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 of much, and when I have "grippe" I am quite certain of less than ever. But the materials I have lately been at work on make me wish that "my doctor," instead of scorning all new things, would look into some of them, and add them to his acquirements. He will have no need to accept "Christian Science," which has been accurately described as "a way of getting cured of things by believing something that isn't true." I must excuse "my doctor" from accepted that inverted "science." But the general subject of occult and psychic healing is worthy of his attention. "My doctor" knows much: but, if he should enlarge his knowledge just a little, my faith in him would stand the increment.

One thing I shall insist on. "My doctor" must not endeavor to supersede Torquemada, Henry the Eighth, and the learned ecclesiastical doctors of the Inquisition. He must not interfere with the right of private judgment in saving the body, as they did in saving the soul. In such a case I should count them his superiors, inasmuch as the soul is really worth more than its external machinery, which, in a few years, more or less, must wear out and go to the cemetery.

The Inquisition honestly held a theory that the soul could only be saved by accepting a certain creed, and ought to be saved even at the cost of breaking the body on a wheel. The Inquisition would have been right, if its creed had really been the thing supposed. But four centuries of Protestantism have established a different theory: it is that, whatever any creed may be or do, every man has the prerogative of deciding for himself the manner of thinking which shall raise him to heaven or lower him to sheol. Still, I repeat, the soul is worth more than the body, and if Protestantism applies to the greater, it should apply to the less.

Some things have been settled, I suppose, by long experience, and have become matters of law for the protection of nations. Civilization requires that a man who knows nothing of physiology shall not practise surgery; that scarlet fever shall be quarantined; that school-children shall be saved from small-pox by vaccination. Medical degrees certify that the holders have studied medicine long enough at least to know something about it in a way that the common judgment recognises. Nothing is to be said against such requirements impartially applied to a whole people. They simply must be enforced. Christian Science opposes them, dodges them when it can; for it holds that human beings have no bodies except reflections of a wretched lie called "mortal mind." In spite of its source, this dangerous form of insanity should be dealt with as gently as possible, but certainly should not go unrestrained.[59] Let it conform to laws, not special to any religion or to any humbug masquerading as a religion, but general to the citizens who compose a free and sane community.

THE END

Footnotes:

[1] From $3.18 to $6.

[2] Mrs. Eddy's statement in her book, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 61.

[3] For proof in detail see Chapters III. and IV.

[4] Our historical sources of information are referred to as we go along, but a good deal of it has come from access to original documents, and from living persons of the highest character who were long and intimately acquainted with the subject of our chapter. The names of some of these friends are given by permission.

[5] This circular alone—furnished to the writer by Dr. Quimby's son—is complete proof as to origin of "mind-healing" in the United States.

[6] The reader is advised to consult the pamphlet and the book here specified, in connection with our chapter. (Geo. H. Ellis, Publisher, Boston)—G. C.

[7] These press articles and notices have been examined by the writer, and are unmistakably genuine, as are the selections.

[8] U. S. Court of Admiralty. Judge Ware was sometimes spoken of as the leading citizen of Maine.

[9] The True History of Mental Science, page 15.

[10] Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, page 53-54.

[11] Mrs. Sarah Ware Mackay.

[12] The gentleman is Hon. Edwin Reed, of Boston, Mass. His name is given by his permission, from a feeling of gratitude to Dr. Quimby, and profound respect for his memory.

[13] Mrs. Eddy's complete name, with reference to these gentlemen, would be Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy.

[14] The writer has had these records authenticated at Portland.—G. C.

[15] The original print has been in my hands. A copy of the letter is published in full in The True History of Mental Science (Appendix A).—G. C.

[16] The gentleman here traduced is Dr. L. M. Marston of Boston. He is a practising physician, and a thoughtful, honest man. He is the author of a well-written book entitled, Essentials of Mental Healing, which is much superior to Science and Health, though containing some of the overdone conceptions of mind-cure in general. But Dr. Marston properly employs material as well as mental medicine.—G. C.

[17] Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker G. Eddy, 10th thousand, 1896. Pages 7, 8, 9.

[18] Ibid., page 35.

[19] Retrospection and Introspection, p. 10.

[20] Ibid., Page 12.

[21] The Great Novel, p. 17.

[22] Retrospection and Introspection, p. 28 to p. 35.

[23] The holy romance, page 28 and rest of chapter.

[24] Retrospection and Introspection, page 61.

[25] Retrospection and Introspection, p. 29.

[26] I have seen a brief article of his, entitled "Aristocracy and Democracy," and written under date of February, 1863, in which he said: "The religion of Christ is shown in the progress of Christian Science, while the religion of society decays in proportion as liberal principles are developed."—G. C.

[27] Retrospection and Introspection, from p. 40 to p. 43.

[28] This was half a century ago; but the productions—not "scribblings," of course, like Dr. Quimby's writings—are yet in mind among Mrs. Eddy's old acquaintances. One critic of them has said: "They were stories wherein the 'feller' married the girl in the last chapter, and they lived happily ever after except when the baby was cutting teeth. The stories were not essays, were not metaphysical, and were hardly physical. Had Mrs. Eddy not written them, I never should have remembered them at all."

[29] Retrospection and Introspection, p. 38 to p. 46.

[30] Page 45.

[31] "Judge Hanna" is Mrs. Eddy's literary factotum. Mr. Tott is an actual personage, but, being "in Science," he will probably never recognize his picture—especially as there are many like him.

[32] See advertisements in all Christian Science publications.

[33] Page 47.

[34] This crude materialistic conception of "God" as "filling space" shows most beautifully the Kindergarten quality of Mother Eddy's "metaphysics."

[35] The figures stand for the pages referred to.

[36] Retrospection and Introspection, p. 51.

[37] These facts are well remembered and well recorded. They were of special interest to such of Mrs. Eddy's "loyal students" as had seceded from her cult.—G. C.

[38] Retrospection and Introspection, p. 57.

[39] See Christian Science History, by Septimus J. Hanna, p. 42.

[40] For this amazing snivel see Retrospection and Introspection, p. 61.

[41] This chapter is written mostly from personal inspection and knowledge. An elaborate description of the Church is given in The Christian Science Journal for January, 1895.—G. C.

[42] Retrospection and Introspection, page 62.

[43] Published in the Christian Science Journal of April, 1895.

[44] War in Heaven: Sixteen Years' Experience in Christian Science, Mind-Healing. By Josephine Curtis Woodbury. Third Edition. Boston, Mass. Press of Samuel Usher, 1897.

[45] Several suits are pending as this book goes to press. One suit has been "thrown out of court." It should be said, perhaps, that one of Mrs. Woodbury's attorneys, F. W. Peabody, Esq., has such an abhorrence of "Christian Science" in general, that he has been willing to take the part of anybody who could enable him to expose Mrs. Eddy. In this good work may he not be discouraged.

[46] The extraordinary matters of this chapter, however well or ill suppressed, were all published, with great detail, in the issues of the Traveler from Dec. 12th to 22d, 1896, and from January 11th to 25th, 1897. Here they have simply been put into brief form, and relieved of all unnecessary harshness. The papers have been preserved for evidence and are in my hands.—G. C.

[47] The story, with many details, in issue of Dec. 14, 1896.

[48] A long story underlies the unfortunate marriage and separation of the lady and gentleman involved in this case. But the facts are not essential to the one and only subject of these pages, "Christian Science."

[49] Issue of Dec. 12, 1896.

[50] There were really two papers handed to Mr. Chamberlain, and he was to take his choice between them. The case, too, was withdrawn, not wholly on account of one thing, but many things which Mrs. Woodbury's lawyer found it impossible to contend against. But the most direct cause of the withdrawal is the one given.

[51] Boston Traveler, January 21, 1897.

[52] Until it is learned that generation rests on no sexual basis, let marriage continue. Spirit will ultimately claim its own, and the voices of physical sense be forever hushed.—Science and Health, page 274.

[53] January 15, 1897.

[54] I have seen what I suppose to be true copies of a series of letters written by Mary Nash and different members of her family, with one or two from some of Mrs. Woodbury's "loyal students." The letters might possibly be taken to show that inharmony existed in the Nash family, and that the daughter stayed away from father, mother and brothers on that account, instead of being, if such was the case, just where a sensible and affectionate daughter was most needed. The letters, at any rate, show the most united affection for her, and more than willingness to do anything she asked, if she would only return to her home. When finally she did so, two physicians, according to Mr. Nash, declared her to be under hypnotic control. Letters, under hypnotism, are suspect.—G. C.

[55] The chapters of our book from XI. to XVI. inclusive, were, in substance, written at the request of Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, and published in his Journal of Speculative Philosophy for December, 1893, under the caption of "The Secret of Kant." These chapters, while too abstruse for light readers, really explain what "Christian Science" ignorantly chatters about as "Metaphysics."—G. C.

[56] As this book, including the present chapter, is for readers who may or may not understand German, our quotations from Kant are taken from his Critique as in the old familiar, accessible translation by J. M. D. Meiklejohn (Bohn's Philosophical Library—edition of 1860).

[57] Critique of Pure Reason; General Remarks on Transcendental Æsthetic, p. 35.

[58] Critique; Transcendental Logic, p. 80.

[59] These words were written long before Dr. Alan McLane Hamilton testified, in the Surrogate's Court, (New York City, Feb. 18th, 1901), that sincere Christian Scientists are afflicted with a form of insane delusion.