n of well-being.

There is a sound element of wisdom in many of her injunctions, but more
needed perhaps fifty years ago than now. We must remember constantly
that Mrs. Eddy is writing against the backgrounds of a somber theology,
a medical practice which relied very greatly on the use of drugs which
was at the same time limited in its materia medica and too largely
experimental in its practice. She was writing before the day of the
trained nurse with her efficient poise. The atmosphere of a sick room is
not naturally cheerful and generally both the medical procedure and the
spiritual comfort of the sick room of the fifties and sixties did very
little to lighten depression. When, therefore, Mrs. Eddy urges, as she
does, an atmosphere of confidence and sympathy she is directly in the
right direction.

_Looseness of Christian Science Diagnosis_

As we pass beyond these things which are now commonplace, what she says
is not so simple. It is difficult to say how far the healing which
attends upon Christian Science is in her thought the result of Divine
Power immediately in exercise, and how far it is the outcome of
disciplines due to the acceptance of her theology and philosophy. It is
hard also to distinguish between the part the healer plays and the
contribution of the subject. There is no logical place in Christian
Science practice for physical diagnosis. "Physicians examine the pulse,
tongue, lungs, to discover the condition of matter, when in fact all is
Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind, and this so-called mind
must finally yield to the mandate of immortal Mind" (page 370).

The result of this in practice is that the Christian Science healer
accepts either the diagnosis of the medical schools, reported
second-hand or else the patient's own statement of his condition.
Needless to say there is room for very great looseness of diagnosis in
such a practice as this. The actuality of sickness must be recognized
neither directly nor indirectly. The sickness must not be thought or
talked. Here also, as far as the patient is concerned, is a procedure of
undebated value. It all comes back, as we shall see presently, to
suggestion, but any procedure which frees the patient from depressing
suggestion and substitutes therefor an encouraging suggestion is in the
right direction. At the same time those who are not Christian Scientists
would rather stubbornly believe that somebody must recognize the fact of
sickne