this mode of self-recognition upon Spirit in yourself. Of course you cannot
alter its inherent nature, but you cause it to work under negative
conditions and thus make it produce negative results so far as you yourself
are concerned.

But reverse the process, and contemplate a Law of Life as inherent in the
very Being of the Spirit, and therefore as inherent in spirit in yourself;
and contemplate the forces of the Material as practically non-existent in
the Creative Process, because they are products of it and not causes--look
at things in this way and you will impress a corresponding conception upon
the Spirit which, by the Law of Reciprocity, thus enters into
Self-contemplation on _these_ lines from the standpoint of your own
individuality; and then by the nature of the Creative Process a
corresponding externalization is bound to take place. Thus our initial
question, How did anything come into existence at all, brings us to the
recognition of a Law of Life which we may each specialize for ourselves;
and in the degree to which we specialize it we shall find the Creative
Principle at work within us building up a healthier and happier personality
in mind, body, and circumstances.

Only we must learn to distinguish the vehicles of Spirit from Spirit
itself, for the distinction has very important bearings. What distinguishes
the vehicles from the Spirit is the Law of Growth. The Spirit is the
Formless principle of Life, and the vehicle is a Form in which this
principle functions. Now the vehicle is a projection by the Spirit of
substance coordinate with the natural order of the plane on which the
vehicle functions, and therefore requires to be built up comformably to
that order. This building up is what we speak of as Growth; and since the
principle which causes the growth is the individualized Spirit, the rate at
which the growth will go on will depend on the amount of vitalizing energy