d as against a
materialistic. It sees Spirit as the moulder, the shaper, the arranger
of matter, and matter only as the obedient expression and servant of
the Spirit; it sees in man a spiritual being, seeking to unfold his
powers by experience in a universe of forms; and it declares that man
misunderstands himself, and will fail of his true end, if he
identifies himself with the form that perishes instead of with the
life which is deathless. Hence, opposed to materialism alike in
science and philosophy, it builds up a spiritual conception of the
universe, and necessarily it is idealistic in its thought, and holds
up the importance of the ideal as a guide to all human activity. The
ideal, which is thought applied to conduct, that is the keynote of
Theosophy and its value in the varied worlds of thought; and the power
of thought, the might of thought, the ability that it has to clothe
itself in forms whose life only depends on the continuance of the
thought that gave them birth, that is its central note, or keynote, in
all the remedies that it applies to human ills. Idealist everywhere,
idealist in religion, idealist in art, idealist in science, idealist
in the practical life that men call politics, idealist everywhere; but
avoiding the blunder into which some idealists have fallen, when they
have not recognised that human thought is only a portion of the whole,
and not the whole. The Theosophist recognises that the Divine Thought,
of which the universe is an expression, puts limitations on his own
power of thought, on his own creative activity. He realises that the
whole compels the part, and that his own thought can only move within
the vast circle of the Divine Thought, which he only partially
expresses; so that while he will maintain that, on the ideal depends
all that is called "real" in the lower worlds, he will realise that
his creative power can only slowly mould matter to his will, and
though every result will depend on a creative thought, the results
will often move slowly, adapting themselves to the thought that gives
them birth. Hence, while idealist, he is not impracticable; while he
sees the power of thought, he recognises its limitations in space and
time; and while asserting the vital importance of right thought and
right belief, he realises that only slowly does the flower of thought
ripen into the fruit of action.

But on the importance of thought he lays a stress unusual in modern
life. It is the cant