When I was a young student of Christian Science, I had difficulty in harmonizing Mrs. Eddy's "scientific statement of being" —including its declaration that "there is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter" Science and Health, p. 468;—with another of her statements, "Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual."p. 427; I was puzzled how to apply to physical problems a Science that denies the existence of matter.
The question was answered for me in another of Mrs. Eddy's statements: "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul."p. 269; I began to realize that even in the physical realm all things are actually thoughts. Good thoughts are derived from divine Principle, Mind, and evil thoughts have no life, substance, or intelligence.
The statement 2 + 2 = 3 has no part or place in our normal number system, yet it is subject to the correcting aspect of that system. The statement does involve valid quantities, but because their relationship is not according to fact, we have here a statement of what is not true about the quantities involved. In music, consecutive fifths are no part of a normal four-part chorale, and yet that mistake is subject to the rules governing this musical form.
