Infringement of “Science and Health,” Etc.- Decision of the United States Circuit Court.
We give below a detailed account to meet the falsehood of Mr. Arens' statement through the Boston Globe "that there had been no decision whatever, and the suit was
decided by an agreement signed by the respective counsel".
A bill in equity was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court, at Boston, in April last, to restrain, by decree and order of the Court, the unlawful publishing and use of a pamphlet printed and issued by E. J. Arens, which contained, for the most part, matter pirated from the
copyrighted works of Mrs. Mary B. G. Eddy; about two pages under the head of "Metaphysical Alphabet" being plagiarized from a translation of "The History and Life of the Rev. John Tauler." Sometime later, another pamphlet having appeared differing but little from that first sought to be enjoined, the bill was amended to include this second piracy.
Answer was filed by Mr. Arens alleging that the copyrighted works of Mrs. Eddy were not original with her, but had been copied by her, or by her direction, from manuscripts originally composed by Dr. Quimby: further stating, that he had not published nor distributed any of the books complained of for more than a year past.
Testimony was taken on the part of Mrs. Eddy, the defendant Arens being present personally, and by counsel showing that the sworn answer of Arens in regard to his
not having distributed any of said books within a year past was wholly untrue, and also showing the gross and wholesale piracy, committed on the copyrighted books of Mrs. Eddy as set forth in the bill of complaint.
The time for taking testimony on the part of the defendant, Arens, having nearly expired, he gave notice through his counsel that he should not put in testimony, and the stipulation for a judgment and a decree in favor of Mrs. Eddy, was drawn up and signed by counsel. Upon the filing of this stipulation, the following decree was made by the Court, from which the following is an extract:
CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.
DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Decree for perpetual Injunction.
Sept. 24, 1883. It is ordered, adjudged and decreed as follows: that the copyright heretofore obtained by the complainant under the name of Mary Baker Glover, upon
the book entitled "The Science of Man, etc.," And the copyright upon the book entitled "Science and Health," Vol. 2, By Mary Baker Glover Eddy, whereby there was secured good and valid copyrights, that the said complainant has infringed the said copyrights and upon the exclusive rights of the defendant under the same, by publication, sale, and
distribution of the works "The Understanding of Christianity, or God, etc.," And "Christianity, or the Understanding of God, etc.," By E. J. Arens.
And it is further ordered, adjudged and decreed, that a perpetual injunction be issued against the defendant according to the prayer of the bill.
And it is further ordered &c., That the complainant recover of the defendant her cost of suit taxed at ($113.09) one hundred thirteen and 9-100 dollars.
By the Court,
Deputy Clerk.
And upon such decree the following injunction was issued and served upon Arens:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Massachusetts District, SS.
The President of the United States of America to EDWARD J. ARENS, of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts.
Your Agents and Servants send Greeting.
Whereas
Mary B. G. Eddy,of said Boston, has exhibited her Bill of Complaint before the Justices of our Circuit Court of the United States for the First Circuit, begun and holden at Boston, within and for the District of Massachusetts, on the Fifteenth day of May, A.D. 1883, against you, the said EDWARD J. ARENS, praying to be relieved touching the matters therein complained of; and whereas, by an Order from said Court, made on the
Twenty-fourth day of September, A.D. 1883, it was ordered that a Writ of Injunction issue, under the seal of the said Court, to restrain you, and each and every of you, from
doing all the matters and things, from the doing of which you are prayed to be restrained in said Bill, according in full with the prayer of said Bill.
We, therefore, in consideration thereof, enjoin and command you, each and every of you, that from, and immediately after the receipt and notice of this, our Writ, by you, or any of you, you shall not, directly or indirectly, print, publish, sell, give away, distribute, or in any way or manner dispose of a certain work or book entitled "The Understanding of Christianity or God, etc.," by E. J. Arens: or a certain work or book entitled "Christianity, or the Understanding of God, etc.," by E. J. Arens: which said books are copies from, and infringements of the copyrighted works of the complainant, as set forth in the Bill of Complaint in this cause.
Whereof, you are not to fail, on pain of ten thousand dollars, to be levied on your and each of your goods, chattels, lands and tenements, to our use.
Witness:
The Honorable Morrison R. Waite, at Boston, this twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and eighty-three.
Deputy Clerk.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Massachusetts District, SS:
Boston, Oct. 4, 1883
I hereby acknowledge personal service of the within injunction.
On Friday, October 5th, 1883, -- fitting day, one usually adopted for the execution of criminals, -- the infringing books, to the number of (3800) thirty-eight hundred, or thereabouts, were put under the edge of the knife, and their unlawful existence destroyed.
For two years past the aforesaid E. J. Arens has claimed to teach -- with what the law has declared pirated pamphlets, -- a higher order of morals and Christianity! The following is one of the sentences palmed off on his students and the public as his own: "It is Truth that heals the sick and honors God, and the work to be well done must be done unselfishly." With such sentiments, earned from the life of their real author, strange to say, E. J. Arens won for a time his way into the confidence of some of the good people of Boston, while we in turn waited two years before entering a suit against him, hoping that with time he might catch the spirit of our words, reform, and stop his purloined publications.
The Public Library of Boston has the book referred to, containing the wise axioms that said Arens, in over two printed pages, gave as his "Metaphysical Alphabet." What would the reverend gentleman say, if on earth, of the ability of that man to teach his morals, who, assuming his ethics, publishes them as his own; one of which maxims is the
following: "No other man's good things shall ye desire, be they what they may, corporal or spiritual.” Such a craven might crawl out of it, for a time, by a million more feigned
originals, lectures or pamphlets; but his own morals would sooner or later be unmasked.