Article January 16, 1937 Issue

Intelligence

[Written Especially for Young People]

ROBERT S. VAN ATTA

One of the great joys of childhood and youth is that of learning new things. Who does not love the thrill of comprehending a new idea! How the face brightens and the pulse quickens as the light of understanding dawns in consciousness! The joy of unfolding intelligence is an experience common to all, but mankind on the whole is woefully ignorant of its spiritual cause. From this ignorance comes the failure of mankind to understand the problems of human life and to think its way through them to right achievement.

Mortals have been sadly limited by the belief that intelligence or mind pertains to the corporeal personality, that it resides within the body, that the nature and extent of it depend upon race, ancestry, and other human factors. The effort is then made to force understanding into this personal mind, and to regard it as able to create thoughts. One person may believe himself to have a good mind, another a poor one. Some seem able to use what they know at will, but others believe themselves deprived of control of the mental faculties at important moments. Of vital interest to everyone is the question voiced by Job, "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?"

Actually, intelligence is not personal and does not reside in or proceed from a material body. It is evident that true ideas exist for everyone to perceive. Thus it happens that ideas may be perceived simultaneously by persons working independently of each other. These facts lead to the concept of divine Mind and its intelligence as an infinite realm from which individuals receive continually ideas of wisdom, understanding, confidence, beauty, and usefulness.

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