Dore Lectures on Mental Science, by Thomas Troward
by Thomas Troward
The addresses contained in this volume were delivered by me atthe Dore Gallery, Bond Street, London, on the Sundays of thefirst three months of the present year, and are now published atthe kind request of many of my hearers, hence their title of "TheDore Lectures." A number of separate discourses on a variety ofsubjects necessarily labours under the disadvantage of want ofcontinuity, and also under that of a liability to the frequentrepetition of similar ideas and expressions, and the reader will,I trust, pardon these defects as inherent in the circumstances ofthe work. At the same time it will be found that, although notspecially so designed, there is a certain progressive developmentof thought through the dozen lectures which compose this volume,the reason for which is that they all aim at expressing the samefundamental idea, namely that, though the laws of the universecan never be broken, they can be made to work under specialconditions which will produce results that could not be producedunder the conditions spontaneously provided by nature. This is asimple scientific principle and it shows us the place which isoccupied by the personal factor, that, namely, of an intelligencewhich sees beyond the present limited manifestation of the Lawinto its real essence, and which thus constitutes theinstru-mentality by which the infinite possibilities of the Lawcan be evoked into forms of power, usefulness, and beauty.
The more perfect, therefore, the working of the personal factor,the greater will be the results developed from the Universal Law;and hence our lines of study should be two-fold—on the one handthe theoretical study of the action of Universal Law, and on theother the practical fitting of ourselves to make use of it; andif the present volume should assist any reader in this two-foldquest, it will have answered its purpose.
The different subjects have necessarily been treated verybriefly, and the addresses can only be considered as suggestionsfor lines of thought which the reader will be able to work outfor himself, and he must therefore not expect that carefulelabora-tion of detail which I would gladly have bestowed had Ibeen writing on one of these subjects exclusively. This littlebook must be taken only for what it is, the record of somewhatfragmentary talks with a very indulgent audience, to whom Igratefully dedicate the volume.
We all know the meaning of this phrase in our everyday life. TheSpirit is that which gives life and movement to anything, in factit is that which causes it to exist at all. The thought of theauthor, the impression of the painter, the feeling of themusician, is that without which their works could never have comeinto being, and so it is only as we enter into the IDEA whichgives rise to the work, that we can derive all the enjoyment andbenefit from it which it is able to bestow. If we cannot enterinto the Spirit of it, the book, the picture, the music, aremeaningless to us: to appreciate them we must share the m