CHAPTER IV

THE MANIFESTATION OF THE LIFE PRINCIPLE


We must bear in mind that what we have now reached is a principle, or
universal potential, only we have located it in the individual. But a
principle, as such, is not manifestation. Manifestation is the growth
proceeding _from_ the principle, that is to say, some Form in which the
principle becomes active. At the same time we must recollect that, though a
form is necessary for manifestation, _the_ form is not essential, for the
same principle may manifest through various forms, just as electricity may
work either through a lamp or a tram-car without in any way changing its
inherent nature. In this way we are brought to the conclusion that the
Life-principle must always provide itself with a body in which to function,
though it does not follow that this body must always be of the same
chemical constitution as the one we now possess. We might well imagine some
distant planet where the chemical combinations with which we are familiar
on earth did not obtain; but if the essential life-principle of any
individual were transported thither, then by the Law of the Creative
Process it would proceed to clothe itself with a material body drawn from
the atmosphere and substance of that planet; and the personality thus
produced would be quite at home there, for all his surroundings would be
perfectly natural to him, however different the laws of Nature might be
there from what we know here.

In such a conception as this we find the importance of the two leading
principles to which I have drawn attention--first, the power of the Spirit
to create _ex nihilo_, and secondly, the individual's recognition of the
basic principle of Unity giving permanence and solidity to the frame of