Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/27

 will perceive that it is a means of gaining information by the exercise of some faculties higher than the physical senses. It is seeking for information that shall be applied to the consciousness, that shall be represented by ideas that exist in the mind. We may suppose that Sir Isaac Newton and his dog were sitting in the orchard, and that both saw an apple fall to the ground. The dog could observe the fact as well as Sir Isaac Newton, but Sir Isaac Newton perceived that there was something involved in the fall of that apple, which the dog never thought of. The dog confined his observation to the mere fact; but Sir Isaac Newton perceived, by the aid of a higher faculty, that there existed a law which he wished to ascertain, and therefore commenced investigation to discover it. This department of mind which led Sir Isaac Newton to make this investigation was not content with observing the mere facts or phenomena of existence, but wished to investigate that which was concerned in the production of the phenomenon. That faculty gives rise in man to this second sphere, which observes not the phenomena, but investigates the law or proximate causes of phenomena, and opens the field of science and philosophy. Hence the second sphere of thought is that sphere which investigates the relation of things and determines the law of action and manifestation through that relation. It belongs to what we call the relational, the middle, or mediatorial sphere; because it embraces the means by which causes operate to produce effects. For instance, I speak and you hear. I am a cause of producing a sound; your ears are affected by the sound produced. The atmosphere is the medium by which