This  is  serious  dental  information,  and  I  am  con-
vinced that  it  is  honestly  believed.  Possibly  it
is  true  from  a  carnal  law  point  of  view;  possibly
also  the  **etheric  body"  of  the  Occultist — still
carnal  law — has  something  to  do  with  it,  but
honestly  now,  don't  you  think  when  you  come  to
think  of  it  carefully  that  all  these  things  are  more
reasonably  explained  by  some  sort  of  mental
causation  the  exact  operation  of  which  is  not  yet
understood  and  that  possibly  the  conscious  mind
separated  in  false  consciousness  from  God  (I
mean  the  mind  conscious  of  so-called  physical
surroundings)  in  striving  to  give  a  physical  ex-
planation to  things  it  does  not  understand  has
** experimented"  and  thereby  established  these
**laws"  for  itself  by  unconscious  mental  enforce-
ment? Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  "material  life  is  made
up  of  the  conscious  and  unconscious  thoughts  of
mortals."  Think  this  over  in  view  of  what  has
been  said  concerning  life  being  mind  alone.
I  must  confess  for  myself  that  with  all  due
friendly  deference  to  my  good  friend,  the  dentist,
it  is  vastly  harder  for  me  to  believe  that  pinching
the  toe  will  stop  the  pain  in  a  tooth,  than  it  is  for
me  to  believe  that  the  whole  thing,  both  pain  and
cure,  is  mental — ^possibly  of  a  mentality  (psychical
influences)   which  I  cannot  imderstand   (uncon-


Does  Matter  Have  Reality?       131

scious),  a  mentality  which  is  not  yet  under  control —
but  none  the  less  mental.  Such  an  explanation
establishes  a  principle,  the  other  explanations  do
not.  They  merely  state  an  observation  which
sometimes  may  be  true  but  more  often  is  not.
