Have you ever asked that question?
Here are some much better ones: Am I willing to see the good in the world and in my surroundings and experience, or am I holding fast to negative appearances? Am I willing to see constructive qualities in my fellowman—my family, colleagues, neighbors, people in public life—or am I stubbornly holding to weaknesses and mistakes? After referring to the serpent in the allegory of Adam and Eve, Mrs. Eddy makes an encouraging statement: "We have nothing in the animal kingdom which represents the species described,—a talking serpent,— and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, because we know that they are worthless and unreal." Science and Health, p. 529.
Why does it sometimes seem an effort to turn away from the appearance of evil and to see the good? Because animal magnetism has not been uncovered as nothing and negated. What is animal magnetism? It is the suggestive error that there is such a thing as material life, separate from God, with a beginning and an end. This results in the belief of many minds independent of God and in conflict with one another. Since an erroneous conception has no truth and no duration, it becomes clear that animal magnetism has no power.
