Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/547

Rh said: "Among Mrs. Eddy's ancestors was Sir John McNeill, a Scotch knight prominent in British politics, and ambassador to Persia. Her great-grandfather was the Right Honourable Sir John McNeill of Edinburgh, Scotland. Mrs. Eddy is the only survivor of her father's family, which bore the coat-of-arms of the ancient McNeills. The motto is Vincere aut mori (conquer or die). Surrounding the shield and enclosed in a heavy wreath is the motto of the Order of the Bath, tria juncta in uno (three joined in one)." Soon after this was published it was challenged by a granddaughter of Sir John MacNeill, Mrs. Florence Macalister of Aberdeen, Scotland, who wrote to Mrs. Eddy correcting her statement, and caused a correction to be published in London Truth. She says:

I am the only married grandchild of the late Right Honourable Sir John MacNeill, G.C.B., of Edinburgh, "who was prominent in British politics and Ambassador to Persia," and Mrs. Eddy is certainly not my daughter.

My mother, Margaret Ferooza MacNeill, was the only child of his who reached maturity, though he was three times married; she married my father, Duncan Stewart, R.N., now captain, retired, and died in 1871. Of her six children, one died unmarried, three years ago; five survive, of whom four are unmarried.

I am the wife of Commander N. G. Macalister, R.N., who is at present inspecting officer of coast guard for Aberdeen division.

I wrote to the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal who published Mrs. Eddy's statement, asking him to publish a correction, and I sent a copy of the letter to Mrs. Eddy herself. She did not reply at all, and he excused himself from publishing it on the ground that the correction could not appear for five months.

In March, 1904, after the publication of Mrs. Macalister's correction had been copied widely in American papers, Mrs. Eddy caused a paragraph to be inserted in the Christian Science Sentinel, saying that writers of her genealogy had been