● ● ● he is willing, and you will publish it.”132 The newspaper was evidently not interested, and the quotations were not published.
Actually no excerpts were made public until 1887 when some were included in a lecture by Julius Dresser entitled “The True History of Mental Science.”133 These were all from articles said to have been written in 1863, after Mrs. Patterson had met Quimby. An article in the Mental Science Magazine in 1888, written by A. J. Swarts after he had examined the manuscripts in George Quimby’s possession, stated: “His [P. P. Quimby’s] views were often written by those associated with him, and then submitted to him for approval or correction. These writings by himself, and by those in his employ for years who wrote for him, constitute the said [Quimby] Manuscripts.”134
The possibility cannot be ruled out that some of Mrs. Patterson’s writings, perhaps emended by Quimby, or some of her emended versions of his own writings may be mixed in with what are now known as the Quimby manuscripts.135 This is the view taken by an English historian who for the most part is highly critical of Mrs. Eddy. Largely on the basis of his study of the manuscripts, H. A. L. Fisher concluded that part of their confusion came from their representing an amalgam ● ● ●
132 [Mary M. Patterson, Evening Courier (Portland, ME), c. 10 November 1862.]
133 Julius A. Dresser, The True History of Mental Science (Boston: Alfred Mudge and Son, 1887). In the March, 1888, issue of the New England Magazine, George Quimby wrote that after his father moved to Portland at the end of 1859 the Misses Ware became his patients and that later they “suggested to him the propriety of putting into writing the body of his thoughts.” George Quimby adds, “From that time he began to write out his ideas, which practice he continued until his death.” [George A. Quimby, “Phineas Parkhurst Quimby,” New England Magazine, March 1888, p. 274.] This statement would seem to cast doubt on dates earlier than 1860 or 1861 attributed to Quimby’s written explanations of his theory.
134 A. J. Swarts, “The Quimby Manuscripts,” Mental Science Magazine, June 1888, p. 207 [bracketed text Peel’s]. Swarts, who allied himself with the Quimby forces at this time, went on to say a little defensively, “All literary people know that Manuscripts proper consist of the views written by an individual, or his views penned by another for him, provided that he corrects, approves, and appropriates the same” (p. 207).
135 This was Mrs.Eddy’s own assumption in the 1880s when George Quimby was categorically refusing to allow even friendly outsiders to examine the manuscripts. In a letter dated November 11, 1901, George Quimby wrote: “She heard many of his essays read; wrote many herself which she submitted to him for inspection and correction. But she never left any of hers with him, and never had any of his, to more than look at.” Horatio W. Dresser, Quimby Manuscripts, pp. 436–437. Since the younger Quimby had by that time destroyed most of the originals it is unlikely that investigation today can settle the matter definitely.