ture of its Self-recognition such a
negative action would be impossible. Of course if _we_ act negatively then,
since the Spirit is always acting affirmatively, we are moving in the
opposite direction to it; and consequently so long as we regard our own
negative action as being affirmative, the Spirit's action must appear to us
negative, and thus it is that all the negative conditions of the world have
their root in negative or inverted thought: but the more we bring our
thought into harmony with the Life, Love, and Beauty which the Spirit is,
the less these inverted conditions will obtain, until at last they will be
eliminated altogether. To accomplish this is our great object; for though
the progress may be slow it will be steady if we proceed on a definite
principle; and to lay hold of the true principle is the purpose of our
studies. And the principle to lay hold of is the Ceaseless Creativeness of
Spirit. This is what we mean when we speak of it as The Spirit of the
Affirmative, and I would ask my readers to impress this term upon their
minds. Once grant that the All-originating Spirit is thus the Spirit of the
Pure Affirmative, and we shall find that this will lead us logically to
results of the highest value.

If, then, we keep this Perpetual and Progressive Creativeness of the Spirit
continually in mind we may rely upon its working as surely in ourselves as
in that great cosmic forward movement which we speak of as Evolution. It is
the same power of Evolution working within ourselves, only with this
difference, that in proportion as we come to realize its nature we find
ourselves able to facilitate its progress by offering more and more
favorable conditions for its working. We do not add to the force of the
Power, for we are products of it and so cannot generate what generates
_us_; but by providing suitable conditions we can more and more highly
specialize it. This is the method of all the advance that has ever been
made. We never create any force (_e.g._ electricity) but we provide special
conditions under which the force manifests _itself_ in a variety of useful
and beautiful ways, unsuspected possibilities which lay hidden in the power
until brought to light by the cooperation of the Personal Factor.

Now it is precisely the introduction[3] of this Personal Factor that
concerns us, because to all eternity we can only recognize things from our
own center of consciousness, whether in this world or in any other;