the measure in which it is physically fitted for its concentration into
self-recognizing individuality: it lies hidden in that primordial substance
of which the visible form is a grosser manifestation. This primordial
substance is a philosophical necessity, and we can only picture it to
ourselves as something infinitely finer than the atoms which are themselves
a philosophical inference of physical science: still, for want of a better
word, we may conveniently speak of this primary intelligence inherent in
the very substance of things as the Atomic Intelligence. The term may,
perhaps, be open to some objections, but it will serve our present purpose
as distinguishing _this_ mode of spirit's intelligence from that of the
opposite pole, or Individual Intelligence. This distinction should be
carefully noted because it is by the response of the atomic intelligence to
the individual intelligence that thought-power is able to produce results
on the material plane, as in the cure of disease by mental treatment, and
the like. Intelligence manifests itself by responsiveness, and the whole
action of the cosmic mind in bringing the evolutionary process from its
first beginnings up to its present human stage is nothing else but a
continual intelligent response to the demand which each stage in the
progress has made for an adjustment between itself and its environment.
Since, then, we have recognized the presence of a universal intelligence
permeating all things, we must also recognize a corresponding
responsiveness hidden deep down in their nature and ready to be called into
action when appealed to. All mental treatment depends on this
responsiveness of spirit in its lower degrees to higher degrees of itself.
It is here that the difference between the mental scientist and the
uninstructed person comes in; the former knows of this responsiveness and
makes use of it, and the latter cannot use it because he does not know it.