E-text prepared by Ruth Hart ruthhart@twilightoracle.com Transcriber's note: In the original book, the Table of Contents was located after the Preface, but I have placed it at the beginning of the text for this online version. PRACTICAL MYSTICISM by EVELYN UNDERHILL Author of "Mysticism," "The Mystic Way," "Immanence: A Book of Verses." "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through the narrow chinks of his cavern." WILLIAM BLAKE New York E.P. Dutton & Company 681 Fifth Avenue Copyright 1915 by E.P. Dutton & Company TO THE UNSEEN FUTURE CONTENTS Preface vii I. What is Mysticism 1 II. The World of Reality 13 III. The Preparation of the Mystic 21 IV. Meditation and Recollection 56 V. Self-Adjustment 29 VI. Love and Will 74 VII. The First Form of Contemplation 87 VIII. The Second Form of Contemplation 105 XI. The Third Form of Contemplation 126 X. The Mystical Life 148 PREFACE This little book, written during the last months of peace, goes to press in the first weeks of the great war. Many will feel that in such a time of conflict and horror, when only the most ignorant, disloyal, or apathetic can hope for quietness of mind, a book which deals with that which is called the "contemplative" attitude to existence is wholly out of place. So obvious, indeed, is this point of view, that I had at first thought of postponing its publication. On the one hand, it seems as though the dreams of a spiritual renaissance, which promised so fairly but a little time ago, had perished in the sudden explosion of brute force. On the other hand, the thoughts of the English race are now turned, and rightly, towards the most concrete forms of action--struggle and endurance, practical sacrifices, difficult and long-continued effort--rather than towards the passive attitude of self-surrender which is all that the practice of mysticism seems, at first sight, to demand. Moreover, that deep conviction of the dependence of all human worth upon eternal values, the immanence of the Divine Spirit within the human soul, which lies at the root of a mystical concept of life, is hard indeed to reconcile with much of the human history now being poured red-hot from the cauldron of war. For all these reasons, we are likely during the present crisis to witness a revolt from those superficially mystical notions which threatened to become too popular during the immediate past.