Metaphysician

“ A scientific metaphysician never converses on other subjects while treating the sick. The metaphysical scientist discerns more clearly the mental cause of disease than the anatomist does the physical, and goes to work more understandingly and self-assured. The greatest hinderance to the prosperity of metaphysical healing has been the envy of malpractitioners, seeking to stop the better success of the honest practitioner through a counter-current of mind designed to affect the sick like opposite medicines, producing irritation and death. ”

“ In short, the metaphysicians have done nothing, absolutely nothing, for mankind. Step by step, before the advance of science, they have been driven back. As fast as the ascertained facts of science have overthrown their subjective explanations of things, they have made new subjective explanations of things, including explanations of the latest ascertained facts. And this, I doubt not, they will go on doing to the end of time. Gentlemen, a metaphysician is a medicine man. ”

“ For the metaphysician, things and their pictures in the minds, concepts, are separate entities, one following the other without any regard to each other, stable, rigid, eternally fixed objects of investigation. The metaphysician thinks in antitheses. ”

“ A metaphysician who understands and adheres strictly to the rules of our system, and rests his demonstration on its great basis, Truth, and the results of Truth on disease, is the only one safe to employ in the most difficult and dangerous cases. Mind will as far outstrip medicine in the cure of disease as in the cure of sin. The more excellent way is science in every instance; and medicine is not a science, it is speculative and void. ”

“ This is the first and fundamental objection to which metaphysicians are exposed, even on the threshold of their science. But if we penetrate a little deeper, we shall meet with another circumstance, which, though less obvious, is equally decisive. After the metaphysician has taken for granted that, by studying one mind, he can discover the laws of all minds, he finds himself involved in a singular difficulty as soon as he begins to apply even this imperfect method. ”

“ The metaphysician has made immortal Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter, and regarding the Truth and harmony of being as superior to its error and discord, has rendered himself strong instead of weak to cope with the case, and correspondingly strengthened his patient with the stimuli of courage and conscious power; therefore both now are at work in the economy of being, and according to the law of Mind that must ultimately assert its supremacy to promote the recovery of the patient. ”

“ What the metaphysician asserts is not that there are facts with which the various special branches of experimental science cannot deal, but that there are questions which can be and ought to be raised about the facts with which they do deal other than those which experimental inquiry can solve. ”

“ In like manner, the more nearly the metaphysician is able to find the precise sphere within which our researches must be confined, the more successfully may we expect knowledge to be converted into science, and the more submissive should be our reverence, when we turn to those mysteries which are created for us by the limitations of human thought, which are disclosed to metaphysical investigation. ”

“ The professed metaphysician might perhaps tend to regard such consideration as irrelevant; but if the starting-point of metaphysics is to be found in psychology, psychology itself depends to no small extent upon physiology. This question, however, Huxley did not pretend to solve. ”

“ He thinks, and feels, and speaks just like other people; he takes the same view of the heavens and the earth that ordinary mortals do. His hat is bigger than the sun. So of the metaphysician. He is not always a metaphysician. In common life, he can think, and feel and speak, it is to be hoped, just like his neighbours. ”

“ The metaphysician takes propositions to express judgments, as they are formed before the phenomena are properly understood by science, to be valid, and then finding that which science ultimately discovers, takes it also to be valid, and discovers in the world a set of contradictions. ”

“ As to the metaphysician himself, we would warn him that, however deeply conversant he may be with the general truths concerning the essential constituents of things, he is nevertheless in danger of erring in their application to particular cases, unless he tests his conclusions by the principles of chemical, mechanical, and physical science; for it is from these sciences that we learn the true nature of the facts and laws of the material world ”

“ Hence, the metaphysician is bound to explain how things material differ from things immaterial, and has to ascertain what metaphysical predicates are attributable to material substance on account of its very materiality. ”

“ A metaphysician, being misled by faulty observation arrives at the conclusion that a variety of external influences have caused the ailment of his shortsightedness is responsible for his arrival at the wrong conclusion. ”

“ These professional faction fights are ephemeral, and need not trouble us here. The Old Vitalist, who was essentially a Materialist, has evolved into the New Vitalist, who is, as every genuine scientist must be, finally a metaphysician. ”

“ The physiologist of the pure observation school may, then, admit his deficiency in critical training for the just estimation of metaphysical methods, and this all the more resignedly in that (as we shall by-and-by fully see) metaphysicians are found occasionally confessing, nay boasting, that they fail to understand each other, while they are likewise accused, apparently on justifiable grounds, of not at all times and seasons thoroughly comprehending each man his own individual work. So the physiologist need not trouble himself about methods but ask for results. ”

“ Metaphysics is a word that you, my dear sir, are no great friend to, but yet you will agree with me that a great poet must be implicité, if not explicité, a profound metaphysician. ”

“ Thus interminable disputes have existed in the schools upon the nature of the soul, of judgment, &c. until metaphysicians have perceived the necessity of analyzing the operations of our intellectual faculties before they can know their essence. ”

“ It may be asked, how come we to ascribe our sensations to any external cause? And is there sufficient ground for so ascribing them? It is known, that there are metaphysicians who have raised a controversy on the point; maintaining that we are not warranted in referring our sensations to a cause such as we understand by the word Body, or to any external cause whatever. ”

“ At any rate, the physician himself popularly stands for science; and, in this point of view, his position is very noble. I have known physicians whose professed materialism was more elevated than most of what the world calls religion. To trace that wondrous power 217called life, which takes these particles of matter, and makes them think with thought, or glow with passion, or put forth an activity so intense as to be the parent of new life from generation to generation,—this study is something sublime. ”

“ He remarks (Euterpe 84) : "The art of medicine is thus divided amongst them: each physician applies himself to one disease only, and not more. All places abound in physicians; some physicians are for the eyes, others for the head, others for the teeth, others for the parts about the belly, and others for internal disorders." Such a high degree of cultivation of an art or science, in which each professor occupies himself especially with a particular branch in order to achieve the utmost possible perfection in it, is known at the present day only among the most civilized nations. ”

“ Where is the physician of the present day who knows the extent of the power of the spiritually-awakened will acting at a distance of thousands of miles, or the power which human thought can exercise over the imagination of nature? Where is the professor of science who can consciously transfer his soul to a distant place by the power of thought and act there as if he were bodily present? ”

“ Therefore a physician should study as many allied branches of (science or philosophy) as possible. The physician who studies the Science of Medicine from the lips of his preceptor, and practises medicine after having acquired experience in his art by constant practice, is the true physician, while any other map dabbling in the art, should be looked upon as an impostor. ”

“ The most of our Christian Science practitioners have plenty to do, and many more are needed for the advancement of the age. At present the majority of the acute cases are given to the M. D.'s, and only those cases that are pronounced incurable are passed over to the Scientist. The healing of such cases should certainly prove to all minds the power of metaphysics over physics; and it surely does, to many thinkers, as the rapid growth of the work shows. ”

“ On the other hand, I call him a dogmatical physician who is very ready to assume opinions, to be prejudiced in favour of them, and to retain and assert very tenaciously, and with too much confidence, the opinions or prejudices which he has already taken up in common life, or in the study of the sciences.” He sought to [Pg 94] build up rational views of medicine, indeed, on the basis of fact and experiment. In giving his clinical lectures he was at great pains to choose diseases of the most common types, as most useful to the students. ”

“ His practice as a physician, although respectable, was never large. He wanted that confidence or assurance which is so necessary to the successful exercise of the profession. He was perhaps too deeply informed, and therefore too sensible of the difficulty of arriving at true knowledge in the science of medicine ever to form a hasty judgment; while his great love of, and adherence to truth, made him often hesitate where others would have felt no difficulty in expressing an opinion. ”

“ A great many regular physicians now, and all soon will, show patients how they can make use of the great healing, medicinal power of thought, the miracle of right thinking, which unites them with the Force back of the flesh. They will show each patient what attitudes of mind, what affirmations and what auto-suggestions will tend to keep him in harmony; they will teach him the healing use of suggestion. The physician of the future will use largely for his remedies, ideas, mental attitudes, and suggestions. ”

“ And this is what the physician has to do, and in this the art of medicine consists: for medicine may be regarded generally as the knowledge of the loves and desires of the body, and how to satisfy them or not; and the best physician is he who is able to separate fair love from foul, or to convert one into the other; and he who knows how to eradicate and how to implant love, whichever is required, and can reconcile the most hostile elements in the constitution and make them loving friends, is a skilful practitioner. ”

“ An Apothecary’s Education is not so deep, nor his Application to Study usually so close, as the Physician’s: yet as Genius is not confined to the Physician, but is by Nature as capable of residing in the Apothecary; some Degree of Learning, an Acquaintance with proper Books, which are equally open to both, and constant Observation on Diseases, will certainly furnish him with a considerable Stock of useful Knowledge. Experience is the Mother of Wisdom. ”

“ The causes of ill health, deformity, and the prevailing insanity and premature deaths must be sought out and exposed, and a call to repentance must be made.
In the good providence of the Lord, we have men who, by education, diligent investigation, and careful observation, are most admirably adapted to give the needed instruction—physicians. Let physicians arm themselves with true doctrines, with the spiritual sense of the Word, with the Science of Correspondences and a knowledge of natural sciences, and they will be able to combat the prevailing evils as no other men can ”

“ Once let the mental physician believe in the reality of matter, and he must admit also the reality of all its discordant conditions, which prevents his destroying them. Then he is even less fitted for the treatment of disease than the ordinary medical practitioner. ”

“ Then arose the schools of medicine which ultimately became famous, as those of the Dogmatists, Empirics, Methodists, Pneumatists, etc. The Dogmatists boasted of being the Rational and Logical school. They held that there is a certain connection between all the arts and sciences, and that it is the duty of the physician to avail himself of all sorts of knowledge on every subject which bears any relationship to his own. They made, therefore, the most careful inquiry into the remote and proximate causes of disease. ”

“ The physician, therefore, in fulfilling his high vocation, should not only have a full knowledge of mental philosophy, but he should aim to acquire a practical skill in applying its principles to all the ever varying phases, which the mind presents in its connection with disease. The possession of this skill is one of the most valuable endowments of the medical art. ”

“ In the mean time, while medical theories are coming in and going out, there is a set of sensible men who are never run away with by them, but practise their art sagaciously and faithfully in much the same way from generation to generation. From the time of Hippocrates to that of our own medical patriarch, there has been an apostolic succession of wise and good practitioners. If you will look at the first aphorism of the ancient Master you will see that before all remedies he places the proper conduct of the patient and his attendants, and the fit ordering of all the conditions surrounding him. ”