The House of Defence. By E. F. Benson. (W. Heinemann.
6s.)—Unlike his brother, Father Benson, in "A Mirror of Shalott," Mr. E. F. Benson supplies a preface to his new novel, telling the reader which of the miracles described within are founded on fact and which are imaginary. The miracle of faith-healing is, of course, no novelty, and the Church to which Father Benson belongs claims to work as great marvels through faith as do the Christian Scientists whom Mr. E. F. Benson describes in this story. Judged purely as a work of fiction, the book, while written with a good deal of Mr. Benson's customary vivacity, is rather thin and slight, but the episode vouched for by him as literally true is of considerable psycho- logical interest. To quote the words of the preface : "To save that drug-logged wreck who was our friend you [that is, the Healer] drank that which by all that is known of the drug should have killed you, and you drank it with complete and absolute confidence that it could not possibly hurt you." The Healer, both in real life and in the story, is alleged to have performed this feat in order to show the opium-drinker that the effects of the drug with which he has been poisoning himself are purely imaginary, and this conviction, enacted before his eyes, is in the book, and was, it is asserted, in real life, sufficient to cure the patient. In real life, as Mr. Benson tells us, the patient is extremely fond of the Healer, while the imaginary patient has rather an aversion to the imaginary Healer ; but Mr. Benson does not allow this fact to interfere with the cure. It may be said of the episode in the book that it is a little rash of the patient to cable to his wife that he is cured without making the experiment as to whether the cure will last. To the ordinary Christian belonging to any of the older Churches, the Christian Scientist, when his miracles succeed, which is by no means in- variably the case, seems to do the right thing in a wrong way. The cure may be undoubted, but cures do not prove the truth of the Christian Scientist's view of the world. Cures are also made at Lourdes, and in these the healing is attributed, not to the fact that evil—which seems very like the Christian Scientist's " error "— does not exist, but that the power of faith can overcome it. With regard to Christian Science cures in general, it is difficult to forget the dictum of Mr. Dooley, which ran something like this : " If the Scientists had a little more Christianity and the Christians had a little more Science, it would not much matter which you had—always supposing that you'd a good nurse !"
Previous page
