s way we find that the great
Primary Polarity of Being becomes established.

From this point onward we shall find the principle of Polarity in universal
activity. It is that relation between opposites without which no external
Motion would be possible, because there would be nowhere to move from, and
nowhere to move to; and without which external Form would be impossible
because there would be nothing to limit the diffusion of substance and
bring it into shape. Polarity, or the interaction of Active and Passive, is
therefore the basis of all _Evolution_.

This is a great fundamental truth when we get it in its right order; but
all through the ages it has been a prolific source of error by getting it
in its wrong order. And the wrong order consists in making Polarity the
originating point of the Creative Process. What this misconception leads to
we shall see later on; but since it is very widely accepted under various
guises even at the present day it is well to be on our guard against it.
Therefore I wish the student to see clearly that there is something which
comes before that Polarity which gives rise to Evolution, and that this
something is the original movement of Spirit _within itself_, of which we
can best get an idea by calling it Self-contemplation.

Now this may seem an extremely abstract conception and one with which we
have no practical concern. I fancy I can hear the reader saying "The Lord
only knows how the world started, and it is His business and not mine,"
which would be perfectly true if this originating faculty were confined to
the Cosmic Mind. But it is not, and the same action takes place in our own
minds also, only with the difference that it is ultimately subject to that
principle of Cosmic Unity of which I have already spoken. But, subject to
that unifying principle, this same power of origination is in ourselves
also, and our personal advance in evolution depends on our right use of it;
and our use of it depends on our recognition that we ourselves give rise to
the particular polarities which express themselves in our whole world of
consciousness, whether within or without. For these reasons it is very
important to realize that Evolution is not the same as Creation. It is the
unfolding of potentialities involved in things already created, but not the
calling into existence of what does not yet exist--_that_ is Creation.

The order, therefore, which I wish the student to observe is, first the