At the age of sixteen I was suffering from the so-called laws of heredity, and a doctor told me that if I did not go to a different climate I would not live to be twenty-five. Two of my sisters had passed away at about that age with lung trouble, and my mother with the same disease when I was a child. At my father's death when I was eighteen, I passed through what the doctor called temporary insanity, and from that time both diseases seemed to cling to me, until I was forced to give up teaching.
One morning when I was out by the river and everything in nature seemed beautiful and harmonious, though I was feeling sick in both mind and body, the conviction came to me very clearly that if I could only understand God and His laws I would not be thus afflicted. Shortly afterward, as if in answer to my desire, a Christian Scientist came for a week's visit. I asked her to tell me something of her religion, and she repeated the religious tenets of Christian Science as given on page 497 of Science and Health, and the "scientific statement of being" (p. 468). She then told me that the Bible as explained in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, would answer all my questions.
Glasses had been worn for nearly seven years, and three oculists had said that I could never go without them. At times, and always at night, the pain in the eyes was very severe. The doctor who fitted me with glasses the last time said that all I could do was to stand the pain as long as possible and then take an opiate. I had a fear of acquiring the habit, but kept the drug on hand, taking it only when seemingly exhausted by the pain. A few months after the Scientist's visit I read a little in Science and Health every day for about two weeks, and during that time there were several days when I did not need glasses.
