said:
'Greater is the container than the contained, therefore I am greater than
GOD, for I contain God!' The ultra-spiritualist believes only _by_ and
_through_ and _in_ his own inward light. Let him take care, as Carlyle
says, that his own contemptible tar-link does not, by being held too near
his eyes, extinguish to him the sun of the universe. Now the true
spiritualist makes use not only of his own moral and religious instincts,
but all that can be gathered by the senses from external nature, and all
that can be acquired by untiring consultation with the sages who have gone
before him; and from these materials in the alembic of his mind, with such
power as GOD has given him, he distils truth.'

Truth! Ah, that is the very point in question. 'What is truth?' has been
the ardent inquiry of every honest mind from the days of Adam to the
present time, and the sneering demand of many an unbeliever. Eve sought it
when she tasted the forbidden fruit. But since then, thank GOD! no
prohibition has been uttered against the search after truth, and mankind
have improved their liberty with great industry for six thousand years;
and what is the result? Is truth discovered? How much? and how much of
falsehood is mixed up with what _is_ known to be true? These questions are
constantly suggesting themselves to thinkers, and to answer them is the
labor of their lives. Let them have free scope, ultra-spiritualists and
all. Even these latter go through the same operation which you have just
claimed to be peculiar to the true spiritualist. All do, whether they will
or not, make use of observation, learning, and the inward light. Some
arrive at one result, and some at another, because the elements differ in
each. If any two could be found whose external observations, learning,
intellect and inward light or instincts were precisely equal in volume and
proportion, can it be doubted that these two would arrive at precisely
similar results? But they are _not_ equal; and so one comes to believe in
external authority, and the other refers every thing to a standard which
he thinks he finds within himself. The latter is deemed by the public to
be a representative of pure transcendentalism, and he is condemned
accordingly as self-sufficient.

And privately, between you and me, my good friend, I cannot help thinking
it rather ungrateful in him, after becoming so deeply indebted to his
senses, to books, and the Bible for his spiritual education, to