362 



METAPHYSICS, AMERICAN. 



for its exceptional tensile strength and resistance 

 to compression. 



Because of lack of coal in the country for smelt- 

 ing Swiss engineers have been obliged to import 

 nearly all the iron they use. This difficulty is 

 likely to be overcome by the application of the 

 electric furnace to smelting iron on a large scale, 

 which has been successfully developed by Herr 

 Miiller Landsmann near Meivingen. 



The following plan for tempering tools is recom- 

 mended in the Revue de Chimie Industriale: The 

 tools are heated to dull redness, and are then 

 plunged two or three times into a mixture made 

 by dissolving 10 parts by weight of resin in 5 

 parts of fish oil and stirring in 2 parts of melted 

 tallow. The tools are then reheated to dull red- 

 ness and plunged into cold water. 



The use of carbide of calcium in metallurgy as 

 a deoxidizing agent is recommended in the Revue 

 ggnerale des Sciences. To increase the utilization 

 of this substance a metallic chloride is added, the 

 chlorine of which will combine with the calcium 

 set at liberty in such a manner that the two 

 affinities of the carbon for the oxygen and the 

 calcium for the chlorine will act simultaneously. 



Vanadium ami platinum have been found in the 

 coals of New South Wales in such proportions 

 as to attract notice. In one analysis the ash 

 yielded 25.1 per cent, of metallic vanadium, 3.6 

 per cent, of platinum metals, 44 per cent, of com- 

 bined oxygen, and 27.3 per cent, of sand and earthy 

 matter. In another instance, 1 ton of coal yielded 

 144 ounces 1 pennyweight and 3 grains of metallic 

 vanadium and 20 ounces 13 pennyweights and 11 

 grains of platinum metals. Vanadium has also 

 been found in New South Wales in clays, bauxites, 

 micas, igneous rocks, and ironstones. Gold and 

 copper and some other metals have likewise been 

 found in the coal of the country. 



METAPHYSICS, AMEBICAN, an idealistic 

 and spiritual movement, known under divers 

 names, the most popular of which is " The New 

 Thought." It originated in the United States, 

 and was first heard of forty odd years ago, when 

 the alleged discoveries made through mental or 

 spiritual healing by Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, 

 of Portland, Me., came into notice. Taking root 

 within the last quarter of the century just closed, 

 it has gradually spread until now its disciples may 

 be found in nearly all parts of the habitable globe. 



The New Thought is often popularly confounded 

 with Christian Science, with which it has certain 

 salient points of resemblance, while in other fun- 

 damental points it is radically different. In the 

 primal belief that all life is one life, that all knowl- 

 edge is one, that all proceeds from God, its source, 

 and that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omni- 

 present; and that, through this oneness of all life 

 with its source, all health, happiness, and pros- 

 perity can be recovered and maintained, the two 

 movements are at one and identical. The chief 

 points of difference are these: Christian Science af- 

 firms that the whole material world is but an illu- 

 sion of " mortal mind," and that by denial of this 

 illusion matter one realizes more fully one's 

 spiritual origin and power. The disciples of Mod- 

 ern Metaphysics, or New Thought, on the other 

 hand, believe the whole visible universe to be a 

 reality, an expression of God's word made mani- 

 fest in palpable form; even as they also look upon 

 the body of man as representing more or less clear- 

 ly his spiritual condition or mental life. 



Christian Science, in order to assert more posi- 

 tively the healing power inherent in spirit, begins 

 l>y denying the reality of sin, sickness, and death, 

 regarding them as part of the illusions of " mortal 

 mind." The New Thought admits sin, sickness, 



and death to have an existence, but only such 

 existence as can be overcome by the assertive 

 power of spirit; which when quickened into full 

 perception of its birthright, its acknowledged son- 

 ship or oneness with God, can, by putting away 

 the mental picture of disease, and seeing only 

 health and wholeness, proceeding from immanent 

 God, remove the conditions that called disease into 

 being. This, it declares, comes by concentration 

 of spirit on the things desired, and is in perfect 

 accord with the working currents of spirit law and 

 creative power. 



Christian Science builds all upon the Bible, the 

 works wrought by Christ, and the alleged special 

 revelation and discovery by its founder. It bids 

 its believers confine themselves to the Bible and 

 the text-book Science and Health, with Key to the 

 Scriptures, prepared by its founder, on the ground 

 that other literature, being the product of " mortal 

 mind," might distract from spiritual concentra- 

 tion. The New Thought lets its disciples take all 

 knowledge for their province and accept light 

 wheresoever they find it, on the plea that God gave 

 glimpses of truth in divers ways, at many times, 

 and to all peoples even to those to whom St. 

 Paul said, " The unknown God whom ye ignorant- 

 ly worship, him declare I unto you," and that, 

 while Christ is the greatest light yet descended 

 on the world, God also sent other prophets to other 

 peoples, and taught them great truths. 



Again, Christian Science is a thoroughly organ- 

 ized body, founding churches and consolidating 

 strength under one visible head. The Xe\v 

 Thought shows no desire to found a church at all. 

 Its leading exponents are wont to declare that 

 there are churches enough already, and that the 

 best work of their movement lies in supplementing 

 these proving the workings of a vitalized faith 

 that takes the great Master Teacher literally at his 

 word as to both example and precept. They de- 

 clare that Christ put healing, in all its spiritual 

 significance, before preaching, and insisted on his 

 disciples performing the " works " ! They waive 

 alike creed and theological propaganda, asserting 

 that man must live from the center of life out- 

 ward; that the temple of God is in the human 

 soul, and all worship must proceed from within, 

 even as every creative work emanating from man 

 must take vision and form in his mind before tak- 

 ing outward shape at his hand; that man must 

 seek a knowledge of the laws that control and 

 regulate life everywhere, and through conformity 

 with these laws only can he come into possession 

 of his own full powers, control matter, and build 

 the kingdom of Heaven here on earth as truly as 

 in any other sphere of existence. 



In short, this new metaphysical movement is not 

 a doctrinal religion, but rather a very eclectic 

 working philosophy of daily life. Its exponents 

 affirm, over and over, that it values whatever it 

 can reduce to practice and apply to man's visible 

 well-being; that its work is with the here and now 

 more than with the hereafter which will follmv 

 in natural sequence from the life here. To Tlie 

 New Thought believer, sickness, sin, warped 7nen- 

 tality, selfishness, pride, malice, sensuality, etc., 

 are but lack of spiritual development. There an- 

 no good and bad, no high and low. in the scale of 

 humanity; there are the developed (according to 

 degree) and the undeveloped, and the latter have 

 latent within them all the possibilities of the for- 

 mer, evolution being essentially a matter of spirit. 

 to bo realized some time, somewhere. There is no 

 dominant evil power in the universe, the condi- 

 tions called evil being only a negation of good (Jod. 

 Fear i the devil that has played so large a part in 

 the fortunes of man, and the only devil there is 



