Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/99

Rh distant idea of Truth.” In creation, as described in Genesis we are not to understand that God was doing anything but that man was doing a lot of powerful thinking. The student of philosophy will discern that Mrs. Eddy in this interpretation or rather caricature of the record of creation found in Genesis, is reproducing Hegel, who under the influence of Neoplatonism attempted to apply the principle of evolution to Genesis according to which the sin of our first parents becomes a “fall up” rather than a “fall down.” The first sin was simply the springing up of “consciousness” in man by which he is differentiated from the brute.

Plotinus says: “This world, therefore, never began, nor will ever cease to be.” Proclus says : “From all that has been said, therefore, it is easy to infer, that the Demiurgus produces eternally; that the world is perpetual, according to a perpetuity which is extended through the whole of time.” Proclus explains and develops the thought of Plato that the Demiurgus in making the world “looked to an eternal paradigm.” That is, the creator made the world according to an eternal pattern or plan.

Here we must renew our knowledge of Plato or form a slight acquaintance with him. This great thinker spoke often of two worlds. One is the world of paradigms or patterns, of forms or