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GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



all. He knows, also, that these many mercies and boun- 

 ties are bestowed upon him without his seeking or care, 

 from God's rich and overflowing grace. Now in this way 

 it is possible that the knowledge of the soul should become 

 the key to the knowledge of God. For just as from a sur- 

 vey of your own being and attributes, you have in a con- 

 tracted form learned the being and attributes of God, it is 

 also possible to understand how the freedom and the holi- 

 ness of God, bear a resemblance to the freedom of your 

 soul. 



Know, that God exists exempt from and independent of 

 the notions that enter the mind, and the forms that are 

 produced in the imagination, that he is not subjected to 

 reasoning, and time and place cannot be ascribed to him. 

 Still his exercise of power and the manifestation of his 

 glory is not independent of place. But in the same man- 

 ner, this independence and freedom is possible in your 

 soul. The spirit, for example, which we call heart is ex- 

 empt from the entrance of fancies and imaginations, and 

 also from size and divisibility. Nor has it form or color, 

 for if it had, it could be seen by the eye, and would enter 

 into the sphere of fancy and imagination, and its beauty or 

 ugliness,' its greatness or littleness would be known. If 

 any one ask you about your soul, you may answer, u It 

 exists by the will of God: it lias neither quantity or phy- 

 sical quality; it is exempt from being known." Beloved, 

 since you are incapable of knowing the spirit which is in 

 your body, how should it be possible for you to know God, 

 who created spirits, bodies and all things, who is himself 

 foreign to all of them, and who is not of their class and 

 kind V It is one of the most important things, yea, a most 

 necessary duty, to treat of God as holy, independent and 

 free. 



How many things there are in your body in reference to 

 which you do not kuow their reality and essence, such as 



