The Creative Process in the Individual. Thomas Troward
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a better order is the great secret of
progress, and we are now able to fly through the air, not because the laws
of Nature have altered, but because we have learnt to arrange things in the
right order to produce this result--the things themselves had existed from
the beginning of the world, but what was wanting was the introduction of a
Personal Factor which, by an intelligent perception of the possibilities
contained in the laws of Nature, should be able to bring into working
reality ideas which previous generations would have laughed at as the
absurd fancies of an unbalanced mind. The lesson to be learnt from the
practical aviation of the present day is that of the triumph of principle
over precedent, of the working out of an _idea_ to its logical conclusions
in spite of the accumulated testimony of all past experience to the
contrary; and with such a notable example before us can we say that it is
futile to enquire whether by the same method we may not unlock still more
important secrets and gain some knowledge of the unseen causes which are at
the back of external and visible conditions, and then by bringing these
unseen causes into a better order make practical working realities of
possibilities which at present seem but fantastic dreams? It is at least
worth while taking a preliminary canter over the course, and this is all
that this little volume professes to attempt; yet this may be sufficient to
show the lay of the ground.
Now the first thing in any investigation is to have some idea of what you
are looking for--to have at least some notion of the general direction in
which to go--just as you would not go up a tree to find fish though you
would for birds' eggs. Well, the general direction in which we all want to
go is that of getting more out of Life than we have ever got out of it--we
want to be more alive in ourselves and to get all sorts of improved
conditions in our environment. However happily any of us may be
circumstanced we can all conceive something still better, or at any rate we
should like to make our present good permanent; and since we shall find as
our studies advance that the prospect of increasing possibilities keeps
opening out more and more widely before us, we may say that what we are in
search of is the secret of getting more out of Life in a continually
progressive degree. This means that what we are looking for is something
personal, and that it is to be obtained by producing conditions which do
not yet exist; in other words it is nothing less than the exercise of a
certain creative power in the sphere of our own particular world. So, then,
what we want is to introduce our own Personal Factor into the realm of
unseen causes. This is a big thing, and if it is possible at all it must be
by some sequence of cause and effect, and this sequence it is our object to
discover. The law of Cause and Effect is one we can never get away from,
but by carefully following it up we may find that it will lead us further
than we had anticipated.
Now, the first thing to observe is that if _we_ can succeed in finding out
such a sequence of cause and effect as the one we are in search of,
somebody else may find out the same creative secret also; and then, by the
hypothesis of the case, we should both be armed with an infallible power,
and if we wanted to employ this power against each other we should be
landed in the "impasse" of a conflict between two powers each of which was
irresistible. Consequently it follows that the first principle of this
power must be Harmony. It cannot be antagonizing itself from different
centers--in other words its operation in a simultaneous order at every
point is the first necessity of its being. What we are in search of, then,
is a sequence of cause and effect so universal in its nature as to include
harmoniously all possible variations of individual expression. This primary
necessity of the Law for which we are seeking should be carefully borne in
mind, for it is obvious that any sequence which transgresses this primary
essential must be contrary to the very nature of the Law itself, and
consequently cannot be conducting us to the exercise of true creative
power.
What we are seeking, therefore, is to discover how to arrange things in
such an order as to set in motion a train of causation that will harmonize
our own conditions without antagonizing the exercise of a like power by
others. This therefore means that all individual exercise of this power is
the particular application of a universal power which itself operates
creatively on its own account independently of these individual
applications; and the harmony between the various individual applications
is brought about by all the individuals bringing their own particular
action into line with this independent creative action of the original
power. It is in fact another application of Euclid's axiom that things
which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another; so that though
I may not know for what purpose some one may be using this creative power
in Pekin, I do know that if he and I both realize its true nature, we
cannot by any possibility be working in opposition to one another. For
these reasons, having now some general idea of what it is we are in search
of, we may commence our investigation by considering this common factor
which must be at the back of all individual exercise of creative power,
that is to say, the Generic working of the Universal Creative Principle.
That such a Universal Creative Principle is at work we at once realize from
the existence of the world around us with all its inhabitants, and the
inter-relation of all parts of the cosmic system shows its underlying
Unity--thus the animal kingdom depends on the vegetable, the vegetable
kingdom on the mineral, the mineral or globe of the earth on its relation
to the rest of the solar system, and possibly our solar system is related
by a similar law to the distribution of other suns with their attendant
planets