Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
177:1
without making an indenture. Errors are the least
without making an indenture. Errors are the least
perceived that lie not upon the plane of your own ex-
perience, and sink so deeply into the nature of others
that you never realize a serpent lies in your path until
you feel its bite.
177:6
Society is often a silly juror, that judges according
Society is often a silly juror, that judges according
to testimony on one side; and honesty often agrees too
late on its verdict, for fear of wronging the criminal;
hence people with work on hand have little time to
furnish gossip with law and evidence. To reconstruct
timid justice and let Truth be heard above falsehood,
is the work of time; a good cause cannot be popular at
first; to live wrong and talk right, avails little in bene-
fiting one's self or others. The spiritually-minded, and
honest man, although his beliefs are built in solid ma-
sonry of thought, is open to the approach and recogni-
tion of Truth; therefore he is the only apt student of
the science of Life; we have no task in teaching him,
nor does he persistently turn back to error; or avenge
himself on us. Such an one should be a Paul to the
modern Romans; his treasures are Truth, not laid up
on earth. Aspirations pure and God-ward, steadfast
purpose, honesty, understanding, and independent ac-
tion, alone fit us for the science of Life.
177:25
The evil deceive the good, but putting aside the vail
The evil deceive the good, but putting aside the vail
that fails between goodness and depravity; one has a
more unerring guide than the other; this guide is re-
pugnance to evil, and their first impressions with
regard to individual character. When the good suffer
from contact with certain individuals, it is a hint that
something is wrong in those individuals; but this hint
is not always heeded, and then comes the irresistible
178:1
conflict and separation between them, for good can
conflict and separation between them, for good can
never join hands with evil to gain peace, place, or
power. The impure are at peace only with the impure,
virtue is a rebuke to vice; and Truth to falsehood, etc.
Whosoever, therefore, has drank at the fountain of Soul
to the purification of sense, is in the harmony of sci-
ence that blends not with sin. Let him come in con-
tact with the sick, or sinner, a tobacconist, or an im-
biber of alcoholic drinks, and though a word be not
exchanged between them, in a majority of cases the
scientist will exterminate sickness and the bad habit;
but in some instances an individual is too opinionated,
or dishonest, to yield without a struggle, or to acknowl-
edge when he has yielded, and only in case he does this,
will the good done be recognized above the evil. The
meeting of opposite minds, is a spontaneous separation
when this commences, the unconscious individuals are
enemies without the preliminaries of becoming such;
else they unite on a new base, and the evil yield to
the good or the subtlety of error, conquers even the
latter; this separation of tares and wheat is obedience
to Science.
178:23
Never soil your garments with conservatism, or let
Never soil your garments with conservatism, or let
another's error dim the lustre of your own Truth;
always separate yourself from evil. Right is radical,
and those walking in the light are like eyes accustomed
to the light, that must have it, for they cannot see
in darkness; while those accustomed to darkness, like
it, and push boldly on. Flowers turn to the sun, or
fade and lose fragrance in the darkness. If you have
grown out of former things, hesitate not to put them
away, and fear not, for conscience' sake, to overstep the