nfound
these questioners--and the chiefs did not reply. He has written
again--and then again--not with confidence, but humbly, now, and has
begged for defensive ammunition in the voice of supplication. A reply
does at last come--to this effect: 'We must have faith in Our Mother,
and rest content in the conviction that whatever She(3) does with the
money it is in accordance with orders from Heaven, for She does no act
of any kind without first "demonstrating over" it.'

That settles it--as far as the disciple is concerned. His Mind is
entirely satisfied with that answer; he gets down his Annex and does
an incantation or two, and that mesmerises his spirit and puts that to
sleep--brings it peace. Peace and comfort and joy, until some inquirer
punctures the old sore again.

Through friends in America I asked some questions, and in some cases
got definite and informing answers; in other cases the answers were not
definite and not valuable. From the definite answers I gather than the
'capitation-tax' is compulsory, and that the sum is one dollar. To the
question, 'Does any of the money go to charities?' the answer from an
authoritative source was: 'No, not in the sense usually conveyed by this
word*.' (The italics are mine.) That answer is cautious. But definite,
I think--utterly and unassailably definite--although quite
Christian-scientifically foggy in its phrasing. Christian Science is
generally foggy, generally diffuse, generally garrulous. The writer was
aware that the first word in his phrase answered the question which I
was asking, but he could not help adding nine dark words. Meaningless
ones, unless explained by him. It is quite likely--as intimated by
him--that Christian Science has invented a new class of objects to apply
the word charity to, but without an explanation we cannot know what they
are. We quite easily and naturally and confidently guess that they are
in all cases objects which will return five hundred per cent. on the
Trust's investment in them, but guessing is not knowledge; it is merely,
in this case, a sort of nine-tenths certainty deducible from what we
think we know of the Trust's trade principles and its sly and furtive
and shifty ways.

Sly? Deep? Judicious? The Trust understands business. The Trust does not
give itself away. It defeats all the attempts of us impertinents to get
at its trade secrets. To this day, after all our diligence, we have not
been able to get it to confess what it do