Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/39

Rh I am careful to represent correctly the thought of the writer. I appeal for a decision to those who understand Neoplatonism and Christian Science or who are well acquainted with the authors whose language I quote.

It is a suggestive fact that the style of Mrs. Eddy is like that of Plotinus in that one does not need to study the relation of words so much as that of ideas to appreciate her. At first their sentences seem to the reader disjointed, unrelated and thrown together carelessly. But when their philosophy is better understood we value more highly their choppy manner of writing. It is a case of the thought determining the style. We have another illustration of the same thing in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who shares honors with Mrs. Eddy in translating Neoplatonism into excellent modern English. They have such enthusiasm for the ideas of their masters that they imbibe their very style. One is transformed into the character of that which he admires. He is conformed to that in which he works. Mr. Emerson and Mrs. Eddy are both metaphysicians and poets; and they have a style that fits their thoughts, since it was fashioned by their thoughts. This was true of the greatest of the Neoplatonists. Mrs. Eddy was gifted by nature to reproduce them. She does not argue; she speaks dogmatically; she announces as a revelator what she sees. And she is in truth a seer of Neoplatonism. The Neoplatonists delivered their views with the same assumed prophetic insight.