30/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE

Every body of which we have any accurate knowledge occupies a position in the midst of the scale in regard to size, being apparently neither the largest nor the smallest in existence. We might, under suitable conditions, be able to determine the exact number of units of a certain sort in any particular body we choose to designate;

or we might at least form some kind of an estimate of their number; at all events we are sure that an exact number of such units does exist in that particular body. But it is only by taking some distinct type of unit as the basis of computation that we are able to declare the number of units in any body to be fixed. We must assume some definitely recognizable unit as our starting-point, before we can proceed to multiply it in greater forms, or divide it in lesser ones.

The basic unit of Being is the Self. Whenever we think of a finite self (ie., a self which is a fragment or a fraction of something), we must look for the complement of its finitude or deficiency outside of it. According to the degree one supposes himself to be finite, in proportion to the insignificance of the fraction of Being he feels himself to represent, must its complement seem infinite and incomprehensible.

If he conceives himself a human body, the number of atoms of which it is composed far exceeds his power of reckoning; but he then thinks of them as, in a sense, parts of himself. As his idea of self expands and becomes more inclusive as the thought of human limitation and separateness vanishes, and the narrower thought of self is embraced in the unity of a larger conception, the significance of number, in its relation to Being, disappears.

In the absolute sense there is only one self; but it admits of indefinite multiplication or division in thought, just like the abstract unit of mathematics. The Supreme Being alone can appreciate the full significance of the complete unity of life. To finite view, the world must appear in a manifold aspect (ie., as composed of separate parts or selves).

In the Infinite consciousness there can be no distinction of “I” and “thou,” of self and not self; all is unity. Only as we descend into the finite realm of consciousness does unity begin to be multiplied and divided. Let the processes of multiplication and division of the Self in thought be once entered upon, and they may be extended indefinitely.

But such numerical distinctions are not absolutely real. Neither number nor distance possesses for us any actual significance in the abstract. Only when associated with concrete things, objects, bodies, are they meaningful. Whenever we attempt to estimate dimensions appreciatively, we must assume at least two bodies, or else two positions supposed to lie within one body. An appreciable estimate of spatial relations, then, is possible because we conceive of matter as bodies.