Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/76

68 of the Neoplatonists and Spinoza. So let us hear them. Proclus says: “A conversion to the whole imparts salvation to everything” and “to this conversion prayer is of the greatest utility.” What he means by “conversion to the whole” is coming into unity with the universal order or bringing oneself by the power of right thinking into a condition of harmony with the universe. This is “salvation,” he says. This may seem to the reader a strange meaning for the word “salvation.” But it means with Proclus just what it means with Spinoza and Mrs. Eddy, namely, a correct understanding of things, all things, the universe. This then is the nature and end of prayer; meditation or contemplation continued until our minds are enlightened sufficiently to see the harmony of universal nature. Spinoza says: “Nor do I deny that prayer is extremely useful to us. For my understanding is too small to determine all the means, whereby God leads men to the love of Himself, that is, to salvation. So far is my opinion from being hurtful, that it offers to those, who are not taken up with prejudices and childish superstitions, the only means for arriving at the highest stage blessedness.” Spinoza, like Mrs. Eddy, identifies our love of God with understanding God or truth, as I will show later. I will also show that to Proclus and Spinoza salvation or the highest blessedness is