In speaking a word about my acquaintance with Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, I would like first to say I am not a Christian Scientist, but an old-fashioned orthodox Congregationalist. My father, the Rev. Enoch Corser, was from 1837 to 1843 pastor of the church of that denomination in NorthfieldEditorial Note: Northfield, New Hampshire and Tilton (then Sanbornton Bridge) N. H.Expanded:New Hampshire, with which the Baker family was connected.

As Mrs. Eddy's pastor– and for a time teacher– my father held her in the highest esteem– in fact he considered her, even at an early age, superior both intellectually and spiritulally to any other woman in Tilton, and r greatly enjoyed talking with her. It was in 1837, when, if I remember rightly, Mrs. Eddy was was about fifteen, that I first knew her, she being several years younger than myself. I well remember her gift of expression which was very marked, as girls at that tmime were not usually possessed of so large a vocabulary. She and my father used to converse on deep subjects– frequently (as I recall to mind, from remarks made by my father), too deep for me.

She was always pure and good, or my father as her pastor could not have received her into his churcrh and communion. If he were living to-dayCorrected:today I am sure his recommendation of her would be unqualified. She stands out in my mind distinctly as his brightest pupil, and I also remember her great admiration for him. him.

I have never heard spiritualism mentioned in connection with her or her family. The Bakers were superior people, well to doCorrected:well-to-do and well educatedCorrected:well-educated. The fact that Mrs. Eddy's brother Albert was ⇉ Handshift:Mary Baker Eddyintended for ⇉ Handshift:Typescript a member of Congress shows the estimation in which he was held by the community. A younger brother was skilled as a musician, and led the church choir (quorum pars fui) at the BridgeEditorial Note: Sanbornton Bridge (now Tilton), New Hampshire for a number of years. Her sister [?] Unclear or illegible  Martha was teacher for a time in the Academy at Sanbornton SquareEditorial Note: Sanbornton Academy, of which Pro [?] Unclear or illegible f. Dyer H. Sanborn, author of the Grammar, was then Principal

Principal.

I never heard or knew anything about Mrs. Eddy in her youth, in regard to her relations with her family or the community, which would give any foundation for the derogatory stories now in circulation purporting to deal with the time in her life when I knew her best. They seem to have been invented of late years since those who could bear testimony to the actual facts have become few in number. It has occurred to me that jealousy of her remarkable success may have giv given rise to the invention of theire preposterous stories.

The fact is, during my residence of some years, previous to the fall of 1843 in or near the present town of Tilton, I never heard a lisp against the good name of Miss Baker, but always praise for her superior abilities and scholarship her depth and independence of thought, and not least, spiritual-mindedness, all prophetic of her future eminence, when once her true life's mission should be revealed, to her by that Providence "that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will."Editorial Note: “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,” Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Act 5, Scene 2.