not real. All evil is contained in that supposition--a supposition
that there is power and life and substance apart from God."

"But who made the supposition?" queried Haynerd.

"A supposition is not made," replied Carmen quietly. "Its existence is
suppositional."

"I don't quite get that," interposed Miss Wall, her brows knitting.

Carmen smiled down at the inquiring woman. "Listen," she said. "The
creator of all things is mind. You admit that. But you would have that
mind the creator of evil, also. Yet, your own reasoning has shown
that, on the premise of mind as infinite, such mind must be forever
whole, harmonious, perfect. The thoughts and ideas by which that mind
expresses itself must be likewise pure and perfect. Then that creative
mind can not create evil. For, a mind that creates evil must itself be
evil. And, being infinite, such a mind must include the evil it
creates. We would have, then, either a mind wholly evil, or one of
mixed evil and good. In either case, that mind must then destroy
itself. Am I not right?"

"Your reasoning is, certainly," admitted Miss Wall. "But, how to
account for evil, when God is infinite good--"

"To account for it at all," replied Carmen, "would be to make it
something real. Jesus would account for it only by classing it as a
lie about God. Now God, as the creative mind, must likewise be truth,
since He is perfection and harmony. Very well, a lie is always the
opposite of truth. Evil is the direct opposite of good."

"Yes," said Father Waite, nodding his head as certain bright memories
returned to him. "That is what you told me that day when I first
talked with you. And it started a new line of thought."

"Is it strange that God should have a suppositional opposite?"
asked Carmen. "Has not everything with which you are concerned a
suppositional opposite? God is truth. His suppositional opposite is
the great lie of evil. God is good. Hence the same opposite. God is
spirit. The suppositional opposite is matter. And matter is just as
mental as the thoughts which you are now holding. God is real. Good
is real. And so, evil and the lie are unreal."

"The distinction seems to me theoretical," protested Miss Wall.

Hitt then took the floor. "That word 'real,'" he said, "is perhaps
what is causing your confusion. The real is that which, according to
Spencer, does not pass away. We used to believe matter indestructible,
forever permanent. We learn that our views regarding it w