Chapter VIII - Footsteps Of Truth
247:1
The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote
The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote
period, and is not so disastrous as the chronic belief.
Eyes and teeth renewed
247:3
I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost,
I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost,
sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew,
had a return of sight. Another woman at
ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi-
cuspids, and one molar. One man at sixty
had retained his full set of upper and lower teeth without
a decaying cavity.
Eternal beauty
247:10
Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty
Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty
of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as
mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion
form the transient standards of mortals. Im-
mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its
own, – the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women
are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind
and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness
which transcend all material sense.
The divine loveliness
247:19
Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be-
Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be-
ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu-
manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which
dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re-
flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form,
outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal
with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches
the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with
starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.
247:28
The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes
The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes
for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal
over age and decay.
247:31
The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and
The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and
more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure
248:1
in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-
in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-
dom of spiritual harmony.
Love's endowment
248:3
Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon
Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon
its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less
than beautiful. Men and women of riper
years and larger lessons ought to ripen into
health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness
or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal
freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images
of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each
day brings to a nearer tomb.
Mental sculpture
248:12
The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in
The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in
order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors,
working at various forms, moulding and chisel-
ing thought. What is the model before mortal
mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering?
Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro-
ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious
sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all
mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding
it before your gaze continually. The result is that you
are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life‑
work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline
and deformity of matter models.
Perfect models
248:25
To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect
models in thought and look at them continually,
or we shall never carve them out in grand and
noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice,
health, holiness, love – the kingdom of heaven – reign
within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until
they finally disappear.