THEORY AND HISTORY OF THE SUN. 1 67 



altered dependence on matter, will grow up like an 

 extended ladder. In consequence of this ardour, the worst 

 and most imperfect species of thinking natures will have 

 to be placed in the deepest point of the descent to the 

 lowest level, and so on downwards, until we reach a 

 point at which this excellence of the rational beings, after 

 passing through all shades of diminution, is lost at last 

 in a total want of reflection and thought. In fact, when 

 it is considered that the centre of nature is at the same 

 time the beginning of its formation out of the raw 

 material, and forms its boundary with chaos; and when 

 it is added that the perfection of spiritual beings has the 

 extreme limit of its beginning where their capabilities are 

 in contact with the irrational, and that there is no limit 

 to the progress beyond which they could not be carried, 

 but that on this side there is a complete infinitude before 

 them; and if there is indeed a law according to which 

 the dwelling-places of the rational creatures are distributed 

 according to the order of their relation to the common 

 centre, then the lowest and most imperfect species which 

 constitutes, as it were, the beginning of the race of the 

 world of spirits, will have to be located at that place 

 which may be called the initial point of the whole universe. 

 And it must be so located in order that, along with the 

 movement of the universe in its equable progression, 

 that life may also go on which has to fill all the in- 

 finitude of time and space with stages of perfection in 

 thought that grow on to infinity, and which has to 

 approach, as it were, step by step, the goal of the 

 supreme excellence of the Deity, without, however, being 

 ever able to reach it. 



