he other hand we grant that there is, above the individual minds, a great
Cosmic Mind which imposes upon them the necessity of all seeing the same
image of Matter, then that image is not a projection of the individual
minds but of the Cosmic Mind; and since the individual minds are themselves
similar projections of the Cosmic Mind, matter is for them just as much a
reality as their own existence. I doubt not that material substance is thus
projected by the all-embracing Divine Mind; but so also are our own minds
projected by it, and therefore the relation between them and matter is a
real relation and not a merely fictitious one.

I particularly wish the student to be clear on this point, that where two
factors are projected from a common source their relation to each other
becomes an absolute fact in respect of the factors themselves,
notwithstanding that the power of changing that relation by substituting a
different projection must necessarily always continue to reside in the
originating source. To take a simple arithmetical example--by my power of
mental projection working through my eyes and fingers I write 4 X 2. Here I
have established a certain numerical relation which can only produce eight
as its result. Again, I have power to change the factors and write 4 X 3,
in which case 12 is the only possible result, and so on. Working in this
way calculation becomes possible. But if every time I wrote 4 that figure
possessed an independent power of setting down a different number by which
to multiply itself, what would be the result? The first 4 I wrote might set
down 3 as its multiplier, and the next might set down 7, and so on. Or if I
want to make a box of a certain size and cut lengths of plank accordingly,
if each length could capriciously change its width at a moment's notice,
how could I ever make the box? I myself may change the shape and size of my
box by establishing new relations between the bits of wood, but for the
pieces of wood themselves the proportions determined by my mind must remain
fixed quantities, otherwise no construction could take place.

This is a very rough analogy, but it may be sufficient to show that for a
cosmos to exist at all it is absolutely necessary that there should be a
Cosmic Mind binding all individual minds to certain _generic_ unities of
action, and so producing all things as realities and nothing as illusion.
The importance of this conclusion will become more apparent as we adv