Two theories have prevailed respecting the origin of man. One is what we call the theory of supernaturalism, which supposes that the divine being, at a certain period of time, when every other condition was fulfilled, came down, and by special power formed man in his present shape, and imparted to him his present spiritual life; and that from that man thus formed, and a woman formed for his companion, sprang all the rest of the human family. Others, who adhere to this idea in general, suppose that there was a plurality of parents, from whom the human race have proceeded. The opposite theory is, that man has been developed from the animal kingdom—that he is a development of the animal in a higher plane. This theory was advocated by La Marc. Now, I believe in neither theory. The truth lies between the two. In the outset I made this remark, which I intended to be understood as meaning all that it implied: that God is the Father of the spirit, while matter is the mother of the form. Matter is finite in all its attributes and qualities. God is infinite in all his attributes and qualities. Man is taken from the finite in his lower plane. His form is nourished and fed by its connection with the finite, and when the spirit is separated therefrom, this portion of man goes to decay; and so far as he is concerned as an individual, he is no more. On the other hand, man comes from the infinite, in the higher department of his being, so that man partakes of both the finite and the infinite. He is in the image of his mother, as well as of his father. He is created in the image of God and the image of matter. He has both an individuality and a personality. In his finity he is an individual; in his divinity he is personal. Therefore man contains in himself all the germinal elements of the universe, and also the representative elements of the Divine Being. As a being of form man became receptive of conditions. The mineral eventually became receptive of the principle of life, which developed the vegetable kingdom. The moment this life-principle began to work in producing organic structure and multiplying relations and conditions, a variety of forms succeeded, until forms were brought to such a point that they became receptive of a higher principle—the nerve principle or consciousness, and the animal kingdom was the result. The vegetable kingdom only produced the form. The spirit came into it by induction from the other direction. The vegetable did not produce the animal; it merely produced the conditions by which this conscious principle could be induced into the individuality developed by the vegetable. That individuality was raised out of the vegetable and placed upon the animal plane, and a new kingdom was born by the application of the law of commensurability. Eventually form was elaborated through the entire animal kingdom until the highest form the nerve-principle could produce, was produced.