The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental ScienceTroward, T. (Thomas)
Religion
The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science
Troward, T. (Thomas)
New Thought
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 correlative of Love is Beauty. Beauty is not
yet universally 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 nature of the Spirit must
consist in the eternal interaction of Love and Beauty as the Active and
Passive polarity of Being. Then this is the Power for the 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 supreme source, and the imagining faculty is
trained in the formation of images corresponding to such ideas; while on
the physical side the molecular structure of the brain and body becomes
more and more perfectly adjusted to the generating of vibratory currents
tending to the outward manifestation of the Originating Principle. Thus the
whole man is brought into unison with himself and with the Supreme 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 carrying 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 activity will expand along with
it--in a word we shall 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 individual 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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