HIGHER BEINGS 141 



may quite possibly be the case that our intimation 

 of Beauty has been received through the influence 

 upon the most sensitive among us of beings in 

 other parts of the Universe. We may be as un- 

 aware of the existence of those beings or of their 

 having feeUngs towards us as the Indian, villager 

 is of the existence of the Cabinet in London or of 

 the Cabinet's feelings towards him. But these 

 stellar beings may be exerting their influence all 

 the same. And it may be because of this influence 

 that we men are able to see Beauty which escapes 

 the eye of the eagle. Because of our higher recep- 

 tiveness and responsiveness we may be able to 

 receive and respond to spiritual calls from the Heart 

 of Nature. And thus it may have been that we 

 men learned to see Beauty, and now learn to see 

 it more and more. There may be parts of the 

 Universe where people live their lives in a blaze of 

 Beauty, and are as anxious to impart to us their 

 enjoyment of it as certain Freedom-loving English- 

 men are to instil ideas of Freedom into the villagers 

 of India. 



These, at any rate, are among the possibilities 

 of existence. It would be the veriest chance if on 

 this little speck of an Earth the highest beings of 

 all had come to birth. It may be so, of course. 

 But the probabilities seem to be enormously great 

 against it. It seems far more probable that among 

 the myriads of stars some higher beings than our- 

 selves have come into existence, and that conditions 

 on this Earth are affected by the influence which 

 they exert. We are under no compulsion whatever 

 to believe that we men are completely at the mercy 



