fifteen editions, and there were therefore fifteen thousand copies in circulation, but letters came to her from the West, complaining that the book was not obtainable. It was necessary to put forth a fresh edition, and Mrs. Eddy determined to revise the book and give to it the benefit of her experience in elucidating many of its statements.
On her return from the visit to Chicago she did not take up the active editorship of the Journal, but contented herself with supervising its columns, applying herself in all spare moments to the rewriting of “Science and Health.” For many months she worked on the manuscript and in August, 1885, she had prepared a completed first draft. This manuscript contained all the essential matter of the earlier editions, — as a comparison will show, — but it had been amplified and clarified and given illuminating touches throughout by Mrs. Eddy’s higher unfoldment in metaphysical understanding.
Having completed the first draft of her work, Mrs. Eddy engaged the Rev. James Henry Wiggin to read the manuscript with a view to indexing it and also to preparing it for the printer with the privilege of making proper technical emendations such as are usually given all manuscripts by the editors of a publishing house. Mr. Wiggin was a man whom many Boston authors had employed for such work, and, because of his reputation for honor and ability, she believed that her book might be entrusted to his hands without fear that he would overstep his privilege and tamper with its subject matter or context. Such proved to be the character of his workmanship.
