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CHAPTER IX. THE HOLY TRINITY. “ Tao must not be distributed. If it is, it will lose its unity. If it loses its unity, it will be uncertain ; and so cause mental disturbance, from which there is no escape."-Confucius.
Hitherto we have referred to the Essence of Life in general terms, calling it soul, spirit, mind, consciousness and the like; but it now becomes necessary to dive still further into metaphysics to get an insight into the significance of certain mystic doctrines whose purport it is not always easy to comprehend. To this class belongs the Christian dogma of the Holy Trinity whose paradoxical nature is evident from the theologian's triumphant asseveration placing it beyond the comprehension of the finite reason of man. Reason, however, does not endorse the dictum of theology in this respect, and has a complete explanation to offer of the metaphysical fiction on which the doctrine in question is grounded. We shall, therefore, now proceed to unravel the secret of Trinity from the standpoint of rational thought. But in order to do this, it will be necessary, first of all, to make some further abstractions of the most abstruse kind, necessitating the attainment to heights of metaphysical thought which some of us might find a little too giddy to climb at the first attempt. We can, however, assure the reader that the result will amply repay the labour and trouble involved in the process.
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