CHAPTER 5

ON the Monday morning following the Ames reception the society columns of the daily papers still teemed with extravagant depictions of the magnificent affair. On that same morning, while Haynerd sat gloomily in the office of the Social Era, meditating on his giant adversary's probable first move, Carmen, leaving her studies and classes, sought out an unpretentious home in one of the suburbs of the city, and for an hour or more talked earnestly with the timid, frightened little wife of Congressman Wales. Then, her work done, she dismissed the whole affair from her mind, and hastened joyously back to the University. She would have gone to see Ames himself. "But," she reflected, as she dwelt on his conduct and words of the previous Saturday evening, "he is not ready for it yet. And when he is, I will go to him. And Kathleen--well, I will help her by seeing only the real child of God, which was hidden that night by the veil of hatred and jealousy. And that veil, after all, is but a shadow."

That evening the little group of searchers after God assembled again in the peaceful precincts of the Beaubien cottage. It was their third meeting, and they had come together reverently to pursue the most momentous inquiry that has ever stimulated human thought.

Haynerd and Carmen had said little relative to the Ames reception; but the former, still brooding over the certain consequences of his brush with Ames, was dejected and distraught. Carmen, leaning upon her sustaining thought, and conceding no mite of power or intelligence to evil, glowed like a radiant star.

"What are you listening to?" she asked of Haynerd, drawing him to one side. "Are you giving ear to the voices of evil, or good? Which are you making real to yourself? For those thoughts which are real to you will become outwardly manifested, you know."

"Bah! He's got us--tight!" muttered Haynerd, with a gesture signifying defeat. "And the insults of that arrogant daughter of his--"

"She did not insult me," said Carmen quickly. "She could not, for she doesn't know me. She merely denounced her concept of me, and not my real self. She vilified what she thought was Carmen Ariza; but it was only her own thought of me that she insulted. Can't you see? And such a concept of me as she holds deserves denouncing, doesn't it?"

"Well, what are we going to do?" he pursued testily.

"We are going to know," she whispered, "that we two with God constitute an overwhelming majority." She said nothing about her visit to the Wales home that morning, but pressed his hand, and then went to take her place at the table, where Father Waite was already rapping for order.

"My friends," began that earnest young man, looking lovingly about at the little group, "as we are gathered here we symbolize that analytical, critical endeavor of the unbiased human mind to discover the essence of religion. Religion is that which binds us to absolute truth, and so is truth itself. If there is a God, we believe from our former investigations that He must be universal mind. This belief carries with it as necessary corollaries the beliefs that He must be perfect, eternal, and self-existent. The question, Who made God? must then receive its sufficient answer in the staggering statement that He has always existed, unchanged and unchangeable."

A sigh from Haynerd announced that quizzical soul's struggle to grasp a statement at once so radical and stupendous.

"True," continued Father Waite, addressing himself to his doubting friend, "the acceptance as fact of what we have deduced in our previous meetings must render the God of orthodox theology quite obsolete. But, as a compensation, it gives to us the most enlarged and beautiful concept of Him that we have ever had. It ennobles, broadens, purifies, and elevates our idea of Him. It destroys forever our belittling view of Him as but a magnified human character, full of wrath and caprice and angry threats, and delighting in human ceremonial and religious thaumaturgy. And, most practical of all for us, it renders the age-long problem of evil amenable to solution."

Just then came a ring at the front door; and a moment later the Beaubien ushered Doctor Morton into the room. All rose and hastened to welcome him.

"I--I am sure," began the visitor, looking at Carmen, "that I am not intruding, for I really come on invitation, you know. Miss Carmen, first; and then, our good friend Hitt, who told me this afternoon that you would probably meet this evening. I--I pondered the matter some little time--ah, but--well, to make it short, I couldn't keep away from a gathering so absolutely unique as this--I really couldn't."

Carmen seized both his hands. "My!" she exclaimed, her eyes dancing, "I am glad you came."

"And I, too," interposed Haynerd dryly, "for now we have two theological Philistines. I was feeling a bit lonely."

"Ah, my friend," replied the doctor, "I am simply an advocate of religious freedom, not a--"

"And religious freedom, as our wise Bill Nye once said, is but the art of giving intolerance a little more room, eh?" returned Haynerd with a laugh.

The doctor shrugged his shoulders. "You are a Philistine," he said. "I am a human interrogation."

Carmen took the doctor by the arm and led him to a place beside her at the table. "You--you didn't bring poor Yorick?" she whispered, with a glint of mischief in her bright eyes.

"No," laughed the genial visitor, "he's a dead one, you told me."

"Yes," replied the girl, "awfully dead! He is an outward manifestation of dead human beliefs, isn't he? But now listen, Father Waite is going to speak."

After a brief explanation to the doctor of the purpose of the meeting, and a short résumé of their previous deductions, Father Waite continued the exposition of his subject.

"The physical universe," he said, "is to human beings a reality. And yet, according to Spencer's definition of reality, we must admit that the universe as we see it is quite unreal. For the real is that which endures."

"And you mean to say that the universe will not endure?" queried Haynerd abruptly.

"I do," replied Father Waite. "The phenomena of the universe, even as we see it, are in a state of ceaseless change. Birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death seems to be the law for all things material. There is perpetual genesis, and perpetual exodus."

"But," again urged Haynerd, "matter itself remains, is indestructible."

"Not so," said Father Waite. "Our friend, Doctor Morton, will corroborate my statement, I am sure."

The doctor nodded. "It is quite true," he said in reply. "And as revolutionary as true. The discovery, in the past few years, of the tremendously important fact that matter disintegrates and actually disappears, has revolutionized all physical science and rendered the world's text books obsolete."

"And matter actually disappears?" echoed Miss Wall incredulously.

"Absolutely!" interposed Hitt. "The radium atom, we find, lasts some seventeen hundred years, or a trifle longer. What becomes of it when it is destroyed? We can only say that it disappears from human consciousness."

"And so you reason that the whole material universe will ultimately disappear from the human consciousness?"

"Yes," returned Hitt, "I feel certain of it. Let us consider of what the universe consists. For many months I have been pondering this topic incessantly. I find that I can agree, in a measure, with those scientists who regard the physical universe as composed of only a few elementary constituents, namely, matter, energy, space, and time--"

"Each one of these elements is mental," interrupted Carmen.

"Exactly!" replied Hitt. "And the physical universe, even from the human standpoint, is, therefore, wholly mental."

"Well, but we see it!" ejaculated Haynerd. "And we feel and hear it! And I'm sure we smell it!"

Hitt laughed. "Do we?" he asked.

"No," interposed Father Waite; "we see only our mental concept of a universe, for seeing is wholly a mental process. Our comprehension of anything is entirely mental."

"But now," resumed Hitt, "to get back to the supposed reality of the physical universe, let us examine its constituents. First, let us consider its unity established by the harmonious interplay of the forces permeating it. This great fact is what led Herbert Spencer to conclude that the universe could have but one creator, one ruler, and that polytheism was untenable."

"We are quite agreed regarding that," said Father Waite. "If the Creator is mind, He is of very necessity infinite and omnipotent; hence there can be but one Creator."

"Very well," continued Hitt. "Now as to time. Is it material or tangible? Would it exist, but as a convenience for the human mind? Is it not really a creation of that mind? And, lastly, is it not merely a mental concept?"

"Our consciousness of time," replied Carmen, "is only our awareness of a continuous series of mental states."

"That classifies it exactly," said Hitt, "and renders it wholly mental. And now as to space," he resumed. "We are accustomed to say, loosely, that space is that in which we see things about us. But in what does the process of seeing consist? I say, I see a chair. What I really mean is that I am conscious of a chair. The process of seeing, we are told, is this: light, coming from the chair, enters the eye and casts an image of the chair upon the retina, much as a picture is thrown upon the ground glass of a camera. Then, in some way, the little rods and cones--the branching tips of the optic nerve which project from the retina--are set in motion by the light-waves. This vibration is in some mysterious manner carried along the optic nerve to a center in the brain, and--well, then the mind becomes cognizant of the chair out there, that's all."

They sat silent for some moments. Then Miss Wall spoke. "Do you mean to say," she queried, "that, after thousands of years of thought and investigation, mankind now know nothing more than that about the process of seeing?"

"I do," returned Hitt. "I confess it in all humility."

"Then all I've got to say," put in Haynerd, "is that the most remarkable thing about you learned men is your ignorance!"

The doctor smiled. "I find it is only the fool who is cocksure," he replied.

"Now," said Hitt, resuming the conversation, "let us go a step further and inquire, first, What is light? since the process of seeing is absolutely dependent upon it."

"Light," offered the doctor, "is vibrations, or wave-motion, so physicists tell us."

"Just so," resumed Hitt. "Light, we say, consists of vibrations. Not vibrations of anything tangible or definitely material, but--well, just vibrations in the abstract. It is vibratory or wave motion. Now let us concede that these vibrations in some way get to the brain center; and then let us ask, Is the mind there, in the brain, awaiting the arrival of these vibrations to inform it that there is a chair outside?"

Haynerd indulged in a cynical laugh.

"It is too serious for laughter, my friend," said Hitt. "For to such crude beliefs as this we may attribute all the miseries of mankind."

"How is that?" queried Miss Wall in surprise.

"Simply because these beliefs constitute the general belief in a universe of matter without and about us. As a plain statement of fact, _there is no such thing_. But, I ask again, Is the mind within the brain, waiting for vibrations that will give it information concerning the external world? Or does the mind, from some focal point without the brain, look first at these vibrations, and then translate them into terms of things without? Do these vibrations in some way suggest form and color and substance to the waiting mind? Does the mind first look at vibrating nerve-points, and then form its own opinions regarding material objects? Does anything material enter the eye?"

"No," admitted the doctor; "unless we believe that vibrations _per se_ are material."

"Now I ask, Is the mind reduced to such slavery that it must depend upon vibrations for its knowledge of an outside world?" continued Hitt. "And vibrations of minute pieces of flesh, at that! Flesh that will some day decay and leave the mind helpless!"

"Absurd!" exclaimed Haynerd. "Why doesn't the mind look directly at the chair, instead of getting its knowledge of the chair through vibrations of bits of meat? Or isn't there any chair out there to look at?"

"There!" exclaimed Hitt. "Now you've put your mental finger upon it. And now we are ready to nail to the cross of ignominy one of the crudest, most insensate beliefs of the human race. _The human mind gets nothing whatsoever from vibrations, from the human, fleshly eye, nor from any one of the five so-called physical senses!_ The physical sense-testimony which mankind believe they receive from the eyes, the ears, and the other sense organs, can, even at best, consist only of a lot of disconnected, unintelligible vibrations; and anything that the mind may infer from such vibrations is inferred _without any outside authority whatsoever!"_

"Well!" ejaculated Miss Wall and Haynerd in a breath.

"And, further," continued Hitt, "we are forced to admit that all that the mind knows is the contents of itself, of its own consciousness, and nothing more. Then, instead of seeing, hearing, and feeling real material objects outside of ourselves, we are in reality seeing, hearing, and feeling our own mental concepts of things--in other words, _our own thoughts of things!"_

A deep silence lay for some moments over the little group at the conclusion of Hitt's words. Then Doctor Morton nodded his acquiescence in the deduction. "And that," he said, "effectually disposes of the question of space."

"There is no space, Doctor," replied Hitt. "Space is likewise a mental concept. The human mind sees, hears, and feels nothing but its own thoughts. These it posits within itself with reference to one another, and calls the process 'seeing material objects in space.' The mind as little needs a space in which to see things as in which to dream them. I repeat, we do not see external things, or things outside of ourselves. We see always and only the thoughts that are within our own mentalities. Everything is within."

"That's why," murmured Carmen, "Jesus said, 'The kingdom of heaven is within you.'"

"Exactly!" said Hitt. "Did he not call evil, and all that originates in matter, the lie about God? And a lie is wholly mental. I tell you, the existence of a world outside of ourselves, an objective world composed of matter, is wholly inferred--it is mental visualizing--and it is unreal, for it is not based upon fact, upon truth!"

"Then," queried Haynerd, "our supposed 'outer world' is but our collection of thought-concepts which we hold within us, within our own consciousness, eh?"

"Yes."

"But--the question of God?"

"We are ready for that again," replied Hitt. "We have said that in the physical universe all is in a state of incessant change. Since the physical universe is but a mental concept to each one of us, we must admit that, were the concept based upon truth, it would not change. Our concept of the universe must be without the real causative and sustaining principle of all reality, else would it not pass away. And yet, beneath and behind all these changes, _something_ endures. What is it? Matter? No. There is an enduring substance, invisible to human sight, but felt and known through its own influence. Is it law? Yes. Mind? Yes. Ideas? Yes. But none of these things is in any sense material. The material is the fleeting, human concept, composed of thought that is _not_ based upon reality. These other things, wholly mental, or spiritual, if you prefer, are based upon that 'something' which does endure, and which I will call the Causative Principle. It is the Universal Mind. It is what you loosely call God."

"Then did God make matter?" persisted Haynerd.

"I think," interposed Doctor Morton at this juncture, "that I can throw some light upon the immaterial character of matter, if I may so put it; for even our physical reasoning throws it entirely into the realm of the mental."

"Good!" exclaimed Hitt. "Let us hear from you, Doctor."

The doctor sat for some moments in a deep study. Then he began:

"The constitution of matter, speaking now from an admittedly materialistic standpoint, that of the physical sciences, is a subject of vastest interest and importance to mankind, for human existence _is_ material.

"The ultimate constituent of matter has been called the atom. But we have said little when we have said that. The atom was once defined as a particle of matter so minute as to admit of no further division. That definition has gone to the rubbish heap, for the atom can now be torn to pieces. But--and here is the revolutionary fact in modern physical science--_it is no longer held necessary that matter should consist of material particles!_ In fact, the great potential discovery of our day is that matter is electrical in composition, that it is composed of what are called 'electrons,' and that these electrons are themselves composed of electric charges. But what is an electric charge? Is it matter? No, not as we know matter. Is it even material? We can not say that it is. It is without weight, bulk, dimensions, or tangibility. Well, then, it comes dangerously near being a mental thing, known to the human mind solely by its manifestations, does it not? And of course our comprehension of it is entirely mental, as is our comprehension of everything."

He paused for a moment, that his words might be fully grasped. Then he went on:

"Now these atoms, whatever they are, are supposed to join together to form molecules. What brings them together thus? Affinity, we are told. And what is affinity? Why, it is--well, law, if you please. And law? A mental thing, we must admit. Very good. Then, going a step further, molecules are held together by cohesion to form material objects, chairs, trees, coal, and the like. But what is cohesion? Is it glue? Cement? Ah, no! Again, it is law. And law is mental."

"But, Doctor--" interrupted Haynerd.

The doctor held up a detaining hand. "Let me finish," he said. "Now we have the very latest word from our physical scientists regarding the constitution of matter: _it is composed of electric charges, held together by law._ Again, you may justly ask: Is matter material--or mental?"

He paused again, and took up a book that lay before him.

"Here," he continued, "I hold a solid, material, lumpy thing, composed, you will say, of matter. And yet, in essence, and if we can believe our scientists, this book is composed of billions of electric charges--invisible things, without form, without weight, without color, without extension, held together by law, and making up a material object which has mass, color, weight, and extension. From millions of things which are invisible and have no size, we get an object, visible and extended."

"It's absurd!" exclaimed Miss Wall.

"Granted," interposed Hitt. "Yet, the doctor is giving the very latest deductions of the great scientists."

"But, Doctor," said Father Waite, "the scientists tell us that they have experimental evidence in support of the theories which you have stated regarding the composition of matter. Electricity has been proven granular, or atomic, in structure. And every electrical charge consists of an exact number of electrical atoms spread out over the surface of the charged body. All this admits of definite calculation."

"Admitted," said Hitt, taking up the challenge. "And their very calculations and deductions are rapidly wearing away the 'materialistic theory' of matter. You will admit that mathematics is wholly confined to the realm of mind. It is a strictly mental science, in no way material. It loses definiteness when 'practically' applied to material objects. Kant saw this, and declared that a science might be regarded as further removed from or nearer to perfection in proportion to the amount of mathematics it contained. Now there has been an astonishing confirmation of this great truth just lately. At a banquet given in honor of the discoverer of wireless telegraphy it was stated that the laws governing the traversing of space by the invisible electric waves were more exact than the general laws of physics, where very complex formulas and coefficients are required for correcting the general laws, due to surrounding material conditions. The greater exactness of laws governing the invisible electric waves was said to be due to the absence of matter. And it was further stated that _whenever matter had to be taken into consideration there could be no exact law of action!"_ "Which shows--?"

"That matter admits of no definite laws," replied Hitt. "That there are no real laws of matter. And that definiteness is attained only as we dematerialize matter itself."

"In other words, get into the realm of the mental?"

"Just so. And now for the application. I have said that we do not receive any testimony whatsoever through the so-called material senses, but that we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell our own thoughts--that is, the thoughts which, from some source, come into our mentalities. Very well, our scientists show us that, as they get farther away from dense material thoughts, and deal more and more with those which have less material structure, less material composition, their laws become more definite, more exact. Following this out to its ultimate conclusion, we may say, then, that _only those laws which have to do with the non-material are perfect_."

"And those," said Carmen, "are the laws of mind."

"Exactly! And now the history of physical science shows that there has been a constant deviation from the old so-called fixed 'laws of matter.' The law of impenetrability has had to go. A great physicist tells us that, when dealing with sufficiently high speeds, matter has no such property as impenetrability. Mass is a function of velocity. The law of indestructibility has had to go. Matter deteriorates and goes to pieces. The material elements are not fixed. The decided tendency of belief is toward a single element, of which all matter is composed, and of which the eighty-odd constituent elements of matter accepted to-day are but modifications. That unit element may be the ether, of course. And the great Russian chemist, Mendeleef, so believed. But to us, the ether is a mental thing, a theory. But, granting its existence, _its universal penetrability renders matter, as we know it, non-existent_. Everything reduces to the ether, in the final analysis. And all energy becomes vibrations in and of the ether."

"And the ether," supplemented the doctor, "has to be without mass, invisible, tasteless, intangible, much more rigid than steel, and at the same time some six hundred billion times lighter than air, in order to fulfill all the requirements made of it and to meet all conditions."

"Yes; and yet the ether is a very necessary theory, if we are going to continue to explain the phenomena of force on a material basis."

"But if we abandon that basis--?"

"Then," said Carmen, "matter reduces to what it really is, the human mind's _interpretation_ of substance."

"Yes," said Hitt, turning to her; "I think you are right; matter is the way real substance--let us say, spirit--looks to the human mentality. It is the way the human mind interprets its ideas of spirit. In other words, the human mind looks at the material thoughts and ideas which enter it, and calls them solid substance, occupying space--calls them matter, with definite laws, and, in certain forms, containing life and intelligence."

"Aye, that is it!" said Father Waite. "And that has been the terrible mistake of the ages, the one great error, the one lie, that has caused us all to miss the mark and come short, far short, of the glory of the mind that is God. _There is the origin of the problem of evil!_"

"Undoubtedly," replied Hitt. "For evil is in essence but evil thought. And evil thought is invariably associated with matter. The origin of all evil is matter itself. And matter, we find, is but a mental concept, a thing of thought. Oh, the irony of it!"

"Well," put in Haynerd, who had been twitching nervously in his chair, "let's get to the conclusion of this very learned discussion. I'm a plain man, and I'd like to know just where we've landed. What have you said that I can take home with me? The earth still revolves around the sun, even if it is a mean mud ball. And I can't see that I can get along with less than three square meals a day."

"We have arrived," replied Hitt gravely, "at a most momentous conclusion, deduced by the physical scientists themselves, namely, that _things are not what they seem_. In other words, all things material seem to reduce to vibrations in and of the ether; the basis of all materiality is energy, motion, activity--mental things. All the elements of matter seem to be but modifications of one all-pervading element. That element is probably the ether, often called the 'mother of matter.' The elements, such as carbon, silicon, and the others, are not elementary at all, but are forms of one universal element, the ether. Hence, atoms are not atoms. The so-called rare elements are rare only because their lives are short. They disintegrate rapidly and change into other forms of the universal element--or disappear. 'Atoms are but fleeting phases of matter,' we are told. They are by no means eternal, even though they may endure for millions of years."

"Y-e-s?" commented Haynerd with a yawn.

"A great scientist of our own day," Hitt continued, "has said that 'the ether is so modified as to constitute matter, in some way.' What does that mean? Simply that 'visible matter and invisible ether are one and the same thing.' But to the five so-called physical senses the ether is utterly incomprehensible. So, then, matter is wholly incomprehensible to the five physical senses. What is it, then, that we call matter? It can be nothing more than the human mind's interpretation of its idea of an all-pervading, omnipresent _something_, a something which represents substance to it."

"Let me add a further quotation from the great physical scientist to whom you have referred," said the doctor. "He has said that the ether is _not_ matter, but that it is material. And further, that we can not deny that the ether may have some mental and spiritual functions to subserve in some other order of existence, as matter has in this. It is wholly unrelated to any of our senses. The sense of sight takes cognizance of it, but only in a very indirect and not easily recognized way. And yet--stupendous conclusion!--_without the ether there could be no material universe at all_!"

"In other words," said Hitt, "the whole fabric of the material universe depends upon something utterly unrecognizable by the five physical senses."

"Exactly!" replied the doctor.

"Then," concluded Hitt, "the physical senses give us no information whatsoever of a real physical universe about us."

"And so," added Father Waite, "we come back to Carmen's statement, namely, that seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling are mental processes, in no way dependent upon the outer fleshly organs of sense--"

"Nonsense!" interjected Haynerd. "Why is it, then, that if the eyes are destroyed we do not see?"

"Simply, my friend, because of human belief," replied Hitt. "The human mind has been trained for untold centuries to dependence upon beliefs in the reality of matter, and beliefs in its dependence upon material modes for sight, hearing, touch, and so on. It is because of its erroneous beliefs that the human mind is to-day enslaved by matter, and dependent upon it for its very sense of existence. The human mind has made its sense of sight dependent upon a frail, pulpy bit of flesh, the eye. As long as that fleshly organ remains intact, the human mind sees its sense of sight externalized in the positing of its mental concepts about it as natural objects. But let that fleshly eye be destroyed, and the human mind sees its belief of dependence upon the material eye externalized as blindness. When the fleshly eye is gone the mind declares that it can no longer see. And what it declares as truth, as fact, becomes externalized to it. I repeat, the human mind sees and hears only its thoughts, its beliefs. And holding to these beliefs, and making them real to itself, it eventually sees them externalized in what it calls its outer world, its environment, its universe. And yet, the materialistic scientists themselves show that the human mind can take no cognizance whatever through the five physical senses of the all-pervading basis of its very existence, the ether. And the ether--alas! it is but a theory which we find necessary for any intelligible explanation of the farce of human existence on a material basis."

"Now see here!" retorted Haynerd, rising and giving expression to his protest by means of emphatic gestures. "I'm getting mixed--badly! You tell me that the existence of things demands a creator, and I admit it, for there can be no effect without a cause. Then you say that the universe is infinite; and I admit that, too, for the science of astronomy finds no limits to space, and no space unoccupied. You say that the unity manifested in the universe proves that there can be but one creator. Moreover, to create an infinite universe there must needs be an omnipotent creator; and there can be but one who is omnipotent. I cordially agree. Further, I can see how that creator must be mind--infinite mind. And I can see why that mind must be absolutely perfect, with no intelligence of evil whatsoever, else would it be a house divided against itself. And such a house must eventually fall. Now I admit that the universe must be the manifestation, the expression, of that infinite creative mind. But--and here's the sticking point--the universe is both good and evil! Hence, the mind which it manifests is likewise both good and evil--and the whole pretty theory blows up!"

He sat down abruptly, with the air of having given finality to a perplexing question.

All eyes then turned to Carmen, who slowly rose and surveyed the little group.

"It is not surprising," she said, smiling at the confused Haynerd, "that difficulties arise when you attempt to reach God through human reasoning--spirit through matter. You have taken the unreal, and, through it, have sought to reach back to the real."

"Well," interrupted Haynerd testily, "kindly explain the difference."

"Then, first," replied Carmen, "let us adopt some common meeting ground, some basis which we can all accept, and from which we can rise. Are you all agreed that, in our every-day life, everything is mental?--every action?--every object?--and that, as the philosopher Mill said, 'Everything is a feeling of which the mind is conscious'? Let me illustrate my meaning," she continued, noting Haynerd's rising protest. "I see this book; I take it up; and drop it upon the table. Have I really seen a book? No; I have been conscious of thoughts which I call a book, nothing more. A real material book did not get into my mind; but _thoughts_ of a book did. And the activity of such thought resulted in a state of consciousness--for consciousness is mental

## activity, the activity of thought. Remember that, even according to

your great physical scientists, this book is composed of millions of charges of electricity, or electrons, moving at a tremendously high rate of speed. And yet, regardless of its composition, I am conscious only of my thoughts of the book. It is but my thoughts that I see, after all."

She paused and waited for the protest which was not voiced.

"Very well," she said, continuing; "so it is with the sense of touch; I had the thought of touching it, and that thought I saw; I was conscious of it when it became active in my mentality. So with sound; when I let the book drop, I was conscious of my thought of sound. If the book had been dropped in a vacuum I should not have been conscious of a thought of sound--why? Because, as Mr. Hitt has told us, the human mind has made its sense-testimony dependent upon vibrations. And yet, there is a clock ticking up there on the wall. Do you hear it?"

"Yes," replied Haynerd; "now that you've called my attention to it."

"Ah, yes," replied the girl. "You hear it when your thought is directed to it. And yet the air was vibrating all the time, and, if hearing is dependent upon the fleshly ear, you should have heard it incessantly when you were not thinking of it, as well as you hear it now when you are thinking of it. Am I not right?"

"Well, perhaps so," assented Haynerd with some reluctance.

"We hear, see, and feel," continued the girl, "when our thought is directed to these processes. And the processes are wholly mental--they take place within our mentalities--and it is there, within our minds, that we see, hear, and feel _all_ things. And it is there, within our minds, that the universe exists for us. It is there that we hold our world, our fleshly bodies, everything that we call material. _The universe that we think we see all about us consists of the mental concepts, made up of thought, which we hold within our mentalities_."

Haynerd nodded somewhat dubiously. Carmen proceeded with the exposition of her theme.

"Whence come these material thoughts that are within us? And are they real? Can we control them? And how? They are real to us, at any rate, are they not? And if they are thoughts of pain and suffering and death, they are terribly real to us. But let us see, now that we can reason from the basis of the mental nature of all things. We have agreed that the creative principle is mind, and we call it God. This infinite mind constantly expresses and manifests itself in ideas. Why, that is a fundamental law of mind! You express yourself in your ideas and thoughts, which you try to externalize materially. But the infinite mind expresses itself in an infinite number and variety of ideas, all, like itself, pure, perfect, eternal, good, without any elements or seeds of decay or discord. And the incessant expression of the creative mind in and through its numberless ideas constitutes the never-ending process of creation."

"Let me add here," interrupted Hitt, "that the Bible states that God created the heavens and earth in seven days. But numbers, we must remember, were mystical things to the ancient Hebrews, and were largely used symbolically. The number seven, for example, was used to express wholeness, completeness. So we must remember that its use in Genesis has a much wider meaning than its absurd theological interpretation into seven solar days. As Carmen says, the infinite creative mind can never cease to express itself; creation can never cease; and creation is but the whole, complete revelation or unfoldment of infinite mind's ideas."

"And infinite mind," continued Carmen, "requires infinite time in which to completely express itself. So time ceases to be, and we find that all real things exist now, in an endless present. Now, the ideas of infinite mind range throughout the realm of infinity, but the greatest idea that the creative mind can have is the idea of itself. That idea is the image and likeness of the infinite creative mind. It is the perfect reflection of that mind--its perfect expression. That idea is what the man Jesus always saw back of the human concept of man. _That idea is the real man_!"

"Well!" exclaimed Haynerd. "That's quite a different proposition from the mud-men that I do business with daily. What are they? Children of God?"

"If they were real," said Carmen, "they would have to be children of God. But then they would not be 'mud-men.' Now I have just spoken of the real, the spiritual creation. That is the creation mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis, where all was created--revealed, unfolded--by God, and He saw that it was perfect, good. 'In the beginning,' says the commentator. That is, 'To begin with--God.' Everything begins with God in the realm of the real. The creative mind is first. And the creation, or unfoldment, is like its creative principle, eternal and good."

"But," persisted Haynerd, "how about the material man?"

"Having created all things spiritually," continued the girl, "was it necessary that the creative mind should repeat its work, do it over again, and produce the man of dust described in the second chapter of Genesis? Is that second account of the creation an inspiration of truth--or a human comment?"

"Call it what you will," said the cynical Haynerd; "the fact remains that the mud-man exists and has to be reckoned with."

"Both of your premises are wholly incorrect," returned the girl gently. "He does _not_ exist, excepting in human, mortal thought. He is a product of only such thought. He and his material universe are seen and dealt with only in such thought. And such thought is the direct antithesis of God's thought. And it is therefore unreal. It is the supposition, the lie, the mist that went up and darkened the earth."

"But--the human man--?"

"Is just what you have said, a hue of a man, a dark hue, the shadowy opposite which seems to counterfeit the real, spiritual man and claim all his attributes. He is not a compound of mind and matter, for we have seen that all things are mental, even matter itself. He is a sort of mentality, a counterfeit of real mind. His body and his universe are in himself. And, like all that is unreal, he is transient, passing, ephemeral, mortal."

"Yet, God made him!"

"No, for he does not exist, excepting in supposition. Does a supposition really exist? If so, then not even truth can destroy it. But supposition passes out before truth. No, the human mind is the 'old man' of Paul. He is to be put off by knowing his nothingness, and by knowing the unreality of his supposed material environment and universe. As he goes out of consciousness, the real man, the idea of God, perfect, harmonious, and eternal, comes in."

"And there," said Father Waite impressively, "you have the whole scheme of salvation, as enunciated by the man Jesus."

"There is no doubt of it," added Hitt. "And, oh, my friends! how futile, how base, how worse than childish now appear the whole theological fabric of the churches, their foolish man-made dogmas, their insensate beliefs in a fiery hell and a golden heaven. Oh, how belittling now appear their concepts of God--a God who can damn unbaptised infants, who can predestine his children to eternal sorrow, who creates and then curses his handiwork! Do you wonder that sin, sorrow, and death remain among us while such awful beliefs hold sway over the human mind? God help us, and the world!"

Haynerd, who had been sitting quietly for some moments, deep in thought, rose and held out his hands, as if in entreaty. "Don't--don't!" he exclaimed. "I can't hear any more. I want to think it all over. It seems--it seems as if a curtain had been raised suddenly. And what I see beyond is--"

Carmen went swiftly to the man and slipped an arm about him. "That infinite creative Mind, so misunderstood and misinterpreted by human beings, is back of you," she whispered. "And it is Love."

Haynerd turned and grasped her hands. "I believe it," he murmured. "But had I not seen the proof in you, no amount of reasoning would have convinced me." And, bowing to the little group, he went out.

"Well?" said Hitt, turning inquiringly to the doctor.

The latter raised his head. "If these things are true," he made answer slowly, "then I shall have to recast my entire mentality, my whole basis of thinking."

"It is just what you _must_ do, Doctor, if you would work out your salvation," said Carmen. "Jesus said we must repent if we would be saved. Repentance--the Greek _metanoia_--means a complete and radical change of thought."

"But--do you mean to say that the whole world has been mistaken? That the entire human race has been deceived for ages?"

"Why," said Hitt, "it was only in our own day, comparatively speaking, that the human race was undeceived in regard to the world being round. And there are thousands of human beings to-day who still believe in witchcraft, and who worship the sun and moon, and whose lives are wholly under the spell of superstition. Human character, a great scientist tells us, has not changed since history began."

"But we can't revamp our thought-processes!"

"Then we must go on missing the mark, sinning, suffering, sorrowing, and dying, over and over and over again, until we decide that we can do so," said Hitt.

The doctor looked at Carmen and met that same smile of unbounded love which she gave without stint to a sin-weary world.

"I--I'll come again," he said. "When? To-morrow night?"

"Yes," said Carmen, rising and coming around to him. "And," in a whisper, "bring Pat."

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