Mysticism: its true nature and value

'

LIBRARY OF

WELLESLEY COLLEGE

FROM THE FUND OF

EBEN NORTON HORSFORD

MYSTICISM: ITS TRUE NATURE

AND VALUE

6^5 .'

4»

V.J

..,

CONTENTS ---

INTRODUCTION PAGES

— Confusion due mystical — to a congenital tendency Primitive man seeks knowledge for a practical purpose — Infers an im-

Different uses of the

word

"

"

material element in nature, from his consciousness of a similar element in himself Attempts to make

—

use of spiritual powers external to himself— Hence arises magic, a confusion of science, theology and

—

mysticism The education of the human race, a progress from confused to distinct thought Incon-

—

gruity of rt:j2^rz^rzassumptions with scientific method, lambliperceived by Bacon Stages of progress

—

chus, Paracelsus, Cardan

— Christian

:

Revelation

— Precipitation of effete ideas, hence surviving — The vaguely mystical habit of mind superstitions latent in everyone — Appears in sudden emergencies

or

and

nature

— Idealistic Pantheismmysticism as applied to spiritualism — mysticism logical and moralProgress always attended by struggles between the old and the new — Element of truth in the — primitive view not to be lost sight of The new not always true — Christian mysticism en;

symbolic, Its

difficulties,

still

tangled with alien ideas

xiii.-xliii.

V

CONTENTS

vi

CHAPTER TWO

I

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

PAGES

Knowledge

either experimental or theoretical, but

is

—

is

Natural knowledge limited by sense-experience of God, through reason or revelation, is theo-

— —

cannot be experimental Experimental knowledge of God always desired Mystical theology Two points of view, the natural and the supernatural They are not mutually opposed, but complementary Natural mysticism is the attempt eithe?' to transcend the limitations of sense or to retical

it

;

—

—

—

—

knowledge within them Fundamental difference between these two methods Neither is more than a mental attitude Super-

find

transcendental

—

—

natural mysticism implies the transcendence of God, on the one hand and on the other hand, the ;

powers alone to attain to immediate knowledge of Him Catholic idea of True mysticism rightly said to be mysticism inability of the natural

—

empirical

— Compared

—

with sensation

— The

in-

principles of mystical knowledge not essentially different from those of ordinary knowledge What is to be understood by the supertellectual

.

—

— The

— Supernatural illumination not contrary to nature — method — Natural theories to account for supernatural — — mysticism Reasons for rejecting them Theonatural

Via

Remotio7iis

Its

logical

and evidential value of the subject

CHAPTER

.

.

1-49

II

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM

— —

Origin of the term Mysticism in the Church— In Greek philosophy Dionysius Social conditions which bring mysticism into prominence Spurious

mysticism

—

—

50-60

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

vii

III

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

— Mystical experience essentially supernatural Three — to the Crealor creatures modes of relation " — — Natural Mystical Passivity contemplation — ^Mystical and ordinary cognition and sensation — Mystical certitude — Mystical religious experience

PAGES

'of

"

—

experience indescribable Necessity of preparaGerson Eckhart, Tauler Three stages tion Self-delusion St Teresa— Visions and locutions

—

—

—

— —

.

61-87

CHAPTER

IV THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE "

—

how to be understood How the soul can see God — The Beatific Vision— Doctrine of St Thomas — St Paul's visions— Transiency of — — mystical state Spiritual marriage The lumen

Mystical

gloricE

vision,"

— St Augustine's classification — Uncertainty

of sensible

and imaginary impressions as com-

pared with intellectual

vision

— All

three truly

88-104

supernatural

CHAPTER V THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM The

object of mystical contemplation perceived by a natural process, and therefore capable of analysis No theory on the subject formulated by mystical

—

writers

— Three

different views (i) existence of a

special mystical faculty. This theory is superfluous, (2) that all apparently mystical states are merely

automatic, and generally of pathological origin. This implies the presupposition that genuine

mysticism is impossible. (3) that mystical communications really take place, but are apprehended by the same psychical process which transmits automatic suggestion. This practically coincides with the view of ecclesiastical authority Difficulty

—

of distinguishing,

how caused

....

105-121

CONTENTS

viii

CHAPTER

\T

EVIL

PAGES Affinity of the problem with mysticism— The solution of mystics often appears unsatisfactory to others Evil due to created freewill Independence of the

Divine Will of

— Evil

solution

mystical

sophical or theoretical

and "Ethical" this respect

—

— — negative Practical

character

with the philo-

—compared Schopenhauer, Hartmann

religions

— Benefits of mysticism in

not restricted to mystics

CHAPTER

.

.

122-135

.

VII

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

—

Terms explained — Spinoza, Hegel and Mysticism The "ground" — Immanence and Transcendence not ontologically distinct

136-145

CHAPTER

VIII

PLOTINUS

—

Philosophy and mysticism of Plotinus Two possible views of his relation to Christian mysticism 146-158 .

CHAPTER

.

IX

HERETICAL MYSTICS Distinction clear between true

— "Pragmatic"

and spurious mystitwofold application

— — Mysticism, theosophy and theology Intrinsic dis-

cism

test,

between mystical experience and deducit Doctrines not to be guaranteed by mystical origin Necessary features of genuine SwedenBoehme mysticism The Beghards DistiiKtion between doctrines borg Quietism

tinction

—

tions from

—

and

—

mystical

—

—

experiences

—

—

equally

applied to of the

orthodox mystics— St Teresa— St John Cross Margaret Mary Alacoque.

—

.

.

.

159-176

CONTENTS

ix

CHAPTER X AND RELIGION

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY

PAGES Obstacles to philosophical treatment of mysticism in its transcendental aspect Experimental evidence

—

—

support of natural theology mysticism beyond the reach of explanation per causas Mysticism a form of religious experience, but not one guaranteed to of mysticism The object of

—

with and

Its relation to

interpenetrated by

of Christ— Mystical

^

ally

"

institutional" religion, to ordinary religious experience as continuous

Christians

and

—

in

to

granted

it

— The

Lnitation

experience perhaps occasion177-192

non-mystics

CHAPTER

XI

DIONYSIUS History of the Dionysian writings— Authorship and Can they be considered forgeries character

—

—

Modern

theories, etc

193-206

CHAPTER

XII

THE "mystical THEOLOGY" OF DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE PAGES

CHAP. I.

y

II.

— What the Divine Darkness — How to be united with, and to

Him who

and above III.

— What

is

is

the

is.

to give praise

cause of

all

things

all.

and what

is

the supreme cause of

all

affirmed of God,

denied of Him.

IV.

— That He who sensible

is

things

Himself no part of

is

those things.

V. — That

He who

is

the supreme cause of

those things

all

......

intelligible things

is

Himself no part of 207-223

CONTENTS

X

Letter I. — To Caius means

the

pages

Monk — The

of which

God

is

ignorance by

known

sense-knowledge, not below

II.

V.

— To the Same — In what sense God —

the principle of divinity. To Dorotheus the Deacon

is

— The

darkness further explained

APPENDIX

is

above

it.

above divine .

.

I

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE The occurrence

"

"

demonstrated by the most recent psychological experiments Application of this discovery to mysticism Explanation of the relations between image and of

imageless thought

—

—

concept

— Thought deals primarily with concepts —

Hence

all

difficulty is

removed from the theory

that the soul, while still united with the body, can have a direct intuition of an immaterial

— Further, the place and function of sense — imagery in thought now seen to be precisely object

is

those which are assigned by mystics to visions, It follows locutions, &c. in mystical experience that the reality of such imagery corresponds to

—

the reality of the concepts nected Thus, also, the

—

natural

and

supernatural

w-ith

which

it

is

con-

between which have

distinction states

features of mutual resemblance

is

experimentally — Professor James's " cosmic consciousness view, that a mystical or aroused by natural stimuli — No cause can be found for supernatural states, but that to which the mystics themselves attribute them — Professor — James's instances The abnormal state in each

confirmed

and

elucidated

"

is

—

case connected with a sense-image Thus there is no specifically cosmic form of consciousness, but only an aptitude, common to mankind, for con-

templating ideas apart from images

— Conscious-

224-229

CONTENTS

xi

—

PAGES

not cosmic, but conceptual Argument If the contemplation of religious recapitulated ideas is held to have a natural tendency to bring ness

is

—

on mystical states of consciousness, the point is really conceded 230-256

APPENDIX Notes

II

257, 258

"

Cosi la mente mia tutta sospesa

Mirava

E A

fissa

immobile ed attenta,

di

mirar faceasi accesa.

sempre

quella luce cotal

Che volgersi da

E

si

per altro aspetto, impossibil che mai si consenta lei,

;

Perocche

'1

ben, ch'e del volere obbietto

Tutto s'accoglie in

E

diventa,

lei

difettivo cio ch' e

li

;

e fuor di quella

perfetto."

Dante, Paradiso^

cxxxiii..

INTRODUCTION Most

people have only a very vague notion of what is to be understood by mysticism. The

word

generally applied to anything beyond

is

the range of ordinary sense-experience, or to

any occurrence which sense-experience does not The way in immediately seem to explain. which with

this

its

common it

is

connected

meaning will be pointed out of some importance to notice

original

But

later.

use of the word

is

what the things or occurrences are that

in

the

popular language of the present day are called These are very various, but they mystical.

may be there

classified

is

magic,

mediseval

what to

is

and

now

somewhat in

all

modern.

as follows.

its

forms,

Next

who

ancient,

comes

there

called spiritualism, or the attempt

communicate with immaterial but

beings,

First,

are believed to have

rational

some power b

MYSTICISM

xiv

Thirdly, there

of influencing the visible world.

are

the various emotions, of a

connected with

and

familiar

sights

sudden

events

sounds,

less

the

mind by

natural

objects,

obscure kind, which are excited associations

more or

in

or strange

and

experienced in greater or less degree by everyone, but their origin

these

are

and development are not always readily Fourthly, there

traceable.

of the

;

word

in

which

it is

is

a derivative sense

applied to

modes

of

speech or action, apparently directed to some hidden or obscure object, which do not directly indicate, but rather seem to suggest something in itself

impalpable or transcendental.^

Thus

the

incantations prescriptions

of

rites

which of

savage found a

mediaeval

religions,

the

in

the

place

physicians,

the

pretensions of astrology and of alchemy and of sorcery and witchcraft, share the title with

the feats of clairvoyants and

''

mediums," with the claims of faith-healing and of thoughtand again with the vague emotions reading ;

See e.£:, Disraeli's Endymioti^ ch. xxvi., " There is a mystic bond between us, originating perhaps in the circumstance of our birth for we are twins," and ch. xxxv., " She asked ques1

;

tions in a

hushed mystical voice."

INTRODUCTION aroused by a

brilliant

sunset or by mountain

music,

or

by

by associated with a well-known scenery,

xv

memories

the

So even

place.

a whispered word, a solemn tone of voice, and

even

a

is

trick,

conjuring

the

by

often,

derivative (though doubtfully legitimate) use of

the word, described as mystical.

In quite another direction, again, mysticism

has been brought into connection with a certain school of metaphysics, as a kind of direct intuition reality

be

means

by

which

of

the

absolute

underlying the phenomenal world

may

and

this

be the

true

perceived

intuition

and

held

is

contemplated

by some

essence of mysticism, as the reality

belonging

to

to

;

common and

kinds

all

of

only

mystical

experience.

the

Lastly,

Church

Catholic

This

endowment favour of granted,

as

God

communication of

intellectual soul.

recognised by the genuine is the direct

mysticism

due

is

not

to

with

any

the

natural

or effort of the mystic, but to the

God

alone

ordinarily,

;

though

only

to

this

those

prepared themselves to receive

it,

favour

is

who have and who

MYSTICISM

xvi

may

therefore be said in a certain sense to be

specially qualified for It

seems well

it.

by way of

to indicate,

intro-

duction, the real significance of the confusion in

which the subject is still commonly involved a confusion which is due, unquestionably, to

;

certain

mind

tendencies

congenital

in its perpetual contact

ment

which

of

its

of

the

human

with an environ-

though always imperfect, grows constantly deeper and understanding,

wider. It is

certain that

all

human

beings have a

natural desire or tendency to seek for

explanation

of

the

various

objects

some which

surround them, both animate and inanimate.

no doubt, primarily from man's dependence on his surroundings, and his

This desire

arises,

want, at least for practical purposes, of those primitive

instincts

by means of which other

animals are enabled to

make

provision for their

needs, and to avoid the dangers that constantly

threaten them.

For these purposes man has

on the reasoning power whichHe distinguishes him from the lower animals. has, therefore, from the first, set himself to

to rely mainly

INTRODUCTION discover objects

various

the

may be

uses

to

xvii

which natural

and the means that may-

put,

enable him to avoid premature destruction by

The

hostile powers.

own sake

its

is

a

desire of

less

knowledge for potent and far less

universal cause of enquiry

;

it

may

probably,

have no independent source, but be merely an aspect or outcome of the practical indeed,

However that may be, the chronic of the human race for an understanding

need. desire

of

its

environment, and

pursuit

such an

of

Now

questionable.

knowledge of

the

method

is

sought

its

increasing efforts in

understanding, are unthe method by which is

always the explanation

unknown is,

cultivated

no other by the known Therefore unindeed, available. :

and uncivilised man has necessarily

to use his very small stock of

knowledge as

his

instrument for reducing the vast proportions of his

The

ignorance.

first

thing of which

men

acquire a clear conception

Self

is

the

first

is

all

themselves.

thing that stands out clear-cut

against the confused background of the not-

and the

almost immediately perceived to be something more than the mere

self

;

self is

MYSTICISM

xviii

body, since

it

is

endowed with the powers of

thinking, of feeling and of willing

—powers

in

which the bodily organism seems to have no direct share, but to which it appears to be in

some way

A

subject.

man's

intangible thoughts, desires,

invisible

and intentions

or appear to be, the causes of the of his to

body

;

and when he

and are,

movements

sets out to interpret

himself the impressions he receives from

surrounding objects of

all

them the only

kinds, he naturally

he possesses, Thus he is namely, his experience of himself. led to attribute the movements of objects over applies to

criterion

which he has no control

to a cause

like that

which he has already been led by experience to assign for the bodily movements which depend

on

the

himself that

the

invisible

As,

controlling

then,

man

finds

power

within

by experience

motive power of his own body

is

supplied by the immaterial co-efficient of his

nature which

we

call

soul or spirit,

inevitable inference he attributes the

so by an

movements

and actions of persons and things other than himself to a similar invisible and intangible

power within or behind them.

The

inference

INTRODUCTION is

like that

xix

which he makes about other human

and which he knows they make about himself; it is very far from an unreasonable

beings,

one,

and

We

need

in its

main features

not, indeed,

perfectly correct.

is

suppose that the precise

idea of an immaterial soul as

now

it is

conceived,

or of immaterial as distinct from corporeal existence,

man.

mind of primitive some instances at

distinctly present to the

is

It

would seem

that, in

he has only a general and vague notion of all-pervading power, manifested in material

least,

degrees.^

power

various

by

things

and

means,

But even

so,

in

the mere

as something real, though

purview of the senses, has

in

it

various

notion

of

beyond the at least the

The primitive rudimentary concept of spirit. mind does not seek to analyse its confused ideas, and does not, at first, attempt to associate its

notion of the power exhibited in material

things with any particular kind of vehicle, such as

the

essential

individual

idea

conclude that ception

of the ^

is

the

soul.

there,

Nevertheless,

and we may safely

primitive

universe

the

is

or in

savage cona wide sense

See A. Lang, Origins of Religion.

MYSTICISM.

XX

animistic,

different

in

it

i.e.,

the

degrees,

and

invisible

attributes to

all

things alike, of

possession

an re-

intangible

power,

closely

which

human

beings are

sembling that of

conscious in themselves. It is

then but a short step from the belief

the existence of spiritual, or quasi-spiritual,

in

power to the attempt to make use of it. It would seem in fact, as we have remarked, that general animistic notion of the world is obtained in the course of a quest for knowledge the

which may be turned to practical therefore

uncivilised

man makes

use.

use

material surroundings to obtain food,

and

shelter,

make

so

his

warmth

he inevitably endeavours to

use, in their

own

sphere, of the spiritual

powers by which he thinks the world

Hence

of

As

is

animated.

arises the primitive notion of magic, or

the art and science of dealing directly with the

hidden and spiritual qualities of things, apart from the mechanical methods by which the things, in their external aspects, are converted to

human

uses.

of magic in

assumed

in

all

This the

is

the fundamental notion

numberless forms

the history of mankind.

It

it

has

contains

INTRODUCTION germ and

in

In

confusion

xxi

all

the

different

sciences in which the whole experience of the race has since been formulated. fact

rudimentary science,

Magic is in theology and mysticism

one.

all in

The savage

doctor

drives

out the occult

from his

quality, or invisible spirit of disease,

by means of charms and incantations, which are not supposed to have any direct or mechanical effect on the disordered parts.

patient

are intended to drive out the hidden cause

They

or agent to which the sickness

The

treatment

scientific

;

it

is,

in

is

principle,

attributed.

thoroughly

declines to deal with symptoms,

and attacks the supposed origin of the

trouble.

The

founded

only mistake about

it

is

that

it is

but on a diagnosis which goes rather too far the medicine-man's procedure is quite reason;

able in view again,

of his

primitive

man

limited at

a

knowledge. certain

Or

stage of

development believes that the whole world is worked by supernatural agents, acting on motives like his own, and to be

pity

moved by

and

liable, like himself,

appeals to their fears, their

their hopes.

Through them,

there-

MYSTICISM

xxii

fore,

he supposes that he possesses unlimited

powers of influencing the course of nature

to

own advantage. Prayers, promises or threats may secure for him sunshine or rain, his

abundant

Hence

in war.^

and

crops

in

hunting or

the system of taboos, by which

the anger of the god will

success

is

averted, and his good-

Here we have, jumbled

secured.

gether, the scientific principle which aims

to-

at

the control of nature through a knowledge of its

processes

;

concept of the

the theological

government of the world by a spiritual being or beings and the rudiments of the mystical ;

notion of some kind of direct communication

with the unseen, the prime condition of which is

perceived

already

to

be

the

removal

of

even though the nature of the real obstacles to be removed is far from beingf obstacles,

rightly understood.

The

moral and religious education through which mankind has passed, and is still passing, is thus evidently one of process of

differentiation.

that the process ^

scientific,

It is

seem improbable, however, chronologically continuous

Frazer, Golden Bought vol.

i.

p. 8.

INTRODUCTION whole race

for the

quite as

much

xxiii

degeneration has probably to do with the present state of ;

and savage races as imperfect development there is no evidence to negative the supposition ;

animism of the savage

that the

due

to a

But

forgotten.

the

traceable

clearly

place and consists

time

in

specific

ultimately

well-nigh

process

is

limits

of

main features

its

it

disentanglement and conse-

the

in

educational

within

and

;

now

revelation

primitive

is

quent advance of departments of knowledge which first appear in a single confused mass. Development is from confusion to distinction of thought.^

This process of development has been a very gradual one it is still far from complete ;

in itself,

affected

or

means uniformly the whole of mankind either socially and

it

individually.

has by no

It

was long before either

theology or science could be

from

the

chemist,

presuppositions the

astronomer,

fully

of

the

emancipated

magic.

physician

The and

mathematician were for many centuries regarded, and indeed regarded themselves, as

the

^

Marett, Anthropology^

p. 239.

MYSTICISM

xxiv

occultists or magicians,

on one

side, at least, of

though on another side they were true experimentalists. The two points of

their researches

;

view were curiously intermingled and combined in ancient and medieval science and philosophy, the a priori assumptions of earlier times being brought in to fill the gaps in the fragmentary

and tentative

The

first

scientific

theories of the

be conscious of

to

was Bacon, who supposed up

yield

her

unprejudiced stepping

the

secrets

mark

Mere

only to

in

incongruity

that nature

''interrogation,"

by as much as other.

this

a

would

system of

thereby

over-

one direction almost

predecessors had in the interrogation of nature is, of his

course, impossible

;

what the

Novum Organon

out of account was the necessity of

left

time.

some

kind of creative imagination for the direction of

But Bacon was the first to state experiment. clearly the distinction between the construction of

verifiable

hypotheses

and

the

a priori

—

assumption of unverifiable theories as facts a distinction which has never since been wholly lost sight of.

A

clearly

marked stage

in the

advance from

INTRODUCTION

xxv

confusion to distinction of thought appears in lamblichus.^

He

there were two sorts of gods

— the

of

the theology

who were

purely spiritual,

held

that

higher, or

the proper object of

the spiritual contemplation that only a select

few are capable of; and the lower gods and demons, whose nature was something between the purely spiritual and the wholly material

removed on the one hand by

—

their spirituality

from the direct knowledge of mankind, and on the other hand, separated from that of the higher gods by

its

Material sacrifices were due to

earthly things.

the

lower

propitiate

admixture of the nature of

and

gods,

them by

all

men were

means

this

free

to

they were not,

;

like the

higher gods, the patrons of an exclusive

class.

Here we

see the primitive conception of

animism divided, and then somewhat curiously cross-divided.

With

Paracelsus

again,

mediaeval physicists, the takes a different

and

Paracelsus conceived

a hierarchy,

rising ^

and

the

later

animistic assumption

less transcendental form. all

in

material existence as

successive

Egyptian Mysteries^

v.

14.

degrees of

MYSTICISM

xxvi

refinement to the immediate presence of God.

The

highest degree is reached in the "quintessence" of things, which is a "moist fire,"

servine as a kind of "

essences

"

or screen to the

Lower down

divine presence. the

mask

in the scale are

of things, in which are highly

sublimated elements called ''virtues," capable of being extracted and of entering into com-

one another.

bination with

Certain of them

possess a dominating power, in virtue of which " ** and attract others of they are magisteries the

same kind

to themselves, as the virtue of

vinegar attracts and dominates the virtue of wine. This is the way in which drugs were supposed to act on the human body, and anticipates the

homoeopathic principle of

finitesimal doscs.^

Paracelsus's directions

in-

for

producing the desired results contain an odd mixture of chemical formulae and magical incantations. We may see in this cosmic theory a further advance towards distinctness of thought.

Quintessence, essence and virtue

are not either wholly or partially spiritual

they are not strictly material or organic Paracelsus, Theophrastia (Archidoxies

vi.).

;

;

yet

they

INTRODUCTION

xxvii

mere names, concealing a wide ignorance of natural processes since discovered, and con-

are

fusing those processes with the

all

pervading

energy of nature to which they are due, and which is still as far as ever from being understood.

Another striking instance of the confusion, as yet only partially resolved, of man's outlook

on the universe

is

to be

found

in

the relation long

supposed to exist between the "microcosm" "

human body, and the " macrocosm of The heavenly bodies were solar system.

of the

the

believed to be in natural sympathy with the

human organism, and to exert special influences upon it. The sun acted on the heart, the animal humours." Hence a moon on the ''

considerable

part

of

was concerned with planets,

mediaeval the

therapeutics

movements of the

with the object of transmitting their

virtue to the patient at the most

Animism had receded

moment.^

great extent from the earth, but

among The

favourable to

still

a very lingered

the stars.

process of distinction goes on with con^

V.

Cardan,

De

varietate rerum^ &'c.

MYSTICISM

xxviii

momentum.

stantly increasing

have

the

witnessed

sciences,

each the

of

birth

Our own days several new of a

offspring

legitimate

parent science, and each, no doubt, to be in turn the mother of more. Mysticism is the final step, in

one

direction, of the differentiating

process.

As

scendent

Creator,

metaphysics,

God, the so

the

is

the

knowledge of God

ultimate or

mystical is

relation

of the

human

source,

object

and

and

personal

tran-

term

immediate

the ultimate of soul

end,

to

Him,

which

of

that

as

its

constitutes

however, implies more Side than a natural process of development. religion.

This

finality,

by side with the growth of natural knowledge, and intermingled with it, has always stood a divinely imparted revelation.

influence

Its

is

be traced, not only in the spiritual experiences of the descendants of Abraham, and to

in

the fuller light of the Catholic Church, but

also

in

sidelights,

and reactionary and sometimes directly

off-shoots

movements, often alien But when God had once made hostile to it. Himself known to man, the way to personal and direct intercourse was open knowledge ;

INTRODUCTION

xxix

could be translated into experience.

St. Paul's

mystical experience was as complete and final as the faith that he taught.

hardly needs to be pointed out that all mankind have not reached the same stage in It

their progress

nor

thought

;

actions

and

from confusion to distinction of is

the progress continuous. as

reversions,

well

as

Re-

cases

of

arrested development, occur in this as in other

phases of

human

human knowledge and pre-sclentific

to

In the advance of

history.

the

from

experience

scientific

or

stage,

the

from

confusion to distinction in the apprehension of facts,

there has occurred, as was to be expected,

a kind of precipitation of superfluous or effete ideas.

These have continued

exert an

more or

influence,

upon the minds

and the unlearned. fundamentally

the

and the

and the

foolish, the learned

Human same,

to

less recognisable,

alike of the civilised

uncivilised, the wise

and

to exist,

nature

and the

is

always

primeval

tendency to envisage our surroundings as a confused medley of material and spiritual elements, reasserts

unexpected places.

itself

A

sometimes

in the

sudden shock

to c

most the

MYSTICISM

XXX

most cultivated

often throw the

will

feelings

persons back to the savage state of mind

which

In

unexpected or the unexplained excites emotions of confused wonder or terror, the

an

with

undercurrent of

suggestion

terribly afraid of them,

realised

hardly agency.

supernatural

who have no

people

of

belief

Many

ghosts are

In

and are quite capable,

under appropriate circumstances, of imagining that they see reflection

the

first

The

them.

habits of

and analysis generally prevail, after moment, over the sudden emotion.

But more often than receiving

civilised

sudden

a

not,

blow,

at

or

the

Instant

witnessing

of

a

sudden catastrophe, or receiving important or unexpected news, either painful or pleasurable,

we

get a momentary glimpse of ourselves in the mental condition of primitive man. Again, the practice of magic and witchcraft

from unknown even civilisation

;

in

Is

still

far

the centres of European

and many persons who

feel

them-

selves superior to any form of religious belief, still

associate o^ood or

trivial

feel

actions

bad luck with certain

and events.

uncomfortable

If

Many

people

still

they happen to tread on

INTRODUCTION

xxxi

the joint of two paving stones, or

if

they have

pass under a ladder; the ''envy of the " '' gods is still averted by ejaculating unberufen to

und unbeschrieen," or some such phrase the

belief in

seriously as

it

In

mind

was

evil

is

eye

as

and almost as widely entertained now in

the days of St.

Thomas

Aquinas.

vaguely mystical attitude of which primitive man views everything

fact in

power of the

and

;

the

around him

lies

dormant

in all of us,

come

and on

uppermost just as the savage passions which have been trained and disciplined into the manners and customs of occasion

will

civilised life

;

on occasion break out

will

in all

But the undeveloped and untaught mystical tendency is no more true mysticism than the primitive savage their primitive crudity.

emotions are habits of virtue or ofood manners.

To this common to

primitive

source

we must

trace the

tendency to apply the title of mystical almost anything that seems unusual or

difficult

of explanation.

More

especially, the

surviving confusion of the primitive

be recognised

in

mind

is

to

the emotional apprehension of

objects of beauty or interest,

as

symbolising

MYSTICISM

xxxii

something beyond themselves which is their cause and which gives them their deeper meann/

So

ing.

to appreciate nature, history or art

follow the mystical tendency which

human

in

and

nature,

is

inherent

is

which

without

to

the

existence of actual mysticism could scarcely be

conceived

as

But

possible.

not mysticism

tendency

is

mentary

elements

of

;

the

mystical

just as the

science

rudi-

contained

primitive conceptions of nature were not

in

yet

actually scientific. Spiritualism,

even

if

to be con-

claims

its

sidered a genuine science are admitted,

falls far

short of the position of true mysticism.

beings with

any

whom

it

deals

real existence) are not

(if,

The

indeed, they have

supposed

to represent

the supreme controlling power of the universe,

nor

is

direct

;

the alleo"ed communication with

takes

it

"materialisations," the

the

instrumentality

Spiritualism

if

place,

may be

at

body of a of

through

all, ''

them

medium," or

domestic

furniture.

considered as a

stage,

possibly a retrogressive one, in the evolution

of the

mystical

nothing

in

tendency

common

;

it

has

certainly

with true mysticism.

INTRODUCTION

xxxiii

But the attempted connection of Christian mysticism

with

ideaHstic

special difficuhies of

On

own.

its

raises

pantheism

this theory,

which has recently found some favour with an undiscerning public, it appears to be held that sphere into which exceptionally gifted minds have been able to as, of course, in penetrate, but which is not there

is

a transcendental

—

the

pantheistic

view

could

it

not

immediate presence of a personal

be

— that

God which

Christian mystics believed that they enjoyed.

Their belief

in

the

Incarnate Son was, of the subjective

divine

it is

Trinity

and

the

thought, merely a part

medium through which

their

consciousness of the transcendental reality had

to their mystical

own form and The *'dry experience.

of the Absolute

is,

to pass,

and which gave in

its

this view, stained

colour "

light

by the

preconceptions of the mind which contemplates it. may, therefore, abstract all such pre-

We

conceptions of whatever kind

— whether founded

on revelation, philosophic speculation or theoand consider the residuum as sophic insight

—

the one essential and all-pervading element of mystical vision.

MYSTICISM

xxxiv

This residuum

is

held to be the inner reality

of nature, the stable foundation on which the

changes of the universe take in which the changing elements

kaleidoscopic

and

place,

themselves

are

substantially

comprehended.

experience of mankind in fragmentary but the mystic con-

The phenomenal is

general

templates

;

all

things

their

in

totality

;

he

envisages the greatest common measure of the universe as a single luminous point, from which the various elements of the

and

material, perpetually radiate,

are

all at

the

cosmos, ideal or in

which they

same time concentrated.

Thus

it

supposed that the mystic enters into a kind of impersonal union with the essence of things, is

or rather realises that union in a sphere higher

than that of personality.

It

matters nothing,

accordingly, what the subjective

be through which passes

— that

is

the

medium may

transcendental

merely the

vision

soul-language

terms of which the true object

is

in

expressed

;

and the actual object of mystical contemplation Buddhist and for is Protestant, Catholic,

Mohammedan stated,

it

is

precisely one

and the same.

So

not to be denied that the theory

INTRODUCTION

xxxv

But here are the

has a certain plausibility. difficulties.

First,

evidence

we in

and can have, no

have,

direct

the matter but the accounts given

by the mystics themselves of their own experiBut if we are to accept one part of this ence. account, on what ground

when our

part,

may we

reject another

authorities agree in

both as equally certain.^

If.

regarding

we

for instance,

refuse credit to St. Teresa's explicit state-

may ment

that she

had a direct

intuition of the

Moly

have we any right to believe that she had any intuition at all ? We have only her Trinity,

bare

word,

in

we

replied that

all

while

we

they

mutually differ

after

all,

bound

heaven

tion of the

*'

of Norwich's

If

by.

it

is

so-called mystics agree,

to reject those in ;

we must

that they agree in

it is

common ground seventh

go

are justified in accepting the

statements in which are

to

case,

any

in ;

St.

which

inquire what,

What

?

Paul's

is

the

vision of the

Schopenhauer's

kernel

"

contemplaof the universe Julian ;

inexplicable

explanation of the

divine justice, the abstraction of the Hesychast

or

the

Buddhist

monk,

the

trances

of

MYSTICISM

xxxvi

Mohammed, all

the

the

of

Plotinus,

other varieties

endless

religious or

ecstasy

of

and

abnormal

experience ? The that they all saw, or thought

quasi-religious

most we can say

is

But

they saw, something.

their accounts of

it

are so various as to be mutually destructive

;

they cannot, logically, be supposed to have seen the same thing. But if they did not all see the

same

—

two conclusions only are possibleeither each saw what he thought he saw, or no thing,

one saw anything.

The two

of course, easily reconcileable

conclusions are,

by supposing that

the vision in every case was produced by the of

imagination

the

— each

and

visionary,

had

no

saw what he supposed but there was nothing there but

external reality

himself to see,

very far from being our own conclusion but we submit that it is the only one to which any attempt to synthesize the himself.

This

is

;

endless

variety

visionaries of lead.

What

shown by a is

that

of

experience

claimed

by

kinds and times can logically we think can be conclusively

all

patient investigation of the evidence

Christian

characteristics quite

mystics

have

common

apart froiu the doctrines

INTRODUCTION they are bound to hold

for

common, which are

and which

pecuh'ar to themselves,

ground

in

xxxvii

their

accepting

afford firm

experiences

as

genuine.

may, however, be contended that in the Absolute the disharmonies of the phenomenal It

world are adjusted

that

;

character of error that

it

the fragmentary

is

makes

it

erroneous, and

that consequently in the Absolute error in

relation

mode

to

is

seen

the whole, and therefore as a

of truth.

But

if

Christian doctrines are

seen in the Absolute to be in themselves errors,

however adjustable, then certainly they are not seen in the light in which Christian mystics professed to see them.

were convinced that

The

Christian mystics

in their peculiar

experiences

they had a perfect assurance of the truth of the doctrines they believed,

and

if

we

are asked to

suppose that those experiences really presented the doctrines in any other light,

we

are merely

thrown back upon our question as to what the If, on the other hand, mystics really did see. the doctrines were perceived as simply true, then the mystical vision was precisely what the

mystics declared

it

to be,

and there

is

no room

MYSTICISM

xxxviii

in

it

Absolute.

the

for

Otherwise we must

imagine that the Absolute can

alter his aspect

to suit the preconceptions of those

plate

him

— in which case he

is

who contem-

not the Absolute

Relative, and so passes out

but the

of even

imaginary existence. To those who, like Mr. Schiller,^ are convinced for independent reasons that the Absolute has no real existence, this interpretation of mysticism can only appear as

a reversion, on a colossal scale, to the primitive

confusion of mind.

The

second

difficulty

is

rather

moral

than logical. On this Absolutist theory it is not easy to see how the mystics' expenditure of time and energy is to be justified

—much

less

how

they can be entitled, as the

Absolutists hold them to be, to our respect and admiration.

The

Christian

mystics

contemplated the triune

believed

they

God who condescended

to enter into the closest personal

them

that

communica-

and that such contemplation of God was the true end of man's existence. In

tion with

;

these transcendental experiences they held that *

F. Schiller,

Humanism.

INTRODUCTION

some degree the joys reserved in a future beyond the grave and it was

they tasted full

for

this

xxxix

in

;

that

belief

view

their

in

the

justified

devotion of their lives to the main purpose of contemplation, and explained the exalted happiness they derived from

mistaken

in this belief

supernatural

divine

delight of the next

of

point

be

view,

But

admirable.

it is

they were

anticipate in this

the

aid life

if

not so easy to justify

it is

To

their proceedings.

But

it.

can,

life

by and

occupation

from the Christian

nothing

but

and

right

not held by anyone to be

certain that the contemplation of the Absolute is

the one true and sufficient end of man, either

in this life or in the

at

next

sure that there

all

is

nor

;

is

the Absolutist

any personal future

life

to serve as the pattern or ideal for the present

The

one.

leaves

it

theory

at least

mystic acts duties

and

we

are considering, therefore,

open

rightly

in

interests of a

to

doubt whether the the

neglecting

social

normal human being

for the sake of

The

pursuing his favourite occupation. pantheistic theory of mysticism may thus

be no cally,

less retrogressive

morally than

from the point of view of

its

it

is

logi-

supporters

MYSTICISM

xl

The

themselves.

natural

contemplation,

emotional and symbolical outlook on

life

or

which

has already been mentioned, holds a position quite distinct from this psychophysical tran-

The former

scendentalism.

mysticism

it

;

is not,

indeed, true

deals with the transcendental not

as actualised, but as Inferred from the pheno-

depends not on any special enlightenment by supernatural aid, but on the natural powers of soul and body, assisted or not,

menal

;

it

according to circumstances, operations of grace.

But so

by the ordinary far as

it

goes,

it Is

a genuine thing, and the guiding principle of

much

that

is

gracious and noble In practical

life.

But the theory which would reduce all forms of transcendentalism to a common denominator

and so deal with them en

bloc,

have seen, stand upright by pieces by

Its

own

cannot, as

itself,

and

we

falls to

weight.

only remains to point out that progress from a confused and imaofinative view of the It

cosmos

to

an orderly and

been marked,

in its

of struggles of a

The

scientific

one has

various stages, by a series

more or

less violent character.

Ariclan priest ''who slew the slayer and

INTRODUCTION shall himself

be slain

" Is

xli

typical of every suc-

cessive phase of thought which has prevailed

appointed time among civilised or uncivilised communities. Prejudice dies hard, and has the support of great names and venerable for Its

Moreover, there

traditions.

the confused

is in

outlook of the primitive mind an element of truth

which endears

it

to

The world

many.

is

not the exclusive possession of the scientist, the philosopher or even the mystic, but for

all

alike

and together.^ All science and all philosophy must deal with things not as they really are, but as dissociated from their place in nature for the purpose of separate investigation and so ;

to

abstract

necessarily to

is

some extent

to

Neither force nor matter nor number

falsify.

really exists in the

dealt with

shape

in

which

it

has to be

by the chemist, the mechanist or the

mathematician

:

nature

combines,

the

intelli-

gence of man distinguishes neither point of view can afford to forget or neglect the other. It is no wonder, then, that the distinguishing :

process

should at

ruthless

mutilation ^

first

of

sight

the

seem

truth,

See Munsterberg, Psychology and

to

that Life,

be a men's

MYSTICISM

xlii

natural Impulses should be constantly forcing

them back upon the old and easy ways, or

that

the pioneers of knowledge should be treated as

and deceivers.

Moreover, it is by no means always that the newest ideas are the

traitors

true ones

The

;

error as well as truth has

its

martyrs.

Christian revelation has never ceased to

be clear

nor has

in itself,

its

guardian ever failed to hold

divinely appointed it

and authority but again and friends and foes have failed to

in all its purity

again both

its

before the world ;

distinguish between revelation itself and their

own crude

deductions from

remote ancestors

it,

just

as

their

failed to distinguish the facts

of their surroundings from the Imaginary causes to which those facts were referred. Mysticism, the

as

individual soul,

respects

revelation

personal

the

and as a

highest

of

special,

God and

manifestation

to in

of

some divine

grace, has always held a place in the faith life

of the Church

;

but

It

the

and

has often been con-

fused with the Imaginations of non-Christian philosophies, with fanatical excitement, and with

mere

superstition.

Christian mysticism has not yet got wholly

INTRODUCTION free

from

entanglement with alien ideas. never will for human progress is

its

it

Perhaps

xliii

;

subject to frequent reactions, and the primitive

confusion seems perpetually to reappear in ever

changing forms. **

that the

Perhaps,

inner way," since

too, it

it

is

as

never can be an

One

easy one, should not be quite obvious.

can

or even imagine that

hardly desire

well

the

knowledge should ever become widely popular. It came near to being so, for a short time and within a narrow circle, pursuit

of

mystical

Louis XIV., with consequences But those that cannot be thought satisfactory.

at the court of

who

accept

completeness

the

Christian

need find no

revelation difficulty

in in

its

re-

mysticism as at once the highest achievement of the human soul, and a testimony cognising

to the reality of the divine assistance

that achievement depends.

on which

MYSTICISM: ITS TRUE NATURE

AND VALUE CHAPTER TWO Mysticism,

in

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM the wide and

sense in which the

may be

I

term

considered as the

is

somewhat

loose

commonly

used,

final

outcome of a

knowledge which appears In children and animate creatures.

congenital desire for in

all

savages, as also in the lower animals, the

it

takes

rudimentary form of sensitive curiosity

more

;

developed rational natures it becomes the desire to understand the inner

in

fully

nature of things, and finally extends itself to that obscure region, dimly recognised

by

all

men, which lies beyond the sphere of things, and of the senses by which things are perceived. But knowledge is of two kinds

—

MYSTICISM

2

and concrete, or experimental and We know for certain in one way theoretical.

abstract

Bank

that there are coins in the

we know that our own pockets the one we have

there are similar coins in

but

and

senses,

in

of England,

in

another

quite

way

:

in

the direct evidence of our

the

other

the

senses

indeed

by way of direct contact with the object of our knowIt is scarcely necessary to remark ledge. that these two kinds of knowledge go hand

have

in

their necessary part, but not

hand

:

the

theoretical

the

in

last

resort

depends on the experimental and certain as we may be of the correctness of our theoreti;

knowledge, we are seldom content without putting it in practice, when it is in our power

cal

to

do

There

so,

and thus proving

by experiment. which the experi-

it

however, a point at mental test ceases to be possible, and that

point

is,

is

fixed

by the

limits of our senses

:

we

cannot know anything experimentally which not sensible, or capable of being embodied in sensible things, as a mechanical or chemical

is

principle

is

embodied

in

the substances with

which experiments are made.

But our senses

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

3

take us only a very short distance into the what things are ''in themnature of things

—

selves

are

"

— on what principle

—what

is

they are what they the inward nature of the perpetual

changes they undergo on such questions as these we can theorise freely, and can no ;

doubt reach some conclusions which we are able to regard as absolutely certain.

But we

must be content with theoretical certainty at most, since experiment in these matters

necessarily

is

But theory itself founded as on experimental knowledge

—

must also have a it

out

—

of our power. it

is

has exhausted

limit,

which

the

—

it

reaches

implications

of

when sense

experience when it has, so to speak, used up the raw material of thought supplied by sensa-

we

We

make no

theory about a thing have never seen or with which we have

tion.

can

never been brought into contact by any of Such a thing is merely the organs of sense. x\ we must know what x stands for, before

we can say anything at all about it. Our imagination may make it stand for anything we please, but what we make it represent can only be some sense impression that we

MYSTICISM

4 recall

have

from the at

past,

some idea

or

that

we

some time abstracted from our sense

knowledge.

Now we

obviously

the

limit

knowledge when we come

theoretical

from

end (which the

reach

another

point

beginning) of everything.

of

of

to the

view

Here we

is

are

indeed far beyond the bounds of sense but we can go no farther. There may be a great :

beyond the end, or before the beginning, but of what we understand by everything

deal

we can

find

out

nothing about

it

—

;

for

we

We cannot, have no means of doing so. properly speaking, even imagine anything about

it

us what

;

imagination can only repeat for already know and that can have

for

we

;

no place beyond the beginning of able things.

When we

all

know-

see a stream of water,

we can be quite certain that it and we may be able to perceive

has a source, indications of

the source's nature and immediate surroundings: but the stream can tell us nothing of what lies

beyond

its

source

— of the geography of the

country, the character of the inhabitants, their and the like. All these political organisation

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

5

beyond the beginning of the stream we can find out what they are only by going there are

;

and seeing for ourselves, or by getting some one who has been there to tell us about them.

Now in

this

the limit of our theoretical knowledge

world

is

reached when we attain to

the concept of a First Cause, or the necessary

being which produces, underlies and upholds and the contingent and changeable universe ;

cause and necessary being, needless to have an absolute theoretical say, is God. certainty of the existence of God, depending that

We

on

facts

may

have,

ultimately

have, or

of

experience

many

;

and we

practical evidences

wisdom and goodness. Morehas by various means told us things

of His power, over,

He

about Himself which

have known.

But

we

could not otherwise

direct experimental

know-

ledge of Him we have and can have none, in the ordinary course of things. cannot

We

Him, or touch Him, or hear Him. Yet the more certain men are of His existence, see

more conscious they are of His love and goodness, and the more deeply their minds the

are penetrated by the idea of His perfection,

MYSTICISM

6

more they inevitably long

the

some such

for

experimental knowledge of Him as, within our earthly experience, the senses alone can

But

obtain for us. the case,

is

this,

impossible

;

from the nature of

God

is

no more

to

be directly apprehended by our senses than an idea, a thought or an emotion. Is there then no third way by which we may not only

by which

—

but feel the presence of God that He is to us may become not

know all

merely theoretical certainty, but a experience?

Is

there,

that

is

fact of direct

to

say,

any

means by which, though we cannot bring Him

down

to the world of sense,

we may

ourselves,

our partially spiritual nature, ascend to the spiritual world and there behold Him ?

in virtue of

It is

the desire and the search for such a

means of approach

to

God

that has produced

*'

Mystical Theology," which in its general aspect is the experience, real or supposed, of actual quasi-physical contact with

Mysticism or

God

—an

experience

undoubtedly

known

in

by many, though by many more it has beyond question been merely imagined. reality

"

"

Speculative

or

Dogmatic

Theology

is

TWO like the

the eye is

theory of optics, which is,

and how

the sight

itself,

and

exercise is

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

a science

;

sees

it

with

all

;

7

us what

tells

mystical theology that

it

involves of

theology

Speculative

training.

mystical theology

is

an

art.

There are two points of view from which this art may be regarded, the natural and the

They

supernatural.

do

not

means necessarily exclude one another indeed,

But

in

point

neglect

of

of the

fact,

implies

any

by the

;

each, other.

of

side

supernatural

mysticism has led to an altogether mistaken notion of what mysticism has always, until very

recently,

been

held

to

mean

;

and

it

must be admitted that forgetfulness of the natural

side,

consisting

of

the

limitations,

and obligations of humanity, has too often been the cause of degenerate and

necessities

extravagant superstition, with ant

its

many

attend-

side,

mysti-

evils.

Viewed simply on cism

appears

as

its

natural

an attempt, more

or

less

through or overleap the barrier of material things, and so to enter successful,

to

pass

the presence from the sight of which

we

are

MYSTICISM

8

senses.

by our subjection to the There are two ways in which this

attempt

may be and

ordinarily excluded

One

has been made.

by an endeavour to pass beyond the finite and sensible world by the concentration upon one point of those mental or spiritual forces is

which

in

more

belong

man appear

individual

every

world

the

to

of

to

permanent

than to that of transient appearance The mind in which our bodily life is spent. reality

out

resolutely casts

sensible things ful

of

effort,

it

;

all

own

all

figures

by a poweracquired furniture, and

empties its

and ideas of

itself,

nakedness

to

behold

the naked reality that exists behind the

many-

strives in

its

original

coloured vesture of sense.

and

Plotinus,

their disciples, travelling

road,

found, or

seemed

to

by

find,

Proclus

this difficult

the

springs of being in the abstract and absolute unity

which

behind the ever-expanding variety of the created world. But whether in that lies

remote and desolate

region

to

which

they

penetrated they found

anything which they had not brought with them from the world of

light,

colour

and

warmth

which

they

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

sought to abandon,

may be

considered doubt-

That they did not is view of those whose object a method the

any rate the

at

ful.

who adopt

9

the same, but

is

reverse

of theirs.

That method, by some considered the only true one,

look for mystical knowledge

to

is

not beyond, but in

and emotional

life

the material,

which our

in

intellectual lot

cast.

is

regards this world as but a small ment of a much larger whole, and as It

up of many elements, so

discoverable,

at

all

least

of which as

to

frag-

made

are

be

not

clearly

by either our bodily or our But every part of it faculties.

distinguished intellectual

connected with and symbolic of something infinitely greater than itself. It embodies and illustrates the operation of vast is,

in this view,

cosmic laws

;

it

evidence of a divine

gives

benevolence which reaches further than our

utmost vision can follow from

the

sun

of

;

perfect

it

is

lit

beauty

by a ray that

lies

below the horizon of earthly existence. Thus "a man's reach must exceed his grasp" as he goes through life his mind constructs from the ''broken arc" of natural experience ;

MYSTICISM

lo **

the

the

in

"

perfect round

of

discords

beatitude

of heavenly

earth

ear

his

;

catches

echoes of celestial harmonies, and the darkest places of this world are invested with ''clouds

who

thus *'see into the

has

been

of glory" for those of things."

life

Thus

mysticism

called

**the

attempt to realise the presence of the living

God

the

in

generally,

soul

and

in

nature,

the attempt to realise

or,

in

more

thought

and feeling the immanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the temporal."^

No

one can dispute the universal right of defining terms according to taste and fancy ;

and those who define or describe mysticism in this way have a perfect right to do so. But

if

this

is

mysticism,

then

surely

we

ought to have another name for the other method the ''tremendous journey towards

—

the mysterious Isles of Fire, the Icelands of abstraction and of love

"

undertaken by Philo,

Plotinus or Proclus.^ ^

W.

Lect.

R. Inge, "Christian

Mysticism,"

Bampion

I.

^

M.2it\.tx]\nQ\i,

Ruysbroeck and the Mystics.

Introd.

Lectures^

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

There would seem

be

to

little

in

ii

common

between the suggestive and symbolic aspect of things in which the world appears as the God, and that in which felt to be the one great

true manifestation of

the

same world

obstacle

which

from the

is

conceals

the

eternal

reality

sight.

But whichever method may be considered the

one,

right

purely natural in is

considered

mysticism,

phenomenon

[z.e.y

as

a

as consisting

a peculiar exercise of the natural powers), necessarily limited to the interaction of

human reason and emotion and

which reason and emotion are

objects with

concerned

;

those natural

and

which

in

something supernatural

may

suggestions of be more or less

Mysticism so understood is merely a certain attitude of the mind towards

clearly perceived.

its

surroundings

proved,

it

there.

Its

is

;

and what

thought,

outlook

to

be

may be

it

perceives

is

thereby really partial,

and

its

and the expression of them may need correction. But it is all true, whether as fact or as symbol which ideas consequently one-sided,

—

may,

though

itself

literally

untrue,

yet

be

MYSTICISM

12

more for

is,

''The true

true than the literal truth.

cerned

in

All that can be dis-

the good."^

us,

the nature which half conceals and

half reveals the Deity, so far as

it

is

beautiful,

and ennobling, is in some sense and in some degree a vision of God.

attractive true,

Such

as seen by different

therefore,

visions,

minds and by whatever method, need only to be compared, correlated and mutually adjusted, in order to form

that from this

be rightly called a body

of view can

point

all

of Mystical Theology.

The second view which may be the subject as a whole

is

taken of

that of Dionysius,

and of the long succession of mystics who have consciously or unconsciously adopted the

Its

Theology. viction

of

down

laid

principles

basis

is

in

a

the

his

profound conand incommuni-

uniqueness the Divine nature.

cability

of

exalted

creatures

may be

Mystical

in

However nature,

and

however perfect in relation to their place and function, there is a chasm between them and their Divine Creator which cannot be ^

Inge, op,

cit.^

Lect. VII.

TWO or

closed

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

bridged

even

in

13

How-

thought.

ever sharply any one form of existence be distinguished from all others, this

cannot

tinction

even

approach

may dis-

funda-

the

mental character of the distinction between all

on

creatures

one

the

and

side

their

on the other.

There cannot even,

properly speaking, be ment of the two as to

near a rapprochemake a real distinction

Creator

possible to

— God

creatures

so

can be related,

only by a fiction

His essence, of the mind

in

:

His absolute independence and But on the other self-sufficiency as nothing. they are to

hand,

God

is

time or space

not separated from Creation by

—by which

His being

indeed,

is,

not affected in any way. All creatures are in a state of immediate de-

pendence upon Him, and

only in virtue of In a certain this dependence that they exist. sense,

therefore,

among and

God

in creatures

is :

it

is

immediately present they are the continual

His power and wisdom and where these are at work, there God in His uncreated

offspring of

essence must also be. in a true

;

Consequently,

sense immanent in creation

;

God

is

He

is

MYSTICISM

14

not indeed mixed with

it,

and

it

and must

is

be the one thing that in His uncreated being He cannot resemble yet all creation has the distant likeness to Him which mere being ;

imparts

;

and

in all its parts reflects,

however

Therefore His wisdom and beauty. that God is may be clearly known from the

dimly.

'*

in Himself,

no

self reveals

man

For

another.

comes from tion

:

is

all

To

is

God Him-

see the reflection

one thing to see God man's natural knowledge :

and by way of sensathe one being that is not

creatures,

and God

is

whom

a creature, and of tell

can know, unless

to him.

it

of Divine beauty is

But what God

visible things*' of creation.

sensation can directly

us nothing.

This being

so,

the only direct, immediate or

experimental knowledge of God that man can attain to must be supernaturally bestowed upon him.

Naturally,

man

iron walls of sense

is

enclosed within the

and sensible

which no sound or ray of

things, through

light can penetrate

their solid metal vibrates, so to speak,

warmth from without enclose.

But

all

is

is

felt

silence

in

;

and the

the air they

and darkness,

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

the solid barrier

unless

is

15

removed by some

To supernatural power greater than man's. mysticism it seems that such power is from time to time exerted for man's benefit walls of his prison are parted, for a at least,

;

moment

and he sees something of what

And

the

lies

any true vision of God has ever been obtained by those who have sought outside.

it

if

through the exertion of their natural powers

— whether ascetics,

negatively,

or positively, as

—

the

as

Neoplatonist

the nature mystics

has come directly, not from the exertion of those powers, but from His

and symbolists

it

spontaneous bounty alone.

Such

is

obtains in

mysticism which the Catholic Church. It does not the

theory

of

dispute the genuineness or the attractiveness

of the symbolical view of

life,

nor does

it

deny

the necessity of personal effort as a condition

(though not the cause) of the supernatural vision but it holds that merely natural contemplation is based on association and feeling, ;

and

incapable of leading the soul beyond the confines of the material world. Natural is

symbolism

will

make known much

of God's

MYSTICISM

i6

and of His nature

action

man

face to face with

but

;

Him.

it

cannot bring

The

supernatural

conception of mysticism, moreover, admits fully the existence of a constant need and desire in

mankind pale

;

God, even

for

it is

beyond the Christian admit, where sufficient

far

also ready to

evidence can be shown, that this desire has

any given case received some degree of satisfaction in the only way in which such in

satisfaction

is

possible.

God's condescension

be confined within any narrower limits than those He has Himself imposed is

not

to

;

and there

nothing contrary to possibility in the Alexandrian opinion that such a mystical is

knowledge of God had been attained by some Neoplatonists as many Christians had failed to

The one

reach.

natural

;

and must be

is

knowledge

that

point insisted on

is,

that

it

essentially super-

cannot be obtained by

means

of any created thing, or by

of the

human powers,

is

The

all

any

since the thing

Dionysius' words, eVemi/a

itself, in

beyond

that such

is

that

first

man can

effort

known

Trdvroov

—

of himself see or know.

thing that strikes one about these

two general views of the subject would seem

TWO be

to

their

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM quite

obvious

17

incompatibility.

More than one praiseworthy attempt has been made to treat them together, as two varieties same

But the only way in which this can possibly be done is by taking one as the genuine theory of Mysticism, and the of the

thing.

other as spurious.

Mysticism might conceivably be either natural or supernatural it cannot possibly be both. ;

God

If

can be seen or known

and by

in

nature, then the supernatural contemplation of

Him

as essentially apart from

creatures

two

and above

For the

can only be a delusion.

methods

are

directly

all

opposed

one

to

and two opposite processes cannot If, on the possibly have an identical result. another

;

other hand, the Dionysian method of abstrac-

by the aid of Divine Grace, enable transcend created nature and to behold

tion

can,

man

to

the

absolute

uncreated

method which looks

for

then

the

an intuition of

God

existence,

indeed have a high value as poetry or romance, or as a way of appreciating the evidence for God's existence but it in

nature

may

;

cannot, in that case, be mysticism.

However B

MYSTICISM

i8

on

based

Strongly

deeply emotional in is

the last

in

it

merely a process of

and any appearance it may give of intuitive knowledge must be capable

inference rise to

mental reactions,

its

analysis

however

or

experience,

;

of analysis into the component parts of an in-

**The mystic,"

ductive syllogism. said, *4s the only

and indeed,

in

he

intuitions

has been

it

thorough-going empiricist;"^

regard to his transcendental In the can be nothing else.

—

claimed by supernatural mysticism and there alone the ''that" and the ''what" vision

—

are identical

;

essence and existence are one

God, and experimental knowledge of His existence must necessarily preclude all dis-

in

Hence

cursive reasoning as to His essence.

both the certitude of mystics as to the reality of their knowledge, to explain

human and

tion

mysticism, attitude ^

their total incapacity

Thorough empiricism

is

really

only at the two ends of the scale

possible

of

it.

and

;

experience in

—

in mystical

In sensation, as

sensation.

empiricism sensations

in

contempla-

is

the

in

only possible

themselves,

Royce, The World and the Individual^

vol.

i.

and ch.

i.

as

TWO they

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

grouped in and immediate

appear

complete

moment

or

idealised

explained,

consciousness,

are

cannot

be

they

;

But

analysed.

become

sensations

19

thought, pure empiricism

the

subject

the of

no longer possible;

is

sense-experience must depend for

its

continuity

upon some kind of ideal constructions and the poetry and romance of life and nature, ;

and even the *'Ascensio mentis

in

Deum

per scalam rerum creatarum," are no more than

modes of the mind's perpetual wrestling with its

environment.

has come

It is "

full circle

only

when

**the

wheel

in the intuition of mysti-

cism that the unquestionable immediacy, finality and certainty of sensation are brought back in the higher sphere of the intelligence.

Such, at

least,

is

the contention on behalf

of supernatural mysticism alternative to that

it

;

and the only

real

complete surrender of all has been held to connote. is

mysticism For a confused consciousness of the divine or

the supernatural, as symbolised or suggested

by certain fragmentary aspects of nature, or art, or social existence, is at bottom a perfectly different thing

from the direct vision of

MYSTICISM

20

**

and intercourse with a divine person.

I

talk

not with thy dreams," supernatural mysticism replies to the imaginative outpourings of the

nature mystic, the philanthropist or the lover.^ Beautiful or pathetic or true as those dreams may be, they have no other origin than that of dreams which

and

if

are

none of those things

supernatural mysticism if its origin kind of dream

—

same

to the

;

only another can be traced

is

turbid stream of mingled experi-

ence and thought

— well then, there

is

no such

we must revert to thing as true mysticism the opinion of those to whom mysticism was ;

^

St John of the Cross brings the two methods into sharp contrast. "While created things furnish to the soul traces of the Beloved, and exhibit the impress of His beauty and

magnificence, the love of the soul increases, and consequently the pain of His absence for the greater the soul's knowledge of God, the greater is the desire to see Him, and its pain when it cannot and while there is no remedy for this pain except in ;

;

the presence of the Beloved, the soul, distrustful of every other remedy, prays for the fruition of His presence." It says, " Entertain me no more with in effect any knowledge of Thee or :

Thy communications

or impressions of Thy grandeur, for longing and the pain of Thy absence The for Thy presence alone can satisfy my will and desire.'' will cannot be satisfied with anything less than the vision of

with

these do but increase

my

;

God, and therefore the soul prays that He may be pleased to give Himself to it perfectly in truth, in the consolation of love."

— Spiritual Canticle^ Explanation of Stanza VI.

TWO name

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

21

an ignoble kind of self-delusion, and relegate both name and thing to the secular lumber - room which has already only a

such

received

mental

outworn

furniture

will

as

Roman-

alchemy and necromancy.

astrology, ticism

for

doubtless always hold a

certain

human thought and feeling for whatever new aspects nature and life may in

place

have

in

time

to

whose

;

store,

be

there can

numbers

sensibility

by the contact of

is

more

at

fail

any

men and women readily

awakened

their surroundings than

interior reflection.

have seen,

of

hardly

either

Our enquiry must

But mysticism supernatural therefore

or

is,

as

by

we

nothing.

be directed to

which supernatural mysticism with the view of deteritself,

the conditions claims

for

mining whether or not sufficient

basis in

its

pretensions have a

observable facts to entitle

to credence those transcendental for

experiences

which we can have no evidence beyond

the bare

word of the mystic himself

We

shall

have therefore to consider whether and

how

far the

cal

Dionysian principles are identiwith those which are discernible in the

MYSTICISM

22

whether mystical ordinary course of nature states, as described by those who have ex;

perienced them, are compatible with the nature and normal action of the human faculties

find

be

;

them

and whether those on a

to rest

—

psychological investigation

verified

— may

we

if

and

to

results

of

solid theory,

harmony with the

in

states

or

not

may

be adequately accounted for by merely natural agency.

As

discussed

be

in

sufficient

cognition -

starting

some

detail

further

note here

to

and

reflection

some

point

such

matter

(what

matter

may be

for

which

to these three questions,

in

on,

require

contact,

will

it

that ordinary

first,

with

contact

be

will

as

their

external

and

externality

themselves we need not,

our present purpose, enquire) by means

of which

the

mind may form

subsequently dealt with by

to

ideas,

way

be

of reflection.

Consequently, ideas or thoughts which are not related in this manner and degree to external

material

ceivable

in

the

things

are

natural order

granted that the mind

simply

and

inconif

it

is

may by any means

so

:

abstract it

it,

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

itself

from the external world that

^3

has no image of any external thing before either directly as a ''phantasm," or in-

an abstract idea formed on a basis

directly as

of sense-experience, then, naturally speaking,

has nothing before

it

But

this

but an absolute blank.

precisely the condition in which

is

mind

it

conceived by supernatural mystics to be during the time generally a very

the

one

brief

is

—

— of

contemplation.

and

natural world

are concerned,

But the void

is

filled

far

as the

images derived from

all

there

So

is

it

nothing but a blank.

by the divine presence,

and by supernatural agency.

We

are not,

however, led to suppose by anything mystical writers

tell

abstraction well

us that the state of mere negative

ever actually

doubt whether

it is

exists.^

possible that

One may it

should

;

"

^

If something is none of all the things Schopenhauer. we know, it is certainly for us, speaking generally, nothing. But it does not follow from this that it is absolutely nothing, that from every possible point of view and in every possible sense it must be nothing, but only that we are limited to a completely negative knowledge of it, which may very well lie in the limitations of our point of view. Now it is just here that and therefore it is just from this mysticism proceeds positively, Cf.

point that nothing but mysticism remains."

and

Idea^

iv.

48.

— World as

Will

MYSTICISM

24

and certainly the mystic does not suppose himself to create a mental blank, which, after

being so created,

supernaturally

On

filled.

the fundamental notion of the

the contrary, mystical state

not extricate

is

is

"

'*

Rapture

itself,

but

is

—the

mind does

taken out

of

its

normal relations with the external world by that very presence and influence which supplies their place.

The

mystical knowledge of

God

knowledge and light, merely Ignorance" and ''Darkness"; and this is the only condition under which is,

in

regard to

all

natural

**

such knowledge could conceivably be imparted. The soul, as it were, looks over the extreme

edge of the phenomenal world, and has no use whatever for anything belonging to that

had any, it could not really be the edge, but would be the subject of a

world at

:

if

it

delusion.

no way

Mystical knowledge, therefore, in contradicts the principles which appear

necessarily to govern the ordinary cognition

human

it does not even imply beings emancipation from them, it merely transfers

of

them

;

to another sphere.

But a word must be said as

to the nature

TWO of

this

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM It

sphere.

commonly

is,

the

called

of

what

course,

supernatural

25 is

and the

:

conceived unquestionably by the mystic as distinct from and exis

supernatural sphere

The

cluding the natural.

where the natural ends. then

course

of

there

is

supernatural begins If

this

an end

natural mysticism as a genuine

is

of

denied,

super-

— and, thing

by consequence, as we have seen, of anything whatever that can be clearly connoted Mr. Inge, indeed, in his otherwise admirable Bampton Lectures, strongly

by the term.

opposes

this

not easy

to

theory see.

;

on what grounds

He, with other

it

is

modern

upholders of mysticism, in the sense in which it is understood by them, regards the phenomenal world interpreted by reason as a true manifestation of the divine ideas and nature it

is

the imperfection of

human

;

reason, caused

and ignorance, that prevents men in general from ''seeing the world as God sees it" as, in fact, it really exists in the mind of

by

sin

— God — and as

reason of

We

may

its

being spiritual creation

in its nature,

by His thought and

by

will.

pass over the latent Spinozism of

MYSTICISM

26

these and similar phrases, which, taken Hterally,

would seem

and matter, the The point where

to identify spirit

created universe and God. this

theory

short

falls

manifestly

true

of

mysticism is that it takes something created, no matter what, for its final object. Supernatural

mysticism, as

we have

said already,

has no objection to offer to the notion that something of the nature and will of God can

be discerned is

in

all

reflected

truly

created things, that in

and

them,

that

He this

can be distinguished with increasing clearness as we draw near to the perfect reflection

human

from that of

But

**

is

as

rival.

its

and feeling"

realisation in thought

not experimental knowledge of

and feeling

He

exists,

attributes

He

what

;

may

^

Cf.

:

God

quod

perceive

the

in

plenitude

of

:

est

— that

the

divine

they cannot see qnid

in

His own absolute being.

is

mysticism

is

is

thought

but

most, natural creation

from the

true

view of supernatural myticism as

of

point

All this

state.^

est

a true vision

—

At of

what supernatural mysticism claims Sumnia^

i.

2.

i.

i.

and

2. c.

:

also

i.

12. 6. c.

TWO to

be

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

The two

the vision of the Creator.

is

views, so far from being are

27

mutually exclusive,

mutually complementary

in denial of the possibility

not in

knowledge,

there

Moreover,

method

or

principle

difference

point of

really

is

in

of the

no

natural.

difference

between the two

;

of the

object at which each, in

the

For there

aims.

fact,

error lies

of the supernatural

assertion

is

the

:

after

is,

all,

which the being of God can be inferred from visible things and that only one

is

the

way

in

Via Remotionis

— the

;

negative

road

which ''nature mystics" depreciate as at most insufficient for

ever

is

its

known by

assumed purpose.

What-

the senses can, indeed, or

perhaps even must suggest a train of reasoning, conscious or subconscious, which ends in the concept of a spiritual and personal reality

But underlying the manifestations of nature. this can only be attained by abstracting from the impressions which furnish the suggestion the

concept

though

up

it

is

formed by the reason, more or less confused, and reaches itself

to a sphere

can enter.

;

But

is

which neither reason nor sense it

is

not intuitive or empirical

;

MYSTICISM

28 it

is

an idea evolved or constructed

which

rational process

in

other rational processes nation from without.

by a no way differs from it is not an illumi-

:

In other words,

it

is

no more mystical than our thoughts about any matter of ordinary business or domestic economy, from which it differs only in its subject-matter. for

Take,

example,

the

elevated emotions

produced by the contemplation of the magnificent

panorama of

sunset.

What we

a shifting arrangement of colours

—

see

is

blue, red,

What we extract from it purple and green. is a particular sense of beauty, and thence, by association of ideas, a confused concept of all the beautiful things in the world.

From

this

it

is

easy and natural to pass to

thoughts of the mysteriously elusive principle of beauty, of the source of that principle and of the creation in which lastly,

it

is

embodied, and,

of the nature of that source, and of the

absolute moral and spiritual beauty to which its

works

testify.

But

this train of

thought

is

We

a train of negations. practically consider that beauty is not essentially of any in reality

colour

—

it

is

a principle not embodied in any

TWO one form

have indeed

a

—

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

cannot be self-caused, but must

it

source outside

is

29

God

;

He

but

itself. is

This source

not beautiful in the

—

same way as the sunset He is not blue or red or green, nor is His beauty dependent on But He is that any material constitution. incomprehensible reality which gives beauty to the colours of the sunset, and to all the

good and in the

beautiful things, of

universe

things, nor yet

:

He

all

is

of

whatever kind,

not any one of those

them

together, but

contains in Himself the principle of

they are

all,

them

He all

:

say, eminenter in

as scholastics

Him.

When we

have reached

this point

we have

got rid of everything that our senses tell us of, and have erected for our contemplation a purely abstract lights of sunset

upon which the seem to play, and which

conception, still

therefore retains something of their

long as the impression

lasts,

but

charm so

in itself

is

image that in this world we know as beautiful.^ The solemn and pious

stripped

of every

or romantic feelings which a ^

Cf.

brilliant

lUingworth, Divine Immanence^ ch.

iii.

sunset

MYSTICISM

30

being are based on an inference of a nature in no respect differing from that calls

into

of Paley's inference of a

watch. ideas

watchmaker from a

Natural mysticism is concerned with and theories, not with actual experi-

ences.

Its

Remotio7tis

method

is

identical with the

Via

of speculative theology, of which

the mystical or practical parallel

is

the with-

drawal of the intelligence, under divine guidance, from the contemplation of any sensible

image whatever, and its illumination, not by an abstract idea, but by an actual presence. Secondly, it should be observed that the

mode

in

which

this illumination takes place

not to be considered abnormal in it

itself,

is

though

obviously depends on abnormal conditions. The mental faculties act, or may act, in the

ordinary way.

The

difference

between the

mystical and the merely natural states

we have

seen, in the object

lies,

as

of the faculties,

can be judged, in their mode The reason and intelligence under

not, so far as

of action.

ordinary circumstances work upon a basis of sensation the reactions of the mind depend ;

ultimately

upon the

cumulative reactions of

TWO the body

;

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

words, the mind can

in other

or,

31

only act upon material furnished originally by In

the senses.

groundwork fact

lies

is,

their

material

states this

mystical

of course, absent, and in that

supernatural

place of the material

character.

The

supplied by the presence

is

and action of supernatural divine agency, but the mental and bodily reactions certainly need not differ essentially in character from those ordinarily set

up by sensation.

perfectly true to

say that the mind, or soul,

can only act in one

way

;

and that consequently

any theory which requires that in

it

should act

thereby made absolutely For such a theory would imply a

a different

incredible.

would be

It

way

is

self-contradiction,

which

incredible thing.

It

is

the one absolutely

would be

like

saying that

one sees a sound, or hears an odour. soul

were

to act as a

mere passive

If the

receptacle,

and yet be conscious of that which it received, it would be an unmeaning contradiction of itself,

such as could not possibly exist or be

conceived.

Consciousness

is

active

;

the

mind

can no more be a mere unresponsive receptacle than the body can experience sensation with-

MYSTICISM

32

out being

and

itself alive

active.

The

fact of

consciousness necessarily implies the normal mental activity of the subject, with all the physical

But

the

and

concomitants necessary to it. connection between consciousness

sensation

—the

mode

ferred to the other

the subject of

in

—

is

which one still

is

trans-

very obscure and

divergent theories at any rate, there appears to be nothing impossible, or even irregular, in the idea that conscious-

many

:

ness and intelligence may follow their normal course on a basis of supersensible ideas, presented to them, not by means of sense, but by supernatural and divine interposition. If

we can be

conscious of the presence of

a spiritual being by means of an inference from the sensations excited by his bodily presence, as

we

are conscious

in

our friend's presence

of a spiritual personality inferred from sensible evidences, then that

God may

it

is

at least quite conceivable

cause Himself to be apprehended

as immediately present merely

the consciousness in is

by stimulating the same way in which it

ordinarily stimulated

intelligibilis)

by the idea (the species abstracted from sense-impressions.

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

33

given ready made instead of being constructed by the intellect.^ There is equally, of course, no a priori impossi-

which

in this

may be

case

such communications being made by agencies other than divine, and it is difficult to bility in

see

why any one who

believes in the existence

of

created

personalities

spiritual

human should regard them I

i

other

than

as being incapable

under any circumstances of exercising direct All stories of angelic influence upon mankind. visitations, or of diabolical possession,

may

not

and writers such as Gorres, Schram and Ribet may be over-systematic and overbe true

;

But there dealing with this subject. can be no a priori reason for dismissing it as

minute

in

merely superstitious.

Of

the visions

or ''intellectual,"

communications conveyed,

locutions,

"imaginary" by means of which mystical have not infrequently been

there

^

and

is

Mature

no need et

to

speak here. "

Memoire^ p. 33 Que la matiere puisse etre pergu sans le concours d'un systeme nerveux, sans organes de sens, cela n'est pas theoriquement Cf.

Bergson,

inconcevable."

:

If this abstract direct perceptibility of

matter

would seem to follow a fortiori that the soul may perceive that which is immaterial, like the soul itself, without any intermediate sensation.

by the soul be conceded,

it

MYSTICISM

34

not essential

to

They

are

ence,

and are held by mystical

mystical

experi-

authorities

to be of quite secondary importance at best. It

plain that

is

we have been

the

mode

of communication is

considering

quite capable of

strongly affecting the imagination, and

may do

so either by creating fresh imaginary figures, or by recalling past impressions derived from

Some such things as pictures and statues. of the visions of St Teresa, Julian of Norwich, Anne Catherine Emmerich and many are

admitted

frankly

to

be

of

others

the

latter

kind.

Thirdly,

the

phenomena

of mystical

con-

templation cannot be

considered capable of explanation by any theory which excludes the Two such theories have been supernatural. suggested. natural

The

object

of

apparently

infused

contemplation

super-

been

has

thought to be merely an image drawn by the normal process of the understanding from past conscious experience the supposed divine illumination is held to be, in fact, the result ;

of

self-delusion.

resemblances

Again,

between

there

mystical

are

certain

states

and

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

35

those induced by diseased conditions or drugs,

which have suggested the theory that mystical states

are

abnormal

really

and are only

pathological,

in that sense.

But

in spite of

naturally be

obvious resemblances as might

expected to occur

in

all

abnormal conditions

of individual organisms of the

marked

there are

such

same

species,

differences which absolutely

preclude the possibility of explaining mystical conditions in any of these ways. there

First,

is

in

these states (apart from

the occurrence of visions) no figure or

whatever,

image

such as necessarily occurs in any

process of reasoning or imagination. Recorded mystical experiences, various as

natural

they are in type, uniformly fail to connect themselves with any preceding thought or

experience of a natural kind.

The

frequently made, that they must

assertion,

be so con-

nothing but an arbitrary assumption Then the the evidence is all the other way. nected

visions

is

or

;

hallucinations

proceeding

from a

drugged or otherwise pathological condition are characterised,

as

it

seems, invariably, by

monstrous or grotesque visual appearances, or

MYSTICISM

36

by strange physical sensations which, though in some persons they have apparently exer-

some power

cised

belong

dreams though

to

distinctly their

:

its

of

spiritual

precise

order

the

physical

suggestion,

origin

locality

is,

of is

natural

manifest,

naturally,

not

always ascertainable/ Moreover, mystics have always been remarkable for sanity and placidity

even when invalids

;

the neurotic temperament

which belongs to pathological states of consciousness is conspicuously rare, even if not entirely absent

Such a tempera-

among them.

ment can hardly be thought compatible with *' the straightforwardness, simplicity and daunt"

** courage of St Teresa, or the tremendous " moral force of St John of the Cross,^ or with

less

the energetic activity and the tender

human

sympathy of St Catherine of Siena.

More-

over,

it

is

worth noticing

in

this

connection

that for the practical purposes of canonisation

and

beatification

tinction

by ^

is

and

ecclesiastical

a clearly recognisable dishas always been perceived authority

—depending

more

See the instances given by James, Varieties of Religious

Experience {Mysticism). " ^ Inge, Christian Mysticism," Lect. VI.

TWO on

common

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

37

sense than on any psychological

— between

which may be classed as pathological, and those which must be considered supernatural.^ theory

On much tions

experiences

the whole, therefore,

seems hardly too

it

none of the proposed explanawould have any weight whatever, apart to say that

from the reluctance to admit the existence and of supernatural

possibility

by a

natural in

superseded readiness

to

experience which,

pendulum, has our day the former too great seek a supernatural cause for the

swing of

any uncommon event.

may be said, what does all this matter ? The subject can be of direct interest only to those who have, or believe themselves But,

it

to have, mystical experience of the supernatural

and they are very few in number even any of them are still extant. Moreover,

kind if

:

mysticism, in that

sense,

Christian religion

it

;

is

not part of the quite possible to be is

not merely a good Christian, but even a saint, without so much as knowing anything about the

Why

matter. ^

not leave

See Benedict XIV.

De

it

to those,

Canonis.

if

MYSTICISM

38

any there are, who are the subjects of these abnormal experiences, and whose conviction as to the nature of them is ah'eady unshakeable,

and

time

may have

them

to those

to

form a judgment about

in

considering a subject which

no way concerns either

Now

duty.

to

For the ordinary run of people there

?

can be no use in

who from time

experts

it

is

their faith or their

quite true that comparatively

few are called to supernatural contemplation it

is

;

equally true that neither the faith nor the

practical

duty of Christians

in general

can

in

any way depend on "private revelations" or on mystical knowledge of any kind. Neverhas a distinct interest and

theless, the subject

importance of its own for form a clear and correct the true

attitude

who

desire

to

judgment as of the Catholic Church

to

all

in

regard to human life in general, or who wish to appreciate fully the whole range of the evidence to be adduced in favour of her claims. is

For on the one hand, since mysticism

a constant

— though not times — of Christian

feature

prominent at all cannot rightly be

neglected

by

equally life,

any

it

who

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

39

wish to form a just estimate of the character and on the other of that life as a whole ;

hand, mysticism has a distinct evidential value

whether considered

in itself or in its relation

to other factors of the Catholic system, is

which

by no means confined to those who have

experimental knowledge of establish these two points. I.

as

Christianity,

embodied

human

I

will

try

and

represented

fully

to

the Catholic Church, appeals to

in

nature as a whole, not to any part or

aspect of

That

it.

deals with

apart

it.

human

from

all

is

to

say,

nature in

individual,

its

the

Church

completeness,

national

or

racial

therefore necessary that

characteristics.

It

every factor

that nature should find itself

in

is

and a place provided for it, with appropriate guidance and discipline, in due relation and harmony with all else that goes recognised,

to

the

make

up

Church.

affinities

sophy

;

with for

in

humanity, in the system of In this sense the Church has

forms of religion and philoeach of them some modicum

all

at least of truth is to

Church

is

truly

be found, which,

if

the

what she represents herself

MYSTICISM

40

acknowledged and co-ordinated

to be, will be

with other

truths

her doctrine. forms,

is

in

the

complete body of even in its extremest

Error,

not *'a

truth torn from

that

lie

is

when seen

only true

Men

to the whole.

be

to

that which

is

in its

due

—a

not by that

by is

well

following

true without regard to fact

;

relation

we may

—

This

is

perspective

thing but impossible

plementary truths.

it

false

are misled,

which does not exist believe

in

—

scheme

natural place in the

its

of things, and so seen truth

a lie"

all

is

its

com-

nowhere so

evident as in the case of mysticism, which, like liberty, has given the shelter of its name to

almost

every

conceivable

The

moral conduct.

aberration

of

desire for God, pursued

often by the most extravagant

methods and

disguised under the most unlikely pretexts, is the real motive-power of all human activity

Mysticism, on one road by which

whatsoever. side,

is

heart's

rest

which

selves, desire.

Church men they must

;

all,

even

its

men seek in spite

Whether within will

strive to

purely

human for the

of them-

or without the

see God,

the methods they adopt

because

may

be

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

41

determined by varying temperaments or circumstances, but among them has always been "

''

— the

inner way and must always be the way of abstraction and contemplation,

the

pass beyond the many-coloured dome into the ''white radiance" of true reality

effort to

of

life

beyond

it.

Now

if

the Church had nothing to say to

deeply rooted and constantly manifest human desire, she would surely fall far short this

of the

that

place

she claims,

successfully from the

some,

she

had

first.

Still

condemned, as

sumptuous and delusive, the

and has held more,

if,

like

merely pre-

efforts of

mankind

degree now the very life which she promises hereafter, she would have come perilously near to denying her own to realise in

some

authority and

faint

commission.

said in effect to mankind.

God

;

you are

to look

natural enjoyment

there

is

no

of

She would have

You

are

made

for

forward to the super-

Him

in

limit to the favours

Eternity,

which

He

and can

and may bestow on you here and now. But one thing you may not have, one thing He and that the one which shall not do for you

—

MYSTICISM

42

you most

desire

or

briefest

— you

foretaste

slightest

blessedness that

is

shall

not have the

here

of

be yours hereafter

to

;

the

God

Himself, though He may do miracles of all sorts but this, shall not pierce the crust of material things which hides Him from you, or

show you the that

lies

faintest

beyond

faire miracles

en ce

it

—

spark of the radiance '* defense a Dieu de

lieu."

But the Church has

never done anything of the kind. Mystical knowledge has always been fully recognised by

—

her as possible, and as existing whether in the Hebrew prophets, the Apostles of Christ, or the contemplatives of successive ages since

Even

their day.

for

mystics, as such, with-

out her pale she has had no condemnation she has condemned their misbelief, but has

;

and in kept silence about their mysticism her theology and philosophy the phenomena of mysticism have been dealt with and explained ;

in

accordance with the methods which were

applied to ence.

all

Not

other phases of human experionly a professed mystic like

an Augustine, a Thomas Aquinas, has each had his word to Dionysius,

but a

Clement,

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

43

say and his ray, more or less brilliant, of light to contribute to the sum total of the Church's

wisdom, ever growing with the increasing experience of the of

man

human

tow^ards immediate

and union with

Him

The

race.

aspirations

knowledge of God

are therefore recognised

and adopted by the Church as a true part of multifarious

that

human energy

w^hich

it

is

her function to direct, regulate and enlighten.

Such aspirations are hereafter

for

those

to

find

who

satisfaction

full

are

willing

to

be

guided in their exercise they are partially to be satisfied here, in a certain degree by the ''natural" contemplation which is the common ;

right of

Christians,

and

in

a

fuller

measure,

and more perfect manner, the supernatural contemplation which is the

and in

all

after a higher

truth

that

degrees

Thus

comparatively few.

of

privilege

underlies

the

mystical

the

ways and and ascetic

different

in

theories

practices of Neoplatonist, Gnostic or Buddhist,

Parsee or

Mohammedan,

is

cleared from

its

surroundings of mythological or theosophical imagination and set in of truths which are

place in the

harmony made known by nature and its

MYSTICISM

44

by revelation, and preserved

in the

dogmatic

structure of the Church's faith.

What

is

mysticism

between

philosophy has

scholastic to

make

natural

its

clear

the

done

for

distinction

and supernatural

parts.

St Augustine, no less than Dionysius, did indeed call attention to the necessarily supernatural character of

of the divine

nature,

any but

direct contemplation it

was St Thomas

whose analysis of the nature of the faculties

in

man made

must be

this

so.

intellectual

clear the reason

why

Man's way of knowledge

is

inextricably involved with his bodily organism, since

body and

soul

are

not

two substances

but one.

Consequently, immediate knowledge of that which is purely spiritual or immaterial

cannot come to him by any exercise of his " natural powers, but only by a ** rapture or '*

ecstasy" in which he

is

made

to transcend

own

present nature, and for a moment to enjoy the beatitude habitual to those who have his

attained the goal of their desires in the eternal vision of

God.

No

instance of the

way

in

which the magisterhim of the Church has dealt with the impulses and feelings of humanity is

TWO clearer

more

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

more

or

than

illuminating

45 this

plainly illustrates the co-ordination

or

:

and

mutual support of the truths of nature and grace in that comprehensive view of man's nature which

possible only to an organisa-

is

tion which, as being both fully

the same time truly divine,

human and

at

able to maintain

is

a perfect balance between the natural and the supernatural. It is

therefore plain that mystical theology

is

not the least precious of the Church's treasures.

resembles the way of

It

religious in

the esse, it

is

faithful

but

it

:

to

the

necessary not to

integrity.

not

belongs bene

The mere

technically called

to the general life of

relation

its

life

of the

esse its

indeed to the

Church

existence, but to

— its

existence of the religious

undoubtedly a source of joy and consolation and a moral

life,

in

its

various

is

forms,

support to countless persons who are very " '' In themselves. far from having a vocation the

same way, the recognition of the

mystical contemplation

and happiness writer)

to

is

of

it

of

an encouragement

many who

know nothing

life

(like

the present

by personal experi-

MYSTICISM

46

ence

can hardly be doubted that its this respect would be more widely

and

:

value in

it

and

deeply appreciated better understood than it

needs, and brings

human

divinely

factor in

nature were

is.

It

completes the

human

together in the unity of a

institution every

temperament, occupation and moral

as well as every class,

character

its

Church's adaptation to

of the

circle

if

and

an important that kind of moral evidence of the

;

in this aspect

is

justice of the Church's claims

which

is

supplied

by the practical services she has rendered, and is

daily rendering, to 2.

from

The

direct

humanity

evidential

in general.

value, as

distinct

testimony of the Church's mystical theology, arises from its experimental character, as contrasted with the theoretical this

nature

of

indirect

"

"

speculative

theology.

The

symmetry and completeness of the body of Catholic doctrine

is

admitted on

even said by some perfect to have any

is

hands

all

;

it

be too complete and real bearing on a state to

of things so fragmentary and unsystematic as that of the world in which we have to live.

The

question

is,

Is

it

really true

.^

And

to

TWO this

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

question the answer

nobody knows,

mitted to any practical is,

indeed, an unjust

often given that

is

because

47

cannot

it

be

sub-

The complaint even on its own

test.

one,

For the consistency of Catholic grounds. doctrine not merely with itself (though even that is something), but with other departments of knowledge, truth

are

in

which fresh forms of

emerging,

continually

really

con-

most stringent been constantly

stitutes a practical test of the

kind,

and one

which

repeated under ever the

first.

But

which leaps

this

to the

has

varying conditions from is not a test of the kind -

eyes

;

it

does not impress

by any external signs, or arrest the attention It needs to of the careless and uninterested. be pondered and considered in the light of a degree of knowledge which is not universally possessed before appreciated. is

of quite

its

full

significance

can be

But the experience of the mystic a different

character

;

though

its

testimony is perhaps less weighty in reality than that of the failure of twenty centuries of discovery to shake the credibility of revelation, it

is

more

easily recognised

and appeals

to a

MYSTICISM

48

different

and

less purely rational order of in-

Mystics are, in fact, to the religion of the multitude very much what the pioneers telligence.

of natural science are to the popular interest in that

The

subject.

of

mentalists

Newtons

mystics are

We

religion.

the

experi-

cannot

all

be

but our Huxleys outlook on life is wider, and our appreciation of the wonders of nature is deeper for or Faradays

or

researches, of the nature

our knowledge imperfect.

the

So,

may be somewhat vague and though few indeed may have

what they have seen

whether mystics

some degree ledge and

For

is

to share

the

great

mystics,

an assurance

of the invisible

reality

of the truth of those all,

and truth of which

or the merits of the

gift

of the

;

for all

universe,

and

experiences by which or not, are enabled in

with

them the know-

enjoyment of divine

things.

purpose it is necessary indeed that the accounts given by mystics of their experiences should be as credible, at least, as this

those which

scientific

researches.

But that

no one who

will

experts this

is

give

of their

really the

case

give unprejudiced considera-

TWO

IDEAS OF MYSTICISM

tion to the question can seriously doubt.

49 It is

most unfortunate that the only two English authors who have dealt specifically with this aspect of the subject should have written under the influence of a parti pris which, notwith-

standing the erudition and acumen displayed by them, has deprived their judgment of all value.

CHAPTER

II

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM Mysticism has often been described, but seldom defined and the definitions have not always been satisfactory. Yet in order to have any ;

understanding of what is meant by a word used in so many different senses, it is

clear

very necessary to begin with a definition of the precise idea which it originally connoted,

and which underlies and forms the connecting link

logically,

its

into the

mysteries or esoteric rites Greek religion the yWuVraf, /uLejuLv/j/uLevoi, or

initiated

of

various applications. Etymomystics are those who have been

among

;

persons who were privileged to take part in the ceremonies periodically performed in honour of a god, from parfully instructed

ticipation

excluded.

in

which the

Any one

general

or anything 50

public

was

belonging

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM

was

the celebration of these sacred rites

to *'

51

— even

Mystic"

lacchi

"

of

the

to

*'

and the

vannus

Mystica

two

prominent ideas connected with the word were consequently

—

first,

instruction

or

tion to

it

Virgil

;

knowledge obtained by and secondly, an obliga-

special

(fiveco),

other necessity of secrecy in regard

The

(nMvco)}

mystics are,

in

inner circle of the devotees of any cult

possessed of knowledge of the nature of revelation

are

acquired science, consideration of

and which

some

or acquired, such as

run of mankind.

knowledge

is

they

which partakes rather is

than of

imparted in

special aptitude, natural

not found in the general is further implied that the

It

of a transcendental kind, such to

be necessary

devout worship of a divine being ever,

;

is

may be supposed

as

the

fact,

;

for

this,

the

how-

though obviously part of the original

meaning of the term, is not always signified in its later uses. But the one idea common to all uses

is

that of special

knowledge con-

fined to a cor/>s d' dlite of persons with a peculiar ^

"Mysticum

Theol.i

I.

interpretatur

absconditum,'''

Gerson,

Myst.

MYSTICISM

52

aptitude for

its

Thus

acquisition.

the early

Christian Church conceived itself to hold the position of a

mankind

in

body of mystics with regard to its members were the general :

of a

depositaries

revelation

(Arcanum)

not,

at least in all points, accessible to the outside

world; they were initiated by the "illumin" rite of baptism, and thereby admitted ating to participation

of the

mysteries,

St Paul fj^€/uiV)]iuL€i'0£

priest

is

jULva-TiKMg

any

and

other

Christian

iv.

(Phil. ;

the

in

in

or

sacraments,

Thus

religion.

speaks of himself as

12)

Greek

the

liturgies

the

directed to say the ''secret" prayers

—

in

silence.

or

art

traditional

Hence,

later

times,

made use be known as

which

handicraft

methods came

"Mystery."

in

to

were imparted

Its secrets

of

a

to the

novice at or after his initiation into the guild or

company by which

it

was carried

on,

and

under which he had served an apprenticeship such ''arts and mysteries" are still professed,

:

though not always practised, by the guilds which have survived to the present day.

But a

in the

circle

Church there has always been

within a circle

;

within

the body of

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM the initiated a body of those

gone a further

initiation

who have

some favoured ones who have received instruction.^

And whereas

under-

the instructed

among

;

53

initiation

fuller

into the

community has been entrusted by divine authority to the Church itself, the Christian

further illumination of the selected directly

from God.

Hence has

natural

transference

the

is

received

arisen

by a

popular application

of the term to any view or conception of the

transcendental ''

vast

vague,

or

the

to

unseen,

and sentimental

anything and hence

" ;

again the note of condemnation or contempt which was attached in England to the idea of mysticism, tion

some

as

it

was

to

its

distant

rela-

"enthusiasm," during the century ended

—a

''mystic" during that period being considered much the same thing as a visionary or a sentimentalist. The word fifty

years ago

has since then recovered from

its

temporary

Harnack, Mission and Expa7ision of Christianity^ vol. i. Christianity gained special weight from the fact that, p. 237. in the first place, it had mysterious secrets of its own, which it sought to fathom only to adore them once'again in silence and secondly, that it preached to the perfect in another and a deeper ^

Cf.

;

sense than

it

did to simple folk.

MYSTICISM

54

and though it is still used somewhat loosely, it no longer carries any burden of offensiveness. The laxity of use from which degradation

it

still

;

consists in the emphasising of

suffers

one part of exclusion

its full

of

any knowledge or or imaginary, which is beyond

the

experience, real

connotation to the practical other

:

the scope of ordinary sense-experience, to

be called mystical.

is

apt

But such knowledge

not mystical in the proper or strict sense, unless it is held also to be imparted, and not is

acquired by the independent exercise of the natural powers.

It

would, of course, be absurd

contend that the conventional meaning of a word, in many cases an enrichment rather to

than a perversion, has not at least as good a claim to acceptance as its etymological one. But where, as in this case, the conventional uses

of the

word have obscured the nature

of the thing for which

it

originally stood,

it

necessary to determine the sense in which the word is to be used in the discussion of

is

the thing.

The name was first applied in the sense in which we have now defined it by Dionysius

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM

55

— whoever the author known under that name The thing, however, was undoubtedly known and recognised in the Church from the beginning. The apostles may have

been.

were certainly mystics in the fullest sense and the mystical tendencies of sub-apostolic ;

times are evidenced and fairly represented by "

**

the

Shepherd

and

authentic

The

martyrs. Oeo^opog,

the

of Hermas, and the writings

acts

of

self-chosen

God-bearer,

of

many

the

early

of St Ignatius,

title

implies

a claim to

the

possession of mystical experience of the most far-reaching kind. But mysticism or

—

temperament which seeks knowledge by means of illumination rather than

at

least the

discursive

human

reasoning

— belongs

essentially

to

and appears, under one form or another, wherever thought is free. nature,

Eastern theosophy out of account, a mystical element appears, in greater

Thus,

to leave the

or less degree, in

all

Greek philosophy,

if

the

mere negations of Pyrrhonism may be excepted. Before Socrates, Greek philosophers were seers rather than

reasoners

:

the apophtheg-

matic character of their utterances affects to

MYSTICISM

56

be the result rather of intuition than of reasoning

:

and the

logical precision

at

theoretically

plation

of Aristotle, led in the end, least,

which

in

that

to

alone

that beatitude consists.

schools

and even the

dialectic of Plato,

contem-

pure

conceived

Aristotle

In the later Platonic

mysticism tended more and more to discursive

contemplation reasoning rather than reasoned knowledge became more replace

and more and

;

definitely the object of philosophy,

ascetic self-discipline

appeared a surer way

Plotinus than argument to attain this end. (whom M. Maeterlinck calls *'the one analytical

mystic

"),

and Proclus

after him, present

the doctrines of later Neoplatonism in a sys-

tematic form, and are free from the

and

theurgic

degenerated

The two mysticism

in

extravagances other hands.

magical

which

into

it

streams of Christian and Platonic flowed

together

at

Alexandria,

where Philo had already grafted the flower of Neoplatonic mysticism upon the stock of

Judaic school

theism.

of

Christian

Together they produced a in which religious philosophy

faith

sought,

with

more

or

less

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM success,

to

Platonism,

on

one

the

other with the quest characterised

that

the

results

treatise

this

The

of mysticism

in

a

which

and

on

of the

illumination

development of

mystical theology

on the whole, the

of this

we have

dialectic

direct

later

Dionysius represents,

permanent

the

hand,

for

the Platonic schools.

of

with

itself

ally

57

combination.

kind

of

principles

In

grammar alone are

formulated, disengaged alike from the experi-

ence and argumentation through which they

had been evolved, and awaiting

the

fuller

clothing of concrete personal experience subse-

them by

quently imparted

to

writers.

received at

Though

picion, the writings of

later first

its

times.

as

is

commanding

day than that of St Thomas in later We could scarcely have had either

the Sentences or the

and

with sus-

Dionysius soon attained

a position of authority not less in

mystical

their echoes

Summa

may be

without them

;

heard, even when,

not often the case, their direct influence

not be detected, in every mystical writer since the time of their appearance.

may

It

is

probably a mistake to look for any

MYSTICISM

58

direct filiation, or continuity of historical suc-

among

cession,

the

mystical

of suc-

writers

and periods. Here, as elsewhere, can scarcely be doubted that the most

cessive ages it

important part of history is that which has never been written. Mystical teachers and writers were forced into prominence

by circum-

more than probable that circumstances had no influence on the general

stances

but

;

it

is

knowledge of the unseen and abiding reality which underlies the endless craving

for

of

vicissitudes

human

as

life,

they

could

have none upon the sources from which that Such circumstances were need is supplied. the ceaseless wars which vast

"

in

the

and

the

camp

centuries,

"made Europe one

fourteenth and intellectual

fifteenth

and

moral

upheavals of the age of the Renaissance and in our own day and the Reformation ;

the breaking up of old traditions and institutions,

and the

and customs seem, of a

times,

— the

when

man

new

principles, ideas

forerunners,

new order

of which no \

birth of

as

it

would

of things the character

can yet forecast.

the instability

of

human

In such things.

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM or the feebl eness of h uman reason,

with

insistence

special

59 is

men's

upon

forced notice,

the teaching of the mystic has an attractive force

which

lack

and

a

;

a

peace

the

illusion,

mind

life.

that

in

all

elect

souls

But times

to

it

Teresa

a

way"

in

is

which

may be found amid and

instability

outward

or

of the ''inner

of

to

such times that a Gerson,

Ruysbroeck

to tell

true

at

seems

it

periods

quieter

is

it

Tauler,

moved

in

restlessness

of

can hardly be doubted there

alike

whom

are

countless

knowledge is as the air they breathe, but who are more than content to be *'mute and inglorious" to the It

end of

mystical

their days.

would have

been

strange

if

such

an

abiding demand of humanity in general had never been met with a counterfeit supply. Parallel

with

the

current of true

mysticism there has been a nearly continuous succession of the spurious kind in which, though conscious imposture

is

perhaps hardly to be

found or suspected, a greater or less degree of

illusion

is

easily

discernible.

indeed scarcely be possible to say

It

would

how

far

|

MYSTICISM

6o

Pythagorean contemplatives or the Neo^ platonist ecstatics come under this head the

;

the '

i

have nothing

at least,

latter,

in

common

with the theosophic extravagances of Gnostics,

and

Montanists

later

seems

propagandism

whose

sects,

strangely

at

militant

variance

with their professed principles. The initial inconsistency of the supposition that the of

deposihim

revelation

needs to be

super-

seded, amplified or modified by mystical com-

munications imparted to a single irresponsible person a Priscilla, a Mohammed, a Joachim,

—

Boehme

a to

discredit

which

from the

enough

the

We

received.

by

or an

—of

doctrines

goes

far

professedly

so

itself

shall consider later the criteria

the false

for

Irving

true

or

the

is

to

doubtful

present

be

distinguished

mysticism to

;

remark

it

is

that

mysticism forms no exception to the rule, that the value of precious things is attested

by the abundance of

their imitators.

Tauler credits " Proclus and Plato" with a true mystical knowledge of God {Sermoji o?i St John Baptist). ^

CHAPTER

III

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

The

by which mystical states or experiences of every kind are distinguished from other states and experiences which have characteristic

points

are

of resemblance

directly

Mystical

and

to

immediately

contemplation

closest of those

them

human

is

that they

supernatural.

highest and relations with God of the

is

which the opposite extreme

is

represented by

the condition of simple dependence, necessarily

involved

in

mere

created

Im-

existence.

mediately above this comes the

recognition

by self-conscious beings of this dependence and after that, as a necessary consequence, the ;

rational deduction of the personal, infinite

simple

nature

of

comes the sense of

God.

Above

this

and

again

indirect personal relations

medium

with God, through the

6i

of our created

MYSTICISM

62

environment, and most completely and perfectly

With this through the operation of grace. consciousness comes also inevitably the desire to cultivate these relations at their highest

and maintain them

of efficacy

point

;

and thus

both reason and free-will are drawn into the universal accord in which each element, from

the lowest to the highest,

and discharges

its

fills

most

its

allotted place

congenial

function.

Rational beings who, by failing to recognise these relations, choose to hold the position of the irrational and inanimate part of creation are,

as rational beings, out of accord with the

general scheme yet the loss is theirs only the scheme is not affected by their failure to :

occupy the place They cannot but

;

which suffer

might hold. individually from the they

consequences of their choice assimilate the

rational

spiritual to the material

to ;

— which

the

is

irrational,

to

the

but the scheme holds

good for them as for the irrational beings whose place they have elected to share. But the crown and summit of the whole system with

is

God,

that direct intercourse of the soul

which,

ordinarily

at

least,

pre-

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

but

supposes the sacramental life of grace, is itself something more than that. It

a state

is

which

in

ordinary action of the soul

and

natural

the

63

modified, and

is

which even the organic functions of the

in

to a certain extent in abeyance.

body are

We

therefore

may

conditions

thus.

First,

the mere subjection,

unconscious

or

involuntary,

which

no

created

will,

three

the

distinguish

divine

the

to

can

being

escape.

Next, the conscious realisation of this general

dependence, which includes natural

by

religion,

and

meant

all

that

is

enriched

is

and

amplified by the knowledge which revelation imparts,

and

faculties

which

To

this state

tion

known

sense that

is

it

is

mystical.

implies

natural

natural

natural

natural

or

the

acquired (in

obtained by the exercise of

But

This state it

is

is

sometimes

not truly so

;

for

the exercise of natural powers on

objects,

guidance,

the

the effect of divine grace.

the natural powers). called

of

belongs the kind of contemplaas

it

elevation

the

though

under

supernatural

but not the supersession

objects

of their

by special and supernatural

MYSTICISM

64

The mind

influence.

in

this

state,

illumin-

but by the exercise of its own reasoning power, conceives an idea say of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Sacramental

ated by

faith,

—

presence of Christ, or the wonders of divine providence and contemplates it with satisfac-

—

tion,

and even with delight and enthusiasm.

The

practice of ordinary meditation will lead,

not uniformly, at least occasionally to connot Its object is templation of this kind.

if

though the action

immediately supernatural, of

mind takes

the

assistance

;

and

indeed always

it

place with

does not

supernatural

differ in kind,

nor

from such pleasurable induced by mastering a

in degree,

contemplation as

is

problem, following out a logical arguIn ment, or even reading a poem or a novel.

scientific

all

these instances alike

elements

—

there

intellectual study,

are

the

same

the development

of a concept or idea, and the "affective" con-

templation of 1

is

"Sweetness in devotion comes from the grace of God. although ultimately find that many temporal matters give us the same

St Teresa,

natural,

We

shall

Such meditation and con-

it.^

Castle,

4.

i.

4.

.

.

.

it

pleasure, such as unexpectedly coming into a large fortune, meeting v^ith a friend, or succeeding in any important affair."

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE templation,

when

their object

is

65

divine truth,

are indeed the highest exercise of the natural

powers.

And

the special supernatural impulse

and support under which it takes place must be clearly distinguished from the mere divine concursus, which

is

common

But the object of in itself

is,

human

contemplation it

acts.

not

is

is

produced the general laws which can be all human thought and feeling.

directly supernatural

according to observed in

That

this

to all

such contemplation

;

is

not in the true

sense mystical.

The

essentially

supernatural

the truly mystical state

character

of

perhaps best illustrated by the passivity which all writers on the subject hold to be its most characteristic feature.

God

is

is

not discovered by the mystic

indeed this special manifestation of Him not, strictly speaking, be even sought.

;

may

He

makes Himself known ''experimentally"; and the person so favoured contributes nothing, at In all natural least directly, to this result.^ 1

Such

criticism as that of

Mr

Inge (" Christian Mysticism,"

pp. Ill, 112) would be perfectly just if mystical contemplation were held to be a merely natural process. All the human mind can do towards attaining it is merely negative, and in the

E

MYSTICISM

66

cognition that

—

i.e.,

in

the acquisition of anything

rightly be called knowledge,

may

—

however

complex, recondite or elementary there must always be a preponderating element of mental

There must be

activity.

tion

and "

ception

not

merely sensa-

intelligent consciousness, but ''apper-

—the

active direction of the

the object before

mind

to

together with the complex

it,

process of analysis, abstraction, distinction and comparison which underlies the simplest act of

Such

cognition.

activity

is

involved in the

perception of a tree, a house or a flower, in the reproduction by the help of imagination or

memory

of an idea

an acquaintance. this process

is

;

or in the recognition of

But

absent.

in

all

God

mystical states

takes possession

of the mental powers and focusses

Himself,

and those which from

cannot be so focussed are imagination,

or will

may

them upon

their

nature

left

idle.

Memory,

or

may

not be in

according to the nature of the experience, but the discursive reason is necessarily in

use,

natural order the result of such

mere negation or abstraction

is

But it is just because of this that true mysticism is perceived to be supernatural. The blank can really be filled only by divine agency, not by human "hypostatisation."

zero.

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE abeyance.

In point of

to the soul

is

fact,

precisely

67

mystical cognition

what sensation

is

to

the body.

We

do not reason

whether we

we

in

order to ascertain

heat or cold, pain or pleasure

feel

are simply aware of the

;

Sensation

fact.

cannot be defined, or even described, otherwise than in its

occurrence

terms of other sensations is

and

;

not susceptible of proof, other-

wise than by very inconclusive circumstantial evidence.

One cannot prove

that

directly

one has a toothache, or that the subject in a hypnotic trance has no sensation of the pins thrust into his flesh by the operator we have ;

only his word

for

mystical experience

it.

is

In

the

same way,

a matter of direct con-

tact

between God and the soul

may

possibly be ascertainable

its

;

up

to a certain

point, as those of sensation are, but

be

precisely

either

defined,

conditions

cannot

it

explained

or

It follows that the mystical experiproved.^ ^ " Une ame recueillie sous le regard de Dieu peut, i I'aide de rimagination, se representer Dieu present en

elle.

.

.

.

Mais

image de Dieu, dont nous sommes les auteurs, ne ressemble en rien a la r^alit^ que la contemplation mystique nous fait sentir. C^est Dieu lui-meme, et non plus son image que nous apergevons." Lejeune, Vie Mystique^ p. 10. cette

—

MYSTICISM

68

ence

not

is

be

to

obtained by any

means

who

desires

within the power of the person It

it.

is,

obviously, no

more possible

to ensure

experience of this kind by any deliberate course of action than it is to obtain a particular

kind of weather by the exercise of one's

Here

powers. difference

which

lies, in fact,

own

the great practical

between mystical states and those the

to

belong

ordinary

economy of

divine grace, a difference which hardly seems

have been always clearly present minds of some writers on the subject. to

By

the fulfilment of certain

to

the

conditions the

devout Christian can attain with certainty to the enjoyment of an abundant measure of grace, sufficient or

The

more than

sufficient for all

prayer and of the sacraments are certain, and are within the reach

his needs.

of

of

all

who choose

spiritual

effects of

to

make use

advancement.

Moreover,

rational appreciation of the mysteries

Christian faith of

natural

offer

an

is

ability

open or

abundantly

to

all,

sufficient all

the

of the

independently

acquired

reason and imagination of

means

of these

skill

field

;

to

they the

men, whether

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE acute

whether

or unlettered,

lettered

or

dull

;

intellectually

themselves,

adapt

they

69

the objects of universal desire in the

like

life

of

the senses, to the capacity and character of The joys and coneach separate individual.

and anxiety of the

grace are equally real to the refined and learned and to the rude and ignorant, and, fundamentally, flicts

they are the same for

of

life

all

but there can be

;

no doubt that they are apprehended under somewhat different forms by persons of

and

character

different

education

— as

the

conveys an epicure and the

satisfaction of the desire for food identical

pleasure

ploughman

the

to

but the

alike,

ferred (as distinct from is

its

kind of food prechemical qualities)

different in each case.

But there are no conditions by the fulfilment of which mystical experience may be ensured

;

ordinary

and

its

character,

experience,

religious

depends on either the

endowments it.

The

of

mystic

the is

unlike

efforts

person

the

mere

favours bestowed on him

;

in

or the

that

no

of

way

natural

who undergoes recipient of the

he can do nothing

MYSTICISM

70

towards either procuring them or determining their special

fore

to

ecstasis

character.

be

Mysticism

conceived

and

Paul

St

of

the

as

St

outside the natural sphere

is

and

in

of

respect

natural

all

Thomas of human

^

it

:

life, it

experience for

;

it

natural objects of perception are involved

"darkness"

in

or

raptus

has consequently no place or function all

there-

is

and

**

ignorance,"

and

the

ordinary functions of sense and intellect are " for the time being directed by the new " of which St John of supernatural aptitude

Cross

the

Teresa,

speaks.

*'Our

not

require

''does

says

St

faculties

or

Lord," the

senses to open the door of the heart to

Him

;

"We can do nothing," they are all asleep." she adds, "on our part." "Simple unity with God," says Ruysbroeck, "can be felt and possessed by none, save by

who

stand before the immense brightness, without reason and without restraint."^

those

2. 2. 175 i. c, and cf. St Bernard (De Necesse est ad cor altum ascendere et mentis excessu per divinam revelationam addiscere, quid sit illud ad quod adspirare vel studere oporteat, et ad qualem sublimitatis habitum animum suum componere et assuescere debeat." *

2 Cor.

Inter.

2

vii.

Domo).

;

Summa,

"

Ruysbroeck,

De

Calculo,

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE Thus

71

the consciousness of free rational beings that simplicity of divine

returns to

end

other

the

at

which,

of

relations

the

of

scale

appears as the perfect mechanical fulfilment by inanimate and irrational creatures

creation,

of

their

human at

intellect

the goal

'*ut

appointed

divinely

of

arrived

sense,

when

desires

its

it

can say

sum apud Te."

factus

jumentum

some

in

has,

The

destiny.

Another obviously necessary consequence of the passive condition of the soul which marks all

truly

to

the

mystical

states

character

real

is

of

the

as

certainty

those states

which

Here, again, there is an Sensation sense - experience.

accompanies them. exact parallel in is,

as

we have remarked,

defined

or

proved

know about

it

the conditions

is

;

may

one thing

the

that be,

incapable of being

it

occurs.

we Whatever that

and whether there

is

an adequate cause present or

not,

indubitable fact in sensation

the certainty

of the experience.

is

the

one

A

person may feel cold in circumstances which cause others to feel hot

;

or

he

conditions

may

not

which cause

feel

most

anything

under

people to

feel

MYSTICISM

72

— or

again in some peculiar affections of the nerves he may feel intense a

deal

great

pain

Yet

without any apparent cause.

his

sensations are in every case undeniably facts.

This

is

precisely the case of the mystic

certain of the divine communication,

is

he cannot prove it

it

and

;

:

he

though

his conviction

that

unshakeable.^

is

divine

It

must, however, be clearly understood that

is

subjective certitude

this

is

not to be taken

for a

proof that the experience so certified is Benedict XIV., a genuinely mystical one.

De

in his treatise

Canonisatione^ gives a long

of natural conditions which

list

to apparently

mystical

experiences

nervous excitement, hysteria, tion

and

disease.^

nearly identical

list

may

cal it

—

memory

associa-

Professor James gives a of such causes.

a conditio sine qua non — without

is

give rise such as

it,

Certainty

no mysti-

experience can be considered genuine,^ but is not therefore inconsistent with decep-

tion.

Precisely the

same

thing, of course,

may

^

James, Varieties^ loc. cit. Heroic Virtue (Oratorian translation), vol. iii. ch. x. ^ St Teresa, Castle, 5. i. 9 "A soul which does not assurance has not been united to God entirely." ^

:

feel this

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

A

be said about sensation. fact of experience,

and

sensation

differs altogether

is

73

a

from

the most vivid imaginary presentment of the same fact we can never mistake one for the ;

But we may be widely mistaken as and we may, to the cause of our sensations other.

;

on the other hand, be deluded by memory or imagination as to the actual occurrence of sensations in the past.

We

may

so vividly imagine

certain sensations as to think that

we must

have actually experienced them at some time as some people are said to have told a fictitious ;

story so often that they have it.

But

in

come

to believe

such cases the clear realisation of

a definite and particular sensation is certainly In the same way delusions as to absent. past supposed mystical experiences are by no

means unknown.

But

in

such cases there

a complete absence of the circumstantiality which is characteristic of all accounts of genuine is

and on the other hand, there is generally a definiteness and descriptive plausiexperiences

;

accounts of the memory-created experiences themselves which is invariably absent bility

in

from the genuine ones.

MYSTICISM

74

The feature

reason of this of

genuine of

to

is

be found

in

another the

namely,

mysticism, the

experiences of mystical states in anything like detail. In the case of visions it is true that certain impossibility

describing

of the

salient

features

tinctly

remembered and described

appearances are

dis-

and

;

in

''locutions" the phrases heard or understood

can be repeated from memory. But these, as will be more fully explained later, are the ** accidents" of mysticism.^ Its essence is direct contact

and

with a transcendental reality

from

this,

its

described

being

sense-experience

in

to

nature,

the

incapable

terms

of

of

ordinary

human language Mysticism can make

which

necessarily limited.^

is

is

;

^

"These (corporeal) visions, inasmuch as they are visions of created things, between which and God there is no congruity or proportion, cannot subserve the understanding as proximate

—

means of divine union." Asc. of Carmel, ii. xxiv. "These supernatural visitations are nothing else but the motes of the Spirit."

—

lb.

ii.

xix.

St Teresa only

knows such

visions from hearsay.

"

Of bodily

can say nothing for the person I mentioned apparitions (herself) never experienced anything of this kind herself, and therefore could not speak about it with certainty." Castle, I

;

—

6.

9.

3.

^

Cf.

Bossuet's Instr. sur

une oraison dont

ils

les j^tats

d'Oraison.

ne pouvaient expliquer

"

Elev^s \

les sublimites

par

le

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE no use

of

describe

to

opportunities it

to

its

terms

the

what

is

are

far

construct a

own.

The

of

sense

-

supersensible too

limited

descriptive

consciousness

75

experience ;

and

to

its

enable

terminology of of

the

actual

only

presence admits of no description the bare fact can be stated, apart

from

its

ences

it.

divine

;

effect

on the person who experi-

But though the mystical vision of God is a thing which cannot be obtained by natural langage commun, ils ont 6t6 obliges d'enfler leur style pour nous donner quelque idee de leurs transports." And St Teresa "By some mysterious manifestation of the (Castle, 7. I. 9): truth, the three Persons of the most Blessed Trinity reveal themselves, etc. Thus that which we hold as a doctrine of faith the soul now, so to speak, understands by sight, although it beholds the Blessed Trinity by neither bodily nor spiritual eyes." " other and

And

6. 5. 9) These visions, many wonderful some are revealed to describe, by things impossible "On returning to itself, the intuition that I cannot explain.'^

again (Castle,

:

is unable to describe Divine B. Angela of Foligno it." operations went on in my soul which were so ineffable that neither angel nor saint could relate or explain them." " Moses was unable to St John of the Cross {Asc. ii. 28)

mind can

recall

what has been seen, but "

:

:

describe what he learned of God in that particular knowledge and so gave utterance to ordinary words. Though, at times, when this knowledge is vouchsafed to the soul, words are uttered, yet the soul knows full well that it has in no wise expressed what it felt because it is conscious that there are no words of adequate signification."

MYSTICISM

76

means, being God's free

and altogether

gift,

beyond the sphere of nature,

it

neverthe-

is

less not only possible but, ordinarily speaking,

to

necessary soul

so

fit,

far

whom

guest

for

prepare

it

that

as

is

for unless the soul

Him. in it

This preparation

in itself

it

the

Though His

ensure

made ready

for

is

indeed,

ditions

more

definite

the

and

fulfilment

of

and even states,

as

clearly later on, are not

necessary to holiness, and Gerson,

acquiritur

MysL

But

substantial.

than

less

salvation,

Mystical

sanctity.

from

sin,

negligent habits.

nothing

life,

of

from actual

of course, positive enough, and

is,

benefits are

Christian

1

for

merely negative regard to the supernatural state to which is preliminary, consisting as it does in the

worldly desires and

is,

can

has been

purification of the soul

its

the

not to be hoped

nevertheless

is

it

make

possible,

no amount of preparation coming,

to

receive.^

to

hopes

—

it

Cons.

it

xxx.

is

the all

of

It

fullest

the con-

eminent

we may see by any means at least ideally "

Mystica theologia per scholam affectus et per exercitium vehemens Theol.^

moralium virtutum, disponentium animam ad purgationem."

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE the highest sanctity

to attain

possible

77

with-

out any mystical experience whatever, in the

Dionysian sense/ The first four of " St Teresa's mansions are mainly occupied

true or

**

this

by

preparation

received

the

in "

Mansion

last

consists

the

for

three.

of

a

favours

The

''

to

Fourth of

blending

be

the

and supernatural in the ''prayer of recollection" and the "prayer of quiet"; the

natural

subsequent "prayer of union" and "spiritual "

are wholly supernatural.

marriage u

The

precise nature of mystical contempla-

tion as

distinguished from

intellectual

with and cally

resembling

more it

is

defined in practi-

same way, though with a varying

the

amount of is

functions

other spiritual or or less connected

detail,

by

all

mystical writers.

It

perhaps most clearly and briefly expressed

by Gerson, who follows substantially Hugo of St Victor, and the more elaborately subdivided Richard,

but

successor.

his

soul,

Gerson

and

affective 1

essentially

identical

method

The powers

of

of the'

says, are divisible into cognitive ;

mystical theology

is

the object

See Poulain, Des Graces d^Oraison, and Asc.

ii.

v. 8.

MYSTICISM

78

of the

as speculative theology

latter,

The

former.

cognitive powers are

intelligence, reason

affective

natural

good. be not habit

appetite,

of the

those

of

and sense-perception the will and synderesis, or the ;

perception and consequent desire of St Thomas considered this last to

a

power,

a

but

natural

and though Gerson,

;

is

cal writers,

speaks of

it

intellectual

like other mysti-

as a potentia animae,

he expressly guards himself against the supposition that he is constructing a system of real

psychological

are

distinct,

name he

for

;

finds

it

The powers

distinctions.

he says, not in reality but in his immediate purpose, however, convenient to treat them as if

they were really distinct in nature.^ The two sets of faculties work together. Their first or last function is mere coo^itation

— the

discursive consideration

of sense

:

then comes meditation, or the conof the

centrated application objects,

ideas

the

;

My

reason to these

and the production by

it

of abstract

these, again, can

simple ^

of the objects

St.

be contemplated by intelligence apart from sense-

Theol.^ Cons.

ix.

;

cf.

Summa

TheoL^

i.

79. 12.

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE So

perception. tive

and

far all is natural

79

the cogni-

;

affective faculties act mutually

on one

another, and on the objects presented to them.

But above

natural

all

presence, which

favour

objects

known

is

— not as an abstract

meditation,^

itself

natural

which

is

It

is

plain that

idea resulting from

the effect of love whether

is

one

Thus

that

**he

according to this analysis

God

vision,

con-

or

takes place through the

agency of the natural powers of the soul supernatural

factor

is

the

gratuitous

communication which the soul receives. obscurity,

is

spirit."

the experimental knowledge,

templation of

special divine

exaltation of the soul

or supernatural.

joined to the Lord

the divine

immediate object of

but as the

love, in the rapture or

above

— by

is

however,

;

the

divine

Some

has been caused by the

language of some of the more speculative Eckhart, and after him mystics on this point. 1

Myst. Theol.^ Cons,

" In

anima contemplativa amor, et mystica theologia et oratio perfecta aut idem sunt, aut se invicem praesupponunt. Nam, ut patet ex praedictis, mystica theologia est cognitio experimentalis habita de Deo per xliii.

—

conjunctionem affectus spiritualis cum eodem quae nimirum adhaesio fit per extaticum amorem, teste beato Dionysio."

MYSTICISM

8o

Tauler, speak of the

"ground" of the

soul

—

core or essence, to which the correspond-

its

"

**

or nature of the

ground

ing

municates affinity

itself in virtue

"spark"

the

of

soul

(scintilla,

therefore

be

to

is

also

or

fiinkelehi)

as the purest or highest

-

of a certain natural

which exists between the two.

''ground"

self

Godhead com-

the

part,

medium

communication.

This

"apex" —

and the of

Eckhart's

the

called

-

fittest

the

divine

pantheistic

tendencies seem to have led him to assimilate the

"spark"

the

to

divine

nature, as

homo-

geneous if not in some sense identical with Tauler keeps clear of this mistake and it. with Gerson the scintilla or apex mentis is ;

merely a name

for the intellect,

which

the

is

contemplative faculty.^ With Ruysbroeck the "ground" is the mirror in which the Divine

Being

is

reflected

;

St John of the Cross

calls

"substance of the soul," or again the "eye of the soul, which is the understanding," it

the

and the But the

recipient

^

may be

light

cause darkness

of the

;

divine illumination. so

excessive

and so we come back

as

to

to the

See Inge, "Christian Mysticism," Appendix C.

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE Dionysian phraseology,

8i

which darkness and

in

ignorance are the means of seeing and know-

But

ing.

all

this

evidently the

is

language

of practical devotion, and not (except perhaps in the case of Eckhart) of speculative theology,

amounts

What it psychology. no more than the doctrine that

of analytical

less

still

to

is

the soul has a faculty by

when God

can,

directly shall

means of which

it

so pleases, contemplate

Him

Him.

We

and even become united

to

consider in the next chapter what

nature of the process on

human

its

side

the

may

be supposed to be.

somewhat strange that such writers as Hugo and Richard of St Victor, St Bonaventure and Gerson should be spoken of as It is

having attempted to scholasticism.

and

no

'*

reconcile" mysticism with

They were never

reconciliation

or

possible,

all

theory

unless

may be

in

at variance,

was

either

necessary

the

sense

in

which

considered as attempting

to reconcile fact with itself.

Scholasticism set

give a reasoned

account of man's

itself

to

nature and total environment

one of the great

facts

;

which

mysticism was it

was bound

MYSTICISM

82

to take into consideration

elements in

it

on

its

falls

itself

either

its

things which to analyse

this.

But mysticism

Platonic or Aristotelian

;

simply human, and inevitable place in the order of

natural

into

and the Platonic

mysticism came into

earlier

no other way than

not

is

the

in

;

side

systems of philosophy seek

all

and

is

it

Mysticism is always recognisably the same thing, whether we meet in

it

explain.^

a Platonic or a scholastic dress.

What,

may be

then,

course of mysticism

devout preparation

called

proceeds

the

first

normal

by way of

the

discharge of ordinary Christian duties and the use of ordinary means of grace next, it leads the soul into in

;

the immediate presence of God, as an experienced reality, and not merely as a concept or

and the third stage, described imagination in various terms by various writers, consists ;

of a progressive ^

St

union with

God

—a

union

said to have drawn his philosophy mainly from Of Dionysius, who is too often treated as a mere " Observatu dignissimum, quomodo Corderius says

Eckhart

is

Thomas.

Platonist,

:

S.

Dionysius primus menta, quibus ceteri

rebusque divinis aedificarunt."

in

Scholasticae Theologiae jecerit fundatheologi eam quae de Deo traditur doctrinam omnem in-

deinceps Scholis

— Observationes Generales in Dion,^

12.

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE which

is

not merely a matter of conviction,

the mere union of will which of

devout persons, but a

all

83

*'

consciously realised. of the

Cross,

rather

than

participation,

and in

though

fact of

experience says St John

it,"

seems

soul

''the itself,

In

the privilege

is

indeed

God

be

to

God by

is

reality preserving

its

God

own

natural

as

did before, although transformed in Him."

it

substance as distinct from

St Teresa's well-known subdivision of this or

last

threefold

is

stage

supernatural

— the

prayer of quiet or recollection in its higher form, in which the sense of the divine presence

is

communicated

the

-to

and

soul

the prayer of contemplated passively by it union, which is "a foretaste of heaven," and ;

in

which the soul

"

seems

to

have

left

its

mortal covering (though this is not really the " and case) to abide more entirely in God ;

lastly,

soul

is

the "spiritual

marriage," in which the

no longer absorbed or

but recovers the exercise of in

an

exalted

and

its

lost

in

God,

powers, though

supernatural

way,

and

"sees and understands somewhat of the grace received in a strange and wonderful manner

MYSTICISM

84

by means of

intellectual

Thus

vision."

**the

persons of the most Blessed Trinityreveal themselves the doctrine which we hold

three

;

the soul now, so to speak, understands

by

faith,

by

sight."

It is

remarkable that St Teresa,

like all other mystics, in spite of the

minuteness

and

particularity of her classification,

tell

us

little

able to

is

or nothing of the actual content

She exhausts

of these blissful experiences.

herself in passionate insistence on the delight

they impart to the soul but as to the precise cause and nature of it she has nothing to say and as little can she convey what is to be ;

;

**

understood by the is

The

reason

that these things

as

is,

are

we have already

seen,

for

want

to describe

them

indescribable,

of existing words in which

or of natural experience with which to

them. is

like

which

bodily nor of the spiritual

neither of the

eyes.

intellectual vision,"

compare

Each fragment of mystical knowledge a dirai

XeyojuLevov

in

the

language of

human

understanding. Visions and locutions, or voices,

not occur in the states of union

occur in any other.

;

may

or

may

they do not

Visions are imaginary

—

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE i.e.y

sensible

-

quasi

figures

to

pictured

85

the

—

imagination without causing actual sensation the latter are of two kinds, one or spiritual ;

substances perceived, according to St John of the Cross, '*in a certain light of corporeal

emanating from God," in which the distant things of heaven and earth may be seen and the other kind consists of incorporeal ;

existences,

perceived

after

same super-

the

natural manner.

Locutions

in

manner may be

like

either

mentally formed phrases representing thoughts or

impressions produced by divine grace in the soul while in a state of recollection, or they

may

be formed

in

the

mind by

direct super-

natural agency.

But visions and locutions repeated,

experience

not ;

necessarily a

and

all

are,

part

it

must be

of mystical

mystical writers agree in

asserting that they are, in any case, the least

In practice all authorities important part. teach that they are to be entirely disregarded. It is true that the

experience of such mystics as B. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Blessed Julian of Norwich or Anne Catherine Emmerich

MYSTICISM

86 to

appears

But

voices.

countless

mode

consist in

others,

entirely

these it

of

three

will

and

cases,

be

and

visions

in

found that the

which thoughts were conveyed to, and emotions excited in the person is of quite in

In these cases, the secondary importance. communications come through visions of our Lord seen under various aspects, and declaring

His

and desires

will

But

words.

it

in

formally understood

was not the mere vision or

quasi-vocal communication in itself that gave value to the experience, or constituted its title

to acceptance as

mind of the

actual recipient or in the opinion

who

of those

genuine, either in the

afterwards

had

judgment on the nature of the always

the

manifestation

of

to

pronounce

case.

the

It

love

was and

patience of the divine humanity that was both the source of consolation

and the guarantee

of reality.

The

possibility

of self-delusion

such a

in

matter (without considering the possibility of diabolical deception) is, of course, almost inexhaustible,

warn

and no mystical writer

his readers against this

danger

fails ;

to

which,

THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE it

may be

well to remark, in the processes of

beatification in view,

and canonisation

is

kept constantly

and, as has been already noticed,

strongly insisted on by Benedict treatise

87

on the subject.

XIV.

is

in his

CHAPTER

IV

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE Mystical contemplation

is

the sight of God.

cannot be called anything else, though obviously sight or vision is not quite an approIt

priate

word

different is

to describe a process essentially

from any of those to which the term

commonly

applied.

indeed, not only

of a bodily

metaphor, ception

is

when we mean

when we mean

of an idea,

It

invisible

;

speak of ''seeing" the exercise

organ of sense, but

is

by a

also,

the intellectual per-

or a truth

presented to

But mystical sight

us from without. of these.

We

is

neither

not bodily sight, because

and

it

is

God

not intellectual percep-

because in mystical contemplation it is not an idea that is seen, but a living reality. tion,

In meditation the thoughts or ideas abstracted from the subject under consideration are con88

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE templated

but

;

In

supernatural

God Himself

is

it

contemplation

or

mystical

any idea of

object perceived, not

thoughts about Him.

It is

89

that

Him

the

is

or any

a unique

mode

of perception, corresponding to the unicity of that which

is

Nevertheless,

perceived.

has

it

this point of similarity to bodily sight, that the

and immediately perceived it is analogously to the soul what sight is to All language in which such vision the body. object

is

may be and it

directly

;

described suffers from the

liability to

whenever

realities.

difficulty

misapprehension which besets it deals with transcendental

Thus

the

persons of the

Blessed

Trinity can only be spoken of in metaphorical or analogous terms

have

cession,

;

paternity,

connection

this

in

filiation,

pro-

meanings

very different from those which belong to the

words

in

their ordinary use.

sight of God, then, kind, nor

is

it

in

is

mystical

not sight of the bodily

any way

tellectual perception

The

it

like

ordinary

in-

is

something entirely separate and different from all normal experiences of body and soul. The soul, indeed, still

exercises

its

:

natural powers, or

some

of

MYSTICISM

90

them

;

but

it

them under

exercises

entirely

abnormal conditions, created by the character of the object with which it has to deal This object

how

the soul

suppose soul as

God to

is

God

but

:

God

can see so

to

we

naturally ask

— how

we can

Himself

present

be directly perceived by

to

the

For

it.

the

proper function of the soul is to think, understand and will and those functions pre:

suppose abstract ideas, singly or combined, as their objects. But ex hypothesi it is not an abstract

idea

that

the

mystic

contemplates

:

God

does not present Himself in the shape of a concept or a proposition, for if He did so.

He

would not be

directly

object of contemplation

present

;

the

would not be God,

but only the contemplative's idea or thought about Him, But then what else but an idea or proposition can soul

perceives

in

it

the

conceivably be that the "intellectual

vision"?

appears to be the difficulty of determining this point that has led many to suppose It

that the

immediate and external character of

mystical vision

is

a delusion

;

that

it

is

really

no more than the contemplation of an idea

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE

gi

drawn from the recesses of past experience and thought, by some unconscious or an image

subconscious

or

would be much

we were

to

be said for

really unable to detect

between the soul

affinity

object of

and

view

this

if

any possible the

mystical

intellectual

its

there

Certainly

process.

though, perception even so, the persistent testimony of generations of mystics to the fact might well cause

one

;

to hesitate before accepting

which explains

The first

it

difficulty,

place,

is

It is just as

away. it should be noticed

urgent

in

eternally

beings

if

we ask how any

God

at

How

any conditions. rational

in the

not confined to mystical theology.

creature can see

Him

an explanation

;

rational

any time and under can the blessed see

Heaven

?

They

they undergo,

are

still

intellectually

no radical change when they pass from time to eternity and yet the whole of

at

least,

;

their beatitude consists in the vision of

God,

not by any means in merely thinking about If then we are to reject the mystics' Him.

account of their contemplative vision on this ground,

we must

equally reject the doctrine

MYSTICISM

92

of the Church and the statements of Scripture as

the

to

amounts

practically

hereafter

vision

beatific

— which

to rejection of Christianity

altogether.^

But

need hardly be said that there is no such obvious lacuna in the account which it

any one to modus of the

would

entitle

inadequate.

The

of itself as

gives

Christianity

it

reject

as

beatific vision

show

quite sufficiently to

its

can be explained entire consistency

we know of the necessary relations between the human intelligence and its natural with what

and the same explanation removes the which at first sight seems insurdifficulty object

;

—

mountable

— of

attributing

knowledge

mystical

any

to

the object

of

degree

of

higher

external reality than belongs to the ordinary **

Universal."

This

difficulty,

we have

seen,

consists

in

^

Corderius points out that since the soul is capable of exercising certain functions without the direct co-operation of the senses, and is able to exist in a disembodied state, a purely

He adds that spiritual vision is not contrary to its nature. the mystical vision is not so precisely "quidditative" as the beatific the divine essence (which no creature can fully /.
—

comprehend) other.

("

is

much

Quaestio

less clearly

Mystica,'" in

known

in the

one than

Dion. Myst. Theol.^

in the

c. v.)

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE the disparity between the

human

the

What we want

divine

personality.

understand

the

is

principle

and

intellect

on which

it

93

to

may

be supposed that the intellect becomes directly conscious of the divine presence without or

reasoning function

is

when

abstraction,

natural

its

simply to reason or abstract, and

not to perceive by immediate intuition.

Thomas Aquinas

St at

great length,

union

;

conclusion

his

is

sub-

The vision of God by the in Heaven is not mere vision, but they see God as He is in Himself,

stantially

blessed

and

considers the question

this.

not from a distance as

sensible

seen, nor by a discursive

objects are

intellectual process

as intelligible ideas are perceived, but, so to

speak, from within. less

to

say,

but united to

They

are not,

pantheistically

Him by

it

merged

is

need-

in

God,

His supernatural

action,

so that the consciousness in the soul of the

divine

sense itself. is

presence

bound

is

akin

up with,

its

in

some

consciousness

Therefore as our self

intellectual

and

to,

-

of

consciousness

and yet immediate, so

also the

MYSTICISM

94

and

God

of

vision

beatific

immediate

both

is

intellectual.

In scholastic language, the species hitelligi-

practically the

is

mind works

or abstract idea on which the

bilis

"

form

"

of the mind, the

(considered apart from

itself

mind

action, as

its

m

potentid), standing in the place of "matter"; this

the normal

is

But

tion.

method of the

for those

Himself the ''form" that

He

is

own

its

known

natural

who

is

it

in

requires

enable

to

it

a

Even

this

the

lumen gloriae

normal

assistance (which

lofty

St

It

there-

assistance

to

atmosphere

Thomas

;

calls

considers a created

"quality," of the nature of grace)

by the

however, is

intellect.

this

and

knows

above the ordinary

divine

special in

so,

intellect

far

degree

and

becomes

directly, as the soul

ideas.^

work

opera-

to the soul's "matter," so

and natural sphere of the fore

He

see God,

though the action of the in kind,

intellect's

is

imparted

fact of the mystical union.

^

Spiritual Mirror, union takes place when a soul Cf. Blosius,

is

"

This mystical denuded carried above itself by the

xi. i.

grace of God, and through the brilliancy of the divine light shining on the mind is united to God without any medium^ and is

transformed and changed into Him."

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE The

between the

difference

95

visio beatificans

of heaven, and the mystical vision of persons still is

on

living

and

habitual

is

earth,

merely that the one

and exceptional

transient

and

permanent, ;

the

other

and whereas the

union of the blessed extends to the risen body by a kind of reaction, so that the body takes part in the vision with the soul with which is

it

substantially united, the divine vision for the

''viator"

restricted to the soul,

is

and involves

as a pre-requisite the temporary abstraction of

the soul from the processes of the body.

Thus St

"

Paul

mystical vision was

the body union,

"

—

the

i,e.^

though

''in

not

the time of anything It

was

a

this

scarcely

be

that

transient

lumen gloriae. There is no need, to take

his

body or out of in the

but be affected

rather than of any special

The Apostle was

activity).

whether

state (probably in the direc-

tion of quiescence

body.

the

"

body had no part

could

it

by the psychical

knew not

for

not conscious for

took place

in the

visitation

of the

our present purpose,

explanation (which perhaps will intelligible

to

any one who

is

MYSTICISM

96

unacquainted with the terminology of scholasThe reader may, ticism) as a true account. if

he

consider

will,

What

mere hypothesis. or not, is to show

as a

it

does, whether true

it

that an analysis of intellectual processes can be

constructed which

is

perfectly consistent with

the admission of direct and objective intellectual intuition of a transcendental reality is all

that

is

and

;

this

required to remove the apparent

and

disparity between the intellect

its

mystical

object. It is

worth while, however, to notice how

entirely St

Thomas's

theoretical account corre-

sponds with the descriptions given by mystics of their actual experiences. the state of actual vision

First,

St Teresa says

transient.

than half an hour at most

it :

lasts

is

always

not more

St John of the

Cross that the ''actual" union of the faculties of the

with

soul

transient

of

"

"

habitual

God must

necessity

vision,

;

which

in

though is

this

there

life

be

is

an

also supernatural,

but permanent, and may be considered as the consequence of the actual union, and of the nature of an exalted faith in the permanent

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE

97

•'immanent") divine presence in the soul.^ This element of permanence we shall consider (or

later.

Next,

It

marriage"

—

a state of union, or

at least

in

conscious form

fully

the

is

union

of

evident that

is

it

and

quasi-matter

described by St

spiritual

complete or most

its

and

;

**

quasi-form

Thomas (compared by

after Albertus, to the union

him,

between soul and

happily expressed by this figure, so St constantly made use of by mystics.

body)

is

Teresa could not distinguish between herself and God while in the state of rapture and ;

St John of the Cross says that *'the soul seems to be God rather than itself, and indeed is

God by

participation."^

questa visione sente sempre I'anima Iddio nel suo mai non si separa da quella divina compagnia, ne mai interno, piu perda una certa unione abituale con essolei questo pero non si intende, che sia in quel modo, che accade la prima volta

i"Dopo

—

e altre volte che Iddio le vuole rinovare

il

predetto favore

;

gli perche se fosse cosi, non uomini, anzi ne pure vivere. Ma sebene non vide sempre Iddio con tanta luce e tanto gaudio, lo spirito pero si trova sempre in sua compagnia." (Scaramelli. Dottrina di S. G. della

sarebbe possibile trattare

Croce.

Tratt.

iii.

Art.

habitual union, i Cor. ^ Cf. St Augustine, viderer esse

and

2)

vi.

10

Conf

quod viderem,

et

;

cf.

Gal.

ii.

St

x.

reference

to

20.

"Tu nondum me

vii.

Paul's

con

assumpsisti me, ut esse qui viderem."

6

MYSTICISM

98 It is

only In regard to this highest mystical

state of

intellectual

vision that the

difficulty

we have been

Intellectual considering arises. or states of consciousness, and

impressions images or figures of any kind are not strictly manifestations of the divine essence they ;

are indeed supernatural manifestations of the

presence of God, and as such differ in kind from the impressions or ideas produced subjectively by natural means/ but they are not the

"

face to face

"

visions.

We shall

consider

next chapter the psychological problem involved in supernatural manifestations of this in the

kind

at present

;

we

are only concerned with

the actual content of the objects of mystical perception.

Thirdly, distinct

the

place

''lumen gloriae'' has a very in

the

experience

of mystics.

St Augustine speaks of the ''changeless light" seen only by the eye of the soul, and different in kind, 1

Cf.

St

not merely in degree, from that which "The fitting disJohn of the Cross, Asc. 5. ii.

union

is, not that the soul should understand, taste, feel or imagine anything on the subject of the nature of God, or any other thing whatever, but only that pureness and love which is perfect resignation, and complete detachment

position for that

from

all

things for

God

alone."

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE men

all

Cross,

see.^

it

According

to

St John of the

(Hke natural light) not

is

99

itself

the

which object of vision, but the means through divine things are seen, and is the supernatural consequence of the

regard to

in

all

"

darkness

"

of faith

St

merely natural objects.

Teresa says that it ''hardly shines at all " but in the later ones it the first mansions

in is

;

a light ''so unearthly that

if

during his whole

any one had been trying to picture this and the wonders seen, he could not have

lifetime

succeeded"; and

in

the "spiritual marriage"

the revelation of the Blessed Trinity

is

"pre-

ceded by an illumination which shines on the cloud of light." spirit like a most dazzling

Ruysbroeck but

is

"this

says

light

not

is

God,

a mediator between the seeing thought

and God.

It is

a light-ray from

God

—

in

it

God shows Himself ing to the

mode

simplicity of

immediately, not accordof His persons, but in the

His nature and essence." a

(The

common

contrast

between

principle

and the variety of individual experi-

^

"

Non banc vulgarem

eodem genere grandior

the

et

of

unity

conspicuam omni

erat, etc."

(i.

c.)

carni,

nee quasi

MYSTICISM

loo

ence

is

here remarkably significant.)

Julian

of Norwich speaks of the ''gracious light of Himself," by which God wills that we should

have understanding. St Augustine^ distinguishes three kinds of vision corporal, "spiritual," which is here the

—

same first

as ''imaginary,"

and

intellectual.

Of

the

kind was the vision of Balthasar in the

Book

of Daniel

;

the second

exemplified in

is

the vision of St Peter at Joppa

;

the third kind

was experienced by St Paul in his vision of the But Balthasar was certainly "third heaven." not a mystic, and the revelation to St Peter, though of a higher kind, was of the nature of

—

a grace gratis data it was not for St Peter's benefit, but for those to whom he was to be sent.

Such visions therefore are not

essentially

though certainly supernatural, and though manifestations of both kinds (especially mystical,

the second) frequently periences.

Julian

accompany mystical exof Norwich says that her

visions were of

all

intellectual she

can say only "the number of

the words passed ^

three kinds

my

:

of the purely

understanding, and

De Gen ad Hit.

^

xii, vii. seq.

all

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE

my

might

my

to

passeth

that heart can think, or soul desire." classification is the generally

This threefold

one

accepted

is

comprehended what, but the joy that I saw

tell

all

the highest, as

in

For therein

sight.

cannot

I

they were

for

;

loi

among

writers.

mystical

It

enough the whole range These are, of the objects of mystical vision. first, as we have seen, the actual consciousrepresents

ness of

clearly

God

virtue of a formal union of

in

the intellect with

Him, which

the highest

is

and perfect form of contemplation the

stimulation

of the

intellect

natural manner, in such a

way

;

in

secondly, a

super-

as to produce

the direct consciousness of the divine presence

—whether

by means of an imaginary

some

or sound of

of

a

direct

figure

or by the production

sort,

intellectual

impression

without

any medium whatever, either in the senses and thirdly, by the or in the imagination ^

;

"

Dieu a deux fagons mani^re des creatures, possibles de se faire connaitre, Tune a la Tautre sans une creee, esp^ce il peut en jouer le role. esp^ce par ^

Cf. Poulain,

Des Grdces d^Oniison.

;

Or, disent les theologiens, ce dernier mode constitue la vision intuitive, celle du ciel ; Tautre est le propre de la contemplation

must be understood that

this "species," or be not anything visual, auditory, or otherwise impression, need sensible it cannot be anything merely natural.)

mystique."

;

(It

MYSTICISM

102

but

supernatural sensible

of

manifestation

real

image of some kind

—such

as

a

was

Abraham which he "saw

seen not only by Balthasar but by

when

the

theophany in three and adored one," the Blessed Trinity was mystically exhibited to him under sensible quasi

in

-

human

forms.

It

is

John of the Cross points out the

that certainty as to

obvious,

as

St

at great length,

divine

character of

experiences varies inversely with the degree of sensibility or quasi-sensibility which these

them.

to

Sensible

and

imaginary impressions can arise from several kinds of

belongs

natural causes

and

;

it

is

consequently seldom,

say that they are certainly The direct supernatural or divine in origin. impression of the divine presence conveys, if

ever,

safe to

Teresa

St

says,

as

its

chief

characteristic

an irrefragable feeling of certitude and the highest state of union is no more to be mis;

understood or evaded than the self-consciousness

which

guarantee

is

of

the all

underlying condition and

human

experience,

natural

as well as supernatural. Lastly,

it

must be noticed that however

THE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE

103

what may be called the lower kind

closely

experience may approach the ordinary experience of the senses in character, it must always be considered as entirely dis-

of

mystical

from naturally caused sensations or ideas. " from ''knowledo^e of invisible thino^s

tinct

The

and created things

visible

legitimately obtained

Nor

the .moral

is

God,

"union

or

;

but

union of

the

exist

certainly place,

but the

before

of

is

not mystical.

the

with

heart of

which

same thing The former must

at all

the

the

latter

union.

mystical

it

true knowledge,

conformity"

spiritual writers speak,

as

is

two are not

can

take

identical in

any

way. Knowledge obtained through philosophy, natural

historical

science,

research

or

social

may and should deepen and may even be the means

or practical experience

and strengthen, of creating an apprehension of God's reality and presence in the world and beyond it ;

proportion as men conform their actions and affections to the divine model and law, their

and

in

devotion

happiness

to in

the it

service

of

God and

doubtless increase.

knowledge and devotion

and

their

But such

affection

are

MYSTICISM

I04

natural in themselves,

though brought about

by the supernatural influence of grace are not of the same kind (however

:

they

may be

knowledge

in

and

they

high

degree) as the supernatural

consequent

are properly called mystical.

affection

No

which

service can

be done to either by confusing them together.

CHAPTER V THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM

Next

in

order after the object of mystical

we have

contemplation

consider the

to

mode

which that contemplation takes place. We have seen that the presence of God may be in

made known three

ways

lectual

to the mystical consciousness in

— by

formal union,

impression,

or

by an

intel-

with or with-

species,

out an

imaginative representation or figure, and thirdly, by means of a representation of

The

a sensible kind. is

object of contemplation

unquestionably supernatural

sort

is

the

process,

by

physiological,

ceived?

Is

faculties

of

way

it

also

;

whether

which

the

but of what intellectual

object

— supernatural

mind or body

act in

or by any other principle 105

i.e.,

is

or

per-

do the

any other

than

that in

MYSTICISM

io6

which or by which they are accustomed

to

act?

The

subject

is

somewhat

a

necessarily

obscure one, comparatively little being certainly known as to the nature of the mind's action,

and of

some

its

relation to that of the senses.

quite

But

overwhelming evidence, such as

does not seem to be either forthcoming or even conceivable, would be necessary to prove that

the

either

mind

the

or

body or both

together can, under any circumstances in this world, act otherwise than according to the

accustomed methods and their

at

general plan

We

ascertained.

principles,

least

which

in

are well enough

have already seen strong

reason for considering the supernatural element of mysticism to consist mainly in its object

;

that element

ject being

the perceiving sub-

in

no more than the illumination and

assistance of the natural grace,

and not

their supersession

power or

faculty,

otherwise

unknown

possessed

by

by divine

faculties

by any new

or by the addition of any function to those already

them.

As

in

operation of divine grace so in

the its

ordinary

exceptional

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM the

operation,

natural

and guided

assisted

faculties

107

indeed

are

but they continue to act

;

according to the laws which they follow in the absence of any supernatural aid. The

both physical and intellectual, of a person under the influence of grace do not differ in kind from those of one who is out-

actions,

side that influence,

and are open

same kind of

investigation.

the

not a sixth

is

example,

intellectual faculty

;

it

the intellect and will

sense,

to precisely

Faith,

or an

for

extra

merely the action of directed towards a paris

and dealing with a particular of evidences, and is in itself no more

ticular subject,

set

mysterious than other modes of voluntary and intellectual activity. On Christian principles, indeed, faith assistance virtue

;

is

by

held to be due to supernatural

means

of

a

divinely

but the modtis operandi

is

infused

obviously

by no means changed by that infusion the force of motiva credibilitatis and the weight ;

of divine authority are estimated by faith in

the in

same way

as similar evidence

is

estimated

purely secular matters.

The

supernatural character of mysticism

is,

MYSTICISM

io8

therefore, at least

no bar

to the investigation

a purely natural sense of the mental pro-

in

cesses

may

it

involve.

M. Delacroix, or

of

Such enquiries

as that

W.

James,

of Professor

whatever may be thought of their conclusions, are in no way excluded or discountenanced by acceptance of the supernatural explanation. Dionysius, and later mystical writers, have not

troubled

logical theory

themselves in

with

any

psycho-

explanation of their experi-

they were, indeed, hardly in a position All that they were concerned with to do so. ences

was

;

to

relate

facts

though, naturally, they tended to relate them with so much attention ;

sequence and classification as to produce what is in effect a kind of theory, or systeme to

psychologique privilegid.

though

in

some cases

(of

But their accounts, which St Teresa and

St John of the Cross are the chief examples)

they are perfectly systematic so far as they go,^ do not address themselves to any consideration 1

Mr

of

the

mode,

whether

partially

Inge remarks the general tendency among mystical

1 1 writers of the supernatural kind to schematism. may perhaps be explained as a natural attempt to minimise the insuperable difficulty of describing such experiences as theirs.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM natural or wholly supernatural,

in

supernatural effects are produced.

109

which the

So

far as

they are concerned, the divine 7nodus operandi may be considered an open question.

Three

different views

have been held on

this

point. I.

It

has been

supposed that man

dowed with some kind of which he existing,

and

in

en-

faculty

by

know God

as

special

enabled both to

is

is

the higher stages of spirituality

to enter into direct personal relation with

Him.

This faculty has often been supposed to be a distinct element in human nature. The vovq or spiritual part, which for

with

intercourse

from the

'i^vxn

is

designed exclusively

the

is

divine,

or intellect, which

—

is

distinct

concerned

with created things both being distinct again from the animal nature in mankind.-^ This view, sometimes

called

trichotomy, has been

condemned by the Church

as put forward by

the Apollinarian heretics, and again in recent times as held by Gunther it was held in ;

a professedly modified form by Occam, with1

The Pauline

division into body, soul and spirit (i Thess. to refer to the twofold function of the

V.) must be understood rational soul, not to two

distinct substances.

MYSTICISM

no

out explicit and authoritative

much

though with

supposed faculty

is

held to be an

but distinguishable from

and

its

endowment

co-ordinate

soul,

the

Again,

opposition.

power of the one

or

condemnation,

with

faculties of reason

will.

In both forms, however, this theory seems to

be gratuitous; since on the one hand no powers are attributed to the supposed special faculty

which are not

in

one way or another exercised under ordinary circumstances

by the intellect and on the other hand, there can be no reason

;

supposing that

for

desires,

to

is

communicate

through his natural to

God

create a special

unable, directly

intellect,

He

if

with

so

man

without having

faculty for

the

reception

of divine communications. 2.

Directly opposed to this view

is

another,

which holds the supposed mystical communications to have no external source, but to be wholly subjective experiences, due to the automatic working of the subconscious or "subliminal" '

\V. James,

Mysticisme.

self.^

Much

apparently uncon-

Varieties of Religious Experience Cf. Vaughan, Hours tvith the Mystics^

;

Delacroix, i.

158.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM evidence

show

that

the

ness

and that from time

of

field

adduced

been

has

trovertible

in to

experience extends far beyond that of actual conscious;

matic the

transference

other.

conscious

psychical

takes

to

time an auto-

from one to

place

Ideas

appear to arise in the without giving any intelligence

indication of their origin, in sense or reason

;

they are evidently not consciously made by the intelligence, nor are they attributable to

any external source which can be recognised

Thus they by means of sense - perception. have all the appearance of purely spiritual communications proceeding from an external and transcendental region. The theory we are

now

considering that

principle

e^itia

pr(2ter necessitatem,

investing

these

holds

non

we

that,

sunt are

the

mtcltiplicanda

not

in

justified

with

experiences

on

any

tran-

thought to be the case, they can be sufficiently accounted for by other means.

scendental character,

The

question

is,

if,

as

is

therefore,

whether

the

theory of automatism does really provide sufficient explanation of the facts.

a

MYSTICISM

112 It

of

seems hardly possible

the

deny that most

to

features

characteristic

of

the

states

recorded by Catholic mystical writers as experienced by themselves, have been at various times

who

the

experience of others are neither Catholics nor mystics. The

produced

in

essential features of passivity, of

and of manifest

cableness, in

incommuni-

reality are evident

of the cases cited by James,

many

some

of which are the result of alcoholic stimulation,

others of the influence of anaesthetics, and others

again of pathological states

;

while

some are

Moreover, numbers apparently spontaneous.^ of heretical and even immoral systems of theosophy have depended for their authority on experiences which seem to exhibit characteristically mystical qualities, but which religion or

from the point of view of Catholic orthodoxy, be held to be genuine, and either cannot,

must be must This

made

considered

be

attributed

latter

purely to

diabolical

or

else

influence.

was the opinion of Gorres, who

out a complete

mysticism parallel ^

natural,

James,

in

op. cit.^

system

some

of

diabolical

sort with the divine.

Lectures XVI. and XVII.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM But it

the case

in

may probably be

113

mystics— and

of Catholic

admitted, in other cases

exhibiting nearly similar features

— there

is

no

question of any such stimulus as that given by alcohol or drugs. Nor can their state be

properly called pathological, unless in the very

wide and somewhat

fanciful

sense

which

in

the so-called inspirations of genius have been

supposed to be so. Abnormal it certainly is and there is no direct evidence to show that ;

this

abnormal

state

is

as

not,

the cases quoted by James, the

some

in

of

spontaneous

some obscure and possibly congenital abnormality of nervous constitution.^ At the result of

same

time

it

must

be

already been pointed out,

noted the

has

as

that,

mystics

great

show no signs of such abnormality, but on the contrary, rather remarkable mental and physical sanity in the affairs

of

life.

Such mystics

as St

for

are,

their

ordinary

Bernard,

St Catherine of Siena, St Teresa and St John of the Cross seem to be distinguished from the ordinary run of people in busines matters,

only by their superior acumen. 1

If

See Benedict XIV., Heroic Sanctity^ and see ch.

indeed i.

it

pp. 35, 36.

H

MYSTICISM

114

be assumed that no personal God exists or that God cannot communicate directly with

is

to

;

the soul

or that

;

man

has no soul which can

receive such communications

automatism may

able, of

no doubt,

certainly unverifi-

at present

the hypothesis,

—then,

fairly

be held to be

the most probable explanation of the problem.

no such presupposition

But

if

and

still

more

if

it

is

held,

is

entertained

;

on independent

grounds, that a God exists who is able, if He so chooses, to influence the soul of man

and immediately, there seems

directly

no reason

to

be

deny that those cases of transcendental illumination, for which no physical to

may, with a degree

cause can be assigned,

of probability which approaches certainty, be For here the attributed to divine agency.

question

ceases

to

be

a

matter merely of the moral proba-

psychological investigation bility of deception has also to be considered :

—that

is

to

say,

the

probability

that

God

would permit those who must be considered most deserving of His consideration to be the

victims

of a delusion

the reality simulated by

it

as

humiliating as

would be ennobling.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM we

If

115

start with the Christian presupposition

God

of the nature of

impossible to believe

is

it

the conviction universally entertained by the mystics of their immediate intercourse with

God

be ill-founded

to

automatism

of

theory

seems

least a highly probable

quasi

-

states

mystical

same time the

at the

:

to

furnish

explanation of

which

to

this

at

many moral

argument does not appear to be applicable. Those, on the other hand, who start with a contrary

with

or

presupposition,

none,

are

obviously free to apply the theory impartially to all cases alike.

The

3.

third

view

a

is

conciliation

the subjective and objective theories,

first

of

put

forward definitely by Maine de Biran,^ and In this adopted in a general way by Gorres. ^

il

Vie de

est

V Esprit

difficile

de

sub fin.

:

Cf. Delacroix, p. 406.

meconnaitre

phenomenes de subconscience,

"Comme

psychologique des presentent dans le ou bien sans d'autres

I'identite qu'ils

se

Christianisme ou dans d'autres religions formes que la forme religieuse, beaucoup d'esprits desireux de concilier le fait et la doctrine tendent ^ faire droit aux exigences de la psychologie, en expliquant psychologiquement la passivite ;

religieuse, et k celles

de

lois

ames

;

de

en maintenant que ce jeu psychologiques represente le plan d'action divine sur les de sorte que le subconscient serait le vehicule de la grace

divine."

la theologie,

MYSTICISM

ii6

view the experience of the mystic is real, and consists, as he rightly believes, in immediate

and communication with the divine

intuition of

But the manner

being.

which the soul

in

becomes conscious of the supernatural experience is natural, and from a certain point is the

same

as that in which

it

becomes conscious

of the impressions automatically derived from " That is to say, the " transmarginal sphere.

the soul undergoes a certain unconscious modi-

one case by means of a sense-

fication^ (in the

purely spiritual

means

of

a

communication), of which

it

the

in

impression,

other

by

subsequently becomes conscious by the very obscure process to which the title of automatism

has been given

in

order to express

may

in

be,

essentially

The way, whatever

non-volitional character. it

its

which we become conscious of

ideas derived from unnoticed sense-impressions

which the mystic becomes conscious of the immediate divine

may be

identical with that in

He

presence.

it

is

no account of the

suddenly he knows there and he can say no more. In

coming of that

can give

this

^

Cf.

presence

;

Maher, Psychology^

p. 357.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM

117

same way the mind becomes suddenly

the

conscious of the solution of a of an artistic effect and the

difficult

problem,

manner of

its

pro-

duction, or of an overmastering moral impulse,

without being able to explain or account for There is certainly a strong apparent its origin. similarity

between the flashes of inspiration

which are held

to constitute or indicate genius

and the mystical intuition of an objective divine presence and of communications proceeding from a divine person

and the view which

;

regards the rise of the ideas into consciousness as identical in method in every case seems to

have much

in

its

of any genuine (as

the

difficulty,

stantial

so

reality

from imaginary) the one case as com-

fundamental

sense-impressions in

no

importance of the other need present

long as

of the

physiological

conditions.

It is

state

less

produced,

consciously,

by

not more

so —

we admit

soul,

identifying

even appear

The absence

distinct

sensible impressions in

pared with

favour.

and

with

the sub-

refrain

from

psychological

difficult

—and

it

may

to conceive of a psychical

whether

consciously

or

un-

direct spiritual agency, than to

MYSTICISM

ii8

conceive of a psychical

state

resulting

In the view

a sense-impression.

now

from before

the only difference between the two classes

us,

of experience

the

in

originated

that a true mystical state

is

sphere

psychical

mystical or merely natural

sense

in

origin

natural

-

psychical

machinery

by

states

which

;

a

but

pseudo-

;

have their

states

impression,

is

like

all

the

merely

psychical

conscious

state

produced we may consider to be the same

is

in

both cases.

may

It

be

added

that

distinction

this

coincides practically with that which has been

made by

constantly

ecclesiastical

authority

dealing with the various types of apparently abnormal spiritual experience on which it has in

had

to

pronounce an opinion from time to

The

time.^

probability,

possibility,

of

or rather

deception

of

the

one

strong kind or

another has always been kept prominently in view and it is only after much hesitation that ;

any such case has been pronounced genuine. Each has been, as a rul^, the subject of prolonged investigation and consideration ^

See Benedict XIV.,

De

Canon, passim.

;

cases

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM

119

eventually found to be spurious have had their

orthodox defenders, and genuine ones their St Catherine equally orthodox antagonists. of Siena, St

John of the Cross, St Teresa, B. Margaret Mary Alacoque, and a host of others have had to undergo a more or less prolonged period of doubt, suspicion and even before

reprobation,

accepted as genuine neither Molinos nor

patronage ever,

for

in

their

and on the other hand,

;

Madame Guyon

high places.

practical

were

experiences

lacked

enough, how(and no other

It is

purposes

purpose can here be entertained) to distinguish genuine experiences from delusions. It is of

importance to know the nature of the is admitted might be delusion, which it

little

either natural or directly diabolical in origin.

Psychological considerations need not enter into the investigation until very recently, ;

indeed,

should

it

;

was

but

the

fact

that

they of self-deception has

scarcely

possible

always been familiar enough, however may have been known about its nature.

Abnormal

little

may, therefore, be either genuine or cases of delusion, whether experiences

MYSTICISM

120

natural or

supernatural,

and the theory

last

mentioned supplies a rational basis for this classification to which it seems difficult to

At the same

take exception.

time,

it

must

be remembered that the criterion which has mainly been made use of by Ecclesiastical

and probably will always be, the ** external or pragmatic" one of orthodoxy and authority

is,

But mysticism which is orthodox and moral need not necessarily be genuine, though that which is heretical and immoral morality.

must necessarily be spurious

number of

cases

of

the

;

and

in the large

former

no

kind

pronouncement has been made or appears to be possible. But in such cases there is little practical need for authority a authoritative

;

doubtfully genuine mystic

may

be accepted or

by individual opinion, and so long faith and morals are beyond question,

rejected

as his

neither acceptance nor rejection can do

harm.

It

difficulty

any

be suggested that the of a decision may be considerably

may

also

increased by the occurrence of abnormal states of different kinds in the experience of the same individual.

The passage from

real

mystical

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM

121

experiences to spurious ones seems to be far from an improbable occurrence and the con-

—

verse process, though doubtless less probable,

can hardly be considered impossible, though nothing could well be more difficult than to

But the opinion expressed of the Methodists by William Law is trace such a transition.

applicable to a large class of mystical pretensions

— "I

think

that

they have the

Spirit

of God, but they have greatly mingled their own spirit with it." ^ ^

The probable

function of the "subliminal" consciousness

and the nature of the union involved in the lume7t gloirae are well though briefly described by Dr Chandler (Anglican Bishop of Bloemfontein) though it is, of course, incorrect to speak, as he does, of the " spark of the divine nature which is present in us from the beginning, and which makes us spiritual creatures with an organ of spiritual intuition" Ara Cceli^ pp. 11 5- 119. ;

—

CHAPTER

VI

EVIL

The

be a very distressing one, of the cause and inner nature of

and of

evil

of

often

question,

things,

to

felt

place in the universal scheme

its

has

a

special

principle of mysticism.

affinity

the special divine

say about the condition

with

the

way

of this

who

are admitted

intimacy which

privilege of mystics should

the

would seem only

It

natural to suppose that those to

with

is

the

have something to

which the unsatisfactory world is to be reconciled in

existence

of

an

omnipotent

and

benevolent Creator, of whose nature they have a deeper knowledge than others, and of whose relation to a suffering creation they fore be expected to

have a

fuller

sion than the rest of mankind. 122

may

there-

comprehen-

EVIL

123

This expectation is one that is often considered to be unfulfilled though mystical writers do as a rule deal more or less fully ;

with the subject, their account

often thought

is

and even unmeaning. They whether considered as are agreed that evil to be inadequate,

—

or as the suffering consequent

sin

has no substantive existence tion

no

and no more.

of good

Summum Malum,

this reason.

and what

is

As

to

evil

place and

its

it

is

the nega-

There can be

Thomas

St

how

;

upon it-

declares, for

comes

into being,

meaning

in

a uni-

must be considered wholly good, They know they are by no means explicit. verse

that

— but

they cannot explain

that evil has no reality

:

that

it

how they know

—

permanence and no substantial neither mars the perfect good-

ness and omnipotence the peace of those

who

—that

in the

well.^

This no doubt

end

of God,

all will is

nor troubles

are united with

somehow be

Him

perfectly

quite satisfactory to

Blessed Angela of Foligno. " I felt myself in such fulness of charity, and I understood with such joy in that power ^

Cf.

and

will

and

God, that I understood not only those had asked, but I was satisfied as to the every creature, and about the devil and the

justice of

things about which salvation offered to

I

MYSTICISM

124

the

who

mystic

assurance

but

;

the

receives is

it

supernatural

hardly applicable by

way

of argument or explanation to the perplexities

of others in this matter.

Nevertheless,

it

is

possible

quite

con-

to

struct a theodicy, or vindication of the divine justice, lies

at

Indeed

upon the basis of the principle which the is

it

other way. is

root

of

supernatural

mysticism.

scarcely possible to do so in

That

principle, as

we have

any

seen,

the absoluteness, or the infinite perfection

and independence, of the divine nature. damned and

all

things.

But

all this

I

cannot explain

(In Catholic Mysticism^ by A. Thorold.) Cf. also Julian of Norwich, ch. xxxii.

in

All words."

"

One point of our many creatures shall be damned as the angels which be now fiends, and many in earth that died out of the faith of Holy Church, and also many that hath received Faith

is,

that

Christendom, and liveth unchristian lives, and so die out of All these shall be damned to Hell without end, as charity. Church teacheth me to believe and standing all this, Holy ;

methought it was impossible that all manner of thing should be well, as our Lord shewed in this time. And as to this, I had no other answer but this: 'That, that is impossible to I shall save my word in all thee, is not impossible to me and I make shall all things things well for this is the great in which deed He shall deed that our Lord God shall do save His word in all things, and He shall make well all that is not well. But what the deed shall be and how it shall be is there no creature beneath Christ that knoweth it, nor done, " shall know it till it be done.' ;

—

;

EVIL

Himself.

Himself— His own

in

is

creating

He

Himself on nothing Consequently, His motive in

depends on God, but but

125

**

glory" or

"pleasure"; and this is the only absolutely good motive which can be conceived for any action on the part of either the Creator or the

But

creature.

of

creation justice

God

if

world

this

by the His power and

glorified if

;

manifested

are

"

''

is

in

reward of the

the

good and the punishment of the wicked certainly

the

motive

fulfilled.

is

of

act

creation

Evil

mercy

alike

whose

means of

the

is

it

then

good,

its

work of the

the

is

creature, not of the Creator,

is

;

justice

and

exhibiting.

Further, the goodness of the act of creation is

not vitiated by the fact that

it

involves the

self-caused misery, temporal or eternal, of the

human to

race.

At

be a grave

first

sight this does appear

difficulty,

in

the

way

of re-

conciling omnipotence with perfect goodness for,

in

it

is

asked,

which no

evil

God

if

could create a world

could exist, or could even

abstain from creating this one,

not do so

?

Or

;

if

He

why

did

He

could not do either,

how can He be omnipotent

?

But

evil is the

MYSTICISM

126

work of created

God had

fore,

free-will, not of

God

:

there-

if,

abstained from the creation of

world (or what is the same thing, had made it different) because of man's actions this

foreseen either as possible or as certain, then

God would

have acted as God, but in of His very nature. There

not

contravention

would have

been a corner

universe from which

He

of

the

possible

would have been ex-

good act which He might not do would have been limited by and dependent

cluded, a

He

on the

:

free actions of

But such an idea

God

is

His possible

absolutely inconceivable

or

dependent and subject

supreme creatures

;

and

if

He

and to

independent, or the will of His

could act in subordina-

tion to anything external to Himself,

longer exist

to

— He

To remove

Himself. is

:

cannot at the same time be perfect and

limited,

no

creatures.

the centre of a

ence of

circle,

circle

and

if

not the centre of the circle of the

universe, neither

Thus

would

would have destroyed

destroy both centre and

God were

He

He

nor

it

could exist.

the difficulty of reconciling the existevil

with the omnipotence and good-

EVIL

127

of a divine creator disappears as

ness

as the essential nature of

of

respect

Hence

God

is

soon

realised in

independence and supremacy.

its

also appears the negative character of

which

recognised by all systems of thought that admit a supreme being by the Stoic Cleanthes and the Neoplatonist Plotinus evil,

no

is

—

less

than by St Augustine and St Thomas. the absence of certain possible or

Evil

is

ideal

elements

in

certain

of

parts

creation,

not the existence in them of something hostile or extraneous. Sin is the perversion of the free-will,

not

its

inhibition

pain

;

is

the

dis-

order of the organism or the faculties, not a fresh element in their constitution suffer;

whether mental or bodily,

ing,

is

a

mode

of

natural self-consciousness, not consciousness of

a different kind from that which pleasure.

(not

the

Moreover,

if

evil

"metaphysical")

be identical with sin and as

it

in

sense

experiences the is

ordinary held to

—

its

consequences must be on Christian principles then

—

and suffering are two mutually counterbalancing factors in the harmonious inter-

sin

action

of

all

the

elements of the universe

;

MYSTICISM

128 evil

is

an accident of that which

good scheme of cally

traction

provided for

is

it

;

is

in the universal

things, as the expansion

of the

main-spring in the mechanism of a watch larity of detail

specifi-

is

—

and con-

provided for

an irregu-

it is

which subserves the regularity

of the whole.

The

only

alternatives

to

view

this

are

an impossible Manichean dualism, or some form of philosophical pessimism, such as either

the original underlying principle of Buddhism, or

those which

are

adopted respectively by Schopenhauer and Hartmann, or such as is really latent,

though not acknowledged,

"substance" of Spinozism absolute of Bradley.

The

or

the

in the

idealistic

subordinate dualism

of Christianity relieves the Creator of what

may be

called

responsibility

for

evil,

while

fundamental monism provides a place for evil in the scheme of things no less secure its

than

that

which

it

finds

in

the

supposed

universal substance or the absolute.

As

a philosophical statement of the Christian

view of to

evil

any one.

can hardly be unacceptable But it must be admitted that

this

EVIL it

fails

to

go

129

even

to the root of the matter,

when combined,

as

doctrines of the

Incarnation and the Atone-

ment

it

should

be,

with

the

as constituting a manifestation of divine

mercy superimposed upon that of the divine justice which appears in the natural universe.

No

account of evil can

merely speculative

be entirely satisfactory, even apart from the necessary incompleteness of any speculation on so purely transcendental a subject, so long as evil

is

not merely known, but

gives this problem the fact that evil

experience

who

;

it

suffer to

disturb the

is

felt.

What

poignancy is is primarily a matter of but cold comfort for those its

know

harmony

peculiar

that

their pains

do not

of the universe or dis-

** There prove the goodness of its Creator. never yet was a philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently," and it seems improb-

able that any rational explanation of the origin and nature of evil, however unexceptionable

on philosophical or theological grounds, will ever subdue the human instinct of rebellion against the prevailing law of suffering.

But mysticism stands on a

different plane

MYSTICISM

I30

from that of philosophy or speculative theit is an ology experience as direct and as ;

even the most entirely corporal forms of suffering, and it is consequently able to real as

provide a real counterpoise to all pains of mind or body far different from the some-

what empty consolations of philosophy, or even from those of the deepest human

sympathy theless

which

with

;

something

in

indeed, in genuine

latter

common.

has never-

it

It is

probably,

human sympathy

only real consolation

— inadequate

that the

enough

—

unavoidable suffering is to be found by it does not indeed diminish natural means for

;

or shorten the pain,

but a kind of set-off

is

provided by the regard and affection which the sympathy implies. There is no consolation,

but

the reverse, in

rather

an enemy's

but the joy of friendship manifested in sympathy is felt to be a distinct gain due

sympathy

;

which has given

to the suffering

In

it

occasion.

somewhat the same way, though higher God is a

the

infinitely

degree,

with

consolation

consider to

be

joy

which

in

an

union

of

mystics

cheaply bought at the price

EVIL of

any

131

and

Argument

pain.

explanation

become, as compared with such delights as the mystic knows, of very minor importance ;

God

the "familiar friendship" of

argument,

more

is

a practical

than any other

persuasive

could possibly be, for His absolute goodness

and

power, no matter what

infinite

may be found

in the

way

difficulties

of reconciling

with earthly appearances

within the

them

narrow

range of human thought and knowledge. This eminently practical solution of the

problem of evil is implicitly contained in what has been called the mystical paradox." '*

Mystics constantly assert that better to be united to God in

Him

be separated from ^

the

E.g.^ St

mind

in

would be

it

hell,

than to

heaven.^

Either

Teresa "A soul is suffering sorrow and disquiet, darkened and dry, but is set at peace, freed from :

is

and

with

merely by hearing the words, Be not troubled.' These deliver it from all pain, although before, if the whole world and all its learned men had united to persuade it there was no cause for grief, it could not, in spite of their efforts, have got rid of its sadness." (Castle, vi. 3.) "Souls care nothing for that have reached the state I speak of all

trouble

filled

light,

'

.

their

own

I

.

if

purgatory, it is more presence of God than because of B.

.

; they are anxious not to stay long in on account of its keeping them from the

pain or glory

of Foligno

Angela was damned,

I

{Joe.

its

cit.)

torments." "

:

If

I

knew

{lb. vi. 7.)

for certain that

could not possibly grieve nor labour

less,

nor

MYSTICISM

132

of course,

is,

the paradox

actually simply is

inconceivable

;

merely a strong assertion of

the absolute dependence of the creature

upon

and the entire con-

the will of the Creator,

tentment which a soul that has once realised that

dependence must

feel

divinely ordained place in

ever

may

it

The

point of view

envisaged from God, not from the

A

self.

occupying its the universe, what-

be.

faint

shifted

is

true

its

is

of

in

false

:

the universe

centre,

which

is

and imaginary centre

likeness to this conception

** perceived in the contemplation of " extolled by Schopenthe kernel of things

may be

hauer

;

in

Hartmann's doctrine that the **ends

of the unconscious

and

in

by the

the notion ''

"

made our own, advocated by Comte and should be

ethical religions

"

of the present day,

be less zealous in prayer for the honour of God, so perfectly did I understand His justice." " Lord, I am Thine, I should be Thine as gladly Ruysbroeck in Hell as in Heaven, if in that way I could advance Thy glory." :

— Adornvieftt of the Spiritual Marriage.

" Margaret Mary Alacoque Je ne sais si je me trompe, mais il me semble que je voudrais aimer mon amour crucifie d'un amour aussi ardent que celui des Seraphins, mais je ne serais pas fichde que ce fut dans I'enfer que je I'aimasse de la

B.

sorte."

:

— Vie par ses Contemporaines.

EVIL that

life

to

is

133

.

be viewed and transacted from

the standpoint of humanity,

The

of posterity.

or

idea, thus stripped of its personal aspect,

becomes

in the mystical

and

unreal

utterly

ineffective

consciousness

;

but

furnishes the

it

only antidote ever yet discovered (and that, it would seem, a complete one) to the bitter sense of wrong and injustice which the evils of life are apt to engender. To regard the world and oneself from the point of view of

human

the whole

race,

so as to act altruisti-

cally for the benefit of others,

or to

expend

devotion on the idea of duty is one thing to be so united with God that the thought

;

of self

One

is

lost

an

and forgotten

is

quite another.

regard to bloodthe less abstractions which have no vitality is

artificial

pose

in

;

otk^ and

is

the

actual

grasp of the very root

vital principle of things.

Thus living

the

mystic translates into real and

experience

the

theoretical

principle

adduced by Christian philosophy as the explanation of the existence and nature of evil, and furnishes what for practical purposes

be called an experimental test of

may

its

fairly

validity.

MYSTICISM

134

On

the

towards

other evil

the

hand,

attitude

mystical

strongly corroborated

is

by

its

exact and obviously unpremeditated agreement with the only metaphysical theory which provides anything like an adequate account of the origin and nature of evil.

may be noted

It

tions of mysticism

means the

first

practical life,

real,

The

matter are by no In

the blind trust in the divine

place,

is

probably for

many

the only

resource in the pains and anxieties

loses altogether

ance of

on

this

in

to be confined strictly to mystics.

goodness, which

of

that the consola-

finally,

its

prima facie appearunreasonableness when it is founded even

logical

vicarious

though

position

of

the

experience.

Christian

who

believes in the goodness and omnipotence of

God,

in spite of

appearances to the contrary, merely because he would otherwise be unable to

believe

much

to

in

God

be desired.

at

all,

But

certainly if

it

is

leaves

reinforced

by the consideration that those who know Him best have found, by direct experience which cannot be gainsaid, that He is both omnipotent and good, the position is really

EVIL no

less reasonable

135

than that of those

who

are

convinced of the insularity of Great Britain without having personally circumnavigated it. Secondly, the mystical attitude towards the problem is quite consistent with the absence in

any particular individual of mystical experience There are doubtless inproperly so called. numerable Christians whose conviction of the

power and goodness of God

is

not less

in

degree than that of the mystic, though their conviction is founded on theoretical rather than

The

directly experimental grounds.

of

certainty

supported as it nearly always is by a strong sense of the care and protection of faith,

divine Providence, and by the experience of

favours granted in answer to prayer,

—

is

in

no

strong in some respects it is even stronger, than that which is based directly on

way

less

mystical knowledge.

But even

in this case the mystical

of others, whether recorded in or in

the

lives

experience

Holy Scripture

of the Saints,

or

by living

contemporaries, provides an aid to faith, or "motive of credibility" which cannot rightly

be overlooked,

CHAPTER

VII

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

The

supernatural character of mysticism de-

pends upon the double aspect in which God's In presence in creation may be considered.

one point of view God is everywhere present in creation, and thus may be approached by all

men, even while they are confined physically

to the material sphere of the senses. is

There

between God and His creatures no

interval,

and

no

intelligible

local

intermediation

such as the Gnostics conceived to

exist.

The

not revolving apart from God, fornor is it brought into gotten and neglected relation with Him only through a hierarchy

world

is

;

chain of

subordinate spiritual existences or emanations. God is rightly, in this sense, or

said to be

"

immanent

"

in

the world as the

constant efficient cause from which everything 136

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE in

moment

every

being

as the

;

and as the

of

derives

existence ruler

supreme

of

137

that

all

intelligent designer of all

its is

;

forms

of being, together with all their permutations He is everywhere per and combinations.

On

essentiam pi^esentiam et potentiam}

God

the

by nature absolutely distinct and separate from all created existence, not merely in the way in which one other

hand,

created being

is

differ in

may

kind from another,

by the unique nature of His being, which is absolute and self - dependent, and but

thus altogether incommensurable with created

which are necessarily dependent and

things,

derived.

Though

similitude of

all

God by

is

communicated

all

absolutely unlike

creatures

are

in

the

virtue of the being which

them by Him, they are

to

Him

in

His independence;

no imaginable greatness or perfection in any creature can give it any sort of resemblance to

this

essential

of

the

divine

only 1

nature.

known

be

Su?mna^

and

I. viii.

and Spiritual

3,

by

and

Canticle^

cf.

xi. 2.

fundamental

attribute

Therefore God can intellectual

separation

St John of the Cross, Ascent^

ii.

5,

MYSTICISM

138

from

creatures

all

:

He

cannot be expressed

terms of anything but Himself, or brought under any category which has any other content there is no ''formula" for God, no in

—

He may

class to which. If

God

is

or

beautiful

be said

considered as powerful.

He

to belong.

intelligent, is

still

wise,

none

of

those things in the same sense in which they can be predicated of creatures, who can only

be

intelligent,

tion, as their

tion

in

wise or beautiful by participa-

very existence

exists

is

speculative

the

recogni-

of a unique kind of being

tion, theoretically,

the

only participa-

The

the being of God.

knowledge that God but

is

experimental

knowledge,

which

;

is

mysticism, is immediate experience or apprehension of that which is essentially different

from

all

else,

and must therefore be appre-

hended or experienced manner from that in created existence. is

transcendent

consistent

with

;

after a wholly different

which

That and

it

we experience say that God

is

to

is

only

in

a sense

His transcendence that

He

can truly be said to be immanent in creation. There are two other senses in which God

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE has been held to be immanent

139

one of them the

:

conception of Spinoza, the other of Eckhart and Hegel. The former holds that God and nature, or spirit and matter, are identical

— the

same

namely ''substance," in two different This notion is immanence in its aspects. thing,

etymological sense God is in nature and remains in it He cannot be outside it, strictly

;

;

there

for

distinct

sum and

from

total

which

no outside

is

of

He

for

it,

its

in

is

and

fact

the

the

world of phenomena

He

their relations, of

underlying

same

unity

relation to the

attributed

is

cannot be

constituted by the

is

parts

Much

reality.

He

and

;

by Bradley

to the absolute.

The

mode moment

other view regfards nature as a

of God's being, a necessary phase or

His self-realisation.

in

with God, but quantitatively

God

is

Nature

is

identical

more than nature

but intensively), inasmuch

(not

He

both prior and posterior to nature, in the order of thought, though not necessarily in is

the

order

really is

of

time.

transcendence

This, ;

for

however,

God

in

is

this

not

view

ontologically one with nature, so far as

it

MYSTICISM

I40

a necessary part of God, transcends nature only in the sense

creation

goes

;

and

He

of being

Under is

more

than, not different from nature.

either of these

**

is

is

two conceptions God

and experience of nature There is no place experience of God. given"

in nature,

the

object

of

**

**

ecstasy," rapture" or which would be merely the

therefore for vision,

non-existent.

All the mystic could

be to

upon

reflect

his

sensible

do would

experience,

and compound a syncretised Deity of the " "threads and patches of individual sensation, thought and feeling. is a very different It

process

supernatural mystic expounds, so limitations of

God

is

human language

will

that

the

as

the

far

allow him.

substantially or essentially present in

the soul, as

He

is

created things

in all

;

but

the mystic does far more than merely reflect

on

this

truth.

natural union

which the

is

the

divine.

What he

seeks

is

the super-

of likeness, begotten by love, union of the human will with

He

seeks to

natural presence of

God

in

realise

the

creation,

resting in any aspect of nature, even

unfelt

not by its

most

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE abstract one, as

141

mere being, but by entering

into a personal relationship with the concealed

presence which

is

Spinoza saw natura

as

naturans

in

natura

and

Hegel pure being evolving through the maze of the becoming, the

naturata, itself

Where-

the source of being.

supernatural mystic cuts himself loose at one

blow from

all

phenomenal entanglements, and and untrammelled by all that is

"passes free seen and all that sees

"

invisible" presence of

things."^

pretation

**

Him who

intangible and is

"beyond

This appears to be the true of

the

(Grund) of the

doctrine soul,

German mysticism

the

into the

of the

which

is

all

inter-

"ground"

prominent

in

of the fourteenth century,

which reference has already been made. This doctrine, as it appears in Eckhart, Tauler

and

to

and Ruysbroeck, and the German Theology, is somewhat confused, and has led to some apparent misunderstanding.^ ^

There are two

See Dion.,

MysL TheoL, c. i. " There is no past Tauler {Sermon of St John Baptist) E.g., or present here and no created light can reach or shine into for here only is the dwelling-place of God this divine ground and His sanctuary. This divine abyss can be fathomed by no creatures it can be filled by none and it satisfies none \ God ^

:

;

;

;

MYSTICISM

142

"

**

grounds," spoken of respectively as

created

and "uncreated," and the two seem these

almost

as

treated

to

speak of

the essence or substance of the soul as

were uncreated, and a

part

of

be

to

— whence

interchangeable

seem occasionally

writers

"

the

if

it

divine

But the general principles of at least Tauler and Ruysbroeck certainly require us to understand the created ground to be the essence.

substance of the

from

faculties

its

which

human

not

it

uncreated

—the

merely

as

that

of

God which

then **

substantial or to

is

in

principle

but

acts,

is

ground

soul, as distinguished

to

is

;

virtue of

and the

be understood

immanent

be found

in

"

presence all created

things alike, as the background and support

without which they could have no existence The close contact (as for w^ant of a at all.

word

better

two

is

it

obvious.

must be

The

called)

between the

created ground

is

the

essence of the soul, a thing which cannot be directly known, but only inferred from its only can fill it in His infinity. For this abyss belongs only to the divine abyss, of which it is written 'Abyssus abyssum invocat.' is

"

And compare

the

German

the substance of all things.'^

Theology^ ch,

" i.

:

He

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

purely spiritual and intelligible

Operations, a

removed from

entity,

all

direct

and the uncreated ground

experience another purely

is

spiritual entity, also incapable of

which

experienced,

ally

created

two grounds become

essence

with

basis

— the

God

in

is,

the

ground of

takes place, the

soul's

perception of

in fact, the

perception of

essential

in

grounds

an

mystical unity

devotional

divine

;

ontological

and the

identified

not

as

was

have not always kept the But their view perfectly clear. intelligible

from any

affinity

its

own unity

Eckhart

nature.

and

its

the

two

merely

others, in the fervour

experience,

natural,

whole,

of the

a certain sense one.

seems, at times, to have

of

being natur-

realised as the foundation of the soul's

and the

being,

;

But when the mystical

fact.

union of the soul with

is

the

is

existence

ground's

the ground, in

God

143

perhaps

distinction is,

on the

enough, and far removed with pantheism. But the

struggle with the sense-implications of language perpetually besets mystical writers, and never

ceases to involve their meaning in obscurity.

The

ordinary processes of the mind can be

MYSTICISM

144

words only by way of metaphor,

in

expressed

and the meaning of the language of psychology not always to be easily apprehended.

is

more

must

its

application

of language

beyond thought, and negation, be difficult and

that which

sense

the

Much

is

in

to

some

liable

to

misunderstanding.

be clear enough, however, from what has been said that the terms "immanent" and It will

**

transcendent," as applied to the divine nature,

are not mutually exclusive, but indicate merely

two aspects of the scendence of God

immanence is

to

is

same is

thing.

immanent,

transcendent.

The

tran-

and

His

By immanence

be understood the divine accessibility the human soul, and by transcendence the to

independence of the divine nature of The words, created things and persons.

essential all if

used

must be used

rightly,

in

the Kantian

or subjective sense of two ways in which God may be apprehended by us, not as indicat-

modes of His existence. God may be known to exist, and His nature partially ing two

"

" understood, by the Baconian interrogation of His handiwork thus our knowledge of God ;

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

145

through nature is an immanent knowledge. But the conception of God so arrived at is of a being who wholly transcends nature,

and whose not

is

essential distinctness

eternally

His being.

attribute of

God

of

is

a

all

that

fundamental

Thus our knowledge

transcendent as well as immanent,

is

since while nature,

Himself

from

we

Him as manifested by Him also, and in the same

conceive

we conceive

as essentially distinct and separate from

act,

nature.

This, however,

not the same thing in nature and also

is

saying that God is beyond it, but the exact contrary God has neither two modes of being nor two modes of as

;

action

extra

;

He

is

— His

totum inter omnia,

action,

either wholly

like

His

et

totum

existence,

is

immanent or wholly transcen-

dent, according to the point of view adopted.

To IS

contrast the two, in an ontological sense,

really

were

to

make

a cross-division

—as

if

we

His omnipotence with His create a universe. It is not to be

to contrast

power to wondered

at that a fancied distinction

between

God's immanental and transcendental actions should have led to strange

results.

CHAPTER

VIII

PLOTINUS experimental knowledge of God by means of special divine illumination must, according to the view we are advocating, be considered

The

to

be the prerogative

of Christianity.

For

since the fulness of divine knowledge, so far

as life,

attainable

is

it

is

alone,

be found

to it

is

by human beings in

in

this

the Christian religion

evidently inconceivable that such

knowledge should either fail to be found there in its highest form, which is mysticism, or that should exist elsewhere in equal perfection. This view is, for the most part, fully borne out

it

by a comparison of Christian mysticism with such few instances of non-Christian religious experience as epithet

mystical

be

may by any

called

mystical.

straining of the

So

pretensions of persons 146

also

the

outside the

PLOTINUS

147

pale of the Catholic Church, and those which, though made on the behalf of Catholics, the

Church holds on

untenable

be spurious, are manifestly

to

the

down by

laid

principles

Catholic authority as to the necessary

char-

acter and results of true mysticism.

There difficult

rule

is,

however, one case which

it

is

not to regard as an exception to this

— that

of

figure

stands

which

all

the

This

Plotinus.

out

the

as

conditions

of

remarkable instance

sole

true

in

mysticism

(with the necessary exception of faith) seem to have been fulfilled by one who was neither

a Catholic nor a Christian, but the father of

Neoplatonism, form.

in its later

and fully-developed

Plotinus was born about the year 204,

and studied

at

Alexandria under

Ammonius

Saccas, but at the age of forty went to

where he taught

the

Rome,

year of his life, the Emperor Gallienus being one of his disciples, and died in Campania in the year 269.

until

He was much

last

sought after

as a kind of spiritual director life

were

ascetic,

as

;

in

Rome

his habits of

indeed would naturally

be the case with one who so despised material

MYSTICISM

148

who was ashamed things as to be "like one of being in the body, and therefore could not of

bear to speak

his

birth,

or parents

or

country."^

His

insists

philosophy

on

strongly

the

transcendence of God, the supreme unity and absolute Good, which all

all

being and

Beneath the One are intelligence

thought.

with which the Platonic ideas are identi-

(vovg),

and the soul

fied,

above

is

{i^vxh),

duct of intelligence, and in things

corporeal

by

which its

turn produces

impressing

form

is

in

upon

Thus

indeterminate, unqualified matter.

body

the pro-

is

the

rather than the soul in

the soul,

held together by the One, which continually draws the manifold Man's part is to rise up from the to itself.

the

body

;

all

are

things

and degradation of matter, through thought, into union with the one and absolute Good. We are not, however, now concerned diversity

with Plotinus's philosophy, but with It

consequence. soul's

upward 1

is

in

course,

its

practical

the final stage of the

its

union with

Porphyry, Life of Plotinus.

God and

PLOTINUS rest

the

that

Him,

in

149

of

system

Plotinus

becomes purely mystical.

The

nature of this union

described in

is

Like Dionysius after him

the sixth Ennead.

Plotinus does not bring out very clearly the

notion

of special

grace,

as

of mystical

he

Dionysius,

insists

on the distinction between mystics

strongly

the

uninitiated

does

Dionysius

fxefxv/jiuevoi,

{/mr]

compare

and he speaks, as " ** and of the call

TheoL,

Dion., AlysL

**

like

or

assistance,

a necessary condition

But, also

vision.

and

supernatural

i);

not,

drawing" of the

supreme Good, whereby This the soul is brought into union with it.^ union with God, or vision of Him, takes place in the ''substance of the rather contact than

is

mere knowledge, though

a necessary preliminary to it. ecstasy, unity, the projection of the soul

out of ^

is

it

is

knowledge It

soul";

in

itself,^

iKecPO

dr]

6'

^vxv

virtue of the affinity which

5hI}K€l

Kal 6

0ws

v<^

wapix^'-

'^cc^

ip-ireahv

avrdv

ix^os KiveT, oijTOL 5e6 dav/xd^eiu et Toiavrrjv dvua/xLv ?x^' '^Xkov Trpos avrb

Kal

Enn. ^

e/c

dvaKoKoijfji.ei'ov

TrdcTys

TrXavT/s,

tVa

Trpos

avrb dvairava'acTO.

—

vi. 7.

ov d^afxa,

iirldoa-is

iKilvov

dXXa

ctXXos rpdiros

avrov Kal ^cpeais firjhk

€Tr iffTrifirjs

Kara

vorjatv,

— lb. KpelrTova.

tov

Trpos d07];' Cocrrrep to.

9,

,

I5e7u, .

.

&\\a

^Kcrraais

Kal dirXoiO'Li

fj.r]de /car' i7rL<XTrjfXT]v i]

vorjrdf

dXXd Kara

Kal

(xvve(n$

Trapovcriav

MYSTICISM

150

the

soul has

to

as a self-centred

One by its own unity, monad (to i^uxv^ otov Kevrpov). the

Like Dionysius again, Plotinus enlarges on the abstraction from all that is manifold which is

One

needful before union with the

The

can be

union despises even thought, which previously had been its

attained.

soul

in

that

delight (SicLKeirai Tore cog kcli tov voelv Kara^poveiv, o TOV aWov xpo'i^oi/ mUch more all jJcTTrafero) ;

material

things

unrest even in

:

movement, or thought, whereas the one is for

there

is

unmoved, so that the soul that abides in the one finds absolute rest, and abandons all things.

It

is

as

if

one entered a splendid

mansion and admired the beauty of its adornbut when the master of the house ment ;

appears, one cannot but forget all those objects of admiration in the joy of seeing Him, who

comes under no similitude of Himself, but as For this Master of the object of true vision. the house

is

Himself known not but as

filling

God and makes by means of common sight,

no man, but the

soul

;

which beholds Him.

Again, it is not beautiful things that the soul beholds in this vision, nor beauty itself, nor

PLOTINUS

151

the whole band (xopov) of virtues

entered

the

one

if

saw

temple, and

of a

vestibule

as

;

there the statues and similitudes of the God,

but afterwards going within the sanctuary, saw no more any statue or picture, but the divine

This union between the soul being Himself. and God resembles in its clearness the union of earthly lovers OeXovreg)

('/I'ot

or

;

but

itself

avyKphai

alone will enjoy

thing,

Him

of

the

Christian

great

no vision or locution

purely

most advanced

find in Plotinus the

conceptions is

epw/mevoi

Se^tjrai juovtj /jLovouy

Thus we There

koll

the soul will have no other

;

good or bad alone

(epaa-rai

;

all

is

But Plotinus

spiritual.

mystics.

abstract tells

us

phraseology of the Mansions of St Teresa,^ of the prayer of quiet, of St

almost

in identical

John's dark night of

and of the

faith,

spiritual

**

marriage; the ground" (Kevrpov) of the soul is with him as familiar and as necessary an idea as

1

it

is

with the

German

mystics.

Quotations might be multiplied and coin" Ne croirait-on pas entendre encore Plotin, quand la sainte

fille

(St Teresa) nous

recommande de '

porter les yeux vers

centre qui est le palais ou habite ce grand DEcole d^ Alexandrie.

roi?'

"—St

le

Hilaire,

MYSTICISM

152

noted to almost

cidences

what has been said

will

But

any extent.

be enough to show

the character of Plotinus's mysticism and

with

marvellous agreement

true

super-

The

question therefore arises are to consider Plotinus a genuine

natural type.

whether we

the

its

supernatural mystic or not

be held to be

so,

we

;

and

if

he must

are immediately con-

fronted with the further question of his true relation

to

Christian

mysticism.

For unless

supernatural mystics, Christian and Neoplatonist alike, are subject to a common delu-

all

sion,

same

it

would seem

difficult

to

assign

the

origin to the mystical experience depicted

by Plotinus as

to the

'*

mystical theology" of

Dionysius, or of St Teresa and St John of the Cross.

must be remembered that Plotinus was, during the most important part of his career, It

in

close

contact

with

Christianity,

and that

not in any outlying region of the faith, where distinctions of creed might be obscured in

minds of an unlettered people, but in Rome itself. Moreover, during his residence at Rome he must have witnessed the prothe

PLOTINUS

153

and persecution of Christians under Decius, and the admission of Christianity to

scripiion

the privileges of a religio licita by his pupil

He

Gallienus.

therefore,

can,

have

been

ignorant neither of the exclusiveness of the Christian religion, nor of the influence

was

it

able to exert over both those within and those

without

its

He

pale.

seems, in point of

fact,

have disregarded Christianity altogether he was neither a convert, like Victorinus a to

;

century after him, nor an opponent, like his disciple

Porphyry.

some fashion cannot

it

the reason

Yet

he

must

have

in

deliberately rejected Christianity;

have

why

But escaped his notice. such an aninia naturaliter

Christiana should have resisted the attraction of a faith which had so his

much

own system cannot even be

in

common

with

conjectured.

We

can only choose between two theories of the cause of his affinity to the mystical The first would theologians of the Church. represent him

as

approximation to

by the deliberate Christianity which the later affected

Neoplatonism undoubtedly exhibited, and which we can hardly be mistaken in regarding as a

1

MYSTICISM

54

desperate effort on the part of Paganism to fight the growing power of the Church on

own ground with

its

its

To

own weapons.

this cause are attributed the quasi-Trinitarian

of

doctrine

and

Mithraism,

the

Philostratus.^

Tyana by

been the case that

of

life

it

revival

of

Apollonius

of

the

Neoplatonism,

may

It

well

have

seemed advisable

to

meet the widespread mysticism of the early Church naive and simple-minded as it often

—

example, in the visions of Hermas with a theory not less mystical but founded on what professed to be a higher Gnosis. was,

—

as, for

indeed, has none of the character-

Plotinus,

of a

istics

work bears ence,

merely speculative all

theorist

;

his

the signs of personal experi-

and Porphyry

tells

us

that four

times

during his six years' association with Plotinus his master attained to the state of mystical union. It is

scarcely possible to attribute conscious

insincerity

to

a

character

majestic as that of Plotinus writinors ^

is

so :

striking

and

the spirit of his

of itself almost sufficient to clear

him

See Bigg, Christian Platonists of Alexandria^ Lect. VII.

PLOTINUS

iSS

of any suspicion of mere vulgar charlatanism.

But

it

mystical natural

is

not

experience order,

that

impossible

actually

may have been

and due

natural illumination, but

not

to

his

of the

any super-

by way of automatic

suggestion, to the direct tendency of the philosophical It

may

system in which he was absorbed. have been no more than a strong

emotional realisation of intellectual principles obtained by remarkable philosophical acumen. Certainly one

quietism

may

suggested

notice

— apart

by some

from

passages

the

— an

element of mere negative abstraction in his system, which is indeed necessitated by the highly abstract and practically impersonal nature which he attributes to the One, but

which makes a very marked contrast with the

warmth of personal amicitia Jesu

relationship

which

mysticism.^ The distinction made by ^

one

— ih^famtliaris

finds

St Hilaire {op.

in

Christian

cii.) is

only verbal,

and might with equal truth be reversed. " Les mystiques Chretiens diffi^rent de Plotin en ce que soutenus par la foi, pour la plupart du moins, ils n'ont trouve dans I'extase que I'union mentale et spirituale avec Dieu, tandis que Plotin y a trouve Dieu meme. L'ame de sainte Therese se marie a Dieu, comme Time celle de saint Francois de Sales de Gerson et des autres de Plotin se transforme en Dieu, ou plutot elle est Dieu.'' ;

MYSTICISM

156

As has been already remarked, the theory now popular of automatism furnishes a much needed explanation of the close resemblance borne

to supernatural

mysticism by the various

kinds of mysticism which, on Christian prin-

cannot be accepted as supernatural in any other sense than that of a possible connection with diabolical agency. ciples,

There

nothing to prevent us from holding this theory about the mysticism of Plotinus but it must be admitted that the direct is

;

evidence for

it

of

is

the

scantiest

possible

description.

The

alternative

is

to accept the experience

of Plotinus as one of those manifestations of

divine grace outside occurrence of which

been

entitle

has

them

exceptions

never to

has from time to time

The number

of

been large enough

to

to

be considered anything but

the

Church has never nounce

regular channels, the

unmistakable.

quite

instances

its

judgment

prevailing felt

it

upon

rule

;

and the

her business to prothe

spiritual

state

of individuals outside her boundaries, strictly as

she

is

compelled to

reject

as

false

all

PLOTINUS doctrines principle

*'he that

is

But

own.

the

not against us

is

"

may perhaps be applied here and if we may consider Plotinus as an involuntary

for us so,

that

her

to

contrary

157

;

witness to the truth of the Christian view of mysticism, and the of

Christian

reality

of the experience

Why,

mystics.

case, Plotinus (and possibly

if

this

the

is

Porphyry as well)

should have been favoured with special divine illumination

it

is,

of course, impossible to say.

We

have no data that could be of any service to us in an attempt to assign a reason for such

an

exceptional

But

Providence.

it

mystical experience

of sanctity,

still

dispensation

of

divine

must be remembered that is

not of itself an evidence

less of final perseverance.

possible to suppose that an individual

is

It

may

have been favoured with the grace of mystical

knowledge for the purpose of his conversion, and may have failed to correspond with the divine intention

;

had chosen, have

as the

Magi might,

failed to follow the

if

they

guidance

of the star.^ ^

This seems to have been St Augustine's view of Neo" platonism, and especially of Plotinus, whom he calls mag-

nus

ille

Platonicus."

"Si Platonici, vel quicunque

alii

ista

MYSTICISM

158

Whatever explanation we

the

adopt,

that the system of Plotinus, on

is

cal

side,

is

identical

practically

its

fact

mysti-

with that of

Dionysius and of all Christian mystics, though has nothing whatever of all that gives it Christianity

its

power

to attract or influence

or console/ Deum,

senserunt, cognoscentes

sicut

Deum

glorificarent, et

gratias agerent, nee evanescerent in cogitationibus suis, nee populorum erroribus partim auctores fierent, partim resistere non auderent, profecto confiterentur et illis immortalibus ac beatis, et nobis mortalibus ac miseris, ut immortales ac beati

unum Deum deorum colendum,

esse possimus,

illorum." — Civ. Dei.

est et ^

qui et noster

x. 3.

ante omnia tempora, et super omnia tempora incommunicabiliter manet unigenitus Filius tuus eoaeternus

Quod enim

tibi,

sint,

et

et

quia de plenitudine ejus accipiunt animae ut beatae participatione manentis

quia

sapientes sint

;

est

impiis mortuus est

ibi

;

— non

in

se

renovantur

ut

quod autem secundum tempus pro est

ibi.

St Aug., Conf.

vii.

ix.

CHAPTER

IX

HERETICAL MYSTICS furnishes

Plotinus

If

solitary instance

from a

false or

a

or

solitary,

almost

of a system which, starting

inadequate principles, arrives at

method of mystical contemplation scarcely

be distinguished from genuine mysticism, the historical cases of an apparently converse to

process

are

too

numerous

names of those who, less

orthodox

to

beofinninof

Christians,

The

count.

as

have

more or

ended

as

extravagant visionaries, or as maintainers of principles opposed, not merely to Catholic orthodoxy, but even to all sane, human convictions,

are freely scattered over

of history.

the

pages

True mysticism has undoubtedly

been gravely prejudiced by the existence, quently side by side with 159

it,

fre-

of extravagances

MYSTICISM

i6o

which claimed an equal and apparently cal

with

authority

There

there

between

distinctions

is

true

mysticism.

very real and clearly

are, nevertheless,

marked

of

that

the

two,

no reason whatever

really

identi-

common condemnation

the

sometimes

which

in

for

and

both are hastily included.

The

or ''pragmatic" test

external

of application to it

First,

all

such cases

obvious

is

in

is

two ways.

from the Catholic

that,

point of view at least, tenets which contradict

divine

the

origin,

rule

or

of

faith

be

easy

in

directly

cannot have a

any

sense

true.

Secondly, as has been already remarked, it incredible that a fresh revelation should is

be given with the divine purpose of superseding that which was once for all delivered to the saints

;

or,

even

if it

could be granted

that such a fresh revelation were conceivable,

should be given in a less public and tangible fashion, and be of less universal that

it

application, than that

supplant.

Theosophy

which is

it

endeavours to

not theology, either

mystical or speculative, but the degenerate offand its spring of a false theory of mysticism ;

HERETICAL MYSTICS method both

in

is

i6i

nothing but a corrupting influence,

theology and in philosophy.

Its philo-

tendency is apparent in the transcendentalism alike of Kant, Jacobi, Fichte, sophical

Schelling and

and

Hegel, and of

who

Hartmann,^

Schopenhauer agree

practically

in

taking crude emotional data as the basis of a rational The explanation of things. "categorical

"

punkt,"

"self-objectivisation

the Will and the

of the

a priori

*'

the

imperative,"

Indifferenz-

— no

less

than

Unconscious, are instances

which such

from

idealism

Neoplatonists as Plotinus and Proclus were In theology there is scarcely entirely free.

any aberration of human travagance directly

human

attributable

Montanus, Luther,

of

Calvin and

Swedenborg and to

one another

founding

Cf.

is

not

and

same the

many on

unlike

source.

Fraticelli,

Boehme,

as

they are

respects,

agree in

and

unreasoned,

intuitions.

Mysticism, in

Hartmann, "Philosophy of the Huinan Mind^ ch. ix.).

Unconscious" {The

generally ^

that

George Fox,

themselves irrational

ex-

the

Irving, in

or

fantasy, to

Priscillian

credulity,

Unc. in the

L

MYSTICISM

i62

the Catholic view, cannot but be discredited

whenever

it

sphere of

true

its

— whenever

the

becomes

and

experimental,

Church

the

of

magistei'lum leaves

enters into competition with the

personal

dogmatic

it

and and

didactic.

But one naturally looks further for some intrinsic distinction which may differentiate from

spurious to

of

judge

the

true its

nature of

character,

of

test

practical its

mysticism

its

principles,

and apart from

selves

one

;

not

wishes

merely

by

but

by the considered in themfruits,

all

consequences

or

relations with particular philosophical or theo-

Such a

logical doctrines.

to be

distinction

is

readily

found in the essential features of true

we have seen

mysticism, which

to

be of such

be incapable of presentation in the form of abstract doctrine. The essence a nature as to

of mysticism

is,

as

experimental

vision

and

is

in

itself

describable

;

it

in

seen, the actual

or

knowledge of God, necessarily ineffable and in-

may be

and delusive, but false,

we have

it

either real, or imaginary

cannot be either true or

the sense in which a doctrine must

HERETICAL MYSTICS be one or the other. conceivable

may be

the

doctrine or fact

mystical

that

of the

or

real

it

and

sensible

be,

belongs

not

to

sphere,

but

to

world.

intelligible

claimed

is

but

;

cannot

statement

or

doctrine

divine

and

not,

supernatural

mystical authority a

is

because

simply

false

of course, quite or a matter of

revealed in mystical vision

the

A

is,

a doctrine

that

fact

mystical,

It

163

which

for

may be

either

misunderstood

communication,

and misreported, or a deduction from a true mystical experience, or a mere delusion of the senses or the imagination. so put forward

other

Any

doctrine

open to criticism like any and cannot be accepted

is

statement,

merely on the authority attributed to it by an individual who may possibly be the victim of his

own imagination

But

standing.

it

misunder-

or

evident that where

is

the

doctrine constitutes the whole of the experience,

there

mysticism.

whom known truth,

is

The

question

at

of

all

intelligence of the person to

the doctrine

may have or the

no

really

is

led

reverse

;

supposed to be made

him he

to

may

discover or

may

a

not

MYSTICISM

i64

have been under the guidance of divine grace in but there is no ground conceiving it ;

whatever

supposing such a person to have received a genuine mystical communication. for

such a case, the doctrine purports to be the bare description of the supposed Since,

in

vision,

mystical victed

of

error

by that very

it

is

;

true

mystical

fact

con-

experience

cannot be described or translated into terms of the non-mystical.

canon

is

here

Dionysius's paradoxical

precisely

one, seeing God,

deduction,

point

knows what he

by no means God that he created and knowable."

A

in

sees, but

—

''

If

sees,

any it

is

something

on the other hand, from a

mystical experience, or series of experiences,

may

quite

conceivably be

a

mistaken one,

even though the experiences themselves may be real. There can be no reason for supposing

that

the

favour

of

mystical

vision

implies any subsequent immunity from intellectual error or, for that matter, from moral

—

lapse.

Neither Moses nor St Paul was, or

supposed himself

to be, so safeguarded

mystical favours bestowed on him.

by the

St John

HERETICAL MYSTICS of the Cross insists at great

165

on the

length

misunderstanding divine communications, as well as on the danger of misof

possibility

taking for them those which source,

and concludes, as do

come from another all

much importance should

that

mystical writers,

not be attached

to such experiences.-^

Doctrines, authority,

which

then,

must be judged

claim

mystical

to be true or false

according to the support they receive from the conclusions of reason or the truths of revelation

;

their claim to be in themselves mystical

refuted by the fact that

is

experiences

they

are doctrines, or theories about God, whereas

theories

concerned not with doctrines or

is

mysticism

— which

mystical,

—

but

solely with

belong to the domain, not of of speculative theology but

God

The

Himself.

experience,

of whatever kind, upon which such doctrines are

founded,

may

or

may

not be genuinely

and must be judged of apart from the doctrine for which its authority is claimed, mystical,

according

to

its

character,

alleged

condition of the person by ^

Ascent,

II. xviii.

whom

and

xix.

it

and the is

under-

MYSTICISM

i66

gone. Thus visions experienced by persons in a state of alcoholism, nervous or brain disease, or artificially

produced anaesthesia, are

manifestly to be attributed to those agencies visions or imaginations of the state of man-

;

kind

of particular

or

material

universe,

or symbolical they mystical,

but

emotion,

mental or

gestion,

are

some

of the

or

individuals,

however

vast,

may

are certainly not

be,

generally

picturesque

due

natural

to

automatic

excitement,

sug-

Those only

similar cause.

be considered even possibly mystical which include a direct consciousness of the

are

to

which are preceded by no emotion or excitement, which can be probably

divine

presence,

traced

to

no physical or mental cause, and

which are not capable of being in

fully

described

words.

We

may

illustrate

the

obtained by one or two of the best instances

take

first

Christian

who

of

spurious the

sect

Brethren,

thus

principles

known

We

mysticism.

known

variously

Beghards

-

or

may as

Fraticelli,

flourished in the fourteenth

and

fifteenth

and were condemned

as

heretics

centuries,

HERETICAL MYSTICS at

the

to

be

Council of VIenne. constantly

subject

167

They were to

said

and

visions

and were accused (no doubt with

ecstasies,

some exaggeration, but probably not without grave

cause)

of

They were

kind.

grossest

immoral

of

practices

influenced,

the

more

or less directly, by the speculative pantheism of Amalric of Bena, and professed to regard

matter

a

as

secondary

unimportant aspect of

and

spirit

comparatively so

;

that

when

the spiritual aspect of the universe was truly

apprehended, material things and conduct

in

regard to them became altogether indifferent. Such spiritual apprehension was held to be a

natural

beings at against

and open

process,

One

will.

this

sect

by

to

human

all

of the charges brought

Pope

Clement V.

Vienne was that they held the

at

Beatific vision

be attainable

by the natural powers of mankind, without any need for the intervention of the lumen gloriae. They thus

to

denied what

mental

we have seen of

true

to

be a funda-

mysticism they were not really mystics, but imaginative or " " Their sotemperamental theosophists. postulate

;

i68

MYSTICISM

called mysticism

was

akin,

on the one hand,

what some modern writers have

to

bolism other,

"

or to

nature

-

mysticism," and on

humanism

the

view of

their practical

called

identical with that of

of the

life

symthe

Renaissance,

being pretty nearly

Lorenzo Valla's

treatise

Visions and ecstasies allied with

on Pleasure.

must

kind

obviously be taken as the consequence of such doctrines rather than as their cause, and can be condoctrines

of

this

sidered only as a neuropathic form of sensuality,

as

removed

far

from

true

mysticism

as anything could possibly be.

Of

a

strange

very different character were transcendental imaginations of

pious shoemaker, Jacob Boehme.

the the

His mind

appears to have been constantly fixed on the idea of

God

;

and by a purely natural process

there arose

in

and devout

reflections, a

cal

it,

together with

many sane

kind of philosophi-

statement of the problems of existence,

transferred in strange and bizarre phraseology to

the divine nature.

These ideas Boehme

declared to be ''opened" to him; they came, he could not say how, into his mind, and

HERETICAL MYSTICS

169

had upon him the effect of a communication But there is no from an external source. need, indeed there

is

no possibility of accept-

A

ing his explanation of their origin. tive

and abstractive mind, without authoritative

guidance or inevitably

sees

Thus

restraint, will naturally

find

at

the

the

in

nature a

divine it

medita-

work

in

the

the

Abyss,

idea

abstract

of

repetition

and almost

the

of

the

influences

surrounding world.

Potential

Trinity,

the

relation of

Being to Not-being, the Will, the Imagination, the Maiden Idea and the moving Fire,

and the

than

the

which

are undoubtedly no more

like,

pseudo

-

philosophical

under

forms

Boehme conceived and contemplated

the universe, and which rose by of auto-suggestion

into

his

some process

consciousness as

he contemplated the idea of God, and thus

appeared to him it.

Boehme

has

in

some sense

affinities

— as

identical with

probably

all

—

contemplative minds must have with Gnosticism and Neoplatonism on the one hand, and on the other, with modern naturally

idealism

— with

Jacobi,

Schelling

and

Hegel,

and with Schopenhauer and Hartmann.

But

1

MYSTICISM

70

with

mysticism he has none whatever be thought to claim a revelation as

true

he may

;

the authority for his system, but to mystical

— the experimental, knowof God — he makes no pretension. ineffable

theology ledge

The theosophy of Swedenborg may be

classed

with Boehme's, inasmuch as both pretend to

knowledge of transcendental realities. But whereas Boehme, with all his strange terminology, is philosophical and intellectual,

direct

Swedenborg does no more than embody, crude,

certain

form,

allegorical

Protestant theology.

His visions

profess to be statements of

—

fact,

phases

in

of

do, indeed,

and not

allegori-

imaginary to be, in fact, a revelation. But even if this claim were admitted, if one

cal or

could seriously accept, for example, the story of the angels' protracted attempts to convert

Luther from

his doctrine of justification,

their daily fluctuations of ill-success, still

have nothing

ence.

The

we should

like a true mystical experi-

spiritual, ineffable divine

has no place indeed would

Swedenborg's

in

be

and

Swedenborg's sadly

symbolical

presence

gallery,

incongruous

and

there.

interpretation

of

HERETICAL MYSTICS

171

and dogmatic in tone as nothing to do with mystical

Scripture, elaborate it

has really

is,

theology properly so called. Quietism has appeared to

many

be

mysticism

a

genuine example doctrines of Molinos and

of

writers to :

the

Madame Guyon have

been identified with those of St Teresa, and the

condemnation

of

former

the

has

been

attributed to the recalcitrance of their authors ecclesiastical

against

contrasted

as

authority,

with the docility of St Teresa and St John of the Cross. But the doctrine of '' disinterested love," as interpreted by the Quietists,

from the mystical passivity of St Teresa, to which it has been is

a

quite

different

likened.

With

passivity

consists

faculties

upon

soul

tion,

the

but

Guyon

is

God,

as

with

other

a concentration not,

indeed,

but at least

in

mystics,

of

the

always in one con-

whereas the Quietist would have renounce its very personality and

conscious

during

in

acts,"

tinuous act the

her,

'*

successive

thing

;

existence,

condition as

a

and

that

of

ecstatic

permanent

not

state.

merely

contempla-

Madame

never tired of declaring that her

MYSTICISM

172 '*

soul

no

has

of

inclination

tendency for '* in such an

anything whatsoever"; she is " that she is obliged to reflect abandonment in order to know "if she has a beino^ and "

subsistence."

think

if

God

in

I

I

have to make an

am and what

creatures

I

am

and anything

if

;

to

effort

there are

subsisting."

Whatever may be thought of the opinions or conduct of the opponents of Quietism,

Segneri, D'Estrees,

De

la

Combe,

distinctive

demned

it

Bossuet,

La Chaise and

cannot be doubted that

no

doctrine,

less

of

than

the

its

con-

propositions extracted from the Guida

Spirituale,

is

contradictory, not only of divine

human

revelation, but of the elementary facts of

no sense mystical it is a theory founded professedly on mystical experience, but it is not and cannot be the experinature.

ence

But

itself.

it is

in

:

Madame Guyon

mvstical state which

herself says of a

she declares herself to '*

have experienced that it was too simple, pure and naked for me to be able to speak of

it.

The most

elevated

dispositions

those of which one can say nothing." is

tempted

to exclaim,

O

si sic

omnia

!

are

One But

HERETICAL MYSTICS

173

the difference between mystical contemplation,

and theories more or

upon

could

it,

than by

The

less

be

scarcely

Madame Guyon's

founded

directly

better

illustrated

account of herself.

question remains, are these professedly

mystical experiences genuinely supernatural or

not

On

?

that they

the whole, one

may

is

inclined to think

They seem

be.

to

have had no

emotional state immediately preceding them

;

they are apparently indescribable and unsought they produce subjective conviction of a direct ;

divine influence

have any

and they do not appear

;

to

tendency to suggest the false or questionable doctrines founded on them.

We

may

real

therefore perhaps safely admit that

Ouietistic mystical experiences

may

well have

been genuine and supernatural ones and in that case, that the doctrines founded upon ;

them were due them.

There

mistaken inferences from

to

is,

at

any

rate,

no reason

for

regarding the Quietist doctrine as necessarily connected with mysticism, or as necessarily if such discrediting the mystical experiences

—

they were

A

— which

gave

rise to

precisely similar distinction

them.

must of course

MYSTICISM

174

be made between the approved teaching of orthodox mystics, and the incommunicable

The experiences on which it was founded. reforming zeal of St Teresa and St John of Cross had to win

the

merits

its

way on

powerful opposition

against

its ;

it

own was

from being considered as guaranteed by the spiritual and personal favours which gave birth to it. The frequent and extravery

far

ordinary visions of Margaret again, and resulting

the

Mary Alacoque,

widespread popular devotion

from them, gained acceptance only

by degrees, and

after

much

opposition.

essentially mystical side of her

been somewhat obscured

life,

The

which has

general estimation by the prominence very naturally given to her visions

and

is

revelations,

able amid the

more

in

easily distinguish-

striking but less evidently

supernatural occurrences in which it abounds, and follows the lines uniformly characteristic of genuine mysticism.^ lorsque je m'eveille, il me semble trouver present, auquel mon cceur s'unit comme k son ce qui me donne une soif si k sa seule plenitude et principe k les moments que -je mets k ardente d'aller Toraison, que m'habiller me durent des heures. J'y vais le plus souvent sans ^

"Tous

les matins,

mon Dieu

;

HERETICAL MYSTICS Thus

175

the alleged difficulty of distinguishing

from true mysticism is reduced to that of discerning whether any alleged mystical

false

state or experience

subject

or

not

;

is

and

this

its

reported by

truly

difficulty

is

again

reduced by observing the regularity with which certain features appear in all mystical experience that may be considered

greatly

The element

genuine.

of

uncertainty

still

remaining arises from our frequently inadequate knowledge of the circumstances of any alleged experience

— such

above mentioned

as that of

— together

Madame Guyon

with the a priori

mon Dieu fait en moi. ... II semble quelquefois que mon esprit s'eloigne de moi, pour s'aller unir et perdre dans I'immense grandeur de son Dieu. Mon entendement demeure dans un aveuglement si grand, qu'il n'a aucune lumiere ni connaissance que celle que le divin Soleil de justice lui communique de temps en temps. C'est en autre preparation que celle que

me

.

.

.

ce temps que j'emploie toutes mes forces pour I'embrasser, non pas des bras du corps, mais des interieurs, qui sent les

mon ame. J'eprouve encore des me semble que ma poitrine est toute qu'il

puissances de puissants,

.

.

.

attraits

si

traversee

de rasoirs, ce qui m'ote souvent le pouvoir de soupirer, n'ayant de mouvement que pour respirer avec bien de la peine. La partie inferieure ne voit ni ne connait ce qui se passe en la partie superieure de mon ame, qui s'oublie elle-meme et n'a d'autre desir que de s'unir et se perdre dans son Dieu. Voilk les plus ordinaires occupations de mon oraison, non pas que je fais, mais que mon Dieu fait en moi, sa chetive creature." .

Vie par Ses Co?ite?npo?'aines— Vie et CEuvres,

.

.

—

t.

i.

MYSTICISM

176

thrown by heretical or immoral inferences upon the source to which

discredit

necessarily

Where the alleged mystical they are ascribed. state fulfils the conditions which admit of its being attributed to a supernatural cause, and the inferences based on it are in accord with the principles of religion and morality, there is

practically

no room

for doubt.

CHAPTER X MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy

is

AND RELIGION

the explanation of facts

;

and

since

mysticism is undoubtedly a fact, it necessarily has a certain relation to philosophy, and

falls

within

its

But mysticism, unlike other philosophy has

to

take

legitimate

scope.

of

which

facts

account,

normal function of the human is

not open

to

be dealt

direct

is

not

a

faculties,

and

It

can

investigation.

with

through the reports of mystical contemplatives, and no analysis of mystical states is attainable except such as only

furnished

by the mystics themselves, illequipped as they most frequently are for such is

a purpose. parallel

Mysticism

of sensation,

to

indeed the exact its

immediate and

But whereas sensation

is

mankind, and the investigator

is

intuitive character.

common

in

is

177

M

MYSTICISM

178

therefore able to consider

sented in his

own

it

directly, as repre-

consciousness, as well as

through the reports of other people, as to mysticism he is mostly restricted to the indirectly,

latter

method, and to a number of examples

which, as compared with examples of sensation, Thus though the nature is exceedingly small. of mystical experience

seems naturally

to be

as legitimate a subject of enquiry as that of sensation,

the

under

limitations

which

the

enquiry has to be pursued are so great as practically to destroy the parallelism altogether.

And

how

seeing

little

has so

it

far

been

possible to discover in regard to the nature

and cause of sensation, in spite of the comparatively numerous existing facilities for the not surprising that philosophy should have little or nothing to say about

purpose,

it

is

mysticism, which offers so

much narrower a

field for investigation.

Those

writers,

therefore,

who have

con-

sidered mysticism of the true or supernatural kind from the point of view of philosophy,

have probably acted wisely

in

consider

aspects

the

transcendental

declining of

to

the

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION matter,

and confining themselves

179

to conjectural

expositions of the psychological processes in-

volved

in

mystical states.

Mystical theology has, however, one point of contact with philo-

bearing on natural theology, offering as it does an experimental verification of the rational proof of the existence of in

sophy,

its

God, and of the

*^

human

substantial"

soul.

Such experimental evidence has been thought by some to be furnished by the doubtful

phenomena

of spiritualism

but

;

be contended that the very much able evidence of mysticism is

more worthy of acceptance. It must be added, however, mysticism were more than it is, it would

in

may

fairly

less question-

considerably

that

to

open still

it

even

if

investigation

essence be

its

beyond the purview of philosophy, as belonging exclusively to a region of which philosophy must

itself

causes

Cause

"

—

tent in in

stop

short.

The

"

science

cannot deal inductively with the First the caicsa catisarum, but must be conall

cases with noting

its

effects

regard to that particular effect on the

soul

of

;

and

human

which constitutes mysticism, philosophy

MYSTICISM

i8o

can do

little

occurrence.^ refuses

to

accept

the

existence

of

a

tran-

Cause cannot, as we have seen, treat mysticism on its tran-

scendental already

more than barely recognise its That species of philosophy which

First

—

scendental side as anything but a delusion relying, as it must, in the absence of direct evidence, merely on a negative presupposition.

With

religion,

on common ground, religious experience.

object of

all

mysticism stands being itself a form of Its object is indeed the

however,

religion, properly so called, since

nothing less than the actual vision of God, which is the final consummation of all that is is

it

sought by religious practices of any kind. ^

But

Such attempts as that of M. Rdcdjac

to formulate a purely of theory mysticism necessarily part company metaphysical with the Christian, and even with the Theistic principles on which true mysticism is based. From their point of view, the " " " tous les universal mysticism consists of moyens de transcendance qui tendent k egaler I'experience aux desirs de la

liberte"; hence

it is required "que la charactere symbolique de nos rapports avec I'Absolu serait franchement reconnu, c'est-k-dire qu'on renonce k I'intuition directe d'une essence divine, universelle et infinie." (R^cejac, Fondemenis de la A tendency in the Connaissance Mystique^ pp. 4, 5 184.) same direction appears in Professor Inge's Personal Idealism and Mysticism^ where mysticism is described as " a type of religion which puts the inner light above human authority, and finds its sacraments everywhere." ;

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY

AND RELIGION

i8r

whereas

mysticism attains in this world to some degree of immediate and experimental

knowledge of God, religion this final reward to a future

Here God

is

known

through His works perceived

in

general remits state of existence. in

indirectly, or theoretically,

His direct influence

;

the action of divine grace, and

His supernatural presence

is

recognised by the transubstantiated elements of the

faith in

But the direct intuition of the divine

Eucharist.

being

is

itself

is

not

the

among

advantages its members.

guaranteed by the Church to We have thus to consider the

frequently

propounded question of the relation between " '* institutional mysticism and what is called religion

— that

is,

a religion

the

doctrines

of

which are defined, and of which the practices are rigorously enjoined by a supreme and un-

questionable

regarded as being,

is,

it

is

obligations,

doctrines

imposed

authority.

often

extent,

the tendency of mys-

;

thought,

external

are

a very great

to

mutually incompatible ticism

The two

authority.

and by

to to

depreciate

the

disregard

the

organised

religious

MYSTICISM

i82

Something has already been said on this The alleged opposition between myspoint. and scholasticism (which deals mainly with the doctrine and discipline imposed by

ticism

external authority) has been seen to be purely

The same may undoubtedly be imaginary. said of the alleged antagonism between the system of the Church, which follows certain prescribed methods in regard both to

practical

life

and

devotion,

and

the obligatory elements of Christian

those

the inner

individual

to

free

left

of contemplation, for which no

life

down beyond such

rules are laid

drawn from the recorded

may be

as

practices

of pious

persons.

The fold

fact

that

is

human

nature has a two-

and consequently a twofold set On the one hand, man is a ''social

aspect,

of needs.

animal," and

cannot

even

a truly

human

life,

lead

kind of social organisation

exist,

in is

much

isolation

;

less

some

an absolute neces-

regard alike to his material, On the intellectual and moral requirements.

sity for him,

in

other hand, the

life

of every

and personal;

he

is

man

is

individual

self-conscious and

re-

AND RELIGION

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY

as well as active and responsive

flective,

social

activities

not exhaust the

**

human

to

necessary

:

life

183

the

do

abysmal depths of person-

social

which nevertheless can only exist in a The ideally perfect conenvironment.

dition

is

ality,"

one

both sides of

needs are

in

which

full

human

fully

nature

provided

—

allowed to

is

play in

which

social

and individual

for,

thought, feeling and enterprise are hampered

by no

restrictions

such

but

as

needed

are

Probably no State has ever existed, or can ever exist, in which their

for

this

due protection.

perfect

balance

is

the

maintained

;

in

the

restrictions

imposed,

deeply as they affect the external

activities

Church,

of the

however,

individual,

are

merely the necessary

safeguards of spiritual liberty.

Thus in

in

the Church, as to a great extent

the State, compliance with the obligations

imposed

by external

authority

is

no more

than the necessary condition of the exercise of personal liberty.

Freedom

for the citizen

implies a condition of things in which his

life

and property are duly protected, not one in which he is left entirely to shift for himself;

MYSTICISM

i84

and

dom

manner, religious or spiritual freeonly possible under circumstances in

in like is

which the fundamental needs of are supplied, and

A

man may

not,

spiritual life

its

energies rightly directed.

in

a rightly ordered State,

that is, preach sedition or commit suicide he is not allowed to violate the conditions ;

under which alone he and his neighbours can In like powers. manner, the Church forbids her members to

freely exercise

neglect the

means of

But freedom natural, in

to

grace, or to teach heresy.

enjoy

natural or super-

life,

not interfered with, but safeguarded

each case. It

of

is

their natural

is,

undeniable

indeed,

human

nature

is

that

from time

one aspect

to time

unduly

The emphasised at the other's expense. "Friends of God" and the disciples of Molinos, like

the

many forms

of

Protestantism,

un-

doubtedly were led by their principles to make light of Christian

authority.

On

institutions

and of Church

the other hand, a too exclusive

attention to the external

and

legislative aspects

of religion frequently produces such an intellectual aridity as

may be observed

in the later

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

and degenerate istic

formalism

185

scholastics, or such a material-

as

to

rise

gave

the religious

notions upheld by Febronius and put in practice

by the Emperor Joseph

or to the extravagant

;

ideas of the spiritual authority of the

State

which were entertained by Hobbes. But it should be observed that this depreciation of external obligations has never resulted simply

from mysticism, rightly understood, but only from speculative principles alleged to be de-

duced from mysticism, and wrongly with

it.

collision

identified

True mysticism cannot come into with Church ordinances of any kind,

simply because It belongs to a totally different it can no more be the subject of sphere ;

Church

than

the

weight or ear for music of the population can be legislation

height,

the subject of State decrees. It

is,

human

unfortunately,

within

the

—a

power of

power too frequently exerto separate things that are naturally and cised Faith and charity, public properly united. and domestic affection, respect for spirit

—

beings

authority

and individual

complementary

virtues.

enterprise,

But

in

are

all

point of fact

MYSTICISM

i86

without charity, public men are not invariably models of domestic virtue, nor

faith

exists

are the most enterprising

most law-abiding. to

But

maintain that there

tion

between the two

pairs of excellences

absurd

to

;

it

is

always the would be absurd

spirits

any natural opposi-

factors of

and

it

is

any of these

really not less

imagine any natural

between mysticism and

spiritual

antagonism authority, or

that they can be mutually opposed otherwise

than by the practical inadequacy due to the infirmities of

human

nature.

has been abundantly shown that mysticism in a true sense different in kind, and not

It is

from prayer and contemplation of the natural order. But it does not merely

in degree,

by any means follow that the two are regarded as radically

On

independent. connection

distinct,

the

between

be

or as mutually

contrary,

them

to

which

there

is

may

a

per-

haps be characterised as that of continuity, as distinct from identity. The soul, it will be

remembered,

has,

ordinarily

speaking, to go

through a preparation before the life of mystical contemplation can be entered upon and ;

AND RELIGION

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY this preparation is in

of

the lower, or

and

devotion

187

nothing more than exercise

more commonplace methods All

piety.

an

is

religion

God, and mysticism represents, not a short cut, but an advanced stage of the

approach

journey

to

—the

more advanced the

more frequent or constant

The

condition.

traveller

is

stage,

the

mystical

out

sets

the

on

his

journey with no sight of his distant goal before him he knows only that he is on the right ;

and he recognises features in the landscape which others who have made the journey before him have noted, and which assure him

road,

of his progress in the right direction. is

not

catches

till

he nears

sight,

mittently, of the city

he

at is

it

end that he

his journey's

indistinctly

But

first

bound

and

inter-

for.

The

towers and spires grow clearer and clearer as he approaches them they are seen

distant

;

no longer ing at

glimpses, vanishing and reappearthe turns of the road till at last in

;

the whole mass of buildings comes into sight,

be

full

even while some distance remains to

travelled

before

the

pilgrim

can

pass

through the gates and take his well-earned

MYSTICISM

i88 rest.

one thing to see the finger-posts observe the landmarks by the way-

It

and

is

to

and quite another to see the city standing graceful and sunlit, like a welcoming host, Yet both are incidents of at the road's end. side,

the

same journey, and the end cannot

be

reached without the beginning.

The

between the two

relation

states

may

be

very clearly seen in the Imitation of Christ a book which probably owes much of its vast popularity to its constant recurrence to the

—

elementary duties of religion and morality, and its insistence on the necessity of their performance as the prerequisite of the more exalted **

spiritual

"purgative,"

and **unitive" ways are seen, speak, together, and are dealt with as

illuminative

so to

The

states.

"

aspects

or

constituents

of the Christian

as a whole, to the completeness of which

three

are necessary,

of equal

importance.

passages are

in

The

comparatively

and the abundance of

book

and,

contains

has

different

purely

few

life

all

ways,

mystical

and short

;

practical directions the

sometimes

caused

its

mystical character to be entirely overlooked

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY

AND RELIGION

189

This disproportion, however, is quite sufficiently to be accounted for by the character of the work,

in

life

spiritual

which

that of a directory of

is

and not a

general,

scientific

on any particular department of In such a book attempts at describing the

treatise

it.

in-

phenomena of mysticism would

describable

obviously have been

out

of

place,

whereas

lower and preliminary states admit of and require minute But the tone of the whole book explanation. the

practical

details

of

the

and the most commonplace duties and the most humiliating strivings with temptais

mystical,

tion are in a

by the tend.

manner illuminated and

brilliancy of the

Thus,

in

point of

glorified

which they the higher and

result to fact,

the lower elements, the mystical and the nonmystical,

the purgative,

the illuminative

the unitive, are blended in actual

human

and ex-

The

proportion may indeed vary with some, the mystical almost indefinitely

perience.

;

consciousness would seem to be almost habitual,

and exceptional

privilege.

in greater or less degree, all the

elements

and with others a But

rare

MYSTICISM

I90

of Christian

are present in

life

its

highest and

most perfect form.

From

we

this

are led to the consideration

of a question of very great interest, in regard

which a speculative opinion may be considered allowable for which no direct evidence

to

Since the higher walks of

can be adduced.

spirituality are thus inevitably interpenetrated

by the lower, and since no height of mystical contemplation will wholly emancipate the contemplative from the humble necessities of

penance and of temptation, is to suppose that the lower

not possible life need not it

wholly exclude the higher, but however dry and commonplace and, generally speaking, un-

may

nevertheless

may

spiritual

it

enriched

by some occasional the

in

participation

be,

privilege

and of

be

transient

the

more

admitted by all spiritual writers that the mystical life does not exclude

perfect state

?

It

is

the vicissitudes of the ordinary or non-mystical states.^

^

E.g.^ Suarez,

Mystical V.

Little

13,

14.

De

or

Orat.^

Theology, ch.

1.,

nothing

is

said

by them,

i. 2. 11 and cf. Devine, Ma?iual of and Macarius, Christian Perfection, ;

AND RELIGION

MYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY

191

however, as to the possibility of some measure of the higher life entering into the lower

—

of

some passing

"

foretaste of

infused

"

con-

templation being granted to those whose lives are, as a whole, by no means of the contemplative order.

such

that

Yet

may be

it

seems natural

the case.

to

suppose there is no

If

incongruity in the recurrence in the unitive life of the distinctive features of the purgative, there

can

hardly

occurrence of the

be

the

occasional

converse process

seems not unreasonable a largesse of spiritual best are unworthy,

in

any

;

and

it

suppose that such favours, of which the to

may be

occasionally granted

even to the most undeserving. be denied that an aspect which

It it

can hardly is

difficult

from that of genuine mysticism times to belong to some of the inward

to distinguish

seems

at

experiences of ordinary persons who have no thought or knowledge of the contemplative life.

too

Such

states of consciousness are, indeed,

transitory

and elusive

to

with any degree of certainty that they are really no

;

be judged of and it may be

more than the product

of purely natural feeling.

Proof

is

either

way

MYSTICISM

192

out of the

question.

But

It

is

at

least

an

allowable opinion that the "mystical element " in religion may extend beyond the limits within

which

kind

attainable

is

alone ;

evidence

of any

direct

and such an opinion must

unquestionably be nearer the truth than that

which would equalise

by denying

all

to mysticism

natural character.

religious experience its

genuinely super-

CHAPTER

XI

DIONYSIUS

The

of the

authority

for us

(whatever

earlier

and

less

may

Dionysian writings have been the case

critical

is

in

times) derived rather

from the use made of them to express the received doctrines of the Church than from

any

view or

identity

history

public

is

may be

that

position

of

entertained of the

a curious one.

notice

first

received

a conference held at

at

the

in

stantinople

Their

writer.

They

year 533

the

Con-

between repre-

sentatives of orthodoxy under Hypatius, Bishop of Ephesus, and those of a Monophysite sect called after

and headed by Severus, patriarch

of Antioch.

appealed

to

Areopagite

The the as

Severians at this conference writings

the

Monophysite quotations were disallowed

upholding

doctrine, but their

the

of Dionysius

193

N

MYSTICISM

194

From probably spurious. time forward an increasing importance as

by Hypatius that

was attached

the

to

works attributed

the

to

Areopagite, not only by heretical writers, but also

orthodox

by

mentioned

may be

Alexandria

in

580,

among whom

Catholics,

Eulogius,

patriarch

of

Pope Gregory the Great,

and Maximus, the author of lengthy scholia on the Dionysian books and Dionysius was ;

by the Lateran Council

referred to

649 as

in

On

an authority against Monothelitism. introduction

France

of

the Dionysian

into

writings

the eighth century the idea arose

in

that the author

of France

the

;

was

identical with St

Denys

and Hilduin, abbot of St Denys

subsequently did much to promote the authority of the Areopagite by means of

at

Paris,

this

patriotic

hardly

be

identification,

said,

has

no

which,

need

it

value

historical

whatever.

The works

of Dionysius were

lated into Latin by Hilduin, and

first

trans-

somewhat

later

by John Scotus Eriugena other translations were made by John Sarrazenus, Grosseteste, ;

Thomas

Vercellensis,

Ambrosius

Camaldu-

DIONYSIUS lensis,

195

Marsilio Ficino and Balthasar Corderius.

Commentaries were written by Hugo of St Magnus, St Thomas Aquinas and Dionysius the Carthusian and the great Victor, Albertus

;

make

scholastics sius

copious references to Diony-

— notably St Thomas Aquinas.

was the

Dionysius

with some pardonable exaggeration, founder of the Scholastic method, by

called,

who

gives an imposing Thomas's references to him. Corderius,

Doubts began once more

to

list

be

of St

cast

on

the genuineness of the Dionysiaca by writers of the Renaissance period raised by Lorenzo Valla,

:

the question was

and was

long a subject of vehement controversy, which can hardly be said even yet to be at an end, for

though the opinion of the most recent and most competent scholars is on the negative

The arguments on each

side.

briefly 1.

summarised as follows

The

:

—

side

may be

style is not that of the sub-apostolic

age, but closely resembles that of later

Neo-

platonist writers. 2.

The correspondence

of ideas between the

works of Dionysius and those of Neoplatonist

MYSTICISM

196

more

authors, close

De

Proclus,

is

very-

moreover, extracts from Proclus's work

;

Subsistentia

in

Malorum

appear, as has been

Stiglmayer and the treatise of Dionysius, De Divinis

out

pointed

Koch,

of

especially

by Professors

Nominibus. 3.

No

mention

is

made

of the Dionysian

writings by any author earlier than the sixth

century

:

nor are they mentioned by Eusebius or

St Jerome authors.

in their catalogues of ecclesiastical

The

writings

in

which they were

thought to have been referred to before that period have now been proved to be of much

more recent 4.

date.

Certain rites and ceremonies are men-

tioned as customary in the writer's time which

were unknown

the contemporaries

to

of the

Other anachronisms are the menAreopagite. tion of monks the use of the word v-wodTacn^ ;

(substantia) in

later or

its

post-Nicene sense

;

a reference to ecclesiastical tradition as apxdta 7rapaS6(Ti9=^^ the ancient tradition";

of the well-known

Rome,

*'

My

love

is

a quotation

phrase of St Clement of crucified" [Div.

Nom.,

4),

though St Clement's martyrdom did not take

DIONYSIUS

whom

death of St Timothy, to Treatise de Div. No7n. is dedi-

after the

till

place

197

the

and who

moreover, addressed by the " at a supposed time author as 7rar?=" child cated,

when

is,

the designation could scarcely have been

appropriate.

None of these arguments were altogether unknown to antiquity, though some of them have been considerably strengthened by modern research. They were replied to at some length by Monsignor (afterwards Archbishop) Darboy, who fairly reproduces all the considerations that have been adduced in favour

of the Dionysian authorship from St

Maximus

onwards. I.

to

It

the

is

contended

early

that

philosophical

style

is

due

education

of

the

the

Areopagite, which would naturally have imparted to it many of the characteristics of

Neoplatonism agreeing

;

with

it

may

the

fairly

be considered as

presumed

date

of

the

author.

&

The correspondences between the Dionysiaca and Proclus may be due to plagi2

3.

arism on the part of the Neoplatonist, rather

MYSTICISM

198

than of the Areopaglte.

when advancing

this

Georgius Pachymeres, suggests

opinion,

that

Dionysian works may have been suppressed by the Athenian philosophers who the

borrowed from them 4.

for their

own

The anachronisms found

purposes.

in

Dionysius

are capable of being explained away. it

is

fairly certain

Thus,

that the essentials of such

ceremonies as the blessing of the baptismal water, triple immersion at baptism, and the rites for

blessing the

Holy

Oils were in use

Apostolic or sub-Apostolic times, though the strange not then committed to writing in

;

ceremony of anointing the dead, mentioned by Dionysius, is found to have been a Jewish, and therefore probably also an early Christian custom. Monks {therapeutce) need not be understood to class

time.

so

mean

coenobites

called

certainly

The

use of "

i.,

person,"

The

is

in

in

'*

and the word

used

is

its

a

Philo's earlier

paralleled

in the

same

predecessor of St quotation from St Ignatius

sense by Alexander, Athanasius.

existed

virocrraa-i's,'"

and untechnical sense of from Heb.

or hermits, and

may have been added

the

in

a recension by the

DIONYSIUS author, or

and a

may have been

nation of St

in 2

work of a

the

copyist; "

*'

parallel to the

may be found

T99

phrase apxaia TrapaSoa-i^ The desigThess. ii. 14.

Timothy

as ''child"

is

justified

by an elaborate calculation of the comparative ages of Dionysius and St Timothy. On the whole, it may be held that though the Dionysian authorship is not absolutely disproved, the balance of probability is strongly against

it.

may have it

is

Who

the writer,

been, or

not Dionysius,

when he may have

;

lived,

Various dates

quite impossible to say.

have been suggested

made

if

but the use apparently

of the writings of Proclus

to one not earlier than 462.

seem

to point

Hipler's theory

was a theologian of the fourth century whose works were, by a misunderthat the author

standing, attributed to Dionysius, found

favour at the

time of

some

its

production (1861), It is indeed but is now generally rejected. difficult to suppose that the direct statements of the author to the effect that he had been

a disciple of St Paul, that he remembered the eclipse at the time of the Crucifixion, and that he

was present with St Peter and

his

MYSTICISM

200

unknown master Hierotheus

Otherwise

at the

Blessed Virgin, are made with any other purpose than that of supporting his identity, whether real or assumed. interment of

It is

of

the

some

practical importance to con-

sider

whether the value of the books

way

discredited

which may with

is in

any

by the unauthentic character at least great probability

be

attributed to them.

In the

first

place,

it

would probably be un-

regard them simply as a forgery. As Monsignor Darboy has remarked, no possible

fair to

motive can be assigned kind.

They

for a forgery of

this

could hardly, like the forgeries

of Chatterton, have been intended to reflect

on their supposed discoverer, or to be a source of profit to him and the supposition credit

;

that

they

may have been

intended to give

support to the cause of orthodoxy is hardly consistent with their subject-matter, which is not directly concerned with any of the controversies belonging to the time of their appear-

ance.

Moreover, though perfectly orthodox, they were first quoted in favour of heretics, to whose views they gave no real support. It

DIONYSIUS

20I

must be remembered that our present ideas of literary propriety had by no means obtained acceptance in the modern device of for

historical,

speculation

sixth

century

not

yet

and our a vehicle

fiction

making

or

theological

been

discovered.

philosophical

had

;

Romances were, however, not unknown, and pseudonymous works of a character

loo^ical

We

may

fairly

existed

have intended

to

and theo-

some

numbers.

in

consider that the Dionysiaca

combined both characters.

seem

historical

The

author would

to give the

Christian

rendering of the philosophico-religious system evolved by Plotinus and later Neoplatonism

;

and he may have sought for

to gain

a hearing

views by publishing them under the of one who had held positions of honour

his

name both

in

the

Pagan and

For the sake of

in the

Christian world.

verisimilitude the appropriate

contemporary references were rather crudely

Whatever, therefore, we may think of the artistic character of the work, we have

inserted.

no more right

upon it the moral stigma of forgery than to condemn on similar grounds such works as Waverley, John Inglesant or En Route. to fix

MYSTICISM

202

But

in

any

case, the

which cannot be

work

affected

is

of a character

by the authority

example, a historical work professedly written by a conattributed

to

its

author,

as,

for

temporary would be. The Dionysian books must stand on their own merits, no matter

by whom or at what time they were written what they say is true or false for all times :

and

all

not

in

persons. their

Their authority,

authenticity,

as

the

for us, lies

works

of

any particular writer, but in the fact that they have been adopted by the Church as truly representative of certain phases of her

doctrine,

and as containing nothing contrary

it

in fact,

:

it

is,

the long

list

the accumulated authority of

of approved writers

has been based on, or

This

is

more

to

in

whose work

accordance with them.

especially the case with

the

Mystical Theology and the three letters connected with it. These deal simply with the

between God, the world of created things, and the soul of man. They depend on no references to persons, places or events, relations

but appeal to that perception of the inner truth of things which is alike in all ao-es and

DIONYSIUS all

countries,

203

and which probably no man

is

altogether without.

The

other extant works of Dionysius are

the

Divine Names, the

the

Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,

The

translated.

Names

and

six

letters

in addition to the three

on different subjects, here

Celestial Hierarchy,

of Divine

Treatise

deals with the unique, transcendental

which

nature of God, creates

fulness

and gives

of

that

all

to each

its

superabundant

external

is

order of being

degree of the divine likeness, and

to

its its

God, proper

function

of communicating a share of the divine gifts to the order

to

below

remark that we

it.

It

is

hardly necessary have here the Christian

rendering of the Neoplatonic one," the Neoplatonic and Gnostic doctrines of emanation, **

and the Gnostic on

a

in

''

Pleroma," or fulness, touched

manner somewhat

like

Dion-

the

ysian treatment by St John and St Paul. John i. Eph. i. 23 iii. 19 Coloss. i. 19

In

the

other

hierarchy in

ous

orders

its

of

;

;

;

;

two

treatises,

ninefold choirs,

the

Church,

penitent, are described.

the

(St ii.

9.)

Angelic

and the

vari-

from bishop to

These are the more

MYSTICISM

204

and important examples of the creative energy that flows out from the one personal God, as the primeval Creator, and as the in-

Striking

Head

carnate

God

is

considered as in a true sense immanent

in the creatures

cends

In these books

of the Church.

;

which

He

nevertheless trans-

as in the Mystical Theology, the necessity

on of rising above the created manifestations of the divine power and excellence, is

insisted

for those

who

desire to obtain

of the Creator as

The

He

is

in

some knowledo-e

Himself.

Neoplatonism, in both terminology and method, is obvious enough in

influence

of

the Dionysian writings, and through

them

has directly or indirectly passed into nearly the mystical literature of subsequent ages. But, as we have already seen, the pantheistic

all

doctrines of Neoplatonism are entirely rejected

by Dionysius, and are indeed incompatible with his view of creation and of the relations, actual or possible, It

may

between God and the

therefore be

soul.

plausibly surmised that

the main object of the author was to present the orthodox Christian view of the funda-

mental

questions

with which

all

philosophy

DIONYSIUS

205

and theology has to deal, in the form which would be most acceptable to the contemporary philosophic mind, and in terms of that

mode

of thought which was '*in the air" at the time of writing. In much the same way Aris-

was christianised by St Thomas, and many apologetic works of the last fifty years have sought to express the concepts of totelianism

Christian

theology

terms

in

of

the

current

physiology and psychology.^

Dionysius refers to several works of his

which seem

to

have

own

remained entirely un-

known, and which are by some thought to These are have had no real existence. Theological Outlines, Sacred

Hymns, Symbolic Theology, The Just Judgment of God, The Soul, and The Objects of Sense and Intellect.

A

full

account of the Dionysian writings

is

given by Professor Stiglmayer in the American a less recent one is Catholic Encyclopcedia ;

be found

to

Biography. 1

the Dictionary of Christian

in

The

available

"These works were intended

to

evidence for the show

that

all

which the

Platonic school had gathered of truth in all parts of the world and in all ages, is to be found in a far purer and more complete

form

in Christianity."

Diabolique

(tr.

— Gorres,

par Ste Foix),

Mystique Divute Naturelle

vol.

i.

p. 67.

et

MYSTICISM

2o6

authorship

discussed

is

Darboy's CEuvres

in

Lupton's introduction to Dean Colet's Paraphrase of Dionysius, and Barden-

de St Denys,

hewer's Patrologie,

in

Modern translations have been published German by Engelhart (1823) and Storf

{Kirchliche Hierarchie,

and

1877),

in

French

by Darboy {CEuvres de St Denys, 1845) and Dulac (1865). In EngHsh a translation was completed in 1895 by Rev. J. Parker; and a translation of the Mystical Theology was published in

London

of sermons by John

in

1653,

in

a volume

Everard, D.D., entitled

So7ne Gospel Treasures opened: or the Holiest

of all Unvailing

— whereunto

is

added the

Mystical Divinity of Dionysius the Areopagite, spoken of Acts xvii. 34.

The most edition

recent,

of the

text

and the most accessible of Dionysius

is

that

of

published at Antwerp 1634, and frequently reprinted, together with Latin translation, translator's notes, the commentary Corderius,

S.J.,

Maximus and the same meres

of St

;

the paraphrase of Pachyedition

Migne's Greek Patrology.

is

included

in

CHAPTER

XII

THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

Chapter lV/iai( the

I

Divine Darkness

is

Summary.— (i) Address to the Blessed Trinity. (2) Those to whom mystical knowledge is open must be distinguished from those who do not realise the transcendental character of the divine nature, and still more, from those who liken the Creator to the creature in idolatry:

whereas

existence

are

the

to

same time such

in

God

be found qualities

all

qualities

eminenter

cannot

of created

— though

at

be predicreated things. In strictly

cated of Him, who is above all other words, God transcends creation,

but

all

the

perfections of creatures are derived from Him, and constitute a certain likeness to Him. Hence the

—

Gospel is both great and small />., it declares the manifold variety and complexity of God's works, but His own absolute simplicity and unity. (3) Therefore those

who would

see

God must

beyond the which is beyond human and speech, and must therefore, pass

limits of creation, into a state

knowledge and light from the point of view of created beings, be called 207

MYSTICISM

2o8

one of ignorance, darkness and silence; as Moses was commanded to separate himself from all impurity before entering the Divine presence, so those who would now enter that presence must separate themselves from all created things.

Most

exalted Trinity, Divinity above

all

know-

whose goodness passes understanding, who dost guide Christians to divine wisdom

ledge,

;

direct our

way

most

oracles,

summit of thy mystical incomprehensible, most lucid

to the

and most exalted, where the simple and pure and unchangeable mysteries of theology are revealed in the darkness, clearer than of

that

hidden

;

silence

which secret

in

light,

things

are

a darkness that shines brighter than

light, that invisibly

and intangibly illuminates

with splendours of inconceivable beauty the soul that sees not. Let this be my prayer ;

but do thou, dear Timothy, diligently giving thyself to mystical contemplation, leave the senses,

and

and

the

operations of

and

the

intellect,

intelligible,

and

things that are and things that are not,

that

all

things

thou mayest

sensible

rise as

may be

by ways above knowledge

lawful for thee,

to union with

Him

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS

who

is

above

209

knowledge and all being freedom and abandonment of all, thou all

;

that in

be borne,

through pure, entire and absolute abstraction of thyself from all things,

mayest

into

the supernatural

radiance of the divine

darkness.

But see that none of the uninitiated^ hear these

I

things.

mean

who

those

cleave

to

created things, and suppose not that anything exists

nature

a

after ;

supernatural

manner,

above

own natural know Him who has made

but imagine that by their

understanding they darkness His secret place.

But

if

the principles

of the divine mysteries are above the underThe

1

Uninitiated.

first

two classes of uninitiated here

re-

the less spiritually minded among Christians, the heathen. Corderius considers that by the secondly, non-Christian philosophers rather than Christians of any

ferred to are,

and

— The

first,

kind are intended but the Neoplatonist contemplatives could hardly be described in the terms here used, and they only could :

have been the "philosophers" in question. The distinction drawn by some between the words by which the two classes are designated (d^i^Tjrot = not fully instructed, and d^i5(rrai=not formally admitted) is perhaps fanciful, but explanation of the classification intended.

is

probably the true

The impotence

of

here stated as contemplation a first principle of mystical theology. Compare St John of the Cross, Asc. ii. 4 "It is clearly necessary for the soul aiming at its own supernatural transformation to be in darkness and the natural faculties in mystical

is

:

far

removed from

all

that relates to

its

natural condition."

MYSTICISM

210

Standing of these, what yet more untaught,

Cause of

all

who

is

to be said of those

call

the absolute First

after the lowest things in nature,

and say that He is in no way above the images which they fashion after various designs of ;

whom they should Him as the cause

declare and affirm that in

of

all,

is

all

may be

that

predicated positively of created things

might

they

yet

more propriety deny Him, as being far above

holding that here denial

;

He

to affirmation, since

is

is

not contrary

infinitely

notion of deprivation, and above tion

while

with

these predicates to all

;

above

all

all

affirma-

and negation.

Thus

the

Theology

is

Bartholomew says that both much and very little, and divine

that the Gospel short.

is

great and ample, and yet

His sublime meaning

the beneficent cause of

and says

little,

and

is

all

is,

I

think, that

things says much,

altogether

silent,

as

having neither (human) speech nor (human) understanding, since He is essentially above all

created things, and manifests Himself un-

veiled,

and as

pass beyond

He

all

truly

that

is

is

to those only

who

either pure or impure,

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS

who

rise

that

darkness where,

211

above the highest height of holythings, who abandon all divine light and sound and heavenly speech, and are absorbed into

He

truly

is,

who

is

as the

beyond

Scripture says,

all

things.

was not without a deeper meaning that the divine Moses was commanded first to be It

himself purified, and then to separate himself

from the impure and after all this purification heard many voices of trumpets, and saw ;

shedding manifold pure beams and that he was thereafter separated from the

many

lights

:

multitude and together with the elect priests

came

height of the divine ascents. Yet hereby he did not attain to the presence of God Himself; he saw not Him (for He the

to

cannot be looked upon), but the place where

He

was.

divinest

This,

and

I

think,

most

signifies

exalted

intelligible things are, as

it

of

that

visible

beneath

who

indicated

above

presence of ing, is

all,

whereby

Him who

and stands, as

it

and

were, suggestions

of those that are immediately is

the

is

passes

all

Him the

understand-

were, in that spot which

conceived by the intellect as the highest

MYSTICISM

J 12

of His holy places free all

;

then that they

and untrammelled by

all

that

is

who

are

seen and

that sees enter into the true mystical dark-

whence

ness of ignorance,

understanding

which

is

is

in

perception of

excluded, and abide in that

intangible

absorbed

all

and

Him who

and belong no more

invisible, is

being wholly

beyond

all

to any, neither to

things,

them-

selves nor to another, but are united in their

higher

part

to

Him who

is

wholly

unin-

and whom, by understanding nothing, they understand after a manner above all telligible,

intelligence.

Chapter How

united with^ and to give praise to Him cause of all things and above all

to be

Summary.

1 1

— Therefore

God

is

only to be

who

is

known

supernatural manner, by abstraction from

all

the

in

a

that

is

Natural sight and knowledge are useless

natural.

and knowing what is above the supernatural can only be perceived in

for the purpose of seeing

nature

:

merely natural. In and knowledge merely obscure

entire separation from all that this sense, natural light

the vision

darkness

"

we can

;

—which

is

is

" luminous only in a darkness because of the absence of

see

God

light, lumi?ious because of the divine presence there made known. As, in order to form our concep-

created

we add

together the divine attributes (in speculative theology), so (in mystical theology) we must subtract them, from the lowest to the highest, tion of God,

in order to arrive at the essential nature of

We

desire

to abide

in

this

God.^

most luminous

darkness, and without sight or knowledge, to ^

The Divine

Attributes.

— God's human

attributes,

such as wisdom,

conceptions in themselves. know them as they are manifested in the works of God, not God is not, so to speak, the mere as they exist in Himself. sum of His attributes, but the simple divine essence, which in

justice,

goodness,

etc.,

are

We

213

MYSTICISM

214

see that which

above sight or knowledge,

is

by means of that very fact that we see not and know not. For this is truly to see and know,

Him who

to praise

above nature

is

in

a manner above nature, by the abstraction of that

all

natural

is

;

as those

who would make

a statue out of the natural stone abstract

all

surrounding material which hinders the sight of the shape lying concealed within, and the

by that abstraction alone beauty.^

It

is

needful,

this abstraction in different aspects is truly say that

God

reveal

as

I

hidden

its

make

to

think,

a manner precisely opposite

each of the divine is love, justice,

attributes.

mercy,

etc.

;

but

Thus we we could

not truly say that love, justice, mercy, etc., together constitute God. Therefore those who, in any sense, see God in Himself must contrive to go behind all those created forms in which

(See Summa Theol. I. xiii. 2, 3.) used by Plotinus (de Pulcritudine, vii.), and adduced as an argument against the identity of the author

His perfection ^

is

is

manifested.

This illustration

is

with the Areopagite by upholders of the contrary view. It expresses very precisely the attitude of mysticism towards the immanence of God, though it cannot be pressed as an illustration of the nature of immanence. The statue is revealed by abstracting superfluous material, as God is made known by But the residuum, which is abstracting all that is not God. the statue, is of the same nature as the abstracted superfluity whereas the abstraction of what is natural leaves only the ;

supernatural, or divine. Compare St John of the Cross, " In every soul God dwells and is substantially present .

when it has driven away from itself the Divine Will, becomes transformed in

soul,

all

that

God by

is

.

ii.

.

5

:

the

contrary to

love."

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS to

that

in

attributes

;

215

which we deal with the Divine for

we add them

together, begin-

ning with the primary ones, and passing from

them

to

but here

the secondary,

we ascend from

abstracting

which

is

all,

and so

to

the

last

the last to the

so as to unveil and

first,

know

beyond knowledge, and which

;

that

in all

hidden from our sight by that which can be known, and so to behold that supernatural darkness which is hidden by all such things

is

light as

is

in created things.

Chapter

of God, and what

IV/iai IS afflr7ned

—

Summary. are

(i)

The Being

of

the

in

expounded

III is

God and

denied of Him the

Names

of

God

Theological Outlines and the

Names respectively, and the method which God is spoken of in terms of

treatise of Divi?ie

according to sensible

is

things

treated

of

in

the

Symbolical

It was obvious that there was less to be Theology.^ said of the divine nature itself than of the different

ways

in

may be partially expressed in human So here we pass in contemplation of God

which

speech.

it

not merely to economy of words, but beyond speech itself. (2) In affirming God's nature we must compare it

with what

which it,

it

is

beneath

is

not,

it

we must

;

but in denying of

distinguish

all

in the

one

and subtract

case,

that

things from

according to their degrees of remoteness.

we add

it

Thus

in the other.

In our Outlines of Theology we have declared those matters which are properly the subject

what sense the holy one, and in what sense three

of Positive Theology

divine nature

what

it

is

is

that ^

;

in

;

is

there called Paternity, and

See preceding chapter.

216

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS what

Filiation

Holy Ghost

217

and what the doctrine of the

;

signifies

;

how from

the uncreated

and undivided good those blessed and perfect Lights have come forth, yet remained one with

the divine nature, with each other, and

undivided by coeternal abiding how Jesus though immaterial in propagation became material in the truth of human nature in themselves,

;

;

and other things taken from Scripture we have

same

Again in the Book of Divine Names (we have shown) how in the

expounded

God

is

called

spiritually

treatise of

how

Being, how Life Virtue, with other names

good,

and Wisdom and

place.

Then in the Symbolical Theology we saw what applied

Him.

to

names have been transferred sensible things

— what

is

to

Him

meant by the divine

forms and figures, limbs, instruments,

adornments,

fury,

from

anger and

grief;

localities,

drunkenness,

oaths and curses, sleep and waking, with other modes of sacred and symbolical nomenclature. I

think you will

last

are

more

exposition

of

have understood why the

diffuse than

theological

explanation of the

divine

the

first

doctrine

;

for the

and

the

names are neces-

MYSTICISM

2i8

on symbolism. proportion as we ascend higher

sarily shorter than the treatise

Because

in

'

our speech is contracted to the limits of our view of the purely intelligible and so now, ;

when we

enter that darkness which

above

is

understanding, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence, and

Thus

the negation of thought.

other

in the

from the highest the measure of this

treatises our subject took us

to

the

lowest,

and

in

descent our treatment of

whereas now we which speech

is is

the

extended

itself;

from beneath to that

rise

and accordingly our

highest,

restrained

height of our ascent

it

in

proportion

but

;

to

the

when our ascent

accomplished, speech will cease altogether, and be absorbed into the ineffable. But why, is

you

will ask,

do we add

to abstract in

we

the last?

affirmed that which

is

in the first

The above

and begin

reason all

is

that

affirmation

by comparison with that which is most nearly related to it, and were therefore compelled to

make ^

a hypothetical^

affirmation

;

but when

HypotheticaV^ (or comparative), z.^., setting one thing below another. God is infinitely higher than the highest created thing and He is to be distinguished from all forms of created ''''

:

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS

219

we abstract that which is above all abstraction, we must distinguish it also from those things which are most remote from

it.

Is not

God

more nearly life and goodness than air or a stone must we not deny more fully that He is drunken or enraged, than that He can be ;

spoken of or understood

?

and low alike yet He is more truly life than a He is more stone (comparative or hypothetical affirmation) absolutely not passionate than ineffable (comparative abstraction or negation). Thus in affirmation " more" is predicated of existence, high

:

:

nearer to God; in negation, of what is remoter from Him In the hierarchy of creation, the higher the form (Corderius). of existence, the greater its resemblance to God yet in all from Creator. is infinite the there the difference of the creature have here the Theistic or Christian rendering of the

what

is

:

We

Neoplatonic and Gnostic doctrines of emanation.

Chapter IV That

He who

supreme cause of all sensible things Himself no part of those things

Summary.

is the

— The

Creator

unintelligent abstraction

from

We

all

not

is

He

yet

;

mere

a

is

lifeless

and

wholly distinct

is

forms of sensible existence.

say that the cause of

Himself above

all

all

who

is

neither without

is

things,

things,

being nor without life, nor without reason nor without intelligence ^ nor is He a body

;

;

nor has

He

quantity

or

visible or

form

mass

;

tangible

nor sensible

;

He

or

;

is

shape,

He He

is

is

or

not

quality

localised

or

or

neither sensitive

subject to

no disorder

or disturbance arising from material passion

He ^

is

;

not subject to failure of power, or to the

The supreme,

with any of

its

universal, or first cause cannot be identified The effects, or with all of them together.

simplicity of the divine nature implies entire distinction from all created things. (See Sumrna Theol. i. 3. 8.)

220

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS accidents light

;

sensible

of

He

or division,

things

;

He

221

needs no

no change or corruption and He or privation or flux

suffers

neither has nor to the senses.

;

is

anything else that belongs

V

Chapter That

He who

supreme cause of all intelligible things Himself no part of those things

is the

— The

Summary.

Creator

distinct

is

from

is

all

merely of forms neither one of existence, being intelligible them nor all of them together.

Again, ascending, we say that He is neither nor has He imagination, soul nor intellect ;

nor opinion or reason nor understanding, and ;

understood

He

;

is

He is

neither

has neither speech neither declared nor

number nor

order,

nor greatness nor smallness, nor equality nor He does not stand likeness nor unlikeness ;

move

or is

power

nor nor

is

or rest

He

time

contact

nor

;

;

;

is

life

nor

He

is

;

He neither has power nor He light, nor does He live, He is neither being nor age is He subject to intellectual ;

neither

nor royalty nor wisdom 222

knowledge nor ;

He

is

truth,

neither one

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS nor unity, nor divinity, nor goodness is He spirit, as we understand spirit

^ ;

;

223

nor

He

is

nor fatherhood nor anything to us or to any other beings, either

neither sonship

known

else

of the things that are or the things that are

He

nor does anything that is, know Him as is, nor does He know anything that is as it

is

He

not

;

;

ledge

has neither word nor

He

;

is

name nor know-

neither darkness nor light nor

truth nor error

;

He

can neither be affirmed

'

deny the things that are

we may affirm or beneath Him, we can

neither affirm nor deny

Him

nor denied

;

nay, though

;

and

sole

tion,

and that which transcends

cause of

subtraction, all

that

all

absolutely

is

for the perfect

above

all

all is

separate,

affirma-

above

all

and beyond

is.

—

^

Neither one nor^ etc. See Letter IL to Caius, where the sense is explained in which this statement is to be understood. There is a sense in which God is His own nature ; i.e.., as it is not in the inadequate sense in which alone it conceived or experienced by us. See Sum^na Theol. in itself,

where

it

may be remarked "Deus

that St

Thomas

may be i.

3.

3,

" Deus says, not

sua Deltas." He can neither be affirmed nor denied. The divine nature cannot be adequately (though it may be truly) defined, either est Deltas," but 2

positively or negatively.

est

—

Letter To Cuius

Summary. only

— The

the

:

but

operation, which transcends

Darkness

much

is

light

ledge,

is

to

precludes

is

but transcendence

such

natural functions.

by destroyed by know-

as

this

be

a supernatural

light, especially

by much knowledge.

especially

must understand tion,

its

destroyed by

ignorance

;

actually

mind knows God by

the

intellect not

means by which God

experimentally known,

knowledge

Monk

the

discursive operation of the

not

is

I

You

implying not priva^

;

and so you must

say with absolute truth, that the ignorance which is of God is unknown by those who

have the created created ^

things,

Transcendence

God

and the knowledge of that His transcendent

light

and

(vvepoxLKCos).

—The

ignorance by which

—

man

than natural knowledge it is not of of the natural ignorance objects knowledge, but the rejection of such knowledge as out of relation to the supernatural sphere sees

in

is

more, not

which God

is

less,

experimentally known.

334

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS

225

and

itself

any

one,

darkness

is

obscures

all

obscured by any

light,

And

knowledge.

seeing God, knows what he sees,

means God created

that

and

it

is

by no

but something For God abides

sees,

knowable.

and existence, and is such sense unknowable and non-existent

above created in

he so

if

that

He

intellect

exists

known above

above

all

existence,

and

is

power of knowledge. Thus the knowledge of Him who is above all that can be known is for the most part ignorance. all

Letter To

— God

the

II

Same

above and beyond that divinity and goodness which we know, which we seek to imitate, and of which we are made partakers, as being their

Summary.

is

source and fountain head.

How

can

He who

above the very

things be also principle of divinity and of is

beyond

all

goodness % By divinity and goodness must be understood the essence of the gift which

makes us good and

divine, or that unapproach-

able semblance of the supreme goodness divinity divine.

and

whereby we also are made good and For since this is the principle of

deification

and

who He who is

sanctification for those

so deified and sanctified, then essential principle of

all

are the

principles (and there-

and goodness) is above that divinity and goodness by means

fore the principle of divinity 226

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS of which

moreover,

we

since

prehensible,

prehension

are

made good and

He

is

227

divine

^ :

inimitable and incom-

He is above imitation and comas He is above those who imitate

and partake of Him. *

—

Man's goodness and sanctity can resemble Inimitable^ etc. God's only analogically, not absolutely. We cannot imitate the unique pre-eminence of God, though we may endeavour with eventful success to fulfil His will perfectly, as He perfectly fulfils His own will.

Letter To Dorotheus

V

the

Deacon

—

Summary. Since God transcends all things, both sensible and intelligible, He can be known only by separation from the senses and the intellect. Thus the inaccessible light in

divine darkness

which

in

He

He

dwells

is

darkness by reason of

excess.

its

The

which

is

God

invisible

outpouring

of

is

is

the inaccessible light

said to

And

dwell.

by reason of supernatural

the

abundant follows

it

light,

since

counted worthy to know and see God, by the very fact that he neither sees nor knows Him, attains to that which

that

whosoever

is

above sight and knowledge, and

is

same time perceives things ^

both

sensible

Beyond all thmgs

(/Jt^erd

that

God

and

vavra)^ not

^

is

beyond

in

"

or

"

with

them —

all

saying

intelligible, "

the

at

"

all

things

has been translated, but "after" i.e., from the human point of view, in which the natural comes before and is

as

it

nearer than the supernatural.

228

MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS with the Prophet,

wonderful to reach are

to

it."

me In

'*

;

Thy knowledge is

it

like

and

high,

manner,

St

Is

become

I

cannot

Paul,

knew God, when he knew Him

told,

229

we to

knowledge and understanding wherefore he says that His ways are unsearch-

be above

all

;

able and His judgments inscrutable, His gifts

unspeakable, and His peace passing standinof

above to all

;

all

as

one who had found

things,

and

whom

all

under-

Him who

is

he had perceived and separate from

be above knowledge, things, being the Creator of

all.

APPENDIX

I

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

Until very

was commonly believed that thought proceeds by means of a succession of mental pictures, sometimes called ''ideas," and more

it

lately

and

"images." Sense-impressions on the physical organs were held to form these pictures in the mind they recently

correctly

;

were afterwards said to be revived, less

clearly,

in

process

of

time

memory. But the most recent psychological

tions — by — have proved

Blihler,

of

less

and

by

the

investiga-

Ach, Watt, Betts and others

the existence in consciousness

"

imageless thought."

Mental

images, of course exist, and are

pictures,

or

part of the

But thought, it has been shown, can and does go on without them and in either case, not mental pictures as

subject matter of thought.

;

230

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE such, but the concept connected with

2^1 ^

them

is

the essential matter with which thought deals.

been shown by Moore that there imageless mental contents representa-

has

It

exist

of

tive

visible

objects

;

and

further,

that

the process of perception consists in assimilation

of the data of sense-experience to their

appropriate mental categories.^

A

series of

experiments performed by Dr.

^

has proved that concepts are not the same as images, but are introspectively dis-

Aveling

criminable from alone

in

them, and can and do occur

consciousness

;

they are, further, capable

of objective reference and of conveying meaning by

themselves, whereas

images are

These experiments have shown essentially

not.

what

is

involved in the thought-process

is

that

Images also appear in it, sometimes as a means of fixing and sustaining

the concept.

thought, and sometimes by mere association, a

concept ^

in its origin

being inevitably connected

The Process of Abstraction, T. V. Moore, Berkeley, U.S.A.,

1910. 2

am

indebted for this information to Dr. F. Aveling, of See T/ie Consciousness of the University College, London. I

Universal, F. Aveling (Macmillan, 191 2).

MYSTICISM

232

an

with

is

cognition character

from

this

The

image.

shown

thus

basis

for

to be

sensational

existential in

no new concept can be formed apart But the concept sensational element. ;

being once formed on this sensational basis, thinking, it has been demonstrated, can take with

place

no

mental

contents

other

than

Concepts, and not images, are the essential elements of thinking. concepts.

These

discoveries

bearing on

the

have a most important

psychic process

involved in

mystical experience, and confirm in a remarkable

way

the account of that process given in

Chapters III., IV. and V. They further supply an explanation of natural mental states bearing

some resemblance which

renders

to

mystical

contemplation, the

hypothesis adopted by Professor James and others, of the existence of states of consciousness of entirely specific quality,

superfluous

and aroused

in certain peculiar

We by external stimulation. see that there is no reason for assuming

temperaments shall

any such

specific

state

order

account

for

to

experiences

or

those

of

consciousness

either

which,

true

in

mystical

though

not

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

233

genuinely mystical, have often been classed with them and that the essentially conceptual ;

nature

thought affords a criterion which

of

renders

it

to

possible

distinguish

accurately

between the two kinds of experience, at least in cases where full information is obtainable.

The

may be

theory

technical terms

stated in

as follows.

two things— the action of that upon which the mind called

mental

the

thought

of

external

object

mental content

is

mental content

;

of thought

This

latter is

because what the

In

derived, but

mind

;

is

the

from which the Is

not the actual

the Immediate subject matter

not

is

acts.

the source

is

less

Thought implies the mind itself and

content^

contained

Is

somewhat

things

In

themselves,

but

those things as they appear in the mind by How, then, are they reprerepresentation.

sented?

Is

by a

it

series

of mental photo-

mind graphs, or by something else which the itself adds to the sensible Impression, thereby Imparting a kind of thought-character to the

impression

?

the essential

was formerly supposed that thing for thought was a picture or

image of the

It

sight,

sound,

touch, &c.,

with

MYSTICISM

234

which the mind had to certain

external clear

and

identified

sense,

object

;

and precise

become

to

image was held

this

at the

moment

its

in

a

the

to

be

formation,

indistinct

when

an increasing has now, however, been

memory

interval of time.

of

and more

fainter

revived by the

and which, the mind with

deal,

It

after

demonstrated that the essential subject matter of thought, or mental content, is not the image of a sensible factor

object, but a

which arises

in the

of sense perception, It

and

purely intelligible

mind is

at the

called the concept.

must therefore be held that the

content derived by the objects

is

moment

total

mental

mind from external

compounded of two kinds of elements,

—

one sensorial and the other conceptual one depending on the stimulation of the senses, and the other on the simultaneous action

mind.

Of

these two

factors,

of the

one, the sensa-

necessary for the original formation of the mental content the other, the conceptual, is tional, is

;

inseparably connected

with

the

sense-image, which apart from the conceptual factor could

not be in consciousness, existence

for

and would have no

consciousness at

all.

The

act

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

235

accordingly a process by which sensational experiences are connected with their of perception

is

Every sensation of Vv^hich

appropriate concepts.

we

are conscious carries with

it

a mental concept,

however elementary or indistinct it may be. The concept, then, is what thought cannot do But can

without.

image

Can we

?

it

do without the sense-

think, that

is

to say, without

any picture or image of what we are thinkinor about ? It has now been demonstrated

recalling

that

we

can,

and very frequently

The

do.

obviously necessary as the original but it is not necessary basis of the concept

image

is

;

subsequent thought that the same image should re-appear (which in fact is never the should be formed. case), or that a new one for

We

can go on thinking by means of concepts

alone.

Images, however,

do appear

in

the

process of thought according to certain fixed

they are useful sometimes as supports to the attention sometimes, again, they are

laws

:

;

merely distracting,

and

neither

help

apparently

Thought

in

some cases they

nor hinder thought.

therefore deals primarily and directly

with concepts, indirectly with images

;

concepts

MYSTICISM

236

are necessarily based on images at the

when

a thing

perceived for the

when

afterwards, is

is

the thing

the concept which

moment

first

time

remembered,

is

;

it

revived, either with or

is

without sense-images. It follows that the concepts existing in a free state in the mind may, to

according

remain

either

circumstances,

concepts and all images, or be associated with fresh images, or with other concepts suggested by those images

from

dissociated

all

other

or by the concepts themselves. I

For

instance,

think of mankind without any mental

may

what the thought means is clear without any further reference. But then after my attention has been fixed for some moments picture at

on

all

;

this object, there arises in

my mind

a vague

image of a typical man then he may become more definite as a particular species of man ;

;

then

more

association

definite I

come

whose appearance

whom

I

picture.

till

by a process of

to think of a particular is

construct a

well

known

more or

to

me, and of

less detailed

Finally, this picture

may

man

mental

easily suggest

and quite different picture of the place which I last saw my friend. The whole pro-

a further in

still,

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE cess

is

a very

common

From

tested.

we

it

one.

and may

see that,

any representative image a free concept

more or

will

ultimately

come

quite

without

itself,

suggest others by nature and

naturally

image or

into

is

secondly, that such

;

less closely allied to

thirdly, that a fresh

be

easily

first, it

possible to consider a concept by

237

it

;

set of

images may the

as

consciousness

mediate consequence of the concept with which the train of thought started. Let us now apply these considerations to the object

of mystical contemplation.

have seen, must be immaterial

;

we

That,

one, that

is,

in

the knowledge of which the senses can have no part,

and which

by images or is

the

is

incapable of representation

pictures.

essential

But

this,

characteristic

we now

of

all

find,

mental

they are essentially immaterial, and merely intelligible, no matter whether accomThe panied by mental imagery or not. objects

:

contemplation

in

of precisely the

itself

God

is

therefore

same kind

as every

of

mystical

other sort of mental consideration

;

it

is

the

consideration of an immaterial object, directly

and without any aid from the senses.

Thus

MYSTICISM

238

the difficulty which has been that the tion of

^

what

is

and

St.

soul can

have a

purely immaterial

takes place

which

St.

entirely got

confirmed by the latest demon-

is

Thomas "

morphism

The

—as the union of matter and form —

present day content.

comes

*'

calls

which the science of the

the

acquisition

to the soul's

Him:

in the

in St.

psychology

He

content."

The two

of

mental

Thomas's language, be-

God, " form

see

process

describes in terms of " hylo-

identical with that

who

direct intui-

is

stration of experimental science.

is

supposing

Thomas's metaphysical explanaof the manner in which the beatific vision

rid of;

tion

embodied

in

felt

*'

matter

"

in

those

language of experimental

becomes

in

them

theories

their ''mental

are

really

the

—

same theory reached by two different roads one inductive and metaphysical, the other deductive and experimental. It is of interest to notice

further that the

place and function assigned by this theory to

revived sense-imagery in thought

is

precisely

that which mystics have assigned to the visions,

locutions

and auditions of mystical experience ^

See

p. 94.

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

239

Such images are, in fact, byproducts, and serve at most as supports to the (see pp. 85, 86).

soul in mystical contemplation of the less exalted, as

compared with the purely

intellectual

kind.

The

reality of the

object of mystical

con-

appears to be of the same character as that of the ordinary objects of thus

templation

The

thought.

own

mystic

who contemplates God

performing an action psychologically identical with that which he performs when he looks into a shop window, or notices in his

soul

is

the faces of the passers-by in the street, or

he

recalls the

knows

appearance of someone

when

whom

he

intelligible

every case primarily an or conceptual object that he con-

templates,

and not primarily a sensible one.

The is,

in

well.

It

is

only difference

in

is

that the conceptual object

the one case, traceable to an origin in

some

sense experience, and, in the other, derived immediately from a directly spiritual source

;

and,

as

has been already remarked,

considerably less

there

is

in

understanding a mental state to be derived from a mental impulse

than

in

difficulty

explaining

the

connection

MYSTICISM

240

between a purely conceptual object of thought and the sense-stimulus on which it depends.

The is

reality of visions, locutions

and auditions

again parallel with that of the revived sense-

images which accompany thought. They are real mental images, and theyaccompany real concepts

—of

this there

can obviously be no doubt.

But

commonly understood the correspondence of that which the mind perceives

by

reality

is

with something external to

by means of the senses. external

Was

reality

it

Is there

— were

it

any such

about the visions of mystics?

the ring received by St.

real rinor

which reaches

the

Rose of Lima a

crown of thorns and the

stigmata of St. Catherine of Siena real in this sense did St. Hildegard actually behold the

—

scenery of her visions, which so evidently recall the scenery of the Rhine and Moselle, in which

her convent stood

— did Julian of Norwich really

see our Lord in a condition of bodily suffering

The answer similar

evidently

visions

is

that these

correspond

?

and other

exactly

to

the

symbolic image which frequently accompanies If I try to think of a tree or revived concepts. a

house fixedly

for a

few moments, a vague

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

241

image of a particular tree or house comes into consciousness. If I dwell in thouorht on some abstract idea, a

vague

understand to be

picture,

symbolic,

which

I

comes

clearly

my

into

''Honour" suggests dimly a robe and crown; ''virtue," an austere and beautiful mind.

the

''humanity,"

figure;

London

street.

Or,

busy

crowd

sometimes,

the

in

a

mere

image of the printed word may attach itself to the concept. In what sense are these images real

—

i.e.,

how

far

thing external

?

do they correspond

to

Evidently, they are

somereal in

virtue of their representation of the

concept they symbolise the sense-impressions from which the concept was originally derived.

not immediate sense-impressions, and is

to be predicated

neither

;

They if

are

reality

only of such impressions

mystical visions nor the countless re-

images of memory on which our conscious life depends can be called real. But

produced if

reality lies, as

presentation to

would appear to lie, in a true the mind in sense-images of the it

concept with which it is occupied, then certainly both may be rightly called real. St. Rose's ring

was a true symbol of the idea connected Q

MYSTICISM

242

with

It

;

the stigmata of St. Catherine were as

symbol of her participation In the suffering of Christ as the visible ones of St. Francis

real a

;

the scenery of St. Hlldegard's visions, though

no doubt primarily derived from her

familiar

surroundings, was, like the symbolic visions of the Apocalypse, made real by the reality of the ideas which they symbolised.

The

true fount

throughout the concept the thing thought or known, rather than the image perThe mystical visions derived their ceived. of reality

reality

called

Is

;

from the actual divine presence which

them

up, just as the reality of a face or

picture in the

memory depends on

preservation of the speak, illustrated

The same

concept,

by the

the actual

which

is,

so to

recalled image.

psychological

discovery

gives

experimental confirmation to the distinction noted In the text (pp. 35, 36) between natural and supernatural states In which features of an

approximately Identical character occur between the true mystical abstraction and the abnormal ;

mental conditions

brought about by natural

causes, such as the prolonged contemplation of

natural objects, pathological states or the use of

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE anaesthetics.

siders

The

late

Professor James

243

con-

abnormal states of consciousness

that

resulting from such causes are psychologically " " " or classic indistinguishable from religious ''

mysticism is

a

and the agreement

;

marked

in detail,

which

feature in religious mysticism,

and

which Professor James regards as affording the strongest available neutralised

sented

to

for

its

claims,

is

by the differences which are preview by mysticism of the nonkind.

religious

support

The

of

claims

religious

mysticism to supernatural causation are over-

thrown by the occurrence of similar states for which no such claim is or can be made. *'

Religious mysticism," Professor James says, " is only the half of mysticism the other half ;

has no

accumulated traditions

except

those

which the text-books on insanity supply." His conclusion is that there is a natural cosmic or consciousness

which

responds to various stimulants, one of the chief of which is mystical

nitrous oxide gas.

This form of consciousness

the only certain fact in mysticism, and though the claims of the higher or religious mysticism is

cannot be

fully substantiated,

It is,

nevertheless,

MYSTICISM

244

possible to suppose that

it

opens the way to a

^*

wider world of meanings, the counting in of which and the serious dealing with it might be indispensable final fullness

We

in

stages

our approach to the

of the truth."

may, as we have seen,

fully

admit the

psychical identity of the process in every case.

The

question

process

is

is

as to the cause

initiated.

by which the

If natural causes can

be

''

cosmic assigned for states in which the consciousness" is brought into operation, can we rightly attribute the similar states of Christian mystics to a supernatural

must we look

for the

cause, or

cause amono- the non-

mystical details of the mystic's ordinary experi-

Our answer is that no such cause can be found, and we are consequently obliged, by

ence

?

a process of exhaustion, to accept the reality of the Christian mystics' experience, which they

themselves attribute to

The

it.

psychological theory

we have

asserts that the concept derived

described

from sense-

experience frequently perseveres in consciousness after the sense-experience itself has passed This concept entirely out of consciousness.

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

245

accordingly be associated with other con-

may

cepts, acquired in the

same way, so

as to produce

ideas which have a particular aspect of their

own unHke

any one of their component elements taken by itself. Such a combination that of

more or

of concepts, together with their

appropriate sense-images,

one

in

of

familiar to every-

dreams.

Now "

is

less

appears certain that such conditions " cosmic consciousness as those cited by it

Professor

James can be

distinctly

traced

to

their source in a sense-image, or sense-impression,

ing

together with the concept properly belongto it. The sense-image drops out of

consciousness for one reason or another, but the

concept remains, and

is

combined with others

already in the mind so as to produce a set of ideas which

seem

belong to a one. But if our

at first sight to

sphere beyond the terrestrial account of the matter is correct, the cosmic consciousness

is

not

needed

;

the

ordinary

mental process is sufficient, in the peculiar circumstances of such cases, to account for the extraordinary experience.

But

in

the experience

of Christian mystics those peculiar circumstances

MYSTICISM

246

are absent

the

'*

;

there

is

no external cause to which

stimulation of the cosmic consciousness"

can be attributed, neither anaesthetic, nor opium, nor brain pressure nor optical strain. are

We

forced

therefore

to

the

conclusion

that

the

psychic process has been initiated by a cause

which does not belong to the sphere of senseexperience, but

is

of the senses

in

capable of producing concepts in the mind without any initiatory stimulation ;

other words, by direct divine

illumination.

An

examination of the different instances

given by Professor James of the arousing of " *' cosmic consciousness will fully bear out this

beyond

" is

capacity

conceptual

its

from

apart

any sense-

concepts

to

form

a

single

together with sense-images memory as the support of the

content,

evoked from

associated concepts. is,

cosmic

further capacity, above mentioned,

associating

mental

show, ''

nothing whatever but the of the mind for purely

thought,

image, and for

to

possibility of doubt, that the

consciousness natural

seem

They would

contention.

in fact,

The

cosmic consciousness

what we have elsewhere described as

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

247

the natural tendency of the mind to mysticism

a tendency which

contemplation

only

by

divine

illumination.

cases cited are the following.

Only which

the

indicates

The

account

part of each

that

abnormal 1.

exploited in various

but which attains to true mystical

directions,

The

may be

—

sensorial

is

quoted of

the

have

fre-

origin

state.

late

'*

Lord Tennyson.

I

This has

quently had a kind of waking trance.

come upon me through repeating my own name to myself silently,

out of the

till

intensity

individuality,

all

at once,

as

it

were,

of the consciousness of itself

individuality

seemed

to

dissolve into boundless being."

Here

the

attention

subjective

consciousness

overstrain

the

individual

was of

fixed self,

on

until

characteristics

the

from

were

and only the concept of being, they had exemplified, remained in

obliterated,

which

consciousness. 2,

The

walk the

late

''When I am oppressed now and then

Canon Kingsley.

fields, I

with an innate feeling that everything I see has This a meaning, if I could but understand it."

MYSTICISM

248

State of mind,

which

really a very

is

common

one, signifies merely the mutual weakening by

and a

multiplicity of the sensible images,

corre-

sponding rise in clearness of their conceptual factors, which again are too numerous to be distinctly grasped in one mental act. 3.

The

late J.

and always when

my

when

Suddenly, at

was reading, muscles were at rest, I

church, or in company, or

felt

"

A. Symonds.

I

the approach of the mood.

It

consisted in

a gradual but swiftly progressive obliteration of space, time, sensation and the multitudinous

which seem to qualify

factors of experience

what we are pleased

to call our

self.

At

last

nothing remained but a pure, absolute, abstract self. The universe became without form and void of content."

This

tion of the process in fade, while the

an excellent descripwhich the sense-images is

concept of

self, still

connected,

perhaps, with internal sensations, persists.

A

long sermon, or dull company, or an uninteresting book, will produce the

same

effect in

minds, from time to time.

It is

merely the

most first

stage of sleep. 4.

An

"anaesthetic

revelation,"

presenting

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE exactly the

three

same "

cases.

essential features as the '

The one

remains, the

249

above

many

'

and each and everyone of change and pass The anaesthetic us is the one that remains." ;

has approximately the same effect as prolonged contemplation of

self,

or of a

natural

and

as

amid

objects,

surroundings

number of

enforced of

incapable

fixed

quiescence the

fixing

attention. 5.

A

*'

mystical experience with chloroform

"

Symonds, with features of a more varied and startling nature than those already of

J.

A.

noted, but of the

same essential

character. ''After

the choking and stifling had passed

my

suddenly,

soul

away

.

.

.

became aware of God, who

was manifestly dealing with me, handling me, so

to

reality. felt.

in

speak,

As

I I

an intense personal present

cannot describe the ecstasy that I gradually awoke from the influence

of the anaesthetics, the old sense of to the world

my relation

began

to

to return, the

God began

myself on the ground, covered with blood, &c."

Here the

to fade.

and

at

my

relation

new sense

... last

I

of

flung

awoke,

''dealing with "and "handling"

were

MYSTICISM

2S0

they were Imperfectly the state of partial anaesthesia, but

evidently the surgeons'

perceived in

served

;

awaken the concept of

to

objective

power and subjective helplessness which were already associated in the patient's mind with traceable

readily

imperfectly 6.

'*

I

has told

on

The

idea of God.

the

felt

that

way home

his

him a vivid and with

the

ecstatic" feeling

same

cause,

an

our police force

who

the

to

is

nerve-stimulation.

know an

me

*'

officer in

many in

when

times

off

duty and

the evening there comes to

vital realisation of his

Infinite

Power,

Peace takes hold of and

and the fills

oneness

Spirit

No

him."

of

one

would grudge the worthy policeman his sense of freedom and peace at the end of his

monotonous day's work.

But

it is

extravagantly superfluous to invoke the cosmic consciousness to explain 7.

An

certain ''

I

it.

instance of the aspects,

to

power of nature, in awaken mystical moods.

was alone upon the sea-shore

.

.

.

and now

again, as once before in the Alps of Dauphine, I

was impelled

to kneel

down,

this

time before

the illimitable ocean, symbol of the Infinite.

I

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE felt

that

I

knew now what prayer

really

is

251

;

to

return from the solitude of individuation into

the consciousness of unity with

The passage from to concepts

with 8.

it is

and

directly

Chapel

— while stick

indirectly associated

''

One brilliant Sunday

boys went to the Unitarian

went further up into the hills and dog. For nearly an hour I I

and

way

back,

heaven."

Ob-

along the road to the On the Fiddle,' and then returned. I

this

viously

that

felt

was the

but

all

was

in

result

none

sense-impressions, striking,

I

of

'

Cat

walked

suddenly

is."

here too clear to need comment.

my wife and

my

that

particular sense-image

A similar instance.

morning with

a

all

of a

medley of

them

especially

combined with

silence, light,

and a sense of general well-being to produce a vivid concept, and correspondingly to weaken particular sense-impressions heaven fresh air

:

was

really the

composite idea aroused by the

Unitarian Chapel, the

hills, light, air

and gentle

exercise. 9.

Another

great Being or

the sky

:

''

anaesthetic

Power was

his foot

revelation."

''

A

travelling through

was on a kind of lightning

MYSTICISM

252

made

people, and

the

of

entirely

of innumerable

spirits

was one of them.

I

seemed

I

to

be directly under the foot of God, and he was

own

grinding his

life

up out of

He means of my

my

bended me, turning his corner by hurt, hurting me more than ever hurt in

my

life,

and

pain.

I

had been

at the acutest point of this,

moment

as he passed,

I

things that

have now forgotten, things that no

I

saw.

I

understood

one could remember while

While

for a

retaining

consciousness

regaining

sanity.

wondered

I

had gone so deep, I had seen nothing of what the saints call the love of Then God, nothing but his relentlessness. I heard an answer, saying, Knowledge and why, since

I

'

Love

are one,

With

that

would

be

perience

I

and the measure

came

the

called

was a

to,

slight

sufficient ether, in a

and '

suffering.'

saw

I

cause

'

operation

what

that

of

my under

exin-

bed pushed up against a the most interesting of

window."

This

Professor

James's citations,

is

Is

inasmuch

as

it

presents a feature which seems to be identical

with one of the characteristics of true mystical experience,

viz.,

an indescribable

intellectual

THE REALITY OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE communication or

We

vision.

may admit

possibility that this part of the experience

But

be truly mystical.

it is

is

the

may

only a possibility

The more

of the barest kind. are,

it

253

salient features

evident, to be referred directly to the

imperfect action of the anaesthetic, and its effect on the nervous system, the pain of the operation

from the adjacent window. This consideration would absolutely preclude the

and the

light

acceptance of such an experience as certainly mystical, however strong its resemblance to

might be. There remains only one more of Professor

real mystical states 10.

James's instances to be quoted, and this is not the description of experience, but the opinion of a Canadian psychiatrist, with which Professor

James seems, on the whole,

to agree.

''Cosmic

not simply an expansion or extension of the self-conscious mind, with which consciousness

we

are

is

but the superaddition of a from any possessed by the

all familiar,

function distinct

The average man. cosmic consciousness cosmos

;

that

universe/'

is,

Here

prime characteristic is

of the is

of

a consciousness of the life

very

and order of the

plainly

shown the

MYSTICISM

254

*'

root of the whole misunderstanding.

we have

consciousness," as

seen,

is

Cosmic

not indeed

an expansion of the ordinary operation of the mind but neither is it the super-addition of ;

minds

all

a greater or less degree, for contem-

in

ideas

plating

the aptitude, possessed by

It is

anything.

from

apart

What

images.

is

thought to be the consciousness

is

arousing of the cosmic merely the realisation of the

object of contemplation,

an imaofeless

The

idea.

very clear by the

for

last

the

moment, as

distinction

is

sentence quoted.

made

Cosmic

consciousness certainly should be consciousness of the cosmos as

it

the same sentence different

quite

universe at in

all,

" ;

is

it is

—the

that

is

here said to be.

is,

in

declared to be something "

life

and order of the

to say, not the actual

but an abstract idea which

fact

But

may

cosmos be,

and

derived from close investigation of

any fragment of the universe, however tiny. Life and order are ideas, not things they are :

not capable of extension or division, and may be abstracted as perfectly from the consideration of a

drop of water as from superhuman

knowledge of a world.

THE REALITY OF xMYSTICAL EXPERIENCE All

James's quotations and

Professor

that

255

arguments, and others like them, have shown, is

that

experience implies nothing Man contrary to the nature of the human soul. has only one consciousness, and it is not cosmic, mystical

but merely conceptual assistance

it

which the follow

;

but under the divine

can and does

reach heights to imagination cannot

unilluminated

it.

The abnormal

but natural states of conscious-

ness shew three constant features.

separable

and apparently

First,

a

direct

in-

sense-

experience, next, the conceptual element in that dissociated

experience, basis,

and

some

artificially

thirdly,

from

its

sensational

a middle term consisting in

induced physical condition to which the dissociation is to be attributed. This

last

may be

either a condition of alcoholic or

other intoxication, a hypnotic or hypnoidal state

brought about by contemplation of surrounding objects, or a state of excitement, exhilaration or

exaltation

due

to

personal

mystical contemplation there

influences. is,

In

as a rule, no

direct sense-experience

which can be supposed

to form the basis of the

merely conceptual state

2S6

MYSTICISM

of consciousness,

and there are no external

circumstances to which

the

peculiar

physical

condition involved in mystical experience can

be traced.

The

conceptual object of mystical

must

contemplation

that

immaterial,

is

be

therefore to

say,

of

of

purely

supernatural,

and the abnormal physical and mental condition of the mystic must be referred to the origin

;

same cause element

in

absence of any sensational the mental content is not the con;

the

sequence of the supernatural the natural one,

may be

It

ideas,

finally

it

is

of

cause.

contended that religious

which are mostly conceptual if

may,

bu^t its

state, as

in character,

constantly dwelt on, as they admittedly

by mystics, have a natural tendency to bring on a kind of hypnoidal state manifesting are

the special characteristics of mystical experience.

But

this

support, is

hypothesis requires

and there

is

admitted, however,

whole

religious

ideas

none forthcoming. it

a

in

its

If

it

practically concedes the

For, in

position.

evidence

unique

fact,

it

attributes to

potency

which

is

susceptible of no other explanation than that

given by mystics.

APPENDIX

II

NOTES Page

13.— For "necessarily occurs in" read

35, line

"originates." "

I

went

tress to

He

tell

asked

him

at

in

once to

him of

what form

you know that did not

it

know how

Him

saw

confessor in great disa vision of Christ).

{sc. I

He

saw our Lord. then said,

was Christ

help knowing that I

it

saw no form.

I

my

I

knew

He was

distinctly

and

"

but

it,

I

told

How

did

replied that

I

?

"

I

I

could not

close beside me, that felt

His presence."- -

Life of St. Teresa (Macmillan, 1875).

— See Suvima, Suppl. note. — Compare Harphius.

Page

93, note.

Page

94,

xcii.

i.

Myst. Theol.

4,

"

Est modus quidam superem.inens vitae contemplativae talis qui quamvis non claro con60.

tuitu

Dei essentiam

intellectui demonstret,

tamen consequentes

simplici

peramorosam reverentiam in

Deum

elevati

revelata 257

et

puritate

ipsum

spiritus,

claram diligentiam facie

in

praesentia

R

NOTES

258

divinse majestatis

ac

confidentia

amabilem ostendi

devoto familiarique colloquio

Page

— See Summa, note. — Comp.

fection, chap. XX.

rivers

times

2^,

St.

191,

:

some little

faciem

ill

am

flagitantis."

95, note.

Page

sibi

perseverat

"

great,

From

clxxv.

2^^,

Teresa,

3, 4.

Way

of Per-

this rich spring

some small

pools for children

;

ones, this

come

and someis

sufficient

them, since they would be frightened if they beheld a great body of water these are persons for

;

who

are yet

way

the water of

wanting."

only in their rudiments consolation

will

— In

never

this

be

INDEX OF PROPER NAMES Abraham,

102

Buddhism, 128 Biihler, 230

Margaret Mary, 8$,

Caius,

Ach, 231 Alacoque,

119, 132, 174

Albertus Magnus, 57, 97, 195

Cardan,

Alexander, 198 Amalric of Bena, 167 Ambrosius Camaldulensis, 194

Ammonius

Saccas, 147 Angela, B., of Foligno, 75, 123, 131.

Apollinarians, 109 ApoUonius of Tyana, 154 Aquinas, St Thomas, 27, 42, 57,

9h

123, 127, 137, I95> 205, 214, 220, 223 Aristotle, 56, 205 70,

78, 93,

letters to, 224,

226

Calvin, 161 J., xxvii

Catherine, St, of Siena, 240 Chaise, Pere la, 172 Chandler, 121 Cleanthes, 127 Clement of Alexandria, 42 Clement, St, of Rome, 196

*

Clement V., 167 Colet, Dean, 206 Corderius, 82, 91, 195, 206, 209

97,

Augustine,

St, 42, 44, 100, 127, 157, 158

97,

98

Aveling, 231

197, 200, 206 Decius, Emperor, 153 De la Combe, 172 Delacroix, 108, no, 115

Darboy,

Denys,

St,

194

D'Estrees, 172

Bacon, xxiv Balthasar, 100, 102

Bardenhewer, 206 Bartholomew, St, 210 Beghards, 166 sec/. Benedict XIV., 37, 72, 87, 113, 118 Bergson, H., 33 Bernard, St, 70, 113 Betts,

Devine, 190 Dionysius, Areopagite,

13,

44,

57, 82, 141, 149, ISO, 152, 158,

164, 193

seg^.

Mystical Theology, 207 s^.q. Dionysius Carthusianus, 195 Disraeli, xvii

228

Dorotheus, Dulac, 206

letter to,

ECKHART,

79, 81. 82, 139, 143

230

Bigg, 154 Biran, Maine de, 115 Blosius, 94

Boehme,

J., 161, i6S se^.

Bonaventure,

St, 81

Bossuet, 74, 75, 172 Bradley, 128, 139

Emmerich, Anne Catherine, 34. 85 Engelhart, 206 Eriugena, J/S., 194 Eulogiu?, 194 Eusebius, 196 Everard, John, 206

\

INDEX OF PROPER NAMES

26o

Febronius, 185

Kingsley, 247 Koch, 196

Fichte, 161 Ficino, Marsilio, 195 Fox, 161

Frazer, xxii "Friends of

Lang, A., xxii Law, William,

God," 184

121

Leieune, 67

Lupton, 206

Gallienus, Emperor,

167, 153

Gerson, 51, 59, 76, 77, 78 Gnosticism, 203 Gorres, 33, 115, 205 Gregory the Great, 194

Marcarius, 190 Maeterlinck, ii, 56 Marett, xxiii Maher, 116

Grosseteste, 194 Glinther, 109

Guyon, Madame, 171

Luther, 161

Maximus, seq.^

175

197

St, 194,

Migne, 206

Mohammed, 60 Harnack,

Molinos, 119, 171, 184 Monophysites, 193 Monothelites, 194 Montanus, 161 Moore, 231 Moses, 165, 211 Munsterberg, xli

53

Havphius, 257

Hartmann,

128, l6l, 169 Hegel, 139, 141, 161, 169 Hermas, 55 Hierotheus, 200 Hildegard, St, 241 Hilduin, 194 Hipler, 199

Neoplatonism,

Hobbes, 185

Hugo

of St Victor, 77, 81, 195

152, 153, 154, 201, 203, 209

56, 60, 127, 147,

i69>

I95i 197,

Hypatius, 193, 194

Occam, 109 IAMBLICHUS, XXV Ignatius, St, 55

Pachymeres, 198

lUingworth, 30 Imitation of Christ, i88, 189 Inge, II, 12, 26, 65, 180

Paley, 30 Paracelsus, xxviii

Irving, 60, 161

Jacobi, 161, 169 James, 36, 72, 108,

no,

112,

113, 243^^^.

Jerome, St, 196 Joachim of Fiore, 60 John, St, 203

John of the Cross,

St, 20, 36, 70, 74, 75> 83, 85, 96, 97, 98, 99, 102, 113, 119, 151, 152, 165,

171, 174, 209, 214

Parker, 206 Paul, St, 52, 70, 94, 97, 109, 165, 199, 203, 229, xxix Peter, St, 100, 199 Philo, II, 56, 198 Philostratus, 154 Plato, 56, 57, 60 Plotinus, 8, 10, 56, 127, 146, seq., 161, 201, 214 Porphyry, 148, 153, 157 Poulain, 10 1 Priscilla,

60

Priscillian, 161

Proclus

Joseph II., 185 Julian of Norwich, 34, 85, 100, 124, 241

Recejac, 180

Kant,

Ribet, 33 Richard of St Victor, 77, 81

144, 161

8,

10, 56, 161, 196, 197

INDEX OF PROPER NAMES Rose, St, of Lima, 240 Royce, 19 Ruysbroeck, 59, 70, 99, 132, 141, 142

St Hilaire, Barthelemy,

151,

155 Sarrazenus, John, 194 Scaramelli, 97

261

Symonds, J. A., 249 Swedenboi^, 161, 170

Tauler, 59, 60, 80, 141, 142 Teresa, St, 34, 59, 64, 70, 74, 'l'], 83, 86, 96, 97, 99, 102, 113, 119, 131, 151, 152, 171, 174

Tennyson, Lord, 247

Schelling, 169

Theologia Germamca^ 141, 142 Vercellensis, 194 Thorold, A., 124

Schiller, F., xl

Timothy,

Schopenhauer, 23, 128, 161, 169 Schram, 33

Valla, Lorenzo,

Segneri, 172, Severus, 193 Socrates, 55, 56 Spinoza, 26, 128, 139, 141 Stiglmayer, 196, 205 Storf,

206

Suarez, 190

Thomas

Vaughan,

St, 197, 199,

no

168, 195

Victorinus, 153

Vienne, Council Virgil, 51

Watt, 230

208

of,

167

-18?,5Slfr"-

3 5002 02024 341 Sharpe, Alfred Bowyer. its true nature and value Mysticism ;

DATE DUE

JM^ki'^im

PRINTCOINUS.A

GAVUORD

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Sharpe,

.

S53 1910

Alfred Bowyer.

Mysticism and value

:

its true nature

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.:!

flklitliwmtr'^lll'n*'^':! :;*!t'»:l')ri'i*r rl^hteii.