Charles O. Wentworth, now of Avon, Mass., says he, too, well remembers Mrs. Eddy’s visit during the years 1868, 1869 and 1870, and that he many times heard her say she had learned her mental science from Dr. Quimby. He says she avowed it openly, and always spoke of it as Dr. Quimby’s system.
Horace T. Wentworth, who was married and so not living at home with his parents, but who was often at their house, adds his positive testimony. He says:
“Never at any time during the years she was at our house, from 1868 to 1870, did Mrs. Glover give the slightest hint that any one other than Dr. Quimby had had any share in the origin of the system of mental healing she was teaching my mother. It could not then have entered her mind to claim it for herself. That was an afterthought. I heard Mrs. Glover over and over again say she got it all from Quimby.”
Mrs. Clapp’s statement is even more specific than the others. She is own cousin to the Wentworths and frequented their house at the time Mrs. Glover was visiting them, and knew that Mrs. Glover was teaching Mrs. Wentworth the Quimby system.
When Mrs. Clapp was recently asked if she had ever heard Mrs. Glover-Eddy say that she learned her system from Dr. Quimby, she replied:
“Yes, and I am not likely to forget it. It is fixed in my memory by a very reprehensible proceeding of my own. You see, Mrs. Glover used to say this to everybody who came in. She wasn’t content with mentioning once or twice that she had learned this from Dr. Quimby, she repeated it so often that we girls got deadly tired of hearing it.
“Now Mrs. Glover not only said it to the point of wearying us, but she had a peculiar way of saying it, and I am ashamed to say that I used to mock her—I, a young lady grown, who ought to have known better than to make fun of a person so much older.
“She always tried to be very gracious to everybody and she tried so hard that it gave her graciousness a ridiculous touch. She would fold her hands softly in her lap, smile gently, nod her head slowly at almost every word, and say in a sweet voice, ‘I learned this from Dr. Quimby and he made me promise to teach it to at least two persons before I die.’
“Well, this tiresome iteration, always with the same emphasis and the same exaggerated graciousness, used to excite the derision of the girls, and when Mrs. Glover wasn’t in hearing, I would take her off. I would say, ‘I learned this from Dr. Quimby,’ etc., at the same time nodding my head with a great exaggeration of Mrs. Glover’s gentle inclination, and putting tremendous emphasis on the words she emphasized, and wearing a fixed smile.
“I know it was an awful thing to do,” added Mrs. Clapp, penitently, “especially for a grown-up girl, but it used to make my cousins laugh and that made me feel that I had done something clever. Anyway, you see how it has fixed it on my memory.”
Mrs. Clapp well remembered seeing Mrs. Wentworth copy Mrs. Glover’s copy of Dr. Quimby’s writing.
“I once went to the Wentworths’ to get something,” she said, “and Mrs. Wentworth was busy copying this manuscript. I went to the buttery to get what I wanted, but couldn’t find it, and called Mrs. Wentworth. She got up to get it for me, but before doing so she put Mrs. Eddy’s copy of the Quimby manuscript in the desk and locked it. I suppose I looked surprised that she should take such pains when she was only stepping across the room, for a moment, and she noticed my look, and said, ‘Mrs. Glover made me promise never to leave this manuscript even for a moment without locking the desk.’”
While Mrs. Wentworth was copying the Quimby manuscript, Mrs. Clapp was employed by Mrs. Glover to copy a manuscript of her own for publication. This manuscript contained the first expression of the ideas subsequently given to the world by Mrs. Eddy. When the book was completed, Mrs. Glover paid Mrs. Clapp for the work and took it to Boston, but could not get a publisher to accept it.
Mrs. Clapp was quite familiar with the appearance of the Quimby manuscript from seeing Mrs. Wentworth copying it—she was Mrs. Wentworth’s niece—and also from seeing Mrs. Glover take it out to correct some of the work which Mrs. Clapp was doing. That would happen in this way. Mrs. Clapp would complete the copying of a page of Mrs. Glover’s book. Mrs. Glover would appear to be dissatisfied with it; she would take from her desk the original Quimby manuscript, the one from which Mrs. Wentworth had been copying, and compare this original with the work Mrs. Clapp had done. Then she would tear up Mrs. Clapp’s page and write it all over again, consulting the Quimby manuscript as she did so, and Mrs. Clapp would have the copying to do over again.