Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/378

334 Pursuing this idea in November, 1888, Mrs. Eddy legally adopted Dr. Ebenezer Johnson Foster in the Suffolk County (Massachusetts) Probate Court, stating as her reasons in the proceedings before Judge McKim that he was associated with her in business, home life, and life work, and that she needed his interested care and relationship. The plea was granted and Dr. Foster added Eddy to his name and became her son. This effort toward parental relationship was not a success, and may be briefly set forth.

Dr. Foster came from a small town in Vermont. He was a graduate of the Hahneman Medical College in Philadelphia and for two years a member of the clinics of the Blockley Hospital and of the Pennsylvania Hospital. He was later a member of the Vermont State Homeopathic Medical Society. Holding diplomas from both the regular and the homeopathic schools of medicine, he was attracted to Christian Science by the healing of a close friend who had been an old army comrade. He came to Boston an enthusiastic inquirer in the fall of 1887 and took a course of lessons under Mrs. Eddy’s instruction at the college. Before its close he taught one term in the college. Previous to his adoption he resided in her Commonwealth avenue home together with other students. He was one of that group of intimate students among whom were Julia Bartlett, Calvin Frye, Captain and Mrs. Eastaman, and William B. Johnson.

Dr. Foster-Eddy was an agreeable and accomplished man of forty with a clear, well-trained mind