Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/96

88 the same positiveness. Plotinus praising the nous, which is infinite mind or intellect, says: “Is it not evident, that being intellect, it intellectually perceives in reality and gives subsistence to beings?” The thought is that infinite mind by thinking brings beings into existence. Again, Plotinus says: “Intellectual perception is simultaneous with existence.” The idea is that to think a thing is to create it, which is clearly true for one who holds that thoughts are the only realities. Proclus states the position in plainer language than does Plotinus. He says: “The causes of all things are in intellect;” “Intellect is the maker of it” (the world); “His intellections (the thoughts or ideas of Demiurgus, the creator) are creations.” The Neoplatonists followed Plato in calling the infinite mind or intellect when thought of as the creator, the Demiurgus.

No comment is necessary. The language of Proclus is as clear as Mrs. Eddy's in ascribing creation to mind as the producing cause.

In dismissing this phase of the subject, it will give force to our contention to notice that Spinoza, pantheist, atheist and infidel, held to the same dogma. He says: “The intellect of God, in so far as it is conceived to constitute God's essence, is, in reality, the cause of things, both of their