The word intellect is defined in part by the dictionary as "that faculty of the human soul or mind which receives or comprehends the ideas communicated to it by the senses." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 588) Mrs. Eddy gives the following as the scientific definition of intelligence: "Substance; self-existent and eternal Mind; that which is never unconscious nor limited."
Not every one has a perfect understanding of the difference in meaning, so clearly apparent to the student of Christian Science, between intelligence and intellect. In reality they are diametrical opposites, intelligence being an attribute of God, divine Mind, never changing, enlarging, or diminishing, because it is perfect already; while intellect is the imitation or counterfeit of Mind, represented in belief by numberless minds in various stages of development.
The counterfeit of Mind, intellect, is believed to be almost nil in the degraded bushman, and to reach its highest attenuation in the material scientist and savant. In either case this "mind" is supposed to be dependent upon matter for its manifestation and expression, and the so-called death of the individual would in such case put an end to his mind. His usefulness had reached its limit. The teachings of Truth, as revealed through Christ Jesus and Christian Science, prove logically and conclusively that intelligence never dies, but exists forever, as does the individual through whom it is expressed; that before man could die it would be necessary for God, of whom man is the image and likeness, to become non-existent.
