Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/354

306 under Mrs. Eddy and who afterward broke with her, explaining that he was more successful and useful under her than he has ever been since he went over to the enemy. In some instances this is true. Many of her students never worked so well after they withdrew from her compelling leadership, and their contact with her remained the most vivid and important event in their lives. Out of her abundant energy and determination Mrs. Eddy has been able to nerve many a weak arm and to steel many an irresolute will, and she has done much of her work with tools which were temporarily given hardness and edge by the driving personality behind them.

As the college grew and her classes increased in size, Mrs. Eddy exacted, and for the most part obtained, the same absolute obedience which she had demanded of the faithful in Lynn. She had a custom of sending telegrams to students who had left Boston, summoning them to report at the college immediately, and giving no explanation of the order. When they arrived there, they sometimes found that she had merely been experimenting to see how quickly they could reach her in case of need. If they were prompt in this sort of drill, she seemed pleased and reassured. On the Fourth of July, especially, she demanded that all her students be subject to call, and that none of the resident students leave Boston on that day. She explained that on the Fourth "mortal mind was in ebullition," and she feared animal magnetism more then than at any other time.

In 1883 Mrs. Eddy brought an action against Edward J. Arens for infringement of her copyright upon Science and Health, and won the suit. Arens was forbidden to circulate