Dear Mrs. Eddy: Not as an idle inquirer, but as an earnest, sincere thinker after the Truth, do I address you; and I hope you will, out of the goodness of your heart, answer me. I have completed a course of Mental or Christian Science lectures. My teacher is a practising metaphysician of Chicago. She is also a "Theosophist," and during her lectures she introduced much of the Theosophic teachings and belief. When we were through, she advised us to purchase Sinnett's works, and several other books of like nature. I will say first, that I have your book, and that, with my Bible, I study constantly. After her suggestion I bought Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism," and have read it. I am now all confusion and mixed. I can not reconcile it with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. I can not reconcile it with your teachings, consequently. Now, will you help me? Are you a Theosophist? My teacher says: "Theosophy is metaphysics (Christian Science), only more so." Sinnett's book speaks (page 255) of "the necessity of evil." (?) Do "inanimate forms progress onward until a human Soul has been formed"? Do you believe "in the certainty of some hundred many-earth-lives to come,—the repeated in-carnations of a Soul"? He says: "Our planet and ourselves are no more creations than an iceberg." He says: "The seventh principle of man is undefinable, incomprehensible, and is the only God recognized by esoteric knowledge." Does that agree with your doctrine? He also says: "You can be immortal in good by identifying onesself with God, or can be immortal in evil by identifying onesself with Satan." He says, there are utterly unspiritual Egos. Do you believe in "the system of seven worlds for man," and in the seven principles that the occult science teaches men are composed of? Tell me, dear Mrs. Eddy, can one be a thorough, consistent believer in the teachings of Theosophy and the occult sciences, and at the same time a thorough, consistent believer in Christian Science, and a successful Healer? I have studied in order that I may be able to live the pure Christian life here, and to do good; oh, I want to do much good, and I see daily where I can do it if I am in the right path; and so it is for this I ask your help and advice, which I feel sure you'll not refuse to give me. If Divine Spirit created man in his own image and likeness, how can there "be unspiritual Egos"? or how can man be spiritually evil and immortally evil?
Hoping anxiously for an early reply,
I am sincerely yours,
