form in the thing; and since things exist under the relative
conditions of time and space, they are necessarily subject to a
law of Growth, so that while the subsistence of the thing in the
thought is perfect ab initio, the expression of the thought in
the thing is a matter of gradual development. This is a point
which we must never lose sight of in our studies; and we must
never lose sight of the perfection of the thing in the thought
because we do not yet see the perfection of the thought in the
thing. Therefore we must remember that man, as we know him now,
has by no means reached the ultimate of his evolution. We are
only yet in the making, but we have now reached a point where we
can facilitate the evolutionary process by conscious co-operation
with the Creative Spirit. Our share in this work commences with
the recognition of the Divine ideal of man, and thus finding the
pattern by which we are to be guided. For since the person to be
created after this pattern is ourself, it follows that, by
whatever processes the Divine ideal transforms itself into
concrete reality, the place where those processes are to work
must be within ourselves; in other words, the creative action of
the Spirit takes place through the laws of our own mentality. If
it is a true maxim that the thing must take form in the thought
before the thought can take form in the thing, then it is plain
that the Divine Ideal can only be externalized in our objective
life in proportion as it is first formed in our thought; and it
takes form in our thought only to the extent to which we
apprehend its existence in the Divine Mind. By the nature of the
relation between the individual mind and the Universal Mind it is
strictly a case of reflection; and in proportion as the mirror of
our own mind blurs or clearly reflects the image of the Divine
ideal, so will it give rise to a correspondingly feeble or