Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/68

60 there are two things, a cognizing subject and a cognized object. Now this is the recognition of multiplicity but unity can not know plurality. For the one to know anything is to become multiplex and this is self-annihilation. By this metaphysical pole-vaulting we see how the one occupies a summit of existence higher than knowledge.

Sublime logic this, that makes the first being of all an ignoramus! It is splendid dialetical gymnastics. It is a strange kind of “divine utterance” that would render the deity a dumheit. But this is inexorable logic if all human qualities are denied to God and if only unity is real and multiplicity, which is implied in knowledge, is unreal. It is interesting to see how Mrs. Eddy, blind or seeing, follows these philosophic idolaters, who work for us this sleight-of-mind performance, up to a certain point and then stops short. She is vaulting on the same pole with them but either can not or will not jump quite so high. In this feature of the entertainment she appears to be rather weak or timid. The Neoplatonists get further from the earth than does Mrs. Eddy. In other words, they are somewhat less materialistic than she is. In this instance Mrs. Eddy fears to loosen all the strings to her balloon. Mrs. Eddy was either not smart enough to see what the Neoplatonists saw or was too smart to break with her constituency. It may seem very pretty to say that God knows no such thing as sin, sickness and