THE PURPOSE OF DIVERSITY 431 



manner. This ^' Unknown Reality " is necessarily iiiiiiiitc and 

 eternal as well as all-knowing, but not necessarily what we 

 may ignorantly mean by '' omnipotent " or " benevoleiii " in 

 our misinterjDretation of what we see around us. 1 have, I 

 hope, cleared aw^ay one of these misinter])r('tati<jns and mis- 

 judgments in my chapter Is Mature (Jruel ( 



But to claim the Infinite and Eternal Being as the one 

 and only direct agent in every detail of the uuiverse seems, 

 to me, absurd. If there is such an Infinite Being, and if (as 

 our own existence should teach us) his will and purpose is 

 the increase of conscious beings, then we can hardly be the 

 first result of this purpose. We conclude, therefore, that there 

 are now in the universe infinite grades of power, infinite grades 

 of knowledge and wisdom, infinite grades of influence of liigher 

 beings upon lower. Holding this opinion, I have suggested 

 that this vast and wonderful universe, with its almost infinite 

 variety of forms, motions, and reactions of part upon part, 

 from suns and systems up to plant-life, animal life, and the 

 human living soul, has ever required and still requires the con- 

 tinuous co-ordinated agency of myriads of such intelligences. 



This speculative suggestion, I venture to hope, will appeal 

 to some of my readers as the best aj^proximation we are now 

 able to formulate as to the deeper, the more fundamental 

 causes of matter and force, of life and consciousness, and 

 of Man himself; at his best, already '^ a little lower than the 

 angels," and, like them, destined to a permanent progressive 

 existence in a World of Spirit. 



D. H. HILL LIBRARY 

 North Carolina Stat* College 



