Page:The Quimby Manuscripts.djvu/168

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164
MRS. EDDY: 1862-1875

believed, or we may read it to see just how it led to the development of the later Christian Science. One should guard against claiming too much either for this particular manuscript or for the use to which it was put by Mrs. Eddy. For no one who knows the facts from within has ever claimed that Dr. Quimby actually wrote Mrs. Eddy's book, “Science and Health.” What has been claimed, and rightfully so, is that from Dr. Quimby in the period under consideration in this chapter Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs Patterson, having been restored to health by the great healer, whom she publicly acknowledged as working by the truth which Jesus taught, acquired the essential ideas and methods which gave being to her version of Christian Science.

“Question and Answers,” used as the basis for teaching for several years, was the connecting link. The “Science of Man” stands for another link in the chain of development, the first and second editions of “Science and Health” for other links. To understand all these in their connection is to understand the origin and the various expressions of the later Christian Science.