CHAPTER IX
MESMERISM DOMINANT
BELIEVING somewhat in Quimby as a profound sage and saintly man, Mrs. Patterson, to the astonishment of her family, returned to Tilton a well woman. Before leaving Portland she ascended to the dome of the city hall by a stairway of one hundred and eighty-two steps to signalize her complete recovery from spinal weakness. Attributing her well-being entirely to Quimby and asserting that he was not a Spiritualist or a mesmerist, she wrote two articles for the Press of Portland, giving him the honor of her cure and revealing a gratitude so heartfelt and sincere that the most cynical must have admitted her generosity. In one article she said she could see dimly and only as trees walking the great principle which underlay his works.
That neither Quimby nor any of his patients could discern this principle, and that he did constantly resort to Spiritualistic clairvoyance for diagnosis and to mesmerism for healing, made no alteration in the faith of Mary Baker. She heard and saw only what was in her own mind and experience, and continued to identify publicly and privately her faith with Quimby’s in the face of all the evidence to the contrary and his own occasional expostulation. The Portland public, reading her articles, fairly caught
