Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/378

328 editing manuscripts, in annotating and making indices to theological and scholarly works.

One day in August, 1885, Calvin Frye called at Mr. Wiggin's office in the old Boston Music Hall, and introduced himself as the secretary of a lady who had written a book, the manuscript of which she wished Mr. Wiggin to revise, adding that she also wished him to prepare an index for her work. A few days later Mrs. Eddy herself came to see Mr. Wiggin, bringing with her a bulky package of manuscript which proved to be a fresh version of that much-written book, Science and Health, which she had just rewritten from the fourth edition, 1884. She gave Mr. Wiggin to understand that, while the manuscript was practically ready for the printer, it needed the touch of a literary man. She agreed to his terms and withdrew. Mr. Wiggin, who was just about to start away on his summer vacation, put the package into his bag and took it up to the mountains with him. When he examined the manuscript later, he found that a revision of it was no holiday task. The faulty spelling and punctuation could have been corrected readily enough, as well as the incorrect historical references and the misuse of words; but the whole work was so involved, formless, and contradictory that Mr. Wiggin put the manuscript away and thought no more about it until he returned to Boston. Then he saw Mrs. Eddy and told her that he could do nothing by merely correcting her manuscript; that to improve it he would have largely to rewrite it. To his surprise, she willingly consented to this. During the autumn of 1885 Mr. Wiggin