Now, when a right knowledge of ourselves enters into our minds, it makes as great a change in all our thoughts and apprehensions, as when we awake from the wandrings of a dream.
We acknowledge a man to be mad or melancholy, who fancies himself to be glass, and so is afraid of stirring; or taking himself to be wax, dares not let the sun shine upon him.
But, my children, there are things in the world which pass for wisdom, politeness, grandeur, happiness, and fine breeding, which shew as great ignorance of ourselves, and might as justly pass for thorough madness, as when a man fancies himself to be glass or ice.
A woman that dares not appear in the world without fine cloaths, that thinks it is a happiness to have a face finely coloured, to have a skin delicately fair, that had rather die than be reduced to poverty, and be forced to work for a maintenance, is as ignorant of herself to the full, as he that fancies himself to be glass.
11. For this reason, all my discourse with you, has been to acquaint you with yourselves, and to accustom you to such books, as might best instruct you in this greatest of all knowledge.
You would think it hard, not to know the family into which you was born, what ancestors you were descended from, and what estate was to come to you; but, my children, you may know all this with exactness, and yet be as ignorant of yourselves, as he that takes himself to be wax.
For tho’ you were all of you born of my body, and bear your father’s name, yet you are all of you pure spirits. I don’t mean that you have not bodies; [♦]but that all which deserves to be called you, is nothing else but spirit. A being spiritual and rational in its nature; that is as contrary to all corporeal beings, as life is contrary to death; that is made in the image of God, to live for ever, never to cease any more, but to enjoy life, and reason, and knowledge, and happiness in the presence of God, and the society of angels, and glorious spirits, to all eternity.
[♦] ‘hut’ replaced with ‘but’
Every thing that you call yours, besides this spirit, is but like your cloathing; something that is only to be used for awhile, and then to end, and die, and wear away, and to signify no more to you than the cloathing and bodies of other people.
12. But, my children, you are not only in this manner spirits, but you are fallen spirits, that began your life in a state of corruption and disorder, full of tempers and passions, that blind and darken your reason, and incline you to that which is hurtful.