eps by which it is reached from the
first cosmic movement of the Spirit in the formation of the primary nebula,
we need not go over the old ground again, and may henceforward take this
Divine Principle of Humanity as our Normal Standard and make it the
starting point for our further evolution. But how are we to do this? Simply
by using the one method of Creative Process, that is, the
Self-contemplation of Spirit. We now know ourselves to be Reciprocals of
the Divine Spirit, centers in which It finds a fresh standpoint for
Self-contemplation; and so the way to rise to the heights of this Great
Pattern is by contemplating it as the Normal Standard of our own
Personality.

And be it noted that the Pattern thus set before us is Universal. It is the
embodiment of all the great principles of the Affirmative, and so in no way
interferes with our own particular individuality--_that_ is something built
up upon this foundation, something additional affording the differentiating
medium through which this unifying Principle finds variety of expression,
therefore we need be under no apprehension lest by resting upon this
Pattern we should become less ourselves. On the contrary the recognition of
it sets us at liberty to become more fully ourselves because we know that
we are basing our development, not upon the strength of our own unaided
will, nor yet upon any sort of extraneous help, but upon the Universal Law
itself, manifesting through us in the proper sequence of the Creative
Order; so that we are still dealing with Universal principles, only the
principle by which we are now working is the Universal Principle of
Personality.

I wish the student to get this idea very clearly because this is really the
crux of the passage from the Fourth Kingdom into the Fifth. The great
problem of the future of evolution is the introduction of the Personal
Factor. The reason why this is so is very simple when we see it. To take a
thought from my own "Dore Lectures" we may put it in this way. In former
days no one thought of building ships of iron because iron does not float;
yet now ships are seldom built of anything else, though the relative
specific gravities of iron and water remain unchanged. What has changed is
the Personal Factor. It has expanded to a more intelligent perception of
the law of flotation, and we now see that wood floats and iron sinks, both
of them by the same principle working under opposite conditions, the law,
namely, t