n never be absent. For any sort
of action to take place there must be _some_ conditions under which the
activity passes out into visible results; but the same sort of activity
may occur under a variety of different conditions, and may thus produce
very different visible results. So in every matter we shall always find
an essential or energising factor, and an incidental factor which
derives its quality from the nature of the energy.

We can therefore never escape from having to select our essential and
our incidental factor, and whichever we select as the essential, we
thereby place the other in the position of the incidental. If, then, we
make the mistake of reversing the true position and suppose that the
energising force comes from the merely accessory circumstances, we make
_them_ our point of support and lean upon _them_, and stand or fall with
them accordingly; and so we come into a condition of weakness and
obsequious waiting on all sorts of external influences, which is the
very reverse of that strength, wisdom, and opulence which are the only
meaning of Liberty.

But if we would ask ourselves the common-sense question Where can the
centre of a man's Life be except in himself? we shall see that in all
which pertains to us the energising centre must be in ourselves. We can
never get away from ourselves as the centre of our own universe, and the
sooner we clearly understand this the better. There is really no energy
in _our_ universe but what emanates from ourselves in the first
instance, and the power which appears to reside in our surroundings is
derived entirely from our own mind.

If once we realise this, and consider that the Life which flows into us
from the Universal Life-Principle is at every moment _new_ Life entirely
undifferentiated to any particular purpose besides that of supporting
our own individuality, and that it is therefore ours to externalise in
any form we will, then we find that this manifestation of the eternal
Life-Principle _in ourselves_ is the standpoint from which we can
control our surroundings. We must lean firmly on the central point of
our own being and not on anything else. Our mistake is in taking our
surroundings too much "_au grand serieux_." We should touch things more
lightly. As soon as we feel that their weight impedes our free handling
of them they are mastering us, and not we them.

Light handling does not mean weak handling. On the contrary, lightness
of touch is inco