Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1906).djvu/104

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Science and Health

this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the heart's desire, —

the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still.

The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent salutes the nostrils.

How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from illusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are Illusions not ideas emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, proceeding from the brain or from matter, are offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material beliefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another are called spirits.

To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea; but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood through the physical senses. Excite the organ of veneration or religious faith, and the individual manifests profound adoration. Excite the opposite development, and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not proceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena, for both arise from mortal belief.

Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love. It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows Trance speaking illusion the possibilities derived from divine Mind, though it is said to be a gift whose endowment is obtained from books or received from the impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who