Article August 2, 1913 Issue

MENTAL CROSSROADS

GEORGE H. MOORE.

There are very few subjects occupying human thought on which mankind as a whole agree. The varying philosophies of life and substance, the divergent influences controlling conduct, the multiplied theories of science, art, and government which throw mankind into a kaleidoscopic jumble of schools and creeds,—these are all tentative and irreconcilable, because in fact the very problem which such theories postulate and then attempt to solve, is itself a fickle mirage of ever-changing color and form. Mrs. Eddy's statement that "mortal existence is an enigma. Every day is a mystery" (Science and Health, p. 70), expresses this fact, as does also her conclusion that the only solution of the riddle of mortal existence is to be reached through a radical change of base for human thought. Her further teaching, that thoughts are things, that "temporal things are the thoughts of mortals," "eternal things (verities) are God's thoughts" (Science and Health, p. 337), constitutes a veritable pathfinder in the wilderness to those who will follow her rigorous logic to its natural outcome.

It is evident that the only real creation is that which expresses divine Mind, and that the temporal counterfeits which seem briefly to express the thoughts of men, must be as unstable and indeterminate as the mentalities which conceive them. There is no such thing as on material universe which looks alike, behaves alike, or offers like inducements to us all. The natural scientist or the philosopher, attempting to explain this apparent world of men and things, first assumes certain statements as fundamental or axiomatic truth. On these as a basis, or with these as a working hypothesis, he proceeds to erect his mental structure or theory of the universe. In like manner, every man, whether he ever thinks about it or not, either inherits, formulates for himself, or imbibes from the schools, certain more or less definite theories or habits of thought in regard to himself and his surroundings, which give aim, quality, and tone to all his conscious life and make or unmake his career.

We call this molding influence character; but even so, character itself is best gaged by dominant desire, which in turn is born of one's working hypothesis as to what in life is worth while, what is enduring and true. A man who builds a career on the supposition that mere wealth is the greatest benefactor of the race and therefore the greatest good for the individual, may end his career as a financier who thinks only in terms of the dollar, whose only heaven is a dream of affluence, whose greatest fear is poverty. The artist lives in a universe whose best good is expressed in terms of beauty, whose conception of evil finds vent in ugliness, barrenness, or discord. The scholar lives in a world whose polar extremes are culture and ignorance. The criminal, the morally weak or degenerate, inhabit a world where every man's hand is raised against his brother, and a seemingly brutal law restrains every natural impulse and desire. And so the dream of mortal existence goes on, initiating its paltry suppositions as to the meanings and values of life, erecting thereon its ephemeral mental structures, built only to be demolished by a later and possibly better-gorunded conception of reality. Well might the master Christian say to those who vainly pursued false ideals, to the exclusion of the good and the true, "Ye fools and blind"!

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