Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/184

176 “Firmament, or understanding, united Principle to its idea. Life and Intelligence, this Principle; idea, the universe and man.” As has been observed, Mrs. Eddy's terms are somewhat confusing but the meaning is clear. There are three elements: the thinking subject, principle, life or intelligence, which of course is mind; the object of thought, idea; and the understanding, or the mental act of thinking, by which the subject and the object are united.

Plotinus says: “Intellect, intelligence, and the intelligible are one and the same thing.” Plotinus uses the term intelligence for the act of thinking. Proclus says: “Since thinking is the medium between that which thinks and the object of thought, and these are the same, thinking likewise will be the same with each.”

Let the student's attention be directed again to the fact that this psychological trinity of the Neoplatonists and Mrs. Eddy is germane to what may be called the cosmological trinity or the theological trinity of Spinoza and Mrs. Eddy of which we have before spoken. We also showed that this theological but non-Biblical trinity had its beginning with the theologian Synesius, who was a Neoplatonic thinker rather than a Biblical exegete. If the subject is not clear to the reader, review the discussion of this topic in the previous chapter. The attempt to explain the sublime but