{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_45419/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_45419","id":"gutenberg_45419","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45419","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Health & Medicine","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian Science -- Controversial literature"],"text":"The Religio-Medical Masquerade\n\n\n\n            A Complete Exposure of Christian Science\n\n                               By\n                  FREDERICK W. PEABODY, LL.B.\n                       OF THE BOSTON BAR\n\n                       THE HANCOCK PRESS\n                         BOSTON, MASS.\n\n                        Copyright, 1910\n                               BY\n                      Frederick W. Peabody\n\nThe price of this book is $1.00.\n\nMailed to any address upon receipt of price and eight cents in\nstamps for postage.\n\nThe Hancock-Press, Post-Office Box 2789, Boston, Mass.\n\n\n\n\n                            CONTENTS\n\n\n          Introduction\n\n       I. The Sacrifice of Children\n\n      II. The Detached Heart\n\n     III. Pretended Equality with Jesus\n\n      IV. The Faked \u201cRevelation\u201d\n\n       V. The Fiction of God\u2019s Authorship\n\n      VI. A Sham \u201cReligion\u201d\n\n     VII. A Bogus Healing System\n\n    VIII. Immeasurable Greed\n\n      IX. The Eddy Autocracy\n\n       X. The \u201cString\u201d on the Gifts\n\n      XI. The Eddy Ban on Marriage\n\n     XII. Christian Science Witchcraft\n\n\n\n\n                          Introduction\n\n\n\nChristian Science is the most shallow and sordid and wicked\nimposture of the ages. Upon a substratum of lies a foundation of\nfalse pretense has been laid, upon which has been built a\nsuperstructure of outward beauty in which multitudes of credulous\npeople gather to glorify the founder as God\u2019s chief anointed.\n\nNever before has the world witnessed a masquerade like that of\nChristian Science. Being everything that Christianity is not, it\nputs on the garb of Christianity and seizes the name of Christ\nthe better to attract and the more strongly to hold people of\nshallow mind, but sincere heart. Having nothing in it remotely\nworthy of the name of science, it meaninglessly appropriates\nscientific terms and phrases in order to parade before the world\nwith an air of learning.\n\nThe founder of this pretended religion, this bogus healing\nsystem, audaciously and irreligiously professing equality of\ncharacter and of power with Jesus, has, throughout her whole long\nlife, been in every particular precisely antithetical to Christ.\nSordid, mercenary, unprincipled, the consuming passion of her\nlife has been the accumulation of money, and she has stopped at\nno falsehood, no fraud and no greater wickedness that seemed to\nput her in the way of adding to her accumulations, or overcoming\nher supposed enemies.\n\nJesus condemned nothing so forcefully as the mercenary spirit.\nWith a whip he scourged the money changers from the Temple, and\nin language that burned as flaming fire he denounced the\nhypocrites and liars of his time as \u201clike unto whited sepulchers\nthat are indeed beautiful outward, but within are full of dead\nmen\u2019s bones and all uncleanness.\u201d\n\nIf the language of this book seem severe, if its denunciations\nare emphatic, if things are called by their right names and facts\nhandled without the least equivocation, if contrasts are drawn\nbetween the founder of Christianity and the founder of Christian\nScience that seem to border upon the irreverent, let it not be\nassumed that there is in the heart of the author the slightest\nparticle of personal animosity, or in his attitude toward real\nChristianity and Christ anything but the most complete reverence.\n\nIt is time the plain facts should be stated in plain terms, that\nthe hand of truth should ruthlessly tear away the mask of\nfalsehood from the face of hypocrisy and expose to the horrified\ngaze of mankind the hideous lineaments upon which are indelibly\nand unmistakably written the craft and insincerity of utter\nselfishness and monstrous greed, and the hardness of a cruelty\nalmost unbelievable.\n\nWithout egotism, I may say that no other man knows, as I know,\nthe true inwardness of Christian Science, because no other man\nhas come face to face with it again and again on so many\noccasions as I have, and no other has been in the position I have\nto force from the lips of reluctant witnesses, under the sanction\nof an oath, unwilling and discrediting testimony.\n\nTen years ago I knew nothing and cared less about Christian\nScience, assuming it to be a sincere, but deluded, manifestation\nof the childish credulity to which the human race is prone. But\nten years of investigations and repeated professional\nemployments, in which it became my duty as a lawyer to get at the\nactual facts with the aid of legal process, have qualified me, as\nno other not having had my experience can be qualified, to set\nforth the amazing story in utter nakedness. In order that it may\nappear that I am talking from a basis of knowledge, and not of\nrumor or gossip or speculation, let me briefly narrate the\nprofessional experiences above referred to.\n\nMy first encounter with Christian Science came about through an\nemployment by the Arena Company, publishers of the _Arena_\nmagazine, in 1899. In the May number of the magazine for that\nyear an article by Mrs. Josephine C. Woodbury, that was in the\nnature of an _expos\u00e9_ of Christian Science, was published, and\ninstead of bringing suit against Mrs. Woodbury or the magazine\nfor the statements contained in the article, an endeavor was\nmade, in Mrs. Eddy\u2019s interest, to suppress the magazine by a suit\nin equity to restrain its publication based upon the\nincorporation in the article of a photograph of Mrs. Eddy said to\nhave been copyrighted. The Arena Company retained me to represent\nits interests in the litigation, and during that employment I was\nbrought in contact with the author of the article, and from her\ngot my first inkling of the real character of Mrs. Mary Baker G.\nEddy, and her religio-medical-commercial system.\n\nMrs. Woodbury had been a Christian Scientist for many years,\nduring a long portion of which time she enjoyed Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nconfidence as one of her leading lieutenants. She had accumulated\nmany letters from Mrs. Eddy, and all her published utterances,\nwhether in book or pamphlet form, from the beginning of the\nmovement down to that time. Mrs. Woodbury was a woman of\nforceful, dominating personality, of much greater culture than\nMrs. Eddy and the rank and file of her following, and in course\nof time she attracted to herself a personal popularity and\ninfluence that so threatened Mrs. Eddy\u2019s, that it became\nimportant, if her ascendency was to be maintained unimpaired,\nthat Mrs. Woodbury be cast into outer darkness and her influence\nwholly destroyed. Occasion was readily found for this and, in due\ntime, without warning, without a notice of the charges made\nagainst her, and without an opportunity to be heard, Mrs.\nWoodbury was excommunicated from the Boston Christian Science\nChurch and cut off from fellowship with the faithful. This placed\nher in a position where rational reflection was forced upon her,\nand she speedily came to the necessary conclusion that she had\nbeen duped.\n\nArriving at this conclusion, with a courage much to be admired\nMrs. Woodbury wrote and published in the _Arena_ magazine the\narticle to which I have referred, and in unmeasured terms laid\nopen the sinister and sordid quality of the whole movement, and\nexposed the consummate selfishness and greed in the heart of its\n\u201cfounder.\u201d The article went forth in the _Arena_, and\nChristian-Sciencedom was up in arms. Mr. Septimus J. Hanna, then\neditor of the _Christian Science Journal_, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s organ,\nhastened to Concord, New Hampshire, to confer with Mrs. Eddy\nregarding ways and means of meeting it, and the method of\nsquaring the account with Mrs. Woodbury was considered and\ndetermined.\n\nLet it be remembered that the article in the _Arena_ was\npublished in the May, 1899, number. Almost immediately after the\nappearance of the article, Mrs. Woodbury\u2019s husband, to whom she\nhad been much devoted, died and p\u00e6ans of rejoicing went up from\nthe Christian Scientists that the Judge of all the world had thus\nrighteously punished one who had dared to assail the sanctified\npersonality of \u201cGod\u2019s voice to this age.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s personal opportunity came in the month of June, 1899,\nwhen, in her annual message to the \u201cMother Church\u201d in Boston, she\nundertook to dispose once and for all of Mrs. Woodbury. In\nlanguage, seldom or never before equaled for cruelty and\nbrutality, Mrs. Eddy assailed Mrs. Woodbury. Pretending, herself,\nto be the woman \u201cclothed with the sun,\u201d spoken of in the Book of\nRevelation, Mrs. Eddy denounced Mrs. Woodbury as the Babylonish\nwoman there referred to. She said:\n\n  \u201cThe doom of the Babylonish woman referred to in Revelation is\n  being fulfilled. This woman, drunken with the blood of the\n  saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, drunk of the\n  wine of her fornication, would enter even the church and\n  retaining the heart of the harlot and the purpose of the\n  destroying angel \u2026 poison such as drink of the living water.\u201d\n  And further: \u201cAnd a voice was heard saying, come out of her my\n  people and hearken not to her lies that ye receive not her\n  plagues, for her sins have reached unto Heaven and God hath\n  remembered her iniquities. Double unto her double, according to\n  her work: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.\n  For she saith in her heart I am no widow.\u2026 Therefore shall her\n  plague come in one day, death, mourning and famine: for strong\n  is the Lord God who judgeth her. That which the revelator saw\n  in spiritual vision will be accomplished. The Babylonish woman\n  is fallen: and who shall mourn over the widowhood of lust, of\n  her that hath become the habitation of devils, and the hold of\n  every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean bird.\u201d\n\nI make no defense of Mrs. Woodbury\u2019s absurdities when she was a\nChristian Scientist. She went the limit. Nothing could have\nexceeded her confidence in Mrs. Eddy\u2019s teachings and her zeal for\nthe cause; but I am absolutely certain that there was nothing in\nMrs. Woodbury\u2019s life in the slightest degree justifying the\nreflections upon her chastity, and Mrs. Eddy\u2019s attack was utterly\nbaseless and wanton and purely vengeful.\n\nImmediately upon publication of this message and its public\nreading in the \u201cMother Church\u201d in Boston, all Christian\nScientists recognized the person thus assailed. Either from\nnative shrewdness, or by advice of friends or perhaps of lawyers,\nMrs. Eddy had abstained from using Mrs. Woodbury\u2019s name in the\nmessage; but no Christian Scientists anywhere had any doubt that\nMrs. Woodbury was the subject of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s attack and, on every\nhand, Christian Scientists openly expressed their gratification\nthat Mrs. Woodbury had thus been finally suppressed. The next day\nafter the publication, I asked a Christian Scientist with whom I\nwas intimately acquainted, whom Mrs. Eddy referred to in the\npassage quoted from her message. The unhesitating response was,\n\u201cWhy, that vile Mrs. Woodbury, of course.\u201d\n\nThe acquaintance, begun with Mrs. Woodbury through my employment\nby the Arena Company, developed into the relationship of attorney\nand client after the publication of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s message; and it\nwas determined to bring suit against Mrs. Eddy for this attack\nand against other Christian Science officials responsible for its\npublication. Before beginning, I advised Mrs. Woodbury that, as\nshe was not named in the article, her identity at the trial could\nonly be established by persons who understood her to be referred\nto, and I asked her if she believed that prominent Christian\nScientists, who had openly avowed such an understanding, could be\nrelied upon to tell the truth upon the witness stand. She assured\nme of her confident belief that they could and that none of them\nwould go upon the witness stand and deliberately commit perjury;\nbut at the time of the trial, having called as witnesses only\nthose close to Mrs. Eddy who had made avowal of their\nunderstanding that Mrs. Woodbury was the subject of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nattack, none of them admitted that, at the time of the\npublication, they had any such understanding. As the language was\nwholly unintelligible to any one but Christian Scientists, the\nsuit necessarily failed; but it would not have failed if, at that\ntime, I had had the familiarity I now have with Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nprivate correspondence; for I should have been able to introduce\nin evidence letters of hers clearly showing that Mrs. Woodbury\nwas the Babylonish woman of her message.\n\nIn the course of the preparation for the trial of this case, all\nof Mrs. Woodbury\u2019s letters from Mrs. Eddy and all of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\npublished utterances from the beginning down to that time,\nincluding every edition of her book, \u201cScience and Health,\u201d and\nevery number of the _Christian Science Journal_, were turned over\nto me by my client and studied with most thorough and painstaking\ncare. Then it was I learned that Christian Science was a\ndeliberate fraud foisted upon mankind by Mrs. Eddy in the name of\nreligion for the mere purpose of extorting money from credulous\npeople. Since that time I have been intensely interested in\nfollowing the matter up and adding to my store of facts, until\nnow I am confident that no man can read this book, no man and no\nwoman who has not parted with every scrap of sanity and who\nretains elemental decency in his or her heart, and not be in\nentire accord with my conclusions.\n\nSome time after the Woodbury-Eddy litigation, I was retained by\nRev. Minot J. Savage, then of New York City, to collect for him,\nand at his expense, in legally evidential form, the facts showing\nunmistakably Mrs. Eddy\u2019s false pretense and fraud, and in\npursuance of this employment I examined numerous individuals and\ntook their statements under oath for Mr. Savage. Later, when\n_McClure\u2019s_ magazine undertook the publication of the facts of\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s career, I was employed to procure the sworn\nstatements of many individuals in support of the magazine\u2019s\nstory, and shortly thereafter I was retained by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s two\nsons, George W. Glover, born to her by her first husband, and\nEdward J. Foster, her son by adoption, to cooperate with their\nother lawyers, Hon. William E. Chandler, Ex-United States Senator\nfrom New Hampshire being senior counsel, in the prosecution in\nthe courts of New Hampshire of a suit in equity for the\nappointment of a receiver to have charge of their mother\u2019s large\nestate for her benefit, upon the ground that, through old age\nmental weakness and delusions, if not actual insanity, she was\nincompetent to have the care of it. This litigation never reached\na determination in the courts, but the family controversy was\nultimately settled by a family settlement in which the two sons\nwere paid approximately $300,000 for a relinquishment of their\nprospective interest in their mother\u2019s estate and an agreement\nnot to contest any will or other instrument disposing of her\nproperty.\n\nAs the Massachusetts attorney in this litigation, it became my\nduty in the City of Boston to examine, under oath, many of Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s most intimate friends, and the highest officials of\norganized Christian Science, who, by legal process, were\ncompelled to produce many hundreds of personal letters received\nby them from her. This last professional experience completed my\nunderstanding of Christian Science, and the facts herein set\nforth are, almost without exception, based, either upon Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s own published utterances, her private correspondence, the\nsworn testimony of witnesses, or the admissions under oath of her\nmost confidential friends and followers; and I give my book to\nthe world with a full understanding of the responsibility I\nassume and a complete willingness to justify in any legal\ntribunal every statement I make.\n\nLet it not be supposed, however, that I am presenting the\nspectacle of a cowardly man attacking a weak and unprotected\nwoman. Mrs. Eddy is the head and front of a powerful and rich\norganization, the leader of a movement that numbers many\nthousands of adherents, amongst them some thousands of more or\nless masculine men. She _is_ Christian Science, and Christian\nScience _is_ Mrs. Eddy. Anything that money can buy or fanaticism\ngive is constantly at her disposal, and back of her, as behind\nthe greatest and the humblest, stands the sovereign law. Whoever\noffends another, is accountable to the law; and if anything I say\noffend against her right to enjoy the reputation warranted by her\nlife, I can and should be called to speedy and strict account. If\nthe contents of this book are not true, I, myself, proclaim that\nthe severest legal penalty would inadequately punish me for its\npublication. If, on the other hand, what I say be true, as I am\nconfident there can be no doubt in any honest mind that follows\nme to the end, then decent people, men or women, can no longer\nafford to give the slightest countenance to Mary Baker G. Eddy\nand her impostures, be they called by the name of religion, or be\nthey pretended cure-alls for the ills to which our human flesh is\nheir.\n\nI challenge Mrs. Eddy and the whole Christian Science combination\nto dare to prosecute me for libel, and I affirm and shall\ncontinue to affirm that their omission so to do is an\nacknowledgment of the truth of every statement I make. She knows\nI am telling nothing but the truth, and that the whole truth, to\nbe brought out upon a judicial investigation, would be more\ndamning than the truth as I have presented it. The whole truth\ncannot be told outside of a judicial tribunal.\n\nIn presenting the substance of this book in the form of a lecture\nto the people of the country, from one ocean to the other, the\nonly response has been slander and defamation of me, the last\nresort of the accused who can make no defense; but nobody has met\nmy facts with anything like evidence, or undertaken in any\nserious manner to disprove the truth of my most damaging charges.\n\nI beg every one who reads this book not to be diverted from the\nfacts by any personal abuse of me that may follow its\npublication. It is the only response that has been or can be made\nto my presentation, and I am accustomed to it from the paid\nspokesmen of a cult that, so far as its ruling spirits are\nconcerned, more resembles an organization of outlaws banded\ntogether for plunder, than a religious establishment based upon\nthe sublime teachings of the Man of Sorrows.\n\nThe knowledge I possess I could not suppress without making\nmyself a party to one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated\nagainst the human race; and I will not, by my silence, permit\nmyself to become an ally with Mrs. Eddy and her associates in\nthat crime.\n\nHistory is but repeated in Christian Science. \u201cWe have seen,\u201d\nsaid Macaulay, \u201can old woman with no talents beyond the cunning\nof a fortune teller, and with the education of a scullion,\nexalted into a prophetess and surrounded by tens of thousands of\ndevoted followers, many of whom were, in station and in\nknowledge, immeasurably her superiors, and all this in the\nnineteenth century, and all this in London.\u201d\n\nMarveling as he thus did at the success of Joanna Southcott\u2019s\nparody upon religion in the early part of the last century, what\nwould Macaulay have thought of Mary Baker G. Eddy\u2019s utterly\nunintelligible hodge-podge, which she falsely calls both a\ndiscovery and a revelation, a science and a religion, and what\nwould he have thought of her following?\n\nMrs. Eddy is in no respect superior to Miss Southcott in the\nmatter of origin and education. One was as obscure and as\nunlearned as the other. In one respect at least the Southcott\nwoman was superior to the Eddy woman. The former was at least\nhonest; she believed in her mission. There is no evidence that\nshe built up a pretended religion upon a foundation of lies. She\nwas, at the worst, an unbalanced creature with a form of\nreligious mania. She did not grow rich out of her followers. She\ndid not use her supposed revelation as a business asset and sell\nit for what it would bring. She did not take out a copyright on\nher \u201creligion,\u201d and monopolize its sale for extraordinary profit.\nThere was no taint of commercialism about her frenzies. She died\npoor.\n\nThe founder of Christian Science, on the contrary, is everything\nthat Joanna Southcott was not. She is mercenary, insincere,\nshameless, and bold to a degree surpassing that of all other\npersons who have duped mankind. Upon theft and falsehood she has\nlaid the foundations of the \u201creligion\u201d by the sale of which she\nhas accumulated a fortune.\n\n                                                        F. W. P.\n\n                 The Religio-Medical Masquerade\n\n\n\n                           Chapter I\n\n                   The Sacrifice of Children\n\n\nAt the very outset of a candid consideration of Christian\nScience, I feel the necessity, if not of an apology, at least of\nan explanation. I shall with entire freedom discuss a woman and a\ncombined religio-medical-commercial system of which she is the\nfounder. I shall handle the one and the other without the least\nregard for anything but the truth. Mary Baker G. Eddy is the\nwoman, and Christian Science, so called, is the system; but they\nare inseparable, identical. They have arisen and they will go\ndown together, and I predict that they will go down much more\nrapidly than they have ascended.\n\nI am going to hold up for the inspection of mankind the soul of a\nwoman, of a woman eighty-eight years of age, and I am going to do\nit without regard to the fact that she is feminine and aged.\nThere is no other way to present Christian Science in its true\naspect. It rests exclusively upon Mrs. Eddy\u2019s representations and\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s character. If everything she has claimed regarding\nherself and Christian Science as a religion and healing system be\nabsolutely false, then there is no justification for the\nexistence of Christian Science as a religion, or a healing\nsystem, every church erected in its honor is but a monument to\nthe \u201cQueen of frauds and hypocrites,\u201d and every worshiper at its\nshrines the dupe of a designing old woman who has laughed in her\nsleeves at the ease with which she has gulled them.\n\nWhile this is unmistakably true, it is, notwithstanding, most\ndistasteful to a man, if he be half a man, publicly to assail the\ncharacter of a woman, and nothing under heaven can justify it, if\nshe be in private life and not putting forth nor seeking to put\nforth an influence upon the lives of others; but if she have\nconstituted herself sponsor for a religion of lies and a medical\nsystem that is a fraud and a shame, if she profess God imparted\nknowledge of everything needful for human bodies and souls, if\nshe reach out her influence to all parts of the land and seek to\ngovern hundreds of thousands of people in every detail of their\ndaily lives, and if her influence be harmful and only harmful, it\nis the duty of a man, who knows the facts, to make them public,\nregardless of sex or age or anything whatever but the public\ngood. And so I ask my readers to believe that while for Mrs.\nEddy, the feeble and palsied old woman tottering on the very\nverge of the grave, I have feelings only of compassion; for Mrs.\nEddy, the charlatan and adventuress, for Mrs. Eddy, the impious\npretender to equality with Jesus, the fraudulent claimant of\nexclusive and immediate revelation from God, for Mrs. Eddy, upon\nwhose altar of greed have been sacrificed the harmony and\nhappiness of marriage, the natural love and tenderness of parents\nand the sweet lives of God only knows how many children, for Mrs.\nEddy, the heartless and avaricious despot of multitudes of\ndespoiled and demented dupes, for that woman, as there is no\nsympathy in my heart, so there shall be no charity in my speech.\n\nNow, who is Mrs. Eddy, and what is this strange thing called\nChristian Science?\n\nAs I understand her, Mrs. Eddy is the inventor and sole\nproprietor of the greatest get-rich-quick concern ever conceived.\nHer business\u2014there is no religion about it, and her writings may\nbe searched from end to end without finding a line about the\nworship of God\u2014her business converts into cash the very highest\nemotions of the human soul by an appeal to religious feeling and\nextorts huge sums of money from multitudes of credulous people\nfor healing them of nothing but the delusion that there is\nsomething the matter with them. Christian Science never cured any\none of anything but imaginary illness; it never relieved any one\nof any real evil\u2014but his money.\n\nMrs. Eddy, boldly professing to have received a revelation from\nGod, and to be the equal of Jesus Christ, has made upwards of a\nmillion and a half dollars out of her enterprise that she calls\nChristian Science since she reached sixty years of age; and, if\nsome be inclined to infer therefrom the possession by her of\nextraordinary genius, I cannot agree with them. Mrs. Eddy has\nsucceeded, not because of her greatness, but because of the\navidity with which unreasoning people swallow the most monstrous\nabsurdities, the shamelessness with which men and women will\nintellectually prostrate themselves before the coarsest vulgarity\nand the most patent fraud.\n\nLet me illustrate this, if I can. It is no part of my undertaking\nto account for Mrs. Eddy\u2019s following. The fact that she has some\nthousands of followers does not, of itself, prove the truth of\nany of her teachings or pretensions. There was never any\nreligious pretender yet, who could not, with slight effort,\nobtain a hearing and a following. I recently observed, in one of\nour daily papers, an account of an amusing incident of this\ncharacter in Oklahoma. A man, believing himself to be the\nincarnation of Almighty God, started out to convert the world to\nhis belief, and considered it to be his mission, in the first\ninstance, to persuade mankind to divest themselves of clothes.\nThe first man he encountered was his next-door neighbor and the\nfirst woman his next-door neighbor\u2019s wife, and they were easily\npersuaded of the man\u2019s divine mission, and that it was God\u2019s wish\nthat they should revert to primitive nakedness. So the three\ndoffed the attire of civilization and perambulated into the\nadjoining town, naked as they came into the world. A police\nofficer, who encountered them upon the street, with averted eyes\nhustled them into a van and carted them off to the nearest police\nstation, where they were compelled to assume at least the outward\ngarb of decency and sanity. This only shows how true it is that\nthe religious impostor has no difficulty in making converts, and\nthat the first person he converts is usually the first he\nencounters.\n\nI am continually met with the inquiry, \u201cIf Christian Science is\nan absolute fraud, how do you account for the fact that so many\nintelligent people are Christian Scientists?\u201d\n\nIn the first place, many people may be intelligent enough about\nthe ordinary affairs of life, and utterly imbecile upon religious\nmatters. History has again and again shown that in no respect are\npeople so easily credulous and so readily victimized as in\nrespect to religious things. Doubtless there are intelligent\npeople in Christian Science; but the whole cult is not numerous,\nand the intelligent minority is a negligible quantity.\n\nIn the latest bulletin of religious statistics, published by the\nFederal Government in 1909, the total number of Christian\nScientists is given as 85,717; but it is stated that a large\nportion, at least half, of the membership of the \u201cMother Church\u201d\nin Boston is counted twice in this estimate; for the 41,634\nmembership of this Boston church is largely composed of\nnon-residents, who are also members of other churches. So at\nleast 20,000 must be deducted from the total of 85,717 in order\nto get at anything like an accurate estimate, which cannot be far\nfrom 65,000. These are the government\u2019s figures for 1906,\nalthough Mrs. Eddy definitely stated that there were a million\nChristian Scientists as long ago as 1883.\n\nNow, admitting that amongst this 65,000 people there are\nintelligent persons, I make the affirmation boldly that not one\nof them ever went into Christian Science _because_ of his\nintelligence but notwithstanding and in _spite_ of it. Let me\nmake plain this non-intelligent attitude of its devotees toward\nChristian Science.\n\nThe religious service in a Christian Science church contains no\noriginal utterance from the pulpit. There is no preacher\nconnected with any Christian Science church, and the individuals\nofficiating from the platform are called readers, the first\nreader being a man, who reads from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book, and the\nsecond reader being a woman, who reads from the Bible. The sermon\nconsists exclusively of the alternate reading, by the second\nreader of passages from the Bible, and by the first reader of\nalleged interpretative passages from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book, \u201cScience\nand Health,\u201d which is called by her, \u201cThe Key to the Scriptures.\u201d\n\nMr. Arthur G. Frisbie of Cleveland, Ohio, an absolutely sincere\nand honest man, was for many years the first reader of the\nleading Christian Science church in that city. He became,\nhowever, convinced, as every sincere and honest person, who\nretains any remnant of analytical power sooner or later must,\nthat the thing was a monstrous fraud, and he now denounces it in\nno less unmeasured terms than my own. Mr. Frisbie tells me that\nduring all the time he was officiating as first reader in the\nchurch and read from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book, try as hard as he might he\ncould discover no slightest relation between the Bible passages\nread by the second reader and the \u201cScience and Health\u201d\ninterpretative passages read by himself. Any one who cares to\nmake the experiment may demonstrate this for himself if he will\nget a copy of the _Christian Science Quarterly_ in which the\nso-called Sermon Lessons are outlined. Such a test will show that\nthere is no more connection between the Biblical passages and\nthose selected and read from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book than there would be\nif \u201cMother Goose\u201d or \u201cRobinson Crusoe\u201d were used as interpreters\nof the Scriptures. And yet I have sat in a Christian Science\nchurch and seen thousands of the faithful, with nothing less than\necstatic expressions upon their countenances, listening to\nreadings that were absolutely unintelligible to both readers and\nhearers. So I say that the only possible way to be a Christian\nScientist is to completely subordinate intelligence to feeling\nand approximate as nearly as possible the ideal condition\npictured by Mrs. Eddy when she says, \u201cThe less mind there is\nmanifested in matter, the better.\u201d\n\nBefore passing from this point, I can\u2019t refrain from\nincorporating here, for the benefit of mankind, the sage summary\nof a man whom I regard as the very wisest of living estimators of\nhuman qualities. I refer, of course, to Mark Twain. His opinion\nof why Mrs. Eddy has so many followers is most informing. In a\nletter to me some few years ago, Mr. Clemens said:\n\n  \u201cHave I given you the impression that I was combating Xn\n  Science? or that I am caring how the Xn Scientists \u2018hail\u2019 my\n  articles? Relieve yourself of those errors. I wrote the\n  articles to please MYSELF; and it had not occurred to me to\n  care what the \u2018Scientists\u2019 might think of them. I am not\n  combating Xn Science\u2014I haven\u2019t a thing in the world against it.\n  Making fun of that shameless old swindler, Mother Eddy, is the\n  only thing about it I take any interest in. At bottom I suppose\n  I take a private delight in seeing the human race making an ass\n  of itself again\u2014which it has always done whenever it had a\n  chance. That\u2019s its affair\u2014it has the right\u2014and it will sweat\n  blood for it a century hence, and for many centuries\n  thereafter.\n\n  \u201cIt distresses me a little to hear you talk about \u2018sanity in\n  the affairs of men.\u2019 So far as I know, men have never shown any\n  noticeable degree of sanity in their affairs, and to me it\n  seems rather large flattery to intimate that they are capable\n  of it.\n\n  \u201cSee them get down and worship that old creature. A century\n  hence, they\u2019ll all be at it. Sanity\u2014in the human race! This is\n  really fulsome.\u201d\n\nThere is no other possible explanation than this of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nsuccess. It is based, as Mark Twain says, upon the irresistible\npropensity of the human race to make an ass of itself every time\nit gets a chance. It is astounding, but it is a fact, that by\nmany thousands of people in the United States in the year of\ngrace 1910 this aged, illiterate, unprincipled, vulgar woman is\nregarded as the agent and representative of the Almighty God. I\ndo not know how many times I have been told that because I have\nendeavored to make the people of the country understand that\nChristian Science is based wholly upon Mrs. Eddy\u2019s falsehoods, I\nam therefore irreverently assailing the Almighty upon His throne.\nI confess I am not much disturbed by this particular criticism,\nbecause I feel that, if it be a fact, the Almighty will deal with\nme indulgently, knowing the integrity of my motives, and that,\nhowever aggressive I may become, the Almighty is in no danger.\n\nThe more I have studied and learned of the life of this strange\ncreature and the more closely I have observed her effect upon the\nlives of those who come under her sway, the more strongly I am\nconvinced of the harmfulness of her influence. It is literally\nderationalizing thousands of people, it is turning multitudes\nfrom the pursuit of knowledge and steeping them in a superstition\nworse than that of the Middle Ages. It is remorselessly\nseparating husband and wife, parent and child. It is the mother\nand promoter of a new-old witchcraft which has so taken\npossession of the minds and lives of people that they live in\nconstant terror of its supposed baneful work. This Christian\nScience witchcraft has reached the proportion amongst the\nfaithful almost of panic, and of it more hereafter. But of all of\nthe harmful influences of this alleged medical science, which is\nan unmitigated nonsense or deviltry, and of this alleged religion\nwhich, so far as its founder is concerned, is the very\nquintessence of irreverence and hypocrisy, of all of the evil\nconsequences of the life and work of this monumental imposture,\nthe unrelieved suffering of helpless children is the worst.\n\nMrs. Eddy teaches and her followers believe that God has revealed\nto her, as absolute truth, that sickness, pain and suffering do\nnot in reality exist, and many are the deluded mothers upon whom\nthis belief has taken so fast a hold that they permit their\nhelpless children to suffer and to die without the slightest\neffort to alleviate the suffering, and with the continued\niteration and reiteration of the insane notion that the child\ncannot be sick and cannot suffer, because sickness and suffering\nare unreal. Meantime the sickness of the child is real, the\nsuffering terribly real, and after protracted suffering it dies\nwithout the turning of a hand to relieve its pain or to save its\nlife. Those sane parents who have endured the anguish of seeing\ntheir child suffer, say from abscess in the ear, or from any one\nof the other forms of torture with which nature stretches our\nlittle ones upon beds of pain, will appreciate the enormity of\nthis crime.\n\nI recently talked with a lady who had been visiting her Christian\nScience sister whose little boy, eight or ten years of age,\nbecame sick during my friend\u2019s visit. He went to his mother and\nsaid, \u201cMother, I have a terrible pain and feel very sick, and\nthink I ought to have a doctor.\u201d\n\nWhat did the Christian Science mother do? Did she coddle the\nlittle fellow, take off his clothes and put him to bed and tell\nhim the good doctor would soon be there and that he would be all\nwell again very shortly? Nothing of the kind. \u201cRichard,\u201d she\nsaid, \u201cit is very wrong of you to talk that way, when you have\nthat error of belief. You know you are not sick, Richard, and\ncannot be sick; you know how to treat yourself when you have that\nfalse belief. Treat yourself, run away and play, and don\u2019t bother\nme any more.\u201d\n\nLittle Richard turned from his Christian Science mother and\nresumed his play, so long as he could stagger about on his little\nfeet and keep up the sad pretense. And when he could not keep on\nhis feet any longer, he sat down upon the floor with his toys\nabout him, moaning with pain and holding his hand upon his side.\nMeantime his Christian Science mother busied herself about her\nfamily duties, totally ignoring him.\n\nThe time came when little Richard could not any longer sit up and\ncompletely lost interest in his toys; and then he fell over upon\nthe floor, and died\u2014died with his clothes on, died with his toys\nabout him, died absolutely neglected by his mother in his\nextremity, died without the slightest sane endeavor to save his\nlife.\n\nAnd so it is everywhere in Christian Science families throughout\nthe length and breadth of this land. Nothing but the employment\nof a fool-man or a fool-woman, called a Christian Science healer,\nto administer a Christian Science treatment, which consists only\nof the inaudible repetition of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s meaningless jargon,\ncan be done by a Christian Science parent to save the life of his\nchild without repudiating Mrs. Eddy\u2019s fundamental teaching that\nsickness is unreal and giving the lie to her \u201cinspired\u201d insanity\nthat there are no such things as pain and death.\n\nWho has not, for years past, read such items as these in the\ndaily papers? \u201cChristian Science parent arrested. Mr. and Mrs.\nGoodwin\u2019s twelve years\u2019 old child died without medical\nattendance.\u201d\n\nAgain: \u201cJail term for Christian Scientist Brine, who let his\nsix-year-old child die without medical attendance.\u201d\n\nAgain: \u201cNo medicine for dying boy. Public prosecutor to take up\ncase of year-old son of Frank A. Black, who died on Saturday\nwithout medical attendance.\u201d\n\nAgain: \u201cMr. and Mrs. Edwin M. Watson, Christian Scientists,\nconvicted of voluntary manslaughter for failure to provide\nmedical attendance for their seven-year-old child, Granville.\u201d\n\nAgain: \u201cLittle Esther Quimby, the seven-year-old daughter of Mr.\nand Mrs. Quimby, Christian Scientists, allowed to die of\nmalignant diphtheria without attendance of a doctor.\u201d\n\nThere was in this country in the neighborhood of 5,000\nadvertising Christian Science healers, so called, and their\npatients are largely women and children. If each of them has but\none patient a day, there are over a million and a half lives\nannually placed under their senseless and impotent ministrations.\nAs they doubtless average many more than one a day, their\npatients are in the aggregate many millions a year, largely\nwomen, still more largely children. There are no statistics\nshowing the mortality of such patients, for it is the practice of\nthese healers to conceal their operations by calling in a\nphysician at the last moment to qualify him to give the necessary\ndeath certificate, in order that there may be no investigation of\ntheir criminal practices. It cannot be doubted, however, that the\nsacrifice of child life to this stupid and cruel monster runs up\ninto the hundreds, if not the thousands, annually. Could anything\nbe more hideous?\n\nBut what, may I ask, does Mary Baker G. Eddy care about the\nsacrifice of children, so only that her bank account continue to\ngrow and grow and grow?\n\nHer concern for children generally may be somewhat judged by her\nregard for the only child she ever brought into the world. Mrs.\nEddy, when she was Mrs. Glover, in September, 1844, gave birth to\nher only child, a son, whom she named after his father, George\nWashington Glover. As a young infant, George lived at his aunt\u2019s\nhouse with his mother, who, however, frequently sent him on long\nvisits to the family of John Varney, the hired man (in whose lap\nit was her custom, when a young widow, to be rocked to sleep at\nnight), and also to Mahala Sanborn, who had attended her at the\nboy\u2019s birth.\n\nWhen he was seven years old, Miss Sanborn, who had become Mrs.\nCheeney, took him, at his mother\u2019s request, permanently to live\nwith her in North Groton, New Hampshire, where he was from 1851\nto 1857, when the Cheeneys moved to Enterprise, Minnesota, taking\nGeorge with them. During the larger part of his life in North\nGroton, Mrs. Eddy lived in the same town, but she seldom saw him,\nand did nothing for him. She abandoned him, in other words, to an\nentirely illiterate person who had lived as a servant in her\nfather\u2019s family. As her father said, she acted \u201cjust like an old\newe sheep that would not own its lamb.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy now pretends that she was obliged to give up her child\nbecause her second husband, Patterson, would not have him in the\nhouse. This seems to me a poor reason for a woman to abandon her\ninfant child, but it is not true in Mrs. Eddy\u2019s case, because she\ndid not acquire Mr. Patterson until years after she had\npermanently abandoned her child. So complete was her neglect, so\nutter her abandonment of him that at the age of sixty-five this\nman, born of New England parents, can neither read nor write! A\nmother who is so unmotherly as Mrs. Eddy was toward her only\nchild when it was little more than a baby, cannot be expected to\ngive herself great concern over the sacrifice of the children of\nstrangers that is incidental to the accumulation of her fortune.\n\nIf the adult prefer foolishness to wisdom, if he prefer suicide\nto life, by the Christian Science or any other method, he may\nenjoy his preference. It is no business of mine to come between\nhim and the grave; but no man and no woman has any right,\nwhatever be the motive or the relation, to stand silently by and\npermit a child needlessly to suffer and needlessly to die. The\nlaws of the land should provide, as they do in some States, for\nthe punishment of such cruel offences; and to the extent that my\nopposition and my protest may avail, no man and no woman shall be\npermitted to murder little children by a wilful neglect that is\nbased upon an insane belief in the wicked teachings of a wicked\nwoman, in her cruel, greedy fraud, in her brazen, murderous lies.\n\nIf any one be disposed to feel that my language sounds\nextravagant thus early in the narrative, I beg that judgment may\nbe suspended until I have concluded, when the moderation of my\nspeech will, I think, be cause for wonder.\n\n\n\n\n                           Chapter II\n\n                       The Detached Heart\n\n\nMary Baker Glover Eddy was born in the town of Bow, New\nHampshire, on July 16, 1821, of good New England parentage; but\nnever received anything but the most rudimentary education. The\nstories of her higher education are all fables. She pretends to\nhave studied the classic languages, and to have been familiar\nwith Hebrew. She has never known anything of any of these\nlanguages, and any one who has been compelled, as I have, to\nperuse her unedited personal correspondence knows that she has\nnever been on any, but the most distant of speaking terms, with\nher mother tongue. She was graduated, she says, from Dyer H.\nSanborn\u2019s Academy at Tilton, New Hampshire; but her old\nschoolmates, still living, say there was no such academy,\nalthough Sanborn did teach a few children each year in a room\nover the district school. There was no regular course of study\nand were no graduations. According to these same schoolmates,\nMary Baker completed her education upon reaching long division in\narithmetic, and her culture, in advanced years, may be somewhat\ngauged by her written attribution in her seventieth year, when,\nif ever, one\u2019s education may be assumed to have made some little\nprogress, of the authorship of Irving to the Pickwick Papers of\nCharles Dickens. \u201cThe language is decaying as fast,\u201d she says,\n\u201cas that of Irving\u2019s Pickwick Papers.\u201d\n\nOne may be moved, by this reflection upon our poor speech, to\nsomething like commiseration for the language that has been so\nuseful to us for centuries past. But it is consoling to reflect\nthat the race may have access, throughout coming ages, to Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s exhaustless well of English undefiled as it appears in her\nvarious immortal publications. Her private correspondence, it\nmust be admitted, however, does not exhibit any considerable\ndegree of excellence in the matter of spelling, punctuation,\ngrammar and capitalization; but an inspired person may be excused\nfor a little carelessness in the use of words.\n\nMrs. Eddy accounts for her amazing deficiency of education and\nentire lack of culture by an ingenious fairy tale. \u201cAfter my\ndiscovery of Christian Science,\u201d she says, \u201cmost of the knowledge\nI had gleaned from school books vanished like a dream. Learning\nwas so illumined, that grammar was eclipsed.\u201d If any scraps of\nknowledge were ever possessed by this peculiar creature,\nvanished, dreamlike or otherwise, they surely did; and without\nquite assenting to the illumination of learning hypothesis, I\nfind no ground for dissenting from the view that, at some time or\nother, grammar underwent total eclipse.\n\nThe first fifty years of her life were lived in great poverty and\ncomplete obscurity. Before her alleged discovery of Christian\nScience, Mrs. Eddy at one time eked out a precarious existence in\nand about Boston as a Spiritualist medium, giving public seances\nfor money. Sweet converse with the illustrious dead could be had\nof Mrs. Eddy at any time by any one who had the price. Her\ninterest in the dead seems to have been strictly confined to the\nillustrious departed.\n\nIn December, 1843, when twenty-two years of age, she married\nGeorge W. Glover, a young bricklayer by trade, and with him,\nshortly after the marriage, went to Wilmington, North Carolina,\nwhere wages were somewhat higher than in New Hampshire. There\nGlover, three months after the marriage and six months before the\nbirth of her only child, died of yellow fever. He was buried in\nWilmington, but the spot is, to this day, unknown even to his\nwidow.\n\nMrs. Eddy has for many years been exceeding rich in this world\u2019s\ngoods. In her personal conversation, and in her published works,\nshe has spoken in terms of the highest praise of this her first\nhusband, \u201cwhose tender devotion to his young wife was remarked,\u201d\nshe says, \u201cby all observers.\u201d He was the father of her only\nchild, yet all that is mortal of him has for nearly seventy years\nlain with the unclaimed, forgotten and abandoned dead at\nWilmington, North Carolina.\n\nSome years ago, friends of Mrs. Eddy at Wilmington erected a\nstone to the memory of Mr. Glover over a grave supposed to be\nhis; but a descendant of the person really buried there\nruthlessly tore the stone from the place he believed it to\ndesecrate, and poor Glover\u2019s final resting place remains unknown\nand unnoticed.\n\nAfter reaching the dignity of leader of a great religious\nmovement, Mrs. Eddy elevated the poor bricklayer husband to the\nproud position of Colonel of Volunteers, and she thus glorified\nhim for approximately forty years. Sad to relate, however, he is\n\u201cColonel\u201d no longer. In the recent litigation, instituted by Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s sons, one of the witnesses I was examining produced in\nevidence a letter from Mrs. Eddy in which she said, \u201cI called my\nlate husband\u201d (she should have said late first husband, as a\nsecond, a third and perhaps a fourth had then intervened), \u201cI\ncalled my late husband Colonel, because he was connected with the\nmilitia, and I had got mixed on his rank.\u201d She might just as well\nhave called him General for the same reason.\n\nAs a matter of fact, if Glover ever belonged to the militia, he\nnever arose beyond the dignity of high private and having been a\nman of simple life and honest purpose would, no doubt, if he\ncould know of it, be a little uncomfortable in his narrow bed at\nthe undreamed military distinction thrust upon him by his famous\nwidow; but it would sadden him a little to know that, after\nhaving elevated him to the exalted rank of Colonel, she should in\nlater years have reduced him to the less imposing position of\nMajor, by which military title he now is distinguished in Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s conversation.\n\nAs a second matrimonial venture, Mrs. Eddy in 1853 allied herself\nwith one Daniel Patterson, who in her autobiographical sketches\nhas been completely ignored, although he shared twenty years of\nconnubial life with her. He does not seem to have left behind him\nthe sweet aroma of the more chivalrous Glover, who survived the\nmarriage only three months. Patterson was an itinerant dentist of\nlittle or no practice, and life with him does not appear to have\nbeen a pathway strewn with flowers.\n\nIt profits not to dwell upon the Patterson episode. When he was\nnot pursuing the elusive dollar that perpetually fled away, he\nappears to have been chasing the festive bullfrog whose dismal\ncroak jarred upon his wife\u2019s sensitive nerves. Suffice it to say\nthat Daniel and Mary endured one another, with what serenity and\nfortitude they might, for twenty long, weary years, when, in\n1873, a divorce was granted her for his desertion. Mrs. Eddy says\nthe divorce was granted for a different cause, but the record\ncontradicts her. The record always contradicts her. She has\ndeclared herself to be opposed to divorce for any but the single\nBiblical cause; but the record of the Superior Court at Salem\nshows her to have obtained a divorce from Patterson for desertion\nseven years after the time God, as she says, had revealed to her\nthe final religion.\n\nMrs. Eddy does not believe in marriage\u2014for others. She was\ninspired of God to teach that it is not good\u2014for others\u2014to marry\nand she has inspired into the minds of her faithful followers the\nbelief that marriage is of the earth very earthy indeed, and that\nlife in the realm of spirit is impossible to those in the holy\nestate of matrimony. But so far as she herself was concerned, it\ncannot be denied that she seems to have had a distinct fancy for\nmarriage, and I may go so far as to say something approaching\nfondness for variety in the marriage state.\n\nIn any event, after the termination by operation of law of the\nsecond marriage, that is to say on January 1, 1877, Mrs. Eddy\nmade another and third venture into marriage and conferred upon\none Gilbert Asa Eddy the proud and happy distinction of successor\nto the deceased Glover and the departed Patterson. The record of\nthis marriage (another record, be it noted) discloses the amusing\nfact that Mrs. Eddy\u2019s age was given as forty years, the marriage\nhaving been celebrated fifty-six years from the date of her\nbirth; so that instead of blossoming and blooming in garlands gay\nfor a fair, young, winsome thing of forty summers, the roads were\ndecked with garlands somewhat somber for the third glad nuptials\nof the blushing bride of fifty-six. But what is a little matter\nof sixteen years in the life of a person who is superior to time\nand of whose life here in the flesh there shall be no end?\n\nAfter years of toil and trouble, of conflict and disharmony, of\nstress and strain, in which some of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s early friends\nstrongly sympathized with Mr. Eddy, who complained that neither\nhe nor God Almighty could please his exacting spouse, this\nhusband, too, was gathered to his fathers and Mrs. Eddy was for a\nthird time a widow.\n\nIn her efforts to impose upon the credulity of simple-minded\npeople, Mrs. Eddy has not hesitated to claim the power to triumph\nover death, and to have actually restored the dead to life. To\nher intimates she has claimed to have thus twice restored to life\nthis lamented third husband, Asa G. Eddy.\n\nIf Mrs. Eddy has, or had, this power, the mind of the incredulous\nwill wonder why the poor man is now dead, why his potent helpmate\ndid not restore him to life the third time he died. Presumably,\nMrs. Eddy reasoned with herself that it was really expecting too\nmuch of a woman, even a woman Messiah, that she should recall\nfrom death the third husband three times, and as husbands had\nbecome, to some extent, a matter of habit with her, it is not,\nperhaps, remarkable that she consented finally to part with this\none after such unmistakable evidence of his persistent desire to\nbe separated from her even by death.\n\nMrs. Eddy has in her book, \u201cMiscellaneous Writings,\u201d modestly\ngiven us this husband\u2019s estimate of her in these words: \u201cPerhaps\nthe following words of her husband, the late Dr. Asa G. Eddy,\nafford the most concise, yet complete, summary of the matter,\n\u2018Mrs. Eddy\u2019s works are the outgrowth of her life. I never knew so\nunselfish an individual.\u2019\u201d So, perhaps, she let Eddy go, finally,\nout of pure unselfishness. Sweet as was his companionship, she\ncould not keep him by her side when repeatedly assured of his\nunalterable wish to go hence.\n\nThe first husband, Glover, survived the marriage but a few\nmonths; the second husband, Patterson, unappreciative wretch that\nhe was, ran away, and, as Mrs. Eddy tells us, found consolation\nin the affection of the \u201cwealthy lady\u201d who ran away with him\n(although it must be said that no corroboration whatever of the\n\u201cwealthy lady\u201d feature of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s story exists); and the\nthird husband, Eddy, after having been twice recaptured, finally\nescaped by death\u2019s door.\n\nThere is another singular, grewsome incident connected with the\ndeath of Mr. Eddy, husband number three. He died of heart\ndisease. There was no manner of doubt about that; but Mrs. Eddy\nhad professed to have the power to cure heart disease in the most\nadvanced stage, and she must find an explanation of her husband\u2019s\ndeath consistent with the possession, by her, of such power. So\nshe said that Eddy did not die of heart disease after all. He\ndied of poison, of arsenical poison, that\u2019s what he died of; and\nhe didn\u2019t die of arsenical poison mixed with his food or drink or\notherwise in chemical form smuggled into his organism. He died of\narsenical poison mentally administered, _thought_ into him by her\nenemies.\n\nNow even a woman Messiah could not be on the lookout all the time\nagainst these malicious thoughts directed at her third husband\nand, in a moment of inadvertence, one of them got by and killed\nEddy, and killed him _dead_.\n\nTo confirm her singular notion and prove the presence of the\nsymptoms of arsenical poison in the body, Mrs. Eddy procured the\nperformance of an autopsy upon her late husband\u2019s remains.\n\nDr. Rufus K. Noyes of Boston, who performed the autopsy, tells me\nthat, having removed the diseased organ from Mr. Eddy\u2019s breast,\nhe exhibited it upon a platter to the sorrowing widow, who craved\nthe ocular demonstration, and pointed out to her curious and\neager inspection the precise cause of death in its diseased\ncondition. And it was after, and notwithstanding, her close\nscrutiny of the physical heart that had so robustly throbbed with\nlove of her, that, much to Dr. Noyes\u2019 amusement, Mrs. Eddy gave\nout the statement, to the extent of a column or more in the\nnewspapers, that arsenical poison mentally administered by absent\ntreatment had in fact torn her loved one a third time, and\nfinally, from her clinging grasp.\n\nHow sweet, how _charming_, is the wifely devotion, that, kissing\nthe lips of death, speedily and forever loses track of the sacred\nashes of the beloved _first_ husband, rushes into the divorce\ncourt for freedom from the truant _second_, and, having twice\nrestored the adored _third_ to life, when a third time he thus\neludes her refuses, positively and coldly refuses, to bring him\nback and looks with calm and critical eyes upon the formerly\nattached, but now, alas, detached heart!\n\nTo the soft impeachment of these three several marriages, this\npronounced opponent of marriage pleads a bashful guilty, but many\nare they who believe there was yet a fourth marriage, and that\nthe widow Eddy in course of time became, and is today, the wife\nof one, Calvin A. Frye.\n\nFrye is, ostensibly, at least, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s servant, her man of\nall work. He is her footman, and in the livery of a footman rides\nupon the driver\u2019s seat of her carriage when she goeth forth for\nher daily drives. He is also her private secretary, who handles\nher mail, and, at his pleasure, permits her to peruse, or throws\ninto the waste-paper basket, communications addressed to Mrs.\nEddy. He is her major-domo, master of ceremonies in her\npretentious establishment and director of her large retinue of\nassistant secretaries, literary experts, personal healers, mental\nprotectors and domestic servants. These positions Mr. Frye has\nadorned, as a resident member of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s family, occupying an\nadjoining room, for upwards of thirty years. But not only is Mr.\nFrye Mrs. Eddy\u2019s servant, her footman, her secretary, her\nman-of-all work, he, strangely it would seem, has for years at a\ntime held the legal title to the capacious residence in which she\nhas lived at Concord, New Hampshire, and to all the highly\ncultivated grounds about it, and to all the personal property\nupon the place. And not only has Mr. Frye been Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nservant and secretary, her footman and the owner of her lands and\nhouses, her horses and carriages, the furniture within the\nhouses, and the crops upon the extensive acres, he was for years\nthe legal owner of her costly jewels, of the diamond cross which\nshe wore at her throat. Her footman, owner of the house in which\nshe lived, of the carriage in which he took her to drive and of\nthe jewels she wore! This condition of affairs was not changed\nuntil I called attention to it a few years ago, when Mr. Frye\nreconveyed to, shall I say Mrs. Frye? all the property standing\nin his name.\n\nAll of these circumstances, taken with the confident opinion of\none long a member of her household that, if Mrs. Eddy isn\u2019t the\nwife of Frye, she ought to be, are to my mind strong indication\nthat Mrs. Eddy ought to be called Mrs. Frye and her credulous\nfollowers not Eddyites, but Fryeites or Frytes; and I predict\nthat, if Frye survive Mrs. Eddy and be not amply provided for by\nher will or settled with by her executors, he will go into the\nProbate Court and proclaim himself to be her surviving husband,\nentitled to one-third of her estate.\n\nI do not state this fourth marriage as a fact, but offer it as\nthe only possible and creditable explanation of the facts.\n\nAs has been said, Mrs. Eddy has one son born to her who was\ntotally and unfeelingly abandoned by her in his early infancy,\nwho lives in a western State, and seldom or never visits his\nfamous mother. No member of her family ever believed in her, ever\nplaced the slightest credence in her preposterous pretentions.\nMrs. Eddy also has an adopted son. Some years ago she legally\nadopted a male child, a medical man named Foster, then forty\nyears old, who, to acquire a mother by adoption, took the name of\nE. J. Foster-Eddy, and became a member of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s family;\nbut, after a too brief period of harmonious cohabitation, the\nsweet domestic relation was, for reasons not made public,\ninterrupted, and now he also finds it agreeable to live elsewhere\nthan with his adopted mother and is heard of no more in\nChristian-Science-dom.\n\nFrom a humble position of dependence, Mrs. Eddy has arisen to a\nproud position of great opulence, and from complete obscurity,\ndevoid of influence and power, has placed herself at the head of\nthe most phenomenal \u201creligious\u201d movement of this or any other\ntime, and made herself believed to be the God-anointed successor\nto Jesus Christ, and His equal in attributes and power; and this\nshe has accomplished through a _lie_, a deliberate, wilful,\nwicked lie.\n\n\n\n\n                          Chapter III\n\n                Pretence of Equality with Jesus\n\n\nComing now to what makes it worth our while to consider the\ncareer of this remarkable woman, let me present the facts\nregarding her relation to the life and to the activities of the\nworld of today, and how and by what very devious means she has\nreached and maintains the position she now holds.\n\nWhat does Mrs. Eddy claim to be, and what is she believed to be\nby many thousands of people who have made her their religious\nleader and guide, and reverence her as the devout Christian\nreverences Christ?\n\nMrs. Eddy claims that she is the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy,\nthat she and her book are specifically referred to and prophesied\nin the Book of Revelation.\n\nShe says, \u201cMy attention is especially called to the twelfth\nchapter of the Apocalypse or Revelation of Saint John, on account\nof its suggestiveness in connection with this nineteenth century.\nIn this opening of the sixth seal, there is one distinctive\nfeature which has _special reference_ to the _present age_, and\nthe _establishment of Christian Science in this period_. \u2018And\nthere appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the\nsun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of\ntwelve stars.\u2019\u201d\n\nWith eyes downcast, with \u201cbated breath and whispering\nhumbleness,\u201d bashfully pointing to herself, in low tones that\ninspire awe, she says, \u201cThe woman clothed with the sun, Mary\nBaker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\nAgain, she says: \u201cSaint John writes in the tenth chapter of the\nBook of Revelation: \u2018And I saw another mighty angel come down\nfrom Heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his\nhead, and his face was, as it were, the sun, and his feet as\npillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book, open, and\nhe set his right foot upon the earth.\u2019 Is this angel, or message\nfrom God, Divine Science that comes in a cloud? This angel had in\nhis hand a little book open for all to read and understand. Then\nwill a voice from harmony cry, Go and take the little book. Take\nup Divine Science. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed sweet\nat its first taste when it heals you, but murmur not over Truth\nif you find its digestion bitter.\u201d\n\nThe \u201clittle book,\u201d \u201cScience and Health,\u201d of God\u2019s authorship, but\ncopyrighted by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, and to be had of her\npublisher in Boston by any one who has three dollars or more,\naccording to binding, to pay for it!\n\nIntentionally vague as are these oracular utterances, we cannot\nbut catch her evident meaning: In me behold the woman clothed\nwith the sun; in my book, the \u201clittle book\u201d sent down from\nHeaven, and in Christian Science the message from God contained\nin the little book held in the hand of the angel!\n\nChristian Scientists get this down without so much as a murmur!\nThis is one of the easy things she has given them to swallow.\n\nBesides this, Mrs. Eddy has distinctly authorized the claim in\nher behalf that she herself is the chosen successor to and equal\nof Jesus, that her mission is to complete the religion of Christ.\n\nIn the earlier days she placed her mission above that of Jesus,\ninasmuch as the idea of God given by her was, she said, \u201chigher,\nclearer and more permanent than before.\u201d But, later, she seems to\nhave been satisfied with equality only, and says, \u201cThe second\nappearing of Jesus is unquestionably the second advent of the\nadvancing idea of God as in Christian Science.\u201d\n\nShe, however, patronizingly points out the short-comings of\nJesus. \u201cOur Master healed the sick, practiced Christian healing,\nand taught the generalities of this divine principle to his\nstudents, but he left no definite word for demonstrating his\nprinciple of healing and preventing disease. This remained to be\ndiscovered through Christian Science,\u201d and \u201cHad wisdom\ncharacterized all his sayings, he would not have prophesied his\nown death and thereby hastened or caused it.\u201d While in speaking\nof herself she said, \u201cThe works I have written on Christian\nScience contain absolute truth and my necessity was to tell it. I\nwas a scribe under orders, and who can refrain from transcribing\nwhat God indites?\u201d So wisdom did not characterize all of the\nsayings of Jesus; but Mrs. Eddy speaks absolute truth!\n\nIn the _Christian Science Journal_ for April, 1889, when it was\nher property and published by her, and upwards of twenty years\nafter the time she says God had selected her to complete the\nreligion of Jesus, it was claimed for her, and with her sanction,\nthat she was equal with Jesus, and elaborate effort was made to\nestablish the claim. \u201cNow a word about the horror many good\npeople have of our making the author of \u2018Science and Health\u2019\nequal with Jesus!\u201d says the writer, and in the first paragraph of\nthe article, the question is asked, \u201cDo we, then, say that the\nauthor of \u2018Science and Health\u2019 is equal with Jesus?\u201d A little\nfurther on appears the statement, \u201cJesus demonstrated over all\nthe beliefs of this false sense of life, even over the belief of\ndeath, the last enemy to be overcome.\u201d And further, \u201cMrs. M. B.\nG. Eddy has worked out for us, as on a blackboard, every point in\nthe demonstrations, or so-called miracles of Jesus, showing us\nhow to meet and overcome the one, and perform the other\u201d and,\nthroughout the article, its whole clearly apparent purpose is to\ncarry the conviction that in attributes and power Mrs. Eddy is\nthe entire equal of Jesus.\n\nIn an illustrated \u201cpoem\u201d entitled \u201cChrist and Christmas,\u201d written\nby Mrs. Eddy, and published and copyrighted by her in 1894, there\nis a picture labeled \u201cChristian Unity,\u201d in which Jesus is\nrepresented as seated upon a stone holding the right hand of Mary\n\u2014Mary Baker G. Eddy. In the left hand of the woman is a scroll\nbearing the legend \u201cChristian Science,\u201d and about the head of\neach figure, that of Jesus and that of the Christian Science\nwoman, there is a halo. The picture is illustrative of these\nlines on the opposite page:\n\n  \u201cAs in blessed Palestine\u2019s hour, so in our age\n  \u2019Tis the same hand unfolds His Power and writes the page.\u201d\n\nAt the time this book was announced by Mrs. Eddy, in December,\n1893, she publicly said of it, \u201c\u2018Christ and Christmas\u2019 voices God\nthrough song and object lesson.\u201d The price of the book was three\ndollars. How convenient to be able to command a market by voicing\nGod! How kind God has been to Mrs. Eddy\u2019s business ventures!\n\nAt the time of this publication, Mrs. Eddy, who claimed to have\nshared in making the illustrations (which her man Hanna called\n\u201cexquisite bits of art,\u201d but which are, doubtless, the vulgarest\nproducts of the art of book-making of many years), at this time,\nI say, Mrs. Eddy unquestionably wished this \u201cChristian Unity\u201d\nillustration to signify the unity of Christianity and Christian\nScience, as represented by the founder of Christianity and the\nfounder of Christian Science, and about her own head, as about\nthe head of Christ, she hangs a halo! The two Messiahs, masculine\nand feminine, and representing \u201cOur Father and our Mother God,\u201d\nhand in hand, absolute equality. Christian Unity!\n\nHer private correspondence has been full of pretensions to direct\nmeditation with God, and her followers have been induced\nunquestioningly to comply with her wishes regarding the most\ntrivial things because she but voiced a wish communicated to them\nthrough her by God.\n\n\u201cGod, our God has just told me,\u201d she says, \u201cwho to recommend to\nyou for editor of the _Christian Science Journal_,\u201d And, \u201cNo man\nor woman has told me of this obnoxious feature, but my Father\nhas, and it shall be stopped by His servant who has given His\nword to the world.\u201d And, \u201cGod\u2019s law \u2018to feed my sheep,\u2019 to give\nScience and Health at once to those hungering for it, must be\nobeyed.\u201d (To those hungering three dollars worth!) And, \u201cI ought\nnot to have consulted with man on the copyright of God\u2019s Book.\u201d\nAnd, \u201cCome to see me next Saturday, a.m., on nine o\u2019clock train,\nand God will settle this matter.\u201d And, \u201cNow what can I do, only\nto spread His word of warning and wait for all students to grow\nup to understand _His_ ways, and _mine_ when God directed.\u201d And,\n\u201cGod will not let me be silent relative to your business here\nyesterday, but demands me to answer, reminding you of your\nfeelings toward me.\u201d And, \u201cPush the Book to as fast as possible\ncompletion. It is _God\u2019s Book_, and he says give it at once to\nthe people.\u201d (At three dollars per copy!) And, \u201cYou know they\ncannot be made sick for printing and binding _God\u2019s Book_.\u201d\n\nBut Jove nods; Mrs. Eddy stumbles. Sometimes it is the Christian\nScience devil that, impersonating God, whispers to her. \u201cI\nregret,\u201d she says, \u201chaving named the one I did to you for editor.\nIt was a mistake, he is not fit. It was not God evidently that\nsuggested that thought, but the person who suggests many things\nmentally; but I have before been able to discriminate.\u201d This\nincident suggests the importance of one, who is the channel of\nwireless telegraphy from God, being able to discriminate between\nmessages from Heaven and messages from Hell, and having the power\nto prevent satanic interference with the medium of communication.\n\nIn a late edition of \u201cScience and Health\u201d Mrs. Eddy speaks of\nJesus as \u201cthe masculine representative of the spiritual idea,\u201d\nand says, \u201cthe impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief\nhistory in the earthly life of our Master, but of His Kingdom\nthere shall be no end, for Christ\u2019s, God\u2019s idea, will eventually\nrule all nations and people, imperatively, absolutely, finally,\u2014\nwith Divine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first by\nman and last by woman, will baptize with fire,\u201d etc.\n\nBy \u201cDivine Science,\u201d Mrs. Eddy, of course, means Christian\nScience, as the terms are used interchangably with her, and with\ncharacteristic modesty she places herself by the side of the\nMaster\u2014He being the first and masculine, and she the last and\nfeminine, representative of the \u201cimmaculate idea.\u201d\n\nWhat marvelous presumption! What ineffable audacity!\n\nThe Mary Baker G. Eddy, who in speaking of a woman she disliked\nsavagely exclaimed, \u201cI\u2019d like to tear her heart out and trample\nit under my feet!\u201d who, at Lynn, because of her abuse of her\nhusband and violent outbursts of temper, was known as the \u201cshe\ndevil\u201d; who, four years after the time of her pretended selection\nby God for a divine mission, being denied hospitality she had\nabused in the Wentworth household at Stoughton, left in a fury of\npassion after having, with obvious intent, put live coals from\nher stove upon a heap of newspapers in the closet; who figured\nfirst as a spiritualist medium, giving public s\u00e9ances for money,\nand later as the president of a bogus medical college issuing\nillegal degrees; who unfeelingly abandoned the only child born to\nher, and looked with unflinching eyes upon the detached heart of\nher deceased husband; who has become the champion fraud and\nimpostor of the age; who in the livery of heaven has for forty\nyears wrought in the direct interest of hell,\u2014this Mrs. Eddy, the\nself-constituted representative with Jesus of the immaculate\nidea! this woman and the immaculate Jesus mentioned in the same\nbreath!\n\n\n\n\n                           Chapter IV\n\n                      The Faked Revelation\n\n\nBack in 1877 Mrs. Eddy placed her mission, as I have said, above\nthat of Jesus. In a personal letter to a friend, she said, \u201cI\nknow the crucifixion of one who presents Truth in its higher\naspect will be _this_ time through a _bigger error_, through\nmortal mind instead of its lower strata or matter, showing that\nthe _idea given of God this time is higher, clearer, and more\npermanent than before_.\u201d But of late years she has contented\nherself with claiming only equality, in all respects, with Jesus,\nand has not hesitated boldly and in so many words to declare her\nteachings to have been expressly \u201cauthorized by Christ.\u201d\n\nWe must go into this matter with some particularity, and I crave\nindulgence while I present certain essential details. I want to\nleave no doubt in any orderly mind as to just what Mrs. Eddy\nclaims to be, and shall then show, with an abundance of evidence\nthat will not permit of the slightest doubt, just exactly the\nmanner of woman she has been and is. When the most corrupt tree\nin the orchard brings forth the sweetest and most beautiful fruit\nof all, it will be believed that Mary Baker G. Eddy _can_ be the\nchannel through which God has revealed Himself to mankind, and it\nwill _not_ be believed _until then_.\n\nI am of those who believe that there can be no religion but a\nreligion based upon revelation. Either God reveals himself to us,\nor He remains unknown and unknowable. \u201cNo man by searching can\nfind out God.\u201d Reason alone cannot attain unto Him. God hides\nHimself from the wise, and the mightiest intellect approaches no\nnearer to Him than the simple mind of a child.\n\nThis great truth has been and is the common belief of mankind,\nand every unprincipled person, who has appealed to human\ncredulity along religious lines, knowing mankind to so believe,\nhas faked a revelation from God. Mrs. Eddy has put herself in a\nclass by herself by the boldness, the irreverence, the\nrecklessness, the blasphemy of her pretended intimacy with God.\n\nIn express terms, the founder of Christian Science claims to have\nreceived from the Almighty a revelation which she has\nincorporated in her book entitled \u201cScience and Health, with Key\nto the Scriptures.\u201d Speaking of this book, in January, 1901, she\nsaid: \u201cI should blush to write of \u2018Science and Health, with Key\nto the Scriptures\u2019 as I have, were it of human origin and I,\napart from God, its author, but as I was only a scribe echoing\nthe harmonies of Heaven in divine metaphysics, I cannot be\nsuper-modest of the Christian Science Text-book.\u201d\n\nNothing could be plainer or more unequivocal than that. There is\na distinct avowal that the book entitled \u201cScience and Health\u201d was\nthe work of Almighty God, and, preposterous as the claim may seem\nto any rational being who has ever undertaken to read the book,\nslanderous as it is upon Omniscience, some thousands of people in\nthe United States today believe it precisely as made. They\nbelieve that God literally dictated the contents of this book to\nMrs. Eddy, and that it is in _every_ part as much the word of God\nas the most devout Christian believes the Bible to be in _any_\npart the word of God.\n\nThis is the sacrilegious lie upon which Mary Baker G. Eddy has\nreared her whole fraudulent superstructure, which she had\ndenominated Christian Science, and which has become the religious\nbelief of thousands. It is because of this lie that Christian\nScience flourishes like a green bay tree; that the old faith does\nnot hold its believers; that real scientific knowledge in\nmedicine is losing the confidence it ought to enjoy. It is\nbecause of this lie that Christian Science wives separate\nthemselves from their husbands; that Christian Science mothers\nabandon their children; that young women believers put marriage\nbehind them as lustful and unclean and inconsistent with true\nspirituality of life and character. It is because of this lie,\nthis cruel and wicked lie, that children are permitted needlessly\nto suffer and needlessly to die without any intelligent\nperception that they are suffering, and after a resolute\nwithholding by their deluded parents of trained medical skill\nthat would alleviate suffering and save life. And this odious\nlie, I purpose, while strength abides with me, to hold up to the\nenduring detestation of mankind.\n\nI am going to show, with absolute conclusiveness, that Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s claim to revelation is wholly false. And when I have shown\nthat, I shall have shown that the \u201creligious\u201d phase of Christian\nScience is a fraud and a sham; I shall have shown that it is a\nveritable parody upon religion, a caricature upon Christianity; I\nshall have shown that every beautiful temple erected for the\nworship of the Christian Science God is a monument to Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nsuccess in imposing upon mankind, and that all of the thousands\nupon thousands of pure and simple-minded people, who acclaim her\nGod\u2019s messenger, are the victims of a mercenary old schemer who\nhas amazed herself at the gullibility of her worshipers.\n\nI am not dealing in exaggeration. I am not speaking without\nknowledge when I say that no sane person can follow me through\nthis narrative and not agree with me that Christian Science as a\nreligion is a sham, as a healing system is a fraud; that it kills\nthe sweetest and tenderest emotions in the human heart by rooting\nout sympathy and charity and compassion; that there is no other\nhatred and vindictiveness equal to the hatred and vindictiveness\nof its founder and her leading votaries; that there is no other\ncruelty, no other greed that can be compared with theirs, and\nthat the \u201cinspired\u201d teaching of Mary Baker G. Eddy regarding the\nmost sacred institution established amongst men, I refer to the\ninstitution of marriage, is so low and so vile that decent\npeople, when they come to understand it, _must_ repudiate the\nwoman and the thing from overwhelming shame.\n\nInsanity is not responsible for indecency, but those Christian\nScientists who have not parted with their sanity, and are not\nChristian Scientists for revenue only, will turn with horror from\nthe woman and her work when they know what they are.\n\nI say that Mrs. Eddy\u2019s claim to having received an inspiration\nfrom God is fraudulent. Now, what are the facts?\n\nThat God had nothing to do with Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book is abundantly\nproven by the book itself, to any person of sufficient\nunderstanding to be at large outside of Bedlam. Who but a person\nof weak or disordered mind could believe that God is the author\nof this, \u201cThe condition of the stomach, bowels, food, clothing,\netc., is of no serious import to your child\u201d?\n\nCan any not absolutely insane parent believe that God\ncommunicated that \u201cabsolute truth\u201d to Mrs. Eddy?\n\nAgain: \u201cThe less we know of or think about Hygiene, the less we\nare predisposed to sickness.\u201d\n\nThat is to say, the more we know about how to keep well and how\nto avoid conditions breeding disease, the more likely we are to\nbe sick.\n\nAgain: \u201cTreatises on anatomy, physiology and health sustained by\nwhat is termed material law, are the promoters of sickness and\ndisease. It is proverbial that as long as you read medical works\nyou will be sick.\u201d\n\nWe have all observed the truth of this inspired utterance in the\nfact that the physicians, as a body, are almost constantly in bed\nof one disease or another. The wonder is that any of them ever\nsurvive the courses of preparatory study.\n\nAgain: \u201cNot because of muscular exercise, but because of the\nblacksmith\u2019s faith in muscle, his arm becomes stronger.\u201d\n\nAll one has to do to develop his biceps is to have faith that his\nbiceps will develop, if Mrs. Eddy really speak by inspiration of\nGod.\n\nAgain: \u201cYou say or think because you have partaken of salt fish\nthat you are thirsty, and you are thirsty accordingly; while the\nopposite belief would produce the opposite result.\u201d\n\nThat is to say, you may partake of all the salt fish you please;\nbut if you persistently say and believe it cannot cause thirst,\nthirst is the last sensation that will afflict you.\n\nAgain: \u201cQuestion. Do not brains think and nerves feel, and is\nthere no intelligence in matter? Answer. Not if God be true and\nmortal man a liar.\u201d\n\nIn other words, if God _be_ true, brains do not think and nerves\ndo not feel. That brains do not think, Mrs. Eddy, when she\ncontemplates her foolish following, may have some reason to\nbelieve; but she will have some difficulty in satisfying the rest\nof us that brains do not possess the function of thought. I\nthink, therefore I am not a Christian Scientist.\n\nAgain: \u201cThe blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing to do\nwith life.\u201d\n\nWhen this impressive passage was first presented to my darkened\nmind, I was inclined to believe it to contain no element of\ntruth; but I am persuaded that there is a grain of truth in it. I\nhave sat in a Christian Science church repeatedly and have seen\nsome thousands of people with open mouths and ecstatic\nexpressions listening to material from the platform wholly\nunintelligible to those who read it and wholly unintelligible to\nevery person in the building who heard it; and I have come\nslowly, very slowly and regretfully, to the conviction that it is\ntrue, that amongst large masses of people there are times when\nthe brain has absolutely nothing to do with life. As to the\nblood, heart and lungs, I am still of my early prejudice that\nthey have _something_ to do with life, notwithstanding Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s affirmation that God has informed her to the contrary.\n\nAgain: \u201cGender also is a quality, a characteristic of mind and\nnot of matter.\u201d\n\nIt is all in your mind. You are a man or a woman according as you\nthink you are a man or a woman, and not otherwise. If a man\nthinks he is a woman, and if a woman thinks she is a man, that\nsettles it; they are.\n\nAgain: \u201cThe less mind there is manifested in matter, the better.\nWhen the unthinking lobster loses his claw, it grows again. If\nthe science of life were understood, it would be found that the\nsenses of mind are never lost and that matter has no sensation.\nThen the human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster\u2019s\nclaw.\u201d\n\nThis makes it plain that, from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s standpoint, the less\nmind, the better; the less mind, the more Christian Scientists;\nthe more Christian Scientists, the more revenue; the more\nrevenue, the greater glory for impostors and charlatans. And, oh,\nwonder of wonders! God here informs us, if Mrs. Eddy speak the\ntruth, that the loss of a human leg will be but a temporary\ninconvenience when man has advanced to the high stage attained by\nthe wholly mindless lobster!\n\nAgain: \u201cMan is the same after, as before, a bone is broken or a\nhead chopped off.\u201d\n\nAnd so, the head follows the lungs, and the blood, and the heart,\nand the brains, and the stomach, and the bowels, as useless\nmembers of the human body, if Mrs. Eddy speak the words of truth\nand inspiration.\n\nAgain: \u201cThat life is sustained by food, drink, air, etc., that it\nis organic or in the least dependent upon matter or sustained by\nit, is a myth.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy teaches that there is no reality in matter. When she\nsits down at her table three times a day and puts into her\nimmaterial and nonexistent stomach unrealities in the shape of\nbread and butter and beef steak and tea and coffee, and so on,\nlife is sustained by the _belief_ that the food sustains life,\nand not by the food itself. It would be interesting to have Mrs.\nEddy demonstrate in her own daily life that the partaking of what\nwe grosser persons regard as food indispensable to the survival\nof the physical organism could be wholly dispensed with and life,\nnotwithstanding, continue.\n\nAnd, finally, and I commend this precious gem of truth to those\nof my readers who are parents, be they fathers or mothers, and\nwho agree with me that the loveliest of all lovely things in the\nworld is the wholesome baby enjoying his morning bath: \u201cThe daily\nablutions of an infant are no more natural or necessary than\nwould be the process of taking a fish out of the water every day\nand covering it with dirt, in order to make it thrive more\nvigorously thereafter in its native element.\u201d\n\nTo bathe a baby is the same thing as to grab a fish out of the\nwater and rub it all over with mud! If it were of mere \u201chuman\norigin,\u201d Mrs. Eddy would \u201cblush\u201d to deliver herself of that\nbeautiful and \u201cabsolute\u201d truth.\n\nThis twaddle inspired of God! And these selections, taken at\nrandom from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book of which, she says, not she but God\nwas author, are of a piece with the thing as a whole.\n\nI am told, as I have said, that there are intelligent persons in\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s following, and yet such things as those I have quoted\nslap intelligence in the face from every page of her book; and\nher friends, nevertheless, persist in affirming, \u201cLo, the Lord\u2019s\nanointed, God\u2019s voice to this age!\u201d\n\n\u201cI cannot see,\u201d says Mark Twain, \u201chow any one contemplating Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s career can deny to the Divine Being the possession of a\nsense of humor.\u201d God is so amused by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s accomplishments\nthat He is provoked to laughter, and Christian Science thus\nescapes the consuming fire of Divine wrath.\n\n\n\n\n                           Chapter V\n\n                The Fiction of God\u2019s Authorship\n\n\nGod, we are told, is without variableness or shadow of turning,\nand yet, if He were the author of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book, He would be\nas changeable as a weathercock, for the book, throughout its\nnumerous editions, has in the past thirty-five years undergone\ncontinuous change and revision at the hands of the literary\nexpert, and the final product is so unlike the original as to be\nalmost unrecognizable. Chapters have been dropped, chapters have\nbeen added and chapters have been shifted about from one place to\nanother, and the book has been as coherent at the end as at the\nbeginning of the process. Early editions, with compromising\ncontents, have been suppressed at great expense, and the book, as\nnow published, is Mrs. Eddy\u2019s work only in part. She says herself\nthat read backward it has, in part, as much meaning as read\nforward; and those of you, who have attempted to read it forward,\nhave discovered that, so read, it has precisely as little meaning\nas if read backward.\n\nJames Henry Wiggin, an ex-Unitarian minister, recently deceased,\nwas for years Mrs. Eddy\u2019s literary expert, putting all her\nproductions, including her book, into good English, and into as\ncoherent a form as she would permit. He wrote a sermon for Mrs.\nEddy to preach, which she preached as her own, and subsequently\nincorporated, with some easily perceptible additions that\nconspicuously marred Mr. Wiggin\u2019s work, in her God-inspired book,\nas a chapter entitled \u201cWayside Hints.\u201d This chapter is left out\nof the latest editions, but it was given to the world with the\nrest in the \u201cthirty-sixth\u201d edition, as of God\u2019s authorship.\n\nMr. Wiggin\u2019s story of the manner in which a sermon of his became\na part of her inspired volume is not a little amusing.\n\nWhile acting as Mrs. Eddy\u2019s literary friend and guide and helper,\nan edition of \u201cScience and Health\u201d was prepared for publication,\ncompletely written and completely set up in type and\nelectrotyped; but as it contained a chapter that Mr. Wiggin\nregarded as in the nature of a libel upon several living persons,\nwho were referred to and attacked by name, he endeavored to\nprevent the publication until that chapter had been eliminated.\nAs the whole book had been electrotyped, the fifteen pages\ncomposing this chapter could not be taken out, unless fifteen\nothers were inserted in their place, without involving new plates\nof all the succeeding pages, and a large consequent expense. So\nthe publication was withheld, until in some manner fifteen pages\ncould be furnished in substitution for the objectionable chapter.\n\nJust at this time it happened that Mr. Wiggin prepared a sermon\nfor Mrs. Eddy to preach. He attended the service at which the\nsermon was delivered by Mrs. Eddy as her own composition,\nalthough she read it from a manuscript furnished by him. As Mrs.\nEddy attempted to read without spectacles, which she never used\nin public and always used in her private intercourse with Mr.\nWiggin, her rendering of the sermon was, in Mr. Wiggin\u2019s opinion,\nhalting and ineffective, and it irritated him not a little that a\nproduction of his should be subjected to such handling in public.\nBut after the service was over, Mr. Wiggin, walking down the\naisle to speak with Mrs. Eddy, on every hand heard exclamations\nof approval in more or less superlative terms. \u201cWasn\u2019t it grand!\nWasn\u2019t she inspired today! How beautiful her sermons are!\u201d and so\non, until Mr. Wiggin\u2019s irritation was quite allayed, and he\nconcluded Mrs. Eddy had not done badly after all. Reaching the\nplatform, Mrs. Eddy leaned over and whispered, \u201cHow did it go\noff?\u201d \u201cSplendidly,\u201d said Mr. Wiggin, \u201cI have an idea.\u201d \u201cWhat is\nit?\u201d inquired Mrs. Eddy. \u201cThis sermon is just what we need for\nthose fifteen pages. All of these people have heard you preach it\ntoday, it will be assumed that you wrote it, and it will just\nabout fill the space we want to fill in the book, and the\npublication need be no longer delayed.\u201d \u201cFine idea!\u201d said the\npreacher of Mr. Wiggin\u2019s sermon. \u201cWill you make it fit in those\nfifteen pages, so it can just take their place?\u201d He said he\nwould. He did, and it appeared as a chapter entitled \u201cWayside\nHints,\u201d in the thirty-sixth and some later editions.\n\nMany a time have I heard Mr. Wiggin say, with a chuckle of\namusement, that it was a source of much mirth to him to hear from\ntime to time Mrs. Eddy\u2019s devotees exclaim, with pious\nearnestness, that the chapter he had written, at so much per\nword, was the very most divinely-inspired portion of the divine\nvolume.\n\nMrs. Eddy does not hesitate to declare herself the authorized\ninterpreter of the Bible, authorized expressly by Christ himself.\nThe rules of the Christian Science organization and the \u201cMother\nChurch\u201d were all formulated by Mrs. Eddy as under divine\nguidance, and she reaches so far into the proceedings of the\nso-called branch churches all over the land as to dictate every\ndetail of the religious services, and has required that every\nso-called sermon in a Christian Science church shall be preceded\nby the following declaration: \u201cThe canonical writings, together\nwith the word of our text-book [her book \u201cScience and Health\u201d],\ncorroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual\nimport and application to all ages, past, present and future,\nconstitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and\nunfettered by human hypotheses, and _authorized by Christ_.\u201d\n\nThat is either true or false. If it is true, all mankind should\nknow it. If it is false, it is as wicked a falsehood as was ever\ntold.\n\nHaving lectured to immense crowds upon Christian Science from one\nend of this country to the other, I have repeatedly had occasion\nto demand of official Christian Scientists in the audience,\nespecially first readers, so called, in Mrs. Eddy\u2019s churches, who\nas such had read the declaration I have just quoted, standing\nface to face with them, that they arise and give some scintilla\nof warrant or authority for the making of the declaration that\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s book was \u201cauthorized by Christ\u201d as an interpretation\nof the Bible; but I have never had the slightest response, for\nthe reason, of course, that no evidence can in any form be\nproduced of the truth of this declaration falsely formulated and\nby her sacrilegiously required to be publicly read at every\nSunday service in every Christian Science Church. All of these\nofficial Christian Scientists know that this declaration is\nwithout warrant, all of them know it is utterly false; and Mrs.\nEddy herself makes it, deliberately knowing it to be untrue,\nknowing that she has and can produce no scrap of any kind of\nwarrant for it, and she makes it and compels its repetition in\nher churches only to carry out her fraud and imposition that\nthere is a sacred character to, and a Christian warrant for, her\nutterly bogus \u201creligion.\u201d\n\nThis, I think, is one of the most audacious things this utterly\nunprincipled woman in her whole career has dared to do; and I\ncannot conceive of any real Christian entertaining toward her,\nbecause of it, feelings other than those of pronounced resentment\nand indignation.\n\nNothing but an insane mind, a degenerate mind or a mind possessed\nof an overmastering passion to perpetrate a monstrous fraud upon\nthe human race could, with the aid of the literary expert, have\nwritten \u201cScience and Health,\u201d and then have declared God to be\nits author; and no one but an utterly irreligious, irreverent,\nwicked person could invent the fiction of Christ\u2019s authorization\nand compel its promulgation at \u201creligious\u201d services. But Mrs.\nEddy has done precisely these things and her followers believe\nher irreverent and audacious claims.\n\nTruly, \u201cThe absurdity the human race can\u2019t swallow, hasn\u2019t been\ninvented _yet!_\u201d\n\nAfter Eddyism it may be assumed, I think, that man\u2019s greatest\ningenuity is unequal to the invention of an absurdity so immense\nas to exceed human gulpability. The more monstrous it is, the\nmore eagerly it is clutched; and the more unintelligible it is,\nthe greater is the certainty that it must have emanated from the\nAll-wise.\n\nBut let me do Mrs. Eddy full justice. I think I have read\neverything she has written, and one sentence does indeed stand\nout vividly by itself, a solitary and perfect star of purest ray\nserene. Apropos of her basic contention (upon which the whole\nChristian Science superstructure rests, and without which it\nwould fall to the ground) that there is no sensation in matter,\nshe deprecates the spanking of children, because, she wisely\nsays, \u201cthe use of the rod is virtually a declaration to the\nchild\u2019s mind, that sensation belongs to matter.\u201d\n\nImpossible as I have found it to reach the understanding of\nChristian Scientists by arguments addressed to their\nintelligence, I strongly incline to the idea that the spanking\nprocess would be likely to induce more or less vague impressions\nthat sensation does actually reside in the material of which\nthese living bodies are composed; and I respectfully submit that\nit would seem to follow that the most effective way of reaching\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s childish followers and curing them of their strange\ndistemper would be the considerate, not too vigorous,\napplication, all around, after the manner of the old woman who\nlived in a shoe, of the corrective maternal slipper.\n\n\n\n\n                           Chapter VI\n\n                       A Sham \u201cReligion\u201d\n\n\nMrs. Eddy describes herself, and has made her followers believe\nher to be, the \u201cdiscoverer and founder of Christian Science.\u201d\n\nIt is very easy to disprove her claim to discovery, and to show\nher foundation stones to have been theft and falsehood and fraud.\nAs a pretended \u201creligion\u201d it is all hers, and no one else lays\nclaim to it; as a mental healing system, it is none of it hers\nand her pretensions to originality are wholly fictitious.\n\nLet it be remembered, always, that on the first page of her book,\n\u201cScience and Health,\u201d as published in 1898, and in many other\neditions, Mrs. Eddy makes her claim to originality and revelation\nin the following unequivocal terms:\n\n\u201cIn the year 1866 I discovered the science of metaphysical\nhealing and named it Christian Science. God had been graciously\nfitting me during many years for a final _revelation_ of the\nabsolute principle of scientific mind healing.\u201d\n\nIf, prior to 1866, God had been \u201cgraciously fitting\u201d her during\nmany years for the \u201cfinal revelation,\u201d it appears that, years\nafterwards, God\u2019s work was not quite completed and her character\nentirely sublimated. Some of her friends in Lynn, in 1881,\nfifteen years after the date of her alleged revelation, became of\nthe opinion that she was not, even then, absolutely perfect and\nwithdrew from her church there, giving, in writing, as their\nreason, \u201cher departure from the straight and narrow road which\nalone leads to growth of Christ-like virtue, made manifest by\nfrequent ebullitions of temper, love of money and the appearance\nof hypocrisy.\u201d How accurate was this early estimate of the woman\nas shown by every known act of her life!\n\nThe writer of the series of articles in _McClure\u2019s Magazine_ on\nChristian Science told me she had heard the criticism that it\ncontained only the bad things about Mrs. Eddy, and she had been\nasked why she had not incorporated such good things as might be\nsaid of her. She assured me she had searched the whole of Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s life for a kindly, a generous, an unselfish, a fine\nwomanly deed, and would have been only too glad to have recorded\nit, but had not found one\u2014not one such act in the long life of\nmore than fourscore years.\n\nMrs. Eddy claims discovery, and commits herself not only as to\nthe _time_ of her \u201cdiscovery,\u201d but as to the _manner_ of it, and\neach claim, that of _discovery_, that of the _time_ and that of\nthe _manner_, is wholly and demonstrably false.\n\nIn October, 1862, Mrs. Mary M. Patterson (now Mary Baker G. Eddy)\nplaced herself in the hands of Dr. Phineas P. Quimby of Portland,\nMaine, for treatment, with the result described by herself over\nher own signature in the _Portland Evening Courier_, of November\n7, 1862, as follows:\n\n  \u201cThree weeks ago I quitted my nurse and sickroom _en route_ for\n  Portland. The belief of my recovery had died out of the hearts\n  of those who were most anxious for it. With this mental and\n  physical depression, I visited P. P. Quimby, and in less than\n  one week from that time I ascended by a stairway of one hundred\n  and eighty-two steps to the dome of the City Hall, and am\n  improving _ad infinitum_. This truth which he opposes to the\n  error of giving intelligence to matter and placing pain where\n  it never placed itself, if received understandingly, changes\n  the currents of the system to their normal action and the\n  mechanism of the body goes on undisturbed. That this is a\n  science capable of demonstration, becomes clear to the minds of\n  those patients who reason upon the process of their cure. The\n  truth which he establishes in the patient, cures him (although\n  he may be wholly unconscious thereof), and the body, which is\n  full of light, is no longer in disease.\u201d\n\nThis was Mrs. Patterson-Eddy\u2019s professed understanding of Dr.\nQuimby\u2019s \u201cscience,\u201d in 1862, after having been three weeks under\nhis treatment, and any one familiar with Christian Science will\nnot need to be told that it is the same thing. This \u201ctruth,\u201d\nwhich Mrs. Patterson-Eddy in 1862 said Quimby opposed to the\n\u201cerror\u201d of placing intelligence in matter and which, when\nestablished in the patient, cured him, is the very same \u201ctruth\u201d\nwhich in her book, with tireless iteration, Mrs. Eddy opposes to\nthe very same alleged \u201cerror,\u201d which thereupon effects the same\nalleged \u201ccure.\u201d Every \u201cScientist\u201d will at once recognize the A B\nC of \u201cdivine science.\u201d\n\nDr. Quimby, who is spoken of by a lady, who knew him well at the\ntime Mrs. Patterson-Eddy was taking his treatment and stealing\nhis system, as a man of \u201cabsolute sincerity and purity of thought\nand life,\u201d died in January, 1866, and Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs.\nPatterson, not having conceived the plan of appropriating to\nherself the ideas and theories she had learned from him, almost\nimmediately after his death wrote and published some verses about\nhim, in which she compared Quimby with Jesus. She now speaks of\nhim as a vulgar mesmerist or magnetic healer whose scribblings\nshe put into grammatical form; she then, in 1866, glorified him\nas the Christian glorifies only the Saviour.\n\nThese verses, as here presented, are copied from a copy in Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s own handwriting, now in the possession of Mrs. Sarah\nCrosby of Waterville, Maine, to whom, in 1866, upon the death of\nDr. Quimby, she sent them:\n\n\u201cLines on the Death of Dr. P. P. Quimby, who _Healed the Sick as\ndid Jesus_, in contradistinction to all Isms.\n\n  \u201cDid Sack-cloth clothe the sun, and day grow night,\n    All matter mourn the hour with dewy eyes,\n  When Truth receding from our mortal sight,\n    Had paid to error her last sacrifice?\n\n  \u201cCan we forget the power that gave us life?\n    Shall we forget the wisdom of our way?\n  Then ask me not amid this mortal strife\u2014\n    This keenest pang of animated clay,\n\n  \u201cTo mourn him less! To mourn him more were just,\n    If to his memory \u2019twere a tribute given\n  For every earnest, solemn, sacred trust,\n    Delivered to us ere he rose to Heaven.\n\n  \u201cHeaven but the happiness of his calm soul,\n    Growing in stature to the throne of God;\n  Rest should reward him who hath made us whole,\n    Seeking, \u2019tho tremblers, where his footsteps trod.\u201d\n\n                                                M. M. Patterson.\n\nComment cannot add to the force of these verses. Inferior as\npoetry, they constitute proof and argument not all the falsehoods\nand sophistries in the imagination of Mrs. Eddy and her corps of\nofficial defenders can meet and overcome.\n\nIn 1866, Mrs. Eddy reverently declared that Dr. Quimby had\n\u201chealed the sick as Jesus did;\u201d today speaking slightingly of the\ngood old man, she says, \u201chis healing was never considered\nanything but mesmerism.\u201d Then she gratefully acknowledged that he\nhad made her \u201cwhole\u201d; now she says that his mesmeric treatment\ngave her but slight, temporary relief. Then, not having\ncontemplated the great theft, she spoke of the \u201cearnest, solemn,\nsacred trust\u201d delivered to her and others by the trustful man;\nnow she repudiates him altogether, and denies that she received\nany helpful suggestion from him. Then she spoke of _herself_ as\n\u201c_seeking, though a trembler, where his footsteps trod;_\u201d now she\nscornfully says, \u201cI used to take his _scribblings_ and fix them\nover for him and give him _my_ thoughts and language which, _as I\nunderstand it_, were _far in advance of his_.\u201d\n\nCan anything Mrs. Eddy says be believed, after this? Could\ningenuity contrive a more violent contradiction in human speech?\nStanding absolutely alone, would anything more be needed to\nconvict her, out of her own mouth, of the basest ingratitude and\nthe most reckless fraud? But this is only one of a thousand items\nin the accumulated proof!\n\nIf Christian Science healing is, as Mrs. Eddy and all other\nChristian Scientists claim, a revival of the method employed by\nJesus, then Mrs. Eddy here, in her own handwriting, admits that\nshe learned it from Quimby. There is no possible escape from one\nhorn or the other of the dilemma\u2014either it is not Christian, or\nit is not Mrs. Eddy\u2019s. It requires even less intelligence than\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s friends bring to bear upon her teachings to\ncomprehend the conclusiveness of this demonstration.\n\nMrs. Eddy did not discover the Christian Science method of\nattempting to heal. Let me make this a little clearer by\ndemonstrating the falsity of her story as to the _manner_ in\nwhich she made the discovery.\n\nDr. Quimby died on January 16, 1866, and the first day of\nFebruary, 1866, Mrs. Patterson-Eddy, then living in Swampscott, a\nsuburb of Lynn, fell upon the icy sidewalk and injured herself;\nand she now fixes upon her alleged miraculous recovery from this\ninjury as the precise _way_ in which she made her great discovery\nand received her revelation.\n\nIn a sketch, published by her concern, The Christian Science\nPublishing Society of Boston, and endorsed and approved by her as\nan authorized statement, is the following account of _how_ Mrs.\nEddy discovered Christian Science:\n\n  \u201cThe manner of the discovery has been vividly described. In\n  company with her husband, she was returning from an errand of\n  mercy, when she fell upon the icy curbstone, and was carried\n  helpless to her home. The skilled physicians declared that\n  there was absolutely no hope for her, and pronounced the\n  verdict that she had but three days to live. Finding no hope\n  and no help on earth, she lifted her heart to God. On the third\n  day, calling for her Bible, she asked the family to leave the\n  room. Her Bible opened to the healing of the palsied man, Matt.\n  ix. 2. The truth which set him free she saw. The power which\n  gave him strength she felt. The life divine which healed the\n  sick of the palsy restored her, and she rose from the bed of\n  pain healed and free.\u201d\n\nIn her autobiography, \u201cRetrospection and Introspection,\u201d she\nsays:\n\n  \u201cIt was in Massachusetts, February, 1866, and after the death\n  of the magnetic doctor, Mr. P. P. Quimby, whom spiritualists\n  would associate therewith, but who was in no wise connected\n  with this event, that I discovered the science of Divine\n  Metaphysical healing, which I afterward named Christian\n  Science. The discovery came to pass in this way. During twenty\n  years prior to my discovery I had been trying to trace all\n  physical effects to a mental cause; and in the latter part of\n  1866 I gained the scientific certainty that all causation was\n  Mind, and every effect a mental phenomenon.\n\n  \u201cMy immediate recovery from the effects of an injury caused by\n  an accident, an injury that neither medicine nor surgery could\n  reach, was the falling apple that led me to the discovery how\n  to be well myself and how to make others so.\n\n  \u201cEven to the homeopathic physician who attended me, and\n  rejoiced in my recovery, I could not then explain the modus of\n  my relief. I could only assure him that the Divine Spirit had\n  wrought the miracle, a miracle which later I found to be in\n  perfect Scientific accord with divine law.\u201d\n\nUnfortunately for her reputation for veracity and fortunately for\nthe truth of history. Dr. Alvin M. Cushing, the physician who\nattended Mrs. Eddy, or Patterson, upon this particular occasion,\nis still living and as an honored member of the profession is now\npractising in Springfield, Mass. Dr. Cushing expressly, and under\noath, denies that he at any time believed or said that Mrs.\nPatterson was in a critical condition, or that there was no hope\nfor her, or that she had but three or any other limited number of\ndays to live, and he, with great positiveness, says that she did\nnot, on the third day or any other day of her illness, say, or\nsuggest, or pretend, or in any way whatever intimate that she had\nmiraculously recovered or been healed, or that, discovering or\nperceiving the truth of the power employed by Christ to heal the\nsick, she had, by it, been restored to health, and he further\nsays that, on the contrary, on the third day and later days of\nthis illness, he himself gave her medicine, and again in August\nof the same year called upon her four or five times and gave her\nmedicine.\n\nDr. Cushing still has his record book in which he, at the time,\nrecorded each visit, every symptom and every particular of his\ntreatment.\n\nIt must be a peculiar type of mind that can believe Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nstory of this illness and recovery, after having the\ndisinterested version of the attending physician. There is no\nreason why Dr. Cushing\u2019s version should be doubted. There is no\nreason whatever why Mrs. Eddy\u2019s should be believed.\n\nBut Mrs. Eddy herself furnishes, as usual, the most conclusive\nevidence of the falsity of this story of her miraculous cure. Her\ninventive faculty has ever been more remarkable than her memory,\nand what she has forgotten contradicts her.\n\nOn \u201cthe third day,\u201d according to her latest version, she \u201carose\nfrom the bed of pain, healed and free,\u201d but in a letter dated\nFebruary 15, 1866, two weeks after the accident and while she was\nstill suffering from its effects, she complained that she was\nthen \u201cslowly failing,\u201d and implored Mr. Julius Dresser, to whom\nthe letter was written, to help her.\n\nHere is her story of the incident as written at the time:\n\n                                            Lynn, Feb. 15, 1866.\n\n  \u201cMr. Dresser,\u2014\n\n  \u201c_Sir:_ I enclose some lines of mine in memory of our\n  much-loved Friend, which perhaps _you_ will not think\n  over-wrought in meaning, _others_ must of course.\n\n  \u201cI am constantly wishing that _you_ would step forward into the\n  place he has vacated. I believe you would do a vast amount of\n  good, and are more capable of occupying his place than any\n  other I know of.\n\n  \u201cTwo weeks ago I fell on the sidewalk and struck my back on the\n  ice and was taken up for dead, came to consciousness amid a\n  storm of vapors from cologne, chloroform, ether, camphor, etc.,\n  but to find myself the helpless cripple I was before I saw Dr.\n  Quimby.\n\n  \u201cThe physician attending said I had taken the last step I ever\n  should, but in two days I got out of my bed _alone_, and _will_\n  walk, but yet I confess I am frightened, and out of that\n  nervous heat my friends are forming, spite of me, the terrible\n  spinal affection from which I have suffered so long and\n  hopelessly.\u2026 Now can\u2019t _you_ help me. I believe you can. I\n  write this with this feeling: I think I could help another in\n  _my_ condition, if they had not placed their intelligence in\n  matter. This I have not done and yet _I am slowly failing_.\n  Won\u2019t you write me if you will undertake for me if I can get to\n  you?\u2026\n\n                         \u201cRespectfully,\n\n                                            \u201cMary M. Patterson.\u201d\n\nNot to comment upon the singularity of the administration of\nchloroform and ether to an unconscious person, it sufficeth to\ncall attention to the manner in which again Mrs. Patterson\ncontradicts Mrs. Eddy. She furnishes the most effective kind of\ncorroboration of Dr. Cushing, and the whole thing is clearly seen\nto be an invention, so far as any unusual or peculiar or\nmiraculous features are concerned. It is clear that Mrs. Eddy did\nnot discover Christian Science in the _manner_ claimed.\n\nSo much for that particular, and particularly silly perversion of\nthe truth, and invention of the fictitious.\n\nMrs. Eddy has herself made it especially easy to prove her\nrevelation to be a fraud and has supplied us with a form of proof\nespecially convincing. It is conceivable that a claim to\nrevelation, however intrinsically idiotic, _might_ be made, the\nlegal disproof of which _might_ be difficult; but if I today say\nGod revealed something to me a year ago, and if you find many\npersons of excellent character who tell you that three, four,\nfive, six and seven months ago I openly, by word of mouth, and in\nwriting, times without number, admitted having learned the whole\nthing from John Smith, it will be impossible to believe that God\nrevealed it to me and to me alone. This is precisely the case\nwith Mrs. Eddy and her Christian Science \u201creligion.\u201d Her\noft-repeated admissions of appropriation disprove her\n\u201crevelation\u201d completely.\n\nAbsolutely conclusive evidence of the fraudulent character of\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s claim to originality, either by discovery or\nrevelation, has come to light, and any one, who will take the\ntrouble to examine it, will have no difficulty in arriving at\npositive certainty in the matter.\n\nNow, remembering Mrs. Eddy\u2019s claim to discovery by revelation\nfrom God in 1866, let us see what she was doing in 1867, 1868,\n1869 and 1870, the years immediately following her alleged\ndiscovery.\n\nSome years ago I delivered an address in Boston upon Christian\nScience that was extensively reported in the newspapers, and a\nday or two following the delivery of the lecture a gentleman\ncalled at my office and introduced himself as Horace T. Wentworth\nof Stoughton, Mass. He asked me if I knew that in 1868, 1869 and\n1870 Mrs. Eddy had lived with his mother, Mrs. Sally Wentworth,\nat Stoughton.\n\nI assured Mr. Wentworth that I had not heard of it, and asked him\nwhat she was doing while there.\n\n\u201cWhy, she was teaching my mother Dr. P. P. Quimby\u2019s system of\nmental healing,\u201d said Mr. Wentworth, \u201cand I have in my pocket my\nmother\u2019s copy of the manuscript from which Mrs. Eddy taught.\u201d\n\nMr. Wentworth pulled the manuscript out of his pocket and handed\nit to me. It was entitled, on the front page, \u201cExtracts from Dr.\nP. P. Quimby\u2019s Writings.\u201d I glanced through the manuscript and\ndiscovered that it was copiously corrected and interlined in Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s handwriting and contained an introduction signed by her\nname. Perusal of it showed it to be in every particular precisely\nthe same thing as Mrs. Eddy\u2019s Christian Science teachings\nregarding the cure of disease.\n\nThis was a most interesting discovery, and I carefully\ninvestigated the whole situation, made several trips to Stoughton\nfor the purpose, and talked with many residents of the place who\nhad known Mrs. Eddy well, and were perfectly familiar with her\nhistory while there. I subsequently procured the whole story in\nwriting, under oath, by those who knew it personally. Since then,\nothers following my published accounts, have detailed the\nStoughton episode and _McClure\u2019s Magazine_ published it in full.\n\nIt appears that in 1867, Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, went to\nStoughton to live. She had separated from her second husband,\nDaniel Patterson, and not having then married her third husband,\nEddy, called herself, and was known by the name of her first\nhusband, Mary M. Glover.\n\nMrs. Glover first lived at Stoughton with one Hiram Crafts, and\ntaught Crafts from manuscript a system of mental healing she told\nCrafts she had learned from Dr. P. P. Quimby. After learning it,\nCrafts undertook to practise it and had announcements printed and\ncirculated declaring his system to have been the discovery of Dr.\nQuimby.\n\nBut Mrs. Glover and Mrs. Crafts did not seem to find one\nanother\u2019s society especially enjoyable, and for a time, Mrs.\nCrafts left Mrs. Glover in possession. In 1868, upon the\ninvitation of Mrs. Sally Wentworth, Mrs. Glover moved to the\nWentworths\u2019 house at Stoughton, where she continued to live until\n1870.\n\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s writings will be searched in vain for any reference\nto Mrs. Wentworth, or to the fact that she spent about three\nyears in the Wentworths\u2019 house at Stoughton; but, in\ncharacteristic fashion, she hides the facts under this obscure\nand oracular utterance:\n\n  \u201cI then (1866), withdrew from society, about three years, to\n  ponder my mission, to search the Scriptures, to find the\n  Science of Mind that should take the things of God and show\n  them to the creature, and reveal the great Curative Principle,\n  God.\u201d\n\nMrs. Wentworth invited Mrs. Glover to live with her and teach her\nthe Quimby science of mind healing, and that is what Mrs. Glover\ndid during the three years she was a member of Mrs. Wentworth\u2019s\nfamily. She \u201cpondered her mission,\u201d etc., by avowedly teaching\nDr. Quimby\u2019s alleged science of mind healing, and she gave Mrs.\nWentworth a copy of her, Mrs. Glover\u2019s, manuscript copy of\nQuimby\u2019s writings. This copy of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s copy of what she then\nsaid were Quimby\u2019s writings, in Mrs. Wentworth\u2019s handwriting and\ncontaining corrections and interlineations in the handwriting of\nMrs. Glover-Eddy, is the manuscript now in the possession of Mrs.\nWentworth\u2019s son, Horace T. Wentworth of Stoughton, Mass.\n\nDuring Mrs. Glover\u2019s sojourn at Mrs. Wentworth\u2019s, the household\nconsisted, besides Mrs. Wentworth and her guest, of her husband,\nMr. Alanson C. Wentworth, and their two children, Lucy and\nCharles O. Wentworth. Mr. and Mrs. Wentworth died in 1882, but\nLucy and Charles O. and Horace T. Wentworth are still living, and\nthey, with their cousin, Mrs. Catherine I. Clapp, who was much at\ntheir house during Mrs. Glover\u2019s visit, have stated the facts\nunder oath and in such a manner that they _must_ be believed.\n\nLucy Wentworth, now Mrs. Arthur L. Holmes, was about seventeen\nyears of age when Mrs. Glover left her mother\u2019s house. Mrs.\nHolmes, who still lives at Stoughton, says that she well\nremembers Mrs. Glover\u2019s visit, and that she was teaching her\nmother a system of mental healing she said she had learned from\nDr. Quimby.\n\n  \u201c\u2018It wasn\u2019t safe for anybody to say anything to me against Mrs.\n  Glover,\u2019 says Mrs. Holmes. \u2018She spent all her time teaching my\n  mother her new science. I was around her constantly, would\n  rather be with her than with any one else, and I often used to\n  hear her say, \u201cI learned this from Dr. Quimby.\u201d It is one of\n  the distinct recollections of my childhood.\u2019\u201d\n\nCharles O. Wentworth, now of Avon, Mass., says he, too, well\nremembers Mrs. Eddy\u2019s visit during the years 1868, 1869 and 1870,\nand that he many times heard her say she had learned her mental\nscience from Dr. Quimby. He says she avowed it openly, and always\nspoke of it as Dr. Quimby\u2019s system.\n\nHorace T. Wentworth, who was married and so not living at home\nwith his parents, but who was often at their house, adds his\npositive testimony. He says:\n\n  \u201cNever at any time during the years she was at our house, from\n  1868 to 1870, did Mrs. Glover give the slightest hint that any\n  one other than Dr. Quimby had had any share in the origin of\n  the system of mental healing she was teaching my mother. It\n  could not then have entered her mind to claim it for herself.\n  That was an afterthought. I heard Mrs. Glover over and over\n  again say she got it all from Quimby.\u201d\n\nMrs. Clapp\u2019s statement is even more specific than the others. She\nis own cousin to the Wentworths and frequented their house at the\ntime Mrs. Glover was visiting them, and knew that Mrs. Glover was\nteaching Mrs. Wentworth the Quimby system.\n\nWhen Mrs. Clapp was recently asked if she had ever heard Mrs.\nGlover-Eddy say that she learned her system from Dr. Quimby, she\nreplied:\n\n  \u201cYes, and I am not likely to forget it. It is fixed in my\n  memory by a very reprehensible proceeding of my own. You see,\n  Mrs. Glover used to say this to everybody who came in. She\n  wasn\u2019t content with mentioning once or twice that she had\n  learned this from Dr. Quimby, she repeated it so often that we\n  girls got deadly tired of hearing it.\n\n  \u201cNow Mrs. Glover not only said it to the point of wearying us,\n  but she had a peculiar way of saying it, and I am ashamed to\n  say that I used to mock her\u2014I, a young lady grown, who ought to\n  have known better than to make fun of a person so much older.\n\n  \u201cShe always tried to be very gracious to everybody and she\n  tried so hard that it gave her graciousness a ridiculous touch.\n  She would fold her hands softly in her lap, smile gently, nod\n  her head slowly at almost every word, and say in a sweet voice,\n  \u2018I _learned_ this from _Dr. Quimby_ and he made me _promise_ to\n  teach it to at least _two_ persons before I _die_.\u2019\n\n  \u201cWell, this tiresome iteration, always with the same emphasis\n  and the same exaggerated graciousness, used to excite the\n  derision of the girls, and when Mrs. Glover wasn\u2019t in hearing,\n  I would take her off. I would say, \u2018I learned this from Dr.\n  Quimby,\u2019 etc., at the same time nodding my head with a great\n  exaggeration of Mrs. Glover\u2019s gentle inclination, and putting\n  tremendous emphasis on the words she emphasized, and wearing a\n  fixed smile.\n\n  \u201cI know it was an awful thing to do,\u201d added Mrs. Clapp,\n  penitently, \u201cespecially for a grown-up girl, but it used to\n  make my cousins laugh and that made me feel that I had done\n  something clever. Anyway, you see how it has fixed it on my\n  memory.\u201d\n\nMrs. Clapp well remembered seeing Mrs. Wentworth copy Mrs.\nGlover\u2019s copy of Dr. Quimby\u2019s writing.\n\n  \u201cI once went to the Wentworths\u2019 to get something,\u201d she said,\n  \u201cand Mrs. Wentworth was busy copying this manuscript. I went to\n  the buttery to get what I wanted, but couldn\u2019t find it, and\n  called Mrs. Wentworth. She got up to get it for me, but before\n  doing so she put Mrs. Eddy\u2019s copy of the Quimby manuscript in\n  the desk and locked it. I suppose I looked surprised that she\n  should take such pains when she was only stepping across the\n  room, for a moment, and she noticed my look, and said, \u2018Mrs.\n  Glover made me promise never to leave this manuscript even for\n  a moment without locking the desk.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhile Mrs. Wentworth was copying the Quimby manuscript, Mrs.\nClapp was employed by Mrs. Glover to copy a manuscript of her own\nfor publication. This manuscript contained the first expression\nof the ideas subsequently given to the world by Mrs. Eddy. When\nthe book was completed, Mrs. Glover paid Mrs. Clapp for the work\nand took it to Boston, but could not get a publisher to accept\nit.\n\nMrs. Clapp was quite familiar with the appearance of the Quimby\nmanuscript from seeing Mrs. Wentworth copying it\u2014she was Mrs.\nWentworth\u2019s niece\u2014and also from seeing Mrs. Glover take it out to\ncorrect some of the work which Mrs. Clapp was doing. That would\nhappen in this way. Mrs. Clapp would complete the copying of a\npage of Mrs. Glover\u2019s book. Mrs. Glover would appear to be\ndissatisfied with it; she would take from her desk the original\nQuimby manuscript, the one from which Mrs. Wentworth had been\ncopying, and compare this original with the work Mrs. Clapp had\ndone. Then she would tear up Mrs. Clapp\u2019s page and write it all\nover again, consulting the Quimby manuscript as she did so, and\nMrs. Clapp would have the copying to do over again.\n\nThe unmistakable inference was that Mrs. Eddy was making her book\nout of the ideas contained in the original Quimby manuscript.\nMrs. Clapp, with the irreverence of girlhood, had scant respect\nfor the weighty ideas contained in the Quimby-Glover book, and\nthere was one particular idea which she used to scoff at and make\nfun of to her intimates. It was to this effect:\n\n  \u201cThe daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural or\n  necessary than would be the process of taking a fish out of\n  water every day and covering it with dirt to make it thrive\n  more vigorously thereafter in its native element.\u201d\n\nYears afterward, Mrs. Clapp picked up a copy of \u201cScience and\nHealth,\u201d and opened it to this identical sentence which had so\noften excited her girlish derision. It is on page 41, edition of\n1898.\n\nWhen Mrs. Wentworth died, in 1882, and the property was divided,\nthe son Horace laid claim to the copy of the Quimby manuscript.\nHe wanted it because it was in his mother\u2019s handwriting (with the\nexception of Eddy\u2019s corrections), and it would be a souvenir of\nher. He kept it with no other thought until now.\n\n  \u201cBut of late years,\u201d said Mr. Wentworth, \u201cas I have seen the\n  amazing spread of this delusion, and the way in which men and\n  women are offering up money and the lives of their children to\n  it, I have felt that it is a duty I owe to the public to make\n  it known.\n\n  \u201cI have no hard feelings against Mrs. Eddy, no axe to grind, no\n  interest to serve, I simply feel that it is due the thousands\n  of good people, who have made Christian Science the anchorage\n  of their souls and its founder the infallible guide of their\n  daily life, to keep this no longer to myself. I desire only\n  that people who take themselves and their helpless children\n  into Christian Science shall do so with a full knowledge that\n  this is not a divine revelation, but simply the idea of an\n  old-time Maine healer.\u201d\n\nIt may be assumed then, as proven, that as in 1868, 1869 and 1870\nMrs. Glover (Eddy) was teaching a system of mental healing she,\nat the time, said she had learned from Dr. P. P. Quimby, she\ncouldn\u2019t have discovered it herself in 1866. It now becomes\ninteresting to know if there is any similarity between what we\nmay call Quimbyism and Christian Science, between the teaching of\nMrs. Glover-Eddy in 1870 and her teaching now.\n\nOn the outside, this Quimby-Glover manuscript is entitled,\n\u201cExtracts From Doctor P. P. Quimby\u2019s Writings,\u201d and at the head\nof the first page, on the inside, it is further entitled, \u201cThe\nScience of Man, or The Principle Which Controls all Phenomena.\u201d\n\nThere is a preface of two pages with Mary M. Glover\u2019s name signed\nat the end. The \u201cExtracts\u201d are in the form of fifteen questions\nand answers, covering about thirty large pages, and are labeled,\n\u201cQuestions by Patients and Answers by Dr. Quimby.\u201d The document\ncontains an elaboration of Dr. Quimby\u2019s mental healing system as\ntaught by Mrs. Eddy, by her own acknowledgment, as late as 1870.\n\nThe contents of this Quimby-Glover manuscript having been\ncommunicated to Mr. George A. Quimby of Belfast, Maine, son of\nDr. P. P. Quimby, he says, having compared it with his father\u2019s\nwritings in his possession, that it is a precise copy of them. He\nfurther says that an opportunity was afforded Mrs. Eddy to copy\nhis father\u2019s writings, as his father was accustomed to lend his\nmanuscript to his patients, one of whom Mrs. Eddy was.\n\nA perusal of this manuscript in comparison with Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\n\u201cScience and Health\u201d shows, that every basic idea of Christian\nScience as a healing system was bodily appropriated by her from\nDr. Quimby\u2019s manuscripts and not obtained, as she says, by\nrevelation from God. As contained in the manuscript and as taught\nby Dr. Quimby, there was no suggestion of a religious character\nto his teachings; the religious phase was an afterthought of Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s, as a means of facilitating the sale and distribution of\nher profit-yielding, copyrighted and \u201cinspired\u201d writings.\n\nIt may be here remarked that, at the outset, Mrs. Eddy especially\ndeprecated the giving to Quimbyism, or Christian Science, a\nreligious character, as I shall hereafter show in more detail,\nand she goes so far as to criticise the disciples of Jesus for\nfounding, as she says, religious organizations and church rites.\n\nThus, at first, healing was the only phase of Christian Science.\nThe religious feature was a subsequent invention.\n\nQuimbyism, as contained in Mrs. Wentworth\u2019s copy of Mrs. Glover\u2019s\ncopy of Dr. Quimby\u2019s \u201cScience of Man,\u201d as revised and corrected\nin Mrs. Glover\u2019s own handwriting, is compared with Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nChristian Science as contained in her \u201cScience and Health\u201d in the\nfollowing parallel passages from the two. A glance will show Dr.\nQuimby\u2019s system of mental healing, as taught by Mrs. Glover,\nlater Mrs. Eddy, in 1870, to be no other than the \u201cScience of\nMetaphysical Healing\u201d that Mrs. Eddy, formerly Mrs. Glover, now\nsays was revealed to her in 1866:\n\nQuimby: From Quimby\u2019s \u201cScience of Man,\u201d as Expounded by Mrs. Eddy\nat Stoughton, 1868-69-70.\n\n  \u201cIf I understand how disease originates in the mind and fully\n  believe it, why cannot I cure myself?\u201d\n\n  Disease being made by our belief or by our parents\u2019 belief or\n  by public opinion, there is no one formula of argument to be\n  adopted; but every one must fit in their particular case.\n  Therefore it requires great shrewdness or wisdom to get the\n  better of the error.\u201d ....\n\nEddy: From Mrs. Eddy\u2019s \u201cScience and Health,\u201d the Text-Book of the\n\u201cChristian Science\u201d She now Claims to have Discovered in 1866.\n\n  \u201cDisease being a belief, a latent delusion of mortal mind, the\n  sensation would not appear if this _error was met and destroyed\n  by Truth._\u201d\u2014Page 61, edition of 1898.\n\n  \u201cScience not only reveals the origin of all disease as wholly\n  mental, but it also declares that all disease is cured by\n  mind.\u201d\u2014Page 62, edition of 1898.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cI know of no better counsel than Jesus gave to His disciples\n  when He sent them forth to cast out devils and heal the sick,\n  and thus in practice to preach the Truth, \u2018Be ye wise as\n  serpents and harmless as doves.\u2019 Never get into a passion, but\n  in patience possess ye your soul, and at length you weary out\n  the discord and produce harmony by your _Truth destroying\n  error_. Then it is you get the case. Now if you are not afraid\n  to face the error and argue it down, then you can heal the\n  sick.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cWhen we come to have more faith in the Truth of Being than we\n  have in error, more faith in spirit than in matter, then no\n  material conditions can prevent us from healing the sick and\n  _destroying error through Truth_.\u201d\u2014Page 367, edition of 1898.\n\n  \u201cWe classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or Mind\n  can heal.\u201d\u2014Page 427, edition of 1898.\n\n  \u201cDiscord is the nothingness of error. Harmony is the\n  somethingness of Truth.\u201d\u2014Page 172, edition of 1898.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cThe patient\u2019s disease is in his belief.\u201d\n\n  \u201cError is sickness. Truth is health.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cSickness is part of the error which _Truth casts out_.\u201d\u2014Page\n  478, edition of 1898.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cIn this science the names are given; thus God is Wisdom. This\n  Wisdom, not an Individuality but a _principle_, embraces every\n  _idea_ form, of which the idea, man, is the highest,\u2014hence the\n  image of God, or the Principle.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cGod is the principle of man; and the principle of man\n  remaining perfect, its idea or reflection\u2014man\u2014remains perfect.\u201d\n  \u2014Page 466, edition of 1898.\n\n  \u201cMan was and is God\u2019s idea.\u201d\u2014Page 231, edition of 1898.\n\n  \u201cMan is the idea of divine principle.\u201d\u2014Page 471, edition of\n  1898.\n\n  \u201cWhat is God? Jehovah is not a person. God is principle.\u201d\u2014Page\n  169, edition of 1881.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cUnderstanding is God.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cUnderstanding is a quality of God.\u201d\u2014Page 449, edition of 1898.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cAll sciences are part of God.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cAll science is of God.\u201d\u2014Page 513, edition of 1898.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cTruth is God.\u201d\n\n  \u201cThere is no other Truth but God.\u201d\n\n  \u201cGod is Wisdom.\u201d\n\n  \u201cGod is Principle.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cTruth is God.\u201d\u2014Page 183, edition of 1898.\n\n  \u201cTruth, God, is not the Father of error.\u201d\u2014Page 469, edition of\n  1898.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cWisdom, Love and Truth are the Principle.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cHow can I most rapidly advance in the understanding of\n  Christian Science? Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the\n  spirit. Adhere to its divine Principle, and follow its behests,\n  abiding steadily in Wisdom, Love, and Truth.\u201d\u2014Page 491, edition\n  of 1898.\n\nQuimby:\n\n  \u201cError is matter.\u201d\n\n  \u201cMatter has no intelligence.\u201d\n\n  \u201cTo give intelligence to matter is an error which is sickness.\u201d\n\n  \u201cMatter has no _intelligence_ of its own, and to believe\n  intelligence is in matter is the error which produces pain and\n  inharmony of all sorts; to hold ourselves we are a principle\n  outside of matter, we would not be influenced by the opinions\n  of man, but held to the workings only of a principle, Truth, in\n  which there are no inharmonies of sickness, pain, or sin.\u201d\n\n  \u201cFor matter is an error, there being no _substance_, which is\n  _Truth_ in a thing which changes and is only that which belief\n  makes it.\u201d\n\n  \u201cChrist was the Wisdom that knew Truth dwelt not in opinion and\n  that matter was but opinion that could be formed into any shape\n  which the belief gave to it, and that the _life_ which moved it\n  came not from it, but was outside of it.\u201d\n\nEddy:\n\n  \u201cMatter is mortal error,\u201d\u2014Page 169, edition of 1881.\n\n  \u201cThe fundamental error of mortal man is the belief that matter\n  is intelligent.\u201d\u2014Page 122, edition of 1881.\n\n  \u201cLaws of matter are nothing more or less than a belief of\n  intelligence and life in matter, which is the procuring cause\n  of all disease; whereas God, Truth, is its positive cure.\u201d\u2014Page\n  127, edition of 1881.\n\n  \u201cThere is no _life_, _truth_, _intelligence_, or _substance_ in\n  matter.\u201d\u2014Page 464, edition of 1898.\n\n  [It will be seen that every idea contained in this last\n  passage, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s famous \u201cscientific statement of being,\u201d\n  the mental repetition of which constitutes Christian Science\n  \u201ctreatment,\u201d is taken from Dr. Quimby\u2019s writings.]\n\nThis paralleling of Eddyism, or Christian Science, with Quimbyism\nshows that, as late as 1870, Mrs. Eddy professed to have learned\nfrom Quimby, that error is sickness; that belief is sickness;\nthat discord is sickness; that there is no life, truth,\nintelligence, or substance in matter; that matter is error; that\nthe belief of intelligence in matter is the cause of all disease;\nthat Truth is God; that there is no other truth but God; that God\nis Principle; that Wisdom, Love and Truth are Principle; that\nTruth is health and cures sickness; that harmony, by destroying\ndisharmony, cures disease; and, finally, that all disease\noriginates in mind and is cured by mind alone.\n\nAnd this is the sum total, the beginning and the end, of that\nstrange thing Mrs. Eddy calls Christian Science, as it is\ncontained and set forth in her book, \u201cScience and Health.\u201d\n\nIf the founder of Christian Science could be _expected_ to give a\ncandid answer to a plain question, might not some such respectful\ninquiry as the following at this point be pertinently propounded:\nIf Mrs. Patterson, or Mrs. Glover, afterwards Mrs. Eddy, in 1868,\n1869 and 1870 openly avowed that the \u201cscientific mind healing\u201d\nshe then taught was the discovery of Dr. P. P. Quimby, when and\nhow did Mrs. Eddy, formerly Mrs. Patterson and Mrs. Glover,\ndiscover that she had discovered it herself in 1866?\n\nBut the question will not be answered for the reason that the\nsworn evidence of the Wentworths and Mrs. Clapp, together with\nthe paralleling of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s Christian Science of today with\nher version of Quimbyism of 1870 shows, as clearly as words can\nshow anything, that Mrs. Eddy\u2019s claim to having received, in\n1866, a final revelation from God, who for many years had been\nfitting her to receive it, is an invention, a fiction, a fraud, a\nlie that for wickedness and cruelty surpasses any lie ever\ninvented by hypocrisy and greed.\n\nThe only person living who can meet this testimony and answer it\nis Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy. Her newspaper puppets of the\n\u201cPublication Committee\u201d knew nothing about her at the time to\nwhich it relates. They have no knowledge whatever of the facts\nstated. They will affirm or deny anything they are told to affirm\nor deny; but their principal has maintained and will maintain\ndiscreet silence. She will not venture to deny that she wrote the\nletter to the _Portland Courier_, that she wrote the verses upon\nDr. Quimby glorifying him as a second Jesus, that she lived at\nthe Wentworths\u2019 house during the years 1868, 1869 and 1870, and\nthat she then taught from a copy of Quimby\u2019s writings a mental\nhealing system she then said she had learned from him.\n\nMrs. Eddy is bold, but not so bold as to give the lie direct to\nthe sworn statements of Horace T. Wentworth, Catherine Isabel\nClapp, Lucy Holmes and Charles O. Wentworth, all highly respected\nresidents of the town of Stoughton. Mrs. Eddy will dare much; but\nshe will hardly dare to dispute the evidence furnished by her own\nhand.\n\nAnd silence is confession, and confession is acknowledgment of\ntheft and falsehood and fraud, and hypocrisy beyond comparison.\n\nNot upon such stones did the Jesus Christ, Whom Mrs. Eddy\nprofesses to emulate, construct the religion that bears His name;\nand there can be no greater irreverence than Mrs. Eddy\u2019s calling\nher pretended religion \u201cChristian,\u201d and no greater absurdity than\nher calling it \u201cScience.\u201d\n\nMy purpose in showing Dr. Quimby\u2019s authorship of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nChristian Science is to establish the falsity of her claim that\nGod revealed it to her. The thing itself, as Dr. Quimby\u2019s, is of\nno greater weight and of no more consequence than as Mrs. Eddy\u2019s.\nDr. Quimby and Mrs. Eddy were evidently upon the same\nintellectual plane, both uneducated and crude. He was a good and\nsincere and unselfish and trustful man, and she appropriated his\nideas. They knew nothing of philosophy nor of science, and\nwhether Christian Science be his or hers is of slight importance,\nexcept as the establishment of his authorship proves her to be\nthe author of a fraud whose large proportions and successful\nworkings challenge the kind of admiration one feels for the\ncriminal whose great crime proves him to be a man of immense\nmental fertility and of profound understanding of human weakness.\n\nWhen it is said that Mrs. Eddy stole her system from Dr. Quimby\nand then falsely pretended that she received it by revelation\nfrom God, her only response has been that the matter has been\nadjudicated by the courts, and it has been definitely settled\nthat the charge is false. The adjudication in the courts had no\nbearing whatever upon this charge. One Edward J. Ahrens, a German\nadventurer, at one time an intimate of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s, published\ncopious extracts from her book, and, having been sued by her for\ninfringement of copyright of her revelation and having failed to\nmake any defense, the court adjudged his publications\ninfringements of her copyright.\n\nI am not aware that anyone has pretended that Mrs. Eddy did not\nwrite \u201cScience and Health\u201d in its crudest, original form, and is\nnot entitled to the protection of copyright upon the book, but\nthe fact that the court has decided that she is entitled to the\nprotection of copyright, is no answer to the charge that certain\nclaims and pretensions made in the book are false. The copyright,\nin her case, simply means that no one else has a right to publish\nher lies without her consent. To the simple minded, it may seem a\nlittle peculiar that Mrs. Eddy should insist upon exclusive\nrights to publish and sell, by procuring copyright, a book of\nwhich she says, not she, but God, was author and which she calls\n\u201cGod\u2019s Book,\u201d at a profit, not to God, but to her, of 500 per\ncent; but, as in the case of her three hundred dollar fee for\ntwelve or seven lessons, to which I shall presently call\nattention, the worldly wisdom of her course has appeared in\nmultitudinous ways, likewise multitudinous dollars!\n\nIt would seem like a waste of time to contend that God is not the\nauthor of \u201cScience and Health;\u201d that God, the All-wise, the\nAll-loving, the All-powerful, did not wait nineteen hundred years\nafter the death of Christ to complete the revelation of Himself\nmade through Jesus; that of all the personalities who have lived\nupon this earth since the time of Jesus, the one selected by God\nto lead the world unto Him should be this uncultivated and vulgar\nwoman, whose variegated career has been somewhat presented, and\nwhose whole energies have been devoted to utilizing her pretended\nrevelation for pecuniary profit. I say, it would seem to be an\nutter waste of time, were it not for the pathetic fact that\nthousands\u2014sixty or seventy thousands\u2014perhaps more\u2014of the people\nof this country believe that Almighty God so acted.\n\nIt now being perfectly clear that Mrs. Eddy did not, as she says,\nreceive Christian Science by revelation from God, she clearly has\nno warrant for pretending it to be a religion. As a religion,\nChristian Science is the shallowest fraud and imposture. It has\nno conceivable right to the name \u201cChristian,\u201d and every one of\nthe beautiful churches erected in its honor is a monument simply\nto Mrs. Eddy\u2019s deception and hypocrisy and lies and to the\nlimitless gullibility of the human race, and every one of the\nmany thousands of sincere and simple-minded people who at its\nservices lift up their hearts in worship to God are the victims\nof an old woman\u2019s insincere, mercenary appeal to their religious\nfeelings.\n\nNo sane person can have followed this narrative thus far and not\nagree with me that, as a religion, there is no warrant for\nChristian Science, and those who will continue to the end will\nfurther agree with me that, as a healing system, it is just as\nfraudulent; that it kills the sweetest and tenderest emotions in\nthe human heart by rooting out sympathy, charity and compassion;\nthat there is no other hatred and vindictiveness equal to the\nhatred and vindictiveness of its founder and her leading\nvotaries; that there is no other cruelty, no other greed, that\ncan compare with theirs; that the so-called malicious animal\nmagnetism, the witchcraft feature, is as wicked an invention as\nthe human mind ever conceived, and that its attempted use for\nveritable assassination is as devilish as anything that could\npossibly emanate from the depths of hell; and, finally, that the\ninspired teaching of the three-or-four-times-married Mary Baker\nG. Eddy, regarding the most sacred and fundamental institution\nestablished among men, I refer to the institution of marriage, is\nso low and so vile that self-respecting people, when they come to\nunderstand it, must repudiate it from overwhelming shame.\nInsanity is not responsible for indecency; but those Christian\nScientists who have not parted with their sanity, and are not in\nChristian Science for revenue only, will turn with horror from\nthe woman and her work, when they know precisely what they are.\n\nSurely one may be pardoned some warmth of indignation at the\nassumptions of this vulgar adventuress, this mercenary charlatan!\nIt is difficult to think of them without impatience; it is\nimpossible to speak of them without anger.\n\n\n\n\n                          Chapter VII\n\n                     A Bogus Healing System\n\n\nOf course the successor to and equal of Jesus must perform\nmiracles, and Mrs. Eddy has a stock of miracles on hand suited to\nthe large, the very large, the extraordinarily large, swallowing\ncapacity of those who ache for something real hard to take in and\ndigest. Nothing could be too hard for her worshipers, and she\ngives free rein to her inventive faculty in suiting the miracle\nto the need.\n\nMrs. Eddy has ever been noted for her modesty, her retiring\ndisposition and proneness to underestimate herself and her\npowers. \u201cHas Mrs. Eddy lost her power to heal?\u201d she asks, and\nwith characteristic bashfulness and self-depreciation she\nreplies, \u201cHas the sun forgotten to shine and the planets to\nrevolve around it?\u201d Sooner shall the light of the sun pale,\nsooner the planets fly from their orbits, than Mrs. Eddy part\nwith her power to heal!\n\nSo great was the healing influence that radiated from her\npersonality that she sometimes healed unconsciously.\n\n  \u201cIt was not an uncommon occurrence in my own church,\u201d she says,\n  \u201cfor the sick to be healed by my sermons. Many pale cripples\n  went into the church leaning on crutches, who went out carrying\n  them on their shoulders.\u201d\n\nWhat an inestimable blessing it would be, if a person possessing\nsuch power should make a visit to the hospital in Boston for\ncrippled children, and preach a little sermon there to the young\nunfortunates! Mrs. Eddy has but to step into her automobile and\nin twenty minutes she may be at this hospital, and by putting\nforth the power she says she has and healing the pale little\ncripples, as she says she has healed others, bring the whole\nworld to her feet.\n\nIn a letter to a friend written in March, 1896, she says over her\nautograph, but speaking of herself, as she often does, in the\nthird person:\n\n  \u201cWhile Mrs. Eddy was in a suburban town of Boston she brought\n  out one apple blossom on an apple tree in January, when the\n  ground was covered with snow; and in Lynn demonstrated in the\n  floral line some such small things.\u201d\n\nThat isn\u2019t so remarkable as if an orange blossom had been brought\nout on the apple tree (as it would doubtless have been if Mrs.\nEddy had thought of it), but it was quite an accomplishment,\nnevertheless. Mrs. Eddy\u2019s \u201ctreatment,\u201d probably of the \u201cabsent\u201d\nvariety, sent a summer\u2019s warmth through the earth\u2019s frozen\nsurface and tingling with animation the sap in the roots sent it\nby leaps and bounds through the trunk into the ice-laden\nbranches, and, presto! a tender, pink-white blossom, pushing its\nway through the ice, appeared.\n\nMrs. Eddy is too reticent and too diffident. Why does she not\ntell us of the other equally well authenticated occasion upon\nwhich she brought out a few stars in the sky when the sun was at\nhigh noon, and \u201cdemonstrated\u201d in the astronomical line some such\nlarge things.\n\nI have called certain of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s representations lies, and\nthe word \u201clie\u201d is a very disagreeable word. It is bad enough to\nhave to use it in characterization of the utterances of a man;\nbut it is still worse to apply it in all its brutality to a\nwoman. I have endeavored to find another word, meaning precisely\nthe same thing, that isn\u2019t so intrinsically offensive; but there\nis no other word that suits my purpose and the occasion as does\nthis word \u201clie,\u201d and so I am compelled to adhere to it, even at\nthe risk of being charged with lack of gallantry in my attitude\ntoward a woman. Gallantry really has nothing to do with my\nundertaking. Truth and lies are sexless, and the only question\nis, has Mrs. Eddy told the truth?\n\nBut further word about lies. There are some lies that are not so\nbad as other lies, and there have been lies that have called\nforth commendation. I recall in that wonderful story, Victor\nHugo\u2019s \u201cLes Miserables,\u201d the incident of the lie told by the\nSister Superior of the convent in order to save from the brutal\ngrasp of the law incarnate, as represented by Javert, the sublime\npersonality of the transformed ex-convict, and Hugo\u2019s beautiful\neulogy of that lie and that woman:\n\n  \u201cOh, holy woman, it is many years since you were upon this\n  earth; you have rejoined in the light you sister, the virgins,\n  and your brothers, the angels; may that falsehood be placed to\n  your credit in Paradise!\u201d\n\nThere are lies arising merely out of a tactful wish to spare\npeople\u2019s feelings, and there are the little white lies of social\nlife that nobody especially reprobates; but there are lies that\nare intrinsically of an infamous character, and I can conceive of\nno falsehood more infamous than that which, proceeding from a\nwholly mercenary motive, is deliberately planned and put forth in\norder to alienate people from a religion in which is the hope of\nsalvation and immortality, and from a scientific medical system\nin which is the hope of bodily health and life. These are the\nprecise kind of lies of which this woman is most prolific, and\nwhich she distributes most lavishly.\n\nThe passage I am now to quote is taken from a communication\nsigned by Mrs. Eddy and published by her in the New York _Sun_\nfor December 16, 1898, and it contains the boldest and wickedest\nof these most bold and most wicked lies.\n\nIn this letter Mrs. Eddy said:\n\n  \u201cI challenge the world to disprove what I hereby declare. After\n  my discovery of Christian Science, I healed consumption in its\n  last stages, that the M.D.\u2019s, by verdict of the stethoscope and\n  the schools, declared incurable, the lungs being mostly\n  consumed. I healed malignant tubercular diphtheria and carious\n  bones that could be dented by the finger, saving them when the\n  surgeon\u2019s instruments were lying on the table ready for their\n  amputation. I have healed at one visit a cancer that had so\n  eaten the flesh of the neck as to expose the jugular vein so\n  that it stood out like a cord.\u201d\n\nShe manufactured new lungs, offhand. She healed carious bones,\ninstantaneously. She put forth the divine power God had conferred\nupon her, and at one visit healed that most frightful of all\ndiseases, a malignant cancer.\n\nThis statement is either true or false. If it is true, the whole\nworld should know it, for its truth would prove Mrs. Eddy to have\nthe power to triumph over death, and when the king, or the queen,\nof death shall come to earth, all knees will touch the ground. No\none can love another very much and not be willing to go upon his\nknees before the man or the woman who can protect that loved one\nforever from the hand of death; and I should want to be the very\nfirst to prostrate myself in all humility and gratitude before\nthe conqueror of death. And if, on the other hand, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nstatement is false, absolutely false, a fiction made out of whole\ncloth, then it is important that such falsity should be clearly\nshown, and shown throughout the world that all mankind may know\nthe wickedness of her falsification. I affirm, and shall show, it\nto be false in every particular.\n\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s statement gives no names, dates, localities, nor any\nsubstantial thing to enable any one to investigate any of these\nprofessed miracles, and every effort to induce her to\nparticularize ended, as always, in failure. There would have been\nas much, and as little, sense in a challenge to the world to\ndisprove the green-cheese hypothesis of the structural\ncomposition of the moon.\n\nIn the issue of the _Sun_ of January 1, 1899, Dr. Charles A. L.\nReed, a prominent physician of Cincinnati, published a challenge\nto Mrs. Eddy to prove the truth of her miraculous cures. He\noffered to furnish her cases identical with those she said she\nhad healed, and he said that, if she would heal any one of them,\nhe would proclaim her omnipotence from the housetops; and if she\nwould cure all or half of them, he would cheerfully crawl upon\nhis knees that he might but touch the hem of her garment.\n\nBut dumbness possessed Mrs. Eddy from that time forth. Probably\nshe didn\u2019t want to be glorified from the _housetops;_ she didn\u2019t\nwish to have any mere _medical_ man crawling at her feet.\n\nAs Mrs. Eddy furnishes no specifications, it is impossible, of\ncourse, to meet her allegations in the ordinary way; but I\npurpose, nevertheless, to satisfy every intelligent mind that\nthere is not an atom of truth in her professed miracles.\n\nIf you have the power over life and death here claimed by Mrs.\nEddy, when do you employ it? You employ it, do you not, when some\none you greatly love is suffering, when some one dear to you is\napproaching the grave? If you have the power to save human life,\nyou save the life, first of all, of those whom you most love; and\nif you know those you dearly love to be suffering torture from\nfrightful disease and that, if the progress of the disease is not\nstopped, the hand of death will inevitably snatch them, if you\nknow these things and put forth no particle of power, make no\neffort to allay the suffering or stay the progress of the\ndisease, then it becomes clear that you have no such power, or\nthat you are a monster of inhumanity, does it not?\n\nThis is the case with Mrs. Eddy. If she has had the power she\nclaims, she has the most unfeeling heart that ever beat in a\nhuman breast; for she has never put forth the power to save those\nshe most loved as they stood on the very edge of the grave.\n\nIn the summer of 1902, there died in the city of Boston, after\nseven years of illness, Mrs. Mary Ann Baker, the widow of Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s deceased brother, Samuel Baker. The relations between the\nsisters-in-law had, for years, been most cordial, and I have seen\nand read Mrs. Eddy\u2019s autograph letters in which she professed,\nonly a few days before her sister\u2019s death, the greatest affection\nfor her.\n\nMrs. Baker\u2019s disease, of which Mrs. Eddy from the beginning to\nthe end was fully informed, was cancer of the breast, and her\nsuffering during the seven years of illness from that awful\ndisease may be better imagined than described.\n\nAt Mrs. Eddy\u2019s request, Mrs. Baker had submitted to Christian\nScience \u201ctreatment,\u201d the healer selected by Mrs. Eddy being Mrs.\nJanette E. Weller, a close friend of Mrs. Eddy and her\nconfidential representative in Boston; but Mrs. Baker derived no\nbenefit from it whatever, and died in the care of Dr. H. S.\nDearing of Boston.\n\nFrom one end of the country to the other I have asked Christian\nScientists this question:\n\nIf Mrs. Eddy, for hire, had healed, at one sitting, a cancer that\nhad so eaten into the neck of a stranger that the jugular vein\nstood out like a cord, why, I ask, why in the name of God, did\nshe not, for her love\u2019s sake, stay the progress of the loathsome\ndisease that for seven years ate into the breast of the sister\nshe loved? Until Mrs. Eddy or one of her professed disciples has\nanswered that question, let her not look for followers amongst\npeople who know of this incident and have hearts; for she hadn\u2019t\nthe power or she hadn\u2019t the wish to save her sister, and the want\nof power would prove the baseness of her falsehoods, as the want\nof a wish would prove the adamantine quality of her heart.\n\nIf Mrs. Eddy possessed this miraculous power, why did she permit\nher third husband to die of heart disease by her side, when one\ntreatment of hers would have saved him? Why did she not reach out\nher all-powerful hand and save her own granddaughter, the child\nof her only son, when piteous appeal to her was made by the\nchild\u2019s father? Why, instead of putting forth the slightest\npersonal effort, did she recommend the employment of a Boston\nhealer, so called, a retired sea captain, one Joseph Eastaman by\nname, to give absent treatment in Boston to the poor girl dying\nin South Dakota? Imagine a retired sea captain sitting in his\noffice in Boston, closing his eyes, placing his aged hand upon\nhis vacant forehead and trying to think health and life into Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s granddaughter nearly two thousand miles away! If Mrs. Eddy\ncould have saved her own flesh and blood and did not, what must\nhave been the condition of that thing Mrs. Eddy calls her heart?\nWho that has human feeling in his heart would not give his life\nfor his child or his grandchild? and this woman, posing as the\nsuccessor to and as like unto Him who said, \u201cSuffer little\nchildren to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the\nkingdom of Heaven,\u201d and claiming to have performed miracles equal\nto any ascribed to Him in the Gospels, did absolutely nothing to\nsave the life of her granddaughter!\n\nIf Mrs. Eddy had been the miracle worker she claims to have been,\nwhy did she turn poor, devoted Mrs. Leonard, herself a renowned\nhealer of the cult, who had slaved in her household for years,\nand had for months and years been dying of diabetes under her\nvery eyes\u2014why did Mrs. Eddy turn Mrs. Leonard out of the house at\nConcord, New Hampshire, shortly before her death of that\ndistressing disease? Was it because Mrs. Eddy didn\u2019t wish the\nstriking discredit of her professed powers that would follow Mrs.\nLeonard\u2019s death upon the Eddy premises? Having the power to save\nher life, as she claims, all Mrs. Eddy did for Mrs. Leonard was\nto ask her, when death became imminent, to be so good as to go\naway and die elsewhere.\n\nMrs. Eddy estimates values in terms of dollars and cents, and\nyet, possessing the mastery over death, she put forth no effort\nto save the life of Joseph Armstrong, her close friend of many\nyears, a director in her church from its foundation, her personal\nbusiness manager who had made a fortune for her, and yet departed\nthis life of pleurisy with effusion in the summer or fall of\n1907. If Mrs. Eddy could save any human life, she would have\nsaved this one, so pecuniarily precious above all other lives to\nher.\n\nIf she had such marvelous power, why did she allow her personal\ncoachman, the man who had sat on the seat of her carriage as she\ntook her daily drive, to die in her house of a disease of which\nhe had been \u201ccompletely cured\u201d by Christian Science? Why did she\nlet her close, personal friend, her leading lecturer and\nproselyter, Edward E. Kimball, die in the prime of life and at\nthe height of his usefulness to her cause? Why has she turned a\ndeaf ear to the prayers that have been addressed to her by\nbroken-hearted parents who have so often journeyed to her home to\nbeg her to exert her God-like power to save from the grave their\ndying child? Why has she for thirty years and more refused to\neven try to heal any one, to attempt to allay any pain however\nfearful, or save any human life however beautiful and however\nprecious?\n\nIf Mary Baker G. Eddy has the power she boldly claims to have,\nand if she has wrought the miracles she says she has wrought, she\nhas that power, then, I say, she has the heart of a very fiend;\nfor not once in thirty years has she consented to try, out of\nordinary humanity, to prevent suffering or to save life.\n\nThe truth is, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s miraculous cures are all frauds, every\none of them, and the failure of attempted healings would prove\nthem to be frauds, and she does not wish to so discredit herself.\nShe never healed any one of any serious disease. She never in her\nlife had any curative power whatever, and she has been wise\nindeed not to advertise the fact by attempting to cure. Her man,\nAlfred Farlow, the official, highly paid and carefully coached\nspokesman of her cult, and its leading press agent, admitted, in\nresponse to my questioning and when testifying recently under\noath and subject to cross examination, that he did not know of\nany cure ever having been made by Mrs. Eddy of any organic\ndisease in her life, but stiff leg; and he said that, in his\nunderstanding as a high practitioner of the Christian Science art\nof healing, a stiff leg is an organic disease.\n\nWhen I entered upon my investigation of the matter, I believed in\nthe reality of some of the professed cures of Christian Science,\neven of organic disease, but closer acquaintance with the subject\nhas satisfied me that they are, without exception, false\npretensions or honest delusions. I have known of the most honest,\nbut erroneous, belief in cure by Christian Science, I have known\npeople so resolutely to deny to themselves the reality of\ndisease, that they have come to believe in its unreality; and one\ncase has come to my notice of a poor woman\u2019s insistence with her\ndying breath that she had been healed of an incurable disease and\nwas then perfectly well, while her death within a few hours was\nthe sad witness to the delusive character of her \u201ccure.\u201d\n\nPerhaps the most impressive case of this delusive cure of\nincurable disease is that of the Earl of Dunmore. He was\nChristian Science\u2019s show convert. His personality was always in\nthe foreground, he always sat in the front row upon the platform\nand his name was always in the papers.\n\nIn March, 1907, he published in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_ an\naccount of his conversion to Christian Science, which was due, he\nsaid, to his having been healed by it of a disease an eminent\nLondon surgeon had pronounced incurable. The Earl of Dunmore,\nwhen he published that article, doubtless believed it was true.\nHe was perfectly sincere, but his death, within a few weeks after\nthe publication of his conversion through cure, his death of the\nvery disease pronounced incurable by the London doctor, was\npathetic and convincing testimony to his mistaken opinion that he\nhad been cured and to the accuracy of the medical diagnosis that\nhis disease was incurable.\n\nAgain and again the most persistent effort has been made to\ninduce Christian Science healers to give some reasonable proof of\ntheir powers; but they as persistently refuse to submit any\nalleged cures to anything like scientific scrutiny. There has\nnever been a scientifically established Christian Science cure.\nThe \u201chealers\u201d confess that they are, nay even boast that they\nare, incompetent to diagnose disease. If they can\u2019t determine the\npresence of disease, how then can they determine its cure? Mrs.\nEddy herself goes so far as to say that ignorance of all\ndepartments of the science of medicine is an aid in the cure of\ndisease, according to her system. What value then is to be\nattached to anything any of them say about disease, if they are\ncompletely ignorant concerning it? And it being a fundamental\narticle of their faith to deny the reality of disease, how can\nthey admit its reality, however manifest in their patients,\nwithout stultifying themselves? Is it not superlatively absurd to\nbe in the slightest degree influenced by anything any of these\nmonomaniacs, or fakers, can possibly say upon a subject of which\nthey openly profess to know, and boast that they know, absolutely\nnothing?\n\nBesides, and let me emphasize this statement, there is not a\nChristian Science healer, in good and regular standing anywhere\nin the world, who tells the truth, or tries to tell the truth, or\ncould tell the truth if he tried. They know that suffering is\nreal, they know disease is real, they know that death is the most\npositive of all realities, and yet they perpetually affirm the\nunreality of all these things. Every former healer, who has\nreformed, or recovered his sanity and given up pretending to heal\nby denying the reality of a condition he is attempting to change,\nwill tell you he lied perpetually when practising so-called\nChristian Science; for to admit the reality of disease or\nsuffering or death, however confident of its existence, is to\ndeny the faith and pronounce Mrs. Eddy to be a fraud.\n\nLet me here, parenthetically, call attention to another phase of\nthis thing. Not only are these unrealities proclaimed, but the\nreality of sin is in like manner denied. If sin is unreal, to\ncommit sin is nothing, and no iniquity is so great as to be\nmorally reprehensible. There is no such thing as morality or\nimmorality, if sin is unreal; and any one who proclaims the\nunreality of sin, if he have any influence in the community, is\nabout as harmful a member of society as can exist.\n\nThe denial of suffering and death, the denial of poverty and sin,\nhave had a markedly observable effect in Christian Science\ncircles in drying up the springs of the sweetest and tenderest of\nhuman feelings. If none of these things really exist, there can\nbe no occasion for charity, for compassion, for sympathy, and to\ngive expression to any of these sentiments is to admit the\nreality of the things Mrs. Eddy affirms to be unreal. One cannot\nbe a Christian Scientist and have in his heart the Christ-like\nemotions of sympathy and charity and compassion. It is said that\nthe faces of Christian Scientists wear a perpetual smile. It is\nthe stereotyped smile of affected cheerfulness and it covers a\nheart from which the most humane and attractive qualities have\nbeen, as nearly as may be, rooted out. But to return to the\nhealers.\n\nI know a woman who was a successful healer for fifteen years and\nas conscientious as any of them, and she is now frank enough to\nsay that she never healed any one of any real disease or serious\nindisposition in all that time, and doesn\u2019t know of any other\nhealer who did. They simply fool themselves and their patients by\ndenying the reality of disease so long as there is breath in the\nbody, and when death occurs and actually confronts them, they\ndeny the reality of death. Could absurdity further go?\n\nPerhaps it is due to their belief in the unreality of death, that\nthey permit no funerals in their churches; perhaps, also, it may\nbe due to their unwillingness, from a business standpoint, to\nadmit that Christian Scientists, young and old, die just as do\nthe benighted people who have not bowed down to Mrs. Eddy.\n\nSurely, if the healings of Christian Scientists were realities,\nonce a convert would mean always a convert; but it is a fact that\npeople are coming out of Christian Science as rapidly as they are\ngoing in, and the more intelligence they have the more quickly\nthey abandon the thing when they come to understand what it is.\nIf you are all right in the region of the brain and all right in\nthe region of the heart, you won\u2019t tarry very long in the\nChristian Science camp. I know many ex-Christian Scientists who\ndenounce it as roundly as I do and declare it to be a fraud in\nall its aspects. I could name hundreds of people, formerly\nzealous followers of Mrs. Eddy, who now repudiate her with scorn\nand contumely. Would they do this if she were in fact the miracle\nworker she claims to be, and if Christian Science were in fact\nthe sovereign antidote to sickness, sin and death?\n\nThe following is taken from a letter recently received from a\ngentleman of exceptional intelligence:\n\n  \u201cI have been connected with that church for five years and have\n  lately had my eyes opened to the most cold-blooded _skin game_\n  conceivable under the guise of a religion. Having conducted a\n  Christian Science sanitarium for three years, I am in\n  possession of facts unknown to any but Christian Scientists,\n  and to only a few of the inner circle of _grafters_. I was a\n  student of medicine at Harvard in the 70s, am a B.A. of the\n  University of New Brunswick, Canada, and ought to have known\n  better\u2014_but there are others_.\u201d\n\nChristian Science is a \u201cskin game\u201d and the powers that be in\nChristian Science are the \u201cinner circle of grafters\u201d! Strange\nlanguage this to be applied to a \u201creligion\u201d and its leading\nofficials by a former believer; but it is precisely as former\nChristian Scientists, men and women, speak of the thing and the\npeople they have repudiated.\n\nCures of real or imaginary illness are sometimes effected in very\nextraordinary ways. Being recently in San Francisco, I talked\nwith a friend, a lawyer, there who had gone through the\nexperience of the earthquake. The house in which he was born and\nin which he lived was burned to the ground after its contents had\nbeen dragged out and heaped up upon a vacant lot, and he turned\nfrom his law office, his library shelves crowded with books, no\none of which he had an opportunity to save from the devastating\nflames. The experience was an intensely distressing and\nexhausting one. For two days and two nights he did not get a wink\nof sleep. Prior to the earthquake and fire, he had been a\nconstant sufferer from the most excruciating headaches. Not a\nheadache has he had since! Cured by earthquake!\n\nI talked with another gentleman, and he told me that his\nmother-in-law had been bedridden for five years, and not once in\nthat time had put her foot upon the floor. She had not attempted\nto walk because she was positive she was unable to walk and her\ndeath was daily expected. As the flames approached the region of\nher residence, my friend and his wife started off in different\ndirections to find some form of conveyance to carry their mother\nto a place of safety, and when they returned, in about an hour,\nshe had vanished. Unaided, she had gotten up, dressed herself,\nand walked between two and three miles! Cured by conflagration!\n\nMarvelous cures these, almost in the nature of miracles; and yet\neven a Christian Scientist would smile disdainfully if earthquake\nand conflagration were seriously prescribed for headache and\nparalysis.\n\nNo doubt people have recovered of illness while under Christian\nScience treatment; just as they have when under no treatment; but\nthe Christian Science inane treatment was no more the _cause_ of\nthe recovery than was the absence of treatment of any kind.\n\nThere is a great deal of delusive sickness, which is easily cured\nby a putting away of the delusion, and there was never yet any,\nbut a delusive, cure by Christian Science of an organic disease\u2014\nnot one. Will Mrs. Eddy and all her healers and followers\nthroughout the world be able to add one moment, one breath, to\nthe life of Mrs. Eddy herself, when the hour of her death has\narrived? No, deny the reality of disease and death as they may,\nit comes to them one and all, just as to others, when the angel\nof death approaches and beckons from the darkness that closes\nupon their drooping eyes.\n\nI am sure that there can be no doubt in any honest,\nclear-thinking mind that has followed me thus far, that all of\nthese monstrous and irreverent pretensions of the leader and\nfounder of Christian Science are wholly false, and I am equally\nconfident that I shall establish in the mind of those who go with\nme to the end of my showing, that Mrs. Eddy\u2019s frauds have had\ntheir incentive in a purely mercenary motive; that she has\nclaimed to have received a revelation from God and equality with\nJesus and the performance of miracles for the purpose alone of\nfooling people into placing an extraordinary value upon her\nvalueless teachings for which she has made extortionate charges;\nthat she has claimed to be the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy,\n\u201cthe woman clothed with the sun,\u201d and that her book, \u201cScience and\nHealth,\u201d was the little book held in the hand of the angel, that\nshe is herself the feminine impersonation, as Jesus was the\nmasculine impersonation, of the immaculate idea, and that, not\nshe, but God was the author of her book, solely and only that she\nmight build up a powerful organization and a large fortune. Money\nand power are the explanations of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s frauds, her lies,\nher blasphemies, I will even say of her crimes, for when crime\ncould, as she believed, be accomplished through mental effort,\nmaliciously employed for the destruction of her enemies, she has\nnot hesitated so to seek its accomplishment, and her whole\ncareer, for thirty or forty years past, has been the crime of\nobtaining money by false pretenses.\n\n\n\n\n                          Chapter VIII\n\n                       Immeasurable Greed\n\n\nLet us now go with some particularity into these charges that I\nmake against Mrs. Eddy. I charge that she has been and is wholly\nmercenary; that her pretended revelation, her pretended\nexceptional character as successor to Jesus, her pretended\nmarvelous curative powers, are dishonestly invented and put\nforth, first, as a means of making money, and then as a means of\nacquiring despotic power.\n\nFirst, as to the mercenary motive.\n\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s activity as a teacher of Christian Science began in\nthe year 1870, after leaving Stoughton and going to Lynn,\nMassachusetts. She was then in her fiftieth year, and from the\ntime of her marriage to Glover in 1843 had been extremely poor.\nChristian Science, at the very outset, took on a money-making\ncharacter. Her familiarity with Quimby\u2019s teachings, transformed\ninto a discovery of her own, and then into a revelation from God,\nbecame with her a business asset to be utilized for revenue only.\n\nIn the introduction to her \u201cScience and Health,\u201d published in\n1898, Mrs. Eddy says that her \u201cfirst pamphlet on Christian\nScience was copyrighted in 1870, but it did not appear in print\nuntil 1876, as she had learned that this science must be\ndemonstrated by healing before a work on the subject could be\n_profitably_ published.\u201d I emphasize the word \u201cprofitably.\u201d At\nthe very start there was the resolution in the woman\u2019s heart that\nthis \u201cscience,\u201d ultimately to become a \u201creligion,\u201d was not to be\ngiven to the world until it could be published with _profit_ to\nher, and from the beginning, until now, _profit_ has been her\nfirst and main consideration.\n\nIn the _Banner of Light_, the organ of the spiritualists, of July\n4, 1869, and three years after the date she now claims as the\ntime of the \u201crevelation,\u201d Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Glover, published\nthe following advertisement:\n\n  \u201cAny person desiring to learn how to heal the sick can receive\n  of the undersigned instruction that will enable them to\n  commence healing on a principle of science with success far\n  beyond any of the present modes. No medicine, electricity,\n  physiology or Hygiene required for unparalleled success in the\n  most difficult cases. No pay is required unless the skill is\n  obtained. Address Mrs. Mary B. Glover, Amesbury, Mass., Box\n  61.\u201d\n\nOne is reminded of the flaunting advertisements of the cut-rate\ndrug stores, guaranteeing a cure by a liberal use of patent\nmedicines or a return of the money.\n\nMrs. Eddy started out with the guarantee system, no skill\nimparted, no money required; but it may be believed that the\nguarantee system was speedily abandoned. There was no money in a\nguarantee of skill to heal disease through Mrs. Eddy\u2019s teachings,\nand a change was speedily made to the permanently-adopted system\nof \u201c_cash in advance_.\u201d\n\nIt appears that, as to teaching, there was a progressive scale of\ncharges. First it was whatever she could get; then $100 in\nadvance, with ten per cent royalty on the students\u2019 subsequent\nincome from practice, and $1,000 if, having learned the system,\nhe did not care to practise it; then $300 for twelve lessons,\ncash \u201cstrictly in advance,\u201d and ultimately $300 for _seven_\nlessons, \u201ccash strictly in advance.\u201d\n\nI have examined the court record in two litigations instituted by\nMrs. Eddy (years after God had, as she says, selected her for her\ndivine mission), for the recovery of money alleged by her to be\ndue upon a contract reading as follows:\n\n  \u201cWe, the undersigned, do hereby agree, in consideration of\n  instructions and manuscripts received from Mrs. Mary B. Glover,\n  to pay her $100 in advance, and ten per cent annually on the\n  income that we receive from practicing or teaching the same. We\n  also do hereby agree to pay the said Mary B. Glover $1,000 in\n  case we do not practice or teach the science she has taught\n  us.\u201d\n\nThe _Banner of Light_ advertisement was dated July 4, 1869, and\none of the contracts is dated August 17, 1870, so it will be seen\nhow brief was the duration of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s guarantee system of\noperating.\n\nI think, in all her lawsuits for the recovery of tuition Mrs.\nEddy never prevailed after a hearing upon the merits, and in one\nof them, the Judge, who tried her case, after having heard her\ntestimony in full, said:\n\n  \u201cI do not find any instruction given by her nor any\n  explanations of her \u2018science\u2019 or \u2018method of healing,\u2019 which are\n  intelligible to ordinary comprehension, or which could in any\n  way be of value in fitting the defendant as a competent and\n  successful practitioner of any intelligible art or method of\n  healing the sick. And I am of opinion that the consideration\n  for the agreement has wholly failed, and I so find.\u201d\n\nThis finding of the court is interesting as a judicial estimate,\nbased upon her own sworn testimony, of the value of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nChristian Science, which has never been any more intelligible to\nany one else than it was to the learned Judge.\n\nIn 1881, Mrs. Eddy established what she called the Massachusetts\nMetaphysical College, which was an institution for the turning\nout of Christian Science healers. Her adopted son and husband,\nwith herself, constituted the faculty of this remarkable\ninstitution, and the entire college course consisted of twelve\nlessons. The following is taken from an advertisement in the\n_Christian Science Journal_, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s personal organ, for\nSeptember, 1886, under the heading, \u201cMassachusetts Metaphysical\nCollege, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, President, 571 Columbus Ave.,\nBoston, Mass.\u201d:\n\n  \u201cThe collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysical\n  healing includes twelve lessons. Class convenes at 10 a.m. The\n  first week, six consecutive lessons. The term continues about\n  three weeks. _Tuition, three hundred dollars. Tuition for all\n  strictly in advance_.\u201d\n\nRemember that this was Mrs. Eddy\u2019s charge fifteen years after God\nhad, by revelation, as she says, freely imparted to her what she\nwas here advertising to sell at the rate of twenty-five dollars\nper lesson, cash \u201cstrictly in advance.\u201d Mrs. Eddy\u2019s was a\nstrictly cash business, no trust, no \u201crevelation\u201d C.O.D., or on\nthe installment plan, and no money returned however dissatisfied\nwith the purchase.\n\nReferring to this charge of three hundred dollars for twelve\nlessons, Mrs. Eddy, in her book, \u201cRetrospection and\nIntrospection,\u201d has perpetrated one the funniest passages to be\nfound in all literature:\n\n  \u201cWhen God impelled me to set a price on Christian Science mind\n  healing,\u201d she says, \u201c_I_ could think of no financial equivalent\n  for the impartation of a knowledge of that divine power which\n  heals; but _I was led_ to name three hundred dollars as the\n  price for each pupil in one course of lessons at my college; a\n  startling sum for tuition lasting barely three weeks. This\n  amount _greatly troubled me_. I _shrank_ from asking it, but\n  was finally _led by a strange Providence_ to _accept_ this fee.\n  God has since shown me in multitudinous ways the wisdom of this\n  decision.\u201d\n\nThe idea of setting a price on Christian Science mind healing\nnever occurred to Mrs. Eddy until God called it to her attention\nand impelled her to it. Unaided, it was impossible for her to\nhave thought of or wished to establish a financial equivalent for\nthe impartation of a knowledge of that \u201cdivine power which\nheals,\u201d but, led by Divine Providence, she finally consented to\nname three hundred dollars as the price. God, from his seat at\nthe center of the universe, turning His attention from the laws\nthat hold the spheres in their orbits, leaning earthward,\nwhispered in the attentive woman\u2019s ear, \u201cMary, a price should be\ncharged for my word. It is a private snap, all your own, and\nthree hundred dollars is about the proper figure.\u201d So troubled\nwas this diffident person by the divine command, that she\npositively shrank, retreated before it with her hands clasped\ntight behind her. How persistent must the Almighty have been to\nhave overcome such hesitancy! How He must have labored to\nconvince the woman that His revelation was expressly designed for\nher pecuniary profit. But God triumphed and Mrs. Eddy yielded,\nand subsequently in multitudinous ways Providence demonstrated to\nher the wisdom of her decision\u2014multitudinous ways\u2014and\nmultitudinous dollars.\n\nSo shrinkingly did Mrs. Eddy prevail upon herself, finally, to\naccept this God-ordained financial equivalent for \u201cimpartation of\nthe divine power that heals\u201d to those who could afford to pay in\nadvance for it at the rate of twenty-five dollars per hour, that\na large imagination may possibly conceive of the struggle with\nherself necessary to enable her to bring suit in the courts to\nrecover from those she had been foolish enough to trust,\nnotwithstanding her noble resolution to carry on a strictly cash\nbusiness; and surely it will be quite impossible for any one,\nhowever gifted with imaginative faculty, to realize what the poor\ncreature _must_ have suffered to overcome the \u201cshrinking\u201d that\npossessed her modest soul so far as to enable her to _increase_\nher charge by almost a hundred per cent, as she did in a couple\nof years.\n\nIf we may judge by results, it must be admitted that the wisdom,\nthe commercial wisdom, of her decision, whether shown by God or\nnot, was quite clearly demonstrated, as Mrs. Eddy says that\n\u201cduring seven years some four thousand students were taught by me\n(her) in this college.\u201d Four thousand students, at three hundred\ndollars per student, for a \u201ccollege\u201d course of twelve lessons!\nFour thousand times three hundred equals one million two hundred\nthousand, and one million two hundred thousand dollars may be\nsaid to be fairly reasonable compensation for instruction, even\nin Christian Science, covering a period of seven years,\nespecially as it was all in the family. A family of three, even\nthree adults, as frugal and thrifty as these, could comfortably\nprovide themselves with the necessaries of life upon an income of\none hundred and seventy thousand dollars a year.\n\nMrs. Eddy has put herself to some trouble to show that she got\nthe full three hundred dollars from every one of the four\nthousand students. I don\u2019t think she did, but I have no doubt she\ntried to. However, she says she did, in these words:\n\n  \u201cI wrote \u2018Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,\u2019\n  taught students for a tuition of $300 each and seldom taught\n  without having charity scholars, sometimes a dozen or upwards\n  in one class. Afterwards, with touching tenderness, those very\n  students sent me the full tuition money. However, I returned\n  this money with love; but it was again mailed to me in letters\n  begging me to accept it, saying, \u2018Your teachings are worth much\n  more to me than money can be.\u2019\u201d\n\nGod had decided that three hundred dollars was a financial\n_equivalent_ for the teaching; but the grateful students deemed\nits value beyond financial computation. Presumably the payment of\nthe large tuition was, in itself, a means of grace and power,\njust as those who have paid the healers\u2019 bills most promptly have\nrecovered most speedily.\n\nAccording to its founder, \u201cChristian Science demonstrates that\nthe patient who pays whatever he is able to pay for being healed\nis more apt to recover than he who withholds the slight\nequivalent for health.\u201d Pay well, extremely well, for teaching if\nyou aim to become a great healer; and impress upon your patients\nthe pronounced curative properties of prompt and liberal payment\nof their bills for treatment!\n\nPresident Mary Baker G. Eddy and her faculty, which, when it did\nnot consist of herself alone, included her third husband and\nadopted son, do not seem to have needed a bargain counter for\nmarked down educations. Marked up educations in Christian Science\nwere the ones that sold best, as Mrs. Eddy wisely foresaw. So,\nafter only a couple of years of the God-established rate of three\nhundred dollars for twelve lessons, Mrs. Eddy and her learned\nfaculty concluded to set aside God\u2019s judgment and raise the\nrates. They thriftily, and \u201cshrinkingly,\u201d of course, resolved\nthat three hundred dollars for so many as _twelve_ lessons,\nalthough advised by God, was in truth not a fair \u201cfinancial\nequivalent for an impartation of a knowledge of that divine power\nwhich heals,\u201d and in the _Christian Science Journal_ for\nDecember, 1888, twenty-two years after God had, as she says,\n_freely_ revealed it to her, Mrs. Eddy published the following\nnotice:\n\n  \u201cHaving reached a place in teaching where my students in\n  Christian Science are taught more during seven lessons in the\n  primary class than they were formerly in twelve, and taught all\n  that is profitable at one time, hereafter the primary class\n  will include seven lessons only. As this number of lessons is\n  of more value than twice this number in times past, no change\n  is made in the price of tuition, _three hundred dollars_. Mary\n  Baker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\n_Three hundred dollars_ for _seven lessons_, _forty-two dollars\nper lesson_, from each person in the _primary class_ of\n_unalloyed humbug_, by a _rank impostor!_ Over two thousand\ndollars for each single lesson to classes of fifty, and thousands\nof people living in the most enlightened portion of the world, in\nthe latter part of the nineteenth century, willing to pay it!\nVerily there is ground for humbleness of spirit in such a display\nof credulity, not to say imbecility, or, as Mark Twain would say,\n_asininity_, in this so-called enlightened age!\n\nDoes not, in all sincerity, I ask, does not Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\n\u201cshrinking\u201d suggest in an impressive and beautiful way the chaste\nhesitancy of the hungry pig as he scrambles on all fours into the\nreplenished trough!\n\nRecall the picture of the haloed Mrs. Eddy standing by His side\nand holding the Saviour\u2019s hand, as illustrative of equality and\n\u201cChristian Unity\u201d; and imagine, if imagination be equal to the\ntask, Jesus availing Himself of His communion and kinship with\nthe Father to accumulate money. Fancy His Sermon on the Mount\nbeing imparted, after the payment to Him by each disciple of a\nfinancial equivalent of the proportions of the Eddy exaction. See\nHim crowding into the courts those poor unfortunates who were\nunable to pay, and by the employment of legal process seeking to\nwrest it from them. Imagine His requiring all His disciples to\nsign a contract to pay so much in advance, such a percentage of\ntheir annual income from healing, and one thousand dollars\nforfeit if they were indisposed to heal after having been taught.\nHear Him instructing His disciples to go into all the world,\nteach the gospel to every creature for cash strictly in advance,\nto lay hands upon the sick and assure them that they would be\nmore likely to be healed after having paid whatever they were\nable to pay for the service.\n\nAgain, may we hear the burst of divine indignation at the impious\nand infamous pretensions of this sordid creature! Again the\nwords, \u201cYe serpents, ye generation of vipers! How can ye escape\nthe damnation of hell\u201d!\n\nBut teaching was not Mrs. Eddy\u2019s only bonanza, and her income\nfrom teaching was only a fraction of her total income.\n\nIn 1875, or thereabouts, Mrs. Eddy had a book on her hands that\nshe had most laboriously written, and for which she must create a\nmarket. The book was the veriest rubbish and, with only her name\nto back it, was utterly without value to any one. In course of\ntime, it not selling readily, the idea seems to have dawned upon\nher that, if she could make people believe that this book, this\ncrude, incoherent jumbling together of meaningless terms, was in\nvery deed the Word of God, the Infallible, the All-wise, and that\nits mere perusal would cure disease, a market would be created\nfor it and her fortune would be made. Acting upon this theory,\nlittle by little she advanced the idea that the contents of the\nbook came to her by revelation, and she soon reached a point\nwhere she did not hesitate to declare that it is, in its details\nand in its completeness, the \u201cWord of God\u201d in precisely the same\nsense and to precisely the same extent that the Christian\nbelieves the Scriptures to be the word of God.\n\nShe would blush, she says, to speak of \u201cScience and Health\u201d as\nshe does, \u201cwere it of human origin\u201d and she \u201capart from God its\nauthor,\u201d and \u201cNo human pen or tongue taught me the Science\ncontained in this book and neither tongue nor pen can overthrow\nit;\u201d and she boldly affirms it to have been expressly \u201cauthorized\nby Christ\u201d as an interpreter of the Bible. Referring to its\ncurative properties, she said, \u201cThe perusal of the author\u2019s\npublications heals sickness.\u201d\n\nWith these affirmations the humbug was consummated and the book\nplaced upon a parity with, nay, upon a higher plane than, the\nBible, for I think it has never been said that the mere reading\nof the Bible cures disease; but never for a moment did the shrewd\nwoman relax her hold upon her copyright or permit the\npublication, outside the covers of her copyrighted books, of even\nso much as her so-called spiritual interpretation of the Lord\u2019s\nPrayer or the tenets of the faith. Everybody must pay her a\nroyalty for access even to her prayers and her creed. Mrs. Eddy\nhas been wise in her day and generation. She knew how large a\npart of the public likes to be fooled _all_ the time, and she has\nfooled and now fools a very considerable part to the very top of\nits bent.\n\nMany hundreds of thousands of copies of this book have been sold\nat three dollars and upwards per copy. It is entitled, \u201cScience\nand Health, with Key to the Scriptures,\u201d although the only parts\nof the Scriptures touched upon by the alleged \u201cKey\u201d are the first\nchapter of the Old Testament and the last chapter of the New,\nGenesis and Revelation. To the intervening goodly portions God\ndoes not, through Mrs. Eddy, appear to have furnished us any\n\u201cKey.\u201d\n\n\u201cA Christian Scientist,\u201d says Mrs. Eddy \u201crequires my work\n\u2018Science and Health\u2019 for his text book, as do all his students\nand patients;\u201d the soul\u2019s salvation and body\u2019s health being\ndependent upon the purchase and perusal thereof.\n\nThe organization of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, so\ncalled, which, let me again affirm, was a sham affair from start\nto finish, without college building, classrooms, faculty,\ncurriculum or entrance or graduating examinations, this\ninstitution was a valuable agency for the distribution of Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s inspired and curative and copyrighted and costly writings,\nand so have been the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in\nBoston, the Mother Church, so called, and all the other Christian\nScience churches, of which the book itself has been, by her\ndecree, constituted the impersonal \u201cpastor.\u201d Every member of\nevery church and every student at the \u201ccollege\u201d must have a copy\nof the inspired \u201cScience and Health,\u201d at three dollars per copy,\nfor the cheapest editions. (There is good profit in three dollars\nfor a book costing not over fifty cents to publish\u2014five hundred\nper cent profit.) Every teacher of Christian Science and every\nteacher\u2019s student must have a copy of \u201cScience and Health\u201d\nproperly to teach and to understand Mrs. Eddy\u2019s \u201cScience.\u201d\n\nEvery one of the five thousand advertising Christian Science\nhealers must keep a stock of the books on hand and sell them to\ntheir patients, who are made to believe, or to try to believe,\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s absurd pretension that its mere perusal cures\ndisease, at prices ranging from three to six dollars, according\nto binding. And, finally, chapters having been transposed, the\nmost trivial additions made or a different picture of the author\ninserted, all hands are invited, no matter how many copies may\nalready be upon their shelves, to again step up and buy another\ncopy, the revised edition, containing matter said to be of the\ngreatest importance to their bodily and spiritual welfare, and\n_all_ obediently accept the invitation.\n\nIn the words of our friend, Colonel Sellers of joyful memory,\n\u201cThere\u2019s millions in it\u201d!!!\n\nIt would be difficult to convince any one of the boundless\naudacity employed by Mrs. Eddy to promote the sale of this\nworthless book, if the authoritative evidence over her own\nsignature were not available; but she has convicted herself, has\nproven in her own hand over her own signature that the author of\nthis book, the founder of this alleged religion and the pretended\nsuccessor to Jesus is the arch impostor of all time.\n\nBefore I quote the grabber of money against the \u201cfounder\u201d of a\n\u201creligion,\u201d let me remind you that it was and is a part of Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s claim that her teachings complete the teachings of Jesus;\nthat her \u201creligion\u201d completes the religion of Christ; that, as\nJesus said, \u201cNo man cometh unto the Father but by Me,\u201d so Mrs.\nEddy, in effect, says, \u201cNo man cometh unto the Father but by\nJesus, and me.\u201d To come unto the Father is to obtain knowledge of\nthe Father, and, according to Mrs. Eddy, while incomplete\nknowledge may be obtained through the teachings of Jesus,\ncomplete knowledge of the Father is attainable only through Jesus\nand her. She has established and organized The First Church of\nChrist, Scientist, in Boston, ostensibly to lead into complete\nknowledge of the Father those who seek Him in spirit and in\ntruth. Bearing this in mind, note what follows, taken from the\nMarch, 1897, _Christian Science Journal_, signed by Mary Baker G.\nEddy, and published just as her book, \u201cMiscellaneous Writings,\u201d\nwas placed upon the market and for the sole purpose of promoting\nits sale.\n\n  She says: \u201cChristian Scientists in the United States and Canada\n  are hereby enjoined not to teach a student of Christian Science\n  for one year, commencing on March 14, 1897.\n\n  \u201cMiscellaneous Writings is calculated to prepare the minds of\n  all true thinkers to understand the Christian Science text book\n  more correctly than a student can.\n\n  \u201cThe Bible, \u2018Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,\u2019\n  and my other published works, are the only proper instructors\n  for this hour. _It shall be the duty of all Christian\n  Scientists to circulate and to sell as many of these books as\n  they can_.\n\n  \u201c_If a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientists, shall\n  fail to obey this injunction, it will render him liable to lose\n  his membership in this church_.\n\n                                            Mary Baker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\nAt this time there were upwards of twenty thousand members,\nresident and non-resident, of this church, and every one of them\nwas by this decree required to become a canvasser for the sale of\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s books. Twenty thousand unpaid vendors of her\nworthless patent medicine, upon which there was a profit of five\nhundred per cent! Is it not enough to make other manufacturers of\nproprietary concoctions turn green with envy!\n\nThis compulsory sale of her books was in 1897, when Mrs. Eddy was\nseventy-six, but she is the same woman today, at eighty-eight\nyears of age. With only a few steps between her and the grave,\nshe reaches out her withered, palsied hand to grab, grab, grab.\n\nOne of her latter-day schemes for bleeding the faithful has been,\nas I have indicated, to publish frequent \u201crevised\u201d editions of\nher great work, \u201cScience and Health,\u201d with the announcement of\nadditions to its text necessary to growth in \u201cScience.\u201d Everybody\nmust buy a new book and add a new profit to Mrs. Eddy\u2019s coffers.\n\nIn February, 1908, over her signature, she published this:\n\n                          \u201cTake Notice\n\n  \u201cI request Christian Scientists universally to read the\n  paragraph beginning at line thirty of page 442 in the edition\n  of \u2018Science and Health,\u2019 which will be issued, February 29. I\n  consider the information there given to be of _great\n  importance_ at this stage of the workings of animal magnetism,\n  and it will _greatly aid_ the students in their individual\n  experiences.\n\n                                           \u201cMary Baker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\nShortly after the time of the publication of this notice (the\nlitigation brought by her sons being still pending) Senator\nChandler, their senior counsel with whom I was associated,\nhappened to be in Boston. As the Senator was particularly\ninterested in keeping tabs on Mrs. Eddy\u2019s mental attitude toward\nso-called \u201canimal magnetism,\u201d he asked me if I would procure for\nhim a copy of this edition, as her notice seemed to indicate a\npossible change in her point of view on that subject. After\nprotesting mildly that I hated to put any good money into that\nfake enterprise, I went to the publication office in Boston and\nasked for a copy of the edition of \u201cScience and Health\u201d published\non February 29. The clerk in attendance informed me that the\nedition was completely exhausted, but that another edition\ncontaining those alterations and others could be had. Insisting\nthat no other edition than the one of February 29 would answer my\npurpose, a somewhat worn copy was finally produced as the only\none in the place and I was told I could have it, if I didn\u2019t\nobject to its condition. Turning to page 442 and running my eye\ndown to line thirty, where there was a little paragraph of two\nlines, I returned the book to the clerk and said it was not what\nI wanted, as it didn\u2019t appear to contain the new matter of \u201cgreat\nimportance\u201d referred to by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s published notice. Upon his\nassurance, however, that it was the volume published on February\n29 and that the paragraph of two lines, at line thirty, page 442,\nwas the paragraph referred to in Mrs. Eddy\u2019s notice, I tucked the\nlittle gold brick under my arm, reluctantly parted with my three\ngood dollars and, returning to the Parker House, handed it to\nSenator Chandler without a word.\n\nTurning to page 442, the Senator paused at line thirty long\nenough to read the paragraph of two lines, and then, looking up,\nexclaimed:\n\n  \u201cWhat a swindle! Do you suppose any one can be of so little\n  intelligence, who buys that book in consequence of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\n  notice and reads this paragraph, that he does not feel, as we\n  feel, that he has been swindled?\u201d\n\nI assured the Senator that, in my judgment, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s following\nwas largely made up of people who dearly loved to hand their\nmoney over to her, that nothing else gave them quite such joy and\nthat they would be only too delighted and satisfied to be told by\nMrs. Eddy that they must be a law unto themselves in order to be\nprotected, sleeping or awake, from the foul fiend of animal\nmagnetism. As Mrs. Eddy says her students said of her teachings\nfor which they had rapturously parted with three hundred dollars,\n\u201cit was worth more to them than money could possibly be.\u201d\n\nWhat was this information, of \u201c_great importance_,\u201d which \u201cwould\n_greatly aid_ the students\u201d and which Christian Scientists\n\u201cuniversally\u201d must buy a new book to read? It was just two lines\ninserted in a blank space at the end of a chapter and\nnecessitated the change of no other plate of a single page in the\nbook.\n\n  \u201cChristian Scientists, be a law to yourselves, that mental\n  malpractice can harm you neither when asleep nor when awake.\u201d\n\nOnly this and _nothing more_. It is senseless, and yet it cost\nmany thousands of Christian Scientists from three to six dollars\napiece to find out, if they could find anything out, that the\n\u201crevelator\u201d had sold them a \u201cgold brick.\u201d And even since the\nedition of February, 1908, another edition, with only one line\nadded, has been foisted upon the faithful.\n\nWhat is the meaning of these things? Here is a woman claiming the\nsuccession to Jesus, claiming to have received an exclusive\nrevelation from Almighty God necessary to salvation, and, having\norganized a church ostensibly to lead unto the Father, she\nrequires, as a condition of continued membership in the church,\nthat its members shall \u201c_circulate_ and _sell_\u201d as _many_ of her\ncopyrighted books, upon which there is a profit of five hundred\nper cent, \u201cas they _can_\u201d; and, year in and year out, she palms\noff upon the believers new editions of the old stuff upon the\nfalse pretense of new material important to their spiritual\ngrowth.\n\nNobody ever went at a thing in a more round-about, indirect\nfashion, and nobody ever resorted to trickery more shamelessly\nthan has the Reverend Mary Baker G. Eddy. Nobody ever assumed\nwith so much boldness the complete asininity of the human race,\nas has this woman who professes to be the successor to Jesus\nChrist.\n\nIn the fall of 1899 suits were brought (as explained in the\nIntroduction) against Mrs. Eddy and some of her leading\nsupporters for the libel upon Mrs. Woodbury, in which damages,\napproximating half a million dollars, were asked. Mrs. Eddy and\nher friends were much alarmed and prepared for the most strenuous\ndefence that could possibly be made. It was denied that Mrs.\nWoodbury was in any way referred to in the passage complained of;\nbut numerous lawyers were retained to contest her endeavor to\nshow that the denial was false. Mrs. Eddy retained four different\nfirms of lawyers to represent her, three prominent Boston firms\nand the leading firm in New Hampshire, where she then lived. She\nthus found herself involved in enormous and unexpected expense,\nand money became the burning question of the hour.\n\nMrs. Eddy well knew, from experience, that all she had to do to\nprocure the money necessary, was to ask the faithful to give it\nto her; but she, naturally, didn\u2019t care to make an open appeal\nfor it. She resorted, as I believe, to the strangest and most\naudacious trick ever employed by any human being to get money out\nof honest and trusting people.\n\nFour days before Christmas, 1899, when it was safe to assume that\nthe customary Christmas offerings were in the mail on their way\nto her, she published in the _Christian Science Sentinel_ the\nfollowing:\n\n                            \u201cA Card.\n\n  \u201cBeloved: I ask this favor of all Christian Scientists. Do not\n  give me on, before, or after the forthcoming holidays, aught\n  material except three tea jackets. All may contribute to these.\n  One learns to value material things only as one needs them, and\n  the costliest things are those that one needs least. Among my\n  present needs material are these three jackets. Two of darkish\n  heavy silk, the shade appropriate to white hair. The third of\n  heavy satin, lighter shade, but sufficiently sombre. Nos. 1 and\n  2 to be common sense jackets for Mother to work in, and not\n  over trimmed by any means. No. 3 for best, such as she can\n  afford for her drawing room.\n\n                                              \u201cMary Baker Eddy.\u201d\n\nWhen this \u201cCard\u201d was published Mrs. Eddy must have believed that\nthere were upwards of a million Christian Scientists, for years\nbefore she had said, \u201cIn 1883 a million of people acknowledge and\nattest the blessings of this mental system of treating disease.\u201d\nSo she must have expected approximately a million people to make\nsome response to her request.\n\nIt will be noted that the \u201cCard\u201d doesn\u2019t ask for tea jackets; it\nasks for contributions for tea jackets. Mrs. Eddy had no\nexpectation that a million or more garments would be received in\nresponse to her statement that she needed two of heavy silk, the\nshade appropriate to white hair, and one of heavy satin lighter\nshade but sufficiently sombre. If she had wanted the tea jackets\nand not contributions, she would have given waist and bust\nmeasurements, with length of sleeve and skirt. No, there was no\nroom for doubt that what she wanted from _all_ her \u201cBeloved\u201d was\ncontributions and not jackets, and as she hadn\u2019t designated\nanyone to receive the contributions, _all_ were asked to make for\nMother\u2019s benefit, there was nothing to do but send the\ncontributions straight to Mother. _All_ had contributed many\ntimes and _all_ were given another precious chance to show how\n\u201ceasy\u201d they were.\n\nThere was never any publicity given to contributions received for\nthe two common sense jackets for Mother to work in, and the more\nelaborate one such as she could afford for her drawing-room; but\nwho, that has any familiarity with the exceeding eagerness of\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s followers to contribute, can have any doubt that none\nwould think of sending her less than five dollars.\n\nHow lovely! There were not more than fifty thousand Christian\nScientists at this time, but, if each chipped in five dollars\ntoward Mother\u2019s jackets, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars\ndropped into her lap.\n\nI am only giving my interpretation of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s strange\nrequest, when I say that clearly what she wanted was not tea\njackets, but money to finance her very elaborate and expensive\npreparations to contest Mrs. Woodbury\u2019s suits. She wanted money,\nshe wanted it at once, and so she asked for it immediately. The\nrequest was made for a Christmas present, and it was made four\ndays before Christmas.\n\nMy understanding that what Mrs. Eddy was after was money and not\ntea jackets, is confirmed by her own subsequent statement that\nshe didn\u2019t really want the garments after all. She gave her\n\u201cBeloved\u201d a whole week to decide how much the contribution should\nbe and to make it. A minute was time enough, and she graciously\ngave them a whole week; and then she withdrew the request\naltogether.\n\nOn December 28, 1899, a week after the publication of the first\n\u201cCard,\u201d Mrs. Eddy published another, which is a perfect gem of\ncharacteristic ambiguity. It follows:\n\n                            A Card.\n\n  Beloved: I accept most gratefully your purpose to clothe me,\n  and when God has clothed you sufficiently, He will make it easy\n  for you to clothe one of his little ones. Give yourselves no\n  more trouble to get the three garments called for by me through\n  last week\u2019s _Sentinel_.\n\n                                                Mary Baker Eddy.\n\n  Pleasant View, Concord, N.H., Dec. 25, 1899.\n\nMother had _asked_ for contributions for three tea jackets, and\nnow accepts most gratefully the purpose of her \u201cBeloved\u201d to\nclothe her; and modestly puts it by. When God has clothed them\nsufficiently, He will make it easy for them to clothe one of His\nlittle ones. There speaks the oracle for you with true Delphic\nvagueness. \u201cGive yourself no more trouble to get the garments\ncalled for by me through last week\u2019s _Sentinel_.\u201d\n\nOne thing, at least, is plain. She hadn\u2019t called for jackets, but\nfor contributions for jackets; and a week had been accorded her\ndear followers to contribute.\n\nAfter everybody from whom a contribution could be expected, had\nsent it along, they are informed that the tea jackets were not\nwanted and that when God had sufficiently clothed them, He would\nmake it easy for them to clothe one of His little ones.\n\nMother concluded that the common-sense jackets were not necessary\nto her work and that she could sufficiently grace her\ndrawing-room without the help of the Beloved; but it has not\nappeared that any of the solicited contributions were returned.\n\nI cannot say what an impression the loyal Christian Scientists\nmay have received from this performance on the part of their\nleader; but I am very certain that any man of common sense, who\nhad sent money in response to Mrs. Eddy\u2019s first card, when he\nperused the second would speedily come to the conclusion that he\nhad been buncoed.\n\nI cannot leave this subject without giving one more illustration\nof Mrs. Eddy\u2019s commercial spirit. Those of us who were brought up\nin the old school of medical practice do not forget the utility\nof spoons in that connection; and I vividly recall being made, in\nthe spring-time, to stand in line with my numerous brothers and\nsisters and to march unflinchingly upon a spoon overloaded with\nsulphur and molasses. But what earthly connection there can be\nbetween the purely mental treatment of Christian Science and the\npurely physical thing, spoon, is not at first glance perceptible.\nIt is plain, however, that spoons were a feature of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nbusiness. She was engaged in the exploitation of revelations and\nspoons, and, pursuant to her successful method of extorting\nmoney, made an appeal to the credulity of her people, utilizing\nthe old gag of the dissemination of Truth to promote even the\nsale of spoons. The following is her command to the faithful:\n\n  \u201cChristian Science Spoons\u2014On each of these most beautiful\n  spoons is a motto in bas-relief that every person on earth\n  needs to hold in thought. Mother requests that Christian\n  Scientists shall not ask to be informed what this motto is, but\n  each Scientist shall purchase at least one spoon, and those who\n  can afford it, one dozen spoons, that their families may read\n  this motto at every meal and their guests be made partakers of\n  its simple truth.\n\n                                           \u201cMary Baker G. Eddy.\u201d\n\nThis, it will be seen, is not an appeal, a request or a\nsuggestion, but a command. \u201cEach Scientist _shall_ purchase at\nleast one spoon, and those who can afford it, one dozen spoons.\u201d\nThere is a motto on the spoon, of whose simple truth, with their\nmeals, it is urged that the families of the faithful may be given\nan opportunity to partake, and \u201cMother\u201d especially requests that\nChristian Scientists shall not ask to be informed what this motto\nis. To be informed of the motto, would enable her following to\npartake of its simple truth without purchasing one dozen spoons\nor even a solitary spoon; and the sale of spoons, and not the\nconsumption of truth, was the plain purpose of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\ncommand.\n\nThe price of spoons was three dollars apiece for the plain silver\nand five dollars apiece for those with gold plated bowls; and I\nknow a gentleman in Washington, D.C., then a professed Christian\nScientist, who parted with sixty good American dollars for one\ndozen Christian Science spoons.\n\nTruly, are not Mrs. Eddy\u2019s followers the very easiest \u201ceasy\nmarks\u201d that any bunco-steerer ever went up against!\n\nHow naturally we fall into the slang of the street or into the\nlanguage in which the operations of common swindlers are\ncharacterized, when we discuss this \u201creligion\u201d and its high\npriestess!\n\nIs there any possible doubt of the basic motive of this woman?\nDid any one ever hear of anything approaching the audacity of\nthis brazen creature? Is it now clear, beyond possibility of\ncavil, that all of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s absurd and irreverent pretensions\nhave been merely unique business methods utilized to the utmost\nto give a fictitious value to her foolish and harmful teachings,\nand to extend the sale of her foolish and harmful writings?\n\nIs the founder of Christian Science in very truth anything more\nthan a peddler of \u201crevelations;\u201d a huxter, who makes a commodity\nof \u201creligion\u201d; as Mark Twain says, a shameless old swindler who\nreaches out her irreligious hand and grabs the sacred name of\nJesus the more easily to cheat and rob poor confiding creatures\nwhile looking to her for health to their aching bodies and peace\nto their troubled souls? Is there a blasphemy, a mendacity, a\ncruelty, beyond that of Mary Baker G. Eddy? Is there a greed that\n_approaches_ hers?\n\n\n\n\n                           Chapter IX\n\n                      The Eddy Autocracy.\n\n\nMoney and power are the explanations of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s life. We have\nseen how greedily she has accumulated wealth. Let us, for a\nmoment, consider the way in which she has extended her power.\n\nNearly twenty years ago, Mrs. Eddy established the First Church\nof Christ, Scientist, in Boston, which is called the \u201cMother\nChurch\u201d and stands in the relation to the other churches, as she\nsays, of the vine to the branches. It has been Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nrepeatedly expressed wish that all Christian Scientists\neverywhere should belong to the Mother Church, and Mr. Hanna,\nthen her chief representative in the organization, argued at\nlength that this expressed wish of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s was the revealed\nwill of God; and no real Christian Scientist hesitates to do\nGod\u2019s will, as revealed through Mrs. Eddy.\n\nOf course, membership in anything or connection with anything in\nChristian Science costs money, and every member, resident or\nnon-resident, of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in\nBoston, is required to pay an annual tax of at least one dollar.\nThe present total membership of this church, resident and\nnon-resident, in which Mrs. Eddy\u2019s arbitrary will is absolute\nlaw, is upwards of fifty thousand, and embraces all of the really\ndevout and loyal Eddyites everywhere in the world. Here is, in\nitself, an income of some fifty thousand dollars annually of the\nFirst Church in Boston. If to this be added pew rents, church\ncollections, the voluntary offerings of the faithful and the\nprofits on the official periodicals, the aggregate will doubtless\nreach a total of considerably over one hundred and fifty thousand\ndollars per annum. Can any other church in the country show such\nrevenues? Truly, the Church of St. Bunco, as Mr. Gordon Clark has\nhappily named it, is a paying institution!\n\nMrs. Eddy is the head of this church. She constituted and calls\nherself pastor emeritus; but her relation to the organization is\nthe reverse of what her title implies. Instead of being honorary\nmerely, it is most positive and active. She has been the final\nauthority on all matters in the church, dictated all its actions\nand ceremonies and formulated its rules and by-laws. By these\nrules and by-laws, which Mrs. Eddy has made, she has conferred\nupon _herself_ the power to remove from office any officer of her\nchurch in Boston, without cause, and to excommunicate forever,\nwithout assigned cause, any of the fifty thousand members. By\nthese rules, which Mrs. Eddy has made, she has conferred upon\nherself the power to remove the readers\u2014the first and second\nreaders, who take the place of ministers\u2014of all Christian Science\nchurches in the United States and foreign nations. No member\nexcommunicated from the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in\nBoston, may hold a membership in any other Christian Science\nchurch anywhere in the world and is cut off from fellowship with\nthe faithful, and cast into outer darkness forever.\n\nBy these rules and by-laws, which Mrs. Eddy has made, she has\nprovided that the president and directors of the church may only\nbe appointed subject to her approval; that no board of trustees\nof the church may ever be constituted except by her, and that the\nfirst members, or governing body, of the church may be appointed\nonly with her approval. Indeed, only recently, with one stroke of\nher pen and without a word of explanation, she swept this\ngoverning body, the first or executive members, completely out of\nexistence. No sermons shall ever be read in the churches, no\noriginal work of any first reader or minister is permitted (it\nwould detract somewhat from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s own writings) and the\nservice is limited, by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s rules, to the Bible and Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s published and copyrighted and profit-yielding works,\nannouncements of the name of the author of the latter always\nbeing required while publicly read. Hypnotists, so called, must\nbe excluded upon her complaint; and the editors and publishers of\nthe _Christian Science Journal_ and the other organs of the sect\nand the president of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College may\nbe only persons of whom she expressly approves. Any teacher who\ndares to take a student of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s into her class without\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s written consent \u201cshall be\u201d (not may be) \u201c_shall_ be\nexcommunicated from the church.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s rule, conferring upon Mrs. Eddy the power to remove\nofficers of all Christian Science churches, is as follows:\n\n  \u201cThe pastor emeritus of the Mother Church (Mrs. Eddy) shall\n  have the right, through a letter addressed to the individual\n  and the church of which he is a reader, to remove a reader from\n  this office in any Church of Christ, Scientist, both in America\n  and foreign nations, or to appoint the reader to fill any\n  office belonging to the Christian Scientists denomination.\u201d\n\nThis by-law is followed by the further provision that it can\nneither be amended nor annulled except by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s consent.\n\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s rules provide that membership of the church is only\npossible to those familiar with Mrs. Eddy\u2019s copyrighted, five\nhundred per cent profit earning publications; that the Bible and\nher book shall be the pastor\u2014the impersonal pastor\u2014of the Mother\nChurch; that every member of the church, when publicly reading or\nquoting from the books of Mrs. Eddy, must first announce the name\nof the author; that teachers shall instruct their students how to\ndefend themselves against mental malpractice, the witchcraft of\nChristian Science; that a degree of the Massachusetts\nMetaphysical College is a necessary preliminary to the teaching\nof Christian Science (and these degrees cost money); that any\nmember of the church, working against what Mrs. Eddy believes\nadvantageous to the church and the cause of Christian Science,\nshall, upon her complaint, be dropped forever from membership;\nthat a member of the church who shall use written formulas, or\npermit his patients or his students to use them, shall be\nexcommunicated; that any member daring to give advice on church\nmatters, outside of the meetings, shall be dropped from\nmembership, and so on, as Mark Twain says, \u201cmore ways to get out\nthan to stay in\u201d\u2014the autocrat, the egotist, and the tradesman in\nevery line.\n\nAnd this woman, who has accumulated a fortune by the methods\nstated, and imposed upon the credulity of many thousands of\nreligious people to build up a powerful organization of which she\nhas made herself the whimsical and imperious autocrat, is the\nwoman, forsooth, whom the Creator of the universe selected to be\nthe successor to Jesus!\n\nI lately stood at the threshold of the Holy of Holies of the\n\u201cMother Church,\u201d and with a crowd of worshipers patiently waited\nfor admittance to the hallowed precincts of the \u201cMother\u2019s Room.\u201d\nOver the doorway was a sign informing us that but four persons at\na time would be admitted; that they would be permitted to remain\nfive minutes only, and would please retire from the \u201cMother\u2019s\nRoom\u201d at the ringing of the bell. Entering with four of the\nfaithful, I looked with profane eyes upon the consecrated\nfurnishings. A show-woman in attendance monotonously announced\nthe character of the different appointments. Set in a recess of\nthe wall and illumined with electric light was an oil painting\nthe show-woman seriously declared to be a life-like and realistic\npicture of the chair in which the \u201cMother\u201d sat when she composed\nher \u201cinspired\u201d work. It was a picture of an old-fashioned,\ncountry, haircloth rocking chair, and an exceedingly\ncommonplace-looking table with a pile of manuscript, an\nink-bottle and pen conspicuously upon it. On the floor were\nsheets of manuscript. \u201cThe mantelpiece is of pure onyx,\u201d\ncontinued the show-woman, \u201cand the bee-hive upon the window sill\nis made from one solid stone. The rug is made of a hundred\nbreasts of eider-down ducks, and the toilet room you see in the\ncorner is of the latest design, with gold-plated drain pipes. The\npainted windows are from the Mother\u2019s poem, \u2018Christ and\nChristmas,\u2019 and that case contains complete copies of all the\nMother\u2019s books.\u201d The chairs, upon which the sacred person of the\nMother had reposed, were protected from sacrilegious touch by a\nbroad band of satin ribbon. My companions expressed their\nadmiration in subdued and reverent tones, and at the tinkling of\nthe bell we reverently tiptoed out of the room to admit another\ndelegation of the patient waiters at the door.\n\nThere are no other proselyters like the Christian Scientist; for\nthere is no other \u201creligion\u201d that is at the same time a source of\nlarge revenue to its promoters. The more money that comes into\nthe coffers of the central organization in Boston, the more\nliberal salaries may be voted to the workers. The organization\npublishes the periodicals, and there is a corps of salaried\nlecturers constantly distributed over the country. The _Christian\nScience Journal_, a monthly periodical, and the _Christian\nScience Sentinel_, a weekly periodical, were for many years the\nonly organs of the cult; but lately a more pretentious effort has\nbeen made and a daily newspaper has been established in Boston,\ncalled the _Christian Science Monitor_. The _Journal_ and the\n_Sentinel_ reach practically all of the sixty or sixty-five\nthousand Christian Scientists, and large numbers of them are\nregular subscribers to the daily newspaper. Of course, outside of\nBoston the paper cannot reach its subscribers in time to be\nanything but stale as a news agency. But what of that! To buy it\nhelps the cause; and to help the cause puts money into the\ncapacious pockets of the managers. All over the country copies of\nthese various publications are distributed free, and in nearly\nevery railroad station and waiting room throughout the length and\nbreadth of the land copies of the weekly and monthly periodicals\nmay be found in conspicuous places. The newspaper has little or\nno paid circulation outside the ranks of the believers, but many,\nmany thousands of copies are daily delivered to people who pay\nnothing whatever for it. Of course, all of this costs a great\ndeal of money, and the money comes out of the pockets of the\nbelievers, and goes into the pockets of the exploiters.\n\n\n\n\n                           Chapter X\n\n                   The \u201cString\u201d on the Gifts\n\n\nMr. Farlow, Mr. Hanna and other paid agents of Mrs. Eddy from\ntime to time meet these various accusations with the response\nthat, while Mrs. Eddy has made a great deal of money, she has\ngiven away a great deal; and, while she possesses the powers\naforesaid, she lives in retirement, at Concord, N.H., and lets\nthe organization run itself. Let us see what there is in these\ndefenses.\n\nHas Mrs. Eddy given away many thousands of dollars? Mr. Hanna\nquotes Mrs. Eddy as having said, \u201cI could have been worth many\nmillions of money. My college alone was an annual income of forty\nthousand dollars; but I managed to give away enough to balance my\naccount with conscience.\u201d It may be inferred from this that, but\nfor what Mrs. Eddy has given away, she would today be worth many\nmillions; consequently that she has given away millions. She has\ngiven away money, with reservations, but whenever she has so\ngiven it, it has been to enhance her comfort, to extend her\npower, or to add to her glory; and again and again, by herself\nand her chosen representatives, by Mr. Hanna and Mr Farlow, have\nfalse representations been made of the amounts given by her. This\nis important. Let me give a view of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s character as\ndisplayed in these business transactions.\n\nMuch has been made of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s gift of the land upon which the\nFirst Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, stands. In her book\nentitled \u201cPulpit and Press,\u201d copyrighted by Mrs. Eddy, and\npublished in 1895, is the statement that the cost of the First\nChurch of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, \u201cis two hundred and\ntwenty-one thousand dollars, exclusive of the land, a gift from\nMrs. Eddy, which is valued at some forty thousand dollars.\u201d\nValued at some forty thousand dollars! Mrs. Eddy, of course, here\nintends to convey an impression that this gift of the land was a\ngift by her of some forty thousand dollars\u2019 worth of real estate.\nIn none of her many published references to this peculiar\ntransaction has Mrs. Eddy told the truth, or any material part of\nthe truth.\n\nThe land upon which the church stands was originally owned by a\nsociety known as The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and\nit was originally mortgaged for nine thousand dollars to Mr.\nNathan Matthews. This original society, by contributions, fairs,\netc., raised enough money to reduce the amount of the mortgage to\nabout five thousand dollars, when, according to Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nstatement in her book \u201cPulpit and Press,\u201d \u201cOwing to a heavy loss,\nthey were unable to pay the mortgage; therefore I paid it, and\nthrough trustees gave back the land to the church.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy did not pay the mortgage. She did not give back the\nland to the church. What she did was quite other than what she\nsays she did. Through her agents, she took an assignment of the\nmortgage for the balance of five thousand dollars due upon it,\nforeclosed it, crowded out all of the original contributors,\nmembers of the Church of Christ, Scientist, acquired the title\nherself, and gave it to trustees for a new organization, The\nFirst Church of Christ, Scientist, reserving to herself a right\nto re-enter and repossess herself of the land with any church\nthat might be constructed upon it. And this cost Mrs. Eddy five\nthousand dollars, not forty thousand, as she would have us\nunderstand, and as Mr. Farlow has represented; nor even twenty\nthousand, as the more modest Hanna intimates.\n\nReal-estate men in Boston would wonder how it was possible for\nMrs. Eddy legally to acquire, for the sum of five thousand\ndollars, by the proper foreclosure of a mortgage, property upon\nwhich Mr. Nathan Matthews had been willing to lend nine thousand\ndollars. Indeed, it is remarkable that Mrs. Eddy should, at an\nopen foreclosure sale, have been able to buy for five thousand\ndollars a property hundreds of men in the city of Boston would\nhave been only too glad to have paid, at the time, upwards of ten\nthousand dollars for. Was this foreclosure regular, or was it\nfraudulent, as were so many of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s transactions? To one\nwho has delved into her methods, as I have, it would seem as if\neverything that she touched became tainted with fraud or false\npretense; and it is simply incredible that here in the city of\nBoston, after due advertisement, and at a legal public auction, a\npiece of real estate could be purchased for but little more than\nhalf the money so sagacious an investor as Mr. Matthews was\nwilling to lend upon it. And what of the owners of the equity in\nthis land, who were Mrs. Eddy\u2019s own friends and followers, and\nwhom she thus despoiled? They had contributed about $7,000 and\nwere left nothing, while Mrs. Eddy for $5,000 acquired all.\n\nMrs. Eddy, herself, says, \u201cthe property was transferred in a\ncircuitous and novel way, the wisdom of which a few persons have\nsince scrupled,\u201d and that her intent, while \u201cspiritually\ninalienable,\u201d was \u201cmaterially questionable.\u201d It is interesting to\nnote that the instruments employed by Mrs. Eddy for the executing\nof the \u201cmaterially questionable\u201d transaction were two Boston\nlawyers who have since been disbarred.\n\nAgain, in the _Christian Science Journal_ for February, 1898, is\nan editorial statement, evidently prepared by Editor Hanna under\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s direction, in which an effort is made to meet the\ncriticism upon Mrs. Eddy\u2019s mercenary methods, he refers to three\ninstances which he calls \u201cevidences of a generosity and\nself-sacrifice that appeal to our deepest sense of gratitude,\neven while surpassing our comprehension.\u201d\n\nNow, what are these evidences of this extraordinary \u201cgenerosity\nand self-sacrifice\u201d?\n\nThe first is the gift of the land to the church. \u201cYears ago,\u201d\nsays Mr. Hanna, \u201cshe donated a lot of ground in Boston, on which\nto erect the Mother Church, that was then valued at twenty\nthousand dollars, and now estimated to be worth more than double\nthat sum.\u201d Mr. Hanna, it should be observed, does not say, \u201cwhich\ncost her five thousand dollars,\u201d but which \u201cwas then valued at\ntwenty thousand dollars\u201d; and he does not say anything about the\nreserved right to re-enter and repossess herself of the land and\nall the buildings that might be constructed upon it, which right\nshe secured for not more than $5,000. If it was \u201cthen valued at\ntwenty thousand dollars,\u201d as Hanna says, or at forty thousand\ndollars, as Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book says, how did Mrs. Eddy get it for\nfive? Perhaps Mr. Hanna can tell. Mr. Hanna can tell many things,\nif he will. He has sworn that\u2014so help him God!\u2014he is completely\nignorant of the belief of the members of the church of which he\nwas the first reader, or minister, regarding the founder of the\nalleged religion he pretends to profess and professes to expound,\nso we may not ask him anything about that; but he may be able to\ntell us how his \u201cgenerous\u201d and \u201cself-denying\u201d leader secured for\nfive thousand dollars Boston real estate worth twenty or forty\nthousand. It is a trick some of our real-estate speculators would\nbe glad to learn.\n\nAnother of these evidences of a \u201cgenerosity and self-sacrifice\u201d\nsurpassing Mr. Hanna\u2019s comprehension is a conveyance in\nperpetuity to the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston,\nof the real estate of the Christian Science Publishing Society;\nto wit, the lots and buildings known as 95 and 97 Falmouth\nStreet, \u201cvalued,\u201d says Mr. Hanna, at \u201cnot less than twenty-two\nthousand dollars.\u201d\n\nAgain the wily Hanna gives us what he calls the value and not the\ncost to Mrs. Eddy; and again, like a true disciple of his\ncautious teacher, he suppresses the fact that the property in\nquestion was conveyed to Mrs. Eddy three days before she conveyed\nit to the church, by the Christian Science Publishing Society,\nfor the nominal sum of one dollar. Mrs. Eddy always reserves very\nsubstantial rights, and here she reserved to herself the right to\nuse and occupy as much room, conveniently and pleasantly located,\nas she might require for her own publishing business. If, at any\ntime, she shall require the whole of the premises for her\npublishing business, she has the right, under her deed, to occupy\nthe whole, and this right she acquired for one dollar, and did\nnot part with. Mr. Hanna is a great stickler for values when\ncontending for Mrs. Eddy\u2019s great generosity. It sounds rather\nbetter, and makes a better showing for his patron, to say that\nher gift (to which she reserves, if she wishes it, the exclusive\nuse) is valued at $22,000, than to state the cold truth that it\ncost her the sum of one dollar.\n\nAnother of these evidences of unselfishness on Mrs. Eddy\u2019s part,\ntoo great for Mr. Hanna\u2019s understanding, is the transfer to the\nchurch in perpetuity of the _Christian Science Journal_,\n_Quarterly_, and all the literary publications of the society,\nand every right and privilege whatsoever connected therewith,\nsaving only the right to copyright the _Journal_ in her own name;\nand these properties the astute Hanna again \u201cvalues\u201d at fifty\nthousand dollars. Again he says nothing about what they cost Mrs.\nEddy, and again he says nothing about the right she reserved to\nherself. These properties, as in the case of the real estate,\nwere acquired three days before she gave them to the church, by\nMrs. Eddy, from the Christian Science Publishing Society, for the\nlarge sum of one dollar, and she reserved not only the right to\ncopyright the _Christian Science Journal_, which was the only\nvalue the _Journal_ possessed, but she reserved the right to\nwithdraw the _Journal_ from the trust and from the church at any\ntime she pleased. In other words, she procured title to the\n_Journal_, with a subscription list of 20,000 and over, for $1.00\nand did not give the _Journal_ to the church or the society at\nall. What she did give to the church, according to the official\nrecord, cost her nothing, and what she acquired was a prosperous\nperiodical with a paying subscription list of 20,000 or more.\n\nThese wonderful beneficences, which fairly startle Mr. Hanna, and\nwhich cost Mrs. Eddy $5,002, and Hanna says were \u201cworth\u201d $90,000,\nleft her with a right, under certain circumstances, to take\nabsolute possession of the land and the church, which cost her\nnothing and cost others over two hundred thousand dollars,\nguaranteed to her pleasant and permanent business quarters\nwithout expense of any kind, gave her complete control, amounting\nto ownership, of the _Christian Science Journal_, and made her\nthe dictator and authoritative head, if she wishes to be, of the\nbusiness end of Christian Science as conducted at the\nheadquarters of the Christian Science Publishing Society in\nBoston. This was Mrs. Eddy\u2019s own benefit from her outlay of\n$5,002, and yet the Honorable Septimus J. Hanna, with upturned\neyes, piously exclaims:\n\n  \u201cLet us endeavor to lift up our hearts in thankfulness to God\n  for His goodness to us and our cause and to His servant, our\n  Mother in Israel, for these evidences of a generosity and\n  self-sacrifice that appeal to our deepest sense of gratitude,\n  even while surpassing our comprehension.\u201d\n\nIn a published statement, Mr. Farlow has said:\n\n  \u201cAs to Mrs. Eddy\u2019s wealth, I want to say she has given away,\n  during the past five years, more than double the sum total of\n  the entire profits from the sale of her books from their first\n  publication to the present time.\u201d\n\nI denounce this statement of Mr. Alfred Farlow\u2019s as utterly\nfalse, and I defy him to name the beneficiaries of these hundreds\nof thousands of dollars he says his employer has given away. I\nchallenge this official prevaricator of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nreligio-commercial enterprise to give the public the particulars\nof these alleged gifts. He cannot give them. They do not exist,\nand his falsehood is only one of many fabrications boldly put\nforth to bolster the tottering structure that has so long\nafforded him and his colleagues in fraud a comfortable financial\nrefuge.\n\nThe public will be wise if it decline to accept, without\nverification, any statement that Mrs. Eddy or Mr. Hanna or Mr.\nFarlow may make. Mrs. Eddy, it would seem, cannot tell the truth,\nand Messrs. Hanna and Farlow, it would seem, are paid to tell\nlies.\n\nBut the story is only half told, and what follows is more damning\nthan what has gone before.\n\n\n\n\n                           Chapter XI\n\n                    The Eddy Ban on Marriage\n\n\nI have said that Mrs. Eddy\u2019s influence as the founder of\nChristian Science is not confined to the religious activities of\nher followers, but extends into their domestic and marital\nrelations and even their business affairs. One of the harmful\nresults of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s \u201cinspired\u201d teachings consists in the\nestrangement so frequently caused between husband and wife where\neither one or the other of them is a Christian Scientist. If both\nhappen to be fast in the faith, the occasion for disharmony\nbetween them is not so great; for then the marital relation is\nsuspended by mutual consent.\n\nI cannot say that I have found very much sympathy on the part of\nhusbands, even nominal Christian Science husbands, with Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s views upon the marriage relation; but I do know of many\ncases in which they have so influenced wives as to lead to the\ncomplete destruction of anything like real marriage.\n\nMrs. Eddy disapproves of marriage altogether. \u201cThese words of St.\nMatthew,\u201d she says, \u201chave special application to Christian\nScience, namely, \u2018It is not good to marry.\u2019\u201d\n\nIn the first place, St. Matthew never said anything of the kind;\nand, in the second place, if he had said it, it would have been\nonly so much to his discredit. No sane and sincere person has\never denounced marriage; and not only did St. Matthew not\ndisapprove of it, but, in his Gospel, Jesus is quoted as having\nsaid: \u201cFor this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and\nshall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.\u201d And\nthe beautiful affection of Jesus for children is sufficient\nevidence of his high approval of marriage.\n\nMrs. Eddy, having been married three or four times, now\nemphatically disapproves of marriage, and a marriage between\nChristian Scientists is decidedly objectionable. There has never\nbeen a marriage in a Christian Science church. There is no\nChristian Science marriage ceremony and no Christian Science\nofficial authorized to perform a marriage. The marriage relation,\nas such, is regarded as sensuous and impure, and the marriage of\nan official of the church in any part of the country would mean\ninstant loss of power and influence together with his office and\nits emoluments.\n\n\u201cIs marriage nearer right than celibacy?\u201d asks Mrs. Eddy. \u201cHuman\nknowledge inculcates that it is, while science indicates that it\nis not.\u201d Science is thus distinguished from human knowledge. Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s science is a thing imparted to her by Omniscience, and\nOmniscience, she says, indicates that marriage is not nearer\nright than celibacy. It is a part of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s teaching and the\nteaching of her students, that a woman cannot be an effective\nhealer, if she really love a man and be a true wife, and that a\nman cannot accomplish the best results in healing through\nChristian Science if he really love a woman and be a true\nhusband.\n\nWith this objection to marriage goes also the objection to\nchildren, so that the birth of children in Christian Science\nfamilies is of rare occurrence and is regarded as evidence of\nunspiritual living and is decidedly discrediting. \u201cSensual and\nmortal beliefs, material suppositions of life,\u201d Mrs. Eddy calls\nchildren.\n\nThe effect of this teaching is shown in the difference between\nChristian Science Sunday Schools and Christian Sunday Schools.\nThe membership of the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian Sunday\nSchools is about the same as their church membership; while in\nChristian Science Sunday Schools there is but one child for every\nfive church members.\n\nMrs. Eddy\u2019s objection to children does not appear to be to\nchildren themselves, but simply to children begotten and born as\nthey have been from the beginning of man\u2019s existence until now\nand will be until the end. It is a part of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s inspired\ndoctrine that, when Christian Science has made a conquest of the\nworld and the \u201cspiritual creation is discerned,\u201d there will be no\nmore marriage and the human race be propagated without regard to\nsex. \u201cUntil it be learned,\u201d she says, \u201cthat generation rests on\nno sexual basis, let marriage continue,\u201d and \u201cuntil time matures\nhuman growth, marriage and progeny will continue unprohibited in\nChristian Science,\u201d and \u201cTo abolish marriage at this period and\nmaintain morality and generation, would put ingenuity to\nludicrous shifts, yet this is possible in Science.\u201d Insane as\nthis teaching is, Mrs. Eddy\u2019s alleged \u201cintelligent\u201d following\nbelieve it to be the teaching of Infinite Wisdom, and as such\nmake it the desire of their lives.\n\nCharming doctrine this for civilized people to make the regulator\nof their lives! Oh, charming! But Mrs. Eddy goes further and\ndenounces marriage in the roundest and almost unprintable terms.\n\nThe most impressive and conspicuous incident in Christian Science\nhistory was the dedication in June, 1906, of the \u201cMother Church\u201d\nin Boston, a beautiful building that cost upwards of two million\ndollars. In order to get her views regarding marriage before the\nfaithful, in the most impressive manner, Mrs. Eddy incorporated\nthem in her message which was read at the church dedication\nceremonies. She took the bit in her teeth, as it were, and\nnotwithstanding efforts to dissuade her or induce her to modify\nher statement, insisted upon getting her views before her\nfollowing in their most extreme and obnoxious form,\ncharacterizing marriage as \u201csynonymous with legalized lust.\u201d\n\nIt has been denied by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s press agents that she gave\nutterance to this opinion of marriage; but it will be found in\nher dedication message as published in the _Christian Science\nSentinel_ for June 16, 1906, and the _Christian Science Journal_\nfor July, 1906.\n\nTo one not insane or degenerate, to all noble souls, marriage is\nthe sweetest and purest relationship imaginable and fatherhood\nand motherhood are nothing less than divine; but this\nthree-or-four-times-married woman gives us to understand that, so\nfar as she knows it, marriage is \u201clegalized lust.\u201d I should think\na so much married woman would deliberate a long time before she\nwould give public utterance to such a view of the marriage\nrelation. Far be it from me to dispute her own experience. Her\nwhole teaching regarding the institution shows that it is\nimpossible for her to conceive of what marriage means to a noble\nman and a noble woman who have found unity in its sacred bond;\nand when she applies that vile epithet to society\u2019s fundamental\ninstitution, I tell her, though she pretend to voice God Himself,\nthat she lies and the truth is not in her. How is it possible for\na husband who loves and respects his wife, or a wife who loves\nand respects her husband, or parents who adore their children, to\nhave anything but contempt for this woman and her odious\nteachings?\n\nIf Mrs. Eddy\u2019s God were, in fact, the true God, and if Christian\nScience were a revelation from Him, and if all the miracles they\npretend to have performed had been performed, I should still not\nbow down to their God nor worship him; I should not prostrate\nmyself at their shrines nor have fellowship with them, so long as\nthe attempt is made to place the stigma of impurity upon the\npurest of all pure things in the world to me, my child.\n\nYes, this is the twentieth century. No, we are not living in the\nyear 500 nor yet in the year 1000. The ideas and doctrines, the\nbeliefs and practices of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s Christian Science belong to\nthe darkest period of the dark ages, but they are very real and\nvery potent things in the lives of many thousands of people upon\nwhom the light of the world\u2019s highest civilization shines.\n\n\n\n\n                          Chapter XII\n\n                  Christian Science Witchcraft\n\n\nLet us now pass to consideration of another phase of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\ninfluence, more astounding, perhaps, than any we have considered,\nand more discreditable, if possible, to the age in which we live.\nI refer to the belief in what I have called the new-old\nwitchcraft; that is to say, to the belief, taught by Mrs. Eddy as\ninspired truth, and accepted by her followers as revealed of God,\nthat a maliciously disposed person has the power, by absent\ntreatment, through his or her mind to cause any form of sickness,\nthe most horrible of deaths, and complete domestic, social or\nbusiness disaster to others. I shall quote somewhat liberally\nfrom Mrs. Eddy\u2019s own statements in this regard, in order that\nthere may be no question that I represent her correctly, and of\nthese statements I invite thoughtful consideration.\n\nIn her first edition of \u201cScience and Health,\u201d published in 1875,\nMrs. Eddy said, on page 123:\n\n  \u201cIn coming years the person or mind that hates his neighbor\n  will have no need to traverse his fields, to destroy his flocks\n  and herds, and spoil his vines; or to enter his house to\n  demoralize his household; for the evil mind will do this\n  through mesmerism; and not _in propria person\u00e6_ be seen\n  committing the deed. Unless this terrible hour be met and\n  restrained by science, mesmerism, that scourge of man, will\n  leave nothing sacred when mind begins to act under direction of\n  conscious power.\u201d\n\nOn page 382, Mrs. Eddy says:\n\n  \u201cThe silent argument used in his own behalf, as he manipulates\n  the head, the malpractitioner would blush to make audibly.\n  Suppose he has a juror for a patient, and establishes the\n  mesmeric connection between them, he can influence more than\n  law or evidence, the verdict of that honest juror.\u201d\n\n(Possibly this accounts for the presence in the court-room, at\nthe trial of a case in which Mrs. Eddy was defendant, of a large\nnumber of the most potent Christian Science hypnotists.)\n\nOn page 177 of the 13th edition of \u201cScience and Health,\u201d Vol. II,\nMrs. Eddy says:\n\n  \u201cMesmerism is practiced both with and without manipulation; but\n  the evil deed without a sign is also done by the manipulator\n  and mental malpractitioner.\n\n  \u201cThe secret mental assassin stalks abroad, and needs to be\n  branded to be known in what he is doing.\u201d\n\nOn page 175, Mrs. Eddy says:\n\n  \u201cIf the right mental practice can restore health, as is proven\n  beyond a question, it is self-evident that a mental malpractice\n  can impair the health of those ignorant of the cause and how to\n  treat it.\u201d\n\nOn page 179, Mrs. Eddy says:\n\n  \u201cThe evidence of the power that Mind exercises over the body\n  has accumulated in weight and clearness until it culminates, at\n  this period, in scientific statement and proof. Our courts\n  recognize the evidence that goes to prove the committal of a\n  crime; then, if it be clear that the so-called mind of one\n  mortal has killed another, is not this mind proved a murderer,\n  and shall not the man be sentenced whose mind, with malice\n  aforethought, kills? His hands, without mortal mind to aid\n  them, could not murder; but it is proven that this mind,\n  without the aid of his hands, has killed.\u201d\n\nIn \u201cScience and Health,\u201d thirty-sixth edition, published in 1888,\nMrs. Eddy says, on page 220:\n\n  \u201cIt is hoped that eventually our laws will take cognizance of\n  mental crime.\u201d\n\nOn page 515, she says:\n\n  \u201cThis malicious animal-power (of which the Dragon is the type)\n  seeks to kill his fellow-mortals, morally and physically, and\n  then to charge the innocent with his crimes.\u201d\n\nOn page 516, she says:\n\n  \u201cThe highest degree of human depravity, which is to be found in\n  this propulsive will power, or Animal Magnetism.\u201d\n\nIn \u201cMiscellaneous Writings,\u201d published in 1897, on page 222, Mrs.\nEddy says:\n\n  \u201cThe crimes committed under this new regime of mind-power, when\n  brought to light, will make stout hearts quail. Its mystery\n  protects it now, for it is not yet known.\u201d\n\nIn a long article entitled \u201cMalicious Animal Magnetism,\u201d written\nby Mrs. Eddy and published as hers in the _Christian Science\nJournal_ for February, 1889, when the _Journal_ was her property,\nshe lays down her inspired teaching on that subject with unwonted\nclearness. She says:\n\n  \u201cOne of the greatest crimes practiced in, or known to, the ages\n  is mental assassination. A mind liberated from the beliefs of\n  sense, to do good, by perverting its power becomes warped into\n  the lines of evil without let or hindrance. A mind taught its\n  power to touch other minds by the transference of thought, for\n  the ends of restoration from sickness, or, grandest of all, the\n  reformation and almost transformation into the living image and\n  likeness of God\u2014this mind, by misusing its freedom, reaches the\n  degree of total moral depravity.\n\n  \u201cDoes the community know this criminal? He sits at the friendly\n  board and fireside; he goes to their places of worship; he\n  takes his victim by the hand, and all the time claims the power\n  and carries the will to stab to the heart, to take character\n  and life from this friend who gives him his hand in full trust,\n  and has, perhaps, toiled and suffered to benefit and bless\n  him.\u2026\n\n  \u201cIt is no longer possible to keep still concerning these things\n  \u2014nay, it is criminal to hold silence and to cover crime that\n  grows bolder and picks off its victims as sharpshooters pick\n  off the officers of an attacking force.\n\n  \u201cThese secret, heaven-defying enormities must be proclaimed, or\n  we become guilty before God as accessory after the fact. If a\n  friend were fallen upon and maltreated or murdered before our\n  eyes, should we hold ourselves guiltless, should we count\n  ourselves men and women, if we buried the secret of the\n  violence and our knowledge of the assassins?\n\n  \u201cAre we such cowards, knowing the facts that we do know, as to\n  turn and run? Shall we see the evil, the deadly danger that\n  threatens our brother, and, to hide ourselves, flee away not\n  warning him?\n\n  \u201cThe Science of mind uncovers to Scientists secret sin, even\n  more distinctly than so-called physical crimes are visible to\n  the personal senses; crime is always veiled in obscurity, but\n  Science fastens guilt upon its author through mind, with the\n  certainty and directness of the eye of God Himself.\n\n  \u201cHuman laws will eventually be framed for these criminals that\n  now go unwhipped of human justice. Human law even now\n  recognizes crime as mental, for it seeks always the motive.\n  Rude counterfeit as it is of Divine Justice, it metes out\n  punishment or pardons according as it finds, or finds not, the\n  evil intent, the mental element. _The time has come for\n  instructing human justice so that these secret criminals shall\n  tremble before the omnipotent finger that points them out to\n  the human executioner._\u201d\n\nIf that isn\u2019t witchcraft, I don\u2019t know what witchcraft is. The\nOmnipotent finger will point out these criminals, who operate\nthrough silent and invisible mental influences, and justice will\nbe meted out to them by the human executioner!\n\nIn a personal letter to a student Mrs. Eddy said:\n\n  \u201cThe mental malpractitioners or mesmerists employ the argument\n  of poison to kill people. They cause you or your patients to\n  suffer from arsenical poison in the blood or stomach, mercurial\n  poison, morphine or any other form of mineral, vegetable or\n  animal poison which they may name in their arguments.\u201d\n\nIn the latest editions of her book, and in formal communications\nto her followers, Mrs. Eddy reaffirms her belief in this\nmalicious power of mind, and again warns her followers against\nit. Her personal teaching to her students was even more\nextravagant than the language of her published works, and it was\na common occurrence for her to frighten young girls and children\nnearly into fits with the dreadful fear that a malicious mind was\nseeking to cause them unspeakable disaster. She has taught that\nthe malicious action of mind alone might, of itself, cause, and\nhad caused, the pregnancy of woman, with consequences I must\nleave to your imagination. And all this damnable doctrine is\naccepted and believed by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s \u201cintelligent\u201d followers as\nthe truth revealed by God through the founder of Christian\nScience\u2014believed with a belief that trembles.\n\nI have talked with a gentleman who, years ago, with his family,\nlived for some six months in the house with Mrs. Eddy; and he\nsaid to me with great earnestness: \u201cI lived there six months, and\nI tell you, sir, I would rather spend ten years in hell than\nanother six months in Mrs. Eddy\u2019s company. She nearly drove my\nchildren into frenzy with her malicious animal magnetism\nbusiness.\u201d Malicious animal magnetism is the name by which Mrs.\nEddy now calls her witchcraft.\n\nIt has been also a regular part of the teachings of that bogus\ninstitution, the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, of which\nMrs. Eddy was president, that malicious minds may, and today are,\ncausing sickness, death and disaster to Christian Scientists and\ntheir families. I know it to be a fact that the lecturer there\nliterally taught that Mrs. Josephine C. Woodbury, whom he named,\npossessed this power, and used it to the detriment of Christian\nScientists and the cause; and to such an extent has this teaching\nregarding this particular lady spread that I think it would be\nhard to find a Christian Scientist in the United States who did\nnot, or had not, believed Mrs. Woodbury had possessed and had\nexercised this power.\n\nA Christian Scientist healer, guilty of an unpardonable\nimpropriety with young lady patients, is called to account by\ntheir father, and, acknowledging his offence, says that he can\nonly account for it on the ground that Mrs. Woodbury made him do\nit, by malicious animal magnetism. An aged lady, a Christian\nScientist in a distant city, having fallen unaccountable several\ntimes upon the street, explains to her daughter that the cause of\nit is \u201cthat vile Mrs. Woodbury of Boston.\u201d The child of a member\nof the First Church of Christ, Scientist, dies, and the\ngrief-stricken mother entertains the firm conviction that Mrs.\nWoodbury killed it. The husband of a member of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s church\nhas been sick for years here in Boston, and for years, without\nhaving known or seen Mrs. Woodbury, such has been the teaching at\nthe Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston and of the alleged\n\u201cCollege,\u201d that she has had no doubt that Mrs. Woodbury caused\nher husband\u2019s illness, and she has continually sought to protect\nher husband by a mental effort to throw the illness back upon\nMrs. Woodbury. Meantime Mrs. Woodbury is, of course, utterly\nunconscious of all of these happenings and entirely innocent of\nany such criminal purposes and deeds.\n\nAnd all this deviltry as revealed by God! All this medieval\nwitchcraft in the name of Christ! Out upon it! I say. Let it no\nlonger be tolerated amongst us!\n\nThree hundred years ago, some nineteen or twenty estimable people\nin the town of Salem in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,\nbecause of the finding of a Court that they were witches, were\nlegally hanged by the neck until they were dead. And should the\ninspired and infallible founder of Christian Science prevail in\nher benevolent intention of \u201cinstructing human justice so that\nthese secret criminals shall tremble before the omnipotent finger\nthat points them out to the human executioner,\u201d the supposed\noffences of malicious animal magnetism, the invention of her\ndisordered imagination, would be atoned upon the gibbet or at the\nstake.\n\nIn her published work Mrs. Eddy has expressly justified the\nemployment of this alleged power for retaliation or defense. She\nsays:\n\n  \u201cIt was years after we were personally attacked by mental\n  malpractice before we defended ourselves or taught our students\n  self defence. Until this attack was aimed at our life, we never\n  resisted or even investigated it thoroughly and so discovered\n  the full purpose and extent of a mental malpractice. But we\n  gave our attention to it and found how to save the scattering\n  remnants of our Christian students that had been mown down like\n  grass. We resolved in the strength of God to save them and\n  others from the hands of these murderers and to find, as sure\n  defence, the ever present help. Since God has shown us our way\n  in Christian healing, our mind often heals involuntarily. The\n  malpractitioners know this and often have asked us about their\n  patients to direct our thoughts to them, knowing the benefit\n  therefrom. They know, as well as we, that it is impossible for\n  science to produce sickness, but science makes sin punish\n  itself. They should have feared for their own lives in their\n  attempts to kill us. God is Supreme and the penalties of their\n  sins they cannot escape. Turning the attention of the sick to\n  us for the benefit they may receive from us, is another milder\n  form or species of malpractice that is not safe; for if we feel\n  their sufferings, not knowing the individual, we shall defend\n  ourselves and _the result is dangerous to the intruder_.\u201d\n\nThe retaliatory method of mental treatment devised by Mrs. Eddy\nconsisted in an endeavor mentally to hurl cancer back upon the\nperson she believed to be attempting to afflict her with cancer,\nor tumor upon the person attempting mentally to transmit tumor to\nher, or consumption upon the evil one thinking consumption at\nher, and the various forms of chemical poison upon those\nendeavoring to think mercurial, arsenical or other forms of\npoison into her organism. She told her students that she had the\npower of discerning such malicious mental activity on the part of\nthose she believed to be her enemies, and that the way to protect\nher was to hurl the malicious thoughts backward and cause them,\nas it were, to recoil upon and destroy their authors.\n\nWhen Mrs. Augusta Stetson of New York was accused of attempts at\nmental murder, she justified or tried to justify such endeavors\non the ground that they were defensive and, as such, taught and\nsanctioned by Mrs. Eddy. Whatever Mrs. Stetson and other\nChristian Scientists know about the power to commit murder by\nmental means, they have learned from Mrs. Eddy; and if it be an\noffence against the Christian Science Church, as was decided in\nthe case of Mrs. Stetson, to attempt to cause disease and to kill\nthrough the employment of mental powers, then Mrs. Eddy herself\nshould follow Mrs. Stetson into exile from the communion of the\nsaints.\n\nMrs. Stetson\u2019s excommunication is an interesting sequel to an\nincident that occurred in Concord, N.H., in April of 1907. Mrs.\nEddy was then living at Concord, and the litigation by the sons\nhad been commenced in the preceding month. It had been the talk\nof the newspapers, from time to time, that Mrs. Stetson was\nnourishing an ambition to succeed Mrs. Eddy in the leadership of\nChristian Science upon Mrs. Eddy\u2019s demise, and it had even been\nsaid that, expecting Mrs. Eddy\u2019s death to occur at a particular\ntime, Mrs. Stetson had come to Boston prepared with a most\nmagnificent costume for attendance upon Mrs. Eddy\u2019s ascension.\n\nIt was pretty generally known in Christian Science circles that\nMrs. Stetson was maneuvering to succeed Mrs. Eddy as the official\nhead of the movement, and doubtless the report reached Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s ears. At this time one Herman S. Herring was the first\nreader of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s church at Concord and H. Cornell Wilson was\nacting as one of her secretaries at her home at Pleasant View. By\nsome means, through the New York _World_, possession was obtained\nof a letter written by Herring to Wilson, dated April 27, 1907,\nin which he asked Mr. Wilson if \u201cit would not be well to protect\nMrs. Eddy from the Stetson argument specifically, or are the\nworkers doing so?\u201d\n\nThe meaning of this, of course, is that Herring assumed Mrs.\nStetson was, by malicious mental endeavor, operating adversely to\nMrs. Eddy, either to cause Mrs. Eddy to designate Mrs. Stetson as\nher successor, or to hasten Mrs. Eddy\u2019s departure, by ascension\nor otherwise, from the world; and the \u201cworkers\u201d referred to are\nthe corps of Christian Science mental practitioners always\nmaintained by Mrs. Eddy at her home by concentrated mental effort\nto erect and maintain a mental bulwark around her that shall be\nimpenetrable by Mrs. Stetson\u2019s or any other malicious mental\nbullets.\n\n\u201cIt has troubled me,\u201d said Herring, \u201cbut helped me, to hear that\nFrye was a channel for that diabolism.\u201d\n\nMrs. Eddy has always contended that she herself was so immaculate\nthat malicious animal magnetism could not immediately approach\nher; but injury to her might be effected through some less pure\npersonality close to her. As no one was closer than Frye, it\nappears that he was believed to be the medium through which Mrs.\nStetson was supposed to be operating, or attempting to operate,\nagainst Mrs. Eddy.\n\nThe newspaper reports of the Stetson trial and excommunication\ndid not, so far as they came to my attention, contain any\nintimation that judgment had fallen upon Mrs. Stetson because of\nher mental attacks upon Mrs. Eddy; but there can be no doubt that\nMrs. Eddy believes she had been the target of such attacks, and\nthat the excommunication was Mrs. Eddy\u2019s own act of retaliation\nupon Mrs. Stetson.\n\n\u201cThe highest degree of human depravity,\u201d Mrs. Eddy calls this\nalleged power to cause sickness and to cause death, which, when\nsuccessfully employed, should be expiated upon the scaffold; and,\ndeliberately and solemnly, with full understanding of the meaning\nof my language, I affirm and I charge that Mary Baker G. Eddy,\nthe founder of Christian Science and the pretended successor to,\nand equal of, Jesus, has again and again and again sought to\nexercise it; that she, herself, has repeatedly thus sought to\ncause sickness, sought to cause death, and this, as everything\nelse I have alleged, I will prove by legal evidence whenever Mrs.\nEddy may be pleased to require it.\n\nTo bring out clearly the effect upon Mrs. Eddy\u2019s daily life of\nher genuine belief in this diabolical thing she calls malicious\nanimal magnetism, and her efforts to avail herself of the\nsupposed power of mind to cause disease and death, the following\nletter, received from a gentleman, now a practising physician,\nwho in his earlier manhood was attracted to Mrs. Eddy and her\nteachings, is incorporated here:\n\n  \u201cI lived in the \u2018College\u2019 with Mrs. Eddy and her family for\n  nearly a year, and had ample opportunity to observe all the\n  things I now tell you; I shall not make a statement without\n  _knowing_ that it is _absolutely_ true.\n\n  \u201cAs you desire information in regard to her teachings of\n  malicious animal magnetism, I will confine myself mostly to\n  that subject.\n\n  \u201cNearly two-thirds of the time of her class lectures was taken\n  up with teaching us how to \u2018meet the enemy,\u2019 as she called\n  Richard Kennedy, Edward Ames, Clara Choate, and her mother,\n  Mrs. Childs. We were taught that Richard Kennedy, especially,\n  was the \u2018Arch Enemy\u2019 of Christian Science, and of Mrs. Eddy\n  herself; that he had learned the art of using \u2018malicious animal\n  magnetism\u2019 on Mrs. Eddy and her students; that he had \u2018secret\n  service\u2019 men and women who watched every movement of Mrs. Eddy,\n  and of each one living with her; that we could not go out\n  without some one following, and watching us, reporting to \u2018the\n  ring of enemies,\u2019 namely, Kennedy Ames, Choate and Childs. We\n  were taught that by being aware of all our movements\u2014just how\n  we looked, and who our patients were\u2014they had the mental power\n  to so mesmerize our minds as to cause us to meet with defeat in\n  all our attempts to heal; that they were informed of the\n  diseases and weaknesses from which we had been healed, and by\n  malicious thoughts and concentration upon us could cause us to\n  relapse into our old forms of disease.\n\n  \u201cMrs. Eddy was constantly having attacks of illness (always in\n  the night). We were often called up about eleven o\u2019clock at\n  night to treat her, and were obliged to remain up until about\n  two o\u2019clock a.m. These attacks, we were told, were brought on\n  by the \u2018enemy,\u2019 working through us, as her students. She\n  claimed that the only way the \u2018enemy\u2019 could reach her was\n  through her students, she being so strong and so pure that\n  their \u2018malicious animal magnetism\u2019 could not reach her in any\n  other way. So we used to go into the parlor, after breakfast\n  and supper, each day, and mentally \u2018take up the enemy.\u2019 We were\n  taught to recognize the error, and treat ourselves and the\n  \u2018enemy,\u2019 so that they (\u2018the enemy\u2019) could have no power over\n  us, or our patients; and every time we gave the treatments we\n  were taught to first \u2018treat the enemy.\u2019\n\n  \u201cThe result of all this was, that Mrs. Eddy was always full of\n  fear; as the \u2018enemy\u2019 were supposed to have power to prevent all\n  kinds of desired results, not only in healing, but in business,\n  as well.\n\n  \u201cI was taught that the postal clerks were so mesmerized that\n  letters to and from the College would never reach their\n  destination unless certain conditions were complied with; also\n  that the telegraph operators were so under this malicious\n  influence that a message sent by telegraph would not reach the\n  person to whom it was sent unless certain precautions were\n  taken. I was once sent from her house to West Newton to forward\n  a telegraph message to Chicago, so that it would be sent by way\n  of Worcester, instead of Boston, as all Boston operators were\n  supposed to be so mesmerized by the \u2018enemy\u2019 that no message\n  from Mrs. Eddy could reach its destination, if sent through\n  their hands. And so I might run on for hours, giving you facts\n  about such things.\n\n  \u201cI was told to treat the \u2018enemy\u2019 (Kennedy, Ames, Choate and\n  Childs) to cause their \u2018old beliefs\u2019 to return, \u2018_and prostrate\n  them at once!_\u2019 \u2018Old beliefs\u2019 meant former diseases, from which\n  they had been healed, in _some cases even tumors and cancers_.\n\n  \u201cI could write pages of things said and done, to show that\n  insane idea of the power of malicious men and women to nearly,\n  if not quite, kill people. We were taught that they had killed\n  several students of Mrs. Eddy. I was taught that Kennedy and\n  Ames knew how to treat people in a way to cause \u2018sixty symptoms\n  of arsenic poisoning.\u2019\n\n  \u201cI was often called in the night to treat Mrs. Eddy, as she was\n  sick. I have been sent to the homes of other students to call\n  them in the night to help her out of her fears and spasms.\n\n  \u201cI was sent in the month of May, 1884, at two o\u2019clock a.m., to\n  call lawyer Roberts to make her will, as it seemed she could\n  not live till morning\u2014all caused by \u2018malicious animal\n  magnetism,\u2019 or \u2018M.A.M.\u2019 as we were in the habit of abbreviating\n  it.\n\n  \u201cI found Mrs. Eddy a strong-willed, obstinate, and arbitrary\n  woman. Her business was obliged to be conducted as she\n  dictated, whether right or wrong.\n\n  \u201cI was one of four students told by Mrs. Eddy to treat certain\n  clergymen of Boston to come into her classes and endorse\n  Christian Science.\n\n  \u201cThe following incident might be of interest at this time:\n\n  \u201cIn the summer of 1884, Mrs. Eddy taught her first class in\n  Chicago. For several weeks before going there she was\n  constantly in a state of worry, or fear, that Mrs. Choate would\n  \u2018prostrate her,\u2019 and so prevent her from going there, as she\n  thought that Mrs. Choate herself wished to go and teach a\n  class. Calvin A. Frye had purchased Mrs. Eddy\u2019s ticket, and\n  engaged a private compartment for her, and a berth for himself\n  (to accompany her to Chicago), when, the night before she was\n  to start, she was taken very ill (the work of Mrs. Choate, she\n  believed it to be) and was not able to go the next day, as she\n  had intended to do. She called in her students, at the College\n  with her, to treat against Mrs. Choate, to prevent her\n  mesmerism from prostrating her (Mrs. Eddy), and by the second\n  day she was able to go to Chicago. We afterwards learned that\n  at the same identical time, Mrs. Choate was ill, and thought\n  that Mrs. Eddy was sending \u2018malicious animal magnetism\u2019 to\n  prostrate her, and called in a former student of the college to\n  treat against Mrs. Eddy\u2019s mesmerism.\n\n  \u201cSo you see how fear controlled Mrs. Eddy (even at that distant\n  day) and every one connected with her, and has continued to\n  control every one taught by her, who has not escaped from the\n  bondage of that teaching.\n\n  \u201cThis is only a fragment of what I might tell you in regard to\n  Mrs. Eddy and her teachings at the time I was with her; but it\n  is enough to show you what she taught and practised then, as\n  well as now.\u201d\n\nCould anything be more insane than the condition of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nhousehold as indicated in this letter? Or could anything be more\ndiabolical than her attempt, to which this gentleman and others\nare willing to make oath whenever they are called upon, by\nconcerted mental operations to afflict her enemies with tumor and\ncancer?\n\nBut to be somewhat more specific. Some years ago Mrs. Eddy\nregarded Mr. Daniel H. Spofford, who had been one of her students\nand friends, as an enemy, and it was her determined and expressed\npurpose that he should in some manner be disposed of. The cause\nof Mrs. Eddy\u2019s violent antipathy to Spofford is not quite clear,\nexcept perhaps upon the theory that all of her antipathies have\nbeen violent. It may be in some measure due to his unwillingness\nto pay her money he did not believe was due her, and to the\nfailure of various litigations brought against him by her. Mrs.\nEddy brought suit against Spofford upon one of her early\ncontracts for $100 for teachings, ten per cent royalty on income,\nand $1,000 for omission to utilize the teachings; and she failed\nto recover in the courts. She actually caused a suit in equity to\nbe brought against Spofford in the Superior Court at Salem,\nMass., in which the court was asked to issue an injunction to\nrestrain Spofford from using his mind to cause the illness of her\npatient, who was said to suffer physically from his malicious\nmental activity.\n\nIt is interesting to note that this singular proceeding was\nbrought in the same jurisdiction in which, some hundreds of years\nago, certain individuals were arraigned and tried for the crime\nof witchcraft, found guilty and hanged by the neck until they\nwere dead.\n\nMrs. Eddy acted as attorney in fact for the plaintiff in this\nsuit and the power of attorney is still of record in the case.\nThe strange bill of complaint is as follows:\n\n  \u201cHumbly complaining, the plaintiff, Lucretia L. S. Brown of\n  Ipswich, in said County of Essex, showeth unto your Honors,\n  that Daniel H. Spofford, of Newburyport, in said County of\n  Essex, the defendant in the above entitled action, is a\n  mesmerist and practices the art of mesmerism and by his said\n  art and power of his mind influences and controls the minds and\n  bodies of other persons and uses his said power and art for the\n  purpose of injuring the persons and property and social\n  relations of others and does by said means so injure them.\n\n  \u201cAnd the plaintiff further showeth that the said Daniel H.\n  Spofford has, at divers times and places since the year\n  eighteen hundred and seventy-five, wrongfully and maliciously\n  and with intent to injure the plaintiff, caused the plaintiff\n  by means of his said power and art great suffering of body and\n  mind and severe spinal pains and neuralgia and a temporary\n  suspension of mind, and still continues to cause the plaintiff\n  the same. And the plaintiff has reason to fear and does fear\n  that he will continue in the future to cause the same. And the\n  plaintiff says that said injuries are great and of an\n  irreparable nature and that she is wholly unable to escape from\n  the control and influence he so exercises upon her and from the\n  aforesaid effects of said control and influence.\u201d\n\nNaturally Mrs. Eddy could find no lawyer sufficiently besotted,\nor shameless, to argue this case for her when it came up for\nhearing. She was present and such argument as was made was by one\nof her then dear friends, who afterwards became, as she believed,\none of her dearest foes; but upon the filing of the demurrer by\nMr. Spofford\u2019s lawyer, raising the legal point that the bill of\ncomplaint did not set forth any cause of action, the court\nsustained the demurrer and threw the case out, declaring with a\nsmile that it was not within the province of the court by its\nwrit of injunction to control the operations of Mr. Spofford\u2019s\nmind.\n\nWhatever may have been the cause of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s hatred of\nSpofford, she wished him killed, and to that end instructed her\nstudents to sit together daily, at noon and in the evening, and\nby concerted mental concentration hurl disease into Mr. Spofford.\n\nI do not contend that Mrs. Eddy, or Christian Scientists or\nothers, ever killed or can kill or afflict with disease any other\nperson by absent mental treatment, and one of my strong reasons\nfor this confident belief is that I am still permitted to walk\nthe earth. I only seek to show the murderous purpose in the heart\nof the woman who is pretending to be the voice of God to this age\nand the equal of Jesus Christ.\n\nFailing in her effort mentally to dispose of Spofford, did this\nvindictive woman endeavor to accomplish her purpose by any other\nmethod? I cannot precisely say, but what I can say is this: In\nDecember, 1878, after a hearing in the Police Court in Boston (in\nwhich one of the witnesses testified she had heard Mrs. Eddy say\nSpofford was a bad man and ought to be put out of the way), by\nwhich they were held for the grand jury in $3,000 bail, and after\nan examination by the Suffolk grand jury of some six or eight\nwitnesses, one Edward J. Arens, and one Asa G. Eddy, third\nhusband of Mary Baker G. Eddy, and then living with her as her\nhusband, were duly indicted for a conspiracy to commit murder. To\ncommit murder upon whom? Upon Daniel H. Spofford, the same\nSpofford Mrs. Eddy had solicited her followers to kill by mental\nmeans.\n\nThere were two counts in the indictment.\n\n  The first read: \u201cThat Edward J. Arens and Asa G. Eddy of Boston\n  aforesaid, on the 28th day of July in the year of our Lord, one\n  thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, Boston, aforesaid,\n  with Force and Arms, being persons of evil minds and\n  dispositions did then and there unlawfully conspire, combine\n  and agree together feloniously, wilfully, and of their malice\n  aforethought, to procure, hire, incite and solicit, one James\n  L. Sargent, for a certain sum of money, to wit, the sum of five\n  hundred dollars, to be paid to said Sargent by them, said Arens\n  and Eddy, feloniously, wilfully, and of his, said Sargent\u2019s\n  malice aforethought, in some way and manner and by some means,\n  instruments, and weapons, to said jurors unknown, one, Daniel\n  H. Spofford, to kill and murder. Against the law, peace and\n  dignity of said Commonwealth.\u201d\n\nWhat connection there was between the failure of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nefforts to kill Spofford or to have him killed by mental means\nand her husband\u2019s alleged efforts to have him killed by physical\nmeans, I do not positively know. I did not hear Mrs. Eddy say to\nMr. Eddy: Asa, we have tried and tried and tried to kill that man\nSpofford, but he is a tough proposition, and we have made no\nprogress. Now you pay Sargent $500 to lie in wait for him with a\nclub and we will see if that won\u2019t settle him. That was the\ncharge against Eddy. Nothing mental about the club form of\ntreatment! I did not hear Mrs. Eddy say that to Eddy, but I very\nmuch doubt if he would have found himself in the position in\nwhich he was placed, if his dominating helpmeet had offered any\nobjection to the thing of which he was accused. I do not know\nthat Mrs. Eddy knew anything about Asa G. Eddy\u2019s undertaking to\nhave Spofford killed; but I do know that what I have stated is\ntrue, and I do know that the human mind necessarily makes\ndeductions from circumstances; and I do not doubt every human\nmind that believes the facts to be as I have stated them, will\nmake the same deduction that my mind makes.\n\nFor some unexplained reason this indictment was never prosecuted;\nbut, upon the payment of costs by Eddy, was _nol prossed_. There\nwas no disproof of the sworn testimony given in the Police Court.\nEddy never asked for a hearing, he never insisted upon the\nvindication only a trial could give. He put his hand into his\npocket and paid a considerable sum to escape a trial; and Mrs.\nEddy and her friends call that a vindication. Does an innocent\nman accused of serious crime pay money to escape a trial, or does\nhe demand a full hearing and establish his innocence?\n\nAnd Spofford is not the only assumed enemy the good \u201cMother\u201d of\nChristian Science has sought to dispose of by mental murder.\nRichard Kennedy and Clara E. Choate, both now living in Boston,\nand Edward J. Arens, also fell under the ban and at Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\ninstigation received so-called mental treatment designed to\nrelieve them of the burden of the flesh by divers diseases.\n\nAnother one of her early friends, whom Mrs. Eddy ceased to love\nand grew to hate, was Richard Kennedy. He had been one of her\nearliest pupils, studying with her when she lived at the\nWentworth house in Stoughton in the sixties; and they had carried\non a sort of co-partnership at Lynn, Mrs. Eddy doing the teaching\nand Kennedy the healing.\n\nBut she had had a falling out with Kennedy as with her other\nearly friends, Spofford and Arens, and she had dragged him into\ncourt as she had dragged them, Kennedy was a young man and an\neasy victim. He gave Mrs. Eddy his promissory note for a thousand\ndollars for her teachings, and after he had paid two hundred and\nfifty dollars on account she brought suit against him for the\nbalance, seven hundred and fifty dollars, but again she lost her\ncase.\n\nAfter a time, somehow or other, the strange notion got into Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s head that Kennedy was the most malicious and Satanic of\nall her enemies, who were, by mental means, seeking her\ndestruction. He was the very incarnation of the mind\u2019s hellish\npower in its most malignant and effective form; and she denounced\nhim in the following lurid language:\n\n  \u201cThe Nero of today, regaling himself through a mental method\n  with the tortures of individuals, is repeating history and will\n  fall upon his own sword and it shall pierce him through. Let\n  him remember this when, _in the dark recesses of thought_, he\n  is robbing, committing adultery, and killing; when he is\n  attempting to turn friend away from friend, ruthlessly stabbing\n  the quivering heart; when he is clipping the thread of life,\n  and giving to the grave youth and its rainbow hues; when he is\n  turning back the reviving sufferer to her bed of pain, clouding\n  her first morning after years of night; and the Nemesis of that\n  hour shall point to the tyrant\u2019s fate, who falls at length upon\n  the sword of justice.\u201d\n\nAnd in one of the editions of her book Mrs. Eddy went so far as\nto expressly accuse Kennedy of the crime of murder in the\nfollowing extraordinary language:\n\n  \u201cThe husband of a lady who was the patient of this\n  malpractitioner poured out his grief to us and said: \u2018Dr. K\u2014\u2014\n  has destroyed the happiness of my home, ruined my wife,\u2019 etc.;\n  and, after that, he finished with a double crime by destroying\n  the health of that wronged husband so that he died. We say that\n  he did these things because we have as much evidence of it as\n  ever we had of the existence of any sin. The symptoms and\n  circumstances of the cases, and the diagnosis of their diseases\n  proved the unmistakable fact. His career of crime surpasses\n  anything that minds in general can accept at this period. We\n  advised him to marry a young lady whose affection he had won,\n  but he refused; subsequently she was wedded to a nice young\n  man, and then he alienated her affections from her husband.\u201d\n\nAll of this, of course, by absent mental treatment!\n\nIt is a matter of record in the Superior Court of the State of\nNew Hampshire, by sworn testimony, that Mrs. Eddy sought to\nrelieve herself of the imagined malicious mental treatment of Mr.\nKennedy by instructing her friends to sit together at stated\ntimes daily and, holding his lungs in a diseased condition in\ntheir minds, hurl consumption at him with all the power of\nconcentrated malevolent thought.\n\nKennedy, who is living today, and with whom I am well acquainted,\nis as gentle and kindly a person as can be imagined; and, while\nMrs. Eddy was working herself into a frenzy over his supposed\nmalignity, and having consumption mentally hurled at him, was\npursuing the even tenor of his way without thought of her except\nas an occasional memory of a bitter experience. Mrs. Eddy hated\nKennedy as she hated Spofford, and she wanted Kennedy killed as\nshe wanted Spofford killed; and, as in the case of Spofford, she\nsolicited her friends and students to undertake by mental\nco\u00f6peration to terminate his mundane career.\n\nIt may relieve the minds of some to know that Mrs. Eddy\u2019s kindly\npurpose did not succeed with any of the persons whose illness was\nsought, as I have related. Spofford, Kennedy and Mrs. Choate did\nnot succumb to the malicious absent treatment, but are still\npresent with us in the flesh. Arens died, I am told, but some\ntime after Mrs. Eddy had given him up as hopelessly tenacious of\nlife.\n\nBut one more incident and I have done\u2014I have kept the worst until\nthe last.\n\nA sad and tragic episode in connection with the litigation\ninstituted by her sons in reference to Mrs. Eddy\u2019s mental\ncondition, was the suicide at the Parker House, in Boston, on\nApril 20, 1907, of Miss Mary C. Tomlinson, sister of Irving C.\nTomlinson, a former Universalist minister, but then and now a\nChristian Science healer, and of Rev. Vincent Tomlinson, a\nUniversalist minister of Worcester, Mass. Miss Tomlinson had\nlived with her brother Irving at Concord, N.H., and had been a\nReader in the Christian Science Church there and an ardent\ndisciple of Christian Science and of Mrs. Eddy, being much in\ncompany with her and absolutely devoted to her service. After the\nlaw suit by Mrs. Eddy\u2019s sons began, all the closest friends of\nMrs. Eddy in Concord (as well as elsewhere) were called upon to\ndefend her from the attack, and, by the peculiar method of absent\nand silent mental treatment, both Mr. Glover and his senior\ncounsel, Mr. Chandler, were pressed by the so-called \u201cworkers\u201d to\nthe utmost of the powers they supposed themselves to possess.\n\nMiss Mary C. Tomlinson was not in the least degree unwilling to\nexercise her powers of absent treating of persons in order to\nrepel the Stetson argument; nor even unwilling to treat Glover\nand Chandler in the ordinary way, trying to make them abandon the\nlawsuit; but when the decision was made at Concord, to treat Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s own son and his lawyer in hostile fashion\u2014by sending\narsenical poison into their veins, or otherwise putting them to\ndeath, Miss Tomlinson\u2019s whole nature revolted. She had implicit\nfaith in Christian Science, she worshiped Mrs. Eddy, she believed\nin the existence of malicious animal magnetism and its devilish\npower and in the methods of counter-working to prevent its evil\nwork; but she had never before seen an attempt made to use absent\ntreatment diabolically\u2014by putting to death the enemies of the\nChurch of Christ, Scientist. When she opened her eyes to the\nenormity to be practised in the name of a revengeful church, her\nmind revolted. She determined to leave Concord, to renounce Mrs.\nEddy and all her works and to denounce the system to which she\nhad been so earnest a servant. Indeed the intense revulsion of\nfeeling seems to have upset her mental balance. Following up her\ndetermination, she went to Boston on April 19 and wandered about,\nuncertain what to do with herself, at last finding her way to the\nParker House in the hands of a Christian Scientist, where her two\nbrothers, being telegraphed for, came to take charge of her.\n\nHere the tragedy begins. The Parker House manager wished her to\nbe seen by Dr. Payne, the hotel physician; but did not succeed in\ngetting him admission to her rooms. He did, however, send to her\na nurse from Boothby Hospital, a Miss Telfair, who arrived about\nnine p.m. Later, Mr. Vincent Tomlinson, the Universalist\nminister, came and with the nurse took charge of his sister.\n\nAbout eleven o\u2019clock Mr. Irving C. Tomlinson, the Christian\nScience healer, arrived and at once took controlling charge of\nMiss Tomlinson\u2014saying that he understood the case and knew what\nto do. Mr. Vincent Tomlinson left the rooms and took a room down\nthe corridor which his brother had engaged. The nurse was not\nallowed to stay in the room with Miss Tomlinson but was placed\nout in the corridor, while Mr. Irving Tomlinson took off his\nshoes and coat and laid down in a connecting room. About one\no\u2019clock in the morning there was the sound of a window being\nraised in Miss Tomlinson\u2019s room and the nurse entered quickly\nfrom the corridor as Irving came in from his room. They found she\nhad opened the window, and she said to Irving, when he\nremonstrated, that she wanted to look out. They induced her to go\nback to bed and Irving then _locked on the inside_ the door from\nher room into the corridor and took out the key and kept it. Miss\nTelfair went into the corridor again and Irving went into his own\nroom. About three a.m., Miss Telfair heard the door connecting\nwith Irving\u2019s room shut and locked by Miss Tomlinson. Again she\nheard the window opened, but, _having been locked out_, could not\nget to Miss Tomlinson. She called for the porter and they finally\ngot into Miss Tomlinson\u2019s room by breaking down the door\nconnecting it with Irving\u2019s. They found the window wide open and\nthe room empty. Miss Tomlinson had thrown herself down four\nstories to the street. She was brought back to her room, but\nnever spoke, and died about five a.m.\n\nShe had worshiped Mrs. Eddy. She had been one of the most devoted\nof her disciples, and when she came to a realization of the\ninfamies being practised in the name of Christ, life lost every\nray of light and every particle of charm, and she dashed herself\nto death upon the stones of the streets of Boston.\n\nSmall matter for wonder that, when the bruised and mangled body\nhad been carried to the chamber Miss Tomlinson had occupied, the\nUniversalist minister, standing by his dead sister, should\nsolemnly say to his brother, the renegade Universalist minister,\nthe Christian Science healer, \u201cIrving, the blood of our sister is\nupon the skirts of Mrs. Eddy!\u201d\n\nThe story is now completely told. Of those who have followed me\nto the end, I ask, was it incumbent upon me, knowing the facts as\nI know them and as I have here presented them, to crowd them down\ninto my soul and by suppressing them become a party to Mrs.\nEddy\u2019s monstrous imposition? Just because the author of all of\nthis fraud, falsehood, hypocrisy, blasphemy and attempted crime\nis a woman, now an aged woman, should I therefore stand silently\nby and permit her longer to masquerade before mankind as like\nunto the pure and holy Jesus? I think not. That has not seemed to\nme to be my duty in the matter. I have done my duty as I have\nseen it, and I will stand by the position taken and the facts\naffirmed.\n\nIs it possible for any decent person, man or woman, to peruse\nthis book and then acknowledge himself or herself a disciple of\nMary Baker G. Eddy? Is it conceivable that any sane man or woman,\nwith full knowledge of the facts of her life, can honestly\nprofess belief in her disgusting imposture? Can any one who\nfeels, as I do, that Jesus is the common glory of all who bear a\nhuman heart, without resentment and without anger witness the\nendeavor of this vulgar creature to place herself by His side?\nCan any devout Christian have any other feeling than one of\nabhorrence for the blasphemous woman and the bunco game she dares\nto say is \u201cauthorized by Christ\u201d?\n\nIf I have made good, if I have accomplished what I set out to\naccomplish, I ask every man and every woman who reads this book\nto lose no opportunity to show this hateful thing, miscalled\nChristian Science, in its true light to those with whom they come\nin contact. Let it have no quarter. Hit it every time you have a\nchance and hit it as hard as you can. It is not entitled to\nrespectful treatment. Nothing is more _impossible_ than to love\nJesus, even a little, and to have the slightest, the very\n_slightest_, tolerance for Mrs. Eddy and her frauds.\n\nA Christian Science speaker recently, in a suburb of Boston, in\nconcluding an address exhorted her hearers to \u201cfollow Mrs. Eddy,\nas Mrs. Eddy follows the Saviour.\u201d Not follow the Saviour, but\nfollow Mrs. Eddy in Mrs. Eddy\u2019s way of following the Saviour.\n\nAs Mrs. Eddy follows the Saviour.\n\nBy faking a revelation from God? By stealing the ideas of another\nand ascribing them to God\u2019s voice in her private ear? By putting\non the cloak of religion in order to pick the pockets of those\nwhose hands are clasped in prayer? By copyrighting a \u201creligion,\u201d\nand suing those who infringe her copyright? By fixing, under the\npretended guidance of God, upon the extortionate sum of three\nhundred dollars for twelve lessons in \u201cthe divine power that\nheals\u201d? By invoking the aid of the courts to compel poor\ncreatures to pay her, at the rate of twenty-five dollars per\nhour, for telling them of God, and His Christ? By organizing a\nchurch in which membership is made dependent upon activity in the\nsale of her puerile and profitable wares? By denouncing as vile\ndebauchery the sweetest and purest and noblest relation of men\nand women? By declaring the children, in whom our souls delight,\nto be the offspring of \u201clegalized lust\u201d? By refusing to put forth\nher professed Godlike power to soothe any pain, even that of the\nsister she loved, to save any life, even that of her own\ngrandchild? By constituting herself the veritable autocrat of the\nBedlamites and reigning with despotic sway over the multitudes of\nher self-abased dupes? By never telling the truth, unless there\nwas money in it, and never hesitating at a lie that would add one\nsimple soul to the number of her victims or one soiled dollar to\nher bulging exchequer? By living a life of unvarying deception\nand uncleanness, and professing, with eyes rolled heavenward, to\nbe \u201cas pure as the angels\u201d? By seeking, with Satanic zeal and\nhatred, the destruction of her fancied enemies, through the\nattempted mental infliction of disease and suffering and death?\n\nAs Mrs. Eddy follows the Saviour?\n\nNot thus, not thus, O Saviour of mankind! not _thus_ have\nfollowed in the royal road which thou hast trod _ages of\nworshipers!_","title":"The Religio-Medical Masquerade: A Complete Exposure of Christian Science","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":48241}