he world of stars that
prevents us from concluding that in the Universe as well as on the
Earth what _should_ be is the ground of what _is_.

Something higher than life, or life in some higher form than we
know, may indeed have been brought into being among the stars.
Life has appeared in an extraordinary variety of forms on this Earth,
and it would necessarily appear in other forms elsewhere. And it is
not difficult to imagine more perfect forms in which it might have
developed. We men are the most highly developed beings on this
planet. But our eyes and ears and other organs of sense take
cognisance of only a few of the vibrations raining in upon our
bodies from the outside world. There is a vast range of vibrations of
the medium in which we are immersed of which our bodily organs
take no cognisance whatever. If we had better developed organs we
would be in much more intimate touch with the world about us, and
be aware of influences and existences we are blind to now. Beings
with these superior faculties may very possibly have come into
existence among the stars.

Nor is there anything unreasonable in the assumption that from the
inhabitants of these stars in their _ensemble_ issue influences which
directly affect conditions on this Earth; that in the all in its
togetherness is Purpose; and that it was due to the working of this
Purpose that conditions were produced on the Earth which made the
emergence of life possible. To some it may seem that it was only by
chance that the atoms and molecules happened to come together in
such a particular way that from the combination the emergence of
life was possible. To men of such restricted vision it would seem
equally a matter of chance that a heavenly song resulted when a
dozen choirboys came together, opened their mouths and made a
noise. But men of wider vision would have seen that this song was
no matter of chance, but was the result of the working out of a
purpose; that the choirboys were brought together for a purpose; and
that that purpose was resident in each of a large number of people
scattered about a parish, but who, though scattered, were all
animated by the same purpose of maintaining a choir to sing hymns.
So it is not unreasonable to suppose that when the particles came
together under conditions that life resulted, they had been brought
together in those conditions to fulfil a purpose resident in each of a
number of beings and groups of beings scattered abo