Precedents are among the heaviest type of fetter that human beings have used throughout the ages to chain themselves and others. "We've always done it like this," they say; "it has never been done in any other way." And they go right on doing it, however inconvenient.
But precedents have also provided a useful method for step-by-step development of freedom under law. The Magna Charta, for instance, originally established only a few specific liberties; but in the centuries since, its precedents have been appealed to for an immense extension of liberties.
Every Christian Scientist is familiar with the chapter on Christian Science Practice in Science and Health, where Mrs. Eddy includes a substantial section she names "Mental Treatment Illustrated." Here she gives the instruction: "Argue at first mentally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and that sickness is a temporal dream." Science and Health, p. 412;
