There are many facts reported on more or less probable evidence, and extraordinary phenomena, belonging to diabolical and natural mysticism, which receive at least a plausible explanation on the same hypothesis. To refer all these to subjective affections of the external or internal senses and the imagination does not seem to be quite sufficient for their full explanation. It appears like bending and straining the facts of experience too violently, for the sake of a theory which, perhaps, is conceived in too exclusive and literal a sense. At all events it is worth investigation and discussion whether the _dictum_ of St. Thomas, _intelligere absque phantasmate modo non potest_, does not admit of and require some modification, by which it is restricted to those intellectual perceptions which belong to the normal, ordinary condition of man within the limits of the purely natural order. [35] Complete works, vol. iii. p. 208. [36] _Sancta Sophia_, treatise iii. sec. iv. chap. i. par. 5-12. [37] _Dell’Uomo._ Trattato del P. Matteo Liberatore, D.C.D.G. Vol. ii. Dell’Anima Humana, seconda ed. corretta ed accresciuta. Roma. Befani: Via delle Stimate 23, 1875. Capo x. Dell’Anima separata dal Corpo. [38] _Summ. Theol._, i. p. qu. 89, art i. [39] Qq. disp. ii. _de Anima_, art. 19 ad 13. AVILA. Mira tu muro dichoso Que te rodea y corona, Pues de tantos victorioso! Mverece (en triumpho glorioso), Cada almena su corona. ――_Ariz grandezas de Avila._ It was on the 31st of January, 1876, we left the Escorial to visit the _muy leal, muy magnifica, y muy noble_ city of Avila――_Avila de los Caballeros_, once famed for its valiant knights, and their daring exploits against the Moors, but whose chief glory now is that it is the birthplace of St. Teresa, whom all Christendom admires for her genius and venerates for her sanctity.