mes to be anything will soon convince us that the great
inexhaustible life must be the very root and substance of us, permeating
every fibre of our being.

Surely to be this vast infinitude of living power must be enough to
satisfy all our desires, and yet this wonderful ideal is nothing else
but what we already are _in principio_--it is all there in ourselves
now, only awaiting our recognition for its manifestation. It is not the
Essence-of-Life which has to grow, for that is eternally perfect in
itself; but it is our recognition of it that has to grow, and this
growth cannot be forced. It must come by a natural process, the first
necessity of which is to abstain from all straining after being
something which at the present time we cannot naturally be. The Law of
our Evolution has put us in possession of certain powers and
opportunities, and our further development depends on our doing just
what these powers and opportunities make it possible for us to do, here
and now.

If we do what we are able to do to-day, it will open the way for us to
do something better to-morrow, and in this manner the growing process
will proceed healthily and happily in a rapidly increasing ratio. This
is so much easier than striving to compel things to be what they are
not, and it is also so much more fruitful in good results. It is not
sitting still doing nothing, and there is plenty of room for the
exercise of all our mental faculties, but these faculties are themselves
the outcome of the Essence-of-Life, and are not the creating power, but
only that which gives direction to it Now it is this moving power at the
back of the various faculties that is the true innermost self; and if we
realise the identity between the innermost and the outermost, we shall
see that we therefore have at our present disposal all that is necessary
for our unlimited development in the future.

Thus our livingness consists simply in being ourselves, only more so;
and in recognising this we get rid of a great burden of unnecessary
straining and striving, and the place of the old _sturm und drang_ will
be taken, not by inertia, but by a joyous activity which knows that it
always has the requisite power to manifest itself in forms of good and
beauty. What matters it whither this leads us? If we are following the
line of the beautiful and good, then we shall produce the beautiful and
good, and thus bring increasing joy into the world, whatever particular
form it ma