Early had I learned that whatever is loved materially, as mere corporeal personality, is eventually lost.  “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,” said the Master.  Exultant hope, if tinged with earthliness, is crushed as the moth.

What is termed mortal and material existence is graphically defined by Calderon, the famous Spanish poet, who wrote,—­

    What is life?  ’Tis but a madness. 
      What is life?  A mere illusion,
      Fleeting pleasure, fond delusion,
    Short-lived joy, that ends in sadness,
      Whose most constant substance seems
      But the dream of other dreams.

MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

The physical side of this research was aided by hints from homoeopathy, sustaining my final conclusion that mortal belief, instead of the drug, governed the action of material medicine.

I wandered through the dim mazes of materia medica, till I was weary of “scientific guessing,” as it has been well called.  I sought knowledge from the different schools,—­allopathy, homoeopathy, hydropathy, electricity, and from various humbugs,—­but without receiving satisfaction.

I found, in the two hundred and sixty-two remedies enumerated by Jahr, one pervading secret; namely, that the less material medicine we have, and the more Mind, the better the work is done; a fact which seems to prove the Principle of Mind-healing.  One drop of the thirtieth attenuation of Natrum muriaticum, in a tumbler-full of water, and one teaspoonful of the water mixed with the faith of ages, would cure patients not affected by a larger dose.  The drug disappears in the higher attenuations of homoeopathy, and matter is thereby rarefied to its fatal essence, mortal mind; but immortal Mind, the curative Principle, remains, and is found to be even more active.

The mental virtues of the material methods of medicine, when understood, were insufficient to satisfy my doubts as to the honesty or utility of using a material curative.  I must know more of the unmixed, unerring source, in order to gain the Science of Mind, the All-in-all of Spirit, in which matter is obsolete.  Nothing less could solve the mental problem.  If I sought an answer from the medical schools, the reply was dark and contradictory.  Neither ancient nor modern philosophy could clear the clouds, or give me one distinct statement of the spiritual Science of Mind-healing.  Human reason was not equal to it.

I claim for healing scientifically the following advantages:  First:  It does away with all material medicines, and recognizes the antidote for all sickness, as well as sin, in the immortal Mind; and mortal mind as the source of all the ills which befall mortals. Second:  It is more effectual than drugs, and cures when they fail, or only relieve; thus proving the superiority of metaphysics over physics. Third:  A person healed by Christian Science is not only healed of his disease, but he is advanced morally and spiritually.  The mortal body being but the objective state of the mortal mind, this mind must be renovated to improve the body.