Joyful reading

In a side panel on page 152 of our book "A world more bright - the life of Mary Baker Eddy", we learn that William McKenzie was on the Lesson-Sermon Committee for 21 years. Also that, it was understood that the topics for the Lesson-Sermons covered the course of instruction given by Mrs. Eddy in class teaching.

I like the emphasis on beginning rightly - see page 165. This was an admonition to Eddy's adopted son Ebenezer Foster Eddy in regard to publishing her works: “...see that you start rightly in publishing this year (for much depends on right beginnings).” This echoes Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health, “To begin rightly is to end rightly” (page 262). The next sentence is rather telling, “Every concept which seems to begin with the brain begins falsely.”

That same page gives us the surprising (to me anyway) information that Mrs. Eddy gave Foster Eddy the copyright to Science and Health – this included the royalties.

In reading about the newspapers of Mrs. Eddy's day, we often hear the phrase “yellow journalism.”

We finally have it explained on page 175 in a side-bar.

We have read of Mrs. Eddy's early morning turning to the Bible for inspiration. On page 183 we have a phrase that covers its usefulness. She said that it enabled her to meet “the cares that infest the day.”

There is a picture of a phonograph on page 190, and a side-bar about that instrument. This speaks of Edison's original phonograph which used cylinders to reproduce sound. I have actually used one of these. In 1942 my family rented a house at Coorparoo, a suburb of Brisbane. Its furnishings included a phonograph and some cylinder recordings. I think they included Enrico Caruso's singing. Perhaps he sang, “O! For the wings of a dove.” I am left to wonder how old it was...and what happened to it.

What a joy it has been to read this book!

Joyce Voysey