THE TRUE HISTORY 
 OF MENTAL SCIENCE 
 
 V.'B 
 
 880 
 
 D773t 
 
 1899 
 
 THE FACTS CONCERNING THE 
 DISCOVERY OF MENTAL HEAL- 
 ING, BY JULIUS A. DRESSER 
 
 REVISED, WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, BY 
 HORATIO W. DRESSER, Author of “ METHODS 
 AND PROBLEMS OF SPIRITUAL HEALING,’ - ' Etc. 
 
 PRICE, TWENTY CENTS 
 
This is a reproduction of a book from the McGill University Library 
 collection. 
 
 Title: The true history of mental science : the facts concerning the 
 
 discovery of mental healing 
 Author: Dresser, Julius A. 
 
 Publisher, year: Boston : Ellis, 1899 
 
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 noticeable. 
 
 ISBN of reproduction: 978-1-77096-211-8 
 
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Presented to 
 
 The Medical Library of McGill University 
 
 by 
 
 Dr. c. F. Martin 
 
 CIS.SITZ D 77 3.% 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 M C GILL UNIVERSITY 
 
 MONTREAL 
 
 ACC. No. DATE 1961 
 
 THE 
 
 OSLER LIBRARY 
 MCGILL UNIVERSITY 
 MONTREAL 
 
* 
 
 OSIER HORARY 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 P. P. QUIMBY, 
 
 The First Practitioner of Mental Healing 
 in America. 
 
 By ANNETTA GERTRUDE DRESSER, 
 
 A Patient of Dr. Suimby at tbe time Mrs. Eddy , 
 the alleged discoverer of Mental Healing , 
 iv a: cured by him. 
 
 Contents: Historical Sketch ; Extracts 
 from the Press, 1857-65 ; Reminiscences ; 
 Exposition of Dr. Quimby’s Philosophy ; 
 Selections from Dr. Quimby’s Manuscripts. 
 
 With portrait. Cloth, 1 14 pages, $1. 00. 
 Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price. Geo. 
 H. Ellis, 272 Congress Street, Boston, Mass. 
 
THE [TRUE HISTORY OF MENTAL 
 
 SCIENCE 
 
 THE FACTS CONCERNING THE DISCOVERY OF 
 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 BY 
 
 JULIUS A. DRESSER 
 
 REVISED, WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, BY 
 HORATIO W. DRESSER 
 
 Author of “ Methods and Problems of Spiritual Healing,” Etc. 
 
 Price 20 cents 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 Geo. H. Ellis, 272 Congress Street 
 1899 
 
 MEDICAL LIBRARY, 
 
 McGill university, 
 
 MONT htAi-. Canada 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1887 
 BY 
 
 JULIUS A. DRESSER 
 
 CEO. M. ELLIS. PRINTER. 272 CONGRESS STREET, SOSTON, MASS., U.8.A. 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The facts given in the following address* have 
 been held for many years, until there should be 
 such a general demand for them that they would 
 receive a willing and unprejudiced ear, and an 
 appreciation in accordance with their merits. Por- 
 tions of this history have been contributed by the 
 author to the Mental Healing Monthly of Bos- 
 ton, in nearly the same words as here given, 
 and also some portions to the Christian Metaphy- 
 sician of Chicago. But this pamphlet includes ex- 
 tracts from the unpublished manuscripts of P. P. 
 Quimby, which appear in no other publication. 
 
 j. A. D. 
 
 Boston, May, 1887. 
 
 •Delivered at the Church of the Divine Unity, Boston, Feb. 6, 1887. 
 
THE FACTS CONCERNING THE DISCOV- 
 ERY OF MENTAL HEALING. 
 
 The foundation principles of what we now term 
 Mental Science are shown by history to have been 
 largely understood by the philosophers of all ages. 
 The philosophy of Plato, who flourished four hun- 
 dred years before Christ, was essentially idealistic ; 
 and the same idealism is set forth in different 
 forms by leading thinkers of succeeding genera- 
 tions, notably by Bishop Berkeley, in the seven- 
 teenth century. But, while these thinkers mainly 
 agreed that all reality is in the realm of spirit, of 
 which what we see is only an emanation or mani- 
 festation, they all failed to apply their philosophy 
 to the healing of disease. Of those who had this 
 understanding previous to our time, only Jesus 
 and his disciples applied it to relieving human 
 ills. All others devoted their teachings simply 
 to modifying and forming character, and to the 
 development of a system of metaphysics. 
 
 Coming down to the nineteenth century, we 
 find Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings permeated 
 with the idealistic theory, and running over with 
 the belief in an omnipresent Goodness as the sub- 
 stance of all things, with here and there a hint 
 that the so-called “ ills that flesh is heir to ” may 
 
 4 k ; 
 
 % *V i 
 
 • - i 
 
6 
 
 be eradicated as errors, when held up to the light 
 of truth, the same as can moral evils. But the 
 first person in this age who penetrated the depths 
 of truth so far as to discover and bring forth a 
 true science of life, and publicly apply it to the 
 healing of the sick, was Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, 
 of Belfast, Me.* I am well aware that with some 
 people this is a disputed point, as they respect 
 the claims of certain others ; but I have been re- 
 quested, by many persons interested in this his- 
 tory, to say what I know about it. Believing 
 that the time has come to do so, I shall now give 
 you a series of facts, and you can judge of them 
 for yourselves. 
 
 The first that I knew of P. P. Quimby was in 
 June, i860, when I went to him as a patient, in 
 Portland, Me. This was five and a half years 
 before his death. He had then, i860, been in the 
 regular practice of mental healing for many years^ 
 in different towns in Maine, and had been located 
 in Portland about two years. There was at that 
 time, i860, no one else in the practice in New 
 England, nor in this country, so far as was then 
 known, or has since been heard of ; nor was there 
 at that time any one else who understood it as a 
 science, he having been the discoverer and founder, 
 as I think I shall show you.f He had then, i860, 
 
 * Bom in Lebanon, N.H., February 16, 1802. Died in Belfast, Me., January 
 16, 1866. 
 
 f Perhaps the nearest approach to the theory and practice of Dr. Quimby 
 was the contemporary investigation of John Bovee Dods, who believed that 
 
7 
 
 been at work more than twenty years in this field 
 of discovery and practice, which carries his first 
 investigations previous to the year 1840. 
 
 The question may be asked, “ Was Quimby 
 ever a mesmerist ? ” I reply that he was, for a 
 limited time, and for purposes of experiment and 
 investigation. The truth came to him, not as a 
 revelation pure and simple, but as the result of 
 practical experiment and patient research among 
 the phenomena of life, urged on by the impulses 
 of an active, inquiring, comprehensive mind. I 
 have seen extracts from newspapers as far back 
 as 1842-43, giving accounts of his public exhibi- 
 tions of mesmerism, in some of which newspaper 
 accounts he was rated with a few others in this 
 country and Europe who were the leading mes- 
 merizers in the world. Dr. Quimby had been a 
 watch and clock maker for some years, when mes- 
 merism attracted his attention. 
 
 The subject of mesmerism was first introduced 
 into this country by Mr. Charles Poyan, a French 
 gentleman, in the year 1836. A few years later 
 a certain Dr. Collyer lectured upon it in New 
 England and elsewhere. In 1840 P. P. Quimby 
 commenced experimenting with it, although this 
 did not furnish him his first lesson in the truth 
 he afterward developed, as I have learned from 
 
 electricity was the connecting link between mind and matter, that disease origi- 
 nates in the electricity of the nerves, and can be cured by a change of mind. 
 See “The Philosophy of Electrical Psychology.” New York, S. R. Wells, 
 1870. 
 
8 
 
 \ 
 
 accounts of his earlier experiences. From a news- 
 paper account of one of his public exhibitions of 
 mesmerism in Belfast, Me., dated April 27, 1843, 
 I make this excerpt : — 
 
 “ Before we proceed to describe the experi- 
 ments” (the newspaper says), “we will say that 
 Mr. Quimby is a gentleman, in size rather smaller 
 than the medium of man, with a well-proportioned 
 and well-balanced phrenological head, and with 
 the power of concentration surpassing anything 
 we have ever witnessed. His eyes are black and 
 very piercing, with rather a pleasant expression ; 
 and he possesses the power of looking at one 
 object, without even winking, for a great length 
 of time.” 
 
 In his mesmeric experiments, as reported in the 
 Maine papers in those years so long ago, Quimby 
 is shown to have progressed gradually out of mes- 
 merism into a knowledge of the hidden powers of 
 mind ; and he soon found in man a principle, or 
 a power, that was not of man himself, but was 
 higher than man, and of which he could become a 
 medium. Its character was goodness and intelli- 
 gence, and its power was great. He also found 
 that disease was primarily an erroneous belief of 
 mind. Here was a discovery of truth ; and on 
 this discovery he founded a system of treating 
 the sick, and founded a “science of life.” As a 
 better testimony than my own on these points, I 
 will here introduce a quotation from a letter by 
 
9 
 
 his son, George A. Quimby, of Belfast, Me., in 
 reply to one in which I wrote for certain data re- 
 lating to his father. Speaking of his father, Mr. 
 Quimby wrote as follows: — 
 
 “Some time in 1840 he became deeply ipter- 
 ested in mesmerism ; and for quite a number of 
 years, in connection with his other business, he 
 gave exhibitions with a clairvoyant subject through 
 the state of Maine, and also treated disease, using 
 his mesmeric power, as it was termed then. This 
 method he kept up, but gradually working out of 
 the mesmeric idea into a train of reasoning of his 
 own, which he applied to the patient, till finally 
 he gave up putting the patient to sleep mesmeri- 
 cally,* and followed the mode of treatment which 
 he originated and continued up to the time of his 
 death, which treatment, in his own words, was 
 this : — 
 
 “He says: ‘My practice is unlike all medical 
 practice. I give no medicine, and make no out- 
 ward applications. I tell the patient his troubles, 
 and what he thinks is his disease ; and my ex- 
 planation is the cure. If I succeed in correcting 
 his errors, I change the fluids of the system and 
 establish the truth , or health . The truth is the 
 cure. This mode of practice applies to all cases.’ ” 
 
 These are Dr. Quimby’s own words, and any 
 one can see that they mean a purely mental treat- 
 ment ; for he speaks of what the patient thinks is 
 
 •Fora more detailed account of this progress out of mesmerism see “The 
 "hilosophy of P. P. Quimby,” by A. G. Dresser, Geo. H. Ellis, 1895, P- l6 - 
 
10 
 
 his disease, and calls it his error, by saying that, if 
 he succeeds in correcting the patient’s errors, he 
 then establishes the truth, and the truth is tJie cure. 
 You see from this that he had discovered that 
 disease was an error of mind, and nothing else, 
 and the God-power of truth which he had discov- 
 ered in man, being set up again in the victim of 
 disease, destroyed the error, or disease, and re-es- 
 tablished the harmony. 
 
 This discovery, you observe, was not made 
 from the Bible, but from mental phenomena and 
 searching investigations ; and, after the truth was 
 discovered, he found his new views portrayed and 
 illustrated in Christ’s teachings and works. If 
 you think this seems to show that Quimby was a 
 remarkable man, let me tell you that he was one 
 of the most unassuming of men that ever lived ; 
 for no one could well be more so, or make less 
 account of his own achievements. Humility was 
 a marked feature of his character (I knew him 
 intimately). To this was united a benevolent and 
 an unselfish nature, and a love of truth, with a 
 remarkably keen perception. But the distinguish- 
 ing feature of his mind was that he could not en- 
 tertain an opinion, because it was not knowledge. 
 His faculties were so practical and perceptive that 
 the wisdom of mankind, which is largely made up 
 of opinions, was of little value to him. Hence the 
 charge that he was not an educated man is literally 
 true. True knowledge to him was positive proof ‘ 
 
as in a problem of mathematics. Therefore, he 
 discarded books and sought phenomena, where his 
 perceptive faculties made him master of the situa- 
 tion. Therefore, he got from his experiments in 
 mesmerism what other men did not get, — a step- 
 ping-stone to a higher knowledge than man pos- 
 sessed, and a new range to mental vision. He 
 wrote out his discoveries at great length; and 
 from these yet unpublished writings, now in the 
 possession of his son, before referred to, I am priv- 
 ileged to incorporate in this lecture the following 
 article, which was written in the year 1863, and 
 thus allow Quimby to tell an important part of his 
 own story. These are his words : — 
 
 “ My conversion from disease to health, 
 
 AND THE SUBSEQUENT CHANGE FROM BELIEF IN 
 THE MEDICAL FACULTY TO ENTIRE DISBELIEF IN IT, 
 AND TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH ON WHICH 
 I BASE MY THEORY.” 
 
 “ Can a theory be found, capable of practice, 
 which can separate truth from error? I under- 
 take to say there is a method of reasoning which, 
 being understood, can separate one from the other. 
 Men never dispute about a fact that can be dem- 
 onstrated by scientific reasoning. Controversies 
 arise from some idea that has been turned into 
 a false direction, leading to a false position. The 
 basis of my reasoning is this point: that whatever 
 is true to a person, if he cannot prove it, is not 
 
12 
 
 necessarily true to another. Therefore, because a 
 person says a thing is no reason that he says true. 
 The greatest evil that follows taking an opinion 
 for a truth is disease. Let medical and religious 
 opinions, which produce so vast an amount of 
 misery, be tested by the rule I have laid down, 
 and it will be seen how much they are founded in 
 truth. For twenty years I have been testing them, 
 and I have failed to find one single principle of 
 truth in either. This is not from any prejudice 
 against the medical faculty ; for, when I began to 
 investigate the mind, I was entirely on that side. 
 I was prejudiced in favor of the medical faculty; 
 for I never employed any one outside of the reg- 
 ular faculty, nor took the least particle of quack 
 medicine. 
 
 “ Some thirty years ago I was very sick, and was 
 considered fast wasting away with consumption. 
 At that time I became so low that it was with 
 difficulty I could walk about. I was all the while 
 under the allopathic practice, and I had taken so 
 much calomel that my system was said to be poi- 
 soned with it ; and I lost many of my teeth from 
 that effect. My symptoms were those of any con- 
 sumptive; and I had been told that my liver was 
 affected and my kidneys were diseased, and that 
 my lungs were nearly consumed. I believed all 
 this, from the fact that I had all the symptoms, 
 and could not resist the opinions of the physician 
 while having the proof with me. In this state I 
 
13 
 
 was compelled to abandon my business; and, 
 losing all hope, I gave up to die, — not that I 
 thought the medical faculty had no wisdom, but 
 that my case was one that could not be cured. 
 
 “ Having an acquaintance who cured himself by 
 riding horseback, I thought I would try riding in 
 a carriage, as I was too weak to ride horseback. 
 My horse was contrary ; and once, when about two 
 miles from home, he stopped at the foot of a long 
 hill, and would not start except as I went by his 
 side. So I was obliged to run nearly the whole 
 distance. Having reached the top of the hill I 
 got into the carriage ; and, as I was very much 
 exhausted, I concluded to sit there the balance of 
 the day, if the horse did not start. Like all sickly 
 and nervous people, I could not remain easy in 
 that place ; and, seeing a man ploughing, I waited 
 till he had ploughed around a three-acre lot, and 
 got within sound of my voice, when I asked him to 
 start my horse. He did so, and at the time I was 
 so weak I could scarcely lift my whip. But excite- 
 ment took possession of my senses, and I drove 
 the horse as fast as he could go, up hill and down, 
 till I reached home ; and, when I got into the 
 stable, I felt as strong as I ever did.” (The ac- 
 count of this experience ends here ; but it seems 
 to have been a phenomenon that opened Quimby’s 
 eyes, and through his keen perceptions it taught 
 him a great deal. The article continues with an 
 experience of another nature. 
 
14 
 
 “ When I commenced to mesmerize, I was not 
 well, according to the medical science; but in 
 my researches I found a remedy for my disease. 
 Here was where I first discovered that mind was 
 matter, and capable of being changed. 
 
 “Also that, disease being a deranged state of 
 mind, the cause I found to exist in our belief. 
 The evidence of this theory I found in myself; 
 for, like all others, I had believed in medicine. 
 Disease and its power over life, and its curability, 
 are all embraced in our belief. Some believe in 
 various remedies, and others believe that the 
 spirits of the dead prescribe. I have no confi- 
 dence in the virtue of either. I know that cures 
 have been made in these ways. I do not deny 
 them. But the principle on which they are done 
 is the question to solve ; for disease can be cured, 
 with or without medicine, on but one principle. I 
 have said I believed in the old practice and its 
 medicines, the effect of which I had within myself; 
 for, knowing no other way to account for the phe- 
 nomena, I took it for granted that they were the 
 result of medicine. 
 
 “ With this mass of evidence staring me in the 
 face, how could I doubt the old practice ? Yet, in 
 spite of all my prejudices, I had to yield to a 
 stronger evidence than man’s opinion, and discard 
 the whole theory of medicine, practiced by a class 
 of men, some honest, some ignorant, some selfish, 
 and all thinking that the world must be ruled by 
 their opinions. 
 
IS 
 
 “ Now for my particular experience. I had pains 
 in the back, which, they said, were caused by my 
 kidneys, which were partially consumed. I also 
 was told that I had ulcers on my lungs. Under 
 this belief, I was miserable enough to be of no 
 account in the world. This was the state I was in 
 when I commenced to mesmerize. On one occa- 
 sion, when I had my subject asleep, he described 
 the pains I felt in my back ( I had never dared to 
 ask him to examine me, for I felt sure that my 
 kidneys were nearly gone) ; and he placed his 
 hand on the spot where I felt the pain. He then 
 told me that my kidneys were in a very bad state, 
 — that one was half-consumed, and a piece three 
 inches long had separated from it, and was only 
 connected by a slender thread. This was what I 
 believed to be true, for it agreed with what the 
 doctors told me, and with what I had suffered ; for 
 I had not been free from pain for years. My 
 common sense told me that no medicine would 
 ever cure this trouble, and therefore I must suffer 
 till death relieved me. But I asked him if there 
 was any remedy. He replied, ‘Yes, I can put 
 the piece on so it will grow, and you will get well.' 
 At this I was completely astonished, and knew not 
 what to think. He immediately placed his hands 
 upon me, and said he united the pieces so they 
 would grow. The next day he said they had 
 grown together, and from that day I never have 
 experienced the least pain from them. 
 
i6 
 
 “ Now what is the secret of the cure ? I had 
 not the least doubt but that I was as he described ; 
 and, if he had said, as I expected that he would, 
 that nothing could be done, I should have died in 
 a year or so. But, when he said he could cure me 
 in the way he proposed, I began to think ; and I 
 discovered that I had been deceived into a belief 
 that made me sick. The absurdity of his remedies 
 made me doubt the fact that my kidneys were 
 diseased, for he said in two days they were as well 
 as ever. If he saw the first condition, he also 
 saw the last ; for in both cases he said he could 
 see. I concluded in the first instance that he 
 read my thoughts, and when he said he could cure 
 me he drew on his own mind ; and his ideas were 
 so absurd that the disease vanished by the ab- 
 surdity of the cure. This was the first stumbling- 
 block I found in the medical science. I soon 
 ventured to let him examine me further, and in 
 every case he would describe my feelings, but 
 would vary about the amount of disease ; and his 
 explanation and remedies always convinced me 
 that I had no such disease, and that my troubles 
 were of my own make. 
 
 “ At this time I frequently visited the sick with 
 Lucius, by invitation of the attending physician ; 
 and the boy examined the patient, and told facts 
 that would astonish everybody, and yet every one 
 of them was believed. For instance, he told a 
 person affected as I had been, only worse, that his 
 
i7 
 
 lungs looked like a honeycomb, and his liver was 
 covered with ulcers. He then prescribed some 
 simple herb tea, and the patient recovered ; and the 
 doctor believed the medicine cured him. But I 
 believed that the doctor made the disease ; and his 
 faith in the boy made a change in the mind, and 
 the cure followed.* Instead of gaining confidence 
 in the doctors, I was forced to the conclusion that 
 their science is false. Man is made up of truth 
 and belief ; and, if he is deceived into a belief that 
 he has, or is liable to have, a disease, the belief is 
 catching, and the effect follows it. I have given 
 the experience of my emancipation from this belief 
 and from confidence in the doctors, so that it may 
 open the eyes of those who stand where I was. 
 I have risen from this belief ; and I return to warn 
 my brethren, lest, when they are disturbed, they 
 shall get into this place of torment prepared by 
 the medical faculty. Having suffered myself, I 
 cannot take advantage of my fellow-men by intro- 
 ducing a new mode of curing disease and prescrib- 
 ing medicine. My theory exposes the hypocrisy 
 of those who undertake to cure in that way. They 
 make ten diseases to one cure, thus bringing a 
 surplus of misery into the world, and shutting out 
 a healthy state of society. They have a monopoly, 
 and no theory that lessens disease can compete 
 with them. When I cure, there is one disease the 
 less ; but not so when others cure, for the supply 
 
 * See a more adequate statement of this theory, “ The Philosophy of P. P. 
 Quimby,” p. 90. 
 
i8 
 
 of sickness shows that there is more disease on 
 hand than there ever was. Therefore, the labor 
 for health is slow, and the manufactory of disease 
 is greater. The newspapers teem with advertise- 
 ments of remedies, showing that the supply of 
 disease increases. My theory teaches man to 
 manufacture health ; and, when people go into this 
 occupation, disease will diminish, and those who 
 furnish disease and death will be few and scarce.” 
 
 This account from Dr. Quimby himself settles 
 many things. First, it gives in detail one of the 
 many experiences by which he discovered this 
 truth. It shows, also, the practical nature of the 
 man’s mind, and illustrates his wonderful percep- 
 tive powers. And the article shows that no one 
 could have written it but the one whose experi- 
 ence it describes ; and it shows, too, that what he 
 arrived at was the knowledge that disease is 
 nothing but an error of belief, to be corrected by 
 the truth. On this basis he practiced ever after- 
 ward. How could he do otherwise, after making 
 such a discovery ? And this discovery was made 
 about forty-five years ago. All these facts can 
 be fully substantiated by consulting certain news- 
 paper files,* and certain persons who are familiar 
 with it all. And this theory, that disease is an 
 error of belief to be corrected by the truth, not 
 only formed the basis of “ a science of health ” 
 which Dr. Quimby introduced, but it is the sub- 
 
 * Some of these newspaper articles have been reprinted in “The Philosophy 
 of P. P. Quimby,” p. 22 . 
 
19 
 
 ject of voluminous manuscripts devoted to the 
 “true science of life and happiness,” and others 
 in which he explained and defended Christ’s say- 
 ings, his gospel and his work. He also wrote 
 upon the true standard of law, and of government, 
 and upon other topics. All these writings I have 
 read, being in the confidence of George A. 
 Quimby, the son, who holds them. This son was 
 with his father as secretary during the father’s 
 last five years of practice, and the father hoped 
 that his son would take up the practice with him, 
 and succeed him ; but he took a different turn, and 
 is a manufacturer. 
 
 I think I can see a wisdom in nearly everything. 
 If these writings had been published, as Dr. 
 Quimby intended, in his day, or even at any time 
 since, they would have found a public unprepared 
 for them. Therefore, they are in the hands of a 
 person whose sympathies are not stirred by a work 
 in the truth, as some of ours are, to issue them 
 before their time. But these manuscripts will be 
 published at a future day. The present owner of 
 them is not troubled in the least, nor am I, by 
 such misstatements, to call them by no worse 
 name, as have appeared in certain recent publica- 
 tions, belying and belittling Dr. Quimby and your 
 speaker ; nor by the efforts to show that Dr. 
 Quimby’s manuscripts were written by somebody 
 else.* We have only pity for a person who would 
 
 • It has frequently been claimed that Mrs. Eddy was Dr. Quimby’s secre- 
 tary, and that she helped him to formulate his ideas. It has also been stated 
 
20 
 
 make such misstatements for a purely selfish pur- 
 pose. You have heard or read of Haman’s gal- 
 lows, which he built for Mordecai, the Jew, and 
 how they finally hung only the builder himself! 
 P. P. Quimby’s writings, when published, will speak 
 for themselves ; and his friends know it perfectly. 
 They pay no attention to what is said or done by 
 others, any more than your speaker does. 
 
 One more point of a personal nature, and I pass 
 on to more general facts. I have been blamed 
 many times by persons for so long withholding 
 the facts I now make public, together with much 
 more that I shall not mention at this time. The 
 reply that myself and wife have always made was 
 that we wished to pursue our work in the truth in 
 the true spirit of that truth, which is charity and 
 love ; and this did not lead us to say aught against 
 another, nor even to reply to unjust aspersions 
 upon ourselves or P. P. Quimby. We knew that 
 some time the facts would be called for by sup- 
 
 that these manuscripts were Mrs. Eddy's writings, left by her in Portland; that 
 the articles printed in this pamphlet were Mrs. Eddy’s words, as nearly as she 
 can recollect them {Christian. Science Sentinel, Feb. r6, 1899). There it abso- 
 lutely no truth in any of these statements or suppositions. Mrs. Eddy never saw 
 a page of the original manuscripts; and volume 1, loaned her by my father in 
 1862, was his copy Jrom a copy. Mrs. Eddy may have made a copy of this 
 volume for her own use, but the majority even of the copied articles Mrs. Eddy 
 never saw. I have read and copied all of these articles, and can certify that they 
 contain a very original and complete statement of the data and theory of mental 
 healing. There are over eight hundred closely written pages, covering one 
 hundred and twenty subjects, written previous to March, 1862, more than sis 
 months before Mrs. Eddy went to Dr. Quimby. The later articles are chiefly 
 elaborations of these earlier essays. The ideas and methods of treatment were 
 original with Dr. Quimby: the language of “Science and Health” is original 
 with Mrs. Eddy. 
 
21 
 
 porters of the truth ; and then, if we felt the time 
 had come, we would give them, and, in so doing, 
 the statement of the facts would be seen plainly 
 to be only for the truth’s sake, and in its true 
 spirit. 
 
 But, said some, people are being deceived con- 
 stantly. We replied that we knew it, but that 
 very many things were allowed by an overruling 
 Providence to go on in this world which seemed 
 to need correction, and we were not running this 
 world nor the universe, and we were more particu- 
 lar to see that we discharged our own immediate 
 duties and what little good we might do, to the 
 best of our ability and in the spirit of love, than 
 we were to follow the prevailing human custom of 
 taking upon ourselves the assumed work of correct- 
 ing errors that other people were falling into. I 
 acknowledge that our course has been open to criti- 
 cism on this point ; but, dear friends, we have 
 waited, “ with malice toward none and charity for 
 all,” for your call for these facts ; and now we can 
 give them because they are wanted, and not be- 
 cause of any pleasure it might be said we had in 
 doing it. For that phase of this history which 
 constitutes unavoidable reflection upon others is 
 only painful ; and I have avoided it as much as 
 possible in giving this account, and have there- 
 fore left out a great deal of detail that might 
 otherwise have been included, and have made no 
 replies at all to the many unjust and false state- 
 
22 
 
 ments that have been published and circulated 
 about P. P. Quimby and myself. No one has 
 been really injured as a result of our reticence, I 
 trust ; and certainly we have not suffered in any 
 respect, except one. And that is that persons 
 have said, and others have thought, that, because 
 we made no replies to anything, there were none 
 that we could make, and therefore all claims and 
 statements of others were true. Do you remem- 
 ber the words of the apostle, — “ Charity suffereth 
 long, and is kind ; is not easily provoked, thinketh 
 no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in 
 the truth ; charity never faileth ” ? 
 
 Such is the spirit of the kind of truth that I 
 learned from P. P. Quimby, and the kind that he 
 himself practiced ; and his spirit of love so opened 
 his soul to the God-power that his works were mar- 
 vellous. The quick cures that he brought about 
 have not been equalled by any one since his time, 
 so far as I know. Myself and wife have owed our 
 lives to him for nearly twenty-seven years past, 
 and to the truth he revealed to us. Thousands 
 of others could make a similar testimony, but I 
 prefer not to occupy time with relating his cures. 
 The man himself never desired publicity. The 
 truth itself and the good of humanity were the 
 first and last considerations with him. He even 
 had no fixed name for his theory * or practice, 
 desiring to be known only by his fruits. He sank 
 
 • Dr. Quimby frequently termed his theory 11 The Science of Life and Hap- 
 pines*,” and in one article he uses the term “ Christian Science.” 
 
23 
 
 the individual wholly in the cause of truth and 
 the good of humanity. 
 
 It is the intention of your speaker to relate this 
 history so as to avoid any appearance of fulsome 
 praise, because the man Quimby would not desire 
 it ; and it is my aim only to relate plain facts in a 
 plain manner, and I request you therefore to con- 
 sider no statement herein as overdrawn. Your 
 attention is called to one important fact ; and that 
 is, that the kind of individual I am describing in 
 the person of P. P. Quimby is the kind who can 
 make discoveries of truth , if any one can, — that is, 
 a mind of great capabilities, coupled with great 
 humility and extreme unselfishness. This is the 
 kind of a medium that God speaks through, be- 
 cause such a soul is open to his inspirations. On 
 the other hand, a selfish soul, who seeks personal 
 aggrandizement, is not open to revelations of much 
 moment, because selfishness always blinds one. 
 The truth does not flourish in such soil. 
 
 P. P. Quimby’s perceptive powers were some- 
 thing remarkable. He always told the patient, at 
 the first sitting, what the latter thought was his 
 disease ; and, as he was able to do this, he never 
 allowed the patient to tell him anything about 
 his case. Quimby would also continue and tell 
 the patient what the circumstances were which 
 first caused the trouble,* and then explain to him 
 how he fell into his error, and then from this basis 
 
 •See “The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby,” p. 51. 
 
24 
 
 prove to him, in many instances, that his state of 
 suffering was purely an error of mind, and not 
 what he thought it was. Thus his system of treat- 
 ing diseases was really and truly a science, which 
 proved itself. You see also from these state- 
 ments, how he taught his patients to understand, 
 and how persons who went to him for treatment 
 were instructed in the truth as well as restored 
 to health. In this way some persons became 
 especially instructed, as did your speaker. The 
 persons referred to also obtained many private 
 interviews with him for further instruction in the 
 truth. 
 
 The question has often been asked, by persons 
 who had gotten some idea of the truth, how Dr. 
 Quimby, who was a man of such power and under- 
 standing, came to die ? Herein lies a story of his 
 unselfishness. The man was overrun with patients 
 for many years, and he was alone in the work. 
 There is always a limit to finite endurance, and 
 his heart was too large to enable him to refuse 
 people whom he might help out of their sufferings 
 when they applied to him. During those years 
 when his office was in Portland, his home and 
 family being always in Belfast, he was compelled 
 once in four or six weeks to get away from the 
 pressing tide of humanity, and go home to Belfast, 
 privately, and rest for three or four days. 
 
 He sometimes would say to those nearest him 
 that, if he ever should allow himself to get so far 
 
25 
 
 exhausted as not to be able to recover himself, 
 there was no one to help him, and he would be 
 compelled to pass out. But, though he never ex- 
 pected to overdo to that extent, it is just what 
 happened. In brief, he laid down his life for the 
 sick, and died in their cause, at the age of sixty-four 
 years. 
 
 Nearly all, in those days, who were willing to 
 try a practitioner outside of the medical schools, 
 were persons who had exhausted every means of 
 help within those schools; and, when finally booked 
 for the grave, they would send for or go to Quimby. 
 As he expressed it, they would send for him and 
 the undertaker at the same time, and the one who 
 got there first would get the case. Consequently, 
 his battle with error, alone and single-handed, was 
 a hard one, especially as in those days there was 
 much less liberality than now. 
 
 Some may desire to ask if, in his practice, he 
 ever in any way used manipulation. I reply that, 
 in treating a patient, after he had finished his ex- 
 planations, and the silent work, which completed 
 the treatment , he usually rubbed the head two or 
 three minutes, in a brisk manner, for the purpose 
 of letting the patient see that something was done. 
 This was a measure of securing the confidence of 
 the patient at a time when he was starting a new 
 practice, and stood alone in it.* I knew him to 
 
 *The following is an illustration of Mrs. Eddy’s attempt to give these facts 
 another interpretation ( Christian Science Journal, June, 1887): “If, as Mr. 
 Dresser says, Mr. Quimby's theory (if he had one) and practice were like mine, 
 
26 
 
 make many and quick cures at a distance some- 
 times with persons he never saw at all. He never 
 considered the touch of the hand as at all neces- 
 sary ; but let it be governed by circumstances, as 
 was done eighteen hundred years ago. 
 
 But, dear friends, I do not wish you to rely 
 upon my statements alone for the facts of this 
 history, and of this man’s character, his discov- 
 eries, and his works. To what has already been 
 given from the words of others, still further testi- 
 monies may be added. That able writer upon 
 Mental Science, Dr. W. F. Evans, pays the fol- 
 lowing tribute to Quimby in his second volume, 
 entitled “ Mental Medicine.” He says : “ Disease 
 being in its root a wrong belief, change that 
 belief, and we cure the disease. . . . The late Dr. 
 Quimby, of Portland, one of the most successful 
 healers of this or any age, embraced this view of 
 the nature of disease, and by a long succession of 
 most remarkable cures . . . proved the truth of the 
 theory. . . . Had he lived in a remote age or coun- 
 try, the wonderful facts which occurred in his 
 practice would have now been deemed either 
 
 purely mental, what need had he of such physical means as wetting his hands in 
 water and rubbing the head? Yet these appliances he continued until he ceased 
 practice; and, in his last sickness, the poor man employed a homoeopathic phy- 
 sician. The Science of Mind-healing would be lost by such means, and it is a 
 moral impossibility to understand or to demonstrate this science through such 
 extraneous aids. Mr. Quimby never, to my knowledge, taught that matter was 
 mind ; and he never intimated to me that he healed mentally, or by the aid of 
 mind. Did he believe matter and mind to be one, and then rub matter in order 
 to convince the mind of truth ? Which did he manipulate with his hands, matter 
 or mind? Was Mr. Quimby’s entire method of treating the sick intended to 
 hoodwink his patients?” 
 
27 
 
 mythical or miraculous. He seemed to reproduce 
 the wonders of the gospel history.” Dr. Evans 
 obtained this knowledge of Quimby mainly when 
 he visited him as a patient, making two visits for 
 that purpose about the year 1863, an interesting 
 account of which I received from him at East 
 Salisbury in the year 1876. Dr. Evans had been 
 a clergyman up to the year 1863, and was then 
 located in Claremont, N.H. But so readily did 
 he understand the explanations of Quimby, which 
 his Swedenborgian faith enabled him to grasp the 
 more quickly, that he told Quimby at the second 
 interview that he thought he could himself cure 
 the sick in this way. Quimby replied that he 
 thought he could. His first attempts on returning 
 home were so successful that the preacher became 
 a practitioner from that time, and the result has 
 been great growth in the truth and the accom- 
 plishment of a great and a good work during the 
 nearly twenty-five years since then. Dr. Evans’s 
 six volumes * upon the subject of Mental Healing 
 have had a wide and well-deserved sale. 
 
 Among those who were friends as well as pa- 
 tients of Quimby during the years from i860 to 
 1865,1 and who paid high tributes to his discov- 
 eries of truth, and the consequent good to many 
 
 * Published by H. H. Carter, Boston. The first volume appeared in 1869, six 
 years before Mrs. Eddy’s “ Science and Health.” 
 
 t Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, went to Portland as a patient in October, 
 1862, from Hill, N.H. She had been a confirmed invalid for six years, and, 
 having heard of Dr. Quimby’s “ wonderful power,” believed he could cure her. 
 
28 
 
 people and to the world, was one who, for some 
 strange reason, afterward changed and followed 
 a different course, with which you all are more or 
 less familiar. I refer to the author of “ Science 
 and Health.” * As she had, during several years, 
 special opportunities to know the man and to 
 learn truth of him, this record would be incom- 
 plete without including her testimony at that 
 time. Fortunately, it can be given in her own 
 words; and you can form your own estimate of 
 them. 
 
 When the lady became a patient of Quimby, she 
 at once took an interest in his theory, and imbibed 
 his explanations of truth rapidly. She also took 
 a bold stand, and published an account of her 
 progress in health in a daily paper. The following 
 is an extract from her first article thus published, 
 which appeared in the Portland Evening Couriei - 
 in 1862 : — 
 
 “ When our Shakespeare decided that ‘ there 
 were more things in this world than were dreamed 
 of in your philosophy,’ I cannot say of a verity that 
 
 * It is claimed that Mrs. Eddy wrote this book by divine inspiration in 1866 
 It is therefore accepted by her followers as the supreme authority on mental heal- 
 ing, who compare Mrs. Eddy to Christ, and accept her misstatements concerning 
 Dr. Quimby as absolute truth. In the Christian Science Journal, June, 1887, 
 Mrs. Eddy says: “ It was after the death of Mr. Quimby, and when I was ap- 
 parently at the door of death, that I made this discovery in 1866. After that it 
 took about ten years of hard work for me to reach the standard of my first edition 
 of ‘ Science and Health,’ published in 1875. As long ago as 1844 I was con- 
 vinced that mortal mind produced all disease, and that the various medical 
 systems were in no proper sense scientific. In 1862, when I first visited Mr. 
 Quimby, I was proclaiming — to druggists, Spiritualists, and mesmerists — that 
 science must govern all healing.” 
 
29 
 
 he had a foreknowledge of P. P. Quimby. And 
 when the school Platonic anatomized the soul and 
 divided it into halves, to be reunited by elementary 
 attractions, and heathen philosophers averred that 
 old Chaos in sullen silence brooded o’er the earth 
 until her inimitable form was hatched from the egg 
 of night, I would not at present decide whether 
 the fallacy was found in their premises or con- 
 clusions, never having dated my existence before 
 the flood. When the startled alchemist dis- 
 covered, as he supposed, an universal solvent, or 
 the philosopher’s stone, and the more daring 
 Archimedes invented a lever wherewithal to pry 
 up the universe, I cannot say that in either the 
 principle obtained in nature or in art, or that it 
 worked well, having never tried it. But, when by 
 a falling apple an immutable law was discovered, 
 we gave it the crown of science, which is incon- 
 trovertible and capable of demonstration : hence 
 that was wisdom and truth. When from the ev- 
 idence of the senses my reason takes cognizance 
 of truth, although it may appear in quite a mirac- 
 ulous view, I must acknowledge that as science 
 which is truth uninvestigated. Hence the follow- 
 ing demonstration : — 
 
 “Three weeks since I quitted my nurse and 
 sick-room en route for Portland. The belief of 
 my recovery had died out of the hearts of those 
 who were most anxious for it. With this men- 
 tal and physical depression I first visited P. P. 
 
30 
 
 Quimby; and in less than one week from that time 
 I ascended by a stairway of one hundred and 
 eighty-two steps to the dome of the City Hall, and 
 am improving ad infinitum. To the most subtle 
 reasoning, such a proof, coupled, too, as it is 
 with numberless similar ones, demonstrates his 
 power to heal. Now for a brief analysis of this 
 power. 
 
 “Is it Spiritualism? Listen to the words of 
 wisdom. * Believe in God, believe also in me ; or 
 believe me for the very work’s sake.’ Now, then, 
 his works are but the result of superior wisdom, 
 which can demonstrate a science not understood : 
 hence it were a doubtful proceeding not to believe 
 him for the work’s sake. Well, then, he denies 
 that his power to heal the sick is borrowed from 
 the spirits of this or another world ; and let us 
 take the Scriptures for proof. ‘A kingdom di- 
 vided against itself cannot stand.’ How, then, 
 can he receive the friendly aid of the disenthralled 
 spirit, while he rejects the faith of the solemn 
 mystic who crosses the threshold of the dark un- 
 known to conjure up from the vasty deep the awe- 
 struck spirit of some invisible squaw ? 
 
 “ Again, is it by animal magnetism * that he 
 heals the sick ? Let us examine. I have em- 
 ployed electro-magnetism and animal magnetism, 
 and for a brief interval have felt relief, from the 
 
 * Mr*. Eddy now states that Dr. Quimby was an “ ignorant mesmerist” and 
 “magnetic healer.” See Dr. Quimby’ s own statement, “ The Philosophy of 
 P. P. Quimby,” p. 37. 
 
3i 
 
 equilibrium which I fancied was restored to an ex- 
 hausted system or by a diffusion of concen- 
 trated action. But in no instance did I get rid of 
 a return of all my ailments, because I had not been 
 helped out of the error in which opinions involved 
 us. My operator believed in disease independent 
 of the mind; hence, I could not be wiser than my 
 teacher. But now I can see dimly at first, and 
 only as trees walking, the great principle which 
 underlies Dr. Quimby’s faith and works; and just 
 in proportion to my light perception of truth is 
 my recovery. This truth which he opposes to the 
 error of giving intelligence to matter and placing 
 pain where it never placed itself, if received under- 
 standing^, changes the currents of the system to 
 their normal action ; and the mechanism of the 
 body goes on undisturbed. That this is a science 
 capable of demonstration becomes clear to the 
 minds of those patients who reason upon the 
 process of their cure. The truth which he estab- 
 lishes in the patient cures him ( although he may 
 be wholly unconscious thereof) ; and the body, 
 which is full of light, is no longer in disease. At 
 present I am too much in error to elucidate the 
 truth, and can touch only the key-note for the 
 master hand to wake the harmony. May it be 
 in essays instead of notes ! say I. After all, this 
 is a very spiritual doctrine ; but the eternal years 
 of God are with it, and it must stand firm as the 
 rock of ages. And to many a poor sufferer may 
 
32 
 
 it be found, as by me, ‘ the shadow of a great rock 
 in a weary land.’ * ” 
 
 It will be observed, by noting the foregoing 
 statements closely, that the lady did not under- 
 stand that disease is a state of mind and the truth 
 is its cure until this experience with Quimby took 
 place ; and it will be seen how rapidly, during the 
 three weeks’ experience referred to, she had been 
 grasping that truth, and seeing that it was a true 
 science, and that it was curing herself. It is now 
 easy to see just when and just where she “dis- 
 covered Christian Science.” 
 
 The day following the publication of her article, 
 it was criticised by the Portland Advertiser ; and 
 she then wrote a second article, replying to the 
 criticism. In it appeared the following paragraph, 
 referring to Quimby and his doctrine : — 
 
 “ P. P. Quimby stands upon the plane of wisdom 
 with his truth. Christ healed the sick, but not by 
 jugglery or with drugs. As the former speaks as 
 never man before spake, and heals as never man 
 
 •Compare this statement of Dr. Quimby’s mental methods with the same 
 writer’s statements in the Christian Science Journal, June, 1887: “I never 
 heard him intimate that he healed disease mentally ; and many others will testify 
 that, up to his last sickness, he treated us magnetically, — manipulating our heads, 
 and making passes in the air while he stood in front of us. During his treat- 
 ments I felt like one having hold of an electric battery and standing on an 
 insnlated stool. His healing was never considered or called anything but Mes- 
 merism. I tried to think better of it, and to procure him public favor. He was 
 my doctor, and it wounded me to have him despised. I believe he was doing 
 good ; and, even now, knowing as I do the harm in his practice, I would never 
 revert to it but for this public challenge. I was ignorant of the basis of animal 
 magnetism twenty years ago, but know now that it would disgrace and invalidate 
 any mode of medicine.” 
 
33 
 
 healed since Christ, is he not identified with truth, 
 and is not this the Christ which is in him ? We 
 know that in wisdom is life, ‘ and the life was the 
 light of man.’ P. P. Quimby rolls away the stone 
 from the sepulchre of error, and health is the 
 resurrection. But we also know that ' light 
 shineth in darkness, and the darkness compre- 
 hended it not.’ ” 
 
 These excerpts are in plain language, and they 
 speak for themselves, f The statements are made 
 with too evident an understanding of their truth 
 to be doubted or questioned, or afterward reversed 
 in any particular. It should be borne in mind 
 that your speaker was there at the time, and was 
 familiar with all the circumstances she relates and 
 the views expressed. The devoted regard the 
 lady formed for her deliverer, Quimby, and for 
 the truth he taught her, which proved her salva- 
 tion, was continued to be held by her from this 
 time (the autumn of 1862) up to a period at least 
 four years later; for in January, 1866, Quimby’s 
 death occurred, and on February 15 she sent to 
 me a copy of a poem she had written to his mem- 
 ory, and accompanied it by a letter commencing 
 in these words : “ I enclose some lines of mine, 
 in memory of our much-loved friend, which, per- 
 
 t Mrs. Eddy’s letters to Dr. Quimby are even more emphatic in their praise 
 of him, and leave no doubt in the reader’s mind that she believed his methods to 
 be of the highest spiritual character. I have quoted from these letters in The 
 Arena , May, 1899. 
 
34 
 
 haps, you will not think overwrought in meaning: 
 others must, of course.”* 
 
 The poem, which had been printed in a Lynn 
 newspaper, is as follows : — 
 
 LINES ON THE DEATH OF DR. P. P. QUIMBY, WHO HEALED 
 WITH THE TRUTH THAT CHRIST TAUGHT, IN CONTRA- 
 DISTINCTION TO ALL ISMS. 
 
 Did sackcloth clothe the sun, and day grow night, 
 
 All matter mourn the hour with dewy eyes, 
 
 When Truth, receding from our mortal sight, 
 
 Had paid to error her last sacrifice? 
 
 Can we forget the power that gave us life ? 
 
 Shall we forget the wisdom of its way ? 
 
 Then ask me not, amid this mortal strife, — 
 
 This keenest pang of animated, clay, — 
 
 * This letter is reprinted below at greater length : — 
 
 Lynn, Feb. 15, 1866. 
 
 Mr. Dresser: 
 
 Sir , — I enclose some lines of mine in memory of our much-loved friend, 
 which perhaps you will not think overwrought in meaning : others must, of course. 
 
 I am constantly wishing that you would step forward into the place he has 
 vacated. I believe you would do a vast amount of good, and are more capable of 
 occupying his place than any other I know of. 
 
 Two weeks ago I fell on the sidewalk, and struck my back on the ice, and was 
 taken up for dead, came to consciousness amid a storm of vapors from cologne, 
 chloroform, ether, camphor, etc., but to find myself the helpless cripple I was 
 before I saw Dr. Quimby. 
 
 The physician attending said I had taken the last step I ever should, but in 
 two days I got out of my bed alone and mill walk ; but yet I confess I am 
 frightened, and out of that nervous heat my friends are forming, spite of me, the 
 terrible spinal affection from which I have suffered so long and hopelessly. . . . 
 Now can’t you help me? I believe you can. I write this with this feeling: I 
 think that I could help another in my condition if they had not placed their intelli- 
 gence in matter. This I have not done, and yet I am slowly failing. Won’t you 
 write me if you will undertake for me if I can get to you ? . . . 
 
 Respectfully, Mary M. Patterson. 
 
35 
 
 To mourn him less : to mourn him more were just, 
 If to his memory ’twere a tribute given 
 For every solemn, sacred, earnest trust 
 Delivered to us ere he rose to heaven. 
 
 Heaven but the happiness of that calm soul, 
 
 Growing in stature to the throne of God : 
 
 Rest should reward him who hath made us whole, 
 Seeking, though tremblers, where his footsteps trod. 
 
 Lynn, Feb. 22, 1866. 
 
 Mary M. Patterson. 
 
 Oh that in an evil hour she had never been 
 tempted to erase the sentiments of that poem, 
 which was not an overwrought tribute to the 
 memory of our much-loved friend ! * 
 
 But let that charity which rejoiceth not in 
 iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, and never 
 faileth, not fail even here; for we have the truth 
 to rejoice in. This truth which P. P. Quimby 
 brought forth, and for years labored so unceas- 
 ingly to give to the world, and finally laid down 
 his life in its cause, — this glorious truth is still 
 blessing us ; and it will do so more and more unto 
 the perfect day. It is a revelation of truth that 
 makes us free indeed ! And we have only to set 
 aside self-love and self-glory and work earnestly in 
 this cause, by every word and deed of love that 
 opportunity offers, to find ourselves growing grad- 
 ually into all wisdom and understanding, and out 
 
 •The first edition of “Science and Health” also contained a tribute to Dr. 
 Quimby. But this passage was afterward omitted and the edition suppressed. 
 
36 
 
 of and away from every ill and every form of 
 unhappiness in existence.* 
 
 I cannot better close this address than by quot- 
 ing an extract from one of P. P. Quimby’s manu- 
 scripts,! which will show the spirit of the man, 
 as well as give an indication of the truth he 
 preached : — 
 
 “ Every disease is the invention of man, and 
 has no identity in wisdom ; but, to those who 
 believe it, it is a truth. If everything man does 
 not understand were blotted out, what is there 
 left of man ? Would he be better or worse, if 
 nine-tenths of all he thinks he knows were blotted 
 out of his mind, and he existed with what is true? 
 
 “ I contend that he would, as it were, sit on the 
 clouds, and see the world beneath him tormented 
 with ideas that form living errors, whose weight is 
 ignorance. Safe from their power, he would not 
 return to the world’s belief for any consideration. 
 
 *1 Have quoted Mrs. Eddy’s own words to the effect that (i) she began to 
 discover the science of mind healing in 1844 ; (2) the excerpts from the Courier 
 and her letters to Dr. Quimby prove that she acquired this science when with 
 Dr. Quimby; (3) now let us read her own comments ( Christian Science Jour- 
 nal, June, 1887): “Did I write those articles purporting to be mine? I might 
 have written them, twenty or thirty years ago, for I was under the mesmeric 
 treatment of Dr. Quimby from 1862 until his death in 1865. He was illiterate 
 and I knew nothing then of the Science of Mind-healing, and I was as ignorant 
 of mesmerism as Eve before she was taught by the serpent. Mind science was 
 unknown to me ; and my head was so turned by animal magnetism and will- 
 power, under his treatment, that I might have written something as hopelessly 
 incorrect as the articles now published in the Dresser pamphlet.” See Appen- 
 dix A. 
 
 t Dr. Quimby’s manuscripts were revised and copied under his direction by 
 the Misses Ware and by Mr. George A. Quimby. They were written in 
 1859-65. 
 
37 
 
 “ In a slight degree, this is my case. I sit as 
 it were in another world or condition, as far above 
 the belief in disease as the heavens are above 
 the earth, and, though safe myself, I grieve for the 
 sins of my fellow-man ; and I am reminded of the 
 words of Jesus when he beheld the misery of his 
 country-men : ‘ O Jerusalem, how oft would I have 
 gathered thee, as a hen gathereth her chickens, 
 but ye would not ! ’ 
 
 “ I hear this truth now pleading with man, to 
 listen to the voice of reason. I know from my own 
 experience with the sick that their troubles are 
 the effect of their own belief, — not that their belief 
 is the truth, but their beliefs act upon their minds, 
 bringing them into subjection to their belief, and 
 their troubles are a change that follows. 
 
 “ Disease is a reality to all mankind ; but I do 
 not include myself, because I stand outside of 
 it, where I can see things real to the world and 
 things that are real to wisdom. I know that I 
 can distinguish that which is false from a truth, 
 in religion or in disease. To me, disease is 
 always false ; but, to those who believe it, it is a 
 truth, and the errors of religion the same. Until 
 the world is shaken by investigation, so that the 
 rocks and mountains of religious error are re- 
 moved and the medical Babylon destroyed, sick- 
 ness and sorrow will prevail. Feeling as I do, 
 and seeing so many young people go on the broad 
 road to destruction, I can say from the bottom of 
 
38 
 
 my soul : O Priestcraft ! fill up the measure of 
 your cups of iniquity ; for on your head will come, 
 sooner or later, the sneers and taunts of the peo- 
 ple. Your theory will be overthrown by the voice 
 of wisdom, that will rouse the men of science, who 
 will battle your error, and drive you utterly from 
 the face of the earth. Then there will arise a 
 new science, followed by a new mode of reason- 
 ing, which shall teach man that to be wise and 
 well is to unlearn his errors.” * 
 
 * This article, like many others, suggests a depth of understanding beyond 
 what Dr. Quimby could explain to his followers. It was only to a very few that 
 he tried to communicate his highest insights. Consequently, when outsiders 
 undertook to state his belief, and when Mrs. Eddy’s followers nowadays have 
 undertaken to tell what he believed, there was naturally a wide divergence of 
 opinion. In his own day he was frequently called a Spiritualist, quack, mes- 
 merist, etc.; but, to know what he truly was, one must know him intimately, as did 
 my father and those who copied his manuscripts, and in some degree Mrs. Eddy 
 herself, as shown by her letters. One of these intimate followers informs me 
 that “ very often after a sitting with a patient the patient would say, ‘ O doctor, 
 tell me how you cure?’ Usually he would say, ‘Oh, I don’t know myself,’ 
 simply to get rid of the patient. How could he in one answer, in a few minutes’ 
 time, tell one, who had not the remotest conception of his method, what he had 
 been years studying ? . . . But there is plenty of written evidence from himself 
 just what he did believe, and what others say he believed, is no evidence at all, 
 but simply their opinion.” 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 In order that the reader may judge for himself, 
 the following letter to the editor of the Boston 
 Post is reprinted as a further illustration of Mrs. 
 Eddy’s statements: — 
 
 We give our first leisure to reply to the false 
 allegements appearing in a letter of J. A. Dresser 
 in your issue of the 24th ult., and are able to prove 
 the statements relative to those allegements here- 
 inafter made. While founding what is new and 
 abstract, such as Christian Science, truths revolu- 
 tionary in character blessing mankind, but not 
 understood at the period in which they appear, 
 ignorance and malice have thrown in our way im- 
 plements of their own calculated to retard our 
 work. Notwithstanding all this, since 1866 we 
 have advanced steadily in introducing into Massa- 
 chusetts the science of mental healing. 
 
 We had laid the foundations of mental healing 
 before we ever saw Dr. Quimby ; were an homoe- 
 opathist without a diploma, owing to our aversion 
 to the dissecting-room. We made our first experi- 
 ments in mental healing about 1853,* when we 
 
 * In the Christian Science Journal, June, 1887, Mrs. Eddy gives the date as 
 1844. In “ Retrospection and Introspection ” (page 28) she says, “ It was in 
 Massachusetts, in the year 1866, that I discovered the Science of Divine Meta- 
 physical Healing, which I afterward named Christian Science.” Again (page 
 51), “ In 1867 I introduced the first purely metaphysical system of healing since 
 apostolic days.” This she named “ the great discovery,” on a “basis so hope- 
 lessly original” that she charges others with plagiarisms from “the precious 
 book,” — “ Science and Health,” — “ the only known work containing a correct 
 and complete statement of the Science of Metaphysical Healing, its principles 
 and practice.” 
 
40 
 
 were convinced that mind had a science which, if 
 understood, would heal all diseases. We were then 
 investigating that science, but never saw Dr. 
 Quimby until 1862. Mr. Dresser’s statement that 
 “ Mrs. Eddy knows positively that the assertions of 
 E. G. in last Monday’s Post are a tissue of false- 
 hoods” is untrue. We answer for all times that 
 those assertions were strictly true. We never were 
 a student of Dr. Quimby’ s, and Mr. Dresser knows 
 that. Dr. Quimby never had students, to our 
 knowledge. He was a humanitarian, but a very 
 unlearned man. He never published a work in 
 his life ; was not a lecturer or teacher. He was 
 somewhat of a remarkable healer, and at the 
 time we knew him he was known as a mesmerist. 
 We were one of his patients. He manipulated 
 his patients, but possibly back of his practice he 
 had a theory in advance of his method ; and, as we 
 now understand it, and have since discovered, 
 he mingled that theory with mesmerism. We 
 knew him about twenty years ago, and aimed to 
 help him. We saw he was looking in our direc- 
 tion, and asked him to write his thoughts out. He 
 did so, and then we would take that copy to cor- 
 rect, and sometimes so transform it that he would 
 say it was our composition, which it virtually was ; 
 but we always gave him back the copy, and some- 
 times wrote his name on the back of it. We de- 
 fended Dr. Quimby from unmerited scorn, asserted 
 in public that his practice was not mesmerism; 
 for we so believed it then, being utterly ignorant 
 of the nature, theory, or practice of mesmerism. 
 Since then the sin and subtlety of a student who 
 departed from our teachings, and became a mal- 
 practitioner, caused us to investigate the subject 
 of mesmerism, when we learned that manipulation 
 
41 
 
 includes animal magnetism ; and, if one manipu- 
 lates the sick, no matter what his theory is, it pre- 
 cludes the possibility of his practice being mental 
 science. And, if he understands mental healing 
 and its science, he will see that manipulation re- 
 tards healing instead of helps it. We have no 
 doubt that Dr. Quimby’s motives were good, for 
 we understood him to be a moral man.* 
 
 The malpractitioners, whose hidden crimes we 
 have endeavored to expose, may put the burden 
 of introducing plagiarisms, to stop the circulation 
 of our books, on the shoulders of the new party, 
 — namely, J. A. Dresser ; but they cannot hide the 
 malice aforethought through which they are seek- 
 ing to wrest from us the public confidence, and so 
 disarm our ability to warn and forearm the people 
 against what we have seen of their crimes, — the 
 danger of mesmerism and its power to kill some 
 individuals. Nor can they silence many witnesses 
 to some of their mental murders, which the gen- 
 eral ignorance of this subject has hitherto pre- 
 vented being duly investigated. It is not many 
 years since one of these malpractitioners prose- 
 cuted another one for attempting, through mes- 
 merism, to destroy the life of a lady in Ipswich. 
 But the plaintiff in that case, since accused of the 
 same crime, now avoids the question of mesmerism 
 and malpractice. Step into Mr. Aren’s office on 
 Chester Park, and you can obtain some advertising 
 pamphlets gratuitously, which, by comparison, are 
 found to contain verbatim paragraphs from our 
 work, published in 1870; and he studied for the 
 first time mental healing of my husband in 1879. 
 
 *It may be asked, What was Dr. Quimby’s opinion of Mrs. Eddy? He 
 paid no heed at first to the prophecy of a friend that she would “steal his ideas 
 and set up for herself,” but afterward declared that she had “ no identity in 
 honesty.” 
 
42 
 
 The private letter from a lady which the gentle- 
 man (?), Mr. Dresser, has on exhibition, was writ- 
 ten under the following circumstances : — 
 
 At Swampscott, Mass., in 1866, we recovered in 
 a moment of time from a severe accident, con- 
 sidered fatal by the regular physicians, and re- 
 gained the internal action that had stopped and 
 the use of our limbs that were palsied. To us 
 this demonstration was the opening of the new 
 era of Christian science. We then gained a proof 
 that the principle, or life of man is a divine in- 
 telligence and power, which, understood, can heal 
 all diseases, and reveals the basis of man’s immor- 
 tality. But the minds around us at that time 
 were unacquainted with our mental theory. One 
 individual of strong intellectual power and little 
 spirituality even occasioned us some momentary 
 fears of our ability to hold on to this wonderful 
 discovery. In one of these moments of fear we 
 wrote Mr. Dresser, but we wrote him after we had 
 proven our ability to work out the problem of 
 mental healing. The failing state referred to was 
 a state of mind ; and there are living witnesses to 
 our health at that time, — we were never as well 
 before in our life. It was but a timid hope that we 
 referred to, — a trembling explorer in the great 
 realm of mental causation, where evil is more 
 apparent and good more divine. We sought for 
 once the encouragement of one we believed 
 friendly, also with whom we had conversed on 
 Dr. Quimby’s method of healing; and, when we 
 had said to him, “ It is a mystery,” he replied to 
 the effect that he believed no one but the doctor 
 himself knew how he healed. But, lo ! after we 
 have founded mental healing and nearly twenty 
 years have elapsed, during which we have taught 
 
43 
 
 some six hundred students and published five or 
 six thousand volumes on this subject, already 
 circulated in the United States and Europe, the 
 aforesaid gentleman announces to the public Dr. 
 Quimby, the fpunder of mental healing. 
 
 In 1862 my name was Patterson ; my husband, 
 Dr. Patterson, a distinguished dentist. After our 
 marriage I was confined to my bed with a severe 
 illness, and seldom left bed or room for seven 
 years, when I was taken to Dr. Quimby, and par- 
 tially restored. I returned home, hoping once more 
 to make that home happy, but only returned to a 
 new agony, — to find my husband had eloped with 
 a married woman from one of the wealthy families 
 of that city, leaving no trace save his last letter to 
 us, wherein he wrote, “ I hope some time to be 
 worthy of so good a wife.” I have a bill of divorce 
 from him, obtained in the county of Essex. My 
 first husband * was Colonel Glover, of Charleston, 
 S.C. Six months after our marriage he died of 
 scarlet fever. Our only child was born six months 
 after his death. To our brief happy union and to 
 the noble character of my husband there are 
 tender testimonials and resolutions, passed by the 
 brother Masons of St. Andrew’s Lodge, in which 
 he had taken the degree of “Royal Arch Mason,” 
 which articles were published in the Freemasons' 
 Magazine , edited at that time by Charles Moore, 
 of Massachusetts. 
 
 We shall not descend to notice any further 
 falsehoods through the press, since there is so 
 much good we can do we cannot afford to sacri- 
 fice our time. 
 
 No. 569 Columbus Avenue, 
 
 March 7, 1883. 
 
 • An earlier husband bore the name of Morse, not “Mason” as erroneously 
 
 stated in The A rena , May 1899. 
 
44 
 
 The following statement by Mr. A. J. Swartz, 
 who made a careful investigation of the facts in 
 1888, is of particular value, since it comes from an 
 outsider who had no particular reason to defend 
 Dr. Quimby. 
 
 In an editorial in the Mental Science Magazine 
 of April, 1888, Mr. Swartz says: — 
 
 If, through the mistakes of ambition, the writer 
 of “ Science and Health ” has led many of us to 
 ignore for a time the good works of other true 
 reformers, our timely rescue from unchristian and 
 uncharitable ways is secured by the palpable 
 mistakes she and her immediate following have 
 made and are still making. 
 
 Her claim that she was the founder of mind- 
 healing is false ; nor is it true that she first con- 
 ceived the idea of applying Christian to the 
 science. Having been misled in the past, we 
 have done wrong toward facts by claiming to our 
 readers that she first designated it as above ; and 
 hence it is our duty to correct the error. 
 
 All who know Julius A. Dresser, of Boston, 
 know him to be a truthful and most excellent 
 gentleman. Some of the Portland friends remem- 
 ber Mr. Dresser when he was with Dr. Quimby in 
 their city in i860. He tells me personally that 
 he has seen Dr. Quimby’s early writings, in which 
 are seen by his own words the origin of the idea 
 or term “Christian Science.” This statement was 
 fully corroborated to me by a lady now of Boston, 
 the daughter of Judge Ware, prominent as United 
 States judge. This lady and her sister resided at 
 Portland, and were both among the earliest pa- 
 tients the doctor treated. They assisted him in 
 
45 
 
 the records and correspondence as his scribes. 
 This lady says that the doctor was often invent- 
 ing, that he was a jeweller. She had seen a 
 clock that he invented. He had also been a mes- 
 merist. She says that he wrote and kept manu- 
 scripts which he named “Science of Health and 
 Happiness,” that she also often wrote sentiments 
 and sayings he uttered among them. She says 
 that she heard it remarked repeatedly by all of 
 them, when talking of the wonderful cures by the 
 doctor, that “ this is a new life and the real science 
 of Christianity.” Here, then, we have in the con- 
 versation of the doctor and of those working with 
 him the origin of the term Christian Science. 
 Those who first called it the “ Science of Chris- 
 tianity,” in the United States Hotel, before the 
 author of “ Science and Health ” visited Dr. 
 Quimby at the International Hotel for cure in 
 1862, were the originators of this title. 
 
 The lady referred to above showed me a printed 
 circular which bears the name of Dr. P. P. Quimby 
 when he was in the active healing work. His 
 method of diagnosis is set forth in this circular, 
 and it is purely spiritual ; for he sat with eyes 
 closed, and arrived at their “beliefs ” of disease, as 
 he called them, by impression. He says he could 
 cure those whose troubles or diseases he described 
 correctly, while he was not successful as a rule 
 with those whose fears or beliefs he could not 
 discern ; nor did he charge such. 
 
 It is evident from his own circular that his 
 process of diagnosis was that which is to-day 
 called intuition, thought-transference, or spiritual 
 perception. His method of curing was to change 
 the patient’s beliefs and fears, which he could 
 usually do by assuring them orally and mentally 
 
46 
 
 of success. Here, then, we have the true mind 
 healing, as Dr. Evans and other correct writers 
 present it. To contradict orally increases con- 
 fusion ; and to contradict mentally, as some teach, 
 does not cure disease. 
 
 In the same issue of the Mental Science Maga- 
 zine Mr. Swartz says : — 
 
 To check the spread of recent facts from Port- 
 land, the author of “Science and Health” sent 
 from Boston over her signature to the Portland 
 Daily Press , while I was there, a pay article called 
 “ Important Offer.” In it are four provisos, 
 hence too metaphysical to be a fair offer or in 
 the least liable to endanger any outlay. While 
 it offers to pay the costs of printing the Dr. 
 Quimby manuscripts, it agrees, among other 
 provisos, to do so, “ provided that I am allowed 
 first to examine said manuscripts, and that I find 
 they were Mr. P. P. Quimby’s own compositions, 
 and not mine that were left with him many years 
 ago, or that they have not since his death, in 
 1865,” — he died in January, 1866, — “been stolen 
 from my published works,” etc. 
 
 The “offer ” hinges fully upon her own decision, 
 and demands her possession first of the manu- 
 scripts. Knowing that the owner would not 
 permit this, it was safe to make a provisional 
 offer. It will always be. 
 
 I then wrote to George A. Quimby, who is 
 an honest clothing manufacturer in Belfast, Me., 
 and sent the clipping “ Important Offer,” from 
 which we extract above. I desired to know whose 
 claims are truthful, for I intend ever to defend 
 such only. I asked various questions. On 
 
47 
 
 Feb. 22, 1888, he replied in a very gentlemanly 
 manner; and from this reply we extract: — 
 
 “Your letter with enclosure at hand. I judge 
 that you offer to defend the memory of my father, 
 the late P. P. Quimby. . . . Please permit me to say 
 that I have no doubt of your kind intention to come 
 to the rescue of my father, but I do not feel that 
 there is the slightest necessity for it. . . If I were 
 in prison, in solitary confinement for life, I should 
 be too busy to get into any kind of a discussion 
 with Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 “ I have my father’s manuscripts in my pos- 
 session, but will not allow them to be copied nor 
 to go out of my hands. Answering your further 
 inquiries, I have no written article of Mrs. Eddy’s 
 in my possession, have never had, nor did my 
 father ever have any, nor did she ever leave 
 any with either of us. Neither of us have ever 
 ‘stolen’ any of her writings nor anything else. 
 In fact, we both have been able to make a living 
 without stealing. 
 
 “ I expect to have an article in the March 
 number of the New England Magazine* on my 
 father and his work. I think that perhaps you 
 will see in that what you desire. 
 
 “Yours truly, Geo. A. Quimby.” 
 
 I have read the article in the New England 
 Magazine , published at Boston, Mass. It is quite 
 extended, and will interest many. I can make no 
 quotation from it, as I have no access now to it. 
 I quote, however, a few lines extracted by another 
 “from the manuscript of Dr. P. P. Quimby, Port- 
 land, Me.” These extracts are in the posses- 
 
 *The substance of this article is reprinted, “The Philosophy of P. P. 
 Quimby,” p. 11. 
 
4 8 
 
 sion of Mary Lyman Storrs, Albany, N.Y., and 
 read as follows : — 
 
 “ Disease being made by our belief, or by our 
 parents’ belief, or by public opinion, there is no 
 formula to be adopted, but every one must be 
 reached in his particular case. Therefore, it re- 
 quires great shrewdness or wisdom to get the 
 better of the error. Disease is our error and the 
 work of the devil, who is the father of all false- 
 hoods, of whom Christ, or Truth, saith, ‘When he 
 speaketh of a lie, he speaketh of his own, for the 
 truth abode not in him.’ But, happily, he hath 
 his cloven foot ; and, if you are as wise as your 
 enemies, you will get the case. 
 
 “I know of no better counsel than Jesus gave 
 to his disciples when he sent them forth to cast 
 out devils and heal the sick, and thus in practice 
 preach the truth ; viz., ‘ Be ye wise as serpents 
 and harmless as doves,’ — i.e., never get into a 
 passion, but in patience possess ye your souls. 
 At length ye weary out the disease, and produce 
 harmony by your truth destroying their error. 
 Then it is you get the case. Now, if you are not 
 afraid to face the error and argue it down, then 
 you can heal the sick. When wisdom, which is 
 Truth, calls upon you, ‘Adam, where art thou?’ 
 and you are afraid and hide yourself away, then 
 you cannot heal the sick with Truth.” 
 
 While in Portland recently, I visited the large 
 room in the United States Hotel used by Dr. 
 Quimby as his healing-room. He also occupied 
 rooms at the International Hotel, for he cured for 
 several years in Portland. 
 
 In this hotel one Mr. Rogers, a prominent 
 business man of Portland, told me that he was 
 born in this city in 1827; that he knew Dr. 
 
49 
 
 Quimby well. He gave me quite a history of the 
 “ strange little man ” and his methods of treatment. 
 Dr. Quimby treated this gentleman for severe 
 troubles some three and a half years in this hotel. 
 He would tell the doctor that he was “ a fraud or 
 a humbug for attempting to cure disease without 
 drugs.” The doctor, who was a peculiar jester, 
 would turn it with some joke that, if he was a 
 fraud, “ the people and you will come to be cured.” 
 He says it must be admitted that he had many 
 patients and performed wonderful cures. My in- 
 quiries relating to the power, agency, or cause of 
 his cures, only corroborated the same that we 
 have often heard ; viz., that the doctor did not 
 profess to know what it was other than Truth or 
 Mind-power. Whatever he could do to act on the 
 patient’s mind, — i.e., his beliefs or fears, — so as to 
 restore hope or confidence, would result in curing. 
 When asked why he put his hands in water and 
 then on the patient’s head, he said he did so with 
 part of them to stimulate their hopes, and so that 
 they would feel that something was being done 
 for them. The doctor often said that a science 
 would come out of it, and he hoped others would 
 bring it out better. His instrumentality was 
 honored, and his predictions have been fulfilled. 
 If he used clear water on the brow of some God 
 sent to him, he also cured many with Mind, with 
 Truth, with mental treatment. 
 
50 
 
 The Christian Science Sentinel of Feb. 1 6, 
 1899, prints the following letter to Mrs. Eddy: — 
 
 It might be interesting to you to know that 
 Mr. A. J. Swartz, of Chicago, went to see the late 
 Dr. P. P. Quimby’s son, and procured his father’s 
 writings for the purpose of having them published 
 in order to show the world that your ideas were 
 borrowed from Quimby. After having examined 
 them, to their utter disappointment, it was found 
 there was nothing that could compare in any way 
 to “ Science and Health ” ; and he, Swartz, con- 
 cluded that it would aid you too much to pub- 
 lish them, so they were returned to the owner. 
 
 Mrs. Swartz saw and read these manuscripts, 
 and she gave me this information. 
 
 Mary H. Philbrick. 
 
 Austin, III., May 18, 1892. 
 
 The truth is that neither Mr. Swartz nor Mrs. 
 Swartz ever saw Dr. Quimby’s manuscripts. Mr. 
 Quimby read a few paragraphs from his father’s 
 manuscripts to Mr. Swartz, but did not permit 
 him to examine them. Mrs. Swartz was not pres- 
 ent at all. 
 
 In the Mental Science Magazine of June, 1888, 
 Mr. Swartz says : — 
 
 During the latter part of the month I went on 
 to Belfast, near 150 miles to the north and east 
 from Portland. Much has been said relative to 
 the “ Quimby Manuscripts,” so called. We have 
 heard that Dr. Quimby left various writings set- 
 ting forth his views and practice in mental phe- 
 
5 1 
 
 nomena and the healing of disease by a method 
 which he called his “ system,” or “ theory.” It has 
 been claimed that he cured multitudes of individ- 
 uals, and that from his discoveries and practice 
 the great system of mental or modern Christian 
 healing came forth. It has been said repeatedly 
 that Dr. Quimby intended to publish a work show- 
 ing the origin of mind-healing in this nation, but 
 that his decease in January, 1866, prevented its 
 appearance. It has been declared often that his 
 son, George A. Quimby, a clothing manufacturer 
 for many years in Belfast, intends to publish to 
 the world a book of his father’s discoveries and 
 practice that will show the successful healing 
 which he began prior to 1850, and in which he 
 continued until 1865. 
 
 It is understood that one who was Dr. 
 Quimby’s patient in the summer of 1862 claims 
 to have discovered mental healing, and to have 
 originated all the science. It is also strongly 
 affirmed that the aforesaid writings will show that 
 all the foundation principles of mental healing, as 
 well as the terms used to express them, also that 
 disease, as defined by all science healers, will be 
 found in the written views of the said Dr. Quimby 
 years before any other wrote upon the subject. 
 
 In these issues, facts and good faith only will 
 govern sincere workers in this field. That others 
 took up his mantle and made many of his discov- 
 eries public, which have so blessed the race, can 
 be regarded as a noble work only ; but the ques- 
 tion of fairness and good faith is, Have any 
 others used and cultivated his original ideas, 
 words, definitions, and discoveries under the 
 claim that they were the first discoverers of this 
 system ? 
 
52 
 
 Feeling that honest hearts are wounded by 
 those who deny that human beings have hearts, 
 and knowing that too much of high principle is at 
 stake to disregard the truthfulness of the varying 
 claims, I felt led of the Spirit to go and ascertain 
 facts about the origin of this mental system, the 
 said manuscripts, etc. 
 
 I found George A. Quimby to be a man far 
 superior to what I had supposed. He is the busy 
 proprietor of an industry that he has pursued 
 some sixteen years. He, together with several 
 others, assisted Dr. Quimby for years in the de- 
 tails of his healing practice, such as the receiving 
 of patients, recording names, and aiding him as 
 the cause required. During these years of prac- 
 tice the doctor was written up by many editors. 
 He also wrote at various times his ideas and dis- 
 coveries. Frequently he would utter many valu- 
 able truths in his instructions or conversations 
 with others. His views were often written by 
 those associated with him, and then submitted to 
 him for approval or correction. These writings 
 by himself, and by those in his employ for years 
 who wrote for him, constitute the said manu- 
 scripts. All literary people know that manu- 
 scripts proper consist of the views written by 
 an individual, or his views penned by another 
 for him, provided that he corrects, approves, and 
 appropriates the same. Through both of these 
 proper methods extended manuscripts of Dr. 
 Quimby’s system and discoveries were kept by 
 himself and his family ; for he intended to pub- 
 lish a work from them, and doubtless would have 
 done so, had he lived a little longer. His son, and 
 several other truthful persons, agree that the facts 
 relating to his manuscripts are as I give them 
 herein. 
 
53 
 
 I also called upon an elder son, cashier of the 
 chief bank in Belfast. I found that Dr. Quimby 
 was highly respected in his day and work. This I 
 learned from various reputable citizens. He had 
 a name for modesty and strict honesty that was 
 better than riches. He never professed scholarly 
 erudition, as the world counts it ; but he was a 
 student and an investigator, who reached the inner 
 workings of the human mind. He was the wiser 
 in this because of having been a successful mes- 
 merist fifty years ago. Mesmerism is mental 
 phenomena, or mind acting in or upon mind. 
 Mesmerism in itself is not an evil. Every men- 
 tal scientist should know that motive or intention 
 gives coloring or character to every deed. 
 
 I saw a perfect clock in George’s store, in- 
 vented and made by his father many years ago ; 
 for he was the instrument through whom discov- 
 eries aside from mental Christian healing came 
 to humanity. 
 
 Now the question is, Does George A. Quimby 
 possess the said manuscripts, and does he intend 
 to publish them ? He most certainly does possess 
 them ; and I hope that he may decide to bring out 
 a book from them, or at least to publish his father’s 
 views relating to disease, in what it consists, how 
 it was handled, how he diagnosed disease, and his 
 personal experiences which led to the discovery of 
 disease as a mental condition, — as beliefs, fear, 
 wrong thinking, etc., — and then how he removed 
 these states by instructing or by explaining Truth 
 to the patient. All these ideas were held and 
 practised by Dr. Quimby for more than twelve 
 years before any writer or author in the system of 
 mental healing published any work on the sub- 
 ject. “ Mental Cure,” by Dr. Evans, was pub- 
 
54 
 
 lished in 1869. “ Science and Health ” was pub- 
 
 lished in 1875. The writings, as written and 
 indorsed by Dr. Quimby, were by him called 
 “ Science of Health and Happiness.” These are 
 transcribed into blank books, which I saw. An- 
 other interested person has a certified copy of the 
 transcribed writings to insure against accident by 
 fire. Hence it is evident that a deep interest is 
 manifested in them. Also the original writings 
 are there. 
 
 Mr. Quimby read to me enough from the said 
 manuscripts to fully justify all I state above , relat- 
 ing to his father and to disease ; also to convince 
 me that to him were revealed all the essential claims 
 or fundamental principles relating to disease direct, 
 as now held by every author in mental or Christian 
 science. This can be established, and I venture 
 the statement that it will be. I saw and heard 
 letters read that were written to Dr. Quimby 
 early in 1862, which show that facts are far from 
 the claims set forth elsewhere. I have been mis- 
 led by dishonesty and ambition. Many letters 
 and these writings are preserved by Mr. Quimby 
 in his safe. He loaned me for several days a 
 book of 1 16 pages, consisting of printed articles 
 by editors, by patients, and the immediate friends 
 of Dr. Quimby ; also, some written by the doctor. 
 These were taken from newspapers, and bear 
 printed dates reaching back to 1840. Dr. 
 Quimby’s signature is printed as the author of 
 some of these. They are all interesting and 
 valuable. He kindly permitted me to copy all of 
 these (newspaper) articles I desired for publica- 
 tion, or for use in my own forthcoming work of 
 interpretation, or New Era doctrines. These will 
 be of deep interest, and every line will be credited 
 
55 
 
 to the respective writers and papers of those 
 years. If I use them, they will be a department 
 by themselves. 
 
 Although some of the newspaper articles I 
 copied were by Dr. Quimby, still the manuscripts 
 are the property of George A. Quimby, who may 
 publish them at some future time, when he feels 
 an interest sufficient to call them out. It may be 
 difficult for scientists to see that he is not inter- 
 ested in the cause, that he is in no way engaged 
 in it, but is attending only to business interests, 
 and pays very little attention to the claims or de- 
 sires of others relating to the writings. Various 
 persons have tried to possess them, but without 
 avail. 
 
 Whenever Mr. Quimby decides to publish them, 
 he has both the brains and the means. He is a 
 member of the Maine Press Association, and is 
 a writer of fine ability. He is a kind-hearted 
 gentleman, and has given considerable time to 
 the employ of several first-class papers, — one, 
 the Boston Globe, as travelling correspondent. 
 
56 
 
 For the C our Ur. 
 
 SONNET. 
 
 Suggested by Reading the Remarkable Cure of Captain J. IV. 
 
 Deeritig * 
 
 TO DR. P. P. QUIMBY. 
 
 ’Mid light of science sits the sage profound, 
 
 Awing with classics and his starry lore, 
 
 Climbing to Venus, chasing Saturn round, 
 
 Turning his mystic pages o’er and o’er, 
 
 Till, from empyrean space, his wearied sight 
 Turns to the oasis on which to gaze, 
 
 More bright than glitters on the brow of night 
 The self-taught man walking in wisdom’s ways. 
 
 Then paused the captive gaze with peace entwined, 
 And sight was satisfied with thee to dwell ; 
 
 But not in classics could the book-worm find 
 That law of excellence whence came the spell 
 Potent o’er all, — the captive to unbind, 
 
 To heal the sick and faint, the halt and blind. 
 
 Mary M. Patterson. 
 
 * Printed from the original manuscript by permission of George A. Quimby. 
 
57 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 When “The True History of Mental Science” 
 first appeared, there was, of course, strenuous 
 effort to contradict its statements. The gentle- 
 man who formerly revised Mrs. Eddy’s manu- 
 scripts has since told me that Mrs. Eddy said the 
 pamphlet must be answered. Accordingly, the 
 gentleman mentioned point after point, asking if 
 father’s statements were correct. Mrs. Eddy 
 could not deny them. Then there is nothing to 
 say, was the rejoinder. However, the Christian 
 Science Journal of June, 1887, contained an em- 
 phatic denial, to which father, when urged, made 
 the following reply : * — 
 
 A Card. 
 
 To All Christian Scientists , Mental Scientists, and Meta- 
 physicians everywhere. 
 
 The lecture recently issued in pamphlet form, 
 entitled “The True History of Mental Science,” 
 was written and delivered in response to a call for 
 facts relating to the discovery of the principle and 
 the founding of this science. The lecture itself 
 
 * Mental Healing Monthly, July, 1887. 
 
58 
 
 shows that I could have given the facts years 
 sooner ; but, having no desire to oppose or antago- 
 nize any person whatever, I withheld the facts 
 until the demand for them became great enough 
 to show that the publishing was for the cause 
 of the truth only. Since the publication, Mrs. 
 M. B. G. Eddy has attacked me, in the June num- 
 ber of her Christian Science Journal ,* for telling 
 these facts. But, as readers of the two statements, 
 hers and mine, do not themselves know which tells 
 the truth, I shall ask them to compare the two, and 
 judge for themselves, not only of the statements 
 made, but of the spirit manifested by the two 
 writers. Read, and decide for yourselves which 
 one is humbly trying to serve the cause of truth, 
 and which has some other motive. I have no 
 controversy with anybody, and shall not reply to 
 Mrs. Eddy. I have no personal cause to maintain, 
 either for myself or Dr. Quimby. All is for the 
 simple truth and the real facts. And I have no 
 fear that the truth will suffer, or fail to be finally 
 vindicated. Julius A. Dresser. 
 
 * Another attempted denial appeared in the Boston Traveler , April 25, 1899, 
 in which it was claimed that the entire controversy was settled in court in 1883. 
 But the suit then brought related to a personal quarrel between Mrs. Eddy and 
 Dr. E. J. Arens, who claimed that “ Science and Health” was the work of Dr. 
 Quimby, and had no bearing on the real point at issue. No one who knows the 
 facts now claims that Dr. Quimby wrote Mrs. Eddy’s book. Dr. Arens obtained 
 his information at second hand. The court ruled that Dr. Arens could not legally 
 publish a pamphlet in which he (Dr. Arens) had restated Mrs. Eddy’s ideas. 
 But nothing was or could be settled in regard to Mrs. Eddy' s indebtedness to 
 Dr. Quimby , because neither the court nor Dr. A rens possessed the Quimby 
 manuscripts. The claims of the Traveler are therefore without foundation. 
 
59 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Such wide-spread fear has been elicited in the 
 “malicious animal magnetism” of the Eddy 
 school that I venture to reprint an article of mine 
 written for The Life , Kansas City, Jan. 22, 1896 : — 
 
 Mental Protection. 
 
 The study of mind in its relation to health adds 
 a new terror to an already plentiful supply of fears, 
 unless the study be sufficiently profound to reveal 
 the one great law which the new philosophy of 
 health everywhere makes prominent. It becomes 
 evident to the most superficial observer that men- 
 tal influence may be maliciously used ; and the new 
 philosophy, in fact, throws a flood of light on the 
 subtle sources of crime to which the masses of 
 mankind are in general subjected. In Belgium 
 and other foreign countries it has been found nec- 
 essary to limit the use of hypnotism by law. In 
 this country the use of hypnotism in crime has 
 thus far received little attention, although its pos- 
 sible effects have already become the subject of 
 serious inquiry. 
 
 It is well known by those who have investigated 
 the new philosophy that it aims to be in strict 
 accordance with Christianity at its best. There 
 is thus nothing to fear from any genuine mental 
 
6o 
 
 healer, for the followers of the new thought are 
 making a most exemplary effort to realize in actual 
 life the law of love which Jesus taught both by 
 precept and by example. 
 
 But the mental healing world is split into two 
 camps, — those who consistently carry out the law 
 of love and those whose motive it is to support 
 their leader at any cost. Concerted treatment to 
 ruin the prospects and the business of those who 
 fearlessly and charitably publish the truth about 
 that leader is now a widely known and most 
 deplorable fact. People hesitate to tell what they 
 know lest they become the object of this under- 
 hand and most pernicious practice. They fear for 
 themselves and their friends. And thus asper- 
 sions are cast on the whole society of earnest 
 truth-seekers whose sole object it is to win and 
 promulgate impersonal truth. 
 
 What is the law which governs the entire range 
 of mental influences and telepathic communica- 
 tions ? Is it not the law that like attracts like ? 
 Is contamination possible where there is no recep- 
 tivity ? 
 
 “According to thy faith be it done unto thee,” 
 is the law enunciated throughout the New Testa- 
 ment. We partake of the Spirit, and grow strong 
 in its ministry in proportion to our receptivity, our 
 openness and obedience to it. In return for obe- 
 dience it affords a protection which no words can 
 measure. It is a shield so secure that one may 
 rest in love and trust without giving a thought to 
 one’s possible enemies. 
 
 What temptation is it to a righteous man to go 
 into the company and observe the enticements 
 offered by the intemperate and the depraved ? 
 What point of contact is there between the unself- 
 
6i 
 
 ish philanthropist and the dishonest dealer who 
 tries to ruin the philanthropist’s schemes because 
 his own business is at stake ? 
 
 Observe society at large, and especially those 
 aspects of it where people are drawn together in 
 ties of friendship and co-operation, — either for 
 good or ill, — and do you not find some natural 
 affinity constituting their bond of union and sym- 
 pathy ? Even thieves may plot and conspire to- 
 gether according to the same law which binds man 
 to man on the highest plane of being. But the 
 plans, the energy, the appeals, and even the threats 
 of one man pass by another without making the 
 slightest impression, when there is no common 
 ground of fellowship between them. 
 
 In the thought-world the law is yet more strik- 
 ingly exemplified. Your morbid thought and fear 
 dies out immediately, unless it finds its like, unless 
 it meets encouragement. If you feed the ever- 
 ready consciousness with the sensational matter 
 of our Sunday papers, it will become more and 
 more open to all that is deplorable in our Ameri- 
 can civilization. If you never permit your thought 
 to dwell upon accidents, murders, medical adver- 
 tisements, reports of trials, etc., you thereby grow 
 strong in the higher direction of thought. For the 
 mind is ever aggressive. It is always engaged 
 upon something ; and he is wise, he is healthy, he 
 is pure and helpful to his fellow-men, whose 
 thought is habitually centred on the good, the 
 true, the beautiful, with that power which recog- 
 nizes no opposition , and that trust which not all 
 the evil-minded people and all the baneful influ- 
 ences in the world can prevail against. 
 
 There is nothing to fear, then, from that with 
 which we have nothing in common. By just so 
 
62 
 
 much of spiritual power, just so much of true wis- 
 dom, of knowledge of ourselves as related to other 
 minds, and just so much repose of character as we 
 possess, are we protected, guided, and strength- 
 ened from within. Only that part of us which 
 stoops to what is below it is ever contaminated 
 by the temptations and corruptions of society. 
 Where peace and trust dwell, the devil himself 
 fears to enter. 
 
63 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The attention of the reader is called to the fol- 
 lowing exposes of Christian Science : — 
 
 The Arena , May, 1899, “Christian Science and 
 its Prophetess” : (1) The Facts in the Case, 
 by H. W. Dresser; (2) The Woman and the 
 Book, by Josephine Curtis Woodbury. 
 
 “ An English View of Christian Science : An 
 Exposure,” by Anne Harwood. Fleming H. 
 Revell Company, New York. 
 
 “Christian Science Examined,” by Henry Varley. 
 35 cents. Revell. 
 
 “What is Christian Science?” by Rev. P. C. Wol- 
 cott, B.D. 35 cents. Revell. 
 
 “ The Comedy of Christian Science,” by W. H. 
 Mallock, National Review , March, 1899. 
 
 “ Christian Science and its Legal Aspects,” by 
 W. A. Purrington, North American Review , 
 March, 1899. 
 
 “The Passing of Christian Science,” by G. C. 
 Harger, Jr. Paper, 30 cents. D. J. Stoddard, 
 365 Washington Street, Buffalo, N.Y. 
 
Date Due 
 

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