r creations
are new combinations of already existing material, whether mental or
corporeal. This is amply demonstrated in the physical sciences. No one
speaks of creating energy, but only of transforming one form of energy into
another; and if we realize this as a universal principle, we shall see that
on the mental plane as well as on the physical we never create energy but
only provide the conditions by which the energy already existing in one
mode can exhibit itself in another: therefore what, relatively to man, we
call his creative power, is that receptive attitude of expectancy which, so
to say, makes a mould into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated
substance can flow and take the desired form. The will has much the same
place in our mental machinery that the tool-holder has in a power-lathe: it
is not the power, but it keeps the mental faculties in that position
relatively to the power which enables it to do the desired work. If, using
the word in its widest sense, we may say that the imagination is the
creative function, we may call the will the centralizing principle. Its
function is to keep the imagination centred in the right direction. We are
aiming at consciously controlling our mental powers instead of letting them
hurry us hither and thither in a purposeless manner, and we must therefore
understand the relation of these powers to each other for the production of
external results. First the whole train of causation is started by some
emotion which gives rise to a desire; next the judgment determines whether
we shall externalize this desire or not; then the desire having been
approved by the judgment, the will comes forward and directs the
imagination to form the necessary spiritual prototype; and the imagination
thus centred on a particular object creates the spiritual nucleus, which in
its turn acts as a centre round which the forces of attraction begin to
work, and continue to operate until, by the law of growth, the concrete
result becomes perceptible to our external senses.

The business of the will, then, is to retain the various faculties of our
mind in that position where they are really doing the work we wish, and
this position may be generalized into the three following attitudes; either
we wish to act upon something, or be acted on by it, or to maintain a
neutral position; in other words we either intend to project a force, or
receive a force or keep a position of inactivity relatively to