“Silence followed, till a brother of Vestasian, he who stood before the Cross and appeared in the hall of Pilate, said, ‘Let Nature provide the flesh and blood, we will supply the rest.’
“Next Gabriel rose.
“‘First let us hear Vestasian through,’ he suggested. ‘This is a project of which I for one would hear still more.’
“Vestasian rose and made that speech which in the annals of Heaven is so famous. I will give it briefly, leaving out much that he put in.
“‘I advise that we raise from the dust of earth beings like ourselves, inferior only in power, eternity, and infinite conception of wisdom. They should be the greatest living ornament of Nature, exceeding everything. Their lives should be a span of golden happiness and pleasure, as like our own as possible. But being frail, and merely the experimental plaything of the Godhead, I would withhold from them the knowledge of the higher state of good and evil, and I would bind them in to a phase of life having a gentle end.’
“Thus much Vestasian in simple words and few, a mixture of kindness and pride, and an indulgence which lacked wisdom, having nothing higher for its aim than a semblance of what was not.
“Next, Michael rose—he is held to be among the wisest of the wise. You must know that in the spirit world there are two great powers or principles—good and evil. Every higher Spirit is built up of either of these two, yet not the most keen-sighted can tell which is which till a difference arises, for in reality both are just alike, and only external and the weaker things can ever feel the different effects. Take for example Plucritus and myself; we are the same in everything except principle—that unreal thing which looks like a shadow but can alter everything. Yet he and I were the greatest friends together, following the same pursuits, interested by the same things, till the great argument arose. One might have thought this mutual fellow-feeling that pervaded all of us would have broken down all obstacles. But not so. It has always been the case in every constellation. The two powers, so similar at first, break apart at last, each understanding but not being the other. Yet each is necessary to the other, the two great principles that sway back and forwards and keep the balance even. For evil, as you think of evil on the earth, is but a relative and comparative thing, and not understanding it the earth looks down on it, which is another jest. For evil is as pure as good, as simple as good, as true as good, as beautiful and equal, the only difference being that its influence on things weaker than itself is to lower instead of raise.
“When Michael rose there was as deep a silence as for Vestasian, and he argued thus.
“He said that in the main he agreed with what had just been stated, but pointed out what an aimless existence man must lead, being born but for a short life of pleasure and beauty, and given enough spirit to enjoy and then to lose. He pointed out the great spiritual waste it would necessitate, since no result of any magnitude would be obtained from it.
“‘Not so,’ argued Vestasian. ‘Whatever effort they are able in themselves to accomplish successfully will return to us for our use, to make what we like out of this new experiment, which could not fail to produce some fruits worthy our gathering.’