Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/265

 force remain ever the same in their respective organisms. One does not "turn into" the other. Nothing could be further from the truth than this conception, for all exist at one time on their respective planes, the higher being within the lower in simultaneous order, and all act at one time as one. So of nature in general and in every particular. For, as has been illustrated, within every natural force there exist all the discrete degrees that constitute creation in general, and all the degrees are present acting at once in the ultimate; for nature reaches up toward the Creator by discrete degrees that she may derive, by the passing of endeavor down through the degrees, all her forces from the Omnipotent—the All-Power.

In the descent of life from the Creator into lower forms, it must be understood that life itself does not change or vary, but the inflowing life produces an appearance of the form of the recipient by which and from which the life is transmitted; or, if clearer, the inflowing life clothes itself with the form of the recipient, and so presents itself. This is illustrated by several persons before a mirror, and each one by the same light seeing himself as he is. The Lord Himself is the only Life Itself, and the only one who lives from and in Himself.