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Moreover, SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, cannot be conceived of as "thinking" in the sense of reasoning or understanding by Intellect. Why should Infinite Spirit, or Universal Mind, which created all phenomenal things, be concerned in comparing them and deducing Truth therefrom? It would have no need to compare these things, for it has known all about them from their very beginning and before their beginning. There can be nothing about them that Spirit, or Universal Mind, does not know and has not always known. Their very existence is a proof that SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, knows all about them; without such knowing the things would not be in existence, for their only existence is in the Thought of Universal Mind, or SPIRIT. The idea of Spirit, or Universal Mind, depending for Truth upon the comparison of its own created things, is laughable. There is nothing for SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, to know . It is Complete and Perfect and cannot lack anything. It in itself being All-that-is, there is nothing else to be known by it in Truth.

Moreover, just as we find that Mind can never make an object of itself, so SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, can never make an object of itself for examination or analysis. The only report of the consciousness of Mind regarding itself is, at the last, simply "I AM." The only Real Knowledge possible to Spirit, or Universal Mind, is, likewise, simply "I AM," for that is all to be Known, and all that can be Known, for it is ALL THAT IS IN BEING. And in this final-report of "I AM" from the human mind and the Universal Mind is found the proof that the former is a center of consciousness in the latter, and that the "I" perceived at the center of individual consciousness is the dim recognition and realization of the "I" of the Universal Mind, or SPIRIT.

The reason rejects the idea of Intellect in SPIRIT, or Universal Mind. There is no need for it there and its presence would rob SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, of its Infinity and Absoluteness, making it finite and dependent upon Intellect.

THE PURE LOGIC OF SPIRIT.

But before passing on let us say that although Intellect is rejected for Spirit, or Universal Mind, nevertheless reason recognizes in the Ideative and Imaginative processes—the Creative activities—of SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, the presence of PURE LOGIC. Intellect, in created things, is merely the manifestation of this original fact of Spirit, or Universal Mind; Intellect shares in it consciously only as everything shares in it unconsciously. This PURE LOGIC of SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, is evident in and manifest throughout the entire universe and all the parts thereof. In our consideration of Spirit as All-Law we perceived the presence of the Pure Logic of Spirit in every manifestation of Law.

The reason reports that the series and procession of ideas, appearances, images, and forms created by Spirit cannot be supposed to proceed in a disorderly, haphazard, chaotic manner. In even the smallest event or happening in the phenomenal universe, physical or mental, there is apparent the presence and operation of invariable Law. We cannot conceive of less in the Infinite Mind of Spirit. On the contrary, we would expect the presence and operation of Absolute Law and Order. We should expect that certain laws, being ideated, they would absolutely govern and determine the procession of ideative creations. In short, we should expect that there would be apparent the existence of what we have called the Pure Logic of Spirit in the ideative processes and appearances. "Logic" means "the science or art of exact reasoning, or of pure and formal thought, or of the laws according to which the processes of pure thinking should be conducted." When we say a thing is "logical" we mean that it is in accordance with the highest reason. Accordingly we should expect Absolute Logic from Absolute Mind, Pure Logic from Pure Mind.

In the processes of the Infinite Mind of Spirit we should naturally expect that everything would proceed with absolute order, under absolute law, from so-called "cause" to so-called "effect"; that there would be no "accidents" or "chance" or "exceptions" in such processes; in short, that if an Absolute Reason could witness the processes, it would always find everything, down to the smallest happening or thing, "according to reason and the laws of reason." In the manifestations of Infinite Mind there must ever be operative Absolute Law and Order in the determination of the creative activities and their creations. The reason refuses to accept any other conception; it demands the presence and operation of Absolute Law and Order, not Lawlessness and Disorder. It demands a Spiritual Cosmos, not a Spiritual Chaos. The idea of Law cannot be divorced from the conception of Ultimate REALITY—SPIRIT—even when considered in the terms of Infinite Mind.

The PURE LOGIC of SPIRIT ever proceeds along the lines of what men call "Deductive Reasoning," by which is meant the reasoning from principle to manifestation, from general to particulars, from premise to conclusion, for so the Pure Logic of Spirit proceeds invariably, inevitably, inexorably. From principle to manifestation, from general to particulars, from premise to conclusions it proceeds. For remember, It is the general , the universe the particulars; It is the principle , the universe the manifestation; It is the premise , the universe the conclusion.

SPIRIT, or Universal Mind, in itself never uses its Pure Logic along the lines of Inductive Reason, viz.: reasoning from particulars to general, from manifestation to principle; it does not need to do this, for the end of such reasoning would be merely to discover Itself . This form of reasoning is reserved for the Intellect of Man (or other and higher created beings which doubtless exist in other worlds). Man discovers principles in this way. Finally he discovers the Principle of Principles and finds himself in the presence of the Ultimate Principle, the Original Premise—Spirit. And in finding this he has found ALL—has found Himself, his "I," his VERY BEING.

(4). IDEATION.

In this class of mental states or activities are found the ideative, imaging, or form-producing activities of the mind. "Ideative" means having the mental power, faculty, or capacity to form ideas. "Idea" is "mental image or form; whatever the mind perceives in itself." An abstract idea is an image of a general class of things, symbolic in nature and of but vague form. An image is the idea of a particular or special thing having a decided form. All mental creative work is performed by the aid of the ideative and imaginative powers or faculties of the mind. In this class of mental activities we find the greater portion of all mental work and all creative activity. Without this plane of mentation there could be no intellectual work and no progress; in its absence life would consist merely of sensation and the immediate response thereto on the part of the will.

Considering the question of Spirit, or Universal Mind, manifesting this class of mental creative activity, we find that reason reports that not only can we so conceive but that also we must so conceive in order to account for the activities, manifestation, and expression of Spirit. Unless Spirit, or Universal Mind, is conceived as having and using this mental creative power of ideation and imagination, we cannot conceive it as creating at all. If we deprive it of this possibility and capacity, we deprive it of all power of expression, manifestation, and activity. Moreover, the conception of this ideative and imaging power, raised to infinity, gives us the best and only adequate conception of the nature of Creation and the creation of Nature.

We must relieve Spirit, or Universal Mind, of the necessity of drawing upon past experience, memory, or sense impressions for material for its ideative or imaginative activities. Memory, or the recording and subsequent representation of past experiences of sensation, belongs to the phenomenal world and cannot be thought of as a fact of Spirit, or Universal Mind. All phenomenal objects are believed to carry with them memories of individual and general past experience which persist for a certain time, but such memories arise and perish in time and are purely phenomenal in nature. Spirit, or Universal Mind, cannot be conceived as having memory or as being dependent upon it. On the contrary, it must be conceived as having the infinite power, possibility, and capacity of Original Creation by ideation and imagination of Universal Mind. Dependence upon memory or past experience would condition and limit the Infinite and Absolute, which idea is contrary to reason. Moreover, if Creation were dependent upon past experience there would never have been original Creation. Creation must be conceived of as Eternally Original. Memory belongs to phenomenal created things; original creation by ideation and imagination belongs to Universal Mind alone, which is SPIRIT.