- If Plato could have witnessed the pictures executed by the sun with the assistance of the photographer, or a hundred similar illustrations of what people do by induction, he would perhaps have been reminded of the intellectual midwifery of his master and, in his own mind might have arisen the vision of a land where all manual, mechanical labor and repetition is assigned to the power of nature, where our wants are satisfied by purely mental operations set in motion by the will, and where the supply is created by the demand.
- However distant that land may appear, induction has taught people to make strides toward it and has surrounded them with benefits which are, at the same time, rewards for past fidelity and incentives for more assiduous devotion.
- It is also an aid in concentrating and strengthening our faculties for the remaining part, giving perfect solution for individual as well as universal situations, by the mere operations of mind in the purest form.
- Here we find a method, the spirit of which is, to believe that what is sought has been accomplished, in order to accomplish it.
- A method, bequeathed upon us by the same Plato who, outside of this sphere, could never find how the ideas became realities.
- This conception is also elaborated by Esther Hicks in her Abraham correspondences.
- We are first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled, its accomplishment will then follow. This is a concise direction for making use of the creative power of thought by impressing on the Universal subjective mind, the particular thing which we desire as an already existing fact.
- It is our privilege to become conscious of the principle and act in accordance with it. Cuvier sees a tooth belonging to an extinct race of animals. This tooth wants a body for the performance of its function, and it defines the peculiar body it stands in need of with such precision that Cuvier is able to reconstruct the frame of this animal.
- Perturbations are observed in the motion of Uranus. Leverrier needs another planet at a certain place to keep the solar system in order, and Neptune appears in the place and hour appointed.
- The instinctive wants of the animal and the intellectual wants of Cuvier, the wants of nature and of the mind of Leverrier were alike, and thus the results; here the thoughts of an existence, there an existence. A well-defined lawful want, therefore, furnishes the reason for the more complex operations of nature.
- Having recorded correctly the answers furnished by nature and stretched our senses with the growing science over nature's surface; having joined hands with the levers that move the earth; we become conscious of such a close, varied and deep contact with the world without, that our wants and purposes become no less identified with the harmonious operations of this vast organization, than the life, liberty, and happiness of the citizen is identified with the existence of their government.
- As the interests of the individual are protected by the arms of the country, added to their own; and their needs may depend upon certain supply in the degree that they are felt more universally and steadily; in the same manner does conscious citizenship in the Republic of nature secure us from the annoyances of subordinate agents by alliance with superior powers; and by appeal to the fundamental laws of resistance or inducement offered to mechanical or chemical agents, distribute the labor to be performed between them and people to the best advantage of the inventor.
- Inductive reasoning is the process of the objective mind by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all.
- Induction proceeds by comparison of facts; it is this method of studying nature which has resulted in the discovery of a reign of law which has marked an epoch in human progress.
- It is the dividing line between superstition and intelligence; it has created the elements of law, reason,certitude and truth in people's lives.
- It is the "Watchman at the Gate" mentioned in a former lesson.
- When, by virtue of this principle, the world to which the senses were accustomed had been revolutionized; when the sun had been arrested in its course, the apparently flat earth had been shaped into a ball and set whirling around it; when the inert matter had been resolved into active elements, and the universe presented itself wherever we directed the telescope and microscope, full of force, motion and life; we are constrained to ask by what possible means the delicate forms of organization in the midst of it are kept in order and repair.
- Like poles and like forces repel themselves or remain impenetrable to each other, and this cause seems in general sufficient to assign a proper place and distance to stars, people and forces. As people of different virtues enter into partnership, so do opposite poles attract each other, elements that have no property in common like acids and gases cling to each other in preference and a general exchange is kept up between the surplus and the demand.
- As the eye seeks and receives satisfaction from colors complementary to those which are given, so does need, want and desire, in the largest sense, induce, guide and determine action.
