SOME FACTS IN NATURE

      If I were asked what, in my opinion, distinguishes the thought of the

      present day from that of a previous generation, I should feel inclined

      to say, it is the fact that people are beginning to realize that Thought

      is a power in itself, one of the great forces of the Universe, and

      ultimately the greatest of forces, directing all the others. This idea

      seems to be, as the French say, "in the air," and this very well

      expresses the state of the case--the idea is rapidly spreading through

      many countries and through all classes, but it is still very much "in

      the air." It is to a great extent as yet only in a gaseous condition,

      vague and nebulous, and so not leading to the practical results, both

      individual and collective, which might be expected of it, if it were

      consolidated into a more workable form. We are like some amateurs who

      want to paint finished pictures before they have studied the elements of

      Art, and when they see an artist do without difficulty what they vainly

      attempt, they look upon him as a being specially favoured by Providence,

      instead of putting it down to their own want of knowledge. The idea is

      true. Thought _is_ the great power of the Universe. But to make it

      practically available we must know something of the principles by which

      it works--that it is not a mere vaporous indefinable influence floating

      around and subject to no known laws, but that on the contrary, it

      follows laws as uncompromising as those of mathematics, while at the

      same time allowing unlimited freedom to the individual.

      Now the purpose of the following pages, is to suggest to the reader the

      lines on which to find his way out of this nebulous sort of thought into

      something more solid and reliable. I do not profess, like a certain

      Negro preacher, to "unscrew the inscrutable," for we can never reach a

      point where we shall not find the inscrutable still ahead of us; but if

      I can indicate the use of a screw-driver instead of a hatchet, and that

      the screws should be turned from left to right, instead of from right to

      left, it may enable us to unscrew some things which would otherwise

      remain screwed down tight. We are all beginners, and indeed the

      hopefulness of life is in realizing that there are such vistas of

      unending possibilities before us, that however far we may advance, we

      shall always be on the threshold of something greater. We must be like

      Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up--heaven defend me from ever feeling

      quite grown up, for then I should come to a standstill; so the reader

      must take what I have to say simply as the talk of one boy to another in

      the Great School, and not expect too much.

      The first question then is, where to begin. Descartes commenced his book

      with the words "Cogito, ergo sum." "I think, therefore I am," and we

      cannot do better than follow his example. There are two things about

      which we cannot have any doubt--our own existence, and that of the world

      around us. But what is it in us that is aware of these two things, that

      hopes and fears and plans regarding them? Certainly not our flesh and

      bones. A man whose leg has been amputated is able to think just the

      same. Therefore it is obvious that there is something in us which

      receives impressions and forms ideas, that reasons upon facts and

      determines upon courses of action and carries them out, which is not the

      physical body. This is the real "I Myself." This is the Person we are

      really concerned with; and it is the betterment of this "I Myself" that

      makes it worth while to enquire what our Thought has to do in the

      matter.

      Equally true it is on the other hand that the forces of Nature around us

      do not think. Steam, electricity, gravitation, and chemical affinity do

      not think. They follow certain fixed laws which we have no power to

      alter. Therefore we are confronted at the outset by a broad distinction

      between two modes of Motion--the Movement of Thought and the Movement of

      Cosmic Energy--the one based upon the exercise of Consciousness and

      Will, and the other based upon Mathematical Sequence. This is why that

      system of instruction known as Free Masonry starts by erecting the two

      symbolic pillars Jachin and Boaz--Jachin so called from the root "Yak"

      meaning "One," indicating the Mathematical element of Law; and Boaz,

      from the root "Awáz" meaning "Voice" indicating Personal element of Free

      Will. These names are taken from the description in I Kings vii, 21 and

      II Chron. iii, 17 of the building of Solomon's Temple, where these two

      pillars stood before the entrance, the meaning being that the Temple of

      Truth can only be entered by passing between them, that is, by giving

      each of these factors their due relation to the other, and by realizing

      that they are the two Pillars of the Universe, and that no real progress

      can be made except by finding the true balance between them. Law and

      Personality--these are the two great principles with which we have to

      deal, and the problem is to square the one with the other.

      Let me start, then, by considering some well established facts in the

      physical world which show how the known Law acts under certain known

      conditions, and this will lead us on in an intelligible manner to see

      how the same Law is likely to work under as yet unknown conditions. If

      we had to deal with unknown laws as well as unknown conditions we

      should, indeed, be up a gum tree. Fancy a mathematician having to solve

      an equation, both sides of which were entirely made up of unknown

      quantities--where would he be? Happily