The Irish standard., 1907-03-30
TELLS THE STORY
Mark Twain's Views on Chris
tian Science.
How tho Humorist First Be-
came Interested.

on a new subject, is equivalent to as
serting that the eminently lovable and
eminently literary have come together
again to-"deliver the goods No
thoughtful reader who has thoroughly
read the writer's works will be sur
prised to hear that Mr.. Clemens has
forsaken the paths of either actual or
Imaginative adventure, to wander into
a domain which the disciples of Aris-
totle might have called metaphysical,
but which Mrs. Eddy of Christian
ligious, says the New York F'reeman's
Journal.
It is indeed impossible not to note
in the whole tone of the humorist's
later writings and speeches a latent
sense of religion which not all the
spray of his humoristical effervescence
can totally obscure from the eye; and
that, too, a sense of religion which
though shyly Disgusting itself under a
mask half-cynical, half-mocking. but
always genial. has in it enough Of that
broad spirit of tolerance which the an
clients called humanitas. to show that
its primary source is a deep love Of
mankind and a profound sympathy
with the great human struggle and its
perennial under-flow of tears.
That Mr.. Clemens, the first humor-
list of his time, should have come for
ward as the critic of one of the most
farcical developments of modern life,
is, we venture to think. in perfect har-
mony with that all-embracing appro-
priateness which we call the eternal
fitness of things, since in our own
opinion. that farrago Of seni-ethcal,
semi-religious and semi-theosophic
conceptions which has been labelled
enee, cannot be. approached by serious
dialecticians, in anything like spirit
Of sober research. We can easily pic
ture to ourselves a quorum of divines
glancing at the claims of Christian
Science and throwing out the bill
with Homeric laughter; the scientist
We cannot even contemplate attempt
Ing to face the biological contradiction
Of the new faith, and as for the legal
SAGE. or the man versed in the science
of terminologies, we simply dare not
venture to think what opinions they
might hold Of a, code, the illuminating
axiA of which, expressed in ordinary
language. convey an equal amount of
sense whether read backward or for
ward. 1t is good, however, to be just.
the advent of Christian Science. That
cause is easily traceable to the abb
sence of real authority in every
church at the present day-except the
Catholic.
It is that absence of authority which
has drawn hundreds of thousands
from non n-Catholic denominations to
the cult Of Christian Science, and il
was vivid consciousness Of this
great void in the on-Catholic spirit
ual world that gave Mrs. Eddy her
first idea of a Church in which she
should be the central authority. There
were also other causes. one of them
In particular, as old as man himself
namely, the. exploitability of his
thoughtlessness.
There are. indeed, few ways of per-
suading man that he has an intel
lect superior to his fellows safer than
that Of inducing him to take an in
terest in problems that are not logi-
caliy or mathenlatically demonstrable
but which are only susceptible Of ex-
( PLANTATION or exposition on the prin-
cip1e that s'the eye sees what it wishes
to see." Not all the philosophy OF
! Bacon has dethroned the "idols" of the
I mind for him who has no accepted re-
I ligious guide, nor have all Kant's dis
courses on how far things are know
able in themselves, prevented unbe-
| lieving man from seeking to penetrate
{ the impenetrable, the result being tha,
I, outside our own Church, a species OF
intellectual individualism has become
the fashion and invariably proves the
4 siirst' step down the easy descent tc
atheism:
Mr.. Clemens tells us how he came
to interest himself in Christian
Science. A bad fall from lofty cliff
Ia an Austrian mountain-range had
he hunorously premises, the effect OF
hSeaking "some arms and legs and one
thing and another" and to add to his
misfortune. the only available treat.
4 snent within many miles was that
I which was proffered by lady from
Il Boston, practical Christian Scientist
4 In the course Of her nursing, she