You will tell me if my understanding of the New Movement is correct: to wit,
that it is just Christian Science, with some of the earmarks painted over &
the others removed, after the fashion of the unanointed cattle-thieves of the
wild, wild West. My word, how ecclesiastical history do repeat herself! The
Jews steal a God & a Creation & a Flood & a Moral Code from Babylon;
Egypt steals the like from a forgotten Antiquity; Greece steals the swag from
Egypt; Rome steals it from Greece; Christianity comes belated along & steals
morals & miracles & one thing & another from Budh & Confucius;
Christian Science arrives & steals the Christian outfit & gives it a
new name; & now at last comes the Boston puritan -- hater of Christian Science
-- & steals the plunder anew & re-baptises it, & shouts tearful
& grateful glory to God for winking at the mulct & not letting on --
according to His shady custom these thirty million years.
- Letter to Joseph Twichell, 17 April 1908
Recommended reading:
The
Letters of Mark Twain and Joseph Hopkins Twichell
available from amazon.com
Quotations | Newspaper Articles | Special Features | Links | Search