Article October 16, 1920 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Roger Babson, Ashely H. Thorndlike

["Popularity"—The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, U.S.A., Aug. 5, 1920]

At this stage of the world's history, peasants become premiers and "poor boys" presidents, with the rousing acclamations of their peers and with wordy protestations of sympathetic support, while around those filling other posts in the world of affairs there arises at times a wave of adulation that makes what is known as popular heroes. For a brief time, in the eyes and hearts of their communities they are supreme; their every word is law; their every act unquestioned right. They are enjoying popularity, that is, the trust and esteem of the people. But the man who allows himself to rely upon mere human faith in a human being soon learns the flimsiness of it, and begins to murmur about the fickleness of the people.

Now, in fact, all that is fickle is the human mind, of which the people, as the term is commonly used, are but one manifestation. Grasping this fact ever so slightly but not understanding its metaphysical significance, officeholders seek to discover what this phase of the human mind desires. In various ways the temper of constituencies is sought, and followed, where office is considered as a prize above Principle. But no amount of seeking to understand the human mind as a reality will place a man on a firm foundation. Just as, in order to understand the mathematical fact of two times two, one studies the right result, four, and thereby any result other than four takes its inevitable place—is understood—as illusion, so in order really to deal intelligently with the varied manifestations of the human mind, the metaphysician studies to understand the divine Mind, as whose manifestation he finds all reality, which the human mind merely claims to counterfeit.

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