Saint John of the Cross: Oeuvres, II 320. ↩
Saint Teresa: Vie, pp. 229, 200, 231–233, 243. ↩
Müller’s translation, part II p. 180. ↩
T. Davidson’s translation, in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 1893, vol. XXII p. 399. ↩
“Deus propter excellentiam non immerito Nihil vocatur.” Scotus Erigena, quoted by Andrew Seth: Two Lectures on Theism, New York, 1897, p. 55. ↩
J. Royce: Studies in Good and Evil, p. 282. ↩
Jacob Behmen’s Dialogues on the Supersensual Life, translated by Bernard Holland, London, 1901, p. 48. ↩
Angelus Silesius: Cherubinischer Wandersmann, Strophe 25. ↩
Angelus Silesius: Cherubinischer Wandersmann, Strophe 25, pp. 42, 74, abridged. ↩
From a French book I take this mystical expression of happiness in God’s indwelling presence:—
“Jesus has come to take up his abode in my heart. It is not so much a habitation, an association, as a sort of fusion. Oh, new and blessed life! life which becomes each day more luminous. … The wall before me, dark a few moments since, is splendid at this hour because the sun shines on it. Wherever its rays fall they light up a conflagration of glory; the smallest speck of glass sparkles, each grain of sand emits fire; even so there is a royal song of triumph in my heart because the Lord is there. My days succeed each other; yesterday a blue sky; today a clouded sun; a night filled with strange dreams; but as soon as the eyes open, and I regain consciousness and seem to begin life again, it is always the same figure before me, always the same presence filling my heart. … Formerly the day was dulled by the absence of the Lord. I used to wake invaded by all sorts of sad impressions, and I did not find him on my path. Today he is with me; and the light cloudiness which covers things is not an obstacle to my communion with him. I feel the pressure of his hand, I feel something else which fills me with a serene joy; shall I dare to speak it out? Yes, for it is the true expression of what I experience. The Holy Spirit is not merely making me a visit; it is no mere dazzling apparition which may from one moment to another spread its wings and leave me in my night, it is a permanent habitation. He can depart only if he takes me with him. More than that; he is not other than myself: he is one with me. It is not a juxtaposition, it is a penetration, a profound modification of my nature, a new manner of my being.”
Quoted from the MS. “of an old man” by Wilfred Monod: Il Vit: six méditations sur le mystère chrétien, pp. 280–283
Compare M. Maeterlinck: L’Ornement des Noces spirituelles de Ruysbroeck, Bruxelles, 1891, Introduction, p. XIX. ↩
Upanishads, M. Müller’s translation, II 17, 334. ↩
Schmölders: Essai sur les écoles philosophiques chez les Arabes, Paris, 1842, p. 210. ↩
Enneads, Bouillier’s translation, Paris, 1861, III 561. Compare pp. 473–477, and vol. I p. 27. ↩
H. Suso: Autobiography, pp. 309, 310. ↩
H. Suso: Autobiography, Strophe 10. ↩
H. P. Blavatsky: The Voice of the Silence. ↩
Swinburne: “On the Verge,” in A Midsummer Vacation. ↩
As serious an attempt as I know to mediate between the mystical region and the discursive life is contained in an article on Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover, by F. C. S. Schiller, in Mind, vol. IX, 1900. ↩
I abstract from weaker states, and from those cases of which the books are full, where the director (but usually not the subject) remains in doubt whether the experience may not have proceeded from the demon. ↩
Example: Mr. John Nelson writes of his imprisonment for preaching Methodism:
“My soul was as a watered garden, and I could sing praises to God all day long; for he turned my captivity into joy, and gave me to rest as well on the boards, as if I had been on a bed of down. Now could I say, ‘God’s service is perfect freedom,’ and I was carried out much in prayer that my enemies might drink of the same river of peace which my God gave so largely to me.”
Journal, London, no date, p. 172
Ruysbroeck, in the work which Maeterlinck has translated, has a chapter against the antinomianism of disciples. H. Delacroix’s book (“Essai sur le mysticisme spéculatif en Allemagne au XIVme Siècle”, Paris, 1900) is full of antinomian material. Compare also A. Jundt: Les Amis de Dieu au XIVme Siècle, Thèse de Strasbourg, 1879. ↩
Compare Paul Rousselot: Les Mystiques Espagnols, Paris, 1869, ch. XII. ↩
See Carpenter’s Towards Democracy, especially the latter parts, and Jefferies’s wonderful and splendid mystic rhapsody, The Story of my Heart. ↩
In chapter I of book II of his work Degeneration, “Max Nordau” seeks to undermine all mysticism by exposing the weakness of the lower kinds. Mysticism for him means any sudden perception of hidden significance in things. He explains such perception by
