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

singular expression, because in so looking upwards we are looking for

the higher degrees of _ourself_.

The increased vitality of the parts means the increased vitality of the

whole, and since it is impossible to conceive of spirit otherwise than

as a continually expanding principle of Life, the demand for such

increased vitality must, by the inherent nature of spirit, be met by a

corresponding supply of continually growing intelligence and power.

Thus, by a natural law, the demand creates the supply, and this supply

may be freely applied to any and every subject-matter that commends

itself to us. There is no limit to the supply of this energy other than

what we ourselves put to it by our thought; nor is there any limit to

the purposes we may make it serve other than the one grand Law of Order,

which says that good things used for wrong purposes become evil. The

consideration of the intelligent and responsive nature of spirit shows

that there can be no limitations but these. The one is a limitation

inherent in spirit itself, and the other is a limitation which has no

root except in our own ignorance.

It is true that to maintain our healthy action within the circle of our

own individual world we must continually move forward with the movement

of the larger whole of which we form a part. But this does not imply any

restriction of our liberty to make the fullest use of our lives in

accordance with those universal principles of life upon which they are

founded; for there is not one law for the part and another for the

whole, but the same law of Being permeates both alike. In proportion,

therefore, as we realise the true law of our own individuality we shall

find that it is one with the law of progress for the race. The

collective individuality of mankind is only the reproduction on a larger

scale of the personal individuality; and whatever action truly develops

the inherent powers of the individual must necessarily be in line with

that forward march of the universal mind which is the evolution of

humanity as a whole.

Selfishness is a narrow view of our own nature which loses sight of our

place in relation to the whole, not perceiving that it is from this very

relation that our life is drawn. It is ignorance of our own

possibilities and consequent limitation of our own powers. If,

therefore, the evidence of harmonious correlation throughout the

physical world leads irresistibly to the inference of intelligent

spirit as the innermost within of all things, we must recognise

ourselves also as individual manifestations of the same spirit which

expresses itself throughout the universe as that power of intelligent

responsiveness which is Love.

Thus we find ourselves to be a necessary and integral part of the

Infinite Harmony of All-Being; not merely recognising this great truth

as a vague intuition, but as the logical and unavoidable result of the

universal Life-principle which permeates all Nature. We find our

intuition was true because we have discovered the law which gave rise to

it; and now intuition and investigation both unite in telling us of our

own individual place in the great scheme of things. Even the most

advanced among us have, as yet, little more than the faintest

adumbration of what this place is. It is the place of _power_. Towards

those higher modes of spirit which we speak of as "the universal," the

law of man's inmost nature makes him as a lens, drawing into the focus

of his own individuality all that he will of light and power in streams

of inexhaustible supply; and towards the lower modes of spirit, which

form for each one the sphere of his own particular world, man thus

becomes the directive centre of energy and order.

Can we conceive of any position containing greater possibilities than

these? The circle of this vital influence may expand as the individual

grows into the wider contemplation of his unity with Infinite Being; but

any more comprehensive law of relationship it would be impossible to

formulate. Emerson has rightly said that a little algebra will often do

far more towards clearing our ideas than a large amount of poetic

simile. Algebraically it is a self-evident proposition that any

difference between various powers of _x_ disappears when they are

compared with _x_ multiplied into itself to infinity, because there can

be no ratio between any determinate power, however high, and the

infinite; and thus the relation between the individual and All-Being

must always remain the same.

But this in no way interferes with the law of growth, by which the

individual rises to higher and higher powers of his own individuality.

The unchangeableness of the relation between all determinate powers of

_x_ and infinity does not affect the relations of the different powers

of _x_ between themselves; but rather the fact that the multiplication

of _x_ into itself to infinity is mentally conceivable is the very proof

that there is no limit to the extent to which it is possible to raise

_x_ in its determinate powers.

I trust unmathematical readers will pardon my using this method of

statement for the benefit of others to whom it will carry conviction. A

relation once clearly grasped in its mathematical aspect becomes

thenceforth one of the unalterable truths of the universe, no longer a

thing to be argued about, but an axiom which may be assumed as the

foundation on which to build up the edifice of further knowledge. But,

laying aside mathematical formulæ, we may say that because the Infinite

is infinite there can be no limit to the extent to which the vital

principle of growth may draw upon it, and therefore there is no limit to

the expansion of the individual's powers. Because we are _what_ we are,

we may _become_ what we will.

The Kabbalists tell us of "the lost word," the word of power which

mankind has lost. To him who discovers this word all things are

possible. Is this mirific word really lost? Yes, and No. It is the open

secret of the universe, and the Bible gives us the key to it. It tells

us, "The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." It is

the most familiar of all words, the word which in our heart we realise

as the centre of our conscious being, and which is in our mouth a

hundred times a day. It is the word "I AM." Because I am what I am, I

may be what I will to be. My individuality is one of the modes in which

the Infinite expresses itself, and therefore I am myself that very power

which I find to be the innermost within of all things.

To me, thus realising the great unity of all Spirit, the infinite is not

the indefinite, for I see it to be the infinite of _Myself_. It is the

very same I AM that I am; and this not by any act of uncertain favour,

but by the law of polarity which is the basis of all Nature. The law of

polarity is that law according to which everything attains completion by

manifesting itself in the opposite direction to that from which it

started. It is the simple law by which there can be no inside without an

outside, nor one end of a stick without an opposite end.

Life is motion, and all motion is the appearance of energy at another

point, and, where any work has been done, under another form than that

in which it originated; but wherever it reappears, and in whatever new

form, the vivifying energy is still the same. This is nothing else than

the scientific doctrine of the conservation of energy, and it is upon