George Shaw Cook, C.S.B., of Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The beliefs and teachings of Christian Science were outlined last night before a large audience in the Casino by George Shaw Cook, C.S.B., of Chicago. The speaker was introduced by A. H. Richardson of the General Electric Co., of Schenectady. Mr. Cook's lecture follows:
A little more than half a century ago an earnest seeker for the path that leads heavenward — one who had long been buffeted by the unsatisfying philosophies of the human mind — was driven to the very borderland of mortal existence by the all but fatal cruelty of an accident. In the last extremity of human need this deeply religious woman turned unreservedly and forever away from matter to divine Mind as the one and only savior, and was restored to normal health.
Having been healed by the power of God, it was only natural that she should have turned to the Word of God for an explanation of her cure. Patiently and prayerfully studying the Scriptures for the purpose of discovering the Principle and law of her deliverance, this faithful woman — Mary Baker Eddy — continued her search until it was revealed to her that the eternal Christ, which enabled Jesus to heal the sick and raise the dead, is present with and available to mankind now. This revelation of truth was put to practical test by Mrs. Eddy and demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was then embodied by her in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," which was first published in 1875. Through the study of this book and the practice of its teachings, many were redeemed from sin and healed of inveterate disease. In this manner was formed a nucleus for the Christian Science church, which in 1879 was organized to "commemorate the word and works of our Master," and to "reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Church Manual, p. 17). This church was later reorganized as "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts," of which all other Christian Science churches are branches. The Mother Church and its many branches, together with the denominational activities of Christian Science, now constitute a mighty movement which is literally encircling the globe.
Without adaptation to the needs of mankind the Christian Science church as an institution would have no good reason for existence. In order to justify its presence among men, the Church of Christ, Scientist, must be ready to answer, not theoretically but practically, the question, "What is Christian Science able to do for suffering humanity?"
Better to appreciate the answer which Christian Science makes to the foregoing question, it is well first to gain some understanding of what the teaching of Christian Science stands for and to know that first and last it stands for the fundamental fact that God is good, that He is Spirit, Mind, divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love. It also stands for a perfect spiritual universe as the creation of God, and for a perfect spiritual man as the likeness of God. It stands for the universal fatherhood and motherhood of God, and for the complete and perfect brotherhood of man. It stands for Christ as the spiritual idea of God and for Christ Jesus as the perfect exemplification of divine sonship. It stands for Jesus of Nazareth as the model Christian, the master Metaphysician, and the highest demonstrator of man's unity with God.
Christian Science stands for the law of God and the government of God, and for the absolute supremacy of God's law and government. It stands for the preservation and protection and direction of man and the universe in accordance with the law of God. It stands for freedom from fear, for salvation from sin, and consequently for mankind's deliverance from disease and death. It stands for mental integrity and moral purity; for fidelity and faithfulness; for right relationship, unity of purpose, brotherly love, true charity, and real compassion. It stands for the conscious harmony which is heaven within, and for all that makes for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven, or harmony, among men.
Having told something of that for which Christian Science stands, and having indicated to some extent that which it claims to do for those who are in trouble, may it not be pertinent to say something about what Christian Science is doing to fulfill its promises and something of the way in which it is being done?
Through the ministry of Christian Science many thousands have been healed of disease and redeemed from sin, and some have been turned back from the very gates of death. Among these thousands there are those who have been raised from beds of unspeakable pain, those who have been rescued from depths of degradation, those who have been freed from the bondage of poverty and incompetency. It is possible that some of these people would have recovered from their sickness under other forms of treatment or without any treatment. It is probable that some of them would have been reformed by other means and that some would have become prosperous in another way, but it is a fact that the great majority were utterly hopeless and apparently helpless in their misery until Christian Science showed them a way out of it.
How were these people healed of diseases which in many instances had baffled the most skilful physicians? They were healed by Christ, Truth, which takes away the sins and the sickness of the world. They were healed by reason of the knowledge that sickness is unnatural to God's man, and that therefore man need not endure it. They have found that the fear of evil is unnecessary, for the reason that every phase of evil is temporal and destructible.
Christian Scientists believe that they have demonstrated by results already attained that Mrs. Eddy has surely discovered and correctly set forth the Principle and law by which Jesus healed all manner of disease among the people of his time. Jesus said of his work, "I can of mine own self do nothing." "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." The Father referred to by Jesus as being the Principle of his works was, according to Christian Science, the divine Mind. Jesus further said to his followers, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Christian Scientists believe that as followers of Christ Jesus they have a right to do these works. They believe that divine intelligence is as available to man now as it was in the time of Jesus, and that it manifests itself always through invariable law. They are, however, sensible of the fact that they have only begun to understand and apply the Christ-method of healing, and they do not pretend that they are always successful in its application. Yet they do know that Christian Science has already proved itself to be efficacious in the healing of many thousands of cases of disease, acute and chronic, functional and organic.
Christian Scientists are proving step by step their ability to comply with the injunction of Paul to "put off the old man" (the mortal, material, sinful sense of man), and to "put on the new man" (the immortal, spiritual, sinless manhood), which "is created in righteousness and true holiness." In this endeavor they are finding that their success is in proportion to the faithfulness and persistence with which they return in thought to the fundamental fact which is the basis of all right thinking and living; namely, that when God made all that is and pronounced it "very good," He made man in His likeness, and that nothing has since happened or will ever happen to unmake or undo God's perfect work. According to Christian Science, the putting on of immortality is not necessarily deferred until after passing through the experience called death, but may begin now, and must continue until the perfect recognition of the immortality and supremacy of Life displaces all belief in the existence of something which is the opposite of Life. This beginning is usually made as the result of a case of healing whereby the sufferer loses his sense of pain and disease and finds a sense of freedom and ease. Christian Scientists are grateful for the improved physical health and more harmonious surroundings which even a limited understanding of Christian Science has given them; but most of all they value the new and more abundant sense of Life which they have found in Christian Science.
Christian Science teaches that God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," and that man as the likeness of God cannot know something which God does not know. It explains that evil is contrary to the will of God, who is always good, in purpose and in manifestation. Thus it induces the sinner to abandon his belief of satisfaction in sin and enables him to win forgiveness by forsaking sin. It is therefore a mistake to suppose that in teaching the unreal nature of sin Christian Science encourages the indulgence of sin. The fact is that it awakens the sinner to the absolute necessity of gaining a love for goodness that will enable him to abandon willingly not only the flagrant forms of immorality, but also the more subtle phases of evil.
It is recorded in the first chapter of Genesis that "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," that "God created man in his own image," and that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." But the seventh verse of the second chapter of Genesis says that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." The record of creation contained in the first chapter of Genesis and the account beginning with the seventh verse of the second chapter are so different as to be absolutely irreconcilable. On pages 521 and 522 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy makes it plain that these two presentations of creation are entirely contrary the one to the other. Any careful reader of the book of Genesis should be readily able to see the contrariety.
The first record of creation declares that "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." This finished universe of God is said to have been recognized by Him as being "very good." This very good and complete universe, according to the record, included man created "in the image of God." Nothing is said in this record about matter, nothing about dust, nothing about a man whose "breath is in his nostrils." On the other hand, the very first statement about creation contained in the second account is that the Lord God (Jehovah) made man of dust and inspired this "dust" man with the life. Man, instead of being the image of the eternal God, is said to have been made of temporal matter. In this story it is not even claimed that man is the likeness of God. Man, who in the first chapter is recorded as part of God's perfect, finished creation, is here supposed to have been recreated or remodeled from clay. Why a divinely intelligent creator would have need to remodel a perfectly good and complete universe or any part thereof is not apparent.
The contrast between the first record of creation and the second account thereof could be emphasized in other ways, but it has already been made reasonably clear that if the first is accepted as true, the second must be rejected as false. Christian Science accepts the first or Elohistic record as a statement of spiritual creation, and explains the second or Jehovistic account as an allegory evidently intended by its author to depict the belief in a material creation. That theologians and Christian believers in general pay vastly more attention to the mythical account than to the scientific record is to be regretted. The tenacious belief in this myth, with its "dust" man created by an anthropomorphic God, is responsible for all the ills to which flesh is heir. Mortal history is little more than a recital of the woes, the suffering, the tragedies which result from failure to discriminate between the true and the false. The supposed naturalness and inevitability of disease and death are due primarily to the belief that man was created by a corporeal God out of "the dust of the ground," whereas, the understanding that man is the spiritually created and immortal likeness of divine Mind makes freedom from these evils certain.
Matter examined in the light of Christian Science is not substantial, for it is not the manifestation of that Mind whose creations alone are incapable of decay. For this reason the matter man, or the physical man, is seen not to be the real man of God's creating. If this be true, the question naturally arises, "What is the real man?" Christian Science answers that the reality of man is his mental or spiritual identity. These terms do not, however, refer to a finite mind which is identified with the human brain, nor to a soul that is supposed to reside in a material body, but to the individual reflection of the divine Mind, or Spirit.
Christ Jesus said: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." While Jesus understood the claim for recognition made by "that which is born of the flesh," it is evident that he did not admit the validity of this claim, for he said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." It is obvious that the Master regarded the spiritual as the real. It would logically follow from the Christian or Christianly scientific point of view that matter with its diseased conditions is not "born of the Spirit," is not the outcome of the Mind which is Spirit, and therefore is without divine cause or real existence. Its supposed existence is due to a false or mistaken sense of substance and its nature is entirely spurious.
Some material scientists who profess to believe in God, and some theologians with materialistic or pantheistic tendencies, are prone to say that matter exists as the creation either directly or indirectly of God, who is admitted by them to be Spirit. But it should be clear that God, who is Spirit and Life, could not possibly create that which is capable of disease and dissolution. The man of His creating must be like Him. Therefore he must be mental, spiritual, healthful, perfect, immortal. A knowledge of this fact in Christian Science has brought to many a considerable degree of freedom from the belief that matter and its diseased conditions are natural and therefore inevitable. Nothing is really natural but good, and nothing is really inevitable but the triumph of good.
Because it has been made plain to Christian Scientists that pain is not a condition of matter, they have found Christian Science treatment to be more efficacious in relieving those who are suffering pain than any other method of treatment available to mankind. Even stubborn chronic cases have been relieved and cured in this manner after they had progressed to the stage where drugs and opiates are useless. The reason for the extraordinary power of Truth in Christian Science to alleviate and eradicate pain will become clear to all when it is generally understood that pain is mental and not physical. Pain has its only claim to existence in mortal thought. Ordinary experience shows that it is difficult to locate pain. Sense-impressions often seem to make pain appear to be where it is not.
Christian Science shows that pain is never in matter, but always in thought or in false belief. It also shows that the thought or belief in pain is never in the consciousness of Truth, which constitutes the real man. The Christian Scientist when seeking to destroy pain at once begins to deal with causes instead of with effects. He immediately concludes that the pain itself, being an erroneous or abnormal mental state, must have resulted from some kind of erroneous thinking. He knows that every phase of mistaken or evil belief can be dissipated by right thinking. He recognizes that the pain and suffering seem to the victim thereof to be perfectly real, but when he banishes the sense of pain through his knowledge that God alone is cause, that only divine Mind and its manifestation is real, he proves that pain is not real. Its destruction demonstrates its unreality in a most practical and convincing manner.
Every Christian Scientist who has experienced the joy of going to the bedside of a suffering friend and lifting the burden of pain through a few words of compassion and courage and some quiet moments spent in the silent prayer of realization that there is no other power, presence, or law than that of divine Truth, has brought into his own experience and that of his friend the fulfilment to some extent of the prophecy in Revelation (xxi. 4): "And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
The teaching of Christian Science concerning the cause and cure of disease has to a great extent revised the world's thought on this subject. Many observing physicians are willing to admit much in the direction of the mental cause of disease; more, indeed, than laymen who have less opportunity for observation. Christian Science goes beyond the most progressive physicians and declares that all disease is of mental origin. In so doing it does not contend that every form of disease is due to conscious fear or wilful wrong-doing on the part of those who seem to be the victims of disease. It merely claims that somewhere back of all so-called abnormal or diseased physical conditions there are erroneous conditions of thought. According to Christian Science, disease is mental, the cause of disease is mental, and the process which removes the cause and changes the effect is mental, or scientifically spiritual. Christian Science says that in order to effect a permanent cure, erroneous thought conditions must be corrected or removed by means of right thinking. It shows that fear is needless, and explains why it is needless. In this way it removes fear. It shows that the so-called law of heredity and other cruel laws which claim to hold mortals in bondage and cause them to sicken and die, are not of God. It explains how these supposed laws may be rendered inoperative by the law of God, which in reality is the only law, and which is the law of health, life, harmony and freedom. It does not matter how long a supposed law of the human or mortal mind may have been believed and obeyed; it is proved not to be a law when set aside in a single instance. And it is safe to say that Christian Science practice has annulled every so-called law of health not only in one but in many instances.
Through overcoming those beliefs which ultimate in the experience called death Christian Science is gradually leading its students away from belief in death.
Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, wrote, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.'' What is meant by being "carnally minded" but to believe in the reality of those things which are carnal — matter and evil? And that, Paul says, is death. But to be "spiritually minded" — to understand the reality of that which is spiritual and good — is life. Again Paul said, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Sin, broadly speaking, is idolatry, putting other gods in the place of the one living and true God, making a reality in consciousness of that which is not good. The mistake, or error, of believing that to be real which is not real, is sin (in a broad sense), and the wages thereof is death. But "the gift of God" to man in His likeness is consciousness of the eternal continuity of Life. This abiding sense of Life is spiritual, and comes to us through right thinking. Jesus said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent." To know or be conscious of God through reflecting those ideas that are good and true, is to live, and there is no other real life. Mrs. Eddy understood this when she wrote:
Thou to whose power our hope we give,
Free us from human strife,
Fed by Thy love divine we live,
For Love alone is Life.
(Miscellaneous Writings, p. 388.)
Some who are not entirely familiar with the teaching of Christian Science believe that its practice consists in the effort of one person to benefit another person by exerting the influence which one human mentality is supposed to have over another. Starting with such a premise it would be quite natural to conclude that Christian Science practice might be capable of resulting in evil if the practitioner should for any reason decide to use his mental influence to the detriment of his patient.
Such a premise as the one stated is, however, mistaken, and therefore the conclusion drawn from it must be and is incorrect. The fact is that Christian Science regards the so-called human or mortal mind as the cause of all discord, including disease, and regards the immortal or divine Mind as the only effectual healer of mortal discord. This fact may have been known to the psalmist, who sang of God as the one "who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." Certainly the all-transforming and redeeming power of God was understood by Christ Jesus, for he healed every kind of sickness and sin among the people of his time. Never in any utterance of Jesus was there anything to indicate that he believed that his power to heal the sick and reform the sinner depended upon the exercise of human will. The record of his life-work as found in the gospels does not contain anything that could reasonably be construed to imply that he worked by means of what is known as the influence of one mind over another. On the contrary, everything recorded of his works by the authors of the four gospels tends to confirm the fact that Jesus brought about the destruction of evil in all of its forms by a faithful reliance on and intelligent application of the power of divine Mind. He prayed and taught his followers to pray, "Not my will, but thine, be done." So Christian Science emphasizes again and again the fact that there is no permanent deliverance from human ills save through the transforming power of divine Love. The action of divine Mind does not depend upon the exercise of human will, but subjugates and controls it. The truth which Jesus said shall make free often does and always should touch and transform the consciousness of the sufferer as gently as light comes into a dark room and dispels the darkness. On page 445 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy describes this process as "the unlabored motion of the divine energy in healing the sick."
Let us again make use of the illustration of light coming into a dark room through the transparency of a window. It is evident that it is the light that destroys the darkness, and not the window through which the light passes. Thus in Christian Science practice it is divine Spirit and not the human mentality which heals sickness and sin.
It should not be supposed that all Christian Science Mind-healing is the result of what is known as treatment, either present or absent. Sometimes people are healed in conversation with one who speaks the Word of God with conviction and understanding. Frequently healing has resulted from the reading of the Lesson-Sermons at Christian Science church services, and from public lectures on Christian Science. "He sent his word, and healed them" (Psalm cvii.). Many persons have been perfectly and permanently healed of chronic cases of so-called incurable disease by studying the Christian Science textbook. It will be seen that since it is divine Truth that brings freedom from human error, it matters not whether the truth comes to the individual through silent treatment, through the spoken word, or through reading and study. The essential thing is that it comes to the one who is receptive. When it does come to such an individual, it is as certain that it will displace in consciousness everything unlike itself as that light will destroy darkness. And it should be understood that Christian Science treatment involves something more than mere faith. It includes demonstrable understanding of the ever-presence and all-power of God, or divine Mind, and this understanding is the basis of all true faith. Christian Science treatment is based upon the fundamental proposition that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" (Science and Health, p. 468). It is therefore the only system of healing which denies the actual existence of matter and of the so-called mortal mind.
It will not be seriously contended that Jesus used drugs in healing or that he depended in any way upon matter to facilitate his cures. There would be few who would claim that Jesus co-operated with doctors of medicine or that he required medical diagnoses of the diseases he cured. The gospel record shows that he healed the sick, reformed the sinner, and raised the dead by the power of God, divine Spirit, alone. If this spiritual method was God's way of healing in the time of Jesus, it must be His way now, for God is unchanging. If, on the other hand, the use of drugs is God's way, why did not Christ Jesus use them? If the combined use of prayer and medicine is God's way, why did not Jesus combine them in his practice? It is obvious that if medicine is of itself able to heal, prayer is not a necessary adjunct of the healing art. If prayer is efficacious, medicine is not needed. Christian Science teaches that God's grace is sufficient at all times and that His hand "is not shortened, that it cannot save."
Christian Scientists are not in competition with physicians, nor have they any quarrel with them. They recognize that a large class of medical doctors are sincerely striving to relieve human suffering in what they believe to be the most efficacious manner. Christian Scientists are quite willing that medical practice should stand or fall upon its merits. For this very reason they ask that Christian Science practice be accorded the same right. If Christian Science practice were based merely upon the shifting sands of human philosophy and experimentation, it could not long have resisted the storm of adverse criticism. In spite, however, of persecution and misrepresentation, it has proved itself in hundreds of thousands of instances to be scientific and demonstrable. Therefore it continues to grow in favor with those who are sufficiently open-minded to be guided by proof and demonstration rather than by prejudice and the bias of previous education along other lines. Year by year, often under the most adverse circumstances, Christian Science practice has proved that it is founded upon the rock of absolute Truth, against which the winds and waves of human opinion beat in vain.
Study of the Christian Science textbook has made Bible students of many who previously were little familiar with the Scriptures. Others who had formerly been students of the Bible have found in its pages a new and vital meaning since they have begun to read it in the light of Christian Science. For all Christian Scientists it has become a daily companion and guide.
Correct translation and proper arrangement of the Bible from a literary point of view are desirable.
Knowledge of Bible history is relatively important. Yet that which is of prime necessity to the student who would make its teachings applicable to his daily need is the spiritual interpretation. It is of vital importance that we should find and follow that thread of spiritual inspiration which runs through the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
The study of Christian Science shows the correlative harmony and interdependence of the Scriptures. It makes it possible to see that the inspired word which intervenes between the first and the last books of the Bible constitutes an unbroken chain of revealed truth. Above all, Christian Science explains the words of Christ Jesus in such a manner as to illumine the thought of the student with their true meaning and thus make it possible for him to emulate the works of Jesus. Unless this understanding of the Bible is attained, it cannot be said that the student has a correct knowledge of Scripture, however scholarly he may be. If he is not gaining from his study a practical, demonstrable understanding of Christ, Truth, he has searched the Scriptures in vain.
The life of Christ Jesus makes reasonably safe the conclusion that he put his works above his words. He apparently did not give as much value to what he said as to the proof that what he said was true. He not only gave his works as proof to the disciples of John the Baptist that he was the Christ, but later in seeking to establish his claim of unity with the Father he said: "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works." Perhaps no other figure in history stands out so distinctly as does Christ Jesus as an exponent of the doctrine of works, but in all ages great characters have been immortalized because of what they did for the human race rather than because of what they said in doing it. For example, the utterances of Abraham Lincoln have not been excelled in beauty and truth by those of any man of modern times. Yet if the words of Lincoln should be forgotten, he would continue to live in what he did for a stricken race and a nation whose very existence was threatened.
No modern movement has so emphasized the importance of good works as the movement which has sprung from the discovery of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy, its Discoverer, said in one of her Messages to The Mother Church: "Earth's actors change earth's scenes; and the curtain of human life should be lifted on reality, on that which outweighs time; on duty done and life perfected, wherein joy is real and fadeless" (Message 1902, p. 17). The very foundation of the Christian Science church was laid in healing works, and its superstructure is rising majestically from that firm basis. Before the Christian Science text-book was published, its author and her early students had already demonstrated the truth of the propositions afterward laid down therein. Since then students of that book in all parts of the world have been able to prove the truth of its teaching by removing sickness, poverty, and other ills from their experience according to definite rules of practice. This book is building for itself and for its author a monument of good works which cannot be destroyed, but which will endure to the end of time as an encouragement to those who are in distress.
Undeniably the tendency of the human mind is to resist that which in any manner differs from the existing order of things. Thus it stands in the way of its own progress. When Marconi announced that he had discovered a method of transmitting telegraph messages without the use of wires, he was scoffed at as a dreamer; but he had faith in his discovery and persevered in perfecting it, so that in spite of the erstwhile skeptics, the transmission of wireless messages is now an hourly occurrence.
When a New England woman announced that she had discovered the Principle and law of primitive Christian healing, and that because of this discovery it would become universally possible for the sick to be healed by divine power as in the time of Christ Jesus, her announcement met with ridicule and scorn. But Mrs. Eddy too had faith in her discovery. Yes, more than faith — she had the absolute conviction and confidence begotten of understanding and demonstration. Therefore she was not dismayed by the storm of doubt which beat in upon her as the result of her proclamation to mankind. Because she knew her discovery to be genuine, she had the courage and faithfulness to perfect it and give it to humanity in the form of a text-book of demonstrable science. Little by little, scoffers and skeptics were compelled to admit that there is a power on earth today which heals sickness and sin as it did centuries ago. When the works of Christian Science thus compelled recognition, effort was made to discredit Mrs. Eddy as its Discoverer, [but this too signally failed. Today,] when there are in different parts of the world more than 1600 Christian Science organizations founded upon the rock of Christ-healing, Mrs. Eddy is generally acknowledged as the Discoverer of Christian Science and the revered Leader of the Christian Science movement. And Christian Science is gradually coming to be recognized as the re-establishment or restoration of primitive Christianity. As this understanding becomes more general, and consequently the resistance to Christian Science Mind-healing diminishes, distressing conditions of human existence will continue to be ameliorated until they finally disappear. Each case healed in Christian Science practice makes humanity's burden lighter, and even now, through its beneficent ministrations those who still feel obliged to doubt are being brought nearer to the light.
Mrs. Eddy has said of her discovery and of its reception, "I have never supposed the world would immediately witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin, disease, and death would not be believed for an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that, as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and temperance have received an impulse, health has been restored, and longevity increased. If such are the present fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is more generally understood?" (Science and Health, p. 348.)
[Delivered Oct. 2, 1917, at the Casino in Saratoga Springs, New York, and published in The Saratogian of Saratoga Springs, Oct. 3, 1917. The title and a few words missing from the penultimate paragraph, added here and set off in brackets, were provided from other copies of the lecture.]