In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science, the word "idea," which occurs so frequently, owes its significance to the metaphysical definition of God as divine Mind, from which it follows that everything emanating therefrom must be classified as idea of Mind. The poet Milton glimpsed the divine image as idea, when, reviewing the boundless immensity of God's creation, he sang,
. . . how good, how fair,
Answering His great idea.
The word figures in ancient and modern philosophies on the authority of definitions which obviously fall short of the metaphysical meaning of the term as used in Christian Science. Since God is infinite Mind, all that really exists as the manifestation is Mind's idea. For this reason idea can be nothing less than spiritual. As Mrs. Eddy writes on page 468 of Science and Health, "The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit."
