make use of
in answering Questions propos'd to us. 3. Such private as a Man has to
himself, which none understand but those who think just as he does. And
then he adds, that tho' there were no more in what he had written than
only this, _viz_. That it made a Man doubt of those things which he had
imbib'd at first, and help'd him to remove the prejudices of Education,
that even that were sufficient; because, he that never doubts will never
weigh things aright, and he that does not do that will never see, hut
remain in Blindness and Confusion.
_Believe your Eyes, but still suspect your Ears,_
_You'll need no Star-light[17], when the day appears_.
This is the account of his way of Philosophizing, the greatest part of
which is enigmatical and full of obscurity, and for that reason of no
use to any but such as thoroughly perceive and understand the matter
before, and then afterwards hear it from him again, or at least such as
are of an excellent Capacity, and can apprehend a thing from the least
intimation. The same Author says in his _Aljawahir_ [i.e. _The Jewels_]
that he had Books not fit to be communicated, but to such only as were
qualified to read them, and that in them he had laid down the _Naked
Truth_; but none of them ever came into _Spain_ that we know of: we have
indeed had Books which some have imagin'd to be those incommunicable
ones he speaks of, but 'tis a mistake, for those are _Almaareph
Alakliyah [Intellectual notices]_ and the _Alnaphchi walteswiyal
[Inflation and AEquation]_ and besides these, _a Collection of several
Questions_. But as for these, tho' there are some hints in them, yet
they contain nothing of particular use to the clearing of things, but
what you may meet with in his other Books. There are, 'tis true, in his
_Almeksad Alasna_, some things which are more profound than what we meet
with in the rest of his Books, but he expressly says, that that Book is
not _incommunicable_; from whence it follows, those Books which are come
to our hands are not those incommunicable ones which he means. Some have
fancy'd that there were some great matters contain'd in that Discourse
of his, which is at the end of his _Meschal_ [i.e. _Casement_] (which
Belief of theirs, has plung'd them into inextricable Difficulties) where
speaking of the several sorts of those who are kept from nearer
Approaches, by the Brightness of the radiation of the Divine light, and
then of those who had attain'd to the
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