[20]Jacob Bšhme's experience is typical: "Suddenly did my spirit break through into the innermost birth or geniture of the Deity, and there was I embraced with love, as a bridegroom embraces his dearly beloved bride. But the greatness of the triumphing that was in the spirit I cannot express in speech or writing; nor can it be compared to anything but the resurrection of the dead to life. In this light my spirit suddenly saw through all; even in herbs and grass it knew God, who and what He is," etc. Dr Johnson was, no doubt, right in thinking that "Jacob" would have been wiser, and "more like St Paul," if he had not attempted to utter the unutterable things which he saw. [21]The extracts from the "Theologia Germanica" will show that this treatise represents a later and less paradoxical form of mystical thought than Eckhart's. [22]The maxim, however, is much older than Suso. [23]Royce: "The World and the Individual" vol. i. p. 193. [24]So in the "Lignum Vitae" of Laurentius Justinianus we read: "Let self-will cease, and there will be no more hell." [25] "The Inner Way," being thirty-six sermons by John Tauler. Translated by A.W. Hutton, M.A. [26]On the psychology of ecstatic mysticism see Leuba, in the Revue Philosophique, July and November 1902. [27] "Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 13. [28]Maudsley: "Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings," p. 256. [29]See Leuba: "Tendances religieuses chez les mystiques chrétiens" in Revue Philosophique, Nov. 1902. [30] "Theologia Germanica," translated by Susanna Winkworth. Macmillan & Co., 1893. [31] "Varieties of Religious Experience," 1902. [32] "Personal Idealism," 1902. [33] "Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 103. [34] "In Tune with the Infinite," by R.W. Trine (Bell & Sons, 1902). Fifty-ninth thousand. The extract appears to be a quotation from another writer, but no reference is given. [35]Compare Eckhart's saying that the eye with which I see God is the same as the eye with which He sees me. [36] "In Tune with the Infinite," pp. 58, 119. [37]The numbers refer to pages in Pfeiffer's edition. [38]The numbers refer to the Sermons in Hamberger's edition of 1864. [39]The reference is to 1 Peter iii. 8. [40]The time would, I suppose, be about half-an-hour. Many other ecstatics have named this as the normal duration of trance. [41]Or, "spoke the eternal Wisdom (= the Word of God) in his heart." [42]John i. 3, 4. This punctuation, whereby the words "that which was made" are referred to the clause which follows, and not to that which precedes, is adopted by most of the Greek fathers, and is still maintained by some good commentators--e.g. Bishop Westcott. [43]Ecclus. xxiv. 19. [44]Ecclus. xl. 20.