ng into increasing light, liberty and
usefulness. The advance may be almost imperceptible from one day to
another, but it will be perceptible at longer intervals, and the one who is
thus moving forward with the Spirit of God will on looking back at any time
always find that he is getting more livingness out of life than he was a
year previously. And this without strenuous effort, for he is not having to
manufacture the power from his own resources but only to _receive_ it--and
as for _using_ it, that is only the exercise of the power itself. So
following on these lines you will find that Rest and Power are identical;
and so you get the real New Thought which grows in Newness every day.

CHAPTER VIII

THE DENOUEMENT OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Then comes the question, What should logically be the denouement of the
progression we have been considering? Let us briefly recapitulate the steps
of the series. Universal Spirit by Self-contemplation evolves Universal
Substance. From this it produces cosmic creation as the expression of
itself as functioning in Space and Time. Then from this initial movement it
proceeds to more highly specialized modes of Self-contemplation in a
continually ascending scale, for the simple reason that self-contemplation
admits of no limits and therefore each stage of self-recognition cannot be
other than the starting-point for a still more advanced mode of
self-contemplation, and so on _ad infinitum_. Thus there is a continuous
progress toward more and more highly specialized forms of life, implying
greater liberty and wider scope for enjoyment as the capacity of the
individual life corresponds to a higher degree of the contemplation of
Spirit; and in this way evolution proceeds till it reaches a level where it
becomes impossible to go any further except by the exercise of conscious
selection and initiative on the part of the individual, while at the same
time conforming to the universal principles of which evolution is the
expression.

Now ask yourself in what way individual selection and initiative would be
likely to act as expressing the Originating Spirit itself? Given the
knowledge on the part of the individual that he is able by his power of
initiative and selection to draw directly upon the All-originating Spirit
of Life, what motive could he have for not doing so? Therefore, granted
such a perfect recognition, we should find the individual holding precisely
the same place in rega