Metaphysics is a term constantly found in the many writings of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy. It is often found coupled with the words, "divine" or "Christian." The term metaphysics is of course well understood as referring to subjects in the realm of mind, but amongst philosophers it has never been held to be entirely unconnected with physics. It was not, that is to say, considered as ultraphysical, or as referring to anything to be comprehended by other than the material senses, because these writers could conceive of no other means of thought than that of a material mind, or mind in a material brain. The more modern philosophers who wrote on metaphysics in the early part of the eighteenth century,—especially the Scotch metaphysicians such as Reid, Hamilton, and Dugald Stewart, who notably influenced thought in Boston,—perhaps prepared the ground for the reception of Mrs. Eddy's great discovery a few years later.
This discovery, however, as will be seen, was an actual confounding of all previous writing on metaphysics. There is neither similarity nor affinity between the writings of Mrs. Eddy and those of Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Kant, Leibnitz, and others. Some of these philosophers asserted that the absolute, the infinite,—or the "unconditional" as some called it,—was unknowable, whilst others contended that it was knowable; but none ventured to assert that there could be anything to know with, other than the finite human mind. Manifestly, the finite could not really know the infinite. It remained for Mrs. Eddy, with deeper spiritual insight, to cut the Gordian knot,—literally with "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,"—by her statement and by proof with demonstration that true man does know the infinite God, just because, being spiritual and not material, he has access to the one Mind, God, the source of all intelligence. Therefore there is nothing that man cannot know, —that is to say, nothing which pertains to good, God. It follows, then, that evil, the opposite of good, cannot be known as an entity either by God or man, and that it must therefore be an illusion of a supposed mortal or carnal mind, which is actually nonexistent.
It had always been held by the old writers—and many still repeat it— that the only real knowledge a man can have is that of his own existence; that he can say with certainty, "I am," and nothing more. This was a known tenet in Egypt in the days of Moses; for when Moses was afraid to approach his own people with the message of deliverance,—knowing no name by which he could indicate the divine source of his message, yet wishing to impress upon the people his own conviction of the unity, or one-ness, of all existence,—he was led to say, "I am hath sent me unto you." It is to be noted also that these words were confirmed, in the manner of Christian Science, by demonstration.
