What is truth?
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Title: What is truth?

Author: W. D. Wattles

Release date: July 11, 2025 [eBook #76483]

Language: English

Original publication: Holyoke, Massachusetts: The Nautilus, 1909

Credits: Grokik and Steve Mattern

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT IS TRUTH? ***

What Is Truth?

By Wallace D. Wattles

The Nautilus

Holyoke, Massachusetts

Vol. XI Nos. 6-11

April-September, 1909

I.

TIME.

A BALLOON GOES UP; A STONE FALLS TO EARTH; WHY? ONE FORCE IN NATURE—G R A V I T Y.

The science of theology and medicine are necessarily very closely allied, both having to do with the saving of men from the consequences of wrong living; and it follows that in religion and medicine we are always seeking for realities; searching the truth; seeking the ultimate, spiritual and physical facts upon which to base our theories, and from which to proceed in making our demonstrations of health and wholeness. And since our demonstrations must and will be complete or incomplete just in proportion to the completeness of our grasp of the realities, the importance of the search for truth becomes apparent; the very first thing we have to do is to penetrate through all the appearances of life, and ascertain the differences between what is really true and what is only apparently true; for there is often a vast difference between the appearance and the reality. The sun appears to rise and set, and to go around the earth; but it does not. A balloon goes up; and a stone falls to the earth; in appearance there are two forces at work, but in reality there is only one—gravity. The reality behind the going up of the balloon and the coming down of the stone is the same. And to seek for the realities behind the appearances of life; behind its goings up and comings down, its goings out and comings in,—that is science, and that is what we are going to try to do.

The first of the realities with which we will deal is Time. It is the fashion with some metaphysical writers to assert that there is no time; but the arguments advanced in support of this claim are superficial. Time is not an entity having substance, but it is an existing reality, nevertheless. Time is not an idea; a fiction by which we measure and record the motions of the heavenly bodies; time would go on just the same and at exactly the same rate if the heavenly bodies were motionless. Do not misunderstand me in my use of the word “time.” Many people suppose that time began when man began, and must end when man ends as a mortal and physical being, and that the periods before and after the earth life of the human race are to be called eternities; in other words that there can be no time except so long as there is a mortal man to measure it; but this is erroneous. Days, weeks, months and years must have gone on before man came on earth, just as they do now; and if man disappeared from the earth, they would still go on. If the earth ceased to revolve around the sun, and to turn on its axis, the succession of the seasons and of day and night would cease; day would be continuous on one side of the earth, and night upon the other, but hours and minutes would go on just the same, and if the sun, moon, planets, stars and all else were to disappear and be succeeded by black, silent, formless chaos, hours and minutes would go on forever. Clocks do not make time; an hour would have the same duration if there were no clocks. In eternity there must still be time; time is duration in eternity. Eternity is endless time.

Time can never end. If you try to think of a point at which time should end, you can only think of it as a point beyond which there must be still more time. Also, then, time can never have had a beginning; for if you try to think of a point at which time began, you can only think of it as a point beyond which there must have been still more time. Do not say that endless time is unthinkable; you can very easily think endless time, if you do not try to think of the end of it. You cannot comprehend endless time, for that means to contain it in your mind, or to go around it; but you can know what it is, and you can know that it is.

Time is; and we must use it, whether we will or no. And the use we make of present time decides the use we shall be able to make of future time; just as the use we made of past time has fixed our place in present time. The use we make of today decides the use we shall be able to make of tomorrow. To be strong and wise is to be able to use time well; and to use time well is to become continually stronger and wiser. Success, growth and development are only attained by the right use of time; and we are failures today in exact proportion as we have erred in our use of time past To know the right use of the present moment is therefore of immense importance; and to have the will to make the right use of it is more important still. If man can—and will—make the right use of every moment of time, he must certainly become a being of marvellous power and wholeness. Oh, the wasted time! The misspent time! The lost time!

We close this chapter, then, by claiming the demonstration of our first fact; that time is a reality.

II.

SPACE.

CAN SPACE HAVE BOUNDARIES?

Bear in mind that in the first chapter we prove that time is an existent reality; in this chapter we shall try to prove that space also exists. Space is the place where a thing is; and it is also the place where no thing is. Space is the place where the earth is; the earth’s diameter being about 7,925 miles, it fills so much space; if the earth were to disappear, the 7,925 miles of space would still exist, but it would then be empty space whereas now it is filled space. The sun, also, fills space, and the distance between the earth and the sun is space; beyond the sun is more space, and beyond the earth still more; and so on. It does not matter whether space is occupied or unoccupied; empty or filled; it is space, all the same. Space is a reality. Distance is a portion of space between two given points. Endless distance would comprise all of space in one direction.

Space has three dimensions: Length, breadth and thickness. It could never have a beginning, and can never have an ending. If all created things, and all substance should disappear, space would still exist; it would be merely blank, empty space, where now is filled space. Also, space can have no boundaries. If you try to think of a boundary to space, what will you think of as lying beyond the boundary? Something solid? Then that something solid must itself occupy space, while if there is nothing there, that nothing must be unfilled space. So, beyond any boundary that you can set for space, there must be still more space. Space is a reality; beginningless, endless, boundless. Time is a reality; and yet, neither time nor space are substantial things. They possess no power. They do not act, neither can they be acted upon. Time can be used, and space can be occupied; and that is what we do with them; we occupy space and make use of time.

Space is the field in which we must operate, and contain the raw materials which we must use. The claim has been made that space is non-existent to mind or spirit, because it does not require appreciable time for the transference of thought; but the validity of this deduction has not been proved. The distances with which we are able to deal are very limited; it might require a measurable time to send thought to the sun, or to the planet Mars, or for a spirit to travel those distances. Again, the argument is advanced that the moon “acts” on the earth; and that, as a thing cannot act where it is not, there is no space between the moon and the earth; but this is puerile. The moon does not, and cannot act on the earth, because it does not touch the earth; if it affects the earth at all, it must act on something which is between them, and which in turn acts on the earth. And this something which is between the earth and the moon occupies space.

I have spoken of filled space and empty space. I do not know whether empty space exists or not, but it is quite thinkable that it should exist. There may be portions of empty space, surrounded by filled space; or there may be endless extensions of empty space, side by side with endless extensions of filled space; I do not know. I know that there is filled space, and that there may be empty space. But, if there is filled space, what fills it? The answer to this must be in one word—Substance. That which is not substance is not anything, and that which is not anything cannot fill space. Space is filled by substance, and cannot be filled by anything else; but what is substance, and how do we know that it exists? That we leave for the next chapter, closing this with the claim that we have demonstrated that we live in space, and that life consists in making use of time.

III.

SUBSTANCE.

REAL NATURE OF SUBSTANCE—A CURIOUS FACT CONCERNING THE GROWTH OF VEGETABLES—DOES SUBSTANCE OCCUPY ALL OF SPACE?—THE THREE GREAT REALITIES.

Substance is that which occupies space. In its more compact and rigid forms substance is perceptible by the senses, and is then called matter; but in its finer and more ethereal forms, when it cannot be perceived by the senses, substance is still matter, and is essentially the same. The apparently many substances of nature are in reality only varying forms of one Substance; the differences between them are due to varying degrees of pressure, and to the form and rate of vibration of the atoms which compose them. Ice is a solid substance; water a partially fluid substance; the vapor arising from water verges on the gaseous state; and oxygen and hydrogen are gases. But a piece of ice may be brought back through all these stages, and converted into oxygen and hydrogen, and no change is made in it except that in the fluid state the atoms are less firmly pressed together than in the solid state; and in the gaseous state the bond of cohesion is still weaker, and the atoms circulate or roll around each other more freely than in the fluid state. It is now a well-known fact that nearly all the growth of the vegetable kingdom comes from the atmosphere; trees, plants and flowers are solidified air. The furniture in our homes, and the walls of the houses in which we live are merely solidified gases; burn them, and they return to their original state, leaving only a handful of ashes as “material” evidence of their existence, and if we learn to treat these ashes with the right agencies, they, too, will vanish into the ethereal realm. The earth itself, so firm and solid under our feet, was indisputably once a ball of flaming gases and vapors, and in the stage before that, must it not have been still more ethereal? It is all solidified atmosphere. Our own bodies are compounds of gases; in the crematory the human form vanishes. All things came out from the ether, and all things are ether, changed to more or less solid forms by differences in atomic pressure and cohesion.

All this brings us to the conclusion that the many seemingly different substances—iron, wood, coal, lime, water, etc., are merely different forms of one thing; that there is only one elemental substance, from which all created things are shaped. As we find that solid things are the gaseous atmosphere, solidified by an increased atomic pressure, so we shall no doubt find that the gases are produced from one ether, being brought to the semi fluid state by increased pressure, and at last we must conclude that there is one perfectly fluid substance, of which are made all the things which do appear. This One Substance is the stupendous reality behind all the appearances of the material world.

We will now take up the study of this substance. First, we must get rid of the idea that there is anything else. Substance is all there is. We live, and move, and have our being in substance; we, ourselves, are substance. We must conclude that substance cannot have been created, for that it should have been formed out of nothing is unthinkable. Substance always was; forms have been created, and are being continually created, changed, and modified; but the substance of which those forms are made is the same, yesterday and today and forever. When I speak of forms, I mean the so-called “material” universe; suns, stars, planets, seas, continents, trees, plants, gases, and the bodies of animals and men; all these are varying forms of the One Changeless Substance, which is all, and in all. And as this substance has existed through all of time past, so it will exist through all of time future, for it is indestructible; we may change its forms, but not one particle of it can we destroy.

Does this substance occupy all of space? Evidently not, for the more nearly we carry its forms to their original state the more fluid they become; we go from solids back to gases, and from gases to ether, and so on; and we conclude that the one substance must be perfectly fluid, and if that be so, its particles cannot be solidly pressed together; there must be space between them, as in all fluids. Furthermore, if substance filled all space motion would be impossible; for substance can only move when there is unoccupied space to move into. And as we know that there is motion, so we know that there must be empty space. This is a matter of some importance when we come to the study of consciousness; for if one substance completely filled all space, it must be absolutely solid, with its atoms pressed rigidly against each other; and not only could there be no motion in any part, but there could be no separate consciousness in any part; if consciousness were possible at all in a perfectly solid substance, it could only be the consciousness of the whole. But if there is empty space, there is not only room for motion, but there is room for separate portions of substance, which may be conscious within themselves. If there is empty space, there is room for man, as a separate portion of original substance to move about and to have a consciousness of his own. There may be more than one conscious intelligence, though there is only one substance. We close this chapter with the claim that we have demonstrated the existence of three realities: time, space and a substance which moves in space. The next chapter will be devoted to the consideration of consciousness.

IV.

CONSCIOUSNESS.

EXPLANATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS.—MOTION A KIND OF ACTION.—WHAT EFFECT IT HAS ON CONSCIOUSNESS— BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS. WHICH THE PRODUCT OF THE OTHER?—CONSCIOUSNESS IN VEGETABLE AND MINERAL KINGDOMS LIMITED WHILE IN MAN ALMOST COMPLETE

That consciousness exists does not need proof; we know, and we know that we know. We are conscious of consciousness; and now we have to consider the source of consciousness. Turning back to the realities we have considered, we find that time cannot be the source of consciousness; we cannot think of time as being conscious, and the same is true of space. We cannot conceive of consciousness as existing in empty space, for there would be nothing there to be conscious; and so we see that only substance can be conscious. Where there is no substance there is nothing, and there can be no consciousness. This is a proposition which you should consider well, until you have mastered it in all its bearings; that there can be no consciousness apart from substance; that empty space cannot be conscious. If consciousness exists—and it does—there is a Conscious Substance.

This point we need to develop very fully, for it is vital. If it is not substance which is conscious, then consciousness must exist in the interstices between the particles of substance, or in empty space; and it is empty space which is conscious, which is unthinkable. But if consciousness exists in substance, then it is the substance itself which is conscious; for there can be nothing in substance but substance. It becomes clear, too, that consciousness cannot be the result of functional action within an organism. Functional action is merely motion, and motion is a shifting of substance from one place to another. If consciousness were produced by motion, would it not still be the substance which was conscious? Try to reason out how a substance could be made conscious by shifting it from one place to another. If consciousness was produced by the motion, then the substance could not have been conscious before it moved, nor could it remain conscious after it ceased to move. Try to think of a substance as becoming conscious, and endowed with reason, memory and love while making a certain motion, and as losing all these when ceasing to move; try to reason out how motion could come first as a cause, and consciousness follow as a result. Try to conceive of the Original Fluid Substance as beginning, unconsciously, to move; and as producing, unconsciously, all the orderly sequences of forms which appear in nature; and at last, and only at last, becoming fully conscious of it all through the unconscious beginning of a certain motion in the brain of man. Try to think of full consciousness as having been lacking in the universe until certain vibrations were started in the brain of man; you will find all this unthinkable. Consciousness is not the result of motion, but the first cause of motion. It is not motion which is conscious, but substance. The human ego is Conscious Substance.

The next question is whether consciousness is an attribute of substance only in certain forms, or whether it inheres in original fluid substance; and to that we now turn our attention. Is it the brain which is conscious? Those who have kept abreast of the revelations of modern psychology as set forth by William Hanna Thompson and others, know that it is not. The substance of the brain is not conscious; or at least, the substance of the brain is not the conscious, thinking, reasoning human ego. We have learned that the brain is the product, rather than the producer of consciousness; and that the intelligent direction of consciousness in the work of brain-building may produce almost any desired change in the structure and capacity of the brain. Furthermore, there are many evidences which go to show that consciousness is not localized in, or confined to the brain, but extends throughout the body; and that we are conscious, not with our brains alone, but with our entire beings. If this should be proved true, and it is likely to be, we will have to conclude that the “physical” body of man is permeated and pervaded by a conscious substance which is co-extensive with it in every part, and which is the real man. And we must also conclude that this conscious substance is Original Substance, and in a condition approaching its primal state; for it becomes apparent as we go on that complete consciousness can only exist in Original Substance in its primal state. Changes in state and form appear to limit consciousness. The consciousness of the animal creation is limited by their forms, and is little, if any, more than sufficient for the reproduction of those forms; the consciousness of the tree and plant is still more limited, but scientists now generally admit that there is consciousness in the vegetable kingdom; and in the mineral world, consciousness appears as directivity of atoms, and chemical affinity. When we come to man, however, we find a capacity for growth in consciousness which seems to be unlimited; hence we argue that man is Original Substance in its primal state, or at least, that he may attain to the primal state.

Time is; space is. Space is occupied by conscious substance; and there is but one substance, from which are made all the forms of the visible creation. The physical body of man is a form of substance as prepared through the processes of the visible creation; man, himself, is original substance or spirit, inhabiting this physical body. “In the image of God created He them.”

It will be seen that while all is God, it is also true that man is man, an independent entity, having a consciousness of his own, and that, while all is spirit, matter exists, being spirit on a varying plane of atomic pressure; and that while it is true that mind is in all and through all, perfect consciousness exists only in original substance, in pure spirit, or in God; and that the nearest approach to complete consciousness is in man, whose unlimited capacity for growth proves him to be at least, a near approach to original substance; a son of God. We close this chapter with the assertion that time is; that space is, and that space is occupied by a conscious substance which moves. We will next consider the fourth reality: Motion.

V.

MOTION.

MOTION DEFINED—DO TIME AND SPACE MOVE?— TIME, SPACE, FORCE AND ATTRACTION COMPARED. —A LOGICAL ANALYSIS OF “ATTRACTION” BY USING EMPTY SPACE AS A BASIS.

I presume no one will deny that motion is a reality; we know that we move, and we know that motion is going on all around us. The immensity of motion is staggering when we come to consider it; the motions of stars, suns, planets and satellites; of rivers, lakes and seas; of wind and clouds; of the circulation of sap and blood; of atomic vibration, and so on. Motion is the cause of light and heat; of sound, tone, color, electricity, magnetism. Differences in the shape and motion of atoms make bodies solid or gaseous, and differentiate the so-called “substances” from each other. It may be seen then that motion plays an all-important part in the work of creation; that motion is the work of creation in progress; and so the study of motion becomes very important indeed. What is motion?

That which moves is neither time nor space; it is not conceivable that either time or space should move. That which moves is substance. Motion, then, is a shifting of substance from place to place; or from one part of space to another part of space. And are there different kinds of motion? In a way, there are; and the difference depends upon the time used in making the motion, and upon the direction in which the motion is made. That is, there are fast and slow motions; circular and linear motions; and those metaphysicians who contend that time and space do not exist should consider that if there is no time there is no such thing as fast and slow motion; and if there is no space there is no motion at all, for there is no place to move to. No more preposterous absurdity has appeared in modern thought than the denial of the existence of time and space. Motion, then, is the shifting of substance in space and time. And what causes motion?

To this you will be ready to answer “forces”; and after a little consideration you will see that that is no answer at all unless you tell what force is. What is force, and how does it cause substance to move? Force is not time; we cannot think of time as causing motion. Force is not space; we cannot think of space as causing motion. If force is substance and causes motion, then substance moves itself; and if force is not substance, then it is nothing, or empty space, and empty space cannot act on substance so as to cause it to move. It is all very well for scientists to write of atoms as being “electrons” or ultimate units of force; but these electrons are either substance or they are not; and if they are not substance they are nothing but empty space, and in that case there is no substance, no existence, no consciousness, no anything. Either force is substance, or it is something in substance; and if it is something in substance which is not substance, what is it? And how can that which has no substance act on substance so as to cause motion? Force is not motion, for it is the cause of motion and the effect cannot be its own cause. Let me now try to give you a definition of force.

Force is pressure of substance against substance. Try to exert force upon anything in any other way than by pressing substance against it; can you do it? Try to cause a body to move in any other way than by pressing something against it; can you do it? Try to conceive of force as being exerted upon any body without pressing anything against it; try to conceive of force as crossing a complete vacuum where is no substance of any kind. Force is pressure of substance; that it can be anything else is not thinkable. And this brings us to the consideration of what is loosely spoken of as “attraction.” It is stated that all solid bodies “attract” each other, and that every body in the universe attracts every other body; but those who make these assertions do not tell us how the attraction is accomplished. If bodies “attract” each other, then they exert force upon each other; and if they exert force upon each other they must cause pressure upon each other; for how can a body exert force upon another except by causing pressure upon it? If “attraction” is an unsubstantial thing, then it cannot affect substance, or cause motion; if it is an unsubstantial thing, then it is empty space; for where there is no substance there is only empty space. Can you think of an “attraction” crossing an empty space? What would it be like, and how would it get across? Can you think of a “vibration” as crossing an empty space? How would it be transmitted where there was nothing to vibrate? Can you think of a force as crossing an empty space? What would be the shape, size and general appearance of a force apart from substance? By considering all these points we see that what we know as force is simply pressure of substance; or, one portion of substance pressing against another portion of substance; and that force can be nothing else than this. And we see that pressure causes motion, and that motion, in turn, causes pressure; so that force and motion are mutually convertible, each into the other. Also, we see that there is only one force, the pressure of substance; and that all the so-called “forces” of nature are merely different rates and modes of motion, and have their origin in the One Force—pressure of substance. Furthermore, we see that there is no such thing as a universal attraction which bodies exert upon each other, but that there is a universal pressure, impelling all bodies toward each other in a definite and orderly way; and to the study of this universal pressure we will next turn our attention. Time, space, substance and motion exist. Substance is conscious. Motion is caused by pressure of substance against substance, and the varying forms of substance in the visible creation are caused by differences in motion.

VI.

THE BEGINNING OF MOTION.

ORIGIN OF MOTION—AN EXPOSITION OF FORCE AND MOTION FOUNDED ON THE THEORY OF SPACE BEING OCCUPIED BY A FLUID CONSCIOUS SUBSTANCE—HAS MOTION EVER A BEGINNING?—WILL AND WILL-PRESSURE ON MOTION—WILL OF GOD THE ONE COMPELLING POWER

To understand force and motion, we must go back to a supposititious creation. Conceive, first, of space as being occupied by completely conscious substance in a perfectly fluid state; conscious throughout, alike throughout, and without motion. Now, can you conceive of motion as beginning in any part of this substance without an act of will? Can you think of your conscious self as beginning to act, and as continuing to act in an orderly and consecutive series of motions without an effort of will? If, as we have seen, original substance is completely conscious, then its every motion must be a conscious motion; and we cannot think of conscious motion without will. You are aware that you can consciously originate motion yourself; but you cannot do it without will. You are conscious substance; you can be nothing else as we have seen, and you can move or cease to move by an exertion of your will, and in moving or ceasing to move you cause the body you inhabit to move or cease to move. We see motion beginning and ceasing all around us; and we conclude that every motion had a beginning; and that the beginning of the series of creative motions which have resulted in the present universe of forms could only have been in an action of the will of Original Conscious Substance.

In the beginning, then, by an act of will, parts of substance were made to press against each other; and this pressure must pack the substance together, making it more dense, more rigid, and less fluid. This pressure, also, must originate the motions we know as light, heat, electricity and magnetism; and this will-pressure, drawing substance together and holding it in coherent masses, is what we call gravity. It is this will-pressure which brings an apple to the earth, and which holds the earth itself in its orbit; which tends to bring all the heavenly bodies together, and which yet holds them apart forever, keeping each in its own place. There is no accounting for “attraction” on other grounds than that it is the Creative Will of Original Substance, pressing itself together into forms. Every phenomenon of force or motion, from the circling sweep of a planet to the vibration of an atom, has its origin in the will of the great Intelligent Substance to which, or to whom, men have given the name of God. The earth is held together solely by the pressure of the will which permeates it; were that will relaxed, the earth would return instantly to its original fluid condition. Try to think of substance as being held together by something else than will; try to think of substance, originally fluid, as being pressed into solid shapes and held in solid shapes, and going on in orderly and consecutive motions without will; and you will find it unthinkable. The earth is a part of Conscious Being, holding itself in form by the exercise of the will which is in all substance; gravity is the will exerted by substance in pressing itself into form; so also is chemical affinity, or the directivity of atoms. All motion originates in will-pressure. Trace back the motion of the wheels to the engine and thence to the coal; and you say that the latent heat-energy of the coal is causing motion. But what lodged the heat-energy in the coal? Was it the will-pressure of gravity, in the distant ages? There is only one force, and that is the will of the Great Intelligence; the eternal creative pressure, moving substance into the various forms in which it appears to us.

In the beginning was God, Spirit, Conscious Substance, occupying the calm deeps of space. An act of will, and there was sufficient pressure to produce the particles of the luminiferous ether, whose vibrations produce light; and there was light. A further act of will, increasing pressing of substance together, and nebulous clouds appear; and by the Great Will these were pressed into spheres with all the accompanying phenomena of the motions of heat and electricity; and so the creation of forms went, on until the visible universe appeared as it is; formed of one substance, by the Will of God, and maintained and held together by the continued exercise of that Great Will.

The question of motive comes in just here. We cannot conceive of continuous, orderly and systematic action without a motive; and the question must come to our minds, what is the motive of the Great One in His work? With a little reflection, the answer must present itself. He is seeking happiness. We cannot conceive of a conscious being as continuously seeking pain, inharmony or misery. Conscious action can have but one motive, and that motive is ultimate harmony or happiness. The purpose of God in the creation can be nothing else than His own happiness, and since he is All and in All. His happiness can only be attained in the happiness of all. Remember that the purpose of the creation is the happiness of all, including yourself, and that to be unhappy is to oppose the will of the Great Intelligence.

Look now upon the immensity of the visible universe, and contemplate the power of the Creator; see that in all and through all, from the rolling on a planetary system to the rising of the sap in a blade of grass, the one impelling power is the Will of God. And this Great Intelligence is seeking pleasure and happiness in us, and through us. Shall we doubt, then, that He can and will heal our diseases, give us every good thing that we need, and guide us into all truth? In the next chapter, we shall consider man’s relation to this Great Intelligence.

VII.

MAN AND HIS POWERS.

WHAT MAKES YOU MAN—THE CONSCIENCE OF THE ALL-WISE—HEALTH THE HIGHEST GOOD—ABUNDANCE SECONDARY-LIVE IN CONSTANT AND CONSCIOUS CONTACT WITH THE GREAT INDEPENDENT SUBSTANCE AND BE IDEAL!

The universe is a Great Being, who is seeking happiness in and through the forms which he creates from his own substance; and of all these forms, man alone has power to enter into intelligent relations with the Creator. To state it in other words, the great intelligence is seeking happiness in you, and you have power to co-operate intelligently with him in the search. That is what makes you man; the power to work with God in the search for happiness. And if this Great One seeks your happiness, it must be your most permanent and perfect happiness; that is, your highest good; for being conscious of all that there is to be conscious of, and knowing all that there is to know, he is all-wise; and we cannot think of the all-wise as seeking anything less than the highest good, or as being satisfied with anything less than the highest good.

As far as your physical body is concerned, the highest good that can come to you is unquestionably perfect health. The notion that there are circumstances under which pain and sickness are better for man than perfect health must take its place among those superstitious beliefs which have been exploded and discredited. Pain and sickness may be good for man if he takes them rightly, but perfect health is always far better if he takes that rightly; and it is a self-evident proposition that God can find complete delight in man only as man is completely whole. The Great Intelligence, then, seeks perfect health and wholeness in you; and the substance of the Living One, filled with life and power, presses upon you on every side, seeking to impart life and power to you, but you being a portion of that great intelligence, are supreme within your own personality, and so you will have health or not as you receive and recognize this health of God, If you fail to recognize and receive the All-health, and if you recognize disease within yourself, you prevent God from reaching you; and you form within yourself that which you recognize as existing. If you continuously recognize the perfect health of the Intelligent Substance, in which you live and move and are, and of which you are a part, you cannot be otherwise than well.

It is another self-evident truth that man’s highest good demands that he should have the use of all the things he is capable of using in order to live all the life he is capable of living. Man’s highest good, and his real happiness can be attained only when he has abundance for every physical and mental need. Just as it is true that God cannot fully delight in you if you are physically sick, so it is true that he cannot find happiness through you if you are mentally or physically starved, or lacking the essentials for life, growth and enjoyment. Happiness consists in living fully; and God can live fully in you only when you have everything to live with. So, the desire of the Great One for you must be that you shall have abundance.

But here again you are supreme within yourself. What if God presses abundance upon you, and you persist in recognizing only privation and poverty? If that be the case, you will remain poor in the midst of abundance, as millions of people are doing; and to be poor, or in want is to oppose the will of God, who seeks happiness in all, and for all. We are parts of himself, and what can he do when his will is opposed and his bounty rejected by a part of himself?

The solution of man’s problems of health, wealth, and growth can be reached when man unifies himself with God, the Great Intelligent Spirit, Substance, who seeks life and happiness in man; and man can unify himself with God only by constantly recognizing God; by considering and acknowledging God, and by looking to God in prayer. The prayer of faith is really an affirmation; and an affirmation is the recognition of an existing fact. When you live in constant and conscious contact with the great intelligent substance you can have no sickness; and his desire for happiness in you will cause the exertion of that mighty will-pressure to bring to you all the things that make for your highest good. The man who can completely unify himself with the divine substance becomes a center toward which the divine will impels every desirable thing; and that man will not, and cannot, lack for anything.

The universe is a Great Being; an intelligent substance, occupying space and using time. His desire leads Him to create forms from His own substance, and in these forms He seeks happiness. Man has but to unify himself with this Great Being to secure the supply of every need, and the gratification of every desire. Man only needs to learn how to pray and how to work.

Transcriber’s Notes

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Table of Contents

- What Is Truth?

- I.

- TIME.

- II.

- SPACE.

- III.

- SUBSTANCE.

- IV.

- CONSCIOUSNESS.

- V.

- MOTION.

- VI.

- THE BEGINNING OF MOTION.

- VII.

- MAN AND HIS POWERS.

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE