Vestiges of the Spirit History of Man 1858

The basis of the world is power. It lives in us and in every thing. From the beginning it came forth from God, and was uttered in the philosophies of great teachers and prophets of the ancient world. God has not placed it here to remain inactive: it strives, creates, institutes. So long as the world is filled with it, so long will its efforts continue, for power expresses the will of God. This work proceeds upon the conviction that there has been a gradual rise of systems, one cultus growing out of another. Thought grows like a plant. New fruits become the bases of further developments. The present perpetually evolves new power.