The Religio-Medical Masquerade: A Complete Exposure of Christian SciencePeabody, Frederick William
Religion
The Religio-Medical Masquerade: A Complete Exposure of Christian Science
Peabody, Frederick William
Christian Science -- Controversial literature
Shortly after the time of the publication of this notice (the
litigation brought by her sons being still pending) Senator
Chandler, their senior counsel with whom I was associated,
happened to be in Boston. As the Senator was particularly
interested in keeping tabs on Mrs. Eddy’s mental attitude toward
so-called “animal magnetism,” he asked me if I would procure for
him a copy of this edition, as her notice seemed to indicate a
possible change in her point of view on that subject. After
protesting mildly that I hated to put any good money into that
fake enterprise, I went to the publication office in Boston and
asked for a copy of the edition of “Science and Health” published
on February 29. The clerk in attendance informed me that the
edition was completely exhausted, but that another edition
containing those alterations and others could be had. Insisting
that no other edition than the one of February 29 would answer my
purpose, a somewhat worn copy was finally produced as the only
one in the place and I was told I could have it, if I didn’t
object to its condition. Turning to page 442 and running my eye
down to line thirty, where there was a little paragraph of two
lines, I returned the book to the clerk and said it was not what
I wanted, as it didn’t appear to contain the new matter of “great
importance” referred to by Mrs. Eddy’s published notice. Upon his
assurance, however, that it was the volume published on February
29 and that the paragraph of two lines, at line thirty, page 442,
was the paragraph referred to in Mrs. Eddy’s notice, I tucked the
little gold brick under my arm, reluctantly parted with my three
good dollars and, returning to the Parker House, handed it to
Senator Chandler without a word.
Turning to page 442, the Senator paused at line thirty long
enough to read the paragraph of two lines, and then, looking up,
exclaimed:
“What a swindle! Do you suppose any one can be of so little
intelligence, who buys that book in consequence of Mrs. Eddy’s
notice and reads this paragraph, that he does not feel, as we
feel, that he has been swindled?”
I assured the Senator that, in my judgment, Mrs. Eddy’s following
was largely made up of people who dearly loved to hand their
money over to her, that nothing else gave them quite such joy and
that they would be only too delighted and satisfied to be told by
Mrs. Eddy that they must be a law unto themselves in order to be
protected, sleeping or awake, from the foul fiend of animal
magnetism. As Mrs. Eddy says her students said of her teachings
for which they had rapturously parted with three hundred dollars,
“it was worth more to them than money could possibly be.”
What was this information, of “_great importance_,” which “would
_greatly aid_ the students” and which Christian Scientists
“universally” must buy a new book to read? It was just two lines
inserted in a blank space at the end of a chapter and
necessitated the change of no other plate of a single page in the
book.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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