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GENERAL SURVEY
of religious thought that have lain buried beneath the dust of centuries. Positive assurance, akin to absolute accuracy is predicated in favour of the results thus reached by nothing less than the direct convergence of the several lines of research-scientific, metaphysical, mystic and hierologicalon to one single point, namely, the re-constructed Truth. We shall thus be not only laying down the beginnings of a science of Comparative Religion to be built upon by our successors, but shall also be raising up a real Temple of Truth and Union which shall be a permanent heritage of mankind for all times and ages,-a lofty moral edifice, complete and self-contained in all its departments, though admitting of additional structures to be raised on lines and foundations already laid down. The results of our spade-work here will, I trust, suffice to demonstrate the validity of the method and means recommended.
With respect to the method of reconciliation, you and I who stand in this Hall of Reason must agree that the strictest logic must be our guide in the elucidation of the different problems as they arise in the course of our investigation. Bias and bigotry are subversive of truth, and fanatical fervour destructive of reason itself, As for private convictions and vague intuitions of individuals, well, we have to leave them out of account if for no other reason than this that they do not tend to lucidity of thought and are therefore out of place in scientific research. As said by me elsewhere, if private intuitions of individuals could be relied upon in place
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