and our use of it depends on our recognition that we ourselves give rise to
the particular polarities which express themselves in our whole world of
consciousness, whether within or without. For these reasons it is very
important to realize that Evolution is not the same as Creation. It is the
unfolding of potentialities involved in things already created, but not the
calling into existence of what does not yet exist--_that_ is Creation.

The order, therefore, which I wish the student to observe is, first the
Self-contemplation of Spirit producing Polarity, and next Polarity
producing Manifestation in Form--and also to realize that it is in this
order his own mind operates as a subordinate center of creative energy.
When the true place of Polarity is thus recognized, we shall find in it the
explanation of all those relations of things which give rise to the whole
world of phenomena; from which we may draw the practical inference that if
we want to change the manifestation we must change the polarity, and to
change the polarity we must get back to the Self-contemplation of Spirit.
But in its proper place as the root-principle of all _secondary_ causation,
Polarity is one of those fundamental facts of which we must never lose
sight. The term "Polarity" is adopted from electrical science. In the
electric battery it is the connecting together of the opposite poles of
zinc and copper that causes a current to flow from one to the other and so
provides the energy that rings the bell. If the connection is broken there
is no action. When you press the button you make the connection. The same
process is repeated in respect of every sort of polarity throughout the
universe. Circulation depends on polarity, and circulation is the
_manifestation_ of Life, which we may therefore say depends on the
principle of polarity. In relation to ourselves we are concerned with two
great polarities, the polarity of Soul and Body and the polarity of Soul
and Spirit; and it is in order that he may more clearly realize their
working that I want the student to have some preliminary idea of Polarity