Page:Valid Objections to So-called Christian Science (1902).pdf/41

 may be built upon a false postulate, provided the latter be granted; and untold harm may ensue to humanity by the following out of such unscientific conclusions.

The peoples who have enjoyed the highest mede of prosperity and moral development have been those who have possessed the largest ownership of the practical faculty—those who have seen things as they actually are, and have dealt with them accordingly. The dreamy and contemplative peoples, whose philosophy emphasizes the subjective side of man, have developed a civilization in which gross superstitions, moral degradation, slavery, cruelty, and disregard of human life are the most prominent features.

The history of Eastern peoples, in contrast with the recorded development of the nations of Europe and the West, brings out this fact with startling force. The difference, in energy and power of organization, between examples of these two widely divergent types, is a verity only too apparent. On the one hand is progress, on the other stagnation and decay. On the one hand is freedom, on the other slavery and oppression. On the one hand is enlightenment, on the