Plato's View.--Our prophet's simple yet sublime setting forth of the divine power and benevolence, as exemplified in the establishment of a plan for man's eternal progress, is far more pointed and specific than the presentment made by Plato, the Greek philosopher, of a doctrine somewhat similar. Plato, as quoted by Emerson, says: "Let us declare the cause which led the Supreme Ordainer to produce and compose the universe. He was good; and he who is good has no kind of envy. Exempt from envy, he wished that all things should be as much as possible like himself. Whosoever, taught by wise men, shall admit this as the prime cause of the origin and foundation of the world, will be in the truth."--("Representative Men," Lecture II.) Man's Destiny.--There is a fitness, a propriety, in man's becoming like his Maker--God's child, fashioned in his image and endowed with divine attributes, developing to the fulness of the parental stature, as taught by Joseph; but how the same can be predicated of "all things"--beasts, fish, fowl, trees, plants, etc., as Plato implies, is not so clear. That the lower animals, as well as man, in fact all forms of life, animate and inanimate, are to be perpetuated and glorified, is a plain inference from the teachings of the prophet (D&C 77:2-4) but undoubtedly all will retain their identity, in their respective orders and spheres. No creature of God's, except man, is destined to become like God, in the fullest and highest sense. "As much as possible" is a saving clause, however, and Plato, therefore, is not committed to any contradictory proposition. CHAPTER II. Eternal Nature of Gospel Principles. Gospel Code and Fundamentals.--The gospel, as a code or System of laws and ordinances, is a creation, a work of God; but like all other creations it was organized out of materials already existing. "Intelligence or the light of truth was not created or made, neither indeed can be" (D&C 93:29). Truth, "eternal, unchanged, evermore"--such is the gospel in its fundamental principles. These were never created. God did not make them; he "instituted" them, recognizing their worth, their utility, their adaptability to the purposes which he had in view. He saw that these principles were ennobling and exalting in their nature and tendency, and he therefore created a plan embodying them as the most effectual means for man's promotion.