Article September 15, 1923 Issue

Definition

ETTA M. GILBREATH

The freedom of thought given the world by Mrs. Eddy's correct metaphysical definitions is without doubt a blessing difficult at present to estimate. Mortals have heretofore taken things for granted, especially those things of most common and necessary usage. They have not stopped to define, but have plunged headlong into the stream of so-called physical life, and pulled for the shore on the other side without chart or compass, map or instructions,—without, in fact, being able to see the shore, or even being certain that there is a shore. They have taken the stream of life for granted, just as they have everything else, because of the testimony of material sense.

And as for defining! There has been little time for that. The child had to grow to be a man, although he never asked himself what a man is. The man had to earn a living, although he never stopped to inquire what "a living" meant, or wherefore he had to earn it. The woman had her woman's work,—to bear and rear her children, perhaps. But what those children were, or why she should rear them, she did not stop to question. Later, all must grow old and die! Why? What are old age and death? Who would bother to ask such questions; and, moreover, there was no answer to them, no way to know! And then, all that seemed paradoxical, unreasonable, and unanswerable—those things which simply could not be understood in mortal obtuseness—were hurriedly given over to God. "God knows; I don't," mortals exclaim; and on they swim again. Who is God? "How foolish!" mortals reply. "Everybody knows that." What is God? "How utterly foolish; as if anybody knew or had time to think!" If anybody did take time to comment on this common lack of understanding, he was called a dreamer or an abstract philosopher, even though he did not in the end answer the question or explain his comment on the truth. In the words of a Persian poet,—

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