The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-10
MARK TWAIN ON
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
Some Extracts from the Fa-
NOUS HumoriSts Book
MRS. EDDY INTERESTING
But Her Book, He Thinks, Is the Most
lncomprehensible and IN
interpretable Ever
Written.
MRS. EDDY INTERESTING

New York. February s.-Since the
more or less inaccurate newspaper stories
last summer concerning Mrs. Mary Baker
Eddy's health the woman and Christian
Science, of which she claims to be the
founder, have been the subject of public
discussion. McClures Magazine has
added fuel to the flames by publishing
what purports to be a history of her
life in an effort to show that she is not
the author of Christian Science but got
her ideas from p. p. Quimby, a man well
known in New England years ago as
sort of healer" Mark Twain has now
joined in the discussion by issuing a book
called christian Science, With Notes
Containing Corrections to Date" The
references to the corrections in the title
is made because the author began writing
his book four years ago. Herewith are
printed some extracts from the book. or
Mrs. Eddy's book Science and Health
and Key to the Scriptures he says:
OF all thee strange and frantic and in
comprehensive and uninterpretable books
which the imagination of man has
created, surely this one Is the prize sam
pie 1t is written with a limitless conf
dence and competency, 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 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 out mind. 1t seems to
me to modify the value of their testl-
mony.
No one doubts-certainly not THAT the
mind exercises a powerful influence over
the body. From the beginning of time,
the sorcerer, the interpreter of dreams,
the fortune-teller. the charlatan, the
quack, the wild medicine man, the edu-
Gated physician, the mesmerist and the
hypnotist have made use Of the clients
Imagination to help them in their work.
They have all recognized the potency and
availability of that force. Physicians
cure many patients with a bread pill;
they know that where the disease is only
fancy the patients confidence in the
doctor will make the bread pill effective.
Faith in the doctor. Perhaps that Is
the entire thing. 1t seems to look like it.
In old times the king cured the kings
evil by the touch of the royal hand lie
frequently made extraordinary cures.
Could his footman have done it? No-not
in his own clothes Disguised as the king,
could he have done 1t? l think we may
not doubt it. / think we may feel sure
that 1t was not the kings touch that
made the cure in any instance, but the
patients faith in the efficacy of a king
touch. Genuine remarkable cures have
been achieved through contact with the
relics OF saint
The Christian Scientist was not able to
cure my stomach-ache and my cold: but
the horse doctor did 1t. This convlnces
me that Christian Science claims too
much. In my opinion it ought to Jet
diseases alone and confne itself to sur
gerry. There it would have everything its
own way
The horse doctor charged "a thirty
kreutzers, and I paid him; At fact,
doubled it and gave him a shilling Mrs.
Fuller brought in an itemized bill for
crate of broken bones mended in 231
places-s1 per fracture.
Nothing exists but Mind?"
Nothing she answered. "All else is
substanceless, all else is imaginary"
/ gave her an imaginary check and
now she is suing me for substantial dol
lars. 1t looks INCONSISTENT.
A thoughtful and unbiased Mohamme-
dan examines the Westminster Cate
chsm, he knows that beyond any ques-
ton | am spiritually insane. l cannot
prove to him that he is insane because
you never can prove anything to a luna
tic--for that Is a part of his insanity and
the evidence of it. He cannot prove to
me that | am insane, for my mind has
the same defect that affiicts his. All
democrats are insane, but not one of
them knows it; none but the republicans
and mugwumps know it, All the repub-
licans are insane, but only the democrats
and mugwumps can perceive 1t. The rule
is perfect: in all matters of opinion OR
adversaries are insane. When / look
around me, / am often troubled to see
how many people are mad. To mention
only few.
The Atheist. the Infidel. the Agnostic,
the Baptist, the Methodist, the Christian
Scientist, the Catholic and the lis Christ
ian sects, the Presbyterian excepted, the
seventy-two Mohammedan sects the Bud
dhist. the Blavatsky- Buddhist the Ma
tionalist the Confucian, the Spirtualist
the 200 East Indian sects. the Secular
People, the Theosophists, the Sweden
borgians the Shakers, the Millerites the
Mormons, the Laurence Oliphant Harris
ties. the Grand Lama's people, the Mon
archists, the Imperlalsts, the Democrats,
the Republicans (but not the Mugwumps),
the Mind-Curists, the Faith-Curists, the
Mental Scientists, the Allopaths. the
the Electropaths, the -.
Among other witnesses there is one
who had a jumping toothache," which
several times tempted her to "belieye
that there was sensation in matter, but
each time it was overcome by the power
of Truth" She would not allow the den