On page 463 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy has written,"The material physician gropes among phenomena, which fluctuate every instant under influences not embraced in his diagnosis." The dictionary defines one who gropes as one who "searches in the dark," and a close study of the passage quoted above shows the appropriateness of our Leader's use of the word.
As thinkers gradually draw away from the tendency to be held in bondage by the limitations and superstitions of the past, they see more and more clearly that mortal mind with all of its suppositional activities is but a negation,—the absence of the truth about God and the spiritual universe; and a little unprejudiced thought will reveal that this so-called mind takes its hue from its environment. It is clear that in dealing with any of the phantasmagoria of mortal sense one is dealing with a negation, the absence of intelligence, and hence it is likely to accept as truth what originates in superstitious beliefs that are absolutely foundationless.
When an engineer starts in to make an underground survey, he disregards the polar compass which may be used on the surface of the earth in a general way as indicating the north or the south; he must establish the true north, not the magnetic north. No United States mineral survey would be considered for a moment if based upon the magnetic needle, because this needle is not controlled by a fixed law, but may be influenced by anything that attracts it, seen or unseen; a pile of steel, an engine, an electric wire, underground currents, and so on, all will cause the needle to vary. But the engineer, having established the true meridian by his calculation from a fixed planet, plunges into the darkness of an underground survey with perfect confidence, and after running thousands of feet of lines at different angles, will make a connection with another working, so close that one is tempted to exclaim, "Miraculous!"Yet there is nothing miraculous about it to the engineer; in fact, he would have been chagrined at any other outcome, as it would have shown carelessness on his part. He could not have worked, however, with such perfect confidence if there had been the slightest fear that the basis of his calculations was susceptible to disturbing influences.
