Accession: 490.55.001
Editorial Title: Stacy Fowler to Mary Baker Eddy, March 1, 1885
Author: Stacy Fowler 
Recipient: Mary Baker Eddy 
Date: March 1, 1885
Manuscript Description: Handwritten by Stacy Fowler on the printed stationery of The Christian Union Publishing Company from Boston, Massachusetts.
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490.55.001
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Reproduced from the archive of The Mary Baker Eddy Library
Dear Madam:

Engagements forbadeAs Written:forbad my accepting your very kind invitation to attend your lectures.

I write to ask a fragile question, which, if convenient & agreeable to yourself. I would be much obliged, if you would answer by a few lines. In Vol. 1. of your book, “Science of Being”Editorial Note: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 14, you say “Matter is the unreal”. Do I understand you to deny the existence of matter? For instance do you deny that the physical body, its flesh, bones, muscles, brains, nerves, is a myth, a fiction; unreal in the sense that there is no body, only the appearance of a body? Or do you mean that matter is “unreal” in the sense that it is a creation, & as such, continually in a state of flux, passing away like the clouds & thunder? I feel that I may fail to understand your meaning of terms, & therefore may not comprehend your real ideas. Clear conceptions of another’s thoughts is the first pre-requisite to an honest review or even opinion.

I hope you will pardon the liberty I take, & find it congenial to give the information I desire.

Very sincerely yours,
Stacey Fowler.
490.55.001
-
Reproduced from the archive of The Mary Baker Eddy Library
Dear Madam:

Engagements forbadCorrected:forbade my accepting your very kind invitation to attend your lectures.

I write to ask a fragile question, which, if convenient & agreeable to yourself. I would be much obliged, if you would answer by a few lines. In Vol. 1. of your book, “Science of Being”Editorial Note: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 14, you say “Matter is the unreal”. Do I understand you to deny the existence of matter? For instance do you deny that the physical body, its flesh, bones, muscles, brains, nerves, [?] Unclear or illegible  is a myth, a fiction; unreal in the sense that there is no body, only the appearance of a body? Or do you mean that matter is “unreal” in the sense that it is a creation, & as such, continually in a state of flux, passing away like the clouds & thunder? I feel that I may fail to understand your meaning of terms, & therefore may not comprehend your real ideas. Clear conceptions of another’s thoughts is the first pre-requisite to an honest review or even opinion.

I hope you will pardon the liberty I take, & find it congenial to give the information I desire.

Very sincerely yours,
Stacey Fowler.
 
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Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy