evelyn underhill - house of the soul

7/30/2019 Evelyn Underhill - House of the Soul

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THE HOUSE OFTHE SOULEVELYN UNDfiRHILL


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOUL


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BY THE SAME AUTHORMYSTICISM Twelfth Edition, RevisedTHE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE LIFE OF

TO-DAY Seventh Edition 1MAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL ) |CONCERNING THE INNER LIFE Sixth Edition 1THE GOLDEN SEQUENCE Third Edition I

IMIXED PASTURE *


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THE HOUSEOF THE SOULByEVELYN UNDERBILL

SECOND EDITION


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First Published . . . October 3rd 1929Second Edition . . . 1933


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FORROSAWITH MY LOVE


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PREFATORY NOTETHIS little book is in no sense a literarywork. It merely consists of the notes ofa series of informal addresses which weregiven to a small group of like-minded people ;and is intended rather to stimulate meditationthan to give information. Its readers are askedof their charity to judge it from this point ofview.

E. U.Feast of St. Mary Magdalen, 19.29


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However great the breadth, the depth, theheight of our thought of the soul, we shallnot exceed the reality ; for its capacity isfar greater than we are able to conceive,and the Sun which dwells in this housepenetrates to every corner of it. ST. TERESA


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I

WHENSt. Paul described our mysterious

human nature as a "Temple of theHoly Spirit" a created dwelling-place orsanctuary of the uncreated and invisibleDivine Life he was stating in the strongestpossible terms a view of our status, our relationto God, which has always been present inChristianity; and is indeed implicit in theChristian view of Reality. But that statementas it stands seems far too strong for most of us.We do not feel in the very least like the templesof Creative Love. We are more at ease withSt. Teresa, when she describes the soul as an"interior castle" a roomy mansion, withvarious floors and apartments from the base-ment upwards; not all devoted to exalted uses,not always in a satisfactory state. And when,in a more homely mood, she speaks of her ownspiritual life as "becoming solid like a house,"we at last get something we can grasp.The soul's house, that interior dwelling-


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULand good taste. Still, in a general way, we mustfall in with the city's plan; and consider,when we hang some new and startling curtains,how they will look from the street. Howeverintense the personal life of each soul may be,that personal life has got out of proportion, ifit makes us forget our municipal obligationsand advantages; for our true significance ismore than personal, it is bound up with thefact of our status as members of a supernaturalsociety. So into all the affairs of the little housethere should enter a certain sense of the city,and beyond this of the infinite world in whichthe city stands: some awestruck memory ofour double situation, at once so homely andso mysterious. We must each maintainunimpaired our unique relation with God; yetwithout forgetting our intimate contact withthe rest of the city, or the mesh of invisiblelife which binds all the inhabitants in one,For it is on the unchanging Life of God, ason a rock, that the whole city is founded. That

august and cherishing Spirit is the atmospherewhich bathes it, and fills each room of everylittle house quickening, feeding and sus-taining. He is the one Reality which makes


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULBut though progress, or rather growth, is trulyin it, such growth in so far as it is real can onlyarise from, and be conditioned by, a far morefundamental relation the growing soul'sabidingness in God.

Next, what type of house does the soul livein? It is a two-story house. The psycholo-gist too often assumes that it is a one-roomedcottage with a mud floor; and never evenattempts to go upstairs. The extreme tran-scendentalist sometimes talks as though it wereperched in the air, like the lake dwellings ofour primitive ancestors, and had no groundfloor at all. A more humble attention to factssuggests that neither of these simplifications istrue. We know that we have a ground floor,a natural life biologically conditioned, withanimal instincts and affinities ; and that this lifeis very important, for it is the product of thedivine creativity its builder and maker is God.But we know too that we have an upper floor, asupernatural life, with supernatural possibilities,a capacity for God; and that this, man'speculiar prerogative, is more important still.If we try to live on one floor alone we destroythe mysterious beauty of our human vocation;so a of the and


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULWe are created both in Time and in Eternity,not truly one but truly two ; and every thought,word and act must be subdued to the dignity ofthat double situation in which Almighty Godhas placed and companions the childish spiritof man.

Therefore a full and wholesome spiritual lifecan never consist in living upstairs, and for-getting to consider the ground floor and itshomely uses and needs ; thus ignoring thehumbling fact that those upper rooms areentirely supported by it. Nor does it consist inthe constant, exasperated investigation of theshortcomings of the basement. When St.Teresa said that her prayer had become "solidlike a house" she meant that its foundationsnow went down into the lowly but firm groundof human nature, the concrete actualities ofthe natural life : and, on those solid foundations,its wall rose up towards heaven. The strengthof the house consisted in that intimate weldingtogether of the divine and the human, whichshe found in its perfection in the humanity ofChrist. There, in the common stuff of humanlife which He blessed by His presence, thesaints have ever seen the homely foundationsof holiness. Since we are two-story creatures,


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULon each level, something of His unlimitedPerfection. Downstairs that general right-ness of adjustment to all this-world obligations,which the ancients called the quality ofJustice; and the homely virtues of Prudence,Temperance and Fortitude reminding us ofour creatureliness, our limitations, and sohumbling and disciplining us. Upstairs, theheavenly powers of Faith, Hope and Charity;tending towards the Eternal, nourishing ourlife towards God, and having no meaningapart from God.But the soul's house will never be a realhome unless the ground floor is as cared forand as habitable as the beautiful rooms up-stairs. We are required to live in the wholeof our premises, and are responsible , for thecondition of the whole of our premises. It isuseless to repaper the drawing-room if whatwe really need is a new sink. In that secretDivine purpose which is drawing all life to-wards perfection, the whole house is meant tobe beautiful and ought to be beautiful; for itcomes from God, and was made to His design.Christ's soul when on earth lived in one ofthese houses; had to use the same fitments,make the same do. We cannot


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULunsafe. Are we capable of the adventure ofcourage which inspires the great prayer of St.Augustine: "The house of my soul is narrow;do Thou enter in and enlarge it! It is ruinous;do Thou repair it"? Can we risk the visitationof the mysterious Power that will go through allour untidy rooms, showing up their shortcom-ings and their possibilities; reproving by thetranquillity of order the waste and muddle ofour inner life ? The mere hoarded rubbish thatought to go into the dustbin; the things thatwant mending and washing ; the possessions wehave never taken the trouble to use ? Yet this isthe only condition on whichman can participatein that fullness of life for which he is made.The Lord's Prayer, in which St. Teresa said

that she found the whole art of contemplationfrom its simple beginning to its transcendentgoal, witnesses with a wonderful beauty andcompleteness to this two-story character of thesoul's house ; and yet its absolute unity. Itbegins at the top, in the watch tower of faith,with the sublime assertion of our supernaturalstatus the one relation, intimate yet incon-ceivable, that governs all the rest "OurFather who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULand transfused by the cherishing,

life and power of God.We are liftedof the psychological tangle in which theof our spirit too often seems enmeshed, intopure, serene light of Eternity ; and shownwhole various and disconcerting pageant of

as proceeding from God, and existingonly that it may glorify His name. Childlikeand joyful adoration are placedtogether as the twin characters of the soul'srelation to God.Thence, step by step, this prayer brings usdownstairs, goes with us through the whole

louse; bringing the supernatural into thenatural, blessing and sanctifying, cleansing andrectifying every aspect of the home. "ThyKingdom come!" Hope trustful expectation." Thy will be done !" Charity the loving unionof our wills with the Infinite Will. Then theground floor. "Give us this day" that foodfrom beyond ourselves which nourishes andsustains our life. Forgive all our little failuresand excesses, neutralize the corroding powerof our conflicts, disharmonies, rebellions, sins.We can't deal with them alone. Teach us, astowards our fellow citizens, to share that

tolerance of God. Lead us not into


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THEHOUSEOF THE SOULAnd then, the reason of all this ; bringing

together, in one supreme declaration of joyand confidence, the soul's sense of that sup-porting, holy, and eternal Reality who is theRuler and the Light of the city, and of everyroom in every little house. Thine is the King-dom, the Power and the Glory. If our interiorlife be subdued to the spirit of this prayer, withits rich sense of our mighty heritage and child-like status, our total dependence on the Realityof God, then the soul's house is truly runningwell. Its action is transfused by contemplation.The door is open between the upper and thelower floors; the life of spirit and life of sense."Two cities," said St. Augustine, "have beencreated by two loves: the earthly city by love ofself even to contempt of God, the heavenlycity by love of God even to contempt of self.The one city glories in itself; the other cityglories in the Lord. The one city glories in itsown strength; the other city says to its God,'I will love Thee, O Lord my strength.' "Perhaps there has never been a time in Chris-tian history when that contrast has been moresharply felt than it is now the contrastbetween that view of man's situation and


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULmankind ever atwork building those two cities;and every human soul as a potential citizen ofone or the other. And from this point of view,that which we call the "interior life" is just thehome life ofthosewho inhabit the invisible Cityof God ; realistically taking up their municipalprivileges and duties, and pursuing them "evento contempt of self." It is the obligation andthe art of keeping the premises entrusted to usin good order, having ever in view the welfareof the city as a whole.Some souls, like some people, can be shimmyanywhere. There is always a raucous and un-controlled voice ascending from the basement,and a pail of dirty water at the foot of the stairs.Others can achieve in the most impossiblesituation a simple and beautiful life. The goodcitizen must be able without reluctance toopen the door at all times, not only at theweek-end; must keep the windows cleanand taps running properly, that the light andliving water may come in. These free gifts ofthe supernatural are offered to each house ; andonly as free gifts can they be had. Our noisylittle engine will not produce the true light ; norour most desperate digging a proper watersupply. Recognition of this fact, this entire


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULlit it ... the water of life proceeded out of thethrone of God." All is the free gift of the super-natural ; not the result of human growth andeffort. God's generous and life-giving work inthe world of souls ever goes before man's workin God. So the main thing about the InvisibleCity is not the industry and good character ofthe inhabitants: they do not make it shine. Itis the tranquil operation of that perpetualprovidence, which incites and supports theirsmall activities ; the direct and childlike relationin which they stand to the city's Ruler; thegenerous light and air that bathe the littlehouses; the unchanging rock of Eternity onwhich their foundations stand.


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II

WE come back to examine more closely ourdomestic responsibilities : the two floorsof the soul's house. We begin on the groundfloor; for until that is in decent order it isuseless to go upstairs. A well-ordered naturallife is the only safe basis of our supernaturallife: Christianity, which brought the groundfloor, with its powerful but unruly impulses,within the area of God's grace, demands its sub-limation and dedication to His purposes. Weare required to live in the whole of our house,learning to go freely and constantly up anddown stairs, backwards and forwards, easilyand willingly, from one kind of life to the other ;weaving together the higher and lower powersof the soul, and using both for the glory of God.No exclusive spirituality will serve the purposesof man, called to be a link between two worlds.There are days, months for some therewill be years when we look out of the windowof faith, and find that the view is hidden ina mantle of fog: when we turn to the work-


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULremember the excellent advice which Mrs.Berry gave to Richard Feverel's bride: "Whenthe parlour fire burns low, put on coals in thekitchen." Accept your limitations, go down-stairs, and attend to the life of the lower floor.Our vocation requires of us an equal alertnesswith the censer and the scrubbing brush.When the door between the two stories is open,a flood of disconcerting light is shed upon thatlower floor and its condition; and our feebleexcuses for its muddled state fade into silence.But if we face the facts in the right spirit weshall find, like St. Teresa, the Presence we lostupstairs walking among the pots and pans.The disciplined use of the lower floor and allthe rich material it offers is therefore essentialto the peace and prosperity of the upper floor ;we cannot merely shut the door at the top ofthe basement stairs and hope for the best. Theloud voices of unmortified nature, saying "Iwant! I will! I won't!" rising up from thekitchen premises, will ruin the delicate musicof the upstairs wireless. Here is the source of allthe worst distractions in prayer, and the lair ofall the devils that tempt us most : our inclina-tions to selfish choices, inordinate enjoyments,claimful self-centred instinc-


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULthe house is to be well run, we must begin bycleaning the kitchen and the scullery; andgiving their energetic but unruly inhabitantstheir jobs. The human power of choice mustbe submitted to the rule of Prudence ; humanimpulse and desire to the rule of Temperance ;our self-protecting mechanisms, sloth, softness,nervous fears, to the bracing touch of Fortitude.That threefold reordering and sublimation ofthe ground floor drastic but unsensationalwill test and purify the soul's realism, humilityand love, far more fully, will subdue it to themysterious Divine action far more completely,than any hasty retreat upstairs can do. "Notonly a good way, but the best of ways," saysSt. Teresa, "is to strive to enter first by theroom where humility is practised, which is farbetter than at once rushing on to the others."

It was no mere upstairs mystic, exclusivelyabsorbed in spiritual things, who uttered themysterious and haunting words "To me, tolive is Christ." It was St. Paul, wrestling withhis own difficult nature, and perpetually con-scious of the conflict between sense andspirit as he lived towards God. Here and now,on the ground floor, to live with Prudence,and Fortitude in the circumstances


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULthe lower floor, and another for the upstairsflat.

Every soul, says that true psychologistAugustine Baker, has two internal lights orguides, the spirit of Nature and the Spirit ofGod: and besides these "we neither have norcan have, any other within us." We arereminded of that familiar picture of the old-fashioned nursery the child with a good angelat the right hand and a bad angel at the left.Like many other bits of childish mythology,that picture points beyond itself to a deeptruth. The good angel is really there: Anima,the soul's being when it ascends to its apex, asthe mystics say, stands in the watch tower offaith, opens the window towards Eternity,beholds the Light that is God. "The Supreampart of the Soul," says Peter Sterry, "whichis above Sensible Things, ever living in themidst of Invisible Things this is each Man'sAngel." And the bad angel is really there too

this same complex and variable soul, when itcapitulates to the unfortunate influences of thescullery. We know too well that, like the dogwho has been trained to the drawing-room,there still remains something in us which takesa interest in the dustbin and will drift


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULessential self capable of reality, tending to God.They often seem to pull different ways; theunstable will can hardly keep its feet betweenthem. If we consider in this light the lastunfortunate episode which showed us up toourselves; when we make the second-bestchoice, when a sudden tug at our elbow assuredus that this particular bit of magnanimity, thatrenunciation, was really too much to expecteven though it shone with an unearthlyradiance, though Anima said "Follow me!"then the force of the ancient Advent prayercomes home to us. "O Wisdom proceeding outof the mouth of the Most High, come and teachme the way of Prudence" between the twoconflicting aspects of my double life.Prudence, on the natural level so suggestive

of a self-centred carefulness, the miserablepolicy of "safety first," only achieves dignityand beauty when thus raised to the spiritualstatus, and related to our life in God. Then itis revealed as the virtue which governs andsublimates all behaviour; as Temperance is thevirtue which governs and sublimates desire.We owe to St. Thomas the noblest and deepestof all definitions of Prudence. For him, allvirtues, all the soul's sources of energy, are


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULwrong with that same sacred power of energeticlove; its direction to wrong objectives. Sin is"a withdrawal from the art of Divine Wisdomand the order of Divine Love" : a wilful settingof our own small lives, hopes and loves out ofline with the vast purposes of God. The rightordering of its innate powers of love and will istherefore all the soul has to do to actualizeits inheritance, make it fit for God. Ordinaquest' amore, o tu che m'ami. Then, the _soul'shouse is ready for its guest. And Prudence,says St. Thomas again, is this Love "choosingbetween what helps and what hinders"choosing what helps the fulfilment of God'swill, and leaving what hinders the fulfilment ofthat will; because He is the soul's love. It isthe dedicated use of the great human power ofchoice, its subjection to the rule of charity : theright ordering of the natural life in the interests,not of one's own preference or advancement,but of the city and the city's King.Thus Prudence is like a good housekeeper ;not very attractive at first sight, but a valuablesort ofwoman to put in charge if you want yoursoul's house to be well run. With her eye onefficiency, but always for love's sake, she willuse her resources in the best way, keep up the


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULand not proceeding on the assumption that itreally ought to be something else,

more inter-esting, exalted and flattering to self-love, shewill be provident : not using up all her resourcesat the beginning of the week, or making plansshe cannot carry out. She will refuse to trans-late the words "called to be saints" into "calledto behave as if we were already saints." Shewill balance prayer and action, never givingout beyond her power, or forgetting to get infresh supplies: so that her spiritual storecupboard is never bare. How mortified, freefrom all spiritual fancifulness and extravagance,is a life over which Prudence presides ; love ofGod, even to contempt of self, determining allchoices, purifying all motives, and maintainingan orderly, disciplined life in the soul.We find this science of behaviour operativein both the great aspects of our human ex-

perience, the outward and the inward: our be-haviour towards other souls, our behaviour toourselves. As regards others, it will mean theloving and careful choice of all that helps anddoes not hinder them. In the life of action, themortified use of our rightful initiative. In thelife of feeling, the custody of the heart, in theinterests of our neighbour's peace as well as our


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULtheology, those startling ethical ideas, whichflatter our intelligence but may disturb moretender-minded souls. Nothing is more markedin the Gospels than the prudence with whichChrist gave spiritual truths from His infinitestore: always enlightening, but never over-whelming the homely , sense-conditionedhumancreatures to whom He was sent. The Mindwhich saw God, and all things displayed in thelight of the Divine Wisdom, and which longedto give all men that great vision which isbeatitude, came down from nights of com-munion with that Reality upon the mountain,to teach with Prudence. "Without a parablespake He not" and those parables were madeof the homeliest materials, with little to attracta fastidious spirituality. Yet in them the secretof the Kingdom was hid, so that only those whowere ready for the teaching received it. PerfectWisdom came with kindergarten methods tomen's kindergarten souls.The mind awakened to spiritual reality oftenneeds much self-control, much prudence, if it isto put the truth it has acquired usually verylittle so generally and so genially that there isno risk of giving anyone a spiritual shock, orthe chance of spiritual gastritis. All teachers


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULPrudence proves her love as much by what shewithholds as by what she gives: humbly andpatiently adapting her method to the capacityof each. She never bewilders, dazzles, littlegrowing souls ; never over-feeds or drags themout of their depth. The cakes upon her tea-table are suited to the digestion of the guests.Prudence further requires the careful hand-

ling of our own lives and capacities; instru-ments given us by God, and destined to bemirrors of His skill. It means choosing whathelps, and rejectingwhat hinders, the fulfilmentof that design, that vocation, which is alreadypresent in embryo in our souls. This subjectionof behaviour to the ultimate purpose of Godmay mean on one hand conduct which seemsabsurdly over-careful ; or, on the other, conductwhich seems imprudent to the last degree. Thetruly prudent, love-impelled choices of thesaints are often in the eyes of the world theextreme of foolishness. St. Simon Stylites,making his pillar higher and higher in his questof that solitude to which he knew that he wascalled ; St. Francis, stripping off all thatimpededhis love, even to his very clothes, and goingout to destitution; St. Catherine of Genoa,forcing herself to repulsive duties because


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULlove made him want to share the privations ofthose he served all these are the actions ofcelestial prudence. Prudence, not preference,took St. Teresa to the convent. She did notlike the cloister, but she knew herself called byGod ; and chose that which helped to fulfil Hiswill for her soul. Prudence locked the door ofLady Julian's cell, but sent Mary Slessor fromthe Scottish mill to the African jungle; tookFoucauld to the solitude of the Sahara, Living-stone to Africa, Grenfell to Labrador.Love chooses the work it can do, not thework that it likes. Prudent love took St.Thomas from contemplation and made himthe teacher of the schools. Prudent love doesnot insist on being a philanthropist when itlacks the warm outgoing temperament that isneeded, and is decisively called to the morelonely but not less essential vocation ofstudying the deep things of God. It uses thematerial given it in the best possible way ; andthus doing, makes its appointed contribution tothat eternal plan which requires the perfectactive surrender of the willing creature, themaking of all choices and performance of alltasks in subservience to that God Who is PureAct the total consecration of natural life. "We


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TH HOUSE OF THE SOULshow us near at hand at any moment, that whichwe vainly and laboriously seek elsewhere."

In the Paradiso Dante, with his usual acute-ness, makes Prudence love choosing rightlythe boundary between perfect and imperfectbeatitude. The Heaven of those active saintsthrough whom the Divine Wisdom is impartedto men is the Heaven of Prudence. Mindswidely separated in temper and outlook, butunited by their loving choice of GodAnselm and Chrysostom, Francis and Dominic,Hugh of St. Victor and Thomas Aquinasthere dwell together. It is there that the musicof eternity first becomes audible by humanears. And this is surely right ; for it is only bymeans of those costly, love-impelled choiceswhich are the essence of heavenly Prudencethat the natural creature can enter more andmore fully into the rhythm of the supernaturallife.For in the governance of our natural lives, a

genuine choice .is left to us. We are neitherdummies, nor the slaves of circumstance. Weare living creatures possessed of a limitedfreedom, a power of initiative, which increasesevery time we use it the right way; we aretrained and developed by being confronted


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THE HOUSE OF T H E SOULcourses should form our Lord's actual pre-paration for His public ministry. Enlightenedat baptism as to His divine Sonship, Hisunique commission, He did not at once rushoff "in the power of the Spirit" to preach thegood news. "He who believeth shall not makehaste." Real power is the result of innerharmony, and requires perfect accord betweenthe upper and lower floors ; impulse harnessedto obedience. Therefore the Spirit of Wisdomdrove Him into the wilderness, to come toterms with His own human nature. More thanone path lay open before Him. He might claimthe privileges of an exceptional spirit, in themidst of a world which is not exceptional at all :turn the material world to His own purpose,transcend the common laws of nature, assumethe position of the Father's pet child. He mightfollow the path disclosed by spiritual ambition,leading to obvious power and success : the mostinsidious of the three temptations, because itsuggested that His mission of redemption andenlightenment could be fulfilled on a greatscale, by entering into alliance with the spiritand methods of the world. People who think innumbers always mistake this for a call fromGod. Love, choosing what helped, rejected all


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULThe spiritual life constantly offers its neo-

phytes the equivalent of all these temptations.There are those who think first of their ownspiritual hunger, and the imperative duty offeeding their own souls: those for whom thespiritual life means spiritual privilege whodefy common sense,, take foolish risks, and callthe proceeding trust in God : those who acceptmethods of recommending religion which aresomething less than spiritual, and call this"dealing with the conditions of modern life."All these courses in their different ways mayseem prudent ; and all wilt away before theselfless prudence of Christ. That picture, inits austere majesty and loneliness, forces thesoul to consider how much disguised self-interest, how much irresponsibility, how muchinclination to compromise, hang about itsground floor and impede the purity of itschoice for God. For the inner spring whichgoverns all truly prudent choice is such agenerous, general and self-oblivious surrenderas overrules mere personal preference, canenvisage with equal calmness apparent failureand apparent success, and ignores even its ownspiritual advantage. The New Testamentcontains no single instance in which our


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULNow Prudence is a positive, not a negative,

principle .of action. It requires behaviour, notabstention from behaviour. It rejects thelower, in order that it may be free to acceptthe higher choice. Thus our dominant attrac-tion is in the eyes of Prudence as important asour dominant temptation : it may be the magnetby which we are being drawn to the place wehave to fill. The creative method completesdetachment by attachment: "Leave all" re-quires as its corollary "Follow me." It maytherefore be a work of Prudence to make tenta-tive advances along a path which attracts us ;whether of prayer, study, active work, humanlove or renunciation. But when God, speakingthrough circumstances, says "That way isnot open," then it is for us humbly to acquiesce,whatever the cost. Love must learn by ex-perience to recognize when the secret inwardpressure comes from God, and when it reallycomes from self-will, and we persuade our-selves that it is the push of God. Nothing ismore important than that we should faithfullyfollow our own true spiritual attraction ; developand use the talent given into our care. Butit needs a humble and a prudent spirit todiscover what that and from


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULand thy meaning, the choice and point of thyheart," says the author of The Cloud of Un-knowing, "it sufficeth to thee in this life."There, in a phrase, is the heart of HeavenlyPrudence. It requires a total transformation ofour attitude towards existence; because thechoice and point of our heart is set towards theEternal, our love and our meaning is God, andwe are running our house for Him. If wetest by this standard the dubious choices wehave made, the chances we have missed, theresponsibilities we have dodged, we shall per-ceive in each of them a virtual confession thatthe Living Perfect and its interests were notreally the choice and point of our heart. Easypaths taken, awkward paths left ; a cowardlyinclination to take shelter behind circumstances.In personal relationships, a quiet avoidance ofthe uncongenial, a certain blindness to oppor-tunities for -exercising generous love. Inreligion, perverse insistence on particularnotions and practices ; self-chosen adventuresin devotional

regions to which we were notdecisively called. Prudence, remembering themodest size of her own premises and thesublimity of those experiences of God whichthe mystics try with stammering tongues to


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULfied, truly discreet is the prayer of the saints;faithful, loyal,

free from self-chosenpeculi-arities, keeping steadily on through darknessand through light.So too the detachment to which Prudence

will urge us will not merely consist in cuttingout those things and persons which attract us,and are occasions of temptation and unrest:thus eliminating the very material of self-discipline from life. It will rather require thepractice of detachment in attachment: usingwith love the educational toys in our cupboard,but refusing to make them into idols or breakinto angry howls when they are taken away.Prudence requires love without claimfulness,and service without self-will; cherishing andstudying the people placed within our radius,but even here, never seeking our own alongthe subtle paths of spiritual friendship. Shedemands a life that is both world-embracingand world-renouncing in its amplitude of sur-rendered love. This means a constant anddifficult tension ; many falls, perhaps continu-ous suffering, perpetual slaps to affection andpride. Again and again the unruly lowernature seems to be conquered ; again arid againit catches us out. It is one thing to make


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULto have a warm and well-furnished kitchen, andeven to take pride in it, so long as we rememberthat it is a kitchen; and that all its activitiesmust be subservient to the interests of thewhole house, and its observance of the city'slaw,


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Ill

IF it is the special work of Prudence tomanage our basement premises, so run thedomestic life of the soul that all its willed

choices, the trend of its behaviour, subserve thepurposes of God ; it is the special work ofTemperance to harness and control the naturalinstincts, and subdue them to the same end.Temperance, says St. Thomas, is the Virtue ofthe Beautiful, the virtue which tempers andorders our vehement desires, and subjects evenour apparently spiritual cravings to the morti-fying action of love : for moderation, proportion,reverence for conditions, is the very secret of alasting beauty. To worship the Lord in thebeauty of holiness does not mean the unbridledenthusiasm of the dervish, but the quiet andsteadfast loyalty of the saint.Temperance, then, must preside over thefurnishing of the soul's house, if it is to be the

setting of a useful, ordered, peaceful interiorlife. Much discipline, moderation, actual self-denial are involved in wise furnishing. No


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULfrenzied efforts to get a grand piano into a two-roomed flat. If the house is to be a success,what we leave out will be quite as important aswhat we put in. Abstine et sustine. At everyturn we are required to reconsider our firstnotions, accept our limitations, mortify ourdesires. It is useless to begin in a style that wecannot keep up; or, when we see what itinvolves, will want to keep up. We all knowrooms full of little vases, faded photographs,plush elephants, and shabby books of verse;relics of the owners' transient and uncontrolledimpulses. Those rooms lack all sense ofspace, tranquillity and dignity ; because Tem-perance, the strong virtue of the Beautiful,has not been called in. So too the furnishingof the soul's house depends for its successon a wise austerity. It requires a spirit ofrenunciation; checking that love of whatis new, odd or startling, which so easilykills the taste for quiet colour and simplethings,

( that tendency to accumulate oddsand ends which swamps our few real treasuresin a dusty crowd of devotional knick-knacks.The inner life does not consist in the abun-dance and peculiarity of our spiritual posses-sions. There is nothing so foolish, snobbish,


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULAgain, Temperance will lay a restraininghand on the speculative instinct, when it istempted to rush off to the horizons of thought

or make fatuous efforts to achieve a "conceptof God"; forgetting, in its immoderate cravingfor sharper outlines or more light, the awfuldisparity between the infinite mystery and theuseful but limited human mind, and the factthat it is under human conditions, in a humanworld, that God desires to maintain andtransfigure the soul. "The angels feed on Theefully," says the ancient prayer of the priestbefore Mass: "let pilgrim man feed on Theeaccording to his measure."

Christianity insists that all we need and canassimilate will be given to us at home; theLight of the human world coming to us hereand now, as the Bread of Life. But it takes atemperate soul to savour all that lies hidden inthis saying its moderation, homeliness, per-fect adaptation to our creaturelyneeds . True , theheavens declare the glory of the Lord ; but we,whirling along on our tiny bit of heaven, aremore overwhelmed than illuminated by thatmajestic revelation. We remain merely dazzledand bewildered till we consent to come off ourhigh horse, get our feet firmly on the earth, and


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THE HOUSE OF THE SOULthe Light of his little world: yet I and MyFather are one."Thus the characteristic mode of God's self-giving to the human soul is declared to besomething which we can best compare to ourordinary necessary daily food; given to usright down in the common life, and satisfying afundamental need which is independent of feel-ing and taste. Man lives on God, is "renewedday by day by the Spirit"; by regular plainmeals, offered and deliberately taken here andnow, not by occasional moments of ecstaticcommunion. By solid food, not spiritualsweets. "He gave them bread from Heaven toeat." Only a soul disciplined to temperance canrelish all that there is to be found in bread. Itsexcursions and aspirations, its delightful ascentsto God, if legitimate and wholesome, mustalways bring it back to discover more savourand meaning in this plain,homely Bread of Life."You seek," says De Caussade, "the secretof union with God. There is no other secretbut to make use of the material God givesus." That material is mixed, like the environ-ment in which we find ourselves. Temperancewill teach us to accept it as it comes to usnot arrogantly ignoring the visible in our


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evelyn underhill - house of the soul

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