it and verified its authenticity +by comparing it with the stenographic notes. + +Mrs. Eddy did make the correction, two months later, in her official +organ. It attracted no attention among the Scientists; and, naturally, +none elsewhere, for that periodical's circulation was practically +confined to disciples of the cult. + +That is the tale as it was told to me by an ex-Scientist. Verse 53-- +renovated and spiritualized--had a narrow escape from a tremendous +celebrity. The newspaper men would have made it as famous as the +assassination of Caesar, but for their limitations. + +To return to the Claim. I find myself greatly embarrassed by Mrs. Eddy's +remark: "I regard self-deification as blasphemous." If she is right +about that, I have written a half-ream of manuscript this past week which +I must not print, either in the book which I am writing, or elsewhere: +for it goes into that very matter with extensive elaboration, citing, in +detail, words and acts of Mrs. Eddy's which seem to me to prove that she +is a faithful and untiring worshipper of herself, and has carried self- +deification to a length which has not been before ventured in ages. If +ever. There is not room enough in this chapter for that Survey, but I +can epitomize a portion of it here. + +With her own untaught and untrained mind, and without outside help, she +has erected upon a firm and lasting foundation the most minutely perfect, +and wonderful, and smoothly and exactly working, and best safe-guarded +system of government that has yet been devised in the world, as I +believe, and as I am sure I could prove if I had room for my documentary +evidences here. + +It is a despotism (on this democratic soil); a sovereignty more absolute +than the Roman Papacy, more absolute than the Russian Czarship; it has +not a single power, not a shred of authority, legislative or executive, +which is not lodged solely in the sovereign; all its dreams, its +functions, its energies, have a single object, a single reason for +existing, and only the one--to build to the sky the glory of the +sovereign, and keep it bright to the end of time. + +Mrs. Eddy is the sovereign; she devised that great place for herself, she +occupies that throne. + +In 1895, she wrote a little primer, a little body of autocratic laws, +called the Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and put those +laws in force, in permanence. Her government is all there; all in that +deceptively innocent-looking little book, that cunning little devilish +book, that slumbering little brown volcano, with hell in its bowels. In +that book she has planned out her system, and classified and defined its +purposes and powers. + + + + +MAIN PARTS OF THE MACHINE + +A Supreme Church. At Boston. +Branch Churches. All over the world +One Pastor for the whole of them: to wit, her book, Science and Health. +Term of the book's office--forever. + +In every C.S. pulpit, two "Readers," a man and a woman. No talkers, no +preachers, in any Church-readers only. Readers of the Bible and her +books--no others. No commentators allowed to write or print. + +A Church Service. She has framed it--for all the C.S. Churches-- +selected its readings, its prayers, and the hymns to be used, and has +appointed the order of procedure. No changes permitted. + +A Creed. She wrote it. All C.S. Churches must subscribe to it. No +other permitted. + +A Treasury. At Boston. She carries the key. + +A C.S. Book--Publishing House. For books approved by her. No others +permitted. + +Journals and Magazines. These are organs of hers, and are controlled by +her. + +A College. For teaching C.S. + + + + +DISTRIBUTION OF THE MACHINE'S POWERS AND DIGNITIES + +Supreme Church. +Pastor Emeritus--Mrs. Eddy. +Board of Directors. +Board of Education. +Board of Finance. +College Faculty. +Various Committees. +Treasurer. +Clerk. +First Members (of the Supreme Church). +Members of the Supreme Church. + +It looks fair, it looks real, but it is all a fiction. + +Even the little "Pastor Emeritus" is a fiction. Instead of being merely +an honorary and ornamental official, Mrs. Eddy is the only official in +the entire body that has the slightest power. In her Manual, she has +provided a prodigality of ways and forms whereby she can rid herself of +any functionary in the government whenever she wants to. The officials +are all shadows, save herself; she is the only reality. She allows no +one to hold office more than a year-- no one gets a chance to become +over-popular or over-useful, and dangerous. "Excommunication" is the +favorite penalty-it is threatened at every turn. It is evidently the pet +dread and terror of the Church's membership. + +The member who thinks, without getting his thought from Mrs. Eddy before +uttering it, is banished permanently. One or two kinds of sinners can +plead their way back into the fold, but this one, never. To think--in +the Supreme Church--is the New Unpardonable Sin. + +To nearly every severe and fierce rule, Mrs. Eddy adds this rivet: "This +By-law shall not be changed without the consent of the Pastor Emeritus." + +Mrs. Eddy is the entire Supreme Church, in her own person, in the matter +of powers and authorities. + +Although she has provided so many ways of getting rid of unsatisfactory +members and officials, she was still afraid she might have left a life- +preserver lying around somewhere, therefore she devised a rule to cover +that defect. By applying it, she can excommunicate (and this is +perpetual again) every functionary connected with the Supreme Church, and +every one of the twenty-five thousand members of that Church, at an +hour's notice--and do it all by herself without anybody's help. + +By authority of this astonishing By-law, she has only to say a person +connected with that Church is secretly practicing hypnotism or mesmerism; +whereupon, immediate excommunication, without a hearing, is his portion! +She does not have to order a trial and produce evidence--her accusation +is all that is necessary. + +Where is the Pope? and where the Czar? As the ballad says: + + "Ask of the winds that far away + With fragments strewed the sea!" + +The Branch Church's pulpit is occupied by two "Readers." Without them +the Branch Church is as dead as if its throat had been cut. To have +control, then, of the Readers, is to have control of the Branch Churches. +Mrs. Eddy has that control--a control wholly without limit, a control +shared with no one. + +1. No Reader can be appointed to any Church in the Christian Science +world without her express approval. + +2. She can summarily expel from his or her place any Reader, at home or +abroad, by a mere letter of dismissal, over her signature, and without +furnishing any reason for it, to either the congregation or the Reader. + +Thus she has as absolute control over all Branch Churches as she has over +the Supreme Church. This power exceeds the Pope's. + +In simple truth, she is the only absolute sovereign in all Christendom. +The authority of the other sovereigns has limits, hers has none, none +whatever. And her yoke does not fret, does not offend. Many of the +subjects of the other monarchs feel their yoke, and are restive under it; +their loyalty is insincere. It is not so with this one's human property; +their loyalty is genuine, earnest, sincere, enthusiastic. The sentiment +which they feel for her is one which goes out in sheer perfection to no +other occupant of a throne; for it is love, pure from doubt, envy, +exaction, fault-seeking, a love whose sun has no spot--that form of love, +strong, great, uplifting, limitless, whose vast proportions are +compassable by no word but one, the prodigious word, Worship. And it is +not as a human being that her subjects worship her, but as a supernatural +one, a divine one, one who has comradeship with God, and speaks by His +voice. + +Mrs. Eddy has herself created all these personal grandeurs and +autocracies--with others which I have not (in this article) mentioned. +They place her upon an Alpine solitude and supremacy of power and +spectacular show not hitherto attained by any other self-seeking enslaver +disguised in the Christian name, and they persuade me that, although she +may regard "self-deification as blasphemous," she is as fond of it as I +am of pie. + +She knows about "Our Mother's Room" in the Supreme Church in Boston-- +above referred to--for she has been in it. In a recently published North +American Review article, I quoted a lady as saying Mrs. Eddy's portrait +could be seen there in a shrine, lit by always-burning lights, and that +C.S. disciples came and worshiped it. That remark hurt the feelings of +more than one Scientist. They said it was not true, and asked me to +correct it. I comply with pleasure. Whether the portrait was there four +years ago or not, it is not there now, for I have inquired. The only +object in the shrine now, and lit by electrics--and worshiped--is an oil- +portrait of the horse-hair chair Mrs. Eddy used to sit in when she was +writing Science and Health! It seems to me that adulation has struck +bottom, here. + +Mrs. Eddy knows about that. She has been there, she has seen it, she has +seen the worshippers. She could abolish that sarcasm with a word. She +withholds the word. Once more I seem to recognize in her exactly the +same appetite for self-deification that I have for pie. We seem to be +curiously alike; for the love of self-deification is really only the +spiritual form of the material appetite for pie, and nothing could be +more strikingly Christian-Scientifically "harmonious." + +I note this phrase: + +"Christian Science eschews divine rights in human beings." + +"Rights" is vague; I do not know what it means there. Mrs. Eddy is not +well acquainted with the English language, and she is seldom able to say +in it what she is trying to say. She has no ear for the exact word, and +does not often get it. "Rights." Does it mean "honors?" "attributes?" + +"Eschews." This is another umbrella where there should be a torch; it +does not illumine the sentence, it only deepens the shadows. Does she +mean "denies?" "refuses?" "forbids?" or something in that line? Does she +mean: + +"Christian Science denies divine honors to human beings?" Or: + +"Christian Science refuses to recognize divine attributes in human +beings?" Or: + +"Christian Science forbids the worship of human beings?" + +The bulk of the succeeding sentence is to me a tunnel, but, when I emerge +at this end of it, I seem to come into daylight. Then I seem to +understand both sentences--with this result: + +"Christian Science recognizes but one God, forbids the worship of human +beings, and refuses to recognize the possession of divine attributes by +any member of the race." + +I am subject to correction, but I think that that is about what Mrs. Eddy +was intending to convey. Has her English--which is always difficult to +me--beguiled me into misunderstanding the following remark, which she +makes (calling herself "we," after an old regal fashion of hers) in her +preface to her Miscellaneous Writings? + +"While we entertain decided views as to the best method for elevating the +race physically, morally, and spiritually, and shall express these views +as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine organ, +no supernatural power." + +Was she meaning to say: + +"Although I am of divine origin and gifted with supernatural power, I +shall not draw upon these resources in determining the best method of +elevating the race?" + +If she had left out the word "our," she might then seem to say: + +"I claim no especial or unusual degree of divine origin--" + +Which is awkward--most awkward; for one either has a divine origin or +hasn't; shares in it, degrees of it, are surely impossible. The idea of +crossed breeds in cattle is a thing we can entertain, for we are used to +it, and it is possible; but the idea of a divine mongrel is unthinkable. + +Well, then, what does she mean? I am sure I do not know, for certain. +It is the word "our" that makes all the trouble. With the "our" in, she +is plainly saying "my divine origin." The word "from" seems to be +intended to mean "on account of." It has to mean that or nothing, if +"our" is allowed to stay. The clause then says: + +"I shall claim no especial gift on account of my divine origin." + +And I think that the full sentence was intended to mean what I have +already suggested: + +"Although I am of divine origin, and gifted with supernatural power, I +shall not draw upon these resources in determining the best method of +elevating the race." + +When Mrs. Eddy copyrighted that Preface seven years ago, she had long +been used to regarding herself as a divine personage. I quote from Mr. +F. W. Peabody's book: + +"In the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her +property, and published by her, it was claimed for her, and with her +sanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to +establish the claim." + +"Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf, that she +herself was the chosen successor to and equal of Jesus." + +The following remark in that April number, quoted by Mr. Peabody, +indicates that her claim had been previously made, and had excited +"horror" among some "good people": + +"Now, a word about the horror many good people have of our making the +Author of Science and Health 'equal with Jesus.'" + +Surely, if it had excited horror in Mrs. Eddy also, she would have +published a disclaimer. She owned the paper; she could say what she +pleased in its columns. Instead of rebuking her editor, she lets him +rebuke those "good people" for objecting to the claim. + +These things seem to throw light upon those words, "our [my] divine +origin." + +It may be that "Christian Science eschews divine rights in human beings," +and forbids worship of any but "one God, one Christ"; but, if that is the +case, it looks as if Mrs. Eddy is a very unsound Christian Scientist, and +needs disciplining. I believe she has a serious malady--"self- +deification"; and that it will be well to have one of the experts +demonstrate over it. + +Meantime, let her go on living--for my sake. Closely examined, +painstakingly studied, she is easily the most interesting person on the +planet, and, in several ways, as easily the most extraordinary woman that +was ever born upon it. + + +P.S.--Since I wrote the foregoing, Mr. McCrackan's article appeared (in +the March number of the North American Review). Before his article +appeared--that is to say, during December, January, and February--I had +written a new book, a character-portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own +acts and words, and it was then--together with the three brief articles +previously published in the North American Review--ready to be delivered +to the printer for issue in book form. In that book, by accident and +good luck, I have answered the objections made by Mr. McCrackan to my +views, and therefore do not need to add an answer here. Also, in it I +have corrected certain misstatements of mine which he has noticed, and +several others which he has not referred to. There are one or two +important matters of opinion upon which he and I are not in disagreement; +but there are others upon which we must continue to disagree, I suppose; +indeed, I know we must; for instance, he believes Mrs. Eddy wrote Science +and Health, whereas I am quite sure I can convince a person unhampered by +predilections that she did not. + +As concerns one considerable matter I hope to convert him. He believes +Mrs. Eddy's word; in his article he cites her as a witness, and takes her +testimony at par; but if he will make an excursion through my book when +it comes out, and will dispassionately examine her testimonies as there +accumulated, I think he will in candor concede that she is by a large +percentage the most erratic and contradictory and untrustworthy witness +that has occupied the stand since the days of the lamented Ananias. + + + + +CONCLUSION + +Broadly speaking, the hostiles reject and repudiate all the pretensions +of Christian Science Christianity. They affirm that it has added nothing +new to Christianity; that it can do nothing that Christianity could not +do and was not doing before Christian Science was born. + +In that case is there no field for the new Christianity, no opportunity +for usefulness, precious usefulness, great and distinguished usefulness? +I think there is. I am far from being confident that it can fill it, but +I will indicate that unoccupied field--without charge--and if it can +conquer it, it will deserve the praise and gratitude of the Christian +world, and will get it, I am sure. + +The present Christianity makes an excellent private Christian, but its +endeavors to make an excellent public one go for nothing, substantially. + +This is an honest nation--in private life. The American Christian is a +straight and clean and honest man, and in his private commerce with his +fellows can be trusted to stand faithfully by the principles of honor and +honesty imposed upon him by his religion. But the moment he comes +forward to exercise a public trust he can be confidently counted upon to +betray that trust in nine cases out of ten, if "party loyalty" shall +require it. + +If there are two tickets in the field in his city, one composed of honest +men and the other of notorious blatherskites and criminals, he will not +hesitate to lay his private Christian honor aside and vote for the +blatherskites if his "party honor" shall exact it. His Christianity is +of no use to him and has no influence upon him when he is acting in a +public capacity. He has sound and sturdy private morals, but he has no +public ones. In the last great municipal election in New York, almost a +complete one-half of the votes representing 3,500,000 Christians were +cast for a ticket that had hardly a man on it whose earned and proper +place was outside of a jail. But that vote was present at church next +Sunday the same as ever, and as unconscious of its perfidy as if nothing +had happened. + +Our Congresses consist of Christians. In their private life they are +true to every obligation of honor; yet in every session they violate them +all, and do it without shame; because honor to party is above honor to +themselves. It is an accepted law of public life that in it a man may +soil his honor in the interest of party expediency --must do it when +party expediency requires it. In private life those men would bitterly +resent--and justly--any insinuation that it would not be safe to leave +unwatched money within their reach; yet you could not wound their +feelings by reminding them that every time they vote ten dollars to the +pension appropriation nine of it is stolen money and they the marauders. +They have filched the money to take care of the party; they believe it +was right to do it; they do not see how their private honor is affected; +therefore their consciences are clear and at rest. By vote they do +wrongful things every day, in the party interest, which they could not be +persuaded to do in private life. In the interest of party expediency +they give solemn pledges, they make solemn compacts; in the interest of +party expediency they repudiate them without a blush. They would not +dream of committing these strange crimes in private life. + +Now then, can Christian Science introduce the Congressional Blush? There +are Christian Private Morals, but there are no Christian Public Morals, +at the polls, or in Congress or anywhere else --except here and there and +scattered around like lost comets in the solar system. Can Christian +Science persuade the nation and Congress to throw away their public +morals and use none but their private ones henceforth in all their +activities, both public and private? + +I do not think so; but no matter about me: there is the field--a grand +one, a splendid one, a sublime one, and absolutely unoccupied. Has +Christian Science confidence enough in itself to undertake to enter in +and try to possess it? + +Make the effort, Christian Science; it is a most noble cause, and it +might succeed. It could succeed. Then we should have a new literature, +with romances entitled, How To Be an Honest Congressman Though a +Christian; How To Be a Creditable Citizen Though a Christian. + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christian Science, +by Mark Twain + diff --git a/old/mtcsc10.zip b/old/mtcsc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f2e18f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mtcsc10.zip diff --git a/old/mtcsc11.txt b/old/mtcsc11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03345d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mtcsc11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7086 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Christian Science, by Mark Twain +#48 in our series by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE + +by Mark Twain + + + +PREFACE + +Book I of this volume occupies a quarter or a third of the volume, +and consists of matter written about four years ago, but not hitherto +published in book form. It contained errors of judgment and of fact. +I have now corrected these to the best of my ability and later knowledge. + + +Book II was written at the beginning of 1903, and has not until now +appeared in any form. In it my purpose has been to present a character- +portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own acts and words solely, not from +hearsay and rumor; and to explain the nature and scope of her Monarchy, +as revealed in the Laws by which she governs it, and which she wrote +herself. + +MARK TWAIN +NEW YORK. January, 1907. + + + + + +BOOK I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE + + "It is the first time since the dawn-days of Creation that + a Voice has gone crashing through space with such + placid and complacent confidence and command." + + + +CHAPTER I +VIENNA 1899. + +This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite- +Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and broke +some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was found +by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest +habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed farm-houses, +with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning little porch +under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored flowers and +cats; on the ground floor a large and light sitting-room, separated from +the milch-cattle apartment by a partition; and in the front yard rose +stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the manure-pile. +That sentence is Germanic, and shows that I am acquiring that sort of +mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables a man to +travel all day in one sentence without changing cars. + +There was a village a mile away, and a horse doctor lived there, but +there was no surgeon. It seemed a bad outlook; mine was distinctly a +surgery case. Then it was remembered that a lady from Boston was +summering in that village, and she was a Christian Science doctor and +could cure anything. So she was sent for. It was night by this time, +and she could not conveniently come, but sent word that it was no matter, +there was no hurry, she would give me "absent treatment" now, and come +in the morning; meantime she begged me to make myself tranquil and +comfortable and remember that there was nothing the matter with me. +I thought there must be some mistake. + +"Did you tell her I walked off a cliff seventy-five feet high?" + +"Yes." + +"And struck a boulder at the bottom and bounced?" + +"Yes." + +"And struck another one and bounced again?" + +"Yes." + +"And struck another one and bounced yet again?" + +"Yes." + +"And broke the boulders?" + +"Yes." + +"That accounts for it; she is thinking of the boulders. Why didn't you +tell her I got hurt, too?" + +"I did. I told her what you told me to tell her: that you were now but +an incoherent series of compound fractures extending from your scalp-lock +to your heels, and that the comminuted projections caused you to look +like a hat-rack." + +"And it was after this that she wished me to remember that there was +nothing the matter with me?" + +"Those were her words." + +"I do not understand it. I believe she has not diagnosed the case with +sufficient care. Did she look like a person who was theorizing, or did +she look like one who has fallen off precipices herself and brings to the +aid of abstract science the confirmations of personal experience?" + +"Bitte?" + +It was too large a contract for the Stubenmadchen's vocabulary; she +couldn't call the hand. I allowed the subject to rest there, and asked +for something to eat and smoke, and something hot to drink, and a basket +to pile my legs in; but I could not have any of these things. + +"Why?" + +"She said you would need nothing at all." + +"But I am hungry and thirsty, and in desperate pain." + +"She said you would have these delusions, but must pay no attention to +them. She wants you to particularly remember that there are no such +things as hunger and thirst and pain.'' + +"She does does she?" + +"It is what she said." + +Does she seem to be in full and functionable possession of her +intellectual plant, such as it is?" + +"Bitte?" + +"Do they let her run at large, or do they tie her up?" + +"Tie her up?" + +"There, good-night, run along, you are a good girl, but your mental +Geschirr is not arranged for light and airy conversation. Leave me to my +delusions." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +It was a night of anguish, of course-at least, I supposed it was, for it +had all the symptoms of it--but it passed at last, and the Christian +Scientist came, and I was glad She was middle-aged, and large and bony, +and erect, and had an austere face and a resolute jaw and a Roman beak +and was a widow in the third degree, and her name was Fuller. I was +eager to get to business and find relief, but she was distressingly +deliberate. She unpinned and unhooked and uncoupled her upholsteries one +by one, abolished the wrinkles with a flirt of her hand, and hung the +articles up; peeled off her gloves and disposed of them, got a book out +of her hand-bag, then drew a chair to the bedside, descended into it +without hurry, and I hung out my tongue. She said, with pity but without +passion: + +"Return it to its receptacle. We deal with the mind only, not with its +dumb servants." + +I could not offer my pulse, because the connection was broken; but she +detected the apology before I could word it, and indicated by a negative +tilt of her head that the pulse was another dumb servant that she had no +use for. Then I thought I would tell her my symptoms and how I felt, so +that she would understand the case; but that was another inconsequence, +she did not need to know those things; moreover, my remark about how I +felt was an abuse of language, a misapplication of terms. + +"One does not feel," she explained; "there is no such thing as feeling: +therefore, to speak of a non-existent thing as existent is a +contradiction. Matter has no existence; nothing exists but mind; the +mind cannot feel pain, it can only imagine it." + +"But if it hurts, just the same--" + +"It doesn't. A thing which is unreal cannot exercise the functions of +reality. Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot hurt." + +In making a sweeping gesture to indicate the act of shooing the illusion +of pain out of the mind, she raked her hand on a pin in her dress, said +"Ouch!" and went tranquilly on with her talk. "You should never allow +yourself to speak of how you feel, nor permit others to ask you how you +are feeling; you should never concede that you are ill, nor permit others +to talk about disease or pain or death or similar nonexistences in your +presence. Such talk only encourages the mind to continue its empty +imaginings." Just at that point the Stuben-madchen trod on the cat's +tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of cat-profanity. I asked, with +caution: + +"Is a cat's opinion about pain valuable?" + +"A cat has no opinion; opinions proceed from mind only; the lower +animals, being eternally perishable, have not been granted mind; without +mind, opinion is impossible." + +"She merely imagined she felt a pain--the cat?" + +"She cannot imagine a pain, for imagining is an effect of mind; without +mind, there is no imagination. A cat has no imagination." + +"Then she had a real pain?" + +"I have already told you there is no such thing as real pain." + +"It is strange and interesting. I do wonder what was the matter with the +cat. Because, there being no such thing as a real pain, and she not +being able to imagine an imaginary one, it would seem that God in His +pity has compensated the cat with some kind of a mysterious emotion +usable when her tail is trodden on which, for the moment, joins cat and +Christian in one common brotherhood of--" + +She broke in with an irritated-- + +"Peace! The cat feels nothing, the Christian feels nothing. Your empty +and foolish imaginings are profanation and blasphemy, and can do you an +injury. It is wiser and better and holier to recognize and confess that +there is no such thing as disease or pain or death." + +"I am full of imaginary tortures," I said, "but I do not think I could be +any more uncomfortable if they were real ones. What must I do to get rid +of them?" + +"There is no occasion to get rid of them. since they do not exist. They +are illusions propagated by matter, and matter has no existence; there is +no such thing as matter." + +"It sounds right and clear, but yet it seems in a degree elusive; it +seems to slip through, just when you think you are getting a grip on it." + +"Explain." + +"Well, for instance: if there is no such thing as matter, how can matter +propagate things?" + +In her compassion she almost smiled. She would have smiled if there were +any such thing as a smile. + +"It is quite simple," she said; "the fundamental propositions of +Christian Science explain it, and they are summarized in the four +following self-evident propositions: +1. God is All in all. +2. God is good. Good is Mind +3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter +4. Life, God, omnipotent Good, deny death, evil, sin, disease. + +"There--now you see." + +It seemed nebulous; it did not seem to say anything about the difficulty +in hand--how non-existent matter can propagate illusions I said, with +some hesitancy: + +"Does--does it explain?" + +"Doesn't it? Even if read backward it will do it." + +With a budding hope, I asked her to do it backwards. + +"Very well. Disease sin evil death deny Good omnipotent God life matter +is nothing all being Spirit God Mind is Good good is God all in All is +God. There do you understand now? + +"It--it--well, it is plainer than it was before; still--" + +"Well?" + +"Could you try it some more ways?" + +"As many as you like; it always means the same. Interchanged in any way +you please it cannot be made to mean anything different from what it +means when put in any other way. Because it is perfect. You can jumble +it all up, and it makes no difference: it always comes out the way it was +before. It was a marvelous mind that produced it. As a mental tour de +force it is without a mate, it defies alike the simple, the concrete, and +the occult." + +"It seems to be a corker." + +I blushed for the word, but it was out before I could stop it. + +"A what?" + +"A--wonderful structure--combination, so to speak, of profound thoughts-- +unthinkable ones--um--" + +It is true. Read backward, or forward, or perpendicularly, or at any +given angle, these four propositions will always be found to agree in +statement and proof." + +"Ah--proof. Now we are coming at it. The statements agree; they agree +with--with--anyway, they agree; I noticed that; but what is it they prove +I mean, in particular?" + +"Why, nothing could be clearer. They prove: + +"1. GOD--Principle, Life, +Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind. Do you get that?" + +"I--well, I seem to. Go on, please." + +"2. MAN--God's universal idea, individual, perfect, eternal. Is it +clear?" + +"It--I think so. Continue." + +"3. IDEA--An image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding. +There it is--the whole sublime Arcana of Christian Science in a nutshell. +Do you find a weak place in it anywhere?" + +"Well--no; it seems strong." + +"Very well There is more. Those three constitute the Scientific +Definition of Immortal Mind. Next, we have the Scientific Definition of +Mortal Mind. Thus. FIRST DEGREE: Depravity I. Physical-Passions and +appetites, fear, depraved will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, +sin, disease, death." + +"Phantasms, madam--unrealities, as I understand it." + +"Every one. SECOND DEGREE: Evil Disappearing. I. Moral-Honesty, +affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. Is it clear?" + +"Crystal." + +"THIRD DEGREE: Spiritual Salvation. I. Spiritual-Faith, wisdom, power, +purity, understanding, health, love. You see how searchingly and co- +ordinately interdependent and anthropomorphous it all is. In this Third +Degree, as we know by the revelations of Christian Science, mortal mind +disappears." + +"Not earlier?" + +"No, not until the teaching and preparation for the Third Degree are +completed." + +"It is not until then that one is enabled to take hold of Christian +Science effectively, and with the right sense of sympathy and kinship, +as I understand you. That is to say, it could not succeed during the +processes of the Second Degree, because there would still be remains of +mind left; and therefore--but I interrupted you. You were about to +further explain the good results proceeding from the erosions and +disintegrations effected by the Third Degree. It is very interesting; +go on, please." + +"Yes, as I was saying, in this Third Degree mortal mind disappears. +Science so reverses the evidence before the corporeal human senses as to +make this scriptural testimony true in our hearts, 'the last shall be +first and the first shall be last,' that God and His idea may be to us-- +what divinity really is, and must of necessity be all-inclusive." + +"It is beautiful. And with what exhaustive exactness your choice and +arrangement of words confirm and establish what you have claimed for the +powers and functions of the Third Degree. The Second could probably +produce only temporary absence of mind; it is reserved to the Third to +make it permanent. A sentence framed under the auspices of the Second +could have a kind of meaning--a sort of deceptive semblance of it-- +whereas it is only under the magic of the Third that that defect would +disappear. Also, without doubt, it is the Third Degree that contributes +another remarkable specialty to Christian Science--viz., ease and flow +and lavishness of words, and rhythm and swing and smoothness. There must +be a special reason for this?" + +"Yes--God--all, all--God, good God, non-Matter, Matteration, Spirit, +Bones, Truth." + +"That explains it." + +"There is nothing in Christian Science that is not explicable; for God is +one, Time is one, Individuality is one, and may be one of a series, one +of many, as an individual man, individual horse; whereas God is one, not +one of a series, but one alone and without an equal." + +"These are noble thoughts. They make one burn to know more. How does +Christian Science explain the spiritual relation of systematic duality to +incidental deflection?" + +"Christian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and body--as +astronomy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar +system--and makes body tributary to the Mind. As it is the earth which +is in motion, While the sun is at rest, though in viewing the sun rise +one finds it impossible to believe the sun not to be really rising, so +the body is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems +otherwise to finite sense; but we shall never understand this while we +admit that soul is in body, or mind in matter, and that man is included +in non-intelligence. Soul is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man +coexists with and reflects Soul, for the All-in-all is the Altogether, +and the Altogether embraces the All-one, Soul-Mind, Mind-Soul, Love, +Spirit, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and without an equal." + +"What is the origin of Christian Science? Is it a gift of God, or did it +just happen?" + +"In a sense, it is a gift of God. That is to say, its powers are from +Him, but the credit of the discovery of the powers and what they are for +is due to an American lady." + +"Indeed? When did this occur?" + +"In 1866. That is the immortal date when pain and disease and death +disappeared from the earth to return no more forever. That is, the +fancies for which those terms stand disappeared. The things themselves +had never existed; therefore, as soon as it was perceived that there were +no such things, they were easily banished. The history and nature of the +great discovery are set down in the book here, and--" + +"Did the lady write the book?" + +"Yes, she wrote it all, herself. The title is Science and Health, with +Key to the Scriptures--for she explains the Scriptures; they were not +understood before. Not even by the twelve Disciples. She begins thus-- +I will read it to you." + +But she had forgotten to bring her glasses. + +"Well, it is no matter," she said. "I remember the words--indeed, all +Christian Scientists know the book by heart; it is necessary in our +practice. We should otherwise make mistakes and do harm. She begins +thus: 'In the year 1866 I discovered the Science of Metaphysical +Healing, and named it Christian Science.' And She says quite beautifully, +I think--'Through Christian Science, religion and medicine are inspired +with a diviner nature and essence, fresh pinions are given to faith and +understanding, and thoughts acquaint themselves intelligently with God.' +Her very words." + +"It is elegant. And it is a fine thought, too--marrying religion to +medicine, instead of medicine to the undertaker in the old way; for +religion and medicine properly belong together, they being the basis of +all spiritual and physical health. What kind of medicine do you give for +the ordinary diseases, such as--" + +"We never give medicine in any circumstances whatever! We--" + +"But, madam, it says--" + +"I don't care what it says, and I don't wish to talk about it." + +"I am sorry if I have offended, but you see the mention seemed in some +way inconsistent, and--" + +"There are no inconsistencies in Christian Science. The thing is +impossible, for the Science is absolute. It cannot be otherwise, since +it proceeds directly from the All-in-all and the Everything-in-Which, +also Soul, Bones, Truth, one of a series, alone and without equal. It is +Mathematics purified from material dross and made spiritual." + +"I can see that, but--" + +"It rests upon the immovable basis of an Apodictical Principle." + +The word flattened itself against my mind in trying to get in, and +disordered me a little, and before I could inquire into its pertinency, +she was already throwing the needed light: + +"This Apodictical Principle is the absolute Principle of Scientific Mind- +healing, the sovereign Omnipotence which delivers the children of men +from pain, disease, decay, and every ill that flesh is heir to." + +"Surely not every ill, every decay?" + +"Every one; there are no exceptions; there is no such thing as decay--it +is an unreality, it has no existence." + +"But without your glasses your failing eyesight does not permit you to--" + +"My eyesight cannot fail; nothing can fail; the Mind is master, and the +Mind permits no retrogression." + +She was under the inspiration of the Third Degree, therefore there could +be no profit in continuing this part of the subject. I shifted to other +ground and inquired further concerning the Discoverer of the Science. + +"Did the discovery come suddenly, like Klondike, or after long study and +calculation, like America?" + +"The comparisons are not respectful, since they refer to trivialities-- +but let it pass. I will answer in the Discoverer's own words: 'God had +been graciously fitting me, during many years, for the reception of a +final revelation of the absolute Principle of Scientific Mind-healing." + +"Many years. How many?" + +"Eighteen centuries!" + +"All--God, God--good, good--God, Truth, Bones, Liver, one of a series, +alone and without equal--it is amazing!" + +"You may well say it, sir. Yet it is but the truth This American lady, +our revered and sacred Founder, is distinctly referred to, and her coming +prophesied, in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; she could not have +been more plainly indicated by St. John without actually mentioning her +name." + +"How strange, how wonderful!" + +"I will quote her own words, from her Key to the Scriptures: 'The twelfth +chapter of the Apocalypse has a special suggestiveness in connection with +this nineteenth century.' There--do you note that? Think--note it well." + + +"But--what does it mean?" + +"Listen, and you will know. I quote her inspired words again: 'In the +opening of the Sixth Seal, typical of six thousand years since Adam, +there is one distinctive feature which has special reference to the +present age. Thus: + +"'Revelation xii. I. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven--a +woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her +head a crown of twelve stars.' + +"That is our Head, our Chief, our Discoverer of Christian Science-- +nothing can be plainer, nothing surer. And note this: + +"'Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she +had a place prepared of God.' + +"That is Boston. I recognize it, madam. These are sublime things, and +impressive; I never understood these passages before; please go on with +the--with the--proofs." + +"Very well. Listen: + +"'And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a +cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the +sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he held in his hand a little +book.' + +"A little book, merely a little book--could words be modester? Yet how +stupendous its importance! Do you know what book that was?" + +"Was it--" + +"I hold it in my hand--Christian Science!" + +"Love, Livers, Lights, Bones, Truth, Kidneys, one of a series, alone and +without equal--it is beyond imagination for wonder!" + +"Hear our Founder's eloquent words: 'Then will a voice from harmony cry, +"Go and take the little book: take it and eat it up, and it shall make +thy belly bitter; but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortal, +obey the heavenly evangel. Take up Divine Science. Read it from +beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be, indeed, sweet at its +first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find +its digestion bitter.' You now know the history of our dear and holy +Science, sir, and that its origin is not of this earth, but only its +discovery. I will leave the book with you and will go, now; but give +yourself no uneasiness--I will give you absent treatment from now till I +go to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Under the powerful influence of the near treatment and the absent +treatment together, my bones were gradually retreating inward and +disappearing from view. The good work took a brisk start, now, and went +on swiftly. My body was diligently straining and stretching, this way +and that, to accommodate the processes of restoration, and every minute +or two I heard a dull click inside and knew that the two ends of a +fracture had been successfully joined. This muffled clicking and +gritting and grinding and rasping continued during the next three hours, +and then stopped--the connections had all been made. All except +dislocations; there were only seven of these: hips, shoulders, knees, +neck; so that was soon over; one after another they slipped into their +sockets with a sound like pulling a distant cork, and I jumped up as good +as new, as to framework, and sent for the horse-doctor. + +I was obliged to do this because I had a stomach-ache and a cold in the +head, and I was not willing to trust these things any longer in the hands +of a woman whom I did not know, and whose ability to successfully treat +mere disease I had lost all confidence. My position was justified by the +fact that the cold and the ache had been in her charge from the first, +along with the fractures, but had experienced not a shade of relief; and, +indeed, the ache was even growing worse and worse, and more and more +bitter, now, probably on account of the protracted abstention from food +and drink. + +The horse-doctor came, a pleasant man and full of hope and professional +interest in the case. In the matter of smell he was pretty aromatic--in +fact, quite horsy--and I tried to arrange with him for absent treatment, +but it was not in his line, so, out of delicacy, I did not press it. He +looked at my teeth and examined my hock, and said my age and general +condition were favorable to energetic measures; therefore he would give +me something to turn the stomach-ache into the botts and the cold in the +head into the blind staggers; then he should be on his own beat and would +know what to do. He made up a bucket of bran-mash, and said a dipperful +of it every two hours, alternated with a drench with turpentine and axle- +grease in it, would either knock my ailments out of me in twenty-four +hours, or so interest me in other ways as to make me forget they were on +the premises. He administered my first dose himself, then took his +leave, saying I was free to eat and drink anything I pleased and in any +quantity I liked. But I was not hungry any more, and did not care for +food. + +I took up the Christian Science book and read half of it, then took a +dipperful of drench and read the other half. The resulting experiences +were full of interest and adventure. All through the rumblings and +grindings and quakings and effervescings accompanying the evolution of +the ache into the botts and the cold into the blind staggers I could note +the generous struggle for mastery going on between the mash and the +drench and the literature; and often I could tell which was ahead, and +could easily distinguish the literature from the others when the others +were separate, though not when they were mixed; for when a bran-mash and +an eclectic drench are mixed together they look just like the Apodictical +Principle out on a lark, and no one can tell it from that. The finish +was reached at last, the evolutions were complete, and a fine success, +but I think that this result could have been achieved with fewer +materials. I believe the mash was necessary to the conversion of the +stomach-ache into the botts, but I think one could develop the blind +staggers out of the literature by itself; also, that blind staggers +produced in this way would be of a better quality and more lasting than +any produced by the artificial processes of the horse-doctor. + +For of all the strange and frantic and incomprehensible and +uninterpretable books which the imagination of man has created, surely +this one is the prize sample. It is written with a limitless confidence +and complacency, and with a dash and stir and earnestness which often +compel the effects of eloquence, even when the words do not seem to have +any traceable meaning. There are plenty of people who imagine they +understand the book; I know this, for I have talked with them; but in all +cases they were people who also imagined that there were no such things +as pain, sickness, and death, and no realities in the world; nothing +actually existent but Mind. It seems to me to modify the value of their +testimony. When these people talk about Christian Science they do as +Mrs. Fuller did: they do not use their own language, but the book's; they +pour out the book's showy incoherences, and leave you to find out later +that they were not originating, but merely quoting; they seem to know the +volume by heart, and to revere it as they would a Bible--another Bible, +perhaps I ought to say. Plainly the book was written under the mental +desolations of the Third Degree, and I feel sure that none but the +membership of that Degree can discover meanings in it. When you read it +you seem to be listening to a lively and aggressive and oracular speech +delivered in an unknown tongue, a speech whose spirit you get but not the +particulars; or, to change the figure, you seem to be listening to a +vigorous instrument which is making a noise which it thinks is a tune, +but which, to persons not members of the band, is only the martial +tooting of a trombone, and merrily stirs the soul through the noise, but +does not convey a meaning. + +The book's serenities of self-satisfaction do almost seem to smack of a +heavenly origin--they have no blood-kin in the earth. It is more than +human to be so placidly certain about things, and so finely superior, and +so airily content with one's performance. Without ever presenting +anything which may rightfully be called by the strong name of Evidence, +and sometimes without even mentioning a reason for a deduction at all, it +thunders out the startling words, "I have Proved" so and so. It takes +the Pope and all the great guns of his Church in battery assembled to +authoritatively settle and establish the meaning of a sole and single +unclarified passage of Scripture, and this at vast cost of time and study +and reflection, but the author of this work is superior to all that: she +finds the whole Bible in an unclarified audition, and at small expense of +time and no expense of mental effort she clarifies it from lid to lid, +reorganizes and improves the meanings, then authoritatively settles and +establishes them with formulas which you cannot tell from "Let there be +light!" and "Here you have it!" It is the first time since the dawn-days +of Creation that a Voice has gone crashing through space with such placid +and complacent confidence and command. + +[January, 1903. The first reading of any book whose terminology is +new and strange is nearly sure to leave the reader in a bewildered and +sarcastic state of mind. But now that, during the past two months, I +have, by diligence gained a fair acquaintanceship with Science and Health +technicalities, I no longer find the bulk of that work hard to +understand.--M. T.] + +P.S. The wisdom harvested from the foregoing thoughts has already done +me a service and saved me a sorrow. Nearly a month ago there came to me +from one of the universities a tract by Dr. Edward Anthony Spitzka on +the "Encephalic Anatomy of the Races." I judged that my opinion was +desired by the university, and I was greatly pleased with this attention +and wrote and said I would furnish it as soon as I could. That night I +put my plodding and disheartening Christian Science mining aside and took +hold of the matter. I wrote an eager chapter, and was expecting to +finish my opinion the next day, but was called away for a week, and my +mind was soon charged with other interests. It was not until to-day, +after the lapse of nearly a month, that I happened upon my Encephalic +chapter again. Meantime, the new wisdom had come to me, and I read it +with shame. I recognized that I had entered upon that work in far from +the right temper--far from the respectful and judicial spirit which was +its due of reverence. I had begun upon it with the following paragraph +for fuel: + +"FISSURES OF THE PARIETAL AND OCCIPITAL LOBES (LATERAL SURFACE).--The +Postcentral Fissural Complex--In this hemicerebrum, the postcentral and +subcentral are combined to form a continuous fissure, attaining a length +of 8.5 cm. Dorsally, the fissure bifurcates, embracing the gyre indented +by the caudal limb of the paracentral. The caudal limb of the +postcentral is joined by a transparietal piece. In all, five additional +rami spring from the combined fissure. A vadum separates it from the +parietal; another from the central." + +It humiliates me, now, to see how angry I got over that; and how +scornful. I said that the style was disgraceful; that it was labored and +tumultuous, and in places violent, that the treatment was involved and +erratic, and almost, as a rule, bewildering; that to lack of simplicity +was added a lack of vocabulary; that there was quite too much feeling +shown; that if I had a dog that would get so excited and incoherent over +a tranquil subject like Encephalic Anatomy I would not pay his tax; and +at that point I got excited myself and spoke bitterly of these mongrel +insanities, and said a person might as well try to understand Science and +Health. + +[I know, now, where the trouble was, and am glad of the interruption that +saved me from sending my verdict to the university. It makes me cold to +think what those people might have thought of me.--M. T.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +No one doubts--certainly not I--that the mind exercises a powerful +influence over the body. From the beginning of time, the sorcerer, the +interpreter of dreams, the fortune-teller, the charlatan, the quack, the +wild medicine-man, the educated physician, the mesmerist, and the +hypnotist have made use of the client's imagination to help them in their +work. They have all recognized the potency and availability of that +force. Physicians cure many patients with a bread pill; they know that +where the disease is only a fancy, the patient's confidence in the doctor +will make the bread pill effective. + +Faith in the doctor. Perhaps that is the entire thing. It seems to look +like it. In old times the King cured the king's evil by the touch of the +royal hand. He frequently made extraordinary cures. Could his footman +have done it? No--not in his own clothes. Disguised as the King, could +he have done it? I think we may not doubt it. I think we may feel sure +that it was not the King's touch that made the cure in any instance, but +the patient's faith in the efficacy of a King's touch. Genuine and +remarkable cures have been achieved through contact with the relics of a +saint. Is it not likely that any other bones would have done as well if +the substitution had been concealed from the patient? When I was a boy a +farmer's wife who lived five miles from our village had great fame as a +faith-doctor--that was what she called herself. Sufferers came to her +from all around, and she laid her hand upon them and said, "Have faith-- +it is all that is necessary," and they went away well of their ailments. +She was not a religious woman, and pretended to no occult powers. She +said that the patient's faith in her did the work. Several times I saw +her make immediate cures of severe toothaches. My mother was the +patient. In Austria there is a peasant who drives a great trade in this +sort of industry, and has both the high and the low for patients. He +gets into prison every now and then for practising without a diploma, but +his business is as brisk as ever when he gets out, for his work is +unquestionably successful and keeps his reputation high. In Bavaria +there is a man who performed so many great cures that he had to retire +from his profession of stage-carpentering in order to meet the demand of +his constantly increasing body of customers. He goes on from year to +year doing his miracles, and has become very rich. He pretends to no +religious helps, no supernatural aids, but thinks there is something in +his make-up which inspires the confidence of his patients, and that it is +this confidence which does the work, and not some mysterious power +issuing from himself. + +Within the last quarter of a century, in America, several sects of curers +have appeared under various names and have done notable things in the way +of healing ailments without the use of medicines. There are the Mind +Cure the Faith Cure, the Prayer Cure, the Mental Science Cure, and the +Christian-Science Cure; and apparently they all do their miracles with +the same old, powerful instrument--the patient's imagination. Differing +names, but no difference in the process. But they do not give that +instrument the credit; each sect claims that its way differs from the +ways of the others. + +They all achieve some cures, there is no question about it; and the Faith +Cure and the Prayer Cure probably do no harm when they do no good, since +they do not forbid the patient to help out the cure with medicines if he +wants to; but the others bar medicines, and claim ability to cure every +conceivable human ailment through the application of their mental forces +alone. There would seem to be an element of danger here. It has the +look of claiming too much, I think. Public confidence would probably be +increased if less were claimed. + +The Christian Scientist was not able to cure my stomach-ache and my cold; +but the horse-doctor did it. This convinces me that Christian Science +claims too much. In my opinion it ought to let diseases alone and +confine itself to surgery. There it would have everything its own way. + +The horse-doctor charged me thirty kreutzers, and I paid him; in fact, I +doubled it and gave him a shilling. Mrs. Fuller brought in an itemized +bill for a crate of broken bones mended in two hundred and thirty-four +places--one dollar per fracture. + +"Nothing exists but Mind?" + +"Nothing," she answered. "All else is substanceless, all else is +imaginary." + +I gave her an imaginary check, and now she is suing me for substantial +dollars. It looks inconsistent. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to +each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple +many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and +obscurities now. + +Those of us who are not in the asylum, and not demonstrably due there, +are nevertheless, no doubt, insane in one or two particulars. I think we +must admit this; but I think that we are otherwise healthy-minded. I +think that when we all see one thing alike, it is evidence that, as +regards that one thing, our minds are perfectly sound. Now there are +really several things which we do all see alike; things which we all +accept, and about which we do not dispute. For instance, we who are +outside of the asylum all agree that water seeks its level; that the sun +gives light and heat; that fire consumes; that fog is damp; that six +times six are thirty-six, that two from ten leaves eight; that eight and +seven are fifteen. These are, perhaps, the only things we are agreed +about; but, although they are so few, they are of inestimable value, +because they make an infallible standard of sanity. Whosoever accepts +them him we know to be substantially sane; sufficiently sane; in the +working essentials, sane. Whoever disputes a single one of them him we +know to be wholly insane, and qualified for the asylum. + +Very well, the man who disputes none of them we concede to be entitled to +go at large. But that is concession enough. We cannot go any further +than that; for we know that in all matters of mere opinion that same man +is insane--just as insane as we are; just as insane as Shakespeare was. +We know exactly where to put our finger upon his insanity: it is where +his opinion differs from ours. + +That is a simple rule, and easy to remember. When I, a thoughtful and +unblessed Presbyterian, examine the Koran, I know that beyond any +question every Mohammedan is insane; not in all things, but in religious +matters. When a thoughtful and unblessed Mohammedan examines the +Westminster Catechism, he knows that beyond any question I am spiritually +insane. I cannot prove to him that he is insane, because you never can +prove anything to a lunatic--for that is a part of his insanity and the +evidence of it. He cannot prove to me that I am insane, for my mind has +the same defect that afflicts his. All Democrats are insane, but not one +of them knows it; none but the Republicans and Mugwumps know it. All the +Republicans are insane, but only the Democrats and Mugwumps can perceive +it. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are +insane. When I look around me, I am often troubled to see how many +people are mad. To mention only a few: + +The Atheist, The Theosophists, The Infidel, The Swedenborgians, The +Agnostic, The Shakers, The Baptist, The Millerites, The Methodist, The +Mormons, The Christian Scientist, The Laurence Oliphant Harrisites, The +Catholic, and the 115 Christian sects, the Presbyterian excepted, The +Grand Lama's people, The Monarchists, The Imperialists, The 72 Mohammedan +sects, The Democrats, The Republicans (but not the Mugwumps), The +Buddhist, The Blavatsky-Buddhist, The Mind-Curists, The Faith-Curists, +The Nationalist, The Mental Scientists, The Confucian, The Spiritualist, +The Allopaths, The 2000 East Indian sects, The Homeopaths, The +Electropaths, The Peculiar People, The---- + +But there's no end to the list; there are millions of them! And all +insane; each in his own way; insane as to his pet fad or opinion, but +otherwise sane and rational. This should move us to be charitable +towards one another's lunacies. I recognize that in his special belief +the Christian Scientist is insane, because he does not believe as I do; +but I hail him as my mate and fellow, because I am as insane as he insane +from his point of view, and his point of view is as authoritative as mine +and worth as much. That is to say, worth a brass farthing. Upon a great +religious or political question, the opinion of the dullest head in the +world is worth the same as the opinion of the brightest head in the +world--a brass farthing. How do we arrive at this? It is simple. The +affirmative opinion of a stupid man is neutralized by the negative +opinion of his stupid neighbor no decision is reached; the affirmative +opinion of the intellectual giant Gladstone is neutralized by the +negative opinion of the intellectual giant Newman--no decision is +reached. Opinions that prove nothing are, of course, without value any +but a dead person knows that much. This obliges us to admit the truth of +the unpalatable proposition just mentioned above--that, in disputed +matters political and religious, one man's opinion is worth no more than +his peer's, and hence it followers that no man's opinion possesses any +real value. It is a humbling thought, but there is no way to get around +it: all opinions upon these great subjects are brass-farthing opinions. + +It is a mere plain, simple fact--as clear and as certain as that eight +and seven make fifteen. And by it we recognize that we are all insane, +as concerns those matters. If we were sane, we should all see a +political or religious doctrine alike; there would be no dispute: it +would be a case of eight and seven--just as it is in heaven, where all +are sane and none insane. There there is but one religion, one belief; +the harmony is perfect; there is never a discordant note. + +Under protection of these preliminaries, I suppose I may now repeat +without offence that the Christian Scientist is insane. I mean him no +discourtesy, and I am not charging--nor even imagining--that he is +insaner than the rest of the human race. I think he is more +picturesquely insane than some of us. At the same time, I am quite sure +that in one important and splendid particular he is much saner than is +the vast bulk of the race. + +Why is he insane? I told you before: it is because his opinions are not +ours. I know of no other reason, and I do not need any other; it is the +only way we have of discovering insanity when it is not violent. It is +merely the picturesqueness of his insanity that makes it more interesting +than my kind or yours. For instance, consider his "little book"; the +"little book" exposed in the sky eighteen centuries ago by the flaming +angel of the Apocalypse, and handed down in our day to Mrs. Mary Baker G. +Eddy, of New Hampshire, and translated by her, word for word, into +English (with help of a polisher), and now published and distributed in +hundreds of editions by her at a clear profit per volume, above cost, of +seven hundred per cent.!--a profit which distinctly belongs to the angel +of the Apocalypse, and let him collect it if he can; a "little book" +which the C.S. very frequently calls by just that name, and always +enclosed in quotation-marks to keep its high origin exultantly in mind; a +"little book" which "explains" and reconstructs and new-paints and +decorates the Bible, and puts a mansard roof on it and a lightning-rod +and all the other modern improvements; a "little book" which for the +present affects to travel in yoke with the Bible and be friendly to it, +and within half a century will hitch the Bible in the rear and +thenceforth travel tandem, itself in the lead, in the coming great march +of Christian Scientism through the Protestant dominions of the planet. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"Hungry ones throng to hear the Bible read in connection with the text- +book of Christian Science, Science and Health, with Key to the +Scriptures, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. These are our only preachers. They +are the word of God." "Christian Science Journal", October, 1898. + +Is that picturesque? A lady has told me that in a chapel of the Mosque +in Boston there is a picture or image of Mrs. Eddy, and that before it +burns a never-extinguished light. Is that picturesque? How long do you +think it will be before the Christian Scientist will be worshipping that +picture or image and praying to it? How long do you think it will be +before it is claimed that Mrs. Eddy is a Redeemer, a Christ, and Christ's +equal? Already her army of disciples speak of her reverently as "Our +Mother." + +How long will it be before they place her on the steps of the Throne +beside the Virgin--and, later, a step higher? First, Mary the Virgin and +Mary the Matron; later, with a change of precedence, Mary the Matron and +Mary the Virgin. Let the artist get ready with his canvas and his +brushes; the new Renaissance is on its way, and there will be money in +altar-canvases--a thousand times as much as the Popes and their Church +ever spent on the Old Masters; for their riches were poverty as compared +with what is going to pour into the treasure-chest of the Christian- +Scientist Papacy by-and-by, let us not doubt it. We will examine the +financial outlook presently and see what it promises. A favorite subject +of the new Old Master will be the first verse of the twelfth chapter of +Revelation--a verse which Mrs. Eddy says (in her Annex to the Scriptures) +has "one distinctive feature which has special reference to the present +age"--and to her, as is rather pointedly indicated: + +"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the +sun, and the moon under her feet," etc. + +The woman clothed with the sun will be a portrait of Mrs. Eddy. + +Is it insanity to believe that Christian Scientism is destined to make +the most formidable show that any new religion has made in the world +since the birth and spread of Mobammedanism, and that within a century +from now it may stand second to Rome only, in numbers and power in +Christendom? + +If this is a wild dream it will not be easy to prove it so just yet, I +think. There seems argument that it may come true. The Christian- +Science "boom," proper, is not yet five years old; yet already it has two +hundred and fifty churches. + +It has its start, you see, and it is a phenomenally good one. Moreover, +it is latterly spreading with a constantly accelerating swiftness. It +has a better chance to grow and prosper and achieve permanency than any +other existing "ism"; for it has more to offer than any other. The past +teaches us that in order to succeed, a movement like this must not be a +mere philosophy, it must be a religion; also, that it must not claim +entire originality, but content itself with passing for an improvement on +an existing religion, and show its hand later, when strong and +prosperous--like Mohammedanism. + +Next, there must be money--and plenty of it. + +Next, the power and authority and capital must be concentrated in the +grip of a small and irresponsible clique, with nobody outside privileged +to ask questions or find fault. + +Next, as before remarked, it must bait its hook with some new and +attractive advantages over the baits offered by its competitors. A new +movement equipped with some of these endowments--like spiritualism, for +instance may count upon a considerable success; a new movement equipped +with the bulk of them--like Mohammedanism, for instance--may count upon +a widely extended conquest. Mormonism had all the requisites but one it +had nothing new and nothing valuable to bait with. Spiritualism lacked +the important detail of concentration of money and authority in the hands +of an irresponsible clique. + +The above equipment is excellent, admirable, powerful, but not perfect. +There is yet another detail which is worth the whole of it put together +and more; a detail which has never been joined (in the beginning of a +religious movement) to a supremely good working equipment since the world +began, until now: a new personage to worship. Christianity had the +Saviour, but at first and for generations it lacked money and +concentrated power. In Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science possesses the new +personage for worship, and in addition--here in the very beginning--a +working equipment that has not a flaw in it. In the beginning, +Mohammedanism had no money; and it has never had anything to offer its +client but heaven--nothing here below that was valuable. In addition to +heaven hereafter, Christian Science has present health and a cheerful +spirit to offer; and in comparison with this bribe all other this-world +bribes are poor and cheap. You recognize that this estimate is +admissible, do you not? + +To whom does Bellamy's "Nationalism" appeal? Necessarily to the few: +people who read and dream, and are compassionate, and troubled for the +poor and the hard-driven. To whom does Spiritualism appeal? Necessarily +to the few; its "boom" has lasted for half a century, and I believe it +claims short of four millions of adherents in America. Who are attracted +by Swedenborgianism and some of the other fine and delicate "isms"? The +few again: educated people, sensitively organized, with superior mental +endowments, who seek lofty planes of thought and find their contentment +there. And who are attracted by Christian Science? There is no limit; +its field is horizonless; its appeal is as universal as is the appeal of +Christianity itself. It appeals to the rich, the poor, the high, the +low, the cultured, the ignorant, the gifted, the stupid, the modest, the +vain, the wise, the silly, the soldier, the civilian, the hero, the +coward, the idler, the worker, the godly, the godless, the freeman, the +slave, the adult, the child; they who are ailing in body or mind, they +who have friends that are ailing in body or mind. To mass it in a +phrase, its clientage is the Human Race. Will it march? I think so. + +Remember its principal great offer: to rid the Race of pain and disease. +Can it do so? In large measure, yes. How much of the pain and disease +in the world is created by the imaginations of the sufferers, and then +kept alive by those same imaginations? Four-fifths? Not anything short +of that, I should think. Can Christian Science banish that four-fifths? +I think so. Can any other (organized) force do it? None that I know of. +Would this be a new world when that was accomplished? And a pleasanter +one--for us well people, as well as for those fussy and fretting sick +ones? Would it seem as if there was not as much gloomy weather as there +used to be? I think so. + +In the mean time, would the Scientist kill off a good many patients? +I think so. More than get killed off now by the legalized methods? +I will take up that question presently. + +At present, I wish to ask you to examine some of the Scientist's +performances, as registered in his magazine, The Christian Science +Journal--October number, 1898. First, a Baptist clergyman gives us this +true picture of "the average orthodox Christian"--and he could have added +that it is a true picture of the average (civilized) human being: + +"He is a worried and fretted and fearful man; afraid of himself and his +propensities, afraid of colds and fevers, afraid of treading on serpents +or drinking deadly things." + +Then he gives us this contrast: + +"The average Christian Scientist has put all anxiety and fretting under +his feet. He does have a victory over fear and care that is not achieved +by the average orthodox Christian." + +He has put all anxiety and fretting under his feet. What proportion of +your earnings or income would you be willing to pay for that frame of +mind, year in, year out? It really outvalues any price that can be put +upon it. Where can you purchase it, at any outlay of any sort, in any +Church or out of it, except the Scientist's? + +Well, it is the anxiety and fretting about colds, and fevers, and +draughts, and getting our feet wet, and about forbidden food eaten in +terror of indigestion, that brings on the cold and the fever and the +indigestion and the most of our other ailments; and so, if the Science +can banish that anxiety from the world I think it can reduce the world's +disease and pain about four-fifths. + +In this October number many of the redeemed testify and give thanks; and +not coldly, but with passionate gratitude. As a rule they seem drunk +with health, and with the surprise of it, the wonder of it, the +unspeakable glory and splendor of it, after a long, sober spell spent in +inventing imaginary diseases and concreting them with doctor-stuff. The +first witness testifies that when "this most beautiful Truth first dawned +on him" he had "nearly all the ills that flesh is heir to"; that those he +did not have he thought he had--and this made the tale about complete. +What was the natural result? Why, he was a dump-pit "for all the +doctors, druggists, and patent medicines of the country." Christian +Science came to his help, and "the old sick conditions passed away," and +along with them the "dismal forebodings" which he had been accustomed to +employ in conjuring up ailments. And so he was a healthy and cheerful +man, now, and astonished. + +But I am not astonished, for from other sources I know what must have +been his method of applying Christian Science. If I am in the right, he +watchfully and diligently diverted his mind from unhealthy channels and +compelled it to travel in healthy ones. Nothing contrivable by human +invention could be more formidably effective than that, in banishing +imaginary ailments and in closing the entrances against sub-sequent +applicants of their breed. I think his method was to keep saying, "I am +well! I am sound!--sound and well! well and sound! Perfectly sound, +perfectly well! I have no pain; there's no such thing as pain! I have +no disease; there's no such thing as disease! Nothing is real but Mind; +all is Mind, All-Good Good-Good, Life, Soul, Liver, Bones, one of a +series, ante and pass the buck!" + +I do not mean that that was exactly the formula used, but that it +doubtless contains the spirit of it. The Scientist would attach value to +the exact formula, no doubt, and to the religious spirit in which it was +used. I should think that any formula that would divert the mind from +unwholesome channels and force it into healthy ones would answer every +purpose with some people, though not with all. I think it most likely +that a very religious man would find the addition of the religious spirit +a powerful reinforcement in his case. + +The second witness testifies that the Science banished "an old organic +trouble," which the doctor and the surgeon had been nursing with drugs +and the knife for seven years. + +He calls it his "claim." A surface-miner would think it was not his +claim at all, but the property of the doctor and his pal the surgeon--for +he would be misled by that word, which is Christian-Science slang for +"ailment." The Christian Scientist has no ailment; to him there is no +such thing, and he will not use the hateful word. All that happens to +him is that upon his attention an imaginary disturbance sometimes +obtrudes itself which claims to be an ailment but isn't. + +This witness offers testimony for a clergyman seventy years old who had +preached forty years in a Christian church, and has now gone over to the +new sect. He was "almost blind and deaf." He was treated by the C. S. +method, and "when he heard the voice of Truth he saw spiritually." Saw +spiritually? It is a little indefinite; they had better treat him again. +Indefinite testimonies might properly be waste-basketed, since there is +evidently no lack of definite ones procurable; but this C. S. magazine +is poorly edited, and so mistakes of this kind must be expected. + +The next witness is a soldier of the Civil War. When Christian Science +found him, he had in stock the following claims: + +Indigestion, +Rheumatism, +Catarrh, +Chalky deposits in +Shoulder-joints, +Arm-joints, +Hand-joints, +Insomnia, +Atrophy of the muscles of +Arms. +Shoulders, +Stiffness of all those joints, +Excruciating pains most of the time. + +These claims have a very substantial sound. They came of exposure in the +campaigns. The doctors did all they could, but it was little. Prayers +were tried, but "I never realized any physical relief from that source." +After thirty years of torture, he went to a Christian Scientist and took +an hour's treatment and went home painless. Two days later, he "began to +eat like a well man." Then "the claims vanished--some at once, others +more gradually"; finally, "they have almost entirely disappeared." And-- +a thing which is of still greater value--he is now "contented and happy." +That is a detail which, as earlier remarked, is a Scientist-Church +specialty. And, indeed, one may go further and assert with little or no +exaggeration that it is a Christian-Science monopoly. With thirty-one +years' effort, the Methodist Church had not succeeded in furnishing it to +this harassed soldier. + +And so the tale goes on. Witness after witness bulletins his claims, +declares their prompt abolishment, and gives Mrs. Eddy's Discovery the +praise. Milk-leg is cured; nervous prostration is cured; consumption is +cured; and St. Vitus's dance is made a pastime. Even without a fiddle. +And now and then an interesting new addition to the Science slang appears +on the page. We have "demonstrations over chilblains" and such things. +It seems to be a curtailed way of saying "demonstrations of the power of +Christian-Science Truth over the fiction which masquerades under the name +of Chilblains." The children, as well as the adults, share in the +blessings of the Science. "Through the study of the 'little book' they +are learning how to be healthful, peaceful, and wise." Sometimes they +are cured of their little claims by the professional healer, and +sometimes more advanced children say over the formula and cure +themselves. + +A little Far-Western girl of nine, equipped with an adult vocabulary, +states her age and says, "I thought I would write a demonstration to +you." She had a claim, derived from getting flung over a pony's head and +landed on a rockpile. She saved herself from disaster by remembering to +say "God is All" while she was in the air. I couldn't have done it. I +shouldn't even have thought of it. I should have been too excited. +Nothing but Christian Science could have enabled that child to do that +calm and thoughtful and judicious thing in those circumstances. She came +down on her head, and by all the rules she should have broken it; but the +intervention of the formula prevented that, so the only claim resulting +was a blackened eye. Monday morning it was still swollen and shut. At +school "it hurt pretty badly--that is, it seemed to." So "I was excused, +and went down to the basement and said, 'Now I am depending on mamma +instead of God, and I will depend on God instead of mamma.'" No doubt +this would have answered; but, to make sure, she added Mrs. Eddy to the +team and recited "the Scientific Statement of Being," which is one of the +principal incantations, I judge. Then "I felt my eye opening." Why, +dear, it would have opened an oyster. I think it is one of the +touchingest things in child-history, that pious little rat down cellar +pumping away at the Scientific Statement of Being. + +There is a page about another good child--little Gordon. Little Gordon +"came into the world without the assistance of surgery or anaesthetics." +He was a "demonstration." A painless one; therefore, his coming evoked +"joy and thankfulness to God and the Discoverer of Christian Science." +It is a noticeable feature of this literature--the so frequent linking +together of the Two Beings in an equal bond; also of Their Two Bibles. +When little Gordon was two years old, "he was playing horse on the bed, +where I had left my 'little book.' I noticed him stop in his play, take +the book carefully in his little hands, kiss it softly, then look about +for the highest place of safety his arms could reach, and put it there." +This pious act filled the mother "with such a train of thought as I had +never experienced before. I thought of the sweet mother of long ago who +kept things in her heart," etc. It is a bold comparison; however, +unconscious profanations are about as common in the mouths of the lay +member ship of the new Church as are frank and open ones in the mouths of +its consecrated chiefs. + +Some days later, the family library--Christian-Science books--was lying +in a deep-seated window. This was another chance for the holy child to +show off. He left his play and went there and pushed all the books to +one side, except the Annex "It he took in both hands, slowly raised it to +his lips, then removed it carefully, and seated himself in the window." +It had seemed to the mother too wonderful to be true, that first time; +but now she was convinced that "neither imagination nor accident had +anything to do with it." Later, little Gordon let the author of his +being see him do it. After that he did it frequently; probably every +time anybody was looking. I would rather have that child than a chromo. +If this tale has any object, it is to intimate that the inspired book was +supernaturally able to convey a sense of its sacred and awful character +to this innocent little creature, without the intervention of outside +aids. The magazine is not edited with high-priced discretion. The +editor has a "claim," and he ought to get it treated. + +Among other witnesses there is one who had a "jumping toothache," which +several times tempted her to "believe that there was sensation in matter, +but each time it was overcome by the power of Truth." She would not +allow the dentist to use cocaine, but sat there and let him punch and +drill and split and crush the tooth, and tear and slash its ulcerations, +and pull out the nerve, and dig out fragments of bone; and she wouldn't +once confess that it hurt. And to this day she thinks it didn't, and I +have not a doubt that she is nine-tenths right, and that her Christian- +Science faith did her better service than she could have gotten out of +cocaine. + +There is an account of a boy who got broken all up into small bits by an +accident, but said over the Scientific Statement of Being, or some of the +other incantations, and got well and sound without having suffered any +real pain and without the intrusion of a surgeon. + +Also, there is an account of the restoration to perfect health, in a +single night, of a fatally injured horse, by the application of Christian +Science. I can stand a good deal, but I recognize that the ice is +getting thin, here. That horse had as many as fifty claims; how could he +demonstrate over them? Could he do the All-Good, Good-Good, Good- +Gracious, Liver, Bones, Truth, All down but Nine, Set them up on the +Other Alley? Could he intone the Scientific Statement of Being? Now, +could he? Wouldn't it give him a relapse? Let us draw the line at +horses. Horses and furniture. + +There is plenty of other testimonies in the magazine, but these quoted +samples will answer. They show the kind of trade the Science is driving. +Now we come back to the question, Does the Science kill a patient here +and there and now and then? We must concede it. Does it compensate for +this? I am persuaded that it can make a plausible showing in that +direction. For instance: when it lays its hand upon a soldier who has +suffered thirty years of helpless torture and makes him whole in body and +mind, what is the actual sum of that achievement? This, I think: that it +has restored to life a subject who had essentially died ten deaths a year +for thirty years, and each of them a long and painful one. But for its +interference that man in the three years which have since elapsed, would +have essentially died thirty times more. There are thousands of young +people in the land who are now ready to enter upon a life-long death +similar to that man's. Every time the Science captures one of these and +secures to him life-long immunity from imagination-manufactured disease, +it may plausibly claim that in his person it has saved three hundred +lives. Meantime, it will kill a man every now and then. But no matter, +it will still be ahead on the credit side. + +[NOTE.--I have received several letters (two from educated and ostensibly +intelligent persons), which contained, in substance, this protest: "I +don't object to men and women chancing their lives with these people, but +it is a burning shame that the law should allow them to trust their +helpless little children in their deadly hands. "Isn't it touching? +Isn't it deep? Isn't it modest? It is as if the person said: "I know +that to a parent his child is the core of his heart, the apple of his +eye, a possession so dear, so precious that he will trust its life in no +hands but those which he believes, with all his soul, to be the very best +and the very safest, but it is a burning shame that the law does not +require him to come to me to ask what kind of healer I will allow him to +call." The public is merely a multiplied "me."--M.T.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"We consciously declare that Science and Health, with Key to the +Scriptures, was foretold, as well as its author, Mary Baker Eddy, in +Revelation x. She is the 'mighty angel,' or God's highest thought to +this age (verse 1), giving us the spiritual interpretation of the Bible +in the 'little book open' (verse 2). Thus we prove that Christian +Science is the second coming of Christ-Truth-Spirit."--Lecture by Dr. +George Tomkins, D.D. C.S. + +There you have it in plain speech. She is the mighty angel; she is the +divinely and officially sent bearer of God's highest thought. For the +present, she brings the Second Advent. We must expect that before she +has been in her grave fifty years she will be regarded by her following +as having been herself the Second Advent. She is already worshiped, and +we must expect this feeling to spread, territorially, and also to deepen +in intensity. + +Particularly after her death; for then, as any one can foresee, Eddy- +Worship will be taught in the Sunday-schools and pulpits of the cult. +Already whatever she puts her trade-mark on, though it be only a +memorial-spoon, is holy and is eagerly and gratefully bought by the +disciple, and becomes a fetish in his house. I say bought, for the +Boston Christian-Science Trust gives nothing away; everything it has is +for sale. And the terms are cash; and not only cash, but cash in +advance. Its god is Mrs. Eddy first, then the Dollar. Not a spiritual +Dollar, but a real one. From end to end of the Christian Science +literature not a single (material) thing in the world is conceded to be +real, except the Dollar. But all through and through its advertisements +that reality is eagerly and persistently recognized. + +The Dollar is hunted down in all sorts of ways; the Christian-Science +Mother-Church and Bargain-Counter in Boston peddles all kinds of +spiritual wares to the faithful, and always on the one condition--cash, +cash in advance. The Angel of the Apocalypse could not go there and get +a copy of his own pirated book on credit. Many, many precious Christian- +Science things are to be had there for cash: Bible Lessons; Church +Manual; C. S. Hymnal; History of the building of the Mother-Church; lot +of Sermons; Communion Hymn, "Saw Ye My Saviour," by Mrs. Eddy, half a +dollar a copy, "words used by special permission of Mrs. Eddy." Also we +have Mrs. Eddy's and the Angel's little Blue-Annex in eight styles of +binding at eight kinds of war-prices; among these a sweet thing in +"levant, divinity circuit, leather lined to edge, round corners, gold +edge, silk sewed, each, prepaid, $6," and if you take a million you get +them a shilling cheaper--that is to say, "prepaid, $5.75." Also we have +Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, at 'andsome big prices, the divinity- +circuit style heading the exertions, shilling discount where you take an +edition Next comes Christ and Christmas, by the fertile Mrs. Eddy--a +poem--would God I could see it!--price $3, cash in advance. Then +follow five more books by Mrs. Eddy, at highwayman's rates, some of them +in "leatherette covers," some of them in "pebble cloth," with divinity- +circuit, compensation-balance, twin-screw, and the other modern +improvements; and at the same bargain-counter can be had The Christian +Science Journal. + +Christian-Science literary discharges are a monopoly of the Mother-Church +Headquarters Factory in Boston; none genuine without the trade-mark of +the Trust. You must apply there and not elsewhere. + +One hundred dollars for it. And I have a case among my statistics where +the student had a three weeks' course and paid three hundred for it. + +The Trust does love the Dollar, when it isn't a spiritual one. + +In order to force the sale of Mrs Eddy's Bible-Annex, no healer, +Metaphysical-College-bred or other, is allowed to practice the game +unless he possesses a copy of that book. That means a large and +constantly augmenting income for the Trust. No C.S. family would +consider itself loyal or pious or pain-proof without an Annex or two in +the house. That means an income for the Trust, in the near future, of +millions; not thousands-millions a year. + +No member, young or old, of a branch Christian-Scientist church can +acquire and retain membership in the Mother-Church unless he pay +"capitation tax" (of "not less than a dollar," say the By-Laws) to the +Boston Trust every year. That means an income for the Trust, in the near +future, of--let us venture to say--millions more per year. + +It is a reasonably safe guess that in America in 1920 there will be ten +million Christian Scientists, and three millions in Great Britain; that +these figures will be trebled in 1930; that in America in 1920 the +Christian Scientists will be a political force, in 1930 politically +formidable, and in 1940 the governing power in the Republic--to remain +that, permanently. And I think it a reasonable guess that the Trust +(which is already in our day pretty brusque in its ways) will then be the +most insolent and unscrupulous and tyrannical politico-religious master +that has dominated a people since the palmy days of the Inquisition. And +a stronger master than the strongest of bygone times, because this one +will have a financial strength not dreamed of by any predecessor; as +effective a concentration of irresponsible power as any predecessor has +had; in the railway, the telegraph, and the subsidized newspaper, better +facilities for watching and managing his empire than any predecessor has +had; and, after a generation or two, he will probably divide Christendom +with the Catholic Church. + +The Roman Church has a perfect organization, and it has an effective +centralization of power--but not of its cash. Its multitude of Bishops +are rich, but their riches remain in large measure in their own hands. +They collect from two hundred millions of people, but they keep the bulk +of the result at home. The Boston Pope of by-and-by will draw his +dollar-a-head capitation-tax from three hundred millions of the human +race, and the Annex and the rest of his book-shop stock will fetch in as +much more; and his Metaphysical Colleges, the annual Pilgrimage to Mrs. +Eddy's tomb, from all over the world-admission, the Christian-Science +Dollar (payable in advance)--purchases of consecrated glass beads, +candles, memorial spoons, aureoled chrome-portraits and bogus autographs +of Mrs. Eddy; cash offerings at her shrine no crutches of cured cripples +received, and no imitations of miraculously restored broken legs and +necks allowed to be hung up except when made out of the Holy Metal and +proved by fire-assay; cash for miracles worked at the tomb: these money- +sources, with a thousand to be yet invented and ambushed upon the +devotee, will bring the annual increment well up above a billion. And +nobody but the Trust will have the handling of it. In that day, the +Trust will monopolize the manufacture and sale of the Old and New +Testaments as well as the Annex, and raise their price to Annex rates, +and compel the devotee to buy (for even to-day a healer has to have the +Annex and the Scriptures or he is not allowed to work the game), and that +will bring several hundred million dollars more. In those days, the +Trust will have an income approaching five million dollars a day, and no +expenses to be taken out of it; no taxes to pay, and no charities to +support. That last detail should not be lightly passed over by the +reader; it is well entitled to attention. + +No charities to support. No, nor even to contribute to. One searches in +vain the Trust's advertisements and the utterances of its organs for any +suggestion that it spends a penny on orphans, widows, discharged +prisoners, hospitals, ragged schools, night missions, city missions, +libraries, old people's homes, or any other object that appeals to a +human being's purse through his heart. + +I have hunted, hunted, and hunted, by correspondence and otherwise, and +have not yet got upon the track of a farthing that the Trust has spent +upon any worthy object. Nothing makes a Scientist so uncomfortable as to +ask him if he knows of a case where Christian Science has spent money on +a benevolence, either among its own adherents or elsewhere. He is +obliged to say "No" And then one discovers that the person questioned has +been asked the question many times before, and that it is getting to be a +sore subject with him. Why a sore subject? Because he has written his +chiefs and asked with high confidence for an answer that will confound +these questioners--and the chiefs did not reply. He has written again, +and then again--not with confidence, but humbly, now--and has begged for +defensive ammunition in the voice of supplication. A reply does at last +come to this effect: "We must have faith in Our Mother, and rest content +in the conviction that whatever She does with the money it is in +accordance with orders from Heaven, for She does no act of any kind +without first 'demonstrating over' it." + +That settles it--as far as the disciple is concerned. His mind is +satisfied with that answer; he gets down his Annex and does an +incantation or two, and that mesmerizes his spirit and puts that to +sleep--brings it peace. Peace and comfort and joy, until some inquirer +punctures the old sore again. + +Through friends in America I asked some questions, and in some cases got +definite and informing answers; in other cases the answers were not +definite and not valuable. To the question, "Does any of the money go to +charities?" the answer from an authoritative source was: "No, not in the +sense usually conveyed by this word." (The italics are mine.) That +answer is cautious. But definite, I think--utterly and unassailably +definite--although quite Christian-Scientifically foggy in its phrasing. +Christian-Science testimony is generally foggy, generally diffuse, +generally garrulous. The writer was aware that the first word in his +phrase answered the question which I was asking, but he could not help +adding nine dark words. Meaningless ones, unless explained by him. It +is quite likely, as intimated by him, that Christian Science has invented +a new class of objects to apply the word "charity" to, but without an +explanation we cannot know what they are. We quite easily and naturally +and confidently guess that they are in all cases objects which will +return five hundred per cent. on the Trust's investment in them, but +guessing is not knowledge; it is merely, in this case, a sort of nine- +tenths certainty deducible from what we think we know of the Trust's +trade principles and its sly and furtive and shifty ways. + +Sly? Deep? Judicious? The Trust understands its business. The Trust +does not give itself away. It defeats all the attempts of us +impertinents to get at its trade secrets. To this day, after all our +diligence, we have not been able to get it to confess what it does with +the money. It does not even let its own disciples find out. All it says +is, that the matter has been "demonstrated over." Now and then a lay +Scientist says, with a grateful exultation, that Mrs. Eddy is enormously +rich, but he stops there; as to whether any of the money goes to other +charities or not, he is obliged to admit that he does not know. However, +the Trust is composed of human beings; and this justifies the conjecture +that if it had a charity on its list which it was proud of, we should +soon hear of it. + +"Without money and without price." Those used to be the terms. Mrs. +Eddy's Annex cancels them. The motto of Christian Science is, "The +laborer is worthy of his hire." And now that it has been "demonstrated +over," we find its spiritual meaning to be, "Do anything and everything +your hand may find to do; and charge cash for it, and collect the money +in advance." The Scientist has on his tongue's end a cut-and-dried, +Boston-supplied set of rather lean arguments, whose function is to show +that it is a Heaven-commanded duty to do this, and that the croupiers of +the game have no choice but to obey. + +The Trust seems to be a reincarnation. Exodus xxxii. 4. + +I have no reverence for the Trust, but I am not lacking in reverence for +the sincerities of the lay membership of the new Church. There is every +evidence that the lay members are entirely sincere in their faith, and I +think sincerity is always entitled to honor and respect, let the +inspiration of the sincerity be what it may. Zeal and sincerity can +carry a new religion further than any other missionary except fire and +sword, and I believe that the new religion will conquer the half of +Christendom in a hundred years. I am not intending this as a compliment +to the human race; I am merely stating an opinion. And yet I think that +perhaps it is a compliment to the race. I keep in mind that saying of an +orthodox preacher--quoted further back. He conceded that this new +Christianity frees its possessor's life from frets, fears, vexations, +bitterness, and all sorts of imagination-propagated maladies and pains, +and fills his world with sunshine and his heart with gladness. If +Christian Science, with this stupendous equipment--and final salvation +added--cannot win half the Christian globe, I must be badly mistaken in +the make-up of the human race. + +I think the Trust will be handed down like Me other Papacy, and will +always know how to handle its limitless cash. It will press the button; +the zeal, the energy, the sincerity, the enthusiasm of its countless +vassals will do the rest. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The power which a man's imagination has over his body to heal it or make +it sick is a force which none of us is born without. The first man had +it, the last one will possess it. If left to himself, a man is most +likely to use only the mischievous half of the force--the half which +invents imaginary ailments for him and cultivates them; and if he is one +of these--very wise people, he is quite likely to scoff at the beneficent +half of the force and deny its existence. And so, to heal or help that +man, two imaginations are required: his own and some outsider's. The +outsider, B, must imagine that his incantations are the healing-power +that is curing A, and A must imagine that this is so. I think it is not +so, at all; but no matter, the cure is effected, and that is the main +thing. The outsider's work is unquestionably valuable; so valuable that +it may fairly be likened to the essential work performed by the engineer +when he handles the throttle and turns on the steam; the actual power is +lodged exclusively in the engine, but if the engine were left alone it +would never start of itself. Whether the engineer be named Jim, or Bob, +or Tom, it is all one--his services are necessary, and he is entitled to +such wage as he can get you to pay. Whether he be named Christian +Scientist, or Mental Scientist, or Mind Curist, or King's-Evil Expert, or +Hypnotist, it is all one; he is merely the Engineer; he simply turns on +the same old steam and the engine does the whole work. + +The Christian-Scientist engineer drives exactly the same trade as the +other engineers, yet he out-prospers the whole of them put together. + +Is it because he has captured the takingest name? I think that that is +only a small part of it. I think that the secret of his high prosperity +lies elsewhere. + +The Christian Scientist has organized the business. Now that was +certainly a gigantic idea. Electricity, in limitless volume, has existed +in the air and the rocks and the earth and everywhere since time began-- +and was going to waste all the while. In our time we have organized that +scattered and wandering force and set it to work, and backed the business +with capital, and concentrated it in few and competent hands, and the +results are as we see. + +The Christian Scientist has taken a force which has been lying idle in +every member of the human race since time began, and has organized it, +and backed the business with capital, and concentrated it at Boston +headquarters in the hands of a small and very competent Trust, and there +are results. + +Therein lies the promise that this monopoly is going to extend its +commerce wide in the earth. I think that if the business were conducted +in the loose and disconnected fashion customary with such things, it +would achieve but little more than the modest prosperity usually secured +by unorganized great moral and commercial ventures; but I believe that so +long as this one remains compactly organized and closely concentrated in +a Trust, the spread of its dominion will continue. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Four years ago I wrote the preceding chapters. I was assured by the wise +that Christian Science was a fleeting craze and would soon perish. This +prompt and all-competent stripe of prophet is always to be had in the +market at ground-floor rates. He does not stop to load, or consider, or +take aim, but lets fly just as he stands. Facts are nothing to him, he +has no use for such things; he works wholly by inspiration. And so, when +he is asked why he considers a new movement a passing fad and quickly +perishable, he finds himself unprepared with a reason and is more or less +embarrassed. For a moment. Only for a moment. Then he waylays the +first spectre of a reason that goes flitting through the desert places of +his mind, and is at once serene again and ready for conflict. Serene and +confident. Yet he should not be so, since he has had no chance to +examine his catch, and cannot know whether it is going to help his +contention or damage it. + +The impromptu reason furnished by the early prophets of whom I have +spoken was this: + +"There is nothing to Christian Science; there is nothing about it that +appeals to the intellect; its market will be restricted to the +unintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not think." + +They called that a reason why the cult would not flourish and endure. It +seems the equivalent of saying: + +"There is no money in tinware; there is nothing about it that appeals to +the rich; its market will be restricted to the poor." + +It is like bringing forward the best reason in the world why Christian +Science should flourish and live, and then blandly offering it as a +reason why it should sicken and die. + +That reason was furnished me by the complacent and unfrightened prophets +four years ago, and it has been furnished me again to-day. If +conversions to new religions or to old ones were in any considerable +degree achieved through the intellect, the aforesaid reason would be +sound and sufficient, no doubt; the inquirer into Christian Science might +go away unconvinced and unconverted. But we all know that conversions +are seldom made in that way; that such a thing as a serious and +painstaking and fairly competent inquiry into the claims of a religion or +of a political dogma is a rare occurrence; and that the vast mass of men +and women are far from being capable of making such an examination. They +are not capable, for the reason that their minds, howsoever good they may +be, are not trained for such examinations. The mind not trained for that +work is no more competent to do it than are lawyers and farmers competent +to make successful clothes without learning the tailor's trade. There +are seventy-five million men and women among us who do not know how to +cut out and make a dress-suit, and they would not think of trying; yet +they all think they can competently think out a political or religious +scheme without any apprenticeship to the business, and many of them +believe they have actually worked that miracle. But, indeed, the truth +is, almost all the men and women of our nation or of any other get their +religion and their politics where they get their astronomy--entirely at +second hand. Being untrained, they are no more able to intelligently +examine a dogma or a policy than they are to calculate an eclipse. + +Men are usually competent thinkers along the lines of their specialized +training only. Within these limits alone are their opinions and +judgments valuable; outside of these limits they grope and are lost-- +usually without knowing it. In a church assemblage of five hundred +persons, there will be a man or two whose trained minds can seize upon +each detail of a great manufacturing scheme and recognize its value or +its lack of value promptly; and can pass the details in intelligent +review, section by section, and finally as a whole, and then deliver a +verdict upon the scheme which cannot be flippantly set aside nor easily +answered. And there will be one or two other men there who can do the +same thing with a great and complicated educational project; and one or +two others who can do the like with a large scheme for applying +electricity in a new and unheard-of way; and one or two others who can do +it with a showy scheme for revolutionizing the scientific world's +accepted notions regarding geology. And so on, and so on. But the +manufacturing experts will not be competent to examine the educational +scheme intelligently, and their opinion about it would not be valuable; +neither of these two groups will be able to understand and pass upon the +electrical scheme; none of these three batches of experts will be able to +understand and pass upon the geological revolution; and probably not one +man in the entire lot will be competent to examine, capably, the +intricacies of a political or religious scheme, new or old, and deliver a +judgment upon it which any one need regard as precious. + +There you have the top crust. There will be four hundred and seventy- +five men and women present who can draw upon their training and deliver +incontrovertible judgments concerning cheese, and leather, and cattle, +and hardware, and soap, and tar, and candles, and patent medicines, and +dreams, and apparitions, and garden trucks, and cats, and baby food, and +warts, and hymns, and time-tables, and freight-rates, and summer resorts, +and whiskey, and law, and surgery, and dentistry, and blacksmithing, and +shoemaking, and dancing, and Huyler's candy, and mathematics, and dog +fights, and obstetrics, and music, and sausages, and dry goods, and +molasses, and railroad stocks, and horses, and literature, and labor +unions, and vegetables, and morals, and lamb's fries, and etiquette, and +agriculture. And not ten among the five hundred--let their minds be ever +so good and bright--will be competent, by grace of the requisite +specialized mental training, to take hold of a complex abstraction of any +kind and make head or tail of it. + +The whole five hundred are thinkers, and they are all capable thinkers-- +but only within the narrow limits of their specialized trainings. Four +hundred and ninety of them cannot competently examine either a religious +plan or a political one. A scattering few of them do examine both--that +is, they think they do. With results as precious as when I examine the +nebular theory and explain it to myself. + +If the four hundred and ninety got their religion through their minds, +and by weighed and measured detail, Christian Science would not be a +scary apparition. But they don't; they get a little of it through their +minds, more of it through their feelings, and the overwhelming bulk of it +through their environment. + +Environment is the chief thing to be considered when one is proposing to +predict the future of Christian Science. It is not the ability to reason +that makes the Presbyterian, or the Baptist, or the Methodist, or the +Catholic, or the Mohammedan, or the Buddhist, or the Mormon; it is +environment. If religions were got by reasoning, we should have the +extraordinary spectacle of an American family with a Presbyterian in it, +and a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Mohammedan, a Buddhist, and a +Mormon. A Presbyterian family does not produce Catholic families or +other religious brands, it produces its own kind; and not by intellectual +processes, but by association. And so also with Mohammedanism, the cult +which in our day is spreading with the sweep of a world-conflagration +through the Orient, that native home of profound thought and of subtle +intellectual fence, that fertile womb whence has sprung every great +religion that exists. Including our own; for with all our brains we +cannot invent a religion and market it. + +The language of my quoted prophets recurs to us now, and we wonder to +think how small a space in the world the mighty Mohammedan Church would +be occupying now, if a successful trade in its line of goods had been +conditioned upon an exhibit that would "appeal to the intellect" instead +of to "the unintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not +think." + +The Christian Science Church, like the Mohammedan Church, makes no +embarrassing appeal to the intellect, has no occasion to do it, and can +get along quite well without it. + +Provided. Provided what? That it can secure that thing which is worth +two or three hundred thousand times more than an "appeal to the +intellect"--an environment. Can it get that? Will it be a menace to +regular Christianity if it gets that? Is it time for regular +Christianity to get alarmed? Or shall regular Christianity smile a smile +and turn over and take another nap? Won't it be wise and proper for +regular Christianity to do the old way, Me customary way, the historical +way--lock the stable-door after the horse is gone? Just as Protestantism +has smiled and nodded this long time (while the alert and diligent +Catholic was slipping in and capturing the public schools), and is now +beginning to hunt around for the key when it is too late? + +Will Christian Science get a chance to show its wares? It has already +secured that chance. Will it flourish and spread and prosper if it shall +create for itself the one thing essential to those conditions--an +environment? It has already created an environment. There are families +of Christian Scientists in every community in America, and each family is +a factory; each family turns out a Christian Science product at the +customary intervals, and contributes it to the Cause in the only way in +which contributions of recruits to Churches are ever made on a large +scale--by the puissant forces of personal contact and association. Each +family is an agency for the Cause, and makes converts among the +neighbors, and starts some more factories. + +Four years ago there were six Christian Scientists in a certain town that +I am acquainted with; a year ago there were two hundred and fifty there; +they have built a church, and its membership now numbers four hundred. +This has all been quietly done; done without frenzied revivals, without +uniforms, brass bands, street parades, corner oratory, or any of the +other customary persuasions to a godly life. Christian Science, like +Mohammedanism, is "restricted" to the "unintelligent, the people who do +not think." There lies the danger. It makes Christian Science +formidable. It is "restricted" to ninety-nine one-hundredths of the +human race, and must be reckoned with by regular Christianity. And will +be, as soon as it is too late. + + + + + + +BOOK II + +"There were remarkable things about the stranger called the Man--Mystery- +things so very extraordinary that they monopolized attention and made all +of him seem extraordinary; but this was not so, the most of his qualities +being of the common, every-day size and like anybody else's. It was +curious. He was of the ordinary stature, and had the ordinary aspects; +yet in him were hidden such strange contradictions and disproportions! +He was majestically fearless and heroic; he had the strength of thirty +men and the daring of thirty thousand; handling armies, organizing +states, administering governments--these were pastimes to him; he +publicly and ostentatiously accepted the human race at its own valuation- +-as demigods--and privately and successfully dealt with it at quite +another and juster valuation--as children and slaves; his ambitions were +stupendous, and his dreams had no commerce with the humble plain, but +moved with the cloud-rack among the snow-summits. These features of him +were, indeed, extraordinary, but the rest of him was ordinary and usual. +He was so mean-minded, in the matter of jealousy, that it was thought he +was descended from a god; he was vain in little ways, and had a pride in +trivialities; he doted on ballads about moonshine and bruised hearts; in +education he was deficient, he was indifferent to literature, and knew +nothing of art; he was dumb upon all subjects but one, indifferent to all +except that one--the Nebular Theory. Upon that one his flow of words was +full and free, he was a geyser. The official astronomers disputed his +facts and deeded his views, and said that he had invented both, they not +being findable in any of the books. But many of the laity, who wanted +their nebulosities fresh, admired his doctrine and adopted it, and it +attained to great prosperity in spite of the hostility of the experts." +--The Legend of the Man-Mystery, ch. i. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +JANUARY, 1903. When we do not know a public man personally, we guess him +out by the facts of his career. When it is Washington, we all arrive at +about one and the same result. We agree that his words and his acts +clearly interpret his character to us, and that they never leave us in +doubt as to the motives whence the words and acts proceeded. It is the +same with Joan of Arc, it is the same with two or three or five or six +others among the immortals. But in the matter of motives and of a few +details of character we agree to disagree upon Napoleon, Cromwell, and +all the rest; and to this list we must add Mrs. Eddy. I think we can +peacefully agree as to two or three extraordinary features of her make- +up, but not upon the other features of it. We cannot peacefully agree as +to her motives, therefore her character must remain crooked to some of us +and straight to the others. + +No matter, she is interesting enough without an amicable agreement. In +several ways she is the most interesting woman that ever lived, and the +most extraordinary. The same may be said of her career, and the same may +be said of its chief result. She started from nothing. Her enemies +charge that she surreptitiously took from Quimby a peculiar system of +healing which was mind-cure with a Biblical basis. She and her friends +deny that she took anything from him. This is a matter which we can +discuss by-and-by. Whether she took it or invented it, it was-- +materially--a sawdust mine when she got it, and she has turned it into a +Klondike; its spiritual dock had next to no custom, if any at all: from +it she has launched a world-religion which has now six hundred and sixty- +three churches, and she charters a new one every four days. When we do +not know a person--and also when we do--we have to judge his size by the +size and nature of his achievements, as compared with the achievements of +others in his special line of business--there is no other way. Measured +by this standard, it is thirteen hundred years since the world has +produced any one who could reach up to Mrs. Eddy's waistbelt. + +Figuratively speaking, Mrs. Eddy is already as tall as the Eiffel tower. +She is adding surprisingly to her stature every day. It is quite within +the probabilities that a century hence she will be the most imposing +figure that has cast its shadow across the globe since the inauguration +of our era. I grant that after saying these strong things, it is +necessary that I offer some details calculated to satisfactorily +demonstrate the proportions which I have claimed for her. I will do that +presently; but before exhibiting the matured sequoia gigantea, I believe +it will be best to exhibit the sprout from which it sprang. It may save +the reader from making miscalculations. The person who imagines that a +Big Tree sprout is bigger than other kinds of sprouts is quite mistaken. +It is the ordinary thing; it makes no show, it compels no notice, it +hasn't a detectible quality in it that entitles it to attention, or +suggests the future giant its sap is suckling. That is the kind of +sprout Mrs. Eddy was. + +From her childhood days up to where she was running a half-century a +close race and gaining on it, she was most humanly commonplace. + +She is the witness I am drawing this from. She has revealed it in her +autobiography not intentionally, of course--I am not claiming that. An +autobiography is the most treacherous thing there is. It lets out every +secret its author is trying to keep; it lets the truth shine unobstructed +through every harmless little deception he tries to play; it pitilessly +exposes him as a tin hero worshipping himself as Big Metal every time he +tries to do the modest-unconsciousness act before the reader. This is +not guessing; I am speaking from autobiographical personal experience; I +was never able to refrain from mentioning, with a studied casualness that +could deceive none but the most incautious reader, that an ancestor of +mine was sent ambassador to Spain by Charles I., nor that in a remote +branch of my family there exists a claimant to an earldom, nor that an +uncle of mine used to own a dog that was descended from the dog that was +in the Ark; and at the same time I was never able to persuade myself to +call a gibbet by its right name when accounting for other ancestors of +mine, but always spoke of it as the "platform"--puerilely intimating that +they were out lecturing when it happened. + +It is Mrs. Eddy over again. As regards her minor half, she is as +commonplace as the rest of us. Vain of trivial things all the first half +of her life, and still vain of them at seventy and recording them with +naive satisfaction--even rescuing some early rhymes of hers of the sort +that we all scribble in the innocent days of our youth--rescuing them and +printing them without pity or apology, just as the weakest and commonest +of us do in our gray age. More--she still frankly admires them; and in +her introduction of them profanely confers upon them the holy name of +"poetry." Sample: + + "And laud the land whose talents rock + The cradle of her power, + And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock + From erudition's bower." + + "Minerva's silver sandals still + Are loosed and not effete." + +You note it is not a shade above the thing which all human beings churn +out in their youth. + +You would not think that in a little wee primer--for that is what the +Autobiography is--a person with a tumultuous career of seventy years +behind her could find room for two or three pages of padding of this +kind, but such is the case. She evidently puts narrative together with +difficulty and is not at home in it, and is glad to have something ready- +made to fill in with. Another sample: + + "Here fame-honored Hickory rears his bold form, + And bears a brave breast to the lightning and storm, + While Palm, Bay, and Laurel in classical glee, + Chase Tulip, Magnolia, and fragrant Fringe-tree." + +Vivid? You can fairly see those trees galloping around. That she could +still treasure up, and print, and manifestly admire those Poems, +indicates that the most daring and masculine and masterful woman that has +appeared in the earth in centuries has the same soft, girly-girly places +in her that the rest of us have. + +When it comes to selecting her ancestors she is still human, natural, +vain, commonplace--as commonplace as I am myself when I am sorting +ancestors for my autobiography. She combs out some creditable Scots, and +labels them and sets them aside for use, not overlooking the one to whom +Sir William Wallace gave "a heavy sword encased in a brass scabbard," and +naively explaining which Sir William Wallace it was, lest we get the +wrong one by the hassock; this is the one "from whose patriotism and +bravery comes that heart-stirring air, 'Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled.'" +Hannah More was related to her ancestors. She explains who Hannah More +was. + +Whenever a person informs us who Sir William Wallace was, or who wrote +"Hamlet," or where the Declaration of Independence was fought, it fills +us with a suspicion wellnigh amounting to conviction, that that person +would not suspect us of being so empty of knowledge if he wasn't +suffering from the same "claim" himself. Then we turn to page 20 of the +Autobiography and happen upon this passage, and that hasty suspicion +stands rebuked: + +"I gained book-knowledge with far less labor than is usually requisite. +At ten years of age I was as familiar with Lindley Murray's Grammar as +with the Westminster Catechism; and the latter I had to repeat every +Sunday. My favorite studies were Natural Philosophy, Logic, and Moral +Science. From my brother A1bert I received lessons in the ancient +tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin." + +You catch your breath in astonishment, and feel again and still again the +pang of that rebuke. But then your eye falls upon the next sentence but +one, and the pain passes away and you set up the suspicion again with +evil satisfaction: + +"After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the knowledge I had +gleaned from school-books vanished like a dream." + +That disappearance accounts for much in her miscellaneous writings. As I +was saying, she handles her "ancestral shadows," as she calls them, just +as I do mine. It is remarkable. When she runs across "a relative of my +Grandfather Baker, General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame," she sets +him down; when she finds another good one, "the late Sir John Macneill, +in the line of my Grandfather Baker's family," she sets him down, and +remembers that he "was prominent in British politics, and at one time +held the position of ambassador to Persia"; when she discovers that her +grandparents "were likewise connected with Captain John Lovewell, whose +gallant leadership and death in the Indian troubles of 1722-25 caused +that prolonged contest to be known historically as Lovewell's War," she +sets the Captain down; when it turns out that a cousin of her grandmother +"was John Macneill, the New Hampshire general, who fought at Lundy's Lane +and won distinction in 1814 at the battle of Chippewa," she catalogues +the General. (And tells where Chippewa was.) And then she skips all her +platform people; never mentions one of them. It shows that she is just +as human as any of us. + +Yet, after all, there is something very touching in her pride in these +worthy small-fry, and something large and fine in her modesty in not +caring to remember that their kinship to her can confer no distinction +upon her, whereas her mere mention of their names has conferred upon them +a faceless earthly immortality. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +When she wrote this little biography her great life-work had already been +achieved, she was become renowned; to multitudes of reverent disciples +she was a sacred personage, a familiar of God, and His inspired channel +of communication with the human race. Also, to them these following +things were facts, and not doubted: + +She had written a Bible in middle age, and had published it; she had +recast it, enlarged it, and published it again; she had not stopped +there, but had enlarged it further, polished its phrasing, improved its +form, and published it yet again. It was at last become a compact, +grammatical, dignified, and workman-like body of literature. This was +good training, persistent training; and in all arts it is training that +brings the art to perfection. We are now confronted with one of the most +teasing and baffling riddles of Mrs. Eddy's history--a riddle which may +be formulated thus: + +How is it that a primitive literary gun which began as a hundred-yard +flint-lock smooth-bore muzzle-loader, and in the course of forty years +has acquired one notable improvement after another--percussion cap; fixed +cartridge; rifled barrel; efficiency at half a mile how is it that such a +gun, sufficiently good on an elephant hunt (Christian Science) from the +beginning, and growing better and better all the time during forty years, +has always collapsed back to its original flint-lock estate the moment +the huntress trained it on any other creature than an elephant? + +Something more than a generation ago Mrs. Eddy went out with her flint- +lock on the rabbit range; and this was a part of the result: + +"After his decease, and a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful +physicians, we discovered that the Principle of all healing and the law +that governs it is God, a divine Principle, and a spiritual not material +law, and regained health."--Preface to Science and Health, first +revision, 1883. + +N.B. Not from the book itself; from the Preface. + +You will notice the awkwardness of that English. If you should carry +that paragraph up to the Supreme Court of the United States in order to +find out for good and all whether the fatal casualty happened to the dead +man--as the paragraph almost asserts--or to some person or persons not +even hinted at in the paragraph, the Supreme Court would be obliged to +say that the evidence established nothing with certainty except that +there had been a casualty--victim not known. + +The context thinks it explains who the victim was, but it does nothing of +the kind. It furnishes some guessing-material of a sort which enables +you to infer that it was "we" that suffered the mentioned injury, but if +you should carry the language to a court you would not be able to prove +that it necessarily meant that. "We" are Mrs. Eddy; a funny little +affectation. She replaced it later with the more dignified third person. + + +The quoted paragraph is from Mrs. Eddy's preface to the first revision of +Science and Health (1883). Sixty-four pages further along--in the body +of the book (the elephant-range), she went out with that same flint-lock +and got this following result. Its English is very nearly as straight +and clean and competent as is the English of the latest revision of +Science and Health after the gun has been improved from smooth-bore +musket up to globe-sighted, long distance rifle: + +"Man controlled by his Maker has no physical suffering. His body is +harmonious, his days are multiplying instead of diminishing, he is +journeying towards Life instead of death, and bringing out the new man +and crucifying the old affections, cutting them off in every material +direction until he learns the utter supremacy of Spirit and yields +obedience thereto." + +In the latest revision of Science and Health (1902), the perfected gun +furnishes the following. The English is clean, compact, dignified, +almost perfect. But it is observable that it is not prominently better +than it is in the above paragraph, which was a product of the primitive +flint-lock: + +"How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing out life and +hastening to death, and at the same time we are communing with +immortality? If the departed are in rapport with mortality, or matter, +they are not spiritual, but must still be mortal, sinful, suffering, and +dying. Then wherefore look to them--even were communication possible-- +for proofs of immortality and accept them as oracles?"--Edition of 1902, +page 78. + +With the above paragraphs compare these that follow. It is Mrs. Eddy +writing--after a good long twenty years of pen-practice. Compare also +with the alleged Poems already quoted. The prominent characteristic of +the Poems is affectation, artificiality; their makeup is a complacent and +pretentious outpour of false figures and fine writing, in the sophomoric +style. The same qualities and the same style will be found, unchanged, +unbettered, in these following paragraphs--after a lapse of more than +fifty years, and after--as aforesaid--long literary training. The +italics are mine: + +1. "What plague spot or bacilli were [sic] gnawing [sic] at the heart of +this metropolis . . . and bringing it [the heart] on bended knee? +Why, it was an institute that had entered its vitals--that, among other +things, taught games," et cetera.--C.S. Journal, p. 670, article +entitled "A Narrative--by Mary Baker G. Eddy." + +2. "Parks sprang up [sic] . . . electric-cars run [sic] merrily +through several streets, concrete sidewalks and macadamized roads dotted +[sic] the place," et cetera.--Ibid. + +3. "Shorn [sic] of its suburbs it had indeed little left to admire, save +to [sic] such as fancy a skeleton above ground breathing [sic] slowly +through a barren [sic] breast."--Ibid. + +This is not English--I mean, grown-up English. But it is fifteen-year-- +old English, and has not grown a month since the same mind produced the +Poems. The standard of the Poems and of the plague-spot-and-bacilli +effort is exactly the same. It is most strange that the same intellect +that worded the simple and self-contained and clean-cut paragraph +beginning with "How unreasonable is the belief," should in the very same +lustrum discharge upon the world such a verbal chaos as the utterance +concerning that plague-spot or bacilli which were gnawing at the insides +of the metropolis and bringing its heart on bended knee, thus exposing to +the eye the rest of the skeleton breathing slowly through a barren +breast. + +The immense contrast between the legitimate English of Science and Health +and the bastard English of Mrs. Eddy's miscellaneous work, and between +the maturity of the one diction and the juvenility of the other, +suggests--compels--the question, Are there two guns? It would seem so. +Is there a poor, foolish, old, scattering flint-lock for rabbit, and a +long-range, centre-driving, up-to-date Mauser-magazine for elephant? It +looks like it. For it is observable that in Science and Health (the +elephant-ground) the practice was good at the start and has remained so, +and that the practice in the miscellaneous, outside, small-game field was +very bad at the start and was never less bad at any later time. + +I wish to say that of Mrs. Eddy I am not requiring perfect English, but +only good English. No one can write perfect English and keep it up +through a stretch of ten chapters. It has never been done. It was +approached in the "well of English undefiled"; it has been approached in +Mrs. Eddy's Annex to that Book; it has been approached in several English +grammars; I have even approached it myself; but none of us has made port. + +Now, the English of Science and Health is good. In passages to be found +in Mrs. Eddy's Autobiography (on pages 53, 57, 101, and 113), and on page +6 of her squalid preface to Science and Health, first revision, she seems +to me to claim the whole and sole authorship of the book. That she wrote +the Autobiography, and that preface, and the Poems, and the Plague-spot- +Bacilli, we are not permitted to doubt. Indeed, we know she wrote them. +But the very certainty that she wrote these things compels a doubt that +she wrote Science and Health. She is guilty of little awkwardnesses of +expression in the Autobiography which a practiced pen would hardly allow +to go uncorrected in even a hasty private letter, and could not dream of +passing by uncorrected in passages intended for print. But she passes +them placidly by; as placidly as if she did not suspect that they were +offenses against third-class English. I think that that placidity was +born of that very unawareness, so to speak. I will cite a few instances +from the Autobiography. The italics are mine: + +"I remember reading in my childhood certain manuscripts containing +Scriptural Sonnets, besides other verses and enigmas," etc. Page 7. + +[On page 27.] "Many pale cripples went into the Church leaning on +crutches who came out carrying them on their shoulders." + +It is awkward, because at the first glance it seems to say that the +cripples went in leaning on crutches which went out carrying the cripples +on their shoulders. It would have cost her no trouble to put her "who" +after her "cripples." I blame her a little; I think her proof-reader +should have been shot. We may let her capital C pass, but it is another +awkwardness, for she is talking about a building, not about a religious +society. + +"Marriage and Parentage "[Chapter-heading. Page 30]. You imagine that +she is going to begin a talk about her marriage and finish with some +account of her father and mother. And so you will be deceived. +"Marriage" was right, but "Parentage" was not the best word for the rest +of the record. It refers to the birth of her own child. After a certain +period of time "my babe was born." Marriage and Motherhood-Marriage and +Maternity-Marriage and Product-Marriage and Dividend--either of these +would have fitted the facts and made the matter clear. + +"Without my knowledge he was appointed a guardian." Page 32. + +She is speaking of her child. She means that a guardian for her child +was appointed, but that isn't what she says. + +"If spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is +lost, and the argument with its rightful conclusions, becomes +correspondingly obscure." Page 34. + +We shall never know why she put the word "correspondingly" in there. Any +fine, large word would have answered just as well: psychosuperintangibly +--electroincandescently--oligarcheologically--sanchrosynchro- +stereoptically--any of these would have answered, any of these would have +filled the void. + +"His spiritual noumenon and phenomenon silenced portraiture." Page 34. + +Yet she says she forgot everything she knew, when she discovered +Christian Science. I realize that noumenon is a daisy; and I will not +deny that I shall use it whenever I am in a company which I think I can +embarrass with it; but, at the same time, I think it is out of place +among friends in an autobiography. There, I think a person ought not to +have anything up his sleeve. It undermines confidence. But my +dissatisfaction with the quoted passage is not on account of noumenon; it +is on account of the misuse of the word "silenced." You cannot silence +portraiture with a noumenon; if portraiture should make a noise, a way +could be found to silence it, but even then it could not be done with a +noumenon. Not even with a brick, some authorities think. + +"It may be that the mortal life-battle still wages," etc. Page 35. + +That is clumsy. Battles do not wage, battles are waged. Mrs. Eddy has +one very curious and interesting peculiarity: whenever she notices that +she is chortling along without saying anything, she pulls up with a +sudden "God is over us all," or some other sounding irrelevancy, and for +the moment it seems to light up the whole district; then, before you can +recover from the shock, she goes flitting pleasantly and meaninglessly +along again, and you hurry hopefully after her, thinking you are going to +get something this time; but as soon as she has led you far enough away +from her turkey lot she takes to a tree. Whenever she discovers that she +is getting pretty disconnected, she couples-up with an ostentatious "But" +which has nothing to do with anything that went before or is to come +after, then she hitches some empties to the train-unrelated verses from +the Bible, usually--and steams out of sight and leaves you wondering how +she did that clever thing. For striking instances, see bottom paragraph +on page 34 and the paragraph on page 35 of her Autobiography. She has a +purpose--a deep and dark and artful purpose--in what she is saying in the +first paragraph, and you guess what it is, but that is due to your own +talent, not hers; she has made it as obscure as language could do it. +The other paragraph has no meaning and no discoverable intention. It is +merely one of her God-over-alls. I cannot spare room for it in this +place. + +"I beheld with ineffable awe our great Master's marvelous skill in +demanding neither obedience to hygienic laws nor," etc. Page 41. + +The word is loosely chosen-skill. She probably meant judgment, +intuition, penetration, or wisdom. + +"Naturally, my first jottings were but efforts to express in feeble +diction Truth's ultimate." Page 42. + +One understands what she means, but she should have been able to say what +she meant--at any time before she discovered Christian Science and forgot +everything she knew--and after it, too. If she had put "feeble" in front +of "efforts" and then left out "in" and "diction," she would have scored. + +" . . . its written expression increases in perfection under the +guidance of the great Master." Page 43. + +It is an error. Not even in those advantageous circumstances can +increase be added to perfection. + +"Evil is not mastered by evil; it can only be overcome with Good. This +brings out the nothingness of evil, and the eternal Somethingness +vindicates the Divine Principle and improves the race of Adam." Page 76. + +This is too extraneous for me. That is the trouble with Mrs. Eddy when +she sets out to explain an over-large exhibit: the minute you think the +light is bursting upon you the candle goes out and your mind begins to +wander. + +"No one else can drain the cup which I have drunk to the dregs, as the +discoverer and teacher of Christian Science" Page 47. + +That is saying we cannot empty an empty cup. We knew it before; and we +know she meant to tell us that that particular cup is going to remain +empty. That is, we think that that was the idea, but we cannot be sure. +She has a perfectly astonishing talent for putting words together in such +a way as to make successful inquiry into their intention impossible. + +She generally makes us uneasy when she begins to tune up on her fine- +writing timbrel. It carries me back to her Plague-Spot and Poetry days, +and I just dread those: + +"Into mortal mind's material obliquity I gazed and stood abashed. +Blanched was the cheek of pride. My heart bent low before the +omnipotence of Spirit, and a tint of humility soft as the heart of a +moonbeam mantled the earth. Bethlehem and Bethany, Gethsemane and +Calvary, spoke to my chastened sense as by the tearful lips of a babe." +Page 48. + +The heart of a moonbeam is a pretty enough Friendship's-Album expression +--let it pass, though I do think the figure a little strained; but +humility has no tint, humility has no complexion, and if it had it could +not mantle the earth. A moonbeam might--I do not know--but she did not +say it was the moonbeam. But let it go, I cannot decide it, she mixes me +up so. A babe hasn't "tearful lips," it's its eyes. You find none of +Mrs. Eddy's kind of English in Science and Health--not a line of it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Setting aside title-page, index, etc., the little Autobiography begins on +page 7 and ends on page 130. My quotations are from the first forty +pages. They seem to me to prove the presence of the 'prentice hand. The +style of the forty pages is loose and feeble and 'prentice-like. The +movement of the narrative is not orderly and sequential, but rambles +around, and skips forward and back and here and there and yonder, +'prentice-fashion. Many a journeyman has broken up his narrative and +skipped about and rambled around, but he did it for a purpose, for an +advantage; there was art in it, and points to be scored by it; the +observant reader perceived the game, and enjoyed it and respected it, if +it was well played. But Mrs. Eddy's performance was without intention, +and destitute of art. She could score no points by it on those terms, +and almost any reader can see that her work was the uncalculated +puttering of a novice. + +In the above paragraph I have described the first third of the booklet. +That third being completed, Mrs. Eddy leaves the rabbit-range, crosses +the frontier, and steps out upon her far-spreading big-game territory-- +Christian Science and there is an instant change! The style smartly +improves; and the clumsy little technical offenses disappear. In these +two-thirds of the booklet I find only one such offence, and it has the +look of being a printer's error. + +I leave the riddle with the reader. Perhaps he can explain how it is +that a person-trained or untrained--who on the one day can write nothing +better than Plague-Spot-Bacilli and feeble and stumbling and wandering +personal history littered with false figures and obscurities and +technical blunders, can on the next day sit down and write fluently, +smoothly, compactly, capably, and confidently on a great big thundering +subject, and do it as easily and comfortably as a whale paddles around +the globe. + +As for me, I have scribbled so much in fifty years that I have become +saturated with convictions of one sort and another concerning a +scribbler's limitations; and these are so strong that when I am familiar +with a literary person's work I feel perfectly sure that I know enough +about his limitations to know what he can not do. If Mr. Howells should +pretend to me that he wrote the Plague-Spot Bacilli rhapsody, I should +receive the statement courteously; but I should know it for a--well, for +a perversion. If the late Josh Billings should rise up and tell me that +he wrote Herbert Spencer's philosophies; I should answer and say that the +spelling casts a doubt upon his claim. If the late Jonathan Edwards +should rise up and tell me he wrote Mr. Dooley's books, I should answer +and say that the marked difference between his style and Dooley's is +argument against the soundness of his statement. You see how much I +think of circumstantial evidence. In literary matters--in my belief--it +is often better than any person's word, better than any shady character's +oath. It is difficult for me to believe that the same hand that wrote +the Plague-Spot-Bacilli and the first third of the little Eddy biography +wrote also Science and Health. Indeed, it is more than difficult, it is +impossible. + +Largely speaking, I have read acres of what purported to be Mrs. Eddy's +writings, in the past two months. I cannot know, but I am convinced, +that the circumstantial evidence shows that her actual share in the work +of composing and phrasing these things was so slight as to be +inconsequential. Where she puts her literary foot down, her trail across +her paid polisher's page is as plain as the elephant's in a Sunday-school +procession. Her verbal output, when left undoctored by her clerks, is +quite unmistakable It always exhibits the strongly distinctive features +observable in the virgin passages from her pen already quoted by me: + +Desert vacancy, as regards thought. +Self-complacency. +Puerility. +Sentimentality. +Affectations of scholarly learning. +Lust after eloquent and flowery expression. +Repetition of pet poetic picturesquenesses. +Confused and wandering statement. +Metaphor gone insane. +Meaningless words, used because they are pretty, or showy, or unusual. +Sorrowful attempts at the epigrammatic. +Destitution of originality. + +The fat volume called Miscellaneous Writings of Mrs. Eddy contains +several hundred pages. Of the five hundred and fifty-four pages of prose +in it I find ten lines, on page 319, to be Mrs. Eddy's; also about a page +of the preface or "Prospectus"; also about fifteen pages scattered along +through the book. If she wrote any of the rest of the prose, it was +rewritten after her by another hand. Here I will insert two-thirds of +her page of the prospectus. It is evident that whenever, under the +inspiration of the Deity, she turns out a book, she is always allowed to +do some of the preface. I wonder why that is? It always mars the work. +I think it is done in humorous malice I think the clerks like to see her +give herself away. They know she will, her stock of usable materials +being limited and her procedure in employing them always the same, +substantially. They know that when the initiated come upon her first +erudite allusion, or upon any one of her other stage-properties, they can +shut their eyes and tell what will follow. She usually throws off an +easy remark all sodden with Greek or Hebrew or Latin learning; she +usually has a person watching for a star--she can seldom get away from +that poetic idea--sometimes it is a Chaldee, sometimes a Walking +Delegate, sometimes an entire stranger, but be he what he may, he is +generally there when the train is ready to move, and has his pass in his +hat-band; she generally has a Being with a Dome on him, or some other +cover that is unusual and out of the fashion; she likes to fire off a +Scripture-verse where it will make the handsomest noise and come nearest +to breaking the connection; she often throws out a Forefelt, or a +Foresplendor, or a Foreslander where it will have a fine nautical +foreto'gallant sound and make the sentence sing; after which she is +nearly sure to throw discretion away and take to her deadly passion, +Intoxicated Metaphor. At such a time the Mrs. Eddy that does not +hesitate is lost: + +"The ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olympiad. The Chaldee +watched the appearing of a star; to him no higher destiny dawned on the +dome of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heavens. The meek +Nazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers, said, 'Ye can discern the face of +the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?'--for He forefelt +and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated by sinners. + +"To kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the new idea that comes +welling up from infinite Truth needs to be understood. The seer of this +age should be a sage. + +"Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition of Deity. The +mounting sense gathers fresh forms and strange fire from the ashes of +dissolving self, and drops the world. Meekness heightens immortal +attributes, only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness reveals +another scene and another self seemingly rolled up in shades, but brought +to light by the evolutions of advancing thought, whereby we discern the +power of Truth and Love to heal the sick. + +"Pride is ignorance; those assume most who have the least wisdom or +experience; and they steal from their neighbor, because they have so +little of their own."--Miscellaneous Writings, page 1, and six lines at +top of page 2. + +It is not believable that the hand that wrote those clumsy and affected +sentences wrote the smooth English of Science and Health. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +It is often said in print that Mrs. Eddy claims that God was the Author +of Science and Health. Mr. Peabody states in his pamphlet that "she says +not she but God was the Author." I cannot find that in her autobiography +she makes this transference of the authorship, but I think that in it she +definitely claims that she did her work under His inspiration--definitely +for her; for as a rule she is not a very definite person, even when she +seems to be trying her best to be clear and positive. Speaking of the +early days when her Science was beginning to unfold itself and gather +form in her mind, she says (Autobiography, page 43): + +"The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh +universe--old to God, but new to His 'little one.'" + +She being His little one, as I understand it. + +The divine hand led her. It seems to mean "God inspired me"; but when a +person uses metaphors instead of statistics--and that is Mrs. Eddy's +common fashion--one cannot always feel sure about the intention. + +[Page 56.] "Even the Scripture gave no direct interpretation of the +Scientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual Principle of healing, +until our Heavenly Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in +Science and Health, to unlock this 'mystery of godliness.'" + +Another baffling metaphor. If she had used plain forecastle English, and +said "God wrote the Key and I put it in my book"; or if she had said "God +furnished me the solution of the mystery and I put it on paper"; or if +she had said "God did it all," then we should understand; but her phrase +is open to any and all of those translations, and is a Key which unlocks +nothing--for us. However, it seems to at least mean "God inspired me," +if nothing more. + +There was personal and intimate communion, at any rate we get that much +out of the riddles. The connection extended to business, after the +establishment of the teaching and healing industry. + +[Page 71.] "When God impelled me to set a price on my instruction," etc. +Further down: "God has since shown me, in multitudinous ways, the wisdom +of this decision." + +She was not able to think of a "financial equivalent"--meaning a +pecuniary equivalent--for her "instruction in Christian Science Mind- +healing." In this emergency she was "led" to charge three hundred +dollars for a term of "twelve half-days." She does not say who led her, +she only says that the amount greatly troubled her. I think it means +that the price was suggested from above, "led" being a theological term +identical with our commercial phrase "personally conducted." She "shrank +from asking it, but was finally led, by a strange providence, to accept +this fee." "Providence" is another theological term. Two leds and a +providence, taken together, make a pretty strong argument for +inspiration. I think that these statistics make it clear that the price +was arranged above. This view is constructively supported by the fact, +already quoted, that God afterwards approved, "in multitudinous ways," +her wisdom in accepting the mentioned fee. "Multitudinous ways"-- +multitudinous encoring--suggests enthusiasm. Business enthusiasm. And +it suggests nearness. God's nearness to his "little one." Nearness, and +a watchful personal interest. A warm, palpitating, Standard-Oil +interest, so to speak. All this indicates inspiration. We may assume, +then, two inspirations: one for the book, the other for the business. + +The evidence for inspiration is further augmented by the testimony of +Rev. George Tomkins, D.D., already quoted, that Mrs. Eddy and her book +were foretold in Revelation, and that Mrs. Eddy "is God's brightest +thought to this age, giving us the spiritual interpretation of the Bible +in the 'little book'" of the Angel. + +I am aware that it is not Mr. Tomkins that is speaking, but Mrs. Eddy. +The commissioned lecturers of the Christian Science Church have to be +members of the Board of Lectureship. (By-laws Sec. 2, p. 70.) The +Board of Lectureship is selected by the Board of Directors of the Church. +(By-laws, Sec. 3, p. 70.) The Board of Directors of the Church is the +property of Mrs. Eddy. (By-laws, p. 22.) Mr. Tomkins did not make that +statement without authorization from headquarters. He necessarily got it +from the Board of Directors, the Board of Directors from Mrs. Eddy, Mrs. +Eddy from the Deity. Mr. Tomkins would have been turned down by that +procession if his remarks had been unsatisfactory to it. + +It may be that there is evidence somewhere--as has been claimed--that +Mrs. Eddy has charged upon the Deity the verbal authorship of Science and +Health. But if she ever made the charge, she has withdrawn it (as it +seems to me), and in the most formal and unqualified; of all ways. See +Autobiography, page 57: + +"When the demand for this book increased . . . the copyright was +infringed. I entered a suit at Law, and my copyright was protected." + +Thus it is plain that she did not plead that the Deity was the (verbal) +Author; for if she had done that, she would have lost her case--and with +rude promptness. It was in the old days before the Berne Convention and +before the passage of our amended law of 1891, and the court would have +quoted the following stern clause from the existing statute and frowned +her out of the place: + +"No Foreigner can acquire copyright in the United States." + +To sum up. The evidence before me indicates three things: + +1. That Mrs. Eddy claims the verbal author ship for herself. +2. That she denies it to the Deity. +3. That--in her belief--she wrote the book under the inspiration of the +Deity, but furnished the language herself. + +In one place in the Autobiography she claims both the language and the +ideas; but when this witness is testifying, one must draw the line +somewhere, or she will prove both sides of her case-nine sides, if +desired. + +It is too true. Much too true. Many, many times too true. She is a +most trying witness--the most trying witness that ever kissed the Book, I +am sure. There is no keeping up with her erratic testimony. As soon as +you have got her share of the authorship nailed where you half hope and +half believe it will stay and cannot be joggled loose any more, she +joggles it loose again--or seems to; you cannot be sure, for her habit of +dealing in meaningless metaphors instead of in plain, straightforward +statistics, makes it nearly always impossible to tell just what it is she +is trying to say. She was definite when she claimed both the language +and the ideas of the book. That seemed to settle the matter. It seemed +to distribute the percentages of credit with precision between the +collaborators: ninety-two per cent. to Mrs. Eddy, who did all the work, +and eight per cent. to the Deity, who furnished the inspiration not +enough of it to damage the copyright in a country closed against +Foreigners, and yet plenty to advertise the book and market it at famine +rates. Then Mrs. Eddy does not keep still, but fetches around and comes +forward and testifies again. It is most injudicious. For she resorts to +metaphor this time, and it makes trouble, for she seems to reverse the +percentages and claim only the eight per cent. for her self. I quote +from Mr. Peabody's book (Eddyism, or Christian Science. Boston: 15 Court +Square, price twenty-five cents): + +"Speaking of this book, Mrs. Eddy, in January last (1901) said: 'I should +blush to write of Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, as I +have, were it of human origin, and I, apart from God, its author; but as +I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of Heaven in divine +metaphysics, I cannot be supermodest of the Christian Science text- +book."' + +Mr. Peabody's comment: + +"Nothing could be plainer than that. Here is a distinct avowal that the +book entitled Science and Health was the work of Almighty God." + +It does seem to amount to that. She was only a "scribe." Confound the +word, it is just a confusion, it has no determinable meaning there, it +leaves us in the air. A scribe is merely a person who writes. He may be +a copyist, he may be an amanuensis, he may be a writer of originals, and +furnish both the language and the ideas. As usual with Mrs. Eddy, the +connection affords no help--"echoing" throws no light upon "scribe." A +rock can reflect an echo, a wall can do it, a mountain can do it, many +things can do it, but a scribe can't. A scribe that could reflect an +echo could get over thirty dollars a week in a side-show. Many +impresarios would rather have him than a cow with four tails. If we +allow that this present scribe was setting down the "harmonies of +Heaven"--and certainly that seems to have been the case then there was +only one way to do it that I can think of: listen to the music and put +down the notes one after another as they fell. In that case Mrs. Eddy +did not invent the tune, she only entered it on paper. Therefore +dropping the metaphor--she was merely an amanuensis, and furnished +neither the language of Science and Health nor the ideas. It reduces her +to eight per cent. (and the dividends on that and the rest). + +Is that it? We shall never know. For Mrs. Eddy is liable to testify +again at any time. But until she does it, I think we must conclude that +the Deity was Author of the whole book, and Mrs. Eddy merely His +telephone and stenographer. Granting this, her claim as the Voice of God +stands-for the present--justified and established. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT + +I overlooked something. It appears that there was more of that utterance +than Mr. Peabody has quoted in the above paragraph. It will be found in +Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science Journal (January, 1901) and +reads as follows: + +"It was not myself . . . which dictated Science and Health, with Key +to the Scriptures." + +That is certainly clear enough. The words which I have removed from that +important sentence explain Who it was that did the dictating. It was +done by + +"the divine power of Truth and Love, infinitely above me." + +Certainly that is definite. At last, through her personal testimony, we +have a sure grip upon the following vital facts, and they settle the +authorship of Science and Health beyond peradventure: + +1. Mrs. Eddy furnished "the ideas and the language." +2. God furnished the ideas and the language. + +It is a great comfort to have the matter authoritatively settled. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +It is hard to locate her, she shifts about so much. She is a shining +drop of quicksilver which you put your finger on and it isn't there. +There is a paragraph in the Autobiography (page 96) which places in +seemingly darkly significant procession three Personages: + +1. The Virgin Mary +2. Jesus of Nazareth. +3. Mrs. Eddy. + +This is the paragraph referred to: + +"No person can take the individual place of the Virgin Mary. No person +can compass or fulfil the individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No +person can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the +discoverer and founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill +his own niche in time and eternity." + +I have read it many times, but I still cannot be sure that I rightly +understand it. If the Saviour's name had been placed first and the +Virgin Mary's second and Mrs. Eddy's third, I should draw the inference +that a descending scale from First Importance to Second Importance and +then to Small Importance was indicated; but to place the Virgin first, +the Saviour second, and Mrs. Eddy third, seems to turn the scale the +other way and make it an ascending scale of Importances, with Mrs. Eddy +ranking the other two and holding first place. + +I think that that was perhaps the intention, but none but a seasoned +Christian Scientist can examine a literary animal of Mrs. Eddy's creation +and tell which end of it the tail is on. She is easily the most baffling +and bewildering writer in the literary trade. + +Eddy is a commonplace name, and would have an unimpressive aspect in the +list of the reformed Holy Family. She has thought of that. In the book +of By-laws written by her--"impelled by a power not one's own"--there is +a paragraph which explains how and when her disciples came to confer a +title upon her; and this explanation is followed by a warning as to what +will happen to any female Scientist who shall desecrate it: + +"The title of Mother. Therefore if a student of Christian Science shall +apply this title, either to herself or to others, except as the term for +kinship according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an +indication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus, and unfitness to be a +member of the Mother-Church." + +She is the Pastor Emeritus. + +While the quoted paragraph about the Procession seems to indicate that +Mrs. Eddy is expecting to occupy the First Place in it, that expectation +is not definitely avowed. In an earlier utterance of hers she is +clearer--clearer, and does not claim the first place all to herself, but +only the half of it. I quote from Mr. Peabody's book again: + +"In the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her +property, and published by her, it was claimed for her, and with her +sanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to +establish the claim. + +"Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf that she +herself was the chosen successor to and equal of Jesus." + +In her Miscellaneous Writings (using her once favorite "We" for "I") she +says that "While we entertain decided views . . . and shall express +them as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine +origin," etc. + +Our divine origin. It suggests Equal again. It is inferable, then, that +in the near by-and-by the new Church will officially rank the Holy Family +in the following order: + +1. Jesus of Nazareth.--1. Our Mother. +2. The Virgin Mary. + + + + +SUMMARY + +I am not playing with Christian Science and its founder, I am examining +them; and I am doing it because of the interest I feel in the inquiry. +My results may seem inadequate to the reader, but they have for me +clarified a muddle and brought a sort of order out of a chaos, and so I +value them. + +My readings of Mrs. Eddy's uninspired miscellaneous literary efforts have +convinced me of several things: + +1. That she did not write Science and Health. +2. That the Deity did (or did not) write it. +3. That She thinks She wrote it. +4. That She believes She wrote it under the Deity's inspiration. +5. That She believes She is a Member of the Holy Family. +6. That She believes She is the equal of the Head of it. + +Finally, I think She is now entitled to the capital S--on her own +evidence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Thus far we have a part of Mrs. Eddy's portrait. Not made of fictions, +surmises, reports, rumors, innuendoes, dropped by her enemies; no, she +has furnished all of the materials herself, and laid them on the canvas, +under my general superintendence and direction. As far as she has gone +with it, it is the presentation of a complacent, commonplace, illiterate +New England woman who "forgot everything she knew" when she discovered +her discovery, then wrote a Bible in good English under the inspiration +of God, and climbed up it to the supremest summit of earthly grandeur +attainable by man--where she sits serene to-day, beloved and worshiped by +a multitude of human beings of as good average intelligence as is +possessed by those that march under the banner of any competing cult. +This is not intended to flatter the competing cults, it is merely a +statement of cold fact. + +That a commonplace person should go climbing aloft and become a god or a +half-god or a quarter-god and be worshiped by men and women of average +intelligence, is nothing. It has happened a million times, it will +happen a hundred million more. It has been millions of years since the +first of these supernaturals appeared, and by the time the last one in +that inconceivably remote future shall have performed his solemn little +high-jinks on the stage and closed the business, there will be enough of +them accumulated in the museum on the Other Side to start a heaven of +their own-and jam it. + +Each in his turn those little supernaturals of our by-gone ages and aeons +joined the monster procession of his predecessors and marched +horizonward, disappeared, and was forgotten. They changed nothing, they +built nothing, they left nothing behind them to remember them by, nothing +to hold their disciples together, nothing to solidify their work and +enable it to defy the assaults of time and the weather. They passed, and +left a vacancy. They made one fatal mistake; they all made it, each in +his turn: they failed to organize their forces, they failed to centralize +their strength, they failed to provide a fresh Bible and a sure and +perpetual cash income for business, and often they failed to provide a +new and accepted Divine Personage to worship. + +Mrs. Eddy is not of that small fry. The materials that go to the making +of the rest of her portrait will prove it. She will furnish them +herself: + +She published her book. She copyrighted it. She copyrights everything. +If she should say, "Good-morning; how do you do?" she would copyright it; +for she is a careful person, and knows the value of small things. + +She began to teach her Science, she began to heal, she began to gather +converts to her new religion--fervent, sincere, devoted, grateful people. +A year or two later she organized her first Christian Science +"Association," with six of her disciples on the roster. + +She continued to teach and heal. She was charging nothing, she says, +although she was very poor. She taught and healed gratis four years +altogether, she says. + +Then, in 1879-81 she was become strong enough, and well enough +established, to venture a couple of impressively important moves. The +first of these moves was to aggrandize the "Association" to a "Church." +Brave? It is the right name for it, I think. The former name suggests +nothing, invited no remark, no criticism, no inquiry, no hostility; the +new name invited them all. She must have made this intrepid venture on +her own motion. She could have had no important advisers at that early +day. If we accept it as her own idea and her own act--and I think we +must--we have one key to her character. And it will explain subsequent +acts of hers that would merely stun us and stupefy us without it. Shall +we call it courage? Or shall we call it recklessness? Courage observes; +reflects; calculates; surveys the whole situation; counts the cost, +estimates the odds, makes up its mind; then goes at the enterprise +resolute to win or perish. Recklessness does not reflect, it plunges +fearlessly in with a hurrah, and takes the risks, whatever they may be, +regardless of expense. Recklessness often fails, Mrs. Eddy has never +failed--from the point of view of her followers. The point of view of +other people is naturally not a matter of weighty importance to her. + +The new Church was not born loose-jointed and featureless, but had a +defined plan, a definite character, definite aims, and a name which was a +challenge, and defied all comers. It was "a Mind-healing Church." It +was "without a creed." Its name, "The Church of Christ, Scientist." + +Mrs. Eddy could not copyright her Church, but she chartered it, which was +the same thing and relieved the pain. It had twenty-six charter members. +Mrs. Eddy was at once installed as its pastor. + +The other venture, above referred to, was Mrs. Eddy's Massachusetts +Metaphysical College, in which was taught "the pathology of spiritual +power." She could not copyright it, but she got it chartered. For +faculty it had herself, her husband of the period (Dr. Eddy), and her +adopted son, Dr. Foster-Eddy. The college term was "barely three +weeks," she says. Again she was bold, brave, rash, reckless--choose for +yourself--for she not only began to charge the student, but charged him a +hundred dollars a week for the enlightenments. And got it? some may +ask. Easily. Pupils flocked from far and near. They came by the +hundred. Presently the term was cut down nearly half, but the price +remained as before. To be exact, the term-cut was to seven lessons-- +price, three hundred dollars. The college "yielded a large income." +This is believable. In seven years Mrs. Eddy taught, as she avers, over +four thousand students in it. (Preface to 1902 edition of Science and +Health.) Three hundred times four thousand is--but perhaps you can cipher +it yourself. I could do it ordinarily, but I fell down yesterday and +hurt my leg. Cipher it; you will see that it is a grand sum for a woman +to earn in seven years. Yet that was not all she got out of her college +in the seven. + +At the time that she was charging the primary student three hundred +dollars for twelve lessons she was not content with this tidy assessment, +but had other ways of plundering him. By advertisement she offered him +privileges whereby he could add eighteen lessons to his store for five +hundred dollars more. That is to say, he could get a total of thirty +lessons in her college for eight hundred dollars. + +Four thousand times eight hundred is--but it is a difficult sum for a +cripple who has not been "demonstrated over" to cipher; let it go. She +taught "over" four thousand students in seven years. "Over" is not +definite, but it probably represents a non-paying surplus of learners +over and above the paying four thousand. Charity students, doubtless. I +think that as interesting an advertisement as has been printed since the +romantic old days of the other buccaneers is this one from the Christian +Science Journal for September, 1886: + + +"MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE + +"Rev. MARY BAKER G. EDDY, PRESIDENT + +"571 Columbus Avenue, Boston + +"The collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysical healing includes +twelve lessons. Tuition, three hundred dollars. + +"Course in metaphysical obstetrics includes six daily lectures, and is +open only to students from this college. Tuition, one hundred dollars. + +"Class in theology, open (like the above) to graduates, receives six +additional lectures on the Scriptures, and summary of the principle and +practice of Christian Science, two hundred dollars. + +"Normal class is open to those who have taken the first course at this +college; six daily lectures complete the Normal course. Tuition, two +hundred dollars. + +"No invalids, and only persons of good moral character, are accepted as +students. All students are subject to examination and rejection; and +they are liable to leave the class if found unfit to remain in it. + +"A limited number of clergymen received free of charge. + +"Largest discount to indigent students, one hundred dollars on the first +course. + +"No deduction on the others. + +"Husband and wife, entered together, three hundred dollars. + +"Tuition for all strictly in advance." + + +There it is--the horse-leech's daughter alive again, after a three- +century vacation. Fifty or sixty hours' lecturing for eight hundred +dollars. + +I was in error as to one matter: there are no charity students. Gratis- +taught clergymen must not be placed under that head; they are merely an +advertisement. Pauper students can get into the infant class on a two- +third rate (cash in advance), but not even an archangel can get into the +rest of the game at anything short of par, cash down. For it is "in the +spirit of Christ's charity, as one who is joyful to bear healing to the +sick "that Mrs. Eddy is working the game. She sends the healing to them +outside. She cannot bear it to them inside the college, for the reason +that she does not allow a sick candidate to get in. It is true that this +smells of inconsistency, but that is nothing; Mrs. Eddy would not be Mrs. +Eddy if she should ever chance to be consistent about anything two days +running. + +Except in the matter of the Dollar. The Dollar, and appetite for power +and notoriety. English must also be added; she is always consistent, she +is always Mrs. Eddy, in her English: it is always and consistently +confused and crippled and poor. She wrote the Advertisement; her +literary trade-marks are there. When she says all "students" are subject +to examination, she does not mean students, she means candidates for that +lofty place When she says students are "liable" to leave the class if +found unfit to remain in it, she does not mean that if they find +themselves unfit, or be found unfit by others, they will be likely to ask +permission to leave the class; she means that if she finds them unfit she +will be "liable" to fire them out. When she nobly offers "tuition for +all strictly in advance," she does not mean "instruction for all in +advance-payment for it later." No, that is only what she says, it is not +what she means. If she had written Science and Health, the oldest man in +the world would not be able to tell with certainty what any passage in it +was intended to mean. + +Her Church was on its legs. + +She was its pastor. It was prospering. + +She was appointed one of a committee to draught By-laws for its +government. It may be observed, without overplus of irreverence, that +this was larks for her. She did all of the draughting herself. From the +very beginning she was always in the front seat when there was business +to be done; in the front seat, with both eyes open, and looking sharply +out for Number One; in the front seat, working Mortal Mind with fine +effectiveness and giving Immortal Mind a rest for Sunday. When her +Church was reorganized, by-and-by, the By-laws were retained. She saw to +that. In these Laws for the government of her Church, her empire, her +despotism, Mrs. Eddy's character is embalmed for good and all. I think a +particularized examination of these Church-laws will be found +interesting. And not the less so if we keep in mind that they were +"impelled by a power not one's own," as she says--Anglice. the +inspiration of God. + +It is a Church "without a creed." Still, it has one. Mrs. Eddy +draughted it--and copyrighted it. In her own name. You cannot become a +member of the Mother-Church (nor of any Christian Science Church) without +signing it. It forms the first chapter of the By-laws, and is called +"Tenets." "Tenets of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, +Scientist." It has no hell in it--it throws it overboard. + + + + +THE PASTOR EMERITUS + +About the time of the reorganization, Mrs. Eddy retired from her position +of pastor of her Church, abolished the office of pastor in all branch +Churches, and appointed her book, Science and Health, to be pastor- +universal. Mrs. Eddy did not disconnect herself from the office +entirely, when she retired, but appointed herself Pastor Emeritus. It is +a misleading title, and belongs to the family of that phrase "without a +creed." It advertises her as being a merely honorary official, with +nothing to do, and no authority. The Czar of Russia is Emperor Emeritus +on the same terms. Mrs. Eddy was Autocrat of the Church before, with +limitless authority, and she kept her grip on that limitless authority +when she took that fictitious title. + +It is curious and interesting to note with what an unerring instinct the +Pastor Emeritus has thought out and forecast all possible encroachments +upon her planned autocracy, and barred the way against them, in the By- +laws which she framed and copyrighted--under the guidance of the Supreme +Being. + + + + +THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS + +For instance, when Article I. speaks of a President and Board of +Directors, you think you have discovered a formidable check upon the +powers and ambitions of the honorary pastor, the ornamental pastor, the +functionless pastor, the Pastor Emeritus, but it is a mistake. These +great officials are of the phrase--family of the Church-Without-a-Creed +and the Pastor-With-Nothing-to-Do; that is to say, of the family of +Large-Names-Which-Mean-Nothing. The Board is of so little consequence +that the By-laws do not state how it is chosen, nor who does it; but they +do state, most definitely, that the Board cannot fill a vacancy in its +number "except the candidate is approved by the Pastor Emeritus." + +The "candidate." The Board cannot even proceed to an election until the +Pastor Emeritus has examined the list and squelched such candidates as +are not satisfactory to her. + +Whether the original first Board began as the personal property of Mrs. +Eddy or not, it is foreseeable that in time, under this By-law, she would +own it. Such a first Board might chafe under such a rule as that, and +try to legislate it out of existence some day. But Mrs. Eddy was awake. +She foresaw that danger, and added this ingenious and effective clause: + +"This By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of +Mrs. Eddy, the Pastor Emeritus" + + + + +THE PRESIDENT + +The Board of Directors, or Serfs, or Ciphers, elects the President. + +On these clearly worded terms: "Subject to the approval of the Pastor +Emeritus." + +Therefore She elects him. + +A long term can invest a high official with influence and power, and make +him dangerous. Mrs. Eddy reflected upon that; so she limits the +President's term to a year. She has a capable commercial head, an +organizing head, a head for government. + + + + +TREASURER AND CLERK + +There are a Treasurer and a Clerk. They are elected by the Board of +Directors. That is to say, by Mrs. Eddy. + +Their terms of office expire on the first Tuesday in June of each year, +"or upon the election of their successors." They must be watchfully +obedient and satisfactory to her, or she will elect and install their +successors with a suddenness that can be unpleasant to them. It goes +without saying that the Treasurer manages the Treasury to suit Mrs. Eddy, +and is in fact merely Temporary Deputy Treasurer. + +Apparently the Clerk has but two duties to perform: to read messages from +Mrs. Eddy to First Members assembled in solemn Council, and provide lists +of candidates for Church membership. The select body entitled First +Members are the aristocracy of the Mother-Church, the Charter Members, +the Aborigines, a sort of stylish but unsalaried little College of +Cardinals, good for show, but not indispensable. Nobody is indispensable +in Mrs. Eddy's empire; she sees to that. + +When the Pastor Emeritus sends a letter or message to that little +Sanhedrin, it is the Clerk's "imperative duty" to read it "at the place +and time specified." Otherwise, the world might come to an end. These +are fine, large frills, and remind us of the ways of emperors and such. +Such do not use the penny-post, they send a gilded and painted special +messenger, and he strides into the Parliament, and business comes to a +sudden and solemn and awful stop; and in the impressive hush that +follows, the Chief Clerk reads the document. It is his "imperative +duty." If he should neglect it, his official life would end. It is the +same with this Mother-Church Clerk; "if he fail to perform this important +function of his office," certain majestic and unshirkable solemnities +must follow: a special meeting "shall" be called; a member of the Church +"shall" make formal complaint; then the Clerk "shall" be "removed from +office." Complaint is sufficient, no trial is necessary. + +There is something very sweet and juvenile and innocent and pretty about +these little tinsel vanities, these grave apings of monarchical fuss and +feathers and ceremony, here on our ostentatiously democratic soil. She +is the same lady that we found in the Autobiography, who was so naively +vain of all that little ancestral military riffraff that she had dug up +and annexed. A person's nature never changes. What it is in childhood, +it remains. Under pressure, or a change of interest, it can partially or +wholly disappear from sight, and for considerable stretches of time, but +nothing can ever permanently modify it, nothing can ever remove it. + + + + +BOARD OF TRUSTEES + +There isn't any--now. But with power and money piling up higher and +higher every day and the Church's dominion spreading daily wider and +farther, a time could come when the envious and ambitious could start the +idea that it would be wise and well to put a watch upon these assets-- +a watch equipped with properly large authority. By custom, a Board of +Trustees. Mrs. Eddy has foreseen that probability--for she is a woman +with a long, long look ahead, the longest look ahead that ever a woman +had--and she has provided for that emergency. In Art. I., Sec. 5, she +has decreed that no Board of Trustees shall ever exist in the Mother- +Church "except it be constituted by the Pastor Emeritus." + +The magnificence of it, the daring of it! Thus far, she is + +The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; +Pastor Emeritus; +President; +Board of Directors; +Treasurer; +Clerk; +and future Board of Trustees; + +and is still moving onward, ever onward. When I contemplate her from a +commercial point of view, there are no words that can convey my +admiration of her. + + + + +READERS + +These are a feature of first importance in the church-machinery of +Christian Science. For they occupy the pulpit. They hold the place that +the preacher holds in the other Christian Churches. They hold that +place, but they do not preach. Two of them are on duty at a time--a man +and a woman. One reads a passage from the Bible, the other reads the +explanation of it from Science and Health--and so they go on alternating. +This constitutes the service--this, with choir-music. They utter no word +of their own. Art. IV., Sec. 6, closes their mouths with this +uncompromising gag: + +"They shall make no remarks explanatory of the Lesson-Sermon at any time +during the service." + +It seems a simple little thing. One is not startled by it at a first +reading of it; nor at the second, nor the third. One may have to read it +a dozen times before the whole magnitude of it rises before the mind. It +far and away oversizes and outclasses the best business-idea yet invented +for the safe-guarding and perpetuating of a religion. If it had been +thought of and put in force eighteen hundred and seventy years ago, there +would be but one Christian sect in the world now, instead of ten dozens +of them. + +There are many varieties of men in the world, consequently there are many +varieties of minds in its pulpits. This insures many differing +interpretations of important Scripture texts, and this in turn insures +the splitting up of a religion into many sects. It is what has happened; +it was sure to happen. + +Mrs. Eddy has noted this disastrous result of preaching, and has put up +the bars. She will have no preaching in her Church. She has explained +all essential Scriptures, and set the explanations down in her book. In +her belief her underlings cannot improve upon those explanations, and in +that stern sentence "they shall make no explanatory remarks" she has +barred them for all time from trying. She will be obeyed; there is no +question about that. + +In arranging her government she has borrowed ideas from various sources-- +not poor ones, but the best in the governmental market--but this one is +new, this one came out of no ordinary business-head, this one must have +come out of her own, there has been no other commercial skull in a +thousand centuries that was equal to it. She has borrowed freely and +wisely, but I am sure that this idea is many times larger than all her +borrowings bulked together. One must respect the business-brain that +produced it--the splendid pluck and impudence that ventured to promulgate +it, anyway. + + + + +ELECTION OF READERS + +Readers are not taken at hap-hazard, any more than preachers are taken at +hap-hazard for the pulpits of other sects. No, Readers are elected by +the Board of Directors. But-- + +"Section 3. The Board shall inform the Pas. for Emeritus of the names +of candidates for Readers before they are elected, and if she objects to +the nomination, said candidates shall not be chosen." + +Is that an election--by the Board? Thus far I have not been able to find +out what that Board of Spectres is for. It certainly has no real +function, no duty which the hired girl could not perform, no office +beyond the mere recording of the autocrat's decrees. + +There are no dangerously long office-terms in Mrs. Eddy's government. +The Readers are elected for but one year. This insures their +subserviency to their proprietor. + +Readers are not allowed to copy out passages and read them from the +manuscript in the pulpit; they must read from Mrs. Eddy's book itself. +She is right. Slight changes could be slyly made, repeated, and in time +get acceptance with congregations. Branch sects could grow out of these +practices. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race, and how far to trust it. Her +limit is not over a quarter of an inch. It is all that a wise person +will risk. + +Mrs. Eddy's inborn disposition to copyright everything, charter +everything, secure the rightful and proper credit to herself for +everything she does, and everything she thinks she does, and everything +she thinks, and everything she thinks she thinks or has thought or +intends to think, is illustrated in Sec. 5 of Art. IV., defining the +duties of official Readers--in church: + +"Naming Book and Author. The Reader of Science and Health, with Key to +the Scriptures, before commencing to read from this book, shall +distinctly announce its full title and give the author's name." + +Otherwise the congregation might get the habit of forgetting who +(ostensibly) wrote the book. + + + + +THE ARISTOCRACY + +This consists of First Members and their apostolic succession. It is a +close corporation, and its membership limit is one hundred. Forty will +answer, but if the number fall below that, there must be an election, to +fill the grand quorum. + +This Sanhedrin can't do anything of the slightest importance, but it can +talk. It can "discuss." That is, it can discuss "important questions +relative to Church members", evidently persons who are already Church +members. This affords it amusement, and does no harm. + +It can "fix the salaries of the Readers." + +Twice a year it "votes on" admitting candidates. That is, for Church +membership. But its work is cut out for it beforehand, by Art. IX.: + +"Every recommendation for membership In the Church 'shall be +countersigned by a loyal student of Mrs. Eddy's, by a Director of this +Church, or by a First Member.'" + +All these three classes of beings are the personal property of Mrs. Eddy. +She has absolute control of the elections. + +Also it must "transact any Church business that may properly come before +it." + +"Properly" is a thoughtful word. No important business can come before +it. The By laws have attended to that. No important business goes +before any one for the final word except Mrs. Eddy. She has looked to +that. + +The Sanhedrin "votes on" candidates for admission to its own body. But +is its vote worth any more than mine would be? No, it isn't. Sec. 4, +of Art. V.--Election of First Members--makes this quite plain: + +"Before being elected, the candidates for First Members shall be approved +by the Pastor Emeritus over her own signature." + +Thus the Sanhedrin is the personal property of Mrs. Eddy. She owns it. +It has no functions, no authority, no real existence. It is another +Board of Shadows. Mrs. Eddy is the Sanhedrin herself. + +But it is time to foot up again and "see where we are at." Thus far, +Mrs. Eddy is + +The Massachusetts Metaphysical College; +Pastor Emeritus, +President; +Board of Directors; +Treasurer; +Clerk; +Future Board of Trustees; +Proprietor of the Priesthood: +Dictator of the Services; +Proprietor of the Sanhedrin. She has come far, and is still on her way. + + + + +CHURCH MEMBERSHIP + +In this Article there is another exhibition of a couple of the large +features of Mrs. Eddy's remarkable make-up: her business-talent and her +knowledge of human nature. + +She does not beseech and implore people to join her Church. She knows +the human race better than that. She gravely goes through the motions of +reluctantly granting admission to the applicant as a favor to him. The +idea is worth untold shekels. She does not stand at the gate of the fold +with welcoming arms spread, and receive the lost sheep with glad emotion +and set up the fatted calf and invite the neighbor and have a time. No, +she looks upon him coldly, she snubs him, she says: + +"Who are you? Who is your sponsor? Who asked you to come here? Go +away, and don't come again until you are invited." + +It is calculated to strikingly impress a person accustomed to Moody and +Sankey and Sam Jones revivals; accustomed to brain-turning appeals to the +unknown and unendorsed sinner to come forward and enter into the joy, +etc.--"just as he is"; accustomed to seeing him do it; accustomed to +seeing him pass up the aisle through sobbing seas of welcome, and love, +and congratulation, and arrive at the mourner's bench and be received +like a long-lost government bond. + +No, there is nothing of that kind in Mrs. Eddy's system. She knows that +if you wish to confer upon a human being something which he is not sure +he wants, the best way is to make it apparently difficult for him to get +it--then he is no son of Adam if that apple does not assume an interest +in his eyes which it lacked before. In time this interest can grow into +desire. Mrs. Eddy knows that when you cannot get a man to try--free of +cost--a new and effective remedy for a disease he is afflicted with, you +can generally sell it to him if you will put a price upon it which he +cannot afford. When, in the beginning, she taught Christian Science +gratis (for good reasons), pupils were few and reluctant, and required +persuasion; it was when she raised the limit to three hundred dollars for +a dollar's worth that she could not find standing room for the invasion +of pupils that followed. + +With fine astuteness she goes through the motions of making it difficult +to get membership in her Church. There is a twofold value in this +system: it gives membership a high value in the eyes of the applicant; +and at the same time the requirements exacted enable Mrs. Eddy to keep +him out if she has doubts about his value to her. A word further as to +applications for membership: + +"Applications of students of the Metaphysical College must be signed by +the Board of Directors." + +That is safe. Mrs. Eddy is proprietor of that Board. + +Children of twelve may be admitted if invited by "one of Mrs. Eddy's +loyal students, or by a First Member, or by a Director." + +These sponsors are the property of Mrs. Eddy, therefore her Church is +safeguarded from the intrusion of undesirable children. + +Other Students. Applicants who have not studied with Mrs. Eddy can get +in only "by invitation and recommendation from students of Mrs. Eddy.... +or from members of the Mother-Church." + +Other paragraphs explain how two or three other varieties of applicants +are to be challenged and obstructed, and tell us who is authorized to +invite them, recommend them endorse them, and all that. + +The safeguards are definite, and would seem to be sufficiently strenuous +--to Mr. Sam Jones, at any rate. Not for Mrs. Eddy. She adds this +clincher: + +"The candidates be elected by a majority vote of the First Members +present." + +That is the aristocracy, the aborigines, the Sanhedrin. It is Mrs. +Eddy's property. She herself is the Sanhedrin. No one can get into the +Church if she wishes to keep him out. + +This veto power could some time or other have a large value for her, +therefore she was wise to reserve it. + +It is likely that it is not frequently used. It is also probable that +the difficulties attendant upon getting admission to membership have been +instituted more to invite than to deter, more to enhance the value of +membership and make people long for it than to make it really difficult +to get. I think so, because the Mother. Church has many thousands of +members more than its building can accommodate. + + + + +AND SOME ENGLISH REQUIRED + +Mrs. Eddy is very particular as regards one detail curiously so, for her, +all things considered. The Church Readers must be "good English +scholars"; they must be "thorough English scholars." + +She is thus sensitive about the English of her subordinates for cause, +possibly. In her chapter defining the duties of the Clerk there is an +indication that she harbors resentful memories of an occasion when the +hazy quality of her own English made unforeseen and mortifying trouble: + +"Understanding Communications. Sec. 2. If the Clerk of this Church +shall receive a communication from the Pastor Emeritus which he does not +fully understand, he shall inform her of this fact before presenting it +to the Church, and obtain a clear understanding of the matter--then act +in accordance therewith." + +She should have waited to calm down, then, but instead she added this, +which lacks sugar: + +"Failing to adhere to this By-law, the Clerk must resign." + +I wish I could see that communication that broke the camel's back. It +was probably the one beginning: "What plague spot or bacilli were gnawing +at the heart of this metropolis and bringing it on bended knee?" and I +think it likely that the kindly disposed Clerk tried to translate it into +English and lost his mind and had to go to the hospital. That Bylaw was +not the offspring of a forecast, an intuition, it was certainly born of a +sorrowful experience. Its temper gives the fact away. + +The little book of By-laws has manifestly been tinkered by one of Mrs. +Eddy's "thorough English scholars," for in the majority of cases its +meanings are clear. The book is not even marred by Mrs. Eddy's peculiar +specialty--lumbering clumsinesses of speech. I believe the salaried +polisher has weeded them all out but one. In one place, after referring +to Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy goes on to say "the Bible and the above- +-named book, with other works by the same author," etc. + +It is an unfortunate sentence, for it could mislead a hasty or careless +reader for a moment. Mrs. Eddy framed it--it is her very own--it bears +her trade-mark. "The Bible and Science and Health, with other works by +the same author," could have come from no literary vacuum but the one +which produced the remark (in the Autobiography): "I remember reading, in +my childhood, certain manuscripts containing Scriptural Sonnets, besides +other verses and enigmas." + +We know what she means, in both instances, but a low-priced Clerk would +not necessarily know, and on a salary like his he could quite excusably +aver that the Pastor Emeritus had commanded him to come and make +proclamation that she was author of the Bible, and that she was thinking +of discharging some Scriptural sonnets and other enigmas upon the +congregation. It could lose him his place, but it would not be fair, if +it happened before the edict about "Understanding Communications" was +promulgated. + + + + +"READERS" AGAIN + +The By-law book makes a showy pretence of orderliness and system, but it +is only a pretence. I will not go so far as to say it is a harum-scarum +jumble, for it is not that, but I think it fair to say it is at least +jumbulacious in places. For instance, Articles III. and IV. set forth +in much detail the qualifications and duties of Readers, she then skips +some thirty pages and takes up the subject again. It looks like +slovenliness, but it may be only art. The belated By-law has a +sufficiently quiet look, but it has a ton of dynamite in it. It makes +all the Christian Science Church Readers on the globe the personal +chattels of Mrs. Eddy. Whenever she chooses, she can stretch her long +arm around the world's fat belly and flirt a Reader out of his pulpit, +though he be tucked away in seeming safety and obscurity in a lost +village in the middle of China: + +"In any Church. Sec. 2. The Pastor Emeritus of the Mother-Church shall +have the right (through a letter addressed to the individual and Church +of which he is the Reader) to remove a Reader from this office in any +Church of Christ, Scientist, both in America and in foreign nations; or +to appoint the Reader to fill any office belonging to the Christian +Science denomination." + +She does not have to prefer charges against him, she does not have to +find him lazy, careless, incompetent, untidy, ill-mannered, unholy, +dishonest, she does not have to discover a fault of any kind in him, she +does not have to tell him nor his congregation why she dismisses and +disgraces him and insults his meek flock, she does not have to explain to +his family why she takes the bread out of their mouths and turns them +out-of-doors homeless and ashamed in a strange land; she does not have to +do anything but send a letter and say: "Pack!--and ask no questions!" + +Has the Pope this power?--the other Pope--the one in Rome. Has he +anything approaching it? Can he turn a priest out of his pulpit and +strip him of his office and his livelihood just upon a whim, a caprice, +and meanwhile furnishing no reasons to the parish? Not in America. And +not elsewhere, we may believe. + +It is odd and strange, to see intelligent and educated people among us +worshipping this self-seeking and remorseless tyrant as a God. This +worship is denied--by persons who are themselves worshippers of Mrs. +Eddy. I feel quite sure that it is a worship which will continue during +ages. + +That Mrs. Eddy wrote that amazing By-law with her own hand we have much +better evidence than her word. We have her English. It is there. It +cannot be imitated. She ought never to go to the expense of copyrighting +her verbal discharges. When any one tries to claim them she should call +me; I can always tell them from any other literary apprentice's at a +glance. It was like her to call America a "nation"; she would call a +sand-bar a nation if it should fall into a sentence in which she was +speaking of peoples, for she would not know how to untangle it and get it +out and classify it by itself. And the closing arrangement of that By- +law is in true Eddysonian form, too. In it she reserves authority to +make a Reader fill any office connected with a Science church-sexton, +grave-digger, advertising-agent, Annex-polisher, leader of the choir, +President, Director, Treasurer, Clerk, etc. She did not mean that. She +already possessed that authority. She meant to clothe herself with +power, despotic and unchallengeable, to appoint all Science Readers to +their offices, both at home and abroad. The phrase "or to appoint" is +another miscarriage of intention; she did not mean "or," she meant "and." + + +That By-law puts into Mrs. Eddy's hands absolute command over the most +formidable force and influence existent in the Christian Science kingdom +outside of herself, and it does this unconditionally and (by auxiliary +force of Laws already quoted) irrevocably. Still, she is not quite +satisfied. Something might happen, she doesn't know what. Therefore she +drives in one more nail, to make sure, and drives it deep: + +"This By-law can neither be amended nor annulled, except by consent of +the Pastor Emeritus." + +Let some one with a wild and delirious fancy try and see if he can +imagine her furnishing that consent. + + + + +MONOPOLY OF SPIRITUAL BREAD + +Very properly, the first qualification for membership in the Mother- +Church is belief in the doctrines of Christian Science. + +But these doctrines must not be gathered from secondary sources. There +is but one recognized source. The candidate must be a believer in the +doctrines of Christian Science "according to the platform and teaching +contained in the Christian Science text-book, 'Science and Health, with +Key to the Scriptures,' by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy." + +That is definite, and is final. There are to be no commentaries, no +labored volumes of exposition and explanation by anybody except Mrs. +Eddy. Because such things could sow error, create warring opinions, +split the religion into sects, and disastrously cripple its power. Mrs. +Eddy will do the whole of the explaining, Herself--has done it, in fact. +She has written several books. They are to be had (for cash in advance), +they are all sacred; additions to them can never be needed and will never +be permitted. They tell the candidate how to instruct himself, how to +teach others, how to do all things comprised in the business--and they +close the door against all would-be competitors, and monopolize the +trade: + +"The Bible and the above--named book [Science and Health], with other +works by the same author," must be his only text-books for the commerce-- +he cannot forage outside. + +Mrs. Eddy's words are to be the sole elucidators of the Bible and Science +and Health--forever. Throughout the ages, whenever there is doubt as to +the meaning of a passage in either of these books the inquirer will not +dream of trying to explain it to himself; he would shudder at the thought +of such temerity, such profanity, he would be haled to the Inquisition +and thence to the public square and the stake if he should be caught +studying into text-meanings on his own hook; he will be prudent and seek +the meanings at the only permitted source, Mrs. Eddy's commentaries. + +Value of this Strait-jacket. One must not underrate the magnificence of +this long-headed idea, one must not underestimate its giant possibilities +in the matter of trooping the Church solidly together and keeping it so. +It squelches independent inquiry, and makes such a thing impossible, +profane, criminal, it authoritatively settles every dispute that can +arise. It starts with finality--a point which the Roman Church has +travelled towards fifteen or sixteen centuries, stage by stage, and has +not yet reached. The matter of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin +Mary was not authoritatively settled until the days of Pius IX.-- +yesterday, so to speak. + +As already noticed, the Protestants are broken up into a long array of +sects, a result of disputes about the meanings of texts, disputes made +unavoidable by the absence of an infallible authority to submit doubtful +passages to. A week or two ago (I am writing in the middle of January, +1903), the clergy and others hereabouts had a warm dispute in the papers +over this question: Did Jesus anywhere claim to be God? It seemed an +easy question, but it turned out to be a hard one. It was ably and +elaborately discussed, by learned men of several denominations, but in +the end it remained unsettled. + +A week ago, another discussion broke out. It was over this text: + +"Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor." + +One verdict was worded as follows: + +"When Christ answered the rich young man and said for him to give to the +poor all he possessed or he could not gain everlasting life, He did not +mean it in the literal sense. My interpretation of His words is that we +should part with what comes between us and Christ. + +"There is no doubt that Jesus believed that the rich young man thought +more of his wealth than he did of his soul, and, such being the case, it +was his duty to give up the wealth. + +"Every one of us knows that there is something we should give up for +Christ. Those who are true believers and followers know what they have +given up, and those who are not yet followers know down in their hearts +what they must give up." + +Ten clergymen of various denominations were interviewed, and nine of them +agreed with that verdict. That did not settle the matter, because the +tenth said the language of Jesus was so strait and definite that it +explained itself: "Sell all," not a percentage. + +There is a most unusual feature about that dispute: the nine persons who +decided alike, quoted not a single authority in support of their +position. I do not know when I have seen trained disputants do the like +of that before. The nine merely furnished their own opinions, founded +upon--nothing at all. In the other dispute ("Did Jesus anywhere claim to +be God?") the same kind of men--trained and learned clergymen--backed up +their arguments with chapter and verse. On both sides. Plenty of +verses. Were no reinforcing verses to be found in the present case? It +looks that way. + +The opinion of the nine seems strange to me, for it is unsupported by +authority, while there was at least constructive authority for the +opposite view. + +It is hair-splitting differences of opinion over disputed text-meanings +that have divided into many sects a once united Church. One may infer +from some of the names in the following list that some of the differences +are very slight--so slight as to be not distinctly important, perhaps-- +yet they have moved groups to withdraw from communions to which they +belonged and set up a sect of their own. The list--accompanied by +various Church statistics for 1902, compiled by Rev. Dr. H. K. +Carroll--was published, January 8, 1903, in the New York Christian +Advocate: + +Adventists (6 bodies), Baptists (13 bodies), Brethren (Plymouth) (4 +bodies), Brethren (River) (3 bodies), Catholics (8 bodies), Catholic +Apostolic, Christadelphians, Christian Connection, Christian Catholics, +Christian Missionary Association, Christian Scientists, Church of God +(Wine-brennarian), Church of the New Jerusalem, Congregationalists, +Disciples of Christ, Dunkards (4 bodies), Evangelical (2 bodies), Friends +(4 bodies), Friends of the Temple, German Evangelical Protestant, German +Evangelical Synod, Independent congregations, Jews (2 bodies), Latter-day +Saints (2 bodies), Lutherans (22 bodies), Mennonites (12 bodies), +Methodists (17 bodies), Moravians, Presbyterians (12 bodies), Protestant +Episcopal (2 bodies), Reformed (3 bodies), Schwenkfeldians, Social +Brethren, Spiritualists, Swedish Evangelical Miss. Covenant +(Waldenstromians), Unitarians, United Brethren (2 bodies), Universalists, + +Total of sects and splits--139. + +In the present month (February), Mr. E. I. Lindh, A..M., has +communicated to the Boston Transcript a hopeful article on the solution +of the problem of the "divided church." Divided is not too violent a +term. Subdivided could have been permitted if he had thought of it. He +came near thinking of it, for he mentions some of the subdivisions +himself: "the 12 kinds of Presbyterians, the 17 kinds of Methodists, the +13 kinds of Baptists, etc." He overlooked the 12 kinds of Mennonites and +the 22 kinds of Lutherans, but they are in Rev. Mr. Carroll's list. +Altogether, 76 splits under 5 flags. The Literary Digest (February 14th) +is pleased with Mr. Lindh's optimistic article, and also with the signs +of the times, and perceives that "the idea of Church unity is in the +air." + +Now, then, is not Mrs. Eddy profoundly wise in forbidding, for all time, +all explanations of her religion except such as she shall let on to be +her own? + +I think so. I think there can be no doubt of it. In a way, they will be +her own; for, no matter which member of her clerical staff shall furnish +the explanations, not a line of them will she ever allow to be printed +until she shall have approved it, accepted it, copyrighted it, cabbaged +it. We may depend on that with a four-ace confidence. + + + + +THE NEW INFALLIBILITY + +All in proper time Mrs. Eddy's factory will take hold of that +Commandment, and explain it for good and all. It may be that one member +of the shift will vote that the word "all" means all; it may be that ten +members of the shift will vote that "all" means only a percentage; but it +is Mrs. Eddy, not the eleven, who will do the deciding. And if she says +it is percentage, then percentage it is, forevermore--and that is what I +am expecting, for she doesn't sell all herself, nor any considerable part +of it, and as regards the poor, she doesn't declare any dividend; but if +she says "all" means all, then all it is, to the end of time, and no +follower of hers will ever be allowed to reconstruct that text, or shrink +it, or inflate it, or meddle with it in any way at all. Even to-day-- +right here in the beginning--she is the sole person who, in the matter of +Christian Science exegesis, is privileged to exploit the Spiral Twist. +The Christian world has two Infallibles now. + +Of equal power? For the present only. When Leo XIII. passes to his +rest another Infallible will ascend his throne; others, and yet others, +and still others will follow him, and be as infallible as he, and decide +questions of doctrine as long as they may come up, all down the far +future; but Mary Baker G. Eddy is the only Infallible that will ever +occupy the Science throne. Many a Science Pope will succeed her, but she +has closed their mouths; they will repeat and reverently praise and adore +her infallibilities, but venture none themselves. In her grave she will +still outrank all other Popes, be they of what Church they may. She will +hold the supremest of earthly titles, The Infallible--with a capital T. +Many in the world's history have had a hunger for such nuggets and slices +of power as they might reasonably hope to grab out of an empire's or a +religion's assets, but Mrs. Eddy is the only person alive or dead who has +ever struck for the whole of them. For small things she has the eye of a +microscope, for large ones the eye of a telescope, and whatever she sees, +she wants. Wants it all. + + + + +THE SACRED POEMS + +When Mrs. Eddy's "sacred revelations" (that is the language of the By- +laws) are read in public, their authorship must be named. The By-laws +twice command this, therefore we mention it twice, to be fair. + +But it is also commanded that when a member publicly quotes "from the +poems of our Pastor Emeritus" the authorship shall be named. For these +are sacred, too. There are kindly people who may suspect a hidden +generosity in that By-law; they may think it is there to protect the +Official Reader from the suspicion of having written the poems himself. +Such do not know Mrs. Eddy. She does an inordinate deal of protecting, +but in no distinctly named and specified case in her history has Number +Two been the object of it. Instances have been claimed, but they have +failed of proof, and even of plausibility. + +"Members shall also instruct their students" to look out and advertise +the authorship when they read those poems and things. Not on Mrs. Eddy's +account, but "for the good of our Cause." + + + + +THE CHURCH EDIFICE + +1. Mrs. Eddy gave the land. It was not of much value at the time, but +it is very valuable now. +2. Her people built the Mother-Church edifice on it, at a cost of two +hundred and fifty thousand dollars. +3. Then they gave the whole property to her. +4. Then she gave it to the Board of Directors. She is the Board of +Directors. She took it out of one pocket and put it in the other. +5. Sec. 10 (of the deed). "Whenever said Directors shall determine +that it is inexpedient to maintain preaching, reading, or speaking in +said church in accordance with the terms of this deed, they are +authorized and required to reconvey forthwith said lot of land with the +building thereon to Mary Baker G. Eddy, her heirs and assigns forever, +by a proper deed of conveyance." + +She is never careless, never slipshod, about a matter of business. +Owning the property through her Board of Waxworks was safe enough, still +it was sound business to set another grip on it to cover accidents, and +she did it. Her barkers (what a curious name; I wonder if it is +copyrighted); her barkers persistently advertise to the public her +generosity in giving away a piece of land which cost her a trifle, and a +two--hundred--and--fifty--thousand--dollar church which cost her nothing; +and they can hardly speak of the unselfishness of it without breaking +down and crying; yet they know she gave nothing away, and never intended +to. However, such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity +that Noah and his party did not miss the boat. + +Some of the hostiles think that Mrs. Eddy's idea in protecting this +property in the interest of her heirs, and in accumulating a great money +fortune, is, that she may leave her natural heirs well provided for when +she goes. I think it is a mistake. I think she is of late years giving +herself large concern about only one interest-her power and glory, and +the perpetuation and worship of her Name--with a capital N. Her Church +is her pet heir, and I think it will get her wealth. It is the torch +which is to light the world and the ages with her glory. + +I think she once prized money for the ease and comfort it could bring, +the showy vanities it could furnish, and the social promotion it could +command; for we have seen that she was born into the world with little +ways and instincts and aspirations and affectations that are duplicates +of our own. I do not think her money-passion has ever diminished in +ferocity, I do not think that she has ever allowed a dollar that had no +friends to get by her alive, but I think her reason for wanting it has +changed. I think she wants it now to increase and establish and +perpetuate her power and glory with, not to add to her comforts and +luxuries, not to furnish paint and fuss and feathers for vain display. I +think her ambitions have soared away above the fuss-and-feather stage. +She still likes the little shows and vanities--a fact which she exposed +in a public utterance two or three days ago when she was not noticing-- +but I think she does not place a large value upon them now. She could +build a mighty and far-shining brass-mounted palace if she wanted to, but +she does not do it. She would have had that kind of an ambition in the +early scrabbling times. She could go to England to-day and be worshiped +by earls, and get a comet's attention from the million, if she cared for +such things. She would have gone in the early scrabbling days for much +less than an earl, and been vain of it, and glad to show off before the +remains of the Scotch kin. But those things are very small to her now-- +next to invisible, observed through the cloud-rack from the dizzy summit +where she perches in these great days. She does not want that church +property for herself. It is worth but a quarter of a million--a sum she +could call in from her far-spread flocks to-morrow with a lift of her +hand. Not a squeeze of it, just a lift. It would come without a murmur; +come gratefully, come gladly. And if her glory stood in more need of the +money in Boston than it does where her flocks are propagating it, she +would lift the hand, I think. + +She is still reaching for the Dollar, she will continue to reach for it; +but not that she may spend it upon herself; not that she may spend it +upon charities; not that she may indemnify an early deprivation and +clothe herself in a blaze of North Adams gauds; not that she may have +nine breeds of pie for breakfast, as only the rich New-Englander can; not +that she may indulge any petty material vanity or appetite that once was +hers and prized and nursed, but that she may apply that Dollar to +statelier uses, and place it where it may cast the metallic sheen of her +glory farthest across the receding expanses of the globe. + + + + +PRAYER + +A brief and good one is furnished in the book of By-laws. The Scientist +is required to pray it every day. + + + + +THE LORD'S PRAYER-AMENDED + +This is not in the By-laws, it is in the first chapter of Science and +Health, edition of 1902. I do not find it in the edition of 1884. It is +probable that it had not at that time been handed down. Science and +Health's (latest) rendering of its "spiritual sense" is as follows: + +"Our Father-Mother God' all-harmonious, adorable One. Thy kingdom is +within us, Thou art ever-present. Enable us to know--as in heaven, so on +earth--God is supreme. Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished +affections. And infinite Love is reflected in love. And Love leadeth us +not into temptation, but delivereth from sin, disease, and death. For +God is now and forever all Life, Truth, and Love." + +If I thought my opinion was desired and would be properly revered, I +should say that in my judgment that is as good a piece of carpentering as +any of those eleven Commandment--experts could do with the material after +all their practice. I notice only one doubtful place." Lead us not into +temptation" seems to me to be a very definite request, and that the new +rendering turns the definite request into a definite assertion. I shall +be glad to have that turned back to the old way and the marks of the +Spiral Twist removed, or varnished over; then I shall be satisfied, and +will do the best I can with what is left. At the same time, I do feel +that the shrinkage in our spiritual assets is getting serious. First the +Commandments, now the Prayer. I never expected to see these steady old +reliable securities watered down to this. And this is not the whole of +it. Last summer the Presbyterians extended the Calling and Election +suffrage to nearly everybody entitled to salvation. They did not even +stop there, but let out all the unbaptized American infants we had been +accumulating for two hundred years and more. There are some that believe +they would have let the Scotch ones out, too, if they could have done it. +Everything is going to ruin; in no long time we shall have nothing left +but the love of God. + + + + +THE NEW UNPARDONABLE SIN + +"Working Against the Cause. Sec. 2. If a member of this Church shall +work against the accomplishment of what the Discoverer and Founder of +Christian Science understands is advantageous to the individual, to this +Church, and to the Cause of Christian Science"--out he goes. Forever. + +The member may think that what he is doing will advance the Cause, but he +is not invited to do any thinking. More than that, he is not permitted +to do any--as he will clearly gather from this By-law. When a person +joins Mrs. Eddy's Church he must leave his thinker at home. Leave it +permanently. To make sure that it will not go off some time or other +when he is not watching, it will be safest for him to spike it. If he +should forget himself and think just once, the By-law provides that he +shall be fired out-instantly-forever-no return. + +"It shall be the duty of this Church immediately to call a meeting, and +drop forever the name of this member from its records." + +My, but it breathes a towering indignation! + +There are forgivable offenses, but this is not one of them; there are +admonitions, probations, suspensions, in several minor cases; mercy is +shown the derelict, in those cases he is gently used, and in time he can +get back into the fold--even when he has repeated his offence. But let +him think, just once, without getting his thinker set to Eddy time, and +that is enough; his head comes off. There is no second offence, and +there is no gate open to that lost sheep, ever again. + +"This rule cannot be changed, amended, or annulled, except by unanimous +vote of all the First Members." + +The same being Mrs. Eddy. It is naively sly and pretty to see her keep +putting forward First Members, and Boards of This and That, and other +broideries and ruffles of her raiment, as if they were independent +entities, instead of a part of her clothes, and could do things all by +themselves when she was outside of them. + +Mrs. Eddy did not need to copyright the sentence just quoted, its English +would protect it. None but she would have shovelled that comically +superfluous "all" in there. + +The former Unpardonable Sin has gone out of service. We may frame the +new Christian Science one thus: + +"Whatsoever Member shall think, and without Our Mother's permission act +upon his think, the same shall be cut off from the Church forever." + +It has been said that I make many mistakes about Christian Science +through being ignorant of the spiritual meanings of its terminology. I +believe it is true. I have been misled all this time by that word +Member, because there was no one to tell me that its spiritual meaning +was Slave. + + + + +AXE AND BLOCK + +There is a By-law which forbids Members to practice hypnotism; the +penalty is excommunication. + +1. If a member is found to be a mental practitioner-- +2. Complaint is to be entered against him-- +3. By the Pastor Emeritus, and by none else; +4. No member is allowed to make complaint to her in the matter; +5. Upon Mrs. Eddy's mere "complaint"--unbacked by evidence or proof, and +without giving the accused a chance to be heard--" his name shall be +dropped from this Church." + +Mrs. Eddy has only to say a member is guilty--that is all. That ends it. +It is not a case of he "may" be cut off from Christian Science salvation, +it is a case of he "shall" be. Her serfs must see to it, and not say a +word. + +Does the other Pope possess this prodigious and irresponsible power? +Certainly not in our day. + +Some may be curious to know how Mrs. Eddy finds out that a member is +practicing hypnotism, since no one is allowed to come before her throne +and accuse him. She has explained this in Christian Science History, +first and second editions, page 16: + +"I possess a spiritual sense of what the malicious mental practitioner is +mentally arguing which cannot be deceived; I can discern in the human +mind thoughts, motives, and purposes, and neither mental arguments nor +psychic power can affect this spiritual insight." + +A marvelous woman; with a hunger for power such as has never been seen in +the world before. No thing, little or big, that contains any seed or +suggestion of power escapes her avaricious eye; and when once she gets +that eye on it, her remorseless grip follows. There isn't a Christian +Scientist who isn't ecclesiastically as much her property as if she had +bought him and paid for him, and copyrighted him and got a charter. She +cannot be satisfied when she has handcuffed a member, and put a leg-chain +and ball on him and plugged his ears and removed his thinker, she goes on +wrapping needless chains round and round him, just as a spider would. +For she trusts no one, believes in no one's honesty, judges every one by +herself. Although we have seen that she has absolute and irresponsible +command over her spectral Boards and over every official and servant of +her Church, at home and abroad, over every minute detail of her Church's +government, present and future, and can purge her membership of guilty or +suspected persons by various plausible formalities and whenever she will, +she is still not content, but must set her queer mind to work and invent +a way by which she can take a member--any member--by neck and crop and +fling him out without anything resembling a formality at all. + +She is sole accuser and sole witness, and her testimony is final and +carries uncompromising and irremediable doom with it. + +The Sole-Witness Court! It should make the Council of Ten and the +Council of Three turn in their graves for shame, to see how little they +knew about satanic concentrations of irresponsible power. Here we have +one Accuser, one Witness, one Judge, one Headsman--and all four bunched +together in Mrs. Eddy, the Inspired of God, His Latest Thought to His +People, New Member of the Holy Family, the Equal of Jesus. + +When a Member is not satisfactory to Mrs. Eddy, and yet is blameless in +his life and faultless in his membership and in his Christian Science +walk and conversation, shall he hold up his head and tilt his hat over +one ear and imagine himself safe because of these perfections? Why, in +that very moment Mrs. Eddy will cast that spiritual X-ray of hers through +his dungarees and say: + +"I see his hypnotism working, among his insides--remove him to the +block!" + +What shall it profit him to know it isn't so? Nothing. His testimony is +of no value. No one wants it, no one will ask for it. He is not present +to offer it (he does not know he has been accused), and if he were there +to offer it, it would not be listened to. + +It was out of powers approaching Mrs. Eddy's--though not equalling them +--that the Inquisition and the devastations of the Interdict grew. She +will transmit hers. The man born two centuries from now will think he +has arrived in hell; and all in good time he will think he knows it. +Vast concentrations of irresponsible power have never in any age been +used mercifully, and there is nothing to suggest that the Christian +Science Papacy is going to spend money on novelties. + +Several Christian Scientists have asked me to refrain from prophecy. +There is no prophecy in our day but history. But history is a +trustworthy prophet. History is always repeating itself, because +conditions are always repeating themselves. Out of duplicated conditions +history always gets a duplicate product. + + + + +READING LETTERS AT MEETINGS + +I wonder if there is anything a Member can do that will not raise Mrs. +Eddy's jealousy? The By-laws seem to hunt him from pillar to post all +the time, and turn all his thoughts and acts and words into sins against +the meek and lowly new deity of his worship. Apparently her jealousy +never sleeps. Apparently any trifle can offend it, and but one penalty +appease it--excommunication. The By-laws might properly and reasonably +be entitled Laws for the Coddling and Comforting of Our Mother's Petty +Jealousies. The By-law named at the head of this paragraph reads its +transgressor out of the Church if he shall carry a letter from Mrs. Eddy +to the congregation and forget to read it or fail to read the whole of +it. + + + + +HONESTY REQUISITE + +Dishonest members are to be admonished; if they continue in dishonest +practices, excommunication follows. Considering who it is that draughted +this law, there is a certain amount of humor in it. + + + + +FURTHER APPLICATIONS OF THE AXE + +Here follow the titles of some more By-laws whose infringement is +punishable by excommunication: + + +Silence Enjoined. +Misteaching. +Departure from Tenets. +Violation of Christian Fellowship. +Moral Offences. +Illegal Adoption. +Broken By-laws. +Violation of By-laws. (What is the difference?) +Formulas Forbidden. +Official Advice. (Forbids Tom, Dick, and Harry's clack.) +Unworthy of Membership. +Final Excommunication. +Organizing Churches. + +This looks as if Mrs. Eddy had devoted a large share of her time and +talent to inventing ways to get rid of her Church members. Yet in +another place she seems to invite membership. Not in any urgent way, it +is true, still she throws out a bait to such as like notice and +distinction (in other words, the Human Race). Page 82: + +"It is important that these seemingly strict conditions be complied with, +as the names of the Members of the Mother-Church will be recorded in the +history of the Church and become a part thereof." + +We all want to be historical. + + + + +MORE SELF-PROTECTIONS + +The Hymnal. There is a Christian Science Hymnal. Entrance to it was +closed in 1898. Christian Science students who make hymns nowadays may +possibly get them sung in the Mother-Church, "but not unless approved by +the Pastor Emeritus." Art. XXVII, Sec. 2. + +Solo Singers. Mrs. Eddy has contributed the words of three of the hymns +in the Hymnal. Two of them appear in it six times altogether, each of +them being set to three original forms of musical anguish. Mrs. Eddy, +always thoughtful, has promulgated a By-law requiring the singing of one +of her three hymns in the Mother Church "as often as once each month." +It is a good idea. A congregation could get tired of even Mrs. Eddy's +muse in the course of time, without the cordializing incentive of +compulsion. We all know how wearisome the sweetest and touchingest +things can become, through rep-rep-repetition, and still rep-rep- +repetition, and more rep-rep-repetition-like "the sweet by-and-by, in the +sweet by-and-by," for instance, and "Tah-rah-rah boom-de-aye"; and surely +it is not likely that Mrs. Eddy's machine has turned out goods that could +outwear those great heart-stirrers, without the assistance of the lash. +"O'er Waiting Harpstrings of the Mind" is pretty good, quite fair to +middling--the whole seven of the stanzas--but repetition would be certain +to take the excitement out of it in the course of time, even if there +were fourteen, and then it would sound like the multiplication table, and +would cease to save. The congregation would be perfectly sure to get +tired; in fact, did get tired--hence the compulsory By-law. It is a +measure born of experience, not foresight. + +The By-laws say that "if a solo singer shall neglect or refuse to sing +alone" one of those three hymns as often as once a month, and oftener if +so directed by the Board of Directors--which is Mrs. Eddy--the singer's +salary shall be stopped. It is circumstantial evidence that some +soloists neglected this sacrament and others refused it. At least that +is the charitable view to take of it. There is only one other view to +take: that Mrs. Eddy did really foresee that there would be singers who +would some day get tired of doing her hymns and proclaiming the +authorship, unless persuaded by a Bylaw, with a penalty attached. The +idea could of course occur to her wise head, for she would know that a +seven-stanza break might well be a calamitous strain upon a soloist, and +that he might therefore avoid it if unwatched. He could not curtail it, +for the whole of anything that Mrs. Eddy does is sacred, and cannot be +cut. + + + + +BOARD OF EDUCATION + +It consists of four members, one of whom is President of it. Its members +are elected annually. Subject to Mrs. Eddy's approval. Art. XXX., Sec. 2. + +She owns the Board--is the Board. + +Mrs. Eddy is President of the Metaphysical College. If at any time she +shall vacate that office, the Directors of the College (that is to say, +Mrs. Eddy) "shall" elect to the vacancy the President of the Board of +Education (which is merely re-electing herself). + +It is another case of "Pastor Emeritus." She gives up the shadow of +authority, but keeps a good firm hold on the substance. + + + + +PUBLIC TEACHERS + +Applicants for admission to this industry must pass a thorough three +days' examination before the Board of Education "in Science and Health, +chapter on 'Recapitulation'; the Platform of Christian Science; page 403 +of Christian Science Practice, from line second to the second paragraph +of page 405; and page 488, second and third paragraphs." + + + + +BOARD OF LECTURESHIP + +The lecturers are exceedingly important servants of Mrs. Eddy, and she +chooses them with great care. Each of them has an appointed territory in +which to perform his duties--in the North, the South, the East, the West, +in Canada, in Great Britain, and so on--and each must stick to his own +territory and not forage beyond its boundaries. I think it goes without +saying--from what we have seen of Mrs. Eddy--that no lecture is delivered +until she has examined and approved it, and that the lecturer is not +allowed to change it afterwards. + +The members of the Board of Lectureship are elected annually-- + +"Subject to the approval of Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy." + + + + +MISSIONARIES + +There are but four. They are elected--like the rest of the domestics-- +annually. So far as I can discover, not a single servant of the Sacred +Household has a steady job except Mrs. Eddy. It is plain that she trusts +no human being but herself. + + + + +THE BY-LAWS + +The branch Churches are strictly forbidden to use them. + +So far as I can see, they could not do it if they wanted to. The By-laws +are merely the voice of the master issuing commands to the servants. +There is nothing and nobody for the servants to re-utter them to. + +That useless edict is repeated in the little book, a few pages farther +on. There are several other repetitions of prohibitions in the book that +could be spared-they only take up room for nothing. + + + + +THE CREED +It is copyrighted. I do not know why, but I suppose it is to keep +adventurers from some day claiming that they invented it, and not Mrs. +Eddy and that "strange Providence" that has suggested so many clever +things to her. + +No Change. It is forbidden to change the Creed. That is important, at +any rate. + + + +COPYRIGHT + +I can understand why Mrs. Eddy copyrighted the early editions and +revisions of Science and Health, and why she had a mania for copyrighting +every scrap of every sort that came from her pen in those jejune days +when to be in print probably seemed a wonderful distinction to her in her +provincial obscurity, but why she should continue this delirium in these +days of her godship and her far-spread fame, I cannot explain to myself. +And particularly as regards Science and Health. She knows, now, that +that Annex is going to live for many centuries; and so, what good is a +fleeting forty-two-year copyright going to do it? + +Now a perpetual copyright would be quite another matter. I would like to +give her a hint. Let her strike for a perpetual copyright on that book. +There is precedent for it. There is one book in the world which bears +the charmed life of perpetual copyright (a fact not known to twenty +people in the world). By a hardy perversion of privilege on the part of +the lawmaking power the Bible has perpetual copyright in Great Britain. +There is no justification for it in fairness, and no explanation of it +except that the Church is strong enough there to have its way, right or +wrong. The recent Revised Version enjoys perpetual copyright, too--a +stronger precedent, even, than the other one. + +Now, then, what is the Annex but a Revised Version itself? Which of +course it is--Lord's Prayer and all. With that pair of formidable +British precedents to proceed upon, what Congress of ours-- + +But how short-sighted I am. Mrs. Eddy has thought of it long ago. She +thinks of everything. She knows she has only to keep her copyright of +1902 alive through its first stage of twenty-eight years, and perpetuity +is assured. A Christian Science Congress will reign in the Capitol then. +She probably attaches small value to the first edition (1875). Although +it was a Revelation from on high, it was slim, lank, incomplete, padded +with bales of refuse rags, and puffs from lassoed celebrities to fill it +out, an uncreditable book, a book easily sparable, a book not to be +mentioned in the same year with the sleek, fat, concise, compact, +compressed, and competent Annex of to-day, in its dainty flexible covers, +gilt--edges, rounded corners, twin screw, spiral twist, compensation +balance, Testament-counterfeit, and all that; a book just born to curl up +on the hymn-book-shelf in church and look just too sweet and holy for +anything. Yes, I see now what she was copyrighting that child for. + + + + +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION + +It is true in matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. She +thought of an organ, to disseminate the Truth as it was in Mrs. Eddy. +Straightway she started one--the Christian Science Journal. + +It is true--in matters of business Mrs. Eddy thinks of everything. As +soon as she had got the Christian Science Journal sufficiently in debt to +make its presence on the premises disagreeable to her, it occurred to her +to make somebody a present of it. Which she did, along with its debts. +It was in the summer of 1889. The victim selected was her Church-- +called, in those days, The National Christian Scientist Association. + +She delivered this sorrow to those lambs as a "gift" in consideration of +their "loyalty to our great cause." + +Also--still thinking of everything--she told them to retain Mr. Bailey in +the editorship and make Mr. Nixon publisher. We do not know what it was +she had against those men; neither do we know whether she scored on +Bailey or not, we only know that God protected Nixon, and for that I am +sincerely glad, although I do not know Nixon and have never even seen +him. + +Nixon took the Journal and the rest of the Publishing Society's +liabilities, and demonstrated over them during three years, then brought +in his report: + +"On assuming my duties as publisher, there was not a dollar in the +treasury; but on the contrary the Society owed unpaid printing and paper +bills to the amount of several hundred dollars, not to mention a +contingent liability of many more hundreds"--represented by advance-- +subscriptions paid for the Journal and the "Series," the which goods Mrs. +Eddy had not delivered. And couldn't, very well, perhaps, on a +Metaphysical College income of but a few thousand dollars a day, or a +week, or whatever it was in those magnificently flourishing times. The +struggling Journal had swallowed up those advance-payments, but its +"claim" was a severe one and they had failed to cure it. But Nixon cured +it in his diligent three years, and joyously reported the news that he +had cleared off all the debts and now had a fat six thousand dollars in +the bank. + +It made Mrs. Eddy's mouth water. + +At the time that Mrs. Eddy had unloaded that dismal gift on to her +National Association, she had followed her inveterate custom: she had +tied a string to its hind leg, and kept one end of it hitched to her +belt. We have seen her do that in the case of the Boston Mosque. When +she deeds property, she puts in that string-clause. It provides that +under certain conditions she can pull the string and land the property in +the cherished home of its happy youth. In the present case she believed +that she had made provision that if at any time the National Christian +Science Association should dissolve itself by a formal vote, she could +pull. + +A year after Nixon's handsome report, she writes the Association that she +has a "unique request to lay before it." It has dissolved, and she is +not quite sure that the Christian Science Journal has "already fallen +into her hands" by that act, though it "seems" to her to have met with +that accident; so she would like to have the matter decided by a formal +vote. But whether there is a doubt or not, "I see the wisdom," she says, +"of again owning this Christian Science waif." + +I think that that is unassailable evidence that the waif was making +money, hands down. + +She pulled her gift in. A few years later she donated the Publishing +Society, along with its real estate, its buildings, its plant, its +publications, and its money--the whole worth twenty--two thousand +dollars, and free of debt--to--Well, to the Mother-Church! + +That is to say, to herself. There is an act count of it in the Christian +Science Journal, and of how she had already made some other handsome +gifts--to her Church--and others to--to her Cause besides "an almost +countless number of private charities" of cloudy amount and otherwise +indefinite. This landslide of generosities overwhelmed one of her +literary domestics. While he was in that condition he tried to express +what he felt: + +"Let us endeavor to lift up our hearts in thankfulness to . . . our +Mother in Israel for these evidences of generosity and self-sacrifice +that appeal to our deepest sense of gratitude, even while surpassing our +comprehension." + +A year or two later, Mrs. Eddy promulgated some By-laws of a self- +sacrificing sort which assuaged him, perhaps, and perhaps enabled his +surpassed comprehension to make a sprint and catch up. These are to be +found in Art. XII., entitled. + + + + +THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING SOCIETY + +This Article puts the whole publishing business into the hands of a +publishing Board--special. Mrs. Eddy appoints to its vacancies. + +The profits go semi-annually to the Treasurer of the Mother-Church. Mrs. +Eddy owns the Treasurer. + +Editors and publishers of the Christian Science Journal cannot be elected +or removed without Mrs. Eddy's knowledge and consent. + +Every candidate for employment in a high capacity or a low one, on the +other periodicals or in the publishing house, must first be "accepted by +Mrs. Eddy as suitable." And "by the Board of Directors"--which is +surplusage, since Mrs. Eddy owns the Board. + +If at any time a weekly shall be started, "it shall be owned by The First +Church of Christ, Scientist"--which is Mrs. Eddy. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +I think that any one who will carefully examine the By-laws (I have +placed all of the important ones before the reader), will arrive at the +conclusion that of late years the master-passion in Mrs. Eddy's heart is +a hunger for power and glory; and that while her hunger for money still +remains, she wants it now for the expansion and extension it can furnish +to that power and glory, rather than what it can do for her towards +satisfying minor and meaner ambitions. + +I wish to enlarge a little upon this matter. I think it is quite clear +that the reason why Mrs. Eddy has concentrated in herself all powers, all +distinctions, all revenues that are within the command of the Christian +Science Church Universal is that she desires and intends to devote them +to the purpose just suggested--the upbuilding of her personal glory-- +hers, and no one else's; that, and the continuing of her name's glory +after she shall have passed away. If she has overlooked a single power, +howsoever minute, I cannot discover it. If she has found one, large or +small, which she has not seized and made her own, there is no record of +it, no trace of it. In her foragings and depredations she usually puts +forward the Mother-Church--a lay figure--and hides behind it. Whereas, +she is in manifest reality the Mother-Church herself. It has an +impressive array of officials, and committees, and Boards of Direction, +of Education, of Lectureship, and so on--geldings, every one, shadows, +spectres, apparitions, wax-figures: she is supreme over them all, she can +abolish them when she will; blow them out as she would a candle. She is +herself the Mother-Church. Now there is one By-law which says that the +Mother-Church: + +"shall be officially controlled by no other church." + +That does not surprise us--we know by the rest of the By-laws that that +is a quite irrelevant remark. Yet we do vaguely and hazily wonder why +she takes the trouble to say it; why she wastes the words; what her +object can be--seeing that that emergency has been in so many, many ways, +and so effectively and drastically barred off and made impossible. Then +presently the object begins to dawn upon us. That is, it does after we +have read the rest of the By-law three or four times, wondering and +admiring to see Mrs. Eddy--Mrs. Eddy--Mrs. Eddy, of all persons--throwing +away power!--making a fair exchange--doing a fair thing for once more, +an almost generous thing! Then we look it through yet once more +unsatisfied, a little suspicious--and find that it is nothing but a sly, +thin make-believe, and that even the very title of it is a sarcasm and +embodies a falsehood--"self" government: + +"Local Self-Government. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in +Boston, Massachusetts, shall assume no official control of other churches +of this denomination. It shall be officially controlled by no other +church." + +It has a most pious and deceptive give-and-take air of perfect fairness, +unselfishness, magnanimity--almost godliness, indeed. But it is all art. + + +In the By-laws, Mrs. Eddy, speaking by the mouth of her other self, the +Mother-Church, proclaims that she will assume no official control of +other churches-branch churches. We examine the other By-laws, and they +answer some important questions for us: + +1. What is a branch Church? It is a body of Christian Scientists, +organized in the one and only permissible way--by a member, in good +standing, of the Mother-Church, and who is also a pupil of one of Mrs. +Eddy's accredited students. That is to say, one of her properties. No +other can do it. There are other indispensable requisites; what are +they? + +2. The new Church cannot enter upon its functions until its members have +individually signed, and pledged allegiance to, a Creed furnished by Mrs. +Eddy. + +3. They are obliged to study her books, and order their lives by them. +And they must read no outside religious works. + +4. They must sing the hymns and pray the prayers provided by her, and +use no others in the services, except by her permission. + +5. They cannot have preachers and pastors. Her law. + +6. In their Church they must have two Readers--a man and a woman. + +7. They must read the services framed and appointed by her. + +8. She--not the branch Church--appoints those Readers. + +9. She--not the branch Church--dismisses them and fills the vacancies. + +1O. She can do this without consulting the branch Church, and without +explaining. + +11. The branch Church can have a religious lecture from time to time. +By applying to Mrs. Eddy. There is no other way. + +12. But the branch Church cannot select the lecturer. Mrs. Eddy does +it. + +13. The branch Church pays his fee. + +14. The harnessing of all Christian Science wedding-teams, members of +the branch Church, must be done by duly authorized and consecrated +Christian Science functionaries. Her factory is the only one that makes +and licenses them. + +[15. Nothing is said about christenings. It is inferable from this that +a Christian Science child is born a Christian Scientist and requires no +tinkering.] + +[16. Nothing is said about funerals. It is inferable, then, that a +branch Church is privileged to do in that matter as it may choose.] + +To sum up. Are any important Church-functions absent from the list? I +cannot call any to mind. Are there any lacking ones whose exercise could +make the branch in any noticeable way independent of the Mother. Church? +--even in any trifling degree? I think of none. If the named functions +were abolished would there still be a Church left? Would there be even a +shadow of a Church left? Would there be anything at all left? even the +bare name? + +Manifestly not. There isn't a single vital and essential Church-function +of any kind, that is not named in the list. And over every one of them +the Mother-Church has permanent and unchallengeable control, upon every +one of them Mrs. Eddy has set her irremovable grip. She holds, in +perpetuity, autocratic and indisputable sovereignty and control over +every branch Church in the earth; and yet says, in that sugary, naive, +angel-beguiling way of hers, that the Mother-Church: + +"shall assume no official control of other churches of this +denomination." + +Whereas in truth the unmeddled-with liberties of a branch Christian +Science Church are but very, very few in number, and are these: + +1. It can appoint its own furnace-stoker, winters. +2. It can appoint its own fan-distributors, summers. +3. It can, in accordance with its own choice in the matter, burn, bury, +or preserve members who are pretending to be dead--whereas there is no +such thing as death. +4. It can take up a collection. + +The branch Churches have no important liberties, none that give them an +important voice in their own affairs. Those are all locked up, and Mrs. +Eddy has the key. "Local Self-Government" is a large name and sounds +well; but the branch Churches have no more of it than have the privates +in the King of Dahomey's army. + + + + +"MOTHER-CHURCH UNIQUE" + +Mrs. Eddy, with an envious and admiring eye upon the solitary and +rivalless and world-shadowing majesty of St. Peter's, reveals in her By- +laws her purpose to set the Mother-Church apart by itself in a stately +seclusion and make it duplicate that lone sublimity under the Western +sky. The By-law headed "Mother-Church Unique "says-- + +"In its relation to other Christian Science churches, the Mother-Church +stands alone. + +"It occupies a position that no other Church can fill. + +"Then for a branch Church to assume such position would be disastrous to +Christian Science, + +"Therefore--" + +Therefore no branch Church is allowed to have branches. There shall be +no Christian Science St. Peter's in the earth but just one--the Mother- +Church in Boston. + + + + +"NO FIRST MEMBERS" + +But for the thoughtful By-law thus entitled, every Science branch in the +earth would imitate the Mother-Church and set up an aristocracy. Every +little group of ground-floor Smiths and Furgusons and Shadwells and +Simpsons that organized a branch would assume that great title, of "First +Members," along with its vast privileges of "discussing" the weather and +casting blank ballots, and soon there would be such a locust-plague of +them burdening the globe that the title would lose its value and have to +be abolished. + +But where business and glory are concerned, Mrs. Eddy thinks of +everything, and so she did not fail to take care of her Aborigines, her +stately and exclusive One Hundred, her college of functionless cardinals, +her Sanhedrin of Privileged Talkers (Limited). After taking away all the +liberties of the branch Churches, and in the same breath disclaiming all +official control over their affairs, she smites them on the mouth with +this--the very mouth that was watering for those nobby ground-floor +honors-- + +"No First Members. Branch Churches shall not organize with First +Members, that special method of organization being adapted to the Mother- +Church alone." + +And so, first members being prohibited, we pierce through the cloud of +Mrs. Eddy's English and perceive that they must then necessarily organize +with Subsequent Members. There is no other way. It will occur to them +by-and-by to found an aristocracy of Early Subsequent Members. There is +no By-law against it. + + + + +"THE" + +I uncover to that imperial word. And to the mind, too, that conceived +the idea of seizing and monopolizing it as a title. I believe it is Mrs. +Eddy's dazzlingest invention. For show, and style, and grandeur, and +thunder and lightning and fireworks it outclasses all the previous +inventions of man, and raises the limit on the Pope. He can never put +his avid hand on that word of words--it is pre-empted. And copyrighted, +of course. It lifts the Mother-Church away up in the sky, and +fellowships it with the rare and select and exclusive little company of +the THE's of deathless glory--persons and things whereof history and the +ages could furnish only single examples, not two: the Saviour, the +Virgin, the Milky Way, the Bible, the Earth, the Equator, the Devil, the +Missing Link--and now The First Church, Scientist. And by clamor of +edict and By-law Mrs. Eddy gives personal notice to all branch Scientist +Churches on this planet to leave that THE alone. + +She has demonstrated over it and made it sacred to the Mother-Church: + +"The article 'The' must not be used before the titles of branch +Churches-- + +"Nor written on applications for membership in naming such churches." + +Those are the terms. There can and will be a million First Churches of +Christ, Scientist, scattered over the world, in a million towns and +villages and hamlets and cities, and each may call itself (suppressing +the article), "First Church of Christ. Scientist"--it is permissible, +and no harm; but there is only one The Church of Christ, Scientist, and +there will never be another. And whether that great word fall in the +middle of a sentence or at the beginning of it, it must always have its +capital T. + +I do not suppose that a juvenile passion for fussy little worldly shows +and vanities can furnish a match to this, anywhere in the history of the +nursery. Mrs. Eddy does seem to be a shade fonder of little special +distinctions and pomps than is usual with human beings. + +She instituted that immodest "The" with her own hand; she did not wait +for somebody else to think of it. + + + + +A LIFE-TERM MONOPOLY + +There is but one human Pastor in the whole Christian Science world; she +reserves that exalted place to herself. + + + + +A PERPETUAL ONE + +There is but one other object in the whole Christian Science world +honored with that title and holding that office: it is her book, the +Annex--permanent Pastor of The First Church, and of all branch Churches. + +With her own hand she draughted the By-laws which make her the only +really absolute sovereign that lives to-day in Christendom. + +She does not allow any objectionable pictures to be exhibited in the room +where her book is sold, nor any indulgence in idle gossip there; and from +the general look of that By-law I judge that a lightsome and improper +person can be as uncomfortable in that place as he could be in heaven. + + + + +THE SANCTUM SANCTORUM AND SACRED CHAIR + +In a room in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, there is a museum of +objects which have attained to holiness through contact with Mrs. Eddy-- +among them an electrically lighted oil-picture of a chair which she used +to sit in--and disciples from all about the world go softly in there, in +restricted groups, under proper guard, and reverently gaze upon those +relics. It is worship. Mrs. Eddy could stop it if she was not fond of +it, for her sovereignty over that temple is supreme. + +The fitting-up of that place as a shrine is not an accident, nor a +casual, unweighed idea; it is imitated from age--old religious custom. +In Treves the pilgrim reverently gazes upon the Seamless Robe, and humbly +worships; and does the same in that other continental church where they +keep a duplicate; and does likewise in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, +in Jerusalem, where memorials of the Crucifixion are preserved; and now, +by good fortune we have our Holy Chair and things, and a market for our +adorations nearer home. + +But is there not a detail that is new, fresh, original? Yes, whatever +old thing Mrs. Eddy touches gets something new by the contact--something +not thought of before by any one--something original, all her own, and +copyrightable. The new feature is self worship--exhibited in permitting +this shrine to be installed during her lifetime, and winking her sacred +eye at it. + +A prominent Christian Scientist has assured me that the Scientists do not +worship Mrs. Eddy, and I think it likely that there may be five or six of +the cult in the world who do not worship her, but she herself is +certainly not of that company. Any healthy-minded person who will +examine Mrs. Eddy's little Autobiography and the Manual of By-laws +written by her will be convinced that she worships herself; and that she +brings to this service a fervor of devotion surpassing even that which +she formerly laid at the feet of the Dollar, and equalling any which +rises to the Throne of Grace from any quarter. + +I think this is as good a place as any to salve a hurt which I was the +means of inflicting upon a Christian Scientist lately. The first third +of this book was written in 1899 in Vienna. Until last summer I had +supposed that that third had been printed in a book which I published +about a year later--a hap which had not happened. I then sent the +chapters composing it to the North American Review, but failed. in one +instance, to date them. And so, In an undated chapter I said a lady told +me "last night" so and so. There was nothing to indicate to the reader +that that "last night" was several years old, therefore the phrase seemed +to refer to a night of very recent date. What the lady had told me was, +that in a part of the Mother-Church in Boston she had seen Scientists +worshipping a portrait of Mrs. Eddy before which a light was kept +constantly burning. + +A Scientist came to me and wished me to retract that "untruth." He said +there was no such portrait, and that if I wanted to be sure of it I could +go to Boston and see for myself. I explained that my "last night" meant +a good while ago; that I did not doubt his assertion that there was no +such portrait there now, but that I should continue to believe it had +been there at the time of the lady's visit until she should retract her +statement herself. I was at no time vouching for the truth of the +remark, nevertheless I considered it worth par. + +And yet I am sorry the lady told me, since a wound which brings me no +happiness has resulted. I am most willing to apply such salve as I can. +The best way to set the matter right and make everything pleasant and +agreeable all around will be to print in this place a description of the +shrine as it appeared to a recent visitor, Mr. Frederick W. Peabody, of +Boston. I will copy his newspaper account, and the reader will see that +Mrs. Eddy's portrait is not there now: + +"We lately stood on the threshold of the Holy of Holies of the Mother- +Church, and with a crowd of worshippers patiently waited for admittance +to the hallowed precincts of the 'Mother's Room.' Over the doorway was a +sign informing us that but four persons at a time would be admitted; that +they would be permitted to remain but five minutes only, and would please +retire from the 'Mother's Room' at the ringing of the bell. Entering +with three of the faithful, we looked with profane eyes upon the +consecrated furnishings. A show-woman in attendance monotonously +announced the character of the different appointments. Set in a recess +of the wall and illumined with electric light was an oil-painting the +show-woman seriously declared to be a lifelike and realistic picture of +the Chair in which the Mother sat when she composed her 'inspired' work. +It was a picture of an old-fashioned? country, hair cloth rocking-chair, +and an exceedingly commonplace-looking table with a pile of manuscript, +an ink-bottle, and pen conspicuously upon it. On the floor were sheets +of manuscript. 'The mantel-piece is of pure onyx,' continued the show- +woman, 'and the beehive upon the window-sill is made from one solid block +of onyx; the rug is made of a hundred breasts of eider-down ducks, and +the toilet-room you see in the corner is of the latest design, with gold- +plated drain-pipes; the painted windows are from the Mother's poem, +"Christ and Christmas," and that case contains complete copies of all the +Mother's books.' The chairs upon which the sacred person of the Mother +had reposed were protected from sacrilegious touch by a broad band of +satin ribbon. My companions expressed their admiration in subdued and +reverent tones, and at the tinkling of the bell we reverently tiptoed out +of the room to admit another delegation of the patient waiters at the +door." + +Now, then, I hope the wound is healed. I am willing to relinquish the +portrait, and compromise on the Chair. At the same time, if I were going +to worship either, I should not choose the Chair. + +As a picturesquely and persistently interesting personage, there is no +mate to Mrs. Eddy, the accepted Equal of the Saviour. But some of her +tastes are so different from His! I find it quite impossible to imagine +Him, in life, standing sponsor for that museum there, and taking pleasure +in its sumptuous shows. I believe He would put that Chair in the fire, +and the bell along with it; and I think He would make the show-woman go +away. I think He would break those electric bulbs, and the "mantel-piece +of pure onyx," and say reproachful things about the golden drain-pipes of +the lavatory, and give the costly rug of duck-breasts to the poor, and +sever the satin ribbon and invite the weary to rest and ease their aches +in the consecrated chairs. What He would do with the painted windows we +can better conjecture when we come presently to examine their +peculiarities. + + + + +THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PASTOR-UNIVERSAL + +When Mrs. Eddy turned the pastors out of all the Christian Science +churches and abolished the office for all time as far as human occupancy +is concerned--she appointed the Holy Ghost to fill their place. If this +language be blasphemous, I did not invent the blasphemy, I am merely +stating a fact. I will quote from page 227 of Science and Health +(edition 1899), as a first step towards an explanation of this startling +matter--a passage which sets forth and classifies the Christian Science +Trinity: + +"Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune God, or triply divine +Principle. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one--the same in +essence, though multiform in office: God the Father; Christ the type of +Sonship; Divine Science, or the Holy Comforter. . . + +"The Holy Ghost, or Spirit, reveals this triune Principle, and (the Holy +Ghost) is expressed in Divine Science, which is the Comforter, leading +into all Truth, and revealing the divine Principle of the universe-- +universal and perpetual harmony." + +I will cite another passage. Speaking of Jesus-- + +"His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by +all they had witnessed and suffered they were roused to an enlarged +understanding of Divine Science, even to the spiritual interpretation . . +. . . of His teachings," etc. + +Also, page 579, in the chapter called the Glossary: + +"HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the developments of Life, Truth, and Love." + +The Holy Ghost reveals the massed spirit of the fused trinity; this +massed spirit is expressed in Divine Science, and is the Comforter; +Divine Science conveys to men the "spiritual interpretation" of the +Saviour's teachings. That seems to be the meaning of the quoted +passages. + +Divine Science is Christian Science; the book Science and Health is a +"revelation" of the whole spirit of the Trinity, and is therefore "The +Holy Ghost"; it conveys to men the "spiritual interpretation" of the +Bible's teachings. and therefore is "the Comforter." + +I do not find this analyzing work easy, I would rather saw wood; and a +person can never tell whether he has added up a Science and Health sum +right or not, anyway, after all his trouble. Neither can he easily find +out whether the texts are still on the market or have been discarded from +the Book; for two hundred and fifty-eight editions of it have been +issued, and no two editions seem to be alike. The annual changes--in +technical terminology; in matter and wording; in transpositions of +chapters and verses; in leaving out old chapters and verses and putting +in new ones--seem to be next to innumerable, and as there is no index, +there is no way to find a thing one wants without reading the book +through. If ever I inspire a Bible-Annex I will not rush at it in a +half-digested, helter-skelter way and have to put in thirty-eight years +trying to get some of it the way I want it, I will sit down and think it +out and know what it is I want to say before I begin. An inspirer cannot +inspire for Mrs. Eddy and keep his reputation. I have never seen such +slipshod work, bar the ten that interpreted for the home market the "sell +all thou hast." I have quoted one "spiritual" rendering of the Lord's +Prayer, I have seen one other one, and am told there are five more. Yet +the inspirer of Mrs. Eddy the new Infallible casts a complacent critical +stone at the other Infallible for being unable to make up its mind about +such things. Science and Health, edition 1899, page 33: + +"The decisions, by vote of Church Councils, as to what should and should +not be considered Holy Writ, the manifest mistakes in the ancient +versions: the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament and +the three hundred thousand in the New--these facts show how a mortal and +material sense stole into the divine record, darkening, to some extent, +the inspired pages with its own hue." + +To some extent, yes--speaking cautiously. But it is nothing, really +nothing; Mrs. Eddy is only a little way behind, and if her inspirer lives +to get her Annex to suit him that Catholic record will have to "go 'way +back and set down," as the ballad says. Listen to the boastful song of +Mrs. Eddy's organ, the Christian Science Journal for March, 1902, about +that year's revamping and half-soling of Science and Health, whose +official name is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and who is now the +Official Pastor and Infallible and Unerring Guide of every Christian +Science church in the two hemispheres, hear Simple Simon that met the +pieman brag of the Infallible's fallibility: + +"Throughout the entire book the verbal changes are so numerous as to +indicate the vast amount of time and labor Mrs. Eddy has devoted to this +revision. The time and labor thus bestowed is relatively as great as +that of--the committee who revised the Bible.... Thus we have +additional evidence of the herculean efforts our beloved Leader has made +and is constantly making for the promulgation of Truth and the +furtherance of her divinely bestowed mission," etc. + +It is a steady job. I could help inspire if desired; I am not doing much +now, and would work for half-price, and should not object to the country. + + + + +PRICE OF THE PASTOR-UNIVERSAL + +The price of the Pastor-Universal, Science and Health, called in Science +literature the Comforter--and by that other sacred Name--is three +dollars in cloth, as heretofore, six when it is finely bound, and shaped +to imitate the Testament, and is broken into verses. Margin of profit +above cost of manufacture, from five hundred to seven hundred per cent., +as already noted In the profane subscription-trade, it costs the +publisher heavily to canvass a three-dollar book; he must pay the general +agent sixty per cent. commission--that is to say, one dollar and eighty- +cents. Mrs. Eddy escapes this blistering tax, because she owns the +Christian Science canvasser, and can compel him to work for nothing. +Read the following command--not request--fulminated by Mrs. Eddy, over +her signature, in the Christian Science Journal for March, 1897, and +quoted by Mr. Peabody in his book. The book referred to is Science and +Health: + +"It shall be the duty of all Christian Scientists to circulate and to +sell as many of these books as they can." + +That is flung at all the elect, everywhere that the sun shines, but no +penalty is shaken over their heads to scare them. The same command was +issued to the members (numbering to-day twenty-five thousand) of The +Mother-Church, also, but with it went a threat, of the infliction, in +case of disobedience, of the most dreaded punishment that has a place in +the Church's list of penalties for transgressions of Mrs. Eddy's edicts +--excommunication: + +"If a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, shall fail to obey +this injunction, it will render him liable to lose his membership in this +Church. MARY BAKER EDDY." + +It is the spirit of the Spanish Inquisition. + +None but accepted and well established gods can venture an affront like +that and do it with confidence. But the human race will take anything +from that class. Mrs. Eddy knows the human race; knows it better than +any mere human being has known it in a thousand centuries. My confidence +in her human-beingship is getting shaken, my confidence in her godship is +stiffening. + + + + +SEVEN HUNDRED PER CENT. + +A Scientist out West has visited a bookseller--with intent to find fault +with me--and has brought away the information that the price at which +Mrs. Eddy sells Science and Health is not an unusually high one for the +size and make of the book. That is true. But in the book-trade--that +profit-devourer unknown to Mrs. Eddy's book--a three-dollar book that is +made for thirty-five or forty cents in large editions is put at three +dollars because the publisher has to pay author, middleman, and +advertising, and if the price were much below three the profit accruing +would not pay him fairly for his time and labor. At the same time, if he +could get ten dollars for the book he would take it, and his morals would +not fall under criticism. + +But if he were an inspired person commissioned by the Deity to receive +and print and spread broadcast among sorrowing and suffering and poor men +a precious message of healing and cheer and salvation, he would have to +do as Bible Societies do--sell the book at a pinched margin above cost to +such as could pay, and give it free to all that couldn't; and his name +would be praised. But if he sold it at seven hundred per cent. profit +and put the money in his pocket, his name would be mocked and derided. +Just as Mrs. Eddy's is. And most justifiably, as it seems to me. + +The complete Bible contains one million words. The New Testament by +itself contains two hundred and forty thousand words. + +My '84 edition of Science and Health contains one hundred and twenty +thousand words--just half as many as the New Testament. + +Science and Health has since been so inflated by later inspirations that +the 1902 edition contains one hundred and eighty thousand words--not +counting the thirty thousand at the back, devoted by Mrs. Eddy to +advertising the book's healing abilities--and the inspiring continues +right along. + +If you have a book whose market is so sure and so great that you can give +a printer an everlasting order for thirty or forty or fifty thousand +copies a year he will furnish them at a cheap rate, because whenever +there is a slack time in his press-room and bindery he can fill the idle +intervals on your book and be making something instead of losing. That +is the kind of contract that can be let on Science and Health every year. +I am obliged to doubt that the three-dollar Science and Health costs Mrs. +Eddy above fifteen cents, or that the six dollar copy costs her above +eighty cents. I feel quite sure that the average profit to her on these +books, above cost of manufacture, is all of seven hundred per cent. + +Every proper Christian Scientist has to buy and own (and canvass for) +Science and Health (one hundred and eighty thousand words), and he must +also own a Bible (one million words). He can buy the one for from three +to six dollars, and the other for fifteen cents. Or, if three dollars is +all the money he has, he can get his Bible for nothing. When the Supreme +Being disseminates a saving Message through uninspired agents--the New +Testament, for instance--it can be done for five cents a copy, but when +He sends one containing only two-thirds as many words through the shop of +a Divine Personage, it costs sixty times as much. I think that in +matters of such importance it is bad economy to employ a wild-cat agency. + +Here are some figures which are perfectly authentic, and which seem to +justify my opinion. + +"These [Bible] societies, inspired only by a sense of religious duty, are +issuing the Bible at a price so small that they have made it the cheapest +book printed. For example, the American Bible Society offers an edition +of the whole Bible as low as fifteen cents and the New Testament at five +cents, and the British Society at sixpence and one penny, respectively. +These low prices, made possible by their policy of selling the books at +cost or below cost," etc.--New York Sun, February 25, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +We may now make a final footing-up of Mrs. Eddy, and see what she is, in +the fulness of her powers. She is + +The Massachusetts Metaphysical College +Pastor Emeritus; +President; +Board of Directors; +Board of Education; +Board of Lectureships; +Future Board of Trustees, +Proprietor of the Publishing-House and Periodicals; +Treasurer; +Clerk; +Proprietor of the Teachers; +Proprietor of the Lecturers; +Proprietor of the Missionaries; +Proprietor of the Readers; +Dictator of the Services; sole Voice of the Pulpit; +Proprietor of the Sanhedrin; +Sole Proprietor of the Creed. (Copyrighted.); +Indisputable Autocrat of the Branch Churches, with their life and death +in her hands; +Sole Thinker for The First Church (and the others); +Sole and Infallible Expounder of Doctrine, in life and in death; +Sole permissible Discoverer, Denouncer, Judge, and Executioner of +Ostensible Hypnotists; +Fifty-handed God of Excommunication--with a thunderbolt in every hand; +Appointer and Installer of the Pastor of all the Churches--the Perpetual +Pastor-Universal, Science and Health, "the Comforter." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +There she stands-painted by herself. No witness but herself has been +allowed to testify. She stands there painted by her acts, and decorated +by her words. When she talks, she has only a decorative value as a +witness, either for or against herself, for she deals mainly in +unsupported assertion; and in the rare cases where she puts forward a +verifiable fact she gets out of it a meaning which it refuses to furnish +to anybody else. Also, when she talks, she is unstable, she wanders, she +is incurably inconsistent; what she says to-day she contradicts tomorrow. + +But her acts are consistent. They are always faithful to her, they never +misinterpret her, they are a mirror which always reflects her exactly, +precisely, minutely, unerringly, and always the same, to date, with only +those progressive little natural changes in stature, dress, complexion, +mood, and carriage that mark--exteriorly--the march of the years and +record the accumulations of experience, while--interiorly--through all +this steady drift of evolution the one essential detail, the commanding +detail, the master detail of the make-up remains as it was in the +beginning, suffers no change and can suffer none; the basis of the +character; the temperament, the disposition, that indestructible iron +framework upon which the character is built, and whose shape it must +take, and keep, throughout life. We call it a person's nature. + +The man who is born stingy can be taught to give liberally--with his +hands; but not with his heart. The man born kind and compassionate can +have that disposition crushed down out of sight by embittering +experience; but if it were an organ the post-mortem would find it still +in his corpse. The man born ambitious of power and glory may live long +without finding it out, but when the opportunity comes he will know, will +strike for the largest thing within the limit of his chances at the time- +constable, perhaps--and will be glad and proud when he gets it, and will +write home about it. But he will not stop with that start; his appetite +will come again; and by-and-by again, and yet again; and when he has +climbed to police commissioner it will at last begin to dawn upon him +that what his Napoleon soul wants and was born for is something away +higher up--he does not quite know what, but Circumstance and Opportunity +will indicate the direction and he will cut a road through and find out. + +I think Mrs. Eddy was born with a far-seeing business-eye, but did not +know it; and with a great organizing and executive talent, and did not +know it; and with a large appetite for power and distinction, and did not +know it. I think the reason that her make did not show up until middle +life was that she had General Grant's luck--Circumstance and Opportunity +did not come her way when she was younger. The qualities that were born +in her had to wait for circumstance and opportunity--but they were there: +they were there to stay, whether they ever got a chance to fructify or +not. If they had come early, they would have found her ready and +competent. And they--not she--would have determined what they would set +her at and what they would make of her. If they had elected to +commission her as second-assistant cook in a bankrupt boarding-house, +I know the rest of it--I know what would have happened. She would have +owned the boarding-house within six months; she would have had the late +proprietor on salary and humping himself, as the worldly say; she would +have had that boarding-house spewing money like a mint; she would have +worked the servants and the late landlord up to the limit; she would have +squeezed the boarders till they wailed, and by some mysterious quality +born in her she would have kept the affections of certain of the lot +whose love and esteem she valued, and flung the others down the back +area; in two years she would own all the boarding-houses in the town, in +five all the boarding-houses in the State, in twenty all the hotels in +America, in forty all the hotels on the planet, and would sit at home +with her finger on a button and govern the whole combination as easily as +a bench-manager governs a dog-show. + +It would be a grand thing to see, and I feel a kind of disappointment-- +but never mind, a religion is better and larger; and there is more to it. +And I have not been steeping myself in Christian Science all these weeks +without finding out that the one sensible thing to do with a +disappointment is to put it out of your mind and think of something +cheerfuler. + +We outsiders cannot conceive of Mrs. Eddy's Christian Science Religion as +being a sudden and miraculous birth, but only as a growth from a seed +planted by circumstances, and developed stage by stage by command and +compulsion of the same force. What the stages were we cannot know, but +are privileged to guess. She may have gotten the mental-healing idea +from Quimby--it had been experimented with for ages, and was no one's +special property. [For the present, for convenience' sake, let us +proceed upon the hypothesis that that was all she got of him, and that +she put up the rest of the assets herself. This will strain us, but let +us try it.] In each and all its forms and under all its many names, +mental healing had had limits, always, and they were rather narrow ones-- +Mrs. Eddy, let us imagine, removed the fence, abolished the frontiers. +Not by expanding mental-healing, but by absorbing its small bulk into the +vaster bulk of Christian Science--Divine Science, The Holy Ghost, the +Comforter--which was a quite different and sublimer force, and one which +had long lain dormant and unemployed. + +The Christian Scientist believes that the Spirit of God (life and love) +pervades the universe like an atmosphere; that whoso will study Science +and Health can get from it the secret of how to inhale that transforming +air; that to breathe it is to be made new; that from the new man all +sorrow, all care, all miseries of the mind vanish away, for that only +peace, contentment and measureless joy can live in that divine fluid; +that it purifies the body from disease, which is a vicious creation of +the gross human mind, and cannot continue to exist in the presence of the +Immortal Mind, the renewing Spirit of God. + +The Scientist finds this reasonable, natural, and not harder to believe +than that the disease germ, a creature of darkness, perishes when exposed +to the light of the great sun--a new revelation of profane science which +no one doubts. He reminds us that the actinic ray, shining upon lupus, +cures it--a horrible disease which was incurable fifteen years ago, and +had been incurable for ten million years before; that this wonder, +unbelievable by the physicians at first, is believed by them now; and so +he is tranquilly confident that the time is coming when the world will be +educated up to a point where it will comprehend and grant that the light +of the Spirit of God, shining unobstructed upon the soul, is an actinic +ray which can purge both mind and body from disease and set them free and +make them whole. + +It is apparent, then, that in Christian Science it is not one man's mind +acting upon another man's mind that heals; that it is solely the Spirit +of God that heals; that the healer's mind performs no office but to +convey that force to the patient; that it is merely the wire which +carries the electric fluid, so to speak, and delivers the message. +Therefore, if these things be true, mental-healing and Science-healing +are separate and distinct processes, and no kinship exists between them. + +To heal the body of its ills and pains is a mighty benefaction, but in +our day our physicians and surgeons work a thousand miracles--prodigies +which would have ranked as miracles fifty years ago--and they have so +greatly extended their domination over disease that we feel so well +protected that we are able to look with a good deal of composure and +absence of hysterics upon the claims of new competitors in that field. + +But there is a mightier benefaction than the healing of the body, and +that is the healing of the spirit--which is Christian Science's other +claim. So far as I know, so far as I can find out, it makes it good. +Personally I have not known a Scientist who did not seem serene, +contented, unharassed. I have not found an outsider whose observation of +Scientists furnished him a view that differed from my own. Buoyant +spirits, comfort of mind, freedom from care these happinesses we all +have, at intervals; but in the spaces between, dear me, the black hours! +They have put a curse upon the life of every human being I have ever +known, young or old. I concede not a single exception. Unless it might +be those Scientists just referred to. They may have been playing a part +with me; I hope they were not, and I believe they were not. + +Time will test the Science's claim. If time shall make it good; if time +shall prove that the Science can heal the persecuted spirit of man and +banish its troubles and keep it serene and sunny and content--why, then +Mrs. Eddy will have a monument that will reach above the clouds. For if +she did not hit upon that imperial idea and evolve it and deliver it, its +discoverer can never be identified with certainty, now, I think. It is +the giant feature, it is the sun that rides in the zenith of Christian +Science, the auxiliary features are of minor consequence [Let us still +leave the large "if" aside, for the present, and proceed as if it had no +existence.] + +It is not supposable that Mrs. Eddy realized, at first, the size of her +plunder. (No, find--that is the word; she did not realize the size of +her find, at first.) It had to grow upon her, by degrees, in accordance +with the inalterable custom of Circumstance, which works by stages, and +by stages only, and never furnishes any mind with all the materials for a +large idea at one time. + +In the beginning, Mrs. Eddy was probably interested merely in the mental- +healing detail And perhaps mainly interested in it pecuniary, for she was +poor. + +She would succeed in anything she undertook. She would attract pupils, +and her commerce would grow. She would inspire in patient and pupil +confidence in her earnestness, her history is evidence that she would not +fail of that. + +There probably came a time, in due course, when her students began to +think there was something deeper in her teachings than they had been +suspecting--a mystery beyond mental-healing, and higher. It is +conceivable that by consequence their manner towards her changed little +by little, and from respectful became reverent. It is conceivable that +this would have an influence upon her; that it would incline her to +wonder if their secret thought--that she was inspired--might not be a +well-grounded guess. It is conceivable that as time went on the thought +in their minds and its reflection in hers might solidify into conviction. + +She would remember, then, that as a child she had been called, more than +once, by a mysterious voice--just as had happened to little Samuel. +(Mentioned in her Autobiography.) She would be impressed by that ancient +reminiscence, now, and it could have a prophetic meaning for her. + +It is conceivable that the persuasive influences around her and within +her would give a new and powerful impulse to her philosophizings, and +that from this, in time, would result that great birth, the healing of +body and mind by the inpouring of the Spirit of God--the central and +dominant idea of Christian Science--and that when this idea came she +would not doubt that it was an inspiration direct from Heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +[I must rest a little, now. To sit here and painstakingly spin out a +scheme which imagines Mrs. Eddy, of all people, working her mind on a +plane above commercialism; imagines her thinking, philosophizing, +discovering majestic things; and even imagines her dealing in +sincerities--to be frank, I find it a large contract But I have begun it, +and I will go through with it.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +It is evident that she made disciples fast, and that their belief in her +and in the authenticity of her heavenly ambassadorship was not of the +lukewarm and half-way sort, but was profoundly earnest and sincere. Her +book was issued from the press in 1875, it began its work of convert- +making, and within six years she had successfully launched a new Religion +and a new system of healing, and was teaching them to crowds of eager +students in a College of her own, at prices so extraordinary that we are +almost compelled to accept her statement (no, her guarded intimation) +that the rates were arranged on high, since a mere human being +unacquainted with commerce and accustomed to think in pennies could +hardly put up such a hand as that without supernatural help. + +From this stage onward--Mrs. Eddy being what she was--the rest of the +development--stages would follow naturally and inevitably. + +But if she had been anybody else, there would have been a different +arrangement of them, with different results. Being the extraordinary +person she was, she realized her position and its possibilities; realized +the possibilities, and had the daring to use them for all they were +worth. + +We have seen what her methods were after she passed the stage where her +divine ambassadorship was granted its executer in the hearts and minds of +her followers; we have seen how steady and fearless and calculated and +orderly was her march thenceforth from conquest to conquest; we have seen +her strike dead, without hesitancy, any hostile or questionable force +that rose in her path: first, the horde of pretenders that sprang up and +tried to take her Science and its market away from her--she crushed them, +she obliterated them; when her own National Christian Science Association +became great in numbers and influence, and loosely and dangerously +garrulous, and began to expound the doctrines according to its own +uninspired notions, she took up her sponge without a tremor of fear and +wiped that Association out; when she perceived that the preachers in her +pulpits were becoming afflicted with doctrine-tinkering, she recognized +the danger of it, and did not hesitate nor temporize, but promptly +dismissed the whole of them in a day, and abolished their office +permanently; we have seen that, as fast as her power grew, she was +competent to take the measure of it, and that as fast as its expansion +suggested to her gradually awakening native ambition a higher step she +took it; and so, by this evolutionary process, we have seen the gross +money-lust relegated to second place, and the lust of empire and glory +rise above it. A splendid dream; and by force of the qualities born in +her she is making it come true. + +These qualities--and the capacities growing out of them by the nurturing +influences of training, observation, and experience seem to be clearly +indicated by the character of her career and its achievements. They seem +to be: + +A clear head for business, and a phenomenally long one; +Clear understanding of business situations; +Accuracy in estimating the opportunities they offer; +Intelligence in planning a business move; +Firmness in sticking to it after it has been decided upon; +Extraordinary daring; +Indestructible persistency; +Devouring ambition; +Limitless selfishness; +A knowledge of the weaknesses and poverties and docilities of human +nature and how to turn them to account which has never been surpassed, if +ever equalled; + +And--necessarily--the foundation-stone of Mrs. Eddy's character is a +never-wavering confidence in herself. + +It is a granite character. And--quite naturally--a measure of the talc +of smallnesses common to human nature is mixed up in it and distributed +through it. When Mrs. Eddy is not dictating servilities from her throne +in the clouds to her official domestics in Boston or to her far-spread +subjects round about the planet, but is down on the ground, she is kin to +us and one of us: sentimental as a girl, garrulous, ungrammatical, +incomprehensible, affected, vain of her little human ancestry, unstable, +inconsistent, unreliable in statement, and naively and everlastingly +self-contradictory-oh, trivial and common and commonplace as the +commonest of us! just a Napoleon as Madame de Remusat saw him, a brass +god with clay legs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +In drawing Mrs. Eddy's portrait it has been my purpose to restrict myself +to materials furnished by herself, and I believe I have done that. If I +have misinterpreted any of her acts, it was not done intentionally. + +It will be noticed that in skeletonizing a list of the qualities which +have carried her to the dizzy summit which she occupies, I have not +mentioned the power which was the commanding force employed in achieving +that lofty flight. It did not belong in that list; it was a force that +was not a detail of her character, but was an outside one. It was the +power which proceeded from her people's recognition of her as a +supernatural personage, conveyer of the Latest Word, and divinely +commissioned to deliver it to the world. The form which such a +recognition takes, consciously or unconsciously, is worship; and worship +does not question nor criticize, it obeys. The object of it does not +need to coddle it, bribe it, beguile it, reason with it, convince it--it +commands it; that is sufficient; the obedience rendered is not reluctant, +but prompt and whole-hearted. Admiration for a Napoleon, confidence in +him, pride in him, affection for him, can lift him high and carry him +far; and these are forms of worship, and are strong forces, but they are +worship of a mere human being, after all, and are infinitely feeble, as +compared with those that are generated by that other worship, the worship +of a divine personage. Mrs. Eddy has this efficient worship, this massed +and centralized force, this force which is indifferent to opposition, +untroubled by fear, and goes to battle singing, like Cromwell's soldiers; +and while she has it she can command and it will obey, and maintain her +on her throne, and extend her empire. + +She will have it until she dies; and then we shall see a curious and +interesting further development of her revolutionary work begin. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +The President and Board of Directors will succeed her, and the government +will go on without a hitch. The By-laws will bear that interpretation. +All the Mother-Church's vast powers are concentrated in that Board. Mrs. +Eddy's unlimited personal reservations make the Board's ostensible +supremacy, during her life, a sham, and the Board itself a shadow. But +Mrs. Eddy has not made those reservations for any one but herself--they +are distinctly personal, they bear her name, they are not usable by +another individual. When she dies her reservations die, and the Board's +shadow-powers become real powers, without the change of any important By- +law, and the Board sits in her place as absolute and irresponsible a +sovereign as she was. + +It consists of but five persons, a much more manageable Cardinalate than +the Roman Pope's. I think it will elect its Pope from its own body, and +that it will fill its own vacancies. An elective Papacy is a safe and +wise system, and a long-liver. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +We may take that up now. + +It is not a single if, but a several-jointed one; not an oyster, but a +vertebrate. + +1. Did Mrs. Eddy borrow from Quimby the Great Idea, or only the little +one, the old-timer, the ordinary mental-healing-healing by "mortal" mind? + +2. If she borrowed the Great Idea, did she carry it away in her head, or +in manuscript? + +3. Did she hit upon the Great Idea herself? By the Great Idea I mean, +of course, the conviction that the Force involved was still existent, and +could be applied now just as it was applied by Christ's Disciples and +their converts, and as successfully. +4. Did she philosophize it, systematize it, and write it down in a book? + +5. Was it she, and not another, that built a new Religion upon the book +and organized it? + +I think No. 5 can be answered with a Yes, and dismissed from the +controversy. And I think that the Great Idea, great as it was, would +have enjoyed but a brief activity, and would then have gone to sleep +again for some more centuries, but for the perpetuating impulse it got +from that organized and tremendous force. + +As for Nos. 1, 2, and 4, the hostiles contend that Mrs. Eddy got the +Great Idea from Quimby and carried it off in manuscript. But their +testimony, while of consequence, lacks the most important detail; so far +as my information goes, the Quimby manuscript has not been produced. I +think we cannot discuss No. 1 and No. 2 profitably. Let them go. + +For me, No. 3 has a mild interest, and No. 4 a violent one. + +As regards No. 3, Mrs. Eddy was brought up, from the cradle, an old- +time, boiler-iron, Westminster-Catechism Christian, and knew her Bible as +well as Captain Kydd knew his, "when he sailed, when he sailed," and +perhaps as sympathetically. The Great Idea had struck a million Bible- +readers before her as being possible of resurrection and application--it +must have struck as many as that, and been cogitated, indolently, +doubtingly, then dropped and forgotten--and it could have struck her, in +due course. But how it could interest her, how it could appeal to her-- +with her make this a thing that is difficult to understand. + +For the thing back of it is wholly gracious and beautiful: the power, +through loving mercifulness and compassion, to heal fleshly ills and +pains and grief--all--with a word, with a touch of the hand! This power +was given by the Saviour to the Disciples, and to all the converted. +All--every one. It was exercised for generations afterwards. Any +Christian who was in earnest and not a make-believe, not a policy-- +Christian, not a Christian for revenue only, had that healing power, and +could cure with it any disease or any hurt or damage possible to human +flesh and bone. These things are true, or they are not. If they were +true seventeen and eighteen and nineteen centuries ago it would be +difficult to satisfactorily explain why or how or by what argument that +power should be nonexistent in Christians now. + +To wish to exercise it could occur to Mrs. Eddy--but would it? + +Grasping, sordid, penurious, famishing for everything she sees--money, +power, glory--vain, untruthful, jealous, despotic, arrogant, insolent, +pitiless where thinkers and hypnotists are concerned, illiterate, +shallow, incapable of reasoning outside of commercial lines, immeasurably +selfish-- + +Of course the Great Idea could strike her, we have to grant that, but why +it should interest her is a question which can easily overstrain the +imagination and bring on nervous prostration, or something like that, and +is better left alone by the judicious, it seems to me-- + +Unless we call to our help the alleged other side of Mrs. Eddy's make and +character the side which her multitude of followers see, and sincerely +believe in. Fairness requires that their view be stated here. It is the +opposite of the one which I have drawn from Mrs. Eddy's history and from +her By-laws. To her followers she is this: + +Patient, gentle, loving, compassionate, noble hearted, unselfish, +sinless, widely cultured, splendidly equipped mentally, a profound +thinker, an able writer, a divine personage, an inspired messenger whose +acts are dictated from the Throne, and whose every utterance is the Voice +of God. + +She has delivered to them a religion which has revolutionized their +lives, banished the glooms that shadowed them, and filled them and +flooded them with sunshine and gladness and peace; a religion which has +no hell; a religion whose heaven is not put off to another time, with a +break and a gulf between, but begins here and now, and melts into +eternity as fancies of the waking day melt into the dreams of sleep. + +They believe it is a Christianity that is in the New Testament; that it +has always been there, that in the drift of ages it was lost through +disuse and neglect, and that this benefactor has found it and given it +back to men, turning the night of life into day, its terrors into myths, +its lamentations into songs of emancipation and rejoicing. + +There we have Mrs. Eddy as her followers see her. She has lifted them +out of grief and care and doubt and fear, and made their lives beautiful; +she found them wandering forlorn in a wintry wilderness, and has led them +to a tropic paradise like that of which the poet sings: + + "O, islands there are on the face of the deep + Where the leaves never fade and the skies never weep." + +To ask them to examine with a microscope the character of such a +benefactor; to ask them to examine it at all; to ask them to look at a +blemish which another person believes he has found in it--well, in their +place could you do it? Would you do it? Wouldn't you be ashamed to do +it? If a tramp had rescued your child from fire and death, and saved its +mother's heart from breaking, could you see his rags? Could you smell +his breath? Mrs. Eddy has done more than that for these people. + +They are prejudiced witnesses. To the credit of human nature it is not +possible that they should be otherwise. They sincerely believe that Mrs. +Eddy's character is pure and perfect and beautiful, and her history +without stain or blot or blemish. But that does not settle it. They +sincerely believe she did not borrow the Great Idea from Quimby, but hit +upon it herself. It may be so, and it could be so. Let it go--there is +no way to settle it. They believe she carried away no Quimby +manuscripts. Let that go, too--there is no way to settle it. They +believe that she, and not another, built the Religion upon the book, and +organized it. I believe it, too. + +Finally, they believe that she philosophized Christian Science, explained +it, systematized it, and wrote it all out with her own hand in the book +Science and Health. + +I am not able to believe that. Let us draw the line there. The known +and undisputed products of her pen are a formidable witness against her. +They do seem to me to prove, quite clearly and conclusively, that +writing, upon even simple subjects, is a difficult labor for her: that +she has never been able to write anything above third-rate English; that +she is weak in the matter of grammar; that she has but a rude and dull +sense of the values of words; that she so lacks in the matter of literary +precision that she can seldom put a thought into words that express it +lucidly to the reader and leave no doubts in his mind as to whether he +has rightly understood or not; that she cannot even draught a Preface +that a person can fully comprehend, nor one which can by any art be +translated into a fully understandable form; that she can seldom inject +into a Preface even single sentences whose meaning is uncompromisingly +clear--yet Prefaces are her specialty, if she has one. + +Mrs. Eddy's known and undisputed writings are very limited in bulk; they +exhibit no depth, no analytical quality, no thought above school +composition size, and but juvenile ability in handling thoughts of even +that modest magnitude. She has a fine commercial ability, and could +govern a vast railway system in great style; she could draught a set of +rules that Satan himself would say could not be improved on--for +devilish effectiveness--by his staff; but we know, by our excursions +among the Mother-Church's By-laws, that their English would discredit the +deputy baggage-smasher. I am quite sure that Mrs. Eddy cannot write well +upon any subject, even a commercial one. + +In the very first revision of Science and Health (1883), Mrs. Eddy wrote +a Preface which is an unimpeachable witness that the rest of the book was +written by somebody else. I have put it in the Appendix along with a +page or two taken from the body of the book, and will ask the reader to +compare the labored and lumbering and confused gropings of this Preface +with the easy and flowing and direct English of the other exhibit, and +see if he can believe that the one hand and brain produced both. + +And let him take the Preface apart, sentence by sentence, and searchingly +examine each sentence word by word, and see if he can find half a dozen +sentences whose meanings he is so sure of that he can rephrase them--in +words of his own--and reproduce what he takes to be those meanings. +Money can be lost on this game. I know, for I am the one that lost it. + +Now let the reader turn to the excerpt which I have made from the chapter +on "Prayer" (last year's edition of Science and Health), and compare that +wise and sane and elevated and lucid and compact piece of work with the +aforesaid Preface, and with Mrs. Eddy's poetry concerning the gymnastic +trees, and Minerva's not yet effete sandals, and the wreaths imported +from Erudition's bower for the decoration of Plymouth Rock, and the +Plague-spot and Bacilli, and my other exhibits (turn back to my Chapters +I. and II.) from the Autobiography, and finally with the late +Communication concerning me, and see if he thinks anybody's affirmation, +or anybody's sworn testimony, or any other testimony of any imaginable +kind would ever be likely to convince him that Mrs. Eddy wrote that +chapter on Prayer. + +I do not wish to impose my opinion on any one who will not permit it, but +such as it is I offer it here for what it is worth. I cannot believe, +and I do not believe, that Mrs. Eddy originated any of the thoughts and +reasonings out of which the book Science and Health is constructed; and I +cannot believe, and do not believe that she ever wrote any part of that +book. + +I think that if anything in the world stands proven, and well and solidly +proven, by unimpeachable testimony--the treacherous testimony of her own +pen in her known and undisputed literary productions--it is that Mrs. +Eddy is not capable of thinking upon high planes, nor of reasoning +clearly nor writing intelligently upon low ones. + +Inasmuch as--in my belief--the very first editions of the book Science +and Health were far above the reach of Mrs. Eddy's mental and literary +abilities, I think she has from the very beginning been claiming as her +own another person's book, and wearing as her own property laurels +rightfully belonging to that person--the real author of Science and +Health. And I think the reason--and the only reason--that he has not +protested is because his work was not exposed to print until after he was +safely dead. + +That with an eye to business, and by grace of her business talent, she +has restored to the world neglected and abandoned features of the +Christian religion which her thousands of followers find gracious and +blessed and contenting, I recognize and confess; but I am convinced that +every single detail of the work except just that one--the delivery of the +Product to the world--was conceived and performed by another. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +ORIGINAL FIRST PREFACE TO SCIENCE AND HEALTH + +There seems a Christian necessity of learning God's power and purpose to +heal both mind and body. This thought grew out of our early seeking Him +in all our ways, and a hopeless as singular invalidism that drugs +increased instead of diminished, and hygiene benefited only for a season. +By degrees we have drifted into more spiritual latitudes of thought, and +experimented as we advanced until demonstrating fully the power of mind +over the body. About the year 1862, having heard of a mesmerist in +Portland who was treating the sick by manipulation, we visited him; he +helped us for a time, then we relapsed somewhat. After his decease, and +a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful physicians, we discovered that +the Principle of all healing and the law that governs it is God, a divine +Principle, and a spiritual not material law, and regained health. + +It was not an individual or mortal mind acting upon another so-called +mind that healed us. It was the glorious truths of Christian Science +that we discovered as we neared that verge of so-called material life +named death; yea, it was the great Shekinah, the spirit of Life, Truth, +and Love illuminating our understanding of the action and might of +Omnipotence! The old gentleman to whom we have referred had some very +advanced views on healing, but he was not avowedly religious neither +scholarly. We interchanged thoughts on the subject of healing the sick. +I restored some patients of his that he failed to heal, and left in his +possession some manuscripts of mine containing corrections of his +desultory pennings, which I am informed at his decease passed into the +hands of a patient of his, now residing in Scotland. He died in 1865 and +left no published works. The only manuscript that we ever held of his, +longer than to correct it, was one of perhaps a dozen pages, most of +which we had composed. He manipulated the sick; hence his ostensible +method of healing was physical instead of mental. + +We helped him in the esteem of the public by our writings, but never knew +of his stating orally or in writing that he treated his patients +mentally; never heard him give any directions to that effect; and have it +from one of his patients, who now asserts that he was the founder of +mental healing, that he never revealed to anyone his method. We refer to +these facts simply to refute the calumnies and false claims of our +enemies, that we are preferring dishonest claims to the discovery and +founding at this period of Metaphysical Healing or Christian Science. + +The Science and laws of a purely mental healing and their method of +application through spiritual power alone, else a mental argument against +disease, are our own discovery at this date. True, the Principle is +divine and eternal, but the application of it to heal the sick had been +lost sight of, and required to be again spiritually discerned and its +science discovered, that man might retain it through the understanding. +Since our discovery in 1866 of the divine science of Christian Healing, +we have labored with tongue and pen to found this system. In this +endeavor every obstacle has been thrown in our path that the envy and +revenge of a few disaffected students could devise. The superstition and +ignorance of even this period have not failed to contribute their mite +towards misjudging us, while its Christian advancement and scientific +research have helped sustain our feeble efforts. + +Since our first Edition of Science and Health, published in 1875, two of +the aforesaid students have plagiarized and pirated our works. In the +issues of E. J. A., almost exclusively ours, were thirteen paragraphs, +without credit, taken verbatim from our books. + +Not one of our printed works was ever copied or abstracted from the +published or from the unpublished writings of anyone. Throughout our +publications of Metaphysical Healing or Christian Science, when writing +or dictating them, we have given ourselves to contemplation wholly apart +from the observation of the material senses: to look upon a copy would +have distracted our thoughts from the subject before us. We were seldom +able to copy our own compositions, and have employed an amanuensis for +the last six years. Every work that we have had published has been +extemporaneously written; and out of fifty lectures and sermons that we +have delivered the last year, forty-four have been extemporaneous. We +have distributed many of our unpublished manuscripts; loaned to one of +our youngest students, R. K--------y, between three and four hundred pages, +of which we were sole author--giving him liberty to copy but not to +publish them. + +Leaning on the sustaining Infinite with loving trust, the trials of to- +day grow brief, and to-morrow is big with blessings. + +The wakeful shepherd, tending his flocks, beholds from the mountain's top +the first faint morning beam ere cometh the risen day. So from Soul's +loftier summits shines the pale star to prophet-shepherd, and it +traverses night, over to where the young child lies, in cradled +obscurity, that shall waken a world. Over the night of error dawn the +morning beams and guiding star of Truth, and "the wise men" are led by it +to Science, which repeats the eternal harmony that it reproduced, in +proof of immortality. The time for thinkers has come; and the time for +revolutions, ecclesiastical and civil, must come. Truth, independent of +doctrines or time-honored systems, stands at the threshold of history. +Contentment with the past, or the cold conventionality of custom, may no +longer shut the door on science; though empires fall, "He whose right it +is shall reign." Ignorance of God should no longer be the stepping-stone +to faith; understanding Him, "whom to know aright is Life eternal," is +the only guaranty of obedience. + +This volume may not open a new thought, and make it at once familiar. It +has the sturdy task of a pioneer, to hack away at the tall oaks and cut +the rough granite, leaving future ages to declare what it has done. We +made our first discovery of the adaptation of metaphysics to the +treatment of disease in the winter of 1866; since then we have tested the +Principle on ourselves and others, and never found it to fail to prove +the statements herein made of it. We must learn the science of Life, to +reach the perfection of man. To understand God as the Principle of all +being, and to live in accordance with this Principle, is the Science of +Life. But to reproduce this harmony of being, the error of personal +sense must yield to science, even as the science of music corrects tones +caught from the ear, and gives the sweet concord of sound. There are +many theories of physic and theology, and many calls in each of their +directions for the right way; but we propose to settle the question of +"What is Truth?" on the ground of proof, and let that method of healing +the sick and establishing Christianity be adopted that is found to give +the most health and to make the best Christians; science will then have a +fair field, in which case we are assured of its triumph over all opinions +and beliefs. Sickness and sin have ever had their doctors; but the +question is, Have they become less because of them? The longevity of our +antediluvians would say, No! and the criminal records of today utter +their voices little in favor of such a conclusion. Not that we would +deny to Caesar the things that are his, but that we ask for the things +that belong to Truth; and safely affirm, from the demonstrations we have +been able to make, that the science of man understood would have +eradicated sin, sickness, and death, in a less period than six thousand +years. We find great difficulties in starting this work right. Some +shockingly false claims are already made to a metaphysical practice; +mesmerism, its very antipodes, is one of them. Hitherto we have never, +in a single instance of our discovery, found the slightest resemblance +between mesmerism and metaphysics. No especial idiosyncrasy is requisite +to acquire a knowledge of metaphysical healing; spiritual sense is more +important to its discernment than the intellect; and those who would +learn this science without a high moral standard of thought and action, +will fail to understand it until they go up higher. Owing to our +explanations constantly vibrating between the same points, an irksome +repetition of words must occur; also the use of capital letters, genders, +and technicalities peculiar to the science. Variety of language, or +beauty of diction, must give place to close analysis and unembellished +thought. "Hoping all things, enduring all things," to do good to our +enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to bear to the sorrowing and +the sick consolation and healing, we commit these pages to posterity. + +MARY BAKER G. EDDY. + + + + +APPENDIX B + +The Gospel narratives bear brief testimony even to the life of our great +Master. His spiritual noumenon and phenomenon, silenced portraiture. +Writers, less wise than the Apostles, essayed in the Apocryphal New +Testament, a legendary and traditional history of the early life of +Jesus. But Saint Paul summarized the character of Jesus as the model of +Christianity, in these words: "Consider Him who endured such +contradictions of sinners against Himself. Who for the joy that was set +before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at +the right hand of the throne of God." + +It may be that the mortal life battle still wages, and must continue till +its involved errors are vanquished by victory-bringing Science; but this +triumph will come! God is over all. He alone is our origin, aim, and +Being. The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created through +the flesh; for his father and mother are the one Spirit, and his brethren +are all the children of one parent, the eternal Good. + +Any kind of literary composition was excessively difficult for Mrs. Eddy. +She found it grinding hard work to dig out anything to say. She +realized, at the above stage in her life, that with all her trouble she +had not been able to scratch together even material enough for a child's +Autobiography, and also that what she had secured was in the main not +valuable, not important, considering the age and the fame of the person +she was writing about; and so it occurred to her to attempt, in that +paragraph, to excuse the meagreness and poor quality of the feast she was +spreading, by letting on that she could do ever so much better if she +wanted to, but was under constraint of Divine etiquette. To feed with +more than a few indifferent crumbs a plebeian appetite for personal +details about Personages in her class was not the correct thing, and she +blandly points out that there is Precedent for this reserve. When Mrs. +Eddy tries to be artful--in literature--it is generally after the +manner of the ostrich; and with the ostrich's luck. Please try to find +the connection between the two paragraphs.--M. T. + + + + +APPENDIX C + +The following is the spiritual signification of the Lord's Prayer: + +Principle, eternal and harmonious, +Nameless and adorable Intelligence, +Thou art ever present and supreme. +And when this supremacy of Spirit shall appear, the dream of matter will +disappear. +Give us the understanding of Truth and Love. +And loving we shall learn God, and Truth will destroy all error. +And lead us unto the Life that is Soul, and deliver us from the errors of +sense, sin, sickness, and death, +For God is Life, Truth, and Love for ever. +--Science and Health, edition of 1881. + +It seems to me that this one is distinctly superior to the one that was +inspired for last year's edition. It is strange, but to my mind plain, +that inspiring is an art which does not improve with practice.--M. T. + + + + +APPENDIX D + +"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, +Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in +his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come +to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, +What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, +and ye shall have them. + +"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." +--CHRIST JESUS. + +The prayer that reclaims the sinner and heals the sick, is an absolute +faith that all things are possible to God--a spiritual understanding of +Him--an unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say or think on +this subject, I speak from experience. This prayer, combined with self- +sacrifice and toil, is the means whereby God has enabled me to do what I +have done for the religion and health of mankind. + +Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; +and no less can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may +be moulded and exalted before they take form in audible word, and in +deeds. + +What are the motives for prayer? Do we pray to make ourselves better, or +to benefit those that hear us; to enlighten the Infinite, or to be heard +of men? Are we benefited by praying? Yes, the desire which goes forth +hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not +return unto us void. + +God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already +done; nor can the Infinite do less than bestow all good, since He is +unchanging Wisdom and Love. We can do more for ourselves by humble +fervent petitions; but the All-loving does not grant them simply on the +ground of lip-service, for He already knows all. + +Prayer cannot change the Science of Being, but it does bring us into +harmony with it. Goodness reaches the demonstration of Truth. A request +that another may work for us never does our work. The habit of pleading +with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the +belief in God as humanly circumscribed--an error which impedes spiritual +growth. + +God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is Intelligence. Can we +inform the infinite Mind, or tell Him anything He does not already +comprehend? Do we hope to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at +the open fount, which always pours forth more than we receive? The +unspoken prayer does bring us nearer the Source of all existence and +blessedness. + +Asking God to be God is a "vain repetition." God is "the same yesterday, +and to-day, and forever"; and He who is immutably right will do right, +without being reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not +sufficient to warrant him in advising God. + +Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of +mathematics to work out the problem? The rule is already established, +and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine +Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done; and we +have only to avail ourselves of God's rule, in order to receive the +blessing thereof. + +The divine Being must be reflected by man--else man is not the image and +likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the one "altogether lovely"; +but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute +concentration of thought and energy. + +How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit theoretically that God +is good, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, and then we try to give +information to this infinite Mind; and plead for unmerited pardon, and a +liberal outpouring of benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good +already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we +have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a +verbal expression of thanks Action expresses more gratitude than speech. + +If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and yet return thanks to +God for all blessings, we are insincere; and incur the sharp censure our +Master pronounces on hypocrites. In such a case the only acceptable +prayer is to put the finger on the lips and remember our blessings. +While the heart is far from divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the +ingratitude of barren lives, for God knoweth all things. + +What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, +expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds. To keep the +commandments of our Master and follow his example, is our proper debt to +Him, and the only worthy evidence of our gratitude for all He has done. +Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to express loyal and +heartfelt gratitude, since He has said: "If ye love Me, keep My +Commandments." + +The habitual struggle to be always good, is unceasing prayer. Its +motives are made manifest in the blessings they bring--which, if not +acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be made partakers +of Love. + +Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the +longing to be better and holier--expressed in daily watchfulness, and in +striving to assimilate more of the divine character--this will mould and +fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the Science of +Christianity through demonstration of the divine nature; but in this +wicked world goodness will "be evil spoken of," and patience must work +experience. + +Audible prayer can never do the works of spiritual understanding, which +regenerates; but silent prayer, watchfulness, and devout obedience, +enable us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers, ecclesiasticism, and +creeds, have clipped the divine pinions of Love, and clad religion in +human robes. They materialize worship, hinder the Spirit, and keep man +from demonstrating his power over error. + +Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform, and the very +easiest step. The next and great step required by Wisdom is the test of +our sincerity--namely, reformation. To this end we are placed under the +stress of circumstances. Temptation bids us repeat the offence, and woe +comes in return for what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that +there is no discount in the law of justice, and that we must pay "the +uttermost farthing." The measure ye mete "shall be measured to you +again," and it will be full "and running over." + +Saints and sinners get their full award, but not always in this world. +The followers of Christ drank His cup. Ingratitude and persecution +filled it to the brim; but God pours the riches of His love into the +understanding and affections, giving us strength according to our day. +Sinners flourish "like a green bay-tree"; but, looking farther, the +Psalmist could see their end--namely, the destruction of sin through +suffering. + +Prayer is sometimes used, as a confessional to cancel sin. This error +impedes true religion. Sin is forgiven, only as it is destroyed by +Christ-Truth and Life If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is +cancelled, and that man is made better by merely praying, it is an evil. +He grows worse who continues in sin because he thinks himself forgiven. + +An apostle says that the Son of God (Christ) came to "destroy the works +of the devil." We should follow our divine Exemplar, and seek the +destruction of all evil works, error and disease included. We cannot +escape the penalty due for sin. The Scriptures say, that if we deny +Christ, "He also will deny us." + +The divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may pardon, but this +divine Principle alone reforms the sinner. God is not separate from the +wisdom He bestows. The talents He gives we must improve. Calling on Him +to forgive our work, badly done or left undone, implies the vain +supposition that we have nothing to do but to ask pardon, and that +afterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence. + +To cause suffering, as the result of sin, is the means of destroying sin. +Every supposed pleasure in sin will furnish more than its equivalent of +pain, until belief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach +heaven, the harmony of Being, we must understand the divine Principle of +Being. + +"God is Love." More than this we cannot ask; higher we cannot look; +farther we cannot go. To suppose that God forgives or punishes sin, +according as His mercy is sought or unsought, is to misunderstand Love +and make prayer the safety-valve for wrong-doing. + +Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before He cast it out. Of a sick woman +He said that Satan had bound her; and to Peter He said, "Thou art an +offense unto me." He came teaching and showing men how to destroy sin, +sickness, and death. He said of the fruitless tree, "It is hewn down." + +It is believed by many that a certain magistrate, who lived in the time +of Jesus, left this record: "His rebuke is fearful." The strong language +of our Master confirms this description. + +The only civil sentence which He had for error was, "Get thee behind Me, +Satan." Still stronger evidence that Jesus' reproof was pointed and +pungent is in His own words--showing the necessity for such forcible +utterance, when He cast out devils and healed the sick and sinful. The +relinquishment of error deprives material sense of its false claims. + +Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary solemnity and elevation +to thought; but does it produce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply into +these things, we find that "a zeal . . . not according to knowledge," +gives occasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober +resolve, and wholesome perception of God's requirements. The motives for +verbal prayer may embrace too much love of applause to induce or +encourage Christian sentiment. + +Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ecstasy, and emotions. +If spiritual sense always guided men at such times, there would grow out +of those ecstatic moments a higher experience and a better life, with +more devout self-abnegation, and purity. A self-satisfied ventilation of +fervent sentiments never makes a Christian. God is not influenced by +man. The "divine ear" is not an auditoria! nerve. It is the all- +hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each want of man is always known, +and by whom it will be supplied. + +The danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temptation. +By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, uttering desires which are +not real, and consoling ourselves in the midst of sin, with the +recollection that we have prayed over it--or mean to ask forgiveness at +some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion. + +A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-justification, though it +makes the sinner a hypocrite. We never need despair of an honest heart, +but there is little hope for those who only come spasmodically face to +face with their wickedness, and then seek to hide it. Their prayers are +indexes which do not correspond with their character. They hold secret +fellowship with sin; and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as "like +unto whited sepulchres . . . full of all uncleanness." + +If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful, is impure, and +therefore insincere, what must be the comment upon him? If he had +reached the loftiness of his prayer, there would be no occasion for such +comment. If we feel the aspiration, humility, gratitude, and love which +our words express--this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to deceive +our. selves or others, for "there is nothing covered that shall not be +revealed." Professions and audible prayers are like charity in one +respect--they "cover a multitude of sins." Praying for humility, with +whatever fervency of expression, does not always mean a desire for it. +If we turn away from the poor, we are not ready to receive the reward of +Him who blesses the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart, and +ask that it may be laid bare before us; but do we not already know more +of this heart than we are willing to have our neighbor see? + +We ought to examine ourselves, and learn what is the affection and +purpose of the heart; for this alone can show us what we honestly are. +If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen to the rebuke patiently, +and credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are "not +as other men?" During many years the author has been most grateful for +merited rebuke. The sting lies in unmerited censure--in the falsehood +which does no one any good. + +The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we love +our neighbor better because of this asking? Do we pursue the old +selfishness, satisfied with having prayed for something better, though we +give no evidence of the sincerity of our requests by living consistently +with our prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness, we shall +regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that curse us; but we +shall never meet this great duty by simply asking that it may be done. +There is a cross to be taken up, before we can enjoy the fruition of our +hope and faith. + +Dost thou "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy +soul, and with all thy mind?" This command includes much--even the +surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This +is the E1 Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and +recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, wherein Soul is our master, +and material sense and human will have no place. + +Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and so be counted +among sinners? No! Do you really desire to attain this point? No! +Then why make long prayers about it, and ask to be Christians, since you +care not to tread in the footsteps of our dear Master? If unwilling to +follow His example, wherefore pray with the lips that you may be +partakers of His nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right. +Prayer means that we desire to, and will, walk in the light so far as we +receive it, even though with bleeding footsteps, and waiting patiently on +the Lord, will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him. + +The world must grow to the spiritual understanding of prayer. If good +enough to profit by Jesus' cup of earthly sorrows, God will sustain us +under these sorrows. Until we are thus divinely qualified, and willing +to drink His cup, millions of vain repetitions will never pour into +prayer the unction of Spirit, in demonstration of power, and "with signs +following." Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the +world, the flesh and evil, and thus destroying all error. + +Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving which enables us to enter. +Spiritual attainments open the door to a higher understanding of the +divine Life. + +One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a praying-machine +through the streets, and stop at the doors to earn a penny by grinding +out a prayer; whereas civilization pays for clerical prayers, in lofty +edifices. Is the difference very great, after all? + +Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask +for in prayer. + +There is some misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness and +blessedness, or we should certainly receive what we ask for. The +Scriptures say: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye +may consume it upon your lusts." What we desire and ask for it is not +always best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will not grant +the request. Do you ask Wisdom to be merciful and not punish sin? Then +"ye ask amiss." Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer, +"forgive us our debts," specified also the terms of forgiveness. When +forgiving the adulterous woman He said, "Go, and sin no more." + +A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this may be no moral +benefit to the criminal; and at best, it only saves him from one form of +punishment. The moral law, which has the right to acquit or condemn, +always demands restitution, before mortals can "go up higher." Broken +law brings penalty, in order to compel this progress. + +Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine Principle never +pardons our sins or mistakes till they are corrected) leaves the offender +free to repeat the offense; if, indeed, he has not already suffered +sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing. Truth +bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual +manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence +against an individual's sin, but to show that sin must bring inevitable +suffering. + +Petitions only bring to mortals the results of their own faith. We know +that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain it; but if we +desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We +must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only +practical road to holiness. Prayer alone cannot change the unalterable +Truth, or give us an understanding of it; but prayer coupled with a +fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God will bring us into +all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible expression. It is +best expressed in thought and life. + + + + +APPENDIX E + +Reverend Heber Newton on Christian Science: + +To begin, then, at the beginning, Christian Science accepts the work of +healing sickness as an integral part of the discipleship of Jesus Christ. +In Christ it finds, what the Church has always recognized, theoretically, +though it has practically ignored the fact--the Great Physician. That +Christ healed the sick, we none of us question. It stands plainly upon +the record. This ministry of healing was too large a part of His work to +be left out from any picture of that life. Such service was not an +incident of His career--it was an essential element of that career. It +was an integral factor in His mission. The Evangelists leave us no +possibility of confusion on this point. Co-equal with his work of +instruction and inspiration was His work of healing. + +The records make it equally clear that the Master laid His charge upon +His disciples to do as He had done. "When He had called unto Him His +twelve disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them +out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." In +sending them forth, "He commanded them, saying, . . . As ye go, +preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse +the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons." + +That the twelve disciples undertook to do the Master's work of healing, +and that they, in their measure, succeeded, seems beyond question. They +found in themselves the same power that the Master found in Himself, and +they used it as He had used His power. The record of The Acts of the +Apostles, if at all trustworthy history, shows that they, too, healed the +sick. + +Beyond the circle of the original twelve, it is equally clear that the +early disciples believed themselves charged with the same mission, and +that they sought to fulfil it. The records of the early Church make it +indisputable that powers of healing were recognized as among the gifts of +the Spirit. St. Paul's letters render it certain that these gifts were +not a privilege of the original twelve, merely, but that they were the +heritage into which all the disciples entered. + +Beyond the era of the primitive Church, through several generations, the +early Christians felt themselves called to the same ministry of healing, +and enabled with the same secret of power. Through wellnigh three +centuries, the gifts of healing appear to have been, more or less, +recognized and exercised in the Church. Through those generations, +however, there was a gradual disuse of this power, following upon a +failing recognition of its possession. That which was originally the +rule became the exception. By degrees, the sense of authority and power +to heal passed out from the consciousness of the Church. It ceased to be +a sign of the indwelling Spirit. For fifteen centuries, the recognition +of this authority and power has been altogether exceptional. Here and +there, through the history of these centuries, there have been those who +have entered into this belief of their own privilege and duty, and have +used the gift which they recognized. The Church has never been left +without a line of witnesses to this aspect of the discipleship of Christ. +But she has come to accept it as the normal order of things that what was +once the rule in the Christian Church should be now only the exception. +Orthodoxy has framed a theory of the words of Jesus to account for this +strange departure of His Church from them. It teaches us to believe that +His example was not meant to be followed, in this respect, by all His +disciples. The power of healing which was in Him was a purely +exceptional power. It was used as an evidence of His divine mission. It +was a miraculous gift. The gift of working miracles was not bestowed +upon His Church at large. His original disciples, the twelve apostles, +received this gift, as a necessity of the critical epoch of Christianity +--the founding of the Church. Traces of the power lingered on, in +weakening activity, until they gradually ceased, and the normal condition +of the Church was entered upon, in which miracles are no longer possible. + + +We accept this, unconsciously, as the true state of things in +Christianity. But it is a conception which will not bear a moment's +examination. There is not the slightest suggestion upon record that +Christ set any limit to this charge which He gave His disciples. On the +contrary, there are not lacking hints that He looked for the possession +and exercise of this power wherever His spirit breathed in men. + +Even if the concluding paragraph of St. Mark's Gospel were a later +appendix, it may none the less have been a faithful echo of words of the +Master, as it certainly is a trustworthy record of the belief of the +early Christians as to the thought of Jesus concerning His followers. In +that interesting passage, Jesus, after His death, appeared to the eleven, +and formally commissioned them, again, to take up His work in the world; +bidding them, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every +creature." "And these signs," He tells them, "shall follow them that +believe"--not the apostles only, but "them that believe," without limit +of time; "in My name they shall cast out devils . . . they shall lay +hands on the sick and they shall recover." The concluding discourse to +the disciples, recorded in the Gospel according to St. John, affirms the +same expectation on the part of Jesus; emphasizing it in His solemn way: +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that +I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do." + + + + +APPENDIX F + +Few will deny that an intelligence apart from man formed and governs the +spiritual universe and man; and this intelligence is the eternal Mind, +and neither matter nor man created this intelligence and divine +Principle; nor can this Principle produce aught unlike itself. All that +we term sin, sickness, and death is comprised in the belief of matter. +The realm of the real is spiritual; the opposite of Spirit is matter; and +the opposite of the real is unreal or material. Matter is an error of +statement, for there is no matter. This error of premises leads to error +of conclusion in every statement of matter as a basis. Nothing we can +say or believe regarding matter is true, except that matter is unreal, +simply a belief that has its beginning and ending. + +The conservative firm called matter and mind God never formed. The +unerring and eternal Mind destroys this imaginary copartnership, formed +only to be dissolved in a manner and at a period unknown. This +copartnership is obsolete. Placed under the microscope of metaphysics +matter disappears. Only by understanding there are not two, matter and +mind, is a logical and correct conclusion obtained by either one. +Science gathers not grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Intelligence +never produced non-intelligence, such as matter: the immortal never +produced mortality, good never resulted in evil. The science of Mind +shows conclusively that matter is a myth. Metaphysics are above physics, +and drag not matter, or what is termed that, into one of its premises or +conclusions. Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges +the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul. These ideas are perfectly +tangible and real to consciousness, and they have this advantage--they +are eternal. Mind and its thoughts comprise the whole of God, the +universe, and of man. Reason and revelation coincide with this +statement, and support its proof every hour, for nothing is harmonious or +eternal that is not spiritual: the realization of this will bring out +objects from a higher source of thought; hence more beautiful and +immortal. + +The fact of spiritualization produces results in striking contrast to the +farce of materialization: the one produces the results of chastity and +purity, the other the downward tendencies and earthward gravitation of +sensualism and impurity. + +The exalting and healing effects of metaphysics show their fountain. +Nothing in pathology has exceeded the application of metaphysics. +Through mind alone we have prevented disease and preserved health. In +cases of chronic and acute diseases, in their severest forms, we have +changed the secretions, renewed structure, and restored health; have +elongated shortened limbs, relaxed rigid muscles, made cicatrized joints +supple; restored carious bones to healthy conditions, renewed that which +is termed the lost substance of the lungs; and restored healthy +organizations where disease was organic instead of functional. + + + + +MRS. EDDY IN ERROR + +I feel almost sure that Mrs. Eddy's inspiration--works are getting out of +repair. I think so because they made some errors in a statement which +she uttered through the press on the 17th of January. Not large ones, +perhaps, still it is a friend's duty to straighten such things out and +get them right when he can. Therefore I will put my other duties aside +for a moment and undertake this helpful service. She said as follows: + +"In view of the circulation of certain criticisms from the pen of Mark +Twain, I submit the following statement: + +"It is a fact, well understood, that I begged the students who first gave +me the endearing appellative 'mother' not to name me thus. But, without +my consent, that word spread like wildfire. I still must think the name +is not applicable to me. I stand in relation to this century as a +Christian discoverer, founder, and leader. I regard self-deification as +blasphemous; I may be more loved, but I am less lauded, pampered, +provided for, and cheered than others before me--and wherefore? Because +Christian Science is not yet popular, and I refuse adulation. + +"My visit to the Mother-Church after it was built and dedicated pleased +me, and the situation was satisfactory. The dear members wanted to greet +me with escort and the ringing of bells, but I declined, and went alone +in my carriage to the church, entered it, and knelt in thanks upon the +steps of its altar. There the foresplendor of the beginnings of truth +fell mysteriously upon my spirit. I believe in one Christ, teach one +Christ, know of but one Christ. I believe in but one incarnation, one +Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, and never claimed to be. It +suffices me to learn the Science of the Scriptures relative to this +subject. + +"Christian Scientists have no quarrel with Protestants, Catholics, or any +other sect. They need to be understood as following the divine Principle +God, Love and not imagined to be unscientific worshippers of a human +being. + +"In the aforesaid article, of which I have seen only extracts, Mark +Twain's wit was not wasted In certain directions. Christian Science +eschews divine rights in human beings. If the individual governed human +consciousness, my statement of Christian Science would be disproved, but +to understand the spiritual idea is essential to demonstrate Science and +its pure monotheism--one God, one Christ, no idolatry, no human +propaganda. Jesus taught and proved that what feeds a few feeds all. +His life-work subordinated the material to the spiritual, and He left +this legacy of truth to mankind. His metaphysics is not the sport of +philosophy, religion, or Science; rather it is the pith and finale of +them all. + +"I have not the inspiration or aspiration to be a first or second Virgin- +Mother--her duplicate, antecedent, or subsequent. What I am remains to +be proved by the good I do. We need much humility, wisdom, and love to +perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting heaven within us. +This glory is molten in the furnace of affliction." + +She still thinks the name of Our Mother not applicable to her; and she is +also able to remember that it distressed her when it was conferred upon +her, and that she begged to have it suppressed. Her memory is at fault +here. If she will take her By-laws, and refer to Section 1 of Article +XXII., written with her own hand--she will find that she has reserved +that title to herself, and is so pleased with it, and so--may we say +jealous?--about it, that she threatens with excommunication any sister +Scientist who shall call herself by it. This is that Section 1: + +"The Title of Mother. In the year 1895 loyal Christian Scientists had +given to the author of their text-book, the Founder of Christian Science, +the individual, endearing term of Mother. Therefore, if a student of +Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself or to others, +except as the term for kinship according to the flesh, it shall be +regarded by the Church as an indication of disrespect for their Pastor +Emeritus, and unfitness to be a member of the Mother-Church." + +Mrs. Eddy is herself the Mother-Church--its powers and authorities are in +her possession solely--and she can abolish that title whenever it may +please her to do so. She has only to command her people, wherever they +may be in the earth, to use it no more, and it will never be uttered +again. She is aware of this. + +It may be that she "refuses adulation" when she is not awake, but when +she is awake she encourages it and propagates it in that museum called +"Our Mother's Room," in her Church in Boston. She could abolish that +institution with a word, if she wanted to. She is aware of that. I will +say a further word about the museum presently. + +Further down the column, her memory is unfaithful again: + +"I believe in . . . but one Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, +and never claimed to be." + +At a session of the National Christian Science Association, held in the +city of New York on the 27th of May, 1890, the secretary was "instructed +to send to our Mother greetings and words of affection from her assembled +children." + +Her telegraphic response was read to the Association at next day's +meeting: + +"All hail! He hath filled the hungry with good things and the sick hath +He not sent empty away.--MOTHER MARY." + +Which Mother Mary is this one? Are there two? If so, she is both of +them; for, when she signed this telegram in this satisfied and +unprotesting way, the Mother-title which she was going to so strenuously +object to, and put from her with humility, and seize with both hands, and +reserve as her sole property, and protect her monopoly of it with a stern +By-law, while recognizing with diffidence that it was "not applicable" to +her (then and to-day)--that Mother--title was not yet born, and would not +be offered to her until five years later. The date of the above "Mother +Mary" is 1890; the "individual, endearing title of Mother" was given her +"in 1895"--according to her own testimony. See her By-law quoted above. + +In his opening Address to that Convention of 1890, the President +recognized this Mary--our Mary-and abolished all previous ones. He said: + +"There is but one Moses, one Jesus; and there is but one Mary." + +The confusions being now dispersed, we have this clarified result: + +Were had been a Moses at one time, and only one; there had been a Jesus +at one time, and only one; there is a Mary and "only one." She is not a +Has Been, she is an Is--the "Author of Science and Health; and we cannot +ignore her." + +1. In 1890, there was but one Mother Mary. The President said so. +2. Mrs. Eddy was that one. She said so, in signing the telegram. +3. Mrs. Eddy was not that one for she says so, in her Associated Press +utterance of January 17th. +4. And has "never claimed to be "that one--unless the signature to the +telegram is a claim. + +Thus it stands proven and established that she is that Mary and isn't, +and thought she was and knows she wasn't. That much is clear. + +She is also "The Mother," by the election of 1895, and did not want the +title, and thinks it is not applicable to her, end will excommunicate any +one that tries to take it away from her. So that is clear. + +I think that the only really troublesome confusion connected with these +particular matters has arisen from the name Mary. Much vexation, much +misunderstanding, could have been avoided if Mrs. Eddy had used some of +her other names in place of that one. "Mother Mary" was certain to stir +up discussion. It would have been much better if she had signed the +telegram "Mother Baker"; then there would have been no Biblical +competition, and, of course, that is a thing to avoid. But it is not too +late, yet. + +I wish to break in here with a parenthesis, and then take up this +examination of Mrs. Eddy's Claim of January 17th again. + +The history of her "Mother Mary" telegram--as told to me by one who ought +to be a very good authority--is curious and interesting. The telegram +ostensibly quotes verse 53 from the "Magnificat," but really makes some +pretty formidable changes in it. This is St. Luke's version: + +"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent +empty away." + +This is "Mother Mary's" telegraphed version: + +"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the sick hath He not +sent empty away." + +To judge by the Official Report, the bursting of this bombshell in that +massed convention of trained Christians created no astonishment, since it +caused no remark, and the business of the convention went tranquilly on, +thereafter, as if nothing had happened. + +Did those people detect those changes? We cannot know. I think they +must have noticed them, the wording of St. Luke's verse being as +familiar to all Christians as is the wording of the Beatitudes; and I +think that the reason the new version provoked no surprise and no comment +was, that the assemblage took it for a "Key"--a spiritualized explanation +of verse 53, newly sent down from heaven through Mrs. Eddy. For all +Scientists study their Bibles diligently, and they know their Magnificat. +I believe that their confidence in the authenticity of Mrs. Eddy's +inspirations is so limitless and so firmly established that no change, +however violent, which she might make in a Bible text could disturb their +composure or provoke from them a protest. + +Her improved rendition of verse 53 went into the convention's report and +appeared in a New York paper the next day. The (at that time) Scientist +whom I mentioned a minute ago, and who had not been present at the +convention, saw it and marvelled; marvelled and was indignant--indignant +with the printer or the telegrapher, for making so careless and so +dreadful an error. And greatly distressed, too; for, of course, the +newspaper people would fall foul of it, and be sarcastic, and make fun of +it. and have a blithe time over it, and be properly thankful for the +chance. It shows how innocent he was; it shows that he did not know the +limitations of newspaper men in the matter of Biblical knowledge. The +new verse 53 raised no insurrection in the press; in fact, it was not +even remarked upon; I could have told him the boys would not know there +was anything the matter with it. I have been a newspaper man myself, and +in those days I had my limitations like the others. + +The Scientist hastened to Concord and told Mrs. Eddy what a disastrous +mistake had been made, but he found to his bewilderment that she was +tranquil about it, and was not proposing to correct it. He was not able +to get her to promise to make a correction. He asked her secretary if he +had heard aright when the telegram was dictated to him; the secretary +said he had, and took the filed copy of it and verified its authenticity +by comparing it with the stenographic notes. + +Mrs. Eddy did make the correction, two months later, in her official +organ. It attracted no attention among the Scientists; and, naturally, +none elsewhere, for that periodical's circulation was practically +confined to disciples of the cult. + +That is the tale as it was told to me by an ex-Scientist. Verse 53-- +renovated and spiritualized--had a narrow escape from a tremendous +celebrity. The newspaper men would have made it as famous as the +assassination of Caesar, but for their limitations. + +To return to the Claim. I find myself greatly embarrassed by Mrs. Eddy's +remark: "I regard self-deification as blasphemous." If she is right +about that, I have written a half-ream of manuscript this past week which +I must not print, either in the book which I am writing, or elsewhere: +for it goes into that very matter with extensive elaboration, citing, in +detail, words and acts of Mrs. Eddy's which seem to me to prove that she +is a faithful and untiring worshipper of herself, and has carried self- +deification to a length which has not been before ventured in ages. If +ever. There is not room enough in this chapter for that Survey, but I +can epitomize a portion of it here. + +With her own untaught and untrained mind, and without outside help, she +has erected upon a firm and lasting foundation the most minutely perfect, +and wonderful, and smoothly and exactly working, and best safe-guarded +system of government that has yet been devised in the world, as I +believe, and as I am sure I could prove if I had room for my documentary +evidences here. + +It is a despotism (on this democratic soil); a sovereignty more absolute +than the Roman Papacy, more absolute than the Russian Czarship; it has +not a single power, not a shred of authority, legislative or executive, +which is not lodged solely in the sovereign; all its dreams, its +functions, its energies, have a single object, a single reason for +existing, and only the one--to build to the sky the glory of the +sovereign, and keep it bright to the end of time. + +Mrs. Eddy is the sovereign; she devised that great place for herself, she +occupies that throne. + +In 1895, she wrote a little primer, a little body of autocratic laws, +called the Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and put those +laws in force, in permanence. Her government is all there; all in that +deceptively innocent-looking little book, that cunning little devilish +book, that slumbering little brown volcano, with hell in its bowels. In +that book she has planned out her system, and classified and defined its +purposes and powers. + + + + +MAIN PARTS OF THE MACHINE + +A Supreme Church. At Boston. +Branch Churches. All over the world +One Pastor for the whole of them: to wit, her book, Science and Health. +Term of the book's office--forever. + +In every C.S. pulpit, two "Readers," a man and a woman. No talkers, no +preachers, in any Church-readers only. Readers of the Bible and her +books--no others. No commentators allowed to write or print. + +A Church Service. She has framed it--for all the C.S. Churches-- +selected its readings, its prayers, and the hymns to be used, and has +appointed the order of procedure. No changes permitted. + +A Creed. She wrote it. All C.S. Churches must subscribe to it. No +other permitted. + +A Treasury. At Boston. She carries the key. + +A C.S. Book--Publishing House. For books approved by her. No others +permitted. + +Journals and Magazines. These are organs of hers, and are controlled by +her. + +A College. For teaching C.S. + + + + +DISTRIBUTION OF THE MACHINE'S POWERS AND DIGNITIES + +Supreme Church. +Pastor Emeritus--Mrs. Eddy. +Board of Directors. +Board of Education. +Board of Finance. +College Faculty. +Various Committees. +Treasurer. +Clerk. +First Members (of the Supreme Church). +Members of the Supreme Church. + +It looks fair, it looks real, but it is all a fiction. + +Even the little "Pastor Emeritus" is a fiction. Instead of being merely +an honorary and ornamental official, Mrs. Eddy is the only official in +the entire body that has the slightest power. In her Manual, she has +provided a prodigality of ways and forms whereby she can rid herself of +any functionary in the government whenever she wants to. The officials +are all shadows, save herself; she is the only reality. She allows no +one to hold office more than a year--no one gets a chance to become +over-popular or over-useful, and dangerous. "Excommunication" is the +favorite penalty-it is threatened at every turn. It is evidently the pet +dread and terror of the Church's membership. + +The member who thinks, without getting his thought from Mrs. Eddy before +uttering it, is banished permanently. One or two kinds of sinners can +plead their way back into the fold, but this one, never. To think--in +the Supreme Church--is the New Unpardonable Sin. + +To nearly every severe and fierce rule, Mrs. Eddy adds this rivet: "This +By-law shall not be changed without the consent of the Pastor Emeritus." + +Mrs. Eddy is the entire Supreme Church, in her own person, in the matter +of powers and authorities. + +Although she has provided so many ways of getting rid of unsatisfactory +members and officials, she was still afraid she might have left a life- +preserver lying around somewhere, therefore she devised a rule to cover +that defect. By applying it, she can excommunicate (and this is +perpetual again) every functionary connected with the Supreme Church, and +every one of the twenty-five thousand members of that Church, at an +hour's notice--and do it all by herself without anybody's help. + +By authority of this astonishing By-law, she has only to say a person +connected with that Church is secretly practicing hypnotism or mesmerism; +whereupon, immediate excommunication, without a hearing, is his portion! +She does not have to order a trial and produce evidence--her accusation +is all that is necessary. + +Where is the Pope? and where the Czar? As the ballad says: + + "Ask of the winds that far away + With fragments strewed the sea!" + +The Branch Church's pulpit is occupied by two "Readers." Without them +the Branch Church is as dead as if its throat had been cut. To have +control, then, of the Readers, is to have control of the Branch Churches. +Mrs. Eddy has that control--a control wholly without limit, a control +shared with no one. + +1. No Reader can be appointed to any Church in the Christian Science +world without her express approval. + +2. She can summarily expel from his or her place any Reader, at home or +abroad, by a mere letter of dismissal, over her signature, and without +furnishing any reason for it, to either the congregation or the Reader. + +Thus she has as absolute control over all Branch Churches as she has over +the Supreme Church. This power exceeds the Pope's. + +In simple truth, she is the only absolute sovereign in all Christendom. +The authority of the other sovereigns has limits, hers has none, none +whatever. And her yoke does not fret, does not offend. Many of the +subjects of the other monarchs feel their yoke, and are restive under it; +their loyalty is insincere. It is not so with this one's human property; +their loyalty is genuine, earnest, sincere, enthusiastic. The sentiment +which they feel for her is one which goes out in sheer perfection to no +other occupant of a throne; for it is love, pure from doubt, envy, +exaction, fault-seeking, a love whose sun has no spot--that form of love, +strong, great, uplifting, limitless, whose vast proportions are +compassable by no word but one, the prodigious word, Worship. And it is +not as a human being that her subjects worship her, but as a supernatural +one, a divine one, one who has comradeship with God, and speaks by His +voice. + +Mrs. Eddy has herself created all these personal grandeurs and +autocracies--with others which I have not (in this article) mentioned. +They place her upon an Alpine solitude and supremacy of power and +spectacular show not hitherto attained by any other self-seeking enslaver +disguised in the Christian name, and they persuade me that, although she +may regard "self-deification as blasphemous," she is as fond of it as I +am of pie. + +She knows about "Our Mother's Room" in the Supreme Church in Boston-- +above referred to--for she has been in it. In a recently published North +American Review article, I quoted a lady as saying Mrs. Eddy's portrait +could be seen there in a shrine, lit by always-burning lights, and that +C.S. disciples came and worshiped it. That remark hurt the feelings of +more than one Scientist. They said it was not true, and asked me to +correct it. I comply with pleasure. Whether the portrait was there four +years ago or not, it is not there now, for I have inquired. The only +object in the shrine now, and lit by electrics--and worshiped--is an oil- +portrait of the horse-hair chair Mrs. Eddy used to sit in when she was +writing Science and Health! It seems to me that adulation has struck +bottom, here. + +Mrs. Eddy knows about that. She has been there, she has seen it, she has +seen the worshippers. She could abolish that sarcasm with a word. She +withholds the word. Once more I seem to recognize in her exactly the +same appetite for self-deification that I have for pie. We seem to be +curiously alike; for the love of self-deification is really only the +spiritual form of the material appetite for pie, and nothing could be +more strikingly Christian-Scientifically "harmonious." + +I note this phrase: + +"Christian Science eschews divine rights in human beings." + +"Rights" is vague; I do not know what it means there. Mrs. Eddy is not +well acquainted with the English language, and she is seldom able to say +in it what she is trying to say. She has no ear for the exact word, and +does not often get it. "Rights." Does it mean "honors?" "attributes?" + +"Eschews." This is another umbrella where there should be a torch; it +does not illumine the sentence, it only deepens the shadows. Does she +mean "denies?" "refuses?" "forbids?" or something in that line? Does she +mean: + +"Christian Science denies divine honors to human beings?" Or: + +"Christian Science refuses to recognize divine attributes in human +beings?" Or: + +"Christian Science forbids the worship of human beings?" + +The bulk of the succeeding sentence is to me a tunnel, but, when I emerge +at this end of it, I seem to come into daylight. Then I seem to +understand both sentences--with this result: + +"Christian Science recognizes but one God, forbids the worship of human +beings, and refuses to recognize the possession of divine attributes by +any member of the race." + +I am subject to correction, but I think that that is about what Mrs. Eddy +was intending to convey. Has her English--which is always difficult to +me--beguiled me into misunderstanding the following remark, which she +makes (calling herself "we," after an old regal fashion of hers) in her +preface to her Miscellaneous Writings? + +"While we entertain decided views as to the best method for elevating the +race physically, morally, and spiritually, and shall express these views +as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine organ, +no supernatural power." + +Was she meaning to say: + +"Although I am of divine origin and gifted with supernatural power, I +shall not draw upon these resources in determining the best method of +elevating the race?" + +If she had left out the word "our," she might then seem to say: + +"I claim no especial or unusual degree of divine origin--" + +Which is awkward--most awkward; for one either has a divine origin or +hasn't; shares in it, degrees of it, are surely impossible. The idea of +crossed breeds in cattle is a thing we can entertain, for we are used to +it, and it is possible; but the idea of a divine mongrel is unthinkable. + +Well, then, what does she mean? I am sure I do not know, for certain. +It is the word "our" that makes all the trouble. With the "our" in, she +is plainly saying "my divine origin." The word "from" seems to be +intended to mean "on account of." It has to mean that or nothing, if +"our" is allowed to stay. The clause then says: + +"I shall claim no especial gift on account of my divine origin." + +And I think that the full sentence was intended to mean what I have +already suggested: + +"Although I am of divine origin, and gifted with supernatural power, I +shall not draw upon these resources in determining the best method of +elevating the race." + +When Mrs. Eddy copyrighted that Preface seven years ago, she had long +been used to regarding herself as a divine personage. I quote from Mr. +F. W. Peabody's book: + +"In the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her +property, and published by her, it was claimed for her, and with her +sanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to +establish the claim." + +"Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf, that she +herself was the chosen successor to and equal of Jesus." + +The following remark in that April number, quoted by Mr. Peabody, +indicates that her claim had been previously made, and had excited +"horror" among some "good people": + +"Now, a word about the horror many good people have of our making the +Author of Science and Health 'equal with Jesus.'" + +Surely, if it had excited horror in Mrs. Eddy also, she would have +published a disclaimer. She owned the paper; she could say what she +pleased in its columns. Instead of rebuking her editor, she lets him +rebuke those "good people" for objecting to the claim. + +These things seem to throw light upon those words, "our [my] divine +origin." + +It may be that "Christian Science eschews divine rights in human beings," +and forbids worship of any but "one God, one Christ"; but, if that is the +case, it looks as if Mrs. Eddy is a very unsound Christian Scientist, and +needs disciplining. I believe she has a serious malady--"self- +deification"; and that it will be well to have one of the experts +demonstrate over it. + +Meantime, let her go on living--for my sake. Closely examined, +painstakingly studied, she is easily the most interesting person on the +planet, and, in several ways, as easily the most extraordinary woman that +was ever born upon it. + + +P.S.--Since I wrote the foregoing, Mr. McCrackan's article appeared (in +the March number of the North American Review). Before his article +appeared--that is to say, during December, January, and February--I had +written a new book, a character-portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own +acts and words, and it was then--together with the three brief articles +previously published in the North American Review--ready to be delivered +to the printer for issue in book form. In that book, by accident and +good luck, I have answered the objections made by Mr. McCrackan to my +views, and therefore do not need to add an answer here. Also, in it I +have corrected certain misstatements of mine which he has noticed, and +several others which he has not referred to. There are one or two +important matters of opinion upon which he and I are not in disagreement; +but there are others upon which we must continue to disagree, I suppose; +indeed, I know we must; for instance, he believes Mrs. Eddy wrote Science +and Health, whereas I am quite sure I can convince a person unhampered by +predilections that she did not. + +As concerns one considerable matter I hope to convert him. He believes +Mrs. Eddy's word; in his article he cites her as a witness, and takes her +testimony at par; but if he will make an excursion through my book when +it comes out, and will dispassionately examine her testimonies as there +accumulated, I think he will in candor concede that she is by a large +percentage the most erratic and contradictory and untrustworthy witness +that has occupied the stand since the days of the lamented Ananias. + + + + +CONCLUSION + +Broadly speaking, the hostiles reject and repudiate all the pretensions +of Christian Science Christianity. They affirm that it has added nothing +new to Christianity; that it can do nothing that Christianity could not +do and was not doing before Christian Science was born. + +In that case is there no field for the new Christianity, no opportunity +for usefulness, precious usefulness, great and distinguished usefulness? +I think there is. I am far from being confident that it can fill it, but +I will indicate that unoccupied field--without charge--and if it can +conquer it, it will deserve the praise and gratitude of the Christian +world, and will get it, I am sure. + +The present Christianity makes an excellent private Christian, but its +endeavors to make an excellent public one go for nothing, substantially. + +This is an honest nation--in private life. The American Christian is a +straight and clean and honest man, and in his private commerce with his +fellows can be trusted to stand faithfully by the principles of honor and +honesty imposed upon him by his religion. But the moment he comes +forward to exercise a public trust he can be confidently counted upon to +betray that trust in nine cases out of ten, if "party loyalty" shall +require it. + +If there are two tickets in the field in his city, one composed of honest +men and the other of notorious blatherskites and criminals, he will not +hesitate to lay his private Christian honor aside and vote for the +blatherskites if his "party honor" shall exact it. His Christianity is +of no use to him and has no influence upon him when he is acting in a +public capacity. He has sound and sturdy private morals, but he has no +public ones. In the last great municipal election in New York, almost a +complete one-half of the votes representing 3,500,000 Christians were +cast for a ticket that had hardly a man on it whose earned and proper +place was outside of a jail. But that vote was present at church next +Sunday the same as ever, and as unconscious of its perfidy as if nothing +had happened. + +Our Congresses consist of Christians. In their private life they are +true to every obligation of honor; yet in every session they violate them +all, and do it without shame; because honor to party is above honor to +themselves. It is an accepted law of public life that in it a man may +soil his honor in the interest of party expediency--must do it when +party expediency requires it. In private life those men would bitterly +resent--and justly--any insinuation that it would not be safe to leave +unwatched money within their reach; yet you could not wound their +feelings by reminding them that every time they vote ten dollars to the +pension appropriation nine of it is stolen money and they the marauders. +They have filched the money to take care of the party; they believe it +was right to do it; they do not see how their private honor is affected; +therefore their consciences are clear and at rest. By vote they do +wrongful things every day, in the party interest, which they could not be +persuaded to do in private life. In the interest of party expediency +they give solemn pledges, they make solemn compacts; in the interest of +party expediency they repudiate them without a blush. They would not +dream of committing these strange crimes in private life. + +Now then, can Christian Science introduce the Congressional Blush? There +are Christian Private Morals, but there are no Christian Public Morals, +at the polls, or in Congress or anywhere else--except here and there and +scattered around like lost comets in the solar system. Can Christian +Science persuade the nation and Congress to throw away their public +morals and use none but their private ones henceforth in all their +activities, both public and private? + +I do not think so; but no matter about me: there is the field--a grand +one, a splendid one, a sublime one, and absolutely unoccupied. Has +Christian Science confidence enough in itself to undertake to enter in +and try to possess it? + +Make the effort, Christian Science; it is a most noble cause, and it +might succeed. It could succeed. Then we should have a new literature, +with romances entitled, How To Be an Honest Congressman Though a +Christian; How To Be a Creditable Citizen Though a Christian. + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christian Science, +by Mark Twain + diff --git a/old/mtcsc11.zip b/old/mtcsc11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..524d063 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mtcsc11.zip |