time. Of all those, who since the Wesleys
have inaugurated and carried through a distinct religious movement, only
Alexander Campbell is in the same class with Mrs. Eddy and Campbell had
behind him the traditional force of the Protestantism to which he gave
only a slightly new direction and colouring. Mrs. Eddy's contributions
are far more distinct and radical.

We need, then, to turn from her life, upon whose lights and shadows,
inconsistencies and intricacies, we have touched all too lightly, to
seek in "Science and Health" and the later development of Christian
Science at once the secret of the power of the movement and its
significance for our time.

V

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AS A PHILOSOPHY

Christian science has a considerable group of authorized publications
and a well-conducted department of publicity. Its public propaganda is
carried on by means of occasional lectures, always extremely well
advertised and through its reading rooms and periodicals. Its
unadvertised propaganda is carried on, naturally, by its adherents.
Every instance of obscure or protracted illness offers it an opportunity
and such opportunities are by no means neglected. But the supreme
authority in Christian Science is Mary Baker Eddy's work "Science and
Health." This is read at every Sunday service and is the basis of all
lectures and explanatory advertisements. In general its exponents do not
substantially depart from the teachings of its book, nor, such is the
discipline of the cult, do they dare to. There are doubtless such
modifications of its more extreme and impossible contentions as every
religion of authority experiences. Christian Science cannot remain
unaffected by discussion and the larger movements of thought. But it has
not as yet markedly departed from the doctrines of its founder and must
thereby be judged.

The book in its final form represents a considerable evolution. The
comparison of successive editions reveals an astonishing amount of
matter which has been discarded, although there has been no real
modification of its fundamental principles. References to malicious
animal magnetism which fill a large place in the earlier editions, are
almost wholly wanting in the last, and there has been a decided progress
toward a relative simplicity of statements. The book is doubtless much
in debt to Mrs. Eddy's literary adviser, Mr. Wiggins, who brought to the
revision of Mrs. Eddy's writings a conscientious fidelity. One ne