Who Am I?

“I do not, at this point, wish to seem mysterious or to be making claims to “secret knowledge.” The reality which corresponds to God and eternal life is honest, above-board, plane, and open for all to see. But the saying requires a correction of mind, just as clear vision sometimes requires a correction of the eyes. The discovery of this reality is hindered rather than help by belief, whether one believes in God or believes in atheism. We must here make it clear distinction between belief and faith, because, in general practice, belief has come to mean a state of mind which is almost the opposites of faith. Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would “lief” or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes. Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plun

Excursion IV To every form of being is assigned An active principle: howe’er removed From sense and observation, it subsists In all things, in all natures; in the stars Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds In flower and tree and every pebbly stone That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks, The moving waters and the invisible air. Whate’re exists hath properties that spread Beyond itself, communicating good A simple blessing or with evil mixed; Spirit that knows no insulated spot, No chasm, no solitude; from link to link It circulates, the Soul of all the worlds. William Wordsworth  Excursion IV