Page:The Quimby Manuscripts.djvu/15

Rh Did he allow his own personality to become a centre of interest and admiration? Not at all. He realized of course that his patients would look up to him as to any physician who had restored them to health when there was apparently no hope. So he sometimes freely spoke of his “power or influence.” But this was to divert attention from doctors and medicines. He then disclosed the way to his great truth, and kept his “science” steadily before his patient's mind. His manuscripts contain scarcely a reference to himself save to show what he learned from early investigations, why he is not a spiritualist, humbug or quack, and why he believed man possesses “spiritual senses” in touch with Divine wisdom. Thus he often speaks of himself in the third person as “P. P. Q.” not “the natural man,” but the one who has seen a great truth which all might understand.

In his constructive period in Portland, Quimby had around him, not ardent disciples who compared him with the great philosophers or with Jesus, but a small group who defended him against misrepresentation, and regarded him as he wished to be regarded, as a lover of truth. His patients became his special friends, and it was to those most interested that he gave forth his ideas most freely. The Misses Ware, who did most of the copying of the manuscripts and made changes in them according to his suggestions when he heard them read, were especially fitted for this service, since they brought forward no opinions of their own and were devoted to this part of the work. So, too, Mr. Julius A. Dresser, who spent his time after his own recovery, in June, 1860, conversing with new patients and inquirers, explaining Quimby's theory and methods, was particularly adapted to aid the great cause to which his life was dedicated. A few followers wrote brief articles for the press, but none had the confidence to undertake any elaborate exposition, hoping as they did that the manuscripts would soon be given to the world and that these would disclose the new truth in its fulness.

It has been supposed that Quimby did no teaching, and this is true so far as organized instruction is concerned. But he did the same kind of teaching that all original men engage in, he conversed with his followers, speaking out of the fulness of experience and with the force of native insight. Thus he began the educational part of his treatment as soon