E. It is the relation which will disclose a truth to thee. The things, being true to each other, will not be false to each other; so with mind. The things which are in harmony with mind, are true to that mind, and the things which are otherwise, are false. Thou knowest that, when thou hast entertained that which was incongenial with thy mind, it was productive only of evil. It was false to thy peace. It was untrue to thy happiness, because the relation was not true to thy wants. Error is error, only because thy mind is disappointed. Truth is truth when no disappointment occurs. Thou hast sought for peace and happiness in things which bear no relation to thy seeking. Thou hast not learned the philosophy of cause and effect. When thou receivest the sayings of mind, thou hast been sometimes deceived; and thou believest when they tell thee what is for thy good. They, too, will not satisfy thy mind without adapting their instruction to thy understanding. Error has been taught thee, or things have been offered thee which disturb the sympathy of thy mind. They are false to thy wants. Thou seekest happiness. They destroy it. That is false to thee and thy good. Thou shouldst not trust in thorns to produce grapes, nor in thistles to produce figs; but thou shouldst know that nothing is, or ever can be true to thy good, which is, or shall be, incongenial with the sympathy that makes thee a child of God.
M. I see that thy philosophy makes no relation eternal; because, when a thing changes, it disturbs the relation which it has sustained to another thing.
E. The relation is eternal to things which are eternal. But thy errors are not eternal things. I see they will soon be destroyed in thee. When thou hast an affinity, or holdest a relation to things which disturb thee, the connection, thus formed, will be true to itself so long as it remaineth, but when the error is destroyed by the philosophy we teach, the relation is broken, and the effect of that relation must cease. The error will disturb no longer than it remaineth.
M. Is it not even so with the truth?
E. It is.
M. Why may not minds, then, lose the truth, and sink into utter hopelessness and despair?
E. Minds may not lose the truth, when they never have found it. Thou hast not yet found the truth. Thou hast learned some facts. Facts are the wisdom of nature as revealed to mind in parts. The truth is the infinite whole, and is incapable of being divided into parts. Minds sometimes call facts truths; but we teach that truth, which is infinite, so far, and no father, as it has been made known to us. Thou hast been taught the truth in part, and what remainest for thee to learn, is what thou hast no knowledge of. It is ignorance in thee, as it is in us. This truth is the infinite harmony and wisdom of God in the universe. All revelation of that wisdom, is true to thy happiness; because thy mind is not discordant with nature, only as thy ignorance, or education, hath perverted it. Thus, the revelation of wisdom, agreeing with thy happiness, is true to thee, and what is true to thee, as cause and effect, will never be false, because it is governed by an immutable law.
M. Then, thou wouldst teach that truth is eternal and error not.
E. Truth is true to the good of mind eternally, because it is in harmony with the relation of cause and effect. Error is in harmony only with ignorance. Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. It is the mere thing of childhood—the infancy of mind in its eternal progress. But when the infant becomes the philosopher, it puts away childish things. The swaddling clothes of the babe will not truly cover the grown man. They are true to the infant, like the Mosaic covenant of forms to the Jewish people; but they cover not the wants of enlarged sympathy for the great brotherhood of mind. The infant people required protection, and their wants were supplied. They asked only what they received. The minds of this circle have sought for no more than they have found. They have sought to establish their own wisdom, in opposition to the wisdom of a higher circle; and they have found, by experience, the avails of their search.
M. Then minds can find what they seek for?