Inasmuch as—­in my belief—­the very first editions of the book Science and Health were far above the reach of Mrs. Eddy’s mental and literary abilities, I think she has from the very beginning been claiming as her own another person’s book, and wearing as her own property laurels rightfully belonging to that person—­the real author of Science and Health.  And I think the reason—­and the only reason—­that he has not protested is because his work was not exposed to print until after he was safely dead.

That with an eye to business, and by grace of her business talent, she has restored to the world neglected and abandoned features of the Christian religion which her thousands of followers find gracious and blessed and contenting, I recognize and confess; but I am convinced that every single detail of the work except just that one—­the delivery of the Product to the world—­was conceived and performed by another.

APPENDIX A

ORIGINAL FIRST PREFACE TO SCIENCE AND HEALTH

There seems a Christian necessity of learning God’s power and purpose to heal both mind and body.  This thought grew out of our early seeking Him in all our ways, and a hopeless as singular invalidism that drugs increased instead of diminished, and hygiene benefited only for a season.  By degrees we have drifted into more spiritual latitudes of thought, and experimented as we advanced until demonstrating fully the power of mind over the body.  About the year 1862, having heard of a mesmerist in Portland who was treating the sick by manipulation, we visited him; he helped us for a time, then we relapsed somewhat.  After his decease, and a severe casualty deemed fatal by skilful physicians, we discovered that the Principle of all healing and the law that governs it is God, a divine Principle, and a spiritual not material law, and regained health.

It was not an individual or mortal mind acting upon another so-called mind that healed us.  It was the glorious truths of Christian Science that we discovered as we neared that verge of so-called material life named death; yea, it was the great Shekinah, the spirit of Life, Truth, and Love illuminating our understanding of the action and might of Omnipotence!  The old gentleman to whom we have referred had some very advanced views on healing, but he was not avowedly religious neither scholarly.  We interchanged thoughts on the subject of healing the sick.  I restored some patients of his that he failed to heal, and left in his possession some manuscripts of mine containing corrections of his desultory pennings, which I am informed at his decease passed into the hands of a patient of his, now residing in Scotland.  He died in 1865 and left no published works.  The only manuscript that we ever held of his, longer than to correct it, was one of perhaps a dozen pages, most of which we had composed.  He manipulated the sick; hence his ostensible method of healing was physical instead of mental.