The Llano colonist. [volume] (Llano, Calif.) 191?-1937, 1922-08-12

wants OF the time in splits Of its fam
ciful conception of the nothingness Of
matter cannot be successfully denied.
1t cures disease whether there IS any
disease or not; it heals sick bodies ev-
en- if the bodies have no existence. Ii
has proved blessing in the world, and
it now seems probable that its influ-
ence is only just beginning. Hereto
fore it has spread without any great
effort on the part Of its leaders; But
now it seems that lecturers are to be
sent abroad into every nook and cor
ner where they will be received, and
a large and concerted effort made to
convert all Christendom to its ideas,
This looks like a large contract, but
! do not see that have any quarrel
to make with the projectors Of it. Ii
lis just what we Mental Scientists in
tend to do with our own ideas when
we feel that we have popularized them
sufficiently by our writings.
But Mental Science. tho holding a
few of the ideas of Christian Science,
IS far enough from being the same
thing. In some respects it is the direct
opposite. Instead of believing that
matter is deIusion and the senses mere
phantoms OF ignorance, it goes to the
other extreme and asserts that matter
is a living, vital substance, every atom
Of which either thinks or holds in la
Itency the power to think when it shall
have evolved to higher life. 1t is diff
tlcult for great many to understand
this. what" says doubter, does
the potato | ate for dinner thinkp"
reply yes, in its way, it thinks. 1t could
not have drawn the substances from
the ground on which it fed and grew
without it possessed low form of
thought. IT NEW WHAT 1T WANT
led; and to know anything predicates
ability to think. Moreover, but for the
faculty Of thought in the potato, there
would have been no affinity between it
and the person whom it fed; conse-
quently it would not have fed him. If
he had eaten it, it would have been
ike so much iron or clay in his sto-
mach; quite indigestibIe. But there
was an affinity between it and the
person who ate it, in consequence the
thousand little mouths of the digestive
system were attracted to it and alb
sorbed it. There was thought at the
bottom of this entire transaction. There
was thought in the potato that grew.
There was thought in the one whose
inclination attracted the potato to him
self. There was thought in all the my
Rad life cells that absorbed it after it
had passed into the human stomach.
Now, since there was an attraction
between the potato and the person who
ate it, how was it that the attraction
on the part of the eater was so great
as to draw the potato within his own
organization, instead of the potato
drawing the man 10 itself for food?
1t was because the man was the most
developed thinker of the two; in con-
sequence of which the potato was ne
gative to him and subject to his more
intense capacity to desire.
The higher the capacity to think, the
more positive and powerful the crea-
ture is. The two words. positive and
negative" explain the entire phenom-
ena of growth. These two words are
at the bottom Of that great science
called evolution. These two words rest
on and spring from two other words,
Intelligence and ignorance. The po-
tato was negative to the man; that is,
it possessed less intelligence than the
man, or the man could not have COM
PEELED it to serve his purpose. But the
potato did possess a certain degree Of
intelligence, or else there would have
been no affinity between it and the
man, and it would not have responded
to his desire. The affinity had to ex-
lst or they would not have come to-
gether. Positive and negative are the
poles of that mighty power which ex-
presses itself in the law of affinity
the law which draws atoms into reIa-
ton with each other, and which is the
basis of all organized intelligence. the
starting point and the operating factor
all thru the universe of those objects
which are cognizable by the senses OF
man. The trees, the animals, the sand
heaps, the waters of old ocean, man
himself with his wonderful organiza-
ton, our planetary system and the
whole of that vast system of planets, so
immense as to cloud the keenest com
prehension in trying to get conception
OF it, are all held in place and under
the guidance of this mighty law of at