When I had proceeded so far in my little sketch of a “Confession of Faith,” my dear brother said, “You prove to me, that the subjects on which my mind has been long and anxiously revolving, are familiar to you; and from the little that you have said respecting these obscure points, I anticipate much comfort in entering more at large with you into the field of inquiry, but remember, that _my_ chief difficulties remain untouched, and before I let you entirely behind the scenes of my own incertitude, I must know how you get over a barrier which seems in my mind so insurmountable. You must also tell me whether you are one of those who hold _belief_ to be within our own power. If you _are_, I fear that we shall have to combat on the threshold, for I confess nothing irritates me half so much as to be told that I can believe if I _please_. _I_ feel that my _will_ has nothing to do with my understanding. Nay, so far from adopting the popular maxim, that we have faith according to our _wishes_, I find the tendency of my mind is rather to suspect in proportion to the desire that any proposition may be true, and, dreading disappointment, I investigate with more precision whatever I am most interested in hoping may prove to be a fact, than those matters of common occurrence, which are indifferent to me in their consequences.” I replied, that I had purposely left the topics to which he alluded for the last. “You desired,” said I, “to know on what shore I had been landed, what haven of rest I have found, after having been tempest-tossed like yourself upon the ocean of doubt and vacillation. I complied with your requisition, and have told you that my bark is, I trust, safely moored in the harbour of conviction. I will now retrace my way, and tell you how I have been enabled to meet the tremendous questions of free-will, spiritual immortality, and personal identity, so far as to satisfy myself completely, that while in the flesh it is a vain attempt to explain them in any other way than by saying, that they are too high, and elude mortal grasp altogether. To know this is something, and we arrive at the knowledge by _means_ of reason, it is doubly satisfactory. Whether _my_ reasoning will carry any weight to _your_ mind, I will not presume to anticipate; but, as briefly as possible I will give you an idea of the course which I pursued myself with success.”