find ourselves inhabiting Space exactly as we do now, except without earthly bodies or the necessity of sustaining them. It must be so, in order to avoid the violation of the creative fiat of Egoism. In view of this, it must be seen that any comparison we make of ourselves with Infinity must contain the Egoism of our size and shape, and that the Infinite to US and for US must have that size and shape, and when we scrutinize this we find that it is only as it should be. All the Infinite we can conceive for us is that which is within us. Our Consciousness must always be the size and quality of our Infinity to us. The perfection we can conceive, as with the most perfect environment we can arrive at, is our highest ideal of Perfection, and in projecting this ideal as our conception of the qualities of Infinity we are projecting all that is or can be in us. We cannot do more. If we do less we are presuming that Infinity is not as good as we might be if in its place. How good can we conceive ourselves to be? If situated as Infinity is, possessed of all things, we would be without avarice, envy, jealousy, or fear. Having arrived at conscious Perfection we would be ambitious to go no higher. Possessing all knowledge, we could desire to know no more. The Infinite Urge to Rightness will make us love everything, hate nothing, eager only that everything, everybody, be equally perfect and happy. This certainly cannot be considered a debased ideal of Infinity, as it is the best that can possibly exist in the best as well as the worst of us. It brings Infinity nearer to us, as it shows that we may and shall be infinitely good, never perhaps on this experiential plane, but certainly upon that plane to which our Infinitely Urged progress is taking us. Thus, consider it from what point we may, Man's ideal of the qualities of Infinity are those of his perfect self. So it is through all the Thinking Universe, each Consciousness obeying the laws of Infinity as the laws of its Perfect Self. Man alone reasons and must find his own Rightness. Until he finds this perfect Rightness he will not be perfectly happy; i. e., he will not be in harmony with his environment. Examining his progress by the light afforded us by history and science, we find how greatly Reason has widened his horizon. In his conception of Infinity, consider how far we have traveled from the Israelitish ideal! To the Hebrews the Infinite was their God and the God of nobody and nothing else. This was the narrow Egoism of all the peoples of the world at the time. It found voice in the prophets, who, speaking for Jehovah, cried, "I am the Lord thy God. There is no other God before me. I am a jealous God." Now it is dawning that the God, the Good, the Infinite, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, enlarged twenty centuries ago to be the God, the Good, the Infinite of the Gentiles as well, has again enlarged to be the God, the Good, the Infinite, the Father of everybody, of everything that is, the Mind of the Thinking Universe. It is here we find ourselves thus early in this study: In quality the Infinite is our perfect selves. In quantity-we must think of numbers in terms of Time and Space-Infinity can be and is countless billions of billions of perfect selves of every species, class, and variety. Insomuch as the Infinite is Omnipresent it is everywhere, always in everything, and in everything is that thing's ideal of Perfection. Now let us turn to an examination of the wonders of its workings. CHAPTER IV. INFINITE LIfe and the BEGINNING OF ITS The origin of Life does not concern us, as we cannot know of it. The human mind cannot conceive of the condition of Nothingness, which must have preceded Life if anything could have preceded it. We must all instantly admit that nothing appears in response to our mental search for anything that could have been prior to Life, Mind. It is not within us. But Infinity is within us, and therefore we must reason that knowledge of its origin is not within Infinity itself, that it did not begin, that it has always been. The same line of reasoning leads us to the conclusion that it cannot and will not end, that it always will be. Speculations, therefore, with regard to the origin of Life must always be fruitless except in weakening the mind that attempts them. Though our minds cannot grasp a condition of nothingness, they can grasp a condition when there was only one thing-Life, Mind. Accepting this condition as our first possible premise, let us examine it before proceeding to find the minor premise. It is well described by the Hebrew seer as the universe "without form and without void," that is, nothing had taken shape, yet there was no emptiness, Mind being All of it, Everywhere. It was, as it is, Indivisible, for there was nothing to divide, there being no dimensions, as there cannot be where there is no Thing. It was, as it is, Immobile, there being no place for it to go. It was its own Positive, its own Negative, the Absolute. We can conceive of no Mind desiring to be Alone. We know of no Mind so great that it does not desire companionship. To procure this companionship Infinite Mind expressed itself, exactly how or when we are not sufficiently developed to find out. Our Reason, seeking the first Expression and founding our judgment upon the necessities of the case, concludes that Life, acting and re-acting within its Positive and Negative self, produced motion controlled by the Positive, by these vibrations of varying degrees of velocity forming constrictions or vortices of its Negative self, and these constrictions, dense or volatile according to their vibrations, constituted what we designate as "Matter." Science teaches us that these Expressions were made in their simplest form, and are known as Elemental Atoms, between eighty and ninety of which have been discovered by research. This theory of the original Expression appears reasonable. By beginning with the protoplasm, Infinite Mind has been continuously |