A rivalry of controlling principles would be the destruction of the organic wholeness; for either the elements would separate and group themselves round one or other of the centres, according to their respective affinities, and thus form two distinctive individualities, or else they would be reduced to a condition of merely chaotic confusion; in either case the original organism would cease to exist. Seen in this light, therefore, it is a self-evident truth that, if we are to retain our individuality; in other words, if we are to continue to exist, it can be only by retaining our hold upon the central controlling principle in ourselves; and if this be the charter of our being, it follows that all our future development depends on our recognising and accepting this central controlling principle. To this end, therefore, all our endeavours should be directed; for otherwise all our studies in Mental Science will only lead us into a confused labyrinth of principles and counter-principles, which will be considerably worse than the state of ignorant simplicity from which we started. This central controlling principle is the Will, and we must never lose sight of the fact that all the other principles about which we have learnt in our studies exist only as its instruments. The Will is the true self, of which they are all functions, and all our progress consists of our increased recognition of the fact. It is the Will that says "I AM"; and therefore, however exalted, or even in their higher developments apparently miraculous, our powers may be, they are all subject to the central controlling power of the Will. When the enlightened Will shall have learnt to identify itself perfectly with the limitless powers of knowledge, judgment, and creative thought which are at its disposal, then the individual will have attained to perfect wholeness, and all limitations will have passed away for ever. And nothing short of this consciousness of Perfect Wholeness can satisfy us. Everything that falls short of it is in that degree an embodiment of the principle of Death, that great enemy against which the principle of Life must continue to wage unceasing war, in whatever form or measure it may show itself, until "death is swallowed up in victory." There can be no compromise. Either we are affirming Life, as a principle, or we are denying it, no matter on how great or how small a scale; and the criterion by which to determine our attitude is our realisation of our own Wholeness. Death is the principle of disintegration; and whenever we admit the power of any portion of our organism, whether spiritual or bodily, to induce any condition _independently of the intention of the Will_, we admit that the force of disintegration is superior to the controlling centre in ourselves, and we conceive of ourselves as held in bondage by an adversary, from which bondage the only way of release is by the attainment of a truer way of thinking.