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

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

      this well-recognised principle that our perception of ourselves as

      integral portions of the great universal power is based.

      We do well to pay heed to the sayings of the great teachers who have

      taught that all power is in the "I AM," and to accept this teaching by

      faith in their bare authority rather than not accept it at all; but the

      more excellent way is to know _why_ they taught thus, and to realise for

      ourselves this first great law which all the master-minds have realised

      throughout the ages. It is indeed true that the "lost word" is the one

      most familiar to us, ever in our hearts and on our lips. We have lost,

      not the word, but the realisation of its power. And as the infinite

      depths of meaning which the words I AM carry with them open out to us,

      we begin to realise the stupendous truth that we are ourselves the very

      power which we seek.

      It is the polarisation of Spirit from the universal into the particular,

      carrying with it all its inherent powers, just as the smallest flame has

      all the qualities of fire. The I AM in the individual is none other than

      the I AM in the universal. It is the same Power working in the smaller

      sphere of which the individual