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

now investigating, until they culminate in

      illimitable intelligence and power commensurate with All-Being.

      Now we have seen that the relation of man to the lower modes of spirit

      is that of superiority and command, but what is his relation to these

      higher modes? In any harmoniously constituted system the relation of the

      part to the whole never interferes with the free operation of the part

      in the performance of its own functions; but, on the contrary, it is

      precisely by means of this relation that each part is maintained in a

      position to discharge all functions for which it is fitted. Thus, then,

      the subordination of the individual man to the supreme mind, so far from

      curtailing his liberty, is the very condition which makes liberty

      possible, or even life itself. The generic movement of the whole

      necessarily carries the part along with it; and so long as the part

      allows itself thus to be carried onwards there will be no hindrance to

      its free working in any direction for which it is fitted by its own

      individuality. This truth was set forth in the old Hindu religion as the

      Car of Jaggarnath--an ideal car only, which later ages degraded into a

      terribly material symbol. "Jaggarnath" means "Lord of the Universe," and

      thus signifies the Universal Mind. This, by the law of Being, must

      always move forward regardless of any attempts of individuals to

      restrain it. Those who mount upon its car move onward with it to

      endlessly advancing evolution, while those who seek to oppose it must be

      crushed beneath its wheels, for it is no respecter of persons.

      If, therefore, we would employ the universal law of spirit to control

      our own little individual worlds, we must also recognise it in respect

      to the supreme centre round which we ourselves revolve. But not in the

      old way of supposing that this centre is a capricious Individuality

      external to ourselves, which can be propitiated or cajoled into giving

      the good which he is not good enough to give of his own proper motion.

      So long as we retain this infantile idea we have not come into the

      liberty which results from the knowledge of the certainty of Law.

      Supreme Mind is Supreme Law, and can be calculated upon with the same

      accuracy as when manifested in any of the particular laws of the

      physical world; and the result of studying, understanding and obeying

      this Supreme Law is that we thereby acquire the power to _use_ it. Nor

      need we fear it with the old fear which comes from ignorance, for we can

      rely with confidence upon the proposition that the whole can have no

      interest adverse to the parts of which it is composed; and conversely

      that the part can have no interest adverse to the whole.

      Our ignorance of our relation to the whole may make us appear to have

      separate interests, but a truer knowledge must always show such an idea

      to be mistaken. For this reason, therefore, the same responsiveness of

      spirit which manifests itself as obedience to our wishes, when we look

      to those degrees of spirit which are lower than her own individuality,

      must manifest itself as a necessary inflowing of intelligence and power

      when we look to the infinity of spirit, of which our individuality is a

      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