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

intelligence of our most

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

      which is always in advance of them. The more deeply we investigate the

      world we live in, the more clear it must become to us that all our

      science is the translation into words or numerical symbols of that order

      which already exists. If the clear statement of this existing order is

      the highest that the human intellect can reach, this surely argues a

      corresponding intelligence in the power which gives rise to this great

      sequence of order and interrelation, so as to constitute one harmonious

      whole. Now, unless we fall back on the idea of a workman working upon

      material external to himself--in which case we have to explain the

      phenomenon of the workman--the only conception we can form of this power

      is that it is the Living Spirit inherent in the heart of every atom,

      giving it outward form and definition, and becoming in it those

      intrinsic polarities which constitute its characteristic nature.

      There is no random work here. Every attraction and repulsion acts with

      its proper force collecting the atoms into molecules, the molecules into

      tissues, the tissues into organs, and the organs into individuals. At

      each stage of the progress we get the sum of the intelligent forces

      which operate in the constituent parts, _plus_ a higher degree of

      intelligence which we may regard as the collective intelligence superior

      to that of the mere sum-total of the parts, something which belongs to

      the individual _as a whole_, and not to the parts as such. These are

      facts which can be amply proved from physical science; and they also

      supply a great law in spiritual science, which is that in any collective

      body the intelligence of the whole is superior to that of the sum of the

      parts.

      Spirit is at the root of all things, and thoughtful observation shows

      that its operation is guided by unfailing intelligence which adapts

      means to ends, and harmonises the entire universe of manifested being in

      those wonderful ways which physical science renders clearer every day;

      and this intelligence must be in the generating spirit itself, because

      there is no other source from which it could proceed. On these grounds,

      therefore, we may distinctly affirm that Spirit is intelligent, and that

      whatever it does is done by the intelligent adaptation of means to ends.

      But Spirit is also responsive. And here we have to fall back upon the

      law above stated, that the mere sum of the intelligence of Spirit in

      lower degrees of manifestation is not equal to the intelligence of the

      complex _whole_, as a whole. This is a radical law which we cannot

      impress upon our minds too deeply. The degree of spiritual intelligence

      is marked by the wholeness of the organism through which it finds

      expression; and therefore the more highly organised being has a degree

      of spirit which is superior to, and consequently capable of exercising

      control over, all lower or less fully-integrated degrees of spirit; and

      this being so, we can now begin to see why the spirit that is the

      "innermost within" of all things is responsive as well as intelligent.

      Being intelligent, it _knows_, and spirit being ultimately all there is,

      that which it knows is itself. Hence it is that power which recognises

      itself; and accordingly the lower powers of it recognise its higher

      powers, and by the law of attraction they are bound to respond to the

      higher degrees of themselves. On this general principle, therefore,

      spirit, under whatever exterior revealed, is necessarily intelligent and

      responsive. But intelligence and responsiveness imply personality; and

      we may therefore now advance a step further and argue that _all_ spirit

      contains the elements of personality, even though, in any particular

      instance, it may not yet be expressed as that individual personality

      which we find in ourselves.

      In short, spirit is always personal in its nature, even when it has not

      yet attained to that degree of synthesis which is sufficient to render

      it personal in manifestation. In ourselves the synthesis has proceeded

      far enough to reach that degree, and therefore we recognise ourselves as

      the manifestation of personality. The human kingdom is the kingdom of

      the manifestation of that personality, which is of the essence of

      spiritual substance on every plane. Or, to put the whole argument in a

      simpler form, we may say that our own personality must necessarily have

      had its origin in that which is personal, on the principle that you

      cannot get more out of a bag than it contains.

      In ourselves, therefore, we find that more perfect synthesis of the

      spirit into manifested personality which is wanting in the lower

      kingdoms of nature, and, accordingly, since spirit is necessarily that

      which knows itself and must, therefore, recognise its own degrees in its

      various modes, the spirit in all degrees below that of human personality

      is bound to respond to itself in that superior degree which constitutes

      human individuality; and this is the basis of the power of human thought

      to externalise itself in infinite forms of its own ordering.

      But if the subordination of the lower degrees of spirit to the higher is

      one of the fundamental laws which lie at the bottom of the creative

      power of thought, there is another equally fundamental law which places

      a salutary restraint upon the abuse of that power. It is the law that we

      can command the powers of the universal for our own purposes only in

      proportion as we first realise and obey their generic character. We can

      employ water for any purpose which does not require it to run up-hill,

      and we can utilise electricity for any purpose that does not require it

      to pass from a lower to a higher potential.

      So with that universal power which we call the Spirit. It has an

      inherent generic character with which we must comply if we would employ

      it for our specific purposes, and this character is summed up in the one