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LETTERS TO PATIENTS AND INQUIRERS
141

as plain before my eyes as you were when I was talking to the shadow in Portland. For the shadow came with the substance, and that which I am talking to now is the substance. If I make an impression on it, it may throw forth a shadow of a young lady upright without that “gone place” at the pit of the stomach. . . . Remember that when I see you sitting or standing in the position I saw you in at Portland I shall just straighten you up. If you complain of the back, you may lay it to me and I will be a little more gentle. You may expect me once in a while in the evening. So keep on the lookout. See that you have your lamp trimmed and burning, so that when the Truth comes it shall not find you sleeping, but up straight, ready to receive the bridegroom. It seems that you understand this as I tell it to you. But for fear you will not explain it to the shadow, or natural man, I will try to make you understand so it may come to the senses of the natural man. If I succeed, let my natural man know by a letter.[1]

Yours, etc.,
P. P. Q.

To Mrs. A. C. B:

In answer to your letter I will say that it is impossible to give an opinion of a case till I know something about it [apart from] my natural senses. If I myself cannot take another's feelings, my opinion is nothing. When I sit by a patient their feelings affect me and the sensation I receive from the mind is independent of the senses, for they [the senses] do not know that they communicate any intelligence to me. This I feel, and it contains the cause of the trouble, and my Wisdom explains the trouble, and the explanation is the cure. You must trust in that Wisdom that is able to unlock any error.

P. P. Q.
January 11, 1861. 

To Miss G.

Your letter to Miss W. was handed to me for perusal to see what course I thought best to take. So I will sit down by you as I used to do and commence operations. Excitement

  1. This letter shows how emphatically Quimby directed attention to “the scientific man” or real self, the self that already possesses the Truth or Science implicitly.