Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/543

Rh of mental healing. Through Dr. Warren F. Evans and Mr. and Mrs. Julius A. Dresser the Quimby idea, previous to the Christian Science interpretation of it, had been slowly and laboriously coming into a limited practice; but with the entrance of Mrs. Eddy into the field, with her extravagant claims of miraculous revelation and her violent methods of procedure, the whole movement received a tremendous impetus; and unconsciously and very much against her will, she has been the most effective agent in promoting Quimbyism as well as Eddyism. For, although it has been one of Mrs. Eddy's chief cares to stem the progress of the rival school, and to raise an impassable barrier between her own cult and that of all other mental healers, it has not disturbed the fact that for practical purposes, Eddyism is simply Quimbyism, overlaid with superstition and ignorance; and the future of Mrs. Eddy's school depends largely upon the willingness of her followers to continue their self-deception on this point, which is the chief requirement of her religion.

Whatever there is of value to the world in Mrs. Eddy's system, lies in the practicality of its healing methods, and the foregoing chapters have shown that Mrs. Eddy realises this,