Thomas Troward - The Hidden Power And Other Papers upon Mental Science

constructive power of Nature, embracing the laws of the formation of all

flower-forms. The value of analysis is to lead us to the original

starting-point of that which we analyse, and so to teach us the laws by

which its final form springs from this centre.

Knowing the law of its construction, we turn our analysis into a

synthesis, and we thus gain a power of building up which must always be

beyond the reach of those who regard "the unknowable" as one with

"not-being."

_This_ idea of the unknowable is the root of all materialism; and yet no

scientific man, however materialistic his proclivities, treats the

unanalysable residuum thus when he meets it in the experiments of his

laboratory. On the contrary, he makes this final unanalysable fact the

basis of his synthesis. He finds that in the last resort it is energy of

some kind, whether as heat or as motion; but he does not throw up his

scientific pursuits because he cannot analyse it further. He adopts the

precisely opposite course, and realises that the conservation of energy,

its indestructibility, and the impossibility of adding to or detracting

from the sum-total of energy in the world, is the one solid and

unchanging fact on which alone the edifice of physical science can be

built up. He bases all his knowledge upon his knowledge of "the

unknowable." And rightly so, for if he could analyse this energy into

yet further factors, then the same problem of "the unknowable" would

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 intelligence of our most

highly-trained minds to follow the steps of this universal intelligence