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and conditions of action. A prolonged duration of the present physical system is expected by us, unless we see, or think we see, reasons for change in the government of God, or grounds of change in the system itself an introduction at some point of new forces.

Lesson 51 - 9. Spontaneity - p.221

9. Causation is the law of connection between physical facts; spontaneity, the idea we have next to offer, is the ground of connection between purely mental facts. These two sets of facts are as distinct in their dependencies as in the fields in which they occur. Confusion may easily arise from blending physical and mental phenomena in the nervous system which lies as a medium of interaction between them. All physical facts and facts immediately dependent on them come under the law of causation. Causation involves the presence of forces, definite in quality and quantity, which, in transition from form to form, give rise to events. These forces have always some mode of existence which exactly expresses them. A power of mind can not so be conceived. It is not a realized patent or latent force of a given order, waiting on a proper occasion to pass through another form termed thought. The law of thought, that of truth, can not be maintained on such a supposition. Truth would become a simple effect, and lose its very nature. The mind must, as a power, seek, discern, and embrace the truth, otherwise it is not truth. This search implies spontaneity on the part of the mind, a self-guided power that moves toward its own ends. The laws of thought, of feeling, of volition do not abide as forces in this power, but are the product of the rational insight involved in the power itself. Language constantly regards this distinction, but not with the firmness it might. Over against forces should stand powers; against effects, actions; against causes, incentives and motives; against instruments, agents.