utes
human individuality; and this is the basis of the power of human thought
to externalise itself in infinite forms of its own ordering.

But if the subordination of the lower degrees of spirit to the higher is
one of the fundamental laws which lie at the bottom of the creative
power of thought, there is another equally fundamental law which places
a salutary restraint upon the abuse of that power. It is the law that we
can command the powers of the universal for our own purposes only in
proportion as we first realise and obey their generic character. We can
employ water for any purpose which does not require it to run up-hill,
and we can utilise electricity for any purpose that does not require it
to pass from a lower to a higher potential.

So with that universal power which we call the Spirit. It has an
inherent generic character with which we must comply if we would employ
it for our specific purposes, and this character is summed up in the one
word "goodness." The Spirit is Life, hence its generic tendency must
always be lifeward or to the increase of the livingness of every
individual. And since it is universal it can have no particular
interests to serve, and therefore its action must always be equally for
the benefit of all. This is the generic character of spirit; and just as
water, or electricity, or any other of the physical forces of the
universe, will not work contrary to their generic character, so Spirit
will not work contrary to its generic character.

The inference is obvious. If we would use Spirit we must follow the law
of the Spirit which is "Goodness." This is the only limitation. If our
originating intention is good, we may employ the spiritual power for
what purpose we will. And how is "goodness" to be defined? Simply by the
child's definition that what is bad is not good, and that what is good
is not bad; we all know the difference between bad and good
instinctively. If we will conform to this principle of obedience to the
generic law of the Spirit, all that remains is for us to study the law
of the proportion which exists between the more and less fully
integrated modes of Spirit, and then bring our knowledge to bear with
determination.

IV

The law of spirit, to which our investigation has now led us, is of the
very widest scope. We have followed it up from the conception of the
intelligence of spirit, subsisting in the initial atoms, to the
aggregation of this intelligence as the con