Comparative literature; Degeneration; Europe -- Intellectual life
In one part or another of his mental field of vision each of us
therefore is a mystic. From all the phenomena which he himself has not
observed, everyone forms shadowy, unstable presentations. Nevertheless,
it is easy to distinguish healthy men from those who deserve the
designation of mystic. There is a sure sign for each. The healthy man
is in a condition to obtain sharply-defined presentations from his
own immediate perceptions, and to comprehend their real connection.
The mystic, on the contrary, mixes his ambiguous, cloudy, half-formed
liminal representations with his immediate perceptions, which are
thereby disturbed and obscured. Even the most superstitious peasant
has definite presentations of his field work, of the feeding of his
cattle, and of looking after his landmark. He may believe in the
weather-witch, because he does not know how the rain comes to pass,
but he does not wait a moment for the angels to plough for him. He may
have his field blessed, because the real conditions of the thriving
or perishing of his seed are beyond his ken, but he will never so
put his trust in supernatural favour as to omit sowing his grain.
All the genuine mystic’s presentations, on the contrary, even those
of daily experience, are permeated and overgrown with that which is
incomprehensible, because it is without form. His want of attention
makes him incapable of apprehending the real connecting links between
the simplest and most obviously related phenomena, and leads him to
deduce them from one or another of the hazy, intangible presentations
wavering and wandering in his consciousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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