Article October 17, 1903 Issue

The Unit of Principle

FLORENCE W. FLOURNOY

The mathematical unit,—one,—upon which the decimal scale, and from that, the whole system of mathematics is constructed, is presented first to the thought of the child as "one apple," "one block." Through the accompanying symbol which his sense cognize he catches the first gleam of the eternal fact of identity. At length he finds that the "one" is not always united to apple or block in thought, and thus he begins to think of "one" abstractly. He represents it still to his senses by a little mark, but this is so poor a symbol of the wonderful mental activity expressed, that to one who does not understand the rules of mathematics, a problem in calculus may seem but a confused mass of letters and figures. The mathematician has learned that the "one" of his first object-lesson has a fixed value in the thought of mankind by virtue of its relation to a basic law. He has also learned that this relation is governed by laws or rules. Then when he thinks of this "one," developing it according to these rules, he reveals the facts concerning this basis; namely, mathematical truth. The close analogy between the science of numbers and the Science of Life as we are learning it in Christian Science, is evident. The unit or basis of all true mental computation is the Christ, or spiritual idea, which bears a fixed relation to the Principle of being. We find this spiritual idea through the spiritualization of thought made possible by the study of the Bible and our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker G. Eddy. While we look at our apple, our orange, or material man to interpret it, we find our progress in apprehending this idea very slow. At length, when we learn to look from matter to Mind, from man to God, and trust Truth as His own interpreter through our faithful adherence to His laws, we find our path becomes clear and our goal certain. We find the reason for the Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount; and as we strive to live them, the Principle is revealed in a greater understanding and manifestation of the facts of life. We cannot prove the truth of mathematics without knowledge of the mathematical unit. We cannot compute mathematical facts without law, for law and unit are required to reveal the facts of a self-existent cause or Principle, which we call God and which is manifested in all truth.

We are all laboring so to spiritualize our own thought as to be able to discern clearly "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh, to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health, p. 583).

We must remember that as Christian Scientists we stand in much the same relation to the patient or beginner, that the apple bears to the thought of the child. Let us strive to have each word and deed become the highest expression to the human, of our spiritual reflection of the word of God.

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