Chapter XV - Genesis
Deep-reaching interrogations
550:3
If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the
If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the
human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.
God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms
and preserves the individuality and identity
of animals as well as of men. God cannot
become finite, and be limited within material bounds.
Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed
through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate
what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be-
gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being
and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it
will hereafter.
Stages of existence
550:15
Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The
Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The
continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-
poreal – as beginning and ending, and with
birth, decay, and dissolution as its component
stages – hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes
our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting‑
point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life
is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry-
onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for
Deity.
550:25
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-
ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor
does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed
monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous
and absurd as the supposition that Spirit – the pure and
holy, the immutable and immortal – can originate the
impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science
repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses