Here is a list of the writings of Ruysbroeck, the sum-total of which is very large. _The Book of the Twelve Beguines_; _The Mirror of Eternal Salvation_; _The Book of the Spiritual Tabernacle_; _The Sparkling Stone_; _The Book of Supreme Truth_; _The Book of the Seven Steps of Spiritual Love_; _The Book of the Seven Castles_; _The Book of the Kingdom of the Beloved_; _The Book of the Four Temptations_; _The Book of the Twelve Virtues_; _The Book of Christian Faith_, and _The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage_. There are besides seven letters, two hymns, and a prayer, to which Surius gave these titles, _Epistolae septem utiles_, _Cantiones duæ admodum spirituales_, and _Oratio perbrevis sed pia valde_, the original texts of which I have not been able to discover in any of the Flemish manuscripts. Some years ago the greater number of these writings were edited with the utmost care by a society of Flemish bibliophiles--_De Maetschappij der Vlaemsche Bibliophilen_--and most of this translation has been made from the excellent text of that edition. I shall not undertake to give here an analysis of these different works; such an analysis would be difficult, monotonous, and useless. All the books of our author treat exclusively of the same science: a theosophy peculiar to Ruysbroeck, the minute study of the introversion and introspection of the soul, the contemplation of God above all similitudes and likenesses, and the drama of the divine love on the uninhabitable peaks of the spirit. I shall therefore content myself with giving some characteristic extracts from each of these writings. _The Book of the Twelve Beguines_, in the Latin translation of Surius, is entitled _De vera contemplatione, opus præclarum, variis divinis institutionibus, eo quo Spiritus Sanctus suggessit ordine descriptis, exuberans_. This title explains more exactly the nature of the work, but is not to be found in any of the early manuscripts. The truth is that Ruysbroeck, following the custom of his age, seldom gave a title to his writings, and the titles by which they are now known, as well as the marginal rubrics of the chapters, have apparently been interpolated by the copyists. In the edition of the _Maetschappij der Vlaemsche Bibliophilen_ we find collected under the title, _Dat boec van den twaelf beghinen_, first of all that treatise on the contemplative life mentioned by Surius, next a kind of manual of symbolical astrology, and lastly some thoughts on the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The three works are marked off from each other with more or less distinctness, and Ruysbroeck evidently fixes the place where he forsakes the inner universe and descends to the visible firmament, when he says at the end of chapter xxxi., “And after this I leave the contemplative life, which is God Himself, and which He grants to those who have renounced self and have followed His Spirit to where, in eternal glory, He rejoices in Himself and in His chosen.”