0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 6 – Retrospection and Introspection – Chpt 14 – The Precious Volume

                   THE PRECIOUS VOLUME 

 1	    The first edition of my most important work, Science
  	and Health, containing the complete statement of
 3	Christian Science, — the term employed by me to express
  	the divine, or spiritual, Science of Mind-healing, was pub-
  	lished in 1875. 
 6	    When it was first printed, the critics took pleasure in
  	saying, "This book is indeed wholly original, but it will
  	never be read." 
 9	    The first edition numbered one thousand copies. In
  	September, 1891, it had reached sixty-two editions. 
  	    Those who formerly sneered at it, as foolish and ec-
12	centric, now declare Bishop Berkeley, David Hume, Ralph
  	Waldo Emerson, or certain German philosophers, to have
  	been the originators of the Science of Mind-healing as
15	therein stated. 
  	    Even the Scriptures gave no direct interpretation of the
  	scientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual Principle
18	of healing, until our heavenly Father saw fit, through the
  	Key to the Scriptures, in  Science and Health, to unlock
  	this "mystery of godliness." 
21	    My reluctance to give the public, in my first edition of
  	Science and Health, the chapter on Animal Magnetism,
  	and the divine purpose that this should be done, may
24	have an interest for the reader, and will be seen in the fol-
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- The Precious Volume           38


 1	lowing circumstances. I had finished that edition as far
  	as that chapter, when the printer informed me that he
 3	could not go on with my work. I had already paid
  	him seven hundred dollars, and yet he stopped my work. 
  	All efforts to persuade him to finish my book were in
 6	vain. 
  	    After months had passed, I yielded to a constant con-
  	viction that I must insert in my last chapter a partial
 9	history of what I had already observed of mental mal-
  	practice. Accordingly, I set to work, contrary to my in-
  	clination, to fulfil this painful task, and finished my copy
12	for the book. As it afterwards appeared, although I had
  	not thought of such a result, my printer resumed his work
  	at the same time, finished printing the copy he had on
15	hand, and then started for Lynn to see me. The after-
  	noon that he left Boston for Lynn, I started for Boston
  	with my finished copy. We met at the Eastern depot in
18	Lynn, and were both surprised, — I to learn that he had
  	printed all the copy on hand, and had come to tell me he
  	wanted more, — he to find me en route for Boston, to give
21	him the closing chapter of my first edition of Science and
  	Health. Not a word had passed between us, audibly or
  	mentally, while this went on. I had grown disgusted
24	with my printer, and become silent. He had come to
  	a standstill through motives and circumstances unknown
  	to me. 
27	    Science and Health is the textbook of Christian Science. 
  	Whosoever learns the letter of this book, must also gain
  	its spiritual significance, in order to demonstrate Christian
30	Science. 
 

  Retrospection and Introspection --- The Precious Volume           39


 1	    When the demand for this book increased, and people
  	were healed simply by reading it, the copyright was in-
 3	fringed. I entered a suit at law, and my copyright was
  	protected.SHOW ALL