Chapter 76
Extremists in every age either doggedly deny or fran- tically affirm what is what: one renders not unto Caesar "the things that are Caesar's;" the other sees "Helen's [25]
beauty in a brow of Egypt."
Pictures are portions of one's ideal, but this ideal is not one's personality. Looking behind the veil, he that perceives a semblance between the thinker and his thought on canvas, blames him not. [30]
Because my ideal of an angel is a woman without _feathers_ on her wings,-is it less artistic or less natu-
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ral? Pictures which present disordered phases of ma- [1]
terial conceptions and personality blind with animality, are not my concepts of angels. What is the material ego, but the counterfeit of the spiritual?
The truest art of Christian Science is to be a Chris- [5]
tian Scientist; and it demands more than a Raphael to delineate _this_ art.
The following is an extract from a letter reverting to the ill.u.s.trations of "Christ and Christmas":-
"In my last letter, I did not utter all I felt about the [10]
wonderful new book you have given us. Years ago, while in Italy, I studied the old masters and their great works of art thoroughly, and so got quite an idea of what const.i.tutes true art. Then I spent two years in Paris, devoting every moment to the study of music and [15]
art.
"The first thing that impressed me in your ill.u.s.tra- tions was the conscientious application to detail, which is is the foundation of true art. From that, I went on to study each ill.u.s.tration thoroughly, and to my amazement [20]
and delight I find an almost identical resemblance, in many things, to the old masters! In other words, the art is perfect.
"The hands and feet of the figures-how many times have I seen these hands and feet in Angelico's "Jesus," [25]
or Botticelli's "Madonna"!
"It gave me such a thrill of joy as no words can ex- press, to see produced to-day that art-the only true art-that we have identified with the old masters, and mourned as belonging to them exclusively,-a thing of [30]
the past, impossible of reproduction.
"All that I can say to you, as one who gives no mean
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attention to such matters, is that the art is perfect. It [1]
is the true art of the oldest, most revered, most authen- tic Italian school, revived. I use the words _most au-_ _thentic_ in the following sense: the face, figure, and drapery of Jesus, very closely resemble in detail the [5]
face, figure, and drapery of that Jesus portrayed by the oldest of the old masters, and said to have been authen- tic; the face having been taken by Fra Angelico from Caesar's Cameo, the figure and garments from a descrip- tion, in _The Galaxy_, of a small sketch handed down
from the _living reality_. _Their_ productions are expres- sionless copies of an engraving cut in a stone. _Yours_ is a palpitating, living Saviour engraven on the heart.
You have given us back our Jesus, and in a much better is form." [15]
Sunrise At Pleasant View
Who shall describe the brave splendor of a November sky that this morning burst through the lattice for me, on my bed? According to terrestrial calculations, above the horizon, in the east, there rose one rod of rainbow [20]
hues, crowned with an acre of eldritch ebony. Little by little this topmost pall, drooping over a deeply daz- zling sunlight, softened, grew gray, then gay, and glided into a glory of mottled marvels. Fleecy, faint, fairy blue and golden flecks came out on a background of [25]
cerulean hue; while the lower lines of light kindled into gold, orange, pink, crimson, violet; and diamond, topaz, opal, garnet, turquoise, and sapphire spangled the gloom in celestial s.p.a.ce as with the brightness of His glory.
Then thought I, What are we, that He who fas.h.i.+ons for- [30]
[Page 377.]
ever such forms and hues of heaven, should move our [1]
brush or pen to paint frail fairness or to weave a web of words that glow with gladdening gleams of G.o.d, so unapproachable, and yet so near and full of radiant relief in clouds and darkness! [5]
CHAPTER X. INKLINGS HISTORIC
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About the year 1862, while the author of this work [1]
was at Dr. Vail's Hydropathic Inst.i.tute in New Hamps.h.i.+re, this occurred: A patient considered incur- able left that inst.i.tution, and in a few weeks returned apparently well, having been healed, as he informed [5]
the patients, by one Mr. P. P. Quimby of Portland, Maine.
After much consultation among ourselves, and a struggle with pride, the author, in company with several other patients, left the water-cure, _en route_ for the aforesaid [10]
doctor in Portland. He proved to be a magnetic practi- tioner. His treatment seemed at first to relieve her, but signally failed in healing her case.
Having practised h.o.m.opathy, it never occurred to the author to learn his practice, but she did ask him how [15]
manipulation could benefit the sick. He answered kindly and squarely, in substance, "Because it conveys _electricity_ to them." That was the sum of what he taught her of his medical profession.
The readers of my books cannot fail to see that meta- [20]
physical therapeutics, as in Christian Science, are farther removed from such thoughts than the nebulous system is from the earth.
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After treating his patients, Mr. Quimby would retire [1]
to an anteroom and write at his desk. I had a curiosity to know if he indited anything pathological relative to his patients, and asked if I could see his pennings on my case. He immediately presented them. I read the [5]
copy in his presence, and returned it to him. The com- position was commonplace, mostly descriptive of the gen- eral appearance, height, and complexion of the individual, and the nature of the case: it was not at all metaphysi- cal or scientific; and from his remarks I inferred that [10]
his writings usually ran in the vein of thought presented by these. He was neither a scholar nor a metaphysician.
I never heard him say that matter was not as real as Mind, or that electricity was not as potential or remedial, or allude to G.o.d as the divine Principle of all healing. He [15]
certainly had advanced views of his own, but they com- mingled error with truth, and were not Science. On his rare humanity and sympathy one could write a sonnet.
I had already experimented in medicine beyond the [20]
basis of _materia medica_,-up to the highest attenuation in h.o.m.oeopathy, thence to a mental standpoint not un- derstood and with phenomenally good results;(7) mean- while a.s.siduously pondering the solution of this great question: Is it matter, or is it Mind, that heals the [25]
sick?
It was after Mr. Quimby's death that I discovered, in 1866, the momentous facts relating to Mind and its superiority over matter, and named my discovery Chris- tian Science. Yet, there remained the difficulty of ad- [30]
justing in the scale of Science a metaphysical _practice_,
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and settling the question, What shall be the outward [1]
sign of such a practice: if a divine Principle alone heals, what is the human modus for demonstrating this,-in short, how can sinful mortals prove that a divine Principle heals the sick, as well as governs the universe, time, [5]
s.p.a.ce, immortality, man?