,transcriber's note3     ,in the        
original book1 the ,table of ,contents  
was located after    the ,preface1 but  
,i have placed it at the beginning of   
the text    for this online version4    
,,practical ,,mysticism  by  ,,evelyn   
,,underhill  ,author of ,mysticism1 ,the
 ,mystic ,way1 ,immanence3 ,a ,book of  
,verses4        ,if the doors of        
perception were cleansed1 everything    
would appear to man as it is1 infinite4 
,for man has closed himself up1 till he 
sees all things through the narrow      
chinks of his cavern4 ,,william ,,blake 
,new ,york ,e4,p4 ,dutton  ,company #fha
 ,fifth ,avenue ,copyright #aiae by     
,e4,p4 ,dutton  ,company    ,,to ,,the  
,,unseen ,,future    ,,contents         
,preface                            vii 
,i4    ,what is ,mysticism              
#a    ,,ii4    ,the ,world of ,reality  
#ac    ,,iii4   ,the ,preparation of the
 ,mystic      #ba    ,,iv4              
,meditation and ,recollection        #ef
    ,v4     ,self-,adjustment           

#bi    ,,vi4    ,love and ,will         
#gd    ,,vii4   ,the ,first ,form of    
,contemplation    #hg    ,,viii4  ,the  
,second ,form of ,contemplation  #aje   
,,xi4    ,the ,third ,form of           
,contemplation   #abf    ,x4     ,the   
,mystical ,life                 #adh    
,,preface  ,this little book1 written   
during the last months of peace1 goes to
 press in the first weeks of the great  
war4 ,many will feel that in such a time
 of conflict and horror1 when only the  
most ignorant1 disloyal1 or apathetic   
can hope for quietness of mind1 a book  
which deals with that which is called   
the contemplative attitude to existence 
is wholly out of place4 ,so obvious1    
indeed1 is this point of view1 that ,i  
had at first thought of postponing its  
publication4 ,on the one hand1 it seems 
as though the dreams of a spiritual     
renaissance1 which promised so fairly   
but a little time ago1 had perished in  
the sudden explosion of brute force4 ,on
 the other hand1 the thoughts of the    

,english race are now turned1 and       
rightly1 towards the most concrete forms
 of action--struggle and endurance1     
practical sacrifices1 difficult and     
long-continued effort--rather than      
towards the passive attitude of         
self-surrender which is all that the    
practice of mysticism seems1 at first   
sight1 to demand4 ,moreover1 that deep  
conviction of the dependence of all     
human worth upon eternal values1 the    
immanence of the ,divine ,spirit within 
the human soul1 which lies at the root  
of a mystical concept of life1 is hard  
indeed to reconcile with much of the    
human history now being poured red-hot  
from the cauldron of war4 ,for all these
 reasons1 we are likely during the      
present crisis to witness a revolt from 
those superficially mystical notions    
which threatened to become too popular  
during the immediate past4  ,yet1 the   
title deliberately chosen for this      
book--that of ,practical                
,mysticism--means nothing if the        

attitude and the discipline which it    
recommends be adapted to fair weather   
alone3 if the principles for which it   
stands break down when subjected to the 
pressure of events1 and cannot be       
reconciled with the sterner duties of   
the national life4 ,to accept this      
position is to reduce mysticism to the  
status of a spiritual plaything4 ,on the
 contrary1 if the experiences on which  
it is based have indeed the transcendent
 value for humanity which the mystics   
claim for them--if they reveal to us a  
world of higher truth and greater       
reality than the world of concrete      
happenings in which we seem to be       
immersed--then that value is increased  
rather than lessened when confronted by 
the overwhelming disharmonies and       
sufferings of the present time4 ,it is  
significant that many of these          
experiences are reported to us from     
periods of war and distress3 that the   
stronger the forces of destruction      
appeared1 the more intense grew the     

spiritual vision which opposed them4 ,we
 learn from these records that the      
mystical consciousness has the power of 
lifting those who possess it to a plane 
of reality which no struggle1 no        
cruelty1 can disturb3 of conferring a   
certitude which no catastrophe can      
wreck4 ,yet it does not wrap its        
initiates in a selfish and otherworldly 
calm1 isolate them from the pain and    
effort of the common life4 ,rather1 it  
gives them renewed vitality2            
administering to the human spirit       
not--as some suppose--a soothing        
draught1 but the most powerful of       
stimulants4 ,stayed upon eternal        
realities1 that spirit will be far      
better able to endure and profit by the 
stern discipline which the race is now  
called to undergo1 than those who are   
wholly at the mercy of events2 better   
able to discern the real from the       
illusory issues1 and to pronounce       
judgment on the new problems1 new       
difficulties1 new fields of activity now

 disclosed4 ,perhaps it is worth while  
to remind ourselves that the two women  
who have left the deepest mark upon the 
military history of ,france and         
,england--,joan of ,arc and ,florence   
,nightingale--both acted under mystical 
compulsion4 ,so1 too1 did one of the    
noblest of modern soldiers1 ,general    
,gordon4 ,their national value was      
directly connected with their deep      
spiritual consciousness3 their intensely
 practical energies were the flowers of 
a contemplative life4  ,we are often    
told1 that in the critical periods of   
history it is the national soul which   
counts3 that where there is no vision1  
the people perish4 ,no nation is truly  
defeated which retains its spiritual    
self-possession4 ,no nation is truly    
victorious which does not emerge with   
soul unstained4 ,if this be so1 it      
becomes a part of true patriotism to    
keep the spiritual life1 both of the    
individual citizen and of the social    
group1 active and vigorous2 its vision  

of realities unsullied by the entangled 
interests and passions of the time4     
,this is a task in which all may do     
their part4 ,the spiritual life is not a
 special career1 involving abstraction  
from the world of things4 ,it is a part 
of every man's life2 and until he has   
realised it he is not a complete human  
being1 has not entered into possession  
of all his powers4 ,it is therefore the 
function of a practical mysticism to    
increase1 not diminish1 the total       
efficiency1 the wisdom and              
steadfastness1 of those who try to      
practise it4 ,it will help them to      
enter1 more completely than ever before1
 into the life of the group to which    
they belong4 ,it will teach them to see 
the world in a truer proportion1        
discerning eternal beauty beyond and    
beneath apparent ruthlessness4 ,it will 
educate them in a charity free from all 
taint of sentimentalism2 it will confer 
on them an unconquerable hope2 and      
assure them that still1 even in the hour

 of greatest desolation1 ,there lives   
the dearest freshness deep down things4 
,as a contribution1 then1 to these      
purposes1 this little book is now       
published4 ,it is addressed neither to  
the learned nor to the devout1 who are  
already in possession of a wide         
literature dealing from many points of  
view with the experiences and philosophy
 of the mystics4 ,such readers are      
warned that they will find here nothing 
but the re-statement of elementary and  
familiar propositions1 and invitations  
to a discipline immemorially old4 ,far  
from presuming to instruct those to whom
 first-hand information is both         
accessible and palatable1 ,i write only 
for the larger class which1 repelled by 
the formidable appearance of more       
elaborate works on the subject1 would   
yet like to know what is meant by       
mysticism1 and what it has to offer to  
the average man3 how it helps to solve  
his problems1 how it harmonises with the
 duties and ideals of his active life4  

,for this reason1 ,i presuppose in my   
readers no knowledge whatever of the    
subject1 either upon the philosophic1   
religious1 or historical side4 ,nor1    
since ,i wish my appeal to be general1  
do ,i urge the special claim of any one 
theological system1 any one metaphysical
 school4 ,i have merely attempted to put
 the view of the universe and man's     
place in it which is common to all      
mystics in plain and untechnical        
language3 and to suggest the practical  
conditions under which ordinary persons 
may participate in their experience4    
,therefore the abnormal states of       
consciousness which sometimes appear in 
connection with mystical genius are not 
discussed3 my business being confined to
 the description of a faculty which all 
men possess in a greater or less degree4
  ,the reality and importance of this   
faculty are considered in the first     
three chapters4 ,in the fourth and fifth
 is described the preliminary training  
of attention necessary for its use2 in  

the sixth1 the general self-discipline  
and attitude toward life which it       
involves4 ,the seventh1 eighth1 and     
ninth chapters treat in an elementary   
way of the three great forms of         
contemplation2 and in the tenth1 the    
practical value of the life in which    
they have been actualised is examined4  
,those kind enough to attempt the       
perusal of the book are begged to read  
the first sections with some attention  
before passing to the latter part4  ,e4 
,u4  ,september #ab1 #aiad4    ,,chapter
 ,i  ,,what ,,is ,,mysticism8  ,those   
who are interested in that special      
attitude towards the universe which is  
now loosely called mystical1 find       
themselves beset by a multitude of      
persons who are constantly asking--some 
with real fervour1 some with curiosity1 
and some with disdain-- ,what is        
mysticism8 ,when referred to the        
writings of the mystics themselves1 and 
to other works in which this question   
appears to be answered1 these people    

reply that such books are wholly        
incomprehensible to them4  ,on the other
 hand1 the genuine inquirer will find   
before long a number of self-appointed  
apostles who are eager to answer his    
question in many strange and            
inconsistent ways1 calculated to        
increase rather than resolve the        
obscurity of his mind4 ,he will learn   
that mysticism is a philosophy1 an      
illusion1 a kind of religion1 a disease2
 that it means having visions1          
performing conjuring tricks1 leading an 
idle1 dreamy1 and selfish life1         
neglecting one's business1 wallowing in 
vague spiritual emotions1 and being in  
tune with the infinite4 ,he will        
discover that it emancipates him from   
all dogmas--sometimes from all          
morality-- and at the same time that it 
is very superstitious4 ,one expert tells
 him that it is simply ,catholic piety1 
another that ,walt ,whitman was a       
typical mystic2 a third assures him that
 all mysticism comes from the ,east1 and

 supports his statement by an appeal to 
the mango trick4 ,at the end of a       
prolonged course of lectures1 sermons1  
tea-parties1 and talks with earnest     
persons1 the inquirer is still heard    
saying--too often in tones of           
exasperation--,what is mysticism8  ,i   
dare not pretend to solve a problem     
which has provided so much good hunting 
in the past4 ,it is indeed the object of
 this little essay to persuade the      
practical man to the one satisfactory   
course3 that of discovering the answer  
for himself4 ,yet perhaps it will give  
confidence if ,i confess pears to cover 
all the ground2 or at least1 all that   
part of the ground which is worth       
covering4 ,it will hardly stretch to the
 mango trick2 but it finds room at once 
for the visionaries and the             
philosophers1 for ,walt ,whitman and the
 saints4  ,here is the definition3--    
,mysticism is the art of union with     
,reality4 ,the mystic is a person who   
has attained that union in greater or   

less degree2 or who aims at and believes
 in such attainment4  ,it is not        
expected that the inquirer will find    
great comfort in this sentence when     
first it meets his eye4 ,the ultimate   
question1 ,what is ,reality8--a         
question1 perhaps1 which never occurred 
to him before--is already forming in his
 mind2 and he knows that it will cause  
him infinite distress4 ,only a mystic   
can answer it3 and he1 in terms which   
other mystics alone will understand4    
,therefore1 for the time being1 the     
practical man may put it on one side4   
,all that he is asked to consider now is
 this3 that the word union represents   
not so much a rare and unimaginable     
operation1 as something which he is     
doing1 in a vague1 imperfect fashion1 at
 every moment of his conscious life2 and
 doing with intensity and thoroughness  
in all the more valid moments of that   
life4 ,we know a thing only by uniting  
with it2 by assimilating it2 by an      
interpenetration of it and ourselves4   

,it gives itself to us1 just in so far  
as we give ourselves to it2 and it is   
because our outflow towards things is   
usually so perfunctory and so languid1  
that our comprehension of things is so  
perfunctory and languid too4 ,the great 
,sufi who said that ,pilgrimage to the  
place of the wise1 is to escape the     
flame of separation spoke the literal   
truth4 ,wisdom is the fruit of          
communion2 ignorance the inevitable     
portion of those who keep themselves to 
themselves1 and stand apart1 judging1   
analysing the things which they have    
never truly known4  ,because he has     
surrendered himself to it1 united with  
it1 the patriot knows his country1 the  
artist knows the subject of his art1 the
 lover his beloved1 the saint his ,god1 
in a manner which is inconceivable as   
well as unattainable by the looker-on4  
,real knowledge1 since it always implies
 an intuitive sympathy more or less     
intense1 is far more accurately         
suggested by the symbols of touch and   

taste than by those of hearing and      
sight4 ,true1 analytic thought follows  
swiftly upon the contact1 the           
apprehension1 the union3 and we1 in our 
muddle-headed way1 have persuaded       
ourselves that this is the essential    
part of knowledge--that it is1 in fact1 
more important to cook the hare than to 
catch it4 ,but when we get rid of this  
illusion and go back to the more        
primitive activities through which our  
mental kitchen gets its supplies1 we see
 that the distinction between mystic and
 non-mystic is not merely that between  
the rationalist and the dreamer1 between
 intellect and intuition4 ,the question 
which divides them is really this3      
,what1 out of the mass of material      
offered to it1 shall consciousness seize
 upon--with what aspects of the universe
 shall it unite8  ,it is notorious that 
the operations of the average human     
consciousness unite the self1 not with  
things as they really are1 but with     
images1 notions1 aspects of things4 ,the

 verb to be1 which he uses so lightly1  
does not truly apply to any of the      
objects amongst which the practical man 
supposes himself to dwell4 ,for him the 
hare of ,reality is always ready-jugged3
 he conceives not the living lovely1    
wild1 swift-moving creature which has   
been sacrificed in order that he may be 
fed on the deplorable dish which he     
calls things as they really are4 ,so    
complete1 indeed1 is the separation of  
his consciousness from the facts of     
being1 that he feels no sense of loss4  
,he is happy enough understanding1      
garnishing1 assimilating the carcass    
from which the principle of life and    
growth has been ejected1 and whereof    
only the most digestible portions have  
been retained4 ,he is not mystical4     
,but sometimes it is suggested to him   
that his knowledge is not quite so      
thorough as he supposed4 ,philosophers  
in particular have a way of pointing out
 its clumsy and superficial character2  
of demonstrating the fact that he       

habitually mistakes his own private     
sensations for qualities inherent in the
 mysterious objects of the external     
world4 ,from those few qualities of     
colour1 size1 texture1 and the rest1    
which his mind has been able to register
 and classify1 he makes a label which   
registers the sum of his own            
experiences4 ,this he knows1 with this  
he unites2 for it is his own creature4  
,it is neat1 flat1 unchanging1 with     
edges well defined3 a thing one can     
trust4 ,he forgets the existence of     
other conscious creatures1 provided with
 their own standards of reality4 ,yet   
the sea as the fish feels it1 the borage
 as the bee sees it1 the intricate      
sounds of the hedgerow as heard by the  
rabbit1 the impact of light on the eager
 face of the primrose1 the landscape as 
known in its vastness to the wood-louse 
and ant--all these experiences1 denied  
to him for ever1 have just as much claim
 to the attribute of ,being as his own  
partial and subjective interpretations  

of things4  ,because mystery is horrible
 to us1 we have agreed for the most part
 to live in a world of labels2 to make  
of them the current coin of experience1 
and ignore their merely symbolic        
character1 the infinite gradation of    
values which they misrepresent4 ,we     
simply do not attempt to unite with     
,reality4 ,but now and then that        
symbolic character is suddenly brought  
home to us4 ,some great emotion1 some   
devastating visitation of beauty1 love1 
or pain1 lifts us to another level of   
consciousness2 and we are aware for a   
moment of the difference between the    
neat collection of discrete objects and 
experiences which we call the world1 and
 the height1 the depth1 the breadth of  
that living1 growing1 changing ,fact1 of
 which thought1 life1 and energy are    
parts1 and in which we live and move and
 have our being4 ,then we realise that  
our whole life is enmeshed in great and 
living forces2 terrible because unknown4
 ,even the power which lurks in every   

coal-scuttle1 shines in the electric    
lamp1 pants in the motor-omnibus1       
declares itself in the ineffable wonders
 of reproduction and growth1 is         
supersensual4 ,we do but perceive its   
results4 ,the more sacred plane of life 
and energy which seems to be manifested 
in the forces we call spiritual and     
emotional--in love1 anguish1 ecstasy1   
adoration--is hidden from us too4       
,symptoms1 appearances1 are all that our
 intellects can discern3 sudden         
irresistible inroads from it1 all that  
our hearts can apprehend4 ,the material 
for an intenser life1 a wider1 sharper  
consciousness1 a more profound          
understanding of our own existence1 lies
 at our gates4 ,but we are separated    
from it1 we cannot assimilate it2 except
 in abnormal moments1 we hardly know    
that it is4 ,we now begin to attach at  
least a fragmentary meaning to the      
statement that mysticism is the art of  
union with ,reality4 ,we see that the   
claim of such a poet as ,whitman to be a

 mystic lies in the fact that he has    
achieved a passionate communion with    
deeper levels of life than those with   
which we usually deal--has thrust past  
the current notion to the ,fact3 that   
the claim of such a saint as ,teresa is 
bound up with her declaration that she  
has achieved union with the ,divine     
,essence itself4 ,the visionary is a    
mystic when his vision mediates to him  
an actuality beyond the reach of the    
senses4 ,the philosopher is a mystic    
when he passes beyond thought to the    
pure apprehension of truth4 ,the active 
man is a mystic when he knows his       
actions to be a part of a greater       
activity4 ,blake1 ,plotinus1 ,joan of   
,arc1 and ,john of the ,cross-- there is
 a link which binds all these together3 
but if he is to make use of it1 the     
inquirer must find that link for        
himself4 ,all four exhibit different    
forms of the working of the             
contemplative consciousness2 a faculty  
which is proper to all men1 though few  

take the trouble to develop it4 ,their  
attention to life has changed its       
character1 sharpened its focus3 and as a
 result they see1 some a wider          
landscape1 some a more brilliant1 more  
significant1 more detailed world than   
that which is apparent to the less      
educated1 less observant vision of      
common sense4 ,the old story of ,eyes   
and ,no-,eyes is really the story of the
 mystical and unmystical types4         
,no-,eyes has fixed his attention on the
 fact that he is obliged to take a walk4
 ,for him the chief factor of existence 
is his own movement along the road2 a   
movement which he intends to accomplish 
as efficiently and comfortably as he    
can4 ,he asks not to know what may be on
 either side of the hedges4 ,he ignores 
the caress of the wind until it         
threatens to remove his hat4 ,he trudges
 along1 steadily1 diligently2 avoiding  
the muddy pools1 but oblivious of the   
light which they reflect4 ,eyes takes   
the walk too3 and for him it is a       

perpetual revelation of beauty and      
wonder4 ,the sunlight inebriates him1   
the winds delight him1 the very effort  
of the journey is a joy4 ,magic         
presences throng the roadside1 or cry   
salutations to him from the hidden      
fields4 ,the rich world through which he
 moves lies in the fore-ground of his   
consciousness2 and it gives up new      
secrets to him at every step4 ,no-,eyes1
 when told of his adventures1 usually   
refuses to believe that both have gone  
by the same road4 ,he fancies that his  
companion has been floating about in the
 air1 or beset by agreeable             
hallucinations4 ,we shall never persuade
 him to the contrary unless we persuade 
him to look for himself4  ,therefore it 
is to a practical mysticism that the    
practical man is here invited3 to a     
training of his latent faculties1 a     
bracing and brightening of his languid  
consciousness1 an emancipation from the 
fetters of appearance1 a turning of his 
attention to new levels of the world4   

,thus he may become aware of the        
universe which the spiritual artist is  
always trying to disclose to the race4  
,this amount of mystical                
perception--this ordinary contemplation1
 as the specialists call it--is possible
 to all men3 without it1 they are not   
wholly conscious1 nor wholly alive4 ,it 
is a natural human activity1 no more    
involving the great powers and sublime  
experiences of the mystical saints and  
philosophers than the ordinary enjoyment
 of music involves the special creative 
powers of the great musician4  ,as the  
beautiful does not exist for the artist 
and poet alone-- though these can find  
in it more poignant depths of meaning   
than other men--so the world of ,reality
 exists for all2 and all may participate
 in it1 unite with it1 according to     
their measure and to the strength and   
purity of their desire4 ,for heaven     
ghostly1 says ,the ,cloud of ,unknowing1
 is as nigh down as up1 and up as down2 
behind as before1 before as behind1 on  

one side as other4 ,inasmuch1 that whoso
 had a true desire for to be at heaven1 
then that same time he were in heaven   
ghostly4 ,for the high and the next way 
thither is run by desires1 and not by   
paces of feet4 ,none therefore is       
condemned1 save by his own pride1 sloth1
 or perversity1 to the horrors of that  
which ,blake called single              
vision--perpetual and undivided         
attention to the continuous             
cinematograph performance1 which the    
mind has conspired with the senses to   
interpose between ourselves and the     
living world4    ,,chapter ,,ii  ,,the  
,,world ,,of ,,reality  ,the practical  
man may justly observe at this point    
that the world of single vision is the  
only world he knows3 that it appears to 
him to be real1 solid1 and              
self-consistent3 and that until the     
existence-- at least1 the               
probability--of other planes of reality 
is made clear to him1 all talk of       
uniting with them is mere moonshine1    

which confirms his opinion of mysticism 
as a game fit only for idle women and   
inferior poets4 ,plainly1 then1 it is   
the first business of the missionary to 
create1 if he can1 some feeling of      
dissatisfaction with the world within   
which the practical man has always lived
 and acted2 to suggest something of its 
fragmentary and subjective character4   
,we turn back therefore to a further    
examination of the truism--so obvious to
 those who are philosophers1 so         
exasperating to those who are not--that 
man dwells1 under normal conditions1 in 
a world of imagination rather than a    
world of facts2 that the universe in    
which he lives and at which he looks is 
but a construction which the mind has   
made from some few amongst the wealth of
 materials at its disposal4  ,the       
relation of this universe to the world  
of fact is not unlike the relation      
between a tapestry picture and the scene
 which it imitates4 ,you1 practical man1
 are obliged to weave your image of the 

outer world upon the hard warp of your  
own mentality2 which perpetually imposes
 its own convention1 and checks the free
 representation of life4 ,as a tapestry 
picture1 however various and full of    
meaning1 is ultimately reducible to     
little squares2 so the world of common  
sense is ultimately reducible to a      
series of static elements conditioned by
 the machinery of the brain4 ,subtle    
curves1 swift movement1 delicate        
gradation1 that machinery cannot        
represent4 ,it leaves them out4 ,from   
the countless suggestions1 the tangle of
 many-coloured wools which the real     
world presents to you1 you snatch one   
here and there4 ,of these you weave     
together those which are the most       
useful1 the most obvious1 the most often
 repeated3 which make a tidy and        
coherent pattern when seen on the right 
side4 ,shut up with this symbolic       
picture1 you soon drop into the habit of
 behaving to it as though it were not a 
representation but a thing4 ,on it you  

fix your attention2 with it you unite4  
,yet1 did you look at the wrong side1 at
 the many short ends1 the clumsy joins  
and patches1 this simple philosophy     
might be disturbed4 ,you would be forced
 to acknowledge the conventional        
character of the picture you have made  
so cleverly1 the wholesale waste of     
material involved in the weaving of it3 
for only a few amongst the wealth of    
impressions we receive are seized and   
incorporated into our picture of the    
world4 ,further1 it might occur to you  
that a slight alteration in the rhythm  
of the senses would place at your       
disposal a complete new range of        
material2 opening your eyes and ears to 
sounds1 colours1 and movements now      
inaudible and invisible1 removing from  
your universe those which you now regard
 as part of the established order of    
things4 ,even the strands which you have
 made use of might have been combined in
 some other way2 with disastrous results
 to the world of common sense1 yet      

without any diminution of their own     
reality4  ,nor can you regard these     
strands themselves as ultimate4 ,as the 
most prudent of logicians might venture 
to deduce from a skein of wool the      
probable existence of a sheep2 so you1  
from the raw stuff of perception1 may   
venture to deduce a universe which      
transcends the reproductive powers of   
your loom4 ,even the camera of the      
photographer1 more apt at contemplation 
than the mind of man1 has shown us how  
limited are these powers in some        
directions1 and enlightened us as to a  
few of the cruder errors of the person  
who accepts its products at face-value2 
or1 as he would say1 believes his own   
eyes4 ,it has shown us1 for instance1   
that the galloping race-horse1 with legs
 stretched out as we are used to see it1
 is a mythical animal1 probably founded 
on the mental image of a running dog4   
,no horse has ever galloped thus3 but   
its real action is too quick for us1 and
 we explain it to ourselves as something

 resembling the more deliberate         
dog-action which we have caught and     
registered as it passed4 ,the plain     
man's universe is full of race-horses   
which are really running dogs3 of       
conventional waves1 first seen in       
pictures and then imagined upon the sea3
 of psychological situations taken from 
books and applied to human life3 of     
racial peculiarities generalised from   
insufficient data1 and then discovered  
in actuality3 of theological diagrams   
and scientific laws1 flung upon the     
background of eternity as the magic     
lantern's image is reflected on the     
screen4  ,the coloured scene at which   
you look so trustfully owes1 in fact1   
much of its character to the activities 
of the seer3 to that process of         
thought--concept--cogitation1 from which
 ,keats prayed with so great an ardour  
to escape1 when he exclaimed in words   
which will seem to you1 according to the
 temper of your mind1 either an         
invitation to the higher laziness or one

 of the most profound aspirations of the
 soul1 ,o for a life of sensations      
rather than thoughts6 ,he felt--as all  
the poets have felt with him--that      
another1 lovelier world1 tinted with    
unimaginable wonders1 alive with        
ultimate music1 awaited those who could 
free themselves from the fetters of the 
mind1 lay down the shuttle and the      
weaver's comb1 and reach out beyond the 
conceptual image to intuitive contact   
with the ,thing4  ,there are certain    
happy accidents which have the power of 
inducting man for a moment into this    
richer and more vital world4 ,these     
stop1 as one old mystic said1 the wheel 
of his imagination1 the dreadful energy 
of his image-making power weaving up and
 transmuting the incoming messages of   
sense4 ,they snatch him from the loom   
and place him1 in the naked simplicity  
of his spirit1 face to face with that   
,other than himself whence the materials
 of his industry have come4 ,in these   
hours human consciousness ascends from  

thought to contemplation2 becomes at    
least aware of the world in which the   
mystics dwell2 and perceives for an     
instant1 as ,st4 ,augustine did1 the    
light that never changes1 above the eye 
of the soul1 above the intelligence4    
,this experience might be called in     
essence absolute sensation4 ,it is a    
pure feeling-state2 in which the        
fragmentary contacts with ,reality      
achieved through the senses are merged  
in a wholeness of communion which feels 
and knows all at once1 yet in a way     
which the reason can never understand1  
that ,totality of which fragments are   
known by the lover1 the musician1 and   
the artist4 ,if the doors of perception 
were cleansed1 said ,blake1 everything  
would appear to man as it is--,infinite4
 ,but the doors of perception are hung  
with the cobwebs of thought2 prejudice1 
cowardice1 sloth4 ,eternity is with us1 
inviting our contemplation perpetually1 
but we are too frightened1 lazy1 and    
suspicious to respond3 too arrogant to  

still our thought1 and let divine       
sensation have its way4 ,it needs       
industry and goodwill if we would make  
that transition3 for the process        
involves a veritable spring-cleaning of 
the soul1 a turning-out and             
rearrangement of our mental furniture1 a
 wide opening of closed windows1 that   
the notes of the wild birds beyond our  
garden may come to us fully charged with
 wonder and freshness1 and drown with   
their music the noise of the gramaphone 
within4 ,those who do this1 discover    
that they have lived in a stuffy world1 
whilst their inheritance was a world of 
morning-glory2 where every tit-mouse is 
a celestial messenger1 and every        
thrusting bud is charged with the full  
significance of life4  ,there will be   
many who feel a certain scepticism as to
 the possibility of the undertaking here
 suggested to them2 a prudent           
unwillingness to sacrifice their old    
comfortably upholstered universe1 on the
 mere promise that they will receive a  

new heaven and a new earth in exchange4 
,these careful ones may like to remind  
themselves that the vision of the world 
presented to us by all the great artists
 and poets--those creatures whose very  
existence would seem so strange to us1  
were we not accustomed to               
them--perpetually demonstrates the      
many-graded character of human          
consciousness2 the new worlds which     
await it1 once it frees itself from the 
tyranny of those labour-saving          
contrivances with which it usually      
works4 ,leaving on one side the more    
subtle apprehensions which we call      
spiritual1 even the pictures of the old 
,chinese draughtsmen and the modern     
impressionists1 of ,watteau and of      
,turner1 of ,manet1 ,degas1 and         
,cezanne2 the poems of ,blake1          
,wordsworth1 ,shelley1 ,whitman--these1 
and countless others1 assure you that   
their creators have enjoyed direct      
communion1 not with some vague world of 
fancy1 but with a visible natural order 

which you have never known4 ,these have 
seized and woven into their pictures    
strands which never presented themselves
 to you2 significant forms which elude  
you1 tones and relations to which you   
are blind1 living facts for which your  
conventional world provides no place4   
,they prove by their works that ,blake  
was right when he said that a fool sees 
not the same tree that a wise man sees2 
and that psychologists1 insisting on the
 selective action of the mind1 the fact 
that our preconceptions govern the      
character of our universe1 do but teach 
the most demonstrable of truths4 ,did   
you take them seriously1 as you should1 
their ardent reports might well disgust 
you with the dull and narrow character  
of your own consciousness4  ,what is it1
 then1 which distinguishes the outlook  
of great poets and artists from the     
arrogant subjectivism of common sense8  
,innocence and humility distinguish it4 
,these persons prejudge nothing1        
criticise nothing4 ,to some extent1     

their attitude to the universe is that  
of children3 and because this is so1    
they participate to that extent in the  
,heaven of ,reality4 ,according to their
 measure1 they have fulfilled ,keats'   
aspiration1 they do live a life in which
 the emphasis lies on sensation rather  
than on thought3 for the state which he 
then struggled to describe was that     
ideal state of pure receptivity1 of     
perfect correspondence with the essence 
of things1 of which all artists have a  
share1 and which a few great mystics    
appear to have possessed--not indeed in 
its entirety1 but to an extent which    
made them1 as they say1 one with the    
,reality of things4 ,the greater the    
artist is1 the wider and deeper is the  
range of this pure sensation3 the more  
sharply he is aware of the torrent of   
life and loveliness1 the rich profusion 
of possible beauties and shapes4 ,he    
always wants to press deeper and deeper1
 to let the span of his perception      
spread wider and wider2 till he unites  

with the whole of that ,reality which he
 feels all about him1 and of which his  
own life is a part4 ,he is always       
tending1 in fact1 to pass over from the 
artistic to the mystical state4 ,in     
artistic experience1 then1 in the       
artist's perennial effort to actualise  
the ideal which ,keats expressed1 we may
 find a point of departure for our      
exploration of the contemplative life4  
,what would it mean for a soul that     
truly captured it2 this life in which   
the emphasis should lie on the immediate
 percepts1 the messages the world pours 
in on us1 instead of on the             
sophisticated universe into which our   
clever brains transmute them8 ,plainly1 
it would mean the achievement of a new  
universe1 a new order of reality3 escape
 from the terrible museum-like world of 
daily life1 where everything is         
classified and labelled1 and all the    
graded fluid facts which have no label  
are ignored4 ,it would mean an innocence
 of eye and innocence of ear impossible 

for us to conceive2 the impassioned     
contemplation of pure form1 freed from  
all the meanings with which the mind has
 draped and disguised it2 the           
recapturing of the lost mysteries of    
touch and fragrance1 most wonderful     
amongst the avenues of sense4 ,it would 
mean the exchanging of the neat         
conceptual world our thoughts build up1 
fenced in by the solid ramparts of the  
possible1 for the inconceivable richness
 of that unwalled world from which we   
have subtracted it4 ,it would mean that 
we should receive from every flower1 not
 merely a beautiful image to which the  
label flower has been affixed1 but the  
full impact of its unimaginable beauty  
and wonder1 the direct sensation of life
 having communion with life3 that the   
scents of ceasing rain1 the voice of    
trees1 the deep softness of the kitten's
 fur1 the acrid touch of sorrel on the  
tongue1 should be in themselves         
profound1 complete1 and simple          
experiences1 calling forth simplicity of

 response in our souls4  ,thus          
understood1 the life of pure sensation  
is the meat and drink of poetry1 and one
 of the most accessible avenues to that 
union with ,reality which the mystic    
declares to us as the very object of    
life4 ,but the poet must take that      
living stuff direct from the field and  
river1 without sophistication1 without  
criticism1 as the life of the soul is   
taken direct from the altar2 with an awe
 that admits not of analysis4 ,he must  
not subject it to the cooking1 filtering
 process of the brain4 ,it is because he
 knows how to elude this dreadful       
sophistication of ,reality1 because his 
attitude to the universe is governed by 
the supreme artistic virtues of humility
 and love1 that poetry is what it is3   
and ,i include in the sweep of poetic   
art the coloured poetry of the painter1 
and the wordless poetry of the musician 
and the dancer too4  ,at this point the 
critical reader will certainly offer an 
objection4 ,you have been inviting me1  

he will say1 to do nothing more or less 
than trust my senses3 and this too on   
the authority of those impracticable    
dreamers the poets4 ,now it is notorious
 that our senses deceive us4 ,every one 
knows that2 and even your own remarks   
have already suggested it4 ,how1 then1  
can a wholesale and uncritical          
acceptance of my sensations help me to  
unite with ,reality8 ,many of these     
sensations we share with the animals3 in
 some1 the animals obviously surpass us4
 ,will you suggest that my terrier1     
smelling his way through an             
uncoordinated universe1 is a better     
mystic than ,i8  ,to this ,i reply1 that
 the terrier's contacts with the world  
are doubtless crude and imperfect2 yet  
he has indeed preserved a directness of 
apprehension which you have lost4 ,he   
gets1 and responds to1 the real smell2  
not a notion or a name4 ,certainly the  
senses1 when taken at face-value1 do    
deceive us3 yet the deception resides   
not so much in them1 as in that         

conceptual world which we insist on     
building up from their reports1 and for 
which we make them responsible4 ,they   
deceive us less when we receive these   
reports uncooked and unclassified1 as   
simple and direct experiences4 ,then1   
behind the special and imperfect        
stammerings which we call colour1 sound1
 fragrance1 and the rest1 we sometimes  
discern a whole fact--at once divinely  
simple and infinitely various--from     
which these partial messages proceed2   
and which seeks as it were to utter     
itself in them4 ,and we feel1 when this 
is so1 that the fact thus glimpsed is of
 an immense significance2 imparting to  
that aspect of the world which we are   
able to perceive all the significance1  
all the character which it possesses4   
,the more of the artist there is in us1 
the more intense that significance1 that
 character will seem3 the more complete1
 too1 will be our conviction that our   
uneasiness1 the vagueness of our        
reactions to things1 would be cured     

could we reach and unite with the fact1 
instead of our notion of it4 ,and it is 
just such an act of union1 reached      
through the clarified channels of sense 
and unadulterated by the content of     
thought1 which the great artist or poet 
achieves4  ,we seem in these words to   
have come far from the mystic1 and that 
contemplative consciousness wherewith he
 ascends to the contact of ,truth4 ,as a
 matter of fact1 we are merely          
considering that consciousness in its   
most natural and accessible form3 for   
contemplation is1 on the one hand1 the  
essential activity of all artists2 on   
the other1 the art through which those  
who choose to learn and practise it may 
share in some fragmentary degree1       
according to their measure1 the special 
experience of the mystic and the poet4  
,by it they may achieve that virginal   
outlook upon things1 that celestial     
power of communion with veritable life1 
which comes when that which we call     
sensation is freed from the tyranny of  

that which we call thought4 ,the artist 
is no more and no less than a           
contemplative who has learned to express
 himself1 and who tells his love in     
colour1 speech1 or sound3 the mystic1   
upon one side of his nature1 is an      
artist of a special and exalted kind1   
who tries to express something of the   
revelation he has received1 mediates    
between ,reality and the race4 ,in the  
game of give and take which goes on     
between the human consciousness and the 
external world1 both have learned to put
 the emphasis upon the message from     
without1 rather than on their own       
reaction to and rearrangement of it4    
,both have exchanged the false          
imagination which draws the sensations  
and intuitions of the self into its own 
narrow circle1 and there distorts and   
transforms them1 for the true           
imagination which pours itself out1     
eager1 adventurous1 and self-giving1    
towards the greater universe4           
,,chapter ,,iii  ,,the ,,preparation    

,,of ,,the ,,mystic  ,here the practical
 man will naturally say3 ,and pray how  
am ,i going to do this8 ,how shall ,i   
detach myself from the artificial world 
to which ,i am accustomed8 ,where is the
 brake that shall stop the wheel of my  
image-making mind8  ,i answer3 ,you are 
going to do it by an educative process2 
a drill1 of which the first stages will1
 indeed1 be hard enough4 ,you have      
already acknowledged the need of such   
mental drill1 such deliberate selective 
acts1 in respect to the smaller matters 
of life4 ,you willingly spend time and  
money over that narrowing and sharpening
 of attention which you call a business 
training1 a legal education1 the        
acquirement of a scientific method4 ,but
 this new undertaking will involve the  
development and the training of a layer 
of your consciousness which has lain    
fallow in the past2 the acquirement of a
 method you have never used before4 ,it 
is reasonable1 even reassuring1 that    
hard work and discipline should be      

needed for this3 that it should demand  
of you1 if not the renunciation of the  
cloister1 at least the virtues of the   
golf course4  ,the education of the     
mystical sense begins in                
self-simplification4 ,the feeling1      
willing1 seeing self is to move from the
 various and the analytic to the simple 
and the synthetic3 a sentence which may 
cause hard breathing and mopping of the 
brows on the part of the practical man4 
,yet it is to you1 practical man1       
reading these pages as you rush through 
the tube to the practical work of       
rearranging unimportant fragments of    
your universe1 that this message so     
needed by your time--or rather1 by your 
want of time-- is addressed4 ,to you1   
unconscious analyst1 so busy reading the
 advertisements upon the carriage wall1 
that you hardly observe the stages of   
your unceasing flight3 so anxiously     
acquisitive of the crumbs that you never
 lift your eyes to the loaf4 ,the       
essence of mystical contemplation is    

summed in these two experiences-- union 
with the flux of life1 and union with   
the ,whole in which all lesser realities
 are resumed--and these experiences are 
well within your reach4 ,though it is   
likely that the accusation will annoy   
you1 you are already in fact a potential
 contemplative3 for this act1 as ,st4   
,thomas ,aquinas taught1 is proper to   
all men--is1 indeed1 the characteristic 
human activity4  ,more1 it is probable  
that you are1 or have been1 an actual   
contemplative too4 ,has it never        
happened to you to lose yourself for a  
moment in a swift and satisfying        
experience for which you found no name8 
,when the world took on a strangeness1  
and you rushed out to meet it1 in a mood
 at once exultant and ashamed8 ,was     
there not an instant when you took the  
lady who now orders your dinner into    
your arms1 and she suddenly interpreted 
to you the whole of the universe8 a     
universe so great1 charged with so      
terrible an intensity1 that you have    

hardly dared to think of it since4 ,do  
you remember that horrid moment at the  
concert1 when you became wholly unaware 
of your comfortable seven-and-sixpenny  
seat8 ,those were onsets of involuntary 
contemplation2 sudden partings of the   
conceptual veil4 ,dare you call them the
 least significant1 moments of your     
life8 ,did you not then1 like the       
,african saint1 thrill with love and    
dread1 though you were not provided with
 a label for that which you adored8  ,it
 will not help you to speak of these    
experiences as mere emotion4 ,mere      
emotion then inducted you into a world  
which you recognised as more valid--in  
the highest sense1 more rational-- than 
that in which you usually dwell3 a world
 which had a wholeness1 a meaning1 which
 exceeded the sum of its parts4 ,mere   
emotion then brought you to your knees1 
made you at once proud and humble1      
showed you your place4 ,it simplified   
and unified existence3 it stripped off  
the little accidents and ornaments which

 perpetually deflect our vagrant        
attention1 and gathered up the whole    
being of you into one state1 which felt 
and knew a ,reality that your           
intelligence could not comprehend4 ,such
 an emotion is the driving power of     
spirit1 an august and ultimate thing3   
and this your innermost inhabitant felt 
it to be1 whilst your eyes were open to 
the light4  ,now that simplifying act1  
which is the preliminary of all mystical
 experience1 that gathering of the      
scattered bits of personality into the  
one which is really you--into the unity 
of your spirit1 as the mystics say--the 
great forces of love1 beauty1 wonder1   
grief1 may do for you now and again4    
,these lift you perforce from the       
consideration of the details to the     
contemplation of the ,all3 turn you from
 the tidy world of image to the         
ineffable world of fact4 ,but they are  
fleeting and ungovernable experiences1  
descending with dreadful violence on the
 soul4 ,are you willing that your       

participation in ,reality shall depend  
wholly on these incalculable            
visitations3 on the sudden wind and rain
 that wash your windows1 and let in the 
vision of the landscape at your gates8  
,you can1 if you like1 keep those       
windows clear4 ,you can1 if you choose  
to turn your attention that way1 learn  
to look out of them4 ,these are the two 
great phases in the education of every  
contemplative3 and they are called in   
the language of the mystics the         
purification of the senses and the      
purification of the will4  ,those who   
are so fortunate as to experience in one
 of its many forms the crisis which is  
called conversion are seized1 as it     
seems to them1 by some power stronger   
than themselves and turned perforce in  
the right direction4 ,they find that    
this irresistible power has cleansed the
 windows of their homely coat of grime2 
and they look out1 literally1 upon a new
 heaven and new earth4 ,the long quiet  
work of adjustment which others must    

undertake before any certitude rewards  
them is for these concentrated into one 
violent shattering and rearranging of   
the self1 which can now begin its true  
career of correspondence with the       
,reality it has perceived4 ,to persons  
of this type ,i do not address myself3  
but rather to the ordinary plodding     
scholar of life1 who must reach the same
 goal by a more gradual road4  ,what is 
it that smears the windows of the       
senses8 ,thought1 convention1           
self-interest4 ,we throw a mist of      
thought between ourselves and the       
external world3 and through this we     
discern1 as in a glass darkly1 that     
which we have arranged to see4 ,we see  
it in the way in which our neighbours   
see it2 sometimes through a pink veil1  
sometimes through a grey4 ,religion1    
indigestion1 priggishness1 or discontent
 may drape the panes4 ,the prismatic    
colours of a fashionable school of art  
may stain them4 ,inevitably1 too1 we see
 the narrow world our windows show us1  

not in itself1 but in relation to our   
own needs1 moods1 and preferences2 which
 exercise a selective control upon those
 few aspects of the whole which         
penetrate to the field of consciousness 
and dictate the order in which we       
arrange them1 for the universe of the   
natural man is strictly egocentric4 ,we 
continue to name the living creatures   
with all the placid assurance of ,adam3 
and whatsoever we call them1 that is the
 name thereof4 ,unless we happen to be  
artists--and then but rarely--we never  
know the thing seen in its purity2      
never1 from birth to death1 look at it  
with disinterested eyes4 ,our vision and
 understanding of it are governed by all
 that we bring with us1 and mix with it1
 to form an amalgam with which the mind 
can deal4 ,to purify the senses is to   
release them1 so far as human beings    
may1 from the tyranny of egocentric     
judgments2 to make of them the organs of
 direct perception4 ,this means that we 
must crush our deep-seated passion for  

classification and correspondences2     
ignore the instinctive1 selfish         
question1 ,what does it mean to me8     
learn to dip ourselves in the universe  
at our gates1 and know it1 not from     
without by comprehension1 but from      
within by self-mergence4  ,richard of   
,st4 ,victor has said1 that the essence 
of all purification is                  
self-simplification2 the doing away of  
the unnecessary and unreal1 the tangles 
and complications of consciousness3 and 
we must remember that when these masters
 of the spiritual life speak of purity1 
they have in their minds no thin1       
abstract notion of a rule of conduct    
stripped of all colour and compounded   
chiefly of refusals1 such as a more     
modern1 more arid asceticism set up4    
,their purity is an affirmative state2  
something strong1 clean1 and            
crystalline1 capable of a wholeness of  
adjustment to the wholeness of a        
,god-inhabited world4 ,the pure soul is 
like a lens from which all irrelevancies

 and excrescences1 all the beams and    
motes of egotism and prejudice1 have    
been removed2 so that it may reflect a  
clear image of the one ,transcendent    
,fact within which all others facts are 
held4      ,all which ,i took from thee 
,i did but take1         ,not for thy   
harms1     ,but just that thou might'st 
seek it in ,my arms4  ,all the details  
of existence1 all satisfactions of the  
heart and mind1 are resumed within that 
,transcendent ,fact1 as all the colours 
of the spectrum are included in white   
light3 and we possess them best by      
passing beyond them1 by following back  
the many to the ,one4  ,the ,simple ,eye
 of ,contemplation1 about which the     
mystic writers say so much1 is then a   
synthetic sense2 which sees that white  
light in which all colour is1 without   
discrete analysis of its properties4    
,the ,simple ,ear which discerns the    
celestial melody1 hears that ,tone in   
which all music is resumed2 thus        
achieving that ecstatic life of         

sensation without thought which ,keats  
perceived to be the substance of true   
happiness4  ,but you1 practical man1    
have lived all your days amongst the    
illusions of multiplicity4 ,though you  
are using at every instant your innate  
tendency to synthesis and               
simplification1 since this alone creates
 the semblance of order in your         
universe--though what you call seeing   
and hearing are themselves great        
unifying acts--yet your attention to    
life has been deliberately adjusted to a
 world of frittered values and prismatic
 refracted lights3 full of incompatible 
interests1 of people1 principles1       
things4 ,ambitions and affections1      
tastes and prejudices1 are fighting for 
your attention4 ,your poor1 worried     
consciousness flies to and fro amongst  
them2 it has become a restless and a    
complicated thing4 ,at this very moment 
your thoughts are buzzing like a swarm  
of bees4 ,the reduction of this fevered 
complex to a unity appears to be a task 

beyond all human power4 ,yet the        
situation is not as hopeless for you as 
it seems4 ,all this is only happening   
upon the periphery of the mind1 where it
 touches and reacts to the world of     
appearance4 ,at the centre there is a   
stillness which even you are not able to
 break4 ,there1 the rhythm of your      
duration is one with the rhythm of the  
,universal ,life4 ,there1 your essential
 self exists3 the permanent being which 
persists through and behind the flow and
 change of your conscious states4 ,you  
have been snatched to that centre once  
or twice4 ,turn your consciousness      
inward to it deliberately4 ,retreat to  
that point whence all the various lines 
of your activities flow1 and to which at
 last they must return4 ,since this     
alone of all that you call your selfhood
 is possessed of eternal reality1 it is 
surely a counsel of prudence to acquaint
 yourself with its peculiarities and its
 powers4 ,take your seat within the     
heart of the thousand-petaled lotus1    

cries the ,eastern visionary4 ,hold thou
 to thy ,centre1 says his ,christian    
brother1 and all things shall be thine4 
,this is a practical recipe1 not a pious
 exhortation4 ,the thing may sound      
absurd to you1 but you can do it if you 
will3 standing back1 as it were1 from   
the vague and purposeless reactions in  
which most men fritter their vital      
energies4 ,then you can survey with a   
certain calm1 a certain detachment1 your
 universe and the possibilities of life 
within it3 can discern too1 if you be at
 all inclined to mystical adventure1 the
 stages of the road along which you must
 pass on your way towards harmony with  
the ,real4  ,this universe1 these       
possibilities1 are far richer1 yet far  
simpler than you have supposed4 ,seen   
from the true centre of personality1    
instead of the usual angle of           
self-interest1 their scattered parts    
arrange themselves in order3 you begin  
to perceive those graduated levels of   
,reality with which a purified and      

intensified consciousness can unite4    
,so1 too1 the road is more logically    
planned1 falls into more comprehensible 
stages1 than those who dwell in a world 
of single vision are willing to believe4
  ,now it is a paradox of human life1   
often observed even by the most concrete
 and unimaginative of philosophers1 that
 man seems to be poised between two     
contradictory orders of ,reality4 ,two  
planes of existence--or1 perhaps1 two   
ways of apprehending existence--lie     
within the possible span of his         
consciousness4 ,that great pair of      
opposites which metaphysicians call     
,being and ,becoming1 ,eternity and     
,time1 ,unity and ,multiplicity1 and    
others mean1 when they speak of the     
,spiritual and the ,natural ,worlds1    
represents the two extreme forms under  
which the universe can be realised by   
him4 ,the greatest men1 those whose     
consciousness is extended to full span1 
can grasp1 be aware of1 both4 ,they know
 themselves to live1 both in the        

discrete1 manifested1 ever-changeful    
parts and appearances1 and also in the  
,whole ,fact4 ,they react fully to both3
 for them there is no conflict between  
the parochial and the patriotic sense4  
,more than this1 a deep instinct        
sometimes assures them that the inner   
spring or secret of that ,whole ,fact is
 also the inner spring and secret of    
their individual lives3 and that here1  
in this third factor1 the disharmonies  
between the part and the whole are      
resolved4 ,as they know themselves to   
dwell in the world of time and yet to be
 capable of transcending it1 so the     
,ultimate ,reality1 they think1 inhabits
 yet inconceivably exceeds all that they
 know to be--as the soul of the musician
 controls and exceeds not merely each   
note of the flowing melody1 but also the
 whole of that symphony in which these  
cadences must play their part4 ,that    
invulnerable spark of vivid life1 that  
inward light which these men find at    
their own centres when they seek for it1

 is for them an earnest of the          
,uncreated ,light1 the ineffable        
splendour of ,god1 dwelling at1 and     
energising within the heart of things3  
for this spark is at once one with1 yet 
separate from1 the ,universal ,soul4    
,so then1 man1 in the person of his     
greatest and most living                
representatives1 feels himself to have  
implicit correspondences with three     
levels of existence2 which we may call  
the ,natural1 the ,spiritual1 and the   
,divine4 ,the road on which he is to    
travel therefore1 the mystical education
 which he is to undertake1 shall        
successively unite him with these three 
worlds2 stretching his consciousness to 
the point at which he finds them first  
as three1 and at last as ,one4 ,under   
normal circumstances even the first of  
them1 the natural world of ,becoming1 is
 only present to him-- unless he be an  
artist--in a vague and fragmentary way4 
,he is1 of course1 aware of the temporal
 order1 a ceaseless change and movement1

 birth1 growth1 and death1 of which he  
is a part4 ,but the rapture and         
splendour of that everlasting flux which
 ,india calls the ,sport of ,god hardly 
reaches his understanding2 he is too    
busy with his own little movements to   
feel the full current of the stream4    
,but under those abnormal circumstances 
on which we have touched1 a deeper level
 of his consciousness comes into focus2 
he hears the music of surrounding       
things4 ,then he rises1 through and with
 his awareness of the great life of     
,nature1 to the knowledge that he is    
part of another greater life1           
transcending succession4 ,in this his   
durational spirit is immersed4 ,here all
 the highest values of existence are    
stored for him3 and it is because of his
 existence within this ,eternal         
,reality1 his patriotic relationship to 
it1 that the efforts and experiences of 
the time-world have significance for    
him4 ,it is from the vantage point      
gained when he realises his contacts    

with this higher order1 that he can see 
with the clear eye of the artist or the 
mystic the ,world of ,becoming itself-- 
recognise its proportions--even reach   
out to some faint intuition of its      
ultimate worth4 ,so1 if he would be a   
whole man1 if he would realise all that 
is implicit in his humanity1 he must    
actualise his relationship with this    
supernal plane of ,being3 and he shall  
do it1 as we have seen1 by              
simplification1 by a deliberate         
withdrawal of attention from the        
bewildering multiplicity of things1 a   
deliberate humble surrender of his      
image-making consciousness4 ,he already 
possesses1 at that gathering point of   
personality which the old writers       
sometimes called the apex and sometimes 
the ground of the soul1 a medium of     
communication with ,reality4 ,but this  
spiritual principle1 this gathering     
point of his selfhood1 is just that     
aspect of him which is furthest removed 
from the active surface consciousness4  

,he treats it as the busy citizen treats
 his national monuments4 ,it is there1  
it is important1 a possession which adds
 dignity to his existence2 but he never 
has time to go in4 ,yet as the purified 
sense1 cleansed of prejudice and        
self-interest1 can give us fleeting     
communications from the actual broken-up
 world of duration at our gates3 so the 
purified and educated will can wholly   
withdraw the self's attention from its  
usual concentration on small useful     
aspects of the time-world1 refuse to    
react to its perpetually incoming       
messages1 retreat to the unity of its   
spirit1 and there make itself ready for 
messages from another plane4 ,this is   
the process which the mystics call      
,recollection3 the first stage in the   
training of the contemplative           
consciousness4  ,we begin1 therefore1 to
 see that the task of union with        
,reality will involve certain stages of 
preparation as well as stages of        
attainment2 and these stages of         

preparation--for some disinterested     
souls easy and rapid1 for others long   
and full of pain--may be grouped under  
two heads4 ,first1 the disciplining and 
simplifying of the attention1 which is  
the essence of ,recollection4 ,next1 the
 disciplining and simplifying of the    
affections and will1 the orientation of 
the heart2 which is sometimes called by 
the formidable name of ,purgation4 ,so  
the practical mysticism of the plain man
 will best be grasped by him as a       
five-fold scheme of training and growth3
 in which the first two stages prepare  
the self for union with ,reality1 and   
the last three unite it successively    
with the ,world of ,becoming1 the ,world
 of ,being1 and finally with that       
,ultimate ,fact which the philosopher   
calls the ,absolute and the religious   
mystic calls ,god4    ,,chapter ,,iv    
,,meditation ,,and ,,recollection       
,recollection1 the art which the        
practical man is now invited to learn1  
is in essence no more and no less than  

the subjection of the attention to the  
control of the will4 ,it is not1        
therefore1 a purely mystical activity4  
,in one form or another it is demanded  
of all who would get control of their   
own mental processes2 and does or should
 represent the first great step in the  
education of the human consciousness4   
,so slothful1 however1 is man in all    
that concerns his higher faculties1 that
 few deliberately undertake this        
education at all4 ,they are content to  
make their contacts with things by a    
vague1 unregulated power1 ever apt to   
play truant1 ever apt to fail them4     
,unless they be spurred to it by that   
passion for ultimate things which       
expresses itself in religion1           
philosophy1 or art1 they seldom learn   
the secret of a voluntary concentration 
of the mind4  ,since the philosopher's  
interests are mainly objective1 and the 
artist seldom cogitates on his own      
processes1 it is1 in the end1 to the    
initiate of religion that we are forced 

to go1 if we would learn how to         
undertake this training for ourselves4  
,the religious contemplative has this   
further attraction for us3 that he is by
 nature a missionary as well4 ,the      
vision which he has achieved is the     
vision of an intensely loving heart2 and
 love1 which cannot keep itself to      
itself1 urges him to tell the news as   
widely and as clearly as he may4 ,in his
 works1 he is ever trying to reveal the 
secret of his own deeper life and wider 
vision1 and to help his fellow men to   
share it3 hence he provides the         
clearest1 most orderly1 most practical  
teachings on the art of contemplation   
that we are likely to find4 ,true1 our  
purpose in attempting this art may seem 
to us very different from his3 though if
 we carry out the principles involved to
 their last term1 we shall probably find
 that they have brought us to the place 
at which he aimed from the first4 ,but  
the method1 in its earlier stages1 must 
be the same2 whether we call the        

,reality which is the object of our     
quest aesthetic1 cosmic1 or divine4 ,the
 athlete must develop much the same     
muscles1 endure much the same           
discipline1 whatever be the game he     
means to play4  ,so we will go straight 
to ,st4 ,teresa1 and inquire of her what
 was the method by which she taught her 
daughters to gather themselves together1
 to capture and hold the attitude most  
favourable to communion with the        
spiritual world4 ,she tells us-- and    
here she accords with the great         
tradition of the ,christian             
contemplatives1 a tradition which was   
evolved under the pressure of long      
experience--that the process is a       
gradual one4 ,the method to be employed 
is a slow1 patient training of material 
which the licence of years has made     
intractable2 not the sudden easy turning
 of the mind in a new direction1 that it
 may minister to a new fancy for the    
mystical view of things4 ,recollection  
begins1 she says1 in the deliberate and 

regular practice of meditation2 a       
perfectly natural form of mental        
exercise1 though at first a hard one4   
,now meditation is a half-way house     
between thinking and contemplating3 and 
as a discipline1 it derives its chief   
value from this transitional character4 
,the real mystical life1 which is the   
truly practical life1 begins at the     
beginning2 not with supernatural acts   
and ecstatic apprehensions1 but with the
 normal faculties of the normal man4 ,i 
do not require of you1 says ,teresa to  
her pupils in meditation1 to form great 
and curious considerations in your      
understanding3 ,i require of you no more
 than to look4  ,it might be thought    
that such looking at the spiritual      
world1 simply1 intensely1 without       
cleverness--such an opening of the ,eye 
of ,eternity--was the essence of        
contemplation itself3 and indeed one of 
the best definitions has described that 
art as a loving sight1 a peering into   
heaven with the ghostly eye4 ,but the   

self who is yet at this early stage of  
the pathway to ,reality is not asked to 
look at anything new1 to peer into the  
deeps of things3 only to gaze with a new
 and cleansed vision on the ordinary    
intellectual images1 the labels and the 
formula1 the objects and ideas--even the
 external symbols--amongst which it has 
always dwelt4 ,it is not yet advanced to
 the seeing of fresh landscapes3 it is  
only able to re-examine the furniture of
 its home1 and obtain from this exercise
 a skill1 and a control of the          
attention1 which shall afterwards be    
applied to greater purposes4 ,its task  
is here to consider that furniture1 as  
the ,victorines called this preliminary 
training3 to take1 that is1 a more      
starry view of it3 standing back from   
the whirl of the earth1 and observing   
the process of things4  ,take1 then1 an 
idea1 an object1 from amongst the common
 stock1 and hold it before your mind4   
,the selection is large enough3 all     
sentient beings may find subjects of    

meditation to their taste1 for there    
lies a universal behind every particular
 of thought1 however concrete it may    
appear1 and within the most rational    
propositions the meditative eye may     
glimpse a dream4      ,reason has moons1
 but moons not hers         ,lie        
mirror'd on her sea1     ,confounding   
her astronomers         ,but1 ,o        
delighting me4  ,even those objects     
which minister to our sense-life may    
well be used to nourish our spirits too4
 ,who has not watched the intent        
meditations of a comfortable cat        
brooding upon the ,absolute ,mouse8     
,you1 if you have a philosophic twist1  
may transcend such relative views of    
,reality1 and try to meditate on ,time1 
,succession1 even ,being itself3 or     
again on human intercourse1 birth1      
growth1 and death1 on a flower1 a river1
 the various tapestries of the sky4     
,even your own emotional life will      
provide you with the ideas of love1 joy1
 peace1 mercy1 conflict1 desire4 ,you   

may range1 with ,kant1 from the stars to
 the moral law4 ,if your turn be to     
religion1 the richest and most evocative
 of fields is open to your choice3 from 
the plaster image to the mysteries of   
,faith4  ,but1 the choice made1 it must 
be held and defended during the time of 
meditation against all invasions from   
without1 however insidious their        
encroachments1 however spiritual their  
disguise4 ,it must be brooded upon1     
gazed at1 seized again and again1 as    
distractions seem to snatch it from your
 grasp4 ,a restless boredom1 a dreary   
conviction of your own incapacity1 will 
presently attack you4 ,this1 too1 must  
be resisted at sword-point4 ,the first  
quarter of an hour thus spent in        
attempted meditation will be1 indeed1 a 
time of warfare2 which should at least  
convince you how unruly1 how            
ill-educated is your attention1 how     
miserably ineffective your will1 how far
 away you are from the captaincy of your
 own soul4 ,it should convince1 too1 the

 most common-sense of philosophers of   
the distinction between real time1 the  
true stream of duration which is life1  
and the sequence of seconds so carefully
 measured by the clock4 ,never before   
has the stream flowed so slowly1 or     
fifteen minutes taken so long to pass4  
,consciousness has been lifted to a     
longer1 slower rhythm1 and is not yet   
adjusted to its solemn march4  ,but1    
striving for this new poise1 intent on  
the achievement of it1 presently it will
 happen to you to find that you have    
indeed--though how you know not--entered
 upon a fresh plane of perception1      
altered your relation with things4      
,first1 the subject of your meditation  
begins1 as you surrender to its         
influence1 to exhibit unsuspected       
meaning1 beauty1 power4 ,a perpetual    
growth of significance keeps pace with  
the increase of attention which you     
bring to bear on it2 that attention     
which is the one agent of all your      
apprehensions1 physical and mental      

alike4 ,it ceases to be thin and        
abstract4 ,you sink as it were into the 
deeps of it1 rest in it1 unite with it2 
and learn1 in this still1 intent        
communion1 something of its depth and   
breadth and height1 as we learn by      
direct intercourse to know our friends4 
,moreover1 as your meditation becomes   
deeper it will defend you from the      
perpetual assaults of the outer world4  
,you will hear the busy hum of that     
world as a distant exterior melody1 and 
know yourself to be in some sort        
withdrawn from it4 ,you have set a ring 
of silence between you and it2 and      
behold6 within that silence you are     
free4 ,you will look at the coloured    
scene1 and it will seem to you thin and 
papery3 only one amongst countless      
possible images of a deeper life as yet 
beyond your reach4 ,and gradually1 you  
will come to be aware of an entity1 a   
,you1 who can thus hold at arm's length1
 be aware of1 look at1 an idea--a       
universe--other than itself4 ,by this   

voluntary painful act of concentration1 
this first step upon the ladder which   
goes--as the mystics would say--from    
multiplicity to unity1 you have to some 
extent withdrawn yourself from that     
union with unrealities1 with notions and
 concepts1 which has hitherto contented 
you2 and at once all the values of      
existence are changed4 ,the road to a   
,yea lies through a ,nay4 ,you1 in this 
preliminary movement of recollection1   
are saying your first deliberate ,no to 
the claim which the world of appearance 
makes to a total possession of your     
consciousness3 and are thus making      
possible some contact between that      
consciousness and the ,world of         
,reality4  ,now turn this new purified  
and universalised gaze back upon        
yourself4 ,observe your own being in a  
fresh relation with things1 and         
surrender yourself willingly to the     
moods of astonishment1 humility1        
joy--perhaps of deep shame or sudden    
love--which invade your heart as you    

look4 ,so doing patiently1 day after    
day1 constantly recapturing the vagrant 
attention1 ever renewing the struggle   
for simplicity of sight1 you will at    
last discover that there is something   
within you--something behind the        
fractious1 conflicting life of          
desire--which you can recollect1 gather 
up1 make effective for new life4 ,you   
will1 in fact1 know your own soul for   
the first time3 and learn that there is 
a sense in which this real ,you is      
distinct from1 an alien within1 the     
world in which you find yourself1 as an 
actor has another life when he is not on
 the stage4 ,when you do not merely     
believe this but know it2 when you have 
achieved this power of withdrawing      
yourself1 of making this first crude    
distinction between appearance and      
reality1 the initial stage of the       
contemplative life has been won4 ,it is 
not much more of an achievement than    
that first proud effort in which the    
baby stands upright for a moment and    

then relapses to the more natural and   
convenient crawl3 but it holds within it
 the same earnest of future development4
    ,,chapter ,v  ,,self-,,adjustment   
,so1 in a measure1 you have found       
yourself3 have retreated behind all that
 flowing appearance1 that busy1 unstable
 consciousness with its moods and       
obsessions1 its feverish alternations of
 interest and apathy1 its conflicts and 
irrational impulses1 which even the     
psychologists mistake for ,you4 ,thanks 
to this recollective act1 you have      
discovered in your inmost sanctuary a   
being not wholly practical1 who refuses 
to be satisfied by your busy life of    
correspondences with the world of normal
 men1 and hungers for communion with a  
spiritual universe4 ,and this thing so  
foreign to your surface consciousness1  
yet familiar to it and continuous with  
it1 you recognise as the true ,self     
whose existence you always took for     
granted1 but whom you have only known   
hitherto in its scattered               

manifestations4 ,that art thou4  ,this  
climb up the mountain of self-knowledge1
 said the ,victorine mystics1 is the    
necessary prelude to all illumination4  
,only at its summit do we discover1 as  
,dante did1 the beginning of the pathway
 to ,reality4 ,it is a lonely and an    
arduous excursion1 a sufficient test of 
courage and sincerity3 for most men     
prefer to dwell in comfortable ignorance
 upon the lower slopes1 and there to    
make of their more obvious              
characteristics a drapery which shall   
veil the naked truth4 ,true and complete
 self-knowledge1 indeed1 is the         
privilege of the strongest alone4 ,few  
can bear to contemplate themselves face 
to face2 for the vision is strange and  
terrible1 and brings awe and contrition 
in its wake4 ,the life of the seer is   
changed by it for ever4 ,he is          
converted1 in the deepest and most      
drastic sense2 is forced to take up a   
new attitude towards himself and all    
other things4 ,likely enough1 if you    

really knew yourself--saw your own dim  
character1 perpetually at the mercy of  
its environment2 your true motives1     
stripped for inspection and measured    
against eternal values2 your            
unacknowledged self-indulgences2 your   
irrational loves and hates--you would be
 compelled to remodel your whole        
existence1 and become for the first time
 a practical man4  ,but you have done   
what you can in this direction2 have at 
last discovered your own deeper being1  
your eternal spark1 the agent of all    
your contacts with ,reality4 ,you have  
often read about it4 ,now you have met  
it2 know for a fact that it is there4   
,what next8 ,what changes1 what         
readjustments will this self-revelation 
involve for you8  ,you will have        
noticed1 as with practice your          
familiarity with the state of           
,recollection has increased1 that the   
kind of consciousness which it brings   
with it1 the sort of attitude which it  
demands of you1 conflict sharply with   

the consciousness and the attitude which
 you have found so appropriate to your  
ordinary life in the past4 ,they make   
this old attitude appear childish1      
unworthy1 at last absurd4 ,by this first
 deliberate effort to attend to ,reality
 you are at once brought face to face   
with that dreadful revelation of        
disharmony1 unrealness1 and interior    
muddle which the blunt moralists call   
conviction of sin4 ,never again need    
those moralists point out to you the    
inherent silliness of your earnest      
pursuit of impermanent things3 your     
solemn concentration upon the game of   
getting on4 ,none the less1 this        
attitude persists4 ,again and again you 
swing back to it4 ,something more than  
realisation is needed if you are to     
adjust yourself to your new vision of   
the world4 ,this game which you have    
played so long has formed and           
conditioned you1 developing certain     
qualities and perceptions1 leaving the  
rest in abeyance3 so that now1 suddenly 

asked to play another1 which demands    
fresh movements1 alertness of a         
different sort1 your mental muscles are 
intractable1 your attention refuses to  
respond4 ,nothing less will serve you   
here than that drastic remodelling of   
character which the mystics call        
,purgation1 the second stage in the     
training of the human consciousness for 
participation in ,reality4  ,it is not  
merely that your intellect has          
assimilated1 united with a superficial  
and unreal view of the world4 ,far      
worse3 your will1 your desire1 the sum  
total of your energy1 has been turned   
the wrong way1 harnessed to the wrong   
machine4 ,you have become accustomed to 
the idea that you want1 or ought to     
want1 certain valueless things1 certain 
specific positions4 ,for years your     
treasure has been in the ,stock         
,exchange1 or the ,house of ,commons1 or
 the ,salon1 or the reviews that really 
count 7if they still exist71 or the     
drawing-rooms of ,mayfair2 and thither  

your heart perpetually tends to stray4  
,habit has you in its chains4 ,you are  
not free4 ,the awakening1 then1 of your 
deeper self1 which knows not habit and  
desires nothing but free correspondence 
with the ,real1 awakens you at once to  
the fact of a disharmony between the    
simple but inexorable longings and      
instincts of the buried spirit1 now     
beginning to assert themselves in your  
hours of meditation--pushing out1 as it 
were1 towards the light--and the various
 changeful1 but insistent longings and  
instincts of the surface-self4 ,between 
these two no peace is possible3 they    
conflict at every turn4 ,it becomes     
apparent to you that the declaration of 
,plotinus1 accepted or repeated by all  
the mystics1 concerning a higher and a  
lower life1 and the cleavage that exists
 between them1 has a certain            
justification even in the experience of 
the ordinary man4  ,that great thinker  
and ecstatic said1 that all human       
personality was thus two-fold3 thus     

capable of correspondence with two      
orders of existence4 ,the higher life   
was always tending towards union with   
,reality2 towards the gathering of it   
self up into ,one4 ,the lower life1     
framed for correspondence with the      
outward world of multiplicity1 was      
always tending to fall downwards1 and   
fritter the powers of the self among    
external things4 ,this is but a         
restatement1 in terms of practical      
existence1 of the fact which            
,recollection brought home to us3 that  
the human self is transitional1 neither 
angel nor animal1 capable of living     
towards either ,eternity or ,time4 ,but 
it is one thing to frame beautiful      
theories on these subjects3 another when
 the unresolved dualism of your own     
personality 7though you may not give it 
this high-sounding name7 becomes the    
main fact of consciousness1 perpetually 
reasserts itself as a vital problem1 and
 refuses to take academic rank4  ,this  
state of things means the acute         

discomfort which ensues on being pulled 
two ways at once4 ,the uneasy swaying of
 attention between two incompatible     
ideals1 the alternating conviction that 
there is something wrong1 perverse1     
poisonous1 about life as you have always
 lived it1 and something hopelessly     
ethereal about the life which your      
innermost inhabitant wants to           
live--these disagreeable sensations grow
 stronger and stronger4 ,first one and  
then the other asserts itself4 ,you     
fluctuate miserably between their       
attractions and their claims2 and will  
have no peace until these claims have   
been met1 and the apparent opposition   
between them resolved4 ,you are sure now
 that there is another1 more durable and
 more reasonable1 life possible to the  
human consciousness than that on which  
it usually spends itself4 ,but it is    
also clear to you that you must yourself
 be something more1 or other1 than you  
are now1 if you are to achieve this     
life1 dwell in it1 and breathe its air4 

,you have had in your brief spells of   
recollection a first quick vision of    
that plane of being which ,augustine    
called the land of peace1 the beauty old
 and new4 ,you know for evermore that it
 exists3 that the real thing within     
yourself belongs to it1 might live in   
it1 is being all the time invited and   
enticed to it4 ,you begin1 in fact1 to  
feel and know in every fibre of your    
being the mystical need of union with   
,reality2 and to realise that the       
natural scene which you have accepted so
 trustfully cannot provide the          
correspondences toward which you are    
stretching out4  ,nevertheless1 it is to
 correspondences with this natural order
 that you have given for many years your
 full attention1 your desire1 your will4
 ,the surface-self1 left for so long in 
undisputed possession of the conscious  
field1 has grown strong1 and cemented   
itself like a limpet to the rock of the 
obvious2 gladly exchanging freedom for  
apparent security1 and building up1 from

 a selection amongst the more concrete  
elements offered it by the rich stream  
of life1 a defensive shell of fixed     
ideas4 ,it is useless to speak kindly to
 the limpet4 ,you must detach it by main
 force4 ,that old comfortable clinging  
life1 protected by its hard shell from  
the living waters of the sea1 must now  
come to an end4 ,a conflict of some     
kind--a severance of old habits1 old    
notions1 old prejudices--is here        
inevitable for you2 and a decision as to
 the form which the new adjustments must
 take4  ,now although in a general way  
we may regard the practical man's       
attitude to existence as a limpet-like  
adherence to the unreal2 yet1 from      
another point of view1 fixity of purpose
 and desire is the last thing we can    
attribute to him4 ,his mind is full of  
little whirlpools1 twists and currents1 
conflicting systems1 incompatible       
desires4 ,one after another1 he centres 
himself on ambition1 love1 duty1        
friendship1 social convention1 politics1

 religion1 self-interest in one of its  
myriad forms2 making of each a core     
round which whole sections of his life  
are arranged4 ,one after another1 these 
things either fail him or enslave him4  
,sometimes they become obsessions1      
distorting his judgment1 narrowing his  
outlook1 colouring his whole existence4 
,sometimes they develop inconsistent    
characters which involve him in public  
difficulties1 private compromises and   
self-deceptions of every kind4 ,they    
split his attention1 fritter his powers4
 ,this state of affairs1 which usually  
passes for an active life1 begins to    
take on a different complexion when     
looked at with the simple eye of        
meditation4 ,then we observe that the   
plain man's world is in a muddle1 just  
because he has tried to arrange its     
major interests round himself as round a
 centre2 and he is neither strong enough
 nor clever enough for the job4 ,he has 
made a wretched little whirlpool in the 
mighty ,river of ,becoming1             

interrupting--as he imagines1 in his own
 interest--its even flow3 and within    
that whirlpool are numerous petty       
complexes and counter-currents1 amongst 
which his will and attention fly to and 
fro in a continual state of unrest4 ,the
 man who makes a success of his life1 in
 any department1 is he who has chosen   
one from amongst these claims and       
interests1 and devoted to it his        
energetic powers of heart and will2     
unifying himself about it1 and from     
within it resisting all counter-claims4 
,he has one objective1 one centre2 has  
killed out the lesser ones1 and         
simplified himself4  ,now the artist1   
the discoverer1 the philosopher1 the    
lover1 the patriot--the true enthusiast 
for any form of life--can only achieve  
the full reality to which his special   
art or passion gives access by          
innumerable renunciations4 ,he must kill
 out the smaller centres of interest1 in
 order that his whole will1 love1 and   
attention may pour itself out towards1  

seize upon1 unite with1 that special    
manifestation of the beauty and         
significance of the universe to which he
 is drawn4 ,so1 too1 a deliberate       
self-simplification1 a purgation of the 
heart and will1 is demanded of those who
 would develop the form of consciousness
 called mystical4 ,all your power1 all  
your resolution1 is needed if you are to
 succeed in this adventure3 there must  
be no frittering of energy1 no mixture  
of motives4 ,we hear much of the        
mystical temperament1 the mystical      
vision4 ,the mystical character is far  
more important3 and its chief           
ingredients are courage1 singleness of  
heart1 and self-control4 ,it is towards 
the perfecting of these military        
virtues1 not to the production of a     
pious softness1 that the discipline of  
asceticism is largely directed2 and the 
ascetic foundation1 in one form or      
another1 is the only enduring foundation
 of a sane contemplative life4  ,you    
cannot1 until you have steadied         

yourself1 found a poise1 and begun to   
resist some amongst the innumerable     
claims which the world of appearance    
perpetually makes upon your attention   
and your desire1 make much use of the   
new power which ,recollection has       
disclosed to you2 and this ,recollection
 itself1 so long as it remains merely a 
matter of attention and does not involve
 the heart1 is no better than a psychic 
trick4 ,you are committed therefore1 as 
the fruit of your first attempts at     
self-knowledge1 to a                    
deliberate--probably a                  
difficult--rearrangement of your        
character2 to the stern course of       
self-discipline1 the voluntary acts of  
choice on the one hand and of rejection 
on the other1 which ascetic writers     
describe under the formidable names of  
,detachment and ,mortification4 ,by     
,detachment they mean the eviction of   
the limpet from its crevice2 the refusal
 to anchor yourself to material things1 
to regard existence from the personal   

standpoint1 or confuse custom with      
necessity4 ,by ,mortification1 they mean
 the resolving of the turbulent         
whirlpools and currents of your own     
conflicting passions1 interests1        
desires2 the killing out of all those   
tendencies which the peaceful vision of 
,recollection would condemn1 and which  
create the fundamental opposition       
between your interior and exterior life4
  ,what then1 in the last resort1 is the
 source of this opposition2 the true    
reason of your uneasiness1 your unrest8 
,the reason lies1 not in any real       
incompatibility between the interests of
 the temporal and the eternal orders2   
which are but two aspects of one ,fact1 
two expressions of one ,love4 ,it lies  
solely in yourself2 in your attitude    
towards the world of things4 ,you are   
enslaved by the verb to have3 all your  
reactions to life consist in corporate  
or individual demands1 appetites1 wants4
 ,that love of life of which we         
sometimes speak is mostly cupboard-love4

 ,we are quick to snap at her ankles    
when she locks the larder door3 a       
proceeding which we dignify by the name 
of pessimism4 ,the mystic knows not this
 attitude of demand4 ,he tells us again 
and again1 that he is rid of all his    
asking2 that henceforth the heat of     
having shall never scorch him more4     
,compare this with your normal attitude 
to the world1 practical man3 your quiet 
certitude that you are well within your 
rights in pushing the claims of the ,i1 
the ,me1 the ,mine2 your habit1 if you  
be religious1 of asking for the weather 
and the government that you want1 of    
persuading the ,supernal ,powers to take
 a special interest in your national or 
personal health and prosperity4 ,how    
often in each day do you deliberately   
revert to an attitude of disinterested  
adoration8 ,yet this is the only        
attitude in which true communion with   
the universe is possible4 ,the very     
mainspring of your activity is a demand1
 either for a continued possession of   

that which you have1 or for something   
which as yet you have not3 wealth1      
honour1 success1 social position1 love1 
friendship1 comfort1 amusement4 ,you    
feel that you have a right to some of   
these things3 to a certain recognition  
of your powers1 a certain immunity from 
failure or humiliation4 ,you resent     
anything which opposes you in these     
matters4 ,you become restless when you  
see other selves more skilful in the    
game of acquisition than yourself4 ,you 
hold tight against all comers your own  
share of the spoils4 ,you are rather    
inclined to shirk boring                
responsibilities and unattractive1      
unremunerative toil2 are greedy of      
pleasure and excitement1 devoted to the 
art of having a good time4 ,if you      
possess a social sense1 you demand these
 things not only for yourself but for   
your tribe--the domestic or racial group
 to which you belong4 ,these            
dispositions1 so ordinary that they     
almost pass unnoticed1 were named by our

 blunt forefathers the ,seven ,deadly   
,sins of ,pride1 ,anger1 ,envy1         
,avarice1 ,sloth1 ,gluttony1 and ,lust4 
,perhaps you would rather call them--as 
indeed they are--the seven common forms 
of egotism4 ,they represent the natural 
reactions to life of the self-centred   
human consciousness1 enslaved by the    
world of multiplicity2 and constitute   
absolute barriers to its attainment of  
,reality4 ,so long as these dispositions
 govern character we can never see or   
feel things as they are2 but only as    
they affect ourselves1 our family1 our  
party1 our business1 our church1 our    
empire--the ,i1 the ,me1 the ,mine1 in  
its narrower or wider manifestations4   
,only the detached and purified heart   
can view all things--the irrational     
cruelty of circumstance1 the tortures of
 war1 the apparent injustice of life1   
the acts and beliefs of enemy and       
friend--in true proportion2 and reckon  
with calm mind the sum of evil and good4
 ,therefore the mystics tell us         

perpetually that selfhood must be killed
 before ,reality can be attained4  ,feel
 sin a lump1 thou wottest never what1   
but none other thing than thyself1 says 
,the ,cloud of ,unknowing4 ,when the ,i1
 the ,me1 and the ,mine are dead1 the   
work of the ,lord is done1 says ,kabir4 
,the substance of that wrongness of act 
and relation which constitutes sin is   
the separation of the individual spirit 
from the whole2 the ridiculous          
megalomania which makes each man the    
centre of his universe4 ,hence comes the
 turning inwards and condensation of his
 energies and desires1 till they do     
indeed form a lump2 a hard1 tight core  
about which all the currents of his     
existence swirl4 ,this heavy weight     
within the heart resists every outgoing 
impulse of the spirit2 and tends to draw
 all things inward and downward to      
itself1 never to pour itself forth in   
love1 enthusiasm1 sacrifice4 ,so long1  
says the ,theologia ,germanica1 as a man
 seeketh his own will and his own       

highest good1 because it is his1 and for
 his own sake1 he will never find it3   
for so long as he doeth this1 he is not 
seeking his own highest good1 and how   
then should he find it8 ,for so long as 
he doeth this1 he seeketh himself1 and  
dreameth that he is himself the highest 
good4 4 4 4 ,but whosoever seeketh1     
loveth1 and pursueth goodness1 as       
goodness and for the sake of goodness1  
and maketh that his end--for nothing but
 the love of goodness1 not for love of  
the ,i1 ,me1 ,mine1 ,self1 and the      
like--he will find the highest good1 for
 he seeketh it aright1 and they who seek
 it otherwise do err4  ,so it is        
disinterestedness1 the saint's and      
poet's love of things for their own     
sakes1 the vision of the charitable     
heart1 which is the secret of union with
 ,reality and the condition of all real 
knowledge4 ,this brings with it the     
precious quality of suppleness1 the     
power of responding with ease and       
simplicity to the great rhythms of life2

 and this will only come when the       
ungainly lump of sin is broken1 and the 
verb to have1 which expresses its       
reaction to existence1 is ejected from  
the centre of your consciousness4 ,then 
your attitude to life will cease to be  
commercial1 and become artistic4 ,then  
the guardian at the gate1 scrutinising  
and sorting the incoming impressions1   
will no longer ask1 ,what use is this to
 me8 before admitting the angel of      
beauty or significance who demands your 
hospitality4 ,then things will cease to 
have power over you4 ,you will become   
free4 ,son1 says a ,kempis1 thou        
oughtest diligently to attend to this2  
that in every place1 every action or    
outward occupation1 thou be inwardly    
free and mighty in thyself1 and all     
things be under thee1 and thou not under
 them2 that thou be lord and governor of
 thy deeds1 not servant4 ,it is         
therefore by the withdrawal of your will
 from its feverish attachment to things1
 till they are under thee and thou not  

under them1 that you will gradually     
resolve the opposition between the      
recollective and the active sides of    
your personality4 ,by diligent          
self-discipline1 that mental attitude   
which the mystics sometimes call poverty
 and sometimes perfect freedom--for     
these are two aspects of one thing--will
 become possible to you4 ,ascending the 
mountain of self-knowledge and throwing 
aside your superfluous luggage as you   
go1 you shall at last arrive at the     
point which they call the summit of the 
spirit2 where the various forces of your
 character--brute energy1 keen          
intellect1 desirous heart--long         
dissipated amongst a thousand little    
wants and preferences1 are gathered into
 one1 and become a strong and           
disciplined instrument wherewith your   
true self can force a path deeper and   
deeper into the heart of ,reality4      
,,chapter ,,vi  ,,love ,,and ,,will     
,this steady effort towards the         
simplifying of your tangled character1  

its gradual emancipation from the       
fetters of the unreal1 is not to        
dispense you from that other special    
training of the attention which the     
diligent practice of meditation and     
recollection effects4 ,your pursuit of  
the one must never involve neglect of   
the other2 for these are the two        
sides--one moral1 the other mental--of  
that unique process of self-conquest    
which ,ruysbroeck calls the gathering of
 the forces of the soul into the unity  
of the spirit3 the welding together of  
all your powers1 the focussing of them  
upon one point4 ,hence they should      
never1 either in theory or practice1 be 
separated4 ,only the act of             
recollection1 the constantly renewed    
retreat to the quiet centre of the      
spirit1 gives that assurance of a       
,reality1 a calmer and more valid life  
attainable by us1 which supports the    
stress and pain of self-simplification  
and permits us to hope on1 even in the  
teeth of the world's cruelty1           

indifference1 degeneracy2 whilst        
diligent character-building alone1 with 
its perpetual untiring efforts at       
self-adjustment1 its bracing1 purging   
discipline1 checks the human tendency to
 relapse into and react to the obvious1 
and makes possible the further          
development of the contemplative power4 
,so it is through and by these two great
 changes in your attitude towards       
things--first1 the change of attention1 
which enables you to perceive a truer   
universe2 next1 the deliberate          
rearrangement of your ideas1 energies1  
and desires in harmony with that which  
you have seen--that a progressive       
uniformity of life and experience is    
secured to you1 and you are defended    
against the dangers of an indolent and  
useless mysticality4 ,only the real1 say
 the mystics1 can know ,reality1 for we 
behold that which we are1 the universe  
which we see is conditioned by the      
character of the mind that sees it3 and 
this realness--since that which you seek

 is no mere glimpse of ,eternal ,life1  
but complete possession of it-- must    
apply to every aspect of your being1 the
 rich totality of character1 all the    
forces of the soul1 not to some thin and
 isolated spiritual sense alone4 ,this  
is why recollection and                 
self-simplification--perception of1 and 
adaptation to1 the ,spiritual ,world in 
which we dwell--are the essential       
preparations for the mystical life1 and 
neither can exist in a wholesome and    
well-balanced form without the other4   
,by them the mind1 the will1 the heart1 
which so long had dissipated their      
energies over a thousand scattered      
notions1 wants1 and loves1 are gradually
 detached from their old exclusive      
preoccupation with the ephemeral        
interests of the self1 or of the group  
to which the self belongs4  ,you1 if you
 practise them1 will find after a       
time--perhaps a long time--that the hard
 work which they involve has indeed     
brought about a profound and definite   

change in you4 ,a new suppleness has    
taken the place of that rigidity which  
you have been accustomed to mistake for 
strength of character3 an easier        
attitude towards the accidents of life4 
,your whole scale of values has         
undergone a silent transformation1 since
 you have ceased to fight for your own  
hand and regard the nearest-at-hand     
world as the only one that counts4 ,you 
have become1 as the mystics would say1  
free from inordinate attachments1 the   
heat of having does not scorch you any  
more2 and because of this you possess   
great inward liberty1 a sense of        
spaciousness and peace4 ,released from  
the obsessions which so long had        
governed them1 will1 heart1 and mind are
 now all bent to the purposes of your   
deepest being3 gathered in the unity of 
the spirit1 they have fused to become an
 agent with which it can act4  ,what    
form1 then1 shall this action take8 ,it 
shall take a practical form1 shall      
express itself in terms of movement3 the

 pressing outwards of the whole         
personality1 the eager and trustful     
stretching of it towards the fresh      
universe which awaits you4 ,as all      
scattered thinking was cut off in       
recollection1 as all vagrant and        
unworthy desires have been killed by the
 exercises of detachment2 so now all    
scattered willing1 all hesitations      
between the indrawing and outflowing    
instincts of the soul1 shall be checked 
and resolved4 ,you are to push with all 
your power3 not to absorb ideas1 but to 
pour forth will and love4 ,with this    
conative act1 as the psychologists would
 call it1 the true contemplative life   
begins4 ,contemplation1 you see1 has no 
very close connection with dreaminess   
and idle musing3 it is more like the    
intense effort of vision1 the passionate
 and self-forgetful act of communion1   
presupposed in all creative art4 ,it is1
 says one old ,english mystic1 a blind  
intent stretching 4 4 4 a privy love    
pressed in the direction of ,ultimate   

,beauty1 athwart all the checks1        
hindrances1 and contradictions of the   
restless world3 a loving stretching out 
towards ,reality1 says the great        
,ruysbroeck1 than whom none has gone    
further on this path4 ,tension1 ardour1 
are of its essence3 it demands the      
perpetual exercise of industry and      
courage4  ,we observe in such           
definitions as these a strange neglect  
of that glory of man1 the ,pure         
,intellect1 with which the spiritual    
prig enjoys to believe that he can climb
 up to the ,empyrean itself4 ,it almost 
seems as though the mystics shared      
,keats' view of the supremacy of feeling
 over thought2 and reached out towards  
some new and higher range of sensation1 
rather than towards new and more        
accurate ideas4 ,they are ever eager to 
assure us that man's most sublime       
thoughts of the ,transcendent are but a 
little better than his worst3 that      
loving intuition is the only certain    
guide4 ,by love may ,he be gotten and   

holden1 but by thought never4  ,yet here
 you are not to fall into the clumsy    
error of supposing that the things which
 are beyond the grasp of reason are     
necessarily unreasonable things4        
,immediate feeling1 so far as it is     
true1 does not oppose but transcends and
 completes the highest results of       
thought4 ,it contains within itself the 
sum of all the processes through which  
thought would pass in the act of        
attaining the same goal3 supposing      
thought to have reached--as it has      
not--the high pitch at which it was     
capable of thinking its way all along   
this road4  ,in the preliminary act of  
gathering yourself together1 and in     
those unremitting explorations through  
which you came to a knowing and a       
feeling of yourself as you are1 thought 
assuredly had its place4 ,there the     
powers of analysis1 criticism1 and      
deduction found work that they could do4
 ,but now it is the love and will-- the 
feeling1 the intent1 the passionate     

desire--of the self1 which shall govern 
your activities and make possible your  
success4 ,few would care to brave the   
horrors of a courtship conducted upon   
strictly intellectual lines3 and        
contemplation is an act of love1 the    
wooing1 not the critical study1 of      
,divine ,reality4 ,it is an eager       
outpouring of ourselves towards a       
,somewhat ,other for which we feel a    
passion of desire2 a seeking1 touching1 
and tasting1 not a considering and      
analysing1 of the beautiful and true    
wherever found4 ,it is1 as it were1 a   
responsive act of the organism to those 
,supernal ,powers without1 which touch  
and stir it4 ,deep humility as towards  
those ,powers1 a willing surrender to   
their control1 is the first condition of
 success4 ,the mystics speak much of    
these elusive contacts2 felt more and   
more in the soul1 as it becomes         
increasingly sensitive to the subtle    
movements of its spiritual environment4 
,sense1 feeling1 taste1 complacency1 and

 sight1         ,these are the true and 
real joys1     ,the living1 flowing1    
inward1 melting1 bright         ,and    
heavenly pleasures2 all the rest are    
toys2             ,all which are founded
 in ,desire             ,as light in    
flame and heat in fire4  ,but this new  
method of correspondence with the       
universe is not to be identified with   
mere feeling in its lowest and least    
orderly forms4 ,contemplation does not  
mean abject surrender to every mystical 
impression that comes in4 ,it is no     
sentimental aestheticism or emotional   
piety to which you are being invited3   
nor shall the transcending of reason    
ever be achieved by way of spiritual    
silliness4 ,all the powers of the self1 
raised to their intensest form1 shall be
 used in it2 though used perhaps in a   
new way4 ,these1 the three great        
faculties of love1 thought1 and will--  
with which you have been accustomed to  
make great show on the periphery of     
consciousness--you have1 as it were1    

drawn inwards during the course of your 
inward retreat3 and by your education in
 detachment have cured them of their    
tendency to fritter their powers amongst
 a multiplicity of objects4 ,now1 at the
 very heart of personality1 you are     
alone with them2 you hold with you in   
that ,interior ,castle1 and undistracted
 for the moment by the demands of       
practical existence1 the three great    
tools wherewith the soul deals with     
life4  ,as regards the life you have    
hitherto looked upon as normal1         
love--understood in its widest sense1 as
 desire1 emotional inclination--has     
throughout directed your activities4    
,you did things1 sought things1 learned 
things1 even suffered things1 because at
 bottom you wanted to4 ,will has done   
the work to which love spurred it3      
thought has assimilated the results of  
their activities and made for them      
pictures1 analyses1 explanations of the 
world with which they had to deal4 ,but 
now your purified love discerns and     

desires1 your will is set towards1      
something which thought cannot really   
assimilate--still less explain4         
,contemplation1 says ,ruysbroeck1 is a  
knowing that is in no wise 4 4 4 therein
 all the workings of the reason fail4   
,that reason has been trained to deal   
with the stuff of temporal existence4   
,it will only make mincemeat of your    
experience of ,eternity if you give it a
 chance2 trimming1 transforming1        
rationalising that ineffable vision1    
trying to force it into a symbolic      
system with which the intellect can     
cope4 ,this is why the great            
contemplatives utter again and again    
their solemn warning against the        
deceptiveness of thought when it        
ventures to deal with the spiritual     
intuitions of man2 crying with the      
author of ,the ,cloud of ,unknowing1    
,look that nothing live in thy working  
mind but a naked intent stretching--the 
voluntary tension of your ever-growing1 
ever-moving personality pushing out     

towards the ,real4 ,love1 and do what   
you like1 said the wise ,augustine3 so  
little does mere surface activity count1
 against the deep motive that begets it4
  ,the dynamic power of love and will1  
the fact that the heart's desire--if it 
be intense and industrious--is a better 
earnest of possible fulfilment than the 
most elegant theories of the spiritual  
world2 this is the perpetual theme of   
all the ,christian mystics4 ,by such    
love1 they think1 the worlds themselves 
were made4 ,by an eager outstretching   
towards ,reality1 they tell us1 we tend 
to move towards ,reality1 to enter into 
its rhythm3 by a humble and             
unquestioning surrender to it we permit 
its entrance into our souls4 ,this      
twofold act1 in which we find the double
 character of all true love--which both 
gives and takes1 yields and demands--is 
assured1 if we be patient and           
single-hearted1 of ultimate success4 ,at
 last our ignorance shall be done away2 
and we shall apprehend the real and the 

eternal1 as we apprehend the sunshine   
when the sky is free from cloud4        
,therefore ,smite upon that thick cloud 
of unknowing with a sharp dart of       
longing love-- and suddenly it shall    
part1 and disclose the blue4  ,smite1   
press1 push1 strive--these are strong   
words3 yet they are constantly upon the 
lips of the contemplatives when         
describing the earlier stages of their  
art4 ,clearly1 the abolition of         
discursive thought is not to absolve you
 from the obligations of industry4 ,you 
are to energise enthusiastically upon   
new planes1 where you shall see more    
intensely1 hear more intensely1 touch   
and taste more intensely than ever      
before3 for the modes of communion which
 these senses make possible to you are  
now to operate as parts of the one      
single state of perfect intuition1 of   
loving knowledge by union1 to which you 
are growing up4 ,and gradually you come 
to see that1 if this be so1 it is the   
ardent will that shall be the prime     

agent of your undertaking3 a will which 
has now become the active expression of 
your deepest and purest desires4 ,about 
this the recollected and simplified self
 is to gather itself as a centre2 and   
thence to look out--steadily1           
deliberately-- with eyes of love towards
 the world4  ,to look with the eyes of  
love seems a vague and sentimental      
recommendation3 yet the whole art of    
spiritual communion is summed in it1 and
 exact and important results flow from  
this exercise4 ,the attitude which it   
involves is an attitude of complete     
humility and of receptiveness2 without  
criticism1 without clever analysis of   
the thing seen4 ,when you look thus1 you
 surrender your ,i-hood2 see things at  
last as the artist does1 for their sake1
 not for your own4 ,the fundamental     
unity that is in you reaches out to the 
unity that is in them3 and you achieve  
the ,simple ,vision of the poet and the 
mystic--that synthetic and undistorted  
apprehension of things which is the     

antithesis of the single vision of      
practical men4 ,the doors of perception 
are cleansed1 and everything appears as 
it is4 ,the disfiguring results of hate1
 rivalry1 prejudice1 vanish away4 ,into 
that silent place to which recollection 
has brought you1 new music1 new colour1 
new light1 are poured from the outward  
world4 ,the conscious love which        
achieves this vision may1 indeed must1  
fluctuate--,as long as thou livest thou 
art subject to mutability2 yea1 though  
thou wilt not6 ,but the will which that 
love has enkindled can hold attention in
 the right direction4 ,it can refuse to 
relapse to unreal and egotistic         
correspondences2 and continue1 even in  
darkness1 and in the suffering which    
such darkness brings to the awakened    
spirit1 its appointed task1 cutting a   
way into new levels of ,reality4        
,therefore this transitional stage in   
the development of the contemplative    
powers--in one sense the completion of  
their elementary schooling1 in another  

the beginning of their true             
activities--is concerned with the       
toughening and further training of that 
will which self-simplification has      
detached from its old concentration upon
 the unreal wants and interests of the  
self4 ,merged with your intuitive love1 
this is to become the true agent of your
 encounter with ,reality2 for that      
,simple ,eye of ,intention1 which is so 
supremely your own1 and in the last     
resort the maker of your universe and   
controller of your destiny1 is nothing  
else but a synthesis of such energetic  
will and such uncorrupt desire1 turned  
and held in the direction of the ,best4 
,,chapter ,,vii  ,,the ,,first ,,form   
,,of ,,contemplation  ,concentration1   
recollection1 a profound self-criticism1
 the stilling of his busy               
surface-intellect1 his restless emotions
 of enmity and desire1 the voluntary    
achievement of an attitude of           
disinterested love--by these strange    
paths the practical man has now been    

led1 in order that he may know by       
communion something of the greater ,life
 in which he is immersed and which he   
has so long and so successfully ignored4
 ,he has managed in his own small way   
something equivalent to those drastic   
purifications1 those searching          
readjustments1 which are undertaken by  
the heroic seekers for ,reality2 the    
arts whereby they defeat the tyranny of 
the ,i1 the ,me1 the ,mine and achieve  
the freedom of a wider life4 ,now1      
perhaps1 he may share to some extent in 
that illumination1 that extended and    
intensified perception of things1 which 
they declare to be the heritage of the  
liberated consciousness4  ,this         
illumination shall be gradual4 ,the     
attainment of it depends not so much    
upon a philosophy accepted1 or a new    
gift of vision suddenly received1 as    
upon an uninterrupted changing and      
widening of character2 a progressive    
growth towards the ,real1 an ever more  
profound harmonisation of the self's    

life with the greater and inclusive     
rhythms of existence4 ,it shall         
therefore develop in width and depth as 
the sphere of that self's intuitive love
 extends4 ,as your own practical        
sympathy with and understanding of other
 lives1 your realisation of them1 may be
 narrowed and stiffened to include no   
more than the family group1 or spread   
over your fellow-workers1 your class1   
your city1 party1 country1 or           
religion--even perhaps the whole        
race--till you feel yourself utterly    
part of it1 moving with it1 suffering   
with it1 and partake of its whole       
conscious life2 so here4 ,self-mergence 
is a gradual process1 dependent on a    
progressive unlimiting of personality4  
,the apprehension of ,reality which     
rewards it is gradual too4 ,in essence1 
it is one continuous out-flowing        
movement towards that boundless heavenly
 consciousness where the flaming        
ramparts which shut you from true       
communion with all other selves and     

things is done away2 an unbroken process
 of expansion and simplification1 which 
is nothing more or less than the growth 
of the spirit of love1 the full         
flowering of the patriotic sense4 ,by   
this perpetually-renewed casting down of
 the hard barriers of individuality1    
these willing submissions to the        
compelling rhythm of a larger existence 
than that of the solitary individual or 
even of the human group--by this        
perpetual widening1 deepening1 and      
unselfing of your attentiveness--you are
 to enlarge your boundaries and become  
the citizen of a greater1 more joyous1  
more poignant world1 the partaker of a  
more abundant life4 ,the limits of this 
enlargement have not yet been           
discovered4 ,the greatest               
contemplatives1 returning from their    
highest ascents1 can only tell us of a  
world that is unwalled4  ,but this      
growth into higher realities1 this      
blossoming of your contemplative        
consciousness--though it be1 like all   

else we know in life1 an unbroken       
process of movement and change--must be 
broken up and reduced to the series of  
concrete forms which we call order if   
our inelastic minds are to grasp it4    
,so1 we will consider it as the         
successive achievement of those three   
levels or manifestations of ,reality1   
which we have agreed to call the        
,natural ,world of ,becoming1 the       
,metaphysical ,world of ,being1         
and--last and highest--that ,divine     
,reality within which these opposites   
are found as one4 ,though these three   
worlds of experience are so plaited     
together1 that intimations from the     
deeper layers of being constantly reach 
you through the natural scene1 it is in 
this order of realisation that you may  
best think of them1 and of your own     
gradual upgrowth to the full stature of 
humanity4 ,to elude nature1 to refuse   
her friendship1 and attempt to leap the 
river of life in the hope of finding    
,god on the other side1 is the common   

error of a perverted mysticality4 ,it is
 as fatal in result as the opposite     
error of deliberately arrested          
development1 which1 being attuned to the
 wonderful rhythms of natural life1 is  
content with this increase of           
sensibility2 and1 becoming a            
nature-mystic1 asks no more4  ,so you   
are to begin with that first form of    
contemplation which the old mystics     
sometimes called the discovery of ,god  
in ,his creatures4 ,not with some       
ecstatic adventure in supersensuous     
regions1 but with the loving and patient
 exploration of the world that lies at  
your gates2 the ebb and flow and        
ever-during power of which your own     
existence forms a part4 ,you are to push
 back the self's barriers bit by bit1   
till at last all duration is included in
 the widening circles of its intuitive  
love3 till you find in every            
manifestation of life--even those which 
you have petulantly classified as cruel 
or obscene--the ardent self-expression  

of that ,immanent ,being whose spark    
burns deep in your own soul4  ,the      
,indian mystics speak perpetually of the
 visible universe as the ,lila or ,sport
 of ,god3 the ,infinite deliberately    
expressing ,himself in finite form1 the 
musical manifestation of ,his creative  
joy4 ,all gracious and all courteous    
souls1 they think1 will gladly join ,his
 play2 considering rather the wonder and
 achievement of the whole--its vivid    
movement1 its strange and terrible      
evocations of beauty from torment1      
nobility from conflict and death1 its   
mingled splendour of sacrifice and      
triumph--than their personal conquests1 
disappointments1 and fatigues4 ,in the  
first form of contemplation you are to  
realise the movement of this game1 in   
which you have played so long a languid 
and involuntary part1 and find your own 
place in it4 ,it is flowing1 growing1   
changing1 making perpetual unexpected   
patterns within the evolving melody of  
the ,divine ,thought4 ,in all things it 

is incomplete1 unstable2 and so are you4
 ,your fellow-men1 enduring on the      
battlefield1 living and breeding in the 
slum1 adventurous and studious1 sensuous
 and pure--more1 your great comrades1   
the hills1 the trees1 the rivers1 the   
darting birds1 the scuttering insects1  
the little soft populations of the      
grass--all these are playing with you4  
,they move one to another in delicate   
responsive measures1 now violent1 now   
gentle1 now in conflict1 now in peace2  
yet ever weaving the pattern of a ritual
 dance1 and obedient to the music of    
that invisible ,choragus whom ,boehme   
and ,plotinus knew4 ,what is that great 
wind which blows without1 in continuous 
and ineffable harmonies8 ,part of you1  
practical man4 ,there is but one music  
in the world3 and to it you contribute  
perpetually1 whether you will or no1    
your one little ditty of no tone4       
,mad with joy1 life and death dance to  
the rhythm of this music3     ,the hills
 and the sea and the earth dance3       

,the world of man dances in laughter and
 tears4  ,it seems a pity to remain in  
ignorance of this1 to keep as it were a 
plate-glass window between yourself and 
your fellow-dancers-- all those other   
thoughts of ,god1 perpetually becoming1 
changing and growing beside you--and    
commit yourself to the unsocial attitude
 of the cat that walks by itself4       
,begin therefore at once4 ,gather       
yourself up1 as the exercises of        
recollection have taught you to do4     
,then--with attention no longer         
frittered amongst the petty accidents   
and interests of your personal life1 but
 poised1 tense1 ready for the work you  
shall demand of it--stretch out by a    
distinct act of loving will towards one 
of the myriad manifestations of life    
that surround you3 and which1 in an     
ordinary way1 you hardly notice unless  
you happen to need them4 ,pour yourself 
out towards it1 do not draw its image   
towards you4 ,deliberate--more1         
impassioned--attentiveness1 an          

attentiveness which soon transcends all 
consciousness of yourself1 as separate  
from and attending to the thing seen2   
this is the condition of success4 ,as to
 the object of contemplation1 it matters
 little4 ,from ,alp to insect1 anything 
will do1 provided that your attitude be 
right3 for all things in this world     
towards which you are stretching out are
 linked together1 and one truly         
apprehended will be the gateway to the  
rest4  ,look with the eye of            
contemplation on the most dissipated    
tabby of the streets1 and you shall     
discern the celestial quality of life   
set like an aureole about his tattered  
ears1 and hear in his strident mew an   
echo of      ,the deep enthusiastic joy1
     ,the rapture of the hallelujah sent
     ,from all that breathes and is4    
,the sooty tree up which he scrambles to
 escape your earnest gaze is holy too4  
,it contains for you the whole divine   
cycle of the seasons2 upon the plane of 
quiet1 its inward pulse is clearly to be

 heard4 ,but you must look at these     
things as you would look into the eyes  
of a friend3 ardently1 selflessly1      
without considering his reputation1 his 
practical uses1 his anatomical          
peculiarities1 or the vices which might 
emerge were he subjected to             
psycho-analysis4  ,such a simple        
exercise1 if entered upon with          
singleness of heart1 will soon repay    
you4 ,by this quiet yet tense act of    
communion1 this loving gaze1 you will   
presently discover a relationship--far  
more intimate than anything you         
imagined--between yourself and the      
surrounding objects of sense2 and in    
those objects of sense a profound       
significance1 a personal quality1 and   
actual power of response1 which you     
might in cooler moments think absurd4   
,making good your correspondences with  
these fellow-travellers1 you will learn 
to say with ,whitman3      ,you air that
 serves me with breath to speak6        
,you objects that call from diffusion my

 meanings and give them         shape6  
,you light that wraps me and all things 
in delicate equable showers6     ,you   
paths worn in the irregular hollows by  
the roadside6     ,i believe you are    
latent with unseen existences1 you are  
so dear         to me4  ,a subtle       
interpenetration of your spirit with the
 spirit of those unseen existences1 now 
so deeply and thrillingly felt by you1  
will take place4 ,old barriers will     
vanish3 and you will become aware that  
,st4 ,francis was accurate as well as   
charming when he spoke of ,brother ,wind
 and ,sister ,water2 and that ,stevenson
 was obviously right when he said1 that 
since3      ,the world is so full of a  
number of things1     ,i'm sure we ought
 all to be happy as kings4  ,those glad 
and vivid things will speak to you4     
,they will offer you news at least as   
definite and credible as that which the 
paper-boy is hawking in the street3     
direct messages from that ,beauty which 
the artist reports at best at second    

hand4 ,because of your new              
sensitiveness1 anthems will be heard of 
you from every gutter2 poems of         
intolerable loveliness will bud for you 
on every weed4 ,best and greatest1 your 
fellowmen will shine for you with new   
significance and light4 ,humility and   
awe will be evoked in you by the        
beautiful and patient figures of the    
poor1 their long dumb heroisms1 their   
willing acceptance of the burden of     
life4 ,all the various members of the   
human group1 the little children and the
 aged1 those who stand for energy1 those
 dedicated to skill1 to thought1 to     
plainest service1 or to prayer1 will    
have for you fresh vivid significance1  
be felt as part of your own wider being4
 ,all adventurous endeavours1 all       
splendour of pain and all beauty of     
play--more1 that grey unceasing effort  
of existence which makes up the         
groundwork of the social web1 and the   
ineffective hopes1 enthusiasms1 and     
loves which transfuse it--all these will

 be seen and felt by you at last as full
 of glory1 full of meaning2 for you will
 see them with innocent1 attentive1     
disinterested eyes1 feel them as        
infinitely significant and adorable     
parts of the ,transcendent ,whole in    
which you also are immersed4  ,this     
discovery of your fraternal link with   
all living things1 this down-sinking of 
your arrogant personality into the great
 generous stream of life1 marks an      
important stage in your apprehension of 
that ,science of ,love which            
contemplation is to teach4 ,you are not 
to confuse it with pretty fancies about 
nature1 such as all imaginative persons 
enjoy2 still less1 with a self-conscious
 and deliberate humanitarianism4 ,it is 
a veritable condition of awareness2 a   
direct perception1 not an opinion or an 
idea4 ,for those who attain it1 the span
 of the senses is extended4 ,these live 
in a world which is lit with an intenser
 light2 has1 as ,george ,fox insisted1  
another smell than before4 ,they hear   

all about them the delicate music of    
growth1 and see the new colour of which 
the mystics speak4  ,further1 you will  
observe that this act1 and the attitude 
which is proper to it1 differs in a very
 important way even from that special   
attentiveness which characterised the   
stage of meditation1 and which seems at 
first sight to resemble it in many      
respects4 ,then1 it was an idea or image
 from amongst the common stock-- one of 
those conceptual labels with which the  
human paste-brush has decorated the     
surface of the universe--which you were 
encouraged to hold before your mind4    
,now1 turning away from the label1 you  
shall surrender yourself to the direct  
message poured out towards you by the   
thing4 ,then1 you considered3 now1 you  
are to absorb4 ,this experience will be1
 in the very highest sense1 the         
experience of sensation without thought3
 the essential sensation1 the savouring 
to which some of the mystics invite us1 
of which our fragmentary bodily senses  

offer us a transient sacrament4 ,so here
 at last1 in this intimate communion1   
this simple seeing1 this total surrender
 of you to the impress of things1 you   
are using to the full the sacred powers 
of sense3 and so using them1 because you
 are concentrating upon them1 accepting 
their reports in simplicity4 ,you have1 
in this contemplative outlook1 carried  
the peculiar methods of artistic        
apprehension to their highest stage3    
with the result that the sense-world has
 become for you1 as ,erigena said that  
all creatures were1 a theophany1 or     
appearance of ,god4 ,not1 you observe1 a
 symbol1 but a showing3 a very different
 thing4 ,you have begun now the         
,plotinian ascent from multiplicity to  
unity1 and therefore begin to perceive  
in the ,many the clear and actual       
presence of the ,one3 the changeless and
 absolute ,life1 manifesting itself in  
all the myriad nascent1 crescent1 cadent
 lives4 ,poets1 gazing thus at the      
flower in the crannied wall or the green

 thing that stands in the way1 have been
 led deep into the heart of its life2   
there to discern the secret of the      
universe4  ,all the greater poems of    
,wordsworth and ,walt ,whitman represent
 an attempt to translate direct         
contemplative experience of this kind   
into words and rhythms which might      
convey its secret to other men3 all     
,blake's philosophy is but a desperate  
effort to persuade us to exchange the   
false world of ,nature on which we      
usually look--and which is not really   
,nature at all--for this1 the true      
world1 to which he gave the confusing   
name of ,imagination4 ,for these1 the   
contemplation of the ,world of ,becoming
 assumes the intense form which we call 
genius3 even to read their poems is to  
feel the beating of a heart1 the upleap 
of a joy1 greater than anything that we 
have known4 ,yet your own little efforts
 towards the attainment of this level of
 consciousness will at least give to    
you1 together with a more vivid         

universe1 a wholly new comprehension of 
their works2 and that of other poets and
 artists who have drunk from the chalice
 of the ,spirit of ,life4 ,these works  
are now observed by you to be the only  
artistic creations to which the name of 
,realism is appropriate2 and it is by   
the standard of reality that you shall  
now criticise them1 recognising in      
utterances which you once dismissed as  
rhetoric the desperate efforts of the   
clear-sighted towards the exact         
description of things veritably seen in 
that simplified state of consciousness  
which ,blake called imagination         
uncorrupt4 ,it was from those purified  
and heightened levels of perception to  
which the first form of contemplation   
inducts the soul1 that ,julian of       
,norwich1 gazing upon a little thing1   
the quantity of an hazel nut1 found in  
it the epitome of all that was made2 for
 therein she perceived the royal        
character of life4 ,so small and        
helpless in its mightiest forms1 so     

august even in its meanest1 that life in
 its wholeness was then realised by her 
as the direct outbirth of1 and the meek 
dependant upon1 the ,energy of ,divine  
,love4 ,she felt at once the fugitive   
character of its apparent existence1 the
 perdurable ,reality within which it was
 held4 ,i marvelled1 she said1 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    
shall1 for that ,god loveth it4 ,and so 
,all-thing hath the being by the love of
 ,god4 ,to this same apprehension of    
,reality1 this linking up of each finite
 expression with its ,origin1 this      
search for the inner significance of    
every fragment of life1 one of the      
greatest and most balanced              
contemplatives of the nineteenth        
century1 ,florence ,nightingale1 reached
 out when she exclaimed in an hour of   
self-examination1 ,i must strive to see 
only ,god in my friends1 and ,god in my 

cats4  ,yet it is not the               
self-tormenting strife of introspective 
and self-conscious aspiration1 but      
rather an unrelaxed1 diligent intention1
 a steady acquiescence1 a simple and    
loyal surrender to the great currents of
 life1 a holding on to results achieved 
in your best moments1 that shall do it  
for you3 a surrender not limp but       
deliberate1 a trustful self-donation1 a 
living faith4 ,a pleasing stirring of   
love1 says ,the ,cloud of ,unknowing1   
not a desperate anxious struggle for    
more light4 ,true contemplation can only
 thrive when defended from two opposite 
exaggerations3 quietism on the one hand1
 and spiritual fuss upon the other4     
,neither from passivity nor from anxiety
 has it anything to gain4 ,though the   
way may be long1 the material of your   
mind intractable1 to the eager lover of 
,reality ultimate success is assured4   
,the strong tide of ,transcendent ,life 
will inevitably invade1 clarify1 uplift 
the consciousness which is open to      

receive it2 a movement from             
without--subtle yet actual--answering   
each willed movement from within4 ,your 
opening and ,his entering1 says         
,eckhart1 are but one moment4 ,when1    
therefore1 you put aside your           
preconceived ideas1 your self-centred   
scale of values1 and let intuition have 
its way with you1 you open up by this   
act new levels of the world4 ,such an   
opening-up is the most practical of all 
activities2 for then and then only will 
your diurnal existence1 and the natural 
scene in which that existence is set1   
begin to give up to you its richness and
 meaning4 ,its paradoxes and            
inequalities will be disclosed as true  
constituents of its beauty1 an          
inconceivable splendour will be shaken  
out from its dingiest folds4 ,then1 and 
only then1 escaping the single vision of
 the selfish1 you will begin to guess   
all that your senses were meant to be4  
,i swear the earth shall surely be      
complete to him or her who         shall

 be complete1     ,the earth remains    
jagged and broken only to him or her who
         remains jagged and broken4     
,,chapter ,,viii  ,,the ,,second ,,form 
,,of ,,contemplation  ,and here1 says   
,ruysbroeck of the self which has       
reached this point1 there begins a      
hunger and a thirst which shall never   
more be stilled4  ,in the ,first ,form  
of ,contemplation that self has been    
striving to know better its own natural 
plane of existence4 ,it has stretched   
out the feelers of its intuitive love   
into the general stream of duration of  
which it is a part4 ,breaking down the  
fences of personality1 merging itself in
 a larger consciousness1 it has learned 
to know the ,world of ,becoming from    
within--as a citizen1 a member of the   
great society of life1 not merely as a  
spectator4 ,but the more deeply and     
completely you become immersed in and   
aware of this life1 the greater the     
extension of your consciousness2 the    
more insistently will rumours and       

intimations of a higher plane of        
experience1 a closer unity and more     
complete synthesis1 begin to besiege    
you4 ,you feel that hitherto you nave   
received the messages of life in a      
series of disconnected words and notes1 
from which your mind constructed as best
 it could certain coherent sentences and
 tunes--laws1 classifications1          
relations1 and the rest4 ,but now you   
reach out towards the ultimate sentence 
and melody1 which exist independently of
 your own constructive efforts2 and     
realise that the words and notes which  
so often puzzled you by displaying an   
intensity that exceeded the demands of  
your little world1 only have beauty and 
meaning just because and in so far as   
you discern them to be the partial      
expressions of a greater whole which is 
still beyond your reach4  ,you have long
 been like a child tearing up the petals
 of flowers in order to make a mosaic on
 the garden path2 and the results of    
this murderous diligence you mistook for

 a knowledge of the world4 ,when the    
bits fitted with unusual exactitude1 you
 called it science4 ,now at last you    
have perceived the greater truth and    
loveliness of the living plant from     
which you broke them3 have1 in fact1    
entered into direct communion with it1  
united with its reality4 ,but this very 
recognition of the living growing plant 
does and must entail for you a          
consciousness of deeper realities1      
which1 as yet1 you have not touched3 of 
the intangible things and forces which  
feed and support it2 of the whole       
universe that touches you through its   
life4 ,a mere cataloguing of all the    
plants-- though this were far better    
than your old game of indexing your own 
poor photographs of them--will never    
give you access to the ,unity1 the      
,fact1 whatever it may be1 which        
manifests itself through them4 ,to      
suppose that it can do so is the        
cardinal error of the nature mystic3 an 
error parallel with that of the         

psychologist who looks for the soul in  
psychic states4  ,the deeper your       
realisation of the plant in its wonder1 
the more perfect your union with the    
world of growth and change1 the quicker1
 the more subtle your response to its   
countless suggestions2 so much the more 
acute will become your craving for      
,something ,more4 ,you will now find and
 feel the ,infinite and ,eternal1 making
 as it were veiled and sacramental      
contacts with you under these           
accidents--through these its ceaseless  
creative activities--and you will want  
to press through and beyond them1 to a  
fuller realisation of1 a more perfect   
and unmediated union with1 the          
,substance of all ,that ,is4 ,with the  
great widening and deepening of your    
life that has ensued from the abolition 
of a narrow selfhood1 your entrance into
 the larger consciousness of living     
things1 there has necessarily come to   
you an instinctive knowledge of a final 
and absolute group-relation1            

transcending and including all lesser   
unions in its sweep4 ,to this1 the      
second stage of contemplation1 in which 
human consciousness enters into its     
peculiar heritage1 something within you 
now seems to urge you on4  ,if you obey 
this inward push1 pressing forward with 
the sharp dart of your longing love1    
forcing the point of your wilful        
attention further and further into the  
web of things1 such an ever-deepening   
realisation1 such an extension of your  
conscious life1 will indeed become      
possible to you4 ,nothing but your own  
apathy1 your feeble and limited desire1 
limits this realisation4 ,here there is 
a strict relation between demand and    
supply--your achievement shall be in    
proportion to the greatness of your     
desire4 ,the fact1 and the in-pressing  
energy1 of the ,reality without does not
 vary4 ,only the extent to which you are
 able to receive it depends upon your   
courage and generosity1 the measure in  
which you give yourself to its embrace4 

,those minds which set a limit to their 
self-donation must feel as they attain  
it1 not a sense of satisfaction but a   
sense of constriction4 ,it is useless to
 offer your spirit a garden--even a     
garden inhabited by saints and          
angels--and pretend that it has been    
made free of the universe4 ,you will not
 have peace until you do away with all  
banks and hedges1 and exchange the      
garden for the wilderness that is       
unwalled2 that wild strange place of    
silence where lovers lose themselves4   
,yet you must begin this great adventure
 humbly2 and take1 as ,julian of        
,norwich did1 the first stage of your   
new outward-going journey along the road
 that lies nearest at hand4 ,when       
,julian looked with the eye of          
contemplation upon that little thing    
which revealed to her the oneness of the
 created universe1 her deep and loving  
sight perceived in it successively three
 properties1 which she expressed as well
 as she might under the symbols of her  

own theology3 ,the first is that ,god   
made it2 the second is that ,god loveth 
it2 the third is that ,god keepeth it4  
,here are three phases in the           
ever-widening contemplative apprehension
 of ,reality4 ,not three opinions1 but  
three facts1 for which she struggles to 
find words4 ,the first is that each     
separate living thing1 budding like an  
hazel nut upon the tree of life1 and    
there destined to mature1 age1 and die1 
is the outbirth of another power1 of a  
creative push3 that the ,world of       
,becoming in all its richness and       
variety is not ultimate1 but formed by  
,something other than1 and utterly      
transcendent to1 itself4 ,this1 of      
course1 the religious mind invariably   
takes for granted3 but we are concerned 
with immediate experience rather than   
faith4 ,to feel and know those two      
aspects of ,reality which we call       
created and uncreated1 nature and       
spirit--to be as sharply aware of them1 
as sure of them1 as we are of land and  

sea--is to be made free of the          
supersensual world4 ,it is to stand for 
an instant at the ,poet's side1 and see 
that ,poem of which you have deciphered 
separate phrases in the earlier form of 
contemplation4 ,then you were learning  
to read3 and found in the words1 the    
lines1 the stanzas1 an astonishing      
meaning and loveliness4 ,but how much   
greater the significance of every detail
 would appear to you1 how much more     
truly you would possess its life1 were  
you acquainted with the ,poem3 not as a 
mere succession of such lines and       
stanzas1 but as a non-successional      
whole4  ,from this ,julian passes to    
that deeper knowledge of the heart which
 comes from a humble and disinterested  
acceptance of life2 that this ,creation1
 this whole changeful natural order1    
with all its apparent collisions1       
cruelties1 and waste1 yet springs from  
an ardour1 an immeasurable love1 a      
perpetual donation1 which generates it1 
upholds it1 drives it2 for all-thing    

hath the being by the love of ,god4     
,blake's anguished question here        
receives its answer3 the ,mind that     
conceived the lamb conceived the tiger  
too4 ,everything1 says ,julian in       
effect1 whether gracious1 terrible1 or  
malignant1 is enwrapped in love3 and is 
part of a world produced1 not by        
mechanical necessity1 but by passionate 
desire4  ,therefore nothing can really  
be mean1 nothing despicable2 nothing1   
however perverted1 irredeemable4 ,the   
blasphemous other-worldliness of the    
false mystic who conceives of matter as 
an evil thing and flies from its        
deceits1 is corrected by this loving    
sight4 ,hence1 the more beautiful and   
noble a thing appears to us1 the more we
 love it--so much the more truly do we  
see it3 for then we perceive within it  
the ,divine ardour surging up towards   
expression1 and share that simplicity   
and purity of vision in which most      
saints and some poets see all things as 
they are in ,god4  ,lastly1 this        

love-driven world of duration--this work
 within which the ,divine ,artist       
passionately and patiently expresses    
,his infinite dream under finite        
forms--is held in another1 mightier     
embrace4 ,it is kept1 says ,julian4     
,paradoxically1 the perpetual changeful 
energies of love and creation which     
inspire it are gathered up and made     
complete within the unchanging fact of  
,being3 the ,eternal and ,absolute1     
within which the world of things is set 
as the tree is set in the supporting    
earth1 the enfolding air4 ,there1       
finally1 is the rock and refuge of the  
seeking consciousness wearied by the    
ceaseless process of the flux4 ,there   
that flux exists in its wholeness1 all  
at once2 in a manner which we can never 
comprehend1 but which in hours of       
withdrawal we may sometimes taste and   
feel4 ,it is in man's moments of contact
 with this1 when he penetrates beyond   
all images1 however lovely1 however     
significant1 to that ineffable awareness

 which the mystics call ,naked          
,contemplation--since it is stripped of 
all the clothing with which reason and  
imagination drape and disguise both our 
devils and our gods--that the hunger and
 thirst of the heart is satisfied1 and  
we receive indeed an assurance of       
ultimate ,reality4 ,this assurance is   
not the cool conclusion of a successful 
argument4 ,it is rather the seizing at  
last of ,something which we have ever   
felt near us and enticing us3 the       
unspeakably simple because completely   
inclusive solution of all the puzzles of
 life4  ,as1 then1 you gave yourself to 
the broken-up yet actual reality of the 
natural world1 in order that it might   
give itself to you1 and your possession 
of its secret was achieved1 first by    
surrender of selfhood1 next by a        
diligent thrusting out of your          
attention1 last by a union of love2 so  
now by a repetition upon fresh levels of
 that same process1 you are to mount up 
to higher unions still4 ,held tight as  

it seems to you in the finite1 committed
 to the perpetual rhythmic changes1 the 
unceasing flux of natural               
life--compelled to pass on from state to
 state1 to grow1 to age1 to die--there  
is yet1 as you discovered in the first  
exercise of recollection1 something in  
you which endures through and therefore 
transcends this world of change4 ,this  
inhabitant1 this mobile spirit1 can     
spread and merge in the general         
consciousness1 and gather itself again  
to one intense point of personality4 ,it
 has too an innate knowledge of--an     
instinct for--another1 greater rhythm1  
another order of ,reality1 as yet       
outside its conscious field2 or as we   
say1 a capacity for the ,infinite4 ,this
 capacity1 this unfulfilled craving1    
which the cunning mind of the practical 
man suppresses and disguises as best it 
can1 is the source of all your unrest4  
,more1 it is the true origin of all your
 best loves and enthusiasms1 the        
inspiring cause of your heroisms and    

achievements2 which are but oblique and 
tentative efforts to still that strange 
hunger for some final object of         
devotion1 some completing and           
elucidating vision1 some total          
self-donation1 some great and perfect   
,act within which your little activity  
can be merged4  ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas   
says1 that a man is only withheld from  
this desired vision of the ,divine      
,essence1 this discovery of the ,pure   
,act 7which indeed is everywhere        
pressing in on him and supporting him71 
by the apparent necessity which he is   
under of turning to bodily images1 of   
breaking up his continuous and living   
intuition into ,conceptual scraps2 in   
other words1 because he cannot live the 
life of sensation without thought4 ,but 
it is not the man1 it is merely his     
mental machinery which is under this    
necessity4 ,this it is which translates1
 analyses1 incorporates in finite images
 the boundless perceptions of the       
spirit3 passing through its prism the   

,white ,light of ,reality1 and          
shattering it to a succession of        
coloured rays4 ,therefore the man who   
would know the ,divine ,secret must     
unshackle himself more thoroughly than  
ever before from the tyranny of the     
image-making power4 ,as it is not by the
 methods of the laboratory that we learn
 to know life1 so it is not by the      
methods of the intellect that we learn  
to know ,god4  ,for of all other        
creatures and their works1 says the     
author of ,the ,cloud of ,unknowing1    
yea1 and of the works of ,god's self1   
may a man through grace have full-head  
of knowing1 and well he can think of    
them3 but of ,god ,himself can no man   
think4 ,and therefore ,i would leave all
 that thing that ,i can think1 and      
choose to my love that thing that ,i    
cannot think4 ,for why2 ,he may well be 
loved1 but not thought4 ,by love may ,he
 be gotten and holden2 but by thought   
never4  ,gotten and holden3 homely      
words1 that suggest rather the          

outstretching of the hand to take       
something lying at your very gates1 than
 the long outward journey or terrific   
ascent of the contemplative soul4       
,reality indeed1 the mystics say1 is    
near and far2 far from our thoughts1 but
 saturating and supporting our lives4   
,nothing would be nearer1 nothing       
dearer1 nothing sweeter1 were the doors 
of our perception truly cleansed4 ,you  
have then but to focus attention upon   
your own deep reality1 realise your own 
soul1 in order to find it4 ,we dwell in 
,him and ,he in us3 you participate in  
the ,eternal ,order now4 ,the vision of 
the ,divine ,essence--the participation 
of its own small activity in the        
,supernal ,act--is for the spark of your
 soul a perpetual process4 ,on the apex 
of your personality1 spirit ever gazes  
upon ,spirit1 melts and merges in it3   
from and by this encounter its life     
arises and is sustained4 ,but you have  
been busy from your childhood with other
 matters4 ,all the urgent affairs of    

life1 as you absurdly called it1 have   
monopolised your field of consciousness4
 ,thus all the important events of your 
real life1 physical and spiritual--the  
mysterious perpetual growth of you1 the 
knitting up of fresh bits of the        
universe into the unstable body which   
you confuse with yourself1 the hum and  
whirr of the machine which preserves    
your contacts with the material world1  
the more delicate movements which       
condition your correspondences with1 and
 growth within1 the spiritual order--all
 these have gone on unperceived by you4 
,all the time you have been kept and    
nourished1 like the ,little ,thing1 by  
an enfolding and creative love2 yet of  
this you are less conscious than you are
 of the air that you breathe4  ,now1 as 
in the first stage of contemplation you 
learned and established1 as a patent and
 experienced fact1 your fraternal       
relation with all the other children of 
,god1 entering into the rhythm of their 
existence1 participating in their stress

 and their joy2 will you not at least   
try to make patent this your filial     
relation too8 ,this actualisation of    
your true status1 your place in the     
,eternal ,world1 is waiting for you4 ,it
 represents the next phase in your      
gradual achievement of ,reality4 ,the   
method by which you will attain to it is
 strictly analogous to that by which you
 obtained a more vivid awareness of the 
natural world in which you grow and     
move4 ,here too it shall be direct      
intuitive contact1 sensation rather than
 thought1 which shall bring you         
certitude-- tasting food1 not talking   
about it1 as ,st4 ,bonaventura says4    
,yet there is a marked difference       
between these two stages4 ,in the first1
 the deliberate inward retreat and      
gathering together of your faculties    
which was effected by recollection1 was 
the prelude to a new coming forth1 an   
outflow from the narrow limits of a     
merely personal life to the better and  
truer apprehension of the created world4

 ,now1 in the second stage1 the         
disciplined and recollected attention   
seems to take an opposite course4 ,it is
 directed towards a plane of existence  
with which your bodily senses have no   
attachments3 which is not merely        
misrepresented by your ordinary         
concepts1 but cannot be represented by  
them at all4 ,it must therefore sink    
inwards towards its own centre1 away    
from all that can be thought or felt1 as
 the mystics say1 away from every image1
 every notion1 every thing1 towards that
 strange condition of obscurity which   
,st4 ,john of the ,cross calls the      
,night of ,sense4 ,do this steadily1    
checking each vagrant instinct1 each    
insistent thought1 however spiritual it 
may seem2 pressing ever more deeply     
inwards towards that ground1 that simple
 and undifferentiated ,being from which 
your diverse faculties emerge4          
,presently you will find yourself1      
emptied and freed1 in a place stripped  
bare of all the machinery of thought2   

and achieve the condition of simplicity 
which those same specialists call       
nakedness of spirit or ,wayless ,love1  
and which they declare to be above all  
human images and ideas--a state of      
consciousness in which all the workings 
of the reason fail4 ,then you will      
observe that you have entered into an   
intense and vivid silence3 a silence    
which exists in itself1 through and in  
spite of the ceaseless noises of your   
normal world4 ,within this world of     
silence you seem as it were to lose     
yourself1 to ebb and to flow1 to wander 
and be lost in the ,imageless ,ground1  
says ,ruysbroeck1 struggling to describe
 the sensations of the self in this1 its
 first initiation into the wayless      
world1 beyond image1 where all is1 yet  
in no wise4  ,yet in spite of the       
darkness that enfolds you1 the ,cloud of
 ,unknowing into which you have plunged1
 you are sure that it is well to be     
here4 ,a peculiar certitude which you   
cannot analyse1 a strange satisfaction  

and peace1 is distilled into you4 ,you  
begin to understand what the ,psalmist  
meant1 when he said1 ,be still1 and     
know4 ,you are lost in a wilderness1 a  
solitude1 a dim strange state of which  
you can say nothing1 since it offers no 
material to your image-making mind4     
,but this wilderness1 from one point of 
view so bare and desolate1 from another 
is yet strangely homely4 ,in it1 all    
your sorrowful questionings are answered
 without utterance2 it is the ,all1 and 
you are within it and part of it1 and   
know that it is good4 ,it calls forth   
the utmost adoration of which you are   
capable2 and1 mysteriously1 gives love  
for love4 ,you have ascended now1 say   
the mystics1 into the ,freedom of the   
,will of ,god2 are become part of a     
higher1 slower duration1 which carries  
you as it were upon its bosom           
and--though never perhaps before has    
your soul been so truly active--seems to
 you a stillness1 a rest4  ,the doctrine
 of ,plotinus concerning a higher life  

of unity1 a lower life of multiplicity1 
possible to every human spirit1 will now
 appear to you not a fantastic theory1  
but a plain statement of fact1 which you
 have verified in your own experience4  
,you perceive that these are the two    
complementary ways of apprehending and  
uniting with ,reality--the one as a     
dynamic process1 the other as an eternal
 whole4 ,thus understood1 they do not   
conflict4 ,you know that the flow1 the  
broken-up world of change and           
multiplicity1 is still going on2 and    
that you1 as a creature of the          
time-world1 are moving and growing with 
it4 ,but1 thanks to the development of  
the higher side of your consciousness1  
you are now lifted to a new poise2 a    
direct participation in that simple1    
transcendent life broken1 yet not       
divided1 which gives to this time-world 
all its meaning and validity4 ,and you  
know1 without derogation from the       
realness of that life of flux within    
which you first made good your          

attachments to the universe1 that you   
are also a true constituent of the      
greater whole2 that since you are man1  
you are also spirit1 and are living     
,eternal ,life now1 in the midst of     
time4  ,the effect of this form of      
contemplation1 in the degree in which   
the ordinary man may learn to practise  
it1 is like the sudden change of        
atmosphere1 the shifting of values1     
which we experience when we pass from   
the busy streets into a quiet church2   
where a lamp burns1 and a silence       
reigns1 the same yesterday1 to-day1 and 
for ever4 ,thence is poured forth a     
stillness which strikes through the     
tumult without4 ,eluding the flicker of 
the arc-lamps1 thence through an upper  
window we may glimpse a perpetual star4 
,the walls of the church1 limiting the  
range of our attention1 shutting out the
 torrent of life1 with its insistent    
demands and appeals1 make possible our  
apprehension of this deep eternal peace4
 ,the character of our consciousness1   

intermediate between ,eternity and      
,time1 and ever ready to swing between  
them1 makes such a device1 such a       
concrete aid to concentration1 essential
 to us4 ,but the peace1 the presence1 is
 everywhere--for us1 not for it1 is the 
altar and the sanctuary required--and   
your deliberate1 humble practice of     
contemplation will teach you at last to 
find it2 outside the sheltering walls of
 recollection as well as within4 ,you   
will realise then what ,julian meant1   
when she declared the ultimate property 
of all that was made to be that ,god    
keepeth it3 will feel the violent       
consciousness of an enfolding ,presence1
 utterly transcending the fluid         
changeful nature-life1 and              
incomprehensible to the intelligence    
which that nature-life has developed and
 trained4 ,and as you knew the secret of
 that nature-life best by surrendering  
yourself to it1 by entering its         
currents1 and refusing to analyse or    
arrange3 so here1 by a deliberate giving

 of yourself to the silence1 the rich   
nothingness1 the ,cloud1 you will draw  
nearest to the ,reality it conceals from
 the eye of sense4 ,lovers put out the  
candle and draw the curtains1 says      
,patmore1 when they wish to see the ,god
 and the ,goddess3 and in the higher    
communion1 the night of thought is the  
light of perception4  ,such an          
experience of ,eternity1 the attainment 
of that intuitive awareness1 that meek  
and simple self-mergence1 which the     
mystics call sometimes1 according to its
 degree and special circumstances1 the  
,quiet1 the ,desert of ,god1 the ,divine
 ,dark1 represents the utmost that human
 consciousness can do of itself towards 
the achievement of union with ,reality4 
,to some it brings joy and peace1 to    
others fear3 to all a paradoxical sense 
of the lowliness and greatness of the   
soul1 which now at last can measure     
itself by the august standards of the   
,infinite4 ,though the trained and      
diligent will of the contemplative can1 

if control of the attention be really   
established1 recapture this state of    
awareness1 retreat into the ,quiet again
 and again1 yet it is of necessity a    
fleeting experience2 for man is immersed
 in duration1 subject to it4 ,its       
demands upon his attention can only     
cease with the cessation of physical    
life--perhaps not then4 ,perpetual      
absorption in the ,transcendent is a    
human impossibility1 and the effort to  
achieve it is both unsocial and silly4  
,but this experience1 this ascent to the
 ,nought1 changes for ever the          
proportions of the life that once has   
known it2 gives to it depth and height1 
and prepares the way for those further  
experiences1 that great transfiguration 
of existence which comes when the       
personal activity of the finite will    
gives place to the great and compelling 
action of another ,power4    ,,chapter  
,,ix  ,,the ,,third ,,form ,,of         
,,contemplation  ,the hard separation   
which some mystical writers insist upon 

making between natural and supernatural 
contemplation1 has been on the whole    
productive of confusion rather than     
clearness3 for the word supernatural has
 many unfortunate associations for the  
mind of the plain man4 ,it at once      
suggests to him visions and ecstasies1  
superstitious beliefs1 ghosts1 and other
 disagreeable interferences with the    
order which he calls natural2 and       
inclines him to his old attitude of     
suspicion in respect of all mystical    
things4 ,but some word we must have1 to 
indicate the real cleavage which exists 
between the second and third stages in  
the development of the contemplative    
consciousness3 the real change which1 if
 you would go further on these interior 
paths1 must now take place in the manner
 of your apprehension of ,reality4      
,hitherto1 all that you have attained   
has been--or at least has seemed to     
you--the direct result of your own hard 
work4 ,a difficult self-discipline1 the 
slowly achieved control of your vagrant 

thoughts and desires1 the steady daily  
practice of recollection1 a diligent    
pushing out of your consciousness from  
the superficial to the fundamental1 an  
unselfish loving attention2 all this has
 been rewarded by the gradual broadening
 and deepening of your perceptions1 by  
an initiation into the movements of a   
larger life1 ,you have been a knocker1 a
 seeker1 an asker3 have beat upon the   
,cloud of ,unknowing with a sharp dart  
of longing love4 ,a perpetual effort of 
the will has characterised your inner   
development4 ,your contemplation1 in    
fact1 as the specialists would say1 has 
been active1 not infused4  ,but now1    
having achieved an awareness--obscure   
and indescribable indeed1 yet actual--of
 the enfolding presence of ,reality1    
under those two forms which the         
theologians call the immanence and the  
transcendence of the ,divine1 a change  
is to take place in the relation between
 your finite human spirit and the       
,infinite ,life in which at last it     

knows itself to dwell4 ,all that will   
now come to you--and much perhaps will  
come--will happen as it seems without   
effort on your own part3 though really  
it will be the direct result of that    
long stress and discipline which has    
gone before1 and has made it possible   
for you to feel the subtle contact of   
deeper realities4 ,it will depend also  
on the steady continuance--often perhaps
 through long periods of darkness and   
boredom--of that poise to which you have
 been trained3 the stretching-out of the
 loving and surrendered will into the   
dimness and silence1 the continued      
trustful habitation of the soul in the  
atmosphere of the ,essential ,world4    
,you are like a traveller arrived in a  
new country4 ,the journey has been a    
long one2 and the hardships and         
obstacles involved in it1 the effort1   
the perpetual conscious pressing        
forward1 have at last come to seem the  
chief features of your inner life4 ,now1
 with their cessation1 you feel         

curiously lost2 as if the chief object  
of your existence had been taken away4  
,no need to push on any further3 yet1   
though there is no more that you can do 
of yourself1 there is much that may and 
must be done to you4 ,the place that you
 have come to seems strange and         
bewildering1 for it lies far beyond the 
horizons of human thought4 ,there are no
 familiar landmarks1 nothing on which   
you can lay hold4 ,you wander to and    
fro1 as the mystics say1 in this        
fathomless ground2 surrounded by silence
 and darkness1 struggling to breathe    
this rarefied air4 ,like those who go to
 live in new latitudes1 you must become 
acclimatised4 ,your state1 then1 should 
now be wisely passive2 in order that the
 great influences which surround you may
 take and adjust your spirit1 that the  
unaccustomed light1 which now seems to  
you a darkness1 may clarify your eyes1  
and that you may be transformed from a  
visitor into an inhabitant of that      
supernal ,country which ,st4 ,augustine 

described as no mere vision1 but a home4
  ,you are therefore to let yourself go2
 to cease all conscious1 anxious        
striving and pushing4 ,finding yourself 
in this place of darkness and quietude1 
this ,night of the ,spirit1 as ,st4     
,john of the ,cross has called it1 you  
are to dwell there meekly2 asking       
nothing1 seeking nothing1 but with your 
doors flung wide open towards ,god4 ,and
 as you do thus1 there will come to you 
an ever clearer certitude that this     
darkness enveils the goal for which you 
have been seeking from the first2 the   
final ,reality with which you are       
destined to unite1 the perfect          
satisfaction of your most ardent and    
most sacred desires4 ,it is there1 but  
you cannot by your efforts reach it4    
,this realisation of your own complete  
impotence1 of the resistance which the  
,transcendent--long sought and          
faithfully served--now seems to offer to
 your busy outgoing will and love1 your 
ardour1 your deliberate self-donation1  

is at once the most painful and most    
essential phase in the training of the  
human soul4 ,it brings you into that    
state of passive suffering which is to  
complete the decentralisation of your   
character1 test the purity of your love1
 and perfect your education in humility4
  ,here1 you must oppose more thoroughly
 than ever before the instincts and     
suggestions of your separate1 clever1   
energetic self2 which1 hating silence   
and dimness1 is always trying to take   
the methods of ,martha into the domain  
of ,mary1 and seldom discriminates      
between passivity and sloth4 ,perhaps   
you will find1 when you try to achieve  
this perfect self-abandonment1 that a   
further1 more drastic self-exploration1 
a deeper1 more searching purification   
than that which was forced upon you by  
your first experience of the            
recollective state is needed4 ,the last 
fragments of selfhood1 the very desire  
for spiritual satisfaction--the         
fundamental human tendency to drag down 

the ,simple ,fact and make it ours1     
instead of offering ourselves to        
it--must be sought out and killed4 ,in  
this deep contemplation1 this profound  
,quiet1 your soul gradually becomes     
conscious of a constriction1 a dreadful 
narrowness of personality2 something    
still existing in itself1 still tending 
to draw inwards to its own centre1 and  
keeping it from that absolute surrender 
which is the only way to peace4 ,an     
attitude of perfect generosity1 complete
 submission1 willing acquiescence in    
anything that may happen--even in       
failure and death--is here your only    
hope3 for union with ,reality can only  
be a union of love1 a glad and humble   
self-mergence in the universal life4    
,you must1 so far as you are able1 give 
yourself up to1 die into1 melt into the 
,whole2 abandon all efforts to lay hold 
of ,it4 ,more1 you must be willing that 
it should lay hold of you4 ,a pure bare 
going forth1 says ,tauler1 trying to    
describe the sensations of the self at  

this moment4 ,none1 says ,ruysbroeck1   
putting this same experience1 this meek 
outstreaming of the bewildered spirit1  
into other language1 is sure of ,eternal
 ,life1 unless he has died with his own 
attributes wholly into ,god4  ,it is    
unlikely that agreeable emotions will   
accompany this utter self-surrender2 for
 everything will now seem to be taken   
from you1 nothing given in exchange4    
,but if you are able to make it1 a      
mighty transformation will result4 ,from
 the transitional plane of darkness1 you
 will be reborn into another world1     
another stage of realisation3 and find  
yourself1 literally1 to be other than   
you were before4 ,ascetic writers tell  
us that the essence of the change now   
effected consists in the fact that      
,god's action takes the place of man's  
activity--that the surrendered self does
 not act1 but receives4 ,by this they   
mean to describe1 as well as our        
concrete language will permit1 the new  
and vivid consciousness which now       

invades the contemplative2 the sense    
which he has of being as it were        
helpless in the grasp of another ,power1
 so utterly part of him1 so completely  
different from him--so rich and various1
 so transfused with life and feeling1 so
 urgent and so all-transcending--that he
 can only think of it as ,god4 ,it is   
for this that the dimness and steadily  
increasing passivity of the stage of    
,quiet has been preparing him2 and it is
 out of this willing quietude and       
ever-deepening obscurity that the new   
experiences come4          ,o night that
 didst lead thus1         ,o night more 
lovely than the dawn of light1          
,o night that broughtest us             
,lover to lover's sight--     ,lover    
with loved in marriage of delight1  says
 ,st4 ,john of the ,cross in the most   
wonderful of all mystical poems4 ,he who
 has had experience of this1 says ,st4  
,teresa of the same stage of            
apprehension1 will understand it in some
 measure3 but it cannot be more clearly 

described because what then takes place 
is so obscure4 ,all ,i am able to say   
is1 that the soul is represented as     
being close to ,god2 and that there     
abide a conviction thereof so certain   
and strong1 that it cannot possibly help
 believing so4  ,this sense1 this       
conviction1 which may be translated by  
the imagination into many different     
forms1 is the substance of the greatest 
experiences and highest joys of the     
mystical saints4 ,the intensity with    
which it is realised will depend upon   
the ardour1 purity1 and humility of the 
experiencing soul3 but even those who   
feel it faintly are convinced by it for 
evermore4 ,in some great and generous   
spirits1 able to endure the terrific    
onslaught of ,reality1 it may even reach
 a vividness by which all other things  
are obliterated2 and the self1 utterly  
helpless under the inundations of this  
transcendent life-force1 passes into    
that simple state of consciousness which
 is called ,ecstasy4  ,but you are not  

to be frightened by these special       
manifestations2 or to suppose that here 
the road is barred against you4 ,though 
these great spirits have as it were a   
genius for ,reality1 a susceptibility to
 supernal impressions1 so far beyond    
your own small talent that there seems  
no link between you3 yet you have1 since
 you are human1 a capacity for the      
,infinite too4 ,with less intensity1    
less splendour1 but with a certitude    
which no arguments will ever shake1 this
 sense of the ,living ,fact1 and of its 
mysterious contacts with and invasions  
of the human spirit1 may assuredly be   
realised by you4 ,this                  
realisation--sometimes felt under the   
symbols of personality1 sometimes under 
those of an impersonal but life-giving  
,force1 ,light1 ,energy1 or ,heat--is   
the ruling character of the third phase 
of contemplation2 and the reward of that
 meek passivity1 that busy idleness as  
the mystics sometimes call it1 which you
 have been striving to attain4 ,sooner  

or later1 if you are patient1 it will   
come to you through the darkness3 a     
mysterious contact1 a clear certitude of
 intercourse and of possession--perhaps 
so gradual in its approach that the     
break1 the change from the              
ever-deepening stillness and peace of   
the second phase1 is hardly felt by you2
 perhaps1 if your nature be ardent and  
unstable1 with a sudden shattering      
violence1 in a storm of love4  ,in      
either case1 the advent of this         
experience is incalculable1 and         
completely outside your own control4 ,so
 far1 to use ,st4 ,teresa's well-known  
image1 you have been watering the garden
 of your spirit by hand2 a poor and     
laborious method1 yet one in which there
 is a definite relation between effort  
and result4 ,but now the watering-can is
 taken from you1 and you must depend    
upon the rain3 more generous1 more      
fruitful1 than anything which your own  
efforts could manage1 but1 in its       
incalculable visitations1 utterly beyond

 your control4 ,here all one can say is 
this3 that if you acquiesce in the      
heroic demands which the spiritual life 
now makes upon you1 if you let yourself 
go1 eradicate the last traces of        
self-interest even of the most spiritual
 kind--then1 you have established       
conditions under which the forces of the
 spiritual world can work on you1       
heightening your susceptibilities1      
deepening and purifying your attention1 
so that you are able to taste and feel  
more and more of the inexhaustible      
riches of ,reality4  ,thus dying to your
 own will1 waiting for what is given1   
infused1 you will presently find that a 
change in your apprehension has indeed  
taken place3 and that those who said    
self-loss was the only way to           
realisation taught no pious fiction but 
the truth4 ,the highest contemplative   
experience to which you have yet        
attained has seemed above all else a    
still awareness4 ,the cessation of your 
own striving1 a resting upon and within 

the ,absolute ,world-- these were its   
main characteristics for your           
consciousness4 ,but now1 this ,ocean of 
,being is no longer felt by you as an   
emptiness1 a solitude without bourne4   
,suddenly you know it to be instinct    
with a movement and life too great for  
you to apprehend4 ,you are thrilled by a
 mighty energy1 uncontrolled by you1    
unsolicited by you3 its higher vitality 
is poured into your soul4 ,you enter    
upon an experience for which all the    
terms of power1 thought1 motion1 even of
 love1 are inadequate3 yet which        
contains within itself the only complete
 expression of all these things4 ,your  
strength is now literally made perfect  
in weakness3 because of the completeness
 of your dependence1 a fresh life is    
infused into you1 such as your old      
separate existence never knew4          
,moreover1 to that diffused and         
impersonal sense of the ,infinite1 in   
which you have dipped yourself1 and     
which swallows up and completes all the 

ideas your mind has ever built up with  
the help of the categories of time and  
space1 is now added the consciousness of
 a ,living ,fact which includes1        
transcends1 completes all that you mean 
by the categories of personality and of 
life4 ,those ineffective1 half-conscious
 attempts towards free action1 clear    
apprehension1 true union1 which we      
dignify by the names of will1 thought1  
and love are now seen matched by an     
,absolute ,will1 ,thought1 and ,love2   
instantly recognised by the             
contemplating spirit as the highest     
reality it yet has known1 and evoking in
 it a passionate and a humble joy4      
,this unmistakable experience has been  
achieved by the mystics of every        
religion2 and when we read their        
statements1 we know that all are        
speaking of the same thing4 ,none who   
have had it have ever been able to doubt
 its validity4 ,it has always become for
 them the central fact1 by which all    
other realities must be tested and      

graduated4 ,it has brought to them the  
deep consciousness of sources of        
abundant life now made accessible to    
man2 of the impact of a mighty energy1  
gentle1 passionate1 self-giving1        
creative1 which they can only call      
,absolute ,love4 ,sometimes they feel   
this strange life moving and stirring   
within them4 ,sometimes it seems to     
pursue1 entice1 and besiege them4 ,in   
every case1 they are the passive objects
 upon which it works4 ,it is now another
 ,power which seeks the separated spirit
 and demands it2 which knocks at the    
closed door of the narrow personality2  
which penetrates the contemplative      
consciousness through and through1      
speaking1 stirring1 compelling it2 which
 sometimes1 by its secret irresistible  
pressure1 wins even the most            
recalcitrant in spite of themselves4    
,sometimes this ,power is felt as an    
impersonal force1 the unifying cosmic   
energy1 the indrawing love which gathers
 all things into ,one2 sometimes as a   

sudden access of vitality1 a light and  
heat1 enfolding and penetrating the self
 and making its languid life more vivid 
and more real2 sometimes as a personal  
and friendly ,presence which counsels   
and entreats the soul4  ,in each case1  
the mystics insist again that this is   
,god2 that here under these diverse     
manners the soul has immediate          
intercourse with ,him4 ,but we must     
remember that when they make this       
declaration1 they are speaking from a   
plane of consciousness far above the    
ideas and images of popular religion2   
and from a place which is beyond the    
judiciously adjusted horizon of         
philosophy4 ,they mean by this word1 not
 a notion1 however august2 but an       
experienced ,fact so vivid1 that against
 it the so-called facts of daily life   
look shadowy and insecure4 ,they say    
that this ,fact is immanent2 dwelling   
in1 transfusing1 and discoverable       
through every aspect of the universe1   
every movement of the game of life--as  

you have found in the first stage of    
contemplation4 ,there you may hear its  
melody and discern its form4 ,and       
further1 that ,it is transcendent2 in   
essence exceeding and including the sum 
of those glimpses and contacts which we 
obtain by self-mergence in life1 and in 
,its simplest manifestations above and  
beyond anything to which reason can     
attain--the ,nameless ,being1 of ,whom  
nought can be said4 ,this you discovered
 to be true in the second stage4 ,but in
 addition to this1 they say also1 that  
this all-pervasive1 all-changing1 and   
yet changeless ,one1 ,whose melody is   
heard in all movement1 and within ,whose
 ,being the worlds are being told like  
beads1 calls the human spirit to an     
immediate intercourse1 a unity1 a       
fruition1 a divine give-and-take1 for   
which the contradictory symbols of      
feeding1 of touching1 of marriage1 of   
immersion1 are all too poor2 and which  
evokes in the fully conscious soul a    
passionate and a humble love4 ,he       

devours us and ,he feeds us6 exclaims   
,ruysbroeck4 ,here1 says ,st4 ,thomas   
,aquinas1 the soul in a wonderful and   
unspeakable manner both seizes and is   
seized upon1 devours and is herself     
devoured1 embraces and is violently     
embraced3 and by the knot of love she   
unites herself with ,god1 and is with   
,him as the ,alone with the ,alone4     
,the marvellous love-poetry of          
mysticism1 the rhapsodies which extol   
the spirit's ,lover1 ,friend1           
,companion1 ,bridegroom2 which describe 
the deliberate speed1 majestic instancy 
of the ,hound of ,heaven chasing the    
separated soul1 the onslaughts1 demands1
 and caresses of this stormy1 generous1 
and unfathomable love--all this is an   
attempt1 often of course oblique and    
symbolic in method1 to express and      
impart this transcendent secret1 to     
describe that intense yet elusive state 
in which alone union with the living    
heart of ,reality is possible4 ,how     
delicately ,thou teachest love to me6   

cries ,st4 ,john of the ,cross2 and here
 indeed we find all the ardours of all  
earthly lovers justified by an          
imperishable ,objective1 which reveals  
,itself in all things that we truly     
love1 and beyond all these things both  
seeks us and compels us1 giving more    
than we can take and asking more than we
 can pay4  ,you do not1 you never will  
know1 what this ,objective is3 for as   
,dionysius teaches1 if any one saw ,god 
and understood what he saw1 then it was 
not ,god that he saw1 but something that
 belongs to ,him4 ,but you do know now  
that it exists1 with an intensity which 
makes all other existences unreal2 save 
in so far as they participate in this   
one ,fact4 ,some contemplate the        
,formless1 and others meditate on ,form3
 but the wise man knows that ,brahma is 
beyond both4 ,as you yield yourself more
 and more completely to the impulses of 
this intimate yet unseizable ,presence1 
so much the sweeter and stronger--so    
much the more constant and steady-- will

 your intercourse with it become4 ,the  
imperfect music of your adoration will  
be answered and reinforced by another   
music1 gentle1 deep1 and strange2 your  
out-going movement1 the stretching forth
 of your desire from yourself to        
something other1 will be answered by a  
movement1 a stirring1 within you yet not
 conditioned by you4 ,the wonder and    
variety of this intercourse is          
never-ending4 ,it includes in its sweep 
every phase of human love and           
self-devotion1 all beauty and all power1
 all suffering and effort1 all          
gentleness and rapture3 here found in   
synthesis4 ,going forth into the        
bareness and darkness of this unwalled  
world of high contemplation1 you there  
find stored for you1 and at last made   
real1 all the highest values1 all the   
dearest and noblest experiences of the  
world of growth and change4  ,you see   
now what it is that you have been doing 
in the course of your mystical          
development4 ,as your narrow heart      

stretched to a wider sympathy with life1
 you have been surrendering             
progressively to larger and larger      
existences1 more and more complete      
realities3 have been learning to know   
them1 to share their very being1 through
 the magic of disinterested love4       
,first1 the manifested1 flowing1        
evolving life of multiplicity3 felt by  
you in its wonder and wholeness1 once   
you learned to yield yourself to its    
rhythms1 received in simplicity the     
undistorted messages of sense4 ,then1   
the actual unchanging ground of life1   
the eternal and unconditioned ,whole1   
transcending all succession3 a world    
inaccessible alike to senses and        
intelligence1 but felt--vaguely1 darkly1
 yet intensely--by the quiet and        
surrendered consciousness4 ,but now you 
are solicited1 whether you will or no1  
by a greater ,reality1 the final        
inclusive ,fact1 the ,unmeasured ,love1 
which is through all things             
everlastingly3 and yielding yourself to 

it1 receiving and responding to its     
obscure yet ardent communications1 you  
pass beyond the cosmic experience to the
 personal encounter1 the simple yet     
utterly inexpressible union of the soul 
with its ,god4  ,and this threefold     
union with ,reality1 as your attention  
is focussed now on one aspect1 now on   
another1 of its rich simplicity1 will be
 actualised by you in many different    
ways3 for you are not to suppose that an
 unchanging barren ecstasy is now to    
characterise your inner life4 ,though   
the sense of your own dwelling within   
the ,eternal transfuses and illuminates 
it1 the sense of your own necessary     
efforts1 a perpetual renewal of contact 
with the ,spiritual ,world1 a perpetual 
self-donation1 shall animate it too4    
,when the greater love overwhelms the   
lesser1 and your small                  
self-consciousness is lost in the       
consciousness of the ,whole1 it will be 
felt as an intense stillness1 a quiet   
fruition of ,reality4 ,then1 your very  

selfhood seems to cease1 as it does in  
all your moments of great passion2 and  
you are satisfied and overflowing1 and  
with ,him beyond yourself eternally     
fulfilled4 ,again1 when your own        
necessary activity comes into the       
foreground1 your small energetic love   
perpetually pressing to deeper and      
deeper realisation--tasting through and 
through1 and seeking through and        
through1 the fathomless ground of the   
,infinite and ,eternal--it seems rather 
a perpetually renewed encounter than a  
final achievement4 ,since you are a     
child of ,time as well as of ,eternity1 
such effort and satisfaction1 active and
 passive love are both needed by you1 if
 your whole life is to be brought into  
union with the inconceivably rich yet   
simple ,one in ,whom these apparent     
opposites are harmonised4 ,therefore    
seeking and finding1 work and rest1     
conflict and peace1 feeding on ,god and 
self-immersion in ,god1 spiritual       
marriage and spiritual death--these     

contradictory images are all wanted1 if 
we are to represent the changing moods  
of the living1 growing human spirit2 the
 diverse aspects under which it realises
 the simple fact of its intercourse with
 the ,divine4  ,each new stage achieved 
in the mystical development of the      
spirit has meant1 not the leaving behind
 of the previous stages1 but an adding  
on to them3 an ever greater extension of
 experience1 and enrichment of          
personality4 ,so that the total result  
of this change1 this steady growth of   
your transcendental self1 is not an     
impoverishment of the sense-life in the 
supposed interests of the super-sensual1
 but the addition to it of another      
life--a huge widening and deepening of  
the field over which your attention can 
play4 ,sometimes the mature             
contemplative consciousness narrows to  
an intense point of feeling1 in which it
 seems indeed alone with the ,alone3    
sometimes it spreads to a vast          
apprehension of the ,universal ,life1 or

 perceives the common things of sense   
aflame with ,god4 ,it moves easily and  
with no sense of incongruity from hours 
of close personal communion with its    
,friend and ,lover to self-loss in the  
deep yet dazzling darkness of the       
,divine ,abyss3 or1 re-entering that    
living world of change which the first  
form of contemplation disclosed to it1  
passes beyond those discrete            
manifestations of ,reality to realise   
the ,whole which dwells in and inspires 
every part4 ,thus ascending to the      
mysterious fruition of that ,reality    
which is beyond image1 and descending   
again to the loving contemplation and   
service of all struggling growing       
things1 it now finds and adores         
everywhere--in the sky and the nest1 the
 soul and the void--one ,energetic ,love
 which is measureless1 since it is all  
that exists1 and of which the patient   
up-climb of the individual soul1 the    
passionate outpouring of the ,divine    
,mind1 form the completing opposites4   

,,chapter ,x  ,,the ,,mystical ,,life   
,and here the practical man1 who has    
been strangely silent during the last   
stages of our discourse1 shakes himself 
like a terrier which has achieved dry   
land again after a bath2 and asks once  
more1 with a certain explosive violence1
 his dear old question1 ,what is the use
 of all this8  ,you have introduced me1 
he says further1 to some curious states 
of consciousness1 interesting enough in 
their way2 and to a lot of peculiar     
emotions1 many of which are no doubt    
most valuable to poets and so on4 ,but  
it is all so remote from daily life4    
,how is it going to fit in with ordinary
 existence8 ,how1 above all1 is it all  
going to help me8  ,well1 put upon its  
lowest plane1 this new way of attending 
to life-- this deepening and widening of
 outlook--may at least be as helpful to 
you as many things to which you have    
unhesitatingly consecrated much time and
 diligence in the past3 your long       
journeys to new countries1 for instance1

 or long hours spent in acquiring new   
facts1 relabelling old experiences1     
gaining skill in new arts and games4    
,these1 it is true1 were quite worth the
 effort expended on them3 for they gave 
you1 in exchange for your labour and    
attention1 a fresh view of certain      
fragmentary things1 a new point of      
contact with the rich world of          
possibilities1 a tiny enlargement of    
your universe in one direction or       
another4 ,your love and patient study of
 nature1 art1 science1 politics1        
business-- even of sport--repaid you    
thus4 ,but ,i have offered you1 in      
exchange for a meek and industrious     
attention to another aspect of the      
world1 hitherto somewhat neglected by   
you1 an enlargement which shall include 
and transcend all these2 and be         
conditioned only by the perfection of   
your generosity1 courage1 and surrender4
  ,nor are you to suppose that this     
enlargement will be limited to certain  
new spiritual perceptions1 which the art

 of contemplation has made possible for 
you3 that it will merely draw the       
curtain from a window out of which you  
have never looked4 ,this new wide world 
is not to be for you something seen1 but
 something lived in3 and you--since man 
is a creature of responses--will        
insensibly change under its influence1  
growing up into a more perfect          
conformity with it4 ,living in this     
atmosphere of ,reality1 you will1 in    
fact1 yourself become more real4 ,hence1
 if you accept in a spirit of trust the 
suggestions which have been made to     
you-- and ,i acknowledge that here at   
the beginning an attitude of faith is   
essential--and if you practise with     
diligence the arts which ,i have        
described3 then1 sooner or later1 you   
will inevitably find yourself deeply and
 permanently changed by them--will      
perceive that you have become a new man4
 ,not merely have you acquired new      
powers of perception and new ideas of   
,reality2 but a quiet and complete      

transformation1 a strengthening and     
maturing of your personality has taken  
place4  ,you are still1 it is true1     
living the ordinary life of the body4   
,you are immersed in the stream of      
duration2 a part of the human1 the      
social1 the national group4 ,the        
emotions1 instincts1 needs1 of that     
group affect you4 ,your changing scrap  
of vitality contributes to its corporate
 life2 and contributes the more         
effectively since a new1 intuitive      
sympathy has now made its interests your
 own4 ,because of that corporate life1  
transfusing you1 giving to you and      
taking from you--conditioning1 you as it
 does in countless oblique and          
unapparent ways--you are still compelled
 to react to many suggestions which you 
are no longer able to respect3          
controlled1 to the last moment of your  
bodily existence and perhaps afterwards1
 by habit1 custom1 the good old average 
way of misunderstanding the world4 ,to  
this extent1 the crowd-spirit has you in

 its grasp4  ,yet in spite of all this1 
you are now released from that crowd's  
tyrannically overwhelming consciousness 
as you never were before4 ,you feel     
yourself now a separate vivid entity1 a 
real1 whole man3 dependent on the       
,whole1 and gladly so dependent1 yet    
within that ,whole a free self-governing
 thing4 ,perhaps you always fancied that
 your will was free--that you were      
actually1 as you sometimes said1 the    
captain of your soul4 ,if so1 this was  
merely one amongst the many illusions   
which supported your old1 enslaved      
career4 ,as a matter of fact1 you were  
driven along a road1 unaware of anything
 that lay beyond the hedges1 pressed on 
every side by other members of the      
flock2 getting perhaps a certain        
satisfaction out of the deep warm stir  
of the collective life1 but ignorant of 
your destination1 and with your personal
 initiative limited to the snatching of 
grass as you went along1 the pushing of 
your way to the softer side of the      

track4 ,these operations made up        
together that which you called ,success4
 ,but now1 because you have achieved a  
certain power of gathering yourself     
together1 perceiving yourself as a      
person1 a spirit1 and observing your    
relation with these other individual    
lives--because too1 hearing now and     
again the mysterious piping of the      
,shepherd1 you realise your own         
perpetual forward movement and that of  
the flock1 in its relation to that      
living guide--you have a far deeper1    
truer knowledge than ever before both of
 the general and the individual         
existence2 and so are able to handle    
life with a surer hand4  ,do not suppose
 from this that your new career is to be
 perpetually supported by agreeable     
spiritual contacts1 or occupy itself in 
the mild contemplation of the great     
world through which you move4 ,true1 it 
is said of the ,shepherd that he carries
 the lambs in his bosom3 but the sheep  
are expected to walk1 and put up with   

the inequalities of the road1 the bunts 
and blunders of the flock4 ,it is to    
vigour rather than to comfort that you  
are called4 ,since the transcendental   
aspect of your being has been brought   
into focus you are now raised out of the
 mere push-forward1 the blind passage   
through time of the flock1 into a       
position of creative responsibility4    
,you are aware of personal              
correspondences with the ,shepherd4 ,you
 correspond1 too1 with a larger1 deeper1
 broader world4 ,the sky and the hedges1
 the wide lands through which you are   
moving1 the corporate character and     
meaning of the group to which you       
belong--all these are now within the    
circle of your consciousness2 and each  
little event1 each separate demand or   
invitation which comes to you is now    
seen in a truer proportion1 because you 
bring to it your awareness of the       
,whole4 ,your journey ceases to be an   
automatic progress1 and takes on some of
 the characters of a free act3 for      

things are now under you1 you are no    
longer under them4  ,you will hardly    
deny that this is a practical gain3 that
 this widening and deepening of the     
range over which your powers of         
perception work makes you more of a man 
than you were before1 and thus adds to  
rather than subtracts from your total   
practical efficiency4 ,it is indeed only
 when he reaches these levels1 and feels
 within himself this creative           
freedom--this full actualisation of     
himself--on the one hand3 on the other  
hand the sense of a world-order1 a love 
and energy on which he depends and with 
whose interests he is now at one1 that  
man becomes fully human1 capable of     
living the real life of ,eternity in the
 midst of the world of time4  ,and what1
 when you have come to it1 do you       
suppose to be your own function in this 
vast twofold scheme8 ,is it for nothing1
 do you think1 that you are thus a      
meeting-place of two orders8 ,surely it 
is your business1 so far as you may1 to 

express in action something of the real 
character of that universe within which 
you now know yourself to live8 ,artists1
 aware of a more vivid and more         
beautiful world than other men1 are     
always driven by their love and         
enthusiasm to try and express1 bring    
into direct manifestation1 those deeper 
significances of form1 sound1 rhythm1   
which they have been able to apprehend3 
and1 doing this1 they taste deeper and  
deeper truths1 make ever closer unions  
with the ,real4 ,for them1 the duty of  
creation is tightly bound up with the   
gift of love4 ,in their passionate      
outflowing to the universe which offers 
itself under one of its many aspects to 
their adoration1 that other-worldly     
fruition of beauty is always followed1  
balanced1 completed1 by a this-world    
impulse to creation3 a desire to fix    
within the time-order1 and share with   
other men1 the vision by which they were
 possessed4 ,each one1 thus bringing new
 aspects of beauty1 new ways of seeing  

and hearing within the reach of the     
race1 does something to amend the sorry 
universe of common sense1 the more      
hideous universe of greed1 and redeem   
his fellows from their old1 slack       
servitude to a lower range of           
significances4 ,it is in action1 then1  
that these find their truest and safest 
point of insertion into the living1     
active world of ,reality3 in sharing and
 furthering its work of manifestation   
they know its secrets best4 ,for them   
contemplation and action are not        
opposites1 but two interdependent forms 
of a life that is one--a life that      
rushes out to a passionate communion    
with the true and beautiful1 only that  
it may draw from this direct experience 
of ,reality a new intensity wherewith to
 handle the world of things2 and remake 
it1 or at least some little bit of it1  
nearer to the heart's desire4  ,again1  
the great mystics tell us that the      
vision of ,god in ,his own light--the   
direct contact of the soul's substance  

with the ,absolute--to which awful      
experience you drew as near as the      
quality of your spirit would permit in  
the third degree of contemplation1 is   
the prelude1 not to a further revelation
 of the eternal order given to you1 but 
to an utter change1 a vivid life        
springing up within you1 which they     
sometimes call the transforming union or
 the birth of the ,son in the soul4 ,by 
this they mean that the spark of        
spiritual stuff1 that high special power
 or character of human nature1 by which 
you first desired1 then tended to1 then 
achieved contact with ,reality1 is as it
 were fertilised by this profound       
communion with its origin2 becomes      
strong and vigorous1 invades and        
transmutes the whole personality1 and   
makes of it1 not a dreamy mystic but an 
active and impassioned servant of the   
,eternal ,wisdom4  ,so that when these  
full-grown1 fully vital mystics try to  
tell us about the life they have        
achieved1 it is always an intensely     

active life that they describe4 ,they   
say1 not that they dwell in restful     
fruition1 though the deep and joyous    
knowledge of this1 perhaps too the      
perpetual longing for an utter self-loss
 in it1 is always possessed by them--but
 that they go up and down the ladder of 
contemplation4 ,they stretch up towards 
the ,point1 the unique ,reality to which
 all the intricate and many-coloured    
lines of life flow1 and in which they   
are merged2 and rush out towards those  
various lives in a passion of active    
love and service4 ,this double activity1
 this swinging between rest and         
work--this alone1 they say1 is truly the
 life of man2 because this alone        
represents on human levels something of 
that inexhaustibly rich yet simple life1
 ever active yet ever at rest1 which    
they find in ,god4 ,when he gets to     
this1 then man has indeed actualised his
 union with ,reality2 because then he is
 a part of the perpetual creative act1  
the eternal generation of the ,divine   

thought and love4 ,therefore            
contemplation1 even at its highest1     
dearest1 and most intimate1 is not to be
 for you an end in itself4 ,it shall    
only be truly yours when it impels you  
to action3 when the double movement of  
,transcendent ,love1 drawing inwards to 
unity and fruition1 and rushing out     
again to creative acts1 is realised in  
you4 ,you are to be a living1 ardent    
tool with which the ,supreme ,artist    
works3 one of the instruments of ,his   
self-manifestation1 the perpetual       
process by which ,his ,reality is       
brought into concrete expression4  ,now 
the expression of vision1 of reality1 of
 beauty1 at an artist's hands--the      
creation of new life in all forms--has  
two factors3 the living moulding        
creative spirit1 and the material in    
which it works4 ,between these two there
 is inevitably a difference of tension4 
,the material is at best inert1 and     
merely patient of the informing idea2 at
 worst1 directly recalcitrant to it4    

,hence1 according to the balance of     
these two factors1 the amount of        
resistance offered by stuff to tool1 a  
greater or less energy must be expended1
 greater or less perfection of result   
will be achieved4 ,you1 accepting the   
wide deep universe of the mystic1 and   
the responsibilities that go with it1   
have by this act taken sides once for   
all with creative spirit3 with the      
higher tension1 the unrelaxed effort1   
the passion for a better1 intenser1 and 
more significant life4 ,the adoration to
 which you are vowed is not an affair of
 red hassocks and authorised hymn books2
 but a burning and consuming fire4 ,you 
will find1 then1 that the world1 going  
its own gait1 busily occupied with its  
own system of correspondences-- yielding
 to every gust of passion1 intent on the
 satisfaction of greed1 the struggle for
 comfort or for power--will oppose your 
new eagerness2 perhaps with violence1   
but more probably with the exasperating 
calmness of a heavy animal which refuses

 to get up4 ,if your new life is worth  
anything1 it will flame to sharper power
 when it strikes against this dogged    
inertness of things3 for you need       
resistances on which to act4 ,the road  
to a ,yea lies through a ,nay1 and      
righteous warfare is the only way to a  
living and a lasting peace4  ,further1  
you will observe more and more clearly1 
that the stuff of your external world1  
the method and machinery of the common  
life1 is not merely passively but       
actively inconsistent with your sharp   
interior vision of truth4 ,the heavy    
animal is diseased as well as indolent4 
,all man's perverse ways of seeing his  
universe1 all the perverse and hideous  
acts which have sprung from them-- these
 have set up reactions1 have produced   
deep disorders in the world of things4  
,man is free1 and holds the keys of hell
 as well as the keys of heaven4 ,within 
the love-driven universe which you have 
learned to see as a whole1 you will     
therefore find egotism1 rebellion1      

meanness1 brutality1 squalor3 the work  
of separated selves whose energies are  
set athwart the stream4 ,but every      
aspect of life1 however falsely         
imagined1 can still be saved1 turned to 
the purposes of ,reality3 for all-thing 
hath the being by the love of ,god4 ,its
 oppositions are no part of its         
realness2 and therefore they can be     
overcome4 ,is there not here1 then1     
abundance of practical work for you to  
do2 work which is the direct outcome of 
your mystical experience8 ,are there not
 here1 as the ,french proverb has it1   
plenty of cats for you to comb8 ,and    
isn't it just here1 in the new foothold 
it gives you1 the new clear vision and  
certitude--in its noble1 serious1 and   
invulnerable faith-- that mysticism is  
useful2 even for the most scientific of 
social reformers1 the most belligerent  
of politicians1 the least sentimental of
 philanthropists8  ,to bring ,eternity  
into ,time1 the invisible into concrete 
expression2 to be to the ,eternal       

,goodness what his own hand is to a     
man--these are the plainly expressed    
desires of all the great mystics4 ,one  
and all1 they demand earnest and        
deliberate action1 the insertion of the 
purified and ardent will into the world 
of things4 ,the mystics are artists2 and
 the stuff in which they work is most   
often human life4 ,they want to heal the
 disharmony between the actual and the  
real3 and since1 in the white-hot       
radiance of that faith1 hope1 and       
charity which burns in them1 they       
discern such a reconciliation to be     
possible1 they are able to work for it  
with a singleness of purpose and an     
invincible optimism denied to other men4
 ,this was the instinct which drove ,st4
 ,francis of ,assist to the practical   
experience of that poverty which he     
recognised as the highest wisdom2 ,st4  
,catherine of ,siena from contemplation 
to politics2 ,joan of ,arc to the       
salvation of ,france2 ,st4 ,teresa to   
the formation of an ideal religious     

family2 ,fox to the proclaiming of a    
world-religion in which all men should  
be guided by the ,inner ,light2         
,florence ,nightingale to battle with   
officials1 vermin1 dirt1 and disease in 
the soldiers' hospitals2 ,octavia ,hill 
to make in ,london slums something a    
little nearer the shadows of the angels'
 houses than that which the practical   
landlord usually provides4  ,all these  
have felt sure that a great part in the 
drama of creation has been given to the 
free spirit of man3 that bit by bit1    
through and by him1 the scattered worlds
 of love and thought and action shall be
 realised again as one4 ,it is for those
 who have found the thread on which     
those worlds are strung1 to bring this  
knowledge out of the hiddenness2 to use 
it1 as the old alchemists declared that 
they could use their tincture1 to       
transmute all baser2 metals into gold4  
,so here is your vocation set out3 a    
vocation so various in its              
opportunities1 that you can hardly fail 

to find something to do4 ,it is your    
business to actualise within the world  
of time and space-- perhaps by great    
endeavours in the field of heroic       
action1 perhaps only by small ones in   
field and market1 tram and tube1 office 
and drawing-room1 in the perpetual      
give-and-take of the common life--that  
more real life1 that holy creative      
energy1 which this world manifests as a 
whole but indifferently4 ,you shall work
 for mercy1 order1 beauty1 significance3
 shall mend where you find things       
broken1 make where you find the need4   
,adoro te devote1 latens ,deitas1 said  
,st4 ,thomas in his great mystical hymn3
 and the practical side of that         
adoration consists in the bringing of   
the ,real ,presence from its hiddenness1
 and exhibiting it before the eyes of   
other men4 ,hitherto you have not been  
very active in this matter3 yet it is   
the purpose for which you exist1 and    
your contemplative consciousness1 if you
 educate it1 will soon make this fact   

clear to you4 ,the teeming life of      
nature has yielded up to your loving    
attention many sacramental images of    
,reality3 seen in the light of charity1 
it is far more sacred and significant   
than you supposed4 ,what about your     
life8 ,is that a theophany too8 ,each   
oak doth cry ,i ,,am1 says ,vaughan4 ,do
 you proclaim by your existence the     
grandeur1 the beauty1 the intensity1 the
 living wonder of that ,eternal ,reality
 within which1 at this moment1 you      
stand8 ,do your hours of contemplation  
and of action harmonise8  ,if they did  
harmonise--if everybody's did--then1 by 
these individual adjustments the        
complete group-consciousness of humanity
 would be changed1 brought back into    
conformity with the ,transcendent2 and  
the spiritual world would be actualised 
within the temporal order at last4      
,then1 that world of false imagination1 
senseless conflicts1 and sham values1   
into which our children are now born1   
would be annihilated4 ,the whole race1  

not merely a few of its noblest1 most   
clearsighted spirits1 would be in union 
with ,god2 and men1 transfused by ,his  
light and heat1 direct and willing      
agents of ,his ,pure ,activity1 would   
achieve that completeness of life which 
the mystics dare to call deification4   
,this is the substance of that          
redemption of the world1 which all      
religions proclaim or demand3 the       
consummation which is crudely imagined  
in the ,apocalyptic dreams of the       
prophets and seers4 ,it is the true     
incarnation of the ,divine ,wisdom3 and 
you must learn to see with ,paul the    
pains and disorders of creation-- your  
own pains1 efforts1 and difficulties    
too--as incidents in the travail of that
 royal birth4 ,patriots have sometimes  
been asked to think imperially4 ,mystics
 are asked to think celestially2 and    
this1 not when considering the things   
usually called spiritual1 but when      
dealing with the concrete accidents1 the
 evil and sadness1 the cruelty1 failure1

 and degeneration of life4  ,so1 what is
 being offered to you is not merely a   
choice amongst new states of            
consciousness1 new emotional            
experiences--though these are indeed    
involved in it--but1 above all else1 a  
larger and intenser life1 a career1 a   
total consecration to the interests of  
the ,real4 ,this life shall not be      
abstract and dreamy1 made up1 as some   
imagine1 of negations4 ,it shall be     
violently practical and affirmative2    
giving scope for a limitless activity of
 will1 heart1 and mind working within   
the rhythms of the ,divine ,idea4 ,it   
shall cost much1 making perpetual       
demands on your loyalty1 trust1 and     
self-sacrifice3 proving now the need and
 the worth of that training in          
renunciation which was forced on you at 
the beginning of your interior life4 ,it
 shall be both deep and wide1 embracing 
in its span all those aspects of        
,reality which the gradual extension of 
your contemplative powers has disclosed 

to you3 making the inner and outer      
worlds to be indivisibly ,one4 ,and     
because the emphasis is now for ever    
shifted from the accidents to the       
substance of life1 it will matter little
 where and how this career is           
actualised--whether in convent or       
factory1 study or battlefield1 multitude
 or solitude1 sickness or strength4     
,these fluctuations of circumstance will
 no longer dominate you2 since it is    
,love that payeth for all4  ,yet by all 
this it is not meant that the opening up
 of the universe1 the vivid             
consciousness of a living ,reality and  
your relation with it1 which came to you
 in contemplation1 will necessarily be a
 constant or a governable feature of    
your experience4 ,even under the most   
favourable circumstances1 you shall and 
must move easily and frequently between 
that spiritual fruition and active work 
in the world of men4 ,often enough it   
will slip from you utterly2 often your  
most diligent effort will fail to       

recapture it1 and only its fragrance    
will remain4 ,the more intense those    
contacts have been1 the more terrible   
will be your hunger and desolation when 
they are thus withdrawn3 for increase of
 susceptibility means more pain as well 
as more pleasure1 as every artist knows4
 ,but you will find in all that happens 
to you1 all that opposes and grieves    
you--even in those inevitable hours of  
darkness when the doors of true         
perception seem to close1 and the cruel 
tangles of the world are all that you   
can discern--an inward sense of security
 which will never cease4 ,all the waves 
that buffet you about1 shaking sometimes
 the strongest faith and hope1 are yet  
parts and aspects of one ,ocean4 ,did   
they wreck you utterly1 that ,ocean     
would receive you2 and there you would  
find1 overwhelming and transfusing you1 
the unfathomable ,substance of all life 
and joy4 ,whether you realise it in its 
personal or impersonal manifestation1   
the universe is now friendly to you2 and

 as he is a suspicious and unworthy     
lover who asks every day for renewed    
demonstrations of love1 so you do not   
demand from it perpetual reassurances4  
,it is enough1 that once it showed you  
its heart4 ,a link of love now binds you
 to it for evermore3 in spite of        
derelictions1 in spite of darkness and  
suffering1 your will is harmonised with 
the ,will that informs the ,whole4  ,we 
said1 at the beginning of this          
discussion1 that mysticism was the art  
of union with ,reality3 that it was1    
above all else1 a ,science of ,love4    
,hence1 the condition to which it looks 
forward and towards which the soul of   
the contemplative has been stretching   
out1 is a condition of being1 not of    
seeing4 ,as the bodily senses have been 
produced under pressure of man's        
physical environment1 and their true aim
 is not the enhancement of his pleasure 
or his knowledge1 but a perfecting of   
his adjustment to those aspects of the  
natural world which concern him--so the 

use and meaning of the spiritual senses 
are strictly practical too4 ,these1 when
 developed by a suitable training1      
reveal to man a certain measure of      
,reality3 not in order that he may gaze 
upon it1 but in order that he may react 
to it1 learn to live in1 with1 and for  
it2 growing and stretching into more    
perfect harmony with the ,eternal       
,order1 until at last1 like the blessed 
ones of ,dante's vision1 the clearness  
of his flame responds to the unspeakable
 radiance of the ,enkindling ,light4