424 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



(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 w^hich, I quite admit, seem to be essential 

 coadjutors in the process of life-development. 



Xow 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 obe- 

 dience; I can imagine the supreme, the Infinite being, fore- 

 seeing and determining the broad outlines of a universe which 

 w^ould, 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 

 2:»rimal 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, the various elements of matter, which, 

 under the influence of such laws and forces as gravitation, 

 heat, and electricity, would thenceforth begin to form those 

 vast systems of nebulae and suns which constitute our stellar 

 universe. 



Then we may imagine these hosts of angels, to whom a 

 thousand years are as one day, watching the development of 

 this vast system of suns and planets until some one or more 

 of them combined in itself all those conditions of size, of 

 elementary constitution, of atmosphere, of mass of water and 

 requisite distance from its source of heat, as to ensure a 

 stability of constitution and uniformity of temperature for 

 a given minimum of millions of years or of ages, as would 

 be required for the full development of a life-world from 



