as
regards energy _in toto_, why, we must conclude that there is no such
thing as _annihilation_. And that means that _there is no such thing
as absolute creation_! Whatever is real has always existed. The shadow
never was real, and does not exist. And so creation becomes unfolding,
or revelation, or development, of what already exists, and has always
existed, and always will exist. Therefore, if matter, and all it
includes as concomitants, evil, sin, sickness, accident, chance, lack,
and death, is based upon unreal, false thought, then it can all be
removed, put out of consciousness, by a knowledge of truth and a
reversal of our accustomed human thought-processes."

"And that," said Carmen, "is salvation. It is based on righteousness,
which is right-thinking, thinking true thoughts, and thinking truly."

"And knowing," added Hitt, "that evil, including matter, is the
suppositional opposite of truth. The doctrine of materialism has been
utterly disproved even by the physicists themselves. For physicists
have at last agreed that inertia is the great essential property of
matter. That is, matter is not a cause, but an effect. It does not
operate, but is operated upon. It is not a law-giver, but is subject
to the human mind's so-called laws concerning it. It of itself is
utterly without life or intelligence.

"Very good," he continued. "Now Spencer said that matter was a
manifestation of an underlying power or force. Physicists tell us that
matter is made of electricity, that it is an electrical phenomenon,
and that the ultimate constituent of matter is the electron. The
electron is said by some to be made up of superimposed layers of
positive and negative electricity, and by others to be made up of only
negative charges. I rather prefer the latter view, for if composed of
only negative electricity it is more truly a negation. Matter is the
_negative_ of real substance. It is a sort of negative truth.

"Now electricity is a form of energy. Hence matter is a form of
energy also. But our comprehension of it is _wholly mental_. Energy is
mental. The only real energy there is or can be is the energy of the
infinite mind we call God. This the human mind copies, or imitates,
by reason of what has been called 'the law of suppositional
opposites,' already dwelt upon at some length. Everything manifests
this so-called law. Electricity is both positive and negative.
Gravitation is regarded by some physicists as the negative asp