Author: Horatio W. Dresser
Date: 2026-01-08T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: New-Thought
Description: Description A History of the New Thought Movement is a book by Horatio W. Dresser, first published in 1919. This insightful book traces the origins and evolution of the New Thought Movement, a profound spiritual and philosophical current that emerged in the late 19th century. With clarity and scholarly depth, the work explores how ideas about the power of thought, personal transformation, and metaphysical healing took root and flourished in a rapidly changing world. Dresser documents the pioneers and key figures who shaped New Thought philosophy, from early metaphysical healers to the founders
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A History of the New Thought Movement
by Horatio W. Dresser

First published in 1919

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Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. The New Age

Chapter 2. Quimby The Pioneer

Chapter 3. Quimby’s Method Of Healing

Chapter 4. The First Author

Chapter 5. The Beginnings Of Christian Science

Chapter 6. The Mental Science Period

Chapter 7. The New Thought

Chapter 8. The First Organizations

Chapter 9. The First Conventions

Chapter10. The International New Thought Alliance

Chapter 11. Other Organizations

Chapter 12. The Movement In Foreign Lands

Chapter 13. Looking Forward

Chapter 14. Kindred Movements

Appendix

Preface

For several years there has been a demand for a history of the liberal wing of the mental-healing movement known as the “New Thought.” This demand is partly due to the fact that the movement is now well organized, with international headquarters in Washington, D. C, hence there is a desire to bring its leading principles together and see them in their unity; and in part to interest in the pioneers out of whose practice the present methods and teachings have grown.

The latter interest is particularly promising since the pioneers still have a message for us. Then, too, we are more interested in these days in tracing the connection between the ideas which concern us most and the new age out of which they have sprung. We realize more and more clearly that this is indeed a new age. Hence we are increasingly eager to interpret the tendencies of thought which express the age at its best.

In order to meet this desire for a history of the New Thought, Mr. James A. Edger-ton, president of the International New Thought Alliance, decided in 1916 to undertake the work.

For it seemed well that some one should write it who has not been identified with any particular phase of the movement, either as teacher or healer. As Mr. Edger-ton was not directly acquainted with the early history and the mental-healing pioneers, he asked me to write the chapters about Mr. Quimby and his followers.

This I agreed to do. But then came interruptions due to the war, and the work was not begun. It has since seemed advisable that I should undertake the work as a whole, making use of such material as Mr. Edgerton had gathered. I have responded in the spirit in which the work was originally planned. This History is in fact the kind of book I had in mind in preparing and editing the companion volume, The Spirit of the New Thought, New York, 1917, in which were published various representative essays by different writers, with historical notes and a bibliography indicating the successive periods of the movement. The introduction to the latter volume defines the term “New Thought,” and traces its use since it was adopted in 1895 as the name of the liberal wing of the therapeutic movement.

The essays give expression to divergent opinions concerning the movement, while also indicating the development of the cardinal principles. In the present volume I have taken the definition for granted, and have assumed that the reader is interested to turn directly to the early history.

This History might disappoint some readers, if they had made up their minds that it is necessary to look into the far past and discover ideas in India, in ancient Greece, in the Middle Ages, which resemble the therapeutic ideas of today.

But this venture has been tried by several writers in recent years and has led to merely general results. This interest in the past could be developed endlessly. The objection would be that there is no actual historical connection, no explanation of the modern movement.

Still others have undertaken to explain the New Thought by interpreting it as an expression of the liberalism of the nineteenth century from a point of view so general that all the distinctive characteristics of the movement have been lost in the effort to claim too much for it. The tendency is to attribute to the New Thought far more than can with historical accuracy be claimed for it. The New Thought as matter of fact is only one of many liberalizing tendencies. It may be regarded by itself, just as in other connections one might follow the history of Unitarianism, the philosophy of evolution, or the rise of spiritism. All these studies would be interesting and valuable in their proper place. Only in recent years has the New Thought become distinctively a liberalizing movement, with churches and other organizations devoted to this work. The mental healing movement was purely special at first. It had to be to attract attention to principles and methods which needed to be recognized. The movement grew up with little connection with any other of the special movements of the age.

With no desire to attribute to the mental-healing movement any results which do not belong to it, I am also without desire to place more emphasis on the work of the pioneers than that work deserves in the light of its fruits. But there is certainly no reason to ignore the work of those who patiently and faithfully labored for the good of humanity. The history here narrated may be followed without indulging in controversies. The early history especially is based on a study of the manuscripts, books, and practice with the sick of the leading therapeutists. I have enjoyed the personal acquaintance of those who aided Mr. Quimby in the more important years of his work in Portland, Maine. I was also acquainted with Rev. W. F. Evans, the first writer on the subject, and have known most of the leaders of the movement save the newer teachers and healers. The main facts on which a controversy concerning the origin of the movement might be founded were long ago published in The True History of Mental Science, by Julius A. Dresser, Boston, 1887, and no one has ever been able to dispute the authenticity of these facts. Selections from Mr. Quimby’s manuscripts were incorporated in The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, by Annetta G. Dresser, Boston, 1895. Therefore, people have had opportunity to judge for themselves concerning the type of thought and the value of the teachings for which Mr. Quimby stood. I have since gathered the more permanent portions of these two books and added other matters of historical interest in Health and the Inner Life, New York, 1906. Accordingly, I have assumed in the present volume that the reader takes the “true history” for granted and is ready to turn to larger things.

The devotee of a special interpretation of the New Thought might still maintain that the historian is of a certain persuasion and that therefore the personal equation should be taken into account. This is true, for every writer has a point of view. I must admit that, after an acquaintance with the movement which dates from the years when it was known as “mental science,” “mind-cure,” and the “Boston craze,” the teachings of the early leaders still seem more profitable.

But why should a history ever be written unless we hold that there are ideas of value not yet recognized in their true worth by the world ? If there are truths for the new age that surpass some of the later claims put forward in behalf of the New Thought, let us by all means try to grasp and apply these truths. This is all the more important now that mental healing is well known, now that everybody makes some use of suggestion, and is familiar with the psychological principles underlying the movement. What remains to be done is to pass beyond the more popular ideas and estimate the spiritual principles, see in what sense the New Thought is in very truth an expression of the new age. Therefore the point of view of this History is that true history is analysis. It shows us what principles are most important in the light of the tendencies from which they came; it is spiritual interpretation. Those who hold this point of view have no desire to attribute power to men which belongs to God. They take no interest in claims for priority or for special teachings said to be beyond debate as if they came by revelation.

What we care for is the truth which finds expression in God’s own time, when it is needed. If we find that this truth became known without much connection with similar teachings long ago recognized in the world, there is no reason why we should not say so. Nothing is gained for a cause by claiming too much for it. The test after all is not history but actual life, utility today. My part is that of the appreciative historian, not that of the ardent advocate or the devotee of a special cause or organization. Consequently, I have not brought forward any views of my own.

Chapter 1. The New Age

The great war came as a vivid reminder that we live in a new age. We began to look back not only to explain the war and find a way to bring it to an end, but to see what tendencies were in process to lead us far beyond it. There were new issues to be met and we needed the new enlightenment to meet them. The war was only one of various signs of a new dispensation. It came not so much to prepare the way as to call attention to truths which we already possessed. The new age had been in process for some time. Different ones of us were trying to show in what way it was a new dispensation, what principles were most needed. What the war accomplished for us was to give us a new contrast. As a result we now see clearly that some of the tendencies of the nineteenth century which were most warmly praised are not so promising as we supposed.

We had come to regard the nineteenth century as the age of the special sciences. We looked to science for enlightenment. We enjoyed new inventions without number, such as the steam-engine, the electric telegraph, the telephone, and our life centered more and more about these. But the nation having most to do with preparation for the war was the one which made the greatest use of the special sciences. Modern science was in fact materialized for the benefit of a military party. As a result of our study of the war many of us are now more interested in higher branches of knowledge than in the special sciences. We insist that science is for use, and we reserve the right to say what that use shall be. We have lost interest in science not explicitly employed for moral ends.

Again, we called attention to the nineteenth century with great pride as the age of the philosophy of evolution. We put our hopes in that philosophy. We expected it to explain the great mysteries. We wrote history anew, we issued new textbooks, and in a thousand ways adapted our thought to the great idea of gradual development. But while the new philosophy accomplished wonders for us in so far as it showed the reign of law, the uniformity of nature, the immanence of all causality, it deprived us of our former belief in the divine purpose. Taken literally, it led us to regard nature as self-operative. We had to work our way back to the divine providence. We realized that evolutionism was simply a new form of materialism. We carried forward from the nineteenth century into the twentieth many great problems of life and mind not yet solved. The philosophy of evolution has come to stay, but not even in the form of Bergson’s interpretation is it satisfactory.

We also looked upon the nineteenth century as the period of development of idealism. The modern movement, beginning in Germany, spread to England and the United States, and we witnessed a most interesting form of it in our transcendentalism. This movement, in brief, emphasized Thought as the cardinal principle. It sought to explain all things by reference to this Thought. It found the starting-point as well as the meaning in the Idea. The outward world was regarded as a mere phenomenon in comparison. This movement had permanent contributions to make to our thought. We associate the name of Emerson with its spiritual meanings. But most of its theoretical teachings seem far removed from our practical thought today. We no longer try to spin the world out of the mere web of Thought. We need a new idealism to replace that of Fichte and Hegel. We are suspicious of mere speculation. The idealism of the last century is already mere matter of history.

The nineteenth century was also the epoch of religious liberalism. Throughout the century Unitarianism accomplished a great work. The liberalizing tendencies spread into all denominations. We take many ideas as matters of course nowadays for which the great leaders of the time of Theodore Parker and James Mar-tineau had to contend at the risk of intellectual martyrdom. The liberalism of the early part of the century had a destructive work to do before the freer thought of the day could assimilate the teachings of modern science and give us our present constructive faith. It requires decided effort on our part today to put ourselves back to the time when narrowing dogmas still ruled the human mind, when it was customary to pray for divine intervention, to believe in miracles as infractions of law, and to draw lines of rigid exclusiveness around the ecclesiastical sect to which one happened to belong. The history of liberalism is so comprehensive that it is always a question nowadays what we mean when we use the term. To be liberal is to be of the new age. The real question is, what is the goal of liberalism? The answer which a disciple of the New Thought would give should be understood in the light of a long struggle for the right to employ mental healing, a struggle which went on almost apart, independently of the warfare waged by Unitarianism upon the old doctrines and dogmas.

As in the case of the philosophy of evolution, we have had religious liberalism long enough with us to realize that it has a sting to it. For the less enlightened, the smaller minds among liberals, freedom of religious thought developed according to the tenets of the new or higher criticism imported from Germany. Undertaking to explain how the Bible came into being, with the variations and errors of texts, the imperfections of language, the conflict of opinions due to the fact that the books of which the Bible consists were brought together by other hands long after the supposed writers flourished, the critics proved too much and exemplified a habit of judging by the letter. Biblical criticism became destructive and had much to do with the weakening of faith still apparent among us. If we say that the new age is the epoch of belief in the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, we must qualify it by saying that the greater work remains to be done. Devotees of the New Thought have freely interpreted the Bible for themselves. What is needed is a spiritual science of interpretation to offset the destructive work which the age accepted without knowing what it believed.

The great century that has passed also witnessed the coming of spiritism in its modern form. In retrospect we are now able to say that behind all that was misleading in the new movement there were certain great truths which the world needed. Old ideas of death have been overcome, the spiritual world has been brought nearer, and larger views of the human spirit have been generally accepted. Out of the new interest came psychical research as an endeavor to put the phenomena of the whole field of spiritism on a scientific basis. The results have been meager and slowly attained. But the movement has been educational. Its positive results are discoverable in what we have been led to think. Although the whole field lies somewhat apart from that of the New Thought, the mental-healing movement has profited by it. Spiritualism is a protest against the materialism of the nineteenth century. It is one of the signs of the times. We have been gradually coming to know what spirit-return means, what a genuine message from the other life would be. What we want is a better philosophy than that which psychical experiences ordinarily seem to imply.

Psychology in the sense in which we now employ the term did not exist when the New Thought movement began. We are now so accustomed to the psychological point of view of every subject of public interest that we forget how recent it is. Modern science in general had to come first, then the theory of evolution, with the attempt to explain mental life on a biological basis, and the gradual transfer of interest to the inner life. The terms “suggestion,” “subconscious,” and the other words which we employ so freely are very new indeed. The old intellectualism in psychology prevailed for the most part throughout the nineteenth century. When a psychological laboratory was established at last it was in behalf of a physiological point of view, and like many other theories imported from Germany we have still to estimate the physiological theory in its true estate. In the end it may seem as far from the truth as the idealism and criticism which we are in process of examining anew. If psychology is a sign of the times we may well remind ourselves that the end is not yet. For there are many rivals in the field. The implied psychology of the New Thought is essentially practical and decidedly unlike that mental science which holds that the inner life is wholly determined by the brain. For the devotee of mental healing the mind is what actual success seems to prove it to be in the endeavor of the soul to conquer circumstance. It is well to study the history of mental healing without regard to the psychology of the laboratories.

The new age began in part as a reaction against authority in favor of individualism and the right to test belief by personal experience. By acquiring the right to think for himself in religious matters, man also gained freedom to live according to his convictions. Inner experience came into its own as the means of testing even the most exclusive teachings of the Church. The seat of authority was found by some in human reason, by others in what the Quakers call the inward light. Thus inward guidance led the way to another and more spiritual phase of liberalism. The Emersonian idea of self-reliance is an expression of this faith in the light which shines for the individual within the sanctuary of the soul. After the mental-healing movement | had been in process for half a century its devotees saw in Emerson a prophet of the ideas for which they had been laboring in their own way, each within the sphere of his experience. This emphasis on inner experience is a sign of our age, but it took us a long while to read the signs.

Now that we have passed into the social period we are able to appreciate the individualism of the nineteenth century. It was of course necessary for man to win the right to think for himself, to test matters for himself, and to become aware of his subjective life in contrast with the objective. Man had to plead for salvation as the individual’s privilege. He was eager to prove that the individual survived death, that a spirit could return and establish its identity. He also had to contend for the freedom of the individual in contrast with the tendency of evolutionism to regard man as a product of heredity and environment. Our whole modern view of success has grown up around a new conception of the individual. We have pleaded for man the individual in manifold ways since modern science made us acquainted with the theory of physical force, its laws, processes, and conditions. But in the twentieth century we have taken a long step beyond the individualism with which the modern liberal movement began. The present is the dawning age of brotherhood. It marks an advance not only beyond the theoretical idealism which emphasized Thought as the only reality but beyond all types of theory in which stress is placed upon the subjective. We have come out into the open again after the age-long endeavor to acquaint man with the inner life. We penetrated the inner world to gain new insights, to acquire the psychological point of view, to discover the psychical, to learn about suggestion and the subconscious. We had to learn that all real development is from within outward according to law. Today we are engaged in applying our new discoveries. The history of the New Thought is for the most part the record of one of several contemporaneous movements in favor of the inner life and the individual. We can understand it now because our age has given us the contrast. To follow that history intelligently is to see in it an effort for knowledge and power which we now take as matter of course. Each of us has in a measure come to hold the present social point of view because those who went before earned for us the right to individual salvation, gave us the inner point of view.

It was the war more than any other event of our century which gave us the contrast through which we now understand the subjectivism of the nineteenth century. The war made us aware that we had traveled very far. It showed us the widespread social tendency of our age. It was the greatest objective social struggle the world has witnessed; for never was the autocrat, the mere individual so effectively organized as in this “last war of the kings.” Yet never was there such a social protest against every right which the mere individual takes unto himself in his effort to impose his ideas on the world.

As a result we now see plainly that all true peace is social. Our nation was brought out of its isolation into prominence as a world-power to secure this larger, lasting peace. As a result we realize that justice is social. We are all pondering over the nature of social justice. We are aware that this is the great issue, now that we have turned from the war as an external enterprise to interpret the warfare of the classes. We are pleading for moral and spiritual considerations as eagerly as before. But we see that, strictly speaking, the moral and spiritual are neither subjective nor objective: they are social. Hence we look for every clue that points toward cooperation and brotherhood. We are passing beyond the old competitive spirit. The nations have been brought close by working for a common end. Never before has the world witnessed such a spirit of service.

This growing awareness of the intimacy of relationship of the individual with society has increased with us in line with the newer thought of God as immanent in the world, as the resident cause of all evolution. Our thought of God has become practical, concrete. This newer conception of God also belongs with the desire of the modern man to test everything for himself, to feel in his own life whatever man claims to have felt in the past that exalted him. Thus the practice of the presence of God follows as a natural consequence of the newer idea of man. The liberalism which set man free from the old theology left him free where he could turn to all the first-hand sources of religion for himself.

In a practical sense of the word we may say that the new age is witnessing a return to the original Christianity of the Gospels. The great work of religious liberalism in the nineteenth century consisted in freeing the world of theologies which we need never have believed. The war has brought us to the point where we can begin to appreciate what kind of social reform Christianity would have ushered in if it had been tried. The original teaching was social in the larger, truer sense. It called for brotherhood. It came to establish peace. It came that all men might have life and have it more abundantly. The spirit of the new age counsels us to return to the Bible as the Book of Life. It assures us anew that that which is spiritual must be spiritually discerned. It puts the emphasis on conduct, on the life. It came to minister to the whole individual. Only through social salvation can we begin to attain its fulness.

Granted the clues which our century affords us, we see clearly that the founders of Christian theology made a serious mistake when they divided the individual, assigning the problems of sin and salvation to the priest and neglecting the individual in the larger sense in which Jesus Christ ministered to him. Our age is giving the whole individual back to us. It is like a new discovery, this modern view of man as interiorly abounding in resources and outwardly social, a brother to all mankind. The last century witnessed the rediscovery of the inner life. The present is witnessing the rediscovery of man the social being. We are prepared at last to consider the question of health as at once individual and social. We had to understand man the social being before we could begin rightly to minister.

The original Christianity was a gospel of healing in which the problems of sin and disease, of the individual in his relation to society, were not separated. The values of this gospel as a religion of healing were lost to view for ages. Our age has disclosed them anew. The mental-healing movement came into being to make these values clear. Its pioneers had to contend for recognition amidst universal unfriendliness. They had to begin their work several generations ago that we might enjoy its benefits today. Some of the devotees had to stand for very radical views in order to attract attention. Thus Christian Science so-called had an office to perform in contrast with the materialism of the age. Extremes beget extremes. Our part is to discern the neglected truths, as old as the hills, but covered over with doctrines and dogmas.

As a reaction against the materialism of the nineteenth century in favor of the original gospel of healing, we can hardly follow the history of the New Thought without reminding ourselves of the age as a whole against which it was a protest. But it would be easy to overestimate the influence of the environment in which the mental-healing movement appeared. A practical protest headed by people who work in a quiet way to relieve human ills is very different from an intellectual protest such as religious liberalism. A practical protest cannot be explained by reference to ideas alone. It is a protest in behalf of life. It is an appeal to conduct. It becomes known by its fruits long before it has a theory to give to the world. Its leaders educate themselves, not by going through the schools and assimilating the prevalent teachings, but by turning away to experiment for themselves.

When the new theories have at last been promulgated, we can look back and trace resemblances in history as a whole. But the new theories when propounded were probably far more out of accord with the generation in which they appeared than in harmony with it. The new views were for our own age, and that age had not come. We cannot in reality explain these views either by heredity or by reference to environment. The true explanation calls for a return to the idea that there is a purpose in creation. The new development began early enough so that it would be ready when needed.

In so far as the mental-healing movement began as a protest this protest or reaction was made in a particular way, very different from that of the reaction which gave us modern liberalism. Medical science was so far inferior to its present estate that it is difficult for us to put ourselves in sympathetic imagination back in Mr. Quimby’s time, in 1840, to see why he spoke of physicians as “blind guides leading the blind,” as “slave-drivers” compelling the sick to enter a bondage worse than that of slavery in the South. We need to divest the mind of very nearly every explanatory idea we now employ in order to account for the vigor of that reaction. The spirit of the new age was there potentially, but it was merely potential. Mr. Quimby was far from being aware of it. He was simply a pioneer investigator. Matters which we now understand by reference to psychology were still in such a crude state that people believed in a mysterious magnetic fluid by which a mesmeriser could put a subject into a curious state called “sleep.”

Nothing that a mental healer would call promising had yet appeared. Disease was apparently an “entity” that attacked man from without. Whatever man may once have known about the influence of mind upon the body had been forgotten. Never had a pioneer so few paths to follow.

In retrospect, knowing the new age as we now do, we know of course that there were clues which might have been followed. There were books which Mr. Quimby could have read in which he might have learned the laws of the intimate relationships of mind and body. It seems natural for us to protest against medical materialism. We take it for granted that any one who is in search of health will try to find help in any direction that is promising. The gospel of healing in the original Christianity is so plain to some of us that we wonder how any one could have missed it. But Mr. Quimby knew nothing about it. He had no psychological knowledge. The only defensible view concerning his relation to the new age which we can maintain is that the new light was shining in the inner world and anyone who was sufficiently free from his age to turn to it might be enlightened, even though he were uneducated as education is commonly understood in the world.

What we shall understand the new age to mean in this the spiritual sense of the word is this shining of a new light which cannot be accounted for by reference to anything external. To try to explain it by studying the tendencies of the age as matters of material or intellectual history would be to try to explain the higher by the lower. All real causes are spiritual. New leaders appear when they are needed. A new work begins in the fitness of time according to the divine providence. To understand the causes we need a measure of the same enlightenment. The true verifications are those of experience. Unless you are willing to seek light and test the principles in question for yourself you may not expect to understand. The new age bids us go to the sources for ourselves. Those sources are discoverable through the inward light, by the aid of intuition, through appreciation of the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. The life comes before the doctrine. It is the fruits which indicate the value. Hence Mr. Quimby said that the sick were his friends. Those who had been restored to health by spiritual means were convinced that there was a great truth in the new method of healing. All the early healers, writers and teachers were healed in the new way, and the ideas were put forth on the basis of experience. In following the history of the New Thought we are therefore concerned with practical life. The intellectual movements of the new age do not explain its practical tendencies. We cannot account for the New Thought unless we learn the sources of the gospel of healing, without which the New Thought in its present forms would not have come into being.

Chapter 2. Quimby The Pioneer

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. He did not carry on his investigations in the mental world as the representative of any sect or school. He was not aware that treasures lay before him in the promised land which he was about to enter. Few men have owed so little to the age in which they lived. His ancestors were not in any way remarkable. His early life gave no indication of the public work to which his productive years were to be devoted. He is not to be accounted for by reference to his education in the schools or by reference to the books which he read. Consequently, there is no reason for inquiring into his life, ancestry, and environment, as we ordinarily study the life of a man who has been of service to the world. At the outset he was simply an explorer in a little known region, that is, a region little known in his day. He was like the hardy pioneer who makes his way through a primitive forest unaware of his destination, unacquainted with the difficulties along the way, and not burdened by the opinions of predecessors whose advice might have been misleading. When new lines of inquiry are to be developed for the good of mankind, God usually summons a man from the common walks of life, one who is sufficiently open and responsive to follow where the wisdom within him leads.

There is a great advantage in leadership of this sort. For the pioneer becomes acquainted with all the obstacles and grows strong by overcoming them. Face to face with difficult situations, he must find a way to meet them. He is led to the first-hand sources of reality. He proves a principle which becomes to him a great truth because of his own immediate needs, and so he is able to appeal to tangible results by way of verification of his teachings. But those who merely follow, and that means the majority of mankind in every land and in all time, believe on authority and gradually lose touch with reality. Thus new pioneers, sages, or prophets are needed every now and then through the ages, to lead the way back to the original sources of life and truth. The moral would be, if we could read it, that we should all adopt the pioneer’s spirit and explore for ourselves, learning the great lesson taught by those who made their own way in new fields.

The spiritual pioneer in whose career we are at present interested lived a very simple early life. Born in a small New England town, he spent his entire life in New England, and his work was little known outside of Maine until after his death. He was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, February 16, 1802. From there the family moved to Belfast, Maine, when he was about two years old. His death occurred in the latter place, January 16, 1866, at the close of twenty-five years in the practice of spiritual healing.

His father was a blacksmith, and his life and education were such as one might enjoy in the humblest of homes in a country town in New England. Mr. Quimby attended school as a boy for a brief period only, and he acquired knowledge of the elementary branches with such training as the district schools of the day afforded. The meagreness of his education is accounted for by the fact that there were few resources at hand, and his father was financially unable to give him other opportunities. If we conclude that he was in any degree an educated man, it will be because we deem education in the school of experience or in the inner life superior to that of the schools.

Mr. Quimby had an inquiring, inventive type of mind, and during his middle life he produced several inventions on which he obtained letters-patent. He took great interest in scientific subjects but not in a way that led him to become a reader of scientific works. Nor was he ever a reader of books in general. His manuscripts contain remarkably few quotations or references, except that in his later years he frequently introduced passages from the New Testament in order to put his own interpretation upon them. He refers to but one philosopher by name, and he appears never to have heard of the names of the idealists, such as Berkeley and Emerson, whose philosophy might have aided him had he been acquainted with their works.

He felt no antagonism to the Church in his early years, but the churches seem to have had no direct influence upon him, and he did not take up the study of the New Testament until his investigations led him to a point where he believed he had a clue to its inner meaning. Although the title “doctor” has been applied to him, he was without medical or other therapeutic training. In fact, he stood in avowed antagonism to the “old school” in the medical world. He was not a spiritist, despite the fact that the rise of spiritism in the United States was contemporaneous with his work, and despite the resemblance between some of his views and the teachings of spiritualists.

The reason for his lack of interest in books is found in the fact that he regarded most books as full of unproved assertions, whereas he was interested to test all matters for himself. He was fond of referring to most statements passing current in the world as knowledge in a somewhat skeptical way, since this boasted knowledge seemed to him mere “opinion,” in contrast with truth that could be established on a basis of verifiable evidence and sound reasoning. He did not raise objections as did people trained in the schools, through mere love of argument, but because by implication he already possessed intuitively those principles which were to guide him in his investigations. His awakening came, not through intellectual development in the usual sense of the word, but through the demands of practical experience.

At the time Mr. Quimby began his investigations in the mental world he was described by a newspaper writer as “in size rather smaller than the medium of man, with a well-proportioned and well-balanced head, and with the power of concentration surpassing anything we have ever witnessed. His eyes are black and very piercing, with rather a pleasant expression; and he possesses the power of looking at one object, without even winking, for a great length of time.”

His son, George A. Quimby, in the New England Magazine, March, 1888, adds to this description the fact that Mr. Quimby weighed about one hundred and twenty-five pounds; that he was quick-motioned and nervous, with a high, broad forehead, a rather prominent nose, and a mouth indicating strength and firmness of will, “persistent in what he undertook, and not easily discouraged.”

Speaking of Quimby’s discoveries, Mr. Julius A. Dresser says, “If you think this seems to show that Quimby was a remarkable man, let me tell you that he was one of the most unassuming of men that ever lived; for no one could well be more so, or make less account of his achievements. Humility was a marked feature of his character (I knew him intimately). To this was united a benevolent and an unselfish nature, and a love of truth, with a remarkably keen perception. But the distinguishing feature of his mind was that he could not entertain an opinion, because it was not knowledge. His faculties were so practical and perceptive that the wisdom of mankind, which is largely made up of opinions, was of little value to him. Hence the charge that he was not an educated man is literally true. True knowledge to him was positive proof, as in a problem in mathematics. Therefore, he discarded books and sought phenomena, where his perceptive faculties made him master of the situation.”[1]

Another writer, speaking of the impression produced upon Mr. Quimby’s patients, says, “He seemed to know at once the attitude of mind of those who applied to him for help, and adapted himself to them accordingly. His years of study of the human mind, of sickness in all its forms, and of the prevailing religious beliefs, gave him the ability to see through the opinions, doubts, and fears of those who sought his aid, and put him in instant sympathy with their mental attitude. He seemed to know that I had come to him feeling that he was a last resort, and with but little faith in him or his mode of treatment. But, instead of telling me that I was not sick, he sat beside me, and explained to me what my sickness was, how I got into the condition, and the way I could be taken out of it through the right understanding. He seemed to see through the situation from the beginning, and explained the cause and effect so clearly that I could see a little of what he meant. . . .

“The most vivid remembrance I have ... is his appearance as he came out of his private office ready for the next patient. That indescribable sense of conviction, of clear-sightedness, of energetic action — that something that made one feel that it would be useless to attempt to cover up or hide anything from him — made an impression never to be forgotten. Even now in recalling it ... I can feel the thrill of new life which came with his presence and his look. There was something about him that gave one a sense of perfect confidence and ease in his presence — a feeling that immediately banished all doubts and prejudices, and put one in sympathy with that quiet strength or power by which he wrought his cures.”[2]

The attitude of mind which Mr. Quimby was in when he began to investigate is clearly indicated by the following from an article written in 1863 in which he describes what he calls his “conversion from disease to health, and the subsequent changes from belief in the medical faculty to entire disbelief in it,” and to the knowledge of the truth on which he based his theory of spiritual healing.

“Can a theory be found,” Mr. Quimby asks, “can a theory be found, capable of practice, which can separate truth from error? I undertake to say there is a method of reasoning which, being understood, can separate one from the other. Men never dispute about a fact that can be demonstrated by scientific reasoning. Controversies arise from some idea that has been turned into a false direction, leading to a false position. The basis of my reasoning is this point: that whatever is true to a person, if he cannot prove it is not necessarily true to another. Therefore, because a person says a thing is no reason that he says true. The greatest evil that follows taking an opinion for a truth is disease. Let medical and religious opinions, which produce so vast an amount of misery, be tested by the rule I have laid down, and it will be seen how much they are founded in truth. For twenty years I have been investigating them, and I have failed to find one single principle of truth in either. This is not from any prejudice against the medical faculty; for, when I began to investigate the mind, I was entirely on that side. I was prejudiced in favor of the medical faculty; for I never employed any one outside of the regular faculty, nor took the least particle of quack medicine.

“Some thirty years ago I was very sick, and was considered fast wasting away with consumption. At that time I became so low that it was with difficulty I could walk about. I was all the while under the allopathic practice, and I had taken so much calomel that my system was said to be poisoned with it; and I had lost many of my teeth from the effect. My symptoms were those of any consumptive; and I had been told that my liver was affected and my kidneys diseased, and that my lungs were nearly consumed. I believed all this, from the fact that I had all the symptoms, and could not resist the opinions of the physician while having the (supposed) proof with me. In this state I was compelled to abandon my business; and, losing all hope, I gave up to die — not that I thought the medical faculty had no wisdom, but that my case was one that could not be cured.

“Having an acquaintance who cured himself by riding horseback, I thought I would try riding in a carriage, as I was too weak to ride horse back. My horse was contrary; and, once, when about two miles from home, he stopped at the foot of a long hill, and would not start except as I went by his side. So I was obliged to run nearly the whole distance. Having reached the top of the hill I got into the carriage; and, as I was very much exhausted, I concluded to sit there the balance of the day, if the horse did not start. Like all sickly and nervous people, I could not remain easy in that place; and seeing a man plowing, I waited till he had plowed around a three acre lot, and got within sound of my voice, when I asked him to start my horse. He did so, and at the time I was so weak I could scarcely lift my whip. But excitement took possession of my senses, and I drove the horse as fast as he could go, up hill and down, till I reached home; and, when I got into the stable, I felt as strong as ever I did.”

This experience was of course only the beginning. It led Mr. Quimby to doubt the diagnosis in his case. It showed him what could be accomplished through a vigorous arousing out of a state of bondage and mere acceptance. He was not cured, but precisely what his malady was and how it would be overcome he did not know. It was his investigation of the phenomena of hypnotism, then called mesmerism, which gave him the direct clue.

The subject of mesmerism was introduced into the United States in 1836 by Charles Poyen, a Frenchman, and was taken up in New England by a Dr. Collyer, who gave a lecture with demonstrations in Belfast, Maine, in 1838. Mr. Quimby regarded the mesmeric sleep, or hypnosis as it would now be called, as an interesting phenomenon worthy of investigation, and without knowing what his interest would lead to he began to experiment, and in 1840 gave his first public demonstrations. Whenever opportunity offered, he had tried to put people into the mesmeric sleep. Sometimes he failed, but again he found a person whom he could influence.

“In the course of his trials with subjects,” says Mr. George A. Quimby in the account quoted from above, Mr. Quimby “met with a young man named Lucius Burkmar over whom he had the most wonderful influence; and it is not stating it too strongly to assert that with him he made some of the most astonishing exhibitions of mesmerism and clairvoyance that have been given in modern times.

“Mr. Quimby’s manner of operating with his subject was to sit opposite to him, holding both his hands in his, and looking him intently in the eye for a short time, when the subject would go into that state known as the mesmeric sleep, which was more properly a peculiar condition of mind and body, in which the natural senses would or would not operate at the will of Mr. Quimby. When conducting his experiments, all communications on the part of Mr. Quimby with Lucius were mentally given, the subject replying as if spoken to aloud. . . .

“As the subject gained more prominence, thoughtful men began to investigate the matter; and Mr. Quimby was often called upon to have his subject examine the sick. He would put Lucius into the mesmeric state, who would then examine the patient, describe his disease, and prescribe remedies for its cure.

“After a time Mr. Quimby became convinced that, whenever the subject examined a patient, his diagnosis of the case would be identical with what either the patient or some one else present believed, instead of Lucius really looking into the patient and giving the true condition of the organs; in fact, that he was reading the opinion in the mind of some one rather than stating a truth acquired by himself.

“Becoming firmly satisfied that this was the case, and having seen how one mind could influence another, and how much there was that had always been considered as true, but was merely some one’s opinion, Mr. Quimby gave up his subject, Lucius, and began the developing of what is now known as mental healing, or curing disease through the mind.”

That this discovery concerning the influence of medical opinion and the influence of one mind on another was worth pursuing to the end is clear from Mr. Quimby’s account of the way he overcame his own illness. He was still in quest of health while experimenting with Lucius. His investigations showed him that there was a great discrepancy between the ordinary diagnosis and the actual state of a person suffering from disease, and it occurred to him that light could be thrown on his own malady. In fact, he had been led to believe by the astonishing results produced in cases where Lucius made an intuitive diagnosis that disease itself was, as he tells us, “a deranged state of mind,” the cause of which is to be found in some one’s unfortunate belief. “Disease,” he assures us, and its power over life, its curability, “are all embraced in our belief. Some believe in various remedies, and others believe that the spirits of the dead prescribe. I have no confidence in the virtue of either. I know that cures have been made in these ways. I do not deny them. But the principle on which they are done is the question to solve ; for the disease can be cured, with or without medicine, on but one principle”

When he had discovered what that principle was and how it could be employed, namely, by producing changes in the mind of the patient holding the belief in question and subject to medical opinion, with all that this dependence implies, he saw that it was no longer necessary to make use of his mesmeric subject, but that he could apply the principle directly himself. First, however, he had to prove the principle by recovering his own health.

“Now for my particular experience,” writes Mr. Quimby in the article quoted in The True History of Mental Science. “I had pains in the back, which, they said, were caused by my kidneys, which were partly consumed. I also was told that I had ulcers on my lungs. Under this belief, I was miserable enough to be of no account in the world. This was the state I was in when I commenced to mesmerize. On one occasion, when I had my subject asleep, he described the pains I felt in my back (I had never dared to ask him to examine me, for I felt sure that my kidneys were nearly gone), and he placed his hand on the spot where I felt the pain. He then told me that my kidneys were in a very bad state, — that one was half consumed, and a piece three inches long had separated from it, and was only connected by a slender thread. This was what I believed to be true, for it agreed with what the doctors had told me, and with what I had suffered; for I had not been free from pain for years. My common sense told me that no medicine would ever cure this trouble, and therefore I must suffer till death relieved me. But I asked him if there was any remedy. He replied, ‘Yes, I can put the piece on so it will grow, and you will get well.’ At this I was completely astonished, and knew not what to think. He immediately placed his hands upon me, and said he united the pieces so they would grow. The next day he said they had grown together, and from that day I never have experienced the least pain from them.

“Now what was the secret of the cure? I had not the least doubt but that I was as he described; and, if he had said, as I expected he would, that nothing could be done, I should have died in a year or so. But, when he said he could cure me in the way he proposed, I began to think; and I discovered that I had been deceived into a belief that made me sick. The absurdity of his remedies made me doubt the fact that my kidneys were diseased, for he said in two days that they were as well as ever. If he saw the first condition, he also saw the last; for in both cases he said he could see. I concluded in the first instance that he read my thoughts, and when he said he could cure me he drew on his own mind; and his ideas were so absurd that the disease vanished by the absurdity of the cure. This was the first stumbling-block I found in the medical science. I soon ventured to let him examine me further, and in every case he could describe my feelings, but would vary about the amount of disease; and his explanation and remedies always convinced me that I had no such disease, and that my troubles were of my own make.

“At this time I frequently visited the sick with Lucius, by invitation of the attending physician; and the boy examined the patient, and told facts that would astonish everybody, and yet every one of them was believed. For instance, he told of a person affected as I had been, only worse, that his lungs looked like a honeycomb, and his liver was covered with ulcers. He then prescribed some simple herb tea, and the patient recovered; and the doctor believed the medicine cured him. But I believed the doctor made the disease; and his faith in the boy made a change in the mind, and the cure followed. Instead of gaining confidence in the doctors, I was forced to the conclusion that their science is false.

“Man is made up of truth and belief; and, if he is deceived into a belief that he has, or is liable to have a disease, the belief is catching, and the effect follows it. I have given the experience of my emancipation from this belief and from my confidence in the doctors, so that it may open the eyes of those who stand where I was. I have risen from this belief; and I return to warn my brethren, lest, when they are disturbed, they shall get into this place of torment prepared by the medical faculty. Having suffered myself, I cannot take advantage of my fellowmen by introducing a new mode of curing disease by prescribing medicine. My theory exposes the hypocrisy of those who undertake to cure in that way. They make ten diseases to one cure, thus bringing a surplus of misery into the world, and shutting out a healthy state of society. . . . When I cure, there is one disease the less.. . . My theory teaches man to manufacture health; and, when people go into this occupation, disease will diminish, and those who furnish disease and death will be few and scarce.”

Had Mr. Quimby been willing to take advantage of people, he might have continued to employ his subject in the diagnosing of disease, for it was evident that no one else understood the significance of his discovery that with a change of mind a cure would follow. If he had been content with his own restoration to health, he might have used his subject instead of exerting himself to develop his own mental powers. But, naturally honest and determined to get at the truth, Quimby dropped mesmerism once for all. And well he might, for his experiments had made him acquainted with himself. He saw that the human spirit possesses other powers than those of the senses, and can influence another mind directly, that is, without the aid of spoken language. He realized that he too possessed clairvoyant or intuitive powers, and that it was not necessary for the mind to be put into the mesmeric sleep in order to exercise these powers. His subject, Lucius, had done little more than to read the mind of a patient, discover what the person in question thought was his disease, and then prescribe some simple remedy in which the patient was led to believe. This was merely to make use of suggestion, as we now call it, and Quimby’s discovery had disclosed the mind’s suggestibility. Mr. Quimby wanted to go further. He was eager to know the full truth concerning disease and its cure by the one fundamental principle implied in all cases, whatever the appearances in favor of medicine. To have remained where his experiments with mesmerism brought him would have been to practice mental healing simply. Mr. Quimby’s impetus was spiritual, and he did not rest until he had acquired spiritual insight into the whole field of the inner life. His experiments with Lucius were merely introductory to his life work.

It is interesting to read what Mr. George Quimby says of his father’s discovery, for he was his father’s secretary for years and had opportunity to follow Quimby’s work with the sick in all its details, although he was not himself a healer.

Mr. Quimby informs us that his father spent years developing the method and theory of spiritual healing, fighting the battle alone, and laboring with great energy and steadiness of purpose. “To reduce his discovery to a science which could be taught for the benefit of suffering humanity was the all-absorbing idea of his life. To develop his ‘theory,’ or ‘the Truth,’ as he always termed it, so that others than himself could understand and practice it, was what he labored for. Had he been of a sordid and grasping nature, he might have acquired unlimited wealth; but for that he seemed to have no desire. . . .

“Each step was in opposition to all the established ideas of the day, and was ridiculed and combated by the whole medical faculty and the great mass of the people. In the sick and suffering he always found staunch friends, who loved him and believed in him, and stood by him; but they were but a handful compared with those on the other side.

“While engaged in his mesmeric experiments, Mr. Quimby became more and more convinced that disease was an error of the mind, and not a real thing; and in this he was misunderstood by others, and accused of attributing the sickness of the patient to the imagination, which was the reverse of the fact. ‘If a man feels a pain, he knows he feels it, and there is no imagination about it,’ he used to say. But the fact that the pain might be a state of the mind, while apparent in the body, he did believe. As one can suffer in a dream all that it is possible in a waking state, so Mr. Quimby averred that the same condition of mind might operate on the body in the form of disease, and still be no more of a reality than was the dream.”

In view of the fact that some one has tried to belittle Mr. Quimby as an “ignorant mesmerist” who never advanced beyond this crude mode of influencing people, it is significant to read this authoritative statement in his son’s account: “As the truths of his discovery began to develop and grow in him, just in the same proportion did he begin to lose faith in the efficacy of mesmerism as a remedial agent in the cure of the sick; and after a few years he discarded it altogether.

“Instead of putting the patient into a mesmeric sleep, Mr. Quimby would sit by him; and, after giving a detailed account of what his troubles were, he would simply converse with him, and explain the causes of his troubles, and thus change the mind of the patient, and disabuse it of its error and establish the truth in its place, which, if done, was the cure. . . .

“Mr. Quimby always denied emphatically that he used any mesmeric or mediu-mistic power. He was always in his normal condition when engaged with his patient. He never went into any trance, and was a strong disbeliever in spiritualism, as understood by that name. He claimed, and firmly held, that his only power consisted in his wisdom, and in his understanding the patient’s case and being able to explain away the error and establish the truth, or health, in its place. . . .

“In the year 1859 Mr. Quimby went to Portland, where he remained till the summer of 1865, treating the sick by his peculiar method. It was his custom to converse at length with many of his patients who became interested in his method of treatment, and try to unfold to them his ideas.

“Among his earlier patients in Portland were the Misses Ware, daughters of the late Judge Ashur Ware, of the United States Court; and they became much interested in ‘the Truth,’ as he called it.[3] But the ideas were so new, and his reasoning was so divergent from the popular conceptions that they found it difficult to follow him or remember all he said; and they suggested to him the propriety of putting into writing the body of his thoughts.

“From that time he began to write out his ideas, which practice he continued until his death, the articles now being in the possession of the writer of this sketch.

The original copy he would give to the Misses Ware; and it would be read to him by them, and, if he suggested any alteration, it would be made, after which it would be copied either by the Misses Ware or the writer of this, and then reread to him, that he might see that all was just as he intended it. Not even the most trivial word or the construction of a sentence would be changed without consulting him. He was given to repetition; and it was with difficulty that he could be induced to have a repeated sentence or phrase stricken out, as he would say, ‘If that idea is a good one, and true, it will do no harm to have it in two or three times.’ “

It was during the period of his more important practice in Portland that those patients visited him who were later to spread his ideas in the world. The first of these was Mr. Julius A. Dresser, who went to him as a patient when near the point of death in June, 1860, and who became so deeply interested in Mr. Quimby’s teachings that after regaining his health he devoted the larger part of his time to explaining the new ideas and methods of Mr. Quimby’s patients. Among these patients was Miss Annetta G. Seabury, afterwards Mrs. Julius A. Dresser; and Mrs. Mary Baker Patterson, later Mrs. Eddy, author of Science and Health. In 1863, Rev. W. F. Evans visited Mr. Quimby as a patient and became at once so ardent a follower that he devoted the remainder of his life to promulgating the spiritual philosophy implied in the method and ideas which he gained from Quimby.

It was Mr. Quimby’s intention to retire from his practice with the sick and write a book setting forth his teachings in permanent form. Had he done so, there would have been no controversy over the origin of mental healing in our day, and the later writers would not have acquired the habit of setting forth his views as if they had been original enough to acquire them out of the air by “revelation.” But Mr. Dresser always maintained that there was a wisdom in the delay, since the public was then unprepared for them. Mr. Evans, who became the first author to develop these ideas, was perhaps better fitted for his work than was Mr. Quimby, since he was well read and able to put forth those ideas which were best calculated to win the public at the time he wrote. Meanwhile, the manuscript books into which Mr. Quimby’s articles were copied have been preserved and some of us have had access to them in connection with our work of giving the new ideas to the world.

Mr. George Quimby concludes the account of his father’s life with a brief reference to Mr. Quimby’s view of life as a whole: “Mr. Quimby, although not belonging to any church or sect, had a deeply religious nature, holding firmly to God as the first cause, and fully believing in immortality and progression after death, though entertaining entirely original conceptions of what death is. He believed that Jesus’s mission was to the sick, and that he performed his cures in a scientific manner, and perfectly understood how he did them. Mr. Quimby was a great reader of the Bible, but put a construction upon it thoroughly in harmony with his train of thought.

“Mr. Quimby’s idea of happiness was to benefit mankind, especially the sick and suffering; and to that end he labored and gave his life and strength. His patients not only found in him a doctor, but a sympathizing friend; and he took the same interest in treating a charity patient that he did a wealthy one. Until the writer went with him as secretary, he kept no accounts and made no charges. He left the keeping of books entirely with his patients; and, although he pretended to have a regular price for visits and attendance, he took at settlement whatever the patient chose to pay him...

“An hour before he breathed his last he said to the writer: ‘I am more than ever convinced of the truth of my theory. I am perfectly willing for the change myself, but I know you will all feel badly; but I know that I shall be right here with you, just the same as I have always been. I do not dread the change any more than if I were going on a trip to Philadelphia.’ His death occurred January 16, 1866, at his residence in Belfast, at the age of sixty-four years. . . .”

Chapter 3. Quimby’s Method Of Healing

It was a long step from dependence on the medical practice of the day to Mr. Quimby’s experiments with his subject, Lucius. It was a much longer step, involving a more courageous departure from accepted beliefs, when he gave up his subject and developed a mode of treatment not at that time practiced anywhere else in the world. The first change was from one theory of mental life to another, and the change did not necessarily imply a different view of the natural world. But the second was radical. It implied a spiritual philosophy of life as a whole. The emphasis was shifted from human beliefs in relation to bodily processes to divine causality and its meaning in the progress of the human soul. Mr. Quimby’s discovery concerning the influence of belief in the cause and cure of disease was incidental to his profounder discovery that man is a spiritual being, living an essentially spiritual life in the higher world above the flesh, the eternal spiritual world of our relationship with God.

The progress which Mr. Quimby thus made was natural and logical. His experiments first made him acquainted with the clairvoyant or intuitive powers of his subject, Lucius, then showed him that he too possessed such powers and so need not depend on Lucius. His reasoning was that these higher powers in the human spirit imply the existence of a guiding principle or wisdom common to us all, that this principle is God in us; hence that the soul is in immediate relation with the divine mind. Furthermore, he had concluded that, whatever the explanation offered, all healing takes place according to one principle, and this too he attributed to the divine in man. His experiments had taught him that one mind can influence another directly, the one being receptive, the other affirmative. It was but one step more to adopt the principle that as thought may influence another’s mind directly spiritual power is capable of such influence too. Hence Mr. Quimby advanced from the discovery that thoughts and mental atmospheres affect another’s mind according to the belief or expectation to the conclusion that one spirit may operate directly on another spirit, and that the basis of this spiritual activity is the divine in us. Although naturally active, affirmative in type, with exceptional powers of concentration, Mr. Quimby was as we have seen above also humble, not inclined to take credit to himself. It was natural, therefore, that he should reach the highest conclusion of all, namely, that the efficiency was divine, that it was through the divine wisdom that he achieved his cures.

The acceptance of these principles and conclusions implied a different philosophy of life because, in the first place, it became clear that all reality fundamentally speaking is spiritual. Mr. Quimby did not undertake to develop his theory into a philosophy of the universe as a whole. That was not his province. Nor did he have the training or the acquaintance with idealism. The references to the outer world which he makes in his manuscripts were purely practical in nature, to the effect that life for each of us is essentially what we make it by our belief, our attitude or way of taking it. This attitude was, for most people, so he saw clearly, largely the effect of opinions taken for truth. But he also saw that there was a way of taking life which implied the supremacy of the spiritual over the material. For him all causes were in reality spiritual. The world springs from spiritual sources. Experience is for the benefit of spiritual beings. We might then acquire a complete spiritual view. This would disclose the truth in contrast with mere opinion, the truth which is the same for all. It would imply a spiritual science. And this science was involved in the method by which Mr. Quimby wrought his cures.

The instructive consideration for those of us who are concerned to follow the development of this philosophy and test its principles for ourselves lies in the fact that Mr. Quimby found the guiding principle in his own inner experience, and proved it through the recovery of his health and the healing of others before he found any evidences that what he called “the truth” or “theory” had ever been held before. Fortunately, his mind was not encumbered by doctrines which had first to be outgrown, save that he had shared the conventional beliefs of his day in medical practice and was at least a believer in a general way in the Bible. His real study of the Bible began with the conclusion that the way which life had led him was the way described in the New Testament, hence that he had rediscovered the method of healing by which Jesus wrought, not his “miracles,” but his highly intelligible works of healing. His work with the sick seemed to him to imply a spiritual science, a “science of life and happiness,” as he called it. This science he found implicit in the teachings of Christ. The Bible thus became doubly true for him, because of his former belief in God, now transfigured in the light of his discoveries; and because his insight into the nature and meaning of life had made plain the way to the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures. His manuscripts are for the most part devoted to a study of his experiences with the sick in such a way as to show that the truths they implied were the truths which Jesus came to reveal.

Just as his guidance had led him to attribute his cures, which were indeed remarkable, to the divine efficiency, not to any power which he, the man Quimby, possessed ; so now he looked to the Bible as containing a higher than human wisdom, a wisdom which he called “the Christ” in contrast with the man Jesus who came to teach this science of the Christ. Had Mr. Quimby been understood by the writer who later did more than any one to popularize the less profound principles for which he stood, the history of the mental-healing movement might have been very different. For what Mr. Quimby intended was that all should come to recognize the divine wisdom in themselves, that they should take no credit to themselves, should not exalt the finite self; but should acquire and teach the spiritual principles which Jesus gave to the world as a science, calling attention to that science, not to themselves.

According to Mr. Quimby’s version of this Christian science, as he calls it in two of his articles, although his usual term is “the science of life and happiness,” the emphasis is put upon the truth which sets the soul free. For his practice with the sick had taught him that when a patient understood the real causes of his trouble the disease could be banished. The “explanation is the cure,” he repeatedly said. This explanation involved the discovery of the inner or spiritual point of view. The emphasis being put upon the truth, Mr. Quimby did not make use of “denials,” as the affirmations were later called by those who grasped this theory in part only. When the truth is seen, it is not necessary to deny its opposite. The error or “false belief” that led to the trouble was negative or destructive. The truth through which the cure was wrought was positive or constructive. What Mr. Quimby endeavored to do was to build up a different attitude toward life on the basis of principles which all could understand.

Mr. Quimby ‘s departure from the point of view of his experiments therefore involved a radical change in attitude towards a patient. The mesmeriser or hypnotist merely tries to influence or control another’s mind, as Quimby directed Lucius. But the spiritual healer regards himself as an organ of the divine life, a means only, not a controlling agent. He does not try to influence. He makes no attempt to control. He has no desire to control or manage. He regards himself as a lamp-bearer disclosing the way out of the dark places of the soul into the light of the divine wisdom. There can be no freedom and no cure unless the patient sees for himself. Thus Mr. Quimby was healer and teacher at the same time. Unless we understand this two-fold office which he fulfilled, we are likely to misinterpret statements, such as the proposition that “disease is an error the only remedy for which is truth,” and we are in danger of dismissing many of his views as absurd.

To understand what Mr. Quimby meant is to see that he regarded every man in the light of the divine guidance. That is, there is divine wisdom for each of us, resident within us, accessible through intuition. Mr. Quimby was the friend of those who needed to be brought into relation with the divine within them. He sought the guidance for the individual in question, according to need, for the occasion. Naturally then there could be no mere formula or arrangement of words, no magic affirmation by which to dismiss a disease as with a gesture of command. There was no reason to deny either what the patient thought was his disease or the physical symptoms, to ignore the body or make light of the natural world. What was needed was a new point of view of all these things. The misinterpretation of symptoms would disappear with the acceptance of the true view. The bodily effect would be understood when the cause should become plain. The flesh would assume its proper place in the light of the new spiritual vision. Mr. Quimby aimed at nothing short of a religious or spiritual conversion such that the whole of life should appear under a different aspect. This wonderful work he wrought for his more responsive followers. It is not surprising that they became his friends and found occupation for a lifetime in the development of his teachings.

There was one more discovery which we need to bear in mind in order to have Mr. Quimby’s method completely before us. His practice with the sick in the early years while he was acquiring his method taught him that there is much more in the human mind than we are ordinarily or even at any time conscious of. Not by any consent on our own part have we become the recipients of the beliefs, notions, and ideas which give us our erroneous views of life. We have taken them on from our mental environment. Our minds are fertile places in which beliefs germinate. The mind in this deeper, hidden sense, is indeed very much like the soil. It consists of spiritual substance, “spiritual matter” was Quimby’s term at first. Its products directly influence us and our bodies without the intervention of the will.

It is indeed unconscious or subconscious. But this hidden mind is accessible to the spiritual healer. Its contents can be discerned. The hidden and disturbing influences can be brought to light. Changes wrought within it will become manifest in the body. It is in fact an intermediary between mind and body, an intermingling substance.

In contrast with the beliefs discoverable in this hidden mind, Mr. Quimby in the constructive part of his treatment addressed himself to the “real man,” the spirit, who needed to be summoned into power. He held that there is a part of the soul that is not sick, that is potentially or ideally one with God in image and likeness. For God did not create man to be ill. He created him for health and freedom. Disease is the invention of man through misinterpretation of sensation, through judgments based on appearances, on symptoms, effects, externals. Health is ours by divine birthright, hence by implication in our very being in that “secret place” of the soul, that part of us that can never be ill. This element of our self-hood can be summoned into activity. We can become aware of it and begin to live by it. We can throw off our bondages. We can learn to live as God would have us live.

The silent spiritual treatment which was Mr. Quimby’s chief discovery, his greatest gift to the world, consisted in a process of inner realization calculated to awaken this inner spiritual nature into exercise. The intuitive diagnosis with which the treatment began led the way to the main point, the center of need in the patient. It disclosed the real as opposed to the apparent condition. It yielded the divine guidance for the occasion, according to the need. The spiritual realization then grew out of the intuitive discovery of the patient’s inner state. It was made effective by Mr. Quimby’s great power of concentration quickened by his consciousness of the divine wisdom, his practical way of realizing the presence of God. The treatment was spiritual rather than mental since the thought or idea was secondary to the power, the human agent or organ secondary to the divine wisdom. Mr. Quimby had no way of his own to impose on another’s mind. Hence his spirit was open to “the wisdom of the occasion.”

In setting forth his method of treatment, Mr. Quimby always drew a distinction between the lower mind which he called “spiritual matter” (or substance) , and the mind we might come into possession of by learning our true nature as spiritual beings. Thus he says in one of his articles, “My theory is founded on the fact that mind is matter; and, if you will admit this for the sake of listening to my ideas, I will give you my theory . . . All knowledge that is of man is based on opinions. This I call this world of (spiritual) matter. It embraces all that comes within the so-called senses. Man’s happiness and misery are in his belief; but the wisdom of science is of God, and not of man. Now to separate these two kingdoms is what I am trying to do; and, if I succeed in this, I shall accomplish what never has been done. ... I should never undertake the task of explaining what all the wise men have failed to do but for the want of some better proof to explain the phenomena that come under my own observation. . . . The remedies have never destroyed the cause, nor can the cause be destroyed by man’s reason. . . .

“The world of opinions is the old world: that of science is the new; and a separation must take place, and a battle must be fought between them, . . . Now, the science of life and happiness is the one that has met with the most opposition, from the fact that it is death to all opposers. It never compromises with its enemies, nor has it any dealings with them. ... Its habitation is in the hearts of men. It cannot be seen by the natural man, for he is of matter; and the scientific man is not matter. All he has is his (spiritual) senses. There is his residence for the time. . . . It is almost impossible to tell one character from another, as both communicate through the same organs. As the scientific man has to prove his wisdom through the same matter that the natural man uses, he is often misrepresented. .. . This was where Christ found so much trouble in his days, for the people could not tell who was speaking.”

Mr. Quimby described human life as a warfare between the spiritual power in man and the opinions which relate and bind him to the natural world. When he says, “My foundation is animal matter or life,” he refers to the lower mind with its opinions. “This,” he says, “set in action by Wisdom, produces thought. Thoughts, like grains of sand, are held together by their own sympathy, wisdom, or attraction.” The natural man is composed of these groupings of ideas. “As thought is always changing, so man is always throwing off particles of thought and receiving others. Thus man is a progressive idea; yet he is the same man, although he is changing all the time for better or worse.” That is, he changes in the direction of the world with its opinions or towards God in His wisdom.

“Disease is the invention of man, and has no identity in Wisdom,” that is, no place or purpose in the divine providence. It can be overcome because the mental life underlying it is of this lower mind which can be changed by the Wisdom which “decomposes the thoughts, changes the combinations, and produces an idea clear from the error that makes a person unhappy or diseased.” ‘‘Ideas have life. A belief has life . . . for it can be changed.” Man is unwittingly a “sufferer from his own belief. . . . Our belief cannot alter a scientific truth, but it may alter our feelings for happiness or misery. Disease is the misery of our belief, happiness is the health of our wisdom, so that man’s happiness or misery depends on himself.” The difficulty does not lie with sensation, for “sensation contains no intelligence, but is a mere disturbance which ... is ready to receive the error, that is, respond to an erroneous interpretation. . . . Ever since man was created, there has been an element called error which has been busy inventing answers for every sensation.”

Mr. George Quimby, in endeavoring to make clear this point of view, uses the following illustration: “Suppose a person should read an account of a railroad accident, and see, in the list of killed, a son. The shock on the mind would cause a deep feeling of sorrow on the part of the parent, and possibly a severe sickness, not only mental but physical. Now, what is the condition of the patient? Does he imagine his trouble? Is his body not affected, his pulse quick; and has he not all the symptoms of a sick person, and is he not really sick? Suppose you can go to him and say to him that you were on the train, and saw his son alive and well after the accident, and prove to him that the report of his death was a mistake. What follows? Why, the patient’s mind undergoes a change immediately; and he is no longer sick. It was on this principle that Mr. Quimby treated the sick. He claimed that ‘mind was spiritual matter,’ and could be changed; that we were made up of truth and error; “that disease was an error, or belief, and that the Truth was the cure. And upon these promises he based all his reasoning, and laid the foundation of what he asserted to be the ‘science of curing the sick.’ “[4]

In one of his articles, written in 1861, Mr. Quimby thus describes his method of cure: “A patient comes to see Dr. Quimby. He renders himself absent to everything but the impression of the person’s feelings. These are quickly daguerreotyped on him. They contain no intelligence, but shadow forth a reflection of themselves which he looks at. This (mental picture) contains the disease as it appears to the patient. Being confident that it is the shadow of a false idea, he is not afraid of it. Then his feelings in regard to health and strength, are daguerreotyped on the receptive plate of the patient. . . . The patient sees . . . the disease in a new light, gains confidence. This change is daguerreotyped on the doctor again . . . and he sees the change and continues . . . the shadow changes and grows dim, and finally disappears, the light takes its place, and there is nothing left of the disease.’’[5]

A writer in the Jefersonian of Bangor, Maine, in 1857, thus expounds Quimby’s view : “A gentleman of Belfast, Maine, Dr. Phineas P. Quimby, who was remarkably successful as an experimenter in mesmerism some sixteen years ago, and has continued his investigations in psychology, has discovered, and in his daily practice carries out, a new principle in the treatment of diseases. . . . His theory is that the mind gives immediate form to the animal spirits, and that the animal spirit gives form to the body, as soon as the less plastic elements of the body are able to assume that form. Therefore, his first course in the treatment of a patient is to sit down beside him, and put himself en rapport with him, which he does without producing the mesmeric sleep.

“He says that in every disease the animal spirit, or spiritual form, is somewhat disconnected from the body, and that, when he comes en rapport with a patient, he sees that spirit form standing beside the body, that it imparts to him all its grief and the cause of it, which may have been mental trouble or shock to the body, as over-fatigue, excessive cold or heat. This of course impresses the mind with anxiety, and the mind reacting upon the body produces disease. . . .

“Dr. Quimby says that there is no danger from disease when the mind is armed against it. That he will treat a person who has the most malignant disorder without danger to himself, though his sympathy with the patient is so strong that he feels in his own person every symptom of the disease; but he dissipates from his mind the idea of it, and induces in its place an idea of health.

“He says the mind ... is w T hat it thinks it is, and that, if it contends against the thought of disease, and creates for itself an ideal form of health, that form impresses itself upon the animal spirit, and through that upon the body, that his understanding is a positive power, and aids the spirit, which is not strong enough in itself to contend against the idea of diseases.”[6]

For the term “animal spirit” as used by this writer one should substitute the unconscious, the spiritual substance or “spiritual matter” of Mr. Quimby’s later teaching, together with his teaching that the individual gives off a mental atmosphere as a rose gives off an odor by the discernment of which the healer can detect the patient’s interior state; otherwise the above account gives an intelligible idea of the psychological aspect of the treatment. Mr. Quimby held that there is a spiritual body between the natural body and the human spirit. In this he agreed with seers of an earlier time, and pointed the way to the idea of the intimate correspondence between the spirit and the body. He did not teach that the spir-it-forms of the departed occupy our bodies, or that disease in any of its forms is due to obsession.

Another interested observer wrote as follows in an article in the Portland Advertiser, February, 1860: “In every age there have appeared individuals possessing the power of healing the sick and fore-telling events. Their theory or explanation veils this power in superstition and ignorance, so that the world is not enlightened in regard to where it comes from or how it operates. We only know the effects. Spiritualists, mesmerists, and clairvoyants, making due allowance for imposition, in later times have proved that this power is still in existence.

“Like this in the vague impression of its character, but infinitely beyond any demonstrations of the same intelligence and skill, is the practice of a physician who has been among us . . . and to whose treatment some helpless invalids owe their recovered health. I refer to Dr. P. P. Quimby. With no reputation except for honesty, which he carries in his face, he has established himself in our city, and his success merits public attention. Regarded by many as a harmless humbug, by others as belonging to the genus mystery, he stands among his patients as a reformer, originating an entirely new theory in regard to disease, and practicing it with a skill and ease which only come from knowledge and experience. His success in reaching all kinds of diseases, from chronic cases of years’ standing to acute diseases, shows that he must be practicing upon a principle different from what has ever been taught.

“His position as an irregular practitioner has confined him principally to the patronage of the credulous and the desperate; and the most of his cases have been those which have not yielded to ordinary treatment. Those only who have been fortunate enough to receive benefit from him can have any appreciation of the interest which the originality of his ideas excites, and of the benefit, when understood, which they will be to society.

“To attempt to describe his mode of treatment to the well would be like offering money to an already wealthy man; while the sick person who is like one cast into prison for an unjust debt, can tell the force of his system. With a sympathy which the sick alone call forth, and a knowledge which he proves alone to them, he leads an invalid along the path to health. His power over disease arises from his subtle knowledge of mind and its relation to the natural world, to which his attention was turned some twenty years ago by mesmerism.

“His investigation in this region, hitherto unsatisfactorily explored, has developed in him a clairvoyant faculty, which he exercises with his reason and natural senses, and has yielded to him facts which he explains upon a principle admitted, but little understood, educing therefrom a theory of universal application by which he cures disease.”[7]

This account, coming from one who had nothing to gain or lose, shows how Mr. Quimby’s work was regarded when he began to practice in Portland. His deep sympathy for suffering humanity was noted by all. His work appealed to those who would be called credulous or those who had been given up by other practitioners, because they had the receptivity or willingness to try this method when other methods had failed. He impressed upon all who were sufficiently interested to inquire into his views the fact that he endeavored to put his work on the basis of intelligible explanation. Hence he sought to clear away all sense of mystery and to show that there was nothing akin to mediumship in the silent treatment. His own exceptional power as a man was of course a factor in establishing a cure. Everybody who knew him has borne testimony to this power. But Mr. Quimby always insisted that the works he wrought could be reproduced. In fact, he held that spiritual healing would some time take place in less time, and by “word of mouth,” when the underlying principle should be understood.

Still another writer, in an article in the Portland Advertiser, 1862, signing herself “Vermont,” gives first-hand impressions of Mr. Quimby’s method : “Many people who have lost faith in the ancient school are at the same time startled by such reasoning as Dr. Quimby uses with regard to disease. It is so contrary to the commonly received opinions, they hardly dare believe there can be any truth in it. They hear of remarkable success in his practice, but are still more incredulous, and say, ‘The age of miracles has passed away, and this is too much to believe.’ But ‘seeing is believing,’ . . . and after having an opportunity to see some of the remarkable effects which Dr. Quimby has had upon obstinate cases of longstanding disease, they are compelled to yield, although it may be reluctantly, that there is living truth in his principles, that he has cast off the shackles of opinion which would narrowly enclose the limits of investigation, and, studying the mysterious workings of the mind, discovered there the true explanation of that which has so long been misunderstood and unsatisfactorily accounted for. They came to him suspicious, almost unwilling to believe what they saw, ignorant of his theory, which, even after it was explained, they found difficult to understand, and therefore had to go through with this process of gradual conviction before they would receive its truths. So it may be said that he has to contend with those who would be his friends as well as his enemies. . . .

“According to this new theory, disease is the invention of man. It is caused by a disturbance of the mind . . . and therefore originates there. We can call to mind instances where disease has been produced instantly by excitement, anger, fear, or joy. Is it not the more rational conclusion that disease is always caused by influences upon the mind rather than that it has an identity, comes to us, and attacks us?

“Living in a world full of error in this respect, and educated to believe that disease is something we cannot escape, it is not strange that what we fear comes upon us. We take the opinions of men, which have no knowledge in them, for truth. So we all agree to arbitrary rules with regard to our mode of life, and suffer the penalties attached to any disobedience of the same. These diseases or penalties are real to us through the result of belief.

“It is reasonable to infer from these statements that the only way to approach and eradicate disease must be through the mind, to trace the cause of this misery, and hold up to it the light of reason or disbelief in the existence of disease independent of the mind. Then the cloud which shadows us vanishes, as error always will when over-powered by the light of truth.

“Dr. Quimby proves the truth of his belief by his daily works. The marvelous cures he is effecting are undeniable evidences of his superior knowledge and skill in applying it for the benefit of suffering humanity. He does not use medicine or any material agency, nor call to his aid mesmerism or any spiritual (spiritistic) influence whatever, but works on scientific principles, the philosophy of which may be understood by the patient. . . .

“Accepting this new theory, man rises superior to circumstances. Easily adapting himself to any necessity, free from all fear of disease, he lives a more simple, natural, and happy life. He is enabled to control the body, and make it subservient to his will instead of his being a slave completely at its mercy, which he will be if he allows that it is subject to disease. This truth is capable of extensive application in all the exigencies of life, and we learn to make constant use of it as we advance in knowledge. It helps us to place a just estimate upon everything, the value of life is enhanced; and, as we have more of this true knowledge in ourselves, we shall love and worship God, who is the source of all wisdom, more sincerely and intelligently.”[8]

When we note that the writer of this clear statement of the possibilities of wider and wider application of Mr. Quimby’s teaching went to Quimby as a patient suffering from a disease of long-standing and in every way a devotee of the older way of thinking about life and disease, we realize how great was the change sometimes wrought by his treatment and the conversations which followed. Here we have an indication at least of the spiritual effect produced by the change. We have a different attitude toward life, one that looks forward affirmatively to success. We note that the new teaching applies not only to disease but looks beyond this to triumph over circumstances in general, in favor of a simpler, happier mode of life. It also gives a religious outlook, and in a very practical way directs attention to God as the immanent source of all wisdom.

Speaking in general of those whom one has known well enough to see how radical was the change wrought under Mr. Quimby’s treatment and instruction, it may be said that his greatest power came from the quickening sense of the divine love and wisdom which he carried in his presence. His method of sitting silently by the sick to learn the real state of the inner life as spiritual light should disclose it, enabled him to make the presence of God more vivid than it is ordinarily made by prayer and public worship. He was prompted by earnest desire to do good. His patients came to him in need, often in great distress of mind and body, sometimes at the point of death. He was aroused by this need and this desire to do his utmost, and was able fully to give himself to his work. His power increased with the years. His courage and faith strengthened him to persist in the new mode of healing despite the fact that he was alone and subject to adverse criticism on every hand. Under these circumstances it was natural that the spiritual consciousness which his presence inspired should be the really great result of his work.

Looking back over the years in the light of the good that has come from this work, we see plainly that sufficient power was with him to win this triumph and make this deep impression. The value of his work was on the side of power, in the impetus which he gave, an impetus sufficient to quicken those who were to transmit his ideas and methods, and apply them in their own way. This sense of power came from the fact that as a pioneer he found the great sources for himself and spoke from experience. What he communicated was life. His “theory,” as he called it, was secondary to this. He did not impose his theory upon others or try to give it the authority of a “revelation.” All those who have written about this theory in the papers have put their own construction on it to some extent. The early authors and teachers developed his views in their own way. But behind the various versions of his teaching was the strong evidence of his power and of his works. No one ventured to heal as he did while he continued in practice, for no one had the confidence in view of his remarkable cures. The spiritual impetus, however, had been given, and in the course of time the results were seen.

When we look back over history we find that something like this has always been the result. The spiritual pioneer, sage or prophet, has accomplished the work, conveyed the impetus. Followers have appeared who gathered about the new leader, observed his work, acquired his ideas. Then after his death the spreading of his ideas variously stated and interpreted has begun. Some of the followers have been very loyal. Others have taken credit to themselves. There have been disputes, and eventually a scattering of forces or a division into sects has come about. The moral always has been: return to the sources, see what the original impetus was, put yourself in line with it and test it for yourself; pay little attention to the later effete restatements or the controversies, but try to grasp the spiritual truth and put this in relation with other truths.

The further inference in the case of Mr. Quimby would be: return to the Bible to see if it be true that it contains an inner or spiritual meaning, to see if indeed there be a neglected science of the Christ in the New Testament, implying principles of universal application through spiritual healing. If so, this inner or spiritual truth may be the great truth of the new age, it may imply the second coming of the Lord in deepest reality. If so, let us look back of the superficial theories of merely mental healers to find touch anew with the original spiritual impetus. It need not concern us that so many have tried their hands at the spiritual interpretation of the Bible that there is a mere confusion of tongues. In the Bible itself there undoubtedly is a science of spiritual things which all might understand alike.

Mr. Quimby had at least the vision of it. His practice with the sick was in some measure at least a rediscovery of the original therapeutic gospel. Its application to healing is a part only of the science which came to give men fulness of life. But healing had been the neglected part of the gospel. It was necessary that some one should arise to specialize upon this. Such in brief was the work given Mr. Quimby to do. This was the work he accomplished with such impressive success.

Chapter 4. The First Author

In 1863, Mr. Quimby received as a patient one who was to accomplish a very important work in the promulgation of the new theory and practice of healing. This was Rev. Warren Felt Evans, of Claremont, New Hampshire. Mr. Evans had been in poor health for several years, having suffered from a nervous breakdown coupled with a chronic disorder that had failed to respond to the methods of treatment then in vogue. Having heard of Mr. Quimby’s remarkable cures, he visited Portland on two occasions to receive treatment by the new method. His expectations were more than realized. Mr. Evans was not only healed of his maladies, but became so deeply impressed by the practice and teachings of the new therapeutist that he studied the new method and later began to apply it, having first developed the implied philosophy in his own terms. The turning-point came one day while in conversation with Mr. Quimby. Mr. Evans remarked that he believed he could cure by the same method and Mr. Quimby encouraged him to think that he could. Accordingly, Mr. Evans made the venture as soon as opportunity offered, after his return home, and the first attempts were so “successful that the way opened for him to devote the remainder of his life to authorship and the healing of the sick.

Mr. Evans, who was born in 1817 and died in 1889, was by profession a clergyman until this great change came into his life. He belonged to the New Church, and he appears to have been an average exponent of Swedenborg’s teachings, so far as one may judge by his writings, for example, The New Age and its Messenger, 1864, published after he visited Mr. Quimby, but surely written before, since it gives no evidence of any change of view. Mr. Evans was also well acquainted with philosophical idealism. He possessed the ability to grasp fundamental principles and think them out for himself. He had all the essentials, so far as spiritual principles were concerned; for the devotee of Swedenborg has a direct clue to the application of spiritual philosophy to life. What Mr. Evans lacked was the new impetus, to put two and two together. He lacked the method by which to apply his idealism and his theology to health. Mr. Quimby gave him this impetus. He possessed the method. Mr. Evans with ready perception saw the connection and was quick in his discernment of the values of the new practice.

Mr. Evans had given little evidence of originality in his earlier writings, since his chief interest was to spread knowledge of Swedenborg’s doctrines. But in his first book on spiritual healing, or “mental science,” as he sometimes called it, he branched out in a freer style of thought and undertook to win attention for the new views without at first indicating their origin. In his second book, however, Mental Medicine, Boston, 1872, he ventures to use the phraseology he had acquired from Mr. Quimby and to mention the pioneer therapeutist by name. He says:

“Disease being in its root a wrong belief, change that belief and we cure the disease. By faith we are thus made whole. There is a law here the world will sometime understand and use in the cure of the diseases that afflict mankind. The late Dr. Quimby, one of the most successful healers of this or any age, embraced this view of the nature of disease, and by a long succession of most remarkable cures proved the truth of the theory and the efficiency of that mode of treatment. Had he lived in a remote age or country, the wonderful facts which occurred in his practice would have been deemed either mythical or miraculous. He seemed to reproduce the wonders of the Gospel history.”

Rev. W. J. Leonard, in The Pioneer Apostle of Mental Science, Boston, 1903, says that one who knew Mr. Evans intimately “reiterates this sentiment in a letter to the writer ... in the following words : ‘In his estimation, Dr. Quimby was the highest authority in the science of healing, and a man of noble character and purest aims, which Dr. Evans believed were indispensably necessary to bring one into the perfect peace and the harmony with the Divine Life required to teach or heal the sick and suffering with success.’ Not only was Dr. Evans fair enough to honor his master in the science, but, with the humility and modesty of the truly great soul, he made no attempt to claim that the truths he presented were absolutely new.”

It is interesting also to read the testimony of one who knew both Mr. Quimby and Mr. Evans, who followed the latter’s work with great interest, doing what was possible to make his books known in the world. In The True History of Mental Science, Mr. Julius A. Dresser says: “Dr. Evans obtained this knowledge of Quimby mainly when he visited him as a patient, making two visits for that purpose about the year 1863, an interesting account of which I received from him at East Salisbury in the year 1876. Dr. Evans had been a clergyman up to the year 1863, and was then located in Claremont, N. H. But so readily did he understand the explanations of Quimby, which his Swedenborgian faith enabled him to grasp the more quickly, that he told Quimby at the second interview that he thought he could himself cure in this way.”

Mr. Evans’s first book, The Mental Cure, Boston, 1869, is important for our purposes for several reasons. It was the first volume issued in our country on this subject. It was soon widely read in this country and Europe, where it was translated into several languages. It gave extensive publicity to the new ideas for the first time. It contains something like a demonstration of the truth of the principles for which it pleads, that is, by reference to facts and sound inferences based on facts; and it is still superior for this reason to most of the New Thought literature of today. More significant still, perhaps, from a historical point of view, is the evidence it gives of a transitional point of view. For while the author branches out freely and expounds Swedenborg’s views in his own fashion, he is still largely dependent on the teachings of the Swedish seer and his interpretation is more sound. In Mental Medicine, 1872, and Soul and Body, 1875, all published before Science and Health, by Mrs. Eddy, Evans develops the same views in a supplementary way. But in the volume ordinarily referred to as his best book and the one which had most to do with giving shape to the New Thought, The Divine Law of Cure, 1881, Mr. Evans shows that he has been reading the philosophical idealists, and that he has changed his views to some extent, as we shall presently see.

Turning to The Mental Cure, we find him making liberal use of the teachings of Swedenborg concerning the influx of the divine life into the human soul, the theory of the relationship of mind and body, the correspondence of all things natural with all things spiritual, and the conception of causality as essentially spiritual. He does not draw upon the theological doctrines so much as on those which may be called in general spiritual. Adopting Swedenborg’s psychology, he endeavors to verify this in his own way, and to substantiate his argument for spiritual healing by appeal to well-known physical facts and the principles of physiology.

We may summarize Mr. Evans’s theory as put forth in this volume as follows: The starting-point of all reason is with the idea of God, regarded as the source of all life in the universe and in the soul of man. The true science or philosophy would give us a complete view of things in the light of their causes, their relationship to and dependence on God. Man, created a form recipient of the divine life, is in inmost essence divine, and this divinity within him remains untainted whatever the vicissitudes through which man passes. In short, there is an inextinguishable divine spark which may be fanned into flame, despite all appearances to the contrary.

In actuality, however, man is very far from recognition of this his divine birthright and interior privilege. There is a blinded or disordered activity of the mind in its outward form. There is an antagonism between the inmost essence and the selfhood of man as commonly regarded. Hence the mental and physical unhappiness and misery through which man passes. Hence the need of distinguishing between human nature as it was designed to be, as it ever is in the ideal sense of the word; and human nature in a state of moral, intellectual and physical disorder.

Very much depends, therefore, upon our knowledge of and insight into the human self in relation to God. The starting-point, always should be with the inner man, the spirit or soul. The life of the soul is received by influx from God, the source of all our life. All men are incarnations of the divine. “In all men the Divinity becomes finitely human.” The soul receives its form from the divine spirit within. It is in the human form, yet the significance of this form is that it is made in the image and likeness of God. The mind is not then formless and unsubstantial, as we sometimes say in our ignorance; but it consists of real substance, that is, spiritual substance, and is definitely formed according to the divine ideal. Nor is the mind confined to the brain, or limited in form by the brain’s substance and activity. The mind pervades and is interfused throughout the body, and is coextensive with the physical organism. It thrills in every nerve and pervades every fiber. In brief, the body corresponds or answers to the spirit, and changes brought about in the spirit manifest themselves in the bodily organism ; since mind or spirit is a higher, diviner force “approaching many degrees nearer the Central Life.” We also see how this intimate relationship between soul and body is possible when we remember that matter with all its properties is merely a modification of force, and that all causality operating in physical force is spiritual in the last analysis.

Within the spirit itself there are orders and degrees. The spiritual degree, that is, our inmost nature, may and ought to control the natural degree, hence the animal instincts, the bodily activities which foster man’s best estate. The spirit is endowed with both will and understanding. The understanding is recipient of the divine wisdom, the will receives the divine love. Thus love in us is central, fundamental. Love is our very life. When we act from love we act from the divine life in us. Love in this the higher or interior sense of the word is the “moving force of soul and body,” the “hidden spring that moves life’s machinery.” The divine love within us may become “our fountain of health.” If there is harmony between the will and the understanding, unity in the inner life, there is spiritual health, and if spiritual health then bodily health. Disease, in essence mental, not physical, is due to loss of balance between the understanding and the will, between the intellectual and affectional departments of our nature. In saying all this, Mr. Evans is adapting Swedenborg’s psychology so as to find sure place for the truths concerning disease and its cure which he has learned from Mr. Quimby.

Tracing out the discord between the will and the understanding which underlies disease, Mr. Evans further says that disease arises from some false idea which has become too prominent, some feeling that is inordinate or uppermost in such a way that conflict results and the body responds. To restore the balance is to cure the soul, hence the body. As every mental condition records itself in the body, when the state of mind is changed the bodily correspondence manifests it.

In developing this view of the relationship of the soul to the body, Mr. Evans makes use of Swedenborg’s teaching in regard to the spiritual body, which he interprets as the “seat of all sensation,” agreeing with Quimby that the physical body in itself is destitute of feeling and intelligence.

Otherwise stated, sensation belongs, not to the bodily organs in which we seem to feel it, but to our “inner nature.” The “inner form is the prior seat of all diseased disturbance in the body.” Disease so-called is only an outward or visible effect of the inner disturbance. The symptoms are not the disease. The body is incapable of generating a disease by itself. Nor is disease an entity or force that seizes us from without. We cannot interpret the bodily condition correctly unless we see in it an outward expression of the inner state to which it corresponds.

Mr. Evans finds expression for Quimby’s teaching that every one gives off a “mental atmosphere” which discloses the inner condition by adopting Swedenborg’s view of “spiritual spheres.” “This doctrine of spiritual spheres,” he says, “is of great importance in mental philosophy, but has been almost wholly ignored. In the system of Swedenborg it has been given that prominence that belongs to it. Every angel, every spirit, every man, is surrounded by a spiritual sphere of affection and thought, or radiant circles of an emanating force, within which he imparts — often silently and unintentionally — his own feelings and ideas. . . . There are persons who exert a secret but powerful influence over those who come in contact with the sphere of their inner nature. This influence is good or bad, happy or depressing, elevating or degrading, according to the confirmed affectional state or ruling love of him from whom it proceeds. For it is to be borne in mind, that it goes forth primarily from the love which constitutes the soul life.

If the mental state be joy or melancholy, gladness or sorrow, contentment or impatience, faith or fear, it affects others with a like feeling, in a degree proportioned to their impressibility. In this way the mind propagates its own prevailing condition, and all our mental states are contagious.”

This is an intelligible statement of a point essential to Quimby’s theory. If we were to take Quimby’s statement that “disease is an error of mind” literally, it would doubtless seem absurd; for obviously we have not consciously thought ourselves into disease. But in Quimby’s view we are unaware of the effect of our beliefs because ignorant of our whole deeper nature, that is, our impressibility, the growth of ideas within our minds, the influence of the mind on the body through the intermediate substance, the subtle influence of one mind on another through mental atmospheres, the power of the spirit to see through and master disturbing mental states by realizing the greater reality of man’s true nature. If the later devotees of mental healing had taken account of all the factors noted by Quimby and explained so clearly by Evans in this his first statement of it, they would have inquired into the nature of spiritual influx and correspondence and would have adopted an essentially spiritual view of the whole field. Instead of a new “thought,” instead of almost exclusive emphasis on suggestion or affirmation, we might have had a new spiritual philosophy embracing the larger truth of the new age.

Mr. Evans develops the idea of a spiritual cure by pointing out that as disease of body is caused by disordered and morbid states of the spiritual life, so by inducing the opposite states disease can be overcome. What is needed in the first place is the power, such as Quimby possessed, “intuitively to detect the morbid state of the mind underlying the disease,” and to see how to “convert the patient to a more healthful inner life.” All disease in origin is an insanity. Its cure is the attainment of sanity. The problem is to know how to induce any desired mental state.

Mr. Evans does not claim that this can be done by the human self alone. He does not put the emphasis on finite thought, or what would now be called “suggestion.” The true order of life, he assures us, is that in which our hearts are open to “receive the influx of the divine and heavenly life,” with a desire “to impart the good, with which we are blessed, to all who are willing to receive it. Such ... is the normal state of every soul. It is evident we can never attain to the highest wellbeing of either soul or body, until we come into the divine order of our existence, and employ the activity with which we are endowed, according to the laws of the celestial life.”

The central difficulty with us is that the divine impulse within us is “perverted in its action, our love terminates in self, and we become the center of our universe.” Selfishness then is the primary trouble, “the fruitful root of more moral and physical evil and unhappiness, than any other cause. . . . Disease is only a state of supreme selfishness.” Even insanity, especially in the form of melancholia, is selfishness in its origin. Sexual emotion is another cause. In such emotion, when perverted, is the “root of more diseases of body and mind than can be traced to any other source. The sexual and conjugal love is most intimately connected with the inmost life of the spirit, and is the fountain of more unhappiness or misery than originates with any other affection, according as it is properly controlled, or left to a disorderly activity and indulgence.”

In thus tracing matters to their fountain-source, taking his clue from Swedenborg, Mr. Evans anticipates Freud and his school by more than a generation. Freud has traced many if not most nervous disorders to repressions of the love-nature.

Hence he places fundamental emphasis on the sexual instinct. But his view is purely psychological. It is developed out of the cruder facts of the inner life, arrived at through the interpretation of dreams. Mr. Evans gives us the whole context of the love-nature and shows its high origin on the spiritual side. From his point of view there could be no merely mental cure. The true cure would be, as Quimby had shown, in the discovery of our real inner nature as recipient of the divine life.

The theory of an essentially spiritual cure starts with the principle that there is but one source of life, that life emanates from this one living center, from God, and is communicated to all, is communicable to others through us. The remedy for all our ills is at hand. “Make the heart of something outside your own being to leap for joy. Attune your soul in harmony with the Divine Life. Live to love, and then you will delight to live; and health will glow and thrill in every organic structure. Find some one whose condition is unhappily like your own. Lift up your hand and your heart, and pull down a blessing upon his head. . . . Be, like Jesus, every one’s friend. Seek to make everybody and everything happy . . . Get well by curing others. Impart life, communicate from your own stock of vital force to others, and life from God.

Faith is an important element in the cure. It is a “spiritual force that has accomplished wonders ... an actual psychological or spiritual force. To believe that we can do a thing, especially if that faith is the result of an understanding of nature’s laws, empowers us to do it. To believe that we are well, or that we are going to become so, excites a spiritual force within us that goes far towards making us so. . . . The lack of faith is the loss of one of the essential elements of a sound mental state, which underlies, as a foundation, a healthy bodily condition. In the .. . healer it is a positive mental force, in the patient a receptive mental state.”

Fear is its opposite, and produces equally striking effects in the generation of diseased conditions of the body. The healer should induce the spiritual state which drives out fear, should establish as a permanent possession the state which is the opposite of that causing the disease. The greatest motive power in this inducing of the desirable spiritual state is love, which sets the spiritual forces within us in operation. “Just as far as any one receives into himself the pure unselfish love of God — a love that in him is an irrepressible desire to communicate good — so far there is in him a power to impart life and health and peace to others.”

Agreeing with Quimby, Mr. Evans finds the same method taught in the New Testament. “When,” he says, “we assert that life is communicable ... we occupy undisputed ground. It was in harmony with this recognized law of our being that Jesus cured diseased humanity. He laid down his life for men — an expression that has no reference to his death . . . Jesus healed . . . first the mind, then the body. He removed the spiritual cause of disease, and the physical effect ceased. He carried his sanative influence into both departments of our being, the inner and the outer. This was done by the law of sympathy — a law of the mind that means more than the world has ever understood. By it one mind transmits its states of feeling and modes of thought to another. . . . Jesus thus imparted to the sick and wretched the calm happiness of his own loving and gentle heart. ... In this way Christ carried his healing power into the realm of spiritual causes. He addressed himself as a spirit to the spirit of the patient.”

Here we have the heart of the spiritual method as developed by Mr. Quimby. To address oneself as a spirit to another spirit is far more than merely to transfer thought or feeling to another. The element of feeling is a factor. Hence the strong emphasis which Mr. Evans puts upon sympathy. The intellectual element is also a factor, and Mr. Evans shows that there is a “sanative power in words,” for example, in the affirmation, “I am strong,” in such statements as, “Go in peace; Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee; Be it unto thee according to thy faith.” Here we find the factor which the New Thought people have made so much of since the days of writers like Henry Wood. But Evans always shows the superiority of the love-element, the divine influx into the heart. The right directing of the will seems to him more important than the use of such an affirmation as “I am strong.” For he sees clearly that the disease springs from the inner life in general, not from mere belief; hence the cure must touch the whole spirit. To address oneself as a spirit to the spirit of the patient is indeed to rise to our highest privilege as a human being.

In the preface to his Divine Law of Cure, 1881, Mr. Evans gives the clue to this his best known book as follows: “Idealism, which has always had strong hold upon the deepest thinkers of the world from Plato downward, is again coming into prominence . . . The system of Berkeley is undergoing a resurrection, and, in connection with . the spiritual philosophy of Swedenborg, will have more influence than ever in shaping the metaphysical systems of the future, and in giving direction to the current of human thought. The present volume of the author is an attempt to construct a theoretical and practical system of phrenopathy, or men-tal-cure, on the basis of the idealistic philosophy of Berkeley, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. Its fundamental doctrine is that to think and to exist are one and the same, and that every disease is the translation into a bodily expression of a fixed idea of the mind and a morbid way of thinking. If by any therapeutic device you remove the morbid idea, which is the spiritual image after the likeness of which the body is formed, you cure the malady. The work lays no claim to originality except in the practical application of idealism to the cure of the diseases of mind and body. It is the culmination of a life-long study of human nature, and to which the previous volumes of the author may be viewed as introductory.”

Mr. Evans plainly believed that this was his chief book. Whatever opinion we may hold concerning the change from his first book to this one, we must chronicle the fact that it was this applied idealism with its proposition that “to think and exist are one and the same” which has had great influence in the mental-healing movement. We here find Mr. Evans saying less about the larger view of man’s spiritual nature, with its emphasis on will and the prevailing love or affection, and employing the terms which his later studies in idealism led him to adopt. Probably he did not intend to give up the spiritual in favor of the intellectual view. His practical method was surely as effective as before. By implication the term “thought” as he now uses it is as rich as the former terms, and when he now uses the term “mind” we may doubt whether he has given up the idea of the spirit which was central in the teaching of his first book. But unluckily everybody is influenced by language, and, unless we are extremely explicit, people fail to see that we mean something “spiritual” when we use psychological terms. Hence we note that the terminology of this book has sometimes been more influential than its spirit. This is an important point for our history.

Neglecting his former emphasis on the human spirit as recipient of power and life from the spiritual world, Mr. Evans now says, “Mind is the only active power in the universe . . . Mind is the only causal agent in the realm of matter, and certainly in the human body . . . As the body is the creation of the mind, and is always its ul-timation or outward expression, a chronic disease is the fixedness of a thought, the petrifaction of a morbid idea. Thoughts or ideas are the most real things in the universe. They are the interior soul of things, and the underlying reality of all outward and visible objects . . . The mind is the real man, and its thoughts act on the body as a spiritual poison, or as a mental medicine, for health and disease, in their spiritual essence, may be resolved into modes of thinking. A man is well so long as he thinks, feels, and believes himself so, for to be sick and not know it is all the same as not to be sick.”

This is meant to be a profound doctrine, not the superficial one which it sometimes led to on the part of devotees of mental healing not so well-read as Mr. Evans was in the literature of idealism. When he says that “thought is a creative power,” he does not intend to take anything from the thought of God as Creator, he is not exalting the finite ego. He has in mind what he elsewhere in this book calls the “preconscious,” the term which he prefers to the “unconscious.” By this he means “intelligent mental action beyond the range of the external consciousness,” our latent thought and intelligence. He speaks of thought as the “grand characteristic of man,” as belonging to the essence of the soul. He does not neglect what he has previously written about love as “the life of man,” as Swedenborg affirms; but is more inclined to emphasize thought as “the existence or outward manifestation, of that vital element or principle.” He regards the quality of the life of love as dependent on the character of man’s thoughts. He interprets the self-determining power which we call free will to be “thought” in its essence. Hence everything depends for him upon man’s power to turn his thoughts into another direction. Here Mr. Evans approaches the more recent psychological emphasis on attention as the determining factor in our mental life.

Having restated the entire theory of the origin and nature of disease with the term “thought” as central, Mr. Evans proceeds to a restatement of the mental cure. He bases his proposition that there is a “healing power of thought” on “the Hegelian principle that thought is a creative force.” It is a “fundamental idea of Hegel’s philosophy,” he tells us, “that everything in its last analysis, or when we come to its inmost reality, is only a thought. What we call the external world and the human body, which is a part of it, are the thought of God, and we come to know them only so far as we think of them. They are revealed to us by the same power that creates them. Disease, like every other thing, is created, or, at least has an existence only by thought. In the phrenopathic method of cure, it is a fundamental principle that thought is the ground of all reality.”

One might neglect the bodily conditions of disease and almost come to believe that nothing exists save when we are thinking about it, if one were to take too seriously Evans’ statement that a “thing, a world, a disease, comes into our consciousness only when we think of it.” He seems to forget for the moment that our thinking about it has nothing to do with the existence of the world, that our consciousness is for the most part involuntary, and that nothing ceases to exist when we cease to think about it. If to “bring disease into the realm of unconsciousness” be all that we need do to make it “unreal,” it would indeed be a simple matter to banish all disease from the world.

Mr. Evans had offered a really fundamental view of disease in his first book, by tracing it to selfishness and showing that its cure means spiritual regeneration.

He does not now speak of healing as the operation of one spirit on another by drawing upon the inflowing life from the spiritual world. He still puts the emphasis on the divine mind, and by this he means the Spirit in all its fulness. But he speaks of the mind of the patient as a “clean slate on which our thoughts may be written,” and says that what “we imagine, and believe, and think, will be transferred” to the patient; and so he tends to give prominence to the intellectual factors of the silent treatment. 1 It would be easy for the superficial reader to seize upon “thought” as the dominant factor and overlook the spiritual meanings which Mr. Evans had previously given to the term.

In this volume as in his earlier books, Mr. Evans frequently quotes from Swedenborg, attributing to him the doctrine that “man is so made that he can apply life to himself from the Lord.” He says that Swedenborg viewed the external world as the ultimation of the spiritual universe. He also makes use of Swedenborg’s teaching in regard to spiritual influx and correspondence. But when he couples the name of Swedenborg with idealism, as he understands it, and says that “all time and space, as Kant and Swedenborg affirm, are in ourselves — that is, within the enclosure of our spiritual being”; when he attributes our experience of space to “the space-creating power of the soul,” Evans is reading subjective idealism into Swedenborg and throwing his readers upon the wrong track. He declares that “all the objects of nature are phenomena or appearances, as Hegel, Fichte, Berkeley, Swedenborg, and all the idealists affirm.” He has been reading the idealists so much of late that he forgets his Swedenborg, who surely never taught that “all outward things are but the exteriorization of ideas.” Nor did Swedenborg teach that “thought is the primal force and the greatest power in the world.” He did not identify existence with thought, but characterized God as the “divine love and the divine wisdom,” teaching that there are two powers in man recipient of these, the will and the understanding (the intellect). As thus recipient of life from God, man is primarily a spirit, spirit is substantial, and the body corresponds to the spirit. Swedenborg was not, properly speaking, an idealist, if by the term “idealism” we have in mind the idealism of Fichte and Hegel. Swedenborg’s works lead the reader into the objectivism of our true relationship in the spiritual world. They put the emphasis on love, hence on conduct, and avoid over-emphasis on human thought.

The distinction is important. For if, taking seriously Evans’s declaration that to think and exist are one and the same, we follow his theory of disease and its cure, we are likely to acquire a psychology without a body, we are apt to think too lightly of the natural world and to make the road to salvation appear easier than it is. To see that for the time being Evans is interested in the theoretical and on the whole impractical idealism of Fichte, is to realize that he is temporarily neglecting the spiritual philosophy of Swedenborg with the clue to Quimby’s teaching it gave him in the early years. There was really no reason to “attempt to construct a theoretical and practical system of phrenopathy, or mental-cure, on the basis of the idealistic philosophy.” Mr. Evans already possessed a better philosophy. He did not improve either his terminology or his practical method by the change. What he did do was to mark out the way of thinking which devotees of mental healing in the mental-science period followed by emphasizing thought as “creative,” as the greatest force in the world. The universe became less substantial for the mental healer as a result. The mental doctrine became the popular one. The profounder view of the spiritual life of Mr. Evans’s first book was for the most part neglected. Readers of Mrs. Eddy’s Science and Health found a somewhat similar interpretation of the idealism of Berkeley in her writings. Thus in the mental-science period preceding what is now known as the New Thought, both those who began with Evans and those who started with Mrs. Eddy arrived at much the same conclusion; the universe lost for them a part of its reality, and the process of working back to the profounder view was made difficult.

Chapter 5. The Beginnings Of Christian Science

It is important to give brief attention at this point to the origin of Christian Science, since the therapeutic movement as a whole has felt the influence of this the most radical view during the past forty years. Moreover the testimony of Mrs. Eddy to Quimby’s work and teaching is significant. It gives us another interpretation. It puts us in touch with a line of thought which competed with Mr. Evans’s teaching in producing “mental science,” the forerunner of the New Thought. We can hardly follow the later history intelligibly unless we have all the clues in our possession. We undertake this part of our inquiry in the spirit of the truth-seeker, without any desire to enter into a controversy regarding the indebtedness of one leader to another. We may bring forward the chief facts and leave them to speak for themselves.

In The True History of Mental Science, which was originally a lecture delivered in Boston at the request of people who wished to know the relationship of the various phases of the therapeutic movement to one another, Mr. Julius A. Dresser says:

“Among those who were friends as well as patients of Mr. Quimby during the years from 1860 to 1865, and who paid high tributes to his discoveries of truth, and the consequent good to many people and to the world, was one who, for some strange reason, afterward changed and followed a different course, with which you all are more or less familiar. I refer to the author of Science and Health. As she had during several years special opportunities to know the man and to learn truth of him, this record would be incomplete without including her testimony at that time. Fortunately it can be given in her own words; and you can form your own estimate of them.

“When the lady became a patient of Quimby, she at once took an interest in his theory, and imbibed his explanations of truth rapidly. She also took a bold stand, and published an account of her progress in health in a daily paper. The following is an extract from her first article thus published, which appeared in the Portland Evening Courier in 1862:

“ ‘When our Shakespeare decided that “there were more things in this world than were dreamed of in your philosophy,” I cannot say of a verity that he had foreknowledge of P. P. Quimby. And when the school Platonic anatomized the soul and divided it into halves, to be reunited by elementary attractions, and heathen philosophers averred that old Chaos in sullen silence brooded o’er the earth until her inimitable form was hatched from the egg of night, I would not at present decide whether the fallacy was found in their premises or conclusions, never having dated my existence before the flood. . . . When from the evidence of the senses my reason takes cognizance of truth, although it may appear in quite a miraculous view, I must acknowledge that as a science which is truth uninvestigated. Hence the following demonstration:

“Three weeks since I quitted my nurse and sickroom en route for Portland. The belief of my recovery had died out of the hearts of those who were most anxious for it. With this mental and physical depression I first visited P. P. Quimby, and in less than one week from that time I ascended by a stairway of one hundred and eighty-two steps to the dome of the City Hall, and am improving ad infinitum. To the most subtle reasoning, such a proof, coupled, too, as it is with numberless similar ones, demonstrates his power to heal. Now for a brief analysis of this power.

‘Is it spiritualism? Listen to the words of wisdom. “Believe in God; believe also in me; or believe me for the very works’ sake.” Now, then, his works are but the result of superior wisdom, which can demonstrate a science not understood: hence it were a doubtful proceeding not to believe him for the works’ sake. Well, then, he denies that his power to heal the sick is borrowed from spirits of this or another world; and let us take the Scriptures for proof. “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.” How, then, can he receive the friendly aid of the disenthralled spirit, while he rejects the faith of the solemn mystic who crosses the threshold of the dark unknown to conjure up from the vastly deep the awestruck spirit of some invisible squaw?

“ ‘Again, is it by animal magnetism that he heals the sick? Let us examine. I have employed electro-magnetism and animal magnetism, and for a brief interval have felt relief, from the equilibrium which I fancied was restored to an exhausted system or by a diffusion of concentrated action. But in no instance did I get rid of a return of all my ailments, because I had not been helped out of the error in which opinions involved us. My operator believed in disease independent of the mind; hence, I could not be wiser than my teacher. But now I can see dimly at first, and only as trees walking, the great principle which underlies Dr. Quimby’s faith and works; and, just in proportion to my light, perception, is my recovery. This truth which he opposes to the error of giving intelligence to matter and placing pain where it never placed itself, if received understandingly, changes the currents of the system to their normal action; and the mechanism of the body goes on undisturbed. That this is a science capable of demonstration becomes clear to the minds of those patients who reason upon the process of their cure. The truth which he establishes in the patient cures him (although he may be wholly unconscious thereof); and the body, which is full of light, is no longer in disease. At present I am too much in error to elucidate the truth, and can touch only the keynote for the master-hand to wake the harmony. May it be in essays instead of notes, say I. After all, this is a very spiritual doctrine; but the eternal years of God are with it, and it must stand firm as the rock of ages. And to many a poor sufferer may it be found, as by me, “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

Mr. Dresser comments on this article as follows: “It will be observed, by noting the foregoing statements closely that the lady did understand that disease is a state of mind and the truth is its cure until this experience with Quimby took place; and it will be seen how rapidly, during the three weeks’ experience referred to, she had been grasping that truth, and seeing that it was a true science, and that it was curing herself. It is now easy to see just when and just where she ‘discovered Christian Science.’ “

It is interesting to digress from the above account and look back a little to see how and why Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, came to visit Mr. Quimby. In 1899 I had in my temporary possession a series of letters addressed to Mr. Quimby, which no one except their owner, Mr. George A. Quimby, had seen for more than thirty years until they came into my hands, March 1 of that year, for consultation in the preparation of an article published in The Arena, Boston, May, 1899. I give the summary here in condensed form as printed in that article.

The letters are chiefly of a personal character, and I shall mention them only so far as they concern the public, since it is unnecessary to do more. I shall confine myself to the mere statement of facts, the purpose of this brief statement being to set at rest the question concerning Mrs. Eddy’s loyalty to Mr. Quimby previous to the publication of her book.

The first of these letters is dated Rumney, N. H., October 14, 1861, and is addressed by Dr. D. Patterson to “Dr. Quimby,” soliciting the aid of the latter’s “wonderful power,” for the restoration of his wife, who for a number of years had been an invalid, “unable to sit up.” Then follow fourteen letters signed by Mrs. Patterson, bearing dates beginning May 29, 1862, and ending July 25, 1865; and written from Rumney, and Sanbornton Bridge, N. H., Saco and Warren, Me., and Lynn, Mass. The first is a letter of appeal, expressing “entire confidence” in the “philosophy” of Mr. Quimby, and asking him to come to heal her, since if he does not save her, she must surely die — after six years of severe invalidism.

Then follows a letter from a Hill (N. H.) water-cure, where Mrs. Patterson had gone for treatment, as Quimby could not come to her, which expresses the hope that she may yet reach Quimby, as she believes herself sufficiently “excitable,” to live through the journey. This was in August, 1862; for in my father’s journal . . . under date of October 17, 1862, I find mention of her. The next letter, written after her return home, is dated “Jan. 12, ‘63,” and refers to the benefit received from a distant mental treatment which removed all her pain in a remarkable way, and speaks of herself as “a living wonder and a living monument of your power,” as a result of which “five or six of my friends are going to visit you.” She hopes soon to accompany her sister, Mrs. Tilton, to Portland to see Quimby. She says of herself, “I eat, drink, and am merry; have no laws to fetter my spirit now, though I am quite as much of an escaped prisoner as my dear husband was.”[9] The letter expresses firm faith in Quimby’s theory of disease, and reveals a clear understanding of it. She applies terms to disease which appear both in Quimby’s manuscripts, and in Science and Health. She says further, “I mean not again to look mournfully into the past, but wisely to improve the present . . . My explanation of your curative principle surprises people.”

The following letters relate to slight ailments for which Mrs. Patterson solicits Quimby’s help, express utmost confidence in him, and show that she is spreading his ideas, defending him, defining the difference between his theory and spiritualism, as well as making some effort to apply the healing principle. These letters are also full of gratitude and good wishes, of the love which the student feels for the revered teacher.

In one of these letters, dated “Saco, Sept. 14, ‘63,” Mrs. Patterson says, “I would like to have you in your omnipresence visit me (absent mental treatment) at 8 o’clock, this if convenient.” A later letter is dated Warren, Me., April 10, 1864, and describes a lecture given by Mrs. Patterson, in which she outlined Quimby’s theory, and once more distinguished his teaching from spiritualism. An earnest desire is expressed to engage in a more public work, and applications have already come to her both for treatment and for articles upon the subject. But she declares that she is not yet out of her “pupilage.” The next letter expresses a yet deeper desire to realize the ideal of the higher life, to perfect herself that she may help others, and shows warm appreciation of the spiritual side of Quimby’s teaching. There is a noticeable variation in the handwriting in portions of this letter, and in general the handwriting of these letters reveals a variety of moods.

From time to time Mrs. Patterson encloses money in payment for absent treatments.

Again, she speaks of Quimby’s work as a “science,” which has had as clear a demonstration in her case as any experiments she has “witnessed in clairvoyance.” On one occasion she meets an acquaintance who was formerly editor of The Banner of Light, to whom she explains Quimby’s philosophy. “He thought you a defunct spiritualist; before I quitted him at Berwick, he had endorsed your science.” She quotes from memory, in another letter, the public announcement of her address in Warren, Me., “Mrs. M. M. Patterson will lecture at the Town Hall one week from next Wednesday on P. P. Quimby’s spiritual science (for the) healing (of) disease — as opposed to Deism or Rochester Rapping Spiritualism.” In the first letter from Warren, she reports having said to a friend when speaking of Quimby’s power, “Why even the winds and the waves obey him.” Again, “Dear Doctor, what could I do without you?” “X will not bow to wealth for I cannot honor it as I do wisdom.” The following letter closes thus:

“May the peace of wisdom which passeth all understanding be and abide with you. — Ever the same in gratitude.” A later letter asks, “Who is wise but you? What is your truth, if it applies only to the evil diseases which show themselves . .. Doctor, I have a strong feeling of late that I ought to be perfect after the command of science. ... I can love only a good, honorable, and brave career; no other can suit me.”

Writing from Lynn, Mass., July 8, 1864, Mrs. Patterson speaks of the severe illness of her husband, earnestly wishing that Quimby were there to help, and stating that her husband only laughs when she explains the “truth” to him. She closes by asking, “Can you not prevent my taking it, and lend relief to him?” The last letter is the emotional cry of the mother heart, because of the probably fatal illness of her son George, at Enterprise, Minnesota. The same unquestioning faith in the wonderful power of Mr. Quimby is expressed, with an earnest appeal to him to save her son, for whom she expresses the highest regard. There is not in these letters the least attempt to discredit Quimby’s power as an enlightened healer, not the slightest mention of magnetism or electricity, and no suspicion that his treatment is not regarded as of a high spiritual character. On the contrary, a longing is expressed to attain as high a level, and there is every reason to believe that the temptation to claim the great new truths as her own, came later when the field was free. It is noticeable, however, that the temperament is one of great susceptibility to the pains of others; and there is constant appeal to Quimby to free her from these pains.[10]

While these letters were in my possession in 1899, I showed them to trustworthy people who certified that they were in Mrs. Eddy’s handwriting, and expressed surprise that one who formerly held Mr. Quimby in such high esteem, should trample upon his reputation, claiming his hard-won laurels as her own, borrowing his ideas, adopting his method of treatment, and even stating in print that his writings may have been “stolen” from her published works!

The day after the publication of the article contributed by Mrs. Eddy to the Evening Courier, in 1862, it was adversely criticized by the Portland Advertiser, Mrs. Patterson replied and among other things said :

“P. P. Quimby stands upon the plane of wisdom with his truth. Christ healed the sick, but not by jugglery or with drugs. As the former speaks as never man before spake, and heals as never man healed since Christ, is he not identified with truth, and is not this the Christ which was in him? We know that in wisdom is life, ‘and the life was the light of man.’ P. P. Quimby rolls away the stone from the sepulcher of error, and health is the resurrection. But we also know that ‘light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.’ “[11]

“These excerpts,” says Mr. Dresser, “are in plain language, and they speak for themselves. The statements are made with too evident an understanding of their truth to be doubted or questioned, or afterward reversed in any particular.

It should be borne in mind that your speaker was there at the time, and was familiar with all the circumstances she relates and the views expressed. The devoted regard the lady formed for her deliverer, Quimby, and for the truth he taught her, which proved her salvation, was continued to be held by her from this time, (the autumn of 1862) up to a period at least four years later; for in January, 1866, Quimby’s death occurred, and on February 15 she sent to me a copy of a poem she had written to his memory, and accompanied it by a letter commencing in these words: ‘I enclose some lines of mine in memory of our much-loved friend, which, perhaps, you will not think over-wrought in meaning, others must, of course.’ “1

The title of this poem is significant: “Lines on the death of P. P. Quimby, who healed with the truth that Christ taught, in contradistinction to all isms.” People had persistently identified Mr. Quimby with spiritism and other current theories. Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, saw as clearly as any one that he was misunderstood. She was always eager to defend him. Her defense shows that she rightly traced his references to scriptural teaching to the Bible, and that she accepted his interpretation of the New Testament as containing a “spiritual science,” the name for which she afterwards adopted for her version of his teaching, namely, Christian Science.

One further reference to the letter by Mrs. Patterson in which she enclosed her poem is needed to make our history complete. She naturally supposed that Mr. Dresser would take up Quimby’s practice among the sick, as he had for years been Quimby’s most ardent follower. Consequently she writes, “I am constantly wishing that you would step forward into the place he has vacated. I believe you would do a vast amount of good, and are more capable of occupying his place than any other I know of.” Then Mrs. Patterson gives the immediate reason for wishing that this might come about: “Two weeks ago I fell on the sidewalk, and struck my back on the ice, and was taken up for dead, came to consciousness amid a storm of vapors from cologne, . . . camphor, etc., but to find myself the helpless cripple I was before I saw Dr. Quimby.

“The physician attending said I had taken the last step I ever should, but in two days I got out of my bed alone and will walk; but yet I confess I am frightened, and out of that nervous heat my friends are forming, spite of me, the terrible spinal affection from which I suffered so long and hopelessly. Now can’t you help me? I believe you can. I write this with this feeling: I think that I could help another in my condition if they had not placed their intelligence in matter. This I have not done, and yet I am slowly failing. Won’t you write to me if you will undertake for me if I can get to you? . . . Respectfully, Mary M. Patterson.”[12]

The answer was that Mr. Dresser did not at that time feel sufficient confidence to succeed Mr. Quimby. Mr. Evans had not then issued his first book and was not yet known as a healer. Apparently there was no one to take up the practice of spiritual healing. Fortunately, perhaps, for her, Mrs. Patterson had to depend on her own resources, for in so doing she probably grew in faith in the method of healing she had learned from Quimby. There is no evidence to show that Mrs. Patterson, who presently became Mrs. Eddy, made any special claims as discoverer before she published Science and Health, 1875. At the time Miss Milmine was preparing her very careful and wholly accurate series of articles on Mrs. Eddy for McClure’s Magazine, I read manuscript lessons, then in Miss Milmine’s possession, in which Mrs. Eddy, still teaching the ideas and methods which she acquired from Quimby, used a very interesting intermediate phraseology, often verbally like Quimby’s early articles, but also resembling the language of Science and Health. In view of the fact that the first edition of Science and Health has been so far as possible suppressed, there is good reason to believe that its author still gave Mr. Quimby credit for his discoveries, and that she had no thought of making claims for herself as a revelator, as if Quimby had taught her nothing.

What her reasons were for making the change, we need not ask. We are concerned, not with bestowing credit upon Quimby, for he never desired it, and whatever credit is his due no one can take from him; but with the fact that Mrs. Eddy’s claim for herself as a revelator brought a division into the mental-healing camp. This is a historical fact which we cannot neglect, since this division has been an element in the history since 1882.

We are interested as students of the history of this movement merely in the fact that there was a controversy in the Boston papers in 1883 in which Mrs. Eddy indicated her change in attitude toward Quimby and intensified the split in the therapeutic world. In a letter addressed to the Boston Post, dated “No. 569 Columbus Avenue, March 7, 1883,” Mrs. Eddy says:

“In 1862 my name was Patterson, my husband, Dr. Patterson, a distinguished dentist. After our marriage I was confined to my bed with a severe illness, and seldom left bed or room for seven years, when I was taken to Dr. Quimby and partially restored. I returned home happy, but only returned to a new agony to find my husband had eloped. ... I have a bill of divorce from him, obtained in the county of Essex. . . . We had laid the foundations of mental healing before we ever saw Dr. Quimby; were an homeopath without a diploma. We made our first experiments in mental healing about 1853, when we were convinced that mind had a science which, if understood, would heal all diseases. . . . Dr. Quimby was somewhat of a remarkable healer, and at the time we knew him was known as a mesmerist.[13]. . . We knew him about twenty years ago, and aimed to help him. We saw he was looking in our direction, and asked him to write his thoughts out. He did so, and then we would take that copy to correct, and sometimes so transform it that he would say it was our composition, which it virtually was; but we always gave him back the copy.[14] . . . But lo! after we have founded mental healing, and nearly twenty years have elapsed, during which we have taught some six hundred students, and published five or six thousand volumes on this subject . . . the aforesaid gentleman announces to the public, Dr. Quimby, the founder of mental healing.”[15]

It hardly seems credible that one who had held Quimby in such high esteem and had regarded as performing works of healing in accordance with the Christian principle, should now make such a statement as the above and the following from the Christian Science Journal, June, 1887: “I never heard him intimate that he healed diseases mentally; and many others will testify that, up to his last sickness, he treated us magnetically — manipulating our heads, and making passes in the air while he stood in front of us. During his treatments I felt like one having hold of an electric battery and standing on an insulating stool. His healing was never considered or called anything but Mesmerism. I tried to think better of it, and to procure him public favor, and it wounded me to have him despised. I believe he was doing good; and, even now, knowing as I do the harm in this practice, I would never revert to it but for this public challenge. I was ignorant of the basis of animal magnetism twenty years ago, but now know it would disgrace and invalidate any mode of medicine. “

It will be noticed that in the article quoted above from the Portland Evening Courier, 1862, Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, distinctly says that she has employed animal magnetism and knows the results of the magnetic treatment. In contrast with such treatment, she finds Mr. Quimby employing a principle which explains the error on the part of those who attribute intelligence to matter and believe in disease as “independent of the mind,” and declares that his doctrine is “very spiritual.” The occasional use of the hands in rubbing a patient’s head after the silent treatment was completed and by way of increasing the patient’s faith, is explained by Mr. Dresser in The True History of Mental Science.[16] It would be a long story to trace out and tell all the conflicting statements made by Mrs. Eddy’s writers. Two of the latter have admitted to me that they aided in writing such statements purely as matter of business, to substantiate the claims in behalf of the supposed “revelation” in 1866. It was the hypothesis of a “revelation” that caused all the difficulty. The discrepancies in the dates are possibly due in part to the fact that different writers were employed to make them. The failure of the various writers to compare notes would also explain the many misstatements circulated since 1883 concerning Quimby’s manuscripts, in regard to Dr. Ahren’s trial, and the suit brought against The Arena Company for alleged infringement of rights in printing Mrs. Eddy’s portrait.[17] Many other matters have been so interpreted as seemingly to discredit those who know the facts.

Here we refer to such matters merely to show that to ascertain the historical facts it would be necessary in every instance to pass beyond these statements published for reasons by those who had the reputation of an organization to sustain.

For example, in the letter addressed to the Boston Post, quoted from above, Mrs. Eddy gives the date of her first experiments in mind-healing as 1853. In her Re-strospection and Introspection, page 28, she says, “It was in Massachusetts, in the year 1866, that I discovered the Science of Divine Metaphysical Healing, which I afterward named Christian Science.” Again, on page 51, she says, “In 1867 I introduced the first purely metaphysical system of healing since apostolic days.” This she named “the great discovery” on a “basis so hopelessly original” that she charges others with plagiarisms from “the precious book,” Science and Health, “the only known work containing a correct and complete statement of the Science of Metaphysical Healing, its principles and practice.”

In The Arena, May, 1899, a former student of Christian Science has examined some of the contradictory statements and shown that they are mutually destructive. Since we are now tracing the history of the therapeutic movement in general, we simply call attention to the fact that three of Mr. Evans’s books were before the world when Science and Health was published, and that those works contain “a correct and complete statement of the science of metaphysical healing, its principles and practice,” on the basis of the method acquired from Mr. Quimby and of principles adapted from the writings of Swedenborg and the Bible. When Mrs. Eddy writes that “Dr. Quimby believed in the reality of disease, and its power over life; and he depended on man’s belief in order to heal him, as all mesmerists do,”[18] we know of course that the statement is for a purpose. It is always difficult to sustain the hypothesis of a “revelation.” Once entered into, the hypothesis is persistently asserted and reasserted in varying terms. The undertaking would be relatively harmless were it not that thousands of people are deceived, innocent people who are unaware that they are perpetuating untruth.

All we need say here is that probably Mrs. Eddy had no inkling of mental treatment in any form before she visited Mr. Quimby in 1862, although she had some acquaintance with spiritism and magnetic treatment, and knew enough about mesmerism to know that Quimby’s treatment was not mesmeric and that he was not called a mesmerist save by those critics who did not understand his method. The testimony given in her letters is trustworthy because it antedated the time when the special claims were made in behalf of her own “discovery. “ The actual discovery was of course the finding of Mr. Quimby, the acceptance of his method of treatment, his theory of disease and its cure, his idea of man the spiritual being, and the adoption of his “science of health and happiness” with its implied interpretation of the New Testament. The next step was taken with the endeavor to give people the benefit of Quimby’s teaching, and this surely was made in good faith. Then came the fateful fall on the sidewalk in February, 1866, and the realization that she must depend upon her own understanding of the new principle if she was to regain her health. This effort to apply Quimby’s method was the “demonstration” which gave her the conclusive proof. We have a brief reference to this experience in Mrs. Eddy’s own words:

“At Swampscott, Mass., in 1866, we recovered in a moment of time from a severe accident, considered fatal by the regular physicians, and regained the internal action that had stopped and the use of our limbs that were palsied. To us this demonstration was the opening of the new era of Christian Science. We then gained a proof that the principle, or life of man, is a divine intelligence and power which, understood, can heal all diseases, and reveals the basis of man’s immortality.”[19]

So far the statement is correct, since the ability to apply Quimby’s principle was the beginning of a “new era” for Mrs. Eddy. What she here says about this principle is given in the same terms which Quimby employed. But then follow statements calculated to mislead, as if Quimby’s method of healing were a “mystery” to Mr. Dresser to whom she had applied for help after she had proved her power “to work out the problem of mental healing.” The “wonderful discovery” she speaks of was of course her own clearer insight into the principle and the ability to apply it. Mrs. Eddy did not arrive at any new principle. There is no evidence in her published writings that she advanced beyond Quimby in any way. What she did was to develop the therapeutic principles in her own language and then give these the authority of special claims as if the idea of spiritual healing and of “Christian” science had not been known previous to 1866. To try to make these claims good it was necessary to ignore Mr. Evans, whose books began to appear in 1869; to discredit Quimby as an “ignorant mesmerist”; and in many other ways to substitute misstatements for facts.

Turning now to the ideas out of which Mrs. Eddy’s version of the “theory” or “Truth” was developed, we note that Mrs. Eddy employed the same terminology for the most part in declaring disease an “error” of mind, although she was more inclined to employ negative statements or denials. Mr. Quimby denied that there is any I intelligence in matter or that the body had any power to produce disease apart from the mind. But his explanations were concrete and affirmative, based on many years of practice with the sick, and he saw no reason for denying natural facts. Mrs. Eddy’s statements were more abstract since she did not enjoy the same advantage of practical experience. She introduced the less intelligible term “mortal mind” in place of Quimby’s teaching that the lower mind consists of spiritual substance or “opinions” which grow like seeds in a fertile soil. But in general the contrast between truth and error remains as in Quimby’s theory.

Mrs. Eddy acquired from Quimby the idea of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, and made this an important part of her version of Christian Science. Science and Health was put forward after a time as the actual “key” to scriptural interpretation, with an authority claimed for it which was a wide departure from Quimby’s modest claims. Quimby had taught that there is an implied science in the Scriptures, as we have noted above. He had even employed the term “Christian Science.”[20] But Mrs. Eddy understood this “science” in part only, or she would not have claimed it as her own “revelation.” Mrs. Eddy neglected the larger clues to spiritual interpretation which she might have found by turning from Mr. Evans’s The Mental Cure to Swedenborg’s works, and which she might have based on the Bible itself as the Word, instead of basing such an interpretation on a personal view. If, as reported, Mrs. Eddy allowed her name to be coupled with that of Christ, this of course marks a still wider departure from the spirit exemplified by Mr. Quimby.

Mrs. Eddy also tended to introduce speculative terms to some extent, based on a version of Berkeley, with whom she believed herself in agreement. But as in the case of Mr. Evans’s later version of the spiritual healing theory, an analysis of the differences would take us too far afield. I have elsewhere examined this view of Berkeley.[21] We note this view in order to show why on the whole readers of Science and Health have tended to make light of the natural world. There may have been an advantage in favor of this sort of idealism for those who were working away from a purely naturalistic point of view. As an extreme reaction against a materialistic age, Christian Science may have had a lesson for us. But our thought need not rest in extremes. It is not necessary to deny any of the realities, laws or conditions of the natural world in order to test the truths of mental healing. There is no advantage in denying anything that God has made.

Mrs. Eddy’s hypothesis of “malicious animal magnetism” was a departure from Quimby’s teaching; for Quimby did not charge his critics with any effort to work against him, he was not concerned with the “malicious.” This hypothesis seems rather strange, in view of the fact that Mrs. Eddy had declared that “All is good; there is no evil.” It came into vogue in Christian Science circles in connection with some of the early students, some of whom were charged with appropriating Mrs. Eddy’s ideas. Quimby had taught that minds influence one another far more than we realize, and that minds give off an “atmosphere”; but he had nothing to say about “magnetism” since he traced all the adverse influences to which the sick are subject to fear, error, and opinions or beliefs. When Mrs. Eddy explains evil as an illusion due to the errors of “mortal mind,” to the ignorance of our true nature, Quimby would have pointed out that in all consistency one should cleave to this our real nature, to the truth of our real being, not concerning ourselves with so-called “animal magnetism.” Quimby would have said that “Good or God never causes evil, or creates aught that can cause evil” ; for he held that man’s misery is of man’s own invention, and should not be attributed to God.

When Mrs. Eddy declares that Christ was “the divine manifestation of God, which comes in the flesh, to destroy incarnate error,” and that Jesus was “the human man and Christ is divine,” she is drawing the same distinction which runs through Quimby’s teaching. Quimby also said that “man is God’s idea,” “the spiritual image and likeness of God,” and he too taught that man in this sense of the word does not sin, is not sick, since sin or sickness is explicable by reference to the opinions or beliefs which man entertains in his ignorance. Mrs. Eddy gives further expression to this principle when she says, “The realm of the real is spiritual.” “The spiritual universe, including man, is a compound yet individual idea, reflecting the divine Substance of Spirit,” “Spirit is God, and man is the image and likeness; hence man is spiritual and not material.”

When, however, Mrs. Eddy declares that “there is no matter, it is non-existent,” “matter is another name for mortal mind,” “the body is in fact mortal mind, though it is called matter,” she is only partly stating Quimby’s view. Quimby called the lower mind “spiritual matter,” and he held that man entertains all sorts of opinions concerning the body as if matter contained intelligence; but he did not deny the existence of the body, which is part of nature and which we might all truly understand if we would take our start with the “scientific man,” the “spiritual man,” or real self. Mrs. Eddy’s statement, “Mortal mind is not an entity. It is only a false sense of matter,” comes nearer Quimby’s terminology. It was this “false sense of matter” which Quimby sought to dispel by establishing the truth concerning man’s being. Mrs. Eddy speaks of the flesh as “An error of physical belief, a supposition that life, substance and intelligence are in matter ... a belief that matter has sensation.” She is here drawing the same distinction, save that Quimby would have called attention to the fact that there is a true idea of the flesh: man did not create the body, but has entertained a false idea of it by attributing to it the intelligence which belongs only to mind. The curative principle is stated by Mrs. Eddy when she says that “the healing power of Truth is demonstrated to be an immanent, eternal quality, or principle,” the term “Principle” having been substituted for Quimby’s term “Wisdom.” What Mrs. Eddy aimed to express no doubt was the supremacy of spirit over material circumstance, hence over all errors, opinions and beliefs. To see this truth and express it in one’s own fashion is to adopt the affirmative attitude, and that was Quimby’s aim in establishing “the science of life and happiness,” or “Christian Science.”

Chapter 6. The Mental Science Period

After Mr. Quimby’s death, in 1866, there was little activity in the world of the new therapeutism for a number of years. Mr. Evans was practicing the new method in a quiet way in Salisbury, Massachusetts, and was writing his earlier books. The Misses Ware and other patients who had manifested special interest in Quimby’s teaching were still doing what they could to make that teaching known. Mr. Dresser possessed copies of Quimby’s manuscript volumes and sometimes read from these or loaned them to people who wished to know how Quimby healed. Mrs. Eddy had recovered from her fall and the illness attendant upon it, and was circulating Mr. Quimby’s ideas to some extent. But there was no organized effort to inculcate the new theory, and no one ventured to take up the therapeutic practice on a large scale.

The first event of significance during those years was the publication of Mr. Evans’s book, The Mental Cure, in 1869. Great interest was shown in that work, and it was the beginning of a campaign of education which has continued ever since. But time was required to win assent to views which seemed so radical. That was before the days of the “new psychology.” No one had then thought of supporting the teachings it contained by associating them with transcendentalism and the writings of Emerson. The devotees of the New Church did not respond to Mr. Evans’s effort to apply Swedenborg’s doctrines to spiritual healing.[22] What was needed, perhaps, was a more radical and less reasonable statement of the principles underlying the new therapeutism. For the general public is more apt to respond to radical views. Oftentimes the less reasonable view is needed to give sufficient contrast and provoke controversy.

This impetus was given after the publication of Mr. Evans’s third book, Soul and Body, by the launching of Mrs. Eddy’s radical propositions in Science and Health, published in 1875. If we are to see any purpose at all in the publication of that book, we may venture to say that it had value in arousing people out of their materialism. The results of the past forty years apparently justify this statement, for to those of us who have known former Christian scientists as they came one by one out of their radical into more reasonable views it has been plain that something like Science and Health was needed to set matters in motion.

The first reaction was against the “revelator” and the claims made in behalf of a supposed “revelation.” The second was against the theory contained in Science and Health, which had served for the time being to provoke thought. Just as the earlier readers of Mrs. Eddy’s book took fundamental exception to it, so increasing numbers have departed from her organization to set up for themselves, meanwhile keeping such ideas as had proved of value. In due time the last Christian scientist will probably take leave in the same way. In retrospect people will then wonder why such a reaction did not occur long before.

We chronicle the fact, then, significant for our history, that after Mrs. Eddy’s work appeared there was a tendency to read both Evans and Eddy, and that “mental science” was a commingling of ideas gathered from these two sources and from the teachings of those who, like Mr. Julius Dresser, had held to Quimby’s teaching in its original form. The term “mental science,” introduced by Mr. Evans, with reference to the psychological aspect of the new therapeutism, began to be used in 1882-3 for the whole teaching. It was used in preference to the term Christian Science because the latter term had become identified with the hypothesis of a “revelation.” The term “mental” was spiritualized by those who adhered to Quimby’s teaching. Thus Mr. Dresser employed it when responding to the request to narrate “the true history” of the therapeutic movement. The term “mental” was almost a synonym for “Christian,” as used by those who believed that the new healing was wrought by spiritual means. For others it was a convenient expression for their faith that health is mental rather than physical, that causality is in the realm of thought, and that true science is the opposite of medical materialism.

As we have seen above, Mr. Evans restated his views in terms of idealism in his later book, The Divine Law of Cure, Boston, 1881. We have also noted that Mrs. Eddy taught an idealism akin to Berkeley’s view, as Berkeley is misunderstood. Readers untrained in philosophy easily found the two interpretations identical. Hence a practical idealism emphasizing thought as fundamental, as the “greatest power in the world,” readily came into vogue. It did not of course matter that philosophically speaking it would be difficult to defend the proposition that “to think and exist are one and the same.” What people wanted was their health.

They were not interested in metaphysics. For them there was a very workable conception in the teaching that “disease is an error of mind.” They had been regarding it as merely physical. They had taken it to be an entity that can attack man from without, whatever his inner state. For the time being what they needed was a point of view as far removed from materialism as possible.

There is always an advantage in radical claims. If you adopt a point of view which in your way of thinking at the time contains all that is true, condemning all other views as false, you then give yourself as fully to that one view as did the early Mohammedans to their prophet when they held that all books save the Koran should be burned. The affirmative attitude goes with such claims, and people in search of health, after medical science has pronounced their cases hopeless, must be affirmative. “What we believe, that we create,” so Quimby had taught. It was essential to believe that all causality was in the realm of mind. Meanwhile, the natural universe could take care of itself. It was not destroyed by the proposition that “there is no matter.”

Some of the beliefs passing current in the mental-science period would indeed seem absurd to those of us who try to think matters out to the end, as well as to believers in natural facts and the ability of men of science to state facts apart from theoretical prejudice. But we must remember the bondages out of which the people had come who exclaimed in their enthusiasm that they could “eat mince pie at midnight,” or anything else they liked at any time, and suffer no inconvenience; since “there is no quality in food save what the mind gives it, in the unconscious beliefs of the race.” What people were trying to do was to eliminate the “false beliefs,” “the errors of mind,” which had held them in subjection. They did this with enthusiasm and the results were on the whole good. It was natural, having concluded that medicines and drugs have no qualities save those attributable to the suggestions which people have associated with them, that all material things and conditions should be regarded as affecting man according to his belief. The point was that, whether agreeing with Mrs. Eddy in full or not, one should at least go as far as Quimby and Evans went, showing that matter contains “no intelligence or power in itself.” To take this stand was to be prepared to overcome all adversaries.

The first groups of people assembled to discuss these matters in Boston in 1882 and 1883 were indebted for their impetus to the sources indicated above. A number of healers and teachers left Mrs. Eddy and branched out independently at the same time Mr. Evans’s teachings were gaining headway in Boston, and Mr. Dresser contributed his share by giving the desired information concerning Quimby and his views. The papers began to take some notice of the new teachings, and the term “mind-cure” was brought into vogue. The new movement was of course looked upon as “the Boston craze” by those who saw no meaning in it, and it was an easy matter for the general public to misunderstand.

The first impression gained by the public was practically this: When we are ill, we merely think or imagine we are sick. Disease is simply a myth. It can be banished with a thought. Consequently, if you would address the devotee of the mind-cure with due respect say to him when he seems to have a cold, “Oh, you have the belief of a cold!” There is really no suffering or misery in the world, “but thinking makes it so.” But it would be well for the mind-curers to “make hay while the sun shines,” since they cannot expect people to hold such views very long.

What the new movement amounted to for the average devotee was first of all a method of healing that had somehow in a remarkable way given them back their health. As the healers increased in number, the interest grew, and many patients remained to study with their healers after they had regained their health. Thus the habit of teaching the principles of the new therapeutism came into vogue, and after taking a course of ten or twelve class-lectures some of the students started out to heal and then to teach in their own way. As the mental scientists had no authoritative textbook, no leader accepted as a revelator, and no organization maintaining a hold upon its followers, the tendency was for each healer to branch out freely, say nothing about the origin of the ideas in question; but to set them forth as if they had just been acquired.

Many of the devotees left the churches to which they belonged as disciples of the old theology, passed through a reaction against that theology, and found their religion in healing the sick. Thus in time the meeting devoted to an exposition of the new therapeutism took the place of the service in the churches. The silent treatment was akin to prayer or worship, on its religious side, and so “the silence” as it has since been called became a part of the meeting. Such meetings used to be held Sunday evenings, so as to avoid a conflict of hours in the case of followers who still wished to attend the morning service in the established churches.

The Wednesday evening experience meeting early came into vogue, everybody was invited to take part, and so the meetings became democratic. One of the early leaders in these meetings in Boston, J. W. Winkley, had been a Unitarian minister.[23] Others had contemplated entering the ministry or were teachers. Hence there were devotees capable of directing the meetings and introducing the element of worship, or leading in regular instruction. The name given to the first of these independent societies in Boston, “Church of the Divine Unity,” suggests the point of emphasis in such worship. The aim was to throw off the old theology and substitute the idea of the immanence of God in His wisdom, as the omnipresent help “in times of trouble.”

To judge by their teachings simply, those that the general public misunderstood and treated with ridicule, would be wholly to miss the spirit of these early workers in the new field. There were able and earnest men and women among them who put into their work and their teachings the persuasive power of the evangelist giving to the masses the great truths which the world needed. They one and all owed their recovery to the new method. They one and all found a religion, a rediscovery of Christianity in their service among the sick. For them the healing of disease was part of the instruction of the whole individual, the beginning of a new life. Moreover, in their teaching and in their public meetings they had the impetus which comes to those who realize that the truths they have to give are relatively new and eagerly sought for. Consequently, with little previous preparation, oftentimes without notes or any subject chosen in advance, these speakers gave forth what was to them in very truth “the science of life and happiness,” as Quimby had called it.

Among these leaders were some who, like Mr. E. M. Chesley, later active in the Metaphysical Club of Boston, took their clue from Mr. Evans’s books and began to trace out the ideas in the philosophies of the past which resembled mental science.[24] Thus after a time the term “metaphysics” came into vogue to indicate that the fundamental principles of the new movement were akin to the great idealisms of the past. In his Facts and Fictions of Mental Healing, Boston, 1887, Mr. Charles M. Barrows, formerly a teacher and well acquainted with the history of thought, looked back to ancient India to find forerunners of the new ideas. Mr. Barrows also pointed out that the same idealistic wisdom was contained in the writings of Emerson, howbeit none of the therapeutic leaders had until then noted the resemblance. This was the beginning of interest in Emerson on the part of those who later became known as New Thought leaders.

At this time, also, people began to notice resemblances between mental science and theosophy. Miss M. J. Barnett, author of Practical Metaphysics, Boston, 1889, and other volumes, was the first writer to take the lead in what became a well-known branch of the mental-healing movement, the tendency to interpret mental healing on a theosophical basis. Mr. Colville, author of The Spiritual Science of Health and Healing, 1889, and several other volumes, was among the first to set forth the therapeutic teachings in a manner typical of believers in mediumship or spiritism. It is a question whether the mental-healing movement has gained by the tendency to connect it with so many teachings more or less akin. But however that may be, we simply note the fact that, beginning in 1887, writers on the subject of mental healing tended to look afield. Hence the books from that time on became very diverse. Only those readers undertook to compass them all or compare their teachings who were concerned to follow the movement in all its branches.

The first mental-science magazine established in Boston, the Mental Healing Monthly, was edited by the same group of leaders who organized the Church of the Divine Unity. The same leaders also organized the first mental-science convention. In this period also belong the first publications issued in Chicago, the Mental Science Magazine, edited by Mr. A. J. Swartz, formerly a devotee of Christian Science, and the Christian Metaphysician edited by Mr. George B. Charles 1887-1897. Wayside Lights, established by Edward Sheldon, Miss L. C. Graham and other pioneers in mental science in Hartford, Conn., January, 1890; Thought, the forerunner of Unity, edited by Charles Fillmore, Kansas City; and Harmony, edited by Mrs. M. E. Cramer, San Francisco, 1889-1906, belong in the same group. All these publications stood for an independent interpretation of mental healing, but with a common tendency to look back to the New Testament and bring out its implied “spiritual science,” according to the teachings of Quimby, Evans and Mrs. Eddy.

One of the earliest of the mental science writers, Miss S. S. Grimke, in a book bearing the curious title Personified Unthinkables, 1884, interpreted the practical idealism with special reference to mental pictures and their influence. This emphasis on mental pictures was characteristic of Mr. Quimby. In fact, Quimby sometimes described the mental part of his treatment with reference to the pictures he discerned intuitively in the patient’s mind, and the ideal pictures in connection with which “the truth of a patient’s being” was established in place of the “error or disease”[25].

Mrs. Elizabeth G. Stuart, of Hyde Park, Mass., a sometime student under Mrs. Eddy’s instruction, also brought forward this element of the silent treatment.[26] Among Mrs. Stuart’s students was Mr. Leander Edmund Whipple, whose work dates from the period of his studies with Mrs. Stuart in Hyde Park. Mr. Whipple employed the term mental science when he began his work as a mental healer in Hartford, Conn., December, 1885. The interest aroused by his highly successful work in Hartford led to the pioneer activities in mental healing there. Later, Mr. Whipple moved to New York, where he was also one of the pioneers, established The Metaphysical Magazine, 1895, a large-sized periodical, the first of its class devoted to mental healing; organized the American School of Metaphysics, and issued several volumes on the general subject, notably The Philosophy of Mental Healing, a standard work of its type, and The Manual of Mental Science. Mr. Whipple, who did not affiliate with the other therapeutists and teachers in New York, has been referred to as “the head of the metaphysical movement in this country.” But he was one of the pioneer leaders, only, and for thirty years, until his death, May 25, 1916, a distinctive teacher and healer. The term “metaphysical movement” was also used in Boston by the organizers of the Metaphysical Club.

Mrs. Stuart held the first class in Hartford, Conn., in May, 1885. Another class was formed in April, 1888. Among her students were Miss L. C. Graham, long a successful healer and teacher, and Miss Esther Henry, also a leading teacher and healer, connected in recent years with the New Thought Federation. Mrs. Stuart’s followers in Massachusetts and New York, “believing that earnest cooperation of workers facilitated progress in any great work, had organized in each state under the name, “Light, Love, Truth.” The Hartford group adopted the same name, the ideal being “that the work should not be aggressive, but that each one should go forth quietly, holding the torch of Truth firmly and fearlessly. . . . The symbol adopted was the equilateral triangle, as representing the fundamental trinity of Life, interpreted in this way: Life cannot be manifested apart from Love and Truth. Love cannot be separated from Life and Truth. Without Truth there can be neither Life nor Love.” Miss Esther Henry was elected president; Mrs. Mary M. C. Keney, vice-president; and Miss Mary N. Davis, secretary and treasurer. In 1889 it was voted to admit mental scientists other than the immediate followers of Mrs. Stuart, and a special invitation was sent to Miss Minnie S. Davis and her students to join the society. Miss Davis was the pioneer in establishing mental science in Springfield, Mass.

Another leader whose work began in Hartford during the mental-science period was Mr. C. B. Patterson, who adopted mental science in 1887, established a society known as The Alliance, and later in New York took this name for his publishing business. But Mr. Patterson’s work belongs rather with the New Thought period, as his books and magazine, Mind, were not published until the later years. In New York and Chicago, various phases of the mental-healing movement began to appear at this time, under the leadership of teachers who, like Mrs. Emma Curtis Hopkins and Mrs. Ursula N. Gestefeld., reacted against Christian Science and branched out for themselves, agreeing in part with the mental scientists, and in part introducing ideas of their own. Mrs. Gestefeld adopted the term Science of Being, instead of metaphysics.[27] Mrs. Gestefeld was for many years one of the leading representatives of this type of mental-healing theory. Like the Divine Scientists and the followers of Mrs. Hopkins, Mrs. Gestefeld’s students assimilated in their own way “the spiritual science” of the Scriptures.

Devotees of the mental-picture theory were inclined to place more stress on the psychological elements of mental healing. Mr. Whipple’s terminology, for example, centered about the idea of a “specific-image treatment.” According to this terminology, the blotting out of mental pictures pertaining to the disease and the substitution of ideal pictures in their stead is the essence of the whole mental-healing process. All devotees of the New Thought would recognize a truth in this way of stating the matter, but would be inclined to dwell on other elements of the process, also, such as the elimination of fear and other disturbing mental states, which might be more central or influential than the mere pictures associated with these states. The term “metaphysical healing” as employed by Mr. Whipple does not signify anything different so far as the underlying principles are concerned. Many disciples of mental science used this term as synonymous with “mental science” and applied idealism. Mrs. Eddy also employed the term “metaphysical” as the name of her school in Boston. The term “metaphysics” as thus employed need not be understood in the philosophical sense as a complete system of first principles. It means a practical idealism emphasizing mental or spiritual causality in contrast with the prevalent materialism, or the assumption that matter possesses independent life and intelligence. Thus the term “Christian metaphysics” is practically the same as the terms used by Quimby to indicate that there is a spiritual science in the New Testament.

I have elsewhere given a brief account of the work and teaching of Mr. Julius A, Dresser, (1838-1893) whose public activities as healer and teacher began in Boston, October, 1882.[28] The articles contained in The Mental Healing Monthly of 1887-88, and the address delivered in the Church of the Divine Unity, 1887, may be regarded as typical of the line of thought developed directly out of Quimby’s teaching.[29] The first emphasis was on what Mr. Dresser called “The Omnipresent Wisdom,” in accordance with Quimby’s view that the therapeutic efficiency was attributable to the divine immanence. Mental science was for him the psychological theory by which the mental part of the process of cure was made explicit. Mr.Dresser used to introduce idealistic interpretations of the universe into his class-lectures in order to give his hearers the inner point of view. But, following Quimby, he did not deny the existence of the natural universe. For him the teaching he had acquired from Quimby was a religion. It was this religious spirit which impressed his students more than anything else in his teaching. Mr. Dresser read excerpts from Quimby’s manuscripts in his classes, and heartily endorsed Mr. Evans’s early books as expressions of the spiritual teaching of those manuscripts. The work established by Mr. Dresser belongs under the head of mental science, as thus understood, rather than under the name New Thought.

In a paper entitled “The Science of Life,” Mrs. J. A. Dresser has given first-hand impressions of Quimby’s teaching.[30] Mrs. Dresser’s experience as a healer led to the view which I have expressed in my own language in a chapter entitled “The Meaning of Suffering,” in The Power of Silence, 1895, a book which with Health and the Inner Life, may be taken as representative of the type of mental science developing out of the teachings acquired from Mr. Quimby. This interpretation of suffering marked a departure to some extent from Quimby’s view of disease, since there would appear to be no compensation if disease be merely an “error of mind.” It means that behind our suffering there is the immanent divine life seeking recognition and cooperation. It means misunderstanding on our part of the profounder relationships of our existence. Instead of simply trying to banish our haunting mental pictures, or to substitute one set of suggestions or associations for another, we need to know our inner life to the foundation, transferring the center of our mental activity from our discomfort, largely misunderstood, to the divine life, seeking to lift us into freedom. The result of this profounder interest, if we see its true significance, would be an essentially spiritual view of life in contrast with one that centers about the power of thought.

But mental science as Evans used the term in his first book was intended to be spiritual. In the more comprehensive terminology of that book, one can scarcely understand the human mind without learning that interiorly the mind is open to the divine life by influx. The true mind is the mind of the spirit, not the “mind of the flesh,” not “mortal mind.” The true mind or spirit operates directly on another spirit in the silent treatment. The true mental science would then be very different from the psychological theory passing current under that name. It would be essentially practical, and by applying it one would indeed be able, as Quimby said, “to teach goodness as a science.” It was this insight which characterized Evans’s teaching and gave the early impetus in the mental-science period.

It was the impetus which this insight gave which characterized the movement as it spread from Boston to Hartford and New York, and later found representatives in Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco, and other cities. Later, the term “mental science” was employed by Mrs. Helen Wilmans and others, notably in the far West, in a rather different sense. According to Mrs. Wilmans mental science was a kind of self-emancipation involving a new assertion of the self, for one “who dares affirm the I.” This affirmation of the self has been characteristic of some who have seized upon the machinery of suggestion and used it to advantage in attaining their freedom. But it should not be confounded with the earlier mental science of such leaders as Winkley, Chesley, Swartz, and Charles, nor with the movement in Kansas City which became known as Practical Christianity.

Mental science was indeed a broad tendency of thought. It could be connected with theosophy, spiritism, the teachings of Prentice Mulford, mysticism, pantheism, theoretical idealism, and the like. It could be traced back to India by those who took remote resemblances for historical causes. It could be identified with certain of Swedenborg’s teachings about influx, correspondence, and the relation of the soul to the body. It could be regarded as modified Christian Science. It might be understood as Quimby’s “theory” or “truth.” It naturally found varied expressions because it appealed to individuals of different types. Each one gained the central ideas and then began to develop his special views around them. Out of these came with even greater variety what is now known as the New Thought.

In so far as one may discriminate between the two phases of the mental-healing movement, we note that in the mental-science period the application of mental science to health was the chief interest. The so-called prosperity treatment had not yet been heard of. Nothing had as yet been said about “the cause and cure of old age.”[31] It had not become customary to hold meditation meetings. Very little effort had been made to organize the movement. There were as yet no Unity Centers or Circles of Divine Ministry. The public had merely a superficial view of the “mind-cure.” Few people as yet saw an emancipating tendency in the movement akin to religious liberalism. The popularizing of psychology and the development of psychical research were to come at a later time. Mental science had little influence on medical practice. But mental science did much more than merely keep in action the impetus which had come from Quimby and had been developed by his followers. It stood for a theory of mental healing primarily.

But it was to lead to the New Thought, hence to find varied expression in rivalry with Christian Science. It fostered a kind of impersonalism, such that its leaders took only a modicum of credit to themselves. Thus it was a kind of protestantism. It rejected all claims to a “revelation,” and substituted each man’s thought for “the authorized textbook.” To understand it on this side as a reaction, is to see why it naturally led to the individualism of the New Thought. Some of the New Thought leaders began their work in this period. But for purposes of convenience we classify them with the workers whose activity dates for the most part after 1890.

It would be well, no doubt, to bear in mind that as the mental-healing movement spread and became more or less connected with other movements of thought, it became more diffuse in various respects; hence lost some of its spiritual power. It was natural to trace resemblances to theosophy, spiritism, the idealism of ancient India, the idealism of Berkeley; but what was gained out of curiosity was scarcely sufficient to compensate for the loss in practical efficiency. There is a great advantage in concentration. It is not necessary to try in every possible way to state the same ideas. We need a standard. Mr. Evans was far better prepared as a writer than most of those who restated the essentials in their less enlightened fashion. His works remain the standard works of the mental-science period. They come nearer a complete demonstration of mental or spiritual healing than most books on the New Thought.

If, identifying the idealism of Mr. Evans’s The Divine Law of Cure with the same line of thought in Mrs. Eddy’s book, one should emphasize the psychological process, one might understand mental science to be no more than the term implies. For all the practical ideas centering about “thought” as the motive power are set forth in that book. Disease is traced to an erroneous or morbid idea, associated with similar ideas and tending in a wrong direction of mind.

Its cure is found in breaking up this association, establishing a new direction of mind. The disease is then said to disappear, for “that which is not in thought has to us no existence.” The doctrine of a “healing power of thought. . . is based on the Hegelian principle that thought is a creative force. Mr. Evans employs the term “suggestion” in the sense of an ideal picture, and so leads the way to Mr. Henry Wood’s theory of “ideal suggestion through mental photography.” He says that “thoughts are things” and hence lays the foundation for Prentice Mulford’s teaching with this proposition as its leading one.[32] Thus he is the forerunner in varied ways of the New Thought.

If, however, one should read more deeply one would find the spiritual clue and regard the mental as secondary to the spiritual science, and see the full value of the mental-science period; hence the larger sources of the New Thought. Mr. Evans says, for example, “The spiritual physician, or one who heals the body by touching the springs of life in the soul of the patient, should speak and act from the Divine realm of his being, as did Jesus the Christ. ‘The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.’ . . . The real Christ is to be sought within, where alone he can be found . .. God’s creative thought always cooperates with ours in every curative endeavor of our minds ... In us the Word is made flesh and still dwells among us, for it is our life, and that life is the light of men . . . This Word dwells in every man as the light of life, and invests us with a creative potency, for all things are made by it. It is God’s Thought, and when our minds are in unison with it in our struggle with disease, we are invested with a fraction of God’s omnipotence ... If, in the effort to cure disease, I can find how God is doing it, and conform my healing endeavor to the Divine method, I come into line with Him ... I can conform my effort to the Divine creative Thought.”

When, therefore, Mr. Evans uses the term “thought” in its higher sense he means “the Divine creative Thought,” and this usage is the one he has in mind in his idealistic interpretation of the universe. If one keeps this fact in mind one may avoid all superficial interpretations of this book and of mental science. But for the most part Mr. Evans employs the term in its human sense, and here one must always guard against ambiguity. He explains that by saying “thoughts are things” he means that they are “substantial realities,” also “transmissible entities;” that “thought and existence are identical.” Thoughts have great power over other minds because they can be transmitted directly.

“A word, an uttered sentence, into which is concentrated the soul-life and heart-life of him who pronounces it, and which is animated by a Divine thought, a living truth, has in it a healing virtue above anything in a material drug.” This vitalizing thought is what Evans called a “suggestion” as applied to various parts of our nature or the body, needing relief from pain. “The thought of a thing is a spiritual touch or contact with it — it is an ideal and real creation of it.” It is this “ideal suggestion,” as Mr. Wood called it, which breaks up the old association and establishes the new one. “The new association becomes the means of the . . . forgetfulness, of the disease; and in proportion as a disease is out of thought, or we become oblivious of it, it is cured.” What we need to overcome is our fixed, morbid ways of thinking. Disease in its spiritual root is “the fixedness of an idea.”

It must be supplanted by the thought of a state of health. “This, by a law of correspondence, will tend to actualize itself.” What we need, in brief, is a “new mode of thinking.”

Chapter 7. The New Thought

The term New Thought is more comprehensive than any other that has been applied to the mental-healing movement. The term itself has often been criticized, and some attempts have been made to give it up. It has come to stay, however, and may well be accepted in the widely representative sense in which it is at present employed. Like other terms, it had a natural history implying changes in human interests. From the first the mental-healing movement was a protest against old beliefs and methods, particularly the old-school medical practice and the old theology. Quimby set the example in this direction and his followers continued the protest. Evans believed that Swedenborg was the “messenger” of a new age, and he saw in Quimby ‘s teaching an expression of a new spiritual philosophy of life resembling Swedenborg’s doctrine on its practical side.[33] Later, he emphasized the rebirth of idealism as an expression of the new age, pointing out the need for a “new mode of thought.” Another devotee of Swedenborg, Dr. Holcombe, was the first writer in the mental-science period to employ the term “New Thought,” capitalized, to designate the new teaching in the sense in which the term is now used. In his pamphlet, Condensed Thoughts about Christian Science, 1889, Dr. Holcombe says, “New Thought always excites combat in the mind with old thought, which refuses to retire.”

There is no line of demarcation, then, between the earlier terms and “New Thought.” Nor can one say that mental science abruptly ceases and New Thought begins. After 1890, devotees of mental healing acquired the habit of speaking of the new teaching as “this thought” in contrast with the old theology. Thus in time the term came into vogue in place of mental science, and writers like Dr. Holcombe began to give up using the term “Christian Science” when they wished to show that they did not mean Eddyism. Then in 1894 the name “New Thought” was chosen as the title of a little magazine devoted to mental healing, published in Melrose, Mass.[34] The term became current in Boston through the organization of the Metaphysical Club, in 1895. At about the same time it was used by Mr. C. B. Patterson in his magazine, Mind, New York, and in the titles of two of his books, New Thought Essays and What is the New Thought?[35] Henry Wood also used the term in the title of his New Thought Simplified, Later, a magazine bearing the name New Thought was issued in Chicago. W. W. Atkinson also gave popularity to the term in his New Thought Magazine, since named Advanced Thought.[36]

In England the term Higher Thought was preferred at first, and this name was chosen for the Higher Thought Center, the first organization of its kind in England. This name did not, however, represent a change in point of view, and the movement in England has been similar to the therapeutic movement elsewhere. The term mental science was employed by Judge Troward in the title of one of the earlier books widely read in England and the United States, The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. The term Higher Thought was also adopted as the name of a periodical issued for a time in Wisconsin. In Boston the name Higher Life was chosen for the first New Thought church. The name Circle of Divine Ministry came into vogue in New York City and in Brooklyn, to designate a center devoted to mental healing, lectures, silences, lending libraries, and social gatherings of people interested in the movement. This name later gave place to New Thought Center and was practically the equivalent of the name, Home of Truth, as employed in California by Mrs. Militz.

In the West, notably in Denver and San Francisco, the accepted name for several years was Divine Science. This term originally stood for a modified or reformed Christian Science, with certain points of resemblance and some contrasts with the term New Thought as used in Boston and elsewhere. The peculiarities disappeared after a time, and this term as recently employed by Rev. W. John Murray, author of The Astor Lectures, New York, 1917, editor of The Gleaner, and leader of Sunday services in New York and Philadelphia, is now a synonym of New Thought. Mr. Murray has popularized the expression, “The New Thought of Man, The Larger Thought of God.”

In Kansas City, the name Practical Christianity came in time to stand for the whole branch of the movement under the leadership of The Society of Silent Unity and the Unity School of Christianity. This is perhaps the best of all terms for the movement on its spiritual side. This name might be applied, for example, to the movement originating in the West and using the term Home of Truth. It is preferable to the name metaphysical healing, a term which has stood for a more abstruse interpretation of the movement. The term metaphysics, strictly speaking, applies to a technical system of philosophy, and only by explanation is it to be understood as the name of a practical movement.

By common consent, the term New Thought has been more and more used to designate the entire mental-healing movement, including those phases of it, such as Practical Christianity in Kansas City, to which the term was not originally applied, and even though objections to the term have been made. By the term, New Thought, therefore, we understand all phases of the mental-healing movement, including “reformed Christian Science” and Divine Science.

The early writers and teachers looked to the same sources as those of the men-tal-science period. Some began with Christian Science, then branched out freely, adopting their own terms, and teaching classes. Their students in turn began to teach and to found little centers of their own. In the course of time, teachers and students tended in the common direction since known as New Thought, and so unity came about. Others owed their impetus to a mental-science healer and the reading of books on mental science and Prentice Mulford’s pamphlets.

A common idealistic basis was later discovered through acquaintance with leaders who had reacted against Christian Science, and so again there was a tendency towards unity.

The newer writers were not ordinarily so well informed as Mr. Evans and Mr. Barrows, and they did not indicate the sources of their ideas. Thus it became customary for any writer to set forth the New Thought as he apprehended it without reference to mental science and its forerunners. This neglect of the courtesy usually shown by one writer to others may be explained by the fact that these writers wished to avoid any special claims such as those put forward by the author of Science and Health, and because it was generally believed that any one could develop the therapeutic ideas for himself. As a result, however, it is difficult to give the natural history of books on the New Thought. The reader is often left with the impression that the author claims to have discovered all the contents of his book. The general public is sometimes mystified, too. Thus when the death of Mr. Patterson occurred, the New York papers referred to him as “the founder of the New Thought movement in America,” although his work did not begin until 1887, and although he shared with others his pioneer work in Hartford and New York. Again, writers like Henry Wood and Ralph Waldo Trine, who had not been mental healers or teachers but who were interested to make their own expression of the ideas passing current, also came into the field. The work of such writers is partly explained by what went before. Hence we may presuppose the mental-science period. But these writers also contributed to the movement. Thus new variations of the general teaching were all the time appearing, and the movement itself passed through several changes.

In contrast with the mental-science period, the writers who restated the New Thought at the time the organizations were coming into being gave attention to psychological principles then in vogue, and the terms “subconscious mind” and “suggestion” became widely popular. Hence the practical teachings became more intelligible, and the general public was less inclined to ridicule mental healing. More effort was made to trace out the psychological factors of the silent treatment. More use was made of the idea of affirmations and denials adopted for the sake of making the general principles directly practical. Thus suggestion or affirmation came to be recognized as the common factor in all types of mental healing.

There was still a tendency to use rather abstruse terminology, borrowed from Christian Science or developed by the early leaders of Divine Science. Thus God was still referred to impersonally as “Principle’ and vague statements were made concerning the identity of God “with all being,” statements which if taken literally implied pantheism or mysticism. This habit grew out of the effort to formulate a “science of sciences” or “science of Being” to take the place of Christian Science.

It fostered speculation, and implied an aloofness from the world of fact, a tendency to overlook the lessons of experience. The affirmations or suggestions were often based on this “metaphysical” science, instead of on the concrete principles of the Christian life. Although the teachers of this type of mental healing theory frequently quoted the Bible and interpreted it in Sunday school lessons, they made no use of the directly practical clue to the “science of life and happiness” which Mr. Quimby saw in the teachings of Jesus. But this tendency to abstractions has been waning. The practical values of New Thought have survived, and in time the abstruse “science of Being” will disappear.

In contrast with the mental-science period, there was also a strong tendency to individualism which made it difficult to organize the New Thought as a national movement. This was partly due to the fact that some of the leaders emulated Mrs. Eddy and drew a little circle of followers around them, with their own magazines, their own books, and organizations; and partly to the fact that the New Thought was a protest against authority. The reaction had to be radical to be effective. Some of the leaders persisted in their radical independence to the end. Others yielded for the sake of cooperation and the promulgation of the general principles. The effort to organize the movement as a whole was at one time almost halted by this individualism. But the radicalism was overcome, the National New Thought Alliance became duly recognized and the harmonious national organization became international.

Again, an element of optimism was introduced. This belief in the goodness of life, the emphasis on and quest for the good in all things was implicit in the movement from the beginning. But the newer writers brought out this faith more clearly and made optimism a prominent element of the New Thought. The “old thought” was undeniably pessimistic, it dwelt on sin, emphasized the darkness and misery of the world, the distress and the suffering. The new dwelt on life and light, pointing the way to the mastery of all sorrow and suffering. This optimism has since been one of the most characteristic features of the New Thought.[37]

The quest for freedom also became more explicit. The old theology held man in bondage. Conventional society was in many respects an obstacle. Too much stress had been placed on heredity and environment, so the New-Thought writers contended. Man is by divine purpose, by birth, and his true human inheritance, free. He must come forth and “claim his freedom,” the true freedom of his inner or spiritual nature. He should take his clue from the ideal, not from the actualities of his natural existence. He should rely on himself, develop his inner powers, believe in his own experiences and intuitions. This thought was frequently expressed in two periodicals widely popular at one time, Freedom, edited by Helen Wilmans, and Eleanor Kirk’s Idea, edited by Mrs. Ames.

A new emphasis was put on “the law of attraction.” It was pointed out that just as disease in its physical expression corresponds to the inner state which caused it, so in general man’s outward conditions express the inward life. The inner state was regarded as the center of attraction, drawing its like. To change or improve one’s conditions, one must then change the inner center, adopt a different attitude, make other and better affirmations, look out on life with more optimistic expectations. This emphasis on inward attraction also implied the belief that what we attract we need, that what comes we should accept with the realization that it is for our good. This was another way of saying “all is good.”[38]

Implied in this principle of attraction and essentially one with it is the belief in mental attitudes as fundamental. One should become aware that life is to a large extent what we make it by our attitude toward it. Learning how we have generated our ills and created our misery, we should profit by the lesson, turn about and adopt an attitude making for success. We should not only anticipate the good, look for success, a long and happy life; but actively adopt an attitude habitually making for health, freedom, prosperity. If we fail in life, our own attitude is at fault. When we succeed, it is because our attitude was affirmative. We may adopt whatever attitude we will. The future is in our hands, so the New Thought leaders assure us.[39]

Again, the word “realization” came into vogue to signify the method by which affirmations were to be made effective, that they might give an impetus to the subconscious mind, might generate an attitude making for success. To idealize is not merely to repeat a formula but to make it your own, enter into it vividly, dynamically, productively. To realize the value of an affirmation is to grasp the implied truth or law, to think it out, enter into its spirit, assimilate its life. This is partly accomplished through reasoning, partly through silence or meditation. To “enter the silence” thus became the favorite expression among disciples of the New Thought.[40]

To carry out the above principles is, in brief, to realize the superiority of the spirit over the flesh, to triumph over circumstance, agreeing with Emerson that “the soul makes circumstance.” Just how this shall be done will depend of course upon the individual. If one starts with some of the abstractions mentioned above, one may try to “demonstrate” in a way at variance with fact and with the world.[41] That is, one may try to affirm ideas which have no connection with reality. In this case there will be a fall from the heights of theory, as in the case of so many who have ceased to become Christian Scientists and have gradually rediscovered the world. But if one starts with the given spiritual situation in which one is placed, interpreted in the light of what one believes to be the divine ideal, then one may learn that the process of triumphing over the flesh is already in operation. Thus when Henry Wood says, “Pain is friendly,” he means that one may transfer one’s attention by entering into the benefits, the good implied in the present experience, and so rise above the pain, overcome it, show the triumphant power of the spirit. Very much depends, therefore, upon one’s way of taking this endeavor to “demonstrate over” circumstance.

Much also depends upon the conception of the inner or higher self, for the claims in its behalf depend upon the type of the individual making the affirmation. Mr. Wood makes clear the implied principles as generally accepted by disciples of the New Thought in a paper read before the Metaphysical Club, entitled, “To What Extent is Self-Healing Practicable?” Mr. Wood says, “A thought in any direction makes it easier for the next one to follow it. Like a meadow brook, thinking wears channels. When concentrated, it wears them rapidly. The nature of faith would be plainer, if it were defined as the firm affirmation of ideas. We need not be discouraged if the resolvent power of thought does not at once melt down the solidified walls of man-made limitation which ages have erected. It is everything to find the principle, and make a start in the right direction. Every true mental healer will gladly welcome the time when all so recognize the divinity within that no aid from without is needed. He does not claim to heal, except by helping to put the right occupant upon the throne. He helps his brother to help himself.

He will tell you that normal healing is self-healing, or rather consists in the attainment of a condition where there is harmony with environment. The time is to be hastened when every one shall know, not only the objective Lord, but the divinity that is within him. The supreme healing consciousness is that of a felt oneness with the Universal Omnipotent Spirit.

“What about practical exercises, and how shall one begin? Erect a mental gymnasium, and utilize every silent and unoccupied hour, whether of day or night, when awake, in swinging the dumb bells of concentration upon high ideals. Affirm their presence now, though they are not yet in visible expression. Remember that thought leads and manifestation follows, so such an order is perfectly logical and scientific. Turn about and face physical sensation, as a mental habit, until it is measurably vanquished, instead of tamely falling before it.

“The real fall of man consists in his servitude to his own morbid creations. Did God ever create disease? But even disorder and pain, when rightly interpreted, may be regarded as only specters that prowl in the basement of our own nature to drive us higher.

“Having shut the door of your unseen gymnasium against the outer world, in the name of your divine sonship claim all good as present and filling you. Such a habit soon begins to color the everyday consciousness. May I hint at a few ideals as suggestive, in the first person singular, and say that repetition is the law which makes them graphic.

“I am soul and spirit.

“I am at one with the Universal Good.

“Harmony, love, strength and wholeness are with and in me.

“I rule the body and delight in it as a holy temple.

“I rightfully claim the control of all my powers, mental and physical.

“Another ideal: I love everybody. Note the fact, that antagonism is worse than malaria.

“If such claims were made in the name of the lower and detached self-hood, it would seem presumptuous, but their very object is to identify the conscious ego with the higher and divine self-hood.[42] On that plane there can be no exclusiveness or selfishness. Unlimited good belongs not only to all, but to each. In that delectable atmosphere every one owns everything.”[43]

We may regard the writings of Henry Wood as representative of the more rational expression of the New Thought.[44] Mr. Wood’s books were widely read at the time the New Thought was emerging from the mental-science period. He was one of the first writers to take up the subject because of personal interest in mental healing, in contrast with interests in the world of affairs. After a successful career in business in early life, Mr. Wood suffered from a nervous breakdown and was pronounced incurable by the best physicians. Treated with success by several mental healers, he became deeply interested in studying the implied principles and methods. Accordingly, he gave up other pursuits and devoted the remainder of his life, during twenty years, to spreading the new ideas by means of his books and through the financial aid which he gave to the societies and publications devoted to mental healing.

Mr. Wood may in fact be called the first New Thought philanthropist. Saying, “I have found something which the world needs and I must give it out,” he began to publish books on the subject shortly after he had proved the principles for himself. He gave his books very freely to libraries and to people who might perchance take an interest in them. He encouraged editors and publishers of magazines devoted to the subject by subscribing liberally and distributing copies of the newer periodicals. He also wrote a great many letters in answer to questions addressed to him by readers of his books, suggesting in each case that these inquirers try the new method for themselves.

Mr. Wood worked actively in this kind of propagandism until his death, which occurred March 28, 1909. He was the first to take the lead in spreading the new ideas through publicity, in contrast with the work of healing and teaching classes, as carried on by leaders who had not felt the impulse to spread the movement and organize it. He was also the first to adopt fiction as an added means of reaching the public, and in his Edward Burton and Victor Serenus,[45] stories with a purpose, he tried to interest a much wider public in the new therapeutic ideas. To his efforts more than to the work of any other leader may be attributed the success of the first New Thought organization in Boston.

Mr. Wood was fond of saying that when the possibilities of mankind were in a measure realized, each man would be his own priest and physician. Deeply religious by nature, he lived according to his theory that the individual has a right to maintain priestly relations with his God without ministerial agency. Shortly before his death, in response to his wife’s suggestion that he might possibly desire the presence of a clergyman, he said, “I need no intermediary.” His publishers say of him, “He passed away as he had lived, honorably, reverently, and peacefully.”

Mr. R. C. Douglass, himself a New Thought leader, well acquainted with most of the leaders of the movement in recent years, says of him, “Among New Thought writers he stands as a distinctly representative man, whose reasoning is always characterized by fairness, and comes from a heart of integrity. Like a true philosopher, he is always dealing with principles ... I have before me his book entitled, The New Old Healing. Here he is dealing only with principles, which underlie all spiritual healing, showing that health, happiness and prosperity are the fruit of a well-balanced scientific mentality. He would have men understand that healing is merely the adjustment of the mentality to principles of truth. This is what constitutes a man a prophet.

“Most truly we live at the dawning of a philosophic age, and Henry Wood is a prophet heralding its coming. . . . He makes it clear that the teachings of Jesus Christ and his wonderful healings rest on the fundamental basis of a spiritual philosophy. The clear province of the New Thought school of writers and teachers is not the abrogation of any Christian principles, but rather to give a better interpretation of those principles, consonant with truth, righteousness and health . . .That man is a noble spiritual being may be set down as Mr. Wood’s major premise.”

Mr. Wood did not claim originality for any of his views, but called the attention of his readers to their own resources, especially to intuition as the power of realizing the divine presence and attaining truth in one’s own right. Most of the leading books on mental science were published before his Ideal Suggestion, Boston, 1894, and on these he was dependent to some extent, although using his own terms and putting the matter as it appealed directly to him. He once told me that the first great thought that came to him, as a means of verifying the therapeutic principle for himself was the affirmation, “God is here.” That electrical sentence disclosed a new world for him. Profiting by its power over him, and seeing the advantage of concentration upon a single definite thought, he wrote his book, which consisted of preliminary chapters explaining the therapeutic principles; and then a series of pages with an “ideal suggestion” in large type on the left hand page and an explanatory paragraph on the opposite page. “God is here” was one of these affirmations. “Pain is friendly,” another. Each was calculated to impress a helpful thought on the mind through silent realization or spiritual meditation.

Later, Mr. Wood carried out the same idea by establishing a room under the auspices of the Metaphysical Club of Boston known as the “silence room,” where one could sit “in quietness and confidence” contemplating a painting on the opposite wall symbolizing spiritual truth, with various ideal suggestions to be chosen by the devotee according to need. Mr. Wood brought forward his book on ideal suggestion at the opportune moment. Suggestion was becoming a magic word, soon to be very popular and to be adopted even by the scientific psychologists, always conservative when it is a question of any gift made by mental therapeutists. The word “ideal” was coming to have new significance in view of what Evans and other leaders in the mental-science period had said. Mr. Wood happily combined the two words and gave the New Thought a more definite turn. In his New Thought Simplified, published several years later, Mr. Wood made further application of the same principle. The leaders of the Unity movement in Kansas City made great use of the same idea, and for many years an ideal suggestion has been printed on a page by itself in Unity. The custom of holding meetings for meditation at noon became general throughout the mental healing world.

The writings of Emilie Cady, especially Finding the Christ in Ourselves and Lessons in Truth, published by the Unity group, Kansas City, should be mentioned as among the books most widely read when the New Thought was taking shape in its present form. Thought, later called Unity, and The Life, edited by A. P. Barton, Kansas City, were among the most widely read magazines. Mrs. Helen Van-Ander-son’s The Right Knock, and The Journal of a Live Woman, belong with the influential books of that period. Among Mr. Whipple’s books The Philosophy of Mental Healing was best known. Mr. Trine’s influence on the movement dates from the publication of his first book, What All the World’s A-seeking, 1896.

It can hardly be said that the writers of this period were original in the sense in which originality is usually understood. Coming after the period when the mental-healing ideas had begun to be popular, and when the newer psychology was becoming widely known, their part was to restate mental science in their own way, to make it popular, and to show its application in manifold directions. Out of their efforts came the first organizations and the first churches. They were among the best of the New Thought leaders and their work led the way to the national movement and the International New Thought Alliance.

Chapter 8. The First Organizations

The first New Thought society with a regular leader and organization, in Boston, was the Church of the Higher Life, which was the outgrowth of a small beginning in Sunday services started by Mrs. Helen Van-Anderson in February, 1894. The object of these services, in Mrs. Van-Anderson’s words, was “to form a center where words of cheer and friendly fellowship might be given and exchanged; also to make definite statements concerning Life Principles and their application to character and health building. This was the gospel preached and practiced by every one so far as he or she understood. It was indeed glad tidings, and the joy of imparting was only equaled by the joy of receiving. From the little hall it was soon necessary to move into a large one, and from that to a still larger, Allen Hall, 44 St. Botolph Street. Seemingly without effort but with a strong impetus from earnest hearts, the little stream of influence has widened its banks and deepened its current, until it is now plainly on its way to the Great Sea.

“The Church of the Higher Life, as its name implies, stands for exalted living — that living which emanates from an earnest aspiration to know and do; to know the best there is to know, of God, humanity, the soul, the mind, the body — in short, of Life and how to live. This Church has no formulated creed. It leaves very one to formulate his own. Its central and basic precept is that of the Great Master: ‘Love is the fulfilling of the Law.’ Its heart is warm, its vision open, its motive pure, its hospitality broad, its fellowship universal. Its enthusiastic members are many; their work is rich with the spirit of altruism and noble self -giving. It has a corps of fifty-two letter writers who volunteer to write cheerful words to invalids in distant homes or to any who for other reasons are shut in from fellowship with the outside world. These writers also send literature that will comfort, instruct and inspire such as need or desire the post office ministry. It has a flourishing Young People’s Club called ‘The Arkeso’ (from the Greek, to assist) whose mission is to carry good cheer into hospitals, reformatories or private homes, and in every way possible, proffer an assisting hand and heart wherever they may be needed. It has a Benevolent Committee whose members carry the gospel of health and wealth to the poor and sick of their own community, and wherever else they are called. It has an Emerson Study Club, where teachers, preachers and students may find many a hard life-problem solved in the light of Emerson’s philosophy and far-reaching insight. It has mothers’ meetings where all questions pertaining to home and child government and education are freely discussed and expounded. It has spiritual training classes wherein there is a heartfelt exchange of profound experiences and the most earnest abandonment to thoughts and methods that will promote spiritual unfoldment. It has a healing service every Sunday for the benefit of those far or near who may desire its healing potency.”[46]

After a number of years Mrs. Van-Anderson resigned to begin similar work in other cities. Different speakers were engaged from Sunday to Sunday during two years, and later Rev. Lucy C. McGee became the minister. The organization, at present without a permanent leader, still exists, although its activities are limited to the Sunday services. This church is interesting to devotees of the New Thought since it was the first society of its kind, although having much in common with similar organizations that had an independent origin in the West and Middle West.

In the summer of 1894, Miss Sarah J. Farmer established at Eliot, Maine, the Greenacre Conferences. The conferences were established for the most part to promote interest in the great religions of the world, in accordance with the interest aroused at the World’s Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago during the World’s Fair, 1893. But their founder was deeply interested in the New Thought and was known as a leader of the movement. Greenacre naturally became the center in the summer for those who were active in the New Thought gatherings in Boston and New York during the winter. Many of the mental-healing leaders from different parts of the country were heard at Greenacre, and Miss Farmer’s conferences set the example for New Thought meetings held elsewhere during the summer, notably the Jackson Lectures, organized by Henry Wood and other leaders at Jackson, N. H., in 1896; and at Oscawana, N. Y., where conferences were established by Mr. Patterson and other leaders.

At least a week was devoted to the New Thought each year at Greenacre, and in addition to the regular lectures smaller meetings or Sunday afternoon sessions in the large tent were led by New Thought speakers. On the camping ground, known as Sunrise Camp, disciples of the New Thought were located for the season, under the leadership of Mr. Frederick Reed, later secretary of the Metaphysical Club. During the summer of 1897 there was established a department of the conferences holding regular sessions throughout the season and known as The School of Applied Metaphysics. The teachers were Miss Ellen M. Dyer, the pioneer New Thought teacher and healer in Philadelphia,[47] and Horatio W. Dresser, chairman. In 1898 this department was given up in favor of class-work by various leaders.

Greenacre continued to be a leading New Thought center for several seasons. A number of the authors, notably Henry Wood and Mr. Trine, spent a portion of the summer there, and owed their growing interest in the direction of the New Thought partly to Miss Farmer’s leadership. Morning meditation meetings were held by followers of the New Thought. Those meetings were among the best that have ever been held and gave the impetus to establish similar work elsewhere. Miss Farmer’s spirit in her stronger years did much to establish people in a broadly tolerant way of thinking. Greenacre stood for the constructive spirit. Those who caught this spirit endeavored to make the New Thought no less broad, tolerant and constructive. Some of the leaders who took the initiative in organizing the Metaphysical Club gained their larger impetus from these conferences.

As indicated in her paper on “The Abundant Life,”[48] Miss Farmer approached the New Thought on its spiritual side. To her it was the same as Christianity at its best, also the same as the spirit which she found expressed by the Swamis who came from India to expound the Vedanta philosophy. Both Miss Farmer and the Swamis spoke in New Thought gatherings during the winter. This was the beginning of a common interest which endured for a number of years. Miss Farmer held that each speaker at Greenacre should have full and free hearing if he did not assail any other speaker. Hence the New Thought found expression, and the meditation meetings led by its devotees had direct influence upon the religious development of the mental-healing movement in later years. Greenacre continued to be a New Thought center in part until its founder espoused Bahaism and other teachings not so directly connected with the New Thought.

The first New Thought society organized in Boston in 1894-’95 as a result of Greenacre was called The Procopeia, with headquarters at 200 Huntington Avenue. The general announcement of this society was as follows: “It is not limited by any creed or dogma, either religious, ethical, or philosophical, but endeavors to seek and to give to its members the truth, wherever it may be found . . . By the recognition of the divinity of every human soul, and a belief in the unlimited possibilities of mankind through the understanding of truth and the love of good, we believe we shall be able to push forward and to progress. It is the aim of the Procopeia to provide suitable headquarters in Boston where the ablest leaders of progressive thought may have a responsive and sympathetic hearing, and where members of the Club may find inspiration and courage for the practical affairs of life.” This society was short-lived and its members eventually joined the Metaphysical Club, organized a few weeks later.

The organizing of the Metaphysical Club was the chief event in the history of the New Thought in Boston. The Club brought together some of the leaders of the mental-science period, such as Dr. Winkley and Mr. E. M. Chesley, who had been active in the Church of the Divine Unity and The Mental Healing Monthly. It helped to bring into formulation the larger tendencies of the New Thought as expressed, for example, by Henry Wood, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Trine and others. It aroused public interest in mental healing on the part of people of liberal religious belief. It also gave expression in part to the Greenacre spirit. Out of its activities came in the course of time the national organization and the international movement, in cooperation with leaders from New York and other cities.

The mental-science meetings had come to an end, there was no magazine devoted to mental healing published in Boston, and there was need of further effort in spreading the New Thought at the time the Club was called into being. Realizing the need for such a society, several of the leaders new and old called a meeting in behalf of the New Thought movement at the home of Dr. J. W. Winkley, 108 Huntington Avenue, in January, 1895. Besides Dr. and Mrs. Winkley, there were present Henry Wood, Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, Mr. Warren A. Bodman, Miss Catherine Hurd, Miss Elizabeth Hurd, Mr. Leonard Stone, and Mr. C. M. Barrows. Mr. Wood outlined a plan for organizing a metaphysical club, bringing forward cogent reasons for the existence of a society for the sake of popularizing the progressive thought of the day.

The meeting adjourned without action to a date a week later, when the following were present in addition to those mentioned above, and with the exception of Messrs. Barrows and Stone: Miss Lillian Whiting, Miss Durgin, Miss Scott, Mrs. M. E. T. Chapin, Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Chesley, Mrs. J. A. Dresser, Horatio W. Dresser, Rev. Loren B. Macdonald, Miss G. P. Hayes, Mrs. L. P. Morrill, Mrs. Mary Burpee, and Mr. Frederick Reed.

These people organized themselves into the Metaphysical Club of Boston, with the following officers: Rev. L. B. Macdonald, a Unitarian minister, president; Dr. J. W. Winkley, vice-president; Mr. Frederick Reed, of the Greenacre Conferences, secretary. The purpose of the Club was stated as follows: “To promote interest in and the practice of a true spiritual philosophy of life and happiness ; to show that through right thinking one’s loftiest ideas may be brought into perfect realization; to advance the intelligent and systematic treatment of disease by mental methods.”

The first public lecture was delivered by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, March 28, 1895. Other lectures were given by Rev. Minot J. Savage, Professor A. E. Dolbear, and Hamilton Wright Mabie; and four social functions were held before the close of the season. The purpose of the first season was to attract and interest the public. Hence the lectures were of a general character and the speakers were well known in public life. It was not deemed wise to introduce the New Thought at first, but to lead gradually to it when the organization was well under way.

This was the first permanent New Thought Club, and it set the standard for such societies elsewhere. It was the first mental-healing society to put its special interests on a large basis with a view to reaching the world. It was the beginning of the activities which grew in the course of time into a worldwide movement. It led the way for the establishment of Centers, Circles, or other organizations with the same general interests in view, whatever the names attached to them. The fact that it came into existence was a sign that the mental-healing movement had passed out of its preliminary or experimental stage and was assuming the general characteristics which it was to continue to possess. Not many speakers were ready at first to extend the movement in the same way into other cities. But these were forthcoming in the course of time. Other societies sprang up in different parts of the country, on an independent basis. Other attempts were made to develop a national movement. But it was the movement which began in Boston that eventually succeeded. Out of it grew the effort to form a permanent international organization.

Mr. Wood maintained that the Club should be democratic, that it might even dispense with a president, although it was deemed prudent to elect a president. Rev. Mr. Macdonald, the first president, had taken an active part in the mental-science gatherings several years before. Afterwards, presidents were chosen from those more actively identified with the New Thought. Mr. Warren A. Rodman succeeded Mr. Reed as secretary, and when the Club established headquarters, with a library and bookstore, Mr. Rodman was the member in regular attendance.

With the opening of the season in the fall of 1895, subjects directly pertaining to mental healing were introduced. Different leaders set forth the fundamental principles, as they understood them, and allied topics were introduced from time to time to show that these principles apply in various directions, not merely to mental healing but to social and religious questions. Occasionally there was a symposium led by four speakers on a subject such as this, “What is it that heals?” Sometimes a speaker of prominence was engaged, in order to attract the attention of the public. But the subjects bearing directly on the New Thought proved more interesting.

In October, 1896, The Journal of Practical Metaphysics, Horatio W. Dresser, editor, was established to represent the Club and its larger interests. Many of the leading essays read before the Club were published in the magazine, and its leading members were regular contributors. Some of these papers have been gathered into a volume, The Spirit of the New Thought, New York, 1917, to indicate the scope and value of the New Thought at the time it was assuming more definite form. Other speakers, notably Mr. Wood, gathered their essays into volumes of their own. Some of the papers also appeared in Mind, published by Mr. C. B. Patterson, New York. Among other periodicals widely circulated among New Thought people in this its formative period should be mentioned Universal Truth, Chicago, and Harmony, San Francisco. The Club did not in the early years establish Sunday services, but the Church of the Higher Life met the need of all who desired a distinctive New Thought service. In accordance with the democratic principles on which the Club was based, no leader was made prominent over others, and in the early years the Club was concerned with its main interests. In concentration there was strength in those years. The New Thought began to attract more attention as a result of the Club’s activities, and it became prominent enough to be adversely criticized. Some of these criticisms with Mr. Wood’s answers are included in The Spirit of the New Thought. Efforts were made from time to time to state more definitely what the New Thought is and what it stands for. One of these statements, adopted as the official exposition of the main principles which the Club represented, is printed in full elsewhere.

The statement of the purpose of the Club printed regularly in The Journal of Practical Metaphysics, reads as follows: “Organized to promote an active interest in a more spiritual philosophy and its practical application to human life. Its spirit is broad, tolerant and constructive, and its object an impartial search for truth. All who sympathize with these purposes, without regard to past or present affiliations of sect, party or system, are cordially invited to cooperate. “ At the time this statement was drawn up the executive committee consisted of Henry Wood, Mrs. Mary E. T. Chapin, Horatio .W. Dresser, Miss Lilian Whiting, Walter B. Adams, Miss Sarah J. Farmer, Mrs. Mabel B. Tibbitts. Dr. Winkley was treasurer, and Mr. W. A. Rodman secretary.

In another statement drawn up at this time, the following is given as the purpose of the Club: “The Metaphysical Club, while it has no dogma to urge and no sectarian basis to maintain, is doing a work which is positive and progressive.

It seeks truth and the unity and harmony which come from the understanding of truth. It sees no rival in the field, because the success of every organization with allied aims is recognized as a triumph of the great principles for which the Club stands. It does not ignore the marked and helpful developments resulting from the scientific study of the physical world, but aims to discover and utilize the harmony of laws and action between it and the metaphysical. It seeks the spark of infinitude in the seemingly finite, and seeks to fan it into a blaze that shall be the light of the world. It is therefore striving to bring into hearty cooperation all the individual potencies that have tended toward the high end which it has in view, believing that thus a resistless impulse might be given to the development of life on the highest attainable plane.”[49]

It will be observed that this statement takes one out into the open, in contrast with the tendency of Mr. Evans’s later subjectivism. In contrast with Christian Science, it admits the existence of the natural world and sees value in the scientific study of nature. It implies the philosophy of evolution, spiritually interpreted. This acceptance of the law of evolution was characteristic of Mr. Wood, who was for the most part the author of the above statement. In this acceptance the leaders of the Club concurred. Their type of New Thought is thus distinguished from that called Divine Science in so far as the latter denies that man ever learns or develops from experience.

The essayists constantly offered correctives of the narrower type of thought prevailing among those who had reacted against Christian Science but were not yet wholly free. Thus Mr. Wood read a paper entitled “Our Bodies,” in which he pointed the way to a larger way of thinking. In a paper entitled “Business and the Higher Life,” Mr. Rodman applied the leading principles in still another direction.

Mr. E. A. Pennock, a Quaker by persuasion and among the first of the Friends to adopt mental healing, brought forward a paper on “A Physical Basis for Righteousness,” and in other essays connected the New Thought with current social problems. Mr. Pennock was at one time associated with the Ben Adhem House, Boston, the first social settlement in this country in which devotees of the New Thought took a prominent part.[50] After the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, Mr. Wood contributed a paper on “War from the Metaphysical Standpoint.”[51]

The magazine which had represented the Club was merged in The Arena, Boston, with the issue for December, 1898; with Mr. Paul Tyner, a New Thought writer, as editor, and Horatio W. Dresser, associate editor. The first combined number contained an essay entitled “The New Thought,” intended to interest a larger public. During the year 1899 The Arena was moved to New York, and it ceased to be a New Thought periodical. Dr. J. W. Winkley edited and published Practical Ideals, 1900-1912, as the representative periodical of the Boston movement.

Mr. Chesley, well informed in the history of thought, contributed various papers to the Club in which he traced the connection between its metaphysics and that of the past. Mr. Frank B. Sprague, author of Spiritual Consciousness, was a regular contributor to the magazines and to the meetings of the Club. Another leader who later became known as an author advocating a kind of modified Christian Science was Mr. Aaron M. Crane, author of Right and Wrong Thinking. Mr. C. B. Newcomb’s All’s Bight With the World should be mentioned as belonging to this period.

The organization of the Metaphysical Club, then, marks the enlargement of the mental-healing movement from the more local interests of mental science to the effort to extend the movement and make it national. Mental healing was still the chief interest. It was what gave the Club its being, and in the years when too many other subjects were introduced the Club was not so successful. The New Thought came directly from mental science, and hence it is explicable by the movement which went before and which dated from Quimby’s pioneer work in Maine. But interest in mental healing gave the disciples of the New Thought a point of view, a way of approaching all questions, a way of looking at life as a whole; it gave an impetus toward individualism, toward freedom; it implied religious liberalism; it implied idealism as a working or practical philosophy. Hence the special interest is related with all other interests, and we find the disciples of the New Thought advocating it as an all-inclusive program. If they sometimes made their work too broad and so lacked definiteness, if they sometimes claimed too much for their special interest, it was because their first desire was to gain recognition for their point of view, with sufficient emphasis to achieve results. The devotees were eager to show that the New Thought not only stands for a method of healing but for a philosophy, a positive or affirmative idealism; hence for religion, applied Christianity, the rediscovery of the gospel of healing. In the course of time, the New Thought as thus conceived became sufficiently known and recognized to make possible the successful representative movement of today.

The New Thought has been defined by Elizabeth Towne as “the fine art of recognizing, realizing and manifesting the God in the individual.” The first organizations were established to teach this fine art as applied to mental healing. Hence recognition of “the Christ within” was the cardinal principle. The later organizations have sought to make this fine art known in its relation not merely to mental healing but to the whole of life. Hence the New Thought has become a recognized phase of liberal Christianity throughout the world.

Chapter 9. The First Conventions

As indicated above, attempts to organize the mental-healing movement when it was known as ‘‘mental science” were made in Boston and other cities. But these efforts were premature, inasmuch as there was as yet no parent organization which could be taken as a model for the national movement. Moreover, the subject of mental healing had not long been before the public, and it was too soon to expect a general expression of interest.

Meanwhile, the mental-healing movement had been growing in the far West under the auspices of the name Divine Science. The first convention was held in San Francisco, 1894, under the auspices of the International Divine Science Association, organized May 17, 1892, at Home College. This Association was “founded for the promulgation of Divine Science, the God idea of perfect unity, harmony and wholeness, associated together in unity of spirit, for the healing of the nations, and the general good of humanity.” The first congress lasted six days, the second was held in Chicago, 1895; the third in Kansas City, 1896; and the fourth in St. Louis, 1897. This convention was said to be “the strongest Divine Science congress held by the Association, and the most far reaching in its influence for good to the general public.” The general motto of the first congress was Unity, the subject of the second Truth, of the third Atonement, and of the fourth, Life.

The subject of the fifth congress, held in Odd Fellows’ Hall, San Francisco, November 14-19, 1899, was “Truth of Being.” The following statement indicates the general point of view: “Divine Science is unity. Divine Science accurately proves the unity of God with all living. A like revision and adjustment of thought is everywhere taking place in the secular, religious and scientific world. It is being understood that the law of the universe is the nature and goodness of the Supreme One ; the thoughts and ways of all must eventually be adjusted to accord with this knowledge, and Divine Science be accepted as the basis of true education. The Science of Being includes every subject pertaining to Infinite Life and the good of humanity, the well-being of every creature. Its work is the universal dissemination of a knowledge of the Divine purpose of the Creator in creation.”

The president of the Association was Mrs. M. E. Cramer, the pioneer leader of that branch of the therapeutic movement, editor of Harmony, and author of various books on the general subject, “Divine Science, the Christ Method of Healing.” The speakers included the leading western representatives of the movement, with papers by the following writers, read by others in their absence: Rev. Helen Van-Anderson, Horatio W. Dresser, Henry Wood, Oliver C. Sabin, and Francis E. Mason.[52] One session was entirely devoted to experiences of healing with accounts of direct and personal testimony. Mr. R. C. Douglass, then of LaCrosse, Wis., whose interest in mental healing dates from 1886, made an address on “Your Own, and How to Obtain it.” Mr. Douglass was the only leader present who has since been connected with all the important New Thought organizations in the country.

It was hoped that the Association would become in truth international. But although its conventions attracted leaders from all parts of the country, the time had not come for a permanent organization. Other attempts were made to organize the movement on a large scale, and during one year there were three so-called international organizations holding conventions. The movement which began in Boston with the organizing of the Metaphysical Club did not at once lead to a permanent national society, but out of its efforts there came in time the first really international organization.

After the Metaphysical Club had been in existence four years and had won an assured place for itself, the time seemed to have come to make the beginnings of a national movement. Accordingly, in 1899, the year of the fifth Divine-Science congress, the Club sent out a call for a convention of advanced thinkers, without regard to former affiliations, and looking forward to the formation of a national organization for New Thought propagandism. Delegates were invited to attend from many states.

This, the first New Thought convention under that name, was held in Lorimer Hall, Tremont Temple, Boston, October 24-26, 1899. The program indicated the reason for calling the convention at that time: “The preliminary notice of this convention has disclosed such a broad and deep interest in the new movement to establish a worldwide unity and cooperation along the lines of the so-called ‘New Thought,’ that this gathering promises to be one of the most important steps in the history of this remarkable spiritual evolution.”

During the sessions of the convention a society was organized, and named The International Metaphysical League. The following officers were elected: C. B. Patterson, president; Col. Henry S. Tafft, vice-president; Warren A. Rodman, secretary; Harry Gestefeld, assistant secretary; Wm. E. Uptegrove, treasurer; and an executive board of twelve representing six states. Among the speakers were C. B. Patterson, Henry Wood, Ursula N. Gestefeld, Dr. Lewis G. Janes, Sarah J. Farmer, Bolton Hall, Paul Tyner, Henry S. Tafft, Josephine C. Barton, Egbert M. Chesley, Rev. R. Heber Newton, J. W. Winkley, Horatio W. Dresser, Miss Ellen M. Dyer, Ruth B. Bridges, Miss Anita Trueman, and Miss Jane Yarnell. A paper by Mrs. M. E. Cramer, the pioneer of Divine Science, San Francisco, was also read. The addresses were afterward gathered into a volume published by the League. Some of these papers have been republished in The Spirit of the New Thought.

The International Metaphysical League held its second convention in Madison Square Garden Concert Hall, New York City, October 23-26, 1900. The officers of the League were reelected, and an executive board drawn from ten states, and vice-presidents from twenty-five states, from England, Australia, and New Zealand, were elected. In its revised constitution the following “purposes” were adopted: “The Purpose of the League is: To establish unity and cooperation of thought and action among individuals and organizations throughout the world devoted to the Science of Mind and of Being, and to bring them, so far as possible, under one name and organization; to promote interest in and the practice of a true spiritual philosophy of life; to develop the highest self-culture through right thinking, as a means of bringing one’s loftiest ideals into present realization; to stimulate faith in and the study of the highest nature of man, in its relation to health, happiness, and progress; to teach the universal Fatherhood and Motherhood of God and the all-inclusive Brotherhood of Man; that One Life is immanent in the universe, and is both Center and Circumference of all things visible and invisible, and that the Intelligence is above all and in all; and that from this Infinite Life and Intelligence proceed all Light, Love and Truth. These simple statements are in their nature tentative, and imply no limitations or boundaries to future progress and growth, as larger measures of light and truth shall be revealed.”

These “simple statements” are rather ambitious, and tend to cover a large territory in the realms of thought. They lack the incisiveness of earlier and later statements of the New Thought, but the endeavor of course is to state a widely inclusive ideal. This statement is, however, referred to by New Thought leaders to indicate that the above have always been the characteristic purposes of the New Thought Alliance, which succeeded the League, at all the conventions of the Alliance, and under its several revisions of constitutions, and the change in the name of the organization.

The program called attention to the high character of the speakers, saying “It is a grand tribute to the beauty and power of this philosophy that it attracts the willing service of eminent thinkers and truth-seekers.” In addition to the names appearing on the program of the first convention were the following: Professor John Tyler, Amherst College, John Brooks Leavitt, M. D., B. O. Flower, R. W. Trine, Rev. Helen Van-Anderson, Swami Abhedananda, lecturer on the Vedanta philosophy, Annie Rix Militz, Miss G. I. S. Andrews, and Aaron M. Crane.

No conventions were held in 1901, 1902. In 1903 an “International New Thought Convention” was held in Chicago, under the auspices of the New Thought Federation of Chicago, in Music Hall, Fine Arts Building. T. G. Northrup was chairman, Agnes Chester See, vice-chairman, F. D. Wetmore, secretary, and Anna C. Waterloo, treasurer. The fourth annual convention was held in St. Louis, under the auspices of the New Thought Federation of St. Louis, October 25-28, 1904. Rev. R. Heber Newton was elected president; Ursula N. Gestefeld, vice-president; Eugene Del Mar, secretary; John D. Perrin, assistant secretary; H. Bradley Jeffrey, treasurer, and Bolton Hall, auditor.

The fifth annual convention was held in Nevada, Mo., under the auspices of the Weltmer School of Healing, September 26-29, 1905. The officers elected were: Henry Harrison Brown, president; D. L. Sullivan, vice-president; Ernest Weltmer, secretary; Charles Edgar Prather, assistant secretary; Dr. J. W. Winkley, treasurer, and Carl Gleeser, auditor. At this convention the constitution was revised. The name was changed to The World New Thought Federation. Officers were elected for a convention to be held in Chicago, in October, 1906, a convention which was not held. The last three conventions had been less successful, inasmuch as it was not always easy to find common ground among representatives of individualism in the West and middle West.

In order to make a new beginning on a more secure basis, a conference was held at the rooms of the Metaphysical Club, in Boston, April 26, 1906. This meeting was called by C. B. Patterson, Dr. J. W. Winkley and other leaders, the object being to organize a society with the best interests of the New Thought in view; in order to promote the original purposes and plans of the International Metaphysical League, special reference being made to the federation of the many New Thought Centers existing throughout the country. The general desire was to put the work in the country as a whole on a more efficient basis.

A reorganization was effected, a constitution adopted, and the following were elected officers: Rev. R. Heber Newton, president; Dr. J. W. Winkley, vice-president; Rev. W. J. Leonard, secretary; R. C. Douglass, assistant secretary; C. B. Patterson, treasurer; M. Woodbury Sawyer, auditor. The board of officers was composed of those named above, also Ralph Waldo Trine, Mrs. Harriet A. Sawyer, Mrs. Josephine Verlage, Rev. M. K. Schermerhorn, Mrs. Sarah F. Meader, Mrs. Louise Randall, Miss Anita Trueman, Rev. Helen Van-Anderson, Rev. T. Van Doren, and Rev. Henry Frank. The constitution also provided for the formation of an advisory committee, to share in the general management, to consist of a large number of representative members in New Thought societies in different parts of the country. From this reorganization and readjustment the society entered on a new career of. successful propagandism and prosperity.

The seventh annual New Thought convention, that is, the second meeting under the auspices of the reorganized society, was held in Chickering Hall, Boston, April 21-23, 1907. The officers were Rev. It. Heber Newton, president; Dr. J. W. Winkley, vice-president; Rev. Alfred H. Brown, secretary; and C. B. Patterson, treasurer. At the first session Prof. Josiah Royce and Dr. R. C. Cabot gave addresses. On the afternoon of the second day all clergymen in Boston and vicinity were personally invited to attend. The subject was “The Relation of the Parochial Ministry to Spiritual Healing.” The chairman was Rev. Albert B. Shields, an Episcopal clergyman greatly interested in the subject of healing.

The third convention of the reorganized society was held in Boston, April 12-14, 1908. The officers were, Rev. R. Heber Newton, president; Dr. J. W. Winkley, first vice-president; Rev. A. B. Shields, second vice-president; Rev. Alfred H. Brown, secretary; R. C. Douglass, assistant secretary; Dr. Julia Seton Sears, associate secretary; Miss Amelia H. Ames, treasurer; and Rev. DeWitt T. Van Doren, auditor. The election of clergymen not actively connected with the New Thought movement but interested in healing was still customary at these conventions.

It seemed desirable at that time to have officers of prominence in public life. The work of the society was of course mainly carried on by the assistant secretary.

At this convention the constitution was revised, and the name of the organization changed, to indicate its scope. This new name, The National New Thought Alliance, was retained until, with its work abroad in 1914, it became The International New Thought Alliance.

The fourth convention, now styled The National New Thought Alliance, was held in Chickering Hall, Boston, May 7-9, 1909. The list of officers, as chosen in the previous convention is as follows: Rev. Henry Frank, president; James A. Edgerton, vice-president; R. C. Dougless, secretary; Dr. Julia Seton Sears, associate secretary ; Amelia H. Ames, treasurer; and Rev. De Witt T. Van Doren, auditor. At this convention James A. Edgerton was elected president, an office which he has held in the succeeding years, including the year of incorporation, 1917. Rev. Stephen H. Roblin was elected first vice-president; Rev. De Witt T. Van Doren, 2nd vice-president; Dr. J. W. Winkley, 3d vice-president; C. B. Patterson, 4th vice-president; R. C. Douglass, secretary; Amelia H. Ames, treasurer; and J. W. Pryde, auditor.

A summer convention at the New Thought Chautauqua and Rest Home, at Oscawana, N. Y., was held August 6-8, 1909. This convention combined the pleasures of a summer outing with the discussion of subjects pertaining to the New Thought. It was hoped that Oscawana would come to take the place of the New Thought conferences begun at Greenacre, Eliot, Maine. Oscawana lacked the prestige and atmosphere, however, of Greenacre, and the expectations were not realized.

The tenth annual convention, the fifth since the reorganization, was held in Carnegie Lyceum, New York City, May 13-15, 1910. The same officers were elected, with the addition of Dr. Ellis B. Guild, who was elected associate secretary. Shortly after this convention another was held in Cincinnati, O., May 29-31, in association with the New Thought Temple, at the request of that society. Mr. Harry Gaze was chairman. The speakers were: Harry Gaze, Rev. Henry Frank, Dr. Julia Seton Sears, Dr. Anna B. Davis, Dr. A. J. Mclvor Tindall, R. C. Douglass, C. B. Patterson, Mrs. Mildred Gaze, Dr. C. O. Sahler, Rev. Paul Castle, A. P. Barton, and Ernest Weltmer. This convention brought together, besides people interested in the New Thought in that vicinity, representatives of the movement from the Middle West.

The eleventh annual convention, the sixth since the reorganization, was held during eight days at Omaha, Nebraska, beginning June 18, 1911. Among the speakers were: Mr. Alfred Tomson, local secretary; A. P. Barton, John Milton Scott, Annie Rix Militz, Grace M. Brown, Rev. Henry Frank, R. C. Douglass, J. A. Edgerton, and Mrs. C. E. C. N orris. At this convention there was added a new feature, The Convention School. There were eight classes teaching some phase of the New Thought, the subjects and speakers being as follows: “God in Man,” J. A. Edgerton; “Practical Metaphysics,” Grace M. Brown; “Psychical Secrets,” Rev. Henry Frank; “The Way Unto the Perfect,” Annie Rix Militz; “The Evolution of Christ in Consciousness,” R. C. Douglass; “Masters of Yourself and Your World,” Mrs. C. E. C. Norris; “Symbol Psychology,” John Milton Scott; “Unfolding Individuality,” A. P. Barton.

The convention of 1912 was held in Los Angeles. Mr. Douglass, in sending out the call for this convention, stated that all New Thought societies were cordially invited to send delegates, pointing out that the invitation applied to all bodies holding similar views, “though they may not adopt the same name. . . . This is the first time that the East and the West come together in a mutual understanding and fellowship, for a larger and more aggressive propagandism; and marked results are looked for.”

The meetings of the convention began June 25 and continued until June 30. The subjects for the chief sessions were, The Divine Man, The Resurrecting Power, Unity, Joy and Beauty, Peace; and the speakers included Myra G. Frenyear, William Farwell, Harriet Hale Rix, Alfred Tomson, Harry Gaze, Clinton A. Billig, Henry Frank, Mrs. M. E. T. Chapin, C. Josephine Barton, Anna W. Mills, James Porter Mills, A. P. Barton, and Henry Victor Morgan. There were also six day courses of lessons known as the “ Convention at School,” conducted by Mrs. Militz, Harriet Hale Rix, Dr. F. Homer Curtiss, Perry Joseph Green, Ida B. Ellioo, Jennie M. Croft, Harry Gaze, Sarah J. Watkins, L. A. Fealy, and others. Mrs. Militz has said of this convention, “All exploitation of personalities and special centers was kept out as much as possible. Self-advertisement was not encouraged and the commercial spirit kept wholly in abeyance, yet opportunity was given to acquaint the strangers with the persons and places, the literature and the methods that could help them into the light. . . . No greater refutation of the accusation of some ignorant church people that the New Thought is anti-Christ could have been recorded than the addresses of almost all the speakers of this convention. I cannot think of one who did not somewhere along in his address speak lovingly, reverently and deeply of the Blessed One. There was no cant, no mere lip-phrasing of hackneyed sentences, but such speech as His early lovers might have phrased, before a priest-ridden church had formulated a creed and a ceremonial in His name.”[53]

The eighth annual convention was held in Detroit, Mich., June 15-22, 1913. The ninth congress, held in New York City, June 7, 8, 1914, was a preliminary conference, looking forward to the first international convention in Great Britain, held in London, June 21-26, under the auspices of the Higher Thought Center, and the National New Thought Alliance. At the convention in London the speakers from America included such leaders as Miss Harriet Hale Rix, Miss Emma C. Poore, Mrs. Chapin, Mrs. Annie Rix Militz, Mr. J. A. Edgerton and Mr. Harry Gaze. M. F. A. Mann represented the Ligue Internationale de la Nouvelle Pensee, and Miss Helen Boulnois, La Societe Unitive, Paris. The British representatives included J. Bruce Wallace, Judge T. Troward, vice-president for the British Isles, Charles Spencer, J. Macbeth Bain, Miss Louise Stacey, and Miss Dorothy Kerin. At a session dedicated to “the promotion of peace,” plans for the International New Thought Congress for 1915, to be held at the Panama Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, were brought before the convention. The speaker was Miss Grace Wilson, delegate of California 1915 Congress Committee. The National New Thought Alliance now became “international” in actuality, and entered upon its larger career under the best auspices. The convention as a whole was highly successful and its success marked an important milestone in the history of the Alliance. Delegates were present from Australia, South Africa, France, Scotland, and a considerable number from the United States. Mrs. Militz preceded the congress by a tour around the world, speaking for the Alliance on the way and arousing interest in it. The congress in London was followed by a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. With the sessions in New York, London, and Edinburgh, then, the Alliance realized the ideals of the various societies in the mental-healing world which had been international only in name.[54]

Chapter10. The International New Thought Alliance

The convention held at San Francisco, in connection with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915, was called The First International New Thought Congress. It began August 30, and continued until September 5, with three sessions daily and noon healing meetings. The meeting place was Moose Auditorium, Jones St., near Golden Gate Ave. The convention was preceded by New Thought Day, August 28, at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. The program for that day was as follows: Assembling of all New Thought people at Fillmore St. entrance, to be escorted by officials and band to the Court of Abundance, to receive commemorative bronze medal; Science and Demonstration of Mind Reading by The Ellises, Pompeiian Room, Inside Inn; banquet lunch at Inside Inn; music and reading, Recital Hall; interpretation of Dante’s La Divina Comedia, Rev. Lucy C. McGee ; choral and organ recital, Mr. A. L. Artigues, Festival Hall.

At the opening session of the convention, August 30, Henry Harrison Brown was chairman, and the speakers were: Rev. Lucy C. McGee, Boston, “The Divine Adventure”; Mrs. F. J. Nellis, London, “Philosophy, Ancient and Modern”; Mrs. R. G. Peaseley, Los Angeles, Cal.; and Dr. Theresa Stockman, New York City. In the afternoon Mrs. Agnes Lawson presided, and in the evening Annie Rix Militz, president of the California New Thought Exposition Committee. There were addresses of welcome by James Ralph, Jr., mayor of San Francisco; H. K. Bassett, Panama-Pacific Exposition; James D. Barry, San Francisco Bulletin; Grant Wallace, chairman of the convention news bureau; and responses on the part of the New Thought by Mr. Edgerton, Dr. Julia Seton, and Harry Gaze. The address of the evening was by George Wharton James, “California, the Natural Home of the New Thought.” At the succeeding sessions of the convention there were addresses by Miss Julia M. Cook, Miss C. Fraser, Mrs. M. J. Merrill, Miss Lida M. Churchill, Mrs.

A. H. Simpson, Harold Palmer, L. J. Fealy, Elizabeth Towne, Annie Rix Militz, William C. Gibbons, Mrs. M. W. Sewall, Mrs. C. E. Cumbertson, John Milton Scott, P. J. Green, Florence Crawford, R. C. Douglass, Mrs. M. E. T. Chapin, Harry Gaze, Dr. C. F. Winbigler, Mrs. Anna W. Mills, Harriet Hale Rix, Mrs. Grace Brown, J. Stitt Wilson, Miss Harriet Hulick, and others. Different leaders were chosen to conduct the noon healing sessions, to give the closing affirmations, and to preside at the various discussions. The business meeting of the Alliance was held Friday, September 3. The morning session, September 4, was devoted to a children’s festival, with a lunch party and games from 1 o’clock to 4. The session Saturday afternoon was for parents, teachers and others interested in child development, with Harriet Hale Rix presiding. There were ten-minute addresses on child welfare, physical, mental, moral and spiritual. At 4 p. m. there was a session devoted to Sunday school work, the speakers being Miss Blanche Ayles, Mrs. McQuesten, Mrs. Lintine Skinner, Miss Ethel Brown, Miss Josephine Hopkins, and Miss Wiebach. The theme for the last day, Sunday, September 5, was “Spirituality,” and the speakers included William Farwell, Mrs. E. N. Randall, Mrs. Frenyear- Wiseman, F. L. Sears, James A. Edgerton and Dr. Julia Seton.

The officers of the Alliance were: President, James A. Edgerton; vice-presidents, for America, Annie Rix Militz; for Great Britain, Hon. T. Troward; for France, Mons. G. A. Mann; secretary, Harry Gaze; assistant secretaries, for England, Alice M. Callow; for Scotland, Mrs. H. R. Wallace; for America, Grace Wilson; treasurer, L. W. Blinn; auditor, R. C. Douglass; executive committee for United States, Mrs. M. E. T. Chapin, Miss Leila Simon, Miss Villa Faulkner Page; executive committee for Great Britain, J. Bruce Wallace, Mrs. H. Heard, and Miss Muriel Brown. Mrs. Militz was president of the California New Thought Exposition Committee, and the committee included representatives of the various Homes of Truth and New Thought Centers throughout California.

In the constitution and by-laws as published by the Alliance in 1916 the purposes of the society are given as follows: “To teach the infinitude of the Supreme One; the Divinity of Man and his Infinite possibilities through the creative power of constructive thinking and obedience to the voice of the Indwelling Presence, which is our source of Inspiration, Power, Health and Prosperity. “ The articles of the constitution make the customary provisions and include the recall, the latter to be indicated by a written petition signed by twenty per cent of the members. The executive board, besides having charge of all the business activities of the Alliance, is to arrange for holding local conferences, organizing groups and societies for the propagation of the purposes of the Alliance, and the affiliation of societies already existing, also the publication of literature. Any person in sympathy with the purposes of the Alliance may become an active member on payment of the annual dues of one dollar, or a sustaining member on payment of annual dues of ten dollars. The fee for life membership is one hundred dollars.

Any group, society, association or organization in sympathy with the purposes of the Alliance is entitled to register as a group member, regardless of the number belonging to the group, on payment of ten dollars or a voluntary offering.

The second international congress was held in St. Louis, September 17-24, 1916. The speakers included Sarah C. Morse, Leila Simon, Lilian Whiting, Harriet C. Hulick, Anne Young-Huntress, Dr. Sheldon Leavitt, T. J. Shelton, Dr. G. C. B. Ewell, Elizabeth Towne, W. W. Atkinson, R. C. Douglass, Harry Gaze, J. A. Edgerton, Dr. Julia Seton, Emma C. Poore, Charles O. Boring, and Sidney A. Weltmer.

The executive board consisted of the president, secretary, treasurer, auditor, and Mrs. Chapin, Miss Emma Gray, John M. McGonigle, and Mrs. Rose M. Ashby. The honorary presidents were, W. W. Atkinson, H. H. Benson, T. P. Boyd, H. H. Brown, Clara B. Colby, Florence Crawford, Horatio W. Dresser, George Wharton James, Edgar L. Larkin, C. D. Larson, Orison Swett Mar den, Edwin Markham, Annie Rix Militz, C. B. Patterson, C. E. Prather, May Wright Sewall, Elizabeth Towne, William E. Towne, Ralph Waldo Trine, Lilian Whiting, and Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Vice-presidents were elected for each district, Dr. Harold F. Palmer, Southern California-Ari-zona; Harriet Hale Rix, Northern California-Nevada; Mrs. Anne Young-Huntress, Oregon; Rev. Granville Lowther, Washington-Idaho-Montana; Mrs. Grace M. Brown, Colorado-Utah-Wyoming-New Mexico; Vernon Hendry, Kansas-Oklahoma; Rev. H. W. Pinkard, Nebraska-Iowa; Miss H. C. Hulick, Missouri-Kansas-Texas; Mrs. S. C. Morse, Illinois-Wisconsin; Mrs. Rose M. Ashby, Georgia-Florida-No. and So. Carolina; Miss Leila Simon, Ohio-Indiana-W. Virginia; Mrs. A. W. King, Michigan; Mrs. A. H. Ray, Minnesota-No. and So. Dakota; John M. McGonigle, Pennsylvania; Dr. Julia Seton, New York-New Jersey; Mrs. M. E. T. Chapin, New England; Miss Emma Gray, District of Columbia-Mary land-Delaware- Virginia; Mrs. R. D. Allen, Kentucky-Tennessee; Judge T. Troward, England; Rev. J. Bruce Wallace, Ireland; Mrs. H. Rhodes-Wallace, Scotland; M. Georges A. Mann, France; Sister Veni Cooper-Mathison, New South Wales; Miss Grace Aguilar, South Australia; Miss Emile A. Hulett, Victoria; Georgina Hooper de Hammerton, South America; Dr. T. W. Butler, West Canada; Mrs. M. M. Hunter-Jones, Eastern Canada.

The third congress was held in Planters Hotel, St. Louis, September 16-23, 1917. Among the speakers were, Charles F. Hatfield, W. John Murray, W. V. Nicum, Harold Palmer, James A. Edgerton, Dr. Julia Seton, J. P. Green, Mrs. Rose M. Ashby, Mrs. M. E. T. Chapin, Miss H. E. Hulick, W. Frederick Keeler, Elizabeth Towne, H. H. Schroeder, R. C. Douglass, Sarah C. Morse, T. J. Shelton, and Helen Van-Anderson-Gordon. A feature of the convention was a “New Speakers’ Day.” Addresses were made by Mary L. S. Butterworth, W. J. Holt, Ida Jane Ayres, Mida Sharp, Robert Whitaker, Juno Walton, E. C. Hartman, and Eleanor C. Graham. Saturday afternoon, September 22, there was a Children’s Session, with a half hour of songs by pupils of the Society of Practical Christianity, St. Louis, and a special program following. A “Question Box Session” came Saturday evening. The convention closed with a grand rally of the Alliance, Sunday evening.

At this convention the following Declaration of Principles was adopted, as the point of view and program of activities of The International New Thought Alliance:

“We affirm the freedom of each soul as to choice and as to belief, and would not, by the adoption of any declaration of principles, limit such freedom. The essence of the New Thought is Truth, and each individual must be loyal to the Truth he sees. The windows of his soul must be kept open at each moment for the higher light, and his mind must be always hospitable to each new inspiration.

“We affirm the Good. This is supreme, universal and everlasting. Man is made in the image of the Good, and evil and pain are but the tests and correctives that appear when his thought does not reflect the full glory of this image.

“We affirm health, which is man’s divine inheritance. Man’s body is his holy temple. Every function of it, every cell of it, is intelligent, and is shaped, ruled, repaired, and controlled by mind. He whose body is full of light is full of health. Spiritual healing has existed among all races in all times. It has now become a part of the higher science and art of living the life more abundant.

“We affirm the divine supply. He who serves God and man in the full understanding of the law of compensation shall not lack. Within us are unused resources of energy and power. He who lives with his whole being, and thus expresses fullness, shall reap fullness in return. He who gives himself, he who knows, and acts in his highest knowledge, he who trusts in the divine return, has learned the law of success.

“We affirm the teaching of Christ that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, that we are one with the Father, that we should judge not, that we should love one another, that we should heal the sick, that we should return good for evil, that we should minister to others, and that we should be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. These are not only ideals, but practical, everyday working principles.

“We affirm the new thought of God as Universal Love, Life, Truth and Joy, in whom we live, move and have our being, and by whom we are held together; that His mind is our mind now, that realizing our oneness with Him means love, truth, peace, health and plenty, not only in our own lives but in the giving out of these fruits of the Spirit to others.

“We affirm these things, not as a profession, but practice, not on one day of the week, but in every hour and minute of every day, sleeping and waking, not in the ministry of a few, but in a service that includes the democracy of all, not in words alone, but in the innermost thoughts of the heart expressed in living the life. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’

“We affirm Heaven here and now, the life everlasting that becomes conscious immortality, the communion of mind with mind throughout the universe of thought, the nothingness of all error and negation, including death, the variety in unity that produces the individual expressions of the One-Life, and the quickened realization of the indwelling God in each soul that is making a new heaven and a new earth.”

The fourth congress was held in Boston, September 15-22, 1918. The officers at that time were James A. Edgerton, president; Leona Feathers, secretary; William E. Hutton, treasurer; and R. C. Douglass, auditor. Additional names among the list of honorary presidents were Alice M. Callow, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Veni Cooper-Mathison, and T. J. Shelton. Other names were also added to the list of vice-presidents representing districts as follows: Miss Florence A. Sullenberg, Oregon; Judge W. R. Gay, Washington; Rev. H. H. Schroeder, Missouri; Gen. J. Kellog, Arkansas; Dr. Anna Gaines, Texas; Mrs. Augusta Prindle, Wisconsin; W. V. Nicum, Ohio-West Virginia; G. W. Maxwell, Indiana ; Rev. W. John Murray, New York-New Jersey; Mrs. E. J. Graham, Louisana-Alabama-Mississippi; Mrs. S. P. Anthony, Kentucky-Tennessee; Mrs. Luis Leal, Mexico; Mme. Florence Struve, France; Miss Eunice Jones, South Australia; Mrs. Preshaw, Western Australia; W. Walker, New Zealand; Willoughby Connor, Tasmania; Mrs. M. Moncrief, Hawaiian Islands; and Dr. J. Seetulsingh, West Indies.

The various sessions were as usual under the chairmanship of such leaders as James A. Edgerton, Mrs. Chapin, R. C. Douglass, Elizabeth Towne, Harold Palmer, Leila Simon, and Annie Rix Militz. Among the speakers were Mrs. Chapin, Mr. Edgerton, Harold Palmer, Helen Van-Anderson-Gordon, J. M. McGonigle, Elizabeth Towne, Sarah C. Morse, Dr. Ewell, Mrs. C. E. C. Norris, T. J. Shelton, Emma C. Poore, Rose M. Ashby, Villa Faulkner Page, Sarah F. Meader, Harry Gaze and Miss Edith Martin. A session was devoted to questions, and the closing session was a grand rally in Faneuil Hall, with addresses by Mayor Peters and representatives of the army and navy.

The annual address of the president, Mr. James A. Edgerton, from which we quote in part, gave a comprehensive summary of the recent growth and development of the New Thought in various parts of the world. Mr. Edgerton expressed the conviction that the devotees of the New Thought, among “all good Americans and all good citizens of other allied countries,” believed that the winning of the war was the great need of the time, and that all other activities, even spiritual activities, should temporarily be subordinated to this great purpose. Nevertheless, he was able to report that the Alliance had steadily grown, with the addition of hundreds of members and many new groups. He also reported that there was more money in the treasury, and without any special effort to procure it.

Among other new Centers, Mr. Edgerton mentioned those established at Des Moines, Iowa; Wilmington, Delaware; Portsmouth, Va., and several on the Pacific Coast. “In Australia,” Mr. Edgerton said, “our work has been practically at a standstill because of the war, but all the centers are still active. In this connection, our good friends in Australia say they owe very much of their interest in the new philosophy to the visits of two American New Thought teachers, Mrs. Annie Rix Militz and Dr. Julia Seton. Indeed, in all parts of the world this new philosophy is traced to America. In England, whereas in the political field we call her the Mother Country, in the spiritual field the English schools of New Thought call America the Mother Country, and look to us to lead the way.

“In France the work has been carried on by Madame Florence Struve in Paris, who has worked mostly with the soldiers. Another leader in Paris, M. Albert Caillet, is here in America now with a French Government Commission and has promised that at some time during the week he may appear at this Congress.

“In Great Britain, all of the centers are active, but the greatest center there, at Isle worth, the old home of the Duke of Manchester, where the work was carried on by Dr. Orlando E. Miller, has been turned over to war work and the nursing of the soldiers; and Dr. Miller is carrying on his work in London.

“In this connection some of our American New Thought teachers are on the other side, assisting as they may in the Y. M. C. A. work, Red Gross work and other similar activities. Horatio W. Dresser of Boston, from whom we have an inspiring letter, is now in France in Y. M. C. A. work and Rev. W. John Murray of New York is in Italy in Red Cross work.

“Our field secretaries have been busy. Miss Mary Allen of New York has made two trips across the continent and back, making numerous addresses on the way — starting at the Atlantic and going to the Pacific Coast. Three of our field secretaries were at the beginning of the year on the Pacific Coast. One has since gone on with his own work. Another in the State of Georgia was called on by the Government to take up work in connection with the Food Administration and while traveling over the State he takes occasion to teach the Truth.

“In New England we have had several conferences in Boston and at various points under Mrs. Chapin, who is not only vice-president, but field secretary-at-large, and has been most active. In Philadelphia we have had a most flourishing year”. I was called there to give an address in one of the largest rooms in the Bellevue-Stratford, and people were standing out in the hallways. This was very promising and encouraging for the reason that we had not previously had a New Thought work in Philadelphia. Recently Mrs. Butterworth organized a new center in the suburbs of Philadelphia and I believe a new center in New Jersey.

“We have had field conferences leading up to this congress in many districts. One of the largest was held in the Waldorf-Astoria in the city of New York under the leadership of Rev. W. John Murray, our vice-president, and the League for the Larger Life, which is a federation of centers in that city.

“We had a very successful conference in Washington, D. C, and two in Ohio; in Dayton and Cincinnati, where there is one of the most flourishing centers in the world. We had a conference in Seattle, Washington, under Judge Gay, another one in San Francisco, and a conference that was not strictly under the auspices of the Alliance in Los Angeles under Mr. Holmes, one of the Holmes Brothers of that city, who are doing a splendid work, and one of whom will be in this city to address the congress. Another conference is being held in Los Angeles this week under the direction of the vice-president, Miss Harriet Hale Rix.

“Following this congress, one will be held in London under the auspices of the Alliance, as was the case last year. They cabled us at that time that it was very much larger and better than they had expected — and I have no doubt it will be still greater this year. . . .

“This in a word gives you some idea of the work the Alliance has been carrying on in a quiet way. As for our future plans, I can say but this: that now, in my opinion, is the time, above all others, for every one in this movement, or any other kindred movement, who feels called, to prepare himself, or herself, to carry this message of reconstruction, of optimism, this message which is the very soul of democracy — to carry this message to Europe where we can aid not only in the physical work of reconstruction, but in the mental work of reconstruction, which is of far greater importance. While the war is still on we can prepare. Mrs. Militz, who has traveled from one side of this country to the other holding classes, has been devoted to this single purpose — of preparing teachers who could go out into the world and, following the Master’s injunction, preach the gospel to every creature. She already has a school at Los Angeles, called the University of Christ, and this work she has been doing about the country is simply an extension of the work in her school. Her example can be followed by others. In this connection, let me say that a great number of our centers throughout the country have made a special point this year of working with the soldiers, not only of inviting soldiers to the centers, but of going out to the camps, in collaborating with the Y. M. C. A., and carrying the message and rendering service in such ways as presented themselves. I cannot too strongly urge upon you the importance of extending that work in every possible way.

“This New Thought gospel is not new in the sense that it is radically different from the things that have been taught heretofore. It is only new, as I see it, in the application. In other words, we in this age are practical, and especially so in America. We do not much regard anything that cannot be applied and demonstrated. This is not in any sense a denial of idealism — quite the contrary, but it puts idealism to the test. If it is of worth, it can be used. If we believe anything we can apply to that thing the acid test of practice, and, if it does not prove up, it is not a thing on which we can waste our time.

“Truths taught by the Master have been preached all through the ages, and believed — at least in a sense. But they were not believed enough to put them to the acid test of demonstration, of application. All that the New Thought movement and other kindred movements have done in this day is to work at our faith. We have had the faith before. We have had the ideal. Throughout all these ages the splendid example shown by those who were of the bone, blood and sinew of the Church has proved that they believed, for they gave themselves to the uttermost, as willing sacrifices. They permitted themselves to be fed to the wild beasts and to be burned as living torches in the name of their blessed Master. They did not lack in faith; they only lacked in the adaptation.

“Looking at the world as it is today, it grows ever plainer to us that Christianity has not failed — real Christianity, but that people have failed to be Christians. I use the term ‘Christian’ as one who is a follower of the Christ. He commanded that we should heal the sick, but we have not healed the sick for nineteen hundred years; and, when a cult arose in our own time, who began practicing this, His most oft-repeated commandment, they were placed beyond the pale of the Church. He commanded us not to lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth, yet in this age and in the lands called by His name, we have the most colossal fortunes the world has ever known. He commanded us not to pray in public to be heard of men, but to pray to the Father in secret, and yet the sects continue to pray to be heard of men. He commanded us to avoid lip service. He said unto those who call Lord, Lord, that he would not know them. He fixed this standard as the mark of His followers: those who kept His commandments. Yet we have called Lord, Lord, throughout the ages and have not kept His commandments. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We Christians must become all for Christ or all for anti-Christ. For nineteen hundred years we have temporized between the two until anti-Christ arose and smote us in this present world-tragedy.

“I do not say these things in the way of criticism. I say them because they appear the profound truth. We have learned in this age that we get what we give, that there is no power over us that rules us to ends other than those we have shaped; that the things that have come into the world, that have manifested, are the results of the thoughts of the people in the world. This world war is the result of years and even centuries of fear, hatred, race antagonism and like negative things that people have held in their thoughts; and we shall have to work out of these things by changing our thoughts. There will be a new heaven and a new earth whenever there is a new thought of heaven and earth in the minds of men, and not before. That is the reason for the New Thought movement.

“I am asked often: What is the relation of this movement to the Church? What is its relation to the other new movements of the day? I am going to answer these questions as far as I may with utter frankness.

“This is not a new religion. It is not an institution seeking to build itself up for the mere sake of the institution. We do not ask anybody to leave the Church — far from it. We have members of the Alliance, of the New Thought centers, that are members of churches and of no church. We ask them to become better members of their churches than before. The New Thought is designed to make people better and more efficient in whatever relation of life they may find themselves — if a man is a teacher, a soldier, or an accountant, to make him a better teacher, soldier, or accountant. It teaches him to depend upon his own inner powers. In his domestic relations, it makes him kindlier. If he is an American, it renders him a better American. It teaches him to fulfill the place he is given (whatever that place may be) to the utmost of his powers and without fear, knowing that he has nothing of which to be afraid and that within him are untapped levels of energy upon which he may call. In other words: ‘New Thought teaches men and women only the old commonsense doctrine of self-reliance, and belief in the integrity of the universe and of one’s own soul. It dignifies and ennobles manhood and womanhood.’

“But the main idea on which Christianity was founded is that of communion with God, that of worshiping God in spirit and in Truth. This is the very cornerstone of these modern movements that recognize men and women as the living temples of the God within. This thought has triumphed over all the centuries and over all the mistakes of the followers of the Nazarene — those who have called themselves by His name — until the Christian faith is the greatest upon the earth. And I predict that this new interpretation and new understanding will become universal in the new age that is now dawning; for, after all, as I see it, the New Thought is but the Christ Thought — without forms or ceremonies, without any appeal to religious prejudice or to tradition, but in the commonsense way of everyday living and application. It is the realization in practical affairs of the teachings not only of the Nazarene, but of every other great religious teacher since the world began; for in their essence these teachings are fundamentally alike; and the New Thought and other new spiritual movements are but the efforts to apply, in our relations one with another, these simple and sublime truths. . . .

“Do not neglect the spiritual message that is coming to men everywhere. Woe be it to him that receives and does not heed. I am a busy man, as you have been told, but I have never been so busy that I could not find some time to devote to this work of my soul, work that my soul was called upon to do. Suppose Paul had neglected the heavenly vision — what a difference there would have been in civilization. Suppose Peter had turned back from Rome — think what that would have meant to all the western nations from that day to this ! You cannot measure the possible effect of your failure to heed the still small voice. You do not know what seed you may sow, what work of reconstruction you can carry on. So my message to you tonight is very simple; it is this:

“The call is upon us, especially upon us, to carry forth Christ’s message to all peoples everywhere — one of us in one way and one in another, but to each of us in the way for which he or she is best fitted. There could be no nobler work in the world; there could be no work that would more appeal to the highest and best in us. There could be no work more fruitful in spiritual blessing and in happiness here and now and always. Are we ready? This war will not last always. I am not one of those who prophesy when it will end — I do not know. I think it will end when the forces of democracy get enough men to the front to end it. That may be next year, it may be later. I am only sure of one thing, and I am as sure of that as I am that there is a quick intelligence and a benevolent intelligence over all the affairs of men — I am sure it will end right. The world has seen dark days since the dawning of time, but it has never seen any great struggle in which moral principles were involved that right did not ultimately triumph, and right will ultimately triumph now and in all the affairs of men. I am sure of one other thing— that the general broad principles taught by Jesus of Nazareth, which have become the foundation of our civilization, are the cornerstone of democracy, good government, humanitarianism and of all the things for which we stand — I am sure that these principles will triumph over all lands, and it is for you and me, my friends, to assist in their triumph. When this war is over, people will bring this new truth, which is the old truth of the Nazarene, to England, to France, to Belgium, to assist not alone in preaching — that is a small part of it (Jesus spent very little time preaching — He spent most of His time doing good) . But to heal, to reconstruct, to spread the message of brotherhood — to teach the Truth.

“I expect a response from Boston, which is the birthplace of this movement and other movements of kindred character. I expect that the people of Boston will lead in this work and that the International Alliance will take practical steps towards this goal that will not end in mere talk. I am not seeking to be eloquent tonight, but I am seeking to bring home to you the necessity, the crying necessity, when this war is over, to send our missionaries to every country and to start centers in all the world — to take the message to every land under the sun, to help the reconstruction and healing of the nations, to bring in the new age of which we have preached — the founding of God’s kingdom on earth.”

Chapter 11. Other Organizations

The development of the mental-healing movement in the early years was largely due to the teaching of various leaders whose students in turn became leaders, many of them founders of different phases of the movement in the East, the Middle West and far West. Thus, as already indicated, the instruction given by Mrs. Stuart of Hyde Park, Mass., led to pioneer work in Hartford and New York. In the same way Mrs. Emma Curtis Hopkins became a teacher of leaders in Chicago and San Francisco. Among the latter may be mentioned Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, who established the branch of the movement known as Practical Christianity, published Thought, now called Unity, Wee Wisdom’s Way, the first mental-healing magazine for children, and founded other departments of the work of The Society of Silent Unity, Kansas City; Charles A. and Josephine Barton, editors of The Life, Kansas City; T. J. Shelton, editor of Scientific Christian; Helen Wilmans, editor of Wilman’s Express and author of The Blossom of the Century and other volumes; and Ella Wheeler Wilcox, the well known New Thought writer. Another of Mrs. Hopkins’ students was Mr. Paul Militz, who with Mr. Shelton, was the first to teach Mrs. Elizabeth Towne, editor of Nautilus, Holyoke, Mass., and author of many excellent books on the New Thought. Still another was Miss Annie E. Rix, who later became Mrs. Militz, in turn one of the leaders of the movement on the Pacific Coast.

The history of the movement in California dates from 1887, when Mrs. Hopkins, formerly one of Mrs. Eddy’s students, went to San Francisco at the request of interested people and taught a class of 250 people, including Mrs. Sadie Gorie, Miss Harriet Hale Rix, and Mrs. Militz, then Miss Rix.[55] The name for mental healing employed at first was Christian Science, but the first society was known as The Pacific Coast Metaphysical Bureau, later called the Christian Science Home, then the Home of Truth, the name which has been retained for mental-healing centers on the Pacific coast. The Home of Truth in Alameda was established in 1893. Later, similar centers were opened in Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Berkeley, and Sierra Madre, California; also at Victoria, B. C, and Walla Walla, Washington.

Mrs. Militz, who became the leading teacher in California, moved in 1896 to Los Angeles and established the Home of Truth there. Mrs. Militz was also the leader in the establishment of the other Homes of Truth in California. The Master Mind, the monthly periodical representing this branch of the movement, was begun in 1911. The Home of Truth idea has gradually been extended to other parts of the country, and has become a widely recognized plan for New Thought work and propaganda.

The work of the original Home of Truth in San Francisco is typical of this work at its best. The location of the Home was changed several times, and in the great fire of 1906 the building with all its contents was destroyed. “The constructive spirit of San Francisco showed itself in the activity of the Home, which almost immediately went to work arranging for its meetings in the homes of students until a suitable place could be found for its permanent housing. Besides the thousands of adults who have been taught the true life and who have been freed from poverty and all manner of disease, especial attention has been given to children, the Sunday school class-work for them forming an important feature in the Home. Several true visions have been launched, supported by free-will offerings for a few years, then passed into the invisible, there to be strengthened until the race is ready to receive them back in full force, such as a kindergarten, a woman’s exchange, Homes of Truth for children, and centers where unhoused men may find the atmosphere of a true home and comfort.

“There are two Rest Homes in connection with the work, one in San Jose and the other in Garvanza, where students and patients abide while being delivered from limitation. A beautiful expression of this inspired work is now in full activity under the supervision of Mrs. Militz, in connection with the Los Angeles Home, known as ‘The University of Christ,’ where teacher-students are trained to open and minister in Centers of Truth.

“A vital Men’s Meeting conducted by men only has found true devotion and highest results in aiding men to feel at home in the truth. There is one in the San Francisco Home and one in the Los Angeles Home, with weekly gatherings. As the Home idea may not be confined to a house with many rooms and servants, but may find expression in a flat, apartment, hotel, boathouse, cottage or room, so the Home of Truth idea has found ideal expression in many small centers of truth known by various names such as ‘The Down Town Center,’ San Francisco, with its ‘Noon-day Talks.’ “

The idea of the Home of Truth has been expressed by one of the leaders as follows: “A presentation of Jesus Christ’s teachings and practice is offered to the world in these Homes that is believed to be the primitive ministry of Christianity which was given to the world for man’s healing or salvation — body, mind, soul, and estate. The chief teacher and founder is Jesus Christ; the great authority for our belief is the Holy Spirit within each one; and the church is the whole body of divine humanity everywhere, visible and invisible, all being brothers and sisters, with one Father-Mother whose name is God.

“The textbooks are: first, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, especially the words of Jesus Christ; second, the remaining books of the Bible; and third, all other Scriptures and writings that have blessed humanity. We do not organize, have formed no new church or creed, but recognize that the homes of the nation are the spiritually natural places for worship and for the healing and teaching ministry. The true home is the beginning of heaven on earth, promised by the Spirit and prophesied by the Christ.

“The Home of Truth teaches the absolute doctrine of the Allness of God the Good, and that love to God and to the neighbor is one. It teaches the divinity of man and his unity with God; that heaven is within and is to be proved in thought, word and deed. It teaches that health, joy, and prosperity are spiritual and belong fully to those who know truth and live the life.

“The healing ministry is the same as that of Jesus Christ, who healed through knowledge and by speaking the word of truth, silently and audibly. No charge is made for any of its ministrations, for all the gifts of God are free; therefore we are not under the law of barter. According to the law of love we give freely and receive freely, under the free-will offering plan. Each Home is independent of all the others financially and in the use of methods, and yet all are in perfect harmony as to the main purpose. Each Home aspires to be one of all the Homes of Truth throughout the earth. Its most earnest desire is that every home shall be a healing center where any one who loves the truth may find spiritual refreshment, instruction and counsel, ‘without money and without price’; where they may be healed physically and morally, and become themselves instruments of blessing, to hasten the day of a redeemed world.

“There is a Sunday school for children connected with each Home, Bible classes, healing meetings, devotional services, daily individual healing and class instruction. The Metaphysical Library in San Francisco, situated at 126 Post Street, is a product of the Homes of Truth, and is managed by a committee containing several of its devoted workers.”

Mrs. Militz taught classes in Chicago, 1898-1902, when she was leader of the Chicago Truth Center and speaker for the Prentice Mulford Club. She also taught classes in Boston, Brooklyn and New York City, and then began a two years’ teaching tour of the world, spending seven months in Japan, four in India, and six in England. In 1913 Mrs. Militz made a second tour of the world, accompanied by three students, Miss Grace Wilson, afterward secretary of the International New Thought Alliance; Mrs. Anna C. Howlett, and Miss Florence N. Johnson. During this tour Mrs. Militz taught in Honolulu, in the four largest cities of Australia, in Paris, England and Scotland.

In Denver, Colorado, the first phase of the therapeutic movement to become generally known was due to the teachings of Melinda E. Cramer, Fannie B. James, and other Divine Scientists. The Colorado College of Divine Science, located at 730 East 17th St., was incorporated in 1898, “for the purpose of instruction in the law and order of Divine Healing as declared by Jesus Christ, and for the promotion of the religious, educational and ethical principles (of) the system known as Divine Science.” Miss Nona L. Brooks is president, and Mrs. Ruth B. Smith, secre-tary-treasurer. The books used include Truth and Health, by Fannie B. James; Studies in Divine Science, by Mrs. C. L. Baum; and Divine Science and Healing, by Mrs. Cramer. The ninth annual assembly of the college was held Feb. 4-6, 1919. The activities of this branch of Divine Science include the Missouri College of Divine Science, under the leadership of H. H. Schroeder, St. Louis, Mo.; Rev. Mr. Murray’s First Divine Science Church of New York City; and Glints of Wisdom, edited by T. M. Minard, Portland, Oregon. Power, a monthly magazine edited and published by Charles E. Prather, Denver, contains a Higher Thought directory of Truth Cent res and Divine Science Cent res. Mr. Prather’s Power School of Truth, incorporated 1916, is in part an outgrowth of the Unity movement in Kansas City. His magazine bears the subtitle “The Higher Thought Magazine of Practical Christianity.” Thus the several names and terms prove to be virtually interchangeable, and the term New Thought may once more be taken in its representative sense as standing for Divine Science, the Higher Thought and Practical Christianity.

The same interchangeable use of terms is to be observed in the case of one of the most vigorous of the New Thought periodicals, Now, published in San Francisco, Cal., described in its subtitle as “a Monthly Journal of Positive Affirmations, devoted to Mental Science and the Art of Living.” This magazine was established by Henry Harrison Brown, in 1900. Its basic affirmation is, “Man is spirit here and now, with all the possibilities of Divinity within him and he can consciously manifest these possibilities here and now.” Mr. Brown was well known as the author of New Thought Primer,, San Francisco, 1903, and other volumes on mental healing. He was succeeded by Sam E. Foulds as editor of Now, The kind of mental science implied in the above mentioned subtitle is that of the New Thought in general, after the use of affirmations pertaining to every phase of life came into vogue.

The World’s Advance Thought, edited and published by Mrs. Lucy A. Mallory, Portland, Oregon, was the pioneer mental-healing publication in the far Northwest. In the state of Washington, interest early appeared in Helen Wilmans’ type of mental science, and a Mental Science Association was organized in Seattle. The first convention was held in Seattle in 1899. The second convention representing this mental science was held at Seabreeze, Florida, in 1900.

Prior to 1907, W. K. Jones was a leading pioneer in making the New Thought known in Portland, Oregon. In 1907, Benj. Fay Mills held a series of meetings and classes on Emerson, Whitman, and the Bhagavad Gita. From these classes there followed a society known as the Fellowship Society of Portland, Oregon, with the late Clara Bewick Colby as president. There was also a council of five appointed, Dr. J. J. Story, Perry Joseph Green, Mrs. O. N. Denny, Dr. Mary Thompson, and T. O. Hague, with Florence A. Sullenberg, secretary. Tuesday evenings were set apart for the study of Emerson’s Essays, and out of these groups came the present Emerson Study Circle, which meets at the Metaphysical Library. Other centers developed from the Fellowship Society and adopted the name New Thought.

Rev. Victor Henry Morgan of Tacoma, Washington, a Universalist pastor in good standing, preaches from his pulpit the New Thought philosophy, and practices mental healing; but prefers to stay in the organization to which he belongs. A considerable movement has emanated from the teachings of Mrs. Agnes Galerin Seattle, Washington. She has taught for several years, organized a school and church, educated several teachers, and workers who in turn have organized classes, and the general movement is known as Divine Science, while the classes are generally called Truth Centers.

Mr. Granville Lowther reports that there is “a widespread influence, not so well organized, growing out of the teachings of Mrs. Militz and Harriet Hale Rix through their magazine, Master Mind. This type of teaching is like Christian Science in that its adherents believe that mind is the only reality. In philosophy they would be called subjective idealists. They deny reality of matter. Unity has a considerable number of readers, and a few Unity classes are organized. They too teach subjective idealism, but I have generally found that the average reader does not fully understand the difference between the two philosophies of subjective and objective idealism. What they want is something to help them in the practical duties and responsibilities of life. Nautilus, edited by Mrs. Towne, has a larger number of readers than all other New Thought magazines in the district. Mrs. Towne’s philosophy is that of objective idealism, that is, she believes in the reality of matter. . . .

“One of the largest movements in the district perhaps is located at Spokane under the leadership of Rev J. K. Grier. Mr. Grier was once pastor of a Universalist church in Spokane. There seemed to be some conflict between himself and the leaders of his church on the question of healing. He adopted what is practically our New Thought philosophy, but prefers not to be called by that name. He has organized a good church, erected a good church building with large audience room, class rooms, healing rooms, basement and kitchen. The machinery of his church is working with splendid energy. He has an assistant pastor, Rev. E. Edward Mills. They are holding considerable missionary work in sending out teachers and workers in different directions.”

In Los Angeles, Cal., the Metaphysical Library was founded by Eleanor M. Rees-berg, in 1902. Miss Reesberg, who was one of the pioneer lecturers in California, issues a Metaphysicians’ bulletin. The May-July number, 1919, contains the announcement of the sixteenth annual Metaphysicians’ May Festival, which was held in Los Angeles, May 1-3. The speakers included Harriet Hale Rix, Florence Crawford, Swami Paramananda, Edward B. Warman, W. Frederic Keeler, Jessie W. Boerstler, Henry Victor Morgan, and James E. Dodds. The Aquarian Ministry, “a Christ-ministry devoted to healing, teaching and the awakening of the latent soul-powers,” Geo. B. Brownell and Louise B. Brownell, healers, is another branch of the therapeutic movement in Los Angeles. The Universal New Thought Studio and Lecture Room is in charge of Miss Grace Wilson, formerly secretary of the New Thought Alliance. The activities of this center include Sunday services, class instruction, a New Thought singing school, healing meetings, and “fundamentals of New Thought for children.” District conferences of the Alliance are held under the auspices of Miss Rix, who is vice-president for Southern California and Arizona, assisted by the teachers and members of the Alliance.

In Chicago and New York, as in other large cities, the movement has passed through all the phases from mental science in its early forms to the New Thought of the present day, and the societies are too numerous for special mention.

Among recent organizations of note in these cities, The League for the Larger Life, New York City, is most notable, since it endeavors to bring together all centers and leaders in a common interest. The officers of the League when incorporated were Orison Swett Marden, president; Miss Mary Allen, first vicepresident; Mrs. Maud P. Messner, second vice-president; Eugene Del Mar, third vice-president, since chosen president; Dr. Julia Seton, fourth vice-president; Mrs. Laura G. Cannon, secretary; Charles Crapp, auditor; with Walter Goodyear, Miss Edith A. Martin, Mrs. Clara Barstow, and Mrs. D. L. Hunt, as additional officers.

The League issues a directory of teachers of the New Thought in Greater New York, holds regular Sunday services addressed by the leaders, with classes and healing meetings during the week. A Union Meeting is held the second Sunday of each month. At its headquarters, 222 W. 72nd St., the League furnishes teachers and speakers for public meetings, and supplies books through a circulating library and store.

The League is incorporated under the laws of the State of New York, and its purposes are, “to spread a knowledge of the fundamental principles that underlie healthy and harmonious living, and which will prevent or alleviate human suffering — mental, moral, financial and social; to assist the individual in the solution of personal problems; to encourage self-reliance, self-mastery and efficiency through constructive thinking and correct psychological and physical methods.

The League aims to provide a place where strangers as well as members may obtain reliable information about The Larger Life Movement — its centers, lectures, teachers and literature.”

Another branch of the therapeutic movement owes its origin to the work of Dr. Julia Seton,[56] who chose the name Church and School of the New Civilization. The first church was founded in Boston by Dr. Seton, in September, 1905, now under the leadership of Miss Emma C. Poore. The second center was founded in New York in 1907, with Dr. Seton as minister; the third in Brooklyn, N. Y., May Cornell Stoiber, minister ; the fourth in London, England, Muriel Brown, minister. Other churches were established in Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, N. Y.; Chicago, 111.; Denver, Colo. ; and one in California. These churches were organized on the basis of twelve fundamental principles. The school is a regular part of the work, and has departments devoted to metaphysics, philosophy, mysticism and music.

The central statement is that the “New Civilization Church came because mankind built it with its desires. It is the deep of supply answering to the deep of need. It will remain because mankind can use it as sane, sensible, spiritual substance, with which he can pass his life into higher manifestation of health, wealth, love, service and worship. This church believes in all churches, all creeds and all people, without regard to class, creed or color. Any one can come into the new church and learn its fundamentals and principles and return to his own church, his own country, his own class, his own people and better fulfill his life’s destiny.

“The New Thought church . . . knows no evil. It has only the wisdom of a perfected universe, in perfect situations, among perfect people; there are no errors in the great eternal plan. What (man) calls dark and damned is to him wholly significant of God — God is All — there is no life but God. God had only one substance out of which to make the world and that was Himself. . . .

“The new church is filled with a congregation who have been redeemed out from all countries, all races, all peoples, and all colors into the ONE life that is in All and through All. Into this great religion has come the evolved Brahman, the evolved Buddhist, the evolved Jew, the evolved Mohammedan, and the evolved Christian, bringing with them all that was worthy to exist in the old. These united in a purpose of a higher humanity, have formed a fulcrum of spiritual power through which the upper masters of the spheres can drag onward the whole human race.”

After the organization of the Metaphysical Club in Boston, the next step was to start similar societies in other cities in New England, and then to bring the various New Thought Centers into a central organization. Meanwhile the movement had been growing rapidly and there was a general desire for a society to represent New Thought interests as a whole. Steps were taken toward the formation of such a society in the summer of 1908. The first meeting of the representatives from the New England states was held in the Metaphysical Club Hall, Boston, November 14, 1910. Mr. It. C. Douglass, who was present in behalf of the National New Thought Alliance, advocated a federation of centers in New England, although the work of a federation would be different from that of the Alliance. The society was organized under the name of the New England Federation of New Thought Centers, with Mrs. Sara G. M. La Vake, Brookline, Mass., president pro tern., and Mrs. Frances Tillinghast, Portland, Maine, secretary pro tern. It was voted to meet semi-annually.

The second conference was held at Worcester, Mass., March, 1911. The speakers included G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University, and Mrs. May Wright Se-wall. Mrs. La Vake was elected president, three vice-presidents were chosen; Miss Harriette Bragee, Boston, was elected secretary ; and Miss Ardella Farnam, Worcester, treasurer. Succeeding conferences were held in Portland, Maine, November, 1911; Boston, 1912, when Dr. Anna B. Parker of Boston, was elected president, Miss Alice E. Strong of Boston, secretary, and Mrs. La Vake was made honorary president; Lynn, Mass., November, 1912; Cambridge, Mass., November, 1913; April, 1914, when Mrs. Mary E. Chandler of Providence, R. I., was elected president. In November, 1914, the Federation met at Hartford, Conn.; in April, 1915, at Boston, Dr. G. C. B. Ewell, president; in November, 1915, at Stoughton, Mass.; in April, 1916, at Boston under the auspices of the Church of the Higher Life, when Mrs. Mary E. Thayer of Boston was chosen president; in November, 1916, at Springfield, Mass.; and in April, 1917, at Boston, in cooperation with the New Thought Forum. There were then 33 New Thought Centers in New England represented in the Federation, “banded together in loyal comradeship . . . adding the zest of a social touch which makes us members of one family dwelling together in brotherly love.” The secretary reported that the “smaller centers have been greatly strengthened, with the incentive of individuality in a broad cooperation; and the larger centers have extended their interest through acquaintance with many New Thought neighbors they would never have known except through affiliation. For the keynote of our assembling is for mutual aid in living and presenting the truth to each other and the world. . . . Many times the smallest circles give rich return in our heart-to-heart counsel, for the spirit is not measured by numbers.” In 1915, the Federation delegated the president, Mrs. La Vake, to represent the Federation at the congress in San Francisco.

The Metaphysical Guild of Boston was organized for the “Promotion of Spiritual Understanding,” and the first meeting was held April 4, 1915, the first interest being to meet the need for a New Thought meeting in Boston on Sunday evenings, and to give an opportunity to visiting teachers to address audiences at Metaphysical Hall. The speakers have included Walter Devoe, Henry Victor Morgan and T. J. Shelton. The members assist the New Thought work in various ways, corresponding with people in state prisons, visiting the sick, opening homes for those in need of friendly service. The Guild was organized by Mrs. Clara Haven Wallace. The New Thought Library and Reading Room, 120 Boylston St., the most recently organized Society in Boston, is devoted to the same activities as those of the Metaphysical Club. The New Thought Forum is a free platform for the discussion of liberal questions of all types. There is also a Home of Truth. Sunday services are held by Miss Poore, Mrs. C. E. C. Norris and other leaders.

The New Thought movement in Cincinnati, Ohio, owes its origin to Christian D. Larson, who in January, 1901, organized the New Thought Temple, at his residence, 947 West Seventeenth St. In September of that year Mr. Larson began to publish Eternal Progress, for several years one of the leading New Thought periodicals. In November, 1902, Sunday morning services were inaugurated. At this service fifteen minutes’ silence was a leading feature. A little church building seating three hundred people was secured in 1904. Mr. Larson resigned in 1907, and was succeeded by Paul Tyner, in November, 1908. Harry Gaze was the next leader, and then Miss Leila Simon, in 1912.

Miss Simon’s report of the situation in Cincinnati at the time, after a lull in the work there, indicates the kind of work sometimes accomplished in building up a society which had lost headway. Miss Simon says: “I found the New Thought Temple Society struggling along without a leader, disorganized, inharmonious, with forty-seven members on the roster, about one-half of which were active. They were without adequate funds, and found difficulty in paying the small expense of $80.00 per month rent for a hall for Sunday services. Besides this deplorable internal condition, New Thought in Cincinnati had neither recognition nor standing in the community. It was thought to consist of long-haired men and short-haired women, who were queer, erratic, crazy folk. Today we have about nine hundred members, call out an audience of fifteen hundred, own property amounting to $26,000.00, besides having more than $3,500.00 in the bank. We have gained the respect of all Cincinnati, and number among our members the most cultivated and prominent men and women of the city.

“My first New Thought service brought out an audience of less than twenty-five people. Two years later I spoke constantly to from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred people.

“From the outset, I considered the work of The New Thought Temple entirely separate from personality. It was not mine, but impelled by the Spirit of God, and it is this conviction and consecration that is the moving Power of The New Thought Temple. My first thought from the beginning of my ministry and today is ‘If you believe in God’s power, prove it.’ If you teach health, harmony and prosperity, furnish the actual proofs. . . .

“My first move was to refuse to recognize the poverty-stricken consciousness of the New Thought Temple actually. I firmly set aside all gratuitous invitations from members who offered to lend their homes for classes, etc., and also refused to house the activities in cheap rooms. As we had no money this was a radical step. My first classes were held in my own apartment, situated in the best part of Cincinnati. The Sunday services were held in a hall seating one hundred people.

In less than three months we had outgrown this hall, and my apartment classrooms. Before the end of the first year, we had audiences of five hundred and were finally crowded out of a large auditorium and compelled to rent the Or-pheum Theater, (at a weekly rental of $55.00), with a seating capacity of fifteen hundred, to accommodate the people who wished to attend the Sunday services. For two years we held services in this theater with capacity audiences. . . .

“After the first two years, the New Thought Temple financed easily without deficit, an expense account of $10,000.00 a year. We kept to our initial, inflexible rule of paying bills on sight, and called into operation the Law of Giving and Receiving, by making no definite charges either for healing or classes. The third year we bought a lot for $12,000.00, paying for it in a little more than a year’s time. On October 22nd, 1916, we moved into the lower structure of The New Thought Temple, which has been erected at a cost of $14,000.00, having all indebtedness discharged on the day we accepted the building from the contractors, an unprecedented feat for any church in the city.

“The New Thought Temple is thoroughly but flexibly organized, with a Board of Trustees of eleven men. It is the only church in the country, I believe, whose membership outnumbers its seating capacity, thus necessitating two Sunday services to separate congregations. There is a marvelous spirit of harmony, cooperation and fine unselfish service. Among its activities last year (1916) and the year preceding, were a free bread-line where more than six thousand men a week were fed, and an established mission. We have a splendid Sunday school, weekly classes, and give free lectures to the public at intervals in one of the largest theaters in the city. Many thousands of people here have been influenced and benefited by the New Thought message.”

In St. Louis, Mo., the movement known as Practical Christianity was the first to be established, also a German branch of the movement under the leadership of H. H. Schroeder, editor since 1893 of Das Wort, a periodical devoted to mental-healing for German-Americans. The first New Thought Center was organized September 23, 1910. A few people who had been meeting once or twice a month at a private house met on that occasion for a public statement of the principles for which they stood. Everett W. Pattison was chosen president and the name adopted was Metaphysical League. Later, the name was changed to New Thought League, with Miss Harriet C. Hulick, manager. Meetings have been regularly held on Sunday and Friday evenings. The resident speakers have included Charles T. Kenney, Charles P. Tiley, P. M. Bruner, and Miss H. C. Hulick.

The founder of the Order of the White Rose and the College of Divine Sciences and Realization, Cleveland, Ohio, Rev. J. F. C. Grumbine, began his work in Gene-seo, 111., in 1894, and with the publication of a quarterly magazine, Immortality, in Chicago. Mr. Grumbine was a Universalist, then a Unitarian minister. He was one of the pioneer New Thought lecturers and teachers, and has taught many hundreds of students in Boston and other parts of the United States, in Australia and England. His College of Divine Sciences and Realization is a correspondence school and has taught students from all parts of the world. Mr. Grumbine calls his ideal “Universal Religion,” and endeavors to show that science is both divine and natural. He is lecturer to the Psycho Science Society, in Cleveland, whose church buildings include an auditorium and parsonage.

In Philadelphia, Pa., the pioneer teachers were Miss Ellen M. Dyer and Miss Christian. A Truth Center flourished there for a time, and later gave place to the Unity Center and the Truth Center. In Washington, D. C, the pioneer teacher and healer was Miss Emma Gray, of the Christian Science Institute, now known as the National New Thought Center, under the leadership of Miss Gray and Dr. Ricker. Miss Gray is vice-president of the International New Thought Alliance for the District of Columbia and Maryland. Mrs. Florence Willard Day began her therapeutic work in Washington in 1898, and established The Temple of Truth in 1904.

Starting with borrowed capital amounting to $30.00, Mrs. Elizabeth Towne, then Mrs. J. H. Struble, has gradually built up a publishing house and a magazine, Nautilus, which has probably had the largest circulation of any New Thought periodical. Mrs. Towne began with the publication of a four page pamphlet in her home in Portland, Oregon. Later, she moved to Holyoke, Mass., where with her husband, Mr. William E. Towne, she has developed the publishing business and taken an active part in New Thought propagandism. Nautilus, sold extensively on the newstands, has taken the place of many of the earlier magazines, and is typical of the New Thought in its most popular and prosperous form.

Unity, Kansas City, is still the representative magazine of the branch of the movement known as practical Christianity. Its editors and their associates have not identified their activities with the therapeutic movement in general, but have widely extended their influence by organizing The Society of Silent Unity, which has many thousands of members throughout the world. Every day at noon and every evening at nine o’clock the members of this society go apart for a brief period of meditation on the “class thought” sent out by the magazine each month. The thought for the noon meditation for April, 1919, was “Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces,” and for the evening, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence cometh my help.” This society was organized in behalf of the absent healing department of the Unity work. Extensive work through correspondence is one of the activities centering in Kansas City, where is located The Unity School of Christianity, with a fine modern building, containing a large auditorium and classrooms. No fees are demanded for membership in the Society of Silent Unity, but members are asked to make voluntary contributions to defray expenses. Every month the magazine prints testimonials as to the value of its work in behalf of the sick and those seeking prosperity and improved conditions. The announcement of the Society says, “You can become a member of this Society and receive its help, if you have faith in the power of God. We will pray to the Father in secret and he will reward you openly. This promise is being fulfilled daily in his work.”[57]

The Unity movement is operated as a corporation under the name of Unity School of Christianity. Remuneration is based on whatever those benefited are moved to give. The Unity Tract Society is the publishing department of the work. The Unity buildings cover more than an acre and the publications reach 500,000 people.

Chapter 12. The Movement In Foreign Lands

“The New Thought Movement came because mankind built it with their desires.” This quotation stands at the head of an article on “The Great Power in and Through All,” by M. Douglas Fox, in The Rally, London, the official organ of the New Thought Extension Work in England. The article is significant and interesting as an indication of the way in which the growth of the movement is regarded in England.

“If we think for a moment we shall see that these words are a demonstration of the great cosmic law of demand and supply. Looking down the pages of history we find that whenever there was a crying, pressing need, and the souls of men went out in a great cry to the Infinite Source, back from the Source came the supply.

“For a very long time there has been going out from the souls of men a great cry for a wider religion and a greater inclusion, and their cry has waxed stronger and stronger.

“At the beginning of the nineteenth century the accepted ideas of God had become the opposite of those taught by Jesus the Christ, and they were to all intents and purposes those of the Jews of old. God was not a loving, tender Father; but a revengeful, capricious tyrant, who placed His newly created spirits in various bodies, and strongly contrasted environments. Here a child born with a criminal body, with wretched surroundings, and little incentive to virtue; and there another born of pure parents, with good conditions, and little incentive to evil.

“Yet, the religion of that day, taking no account of causes, taught that all the placidly and easily good ones would enjoy the everlasting bliss of heaven; while all others would find everlasting torment in the place they called hell. Thus God was represented as sitting apart from His world, in the bright, clear sky; while the devil stalked triumphant through the world. But the race-mind was rapidly evolving beyond such teaching; it no longer met the need — the great yearning of the race.

“Everywhere men were awaking to consideration of the inequalities; and the seeming injustices of human life ; and to their question of why these things were so, the Church had only one answer, viz., that ‘God’s doings were inscrutable; and must not be questioned.’

“But the answer to the earnest cry was poured out from the Infinite Source of Love; and little by little, a more rational religion was filtering through the old; and man began to understand more and more of his own complex nature, with its various planes of expression on which his evolution from the atom of God takes place.

“At the beginning of the nineteenth century man knew little of those finer planes of Nature which interpenetrate our physical plane; and he was ignorant also of the true facts relating to the physical plane, and its evolution.

“Orthodox science taught that man was a special creation, owing nothing to the kingdoms below him. Darwin’s discovery of the evolution of the physical man, shattered the old belief, and satisfied a small part of man’s great longing. But there are other and finer planes of man’s being, which, if he live entirely on the physical, must be starved. And so, by giving too much consideration to this physical plane, man came to think this was all; and to lose his belief in a life after death; and to regard death as final. Heaven and hell became to him fairy tales to be discarded; and his heart sickened and failed because of his unbelief.

“Then came a new philosophy, which declared that the dear dead were not lost for ever, were not far away; but living and loving still; nearer than ever, only on a different plane of life.

“The spiritualistic movement restored hope to many a soul who had lost all joy of life. The astral plane was studied ; and found by many to be very wonderful, and very beautiful. But this does not comprise all the finer natures, and man must learn to live evenly on all planes if he would live in Power.

“The truth about the third plane came to be taught by H. P. Blavatsky, from a deep study of Eastern lore. The mental part of man, then, forms another plane of life; and the discovery was followed by an over-appreciation of this plane.

“Then a fuller and deeper revelation was shed abroad on the earth, through the Christian Scientists, whose teaching that man is a spiritual being, in a spiritual world proclaimed to the world the true nature of man; but while looking to the spiritual the Christian Scientists denied the physical, which is the garment of the spiritual; and equally a part of man.

“Our New Thought Movement teaches a still wider inclusion; having for its first vital fundamental, the one mind in all and through all. This is not a religion ; not a sect; it is a principle, which links and unifies the world thought.

“New Thought is constructive; and will destroy nothing as it condemns nothing. Its open-armed welcome to those of every class, creed and color, has drawn into the movement a motley crowd; and New Thought is seeking to harmonize these just as every note in a chord of music is harmonized; as the varied tints of a landscape create the glorious beauty of the scene; or as the perfume of every flower in your garden mingles to make glad the heart of man.

“We shall never be alike; never think alike. There will be sects, and schools of thought. There will be greater and stronger individuality; but there will be a cessation of the jarring, and the jangling of creeds and opinions; a truer liberty, and a deeper love as we come to realize that men, nations and things are joined in the One Life in all and through all, and that there is nothing outside of God.”

The history of the movement in England did not differ essentially from its development in the United States. In England as in America, interest was aroused by Christian Science, then came a gradual reaction and the establishment of independent branches of the movement. Leaders of the Higher Thought appeared after a time, and it became customary for New Thought leaders from America to visit London and other cities, exchanging views with English leaders and holding classes. Among these may be mentioned Mr. Patterson, Dr. Julia Seton, who established the New Thought Center, and Mrs. Militz, in connection with her lecturing tours of the world. The Woman’s Union, on Ebury Street, London, led in time to the Higher Thought Center, 40 Courtfleld Gardens, Kensington, and some of the leaders, notably Miss Alice Callow, secretary, have been connected with the work in London from the beginning. Similar centers were established in different parts of England and Scotland, also in Ireland. With the coming of The New Thought Alliance to London in 1914, the devotees of the movement in the British Isles became identified with the international movement and the Alliance has since been recognized as the world’s New Thought society.

The most widely read of the English New Thought writers was Judge T. Troward (1834-1916), born in India, educated at the Victoria College, Island of Jersey, divisional judge, and author of Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science and other volumes.

The Higher Thought Center in Nottingham was established in September, 1906. The New Life Center, a healing and educational home, was founded at Spring Grove House, Isleworth, London, W., in 1910. Sunday services were established later, and a library, with rooms for healing. Spring Grove House has since become the largest establishment of its kind in England, and its founder, Dr. O. E. Miller, one of the chief workers. The plan is to build up an industrial cooperative educational center where men and women may come to live and engage in all branches of useful and artistic work. A printing department has already been established. Other centers in cooperation with the one at Isleworth have been organized in Hastings and Wolverhampton. In July, 1914, Mr. Paul Tyner, who acquired his interest in the New Thought from the publications of Helen Wilmans, in 1893, became the leader of the New Thought Center, 85 Hanover Street, Edinburgh.

Mr. Tyner, author of The Living Christ, editor of The Temple, Denver, Colorado, and in 1898-99 editor of The Arena, was associated with Mr. Patterson in the Alliance School of Applied Metaphysics, in New York; and, in cooperation with Mr. Eugene Del Mar, author of Spiritual and Mental Attraction, and The Divinity of Desire, organized the first Mental Science Temple in New York. He was minister of the New Thought Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1909-10, and of the Dayton, Ohio, Truth Center, 1910-11. Later, while in New York, Mr. Tyner organized in connection with the New Thought Magazine, edited by W. W. Atkinson, Chicago, 111., 140 New Thought reading rooms in different parts of the country.

Among others recently to do a large work in the British Isles, is Mr. F. L. Rawson of London, whose teaching is almost identical with Christian Science without the claims ordinarily made in behalf of Mrs. Eddy. Formerly a consulting engineer, Mr. Rawson was retained by the Daily Express to make a professional examination into mental healing. The result was the discovery that such healing was practiced all over the world, and Mr. Rawson became an ardent therapeutist. During the war he turned to the care of soldiers, and in a pamphlet entitled How to Protect our Soldiers, he gives what he calls the “secret of divine protection.”

In this pamphlet Mr. Rawson says, “Today there are many millions of mental workers, containing some fifty or sixty schools. Only four or five of these work on the basis that Jesus did, namely, by turning in thought to God. The remainder work in the same way as the sorcerers and witches of the past and the black magic workers and hypnotists today, namely, with the human mind. This means that they use one or other of the five different forms of hypnotism, all of which are more or less harmful, not only to the patient, but to the practitioner.

“The real value of my investigation for the Daily Express and of Life Understood, which contains the results of my work, does not lie in proving that all disease is mental . . . Nor to prove that matter is mental phenomena. The real value lies in proving the difference between the right and wrong method of mental working. . .. The right method of healing (is) by the realization of the divine mind . . . the scientific method of right thinking which was taught and demonstrated by Jesus the Christ, the most perfect and the most scientific man that ever lived.

“There is a hard and fast line drawn between the two methods of mental working, and between the right and the wrong method of prayer. Jesus pointed out the difference more than once. If, when you are mentally working, you are thinking of reality, that is, of God, of heaven, the real world, of the Christ, or of the spiritual man, you are helping your patient, yourself, and the world. If, on the contrary, you are thinking of the material man or the mental world, whatever you are thinking about them, unless you are denying their reality, you are harming your patient, harming yourself, and doing no good to the world. Even by strong, determined thinking, or will-power, trying to bring about what you think is good, you can neither destroy the evil thoughts nor purify the so-called human mind. Truth and Love, that is, God, alone heals. The healing, then, is perfect and permanent, whether of disease, sin, or any of the many troubles that make this world a veritable hell to so many. . . . Jesus relied on his knowledge of God, not on strong thinking and will-power. There is no limit to this apparent effect of thought. If you are certain enough that you are dead, you are dead instantly....If, on the contrary, you turn to heaven and think clearly enough of God, then the action of God takes place, and good for all must ensue. . . . You have to think of absolute good, the world of reality. You have to think of an ideal world, the highest good that you can possibly imagine. You have to think of God and heaven; heaven being a perfect state of consciousness, a mental world, in which all is perfect, because all is governed by a perfect God, by the Principle of absolute good.

“When I found that every thought a man thinks has an effect, I came to the conclusion that the highest thought I could think ought to give me the best result. The highest thought I could think was to turn in thought to heaven and realize the absolute love of God, getting away from all recognition of the material world . . . God became a living fact to me. . . . Rest on God. It is God’s business to look after you. . . . The realization ‘There is nothing but God,’ I have found the most effective against accidents. Tt is a lie ; all is spiritual,’ is perhaps easier for some to realize. . . . When you see some one in pain, instead of thinking of him as in pain and so increasing it, turn in thought to heaven and realize that there is no such thing as pain there, and then think of the absolute joy, bliss, and happiness in that perfect world.”

The pioneer work of Sister Veni Cooper-Mathieson in Australia began in 1903, under the title of “The Woman’s White Cross Moral Reform Crusade,” and a three years’ lecture-course in Sydney on “The Truth Seekers.” The first magazine, The Truth Seeker, was established in January, 1905. In April, 1909, the Church Universal in Perth, Western Australia, was organized. In December, 1914, this church was moved to Sydney, and a Truth Center was established. The first magazine was united with The Healer and called The Revealer, in 1915, the year of the founding of The Universal Truth Publishing Co. of Australasia. A Home of Truth was also established that year.

The Church Universal daily affirmation is introduced as follows in The Revealer, “These affirmations are spoken to the Real Self, the Spiritual Being within each of us. The physical body — the flesh and blood — is but the temple wherein He dwells, and is therefore but that which is at our service to transmute by the Word into a Spiritual expression of our real God-being, brought forth from the perfect Image.

“The real Man and Woman of each of us is the Divine Being; and as we allow this true Self to rule our lives, we put on the ‘Mind of Christ,’ and so reveal God’s Son within the Son of Man. As the God-Self thinks and acts through us, so will these true ideas — or Immaculate Conceptions — and good healthful thoughts be expressed in the outer self — the body — and we thus daily build that ‘House not made with hands’ by the Power of Thought, which is the one Creative Power of the Universe.

“Speak the Word only. ‘According to Thy Word be it unto thee.’

“Jehovah-Almighty, Great Father-Mother God; I, thy child, acknowledge Thee to be my Creator. Thou hast endowed me with all Thine own glorious Creative Powers. Thou hast given me richly of Thyself. There is nothing that I lack. All is mine. I am created in Thy perfect Image, and as a pure spiritual being must reveal Thy perfect Likeness. The Seed of the Christ is within me. I am Thine Only Begotten and Well-beloved Son, full of Grace and Truth. Thy Word is now made flesh and dwells in me, the Son of God within the Son of Man. Thy Eternal Life is my Life. Thy Infinite Wisdom guides me. Thy Wondrous Intelligence illumines my mind. Thy Glorious Substance feeds me. Thy Perfect Health is revealed in me. Thy Infinite Power upholds me. Thy Almighty Strength is my support. Thy Unchanging Love surrounds me. Thy Eternal Truth has made me free. ...

“With glad recognition of my glorious birthright, I rejoice and give praise unto Thee, my Everlasting Father, who liveth, loveth, moveth, and hath Thy Perfect Being in me, Thy Beloved Child. God and Man are inseparably One, Now and throughout Eternity.”

Mr. Philip O’Bryen Hoare started the New Thought work in New Zealand in 1905. Later, Mr. Hoare lectured in New South Wales and Queensland, and settled in Adelaide, South Australia, where he established The First School of New Thought and Mental Science. Later still, Mr. Hoare lectured in Johannesburg, South Africa, and reestablished his school of New Thought in Melbourne, Australia.

As elsewhere, the New Thought Alliance has been welcomed as the unifying society of the mental-healing movement. Miss Eunice Jones, Adelaide, is the vicepresident for South Australia; Mrs. Preshaw, of Clarmont represents Western Australia; Miss Emilie A. Hulett, Melbourne, represents Victoria; Mrs. Grace Victor, North Sydney, is vice-president for New South Wales; Miss Grace M. Aguilar, Brisbane, represents Queensland.

In Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, Mrs. Melville Moncrief, vice-president for the Islands, reports the establishment of The Happy Thought Coffee House on the waterfront, a resort for the men of the streets, the aim being to reach the human derelicts, and through a kind word and a little material assistance help the men to a place where they may be able to help themselves. An Employment Bureau, with free baths, and a bowl of soup and bread, or coffee and doughnuts, for five cents, affords a man a place to rest and refresh himself. . . . The men are given every freedom. There are no rules. They are allowed to play cards and smoke, and keep their hats on if they want to. . . . An intoxicated man is shown the same respect as a sober one, and given the same kind of treatment. The law of love is put to a practical test, and it has been found to work great changes in some of these lives. Mrs. Melville and Mrs. O. B. Guest give their time to this work, free, and employ two assistants to serve the meals. New Thought books are given out when the men are ready to receive the new idea. . . . Silent treatments have been given the drinking men, and many lives have been rehabilitated, and useful members of society made from men who have been on the city’s scrap-heap. Other activities in Honolulu consist in class-instruction and the general work of the New Thought Center. Mrs. Militz, Mrs. Helen Van-Anderson-Gordon, and other leading New Thought teachers have lectured in the Islands.

The pioneer worker in Chile was Georgina Hooper de Hammerton, whose interest in the inner life began in 1902, when she attended lectures on spiritualism intermixed with some of Swedenborg’s teachings, and organized a theosophical society in Valparaiso. The next impetus came from reading The New Thought, edited by W. W. Atkinson. The work of healing and teaching the New Thought began in December, 1904. The only book available in Spanish at that time was a translation of Mr. Trine’s In Tune with the Infinite. The healing work was transferred to Santiago in March, 1910. The first organization was founded May 7, 1912, the In-stituto de Ciencia Mental Armonia, with 20 members, most of whom had been healed by the new method. The first books to be translated into Spanish and published in Chile were Law of the New Thought, by W. W. Atkinson, and Mental Healing Made Plain, by Kate A. Boehme. The vice-president for South America is Margot Polet de Varvalla, of Santiago, Chile.

The work in Brazil began in June, 1907, with the founding of the Circulo Esoterico da Cummunhao do Pensamento, in San Paulo, on the basis of teachings derived from the writings of Prentice Mulford, W. W. Atkinson, Yogi Ramacharaka, and others. The first magazine, the O Pensamento, edited by Antonio Olivio Rodrigues, was established in November, 1907. The Circulo had in 1917, 7,000 associates in Brazil and other lands. There were at that time 50 allied circles, organized on the same basis as the parent circle in San Paulo. Portugese, not Spanish, is the language used. O Pensamento, the title of the magazine, signifies “Mind.”

It is difficult to obtain information concerning the influence of New Thought literature in foreign languages. The works of Mr. Trine, Dr. Marden, H. W. Dresser, and others have been translated into various European languages, such as French, German, and Spanish, and these books have been extensively sold. But since the beginning of the war communication has been more or less interrupted. The fate of New Thought books in Germany, for example, is matter of doubt. The interesting fact is that in Germany, as in other foreign lands, there has been a call for such books.

The International New Thought Alliance has steadily extended its work and its influence throughout foreign lands. In 1918, the vice-presidents outside of North America included the following: South Australia, Miss Eunice Jones, Adelaide; Western Australia, Mrs. Preshaw, Clarmont; Victoria, Australia, Miss Emilie A. Hulett, Melbourne ; Queensland, Australia, Miss Grace M. Aguilar, Brisbane; British Isles, Rev. J. Bruce Wallace, Limavady, County Londonderry, Ireland; France, Mme. Florence Struve, Paris; Hawaiian Islands, Mrs. Melville Moncrief, Honolulu; New Zealand, Mr. M. Walker, Auckland; New Zealand, South Island, Mrs. Marie Barrie, Marlborough; Tasmania, Mr. Willoughby Connor, Hobart; South America, Margot Polet de Varalla Miguel-Clara, Santiago, Chile.

Henry Wood’s Ideal Suggestion has been translated into Chinese. There is a movement in Japan known as “Healing by the Good.” It is a well known fact that mental healing has always been in vogue in India from ancient times. In the Up-anishads there are teachings closely resembling those of the New Thought. Very little has been done, however, to trace out the resemblances. Representatives of the Vedanta philosophy who have lectured in the United States have called attention to certain points of contact between the ideas that prevail in the Orient and those originating independently in the Occident. In general, it is plain that the New Thought stands for the individual in contrast with the Oriental tendency toward mysticism and pantheism. As the New Thought works its way into the far East, it will be on a practical basis, by supplying a method of realization and healing, and an activity or affirmationism usually lacking in countries where mysticism prevails.

The New Thought has often been stated in mystical language, as if it meant the confusion of man with God. But there is no advantage in such statements. What is meant is individualism in the better sense. The New Thought stands for the affirmation or freedom of the individual. It is thus distinctly American in its idealism. There is an advantage in maintaining this its distinctiveness, in contrast with Orientalism in all forms.

Chapter 13. Looking Forward

“Never did mankind need the Truth as today.[58] In the last analysis, thought is the controlling factor in the universe and men will manifest that which they think in their hearts. The present war is the product of the old thought, as progress is the product of democracy.

“The whole mental and religious worlds are shifting. The old thought has been tried as by fire and as ordinarily expounded by its professional teachers is found wanting. The world is seeking and demanding a constructive religion and philosophy that will make impossible all future catastrophes such as that which is now upon us.

“This is the opportunity of the New Thought. To meet this opportunity, however, we must be prepared. The Alliance is an instrument of such preparation. To be effective, it must have your active support, and this support must be not only in your thought, but in outward manifestation. In other words, we want you to talk up the Alliance, to get members, to contribute financially and to induce others also to contribute. We should have in the field now at least one or two lecturers and after the war we should have many more. These lecturers should be paid so that they could be relieved of the need of holding private classes and could give their whole time to the work of supporting the Truth.

“This is your work. The Alliance is your instrument for giving the message to the world. We now have a foothold in many lands and are in a position to spread the gospel of health, efficiency, right-thinking and right-living. We can introduce all nations to the science of the Divine — the New Thought of God and of man — that is to make a new heaven and a new earth. We are making a definite call upon you to do your part. Open your hearts and the Spirit will strive with you mightily, as it has striven with us, to press forward in this great cause.

“The Alliance depends upon the Divine Supply and we are the avenues through which the Divine Supply manifests. We are teaching abundance and, therefore, must manifest the abundance we teach. Ours is the divinely appointed task of spreading the essential Christ Truths for the healing of the individual and of the nations. The fields are white to harvest. All of us must do our full part in preparing to spread the message. We have seen the vision and must give abundantly of our thought, of our time and of our substance to bring it into full manifestation.

“There is a divine urge in the souls of men toward a new and better humanity. All prophecy agrees that the great hour has struck for the ending of the old order and the beginning of the new. The new order must be built on the principles of the Christ. The old order failed because it did not live up to His ideals. Its service was a lip service. It did not do His commandments. These commandments were very definitely stated — heal the sick, love one another, minister to others, condemn not, have faith in the Divine Supply. The nations calling themselves Christian have flagrantly violated these commandments. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ The time has come when we must choose the one thing or the other, either Christ or Antichrist. If we choose Christ, it must be in no halfhearted way. We must do the works.

“The fruits of the Spirit are health, happiness, peace, good-will, faith, progress, liberty. The impulse of the Spirit is in our hearts to lead the world to reconstruction, regeneration and permanent peace. We should be ready to take the healing message to all who can receive and apply it. To do this most effectively, however, we must cooperate.

“The first requisite of efficiency is self-confidence — not over-confidence or vanity, but reliance in one’s own ability to accomplish the task in hand. Of course, knowledge and training are necessary, but beyond and above these a spiritual quality is required — the reliance on the absolute and perfect faith that with God’s help we can do the thing we have to do.

“This attitude of mind is an essential part of New Thought teachings. It is a part of the gospel of democracy. When men are free to use their individual initiative and inner resources, they at once become masters of their own destiny and their success or failure is in their own hands. Freedom alone is not enough unless it is accompanied by the ability, the spirit and the confidence to use it. Democracy plus New Thought make an invincible combination. Democracy frees the soul from man-made shackles and New Thought teaches it to depend upon the Divine.

“Thought is the most powerful force in the world.[59] It constructs all cities, all works of art, all machinery, all invention, all institutions and all states. These, however, are but its outward and obvious manifestations. It has subtle and more far-reaching results. It literally builds the body, molds the features, forms the character, controls the health, shapes the circumstances, and make the fortune and the happiness or unhappiness of the individual.

“In ways that are not yet quite understood, but that have been proved by numerous experiments and are accepted by a considerable school of scientific men, our thoughts influence the minds of others, for telepathy, or the power of mind over mind without the use of visible means of communication, is now a generally accepted fact.

“How important is it, then, that we send out only good thoughts. It has been said that we live not unto ourselves alone, but it can be said now with equal truth that we think not unto ourselves alone. If angels have influence over the minds of men, if the spirits of the dead guide, inspire and uplift the minds of the living, they must exercise this power through something akin to telepathic influence. We who are living, however, can exercise an equal influence for good. We, therefore, can be good angels to others simply by thinking lovingly, constructively, rightfully and truthfully of them.

“By setting aside a short time each day to think good thoughts, we serve a twofold purpose. First, we improve our own minds and our own bodies; second, we send out invisible messengers bearing good tidings to the minds of others.

“Give the world a new thought of Christ. In the old thought all parts of the Bible have been held equally the word of God. In the New Thought, that part of the Bible containing the message of Christ is set on a plane above all the rest.[60] This new age is to be the Christ age, when the Son of Man is to come in the hearts of men. In the old thought we have been compromising between Christ and Antichrist. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ The present horror in which the world finds itself is not due to the failure of Christianity, because the world has not had Christianity of the true sort. It is only the failure of the half Christianity in which we have masqueraded.

“We have now come to the dividing of the ways. The Christ healing, the Christ love, the Christ faith and the Christ peace are to rule in the world henceforth and forever.

“It is the office of the New Thought to build the new temple on the corner stone of the Christ. This is a spiritual universe. We are made in the image of God and are spiritual beings. We are not of the beast and have not his mark either on our foreheads, nor in our hands, and we must proclaim unto all peoples in all lands that a new hour has come, that a new day has dawned and that the light thereof is the Light of the World.

“The war is ended and the New Age is here.[61] The outcome is, perhaps, the most inspiring event of the history of the human race since the coming of the Son of Man. It is not only an end of this, the greatest of all wars, but with the right thought and right attitude on the part of the free nations, it will be the end of all war. It was not an accident that the New Thought and other kindred movements were born in this age. Rather it is the working out of the Spirit and the realization of the prophecy of the coming of the Christ in human consciousness.

“This is the golden opportunity for Truth teaching. Never has there been a greater demonstration of the presence of God in the affairs of man. Never has there been a more signal evidence that this is a spiritual universe. The forward strides made during the war have been tremendous. Temperance, liberty, democracy, the rights of women, cooperation, efficiency, spirituality, faith in the right — all of these have been advanced, and, above all, a league of nations has been created that should be a guarantee of the reign of peace, of liberty and of righteousness throughout the coming ages.

“When the New Thought Congress met at Boston, the conflict was at its fiercest and no one could certainly prophesy the end. Yet it is a happy fact that more than fifty field secretaries were elected, a board of lectureship provided for and other steps taken that would meet the great need for work after the war. This is another signal proof of the working of the Spirit, for those present were unconscious that they were thus preparing for the great work that all felt would be done after the war. Most of them, if they expressed an opinion at all, thought that the conflict might last another year, yet today we are at the dawn of peace and have our campaign planned for the Great Drive for New Thought and the Alliance. . . .

“The first work in the New Age is that of reconstruction.[62] The nations torn by war and revolution must be rebuilt, the war’s staggering debt must be paid, the wounds of nature and of man must be healed, shattered homes and cities must be replaced, the shell-torn and burrowed earth must be prepared for tillage, new and more democratic governments must be erected, the place of labor in the social scheme must be determined, woman must be enfranchised and her place in the business and industrial, as well as in the political, world established, the nations must be associated to insure liberty and peace for the future and, more than all, the thoughts of men must be turned to the establishment of a greater and better civilization than that which so nearly ended in wreck in the world war.

“The old time is as definitely dead as the old world that preceded 1914. The New Thought is the most vital thing now on this planet. In its philosophy is included the things most needed in the work of healing the nations and building the new order. In a word, this may be described as the essential teachings of the Christ. It was the neglect of these principles in the so-called Christian nations that was largely responsible for the failure of the old order. Henceforth all peoples must be taught to follow His precepts, not so much in form as in spirit and in Truth.

“Just now it is political settlement that is needed. Let us all hold that divine Truth is being manifested in the institutions and governments of men, that the political structure of the future is to be erected, not on the sands of materialism, but on the rock of the Spirit, so that if the storms again assail it, it will stand. Let us hold both the spiritual and the political vision, for the only freedom and the only peace are those that come of the Divine. We must heal the nations as we heal the individual by seeing them as manifestations of God. Let us hold further that there shall come those who will speak the new political gospel to all peoples, of brotherhood and peace, of justice and freedom, of righteousness and industry, of health and prosperity.

“The world republic is on its way. Earth’s greatest and happiest age is ahead. Let us hold the perfect vision of it in our hearts and thus help to bring it into manifestation.

“This is a spiritual universe and it will require a spiritual age to see it in the fullness of its beauty and power. Ear has not heard and eye has not seen what, is in store for the human race right here on this planet. The storm is over and the sunlight is breaking in full splendor on the greatest and happiest era this world has ever known. The Christ is coming in the hearts of humanity.

“God is the only reality and man is made in His image. All that is real of us is of Him. When we think of ourselves as other than His, we are taking on unreality. When we think of ourselves as material or as subject to sickness, sin and death, we take on the unreality of the things we picture and this unreality disappears and so much of us as we have identified therewith also disappears. The only things that are permanent in human history are those touched by the far-shining light of God’s purposes. God’s righteousness and Truth triumph forever. Let us sing to Him a new song in this New Day that is dawning — a song of healing, of brotherly love, of the building of a new heaven and a new earth. There are high and sweet and fine thoughts in the heart of the world today, and high and sweet and fine things will be manifested as the fruit of this thinking. In this New Age spiritual things are to become as matters of everyday — spiritual healing, spiritual communion, spiritual realization. After the crucifixion of humanity comes the resurrection. All the world is on tiptoe with the expectancy of mighty things, all the pulpits of Christendom are echoing to the prophecies of the second coming. Whisper this secret into the ear of their thought, ‘He is already here.’ Their very expectancy and the world’s need has called Him. He is incarnated in humanity and His mighty works of healing, of blessing and of redeeming are seen all over the earth, for we now know the Truth that He knew, that the Father in us doeth the works. God is the only reality and we are only real so far as we show forth His image and identify ourselves with Him and His works. All else is vanity.[63]

“It is contemplated holding a Silent Hour each day for healing and realization. . . . For the present it is suggested that each center ask its members to hold a brief silence, say at the noon hour each day, for the healing of the individual and of the nations. Let this hour be dedicated to the realization of God. It is not necessary that any one individual give a full hour, or any other stated time, to this silence, but he should devote to it a brief time, even though but a moment, and this should be within the hour set. Let us on each day take some definite thought. The first, ‘God is Love’; the second, ‘God is Health’; the third, ‘God is the Only Reality’; the fourth, ‘God’s image is in me’; the fifth, ‘The Father in me doeth the works’; the sixth, ‘God’s kingdom is come on earth’; and the seventh, ‘The Christ is here in the hearts of humanity.’ Thus we have one thought for each day of the week. Let us think these thoughts all together with faith and with power and we can move the world. . . .”

At a meeting to commemorate the founding of the Metaphysical Club of Boston, in 1914, Mrs. J. A. Dresser indicated what seemed to her, as the oldest representative of the therapeutic movement, “the future for the New Thought.” The address was interesting because it gave expression to another way of interpreting the movement, in terms of its longer history. Mrs. Dresser said in part:

“We have come together from varied interests with one end in view. We stand for the ideal that a new life, a new philosophy is coming into the world. Some of us are interested in applying it to healing; others care more for the philosophical elements; others still for its mystic and spiritual factors; and some for the religious point of view it presents; but we are all united in the desire to interpret and to understand life as a whole in the light of it.

“As I look back through more than fifty years of experience I seem to see something of the wonderful leading of the divine providence, and I look forward with deepening interest to the future which is unfolding. I see how Mr. Quimby grasped the thought which we all call new. He saw that mind and soul are paramount, that thought is substance, and that even love has body, and a power to heal. He saw the physical as the body of the inner world and the temple of the soul, and like all founders of a thing so great, he saw more keenly, more clearly and with more rational view, than those who followed him, the value of these truths. . . .

“You all know how it was with this great truth that Mr. Quimby brought to light — how Christian Science came, how many followed blindly into wide extremes and wild denials of the obvious facts of life, unbalanced in irrationality. You all know how the saner ones came back, and now you see the inevitable crumbling of that structure before the return of reason. And some of you remember the efforts, thirty years ago, on the part of those who had become interested in these truths—    like my husband and myself, who had been students under Mr. Quimby’s care—    to begin the movement that has led on to this day, and that has ultimately produced this Club and spread its influence over the land. That evening when this Club was formed, a few earnest men and women met to gain strength by unity. We were seeking for just what Mr. Quimby had sought for years before — to understand the relation between the soul, the mind and the body, believing that in this lay the key to our relation to God and to all life — the very secret of philosophy.

“During the years of Mr. Quimby’s practice of healing, he had sought for this scientific understanding. He had seen that mind is substance; he also saw that there is an intermediary substance between mind and body, and he called this ‘spiritual matter.’ He said this is the substance which receives all impressions both good and bad. This is the same intermediary substance which the modern scientist speaks of as the ‘subconscious’ mind — that Mr. Frederick W. H. Meyers called the ‘subliminal self — that Swedenborg means by the ‘limbus’ — that Dr. Morton Prince explains in his new book, The Unconscious;

“Mr. Quimby’s researches were directly in line with the best of modern scientific thought, and with the best philosophical teaching of the past. He hoped to reduce to a science his theory that man is here and now a spiritual being, and that this intermediary substance of his nature is the basis of all his happiness or misery. The divine flows in with all love, wisdom and power into every human soul, seeking embodiment there. In the supra-conscious degrees of the mind it is received in its integrity. This is the kingdom of heaven within. In the conscious mind it is received only in part. When the divine finds forms corresponding to itself, there it lodges; but when the forms are out of correspondence it is perverted or lost. The life current is an active force; it is active, creative, formative. In the mind of man it must either build up or break down the divine image — God’s image in man, the very tabernacle of the divine life.[64]

“In the latter part of Mr. Quimby’s life he was seeing more and more clearly that man is an instrument and a constant receiver of life, not a self-possessor of it. And he believed that sickness and unhappiness are the result of man’s having closed the doors to the influx of divine life, and that health and happiness are regained by the process of re-opening them. By the understanding and acknowledgment of this relation with the Source of life, man finds his health, happiness and heaven. . . . (These statements) show clearly how this thought should go on. They show that to think well, to be rational, we must be open, we must seek the truth and face squarely our issues; we must deal in facts, in verities, and avoid mere beliefs and opinions, and affirm only what is true. . . . We hear it said that fears must be put away. A fear for the New Thought people to put away out of their doctrine and out of themselves, is the fear the frankest self-examination and acknowledgment of what is true in personal defects in ourselves or in others can do the slightest harm so long as the mind is fixed upon, and dominated by, God and the true ideal from Him. . . .

“The New Thought is an idealistic philosophy, its devotees are idealists. As individuals you are conspicuous for the ideals you hold, for the tenacity with which you hold them, and for the power which you ascribe to them. The New Thought movement more than any other in our day, stands for the affirmative attitude, and to it the world is indebted on that account. But its weakness has been that in its zeal for the affirmative it has forgotten the adage of the ancients — ‘Man, know thyself.’ It has seen how paralyzing was the self-analysis and the condemnation of evil in the church of the past; and, in the endeavor to break away from every vestige of the negative, it has gone to the other extreme. My effort would be to help (the movement) to come back again, not to a negative point of view, but to the rational standard, and to face squarely toward the truth.

“I do not ask you to go to some one source to gain the insight which shall bring the rational basis for New Thought. . . . Let us all, as individuals, remember that it is in our lives that we must manifest our faith in the truth we have. We have only to set aside self-love, self-glory, and work earnestly in any cause, by every word and deed of love that opportunity offers, to find ourselves growing gradually in wisdom and understanding, and out of our ills and every form of unhappiness. God is everywhere and always the same. He is present with His love, wisdom and power ; and, as I have said, where there are forms in correspondence with Him there He flows in and is. Hence we may have that fullness of power present with us and in us. Therefore as He is in me with His transforming and renewing power, He can convert my conscious mind into harmony with the supra-conscious, — power to convert my subconscious mind and my body into harmony with the kingdom of heaven within, power when ‘my eye is single to fill my whole body with light.’

“I am the last of those who studied with the founder of this great movement; let me leave with you this final word : Remember all life, all goodness and all power come from God. The humblest shall be greatest, the last first, and he who seeks not for himself, but also longs to serve, shall reach the glory and the light. Affirm your capacity to receive love, wisdom and power from the Lord — affirm that truth — hold to that truth. So shall your life be full, and so shall you live your life in service, and find it gloriously in Him. The truth shall make you free.”

Chapter 14. Kindred Movements

Very little effort has thus far been made to put the New Thought in intelligible relation with other types of thought. Christian Science has been abundantly criticized, and it has been duly recognized by makers of dictionaries and encyclopedias; but ordinarily it is defined or explained as if it were the only phase of the mental-healing movement. The clergy gave early recognition to the movement, but usually without recognizing that it possessed any particular value. Rev. C. A. Bartol, a prominent Unitarian clergyman, preached a sermon on it in Boston, May 4, 1884. Adverse criticisms appeared in the Andover Review, March, 1887, in an article by Rev. Dr. Denison of Williams College; and in The Century, July, 1887, in an article by Rev. Dr. Buckley. Other criticisms have appeared from time to time, including Spiritual Healing, by Rev. W. F. Cobb, London, 1914, and The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, by Rev. Dr. Cutten. But such studies have nearly always been based on an outsider’s observation, not on actual experience with the phenomena described. Hence these studies have led to no definite results.

In an article entitled “New Thought” in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, H. A. Youtz has given a fairly intelligible account of some phases of the New Thought. But this writer has erroneously attributed the New Thought entirely to Christian Science. He does not mention Quimby or Evans, and seems entirely unaware that there was a long period of development of mental healing in America prior to the interest which separated off from Christian Science and joined mental science. The bibliography is of slight value. It contains the titles of only a few of the leading books on the subject.

The article on the New Thought in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Volume IX, is by A. B. Allen, a New Thought writer, and it is excellent as a general statement of the movement and what it stands for. But in the bibliography Mr. Allen mentions those books only which are most in line with his own interpretation. He does not mention the early or more important books at all. He refers neither to Quimby nor to Evans, and seems unaware that the New Thought has had a history. The bibliography is not representative.

In his American Thought from Puritanism to Pragmatism, New York, 1915, Dr. Woodbridge Riley devotes a section to “Benjamin Rush and Mental Healing,” in which he discusses Dr. Rush’s Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty. He also mentions Rush’s Diseases of the Mind, 1812, under the head of materialism. That is to say, this type of mental healing was not “mental” at all as the term is understood by disciples of the New Thought. Dr. Riley then goes on to speak of Charles Poyen, author of Progress of Animal Magnetism in New England, 1837, and of the “whole tribe of Yankee magnetic healers,” with the remark that “this is not the place to show how this exaggerated materialism was turned into a propaganda among the pious. It would lead to a long digression to explain the incredible mixture of religion and medicine which has been noted by foreign observers. . . . Nor have we time to more than suggest the direction of the other line of development of mental medicine.” By “the incredible mixture” Dr. Riley probably means Christian Science. But why should he not give attention to what he calls “the other line of development,” since it has become a characteristic form of “American thought”? He does indeed touch upon its resemblance to transcendentalism, and he refers to Emerson’s doctrine of self-reliance. But he thinks it would have been better if mental healing had followed the development of scientific therapy in France, or had returned to the materialism of Dr. Rush. He seems unmindful of the fact that one of the investigators who reacted against “the Yankee magnetic healers,” Mr. Quimby, developed in a direction far removed from materialism, and led the way to a whole line of literature, beginning with the works of Rev. Mr. Evans. To him the New Thought would probably seem in some respects an “incredible mixture.” Hence materialism would be preferable. But it is hardly the province of the historian to indulge in pronounced preferences. It is matter of history that the New Thought is a typical expression of American thought on its practical side. The “mixture” is no more incredible than Christianity itself. The original gospel included both piety and healing.

The difficulty usually is that writers who judge mental healing from the outside start with the presupposition that all genuine mental healing is “scientific,” meaning by “science” the kind of physiological psychology which is solely concerned with facts, the facts of the dependence of the mind’s states on the brain. Mun-sterberg’s Psychotherapy is an extreme instance of this kind of psychology, a disguised materialism “made in Germany.” H. Addington Bruce’s Scientific Mental Healing is a step in advance of this, but still looks toward “science” in the narrower sense, hence it overlooks the values of the New Thought. So, too, books like Lawrence’s Primitive Psychotherapy and Quackery, Boston, 1910; and Cutten’s Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing, New York, 1911; or Dr. T. S. Clouston’s Mind-cures from a Scientific Point of View, are chiefly interesting from the point of view either of general curiosity or of an external study of the subject. Cobb’s Spiritual Healing, London, 1914, comes much nearer the inner point of view, and is of value as a spiritual history of healing prior to the nineteenth century. But what one misses is an interpretation of healing from the inside, as experienced by the individual. Even Hudson, in his Law of Mental Medicine, Chicago, 1903, fails to give us this interior interpretation. Hudson is best known for his exaggerated emphasis of the difference between the so-called subjective mind and the objective mind. The disciple of the New Thought who knows the therapeutic experience from within would speak rather of the different levels or planes of consciousness, and of the ideals with the highest level or “real self.” In contrast with physiological psychology regarded as “science,” the advocate of the New Thought holds that a higher or spiritual science is implied in what we know and believe concerning this, the spiritual level of human consciousness.

The time appears to have come when the New Thought should be judged dispassionately. It is not a mere question of science, or of any special phase of the New Thought advocated by this or that leader as a commercial enterprise. No list of books prepared to enlighten the public can be complete without including at least one volume by Mr. Evans; one or two of the period from 1894 to 1900, when the organizations were taking shape; and several of the more popular books, such as Miss Cady’s, or those by Mrs. Militz, which have given shape to the movement in the West. The sidelines and allied teachings have developed without number. Thus there is a whole literature of books on success, such as those by Dr. Marden, whose work began with books like Pushing to the Front. But what is needed in the first place, if the New Thought shall be recognized as distinctive, is an understanding of the central principles as they have been developed out of the therapeutic experience. For it is this experience which led the way to the psychology deemed so baffling by the partisan of the special sciences.

While most of the New Thought periodicals have represented certain phases of the movement only, some have given impartial expression to its manifold tendencies. Dr. Winkley’s magazine, Practical Ideals, was of that type. The Metaphysical Magazine, March, 1901, contained an article by Eliza Calvert Hall entitled “The Evolution of Mental Science,” which was a thoughtful contribution. In Mind, biographical studies of mental-healing leaders were published from time to time, most of them accurate. Mr. Paul Tyner contributed to the American Review of Reviews, 1902, an article entitled “The Metaphysical Movement,” containing studies of New Thought leaders, such as Henry Wood, Helen Wilmans, C. C. Post, Fannie James, Mrs. Cramer, R. W. Trine, and C. B. Patterson, based on sketches written by the leaders themselves. Mr. Tyner’s exposition of the movement as a whole was impartial. The difficulty thus far has been that people interested in the movement have not brought together such material as might be deemed impartial for the sake of estimating the human equation in relation to the movement and giving each tendency its proper place. No one who has undertaken to expound the movement for the sake of fostering interest in a particular phase of it has adequately treated its other phases. The effort would be worth while, for there might be less reason for the existence of so many variations.

It would be profitable, for example, to consider just what elements Christian Science contributed to the movement, and how these might be stated so as to assimilate their practical values without “metaphysics,” that is, the abstract principles brought over by the pioneers of Divine Science and other variations. The term Christian Science was freely used for a time, as if there were no differences. Thus Dr. Holcombe, for example, for the most part a follower of Swedenborg, but who identified the teachings of Mrs. Eddy and those of Swedenborg in a way that did not please the devotees of either, used the term in his Condensed Thoughts on Christian Science, 1889, in which he calls attention to the “immense power of thought” and points out that “evil or false thought repeats or pictures itself organically in the diseased tissues of the body.” Such pamphlets would not be classified under the head of Christian Science today. The history of the movement shows that this term has become more distinct. It is no longer a synonym for mental-healing in general. This gives the greater reason for making the New Thought more distinctive, so that in dictionaries and encyclopedias as well as in libraries it shall be properly classified.[65]

Looking back over the history of the movement we note that there has been a long struggle to avoid confusions and misunderstandings. Spiritism or spiritualism was the first movement to be confused with mental healing, after Mr. Quimby gave up mesmerism and began to practice healing. This confusion of mind was natural inasmuch as spiritism in its popular form was before the public. From the beginning of his practice to the end, it was necessary for Mr. Quimby to show that he did not perform his cures by the aid of spirits or mediums. Later, in the mental-science period, when mental healing attracted wider attention, a different kind of relationship came into being. Spiritualists began to manifest interest in mental healing and to practice it in their own way. Then a prominent spiritualistic healer, Miss Susie C. Clark, became associated with the New Thought, and took part in the first New Thought convention in Boston.[66] Thus the hypothesis that some diseases are due to obsessing spirits came somewhat into vogue. There are of course points of resemblance between the philosophy of spiritism, known as spiritualism, and the New Thought. There is every reason to acknowledge these points of contact. The New Thought healer, however, would point out that mental or spiritual healing as practiced since the days of the discovery of the silent method by Mr. Quimby is not carried on by the aid of spirits and is not due to mediumship. On the other hand, a spiritist might accept all the teachings of the mental healers and assimilate these in his own fashion.[67]

The next movement to be somewhat connected with mental healing was the theosophical movement, for example, in the writings of Miss Barnet, mentioned above. Again, there are points of resemblance, and these would be especially interesting to any one concerned to trace out ancient ideas of mental healing in the sacred books of India, the sources of theosophy. A theosophist might assimilate the New Thought and practice mental healing in the same way as the healers. The writings of Annie Besant and others make clear the power of thought. The theosophists have much to say about “planes” and “auras,” and other subjects of interest to devotees of the New Thought. But there are many theosophical tenets that are very distinctive and these should be judged in connection with theosophy, not confused with or identified with the New Thought. The inculcation of the theory of reincarnation is, for example, a distinct propagandism among theosophists. The question would be, as I have queried elsewhere, “whether the doctrine of reincarnation affords the best plan for the emancipation of the individual. Theosophy is surely right in its firm emphasis on the law of action and reaction. Here it harmonizes with the New Thought. But some of us are led to look at the question of salvation at very close range, instead of holding that we are loaded with the accumulated deeds ( Karma) of past existences, or accepting the theosophical motive for avoiding rebirths. Practically speaking, we may be very sure that we are building up a future which will correspond with the prevailing love of the soul.”[68]

Followers of the New Thought manifested great interest in the Emmanuel movement when it was first organized. For it was the first movement within the Church looking forward to an assimilation of the therapeutic principles. But it soon became clear that this movement was a compromise. Its leaders were wholly acceptable clergymen. They were well trained in modern psychology. They understood the phenomena of suggestion, as their leading book shows, Religion and Medicine, by Dr. Ellwood Worcester and others. But patients were accepted only in case regular physicians pronounced their cases eligible for psychotherapeutic treatment. This meant reliance on the old time methods of diagnosis. It limited and defined the practice of suggestion, whereas the followers of the New Thought acknowledge no such limits. Hence the Emmanuel workers have come to occupy a distinctive place, and to advocate principles which they would defend on a scientific basis. By contrast they would classify the New Thought as “unscientific,” while acknowledging that there are practical ideas in New Thought books. I have traced out this contrast more at length elsewhere.[69]

Again, mental healing has sometimes been confused with hypnotism. This confusion is as old as the movement, since it was difficult for one who had not received his treatment to understand why Mr. Quimby’s method was radically different from hypnotism, then called mesmerism. Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patterson, understood the difference and did what she could to clear up the confusion.[70] But then, unluckily, she brought forward the gratuitous hypothesis of “malicious animal magnetism,” and weak minds acquired a new fear, lest it were possible for a supposed enemy to employ evil suggestions. The movement known as “suggestive therapeutics” sprang up after the mental-science period, when mental healing became more popular, and there were several periodicals, notably Hypnotic Magazine and Suggestion, devoted to the subject. Naturally, the new therapeutists claimed that all the results attained by mental healers could be accomplished through hypnotic therapeutics. Devotees of the New Thought of course object that they do not put their patients into the hypnotic sleep, and that they do not try to control the mind but to benefit it, by offering suggestions which may be freely accepted or as freely rejected. They would take radical exception to a book like Hypnotic Therapeutics, by Dr. J. D. Quackenbos. 1 On the other hand a writer who began with Christian Science, passed through mental science, and then studied physiological psychology, Charles M. Barrows, shows in Suggestion Instead of Medicine that suggestion may be practiced on a scientific basis without hypnotism.

Psycho-analysis as practiced by Freud and his school is nearer the New Thought than suggestive therapeutics or hypnotic therapeutics, for the psycho-analysts do not practice hypnotism or mere suggestionism, their efforts being to understand the hidden motive or mental cause of disease. The New Thought healers do not employ the Freudian technique, they do not analyze dreams or specialize in nervous disorders traceable to sexual suppression. But they might well assimilate some of the results of Freudian psychology. That psychology is profound. It throws light on the nature of desire, the will, and the love-nature. The mental-healing movement, since the days of one of its best books, The Mental Cure, by W. F. Evans, has almost forgotten the will. It has given almost exclusive attention to thought as the “greatest power in the world.” Freud leads the discussion back to its deeper basis. To rediscover the will might be to rediscover Mr. Evans’s first book, and a really profound psychology of the will on a spiritual basis. Devotees of the New Thought would rightly object that the Freudian psychology is not spiritual.[71] They could throw light on other phases of man’s nature not discussed by Freud.

It would take us too far afield to trace out the connection between the New Thought and recent religious literature bearing on mental healing. From the days of Mr. Evans until the present time many variations of mental science and the New Thought have been formulated by ministers. Christian Pneumatopathy, by Rev. William I. Gill, Boston, 1887, was one of the first of these. Such books have been more numerous since the Emmanuel movement came into being. For example, Mind, Religion, and Health, by Rev. R. MacDonald, 1908; Health and Happiness, by Bishop Fallows, 1909; Mental Medicine, by Rev. Oliver Huckel, 1909. These books belong for the most part to a later generation than mental science. Mr. Huckel apparently did not know that he was taking the title of a much better book than his own by Mr. Evans, published 1872. Most of these books fail to claim as much for mental healing as devotees of the New Thought could claim for it. They are welcomed, however, as indicating the growing acknowledgment of the therapeutic power of Christianity. With the New Thought, they emphasize “suggestion” as the central factor in mental healing.

There is less in common between socialism and the New Thought. Followers of the latter have, to be sure, shown great interest in social questions, and these matters were often discussed by Mr. Pennock, Mr. Sprague, and others in the Metaphysical Club, Boston, in the early days. But the New Thought emphasis is upon the inner life as “attracting” the conditions which correspond with the state of the soul, not with the outward conditions which, according to most socialists, must first be changed before there can be freedom. For the most part, socialism and the New Thought are sharply contrasted. With Christian socialism, however, there are points of contact. In a work like Miss Scudder’s Socialism and Character, devotees of the New Thought would find much to accept.

The movement for the emancipation of woman has won the attention of New Thought leaders from the start. The mental-science period was a time when men took the lead for the most part. The Metaphysical Club was organized by men as the original promoters. But women began to take a more prominent part, until in time that organization became and has remained essentially a woman’s club. In the Middle West and far West, many of the pioneer workers were women. Mrs. Van-Anderson organized the first New Thought church. Many other leaders among women have done pioneer work. After 1890, there were probably more leaders among women than among men. The New Thought became in fact one of the signs that “this is woman’s day.” Mr. Quimby set the example from the beginning by placing fundamental emphasis on the power in which woman excels, intuition, and on love as the highest quality of the inner life. Strictly speaking, it has not been a question of man or woman, but, as among the Quakers, of those who have “leadings” to speak or heal.

The New Thought has also been identified in part with the movement in behalf of peace. This was plain from the start at the Greenacre conferences, where advocates of peace and disciples of the New Thought met on the large constructive basis pleaded for by Miss Farmer. Naturally, the advocate of mental healing places first emphasis on the inner life, and so looks forward to a campaign of education in behalf of peace. Then, too, the more spiritually minded regard the therapeutic movement as a revival of Christianity, the Gospel of Peace. It does not appear, however, that any of the New Thought people went so far as to become pacifists in the objectionable sense, that is, the sort who blocked proceedings making for the success of the Allies. At the rally which brought the convention of September, 1918, to a close the following resolution, representing the New Thought movement the wide world over, was unanimously adopted:

“Resolved, That the International New Thought Alliance in convention assembled in historic Faneuil Hall, Boston, September 22, 1918, place on record our unbounded loyalty to America and her Allies in this new and greater struggle for justice and freedom, pledge both in spirit and in service our whole-hearted support to the prosecution of the war to a victorious and speedy end, and express our unwavering faith in the final triumph of democracy and truth; furthermore, we recommend to all our centers and members in the United States the promotion of the Fourth Liberty Loan and the active observance of October 12th as Liberty Day in accordance with the proclamation of President Wilson.”

The relationship of the New Thought to the Church involves the whole history of the movement from the time Mr. Quimby reacted against the old theology, and was followed by Mr. J. A. Dresser, Rev. W. F. Evans, originally a Methodist minister and later a New Churchman; and the Unitarians, Dr. Winkley, Mr. Rodman, Mr. Chesley, and others active in founding the Metaphysical Club. In its bulletin for August 1, 1918, the International New Thought Alliance says, speaking of the New Thought, “Its fundamental principles are constructive thinking, healing, prospering in the Truth, and creating as nearly as may be in a practical, commonsense way, the Kingdom of Heaven here and now — in a word, the application of the essential teachings of the Christ. It is not a church, but in it are members of almost all churches. It believes in the dependence on the Divine in every thought we think and every act we do, since we are one with the Divine and our good is always with us. The New Thought is the religion of democracy and all in it are free in the freedom of Truth.”[72]

The New Thought has doubtless played a part in emancipating people from the old theology. The connection between the New Thought and religious liberalism has been more pronounced since 1895. The first people to leave the Church and espouse mental healing were formerly orthodox. But more Unitarians and other religious liberals changed over after a time. The implied theology of the New Thought has always been liberal. The correspondence between religious liberalism is so close at many points that some of the New Thought leaders have believed that the best way to give New Thought its proper setting is to identify it with religious liberalism in general, unmindful of the fact that it is its therapeutism which makes the New Thought distinctive.

Thus in a book entitled New Thought, Its History and Principles, W. W. Atkinson devotes much space to matters which have little connection with the New Thought. One sentence only is devoted to the pioneers of the movement, other leaders being referred to as “forgotten.” Due credit is given Mrs. Eddy, to be sure, as the one “who did more than any other person to make popular the healing of the body by metaphysical methods”; but nothing is said to indicate the sources of Mrs. Eddy’s methods and ideas. Mr. Atkinson summarizes the New Thought under three general heads, and then says that in these principles “we find a fundamental truth of idealistic philosophy, as old as the history of philosophic thought. There is nothing new about this truth. The same thing has been said by the ancient philosophers of India, five thousand years ago; by the philosophers of Greece, twenty-five hundred years ago; by Berkeley, Hegel and Kant, and their followers.”

The objection to this effort to give the New Thought such a long history is that a statement so general as “an infinite and eternal spiritual Principle of Being,” has never led to any definite practical result. The New Thought differs from the idealisms of the past just because it disregards them and starts on a practical basis. Luckily, its pioneers were uninformed in these ancient systems. The resemblances to the metaphysical systems of the past were not traced out until Mr. Evans set the example in his Divine Law of Cure.

It was customary in the early conventions to formulate statements as general as those quoted above, for example, “Divine Science accurately proves the unity of God with all living.” This custom was in line with the tendency to invite ministers and leaders of thought to speak in the conventions and hold office. But it was realized after a time that a scattering of forces was the result. Some of the leaders of the movement withdrew from active connection with the conventions because the meetings had become so general. Statements like the above gave the outsider the impression that the New Thought was as general as the vaguest kind of mysticism or pantheism, whereas the ideas which gave the movement its life and being were practical, clear-cut and specific.

Fortunately, there was a reaction against this vagueness in the later conventions, and prominence was given to the actual leaders of the movement, in contrast with people only partly in sympathy. It would be an endless undertaking to trace the resemblances between the vaguer formulations of the New Thought and past and present mysticisms. The New Thought lost power whenever it became general. This was clearly seen in the Metaphysical Club of Boston, during a period when a wide diversity of speakers were invited and the distinctive interests were temporarily obscured. The International New Thought Alliance has been more successful than the earlier organizations, not merely because its statements have been more definite but because it has overcome the individualism which once made it difficult to organize a successful convention really devoted to the subject.

Meanwhile, the kindred movements have been indeed specific. Each has come to occupy its distinctive place and to be so classified, as in the case of the Emmanuel movement. The “average reader” has become enlightened. It has been less necessary to show wherein theosophy or spiritism differ from the New Thought, for example; since everybody has come to understand the differences for the most part. The result has been a gain for the New Thought.

The same tendency toward unity and directness is seen in the case of names, terms, and the periodicals representing the movement. The term New Thought has taken the place of nearly all its forerunners. There is now just one international society representing the whole mental-healing world outside of Christian Science. Of the sixty or more miscellaneous publications standing for various phases of the movement only a very few remain. Meanwhile, some of the leading publications, such as Unity, Nautilus, and Master Mind, have grown in circulation and have taken the place of dozens of magazines which once existed. There is no periodical at resent of the type of Practical Ideals, Mind, or The Metaphysical Magazine. But the oft-repeated ideas which have made the movement popular are well represented in the existing publications.

It can hardly be said that the same improvement has been made in the books. There were formerly too many in circulation. The inquirer was confused by such a diversity of opinions. But some of the earlier books were the best. Later leaders have of course wished to increase their following, and so have issued books containing variations of the current ideas without number. But few writers have undertaken to establish or prove what they said as did Mr. Evans in The Mental Cure and other volumes. The tendency has been to neglect some of the profounder views and to state those only which are calculated to guarantee the instant healing of all ills and the bringing of all kinds of success and prosperity. The more dignified New Thought of Henry Wood’s time was surely very different from this.

What is needed, if the movement is to grow, is an effort to collect the main facts in typical instances of mental or spiritual healing; to undertake the exposition or description of these typical instances and then their interpretation in terms of spiritual philosophy. Very little headway has in fact been made on the scientific side of the therapeutic movement. There has been so much interest in a speculative science in imitation of Christian Science, that the spiritual science for which Quimby pleaded has been forgotten. Thus we have had Divine Science, the Science of Being, Mr. Whipple’s metaphysics, and any number of variations, modeled after Mrs. Eddy’s theory. There has been little interest in facts and their interpretation.

There is need of return to the Gospels to discover there the higher science for which Mr. Quimby pleaded. What Quimby did was to throw out a suggestion in that direction, or state an ideal. It remains for lovers of truth who care more for spiritual truth in itself than for any formulation of their own to seek out the universal spiritual science, the interpretation of the Bible which shall be demonstrable in itself. Then we shall pass beyond the individualistic interpretations which differ so widely and are intelligible only to those who hold the particular theory in question. There will then be no need of so-called Christian Science, Divine or mental science, or Christian metaphysics; for the particular theories will have been assimilated, in so far as true, in the larger, universal spiritual science. It will no longer be a question of mine or thine but of the divine truth of the Living Word.

To return to Quimby and Evans in this larger quest for truth would be to raise the question, what is the relationship of Swedenborg and his writings to the New Thought movement? Some have supposed that Mr. Quimby derived his teachings in part from Swedenborg. But there is no direct evidence in support of this assumption. Mr. Quimby may have discussed the teachings of Swedenborg with the New-Church minister in Portland, but there is no indication of any influence coming from that quarter in Quimby’s writings. The most we can say is that Quimby belonged to the new age whose coming Swedenborg foretold. Quimby’s teaching coincided with Swedenborg’s at certain points, but it remained for Mr. Evans to detect the resemblance and to look to Swedenborg’s writings to find the fundamental basis for Quimby’s theory of spiritual healing.

After Mr. Evans’s day, Dr. Holcombe was the first reader of Swedenborg to expound mental healing. Rev. C. H. Mann has given an admirable exposition of some of Swedenborg’s teachings in relation to mental healing in his little book entitled Psychiasis, and Rev. Clyde Broomell has quoted at length from Swedenborg’s writings in his pamphlet, Divine Healing. The question of the relationship between the two lines of teaching would turn on the difference between mental and spiritual healing. We note, for example in a pamphlet entitled Religion and Health, by Rev. Julian K. Smyth of the New Church, the statement concerning the Emmanuel movement that “ it is singularly silent on the deepest, the most spiritual side of its would-be mission. ... I am bound to confess that I have searched this book Religion and Medicine which speaks for this movement — I have searched it in vain for any distinctively spiritual principles. It has a great deal to say about the conscious and subconscious minds; about suggestion, autosuggestion, hypnotism. The therapeutic value of faith and prayer is emphasized. Many of the causes of nervousness are pointed out. Physical disorders having mental origin are explained. . . . But in what way is this really a return to Jesus Christ, beyond the fact that they who do it confess His name?”

Doubtless the more spiritually minded disciples of the New Thought would raise the same question. The question is, What shall become of the greater problems remaining unsolved when suggestion has been employed to the full, those problems which pertain to our deeper spiritual nature? Such problems are surely held over by the partisans of suggestion, whether in the Emmanuel movement or any branch of the New Thought. The question is whether we do not at some point in our development reach the parting of the ways where not even the vigorous denials of Christian Science any longer aid us.

Mr. Smyth raises this question when he says, “Suppose, under influence, I impart to myself a suggestion which is not in the highest sense true. Thus, I have seen the following offered as ideal suggestions:

“ ‘I am pure.’

“I am one with God.’

“ ‘I am in perfect harmony with all.’

“I am told that if I will hold these suggestions fixedly and in a sort of half-waking state, great benefits will result. A sense of quiet will be induced. Perhaps some nervous condition, or pain of body will disappear. But for me, at least, these suggestions, although they seem highly religious, in fact are not true. I am not pure ; but need, rather to cry out, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner !’ I am not one with God : — He is divine, I am human, and, in my self-centered life, I too often emphasize my separateness from Him. I am not in perfect harmony with all; for, if I am a man struggling for the good of all, I am well aware of contending evils which are as foes of my own mental household. Of what avail can it be to bring about some contented, quiet state of mind on a fictitious principle? Who is authorized to take the responsibility of imparting to our subconscious self, when we have laid ourselves open to the power of suggestion, the true principle for us?”

The devotee of Christian Science and the partisans of the New Thought patterning their views after Christian Science would of course maintain that the above-quoted ideal suggestions are true now of man’s real self, and that one can cure oneself of any ill by holding to such affirmations and denying the reality of the illnesses. Mr. Rawson, as quoted above in Chapter XII, gives the gist of this method in a very clear way when he counsels a person in need to “turn in thought to God,” denying the reality of any material condition. This has been the prevailingly successful method. But the crucial question is, Does it contain the whole truth? What then becomes of material conditions? How did they originate? Why do even Christian Scientists and the partisans of the New Thought emulating them depart from the position after a while, in quest of further truth? How long can therapeutists maintain the fiction of “malicious animal magnetism” or the hypothesis of a “revelation” which has to be so strictly guarded that no member of the Christian Science church is allowed to read any books or magazines on the New Thought? If the history of the New Thought teaches anything during the past twenty-five years it is this, that the abstract principles have been dropped for the concrete till now there is a disposition to look at things as they are with eyes unafraid.

We have only to recall the state of mind our country was in before the great war to note how radically we have changed. We had theoretical lovers of peace without limit who deplored war and ignored the forces that had been so long gathering in Germany, to disrupt the world. These idealists affirmed peace and denied the possibility of war. They expected to be triumphant by virtue of their mere programs for peace. But they were greatly excelled by the most successful imitators of Christian Scientists — the Kaiser and the war-party in Germany, who, during the war, carried on the most effective psychological propagandism the world has seen: every defeat was affirmed to be a success; every threatening fact on the side of the Allies was denied; “inspired news” was given to the press to pacify the people; air raids were indulged in for mental effect ; in short, affirmation was made the victorious tool of the superman.

What happened? Steadily the American world was shaken out of its pacifist slumbers. We were compelled to face the facts, and we did so with tremendous execution. After a certain day in 1918 it was no longer possible to keep the truth from the people in Germany. With the discovery of the truth, the Teutonic morale immediately weakened, the psychological war came to an end, and Germany went to pieces: the greatest instance of failure of mere affirmationism the world has seen.

What lessons does the war teach in this respect? That there is a stronger philosophy in the Christian faith which does not have to be bolstered up, a more true, courageous affirmation which counsels man to look straight through the facts to the end, ignoring nothing, denying nothing, but learning the great spiritual lessons of the ages. In the long run it is the truth that sets men free. As Mr. Quimby put it, “the explanation is the cure.” To explain we must look at things fairly and squarely, just as the war compelled us to look straight at the enemy and analyze the conflict down to its foundation, in the motives from which it sprang. Then to triumph we must beat the enemy at his own game, even if we have to employ his own fiendish devices. We succeed in the end because the right is on our side, because we fight with the moral law. The great lesson of the war is spiritual. It shows the true road to salvation — if we care to walk in it, the straight and narrow way of the Gospel, which many see but few find attractive, inasmuch as we do not like to face ourselves. To walk in the way is to “live the life” in its fulness, to realize that there is no short cut or royal road, however many the psychological devices by which we camouflage its scenery.

To what extent does this widespread use of applied psychology represent the New Thought? In so far as it expresses what has been called “The Victorious Faith,” the well-grounded faith that wins. Mere affirmation without truth or righteousness to support it leads to no good result. The New Thought aims to be constructive. From the days of Quimby the pioneer it has reacted against all bondages, particularly against servitude to priests and doctors. It has vigorously reacted against materialism. But it has tried to make these protests effective in behalf of the inner life. Its methods are not discounted by the fact that affirmations can be used with evil intentions, as in the case of the war-party in Germany.

In short, the New Thought is an “influence,” not an institution. Its influence has been felt on the stage, for example, in dramas which express the power of thought in contrast with the power of mere things. It has found expression in recent fiction to some extent. It has fostered the type of optimism for which America stands. It has helped in productive enterprises, in stimulating the constructive attitude. Its influence is seen in what may be called “the psychology of success,” wherever the value of expectant suggestion is seen.

It is a new point of view or consciousness. Its leaders do not try to persuade people to leave their occupations, their social surroundings, their churches; but to show them how every element in their daily life and in their environment may be bettered or uplifted if regarded in a different spirit. Its leaders call attention to that other environment with which most of us are little acquainted, that is, our inner or mental environment. They direct attention to the soul. They show the power of the spirit over circumstance, over the flesh, over adversity. Thus the clue which originally was found through a study of health and disease regarded from within, has been extended in all directions until for its devotees it has become universal.

The New Thought stands for the affirmative attitude in all things. This attitude is not new in the world. It has always been implied in successful undertakings. But the New Thought has developed and supplied its psychology, given the reasons for it. Those reasons it has expressed in terms of a direct appeal to the individual to look to himself, change his own thoughts, remedy his attitude, cease to find fault and to condemn, before looking to the world. Not all its disciples have made this change in the same way. But the fact that its methods have appealed to all classes of people is evidence of its widespread influence. What its leaders ask is that people shall judge by the best the New Thought has to offer, the best teachings which its history discloses during the fifty years since the publication of the first book on the subject.

Everything will depend in its further application and influence in the world upon the type of “science” from which its activities spring. Shall it be the science of this or that leader who has imitated Mrs. Eddy, a science more or less sharply cut off from the realities, the law, order and system of the world? Or shall it be a science, not in the speculative or assertive sense, but in accord with the larger spirit of Christianity in its original form, the spiritual science of the Christ regarded universally? If the latter, then it should pass beyond individual vagaries and fanciful interpretations. If the latter, then it need ignore nothing, need not deny anything existent in God’s universe. It may overcome all fear and look with open eye upon the world, learning the lessons of sorrow and suffering as well as those which easily inspire optimism. If the latter, then it need not be a science of the subjective alone, it need not be limited to the inner life, but may come out into the open, into the full light of the new age.

Doubtless there was a meaning in the relative isolation with which Mr. Quimby lived and worked during the twenty-five years in which he was developing the silent method, learning the influence of suggestion, the power of mental atmospheres and the other elements of our inmost attitudes. By a vigorous act of faith we may perhaps see meaning, too, in the fact that it was Mrs. Eddy’s “science,” not Mr. Evans’s books, which first caught the world and became influential. For that “science,” like the self-assertiveness of the war-party in Germany, was radical enough to arouse a dormant world. But it is not a question either of origins or of developments along the way but of the results or fruits. Mr. Quimby pointed back to Christianity, he did not take credit to himself. He saw that for hundreds of years the world had been deprived of an important portion of the gospel of Christ. Hence the teachings which have grown out of Quimby’s pioneer work have been said to be nothing less than “a new revelation of Christianity.”

This statement is surely true of the new age in which we live. The New Thought is at least one of several contributing activities, however we may interpret the new age in its fulness. We live in the social century, now. We have passed out of the subjectivism and the mere idealism of the nineteenth century. We have discovered the inner life anew. The central question is, What use shall we make of our discoveries? Shall we analyze matters to the foundation and learn the whole cause of human misery, dissatisfaction and the social unrest which is besetting the classes, acknowledging whatever is before us, seeing life whole? Shall we pass beyond all psychological devices needed to support our courage for the moment? Shall we acquire a philosophy greater than idealism and realism? Shall we pass beyond both pessimism and optimism?

Whatever else the new age asks of us, it surely demands that we shall live by what we believe, proving for ourselves, verifying the everlasting realities of religion. As an expression of the essentially practical spirit of America, the New Thought has been doing its part to direct attention to this the central consideration. Ideals and affirmations are aids along the way. Eventually we hope to arrive where the larger truth which shall be in our power will bring spiritual freedom as its great consequence. Life according to the divine law will then be the test of our spirituality. We will be doing much more than simply to strive against our errors, our sins or diseases; we will be living a life which makes for truth, righteousness and health such that it will no longer be necessary to think of their opposites.

Good health should become a habit founded in a life of integrity. We ought then to be able to labor and to serve as if mankind had never by its ignorance and its waywardness brought suffering upon the world. That, in brief, is the ideal of the New Thought: to abolish suffering altogether, to bring man to his true estate as a spirit living even now in the spiritual world.

Quimby’s radical proposition was that disease was “the invention of man,” a sheer “error” in contrast with divine truth; whereas the old theology had taught that suffering was “an infliction of wise providence” to be patiently endured. Quimby maintained that it was the right of man to be well, and that by profound searching man could press through his errors to “the explanation” which should be “the cure.” The New Thought has taken up this radical proposition and Quimby’s method and endeavored to prove them both. It has encouraged every man to be his own physician and seek his own health by spiritual wisdom. This constructive effort is its special contribution. This much attained, the New Thought is ready to join with other activities which are meeting the great social issues of our time, in a far larger program than that with which it began. For in very truth the new age is a return to the original gospel, whose mission was to make man every whit whole, to bring society into the fulness of life. Or, shall we say, that ours is the age which is coming to understand Christianity for the first time? Christianity was thought to be for the sake of individual piety, a scheme of salvation through right doctrine. Our age teaches the inseparability of the individual and society. The war has made the races and nations intimately akin. We do not want the mere “healing of the nations.” We want cooperation and brotherhood. We want true service and social justice. It is the love which Christ taught which will overcome the class hatreds which have organized themselves to bar the way. All our problems are inseparably connected. All activities making for social betterment must be seen as intimately one. What we are witnessing in our day is a fruition of that power of the Holy Spirit which went forth into the world at the time of the incarnation to bring all men unto the Christ.

Appendix

1. The question of the relationship between the New Thought and commercialism would take us too far afield. There are, however, several matters which have led to misunderstandings, and these properly belong to our history. The bearing of affirmations and suggestions on business affairs did not come under consideration in the early years. It was understood that “the laborer is worthy of his hire,” and reasonable charges were made for silent treatments and class instruction.

But later “the prosperity treatment’’ came into vogue, and much use was made of the psychology of success. As the movement grew in popularity it attracted people of many types, some of whom worked their way up by sheer persistence and developed a highly successful business out of small beginnings. Others adopted the plan of free-will offerings, and endeavored to “attract” whatever funds might be needed for their work. Sometimes this plan scarcely differed from the usual commercial methods, inasmuch as attention was persistently called to “needs,” and appeals were constantly sent out for money to pay for various improvements. Some of the editors kept their magazines free from advertisements which might seem inconsistent with the New Thought, while others accepted advertisements of many sorts of goods which were indeed unlike the possessions of the inner life. Hence misapprehensions arose to some extent, partly because some of the leaders appeared to be taking advantage of the public to attract attention to their own personalities.

The only serious charge brought against any of the leaders involved the reputation of Helen Wilmans, who was said to have made fraudulent use of the United States mails by soliciting money for “absent treatment.” Apparently, Mrs. Wilmans was discredited and the value of absent treatment called in serious question. The facts in the case are best known by Eugene Del Mar, president of the League for the Larger Life, and actively connected with the New Thought movement since 1898.    Mr. Del Mar, who had been a student of Mrs. Wilmans’ writings for several years, and established the New York branch of the Mental Science Temple in 1899,    says, “It was my good fortune to know Helen Wilmans intimately, first visiting her at Sea Breeze, Fla., as her guest, and subsequently taking up my residence there for six months, lecturing and writing for her magazine, Freedom.

“Helen Wilmans was one of the most broadminded of the leaders of the movement, with pioneer spirit and courage, and when others accepted or compromised with the arbitrary and bureaucratic methods of the Post Office Department she defied them and fought to the end. Her resistance enured to the great ultimate advantage of the movement, even in the face of the criticism and condemnation with which she was greeted by some of the New Thought leaders.

“The Post Office Fraud Order was placed on Helen Wilmans without even prior notice. There was no hearing, no trial, no conviction. It was instituted by the jealousy of the man who dominated Sea Breeze, Helen Wilmans having established her ‘City Beautiful’ a few miles distant, and thereby taken away the post office and other privileges that this Sea Breeze magnate had previously enjoyed. He happened to be an intimate of the then senior U. S. senator from Maine, who was very close to the President; and on motives of jealousy and revenge, and at the instigation of political intrigue, the Post Office Department was set in motion in true Russian autocratic manner.

“Helen Wilmans was cut off from the world without chance for redress and condemned publicly without hearing or trial. After this had been done, she was indicted on a charge of ‘fraud,’ the U. S. Government contending that her claim of cure by absent treatment was necessarily fraudulent because it was impossible to be done. Her claim was false because absent cure was impossible, and it was fraudulent because she must have known that it was impossible. The United States district judge so instructed the jury as follows: ‘The foundation of the contention of the Government is that what was promised to be done could not have been intended, because the fulfillment was known to be impossible, by the means proposed by the defendant, viz. the transfer of the power of her thought to the person of the client with a curing influence sufficient to accomplish the changes in condition that were declared to be accomplished. . .

“The United States Supreme Court reversed this decision and finally — after Helen Wilmans had been impoverished, her business ruined, and her spirit broken — the matter was dropped. When, not long after this, her husband died, she felt that she had no further desire to go on with her work, and she passed away.

“Helen Wilmans was one of the many wonderful women that the New Thought movement has produced. She was much misunderstood and maligned by those who either did not know her or were prejudiced by her pioneer methods. I shall indeed be glad if at this late date some measure of justice is done to her memory.”

Of course no question concerning the value of absent treatment as a whole could be settled in court. The test question for devotees of the silent method would be, What constitutes absent treatment? Can it be undertaken for a group, or should it be employed for the benefit of one person at a time only, and this as a result of correspondence between healer and patient, with a precise arrangement as to time, and the number of sittings? Some of the critics of Helen Wilmans perhaps hastily assumed that Mrs. Wilmans treated all her absent patients at once, and that these were acquired through responses to advertisements in which great promises were held out. If so, their judgments were indeed ill-founded, and as sweeping as those of the district judge.

The criticisms imply several points that have never been adequately discussed. Some devotees of the movement have maintained that absent healing should not be undertaken unless the patient be known to the therapeutist. But successful work has been carried on by the healers among patients unknown to them. Mr. Quimby practiced healing in this way. Others have held that one need not press the matter very closely, since some good will result through self-healing whether the therapeutist keep the appointment or not. Indeed, it has been contended that all absent healing is really self-healing. The noon silences kept throughout the world by devotees of various branches of the movement are based on the assumption that there is value in community silence. No leader is supposed to “hold the thought” for the whole group. Each one is asked to meditate in his own way on the same thought. The value of such meditation would be hard to determine. It would probably be an aid to more direct and independent meditation on the part of the individual. It would be easy to foster credulity on a large scale by encouraging community silences and group healings, on the supposition that some kind of mysterious power goes out from the head office where the group-healers sit in silence at the noon hour. On the other hand, the practice of meditation begun in this way might be the turning-point in a hungry soul’s quest for spiritual food. Hence one would hesitate to arouse skepticism. Much would depend upon the instruction given out from headquarters to the effect that it is not human thought sent out absently that heals: it is the divine power within the patient. Conscientious absent treatment is a means to an end far beyond itself.

It is plain that the commercial use of the New Thought is a question of motive, and on this point Mr. Del Mar says, in a recent issue of Now, San Francisco, “The purpose of the New Thought is the development of the individual, through an increased consciousness that he inherently possesses, and may bring into manifestation, all desirable attributes. And it teaches how, through the cultivation and concentration of desire, the individual may attract and receive what he thus relates to himself. Through his increased consciousness of power, the individual emerges from the mass, and commences an existence that is consciously self-directed.

“But this is not all. Back of all this lies the impelling motive, and it is the motive rather than the method that characterizes the New Thought movement. Its essential conception is that of unity, and it advocates the cultivation of Self and the attainment of desire from the point of view of the benefit of all. Its motives necessarily involve as full a measure of giving as of receiving.

“Those who regard the New Thought merely as an instrument whereby to acquire ‘success’ at the expense of others, have failed to comprehend its motives, and are assisting to discredit it. Such people are actuated by the same motives as are those who have become millionaires through extortion and bribery. One who would willingly accumulate and store up useless wealth while millions of his fellow-beings are suffering for lack of sustenance, has not as yet thoroughly absorbed the New Thought conceptions.

“New Thought methods and motives are not intended to qualify a few individuals to more readily prey upon the mass. Nor are they designed to enable the individual to attain his desires at the expense of others. But they mean the exaltation of each and all, and they ever center about the conception of Unity.

“When we adopt the religion of humanity, we find that what we have called our duty to God is the duty we owe to our Self and our fellow-beings. With the elimination of the conception of an anthropomorphic God, it becomes possible to conceive of a heaven here, and to understand that man’s highest duty is to man. And with the conception of the essential unity of humanity, man’s duty to the Self and to others is seen to be one and the same. If he would receive, he must give; if he would be loved, he must love; if he would benefit the Self, he must be of advantage to others. One may rise only as he raises others with him, and one may fall only as he falls with others. . . .”

The Elizabeth Towne Co., Holyoke, Mass., issues a pamphlet entitled The Story of Elizabeth Towne and the Nautilus, by Thomas Drier and others, in which one may read a typical record of success as achieved by a New Thought leader. Mr. Drier says, “I am telling these things about Elizabeth Towne, because she represents a desirable state of mind. She stands for a philosophy which makes for growth and happiness. In her teachings there is nothing that encourages hatred, discouragement, fear, or failure. She thinks thoughts which make for success.

She is self-reliant, confident, inspirational. She compels men and women to forsake their belief in a God that is vindictive, and she fills their lives with a philosophy of sunshine, love, kindness, and neighborliness. She is a minister of Today. She wants men and women to do good now for their own reward now. She shows that there is no such thing as luck, that effect always follows a cause, and that disease, disappointment, discouragement are results which may be avoided by those who understand how to direct their energies wisely. She doesn’t encourage people to visit her, because, if they came, they would lean upon her and fail to stand upon their own feet. She prefers to reach people by means of her writings, for she knows that those she influences will become more self-reliant and dependent upon their own powers instead of upon hers.”

Speaking of the diversity of motives actuating those who have adopted the New Thought, Mr. Mclvor Tyndall, in Now, says, “Therefore, it is impossible for one to formulate a definition for New Thought that shall satisfy every one’s idea of what the term stands for. To the average person ‘New Thought’ signifies a kind of ‘get-rich-quick’ formula,, as far as it relates to the acquisition of magical and immediate success. To another it may mean release from the consequences of past deeds that have hitherto been regarded as ‘sins.’ To another it may represent an excuse for extravagance in dress and other expenditures, on the principle that New Thought teaches mastery over material things and that therefore ‘New Thought says I should have everything I want.’

“Like the Bible, ‘New Thought’ is ‘all things to all men according to their understanding, and therein perhaps lies the proof of its verity. Truth is many-sided and looks different according to the angle from which one regards it. One of the fundamentals of the New Thought movement, upon which all its various ‘schools’ and phases are agreed, is the value of optimism. The realization that we need not beg and cringe and whine at the feet of an all-wise and all-loving Power — by whatever name we elect to call this Power — is a perception that is almost universally recognized. And it is one of the messages which the New Thought movement particularly emphasizes.

“Another of the fundamentals of New Thought to which all thinking people will cheerfully subscribe is the fact that honesty, sincerity, and truthfulness in practical, everyday life, as well as in ethics is a ‘paying proposition’ in actual returns of actual, practical, material dollars and cents.”

2. Misapprehension has prevailed to some extent concerning the Quimby manuscripts, the existence of which began to be generally known in Boston in 1882. The report was circulated that these writings were in Mrs. Eddy’s possession and that she copied Science and Health from them. In connection with personal matters, taken into court, a former student of Mrs. Eddy’s, Mr. E. J. Ahrens, made some hasty and ill-founded statements to this effect.

Mrs. Eddy thereupon challenged Ahrens to produce the writings and prove his point. This he could not do, for he did not possess them and had no access to them. Then the report was started and kept in circulation for years that the manuscripts did not exist and that this was “proved in court’ obviously an absurd statement, since no one connected with that case in court had access to the manuscripts.

For reasons best known to himself, Mr. George A. Quimby steadily refused to publish the manuscripts during the life-time of Mrs. Eddy. By previous arrangement with Mr. Quimby our family copies were returned to him in 1893, and we were not permitted to quote any of the articles in full either in The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, 1895, or in Health and the Inner Life, 1906. Mr. Quimby died without making any provision for the disposition of the manuscripts. It remains for the historian to edit and publish these writings at some future time. The historian has been personally acquainted with all the patients and followers of P. P. Quimby who have had the use of the manuscripts. Miss Milmine was allowed to reproduce part of a page of one of them for her life of Mrs. Eddy published in McClure’s Magazine.

3. In 1899, it was supposed that the suit brought against The Arena Publishing Co., for infringements of publishing rights on account of the reproduction of Mrs. Eddy’s portrait in The Arena, May, 1899, was also a suit with regard to the subject matter of the two articles about Mrs. Eddy; hence that it was a charge brought against the writers. But the suit referred to the reproduction of the portrait only. The subject matter of the articles was never called in question. In justice to the historian it should be said that the exposures contained in these articles were made at the instigation of Mrs. Woodbury, a former student of Mrs. Eddy’s, and that my article was undertaken because Mr. George A. Quimby would not permit any one else to quote from Mrs. Eddy’s letters. I did not state that Christian Science was a “religious delusion.” This phraseology was introduced by the editor. My own point of view has always been that truth would take care of itself, and that denunciations were unnecessary.

END

Notes

[←1]

The True History of Mental Science.

[←2]

A. G. Dresser, The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, p. 45.

[←3]

See The Spirit of the New Thought, “Can Disease be Entirely Destroyed?” by Emma G. Ware, p. 67.

[←4]

The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, p. 18.

[←5]

Ibid, p. 51.

[←6]

Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, p. 22.

[←7]

Ibid, p. 26.

[←8]

Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, p. 29.

[←9]

This reference is to Mrs. Eddy’s second husband, Dr. Patterson.

[←10]

End of summary from The Arena, May, 1899.

[←11]

Reprinted in The True History of Mental Science, p. 34.

[←12]

True History of Mental Science, p. 34.

[←13]

Compare this misstatement with Mrs. Eddy’s appreciation of Quimby’s work quoted above. Mr. Quimby had given up mesmerism many years before he moved to Portland in 1859.

[←14]

It was the Misses Ware and Mr. Quimby’s son who copied his articles for him. No one else aided Quimby in this way. Mrs. Patterson saw none of the articles save the first volume, written in 1859, and loaned to Mrs. Patterson by Mr. J. A. Dresser.

[←15]

True History of Mental Science, p. 39.

[←16]

New ed., p. 25.

[←17]

No action was taken in regard to the subject matter of the articles in The Arena. These articles have never been disputed.

[←18]

Christian Science Journal, June, 1887.

[←19]

Letter to the Boston Post above quoted.

[←20]

This term was first used, in an entirely different connection, by Abram Cowles, 1840; and by Rev. Wm. Adams, Elements of Christian Science, Philadelphia, 1850.

[←21]

Man and the Divine Order, p. 301.

[←22]

The only exception was Dr. Holcombe, to be mentioned later.

[←23]

See The Spirit of the New Thought, p, 47.

[←24]

See Mr. Chesley’s papers on “The New Metaphysical Movement,” and “The Law of the Good,” in The Spirit of the New Thought.

[←25]

See The Philosophy of P. p. Quimby, p. 51.

[←26]

See The Healing Power of Mind, by E. G. Stuart, Boston, 1885.

[←27]

See Statement of Christian Science, New York, 1888; The Science of the Christ, Chicago, 1889.

[←28]

Health and the Inner Life, p. 121.

[←29]

See The Spirit of the New Thought, p. 59.

[←30]

The Spirit of the New Thought, p. 201 ; see, also, The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby.

[←31]

This type of thought was made popular by Eleanor Kirk, author of Perpetual Youth, Brooklyn, 1895.

[←32]

Mr. Mulford’s pamphlets formerly had a wide circulation.

[←33]

The New Age and Its Messenger, 1864; The Mental Cure, 1869.

[←34]

See Spirit of the New Thought, p. 1.

[←35]

See, also, The Arena, Jan. 1901, “What the New Thought Stands For.”

[←36]

Note, also, The Heart of the New Thought, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Chicago, 1902.

[←37]

See Handbook of the New Thought, p. 10; The Spirit of the New Thought, p. 137.

[←38]

See Spiritual and Mental Attraction, by Eugene Del Mar.

[←39]

See, for example, Mrs. Gestefeld’s How We Master Our Fate.

[←40]

See Lessons in Truth, by Emilie Cady, p. 111.

[←41]

Handbook of the New Thought, p. 146.

[←42]

Quimby’s term was “the scientific man.”

[←43]

Journal of Practical Metaphysics, April, 1897.

[←44]

See, especially, Mr. Wood’s statement concerning the movement, The Spirit of the New Thought, p. 17.

[←45]

This book was dramatized and given a performance in a Boston theater. The play was not, however, a success. It was probably the first New Thought drama.

[←46]

Journal of Practical Metaphysics, Dec, 1896.

[←47]

See The Spirit of the New Thought, p. 97.

[←48]

See The Spirit of the New Thought, p. 29.

[←49]

Journal of Practical Metaphysics, October, 1896.

[←50]

See The Spirit of the New Thought, pp. 73, 103.

[←51]

Journal of Practical Metaphysics, September, 1898.

[←52]

Mr. Sabin was a pioneer in “reformed Christian Science” in Washington, D. C, and Mr. Mason a pioneer in Brooklyn, N. Y.

[←53]

The Master Mind, Aug., 1912.

[←54]

The work of reorganizing the conventions and developing the New Thought Alliance, in 1903, was largely accomplished by Eugene Del Mar, chairman of the Committee on Organization, and active leader in the St. Louis convention.

[←55]

The first book was by Julia Anderson Root, The Healing Power of Mind, San Francisco, 1884.

[←56]

Formerly Dr. Julia Seton Sears.

[←57]

What we have undertaken to do in this chapter is to give, not an exhaustive account of the organizations, but an account of those that are typical. Some of the omissions are due to the fact that there are organizations which have failed to give the needed information concerning their present activities. A few of the leaders have preferred to have only brief mention made of their work. Further information concerning the societies may be obtained by consulting the leading magazines, and the bulletins issued by the various libraries and centers. The historian will be glad to receive additional information from time to time concerning all the organizations and leaders.

[←58]

Compiled from the bulletin of the Alliance, June, 1918.

[←59]

Compiled from the bulletin of April 15, 1918.

[←60]

Mr. Edgerton’s statement in the above is in accord with Swedenborg’s view that “the Word” is more interior and spiritual than the Pauline and other Epistles.

[←61]

From the bulletin of the Alliance, December 1, 1918.

[←62]

Alliance bulletin, February 1, 1919.

[←63]

That is, according to Mr. Edgerton, the second coming is just this spiritual awakening of which the New Thought is a part. This is in line with Mr. Evans’s view of the New Age in the earliest books on mental healing.

[←64]

The speaker is here setting forth the therapeutic principle as derived from the writings of Swedenborg. See Mr. Evans’s The Mental Cure, p. 76 et seq.

[←65]

The general term now used in some of the large libraries is “psychological medicine.” This term is too widely inclusive.

[←66]

See her essay, “Is Mental Science Enough?” The Spirit of the New Thought, p. 171; also A Look Upward, Boston, 1891.

[←67]

See Handbook of the New Thought, p. 74.

[←68]

Handbook of the New Thought, p. 73.

[←69]

A Physician to the Soul, p. 94; A Message to the Well, p. 78; Handbook of the New Thought, p. 5.

[←70]

See True History of Mental Science, p. 30.

[←71]

See criticism of this book in A Message to the Well, p. 71.

[←72]

Mr. Edgerton’s purpose as president of the Alliance is to show that it is “wholly a spiritual confederation and not an institution in the ordinary sense. At the same time it seems to be developing a definite purpose in making the New Thought movement an avenue of expression of the Christ teachings to this age.”