is as really the basis of the development of specific personality as the
Universal Mind is the necessary basis of generic mentality; and just as
without this generic ultimate of Mind we should none of us see the same
world at the same time, and in fact have no consciousness of existence, so
apart from this Divine Standard of Personality it is equally impossible for
us to specialize the generic law of our being so as to develop all the
glorious possibilities that are latent in it.

Only we must never forget the difference between these two statements of
the Universal Law--the one is cosmic and generic, common to the whole race,
whether they know it or not, a Standard to which we all conform
automatically by the mere fact of being human beings; while the other is a
personal and individual Standard, automatic conformity to which is
impossible because that would imply the loss of those powers of Initiative
and Selection which are the very essence of Personality; so that this
Standard necessarily implies a personal selection of it in preference to
other conceptions of an antagonistic nature.

CHAPTER VII

RACE THOUGHT AND NEW THOUGHT

The steady following up of the successive stages of the Creative Process
has led us to the recognition of an Individuality in the All-creating
Spirit itself, but an Individuality which is by its very nature Universal,
and so cannot be departed from without violating the essential principles
on which the further expansion of our own individuality depends. At the
same time it is strictly _individual_, for it is the Spirit of
Individuality, and is thus to be distinguished from that merely _generic_
race-personality which makes us human beings at all. Race-personality is of
course the necessary _basis_ for the development of this Individuality; but
if we do not see that it is only the preliminary to further evolution, any
other conception of our personality as members of the race will prevent our
advance toward our proper position in the Creative Order, which is that of
introducing the Personal Factor by the exercise of our individual power of
initiative and selection.

It is on this account that Race-thought, simply as such, is opposed to the
attempt of the individual to pass into a higher order of life. It limits
him by strong currents of negative suggestion based on the fallacy that the
perpetuation of the race requires the death of the individual;[5] and it is
only when the indivi