2. Thus does lightning reveal a subtle power constantly busy to produce changes in the inorganic world; and, as dead languages now seldom heard were once ruling among the nations, so does a giant tooth in siberia, or a fossil in the depth of the Earth, not only bear record of the evolution of past ages, but thereby explains to you the origin of the hills and valleys which you inhibit today.
3. In this way a generalization of facts which are rare, or form the exception, has been the magnetic needle guiding to all the discoveries of inductive science.
4. This method is founded upon reason and experience and thereby destroyed superstition, precedent and conventionality.
5. It has been more than a century since Mr. Bacon recommended this method of study, to which the civilized nations owe the greater part of their prosperity and the more valuable part of their knowledge; purging the mind from narrow prejudices, denominating theories, more effectually than by the keenest irony; calling the attention of mankind from heaven to earth more successfully by surprising experiments than by the most forcible demonstrations of their ignorance; educating the inventive faculties more powerfully by the near prospect of useful discoveries thrown open to all, than by talk of bringing to light the innate laws of your mind.
6. The method of Mr. Bacon has seized the spirit and aim of the great Philosophers of Greece and carried them into effect by the new means of observation which another age offered; thus gradually revealing a wonderous field of knowledge in the infinite space of astronomy, in the microscopic egg of the embryology, and the dim age of geology; disclosing an order of the pulse which the logic of Mr. Aristotle could never have unveiled, and analysing into formerly unknown elements the material combinations which no dialectic of the scholastics could force apart.
7. It has lengthened life; it has mitigated pain; it has extinguished diseases; it has increased the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to the mariner; it has spanned great rivers with bridges of form unknown to your fore-fathers; it has guided the thunderbolt from heaven to Earth; it has lighted up night with the splendor of day; it has extended the range of human vision; it has multiplied the power of the human muscles; it has accelerated motion; it has annihilated distance; it has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices, all dispatch of business; it has enabled mankind to decend into the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of the Earth.
8. This then is the true nature and scope of induction. But the greater the success which mankind have achieved in the inductive science, the more does the whole tenor of their teachings and example impress you with the necessity of observing carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at your command the individual facts before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
9. You ascertain the bearing of the spark drawn from the electric machine under every variety of circumstances, that you thus may be emboldened with Mr. Franklin to address, in the form of a kite, the question to the cloud about the nature of the lightning. You assure yourself with the exactness of Mr. Galileo, of the manner in which bodies fall, that with Mr. Newton you may dare to ask the moon about the force that fastens it to the earth.
10. In short, by the value you set upon truth; by your hope in a steady and universal progress; by your resolve not to permit a tyrannical prejudice to neglect or multilate unwelcome facts, you rear the superstructure of science upon the board and unchangeable basis of full attention paid to the most isolated as well as the most frequent phenomena.
11. An ever-increasing material may be collected by observation, but the accumulated facts differ in their value to assist the explanation of nature, and as you esteem most highly those useful qualities of mankind which are of the rarest occurence, so does natural Philosophy sift the facts and attach a pre-eminent importance which cannot be accounted for by the usual and daily observation of life.
12. If you find that certain persons seem to possess unusual power, what are you to conclude? Firstly you may say, it is not so, which is simply an acknowledgement of your lack of information, because every honest investigator admits that there are many strange and heretofore unaccountable phenomena constantly occuring. Those, however, who become acquainted with the creative power of thought, will no longer consider them unaccountable.
13. Secondly, you may say that they are the result of super-natural interference; but a scientific understanding of natural laws will convince you that there is nothing super-natural. Every phenomenon is the result of an accurate, definite cause, and the cause is an immutable law or principle, which operates with invariable precision, whether the law is put into operation consciously or unconsciously.
14. Thirdly, you may say that you are on "forbidden ground", that there are some things which you should not know. This objection was used against every advance in human knowledge. Every individual who ever advanced a new idea, whether a Mr. Columbus, Mr. Darwin, Mr. Galileo, Mr. Watt, Mr. Fulton, Mr. Stephenson, Mr. Faraday, Mr. Emerson, or even yourself was subjected to ridicule or persecution. Hence this objection should receive no serious consideration. On the contrary, you should carefully consider every fact which is brought to your attention; by doing this you will more readily ascertain the law upon which it is based.
15. It will be found that the creative power of thought will explain every possible condition of experience, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
16. Thought will bring about conditions in correspondence with the predominant mental attitude. Therefore, as fear is a powerful form of thought, you fear disaster, disaster will be the certain result of your thinking. It is this form of thought which frequently sweeps away the result of many years of toil and effort.
17. If you think of some form of material wealth you may secure it. By concentrated thought the required conditions will be brought about, and the proper effort put forth, which will result in bringing about the circumstances necessary to realize your desires ; but you often find that when you secure the things you thought you wanted, they do not have the effect you expected. That is, the satisfaction is only temporary, or possibly is the reverse of what you expected.
18. What is the proper method of procedure? What are you to think in order to secure what you really desire? What you and I desire, what everyone is seeking, is health, wealth, happiness, love and harmony. If you can be truly happy, you shall have everything the world can give. If you are happy, you can make others happy.
19. But you cannot be happy unless you have health, strength, congenial friends, pleasant environment, sufficient supply, not only to take care of your necessities but to provide for those comforts and luxuries to which you are entitled.
20. The old orthodox way of thinking was to be "a worm" to be satisfied with low portions whatever it is; but the modern idea is to know that you are entitled to the best of everything, that the "Father and I are One" and that the "Father" is the Universal Mind, the Creator, the Original Substance from which all things proceed.
21. Now admitting that this is all true in theory, and it has been taught for three thousand years, and is the essence of every system of Philosophy, how are you to make it practicle in your life? How are you to get the actual, tangible results here and now?
22. In the first place, you must put your knowledge into practice. Nothing can be accomplished in any other way. The athelete may read books and lessons on physical training all their life, but unless they begin to give out strength by actual work they will never receive any strength; but they will have to give it first. It is exactly the same with you; you shall get exactly what you give, but you shall have to give it first. It will then return to you many fold, and the giving is simply a mental process, because thoughts are causes and conditions are effects; therefore in giving thoughts of courage, inspiration, health or help of any kind, you are setting causes in motion which will bring about their effect.
23. Thought is a spiritual activity and therefore is creative; but, make no mistake, thought will create nothing unless it is consciously, systematically and constructively directed; and herein is the difference between idle thinking, which is simply a dissipation of effort, and constructive thinking, which means practically unlimited achievement.
24. You have found that everything you get comes to you by the Law of Attraction. A happy thought cannot exist in an unhappy consciousness; therefore the consciousness must change, and, as the consciousness changes, all conditions necessary to meet the changed consciousness must gradually change, in order to meet the requirements of the new situation.
25. In creating a mental image or an ideal, you are projecting a thought into the universal substance from which all things are created. This universal substance is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Are you to inform the omniscient as to the proper channel to be used to materialized your demand? Can the finite advise the infinite? This is the cause of failure. You recognize the omnipresence of the universal substance, but you fail to appreciate the fact that this substance is not only omnipresent, but is omnipotent and omniscient, and consequently will set causes in motion concerning which you may be entirely ignorant.
26. You can best conserve your interests by recognizing the infinite energy, force, power and infinite wisdom of the universal mind. In this way you become a channel whereby the infinite can bring about the realization of your desire. This means that recognition brings about realization.
