Editorial February 8, 1975 Issue

Don't Limit Yourself

Naomi Price

Tradition has it that a small boy was once asked if he could play the violin. "I expect so," he replied. "I've never tried."

While people who have tried are likely to be quick to say that the boy was expecting rather a lot of his own capabilities, they may also admit that there is a good deal to be said for such youthful self-confidence. Despite the many opportunities there are today not only for doing but for learning to do useful and interesting things, on the whole mankind are too prone to ignore all but a very few, believing they would be incapable of displaying the necessary skill to be successful in the others. When persuaded to venture into some activity they had before considered to be beyond their capacity, they have sometimes been astounded to find they have an aptitude for it that they had totally overlooked and that they now expect to have much pleasure in developing.

"We are all capable of more than we do,"^{ Science and Health, p. 89;} writes Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science devotes much of her book to showing that man, the image of God, is endowed with limitless spiritual substance and intelligence. This divine inheritance, understood, gives each one of us the power to express himself intelligently, eloquently, and winningly. As well, we have the natural gift derived from Soul to bring inspiration to others through art and poetry, and also the Principle-bestowed ability to solve problems involving skill in scientific reasoning and mathematical calculation. Mrs. Eddy goes on to say, "The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea."^{ ibid., p. 90;}