Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/209

Rh It may be said that if occultism or magic is found in Christian Science it must be connected with this theory of the oneness of all minds. But, whether or not Mrs. Eddy and her followers ever practiced this black art, it does not belong properly to Christian Science. I am willing to free real Christian Science from this stigma.

This doctrine that one can by virtue of the unity of his mind with God foretell the future is found in Philo, concerning whom it should be noted that his philosophic principles were determined by Plato and that he had great influence on the Alexandrian school of thought in general and in particular on Jewish philosophy and the Kabbala, the influence of which on Spinoza has often been observed especially by Is. Misses.

In dismissing this point it should be observed that we have here another inconsistency in the psychology of Mrs. Eddy and in this case of the Neoplatonists also. To the intellect or understanding, the knowledge of which is eternal and which has no sense of time, there is attributed a discernment of the future. This is worse than sophistry. It is dialectical hypocrisy.

In concluding this discussion of psychology we trace a parallel of interest and force in the matter of mathematical demonstration. Since Christian Science and Neoplatonism emphasize