rth Book of Esdras, in which we meet with the
following emphatic declaration: "Take heaven and earth to witness; for
I have broken the evil in pieces, and created the good: for I live,
saith the Lord" (ii. 14). In the mean while, as being subject to
conditions of earth, and time, and space, we are also subject to this
law of duality and antagonism, so that we have no knowledge or
perception of anything of {79} which we do not also know the
_opposite_. For this reason it is not possible to make known the
conditions under which men are saved without at the same time stating
the conditions under which they are _not_ saved. This will account for
the _oppositeness_ and _parallelism_ of the statements in Matt. xxv.
46, concerning the consequences to the wicked and the righteous of
their respective deeds, as well as for many statements of like
character in other parts of Scripture. But this does not explain why
the punishment of the wicked is said to be "eternal." Relatively to
this question I submit the following considerations.

Recurring once more to the position, that the existing order of things
is part of a progressive scheme, the purpose of which is to create
immortal souls, it may, I think, be reasonably assumed that there is
nothing in human cognizance or experience, whether it be thought or
feeling, word or deed, which is not contributory in some manner to this
end. If a mechanist, after planning a machine for a certain purpose,
introduced in the execution of it parts which contributed nothing
towards effecting that purpose, would not this be considered to be an
imperfection? Such imperfection is wholly inadmissible in the
workmanship of an omniscient and omnipotent Creator. Accordingly,
since, as being conditioned by _time_, we are capable of entertaining
the thought that the punishment of the wicked in the world to come may
{80} be eternal, many, in fact, having professed their belief that so
it will be, we must conclude, on the above principle, that even this
thought is contributory towards the eventual bringing in of
immortality. But it will be asked, in what way? To this question we
may give the general answer, that as such thought is operative on human
action, and implies the existence of _time_, it must be reckoned as
part of the total of human thought and experience conditioned by time,
which was ordained from the beginning to be the means, whether in this
age or in the age to come (_aion ho mellon_