Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/268

226 pages—in looks very unlike the sombre 480-page volume which had preceded it—was to announce that mesmerism could be practised without manipulation indeed, that the practice was more pernicious without a sign than with it. Mrs. Eddy thus explained her new light upon the subject:

Mesmerism is practised through manipulation and without it. And we have learned, by new observation, the fool who saith "There is no God" attempts more evil without a sign than with it. Since "Science and Health" first went to press, we have observed the crimes of another mesmeric outlaw, in a variety of ways, who does not as a common thing manipulate, in cases where he sullenly attempted to avenge himself of certain individuals, etc. But we had not before witnessed the malpractitioner's fable without manipulation, and supposed it was not done without it; but have learned it is the addenda to what we have described in a previous edition, but without manipulating the head.

Malicious Mesmerism, or Malicious Animal Magnetism, first conceived as a personal attribute of Richard Kennedy, was six years later stretched to accommodate Daniel Spofford. By 1881, when the third edition of Science and Health appeared, a personal animosity had fairly developed into a doctrine, and Mrs. Eddy was well on the way toward admitting a general principle of evil—a thing she certainly never meant to admit. She had decided that mesmerism was not merely a trick employed in practice, but a malignant attitude of mind, and that a person evilly disposed, by merely wishing his neighbour harm, could bring it to him—unless the object of his malice were wise in Metaphysics and could treat against this evil mind-power. Unless a man were thus protected by Christian Science, his enemy might, through Mesmerism or Mortal Mind, bring upon him any kind of misfortune; might ruin his business, cause a