EDITOR'S TABLE. 



557 



%&ltox T s £aMe. 



THE NEW SUPERSTITION. 



THE death of a prominent man of 

 letters in the hands of certain 

 individuals of the " Christian Sci- 

 ence " persuasion has given rise to a 

 good deal of serious discussion as to 

 the principles and practices of that 

 extraordinary sect. That a consider- 

 able number of persons should have 

 banded themselves together to ignore 

 medical science, and apply " thought " 

 as a remedy for all physical ills, has 

 excited no little alarm and indigna- 

 tion in various quarters. Some of 

 the severest criticisms of this out- 

 break of irrationality have come 

 from the religious press, which takes 

 the ground that, while the Bible 

 doubtless contains numerous ac- 

 counts of miraculous healing, it nev- 

 ertheless fully recognizes the effi- 

 cacy of material remedies. A " be- 

 loved physician " is credited with the 

 authorship of one of the gospels and 

 of the book of Acts. An apostle rec- 

 ommends a friend to " take a little 

 wine for his stomach's sake and his 

 often infirmities." The man who 

 was attacked by robbers had his 

 wounds treated in the usual way. 

 The soothing effect of ointments is 

 recognized ; and the disturbing effects 

 of undue indulgence in the wine cup 

 are forcibly described. The peculiar 

 character of a miracle, it is contended, 

 lies in the fact that it passes over 

 natural agencies; but, because these 

 may be dispensed with by Divine 

 Power, they are not the less specifi- 

 cally efficacious in their own place. 

 These, and such as these, are the 

 arguments which are urged by the 

 representatives of orthodox religion 

 against the new heresy, or, as we 

 have called it, " the new superstition." 

 To argue against it on scientific 



grounds would be almost too ridicu- 

 lous. When people make a denial 

 of the laws of matter the basis of 

 their creed, we can only leave them 

 to work it out with Nature. They 

 will find that, like all the world, they 

 are subject to the law of gravitation 

 and to the laws of chemistry and 

 physics. If one of them happens to 

 be run over by a railway train the 

 usual results will follow ; and so of a 

 multitude of conceivable accidents. 

 A Christian Scientist who " blows out 

 the gas " will be asphyxiated just like 

 anybody else ; and if he walks off the 

 wharf into the water he will require 

 rescue or resuscitation just as if he 

 were a plain "Christian " or a plain 

 " scientist. " Like Shy lock, he is " fed 

 with the same food, hurt with the 

 same weapons, subject to the same 

 diseases" as the rest of the commu- 

 nity; and little by little the eternal 

 course of things will chastise his ex- 

 travagant fancies into reasonable ac- 

 cord with facts. 



To tell the truth, we have not 

 much apprehension that the health 

 of the community will suffer, or the 

 death rate go up, as the result of this 

 new craze. On the contrary, we 

 rather expect that any influence it 

 may have in these respects will, on 

 the whole, be for the better; and for 

 a very simple reason: The laws of 

 health are not so difficult to master, 

 and, as every adherent of " Christian 

 Science " will be anxious to reflect 

 credit on it by the satisfactory con- 

 dition of his or her personal health, 

 we quite believe that in the new sect 

 more diseases will be avoided than 

 incurred. Moreover, the elevated 

 condition of mind of these enthusi- 

 asts makes in itself for health, so 

 long as it does not turn to hysteria. 



