Mental Science

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.

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.