ising_ of the cosmic law which
can only be effected by _personal_ initiative and selection, just as iron
can only be made to float under certain specialized conditions; and
consequently the passage from the Fourth into the Fifth Kingdom is a
strictly individual process which can only be brought about by a personal
perception of what the normal standard of the New Individuality really is.
This can only be done by the active laying aside of the old race-standard
and the conscious adoption of the new one. The student will do well to
consider this carefully, for it explains why the race cannot receive the
further evolution simply as a race; and also it shows that our further
evolution is not into a state of less activity but of greater, not into
being less alive but more alive, not into being less ourselves but more
ourselves; thus being just the opposite of those systems which present the
goal of existence as re-absorption into the undifferentiated Divine
essence. On the contrary our further evolution is into greater degrees of
conscious activity than we have ever yet known, because it implies our
development of greater powers as the consequence of our clearer perception
of our true relation to the All-originating Spirit. It is the recognition
that we may, and should, measure ourselves by this New Standard instead of
by the old race-standard that constitutes the real New Thought. The New
Thought which gives New Life to the individual will never be realized so
long as we think that it is merely the name of a particular sect, or that
it is to be found in the mechanical observance of a set of rules laid down
for us by some particular teacher. It is a New Fact in the experience of
the individual, the _reason_ for which is indeed made clear to him through
intellectual perception of the real nature of the Creative Process, but
which can become an actual experience only by habitual personal intercourse
with that Divine Spirit which is the Life, Love and Beauty that are at the
back of the Creative Process and find expression through it.

From this intercourse new thoughts will continually flow in, all of them
bearing that vivifying element which is inherent in their source, and the
individual will then proceed to work out these new ideas with the knowledge
that they have their origin in the selection and initiative power of the
All-creating Spirit itself, and in this way by combined meditation and
action he will find himself advanci