1. The _Universe_ as a whole is a _Unity_, having only _one_, eternal, universal and fundamental cause for its existence. All the multifarious forms, essences, powers or principles, are not originally self-existent, but are merely various manifestations of that one and universal cause. They are various modes of one original activity, and their shapes or organisms are the products of that activity, working upon different planes of existence and in various stages of evolution. 2. This cause, being eternal, unlimited and infinite, is beyond the power of the intellectual comprehension of any mortal and limited being. Its presence may be perceived everywhere, but in its highest aspect it can fully be known only to itself. Beings lower than itself, may intuitively feel its presence, but cannot intellectually know it, until they have risen up to its own level on the plane of existence. To avoid circumlocution, we call that eternal (spiritual) principle in its highest aspect “_God_” or “_Brahm_”; both words signifying originally “Good.”[123] 3. In this eternal and universal cause, the centre or fountain of _All_, is contained potentially everything existing in the Universe. It is itself, germinally or in a more or less developed state contained in everything that exists. It forms the (spiritual) centre of every living organism, and life itself is only a mode of manifestation of its own power. It is the cause and the architect of every form; it builds the form which it inhabits, from that centre, by the power of its own (consciously or unconsciously active) _will_ and _thought_, and by the means offered by eternal nature, the latter being itself a product of previous states of its own existence and eternal action. 4. The highest form of activity of this principle requires for its perfect expression, perfect means. The perfect cannot manifest its perfection in an imperfect organism. The place which a being occupies on the ladder of evolution, depends on the progress which that divine principle, acting in the centre of each being, has made in evolving an organism, adapted to its manifestation. 5. The most perfect organism for the manifestation of the divine and universal principle in its highest aspect, of which we know, is the (spiritual) organism of Man. In this organism, this divine principle, after having attained _sensation_ and _consciousness_ in the lower forms of nature, may acquire (spiritual) _self-consciousness_ and _self-knowledge_, evolving what is called the individual _mind_, with all its powers and faculties, for (spiritual) perception and _real knowledge_ or wisdom.