“I have said that we had nothing to offer humanity. The world did not belong to us, and therefore no pleasure nor greatness that it could give could come from us. But nobility and purity and strength of character had grown up even in this poor soil, as I have shown. “And then at last the greatest riddle of all was solved—the riddle of human nature. You will perhaps think it was a ridiculously long time to have spent upon so simple a thing. The length of time and the simplicity are equal. We discovered if we were to act with humanity we must suffer with it, feel with it, be of it—in fact, take its nature upon ourselves. It was, or seemed to be, a step of utter humiliation and shame. I remember the time when the discovery was made—the silence that came after it. Before, we had always felt a certain amount of joy and triumph, but now that had gone. But because we had given the word of God to uplift humanity, it could not be broken, nor would we have wished to if we could. We wished to save and raise the many, not the few; and the word ‘impossible’ was unknown to us. The powers of Evil laughed, as well they might. This was the most exquisite jest of all. If we would drag humanity up to us we must first descend to it, not in condescension and superiority but in equality—not even that. But there could be no dallying nor shirking by delay. Our plan was now to see how the great work could be accomplished. It must be done secretly, the introduction of pure light and Godhead on to earth, or otherwise it would meet with ineffectual defeat, and the chance once lost would pass for ever. About this time there was born to me a daughter. She was our first-born child, and it seemed to my fond eyes I had never yet beheld anything so fair and lovely. I used to watch her as she played about the house, and she it was who drew me nearer to the earth—since she had sprung from it by much trial and tribulation. “But as she grew the question grew, How to descend unknown to touch the nature of humanity. “Then each spirit of heaven brought some pure essence of his own body, and the whole was compressed to a seed so small as to be near invisible. And it was this one seed that, coming from us and returning to us, made us at one, or seemingly at one, with man. “The greatest of our sages then were gathered to see how this fine seed could be translated to the earth effectively and secretly, for its presence was traceable but to the blind. At last Michael counselled thus:— “‘If we send it by one who is as innocent of its presence as of sin or harm we may expect success. None act so well as those free from all taint of deception and pre-arranged thought.’ “And the lot fell upon my daughter.