Article April 26, 1919 Issue

The innate selfishness and overwhelming materiality of...

The Christian Science Monitor

The innate selfishness and overwhelming materiality of the human mind have caused it to prostitute the ideal of kingship. Ideally the king was the father of his people, and being their father was naturally also their servant. The family, in this way, becomes at once the microcosm and model of the kingdom. The empire, indeed, though it may be best to call it the commonwealth, only expresses the expansion of the family into the tribe, the tribe into the family of tribes or the nation, and the nation into the family of nations or the nations or the empire. If the ideal is held to, the constitutional monarch becomes the father and servant of his people. The question, however, of course arises, human nature being nothing but a counterfeit of the real or divine, Can the ideal be held to or attained? In it possible for a man born in the purple to escape the purple stain? And to this history has returned an emphatic and ominous No.

The stern republican in the street will tell you that the ideal is unobtainable because you cannot change human nature. The conclusion of the republican is more scientific than he knows. But he is illogical in that he does not perceive that, by reason of his own premise, the genus republican contains all the instinct of domination to be found in the monarchical genus; in short, that the republican is simply a monarchist who, through a clearer perception of Principle, has subjected his human inclinations to certain self-denying ordinances.

It is at this point that the metaphysician takes up the argument and directs his attention to those mental causes which have their manifestation in human actions. If, however, the metaphysician confines himself to the examination of the human mind, he gets no further in his quest than the disciples of the innumerable schools which have descended from the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. It is only when he deserts the pagan schools for the teachings of the New Testament, the original source of Christian metaphysics, that he can begin to understand what Mrs. Eddy means when she writes on page 141 of Science and Health: "For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sovereignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The Bible declares that all believers are made kings and priests unto God.'"

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