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a critical and depreciatory attitude toward [my?] doctrine.
In fact, I have done that with everything I have printed.
Then, after some years, I reëxamined the subject
and became more confident than before of the
substantial truth of my original statement. I thus alternated
periods in which I endeavored to develope my
doctrine with periods in which I emdeavored to destroy
it for many years, until I finally quite ceased
to doubt. That was a good many years ago; and
since then, I have devoted a large part of my
study to improving the doctrine. But with me
this is very slow work; for I require the thought to
be exact and strong. I tell you these things in
order to persuade you that the subject is worth a
good deal of thought. If I could only induce