THE term matter is more or less familiar to all thinking persons; and yet, so confused and vague are popular impressions regarding the thing for which it is supposed to stand, that comparatively few individuals, probably, could give a passable definition of the word. To be sure, every one recognizes, and could readily describe, certain properties and phenomenal peculiarities that are designated as attributes of matter, but this determination rests on the evidence of impressions received through the medium of physical sensation—impressions that indicate nothing more than the way certain hypothetical or undetermined agencies affect our consciousness under given conditions.
Whenever we undertake to analyze the situation and inquire into the nature of the entity which is assumed to be there on its own account, it persistently eludes detection and becomes more mysterious and intangible as investigation proceeds. The more studiously we seek to gain an insight into matter, the stronger are the indications that it is a seeming and a delusion, and that the thing we are in pursuit of is, in reality, not there after all. The chief difficulty in the way of settling upon an acceptable definition for the term matter has arisen, heretofore, from the difference of opinion among scholars regarding the nature or substance of things, and a consequent lack of agreement as to what the term should stand for. So long as interpretations and theories are continually shifting, it is impossible to arrive at a uniform understanding in the use of technical terms that are necessary for their statement.
Without a knowledge of absolute truth as a basis of reckoning, we have no means of determining the value of relative concepts. In following the clues which the physical realm has to offer, we find no criterion which will enable us to ascertain what is genuine and fundamental amid the flux of impressions which constitutes human experience. We are, therefore, constrained to look beyond physical indications for a valid basis of understanding. Not until the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." was given to the world by Mrs. Eddy, was a metaphysical standard defined which unfolded an understanding of the universe on the basis of its Principle. In the light of the exposition of truth contained in that work, the elucidation of the problem of matter admits of no uncertain or variable conclusions.
