Ruysbroek expressed himself in these words to Gerard Groot (Engelhardt, p. 168). In his touching description of the ‘desolation’ endured by the soul on its way upward toward the ‘super-essential contemplation,’ he makes the sufferer say,—‘O Lord, since I am thine (want ich din eygen bin), I would as soon be in hell as in heaven, if such should be thy good pleasure; only do thy glorious will with me, O Lord!‘—_Geistl. Hochzeit_, § 30. Ruysbroek, like Fénelon, abandons himself thus only on the supposition that even in hell he should still retain the divine favour;—so impossible after all is the absolute disinterestedness toward which Quietism aspires. The Flemish mystic distinguishes between the servants of God, the friends, and the sons. Those worshippers who stand in the relation of friends have still something of their own (besitten oer inwendichkeit mit eygenscap) in their love to God. The sons ascend, ‘dying-wise,’ to an absolute emptiness. The friends still set value on divine bestowments and experiences; the sons are utterly dead to self, in bare modeless love (in bloeter, wiseloeser mynnen). Yet, very inconsistently, he represents the sons as more assured of eternal life than the friends. (_Von dem funkelnden Steine_, § 8.) Footnote 155: A veritable personage. He died in 1377, and left behind him a book recording the conflicts he underwent and the revelations vouchsafed him. (Engelhardt, p. 326.) Footnote 156: The lyrics of Muscatblut are characterised by Gervinus (ii. p. 225), and the same authority gives some account, from the _Limburg Chronicle_, of the famous friar, leper, and poet mentioned by Arnstein. CHAPTER VIII. Unde planctus et lamentum? Quid mentem non erigis? Quid revolvis monumentum? Tecum est quem diligis; Jesum quæris, et inventum Habes, nec intelligis. Unde gemis, unde ploras? Verum habes gaudium. In te latet quod ignoras Doloris solatium. Intus habes, quæris foras Languoris remedium.[157] HYMN OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Vivo sin vivir mi, Y tan alta vida espero Que muero porque no muero.[158] ST. THERESA. On the next evening Atherton resumed his reading as follows:— _Chronicle of Adolph Arnstein, continued._