style="font-size:15px;"> consists, not in the mere aggregation of its parts, whether spiritual or
corporeal, but in the _unity_ of power resulting from the intimate
association into which those parts enter with one another, which unity,
according to this law of the generation of power by attraction, is
infinitely superior, both in intelligence and power, to any less fully
integrated mode of spirit. Thus a natural principle, common alike to
physical and spiritual law, fully accounts for all claims that have ever
been made for the creative power of our thought over all things that
come within the circle of our own particular life. Thus it is that each
man is the centre of his own universe, and has the power, by directing
his own thought, to control all things therein.
But, as I have said above, there is no reason why this principle should
not be recognised as expanding from the individual until it embraces
the entire universe. Each man, as the centre of his own world, is
himself centred in a higher system in which he is only one of
innumerable similar atoms, and this system again in a higher until we
reach the supreme centre of all things; intelligence and power increase
from centre to centre in a ratio rising with inconceivable rapidity,
according to the law we are now investigating, until they culminate in
illimitable intelligence and power commensurate with All-Being.
Now we have seen that the relation of man to the lower modes of spirit
is that of superiority and command, but what is his relation to these
higher modes? In any harmoniously constituted system the relation of the
part to the whole never interferes with the free operation of the part
in the performance of its own functions; but, on the contrary, it is
precisely by means of this relation that each part is maintained in a
position to discharge all functions for which it is fitted. Thus, then,
the subordination of the individual man to the supreme mind, so far from
curtailing his liberty, is the very condition which makes liberty
possible, or even life itself. The generic movement of the whole
necessarily carries the part along with it; and so long as the part
allows itself thus to be carried onwards there will be no hindrance to
its free working in any direction for which it is fitted by its own
individuality. This truth was set forth in the old Hindu religion as the
Car of Jaggarnath--an ideal car only, which later ages degraded into a
terribly material symbol. "Jaggarnath" means "Lord of the Universe," and
thus signifies the Universal Mind. This, by the law of Being, must
always move forward regardless of any attempts of individuals to
restrain it. Those who mount upon its car move onward with it to
endlessly advancing evolution, while those who seek to oppose it must be
crushed beneath its wheels, for it is no respecter of persons.
If, therefore, we would employ the universal law of spirit to control
our own little individual worlds, we must also recognise it in respect
to the supreme centre round which we ourselves revolve. But not in the
old way of supposing that this centre is a capricious Individuality
external to ourselves, which can be propitiated or cajoled into giving
the good which he is not good enough to give of his own proper motion.
So long as we retain this infantile idea we have not come into the
liberty which results from the knowledge of the certainty of Law.
Supreme Mind is Supreme Law, and can be calculated upon with the same
accuracy as when manifested in any of the particular laws of the
physical world; and the result of studying, understanding and obeying
this Supreme Law is that we thereby acquire the power to _use_ it. Nor
need we fear it with the old fear which comes from ignorance, for we can
rely with confidence upon the proposition that the whole can have no
interest adverse to the parts of which it is composed; and conversely
that the part can have no interest adverse to the whole.
Our ignorance of our relation to the whole may make us appear to have
separate interests, but a truer knowledge must always show such an idea
to be mistaken. For this reason, therefore, the same responsiveness of
spirit which manifests itself as obedience to our wishes, when we look
to those degrees of spirit which are lower than her own individuality,
must manifest itself as a necessary inflowing of intelligence and power
when we look to the infinity of spirit, of which our individuality is a
singular expression, because in so looking upwards we are looking for
the higher degrees of _ourself_.
The increased vitality of the parts means the increased vitality of the
whole, and since it is impossible to conceive of spirit otherwise than
as a continually expanding principle of Life, the demand for such
increased vitality must, by the inherent nature of spirit, be met by a
corresponding supply of continually growing intelligence and power.
Thus,
