It appears that, as to teaching, there was a progressive scale of charges. First it was whatever she could get; then $100 in advance, with ten per cent royalty on the students’ subsequent income from practice, and $1,000 if, having learned the system, he did not care to practise it; then $300 for twelve lessons, cash “strictly in advance,” and ultimately $300 for seven lessons, “cash strictly in advance.”
I have examined the court record in two litigations instituted by Mrs. Eddy (years after God had, as she says, selected her for her divine mission), for the recovery of money alleged by her to be due upon a contract reading as follows:
“We, the undersigned, do hereby agree, in consideration of instructions and manuscripts received from Mrs. Mary B. Glover, to pay her $100 in advance, and ten per cent annually on the income that we receive from practicing or teaching the same. We also do hereby agree to pay the said Mary B. Glover $1,000 in case we do not practice or teach the science she has taught us.”
The Banner of Light advertisement was dated July 4, 1869, and one of the contracts is dated August 17, 1870, so it will be seen how brief was the duration of Mrs. Eddy’s guarantee system of operating.
I think, in all her lawsuits for the recovery of tuition Mrs. Eddy never prevailed after a hearing upon the merits, and in one of them, the Judge, who tried her case, after having heard her testimony in full, said:
“I do not find any instruction given by her nor any explanations of her ‘science’ or ‘method of healing,’ which are intelligible to ordinary comprehension, or which could in any way be of value in fitting the defendant as a competent and successful practitioner of any intelligible art or method of healing the sick. And I am of opinion that the consideration for the agreement has wholly failed, and I so find.”
This finding of the court is interesting as a judicial estimate, based upon her own sworn testimony, of the value of Mrs. Eddy’s Christian Science, which has never been any more intelligible to any one else than it was to the learned Judge.
In 1881, Mrs. Eddy established what she called the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, which was an institution for the turning out of Christian Science healers. Her adopted son and husband, with herself, constituted the faculty of this remarkable institution, and the entire college course consisted of twelve lessons. The following is taken from an advertisement in the Christian Science Journal, Mrs. Eddy’s personal organ, for September, 1886, under the heading, “Massachusetts Metaphysical College, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, President, 571 Columbus Ave., Boston, Mass.”:
“The collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysical healing includes twelve lessons. Class convenes at 10 a.m. The first week, six consecutive lessons. The term continues about three weeks. Tuition, three hundred dollars. Tuition for all strictly in advance.”
Remember that this was Mrs. Eddy’s charge fifteen years after God had, by revelation, as she says, freely imparted to her what she was here advertising to sell at the rate of twenty-five dollars per lesson, cash “strictly in advance.” Mrs. Eddy’s was a strictly cash business, no trust, no “revelation” C.O.D., or on the installment plan, and no money returned however dissatisfied with the purchase.