,mysticism in ,english ,literature ,by ,caroline ,f4 ,e4 ,spurgeon ,many are the thyrsus-bearers1 but few are the mystics ,phdo ,mysticism in ,english ,literature ,note ,the variety of applications of the term mysticism has forced me to restrict myself here to a discussion of that philosophical type of mysticism which concerns itself with questions of ultimate reality4 ,my aim1 too1 has been to consider this subject in connection with great ,english writers4 ,i have had1 therefore1 to exclude1 with regret1 the literature of ,america1 so rich in mystical thought4 ,i wish to thank ,mr ,john ,murray for kind permission to make use of an article of mine which appeared in the ,quarterly ,review1 and also ,dr ,ward and ,mr ,waller for similar permission with regard to certain passages in a chapter of the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 vol4 ix4 ,i am also indebted to ,mr ,bertram ,dobell1 ,messrs ,longmans1 ,green1 ,mrs ,coventry ,patmore and ,mr ,francis ,meynell for most kindly allowing me to quote from the works respectively of ,thomas ,traherne1 ,richard ,jefferies1 ,coventry ,patmore1 and ,francis ,thompson4 ,c4,f4,e4,s4 ,april #aiac4 ,contents ,i4 ,introduction ,definition of ,mysticism4 ,the ,early ,mystical ,writers4 ,plato4 ,plotinus4 ,chronological ,sketch of ,mystical ,thought in ,england4 ,,ii4 ,love and ,beauty ,mystics ,shelley1 ,rossetti1 ,browning1 ,coventry ,patmore1 and ,keats4 ,,iii4 ,nature ,mystics ,henry ,vaughan1 ,wordsworth1 ,richard ,jefferies4 ,,iv4 ,philosophical ,mystics 7i7 ,poets4--,donne1 ,traherne1 ,emily ,bront1 ,tennyson4 7ii7 ,prose ,writers4--,william ,law1 ,burke1 ,coleridge1 ,carlyle4 ,v4 ,devotional and ,religious ,mystics ,the ,early ,english ,writers3 ,richard ,rolle and ,julian2 ,crashawe1 ,herbert1 and ,christopher ,harvey2 ,blake and ,francis ,thompson4 ,bibliography ,index ,mysticism in ,english ,literature ,chapter ,i ,introduction ,mysticism is a term so irresponsibly applied in ,english that it has become the first duty of those who use it to explain what they mean by it4 ,the ,concise ,oxford ,dictionary 7#aiaa71 after defining a mystic as one who believes in spiritual apprehension of truths beyond the understanding1 adds1 whence mysticism 7n47 7often contempt74 ,whatever may be the precise force of the remark in brackets1 it is unquestionably true that mysticism is often used in a semi-contemptuous way to denote vaguely any kind of occultism or spiritualism1 or any specially curious or fantastic views about ,god and the universe4 ,the word itself was originally taken over by the ,neo-platonists from the ,greek mysteries1 where the name of given to the initiate1 probably arose from the fact that he was one who was gaining a knowledge of divine things about which he must keep his mouth shut 7 close lips or eyes74 ,hence the association of secrecy or mystery which still clings round the word4 ,two facts in connection with mysticism are undeniable whatever it may be1 and whatever part it is destined to play in the development of thought and of knowledge4 ,in the first place1 it is the leading characteristic of some of the greatest thinkers of the world--of the founders of the ,eastern religions of ,plato and ,plotinus1 of ,eckhart and ,bruno1 of ,spinoza1 ,goethe1 and ,hegel4 ,secondly1 no one has ever been a lukewarm1 an indifferent1 or an unhappy mystic4 ,if a man has this particular temperament1 his mysticism is the very centre of his being3 it is the flame which feeds his whole life2 and he is intensely and supremely happy just so far as he is steeped in it4 ,mysticism is1 in truth1 a temper rather than a doctrine1 an atmosphere rather than a system of philosophy4 ,various mystical thinkers have contributed fresh aspects of ,truth as they saw her1 for they have caught glimpses of her face at different angles1 transfigured by diverse emotions1 so that their testimony1 and in some respects their views1 are dissimilar to the point of contradiction4 ,wordsworth1 for instance1 gained his revelation of divinity through ,nature1 and through ,nature alone2 whereas to ,blake ,nature was a hindrance1 and ,imagination the only reality4 ,but all alike agree in one respect1 in one passionate assertion1 and this is that unity underlies diversity4 ,this1 their starting-point and their goal1 is the basic fact of mysticism1 which1 in its widest sense1 may be described as an attitude of mind founded upon an intuitive or experienced conviction of unity1 of oneness1 of alikeness in all things4 ,from this source springs all mystical thought1 and the mystic1 of whatever age or country1 would say in the words of ,krishna-- ,there is true knowledge4 ,learn thou it is this3 ,to see one changeless ,life in all the ,lives1 ,and in the ,separate1 ,one ,inseparable4 ,the ,bhagavad-,gt1 ,book #ah4 ,this fundamental belief in unity leads naturally to the further belief that all things about us are but forms or manifestations of the one divine life1 and that these phenomena are fleeting and impermanent1 although the spirit which informs them is immortal and endures4 ,in other words1 it leads to the belief that the ,ideal is the only ,real4 ,further1 if unity lies at the root of things1 man must have some share of the nature of ,god1 for he is a spark of the ,divine4 ,consequently1 man is capable of knowing ,god through this godlike part of his own nature1 that is1 through his soul or spirit4 ,for the mystic believes that as the intellect is given us to apprehend material things1 so the spirit is given us to apprehend spiritual things1 and that to disregard the spirit in spiritual matters1 and to trust to reason is as foolish as if a carpenter1 about to begin a piece of work1 were deliberately to reject his keenest and sharpest tool4 ,the methods of mental and spiritual knowledge are entirely different4 ,for we know a thing mentally by looking at it from outside1 by comparing it with other things1 by analysing and defining it1 whereas we can know a thing spiritually only by becoming it4 ,we must be the thing itself1 and not merely talk about it or look at it4 ,we must be in love if we are to know what love is2 we must be musicians if we are to know what music is2 we must be godlike if we are to know what ,god is4 ,for1 in ,porphyry's words3 ,like is known only by like1 and the condition of all knowledge is that the subject should become like to the object4 ,so that to the mystic1 whether he be philosopher1 poet1 artist1 or priest1 the aim of life is to become like ,god1 and thus to attain to union with the ,divine4 ,hence1 for him1 life is a continual advance1 a ceaseless aspiration2 and reality or truth is to the seeker after it a vista ever expanding and charged with ever deeper meaning4 ,john ,smith1 the ,cambridge ,platonist1 has summed up the mystic position and desire in one brief sentence1 when he says1 ,such as men themselves are1 such will ,god ,himself seem to them to be4 ,for1 as it takes two to communicate the truth1 one to speak and one to hear1 so our knowledge of ,god is precisely and accurately limited by our capacity to receive ,him4 ,simple people1 says ,eckhart1 conceive that we are to see ,god as if ,he stood on that side and we on this4 ,it is not so3 ,god and ,i are one in the act of my perceiving ,him4 ,this sense of unity leads to another belief1 though it is one not always consistently or definitely stated by all mystics4 ,it is implied by ,plato when he says1 ,all knowledge is recollection4 ,this is the belief in pre-existence or persistent life1 the belief that our souls are immortal1 and no more came into existence when we were born than they will cease to exist when our bodies disintegrate4 ,the idea is familiar in ,wordsworth's ,ode on the ,intimations of ,immortality4 ,finally1 the mystic holds these views because he has lived through an experience which has forced him to this attitude of mind4 ,this is his distinguishing mark1 this is what differentiates him alike from the theologian1 the logician1 the rationalist philosopher1 and the man of science1 for he bases his belief1 not on revelation1 logic1 reason1 or demonstrated facts1 but on feeling1 on intuitive inner knowledge4 ,he has felt1 he has seen1 and he is therefore convinced2 but his experience does not convince any one else4 ,the mystic is somewhat in the position of a man who1 in a world of blind men1 has suddenly been granted sight1 and who1 gazing at the sunrise1 and overwhelmed by the glory of it1 tries1 however falteringly1 to convey to his fellows what he sees4 ,they1 naturally1 would be sceptical about it1 and would be inclined to say that he is talking foolishly and incoherently4 ,but the simile is not altogether parallel4 ,there is this difference4 ,the mystic is not alone2 all through the ages we have the testimony of men and women to whom this vision has been granted1 and the record of what they have seen is amazingly similar1 considering the disparity of personality and circumstances4 ,and further1 the world is not peopled with totally blind men4 ,the mystics would never hold the audience they do hold1 were it not that the vast majority of people have in themselves what ,william ,james has called a mystical germ which makes response to their message4 ,james's description of his own position in this matter1 and his feeling for a ,beyond1 is one to which numberless unmystical people would subscribe4 ,he compares it to a tune that is always singing in the back of his mind1 but which he can never identify nor whistle nor get rid of4 ,it is1 he says1 very vague1 and impossible to describe or put into words4444 ,especially at times of moral crisis it comes to me1 as the sense of an unknown something backing me up4 ,it is most indefinite1 to be sure1 and rather faint4 ,and yet ,i know that if it should cease there would be a great hush1 a great void in my life4#a ,this sensation1 which many people experience vaguely and intermittently1 and especially at times of emotional exaltation1 would seem to be the first glimmerings of that secret power which1 with the mystics1 is so finely developed and sustained that it becomes their definite faculty of vision4 ,we have as yet no recognised name for this faculty1 and it has been variously called transcendental feeling1 imagination1 mystic reason1 cosmic consciousness1 divine sagacity1 ecstasy1 or vision1 all these meaning the same thing4 ,but although it lacks a common name1 we have ample testimony to its existence1 the testimony of the greatest teachers1 philosophers1 and poets of the world1 who describe to us in strangely similar language-- ,that serene and blessed mood ,in which 444 the breath of this corporeal frame1 ,and even the motion of our human blood1 ,almost suspended1 we are laid asleep ,in body1 and become a living soul3 ,while with an eye made quiet by the power ,of harmony1 and the deep power of joy1 ,we see into the life of things4 ,tintern ,abbey4 ,harmony and ,joy1 it may be noted1 are the two words used most constantly by those who have experienced this vision4 ,the mystic reverses the ordinary methods of reasoning3 he must believe before he can know4 ,as it is put in the ,theologia ,germanica1 ,he who would know before he believeth cometh never to true knowledge4 ,just as the sense of touch is not the faculty concerned with realising the beauty of the sunrise1 so the intellect is not the faculty concerned with spiritual knowledge1 and ordinary intellectual methods of proof1 therefore1 or of argument1 the mystic holds1 are powerless and futile before these questions2 for1 in the words of ,tennyson's ,ancient ,sage-- ,thou canst not prove the ,nameless1 ,o my son1 ,nor canst thou prove the world thou movest in3 ,thou canst not prove that thou art body alone1 ,nor canst thou prove that thou art spirit alone1 ,nor canst thou prove that thou art both in one3 ,thou canst not prove thou art immortal1 no1 ,nor yet that thou art mortal--nay1 my son1 ,thou canst not prove that ,i who speak with thee ,am not thyself in converse with thyself1 ,for nothing worthy proving can be proven1 ,nor yet disproven4 ,symbolism is of immense importance in mysticism2 indeed1 symbolism and mythology are1 as it were1 the language of the mystic4 ,this necessity for symbolism is an integral part of the belief in unity2 for the essence of true symbolism rests on the belief that all things in ,nature have something in common1 something in which they are really alike4 ,in order to be a true symbol1 a thing must be partly the same as that which it symbolises4 ,thus1 human love is symbolic of divine love1 because1 although working in another plane1 it is governed by similar laws and gives rise to similar results2 or falling leaves are a symbol of human mortality1 because they are examples of the same law which operates through all manifestation of life4 ,some of the most illuminating notes ever written on the nature of symbolism are in a short paper by ,r4 ,l4 ,nettleship1#b where he defines true mysticism as the consciousness that everything which we experience1 every 'fact1' is an element and only an element in 'the fact'2 i4e4 that1 in being what it is1 it is significant or symbolic of more4 ,in short1 every truth apprehended by finite intelligence must by its very nature only be the husk of a deeper truth1 and by the aid of symbolism we are often enabled to catch a reflection of a truth which we are not capable of apprehending in any other way4 ,nettleship points out1 for instance1 that bread can only be itself1 can only be food1 by entering into something else1 assimilating and being assimilated1 and that the more it loses itself 7what it began by being7 the more it finds itself 7what it is intended to be74 ,if we follow carefully the analysis ,nettleship makes of the action of bread in the physical world1 we can see that to the man of mystic temper it throws more light than do volumes of sermons on what seems sometimes a hard saying1 and what is at the same time the ultimate mystical counsel1 ,he that loveth his life shall lose it4 ,it is worth while1 in this connection1 to ponder the constant use ,christ makes of nature symbolism1 drawing the attention of ,his hearers to the analogies in the law we see working around us to the same law working in the spiritual world4 ,the yearly harvest1 the sower and his seed1 the leaven in the loaf1 the grain of mustard-seed1 the lilies of the field1 the action of fire1 worms1 moth1 rust1 bread1 wine1 and water1 the mystery of the wind1 unseen and yet felt--each one of these is shown to contain and exemplify a great and abiding truth4 ,this is the attitude1 these are the things1 which lie at the heart of mysticism4 ,in the light of this1 nothing in the world is trivial1 nothing is unimportant nothing is common or unclean4 ,it is the feeling that ,blake has crystallised in the lines3 ,to see a world in a grain of sand ,and a ,heaven in a wild flower1 ,hold ,infinity in the palm of your hand ,and ,eternity in an hour4 ,the true mystic then1 in the full sense of the term1 is one who knows there is unity under diversity at the centre of all existence1 and he knows it by the most perfect of all tests for the person concerned1 because he has felt it4 ,true mysticism--and this cannot be over-emphasised--is an experience and a life4 ,it is an experimental science1 and1 as ,patmore has said1 it is as incommunicable to those who have not experienced it as is the odour of a violet to those who have never smelt one4 ,in its highest consummation it is the supreme adventure of the soul3 to use the matchless words of ,plotinus1 it is the flight of the ,alone to the ,alone4 ,as distinguished1 therefore1 from the mystical thinker or philosopher1 the practical mystic has direct knowledge of a truth which for him is absolute4 ,he consequently has invariably acted upon this knowledge1 as inevitably as the blind man to whom sight had been granted would make use of his eyes4 ,among ,english writers and poets the only two who fulfil this strict definition of a mystic are ,wordsworth and ,blake4 ,but we are not here concerned primarily with a study of those great souls who are mystics in the full and supreme sense of the word4 ,for an examination of their lives and vision ,evelyn ,underhill's valuable book should be consulted4 ,our object is to examine very briefly the chief ,english writers--men of letters and poets--whose inmost principle is rooted in mysticism1 or whose work is on the whole so permeated by mystical thought that their attitude of mind is not fully to be understood apart from it4 ,naturally it is with the poets we find the most complete and continuous expression of mystical thought and inspiration4 ,naturally1 because it has ever been the habit of the ,english race to clothe their profoundest thought and their highest aspiration in poetic form4 ,we do not possess a ,plato1 a ,kant1 or a ,descartes1 but we have ,shakespeare and ,wordsworth and ,browning4 ,and further1 as the essence of mysticism is to believe that everything we see and know is symbolic of something greater1 mysticism is on one side the poetry of life4 ,for poetry1 also1 consists in finding resemblances1 and universalises the particulars with which it deals4 ,hence the utterances of the poets on mystical philosophy are peculiarly valuable4 ,the philosopher approaches philosophy directly1 the poet obliquely2 but the indirect teaching of a poet touches us more profoundly than the direct lesson of a moral treatise1 because the latter appeals principally to our reason1 whereas the poet touches our transcendental feeling4 ,so it is that mysticism underlies the thought of most of our great poets1 of nearly all our greatest poets1 if we except ,chaucer1 ,dryden1 ,pope1 and ,byron4 ,shakespeare must be left on one side1 first1 because the dramatic form does not lend itself to the expression of mystical feeling1 and secondly1 because even in the poems there is little real mysticism1 though there is much of the fashionable ,platonism4 ,shakespeare is metaphysical rather than mystical1 the difference being1 roughly1 that the metaphysician seeks to know the beginnings or causes of things1 whereas the mystic feels he knows the end of things1 that all nature is leading up to union with the ,one4 ,we shall find that mystical thought1 and the mystical attitude1 are curiously persistent in ,english literature1 and that although it seems out of keeping with our ,john ,bull character1 the ,english race has a marked tendency towards mysticism4 ,what we do find lacking in ,england is the purely philosophical and speculative spirit of the detached and unprejudiced seeker after truth4 ,the ,english mind is anti-speculative2 it cares little for metaphysics2 it prefers theology and a given authority4 ,english mystics have1 as a rule1 dealt little with the theoretical side of mysticism1 the aspect for instance with which ,plotinus largely deals4 ,they have been mainly practical mystics1 such as ,william ,law4 ,those of the poets who have consciously had a system and desired to impart it1 have done so from the practical point of view1 urging1 like ,wordsworth1 the importance of contemplation and meditation1 or1 like ,blake1 the value of cultivating the imagination2 and in both cases enforcing the necessity of cleansing the inner life1 if we are to become conscious of our divine nature and our great heritage4 ,for the sake of clearness1 this thought may first be traced very briefly as it appears chronologically2 it will1 however1 be considered in detail1 not in order of time1 but according to the special aspect of ,being through which the writer felt most in touch with the divine life4 ,for mystics1 unlike other thinkers1 scientific or philosophical1 have little chronological development1 since mystic truths can neither age nor die4 ,so much is this the case that passages of ,plotinus and ,tennyson1 of ,boehme and ,law1 of ,eckhart and ,browning1 may be placed side by side and be scarcely distinguishable in thought4 ,yet as the race evolves1 certain avenues of sensation seem to become more widely opened up4 ,this is noticeable with regard to ,nature4 ,love1 ,beauty1 ,wisdom1 and ,devotion1 these have been well-trodden paths to the ,one ever since the days of ,plato and ,plotinus2 but1 with the great exception of ,st ,francis of ,assisi and his immediate followers1 we have to wait for more modern times before we find the intense feeling of the ,divinity in ,nature which we associate with the name of ,wordsworth4 ,it is in the emphasis of this aspect of the mystic vision that ,english writers are supreme4 ,henry ,vaughan1 ,wordsworth1 ,browning1 ,richard ,jefferies1 ,francis ,thompson1 and a host of other poet-seers have crystallised in immortal words this illuminated vision of the world4 ,the thought which has been described as mystical has its roots in the ,east1 in the great ,oriental religions4 ,the mysterious secret taught by the ,upanishads is that the soul or spiritual consciousness is the only source of true knowledge4 ,the ,hindu calls the soul the seer or the knower1 and thinks of it as a great eye in the centre of his being1 which1 if he concentrates his attention upon it1 is able to look outwards and to gaze upon ,reality4 ,the soul is capable of this because in essence it is one with ,brahman1 the universal soul4 ,the apparent separation is an illusion wrought by matter4 ,hence1 to the ,hindu1 matter is an obstruction and a deception1 and the ,eastern mystic despises and rejects and subdues all that is material1 and bends all his faculties on realising his spiritual consciousness1 and dwelling in that4 ,this type of thought certainly existed to some extent in both ,greece and ,egypt before the ,christian era4 ,much of ,plato's thought is mystical in essence1 and that which be points out to be the motive force of the philosophic mind is also the motive force of the mystic1 namely1 the element of attraction1 and so of love towards the thing which is akin to him4 ,the illustration of the dog being philosophic because he is angry with a stranger but welcomes his friend1#c though at first it may seem1 like many of ,plato's illustrations1 far-fetched or fanciful1 in truth goes to the very root of his idea4 ,familiarity1 akinness1 is the basis of attraction and affection4 ,the desire of wisdom1 or the love of beauty1 is therefore nothing but the yearning of the soul to join itself to what is akin to it4 ,this is the leading conception of the two great mystical dialogues1 the ,symposium and the ,phdrus4 ,in the former1 ,socrates1 in the words of the stranger prophetess ,diotima1 traces the path along which the soul must travel1 and points out the steps of the ladder to be climbed in order to attain to union with the ,divine4 ,from beauty of form and body we rise to beauty of mind and spirit1 and so to the ,beauty of ,god ,himself4 ,he who under the influence of true love rising upward from these begins to see that beauty1 is not far from the end4 ,and the true order of going or being led by another to the things of love1 is to use the beauties of earth as steps along which he mounts upwards for the sake of that other beauty1 going from one to two1 and from two to all fair forms1 and from fair forms to fair practices1 and from fair practices to fair notions1 until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty1 and at last knows what the essence of beauty is4 ,this 444 is that life above all others which man should live1 in the contemplation of beauty absolute4#d ,that is a passage whose music re-echoes through many pages of ,english literature1 especially in the poems of ,spenser1 ,shelley1 and ,keats4 ,plato may therefore be regarded as the source of speculative mysticism in ,europe1 but it is ,plotinus1 his disciple1 the ,neo-platonist1 who is the father of ,european mysticism in its full sense1 practical as well as speculative1 and who is also its most profound exponent4 ,plotinus 7,a4,d4 #bjd-bgj71 who was an ,egyptian by birth1 lived and studied under ,ammonius ,sakkas in ,alexandria at a time when it was the centre of the intellectual world1 seething with speculation and schools1 teachers and philosophies of all kinds1 ,platonic and ,oriental1 ,egyptian and ,christian4 ,later1 from the age of forty1 he taught in ,rome1 where he was surrounded by many eager adherents4 ,he drew the form of his thought both from ,plato and from ,hermetic philosophy 7his conception of ,emanation71 but its real inspiration was his own experience1 for his biographer ,porphyry has recorded that during the six years he lived with ,plotinus the latter attained four times to ecstatic union with the ,one4 ,plotinus combined1 in unusual measure1 the intellect of the metaphysician with the temperament of the great psychic1 so that he was able to analyse with the most precise dialectic1 experiences which in most cases paralyse the tongue and blind the discursive reason4 ,his sixth ,ennead1 ,on the ,good or the ,one1 is one of the great philosophic treatises of the world1 and it sums up in matchless words the whole mystic position and experience4 ,there are two statements in it which contain the centre of the writer's thought4 ,god is not external to any one1 but is present in all things1 though they are ignorant that he is so4 ,god is not in a certain place1 but wherever anything is able to come into contact with him there he is present 7,enn4 vi4 #i1 #d1 #g74 ,it is because of our ignorance of the indwelling of ,god that our life is discordant1 for it is clashing with its own inmost principle4 ,we do not know ourselves4 ,if we did1 we would know that the way home to ,god lies within ourselves4 ,a soul that knows itself must know that the proper direction of its energy is not outwards in a straight line1 but round a centre which is within it 7,enn4 vi4 #i1 #h74 ,the whole ,universe is one vast ,organism 7,enn4 ix4 #d1 #cb1 #de71 and the ,heart of ,god1 the source of all life1 is at the centre1 in which all finite things have their being1 and to which they must flow back2 for there is in this ,organism1 so ,plotinus conceives1 a double circulatory movement1 an eternal out-breathing and in-breathing1 the way down and the way up4 ,the way down is the out-going of the undivided ,one towards manifestation4 ,from ,him there flows out a succession of emanations4 ,the first of these is the ,nous or ,over-,mind of the ,universe1 ,god as thought4 ,the ,mind in turn throws out an image1 the third ,principle in this ,trinity1 the ,soul of all things4 ,this1 like the ,nous1 is immaterial1 but it can act on matter4 ,it is the link between man and ,god1 for it has a lower and a higher side4 ,the lower side desires a body and so creates it1 but it is not wholly incarnate in it1 for1 as ,plotinus says1 the soul always leaves something of itself above4 ,from this ,world ,soul proceed the individual souls of men1 and they partake of its nature4 ,its nature is triple1 the animal or sensual soul1 closely bound to the body1 the logical reasoning human soul1 and the intellectual soul1 which is one with the ,divine ,mind1 from whence it comes and of which it is an image4 ,souls have forgotten then3 divine origin because at first they were so delighted with their liberty and surroundings 7like children let loose from their parents1 says ,plotinus71 that they ran away in a direction as far as possible from their source4 ,they thus became clogged with the joys and distractions of this lower life1 which can never satisfy them1 and they are ignorant of their own true nature and essence4 ,in order to return home1 the soul has to retrace the path along which she came1 and the first step is to get to know herself1 and so to know ,god4 7,see ,enn4 vi4 #i1 #g47 ,thus only can she be restored to the central unity of the universal soul4 ,this first stage on the upward path is the purgative life1 which includes all the civic and social virtues1 gained through general purification1 self-discipline1 and balance1 with1 at the same time1 a gradual attainment of detachment from the things of sense1 and a desire for the things of the spirit4 ,the next step is to rise up to mind 7,enn4 v4 #a1 #c7 to the world of pure thought1 the highest unity possible to a self-conscious being4 ,this is often called the illuminative life1 and it might be summed up as concentration of all the faculties--will1 intellect1 feeling--upon ,god4 ,and lastly comes the unitive life1 which is contemplation1 the intense desire of the soul for union with ,god1 the momentary foretaste of which has been experienced by many of the mystics4 ,this last stage of the journey home1 the supreme ,adventure1 the ascension to the ,one above thought1 this cannot be spoken of or explained in words1 for it is a state beyond words1 it is a mode of vision which is ecstasy4 ,when the soul attains to this state1 the ,one suddenly appears1 with nothing between1 and they are no more two but one2 and the soul is no more conscious of the body or of whether she lives or is a human being or an essence2 she knows only that she has what she desired1 that she is where no deception can come1 and that she would not exchange her bliss for the whole of ,heaven itself 7paraphrased from ,enn4 vi4 #g1 #bd74 ,the influence of ,plotinus upon later ,christian mysticism was immense1 though mainly indirect1 through the writings of two of his spiritual disciples1 ,st ,augustine 7#ced-dej71 and the unknown writer1 probably of the early sixth century1 possibly a ,syrian monk1 who ascribes his works to ,dionysius the ,areopagite1 the friend of ,st ,paul4 ,the works of ,dionysius were translated from ,greek into ,latin by the great ,irish philosopher and scholar1 ,john ,scotus ,erigena 7,eriugena71 and in that form they widely influenced later medival mysticism4 ,the fusion of ,eastern mysticism with ,christianity finally brought about the great change which constitutes the difference between ,eastern and ,western mysticism1 a change already foreshadowed in ,plato1 for it was in part the natural outcome of the ,greek delight in material beauty1 but finally consummated by the teachings of the ,christian faith4 ,eastern thought was pure soul-consciousness1 its teaching was to annihilate the flesh1 to deny its reality1 to look within1 and so to gain enlightenment4 ,christianity1 on the other hand1 was centred in the doctrine of the ,incarnation1 in the mystery of ,god the ,father revealing ,himself in human form4 ,hence the human body1 human love and relationships became sanctified1 became indeed a means of revelation of the divine1 and the mystic no longer turned his thoughts wholly inwards1 but also outwards and upwards1 to the ,father who loved him and to the ,son who had died for him4 ,thus1 in the ,west1 mystical thought has ever recognised the deep symbolism and sacredness of all that is human and natural1 of human love1 of the human intellect1 and of the natural world4 ,all those things which to the ,eastern thinker are but an obstruction and a veil1 to the ,western have become the very means of spiritual ascent#e4 ,the ultimate goal of the ,eastern mystic is summed up in his assertion1 ,i am ,brahman1 whereas the ,western mystic believes that he who sees the ,infinite in all things1 sees ,god4 ,in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the mystical tradition was carried on in ,france by ,st ,bernard 7#ajia-aaec71 the ,abbot of ,clairvaux1 and the ,scotch or ,irish ,richard of the ,abbey of ,st ,victor at ,paris1 and in ,italy1 among many others1 by ,st ,bonaventura 7#abba-abgd71 a close student of ,dionysius1 and these three form the chief direct influences on our earliest ,english mystics4 ,england shares to the full in the wave of mystical experience1 thought1 and teaching which swept over ,europe in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries1 and at first the mystical literature of ,england1 as also of ,france1 ,germany1 ,italy1 and ,sweden1 is purely religious or devotional in type1 prose treatises for the most part containing practical instruction for the inner life1 written by hermits1 priests1 and anchoresses4 ,in the fourteenth century we have a group of such writers of great power and beauty1 and in the work of ,richard ,rolle1 ,walter ,hilton1 ,julian of ,norwich1 and the author of the ,cloud of ,unknowing1 we have a body of writings dealing with the inner life1 and the steps of purification1 contemplation1 and ecstatic union which throb with life and devotional fervour4 ,from the time of ,julian of ,norwich1 who was still alive in #adac1 we find practically no literature of a mystical type until we come to ,spenser's ,hymns 7#aeif71 and these embody a ,platonism reached largely through the intellect1 and not a mystic experience4 ,it would seem at first sight as if these hymns1 or at any rate the two later ones in honour of ,heavenly ,love and of ,heavenly ,beauty1 should rank as some of the finest mystical verse in ,english4 ,yet this is not the case4 ,they are saturated with the spirit of ,plato1 and they express in musical form the lofty ideas of the ,symposium and the ,phdrus3 that beauty1 more nearly than any other earthly thing1 resembles its heavenly prototype1 and that therefore the sight of it kindles love1 which is the excitement and rapture aroused in the soul by the remembrance of that divine beauty which once it knew4 ,and ,spenser1 following ,plato1 traces the stages of ascent traversed by the lover of beauty1 until he is caught up into union with ,god ,himself4 ,yet1 notwithstanding their melody and their ,platonic doctrine1 the note of the real mystic is wanting in the ,hymns1 the note of him who writes of these things because he knows them4 ,it would take some space to support this view in detail4 ,any one desirous of testing it might read the account of transport of the soul when rapt into union with the ,one as given by ,plotinus 7,enn4 vi4 #i1 #aj71 and compare it with ,spenser's description of a similar experience 7,an ,hymne of ,heavenly ,beautie1 #aa4 #bec-bgc74 ,despite their poetic melody1 ,spenser's words sound poor and trivial4 ,instead of preferring to dwell on the unutterable ecstasy1 contentment1 and bliss of the experience1 he is far more anxious to emphasise the fact that all that pleased earst now seemes to paine4 ,the contradictory nature of his belief is also arresting4 ,in the early part of the ,hymne of ,heavenly ,beautie1 in-speaking of the glory of ,god which is so dazzling that angels themselves may not endure ,his sight1 he says1 as ,plato does1 ,the meanes1 therefore1 which unto us is lent ,him to behold1 is on his workes to looke1 ,which he hath made in beauty excellent4 ,this is the view of the true mystic1 that ,god may be seen in all ,his works1 by the eye which is itself purified4 ,yet1 in the last stanza of this beautiful ,hymn1 this is how ,spenser views the joy of the union of the soul with its source1 when it looks at last up to that ,soveraine ,light1 ,from whose pure beams al perfect beauty springs1 ,that kindleth love in every godly spright ,even the love of ,god2 which loathing brings ,of this vile world and these gay-seeming things4 ,this is not the voice of the mystic4 ,it is the voice of the ,puritan1 who is also an artist1 who shrinks from earthly beauty because it attracts him1 who fears it1 and tries to despise it4 ,in truth1 the dominating feature in ,spenser's poetry is a curious blending of ,puritanism of spirit with the ,platonic mind4 ,in the seventeenth century1 however1 ,england is peculiarly rich in writers steeped in mystical thought4 ,first come the ,quakers1 headed by ,george ,fox4 ,this rediscovery and assertion of the mystical element in religion gave rise to a great deal of writing1 much of it very interesting to the student of religious thought4 ,among the ,journals of the early ,quakers1 and especially that of ,george ,fox1 there are passages which charm us with their sincerity1 quaintness1 and pure flame of enthusiasm1 but these works cannot as a whole be ranked as literature4 ,then we have the little group of ,cambridge ,platonists1 ,henry ,more1 ,john ,smith1 ,benjamin ,whichcote1 and ,john ,norris of ,bemerton4 ,these are all ,platonic philosophers1 and among their writings1 and especially in those of ,john ,norris1 are many passages of mystical thought clothed in noble prose4 ,henry ,more1 who is also a poet1 is in character a typical mystic1 serene1 buoyant1 and so spiritually happy that1 as he told a friend1 he was sometimes almost mad with pleasure4 ,his poetical faculty is1 however1 entirely subordinated to his philosophy1 and the larger portion of his work consists of passages from the ,enneads of ,plotinus turned into rather obscure verse4 ,so that he is not a poet and artist who1 working in the sphere of the imagination1 can directly present to us mystical thoughts and ideas1 but rather a mystic philosopher who has versified some of his discourses4 ,at this time also many of the metaphysical poets are mystical in much of their thought4 ,chief among these is ,john ,donne1 and we may also include ,henry ,vaughan1 ,traherne1 ,crashaw1 and ,george ,herbert4 ,bunyan might at first sight appear to have many of the characteristics of the mystic1 for he had certain very intense psychic experiences which are of the nature of a direct revelation of ,god to the soul2 and in his vivid religious autobiography1 ,grace ,abounding1 he records sensations which are akin to those felt by ,rolle1 ,julian1 and many others4 ,but although psychically akin1 he is in truth widely separated from the mystics in spirit and temperament and belief4 ,he is a ,puritan1 overwhelmed with a sense of sin1 the horrors of punishment in hell1 and the wrath of an outside ,creator and ,judge1 and his desire is aimed at escape from this wrath through election and ,god's grace4 ,but he is a ,puritan endowed with a psychopathic temperament sensitive to the point of disease and gifted with an abnormally high visualising power4 ,hence his resemblance to the mystics1 which is a resemblance of psychical temperament and not of spiritual attitude4 ,in the eighteenth century the names of ,william ,law and ,william ,blake shine out like stars against a dark firmament of rationalism and unbelief4 ,their writings form a remarkable contrast to the prevailing spirit of the time4 ,law expresses in clear and pointed prose the main teachings of the ,german seer ,jacob ,boehme2#f whereas ,blake sees visions and has knowledge which he strives to condense into forms of picture and verse which may be understood of men4 ,the influence of ,boehme in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is very far-reaching4 ,in addition to completely subjugating the strong intellect of ,law1 he profoundly influenced ,blake4 ,he also affected ,thomas ,erskine of ,linlathen1 and through him1 ,carlyle1 ,j4 ,w4 ,farquhar1 ,f4 ,d4 ,maurice1 and others4 ,hegel1 ,schelling1 and ,schlegel are alike indebted to him1 and through them1 through his ,french disciple ,st ,martin1 and through ,coleridge--who was much attracted to him--some of his root-ideas returned again to ,england in the nineteenth century1 thus preparing the way for a better understanding of mystical thought4 ,the ,swedish seer ,emmanuel ,swedenborg 7#afhh-aggb7 was another strong influence in the later eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries4 ,swedenborg in some ways is curiously material1 at any rate in expression1 and in one point at least he differs from other mystics4 ,that is1 he does not seem to believe that man has within him a spark of the divine essence1 but rather that he is an organ that reflects the divine life4 ,he is a recipient of life1 but not a part of life itself4 ,god is thought of as a light or sun outside1 from which spiritual heat and light 7 love and wisdom7 flow into men4 ,but1 apart from this important difference ,swedenborg's thought and teaching are entirely mystical4 ,he believes in the substantial reality of spiritual things1 and that the most essential part of a person's nature1 that which he carries with him into the spiritual world1 is his love4 ,he teaches that heaven is not a place1 but a condition1 that there is no question of outside rewards or punishments1 and man makes his own heaven or hell2 for1 as ,patmore pointedly expresses it-- ,ice-cold seems heaven's noble glow ,to spirits whose vital heat is hell4 ,he insists that ,space and ,time belong only to physical life1 and when men pass into the spiritual world that love is the bond of union1 and thought or state makes presence1 for thought is act4 ,he holds that instinct is spiritual in origin2 and the principle of his science of correspondences is based on the belief that everything outward and visible corresponds to some invisible entity which is its inward and spiritual cause4 ,this is the view echoed by ,mrs ,browning more than once in ,aurora ,leigh-- ,there's not a flower of spring1 ,that dies in ,june1 but vaunts itself allied ,by issue and symbol1 by significance ,and correspondence1 to that spirit-world ,outside the limits of our space and time1 ,whereto we are bound4 ,in all this and much more1 ,swedenborg's thought is mystical1 and it has had a quite unsuspected amount of influence in ,england1 and it is diffused through a good deal of ,english literature4 ,blake knew some at least of ,swedenborg's books well2 two of his friends1 ,c4 ,a4 ,tulk and ,flaxman1 were devoted ,swedenborgians1 and he told ,tulk that he had two different states1 one in which he liked ,swedenborg's writings1 and one in which he disliked them4 ,unquestionably1 they sometimes irritated him1 and then he abused them1 but it is only necessary to read his annotations of his copy of ,swedenborg's ,wisdom of the ,angels 7now in the ,british ,museum7 to realise in the first place that he sometimes misunderstood ,swedenborg's position and secondly1 that when he did understand it1 he was thoroughly in agreement with it1 and that he and the ,swedish seer had much in common4 ,coleridge admired ,swedenborg1 he gave a good deal of time to studying him 7see ,coleridge's letter to ,c4 ,a4 ,tulk1 ,july #ag1 #ahbj71 and he1 with ,boehme1 were two of the four ,great ,men unjustly branded1 about whom he often thought of writing a ,vindication 7,coleridge's ,notes on ,noble's ,appeal1 ,collected ,works1 ed4 ,shedd1 #ahec and #ahhd1 vol4 v4 p4 #ebf74 ,emerson owes much to ,swedenborg1#g and ,emerson's thought had much influence in ,england4 ,carlyle also was attracted to him 7see his letter from ,chelsea1 ,november #ac1 #aheb72 ,mrs ,browning studied him with enthusiasm and spent the winter of #aheb-c in meditation on his philosophy 7,letters1 vol4 ii4 p4 #ada71 which bore fruit four years later in ,aurora ,leigh4 ,coventry ,patmore is1 however1 the ,english writer most saturated with ,swedenborg's thought1 and his ,angel in the ,house embodies the main features of ,swedenborg's peculiar views expressed in ,conjugial ,love1 on sex and marriage and their significance4 ,it is not too much to say that ,swedenborg influenced and coloured the whole trend of ,patmore's thought1 and that he was to him what ,boehme was to ,law1 the match which set alight his mystical flame4 ,he says ,swedenborg's ,heaven and ,hell abounds with perception of the truth to a degree unparalleled perhaps in uninspired writing1 and he asserts that he never tires of reading him1 he is unfathomably profound and yet simple4#h ,whatever may be the source or reason1 it is clear that at the end of the eighteenth century we begin to find a mystical tinge of thought in several thinkers and writers1 such as ,burke1 ,coleridge1 and ,thomas ,erskine of ,linlathen4 ,this increases in the early nineteenth century1 strengthened by the influence1 direct and indirect1 of ,boehme1 ,swedenborg1 and the ,german transcendental philosophers and this mystical spirit is very marked in ,carlyle1 and1 as we shall see1 in most of the greatest nineteenth-century poets4 ,in addition to those writers which are here dealt with in detail1 there is much of the mystic spirit in others of the same period1 to name a few only1 ,george ,meredith1 ,fiona ,macleod1 ,christina ,rossetti1 and ,mrs ,browning2 while to-day writers like ,a4 ,e41 ,w4 ,b4 ,yeats1 and ,evelyn ,underhill are carrying on the mystic tradition4 ,chapter ,,ii ,love and ,beauty ,mystics ,in studying the mysticism of the ,english writers1 and more especially of the poets1 one is at once struck by the diversity of approach leading to unity of end4 ,there are1 says ,plotinus1 different roads by which this end apprehension of the ,infinite may be reached4 ,the love of beauty1 which exalts the poet2 that devotion to the ,one and that ascent of science which makes the ambition of the philosopher2 and that love and those prayers by which some devout and ardent soul tends in its moral purity towards perfection4 ,these are the great highways conducting to that height above the actual and the particular1 where we stand in the immediate presence of the ,infinite1 who shines out as from the deeps of the soul4--,letter to ,flaccus4 ,we have grouped together our ,english writers who are mystical in thought1 according to the five main pathways by which they have seen the ,vision3 ,love1 ,beauty1 ,nature1 ,wisdom1 or ,devotion4 ,even within these groups1 the method of approach1 the interpretation or application of the ,idea1 often differs very greatly4 ,for instance1 ,shelley and ,browning may both be called love-mystics2 that is1 they look upon love as the solution of the mystery of life1 as the link between ,god and man4 ,to ,shelley this was a glorious intuition1 which reached him through his imagination1 whereas the life of man as he saw it roused in him little but mad indignation1 wild revolt1 and passionate protest4 ,to ,browning this was knowledge--knowledge borne in upon him just because of human life as he saw it1 which to him was a clear proof of the great destiny of the race4 ,he would have agreed with ,patmore that you can see the disc of ,divinity quite clearly through the smoked glass of humanity1 but no otherwise4 ,he found harmony in immortal souls1 spite of the muddy vesture of decay4 ,the three great ,english poets who are also fundamentally mystical in thought are ,browning1 ,wordsworth1 and ,blake4 ,their philosophy or mystical belief1 one in essence1 though so differently expressed1 lies at the root1 as it is also the flower1 of their life-work4 ,in others1 as in ,shelley1 ,keats1 and ,rossetti1 although it is the inspiring force of their poetry1 it is not a flame1 burning steadily and evenly1 but rather a light flashing out intermittently into brilliant and dazzling radiance4 ,hence the man himself is not so permeated by it2 and hence results the unsatisfied desire1 the almost painful yearning1 the recurring disappointment and disillusionment1 which we do not find in ,browning1 ,wordsworth1 and ,blake4 ,in our first group we have four poets of markedly different temperaments--,shelley intensely spiritual2 ,rossetti with a strong tinge of sensuousness1 of earthiness in his nature2 ,browning1 the keenly intellectual man of the world1 and ,patmore a curious mixture of materialist and mystic2 yet to all four love is the secret of life1 the one thing worth giving and possessing4 ,shelley believed in a ,soul of the ,universe1 a ,spirit in which all things live and move and have their being2 which1 as one feels in the ,prometheus1 is unnamable1 inconceivable even to man1 for the deep truth is imageless4 ,his most passionate desire was not1 as was ,browning's1 for an increased and ennobled individuality1 but for the mystical fusion of his own personality with this ,spirit1 this object of his worship and adoration4 ,to ,shelley1 death itself was but the rending of a veil which would admit us to the full vision of the ideal1 which alone is true life4 ,the sense of unity in all things is most strongly felt in ,adonais1 where ,shelley's maturest thought and philosophy are to be found2 and indeed the mystical fervour in this poem1 especially towards the end1 is greater than anywhere else in his writings4 ,the ,hymn to ,intellectual ,beauty is in some ways ,shelley's clearest and most obvious expression of his devotion to the ,spirit of ,ideal ,beauty1 its reality to him1 and his vow of dedication to its service4 ,but the ,prometheus is the most deeply mystical of his poems2 indeed1 as ,mrs ,shelley says1 it requires a mind as subtle and penetrating as ,shelley's own to understand the mystic meanings scattered throughout the poem4 ,shelley1 like ,blake1 regarded the human imagination as a divine creative force2 ,prometheus stands for the human imagination1 or the genius of the world2 and it is his union with ,asia1 the divine ,idea1 the ,spirit of ,beauty and of ,love1 from which a new universe is born4 ,it is this union1 which consummates the aspirations of humanity1 that ,shelley celebrates in the marvellous love-song of ,prometheus4 ,as befitted a disciple of ,godwin1 he believed in the divine potentiality of man1 convinced that all good is to be found within man's own being1 and that his progress depends on his own will4 ,it is our will ,that thus enchains us to permitted ill-- ,we might be otherwise--we might be all ,we dream of happy1 high1 majestical4 ,where is the love1 beauty1 and truth we seek ,but in our mind8 ,julian and ,maddalo4 ,in the allegorical introduction to the ,revolt of ,islam1 which is an interesting example of ,shelley's mystical mythology1 we have an insight into the poet's view of the good power in the world4 ,it is not an almighty creator standing outside mankind1 but a power which suffers and rebels and evolves1 and is1 in fact1 incarnate in humanity1 so that it is unrecognised by men1 and indeed confounded with evil3-- ,and the ,great ,spirit of ,good did creep among ,the nations of mankind1 and every tongue ,cursed and blasphemed him as he passed1 for none ,knew good from evil4 ,there is no doubt that to ,shelley the form assumed by the divine in man was love4 ,mrs ,shelley1 in her note to ,rosalind and ,helen1 says that1 in his eyes it was the essence of our being1 and all woe and pain arose from the war made against it by selfishness or insensibility1 or mistake2 and ,shelley himself says1 the great secret of morals is love2 or a going out of our own nature1 and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought1 action or person1 not our own4 ,shelley was always searching for love2 and1 although he knew well1 through his study of ,plato1 the difference between earthly and spiritual love1 that the one is but the lowest step on the ladder which leads to the other1 yet in actual practice he confounded the two4 ,he knew that he did so2 and only a month before his death1 he summed up in a sentence the tragedy of his life4 ,he writes to ,mr ,gisborne about the ,epipsychidion1 saying that he cannot look at it now1 for-- the person whom it celebrates was a cloud instead of a ,juno1 and continues1 ,if you are curious1 however1 to hear what ,i am and have been1 it will tell you something thereof4 ,it is an idealized history of my life and feelings4 ,i think one is always in love with something or other2 the error--and ,i confess it is not easy for spirits cased in flesh and blood to avoid it--consists in seeking in a mortal image the likeness of what is1 perhaps1 eternal4 ,no poet has a more distinct philosophy of life than ,browning4 ,indeed he has as much a right to a place among the philosophers1 as ,plato has to one among the poets4 ,browning is a seer1 and pre-eminently a mystic2 and it is especially interesting as in the case of ,plato and ,st ,paul1 to encounter this latter quality as a dominating characteristic of the mind of so keen and logical a dialectician4 ,we see at once that the main position of ,browning's belief is identical with what we have found to be the characteristic of mysticism--unity under diversity at the centre of all existence4 ,the same essence1 the one life1 expresses itself through every diversity of form4 ,he dwells on this again and again3-- ,god is seen ,in the star1 in the stone1 in the flesh1 in the soul and the clod4 ,and through all these forms there is growth upwards4 ,indeed1 it is only upon this supposition that the poet can account for many a thrill ,of kinship1 ,i confess to1 with the powers ,called ,nature3 animate1 inanimate ,in parts or in the whole1 there's something there ,man-like that somehow meets the man in me4 ,prince ,hohenstiel-,schwangau4 ,the poet sees that in each higher stage we benefit by the garnered experience of the past2 and so man grows and expands and becomes capable of feeling for and with everything that lives4 ,at the same time the higher is not degraded by having worked in and through the lower1 for he distinguishes between the continuous persistent life1 and the temporary coverings it makes use of on its upward way2 ,from first to last of lodging1 ,i was ,i1 ,and not at all the place that harboured me4 ,humanity then1 in ,browning's view1 is not a collection of individuals1 separate and often antagonistic1 but one whole4 ,when ,i say you 'tis the common soul1 ,the collective ,i mean3 the race of ,man ,that receives life in parts to live in a whole ,and grow here according to ,god's clear plan4 ,old ,pictures in ,florence4 ,this sense of unity is shown in many ways3 for instance1 in ,browning's protest against the one-sidedness of nineteenth-century scientific thought1 the sharp distinction or gulf set up between science and religion4 ,this sharp cleavage1 to the mystic1 is impossible4 ,he knows1 however irreconcilable the two may appear1 that they are but different aspects of the same thing4 ,this is one of the ways in which ,browning anticipates the most advanced thought of the present day4 ,in ,paracelsus he emphasises the fact that the exertion of power in the intelligence1 or the acquisition of knowledge1 is useless without the inspiration of love1 just as love is waste without power4 ,paracelsus sums up the matter when he says to ,aprile-- ,i too have sought to ,,know as thou to ,,love ,excluding love as thou refusedst knowledge4444 ,we must never part 444 ,till thou the lover1 know2 and ,i1 the knower1 ,love--until both are saved4 ,arising logically out of this belief in unity1 there follows1 as with all mystics1 the belief in the potential divinity of man1 which permeates all ,browning's thought1 and is continually insisted on in such poems as ,rabbi ben ,ezra1 ,a ,death in the ,desert1 and ,the ,ring and the ,book4 ,he takes for granted the fundamental position of the mystic1 that the object of life is to know ,god2 and according to the poet1 in knowing love we learn to know ,god4 ,hence it follows that love is the meaning of life1 and that he who finds it not loses what he lived for ,and eternally must lose it4 ,christina4 ,for life with all it yields of joy and woe ,and hope and fear 444 ,is just our chance o' the prize of learning love4 ,a ,death in the ,desert4 ,this is ,browning's central teaching1 the key-note of his work and philosophy4 ,the importance of love in life is to ,browning supreme1 because he holds it to be the meeting-point between ,god and man4 ,love is the sublimest conception possible to man2 and a life inspired by it is the highest conceivable form of goodness4 ,in this exaltation of love1 as in several other points1 ,browning much resembles the ,german mystic1 ,meister ,eckhart4 ,to compare the two writers in detail would be an interesting task2 it is only possible here to suggest points of resemblance4 ,the following passage from ,eckhart suggests several directions in which ,browning's thought is peculiarly mystical3-- ,intelligence is the youngest faculty in man4444 ,the soul in itself is a simple work2 what ,god works in the simple light of the soul is more beautiful and more delightful than all the other works which ,he works in all creatures4 ,but foolish people take evil for good and good for evil4 ,but to him who rightly understands1 the one work which ,god works in the soul is better and nobler and higher than all the world4 ,through that light comes grace4 ,grace never comes in the intelligence or in the will4 ,if it could come in the intelligence or in the will1 the intelligence and the will would have to transcend themselves4 ,on this a master says3 ,there is something secret about it2 and thereby he means the spark of the soul1 which alone can apprehend ,god4 ,the true union between ,god and the soul takes place in the little spark1 which is called the spirit of the soul4#i ,the essential unity of ,god and man is expressed more than once by ,browning in ,eckhart's image3 as when he speaks of ,god as ,him ,who never is dishonoured in the spark ,he gave us from his fire of fires4 ,he is at one with ,eckhart1 and with all mystics1 in his appeal from the intellect to that which is beyond intellect2 in his assertion of the supremacy of feeling1 intuition1 over knowledge4 ,browning never wearies of dwelling on the relativity of physical knowledge1 and its inadequacy to satisfy man4 ,this is perhaps best brought out in one of the last things he wrote1 the ,reverie in ,asolando2 but it is dwelt on in nearly all his later and more reflective poems4 ,his maxim was-- ,wholly distrust thy knowledge1 then1 and trust ,as wholly love allied to ignorance6 ,there lies thy truth and safety4 444 ,consider well6 ,were knowledge all thy faculty1 then ,god ,must be ignored3 love gains him by first leap4 ,a ,pillar at ,sebzevar4 ,another point of resemblance with ,eckhart is suggested by his words3 ,that foolish people take evil for good1 and good for evil4 ,browning's theory of evil is part of the working-out of his principle of what may be called the coincidence of extreme opposites4 ,this is1 of course1 part of his main belief in unity1 but it is an interesting development of it4 ,this theory is marked all through his writings2 and1 although philosophers have dealt with it1 he is perhaps the one poet who faces the problem1 and expresses himself on the point with entire conviction4 ,his view is that good and evil are purely relative terms 7see ,the ,bean-stripe71 and that one cannot exist without the other4 ,it is evil which alone makes possible some of the divinest qualities in man--compassion1 pity1 forgiveness patience4 ,we have seen that ,shelley shares this view1 for none knew good from evil2 and ,blake expresses himself very strongly about it1 and complains that ,plato knew nothing but the virtues and vices1 the good and evil4444 ,there is nothing in all that4444 ,everything is good in ,god's eyes4 ,mysticism is always a reconcilement of opposites2 and this1 as we have seen in connection with science and religion1 knowledge and love1 is a dominant note of ,browning's philosophy4 ,he brings it out most startlingly perhaps in ,the ,statue and the ,bust1 where he shows that in his very capacity for vice1 a man proves his capacity for virtue1 and that a failure of energy in the one implies a corresponding failure of energy in the other4 ,at the same time1 clear knowledge that evil is illusion would defeat its own end and paralyse all moral effort1 for evil only exists for the development of good in us4 ,type needs antitype3 ,as night needs day1 as shine needs shade1 so good ,needs evil3 how were pity understood ,unless by pain8 ,this is one reason why ,browning never shrank from the evil in the world1 why indeed he expended so much of his mind and art on the analysis and dissection of every kind of evil1 laying bare for us the working of the mind of the criminal1 the hypocrite1 the weakling1 and the cynic2 because he held that-- ,only by looking low1 ere looking high ,comes penetration of the mystery4 ,there are other ways in which ,browning's thought is especially mystical1 as1 for instance1 his belief in pre-existence1 and his theory of knowledge1 for he1 like ,plato1 believes in the light within the soul1 and holds that-- ,to know ,rather consists in opening out a way ,whence the imprisoned splendour may escape1 ,than in effecting entry for a light ,supposed to be without4 ,paracelsus1 ,act ,i4 ,but the one thought which is ever constant with him1 and is peculiarly helpful to the practical man1 is his recognition of the value of limitation in all our energies1 and the stress he lays on the fact that only by virtue of this limitation can we grow4 ,we should be paralysed else4 ,it is ,goethe's doctrine of ,entbehrung1 and it is vividly portrayed in the epistle of ,karshish4 ,paracelsus learns it1 and makes it clear to ,festus at the end4 ,the natural result of ,browning's theory of evil1 and his sense of the value of limitation1 is that he should welcome for man the experience of doubt1 difficulty1 temptation1 pain2 and this we find is the case4 ,life is probation and the earth no goal ,but starting point of man 444 ,to try man's foot1 if it will creep or climb ',mid obstacles in seeming1 points that prove ,advantage for who vaults from low to high ,and makes the stumbling-block a stepping-stone4 ,the ,ring and the ,book3 ,the ,pope1 #adcf-g1 #daj-ac4 ,it is this trust in unending progress1 based on the consciousness of present failure1 which is peculiarly inspiriting in ,browning's thought1 and it is essentially mystical4 ,instead of shrinking from pain1 the mystic prays for it1 for1 properly met1 it means growth4 ,was the trial sore8 ,temptation sharp8 ,thank ,god a second time6 ,why comes temptation but for man to meet ,and master and make crouch beneath his foot1 ,and so be pedestaled in triumph8 ,the ,ring and the ,book3 ,the ,pope1 #aahb-jb4 ,rossetti's mysticism is perhaps a more salient feature in his art than is the case with ,browning1 and the lines of it1 and its place in his work1 have been well described by ,mr ,theodore ,watts-,dutton4#aj ,we can only here indicate wherein it lies1 and how it differs from and falls short of the mysticism of ,shelley and ,browning4 ,rossetti1 unlike ,browning1 is not the least metaphysical2 he is not devoured by philosophical curiosity2 he has no desire to solve the riddle of the universe4 ,all his life he was dominated and fascinated by beauty1 one form of which in especial so appealed to him as at times almost to overpower him--the beauty of the face of woman4#aa ,but this beauty is not an end in itself2 it is not the desire of possession that so stirs him1 but rather an absolute thirst for the knowledge of the mystery which he feels is hiding beneath and beyond it4 ,here lies his mysticism4 ,it is this haunting passion which is the greatest thing in ,rossetti1 which inspires all that is best in him as artist1 the belief that beauty is but the expression or symbol of something far greater and higher1 and that it has kinship with immortal things4 ,for beauty1 which1 as ,plato has told us1 is of all the divine ideas at once most manifest and most lovable to man1 is for ,rossetti the actual and visible symbol of love1 which is at once the mystery and solution of the secret of life4#ab ,rossetti's mystical passion is perhaps most perfectly expressed in his little early prose romance1 ,hand and ,soul4 ,it is purer and more austere than much of his poetry1 and breathes an amazing force of spiritual vision4 ,one wonders1 after reading it1 that the writer himself did not attain to a loftier and more spiritual development of life and art2 and one cannot help feeling the reason was that he did not sufficiently heed the warning of ,plotinus1 not to let ourselves become entangled in sensuous beauty1 which will engulf us as in a swamp4 ,coventry ,patmore was so entirely a mystic that it seems to be the first and the last and the only thing to say about him4 ,his central conviction is the unity of all things1 and hence their mutual interpretation and symbolic force4 ,there is only one kind of knowledge which counts with him1 and that is direct apprehension or perception1 the knowledge a man has of ,love1 by being in love1 not by reading about its symptoms4 ,the touch of ,god is not a figure of speech4 ,touch1 says ,aquinas1 applies to spiritual things as well as to material things4444 ,the fulness of intelligence is the obliteration of intelligence4 ,god is then our honey1 and we1 as ,st ,augustine says1 are ,his2 and who wants to understand honey or requires the rationale of a kiss8 7,rod1 ,root1 and ,flower1 xx47 ,once given the essential idea1 to be grasped by the intuitive faculty alone1 the world is full of analogies1 of natural revelations which help to support and illustrate great truths4 ,patmore was1 however1 caught and enthralled by one aspect of unity1 by one great analogy1 almost to the exclusion of all others4 ,this is that in human love1 but above all in wedded love1 we have a symbol 7that is an expression of a similar force in different material7 of the love between ,god and the soul4 ,what ,patmore meant was that in the relationship and attitude of wedded lovers we hold the key to the mystery at the heart of life1 and that we have in it a real apprehension 7which is quite different from real comprehension#ac7 of the relationship and attitude of humanity to ,god4 ,his first wife's love revealed to him this1 which is the basic fact of all his thought and work4 ,the relationship of the soul to ,christ as ,his betrothed wife is the key to the feeling with which prayer and love and honour should be offered to ,him 444 ,she showed me what that relationship involves of heavenly submission and spotless passionate loyalty4#ad ,he believed that sex is a relationship at the base of all things natural and divine2 ,nature1 with endless being rife1 ,parts each thing into him and her ,and1 in the arithmetic of life1 ,the smallest unit is a pair4#ae ,this division into two and reconciliation into one1 this clash of forces resulting in life1 is1 as ,patmore points out in words curiously reminiscent of those of ,boehme1 at the root of all existence4 ,all real apprehension of ,god1 he says1 is dependent upon the realisation of his triple ,personality in one ,being4 ,nature goes on giving echoes of the same living triplicity in animal1 plant1 and mineral1 every stone and material atom owing its being to the synthesis or embrace of the two opposed forces of expansion and contraction4 ,nothing whatever exists in a single entity but in virtue of its being thesis1 antithesis1 and synthesis and in humanity and natural life this takes the form of sex1 the masculine1 the feminine1 and the neuter1 or third1 forgotten sex spoken of by ,plato1 which is not the absence of the life of sex1 but its fulfilment and power1 as the electric fire is the fulfilment and power of positive and negative in their embrace4 ,the essay from which this passage is taken1 ,the ,bow set in the ,cloud1 together with ,the ,precursor1 give in full detail an exposition of this belief of ,patmore's1 which was for him the burning heart of the ,universe4 ,female and male ,god made the man2 ,his image is the whole1 not half2 ,and in our love we dimly scan ,the love which is between ,himself4#af ,god he conceived of as the great masculine positive force1 the soul as the feminine or receptive force1 and the meeting of these two1 the mystic rapture of the marriage of ,divinity and ,humanity1 as the source of all life and joy4 ,this profound and very difficult theme is treated by ,patmore in a manner at once austere and passionate in the exquisite little preludes to the ,angel in the ,house1 and more especially in the odes1 which stand alone in nineteenth-century poetry for poignancy of feeling and depth of spiritual passion4 ,they are the highest expression of erotic mysticism#ag in ,english2 a marvellous combination of flaming ardour and sensuousness of description with purity and austerity of tone4 ,this latter effect is gained largely by the bare and irregular metre1 which has a curiously compelling beauty of rhythm and dignity of cadence4 ,the book into which ,patmore put the fullness of his convictions1 the ,sponsa ,dei1 which he burnt because he feared it revealed too much to a world not ready for it1 was says ,mr ,gosse1 who had read it in manuscript1 a transcendental treatise on ,divine desire seen through the veil of human desire4 ,we can guess fairly accurately its tenor and spirit if we read the prose essay ,dieu et ma ,dame and the wonderful ode ,sponsa ,dei1 which1 happily1 the poet did not destroy4 ,it may be noted that the other human affections and relationships also have for ,patmore a deep symbolic value1 and two of his finest odes are written1 the one in symbolism of mother love1 the other in that of father and son4#ah ,we learn by human love1 so be points out1 to realise the possibility of contact between the finite and ,infinite1 for divinity can only be revealed by voluntarily submitting to limitations4 ,it is the mystic craving of the great to become the love-captive of the small1 while the small has a corresponding thirst for the enthralment of the great4#ai ,and this process of intercourse between ,god and man is symbolised in the ,incarnation1 which is not a single event in time1 but the culmination of an eternal process4 ,it is the central fact of a man's experience1 for it is going on perceptibly in himself2 and in like manner the ,trinity becomes the only and self-evident explanation of mysteries which are daily wrought in his own complex nature4#bj ,in this way is it that to ,patmore religion is not a question of blameless life or the holding of certain beliefs1 but it is an experimental science to be lived and to be felt1 and the clues to the experiments are to be found in natural human processes and experiences interpreted in the light of the great dogmas of the ,christian faith4 ,for ,keats1 the avenue to truth and reality took the form of ,beauty4 ,the idea1 underlying most deeply and consistently the whole of his poetry1 is that of the unity of life2 and closely allied with this is the belief in progress1 through ever-changing1 ever-ascending stages4 ,sleep and ,poetry1 ,endymion1 and ,hyperion represent very well three stages in the poet's thought and art4 ,in ,sleep and ,poetry ,keats depicts the growth even in an individual life1 and describes the three stages of thought1 or attitudes towards life1 through which the poet must pass4 ,they are not quite parallel to the three stages of the mystical ladder marked out by ,wordsworth in the main body of his poetry1 because they do not go quite so far1 but they are almost exactly analogous to the three stages of mind he describes in ,tintern ,abbey4 ,the first is mere animal pleasure and delight in living-- ,a pigeon tumbling in clear summer air2 ,a laughing school-boy without grief or care ,hiding the springy branches of an elm4 ,then follows simple unreflective enjoyment of ,nature4 ,the next stage is sympathy with human life1 with human grief and joy1 which brings a sense of the mystery of the world1 a longing to pierce it and arrive at its meaning1 symbolised in the figure of the charioteer4 ,towards the end of ,keats's life this feeling was growing stronger2 and it is much dwelt upon in the ,revision of ,hyperion4 ,there he plainly states that the merely artistic life1 the life of the dreamer1 is selfish2 and that the only way to gain real insight is through contact and sympathy with human suffering and sorrow2 and in the lost ,woodhouse transcript of the ,revision1 rediscovered in #aijd1 there are some lines in which this point is still further emphasised4 ,the full realisation of this third stage was not granted to ,keats during his short life2 he had but gleams of it4 ,the only passage where he describes the ecstasy of vision is in ,endymion 7bk4 i41 #a4 #ggd ff471 and this resembles in essentials all the other reports of this experience given by mystics4 ,when the mind is ready1 anything may lead us to it--music1 imagination1 love1 friendship4 ,feel we these things8--that moment have we stept ,into a sort of oneness1 and our state ,is like a floating spirit's4 ,keats felt this passage was inspired1 and in a letter to ,taylor in ,january #ahah he says1 ,when ,i wrote it1 it was a regular stepping of the ,imagination towards a truth4 ,in ,endymion1 the underlying idea is the unity of the various elements of the individual soul2 the love of woman is shown to be the same as the love of beauty2 and that in its turn is identical with the love of the principle of beauty in all things4 ,keats was always very sensitive to the mysterious effects of moonlight1 and so for him the moon became a symbol for the great abstract principle of beauty1 which1 during the whole of his poetic life1 he worshipped intellectually and spiritually4 ,the mighty abstract ,idea ,i have of ,beauty in all things stifles the more divided and minute domestic happiness1 he writes to his brother ,george2 and the last two well-known lines of the ,ode on a ,grecian ,urn fairly sum up his philosophy-- ,beauty is truth1 truth ,beauty1 that is all ,ye know on earth1 and all ye need to know4 ,so that the moon represents to ,keats the eternal idea1 the one essence in all4 ,this is how he writes of it1 in what is an entirely mystical passage in ,endymion-- 444 ,as ,i grew in years1 still didst thou blend ,with all my ardours3 thou wast the deep glen2 ,thou wast the mountain-top1 the sage's pen1 ,the poet's harp1 the voice of friends1 the sun2 ,thou wast the river1 thou wast glory won2 ,thou wast my clarion's blast1 thou wast my steed1 ,my goblet full of wine1 my topmost deed3 ,thou wast the charm of women1 lovely ,moon6 ,in his fragment of ,hyperion1 ,keats shadows forth the unity of all existence1 and gives magnificent utterance to the belief that change is not decay1 but the law of growth and progress4 ,oceanus1 in his speech to the overthrown ,titans1 sums up the whole meaning as far as it has gone1 in verse which is unsurpassed in ,english-- ,we fall by course of ,nature's law1 not force ,of thunder1 or of ,jove 444 444 on our heels a fresh perfection treads1 ,a power more strong in beauty1 born of us ,and fated to excel us1 as we pass ,in glory that old ,darkness 444 444 for 'tis the eternal law ,that first in beauty should be first in might4 ,this is true mysticism1 the mysticism ,keats shares with ,burke and ,carlyle1 the passionate belief in continuity of essence through ever-changing forms4 ,chapter ,,iii ,nature ,mystics ,vaughan and ,wordsworth stand pre-eminent among our ,english poets in being almost exclusively occupied with one theme1 the mystical interpretation of nature4 ,both poets are of a meditative1 brooding cast of mind2 but whereas ,wordsworth arrives at his philosophy entirely through personal experience and sensation1 ,vaughan is more of a mystical philosopher1 deeply read in ,plato and the medival alchemists4 ,the constant comparison of natural with spiritual processes is1 on the whole1 the most marked feature of ,vaughan's poetry4 ,if man will but attend1 he seems to say to us1 everything will discourse to him of the spirit4 ,he broods on the silk-worm's change into the butterfly 7,resurrection and ,immortality72 he ponders over the mystery of the continuity of life as seen in the plant1 dying down and entirely disappearing in winter1 and shooting up anew in the spring 7,the ,hidden ,flower72 or1 while wandering by his beloved river ,usk1 he meditates near the deep pool of a waterfall on its mystical significance as it seems to linger beneath the banks and then to shoot onward in swifter course1 and he sees in it an image of life beyond the grave4 ,the seed growing secretly in the earth suggests to him the growth of the soul in the darkness of physical matter2 and in ,affliction he points out that all nature is governed by a law of periodicity and contrast1 night and day1 sunshine and shower2 and as the beauty of colour can only exist by contrast1 so are pain1 sickness1 and trouble needful for the development of man4 ,these poems are sufficient to illustrate the temper of ,vaughan's mind1 his keen1 reverent observation of nature in all her moods1 and his intense interest in the minutest happenings1 because they are all manifestations of the one mighty law4 ,vaughan appears to have had a more definite belief in pre-existence than ,wordsworth1 for he refers to it more than once2 and ,the ,retreate1 which is probably the best known of all his poems and must have furnished some suggestion for the ,immortality ,ode1 is based upon it4 ,vaughan has occasionally an almost perfect felicity of mystical expression1 a power he shares with ,donne1 ,keats1 ,rossetti1 and ,wordsworth4 ,his ideas then produce their effect through the medium of art1 directly on the feelings4 ,the poem called ,quickness is perhaps the best example of this peculiar quality1 which cannot be analysed but must simply be felt2 or ,the ,world1 with its magnificent symbol in the opening lines3-- ,i saw ,eternity the other night1 ,like a great ,ring of pure and endless light1 ,all calm1 as it was bright2 ,and round beneath it1 ,time1 in hours1 days1 years1 ,driv'n by the spheres1 ,like a vast shadow mov'd4#ba ,mysticism is the most salient feature of ,wordsworth's poetry1 for he was one who saw1 whose inward eye was focussed to visions scarce dreamt of by men4 ,it is because of the strangeness and unfamiliarity of his vision that he is a difficult poet to understand1 and the key to the understanding of him is a mystic one4 ,people talk of the difficulty of ,browning1 but he is easy reading compared with a great deal of ,wordsworth4 ,it is just the apparent simplicity of ,wordsworth's thought which is so misleading4 ,a statement about him of the following kind would be fairly generally accepted as the truth4 ,wordsworth was a simple-minded poet with a passion for nature1 he found great joy and consolation in the contemplation of the beauty of hills and dales and clouds and flowers1 and urged others to find this too2 he lived1 and recommended others to live a quiet retired unexciting kind of life1 and he preached a doctrine of simplicity and austerity4 ,now1 except that ,wordsworth had a passion for ,nature1 there is not a single true statement here4 ,wordsworth was not only a poet1 he was also a seer1 a mystic and a practical psychologist with an amazingly subtle mind1 and an unusual capacity for feeling2 he lived a life of excitement and passion1 and he preached a doctrine of magnificence and glory4 ,it was not the beauty of ,nature which brought him joy and peace1 but the life in ,nature4 ,he himself had caught a vision of that life1 he knew it and felt it1 and it transformed the whole of existence for him4 ,he believed that every man could attain this vision which he so fully possessed1 and his whole life's work took the form of a minute and careful analysis of the processes of feeling in his own nature1 which he left as a guide for those who would tread the same path4 ,it would be correct to say that the whole of his poetry is a series of notes and investigations devoted to the practical and detailed explanation of how he considered this state of vision might be reached4 ,he disdained no experience--however trivial1 apparently--the working of the mind of a peasant child or an idiot boy1 the effect produced on his own emotions by a flower1 a glowworm1 a bird's note1 a girl's song2 he passed by nothing which might help to throw light on this problem4 ,the experience which ,wordsworth was so anxious others should share was the following4 ,he found that when his mind was freed from pre-occupation with disturbing objects1 petty cares1 little enmities and low desires1 that he could then reach a condition of equilibrium1 which he describes as a wise passiveness1 or a happy stillness of the mind4 ,he believed this condition could be deliberately induced by a kind of relaxation of the will1 and by a stilling of the busy intellect and striving desires4 ,it is a purifying process1 an emptying out of all that is worrying1 self-assertive1 and self-seeking4 ,if we can habitually train ourselves and attune our minds to this condition1 we may at any moment come across something which will arouse our emotions1 and it is then1 when our emotions--thus purified--are excited to the point of passion1 that our vision becomes sufficiently clear to enable us to gain actual experience of the central peace subsisting for ever at the heart of endless agitation4 ,once seen1 this vision changes for us the whole of life2 it reveals unity in what to our every-day sight appears to be diversity1 harmony where ordinarily we hear but discord1 and joy1 overmastering joy1 instead of sorrow4 ,it is a kind of illumination1 whereby in a lightning flash we see that the world is quite different from what it ordinarily appears to be1 and when it is over--for the experience is but momentary--it is impossible to describe the vision in precise terms1 but the effect of it is such as to inspire and guide the whole subsequent life of the seer4 ,wordsworth several times depicts this bliss ineffable when all his thought were steeped in feeling4 ,the well-known passage in ,tintern ,abbey already quoted 7p4 #g7 is one of the finest analysis of it left us by any of the seers1 and it closely resembles the accounts given by ,plotinus and ,boehme of similar experiences4 ,to ,wordsworth this vision came through ,nature1 and for this reason4 ,he believed that all we see round us is alive1 beating with the same life which pulsates in us4 ,it is1 he says1-- my faith that every flower ,enjoys the air it breathes4 and that if we will but listen and look1 we will hear and see and feel this central life4 ,this is the pith of the message we find repeated again and again in various forms throughout ,wordsworth's poetry1 and perhaps best summed up at the end of the fourth book of the ,excursion1 a book which should be closely studied by any one who would explore the secret of the poet's outlook upon life4 ,he tells us in the ,prelude 7,book iii47 that even in boyhood it was by this feeling he mounted to community with highest truth-- ,to every natural form1 rock1 fruits1 or flower1 ,even the loose stones that cover the highway1 ,i gave a moral life3 ,i saw them feel1 ,or linked them to some feeling3 the great mass ,lay bedded in a quickening soul1 and all ,that ,i beheld respired with inward meaning4 ,wordsworth1 in short1 was haunted by the belief that the secret of the universe is written clearly all round us1 could we but train and purify our mind and emotions so as to behold it4 ,he believed that we are in something the same attitude towards ,nature as an illiterate untrained person might be in the presence of a book containing the philosophy of ,hegel4 ,to the educated trained thinker1 who by long and arduous discipline has developed his mental powers1 that book contains the revelation of the thought of a great mind2 whereas to the uneducated person it is merely a bundle of paper with words printed on it4 ,he can handle it1 touch it1 see it1 he can read the words1 he can even understand many of them separately1 but the essence of the book and its meaning remains closed to him until he can effect some alteration in himself which will enable him to understand it4 ,wordsworth's claim is that he had discovered by his own experience a way to effect the necessary alteration in ourselves which will enable us to catch glimpses of the truths expressing themselves all round us4 ,it is a great claim1 but he would seem to have justified it4 ,it is interesting that the steps in the ladder of perfection1 as described by ,wordsworth1 are precisely analogous to the threefold path or way of the religious and philosophic mystic1 an ethical system or rule of life1 of which1 very probably1 ,wordsworth had never heard4 ,the mystic vision was not attained by him1 any more than by others1 without deliberate renunciation4 ,he lays great stress upon this2 and yet it is a point in his teaching sometimes overlooked4 ,he insists repeatedly upon the fact that before any one can taste of these joys of the spirit1 he must be purified1 disciplined1 self-controlled4 ,he leaves us a full account of his purgative stage4 ,although he started life with a naturally pure and austere temperament1 yet he had deliberately to crush out certain strong passions to which he was liable1 as well as all personal ambition1 all love of power1 all desire for fame or money2 and to confine himself to the contemplation of such objects as-- excite ,no morbid passions1 no disquietude1 ,no vengeance and no hatred4 ,in the ,recluse he records how he deliberately fought1 and bent to other uses1 a certain wild passionate delight he felt in danger1 a struggle or victory over a foe1 in short1 some of the primitive instincts of a strong1 healthy animal1 feelings which few would regard as reprehensible4 ,these natural instincts1 this force and energy1 good in themselves1 ,wordsworth did not crush1 but deliberately turned into a higher channel4 ,at the end of the ,prelude he makes his confession of the sins he did not commit4 ,never did ,i1 in quest of right and wrong1 ,tamper with conscience from a private aim2 ,nor was in any public hope the dupe ,of selfish passions2 nor did ever yield ,wilfully to mean cares or low pursuits4 ,such a confession1 or rather boast1 in the mouth of almost any other man would sound hypocritical or self-complacent2 but with ,wordsworth1 we feel it is the bare truth told us for our help and guidance1 as being the necessary and preliminary step4 ,it is a high standard which is held up before us1 even in this first stage1 for it includes1 not merely the avoidance of all obvious sins against man and society1 but a tuning-up1 a transmuting of the whole nature to high and noble endeavour4 ,wordsworth found his reward1 in a settled state of calm serenity1 consummate happiness1 wide-spreading1 steady1 calm1 contemplative1 and1 as he tells us in the fourth book of the ,prelude1 on one evening during that summer vacation1 ,gently did my soul ,put off her veil1 and1 self-transmuted1 stood ,naked1 as in the presence of her ,god4 ,when the mind and soul have been prepared1 the next step is concentration1 aspiration4 ,then it is borne in upon the poet that in the infinite and in the eternal alone can we find rest1 can we find ourselves2 and towards this infinitude we must strive with unflagging ardour2 ,our destiny1 our being's heart and home1 ,is with infinitude1 and only there4 ,prelude1 ,book vi4 #fjd4 ,the result of this aspiration towards the infinite is a quickening of consciousness1 upon which follows the attainment of the third or unitive stage1 the moment when man can breathe in worlds to which the heaven of heavens is but a veil1 and perceive the forms whose kingdom is where time and place are not4 ,such minds-- need not extraordinary calls ,to rouse them2 in a world of life they live1 ,by sensible impressions not enthralled1 444 the highest bliss ,that flesh can know is theirs--the consciousness ,of ,whom they are4 ,prelude1 ,book xiv4 #aje1 #aac1 ,wordsworth possessed in a peculiar degree a mystic sense of infinity1 of the boundless1 of the opening-out of the world of our normal finite experience into the transcendental2 and he had a rare power of putting this into words4 ,it was a feeling which1 as he tells us in the ,prelude 7,book xiii471 he had from earliest childhood1 when the disappearing line of the public highway-- ,was like an invitation into space ,boundless1 or guide into eternity1 a feeling which1 applied to man1 gives that inspiriting certitude of boundless growth1 when the soul has-- 444 an obscure sense ,of possible sublimity1 whereto ,with growing faculties she doth aspire4 ,it is at this point1 and on this subject1 that ,wordsworth's poetical and ethical imagination are most nearly fused4 ,this fusion is far from constant with him2 and the result is that there are tracts of his writings where the sentiments are excellent1 the philosophy illuminating1 but the poetry is not great3 it does not awaken the transcendental feeling4#bb ,the moments when this condition is most fully attained by ,wordsworth occur when1 by sheer force of poetic imagination combined with spiritual insight1 in some mysterious and indescribable way1 he flashes upon us a sensation of boundless infinity4 ,herein consists the peculiar magic of such a poem as ,stepping ,westward2 and there is a touch of the same feeling in the ,solitary ,reaper4 ,it is hardly necessary to dwell on other mystical elements in ,wordsworth1 such as his belief in the one law governing all things1 from creeping plant to sovereign man1 and the hint of belief in pre-existence in the ,ode on ,immortality4 ,his attitude towards life as a whole is to be found in a few lines in the after-thought to the ,duddon sonnets4 ,the ,form remains1 the ,function never dies2 ,while we1 the brave1 the mighty and the wise1 ,we ,men1 who in our morn of youth defied ,the elements1 must vanish3--be it so6 ,enough1 if something from our hands have power ,to live1 and act1 and serve the future hour2 ,and if1 as toward the silent tomb we go1 ,through love1 through hope1 and faith's transcendent dower1 ,we feel that we are greater than we know4 ,richard ,jefferies is closely akin to ,wordsworth in his overpowering consciousness of the life in nature4 ,this consciousness is the strongest force in him1 so that at times he is almost submerged by it1 and he loses the sense of outward things4 ,in this condition of trance the sense of time vanishes1 there is1 he asserts1 no such thing1 no past or future1 only now1 which is eternity4 ,in ,the ,story of my ,heart1 a rhapsody of mystic experience and aspiration he describes in detail several such moments of exaltation or trance4 ,he seems to be peculiarly sensitive to sunshine4 ,as the moon typifies to ,keats the eternal essence in all things1 so to ,jefferies the sun seems to be the physical expression or symbol of the central ,force of the world1 and it is through gazing on sunlight that he most often enters into the trance state4 ,standing1 one summer's morning1 in a recess on ,london ,bridge1 he looks out on the sunshine burning on steadfast1 lighting the great heaven2 gleaming on my finger-nail4 ,i was intensely conscious of it1 he writes1 ,i felt it2 ,i felt the presence of the immense powers of the universe2 ,i felt out into the depths of the ether4 ,so intensely conscious of the sun1 the sky1 the limitless space1 ,i felt too in the midst of eternity then1 in the midst of the supernatural1 among the immortal1 and the greatness of the material realised the spirit4 ,by these ,i saw my soul2 by these ,i knew the supernatural to be more intensely real than the sun4 ,i touched the supernatural1 the immortal1 there that moment4#bc ,when he reaches this state1 outer things drop away1#bd and he seems to become lost1 and absorbed into the being of the universe4 ,he partakes1 momentarily1 of a larger1 fuller life1 he drinks in vitality through nature4 ,the least blade of grass1 he says1 or the greatest oak1 seemed like exterior nerves and veins for the conveyance of feeling to me4 ,sometimes a very ecstasy of exquisite enjoyment of the entire visible universe filled me4#be ,this great central ,life ,force1 which ,jefferies1 like ,wordsworth1 seemed at moments to touch1 he1 in marked contrast to other mystics1 refuses to call ,god4 ,for1 he says1 what we understand by deity is the purest form of mind1 and he sees no mind in nature4 ,it is a force without a mind1 more subtle than electricity1 but absolutely devoid of consciousness and with no more feeling than the force which lifts the tides4#bf ,yet this cannot content him1 for later he declares there must be an existence higher than deity1 towards which he aspires and presses with the whole force of his being4 ,give me1 he cries1 to live the deepest soul-life now and always with this ',highest ,soul4'#bg ,this thrilling consciousness of spiritual life felt through nature1 coupled with passionate aspiration to be absorbed in that larger life1 are the two main features of the mysticism of ,richard ,jefferies4 ,his books1 and especially ,the ,story of my ,heart1 contain1 together with the most exquisite nature description1 a rich and vivid record of sensation1 feeling1 and aspiration4 ,but it is a feeling which1 though vivifying1 can only be expressed in general terms1 and it carries with it no vision and no philosophy4 ,it is almost entirely emotional1 and it is as an emotional record that it is of value1 for ,jefferies' intellectual reflections are1 for the most part1 curiously contradictory and unconvincing4 ,the certainty and rapture of this experience of spiritual emotion is all the more amazing when we remember that the record of it was written in agony1 when he was wrecked with mortal illness and his nerves were shattered with pain4 ,for with him1 as later with ,francis ,thompson1 physical pain and material trouble seemed to serve only to direct him towards and to enhance the glory of the spiritual vision4 ,chapter ,,iv ,philosophical ,mystics ,the mystical sense may be called philosophical in all those writers who present their convictions in a philosophic form calculated to appeal to the intellect as well as to the emotions4 ,these writers1 as a rule1 though not always1 are themselves markedly intellectual1 and their primary concern therefore is with truth or wisdom4 ,thus ,donne1 ,william ,law1 ,burke1 ,coleridge1 and ,carlyle are all predominantly intellectual1 while ,traherne1 ,emily ,bront1 and ,tennyson clothe their thoughts to some extent in the language of philosophy4 ,the dominating characteristic of ,donne is intellectuality2 and this may partly account for the lack in him of some essentialty mystical qualities1 more especially reverence1 and that ascension of thought so characteristic of ,plato and ,browning4 ,these shortcomings are very well illustrated in that extraordinary poem1 ,the1 ,progress of the ,soul4 ,the idea is a mystical one1 derived from ,pythagorean philosophy1 and has great possibilities1 which ,donne entirely fails to utilise2 for1 instead of following the soul upwards on its way1 he depicts it as merely jumping about from body to body1 and we are conscious of an entire lack of any lift or grandeur of thought4 ,this poem helps us to understand how it was that ,donne1 though so richly endowed with intellectual gifts1 yet failed to reach the highest rank as a poet4 ,he was brilliant in particulars1 but lacked the epic qualities of breadth1 unity1 and proportion1 characteristics destined to be the distinctive marks of the school of which he is looked upon as the founder4 ,apart from this somewhat important defect1 ,donne's attitude of mind is essentially mystical4 ,this is especially marked in his feeling about the body and natural law1 in his treatment of love1 and in his conception of woman4 ,the mystic's postulate--if we could know ourselves1 we should know all--is often on ,donne's lips1 as for instance in that curious poem written in memory of ,elizabeth ,drury1 on the second anniversary of her death4 ,it is perhaps best expressed in the following verse3 ,but we know our selves least2 ,mere outward shews ,our mindes so store1 ,that our soules1 no more than our eyes disclose ,but forme and colour4 ,onely he who knowes ,himselfe1 knowes more4 ,ode3 ,of our ,sense of ,sinne4 ,one of the marked characteristics of ,donne's poetry is his continual comparison of mental and spiritual with1 physical processes4 ,this sense of analogy prevailing throughout nature is with him very strong4 ,the mystery of continual flux and change particularly attracts him1 as it did the ,buddhists#bh and the early ,greek thinkers1 and ,nettleship's remarks about the nature of bread and unselfishness are akin to the following comparison3-- ,dost thou love ,beauty8 7,and beauty worthy'st is to move7 ,poor cousened consener1 that she1 and that thou1 ,which did begin to love1 are neither now2 ,next day repaires 7but ill7 last dayes decay4 ,nor are1 7although the river keepe the name7 ,yesterdaies waters1 and to-daies the same4 ,of the ,progresse of the ,soule4 ,the second ,anniversarie1 #chi-if4 ,donne believes firmly in man's potential greatness1 and the power within his own soul3 ,seeke wee then our selves in our selves2 for as ,men force the ,sunne with much more force to passe4 ,by gathering his beames with a chrystall glasse2 ,so wee1 ,if wee into our selves will turne1 ,blowing our sparkes of virtue1 may out-burne ,the straw1 which doth about our hearts sojourne4 ,letter to ,mr ,roland ,woodward4 ,and although1 in the ,progress of the ,soul1 he failed to give expression to it1 yet his belief in progress is unquenchable4 ,he fully shares the mystic's view that man1 to get towards ,him that's ,infinite1 must first be great 7,letter to the ,countess of ,salisbury74 ,in his treatment of love1 ,donne's mystical attitude is most clearly seen4 ,he holds the ,platonic conception1 that love concerns the soul only1 and is independent of the body1 or bodily presence2 and he is the poet1 who1 at his best1 expresses this idea in the most dignified and refined way4 ,the reader feels not only that ,donne believes it1 but that he has in some measure experienced it2 whereas with his imitators it degenerated into little more than a fashionable conceit4 ,the ,undertaking expresses the discovery he has made of this higher and deeper kind of love2 and in the ,ecstasy he describes the union of the souls of two lovers in language which proves his familiarity with the description of ecstasy given by ,plotinus 7,enn4 vi4 #i1 #aa74 ,the great value of this spiritual love is that it is unaffected by time and space1 a belief which is nowhere more exquisitely expressed than in the refrain of his little song1 ,soul's ,joy4#bi ,o give no way to griefe1 ,but let beliefe ,of mutuall love1 ,this wonder to the vulgar prove ,our ,bodyes1 not wee move4 ,in one of his verse letters to the ,countess of ,huntingdon#cj he explains how true love cannot be desire3 ',tis love1 but with such fatall weaknesse made1 ,that it destroyes it selfe with its owne shade4 ,he goes still further in the poem entitled ,negative ,love1 where he says that love is such a passion as can only be defined by negatives1 for it is above apprehension1 and his language here is closely akin to the description of the ,one or the ,good given by ,plotinus in the sixth ,ennead4 ,thomas ,traherne is a mystical writer of singular charm and originality4 ,the manuscripts of his poems and his prose ,meditations1 a kind of spiritual autobiography and notebook1 were only discovered and printed quite recently1 and they form a valuable addition to the mystical literature of the seventeenth century4 ,he has affinities with ,vaughan1 ,herbert1 and ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 with ,blake and with ,wordsworth4 ,he is deeply sensitive to the beauty of the natural world1 and he insists on the necessity for rejoicing in this beauty if we are really to live4 ,by love alone is ,god to be approached and known1 he says1 but this love must not be finite4 ,he must be loved in all with an unlimited love1 even in all ,his doings1 in all ,his friends1 in all ,his creatures4 ,in a prose passage of sustained beauty ,traherne thus describes the attitude towards earth which is needful before we can enter heaven4 ,you never enjoy the world aright1 till the ,sea itself floweth in your veins1 till you are clothed with the heavens1 and crowned with the stars34444 ,till you can sing and rejoice and delight in ,god1 as misers do in gold1 and ,kings in sceptres1 you never enjoy the world4 ,till your spirit filleth the whole world1 and the stars are your jewels24444 till you love men so as to desire their happiness1 with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own3 till you delight in ,god for being good to all3 you never enjoy the world4444 ,the world is a mirror of infinite beauty1 yet no man sees it4 ,it is a ,temple of ,majesty1 yet no man regards it4 ,it is a region of ,light and ,peace1 did not men disquiet it4 ,it is the ,paradise of ,god4444 ,it is1 the place of ,angels and the ,gate of ,heaven4#ca ,he is for ever reiterating1 in company with all the mystics1 that ',tis not the object1 but the light ,that maketh ,heaven3 'tis a purer sight4 ,he shares ,wordsworth's rapture in the life of nature1 and ,browning's interest in his fellow-men2 he has ,shelley's belief in the inner meaning of love1 and much of ,keats's worship of beauty1 and he expresses this in an original and lyrical prose of quite peculiar and haunting beauty4 ,he has embodied his main ideas1 with a good deal of repetition both in prose and verse1 but it is invariably the prose version1 probably written first1 which is the most arresting and vigorous4 ,his ,meditations well repay careful study2 they are full of wisdom and of an imaginative philosophy1 expressed in pithy and telling form1 which continually reminds the reader of ,blake's ,proverbs of ,hell4 ,to have no principles or to live beside them1 is equally miserable4 ,philosophers are not those that speak but do great things4 ,all men see the same objects1 but do not equally understand them4 ,souls to souls are like apples1 one being rotten rots another4 ,this kind of saying abounds on every page4 ,some of his more sustained philosophic passages are also noteworthy2 such1 for instance1 is his comparison of the powers of the soul to the rays of the sun1 which carry light in them unexpressed until they meet an object 7,meditations1 second century1 ,no4 #gh74 ,but ,traherne's most interesting contribution to the psychology of mysticism is his account of his childhood and the vision splendid that he brought with him4 ,even more to him than to ,vaughan or ,wordsworth1 ,the earth1 and every common sight 444 did seem ,apparelled in celestial light1 and his description of his feelings and spiritual insight are both astonishing and convincing4 ,a number of his poems are devoted to this topic 7,the ,salutation1 ,wonder1 ,eden1 ,innocence1 ,the ,rapture1 ,the ,approach1 and others71 but it is the prose account which must be given4 ,all appeared now1 and strange at first1 inexpressibly rare and delightful and beautiful4 ,i was a little stranger1 which at my entrance into the world was saluted and surrounded with innumerable joys4444 ,the corn was orient and immortal wheat1 which never should be reaped1 nor was ever sown4 ,i thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting4 ,the dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold3 the gates were at first the end of the world4 ,the green trees when ,i saw them first 444 transported and ravished me1 their sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap1 and almost mad with ecstasy1 they were such strange and wonderful things4 ,the ,men6 ,o what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem6 ,immortal ,cherubims6 ,and young men glittering and sparkling ,angels1 and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty6 ,boys and girls tumbling in the street1 and playing1 were moving jewels4 ,i knew not that they were born or should die2 but all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places4444 ,the city seemed to stand in ,eden1 or to be built in ,heaven4#cb ,it is necessary to quote at some length1 because it is the way in which ,traherne expresses his experiences or reflections which is the moving and original thing about him4 ,this last passage seems to anticipate something of the magic of ,keats in the ,ode to a ,nightingale or the ,grecian ,urn1 the sense of continuity1 and of eternity expressed in time4 ,traherne's account of the gradual dimming of this early radiance1 and his enforced change of values is equally unusual4 ,only with great difficulty did his elders persuade him that the tinselled ware upon a hobby-horse was a fine thing and that a purse of gold was of any value1 but by degrees when he found that all men prized things he did not dream of1 and never mentioned those he cared for1 then his thoughts were blotted out2 and at last all the celestial great and stable treasures1 to which ,i was born1 as wholly forgotten1 if as they had never been4 ,but he remembered enough of those early glories to realise that if he would regain happiness1 he must become1 as it were1 a little child again1 get free of the burden and cumber of devised wants1 and recapture the value and the glory of the common things of life4 ,he was so resolutely bent on this that when he had left college and come into the country and was free1 he lived upon #aj a year1 fed on bread and water1 and1 like ,george ,fox1 wore a leather suit4 ,thus released from all worldly cares1 he says1 through ,god's blessing1 ,i live a free and kingly life as if the world were turned again into ,eden1 or much more1 as it is at this day4 ,in ,emily ,bront we have an unusual type of mystic4 ,indeed she is one of the most strange and baffling figures in our literature4 ,we know in truth very little about her1 but that little is quite unlike what we know about any one else4 ,it is now beginning to be realised that she was a greater and more original genius than her famous sister1 and that strong as were ,charlotte's passion and imagination1 the passion and imagination of ,emily were still stronger4 ,she had1 so far as we can tell1 peculiarly little actual experience of life1 her material interests were bounded by her family1 the old servant ,tabby1 the dogs1 and the moors4 ,for the greater part of her thirty years of life she did the work of a servant in the little parsonage house on the edge of the graveyard4 ,she can have read little of philosophy or metaphysics1 and probably had never heard of the mystics2 she was brought up in a narrow1 crude1 and harshly material creed2 yet her own inner experience1 her touch with the secret of life1 enabled her to write the remarkable series of poems the peculiar and haunting quality of which has as yet scarcely been recognised4 ,they are strong and free and certain1 hampered by no dogma1 weighted by no explanation1 but containing--in the simplest language--the record of the experience and the vision of a soul4 ,emily ,bront lived remote1 unapproachable1 self-sufficing and entirely detached1 yet consumed with a fierce1 unquenchable love of life and of nature1 of the life which withheld from her all the gifts most prized of men1 love1 friendship1 experience1 recognition1 fame2 and of the nature which she knew only on a circumscribed space of the wild ,yorkshire moors4 ,in her poems her mysticism is seen principally in two ways3 in her unerring apprehension of values1 of the illusory quality of material things1 even of the nature she so loved1 together with the certain vision of the one ,reality behind all forms4 ,this1 and her description of ecstasy1 of the all-sufficing joy of the inner life of one who has tasted this experience1 mark her out as being among those who have seen1 and who know4 ,in ,the ,prisoner1 the speaker1 a woman1 is confined in triple walls1 yet in spite of bolts and bars and dungeon gloom she holds within herself an inextinguishable joy and unmeasured freedom brought to her every night by a messenger4 ,he comes with western winds1 with evening's wandering airs1 ,with that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest stars4 ,winds take a pensive tone1 and stars a tender fire1 ,and visions rise1 and change1 that kill me with desire4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but1 first1 a hush of peace--a soundless calm descends2 ,the struggle of distress1 and fierce impatience ends2 ,mute music soothes my breast--unuttered harmony1 ,that ,i could never dream1 till ,earth was lost to me4 ,then dawns the ,invisible2 the ,unseen its truth reveals2 ,my outward sense is gone1 my inward essence feels3 ,its wings are almost free--its home1 its harbour found1 ,measuring the gulf1 it stoops and dares the final bound4 ,oh6 dreadful is the check--intense the agony-- ,when the ear begins to hear1 and the eye begins to see2 ,when the pulse begins to throb1 the brain to think again2 ,the soul to feel the flesh1 and the flesh to feel the chain4 ,this is the description--always unmistakable--of the supreme mystic experience1 the joy of the outward flight1 the pain of the return1 and it could only have been written by one who in some measure had knowledge of it4 ,this1 together with the exquisite little poem ,the ,visionary1 which describes a similar experience1 and ,the ,philosopher1 stand apart as expressions of spiritual vision1 and are among the most perfect mystic poems in ,english4 ,her realisation of the meaning of common things1 her knowledge that they hold the secret of the universe1 and her crystallisation of this in verse1 place her with ,blake and ,wordsworth4 ,what have those lonely mountains worth revealing8 ,more glory and more grief than ,i can tell3 ,the earth that wakes one human heart to feeling ,can centre both the worlds of ,heaven and ,hell4 ,and finally1 the sense of continuous life--one central1 all-sustaining ,life--of the oneness of ,god and man1 has never been more nobly expressed than in what is her best-known poem1 the last lines she ever wrote3-- ,o ,god within my breast1 ,almighty1 ever-present ,deity6 ,life--that in me has rest1 ,as ,i--undying ,life--have power in ,thee6 99 99 99 99 99 ,with wide-embracing love ,thy spirit animates eternal years1 ,pervades and broods above1 ,changes1 sustains1 dissolves1 creates1 and rears4 ,though earth and man were gone1 ,and suns and universes ceased to be1 ,and ,thou wert left alone1 ,every existence would exist in ,thee4 ,tennyson differs widely from the other poets whom we are considering in this connection4 ,he was not born with the mystical temperament1 but1 on the contrary1 he had a long and bitter struggle with his own doubts and questionings before he wrested from them peace4 ,there is nothing of mystic calm or strength in the lines-- ,oh1 yet we trust that somehow good ,will be the final goal of ill4 ,he has no mystic rapture in ,nature like ,wordsworth1 ,i found ,him not in world or sun ,or eagle's wing1 or insect's eye2 no mystic interpretation of life as had ,browning1 no yearning for union with the spirit of love and beauty as had ,shelley4 ,tennyson's mysticism came1 as it were1 rather in spite of himself1 and is based on one thing only--experience4 ,he states his position quite clearly in ,in ,memoriam1 cxxiv4 ,as is well known1 he had from time to time a certain peculiar experience1 which he describes fully both in prose and verse1 a touch at intervals throughout his life of ecstasy1 and it was on this he based his deepest belief4 ,he has left several prose accounts of this mental state1 which often came to him through repeating his own name silently1 till all at once1 as it wore1 out of the intensity of the consciousness of individuality1 the individuality itself seemed to resolve and fade away into boundless being1 and this not a confused state1 but the clearest of the clearest1 the surest of the surest1 utterly beyond words1 where death was an almost laughable impossibility1 the loss of personality 7if so it were7 seeming no extinction1 but the only true life#cc ,it is a somewhat similar experience which is described in ,in ,memoriam1 xcv4 ,and all at once it seem'd at last ,the living soul was flash'd on mine1 ,and mine in this was wound1 and whirl'd ,about empyreal heights of thought1 ,and came on that which is1 and caught ,the deep pulsations of the world4 ,and again in the conclusion of the ,holy ,grail-- ,let visions of the night or of the day ,come1 as they will2 and many a time they come1 ,until this earth he walks on seems not earth1 ,this light that strikes his eyeball is not light1 ,this air that strikes his forehead is not air ,but vision--yea1 his very hand and foot-- ,in moments when he feels he cannot die1 ,and knows himself no vision to himself1 ,nor the high ,god a ,a vision1 nor that ,one ,who rose again4 ,these three lines1 said ,tennyson1 speaking of the last three quoted1 are the 7spiritually7 central lines in the ,idylls4 ,they are also the central lines in his own philosophy1 for it was the experience of this vision that inspired all his deepest convictions with regard to the unity of all things1 the reality of the unseen1 and the persistence of life4 ,the belief in the impotence of intellectual knowledge is very closely connected1 it is indeed based1 upon these gleams of ecstasy4 ,the prologue to ,in ,memoriam 7written when the poem was completed7 seems to sum up his faith after many years of struggle and doubt2 but it is in the most philosophical as well as one of the latest1 of his poems1 ,the ,ancient ,sage1 that we find this attitude most fully expressed4 ,tennyson wrote of it3 ,the whole poem is very personal4 ,the passages about ',faith' and 'the ,passion of the ,past' were more especially my own personal feelings4 ,through the mouth of the ,sage1 the poet declares in impassioned words the position of the mystic1 and points out the impotence of sense-knowledge in dealing with that which is beyond either the senses or the reason3 ,for ,knowledge is the swallow on the lake ,that sees and stirs the surface-shadow there ,but never yet hath dipt into the abysm4 ,tennyson1 like ,wordsworth1 emphasises the truth that the only way in which man can gain real knowledge and hear the ,nameless is by diving or sinking into the centre of his own being4 ,there is a great deal of ,eastern philosophy and mysticism in the ,ancient ,sage1 as1 for instance1 the feeling of the unity of all existence to the point of merging the personality into the universal4 ,but that one ripple on the boundless deep ,feels that the deep is boundless1 and itself ,for ever changing form1 but evermore ,one with the boundless motion of the deep4 ,we know that ,tennyson had been studying the philosophy of ,lo-,tsze about this time2 yet1 though this is1 as it were1 grafted on to the poet's mind1 still we may take it as being his genuine and deepest conviction4 ,the nearest approach to a definite statement of it to be found in his poems is in the few stanzas called ,the ,higher ,pantheism1 which he sent to be read at the first meeting of the ,metaphysical ,society in #ahfi4 ,speak to ,him thou for ,he hears1 and ,spirit with ,spirit can meet-- ,closer is ,he than breathing1 and nearer than hands and feet4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and the ear of man cannot hear1 and the eye of man cannot see2 ,but if we could see and hear1 this ,vision--were it not ,he8 ,in ,william ,law1 ,burke1 ,coleridge1 and ,carlyle1 we have a succession of great ,english prose-writers whose work and thought is permeated by a mystical philosophy4 ,of these four1 ,law is1 during his later life1 by far the most consistently and predominantly mystical4 ,as has been indicated1 there were many strains of influence which in the seventeenth century tended to foster mystical thought in ,england4 ,the group of ,cambridge ,platonists1 to which ,henry ,more belonged1 gave new expression to the great ,neo-platonic ideas1 but in addition to this a strong vein of mysticism had been kept alive in ,amsterdam1 where the exiled ,separatists had gone in #aeic4 ,they flourished there and waxed strong1 and sent back to ,england during the next century a continual stream of opinion and literature4 ,to this source can be traced the ideas which inspired alike the ,quakers1 the ,seekers1 the ,behmenists1 the ,familists1 and numberless other sects who all embodied a reaction against forms and ceremonies1 which1 in ceasing to be understood1 had become lifeless4 ,these sects were1 up to a certain point1 mystical in thought1 for they all believed in the inner light1 in the immediate revelation of ,god within the soul as the all-important experience4 ,the persecutions of the ,quakers under ,charles ,,ii4 tended to withdraw them from active philanthropy1 and to throw them more in the direction of a personal and contemplative religion4 ,it was then that the writings of ,madame ,bourignon1 ,madame ,guyon1 and ,fnelon became popular1 and were much read among a certain section of thinkers1 while the influence of the teachings of ,jacob ,boehme1 whose works had been translated into ,english between the years #afdd and #afib1 can be traced1 in diverse ways4 ,they impressed themselves on the thought of the founders of the ,society of ,friends1 they produced a distinct ,behmenist sect1 and it would seem that the idea of the three laws of motion first reached ,newton through his eager study of ,boehme4 ,but all this has nothing directly to do with literature1 and would not concern us here were it not that in the eighteenth century ,william ,law came into touch with many of these mystical thinkers1 and that he has embodied in some of the finest prose in our language a portion of the inspired cobbler's vision of the universe4 ,law's character is one of considerable interest4 ,typically ,english1 and in intellect typically of the eighteenth century1 logical1 sane1 practical1 he is not1 at first sight1 the man one would expect to find in sympathy with the mystics4 ,sincerity is the keynote of his whole nature1 sincerity of thought1 of belief1 of speech1 and of life4 ,sincerity implies courage1 and ,law was a brave man1 never shirking the logical outcome of his convictions1 from the day when he ruined his prospects at ,cambridge1 to the later years when he suffered his really considerable reputation to be eclipsed by his espousal of an uncomprehended and unpopular mysticism4 ,he had a keen rather than a profound intellect1 and his thought is lightened by brilliant flashes of wit or of grim satire4 ,we can tell1 however1 from his letters and his later writings1 that underneath a severe and slightly stiff exterior1 were hidden emotion1 enthusiasm1 and great tenderness of feeling4 ,by middle life ,law was well known as a most able and brilliant writer on most of the burning theological questions of the day1 as well as the author of one of the best loved and most widely read practical and ethical treatises in the language1 ,a ,serious ,call to a ,devout and ,holy ,life4 ,these earlier writings are by far the best known of his works1 and it is with the ,serious ,call that his name will always be associated4 ,until middle age he showed no marked mystical tendency1 although we know that from the time he was an undergraduate he was a diligent reader of mystical books1 and that he had studied1 among others1 ,dionysius the ,areopagite1 ,ruysbroek1 ,tauler1 ,suso1 and the seventeenth century ,quietists1 ,fnelon1 ,madame ,guyon1 and ,antoinette ,bourignon4 ,when1 however1 he was about forty-six 7c4 #agcc71 he came across the writings of the seer who set his whole nature aglow with spiritual fervour1 so that when he first read his works they put him into a perfect sweat4 ,jacob ,boehme--or ,behmen1 as he has usually been called in ,england--7#aege-afbd71 the illiterate and untrained peasant shoemaker of ,grlitz1 is one of the most amazing phenomena in the history of mysticism1 a history which does not lack wonders4 ,his work has so much influenced later mystical thought and philosophy that a little space must be devoted to him here4 ,he lived outwardly the quiet1 hard-working life of a simple ,german peasant1 but inwardly--like his fellow-seer ,blake--he lived in a glory of illumination1 which by flashes revealed to him the mysteries and splendours he tries in broken and faltering words to record4 ,he saw with the eye of his mind into the heart of things1 and he wrote down as much of it as he could express4 ,the older mystics--eastern and western alike--had laid stress on unity as seen in the nature of ,god and all things4 ,no one more fully believed in ultimate unity than did ,boehme1 but he lays peculiar stress on the duality1 or more accurately1 the trinity in unity2 and the central point of his philosophy is the fundamental postulate that all manifestation necessitates opposition4 ,he asserted the uniformity of law throughout all existence1 physical and spiritual1 and this law1 which applies all through nature1 divine and human alike1 is that nothing can reveal itself without resistance1 good can only be known through evil1 and weakness through strength1 just as light is only visible when reflected by a dark body4 ,thus when ,god1 the ,triune ,principle1 or ,will under three aspects1 desires to become manifest1 ,he divides the ,will into two1 the yes and the no1 and so founds an eternal contrast to ,himself out of ,his own hidden ,nature1 in order to enter into struggle with it1 and finally to discipline and assimilate it4 ,the object of all manifested nature is the transforming of the will which says ,no into the will which says ,yes1 and this is brought about by seven organising spirits or forms4 ,the first three of these bring nature out of the dark element to the point where contact with the light is possible4 ,boehme calls them harshness1 attraction1 and anguish1 which in modern terms are contraction1 expansion1 and rotation4 ,the first two are in deadly antagonism1 and being forced into collision1 form an endless whirl of movement4 ,these two forces with their resultant effect are to be found all through manifested nature1 within man and without1 and are called by different names3 good1 evil and life1 ,god1 the devil and the world1 homogeneity1 heterogeneity1 strain1 or the three laws of motion1 centripetal and centrifugal force1 resulting in rotation4 ,they are the outcome of the nature or no will1 and are the basis of all manifestation4 ,they are the power of ,god1 apart from the love1 hence their conflict is terrible4 ,when spirit and nature approach and meet1 from the shock a new form is liberated1 lightning or fire1 which is the fourth moment or essence4 ,with the lightning ends the development of the negative triad1 and the evolution of the three higher forms then begins2 ,boehme calls them light or love1 sound and substance2 they are of the spirit1 and in them contraction1 expansion1 and rotation are repeated in a new sense4 ,the first three forms give the stuff or strength of being1 the last three manifest the quality of being good or bad1 and evolution can proceed in either direction4 ,the practical and ethical result of this living unity of nature is the side which most attracted ,law1 and it is one which is as simple to state as it is difficult to apply4 ,boehme's philosophy is one which can only be apprehended by living it4 ,will1 or desire1 is the radical force in man as it is in nature and in the ,godhead1 and until that is turned towards the light1 any purely historical or intellectual knowledge of these things is as useless as if hydrogen were to expect to become water by study of the qualities of oxygen1 whereas what is needed is the actual union of the elements4 ,the two most important of ,law's mystical treatises are ,an ,appeal to all that ,doubt1 #agdj1 and ,the ,way to ,divine ,knowledge1 #ageb4 ,the first of these should be read by any one desirous of knowing ,law's later thought1 for it is a clear and fine exposition of his attitude with regard more especially to the nature of man1 the unity of all nature1 and the quality of fire or desire4 ,the later book is really an account of the main principles of ,boehme1 with a warning as to the right way to apply them1 and it was written as an introduction to the new edition of ,boehme's works which ,law contemplated publishing4 ,the following is the aspect of ,boehme's teaching which ,law most consistently emphasises4 ,man was made out of the ,breath of ,god2 his soul is a spark of the ,deity4 ,it therefore cannot die1 for it has the ,unbeginning1 ,unending ,life of ,god in it4 ,man has fallen from his high estate through ignorance and inexperience1 through seeking separation1 taking the part for the whole1 desiring the knowledge of good and evil as separate things4 ,the assertion of self is thus the root of all evil2 for as soon as the will of man turns to itself1 and would1 as it were1 have a ,sound of its own1 it breaks off from the divine harmony1 and falls into the misery of its own discord4 ,for it is the state of our will that makes the state of our life4 ,hence1 by the fall1 man's standpoint has been dislocated from centre to circumference1 and he lives in a false imagination4 ,every quality is equally good1 for there is nothing evil in ,god from whom all comes2 but evil appears to be through separation4 ,thus strength and desire in the divine nature are necessary and magnificent qualities1 but when1 as in the creature1 they are separated from love1 they appear as evil4#cd ,the analogy of the fruit is1 in this connection a favourite one with both ,law and ,boehme4 ,when a fruit is unripe 7i4e4 incomplete7 it is sour1 bitter1 astringent1 unwholesome2 but when it has been longer exposed to the sun and air it becomes sweet1 luscious1 and good to eat4 ,yet it is the same fruit1 and the astringent qualities are not lost or destroyed1 but transmuted and enriched1 and are thus the main cause of its goodness4#ce ,the only way to pass from this condition of bitterness to ripeness1 from this false imagination to the true one1 is the way of death4 ,we must die to what we are before we can be born anew2 we must die to the things of this world to which we cling1 and for which we desire and hope1 and we must turn towards ,god4 ,this should be the daily1 hourly exercise of the mind1 until the whole turn and bent of our spirit points as constantly to ,god as the needle touched with the loadstone does to the north4#cf ,to be alive in ,god1 before you are dead to your own nature1 is a thing as impossible in itself1 as for a grain of wheat to be alive before it dies4 ,the root of all1 then1 is the will or desire4 ,this realisation of the momentous quality of the will is the secret of every religious mystic1 the hunger of the soul1 as ,law calls it1 is the first necessity1 and all else will follow4#cg ,it is the seed of everything that can grow in us2 it is the only workman in nature1 and everything is its work2 it is the true magic power4 ,and this will or desire is always active2 every man's life is a continual state of prayer1 and if we are not praying for the things of ,god1 we are praying for something else4#ch ,for prayer is but the desire of the soul4 ,our imaginations and desires are1 therefore1 the greatest realities we have1 and we should look closely to what they are4#ci ,it is essential to the understanding of ,law1 as of ,boehme1 to remember his belief in the reality and actuality of the oneness of nature and of law4#dj ,nature is ,god's great ,book of ,revelation1 for it is nothing else but ,god's own outward manifestation of what ,he inwardly is1 and can do4444 ,the mysteries of religion1 therefore1 are no higher1 nor deeper than the mysteries of nature4#da ,god ,himself is subject to this law4 ,there is no question of ,god's mercy or of ,his wrath1#db for it is an eternal principle that we can only receive what we are capable of receiving2 and to ask why one person gains no help from the mercy and goodness of ,god while another does gain help is like asking why the refreshing dew of heaven does not do that to the flint which it does to the vegetable plant4#dc ,self-denial1 or mortification of the flesh is not a thing imposed upon us by the mere will of ,god3 considered in themselves they have nothing of goodness or holiness1 but they have their ground and reason in the nature of the thing1 and are as absolutely necessary to make way for the new birth1 as the death of the husk and gross part of the grain is necessary to make way for its vegetable life4#dd ,these views are clear enough1 but the more mystical ones1 such as those which ,law and ,boehme held1 for instance1 about fire1 can only be understood in the light of this living unity throughout nature1 humanity1 and divinity4 ,everything in temporal ,nature1 says ,law1 is descended out of that which is eternal1 and stands as a palpable1 visible ,outbirth of it3 444 ,fire and ,light and ,air in this ,world are not only a true ,resemblance of the ,holy ,trinity in ,unity1 but are the ,trinity itself in its most outward1 lowest kind of ,existence or ,manifestation4444 ,fire compacted1 created1 separated from ,light and ,air1 is the ,elemental ,fire of this ,world3 ,fire uncreated1 uncompacted1 unseparated from ,light and ,air1 is the heavenly ,fire of ,eternity3 ,fire kindled in any material ,thing is only ,fire breaking out of its created1 compacted state2 it is nothing else but the awakening the ,spiritual ,properties of that ,thing1 which being thus stirred up1 strive to get rid of that material ,creation under which they are imprisoned 444 and were not these spiritual ,properties imprisoned in ,matter1 no material ,thing could be made to burn4444 ,fire is not1 cannot be a material ,thing1 it only makes itself visible and sensible by the ,destruction of ,matter4#de ,if you ask what ,fire is in its first true and unbeginning ,state1 not yet entered into any ,creature1 ,it is the ,power and ,strength1 the ,glory and ,majesty of eternal ,nature4444 ,if you ask what ,fire is in its own spiritual ,nature1 it is merely a ,desire1 and has no other ,nature than that of a working ,desire1 which is continually its own ,kindler4 #df ,all life is a kindled fire in a variety of states1 and every dead1 insensitive thing is only dead because its fire is quenched or compressed1 as in the case of a flint1 which is in a state of death because its fire is bound1 compacted1 shut up and imprisoned1 but a steel struck against it1 shows that every particle of the flint consists of this compacted fire4 ,but even as1 throughout all nature1 a state of death is an imprisoned fire1 so throughout all nature is there only one way of kindling life4 ,you might as well write the word flame on the outside of a flint and expect it to emit sparks as to imagine that any speculations of your reason will kindle divine life in your soul4 ,no2 ,would you have ,fire from a ,flint2 its ,house of ,death must be shaken1 and its ,chains of ,darkness broken off by the ,strokes of a ,steel upon it4 ,this must of all ,necessity be done to your ,soul1 its imprisoned ,fire must be awakened by the sharp ,strokes of ,steel1 or no true ,light of ,life can arise in it4#b ,all life1 whether physical or spiritual1 means a death to some previous condition1 and must be generated in pain4 #f #a3 ,an ,appeal1 ,works1 vol4 vi4 pp4 #aff4 #b ,ibid41 p1 #hb4 ,if this mystical view of ,fire be clear1 it will be easy enough to follow what ,law says about ,light and ,darkness1 or ,air1 ,water1 and ,earth1 interpreting them all in the same way as eternal ,things become gross1 finite1 measurable1 divisible1 and transitory4#dg ,the ,spirit of ,prayer is of all ,law's works the one most steeped in mystic ardour1 and it possesses a charm1 a melody of rhythm1 and an imaginative quality rarely to be found in his earlier work4 ,it should be read by those who would see ,law under a little known aspect1 and who do not realise that we have an ,english mystic who expresses1 with a strength and beauty which ,plotinus himself has rarely surpassed1 the longing of the soul for union with the ,divine4 ,burke1 ,coleridge1 and ,carlyle are three very different writers who are alike in the mystical foundations of their belief1 and who1 through their writings1 for over a hundred years in ,england carry on the mystical attitude and diffuse much mystical thought4 ,burke1 the greatest and most philosophic of ,english statesmen1 was so largely because of his mystic spirit and imagination4 ,much of the greatness of his political pamphlets and speeches and of their enduring value is owing to the fact that his arguments are based on a sense of oneness and continuity1 of oneness in the social organism and of continuity in the spirit which animates it4 ,he believes in a life in the ,universe1 in a divine order1 mysterious and inscrutable in origins and in ends1 of which man and society are a part4 ,this society is linked together in mutual service from the lowest to the highest4 ,society is indeed a contract1 he says in a memorable passage1 ,it is a partnership in all science2 a partnership in all art2 a partnership in every virtue1 and in all perfection4 ,as the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations1 it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living1 but between those who are living1 those who are dead1 and those who are to be born4 ,each contract of each particular state is but a clause in the great primval contract of eternal society1 linking the lower with the higher natures1 connecting the visible and invisible world1 according to a fixed compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all physical and all moral natures1 each in their appointed place4 ,these are strange words for an ,english statesman to address to the ,english public in the year #agij2 the thought they embody seems more in keeping with its surroundings when we hear it thundered out anew forty years later by the raw ,scotch preacher-philosopher in the chapter he calls ,organic ,filaments in his odd but strangely stirring mystical rhapsody1 ,sartor ,resartus4 ,it is on this belief of oneness1 this interrelationship and interdependence that all ,burke's deepest practical wisdom is based4 ,it is on this he makes his appeal for high principle and noble example to the great families with hereditary trusts and fortunes1 who1 he says1 he looks on as the great oaks that shade a country and perpetuate their benefits from generation to generation4 ,this imaginative belief in the reality of a central spiritual life is always accompanied1 whether definitely expressed or not1 with a belief in the value of particulars1 of the individual1 as opposed to general statements and abstract philosophy4 ,the mystic1 who believes in an inward moulding spirit1 necessarily believes that all reforms must come from within1 and that1 as ,burke points out in the ,present ,discontents1 good government depends not upon laws but upon individuals4 ,blake1 in a characteristic phrase1 says3 ,he who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars2 general good is the plea of the hypocrite1 flatterer1 and scoundrel4 ,this sums up the essence of the social philosophy of these three thinkers1 as seen by ,burke's insistence on the value of concrete details in ,coleridge's use of them in his ,lay ,sermon1 and in ,carlyle's belief in the importance of the single individual life in history4 ,it is easy to see that ,coleridge's attitude of mind and the main lines of his philosophy were mystical4 ,from early years1 as we know from ,lamb1 he was steeped in the writings of the ,neo-platonists and these1 together with ,boehme1 in whom he was much interested1 and ,schelling1 strengthened a type of belief already natural to him4 ,in spite of his devotion to the doctrines of ,hartley1 it is clear from his poetry and letters1 that ,coleridge very early had doubts concerning the adequacy of the intellect as an instrument for arriving at truth1 and that at the same time the conviction was slowly gaining ground with him that an act of the will is necessary in order to bring man into contact with reality4 ,coleridge believed in a ,spirit of the universe with which man could come into contact1 both directly by desire1 and also mediately through the forms and images of nature1 and in the ,religious ,musings 7#agid7 we get very early a statement of this mystical belief4 ,there is one ,mind1 one omnipresent ,mind ,omnific4 ,his most holy name is ,love4 ,from ,him-- 444 we roam unconscious1 or with hearts ,unfeeling of our universal ,sire1 and the greatest thing we can achieve1 our noon-tide majesty1 is-- to know ourselves ,parts and proportions of one wonderous whole6 ,the way to attain this knowledge is not by a process of reasoning1 but by a definite act of will1 when the drowsd soul begins to feel dim recollections of its nobler nature1 and so gradually becomes attracted and absorbed to perfect love-- and centered there ,god only to behold1 and know1 and feel1 ,till by exclusive consciousness of ,god ,all self-annihilated it shall make ,god its ,identity3 ,god all in all6 ,this sense of oneness1 with the desire to reach out to it1 was very strong with ,coleridge in these earlier years1 and he writes to ,thelwall in #agig1 ,the universe itself1 what but an immense heap of little things8444 ,my mind feels as if it ached to behold and know something great1 something one and indivisible4 ,he is ever conscious of the symbolic quality of all things by which we are visibly surrounded1 all that meets the bodily sense ,i deem ,symbolical1 one mighty alphabet ,for infant minds4#dh ,to pierce through the outer covering1 and realise the truth which they embody1 it is necessary to feel as well as to see1 and it is the loss of this power of feeling which ,coleridge deplores in those bitterly sad lines in the ,dejection ,ode when he gazes with how blank an eye at the starry heavens1 and cries1 ,i see1 not feel1 how beautiful they are6 ,it is in this ,ode that we find the most complete description in ,english verse of that particular state of depression and stagnation which often follows on great exaltation1 and to which the religious mystics have given the name of the dark night of the soul4 ,this is an experience1 not common to all mystics1 but very marked in some1 who1 like ,st ,john of the ,cross and ,madame ,guyon1 are intensely devotional and ecstatic4 ,it seems to be a well-defined condition of listlessness1 apathy1 and dryness1 as they call it1 not a state of active pain1 but of terrible inertia1 weariness1 and incapacity for feeling2 a wan and heartless mood1 says ,coleridge1 ,a grief without a pang1 void1 dark1 and drear1 ,a stifled1 drowsy1 unimpassioned grief1 ,which finds no natural outlet1 no relief1 ,in word1 or sigh1 or tear4 ,coleridge's distrust of the intellect as sole guide1 and his belief in some kind of intuitional act being necessary to the apprehension of reality1 which he felt as early as #agid1 was strengthened by his study of the ,german transcendental philosophers1 and in ,march #ahja he writes1 ,my opinion is that deep thinking is attainable only by a man of deep feeling2 and that all truth is a species of ,revelation4 ,coleridge1 following ,kant1 gave the somewhat misleading name of reason 7as opposed to understanding7 to the intuitive power by which man apprehends ,god directly1 and1 in his view1 imagination is the faculty1 which in the light of this intuitive reason interprets and unifies the symbols of the natural world4 ,hence its value1 for it alone gives man the key ,of that eternal language1 which thy ,god ,utters1 who from eternity doth teach ,himself in all1 and all things in himself4#di ,carlyle's mysticism is the essence of his being1 it flames through his amazing medley of writings1 it guides his studies and his choice of subjects1 it unifies and explains his visions1 his thought1 and his doctrines4 ,his is a mystical attitude and belief of a perfectly simple and broad kind1 including no abstruse subtleties of metaphysical speculation1 as with ,coleridge1 but based on one or two deeply rooted convictions4 ,this position seems to have been reached by him partly through intellectual conflict which found relief and satisfaction in the view of life taken by ,goethe1 ,fichte1 and other ,german transcendental thinkers2 but partly also through a definite psychical experience which befell him in ,edinburgh when he was twenty-six1 and which from that day changed for him the whole of his outlook on life4 ,he speaks of it himself as a ,spiritual ,new-birth1 or ,baphometic ,fire-baptism4 ,it came to him after a period of great wretchedness1 of torture with doubt and despair1 and--what is significant--during three weeks of total sleeplessness4 ,these are conditions which would be likely to reduce his body to the state of weakness and sensitiveness which seems often antecedent to psychic experience4 ,he has given an account of the incident in ,sartor 7,book ii4 chap1 vii471 when1 he says1 there rushed like a stream of fire over my whole soul2 and ,i shook base ,fear away from me for ever4 ,i was strong1 of unknown strength2 a spirit1 almost a god4 ,the revelation seems to have been of the nature of a certainty and assertion of his own inherent divinity1 his native ,god-created majesty1 freedom and potential greatness4 ,this brought with it a characteristic defiance of untoward outer circumstances which gave him strength and resolution4 ,perhaps1 he says1 ,i directly thereupon began to be a man4 ,carlyle believes that the world and everything in it is the expression of one great indivisible ,force2 that nothing is separate1 nothing is dead or lost1 but that all is borne forward on the bottomless shoreless flood of ,action1 and lives through perpetual metamorphoses4 ,everything in the world is an embodiment of this great ,force1 this ,divine ,idea1 hence everything is important and charged with meaning4 ,rightly viewed no meanest object is insignificant2 all objects are as windows1 through which the philosophic eye looks into ,infinitude itself4#ej ,the universe is thus the living visible garment of ,god1 and matter exists only spiritually1 to represent some ,idea1 and body it forth4 ,we1 each of us1 are therefore one expression of this central spirit1 the only abiding ,reality2 and so1 in turn1 everything we know and see is but an envelope or clothing encasing something more vital which is invisible within4 ,just as books are the most miraculous things men can make1 because a book is the purest embodiment a ,thought of man can have1 so great men are the highest embodiment of ,divine ,thought visible to us here4 ,great men are1 as it were1 separate phrases1 inspired texts of the great book of revelation1 perpetually interpreting and unfolding in various ways the ,godlike to man 7,hero as ,man of ,letters1 and ,sartor1 ,book ii4 chap4 viii474 ,from this ground-belief spring all ,carlyle's views and aims4 ,hence his gospel of hero-worship1 for the hero is the greatest embodied ,idea a man can know1 he is a living light fountain1 he is a man sent hither to make the divine mystery more impressively known to us4 ,hence it is clear that the first condition of the great man is that he should be sincere1 that he should believe4 ,the merit of originality is not novelty3 it is sincerity4 ,the believing man is the original man4 ,it is equally necessary that his admirers should be sincere1 they too must believe1 and not only1 as ,coleridge puts it1 believe that they believe4 ,no more immoral act can be done by a human creature1 says ,carlyle1 than to pretend to believe and worship when he does not4 ,hence also springs ,carlyle's doctrine of work4 ,if man is but the material embodiment of a spiritual ,idea or ,force1 then his clear duty is to express that ,force within him to the utmost of his power4 ,it is what he is here for1 and only so can he bring help and light to his fellow-men4#ea ,and ,carlyle1 with ,browning1 believes that it is not the actual deeds accomplished that matter1 no man may judge of these1 for man is the spirit he worked in2 not what he did1 but what he became4 ,chapter ,v ,devotional and ,religious ,mystics ,all mystics are devotional and all are religious in the truest sense of the terms4 ,yet it seems legitimate to group under this special heading those writers whose views are expressed largely in the language of the ,christian religion1 as is the case with our earliest mystics1 with ,crashaw and ,francis ,thompson and it applies in some measure to ,blake4 ,but beyond this1 it seems1 in more general terms1 to apply specially to those who are so conscious of ,god that they seem to live in ,his presence1 and who are chiefly concerned with approaching ,him1 not by way of ,love1 ,beauty1 ,wisdom1 or ,nature1 but directly1 through purgation and adoration4 ,this description1 it is obvious1 though it fits fairly well the other writers here included1 by no means suffices for ,blake4 ,for he possessed in addition a philosophy1 a system1 and a profound scheme of the universe revealed to him in vision4 ,but within what category could ,blake be imprisoned8 ,he outsoars them all and includes them all4 ,we can only say that the dominant impression he leaves with us that is of his vivid1 intimate consciousness of the ,divine presence and his attitude of devotion4 ,we have seen that the earliest mystical thought came into this country by way of the writings of ,dionysius and of the ,victorines 7,hugh and ,richard of ,st ,victor71 and it is this type of thought and belief cast into the mould of the ,catholic ,church that we find mainly in the little group of early ,english mystics1 whose writings date from the middle of the thirteenth to the beginning of the fifteenth century4#eb ,these early ,catholic mystics are interesting from a psychological point of view1 and they are often subtle exponents of the deepest mystical truths and teachings1 and in some cases this is combined with great literary power and beauty4 ,one of the earliest examples of this thought in ,english literature is the tender and charming lyric by ,thomas de ,hales1 written probably before #abdj4 ,here is perhaps the first expression in our poetry of passionate yearning of the soul towards ,christ as her true lover1 and of the joy of mystic union with ,him4 ,a maid of ,christ1 says the poet1 has begged him to wurche a luve ron 7make a love-song71 which he does2 and points out to her that this world's love is false and fickle1 and that worldly lovers shall pass away like a wind's blast4 ,hwer is ,paris and ,heleyne ,that weren so bright and feyre on bleo3 ,amadas1 ,tristram and ,dideyne ,yseud and all theo3 ,ector with his scharp meyne ,and ,cesar riche of worldes feo8 ,heo beoth iglyden ut of the reyne1 ,so the schef is of the cleo4 ,as the corn from the hill-side1 ,paris and ,helen and all bright lovers have passed away1 and it is as if they had never lived4 ,but1 maid1 if you want a lover1 he continues1 ,i can direct you to one1 the fairest1 truest1 and richest in the whole world4 ,henry1 ,king of ,england1 is his vassal1 and to thee1 maid1 this lover sends a message and desires to know thee4 ,mayde to the he send his sonde ,and wilneth for to beo the cuth4 ,and so the poem goes on to express in simple terms of earthly love1 the passionate delight and joy and peace of the soul in attaining to union with her ,god1 in whose dwelling is perfect bliss and safety4 ,this poem is a delicate example of what is called erotic mysticism1 that is the love and attraction of the soul for ,god1 and of ,god for the soul1 expressed in the terms of the love between man and woman4 ,it is a type of expression characteristic of the great mystics of the ,catholic ,church1 especially in the ,middle ,ages1#ec and we find a good deal of it in our earliest mystical writers4 ,one of the most charming examples of it other than this lyric1 is the chapter ,of ,love in the ,ancren ,riwle1 or ,rule for ,anchoresses1 written probably early in the thirteenth century4 ,an account is there given1 quite unsurpassed for delicate beauty1 of the wooing of the soul by ,god4#ed ,on the whole1 however1 this type of mysticism is rare in ,england1 and we scarcely meet it again after these early writers until we come to the poems of ,crashaw4 ,the finest expression of it is the ,song of ,solomon1 and it is easy to see that such a form of symbolism is specially liable to degradation1 and is open to grave dangers1 which it has not always escaped4 ,yet1 in no other terms known to man is it possible so fully to express the sense of insatiable craving and desire as well as the rapture of intimate communion felt by the mystic towards his ,god1 as in the language of that great passion which1 in its purest form1 is the best thing known to man and his highest glory4 ,i saw ,him1 and sought ,him1 ,i had ,him and ,i wanted ,him4 ,could any words more completely express the infinity of love's desire1 ever unsatisfied even in possession1 than does this love-cry from the heart of ,julian the anchoress of ,norwich8 ,the intensity and freshness of religious feeling of a mystical type in ,england in the twelfth1 thirteenth1 and fourteenth centuries are often not realised1 partly owing to the fact that much of the religious writing of this time is still in manuscript4 ,the country was full of devotees who had taken religious vows1 which they fulfilled either in the many monasteries and convents1 or often in single cells1 as hermit or anchoress4 ,here they lived a life devoted to contemplation and prayer1 and to the spiritual assistance of those who sought them out4 ,the hermits1 of whom there were a large number1 were apparently free to move from one neighbourhood to another1 but the woman recluse1 or anchoress1 seldom or never left the walls of her cell1 a little house of two or three rooms built generally against the church wall1 so that one of her windows could open into the church1 and another1 veiled by a curtain1 looked on to the outer world1 where she held converse with and gave counsel to those who came to see her4 ,sometimes a little group of recluses lived together1 like those three sisters of ,dorsetshire for whom the ,ancren ,riwle was written1 a treatise which gives us so many homely details of this type of life4 ,richard ,rolle 7c4 #acjj-acdi71 of ,hampole1 near ,doncaster1 and the ,lady ,julian1 a ,benedictine nun of ,norwich 7#acdb-;c4#adac71 are the two most interesting examples of the medival recluse in ,england4 ,both seem to have had a singular charm of character and a purity of mystical devotion which has impressed itself on their writings4 ,richard ,rolle1 who entered upon a hermit's life at nineteen on leaving ,oxford1 had great influence both through his life and work on the whole group of fourteenth-century religious writers1 and so on the thought of medival ,england4 ,his contemporaries thought him mad1 they jeered at him and abused him1 but he went quietly on his way1 preaching and writing4 ,love forced him to write2 love1 he said1 gave him wisdom and subtlety1 and he preached a religion of love4 ,indeed the whole of his work is a symphony of feeling1 a song of ,love1 and forms a curious reaction against the exaltation of reason and logic in scholasticism4 ,he wrote a large number of treatises and poems1 both in ,latin and ,english1 lyrical songs and alliterative homilies1 burning spiritual rhapsodies and sound practical sermons1 all of which were widely known and read4 ,certain points about ,rolle are of special interest and distinguish him from other mystics and seers4 ,one is that for him the culminating mystical experience took the form of melody1 rhythm1 harmony4 ,he is the most musical of mystics1 and where others see or feel ,reality1 he hears it4 ,hence his description of his soul's adventures is peculiarly beautiful1 he thinks in images and symbols of music1 and in his writings we find some of the most exquisite passages in the whole literature of mysticism1 veritable songs of spiritual joy4 ,in the ,fire of ,love1 perhaps the finest of his more mystical works1 he traces in detail his journey along the upward path4 ,this is very individual1 and it differs in some important respects from other similar records4 ,he passed through the stage of purgation1 of struggle between the flesh and spirit1 of penitence and aspiration1 through illumination1 until he reached1 after nearly three years1 the third stage of contemplation of ,god through love4#ee ,in this condition1 after about a year1 the door of heaven yet biding open1 he experienced the three phases to which he gives the names of calor1 canor1 dulcor1 heat1 song1 and sweetness4 ,heat soothly ,i call when the mind truly is kindled in ,love ,everlasting1 and the heart on the same manner to burn not hopingly1 but verily is felt4#ef ,this burning seems to have been for him a real physical sensation1 a bodily condition induced by the adventure of the spirit4 ,this is not unusual in mystical states1 and possibly the cryptic notes made by ,pascal record a similar experience4#eg ,he continued in this warmth for nine months1 when suddenly he felt and heard the canor1 the spiritual music1 the invisible melody of heaven4 ,here is his description of his change from burning love to the state of songful love4 ,whilst 444 ,i sat in chapel1 in the night1 before supper1 as ,i my psalms sung1 as it were the sound of readers or rather singers about me ,i beheld4 ,whilst also1 praying to heaven1 with all desire ,i took heed1 suddenly1 in what manner ,i wot not1 in me the sound of song ,i felt2 and likeliest heavenly melody ,i took1 with me dwelling in mind4 ,forsooth my thought continually to mirth of song was changed3 and as it were the same that loving ,i had thought1 and in prayers and psalms had said1 the same in sound ,i showed1 and so forth with began to sing that which before ,i had said1 and from plenitude of inward sweetness ,i burst forth1 privily indeed1 alone before my ,maker4#eh ,the sweetness of this inward spiritual song is beyond any sound that may be heard with bodily ears1 even lovers can only catch snatches of it4 ,worldly lovers soothly words or ditties of our song may know1 for the words they read3 but the tone and sweetness of that song they may not learn4#ei ,the final stage of sweetness seems really to include the other two1 it is their completion and fruition4 ,the first two1 says ,rolle1 are gained by devotion1 and out of them springs the third4#fj ,rolle's description of it1 of the all-pervading holy joy1 rhythm1 and melody1 when the soul1 now become as it were a living pipe1 is caught up into the music of the spheres1 and in the sight of ,god 444 joying sounds1#fa deserves to be placed beside what is perhaps the most magnificent passage in all mystical literature1 where ,plotinus tells us of the choral dance of the soul about her ,god4#fb ,enough has been said to show that ,rolle is a remarkable individual1 and one of the most poetic of the ,english religious mystical writers1 and it is regrettable that some of his other works are not more easily accessible4 ,unfortunately1 the poem with which his name is generally associated1 ,the ,pricke of ,conscience1 is entirely unlike all his other work1 both in form and matter4 ,it is a long1 prosaic and entirely unmystical homily in riming couplets1 of a very ordinary medival type1 stirring men's minds to the horrors of sin by dwelling on the pains of purgatory and hell4 ,it would seem almost certain1 on internal evidence1 that the same hand cannot have written it and the ,fire of ,love1 and recent investigation appears to make it clear that ,rolle's part in it1 if any1 was merely of the nature of compilation or translation of some other work1 possibly by ,grosseteste4#fc ,of the life of the ,lady ,julian we know very little1 except that she was almost certainly a ,benedictine nun1 and that she lived for many years in an anchoress's cell close to the old church of ,st ,julian at ,conisford1 near ,norwich4 ,but her character and charm are fully revealed in the little book she has left of ,revelations of ,divine ,love1 which contains a careful account of a definite psychological experience through which she passed on the #hth day of ,may #acgc1 when she was thirty years of age4 ,she adds to this record of fact certain commentaries and explanations which1 she says1 have been taught her gradually in the course of the subsequent twenty years4 ,this experience1 which lasted altogether between five and six hours1 was preceded by a seven days' sickness most vividly described1 ending in a semi-rigidity of the body as if it were already half dead1 and it took the form of sixteen ,shewings or ,visions4 ,these1 she says1 reached her in three ways1 by bodily sight1 by word formed in mine understanding 7verbal messages which took form in her mind71 and by spiritual sight4 ,but of this last1 she adds1 ,i may never fully tell it4#fd ,it is impossible here to do justice to this little book1 for it is one of the most important documents in the history of mysticism4 ,there is no mention in it of any preliminary purgative stage1 nor of any ultimate experience of ecstasy2 it is simply--if one may so put it--a narrative of certain intimate talks with ,god1 once granted1 when1 during a few hours of the writer's life1 ,he explained various difficulties and made clear to her certain truths4 ,the impression left of the nearness of ,god to the soul was so vivid and sustaining1 that it is not possible to read the record of it1 even now1 across six hundred years1 without feeling strangely stirred by the writer's certainty and joy4 ,her vision is of ,love3 ,love is its meaning1 and it was shown her for ,love2 she sees that ,god is ,love and that ,god and man are one4 ,god is nearer to us than our own soul1 for man is ,god1 and ,god is in all4 ,if we could only know ourselves1 our trouble would be cleared away1 but it is easier to come to the knowing of ,god than to know our own soul4#fe ,our passing life here that we have in our sense-soul knoweth not what our ,self is1 and the cause of our disease is that we rest in little things which can never satisfy us1 for our ,soul may never have rest in things that are beneath itself4 ,she actually saw ,god enfolding all things4 ,for as the body is clad in the cloth1 and the flesh in the skin1 and the bones in the flesh1 and the heart in the whole1 so are we1 soul and body1 clad in the ,goodness of ,god1 and enclosed4 ,she further had sight of all things that are made1 and her description of this ,shewing is so beautiful and characteristic that it must be given in her own words4 ,in this same time our ,lord shewed me a spiritual sight of ,his homely loving4444 ,he shewed me a little thing1 the quantity of an hazel-nut1 in the palm of my hand2 and it was as round as a ball4 ,i looked thereupon with the eye of my understanding1 and thought3 ,what may this be8 ,and it was answered generally thus3 ,it is all that is made4 ,i marvelled how it might last1 for methought it might suddenly have fallen to naught for littleness4 ,and ,i was answered in my understanding3 ,it lasteth1 and ever shall last for that ,god loveth it4 ,and so ,all-thing hath the ,being by the love of ,god4 ,later1 she adds1 ,well ,i wot that heaven and earth1 and all that is made is great and large1 fair and good2 but the cause why it shewed so little to my sight was for that ,i saw it in the presence of ,him that is the ,maker of all things3 for to a soul that seeth the ,maker of all1 all that is made seemeth full little4 ,in this ,little ,thing1 she continues1 ,i saw three properties4 ,the first is that ,god made it1 the second is that ,god loveth it1 the third1 that ,god keepeth it4 ,but what is to me verily the ,maker1 the ,keeper1 and the ,lover--,i cannot tell2 for till ,i am ,substantially oned to ,him1 ,i may never have full rest nor very bliss3 that is to say1 till ,i be so fastened to ,him1 that there is right nought that is made betwixt my ,god and me 7,revelations1 pp4 #aj1 #ah74 ,julian's vision with regard to sin is of special interest4 ,the problem of evil has never been stated in terser or more dramatic form4 ,after this ,i saw ,god in a ,point1 that is to say1 in mine understanding which sight ,i saw that ,he is in all things4 ,i beheld and considered1 seeing and knowing in sight1 with a soft dread1 and thought3 ,what is sin8 7,ibid1 p4 #bf74 ,here is the age-old difficulty4 ,god1 so the mystic sees1 is in the ,mid-point of all thing1 and yet1 as ,julian says1 it is dertain ,he doeth no sin4 ,the solution given to her is that sin is no deed1 it hath no part of being1 and it can only be known by the pain it is cause of4 ,sin is a negation1 a failure1 an emptiness of love1 but pain is something it is a purification4 ,sin brings with it pain1 to me was shewed no harder hell than sin2 but we must go through the pain in order to learn1 without it we could never have the bliss4 ,as a wave draws back from the shore1 in order to return again with fuller force2 so sin1 the lack of love1 is permitted for a time1 in order that an opening be made for an inrush of the ,divine ,love1 fuller and more complete than would otherwise be possible4 ,it is in some such way as this1 dimly shadowed1 that it was shown to ,julian that sin and pain are necessary parts of the scheme of ,god4 ,hence ,god does not blame us for sin1 for it brings its own blame or punishment with it1 nay more1 sin shall be no shame to man1 but worship1 a bold saying1 which none but a mystic would dare utter4 ,when ,god seeth our sin1 she says1 and our despair in pain1 ,his love excuseth us1 and of ,his great courtesy ,he doeth away all our blame1 and beholdeth us with ruth and pity as children innocent and unloathful4 ,it would be pleasant to say more of ,julian1 but perhaps her own words have sufficed to show that here we are dealing with one of the great mystics of the world4 ,childlike and yet rashly bold1 deeply spiritual1 yet intensely human1 a simple creature1 unlettered1 yet presenting solutions of problems which have racked humanity1 she inherits the true paradoxical nature of the mystic1 to which is added a beauty and delicacy of thought and expression all her own4 ,there were many other mystical works written about this time in ,england4 ,of these the best known and the finest is ,the ,scale1 or ,ladder1 of ,perfection1 by ,walter ,hylton1 the ,augustinian1 and head of a house of canons at ,thurgarton1 near ,newark1 who died in #acif4 ,this is a practical and scientific treatise of great beauty on the spiritual life4#ff ,an interesting group of writings are the five little treatises1 almost certainly by one author 7c4 #acej-adjj71 to be found in ,harleian #fgd1 and other ,,mss4 ,their names are ,the ,cloud of ,unknowing1 ,the ,epistle of ,prayer1 ,the ,epistle of ,discretion1 ,the ,treatise of ,discerning ,spirits1 and ,the ,epistle of ,privy ,counsel4 ,we find here for the first time in ,english the influence and spirit of ,dionysius1 and it is probably to the same unknown writer we owe the first 7very free7 translation of the ,mystical ,theology of ,dionysius1 ,deonise ,hid ,divinite1 which is bound up with these other manuscripts4 ,these little tracts are written by a practical mystic1 one who was able to describe with peculiar accuracy and vividness the physical and psychological sensations accompanying mystical initiation4 ,the ,cloud of ,unknowing is an application in simple ,english of the ,dionysian teaching of concentration joined to the practice of contemplation taught by ,richard of ,st ,victor1 and it describes very clearly the preliminary struggles and bewilderment of the soul4 ,the ,epistle of ,privy ,counsel 7still in ,,ms47 is the most advanced in mystical teaching3 the writer in it tries to explain very intimately the nature of onehede with ,god1 and to give instruction in simple and yet deeply subtle terms as to the means for attaining this4 ,there is a mystical strain in other writings of this time1 the most notable from the point of view of literature being in the fourteenth-century alliterative poem of ,piers the ,plowman4#fg ,this is mystical throughout in tone1 more especially in the idea of the journey of the soul in search of ,truth1 only to find1 after many dangers and disciplines and adventures1 that-- ,if grace graunte the to go in this wise1 ,thow shalt see in thi-selve ,treuthe sitte in thine herte ,in a cheyne of charyte as thow a childe were4#fh ,moreover1 the vision of ,dowel1 ,dobet1 and ,dobest1 bears a definite analogy to the three stages of the mystic's path1 as will be seen if the description of the qualities of these three are examined1 as they are given in ,b41 ,passus viii4 #aa4 #gh-ajb4 99 99 99 99 99 ,crashaw1 ,george ,herbert1 and ,christopher ,harvey all alike sound the personal note in their religious poems4 ,all three writers describe the love of the soul for ,god in the terms of passionate human love3 ,crashaw with an ardour which has never been surpassed1 ,herbert with a homely intimacy quite peculiar to him1 and ,christopher ,harvey with a point and epigrammatic setting which serve only to enhance the deep feeling of the thought4 ,in many a lyric of flaming passion ,crashaw expresses his love-longing for his ,god1 and he describes in terms only matched by his spiritual descendant1 ,francis ,thompson1 the desire of ,god to win the human soul4 ,let not my ,lord1 the mighty lover ,of soules1 disdain that ,i discover ,the hidden art ,of his high stratagem to win your heart1 ,it was his heavnly art ,kindly to crosse you ,in your mistaken love1 ,that1 at the next remove ,thence he might tosse you ,and strike your troubled heart ,home to himself4#fi ,the main feature of ,herbert's poetry is the religious love lyric1 the cry of the individual soul to ,god4 ,this is the mystical quality in his verse1 which is quieter and far less musical than ,crashaw's1 but which possesses at times a tender fragrance and freshness1 as in the little poem ,love4 ,christopher ,harvey1 the friend of ,izaak ,walton and the admirer of ,herbert1 has in his poems some lines which breathe almost as rapturous a passion of spiritual love as anything in ,crashaw4 ,such is his epigram on the ,insatiableness of the ,heart4 ,the whole round world is not enough to fill ,the heart's three corners2 but it craveth still4 ,onely the ,trinity1 that made it1 can ,suffice the vast-triangled heart of man4#gj ,or again1 in a later epigram in the same poem 7,the ,school of the ,heart71 he puts the main teaching of ,plotinus and of all mystics into four pregnant lines-- ,my busie stirring heart1 that seekes the best1 ,can find no place on earth wherein to rest2 ,for ,god alone1 the ,author of its blisse1 ,its only rest1 its onely center is4 ,but it is ,crashaw who1 of these three1 shares in fullest measure the passion of the great ,catholic mystics1 and more especially of ,st ,teresa1 whom he seems almost to have worshipped4 ,his hymn to her name and honor is one of the great ,english poems2 it burns with spiritual flame1 it soars with noble desire4 ,near the beginning of it1 ,crashaw has1 in six simple lines1 pictured the essential mystic attitude of action1 not necessarily or consciously accompanied by either a philosophy or a theology4 ,he is speaking of ,teresa's childish attempt to run away and become a martyr among the ,moors4 ,she never undertook to know ,what death with love should have to doe2 ,nor has she e're yet understood ,why to shew love1 she should shed blood ,yet though she cannot tell you why1 ,she can ,,love1 and she can ,,dy4 ,spiritual love has never been more rapturously sung than in this marvellous hymn4 ,little wonder that it haunted ,coleridge's memory1 and that its deep emotion and rich melody stimulated his poet's ear and imagination to write ,christabel4#ga ,crashaw's influence also on ,patmore1 more especially on the ,sponsa ,dei1 as well as later on ,francis ,thompson1 is unmistakable4 ,william ,blake is one of the great mystics of the world2 and he is by far the greatest and most profound who has spoken in ,english4 ,like ,henry ,more and ,wordsworth1 he lived in a world of glory1 of spirit and of vision1 which1 for him1 was the only real world4 ,at the age of four he saw ,god looking in at the window1 and from that time until he welcomed the approach of death by singing songs of joy which made the rafters ring1 he lived in an atmosphere of divine illumination4 ,the material facts of his career were simple and uneventful4 ,he was an engraver by profession1 poet and painter by choice1 mystic and seer by nature4 ,from the outer point of view his life was a failure4 ,he was always crippled by poverty1 almost wholly unappreciated in the world of art and letters of his day1 consistently misunderstood even by his best friends1 and pronounced mad by those who most admired his work4 ,yet1 like all true mystics1 he was radiantly happy and serene2 rich in the midst of poverty4 ,for he lived and worked in a world1 and amongst a company1 little known of ordinary men3-- ,with a blue sky spread over with wings1 ,and a mild ,sun that mounts sings2 ,with trees fields full of ,fairy elves1 ,and little devils who fight for themselves-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,with ,angels planted in ,hawthorn bowers1 ,and ,god ,himself in the passing hours4#gb ,it is not surprising that he said1 in speaking of ,lawrence and other popular artists who sometimes patronisingly visited him1 ,they pity me1 but 'tis they are the just objects of pity1 ,i possess my visions and peace4 ,they have bartered their birthright for a mess of pottage4 ,the strength of his illumination at times intoxicated him with joy1 as he writes to ,hayley 7,october #bc1 #ahjd7 after a recurrence of vision which had lapsed for some years1 ,dear ,sir1 excuse my enthusiasm or rather madness1 for ,i am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever ,i take a pencil or graver into my hand4 ,this is the divine madness of which ,plato speaks1 the inebriation of ,reality1 the ecstasy which makes the poet drunk with life4#gc ,in common with other mystics1 with ,boehme1 ,st ,teresa1 and ,madame ,guyon1 ,blake claimed that much of his work was written under direct inspiration1 that it was an automatic composition1 which1 whatever its source1 did not come from the writer's normal consciousness4 ,in speaking of the prophetic book ,milton1 he says-- ,i have written this poem from immediate dictation1 twelve or sometimes twenty or thirty lines at a time1 without pre-meditation and even against my will4 ,the time it has taken in writing was thus rendered non-existent1 and an immense poem exists which seems to be the labour of a long life1 all produced without labour or study4 ,whatever may be their source1 all ,blake's writings are deeply mystical in thought1 and symbolic in expression1 and this is true of the 7apparently7 simple little ,songs of ,innocence1 no less than of the great1 and only partially intelligible1 prophetic books4 ,to deal at all adequately with these works1 with the thought and teaching they contain1 and the method of clothing it1 would necessitate a volume1 if not a small library1 devoted to that purpose4 ,it is possible1 however1 to indicate certain fundamental beliefs and assertions which lie at the base of ,blake's thought and of his very unusual attitude towards life1 and which1 once grasped1 make clear a large part of his work4 ,it must be remembered that these assertions were for him not matters of belief1 but of passionate knowledge--he was as sure of them as of his own existence4 ,blake founds his great myth on his perception of unity at the heart of things expressing itself in endless diversity4 ,god is in the lowest effects as in the highest causes4 ,he is become a worm that he may nourish the weak4444 ,everything on earth is the word of ,god1 and in its essence is ,god4#gd ,in the ,everlasting ,gospel1 ,blake emphasises1 with more than his usual amount of paradox1 the inherent divinity of man4 ,god1 speaking to ,christ as the highest type of humanity1 says-- ,if thou humblest thyself1 thou humblest me4 ,thou also dwellst in ,eternity4 ,thou art a man3 ,god is no more3 ,thy own humanity learn to adore1 ,for that is my ,spirit of ,life4#ge ,similarly the union of man with ,god is the whole gist of that apparently most chaotic of the prophetic books1 ,jerusalem4 ,the proof of the divinity of man1 it would seem1 lies in the fact that he desires ,god1 for he cannot desire what he has not seen4 ,this view is summed up in the eight sentences which form the little book 7about #b inches long by #a inches broad7 in the ,british ,museum1 ,of ,natural ,religion4 ,here are four of them4 ,man's perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception1 he perceives more than sense 7tho' ever so acute7 can discover4 ,none could have other than natural or organic thoughts if he had none but organic perceptions4 ,man's desires are limited by his perceptions1 none can desire what he has not perceiv'd4 ,the desires and perceptions of man untaught by anything but organs of sense1 must be limited to objects of sense4 ,the solution of the difficulty is given in large script on the last of the tiny pages of the volume3 ,therefore ,god becomes as we are1 that we may be as he is4 ,according to ,blake1 the universe as we know it1 is the result of the fall of the one life from unity into division4 ,this fall has come about through man seeking separation1 and taking the part for the whole4 7,see ,jacob ,boehme's view1 pp4 #id1 #ie above1 which is identical with that of ,blake47 ,nature1 therefore1 or the present form of mental existence1 is the result of a contraction of consciousness or selfhood1 a tendency for everything to shrink and contract about its own centre4 ,this condition or state ,blake personifies as ,urizen 7,reason7 a great dramatic figure who stalks through the prophetic books1 proclaiming himself ,god from ,eternity to ,eternity1 taking up now one characteristic and now another1 but ever of the nature of materialism1 opaqueness1 contraction4 ,in the case of man1 the result of this contraction is to close him up into separate selfhoods1 so that the inlets of communication with the universal spirit have become gradually stopped up2 until now1 for most men1 only the five senses 7one of the least of the many possible channels of communication7 are available for the uses of the natural world4 ,blake usually refers to this occurrence as the flood 3 that is1 the rush of general belief in the five senses that overwhelmed or submerged the knowledge of all other channels of wisdom1 except such arts as were saved1 which are symbolised under the names of ,noah 7,imagination7 and his sons4 ,he gives a fine account of this in ,europe 7p4 #h71 beginning-- ,plac'd in the order of the stars1 when the five senses whelm'd ,in deluge o'er the earth-born man1 then turn'd the fluxile eyes ,into two stationary orbs1 concentrating all things4 ,the ever-varying spiral ascents to the heavens of heavens ,were bended downward1 and the nostrils' golden gates shut1 ,turn'd outward1 barr'd1 and petrify'd against the infinite4 ,the only way out of this self-made prison is through the ,human ,imagination1 which is thus the ,saviour of the world4 ,by ,imagination ,blake would seem to mean all that we include under sympathy1 insight1 idealism1 and vision1 as opposed to self-centredness1 logical argument1 materialism and concrete1 scientific fact4 ,for him1 ,imagination is the one great reality1 in it alone he sees a human faculty that touches both nature and spirit1 thus uniting them in one4 ,the language of ,imagination is ,art1 for it speaks through symbols so that men shut up in their selfhoods are thus ever reminded that nature herself is a symbol4 ,when this is once fully realised1 we are freed from the delusion imposed upon us from without by the seemingly fixed reality of external things4 ,if we consider all material things as symbols1 their suggestiveness1 and consequently their reality1 is continually expanding4 ,i rest not from my great task1 he cries-- ,to open the eternal worlds1 to open the immortal eyes ,of man inwards into the worlds of thought1 into eternity1 ,ever expanding in the bosom of ,god1 the human imagination4 ,in ,blake's view the qualities most sorely needed by men are not restraint and discipline1 obedience or a sense of duty1 but love and understanding4 ,men are admitted into heaven1 not because they have curbed and governed their passions1 or have no passions1 but because they have cultivated their understandings4 ,to understand is three parts of love1 and it is only through ,imagination that we can understand4 ,it is the lack of imagination that is at the root of all the cruelties and all the selfishness in the world4 ,until we can feel for all that lives1 ,blake says in effect1 until we can respond to the joys and sorrows of others as quickly as to our own1 our imagination is dull and incomplete3 ,each outcry of the hunted ,hare ,a fibre from the ,brain does tear ,a ,skylark wounded in the wing ,a ,cherubim does cease to sing4 ,auguries of ,innocence4 ,when we feel like this1 we will go forth to help1 not because we are prompted by duty or religion or reason1 but because the cry of the weak and ignorant so wrings our heart that we cannot leave it unanswered4 ,cultivate love and understanding then1 and all else will follow4 ,energy1 desire1 intellect2 dangerous and deadly forces in the selfish and impure1 become in the pure in heart the greatest forces for good4 ,what mattered to ,blake1 and the only thing that mattered1 was the purity of his soul1 the direction of his will or desire1 as ,law and ,boehme would have put it4 ,once a man's desire is in the right direction1 the more he gratifies it the better2 ,abstinence sows sand all over ,the ruddy limbs flaming hair1 ,but ,desire ,gratified ,plants fruits of life beauty there4#gf ,only an extraordinarily pure nature or a singularly abandoned one could confidently proclaim such a dangerous doctrine4 ,but in ,blake's creed1 as ,swinburne has said1 the one thing unclean is the belief in uncleanness4 ,it is easy to see that this faculty which ,blake calls ,imagination entails of itself naturally and inevitably the ,christian doctrine of self-sacrifice4 ,it is in ,milton that ,blake most fully develops his great dogma of the eternity of sacrifice4 ,one must die for another through all eternity2 only thus can the bonds of selfhood be broken4 ,milton1 just before his renunciation1 cries-- ,i will go down to self-annihilation and eternal death ,lest the ,last ,judgment come and find me unannihilate1 ,and ,i be seiz'd and giv'n into the hands of my own ,selfhood4 ,for1 according to ,blake1 personal love or selfishness is the one sin which defies redemption4 ,this whole passage in ,milton 7,book i41 pp4 #ab1 #ac7 well repays study1 for one feels it to be alive with meaning1 holding symbol within symbol4 ,blake's symbolism1 and his fourfold view of nature and of man1 is a fascinating if sometimes a despairing study4 ,blake has explained very carefully the way in which the visionary faculty worked in him3-- ,what to others a trifle appears ,fills me full of smiles or tears2 ,for double the vision my ,eyes do see1 ,and a double vision is always with me4 ,with my inward ,eye1 'tis an old ,man grey1 ,with my outward1 a ,thistle across my way4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now ,i a fourfold vision see1 ,and a fourfold vision is given to me2 ',tis fourfold in my supreme delight1 ,and threefold in soft ,beulah's night1 ,and twofold ,always4 ,may ,god us keep ,from ,single vision ,newton's sleep6#gg ,he says twofold always1 for everything was of value to ,blake as a symbol1 as a medium for expressing a still greater thing behind it4 ,it was in this way that he looked at the human body1 physical beauty1 splendour of colour1 insects1 animate1 states1 and emotions1 male and female1 contraction and expansion1 division and reunion1 heaven and hell4 ,when his imagination was at its strongest1 his vision was fourfold1 corresponding to the fourfold division of the ,divine ,nature1 ,father1 ,son1 ,spirit1 and the fourth ,principle1 which may be described as the ,imagination of ,god1 without which manifestation would not be possible4#gh ,these principles1 when condensed and limited so as to be seen by us1 may take the form of ,reason1 ,emotion1 ,energy and ,sensation1 or1 to give them ,boehme's names1 ,contraction1 ,expansion1 ,rotation1 and ,vegetative life4 ,these1 in turn1 are associated with the four states of humanity or atmospheres1 the four elements1 the four points of the compass1 the four senses 7taste and touch counting as one71 and so on4 ,blake seemed1 as it were1 to hold his vision in his mind in solution1 and to be able to condense it into gaseous1 liquid1 or solid elements at whatever point he willed4 ,thus we feel that the prophetic books contain meaning within meaning1 bearing interpretation from many points of view2 and to arrive at their full value1 we should need to be able--as ,blake was--to apprehend all simultaneously1#gi instead of being forced laboriously to trace them out one by one in succession4 ,it is this very faculty of fourfold vision which gives to these books their ever-changing atmosphere of suggestion1 elusive and magical as the clouds and colours in a sunset sky1 which escape our grasp in the very effort to study them4 ,hence1 for the majority even of imaginative people1 who possess at the utmost double vision1 they are difficult and often wearisome to read4 ,they are so1 because the inner1 living1 vibrating ray or thread of connection which evokes these forms and beings in ,blake's imagination1 is to the ordinary man invisible and unfelt2 so that the quick leap of the seer's mind from figure to figure1 and from picture to picture1 seems irrational and obscure4 ,to this difficulty on the side of the reader1 there must in fairness be added certain undeniable limitations on the part of the seer4 ,these are principally owing to lack of training1 and possibly to lack of patience1 sometimes also it would seem to defective vision4 ,so that his symbols are at times no longer true and living1 but artificial and confused4 ,blake has visions1 though clouded and imperfect1 of the clashing of systems1 the birth and death of universes1 the origin and meaning of good and evil1 the function and secret correspondences of spirits1 of states1 of emotions1 of passions1 and of senses1 as well as of all forms in earth and sky and sea4 ,this1 and much more1 he attempts to clothe in concrete forms or symbols1 and if he fails at times to be explicit1 it is conceivable that the fault may lie as much with our density as with his obscurity4 ,indeed1 when we speak of ,blake's obscurity1 we are uncomfortably reminded of ,crabb ,robinson's naive remark when recording ,blake's admiration for ,wordsworth's ,immortality ,ode3 ,the parts 444 which ,blake most enjoyed were the most obscure--at all events1 those which ,i least like and comprehend4 ,blake's view of good and evil is the characteristically mystical one1 in his case much emphasised4 ,the really profound mystical thinker has no fear of evil1 for he cannot exclude it from the one divine origin1 else the world would be no longer a unity but a duality4 ,this difficulty of good and evil1 the crux of all philosophy1 has been approached by mystical thinkers in various ways 7such as that evil is illusion1 which seems to be ,browning's view71 but the boldest of them1 and notably ,blake and ,boehme1 have attacked the problem directly1 and carrying mystical thought to its logical conclusion1 have unhesitatingly asserted that ,god is the origin of ,good and ,evil alike1 that ,god and the devil1 in short1 are but two sides of the same ,force4 ,we have seen how this is worked out by ,boehme1 and that the central point of his philosophy is that all manifestation necessitates opposition4 ,in like manner1 ,blake's statement1 ,without ,contraries is no progression1 is1 in truth1 the keynote to all his vision and mythology4 ,attraction and ,repulsion1 ,benson and ,energy1 ,love and ,hate1 are necessary to ,human existence4 ,from these contraries spring what the religious call ,good and ,evil4 ,good is the passive that obeys ,reason4 ,evil is the active springing from ,energy4 ,good is ,heaven4 ,evil is ,hell4 ,with these startling remarks ,blake opens what is the most intelligible and concise of all the prophetic books1 ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell4 ,swinburne calls it the greatest of ,blake's books1 and ranks it as about the greatest work produced by the eighteenth century in the line of high poetry and spiritual speculation4 ,we may think ,swinburne's praise excessive1 but at any rate it is well worth reading 7,essay on ,blake1 #aijf edn41 pp4 #bbf-beb74 ,certainly1 if one work had to be selected as representative of ,blake1 as containing his most characteristic doctrines clothed in striking form1 this is the book to be chosen4 ,place a copy of ,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell in the hands of any would-be ,blake student 7an original or facsimile copy1 needless to say1 containing ,blake's exquisite designs1 else the book is shorn of half its force and beauty72 let him ponder it closely1 and he will either be repelled and shocked1 in which case he had better read no more ,blake1 or he will be strangely stirred and thrilled1 he will be touched with a spark of the fire from ,blake's spirit which quickens its words as the leaping tongues of flame illuminate its pages4 ,the kernel of the book1 and indeed of all ,blake's message1 is contained in the following statements on p4 #d1 headed ,the ,voice of the ,devil4 ,all ,bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following ,errors3-- #a4 ,that man has two real existing principles1 viz4 a ,body and a ,soul4 #b4 ,that ,energy1 called ,evil1 is alone from the ,body2 and that reason1 called ,good1 is alone from the ,soul4 #c4 ,that ,god will torment ,man in ,eternity for following his ,energies4 ,but the following ,contraries to these are ,true3-- #a4 ,man has no ,body distinct from his ,soul1 for that called ,body is a portion of ,soul discerned by the five ,senses1 the chief inlets of ,soul in this age4 #b4 ,energy is the only life and is from the ,body1 and ,reason is the bound or outward circumference of ,energy4 #c4 ,energy is ,eternal ,delight4 ,blake goes on to write down some of the ,proverbs which he collected while walking among the fires of hell4 ,these ,proverbs of ,hell fill four pages of the book1 and they are among the most wonderful things ,blake has written4 ,finished in expression1 often little jewels of pure poetry1 they are afire with thought and meaning1 and inexhaustible in suggestion4 ,taken all together they express in epigrammatic form every important doctrine of ,blake's4 ,some of them1 to be fully understood1 must be read in the light of his other work4 ,thus1 ,the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom1 or1 ,if the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise1 are expressions of the idea constantly recurrent with ,blake that evil must be embodied or experienced before it can be rejected4#hj ,but the greater number of them are quite clear and present no difficulty1 as for instance the following3-- ,a fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees4 ,he whose face gives no light shall never become a star4 ,no bird soars too high1 if he soars with his own wings4 ,what is now proved was once only imagined4 ,as the air to a bird or the sea to a fish1 so is contempt to the contemptible4 ,exuberance is ,beauty4 ,everything possible to be believed is an image of truth4 ,there are two tendencies of ,blake's mind1 both mystical--that is1 rooted in unity--the understanding of which helps1 on the one hand1 to clear much in his writing that seems strange and difficult2 and1 on the other1 reveals a deep meaning in remarks apparently simple to the point of silliness4 ,these are his view of the solidarity of mental and spiritual as compared with physical things1 and his habit of concentrating a universal truth into some one small fact4 ,for ,blake1 mental and spiritual things are the only real things4 ,thought is more real than action1 and spiritual attitude is more real than thought4 ,it is the most real thing about us1 and it is the only thing that is of any importance4 ,the difference between ,blake's attitude and that of the ordinary practical man of the world is summed up in his characteristic pencil comment in his copy of ,bacon's ,essays on the remark1 ,good thoughts are little better than good dreams1 in the ,essay on ,virtue4 ,blake writes beside this1 ,thought is act4 ,this view is well exemplified in the ,job illustrations1 where ,blake makes quite clear his view of the worthlessness1 spiritually1 of ,job's gift to the beggar of part of his last meal1 because of the consciously meritorious attitude of ,job's mind4#ha ,if this attitude be remembered it explains a good many of the most startling and revolutionary views of ,blake4 ,for instance1 in the poems called ,holy ,thursday in the ,songs of ,innocence and ,experience1 he paints first of all with infinite grace and tenderness the picture of the orphan charity children going to church1 as it would appear to the ordinary onlooker4 ,the hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs1 ,thousands of little boys girls raising their innocent hands4 99 99 99 99 99 ,beneath them sit the aged men1 wise guardians of the poor2 ,then cherish pity1 lest you drive an angel from your door4 ,but in short1 scathing words and significant change of metre he reverses the picture to show his view of it1 when1 in the companion song of ,experience1 he asks-- ,is this a holy thing to see ,in a rich and fruitful land1 ,babes reduc'd to misery1 ,fed with cold and usurous hand8 ,it is owing to a false idea that we can bear to see this so-called charity at all1 for we-- reduce the man to want a gift1 and then give with pomp4 ,the real evil is that we can suffer the need of the crust of bread to exist4 ,this is a view which is gradually beginning to be realised to-day4 ,blake is peculiarly daring and original in his use of the mystical method of crystallising a great truth in an apparently trivial fact4 ,we have seen some of these truths in the ,proverbs1 and the ,auguries of ,innocence is nothing else but a series of such facts1 a storehouse of deepest wisdom4 ,some of these have the simplicity of nursery rhymes1 they combine the direct freshness of the language of the child with the profound truth of the inspired seer4 ,if the ,sun ,moon should ,doubt ,they'd immediately ,go ,out4 ,it would scarcely be possible to sum up more completely than does this artless couplet the faith--not only of ,blake--but of every mystic4 ,simple1 ardent1 and living1 their faith is in truth their life1 and the veriest shadow of doubt would be to them a condition of death4 ,they are the only people in the world who are the possessors of certainty4 ,they have seen1 they have felt3 what need they of further proof8 ,logic1 philosophy1 theology1 all alike are but empty sounds and barren forms to those who know4 ,to ,francis ,thompson the presence of the ,divine in all things is the one overwhelming fact4 ,as a result of this sense1 the consciousness that everything is closely related1 closely linked together1 is ever present in his poetry4 ,it is the vision of this truth1 he believes1 which will be the revelation of a new heaven and a new earth4 ,when to the new eyes of thee ,all things by immortal power1 ,near or far1 ,hiddenly ,to each other linkd are1 ,that thou canst not stir a flower ,without troubling of a star4 ,the ,mistress of ,vision4 ,his ,divine intoxication1 his certainty of the presence of ,god1 is the more remarkable when it is realised through what depths of want and degradation and suffering ,thompson passed1 and what his life was for many years4 ,his father1 a north-country doctor1 wished him to follow the profession of medicine1 but the son could not bear it1 and so he ran away from home with--for sole wealth--a ,blake in one pocket and an ,aeschylus in the other4 ,in his struggle for life in ,london1 fragile in body and sensitive in soul1 he sank lower and lower1 from selling boots to errand-boy1 and finally for five years living as a vagabond without home or shelter1 picking up a few pence by day1 selling matches or fetching cabs1 and sleeping under the archways of ,covent ,garden ,market at night4 ,at last1 in the very depth of his misery1 he was sought out and rescued by the editor of the paper to whom he had sent ,health and ,holiness and some of his poems4 ,this saved him1 his work brought him good friends1 and he was enabled to write his wonderful poetry4 ,these terrible experiences1 which would have quenched the faith of the ordinary man and led him to despair1 with the poet mystic sought expression in those six triumphant verses found among his papers when he died1#hb verses charged with mystic passion1 which assert the solid reality of spiritual things1 and tell us that to the outcast and the wanderer every place was holy ground1 ,charing ,cross was the gate of heaven1 and that he beheld-- ,christ walking on the water ,not of ,gennesareth1 but ,thames6 ,through all that he writes there breathes the spirit of mystic devotion and aspiration1 but the following characteristics and beliefs may be specially noted4 7#a7 ,his reverence of childhood4 ,he sees in the child something of the divinity which ,vaughan and ,wordsworth saw1 and his poems to children1 such as ,daisy and ,the ,poppy1 have a special quality of passionate worship all their own4 7#b7 ,his attitude towards the beauty of woman4 ,this is entirely mystical1 and is akin to the view of ,plato and of ,donne4 ,he shares their belief that love is but the power to catch sight of the beauty of the soul1 which shines through and actually moulds the beauty of face and body4 ,how should ,i gauge what beauty is her dole1 ,who cannot see her countenance for her soul1 ,as birds see not the casement for the sky8 ,and1 as 'tis check they prove its presence by1 ,i know not of her body till ,i find ,my flight debarred the heaven of her mind4 ,her ,portrait4 7#c7 ,his attraction towards the continual change and renewal of nature1 not only of the movement of life to death1 but of death to life4 ,he broods over the changing cycles of the year1 winter and spring1 decay and re-birth1 and he sees in them a profound and far-reaching symbolism4 ,this is magnificently expressed in the ,ode to the ,setting ,sun1 where he paints a picture1 unmatched in ,english verse1 of the sun sinking to rest amid the splendours gathered round him in his fall4 ,the poem is charged with mystic symbolism1 the main thought of which is that human life1 ending apparently in death1 is but the prelude of preparation for a more glorious day of spiritual re-birth4 ,for birth hath in itself the germ of death1 ,but death hath in itself the germ of birth4 ,it is the falling acorn buds the tree1 ,the falling rain that bears the greenery1 ,the fern-plants moulder when the ferns arise4 ,for there is nothing lives but something dies1 ,and there is nothing dies but something lives4 ,but ,francis ,thompson's most entirely mystical utterance is the famous ,ode--,the ,hound of ,heaven--where he pictures with a terrible vividness and in phrase of haunting music the old mystic idea of the ,love chase4#hc ,it is the idea expressed by ,plotinus when he says1 ,god 444 is present with all things1 though they are ignorant that ,he is so4 ,for they fly from ,him1 or rather from themselves4 ,they are unable1 therefore1 to apprehend that from which they fly 7,ennead1 vi4 #g74 ,we see the spirit of man fleeing in terror down the nights and down the days before the persistent footsteps of his tremendous ,lover1 until1 beaten and exhausted1 he finds himself at the end of the chase face to face with ,god1 and he realises there is for him no escape and no hiding-place save in the arms of ,god ,himself4 ,the voices of the ,english poets and writers form but one note in a mighty chorus of witnesses whose testimony it is impossible for any thoughtful person to ignore4 ,undoubtedly1 in the case of some mystics1 there has been great disturbance both of the psychic and physical nature1 but on this account to disqualify the statements of ,plotinus1 ,st ,augustine1 ,eckhart1 ,catherine of ,siena1 ,catherine of ,genoa1 ,blake1 and ,wordsworth1 would seem analogous to ,macaulay's view that perhaps no person can be a poet1 or can even enjoy poetry without a certain unsoundness of mind4 ,our opinion about this must depend on what we mean by soundness of mind4 ,to some it may appear possible that the mystics and poets are as sound as their critics4 ,in any case1 the unprejudiced person to-day would seem driven to the conclusion that these people1 who are1 many of them1 exceptionally great1 intellectually and morally1 are telling us of a genuine experience which has transformed life for them4 ,what1 then1 is the meaning of this experience8 ,what explanation can we give of this puzzling and persistent factor in human life and history8 ,these are not easy questions to answer1 and only a bare hint of lines of solution dare be offered4 ,it is of interest to note that the last word in science and philosophy tends to reinforce and even to explain the position of the mystic4 ,the latest of ,european philosophers1 ,m4 ,bergson1 builds up on a mystical basis the whole of his method of thought1 that is1 on his perception of the simple fact that true duration1 the real time-flow1 is known to us by a state of feeling which he calls intuition1 and not by an intellectual act4 ,he says something like this4 ,we find as a matter of practice that certain problems when presented to the intellect are difficult and even impossible to solve1 whereas when presented to our experience of life1 their solution is so obvious that they cease to be problems4 ,thus1 the unaided intellect might be puzzled to say how sounds can grow more alike by continuing to grow more different4 ,yet a child can answer the question by sounding an octave on the piano4 ,but this solution is reached by having sensible knowledge of the reality and not by logical argument4 ,bergson's view1 therefore1 is that the intellect has been evolved for practical purposes1 to deal in a certain way with material things by cutting up into little bits what is an undivided flow of movement1 and by looking at these little bits side by side4 ,this1 though necessary for practical life1 is utterly misleading when we assume that the points thus singled out by the intellect represent the thickness of reality4 ,reality is fluidity1 and we cannot dip up its substance with the intellect which deals with surfaces1 even as we cannot dip up water with a net1 however finely meshed4 ,reality is movement1 and movement is the one thing we are unable intellectually to realise4 ,in order to grasp reality we must use the faculty of contact or immediate feeling1 or1 as ,bergson calls it1 intuition4 ,intuition is a different order of knowledge1 it is moulded on the very form of life1 and it enables us to enter into life1 to be one with it1 to live it4 ,it is a direction of movement3 and1 although capable of infinite development1 is simplicity itself4 ,this is the mystic art1 which in its early stages is a direction of movement1 an alteration of the quality and intensity of the self4 ,so ,bergson1 making use of and applying the whole range of modern psychology and biology1 tells us that we must develop intuition as a philosophical instrument if we are to gain any knowledge of things in themselves2 and he is thus re-echoing in modern terms what was long ago stated by ,plotinus when he said-- ,knowledge has three degrees--opinion1 science1 illumination4 ,the means or instrument of the first is sense1 of the second dialectic1 of the third intuition4 ,to the last ,i subordinate reason4 ,it is absolute knowledge founded on the identity of the mind knowing with the object known4 7,letter to ,flaccus47 ,we have discovered that sense knowledge1 however acute1 has to be corrected by the intellect1 which tells us that the sun does not go round the earth1 although it appears to our observation to do this4 ,so possibly1 in turn1 the intellect1 however acute1 may have to be corrected by intuition1 and the impotence of brain knowledge in dealing with the problem of life is leading slowly to the perception that to know in its true sense is not an intellectual process at all4 ,further1 in ,bergson's theory of the nature of mind1 and in his theory of rhythm1 he seems to indicate the lines of a technical explanation of some part of the mystic experience4#hd ,the soul1 or the total psychic and mental life of man1 he says1 is far greater than the little bit of consciousness of which we are normally aware1 and the brain acts as a sheath or screen1 which allows only a point of this mental life to touch reality4 ,the brain or the cerebral life is therefore to the whole mental life as the point of a knife is to the knife itself4 ,it limits the field of vision1 it cuts in one direction only1 it puts blinkers on the mind1 forcing it to concentrate on a limited range of facts4 ,it is conceivable that what happens with the mystics is that their mental blinkers become slightly shifted1 and they are thus able to respond to another aspect or order of reality4 ,so that they are swept by emotions and invaded by harmonies from which the average man is screened4 ,life having for them somewhat changed in direction1 the brain is forced to learn new movements1 to cut along fresh channels1 and thus to receive sensations which do not directly minister to the needs of physical life4 ,our knowledge of things1 says ,bergson1 derives its form from our bodily functions and lower needs4 ,by unmaking that which these needs have made1 we may restore to ,intuition its original purity1 and so recover contact with the ,real4 ,it is possibly this very unmaking and remaking1 this readjustment which we see at work in the lives of the great mystics1 and which naturally causes great psychic and even physical disturbances4 ,bergson's theory of rhythm is peculiarly illuminating in this connection4 ,the intellect1 he says1 is like a cinematograph4 ,moving at a certain pace1 it takes certain views1 snapshots of the continuous flux of reality1 of which it is itself a moving part4 ,the special views that it picks out and registers1 depend entirely upon the relation between its movement and the rhythm or movement of other aspects of the flux4 ,it is obvious that there are a variety of rhythms or tensions of duration4 ,for example1 in what is the fraction of a second of our own duration1 hundreds of millions of vibrations1 which it would need thousands of our years to count1 are taking place successively in matter1 and giving us the sensation of light4 ,it is therefore clear that there is a great difference between the rhythm of our own duration and the incredibly rapid rhythms of physical matter4 ,if an alteration took place in our rhythm1 these same physical movements would make us conscious--not of light--but of some other thing quite unknown4 ,would not the whole of history1 asks ,bergson1 be contained in a very short time for a consciousness at a higher degree of tension than our own8 ,a momentary quickening of rhythm might thus account for the sensation of timelessness1 of the participation in ,eternity so often described by the mystic as a part of the ,vision of ,god4 ,again1 ,bergson points out that there is nothing but movement2 that the idea of rest is an illusion1 produced when we and the thing we are looking at are moving at the same speed1 as when two railway trains run side by side in the same direction4 ,here1 once more1 may not the mystic sensation of stillness1 of being at one with the central ,life1 be owing to some change having taken place in the spiritual rhythm of the seer1 approximating it to that of the ,reality which he is thus enabled to perceive1 so that the fretful movement of the individual mind becomes merged in the wider flow of the whole1 and both seem to be at rest8 ,thus1 the most recent philosophy throws light on the most ancient mystic teaching1 and both point to the conclusion that our normal waking consciousness is but one special type of many other forms of consciousness1 by which we are surrounded1 but from which we are1 most of us1 physically and psychically screened4 ,we know that the consciousness of the individual self was a late development in the race2 it is at least possible that the attainment of the consciousness that this individual self forms part of a larger ,whole1 may prove to be yet another step forward in the evolution of the human spirit4 ,if this be so1 the mystics would appear to be those who1 living with an intensity greater than their fellows1 are thus enabled to catch the first gleams of the realisation of a greater self4 ,in any case1 it would seem certain1 judging from their testimony1 that it is possible1 by applying a certain stimulus1 to gain knowledge of another order of consciousness of a rare and vivifying quality4 ,those who have attained to this knowledge all record that it must be felt to be understood1 but that1 so far as words are of use1 it is ever of the nature of a reconciliation2 of discord blending into harmony1 of difference merging into unity4 ,bibliography ,,note4--,the literature on mysticism is growing very large1 and the following is only a small selection from the general works on it4 ,in the case of individual writers1 references are given only where there might be difficulty about editions4 ,thus no references are given to the works of ,burke1 ,carlyle1 ,wordsworth1 ,shelley1 ,tennyson1 ,browning1 etc4 ,general ,underhill1 ,evelyn4 ,mysticism1 ,methuen1 #aiaa4 7,see the valuable ,bibliography of mystical works1 pp4 #efc-ehe47 ,the ,mystic ,way1 ,dent1 #aiac4 ,jones1 ,rufus ,m4 ,studies in ,mystical ,religion1 ,macmillan1 #aiji4 ,james1 ,william4 ,the ,varieties of ,religious ,experience1 ,longmans ,green1 #aije4 ,inge1 ,w4 ,r4 ,christian ,mysticism1 ,methuen1 #ahii4 ,studies of ,english ,mystics1 ,murray1 #aije4 ,light1 ,life and ,love4 ,selections from the ,german mystics4 ,with ,introduction4 ,methuen1 #aijd4 ,hgel1 ,baron ,f4 von4 ,the ,mystical ,element in ,religion1 #b vols44 ,dent1 #aiji4 ,delacroix1 ,h4 tudes d',histoir et de ,psychologie du ,mysticisme1 ,paris1 #aijh4 ,rcjac1 ,e4 ,essai sur les fondements de la ,connaissance ,mystique1 ,paris1 #ahig 7translated by ,s4 ,c4 ,upton1 ,london1 #ahii74 ,gregory1 ,eleanor ,c4 ,a ,little ,book of ,heavenly ,wisdom4 ,selections from some ,english prose mystics1 with ,introduction4 ,methuen1 #aijb4 ,foreign ,influences ,plato 7c4 #dbg-cdg ,b4,c474 ,opera1 ed4 ,j4 ,burnet1 #e vols4 7,bibliotheca ,scriptorum ,classicorum ,oxoniensis71 #ahii-aijg4 ,plato 7,eng4 trans47 ,the ,dialogues1 translated by ,b4 ,jowett1 #e vols41 ,oxford1 #crd ed41 #ahib4 ,plotinus 7,a4,d4 #bjd-bgj74 ,plotini ,ennades1 prsmisso ,porphyrii de vita ,plotini deque ordine librorum ejus libello1 edidit ,r4 ,volkmann1 #b vols41 ,leipzig1 #ahhc-hd4 7,eng4 trans47 ,there is no complete ,english translation of the ,enneads1 only ,select ,works1 translated by ,t4 ,taylor1 #ahag2 re-issued1 ,george ,bell1 #ahie4 7,french trans47 ,les ,ennades de ,plotin1 translated by ,m4-,n4 ,bouillet1 #c vols41 ,paris1 #aheg-fa4 7,this is complete and very good1 but out of print47 ,the best critical account of ,plotinus is in ,the ,evolution of ,theology in the ,greek ,philosophers1 by ,edward ,caird1 #b vols41 ,maclehose1 #aijd4 ,dionysius the ,areopagite4 ,works1 translated ,parker1 #ahig4 ,jacob ,boehme 7#aege-afbd74 ,works 7incomplete71 #d vols41 #agfd-ha4 ,reprint of complete works in progress1 ed4 ,c4 ,j4 ,barker1 published ,j4 ,watkins4 7,see ,bibliography to chap4 xii4 of ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 vol4 ix47 ,emmanuel ,swedenborg 7#afhh-aggb74 ,works1 published by the ,swedenborg ,society1 ,london4 ,selections1 ,a ,compendium of the ,theological ,writings1 ed4 ,warren1 #aija4 ,english ,writers ,thomas de ,hales 7fl4 #abej74 ,a ,luve ,ron1 7printed in7 ,morris's ,old ,english ,miscellany 7,e4,e4,t4,s471 #ahgb4 ,richard ,rolle 7#abij8-acdi74 ,richard ,rolle and his ,followers1 ed4 ,horstmann1 #b vols41 ,sonnenschein1 #ahie-f4 ,the ,fire of ,love1 and the ,mending of ,life1 ed4 ,r4 ,harvey 7,e4,e4,t4,s471 #ahif4 ,anonymous 7c4 #acej-adjj74 ,the ,cloud of ,unknowing1 ed4 ,evelyn ,underhill1 ,j4 ,watkins1 #aiab4 ,all printed1 with other early ,english mystical treatises1 in ,the ,cell of ,self-,knowledge1 ed4 ,e4 ,g4 ,gardner1 ,chatto ,windus1 #aiaj4 ,the ,epistle of ,prayer1 ,the ,epistle of ,discretion1 ,the ,treatise of ,discerning ,spirits ,anonymous4 ,the ,epistle of ,privy ,counsel1 in ,,ms41 ,british ,museum1 ,harleian1 #fgd and #bdgc4 7,william ,langland1 or other authors48 c4 #acfb-acii74 ,the ,vision of ,william ,concerning ,piers the ,plowman1 ed4 ,skeat1 #b vols41 ,oxford1 #ahhf4 ,jusserand1 ,j4 ,j4 ,piers ,plowman3 a ,contribution to the ,history of ,english ,mysticism4 ,translated from the ,french by ,m4 ,e4 ,r41 #ahid4 ,walter ,hylton 7d4 #acif74 ,the ,scale of ,perfection1 ed4 ,guy1 #ahfi2 ed4 ,dalgairns1 #ahgj4 ,the ,song of ,angels1 printed by ,gardner1 in ,the ,cell of ,self-,knowledge1 #aiaj4 ,julian of ,norwich 7#acdb-adac874 ,revelations of ,divine ,love1 ed4 ,warrack1 ,methuen1 #aiab4 ,richard ,crashaw 7#afac8 #afdi74 ,poems1 ed4 ,a4 ,r4 ,waller1 ,cambridge #aijd4 ,john ,donne 7#aegc-afca74 ,poetical ,works1 ed4 ,grierson1 #b vols41 ,oxford1 #aiab4 ,george ,herbert 7#aeic-afcc74 ,poems1 ed4 ,grosart1 #ahia2 ,oxford edition1 #aijg4 ,christopher ,harvey 7#aeig-affc74 ,poems1 ed4 ,grosart1 #ahgd4 ,henry ,more 7#afad-afhg74 ,complete ,poems1 ed4 ,grosart1 #ahgh4 ,life1 by ,r4 ,ward1 #agaj1 reprinted ,theosophical ,society1 ed4 ,howard1 #aiaa4 ,henry ,vaughan 7#afbb-afie74 ,poems1 ed4 ,chambers1 #b vols41 #ahif4 ,thomas ,traherne 7c4 #afcf-afgd74 ,poetical ,works1 ed4 ,dobell1 #aijc4 ,centuries of ,meditations1 ed4 ,dobell1 #aijh4 ,poems of ,felicity1 ed4 ,bell1 ,oxford1 #aiaj4 ,william ,law 7#afhf-agfa74 ,works1 #i vols41 #agec-gf1 reprinted privately by ,g4 ,moreton1 #ahib-c4 ,the ,liberal and ,mystical ,writings of ,william ,law1 ed4 ,w ,scott ,palmer1 #aijh4 7,see ,bibliography to chap xii4 of ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 vol4 ix41 #aiab47 ,william ,blake 7#ageg-ahbg74 ,works1 ed4 ,ellis and ,yeats1 #c vols41 ,quaritch1 #ahic4 ,william ,blake4 ,poetical ,works 7including ,prophetic ,books71 ed1 ,ellis1 #b vols41 ,chatto and ,windus1 #aijf4 ,poetical ,works 7exclusive of ,prophetic ,books71 ed4 ,sampson1 ,oxford1 #aije4 7,the best text of the poems47 ,life1 ,gilchrist1 #b vols41 ,macmillan1 #ahhj4 ,william ,blake1 by ,a4 ,c4 ,swinburne1 ,chatto and ,windus 7new ed471 #aijf4 ,william ,blake1 ,mysticisme et ,posie1 par ,p4 ,berger1 ,paris1 #aijg4 ,s4 ,t4 ,coleridge 7#aggb-ahcd74 ,complete ,poetical ,works1 ed4 ,e4 ,h4 ,coleridge1 #b vols41 ,oxford1 #aiab4 ,biographia ,literaria1 ed4 ,j4 ,shawcross1 #b vols41 ,oxford1 #aijg4 ,emily ,bront 7#ahah-ahdh74 ,complete ,poems1 ed4 ,shorter1 ,hodder and ,stoughton1 #aiaj4 ,the ,three ,bronts1 by ,may ,sinclair1 ,hutchinson1 #aiab4 ,coventry ,patmore 7#ahbc-ahif74 ,poems1 ,g4 ,bell1 #aijf4 ,the ,rod1 the ,root1 and the ,flower1 #ahie4 ,memoirs and ,correspondence of ,c4 ,patmore1 by ,b4 ,champneys1 #aijj4 ,richard ,jefferies 7#ahdh-ahhg74 ,the ,story of my ,heart1 #ahhc1 7reprinted7 ,longmans1 #aijg4 ,francis ,thompson 7#ahei-aijg74 ,new ,poems1 ,burns and ,oates1 #ahig4 ,selected ,poems1 #aijh4 ,sister ,songs1 #aijh4 ,index ,aeschylus ,alchemists ,allen1 ,h4 ,e41 ,authorship of the ,prick of ,conscience ,ammonias ,sakkas ,ancren ,riwle ,bacon1 ,francis1 ,essays ,beauty2 moon the symbol of2 ,plato on2 truth and2 worship of ,behmenists4 7,see also under ,boehme7 ,bergson1 mystical basis of his thought2 study of2 theory of rhythm ,bhagavad-,gt ,blake1 ,william2 ,auguries of ,innocence2 ,europe2 ,everlasting ,gospel2 ,illustrations to ,job2 imagination of2 in-debtedness to ,boehme2 greatness of2 ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell2 ,milton2 ,of ,natural ,religion2 ,songs of ,innocence2 study of2 view of ,nature2 ,vision of ,last ,judgment ,boehme1 ,jacob2 ,coleridge on2 influence of2 ,law's use of2 study of2 view of evil ,bourignon1 ,madame ,bradley1 ,a4 ,c41 ,shakespearian ,tragedy ,bront1 ,charlotte ----- ,emily2 ,last ,lines2 ,philosopher2 ,prisoner2 study of2 ,visionary ,browne1 ,sir ,thomas ,browning1 ,elizabeth ,barrett2 ,aurora ,leigh ,browning1 ,robert2 ,asolando2 ,bean-stripe2 his central teaching2 ,death in the ,desert2 his intellectuality2 his love-mysticism2 ,paracelsus2 on pre-existence2 ,prince ,hohenstiel-,schwangau 2 ,rabbi ben ,ezra2 on religion and science2 resemblance to ,eckhart2 ,ring and the ,book2 ,statue and ,bust2 study of2 his view of evil ,bruno1 ,giordano ,bunyan1 ,john ,burke1 ,edmund2 ,present ,discontents2 study of ,byron ,cambridge ,platonists ,carlyle1 ,thomas influence of ,emerson on2 ,heroes2 nature of his mysticism2 ,sartor ,resartus2 study of ,catherine of ,genoa ,chaucer ,christ1 use of symbolism ,christianity and mysticism ,cloud of ,unknowing ,coleridge1 ,s4 ,t4 ,crashaw's influence on2 ,dejection2 ,destiny of ,nations2 ,frost at ,midnight2 ,kant's influence2 ,lay ,sermon2 ,letter to ,tulk2 ,neo-platonic influence2 ,religious ,musings2 study of2 ,swedenborg's influence ,crashaw1 ,richard influence of2 ,st ,teresa ,descartes ,deonise ,hid ,divinite ,dionysius the ,areopagite1 ,mystical ,theology ,donne1 ,john ,ecstasy2 ,letter to ,woodward2 ,letters to ,countess of ,huntingdon2 ,negative ,love2 ,of our ,sense of ,sinne2 ,poem on ,eliz4 ,drury2 ,progress of the ,soul2 ,soul's ,joy2 study of2 ,undertaking ,dryden ,e41 ,a4 ,eckhart ,emerson1 ,r4 ,w4 ,english national character and mysticism ,entbehrung ,epistle of ,discretion ,epistle of ,privy ,counsel ,erskine1 ,thos41 of ,linlathen ,evil1 see under ,good and ,evil ,familists ,farquhar1 ,j4 ,w4 ,fnelon ,fichte ,fire1 views of1 held by ,law and ,boehme ,flaxman ,fox1 ,george ,godwin1 ,mary1 see ,shelley1 ,mrs----,william ,goethe doctrine of ,entbehrung2 influence on ,carlyle ,good and ,evil1 problem of ,gosse1 ,edmund1 on ,patmore's ,sponsa ,dei ,greek delight in beauty ,grierson1 ,h4 ,j4 ,c41 ,donne's ,poems ,grosseteste ,guyon1 ,madame ,hartley1 ,david ,harvey1 ,christopher1 ,school of the ,heart ,hegel ,herbert1 ,george ,hindu mysticism ,hinton1 ,james1 ,mystery of ,pain ,hugh of ,st ,victor ,hylton1 ,walter ,scale or ,perfection ,imagination a creative force2 attainment of truth through2 love and2 reality of2 the saviour of the world1 ,inge1 ,w4 ,r41 ,selections from the ,german ,mystics ,intuition ,james1 ,william ,jefferies1 ,richard ,story of ,my ,heart2 study of ,julian1 ,lady ,revelations of ,divine ,love ,kant ,keats1 ,george ,keats ,endymion2 ,letter to ,taylor2 ,ode on ,nightingale2 ,ode on ,grecian ,urn2 ,plato's influence on2 ,revision of ,hyperion2 study of ,knowledge1 mental and spiritual supremacy of intuition over intellectual1 7see also under ,truth7 ,krishna ,lamb1 ,charles ,lo-,tsze ,law1 ,william ,appeal to all that doubt2 ,boehme's influence on2 early studies2 ,serious ,call2 ,spirit of ,prayer2 study of2 ,way to ,divine ,knowledge ,lawrence1 ,sir ,thomas ,love1 human and divine in ,ancren ,riwle2 ,blake on2 ,boehme on2 ,browning on2 ,coleridge on2 ,crashaw on2 ,donne on2 ,herbert on2 ,keats on2 ,lady ,julian on2 ,patmore on2 ,richard ,rolle on2 ,shelley on2 ,thomas de ,hales on2 ,francis ,thompson on2 ,traherne on ,macaulay ,macleod1 ,fiona ,man1 divinity and greatness of2 unity with ,god ,maurice1 ,f4 ,d4 ,meredith1 ,george ,metaphysical ,society ,moonlight1 ,keat's sensitiveness to ,more1 ,henry ,mysticism1 ascetic2 basic fact of2 beginnings in ,east2 ,bergson's contributions to2 ,english character and2 erotic2 experiences of melody in2 happiness and ,hindu meaning of the word methods of1 7see also under ,love1 ,vision1 and ,imagination1 etc47 of beauty pathways to1 7see also under ,vision1 etc47 philosophical religious thinkers and1 7see also under names of authors7 ,nature1 views and interpretation of ,neo-platonists ,nettleship1 ,r4 ,l41 ,philosophical ,remains ,newton1 debt to ,boehme ,norris1 ,john1 of ,bemerton ,pain1 problem of ,pascal1 ,blaise ,patmore1 ,coventry ,angel in the ,house ,bow set in the ,cloud ,child's ,purchase and ,the ,toys ,conjugial ,love ,crashaw's influence on ,dieu et ma ,dame ,memoirs ,precursor ,religio ,poet ,sod1 ,boot1 and ,flower ,sponsa ,dei study of ,piers ,plowman ,plato influence on ,donne ,plotinus ,shelley ,spenser ,vaughan on beauty on love ,phdrus1 ,republic ,symposium system of ,platonists1 ,cambridge ,plotinus ,enneads ,letter to ,flaccus ,plato's influence on system of ,pope ,porphyry ,pratt1 ,j4 ,b41 ,religious ,philosophy of ,william ,james ,pre-existence1 belief in ,pythagoras ,quakers4 ,quia amore langueo ,religion and ,science ,rhythm1 ,beigson's theory of ,richard of ,st ,victor ,benjamin ,minor ,robinson1 ,henry ,crabb ,rolle1 ,richard ,fire of ,lone ,pricke of ,conscience study of ,rossetti1 ,christina ,rossetti1 ,d4 ,g4 ,hand and ,soul ,house of ,life sensuousness of study of ,ruysbroeck ,st ,augustine ,city of ,god influence of ,plotinus on ,st ,bernard of ,clairvaux ,st ,bonaventura ,st ,catherine of ,siena ,st ,francis of ,assisi ,fioretti ,st ,john of the ,cross ,st ,martin ,st ,paul ,st ,teresa ,schelling ,scotus ,eriugena1 ,john ,seekers ,separatists ,shakespeare ,shelley1 ,mrs 7,mary ,godwin7 ,shelley2 ,adonais2 ,epipsychidion2 ,hymn to ,intellectual ,beauty2 imagination of2 influence of ,plato2 ,julian and ,maddalo2 love mysticism of2 ,prometheus2 ,revolt of ,islam2 ,rosalind and ,helen2 study of ,smith1 ,john1 the ,platonist ,society1 unity in ,socrates ,song of ,solomon ,spenser1 ,edmund1 ,hymns2 ,plato's influence on ,spinoza ,stewart1 ,j41 ,myths of ,plato ,sunlight1 ,jefferies' sensitiveness to ,suso ,swedenborg ,heaven and ,hell12 influence of2 thought of2 ,wisdom of ,angels ,swinburne1 ,a4 ,c41 ,essay on ,blake ,symbolism ,tauler ,taylor1 ,keats's letter to ,tennyson ,ancient ,sage2 ,higher ,pantheism2 ,holy ,grail2 ,in ,memoriam2 study of ,thelwall ,theologia ,germanica ,thomas de ,hales1 ,luve ,ron ,thompson1 ,francis2 ,crashaw's influence on2 ,daisy2 ,health and ,holiness2 ,hound of ,heaven2 ,ode to ,setting ,sun2 ,poppy2 study of ,thought1 reality of ,time ,traherne1 ,t4 ,approach2 ,centuries of ,meditations2 ,eden2 ,innocence2 ,rapture2 ,salutation2 study of2 ,wonder ,transcendentalists ,treatise of ,discerning ,spirits ,truth1 beauty and2 imagination and2 intellect and2 steps towards4 ,see also under ,knowledge ,tulk1 ,c4 ,a4 ,underhill1 ,evelyn1 ,mysticism ,upanishads ,vaughan1 ,henry ,affliction2 ,hidden ,flower2 ,quickness2 ,retreate2 ,resurrection and ,immortality2 ,world2 study of ,vision1 faculty and ecstasy of pain and physical condition and renunciation and ,watts-,dunton1 ,theodore1 article on ,rossetti ,whichcote1 ,benjamin ,will1 power of ,wordsworth1 ,william attainment of vision debt to ,vaughan ,duddon ,sonnets ,excursion fallacy of usual conception of mediation of ,ode on ,intimations of ,immortality ,prelude ,recluse ,solitary ,reaper ,stepping ,westward study of ,tintern ,abbey value of common things view of ,nature ,yeats1 ,w4 ,b4 ,footnotes #a ,the ,religious ,philosophy of ,william ,james1 by ,j4 ,b4 ,pratt1 ,hibbert ,journal1 ,oct4 #aiaa1 p4 #bcb4 #b ,on ,spirit1 in ,philosophical ,remains of ,r4 ,l4 ,nettleship1 ed4 ,a4 ,c4 ,bradley1 #aija1 pp4 #bc-cb4 #c ,republic1 ii4 #cgf4 #d ,symposium1 #baa1 #bab4 #e ,this distinction between ,east and ,west holds good on the whole1 although on the one side we find the heretical ,brahmin followers of ,bhakti1 and ,ramananda and his great disciple1 ,kabir1 who taught that man was the supreme manifestation of ,god2 and on the other1 occasional lapses into ,quietism and repudiation of the body4 ,see ,the ,mystic1 ,way1 by ,e4 ,underhill1 pp #bb-bh4 #f ,for an account of ,boehme's philosophy1 see pp4 #ia-ic below4 #g ,see his essay on him in ,representative ,men4 #h ,memoirs and ,correspondence of ,c4 ,palmore1 by ,b4 ,champneys1 #aija1 vol4 ii4 pp4 #hd1 #he4 #i ,selections from the ,german ,mystics1 ed4 ,inge 7,methuen1 #aijd71 p4 #d4 #aj ,see his article on ,rossetti in the ,nineteenth ,century for ,march #ahhc4 #aa ,house of ,life1 ,sonnet xvii4 #ab ,house of ,life1 ,sonnets i41 xxvii41 lxxvii4 #ac ,see ,religio ,poet1 p4 #a4 #ad ,memoirs1 ed4 ,champneys1 i4 #adf4 #ae ,the ,angel in the ,house4 ,bk4 ii4 prelude ii4 #af ,the ,angel in the ,house1 canto viii4 prelude iv4 #ag ,see pp4 #aac1 #aad below4 #ah ,the ,child's ,purchase and ,the ,toys1 poems1 ,i vol41 #aijf1 pp4 #bhg1 #ced4 #ai ,seligio ,poet1 #ahic1 p4 #afc4 #bj ,religio ,poet1 #ahic1 p4 #dd4 #ba ,the ,ring of ,eternity is a familiar mystical symbol which ,vaughan doubtless knew in other writers2 for instance as used by ,suso or ,ruysbroeck4 ,see ,mysticism1 by ,e4 ,underhill1 p4 #dhi and note4 #bb ,see the illuminating description of this essentially mystic feeling given by ,j4 ,stewart in ,the ,myths of ,pinto1 ,introduction1 pp4 #ci et seq4 #bc ,the ,story of my ,heart1 pp4 #hg1 #hh4 #bd ,ibid41 p4 #gf4 #be ,the ,story of my ,heart1 p4 #aii4 #bf ,ibid41 p4 #ga4 #bg ,ibid41 p4 #gd4 #bh ,see ,compendium of ,philosophy1 a medival digest of the ,abhidhamma1 translated by ,s4 ,z4 ,aung and ,mrs ,rhys ,davids1 #aiaj1 #aeb f4 #bi ,we cannot agree with ,prof ,grierson1 who1 in his fine recent edition of the poet 7,donne's ,poems1 ,oxford1 #aiab1 vol ii41 pp4 cxxxv4-vi471 holds that the style and tone of this song point to ,donne not being the author4 ,for these very qualities it would seem indubitably to be his4 #cj ,surely also by ,donne1 but see ,grierson1 vol4 ii41 pp4 cxxxviii-ix4 #ca ,centuries of ,meditations1 ed4 ,dobell1 #aijh1 pp4 #bj1 #ba4 #cb ,centuries of ,meditations1 pp4 #aef-eh4 #cc ,life of ,tennyson1 by his son1 #aije1 p4 #bfh2 see also pp #hah1 #hhj4 #cd ,this is the idea1 essentially mystical1 and originating with ,boehme1 which is worked out in the suggestive little book1 ,the ,mystery of ,pain1 by ,james ,hinton4 #ce ,an ,appeal1 ,work's1 vol4 vi4 pp4 #bg1 #bh4 #cf ,the ,spirit of ,prayer1 ,works1 vol4 vii4 pp4 #bc1 #bd4 #cg ,cf4 ,st ,augustine1 ,to will ,god entirely is to have ,him 7,city of ,god1 ,book xi4 chap1 iv471 or ,ruysbroek's answer to the priests from ,paris who came to consult him on the state of their souls3 ,you are as you desire to be4 #ch ,see ,the ,spirit of ,prayer1 ,works1 vol4 vii4 pp4 #aej1 #aea4 #ci ,an ,appeal1 ,works1 vol4 vi4 p4 #afi4 #dj ,ibid41 pp4 #ai1 #bj4 #da ,ibid41 pp4 #fi1 #hj4 #db ,the ,spirit of ,prayer1 ,works1 vol4 vii4 pp4 #bc1 #bg4 #dc ,the ,way to ,divine ,knowledge1 ,works1 vol4 vii4 p4 #fj4 #dd ,the ,spirit of ,prayer1 ,works1 vol4 vii4 p4 #fh4 ,see also ibid41 pp4 #ia1 #ib #de ,an ,appeal1 ,works1 vol4 vi4 pp4 #acb1 #acc4 #dg ,an ,appeal1 ,works1 vol4 vi4 p4 #aae4 #dh ,the ,destiny of ,nations1 ,,ii4 #af-ah4 #di ,frost at ,midnight1 #aa4 #fj-fb4 #ej ,sartor ,resartus1 ,book i4 chap4 xi4 #ea ,see ,sartor1 ,book iii4 chap4 iv4 #eb ,the mystical desire for close contact with ,god is expressed in ,english as early as before #aagj1 in ,godric's song to the ,virgin4 #ec ,see ,mysticism1 by ,e4 ,underhill1 pp4 #afb-aff4 #ed ,the ,ancren ,riwle1 ed4 ,j4 ,morton1 ,camden ,society1 #ahec1 pp4 #cig-djc4 #ee ,fire of ,love1 ,bk4 #a4 cap xvi4 p4 #cf4 #ef ,ibid41 ,bk4 i4 cap4 xv4 p4 #cc4 #eg ,see ,mysticism1 by ,e4 ,underhill1 pp4 #bbh1 #bbi4 #eh ,fire of ,love1 ,bk4 i4 cap4 xvi4 p4 #cf4 #ei ,ibid41 ,bk4 ii4 cap4 iii4 and xii4 #fj ,fire of ,love1 ,bk4 i4 cap4 xv4 #fa ,ibid41 ,bk4 ii4 cap4 vii4 #fb ,enneads1 vi4 #h1 #i4 #fc ,see ,the ,authorship of the ,prick of ,conscience1 by ,h4 ,e4 ,allen1 ,radcliffe ,college ,monographs1 ,no4 #ae1 ,ginn and ,co41 #aiaj4 #fd ,revelations1 ed4 ,warrack1 pp4 #ba1 #agh4 ,all the quotations which follow are taken from this edition of the ,revelations4 #fe ,revelations1 p4 #ace4 ,it ,is interesting to compare the words of other mystics upon this point2 as for instance ,richard of ,st ,victor in ,benjamin ,minor1 cap4 #ge1 or ,walter ,hylton in ,the ,scale of ,perfection4 ,note the emphasis laid upon it by ,wordsworth1 who indicates self-knowledge as the mark of those who have attained the unitive stage2 see p4 #ff above4 #ff ,dr4 ,inge gives an excellent detailed account of it in ,studies of ,english ,mystics1 #aijf1 pp4 #hj-abc4 #fg ,see ,piers ,plowman1 by ,j4 ,j4 ,jusserand1 #ahid #fh ,b41 ,passus v41 #fad-faf4 #fi ,poems1 ed4 ,waller1 #aijd1 p4 #bhc4 #gj ,poems1 ed4 ,grosart1 #ahgd1 p4 #acd4 #ga ,see ,additional ,table ,talk of ,s4 ,t4 ,o41 ed4 ,t4 ,ashe1 #ahhd1 p4 #cbb4 #gb ,poems1 ed4 ,sampson1 p4 #cje4 #gc ,see ,mysticism1 by ,e4 ,underhill1 pp4 #bhb-bhf1 and specially the passage from the ,fioreth of ,st ,francis of ,assisi1 chap1 xlviii41 quoted on p4 #bhe4 #gd ,notes to ,lavater4 #ge ,from version #b in ,poetical ,works1 ed4 ,john ,sampson1 #aije1 p4 #bec4 #gf ,poems1 ed4 ,sampson1 p4 #agc4 #gg ,poems1 ed ,sampson1 pp4 #cje-f1 #cji-aj4 ,blake is here praying that we may be preserved from the condition of mind which sees no farther than the concrete facts before it2 a condition he unfairly associated with the scientific mind in the abstract1 and more especially with ,newton4 #gh ,this is the principle called occasionally by ,blake1 and always by ,boehme1 the ,mirror1 or ,looking ,glass4 ,blake's names for these four principles1 as seen in the world1 in contracted form1 are ,urizen1 ,luvah1 ,urthona1 and ,tharmas4 #gi ,possibly in some such way as ,mozart1 when composing1 heard the whole of a symphony4 ,nor do ,i hear in my imagination the parts successively1 but ,i hear them as it were all at once 7,holmes's ,life and ,correspondence of ,mozart #ahde1 pp #cag-ah7 #hj ,cf41 for instance1 ,to be an error1 and to be cast out1 is a part of ,god's design 7,a ,vision of the ,last ,judgment1 ,gilchrist's ,life1 ii4 p4 #aie72 and ,illustrations #b and #af to the ,book of ,job1 see the commentary on them in ,blake's ,vision of the ,book of ,job1 by ,j4 ,h4 ,wicksteed1 #aiaj1 p4 #ba and note #d4 ,it is interesting to note that1 as ,mr ,bradley points out 7,shakesperian ,tragedy1 pp4 #cg1 #ci1 #cbd1 #cbe71 it is a cognate idea which seems to underlie ,shakesperian tragedy1 and to make it bearable4 #ha ,see the whole exposition of the ,job illustrations by ,wicksteed1 and specially p4 #cg4 #hb ,in no ,strange ,land4 ,selected ,poems1 #aijh1 p4 #acj4 #hc ,for other examples of the expression of this idea of the ,following ,love1 the quest of the soul by ,god1 especially in the anonymous ,middle ,english poem of ,quia amore langueo1 see ,mysticism1 by ,evelyn ,underhill1 pp4 #aeh-afb4 #hd ,the following remarks are much indebted to a valuable article on ,bergson and the ,mystics1 by ,evelyn ,underhill1 in the ,english ,review1 ,feb4 #aiab1 which should be consulted for a fuller exposition of the light shed by ,bergson's theories on the mystic experience4