University of Virginia Library

Useful knowledge

The point for each one to decide is, whether it is mortal mind or immortal Mind that is causative. We should forsake the basis of matter for meta- physical Science and its divine Principle.

Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through as- tronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics, thought passes naturally from effect back to cause.

Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observa- tion, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of it- self, out of all that is mortal.

It is the tangled barbarisms of learning which we deplore, - the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the nauseous fiction. Novels, remarkable only for their exaggerated pictures, impossible ideals, and specimens of depravity, fill our young readers with wrong tastes and sentiments. Literary commercialism is lowering the intellectual standard to accommodate the purse and to meet a frivolous demand for amusement instead of for improvement. Incorrect views lower the standard of truth.

If materialistic knowledge is power, it is not wisdom. It is but a blind force. Man has "sought out many inven- tions," but he has not yet found it true that knowledge can save him from the dire effects of knowledge. The power of mortal mind over its own body is little understood.