THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE - Thomas Troward

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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 individual intelligence that thought-power is able to produce results

      on the material plane, as in the cure of disease by mental treatment, and

      the like. Intelligence manifests itself by responsiveness, and the whole

      action of the cosmic mind in bringing the evolutionary process from its

      first beginnings up to its 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 recognized the presence of a universal intelligence

      permeating all things, we must also recognize a corresponding

      responsiveness hidden deep down in their nature and ready to be called into

      action when appealed to. All mental treatment depends on this

      responsiveness of spirit in its lower degrees to higher degrees of itself.

      It is here that the difference between 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 because he does not know it.

      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 subsists 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 truth that the infinite

      must be a unity. You cannot 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 infinite 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

      multiplying, we produce a plurality of units of the same scale as the

      original; and by dividing, we produce a plurality 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 that of parts or fractions of a single unit, which

      is to pass into the idea of a multiplicity 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 _whole_ of it must be present. But because it is _infinite_,

      or limitless, it is everywhere, and therefore it follows that the _whole_

      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 fundamental 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 absent, 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 regarding

      spirit is the basis of all conscious spiritual operation, and therefore in

      proportion to our increasing recognition of it our power of producing

      outward visible results by the action of

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