CHAPTER V
THE QUIMBY CONTROVERSY—MRS. EDDY'S CLAIM THAT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE WAS A DIVINE REVELATION TO HER—THE STORY OF HER FALL ON THE ICE IN LYNN AND HER MIRACULOUS RECOVERY
Nine years after the death of Phineas P. Quimby, Mrs. Eddy published a book entitled Science and Health, in which she developed a system of curing disease by the mind. In this work she mentions Quimby only incidentally, and acknowledges no indebtedness to him for the idea upon which her system is based. Upon this foundation Mrs. Eddy has since established the Christian Science Church, the sect which regards her as the real discoverer and only accredited teacher of metaphysical healing. Quimby himself, though he founded no religious organisation, to-day has thousands of followers; the several schools of Mental Scientists are convinced that he was the discoverer and founder of mental healing in this country. Mrs. Eddy's partisans maintain that she received her inspiration from God, while Quimby's adherents maintain that she obtained her ideas very largely from Quimby. Interrupting, for the present, the narrative of Mrs. Eddy's life, this chapter will attempt to present the arguments of both sides in this controversy.
Quimby's followers do not assert that Quimby wrote Science and Health, or that he is the responsible author of all the ideas now formulated in the Christian Science creed. In brief,
71
