universe ever evolving new orbs of light, engendering and
transforming worlds without number and without end. There is no place in
infinite space for a heaven or for a celestial throne. A world of law and
of process does not need a living ladder to lead from the earth below to
God on high. Though the stars be peopled with souls superior to ours,
still they cannot stand nearer to God than does man with his freedom, his
moral striving, his visions of the highest and the best. Through man's
spiritual nature God, too, is recognized as a Spirit; through man's moral
consciousness God is conceived of as the Ruler of a moral world; but this
same process at once does away with the need for any other spirits or
divine powers beside Him. God alone has become the object of human
longing. Man feels akin to His God who is ever near; he learns to know Him
ever better. He can dispense with the angelic hosts. As they return to the
fiery stream of poetic imagination whence they emerged, nebulous figures
of a glorious world that has vanished, man rises above angel and Seraph by
his own power to the dignity of a servant, nay, a child of God. Indeed, as
the rabbis said, the prophets, sages, and seers are the true messengers of
God, the angels who do His service.(556)

Chapter XXXI. Satan and the Spirits of Evil

1. The great advantage of Judaism over other religious systems lies in its
unified view of life, which it regards as a continuous conflict between
good and evil influences within man. As man succeeds in overcoming evil
and achieving good, he asserts his own moral personality. Outside of man
Judaism sees no real contrast between good and evil, since both have
emanated from God, the Spirit of goodness. Judaism recognizes no primal
power of evil plotting against God and defying Him, such as that of the
Persian dualism. Nor does Judaism espouse the dualism of spirit and
matter, identifying matter with evil, from which the soul strives to free
itself while confined in the prison house of the body. Such a conception
is taught by Plato, probably under Oriental influence, and is shared by
the Hindu and Christian ascetics who torture themselves in order to
suppress bodily desire in their quest of a higher existence. The Jewish
conception of the unity of God necessitates the unity of the world, which
leaves no place for a cosmic principle of evil. In this Judaism dissents
from modern philosophers also, such as John Stuart Mill and even