fly the nature of
thought. Thought is not, as is many times supposed, a mere indefinite
abstraction, or something of a like nature. It is, on the contrary, a
vital, living force, the most vital, subtle, and irresistible force
there is in the universe.

In our very laboratory experiments we are demonstrating the great fact
that thoughts are forces. They have form, and quality, and substance,
and power, and we are beginning to find that there is what we may term
a _science of thought_. We are beginning also to find that through the
instrumentality of our thought forces we have creative power, not
merely in a figurative sense, but creative power in reality.

Everything in the material universe about us, everything the universe
has ever known, had its origin first in thought. From this it took its
form. Every castle, every statue, every painting, every piece of
mechanism, everything had its birth, its origin, first in the mind of
the one who formed it before it received its material expression or
embodiment. The very universe in which we live is the result of the
thought energies of God, the Infinite Spirit that is back of all. And
if it is true, as we have found, that we in our true selves are in
essence the same, and in this sense are one with the life of this
Infinite Spirit, do we not then see that in the degree that we come
into a vital realization of this stupendous fact, _we, through the
operation of our interior, spiritual, thought forces, have in like
sense creative power_?

Everything exists in the unseen before it is manifested or realized in
the seen, and in this sense it is true that the unseen things are the
real, while the things that are seen are the unreal. The unseen things
are _cause_; the seen things are _effect_. The unseen things are the
eternal; the seen things are the changing, the transient.

The "_power of the word_" is a literal scientific fact. Through the
operation of our thought forces we have creative power. The spoken
word is nothing more nor less than the outward expression of the
workings of these interior forces. The spoken word is then, in a
sense, the means whereby the thought forces are focused and directed
along any particular line; and this concentration, this giving them
direction, is necessary before any outward or material manifestation of
their power can become evident.

Much is said in regard to "building castles in the air," and one who is
given to this buildi