270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pier and a better man by such faith. But 

 let him not upbraid his fellow-man whose 

 faith ia not as his is ; let him not imagine 

 that truth is entirely on his side ; and, above 

 all, let him beware of dogmatism. So " with 

 malice toward none, with charity for all," he 

 may cultivate that openness of mind which 

 a genuine search for truth fosters and intel- 

 lectual liberty maintains. 



I think you will agree with me that much 

 ontological speculation is a distinct loss to 

 sound philosophy, and that there would be a 

 great saving of time and talent if all think- 



ers accepted and acted upon "the conclu- 

 sions of Hume and Kant, so well stated by 

 the latter in a sentence" quoted by Prof. 

 Huxley : 



" The greatest and perhaps the sole use 

 of all philosophy of pure reason is, after all, 

 merely negative, since it serves, not as an 

 organon for the enlargement (of knowledge), 

 but as a discipline for its delimitation, and, 

 instead of discovering truth, has only the 

 modest merit of preventing error." 



Robert Mathews. 

 Roohesteb, N. T., May 8, 1889. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE CLAIMS OF " CHRISTIAN SCIENCE:'' 

 \17E print in this number of the 

 V V " Monthly " a defense of " Chris- 

 tian science," and an explanation is due 

 our readers for the appearance of such a 

 paper in the pages of a scientific journal. 

 Our April issue contained a carefully 

 prepared article, which aimed to give a 

 just statement of the claims and the re- 

 sults of " Christian science." The writer 

 of that article had good authority for all 

 his statements, and his only purpose was 

 to tell the truth about the new theory. 

 Notwithstanding his efforts in respect 

 to fairness, he is charged, in the reply 

 which we publish, with the most igno- 

 rant misrepresentation of the doctrine. 

 We do not concede the truth of this 

 charge, but we print Mr. Bailey's ex- 

 position for two reasons: first, to re- 

 move all possible ground for the charge 

 of one-sidedness ; and, second, to give 

 our readers a fuller idea of what kind of 

 stuff "Christian science" is. Of the 

 half-dozen replies sent us we selected 

 for publication the one that came from 

 the most authoritative source — from the 

 editor of " The Christian Science Jour- 

 nal" — although it was the only one of 

 the whole number which did not ex- 

 plicitly concede the honesty of pur- 

 pose of Mr. Fernald's article. The 

 reader will observe in the reply fre- 

 quent quotations from Mrs. Eddy's book, 

 " Science and Health," which, being 

 written by the inventor of the doctrine, 



is generally accepted as the authorita- 

 tive expression of the tenets of the sect. 

 Reference to Mr. Fernald's article will 

 show that his statement of the claims 

 of " Christian science " was based upon 

 quotations from exactly the same source, 

 and hence is no more open to the ob- 

 jection of being a "fanciful represen- 

 tation " than is the exposition of Mr. 

 Bailey. 



If a doubt remained in the mind of 

 any reader as to whether this doctrine 

 deserves the name of "science," it must 

 be destroyed by Mr. Bailey's article. 

 This writer defines man as " a state of 

 consciousness," comprising, first, the im- 

 pressions received through the five 

 senses, and, second, " the impressions 

 of Spirit." He asserts that sense-im- 

 pressions can be kept out of conscious- 

 ness by these other impressions, and 

 hence that the former are unreal and 

 not to be trusted. This is a good sam- 

 ple of the jumping at conclusions which 

 passes among " Christian scientists " for 

 legitimate induction. The pretension 

 that the senses are " unreal," and that 

 their "testimony can not be true," is too 

 absurd for serious discussion. Nobody 

 who has either any knowledge of science 

 or any plain common sense can accept it 

 — even the " Christian scientists " do not 

 them selves believe it. We venture to say 

 that Mrs. Eddy governs her actions by 

 her sense-impressions a thousand times 

 a day. She would not step off from the 



