'In my own case, yes, Mr. Rogers, although the most successful thought-transference is probably unconscious and not deliberate—-'
'Such as, for instance—-'
'Public opinion,' replied Minks, after a moment's search, 'which is the result of waves of thought sent out by everybody—by a community; or by the joint thinking of a nation, again, which modifies every mind born into that nation, the result of' centuries of common thinking along definite familiar channels. Thought-currents rush everywhere about the world, affecting every one more or less, and—er— particularly lodging in minds receptive to them.'
'Thought is dynamic, then, they hold?'
'An actual force, yes; as actual as electricity, and as little understood,' returned the secretary, proud that he had read these theories and remembered them. 'With every real thought a definite force goes forth from you that modifies every single person, and probably every single object as well, in the entire world. Thought is creative according to its intensity. It links everybody in the world with everybody else—-'
'Objects too, you say?' Rogers questioned.
Minks glanced up to make sure there was no levity in the question, but only desire for knowledge.
'Objects too,' he replied, apparently satisfied, 'for science tells us that the movement of a body here affects the farthest star. A continuous medium—ether—transmits the vibrations without friction— and thought-force is doubtless similarly transmitted—er—-'
'So that if I think of a flower or a star, my thought leaps into them and affects them?' the other interrupted again.
'More, Mr. Rogers,' was the reply, 'for your thought, being creative, enriches the world with images of beauty which may float into another mind across the sea, distance no obstacle at all. You make a mental image when you think. There's imagination in all real thinking—if I make myself clear. "Our most elaborate thoughts," to quote for a moment, "are often, as I think, not really ours, but have on a sudden come up, as it were, out of hell or down out of heaven." So what one thinks affects everybody in the world. The noble thinkers lift humanity, though they may never tell their thoughts in speech or writing.'