The first edition numbered one thousand copies. In September, 1891, it had
reached sixty-two editions.

Those who formerly sneered at it, as foolish and eccentric, now declare
Bishop Berkeley, David Hume, Ralph Waldo Emerson, or certain German
philosophers, to have been the originators of the Science of Mind-healing
as therein stated.

Even the Scriptures gave no direct interpretation of the scientific basis
for demonstrating the spiritual Principle of healing, until our heavenly
Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in Science and Health,
to unlock this "mystery of godliness."

My reluctance to give the public, in my first edition of Science and
Health, the chapter on Animal Magnetism, and the divine purpose that this
should be done, may have an interest for the reader, and will be seen in
the following circumstances. I had finished that edition as far as that
chapter, when the printer informed me that he could not go on with my work.
I had already paid him seven hundred dollars, and yet he stopped my work.
All efforts to persuade him to finish my book were in vain.

After months had passed, I yielded to a constant conviction that I must
insert in my last chapter a partial history of what I had already observed
of mental malpractice. Accordingly, I set to work, contrary to my
inclination, to fulfil this painful task, and finished my copy for the
book. As it afterwards appeared, although I had not thought of such a
result, my printer resumed his work at the same time, finished printing the
copy he had on hand, and then started for Lynn to see me. The afternoon
that he left Boston for Lynn, I started for Boston with my finished copy.