Article June 30, 1917 Issue

Inertia

BERTHA V. ZEREGA

If asked to define the term inertia, the majority of people would promptly reply, "Inaction," and leave the subject there. The writer shared this popular misconception until one day, while conversing with some college boys who were amusing themselves with the seemingly childish diversion of spinning a top, she was surprised to have one of them ask her if this were not a beautiful example of inertia.

Glancing at the almost perfect illustration of perpetual motion she replied to this seemingly absurd inquiry, "Why, that is not an example of inertia!" Whereupon one of the students recited the following definition, which he said he had lately committed to memory for a physics test: "Inertia is that property of a body which tends to make it remain in that state of rest or motion in which it lies, and if in motion, to continue in a straight line unless deviated by an outside force." The seeming inconsistency of the question was then dispelled through the explanation that if the top were not gradually stopped by the friction of the atmosphere in which it revolved, the law of inertia would cause it to remain forever in that humming rhythm of perpetual motion.

What an excellent example of mortal mind and its attitude toward itself and its problems! thought the writer, while pondering the lesson learned. From a metaphysical standpoint the comparison is unmistakable; for how determined the carnal mind is to have its own way, and how persistently it holds to "that state of rest or motion in which it lies"—its self-centered mental indolence or its misdirected energy—until deviated by the "outside force" of correct spiritual thinking, and so awakened to yield obedience to "the mind of Christ." Sin, disease, and death, fleshly beliefs of pain or pleasure, all inharmonious convictions of whatever nature, are but different phases of the inertia of mortal mind, which because of its tenacious obstinacy and fear tends to continue indefinitely in the "straight line" of sense-limitation, or "in the direct line of matter," as Mrs. Eddy expresses it on page 189 of Science and Health, unless scientifically arrested in this course of inevitable self-destruction and compelled by the truth to abandon its erroneous method of procedure.

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Equilibrium
June 30, 1917
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