Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/173

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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
135

the Quimby science upon any practical basis. Her experiment with Hiram Crafts had failed and she had not succeeded in her efforts to induce Mrs. Crosby in Albion, or Mrs. Wentworth in Stoughton, to give up their homes and go into the business of teaching and practising the Quimby system with her. What Mrs. Glover most wanted was a partner, and she now saw one in Richard Kennedy. He was nearly twenty-one and sufficiently well-grounded in the principles of mind-cure to begin practising. Mrs. Glover had not, up to this time, achieved any success as a healer herself, and she had come to see that her power lay almost exclusively in teaching the theory. Without a practical demonstration of its benefits, however, the theory of her Science excited little interest, and it was in conjunction with a practising student that she could teach most effectively. She entered into an agreement with young Kennedy to the effect that they were to open an office in Lynn, Mass., and were to remain together three years.

In June, 1870, Mrs. Glover and Richard Kennedy went to Lynn. They stayed temporarily at the home of Mrs. Clarkson Oliver, whom Kennedy had known in Amesbury, while he looked about for suitable offices. He heard that Miss Susie Magoun, who conducted a private school for young children, had just leased a building on the corner of Shepard and South Common Streets and was desirous of subletting the second floor. Miss Magoun, now Mrs. John M. Dame of Lynn, remembers how one June evening, when she was looking over the building to decide upon the arrangement of her schoolrooms, a very boyish-looking young man appeared and nervously asked whether she intended to let a part of the house. He said he was looking