Hours with the Mystics: A Contribution to the History of Religious OpinionVaughan, Robert Alfred
Religion
Hours with the Mystics: A Contribution to the History of Religious Opinion
Vaughan, Robert Alfred
Mysticism -- History
On a basis similar to that of Hugo, Richard erects six stages of
Contemplation. The two first grades fall within the province of
Imagination; the two next belong to Reason; the two highest to
Intelligence. The objects of the first two are _Sensibilia_; of the
second pair, _Intelligibilia_ (truths concerning what is invisible,
but accessible to reason); of the third, _Intellectibilia_ (unseen
truth above reason). These, again, have their subdivisions, into
which we need not enter.[68] Within the depths of thine own soul, he
would say, thou wilt find a threefold heaven—the imaginational, the
rational, and the intellectual. The third heaven is open only to the
eye of Intelligence—that Eye whose vision is clarified by divine
grace and by a holy life. This Eye enjoys the immediate discernment
of unseen truth, as the eye of the body beholds sensible objects.
His use of the word Intelligence is not always uniform. It would
seem that this divinely-illumined eye of the mind is to search first
into the deeps of our own nature (_inferiora invisibilia nostra_),
and then upward into the heights of the divine (_superiora
invisibilia divina_).[69]
For the highest degrees of Contemplation penitence avails more than
science; sighs obtain what is impossible to reason. This exalted
intuition begins on earth, and is consummated in heaven. Some, by
divine assistance, reach it as the goal of long and arduous effort.
Others await it, and are at times rapt away unawares into the heaven
of heavens. Some good men have been ever unable to attain the
highest stage; few are fully winged with all the six pinions of
Contemplation. In the ecstasy he describes, there is supposed to be
a dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit as by the sword of the
Spirit of God. The body sleeps, and the soul and all the visible
world is shut away. The spirit is joined to the Lord, and one with
Him,—transcends itself and all the limitations of human thought. In
such a moment it is conscious of no division, of no change; all
contraries are absorbed, the part does not appear less than the
whole, nor is the whole greater than a part; the universal is seen
as particular, the particular as universal; we forget both all that
is without and all that is within ourselves; all is one and one is
all; and when the rapture is past the spirit returns from its trance
with a dim and dizzy memory of unutterable glory.[70]
This account presents in some parts the very language in which
Schelling and his disciples are accustomed to describe the privilege
of Intellectual Intuition.
ATHERTON. I move thanks to Gower.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account