CHANGING IDENTITIES 



And the power of changing the centre of force 

 must lie in that grain we sow when nature shall 

 supply that which is needed for the new growth. 



PROPOSITION XXI. 



Every living identity has the power to appro- 

 priate universal material in proportion to the mass 

 constituting the living identity. 



"Unto him that hath shall be given. " All the 

 world testifies to the truth of this. 



And if our hearts rebel against it, yet victory is 

 to the strong and the garlands of the conqueror 

 are woven with the heart-strings of the vanquished. 



The vigorous plant shall withstand the drought ; 

 the weaker ones that perish under it shall feed the 

 overtopping. 



From the feeble plant shall be taken the little it 

 has, for the hot winds shall dry it and the parasite 

 shall sap the feeble life. 



And this is growth, for the plus of life necessi- 

 tates the minus of death, and plus and minus shall 

 be to us a stumbling block forever in the algebra 

 of creation. 



Not as a moral law, but as a mechanical neces- 

 sity, all things grow from things that are de- 

 stroyed. 



And because every living identity is not a pri- 

 mary identity, but an identity built up of many 

 primary spheres, therefore, that life which was 



65 



