REAL PEESONALITY OR TRANSCENDENTAL EGO. 147 



said to be praying to us by tlieir beauty, or usefulness, in some 

 cases, as with Orchids, by their marvellous shapes. We answer 

 their prayer by building hot-houses and tending them with 

 care because they please us and therefore we help them to live ; 

 while, on the contrary, those plants that have not developed 

 these qualities are not only neglected but, in some cases, as 

 with weeds, we take special trouble to exterminate them 

 because their existence is distasteful to us. Darwin also tells 

 us that Heredity and Environment are the prime influences 

 under which the whole Organic World is sustained. In other 

 words, every organism has implanted in it by Heredity the 

 principle of life, but the conditions under which it will be 

 possible for that life to expand and come to perfection rest 

 entirely upon its power to bring itself into harmony with its 

 environment ; this principle of life does not come naked into 

 the world, it is fortified by Heredity with powers gained by its 

 parents in their struggle for existence, and in their persistence 

 to get into sympathy with their environment. The knowledge 

 they gained by this struggle they have handed down to their 

 offspring and given it thereby the possibility of also gaining 

 for itself that knowledge of, and power to get into sympathy 

 with, its environment, upon which its future existence will 

 depend ; so, may we not see that, in the Spiritual World, these two 

 conditions dominate, and that it is only by the clear comprehen- 

 sion of their reality that we can understand how all-important it 

 is for the soul to bring itself nearer and nearer into harmony 

 with its environment, the Spiritual, and how the efficacy of 

 prayer depends upon the Knowledge of what is the Will of 

 God. We have received from our Spiritual Father the 

 principle of Everlasting Life and the aspirations which, if 

 followed, will enable that life to expand and come to perfection, 

 but, as in the case of physical organism, the gift is useless 

 unless we elect to use those aspirations aright and gain thereby 

 a knowledge of our Spiritual Environment, which alone can 

 bring us into sympathy with the Great Eeality. Without this 

 Knowledge of God we can see by analogy on the Organic 

 Plane that Everlasting Life is impossible : we are as weeds and 

 shall be rooted out. This is no figment of the imagination ; it 

 seems to be the only conclusion we can come to if Nature is the 

 work of Nature's God, and Man is made in the image (Spiritual) 

 of that God. Herbert Spencer came to the same conclusion 

 when defining everlasting existence. He says : " Perfect 

 correspondence would be perfect life ; were there no changes in 

 the environment but such as the organism had adapted changes 



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