The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories
Him, but the credit of the discovery of the powers and what they are for
is due to an American lady.'
'Indeed? When did this occur?'
'In 1866. That is the immortal date when pain and disease and death
disappeared from the earth to return no more for ever. That is, the
fancies for which those terms stand, disappeared. The things themselves
had never existed; therefore as soon as it was perceived that there were
no such things, they were easily banished. The history and nature of the
great discovery are set down in the book here, and--'
'Did the lady write the book?'
'Yes, she wrote it all, herself. The title is “Science and Health, with
Key to the Scriptures”--for she explains the Scriptures; they were not
understood before. Not even by the twelve Disciples. She begins thus--I
will read it to you.'
But she had forgotten to bring her glasses.
'Well, it is no matter,' she said, 'I remember the words--indeed, all
Christian Scientists know the book by heart; it is necessary in our
practice. We should otherwise make mistakes and do harm. She begins
thus: “In the year 1866 I discovered the Science of Metaphysical
Healing, and named it Christian Science.” And she says--quite
beautifully, I think--“Through Christian Science, religion and medicine
are inspired with a diviner nature and essence, fresh pinions are
given to faith and understanding, and thoughts acquaint themselves
intelligently with God.” Her very words.'
'It is elegant. And it is a fine thought, too--marrying religion to
medicine, instead of medicine to the undertaker in the old way; for
religion and medicine properly belong together, they being the basis of
all spiritual and physical health. What kind of medicine do you give for
the ordinary diseases, such as--'
'We never give medicine in any circumstances whatever! We--'
'But, madam, it says--'
'I don't care what it says, and I don't wish to talk about it.'
'I am sorry if I have offended, but you see the mention seemed in some
way inconsistent, and--'
'There are no inconsistencies in Christian Science. The thing is
impossible, for the Science is absolute. It cannot be otherwise, since
it proceeds directly from the All-in-all and the Everything-in-Which,
also Soul, Bones, Truth, one of a series, alone and without equal. It is
Mathematics purified from material dross and made spiritual.'
'I can see that, but--'
'It rests upon the immovable basis of an Apodictical Principle.'
The word flattened itself against my mind trying to get in, and
disordered me a little, and before I could inquire into its pertinency,
she was already throwing the needed light:
'This Apodictical Principle is the absolute Principle of Scientific
Mind-healing, the sovereign Omnipotence which delivers the children of
men from pain, disease, decay, and every ill that flesh is heir to.'
'Surely not every ill, every decay?'
'Every one; there are no exceptions; there is no such thing as decay--it
is an unreality, it has no existence.'
'But without your glasses your failing eyesight does not permit you
to--'
'My eyesight cannot fail; nothing can fail; the Mind is master, and the
Mind permits no retrogression.'
She was under the inspiration of the Third Degree, therefore there could
be no profit in continuing this part of the subject. I shifted to other
ground and inquired further concerning the Discoverer of the Science.
'Did the discovery come suddenly, like Klondike, or after long study and
calculation, like America?'
'The comparisons are not respectful, since they refer to
trivialities--but let it pass. I will answer in the Discoverer's own
words: “God had been graciously fitting me, during many years, for the
reception of a final revelation of the absolute Principle of Scientific
Mind-healing.”'
'Many years? How many?'
'Eighteen centuries!'
'All God, God-good, good-God, Truth, Bones, Liver, one of a series alone
and without equal--it is amazing!'
'You may well say it, sir. Yet it is but the truth. This American lady,
our revered and sacred founder, is distinctly referred to and her coming
prophesied, in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; she could not have
been more plainly indicated by St. John without actually mentioning her
name.'
'How strange, how wonderful!'
'I will quote her own words, for her “Key to the Scriptures:” “The
twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse has a special suggestiveness in
connection with this nineteenth century.” There--do you note that?
Think--note it well.'
'But--what does it mean?'
'Listen, and you will know. I quote her inspired words again: “In the
opening of the Sixth Seal, typical of six thousand years since Adam,
there is one distinctive feature which has special reference to the
present age. Thus:
'“Revelation xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven--a
woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her
head a crown of twelve stars.”
'That is our Head, our Chief, our Discoverer of Christian
Science--nothing can be plainer, nothing surer. And note this:
'“Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she
had a place prepared of God.”
'That is Boston.'
'I recognise it, madam. These are sublime things and impressive; I
never understood these passages before; please go on with the--with
the--proofs.'
'Very well. Listen:
'“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a
cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the
sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little
book.”
'A little book, merely a little book--could words be modester? Yet how
stupendous its importance! Do you know what book that was?'
'Was it--'
'I hold it in my hand--“Christian Science”!'
'Love, Livers, Lights, Bones, Truth, Kidneys, one of a series, alone and
without equal--it is beyond imagination and wonder!'
'Hear our Founder's eloquent words: “Then will a voice from harmony cry,
'Go and take the little book; take it and eat it up, and it shall make
thy belly bitter; but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.'
Mortal, obey the heavenly evangel. Take up Divine Science. Read it from
beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed sweet at its
first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find
its digestion bitter.” You now know the history of our dear and holy
Science, sir, and that its origin is not of this earth, but only its
discovery. I will leave the book with you and will go, now, but give
yourself no uneasiness--I will give you absent treatment from now till I
go to bed.'
III
Under the powerful influence of the near treatment and the absent
treatment together, my bones were gradually retreating inward and
disappearing from view. The good word took a brisk start, now, and went
on quite swiftly. My body was diligently straining and stretching, this
way and that, to accommodate the processes of restoration, and every
minute or two I heard a dull click inside and knew that the two ends
of a fracture had been successfully joined. This muffled clicking and
gritting and grinding and rasping continued during the next three
hours, and then stopped--the connections had all been made. All except
dislocations; there were only seven of these: hips, shoulders, knees,
neck; so that was soon over; one after another they slipped into their
sockets with a sound like pulling a distant cork, and I jumped up as
good as new, as to framework, and sent for the horse-doctor.
I was obliged to do this because I had a stomach-ache and a cold in
the head, and I was not willing to trust these things any longer in
the hands of a woman whom I did not know, and in whose ability to
successfully treat mere disease I had lost all confidence. My position
was justified by the fact that the cold and the ache had been in her
charge from the first, along with the fractures, but had experienced not
a shade of relief; and indeed the ache was even growing worse and worse,
and more and more bitter, now, probably on account of the protracted
abstention from food and drink.
The horse-doctor came, a pleasant man and full of hope and professional
interest in the case. In the matter of smell he was pretty aromatic, in
fact quite horsey, and I tried to arrange with him for absent treatment,
but it was not in his line, so out of delicacy I did not press it. He
looked at my teeth and examined my hock, and said my age and general
condition were favourable to energetic measures; therefore he would give
me something to turn the stomach-ache into the botts and the cold in
the head into the blind staggers; then he should be on his own beat
and would know what to do. He made up a bucket of bran-mash, and said
a dipperful of it every two hours, alternated with a drench with
turpentine and axle-grease in it, would either knock my ailments out of
me in twenty-four hours or so interest me in other ways as to make me
forget they were on the premises. He administered my first dose himself,
then took his leave, saying I was free to eat and drink anything I
pleased and in any quantity I liked. But I was not hungry any more, and
did not care for food.
I took up the 'Christian Scientist' book and read half of it, then took
a dipperful of drench and read the other half. The resulting experiences
were full of interest and adventure. All through the rumblings and
grindings and quakings and effervescings accompanying the evolution of
the ache into the botts and the cold into the blind staggers I could
note the generous struggle for mastery going on between the mash and the
drench and the literature; and often I could tell which was ahead, and
could easily distinguish the literature from the others when the others
were separate, though not when they were mixed; for when a bran-mash
and an eclectic drench are mixed together they look just like the
Apodictical Principle out on a lark, and no one can tell it from that.
The finish was reached at last, the evolutions were complete and a fine
success; but I think that this result could have been achieved with
fewer materials. I believe the mash was necessary to the conversion of
the stomach-ache into the botts, but I think one could develop the blind
staggers out of the literature by itself; also, that blind staggers
produced in this way would be of a better quality and more lasting than
any produced by the artificial processes of a horse-doctor.
For of all the strange, and frantic, and incomprehensible, and
uninterpretable books which the imagination of man has created, surely
this one is the prize sample. It is written with a limitless confidence
and complacency, and with a dash and stir and earnestness which often
compel the effects of eloquence, even when the words do not seem to
have any traceable meaning. There are plenty of people who imagine they
understand the book; I know this, for I have talked with them; but in
all cases they were people who also imagined that there were no such
things as pain, sickness, and death, and no realities in the world;
nothing actually existent but Mind. It seems to me to modify the value
of their testimony. When these people talk about Christian Science
they do as Mrs. Fuller did; they do not use their own language, but the
book's; they pour out the book's showy incoherences, and leave you to
find out later that they were not originating, but merely quoting;
they seem to know the volume by heart, and to revere it as they would
a Bible--another Bible, perhaps I ought to say. Plainly the book was
written under the mental desolations of the Third Degree, and I feel
sure that none but the membership of that Degree can discover meanings
in it. When you read it you seem to be listening to a lively and