“Well,” he said, “that is what I believe to have been an intellectual vision. There was no form or appearance or sound; but I can only express what was shown to me to be true, under those images. It almost seems to me as I look back now as if the air in the chapel were full of a murmurous sound and a luminous mist as the currents of need and grace went to and fro. But I know really that the silence was deep and the air dim.” Then I made a foolish remark. “If you feel like that about the Contemplative Life, I wonder you did not try to enter it yourself.” The priest looked at me for a moment. “It would be rash, surely, for a little shopkeeper of no particular ability to compete with Rothschild.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Under Which King? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “All such knowledge as this, whether it comes from God or not, can be but of little profit to the soul in the way of perfection, if it trusts to it: yea, rather, if it is not careful to reject it, ... it will bring upon it great evil; ... for all the dangers and inconveniences of the supernatural apprehensions, and many more, are to be found here.” _The Ascent of Mount Carmel_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Under Which King? WITHIN a day or two of our conversation on St. Teresa, I asked the old priest about what is called “Quietism.” A friend had given me an old copy of Molinos’ _Spiritual Guide_, and I knew that the writer had been condemned and imprisoned for life, and yet I could not understand in what lay his crime. “It is difficult to put into words,” said the priest, “or even to understand, why certain sentences are condemned, since it is probably possible to parallel them from other Catholic mystics whose names are honoured. Yet the fact remains that the result of Molinos’ teaching was neglect of the Sacraments and of external means of grace, which was not so in the case of the schools of other mystics.” “But I will tell you a story,” he went on, “to illustrate the effect of certain kinds of mysticism; and I must leave you to judge whether my friend was right or wrong in what he decided, for I must tell you first that the incident did not happen to me. On the whole I may say that I have my own opinion on the subject, but I will not tell you what it is, as sometimes I am strongly inclined to change it. However, you shall hear the story. Shall we take a stroll on the terrace?” And when we had reached it, he began: