27/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE

The microscope reveals a world of life in every drop of water. Could we exchange our power of observation for that of the tiniest animalcule thus brought to our notice, the outer universe we now perceive, would totally disappear from view, and another,

altogether beyond the scope of our imagination or powers of description at present, would open to view. We would find no trees, birds, rocks, mountains; that which now appears to us in the guise of such bodies, would be resolved into vast unexplored worlds of hitherto unperceived forms.

Let us now turn from these outer demonstrations, in which we observe concrete units of matter multiplicable and divisible far beyond the limits of our comprehension, to the science of pure mathematics. Starting with the ideal unit as a basis, and multiplying it until we have ten, we consider that a unit in the tens column.

Likewise, ten times ten gives us a unit in the hundreds column. Evidently we may continue multiplying units and groups of units, until we tire of the process, without reaching a possible limit of notation. And so with dividing. In either case the number of available units is only limited by our thought; it is purely ideal.

As long as we hold the infinite conception of number, the demonstration may continue ad infinitum. Few people have ever actually counted even one million; yet every child is absolutely certain that figures would be forthcoming by which he could express his enumeration of so many units, should he desire to count them.

The supposition that this would be possible, rests on a purely rational basis. Long before one reaches a million by actual count of units, he is satisfied that the process might be continued as long as he chose in other words, that the supply of abstract units could never be exhausted.

But if one finds it wearisome to count a million, he can readily estimate a much greater number, under favorable circumstances, by resorting to a process of reasoning. Through the rational faculty we become acquainted with the meaning of infinity as associated with numbers.

Let us again assume our original startingpoint; only, instead of ascending the scale, let us descend it; instead of multiplying concrete units of matter, let us divide them. We know that most molecules, like solar systems, are compound; that most molecular units at least, are divisible into lesser, atomic units. Chemistry has to deal with an “ultimate atom.”