Article April 23, 1910 Issue

MAN AND THE DAISY

ELIZABETH A. POGSON.

The writer has often read and pondered Mrs. Eddy's teaching that man is "the compound idea of God" (Science and Health, p.475), trying to gain a clearer view of her own and her brother's real individuality and place; but she never seemed to gain a clear and definite understanding of this profound truth until the light was suddenly revealed to her through a child who was reciting a lesson in nature study. The explanation was as follows: "The daisy is called a compound flower, because each little petal is a perfect and complete flower in itself. Each gains its own nutriment—life, substance—from the same source; each does its own work, and cannot hinder or take upon itself the work of another petal, but every petal is necessary in its place to make a perfect daisy."

At once I saw myself and all my brothers and sisters as the daisy petals,—each perfect and complete, each entirely independent of the other, each reflecting Life, Truth, intelligence, and substance, the one source of being, divine Mind. Our work, then, is to cling steadfastly to that Mind in all things, and the infinite qualities of that Mind will be reflected in us and we shall be clothed, like the daisy petal, in white raiment, the symbol of purity. It is only when we turn away from that source and think that another is necessary for our welfare, or that another's work could be done better by us, or that one is in the wrong place, that we, like the fallen petal, become brown and faded.

With this realization came great joy. Reasoning from cause, as we are taught to do in Christian Science, we have perfect God, perfect Mind; therefore man, His compound idea, must be and is perfect. Then all fear that we can lose our identity vanishes, for we see man generically (symbolized by the daisy) and man individually (symbolized by the petals), each complete and in his right place, each as important and necessary as the other, each distinct, but one in unity, and all encircled by the everlasting arms of Love.

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