Words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
Byron
Although"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy was first published to the world in 1875, it already has had a history sufficiently determinative to indicate unmistakably its true place in the permanent literature of mankind. Its phenomenal four hundred editions, published in its first thirty-one years, have exposed it in the most intense lime-light of the world's criticism and judgment, and the tests to which it has been subjected by its earnest students have been most extensive and thorough. Because it antagonizes the views of some learned professions, as well as the representatives of certain ecclesiastical dogmas which have been accumulating during something more than sixteen centuries, it has had to pass through the fiercest flames of hostile criticism, and has emerged unscathed and triumphant. It has had to bide a weary period of malice and misrepresentation, but like Daniel from the lions' den, it has been delivered unharmed. It has proven its place as one of the very few wholly good books possessed by men. When a really good book is born a miracle has occurred, and a benefaction given to humanity the value of which is beyond estimate. There are but few really good books in the world, and these must be determined "by their fruits."
Since the publication of Science and Health, a considerable number and variety of books, pamphlets, and periodicals have been published, and are still appearing numerously, which plagiarize and imitate its teachings in part, and which attempt to expound the theme of the metaphysical healing of the sick. It is just to remark that the dynamic incentive of these publications is to be discovered in the teachings of Mrs. Eddy; that too many of them seek to disguise this obligation in various ways which are not praiseworthy; that too many of them seek to compromise with the prejudicate opinions and prejudices of their readers along lines such as that of the unreality of matter: while some of them are grossly and mischievously atheistic and irreligious. It is, however, only the good coin which is counterfeited, and men are sure to discover that it is the good coin only which has any value.
