IN listening to the music of a violin we are accustomed to think of the tones which greet the ear as emanating in some manner from the instrument. A slight knowledge of physics, however, shows that the sound is really in our consciousness instead of in the violin; that the part the instrument plays in producing the. audible effect is purely mechanical, being confined to the production of atmospheric waves of certain regular forms and lengths, which affect the auditory nerve in such a way as to awaken corresponding tone sensations in our consciousness. In a similar manner, the apple appears red to the eye; but an understanding of the conditions of sight establishes the fact that color is purely a mental impression induced by inconceivably rapid rhythmic pulsations of a wholly invisible medium—termed for convenience's sake the ether—as these pulsations excite the optic nerve by impinging on the retina of the eye. Thus we see that the redness is not in the apple, nor in the ether, but in our consciousness.
Now why, it may be asked, do we experience light and color sensations when the mechanism of the eye is exposed to undulations in a colorless medium? Any attempt to account for the universe on a material basis is attended with serious difficulties. Truth cannot be discerned from the standpoint of material sense. The fact that we may be able to give an accurate description or a plausible explanation of a particular phenomenon in no way proves it trustworthy or real in a metaphysical sense. The value of the evidence hinges on the correctness of the point of view from which it is gained. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says: "Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts." "The so-called laws of matter are nothing but false beliefs that intelligence and life are present where Mind is not" (pp. 86, 171).
Mortal beliefs, as they appear objectively in the form of external phenomena or processes, are no more real or authoritative than when they appear subjectively in the form of mental images or states of feeling. Ether vibrations and atmospheric waves represent modes of belief which, according to the accepted economy of mortal mind, are essential factors in the transmission of color and sound sensations; but, as human consciousness is enlightened and informed by spiritual sense, the fancied necessity of accounting for or reconciling the claims of false belief subsides. To recognize the false basis of material concepts, so that we shall not be fooled into regarding those concepts as reliable and valid, even while in many ways obliged, because of our present imperfect realization of spirituality, to defer to and utilize material modes in practical experience, is a preliminary step in proving the truth of being.
