The Hidden Power, and Other Papers upon Mental Science

The material comprised in this volume has been selected from unpublished manuscripts and magazine articles by Judge Troward, and "The Hidden Power" is, it is believed, the last book which will be published under his name. Only an insignificant portion of his work has been deemed unworthy of permanent preservation. Whenever possible, dates have been affixed to these papers. Those published in 1902 appeared originally in "EXPRESSION: A Journal of Mind and Thought," in London, and to some of these have been added notes made later by the author.

The Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Mr. Daniel M. Murphy of New York for his services in the selection and arrangement of the material.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I The Hidden Power 1

II The Perversion of Truth 42

III The "I Am" 59

IV Affirmative Power 63

V Submission 67

VI Completeness 74

VII The Principle of Guidance 81

VIII Desire as the Motive Power 85

IX Touching Lightly 92

X Present Truth 96

XI Yourself 99

XII Religious Opinions 105

XIII A Lesson from Browning 113

XIV The Spirit of Opulence 118

XV Beauty 123

XVI Separation and Unity 129

XVII Externalisation 141

XVIII Entering into the Spirit of It 146

XIX The Bible and the New Thought I. The Son 153 II. The Great Affirmation 166 III. The Father 178 IV. Conclusion 185

XX Jachin and Boaz 192

XXI Hephzibah 197

XXII Mind and Hand 204

XXIII The Central Control 209

XXIV What is Higher Thought 213

XXV Fragments 215

THE HIDDEN POWER AND OTHER ESSAYS

I

THE HIDDEN POWER

To realise fully how much of our present daily life consists in symbols is to find the answer to the old, old question, What is Truth? and in the degree in which we begin to recognise this we begin to approach Truth. The realisation of Truth consists in the ability to translate symbols, whether natural or conventional, into their equivalents; and the root of all the errors of mankind consists in the inability to do this, and in maintaining that the symbol has nothing behind it. The great duty incumbent on all who have attained to this knowledge is to impress upon their fellow men that there is an inner side to things, and that until this inner side is known, the things themselves are not known.

There is an inner and an outer side to everything; and the quality of the superficial mind which causes it to fail in the attainment of Truth is its willingness to rest content with the outside only. So long as this is the case it is impossible for a man to grasp the import of his own relation to the universal, and it is this relation which constitutes all that is signified by the word "Truth." So long as a man fixes his attention only on the superficial it is impossible for him to make any progress in knowledge. He is denying that principle of "Growth" which is the root of all life, whether spiritual intellectual, or material, for he does not stop to reflect that all which he sees as the outer side of things can result only from some germinal principle hidden deep in the centre of their being.

Expansion from the centre by growth according to a necessary order of sequence, this is the Law of Life of which the whole universe is the outcome, alike in the one great solidarity of cosmic being, as in the separate individualities of its minutest organisms. This great principle is the key to the whole riddle of Life, upon whatever plane we contemplate it; and without this key the door from the outer to the inner side of things can never be opened. It is therefore the duty of all to whom this door has, at least in some measure, been opened, to endeavour to acquaint others with the fact that there is an inner side to things, and that life becomes truer and fuller in proportion as we penetrate to it and make our estimates of all things according to what becomes visible from this interior point of view.