Joyce Voysey writes: How delightful to have Chesterfield defined.  Thank you, Julie.  If I had been asked (without reference to the quote from the book) what a Chesterfield was, I would have said, “Some sort of a gun – old.”  Way off the mark!  I find that a friend has a Chesterfield chair.  Already I have learned something.  Chesterfield is a town the county of Derby in England. Some of my ancestors came to Australia from there.

Back to my musings about starting out on a new book read.  The other thing that I seek out is a note about the author,
and, perhaps, a picture of him or her.

In this book, this information can be found in the Publisher’s Note on our author Irving Tomlinson.  My first impression from the first paragraph: the number of years he studied at University and College before his graduation as a Bachelor of Divinity in 1888. 

                BA in 1880 – perhaps 3 years of study ?
                MA in 1883 – after 3 more years of study
                BD in 1888 – after 5 more years of study

If we count his BA as taking 3 years, that is 11 years of study.

Now, 1894 he became interested in Christian Science.  Robert Peel mentions that he had Class Instruction in Christian Science with Flavia Knapp, before becoming a member of The Mother Church.  (See Years of Authority p. 109)

Class Instruction in Christian Science is a 12 day course, usually taken over 2 weeks.  It readies the student for the healing work of Christian Science, and eventually the office of practitioner listed as such in the Christian Science Journal.  Because Rev. Tomlinson has the initials C.S.B after his name it means he has taken a further Normal Class to become a teacher of this Science of Being.

The point I am making is that he studied in university and college for 11 years + 2 weeks before he was ready for his real life work.