Franz Hartmann

The Life of Jehoshua Franz Hartmann

The only object of the following pages is to aid in dispelling the mists which for many centuries have been gathering around the person of the supposed founder of Christianity, and which have prevented mankind from obtaining a clear view of the true Redeemer, who is not to be found in history nor in external forms, but who can only be found within the interior temple of the soul by him in whom his presence becomes manifest. It must be left to the intelligent reader to decide whether the accounts given in this book may be accepted literally as historical facts, or whether they are intended to represent eternal and ever-occurring processes going on within the inner consciousness of man. The only key to the understanding of the truth is the power to perceive it; for the truth teaches itself, -not by the light of argumentation, -but by its own light, and it teaches nothing else but itself. All that the reading of books can possibly accomplish, is to aid us in bringing the truth which exists within ourselves to our own understanding, and to drive away the clouds of erroneous conceptions which may keep us from knowing ourselves. There is nothing to prevent man from rising into the higher regions of thought where the light of the truth exists, except his clinging to erroneous opinions; there is no way of driving away the darkness except by the diffusion of light.