mysticism - with a translation of the mystical theology of dionysius, and of the letters to caius...

8/13/2019 Mysticism - With a Translation of the Mystical Theology of Dionysius, And of the Letters to Caius and Dorotheus -

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MYSTICISM: ITS TRUE NATUREAND VALUE


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IMPRIM6 POTEST.JACOBUS AUGUSTINUS,

ARCHIEP. S. ANDR. ET EDIMBURGEN.Edimburoi, die i8 Julii 1910.


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MYSTICISM:ITS TRUE NATURE AND VALUEWITH A TRANSLATION OF THE MYSTICAL

THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS, AND OF THELETTERS TO CAIUS AND DOROTHEUS

(l, 2 AND 5) ^^-Tc,*^ -,....-

^^ ( APR 24 1912A. B. SHARPE, M.A. V /;.

Oefo? yv6(po


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CONTENTSCHAPTER ITWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM PAGES

Knowledge is either experimental or theoretical, but islimited by sense-experienceNatural knowledgeof God, through reason or revelation, is theoreticalit cannot be experimentalExperimental know-ledge of God always desiredMystical theologyTwo points of view, the natural and the super-naturalThey are not naturally opposed, butcomplementaryNatural mysticism is the attempteither to transcend the limitations of sense or to findtranscendental knowledge within themFunda-mental difference between these two methodsNeither is more than a mental attitudeSuper-natural mysticism implies the transcendence ofGod, on the one hand ; and on the other hand, theinability of the natural powers alone to attain toimmediate knowledge of HimCatholic idea ofmysticismTrue mysticism rightly said to beempiricalCompared with sensationThe intel-lectual principles of mystical knowledge notessentially different from those of ordinary know-ledgeWhat is to be understood by the Super-natural The Via Remotionis Supernaturalllumination not contrary to nature Its methodNatural theories to account for supernaturalmysticismReasons for rejecting themTheo-logical and evidential value of the subject . . 1-49


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viii CONTENTSCHAPTER II

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISMPAGESOrigin of the termMysticism in the ChurchIn

Greek philosophyDionysius Social conditionswhich bring mysticism into prominenceSpuriousmysticism 50-60

CHAPTER IIITHE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

Mystical experience essentially supernaturalThreemodes of relation of creatures to the Creator Natural contemplation Passivity Mysticalcognition and sensationMystical and ordinaryreligious experienceMystical certitudeMysticalexperience indescribableNecessity of prepara-tionGersonEckhart, TaulerThree stagesSt TeresaVisions and locutionsSelf-delusion . 61-87

CHAPTER IVTHE OBJECT OF MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE

Mystical vision, how to be understoodHow thesoul can see GodThe Beatific VisionDoctrineof St Thomas St Paul's visionsTransiency ofmystical stateSpiritual marriageThe lumengloriae St Augustine's classification Uncer-tainty of sensible and imaginary impressions ascompared with intellectual visionAll three trulysupernatural 88-104

CHAPTER VTHE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM

The object of mystical contemplation perceived by anatural process, and therefore capable of analysisNo theory on the subject formulated by mystica


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CONTENTS ixPAGES

writersThree different views, (i) Existence ofa special mystical faculty. This theory is super-fluous. (2) That all apparently mystical states aremerely automatic, and generally of pathologicalorigin. This implies the presupposition thatgenuine mysticism is impossible. (3) That mysti-cal communications really take place, but areapprehended by the same psychical process whichtransmits automatic suggestion. This practicallycoincides with the view of ecclesiastical authority

Difficulty of distinguishing, how caused . . 105-121CHAPTER VI

EVILAffinity of the problem with mysticismThe solution

of mystics often appears unsatisfactory to othersEvil due to created freewillIndependence of theDivine willEvil negativePractical characterof mystical solution compared with the philo-sophical or theoreticalSchopenhauer, Hartmannand Ethical religionsBenefits of mysticism inthis respect not restricted to mystics . 122-135

CHAPTER VIIIMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

Terms explainedSpinoza, Hegel and MysticismThe ground''Immanence and transcendencenot ontologically distinct 136-145

CHAPTER VIIIPLOTINUS

Philosophy and mysticism of PlotinusTwo possibleviews of his relation to Christian mysticism . . 146-158


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CONTENTSCHAPTER IX

HERETICAL MYSTICS PAGESDistinction clear between true and spurious mysti-

cism Pragmatic test, twofold applicationMysticism, theosophy and theology Intrinsicdis-tinction between mystical experience and deduc-tions from itDoctrines not to be guaranteed bymystical origin Necessary features of genuinemysticism The Beghards Boehme Sweden-borg Quietism Distinction between doctrinesand mystical experiences equally applied toorthodox mystics St TeresaSt John of theCrossMargaret Mary Alacoque . . .159-176

CHAPTER XMYSTICISM, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

Obstacles to philosophical treatment of mysticism inits transcendental aspectExperimental evidenceof mysticism in support of natural theologyThe object of mysticism beyond the reach ofexplanation per causas Mysticism a form ofreligious experience, but not one guaranteed toChristians Its relation to institutional religion,and to ordinary religious experience as continuouswith and interpenetrated by itThe Imitationof Christ Mystical experience perhaps occasion-ally granted to non-mystics 177-192

CHAPTER XIDIONYSIUS

History of the Dionysian writingsAuthorship andcharacterCan they be considered forgeries-Modern theories, etc. , . . . . 193-206


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CONTENTS xiCHAPTER XII

THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITECHAP. PAGES

I.What the Divine Darkness is.II.How to be united with, and to give praise

to Him who is the cause of all thingsand above all.

III.What is affirmed of God, and what isdenied of Him.

IV.That He who is the supreme cause of allsensible things is Himself no part ofthose things.

V.That He who is the supreme cause of allintelligible things is Himself no part ofthose things.

LetterI.To Caius the MonkThe ignorance bymeans of which God is known is above

sense-knowledge, not below it.II.To the SameIn what sense God is above

the principle of divinity.V.To Dorotheus the DeaconThe divine

darkness further explained. 207-229


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MYSTICISM : ITS TRUE NATUREAND VALUECHAPTER I

TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISMMysticism, in the wide and somewhat loosesense in which the term is commonly used,may be considered as the final outcome of acongenital desire for knowledge which appearsin all animate creatures. In children andsavages, as also in the lower animals, it takesthe rudimentary form of sensitive curiosity ;in more fully developed rational natures itbecomes the desire to understand the innernature of things, and finally extends itself tothat obscure region, dimly recognised by allmen, which lies beyond the sphere of things,and of the senses by which things are per-ceived. But knowledge is of two kinds


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2 MYSTICISMabstract and concrete, or experimental andtheoretical. We know for certain in one waythat there are coins in the Bank of England,but we know that there are similar coins inour own pockets in quite another way : inthe one we have the direct evidence of oursenses, and in the other the senses indeedhave their necessary part, but not by way ofdirect contact with the object of our know-ledge. It is scarcely necessary to remarkthat these two kinds of knowledge go handin hand : the theoretical in the last resortdepends on the experimental ; and certain aswe may be of the correctness of our theoreti-cal knowledge, we are seldom content withoutputting it in practice, when it is in our powerto do so, and thus proving it by experiment.There is, however, a point at which the experi-mental test ceases to be possible, and thatpoint is fixed by the limits of our senses : wecannot know anything experimentally whichis not sensible, or capable of being embodiedin sensible things, as a mechanical or chemicalprinciple is embodied in the substances withwhich experiments are made. But our senses


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 3take us only a very short distance into thenature of thingswhat things are in them-selves on what principle they are what theyarewhat is the inward nature of the perpetualchanges they undergo ; on such questions asthese we can theorise freely, and can nodoubt reach some conclusions which we areable to regard as absolutely certain. But wemust be content with theoretical certainty atmost, since experiment in these matters is outof our power. But theory itselffounded asit necessarily is on experimental knowledgemust also have a limit, which it reaches whenit has exhausted the implications of senseexperiencewhen it has, so to speak, used upthe raw material of thought supplied by sensa-tion. We can make no theory about a thingwe have never seen or with which we havenever been brought into contact by any ofthe organs of sense. Such a thing is merelyx; we must know what x stands for, beforewe can say anything at all about it. Ourimagination may make it stand for anythingwe please, but what we make it representcan only be some sense impression that we


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4 MYSTICISMrecall from the past, or some idea that wehave at some time abstracted from our senseknowledge.Now we obviously reach the limit of

theoretical knowledge when we come to theend (which from another point of view isthe beginning) of everything. Here we areindeed far beyond the bounds of sense : butwe can go no farther. There may be a greatdeal beyond the end, or before the beginning,of what we understand by everything ; butwe can find out nothing about it for wehave no means of doing so. We cannot,properly speaking, even imagine anythingabout it ; for imagination can only repeat forus what we already know ; and that can haveno place beyond the beginning of all know-able things. When we see a stream of water,we can be quite certain that it has a source,and we may be able to perceive indications ofthe source's nature and immediate surroundings:but the stream can tell us nothing of whatlies beyond its sourceof the geography of thecountry, the character of the inhabitants, theirpolitical organisation and the like. All these


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 5are beyond the beginning of the stream ; wecan find out what they are only by going thereand seeing for ourselves, or by getting someone who has been there to tell us about them.Now the limit of our theoretical knowledge

in this world is reached when we attain tothe concept of a First Cause, or the necessarybeing which produces, underlies and upholdsthe contingent and changeable universe ; andthat cause and necessary being, needless tosay, is God. We have an absolute theoreticalcertainty of the existence of God, dependingultimately on facts of experience ; and wehave, or may have, many practical evidencesof His power, wisdom and goodness. More-over, He has by various means told us thingsabout Himself which we could not otherwisehave known. But direct experimental know-ledge of Him we have and can have none,in the ordinary course of things. We cannotsee Him, or touch Him, or hear Him. Yetthe more certain men are of His existence,the more conscious they are of His love andgoodness, and the more deeply their mindsare penetrated by the idea of His perfection,


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6 MYSTICISMthe more they inevitably long for some suchexperimental knowledge of Him as, withinour earthly experience, the senses alone canobtain for us. But this, from the nature ofthe case, is impossible ; God is no more tobe directly apprehended by our senses thanan idea, a thought or an emotion.

Is there then no third way by which we may^ not only know but feel the presence of God

by which all that He is to us may become notmerely theoretical certainty, but a fact of directexperience ? Is there, that is to say, anymeans by which, though we cannot bring Himdown to the world of sense, we may ourselves,in virtue of our partially spiritual nature, ascendto the spiritual world and there behold Him.'*

It is the desire and the search for such ameans of approach to God that has producedMysticism or Mystical Theology, which in

*^ its general aspect is the experience, real orsupposed, of actual quasi-physical contact withGodan experience undoubtedly known inreality by many, though by many more ithas beyond question been merely imagined.

Speculative or Dogmatic Theology is


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 7like the theory of optics, which tells us whattiie eye is, and how it sees ; mystical theologyis the sight itself, with all that it involves ofexercise and training. Speculative theologyis a science ; mystical theology is an art.

There are two points of view from whichthis art may be regarded, the natural andthe supernatural. They do not by anymeans necessarily exclude one another ; each,indeed, in point of fact, implies the other.But neglect of the supernatural side ofmysticism has led to an altogether mistakennotion of what mysticism has always, untilvery recently, been held to mean ; and itmust be admitted that forgetfulness of thenatural side, consisting of the limitations,necessities and obligations of humanity, hastoo often been the cause of degenerate andextravagant superstition, with its many attend-ant evils.Viewed simply on its natural side, mysti-

cism appears as an attempt, more or lesssuccessful, to pass through or overleap thebarrier of material things, and so to enterthe presence from the sight of which we are


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8 MYSTICISMordinarily excluded by our subjection to thesenses. There are two ways in which thisattempt may be and has been made. Oneis by an endeavour to pass beyond the finiteand sensible world by the concentration uponone point of those mental or spiritual forceswhich in every individual man appear tobelong more to the world of permanentreality than to that of transient appearancein which our bodily life is spent. The mindresolutely casts out all figures and ideas ofsensible things ; it empties itself, by a power-ful effort, of all its acquired furniture, andstrives in its own original nakedness to beholdthe naked reality that exists behind the many-coloured vesture of sense. Plotinus, Proclusand their disciples, travelling by this difficultroad, found, or seemed to find, the springsof being in the abstract and absolute unitywhich lies behind the ever-expanding varietyof the created world. But whether in thatremote and desolate region to which theypenetrated they found anything which theyhad not brought with them from the worldof hght, colour and warmth which they


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 9sought to abandon, may be considered doubt-ful. That they did not is at any rate theview of those whose object is the same, butwho adopt a method the reverse of theirs.That method, by some considered the onlytrue one, is to look for mystical knowledgenot beyond, but in the material, intellectualand emotional life in which our lot is cast.It regards this world as but a small frag-ment of a much larger whole, and as madeup of many elements, all of which are notdiscoverable, so at least as to be clearlydistinguished by either our bodily or ourintellectual faculties. But every part of itis, in this view, connected with and symbolicof something infinitely greater than itself Itembodies and illustrates the operation of vastcosmic laws ; it gives evidence of a divinebenevolence which reaches further than ourutmost vision can follow ; it is lit by a rayfrom the sun of perfect beauty that liesbelow the horizon of earthly existence. Thus a man's reach must exceed his grasp ashe goes through life ; his mind constructsfrom the broken arc of natural experience


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lo MYSTICISMthe perfect round of heavenly beatitude ;in the discords of earth his ear catchesechoes of celestial harmonies, and the darkestplaces of this world are invested with cloudsof glory for those who thus see into thelife of things.

Thus mysticism has been called theattempt to realise the presence of the livingGod in the soul and in nature, or, moregenerally, the attempt to realise in thoughtand feeling the immanence of the temporalin the eternal, and of the eternal in thetemporal. ^No one can dispute the universal right of

defining terms according to taste and fancyand those who define or describe mysticismin this way have a perfect right to do so.But if this is mysticism, then surely weought to have another name for the othermethod the tremendous journey towardsthe mysterious Isles of Fire, the Icelands ofabstraction and of love undertaken by Philo,Plotinus or Proclus.

* W. R. Inge, Christian Mysticism, Bampton Lectures,,Lect. I.

^ M.dit\.QxX\nc\i, Ruysbroeck and the Mystics. Introd.


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM iiThere would seem to be little in common

between the suggestive and symbolic aspectof things in which the world appears as thetrue manifestation of God, and that in whichthe same world is felt to be the one greatobstacle which conceals the eternal realityfrom the sight.

But whichever method may be consideredthe right one, mysticism, considered as apurely natural phenomenon (i.e., as consistingin a peculiar exercise of the natural powers),is necessarily limited to the interaction ofhuman reason and emotion and those naturalobjects with which reason and emotion areconcerned ; and in which suggestions ofsomething supernatural may be more or lessclearly perceived. Mysticism so understood ismerely a certain attitude of the mind towardsits surroundings ; and what it perceives isproved, it is thought, to be thereby reallythere. Its outlook may be partial, and itsideas consequently one-sided, and the expres-sion of them may need correction. But it isall true, whether as fact or as symbolwhichmay, though itself literally untrue, yet be


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12 MYSTICISMmore true than the literal truth. The trueis, for us, the good. ^ All that can be dis-cerned in the nature which half conceals andhalf reveals the Deity, so far as it is beautiful,attractive and ennobling, is in some sensetrue, and in some degree a vision of God.Such visions, therefore, as seen by differentminds and by whatever method, need onlyto be compared, correlated and mutuallyadjusted, in order to form all that from thispoint of view can be rightly called a bodyof Mystical Theology./ The second view which may be taken ofthe subject as a whole is that of Dionysius,and of the long succession of mystics whohave consciously or unconsciously adoptedthe principles laid down in his MysticalTheology. Its basis is a profound con-viction of the uniqueness and incommuni-cability of the Divine nature. Howeverexalted creatures may be in nature, andhowever perfect in relation to their placeand function, there is a chasm between themand their Divine Creator which cannot be

^ Inge, op. cii., Lect. VII.


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 13closed or bridged even in thought. How-ever sharply any one form of existence maybe distinguished from all others, this dis-tinction cannot even approach the funda-mental character of the distinction betweenall creatures on the one side and theirCreator on the other. There cannot even,properly speaking, be so near a rapproche-ment of the two as to make a real distinctionpossibleGod can be related, in His essence,to creatures only by a fiction of the mind :they are to His absolute independence andself-sufficiency as nothing. But on the otherhand, God is not separated from Creation bytime or spaceby which His being is, indeed,not affected in any way.

All creatures are in a state of immediate de-pendence upon Him, and it is only in virtue ofthis dependence that they exist. In a certainsense, therefore, God is immediately presentamong and in creatures : they are the continualoffspring of His power and wisdom ; and wherethese are at work, there God in His uncreatedessence must also be. Consequently, God is ,in a true sense immanent in creation ; He is


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14 MYSTICISMnot indeed mixed with it, and it is and mustbe the one thing that in His uncreated beingHe cannot resemble ; yet all creation has thedistant likeness to Him which mere beingimparts ; and in all its parts reflects, howeverdimly, His wisdom and beauty. Thereforethat God is may be clearly known from the visible things of creation. But what God isin Himself, no man can know, unless God Him-self reveals it to him. To see the reflectionof Divine beauty is one thing : to see Godis another. For all man's natural knowledgecomes from creatures, and by way of sensa-tion : and God is the one being that is nota creature, and of whom sensation can directlytell us nothing.

This being so, the only direct, immediate orexperimental knowledge of God that man canattain to must be supernaturally bestowed uponhim. Naturally, man is enclosed within theiron walls of sense and sensible things, throughwhich no sound or ray of light can penetrate ;their solid metal vibrates, so to speak, and thewarmth from without is felt in the air theyenclose. But all is silence and darkness.


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 15unless the solid barrier is removed by somepower greater than man's. To supernaturalmysticism it seems that such power is fromtime to time exerted for man's benefit ; thewalls of his prison are parted, for a momentat least, and he sees something of what liesoutside. And if any true vision of God hasever been obtained by those who have soughtit through the exertion of their natural powers whether negatively, as the Neoplatonistascetics, or positively, as the nature mysticsand symbolistsit has come directly, not fromthe exertion of those powers, but from Hisspontaneous bounty alone. ^

Such is the theory of mysticism whichobtains in the Catholic Church. It does notdispute the genuineness or the attractivenessof the symbolical view of life, nor does it denythe necessity of personal effort as a condition(though not the cause) of the supernaturalvision ; but it holds that merely natural con-templation is based on association and feeling,and is incapable of leading the soul beyondthe confines of the material world. Naturalsymbolism will make known much of God's


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i8 MYSTICISMstrongly based on experience, or howeverdeeply emotional in its mental reactions, itis in the last analysis merely a process ofinference ; and any appearance it may giverise to of intuitive knowledge must be capableof analysis into the component parts of an in-ductive syllogism. The mystic, it has been iXsaid, is the only thorough-going empiricist; ^and indeed, in regard to his transcendentalintuitions he can be nothing else. In thevision claimed by supernatural mysticismand there alonethe that and the whatare identical ; essence and existence are onein God, and experimental knowledge of Hisexistence must necessarily preclude all dis-cursive reasoning as to His essence. Henceboth the certitude of mystics as to the realityof their knowledge, and their total incapacityto explain it. Thorough empiricism is reallypossible only at the two ends of the scaleof human experiencein mystical contempla-tion and in sensation. In sensation, as inmysticism, empiricism is the only possibleattitude ; sensations in themselves, and as

^ Royce, The World and the Individual^ vol. i, ch. i.


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 19they appear grouped in consciousness, arecomplete and immediate ; they cannot beexplained, idealised or analysed. But themoment sensations become the subject ofthought, pure empiricism is no longer possible;sense-experience must depend for its continuityupon some kind of ideal constructions ; andthe poetry and romance of life and nature,and even the Ascensio mentis in Deum perscalam rerum creatarum, are no more thanmodes of the mind's perpetual wrestling withits environment. It is only when the wheelhas come full circle in the intuition of mysti-cism that the unquestionable immediacy, finalityand certainty of sensation are brought back inthe higher sphere of the intelligence.Such, at least, is the contention on behalfof supernatural mysticism ; and the only realalternative to it is complete surrender of allthat mysticism has been held to connote.For a confused consciousness of the divine orthe supernatural, as symbolised or suggestedby certain fragmentary aspects of nature, orart, or social existence, is at bottom a per-fectly different thing from the direct vision of


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20 MYSTICISMand intercourse with a divine person. I talknot with thy dreams, supernatural mysticismreplies to the imaginative outpourings of thenature mystic, the philanthropist or the lover.^

Beautiful or pathetic or true as those dreamsmay be, they have no other origin than thatof dreams which are none of those thingsand if supernatural mysticism is only anotherkind of dream if its origin can be tracedto the same turbid stream of mingled experi-ence and thoughtwell then, there is no suchthing as true mysticism ; we must revert tothe opinion of those to whom mysticism was

^ St John of the Cross brings the two methods into sharpcontrast. While created things furnish to the soul tracesof the Beloved, and exhibit the impress of His beauty andmagnificence, the love of the soul increases, and consequentlythe pain of His absence ; for the greater the soul's knowledge ofGod, the greater is the desire to see Him, and its pain when itcannot ; and while there is no remedy for this pain except inthe presence of the Beloved, the soul, distrustful of everyother remedy, prays for the fruition of His presence. It says,in effect : Entertain me no more with any knowledge of Thee orwith Thy communications or impressions of Thy grandeur, forthese do but increase my longing and the pain of Thy absence ;for Thy presence alone can satisfy my will and desire.'' Thewill cannot be satisfied with anything less than the vision ofGod, and therefore the soul prays that He may be pleased togive Himself to it perfectly in truth, in the consolation of love.spiritual Canticle^ Explanation of Stanza VI.


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 21only a name for an ignoble kind of self-delu-sion, and relegate both name and thing tothe secular lumber - room which has already-received such outworn mental furniture asastrology, alchemy and necromancy. Roman-ticism will doubtless always hold a certainplace in human thought and feeling ; forwhatever new aspects nature and life mayhave in store, there can hardly fail at anytime to be numbers of men and womenwhose sensibility is more readily awakenedby the contact of their surroundings than byinterior reflection. But mysticism is, as wehave seen, either supernatural or nothing.

[X)ur enquiry must therefore be directed tothe conditions which supernatural mysticismclaims for itself, with the view of deter-mining whether or not its pretensions have asufficient basis in observable facts to entitleto credence those transcendental experiencesfor which we can have no evidence beyondthe bare word of the mystic himself. Weshall have therefore to consider whether andhow far the Dionysian principles are identi-cal with those which are discernible in the


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92 MYSTICISMordinary course of nature ; whether mysticalstates, as described by those who have ex-perienced them, are compatible with thenature and normal action of the humanfaculties ; and whether those states if wefind them to rest on a solid theory, and tobe in harmony with the verified results ofpsychological investigationmay or may notbe adequately accounted for by merely naturalagency.As to these three questions, which will be

discussed in some detail further on, it willbe sufficient to note here first, that ordinarycognition and reflection require as theirstarting - point some contact with externalmatter (what such contact, externality andmatter may be in themselves we need not,for our present purpose, enquire) by meansof which the mind may form ideas, to besubsequently dealt with by way of reflection.Consequently, ideas or thoughts which arenot related in this manner and degree to

i external material things are simply incon-ceivable in the natural order : and if it isgranted that the mind may by any means so


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 23abstract itself from the external world thatit has no image of any external thing beforeit, either directly as a phantasm, or in-directly as an abstract idea formed on a basisof sense-experience, then, naturally speaking,it has nothing before it but an absolute blank.But this is precisely the condition in whichthe mind is conceived by supernatural mysticsto be during the time generally a verybrief oneof contemplation. So far as thenatural world and all images derived from itare concerned, there is nothing but a blank.But the void is filled by the divine presence,and by supernatural agency. We are not,however, led to suppose by anything mysticalwriters tell us that the state of mere negativeabstraction ever actually exists.^ One maywell doubt whether it is possible that it should ;

^ Cf. Schopenhauer. If something is none of all the thingswe know, it is certainly for us, speaking generally, nothing.But it does not follow from this that it is absolutely nothing,that from every possible point of view and in every possiblesense it must be nothing, but only that we are limited to acompletely negative knowledge of it, which may very well liein the limitations of our point of view. Now it is just here thatmysticism proceeds positively, and therefore it is just from thispoint that nothing but mysticism remains. World as Willand Idea, iv. 48,


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14 MYSTICISMand certainly the mystic does not supposehimself to create a mental blank, which, afterbeing so created, is supernaturally filled. Onthe contrary, the fundamental notion of themystical state is Rapture the mind doesnot extricate itself, but is taken out of itsnormal relations with the external world bythat very presence and influence which suppliestheir place. The mystical knowledge of Godis, in regard to all natural knowledge andlight, merely Ignorance and Darkness ;and this is the only condition under whichsuch knowledge could conceivably be imparted.The soul, as it were, looks over the extremeedge of the phenomenal world, and has nouse whatever for anything belonging to thatworld : if it had any, it could not really beat the edge, but would be the subject of adelusion. Mystical knowledge, therefore, inno way contradicts the principles which appearnecessarily to govern the ordinary cognitionof human beings ; it does not even implyemancipation from them, it merely transfersthem to another sphere.

But a word must be said as to the nature


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM asof this Sphere. It is, of course, what iscommonly called the supernatural : and thesupernatural sphere is conceived unquestion-ably by the mystic as distinct from and ex-cluding the natural. The supernatural beginswhere the natural ends. If this is denied,then of course there is an end of super-natural mysticism as a genuine thing and,by consequence, as we have seen, of any-thing whatever that can be clearly connotedby the term. Mr Inge, indeed, in his other-wise admirable Bampton Lectures, stronglyopposes this theory ; on what grounds it isnot easy to see. He, with other modernupholders of mysticism, in the sense in whichit is understood by them, regards the pheno-menal world interpreted by reason as a truemanifestation of the divine ideas and natureit is the imperfection of human reason, causedby sin and ignorance, that prevents men ingeneral from seeing the world as God seesit as, in fact, it really exists in the mind ofGodand as being spiritual in its nature, byreason of its creation by His thought and will.We may pass over the latent Spinozism of


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26 MYSTICISMthese and similar phrases, which, taken Hterally,would seem to identify spirit and matter, thecreated universe and God. The point wherethis theory manifestly falls short of truemysticism is that it takes something created,no matter what, for its final object. Super-natural mysticism, as we have said already,has no objection to offer to the notion thatsomething of the nature and will of God canbe discerned in all created things, that Heis truly reflected in them, and that thisreflection can be distinguished with increasingclearness as we draw near to the perfecthuman state.^ All this is as true from thepoint of view of supernatural myticism asfrom that of its rival.

But realisation in thought and feeling isnot experimental knowledge of God : thoughtand feeling may perceive quod est thatHe exists, in the plenitude of the divineattributes ; but they cannot see quid estwhat He is in His own absolute being. Atmost, natural mysticism is a true vision ofcreation : what supernatural mysticism claims

^ Cf. Summa, i. 2. i. i. and 3. c. : also i. 12. 6. c.


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 27to be is the vision of the Creator. , The twoviews, so far from being mutually exclusive,are mutually complementary : the error liesin denial of the possibility of the supernaturalknowledge, not in assertion of the natural.Moreover, there is really no difference ofprinciple or method between the two ; thedifference is in the object at which each, inpoint of fact, aims. For there is, after all,only one way in which the being of Godcan be inferred from visible things ; and thatis the Via Remotionis the negative roadwhich nature mystics depreciate as at mostinsufficient for its assumed purpose. What-ever is known by the senses can, indeed, orperhaps even must suggest a train of reason-ing, conscious or subconscious, which ends inthe concept of a spiritual and personal realityunderlying the manifestations of nature. Butthis can only be attained by abstracting fromthe impressions which furnish the suggestion ;the concept itself is formed by the reason,though it is more or less confused, and reachesup to a sphere which neither reason nor sensecan enter. But it is not intuitive or empirical


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28 MYSTICISMit is an idea evolved or constructed by arational process which in no way differs fromother rational processes : it is not an illumi-nation from without. In other words, it isno more mystical than our thoughts about anymatter of ordinarybusiness or domestic economy,from which it differs only in its subject-matter.Take, for example, the elevated emotionsproduced by the contemplation of the magni-ficent panorama of sunset. What we see isa shifting arrangement of coloursblue, red,purple and green. What we extract from itis a particular sense of beauty, and thence, byassociation of ideas, a confused concept of allthe beautiful things in the world.From this it is easy and natural to pass to

thoughts of the mysteriously elusive principleof beauty, of the source of that principle andof the creation in which it is embodied, and,lastly, of the nature of that source, and of theabsolute moral and spiritual beauty to whichits works testify. But this train of thought isin reality a train of negations. We practicallyconsider that beauty is not essentially of anycolourit is a principle not embodied in any


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 29one formit cannot be self-caused, but musthave a source outside itself. This sourceindeed is God ; but He is not beautiful in thesame way as the sunsetHe is not blue orred or green, nor is His beauty dependent onany material constitution. But He is thatincomprehensible reality which gives beautyto the colours of the sunset, and to all thegood and beautiful things, of whatever kind,in the universe : He is not any one of thosethings, nor yet all of them together, but Hecontains in Himself the principle of them allthey are all, as scholastics say, eminenter inHim.When we have reached this point we have

got rid of everything that our senses tell usof, and have erected for our contemplation apurely abstract conception, upon which thelights of sunset still seem to play, and whichtherefore retains something of their charm solong as the impression lasts, but in itself isstripped of every image that in this worldwe know as beautiful.^ The solemn and piousor romantic feelings which a brilliant sunset

^ Cf. Illingworth, Divine Immanence, ch. iii.


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30 MYSTICISMcalls into being are based on an inferenceof a nature in no respect differing from thatof Paley's inference of a watchmaker from awatch. Natural mysticism is concerned withideas and theories, not with actual experi-ences. Its method is identical with the ViaRenwtionis of speculative theology, of whichthe mystical or practical parallel is the with-drawal of the intelligence, under divine guid-ance, from the contemplation of any sensibleimage whatever, and its illumination, not byan abstract idea, but by an actual presence.

Secondly, it should be observed that themode in which this illumination takes place isnot to be considered abnormal in itself, thoughit obviously depends on abnormal conditions.The mental faculties act, or may act, in the

ordinary way. The difference between themystical and the merely natural states lies, aswe have seen, in the object of the faculties,not, so far as can be judged, in their modeof action. The reason and intelligence underordinary circumstances work upon a basis ofsensation ; the reactions of the mind dependultimately upon the cumulative reactions of


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32 MYSTICISMout being itself alive and active. The fact ofconsciousness necessarily implies the normal T y'mental activity of the subject, with all thephysical concomitants necessary to it. . Butthe connection between consciousness andsensationthe mode in which one is trans-ferred to the otheris still very obscure andthe subject of many divergent theories : at anyrate, there appears to be nothing impossible,or even irregular, in the idea that conscious-ness and intelligence may follow their normalcourse on a basis of supersensible ideas, pre-sented to them, not by means of sense, but bysupernatural and divine interposition.

If we can be conscious of the presence ofa spiritual being by means of an inference fromthe sensations excited by his bodily presence,as we are conscious in our friend's presenceof a spiritual personality inferred from sensibleevidences, then it is at least quite conceivablethat God may cause Himself to be apprehendedas immediately present merely by stimulatingthe consciousness in the same way in which itis ordinarily stimulated by the idea (the speciesinielligibilis) abstracted from sense-impressions,


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 33which in this case may be given ready madeinstead of being constructed by the intellect.^There is equally, of course, no a priori impossi-bility in such communications being made byagencies other than divine, and it is difficult tosee why any one who believes in the existenceof created spiritual personalities other thanhuman should regard them as being incapableunder any circumstances of exercising directinfluence upon mankind. All stories of angelicvisitations, or of diabolical possession, may notbe true ; and writers such as Gorres, Schramand Ribet may be over-systematic and over-minute in dealing with this subject. But therecan be no a priori reason for dismissing it asmerely superstitious.Of the visions and locutions, imaginary

or intellectual, by means of which mysticalcommunications have not infrequently beenconveyed, there is no need to speak here.

^ Cf. Bergson, Mature et Memoire, p. -^i ' Que lamati^re puisse etre perqu sans le concours d'un systemenerveux, sans organes de sens, cela n'est pas theoriquementinconcevable. If this abstract direct perceptibility of matterby the soul be conceded, it would seem to follow afortiori thatthe soul may perceive that which is immaterial, like the soulitself, without any intermediate sensation.

C


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 35those induced by diseased conditions or drugs,which have suggested the theory that mysticalstates are really pathological, and are onlyabnormal in that sense. But in spite of suchobvious resemblances as might naturally beexpected to occur in all abnormal conditionsof individual organisms of the same species,there are marked differences which absolutely 9preclude the possibility of explaining mystical 'conditions in any of these ways.

First, there is in these states (apart fromthe occurrence of visions) no figure or imagewhatever, such as necessarily occurs in anynatural process of reasoning or imagination.Recorded mystical experiences, various asthey are in type, uniformly fail to connectthemselves with any preceding thought orexperience of a natural kind. The assertion,frequently made, that they must be so con-nected is nothing but an arbitrary assumption ;the evidence is all the other way. Then thevisions or hallucinations proceeding from adrugged or otherwise pathological conditionare characterised, as it seems, invariably, bymonstrous or grotesque visual appearances, or


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 37on common sense than on any psychologicaltheorybetween experiences which may beclassed as pathological, and those which mustbe considered supernatural.^On the whole, therefore, it seems hardly too

much to say that none of the proposed explana-tions would have any weight whatever, apartfrom the reluctance to admit the existence andpossibility of supernatural experience which,by a natural swing of the pendulum, hassuperseded in our day the former too greatreadiness to seek a supernatural cause forany uncommon event.

But, it may be said, what does all thismatter ? The subject can be of direct interestonly to those who have, or believe themselvesto have, mystical experience of the supernaturalkind : and they are very few in number evenif any of them are still extant. Moreover,mysticism, in that sense, is not part of theChristian religion ; it is quite possible to benot merely a good Christian, but even a saint,without so much as knowing anything aboutthe matter. Why not leave it to those, if

^ See Benedict XIV. De Canonis.


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 39wish to form a just estimate of the characterof that Hfe as a whole ; and on the otherhand, mysticism has a distinct evidential valuewhether considered in itself or in its relationto other factors of the Catholic system, whichis by no means confined to those who haveexperimental knowledge of it. I will try toestablish these two points.

I. Christianity, as fully represented andembodied in the Catholic Church, appeals tohuman nature as a whole, not to any part oraspect of it. That is to say, the Churchdeals with human nature in its completeness,apart from all individual, national or racialcharacteristics. It is therefore necessary thatevery factor in that nature should find itselfrecognised, and a place provided for it, withappropriate guidance and discipline, in duerelation and harmony with all else that goesto make up humanity, in the system ofthe Church. In this sense the Church hasaffinities with all forms of religion and philo-sophy ; for in each of them some modicumat least of truth is to be found, which, if theChurch is truly what she represents herself


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40 MYSTICISMto be, will be acknowledged and co-ordinatedwith other truths in the complete body ofher doctrine. Error, even in its extremestforms, is not a lie that is all a lie it istruth torn from its natural place in the schemeof things, and so seen in false perspectivetruth is only true when seen in its due relationto the whole. Men are misled, not by thatwhich does not exista thing we may wellbelieve to be impossiblebut by followingthat which is true without regard to its com-plementary truths. This fact is nowhere soevident as in the case of mysticism, which,like liberty, has given the shelter of its nameto almost every conceivable aberration ofmoral conduct. The desire for God, pursuedoften by the most extravagant methods anddisguised under the most unlikely pretexts, isthe real motive-power of all human activitywhatsoever. Mysticism, on its purely humanside, is one road by which men seek for theheart's rest which all, even in spite of them-selves, desire. Whether within or without theChurch men will strive to see God, becausethey must ; the methods they adopt may be


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 41determined by varying temperaments or cir-cumstances, but among them has always beenand must always be the inner way theway of abstraction and contemplation, theeffort to pass beyond the many-coloured domeof life into the white radiance of true realitybeyond it.Now if the Church had nothing to say to

this deeply rooted and constantly manifesthuman desire, she would surely fall far shortof the place that she claims, and has heldsuccessfully from the first. Still more, if, likesome, she had condemned, as merely pre-sumptuous and delusive, the efforts of mankindto realise in some faint degree now the verylife which she promises hereafter, she wouldhave come perilously near to denying her ownauthority and commission. She would havesaid in effect to mankind, You are made forGod ; you are to look forward to the super-natural enjoyment of Him in Eternity, andthere is no limit to the favours which He canand may bestow on you here and now. Butone thing you may not have, one thing Heshall not do for youand that the one which


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42 MYSTICISMyou most desire you shall not have thebriefest or slightest foretaste here of theblessedness that is to be yours hereafter ; GodHimself, though He may do miracles of allsorts but this, shall not pierce the crust ofmaterial things which hides Him from you, orshow you the faintest spark of the radiancethat lies beyond it defense a Dieu defaire miracles en ce lieu. But the Church hasnever done anything of the kind. Mysticalknowledge has always been fully recognised byher as possible, and as existingwhether inthe Hebrew prophets, the Apostles of Christ,or the contemplatives of successive ages sincetheir day. Even for mystics, as such, with-out her pale she has had no condemnation ;she has condemned their misbelief, but haskept silence about their mysticism ; and inher theology and philosophy the phenomena ofmysticism have been dealt with and explainedin accordance with the methods which wereapplied to all other phases of human experi-ence. Not only a professed mystic likeDionysius, but a Clement, an Augustine, aThomas Aquinas, has each had his word to


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 43say and his ray, more or less brilliant, of lightto contribute to the sum total of the Church'swisdom, ever growing with the increasing ex-perience of the human race. The aspirationsof man towards immediate knowledge of Godand union with Him are therefore recognisedand adopted by the Church as a true part ofthat multifarious human energy which it isher function to direct, regulate and enlighten.Such aspirations are to find full satisfactionhereafter for those who are willing to beguided in their exercise ; they are partially tobe satisfied here, in a certain degree by thenatural contemplation which is the commonright of all Christians, and in a fuller measure,and after a higher and more perfect manner,in the supernatural contemplation which is theprivilege of comparatively few. Thus thetruth that underlies in different ways anddegrees the mystical theories and asceticpractices of Neoplatonist, Gnostic or Buddhist,Parsee or Mohammedan, is cleared from itssurroundings of mythological or theosophicalimagination and set in its place in the harmonyof truths which are made known by nature and


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 45clearer or more illuminating than this : ormore plainly illustrates the co-ordination andmutual support of the truths of nature andgrace in that comprehensive view of man'snature which is possible only to an organisa-tion which, as being both fully human and atthe same time truly divine, is able to maintaina perfect balance between the natural and thesupernatural.

It is therefore plain that mystical theology isnot the least precious of the Church's treasures.It resembles the way of life technically calledrelio^ious in its relation to the oreneral life ofthe faithful : it belongs not indeed to theesse, but to the bene esse of the Churchit is necessary not to its existence, but to itsintegrity. The mere existence of the religiouslife, in its various forms, is undoubtedly asource of joy and consolation and a moralsupport to countless persons who are veryfar from having a vocation themselves. Inthe same way, the recognition of the life ofmystical contemplation is an encouragementand happiness to many who (like the presentwriter) know nothing of it by personal experi-


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46 MYSTICISMence : and it can hardly be doubted that itsvakie in this respect would be more widelyand deeply appreciated if its nature werebetter understood than it is. It completes thecircle of the Church's adaptation to humanneeds, and brings together in the unity of adivinely human institution every temperament,as well as every class, occupation and moralcharacter ; and is in this aspect an importantfactor in that kind of moral evidence of thejustice of the Church's claims which is suppliedby the practical services she has rendered, andis daily rendering, to humanity in general.

2. The direct evidential value, as distinctfrom this indirect testimony of the Church'smystical theology, arises from its experimentalcharacter, as contrasted with the theoreticalnature of speculative theology. Thesymmetry and completeness of the body ofCatholic doctrine is admitted on all hands ; itis even said by some to be too complete andperfect to have any real bearing on a stateof things so fragmentary and unsystematic asthat of the world in which we have to live.The question is, Is it really true ? And to


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 47this question the answer is often given thatnobody knows, because it cannot be sub-mitted to any practical test. The complaintis, indeed, an unjust one, even on its owngrounds. For the consistency of Catholicdoctrine not merely with itself (though eventhat is something), but with other depart-ments of knowledge, in which fresh forms oftruth are continually emerging, really con-stitutes a practical test of the most stringentkind, and one which has been constantlyrepeated under ever - varying conditions fromthe first. But this is not a test of the kindwhich leaps to the eyes ; it does not impressby any external signs, or arrest the attentionof the careless and uninterested. It needs tobe pondered and considered in the light of adegree of knowledge which is not universallypossessed before its full significance can beappreciated. But the experience of the mysticis of quite a different character ; though itstestimony is perhaps less weighty in realitythan that of the failure of twenty centuries ofdiscovery to shake the credibility of revelation,it is more easily recognised and appeals to a


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48 MYSTICISMdifferent and less purely rational order of in-telligence. Mystics are, in fact, to the religionof the multitude very much what the pioneersof natural science are to the popular interest inthat subject. The mystics are the experi-mentalists of religion. We cannot all beNewtons or Faradays or Huxleys ; but ouroutlook on life is wider, and our apprecia-tion of the wonders of nature is deeper forresearches, of the nature and truth of whichour knowledge may be somewhat vague andimperfect. So, though few indeed may havethe gift or the merits of the great mystics,what they have seen is an assurance for allof the reality of the invisible universe, andof the truth of those experiences by whichall, whether mystics or not, are enabled insome degree to share with them the know-ledge and the enjoyment of divine things.For this purpose it is necessary indeed thatthe accounts given by mystics of their ex-periences should be as credible, at least, asthose which scientific experts give of theirresearches. But that this is really the caseno one who will give unprejudiced considera-


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TWO IDEAS OF MYSTICISM 49tion to the question can seriously doubt. It ismost unfortunate that the only two Englishauthors who have dealt specifically with thisaspect of the subject should have written underthe influence of a parti pris which, notwith-standing the erudition and acumen displayedby them, has deprived their judgment of allvalue.


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CHAPTER IISUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM

Mysticism has often been described, but seldomdefined ; and the definitions have not alwaysbeen satisfactory. Yet in order to have anyclear understanding of what is meant by aword used in so many different senses, it isvery necessary to begin with a definition ofthe precise idea which it originally connoted,and which underlies and forms the connectinglink among its various applications. Etymo-logically, mystics are those who have beeninitiated into the mysteries or esoteric ritesof Greek religion ; the juvcrrm, /me/t^v/jfjievoi, orfully instructed persons who were privilegedto take part in the ceremonies periodicallyperformed in honour of a god, from par-ticipation in which the general public wasexcluded. Any one or anything belonging

50


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SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM 51to the celebration of these sacred rites wasMystic even to the Mystica vannus'lacchi of Virgil ; and the two prominentideas connected with the word were conse-quentlyfirst, special knowledge obtained byinstruction (/Auew), and secondly, an obliga-tion or other necessity of secrecy in regard /to it (y.v(a)} The mystics are, in fact, the ^inner circle of the devotees of any cult ; theyare possessed of knowledge which partakesof the nature of revelation rather than ofacquired science, and which is imparted inconsideration of some special aptitude, naturalor acquired, such as is not found in the generalrun of mankind. It is further implied that theknowledge is of a transcendental kind, suchas may be supposed to be necessary for thedevout worship of a divine being ; this, how-ever, though obviously part of the originalmeaning of the term, is not always signifiedin its later uses. But the one idea commonto all uses is that of special knowledge con-fined to a corps d'dite of persons with a peculiar

* Mysticum interpretatur absconditum, Gerson, Myst.Theol^ I.


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5 MYSTICISM' aptitude for its acquisition. Thus the earlyChristian Church conceived itself to hold theposition of a body of mystics with regard tomankind in general : its members were thedepositaries of a revelation (Arcanum) not,at least in all points, accessible to the outsideworld ; they were initiated by the illumin-ating rite of baptism, and thereby admittedto participation in the other sacraments, ormysteries, of the Christian religion. ThusSt Paul (Phil. iv. 12) speaks of himself asfjLefjLv/jfxevog ; and in the Greek liturgies thepriest is directed to say the secret prayersfxva-riKocigin silence. Hence, in later times,any art or handicraft which made use oftraditional methods came to be known as aMystery. Its secrets were imparted to thenovice at or after his initiation into the guildor company by which it was carried on, andunder which he had served an apprenticeship :such arts and mysteries are still professed,though not always practised, by the guildswhich have survived to the present day.

But in the Church there has always beena circle within a circle ; within the body of


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SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM 53the initiated a body of those who have under-gone a further initiation ; among the instructedsome favoured ones who have received fullerinstruction.^ And whereas ihitiation into theChristian community has been entrusted bydivine authority to the Church itself, thefurther illumination of the selected is receiveddirectly from God. Hence has arisen by anatural transference the popular applicationof the term to any view or conception of thetranscendental or the unseen, to anything vague, vast and sentimental ; and henceagain the note of condemnation or contemptwhich was attached in England to the ideaof mysticism, as it was to its distant rela-tion enthusiasm, during the century endedsome fifty years agoa mystic during thatperiod being considered much the same thingas a visionary or a sentimentalist. The wordhas since then recovered from its temporary

^ Cf. Harnack, Mission and Expansion of Christianity^ vol. i.p. 237. Christianity gained special weight from the fact that,in the first place, it had mysterious secrets of its own, which itsought to fathom only to adore them once again in silence ; andsecondly, that it preached to the perfect in another and a deepersense than it did to simple folk.


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54 MYSTICISMdegradation ; and though it is still used some-what loosely, it no longer carries any burdenof offensiveness. The laxity of use from whichit still suffers consists in the emphasising ofone part of its full connotation to the practicalexclusion of the other : any knowledge or

-^experience, real or imaginary, which is beyondthe scope of ordinary sense-experience, is aptV to be called mystical. But such knowledge

is not mystical in the proper or strict sense,unless it is held also to be imparted, and notacquired by the independent exercise of thenatural powers. It would, of course, be absurdto contend that the conventional meaning ofa word, in many cases an enrichment ratherthan a perversion, has not at least as gooda claim to acceptance as its etymological one.But where, as in this case, the conventionaluses of the word have obscured the natureof the thing for which it originally stood, itis necessary to determine the sense in whichthe word is to be used in the discussion ofthe thing.The name was first applied in the sense in

which we have now defined it by Dionysius


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SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM 55whoever the author known under that namemay have been. The thing, however, wasundoubtedly known and recognised in theChurch from the beginning. The apostleswere certainly mystics in the fullest senseand the mystical tendencies of sub-apostolictimes are evidenced and fairly represented bythe Shepherd of Hermas, and the writingsand authentic acts of many of the earlymartyrs. The self-chosen title of St Ignatius,deocpopog, the God-bearer, implies a claim tothe possession of mystical experience of themost far-reaching kind. But mysticismorat least the temperament which seeks know-ledge by means of illumination rather thandiscursive reasoning belongs essentially tohuman nature, and appears, under one formor another, wherever thought is free.

Thus, to leave the Eastern theosophy out ofaccount, a mystical element appears, in greateror less degree, in all Greek philosophy, if themere negations of Pyrrhonism may be excepted.Before Socrates, Greek philosophers wereseers rather than reasoners : the apophtheg-matic character of their utterances affects to


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56 MYSTICISMbe the result rather of intuition than of reason-ing : and the dialectic of Plato, and even thelogical precision of Aristotle, led in the end,theoretically at least, to that pure contem-plation in which alone Aristotle conceivedthat beatitude consists. In the later Platonicschools mysticism tended more and more toreplace discursive reasoning ; contemplationrather than reasoned knowledge became moreand more definitely the object of philosophy,and ascetic self-discipline appeared a surer waythan argument to attain this end. Plotinus(whom M. Maeterlinck calls the one analyti-cal mystic ), and Proclus after him, presentthe doctrines of later Neoplatonism in a sys-tematic form, and are free from the magicaland theurgic extravagances into which itdegenerated in other hands.The two streams of Christian and Platonic

mysticism flowed together at Alexandria,where Philo had already grafted the flowerof Neoplatonic mysticism upon the stock ofJudaic theism. Together they produced aschool of religious philosophy in whichChristian faith sought, with more or less


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SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM 57success, to ally itself with the dialectic ofPlatonism, on the one hand, and on theother with the quest for direct illuminationthat characterised the later development ofthe Platonic schools. The mystical theologyof Dionysius represents, on the whole, thepermanent results of this combination. Inthis treatise we have a kind of grammarof mysticism in which principles alone areformulated, disengaged alike from the experi-ence and argumentation through which theyhad been evolved, and awaiting the fullerclothing of concrete personal experience subse-quently imparted to them by later mysticalwriters. Though received at first with sus-picion, the writings of Dionysius soon attaineda position of authority not less commandingin its day than that of St Thomas in latertimes. We could scarcely have had eitherthe Sentences or the Summa without themand their echoes may be heard, even when,as is not often the case, their direct influencemay not be detected, in every mystical writersince the time of their appearance.

It is probably a mistake to look for any


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58 MYSTICISMdirect filiation, or continuity of historical suc-cession, among the mystical writers of suc-cessive ages and periods. Here, as elsewhere,it can scarcely be doubted that the mostimportant part of history is that which hasnever been written. Mystical teachers andwriters were forced into prominence by circum-stances ; but it is more than probable thatcircumstances had no influence on the generalcraving for knowledge of the unseen andabiding reality which underlies the endlessvicissitudes of human life, as they couldhave none upon the sources from which thatneed is supplied. Such circumstances werethe ceaseless wars which made Europe onevast camp in the fourteenth and fifteenthcenturies, and the intellectual and moralupheavals of the age of the Renaissanceand the Reformation ; and in our own daythe breaking up of old traditions and institu-tions, and the birth of new principles, ideasand customs the forerunners, as it wouldseem, of a new order of things the characterof which no man can yet forecast. In suchtimes, when the instability of human things,


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SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM 59or the feebleness of human reason, is forcedwith special insistence upon men's notice,the teaching of the mystic has an attractiveforce which in quieter periods it seems tolack ; and it is at such times that a Gerson,a Tauler, a Ruysbroeck or a Teresa ismoved to tell of the inner way in whichtrue peace of mind may be found amidthe illusion, instability and restlessness ofoutward life. But it can hardly be doubtedthat in all times alike there are countlesselect souls to whom mystical knowledge isas the air they breathe, but who are morethan content to be mute and ingloriousto the end of their days.

It would have been strange if such anabiding demand of humanity in general hadnever been met with a counterfeit supply.Parallel with the current of true mysticismthere has been a nearly continuous succes-sion of the spurious kind in which, thoughconscious imposture is perhaps hardly to befound or suspected, a greater or less degreeof illusion is easily discernible. It wouldindeed scarcely be possible to say how far


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6o MYSTICISMthe Pythagorean contemplatives or the Neo-platonist ecstatics come under this head ; ^the latter, at least, have nothing in commonwith the theosophic extravagances of Gnostics,Montanists and later sects, whose militantpropagandism seems strangely at variancewith their professed principles. The initialinconsistency of the supposition that thedepositum of revelation needs to be super-seded, amplified or modified by mystical com-munications imparted to a single irresponsiblepersona Priscilla, a Mohammed, a Joachim,a Boehme or an Irvingof itself goes farto discredit the doctrines professedly soreceived. We shall consider later the criteriaby which the true is to be distinguishedfrom the false or doubtful mysticism ; it isenough for the present to remark thatmysticism forms no exception to the rule,that the value of precious things is attestedby the abundance of their imitators.

^ Tauler credits Proclus and Plato with a true mysticalknowledge of God {Sermon on StJohn Baptist).


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CHAPTER IIITHE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

The characteristic by which mystical statesor experiences of every kind are distinguishedfrom other states and experiences which havepoints of resemblance to them is that theyare directly and immediately supernatural.Mystical contemplation is the highest andclosest of those human relations with God ofwhich the opposite extreme is represented bythe condition of simple dependence, necessarilyinvolved in mere created existence. Im-mediately above this comes the recognitionby self-conscious beings of this dependence ;and after that, as a necessary consequence, therational deduction of the personal, infinite andsimple nature of God. Above this againcomes the sense of indirect personal relationswith God, through the medium of our created

6i


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62 MYSTICISMenvironment, and most completely and perfectlythrough the operation of grace. With thisconsciousness comes also inevitably the desireto cultivate these relations and maintain themat their highest point of efficacy ; and thusboth reason and free-will are drawn into theuniversal accord in which each element, fromthe lowest to the highest, fills its allotted placeand discharges its most congenial function.Rational beings who, by failing to recognisethese relations, choose to hold the position ofthe irrational and inanimate part of creationare, as rational beings, out of accord with thegeneral scheme : yet the loss is theirs only ;the scheme is not affected by their failure tooccupy the place which they might hold.They cannot but suffer individually from theconsequences of their choice which is toassimilate the rational to the irrational, thespiritual to the material ; but the scheme holdsgood for them as for the irrational beingswhose place they have elected to share.

But the crown and summit of the wholesystem is that direct intercourse of the soulwith God, which, ordinarily at least, pre-


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THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 63supposes the sacramental life of grace, butis itself something more than that.

It is a state in which the natural andordinary action of the soul is modified, andin which even the organic functions of thebody are to a certain extent in abeyance.We may therefore distinguish the threeconditions thus. First, the mere subjection,unconscious or involuntary, to the divinewill, which no created being can escape.Next, the conscious realisation of this generaldependence, which includes all that is meantby natural religion, and is enriched andamplified by the knowledge which revelationimparts, and the elevation of the naturalfaculties which is the effect of divine grace.To this state belongs the kind of contempla-tion known as natural or acquired (in thesense that it is obtained by the exercise ofthe natural powers). This state is sometimescalled mystical. But it is not truly so ; forit implies the exercise of natural powers onnatural objects, though under supernaturalguidance, but not the supersession of theirnatural objects by special and supernatural


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64 MYSTICISMinfluence. The mind in this state, illumin-ated by faith, but by the exercise of its ownreasoning power, conceives an ideasay ofthe Trinity, the Incarnation, the Sacramentalpresence of Christ, or the wonders of divineprovidenceand contemplates it with satisfac-tion, and even with delight and enthusiasm.The practice of ordinary meditation will lead,if not uniformly, at least occasionally to con-templation of this kind. Its object is notimmediately supernatural, though the actionof the mind takes place with supernaturalassistance ; and it does not differ in kind, norindeed always in degree, from such pleasurablecontemplation as is induced by mastering ascientific problem, following out a logical argu-ment, or even reading a poem or a novel. Inall these instances alike there are the sameelementsintellectual study, the developmentof a concept or idea, and the affective con-templation of it.^ Such meditation and con-

1 St Teresa, Castle, 4. i. 4. Sweetness in devotion . . .is natural, although ultimately it comes from the grace of God.We shall find that many temporal matters give us the samepleasure, such as unexpectedly coming into a large fortune,meeting with a friend, or succeeding in any important affair.


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THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 65templation, when their object is divine truth,are indeed the highest exercise of the naturalpowers. And the special supernatural impulseand support under which it takes place mustbe clearly distinguished from the mere divineconcursus, which is common to all human acts.

But the object of this contemplation is notin itself directly supernatural ; it is producedaccording to the general laws which can beobserved in all human thought and feeling.That is, such contemplation is not in the truesense mystical.The essentially supernatural character of

the truly mystical state is perhaps best illus-trated by the passivity which all writers onthe subject hold to be its most characteristicfeature. God is not discovered by the mystic ;indeed this special manifestation of Him maynot, strictly speaking, be even sought. Hemakes Himself known experimentally ; andthe person so favoured contributes nothing, atleast directly, to this result.^ In all natural

1 Such criticism as that of Mr Inge ( Christian Mysticism,pp. Ill, 112) would be perfectly just if mystical contemplationwere held to be a merely natural process. All the human mindcan do towards attaining it is merely negative, and in the


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66 MYSTICISMcognition i.e., in the acquisition of anythingthat may rightly be called knowledge, howevercomplex, recondite or elementarythere mustalways be a preponderating element of mentalactivity. There must be not merely sensa-tion and intelligent consciousness, but apper-ception the active direction of the mind tothe object before it, together with the complexprocess of analysis, abstraction, distinction andcomparison which underlies the simplest act ofcognition. Such activity is involved in theperception of a tree, a house or a flower, inthe reproduction by the help of imagination ormemory of an idea ; or in the recognition ofan acquaintance. But in all mystical statesthis process is absent. God takes possessionof the mental powers and focusses them uponHimself, and those which from their naturecannot be so focussed are left idle. Memory,imagination, or will may or may not be inuse, according to the nature of the experi-ence, but the discursive reason is necessarily innatural order the result of such mere negation or abstraction iszero. But it is just because of this that true mysticism is per-ceived to be supernatural. The blank can really be filled onlyby divine agency, not by human hypostatisation.


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THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 67abeyance. In point of fact, mystical cognitionis to the soul precisely what sensation is tothe body.We do not reason in order to ascertainwhether we feel heat or cold, pain or pleasure ;we are simply aware of the fact. Sensationcannot be defined, or even described, other-wise than in terms of other sensations ; andits occurrence is not susceptible of proof, other-wise than by very inconclusive circumstantialevidence. One cannot prove directly thatone has a toothache, or that the subject in ahypnotic trance has no sensation of the pinsthrust into his flesh by the operator ; we haveonly his word for it. In the same way,mystical experience is a matter of direct con-tact between God and the soul ; its conditionsmay possibly be ascertainable up to a certainpoint, as those of sensation are, but it cannotbe precisely either defined, explained orproved.^ It follows that the mystical experi-

1 Une ame recueillie sous le regard de Dieu peut, a I'aide deimagination, se representer Dieu present en elle. . . . Maiscette image de Dieu, dont nous sommes les auteurs, neressemble en rien a la realitd que la contemplation mystiquenous fait sentir. C'est Dieu lui-meme, et non plus son imageque nous apergevons. Lejeune, Vie Mystique, p. 10.


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68 MYSTICISMence is not to be obtained by any meanswithin the power of the person who desiresit. It is, obviously, no more possible to ensureexperience of this kind by any deliberatecourse of action than it is to obtain a particularkind of weather by the exercise of one's ownpowers. Here lies, in fact, the great practicaldifference between mystical states and thosewhich belong to the ordinary economy ofdivine grace, a difference which hardly seemsto have been always clearly present to theminds of some writers on the subject.By the fulfilment of certain conditions the

devout Christian can attain with certainty tothe enjoyment of an abundant measure ofgrace, sufficient or more than sufficient for allhis needs. The effects of prayer and of thesacraments are certain, and are within the reachof all who choose to make use of these meansof spiritual advancement. Moreover, therational appreciation of the mysteries of theChristian faith is open to all, independentlyof natural ability or acquired skill ; theyoffer an abundantly sufficient field to thereason and imagination of all men, whether


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70 MYSTICISMtowards either procuring them or determiningtheir special character. Mysticism is there-fore to be conceived as the raptus orecstasis of St Paul and St Thomas : ^ itis outside the natural sphere of human life,and in respect of all natural experience ithas consequently no place or function ; for itall natural objects of perception are involvedin darkness and ignorance, and theordinary functions of sense and intellect arefor the time being directed by the newsupernatural aptitude of which St John ofthe Cross speaks. Our Lord, says StTeresa, does not require the faculties orsenses to open the door of the heart to Him ;they are all asleep. We can do nothing,she adds, on our part.

Simple unity with God, says Ruysbroeck,can be felt and possessed by none, save bythose who stand before the immense bright-ness, without reason and without restraint. '

1 2 Cor. vii. ; Sufnma, 2. 2. 175 I. c, and cf. St Bernard (DeInter. Domo). Necesse est ad cor altum ascendere et mentisexcessu per divinam revelationam addiscere, quid sit illud adquod adspirare vel studere oporteat, et ad qualem sublimitatishabitum animum suum componere et assuescere debeat.

* Ruysbroeck, De Calculo.


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THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 71Thus the consciousness of free rational beingsreturns to that simplicity of divine relationswhich, at the other end of the scale ofcreation, appears as the perfect mechanicalfulfilment by inanimate and irrational creaturesof their divinely appointed destiny. Thehuman intellect has, in some sense, arrivedat the goal of its desires when it can sayut jumentum factus sum apud Te.Another obviously necessary consequence of

the passive condition of the soul which marksall truly mystical states is the certainty asto the real character of those states whichaccompanies them. Here, again, there is anexact parallel in sense - experience. Sensationis, as we have remarked, incapable of beingdefined or proved ; the one thing that weknow about it is that it occurs. Whateverthe conditions may be, and whether there isan adequate cause present or not, the oneindubitable fact in sensation is the certaintyof the experience. A person may feel coldin circumstances which cause others to feelhot ; or he may not feel anything underconditions which cause most people to feel


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72 MYSTICISMa great deal or again in some peculiaraffections of the nerves he may feel intensepain without any apparent cause. Yet hissensations are in every case undeniably facts.This is precisely the case of the mystic : heis certain of the divine communication, thoughhe cannot prove it ; and his conviction thatit is divine is unshakeable.^

It must, however, be clearly understood thatthis subjective certitude is not to be takenfor a proof that the experience so certified isa genuinely mystical one. Benedict XIV.,in his treatise De Canonisatione, gives a longlist of natural conditions which may give riseto apparently mystical experiences such asnervous excitement, hysteria, memory associa-tion and disease.^ Professor James gives anearly identical list of such causes. Certaintyis a conditio sine qua nonwithout it, no mysti-cal experience can be considered genuine,^ butit is not therefore inconsistent with decep-tion. Precisely the same thing, of course, may

^ James, Varieties^ loc. cit.^ Heroic Virtue (Oratorian translation), vol. iii. ch. x.' St Teresa, Castle, 5. i. 9 : A soul which does not feel this

assurance has not been united to God entirely.


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THE NATURE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 73be said about sensation. A sensation is afact of experience, and differs altogether fromthe most vivid imaginary presentment of thesame fact ; we can never mistake one for theother. But we may be widely mistaken asto the cause of our sensations ; and we may,on the other hand, be deluded by memory orimagination as to the actual occurrence of sensa-tions in the past. We may so vividly imaginecertain sensations as to think that we musthave actually experienced

mysticism - with a translation of the mystical theology of dionysius, and of the letters to caius...

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