SCIENCE***


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THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE

BY THOMAS TROWARD LATE DIVISIONAL JUDGE, PUNJAB








THE WRITER AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS LITTLE VOLUME TO HIS WIFE



FOREWORD.


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.


   I.--SPIRIT AND MATTER.
  II.--THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE CONTROLS THE LOWER
 III.--THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT
  IV.--SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND
   V.--FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND
  VI.--THE LAW OF GROWTH
 VII.--RECEPTIVITY.
VIII.--RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS
  IX.--CAUSES AND CONDITIONS
   X.--INTUITION
  XI.--HEALING
 XII.--THE WILL
XIII.--IN TOUCH WITH SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
 XIV.--THE BODY
  XV.--THE SOUL
 XVI.--THE SPIRIT




I.

SPIRIT AND MATTER.


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