“There was but one beginning of all things, as there will be but a single end. The diversities of existence which have sprung from a single beginning will be absorbed in a single end.[439] The causes of those diversities lie in the diverse things themselves.[440] They were created absolutely equal; for, on the one hand, God had no reason in Himself for causing inequalities;[441] and, on the other hand, being absolutely impartial, He could not give to one being an advantage which He did not give to another.[442] They were also, by a similar necessity, created with the capacity of being diverse; for spotless purity is of the essence of none save God; in all created beings it must be accidental, and consequently liable to lapse.[443] The lapse, when it takes place, is voluntary; for every being endowed with reason has the power of exercising it, and this power is free;[444] it is excited by external causes, but not coerced by them.[445] For to lay the fault on external causes and put it away from ourselves by declaring that we are like logs or stones, dragged by forces that act upon them from without, is neither true nor reasonable. Every created rational being is thus capable of both good and evil; consequently of praise and blame; consequently also of happiness and misery; of the former if it chooses holiness and clings to it, of the latter if by sloth and negligence it swerves into wickedness and ruin.[446] The lapse, when it has taken place, is not only voluntary but also various in degree. Some beings, though possessed of free-will, never lapsed: they form the order of angels. Some lapsed but slightly, and form in their varying degrees the orders of ‘thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.’ Some lapsed lower, but not irrecoverably, and form the race of men.[447] Some lapsed to such a depth of unworthiness and wickedness as to be opposing powers; they are the devil and his angels.[448] In the temporal world which is seen, as well as in the eternal worlds which are unseen, all beings are arranged according to their merits; their place has been determined by their own conduct.[449] “The present inequalities of circumstance and character are thus not wholly explicable within the sphere of the present life. But this world is not the only world. Every soul has existed from the beginning; it has therefore passed through some worlds already, and will pass through others before it reaches the final consummation. It comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life. Its place in this world as a vessel appointed to honour or to dishonour is determined by its previous merits or demerits. Its work in this world determines its place in the world which is to follow this.[450]