INTRODUCTION. 



book than by seeking to suppress it, or in any way 

 to diminish its force. No one more firmly or more 

 reverently than myself believes in the authority 

 of feelings of this character ; it is chiefly because I 

 believe also that they can receive their perfect 

 satisfaction only through modes of thinking such as 

 are here set forth, that I attach any value to the 

 thoughts. But in truth the course through which 

 I solicit the reader to follow me is of a twofold 

 character. I beg a relinquishment in order to a 

 fuller possession ; a giving up as the condition of a 

 more abundant having. 



Let it be supposed that there stood before us two 

 bodies, one a small ingot of gold, the other a mass of 

 apparent clay ; and that a man should set about to 

 prove to us that the small ingot was really of the 

 same kind as the larger mass. Supposing now the 

 former were truly gold, what would he thereby prove 

 but that the larger mass, though seeming otherwise, 

 was truly also gold ? Yet it might seem to us, confi- 

 dent in our impressions, that he was taking the oppo- 

 site course and trying to reduce gold to clay; and we 

 might for the sake of retaining the less, be impatient 



