Kinship

kinship

My experience My experience Since my Uni days, I have constantly found myself as part of a minority group. While studying computer science, I was only one of five girls in a 30-student group. I can’t say that the situation has changed significantly after my graduation. I have never been employed by companies where women make up 30% or more of the workforce, and I have never been managed by a woman. Over time, this became a norm for me. But should it be so? Backed up by the stats Backed up by the stats I truly believe men's capabilities for logical and analytical thinking do not surpass women’s. So there should be another explanation for the fact that only 19% of all IT professional positions in 2022/2023 were taken by women. The same source provides evidence of a very slow increase in women in IT roles: only 5% since 2009. 19% of all IT professional positions in 2022/2023 After some research, I see several root causes for this social phenomenon. Pipeline problem Pipeline problem One of the obvious reasons for a smaller number of female IT professionals is the lack of women in education related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Representation of women amongst Computer Science graduates in 2022 did not increase above 24%. The percentage is dropping by 20% after graduation: not all girls who dedicate themselves to IT education get a relevant job. The same source claims that major factors that influence this are a lack of network, contacts, and experience. But surely, the same applies to all fresh graduates, not only to girls. Representation of women amongst Computer Science graduates in 2022 did not increase above 24% Winding back Winding back As I said, I do not believe men have a physiological advantage that helps them succeed in Computer Science. However, three boys chose to major in Computer Science, while only one girl decided to do the same. There should be factors that prevent girls from pursuing this education and profession. Matija Kovacic and Cristina Elisa Orso's research showed that historical and cultural factors related to gender roles influence women’s likelihood of pursuing STEM careers through contemporary psychological traits inherited from their parents. Women from more individualistic cultures, characterised by weaker ancestral kinship structures, looser family ties, and greater predisposition to critical thinking, are more likely to enter STEM fields. In contrast, cultures emphasising values such as obedience, tradition, and restraint see fewer women in STEM. research Stereotypes Stereotypes Society stereotypes and bias also matter. Psychologically, it’s easier to match stereotypes than accept yourself as an outlier. Even now, working for more than 10 years in IT in different geographies, I still have an image of an IT specialist as a male in his thirties – forties. Others may have this stereotype too. After all, that’s what we have seen in films. Why does it matter? Very simple - stereotypes narrow our vision and do not allow us to explore unknown opportunities. Some familiarity with the subject is necessary to even give it a try. That’s exactly what happened with me - I had a chance to learn programming before choosing my future profession. Maybe, if we had more female IT role models, girls would be more open to trying programming and choosing education in IT? Why should the IT gender gap not be ignored? Why should the IT gender gap not be ignored? After exploring the possible preconditions to the current gap between women and men in IT, I asked myself why it mattered. After all, the industry is flourishing, new projects are getting launched. Is there any need to bother about the proportion of women and men in the workforce? I see several reasons to think about changing this status quo: economic, gender-inclusive, and holistic. McKinsey claims that to remain competitive in technological growth and innovation, Europe must recruit and retain women for the fastest-growing tech roles in the foreseeable future. This means that more young women need to be educated as IT specialists. McKinsey Promoting women in tech can result in more successful IT products that consider women-specific needs, as women would be involved in development and decision-making. One of the brightest examples in Tech is Bumble - the first female-focused dating app launched by Whitney Wolfe Herd, which gave women agency and prioritised their safety, rather than considering only stereotypical male dimensions. Holistic impact based on personal experience Holistic impact based on personal experience My own experience, not yet based on any statistics, shows how women's presence can change teamwork and corporate culture. As a young specialist at an IT company, I was the first female ever hired. I saw how the whole team was adjusting to my presence during the first several weeks: male colleagues made long pauses in the conversations where previously they launched into arguments or used harsh swear words. With time, the pauses disappeared, and overall, team members' interactions became more peaceful and less aggressive. My presence gave them a chance to show their better sides. The team was quite inspired by this experience and continued to hire women for new opening positions. In other jobs, I saw how girls were taking team-building activities, fostering non-work-related conversations that improved employees' bonds and loyalty to the companies. In my experience, women brought empathy to previously lad-culture-dominated workplaces, helping everyone to be heard and acknowledged. Actions Actions Acknowledging the problem is the beginning of its solution. Here are several points along the girls' journey to and in the IT profession that can be addressed by most IT employees: ● Popularise STEM among girls and encourage STEM education. Though McKinsey claims that this approach does not have a good effort-outcome balance, I still think that the broader the funnel, the easier to get more girls involved in this profession. McKinsey ● Provide good internship opportunities, mentorship & support in universities as a way to provide higher conversion from students into such in-demand professions. ● Encourage mixed and inclusive teams to dilute lad culture. ● Allow hybrid and remote work, as well as on-site childcare. This can give women the required support to remain in the IT workforce while balancing it with childcare. Though the abovementioned sounds like an action plan for big entities such as universities, large corporations, and governments, there’s still something any IT professional can do from their side: take mentorship responsibilities, become a role model for other girls, and be loud about this problem.

Unpacking the IT Gender Gap: Lived Experience and the Path Forward

IT-nin cinsi boşluğu açmaq: yaşadığı deneyim və yol

Отстраняване на разликата между половете в областта на ИТ: живял опит и път напред

Desempaquetar la brecha de género en TI: experiencia vivida y el camino hacia adelante

Otključavanje rodne razlike u IT-u: iskustvo i put prema naprijed

Sbloccare il divario di genere IT: esperienza vissuta e la strada in avanti

IT Gender Gap Unpacking: Lived Experience and the Path Forward

Тақырып: IT Gender Gap: Live Experience and the Path Forward

Pamba la Pamba la Pamba la Pamba la Pamba la Pamba la 100%

De IT-genderkloof loslaten: ervaringen en de weg vooruit

Next Topic: கதுவா: ஒரு குரூரமான குற்றம் எவ்வாறு அரசியல் மற்றும் மத சாயம் பூசப்பட்டு ஒற்றை பரிமாணமாக்கப்பட்டது

Unpacking ang IT Gender Gap: Lived Experience at ang Path Forward

Розпакування гендерного розриву в IT: живий досвід та шлях вперед

Have you ever asked someone a question like, "How are you so confident?" only to get a response like, "It just happens, you just get confident, you know?" 🤷 But clearly, they don’t know what they’re talking about. They might be confident unconsciously, but unable to break down how they got there. Here’s the truth: Confidence is a skill, just like any other trait you admire. Whether it’s patience, resilience, or success, these are all skills you can learn. And just being told "Be like James" isn't exactly useful advice. Instead, ask yourself: “What does James do that makes him patient?” List the behaviors. If you don’t know, reverse it—list the things that make you impatient and do the opposite. This approach works for almost anything. Instead of trying to be "successful" (a vague idea), avoid the behaviors that lead to failure, and success will follow. Why I Created Redefyne Dictionary definitions can be tricky—they don’t always tell us how to apply words in real life. That's why I created Redefyne, a platform where we redefine words based on action—what to do. Inspired by Alex Hormozi’s advice to define concepts through action steps, Redefyne takes abstract ideas like confidence, patience, and love, and turns them into practical steps you can use in everyday life. Instead of a dictionary, think of Redefyne as an Operationary—a guide that tells you what actions lead to the traits you want. A Glimpse Into Redefyne’s Words I've already begun populating Redefyne with definitions that make sense in real life. Here are some words I’ve redefined over the last two weeks: Here are the Merriam-Webster and Oxford Languages (dictionary used in google search) definitions for each word. Compare them and let me know which works best for you: 1. Difficult Merriam-Webster: "Hard to do, make, or carry out: arduous." Oxford: "Needing much effort or skill to accomplish, deal with, or understand." Redefyne - Operationary: 2. Truth Merriam-Webster: "The body of real things, events, and facts: actuality." Oxford: "The quality or state of being true." Redefyne - Operationary: 3. Resilience Merriam-Webster: "An ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change." Oxford: "The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness." Redefyne - Operationary: 4. Power Merriam-Webster: "Ability to act or produce an effect." Oxford: "The ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way." Redefyne - Operationary: 5. Straight Merriam-Webster: "Free from curves, bends, angles, or irregularities." Oxford: "Extending or moving uniformly in one direction only; without a curve or bend." Redefyne - Operationary: 6. Love Merriam-Webster: "Strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties." Oxford: "An intense feeling of deep affection." Redefyne - Operationary: 7. Patience Merriam-Webster: "The capacity, habit, or fact of being patient." Oxford: "The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious." Redefyne - Operationary: 8. Sadness Merriam-Webster: "Affected with or expressive of grief or unhappiness." Oxford: "The condition or quality of being sad." Redefyne - Operationary: 9. Commitment Merriam-Webster: "An agreement or pledge to do something in the future." Oxford: "The state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc." Redefyne - Operationary: 10. Trustworthy Merriam-Webster: "Worthy of confidence: dependable." Oxford: "Able to be relied on as honest or truthful." Redefyne - Operationary: Each definition breaks down abstract words into practical steps. These aren’t just meanings—they're actions you can take. How Redefyne Changed My Life For me, Redefyne has been transformative. Understanding that every trait I want to develop is within reach as long as I adjust my behaviors has changed my life. Redefyne is a tool you can use to make those same changes. Building Redefyne for the Future I’m adding new words every day, building features, and aiming to hit 100 definitions by next week. The platform will continue to grow with more functionalities and contributions from the community. Join the Redefyne Community Redefyne is completely free—no costs, no daily limits, no BS. You can check out our community here: t.me/redefyne. Try out the demo at: redefyne.onrender.com Join us and help shape a more practical way to learn and grow. Have you ever asked someone a question like, "How are you so confident?" only to get a response like, "It just happens, you just get confident, you know?" 🤷 Have you ever asked someone a question like, "How are you so confident?" only to get a response like, "It just happens, you just get confident, you know?" 🤷 But clearly, they don’t know what they’re talking about. They might be confident unconsciously, but unable to break down how they got there. Here’s the truth: Confidence is a skill, just like any other trait you admire. Whether it’s patience, resilience, or success, these are all skills you can learn. And just being told "Be like James" isn't exactly useful advice. Instead, ask yourself: “What does James do that makes him patient?” List the behaviors. If you don’t know, reverse it—list the things that make you impatient and do the opposite. This approach works for almost anything. Instead of trying to be "successful" (a vague idea), avoid the behaviors that lead to failure, and success will follow. Why I Created Redefyne Why I Created Redefyne Dictionary definitions can be tricky—they don’t always tell us how to apply words in real life. That's why I created Redefyne, a platform where we redefine words based on action—what to do. Inspired by Alex Hormozi’s advice to define concepts through action steps, Redefyne takes abstract ideas like confidence, patience, and love, and turns them into practical steps you can use in everyday life. Instead of a dictionary, think of Redefyne as an Operationary—a guide that tells you what actions lead to the traits you want. A Glimpse Into Redefyne’s Words A Glimpse Into Redefyne’s Words I've already begun populating Redefyne with definitions that make sense in real life. Here are some words I’ve redefined over the last two weeks: Here are the Merriam-Webster and Oxford Languages (dictionary used in google search) definitions for each word. Compare them and let me know which works best for you: 1. Difficult Difficult Merriam-Webster: "Hard to do, make, or carry out: arduous." Oxford: "Needing much effort or skill to accomplish, deal with, or understand." Redefyne - Operationary: 2. Truth Truth Merriam-Webster: "The body of real things, events, and facts: actuality." Oxford: "The quality or state of being true." Redefyne - Operationary: 3. Resilience Resilience Merriam-Webster: "An ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change." Oxford: "The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness." Redefyne - Operationary: 4. Power Power Merriam-Webster: "Ability to act or produce an effect." Oxford: "The ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way." Redefyne - Operationary: 5. Straight Straight Merriam-Webster: "Free from curves, bends, angles, or irregularities." Oxford: "Extending or moving uniformly in one direction only; without a curve or bend." Redefyne - Operationary: 6. Love Love Merriam-Webster: "Strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties." Oxford: "An intense feeling of deep affection." Redefyne - Operationary: 7. Patience Patience Merriam-Webster: "The capacity, habit, or fact of being patient." Oxford: "The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious." Redefyne - Operationary: 8. Sadness Sadness Merriam-Webster: "Affected with or expressive of grief or unhappiness." Oxford: "The condition or quality of being sad." Redefyne - Operationary: 9. Commitment Commitment Merriam-Webster: "An agreement or pledge to do something in the future." Oxford: "The state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc." Redefyne - Operationary: 10. Trustworthy Trustworthy Merriam-Webster: "Worthy of confidence: dependable." Oxford: "Able to be relied on as honest or truthful." Redefyne - Operationary: Each definition breaks down abstract words into practical steps. These aren’t just meanings—they're actions you can take. How Redefyne Changed My Life How Redefyne Changed My Life For me, Redefyne has been transformative. Understanding that every trait I want to develop is within reach as long as I adjust my behaviors has changed my life. Redefyne is a tool you can use to make those same changes. Building Redefyne for the Future Building Redefyne for the Future I’m adding new words every day, building features, and aiming to hit 100 definitions by next week. The platform will continue to grow with more functionalities and contributions from the community. Join the Redefyne Community Join the Redefyne Community Redefyne is completely free—no costs, no daily limits, no BS. You can check out our community here: t.me/redefyne. Try out the demo at: redefyne.onrender.com Join us and help shape a more practical way to learn and grow.

Don't Let Dictionaries Keep You Stuck: Understand and Conquer the World with Redefyne

Four Thousand Years of Blood, Snot, and Tears

চার হাজার বছরের রক্ত, স্নোট এবং অশ্রু

Viertausend Jahre Blut, Rotz und Tränen

Cuatro mil años de sangre, mocos y lágrimas

Quatre mille ans de sang, de morve et de larmes

चार हज़ार साल का खून, बलगम और आँसू

4000年にわたる血と鼻水と涙

4천년의 피와 콧물과 눈물

Quatro mil anos de sangue, ranho e lágrimas

Четыре тысячи лет крови, соплей и слез

Dört Bin Yıllık Kan, Sümük ve Gözyaşı

Bốn ngàn năm máu, nước mũi và nước mắt

四千年的血、鼻、泪

Christian Science by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . MRS. EDDY IN ERROR here MRS. EDDY IN ERROR I feel almost sure that Mrs. Eddy's inspiration—works are getting out of repair. I think so because they made some errors in a statement which she uttered through the press on the 17th of January. Not large ones, perhaps, still it is a friend's duty to straighten such things out and get them right when he can. Therefore I will put my other duties aside for a moment and undertake this helpful service. She said as follows: “In view of the circulation of certain criticisms from the pen of Mark Twain, I submit the following statement: “It is a fact, well understood, that I begged the students who first gave me the endearing appellative 'mother' not to name me thus. But, without my consent, that word spread like wildfire. I still must think the name is not applicable to me. I stand in relation to this century as a Christian discoverer, founder, and leader. I regard self-deification as blasphemous; I may be more loved, but I am less lauded, pampered, provided for, and cheered than others before me—and wherefore? Because Christian Science is not yet popular, and I refuse adulation. “My visit to the Mother-Church after it was built and dedicated pleased me, and the situation was satisfactory. The dear members wanted to greet me with escort and the ringing of bells, but I declined, and went alone in my carriage to the church, entered it, and knelt in thanks upon the steps of its altar. There the foresplendor of the beginnings of truth fell mysteriously upon my spirit. I believe in one Christ, teach one Christ, know of but one Christ. I believe in but one incarnation, one Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, and never claimed to be. It suffices me to learn the Science of the Scriptures relative to this subject. “Christian Scientists have no quarrel with Protestants, Catholics, or any other sect. They need to be understood as following the divine Principle God, Love and not imagined to be unscientific worshippers of a human being. “In the aforesaid article, of which I have seen only extracts, Mark Twain's wit was not wasted In certain directions. Christian Science eschews divine rights in human beings. If the individual governed human consciousness, my statement of Christian Science would be disproved, but to understand the spiritual idea is essential to demonstrate Science and its pure monotheism—one God, one Christ, no idolatry, no human propaganda. Jesus taught and proved that what feeds a few feeds all. His life-work subordinated the material to the spiritual, and He left this legacy of truth to mankind. His metaphysics is not the sport of philosophy, religion, or Science; rather it is the pith and finale of them all. “I have not the inspiration or aspiration to be a first or second Virgin-Mother—her duplicate, antecedent, or subsequent. What I am remains to be proved by the good I do. We need much humility, wisdom, and love to perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting heaven within us. This glory is molten in the furnace of affliction.” She still thinks the name of Our Mother not applicable to her; and she is also able to remember that it distressed her when it was conferred upon her, and that she begged to have it suppressed. Her memory is at fault here. If she will take her By-laws, and refer to Section 1 of Article XXII., written with her own hand—she will find that she has reserved that title to herself, and is so pleased with it, and so—may we say jealous?—about it, that she threatens with excommunication any sister Scientist who shall call herself by it. This is that Section 1: “The Title of Mother. In the year 1895 loyal Christian Scientists had given to the author of their text-book, the Founder of Christian Science, the individual, endearing term of Mother. Therefore, if a student of Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself or to others, except as the term for kinship according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an indication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus, and unfitness to be a member of the Mother-Church.” Mrs. Eddy is herself the Mother-Church—its powers and authorities are in her possession solely—and she can abolish that title whenever it may please her to do so. She has only to command her people, wherever they may be in the earth, to use it no more, and it will never be uttered again. She is aware of this. It may be that she “refuses adulation” when she is not awake, but when she is awake she encourages it and propagates it in that museum called “Our Mother's Room,” in her Church in Boston. She could abolish that institution with a word, if she wanted to. She is aware of that. I will say a further word about the museum presently. Further down the column, her memory is unfaithful again: “I believe in... but one Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, and never claimed to be.” At a session of the National Christian Science Association, held in the city of New York on the 27th of May, 1890, the secretary was “instructed to send to our Mother greetings and words of affection from her assembled children.” Her telegraphic response was read to the Association at next day's meeting: “All hail! He hath filled the hungry with good things and the sick hath He not sent empty away.—MOTHER MARY.” Which Mother Mary is this one? Are there two? If so, she is both of them; for, when she signed this telegram in this satisfied and unprotesting way, the Mother-title which she was going to so strenuously object to, and put from her with humility, and seize with both hands, and reserve as her sole property, and protect her monopoly of it with a stern By-law, while recognizing with diffidence that it was “not applicable” to her (then and to-day)—that Mother—title was not yet born, and would not be offered to her until five years later. The date of the above “Mother Mary” is 1890; the “individual, endearing title of Mother” was given her “in 1895”—according to her own testimony. See her By-law quoted above. In his opening Address to that Convention of 1890, the President recognized this Mary—our Mary-and abolished all previous ones. He said: “There is but one Moses, one Jesus; and there is but one Mary.” The confusions being now dispersed, we have this clarified result: There had been a Moses at one time, and only one; there had been a Jesus at one time, and only one; there is a Mary and “only one.” She is not a Has Been, she is an Is—the “Author of Science and Health; and we cannot ignore her.” 1. In 1890, there was but one Mother Mary. The President said so. 2. Mrs. Eddy was that one. She said so, in signing the telegram. 3. Mrs. Eddy was not that one for she says so, in her Associated Press utterance of January 17th. 4. And has “never claimed to be that one”—unless the signature to the telegram is a claim. Thus it stands proven and established that she is that Mary and isn't, and thought she was and knows she wasn't. That much is clear. She is also “The Mother,” by the election of 1895, and did not want the title, and thinks it is not applicable to her, and will excommunicate any one that tries to take it away from her. So that is clear. I think that the only really troublesome confusion connected with these particular matters has arisen from the name Mary. Much vexation, much misunderstanding, could have been avoided if Mrs. Eddy had used some of her other names in place of that one. “Mother Mary” was certain to stir up discussion. It would have been much better if she had signed the telegram “Mother Baker”; then there would have been no Biblical competition, and, of course, that is a thing to avoid. But it is not too late, yet. I wish to break in here with a parenthesis, and then take up this examination of Mrs. Eddy's Claim of January 17th again. The history of her “Mother Mary” telegram—as told to me by one who ought to be a very good authority—is curious and interesting. The telegram ostensibly quotes verse 53 from the “Magnificat,” but really makes some pretty formidable changes in it. This is St. Luke's version: “He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.” This is “Mother Mary's” telegraphed version: “He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the sick hath He not sent empty away.” To judge by the Official Report, the bursting of this bombshell in that massed convention of trained Christians created no astonishment, since it caused no remark, and the business of the convention went tranquilly on, thereafter, as if nothing had happened. Did those people detect those changes? We cannot know. I think they must have noticed them, the wording of St. Luke's verse being as familiar to all Christians as is the wording of the Beatitudes; and I think that the reason the new version provoked no surprise and no comment was, that the assemblage took it for a “Key”—a spiritualized explanation of verse 53, newly sent down from heaven through Mrs. Eddy. For all Scientists study their Bibles diligently, and they know their Magnificat. I believe that their confidence in the authenticity of Mrs. Eddy's inspirations is so limitless and so firmly established that no change, however violent, which she might make in a Bible text could disturb their composure or provoke from them a protest. Her improved rendition of verse 53 went into the convention's report and appeared in a New York paper the next day. The (at that time) Scientist whom I mentioned a minute ago, and who had not been present at the convention, saw it and marvelled; marvelled and was indignant—indignant with the printer or the telegrapher, for making so careless and so dreadful an error. And greatly distressed, too; for, of course, the newspaper people would fall foul of it, and be sarcastic, and make fun of it, and have a blithe time over it, and be properly thankful for the chance. It shows how innocent he was; it shows that he did not know the limitations of newspaper men in the matter of Biblical knowledge. The new verse 53 raised no insurrection in the press; in fact, it was not even remarked upon; I could have told him the boys would not know there was anything the matter with it. I have been a newspaper man myself, and in those days I had my limitations like the others. The Scientist hastened to Concord and told Mrs. Eddy what a disastrous mistake had been made, but he found to his bewilderment that she was tranquil about it, and was not proposing to correct it. He was not able to get her to promise to make a correction. He asked her secretary if he had heard aright when the telegram was dictated to him; the secretary said he had, and took the filed copy of it and verified its authenticity by comparing it with the stenographic notes. Mrs. Eddy did make the correction, two months later, in her official organ. It attracted no attention among the Scientists; and, naturally, none elsewhere, for that periodical's circulation was practically confined to disciples of the cult. That is the tale as it was told to me by an ex-Scientist. Verse 53—renovated and spiritualized—had a narrow escape from a tremendous celebrity. The newspaper men would have made it as famous as the assassination of Caesar, but for their limitations. To return to the Claim. I find myself greatly embarrassed by Mrs. Eddy's remark: “I regard self-deification as blasphemous.” If she is right about that, I have written a half-ream of manuscript this past week which I must not print, either in the book which I am writing, or elsewhere: for it goes into that very matter with extensive elaboration, citing, in detail, words and acts of Mrs. Eddy's which seem to me to prove that she is a faithful and untiring worshipper of herself, and has carried self-deification to a length which has not been before ventured in ages. If ever. There is not room enough in this chapter for that Survey, but I can epitomize a portion of it here. With her own untaught and untrained mind, and without outside help, she has erected upon a firm and lasting foundation the most minutely perfect, and wonderful, and smoothly and exactly working, and best safe-guarded system of government that has yet been devised in the world, as I believe, and as I am sure I could prove if I had room for my documentary evidences here. It is a despotism (on this democratic soil); a sovereignty more absolute than the Roman Papacy, more absolute than the Russian Czarship; it has not a single power, not a shred of authority, legislative or executive, which is not lodged solely in the sovereign; all its dreams, its functions, its energies, have a single object, a single reason for existing, and only the one—to build to the sky the glory of the sovereign, and keep it bright to the end of time. Mrs. Eddy is the sovereign; she devised that great place for herself, she occupies that throne. In 1895, she wrote a little primer, a little body of autocratic laws, called the Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and put those laws in force, in permanence. Her government is all there; all in that deceptively innocent-looking little book, that cunning little devilish book, that slumbering little brown volcano, with hell in its bowels. In that book she has planned out her system, and classified and defined its purposes and powers. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). Christian Science. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3187/pg3187-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

MRS. EDDY IN ERROR

Our Pet Fox Finds a Tail

Christian Science by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . CHAPTER X here CHAPTER X There she stands-painted by herself. No witness but herself has been allowed to testify. She stands there painted by her acts, and decorated by her words. When she talks, she has only a decorative value as a witness, either for or against herself, for she deals mainly in unsupported assertion; and in the rare cases where she puts forward a verifiable fact she gets out of it a meaning which it refuses to furnish to anybody else. Also, when she talks, she is unstable, she wanders, she is incurably inconsistent; what she says to-day she contradicts tomorrow. But her acts are consistent. They are always faithful to her, they never misinterpret her, they are a mirror which always reflects her exactly, precisely, minutely, unerringly, and always the same, to date, with only those progressive little natural changes in stature, dress, complexion, mood, and carriage that mark—exteriorly—the march of the years and record the accumulations of experience, while—interiorly—through all this steady drift of evolution the one essential detail, the commanding detail, the master detail of the make-up remains as it was in the beginning, suffers no change and can suffer none; the basis of the character; the temperament, the disposition, that indestructible iron framework upon which the character is built, and whose shape it must take, and keep, throughout life. We call it a person's nature. The man who is born stingy can be taught to give liberally—with his hands; but not with his heart. The man born kind and compassionate can have that disposition crushed down out of sight by embittering experience; but if it were an organ the post-mortem would find it still in his corpse. The man born ambitious of power and glory may live long without finding it out, but when the opportunity comes he will know, will strike for the largest thing within the limit of his chances at the time-constable, perhaps—and will be glad and proud when he gets it, and will write home about it. But he will not stop with that start; his appetite will come again; and by-and-by again, and yet again; and when he has climbed to police commissioner it will at last begin to dawn upon him that what his Napoleon soul wants and was born for is something away higher up—he does not quite know what, but Circumstance and Opportunity will indicate the direction and he will cut a road through and find out. I think Mrs. Eddy was born with a far-seeing business-eye, but did not know it; and with a great organizing and executive talent, and did not know it; and with a large appetite for power and distinction, and did not know it. I think the reason that her make did not show up until middle life was that she had General Grant's luck—Circumstance and Opportunity did not come her way when she was younger. The qualities that were born in her had to wait for circumstance and opportunity—but they were there: they were there to stay, whether they ever got a chance to fructify or not. If they had come early, they would have found her ready and competent. And they—not she—would have determined what they would set her at and what they would make of her. If they had elected to commission her as second-assistant cook in a bankrupt boarding-house, I know the rest of it—I know what would have happened. She would have owned the boarding-house within six months; she would have had the late proprietor on salary and humping himself, as the worldly say; she would have had that boarding-house spewing money like a mint; she would have worked the servants and the late landlord up to the limit; she would have squeezed the boarders till they wailed, and by some mysterious quality born in her she would have kept the affections of certain of the lot whose love and esteem she valued, and flung the others down the back area; in two years she would own all the boarding-houses in the town, in five all the boarding-houses in the State, in twenty all the hotels in America, in forty all the hotels on the planet, and would sit at home with her finger on a button and govern the whole combination as easily as a bench-manager governs a dog-show. It would be a grand thing to see, and I feel a kind of disappointment—but never mind, a religion is better and larger; and there is more to it. And I have not been steeping myself in Christian Science all these weeks without finding out that the one sensible thing to do with a disappointment is to put it out of your mind and think of something cheerfuler. We outsiders cannot conceive of Mrs. Eddy's Christian Science Religion as being a sudden and miraculous birth, but only as a growth from a seed planted by circumstances, and developed stage by stage by command and compulsion of the same force. What the stages were we cannot know, but are privileged to guess. She may have gotten the mental-healing idea from Quimby—it had been experimented with for ages, and was no one's special property. [For the present, for convenience' sake, let us proceed upon the hypothesis that that was all she got of him, and that she put up the rest of the assets herself. This will strain us, but let us try it.] In each and all its forms and under all its many names, mental healing had had limits, always, and they were rather narrow ones—Mrs. Eddy, let us imagine, removed the fence, abolished the frontiers. Not by expanding mental-healing, but by absorbing its small bulk into the vaster bulk of Christian Science—Divine Science, The Holy Ghost, the Comforter—which was a quite different and sublimer force, and one which had long lain dormant and unemployed. The Christian Scientist believes that the Spirit of God (life and love) pervades the universe like an atmosphere; that whoso will study Science and Health can get from it the secret of how to inhale that transforming air; that to breathe it is to be made new; that from the new man all sorrow, all care, all miseries of the mind vanish away, for that only peace, contentment and measureless joy can live in that divine fluid; that it purifies the body from disease, which is a vicious creation of the gross human mind, and cannot continue to exist in the presence of the Immortal Mind, the renewing Spirit of God. The Scientist finds this reasonable, natural, and not harder to believe than that the disease germ, a creature of darkness, perishes when exposed to the light of the great sun—a new revelation of profane science which no one doubts. He reminds us that the actinic ray, shining upon lupus, cures it—a horrible disease which was incurable fifteen years ago, and had been incurable for ten million years before; that this wonder, unbelievable by the physicians at first, is believed by them now; and so he is tranquilly confident that the time is coming when the world will be educated up to a point where it will comprehend and grant that the light of the Spirit of God, shining unobstructed upon the soul, is an actinic ray which can purge both mind and body from disease and set them free and make them whole. It is apparent, then, that in Christian Science it is not one man's mind acting upon another man's mind that heals; that it is solely the Spirit of God that heals; that the healer's mind performs no office but to convey that force to the patient; that it is merely the wire which carries the electric fluid, so to speak, and delivers the message. Therefore, if these things be true, mental-healing and Science-healing are separate and distinct processes, and no kinship exists between them. To heal the body of its ills and pains is a mighty benefaction, but in our day our physicians and surgeons work a thousand miracles—prodigies which would have ranked as miracles fifty years ago—and they have so greatly extended their domination over disease that we feel so well protected that we are able to look with a good deal of composure and absence of hysterics upon the claims of new competitors in that field. But there is a mightier benefaction than the healing of the body, and that is the healing of the spirit—which is Christian Science's other claim. So far as I know, so far as I can find out, it makes it good. Personally I have not known a Scientist who did not seem serene, contented, unharassed. I have not found an outsider whose observation of Scientists furnished him a view that differed from my own. Buoyant spirits, comfort of mind, freedom from care these happinesses we all have, at intervals; but in the spaces between, dear me, the black hours! They have put a curse upon the life of every human being I have ever known, young or old. I concede not a single exception. Unless it might be those Scientists just referred to. They may have been playing a part with me; I hope they were not, and I believe they were not. Time will test the Science's claim. If time shall make it good; if time shall prove that the Science can heal the persecuted spirit of man and banish its troubles and keep it serene and sunny and content—why, then Mrs. Eddy will have a monument that will reach above the clouds. For if she did not hit upon that imperial idea and evolve it and deliver it, its discoverer can never be identified with certainty, now, I think. It is the giant feature, it is the sun that rides in the zenith of Christian Science, the auxiliary features are of minor consequence [Let us still leave the large “if” aside, for the present, and proceed as if it had no existence.] It is not supposable that Mrs. Eddy realized, at first, the size of her plunder. (No, find—that is the word; she did not realize the size of her find, at first.) It had to grow upon her, by degrees, in accordance with the inalterable custom of Circumstance, which works by stages, and by stages only, and never furnishes any mind with all the materials for a large idea at one time. In the beginning, Mrs. Eddy was probably interested merely in the mental-healing detail, and perhaps mainly interested in it pecuniary, for she was poor. She would succeed in anything she undertook. She would attract pupils, and her commerce would grow. She would inspire in patient and pupil confidence in her earnestness, her history is evidence that she would not fail of that. There probably came a time, in due course, when her students began to think there was something deeper in her teachings than they had been suspecting—a mystery beyond mental-healing, and higher. It is conceivable that by consequence their manner towards her changed little by little, and from respectful became reverent. It is conceivable that this would have an influence upon her; that it would incline her to wonder if their secret thought—that she was inspired—might not be a well-grounded guess. It is conceivable that as time went on the thought in their minds and its reflection in hers might solidify into conviction. She would remember, then, that as a child she had been called, more than once, by a mysterious voice—just as had happened to little Samuel. (Mentioned in her Autobiography.) She would be impressed by that ancient reminiscence, now, and it could have a prophetic meaning for her. It is conceivable that the persuasive influences around her and within her would give a new and powerful impulse to her philosophizings, and that from this, in time, would result that great birth, the healing of body and mind by the inpouring of the Spirit of God—the central and dominant idea of Christian Science—and that when this idea came she would not doubt that it was an inspiration direct from Heaven. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). Christian Science. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3187/pg3187-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

SHE STANDS-PAINTED BY HERSELF

Christian Science by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . CHAPTER V here CHAPTER V It is hard to locate her, she shifts about so much. She is a shining drop of quicksilver which you put your finger on and it isn't there. There is a paragraph in the Autobiography (page 96) which places in seemingly darkly significant procession three Personages: The Virgin Mary 2. Jesus of Nazareth. 3. Mrs. Eddy. This is the paragraph referred to: “No person can take the individual place of the Virgin Mary. No person can compass or fulfil the individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No person can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity.” I have read it many times, but I still cannot be sure that I rightly understand it. If the Saviour's name had been placed first and the Virgin Mary's second and Mrs. Eddy's third, I should draw the inference that a descending scale from First Importance to Second Importance and then to Small Importance was indicated; but to place the Virgin first, the Saviour second, and Mrs. Eddy third, seems to turn the scale the other way and make it an ascending scale of Importances, with Mrs. Eddy ranking the other two and holding first place. I think that that was perhaps the intention, but none but a seasoned Christian Scientist can examine a literary animal of Mrs. Eddy's creation and tell which end of it the tail is on. She is easily the most baffling and bewildering writer in the literary trade. Eddy is a commonplace name, and would have an unimpressive aspect in the list of the reformed Holy Family. She has thought of that. In the book of By-laws written by her—“impelled by a power not one's own”—there is a paragraph which explains how and when her disciples came to confer a title upon her; and this explanation is followed by a warning as to what will happen to any female Scientist who shall desecrate it: “The title of Mother. Therefore if a student of Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself or to others, except as the term for kinship according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an indication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus, and unfitness to be a member of the Mother-Church.” She is the Pastor Emeritus. While the quoted paragraph about the Procession seems to indicate that Mrs. Eddy is expecting to occupy the First Place in it, that expectation is not definitely avowed. In an earlier utterance of hers she is clearer—clearer, and does not claim the first place all to herself, but only the half of it. I quote from Mr. Peabody's book again: “In the Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, when it was her property, and published by her, it was claimed for her, and with her sanction, that she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to establish the claim. “Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in her behalf that she herself was the chosen successor to and equal of Jesus.” In her Miscellaneous Writings (using her once favorite “We” for “I”) she says that “While we entertain decided views... and shall express them as duty demands, we shall claim no especial gift from our divine origin,” etc. Our divine origin. It suggests Equal again. It is inferable, then, that in the near by-and-by the new Church will officially rank the Holy Family in the following order: Jesus of Nazareth.—1. Our Mother. 2. The Virgin Mary. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). Christian Science. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3187/pg3187-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

It is hard to locate her, she shifts about so much

Christian Science by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . CHAPTER I here CHAPTER I JANUARY, 1903. When we do not know a public man personally, we guess him out by the facts of his career. When it is Washington, we all arrive at about one and the same result. We agree that his words and his acts clearly interpret his character to us, and that they never leave us in doubt as to the motives whence the words and acts proceeded. It is the same with Joan of Arc, it is the same with two or three or five or six others among the immortals. But in the matter of motives and of a few details of character we agree to disagree upon Napoleon, Cromwell, and all the rest; and to this list we must add Mrs. Eddy. I think we can peacefully agree as to two or three extraordinary features of her make-up, but not upon the other features of it. We cannot peacefully agree as to her motives, therefore her character must remain crooked to some of us and straight to the others. No matter, she is interesting enough without an amicable agreement. In several ways she is the most interesting woman that ever lived, and the most extraordinary. The same may be said of her career, and the same may be said of its chief result. She started from nothing. Her enemies charge that she surreptitiously took from Quimby a peculiar system of healing which was mind-cure with a Biblical basis. She and her friends deny that she took anything from him. This is a matter which we can discuss by-and-by. Whether she took it or invented it, it was—materially—a sawdust mine when she got it, and she has turned it into a Klondike; its spiritual dock had next to no custom, if any at all: from it she has launched a world-religion which has now six hundred and sixty-three churches, and she charters a new one every four days. When we do not know a person—and also when we do—we have to judge his size by the size and nature of his achievements, as compared with the achievements of others in his special line of business—there is no other way. Measured by this standard, it is thirteen hundred years since the world has produced any one who could reach up to Mrs. Eddy's waistbelt. Figuratively speaking, Mrs. Eddy is already as tall as the Eiffel tower. She is adding surprisingly to her stature every day. It is quite within the probabilities that a century hence she will be the most imposing figure that has cast its shadow across the globe since the inauguration of our era. I grant that after saying these strong things, it is necessary that I offer some details calculated to satisfactorily demonstrate the proportions which I have claimed for her. I will do that presently; but before exhibiting the matured sequoia gigantea, I believe it will be best to exhibit the sprout from which it sprang. It may save the reader from making miscalculations. The person who imagines that a Big Tree sprout is bigger than other kinds of sprouts is quite mistaken. It is the ordinary thing; it makes no show, it compels no notice, it hasn't a detectible quality in it that entitles it to attention, or suggests the future giant its sap is suckling. That is the kind of sprout Mrs. Eddy was. From her childhood days up to where she was running a half-century a close race and gaining on it, she was most humanly commonplace. She is the witness I am drawing this from. She has revealed it in her autobiography not intentionally, of course—I am not claiming that. An autobiography is the most treacherous thing there is. It lets out every secret its author is trying to keep; it lets the truth shine unobstructed through every harmless little deception he tries to play; it pitilessly exposes him as a tin hero worshipping himself as Big Metal every time he tries to do the modest-unconsciousness act before the reader. This is not guessing; I am speaking from autobiographical personal experience; I was never able to refrain from mentioning, with a studied casualness that could deceive none but the most incautious reader, that an ancestor of mine was sent ambassador to Spain by Charles I., nor that in a remote branch of my family there exists a claimant to an earldom, nor that an uncle of mine used to own a dog that was descended from the dog that was in the Ark; and at the same time I was never able to persuade myself to call a gibbet by its right name when accounting for other ancestors of mine, but always spoke of it as the “platform”—puerilely intimating that they were out lecturing when it happened. It is Mrs. Eddy over again. As regards her minor half, she is as commonplace as the rest of us. Vain of trivial things all the first half of her life, and still vain of them at seventy and recording them with naive satisfaction—even rescuing some early rhymes of hers of the sort that we all scribble in the innocent days of our youth—rescuing them and printing them without pity or apology, just as the weakest and commonest of us do in our gray age. More—she still frankly admires them; and in her introduction of them profanely confers upon them the holy name of “poetry.” Sample: “And laud the land whose talents rock
     The cradle of her power,
     And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock
     From erudition's bower.”

     “Minerva's silver sandals still
     Are loosed and not effete.” You note it is not a shade above the thing which all human beings churn out in their youth. You would not think that in a little wee primer—for that is what the Autobiography is—a person with a tumultuous career of seventy years behind her could find room for two or three pages of padding of this kind, but such is the case. She evidently puts narrative together with difficulty and is not at home in it, and is glad to have something ready-made to fill in with. Another sample: “Here fame-honored Hickory rears his bold form,
     And bears a brave breast to the lightning and storm,
     While Palm, Bay, and Laurel in classical glee,
     Chase Tulip, Magnolia, and fragrant Fringe-tree.” Vivid? You can fairly see those trees galloping around. That she could still treasure up, and print, and manifestly admire those Poems, indicates that the most daring and masculine and masterful woman that has appeared in the earth in centuries has the same soft, girly-girly places in her that the rest of us have. When it comes to selecting her ancestors she is still human, natural, vain, commonplace—as commonplace as I am myself when I am sorting ancestors for my autobiography. She combs out some creditable Scots, and labels them and sets them aside for use, not overlooking the one to whom Sir William Wallace gave “a heavy sword encased in a brass scabbard,” and naively explaining which Sir William Wallace it was, lest we get the wrong one by the hassock; this is the one “from whose patriotism and bravery comes that heart-stirring air, 'Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled.'” Hannah More was related to her ancestors. She explains who Hannah More was. Whenever a person informs us who Sir William Wallace was, or who wrote “Hamlet,” or where the Declaration of Independence was fought, it fills us with a suspicion wellnigh amounting to conviction, that that person would not suspect us of being so empty of knowledge if he wasn't suffering from the same “claim” himself. Then we turn to page 20 of the Autobiography and happen upon this passage, and that hasty suspicion stands rebuked: “I gained book-knowledge with far less labor than is usually requisite. At ten years of age I was as familiar with Lindley Murray's Grammar as with the Westminster Catechism; and the latter I had to repeat every Sunday. My favorite studies were Natural Philosophy, Logic, and Moral Science. From my brother Albert I received lessons in the ancient tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.” You catch your breath in astonishment, and feel again and still again the pang of that rebuke. But then your eye falls upon the next sentence but one, and the pain passes away and you set up the suspicion again with evil satisfaction: “After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the knowledge I had gleaned from school-books vanished like a dream.” That disappearance accounts for much in her miscellaneous writings. As I was saying, she handles her “ancestral shadows,” as she calls them, just as I do mine. It is remarkable. When she runs across “a relative of my Grandfather Baker, General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame,” she sets him down; when she finds another good one, “the late Sir John Macneill, in the line of my Grandfather Baker's family,” she sets him down, and remembers that he “was prominent in British politics, and at one time held the position of ambassador to Persia”; when she discovers that her grandparents “were likewise connected with Captain John Lovewell, whose gallant leadership and death in the Indian troubles of 1722-25 caused that prolonged contest to be known historically as Lovewell's War,” she sets the Captain down; when it turns out that a cousin of her grandmother “was John Macneill, the New Hampshire general, who fought at Lundy's Lane and won distinction in 1814 at the battle of Chippewa,” she catalogues the General. (And tells where Chippewa was.) And then she skips all her platform people; never mentions one of them. It shows that she is just as human as any of us. Yet, after all, there is something very touching in her pride in these worthy small-fry, and something large and fine in her modesty in not caring to remember that their kinship to her can confer no distinction upon her, whereas her mere mention of their names has conferred upon them a faceless earthly immortality. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). Christian Science. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3187/pg3187-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

JANUARY, 1903

Christian Science by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . It was a night of anguish here CHAPTER II It was a night of anguish, of course—at least, I supposed it was, for it had all the symptoms of it—but it passed at last, and the Christian Scientist came, and I was glad She was middle-aged, and large and bony, and erect, and had an austere face and a resolute jaw and a Roman beak and was a widow in the third degree, and her name was Fuller. I was eager to get to business and find relief, but she was distressingly deliberate. She unpinned and unhooked and uncoupled her upholsteries one by one, abolished the wrinkles with a flirt of her hand, and hung the articles up; peeled off her gloves and disposed of them, got a book out of her hand-bag, then drew a chair to the bedside, descended into it without hurry, and I hung out my tongue. She said, with pity but without passion: “Return it to its receptacle. We deal with the mind only, not with its dumb servants.” I could not offer my pulse, because the connection was broken; but she detected the apology before I could word it, and indicated by a negative tilt of her head that the pulse was another dumb servant that she had no use for. Then I thought I would tell her my symptoms and how I felt, so that she would understand the case; but that was another inconsequence, she did not need to know those things; moreover, my remark about how I felt was an abuse of language, a misapplication of terms. “One does not feel,” she explained; “there is no such thing as feeling: therefore, to speak of a non-existent thing as existent is a contradiction. Matter has no existence; nothing exists but mind; the mind cannot feel pain, it can only imagine it.” “But if it hurts, just the same—” “It doesn't. A thing which is unreal cannot exercise the functions of reality. Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot hurt.” In making a sweeping gesture to indicate the act of shooing the illusion of pain out of the mind, she raked her hand on a pin in her dress, said “Ouch!” and went tranquilly on with her talk. “You should never allow yourself to speak of how you feel, nor permit others to ask you how you are feeling; you should never concede that you are ill, nor permit others to talk about disease or pain or death or similar nonexistences in your presence. Such talk only encourages the mind to continue its empty imaginings.” Just at that point the Stuben-madchen trod on the cat's tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of cat-profanity. I asked, with caution: “Is a cat's opinion about pain valuable?” “A cat has no opinion; opinions proceed from mind only; the lower animals, being eternally perishable, have not been granted mind; without mind, opinion is impossible.” “She merely imagined she felt a pain—the cat?” “She cannot imagine a pain, for imagining is an effect of mind; without mind, there is no imagination. A cat has no imagination.” “Then she had a real pain?” “I have already told you there is no such thing as real pain.” “It is strange and interesting. I do wonder what was the matter with the cat. Because, there being no such thing as a real pain, and she not being able to imagine an imaginary one, it would seem that God in His pity has compensated the cat with some kind of a mysterious emotion usable when her tail is trodden on which, for the moment, joins cat and Christian in one common brotherhood of—” She broke in with an irritated— “Peace! The cat feels nothing, the Christian feels nothing. Your empty and foolish imaginings are profanation and blasphemy, and can do you an injury. It is wiser and better and holier to recognize and confess that there is no such thing as disease or pain or death.” “I am full of imaginary tortures,” I said, “but I do not think I could be any more uncomfortable if they were real ones. What must I do to get rid of them?” “There is no occasion to get rid of them since they do not exist. They are illusions propagated by matter, and matter has no existence; there is no such thing as matter.” “It sounds right and clear, but yet it seems in a degree elusive; it seems to slip through, just when you think you are getting a grip on it.” “Explain.” “Well, for instance: if there is no such thing as matter, how can matter propagate things?” In her compassion she almost smiled. She would have smiled if there were any such thing as a smile. “It is quite simple,” she said; “the fundamental propositions of Christian Science explain it, and they are summarized in the four following self-evident propositions: 1. God is All in all. 2. God is good. Good is Mind 3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter 4. Life, God, omnipotent Good, deny death, evil, sin, disease. “There—now you see.” It seemed nebulous; it did not seem to say anything about the difficulty in hand—how non-existent matter can propagate illusions I said, with some hesitancy: “Does—does it explain?” “Doesn't it? Even if read backward it will do it.” With a budding hope, I asked her to do it backwards. “Very well. Disease sin evil death deny Good omnipotent God life matter is nothing all being Spirit God Mind is Good good is God all in All is God. There do you understand now? “It—it—well, it is plainer than it was before; still—” “Well?” “Could you try it some more ways?” “As many as you like; it always means the same. Interchanged in any way you please it cannot be made to mean anything different from what it means when put in any other way. Because it is perfect. You can jumble it all up, and it makes no difference: it always comes out the way it was before. It was a marvelous mind that produced it. As a mental tour de force it is without a mate, it defies alike the simple, the concrete, and the occult.” “It seems to be a corker.” I blushed for the word, but it was out before I could stop it. “A what?” “A—wonderful structure—combination, so to speak, of profound thoughts—unthinkable ones—um—” “It is true. Read backward, or forward, or perpendicularly, or at any given angle, these four propositions will always be found to agree in statement and proof.” “Ah—proof. Now we are coming at it. The statements agree; they agree with—with—anyway, they agree; I noticed that; but what is it they prove I mean, in particular?” “Why, nothing could be clearer. They prove: “1. GOD—Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind. Do you get that?” “I—well, I seem to. Go on, please.” “2. MAN—God's universal idea, individual, perfect, eternal. Is it clear?” “It—I think so. Continue.” “3. IDEA—An image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding. There it is—the whole sublime Arcana of Christian Science in a nutshell. Do you find a weak place in it anywhere?” “Well—no; it seems strong.” “Very well There is more. Those three constitute the Scientific Definition of Immortal Mind. Next, we have the Scientific Definition of Mortal Mind. Thus. FIRST DEGREE: Depravity I. Physical-Passions and appetites, fear, depraved will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, sin, disease, death.” “Phantasms, madam—unrealities, as I understand it.” “Every one. SECOND DEGREE: Evil Disappearing. I. Moral-Honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. Is it clear?” “Crystal.” “THIRD DEGREE: Spiritual Salvation. I. Spiritual-Faith, wisdom, power, purity, understanding, health, love. You see how searchingly and co-ordinately interdependent and anthropomorphous it all is. In this Third Degree, as we know by the revelations of Christian Science, mortal mind disappears.” “Not earlier?” “No, not until the teaching and preparation for the Third Degree are completed.” “It is not until then that one is enabled to take hold of Christian Science effectively, and with the right sense of sympathy and kinship, as I understand you. That is to say, it could not succeed during the processes of the Second Degree, because there would still be remains of mind left; and therefore—but I interrupted you. You were about to further explain the good results proceeding from the erosions and disintegrations effected by the Third Degree. It is very interesting; go on, please.” “Yes, as I was saying, in this Third Degree mortal mind disappears. Science so reverses the evidence before the corporeal human senses as to make this scriptural testimony true in our hearts, 'the last shall be first and the first shall be last,' that God and His idea may be to us—what divinity really is, and must of necessity be all-inclusive.” “It is beautiful. And with what exhaustive exactness your choice and arrangement of words confirm and establish what you have claimed for the powers and functions of the Third Degree. The Second could probably produce only temporary absence of mind; it is reserved to the Third to make it permanent. A sentence framed under the auspices of the Second could have a kind of meaning—a sort of deceptive semblance of it—whereas it is only under the magic of the Third that that defect would disappear. Also, without doubt, it is the Third Degree that contributes another remarkable specialty to Christian Science—viz., ease and flow and lavishness of words, and rhythm and swing and smoothness. There must be a special reason for this?” “Yes—God—all, all—God, good God, non-Matter, Matteration, Spirit, Bones, Truth.” “That explains it.” “There is nothing in Christian Science that is not explicable; for God is one, Time is one, Individuality is one, and may be one of a series, one of many, as an individual man, individual horse; whereas God is one, not one of a series, but one alone and without an equal.” “These are noble thoughts. They make one burn to know more. How does Christian Science explain the spiritual relation of systematic duality to incidental deflection?” “Christian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and body—as astronomy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar system—and makes body tributary to the Mind. As it is the earth which is in motion, While the sun is at rest, though in viewing the sun rise one finds it impossible to believe the sun not to be really rising, so the body is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems otherwise to finite sense; but we shall never understand this while we admit that soul is in body, or mind in matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence. Soul is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man coexists with and reflects Soul, for the All-in-all is the Altogether, and the Altogether embraces the All-one, Soul-Mind, Mind-Soul, Love, Spirit, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and without an equal.” “What is the origin of Christian Science? Is it a gift of God, or did it just happen?” “In a sense, it is a gift of God. That is to say, its powers are from Him, but the credit of the discovery of the powers and what they are for is due to an American lady.” “Indeed? When did this occur?” “In 1866. That is the immortal date when pain and disease and death disappeared from the earth to return no more forever. That is, the fancies for which those terms stand disappeared. The things themselves had never existed; therefore, as soon as it was perceived that there were no such things, they were easily banished. The history and nature of the great discovery are set down in the book here, and—” “Did the lady write the book?” “Yes, she wrote it all, herself. The title is Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures—for she explains the Scriptures; they were not understood before. Not even by the twelve Disciples. She begins thus—I will read it to you.” But she had forgotten to bring her glasses. “Well, it is no matter,” she said. “I remember the words—indeed, all Christian Scientists know the book by heart; it is necessary in our practice. We should otherwise make mistakes and do harm. She begins thus: 'In the year 1866 I discovered the Science of Metaphysical Healing, and named it Christian Science.' And She says quite beautifully, I think—'Through Christian Science, religion and medicine are inspired with a diviner nature and essence, fresh pinions are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts acquaint themselves intelligently with God.' Her very words.” “It is elegant. And it is a fine thought, too—marrying religion to medicine, instead of medicine to the undertaker in the old way; for religion and medicine properly belong together, they being the basis of all spiritual and physical health. What kind of medicine do you give for the ordinary diseases, such as—” “We never give medicine in any circumstances whatever! We—” “But, madam, it says—” “I don't care what it says, and I don't wish to talk about it.” “I am sorry if I have offended, but you see the mention seemed in some way inconsistent, and—” “There are no inconsistencies in Christian Science. The thing is impossible, for the Science is absolute. It cannot be otherwise, since it proceeds directly from the All-in-all and the Everything-in-Which, also Soul, Bones, Truth, one of a series, alone and without equal. It is Mathematics purified from material dross and made spiritual.” “I can see that, but—” “It rests upon the immovable basis of an Apodictical Principle.” The word flattened itself against my mind in trying to get in, and disordered me a little, and before I could inquire into its pertinency, she was already throwing the needed light: “This Apodictical Principle is the absolute Principle of Scientific Mind-healing, the sovereign Omnipotence which delivers the children of men from pain, disease, decay, and every ill that flesh is heir to.” “Surely not every ill, every decay?” “Every one; there are no exceptions; there is no such thing as decay—it is an unreality, it has no existence.” “But without your glasses your failing eyesight does not permit you to—” “My eyesight cannot fail; nothing can fail; the Mind is master, and the Mind permits no retrogression.” She was under the inspiration of the Third Degree, therefore there could be no profit in continuing this part of the subject. I shifted to other ground and inquired further concerning the Discoverer of the Science. “Did the discovery come suddenly, like Klondike, or after long study and calculation, like America?” “The comparisons are not respectful, since they refer to trivialities—but let it pass. I will answer in the Discoverer's own words: 'God had been graciously fitting me, during many years, for the reception of a final revelation of the absolute Principle of Scientific Mind-healing.'” “Many years. How many?” “Eighteen centuries!” “All—God, God—good, good—God, Truth, Bones, Liver, one of a series, alone and without equal—it is amazing!” “You may well say it, sir. Yet it is but the truth This American lady, our revered and sacred Founder, is distinctly referred to, and her coming prophesied, in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse; she could not have been more plainly indicated by St. John without actually mentioning her name.” “How strange, how wonderful!” “I will quote her own words, from her Key to the Scriptures: 'The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse has a special suggestiveness in connection with this nineteenth century.' There—do you note that? Think—note it well.” “But—what does it mean?” “Listen, and you will know. I quote her inspired words again: 'In the opening of the Sixth Seal, typical of six thousand years since Adam, there is one distinctive feature which has special reference to the present age. Thus: “'Revelation xii. I. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven—a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.' “That is our Head, our Chief, our Discoverer of Christian Science—nothing can be plainer, nothing surer. And note this: “'Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God.' “That is Boston. I recognize it, madam. These are sublime things, and impressive; I never understood these passages before; please go on with the—with the—proofs.” “Very well. Listen: “'And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he held in his hand a little book.' “A little book, merely a little book—could words be modester? Yet how stupendous its importance! Do you know what book that was?” “Was it—” “I hold it in my hand—Christian Science!” “Love, Livers, Lights, Bones, Truth, Kidneys, one of a series, alone and without equal—it is beyond imagination for wonder!” “Hear our Founder's eloquent words: 'Then will a voice from harmony cry, “Go and take the little book: take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter; but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.” Mortal, obey the heavenly evangel. Take up Divine Science. Read it from beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be, indeed, sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter.' You now know the history of our dear and holy Science, sir, and that its origin is not of this earth, but only its discovery. I will leave the book with you and will go, now; but give yourself no uneasiness—I will give you absent treatment from now till I go to bed.” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). Christian Science. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3187/pg3187-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

It was a night of anguish

AT THE SHRINE OF ST. WAGNER

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