of Christian Science--and that when this idea came she
would not doubt that it was an inspiration direct from Heaven.

CHAPTER XI

[I must rest a little, now. To sit here and painstakingly spin out a
scheme which imagines Mrs. Eddy, of all people, working her mind on
a plane above commercialism; imagines her thinking, philosophizing,
discovering majestic things; and even imagines her dealing in
sincerities--to be frank, I find it a large contract But I have begun
it, and I will go through with it.]

CHAPTER XII

It is evident that she made disciples fast, and that their belief in her
and in the authenticity of her heavenly ambassadorship was not of the
lukewarm and half-way sort, but was profoundly earnest and sincere.
Her book was issued from the press in 1875, it began its work of
convert-making, and within six years she had successfully launched a new
Religion and a new system of healing, and was teaching them to crowds of
eager students in a College of her own, at prices so extraordinary
that we are almost compelled to accept her statement (no, her guarded
intimation) that the rates were arranged on high, since a mere human
being unacquainted with commerce and accustomed to think in pennies
could hardly put up such a hand as that without supernatural help.

From this stage onward--Mrs. Eddy being what she was--the rest of the
development--stages would follow naturally and inevitably.

But if she had been anybody else, there would have been a different
arrangement of them, with different results. Being the extraordinary
person she was, she realized her position and its possibilities;
realized the possibilities, and had the daring to use them for all they
were worth.

We have seen what her methods were after she passed the stage where her
divine ambassadorship was granted its executer in the hearts and minds
of her followers; we have seen how steady and fearless and calculated
and orderly was her march thenceforth from conquest to conquest; we have
seen her strike dead, without hesitancy, any hostile or questionable
force that rose in her path: first, the horde of pretenders that sprang
up and tried to take her Science and its market away from her--she
crushed them, she obliterated them; when her own National Christian
Science Association became great in numbers and influence, and loosely
and dangerously garrulous, and began to expound the doctrines according
to its own uninspired notions, she took