Your life is governed by law - by actual, immutable principles that
never vary. Law is in operation at all times; in all places. Fixed
laws underlie all human actions. For this reason, men who control
giant industries are enabled to determine with absolute precision
just what percentage of every hundred thousand people will respond
to any given set of conditions.
It is well, however, to remember that while every effect is the result
of a cause, the effect in turn becomes a cause, which creates other
effects, which in turn create still other causes; so that when you
put the law of attraction into operation you must remember that you
are starting a train of causation for good or otherwise which may
have endless possibilities.
We frequently hear it said, "A very distressing situation came
into my life, which could not have been the result of my thought,
as I certainly never entertained any thought which could have such
a result." We fail to remember that like attracts like in the
mental world, and that the thought which we entertain brings to us
certain friendships, companionships of a particular kind, and these
in turn bring about conditions and environment, which in turn are
responsible for the conditions of which we complain.
PART ELEVEN
1. Inductive reasoning is the process of the objective mind by which
we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we
see the common factor that gives rise to them all.
2. Induction proceeds by comparison of facts; it is this method of
studying nature which has resulted in the discovery of a reign of
law which has marked an epoch in human progress.
3. It is the dividing line between superstition and intelligence;
it has eliminated the elements of uncertainty and caprice from men's
lives and substituted law, reason, and certitude.
4. It is the "Watchman at the Gate" mentioned in a former
lesson.
5. When, by virtue of this principle, the world to which the senses
were accustomed had been revolutionized; when the sun had been arrested
in his course, the apparently flat earth had been shaped into a ball
and set whirling around him; when the inert matter had been resolved
into active elements, and the universe presented itself wherever we
directed the telescope and microscope, full of force, motion and life;
we are constrained to ask by what possible means the delicate forms
of organization in the midst of it are kept in order and repair.
6. Like poles and like forces repel themselves or remain impenetrable
to each other, and this cause seems in general sufficient to assign
a proper place and distance to stars, men and forces. As men of different
virtues enter into partnership, so do opposite poles attract each
other, elements that have no property in common like acids and gases
cling to each other in preference and a general exchange is kept up
between the surplus and the demand.
7. As the eye seeks and receives satisfaction from colors complementary
to those which are given, so does need, want and desire, in the largest
sense, induce, guide and determine action.
8. It is our privilege to become conscious of the principle and act
in accordance with it. Cuvier sees a tooth belonging to an extinct
race of animals. This tooth wants a body for the performance of its
function, and it defines the peculiar body it stands in need of with
such precision that Cuvier is able to reconstruct the frame of this
animal.
9. Perturbations are observed in the motion of Uranus. Leverrier
needs another star at a certain place to keep the solar system in
order, and Neptune appears in the place and hour appointed.
10. The instinctive wants of the animal and the intellectual wants
of Cuvier, the wants of nature and of the mind of Leverrier were alike,
and thus the results; here the thoughts of an existence, there an
existence. A well-defined lawful want, therefore, furnishes the reason
for the more complex operations of nature.
11. Having recorded correctly the answers furnished by nature and
stretched our senses with the growing science over her surface; having
joined hands with the levers that move the earth; we become conscious
of such a close, varied and deep contact with the world without, that
our wants and purposes become no less identified with the harmonious
operations of this vast organization, than the life, liberty, and
happiness of the citizen is identified with the existence of his government.
12. As the interests of the individual are protected by the arms
of the country, added to his own; and his needs may depend upon certain
supply in the degree that they are felt more universally and steadily;
in the same manner does conscious citizenship in the Republic of nature
secure us from the annoyances of subordinate agents by alliance with
superior powers; and by appeal to the fundamental laws of resistance
or inducement offered to mechanical or chemical agents, distribute
the labor to be performed between them and man to the best advantage
of the inventor.
13. If Plato could have witnessed the pictures executed by the sun
with the assistance of the photographer, or a hundred similar illustrations
of what man does by induction, he would perhaps have been reminded
of the intellectual midwifery of his master and, in his own mind might
have arisen the vision of a land where all manual, mechanical labor
and repetition is assigned to the power of nature, where our wants
are satisfied by purely mental operations set in motion by the will,
and where the supply is created by the demand.
14. However distant that land may appear, induction has taught men
to make strides toward it and has surrounded him with benefits which
are, at the same time, rewards for past fidelity and incentives for
more assiduous devotion.
15. It is also an aid in concentrating and strengthening our faculties
for the remaining part, giving unerring solution for individual as
well as universal problems, by the mere operations of mind in the
purest form.
16. Here we find a method, the spirit of which is, to believe that
what is sought has been accomplished, in order to accomplish it: a
method, bequeathed upon us by the same Plato who, outside of this
sphere, could never find how the ideas became realities.
17. This conception is also elaborated by Swedenborg in his doctrine
of correspondences; and a still greater teacher has said, "What
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24) The difference of the tenses
in this passage is remarkable.
18. We are first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled,
its accomplishment will then follow. This is a concise direction for
making use of the creative power of thought by impressing on the Universal
subjective mind, the particular thing which we desire as an already
existing fact.
19. We are thus thinking on the plane of the absolute and eliminating
all consideration of conditions or limitation and are planting a seed
which, if left undisturbed, will finally germinate into external fruition.
20. To review: Inductive reasoning is the process of the objective
mind, by which we compare a number of separate instances with one
another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all.
We see people in every civilized country on the globe, securing results
by some process which they do not seem to understand themselves, and
to which they usually attach more or less mystery. Our reason is given
to us for the purpose of ascertaining the law by which these results
are accomplished.
21. The operation of this thought process is seen in those fortunate
natures that possess everything that others must acquire by toil,
who never have a struggle with conscience because they always act
correctly, and can never conduct themselves otherwise than with tact,
learn everything easily, complete everything they begin with a happy
knack, live in eternal harmony with themselves, without ever reflecting
much what they do, or ever experiencing difficulty or toil.
22. The fruit of this thought is, as it were, a gift of the gods,
but a gift which few as yet realize, appreciate, or understand. The
recognition of the marvelous power which is possessed by the mind
under proper conditions and the fact that this power can be utilized,
directed, and made available for the solution of every human problem
is of transcendental importance.
23. All truth is the same, whether stated in modern scientific terms
or in the language of apostolic times. There are timid souls who fail
to realize that the very completeness of truth requires various statements
-- that no one human formula will show every side of it.
24. Changing, emphasis, new language, novel interpretations, unfamiliar
perspectives, are not, as some suppose, signs of departure from truth
but on the contrary, they are evidence that the truth is being apprehended
in new relations to human needs, and is becoming more generally understood.
25. The truth must be told to each generation and to every people
in new and different terms, so that when the Great Teacher said --
"Believe that ye receive and ye shall receive" or, when
Paul said -- "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen" or, when modern science says --
"The law of attraction is the law by which thought correlates
with its object", each statement when subjected to analysis,
is found to contain exactly the same truth. The only difference being
in the form of presentation.
26. We are standing on the threshold of a new era. The time has arrived
when man has learned the secrets of mastery and the way is being prepared
for a new social order, more wonderful than anything every heretofore
dreamed of. The conflict of modern science with theology, the study
of comparative religions, the tremendous power of new social movements,
all of these are but clearing the way for the new order. They may
have destroyed traditional forms which have become antiquated and
impotent, but nothing of value has been lost.
27. A new faith has been born, a faith which demands a new form of
expression, and this faith is taking form in a deep consciousness
of power which is being manifested, in the present spiritual activity
found on every hand.
28. The spirit which sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable,
moves in the animal and reaches its highest development in man is
the Universal Mind, and it behooves us to span the gulf between being
and doing, theory and practice, by demonstrating our understanding
of the dominion which we have been given.
29. By far the greatest discovery of all the centuries is the power
of thought. The importance of this discovery has been a little slow
in reaching the general consciousness, but it has arrived, and already
in every field of research the importance of this greatest of all
great discoveries is being demonstrated.
30. You ask in what does the creative power of thought consist? It
consists in creating ideas, and these in turn objectify themselves
by appropriating, inventing, observing, discerning, discovering, analyzing,
ruling, governing, combining, and applying matter and force. It can
do this because it is an intelligent creative power.
31. Thought reaches its loftiest activity when plunged into its own
mysterious depth; when it breaks through the narrow compass of self
and passes from truth to truth to the region of eternal light, where
all which is, was or ever will be, melt into one grand harmony.
32. From this process of self contemplation comes inspiration which
is creative intelligence, and which is undeniably superior to every
element, force or law of nature, because it can understand, modify,
govern and apply them to its own ends and purposes and therefore possess
them.
33. Wisdom begins with the dawn of reason, and reason is but an understanding
of the knowledge and principles whereby we may know the true meaning
of things. Wisdom, then, is illuminated reason, and this wisdom leads
to humility, for humility is a large part of Wisdom.
34. We all know many who have achieved the seemingly impossible,
who have realized life-long dreams, who have changed everything including
themselves. We have sometimes marveled at the demonstration of an
apparently irresistible power, which seemed to be ever available just
when it was most needed, but it is all clear now. All that is required
is an understanding of certain definite fundamental principles and
their proper application.
35. For your exercise this week, concentrate on the quotation taken
from the Bible, "Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe
that ye receive them and ye shall have them"; notice that there
is no limitation, "Whatsoever things" is very definite and
implies that the only limitation which is placed upon us in our ability
to think, to be equal to the occasion, to rise to the emergency, to
remember that Faith is not a shadow, but a substance, "the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Death is but the natural process whereby all material forms are thrown
into the crucible for reproduction in fresh diversity.
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