WE are about to enter upon another calendar year. The light of Anno Domini, 1896 will, shortly break upon us. It is thirty years since the Reverend Mary Baker Eddy began the labor which culminated in the preparation and promulgation of our text-book, Science AND Health WITH Key TO THE Scriptures, and twenty-one years since its first publication.
In Retrospection and Introspection Mrs. Eddy says: "When it was first printed, the critics took pleasure in saying: 'This book is indeed wholly original, but it will never be read." She adds: "The first edition numbered one thousand copies. In September, 1891, it had reached sixty-two editions." Ere these words are read it will most likely have reached its 100th edition — one hundred thousand volumes. Those critics were not good prophets.
If this ratio of increase continues, by the dawning of the next century, 1900, it will have reached approximately 150,000 volumes. It is safe to say it will much exceed that number, for the ratio is steadily enlarging instead of diminishing. Such a book as Science AND Health WITH Key TO THE Scriptures does not retrogress. It is healing too many invalids; it is bringing out of the depths of despair too many hitherto helpless, hopeless people, and raising to higher and nobler standards too many longing hearts, to ever go backwards.
