nce is
the product of the struggle between good and evil.

If any soul, whether mortal or immortal, became entirely and
absolutely good, it would instantaneously vanish into nothingness.
For the life of no kind of living soul is thinkable or conceivable
apart from the unfathomable duality. The false philosophy which
finds its ideal in an imaginary "parent" of the universe whose
goodness is absolute is a philosophy conceived under the furtive
influence of the power of evil. For the essence of the power of evil
is opposition to the movement of life; and no false ideal has ever
done so much injury to the free expansion of life as has been done
by this conception of a "parent" of the universe who is a spirit of
"absolute goodness."

It is entirely in accordance with the unfathomable cunning of the
power of malice that the supreme historic obstacle to the power of
love in the human soul should be this conception of a "parent" of
the universe, possessed of absolute goodness. In the deepest and
most subtle way does this conception oppose itself to the
creative energy of love. The creative energy of love demands an
indetermined and malleable future. It demands an enemy with
which to struggle. It demands the freedom of the individual will.
Directly that ancient and treacherous phantom, the "inscrutable
mystery" _behind_ the "universe," is allowed to become an object
of thought; directly this mystery is allowed to take the shape of a
"parent of things" who is to be regarded as "absolutely good,"
then, at that very moment, the eternal duality ceases to be "eternal"
and ceases to be a "duality."

Good and evil become the manifestations of the same inscrutable
power. Love and malice become interchangeable names of little
meaning. Satan becomes as significant a figure as Christ. All
distinctions are then blurred and blotted out. The aesthetic sense is
made of no account; or becomes a matter of accidental fancy.
Imagination is left with nothing to work upon. The rhythm of the
complex vision is broken to pieces. All is permitted. Nothing is
forbidden. The universe is reduced to an indiscriminate and
formless mass of excremental substance. Indiscriminately we have
to swallow the "universe" or indiscriminately we have to let the
"universe" alone. There is no longer a protagonist in the great
drama, for there is no longer an antagonist. Indeed there is no
longer any drama. Tragedy is at an end; and Comedy is at an end.
All is equal.