Consider the power of right ideas in the progress of mankind! Every upward step out of limitation has been the result of some fresh, intelligent concept welling up in human thought from its source in fathomless Mind. In his work the inventor, the artist, the writer, the resourceful businessman or dedicated statesman, and, above all, the religious pioneer has consciously or unconsciously tapped the infinite source of wisdom and beauty. Some spiritual quality in thought has tuned each in to the divine wavelength.
This, of course, does not imply that divine Mind is conscious of mortal existence and of human steps in progress. God is perfect Being, the great I am, and He is conscious of nothing beyond the limitless spiritual good that constitutes His selfhood. Therefore human progress is not the product of God's intervention. It comes from the right ideas that result from the human mind's closer and closer approximation to spiritual good. Mrs. Eddy's discovery of the Science of Mind has accelerated human progress because it has uncovered man's true identity as the expression of the divine capacities.
In her book Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy asks, "How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from illusions?" Her answer is incisive and direct: "By learning the origin of each." She then elucidates by saying: "Ideas are emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, proceeding from the brain or from matter, are offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material beliefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal." Science and Health, p. 88;
