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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 rea