Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/171

Rh the cause of things which at one time exist and at another time not, but it is the cause of things which always exist.” Intellectual conceptions or ideas constitute all those things that eternally exist. So then the infinite mind is the cause of all ideas or thoughts. Plotinus had already taught the same doctrine. He says: “Intellect&emsp;*&emsp;*&emsp;*&emsp;contains all real existences in itself&emsp;*&emsp;*&emsp;*&emsp;as though they were its own self, and it were one with them.” Real existences are ideas, all ideas, and these are so in the one infinite mind as to be one with it. All ideas, whether considered as belonging to and originating in an individual mind or not, are in reality the progeny and effects of this one infinite mind.

Spinoza stated this Neoplatonic doctrine more plainly and positively than even his masters did and in better terms than does Mrs. Eddy. As in our mind there is no faculty of understanding, since it is nothing more than the sum of the ideas that we designate as ours, our ideas must be caused either by the infinite mind of which they are activities or by outward objects. The latter view is of course impossible with idealists. So Spinoza says: “The actual being of ideas owns God as its cause, only in so far as he is considered as a thinking thing, not in so far as he is unfolded in any other attribute; that is, the ideas both of the attributes of God and of particular things do not