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and other inherent properties, of instinct or intuition; whether, to
proceed a step farther, profundity itself might not, in matters of a
purely speculative nature, be detected as a legitimate source of falsity
and error. In other words, I believed, and still do believe, that truth,
is frequently of its own essence, superficial, and that, in many cases,
the depth lies more in the abysses where we seek her, than in the actual
situations wherein she may be found. Nature herself seemed to afford
me corroboration of these ideas. In the contemplation of the heavenly
bodies it struck me forcibly that I could not distinguish a star with
nearly as much precision, when I gazed on it with earnest, direct and
undeviating attention, as when I suffered my eye only to glance in
its vicinity alone. I was not, of course, at that time aware that this
apparent paradox was occasioned by the center of the visual area being
less susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the exterior
portions of the retina. This knowledge, and some of another kind, came
afterwards in the course of an eventful five years, during which I
have dropped the prejudices of my former humble situation in life, and
forgotten the bellows-mender in far different occupations. But at the
epoch of which I speak, the analogy which a casual observation of a star
offered to the conclusions I had already drawn, struck me with the force
of positive conformation, and I then finally made up my mind to the
course which I afterwards pursued.
"It was late when I reached home, and I went immediately to bed. My
mind, however, was too much occupied to sleep, and I lay the whole night
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