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It is absurd to deny the fact that Christian Science has exerted a most potent influence upon the “New Thought” movement. It is a fact that many of the “New Thought” teachers were originally Christian Scientists, and left the fold chiefly because they resented the authority of Mrs. Eddy, and sought to exercise a greater personal influence of their own. Even among those who did not serve their apprenticeship in “C. S.,” there is found a practical adoption of one or more of Mrs. Eddy’s principles, varied to suit the particular views of the adapter. “Mental Science,” a prominent branch of the “New Thought,” adheres to the practical features of Christian Science while using the term “Mind” in place of “God.” Other added features have been borrowed from Theosophy and the religions and philosophies of ancient India and Greece. In fact, the philosophies of all countries and times have been drawn upon by “New Thought” until the verse quoted a little further back is almost literally true.

Mental Suggestion, particularly in its form of auto-suggestion, has been boldly borrowed from the New Psychology, and dressed up as “affirmations,” “statements,” etc. The world-old principles of Faith Healing (really based upon Suggestion) have been used, under various names and guises, and with various explanations and theories. The old ideas of “magic,” or mental influence at a distance, have been blended with the Psychic Research theories of telepathy. The theories of the New Psychology (and of Hindu philosophy) regarding the subconscious and superconscious planes of mentality have been worked over into a semi-religious philosophy. Through Dr. Quimby, Dr. Evans, and Julian A. Dresser, the “Quimby” theories have reached “New Thought,” but the methods of applying the same are found to have been adapted from Mrs. Eddy’s “Science” in the majority of cases. Faith Cure and Mental Healing, however, are as old as the race, and there is no need for a discussion between cults or schools on that point. It is merely a question of names and theories.

I shall not speak at length regarding the successes and failures of the “New Thought” movement. Enough for me to say that “New Thought” contains within itself much of the very highest in human thought, belief, and philosophy, together with much of the lowest and most regrettable superstition, credulity and false-knowledge. In so far as it has manifested truth, the movement has succeeded; in so far as it has manifested superstition, it has failed. It is the belief of some careful observers that the movement will eventually split itself up into three great sections—the first of which will be absorbed by Christian Science; the second, resolving itself into a “Religion of Science” or a “Science of Religion, “ with a fundamental belief in the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the Mastery of Self, the development of the powers latent in the mind of man and inherent in all nature; the third, degenerating into a cult or cults of credulous superstition, low forms of psychism and gross forms of occultism, revival of the witchcraft delusion, fetichism, and perhaps even phallicism and “voodooism.” For be it remembered, there are dark sides to mysticism and occultism, as well as the bright sides.

The “New Thought” movement is not homogeneous, but is composed of a great variety of cults, schools, and varieties of belief and practice, and but loosely united. In its garden are many choice flowers and many rank and poisonous weeds, the seeds of both having been sown long ago by the thinkers of the past and now being watered by the rain of change and warmed by the sun of interest, have grown and borne flower and fruit, each according to its kind. From this garden may be expected much, good and evil, which will influence the thought of the future. Its flowers have begun to cross-fertilize each other, and many new varieties will spring up to perplex the philosophers of to-morrow. Surely “such a mixful mixture ne’er has been mixed before,” of the seeds of old Egypt, India, Chaldea, Persia, Greece—Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism, Christianity, Religion, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Rationalism, Mysticism, Occultism. What shall the harvest be?

Added to the other elements bubbling in the pot, and now showing at the surface, we find the great sociological and economic problems manifested by the rise of Socialism, Labor Unionism, Single Tax, and the rest—all of which will exert a strong influence in the new composite material which will presently flow from the pot. Then there must be recognized the inquiry and investigation of the Psychic Researchers, who have lifted Spiritualism to the plane of science. If survival of the individual soul can be scientifically established, it will give a new impetus to thought in that direction, and will extend the domain of science beyond the border. If science can prove the theory of telepathy beyond a doubt, many of the theories regarding life and mind will have to be revised. We are indeed entering into a period of philosophical, metaphysical, theological and sociological rebirth. The New Renaissance is upon us. The pot is bubbling fiercely—strange things are coming to the surface and showing their form. What will eventually flow forth from the pot to cool and crystallize—then to await the coming of another era of the Melting Pot? Ah! what, indeed?

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IT MAY be considered a somewhat presumptuous undertaking to venture upon even a tentative speculation as to what is likely to be crystallized from the Crucible of Modern Thought after the great melting process is over for the time being. But it is difficult to refrain from attempting a prediction based upon the appearance of the molten mass of philosophic thought at the present time. It is true that some new combination may be formed which will give to the thought of the future a now entirely unsuspected shape, but, nevertheless, careful thinkers feel that the general form of the thought of to-morrow may be predicted at the present time with a fair degree of accuracy, if the prophets be sufficiently well acquainted with the influences operative in the thought of to-day.

In the first place there seems to be a strong probability that the thought of to-morrow will be largely Monistic. Under the various speculations of materialism and idealism there is ever to be found the idea of the One Something from which all the universe proceeds. Materialism holds that the universe is, at the first and last, primarily and ultimately, matter or substance conceived of as extended, impenetrable, eternally existent, and susceptible of movement or change of relative position. Idealism holds that the universe is throughout the work or the embodiment of reason or mind. Spencer held in effect that both mind and substance are aspects of a higher and final reality—“that infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed,” and which in its inner nature was unknowable, being of such a nature as to transcend and defy apprehension by any of the processes by which the human mind apprehends its objects. And our prediction is that the thought of to-morrow will hold closely to the conception of Spencer, and will postulate the existence of an ultimate principle, of which the universe is a manifestation, and of which mind and substance are the opposing poles, phases or aspects.

It is impossible to think of mind independent of substantial embodiment, and it is likewise impossible to think of substance without the indwelling mind. Whatever is evolved must first have been involved, and if mind were never involved in substance it can never have been evolved from it. And, likewise, if substance were never involved in mind, it could never have been evolved from it. So, at the last, the dispute between the advocates of universal mind and of universal substance, respectively—the idealists and the materialists—is seen to be merely a question of: “Which is the highest or primary manifestation? Did the phenomenon called matter, antedate and evolve mind, or did the phenomenon called mind antedate and evolve matter?” (S. E. Stevens.) The coming thinker will almost certainly hold that both mind and matter are merely opposite poles, phases, or aspects of the one underlying reality.