● ● ● scripture. . . . Considering the means employed, and the diversity of cases, Dr. Q.’s success is remarkable—whether it depends more upon the man, or he acts upon the first principles of that, which, when better understood shall be recognized as a new remedial agency.61
Two weeks later the same paper ran an extended account of his theory, the most rational to appear in print during his lifetime.62 This probably represents the effort of a better educated mind than his to bring order into the confusion of his system, and it anticipates the later efforts of New Thought writers to make his theories more conventionally respectable. But for primitive vigor and chaotic eloquence, for a certain crude power of mind and will and imagination, those writings which are certainly—or almost certainly63—Quimby’s own surpass anything in New Thought. A characteristic example, from a letter to a patient in 1861, shows him in full torrent:
To make you understand I must come to you in some way in the form of a belief. So I will tell you a story of some one who died of bronchitis. You listen or eat this belief or wisdom as you would eat your meals. It sets rather hard upon your stomach; this disturbs the error or your body, and a cloud appears in the sky. You cannot see the storm but you can see it looks dark. In this cloud or belief you prophesy rain or a storm. So in your belief you foresee evils. The elements of the body of your belief are shaken, the earth is lit up by the fire of your error, the heat rises, the heaven or mind grows dark; the heat moves like the roaring of thunder, the lightning of hot flashes shoot to all parts of the solar system of your belief. At last the winds or chills strike the earth or surface of the body, a cold clammy sensation passes over you. This changes the heat into a sort of watery substance, which works its way to the channels, and pours to the head and stomach.
Now listen and you will hear a voice in the clouds of error saying, The truth hath prevailed to open the pores and let nature rid itself ● ● ●
61 [F. L. Town, “Letter from Louisville,” Portland Daily Advertiser, 6 March 1862, p. 2.]
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