Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/352

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324
MISCELLANY

Wiggin's home. He often spoke his thoughts freely about you and your work, especially your book Science and Health. Mr. Wiggin had somewhat of a thought of contempt for the unlearned, and he scorned the suggestion that Mr. Quimby had given you any idea for your book, as he said you and your ideas were too much alike for the book to have come from any one but yourself. He often said you were so original and so very decided that no one could be of much service to you, and he often hinted that he thought he could give a clearer nomenclature for Science and Health. I remember telling you of this, and you explained how long you had waited on the Lord to have those very terms revealed to you.

I am very sure that neither Mr. Wiggin nor his estimable wife had any other thought but that you were the author of your book, and were he here to-day he would be too honorable to allow the thought to go out that he had helped you write it. He certainly never gave us the impression that he thought you needed help, for we always thought that Mr. Wiggin regarded you as quite his literary equal, and was gratified and pleased in numbering you among his literary friends. Everything he said conveyed this impression to us — that he regarded you as entirely unique and original. He told us laughingly why he accepted your invitation to sit through your class. He said he wanted to see if there was one woman under the sun who could keep to her text. When we asked him if he found you could do so, he replied “Yes,” and said that no man could have done so any better.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Wiggin frequently mentioned