Thomas Troward - THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE

THOMAS TROWARD

THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE

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THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE BY THOMAS TROWARD THE WRITER AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS LITTLE VOLUME TO HIS WIFE This book contains the substance of a course of lectures recently given by the writer in the Queen Street Hall, Edinburgh. Its purpose is to indicate the _Natural Principles_ governing the relation between Mental Action and Material Conditions, and thus to afford the student an intelligible starting-point for the practical study of the subject. T.T. March, 1904.

CONTENTS. CONTENTS. SPIRIT AND MATTER. THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE CONTROLS THE LOWER THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND THE LAW OF GROWTH RECEPTIVITY. RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS CAUSES AND CONDITIONS INTUITION HEALING THE WILL TOUCH WITH SUBCONSCIOUS MIND THE BODY THE SOUL THE SPIRIT

SPIRIT AND MATTER.

THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE CONTROLS THE LOWER.

THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.

SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.

THE LAW OF GROWTH.

RECEPTIVITY.

RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS.

CAUSES AND CONDITIONS.

INTUITION.

THE WILL.

IN TOUCH WITH SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND.

THE BODY.

THE SOUL.

THE SPIRIT.

Impressum neobooks

THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE

BY THOMAS TROWARD

THE WRITER AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS LITTLE VOLUME TO HIS WIFE

This book contains the substance of a course of lectures recently given by

the writer in the Queen Street Hall, Edinburgh. Its purpose is to indicate

the _Natural Principles_ governing the relation between Mental Action and

Material Conditions, and thus to afford the student an intelligible

starting-point for the practical study of the subject.

T.T.

March, 1904.

SPIRIT AND MATTER.

THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE CONTROLS THE LOWER

THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT

SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND

THE LAW OF GROWTH

RECEPTIVITY.

RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS

CAUSES AND CONDITIONS

INTUITION

HEALING

THE WILL

TOUCH WITH SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

THE BODY

THE SOUL

THE SPIRIT

In commencing a course of lectures on Mental Science, it is somewhat

difficult for the lecturer to fix upon the best method of opening the

subject. It can be approached from many sides, each with some peculiar

advantage of its own; but, after careful deliberation, it appears to me

that, for the purpose of the present course, no better starting-point could

be selected than the relation between Spirit and Matter. I select this

starting-point because the distinction--or what we believe to be such--

between them is one with which we are so familiar that I can safely assume

its recognition by everybody; and I may, therefore, at once state this

distinction by using the adjectives which we habitually apply as expressing

the natural opposition between the two--_living_ spirit and _dead_ matter.

These terms express our current impression of the opposition between spirit

and matter with sufficient accuracy, and considered only from the point of

view of outward appearances this impression is no doubt correct. The

general consensus of mankind is right in trusting the evidence of our

senses, and any system which tells us that we are not to do so will never

obtain a permanent footing in a sane and healthy community. There is

nothing wrong in the evidence conveyed to a healthy mind by the senses of a

healthy body, but the point where error creeps in is when we come to judge

of the meaning of this testimony. We are accustomed to judge only by

external appearances and by certain limited significances which we attach

to words; but when we begin to enquire into the real meaning of our words

and to analyse the causes which give rise to the appearances, we find our

old notions gradually falling off from us, until at last we wake up to the

fact that we are living in an entirely different world to that we formerly

recognized. The old limited mode of thought has imperceptibly slipped away,

and we discover that we have stepped out into a new order of things where

all is liberty and life. This is the work of an enlightened intelligence

resulting from persistent determination to discover what truth really is

irrespective of any preconceived notions from whatever source derived, the

determination to think honestly for ourselves instead of endeavouring to

get our thinking done for us. Let us then commence by enquiring what we

really mean by the livingness which we attribute to spirit and the deadness

which we attribute to matter.

At first we may be disposed to say that livingness consists in the power of

motion and deadness in its absence; but a little enquiry into the most

recent researches of science will soon show us that this distinction does

not go deep enough. It is now one of the fully-established facts of

physical science that no atom of what we call "dead matter" is without

motion. On the table before me lies a solid lump of steel, but in the light

of up-to-date science I know that the atoms of that seemingly inert mass

are vibrating with the most intense energy, continually dashing hither and

thither, impinging upon and rebounding from one another, or circling round

like miniature solar systems, with a ceaseless rapidity whose complex

activity is enough to bewilder the imagination. The mass, as a mass, may

lie inert upon the table; but so far from being destitute of the element of

motion it is the abode of the never-tiring energy moving the particles with

a swiftness to which the speed of an express train is as nothing. It is,

therefore, not the mere fact of motion that is at the root of the

distinction which we draw instinctively between spirit and matter; we must

go deeper than that. The solution of the problem will never be found by

comparing Life with what we call deadness, and the reason for this will

become apparent later on; but the true key is to be found by comparing one

degree of livingness with another. There is, of course, one sense in which

the quality of livingness does not admit of degrees; but there is another

sense in which it is entirely a question of degree. We have no doubt as to

the livingness of a plant, but we realize that it is something very

different from the livingness of an animal. Again, what average boy would

not prefer a fox-terrier to a goldfish for a pet? Or, again, why is it that

the boy himself is an advance upon the dog? The plant, the fish, the dog,

and the boy are all equally _alive_; but there is a difference in the

quality of their livingness about which no one can have any doubt, and no