The Washington times., 1901-07-11
Christian Science In Literature.


The idea Of our forefathers in regard
to Shakespeare was that he knew ev-
erytking. Whether he did or not, an
! Industrious student has discovered that
he formulated. some four hundred years
! ago, the principles of Christian Science.
In the play Richard II" John of
| Gaunt attempts to console his exiled
son after this fashion:
"AIl places that the eye of heaven visits
| Are 10 a wise man ports and happy hayens.
Teach thy necessity 10 reason thus;
There is DO virtue like necessity.
Think not the King did Danish thee;
But thou the King. Woe doth the heavier sit
Where il perceiYes it Is but family borne
Co. say ! sent thee forth 10 purchase honor,
And not the King exiled thee; or suppose
Deyouring pestilence hangs IN our air,
And thou at flying to fresher cline
Look what thy soul holds dear; imagine It
To lie that way thou go'st, NJ whence thou
som 81.
suppose III singing birds musicians;
The s-<s whereon thou tread'st the presence
st. t.sE'd;
The flowers fair ladies. and thy steps no more
Than a delightful measure a dance;
For gnarling sorrow hath less power 10 bite
The nan that mocks at it, and sets il light"
But Bolingbroke did not see it that
way. He said:
20, who hold a fre IN his hand
By thinking the frosty Caucasus!
Or cloy the hungry edge Of appetite
By bare Imagination OF a feast
Or waIlow naked in December snow
By thinking on fantastic summers heats
o. no! the apprehension Of the good
Gives but the greater feeling 10 the worse:
Fell sorrows tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites but lanceth not the sore
And thereupon the father dropped the
argument with the discreet remark:
Come, come, my son; Pll bring thee on thy
way"
It will be remembered by those famil-
lar with StOckton's "Rudder Grange"
that the immortal Pomona attempted
some such diversions as those sug-
gested by John of Gaunt She was
romantic young woman, and it did not
suit her to go on her wedding tour as
the wife of a plain farmer. She there
fore suggested to him that they two
should address each other as the Earl
and Earl-ess of Random, and make be
lieve they were of noble birth and pos
sessed of great wealth. The matter of
fact husband assented, and made ar
rangements to spend their honeymoon
in a lunatic asylum. The reasons which
ne gave MS bIlIt lutitlOf WHen Sie
found out where she was and her CON
clusions are instructive in this connec-
tion:
81 didn't bring you here because I thought you
was crazy but because ! wanted YOU To see what
kind Of people they who imagined themselves
earls and oarl-esses, and ali that sort Of thing,
and to have an idea how the thing worked after
you'd been doing it a good while. aud had got
used TO it."
Then, the upshot was that you wanted to teach
a lesson"
''Jus' that"
"An right. It's teached And now let's get
out Of this just as quick as We can"
It might be good thing for some Of
the people who are declaring that there
is no such thing as smallpox and that
a broken limb can be healed by faith,
to sojourn for a time in the nearest re-
treat for the insane They might be-
come converted TO common sense, as
did Mr.. Stockton's heroine
There is nothing particularly new
about Christian Science 1t has ap-
peared in literature at Intervals from
the time OF Shakespeare 10 that Of