adopted by Jesus. I do not hesitate to say that Mrs. Eddy's teachings in 1877, and Dr. Quimby's teachings in 1864 were substantially the same; in fact, as I heard them both, I know they were.
In June, 1883, an attorney representing said Mrs. Patterson came to see me at Waterville, my present home, and interviewed me regarding her work with Dr. Quimby in Portland in 1864. I refused to answer his questions and he left, but returned the next day bearing an affectionate letter from said Mrs. Patterson. The following is a copy thereof:—
"My dear Sister,
- Sarah,— I wanted to see you myself but it was impossible for me to leave my home and so have sent the bearer of this note to see you for me.
Two nights ago I had a sweet dream of Albert[1] and the dear face was so familiar, Oh how I loved him! and in the morning a thought popped into my head to ask Sarah to help me in this very trying hour.
These are the circumstances. A student[2] of my husband's took the class-book of mine that he studied, put his name to most of it, and published it as his own after he was through with the class.
Then was the time I ought to have sued him, but Oh, I do so dislike a quarrel that I hoped to get over it without a law-suit.
So I noticed in my next edition of 'Science and Health' his infringement with a sharp reprimand thinking that would stop him, but this winter he issued another copy of my work as the author, and then I sued him. The next thing he did was to publish the falsehood that I stole my works from the late Dr. Quimby. When everything I ever had published has been written or edited by me as spontaneously as I teach or lecture.
- ↑ It will be remembered that the "spirit" friendship of Mrs. Patterson's dead brother, Albert Baker, for Mrs. Crosby, formed a close bond in the friendship of the two women, and that he communicated with Mrs. Crosby through his sister. See Chapter IV.
- ↑ In the early '80's, Edward J. Arens published a pamphlet entitled Old Theology in its Application to the Healing of the Sick; the Redemption of Man from the Bondage of Sin and Death, and His Restoration to an Inheritance of Everlasting Life. In this Arens borrowed liberally, in word and idea, from Science and Health. In 1883 Mrs. Eddy sued Arens for infringement of copyright. Arens said, in defence, that he had not borrowed from Mrs. Eddy, but from the late P. P. Quimby, of Portland, Me. He added that Mrs. Eddy had herself appropriated Quimby's ideas, in other words, that both had drawn their philosophy from the same source. The court decided in Mrs. Eddy's favour, and issued a perpetual injunction restraining Arens from circulating his books. On the strength of this decision Mrs. Eddy and her followers have declared that the United States courts have decided the issue of the Quimby controversy in her favour. There is nothing in this decision contrary to the claims of Quimby's friends. The court, they agree, simply decided that Mrs. Eddy held a valid copyright upon Science and Health and that Arens had violated that copyright. They have never denied either of these facts. They freely admit that Mrs. Eddy wrote Science and Health as it stands, and that she has a property interest in it. They are not discussing legal technicalities, but only the moral issue involved,—which, they add, did not and properly could not, be considered by the court.
