A glance at the excellent Bibliographical Note at the end of the volume will reveal the surprising paucity of literature on Ruysbroeck in this country. A single version from the original of one short treatise, published in the present year, is all that we possess of direct translation; even in versions from translation there is only one treatise represented; add to this one or two selections of the same nature, and the full tale is told. We are equally poorly off for studies of the life and doctrine of the great Flemish contemplative of the fourteenth century. And yet Jan van Ruusbroec is thought, by no few competent judges, to be the greatest of all the mediæval Catholic mystics; and, indeed, it is difficult to point to his superior. Miss Evelyn Underhill is, therefore, doing lovers not only of Catholic mysticism, but also of mysticism in general, a very real service by her monograph, which deals more satisfactorily than any existing work in English with the life and teachings of one of the most spiritual minds in Christendom. Her book is not simply a painstaking summary of the more patent generalities of the subject, but rather a deeply sympathetic entering into the mind of Ruysbroeck, and that, too, with no common insight. PREFATORY NOTE I owe to the great kindness of my friend, Mrs. Theodore Beck, the translation of several passages from Ruysbroeck’s _Sparkling Stone_ given in the present work; and in quoting from _The Twelve Béguines_ have often, though not always, availed myself of the recently published version by Mr. John Francis. For all other renderings I alone am responsible. E. U. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. Ruysbroeck the Man 1 II. His Works 36 III. His Doctrine of God 52 IV. His Doctrine of Man 66 V. The Active Life 94 VI. The Interior Life: Illumination and Destitution 115 VII. The Interior Life: Union and Contemplation 136 VIII. The Superessential Life 164 Bibliographical Note 187 Luce divina sopra me s’ appunta, penetrando per questa ond’ io m’ inventro; La cui virtù, col mio veder conguinta, mi leva sopra me tanto, ch’ io veggio la somma essenza della quale è munta. Quinci vien l’ allegrezza, ond’ io fiammeggio; perchè alla vista mia, quant’ ella è chiara, la chiarità della fiamma pareggio. Par. xxi. 83.