roval of Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy."

MISSIONARIES

There are but four. They are elected--like the rest of the
domestics--annually. So far as I can discover, not a single servant of
the Sacred Household has a steady job except Mrs. Eddy. It is plain that
she trusts no human being but herself.

THE BY-LAWS

The branch Churches are strictly forbidden to use them.

So far as I can see, they could not do it if they wanted to. The By-laws
are merely the voice of the master issuing commands to the servants.
There is nothing and nobody for the servants to re-utter them to.

That useless edict is repeated in the little book, a few pages farther
on. There are several other repetitions of prohibitions in the book that
could be spared-they only take up room for nothing.

THE CREED It is copyrighted. I do not know why, but I suppose it is to
keep adventurers from some day claiming that they invented it, and
not Mrs. Eddy and that "strange Providence" that has suggested so many
clever things to her.

No Change. It is forbidden to change the Creed. That is important, at
any rate.

COPYRIGHT

I can understand why Mrs. Eddy copyrighted the early editions
and revisions of Science and Health, and why she had a mania for
copyrighting every scrap of every sort that came from her pen in those
jejune days when to be in print probably seemed a wonderful distinction
to her in her provincial obscurity, but why she should continue this
delirium in these days of her godship and her far-spread fame, I cannot
explain to myself. And particularly as regards Science and Health. She
knows, now, that that Annex is going to live for many centuries; and so,
what good is a fleeting forty-two-year copyright going to do it?

Now a perpetual copyright would be quite another matter. I would like to
give her a hint. Let her strike for a perpetual copyright on that book.
There is precedent for it. There is one book in the world which bears
the charmed life of perpetual copyright (a fact not known to twenty
people in the world). By a hardy perversion of privilege on the part of
the lawmaking power the Bible has perpetual copyright in Great Britain.
There is no justification for it in fairness, and no explanation of it
except that the Church is strong enough there to have its way, right
or wrong. The recent Revised Version enjoys perpetual copyright, too--a
stronger precedent, even, than the other one.

Now, then, what is the Ann