The Hidden Power And Other Papers upon Mental Science. Thomas Troward

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      mechanical effects of mechanical causes, and a system which recognises

      no higher power than the physical forces of nature must logically result

      in having no higher ultimate appeal than to physical force or to fraud

      as its alternative. I speak, of course, of the tendency of the system,

      not of the morality of individuals, who are often very far in advance of

      the systems they profess. But as we would avoid the propagation of a

      mode of thought whose effects history shows only too plainly, whether in

      the Italy of the Borgias, or the France of the First Revolution, or the

      Commune of the Franco-Prussian War, we should set ourselves to study

      that inner and spiritual aspect of things which is the basis of a system

      whose logical results are truth and love instead of perfidy and

      violence.

      Some of us, doubtless, have often wondered why the Heavenly Jerusalem is

      described in the Book of Revelations as a cube; "the length and the

      breadth and the height of it are equal." This is because the cube is the

      figure of perfect stability, and thus represents Truth, which can never

      be overthrown. Turn it on what side you will, it still remains the

      perfect cube, always standing upright; you cannot upset it. This figure,

      then, represents the manifestation in concrete solidity of that central

      life-giving energy, which is not itself any one plane but generates all

      planes, the planes of the above and of the below and of all four sides.

      But it is at the same time a city, a place of habitation; and this is

      because that which is "the within" is Living Spirit, which has its

      dwelling there.

      As one plane of the cube implies all the other planes and also "the

      within," so any plane of manifestation implies the others and also that

      "within" which generates them all. Now, if we would make any progress in

      the spiritual side of science--and _every_ department of science has its

      spiritual side--we must always keep our minds fixed upon this "innermost

      within" which contains the potential of all outward manifestation, the

      "fourth dimension" which generates the cube; and our common forms of

      speech show how intuitively we do this. We speak of the spirit in which

      an act is done, of entering into the spirit of a game, of the spirit of

      the time, and so on. Everywhere our intuition points out the spirit as

      the true essence of things; and it is only when we commence arguing

      about them from without, instead of from within, that our true

      perception of their nature is lost.

      The scientific study of spirit consists in following up intelligently

      and according to definite method the same principle that now only

      flashes upon us at intervals fitfully and vaguely. When we once realise

      that this universal and unlimited power of spirit is at the root of all

      things and of ourselves also, then we have obtained the key to the whole

      position; and, however far we may carry our studies in spiritual

      science, we shall nowhere find anything else but particular developments

      of this one universal principle. "The Kingdom of Heaven is _within_

      you."

      I have laid stress on the fact that the "innermost within" of all things

      is living Spirit, and that the Science of Spirit is distinguished from

      the Science of Matter in that it contemplates Energy under an aspect of

      responsive intelligence which does not fall within the scope of physical

      science, as such. These are the two great points to lay hold of if we

      would retain a clear idea of Spiritual Science, and not be misled by

      arguments drawn from the physical side of Science only--the livingness

      of the originating principle which is at the heart of all things, and

      its intelligent and responsive nature. Its livingness is patent to our

      observation, at any rate from the point where we recognise it in the

      vegetable kingdom; but its intelligence and responsiveness are not,

      perhaps, at once so obvious. Nevertheless, a little thought will soon

      lead us to recognise this also.

      No one can deny that there is an intelligent order throughout all

      nature, for it requires the highest intelligence of our most

      highly-trained minds to follow the steps of this universal intelligence

      which is always in advance of them. The more deeply we investigate the

      world we live in, the more clear it must become to us that all our

      science is the translation into words or numerical symbols of that order

      which already exists. If the clear statement of this existing order is

      the highest that the human intellect can reach, this surely argues a

      corresponding intelligence in the power which gives rise to this great

      sequence of order and interrelation, so as to constitute one harmonious

      whole. Now, unless we fall back on the idea of a workman working upon

      material external to himself--in which case we have to explain the

      phenomenon of the workman--the only conception we can form of СКАЧАТЬ