musing to achieve union.”[92] 4. _Terminology of the soul’s reaction._ (1) Certain terms and conceptions in connection with the soul’s return to God, which are specially dear to Catherine, already appear, fully developed, in Dionysius, Proclus, and Plotinus; in part, even in Plato. Her “suddenly “ (_subito_) appears but rarely in Dionysius, _e.g._ in _Heavenly Hierarchy_ xv, 2; but it is carefully explained by him in his Third Epistle, specially devoted to the subject.[93] It is common in Plotinus: “Suddenly the soul saw, without seeing how it saw”; “suddenly thou shalt receive light,” “suddenly shining.”[94] And in Plato we find: “He who has learnt to see the Beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes towards the end, will suddenly perceive a Nature of wondrous beauty--Beauty alone, absolute, separate, simple and everlasting”: a passage which derives its imagery from the Epopteia of the Eleusynian Mysteries,--the sudden appearance, the curtain being withdrawn, upon the stage whereon the Heathen Mystery-play was being performed, under a peculiar fairy-illumination, of the figures of Demeter, Kore, and Iacchus, as the culmination of a long succession of purifications and initiations.[95] Catherine’s “wound,” or “wounding stroke,” (_ferita_), is, in part, the necessary consequence of the “arrow” conception already considered; in part, the echo of that group of terms which, in Dionysius and Proclus even more than in Plotinus, express the painfully sudden and overwhelming, free-grace character of God’s action upon the soul,--especially of ἐπιβολή, “immissio,” a “coming-upon,” a “hitting,” a very common word in the Areopagite; μετοχή, “communication,” and παραδοχή, “reception,” being the corresponding terms for God’s and the soul’s share in this encounter respectively. Thus: “Unions, whether we call them immissions or receptions from God.”[96]