COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT ON THE EARTH. 141 



in which the various properties of matter were 

 successively impressed upon it by the Creator. 



No doubt many would be inclined theoretically 

 to agree with Charming in his belief that our 

 duties in the future state may include the charge 

 of worlds, who would yet shrink from their 

 practical application as being a literal truth. 

 And yet, why should this appear incredible? 

 Unless we assume that man is the highest being 

 in the Universe, it is all but certain that count- 

 less other races of intelligent beings exist, many 

 of whom may be as far superior to man as man 

 is superior to a Moner, and yet so immeasurably 

 below God as to render the distance between 

 themselves and man seem trifling in comparison. 

 Nor can such a belief tend, in the present stage 

 of the world, to Polytheism. Any beings which 

 may be supposed to exist, must necessarily exist 

 only by the will of God, and must exist through, 

 and subject to, the limitations of the laws of 

 Nature, or to speak more correctly, the will of 

 Grod, as man himself.* Even if we imagine an 



* " It does not seem an improbable conclusion that all force may be 

 will-force, and thus, that the whole universe is not merely dependent on, 

 but actually is, the WILL of higher Intelligences, or of one Supreme In- 

 telligence." 



WALLACE, " Contributions," etc. p. 368. 



