My reluctance to give the public, in my first edition of Science and Health, the chapter on Animal Magnetism, and the divine purpose that this should be done, may have an interest for the reader, and will be seen in the following circumstances.  I had finished that edition as far as that chapter, when the printer informed me that he could not go on with my work.  I had already paid him seven hundred dollars, and yet he stopped my work.  All efforts to persuade him to finish my book were in vain.

After months had passed, I yielded to a constant conviction that I must insert in my last chapter a partial history of what I had already observed of mental malpractice.  Accordingly, I set to work, contrary to my inclination, to fulfil this painful task, and finished my copy for the book.  As it afterwards appeared, although I had not thought of such a result, my printer resumed his work at the same time, finished printing the copy he had on hand, and then started for Lynn to see me.  The afternoon that he left Boston for Lynn, I started for Boston with my finished copy.  We met at the Eastern depot in Lynn, and were both surprised,—­I to learn that he had printed all the copy on hand, and had come to tell me he wanted more,—­he to find me en route for Boston, to give him the closing chapter of my first edition of Science and Health.  Not a word had passed between us, audibly or mentally, while this went on.  I had grown disgusted with my printer, and become silent.  He had come to a standstill through motives and circumstances unknown to me.

Science and Health is the textbook of Christian Science.  Whosoever learns the letter of this book, must also gain its spiritual significance, in order to demonstrate Christian Science.

When the demand for this book increased, and people were healed simply by reading it, the copyright was infringed.  I entered a suit at law, and my copyright was protected.

RECUPERATIVE INCIDENT

Through four successive years I healed, preached, and taught in a general way, refusing to take any pay for my services and living on a small annuity.

At one time I was called to speak before the Lyceum Club, at Westerly, Rhode Island.  On my arrival my hostess told me that her next-door neighbor was dying.  I asked permission to see her.  It was granted, and with my hostess I went to the invalid’s house.

The physicians had given up the case and retired.  I had stood by her side about fifteen minutes when the sick woman rose from her bed, dressed herself, and was well.  Afterwards they showed me the clothes already prepared for her burial; and told me that her physicians had said the diseased condition was caused by an injury received from a surgical operation at the birth of her last babe, and that it was impossible for her to be delivered of another child.  It is sufficient to add her babe was safely born, and weighed twelve pounds.  The mother afterwards wrote to me, “I never before suffered so little in childbirth.”