Article June 22, 1907 Issue

Mark Twain's reputation as a humorous writer hardly...

Mrs. Phillip Martineau—England.

The Onlooker,

There was once a clown who yearned to play tragedy, but who could never obtain a hearing owing to the peals of laughter which greeted him from a too faithful audience.

Mark Twain's reputation as a humorous writer hardly warrants his excursion into the deeper field of metaphysical healing. It is unnecessary to dwell on the bad taste of his humor, for it has been fully commented on by many of the leading papers; but his rapid flights from strong abuse to highest praise leave one in considerable doubt at the finish as to his object in writing such a book.

If it is to decry the Christian Science Leader, Mrs. Eddy, he fails on his own showing, for while abusing her in no measured terms, he cannot speak too highly in favor of Christian Science! He quotes from her book Science and Health (chapter on Prayer)—"The Divine Being must be reflected by man,—else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely,' " and does not see that unless she were reflecting the Divine, that it would have been impossible for her to have healed the sick (and without payment) during many years, as he relates in another part of his book. It seems as though Mark Twain, while partially reflecting the bitter hatred evil has for Mrs. Eddy, is forced by the power of Truth, involuntarily as it were, to admit here and there throughout his book the efficacy and wonder of that Power in healing sin and sickness—a power lost to us as regards practical demonstration since the third century, and made known to us again by Mrs. Eddy. He admits on p. 53 that Christian Science can banish four-fifths of the pain and disease in the world, and says (p. 268): "But there is a mightier benefaction than the healing of the body, and that is the healing of the Spirit, which is Christian Science's other claim. Personally, I have not known a Christian Scientist who did not seem serene, contented, unharassed. ... Time will test the Science's claim. If time shall make it good, if time shall prove that the Science can heal the persecuted spirit of man, why then Mrs. Eddy will have a monument that will reach above the clouds."

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