the limitation which that Law at first appeared to impose upon us. The
limitation was never in the Law, but in the conditions under which it
was working, and our power of selection and volition enables us to
provide new conditions, not spontaneously provided by Nature, and thus
to _specialize_ the Law, and disclose immense powers which had always
been latent in it, but which would for ever remain hidden unless brought
to light by the co-operation of the Personal Factor. The Law itself
never changes, but we can _specialize_ it by realizing the principle
involved and providing the conditions thus indicated. This is our place
in the Order of the Universe. We give definite direction to the action
of the Law, and in this way our Personal Factor is always acting upon
the law, whether we know it or not; and the Law, under the influence
thus impressed upon it, is all the time re-acting upon us.

Now we cannot conceive any limit to Evolution. To suppose a point where
it comes to an end is a contradiction in terms. It is to suppose that
the Eternal Life Principle is used up, which is to deny its Eternity;
and, as we have seen, unless we assume its Eternity, it is impossible to
account either for our own existence or that of anything else.
Therefore, to say that a point will ever be reached where it will be
used up, is as absurd as saying that a point will be reached where the
sequence of numbers will be used up. Evolution, the progress from lower
to higher modes of manifestation of the underlying Principle of Life, is
therefore eternal, but, in regard to the human race, this progress
depends entirely on the extent to which we grasp the principles of the
Law of our own Being, and so learn to specialize it in the right
direction. Then if this be our place in the Universal Order, it becomes
clear that we could not occupy this place unless we had a perfectly free
hand to choose the conditions under which the Law is to operate; and
therefore, in order to pass beyond the limits of the mineral, vegetable