xx THE PURPOSE OF DIVERSITY 393 



by theologians of a hierarchy of angels and archangels, with 

 no defined duties but that of attendants and messengers of 

 the Deity, perhaps increases this antagonism, but it seems 

 to me that both ideas are irrational. If, as I contend, 

 we are forced to the assumption of an infinite God by the 

 fact that our earth has developed life, and mind, and ourselves, 

 it seems only logical to assume that the vast, the infinite 

 chasm between ourselves and the Deity is to some extent 

 occupied by an almost infinite series of grades of beings, 

 each successive grade having higher and higher powers in 

 regard to the origination, the development, and the control 

 of the universe. 



If, as I here suggest, the whole purport of the material 

 universe (our universe) is the development of spiritual beings 

 who, in the infinite variety of their natures what we term 

 their characters^ shall to some extent reflect that infinite 

 variety of the whole inorganic and organic worlds through 

 which they have been developed ; and if we further suppose 

 (as we must suppose if we owe our existence to Deity) that 

 such variety of character could have been produced in no 

 other way ; then we may reasonably suppose that there may 

 have been a vast system of co-operation of such grades of 

 being, from a very high grade of power and intelligence 

 down to those unconscious or almost unconscious " cell- 

 souls " posited by Haeckel, and which, I quite admit, seem 

 to be essential coadjutors in the process of life-development. 



Now granting all this, and granting, further, that each 

 grade of being would be, for such a purpose as this, supreme 

 over all beings of lower grade, who would carry out their 

 orders or ideas with the most delighted and intelligent 

 obedience ; I can imagine the supreme, the Infinite being, 

 foreseeing and determining the broad outlines of a universe 

 which would, in due course and with efficient guidance, 

 produce the required result. He might, for instance, 

 impress a sufficient number of his highest angels to create 

 by their will-power the primal universe of ether, with all 

 those inherent properties and forces, necessary for what was 

 to follow. Using this as a vehicle the next subordinate 

 association of angels would so act upon the ether as to 

 develop from it, in suitable masses and at suitable distances, 



