The Hidden Power And Other Papers upon Mental Science. Thomas Troward
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meet him still. All our progress consists in continually pushing the
unknowable, in the sense of the unanalysable residuum, a step further
back; but that there should be no ultimate unanalysable residuum
anywhere is an inconceivable idea.
In thus realising the undifferentiated unity of Living Spirit as the
central fact of any system, whether the system of the entire universe or
of a single organism, we are therefore following a strictly scientific
method. We pursue our analysis until it necessarily leads us to this
final fact, and then we accept this fact as the basis of our synthesis.
The Science of Spirit is thus not one whit less scientific than the
Science of Matter; and, moreover, it starts from the same initial fact,
the fact of a living energy which defies definition or explanation,
wherever we find it; but it differs from the science of matter in that
it contemplates this energy under an aspect of responsive intelligence
which does not fall within the scope of physical science, as such. The
Science of Spirit and the Science of Matter are not opposed. They are
complementaries, and neither is fully comprehensible without some
knowledge of the other; and, being really but two portions of one whole,
they insensibly shade off into each other in a border-land where no
arbitrary line can be drawn between them. Science studied in a truly
scientific spirit, following out its own deductions unflinchingly to
their legitimate conclusions, will always reveal the twofold aspect of
things, the inner and the outer; and it is only a truncated and maimed
science that refuses to recognise both.
The study of the material world is not Materialism, if it be allowed to
progress to its legitimate issue. Materialism is that limited view of
the universe which will not admit the existence of anything but
mechanical effects of mechanical causes, and a system which recognises
no higher power than the physical forces of nature must logically result
in having no higher ultimate appeal than to physical force or to fraud
as its alternative. I speak, of course, of the tendency of the system,
not of the morality of individuals, who are often very far in advance of
the systems they profess. But as we would avoid the propagation of a
mode of thought whose effects history shows only too plainly, whether in
the Italy of the Borgias, or the France of the First Revolution, or the
Commune of the Franco-Prussian War, we should set ourselves to study
that inner and spiritual aspect of things which is the basis of a system
whose logical results are truth and love instead of perfidy and
violence.
Some of us, doubtless, have often wondered why the Heavenly Jerusalem is
described in the Book of Revelations as a cube; "the length and the
breadth and the height of it are equal." This is because the cube is the
figure of perfect stability, and thus represents Truth, which can never
be overthrown. Turn it on what side you will, it still remains the
perfect cube, always standing upright; you cannot upset it. This figure,
then, represents the manifestation in concrete solidity of that central
life-giving energy, which is not itself any one plane but generates all
planes, the planes of the above and of the below and of all four sides.
But it is at the same time a city, a place of habitation; and this is
because that which is "the within" is Living Spirit, which has its
dwelling there.
As one plane of the cube implies all the other planes and also "the
within," so any plane of manifestation implies the others and also that
"within" which generates them all. Now, if we would make any progress in
the spiritual side of science--and _every_ department of science has its
spiritual side--we must always keep our minds fixed upon this "innermost
within" which contains the potential of all outward manifestation, the
"fourth dimension" which generates the cube; and our common forms of
speech show how intuitively we do this. We speak of the spirit in which
an act is done, of entering into the spirit of a game, of the spirit of
the time, and so on. Everywhere our intuition points out the spirit as
the true essence of things; and it is only when we commence arguing
about them from without, instead of from within, that our true
perception of their nature is lost.
The scientific study of spirit consists in following up intelligently
and according to definite method the same principle that now only
flashes upon us at intervals fitfully and vaguely. When we once realise
that this universal and unlimited power of spirit is at the root of all
things and of ourselves also, then we have obtained the key to the whole
position; and, however far we may carry our studies in spiritual
science, we shall nowhere find anything else but particular developments
of this one universal principle. "The Kingdom of Heaven is _within_
you."
I have laid stress on the fact that the "innermost within" of all things
is living Spirit, and that the Science of Spirit is distinguished from
the Science of Matter in that it contemplates Energy under an aspect of
responsive intelligence which does not fall within the scope of physical
science, as such. These are the two great points to lay hold of if we
would retain a clear idea of Spiritual Science, and not be misled by
arguments drawn from the physical side of Science only--the livingness
of the originating principle which is at the heart of all things, and
its intelligent and responsive nature. Its livingness is patent to our
observation, at any rate from the point where we recognise it in the
vegetable kingdom; but its intelligence and responsiveness are not,
perhaps, at once so obvious. Nevertheless, a little thought will soon
lead us to recognise this also.
No one can deny that there is an intelligent order throughout all
nature, for it requires the highest