and toil by assuring the worker of the success of his labour, if not in the
precise form he anticipated, then in some other still better suited to his
requirements. But suppose, when we reach a point where some momentous
decision has to be made, we happen to decide wrongly? On the hypothesis
that the end is already secured you cannot decide wrongly. Your right
decision is as much one of the necessary steps in the accomplishment of the
end as any of the other conditions leading up to it, and therefore, while
being careful to avoid rash action, we may make sure that the same Law
which is controlling the rest of the circumstances in the right direction
will influence our judgment in that direction also. To get good results we
must properly understand our relation to the great impersonal power we are
using. It is intelligent and we are intelligent, and the two intelligences
must co-operate. We must not fly in the face of the Law by expecting it to
do _for_ us what it can only do _through_ us; and we must therefore use our
intelligence with the knowledge that it is acting _as the instrument of a
greater intelligence_; and because we have this knowledge we may, and
should, cease from all anxiety as to the final result. In actual practice
we must first form the ideal conception of our object with the definite
intention of impressing it upon the universal mind--it is this intention
which takes such thought out of the region of mere casual fancies--and then
affirm that our knowledge of the Law is sufficient reason for a calm
expectation of a corresponding result, and that therefore all necessary
conditions will come to us in due order. We can then turn to the affairs of
our daily life with the calm assurance that the initial conditions are
either there already or will soon come into view. If we do not at once see
them, let us rest content with the knowledge that the spiritual prototype
is already in existence and wait till some circumstance pointing in the
desired direction begins to show itself. It may be a very small
circumstance, but it is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be
taken into consideration. As soon as we see it we should regard it as the