"The world," says Sir Henry Taylor in his famous play, Philip van Artevelde, "knows nothing of its greatest men." It certainly knows uncommonly little about Homer or Shakespeare, which is not exactly what Sir Henry meant, but it also has very much indeed to learn about Mary Baker Eddy, which is very much more what he was aiming at. Mrs. Eddy's life has been written, but very far from adequately. A great biography is, admittedly, a rara avis in this world, and a more difficult person than the Christian Science Leader of whom to write a life it would be hard to find. The Founder of the Christian Science movement lived in a realm so far removed from the aims and passions of this world that it would be difficult to reveal her to the man in the street in a way in which, bound by the prejudices of the street, he could comprehend her. "Acta exteriora indicant interiora secreta" (Outward actions are a clue to hidden secrets), however, say the old Roman law books, and in the public actions of Mrs. Eddy the world which knew her not may first find the key to the door of the depths of her love and compassion for humanity.

Mrs. Eddy did not fathom the secret of Christian Science in a moment. She did, perhaps, grasp in a moment the significance of the word Principle. But she had to plumb the depths of what Burns calls "man's inhumanity to man," and of something far deeper than this, the remote, exciting cause of this inhumanity, before she could begin to forge in Christian Science the weapon for his protection, that scientific understanding of Principle which meets his every need. This understanding of Principle she gave to the world in the Christian Science text-book in the year 1875, and gradually after that, all in their due season, she took the destined steps for the establishment of the movement.

The human mind is intensely material, and accepts reluctantly and rebelliously the mental effort to grasp spiritual things. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Christian Science movement started slowly, or that its early years witnessed a prolonged struggle with ignorance and prejudice. It was not only entrenched orthodoxy of every description which opposed it, but creeds and schools which only yesterday, as it were, had been themselves in the van of the battle for liberty. Still the progress of the movement was irresistible. First came the establishment of churches, an undertaking which, beginning with one tiny organization in Boston, has in far less than half a century, wrapped the churches of the movement like a cloak about the globe. Next came the publishing house, with its books, pamphlets, and periodicals, all flowing out with an ever-increasing volume and impetus to the uttermost parts of the earth. And then, after many years of patient waiting, the daily paper, which was to be the first to claim the suffrage not of a city or a country, but of the world.

All these and many other efforts Mrs. Eddy initiated, watched over, and guided to maturity and success. But even while she was doing this, other plans for the help and protection of mankind were conceived by her. One of these, which she had for some time wished to see an accomplished fact, is now being undertaken, and on another page of this paper something of its origin and evolution is for the first time made public. From this it is learned that almost twelve years ago Mrs. Eddy was planning for the foundation of an institution which should include within the scope of its activities the provision of such practical instruction in the methods of caring for those under treatment as was consistent with the teaching of Christian Science. Before her discovery of Christian Science Mrs. Eddy had experienced many of the sufferings of the sick-bed. She was filled with compassion for those who were turning in their sorrow and affliction to Christian Science for help; she saw, as no one else was capable of seeing, how the few inquirers of today would grow into the mighty army of tomorrow, and she wished to do everything in her power to extend the help of the movement to them in their necessities. She saw too, in her own words, that "our cause demands a wider circle of means for the ends of philanthropy and charity, and better qualifications for practical purposes," and so to those at this time and later in personal touch with her she poured forth her vision of the future and of all its possibilities.

The fact is that the world stands today in the dawn of a new era. The world which surrounded Mrs. Eddy when in the year 1866 the truth of Christian Science first dawned upon her consciousness, is slipping away, and it is, perhaps, too early to estimate her influence in bringing about the great changes which have taken place. When, however, it is realized that in that year there stood in the streets of Lynn one unknown woman, conscious of a wondrous revelation, and wondering how she should give it to the world, and that in the few years which have intervened the followers of that woman have built their churches and opened their reading-rooms, not in the state of Massachusetts alone but throughout the United States, not only in the United States but throughout two hemispheres, it becomes possible to measure the power of an idea. That power is not to be measured in cubic feet, but in terms of Mind. The influence of a paper, for instance, cannot be calculated in the number of its circulation, but in its power to express Principle. A faint indication of this may be found in the history of The Times, which with Delane for an editor and with a circulation of thirty thousand proved strong enough to move political mountains and to throw down the walls of social Jerichos.

It is in this way that the influence on human thought of Mrs. Eddy's teaching will have to be calculated. She lived so far in advance of anything the movement she founded has yet accomplished, as well as so far in advance of what the world is thinking, that years, perhaps, may pass before that world recognizes in its steady drift toward Principle the result of her influence. That is why the words of Sir Henry Taylor are so true of her,—"The world knows nothing of its greatest men."