CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY.

Mark Twain.

‘' It is thefirst time since the damn-days of Creation that a Voice has gone crashing through space with such placid and complacent confidence and command.'

I. “And struck another one and bounced again?” last summer, when I was on my “Yes.” THISway back to Vienna from the “And struck another one and bounced Appetite-Cure in the mountains, I fell over yet again?” a cliff in the twilight and broke some “Yes.” arms and legs and one thing or another, “And broke the boulders?” and by good luck was found by some “Yes.” peasants who had lost an ass and they “That accounts for it; she is thinking carried me to the nearest habitation, which of the boulders. Why didn’t you tell her was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed I got hurt, too?” farm-houses, with apartments in the “I did. I told her what you told me garret for the family, and a cunning little to tell her: that you were now but an porch under the deep gable decorated incoherent series of compound fractures with boxes of bright-colored flowers and extending from your scalp-lock to your cats; on the ground floor a large and light heels, and that the comminated projections sitting-room, separated from the milch- caused you to look like a hat-rack.” cattle apartment by a partition; and in the “And it was after this that she wished front yard rose stately and fine the wealth me to remember that there was nothing and pride of the house, the manure-pile. the matter with me?” That sentence is Germanic, and shows “Those were her words.” that I am acquiring that sort of mastery “l do not understand it. I believe she of the art and spirit of the language which has not diagnosed the case with sufficient enables a man to travel all day in one sen- care. Did she look like a person who was tence without changing cars. theorizing, or did she look like one who There was a village a mile away, and a has fallen off precipices herself and brings horse-doctor lived there, but there was no to the aid of abstract science the confirma- surgeon. It seemed a bad outlook; mine tions of personal experience?” was distinctly a surgery case. Then it “Bitte?” was remembered that a lady from Boston It was too large a contract for the was summering in that village, and she Stubenmadchen’s vocabulary; she couldn’t was a Christian Science doctor and could call the hand. I allowed the subject to cure anything. So she was sent for. It rest there, and asked for something was night by this time, and she could not to eat and smoke, and something hot to conveniently come, but sent word that it drink, and a basket to pile my legs in, and was no matter, there was no hurry, she another capable person to come and help would give me “absent treatment” now, me curse the time away; but I cculd p^t and come in the morning; meantime she have any of these things. begged me to make myself tranquil and “Why?” comfortable and remember that there was “She said you would need notjffngd^t nothing the matter with me. I thought all.” there must be some mistake. “But I am hungry, and thirsty,^acjrin “Did you tell her I walked off a cliff desperate pain.” seventy-five feet high?” “She said you would “Yes.” delusions, but must pay no “And struck a boulder at the bottom them. She wants you to particularly and bounced?” remember that there are no such tfungsias “Yes.” hunger and thirst and pain.” 5 86 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY.

“She does, does she?” no existence ; nothing exists but mind ; the “It is what she said.” mind cannot feel pain, it can only “Does she seem to be in full and imagine it.” functionable possession of her intellectual “But if it hurts, just the same ” plant, such as it is?” “It doesn’t. A thing which is unreal “Bitte?” cannot exercise the functions of reality. ‘ ‘Do they let her run at large, or do they Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot hurt.” tie her up?” In making a sweeping gesture to indi- “Tie her up?” cate the act of shooing the illusion of pain “There, good-night, run along; you out of the mind, she raked her hand on a are a good girl, but your mental Geschirr pin in her dress, said “Ouch!” and went is not arranged for light and airy conversa- tranquilly on with her talk. “You should tion. Leave me to my delusions.” never allow yourself to speak of how you feel, nor permit others to ask you how 11. you are feeling; you should never concede It w'as a night of anguish, of course —at that you are ill, nor permit others to talk least, I supposed it was, for it had all about disease or pain or death or similar the symptoms of it—but it passed at last, non-existences in your presence. Such and the Christian Scientist came, and I talk only encourages the mind to continue was glad. She was middle-aged, and its empty imaginings.” Just at that large and bony, and erect, and had an point the Stubenmadchen trod on the cat’s austere face and a resolute jaw and a tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of cat- Roman beak and was a widow in the third profanity. I asked, with caution: degree, and her name was Fuller. I was “Is a cat’s opinion about pain valu- eager to get to business and And relief, but able?” she was distressingly deliberate. She “A cat has no opinion; opinions unpinned and unhooked and uncoupled proceed from mind only; the lower her upholsteries one by one, abolished the animals, being eternally perishable, have wrinkles with a flirt of her hand and hung not been granted mind; Avithout mind, the articles up; peeled off her gloves and opinion is impossible.” disposed of them, got a book out of her “She merely imagined she felt a pain—- hand-bag, then drew a chair to the the cat?” bedside, descended into it without hurry, “She cannot imagine a pain, for imagina- and I hung out my tongue. She said, tion is an effect of mind; without mind, with pity but without passion: there is no imagination. A cat has no “Return it to its receptacle. We deal imagination.” with the mind only, not with its dumb “Then she had a real pain?” servants. ’ ’ “I have already told you there is no I could not offer my pulse, because the such thing as real pain.” connection was broken; but she detected “It is strange and interesting. I do the apology before I could word it, and wonder what was the matter with the cat. indicated by a negative tilt of her head Because, there being no such thing as a that the pulse was another dumb servant real pain, and she not being able to that she had no use for. Then I thought imagine an imaginary one, it would seem I would tell her my symptoms and how I that God in his pity has compensated the felt, so that she would understand the cat with some kind of a mysterious emo- case; but that was another inconsequence, tion usable when her tail is trodden on she did not need to know those things; which for the moment joins cat and Chris- moreover, my remark about how I felt tian in one common brotherhood of ” was an abuse of language, a misapplication She broke in with an irritated— of terms “Peace! The cat feels nothing, the “One does not feel," she explained; Christian feels nothing. Your empty and “there is no such thing as feeling: there- foolish imaginings are profanation and fore, to speak of a non-existent thing as blasphemy and can do you an injury. It existent is a contradiction. Matter has is wiser and better and holier to recognize CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 587

and confess that there is no such thing as difference; it always comes out the way it

’ disease or pain or death. ’ was before. It was a marvelous mind “I am full of imaginary tortures,” I that produced it. As a mental tour de said, “but I do not think I could be any force it is without a mate, it defies alike more uncomfortable if they were real ones. the simple, the concrete and the occult.” What must I do to get rid of them?” “It seems to be a corker.” “There is no occasion to get rid of I blushed for the word, but it was out them, since they do not exist. They are before I could stop it. illusions propagated by matter, and matter “A what?” has no existence; there is no such thing “A—wonderful structure—combination, as matter. ” so to speak, of profound thoughts—un- “It sounds right and clear, but yet it thinkable ones—un ” seems in a degree elusive; it seems to slip “It is true. Read backwards, or for- through, just when you think you are wards, or perpendicularly, or at any given getting a grip on it.” angle, these four propositions will always “Explain.” be found to agree in statement and “Well, for instance: if there is no such proof. ’ ’ thing as matter, how can matter propagate “Ah—proof. Now we are coming at things?” it. The statements agree; they agree with In her compassion she almost smiled. —with—anyway, they agree; I noticed She would have smiled if there were any that; but what is it they prove —I mean, such thing as a smile. in particular?” “It is quite simple,” she said; “the “Why, nothing could be clearer. They fundamental propositions of Christian prove: 1. God—Principle, Life, Truth, Science explain it, and they are summa- Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind. Do you get rized in the four following self-evident that?” propositions: 1. God is All in all. 2. God “I—well, I seem to. Go on, please.” is good. \GOOd is Mind. 3. God, Spirit, “2. Max—God’s universal idea, indi- being all, nothing is matter. 4. Life, vidual, perfect, eternal. Is it clear?” God, omnipotent Good, deny death, evil, “It—I think so. Continue.” sin, disease. There-—now you see. ” “3. Idea —An image in Mind; the It seemed nebulous; it did not seem to immediate object of understanding.

say anything about the difficulty in hand —- There it is—the whole sublime Arcana how non-existent matter can propagate of Christian Science in a nutshell. Do illusions. I said, with some hesitancy: you find a weak place in it anywhere?” “Does—does it explain?” “Well—no; it seems strong.” “Doesn't it? Even if read backward it “Very well. There is more. Those will do it. ” three constitute the Scientific Definition of With a budding hope, I asked her to do Immortal Mind. Next, we have the Scien- it backward. tific Definition of Mortal Mind. Thus. “Very well. Disease sin evil death First Degree : Depravity. 1. Physical deny Good omnipotent God life matter is -—Passions and appetites, fear, depraved nothing all being Spirit God Mind is Good will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, good is God all in All is God. There— sin, disease, death.” do you understand now?” “Phantasms, madam—unrealities, as I “It—it—well, it is plainer than it was understand it.” before; still ” “Every one. Second Degree: Evil “Well?” Disappearing. 1. Moral —Honesty, affec- “Could you try it some more ways?” tion, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, “As many as you like; it always means temperance. Is it clear?” the same. Interchanged in any way you “Crystal.” Degree please it cannot be made to mean anything ‘ ‘ Third ; Spiritual Salvation. different from what it means when put in 1. Spiritual—Faith, wisdom, power, pur- any other way. Because it is perfect. ity, understanding, health, love. You see You can jumble it all up, and it makes no how searchingly and coordinately inter- 5 88 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY.

dependent and anthropomorphous it all is. vidual man, individual horse; whereas God In this Third Degree, as we know by the is one, not one of a series, but one alone revelations of Christian Science, mortal and without an equal.” mind disappears.” “These are noble thoughts. They make ‘‘Not earlier?” one burn to know more. How does “No, not until the teaching and Christian Science explain the spiritual preparation for the Third Degree are relation of systematic duality to incidental completed. ” deflection?” “It is not until then that one is enabled “Christian Science reverses the seeming to take hold of Christian Science effect- relation of Soul and body—as astronomy ively, and with the right sense of sym- reverses the human perception of the pathy and kinship, as I understand you. movement of the solar system—and makes That is to say, it could not succeed during body tributary to the Mind. As it is the the processes of the Second Degree, earth which is in motion, while the sun is because there would still be remains of at rest, though in viewing the sun rise one mind left; and therefore —but I inter- finds it impossible to believe the sun not rupted you. You were about to further to be really rising, so the body is but the explain the good results proceeding from humble servant of the restful Mind, the erosions and disintegrations effected by though it seems otherwise to finite sense; the Third Degree. It is very interesting; but we shall never understand this while go on, please. ’ ’ we admit that soul is in body, or mind in “Yes, as I was saying, in this Third matter, and that man is included in non- Degree mortal mind disappears. Science intelligence. Soul is God, unchangeable so reverses the evidence before the and eternal; and man coexists with and corporeal human senses as to make. this reflects Soul, for the All-in-all is the scriptural testimony true in our hearts, Altogether, and the Altogether embraces ‘ the last shall be first and the first shall be the All-one, Soul-Mind, Mind-Soul, Love, last, ’ that God and His idea may be to Spirit, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone us—what divinity really is, and must of and without an equal.” necessity be —all-inclusive.” (It is very curious, the effect which “It is beautiful. And with what exhaust- Christian Science has upon the verbal ive exactness your choice and arrangement bowels. Particularly the Third Degree; of words confirms and establishes what you it makes one think of a dictionary with the have claimed for the powers and functions cholera. But I only thought this; I did of the Third Degree. The Second could not say it.) probably produce only temporary absence of “What is the origin of Christian mind, it is reserved to the Third to make it Science? Is it a gift of God, or did it permanent. A sentence framed under the just happen?” auspices of the Second could have a kind “In a sense, it is a gift of God. That of meaning—a sort of deceptive semblance is to say, its powers are from Him, but the of it—whereas it is only under the magic credit of the discovery of the powers and of the Third that that defect would disap- what they are for, is due to an American pear. Also, without doubt, it is the Third lady.” Degree that contributes another remark- “Indeed? When did this occur?” able specialty to Christian Science: viz., “In 1866. is the immortal date ease and flow and lavishness of words, when pain and disease and death disap- and rhythm and swing and smoothness. peared from the earth to return no more There must be a special reason for this?” forever. That is, the fancies for which “Yes—God-all, all-God, good God, non- those terms stand, disappeared. The things Matter, Matteration, Spirit, Bones, Truth. ” themselves had never existed; therefore “That explains it.” as soon as it was perceived that there were “There is nothing in Christian Science no such things, they wr ere easily banished. that is not explicable; for God is one, Time The history and nature of the great dis- is one, Individuality is one, and may be covery are set down in the book here, one of a series, one of many, as an indi- and ’ ’ CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 589

“Did the lady write the book?’’ its pertinency, she was already throwing “Yes, she wrote it all, herself. The the needed light: title is ‘Science and Health, with Key to “This Apodictical Principle is the abso- the Scriptures’—for she explains the lute Principle of Scientific Mind-healing, scriptures; they were not understood the sovereign Omnipotence which delivers before. Not even by the twelve Disciples. the children of men from pain, disease, She begins thus—I will read it to you.” decay, and every ill that flesh is heir to.” But she had forgotten to bring her “Surely not every ill, every decay?” glasses. “Everyone; there are no exceptions; “Well, it is no matter,” she said, “I there is no such thing as decay—it is an remember the words—indeed, all Christian unreality, it has no existence.” Scientists know the book by heart; it is “But Without your glasses your failing necessary in our practice. We should eyesight does not permit you to ” otherwise make mistakes and do harm. “My eyesight cannot fail; nothing can She begins thus; ‘ln the year 1866 I fail; the Mind is master, and the Mind discovered the Science of Metaphysical permits no retrogression.” Healing, and named it Christian Science. ’ She was under the inspiration of the

And she says—quite beautifully, I think— Third Degree, therefore there could be no ‘Through Christian Science, religion and profit in continuing this part of the sub- medicine are inspired with a diviner nature ject. I shifted to other ground and and essence, fresh pinions are given to inquired further concerning the Discoverer faith and understanding, and thoughts ac- of the Science. quaint themselves intelligently with God. ’ “Did the discovery come suddenly, like Her very words. ’ ’ Klondike, or after long study and calcula- “It is elegant. And it is a fine thought, tion, like America?” too—marrying religion to medicine, “The comparisons are not respectful, instead of medicine to the undertaker since they refer to trivialities—but let it in the old way; for religion and medicine pass. I will answer in the Discoverer’s properly belong together, they being the own words; ‘God had been graciously basis of all spiritual and physical health. fitting me, during many years, for the What kind of medicine do you give for reception of a final revelation of the abso- the ordinary diseases, such as ” lute Principle of Scientific Mind-healing.’ ” “We never give medicine in any circum- “Many years. How many?”

’ stances whatever! -We ’ “Eighteen centuries!” “But, madam, it says ” “All-God, God-good, good-God, Truth, “I don’t care what it says, and I don’t Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and wish to talk about it.” without equal —it is amazing!” “I am sorry if I have offended, but you “You may well say it, sir. Yet it is see the mention seemed in some way but the truth. This American lady, our inconsistent, and ” revered and sacred Founder, is distinctly “There are no inconsistencies in Chris- referred to and her coming prophesied, in tian Science. The thing is impossible, the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; she for the Science is absolute. It cannot be could not have been more plainly indicated otherwise, since it proceeds directly from by St. John without actually mentioning

’ the All-in-all and the Everything-in- her name. ’ Which, also Soul, Bones, Truth, one of a “How strange, how wonderful!” series, alone and without equal. It is “I will quote her own words, from her Mathematics purified from material dross Key to the Scriptures: ‘The twelfth chap- and made spiritual.” ter of the Apocalypse has a special suggest- “I can see that, but ” iveness in connection with this nineteenth

’ “It rests upon the immovable basis of an century. There—do you note that ? Apodictical Principle.” Think—note it well. ” The word flattened itself against my “But—what does it mean ?” mind in trying to get in, and disordered “Listen, and you will know. I quote me a little, and before I could inquire into her inspired words again: ‘ln the opening 590 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. of the Sixth Seal, typical of six thousand 111. years since Adam, there is one distinctive feature which has special reference to the Under the powerful influence of the present age. Thus: near treatment and the absent treatment were retreat- “ together, my bones gradually ‘Revelation xii. i. And there appeared and a great wonder in heaven—a woman clothed ing inward disappearing from view. with the sun, and the moon under her feet, The good work took a brisk start, now, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’ and went on quite swiftly. My body was “That is our Head, our Chief, our Dis- diligently straining and stretching, this coverer of Christian Science—nothing can way and that, to accommodate the processes be plainer, nothing surer. And note this: of restoration, and ■ every minute or two I heard a dull click inside and knew that “ ‘Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled two ends a into the wilderness, where she had a place the of fracture had been prepared of God.’ successfully joined. This muffled clicking and and “That is Boston.” gritting grinding and rasping the next “I recognize it, madam. These are continued during three hours, sublime things, and impressive; I never and then stopped—the connections had made. All except understood these passages before; please go all been dislocations; on with the—with the-—proofs. ’ ’ there were only seven of these: hips, “Yery well. Listen; shoulders, knees, neck; so that was soon over; one after another they slipped into And I saw another mighty angel come their with a sound like pulling a down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and sockets a rainbow was upon his head, and his face distant cork, and I jumped up as good as was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars new, as to framework, and sent for the offire. And he had in his hand a little book.' horse-doctor.

“A little book, merely a little book — I was obliged to do this because I had could words be modester? Yet how a stomach-ache and a cold in the head, stupendous its importance! Do you know and I was not willing to trust these what book that was?” things any longer in the hands of a woman “Was it ” whom I did not know, and in whose “I hold it in my hand—Christian ability to successfully treat mere disease I Science!” had lost all confidence. My position was “Love, Livers, Lights, Bones, Truth, justified by the fact that the cold and the Kidneys, one of a series, alone and without ache had been in her charge from the first, equal —it is beyond imagination for along with the fractures, but had experi- wonder!” enced not a shade of relief; and indeed “Hear our Founder’s eloquent words: the ahhe was even growing worse and ‘Then will a voice from harmony cry, “Go worse, and more and more bitter, now, and take the little book: take it and eat it probably on account of the protracted up, and it shall make thy belly bitter; abstention from food and drink. but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as The horse-doctor came, a pleasant man honey.” Mortal, obey the heavenly and full of hope and professional interest evangel. Take up Divine Science. Read in the case. In the matter of smell he it from beginning to end. Study it, was pretty aromatic, in fact quite horsy, ponder it. It will be indeed sweet at its and I tried to arrange with him for absent first taste, when it heals you; but treatment, but it was not in his line, so murmur not over Truth, if you find its out of delicacy I did not press it. He digestion bitter.’ You now know the his- looked at my teeth and examined my hock, tory of our dear and holy Science, sir, and and said my age and general condition that its origin is not of this earth, but were favorable to energetic measures; only its discovery. I will leave the book therefore he would give me something with you and will -go, now; but give to turn the stomach-ache into the botts yourself no uneasiness—l will give you and the cold in the head into the blind absent treatment from now till I go to staggers; then he should be on his own bed.” 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 know this, for I have talked with them; a dipperful of it every two hours, alter- but in all cases they were people who nated with a drench with turpentine and also imagined that there were no such axle-grease in it, would either knock my things as pain, sickness and death, and no ailments out of me in twenty-four hours or realities in the world; nothing actually so interest me in other ways as to make me existent but Mind. It seems to me to forget they were on the premises. He modify the value of their testimony. administered my first dose himself, then When these people talk about Christian took his leave, saying I was free to eat Science they do as Mrs. Fuller did: they and drink anything I pleased and in any do not use their own language, but the quantity I liked. But I was not hungry book’s; they pour out the book’s showy any more, and I did not care for food. incoherences, and leave you to find out I took up the Christian Scientist book later that they were not originating, but and read half of it, then took a dipperful merely quoting; they seem to know the of drench and read the other half. The volume by heart, and to revere it as they resulting experiences were full of interest would a Bible—another Bible, perhaps I and adventure. All through the rum- ought to say. Plainly the book was blings and grindings and quakings and written under the mental desolations of the effervescings accompanying the evolution Third Degree, and I feel sure that none of the ache into the botts and thfe cold but the membership of that Degree can into the blind staggers I could note the discover meanings in it. When you read generous struggle for mastery going on it you seem to be listening to a lively and between the mash and the drench and aggressive and oracular speech delivered the literature; and often I could tell in an unknown tongue, a speech whose which was ahead, and could easily dis- spirit you get but not the particulars; or, tinguish the literature from the others to change the figure, you seem to be when the others were separate, though not listening to a vigorous instrument which when they were mixed; for when a bran- is making a noise which it thinks is a mash and an eclectic drench are mixed tune, but which to persons not members together they look just like the Apodistical of the band is only the martial tooting of Principle out on a lark, and no one can a trombone, and merely stirs the soul tell it from that. The finish was reached through the noise but does not convey a at last, the evolutions were complete and meaning. a fine success; but I think that this result The book’s serenities of self-satisfaction couid have been achieved with fewer do almost seem to smack of a heavenly materials. I believe the mash was neces- origin—they have no blood-kin in the sary to the conversion of the stomach-ache earth. It is more than human to be so into the botts, but I think one could placidly certain about things, and so finely develop the blind staggers out of the superior, and so airily content with one’s literature by itself; also, that blind performance. Without ever presenting staggers produced in this way would be anything which may rightfully be called of a better quality and more lasting than by the strong name of Evidence; and any produced by the artificial processes of sometimes without even mentioning a a horse-doctor. reason for a deduction at all, it thunders For of all the strange, and frantic, and out the startling words, “I have Proved ” incomprehensible, and uninterpretable so and so! It takes the Pope and all the books which the imagination of man great guns of his church in battery assem- has created, surely this one is the prize bled to authoritatively settle and establish sample. It is written with a limitless the meaning of a sole and single unclarified confidence and complacency, and with a passage of scripture, and this at vast cost dash and stir and earnestness which ofteq of time and study and reflection, but the compel the effects of eloquence, even when' author of this work is superior to all that; the words do not seem to have any trace- she finds the whole Book in an unclarified able meaning. There are plenty of people condition, and at small expense of time who imagine they understand the book; I and no expense of mental effort she clarifies 59 2 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. it from lid to lid, reorganizes and improves be seen that they throw light. The italics the meanings, then authoritatively settles are mine: and establishes them with formula 1 which 1. plague “Therefore the effi- you cannot tell from “Let there be “What spot, or were cient remedy is to light!” and “Here you have it!” It is bacilli (sic) gnawing (sic) at destroy the patient’s the first time since the dawn-days of Crea- the heart of this me- unfortunate belief, by tion that a Voice has gone crashing

tropolis . . . and both silently and through space with such placid and com- it” the placent confidence and command. bringing (the audibly arguing heart) “on bended opposite facts in re- IY. knee? Why, it was an gard to harmonious institute that had en- being representing A word upon a question of authorship. itsvitals—that, man as in- Not that quite; but rather, a question of tered healthful other stead of and emendation and revision. We know that among things, diseased, taught games,'' et showing that it is the Bible-Anuex was not written by Mrs. cetera. ( 670, C. 8. impossible for matter Eddy, but was handed down to her P. Journal, article en- to to feel pain eighteen hundred years ago by the Angel suffer, ‘‘ titled Narrative — or be of the Apocalypse; but did she translate it A heat, to thirsty Iny Mary Baker G. or sick.” 375, alone, or did she have There seems (P. help? 11 Eddy." ) Annex.) to be evidence that she had help. For 2. “Parks is never ; there are four several copyrights on it—- sprang “Man sick . . . electric for Mind is not 1875, 1885, 1890, 1894. It did not up (sic) sick, street cars run and mattercannot be. come down in English, for in that lan- (sic) merrily through sev- A false belief is both guage it could not have acquired copy- eral concrete the and the right—there were no copyright laws streets, tempter sidewalks and mac- tempted, the sin and eighteen centuries ago, and in my opinion adamized roads dot- the sinner, the disease no English language—at least up there. ted the ’ ’ and its cause. It is This makes it substantially certain that the (sic) place, etcetera. (Ilrid.) well tobecalminsick- Annex is a translation. Then, was not 3. “Shorn of to be hopeful is the first translation complete? If it was, (sic) ness; its suburbs it had in- still better; but to on what grounds were the later copyrights deed little left to understand that granted? sick- admire, save to (sic) ness is not real, and I surmise that the first translation was such as fancy a skele- that Truth can de- poor; and that a friend or friends of Mrs. ton above is best of Eddy mended its English three times, and ground stroy it, all, breathing slowly for it is finally got it into its present shape, where (sic) the universal through a barren and remedy. ’ ’ the grammar is plenty good enough, and (sic) perfect breast.” the sentences are smooth and plausible (Ihid.) (Chapter edi, Annex.) though they do not mean anything. I think You notice the contrast between the I am right in this surmise, for Mrs. Eddy smooth, plausible, elegant, addled English cannot write English to-day, and this is of the doctored Annex and the lumbering, argument that she never could. lam not ragged, ignorant output of the translator’s able to guess who did the mending, but I natural, spontaneous and unmedicated think it was not done by any member of penwork. The English of the Annex has the Eddy Trust, nor by the editors of the been slicked up by a very industrious and “C. S. Journal,” for their English is not painstaking hand—but it was not Mrs. much better than Mrs. Eddy’s. Eddy’s. However, as to the main point: it is If Mrs. Eddy really wrote or translated certain that Mrs. Eddy did not doctor the the Annex, her original draft was exactly Annex’s English herself. Her original, in harmony with the English of her spontaneous, undoctored English furnishes plague-spot or bacilli which were gnawing ample proof of this. Here are samples at the insides of the metropolis and bring- from recent articles from her unappeasable ing its heart on bended knee, thus pen; double-columned with them are a exposing to the eye the rest of the couple of passages from the Annex. It will skeleton breathing slowly through a CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE BOOK OF MRS. EDDY. 593 barren breast. And it bore little or no In old times the King cured the king’s resemblance to the book as we have it now evil by the touch of the royal hand. He —now that the salaried polisher has holy- frequently made extraordinary cures. stoned all of the genuine Eddyties out of it. Could his footman have done it? No— Will the plague-spot article go into a not in his own clothes. Disguised as the volume just as it stands? I think not. I King could he have done it? I think we think the polisher will take off his coat may not doubt it. I think we may feel and vest and cravat and “demonstrate sure that it was not the King's touch that over” it a couple of weeks and sweat it made the cure in any instance, but the into a shape something like the following patient’s faith in the efficacy of a King's —and then Mrs. Eddy will publish it and touch. Genuine and remarkable cures leave people to believe that she did the have been achieved through contact with polishing herself. the relics of a saint. Is it not likely that 1. What injurious influence was it that any other bones would have done as well was affecting the city's morals? It was a if the substitution had been concealed social club which propagated an interest in from the patient? When I was a boy a idle amusements, disseminated a knowledge farmer’s wife who lived five miles from of games, et cetera. our village had great fame as a faith- 2. By the magic of the new and nobler doctor—that was what she called herself. influences the sterile spaces were trans- Sufferers came to her from all around, formed into wooded parks, the merry and she laid her hand upon them and electric car replaced the melancholy ’bus, said, “Have faith—it is all that is neces- smooth concrete the tempestuous plank sary,” and they went away well of their sidewalk, the macadamized road the ailments. She was not a religious woman, primitive corduroy, et cetera. and pretended to no occult powers. She 3. Its pleasant suburbs gone, there was said that the patient’s faith in her did the little left to admire save the wrecked work. Several times I saw her make graveyard with its uncanny exposures. immediate cures of severe toothaches. The Annex contains one sole and solitary My mother was the patient. In Austria humorous remark. There is a most there is a peasant who drives a great trade elaborate and voluminous Index, and it in this sort of industry and has both the is preceded by this note: high and the low for patients. He gets “This Index will enable the student to into prison every now and then for prac- And any thought or idea contained in the tising without a diploma, but his business book.” is as brisk as ever when he gets out, for Y. his work is unquestionably successful and keeps his reputation high. In Bavaria No one doubts —certainly not I—that there is a man who performed so many the mind exercises a powerful influence great cures that he had to retire from his over the body. From the beginning of profession of stage-carpentering in order to time, the sorcerer, the interpreter of meet the demand of his constantly increas- dreams, the fortune-teller, the charlatan, ing body of customers. He goes on from the quack, the wild medicine-man, the year to year doing his miracles, and has educated physician, the mesmerist, and become very rich. He pretends to no the hypnotist, have made use of the religious helps, no supernatural aids, but client’s imagination to help them in their thinks there is something in his make-up work. They have all recognized the which inspires the confidence of his potency and availability of that force. patients, and that it is this confidence Physicians cure many patients with a which does the work and not soma bread pill; they know that where the dis- mysterious power issuing from himself. ease is only a fancy, the patient’s confi- Within the last quarter of a century, in dence in the doctor will make the bread America, several sects of curers have pill effective. appeared under various names and have Faith in the doctor. Perhaps that is the done notable things in the way of healing entire thing. It seems to look like it. ailments without the use of medicines. 594 THE DEAD.

There are the Mind Cure, the Faith Cure, confess that they are not the equals of the Prayer Cure, the Mental Science Cure the Deity; but if the Christian Scientist and the Christian Science Cure; and even stops with being merely the equal of apparently they all do their miracles with the Deity it is not clearly provable by his the same old powerful instrument—the Christian-Science Amended Bible. In the patient's imagination. Differing names, usual Bible the Deity recognizes pain, but no difference in the process. But disease and death as facts, but the Chris- they do not give that instrument the tian Scientist knows better. Knows credit; each sect claims that its way better, and is not diffident about say- differs from the ways of the others. ing so. They all achieve some cures, there is no question about it; and the Faith Cure and The Christian Scientist was not able to the Prayer Cure probably do no harm cure my stomach-ache and my cold; but when they do no good, since they do not the horse-doctor did it. This convinces forbid the patient to help out the cure with me that Christian Science claims too much. medicines if he wants to; but the others In my opinion it ought to let diseases bar medicines, and claim ability to cure alone and confine itself to surgery. There every conceivable human ailment through it would have everything its own way. the application of their mental forces The horse-doctor charged me thirty alone. They claim ability to cure malig- kreutzers, and I paid him; in fact, I nant cancer, and other affections which doubled it and gave him a shilling! Mrs. have never been cured in the history of Fuller brought in an itemized bill for a the race. There would seem to be an ele- crate of broken bones mended in two ment of danger here. It has the look of hundred and thirty-four places—one claiming too much, I think. Public confi- dollar per fracture. • dence would probably be increased if less “Nothing exists but Mind?” were claimed. “Nothing,” she answmred. “All else I believe it might be shown that all the is substanceless, all else is imaginary.” v “mind” sects except Christian Science have I gave her an imaginary check, and now lucid intervals; intervals in which they she is suing me for substantial dollars. It betray some diffidence, and in effect looks inconsistent.