The purpose of this book is not to deny the power of mind over matter, or of the human mind over the human body, but to show that the foolish and pestilent thing termed "Christian Science" is a leech fastened upon these great truths, mostly, if not wholly, to batten on them. There is no use of saying this to "Christian Scientists" themselves—an obedient chain-gang in hypnotic servitude. But people who are not already "in Science" (to use the shibboleth of those who are), ought to be prompted not

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE THING. The date of this writing is the year 1901. About a quarter of a century ago, Boston, the city of modified Puritans and keen business thrift, evolved a new religion. Modern Boston, however, being nothing if not "scientific," the new religion tipped its wings with the new time, and soared aloft in the name of "Christian Science." In a world not quite converted to this "science," facts sometimes fall behind assertions. But the sect of Christian Science now claims to

THE ORIGIN OF THE NEW THOUGHT. [4] "Christian Science," "Mental Healing," "Metaphysical Treatment of Disease,"—where did these things come from, and how did they get here? The facts are peculiar; they are partly unpleasant; they are sometimes amusing; but they are not far to seek. In 1836, Charles Poyan, a Frenchman, introduced into the United States the practise of Mesmerism. In 1840 it was taken up, with great earnestness, by a Maine Yankee, named Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. He was a watch and c

DR. QUIMBY'S MOST DISTINGUISHED PATIENT. Dr. Quimby was at the height of his career during the early days of our Civil War. Among his patients at that time was one who has since become the most celebrated of them, and who now bears the name of Mary Baker Glover Eddy. Then, however, the patient was known as Mary M. Patterson—an incident which occurred through her being a very energetic and pious woman, who has attracted to herself a considerable variety of husbands. [13] It was in 1862, says Dr.

A GREAT "METAPHYSICAL" NOVEL. As shown by our last chapter, Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Eddy, whatever divine attributes may have perched upon her, has been endowed with some very human qualities. But in one gift she has been strangely lacking—a good memory. For, in spite of her association with Dr. P. P. Quimby, his renovation of her broken system, and all the mellifluous prose and poetry she devoted to him in his day, the fruitful "mother," "discoverer," and "founder" of "Christian Science," when s

A SOFT SET OF CRITICS. We have now learned a little of Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy's celestial and terrestrial biography, as derived from the supramundane novel, Retrospection and Introspection , and some other sources. Bare allusion has been made to her Science and Health . But this, she says, "is my most important work, containing the complete statement of Christian Science." The book, as we have seen, came among men—or, more strictly speaking, among less busy women—in 1875; and a thousand copies,

"THE PRECIOUS VOLUME." In the world of books, Mrs. Eddy's Science and Health is the specially "precious volume"; for she herself so designates and describes it at the head of a chapter in her Retrospection and Introspection . [30] To her, indeed, it is a very precious volume—more precious than even a goodly pile of "the precious metals." Her devotees exchange these for it with sublime certainty that they get more than the worth of their money; and being in great need of science, to say nothing o

"KEY" TO THE EDDY SCRIPTURE, SCIENCE AND HEALTH. Mrs. Eddy's Un-Christian Non-Science may be summarized as a caricature of her early "New England Orthodoxy," crazily combined with New England Transcendentalism, coated with a kind of free-thought permissible only to her own "divine Science," all overlying Dr. Quimby's "Science of Health," and carefully put under copyright. Let us now see a few moonstone gems from her "precious volume"—just enough to illustrate our criticism of it and not infringe

"CHRISTIAN-SCIENCE" ORGANIZING FORCES. As Mrs. Eddy has been a manufacturer and vender of "Christian Science" for a comparatively short time—only a quarter of a century—many good people who knew her at the inception of that successful industry are still on earth, in an active condition of "mortal mind." They have volunteered to furnish for this brief book a variety of plain and ornamental information that is not essential to it. But, in justice to history and biography, one point must not be omi

THE ONE TRUE "MOTHER CHURCH." [41] It was in 1889, says Mrs. Eddy, that "I gave a lot of land in Boston," on which to erect "a church edifice" as "a temple for Christian Science worship." [42] The land, she is particular to say, was worth "twenty thousand dollars," and was "rising in value." As she has been careful to mention this increment of the "rise"—not hiding it under a bushel, but setting it on top of the cover—we must be sure to add it to the sum of the original benevolence. But how much

A MARTYR TO "SCIENCE." "Christian Science," though its span be brief, has produced one of the most exceptional martyrs that ever lived and prospered. It is a woman, of course; for men, as a rule, have now become too "mortal-minded" for sacrificial victims. The lady referred to is a Mrs. Josephine C. Woodbury. Boston is her habitat. She was long a follower of Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, and was a preacher of the gospel, Science and Health . She talked and prayed, she wrote and traveled, all "in Scie

METAPHYSICS. [55] "Mother Eddy" and her flock "in Science" derive a considerable part of their income from a glib use of the word "Metaphysics." But what the "Church Scientist" has omitted to learn about the real import of that word would make a volume even larger than Science and Health . As unreservedly admitted in our present essay, there is no trouble about a spiritual derivation of the universe. In the declaratory, religious form, the New Testament is a sufficient example of this doctrine.

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF THE UNIVERSE. In a previous chapter, some special reference has been made to a little German professor named Immanuel Kant. He was born at Königsberg, in 1724. In 1781 he wrote a book which he called "The Critique of Pure Reason." This provokingly modest title, as already said, covered, in reality, the analysis of mind and matter, time and space . It was the most far-reaching piece of purely intellectual work that had ever been given to the world. It has split the heads of hu

A SPECIAL LOOK AT SPACE AND TIME. Through scientific idealism, fully examined, Kant proved that matter is a manufacture of sense. We have not followed the order of his work, but have gone straight to the heart of it. His own beginning was the dissection of space and time. Still, he implied therein, if only in one remark, all that has here been stated. "If I take [says Kant] from our representation of a body, all that the understanding thinks as belonging to it, as substance, force, divisibility,

CREATIVE MIND FURTHER PROBED. The inmost secret of the universe lies in Kant's four words, "the synthesis of apprehension," or what he more elaborately termed "the transcendental synthesis of the image-making faculty." "It is an operation [he says] of the understanding on sensibility, and the first application of the understanding to objects of possible intuition, and at the same time the basis for the exercise of the other functions of that faculty ." It has been intently presented to view in t

THE GENESIS OF "TRANSCENDENTAL IDEAS." It must now be easy to see that mind, in its general form, is three-in-one—a triad. It is a self-reflexive, self-related unit, of three phases. The first phase is automatic "apprehension." The second is conscious "understanding." The third, which we touch here, is "reason." In reason, mind is still the general cosmic principle of awareness, with the function of synthesis, or conjunction. As intuition, it has perceived things. As conception, it has classifie

THE GRAND RESULT OF DISSECTING PHENOMENA. Since the days of Immanuel Kant, no philosophy, no rational theology, no ultimate science, not referring to the results of his work, has had any real basis in thought—the reason being that he saw through, and explained, the principle of universal relativity, the law of scientific idealism, and relaid the whole structure, from the corner-stone up. Before Kant it was known well enough that "matter," however we must all accept it with our hands and eyes, ha

SOME SEQUENCES OF ABSOLUTE IDEALISM. Since Kant, we have said, "no philosophy, no rational theology, no ultimate science, not referring to the results of his work, has had any real basis in thought." It must be added that since the fulfilment of Kant's Critique , especially by Hegel, there has not been one stone left as a foundation for "materialism." It goes right on, however, in multifarious forms, its defunct exponents still imagining they live. Surgical psychology, in special, is still as ac

VARIOUS SCHOOLS OF THE NEW THOUGHT. Just now, the general cause of metaphysical therapeutics is separating rapidly into various "schools," few of them having much consideration for the pretentious health-trust, "Christian Science." In the South, for instance—at Sea Breeze, Florida—a Mrs. Helen Wilmans has founded a settlement of houses and lands, souls and bodies, with books, pamphlets, and a weekly press, all devoted, mentally, morally and physically, to psychic dominion over all things. Freedo

AN ADVANCED HEALER OF TO-DAY. Recapitulating what we have been over, it appears that "metaphysical healing" is simply the suggestion and determination of health—the ideal photograph, as it were, of health—transferred from the well to the ill, in the conviction that Universal Spirit is the principle of all health, which we may receive from its Source by opening ourselves to it. That is to say, the health of the Infinite Spirit, so far as absorbed by a finite spirit, corrects finite errors of mind

CONCLUSION. The moral of our story is an old one, always new. "There are more things in heaven and earth than"—anybody short of Mary Baker G. Eddy can put into a "science." From this text it would be logical to educe a cyclopedia every month or so. But one little point will do here. The practise of medicine, notwithstanding its grand achievements, is still in its infancy. When I am ill, I call a doctor—the best in the vicinity. It is the custom; and, as Montaigne said, Que sais-je? I am not sure