“And you are so nice and friendly, I wouldn’t want to think you stupid and ignorant,” she went on blandly.
“H’m! Well, that kind o’ takes the edge off your former classification of me,” he said, greatly amused, yet wondering just what appraisal to place upon this frank girl.
“And evolution,” she continued, “is an unfolding, isn’t it? You see, the great fact of creation is the creator, infinite mind. Well, that mind expresses itself in its ideas. And these it is unfolding all the time. Now a fact always gives rise to a suppositional opposite. The opposite of a fact is an error. And that is why error has been called ‘negative truth.’ Of course, there isn’t any such thing as negative truth! And so all error is simply falsity, supposition, without real existence. Do you see?”
He did not reply. But she went on unperturbed. “Now, the human, or carnal, mind is the negative truth of the real mind, 33 God. It is infinite mind’s suppositional opposite. And it imitates the infinite mind, but in a very stupid, blundering way. And so the whole physical universe manifests evolution, too––an unfolding, or revealing, of material types, or mental concepts. And all these manifest the human mind’s sense of life, and its equally strong sense of death. The universe, animals, men, are all human types, evolved, or unfolded, or revealed, in the human mind. And all are the human mind’s interpretations of infinite mind’s real and eternal and perfect ideas. You see that, don’t you?
“You know,” she laughed, “speaking of ‘negative truth’, the first chapter of Genesis sets forth positive truth, and the second chapter sets forth its opposite, negative truth. It is very odd, isn’t it? But there it is for everybody to read. And the human mind, of course, true to its beliefs, clings to the second chapter as the reality. Isn’t it strange?”
Meantime, Carmen’s attention had been attracted to a large microscope that stood on the table near her. Going to it, she peeped curiously down into the tube. “Well, what have you here?” she inquired.
“Germs,” he said mechanically.
“Germs! What funny, twisted things! Well,” she suddenly asked, “have you got the fear germ here?”
He broke into a laugh. But when the girl looked up, her face was quite serious.
“You do not know it, Doctor, for you are a practical man, but you haven’t anything but fear germs under this glass,” she said in a low voice.