Education and the Philosophical Ideal by Horatio W. Dresser - Read the Complete Text for free at NewThoughtLibrary.com

Divine Library is a free online public library that includes free eBook downloads and free audio books.

We work with New Thought Seekers and Sharers around the world insuring that all New Thought Texts in the Public Domain are available for you to read on the web for free, forever!

"Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit."
~ 2 Corinthians 2:17

Navigate through this book by clicking Next Page or Previous Page below the text of the page & jump directly to chapters using the chapter numbers above the text.

Serving New Thought is pleased to present

Horatio W. Dresser's

Education and the Philosophical Ideal

"Evolution is better than Revolution. New Thought Library's New Thought Archives encompass a full range of New Thought from Abrahamic to Vedic. New Thought literature reflects the ongoing evolution of human thought. New Thought's unique inclusion of science, art and philosophy presents a dramatic contrast with the magical thinking of decadent religions that promulgate supersticions standing in the way of progress to shared peace and prosperity." ~ Avalon de Rossett

Your PayPal contributions insure this gift lasts forever. Please consider an ongoing PayPal subscription.

Preface - Introduction - The New Point of View - Educational Ideals - Equanimity - The Subconscious Mind - The Spiritual Ideal in Childhood - An Experiment in Education - The Expression of the Spirit - An Ideal Summer Conference - The Ministry of the Spirit - The Mystery of Pain and Evil - The Philosophical Ideal - The Criteria of Truth - Organic Perfection - Immortality - Index - p. 247

apparently insuperable limitation is precisely that which enables him to manifest the Spirit as can no other man. Without relativity as a fundamental fact, education and philosophy are alike impossible. The very basis of religion is the worship by the part of the whole, the discovery by the finite that it is finite.

The limitations of finite consciousness are well illustrated by the relations of a plant in the sunlight. The plant can absorb from the sun's energy that alone which the capacity of its leaves permits. What it absorbs is taken into instant relation with what it already possesses; it becomes part of itself. In the same way the mind assimilates from a lecture, from travel, only what it is prepared to receive. All else is passed by as if it were naught.

Thus any inspiration partakes of the imperfections of the scribe. Even if biblical, it is given through a human organism, and is clothed in the language which happens to be native to the prophet, although its wisdom may in a measure surpass the comprehension of the recipient.

Again, the relativity of knowledge is illustrated by physical sensation. What is called colour is partly due to external vibration, partly to the structure of the eye: the sensation is a relative product. If all eyes were absent there would still be vibration. But what that vibration is in itself, apart from the percipient organism, no one knows. We know only the combined result in even the most definite of our visual experiences.

Likewise sound is known only in relation to the

page scan

144

PREVIOUS PAGE - NEXT PAGE