■^i^ji^wsoi^^ '^m\m 
 
 .^.OF-CALI^O/, 
 
 
 
 =0 ^ 
 
 
 
 i ^ 1 ^ 
 
 :^ 
 
 quv 
 
 ^lOS-AK. ^v 
 
 .^ \......._ .. ^mnvT-io^ 
 
 .«■ 
 
 ^■Jj, 
 
 ^c I iDi)^r')V/-^ 
 
 .?• ^.' ^^5^ 
 
 
 c^ ^a***^. 
 
 . r-'^ 
 
 iU-i,._.-jv< -. JJ/VlllllJH' 
 
 <AcOr .^ ^ r^
 
 3"JNV-iUl- 
 
 "</iajAINIIJV\v 
 
 
 
 "audi! 
 
 v: 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 ^<?A{]vaan-^^' ^<?AaviiaiH'^ 
 
 .^ 
 
 'JilJ 
 
 
 !^Ya^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 £--.■ 
 
 
 ,^\^E■UNIVER% ^v^-lOS-ANCfl£r.;., 
 
 'Of 
 
 
 V^ni 
 
 P3 
 
 6^ 
 
 jjO>^ %0JllVJ-jO'^ 
 
 
 u^u-iFOff^ 
 
 C5 
 £•3 
 
 ^OF-CAIIFO/?^ 
 
 - .^ 
 
 u.udlH^ 
 
 
 .s? 
 
 -a: - ■- >. 
 
 oa ■- 
 
 ..in<:.^vjrrtrr. 
 
 S 
 
 
 A,- 
 
 ? 
 
 . nr 
 
 •l)KIVER% 
 
 vvlOSANCFlfX;x 
 
 .^ -■■■ "^ 
 
 O u_ -< 
 
 ^^•LIBRARYQ<- 
 
 C3 
 
 ^.. 
 
 Uj 'I 
 
 ov^ ^ 
 
 s^ 
 
 .0^^ 
 
 
 i-UNIVERS/A vvlOS-AHCElfj> 
 
 5 ipTi 
 
 aOK/ 
 
 
 -n <-> 
 
 
 UUJ 
 
 > 
 
 '^ii 
 
 iV>' 
 
 ^ 
 
 % 
 
 ■^O-AdViiaii-i^^' 
 
 
 ^^i\ 
 
 UBRARYQr^ 
 
 
 
 AWE-l)Nivrr?r/>.. ^: 
 
 ^ - \ ^ - 
 
 <Qi30NVSOi^ "w^aaAiNnjv^v 
 
 
 t^' 
 
 c 
 
 
 ^OFCA1IFO% 
 
 O C 
 
 1^ l^. 
 
 C3 
 
 ^\WE-UNIVER5'/^ ^vWSANCElfx^ 
 
 >- 
 
 i-<r 
 
 ,^of 
 
 <:^
 
 THE EDINBURGH LECTURE SERIES 
 
 The 
 EDINBURGH LECTURES 
 ON MENTAL SCIENCE 
 
 BY 
 
 T. TROWARD 
 
 LATE DIVISIONAL JUDGE, PUNJAB 
 AUTHOR OF "BIBLE MYSTERY AND BIBLE MEANING* 
 
 Jfibr^ et 2Cmor ©eritaj* et fiobur 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. 
 
 1920
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 T. TROWARD 
 
 Second Printing, Decetnbor, igiS 
 Third Printing, March, igij 
 Fourth Printing, March, igi8 
 Fifth Printing, April, igig 
 Sixth Printing, August, igzo
 
 2.F 
 
 THE WRITER 
 
 AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 
 TO 
 
 HIS WIFE 

 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VAGE 
 
 I, — Spirit and Matter i 
 
 II. — The Higher Mode of Intelligence Controls 
 
 THE Lower 8 
 
 III. — ^The Unity of the Spirit 17 
 
 IV. — Subjective and Objective Mind . . . 21 
 V. — Further Considerations Regarding Subjec- 
 tive and Objective Mind .... 29 
 
 VI. — ^The Law of Growth 40 
 
 VII. — Receptivity 45 
 
 VIII. — Reciprocal Action of the Universal and 
 
 Individual Minds 55 
 
 IX. — Causes and Conditions 63 
 
 X. — Intuition 7^ 
 
 XI. — Healing 74 
 
 XII.— The Will 83 
 
 XIII. — In Touch with Sub-conscious Mind . . 94 
 
 XIV.— The Body 107 
 
 XV.— The Soul ......... 117 
 
 XVI. — The Spirit . . • . » . • . ia(5
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 This book contains the substance of a course of 
 lectures recently given by the writer in the Queen 
 Street Hall, Edinburgh. Its purpose is to indicate 
 the Natural Principles governing the relation be- 
 tween Mental Action and Material Conditions, and 
 thus to afford the student an intelligible starting- 
 point for the practical study of the subject. 
 
 T. T. 
 
 March, 1904.
 
 The Edinburgh Lectures on 
 Mental Science. 
 
 SPIRIT AND MATTER. 
 
 In commencing a course of lectures on Mental Sci- 
 ence, it is somewhat difficult for the lecturer to fix 
 upon the best method of opening the subject. It can 
 be approached from many sides, each with some 
 peculiar advantage of its own ; but, after careful delib- 
 eration, it appears to me that, for the purpose of 
 the present course, no better starting-point could be 
 selected than the relation between Spirit and Matter. 
 I select this starting-point because the distinction — or 
 what we believe to be such — between them is one with 
 which we are so familiar that I can safely assume its 
 recognition by everybody; and I may, therefore, at 
 once state this distinction by using the adjectives 
 which we habitually apply as expressing the natural 
 opposition between the two — living spirit and dead 
 matter. These terms express our current impression 
 of the opposition between spirit and matter with suf- 
 
 i
 
 2 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 ficient accuracy, and considered only from the point 
 of view of outward appearances this impression is no 
 doubt correct. The general consensus of mankind is 
 right in trusting the evidence of our senses, and any 
 system which tells us that we are not to do so will 
 never obtain a permanent footing in a sane and 
 healthy community. There is nothing wrong in the 
 evidence conveyed to a healthy mind by the senses of 
 a healthy body, but the point where error creeps in is 
 when we come to judge of the meaning of this testi- 
 mony. We are accustomed to judge only by external 
 appearances and by certain limited significances which 
 we attach to words; but when we begin to enquire 
 into the real meaning of our words and to analyse the 
 causes which give rise to the appearances, we find our 
 old notions gradually falling off from us, until at last 
 we wake up to the fact that we are living in an 
 entirely different world to that we formerly recog- 
 nized. The old limited mode of thought has imper- 
 ceptibly slipped away, and we discover that we have 
 stepped out into a new order of things where all is 
 liberty and life. This is the work of an enlightened 
 intelligence resulting from persistent determination 
 to discover what truth really is irrespective of any 
 preconceived notions from whatever source derived, 
 the determination to think honestly for ourselves 
 instead of endeavouring to get our thinking done 
 for us. Let us then commence by enquiring what we
 
 spirit and Matter. 3 
 
 really mean by the livingness which we attribute to 
 spirit and the deadness which we attribute to matter. 
 At first we may be disposed to say that Hvingness 
 consists in the power of motion and deadness in its 
 absence; but a Httle enquiry into the most recent 
 researches of science will soon show us that this dis- 
 tinction does not go deep enough. It is now one of the 
 fully-established facts of physical science that no atom 
 of what we call "dead matter" is without motion. On 
 the table before me lies a solid lump of steel, but in 
 the light of up-to-date science I know that the atoms 
 of that seemingly inert mass are vibrating with the 
 most intense energy, continually dashing hither and 
 thither, impinging upon and rebounding from one 
 another, or circling round like miniature solar sys- 
 tems, with a ceaseless rapidity whose complex activity 
 is enough to bewilder the imagination. The mass, 
 as a mass, may lie inert upon the table; but so far 
 from being destitute of the element of motion it is 
 the abode of the never-tiring energy moving the par- 
 ticles with a swiftness to which the speed of an 
 express train is as nothing. It is, therefore, not the 
 mere fact of motion that is at the root of the distinc- 
 tion which we draw instinctively between spirit and 
 matter; we must go deeper than that. The solution 
 of the problem will never be found by comparing Life 
 with what we call deadness, and the reason for this 
 will become apparent later on ; but the true key is to
 
 4 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 be found by comparing one degree of livingness with 
 another. There is, of course, one sense in which 
 the quality of Hvingness does not admit of degrees; 
 but there is another sense in which it is entirely a 
 question of degree. We have no doubt as to the liv- 
 ingness of a plant, but we realize that it is something 
 very different from the livingness of an animal. 
 Again, what average boy would not prefer a fox- 
 terrier to a goldfish for a pet? Or, again, why is it 
 that the boy himself is an advance upon the dog? 
 The plant, the fish, the dog, and the boy are all equally 
 alive; but there is a difference in the quality of their 
 livingness about which no one can have any doubt, 
 and no one would hesitate to say that this difference 
 is in the degree of intelligence. In whatever way we 
 turn the subject we shall always find that what we 
 call the " livingness " of any individual life is ulti- 
 mately measured by its intelligence. It is the posses- 
 sion of greater intelligence that places the animal 
 higher in the scale of being than the plant, the man 
 higher than the animal, the intellectual man higher 
 than the savage. The increased intelligence calls into 
 activity modes of motion of a higher order corre- 
 sponding to itself. The higher the intelligence, the 
 more completely the mode of motion is under its con- 
 trol ; and as we descend in the scale of intelligence. 
 the descent is marked by a corresponding increase in 
 automatic motion not subject to the control of a self-
 
 spirit and Matter. 5 
 
 conscious Intelligence. This descent is gradual from 
 the expanded self-recognition of the highest human 
 personality to that lowest order of visible forms 
 which we speak of as " things," and from which self- 
 recognition is entirely absent. 
 
 We see, then, that the livingness of Life consists 
 in intelligence — in other words, in the power of 
 Thought; and we may therefore say that the dis- 
 tinctive quality of spirit is Thought, and, as the oppo- 
 site to this, we may say that the distinctive quality 
 of matter is Form. We cannot conceive of matter 
 without form. Some form there must be, even 
 though invisible to the physical eye ; for matter, to be 
 matter at all, must occupy space, and to occupy any 
 particular space necessarily implies a corresponding 
 form. For these reasons we may lay it down as a 
 fundamental proposition that the distinctive quality 
 of spirit is Thought and the distinctive quality of mat- 
 ter is Form. This is a radical distinction from which 
 important consequences follow, and should, therefore, 
 be carefully noted by the student. 
 
 Form implies extension in space and also limita- 
 tion within certain boundaries. Thought implies 
 neither. When, therefore, we think of Life as exist- 
 ing in any particular form we associate it with the 
 idea of extension in space, so that an elephant may 
 be said to consist of a vastly larger amount of living 
 substance tlian a mouse. But if we think of Life as
 
 6 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 the fact of livingness we do not associate it with any 
 idea of extension, and we at once realize that the 
 mouse is quite as much aHve as the elephant, notwith- 
 standing the difference in size. The important point 
 of this distinction is that if we can conceive of any- 
 thing as entirely devoid of the element of extension 
 in space, it must be present in its entire totality any- 
 , where and everywhere — that is to say, at every point 
 space simultaneously. The scientific definition of 
 time is that it is the period occupied by a body in 
 passing from one given point in space to another, 
 and, therefore, according to this definition, when there 
 is no space there can be no time ; and hence that con- 
 ception of spirit which realizes it as devoid of the 
 element of space must realize it as being devoid of the 
 element of time also; and we therefore find that the 
 conception of spirit as pure Thought, and not as con- 
 crete Form, is the conception of it as subsisting per- 
 fectly independently of the elements of time and space. 
 From this it follows that if the idea of anything is 
 conceived as existing on this level it can only rep- 
 resent that thing as being actually present here and 
 now. In this view of things nothing can be remote 
 from us either in time or space: either the idea is 
 entirely dissipated or it exists as an actual present 
 entity, and not as something that shall be in the 
 future, for where there is no sequence in time there 
 can be no future. Similarly where there is no space
 
 spirit and Matter. 7 
 
 there can be no conception of anything as being at a 
 distance from us. When the elements of time and 
 space are ehminated all our ideas of things must 
 necessarily be as subsisting in a universal here and 
 an everlasting now. This is, no doubt, a highly ab- 
 stract conception, but I would ask the student to 
 endeavour to grasp it thoroughly, since it is of vital 
 importance in the practical application of Mental Sci- 
 ence, as will appear further on. 
 
 The opposite conception is that of things express- 
 ing themselves through conditions of time and space 
 and thus establishing a variety of relations to other 
 things, as of bulk, distance, and direction, or of se- 
 quence in time. These two conceptions are respec- 
 tively the conception of the abstract and the concrete, 
 of the unconditioned and the conditioned, of the abso- 
 lute and the relative. They are not opposed to each 
 other in the sense of incompatibility, but are each the 
 complement of the other, and the only reality is in the 
 combination of the two. The error of the extreme 
 idealist is in endeavouring to realize the absolute with- 
 out the relative, and the error of the extreme mate- 
 rialist is in endeavouring to realize the relative with- 
 out the absolute. On the one side the mistake is in 
 trying to realize an inside without an outside, and on 
 the other in trying to realize an outside without an 
 inside ; both are necessary to the formation of a sub- 
 
 tantial entity. 
 3
 
 II. 
 
 THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE 
 CONTROLS THE LOWER. 
 
 We have seen that the descent from personaHty, 
 as we know it in ourselves, to matter, as we know 
 it under what we call inanimate forms, is a gradual 
 descent in the scale of intelligence from that mode 
 of being which is able to realize its own will-power 
 as a capacity for originating new trains of causation 
 to that mode of being which is incapable of recog- 
 nizing itself at all. The higher the grade of life, the 
 higher the intelligence; from which it follows that 
 the supreme principle of Life must also be the ulti- 
 mate principle of intelligence. This is clearly dem- 
 onstrated by the grand natural order of the universe. 
 In the light of modern science the principle of evolu- 
 tion is familiar to us all, and the accurate adjustment 
 existing between all parts of the cosmic scheme is too 
 self-evident to need insisting upon. Every advance 
 in science consists in discovering new subtleties of 
 connection in this magnificent universal order, which 
 already exists and only needs our recognition to bring 
 it into practical use. If, then, the highest work of 
 the greatest minds consists in nothing else than the 
 recognition of an already existing order, there is no 
 
 &
 
 The Higher Mode of Intelligence. 9 
 
 getting away from the conclusion that a paramount 
 intelHgence must be inlierent in the Life-Principle, 
 which manifests itself as this order; and thus we 
 see that there must be a great cosmic intelligence 
 underlying the totality of things. 
 
 The physical history of our planet shows us first 
 an incandescent nebula dispersed over vast infinitudes 
 of space ; later this condenses into a central sun sur- 
 rounded by a family of glowing planets hardly yet 
 consolidated from the plastic primordial matter ; then 
 succeed untold millenniums of slow geological forma- 
 tion ; an earth peopled by the lowest forms of life, 
 whether vegetable or animal ; from w-hich crude be- 
 ginnings a majestic, unceasing, unhurried, forward 
 movement brings things stage by stage to the condi- 
 tion in which we know them now. Looking at this 
 steady progression it is clear that, however we may 
 conceive the nature of the evolutionary principle, it 
 unerringly provides for the continual advance of the 
 race. But it does this by creating such numbers of 
 each kind that, after allowing a wide margin for all 
 possible accidents to individuals, the race shall still 
 continue : — 
 
 " So careful of the type it seems 
 So careless of the single life." 
 
 In short, we may say that the cosmic intelligence 
 works by a Law of Averages which allows a wide 
 margin of accident and failure to the individual.
 
 lo The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 But the progress towards higher intelligence is al- 
 ways in the direction of narrowing down this margin 
 of accident and taking the individual more and more 
 out of the law of averages, and substituting the law 
 of individual selection. In ordinary scientific lan- 
 guage this is the survival of the fittest. The repro- 
 duction of fish is on a scale that would choke the sea 
 with them if every individual survived ; but the mar- 
 gin of destruction is correspondingly enormous, and 
 thus the law of averages simply keeps up the normal 
 proportion of the race. But at the other end of the 
 scale, reproduction is by no means thus enormously in 
 excess of survival. True, there is ample margin of 
 accident and disease cutting off numbers of human 
 beings before they have gone through the average 
 duration of life, but still it is on a very different scale 
 from the premature destruction of hundreds of thou- 
 sands as against the survival of one. It may, there- 
 fore, be taken as an established fact that in proportion 
 as intelligence advances the individual ceases to be 
 subject to a mere law of averages and has a contin- 
 ually increasing power of controlling the conditions 
 of his own survival. 
 
 We see, therefore, that there is a marked distinc- 
 tion between the cosmic intelligence and the individ- 
 ual intelligence, and that the factor which differen- 
 tiates the latter from the former is the presence of 
 individual volition. Now the business of Mental Sci-
 
 The Higher Mode of Intelligence. ii 
 
 ence is to ascertain the relation of this individual 
 power of voHtion to the great cosmic law which pro- 
 vides for the maintenance and advancement of the 
 race; and the point to be carefully noted is that the 
 power of individual volition is itself the outcome of 
 the cosmic evolutionary principle at the point where 
 it reaches its highest level. The effort of Nature has 
 always been upwards from the time when only the 
 lowest forms of life peopled the globe, and it has now 
 culminated in the production of a being with a mind 
 capable of abstract reasoning and a brain fitted to be 
 the physical instrument of such a mind. At this stage 
 the all-creating Life-principle reproduces itself in a 
 form capable of recognizing the working of the evo- 
 lutionary law, and the unity and continuity of purpose 
 running through the whole progression until now in- 
 dicates, beyond a doubt, that the place of such a being 
 in the universal scheme must be to introduce the oper- 
 ation of that factor which, up to this point, has been 
 conspicuous by its absence — the factor, namely, of 
 intelligent individual volition. The evolution which 
 has brought us up to this standpoint has worked by 
 a cosmic law of averages; it has been a process in 
 which the individual himself has not taken a conscious 
 part. But because he is what he is, and leads the van 
 of the evolutionary procession, if man is to evolve 
 further, it can now only be by his own conscious co- 
 operation with the law which has brought him up to
 
 12 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 the standpoint where he is able to realize that such a 
 law exists. His evolution in the future must be by 
 conscious participation in the great work, and this 
 can only be effected by his own individual intelligence 
 and effort. It is a process of intelligent growth. No 
 one else can grow for us : we must each grow for 
 ourselves ; and this intelligent growth consists in our 
 increasing recognition of the universal law, which has 
 brought us as far as we have yet got, and of our own 
 individual relation to that law, based upon the fact 
 that we ourselves are the most advanced product of it- 
 It is a great maxim that Nature obeys us precisely in 
 proportion as we first obey Nature. Let the elec- 
 trician try to go counter to the principle that electric- 
 ity must always pass from a higher to a lower poten- 
 tial and he will effect nothing; but let him submit in 
 all things to this one fundamental law, and he can 
 make whatever particular applications of electrical 
 power he will. 
 
 These considerations show us that what differen- 
 tiates the higher from the lower degree of intelligence 
 is the recognition of its own self-hood, and the more 
 intelligent that recognition is, the greater will be the 
 power. The lower degree of self-recognition is that 
 which only realizes itself as an entity separate from 
 all other entities, as the ego distinguished from the 
 non-ego. But the higher degree of self-recognition 
 is that which, realizing its own spiritual nature, sees
 
 The Higher Mode of Intelligence. 13 
 
 in all other forms, not so much the non-ego, or that 
 which is not itself, as the alter-cgo, or that which is 
 itself in a different mode of expression. Now, it is 
 this higher degree of self -recognition that is the 
 power by which the IMental Scientist produces his re- 
 sults. For this reason it is imperative that he should 
 clearly understand the difference between Form and 
 Being; that the one is the mode of the relative and 
 the mark of subjection to conditions, and that the 
 other is the truth of the absolute and is that which 
 controls conditions. 
 
 Now this higher recognition of self as an individ- 
 ualization of pure spirit must of necessity control all 
 modes of spirit which have not yet reached the same 
 level of self-recognition. These lower modes of spirit 
 are in bondage to the law of their own being because 
 they do not know the law; and, therefore, the indi- 
 vidual who has attained to this knowledge can control 
 them through that law. But to understand this we 
 must inquire a little further into the nature of spirit. 
 I have already shown that the grand scale of adapta- 
 tion and adjustment of all parts of the cosmic scheme 
 to one another exhibits the presence somewhere of a 
 marvellous intelligence underlying the whole, and the 
 question is, where is this intelligence to be found? 
 Ultimately we can only conceive of it as inherent in 
 some primordial substance which is the root of all 
 those grosser modes of matter which are known to
 
 14 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 us, whether visible to the physical eye, or necessarily 
 inferred by science from their perceptible effects. It 
 is that power which, in every species and in every in- 
 dividual, becomes that which that species or individual 
 is ; and thus we can only conceive of it as a self-form- 
 ing intelligence inherent in the ultimate substance of 
 which each thing is a particular manifestation. That 
 this primordial substance must be considered as self- 
 forming by an inherent intelligence abiding in itself 
 becomes evident from the fact that intelligence is the 
 essential quality of spirit ; and if we were to conceive 
 of the primordial substance as something apart from 
 spirit, then we should have to postulate some other 
 power which is neither spirit nor matter, and origi- 
 nates both ; but this is only putting the idea of a self- 
 evolving power a step further back and asserting the 
 production of a lower grade of undifferentiated spirit 
 by a higher, which is both a purely gratuitous assump- 
 tion and a contradiction of any idea we can form of 
 undifferentiated spirit at all. However far back, 
 therefore, we may relegate the original starting-point, 
 we cannot avoid the conclusion that, at that point, 
 spirit contains the primary substance in itself, which 
 brings us back to the common statement that it made 
 everything out of nothing. We thus find two factors 
 to the making of all things, Spirit and — Nothing; and 
 the addition of Nothing to Spirit leaves only spirit: 
 X + o = X.
 
 The Higher Mode of Intelligence. i$ 
 
 From these considerations we see that the ultimate 
 foundation of every form of matter is spirit, and 
 hence that a universal intelHgence subsists throughout 
 Nature inherent in every one of its manifestations. 
 But this cryptic intelHgence does not belong to the 
 particular form excepting in the measure in which it 
 is physically fitted for its concentration into self-rec- 
 ognizing individuality: it lies hidden in that primor- 
 dial substance of which the visible form is a grosser 
 manifestation. This primordial substance is a philo- 
 sophical necessity, and we can only picture it to our- 
 selves as something infinitely finer than the atoms 
 which are themselves a philosophical inference of 
 physical science : still, for want of a better word, we 
 may conveniently speak of this primary intelligence 
 inherent in the very substance of things as the Atomic 
 Intelligence. The term may, perhaps, be open to some 
 objections, but it will serve our present purpose as 
 distinguishing this mode of spirit's intelligence from 
 that of the opposite pole, or Individual Intelligence' 
 This distinction should be carefully noted because it is 
 by the response of the atomic intelligence to the indi- 
 vidual intelligence that thought-power is able to pro- 
 duce results on the material plane, as in the cure of 
 disease by mental treatment, and the like. Intelli- 
 gence manifests itself by responsiveness, and the 
 whole action of the cosmic mind in bringing the evo- 
 lutionary process from its first beginnings up to its
 
 1 6 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 present human stage is nothing else but a continual 
 intelligent response to the demand which each stage 
 in the progress has made for an adjustment between 
 itself and its environment. Since, then, we have rec- 
 ognized the presence of a universal intelligence per- 
 meating all things, we must also recognize a corre- 
 sponding responsiveness hidden deep down in their 
 nature and ready to be called into action when ap- 
 pealed to. All mental treatment depends on this 
 responsiveness of spirit in its lower degrees to higher 
 degrees of itself. It is here that tlie difference be- 
 tween the mental scientist and the uninstructed person 
 comes in; the former knows of this responsiveness 
 and makes use of it, and the latter cannot use it be- 
 cause he does not know it.
 
 III. 
 
 THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 We have now paved the way for understanding 
 what is meant by " the unity of the spirit." In the 
 first conception of spirit as the underlying origin of 
 all things we see a universal substance which, at this 
 stage, is not differentiated into any specific forms. 
 This is not a question of some bygone time, but sub- 
 sists at every moment of all time in the innermost 
 nature of all being ; and when we see this, we see that 
 the division between one specific form and another 
 has below it a deep essential unity, which acts as the 
 supporter of all the several forms of individuality 
 arising out of it. And as our thought penetrates 
 deeper into the nature of this all-producing spiritual 
 substance we see that it cannot be limited to any one 
 portion of space, but must be limitless as space itself, 
 and that the idea of any portion of space where it 
 is not is inconceivable. It is one of those intuitive 
 perceptions from which the human mind can never 
 get away that this primordial, all-generating living 
 spirit must be commensurate with infinitude, and 
 we can therefore never think of it otherwise than 
 as universal or infinite. Now it is a mathematical 
 
 17
 
 i8 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 truth that the infinite must be a unity. You can- 
 not have two infinites, for then neither would be 
 infinite, each would be limited by the other, nor 
 can you split the infinite up into fractions. The in- 
 finite is mathematically essential unity. This is a 
 point on which too much stress cannot be laid, for 
 there follow from it the most important consequences. 
 Unity, as such, can be neither multiplied nor divided, 
 for either operation destroys the unity. By multiply- 
 ing, we produce a plurality of units of the same scale 
 as the original ; and by dividing, we produce a plural- 
 ity of units of a smaller scale ; and a plurality of units 
 is not unity but multiplicity. Therefore if we would 
 penetrate below the outward nature of the individual 
 to that innermost principle of his being from which 
 his individuality takes its rise^ we can do so only by 
 passing beyond the conception of individual existence 
 into that of the unity of universal being. This may 
 appear to be a merely philosophical abstraction, but 
 the student who would produce practical results must 
 realize that these abstract generalizations are the 
 foundation of the practical work he is going to do. 
 
 Now the great fact to be recognized about a unity 
 is that, because it is a single unit, wherever it is at all 
 the whole of it must be. The moment we allow our 
 mind to wander off to the idea of extension in space 
 and say that one part of the unit is here and another 
 there, we have descended from the idea of unity into
 
 The Unity of the Spirit. 19 
 
 that of parts or fractions of a single unit, which is to 
 pass into the idea of a multiphcity of smaller units, 
 and in that case we are dealing with the relative, or 
 the relation subsisting between two or more entities 
 which are therefore limited by each other, and so have 
 passed out of the region of simple unity which is the 
 absolute. It is, therefore, a mathematical necessity 
 that, because the originating Life-principle is infinite, 
 it is a single unit, and consequently, wherever it is at 
 all, the zvhole of it must be present. But because it is 
 infinite, or limitless, it is everywhere, and therefore it 
 follows that the zvhole of spirit must be present at 
 every point in space at the same moment. Spirit is 
 thus omnipresent in its entirety, and it is accordingly 
 logically correct that at every moment of time all 
 spirit is concentrated at any point in space that we 
 may choose to fix our thought upon. This is the fun- 
 damental fact of all being, and it is for this reason 
 that I have prepared the way for it by laying down 
 the relation between spirit and matter as that between 
 idea and form, on the one hand the absolute from 
 which the elements of time and space are entirely ab- 
 sent, and on the other the relative which is entirely 
 dependent on those elements. This great fact is that 
 pure spirit continually subsists in the absolute, 
 whether in a corporeal body or not; and from it all 
 the phenomena of being flow, whether on the mental 
 plane or the physical. The knowledge of this fact
 
 20 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 regarding spirit is the basis of all conscious spiritual 
 operation, and therefore in proportion to our increas- 
 ing recognition of it our power of producing outward 
 visible results by the action of our thought will grow. 
 The whole is greater than its part, and therefore, if, 
 by our recognition of this unity, we can concentrate 
 all spirit into any given point at any moment, we 
 thereby include any individualization of it that we 
 may wish to deal with. The practical importance of 
 this conclusion is too obvious to need enlarging upon. 
 Pure spirit is the Life-principle considered apart 
 from the matrix in which it takes relation to time and 
 space in a particular form. In this aspect it is pure 
 intelligence undifferentiated into individuality. As 
 pure intelligence it is infinite responsiveness and sus- 
 ceptibility. As devoid of relation to time and space 
 it is devoid of individual personality. It is, therefore, 
 in this aspect a purely impersonal element upon which, 
 by reason of its inherent intelligence and suscepti- 
 bility, we can impress any recognition of personality 
 that we will. These are the great facts that the men- 
 tal scientist works with, and the student will do well 
 to ponder deeply on their significance and on the re- 
 sponsibilities which their realization must necessarily 
 carry with it.
 
 IV. 
 
 SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND. 
 
 Up to this point it has been necessary to lay the 
 foundations of the science by the statement of highly 
 abstract general principles which we have reached by 
 purely metaphysical reasoning. We now pass on to 
 the consideration of certain natural laws which have 
 been established by a long series of experiments and 
 observations, the full meaning and importance of 
 which will become clear when we see their application 
 to the general principles which have hitherto occupied 
 our attention. The phenomena of hypnosis are now so 
 fully recognized as established scientific facts that it Is 
 quite superfluous to discuss the question of their cred- 
 ibility. Two great medical schools have been founded 
 upon them, and in some countries they have become the 
 subject of special legislation. The question before us 
 at the present day is, not as to the credibility of the 
 facts, but as to the proper inferences to be drawn from 
 them, and a correct apprehension of these inferences 
 is one of the most valuable aids to the mental scientist, 
 for it confirms the conclusions of purely a priori rea- 
 soning by an array of experimental instances which 
 places the correctness of those conclusions beyond 
 doubt. 
 
 2Z
 
 22 The Ediyiburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 The great truth which the science of hypnotism has 
 brought to hght is the dual nature of the human mind. 
 Much conflict exists between different writers as to 
 whether this duahty results from the presence of two 
 actually separate minds in the one man, or in the ac- 
 tion of the same mind in the employment of different 
 functions. This is one of those distinctions without 
 a difference which are so prolific a source of hindrance 
 to the opening out of truth. A man must be a single 
 individuality to be a man at all, and, so, the net result 
 is the same whether we conceive of his varied modes 
 of mental action as proceeding from a set of separate 
 minds strung, so to speak, on the thread of his one 
 individuality and each adapted to a particular use, or 
 as varied functions of a single mind : in either case we 
 are dealing with a single individuality, and how we 
 may picture the wheel-work of the mental mechanism 
 is merely a question of what picture will bring the 
 nature of its action home to us most clearly. There- 
 fore, as a matter of convenience, I shall in these lec- 
 tures speak of this dual action as though it proceeded 
 from two minds, an outer and an inner, and the inner 
 mind we will call the subjective mind and the outer 
 the objective, by which names the distinction is most 
 frequently indicated in the literature of the subject. 
 
 A long series of careful experiments by highly- 
 trained observers, some of them men of world-wide 
 reputation, has fully established certain remarkable
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 23 
 
 differences between the action of the subjective and 
 that of the objective mind which may be briefly stated 
 as follows. The subjective mind is only able to rea- 
 son deductively and not inductively, while the objec- 
 tive mind can do both. Deductive reasoning' is the 
 pure syllogism which shows why a third proposition 
 must necessarily result if two others are assumed, but 
 which does not help us to determine whether the two 
 initial statements are true or not. To determine this 
 is the province of inductive reasoning which draws 
 its conclusions from the observation of a series of 
 facts. The relation of the two modes of reasoning is 
 that, first by observing a sufficient number of instances, 
 we inductively reach the conclusion that a certain 
 principle is of general application, and then we enter 
 upon the deductive process by assuming the truth of 
 this principle and determining what result must fol- 
 low in a particular case on the hypothesis of its truth. 
 Thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption 
 of the correctness of certain hypotheses or supposi- 
 tions with which it sets out : it is not concerned with 
 the truth or falsity of those suppositions, but only 
 with the question as to what results must necessarily 
 follow supposing them to be true. Inductive reason- 
 ing, on the other hand, is the process by which we 
 compare a number of separate instances with one an- 
 other until we see the common factor that gives rise 
 to them all. Induction proceeds by the comparison of
 
 24 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 facts, and deduction by the application of universal 
 principles. Now it is the deductive method only 
 •which is followed by the subjective mind. Innumer- 
 able experiments on persons in the hypnotic state have 
 shown that the subjective mind is utterly incapable of 
 making the selection and comparison which are neces- 
 sary to the inductive process, but will accept any sug- 
 gestion, however false, but having once accepted any 
 suggestion, it is strictly logical in deducing the proper 
 conclusions from it^ and works out every suggestion 
 to the minutest fraction of the results which flow 
 from it. 
 
 As a consequence of this it follows that the subjec- 
 tive mind is entirely under the control of the objective 
 mind. With the utmost fidelity it reproduces and 
 works out to its final consequences whatever the ob- 
 jective mind impresses upon it ; and the facts of hyp- 
 notism show that ideas can be impressed on the sub- 
 jective mind by the objective mind of another as well 
 as by that of its own individuality. This is a most 
 important point, for it is on this amenability to sugges- 
 tion by the thought of another that all the phenomena 
 of healing, whether present or absent, of telepathy 
 and the like, depend. Under the control of the prac- 
 tised hypnotist the very personality of the subject be- 
 comes changed for the time being ; he believes himself 
 to be whatever the operator tells him he is : he is a 
 swimmer breasting the waves, a bird flying in the air,
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 25 
 
 a soldier in the tumult of battle, an Indian stealthily 
 tracking- his victim : in short, for the time being, he 
 identifies himself with any personality that is im- 
 pressed upon him by the will of the operator, and acts 
 the part with inimitable accuracy. But the experi- 
 ments of hypnotism go further than this, and show 
 the existence in the subjective mind of powers far 
 transcending any exercised by the objective mind 
 through the medium of the physical senses; powers 
 of thought-reading, of thought-transference, of clair- 
 voyance, and the like, all of which are frequently 
 manifested when the patient is brought into the 
 higher mesmeric state; and we have thus experi- 
 mental proof of the existence in ourselves of tran- 
 scendental faculties the full development and con- 
 scious control of which would place us in a perfectly 
 new sphere of life. 
 
 But it should be noted that the control must be our 
 oum and not that of any external intelligence whether 
 in the flesh or out of it. 
 
 But perhaps the most important fact which hyp- 
 notic experiments have demonstrated is that the sub- 
 jective mind is the builder of the body. The subjec- 
 tive entity in the patient is able to diagnose the 
 character of the disease from which he is suffering 
 and to point out suitable remedies, indicating a phys- 
 iological knowledge exceeding that of the most 
 highly trained physicians, and also a knowledge of
 
 26 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 the correspondences between diseased conditions of 
 the bodily organs and the material remedies which 
 can afford relief. And from this it is but a step fur- 
 ther to those numerous instances in which it entirely 
 dispenses with the use of material remedies and itself 
 works directly on the organism, so that complete res- 
 toration to health follows as the result of the sugges- 
 tions of perfect soundness made by the operator to the 
 patient while in the hypnotic state. 
 
 Now these are facts fully established by hundreds 
 of experiments conducted by a variety of investiga- 
 tors in different parts of the world, and from them 
 we may draw two inferences of the highest impor- 
 tance : one, that the subjective mind is in itself abso- 
 lutely impersonal, and the other that it is the builder 
 of the body, or in other words it is the creative power 
 in the individual. That it is impersonal in itself is 
 shown by its readiness to assume any personality 
 the hypnotist chooses to impress upon it; and the 
 unavoidable inference is that its realization of per- 
 sonality proceeds from its association with the par- 
 ticular objective mind of its own individuality. 
 Whatever personality the objective mind impresses 
 upon it, that personality it assumes and acts up to; 
 and since it is the builder of the body it will build 
 up a body in correspondence with the personality 
 thus impressed upon it. These two laws of the sub- 
 jective mind form the foundation of the axiom that
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 27 
 
 our body represents the aggregate of our beliefs. If 
 our fixed belief is that the body is subject to all sorts 
 of influences beyond our control, and tliat this, that, 
 or the other symptom shows that such an uncon- 
 trollable influence is at work upon us, then this belief 
 is impressed upon the subjective mind, which by the 
 law of its nature accepts it without question and pro- 
 ceeds to fashion bodily conditions in accordance with 
 this belief. Again, if our fixed belief is that cer- 
 tain material remedies are the only means of cure, 
 then we find in this belief the foundation of all medi- 
 cine. There is nothing unsound in the theory of 
 medicine; it is the strictly logical correspondence 
 with tlie measure of knowledge which those who rely 
 on it are as yet able to assimilate, and it acts accu- 
 rately in accordance with their belief that in a large 
 number of cases medicine will do good, but also in 
 many instances it fails. Therefore, for those who 
 have not yet reached a more interior perception of 
 the law of Nature, the healing agency of medicine is 
 a most valuable aid to the alleviation of physical 
 maladies. The error to be combated is not the belief 
 that, in its own way, medicine is capable of doing 
 good, but the belief that there is no higher or better 
 w^ay. 
 
 Then, on the same principle, if we realize that the 
 subjective mind is the builder of the body, and that 
 the body is subject to no influences except those which
 
 28 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 reach it through the subjective mind, then what we 
 have to do is to impress this upon the subjective 
 mind and habitually think of it as a fountain of per- 
 petual Life, which is continually renovating the body 
 by building in strong and healthy material, in the most 
 complete independence of any influences of any sort, 
 save those of our own desire impressed upon our own 
 subjective mind by our own thought. When once 
 we fully grasp these considerations we shall see that 
 it is just as easy to externalize healthy conditions 
 of body as the contrary. Practically the process 
 amounts to a belief in our own power of life; and 
 since this belief, if it be thoroughly domiciled within 
 us, will necessarily produce a correspondingly healthy 
 body, we should spare no pains to convince ourselves 
 that there are sound and reasonable grounds for hold- 
 ing it. To afford a solid basis for this conviction is 
 the purpose of Mental Science.
 
 V. 
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING 
 SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND. 
 
 An intelligent consideration of the phenomena of 
 hypnotism will show us that what we call the hyp- 
 notic state is the normal state of the subjective mind. 
 It always conceives of itself in accordance with some 
 suggestion conveyed to it, either consciously or un- 
 consciously to the mode of objective mind which gov- 
 erns it, and it gives rise to corresponding external 
 results. The abnormal nature of the conditions in- 
 duced by experimental hypnotism is in the removal 
 of the normal control held by the individual's own 
 objective mind over his subjective mind and the sub- 
 stitution of some other control for it, and thus we 
 may say that the normal characteristic of the sub- 
 jective mind is its perpetual action in accordance 
 with some sort of suggestion. It becomes therefore 
 a question of the highest importance to determine in 
 every case what the nature of the suggestion shall 
 be and from what source it shall proceed; but before 
 considering the sources of suggestion we must real- 
 ize more fully the place taken by subjective mind in 
 the order of Nature. 
 
 If the student has followed what has been said re- 
 
 2§)
 
 30 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 garding the presence of intelligent spirit pervading 
 all space and permeating all matter, he will now have 
 little difficulty in recognizing this all-pervading spirit 
 as universal subjective mind. That it cannot as 
 universal mind have the qualities of objective mind 
 is very obvious. The universal mind is the creative 
 power throughout Nature; and as the originating 
 power it must first give rise to the various forms in 
 which objective mind recognizes its own individu- 
 ality, before these individual minds can re-act upon 
 it; and hence, as pure spirit or first cause, it cannot 
 possibly be anything else than subjective mind; and 
 the fact which has been abundantly proved by ex- 
 periment that the subjective mind is the builder of 
 the body shows us that the power of creating by 
 growth from within is the essential characteristic of 
 the subjective mind. Hence, both from experiment 
 and from a priori reasoning, we may say that where- 
 ever we find creative power at work there we are in 
 the presence of subjective mind, whether it be work- 
 ing on the grand scale of the cosmos, or on the min- 
 iature scale of the individual. We may therefore lay 
 it down as a principle that the universal all-perme- 
 ating intelligence, w-hich has been considered in the 
 second and third sections, is purely subjective mind, 
 and therefore follows the law of subjective mind, 
 namely that it is amenable to any suggestion, and 
 will carry out any suggestion that is impressed upon
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 31 
 
 it to its most rigorously logical consequences. The 
 incalculable importance of this truth may not per- 
 haps strike the student at first sight, but a little con- 
 sideration will show him the enormous possibilities 
 that are stored up in it, and in the concluding sec- 
 tion I shall briefly touch upon the very serious con- 
 clusions resulting from it. For the present it will 
 be sufficient to realize that the subjective mind in 
 ourselves is the same subjective mind which is at 
 work throughout the universe giving rise to the in- 
 finitude of natural forms with which we are sur- 
 rounded, and in like manner giving rise to ourselves 
 also. It may be called the supporter of our individu- 
 ality; and we may loosely speak of our individual 
 subjective mind as our personal share in the uni- 
 versal mind. This, of course, does not imply the 
 splitting up of the universal mind into fractions, and 
 it is to avoid this error that I have discussed the es- 
 sential unity of spirit in the third section, but in order 
 to avoid too highly abstract conceptions in the present 
 stage of the student's progress we may conveniently 
 employ the idea of a personal share in the universal 
 subjective mind. 
 
 To realize our individual subjective mind in this 
 manner will help us to get over the great meta- 
 physical difficulty which meets us in our endeavour 
 to make conscious use of first cause, in other words 
 to create external results by the power of our own
 
 32 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 thought. Ultimately there can be only one first 
 cause which is the universal mind, but because it is 
 universal it cannot, as universal, act on the plane of 
 the individual and particular. For it to do so w^ould 
 be for it to cease to be universal and therefore cease 
 to be the creative power which we wish to employ. 
 On the other hand, the fact that we are working for 
 a specific definite object implies our intention to use 
 this universal power in application to a particular 
 purpose, and thus we find ourselves involved in the 
 paradox of seeking to make the universal act on the 
 plane of the particular. We want to effect a junction 
 between the two extremes of the scale of Nature, 
 the innermost creative spirit and a particular external 
 form. Between these two is a great gulf, and the 
 question is how is it to be bridged over. It is here, 
 then, that the conception of our individual subjective 
 mind as our personal share in the universal subjective 
 mind affords the means of meeting the difficulty, for 
 on the one hand it is in immediate connection with 
 the universal mind, and on the other it is immediate 
 connection with the individual objective, or intel- 
 lectual mind ; and this in its turn is in immediate con- 
 nection with the world of externalization, which is 
 conditioned in time and space; and thus the relation 
 between the subjective and objective minds in the 
 individual forms the bridge which is needed to con- 
 nect the two extremities of the scale.
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 2>Z 
 
 The individual subjective mind may therefore be 
 regarded as the organ of the Absohite in precisely 
 the same way that the objective mind is the organ 
 of the Relative, and it is in order to regulate our use 
 of these two organs that it is necessary to under- 
 stand what the terms " absolute " and " relative " 
 actually mean. The absolute is that idea of a thing 
 which contemplates it as existing in itself and not in 
 relation to something else, that is to say, which con- 
 templates the essence of it; and the relative is that 
 idea of a thing which contemplates it as related to 
 other things, that is to say as circumscribed by a 
 certain environment. The absolute is the region of 
 causes, and the relative is the region of conditions; 
 and hence, if we wish to control conditions, this can 
 only be done by our thought-power operating on the 
 plane of the absolute, which it can do only through 
 the medium of the subjective mind. The conscious 
 use of the creative power of thought consists in the 
 attainment of the power of Thinking in the Absolute, 
 and this can only be attained by a clear conception 
 of the interaction between our different mental func- 
 tions. For this purpose the student cannot too 
 strongly impress upon himself that subjective mind, 
 on whatever scale, is intensely sensitive to sugges- 
 tion, and as creative power works accurately to the 
 externalization of that suggestion which is most 
 deeply impressed upon it. If then, we would take
 
 34 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 any idea out of the realm of the relative, where it is 
 limited and restricted by conditions imposed upon it 
 through surrounding circumstances, and transfer it 
 to the realm of the absolute where it is not thus 
 limited, a right recognition of our mental constitu- 
 tion will enable us to do this by a clearly defined 
 method. 
 
 The object of our desire is necessarily first con- 
 ceived by us as bearing some relation to existing cir- 
 cumstances, which may, or may not, appear favour- 
 able to it; and what we want to do is to eliminate 
 the element of contingency and attain something 
 which is certain in itself. To do this is to work 
 upon the plane of the absolute, and for this purpose 
 we must endeavour to impress upon our subjective 
 mind the idea of that which we desire quite apart 
 from any conditions. This separation from the ele- 
 ments of condition implies the elimination of the idea 
 of time, and consequently we must think of the thing 
 as already in actual existence. Unless we do this we 
 are not consciously operating upon the plane of the 
 absolute, and are therefore not employing the creative 
 power of our thought. The simplest practical method 
 of gaining the habit of thinking in this manner is to 
 conceive the existence in the spiritual world of a 
 spiritual prototype of every existing thing, which be- 
 comes the root of the corresponding external exist- 
 ence. If we thus habituate ourselves to look on the
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 35 
 
 spiritual prototype as the essential being- of the thing, 
 and the material form as the growth of this proto- 
 type into outward expression, then we shall see that 
 the initial step to the production of any external fact 
 must be the creation of its spiritual prototype. This 
 prototype, being purely spiritual, can only be formed 
 by the operation of thought, and in order to have 
 substance on the spiritual plane it must be thought of 
 as actually existing there. This conception has been 
 elaborated by Plato in his doctrine of archetypal ideas, 
 and by Swedenborg in his doctrine of correspond- 
 ences ; and a still greater teacher has said " All 
 things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that 
 ye have received them, and ye shall receive them." 
 (Mark xi. 24, R.V.) The difference of the tenses 
 in this passage is remarkable. The speaker bids us 
 first to believe that our desire has already been ful- 
 filled, that it is a thing already accomplished, and 
 then its accomplishment will follow as a thing in the 
 future. This is nothing else than a concise direction 
 for making use of the creative power of thought by 
 impressing upon the universal subjective mind the 
 particular thing which we desire as an already exist- 
 ing fact. In following this direction we are thinking 
 on the plane of the absolute and eliminating from our 
 minds all consideration of conditions, which imply 
 limitation and the possibility of adverse contingen- 
 cies; and we are thus planting a seed which, if left
 
 36 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 undisturbed, will infallibly germinate into external 
 fruition. 
 
 By thus making intelligent use of our subjective 
 mind, we, so to speak, create a nucleus, which is no 
 sooner created than it begins to exercise an attractive 
 force, drawing to itself material of a like character 
 with its own, and if this process is allowed to go on 
 undisturbed, it will continue until an external form 
 corresponding to the nature of the nucleus comes 
 out into manifestation on the plane of the objective 
 and relative. This is the universal method of Nature 
 on every plane. Some of the most advanced thinkers 
 in modern physical science, in the endeavour to 
 probe the great mystery of the first origin of the 
 world, have postulated the formation of what they 
 call " vortex rings " formed from an infinitely fine 
 primordial substance. They tell us that if such a 
 ring be once formed on the minutest scale and set 
 rotating, then, since it would be moving in pure 
 ether and subject to no friction, it must according to 
 all known laws of physics be indestructible and its 
 motion perpetual. Let two such rings approach 
 each other, and by the law of attraction, they would 
 coalesce into a whole, and so on until manifested 
 matter as we apprehend it with our external senses, 
 is at last formed. Of course no one has ever seen 
 these rings with the physical eye. They are one of 
 those abstractions which result if we follow out the
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 37 
 
 observed law of physics and the unavoidable se- 
 quences of mathematics to their necessary conse- 
 quences. We cannot account for the things that we 
 can see unless we assume the existence of other 
 things which we cannot; and the " vortex theory " is 
 one of these assumptions. This theory has not been 
 put forward by mental scientists but by purely phys- 
 ical scientists as the ultimate conclusion to which 
 their researches have led them, and this conclusion 
 is that all the innumerable forms of Nature have their 
 origin in the infinitely minute nucleus of the vortex 
 ring, by whatever means the vortex ring may have 
 received its initial impulse, a question with which 
 physical science, as such, is not concerned. 
 
 As the vortex theory accounts for the formation 
 of the inorganic world, so does biology account for 
 the formation of the living organism. That also 
 has its origin in a primary nucleus which, as soon as 
 it is established, operates as a centre of attraction 
 for the formation of all those physical organs of 
 which the perfect individual is composed. The sci- 
 ence of embryology shows that this rule holds good 
 without exception throughout the whole range of the 
 animal world, including man ; and botany shows the 
 same principle at work throughout the vegetable 
 world. All branches of physical science demonstrate 
 the fact that every completed manifestation, of what- 
 ever kind and on whatever scale, is started by the es-
 
 38 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 tablishment of a nucleus, infinitely small but endowed 
 with an unquenchable energy of attraction, causing 
 it to steadily increase in power and definiteness of 
 purpose, until the process of growth is completed and 
 the matured form stands out as an accomplished fact. 
 Now if this be the universal method of Nature, there 
 is nothing unnatural in supposing that it must begin 
 its operation at a stage further back than the forma- 
 tion of the material nucleus. As soon as that is called 
 into being it begins to operate by the law of attrac- 
 tion on the material plane; but what is the force 
 which originates the material nucleus? Let a recent 
 work on physical science give us the answer; " In 
 its ultimate essence, energy may be incomprehensible 
 by us except as an exhibition of the direct operation 
 of that which we call Mind or Will." The quotation 
 is from a course of lectures on " Waves in Water, 
 Air and ^ther," delivered in 1902, at the Royal In- 
 stitution, by J. A. Fleming. Here, then, is the testi- 
 mony of physical science that the originating energy 
 is Mind or Will ; and we are, therefore, not only mak- 
 ing a logical deduction from certain unavoidable in- 
 tuitions of the human mind, but are also following on 
 the lines of the most advanced physical science, when 
 we say that the action of Mind plants that nucleus 
 which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will eventually 
 attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its 
 manifestation in outward visible form. Now the
 
 Subjective and Objective Mind. 39 
 
 only action of Mind is Thought; and it is for this 
 reason that by our thoughts we create correspond- 
 ing external conditions, because we thereby create 
 the nucleus which attracts to itself its own corre- 
 spondences in due order until the finished work is 
 manifested on the external plane. This is according 
 to the strictly scientific conception of the universal 
 law of growth; and we may therefore briefly sum 
 up the whole argument by saying that our thought 
 of anything forms a spiritual prototype of it, thus 
 constituting a nucleus or centre of attraction for all 
 conditions necessary to its eventual externalization by 
 a law of growth inherent in the prototype itself.
 
 VI. 
 
 THE LAW OF GROWTH. 
 
 A CORRECT understanding of the law of growth is 
 of the highest importance to the student of Mental 
 Science. The great fact to be realized regarding 
 Nature is that it is natural. We may pervert the 
 order of Nature, but it will prevail in the long run, 
 returning, as Horace says, by the back door even 
 though we drive it out with a pitchfork; and the 
 beginning, the middle, and the end of the law of 
 Nature is the principle of growth from a vitality in- 
 herent in the entity itself. If we realize this from the 
 outset we shall not undo our own work by endeavour- 
 ing to force things to become that which by their 
 own nature they are not. For this reason when the 
 Bible says that " he who believeth shall not make 
 haste," it is enunciating a great natural principle 
 that success depends on our using, and not opposing, 
 the universal law of growth. No doubt the greater 
 the vitality we put into the germ, which we have 
 agreed to call the spiritual prototype, the quicker 
 it will germinate; but this is simply because by a 
 more realizing conception we put more growing- 
 power into the seed than we do by a feebler concep- 
 
 40
 
 The Law of Growth. 41 
 
 tion. Our mistakes always eventually resolve them- 
 selves into distrusting the law of growth. Either 
 we fancy we can hasten it by some exertion of our 
 own from without, and are thus led into hurry and 
 anxiety, not to say sometimes into the employment 
 of grievously wrong methods ; or else we give up all 
 hope and so deny the germinating power of the seed 
 we have planted. The result in either case is the 
 same, for in either case we are in effect forming a 
 fresh spiritual prototype of an opposite character to 
 our desire, which therefore neutralizes the one first 
 formed, and disintegrates it and usurps its place. 
 The law is always the same, that our Thought forms 
 a spiritual prototype which, if left undisturbed, will 
 reproduce itself in external circumstances; the only 
 difference is in the sort of prototype we form, and 
 thus evil is brought to us by precisely the same law 
 as good. 
 
 These considerations will greatly simplify our ideas 
 of life. We have no longer to consider two forces, 
 but only one, as being the cause of all things; the 
 difference between good and evil resulting simply 
 from the direction in which this force is made to 
 flow. It is a universal law that if we reverse the 
 action of a cause we at the same time reverse the 
 effect. With the same apparatus we can commence 
 by mechanical motion which will generate electricity, 
 or we can commence with electricity which will gen-
 
 42 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 erate mechanical motion; or to take a simple arith- 
 metical instance : if 10-^2 = 5, then 10-^-5 = 2; 
 and therefore if we once recognize the power of 
 thought to produce any results at all, we shall see 
 that the law by which negative thought produces 
 negative results is the same by which positive thought 
 produces positive results. Therefore all our distrust 
 of the law of growth, whether shown in the anxious 
 endeavour to bring pressure to bear from without, or 
 in allowing despair to take the place of cheerful ex- 
 pectation, is reversing the action of the original 
 cause and consequently reversing the nature of the 
 results. It is for this reason that the Bible, which 
 is the most deeply occult of all books, continually 
 lays so much stress upon the efficiency of faith and 
 the destructive influence of unbelief ; and in like man- 
 ner, all books on every branch of spiritual science em- 
 phatically warn us against the admission of doubt or 
 fear. They are the inversion of the principle which 
 builds up, and they are therefore the principle which 
 pulls down ; but the Law itself never changes, and it 
 is on the unchangeableness of the law that all Mental 
 Science is founded. We are accustomed to realize 
 the unchangeableness of natural law in our every day 
 life, and it should therefore not be difficult to realize 
 that the same unchangeableness of law which obtains 
 on the visible side of nature obtains on the invisible 
 side as well. The variable factor is, not the law, but
 
 The Law of Growth. 43 
 
 our own volition ; and it is by combining this variable 
 factor with the invariable one that we can produce the 
 various results we desire. The principle of growth 
 is that of inherent vitality in the seed itself, and the 
 operations of the gardener have their exact analogue 
 in Mental Science. We do not put the self-expansive 
 vitality into the seed, but we must sow it, and we 
 may also, so to speak, water it by quiet concentrated 
 contemplation of our desire as an actually accom- 
 plished fact. But we must carefully remove from 
 such contemplation any idea of a strenuous effort on 
 our part to make the seed grow. Its efficacy is in 
 helping to keep out those negative thoughts of doubt 
 which would plant tares among our wheat, and there- 
 fore, instead of anything of effort, such contempla- 
 tion should be accompanied by a feeling of pleasure 
 and restfulness in foreseeing the certain accomplish- 
 ment of our desires. This is that making our re- 
 quests known to God ijuith thanksgiving which St. 
 Paul recommends, and it has its reason in that perfect 
 wholeness of the Law of Being which only needs our 
 recognition of it to be used by us to any extent we 
 wish. 
 
 Some people possess the power of visualization, or 
 making mental pictures of things, in a greater degree 
 than others, and by such this faculty may advanta- 
 geously be employed to facilitate their realization of 
 the working of the Law. But those who do not pos-
 
 44 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 sess this faculty in any marked degree, need not be 
 discouraged by their want of it, for visuaHzation is 
 not the only way of realizing that the law is at work 
 on the invisible plane. Those whose mental bias 
 is towards physical science should realize this Law 
 of Growth as the creative force throughout all nature; 
 and those who have a mathematical turn of mind 
 may reflect that all solids are generated from the 
 movement of a point, which, as our old friend Euclid 
 tells us, is that which has no parts nor magnitude, 
 and is therefore as complete an abstraction as any 
 spiritual nucleus could be. To use the apostolic 
 words, we are dealing with the substance of things 
 not seen, and we have to attain that habit of mind 
 by which we shall see its reality and feel that we 
 are mentally manipulating the only substance there 
 ultimately is, and of which all visible things are only 
 different modes. We must therefore regard our men- 
 tal creations as spiritual realities and then implicitly 
 trust the Law of Growth to do the rest.
 
 VII. 
 
 RECEPTIVITY. 
 
 In order to lay the foundations for practical work, 
 the student must endeavour to get a clear concep- 
 tion of what is meant by the intelligence of undiffer- 
 entiated spirit. We want to grasp the idea of in- 
 telligence apart from individuality, an idea which is 
 rather apt to elude us until we grow accustomed to 
 it. It is the failure to realize this quality of spirit 
 that has given rise to all the theological errors that 
 have brought bitterness into the world and has been 
 prominent amongst the causes w^hich have retarded 
 the true development of mankind. To accurately 
 convey this conception in words, is perhaps, im- 
 possible, and to attempt definition is to introduce 
 that very idea of limitation which is our object to 
 avoid. It is a matter of feeling rather than of defini- 
 tion; yet some endeavour must be made to indicate 
 the direction in which we must feel for this great 
 truth if we are to find it. The idea is that of realiz- 
 ing personality without that selfhood which differen- 
 tiates one individual from another. " I am not that 
 other because I am tnyself " — this is the definition 
 of individual selfhood; but it necessarily imparts the 
 
 45
 
 46 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 idea of limitation, because the recognition of any other 
 individuaHty at once affirms a point at which our own 
 individuahty ceases and the other begins. Now this 
 mode of recognition cannot be attributed to the Uni- 
 versal Mind. For it to recognize a point where itself 
 ceased and something else began would be to recog- 
 nize itself as not universal; for the meaning of uni- 
 versality is the including of all things, and therefore 
 for this intelligence to recognize anything as being 
 outside itself would be a denial of its own being. We 
 may therefore say without hesitation that, whatever 
 may be the nature of its intelligence, it must be en- 
 tirely devoid of the element of self-recognition as an 
 individual personality on any scale whatever. Seen in 
 this light it is at once clear that the originating all- 
 pervading Spirit is the grand impersonal principle of 
 Life which gives rise to all the particular manifesta- 
 tions of Nature. Its absolute impersonalness, in the 
 sense of the entire absence of any consciousness of 
 individual selfhood, is a point on which it is im- 
 possible to insist too strongly. The attributing of 
 an impossible individuality to the Universal Mind is 
 one of the two grand errors which we find sapping 
 the foundations of religion and philosophy in all 
 ages. The other consists in rushing to the opposite 
 extreme and denying the quality of personal intelli- 
 gence to the Universal Mind. The answer to this 
 frror remains, as of old, in the simple question,
 
 Receptivity. 47 
 
 " He that made the eye shall He not see ? He that 
 planted the ear shall He not hear?" — or to use a 
 popular proverb, " You cannot get out of a bag more 
 than there is in it ; " and consequently the fact that 
 we ourselves are centres of personal intelligence is 
 proof that the infinite, from which these centres are 
 concentrated, must be infinite intelligence, and thus 
 we cannot avoid attributing to it the two factors 
 which constitute personality, namely, intelligence 
 and volition. We are therefore brought to the con- 
 clusion that this universally diffused essence, which 
 we might think of as a sort of spiritual protoplasm, 
 must possess all the qualities of personality without 
 that conscious recognition of self which constitutes 
 separate individuality : and since the word " person- 
 ality " has became so associated in our ordinary talk 
 with the idea of " individuality " it will perhaps be 
 better to coin a new word, and speak of the personal- 
 ness of the Universal Mind as indicating its personal 
 quality, apart from individuality. We must realize 
 that this universal spirit permeates all space and all 
 manifested substance, just as physical scientists tell 
 us that the ether does, and that wherever it is, there 
 it must carry with it all that it is in its own being; 
 and we shall then see that we are in the midst of an 
 ocean of undifferentiated yet intelligent Life, above, 
 below, and all around, and permeating ourselves both 
 mentally and corporeally, and all other beings as well.
 
 48 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 Gradually as we come to realize the truth of this 
 statement, our eyes will begin to open to its im- 
 mense significance. It means that all Nature is per- 
 vaded by an interior personalness, infinite in its poten- 
 tialities of intelligence, responsiveness, and power of 
 expression, and only waiting to be called into activity 
 by our recognition of it. By the terms of its nature 
 it can respond to us only as we recognize it. If we 
 are at that intellectual level where we can see nothing 
 but chance governing the world, then this underlying 
 universal mind will present to us nothing but a for- 
 tuitous confluence of forces without any intelligible 
 order. If we are sufficiently advanced to see that 
 such a confluence could only produce a chaos, and not 
 a cosmos, then our conceptions expand to the idea of 
 universal Law, and we find this to be the nature of the 
 all-underlying principle. We have made an immense 
 advance from the realm of mere accident into a world 
 where there are definite principles on which we can 
 calculate with certainty zvhen we know them. But 
 here is the crucial point. The laws of the universe 
 are there, but we are ignorant of them, and only 
 through experience gained by repeated failures can 
 we get any insight into the laws with which we have 
 to deal. How painful each step and how slow the 
 progress! ^ons upon seons would not suffice to 
 grasp all the laws of the universe in their totality, 
 not in the visible world only, but also in the world
 
 Receptivity. 49 
 
 of the unseen; each failure to know the true law 
 implies suffering arising from our ignorant breach of 
 it; and thus, since Nature is infinite, we are met by 
 the paradox that we must in some way contrive to 
 compass the knowledge of the infinite with our indi- 
 vidual intelligence, and we must perform a pilgrim- 
 age along an unceasing Via Dolorosa beneath the 
 lash of the inexorable Law until we find the solution 
 to the problem. But it will be asked, May we not 
 go on until at last we attain the possession of all 
 knowledge? People do not realize what is meant 
 by " the infinite," or they would not ask such ques- 
 tions. The infinite is that which is limitless and ex- 
 haustless. Imagine the vastest capacity you will, 
 and having filled it with the infinite, what remains 
 of the infinite is just as infinite as before. To the 
 mathematician this may be put very clearly. Raise x 
 to any power you will, and however vast may be the 
 disparity between it and the lower powers of x, both 
 are equally incommensurate with jr". The universal 
 reign of Law is a magnificent truth ; it is one of the 
 two great pillars of the universe symbolized by the 
 two pillars that stood at the entrance to Solomon's 
 temple : it is Jachin, but Jachin must be equilibriated 
 by Boaz. 
 
 It is an enduring truth, which can never be al- 
 tered, that every infraction of the Law of Nature 
 must carry its punitive consequences with it. We
 
 50 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 can never get beyond the range of cause and effect. 
 There is no escaping from the law of punishment, 
 except by knowledge. If we know a law of Nature 
 and work with it, we shall find it our unfailing 
 friend, ever ready to serve us, and never rebuking 
 us for past failures; but if we ignorantly or wilfully 
 transgress it, it is our implacable enemy, until we 
 again become obedient to it; and therefore the only 
 redemption from perpetual pain and servitude is by 
 a self-expansion which can grasp infinitude itself. 
 How is this to be accomplished? By our progress 
 to that kind and degree of intelligence by which we 
 realize the inherent personalncss of the divine all- 
 pervading Life, which is at once the Law and the 
 Substance of all that is. Well said the Jewish rabbis 
 of old, " The Law is a Person." When we once 
 realize that the universal Life and the universal Law 
 are one with the universal Personalncss, then we 
 have established the pillar Boaz as the needed com- 
 plement to Jachin; and when we find the common 
 point in which these two unite, we have raised the 
 Royal Arch through which we may triumphantly 
 enter the Temple. We must dissociate the Univer- 
 sal Personalncss from every conception of individ- 
 uality. The universal can never be the individual : 
 that would be a contradiction in terms. But be- 
 cause the universal personalncss is the root of all 
 individual personalities, it finds its highest expression
 
 Receptivity. 51 
 
 in response to those who realize its personal nature. 
 And it is this recognition that solves the seemingly 
 insoluble paradox. The only way to attain that 
 knowledge of the Infinite Law which will change the 
 Via Dolorosa into the Path of Joy is to embody in 
 ourselves a principle of knowledge commensurate 
 with the infinitude of that which is to be known; 
 and this is accomplished by realizing that, infinite 
 as the law itself, is a universal Intelligence in the 
 midst of which we float as in a living ocean. Intelli- 
 gence without individual personality, but which, in 
 producing us, concentrates itself into the personal 
 individualities which we are. What should be the 
 relation of such an intelligence towards us? Not one 
 of favouritism : not any more than the Law can it 
 respect one person above another, for itself is the 
 root and support for each alike. Not one of refusal 
 to our advances ; for without individuality it can have 
 no personal object of its own to conflict with ours; 
 and since it is itself the origin of all individual intel- 
 ligence, it cannot be shut off by inability to under- 
 stand. By the very terms of its being, therefore, this 
 infinite, underlying, all-producing Mind must be 
 ready immediately to respond to all who realize their 
 true relation to it. As the very principle of Life itself 
 it must be infinitely susceptible to feeling, and conse- 
 quently it will reproduce with absolute accuracy what- 
 ever conception of itself we impress upon it; and
 
 52 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 hence if we realize the human mind as that stage in 
 the evolution of the cosmic order at which an indi- 
 viduality has arisen capable of expressing, not merely 
 the livingness, but also the personalness of the univer- 
 sal underlying spirit, then we see that its most perfect 
 mode of self-expression must be by identifying itself 
 with these individual personalities. 
 
 The identification is, of course, limited by the 
 measure of the individual intelligence, meaning, not 
 merely the intellectual perception of the sequence of 
 cause and effect, but also that indescribable reci- 
 procity of feeling by which we instinctively recognize 
 something in another making them akin to ourselves ; 
 and so it is that when we intelligently realize that 
 the innermost principle of being, must by reason of 
 its universality, have a common nature with our own, 
 then we have solved the paradox of universal knowl- 
 edge, for we have realized our identity of being with 
 the Universal Mind, which is commensurate with the 
 Universal Law. Thus we arrive at the truth of St. 
 John's statement, " Ye know all things," only this 
 knowledge is primarily on the spiritual plane. It is 
 not brought out into intellectual statement whether 
 needed or not ; for it is not in itself the specific knowl- 
 edge of particular facts, but it is the undifferentiated 
 principle of knowledge which we may differentiate in 
 any direction that we choose. This is a philosophical 
 necessity of the case, for though the action of the in-
 
 Receptivity. S^ 
 
 dividual mind consists in differentiating the universal 
 into particular applications, to differentiate the zvhole 
 universal would be a contradiction in terms; and so, 
 because we cannot exhaust the infinite, our possession 
 of it must consist in our power to differentiate it as 
 the occasion may require, the only limit being that 
 which we ourselves assign to the manifestation. 
 
 In this way, then, the recognition of the community 
 of personality between ourselves and the universal un- 
 differentiated Spirit, which is the root and substance 
 of all things, solves the question of our release from 
 the iron grasp of an inflexible Law, not by abrogating 
 the Law, which would mean the annihilation of all 
 things, but by producing in us an intelligence equal 
 in affinity with the universal Law itself, and thus en- 
 abling us to apprehend and meet the requirements of 
 the Law in each particular as it arises. In this way 
 the Cosmic Intelligence becomes individualized, and 
 the individual intelligence becomes universalized ; the 
 two became one, and in proportion as this unity is 
 realized and acted on, it will be found that the Law, 
 which gives rise to all outward conditions, whether of 
 body or of circumstances, becomes more and more 
 clearly understood, and can therefore be more freely 
 made use of, so that by steady, intelligent endeavour 
 to unfold upon these lines we may reach degrees of 
 power to which it is impossible to assign any limits. 
 The student who would understand the rationale of
 
 54 The Edinhiirgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 the unfoldment of his own possibihties must make no 
 mistake here. He must realize that the whole proc- 
 ess is that of bringing the universal within the 
 grasp of the individual by raising the individual to 
 the level of the universal and not vice-versa. It is 
 a mathematical truism that you cannot contract the 
 infinite, and that you can expand the individual ; and 
 it is precisely on these lines that evolution works. 
 The laws of nature cannot be altered in the least de- 
 gree ; but we can come into such a realization of our 
 own relation to the universal principle of Law that 
 underlies them as to be able to press all particular 
 laws, whether of the visible or invisible side of Na- 
 ture, into our service and so find ourselves masters 
 of the situation. This is to be accomplished by 
 knowledge ; and the only knowledge which will efifect 
 this purpose in all its measureless immensity is the 
 knowledge of the personal element in Universal Spirit 
 in its reciprocity to our own personality. Our recog- 
 nition of this Spirit must therefore be twofold, as the 
 principle of necessary sequence, order or Law, and 
 also as the principle of Intelligence, responsive to our 
 own recognition of it.
 
 VIIL 
 
 RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL 
 AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS. 
 
 It must be admitted that the foreg-oing considera- 
 tions bring us to the borders of theological specula- 
 tion, but the student must bear in mind that as a 
 jMental Scientist it is his business to regard even the 
 most exalted spiritual phenomena from a purely sci- 
 entific standpoint, which is that of the working of 
 a universal natural Law. If he thus simply deals 
 with the facts as he finds them, there is little doubt 
 that the true meaning of many theological statements 
 will become clear to him : but he will do well to lay it 
 down as a general rule that it is not necessary either 
 to the use or understanding of any law, whether on 
 the personal or the impersonal side of Nature, that 
 we should give a theological explanation of it : al- 
 though, therefore, the personal quality inherent in 
 the universal underlying spirit, which is present in 
 all things, cannot be too strongly insisted upon, we 
 must remember that in dealing with it v/e are still 
 dealing with a purely natural power which reappears 
 at every point with protean variety of form, whether 
 as person, animal, or thing. In each case what it be- 
 
 6 £S
 
 56 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 comes to any individual is exactly measured by that 
 individual's recognition of it. To each and all it bears 
 the relation of supporter of the race, and where the in- 
 dividual development is incapable of realizing any- 
 thing more, this is the limit of the relation ; but as the 
 individual's power of recognition expands, he finds a 
 reciprocal expansion on the part of this intelligent 
 power which gradually develops into the conscious- 
 ness of intimate companionship between the individ- 
 ualized mind and the unindividualized source of it. 
 
 Now this is exactly the relation which, on ordi- 
 nary scientific principles, we should expect to find 
 between the individual and the cosmic mind, on the 
 supposition that the cosmic mind is subjective mind, 
 and for reasons already given we can regard it in no 
 other light. As subjective mind it must reproduce 
 exactly the conception of itself which the objective 
 mind of the individual, acting through his own sub- 
 jective mind, impresses upon it; and at the same time, 
 as creative mind, it builds up external facts in corre- 
 spondence with this conception. " Quot homines tot 
 sententije " : each one externalizes in his outward cir- 
 cumstances precisely his idea of the Universal Mind; 
 and the man who realizes that by the natural law 
 of mind he can bring the Universal Mind into per- 
 fectly reciprocal action with its own, will on the one 
 hand make it a source of infinite instruction, and on 
 the other a source of infinite power. He will thus
 
 Universal and Individual Minds. 57 
 
 wisely alternate the personal and impersonal aspects 
 respectively between his individual mind and the Uni- 
 versal Mind; when he is seeking for guidance or 
 strength he will regard his own mind as the imper- 
 sonal element which is to receive personality from the 
 superior wisdom and force of the Greater Mind ; and 
 when, on the other hand, he is to give out the stores 
 thus accumulated, he must reverse the position and 
 consider his own mind as the personal element, and 
 the Universal Mind as the impersonal, which he can 
 therefore direct with certainty by impressing his own 
 personal desire upon it. We need not be staggered 
 at the greatness of this conclusion, for it follows 
 necessarily from the natural relation between the sub- 
 jective and the objective minds; and the only question 
 is whether we will limit our view to the lower level 
 of the latter, or expand it so as to take in the limitless 
 possibilities which the subjective mind presents to us. 
 I have dealt with this question at some length 
 because it affords the key to two very important 
 subjects, the Law of Supply and the nature of In- 
 tuition. Students often find it easier to understand 
 how the mind can influence the body with which it 
 is so intimately associated, than how it can influence 
 circumstances. If the operation of thought-power 
 were confined exclusively to the individual mind 
 this difficulty might arise; but if there is one lesson 
 the student of Mental Science should take to heart
 
 58 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 more than another, it is that the action of thought- 
 power is not hmited to a circumscribed individuahty. 
 What the individual does is to give direction to some- 
 thing which is unhmited, to call into action a force 
 infinitely greater than his own, which because it is 
 in itself impersonal though intelligent, will receive 
 the impress of his personality, and can therefore 
 make its influence felt far beyond the limits which 
 bound the individual's objective perception of the 
 circumstances with which he has to deal. It is for 
 this reason that I lay so much stress on the com- 
 bination of two apparent opposites in the Universal 
 Mind, the union of intelligence with impersonality. 
 The intelligence not only enables it to receive the 
 impress of our thought, but also causes it to devise 
 exactly the right 7neans for bringing it into accom- 
 plishment. This is only the logical result of the 
 hypothesis that we are dealing with infinite Intelli- 
 gence which is also infinite Life. Life means Power, 
 and infinite life therefore means limitless power; 
 and limitless power moved by limitless intelligence 
 cannot be conceived of as ever stopping short of the 
 accomplishment of its object; therefore, given the 
 intention on the part of the Universal Mind, there 
 can be no doubt as to its ultimate accomplishment. 
 Then comes the question of intention. How do we 
 know what the intention of the Universal Mind may 
 be? Here comes in the element of impersonality.
 
 Universal and Individual Minds. 59 
 
 It has no intention, because it is impersonal. As I 
 have already said, the Universal mind works by a 
 law of averages for the advancement of the race, and 
 is in no way concerned with the particular wishes 
 of the individual. If his wishes are in Hne with the 
 forward movement of the everlasting principle, there 
 is nowhere in Nature any power to restrict him in 
 their fulfilment. If they are opposed to the general 
 forward movement, then they will bring him into 
 collision with it, and it will crush him. From the 
 relation between them it results that the same prin- 
 ciple which shows itself in the individual mind as 
 Will, becomes in the universal mind a Law of 
 Tendency; and the direction of this tendency must 
 always be to life-givingness, because the universal 
 mind is the undifferentiated Life-spirit of the uni- 
 verse. Therefore in every case the test is whether 
 our particular intention is in this same lifeward 
 direction ; and if it is, then we may be absolutely 
 certain that there is no intention on the part of the 
 Universal Mind to thwart the intention of our own 
 individual mind ; we are dealing with a purely imper- 
 sonal force, and it will no more oppose us by specific 
 plans of its own than will steam or electricity. Com- 
 bining then, these two aspects of the Universal Mind, 
 its utter impersonality and its perfect intelligence, we 
 find precisely the sort of natural force we are in want 
 of, something which will undertake whatever we put
 
 6o The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 into its hands without asking questions or bargaining 
 for terms, and which, having undertaken our busi- 
 ness, will bring to bear on it an intelligence to which 
 the united knowledge of the whole human race is as 
 nothing, and a power equal to this intelligence. I 
 may be using a rough and ready mode of expression, 
 but my object is to bring home to the student the 
 nature of the power he can employ and the method 
 of employing it, and I may therefore state the whole 
 position thus : — Your object is not to run the whole 
 cosmos, but to draw particular benefits, physical, men- 
 tal, moral, or financial into your own or someone 
 else's life. From this individual point of view the uni- 
 versal creative power has no mind of its own, and 
 therefore you can make up its mind for it. When 
 its mind is thus made up for it, it never abrogates 
 its place as the creative power, but at once sets to 
 work to carry out the purpose for which it has thus 
 been concentrated; and unless this concentration is 
 dissipated by the same agency (yourself) which first 
 produced it, it will work on by the law of growth to 
 complete manifestation on the outward plane. 
 
 In dealing with this great impersonal intelligence, 
 we are dealing with the infinite, and we must fully 
 realize infinitude as that which touches all points, 
 and if it does, there should be no difficulty in under- 
 standing that this intelligence can draw together the 
 means requisite for its purpose even from the ends
 
 Universal and Individual Minds. 6i 
 
 of the world; and therefore, realizing the Law ac- 
 cording to which the result can be produced, we 
 must resolutely put aside all questioning as to the 
 specific means which will be employed in any case. 
 To question this is to sow that very seed of doubt 
 which it is our first object to eradicate, and our 
 intellectual endeavour should therefore be directed, 
 not to the attempt to foretell the various secondary 
 causes which will eventually combine to produce the 
 desired result, laying down beforehand what par- 
 ticular causes should be necessary, and from what 
 quarter they should come; but we should direct our 
 intellectual endeavour to seeing more clearly the 
 rationale of the general law by which trains of sec- 
 ondary causes are set in motion. Employed in the 
 former way our intellect becomes the greatest hin- 
 drance to our success, for it only helps to increase our 
 doubts, since it is trying to grasp particulars which 
 at the time are entirely outside its circle of vision; 
 but employed in the latter it affords the most ma- 
 terial aid in maintaining that nucleus without which 
 there is no centre from which the principle of growth 
 can assert itself. The intellect can only deduce con- 
 sequences from facts which it is able to state, and 
 consequently cannot deduce any assurance from facts 
 of whose existence it cannot yet have any knowledge 
 through the medium of the outward senses; but for 
 the same reason it can realize the existence of a Law
 
 62 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 by which the as yet unmanifested circumstances may 
 be brought into manifestation. Thus used in its right 
 order, the intellect becomes the handmaid of that more 
 interior power within us which manipulates the un- 
 seen substance of all things, and which we may call 
 relative first cause.
 
 IX. 
 
 CAUSES AND CONDITIONS. 
 
 The expression " relative first cause " has been 
 used in the last section to distinguish the action of 
 the creative principle in the individual mind from 
 Universal First Cause on the one hand and from sec- 
 ondary causes on the other. As it exists in us, pri- 
 mary causation is the power to initiate a train of 
 causation directed to an individual purpose. As the 
 power of initiating a fresh sequence of cause and 
 effect it is first cause, and as referring to an indi- 
 vidual purpose it is relative, and it may therefore be 
 spoken of as relative first cause, or the power of pri- 
 mary causation manifested by the individual. The 
 understanding and use of this power is the whole 
 object of Mental Science, and it is therefore neces- 
 sary that the student should clearly see the relation 
 between causes and conditions. A simple illustra- 
 tion will go further for this purpose than any elabo- 
 rate explanation. If a lighted candle is brought into 
 a room the room becomes illuminated, and if the 
 candle is taken away it becomes dark again. Now 
 the illumination and the darkness are both conditions, 
 the one positive resulting from the presence of the 
 
 63
 
 64 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 light, and the other negative resulting from its ab- 
 sence : from this simple example we therefore see 
 that every positive condition has an exactly opposite 
 negative condition corresponding to it, and that this 
 correspondence results from their being related to 
 the same cause, the one positively and the other nega- 
 tively; and hence we may lay down the rule that all 
 positive conditions result from the active presence of 
 a certain cause, and all negative conditions from the 
 absence of such a cause. A condition, whether posi- 
 tive or negative, is never primary cause, and the pri- 
 mary cause of any series can never be negative, for 
 negation is the condition which arises from the ab- 
 sence of active causation. This should be thoroughly 
 understood as it is the philosophic basis of all those 
 " denials " which play so important a part in Mental 
 Science, and which may be summed up in the state- 
 ment that evil being negative, or privation of good, 
 has no substantive existence in itself. Conditions, 
 however, whether positive or negative, are no sooner 
 called into existence than they become causes in their 
 turn and produce further conditions, and so on ad 
 infinitum, thus giving rise to the whole train of sec- 
 ondary causes. So long as we judge only from the 
 information conveyed to us by the outward senses, 
 we are working on the plane of secondary causation 
 and see nothing but a succession of conditions, form- 
 ing part of an endless train of antecedent conditions
 
 Causes and Conditions. 65 
 
 coming out of the past and stretching away into the 
 future, and from this point of view we are under 
 the rule of an iron destiny from which there seems 
 no possibihty of escape. This is because the outward 
 senses are only capable of dealing with the relations 
 which one mode of limitation bears to another, for 
 they are the instruments by which we take cognizance 
 of the relative and the conditioned. Now the only 
 way of escape is by rising out of the region of sec- 
 ondary causes into that of primary causation, where 
 the originating energy is to be found before it has yet 
 passed into manifestation as a condition. This region 
 is to be found within ourselves; it is the region of 
 pure ideas; and it is for this reason that I have laid 
 stress on the two aspects of spirit as pure thought and 
 manifested form. The thought-image or ideal pat- 
 tern of a thing is the Urst cause relatively to that 
 thing; it is the substance of that thing untrammelled 
 by any antecedent conditions. 
 
 If we realize that all visible things must have their 
 origin in spirit, then the whole creation around us 
 is the standing evidence that the starting-point of 
 all things is in thought-images or ideas, for no other 
 action than the formation of such images can be con- 
 ceived of spirit prior to its manifestation in matter. 
 If, then, this is spirit's modus operandi for self- 
 expression, we have only to transfer this conception 
 from the scale of cosmic spirit working on the plane
 
 66 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 of the universal to that of individuaHzed spirit work- 
 ing on the plane of the particular, to see that the for- 
 mation of an ideal image by means of our thought is 
 setting first cause in motion with regard to this spe- 
 cific object. There is no difference in kind between 
 the operation of first cause in the universal and in the 
 particular, the difference is only a difference of scale, 
 but the power itself is identical. We must therefore 
 always be very clear as to whether we are consciously 
 using first cause or not. Note the word " con- 
 sciously " because, whether consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, we are always using first cause ; and it was 
 for this reason I emphasized the fact that the Uni- 
 versal Mind is purely subjective and therefore bound 
 by the laws which apply to subjective mind on what- 
 ever scale. Hence we are always impressing some 
 sort of ideas upon it, whether we are aware of the 
 fact or not, and all our existing limitations result 
 from our having habitually impressed upon it that 
 idea of limitation which we have imbibed by restrict- 
 ing all possibility to the region of secondary causes. 
 But now when investigation has shown us that con- 
 ditions are never causes in themselves, but only the 
 subsequent links of a chain started on the plane of 
 the pure ideal, what we have to do is to reverse our 
 method of thinking and regard the ideal as the real, 
 and the outward manifestation as a mere reflection 
 which must change with every change of the object
 
 Causes and Conditions. 67 
 
 which casts it. For these reasons it is essential to 
 know whether we are consciously making use of first 
 cause with a definite purpose or not, and the criterion 
 is this. If we regard the fulfilment of our purpose 
 as contingent upon any circumstances, past, present, 
 or future, we are not making use of first cause; we 
 have descended to the level of secondary causation, 
 which is the region of doubts, fears, and limitations, 
 all of which we are impressing upon the universal 
 subjective mind with the inevitable result that it will 
 build up corresponding external conditions. But if 
 we realize that the region of secondary causes is 
 the region of mere reflections wc shall not think 
 of our purpose as contingent on any conditions 
 whatever, but shall know that by forming the idea 
 of it in the absolute, and maintaining that idea, 
 we have shaped the first cause into the desired 
 form and can await the result with cheerful expec- 
 tancy. 
 
 It is here that we find the importance of realizing 
 spirit's independence of time and space. An ideal, 
 as such, cannot be formed in the future. It must 
 either be formed here and now or not be formed 
 at all ; and it is for this reason that every teacher, 
 who has ever spoken with due knowledge of the 
 subject, has impressed upon his followers the neces- 
 sity of picturing to themselves the fulfilment of their 
 desires as already accomplished on the spiritual plane,
 
 68 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 as the indispensable condition of fulfilment in the visi- 
 ble and concrete. 
 
 When this is properly understood, any anxious 
 thought as to the means to be employed in the accom- 
 plishment of our purposes is seen to be quite unneces- 
 sary. If the end is already secured, then it follows 
 that all the steps leading to it are secured also. The 
 means will pass into the smaller circle of our con- 
 scious activities day by day in due order, and then we 
 have to work upon them, not with fear, doubt, or 
 feverish excitement, but calmly and joyously, because 
 we know that the end is already secured, and that our 
 reasonable use of such means as present themselves 
 in the desired direction is only one portion of a much 
 larger co-ordinated movement, the final result of 
 which admits of no doubt. Mental Science does not 
 offer a premium to idleness, but it takes all work out 
 of the region of anxiety and toil by assuring the 
 worker of the success of his labour, if not in the pre- 
 cise form he anticipated, then in some other still 
 better suited to his requirements. But suppose, when 
 we reach a point where some momentous decision has 
 to be made, we happen to decide wrongly? On the 
 hypothesis that the end is already secured you cannot 
 decide wrongly. Your right decision is as much one 
 of the necessary steps in the accomplishment of the end 
 as any of the other conditions leading up to it, and 
 therefore, while being careful to avoid rash action,
 
 Causes and Conditions. 69 
 
 we may make sure that the same Law which is con- 
 trolHng the rest of the circumstances in the right 
 direction will influence our judgment in that direction 
 also. To get good results we must properly under- 
 stand our relation to the great impersonal power we 
 are using. It is intelligent and we are intelligent, 
 and the two intelligencies must co-operate. We must 
 not fly in the face of the Law by expecting it to do 
 for us what it can only do through us ; and we must 
 therefore use our intelligence with the knowledge that 
 it is acting as the instrument of a greater intelligence; 
 and because we have this knowledge we may, and 
 should, cease from all anxiety as to the final result. 
 In actual practice we must first form the ideal con- 
 ception of our object with the definite intention of 
 impressing it upon the universal mind — it is this in- 
 tention which takes such thought out of the region 
 of mere casual fancies — and then affirm that our 
 knowledge of the Law is sufficient reason for a calm 
 expectation of a corresponding result, and that there- 
 fore all necessary conditions will come to us in due 
 order. We can then turn to the affairs of our daily 
 life with the calm assurance that the initial condi- 
 tions are either there already or will soon come into 
 view. If we do not at once see them, let us rest con- 
 tent with the knowledge that the spiritual prototype 
 is already in existence and wait till some circumstance 
 pointing in the desired direction begins to show itself.
 
 70 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 It may be a very small circumstance, but it is the 
 direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken 
 into consideration. As soon as we see it we should 
 regard it as the first sprouting of the seed we have 
 sown in the Absolute, and do calmly, and without 
 excitement, whatever the circumstances may seem to 
 require, and then later on we shall see that this doing 
 will in turn lead to further circumstances in the same 
 direction until we find ourselves conducted step by 
 step to the accomplishment of our object. In this 
 way the understanding of the great principle of the 
 Law of Supply will, by repeated experiences, deliver 
 us more and more completely out of the region of 
 anxious thought and toilsome labour and bring us 
 into a new world where the useful employment of all 
 our powers, whether mental or physical, will only 
 be an unfolding of our individuality upon the lines 
 of its own nature, and therefore a perpetual source 
 of health and happiness ; a sufficient inducement, 
 surely, to the careful study of the laws governing 
 the relation between the individual and the Universal 
 Mind.
 
 X. 
 
 INTUITION. 
 
 We have seen that the subjective mind is amenable 
 to suggestion by the objective mind; but there is also 
 an action of the subjective mind upon the objective. 
 The individual's subjective mind is his own inner- 
 most self, and its first care is the maintenance of the 
 individuality of which it is the foundation; and since 
 it is pure spirit it has its continual existence in that 
 plane of being where all things subsist in the univer- 
 sal here and the everlasting now, and consequently 
 can inform the lower mind of things removed from 
 its ken either by distance or futurity. As the absence 
 of the conditions of time and space must logically 
 concentrate all things into a present focus, we can 
 assign no limit to the subjective mind's power of per- 
 ception, and therefore the question arises, why does 
 it not keep the objective mind continually informed 
 on all points? And the answer is that it would do 
 so if the objective mind were sufficiently trained to 
 recognize the indications given, and to effect this 
 training is one of the purposes of Mental Science. 
 When once we recognize the position of the sub- 
 jective mind as the supporter of the whole individual- 
 
 6 71
 
 72 The Edinburgh Lectures on JSIental Science. 
 
 ity we cannot doubt that much of what we take to be 
 the spontaneous movement of the objective mind has 
 its origin in the subjective mind prompting the ob- 
 jective mind in the right direction without our being 
 consciously aware of it. But at times when the ur- 
 gency of the case seems to demand it, or when, for 
 some reason yet unknown, the objective mind is for a 
 while more closely en rapport with the subjective 
 mind, the interior voice is heard strongly and per- 
 sistently ; and when this is the case we do well to pay 
 heed to it. Want of space forbids me to give ex- 
 amples, but doubtless such will not be wanting in the 
 reader's experience. 
 
 The importance of understanding and following 
 the intuition cannot be exaggerated, but I candidly 
 admit the great practical difficulty of keeping the 
 happy mean between the disregard of the interior 
 voice and allowing ourselves to be run away with by 
 groundless fancies. The best guide is the knowledge 
 that comes of personal experience which gradually 
 leads to the acquisition of a sort of inward sense of 
 touch that enables us to distinguish the true from 
 the false, and which appears to grow with the sin- 
 cere desire for truth and with the recognition of the 
 spirit as its source. The only general principles the 
 writer can deduce from his own experience are that 
 when, in spite of all appearances pointing in the 
 direction of a certain line of conduct, there is still
 
 Intuition. 73 
 
 a persistent feeling that it should not be followed, 
 in the majority of instances it will be found that the 
 argument of the objective mind, however correct on 
 the facts objectively known, was deficient from ig- 
 norance of facts which could not be objectively 
 known at the time, but which were known to the in- 
 tuitive faculty. Another principle is that our very 
 first impression of feeling on any subject is generally 
 correct. Before the objective mind has begun to 
 argue on the subject it is like the surface of a smooth 
 lake which clearly reflects the light from above; but 
 as soon as it begins to argue from outside appearances 
 these also throw their reflections upon its surface, so 
 that the original image becomes blurred and is no 
 longer recognizable. This first conception is very 
 speedily lost, and it should therefore be carefully 
 observed and registered in the memory with a view 
 to testing the various arguments which will subse- 
 quently arise on the objective plane. It is however 
 impossible to reduce so interior an action as that of 
 the intuition to the form of hard and fast rules, and 
 beyond carefully noting particular cases as they occur, 
 probably the best plan for the student will be to in- 
 clude the whole subject of intuition in the general 
 principle of the Law of Attraction, especially if he 
 sees how this law interacts with that personal quality 
 of universal spirit of which we have already spoken.
 
 XI. 
 
 HEALING. 
 
 The subject of healing has been elaborately treated 
 by many writers and fully deserves all the attention 
 that has been given to it, but the object of these lec- 
 tures is rather to ground the student in those general 
 principles on which all conscious use of the creative 
 power of thought is based, than to lay down formal 
 rules for specific applications of it. I will therefore 
 examine the broad principles which appear to be 
 common to the various methods of mental healing 
 which are in use, each of which derives its efficacy, 
 not from the peculiarity of the method, but from it 
 being such a method as allows the higher laws of 
 Nature to come into play. Now the principle uni- 
 versally laid down by all mental healers, in whatever 
 various terms they may explain it, is that the basis 
 of all healing is a change in belief. The sequence 
 from which this results is as follows : — the subjective 
 mind is the creative faculty within us, and creates 
 whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; the 
 objective mind, or intellect, impresses its thought 
 upon it; the thought is the expression of the belief; 
 hence whatever the subjective mind creates is the 
 
 74
 
 Healing. 75 
 
 reproduction externally of our beliefs. Accordingly 
 our whole object is to change our beliefs, and we can- 
 not do this without some solid ground of conviction 
 of the falsity of our old beliefs and of the truth of 
 our new ones, and this ground we find in that law 
 of causation which I have endeavoured to explain. 
 The wrong belief which externalizes as sickness is 
 the belief that some secondary cause, which is really 
 only a condition, is a primary cause. The knowledge 
 of the law shows that there is only one primary cause, 
 and this is the factor which in our own individuality 
 we call subjective or sub-conscious mind. For this 
 reason I have insisted on the difference between plac- 
 ing an idea in the sub-conscious mind, that is, on the 
 plane of the absolute and without reference to time 
 and space, and placing the same idea in the conscious 
 intellectual mind which only perceives things as re- 
 lated to time and space. Now the only conception 
 you can have of yourself in the absolute, or uncon- 
 ditioned, is as purely living Spirit, not hampered by 
 conditions of any sort, and therefore not subject to 
 illness ; and when this idea is firmly impressed on the 
 sub-conscious mind, it will externalize it. The reason 
 why this process is not always successful at the first 
 attempt is that all our life we have been holding the 
 false belief in sickness as a substantial entity in itself 
 and thus being a primary cause, instead of being 
 merely a negative condition resulting from the ab-
 
 76 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 sence of a primary cause; and a belief which has 
 become ingrained from childhood cannot be eradi- 
 cated at a moment's notice. We often find, therefore, 
 that for some time after a treatment there is an 
 improvement in the patient's health, and then the old 
 symptoms return. This is because the new belief 
 in his own creative faculty has not yet had time to 
 penetrate down to the innermost depths of the sub- 
 conscious mind, but has only partially entered it. 
 Each succeeding treatment strengthens the sub-con- 
 scious mind in its hold of the new belief until at last 
 a permanent cure is effected. This is the method of 
 self-treatment based on the patient's own knowledge 
 of the law of his being. 
 
 But " there is not in all men this knowledge," or 
 at any rate not such a full recognition of it as will 
 enable them to give successful treatment to them- 
 selves, and in these cases the intervention of the 
 healer becomes necessary. The only difference be- 
 tween the healer and the patient is that the healer 
 has learnt how to control the less self-conscious modes 
 of the spirit by the more self-conscious mode, while 
 the patient has not yet attained to this knowledge; 
 and what the healer does is to substitute his own 
 objective or conscious mentality, which is will joined 
 to intellect, for that of the patient, and in this way 
 to find entrance to his sub-conscious mind and im- 
 press upon it the suggestion of perfect health.
 
 Healing. 77 
 
 The question then arises, how can the healer sub- 
 stitute his own conscious mind for that of the patient ? 
 and the answer shows the practical application of 
 tliose very abstract principles which I have laid down 
 in the earlier sections. Our ordinary conception of 
 ourselves is that of an individual personality which 
 ends where another personality begins, in other 
 w^ords that the two personalities are entirely sep- 
 arate. This is an error. There is no such hard and 
 fast line of demarcation between personalities, and 
 the boundaries between one and another can be in- 
 creased or reduced in rigidity according to will, in 
 fact they may be temporarily removed so completely 
 that, for the time being, the two personalities become 
 merged into one. Now the action which takes place 
 between healer and patient depends on this principle. 
 The patient is asked by the healer to put himself in 
 a receptive mental attitude, which means that he is to 
 exercise his volition for the purpose of removing the 
 barrier of his own objective personality and thus af- 
 fording entrance to the mental power of the healer. 
 On his side also the healer does the same thing, only 
 with this difference, that while the patient withdraws 
 the barrier on his side with the intention of admitting 
 a flowing-in, the healer does so with the intention of 
 allowing a flowing-out : and thus by the joint action 
 of the two minds the barriers of both personalities are 
 removed and the direction of the flow of volition is
 
 78 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 determined, that is to say, it flows from the healer as 
 actively willing to give, towards the patient as pass- 
 ively willing to receive, according to the universal 
 law of Nature that the flow must always be from the 
 plenum to the vacuum. This mutual removal of the 
 external mental barrier between healer and patient is 
 what is termed establishing a rapport between them, 
 and here we find one most valuable practical applica- 
 tion of the principle laid down earlier in this book, 
 that pure spirit is present in its entirety at every point 
 simultaneously. It is for this reason that as soon as 
 the healer realizes that the barriers of external per- 
 sonality between himself and his patient have been 
 removed, he can then speak to the sub-conscious mind 
 of the patient as though it were his own, for both 
 being pure spirit the thought of their identity makes 
 them identical, and both are concentrated into a single 
 entity at a single point upon which the conscious 
 mind of the healer can be brought to bear, according 
 to the universal principle of the control of the sub- 
 jective mind by the objective mind through sugges- 
 tion. It is for this reason I have insisted on the 
 distinction between pure spirit, or spirit conceived of 
 apart from extension in any matrix and the concep- 
 tion of it as so extended. If we concentrate our 
 mind upon the diseased condition of the patient we 
 are thinking of him as a separate personality, and 
 3.re not fixing our mind upon that conception of him
 
 Healing. 79 
 
 as pure spirit which will afford us effectual entry to 
 his springs of being. We must therefore withdraw 
 our thought from the contemplation of symptoms, 
 and indeed from his corporeal personality altogether, 
 and must think of him as a purely spiritual indi- 
 viduality, and as such entirely free from subjection to 
 any conditions, and consequently as voluntarily ex- 
 ternalizing the conditions most expressive of the 
 vitality and intelligence which pure spirit is. Think- 
 ing of him thus, we then make mental affirmation 
 that he shall build up outwardly the correspondence 
 of that perfect vitality which he knows himself to be 
 inwardly ; and this suggestion being impressed by the 
 healer's conscious thought, while the patient's con- 
 scious thought is at the same time impressing the fact 
 that he is receiving the active thought of the healer, 
 the result is that the patient's sub-conscious mind be- 
 comes thoroughly imbued with the recognition of its 
 own life-giving power, and according to the recog- 
 nized law of subjective mentality proceeds to work 
 out this suggestion into external manifestation, and 
 thus health is substituted for sickness. 
 
 It must be understood that the purpose of the 
 process here described is to strengthen the subject's 
 individuality, not to dominate it. To use it for 
 domination is inversion, bringing its appropriate 
 penalty to the operator. 
 
 In this description I have contemplated the case
 
 8o The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 where the patient is consciously co-operating with the 
 healer, and it is in order to obtain this co-operation 
 that the mental healer usually makes a point of in- 
 structing the patient in the broad principles of Mental 
 Science, if he is not already acquainted with them. 
 But this is not always advisable or possible. Some- 
 times the statement of principles opposed to existing 
 prejudices arouses opposition, and any active antag- 
 onism on the patient's part must tend to intensify the 
 barrier of conscious personality which it is the 
 healer's first object to remove. In these cases noth- 
 ing is so effective as absent treatment. If the stu- 
 dent has grasped all that has been said on the subject 
 of spirit and matter, he will see that in mental treat- 
 ment time and space count for nothing, because the 
 whole action takes place on a plane where these con- 
 ditions do not obtain ; and it is therefore quite im- 
 material whether the patient be in the immediate 
 presence of the healer or in a distant country. Under 
 these circumstances it is found by experience that 
 one of the most effectual modes of mental healing is 
 by treatment during sleep, because then the patient's 
 whole system is naturally in a state of relaxation 
 which prevents him offering any conscious opposition 
 to the treatment. And by the same rule the healer 
 also is able to treat even more effectively during his 
 own sleep than while waking. Before going to sleep 
 he firmly impresses on his subjective mind that it is
 
 Healing. 8i 
 
 to convey curative suggestion to the subjective mind 
 of the patient, and then, by the general principles of 
 the relation between subjective and objective mind 
 this suggestion is carried out during all the hours that 
 the conscious individuality is wrapped in repose. 
 This method is applicable to young children to whom 
 the principles of the science cannot be explained ; and 
 also to persons at a distance : and indeed the only ad- 
 vantage gained by the personal meeting of the patient 
 and healer is in the instruction that can be orally 
 given, or when the patient is at that early stage of 
 knowledge where the healer's visible presence con- 
 veys the suggestion that something is then being done 
 which could not be done in his absence ; otherwise the 
 presence or absence of the patient are matters per- 
 fectly indifferent. The student must always recollect 
 that the sub-conscious mind does not have to work 
 through the intellect or conscious mind to produce its 
 curative effects. It is part of the all-pervading 
 creative force of Nature, while the intellect is not 
 creative but distributive. 
 
 From mental healing it is but a step to telepathy, 
 clairvoyance and other kindred manifestations of 
 transcendental power which are from time to time 
 exhibited by the subjective entity and which follow 
 laws as accurate as those which govern what we are 
 accustomed to consider our more normal faculties; 
 but these subjects do not properly fall within the
 
 82 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 scope of a book whose purpose is to lay down the 
 broad principles which underlie all spiritual phe- 
 nomena. Until these are clearly understood the stu- 
 dent cannot profitably attempt the detailed study of 
 the more interior powers ; for to do so without a firm 
 foundation of knowledge and some experience in 
 its practical application would only be to expose him- 
 self to unknown dangers, and would be contrary to 
 the scientific principle that the advance into the 
 unknown can only be made from the standpoint of 
 the known, otherwise we only come into a confused 
 region of guess-work without any clearly defined 
 principles for our guidance.
 
 XII. 
 
 THE WILL. 
 
 The Will is of such primary importance that the 
 student should be on his guard against any mistake 
 as to the position which it holds in the mental econ- 
 omy. Many writers and teachers insist on will-power 
 as though that were the creative faculty. No doubt 
 intense will-power can evolve certain external re- 
 sults, but like all other methods of compulsion it lacks 
 the permanency of natural growth. The appear- 
 ances, forms, and conditions produced by mere inten- 
 sity of will-power will only hang together so long as 
 the compelling force continues ; but let it be exhausted 
 or withdrawn, and the elements thus forced into 
 unnatural combination will at once fly back to their 
 proper affinities; the form created by compulsion 
 never had the germ of vitality in itself and is there- 
 fore dissipated as soon as the external energy which 
 supported it is withdrawn. The mistake is in at- 
 tributing the creative power to the will, or perhaps 
 I should say in attributing the creative power to 
 ourselves at all. The truth is that man never creates 
 anything. His function is, not to create, but to com- 
 bine and distribute that which is already in being, and 
 
 83
 
 84 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 what we call onr creations are new combinations of 
 already existing material, whether mental or cor- 
 poreal. This is amply demonstrated in the physical 
 sciences. No one speaks of creating energy, but only 
 of transforming one form of energy into another; 
 and if we realize this as a universal principle, we shall 
 see that on the mental plane as well as on the physical 
 we never create energy but only provide the condi- 
 tions by which the energy already existing in one 
 mode can exhibit itself in another: therefore what, 
 relatively to man, we call his creative power, is that 
 receptive attitude of expectancy which, so to say, 
 makes a mould into which the plastic and as yet un- 
 differentiated substance can flow and take the desired 
 form. The will has much the same place in our 
 mental machinery that the tool-holder has in a power- 
 lathe: it is not the power, but it keeps the mental 
 faculties in that position relatively to the power which 
 enables it to do the desired work. If, using the 
 word in its widest sense, we may say that the imagi- 
 nation is the creative function, we may call the will 
 the centralizing principle. Its function is to keep 
 the imagination centred in the right direction. We 
 are aiming at consciously controlling our mental 
 powers instead of letting them hurry us hither and 
 thither in a purposeless manner, and we must there- 
 fore understand the relation of these powers to each 
 other for the production of external results. First
 
 The Will. 85 
 
 the whole train of causation is started by some emo- 
 tion which gives rise to a desire ; next the judgment 
 determines whether we shall externalize this desire 
 or not; then the desire having been approved by the 
 judgment, the will comes forward and directs the 
 imagination to form the necessary spiritual proto- 
 type ; and the imagination thus centred on a particular 
 object creates the spiritual nucleus, which in its turn 
 acts as a centre round which the forces of attraction 
 begin to work, and continue to operate until, by the 
 law of growth, the concrete result becomes perceptible 
 to our external senses. 
 
 The business of the will, then, is to retain the vari- 
 ous faculties of our mind in that position where they 
 are really doing the work we wish, and this position 
 may be generalized into the three following attitudes : 
 either we wish to act upon something, or be acted 
 on by it, or to maintain a neutral position; in other 
 words we either intend to project a force, or receive a 
 force, or keep a position of inactivity relatively to 
 some particular object. Now the judgment deter- 
 mines which of these three positions we shall take 
 up, the consciously active, the consciously receptive, 
 or the consciously neutral; and then the function of 
 the will is simply to maintain the position we have 
 determined upon; and if we maintain any given 
 mental attitude we may reckon with all certainty on 
 the law of attraction drawing us to those corre-
 
 86 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 spondences which exteriorly symboHze the attitude in 
 question. This is very different from the semi-animal 
 screwing-up of the nervous forces which, with some 
 people, stands for will-power. It implies no strain 
 on the nervous system and is consequently not fol- 
 lowed by any sense of exhaustion. The will-power, 
 when transferred from the region of the lower men- 
 tality to the spiritual plane, becomes simply a calm 
 and peaceful determination to retain a certain mental 
 attitude in spite of all temptations to the contrary, 
 knowing that by doing so the desired result will cer- 
 tainly appear. 
 
 The training of the will and its transference from 
 the lower to the higher plane of our nature are among 
 the first objects of Mental Science. The man is 
 summed up in his will. Whatever he does by his 
 own will is his own act; whatever he does without 
 the consent of his will is not his own act but that of 
 the power by which his will was coerced ; but we must 
 recognize that, on the mental plane, no other indi- 
 viduality can obtain control over our will unless we 
 first allow it to do so; and it is for this reason that 
 all legitimate use of Mental Science is towards the 
 strengthening of the will, whether in ourselves or 
 others, and bringing it under the control of an en- 
 lightened reason. When the will realizes its power 
 to deal with first cause it is no longer iiccessary for 
 the operator to state to himself in extenso all the
 
 The Will. 87 
 
 philosophy of its action every time he wishes to use 
 it, but, knowing that the trained will is a tremendous 
 spiritual force acting on the plane of first cause, he 
 simply expresses his desire with the intention of 
 operating on that plane, and knows that the desire 
 thus expressed will in due time externalize itself as 
 concrete fact. He now sees that the point which 
 really demands his earnest attention is not whether he 
 possesses the power of externalizing any results he 
 chooses, but of learning to choose wisely what re- 
 sults to produce. For let us not suppose that even 
 the highest powers will take us out of the law of 
 cause and effect. We can never set any cause in mo- 
 tion without calling forth those effects which it 
 already contains in embryo and which will again 
 become causes in their turn, thus producing a series 
 which must continue to flow on until it is cut short 
 by bringing into operation a cause of an opposite 
 character to the one which originated it. Thus we 
 shall find the field for the exercise of our intelligence 
 continually expanding with the expansion of our 
 powers; for, granted a good intention, we shall al- 
 ways wish to contemplate the results of our action as 
 far as our intelligence will permit. We may not be 
 able to see very far, but there is one safe general 
 principle to be gained from what has already been 
 said about causes and conditions, which is that the 
 whole sequence always partakes of the same char- 
 7
 
 S8 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 acter as the initial cause : if that character is negative, 
 that is, destitute of any desire to externahze kindness, 
 cheerfulness, strength, beauty or some other sort of 
 good, this negative quality will make itself felt all 
 down the line; but if the opposite affirmative char- 
 acter is in the original motive, then it will reproduce 
 its kind in forms of love, joy, strength and beauty 
 with unerring precision. Before setting out, there- 
 fore, to produce new conditions by the exercise of 
 our thought-power we should weigh carefully what 
 further results they are likely to lead to; and here, 
 again, we shall find an ample field for the training of 
 our will, in learning to acquire that self-control which 
 will enable us to postpone an inferior present satis- 
 faction to a greater prospective good. 
 
 These considerations naturally lead us to the sub- 
 ject of concentration. I have just now pointed out 
 that all duly controlled mental action consists in hold- 
 ing the mind in one of three attitudes; but there is 
 a fourth mental condition, which is that of letting 
 our mental functions run on without our will direct- 
 ing them to any definite purpose. It is on this word 
 purpose that we must fix our whole attention; and 
 instead of dissipating our energies, we must follow 
 an intelligent method of concentration. The word 
 means being gathered up at a centre, and the centre 
 of anything is that point in which all its forces are 
 equally balanced. To concentrate therefore means
 
 TJie Will. 89 
 
 first to bring- onr minds into a condition of equilib- 
 rium which will enable us to consciously direct the 
 flow of spirit to a definitely recognized purpose, and 
 then carefully to guard our thoughts from inducing a 
 flow in the opposite direction. We must always bear 
 in mind that we are dealing with a wonderful poten- 
 tial energy which is not yet differentiated into any 
 particular mode, and that by the action of our mind 
 we can differentiate it into any specific mode of ac- 
 tivity that we will ; and by keeping our thought fixed 
 on the fact that the inflow of this energy is taking 
 place and that by our mental attitude we are deter- 
 mining its direction, we shall gradually realize a 
 corresponding externalization. Proper concentration, 
 therefore, does not consist of strenuous effort which 
 exhausts the nervous system and defeats its own ob- 
 ject by suggesting the consciousness of an adverse 
 force to be fought against, aiid thus creating the ad- 
 verse circumstances we dread ; but in shutting out all 
 thoughts of a kind that would disperse the spiritual 
 nucleus we are forming and dwelling cheerfully on 
 the knowledge that, because the law is certain in its 
 action, our desire is certain of accomplishment. 
 The other great principle to be remembered is that 
 concentration is for the purpose of determining the 
 quality we are going to give to the previously undif- 
 ferentiated energy rather than to arrange the specific 
 circumstances of its manifestation. That is the work
 
 90 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 of the creative energy itself, which will build up its 
 own forms of expression quite naturally if we allow 
 it, thus saving us a great deal of needless anxiety. 
 What we really want is expansion in a certain direc- 
 tion, whether of health, wealth, or what not : and so 
 long as we get this, what does it matter whether it 
 reaches us through some channel which we thought 
 we could reckon upon or through some other whose 
 existence we had not suspected. It is the fact that 
 we are concentrating energy of a particular kind for 
 a particular purpose that we should fix our minds 
 upon, and not look upon any specific details as essen- 
 tial to the accomplishment of our object. 
 
 These are the two golden rules regarding concen- 
 tration; but we must not suppose that because we 
 have to be on our guard against idle drifting there is 
 to be no such thing as repose; on the contrary it is 
 during periods of repose that we accumulate strength 
 for action; but repose does not mean a state of pur- 
 poselessness. As pure spirit the subjective mind 
 never rests : it is only the objective mind in its con- 
 nection with the physical body that needs rest; and 
 though there are no doubt times when the greatest 
 possible rest is to be obtained by stopping the action 
 of our conscious thought altogether, the more gen- 
 erally advisable method is by changing the direction 
 of the thought and, instead of centering it upon 
 something we intend to do, letting it dwell quietly
 
 The Will 91 
 
 upon what we arc. This direction of thought might, 
 of course, develop into the deepest philosophical 
 speculation, but it is not necessary that we should be 
 always either consciously projecting our forces to 
 produce some external effect or working out the de- 
 tails of some metaphysical problem; but we may 
 simply realize ourselves as part of the universal 
 livingness and thus gain a quiet centralization, which, 
 though maintained by a conscious act of the volition, 
 is the very essence of rest. From this standpoint we 
 see that all is Life and all is Good, and that Nature, 
 from her clearly visible surface to her most arcane 
 depths, is one vast storehouse of life and good en- 
 tirely devoted to our individual use. We have the 
 key to all her treasures, and we can now apply our 
 knowledge of the law of being without entering into 
 all those details which are only needed for purposes 
 of study, and doing so we find it results in our having 
 acquired the consciousness of our oneness zvith the 
 zvhole. This is the great secret : and when we have 
 once fathomed it we can enjoy our possession of the 
 whole, or of any part of it, because by our recogni- 
 tion we have made it, and can increasingly make it, 
 our own. Whatever most appeals to us at any par- 
 ticular time or place is that mode of the universal 
 living spirit with which at that moment we are most 
 in touch, and realizing this, we shall draw from it 
 streams of vital energy which will make the very
 
 92 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 sensation of livingness a joy and will radiate from 
 us as a sphere of vibration that can deflect all injuri- 
 ous suggestion on whatever plane. We may not have 
 literary, artistic, or scientific skill to present to others 
 the results of our communings with Nature, but the 
 joy of this sympathetic indrawing will nevertheless 
 produce a corresponding outflow manifesting itself in 
 the happier look and kindlier mien of him who thus 
 realizes his oneness with every aspect of the whole. 
 He realizes — and this is the great point in that atti- 
 tude of mind which is not directed to any specific 
 external object — that, for himself, he is, and always 
 must be the centre of all this galaxy of Life, and 
 thus he contemplates himself as seated at the centre 
 of infinitude, not an infinitude of blank space, but 
 pulsating with living being, in all of which he knows 
 that the true essence is nothing but good. This is 
 the very opposite to a selfish self-centredness : it is 
 the centre where we find that we both receive from 
 all and flow out to all. Apart from this principle of 
 circulation there is no true life, and if we contem- 
 plate our central position only as affording us greater 
 advantages for in-taking, we have missed the whole 
 point of our studies by missing the real nature of the 
 Life-principle, which is action and re-action. If we 
 would have life enter into us, we ourselves must enter 
 into life — enter into the spirit of it, just as we must 
 enter into the spirit of a book or a game to enjoy it
 
 The Will. 93 
 
 There can be no action at a centre only. There must 
 be a perpetual flowing out towards the circumference, 
 and thence back again to the centre to maintain a vital 
 activity; otherwise collapse must ensue either from 
 anaemia or congestion. But if we realize the recipro- 
 cal nature of the vital pulsation, and that the out- 
 flowing consists in the habit of mind which gives 
 itself to the good it sees in others, rather than in any 
 specific actions, then w-e shall find that the cultivation 
 of this disposition will provide innumerable avenues 
 for the universal livingness to flow through us, 
 whether as giving or receiving, which we had never 
 before suspected : and this action and re-action will 
 so build up our own vitality that each day will find 
 us more thoroughly alive than any that had preceded 
 it. This, then, is the attitude of repose in which we 
 may enjoy all the beauties of science, literature and 
 art or may peacefully commune with the spirit of 
 nature without the aid of any third mind to act as 
 its interpreter, which is still a purposeful attitude 
 although not directed to a specific object: we have 
 not allowed the will to relax its control, but have 
 merely altered its direction; so that for action and 
 repose alike we find that our strength lies in our 
 recognition of the unity of the spirit and of our- 
 selves as individual concentrations of it.
 
 XIII. 
 
 IN TOUCH WITH SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND. 
 
 The preceding pages have made the student in 
 some measure aware of the immense importance of 
 our deahngs with the sub-conscious mind. Our rela- 
 tion to it, whether on the scale of the individual or 
 the universal, is the key to all that we are or ever can 
 be. In its unrecognized w^orking it is the spring of 
 all that we can call the automatic action of mind and 
 body, and on the universal scale it is the silent power 
 of evolution gradually working onwards to that 
 " divine event, to which the whole creation moves " ; 
 and by our conscious recognition of it we make it, 
 relatively to ourselves, all that we believe it to be. 
 The closer our rapport with it becomes, the more 
 what we have hitherto considered automatic action, 
 whether in our bodies or our circumstances, will pass 
 under our control, until at last we shall control our 
 whole individual world. Since, then, this is the stu- 
 pendous issue involved, the question how we are to 
 put ourselves practically in touch with the sub-con- 
 scious mind is a very important one. Now the clue 
 which gives us the right direction is to be found in 
 the impersonal quality of sub-conscious mind of 
 
 94
 
 In Touch zvith Sub-conscious Mind. 95 
 
 which I have spoken. Not impersonal as lacking the 
 elements of personality; nor even, in the case of in- 
 dividual subjective mind, as lacking the sense of 
 individuality; but impersonal in the sense of not 
 recognizing the particular external relations which 
 appear to the objective mind to constitute its per- 
 sonality, and having a realization of itself quite inde- 
 pendent of them. If, then, we would come in touch 
 with it we must meet it on its own ground. It can 
 see things only from the deductive standpoint, and 
 therefore cannot take note of the inductive standpoint 
 from which we construct the idea of our external 
 personality; and accordingly if we would put our- 
 selves in touch with it, we cannot do so by bringing 
 it down to the level of the external and non-essential 
 but only by rising to its own level on the plane of the 
 interior and essential. How can this be done? Let 
 two well-known writers answer. Rudyard Kipling 
 tells us in his story of " Kim " how the boy used at 
 times to lose his sense of personality by repeating to 
 himself the question, Wlio is Kim? Gradually his 
 personality would seem to fade and he would experi- 
 ence a feeling of passing into a grander and a wider 
 life, in which the boy Kim was unknown, while his 
 own conscious individuality remained, only exalted 
 and expanded to an inconceivable extent ; and in Ten- 
 nyson's life by his son we are told that at times the 
 poet had a similar experience. We come into touch
 
 96 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 with the absolute exactly in proportion as we with- 
 draw ourselves from the relative : they vary inversely 
 to each other. 
 
 For the purpose, then, of getting into touch with 
 our sub-conscious mind we must endeavour to think 
 of ourselves as pure being, as that entity which in- 
 teriorly supports the outward manifestation, and do- 
 ing so we shall realize that the essential quality of 
 pure being must be good. It is in itself pure Life, 
 and as such cannot desire anything detrimental to 
 pure Life under whatever form manifested. Conse- 
 quently the purer our intentions the more readily we 
 shall place ourself en rapport with our subjective 
 entity ; and a fortiori the same applies to that Greater 
 Sub-conscious Mind of which our individual sub- 
 jective mind is a particular manifestation. In actual 
 practice the process consists in first forming a clear 
 conception in the objective mind of the idea we wish 
 to convey to the subjective mind : then, when this has 
 been firmly grasped, endeavour to lose sight of all 
 other facts connected wnth the external personality 
 except the one in question, and then mentally address 
 the subjective mind as though it were an independent 
 entity and impress upon it what you want it to do or 
 to believe. Everyone must formulate his own way 
 of working, but one method, which is both simple and 
 effective is to say to the subjective mind, " This is 
 what I want you to do; you will now step into my
 
 In Touch with Sub-conscious Mind. 97 
 
 place and do it, bringing all your powers and intelli- 
 gence to bear, and considering yourself to be none 
 other than myself," Having done this return to the 
 realization of your own objective personality and 
 leave the subjective mind to perform its task in 
 full confidence that, by the law of its nature, it will 
 do so if not hindered by a repetition of contrary mes- 
 sages from the objective mind. This is not a mere 
 fancy but a truth daily proved by the experience of 
 increasing numbers. The facts have not been fabri- 
 cated to fit the theory, but the theory has been built 
 up by careful observation of the facts; and since it 
 has been shown both by theory and practice that such 
 is the law of the relation between subjective and ob- 
 jective mind, we find ourselves face to face with a 
 very momentous question. Is there any reason why 
 the laws which hold good of the individual subjective 
 mind should not hold good of the Universal Mind 
 also? and the answer is that there is not. As has 
 been already shown the Universal Mind must, by its 
 very universality, be purely subjective, and what is 
 the law of a part must also be the law of the whole : 
 the qualities of fire are the same whether the centres 
 of combustion be great or small, and therefore we 
 may well conclude these lectures by considering what 
 will be the result if we apply what we have learnt 
 regarding the individual subjective mind to the Uni- 
 versal Mind.
 
 98 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 We have learnt that the three great facts regard- 
 ing subjective mind are its creative power, its amen- 
 ableness to suggestion, and its inabihty to work by 
 any other than the deductive method. This last is 
 an exceedingly important point, for it implies that the 
 action of the subjective mind is in no way limited by 
 precedent. The inductive method works on principles 
 inferred from an already existing pattern, and there- 
 fore at the best only produces the old thing in a new 
 shape. But the deductive method works according 
 to the essence or spirit of the principle, and does not 
 depend on any previous concrete manifestation for its 
 apprehension of it; and this latter method of working 
 must necessarily be that of the all-originating Mind, 
 for since there could be no prior existing pattern from 
 which it could learn the principles of construction, 
 the want of a pattern would have prevented its creat- 
 ing anything had its method been inductive instead of 
 deductive. Thus by the necessity of the case the 
 Universal Mind must act deductively, that is, accord- 
 ing to the law which has been found true of individual 
 subjective mind. It is thus not bound by any prece- 
 dent, which means that its creative power is absolutely 
 unlimited; and since it is essentially subjective mind, 
 and not objective mind, it is entirely amenable to 
 suggestion. Now it is an unavoidable inference from 
 the identity of the law governing subjective mind, 
 whether in the individual or the universal, that just
 
 In Touch zi'ith Sub-conscious Mind. 99 
 
 as we can by suggestion impress a certain character 
 of personality upon the individual subjective mind, so 
 we can, and do, upon the Universal Mind ; and it is 
 for this reason that I have drawn attention to the 
 inherent personal quality of pure spirit when con- 
 templated in its most interior plane. It becomes, 
 therefore, the most important of all considerations 
 with what character we invest the Universal Mind; 
 for since our relation to it is purely subjective it will 
 infallibly bear to us exactly that character which we 
 impress upon it; in other words it will be to us ex- 
 actly what we believe it to be. This is simply a log- 
 ical inference from the fact that, as subjective mind, 
 our primary relation to it can only be on the sub- 
 jective plane, and indirectly our objective relations 
 must also spring from the same source. This is the 
 meaning of that remarkable passage twice repeated in 
 the Bible, " With the pure thou wilt show thyself 
 pure, and with the froward thou wilt show thyself 
 froward " (Ps, xviii., 26, and II. Sam, xxii., 27), for 
 the context makes it clear that these words are ad- 
 dressed to the Divine Being. The spiritual kingdom 
 is ztnthin us, and as we realize it there so it becomes 
 to us a reality. It is the unvarying law of the sub- 
 jective life that " as a man thinketh in his heart so is 
 he," that is to say, his inward subjective states are the 
 only true reality, and what we call external realities 
 are only their objective correspondences. If we
 
 ICO The Edinhiirgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 thoroughly reahze the truth that the Universal Mind 
 must be to us exactly according to our conception of 
 it, and that this relation is not merely imaginary but 
 by the law of subjective mind must be to us an actual 
 fact and the foundation of all other facts, then it is 
 impossible to over-estimate the importance of the 
 conception of the Universal Mind which we adopt. 
 To the uninstructed there is little or no choice : they 
 form a conception in accordance with the tradition 
 they have received from others, and until they have 
 learnt to think for themselves, they have to abide by 
 the results of that tradition : for natural laws admit 
 of no exceptions, and however faulty the traditional 
 idea may be, its acceptance will involve a correspond- 
 ing reaction upon the Universal Mind, which will in 
 turn be reflected into the conscious mind and external 
 life of the individual. But those who understand the 
 law of the subject will have no one but themselves 
 to blame if they do not derive all possible benefits 
 from it. The greatest Teacher of Mental Science the 
 world has ever seen has laid down sufficiently plain 
 rules for our guidance. With a knowledge of the 
 subject whose depth can be appreciated only by those 
 who have themselves some practical acquaintance 
 with it, He bids His unlearned audiences, those com- 
 mon people who heard Him gladly, picture to them- 
 selves the Universal Mind as a benign Father, ten- 
 derly compassionate of all and sending the common
 
 In Touch zvith Siib-conscioiis Mind. loi 
 
 bounties of Nature alike on the evil and the good; 
 but He also pictured It as exercising a special and 
 peculiar care over those ^vho recognize Its willingness 
 to do so : — " the very hairs of your head are all num- 
 bered," and " ye are of more value than many spar- 
 rows." Prayer was to be made to the unseen Being, 
 not with doubt or fear, but with the absolute assur- 
 ance of a certain answer, and no limit was to be set 
 to its power or willingness to work for us. But to 
 those who did not thus realize it, the Great Mind is 
 necessarily the adversary who casts them into prison 
 until they have paid the uttermost farthing; and thus 
 in all cases the Master impressed upon his hearers 
 the exact correspondence of the attitude of this un- 
 seen Power towards them with their own attitude 
 towards it. Such teaching was not a narrow an- 
 thropomorphism but the adaptation to the intellectual 
 capacity of the unlettered multitude of the very 
 deepest truths of what we now call Mental Science. 
 And the basis of it all is the cryptic personality of 
 spirit hidden throughout the infinite of Nature under 
 every form of manifestation. As unalloyed Life and 
 Intelligence it can be no other than good, it can enter- 
 tain no intention of evil, and thus all intentional evil 
 must put us in opposition to it, and so deprive us of 
 the consciousness of its guidance and strengthening 
 and thus leave us to grope our own way and fight our 
 own battle single-handed against the universe, odds
 
 I02 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 which at last will surely prove too great for us. But 
 remember that the opposition can never be on the part 
 of the Universal Mind, for in itself it is sub-conscious 
 mind ; and to suppose any active opposition taken on 
 its own initiative would be contrary to all we have 
 learnt as to the nature of sub-conscious mind whether 
 in the individual or the universal ; the position of the 
 Universal Mind towards us is always the reflection 
 of our own attitude. Therefore although the Bible 
 is full of threatening against those who persist in 
 conscious opposition to the Divine Law of Good, it 
 is on the other hand full of promises of immediate 
 and full forgiveness to all who change their attitude 
 and desire to co-operate with the Law of Good so far 
 as they know it. The laws of Nature do not act 
 vindictively; and through all theological formularies 
 and traditional interpretations let us realize that what 
 we are dealing with is the supreme law of our own 
 being; and it is on the basis of this natural law that 
 we find such declarations as that in Ezek, xviii., 22, 
 which tells that if we forsake our evil ways our past 
 transgressions shall never again be mentioned to us. 
 We are dealing with the great principles of our sub- 
 jective being, and our misuse of them in the past can 
 never make them change their inherent law of action. 
 If our method of using them in the past has brought 
 us sorrow, fear and trouble, we have only to fall back 
 on the law that if we reverse the cause the effects will
 
 In Touch with Sub-conscious Mind. 103 
 
 be reversed also ; and so what we have to do is simply 
 to reverse our mental attitude and then endeavour to 
 act up to the new one. The sincere endeavour to act 
 up to our new mental attitude is essential, for we 
 cannot really think in one way and act in another; 
 but our repeated failures to fully act as we would 
 wish must not discourage us. It is the sincere in- 
 tention that is the essential thing, and this will in time 
 release us from the bondage of habits which at pres- 
 ent seem almost insuperable. 
 
 The initial step, then, consists in determining to 
 picture the Universal Mind as the ideal of all we could 
 wish it to be both to ourselves and to others, together 
 with the endeavour to reproduce this ideal, however 
 imperfectly, in our own life; and this step having 
 been taken, we can then cheerfully look upon it as 
 our ever-present Friend, providing all good, giiard- 
 ing from all danger, and guiding us with all counsel. 
 Gradually as the habit of thus regarding the Uni- 
 versal Mind grows upon us, we shall find that in 
 accordance with the laws we have been considering, 
 it will become more and more personal to us, and in 
 response to our desire its inherent intelligence will 
 make itself more and more clearly perceptible within 
 as a power of perceiving truth far beyond any state- 
 ment of it that we could formulate by merely intel- 
 lectual investigation. Similarly if we think of it as 
 a great power devoted to supplying all our needs, we 
 
 8
 
 I04 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 shall impress this character also upon it, and by the 
 law of subjective mind it will proceed to enact the 
 part of that special providence which we have credited 
 it with being; and if, beyond the general care of our 
 concerns, we would draw to ourselves some particular 
 benefit, the same rule holds good of impressing our 
 desire upon the Universal Subjective Mind. And if 
 we realize that above and beyond all this we want 
 something still greater and more enduring, the 
 building-up of character and unfolding of our powers 
 so that we may expand into fuller and yet fuller 
 measures of joyous and joy-giving Life, still the same 
 rule holds good : convey to the Universal Mind the 
 suggestion of the desire, and by the law of relation 
 between subjective and objective mind this too will 
 be fulfilled. And thus the deepest problems of 
 philosophy bring us back to the old statement of the 
 Law : — Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall 
 find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. This is 
 the summing-up of the natural law of the relation be- 
 tween us and the Divine Mind. It is thus no vain 
 boast that Mental Science can enable us to make our 
 lives what we will. We must start from where we 
 are now, and by rightly estimating our relation to the 
 Divine Universal Mind we can gradually grow into 
 any conditions we desire, provided we first make 
 ourselves in habitual mental attitude the person who 
 corresponds to those conditions : for we can never get
 
 In Touch zi'ith Sub -conscious Mind. 105 
 
 over the law of correspondence, and the externaliza- 
 tion will always be in accord with the internal prin- 
 ciple that gives rise to it. And to this law there is 
 no limit. What it can do for us to-day it can do to- 
 morrow, and through all that procession of to-mor- 
 rows that loses itself in the dim vistas of eternity. Be- 
 lief in limitation is the one and only thing that causes 
 limitation, because we thus impress limitation upon 
 the creative principle; and in proportion as we lay 
 that belief aside our boundaries will expand, and in- 
 creasing life and more abundant blessing will be ours. 
 But we must not ignore our responsibilities. 
 Trained thought is far more powerful than untrained, 
 and therefore the more deeply we penetrate into 
 Mental Science the more carefully we must guard 
 against all thoughts and words expressive of even 
 the most modified form of ill-will. Gossip, tale- 
 bearing, sneering laughter, are not in accord with 
 the principles of Mental Science; and similarly even 
 our smallest thoughts of good carry with them a 
 seed of good which will assuredly bear fruit in due 
 time. This is not mere " goodie, goodie," but an im- 
 portant lesson in Mental Science, for our subjective 
 mind takes its colour from our settled mental habits, 
 and an occasional affirmation or denial will not be 
 sufficient to change it; and we must therefore culti- 
 vate that tone which we wish to see reproduced in our 
 conditions whether of body, mind, or circumstance.
 
 io6 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 In these lectures my purpose has been, not so much 
 to give specific rules of practice as to lay down the 
 broad general principles of Mental Science which will 
 enable the student to form rules for himself. In 
 every walk in life, book knowledge is only a means 
 to an end. Books can only direct us where to look 
 and what to look for, but we must do the finding for 
 ourselves; therefore, if you have really grasped the 
 principles of the science, you will frame rules of your 
 own which will give you better results than any at- 
 tempt to follow somebody else's method, which was 
 successful in their hands precisely because it was 
 theirs. Never fear to be yourself. If Mental Science 
 does not teach you to be yourself it teaches you noth- 
 ing. Yourself, more yourself, and yet more yourself 
 is what you want ; only with the knowledge that the 
 true self includes the inner and higher self which is 
 always in immediate touch with the Great Divine 
 Mind. 
 
 As Walt Whitman says : — " You are not all in- 
 cluded between your hat and your boots." 
 
 The grozmng popularity of the Edinburgh Lectures 
 on Mental Science has led me to add to the present 
 edition three more sections on Body, Soul, and Spirit, 
 zvhich it is hoped will prove useful by rendering the 
 principles of the inter-action of these three factors 
 somewhat clearer.
 
 XIV. 
 THE BODY. 
 
 Some students find it difficult to realize that men- 
 tal action can produce any real effect upon material 
 substance; but if this is not possible there is no such 
 thing as Mental Science, the purpose of which is to 
 produce improved conditions both of body and en- 
 vironment, so that the ultimate manifestation aimed 
 at is always one of demonstration upon the plane of 
 the visible and concrete. Therefore to afford convic- 
 tion of an actual connection between the visible and 
 the invisible, between the inner and the outer, is one 
 of the most important points in the course of our 
 studies. 
 
 That such a connection must exist is proved by 
 metaphysical argument in answer to the question, 
 " How did anything ever come into existence at all ? " 
 And the whole creation, ourselves included, stands 
 as evidence to this great truth. But to many minds 
 merely abstract argument is not completely convinc- 
 ing, or at any rate it becomes more convincing if it 
 is supported by something of a more concrete na- 
 ture; and for such readers I would give a few hints 
 
 as to the correspondence between the physical and 
 
 107
 
 io8 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 the mental. The subject covers a very wide area, 
 and the Hmited space at my disposal will only allow 
 me to touch on a few suggestive points, still these 
 may be sufficient to show that the abstract argument 
 has some corresponding facts at the back of it. 
 
 One of the most convincing proofs I have seen is 
 that afforded by the " biometre," a little instrument 
 invented by an eminent French scientist, the late Dr. 
 Hippolyte Baraduc, which shows the action of what 
 he calls the " vital current." His theory is that this 
 force, whatever its actual nature may be, is uni- 
 versally present, and operates as a current of physical 
 vitality perpetually, flowing with more or less energy 
 through every physical organism, and which can, at 
 any rate to some extent, be controlled by the power 
 of the human will. The theory in all its minutiae is 
 exceedingly elaborate, and has been described in de- 
 tail in Dr. Baraduc's published works. In a conver- 
 sation I had with him about a year ago, he told me 
 he was writing another book which would throw fur- 
 ther light on the subject, but a few months later he 
 passed over before it was presented to the world. 
 The fact, however, which I wish to put before the 
 reader, is the ocular demonstration of the connection 
 between mind and matter, which an experiment with 
 the biometre affords. 
 
 The instrument consists of a bell glass, from the 
 inside of which is suspended a copper needle by a
 
 The Body. 109 
 
 fine silken thread. The glass stands on a wooden 
 support, below which is a coil of copper wire, which, 
 however, is not connected with any battery or other 
 apparatus, and merely serves to condense the current. 
 Below the needle, inside the glass, there is a circular 
 card divided into degrees to mark the action of the 
 needle. Two of these instruments are placed side 
 by side, but in no way connected, and the experi- 
 menter then holds out the fingers of both hands to 
 within about an inch of the glasses. According to 
 the theory, the current enters at the left hand, cir- 
 culates through the body, and passes out at the right 
 hand, that is to say, there is an indrawing at the left 
 and a giving-out at the right, thus agreeing with 
 Reichenbach's experiments on the polarity of the 
 human body, 
 
 I must confess that, although I had read Dr. 
 Baraduc's book, " Les Vibrations Humaines," I ap- 
 proached the instrument in a very sceptical frame of 
 mind; but I was soon convinced of my error. At 
 first, holding a mental attitude of entire relaxation, 
 I found that the left-hand needle was attracted 
 through twenty degrees, while the right-hand needle, 
 the one affected by the out-going current, was re- 
 pelled through ten degrees. After allowing the in- 
 strument to return to its normal equilibrium I again 
 approached it with the purpose of seeing whether a 
 change of mental attitude would in the least modify
 
 no The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 the flow of current. This time I assumed the strong- 
 est mental attitude I could with the intention of send- 
 ing out a flow through the right hand, and the result 
 as compared with the previous one was remarkable. 
 The left-hand needle was now attracted only through 
 ten degrees, while the right-hand one was deflected 
 through something over thirty, thus clearly indicating 
 the influence of the mental faculties in modifying the 
 action of the current. I may mention that the experi- 
 ment was made in the presence of two medical men 
 who noted the movement of the needles. 
 
 I will not here stop to discuss the question of 
 what the actual constitution of this current of vital 
 energy may be — it is sufficient for our present pur- 
 pose that it is there, and the experiment I have de- 
 scribed brings us face to face with the fact of a cor- 
 respondence between our own mental attitude and the 
 invisible forces of nature. Even if we say that this 
 current is some form of electricity, and that the vari- 
 ation of its action is determined by changes in the 
 polarization of the atoms of the body, then this 
 change of polarity is the result of mental action ; so 
 that the quickening or retarding of the cosmic current 
 is equally the result of the mental attitude whether we 
 suppose our mental force to act directly upon the cur- 
 rent itself or indirectly by inducing changes in the 
 molecular structure of the body. Whichever hy- 
 pothesis we adopt the conclusion is the same, namely,
 
 The Body. iii 
 
 that the mind has power to open or close the door 
 to invisible forces in such a way that the result of 
 the mental action becomes apparent on the material 
 plane. 
 
 Now, investigation shows that the physical body 
 is a mechanism specially adapted for the transmuta- 
 tion of the inner or mental power into modes of 
 external activity. We know from medical science 
 that the whole body is traversed by a network of 
 nerves which serve as the channels of communication 
 between the indwelling spiritual ego, which we call 
 mind, and the functions of the external organism. 
 This nervous system is dual. One system, known as 
 the Sympathetic, is the channel for all those activities 
 which are not consciously directed by our volition, 
 such as the operation of the digestive organs, the re- 
 pair of the daily wear and tear of the tissues, and the 
 like. The other system, known as the Voluntary or 
 Cerebro-spinal system, is the channel through which 
 w^e receive conscious perception from the physical 
 senses and exercise control over the movements of the 
 body. This system has its centre in the brain, while 
 the other has its centre in a ganglionic mass at the 
 back of the stomach known as the solar plexus, and 
 sometimes spoken of as the abdominal brain. The 
 cerebro-spinal system is the channel of our volitional 
 or conscious mental action, and the sympathetic sys- 
 tem is the channel of that mental action which un-
 
 112 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 consciously supports the vital functions of the body. 
 Thus the cerebro-spinal system is the organ of con- 
 scious mind and the sympathetic is that of sub-con- 
 scious mind. 
 
 But the interaction of conscious and subconscious 
 mind requires a similar interaction between the cor- 
 responding systems of nerves, and one conspicuous 
 connection by which this is provided is the " vagus " 
 nerve. This nerve passes out of the cerebral region 
 as a portion of the voluntary system, and through it 
 we control the vocal organs; then it passes onwards 
 to the thorax sending out branches to the heart and 
 lungs; and finally, passing through the diaphragm, it 
 loses the outer coating which distinguishes the nerves 
 of the voluntary system and becomes identified with 
 those of the sympathetic system, so forming a con- 
 necting link between the two and making the man 
 physically a single entity. 
 
 Similarly different areas of the brain indicate 
 their connection with the objective and subjective ac- 
 tivities of the mind respectively, and speaking in a 
 general way we may assign the frontal portion of 
 the brain to the former and the posterior portion to 
 the latter, while the intermediate portion partakes of 
 the character of both. 
 
 The intuitional faculty has its correspondence in 
 this upper area of the brain situated between the 
 frontal and posterior portions, and physiologically
 
 The Body. 113 
 
 speaking, it is here that intuitive ideas find entrance. 
 These at first are more or less unformed and general- 
 ized in character, but are nevertheless perceived by 
 the conscious mind, otherwise we should not be aware 
 of them at all. Then the effort of nature is to bring 
 these ideas into more definite and usable shape, so the 
 conscious mind lays hold of them and induces a cor- 
 responding vibratory current in the voluntary system 
 of nerves, and this in turn induces a similar current 
 in the involuntary system, thus handing the idea over 
 to the subjective mind. The vibratory current which 
 had first descended from the apex of the brain to the 
 frontal brain and thus through the voluntary system 
 to the solar plexus is now reversed and ascends from 
 the solar plexus through the sympathetic system to 
 the posterior brain, this return current indicating the 
 action of the subjective mind. 
 
 If we were to remove the surface portion of the 
 apex of the brain we should find immediately below 
 it the shining belt of brain substance called the " cor- 
 pus callosum." This is the point of union between 
 the subjective and objective, and as the current re- 
 turns from the solar plexus to this point it is restored 
 to the objective portion of the brain in a fresh form 
 which it has acquired by the silent alchemy of the 
 subjective mind. Thus the conception which was 
 at first only vaguely recognized is restored to the 
 objective mind in a definite and workable form,
 
 114 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science, 
 
 and then the objective mind, acting through the 
 frontal brain — the area of comparison and analysis 
 — proceeds to work upon a clearly perceived idea 
 and to bring out the potentialities that are latent 
 in it. 
 
 It must of course be borne in mind that I am here 
 speaking of the mental ego in that mode of its ex- 
 istence with which we are most familiar, that is as 
 clothed in flesh, though there may be much to say as 
 to other modes of its activity. But for our daily life 
 we have to consider ourselves as we are in that aspect 
 of life, and from this point of view the physiological 
 correspondence of the body to the action of the mind 
 is an important item; and therefore, although we 
 must always remember that the origin of ideas is 
 purely mental, we must not forget that on the physi- 
 cal plane every mental action implies a corresponding 
 molecular action in the brain and in the two-fold ner- 
 vous system. 
 
 If, as the old Elizabethan poet says, " the soul is 
 form, and doth the body make," then it is clear that 
 the physical organism must be a mechanical arrange- 
 ment as specially adapted for the use of the soul's 
 powers as a steam-engine is for the power of steam ; 
 and it is the recognition of this reciprocity between 
 the two that is the basis of all spiritual or mental 
 healing, and therefore the study of this mechanical 
 adaptation is an important branch of Mental Science.
 
 The Body. 115 
 
 Only we must not forget that it is the effect and not 
 the cause. 
 
 At the same time it is important to remember that 
 such a thing as reversal of the relation between cause 
 and effect is possible, just as the same apparatus may 
 be made to generate mechanical power by the applica- 
 tion of electricity, or to generate electricity by the ap- 
 plication of mechanical power. And the importance 
 of this principle consists in this. There is always a 
 tendency for actions which were at first voluntary 
 to become automatic, that is, to pass from the region 
 of conscious mind into that of subconscious mind, and 
 to acquire a permanent domicile there. Professor 
 Elmer Gates, of Washington, has demonstrated this 
 physiologically in his studies of brain formation. He 
 tells us that every thought produces a slight molecular 
 change in the substance of the brain, and the repeti- 
 tion of the same sort of thought causes a repetition 
 of the same molecular action until at last a veritable 
 channel is formed in the brain substance, which can 
 only be eradicated by a reverse process of thought. 
 In this way " grooves of thought " are very literal 
 things, and when once established the vibrations of 
 the cosmic currents flow automatically through them 
 and thus react upon the mind by a process the reverse 
 of that by which our voluntary and intentional in- 
 drawing from the invisible is affected. In this way 
 are formed what we call " habits," and hence the im-
 
 ii6 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 portance of controlling our thinking and guarding it 
 against undesirable ideas. 
 
 But on the other hand this reactionary process may 
 be used to confirm good and life-giving modes of 
 thought, so that by a knowledge of its laws we may 
 enlist even the physical body itself in the building up 
 of that perfectly whole personality, the attainment of 
 which is the aim and object of our studies.
 
 XV. 
 
 THE SOUL. 
 
 Having now obtained a glimpse of the adaptation 
 of the physical organism to the action of the mind we 
 must next realize that the mind itself is an organism 
 which is in like manner adapted to the action of a 
 still higher power, only here the adaptation is one of 
 mental faculty. As with other invisible forces all we 
 can know of the mind is by observing what it does, 
 but with this difference, that since we ourselves are 
 this mind, our observation is an interior observation 
 of states of consciousness. In this way we recognize 
 certain faculties of our mind, the working order of 
 which I have considered at page 84 ; but the point to 
 which I would now draw attention is that these fac- 
 ulties always work under the influence of something 
 which stimulates them, and this stimulus may come 
 either from without through the external senses, or 
 from within by the consciousness of something not 
 perceptible on the physical plane. Now the recogni- 
 tion of these interior sources of stimulus to our men- 
 tal faculties, is an important branch of Mental Sci- 
 ence, because the mental action thus set up works just 
 
 as accurately through the physical correspondences as 
 
 117
 
 ii8 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 those which start from the recognition of external 
 facts, and therefore the control and right direction of 
 tliese inner perceptions is a matter of the first moment. 
 
 The faculties most immediately concerned are the 
 intuition and the imagination, but it is at first diffi- 
 cult to see how the intuition, which is entirely spon- 
 taneous, can be brought under the control of the will. 
 Of course, the spontaneousness of the intuition cannot 
 in any way be interfered with, for if it ceased to act 
 spontaneously it would cease to be the intuition. Its 
 province is, as it were, to capture ideas from the in- 
 finite and present them to the mind to be dealt with 
 at its discretion. In our mental constitution the in- 
 tuition is the point of origination and, therefore, for 
 it to cease to act spontaneously would be for it to 
 cease to act at all. But the experience of a long suc- 
 cession of observers shows that the intuition can be 
 trained so as to acquire increased sensitiveness in 
 some particular direction, and the choice of the gen- 
 eral direction is determined by the will of the indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 It will be found that the intuition works most read- 
 ily in respect to those subjects which most habitually 
 occupy our thought ; and according to the physiolog- 
 ical correspondences which we have been considering 
 this might be accounted for on the physical plane by 
 the formation of brain-channels specially adapted for 
 the induction in the molecular system of vibrations
 
 The Soul. 119 
 
 corresponding^ to the particular class of ideas in ques- 
 tion. But of course we must remember that the ideas 
 themselves are not caused by the molecular changes, 
 but on the contrary are the cause of them ; and it is 
 in this translation of thought action into physical ac- 
 tion that we are brought face to face with the eternal 
 mystery of the descent of spirit into matter ; and that 
 though we may trace matter through successive de- 
 grees of refinement till it becomes what, in compar- 
 ison with those denser modes that are most familiar, 
 we might call a spiritual substance, yet at the end of 
 it it is not the intelligent thinking principle itself. 
 The criterion is in the word " vibrations." However 
 delicately etheric the substance its movement com- 
 mences by the vibration of its particles, and a vibra- 
 tion is a wave having a certain length, amplitude, and 
 periodicity, that is to say, something which can exist 
 only in terms of space and time; and as soon as we 
 are dealing with anything capable of the conception 
 of measurement we may be quite certain that we are 
 not dealing with Spirit but only with one of its 
 vehicles. Therefore although we may push our 
 analysis of matter further and ever further back — and 
 on this line there is a great deal of knowledge to be 
 gained — we shall find that the point at which spiritual 
 power or thought-force is translated into etheric or 
 atomic vibration will always elude us. Therefore we 
 must not attribute the origination of ideas to molec-
 
 I20 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 ular displacement in the brain, though, by the re- 
 action of the physical upon the mental which I have 
 spoken of above, the formation of thought-channels 
 in the grey matter of the brain may tend to facilitate 
 the reception of certain ideas. Some people are ac- 
 tually conscious of the action of the upper portion of 
 the brain during the influx of an intuition, the sensa- 
 tion being that of a sort of expansion in that brain 
 area, which might be compared to the opening of a 
 valve or door ; but all attempts to induce the inflow of 
 intuitive ideas by the physiological expedient of try- 
 ing to open this valve by the exercise of the will 
 should be discouraged as likely to prove injurious to 
 the brain, I believe some Oriental systems advocate 
 this method, but we may well trust the mind to regu- 
 late the action of its physical channels in a manner 
 suitable to its own requirements, instead of trying 
 to manipulate the mind by the unnatural forcing 
 of its mechanical instrument. In all our studies 
 on these lines we must remember that development 
 is always by perfectly natural growth and is not 
 brought about by unduly straining any portion of 
 the system. 
 
 The fact, however, remains that the intuition 
 works most freely in that direction in which we most 
 habitually concentrate our thought; and in practice 
 it will be found that the best way to cultivate the 
 intuition in any particular direction is to meditate
 
 The Soul. 12 L 
 
 upon the abstract principles of that particular class of 
 subjects rather than only to consider particular cases. 
 Perhaps the reason is that particular cases have to do 
 with specific phenomena, that is with the law work- 
 ing under certain limiting conditions, whereas the 
 principles of the law are not limited by local condi- 
 tions, and so habitual meditation on tlicni sets our 
 intuition free to range in an infinitude where the con- 
 ception of antecedent conditions does not limit it. 
 Anyway, whatever may be the theoretical explana- 
 tion, you will find that the clear grasp of abstract 
 principles in any direction has a wonderfully quick- 
 ening effect upon the intuition in that particular di- 
 rection. 
 
 The importance of recognizing our power of thus 
 giving direction to the intuition cannot be exag- 
 gerated, for if the mind is attuned to sympathy with 
 the highest phases of spirit this power opens the door 
 to limitless possibilities of knowledge. In its highest 
 workings intuition becomes inspiration, and certain 
 great records of fundamental truths and supreme 
 mysteries which have come down to us from thou- 
 sands of generations bequeathed by deep thinkers of 
 old can only be accounted for on the supposition that 
 their earnest thought on the Originating Spirit, 
 coupled with a reverent worship of It, opened the 
 door, through their intuitive faculty, to the most 
 sublime inspirations regarding the supreme truths of
 
 122 The Edinhiirgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 the universe both with respect to the evohition of the 
 cosmos and to the evolution of the individual. Among 
 such records explanatory of the supreme mysteries 
 three stand out pre-eminent, all bearing witness to the 
 same ONE Truth, and each throwing light upon the 
 other ; and these three are the Bible, the Great Pyra- 
 mid, and the Pack of Cards — a curious combination 
 some will think, but I hope in another volume of this 
 series to be able to justify my present statement. I 
 allude to these three records here because the unity 
 of principle which they exhibit, notwithstanding their 
 wide divergence of method, affords a standing proof 
 that the direction taken by the intuition is largely de- 
 termined by the will of the individual opening the 
 mind in that particular direction. 
 
 Very closely allied to the intuition is the faculty 
 of imagination. This does not mean mere fancies, 
 which we dismiss without further consideration, but 
 our power of forming mental images upon which we 
 dwell. These, as I have said in the earlier part of 
 this book, form a nucleus which, on its own plane, 
 calls into action the universal Law of Attraction, thus 
 giving rise to the principle of Growth. The relation 
 of the intuition to the imagination is that the intui- 
 tion grasps an idea from the Great Universal Mind, 
 in which all things subsist as potentials, and presents 
 it to the imagination in its essence rather than in a 
 definite form, and then our image-building faculty
 
 The Soul. 123 
 
 gives it a clear and definite form which it presents 
 before the mental vision, and which we then vivify 
 by letting our thought dwell upon it, thus infusing 
 our own personality into it, and so providing that 
 personal element through which the specific action of 
 the universal law relatively to the particular individ- 
 ual always takes place.* Whether our thought shall 
 be allowed thus to dwell upon a particular mental 
 image depends on our own will, and our exercise of 
 our will depends on our belief in our power to use 
 it so as to disperse or consolidate a given mental 
 image; and finally our belief in our power to do 
 this depends on our recognition of our relation to 
 God, Who is the source of all power; for it is an 
 invariable truth that our life will take its whole 
 form, tone, and color from our conception of God, 
 whether that conception be positive or negative, 
 and the sequence by which it does so is that now 
 given. 
 
 In this way, then, our intuition is related to our 
 imagination, and this relation has its physiological 
 correspondence in the circulus of molecular vibrations 
 I have described above, which, having its commence- 
 ment in the higher or " ideal " portion of the brain 
 flows through the voluntary nervous system, the 
 physical channel of objective mind, returning through 
 the sympathetic system, the physical channel of sub- 
 ♦ See my " Dor^ Lectures."
 
 124 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 jective mind, thus completing tlie circuit and being 
 then restored to the frontal brain, where it is con- 
 sciously modelled into clear-cut forms suited to a spe- 
 cific purpose. 
 
 In all this the power of the will as regulating the 
 action both of the intuition and the imagination must 
 never be lost sight of, for without such a central con- 
 trolling power we should lose all sense of individual- 
 ity; and hence the ultimate aim of the evolutionary 
 process is to evolve individual wills actuated by such 
 beneficence and enlightenment as shall make them 
 fitting vehicles for the outflowing of the Supreme 
 Spirit, which has hitherto created cosmically, and can 
 now carry on the creative process to its highest stages 
 only through conscious union with the individual; 
 for this is the only possible solution of the great 
 problem. How can the Universal Mind act in all 
 its fulness upon the plane of the individual and 
 particular? 
 
 This is the ultimate of evolution, and the success- 
 ful evolution of the individual depends on his recog- 
 nizing this ultimate and working towards it; and 
 therefore this should be the great end of our studies. 
 There is a correspondence in the constitution of the 
 body to the faculties of the soul, and there is a sim- 
 ilar correspondence in the faculties of the soul to the 
 power of the All-originating Spirit; and as in all 
 other adaptations of specific vehicles so also here, we
 
 The Soul. 125 
 
 can never correctly understand the nature of the ve- 
 hicle and use it rightly until we realize the nature of 
 the power for the working of which it is specially 
 adapted. Let us, then, in conclusion briefly consider 
 the nature of that power.
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE SPIRIT. 
 
 What must the Supreme All-originating Spirit be 
 in itself? That is the question before us. Let us start 
 with one fact regarding it about which we cannot 
 have any possible doubt — it is creative. If it were 
 not creative nothing could come into existence ; there- 
 fore we know that its purpose, or Law of Tendency, 
 must be to bring individual lives into existence and 
 to surround them with a suitable environment. Now 
 a power which has this for its inherent nature must 
 be a kindly power. The Spirit of Life seeking ex- 
 pression in individual lives can have no other inten- 
 tion towards them than " that they might have life, 
 and that they might have it more abundantly." To 
 suppose the opposite would be a contradiction in 
 terms. It would be to suppose the Eternal Principle 
 of Life acting against itself, expressing itself as the 
 reverse of what it is, in which case it would not be 
 expressing itself but expressing its opposite; so that 
 it is impossible to conceive of the Spirit of Life act- 
 ing otherwise than to the increase of life. This is 
 as yet only imperfectly apparent by reason of our im- 
 perfect apprehension of the position, and our conse- 
 
 226
 
 The Spirit. 127 
 
 quent want of conscious unity with the ONE Eternal 
 Life. As our consciousness of unity becomes more 
 perfect so will the hfe-givingness of the Spirit be- 
 come more apparent. But in the realm of principles 
 the purely Affirmative and Life-giving nature of the 
 All-originating Spirit is an unavoidable conclusion. 
 Now by what name can we call such an inherent de- 
 sire to add to the fulness of any individual life — that 
 is, to make it stronger, brighter, and happier? If 
 this is not Love, then I do not know what else it is ; 
 and so we are philosophically led to the conclusion 
 that Love is the prime moving power of the Creating 
 Spirit. 
 
 But expression is impossible without Form. What 
 Form, then, should Love give to the vehicles of its 
 expression? By the hypothesis of the case it could 
 not find self-expression in forms that were hateful 
 or repugnant to it — therefore the only logical cor- 
 relative of Love is Beauty. Beauty is not yet uni- 
 versally manifested for the same reason that Life is 
 not, namely, lack of recognition of its Principle ; but, 
 that the principle of Beauty is inherent in the Eternal 
 Mind is demonstrated by all that is beautiful in the 
 world in which we live. 
 
 These considerations show us that the inherent na- 
 ture of the Spirit must consist in the eternal inter- 
 action of Love and Beauty as the Active and Passive 
 polarity of Being. Then this is the Power for the
 
 128 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 working of which our soul faculties are specially 
 adapted. And when this purpose of the adaptation is 
 recognized we begin to get some insight into the way 
 in which our intuition, imagination, and will should 
 be exercized. By training our thought to habitually 
 dwell upon this dual-unity of the Originating Forces 
 of Love and Beauty the intuition is rendered more 
 and more sensitive to ideas emanating from this su- 
 preme source, and the imagining faculty is trained 
 in the formation of images corresponding to such 
 ideas ; while on the physical side the molecular struc- 
 ture of the brain and body becomes more and more 
 perfectly adjusted to the generating of vibratory cur- 
 rents tending to the outward manifestation of the 
 Originating Principle. Thus the whole man is 
 brought into unison with himself and with the Su- 
 preme Source of Life, so that, in the words of St. 
 Paul, he is being day by day renewed after the image 
 of Him that created him. 
 
 Our more immediately personal recognition of the 
 All-originating Love and Beauty will thus flow out 
 as peace of mind, health of body, discretion in the 
 management of our affairs, and power in the carry- 
 ing out of our undertakings; and as we advance to 
 a wider conception of the working of the Spirit of 
 Love and Beauty in its infinite possibilities, so our 
 intuition will find a wider scope and our field of ac- 
 tivity will expand along with it — in a word we shall
 
 The Spirit. 129 
 
 discover that our individuality is growing, and that 
 we are becoming more truly ourselves than we ever 
 were before. 
 
 The question of the specific lines on which the in- 
 dividual may be most perfectly trained into such 
 recognition of his true relation to the All-embracing 
 Spirit of Life is therefore of supreme importance, but 
 it is also of such magnitude that even to briefly sketch 
 its broad outlines would require a volume to itself, 
 and I will therefore not attempt to enter upon it here, 
 my present purpose being only to offer some hints of 
 the principles underlying that wonderful three-fold 
 unity of Body, Soul, and Spirit which we all know 
 ourselves to be. 
 
 We are as yet only at the commencement of the 
 path which leads to the realization of this unity in 
 the full development of all its powers, but others have 
 trodden the way before us, from whose experiences 
 we may learn; and not least among these was the 
 illustrious founder of the Most Christian Fraternity 
 of the Rosicrucians. This master-mind, setting out 
 in his youth with the intention of going to Jerusa- 
 lem, changed the order of his journey and first so- 
 journed for three years in the symbolical city of Dam- 
 car, in the mystical country of Arabia, then for about 
 a year in the mystical country of Egypt, and then for 
 two years in the mystical country of Fez. Then, hav- 
 ing during these six years learned all that w'as to be
 
 130 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. 
 
 acquired in those countries, he returned to his native 
 land of Germany, where, on the basis of the knowl- 
 edge he had thus gained, he founded the Fraternity R. 
 C, for whose instruction he wrote the mystical books 
 M. and T. Then, when he realized that his work in 
 its present stage was accomplished, he of his own free 
 will laid aside the physical body, not, it is recorded, 
 by decay, or disease, or ordinary death, but by the 
 express direction of the Spirit of Life, summing up 
 all his knowledge in the words, 
 
 " Jesus mihi omnia," 
 
 And now his followers await the coming of " the Ar- 
 tist Elias," who shall bring the Magnum Opus to its 
 completion. 
 
 " Let him that readeth understand."
 
 THE EDINBURGH LECTURE SERIES 
 
 By Judge Thomas Troward 
 
 THE EDINBURGH LECTURES 
 ON MENTAL SCIENCE 
 
 This is the first of the "Edinburgh Lecture Series." 
 Its purpose is to indicate the Natural Principles 
 governing the relation between mental action and 
 rtiraterial conditions and thus to afford the student 
 an intelligible starting point for the practical study of 
 th5 subject. 
 
 The late William James said of it: "Far and away 
 the ablest statement of that philosophy that I have 
 met, beautiful in its sustained clearness of thought 
 and style — a really classic statement." 
 
 "One of the clearest, most logical and reverent, and 
 least dogmatic of the numerous books designed to 
 awaken man to practical consciousness of his in- 
 dwelling spiritual powers." — St. Paul Dispatch. 
 
 "The author reveals himself as easily the pro- 
 foundest thinker we have met on the subject." — 
 Boston Transcripts 
 
 ^1.25 Net - - - ~ - Postage, 10 cents
 
 THE TROWARD INSPIRATIONAL BOOKS 
 
 THE DORE LECTURES ON 
 MENTAL SCIENCE 
 
 Judge Troward supplemented his line of reasoning 
 in the "Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science," by a 
 new series of lectures, published under the above 
 title, deriving their name from the Dore Gallery in 
 London, where the lectures were delivered. While 
 his second volume in itself is scarcely a complete 
 interpretation of Mental Science, it is a valuable 
 addendum to his Edinburgh Lectures, the two volumes 
 making plain to the seeker, by logical and scientific 
 reasoning, the wonderful truth that while we are in- 
 dividuals, yet we are "one with the Father," and 
 possess remarkable power in ourselves that has 
 hitherto been overlooked. 
 
 This book was recently warmly commended in a 
 discourse at Westminster Abbey by Archdeacon 
 Wilberforce, who advised his hearers to read the work. 
 The chapters are: "Entering Into the Spirit of It," 
 "Individuality," "The New Thought and the New 
 Order," "The Life of the Spirit," "Alpha and Omega," 
 "The Creative Power of Thought," "The Great 
 Affirmative," " Christ the FulfilHng of the Law," "The 
 Story of Eden," "The Worship of Ishi," "The 
 Shepherd and the Stone," "Salvation is of the Jews." 
 
 ^LOO Net Postage, 10 cents
 
 THE TROWARD INSPIRATIONAL BOOKS 
 
 TFIE CREATIVE PROCESS IN 
 THE INDIVIDUAL 
 
 The author says: "In the present volume I have 
 endeavored to set before the reader the conception 
 of a sequence of creative action, commencing with the 
 formation of the globe and culminating in a vista of 
 infinite possibilities attainable by every one who fol- 
 lows up the right line for their enfoldment and 
 
 if our speculation lead us to the conclusion that we 
 have reached a point where we are not only able, but 
 also required, by the law of our own being, to take a 
 more active part in our personal evolution than here- 
 tofore, this discovery will afford us a new outlook 
 upon life and widen our horizon with' fresh interests 
 and brightening hopes." 
 
 "It is a book that will greatly interest all who are 
 interested in New Thought." — Springjield {Mass) 
 Union. 
 
 "In the advancement of his argument Mr. Troward 
 bases his conclusions on scientific facts known and 
 proved. . . . Above all his book is a study for the 
 thinker." — Salt Lake Tribune. 
 
 "The book will repay study by the inspiration it 
 holds for the philosophic reader." — San Francisco 
 Chronicle. 
 
 Cloth, ^1.25 - - - - Postage, 10 cents
 
 i =5;._ 
 
 .=a ;ri V " / , -y 
 
 ''ail 
 
 <c 
 
 \V«E 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 §1 
 
 CO 
 
 ^A^ 
 
 i? 
 
 CO 
 
 iV^v^^ 
 
 DEC ^ 1 f 
 
 V|b^ 
 
 315 
 
 
 pf- 
 
 IN, ,-■ 
 Rf..... 
 
 r. 
 
 C^ 
 
 ,T lID-
 
 1—1 
 
 o 
 
 .^ 
 
 i^^ 
 
 xlOS-ANCflfj: 
 
 ^ 
 
 l^^l 
 
 -< 
 
 
 c I iDri * ii" 
 
 
 L 005 492 645 6 
 
 ^'(i/ojiivjjo"^ '^<!/ojnvj-jo'^ 
 
 <ril33NV 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^VlOS-ANCElfj-^ 
 
 
 ^l-LIBRARYQxr 
 
 
 
 ^,OF-CALIF0% ^^.OFCALIF0/?^> 
 
 5 
 
 ^r^ 
 
 
 
 C5 
 00 
 
 
 .^WEUNIVEh 
 
 ^om\ 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 mm 
 
 ^ 
 
 mm ... 
 
 AA 000 505 142 
 
 i)^% 
 
 # 
 
 ^4: 
 
 
 3> 
 
 ■ ^ 
 
 <ril3'jNVS0^^ 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 3D 
 
 > 
 
 -< 
 
 ""^/^dJAINlimV^ 
 
 
 ^t-LlBRAR^ 
 
 %0JI1V3- 
 
 .^ 
 
 ^^;OFCAIIF0% 
 
 C3 
 
 l>0 
 
 ^^Ayvaan-^^ 
 
 QQ 
 
 
 vVWSANCElfX^ 
 
 30 
 
 S =(<l.s^ 
 
 . ^ o 
 
 <: 
 
 %a3AINn-3WV 
 
 •■^ 
 
 ^.OF.,. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^A. 
 
 '/A 
 
 1—1 
 
 ^lOSANCElfXy. 
 
 '^Aii3AiNa-3y\v^ 
 
 ^N^HIBRARYQr^ ^HIBRARYQc^ 
 
 -^■^ .^^ ,<:^ ^^ 
 
 
 «_3 
 
 % 
 
 .O-^-^ 
 
 ^WE•UNIVEC 
 
 
 '^^JIJDNV 
 
 . > 
 
 ; -n 
 
 • CD 
 
 ^vWSANCElfx^ 
 
 =0 
 
 
 c r A r t rnf-s . 
 
 = 1 CO > 
 
 .^;OFCAIIFO% 
 
 ^<?AbvaaiH^ ^6;, .,,. 
 
 
 ^ ' 
 %^... 
 
 Av^illBRARYOr 
 
 
 >i 
 
 c^ 
 
 5MM1N'" "■'"'■ 
 
 '^CElfj>