FOREWORD

      The Creative Process in the Individual

      Author: Thomas Troward

      In the present volume I have endeavored to set before the reader the

      conception of a sequence of creative action commencing with the formation

      of the globe and culminating in a vista of infinite possibilities

      attainable by every one who follows up the right line for their unfoldment.

      I have endeavored to show that, starting with certain incontrovertible

      scientific facts, all these things logically follow, and that therefore,

      however far these speculations may carry us beyond our past experience,

      they nowhere break the thread of an intelligible connection of cause and

      effect.

      I do not, however, offer the suggestions here put forward in any other

      light than that of purely speculative reasoning; nevertheless, no advance

      in any direction can be made except by speculative reasoning going back to

      the first principles of things which we do know and thence deducing the

      conditions under which the same principles might be carried further and

      made to produce results hitherto unknown. It is to this method of thought

      that we owe all the advantages of civilization from matches and

      post-offices to motor-cars and aeroplanes, and we may therefore be

      encouraged to hope such speculations as the present may not be without

      their ultimate value. Relying on the maxim that Principle is not bound by

      Precedent we should not limit our expectations of the future; and if our

      speculations lead us to the conclusion that we have reached a point where

      we are not only able, but also _required_, by the law of our own being, to

      take a more active part in our personal evolution than heretofore, this

      discovery will afford us a new outlook upon life and widen our horizon with

      fresh interests and brightening hopes.

      If the thoughts here suggested should help any reader to clear some mental

      obstacles from his path the writer will feel that he has not written to no

      purpose. Only each reader must think out these suggestions for himself. No

      writer or lecturer can convey an idea _into_ the minds of his audience. He

      can only put it before them, and what they will make of it depends entirely

      upon themselves--assimilation is a process which no one can carry out for

      us.

      To the kindness of my readers on both sides of the Atlantic, and in

      Australia and New Zealand, I commend this little volume, not, indeed,

      without a deep sense of its many shortcomings, but at the same time

      encouraged by the generous indulgence extended to my previous books.

      T.T.

      June, 1910.