elated to the world of already existing effects among which we
propose to launch them, how they will modify these and be modified by
these in turn; and this calculation of effects is as necessary as the
knowledge of causes.

We cannot impress upon ourselves too strongly that reality consists of
both an inside and an outside, a generating principle and a generated
condition, and that anything short of the reality of wholeness is
illusion on one side or the other. Nothing could have been further from
Browning's intention than to deter seekers after truth from studying the
principles of Being, for without the knowledge of them truth must always
remain wrapped in mystery; but the lesson he would impress on us is that
of guarding vigilantly the mental equilibrium which alone will enable
us to develop those boundless powers whose infinite unfolding is the
fulness of Life. And we must remember above all that the soul of life is
Love, and that Love shows itself by service, and service proceeds from
sympathy, which is the capacity for seeing things from the point of view
of those whom we would help, while at the same time seeing them also in
their true relations; and therefore, if we would realise that Love which
is the inmost vitalising principle even of the most interior powers, it
must be kept alive by maintaining our hold upon the exterior life as
being equally real with the inward principles of which it is the
manifestation.

1902.

XIV

THE SPIRIT OF OPULENCE

It is quite a mistake to suppose that we must restrict and stint
ourselves in order to develop greater power or usefulness. This is to
form the conception of the Divine Power as so limited that the best use
we can make of it is by a policy of self-starvation, whether material or
mental. Of course, if we believe that some form of self-starvation is
necessary to our producing good work, then so long as we entertain this
belief the fact actually is so _for us_. "Whatsoever is not of
faith"--that is, not in accordance with our honest _belief_--"is sin";
and by acting contrary to what we really believe we bring in a
suggestion of opposition to the Divine Spirit, which must necessarily
paralyse our efforts, and surround us with a murky atmosphere of
distrust and want of joy.

But all this exists in, and is produced by, our _belief_; and when we
come to examine the grounds of this belief we shall find that it rests
upon an entire misapprehension of the natur