Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material
551:18 nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, -
themselves composed of the simplest material
elements, - by which all peculiarities of an-
551:21 cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from
generation to generation?" The question of the natu-
ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans-
551:24 mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and
doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on
materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou
551:27 by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or
else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other.
Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material
551:30 seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and
the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.
Causation not in matter
The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,
552:1 the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the
parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question
552:3 follows: Who or what produces the parent of
the egg? That the earth was hatched from the
"egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen
552:6 philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-
potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter
and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even
552:9 where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-
discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness,
and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-
552:12 ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.
Emergence of mortals
Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an
egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man
552:15 that is born of a woman is of few days, and
full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from
this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck
552:18 open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward
and upward. But thought, loosened from a material
basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild
552:21 with freedom and so be self-contradictory.
Persistence of species
From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow,
sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills
552:24 they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The
blending tints of leaf and flower show the
order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The
552:27 intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost
limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus
it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal
552:30 mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when
the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.
Better basis than embryology
Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material
553:1 existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-
company their descriptions with important observations,
553:3 which should awaken thought to a higher and
purer contemplation of man's origin. This
clearer consciousness must precede an under-
553:6 standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must
obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or
health will never be universal, and harmony will never
553:9 become the standard of man.
One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no
right to assume that individuals have grown or been
553:12 formed under circumstances which made material con-
ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction,
or important to their origin and first introduction."
553:15 Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic,
and why are his deductions generally material?