cts as the only causes he can
effectively set in operation. Hence when he attains sufficient moral
enlightenment to realise that many of his acts have been such as to
merit retribution he fears retribution as their proper result. Then by
reason of the law that "thoughts are things," the evils which he fears
take form and plunge him into adverse circumstances, which again prompt
him into further wrong acts, and from these come a fresh crop of fears
which in their turn become externalised into fresh evils, and thus
arises a circulus from which there is no escape so long as the man
recognises nothing but his external acts as a causative power in the
world of his surroundings.

This is the Law of Works, the Circle of Karma, the Wheel of Fate, from
which there appears to be no escape, because the complete fulfilment of
the law of our moral nature to-day is only sufficient for to-day and
leaves no surplus to compensate the failure of yesterday. This is the
necessary law of things as they appear from external observation only;
and, so long as this conception remains, the law of each man's
subjective consciousness makes it a reality for him. What is needed,
therefore, is to establish the conception that external acts are NOT the
only causative power, but that there is another law of causation,
namely, that of pure Thought. This is the Law of Faith, the Law of
Liberty; for it introduces us to a power which is able to inaugurate a
new sequence of causation not related to any past actions.

But this change of mental attitude cannot be brought about till we have
laid hold of some fact which is sufficient to afford a reason for the
change. We require some solid ground for our belief in this higher law.
Ultimately we find this ground in the great Truth of the eternal
relation between spirit in the universal and in the particular. When we
realise that substantially there is nothing else _but_ spirit, and that
we ourselves are reproductions in individuality of the Intelligence and
Love which rule the universe, we have reached the firm standing ground
where we find that we can send forth our Thought to produce any effect
we will. We have passed beyond the idea of two opposites requiring
reconciliation, into that of a duality in which there is no other
opposition than that of the inner and the outer of the same unity, the
polarity which is inherent in all Being, and we then realise that in
virtue of this unity our Thought is possessed o