by false guides without it, who have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, and hearts that cannot understand, therefore like strangers they are at the mercy of every one's opinion. Having a strong desire for wisdom or health, they call on every one for their food or wisdom. So when they ask for bread they receive a stone, or for water they receive vinegar, and thus they are driven like sheep to the slaughter, not daring to open their mouths. This is the state of the patient who asks the above question. My wisdom sees their condition, feels their woes and comes to the rescue, but to get them from their enemy is often an arduous task. The repugnance of which you speak is not towards their personal senses, but to the ideas their senses are attached to. As the ideas are knowledge to them, they are a person besides themselves and it is the identity disease that I first come in contact with. This is what I have to annihilate, and at first I sometimes feel a repugnance towards the sick such as a man will feel in entering a penitentiary to rescue a victim, who has been innocently confined, the disturbance of the rescue sets the house in an uproar, the victim not knowing the cause is as much frightened as her enemies. But when I succeed in destroying her enemies or opinion and get her to wisdom or [her real] self she receives me as one who has saved her from the jaws of death. This to her is health and happiness. You say how can I do the same? If you believe this Wisdom is superior to opinions, and that opinions are nothing but error that man has embraced, then when you come in contact with a person diseased, your wisdom will throw the mantle of charity over their errors, if it is for the restoration of their health. But if the repugnance arises from some unknown cause, examine yourself and see if the fault lies at your own door. If not you may be sure it is some false opinion in the person that troubles them. So to overcome their evil or error, pour on coals from the fire of love or charity in the form of right reason till you melt down the image of brass that is set up in their minds, and they will leave their errors and embrace the truth. This is heaven.
2. “You say when you know a thing, it is not an opinion. I can understand that, but how may I be really sure I know a thing? I have felt perfectly sure of a thing and still afterwards found I had been in error, or had been mistaken.”
