xvi INTRODUCTION 



exponents of a beneficent Creator. They may be 

 as needful in a world of spirit as they are on this 

 earthly plane of existence. If man is to carry over 

 his present life into a future world why should not 

 plant creatures also share the same chance to reach 

 out to higher and better development? All life 

 is one, partly a breathing, earthly frame and partly 

 a spiritual essence. "As all existence is a unit," 

 says Thomas Gentry, "it can hardly be conceived 

 that an all-wise God, who is infinite in love, mercy, 

 and justice, would look to the preservation in a 

 future state of but a very small part of the life 

 which He has been instrumental in placing upon 

 this earth. It would be more consistent with His 

 attributes, and with the scheme of development of 

 life upon our planet, whereby life has been progres- 

 sive, the fittest only being allowed to survive, to 

 have provided in the grand plan of redemption, 

 not merely the salvation of the highest of earth- 

 life, but of all life, the purest and the best, that 

 would represent in the heaven-life, in spiritualised 

 form, the highest living exponents of divine ideas. 

 No other belief accords so well with the teachings 

 of science and philosophy. Only in its acceptance, 

 for it makes all life related to the divine life, can 

 there be any hope of escape from materialism, that 

 curse of the age." 



