The hidden power
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| The hidden power by Thomas Troward |
Excerpt:
To realize fully how much of our present daily life consists of symbols is to find the answer to the old, old question, What is Truth? and to the degree in which we begin to recognize this, we begin to approach Truth.
The realization of Truth consists in the ability to translate symbols, whether natural or conventional, into their equivalents; and the root of all the errors of mankind consists in the inability to do this, and in maintaining that the symbol has nothing behind it.
The great duty incumbent on all who have attained to this knowledge is to impress upon their fellow men that there is an inner side to things and that until this inner side is known, the things themselves are not known.
There is an inner and an outer side to everything, and the quality of the superficial mind which causes it to fail in the attainment of Truth is its willingness to rest content with the outside only. So long as this is the case it is impossible for a man to grasp the import of his own relation to the universal, and it is this relation that constitutes all that is signified by the word "Truth." So long as a man fixes his attention only on the superficial it is impossible for him to make any progress in knowledge.
He is denying that principle of "Growth" which is the root of all life, whether spiritual intellectual or material, for he does not stop to reflect that all which he sees as the outer side of things can result only from some germinal principle hidden deep in the centre of their being. Expansion from the centre by growth according to a necessary order of sequence, this is the Law of Life of which the whole universe is the outcome, like in the one great solidarity of cosmic being, as in the separate individualities of its minutest organisms.
This great principle is the key to the whole riddle of Life, upon whatever plane we contemplate it; and without this key, the door from the outer to the inner side of things can never be opened. It is, therefore, the duty of all to whom this door has, at least in some measure, been opened, to endeavour to acquaint others with the fact that there is an inner side to things, and that life becomes truer and fuller in proportion as we penetrate to it and make our estimates of all things according to what becomes visible from this interior point of view.
In the widest sense, everything is a symbol of that which constitutes its inner being, and all Nature is a gallery of arcana revealing great truths to those who The Hidden Power 3 can decipher them. But there is a more precise sense in which our current life is based upon symbols in regard to the most important subjects that can occupy our thoughts: the symbols by which we strive to represent the nature and being of God, and the manner in which the life of man is related to the Divine life.
The whole character of a man's life results from what he really believes on this subject: not his formal statement of belief in a particular creed, but what he realizes as the stage which his mind has actually attained in regard to it. Has a man's mind only reached the point at which he thinks it is impossible to know anything about God or to make any use of the knowledge if he had it?
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Then his whole interior world is in the condition of confusion, which must necessarily exist were no spirit of the order has yet begun to move upon the chaos, in which are, indeed, the elements of being, but all disordered and neutralizing one another. Has he advanced a step further, and realized that there is a ruling and an ordering power, but beyond this is ignorant of its nature? Then the unknown stands to him for the terrific, and, amid a tumult of fears and distresses that deprive him of all strength to advance, he spends his life in the endeavour to propitiate this power as something naturally adverse to him, instead of knowing that it is the very centre of his own life and being.
From Introduction
The material comprised in this volume has been selected from unpublished manuscripts and magazine articles by Judge Troward, and "The Hidden Power" is, it is believed, the last book that will be published under his name. Only an insignificant portion of his work has been deemed unworthy of permanent preservation.
The material comprised in this volume has been selected from unpublished manuscripts and magazine articles by Judge Troward, and "The Hidden Power" is, it is believed, the last book that will be published under his name. Only an insignificant portion of his work has been deemed unworthy of permanent preservation.
Whenever possible, dates have been affixed to these papers. Those published in 1902 appeared originally in ": A Journal of Mind and Thought," in London, and to some of these have been added notes made later by the author. The Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Mr Daniel M. Murphy of New York for his services in the selection and arrangement of the material.
Contents of the book
I the hidden power 1
Ii the perversion of truth 42
Iii the "I am" 59
Iv affirmative power 63
V submission 67
Vi completeness 74
Vii the principle of guidance 81
Viii desire as the motive power 85
Ix touching lightly 92
X present truth 96
Xi yourself 99
Xii religious opinions 105
Xiii a lesson from browning 113
Xiv the spirit of opulence 118
Xv beauty 123
Xvi separation and unity 129
Xvii externalisation 141
Xviii entering into the spirit of it ..... 146
Xix the bible and the new thought
I. The son 153
Ii. The great affirmation 166
Iii. The father 178
Iv. Conclusion 185
Xx Jachin and Boaz .192
Xxi Hephzibah 197
Xxii mind and hand 204
Xxiii the central control 209
Xxiv what is higher thought 213
Xxv fragments, 215
- Author: Thomas Troward
- Publication date: 1925
- Publisher New York: R.M. McBride and company
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