superius, sicut inferius; sicut inferius, sicut superius"--As above, so
below; as below, so above. It leads us on from stage to stage, unfolding
as it goes; and to this unfolding there is no end, for it is the Eternal
Life finding ever fuller expression, as it can find more and more
suitable channels through which to express itself. It can no more come
to an end than numbers can come to an end.

But it _must_ find suitable channels. Let there be no mistake about
this. Perhaps some one may say: Cannot it _make_ suitable channels for
any sort of expression that it needs? The answer is, that it can, and it
does so up to a certain point. As we have seen, the Word, Thought, or
Initial Impulse of the Ever-Living Spirit starts a centre of cosmic
activity in which the mathematical element of Law at once asserts
itself; thenceforward everything goes on according to certain broad
principles of sequence. This is a Generic Creation, creation according
to _genera_ or classes, like the "archetypal ideas" of Plato. This
creation is governed by a Law of Averages, and the legal maxim "De
minimis non curat lex"--the Law cannot trouble about minorities--applies
to it. This generic law keeps the class going, and slowly advancing,
simply as a class, but it can take no notice of individuals as such. As
Tennyson puts it in "In Memoriam," speaking of Nature:

"So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life."

This mode of creation reaches its highest level, at any rate in our
world, in Genus Homo, or the human race. We also, as a race, are under
the Law of Averages. The race continues to exist, but from the moment of
birth the individual life is liable to be cut short in a hundred
different ways. In producing man, however, Generic Creation has produced