The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1910-05-25

editor Of The Climax:

Editor OF The Climax:
can very well understand ~. KS
difficulty over DIR. Fluno's lecture on
Christian Science, for when / first be-
gan TO read Mrs. Eddys book, Science
and Health, / experienced the same diff
ficulty. No doubt my experience has
made me more patient and sympathetic
with those who experience a similar diff
Rculty. While, however, Christian
Science is profound study and one sus-
ceptible of limitless progression, it is
not necessary to go very deeply into it
before we receive its healing benefits.
My experience has further taught me,
that if one does not understand it the
fault is not with Christian Science, nor
with Mrs Eddys statement of it, for
doubt if il could be better stated than
she has stated it if the object is, as her
object evidently was, to reach the popu-
lar intelligence and not merely few
philosophers and scholars Whether he
ever accepts it or not, If he perseveres
in the study of it he will sooner or later
realize that it is profoundly reasoned
system Of scriptural Interpretation and
that there is not statement or PROPOSE
ton in the Christian Science text book
that does not logically belong there. It
has little in common with the philosophy
of Bishop Berkeley, yet our critic is
mistaken in suppOsing that Bishop
Berkeley's statement that there is no
matter has ever been disproved or that
il has been discarded by eminent natural
scientists. He criticises the lecturer
for speaking of material things" when
Christian Science teaches that material
things are not real things; and yet, this
is just what every scientist who writes
or speaks of the material universe does,
he treats material objects as if they were
real things but he expects, and has Q
right to expect, that everybody knows
that he is treating of them merely a.
| phenomena and not as real things in the
absolute or metaphysical sense of reality.
He knows they are not real things exist
ing in space independent of mind, he
knows they are concepts or phenomena
of the human mind and that they have
no other reality. This is what Christian
Science means when it says material OBJ
jects are not real.
Herbert Spencer SAYS: "The convic-
ton, so reached, that human intelli-
gence is incapable of absolute knowledge.
is one that has been slowly gaining
ground as CIVILIZATION has advanced. " .
The only result arrived at being, that
the reality existing behind all appear
ances is and must forever be, unknown.
To this conclusion almost every thinker
of note has subscribed. With the ex-
ception, says Sir William Hamilton, of
a few late absolutist theorisers in Ger
many, this is, perhaps, the truth of all
others most tremendously re-echoed by
every philosopher of every school y
Kant had said the same thing more than
a hundred years before. In his Inaugu-
raj Dissertation by Eckoff we read: ''The
proclamation of the human mind as the
law-giver of nature marks a turning
point in the whole history of meta
physics. Kant was the first who dared
to say: 1t may sound exaggerated and
absurd to say that the understanding is
the source both of the laws and of the
unity of nature. 1t is correct neverthe-
less, and accords with experience.
In the Critique of Pure Reason Kant
says: Even if we could see to the very
bottom of a phenomenon, it would re-
main forever altogether different from
the knowledge of the thing by itself. y
The late Yale professor, John Fiske,
says: by reality in philosophy is
meant persistence irrespective of par
ticular conditions, and the group of
phenomena constituting table persists
only in so far as it is held together in
cognitiOn. Take away the cognizing
mind, and the colour, form, position,
and hardness of the table-all the
attributes, in short, that characterize it
as matter-at once disappear. That
something remains we may grant, but
this something is unknown and unknow-
able: it is certainly not the groupe of
phenomena constituting the table, Apart
from consciousness there are no such
things as colour, form, position, or hard
ness, and there are no such things as
matter. This great truth, established
by Berkeley is the very foundation of
modern scientific philosophy; and,
though it has been Inexperienced by
many, no one has ever refuted it, and
not likely that any one ever will"
L. II. JONES.