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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
of scientifically true conceptions of reason, every lunatic would have acquired the right to fill the chair of philoso. phy and every morbid subject of hysteria and hallucination to rank as a patron of Science. Reason and reason alone must be our guide throughout, at least till such time as a Teacher is found whose intuitive wisdom can be implicitly relied upon as an unfailing light to guide our steps in the right direction. For the same reason we must leave Scriptural text out of consideration, at least in the first instance, for, in addition to being full of matter which is highly incredible and most unacceptable to any one except those who accept it as part of their faith, the Holy Scriptures of almost all the religiops now prevailing in the world as well as of those that flourished in the past are generally self-contradictory and discrepant with one another, so that it is not possible for them to be accepted as truth pure and simple,
What intellectualism signifies, and how it can be specdily developed, will be explained in the next lecture, meanwhile it is clear that no one who has not eliminat. ed all traces of superstition from his mind can be considered qualified to study the truth. If there be any one present here who declines to abide by the arbitra. ment of his own unbiased reason, he should not feel aggrieved if his claim to rationalism is non-suited in the supreme court of common sense.
I shall now proceed to briefly describe the tenets and doctrines of the diverse faiths, so as to be able to
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