cannot emanate from Him;”[1] “As God Himself is good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be immortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirituality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and cannot be the outcome of an infinite God, good;”[2] “Banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs included in matter.”[3]
Plotinus says: “Whatever is perfectly destitute of good, and such is matter, is evil in reality, possessing no portion of good.”[4]
Proclus says: “Matter is evil itself and that which is primarily evil.”[5]
We see that both the position of the Neoplatonists and of Mrs. Eddy as to the nature of evil, and the reasoning by which it is established, are the same. Her language is different from theirs but her logic is identical with theirs.
In another aspect of the subject, namely, in the explanation of how the idea of evil arises in the mind, we find still another parallel between Neoplatonism and Christian Science. Since all reality is mind and since evil is a lack of reality or mind, the very idea of evil is a lack of mind or the failure to understand things perfectly. It is partial knowledge. The universe is harmonious and perfect. When it is fully compassed by the mind, there is no discord or inharmony or evil. Sin is
- ↑ S. and H. p. 273.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 277. cf. pp. 39 and 468.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 208 f.
- ↑ 1. 8. 5. cf. 2. 4. 16.
- ↑ Nat. of Evil, 3 (p. 122.)
