dividual * * * ideas.”[1] By “understanding” (intellectus) Spinoza means that part of the mind which is real and eternal, just what Mrs. Eddy means by “immortal Mind.”
The far reaching import in a philosophic system of the theory just given may be easily seen. The human mind is related to the divine mind as an idea of the human mind is considered as being related to the human mind. But as there is no human mind in reality the ideas that we are in the habit of ascribing to it are in fact ideas of the divine mind. So our thoughts and ideas, when we really think and form ideas, are caused by the divine mind and partake of its qualities. Human thinking is divine thinking. The pantheistic character of both systems has hitherto been proved. We have here a parallel between defining lines of the two systems.
To make doubly plain and positive this point let Mrs. Eddy and Proclus speak again. She says: “All that really exists is the divine mind and its idea;”[2] “When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His;”[3] “Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind;”[4] “There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence.”[5]
Proclus says: “It (intellect or mind) is not
- ↑ Eth. 2. 49. Corollary. Proof.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 151.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 205f.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 151.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 588.
