THE NEW THOUGHT AND THE NEW ORDER.

In the two preceding lectures I have endeavoured to reach some
conception of what the All-originating Spirit is in itself, and
of the relation of the individual to it. So far as we can form
any conception of these things at all we see that they are
universal principles applicable to all nature, and, at the human
level, applicable to all men: they are general laws the
recognition of which is an essential preliminary to any further
advance, because progress is made, not by setting aside the
inherent law of things, which is impossible, but by specializing
it through presenting conditions which will enable the same
principle to act in a less limited manner. Having therefore got a
general idea of these two ultimates, the universal and the
individual, and of their relation to one another, let us now
consider the process of specialization. In what does the
specialization of a natural law consist? It consists in making
that law or principle produce an effect which it could not
produce under the simply generic conditions spontaneously
provided by nature. This selection of suitable conditions is the
work of Intelligence, it is a process of consciously arranging
things in a new order, so as to produce a new result. The
principle is never new, for principles are eternal and universal;
but the knowledge that the same principle will produce new
results when working under new conditions is the key to the
unfoldment of infinite possibilities. What we have therefore to
consider is the working of Intelligence in providing specific