accordance with the sort of thought that started it. The stream always
has the quality of its source. Thought which is in line with the Unity
of the Great Whole, will produce correspondingly harmonious results, and
Thought which is disruptive of the great Principle of Unity, will
produce correspondingly disputive results--hence all the trouble and
confusion in the world. Our Thought is perfectly free, and we can use it
either constructively or destructively as we choose; but the immutable
Law of Sequence will not permit us to plant a thought of one kind, and
make it bear fruit of another.

Then the question very naturally suggests itself: Why did not God create
us so that we could not think negative or destructive thoughts? And the
answer is: Because He could not. There are some things which even God
cannot do. He cannot do anything that involves a contradiction in terms.
Even God could not make twice two either more or less than four. Now I
want the student to see clearly why making us incapable of
wrong-thinking would involve a contradiction in terms, and would
therefore be an impossibility. To see this we must realize what is our
place in the Order of the Universe. The name "Man" itself indicates
this. It comes from the Sanscrit root MN, which, in all its derivatives,
conveys the idea of Measurement, as in the word Mind, through the Latin
_mens_, the faculty which compares things and estimates them
accordingly; Moon, the heavenly body whose phases afford the most
obvious standard for the periodical measurement of time; Month, the
period thus measured; "Man," the largest of the Indian weights; and so
on. Man therefore means "The Measurer," and this very aptly describes
our place in the order of evolution, for it indicates the relation
between Personal Volition and Immutable Law.

If we grant the truth of the maxim "Nature unaided fails" the whole