Six men of character

On the same page of Mary Baker Eddy's book, The People's Idea of God, that mentions Abercrombie and Johnson, Voltaire gets a mention:  'Voltaire says: “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease”' (p. 6: 11). Precious. Leo Tolstoy quotes it in War and Peace.

Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire lived from 1694 to 1778. The article on him in the Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them series finishes with: 'Voltaire has been called an atheist, but these words deny it: "I shall always be convinced that a watch proves a watchmaker, and that a universe proves a God”' (p. 209).

Franklin Pierce (1804–1869)—mentioned in Eddy's Retrospection and Introspection, p. 6 and The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, pp 308, 309, 311. I have not as yet found the article in the periodicals where Mrs. Eddy mentions Franklin Pierce. But of course I don't need to, for I have the 'hard copy' of the Bound Sentinel which contains it, which I found in the Reading Room. With the knowledge that it is in the Sentinel of April 12, 1958, I could find it on JSH-Online*. However, students of Christian Science are quite familiar with him and his family. There was a close connection with her brother Albert, who read law with him, and he went on to become President of the United States. I wonder how Mrs. Eddy viewed some of his ideas, like “defend[ing] the proslavery program” (ibid, p. 167). There is an interesting note about presidential campaigning: 'Pierce himself did not actively campaign, but remained quietly in Concord until he was elected' (ibid).

Aha! I was spelling Pierce wrongly. “Pearce” would never find him on JSH.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)—mentioned in Eddy's Science and Health, pp. 66, 176, 244; Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 8, 226, 267; Retrospection, p. 81; Unity of Good, pp. 22, 23. It would seem that Mrs. Eddy could have valued Shakespeare a little lower than the Bible. On page (iii) of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, three authors are cited:

           Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. JOHN viii. 32

           There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. SHAKESPEARE

            Oh! Thou hast heard my prayer;

            And I am blest!

            This is Thy high behest: —

            Thou here, and everywhere.  MARY BAKER G. EDDY

And we find Jesus and Shakespeare in the same paragraph on page 8 of Miscellaneous Writings:

'Shakespeare writes: “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Jesus said: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; …

for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”'

'Shakespeare, the immortal lexicographer of mortals, writes: — To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man' (Mis. 226:13).

 At the time of his passing, his fellow playwright Ben Jonson wrote: 'He was not of an age, but for all time.' And so it has proved to be.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)—mentioned in Retrospection, p. 77: Message for 1901, p. 30; Miscellany, p. 269. Mrs. Eddy commends Pope for saying: '“An honest man's the noblest work of God”' (Ret. 77:2). This is a reminder of the words of a loved hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal—'Man is the noblest work of God' (# 51). Perhaps Pope did not have quite the quality of poet Mary Alice Dayton's man in mind—man who is the perfect idea of Mind, God.

Mrs Eddy counselled 'Christian Scientists under all circumstances to obey the Golden Rule, and to adopt Pope's axiom: “An honest, sensible, and well-bred man will not insult me, and no other can”' (Message for 1901, 30:27–30).

Aristotle (384 B.C. – 332 B.C.)—mentioned in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 226. Mrs. Eddy wrote of him: 'When Aristotle was asked what a person could gain by uttering a falsehood, he replied, “Not to be credited when he shall tell the truth”' (Mis. 226).

Along with his teacher Plato, he has been called the "Father of Western Philosophy". His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics and government. (Wikipedia)

My aside at this stage was, 'What an encouragement to scholarship all this is.'

Charles Carrol Bonney (1831-1903)—mentioned in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 312. The reader may like to read for themselves what Mrs. Eddy said about this 'great' man. 

Joyce Voysey

* An addition to the story of Franklin Pierce in the 'Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them' series was prepared for podcast by Christian Science Monitor reporter Gail Russell Chaddock (published 1 December 2015).