Mysticism in English LiteratureSpurgeon, Caroline F. E. (Caroline Frances Eleanor)
Religion
Mysticism in English Literature
Spurgeon, Caroline F. E. (Caroline Frances Eleanor)
English literature -- History and criticism; Mysticism -- Great Britain; Mysticism in literature
Again, Bergson points out that there is nothing but movement; that the
idea of _rest_ is an illusion, produced when we and the thing we are
looking at are moving at the same speed, as when two railway trains run
side by side in the same direction. Here, once more, may not the mystic
sensation of "stillness," of being at one with the central Life, be
owing to some change having taken place in the spiritual rhythm of the
seer, approximating it to that of the Reality which he is thus enabled
to perceive, so that the fretful movement of the individual mind becomes
merged in the wider flow of the whole, and both seem to be at rest?
Thus, the most recent philosophy throws light on the most ancient mystic
teaching, and both point to the conclusion that our normal waking
consciousness is but one special type of many other forms of
consciousness, by which we are surrounded, but from which we are, most
of us, physically and psychically screened. We know that the
consciousness of the individual self was a late development in the race;
it is at least possible that the attainment of the consciousness that
this individual self forms part of a larger Whole, may prove to be yet
another step forward in the evolution of the human spirit. If this be
so, the mystics would appear to be those who, living with an intensity
greater than their fellows, are thus enabled to catch the first gleams
of the realisation of a greater self. In any case, it would seem
certain, judging from their testimony, that it is possible, by applying
a certain stimulus, to gain knowledge of another order of consciousness
of a rare and vivifying quality. Those who have attained to this
knowledge all record that it must be felt to be understood, but that, so
far as words are of use, it is ever of the nature of a reconciliation;
of discord blending into harmony, of difference merging into unity.
Bibliography
NOTE.--The literature on mysticism is growing very large, and the
following is only a small selection from the general works on it. In the
case of individual writers, references are given only where there might
be difficulty about editions. Thus no references are given to the works
of Burke, Carlyle, Wordsworth, Shelley, Tennyson, Browning, etc.
General
Underhill, Evelyn. _Mysticism_, Methuen, 1911. (See the valuable
Bibliography of mystical works, pp. 563-585.) _The Mystic Way_, Dent,
1913.
Jones, Rufus M. _Studies in Mystical Religion_, Macmillan, 1909.
James, William. _The Varieties of Religious Experience_, Longmans Green,
1905.
Inge, W. R. _Christian Mysticism_, Methuen, 1899. _Studies of English
Mystics_, Murray, 1905. _Light, Life and Love._ Selections from the
German mystics. With Introduction. Methuen, 1904.
Hügel, Baron F. von. _The Mystical Element in Religion_, 2 vols.. Dent,
1909.
Delacroix, H. _Études d'Histoiré et de Psychologie du Mysticisme_,
Paris, 1908.
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