LITMIR.BIZ

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a better order is the great secret of

      progress, and we are now able to fly through the air, not because the laws

      of Nature have altered, but because we have learnt to arrange things in the

      right order to produce this result--the things themselves had existed from

      the beginning of the world, but what was wanting was the introduction of a

      Personal Factor which, by an intelligent perception of the possibilities

      contained in the laws of Nature, should be able to bring into working

      reality ideas which previous generations would have laughed at as the

      absurd fancies of an unbalanced mind. The lesson to be learnt from the

      practical aviation of the present day is that of the triumph of principle

      over precedent, of the working out of an _idea_ to its logical conclusions

      in spite of the accumulated testimony of all past experience to the

      contrary; and with such a notable example before us can we say that it is

      futile to enquire whether by the same method we may not unlock still more

      important secrets and gain some knowledge of the unseen causes which are at

      the back of external and visible conditions, and then by bringing these

      unseen causes into a better order make practical working realities of

      possibilities which at present seem but fantastic dreams? It is at least

      worth while taking a preliminary canter over the course, and this is all

      that this little volume professes to attempt; yet this may be sufficient to

      show the lay of the ground.

      Now the first thing in any investigation is to have some idea of what you

      are looking for--to have at least some notion of the general direction in

      which to go--just as you would not go up a tree to find fish though you

      would for birds' eggs. Well, the general direction in which we all want to

      go is that of getting more out of Life than we have ever got out of it--we

      want to be more alive in ourselves and to get all sorts of improved

      conditions in our environment. However happily any of us may be

      circumstanced we can all conceive something still better, or at any rate we

      should like to make our present good permanent; and since we shall find as

      our studies advance that the prospect of increasing possibilities keeps

      opening out more and more widely before us, we may say that what we are in

      search of is the secret of getting more out of Life in a continually

      progressive degree. This means that what we are looking for is something

      personal, and that it is to be obtained by producing conditions which do

      not yet exist; in other words it is nothing less than the exercise of a

      certain creative power in the sphere of our own particular world. So, then,

      what we want is to introduce our own Personal Factor into the realm of

      unseen causes. This is a big thing, and if it is possible at all it must be

      by some sequence of cause and effect, and this sequence it is our object to

      discover. The law of Cause and Effect is one we can never get away from,

      but by carefully following it up we may find that it will lead us further

      than we had anticipated.

      Now, the first thing to observe is that if _we_ can succeed in finding out

      such a sequence of cause and effect as the one we are in search of,

      somebody else may find out the same creative secret also; and then, by the

      hypothesis of the case, we should both be armed with an infallible power,

      and if we wanted to employ this power against each other we should be

      landed in the "impasse" of a conflict between two powers each of which was

      irresistible. Consequently it follows that the first principle of this

      power must be Harmony. It cannot be antagonizing itself from different

      centers--in other words its operation in a simultaneous order at every

      point is the first necessity of its being. What we are in search of, then,

      is a sequence of cause and effect so universal in its nature as to include

      harmoniously all possible variations of individual expression. This primary

      necessity of the Law for which we are seeking should be carefully borne in

      mind, for it is obvious that any sequence which transgresses this primary

      essential must be contrary to the very nature of the Law itself, and

      consequently cannot be conducting us to the exercise of true creative

      power.

      What we are seeking, therefore, is to discover how to arrange things in

      such an order as to set in motion a train of causation that will harmonize

      our own conditions without antagonizing the exercise of a like power by

      others. This therefore means that all individual exercise of this power is

      the particular application of a universal power which itself operates

      creatively on its own account independently of these individual

      applications; and the harmony between the various individual applications

      is brought about by all the individuals bringing their own particular

      action into line with this independent creative action of the original

      power. It is in fact another application of Euclid's axiom that things

      which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another; so that though

      I may not know for what purpose some one may be using this creative power

      in Pekin, I do know that if he and I both realize its true nature, we

      cannot by any possibility be working in opposition to one another. For

      these reasons, having now some general idea of what it is we are in search

      of, we may commence our investigation by considering this common factor

      which must be at the back of all individual exercise of creative power,

      that is to say, the Generic working of the Universal Creative Principle.

      That such a Universal Creative Principle is at work we at once realize from

      the existence of the world around us with all its inhabitants, and the

      inter-relation of all parts of the cosmic system shows its underlying

      Unity--thus the animal kingdom depends on the vegetable, the vegetable

      kingdom on the mineral, the mineral or globe of the earth on its relation

      to the rest of the solar system, and possibly our solar system is related

      by a similar law to the distribution of other suns with their attendant

      planets

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