462 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of its most distinctive positions (without their religious setting) are to 

 be found in the writings and were used in the practice of Mr. or Dr. P. 

 P. Quimby (1802-1866), whom Mrs. Eddy professionally consulted 

 shortly before she began her own propagandum. On its theoretical 

 side the system presents a series of quasi-metaphysical principles, and 

 also a professed interpretation of the Scriptures; on its practical side it 

 offers a means of curing or avoiding disease and includes under disease 

 also what is more generally described as sin and misfortune. With 

 Christian Science as a religious movement I shall not directly deal; 

 I wish, however, to point out that this assumption of a religious 

 aspect finds a parallel in Spiritualism and Theosophy and doubtless 

 forms one of the most potent reasons for the success of these occult 

 movements. It would be a most dangerous principle to admit that the 

 treatment of disease and the right to ignore hygiene can become the 

 perquisite of any religious faith. It would be equally unwarranted to 

 permit the principles which are responsible for such beliefs to take 

 shelter behind the ramparts of religious tolerance; for the essential 

 principles of Christian Science do not constitute a form of Christianity 

 any more than they constitute a science; but in so far as they do not 

 altogether elude description, pertain to the domain over which medi- 

 cine, physiology and psychology hold sway. As David Harum, in speak- 

 ing of his church-going habits, characteristically explains, "the one I 

 stay away from when I don't go's the Prespyteriun," so the doctrines 

 which Christian Science 'stays away from' are those over which recog- 

 nized departments of academic learning have the authority to decide. 



Mrs. Eddy's magnum opus serving at once as the text-book of the 

 'science' and as a revised version of the Scriptures — Science and Health, 

 with Key to the Scriptures — has been circulated to the extent of one 

 hundred and seventy thousand copies. I shall not give an account of 

 this book nor subject its more tangible tenets to a logical review; I must 

 be content to recommend its pages as suggestive reading for the stu- 

 dent of the occult and to set forth in the credentials of quotation marks 

 some of the dicta concerning disease. Yet it may be due to the author 

 of this system to begin by citing what are declared to be its fundamental 

 tenets, even if their connection with what is built upon them is far 

 from evident. 



"The fundamental propositions of Christian Science are summarized 

 in the four following, to me self-evident propositions. Even if read 

 backward, these propositions will be found to agree in statement and 

 proof: 



1. God is All in all. 



2. God is good. Good is Mind. 



3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. 



