SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
came to him in the previous December, when he had gone from Amsterdam to the Hague.
In that month he notes—"How I opposed myself to the Spirit; and how I then enjoyed this, but afterward found that it was nonsense, without life and coherence; and that consequently a great deal of what I had written, in proportion as I had rejected the power of the Spirit, was of that description; and indeed that thus all the faults are my own, but the truths are not my own. Sometimes indeed I became impatient and thought I would rebel if all did not go on with the ease I desired, after I no longer did anything for my own sake. [And again] I found my unworthiness less, and gave thanks for the grace."
This is interesting in connection with the fact that in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, published three years before, we find some material statements which have been disproved by later researches; while in The Animal Kingdom, which he was now preparing for the press, nothing of importance is found that does not stand the test of time. It is noteworthy also that near this period he appends to some of his manuscripts the remark, "These things are true, for I have the sign"—
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