ly in its thought. It is the principle of
creation, whether the thing created be a world or a wooden spoon; both
have their origin in the desire to bring something into existence which
does not yet exist. Whatever may be the scale on which we exercise our
creative ability, the motive power must always be desire.

Desire is the force behind all things; it is the moving principle of
the universe and the innermost centre of all Life. Hence, to take the
negation of desire for our primal principle is to endeavour to stamp out
Life itself; but what we have to do is to acquire the requisite
knowledge by which to guide our desires to their true objects of
satisfaction. To do this is the whole end of knowledge; and any
knowledge applied otherwise is only a partial knowledge, which, having
failed in its purpose, is nothing but ignorance. Desire is thus the
sum-total of the livingness of Life, for it is that in which all
movement originates, whether on the physical level or the spiritual. In
a word, desire is the creative power, and must be carefully guarded,
trained, and directed accordingly; but thus to seek to develop it to the
highest perfection is the very opposite of trying to kill it outright.

And desire has fulfilment for its correlative. The desire and its
fulfilment are bound together as cause and effect; and when we realise
the law of their sequence, we shall be more than ever impressed with the
supreme importance of Desire as the great centre of Life.

IX

TOUCHING LIGHTLY

What is our point of support? Is it in ourselves or outside us? Are we
self-poised, or does our balance depend on something external? According
to the actual belief in which our answer to these questions is embodied
so will our lives be. In everything there are two parts, the essential
and the incidental--that which is the nucleus and _raison d'etre_ of the
whole thing, and that which gathers round this nucleus and takes form
from it. The true knowledge always consists in distinguishing these two
from each other, and error always consists in misplacing them.

In all our affairs there are two factors, ourselves and the matter to be
dealt with; and since _for us_ the nature of anything is always
determined by our thought of it, it is entirely a question of our belief
which of these two factors shall be the essential and which the
accessory. Whichever we regard as the essential, the other at once
becomes the incidental. The incidental ca