Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/135

Rh Now dear one, I want you to tell this man, the bearer of this note, that you know that Dr. Quimby and I were friends and that I used to take his scribblings and fix them over for him and give him my thoughts and language which as I understood it, were far in advance of his.

Will you do this and give an affidavit to this effect and greatly oblige your Affectionate Sister Mary."

I read the foregoing appeal for help from said Mrs. Patterson, then Eddy, and as it was clearly a request that I should make oath to what was not true, I informed the attorney that I should not make the affidavit asked by his client, as it would not be a true statement. He then threatened to summon me to the trial, but I think I made him understand that I would not be a desirable witness on his side of the case. He thereupon departed, and I was not summoned to testify. And since that interview, I have only a public knowledge of said Mrs. Patterson-Eddy.

In her private correspondence, Mrs. Eddy has said, in so many words, that she taught the Quimby system. Reference has already been made to the correspondence in March, 1871, between Mrs. Eddy—then Mrs. Glover—and Mr. W. W. Wright of Lynn. Mr. Wright specifically asked this question:

6th: Has this theory ever been advertised or practised before you introduced it, or by any other individual?

To this Mrs. Eddy replied:

6th: Never advertised, and practised by only one individual who healed me, Dr. Quimby of Portland, Me, an old gentleman who had made it a research for twenty-five years, starting from the stand-point of magnetism thence going forward and leaving that behind. I discovered the art in a moment's time, and he acknowledged it to me; he died shortly after and since then, eight years, I have been founding and demonstrating the science. . . . please preserve this, and if you become my student call me to account for the truth of what I have written
 * Respectfully
 * M M B Glover

Mrs. Eddy has never attempted to reconcile the statements which she made before the publication of Science and Health with the very different ones which she has made since.