there had been, not two, but three divisions in heaven, and that one third of the spirits had been neutral, choosing neither side, but waiting to join the victors. Orson Hyde, expounding this doctrine in 1845, stated that the neutral spirits “rather lent an influence to the devil, thinking he had a little the best way to govern, but did not take a very active part, anyway were required to come into the world and take bodies in the accursed lineage of Canaan; and hence the negro or African race.”
