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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
the world, and what has it not led men and nations to in the past? One need only think of the horrible scenes which generally take place on the discovery of a " Klondike," --scenes of starvation, suffering and villainy of men--to realize its power.
The metaphysics of the sub-conscious, which is engaging the attention of European psychologists at the present day, has gone a long way to show that the subconscious is not the same thing as the unconscious or inactive. It has been observed that the idea of the action ordered in hypnosis not only becomes an object of consciousness at a certain moment, but the more striking aspect of the fact is that the idea grows active : it is translated into action as soon as consciousness becomes aware of its presence. As to this, Prof. Sig. Freud of Vienna observes :
“The real stimulus to the action being the order of the physician, it is hard not to concede that the idea of the physician's order becomes active too. Yet this last idea did not reveal itself to consciousness, as did its outcome, the idea of action ; it remained unconscious, and so it was active and unconscious at the same time."*
This is quite sufficient to show that the true Ideal of divine Perfection cannot but be active, and with a greater degree of intensity than the false ones whose association with consciousness is not of a permanent sort.
Thus, the activity of the Ideal is put beyond dispute ; its effect can only be to lead to the realization of individual perfection, however much we might retard it by our wrong actions and failings. Now, since one earth-life
* See the article entitled 'Some Types of Multiple Personality' in the Special Medical part of The Proceedings of The Society for Psychical Research,' for November, 1912.
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