CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
‘' It is the first time since the damn-days of Creation that a Voice has gone crashing through space with 
Mark Twain. 
such placid and complacent confidence and command.' 
I. 
again?” 
“And struck another one and bounced 
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 sen- 
tence without changing cars. 
“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 comminated 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.” 
“l 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 confirma- 
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. 
tions 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, and 
another capable person to come and help 
me curse the time away; but I cculd p^t 
have any of these things. 
“Why?” 
“She said you would need notjffngd^t 
all.” 
“But I am hungry, and thirsty,^acjrin 
“Did you tell her I walked off a cliff 
seventy-five feet high?” 
desperate pain.” 
“She said you would 
delusions, but must pay no 
them. She wants you to particularly 
remember that there are no such tfungsias 
“Yes.” 
“And struck a boulder at the bottom 
and bounced?” 
“Yes.” 
hunger and thirst and pain.” 586 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
“She does, does she?” 
no existence ; nothing exists but mind ; the 
mind cannot feel pain, it can only 
imagine it.” 
“It is what she said.” 
“Does she seem to be in full and 
functionable possession of her intellectual 
plant, such as it is?” 
“But if it hurts, just the same ” 
“Bitte?” 
“It doesn’t. A thing which is unreal 
cannot exercise the functions of reality. 
Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot hurt.” 
‘ ‘Do they let her run at large, or do they 
tie her up?” 
In making a sweeping gesture to indi- 
cate 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 
non-existences in your presence. Such 
talk only encourages the mind to continue 
its empty imaginings.” Just at that 
point the Stubenmadchen trod on the cat’s 
tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of cat- 
profanity. I asked, with caution: 
“There, good-night, run along; you 
are a good girl, but your mental Geschirr 
is not arranged for light and airy conversa- 
tion. Leave me to my delusions.” 
“Tie her up?” 
11. 
It w'as 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 And 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: 
“Is a cat’s opinion about pain valu- 
able?” 
“A cat has no opinion; opinions 
proceed from mind only; the lower 
animals, being eternally perishable, have 
not been granted mind; Avithout mind, 
opinion is impossible.” 
“She merely imagined she felt a pain— 
the cat?” 
“She cannot imagine a pain, for imagina- 
tion is an effect of mind; without mind, 
there is no imagination. A cat has no 
imagination.” 
“Return it to its receptacle. We deal 
with the mind only, not with its dumb 
servants. ’ ’ 
“Then she had a real pain?” 
“I have already told you there is no 
such thing as real pain.” 
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 
“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 emo- 
tion usable when her tail is trodden on 
which for the moment joins cat and Chris- 
tian 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 
“One does not feel," she explained; 
“there is no such thing as feeling: there- 
fore, to speak of a non-existent thing as 
existent is a contradiction. Matter has CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
587 
and confess that there is no such thing as 
disease or pain or death. ’ ’ 
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.” 
“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?” 
“It seems to be a corker.” 
“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. ” 
I blushed for the word, but it was out 
before I could stop it. 
“A—wonderful structure—combination, 
so to speak, of profound thoughts—un- 
thinkable ones—un ” 
“A what?” 
“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.” 
“It is true. Read backwards, or for- 
wards, or perpendicularly, or at any given 
angle, these four propositions will always 
be found to agree in statement and 
proof. ’ ’ 
“Explain.” 
“Well, for instance: if there is no such 
thing as matter, how can matter propagate 
things?” 
“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?” 
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 summa- 
rized 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. ” 
“Why, nothing could be clearer. They 
prove: 1. God—Principle, Life, Truth, 
Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind. Do you get 
that?” 
“2. Max—God’s universal idea, indi- 
vidual, perfect, eternal. Is it clear?” 
“I—well, I seem to. Go on, please.” 
“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?” 
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. ” 
“Very well. There is more. Those 
three constitute the Scientific Definition of 
Immortal Mind. Next, we have the Scien- 
tific Definition of Mortal Mind. Thus. 
First Degree : Depravity. 1. Physical 
-—Passions and appetites, fear, depraved 
will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, 
sin, disease, death.” 
“Well—no; it seems strong.” 
With a budding hope, I asked her to do 
it backward. 
“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 ” 
“Phantasms, madam—unrealities, as I 
understand it.” 
“Well?” 
“Every one. Second Degree: Evil 
Disappearing. 1. Moral—Honesty, affec- 
tion, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, 
temperance. Is it clear?” 
“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 
“Crystal.” 
‘ ‘ Third Degree ; Spiritual Salvation. 
1. Spiritual—Faith, wisdom, power, pur- 
ity, understanding, health, love. You see 
how searchingly and coordinately inter- 588 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
dependent and anthropomorphous it all is. 
In this Third Degree, as we know by the 
revelations of Christian Science, mortal 
mind disappears.” 
vidual 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?” 
“No, not until the teaching and 
preparation for the Third Degree are 
completed. ” 
‘‘Not earlier?” 
“It is not until then that one is enabled 
to take hold of Christian Science effect- 
ively, and with the right sense of sym- 
pathy 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 inter- 
rupted 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. ’ ’ 
“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.” 
“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 exhaust- 
ive exactness your choice and arrangement 
of words confirms and establishes 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 disap- 
pear. Also, without doubt, it is the Third 
Degree that contributes another remark- 
able 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?” 
(It is very curious, the effect which 
Christian Science has upon the verbal 
bowels. Particularly the Third Degree; 
it makes one think of a dictionary with the 
cholera. But I only thought this; I did 
not say it.) 
“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.” 
“In 1866. is the immortal date 
when pain and disease and death disap- 
peared 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 wrere easily banished. 
The history and nature of the great dis- 
covery are set down in the book here, 
and ’ ’ 
“Indeed? When did this occur?” 
“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 indi- CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
589 
“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.” 
“Did the lady write the book?’’ 
its pertinency, she was already throwing 
the needed light: 
“This Apodictical Principle is the abso- 
lute 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.” 
But she had forgotten to bring her 
glasses. 
“Surely not every ill, every decay?” 
“Everyone; there are no exceptions; 
there is no such thing as decay—it is an 
unreality, it has no existence.” 
“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; ‘ln 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 ac- 
quaint themselves intelligently with God. ’ 
Her very words. ’ ’ 
“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 sub- 
ject. 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 calcula- 
tion, like America?” 
“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 ” 
“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 abso- 
lute Principle of Scientific Mind-healing.’ ” 
“We never give medicine in any circum- 
stances whatever! -We ’ ’ 
“Many years. How many?” 
“Eighteen centuries!” 
“I don’t care what it says, and I don’t 
wish to talk about it.” 
“But, madam, it says ” 
“All-God, God-good, good-God, Truth, 
Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and 
without equal—it is amazing!” 
“I am sorry if I have offended, but you 
see the mention seemed in some way 
inconsistent, and ” 
“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. ’ ’ 
“There are no inconsistencies in Chris- 
tian 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.” 
“How strange, how wonderful!” 
“I will quote her own words, from her 
Key to the Scriptures: ‘The twelfth chap- 
ter of the Apocalypse has a special suggest- 
iveness in connection with this nineteenth 
century. ’ There—do you note that ? 
Think—note it well. ” 
“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 
“But—what does it mean ?” 
“Listen, and you will know. I quote 
her inspired words again: ‘ln the opening CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
590 
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: 
111. 
Under the powerful influence of the 
near treatment and the absent treatment 
together, my bones were gradually retreat- 
ing inward and disappearing from view. 
The good work took a brisk start, now, 
and went on quite 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. 
“ ‘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 Dis- 
coverer 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.’ 
“I recognize it, madam. These are 
sublime things, and impressive; I never 
understood these passages before; please go 
on with the—with the-—proofs. ’ ’ 
“That is Boston.” 
“Yery 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 had 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?” 
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 in 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 experi- 
enced not a shade of relief; and indeed 
the ahhe was even growing worse and 
worse, and more and more bitter, now, 
probably on account of the protracted 
abstention from food and drink. 
“I hold it in my hand—Christian 
Science!” 
“ Was it ” 
“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 his- 
tory 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—l will give you 
absent treatment from now till I go to 
bed.” 
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 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
made up a bucket of bran-mash, and said 
a dipperful of it every two hours, alter- 
nated 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 I did not care for food. 
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 merely stirs the soul 
through the noise but does not convey a 
meaning. 
I took up the Christian Scientist 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 rum- 
blings and grindings and quakings and 
effervescings accompanying the evolution 
of the ache into the botts and thfe 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 dis- 
tinguish 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 Apodistical 
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 
couid have been achieved with fewer 
materials. I believe the mash was neces- 
sary 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 
a horse-doctor. 
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 assem- 
bled 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 Book in an unclarified 
condition, and at small expense of time 
and no expense of mental effort she clarifies 
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 ofteq 
compel the effects of eloquence, even when' 
the words do not seem to have any trace- 
able meaning. There are plenty of people 
who imagine they understand the book; I 592 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
it from lid to lid, reorganizes and improves 
the meanings, then authoritatively settles 
and establishes them with formula1 which 
you cannot tell from “Let there be 
light!” and “Here you have it!” It is 
the first time since the dawn-days of Crea- 
tion that a Voice has gone crashing 
through space with such placid and com- 
placent confidence and command. 
be seen that they throw light. The italics 
are mine: 
1. “What plague “Therefore the effi- 
spot, or bacilli were cient remedy is to 
(sic) gnawing (sic) at destroy the patient’s 
the heart of this me- unfortunate belief, by 
tropolis . . . and both silently and 
bringing it” (the audibly arguing the 
heart) “on bended opposite facts in re- 
knee? Why, it was an gard to harmonious 
institute that had en- being representing 
tered its vitals—that, man as healthful in- 
among other things, stead of diseased, and 
taught games,'' et showing that it is 
cetera. (P. 670, C. 8. impossible for matter 
Journal, article en- to suffer, to feel pain 
titled ‘‘ A Narrative— or heat, to be thirsty 
Iny Mary Baker G. or sick.” (P. 375, 
Eddy."11) Annex.) 
A word upon a question of authorship. 
Not that quite; but rather, a question of 
emendation and revision. We know that 
the Bible-Anuex was not written by Mrs. 
Eddy, but was handed down to her 
eighteen hundred years ago by the Angel 
of the Apocalypse; but did she translate it 
alone, or did she have help? There seems 
to be evidence that she had help. For 
there are four several copyrights on it—- 
1875, 1885, 1890, 1894. It did not 
come down in English, for in that lan- 
guage it could not have acquired copy- 
right—there were no copyright laws 
eighteen centuries ago, and in my opinion 
no English language—at least up there. 
This makes it substantially certain that the 
Annex is a translation. Then, was not 
the first translation complete? If it was, 
on what grounds were the later copyrights 
granted? 
IY. 
2. “Parks sprang “Man is never sick ; 
up (sic) . . . electric for Mind is not sick, 
street cars run (sic) and matter cannot be. 
merrily through sev- A false belief is both 
eral streets, concrete the tempter and the 
sidewalks and mac- tempted, the sin and 
adamized roads dot- the sinner, the disease 
ted (sic) the place, ’ ’ and its cause. It is 
etcetera. (Ilrid.) well tobecalminsick- 
3. “Shorn (sic) of ness; to be hopeful is 
its suburbs it had in- still better; but to 
deed little left to understand that sick- 
admire, save to (sic) ness is not real, and 
such as fancy a skele- that Truth can de- 
ton above ground stroy it, is best of all, 
breathing (sic) slowly for it is the universal 
through a barren (sic) and perfect remedy. ’ ’ 
breast.” (Ihid.) (Chapter edi, Annex.) 
I surmise that the first translation was 
poor; and that a friend or friends of Mrs. 
Eddy mended its English three times, and 
finally got it into its present shape, where 
the grammar is plenty good enough, and 
the sentences are smooth and plausible 
though they do not mean anything. I think 
I am right in this surmise, for Mrs. Eddy 
cannot write English to-day, and this is 
argument that she never could. lam not 
able to guess who did the mending, but I 
think it was not done by any member of 
the Eddy Trust, nor by the editors of the 
“C. S. Journal,” for their English is not 
much better than Mrs. Eddy’s. 
You notice the contrast between the 
smooth, plausible, elegant, addled English 
of the doctored Annex and the lumbering, 
ragged, ignorant output of the translator’s 
natural, spontaneous and unmedicated 
penwork. The English of the Annex has 
been slicked up by a very industrious and 
painstaking hand—but it was not Mrs. 
Eddy’s. 
However, as to the main point: it is 
certain that Mrs. Eddy did not doctor the 
Annex’s English herself. Her original, 
spontaneous, undoctored English furnishes 
ample proof of this. Here are samples 
from recent articles from her unappeasable 
pen; double-columned with them are a 
couple of passages from the Annex. It will 
If Mrs. Eddy really wrote or translated 
the Annex, her original draft was exactly 
in harmony with the English of her 
plague-spot or bacilli which were gnawing 
at the insides of the metropolis and bring- 
ing its heart on bended knee, thus 
exposing to the eye the rest of the 
skeleton breathing slowly through a CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 
593 
barren breast. And it bore little or no 
resemblance to the book as we have it now 
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 neces- 
sary,” 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 prac- 
tising 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 increas- 
ing 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 soma 
mysterious power issuing from himself. 
—now that the salaried polisher has holy- 
stoned all of the genuine Eddyties out of it. 
Will the plague-spot article go into a 
volume just as it stands? I think not. I 
think the polisher will take off his coat 
and vest and cravat and “demonstrate 
over” it a couple of weeks and sweat it 
into a shape something like the following 
—and then Mrs. Eddy will publish it and 
leave people to believe that she did the 
polishing herself. 
1. What injurious influence was it that 
was affecting the city's morals? It was a 
social club which propagated an interest in 
idle amusements, disseminated a knowledge 
of games, et cetera. 
2. By the magic of the new and nobler 
influences the sterile spaces were trans- 
formed into wooded parks, the merry 
electric car replaced the melancholy ’bus, 
smooth concrete the tempestuous plank 
sidewalk, the macadamized road the 
primitive corduroy, et cetera. 
3. Its pleasant suburbs gone, there was 
little left to admire save the wrecked 
graveyard with its uncanny exposures. 
The Annex contains one sole and solitary 
humorous remark. There is a most 
elaborate and voluminous Index, and it 
is preceded by this note: 
“This Index will enable the student to 
And any thought or idea contained in the 
book.” 
Y. 
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 dis- 
ease is only a fancy, the patient’s confi- 
dence in the doctor will make the bread 
pill effective. 
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. 
Faith in the doctor. Perhaps that is the 
entire thing. It seems to look like it. 594 
THE DEAD. 
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. 
confess that they are not the equals of 
the Deity; but if the Christian Scientist 
even stops with being merely the equal of 
the Deity it is not clearly provable by his 
Christian-Science Amended Bible. In the 
usual Bible the Deity recognizes pain, 
disease and death as facts, but the Chris- 
tian Scientist knows better. Knows 
better, and is not diffident about say- 
ing so. 
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. They claim ability to cure malig- 
nant cancer, and other affections which 
have never been cured in the history of 
the race. There would seem to be an ele- 
ment of danger here. It has the look of 
claiming too much, I think. Public confi- 
dence 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 answmred. “All else 
is substanceless, all else is imaginary.” v 
I believe it might be shown that all the 
“mind” sects except Christian Science have 
lucid intervals; intervals in which they 
betray some diffidence, and in effect 
I gave her an imaginary check, and now 
she is suing me for substantial dollars. It 
looks inconsistent.