Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/142

104 advertised that she would pay for their publication. But for some deep and inscrutable reason it has been impossible to unveil them.

The conclusion seems warranted that there is nothing worthy of the name of manuscripts in the Quimby safe. It may be that there are certain deposits of fragmentary pencilings of Phineas Quimby. It may be that there are certain of Mrs. Eddy’s writings there. It may be that these writings are interlaced, and to produce one is to produce the other. Thus the Quimby manuscript tradition may rest, not on nothing, but, as in the Humbert will case, on something so near to nothing as to be negligible of consideration.

But though the original manuscripts, if such there be, have never seen the light, it must be understood that George A. Quimby has exhibited some writings which he calls Quimby manuscripts. These are a series of copybooks filled with writing. Originality is not claimed for these writings which are described as copies of copies of Phineas Quimby’s notes, but only are they so described when exact information is required. Ordinarily they are loosely called by Mr. Quimby, “my father’s manuscripts.”

Authenticity is rendered doubtful for these writings, because, not only has no one ever seen the originals on which they are said to be based, but also because the world never heard of these copybooks until after “Science and Health” had long been published, was in its third edition, and the book and its philosophy had begun to make a stir in the world of thought. It would have to be shown