mental projection working through my eyes and fingers I write 4 X 2. Here I
have established a certain numerical relation which can only produce eight
as its result. Again, I have power to change the factors and write 4 X 3,
in which case 12 is the only possible result, and so on. Working in this
way calculation becomes possible. But if every time I wrote 4 that figure
possessed an independent power of setting down a different number by which
to multiply itself, what would be the result? The first 4 I wrote might set
down 3 as its multiplier, and the next might set down 7, and so on. Or if I
want to make a box of a certain size and cut lengths of plank accordingly,
if each length could capriciously change its width at a moment's notice,
how could I ever make the box? I myself may change the shape and size of my
box by establishing new relations between the bits of wood, but for the
pieces of wood themselves the proportions determined by my mind must remain
fixed quantities, otherwise no construction could take place.

This is a very rough analogy, but it may be sufficient to show that for a
cosmos to exist at all it is absolutely necessary that there should be a
Cosmic Mind binding all individual minds to certain _generic_ unities of
action, and so producing all things as realities and nothing as illusion.
The importance of this conclusion will become more apparent as we advance
in our studies.

We have now got at some reason why concrete material form is a necessity of
the Creative Process. Without it the perfect Self-recognition of Spirit
from the Individual standpoint, which we shall presently find is the means
by which the Creative Process is to be carried forward, would be
impossible; and therefore, so far from matter being an illusion, it is the
necessary channel for the self-differentiation of Spirit and its Expression
in multitudinous life and beauty. Matter is thus the necessary Polar
Opposite to Spirit, and when we thus recognize it in its right order we