-self-edification--and that it
will be well to have one of the experts demonstrate over her. [But
he added]: Closely examined, painstakingly studied, she is easily
the most interesting person on the planet, and in several ways as
easily the most extraordinary woman that was ever born upon it.

Necessarily, the forces of Christian Science were aroused by these
articles, and there were various replies, among them, one by the founder
herself, a moderate rejoinder in her usual literary form.

"Mrs. Eddy in Error," in the North American Review for April, 1903,
completed what Clemens had to say on the matter for this time.

He was putting together a book on the subject, comprised of his various
published papers and some added chapters. It would not be a large
volume, and he offered to let his Christian Science opponents share it
with him, stating their side of the case. Mr. William D. McCrackan, one
of the church's chief advocates, was among those invited to participate.
McCrackan and Clemens, from having begun as enemies, had become
quite friendly, and had discussed their differences face to face at
considerable length. Early in the controversy Clemens one night wrote
McCrackan a pretty savage letter. He threw it on the hall table for
mailing, but later got out of bed and slipped down-stairs to get it. It
was too late--the letters had been gathered up and mailed. Next evening
a truly Christian note came from McCrackan, returning the hasty letter,
which he said he was sure the writer would wish to recall. Their
friendship began there. For some reason, however, the collaborated
volume did not materialize. In the end, publication was delayed a
number of years, by which time Clemens's active interest was a good
deal modified, though the practice itself never failed to invite his
attention.

Howells refers to his anti-Christian Science rages, which began with
the postponement of the book, and these Clemens vented at the time
in another manuscript entitled, "Eddypus," an imaginary history of a
thousand years hence, when Eddyism should rule the world. By that day
its founder would have become a deity, and the calendar would be changed
to accord with her birth. It was not publishable matter, and really
never intended as such. It was just one of the things which Mark Twain
wrote to relieve mental pressure.

CCXXVI. "WAS IT HEAVEN? OR HELL?"

The Christmas number of Harper's Magazine for 1902 contai