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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
import, the imperfections of the body and inequalities of surroundings, circumstances and conditions, on the other, are accounted for by the mechanical nature of the process and the differences of 'seeds' and 'wombs' arising from the influence of past karmas of the soul. . Apart from the above, the theologian's notion of a resolving and repenting Supreme Being, making things and repenting of it is unentertainable on the additional ground of being in diametrical opposition to the idea of perfection, which is the essential attribute of the Deity. We are liable to err because of our imperfections, but he who is Eternal and Ompiscient, and to whom the past, the present and the future are like an open book, does not need experience to teach him wisdom. The fol, lowing from the “ Psychic Phenomena " is relevant to the subject under consideration :
“We are so accustomed to boast of the God-like reason' with which man is endowed, that the position that the subjective mind the soul-of man is incapable of exercising that function, in what we regard as the highest form of reasoning, seems, at first glance, to be a limitation of the intellectual power of the soul, and inconsistent with whąt we have been accustomed to regard as the highest attributes of human intelligence, But a moment's reflection will develop the fact that this apparent limitation of intellectual power is, in reality, a God-like attribute of mind. God himself cannot reason inductively. Inductive reason pre-supposes an inquiry, a search after knowledge, an effort to arrive at correct conclusions regarding something of which we are ignorant. To suppose God to be an enquirer, a seeker after knowledge, by finite processes of reasoning, is a concep. tion of the Deity which negatives his omniscience, and measures infinite intelligence by purely finite standard. For our boasted "God-like reason' is of the earth, earthy. It is the noblest attribute of the finite mind, it is true, but it is essentially finite. It is the outgrowth of an objective existence."
What is said of the finite processes of reasoning also
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