SINCE the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science "won" her "way to absolute conclusions" (Science and Health, p. 109), nearly half a century ago, and gave the world the result of this experience in the Christian Science text-book, the opinions of eminent physicists regarding matter have suffered a radical transformation. The dense shadow of materialistic hypotheses, which at one period seemed to threaten a permanent eclipse of the vision of spirituality in human consciousness, has already receded until nothing more than the penumbra remains in evidence.
The defence of materialism has been honeycombed to such an extent that the supposition that the source of life is to be found in matter is fast becoming obsolete. So complete has been the change of view on this point that, in the exact and logical systems of to-day, matter, instead of occupying its former position as a fetish, figures as hardly more than a descriptive symbol used, for convenience's sake, to designate an objectively contemplated image supposed to represent the composite product of certain invisible and uncomprehended agencies or activities.
In the progress of scientific investigation, one after another of the distinctive properties which were formerly regarded as inherent attributes of matter per se, has been divorced from the alleged entity until hardly a peg remains on which to hang an intelligible concept of material substance. Analysis of the situation shows plainly that the kind of world to the actuality of which the physical senses seem to testify does not even exist, in the truest sense.
