The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-07

like the shepherd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with Col iath." Thus we are to understand that the remarkable warfare whose for tunes we followed for a time last Sun day night is waged by her under the sanction of metaphysics" Let us ex- anime the validity of this claim. At the outset we find Mrs. Eddy, presi- dent of what she calls the "Massachu setts. Metaphysical College" standing alone even in the realm of modern metaphysics. Popular metaphysical systems" she confesses, "afford in thls final struggle for supremacy, no sub stantial aid to true metaphysics; be- cause their arguments are partly bas- ed on the testimony of the material senses, as we'll as on the facts of mind'
 In her booklet NO and Yes" she writes, "Leibnitz, Descartes, Fichte, Hegel, splnoza, Bishop Berkeley, were once clothed with "brief authority;" The circumlocution and cold cat egories of Kant fall to improve the conditions of mortals, morally, spirit ually or physically Such misealled metaphysical systems are reeds shak- en by the wind. Compared with the inspired wisdom and infinite meaning of the word of truth, they are as moonbeams to the sun, or as Stygian night to the kindllng dawn" When we note that Mrs Eddy does not he's itate to affirm that "the true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science |" and that in her thought "the word of truth" reappears in her book after an eclipse extending from the days of the Apostles, we need not wonder at any claim to superiority which she may make, Even the epoch-making "Crttique of Pure Reason" of mInan- uel Kant, the great father of that mod ern idealism which now dominates the thinking world, is scr Mrs. Eddy as Stygian night, to the htf>lng dawn of her Science and Health.
 This attitude on Mrs. Eddy's part seems to indicate such an incompatl- bility between her system and all rec ognized metaphysical thought besides as to suggest the doubt whether this | Concord lady can be the only modern i exponent of metaphysical, any more than of scientific truth. The more a mind trained in philosophical thinking reads her book the more that doubt ! becomes confirmed.
 Metaphysics according to Webster 'is the science of real as distinguished { from phenomenal being; ontology." The world of phenomena is the world ! as given to us through our physical ! senses. It is very true that common, sense" has often supposed this world to lie outside of mind, and to exist in it's own right as made up of solid lumpish stuff called matter which | possesses inalienable qualities and laws of it's own It is equally true that metaphysics makes 1t Impossible ! to believe in any such world. Mod ern metaphysics is idealistlc; that is il | holds that the real world is essentially l spiritual and cannot be conceived of
 by critical thought as existing apart ! from mind. Materialism against which Mrs. Eddy mistakenly supposes her.
 self to be the only champlon,- nc
 philosophical standing whatever ir l modern thought; it is no longer intel.
 lectually respectable. Mrs. Eddy does
 not know it, but every student oi philosophy knows that Immanue
 Kant, in his theory of knowledge cu
 the ground forever from beneath the
 feet of materialism. When we ref1ec
 we come to realize that all we know
 immediately about the external worlt
 is our own states of consciousness. Wt
 never can get beyond these menta ] facts except by inference. The sound
 which you heard some moments aftel
 the explosion had no existence unti you heard it. The occasion of it wa!
 silent air waves which broke on thu
 shore of your consciousness in soun(
 your private sound; sound createt
 for you in your consciousness by 6
 mysterious process which, as Tyndal