Thanks so much for this week’s lesson, which led me to ponder this passage from Science and Health, p. 200:
“The great truth in the Science of being, that the real man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike.”
The words “incontrovertible…inverted…subverted” all come from the same Latin verb, vertere, meaning “to turn.” The following quotes are from Online Etymology Dictionary and Webster 1828:
CONTROVERT (from 17th century, now obsolete, meaning “dispute (something), oppose by argument … to make the subject of verbal contention, debate, discuss; contend against (someone) in argument,” related to controversy, and
CONTROVERTIBLE, refers to anything “that may be disputed; disputable; not too evident to exclude difference of opinion; as, this is a controvertible point of law.” [A “point of law” is a disputed legal question or contention that is generally left for a judge to decide.]
INCONTROVERTIBLE, [in and controvertible.] refers to anything “indisputable; too clear or certain to admit of dispute.”
INVERT (from Latin invertere): “turn upside down, turn about; upset, reverse, transpose,” figuratively ‘pervert, corrupt, misrepresent,’ of words.”
SUBVERT (from Latin subverto; sub and verto, to turn.]
“1. To overthrow from the foundation; to overturn; to ruin utterly.”
“The northern nations of Europe subverted the Roman empire. He is the worst enemy of man, who endeavors to subvert the christian religion. The elevation of corrupt men to office will slowly, but surely, subvert a republican government.” [John Ogilvie]
“This would subvert the principles of all knowledge.” [John Locke]
“2. To corrupt; to confound; to pervert the mind, and turn it from the truth. 2 Timothy 2:14.” [“Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.”]
The voice of the talking serpent is the voice of the clay talking back to the potter, an utter impossibility. “Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind.” (SH 284.) Try as it may, the effort of the talking serpent of Genesis chapter 2 to invert, pervert, subvert chapter 1’s original creation story — to convince humans that they are fallen — has always failed, worked in reverse to subvert error itself, like Haman hung on the gallows intended for Mordecai.