Page:The Quimby Manuscripts.djvu/187

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CHRIST OR SCIENCE
183

MIND IS NOT INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence contains no thought, nor opinion or reason. Mind contains them all. Disease is the offspring of the mind, not of intelligence. All the above is the result of a chemical change, to bring about and develop some scientific law that will put man in possession of a knowledge of himself, so that he will avoid the evils which man [through his ignorance] is subject to.

Thoughts are like electric sparks. Knowledge classifies and arranges them in a language nearer itself so as to use them for a medium with which to communicate an idea to another. This is the state of all men. Under this state of mind all the laws of science have been developed. Every day brings to light some new idea not yet developed, but bursting forth to the natural world. During this process, the mind undergoes very powerful changes which affect the body, even to the destruction of the same. But this destruction contains no wisdom, it is only the destruction of the idea. The effect still agitates the mind till its end is accomplished. Then the mind returns to its quiet state, and the law is understood.

While all this is going on, as in all sciences, ideas come forth and the minds are affected, and try for the prize; for instance, the idea of navigating the air. All minds are excited. Experiments are tried; accidents, as they are called happen, and lives are lost to this world of error. But that which governs life cannot be lost, but must mingle in with the idea of progression—not losing its identity. What man loses in weight or matter, he makes up in science or knowledge. Therefore, accidents as they are called must happen, and we say, woe to them that are affected; it would have been better, as we think, if they had never been born. This would be true, if it were the end of their existence. Now as these laws develop themselves, is the trouble in the laws or in ourselves? Accidents are the errors or diseases. Correcting these errors and establishing the Truth or Science is curing the disease or establishing the law.

I have said that when any new idea comes up a class of persons enter into the investigation of it, but very few are ever able to put the idea into practice, or get the prize, though most all can understand something of the theory.