704 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CREATION
s. The greatest of all achievements, whether in literature, art, finance,
industry, commerce, transportation, religion, politics, or scientific
discoveries, are usually the results of ideas conceived in one person's
brain-but actually transformed into reality by others, through the
combined use of their minds and bodies. (Meaning that the con-
ception of an idea is of greater importance than the transformation
of that idea into more material form, because relatively few people
can conceive useful ideas, while there are millions who can develop
an idea and give it material form after it has been conceived.)- The majority of all thoughts that are conceived in people's minds
are not accurate, being more in the nature of "opinions" or "snap
judgments:'
"Accurate thoughts" have conquered the air and the sea, explored
practically every square mile of the little earth on which we live, and
wrested from Nature thousands of "secrets" that, a few generations
ago, would have been set down as "miracles" of the most astounding
and imponderable sort.
All scientists who have made a study of the human mind readily
agree that the surface has not yet been scratched in the study of the
wonderful power that lies dormant, waiting, as the oak tree sleeps in
the acorn, to be aroused and put to work. Those who have expressed
an opinion on the subject believe that the next great cycle of dis-
covery lies in the realm of the human mind.
The possible nature of these discoveries has been suggested, in
many different ways, in practically every lesson of this course, parti-
cularly in this and the following lessons. If these suggestions appear
to lead the student of this philosophy deeper than he or she is
accustomed, that student has the privilege of stopping at any depth
desired, until ready, through thought and study, to go further.
It is not expected that the beginner will immediately assimilate
and put into use all that is included in this philosophy. But if the