The first writer in the mental-science period to employ the term "New Thought," capitalized.

Dr. William H. Holcombe(1825-1893) was born at Lynchburg, Va., May 29, 1825, of an old Virginia family; his grandfather having served in the Continental army, and his father was a distinguished physician of the old school. Dr. William H. Holcombe was sent to the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1847. He removed to Cincinnati, and was there during a siege of Asiatic cholera, which caused him to become interested in homeopathy. The great success he met with in his experiments induced him to devote himself to the new school of medicine, and he became one of its most talented disciples. Dr. Holcombe went to Natchez, Miss., in 1852, and he and his partner, Dr. Davis, were appointed physicians and surgeons to the Mississippi State hospital. In 1864 Dr. Holcombe removed to New Orleans, where he made his home until his death, Nov. 28, 1893. He was chairman of the Yellow Fever commission in 1878, and published an excellent report of the work done during the epidemic of that year. For many years he was one of the editors of the North American Journal of Homeopathy, and president of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1876. He was the author of several books and treatises, publishing, in 1852, "The Scientific Basis of Homeopathy," and, in 1856, "Yellow Fever, and its Homeopathie Treatment." Dr. Holcombe also wrote 2 volumes of poetry, and 8 religious works, embodying the doctrines of Swedenborg. His last literary composition, "The Truth About Homeopathy," was completed a few days before his death. Dr. Holcombe was a man of lofty and noble nature, and of tenderest charity, a true philanthropist, who won the respect and devotion of all who knew him. William Henry Holcombe, physician, practised his profession in Lynchburg, Virginia, Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1874-'5 he was president of the American institute of homoeopathy. He published a number of books contributing to both homoeopathic and Swedenborgian literature. Holcombe, was the first writer in the mental-science period to employ the term "New Thought," capitalized, to designate the new teaching in the sense in which the term is now used. In his pamphlet, Condensed Thoughts about Christian Science, 1887, Dr. Holcombe says,

"New Thought always excites combat in the mind with old thought, which refuses to retire."

[4][5] Dr. Holcombe said[3],

"When one has grasped the idea that by creative laws mind (thought) is dormant in all things of the body, the minutest changes of which are in reality organic manifestations or showings forth of mental conditions, many things before incomprehensible become clear. From the standpoint of this grand truth we see how emotions (which are produced by thought) determine the most rapid changes in the secretions of the body; how fright turns the hair gray; how terror poisons the mother's milk; how great mental excitements or the slow torture of mental anxiety write their baneful effects upon the tissues of the brain; how the images made upon the mother's brain are transferred and photographed upon the body of the unborn child; how epidemics spread by the contagion of fear and the transference of thought; the thing feared in the mind being reproduced in the physical system. "Of the idealistic theory, which is the basis of mind cure, physical appearances are only the external forms or natural embodiments of spiritual causes (human wills) which are the real motor powers. Effects are produced not by the apparent external means, but by internal and corresponding spiritual means. "When these internal and spiritual forces (the will) can be evoked and set in action from within, the external means may be entirely dispensed with." [Which is equivalent to saying that the will, as a healer, is so far superior to medicine and all other external appliances as to make nothing of them.] "It is therefore the maxim of the metaphysician that the cause and cure of disease is always mental." "The part which the mind has always played in the cure has been ignored, or not recognized, because of the prevalent and dominant spirit of materialism. The mind (thought) has been all the time counted out, while in reality it may have been the chief and perhaps the only factor in the case. When we are confronted with cures of the most remarkable character, cures entirely beyond the reach of our best medication, we attribute them to imagination, faith, hope, expectation. And we do rightly; for imagination, faith, hope, expectation are states of the mind, are the mind itself in substantial activity and creative energy, and when these vital forces can be evoked and directed there is no limit to the possibilities that lie in store for us."

These are the writings of an honest physician and thinker. In the quotations I interpolated the words that appear in brackets, and my interpolations go a little beyond Dr. Holcombe's thought; but I am sure he will forgive me if I have made his language stand out a little further in the light as I myself see it. I have only done as I will to be done by.[3] In another place the doctor says,

"Thoughts are things; ideas are forces; and the spiritual life is a transcendent, organized sphere. Nothing stands alone; no thought, no mind, no faintest trace of an idea. All are associated and linked together by innumerable laws." [In my opinion there is but one law; it is the adaptation of this law to innumerable needs that gives it the appearance of many laws.] "Every thought we think is a ray of mind which radiates from us, and is reflected from all other minds associated with us. The transference of thought is as simple a thing in the mental sphere as the radiation and reflection of light are in the physical sphere." [There is no physical sphere; and light and heat are not the reflection of love and intelligence, but love and intelligence themselves.] "The mental solidarity of the race is perfect. All the states of mind represented by faith, hope, imagination, fixed opinion, expectation, etc., may be exercised by the physician or friends and projected with more or less force and power upon the interior and unconscious minds of all who are supposed to be incapable of exercising mental powers of their own. This is the keynote to the sickness of children, and also to the secret of their cure."

Dr. Holcombe's testimony to the fact that thought can make sick and make well is all the more valuable because of his long study and practical experience in the schools of medicine.[3] Sources: 1. http://faculty.txwes.edu/csmeller/Human-Prospect/ProData09/01ModCulMatrix/ModWRTs/Holcombe1825/HolcombeBio.htm 2. Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 22-25. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit. D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association. 3. Helen Wilmans - Home Course In Mental Science – 1921 4. A History of the New Thought Movement by Horatio W. Dresser - First published by Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1919 5. Writers like Holcombe chose the new term rather than the term “Christian Science” to show this was different from Eddyism. [4] [6] 6. And shortly after Charles Brodie Patterson used it in his Mind magazine in New York as well as the titles for 2 of his books; “New Thought Essays” and “What is New Thought?” Henry Wood used the term “New Thought Simplified”.

 

 

Holcombe was also pro-slavery; he wrote in 1861 Man has no "inalienable rights"-- not even those of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

And: The pro-slavery party included nine millions of people of Anglo-Saxon blood.

Did he mean:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant" ("WASP") men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…..