The authorities generally agree that in Phineas Parkhurst Quimby we have the direct connecting link between the period just mentioned and the present. Quimby played quite an important role in the evolution of the modern conceptions of mental healing, or psycho-therapy as it is now called. He was a poor clockmaker, of quite limited means, of good character and a strong personality. His education is said to have been limited, but he made up for his lack in this respect by his naturally keen and inquiring mind. In 1838 one of the teachers of mesmerism visited his home in Belfast, Maine, and Quimby attended the seance. He became intensely interested in what he saw, and in the theories propounded, and began to experiment on the people in his town, the result being that he soon acquired a reputation as a powerful mesmerist and a good healer. He followed along the general lines of the "Electro-Biology" theory for a time, and then evolved theories of his own. He cured himself and many others by manual treatment, and was soon kept quite busy in his healing work. Quimby, thinking deeply regarding the cures he was making, soon came to the conclusion that while his _cures_ were genuine, his _theories_ were wrong. He gradually evolved the idea that diseases are caused by erroneous thinking, and that his cures resulted from changing these wrong mental states for those based upon true conceptions. He held that all that is required to effect a cure is to bring about "a change of thought." Following upon this new conception, he ceased mesmerizing his patients, and began to treat them by simply sitting by the side of the afflicted person, picturing him as well and whole, and impressing upon the patient's mind that he is well and whole, _in Truth_. From this fundamental idea he gradually evolved a philosophy which has strongly influenced that of later schools. Quimby talked much regarding his great "discovery," as he called it, and built great hopes upon establishing "the science of health and happiness." He began to speak of the "Truth" in his "science," which he held to be identical with that taught by Christ, and by means of which Jesus performed his miraculous cures. Before he had firmly established his "science," however, he died, leaving his work to be carried on by others, notably by Dr. Warren F. Evans, and Julius A. Dresser, to whom should be given the credit for launching what is now known as "the New Thought Movement."