last the true root of all human frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin.
This is why "without Me ye can do nothing." Powerless is the normal state
not only of this but of every organism--of every organism apart from its
Environment. Natural Law, p. 268.

December 8th. To seize continuously the opportunity of more and more
perfect adjustment to better and higher conditions, to balance some
inward evil with some purer influence acting from without, in a word to
make our Environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the
secrets of a well-ordered and successful life. Natural Law, p. 256.

December 9th. In the spiritual world the subtle influences which form and
transform the soul are Heredity and Environment. And here especially,
where all is invisible, where much that we feel to be real is yet so
ill-defined, it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the
atmosphere as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural
life. Natural Law, p. 256.

December 10th. These lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted
for an Eternal Life. Even if they were perfect in their relation to their
Environment, they would still not be Eternal. However opposed,
apparently, to the scientific definition of Eternal Life, it is yet true
that perfect correspondence with Environment is not Eternal Life. . . .
An Eternal Life demands an Eternal Environment. Natural Law, p. 245.

December 11th. On what does the Christian argument for Immortality really
rest? It stands upon the pedestal on which the theologian rests the whole
of historical Christianity--the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Natural
Law, p. 234.