,,ruysbroeck ,the ,devotional ,library4 ,handsomely printed and bound1 price #cs4 #f;d4 each volume4 ,,third ,,edition4 ,,the ,,key ,,of ,,the ,,grave4 ,a ,book for the ,bereaved4 ,by ,w4 ,,robertson ,,nicoll1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4 ,,second ,,edition4 ,,memoranda ,,sacra4 ,by ,professor ,j4 ,,rendel ,,harris1 ,m4,a41 ,fellow of ,clare ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,,the ,,general ,,gordon ,,edition4 ,,christ ,,mystical4 ,by ,,joseph ,,hall1 ,d4,d41 ,bishop of ,norwich4 ,reprinted1 with ,general ,gordon's marks1 from the ,original ,copy used by him1 and with an ,introduction on his ,theology ,by the ,rev4 ,h4 ,,carruthers ,,wilson1 ,m4,a4 ,,london3 ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton4 ,,ruysbroeck ,,and ,,the ,,mystics ,,with ,,selections ,,from ,,ruysbroeck ,,by ,,maurice ,,maeterlinck ,,translated ,,by ,,jane ,t4 ,,stoddart ,,london ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton #bg ,,paternoster ,,row ,,mdcccxciv ,,translator',s ,,note ,the following is an authorised translation of the essay prefixed by ,m4 ,maeterlinck to ,l',ornement des ,noces ,spirituelles1 de ,ruysbroeck ,l',admirable1 ,traduit du ,flamand par ,maurice ,maeterlinck1 which was published in #ahia by ,paul ,lacomblez of ,brussels4 ,i have added selected passages from ,ruysbroeck's own work4 ,,contents ,,page ,m4 ,,maeterlinck',s ,,introduction ,,to ,,his ,,translation ,,of 8,,the ,,adornment ,,of ,,the ,,spiritual ,,marriage0-- ,i #a ,,ii #bi ,,selected ,,passages ,,from 8,,the ,,adornment ,,of ,,the ,,spiritual ,,marriage0 ,,on ,,the ,,kingdom ,,of ,,the ,,soul #abb ,,christ ,,the ,,sun ,,of ,,the ,,soul #abf ,,the ,,lesson ,,from ,,the ,,bee #abi ,,the ,,dew ,,of ,,mid-,,day #acj ,,the ,,lesson ,,from ,,the ,,ant #acb ,,what ,,shall ,,the ,,forsaken ,,do8 #acd ,,the ,,setting ,,of ,,the ,,eternal ,,sun #acg ,,the ,,nature ,,of ,,god #ach ,,the ,,divine ,,generosity #aci ,,christ ,,the ,,lover ,,of ,,all ,,men #ada ,,how ,,christ ,,gave ,,himself ,,to ,,us ,,in ,,the ,,sacrament #adb ,,the ,,soul',s ,,hunger ,,for ,,god #adg ,,the ,,labour ,,and ,,rest ,,of ,,love #aej ,,the ,,christian ,,life #aea ,,the ,,coming ,,of ,,the ,,bridegroom #aeb ,m4 ,,maeterlinck',s ,,introduction ,,to ,,his ,,translation ,,of 8,,the ,,adornment ,,of ,,the ,,spiritual ,,marriage40 ,i ,many works are more correctly beautiful than this book of ,ruysbroeck ,l',admirable4 ,many mystics--,swedenborg and ,novalis among others--are more potent in their influence1 and more timely4 ,it is very probable that his writings may but rarely meet the needs of to-day4 ,looking at him from another point of view1 ,i know few more clumsy authors4 ,he wanders off now and then into strange puerilities1 and the first twenty chapters of ,the ,adornment of the ,spiritual ,marriage1 although they are perhaps a necessary preparation for what follows1 contain little more than mild and pious commonplaces4 ,outwardly1 at least1 he has no order1 no logic of the schools4 ,he is full of repetitions1 and sometimes seems to contradict himself4 ,he shows the ignorance of a child along with the wisdom of one who might have returned from the dead4 ,over his involved syntax ,i have toiled more than once in the sweat of my brow4 ,he introduces an image1 and forgets it4 ,there are some of his images which the mind cannot realise1 and this phenomenon1 so unusual in an honest work1 can only be explained by his awkwardness or his extraordinary haste4 ,he knows few of the tricks of language1 and can speak only of the unspeakable4 ,he is almost entirely ignorant of the habits1 skilled methods1 and resources of philosophic thought1 and he is constrained to think only of the unthinkable4 ,when he speaks of his little monastic garden1 he can hardly tell us enough about what goes on there2 on that subject he writes like a child4 ,he undertakes to teach us what transpires in the nature of ,god1 and writes pages which ,plato could not have written4 ,everywhere we find a grotesque disproportion between his knowledge and ignorance1 his capacity and desire4 ,you must not expect a literary work2 you will see only the convulsive flight of an eagle1 dizzy1 blind1 and wounded1 over snowy peaks4 ,i will add one word more by way of friendly warning4 ,it has been my lot to read books generally considered most abstruse3 ,the ,disciples at ,sas1 and the ,fragments of ,novalis1 for instance2 the ,biographia ,literaria and the ,friend of ,samuel ,taylor ,coleridge2 the ,timaeus of ,plato2 the ,enneads of ,plotinus2 the ,divine ,names of ,st4 ,denys the ,areopagite2 the ,aurora of the great ,german mystic1 ,jacob ,bhme1 with whom our author has more than one point of analogy4 ,i do not venture to say that the works of ,ruysbroeck are more abstruse than these works2 but their abstruseness is less readily pardoned1 because we have here to do with an unknown writer in whom we have no previous confidence4 ,i thought it necessary to give an honest warning to idlers on the threshold of this temple without architecture2 for this translation was undertaken only to please a few ,platonists4 ,i believe that those who have not lived in close fellowship with ,plato and with the ,neo-,platonists of ,alexandria will not proceed far in reading it4 ,they will think they are entering the void2 they will feel as if they were falling steadily into a bottomless abyss1 between black and slippery rocks4 ,in this book there is no common light or air2 as a spiritual abode it will be insupportable to those who come unprepared4 ,do not enter here from literary curiosity2 there are hardly any dainty nick-nacks1 and the botanist in search of fine images will find as few flowers here as on the polar ice-banks4 ,i tell them that this is a boundless desert1 where they will die of thirst4 ,they will find here very few phrases which one may handle and admire after the way of literary critics2 nothing but jets of flame or blocks of ice4 ,do not seek for roses in ,iceland4 ,some flower may still linger between two icebergs--and indeed there are strange outbursts1 unknown expressions1 unheard-of analogies1 but they will not repay you for the time lost in coming so far to pluck them4 ,before entering here one must be in a philosophic state as different from our ordinary condition as the state of waking is from that of slumber4 ,porphyry1 in his ,principles of the ,theory of ,intelligibles1 seems to me to have written a warning which might fitly stand at the beginning of this book--8,by our intelligence we say many things of the principle which is higher than the intelligence4 ,but these things are divined much better by an absence of thought than by thought4 ,it is the same with this idea as with that of sleep1 of which we speak up to a certain point in our waking state1 but the knowledge and perception of which we can gain only by sleeping4 ,like is known only by like1 and the condition of all knowledge is that the subject should become like to the object40 ,it is most difficult1 ,i repeat1 to understand such things without preparation2 and ,i believe that1 in spite of our preparatory studies1 a great deal of this mysticism will seem to us purely theoretic1 and that the most of these experiences of supernatural psychology will be accessible to us only in the character of spectators4 ,the philosophical imagination is a faculty which is educated very slowly4 ,we are here1 all at once1 on the confines of human thought1 and far within the polar circle of the mind4 ,it is strangely cold here2 it is strangely dark2 and yet all around there is light and flame4 ,but to those who come without having trained their mind to these new perceptions1 this light and these flames are as dark and cold as painted images4 ,we are dealing here with the most exact of sciences4 ,we have to explore the most rugged and least habitable promontories of the divine 8,know ,thyself02 and the midnight sun hangs over the tempestuous sea1 where the psychology of man mingles with the psychology of ,god4 ,we have constantly to keep in mind that we are dealing here with a very profound science1 and not with a dream4 ,dreams are not unanimous2 dreams have no roots2 while the glowing flower of divine metaphysic1 which is here full blown1 has its mysterious roots in ,persia and in ,india1 in ,egypt and in ,greece4 ,and yet it seems unconscious as a flower1 and knows nothing of its roots4 ,unhappily it is almost impossible for us to put ourselves in the position of the soul which1 without effort1 conceived this science2 we cannot perceive it ab intra and reproduce it in ourselves4 ,we lack that which ,emerson would call the same 8central spontaneity02 we can no longer transform these ideas into our own substance2 the utmost we can do is to take count1 from the outside1 of the tremendous experiences which are within the reach of only a very few souls during the whole existence of a planetary system4 8,it is not lawful10 says ,plotinus1 8to inquire into the origin of this intuitive science as if it were a thing dependent on place and movement2 for it does not approach from here1 nor set out from there1 in order to go elsewhere1 but it appears or does not appear4 ,so that we must not pursue it in order to discover its secret sources1 but wait in silence until it suddenly shines out upon us1 preparing ourselves for the sacred sight1 as the eye waits patiently for the rising of the sun40 ,and elsewhere he adds3 8,it is not by imagination nor by reason1 which is itself obliged to draw its principles from elsewhere1 that we represent to ourselves intelligible things 7that is to say1 the highest of all71 but rather it is by our faculty for beholding them1 the faculty which enables us to speak of them here below4 ,we see them therefore by awaking in ourselves1 here on earth1 the same powers which we shall have to awake when we are in the world of pure intelligence4 ,we are like a man who1 on reaching the summit of a rock1 perceives with his eyes objects which are invisible to those who have not made the ascent along with him40 ,but although all beings1 from the stone and the plant up to man1 are contemplations1 they are unconscious contemplations2 and it is very difficult to rediscover in ourselves some memory of the previous activity of the dead faculty4 ,in this respect we resemble the eye in the ,neo-,platonic image4 8,it turns away from the light to see the darkness1 and by the very action it ceases to see2 for it cannot see the darkness with the light1 and yet without it1 it sees not at all2 and so1 by not seeing1 it sees the darkness as far as it is capable of seeing it40 ,i know the judgment which most men will pronounce on this book4 ,they will think it the work of a deluded monk1 of a pale solitary1 a hermit1 dizzy with fasting and worn with fever4 ,they will take it for a wild1 dark dream1 crossed with vivid lightning flashes1--nothing more4 ,this is the common idea which people form of the mystics2 and they forget too often that they alone are the possessors of certainty4 ,if it be true1 as has been said1 that every man is a ,shakespeare in his dreams1 we might well ask whether every man is not in this life an inarticulate mystic1 a thousand times more transcendental than those who have confined themselves within the bonds of words4 ,is not the eye of the lover or of the mother1 for instance1 a thousand times more abstruse1 more impenetrable1 and more mystical than this book1 which is poor and easily explained1 after all1 like all books1 for these are but dead mysteries1 whose horizon will never be rekindled8 ,if we do not understand this1 perhaps the reason is that we no longer understand anything4 ,but1 to return to our author1 a few will recognise without difficulty that1 far from being half-maddened by hunger1 solitude1 and fever1 this monk possessed1 on the contrary1 one of the wisest1 most exact1 and most subtle philosophic brains which have ever existed4 ,he lived1 they tell us1 in his hut at ,grnendal1 in the midst of the forest of ,soignes4 ,it was at the beginning of one of the wildest centuries of the middle ages1--the fourteenth4 ,he knew no ,greek1 and perhaps no ,latin4 ,he was alone and poor2 and yet1 in the depths of this obscure forest of ,brabant1 his mind1 ignorant and simple as it was1 receives1 all unconsciously1 dazzling sunbeams from all the lonely1 mysterious peaks of human thought ,he knows1 though he is unaware of it1 the ,platonism of ,greece1 the ,sufism of ,persia1 the ,brahmanism of ,india1 and the ,buddhism of ,tibet2 and his marvellous ignorance rediscovers the wisdom of buried centuries1 and foresees the knowledge of centuries yet unborn4 ,i could quote whole pages of ,plato1 of ,plotinus1 of ,porphyry1 of the ,zendic books1 of the ,gnostics1 and of the ,kabbala1 the all but inspired substance of which is to be found intact in the writings of this humble ,flemish priest4#a ,we find strange coincidences and disturbing agreements4 ,we find more1 for he seems1 at times1 to have presupposed with exactitude the work of most of his unknown predecessors4 ,just as ,plotinus begins his stern journey at the crossroad where ,plato1 fearing1 paused and knelt down1 so we might say that ,ruysbroeck awakened from a slumber of several centuries2 not1 indeed1 the same kind of thought 7for that kind of thought never sleeps71 but the same kind of language as that which had fallen asleep on the mountains where ,plotinus forsook it1 dazzled by that blaze of light1 and with his hands before his eyes1 as if in presence of an immense conflagration4 ,but the organic method of their thought differs strangely4 ,plato and ,plotinus are before all things princes in the sphere of dialectic4 ,they reach mysticism by the science of reasoning4 ,they use the discursive faculties of their mind1 and seem to distrust their intuitive or contemplative faculties4 ,reasoning beholds itself in the mirror of reasoning1 and endeavours to remain indifferent to every other reflection4 ,it continues its course like a river of fresh water in the midst of the sea1 with the presentiment of a speedy absorption4 ,in our author we find1 on the contrary1 the habits of ,asiatic thought2 the intuitive faculty reigns alone above the discursive purification of ideas by means of words4 ,the fetters of the dream have fallen off4 ,is it for this reason less sure8 ,none can tell4 ,the mirror of the human intellect is entirely unknown in this book1 but there is another mirror1 darker and more profound1 which we hide in the inmost depths of our being2 no detail can be seen distinctly1 and words will not remain on its surface2 the intellect would break it if it could for a moment cast thereon the reflection of its merely secular light2 but something else is seen there from time to time4 ,is it the soul8 is it ,god ,himself8 is it both at once8 ,we shall never know2 yet these all but invisible appearances are the only real rulers of the life of the most unbelieving among us4 ,here you will perceive nothing but the dark reflections on the mirror1 and1 as its treasure is inexhaustible1 these reflections are not like anything we have experienced in ourselves1 but1 in spite of all1 they have an amazing certainty4 ,and this is why ,i know nothing more terrifying than this honest book4 ,there is no psychological idea1 no metaphysical experience1 no mystical intuition1 however abstruse1 profound1 and surprising they may be1 which it would be impossible to reproduce if necessary1 and to cause to live for a moment in ourselves1 that we might be assured of their human identity2 but here on earth we are like a blind father who can no longer recall the faces of his children4 ,none of these thoughts has the childlike or brotherly look of a thought of this earth2 we seem to have lost our experience of ,god1 and yet everything assures us that we are not entered into the house of dreams4 ,must we exclaim with ,novalis that the time has passed away when the ,spirit of ,god was comprehensible1 and that the divine sense of the world is forever lost8 ,that of old all things were manifestations of the ,spirit1 but that now we see only lifeless reflections which we do not understand1 and live entirely on the fruits of better times8 ,i believe we must humbly confess that the key of this book is not to be found on the common pathways of the human mind4 ,that key is not meant to open earthly doors1 and we must deserve it by withdrawing ourselves as far as possible from the earth4 ,one guide1 indeed1 we may still meet at these lonely cross-roads1 who can point out the last way-marks towards these mysterious isles of fire1 these ,icelands of abstraction and of love4 ,that guide is ,plotinus1 who attempted to analyse1 by means of the human intellect1 the divine faculty which here holds sway4 ,he experienced the same ecstasies 7as we say in a word which explains nothing7 which are in their essence only the beginning of the complete discovery of our being2 and in the midst of their trouble and their darkness1 he never for one moment closed the questioning eye of the psychologist who seeks to explain to himself the most abnormal phenomena of his soul4 ,he is thus like the last outwork of the pier1 from which we may understand something of the waves and the horizon of that dim sea4 ,he tries to extend the paths of the ordinary intellect into the very heart of these desolations1 and this is why we must constantly revert to him1 for he is the one analytical mystic4 ,for the sake of those who may be tempted to undertake this tremendous journey1 ,i give here one of the pages in which he has attempted to explain the organism of that divine faculty of introspection3-- 8,in the intuition of the intellect10 he says1 8intelligible objects are perceived by the intellect by means of the light which the ,first ,one spreads over them1 and in seeing these objects1 it sees really the intelligible light4 ,but1 as it gives its attention to the objects on which the light falls1 it does not perceive with any exactness the principle which enlightens them1 while if1 on the contrary1 it forgets the objects which it sees so as to contemplate only the brightness which makes them visible1 it sees the light itself and the principle of the light4 ,but it is never outside of itself that the intellect can contemplate the intelligible light4 ,it then resembles the eye which1 without contemplating an exterior or alien light1 and indeed before it has even perceived it1 is suddenly struck by a brightness which belongs to itself1 or by a ray which darts from itself1 and appears to it in the midst of darkness3 it is just the same when the eye1 so as to see no other objects1 closes its lids and draws its light from itself1 or when1 pressed by the hand1 it perceives the light which it has in itself4 ,then1 although seeing no outside thing1 it still sees2 it sees even more than at any other time1 for it sees the light4 ,the other objects which it saw before1 although they were luminous1 were not the light itself4 ,so1 when the intellect closes its eye in some degree to other objects1 and concentrates it on itself1 then1 seeing nothing1 it yet sees1 not an alien light which shines in alien forms1 but its own light1 which all at once shines inwardly with a pure radiance40 ,again he says3 8,the soul which studies ,god must form an idea of ,him whom it seeks to know2 being aware1 moreover1 to what greatness it desires to unite itself1 and persuaded that it will find blessedness in that union1 it must plunge into the depths of divinity1 until1 instead of contemplating itself1 or the intelligible world1 it becomes itself an object of contemplation1 and shines with the brightness of conceptions which have their source above40 ,we have here almost all that human wisdom can tell us2 almost all that the prince of transcendental metaphysicians could express2 as for other explanations1 we must find them in ourselves1 in the depths where all explanation disappears in its expression4 ,for it is not only in heaven and earth1 but above all in ourselves1 that there are more things than all philosophies can contain2 and as soon as we are no longer obliged to formulate the mysteries within us1 we are more profound than all that has been written1 and greater than all that exists4 ,i have translated this book1 then1 solely because ,i believe that the writings of the mystics are the purest diamonds in the vast treasure of humanity4 ,a translation may indeed very easily be useless1 for experience seems to prove that it matters little whether the mystery of the incarnation of a thought takes place in darkness or in light2 it is enough that it has taken place4 ,but1 however this may be1 the truths of mysticism have a strange privilege over ordinary truths2 they can neither grow old nor die4 ,there is no truth which did not1 one morning1 come down upon this world1 lovely in strength and in youth1 and covered with the fresh and wondrous dew which lies on things yet unspoken3 to-day you may pass through the infirmaries of the human soul1 where all thoughts come day by day to die1 and you will not find there a single mystic thought4 ,they have the immunity of the angels of ,swedenborg1 who progress continually towards the spring of their youth1 so that the oldest angels appear the youngest2 and whether they come from ,india1 from ,greece1 or from the ,north1 they have neither country nor date1 and wherever we meet them1 they are calm and real as ,god ,himself4 ,a work grows old in exact proportion to its anti-mysticism2 and that is why this book bears no date4 ,i know that it is unusually obscure1 but ,i believe that a sincere and honest author is never obscure in the eternal sense of the word1 because he always understands himself1 and in a way which is infinitely beyond anything that he says4 ,it is only artificial ideas which spring up in real darkness1 and flourish solely in literary epochs and in the insincerity of self-conscious ages1 when the thought of the writer is poorer than his expression4 ,in the former case1 we have the rich shade of a forest2 in the latter1 the gloom of a cavern1 in which only dismal parasites can grow4 ,we must take into account that unknown world which our author's phrases were meant to enlighten through the poor double horn-panes of words and thoughts4 ,words1 as it has been said1 were invented for the ordinary uses of life1 and they are unhappy1 restless1 and as bewildered as beggars round a throne1 when1 from time to time1 some royal soul leads them elsewhere4 ,and1 from another point of view1 is the thought ever the exact image of that unknown thing which gave it birth8 ,do we not always behold in it the shadow of a conflict like that of ,jacob with the angel1 confused in proportion to the stature of the soul and of the angel8 8,woe to us10 says ,carlyle1 8if we have nothing in us except that which we can express and show to others40 ,i know that on these pages there lies the shadow cast from objects which we have no recollection of having seen4 ,the monk does not stop to explain their use to us1 and we shall recognise them only when we behold the objects themselves on the other side of this life2 but meanwhile1 he has made us look into the distance1 and that is much4 ,i know1 besides1 that many of his phrases float almost like transparent icicles on the colourless sea of silence1 but still they exist2 they have been separated from the waters1 and that is sufficient4 ,i am aware1 finally1 that the strange plants which he cultivated on the high peaks of the spirit are surrounded by clouds of their own1 but these clouds annoy only gazers from below4 ,those who have the courage to climb see that they are the very atmosphere of these plants1 the only atmosphere in which they can blossom in the shade of non-existence4 ,for this is a vegetation so subtle that it can scarcely be distinguished from the silence from which it has drawn its juices and into which it seems ready to dissolve4 ,this whole work1 moreover1 is like a magnifying glass turned upon darkness and silence2 and sometimes we do not immediately discern the outline of the ideas which are still steeped therein4 ,it is invisible things which appear from time to time1 and some attention is obviously needed for their recognition4 ,this book is not too far off from us2 probably it is in the very centre of our humanity2 it is we1 on the contrary1 who are too far from the book2 and if it seems to us discouraging as the desert1 if the desolation of divine love in it appears terrible1 and the thirst on its summits unendurable1 it is not that the book is too ancient1 but that we ourselves are perhaps old and sad and lacking in courage1 like gray-haired men in presence of a child4 ,plotinus1 the great pagan mystic1 is probably right when he says to those who complain that they see nothing on the heights of introspection3 8,we must first make the organ of vision analogous and similar to the object which it is to contemplate4 ,the eye would never have perceived the sun1 if it had not first taken the form of the sun2 so likewise the soul could never see beauty if it did not first become beautiful itself2 and all men should begin by making themselves beautiful and divine1 in order that they may obtain the sight of the beautiful and of divinity40 ,,ii ,the life of ,jean von ,ruysbroeck1 like that of most of the great thinkers of this world1 is entirely an inner life4 ,he said himself1 8,i have no concerns outside40 ,nearly all his biographers1 ,surius among others1 wrote nearly two centuries after his death1 and their work seems much intermixed with legend4 ,they show us a holy hermit1 silent1 ignorant1 amazingly humble1 amazingly good1 who was in the habit of working miracles unawares4 ,the trees beneath which he prayed were illumined by an aureole2 the bells of a ,dutch convent tolled without hands on the day of his death4 ,his body1 when exhumed five years after his soul had quitted it1 was found in a state of perfect preservation1 and from it rose wonderful perfumes1 which cured the sick who were brought from neighbouring villages4 ,a few lines will suffice to give the facts which are undoubtedly authentic4 ,he was born in the year #abgd at ,ruysbroeck1 a little village between ,hal and ,brussels4 ,he was first a priest in the church of ,sainte-,gudule2 then1 by the advice of the hermit ,lambert1 he left the ,brabant town and retired to ,grnendal 7,green ,valley7 in the forest of ,soignes1 in the neighbourhood of ,brussels4 ,holy companions soon joined him there1 and with them he founded the abbey of ,grnendal1 the ruins of which may be seen to this day4 ,attracted by the strange renown of his theosophy and his supernatural visions1 pilgrims from ,germany and ,holland1 among them the ,dominican ,jean ,tauler and ,gerhard ,groot1 came to this retreat to visit the humble old man1 and went away filled with an admiration of which the memory still lingers in their writings4 ,he died1 according to the ,necrologium ,monasterii ,viridis ,vallis1 on the #bnd of ,december #acha1 and his contemporaries gave him the title of 8,l',admirable40 ,it was the century of the mystics and the period of the gloomy wars in ,brabant and ,flanders1 of stormy nights of blood and prayers under the wild reigns of the three ,johns1 of battles extending into the very forest where the saints were kneeling4 ,st4 ,bonaventura and ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas had just died1 and ,thomas ,kempis was about to study ,god in that mirror of the absolute which the inspired ,fleming had left in the depths of the ,green ,valley2 while1 first ,jehan de ,bruges1 and afterwards the ,van ,eycks1 ,roger van der ,weyden1 ,hugues van der ,goes1 ,thierry ,bouts1 and ,hans ,memlinck were to people with images the lonely ,word of the hermit4 ,here is a list of the writings of ,ruysbroeck1 the sum-total of which is very large4 ,the ,book of the ,twelve ,beguines2 ,the ,mirror of ,eternal ,salvation2 ,the ,book of the ,spiritual ,tabernacle2 ,the ,sparkling ,stone2 ,the ,book of ,supreme ,truth2 ,the ,book of the ,seven ,steps of ,spiritual ,love2 ,the ,book of the ,seven ,castles2 ,the ,book of the ,kingdom of the ,beloved2 ,the ,book of the ,four ,temptations2 ,the ,book of the ,twelve ,virtues2 ,the ,book of ,christian ,faith1 and ,the ,adornment of the ,spiritual ,marriage4 ,there are besides seven letters1 two hymns1 and a prayer1 to which ,surius gave these titles1 ,epistolae septem utiles1 ,cantiones du admodum spirituales1 and ,oratio perbrevis sed pia valde1 the original texts of which ,i have not been able to discover in any of the ,flemish manuscripts4 ,some years ago the greater number of these writings were edited with the utmost care by a society of ,flemish bibliophiles--,de ,maetschappij der ,vlaemsche ,bibliophilen--and most of this translation has been made from the excellent text of that edition4 ,i shall not undertake to give here an analysis of these different works2 such an analysis would be difficult1 monotonous1 and useless4 ,all the books of our author treat exclusively of the same science3 a theosophy peculiar to ,ruysbroeck1 the minute study of the introversion and introspection of the soul1 the contemplation of ,god above all similitudes and likenesses1 and the drama of the divine love on the uninhabitable peaks of the spirit4 ,i shall therefore content myself with giving some characteristic extracts from each of these writings4 ,the ,book of the ,twelve ,beguines1 in the ,latin translation of ,surius1 is entitled ,de vera contemplatione1 opus prclarum1 variis divinis institutionibus1 eo quo ,spiritus ,sanctus suggessit ordine descriptis1 exuberans4 ,this title explains more exactly the nature of the work1 but is not to be found in any of the early manuscripts4 ,the truth is that ,ruysbroeck1 following the custom of his age1 seldom gave a title to his writings1 and the titles by which they are now known1 as well as the marginal rubrics of the chapters1 have apparently been interpolated by the copyists4 ,in the edition of the ,maetschappij der ,vlaemsche ,bibliophilen we find collected under the title1 ,dat boec van den twaelf beghinen1 first of all that treatise on the contemplative life mentioned by ,surius1 next a kind of manual of symbolical astrology1 and lastly some thoughts on the passion and death of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,the three works are marked off from each other with more or less distinctness1 and ,ruysbroeck evidently fixes the place where he forsakes the inner universe and descends to the visible firmament1 when he says at the end of chapter xxxi41 8,and after this ,i leave the contemplative life1 which is ,god ,himself1 and which ,he grants to those who have renounced self and have followed ,his ,spirit to where1 in eternal glory1 ,he rejoices in ,himself and in ,his chosen40 ,the first eight chapters of this book are written in singular and very beautiful verses1 and across their images1 on the dark background of essential love1 as across the windows of a burning convent1 there flicker continually bright spiritual flames1 and also frozen sadnesses1 not unlike those of ,villon or of ,verlaine4 ,here are some of these verses3-- 8,contemplation is a science without mode1 ,above human reason remaining evermore2 ,unto our reason can it not come down1 ,neither above it can reason ever rise4 ,its enlightened freedom is a noble mirror1 ,wherein the eternal splendour of ,god doth shine4 ,this modeless freedom hath no manner of its own1 ,and before it all the works of reason pale2 ,this modeless freedom is not ,god ,himself1 ,but it is the light by which we see ,him4 ,those who move in this freedom unrestrained ,in the light of ,god1 ,see vast prospects stretching out within them4 ,this modeless freedom is more high than reason1 ,yet not without reason2 ,all things beholdeth it without surprise-- ,surprise is far beneath it ,the life of contemplation is without surprise3 ,it sees1 but knows not what is seen1 ,above all things is it1 and neither this nor that40 ,afterwards1 the poet1 perceiving that his verses are becoming too obscure1 standing as he is on the threshold of eternal knowledge1 says suddenly and very simply-- 8,now must ,i cease from versing ,and speak of contemplation clearly40 ,from this point he makes use of a strange prose1 dark as the fearful void into which he is gazing1 resembling that fierce cold which reigns above all our images1 with blue lights flashing over the black frosts of abstraction4 ,and when he descends for a moment into the regions of similitudes1 he touches only the most distant1 the most subtle1 and the most unknown2 he loves1 too1 such things as mirrors1 reflections1 crystal1 fountains1 burning glasses1 water-plants1 precious stones1 glowing iron1 hunger1 thirst1 fire1 fish1 the stars1 and everything that helps him to endow his ideas with visible forms--forms laid prostrate in the presence of love on these clear summits of the soul--and to give distinctness to those unheard-of truths which he calmly reveals4 ,it is needless to say more1 for you shall presently reach the threshold of that spiritual marriage1 and from there behold the still tempest of joy1 reaching as far as to the eternal heart of ,god4 ,in one word1 this man of all others went near to beholding thought as it will be after death1 and showed a faint shadow of its rich growths of the future1 in the midst of the incomprehensible effluence of the ,holy ,trinity4 ,i believe that this is a work which we shall perhaps remember elsewhere and always4 ,you shall see1 too1 that the most amazing outbursts of ,st4 ,teresa are hardly to be distinguished from the top of those unlighted1 colourless1 and airless glaciers to which we climb with him 8beyond surprise and emotion1 above reason and the virtues10 in the dark symphony of contemplation4 ,i give a passage from the book3 ,de altero ver contemplationis modo3-- 8,after this comes another mode of contemplation4 8,those who have raised themselves into the absolute purity of their spirits by the love and reverence which they have for ,god1 stand in ,his presence1 with open and unveiled faces4 ,and from the splendour of the ,father a direct light shines on those spirits in which the thought is naked and free from similitudes1 raised above the senses1 above similitudes1 above reason and without reason1 in the lofty purity of the spirit4 8,this light is not ,god1 but is a mediator between the seeing thought and ,god4 ,it is a light-ray from ,god or from the ,spirit of the ,father4 ,in it ,god shows ,himself immediately1 not according to the distinction and the mode of ,his persons1 but in the simplicity of ,his nature and ,his substance2 and in it also the ,spirit of the ,father speaks in thought1 lofty1 naked1 and without similitude1 #8,behold me as ,i behold you4' ,at the same time the keenness of the pure eyes is revealed1 when the direct brightness of the ,father falls upon them1 and they behold the splendour of the ,father--that is to say1 the substance or the nature of ,god in an immediate vision1 above reason and without distinction4 8,this brightness and this manifestation of ,god give to the contemplative spirit a real knowledge of the vision of ,god1 as far as it can be enjoyed in this mortal state4 ,in order that you may understand me clearly1 ,i will give you an image from the senses4 ,when you stand in the dazzling radiance of the sun1 and turn away your eyes from all colour1 from attending to and distinguishing all the various things which the sun illuminates1 if then you simply follow with your eyes the brightness of the rays which flow from the sun1 you shall be led into the sun's very essence2 and so likewise1 if you follow with a direct vision the dazzling rays which stream from the splendour of ,god1 they will lead you to the source of your creation1 and there you will find nothing else but ,god alone40 ,i come now to the second of the works enumerated above4 ,the ,mirror of ,eternal ,salvation 7,die ,spieghel der ,ewigher ,salicheit7 is1 like all the writings of the mystic1 a study of the joys of introversion1 or of the return of man into himself1 until he comes into touch with ,god4 ,it was sent by the admirable doctor and eminent contemplator of the ,green ,valley 8,to the dear ,sister ,margaret van ,meerbeke1 of the convent of the ,clares at ,brussels1 in the year of our ,lord #acei40 ,in some manuscripts the work is entitled 8,book of the ,sacraments10 and it is indeed the poem of eucharistic love1 above all distinctions and in the midst of the blinding effluence of ,god1 where the soul seems to shake the pollen from its essence and to have an eternal foreknowledge4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 we would need1 in order to realise even slightly these terrors of love1 a language which has the intrinsic omnipotence of tongues which are almost immemorial4 ,the ,flemish dialect possesses this omnipotence1 and it is possible that several of its words still contain images dating from the glacial epochs4 ,our author then had at his disposal one of the very oldest modes of speech1 in which words are really lamps behind ideas1 while with us ideas must give light to words4 ,i am also disposed to believe that every language thinks always more than the man1 even the man of genius1 who employs it1 and who is only its heart for the time being1 and that this is the reason why an ignorant monk like this mysterious ,ruysbroeck1 was able1 by gathering up his scanty forces in prayers so many centuries ago1 to write works which hardly correspond to our senses in the present day4 ,i translate from this book the following fragment3-- 8,see now1 here must our reason and all definite actions give way2 for our powers become simple in love1 and are silent and bend low before the manifestation of the ,father2 for the manifestation of the ,father raises the soul above reason1 into nakedness without similitudes4 ,there the soul is simple1 pure1 and emptied of everything1 and in that pure emptiness the ,father shows ,his divine brightness4 ,into that brightness there can enter neither reason nor the senses1 observation nor distinction4 ,all these things must remain underneath it1 for that measureless brightness dazzles the eyes of the spirit1 so that their lids must close under its inconceivable radiance4 ,but the naked eye1 above reason1 and in the inmost depths of intelligence1 is always open1 and beholds and contemplates with naked vision that light by that light itself4 ,there we have eye to eye1 glass to glass1 image to image4 ,by these three things we are like unto ,god1 and are united to ,him4 ,for this vision which strikes upon our naked eye is a living mirror which ,god has made in ,his image4 ,his image is ,his divine brightness1 and with it ,he has filled to overflowing the mirror of our soul1 so that no other brightness and no other image can enter there4 ,but this brightness is not an intermediary between ,god and us2 for it is the thing which we see1 and also the light by which we see1 but not our eye which sees4 ,for although the image of ,god is without intermediary in the mirror of our soul1 and is united to ,him1 still the image is not the mirror1 for ,god does not become the creature4 ,but the union of the image with the mirror is so great and so noble that the soul is called the mirror of ,god4 8,further1 that very image of ,god which we have received and which we carry in our souls is the ,son of ,god1 the eternal mirror of divine wisdom1 in which we all dwell1 and are continually reflected4 ,yet we are not the wisdom of ,god1 otherwise we should have created ourselves1 which is impossible and a suggestion savouring of heresy4 ,for whatever we are and whatever we have1 we have received all from ,god and not from ourselves4 ,and although this sublimity is so great a thought for our soul1 yet is it hidden from the sinner and from many righteous persons4 ,and all that we can know by the light of nature is incomplete and savourless and without emotion1 for we cannot contemplate ,god or find ,him reigning in our souls without ,his aid and grace1 and without diligently exercising ourselves in ,his love40 ,the ,book of the ,spiritual ,tabernacle 7,dat boec van den ,gheesteleken ,tabernacule74 ,in ,tabernaculum ,mosis et ad id pertinentia commentaria1 ubi multa etiam ,exodi1 ,levitici1 ,numerorum mysteria1 divino spiritu explicantur1 as ,surius describes it1 is the longest work of the hermit1 and contains a strange1 nave1 and arbitrary interpretation of the symbols of the ark of the covenant1 and of the sacrifices of the ancient law4 ,i shall give somewhat copious extracts from this work1 for it shows an interesting and brotherly aspect of his ,flemish soul2 and the artistic subtlety with which he labours to elucidate his emblems1 as well as his amusing and childlike delight in certain effects of colour and of figures1 reminds us now and then of his marvellous contemporaries of the ,cologne school1 the old dreamy painters1 ,meister ,wilhelm and ,lochner1 and of the splendid succession of nameless dreamers1 who1 in lands far off from his1 gave a fixed form to the almost supernatural reflections of the spiritual joys of that and the following century1 which passed away so near to ,god and so far from earth4 ,here is what he says with regard to the offering of the poor as commanded in the ,jewish law3-- 8,and they 7the doves7 shall keep near streams and beside clear waters1 so that if any bird flies downwards to seize them or to do them any injury1 they may recognise him by his reflection in the water and beware of him4 ,the clear water is ,holy ,scripture1 the lives of saints1 and the mercy of ,god4 ,we shall reflect ourselves therein when we are tempted1 and so none shall be able to hurt us4 ,these doves have a loving nature1 and young doves are often born of them1 for whenever1 to the glory of ,god and for our own felicity1 we think of sin with scorn and hatred1 and of virtue with love1 we give birth to young doves--that is to say1 to new virtues40 ,in the following passages he pictures1 with the help of these same doves1 the offering of ,saint ,paul3-- 8,and our ,lord replied that ,his grace should be sufficient for him1 for virtue is perfected in the weakness of temptations4 ,when he understood this he offered these two doves into the hands of our ,lord4 ,for he renounced self1 and willingly became poor1 and bent the necks of his doves 7that is1 his desires7 under the hands of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ and of the ,holy ,church4 ,and ,christ broke the necks and the wings of the doves1 and then he became incapable of desiring or of flying towards any desire except that which was ,god's will4 ,and then ,christ placed the head 7that is to say1 the will1 which was dead and powerless7 under the broken wings1 and then the doves were ready to be consumed2 and so the holy apostle says3 #8,most gladly1 therefore1 will ,i rather glory in my weakness1 that the power of ,christ may rest upon me4'0 ,let us consider further the extraordinary interpretation of the spiritual flowers embroidered on the hangings of the tabernacle3-- 8,on these four curtains of divers colours the ,lord ordered ,bezaleel and ,aholiab to weave and to embroider with the needle many ornaments4 ,so likewise our obedient will and our intelligence will place upon these four colours divers ornaments of virtues4 ,on the white colour of innocence we shall place red roses1 by evermore resisting all that is evil4 ,thus we maintain purity and crucify our own nature1 and these red roses with their sweet perfume are very lovely on the white colour4 ,again1 upon innocence we shall embroider sunflowers1 by which we mean obedience2 for when the sun rises in the east1 the sunflower opens towards its rays1 and turns ever eagerly towards the sun1 even until its setting in the west2 and at night it closes and hides its colours and awaits the return of the sun4 ,even so will we open our hearts by obedience towards the illumination of the grace of ,god1 and humbly and eagerly will we follow that grace so long as we feel the warmth of love4 ,and when the light of grace ceases to awaken fresh emotions1 and we feel the warmth of love but little1 or feel it not at all1 then it is night1 when we shall close our heart to all that may tempt it2 and so shall we shut up within ourselves the golden colour of love1 awaiting a new dawn1 with its new brightness and its fresh emotions2 and thus shall we preserve innocence always in its pristine splendour4 ,on the blue colour1 which is like the firmament1 we shall embroider birds with varied plumage2 in other words1 we shall keep before our minds1 with clear observation1 the lives and the works of the saints1 which are manifold4 ,these works are their varied plumage1 so gracious and so beautiful1 and with this they adorned themselves and soared to heaven4 ,they are birds which we must observe with attention2 if we are like them in their plumage1 we shall follow them to their eternal rest4 ,on the purple colour 7that is1 violet or blood-red1 meaning generosity7 we shall place water-lilies1 and these symbolise the free possession of all the treasures of ,god4 ,for we notice four things in the water-lily4 ,it keeps itself always above the water1 and has four green leaves between the air and the water2 and it is rooted in the earth1 and above it is opened out to the sun2 and it is a remedy for those who are fevered4 ,so also may we1 by generosity and freedom of spirit1 possess the waves of all the riches of ,god4 ,and between this free possession by our spirit and the waves of the lavish gifts of ,god1 we shall have green leaves--that is to say1 an earnest consideration of the way in which the eternal liberality of ,god flows forth1 with ever new gifts to men1 and we shall consider also how the gifts are bestowed with discrimination1 according to the nature of the beloved ones who receive them1 and how the final cause of all the gifts is the generous outflow of divine love2 and the more immediate cause the wisdom and generosity in human creatures1 which makes them resemble ,god4 ,for none can know the wealth of the gifts of ,god except the wise and generous man1 who1 out of the treasures of ,god1 can give wisely and generously to all creatures4 ,so shall we adorn generosity1 and then we shall be rooted in the soil of all the gifts--that is to say1 in the ,holy ,spirit1 as the water-lily is rooted deep down under the water4 ,and we shall open our hearts in the air above1 towards truth and towards the sun of righteousness4 ,and thus we are a remedy for all the world2 for the generous heart which possesses the treasures of ,god1 ought to fill1 console1 refresh1 and cool all those who are afflicted4 ,and it is thus that the purple colour is adorned with the red colour--that is to say1 with burning love4 ,on it we shall place bright stars1 by which ,i mean pious and devout prayer for the good of our neighbour1 and reverent and secret communion between ,god and ourselves4 ,these are the stars which illuminate with their brightness the kingdoms of heaven and of earth1 and they make us inwardly light-giving and fruit-bearing1 and fix us in the firmament of eternal life40 ,i shall next translate the whole of the 8chapter on fishes10 with its amazing analogies3-- 8,this is why the symbolic law ordered the ,jews to eat clean fish1 which had scales and fins2 and all other fish were unclean and were forbidden by the law4 ,by this we understand that our inner life ought to have a clothing of virtues1 and our inward devotions ought to be covered with the application of our reason1 just as the fish is clothed and adorned with its scales4 ,and our loving power should move in four different ways3--in triumphing over our own will1 in loving ,god1 in desiring to resist our own nature1 and in seeking to acquire virtues4 ,these are four fins between which our inward life should swim1 as fish do1 in the water of divine grace4 ,the fish has besides1 in the middle of its body1 a straight fin1 which remains motionless in all its movements4 ,so our inward feelings1 firmly centred1 should be empty of everything and without personal preference2 in other words1 we should allow ,god to act in us and in all things1 both in heaven and earth4 ,the fourth scale balances us in the mercy of ,god and in true divine peace4 ,and so our devotion has fins and scales and becomes for us a pure nourishment which pleases ,god4 ,but the scales which clothe and adorn our inward exercises should be of four colours1 for some fish have gray scales1 others red scales1 others green scales1 and others again white scales4 ,the gray scales teach us that the images with which we clothe our devotions must be humble2 in other words1 we must think of our sins1 of our want of virtue1 of the humility of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and of ,his mother1 and of all things which may abase and humble us1 and we shall love poverty and contempt and to be unknown and despised by everybody4 ,this is the gray colour1 which is very beautiful in the eyes of ,god4 8,further1 we shall clothe our devotions with red scales--that is to say1 we shall remember that the ,son of ,god laid down ,his life for love of us1 and we shall keep ,his passion in our memory1 like a glorious mirror before our inward eyes1 so that we may remember ,his love and console ourselves in all our sorrows4 ,and we shall also think of the many torments of the martyrs1 who by their sufferings followed our ,lord into eternal life4 ,these are red scales1 set well in order1 and they are a delightful clothing for our inward emotions4 8,then1 again1 we shall adorn our secret thoughts with green scales4 ,i mean that we shall earnestly meditate upon the noble lives of confessors and saints1 remembering how they despised the world1 and by what wonderful work and in what divers ways they honoured and served ,god4 ,green is the colour which attracts and rejoices loving hearts and willing eyes4 ,let us stir our fins1 then1 and follow the saints by imitating their good works to the utmost of our power4 8,again1 we shall clothe our inward exercise with white scales2 in other words1 we shall glass ourselves in the purity of virgins1 and shall observe how they fought and how they conquered flesh and blood1 by which is meant the inclination of nature4 ,this is why they wear the crown of gold and follow the ,lamb1 who is ,christ1 with new songs1 which none shall sing save those who have preserved chastity in soul and body4 ,but if we have lost purity1 we may still acquire innocence and clothe ourselves with other virtues1 and so we may reach the day of judgment shining brighter than the sun1 and possess the glory of ,god through an unending eternity4 ,in this way1 then1 we shall cover our inward devotion with four kinds of scales1 and each kind shall have the active fins of good-will2 that is1 we must desire to carry out in good works that which we understand by our intelligence4 ,so shall our spiritual nourishment be clean2 for knowledge and wisdom without a virtuous life are like scales without fins2 and practical virtues without reflection are fins without scales2 and so we must know1 love1 and practise virtues1 in order that our life may be pure2 and then we shall be nourished with clean fish which have scales and fins40 ,i give next the following passage3-- 8,further1 each lamp had a vase of gold1 full of water1 in which was extinguished the fire taken away from the wicks4 ,by this we learn that every gift demands from our mind a desire towards every cardinal virtue--a desire so simple that we can feel in ourselves the yearning of love after union with ,god4 ,we observe this in ,jesus ,christ1 who is our mirror in all things2 for in every virtue which ,he practised1 ,he excelled so lovingly that ,he sought ardently after union with ,his ,father4 ,and we shall unite all our yearnings in that loving yearning which ,he felt towards ,his ,father in all cardinal virtues4 ,for our loving yearnings are our golden vases1 full of water--that is1 of truth and righteousness--we shall plunge into them our burning wicks1 the acts1 that is1 of all the virtues which we have practised2 we shall plunge them in and extinguish them1 by commending ourselves to ,his righteousness1 and by uniting ourselves to ,his adorable merits2 without this the wick of all our virtues would smoke and would have an evil savour before ,god and before all ,his saints40 ,elsewhere1 he examines the twelve jewels of the ,breastplate1 and sees in them reflections of eternal symbols1 as well as unsuspected1 precise1 and suggestive analogies4 ,let us see whether it is not so4 8,in the rays of the sun1 the topaz surpasses in splendour all precious stones2 and even so does the humanity of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ excel in glory and in majesty all the saints and all the angels because of ,his union with the eternal ,father4 ,and in this union the reflection of the ,divine ,sun is so clear and glorious that it attracts and reflects in its clearness all the eyes of saints and angels in immediate vision1 and those also of just men to whom its splendour is revealed4 ,so likewise does the topaz attract and reflect in itself the eyes of those who behold it1 because of its great clearness4 ,but if you were to cut the topaz it would darken1 while if you leave it in its natural state it will remain clear4 ,and so1 too1 if you examine and try to penetrate the splendour of the eternal ,word1 that splendour will darken and you will lose it4 ,but leave it as it is1 and follow it with earnest gaze1 and with self-abnegation1 and it will give you light40 ,let us next consider the curious correspondences which he discovered in other precious stones3-- 8,in this article we compare ,christ to the noble sapphire1 of which there are two kinds4 ,the first is yellow with shades of purple and seems to be mingled with powdered gold2 the other is sky-blue1 and in the rays of the sun it gives forth a burning splendour1 and one cannot see through it4 ,and we find all this in our ,lord1 in this fifth article of the creed4 ,for when ,his noble soul rose to heaven1 ,his body lay in the tomb--yellow1 because of the soul's departure2 purple1 because of ,his bleeding wounds2 and mingled with powdered gold because ,he was united to the divine nature4 ,and ,his soul descended into hell1 blue as the sky1 so that all his friends rejoiced and were glad in ,his splendour2 and in ,his resurrection the splendour becomes so great and so powerful1 both in body and soul1 through the illumination of the ,divine ,sun1 that it darts forth lightnings and burning rays1 and inflames with love all things which it touches4 ,and none can see through that noble sapphire1 ,christ1 because in ,his divine nature there is a depth unfathomable40 ,i pass over the amethyst 8from which red roses seem to flow forth10 and as a closing passage from this work1 ,i shall translate the last three symbols3 those of the chrysolite1 the emerald1 and the jasper4 ,first of all1 the chrysolite3-- 8,the communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins are obtained by the waves of the night--that is to say1 by two sacraments of the ,holy ,church1 baptism and penance4 ,these are the waves which by faith wash that night of darkness1 sin4 ,and ,god has sworn1 even from the time of ,abraham1 that ,he would give ,himself to us and would become our familiar friend1 and because of ,his all-embracing and overflowing love1 ,he has willed to wash us in ,his blood4 ,and in order that we might believe without doubting in the oath which ,he sware by ,himself1 ,he has sealed it with ,his own death1 and has given the merits of ,his death to all men in the ,holy ,church for the remission of sins1 and to the saints1 for the adornment of their glory4 ,that precious stone1 the chrysolite1 symbolises to us that article of the creed1 #8the communion of saints1 the forgiveness of sins1' for it is like the waves of the sea1 translucent and green1 and moreover it has gleams of gold4 ,and so likewise all saints and just men are translucent by grace or by glory1 and they are green by their holy life1 and they gleam with the gold of divine love which shines through them4 ,and these three adornments are common to all saints and to all just persons1 for they are the treasure of the holy churches1 here and in eternal life4 ,and all who by penance have put away from them the colour of the ,red ,sea--that is1 a sinful life--are like the chrysolite4 8,you must know that this sea is red because of its country and the colour of its bed4 ,it is between ,jericho and ,zoar1 ,jericho signifies #8the moon1' and ,zoar the beast which blinds the reason4 ,between the moon of inconstancy and the inclination of reason towards the beast1 there is always the ,red ,sea--that is to say1 an impure life4 ,no creature can live in the ,red ,sea1 and whatever does not live in it sinks to the bottom2 and that is why it is called the ,dead ,sea1 because there is no movement in it1 and it is like bitumen or pitch1 because it seizes and slays whatever enters it1 and in this way it very closely resembles sin1 which seizes man and puts him to spiritual death in the sight of ,god1 and plunges him into hell40 ,let us see1 lastly1 how he applies the emerald and the jasper to the third and sixth articles of the ,apostles' ,creed3-- 8,in this article we compare to the ,son of ,god that beautiful stone which is called the emerald1 and which is so green that neither leaves nor grass nor any other green thing can compare with its viridity4 ,and it fills and feeds with its greenness the eyes of those who behold it4 ,now when the eternal ,word of the ,father was made man1 then was seen the greenest colour ever known on earth4 ,that union of natures is so green and so lovely and so joyful1 that no other colour can equal it2 and so in a holy vision it has filled and fed the eyes of such men as have prepared themselves to perceive it4 ,nothing is more lovely and more pleasant to the eye than the emerald when it has been cut and polished1 and everything that it reflects may be recognised and seen as in a mirror4 ,and so1 if we examine in detail the divine being of ,him who took our nature through ,his love for us1 we must needs admire1 and we cannot sufficiently praise its sublimity4 ,and when we consider how ,he became man1 we must be ashamed of ourselves1 remembering ,his humility1 and we cannot abase ourselves too deeply4 ,and when we remember what ,his motive was in becoming man1 we cannot rejoice enough or love ,him as ,he deserves4 8,in these three ways we shall behold with eager desire1 and we shall polish and lovingly examine ,christ our noble emerald2 and so doing1 we shall find nothing more pleasant to the eyes of our reason1 nothing more attractive1 for we shall find ,him reflected in us1 and we shall find ourselves re-echoed in ,him through ,his grace and a virtuous life1 and so we shall turn away from earthly things and keep this mirror ever before our eyes4 8,in another article we compare ,christ to the noble jasper1 which has a green colour1 very pleasant to the eye2 and it almost equals the emerald in its greenness4 ,and so we compare it to the ascension of our ,lord1 who was green and beautiful in the eyes of the apostles1 and so pleasant that they could never forget ,him during all their lives4 ,and we shall rightly have the same experience2 we shall consider that the noble emerald1 the eternal ,word1 descended into our nature because of ,his love for us1 with an overflowing greenness1 and we shall rejoice in this above all1 for this vision is full of grace4 ,we shall further consider that the glorious jasper1 by which ,i mean our ,lord ,jesus1 ascended to heaven wearing our nature1 and is seated at the right hand of the ,father1 and has prepared for us the state of glory--,amen40 ,next comes ,the ,book of the ,twelve ,virtues1 which ,laurentius ,surius entitles more exactly ,tractatus de prcipuis quibusdam virtutibus4 ,in it the hermit of ,grnendal seems to have made a violent effort to open his bodily eyes1 and all his thoughts are intertwined with the simplicity of divine children1 in the green and blue rays of humility and mercy1 while his prose1 which is usually quite impersonal1 is enlivened here with various counsels and practical matters4 ,here is a fragment on humility3-- 8,to reach the lowest place is to have no longer any desire towards evil2 and as we have always some sin to forsake1 so long as we are in this mortal life1 we never reach the lowest place1 for to die is to attain1 not according to the senses1 but in a spiritual paradox4 ,and if any one were to say that to be steeped in humility is to have reached the lowest place1 ,i should not contradict his opinion4 ,but it seems to me that to bathe oneself in humility is to bathe oneself in ,god1 for ,god is the source of humility1 and ,he is at the same height and the same depth above and below all places4 ,and between self-abasement and the attainment of the lowest place1 there is1 to my mind1 a difference4 ,for to reach the lowest place is to have no longer any desire towards evil1 and to experience self-abasement is to be steeped in humility1 and that is self-annihilation in ,god and death in ,god4 ,now1 we have always something to forsake so long as we live1 and to have nothing more to forsake is to have reached the lowest place4 ,this is why we cannot attain to the lowest place4 ,for what man was ever so humble that he could not have been more humble still8 and who ever loved so fervently that he could not have loved more fervently still8 ,except ,christ1 assuredly not one4 ,and so let us never be satisfied while in this dying life1 for we may always become more humble than we are to-day4 ,it is a most joyful thought that we have so great and good a ,god that we can never give ,him sufficient homage and praise4 ,yes1 not even if each single man could give every moment that which is given by all men and by all angels4 ,but if we steep ourselves in humility1 that is enough1 and we please ,god by ,himself1 for in that immersion we are one life in ,him1 not according to nature1 but by being bathed in humility1 because by humility we have descended below our creation1 and we have flowed into ,god1 who is the source of humility4 ,and there we lack nothing1 for we are beyond ourselves and in ,god1 and there is neither giving nor receiving1 nor anything which can be called there1 for it is neither there nor here1 but ,i know not where40 ,from the same book ,i transcribe the following passage on detachment from all things3-- 8,now1 he who has found ,god thus reigning in him by ,his grace1 and who dwells in ,god above the measure of his human strength1 may remain insensible to joy1 to grief1 and to the multitude of creatures4 ,for ,god is essenced in him1 and he is more disposed to introversion than to extroversion2 and this essence is recalled to him wherever man is found2 and this inclination and this essence are never forgotten1 unless the man should deliberately turn away from ,god2 and this he will not readily do1 for he who has experienced ,god in this way cannot easily turn away from ,him4 ,i do not say that this can never happen1 for no one is certain of anything in this mortal life1 except of certain revelations4 8,god takes by ,his divine power the man whom he has essenced in himself in this way1 and enlightens him in everything1 for everything is full to him of divine enjoyment2 for he who refers all things to the glory of ,god1 enjoys ,god in all things1 and he sees in them the image of ,god4 ,for he takes all from the hand of ,god1 thanks ,him and praises ,him in everything1 and ,god shines ever brightly before him1 for he watches ,god with close attention1 and never willingly turns away to worthless things4 ,and as soon as he sees that he has turned towards worthless things1 he at once turns away from them with great bitterness against himself1 and bewails his unfaithfulness to ,god and resolves never again to turn knowingly towards worthless things4 ,for all is bare and empty in which there is not either the glory of ,god or the good of our neighbour or our own salvation4 ,he who thus watches over himself is less and less distracted1 for his friend is often present with him1 and that delights him above all4 ,he is like to one who has a burning thirst4 ,in his thirst he does nothing but drink4 ,he may think of many other things besides the thirst which consumes him2 but whatever he does1 and whoever he is1 or of whatever object he thinks1 the image of drink does not disappear from his mind so long as he suffers from thirst4 ,and the longer the thirst endures1 the greater is the suffering of the man4 ,and it is even so with the man who loves anything so passionately that he has no taste for aught besides1 while nothing really touches his heart except that with which he is busied1 and on which his love is set4 ,wherever he may be1 with whomsoever he may find himself1 nothing removes from him that which he so ardently loves4 ,and he sees in all things the image of the beloved object2 and the greater and more powerful his love1 the more vividly that image is present to him4 ,he does not seek repose and idleness that he may enjoy it1 for no distraction hinders him from having the image of the beloved abiding ever with him40 ,let us glance next at the little work on ,christian ,faith1 to which ,surius gives the title ,de fide et judicio1 tractatulus insignis4 ,its twenty pages form a kind of catechism1 splendid in its precision1 from which ,i take the following fragment on the happiness of the elect3-- 8,we shall behold with our inward eyes the mirror of the wisdom of ,god1 in which shall shine and be illumined all things which have ever existed and which can rejoice our hearts4 ,and we shall hear with our outward ears the melody and the sweet songs of saints and angels1 who shall praise ,god throughout eternity4 ,and with our inner ears we shall hear the inborn ,word of the ,father2 and in this ,word we shall receive all knowledge and all truth4 ,and the sublime fragrance of the ,holy ,spirit shall pass before us1 sweeter than all balms and precious herbs that ever were2 and this fragrance shall draw us out of ourselves1 towards the eternal love of ,god1 and we shall taste ,his everlasting goodness1 sweeter than all honey1 and it shall feed us1 and enter into our soul and our body2 and we shall be ever an hungered and athirst for it1 and because of our hunger and thirst1 these delights and this nourishment shall remain with us for ever1 ever more renewed2 and this is eternal life4 8,we shall understand by love and we shall be understood by love1 and ,god shall possess us and we ,him in unity4 ,we shall enjoy ,god1 and1 united to ,him1 we shall rest in blessedness4 ,and this measureless delight1 in that super-essential rest1 is the ultimate source of blessedness1 for we are then swallowed up in satisfaction beyond all possibility of hunger4 ,hunger can have no place in it1 for there is nothing here but unity2 all loving spirits shall here fall asleep in super-essential darkness1 and nevertheless they shall live and wake for ever in the light of glory40 ,next we come to ,the ,book of the ,sparkling ,stone1 ,de ,calculo1 sive de perfectione filiorum ,dei1 libellus admirabilis1 as ,surius adds4 ,here the subject is the mysterious stone of which the ,spirit says in the ,apocalypse3 ,et dabo illi 7vincenti7 calculum candidum1 et in calculo nomen novum scriptum1 quod nemo scit nisi qui accepit 7,rev4 ii4 #ag74 ,this stone1 according to the monk of the forest of ,soignes1 is the symbol of ,christ1 given to ,his loved ones only1 and like a flame which images the love of the eternal ,word4 ,and then again we have glimpses of those dark shadows of love1 from which break forth uninterrupted sobs of light1 seen in awful flowers through the gradual expansions of contemplation and above the strange verdure of an unequalled gladness4 ,let us examine this passage3-- 8,and hence follows the third point1 that is to say1 an inward exercise above reason and without restraint2 for that union with ,god which every loving spirit has possessed in love continually attracts and draws towards the inmost centre of its essence the divine persons and all loving spirits2 and all those who love feel this attraction1 more or less1 according to their love and their holy exercises4 ,and he who keeps guard over this attraction and clings closely to it cannot fall into deadly sin4 ,but the contemplative one1 who has renounced his own being and all things else1 does not experience an expulsive force1 because he no longer possesses anything1 but is emptied of all2 and so he can always enter naked and imageless into the secret place of his spirit4 ,there he sees the eternal light revealed1 and in that light he feels an eternal craving for union with ,god4 ,and he himself feels a constant fire of love which desires above all things to be one with ,god4 ,and the more he observes that attraction and that craving1 the more keenly he feels it2 and the more he feels it1 the more he desires to be one with ,god1 for he longs to pay the debt which ,god calls on him to pay4 ,this eternal craving for union with ,god causes the spirit to glow evermore with love2 but as the spirit uninterruptedly continues paying its debt1 a perpetual consumption goes on within it2 for in the refreshment of unity all spirits grow weary in their task1 and feel only the absorption of everything into simple unity with ,god4 ,this simple unity can be felt and possessed by none save by those who stand before the immense brightness and before love1 above reason and without restraint4 ,in this presence the spirit feels itself perpetually inflamed with love2 and in this glow of love it finds neither beginning nor end4 ,and it feels itself one with that burning fire of love4 ,the spirit remains always on fire in itself1 for its love is eternal1 and it feels itself always consumed away in love2 for it is attracted towards the refreshment of union with ,god1 in which the spirit burns with love4 ,if it observes itself1 it finds a distinction and a difference between itself and ,god1 but where it burns it is pure and has no distinction1 and that is why it feels nothing else but unity2 for the immeasurable flame of the divine love consumes and swallows up all that it has enveloped in its essence4 8,and you may thus understand that the attracting unity of ,god is nothing else save boundless love1 which lovingly draws inwards1 in eternal enjoyment1 the ,father1 the ,son1 and all who live in love4 ,and we desire to burn and be consumed in that love everlastingly1 for in it the blessedness of all spirits is found4 ,and so we ought all to found our lives on a fathomless abyss2 we shall thus be able to descend evermore in love1 and to plunge ourselves beyond ourselves into its unsounded depths2 and by the same love we shall rise and go beyond ourselves into its inconceivable height1 and we shall wander in that measureless love1 and it will lead us away into the boundless expanse of the love of ,god4 ,and there will be a flow and outflow beyond ourselves1 in the unknown pleasure of the divine goodness and riches4 ,there will be an eternal fusion and transfusion1 absorption and perabsorption of ourselves in the glory of ,god4 ,see how1 in each of these comparisons1 ,i have shown to the contemplative mind its essence and its inward exercises4 ,but no other can understand me1 for no man can teach contemplation to his fellow4 ,but when the eternal truth is revealed to the spirit1 it is instructed in all that is needful40 ,i ought in fairness to translate also the many strange things in chapters vi41 vii41 and viii41 which deal with 8,the difference between the hirelings and the faithful servants of ,god10 8,the difference between the faithful servants and the secret friends of ,god10 and 8,the difference between the secret friends and the hidden sons of ,god40 ,here it does really seem as if the anchorite of the ,green ,valley had dipped into things beyond this world4 ,but having run to such lengths already1 ,i can hardly attempt it ,i must1 however1 be permitted to give the following fragment1 which shall be the last from this book4 ,it is strangely beautiful3-- 8,understand1 now1 that this is the mode of progress3 in our going towards ,god1 we ought to carry our being and all our works before us1 as an eternal offering to ,god2 and in presence of ,god we shall surrender ourselves and all our works1 and1 dying in love1 we shall pass beyond all creation into the super-essential kingdom of ,god4 ,there we shall possess ,god in an eternal death to ourselves4 ,and this is why the ,spirit of ,god says in the book of the ,apocalypse1 #8,blessed are the dead who die in the ,lord4' ,rightly indeed does ,he call them the blessed dead1 for they remain continually dead to themselves and immersed beyond their own nature in the gladdening unity of ,god4 ,and they die ever newly in love1 by the attracting refreshment of that same unity4 ,furthermore1 the divine ,spirit saith1 #8,they shall rest from their labours1 and their works shall follow them4' ,in this finite existence1 where we are born of ,god into a spiritual and virtuous life1 we carry our works before us as an offering to ,god2 but in that unconditioned life1 where we die anew in ,god1 into a life of everlasting blessedness1 our good works follow us1 for they are one life with us4 ,in our walk towards ,god1 ,god dwells within us2 but in our death to ourselves and to all things besides1 we dwell in ,god4 ,if we have faith1 hope1 and love1 we have received ,god1 and ,he dwells in us with ,his mercies1 and ,he sends us out as ,his faithful servants1 to keep ,his commandments4 ,and ,he calls us in as ,his mysterious friends1 and we obey ,his counsels4 ,but above all things1 if we desire to enjoy ,god1 or to experience eternal life within us1 we must rise far above human reason1 and enter into ,god through faith2 and there we shall remain pure1 at rest1 and free from all similitudes1 lifted by love into the open nakedness of thought4 ,for when in love we die to all things1 when in ignorance and obscurity we die to all the notice of the world1 we are wrought and reformed by the eternal ,word1 who is an image of the ,father4 ,and in the repose of our spirit we receive the incomprehensible splendour which envelops and penetrates us1 just as the air is penetrated by the brightness of the sun4 ,and this splendour is merely a boundless vision and a boundless beholding4 ,what we are1 that we behold2 and what we behold1 that we are2 for our thought1 our life1 and our essence are closely united with that truth which is ,god1 and are raised along with it4 ,and that is why in this pure vision we are one life and one spirit with ,god2 and this is what ,i call a contemplative life4 ,by connecting ourselves closely to ,god through love1 we choose the better part2 but when we thus behold ,god in super-essence1 we possess ,him altogether4 ,this contemplation is united with an untrammelled inward devotion1 that is to say1 with a life in which earthly things are destroyed2 for when we go outside ourselves into darkness and into unlimited freedom1 the pure ray of the brightness of ,god shines perpetually on us2 we are fixed in the ray1 and it draws us out of ourselves into our super-essence till we are overwhelmed in love4 ,and this overwhelming in love is always accompanied and followed by the free inward exercise of love4 ,for love cannot be idle2 it longs by knowledge and taste to enter into the immense riches which dwell in its inmost heart2 and its hunger is inappeasable4 ,to be always receiving in this powerlessness is to swim against the stream4 ,we can neither leave nor take1 do without nor receive1 speak nor be silent1 for it is above reason and intelligence1 and higher than all created beings4 ,and so we can neither attain nor pursue it2 but we shall look within1 and there we shall feel that the ,spirit of ,god is leading us and drawing us on in this impatience of love4 ,we shall look above1 and there we shall feel that the ,spirit of ,god is drawing us out of ourselves1 and that we are lost in ,him--that is1 in the super-essential love with which we are one1 and which we possess more deeply and more widely than all other things4 8,this possession is a pure and profound enjoyment of all good and of eternal life2 and we are swallowed up in this enjoyment1 above reason and without reason1 in the deep calm of ,godhead1 which shall nevermore be stirred4 ,it is by experience only that we can know that this is true4 ,for how this is1 or who1 or in what place1 or what1 neither reason nor inward exercise can tell us1 and it is for this reason that our inward exercise which follows must remain without mode or limit4 ,for we can neither conceive nor understand the unfathomable good which we possess and enjoy2 neither by our inward exercises can we go out of ourselves to enter into it4 ,and so we are poor in ourselves1 but rich in ,god2 hungry and thirsty in ourselves1 satiated and full of wine in ,god2 laborious in ourselves1 in ,god enjoying perfect rest4 ,and thus we shall remain throughout eternity4 ,for without the exercises of love we can never possess ,god1 and he who feels or thinks otherwise is deceived4 ,and thus we live wholly in ,god1 by possessing our beatitude1 and we live wholly in ourselves by exercising our souls in love towards ,god2 and although we live wholly in ,god and wholly in ourselves1 yet it is but one life1 which has two-fold and contrary sensations4 ,for riches and poverty1 hunger and satiety1 work and idleness1 these things are absolutely contrary to one another4 ,nevertheless1 in this consists the nobility of our nature1 now and everlastingly1 for it is impossible that we should become ,god1 or lose our created essence4 ,but if we remain wholly in ourselves1 separated from ,god1 we shall be miserable and unsaved2 and so we ought to feel ourselves living wholly in ,god and wholly in ourselves1 and between these two sensations we shall find nothing but the grace of ,god and the exercises of our love4 ,for from the height of our highest sensation1 the splendour of ,god shines upon us1 and it teaches us truth and impels us towards all virtues into the eternal love of ,god4 ,without interruption we follow this splendour on to the source from which it flows1 and there we feel that our spirits are stripped of all things and bathed beyond thought of rising in the pure and infinite ocean of love4 ,if we remained there continually1 with a pure vision1 we should never lose this experience1 for our immersion in the enjoyment of ,god would be without interruption1 if we had gone out of ourselves and were swallowed up in love1 so possessing ,god4 ,for if1 overwhelmed in love1 and lost to ourselves1 we are the possessors of ,god1 ,god is ours and we are ,his1 and we plunge far beyond our depth1 eternally and irrevocably having ,god as our own4 ,this immersion in love becomes the habit of our being1 and so it takes place while we sleep and while we wake1 whether we know it or whether we know it not4 ,and in this way it deserves no other praise2 but it maintains us in possession of ,god and of all the good which we have received from ,his hands4 ,it is like unto streams1 which1 without pause and without returning1 flow continually into the sea1 since that is the place to which they belong4 ,and so1 if we possess ,god alone1 the immersion of our being through habitual love is always1 and without return1 flowing into an unfathomable emotion1 which we possess1 and which belongs to us4 ,if we were always pure1 and if we always beheld with the same directness of vision1 we should have such a feeling as this4 ,now1 this immersion in love is above all virtues1 and above all the practices of love4 ,for it is simply an eternal going forth out of ourselves1 by a clear prevision1 into a changed state1 towards which we lean out of ourselves1 as if towards our beatitude4 ,for we feel ourselves eternally drawn outside ourselves and towards another4 ,and this is the most secret and the most hidden distinction which we can experience between ,god and ourselves1 and above it there is no more any difference4 ,nevertheless1 our reason remains with its eyes open in the darkness--that is to say1 in infinite ignorance--and in that darkness the boundless splendour remains secret and hidden from us1 for the presence of its immensity blinds our reason4 ,but it wraps us round with its purity and transforms us by its essence1 and so we are wrought out of our personality and transformed until1 overwhelmed in love1 we possess our beatitude1 and are one with ,god40 ,let us next look at ,the ,book of the ,seven ,steps of the ,ladder of ,love 7called by ,surius ,de ,septem ,gradibus amoris1 libellus optimus7 in which the prior of ,grnendal studies seven virtues which lead from introversion to the confines of absorption4 ,this seems to me one of the most beautiful works of a saint1 whose works are all strange and beautiful ,i ought to translate from it some rather singular passages2 among others1 that in which he discusses the four melodies of heaven2 but space fails us1 and this introduction is already too long4 ,i shall content myself with giving the following page3-- 8,the ,holy ,spirit cries in us with a loud voice and without words1 #8,love the love which loves you everlastingly4' ,his crying is an inward contact with our spirit4 ,this voice is more terrifying than the storm4 ,the flashes which it darts forth open the sky to us and show us the light of eternal truth4 ,the heat of its contact and of its love is so great that it well-nigh consumes us altogether4 ,in its contact with our spirit it cries without interruption1 #8,pay your debt2 love the love which has loved you from all eternity4' ,hence there arises a great inward impatience and also an unlimited resignation4 ,for the more we love1 the more we desire to love2 and the more we pay of that which love demands1 the greater becomes our debt to love4 ,love is not silent1 but cries continually1 #8,love thou love4' ,this conflict is unknown to alien senses4 ,to love and to enjoy1 that is to labour and to suffer4 ,god lives in us by ,his grace4 ,he teaches us1 ,he counsels us1 ,he commands us to love4 ,we live in ,him above all grace and above our own works1 by suffering and enjoying4 ,in us dwell love1 knowledge1 contemplation1 and possession1 and1 above them1 enjoyment4 ,our work is to love ,god2 our enjoyment is to receive the embrace of love4 8,between love and enjoyment there is a distinction1 even as between ,god and ,his grace4 ,we are spirits when we hold fast by love1 but when ,he robs us of our spirit1 and re-makes us by ,his own spirit1 then we are enjoyment4 ,the ,spirit of ,god breathes us out towards love and good works1 and it breathes us in to rest and enjoyment2 and that is eternal life1 just as we breathe out the air which is in us and breathe in fresh air2 and in that consists our mortal life and nature4 ,and although our spirit should be ravished and its powers fail in enjoyment and in blessedness1 it is always renewed in grace1 in charity1 and in virtues4 ,and so what ,i love is to enter into a restful enjoyment1 to go forth in good works1 and to remain always united to the ,spirit of ,god4 ,just as we open the eyes of the body1 see1 and shut them again1 so quickly that we hardly notice what we have done1 even so we die in ,god1 we live out of ,god1 and we remain always one with ,him40 ,next we have ,the ,book of the ,seven ,castles1 called by ,laurentius ,surius ,de ,septem ,custodiis1 ,opusculum longe piissimum4 ,it is not without resemblance to the ,castle of the ,soul1 by ,saint ,teresa of ,avila1 which has also seven dwellings1 of which prayer is the door4 ,the hermit of the forest of ,soignes sends this work1 with the ,mirror of ,eternal ,salvation1 8,to the holy ,clare1 ,margaret van ,meerbeke1 of the convent of ,brussels10 and so the counsels on which he touches in the prologue have a slight note of pitying sadness4 ,for instance1 he teaches her in what way she shall go to the window of the convent parlour1 shutting out from her eyes the face of man2 and speaks of the joy of pain and the care of the sick1 with pale counsels for the sick-ward4 ,then there rise the seven spiritual castles of ,st4 ,clara1 the doors of which are closed by divine grace1 and must no more be opened to look into the streets of the heart4 ,let us hear what follows1 still on the subject of love3-- 8,and the loving soul cannot give itself wholly to ,god1 nor perfectly receive ,god1 for all that it receives is but a little thing as compared with that which it lacks1 and counts as nothing in its eager emotion4 ,and so it is disturbed1 and falls into impatience1 and into the strong passion of love2 for it can neither do without ,god nor have ,him1 reach ,his depth nor ,his height1 follow nor forsake ,him4 ,and this is the storm and the spiritual plague of which ,i have spoken2 for no tongue can describe the many storms and agitations which arise from the two sides of love4 ,for love makes a man now hot1 now cold2 now bold1 now timid2 now joyous1 now sorrowful2 it brings him fear1 hope1 despair1 tears1 complaints1 songs1 praises1 and such things without number4 ,such are the sufferings of those who live in the passion of love2 and yet this is the most spiritual and the most useful life which man can live1 each according to his own capacity4 ,but where man's method fails and can reach no higher1 then ,god's method begins2 where man1 by his sufferings1 his love1 and his unsatisfied desires1 entwines himself with ,god and cannot be united to ,him1 then the ,spirit of our ,lord comes like a fierce fire which burns and consumes and swallows up all things in itself1 so that the man forgets his inward exercises1 and forgets himself and feels just as if he were one spirit and one love with ,god4 ,here our senses and all our powers are silent1 and they are calmed and satisfied1 for the fountain of divine goodness and wealth has flowed over everything1 and each has received more than he can desire4 8,next comes the third method1 which we attribute to our heavenly ,father--that in which ,he empties the memory of forms and images1 and lifts up our naked thought to the ultimate source1 which is ,himself4 ,there man is fixed firmly at his beginning1 which is ,god1 and is united to ,him4 ,and there is given to him strength and freedom to work inwardly and outwardly by means of all the virtues4 ,and he receives knowledge and understanding in all exercises which are according to reason4 ,and he learns how to receive the inward working of ,god and the transformation of the divine methods1 which are above reason1 even as we have already said4 ,and above all divine limits1 he will understand by the same boundless intuition1 the boundless essence of ,god1 whose being is without limitation4 ,for one cannot express it by words1 nor by works1 nor by methods1 nor signs1 nor similitudes1 but it manifests itself spontaneously to the simple intuition of pure and naked thought4 8,but we may place on the road signs and similitudes which prepare man for the sight of the ,kingdom of ,god1 and you shall imagine this essence like the glow of a boundless fire1 in which everything is silently consumed--a red and motionless conflagration4 ,and so it is with the calm of essential love1 which is the enjoyment of ,god and of all the saints1 above all limitations1 and above all the works and all the practices of virtue4 ,this love is a wave1 boundless and calmed1 of riches and joys1 in which all the saints are swallowed up with ,god in an unlimited enjoyment4 ,and this joy is wild and lonely like a wandering1 for it has neither limit1 nor road1 nor path1 nor rest1 nor measure1 nor end1 nor beginning1 nor anything which one can show or express by words4 ,and this is the pure blessedness of all of us1 this divine essence1 and our super-essence1 above reason and without reason4 ,if we desire to experience it1 our spirit must go forth into it1 above our created essence1 towards that eternal centre in which all our lines begin and end4 ,and in this centre these lines lose their name and all distinction1 and are united to this centre1 and become that same unity which the centre itself is2 and nevertheless in themselves they always remain as converging lines4 8,see1 then1 how we shall thus always remain what we are in our created essence1 and yet by the ascent of our spirit we shall continually pass into our super-essence4 ,in it we shall be above ourselves1 below ourselves1 beyond our breadth1 beyond our length1 in an eternal wandering which has no return40 ,i shall say little of the small work entitled ,four ,temptations1 which deals with the very subtle dangers which threaten the contemplative mind1 the most formidable of them all being quietism4 ,with the exception of certain discoveries in the unknown psychology of prayer1 this work1 which1 as ,i have said1 is very short1 does not present any very exceptionally lofty summit to our souls4 ,the other little work1 which is about the same length--that is to say1 about twenty pages--is called ,the ,book of ,supreme ,truth1 or1 according to ,surius1 ,samuel4 ,he adds3--8,qui alias de alta contemplatione dicitur1 verius autem apologice quorumdam sancti hujus viri dictorum sublimium inscribi possit40 ,but this book is so marvellous that one would need to translate the whole4 ,at present ,i shall make no extract from it1 since we can no more divide it than we can divide that essence whose perpetual effusion is displayed in its unique and awful mirror4 ,i come1 therefore1 to ,the ,book of the ,kingdom of ,lovers1 the strangest and most abstract work of the sage of the ,green ,valley1 in the midst of which the soul stretches itself1 and is filled with terror in a spiritual void which is doubtless normal1 and which for the mind that does not follow it is like some dark glass bell1 in which there is neither air1 nor image1 nor anything that can be exactly conceived1 except uninterrupted stars in the eternal spaces4 ,the work is founded on that verse in ,wisdom1 8,justum deduxit per vias rectas et ostendit illi regnum ,dei10 and includes the three virtues of theology and the seven gifts of the ,holy ,ghost ,i proceed at once to translate1 and more fully than ever4 ,let us look first at this passage on the deserts of being3-- 8,the soul of man being made of nothing1 which ,god took from nowhere1 man has followed this nothingness1 which is nowhere1 and he has gone out of his ego into wanderings1 by immersion in the simple essence of ,god1 as in his own ultimate source2 and he has died in ,god4 ,to die in ,god is to be blessed2 and1 for each one according to his own merits1 it involves a great difference both in grace and glory4 ,this blessedness is to understand ,god and to be understood by ,god1 in the joyful unity of the divine persons1 and to have flowed by this unity into the super-essence of ,god4 ,now this unity brings joy when we look inward1 and bears fruit in our outward life1 and so the fountain of unity flows2 that is to say1 the ,father begets the ,son1 the eternal truth1 who is the image of the ,father1 in which ,he sees ,himself and all things4 ,this image is the life and cause of all creatures1 for in this image is everything1 according to the divine mode of being2 and by this image all things are perfectly made1 and all things are wisely ruled upon that model2 and according to this image everything is set apart for its own end1 so far as it is possible for ,god to do so2 for every creature has received the means of attaining blessedness4 ,but the reasonable creature is not the image of the ,father1 according to the effluence of his created mode of being1 for that effluence flows forth in as far as it is a creature1 and that is why it enjoys and loves with measure in the light of grace or of glory4 ,for no one possesses the divine nature actively according to the divine mode1 except the divine persons themselves1 since no creature can work according to an infinite mode1 for if it worked thus it would be ,god and not a creature4 8,by ,his own image ,god has made ,his creatures like unto ,himself in their nature1 and in those who have turned to ,him1 ,he has made the likeness even greater--higher than nature in the light of grace or of glory1 each one according to the capacity which he has by the state of his soul or by his merits4 ,now all those who feel this inward contact1 who have an enlightened reason and the eagerness of love1 and to whom love's infinite freedom has been revealed1 enter into joyful contemplation in the super-essence of ,god4 ,moreover1 ,god is united to ,his essence in a joyful manner1 and contemplates that very essence which ,he enjoys4 ,according to the mode of the enjoyment1 the divine light constantly fails in the infinite essence2 but in contemplation and in a fixed and steady gaze the vision cannot be darkened1 for we shall forever behold that which we enjoy4 ,those for whom the light constantly fails are those who rest in enjoyments1 in the midst of those wild solitudes where ,god possesses ,himself in perpetual joy2 there the light grows dim in rest and in the infinitude of the sublime essence4 ,there ,god is ,his own throne1 and all those who possess ,god in grace and in glory in this degree are the thrones and the tabernacles of ,god1 and they have died in ,god in an eternal rest4 8,from this death there arises a super-essential life--that is to say1 a life of contemplation--and here the gift of intelligence begins4 ,for ,god1 who without ceasing contemplates the very essence which ,he enjoys1 and who grants the impatience of love to those whom ,he makes like unto ,himself1 gives also rest and enjoyment to those who are united with ,him4 ,but where there is union of being and complete immersion1 there is no more giving or receiving4 ,and because ,he grants an enlightened reason to those whom ,he makes like unto ,himself1 ,he also gives a boundless splendour to those who are united to ,him4 ,that boundless splendour is the image of the ,father4 ,we are created in this image1 and we are capable of being united to it in a grandeur more lofty than thrones1 if we only contemplate1 above our own human weakness1 the glorious face of the ,father--in other words1 the sublime nature of deity4 ,now this unfathomed splendour is a common gift to all spirits who rejoice in grace and in glory4 ,it thus streams forth for all like the splendour of the sun1 and yet those who receive it are not all equally enlightened4 ,the sun shines more clearly through glass than through stone1 more clearly through crystal than through glass1 and each precious stone shines and shows its beauty and its power and its colour in the light of the sun4 ,even so is each man enlightened both in grace and in glory1 according as he is capable of receiving so sublime a gift2 but he who is most enlightened in grace yet has less than he who is least enlightened in glory4 ,nevertheless the light of glory is not an intermediary between the soul and this unlimited splendour1 but our spiritual condition1 our earthly state1 and our inconstancy disturb us1 and so we have to gain merits1 which those who dwell in glory have no need to gain4 8,this sublime splendour is the simple contemplation of the ,father1 and of all those who behold and rejoice1 and look fixedly in one direction by means of an incomprehensible light1 each one according as the light is bestowed upon him4 ,for that measureless light shines ceaselessly into all our thoughts2 but the man who lives here1 in this earthly state1 is often overwhelmed with images1 so that he does not always actively and steadily behold the super-essence of ,god by means of this light4 ,but in receiving this gift he virtually possesses it1 and he can contemplate whenever he wills4 ,since the light by which we contemplate is unlimited1 and that which we contemplate of an unfathomed depth1 the one can never reach the other2 but this fixed gaze of our contemplation remains eternally turned towards the infinite1 in the joyful presence of the sublime ,majesty1 where the ,father1 by ,his eternal wisdom1 gazes fixedly into the depths of ,his own infinite being40 ,a great part of this book on ,the ,kingdom of ,lovers is written in singular verses4 ,the three-lined and breathlessly monotonous rhythm is rather like that of the ,stabat ,mater1 only that the third line of every strophe reproduces the same rhyme throughout the entire work1 and rests on an abstract idea from which the two preceding lines rise1 like twin flowers of obscurity and restlessness4 ,we can imagine this hollow music floating through the spiritual dreams of the maids of ,memlinck1 while their secret senses1 their faces1 and their little hands all unite in ecstasy2 but unhappily a translation cannot reproduce its taste of darkness and of bread soaked in the night1 nor catch the image of the tear-brightened gloom1 of ice mingled with fire1 of oppression without hope1 which we feel throughout the work4 ,i shall therefore translate only one of these dark poems1 the subject of which is the 8,gift of ,intelligence40 8,he who seeks that gift to light him ,must rise beyond his nature1 ,to the highest height of being4 ,brightness without measure ,there shall he perceive it ,in primal purity4 ,through his soul will flow ,the light of heavenly truth1 ,and he in it shall vanish4 ,that universal radiance ,enlightens the pure-hearted ,according to their merits4 ,then can they behold ,with gaze that knows no limit ,the very face of joy4 ,for ever shall we gaze on ,that which we there enjoy ,and lose ourselves in vision4 ,far off has gone the ,lover2 ,we turn our eyes for ever ,towards the blessed vision4 ,yet has he reached the goal ,and the lover has the loved one ,in the lonely realm of union4 ,so shall we thus remain ,and ever strive to follow ,to that wondrous depth divine40 ,i should have liked to translate many other passages from this remarkable volume2 but ,i shall close with a translation of the chapter entitled 8,of the gift of sweet-savoured wisdom03-- 8,the seventh divine gift is that of sweet-savoured wisdom4 ,it is granted on the highest peak of introversion1 and it penetrates the intelligence and the will according as they are turned towards the absolute4 ,this savour is without source and without measure1 and it flows from within outwards1 and drinks in the body and the soul 7in proportion to their respective capacity for its reception7 even to the inmost sense--that is to say1 even to a physical sensation4 ,the other senses1 like sight and hearing1 take their pleasure outside1 in the marvels which ,god has created for ,his own glory and for the needs of men4 ,this incomprehensible savour1 above the mind and in the vast breadth of the soul1 is without measure1 and it is the ,holy ,spirit1 the incomprehensible love of ,god4 ,in lower regions than the spirit1 sensation is limited4 ,but as its powers are inherent1 they overwhelm everything4 ,now1 the eternal ,father has adorned the contemplative spirit with joy in unity1 and with active and passive comprehension in which the self is lost1 and the spirit thus becomes the throne and the rest of ,god2 and the ,son1 the eternal ,truth1 has adorned the contemplative intelligence with ,his own brightness1 so that it may behold the face of joy4 ,and now the ,holy ,spirit desires to adorn the contemplative will1 and the inherent unity of its powers1 so that the soul may taste1 know1 and feel how great ,god is4 ,this savour is so vast that the soul imagines that heaven1 earth1 and all that is in them must dissolve and sink in nothingness before its unbounded sweetness4 ,these delights are above and beneath1 within and without1 and have entirely enveloped and saturated the kingdom of the soul4 ,then the intellect beholds the pure source from which all these delights flow forth4 ,this awakes the attention of the enlightened reason4 ,it knows well1 however1 that it is incapable of knowing these unimaginable delights1 for it observes by means of a created light1 while this joy is entirely without measure4 ,therefore the reason fails in its attention2 but the intellect1 which is transformed by this illimitable splendour1 beholds without ceasing the incomprehensible joy of beatitude40 ,it remains now to say a word about the different translations of ,ruysbroeck's work4 ,twenty years ago1 ,ernest ,hello1 who1 with ,villiers de l',isle ,adam and ,stphane ,mallarm1 is the greatest ,french mystic of our time1 published a brief volume in which he collected under headings1 chosen mostly as his fancy dictated1 various passages of our author1 translated from a ,latin translation written in the sixteenth century by ,laurentius ,surius1 a ,carthusian monk of ,cologne4 ,this translation of ,surius1 noble and subtle in its ,latinity1 gives with strict and admirable care the sense of the original2 but with its over-anxiety1 its prolixity1 and its weakness1 it resembles1 when we contrast with it the crude colours of the original ,flemish1 some distant image seen through sullied panes4 ,when his author uses one word1 ,surius generally employs two or three1 and even then1 still dissatisfied1 he very often paraphrases once more that which he has already translated in full4 ,the hermit utters cries of love so passionate that they are sometimes almost like blasphemies2 ,surius is frightened as he reads them and sets down something different4 ,there are times when the old hermit looks outside himself1 and in speaking of ,god searches for images drawn from the garden1 the kitchen1 or from the stars4 ,surius does not always venture to follow these flights1 and he tries to weaken the meaning or flatters himself that he is ennobling it4 8,he escapes me like a truant10 says one of the ,flemish ,beguines in speaking of ,jesus1 and others add3-- 8,christ and ,i keep house together1 ,he is mine1 ,i ,his2 ,night and day ,his love outwears me2 ,he my heart hath stolen2 ,in ,his mouth ,he holds me1 ,what care have ,i outside60 ,elsewhere ,god says to man3-- 8,i will be thy nourishment1 ,thy host and thy cook4 ,my flesh was well roasted ,on the cross for love of thee4 ,shalt eat and drink with ,me40 ,the translator is terrified and changes these astonishing flights into pale circumlocutions4 ,the wild and simple air1 the vast and savage love of the original work1 most frequently disappear in a wise1 correct1 copious1 and monotonous conventual phraseology2 the fidelity to the meaning remaining all the while exact4 ,it was fragments of this translation which ,ernest ,hello translated in his turn1 or rather1 he gathered together in chapters arranged by himself1 phrases taken from different portions of the work1 and disfigured by a double translation4 ,he thus formed a kind of anthology1 admirable in its way1 almost entirely consecutive2 but in which1 in spite of careful searching1 ,i have been unable to find more than three or four passages reproduced in their entirety4 ,as for the present translation1 its one merit is its literal exactitude4 ,i might perhaps have been able to make it1 if not more elegant1 at least more readable1 and to improve the work a little from the point of view of theological and metaphysical terminology4 ,but it seemed to me less dangerous and more loyal to confine myself to an almost blind word-for-word translation4 ,i have also resisted the inevitable temptation to introduce unfaithful splendours1 for the mind of the old monk is constantly touching upon strange beauties1 which his discretion does not awake1 and all his paths are peopled with lovely sleeping dreams1 whose slumber his humility does not venture to disturb4 ,,selected ,,passages ,,from 8,,the ,,adornment ,,of ,,the ,,spiritual ,,marriage40 ,,on ,,the ,,kingdom ,,of ,,the ,,soul ,he who desires to obtain and to preserve virtue will adorn1 occupy1 and arrange his soul like to a kingdom4 ,free will is the king of the soul4 ,he is free by nature1 and yet more free through divine mercy4 ,he will be crowned with a crown named charity4 ,this crown and this kingdom we shall receive from the ,emperor1 who is the ,lord1 the ,ruler and the ,king of kings1 and we shall possess1 rule1 and maintain this kingdom in ,his name4 ,the sovereign1 free will1 shall dwell in the highest town of the kingdom--that is to say1 in the strong desires of the soul4 ,and he will be adorned with a robe of two parts4 ,the right side of the robe shall be a virtue which is called strength1 so that he may be strong and powerful to conquer every obstacle1 and to dwell at last in heaven in the palace of the great ,emperor1 bending his crowned head with love and passionate self-surrender before the supreme and sovereign ,king4 ,this is the fitting work of charity4 ,through it we receive the crown4 ,through it we adorn the crown1 and through it we maintain and possess the kingdom through all eternity4 ,the left side of the robe shall be a cardinal virtue1 which is called moral strength4 ,through its aid shall free will1 the king1 put down all immorality and fulfil all virtue1 and shall have the power to maintain his kingdom unto death4 ,this king shall choose councillors in his country1 the wisest to be found in the land4 ,these will be two divine virtues1 knowledge and discretion1 enlightened by the grace of ,god4 ,they will dwell near the king1 in a palace which is called the soul's strength of reason2 but they will be clothed and adorned with a moral virtue which is called temperance1 so that the king may always act or refrain from acting according to their counsels4 ,by knowledge we shall purge the conscience from all its faults and adorn it with every virtue2 and by discretion we shall give and take1 do and leave undone1 speak and be silent1 fast and eat1 listen and reply2 and in all things we shall act according to knowledge and discretion1 clothed with their moral virtue1 which is called temperance or moderation4 ,this king1 free will1 shall also set up in his kingdom a judge1 who shall be called justice1 a divine virtue when it springs from love2 and it is one of the highest moral virtues4 ,this judge shall dwell in the conscience1 in the centre of the kingdom1 in the strongest passions4 ,and he will be adorned with moral virtue1 which is called prudence4 ,for justice cannot be perfect4 ,this judge1 justice1 shall travel through the kingdom with the power and the force of the king1 accompanied by wisdom of counsel and by his own prudence4 ,he will promote and dismiss1 judge and condemn1 kill and keep alive1 mutilate1 blind and restore sight1 lift up and put down1 organise1 punish1 and chastise every sin with perfect justice1 and at last destroy all vices4 ,the people of this kingdom--that is all the pure of soul--shall be established on and in the fear of ,god2 they shall be subject unto ,god in all virtues1 each according to his own capacity4 ,he who has thus occupied1 adorned1 and regulated the kingdom of his soul1 has gone forth in love and virtue towards ,god1 himself1 and his neighbour4 ,,christ ,,the ,,sun ,,of ,,the ,,soul ,the sun shines in the east1 in the centre of the world1 on the mountains2 it hastens summer in that region1 and creates good fruits and potent wines1 filling the earth with joy4 ,the same sun shines in the west1 at the ends of the earth2 there the country is colder1 and the power of its heat is less1 yet nevertheless it produces a great many excellent fruits2 but few wines are found there4 ,those men who dwell in the west of their own being1 remain in the outward senses1 and by their good intentions1 their virtues1 and their outward practices1 through ,god's grace1 they produce abundant harvests and virtues in various ways1 but they seldom taste the wine of inward joy and of spiritual consolation4 ,the man who will feel the shining of the ,eternal ,sun1 which is ,christ ,himself1 will have clear vision1 and will dwell on the mountains of the east1 concentrating all his energies and raising his heart towards ,god1 free and careless as regards joy1 sorrow1 and all creatures4 ,there ,christ the ,sun of ,righteousness shines on the free and uplifted heart2 and these are the mountains which ,i have in mind4 ,christ1 the glorious sun and the divine brightness1 shines and illumines and enkindles by ,his inward coming1 and the power of ,his ,spirit1 the free heart and all the powers of the soul4 ,when summer draws near1 and the sun rises higher in the heavens1 it draws the moisture of the soil through the roots and the trunk of the trees1 until it reaches the branches1 and hence come foliage1 flowers1 and fruits4 ,so likewise1 when ,christ1 the ,eternal ,sun1 rises in our hearts1 so that the summer reigns over their adornment of virtues1 ,he sends ,his light and ,his fire into our will1 and draws the heart from the multitude of earthly things1 and creates unity and close fellowship1 and makes the heart to grow and become green through inward love1 and to bear the flowers of loving devotion and the fruits of gratitude and affection1 and preserves these fruits in the sorrow and humility we feel because of our impotence4 ,,the ,,lesson ,,from ,,the ,,bee ,observe the wise bee and make it your model4 ,it dwells in a community in the midst of its companions1 and it goes forth1 not during the storm1 but when the weather is calm and still and the sun is shining2 and it flies towards all the flowers on which it can find sweetness4 ,it does not rest on any flower1 neither in its beauty nor in its sweetness1 but it draws from each calix honey and wax--that is to say1 the sweetness and the substance of its brightness--and it bears them back to the community in which all the bees are assembled1 so that the honey and wax may profitably bear fruit4 ,the opened heart on which ,christ1 the ,eternal ,sun1 is shining1 grows and flourishes under ,his rays1 and flows with all its inner powers into joy and sweetnesses4 ,now the wise man will act like the bee1 and he will fly out in order to settle with care1 intelligence1 and prudence on all the gifts and on all the sweetness which he has experienced1 and on all the good which ,god has done to him2 and through the rays of the sun and his own inward observation he will experience a multitude of consolations and blessings4 ,and he will not rest on any flower of all these gifts1 but1 laden with gratitude and praise1 he will fly back again toward the home in which he longs to dwell and rest for evermore with ,god4 ,,the ,,dew ,,of ,,mid-,,day ,sometimes in these burning days there falls the honey-dew of some false sweetness1 which soils the fruits or completely spoils them4 ,it falls for the most part at noon1 in bright sunshine1 and its great drops can hardly be distinguished from rain4 ,even so there are some men who can be caught away from their outward senses by some brightness which is the gift of the enemy4 ,and this brightness enwraps and envelops them1 and at that moment they behold images1 falsehoods1 and many kinds of truths1 and voices speak to them in different ways1 and all this is seen and received with great joy4 ,and here there fall at times the honey-drops of a false sweetness in which the man delights himself4 ,he who values it highly receives a great quantity1 and so the man is often injured1 for if he holds for true such things as have no resemblance to truth1 because they have been shown or taught him1 he falls into error and the fruit of virtue is lost4 ,but those who have climbed by the paths which ,i have pointed out above1 although they may indeed be tempted by that spirit and by that brightness1 will recognise them and receive no injury4 ,,the ,,lesson ,,from ,,the ,,ant ,i will give a brief parable to those who live in continual ebullitions of love1 in order that they may endure this disposition nobly and becomingly1 and may attain to a higher virtue4 ,there is a little insect which is called the ant2 it is strong and wise1 and very tenacious of life1 and it lives with its fellows in warm and dry soils4 ,the ant works during summer and collects food and grain for the winter1 and it splits the grain so that it may not become rotten or spoiled1 and may be eaten when there is nothing more to be found4 ,and it does not make strange paths1 but all follow the same path1 and after waiting till the proper time they become able to fly4 ,so should these men do2 they will be strong by waiting for the coming of ,christ1 wise against the appearance and the inspiration of the enemy4 ,they will not choose death1 but they will prefer ,god's glory alone and the winning of fresh virtues4 ,they will dwell in the community of their heart and of their powers1 and will follow the invitation and the constraint of divine unity4 ,they will live in rich and warm soils1 or1 in other words1 in the passionate heat of love1 and in great impatience4 ,and they will work during the summer of this life1 and will gather in for eternity the fruits of virtue4 ,these they will divide in two--one part means that they will always desire the supreme joy of eternity2 the other1 that by their reason they will always restrain themselves as much as possible1 and wait the time that ,god has appointed for them1 and so the fruit of virtue shall be preserved into eternity4 ,they will not follow strange paths or curious methods1 but through all storms they will follow the path of love1 towards the place whither love shall guide them4 ,and when the set time has come1 and they have persevered in all the virtues1 they shall be fit to behold ,god1 and their wings shall bear them towards ,his mystery4 ,,what ,,shall ,,the ,,forsaken ,,do8 ,he shall humbly consider that he hath nothing of his own save his misery1 and shall say with resignation and self-abandonment the same words which were spoken by holy ,job3 8,the ,lord gave1 and the ,lord hath taken away2 blessed be the name of the ,lord40 ,and in all things he shall yield up his own will1 saying and thinking in his heart1 8,lord1 ,i am as willing to be poor and without all those things of which ,thou hast deprived me1 as ,i should be ready to be rich1 ,lord1 if ,thy will were so1 and if in that state ,i might further ,thy glory4 ,it is not my natural will which must be done1 but ,thy will and the will of my spirit4 ,lord1 ,i am ,thine1 and ,i should be ,thine as gladly in hell as in heaven1 if in that way ,i could advance ,thy glory4 ,so then1 ,o ,lord1 fulfil in me the good pleasure of ,thy will40 ,out of all sufferings and all renunciations the man will draw for himself an inward joy2 he will resign himself into the hands of ,god1 and will rejoice to suffer in promoting ,god's glory4 ,and if he perseveres in this course1 he will enjoy secret pleasures never tasted before2 for nothing so rejoices the lover of ,god as to feel that he belongs to his ,beloved4 ,and if he has truly risen to this height in the path of virtues1 it is not necessary that he shall have passed through the different states which we have pointed out in previous chapters1 for he feels in himself1 in work1 in humble obedience1 and in patience and resignation1 the source of every virtue4 ,this method has therefore an everlasting certainty4 ,at this season the sun enters into the sign of ,libra1 for the day and night are equal1 and light and darkness evenly balanced4 ,even so for the resigned soul ,jesus ,christ is in the sign of ,libra2 and whether ,he grants sweetness or bitterness1 darkness or light1 of whatever nature ,his gift may be1 the man retains his balance1 and all things are one to him1 with the exception of sin1 which has been driven out once for all4 ,when all consolation has been withdrawn from these resigned ones1 so that they believe they have lost all their virtues1 and are forsaken of ,god and of every creature2 then1 if they know how to reap the various fruits1 the corn and wine are ripe and ready4 ,,the ,,setting ,,of ,,the ,,eternal ,,sun ,when the time came for ,christ to gather in and bear away to the eternal kingdom the fruits of all the virtues that ever were and ever shall be practised upon earth1 then the ,eternal ,sun began to set2 for ,he humbled ,himself and gave up the life of ,his body into the hands of ,his enemies4 ,and in ,his distress he was misunderstood and forsaken by ,his friends1 and all consolation1 from without and from within1 was taken away from ,his human nature1 and it was overwhelmed with misery and pain1 with scorn and heaviness1 and in it ,he paid all the debt that justice claimed for sin4 ,he suffered these things with humble patience1 and in this resignation ,he fulfilled the highest tasks of love1 and so ,he received and redeemed our eternal heritage4 ,thus was adorned the lower part of ,his noble humanity1 for in it ,he suffered this sorrow for our sins4 ,and this is why ,he calls ,himself the ,saviour of the world2 this is why ,he is now famous and glorified1 exalted and seated at the right hand of ,his ,father1 where ,he reigns with power4 ,and every creature on earth1 in heaven1 and in hell1 bends continually the knee before ,his glorious name4 ,,the ,,nature ,,of ,,god ,we must consider and examine the sublime nature of ,god3 how it is simplicity and purity2 height that cannot be scaled and depth that cannot be sounded2 breadth without understanding and length without end2 awful silence and the savage wilderness2 rest of all saints in the union and in the common joy which ,he shares with ,his saints throughout eternity4 ,,the ,,divine ,,generosity ,the incomprehensible wealth and sublimity and the universality of the gifts which flow forth from the divine nature awake wonder in the heart of man1 and above all he marvels at the universal presence of ,god and of ,his works1 a presence which is above everything1 for he beholds the inconceivable essence1 which is the common joy of ,god and of all the saints4 ,and he sees that the ,divine ,persons send forth one common effluence in works1 in grace1 and in glory1 in nature and above nature1 in all states and in all times1 in men and in the glorified saints1 in heaven and on earth1 in all reasonable creatures1 and in those which are without reason or material1 according to the merits1 the needs1 and the receptivity of each4 ,and he sees the creation of the heaven and the earth1 the sun and the moon1 the four elements with all the creatures1 and the course of the heavens1 which is common to all4 ,god1 with all ,his gifts1 is common to all1 men and angels are a common gift1 and the soul with all its faculties4444 ,when man thus considers the wealth and the marvellous sublimity of the divine nature1 and all the manifold gifts which ,he grants and offers to ,his creatures1 amazement is stirred up in his spirit at the sight of so manifold a wealth and majesty2 at the sight of the immense faithfulness of ,god to all ,his creatures4 ,this causes a strange joy of spirit1 and a boundless trust in ,god1 and this inward joy surrounds and penetrates all the forces of the souls in the secret places of the spirit4 ,,christ ,,the ,,lover ,,of ,,all ,,men ,consider how ,christ gave ,himself to all in perfect faithfulness4 ,his secret and sublime prayer flowed forth towards ,his ,father1 and was for the common good of all who desire salvation4 ,jesus ,christ was all things to all men in ,his love1 in ,his teaching1 in ,his reproaches1 in ,his consolations and sweetness1 in ,his generous gifts1 in ,his gracious forgiveness4 ,his soul and ,his body1 ,his life1 ,his death1 and ,his service were and are for the common good of all4 ,his sacrament and ,his gifts are for all4 ,christ received neither food1 nor drink1 nor anything that was needful for ,his body1 without thinking of the common good of all those who shall be saved even until the last day4 ,christ had nothing of ,his own1 but all was held in common1 body and soul1 mother and disciples1 tunic and cloak4 ,he ate and drank for us1 ,he lived and toiled for us4 ,his toil and grief and misery were indeed ,his own1 but the blessings and the good which flowed from them were the common possession of all4 ,and the glory of ,his merits shall be the possession of all throughout eternity4 ,,how ,,christ ,,gave ,,himself ,,to ,,us ,,in ,,the ,,sacrament ,there is a special benefit which ,christ1 in the ,holy ,church1 has left to all the good3 namely1 that supper of the great feast of ,passover1 which ,he instituted when the time had come for ,him to leave ,his sorrow and go to the ,father1 after ,he had eaten of the paschal lamb with ,his disciples and the ancient law had been fulfilled4 ,at the end of the meal and of the feast1 ,he wished to give them a special food1 which ,he had long desired to give4 ,in this way ,he would make an end of the ancient law and bring in the new1 and so ,he took bread in ,his sacred hands and consecrated ,his sacred body and afterwards ,his blood1 and gave them to all ,his disciples1 and left them as a common gift to all just men1 for their eternal benefit4 ,this gift and this special food rejoice and adorn all great festivals and all banquets in heaven and on earth4 ,in this gift ,christ gives ,himself to us in three ways3 ,he gives us ,his flesh and ,his blood and ,his bodily life1 glorified and full of joys and sorrows2 and ,he gives us ,his ,spirit1 with its supreme faculties1 full of glory and of gifts1 of truth and justifying power2 and ,he gives us ,his personality1 with the divine light which raises ,his ,spirit and the spirits of all enlightened beings into the sublime unity and joy of ,god4 ,christ desires that we shall remember ,him whenever we consecrate1 offer1 and receive ,his body4 ,consider now in what way we shall remember ,him4 ,we shall observe and examine how ,christ inclines ,himself towards us1 by loving affection1 by great desires1 by a tender joy and warm influence passing into our bodily nature4 ,for ,he gives us that which ,he received from our humanity1 ,his flesh1 ,his blood1 and ,his bodily nature4 ,we shall likewise observe and examine that precious body1 tortured1 furrowed1 and wounded with love1 because of ,his faithfulness towards us4 ,so shall we be adorned and nourished in the lower part of our human nature4 ,in this sublime gift of the ,sacrament ,he also gives us ,his ,spirit full of glory1 and the richer gifts of virtues and unspeakable mercies of charity and goodness4 ,by these we are nourished and adorned and enlightened in the unity of our spirit and in our higher powers1 because ,christ with all ,his riches dwells within us4 ,in the sacrament of the altar ,he further bestows upon us ,his sublime personality and ,his incomprehensible light4 ,through this we are united and given up to the ,father1 and the ,father receives ,his elect children at the same time as ,his only begotten ,son1 and so we reach our divine inheritance and our eternal felicity4 ,if a man has diligently considered these things1 he will meet ,christ in the same way in which ,christ comes to him4 ,he will rise to receive ,christ with eager joy in his heart1 his desires1 his love1 and all his powers4 ,and it is thus that ,christ ,himself receives4 ,this joy cannot possibly be too great1 for our nature receives ,his nature1 the glorified humanity of ,christ1 full of gladness and merit4 ,therefore ,i desire that in thus receiving man shall1 as it were1 dissolve and flow forth through his desires1 his joys1 and his pleasures1 for he receives the most lovely1 the most gracious1 and the kindest of the children of men1 and is made one with ,him4 ,in this union and this joy great delights often come to men1 and many mysterious and secret marvels of divine treasures are manifested and revealed4 ,when in so receiving a man meditates on the torment and the sufferings of this precious body of ,christ of which he is partaking1 there sometimes enters into him a devotion so loving and a compassion so keen that he desires to be nailed with ,christ to the wood of the ,cross1 and to shed his heart's blood in honour of ,christ4 ,and he presses into the wounds and into the open heart of ,christ his ,saviour4 ,in such exercises revelations and great benefits have often come to men4 ,,the ,,soul',s ,,hunger ,,for ,,god ,here there begins an eternal hunger1 which shall nevermore be satisfied4 ,it is the yearning and the inward aspiration of our faculty of love1 and of our created spirit towards an uncreated good4 ,and as the spirit desires joy1 and is invited and constrained by ,god to partake of it1 it is always longing to realise joy4 ,behold then the beginning of an eternal aspiration and of eternal efforts1 while our impotence is likewise eternal4 ,these are the poorest of all men1 for they are eager and greedy1 and they can never be satisfied4 ,whatever they eat or drink1 they can never have enough1 for this hunger lasts continually4 ,for a created vessel cannot contain an uncreated good1 and hence that continual struggle of the hungry soul1 and its feebleness which is swallowed up in ,god4 ,there are here great banquets of food and drink1 which none knoweth saving he who partakes of them2 but full satisfaction of joy is the food which is ever lacking1 and so the hunger is perpetually renewed4 ,yet streams of honey flow within reach1 full of all delights1 for the spirit tastes these pleasures in every imaginable way1 but always according to its creaturely nature and below ,god1 and that is why the hunger and the impatience are without end4 ,if ,god were to grant to this man all the gifts which are possessed by all the saints1 and everything that ,he has to offer1 but were to deny ,himself1 the open-mouthed eagerness of his spirit would be still hungry and unsatisfied4 ,emotion and the inward contact with ,god are the explanation of our hunger and our striving2 for the ,spirit of ,god gives chase to our spirit1 and the closer the contact the greater the hunger and the striving4 ,this is the life of love in its highest development1 above reason and higher than all understanding2 for in such love reason can neither give nor take away1 for our love is in touch with the divine love4 ,and ,i think that once this point is reached there will be no more separation from ,god4 ,the contact of ,god with us1 so long as we feel it1 and our own loving efforts1 are both created and of the nature of the creature1 and so they may grow and increase all the days of our life4 ,,the ,,labour ,,and ,,rest ,,of ,,love ,in one single moment and at the same time1 love labours and rests in its beloved4 ,and the one is strengthened by the other2 for the loftier the love1 the greater is the rest1 and the greater the rest1 the closer is the love2 for the one lives in the other1 and he who loves not rests not1 neither does he who rests not know aught of love4 ,there are1 nevertheless1 some righteous men who believe that they neither love nor rest in ,god4 ,but this thought itself springs from love1 and because their desire to love is greater than their ability1 therefore it seems to them that they are powerless to love4 ,and in this labour they taste of love and rest1 for none except the resigned1 passive1 and enlightened man can understand how one may rest and also enjoy4 ,,the ,,christian ,,life ,he 7the believer7 is hungry and thirsty1 for he sees the food of angels and the drink of heaven4 ,he labours diligently in love1 for he beholds his rest4 ,he is a pilgrim1 and he sees his fatherland4 ,he strives in love for the victory1 for he sees his crown4 ,consolation1 peace1 joy1 beauty1 and riches1 and all that the heart can desire1 are shown to the reason which is enlightened to see ,god in spiritual similitudes and without measure or limit4444 ,those who do not possess1 at the same time1 the power of rest and action1 and are not exercised in both1 have not received this righteousness of the just4 ,,the ,,coming ,,of ,,the ,,bridegroom ,what is this eternal coming of our ,bridegroom8 ,it is a new birth and a new illumination which are without interruption2 for the source from which the brightness streams1 and which is itself the brightness1 is living and fertile2 and so the manifestation of the eternal light is renewed without interruption1 in the secret depths of the spirit4444 ,and the coming of the ,bridegroom is so swift that ,he is always coming1 and that ,he dwells within us with ,his unfathomable riches1 and that ,he returns ever anew in person1 with such new brightness that it seems as if ,he had never come before4 ,for ,his coming is comprised beyond all limit of time1 in an eternal ,now2 and ,he is ever received with new desires and a new delight4 ,behold1 the joys and the pleasures which this ,bridegroom brings with ,him at ,his coming are boundless and without limit1 for they are ,himself4 ,and this is why the eyes of the spirit1 by which the loving soul beholds its ,bridegroom1 are opened so wide that they will never shut again4 ,for the contemplation and the fixed gaze of the spirit are eternal in the secret manifestation of ,god4 ,and the comprehension of the spirit is so widely opened1 as it waits for the appearance of the ,bridegroom1 that the spirit itself becomes vast as that which it comprehends4 ,and so is ,god beheld and understood by ,god1 in whom all our blessedness is found4 ,,the ,,end ,printed by ,r4 ,r4 ,,clark1 ,edinburgh4 ,the ,devotional ,library4 ,handsomely printed and bound1 price #cs4 #f;d4 each1 cloth4 ,,third ,,edition4 ,,the ,,key ,,of ,,the ,,grave4 ,a ,book for the ,bereaved4 ,by ,w4 ,,robertson ,,nicoll1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4 8,this volume is a collection of brief but pregnant chapters1 written in sweet1 simple ,english which is full of consolation and drops gently into the reader's heart4 ,we give the book our warm commendation and believe that it has a mission of comfort to perform for burdened souls40--,new ,york ,independent4 8,dr4 ,robertson ,nicoll has produced a unique1 exquisite1 and most edifying book4 ,we are much impressed by the delicate and profound spiritual insight manifested on every page of this beautiful little volume4 ,many a familiar passage in the ,bible shines with a new1 unexpected1 and immortal light4 ,it is difficult to know what to quote from a volume so full of delightful and memorable passages4 ,it is pre-eminently a book to put into the hands of the refined1 sensitive1 scholarly1 and devout1 when they feel the awful pressure of the greatest bereavement40--,methodist ,times4 ,,second ,,edition4 ,,memoranda ,,sacra4 ,by ,professor ,j4 ,,rendel ,,harris1 ,m4,a41 ,fellow of ,clare ,college1 ,cambridge4 8,two gifts1 both of the very highest1 are marvellously united in ,professor ,rendel ,harris1 and here we have the ripe fruits of one1 in most delicious flavour and most wholesome nourishment4 ,it is not possible to review such a book as this4 ,words about it do not tell us what it is4 ,nor will a selection of words from it half convey its incommunicable fragrance40--,expository ,times4 ,,the ,,general ,,gordon ,,edition4 ,,christ ,,mystical4 ,by ,,joseph ,,hall1 ,d4,d41 ,bishop of ,norwich4 ,reprinted1 with ,general ,gordon's marks1 from the ,original ,copy used by him1 and with an ,introduction on his ,theology ,by the ,rev4 ,h4 ,,carruthers ,,wilson1 ,m4,a4 8,a book which was so highly prized by so romantic and heroic a ,christian as ,general ,gordon is sure to awaken a widespread curiosity4 ,this edition is not only printed from his copy1 but shows the passages which he had marked for special consideration4 ,the treatise itself is worthy of the place it held in his esteem4 ,mr4 ,wilson's introduction is entirely appropriate1 and we cannot but feel that the publishers have rendered good service by including the work in their ,devotional ,library40--,baptist ,magazine4 8,hall's treatise is in itself an excellent example of the best kind of devotional literature1 and it will contribute to its appreciation by the modern reader that its sacred teachings and appeals formed part of the spiritual nourishment of the ,english nineteenth-century hero and saint40--,christian ,world4 ,,london3 ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton4 ,,footnote3 #a ,i shall give only one example1 which is elementary in both senses of the word4 ,ruysbroeck distinguishes three kinds of life--the active life1 the inward life1 and the super-essential life4 ,the ,gnostics distinguish the spirit1 the soul1 and the material life1 and divide men into three classes--the pneumatic or spiritual men1 psychic or soul men1 and hylic or material men4 ,plotinus also distinguishes between the soul1 the intellect1 the reasonable soul1 and the animal nature4 ,the ,zohar distinguishes the spirit1 the soul1 and the life of the senses1 and in the two systems1 as in ,ruysbroeck1 the relation of the three principles is explained by a procession which is of the nature of an irradiation2 then the theory of the divine meeting1 ,god coming into us from within towards without1 we going to ,him from without towards within1 etc4 ,cf4 also the #eth ,ennead1 etc4 etc4 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes3 ,italicized text is surrounded by underscores3 italics4 ,obvious typographical errors have been corrected4