THE PURPOSE OF DiVEiiSiTY 425 



Amoeba to Man, with a surplus of a few Inmdred millions 

 for his adequate development. 



Thought-transference as an agent in Creation 



In my Man's Place in the Universe I have pointed out 

 the very narrow range of the quantitative and qualitativp con- 

 ditions which such a world must possess ; and tlie next stop 

 in the process of what may be wtU termed " creation '' would 

 be the initiation of life by the same or a subordinate body of 

 spirit-workers, whose duty would be, when the waters of the 

 cooling earth had reached a proper temperature and were 

 sufficiently saturated with gases and carbon-compounds, to 

 infuse into it suitable life-centres to begin the process of or- 

 ganisation, which, as Huxley acknowledged, implies life as its 

 cause. How this was done it is impossible for us to know, 

 and useless to speculate; but there are certain guides. From 

 Haeckel's concession of ^' cell-souls " possessing volition, but 

 a minimum of sensation, we have one conceivable starting- 

 point. From Weismann's vivid description of cell-growth and 

 cell-division, w-ith its complex apparatus, its purposive motions 

 so evidently adapted to bring about a definite result, and its 

 invariable onward march to that result, we as surely imply 

 an intelligence and power far beyond anything we know or can 

 clearly conceive. 



We are led, therefore, to postulate a body of what wo may 

 term organising spirits, who would be charged with the duty 

 of so influencing the myriads of cell-souls as to carry out their 

 part of the work with accuracy and certainty. In the power 

 of ^' thought-transference " or mental impression, now gener- 

 ally admitted to be a vera causa, possessed by many, perhaps 

 by all of us, we can understand how the higher intelligences 

 are able to so act upon the lower and that the work of the 

 latter soon becomes automatic. The work of the organisers 

 is then directed to keeping up the supply of life-material to 

 enable the cell-souls to perform their duties while tlie cells are 

 rapidly increasing. 



