THE PROCESS ONE AND SPIRITUAL. 307 



Space, whose constitution and mode of life concealed 

 them from our sight. There may be phase upon 

 jDhase of existence, forming worlds upon worlds im- 

 penetrable to our knowledge in our present phase, 

 the existence of which may be indicated by the pre- 

 human evolution of our world. 



And, lastly (3), the objection shows how slowly 

 scientific discoveries find their way into philosophy. 

 Philosophers still argue as if our earth were the 

 universe, as if spiritual existence must be conceived 

 to be confined to a single planet of a tenth-rate sun. 

 Because 10,000,000 years ago no conscious beings 

 inhabited our earth, it is forsooth impossible that 

 other heavenly bodies were more populous ! But 

 if spiritual beings in our phase of physical existence 

 existed in other worlds, it is surely as probable that 

 our solar system existed to adorn their skies, as 

 that we are now the sole intelligent beings in the 

 universe, and that the uncounted hosts of suns 

 and planets exist either for no purpose at all or to 

 provide employment for our astronomers. 



Thus it is (i) highly improbable that the phen- 

 omenal world ever existed without spiritual beings 

 in many, if not in all, the heavenly bodies. (2) It 

 is highly probable that there are many other phases 

 or stages of Evolution, different from that which 

 constitutes our present physical world, and of which 

 the existence of the world before that of spiritual 

 beings would be a symbol, a piece of salutary scene- 

 painting, which would produce an illusion in lieu of 

 a reality we were not yet fitted to grasp. Or (3), 

 it may be directly denied that the material world 

 existed without spirit, seeing that it represented the 

 lower stages of the evolution of spirits. And which- 

 ever of these explanations be adopted, they are one 



