one—the Nebular Theory. Upon that
one his flow of words was full and free, he was a
geyser. The official astronomers disputed his
facts and deeded his views, and said that he had invented
both, they not being findable in any of the books.
But many of the laity, who wanted their nebulosities
fresh, admired his doctrine and adopted it, and it
attained to great prosperity in spite of the hostility
of the experts.”—The Legend of the
Man-Mystery, ch.
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.
