"I am not unwilling to recognise any true thing," I said--"But I do not
wish to be deceived--or to deceive myself."
He smiled.
"Do you not? How do you know that you have not been deceiving yourself
ever since your gradual evolvement from subconscious into conscious
life? Nature has not deceived you--Nature always takes herself
seriously--but you--have you not tried in various moods or phases of
existence, to do something cleverer than Nature?--to more or less
outwit her as it were? Come, come!--don't look so puzzled about
it!--you have only done what all so-called 'reasonable' human beings
do, and think themselves justified in doing. But now, in your present
state,--which is an advancement, and not a retrogression,--you have
begun to gain a little wider knowledge, with a little deeper
humility--and I am inclined to have great patience with you!"