The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of the new Gospel of InterpretationMaitland, Edward
Religion
The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of the new Gospel of Interpretation
Maitland, Edward
Kingsford, Anna Bonus, 1846-1888; Mysticism
The moment of contact between my destined colleague and myself, was as
critical for one as for the other, only that in my case the crisis was
intellectual. I could see to the end of the argument I was then
elaborating; and that it landed me close to the dividing barrier between
the two worlds of sense and spirit, supposing the latter to have any
being[16]. But I neither saw beyond, nor knew how to ascertain whether
or not there is a beyond. We were discussing the question of there being
an inner sense in Scripture, such as my book suggested; and whether,
supposing it to have such a sense, it required for its discernment any
faculty more recondite than a subtle imagination; and if it did, is
there such a faculty? and what is its nature? By which it will be seen
that I was still in ignorance of the nature of the faculty I found in
myself and recognised as especially subsisting in women, and which, for
me, really made the woman.
The reply rendered by her to these questionings constituted the proof
positive that I had at length discovered the mind which my own had so
long craved as its sorely needed complement. In response to them she
gave me a manuscript in her own writing, asking me to read it and tell
her frankly what I thought of it. Having read and re-read it, I
enquired how and where she had got it. She replied by asking what I
thought of it. I answered, "If there is such a thing as divine
revelation, I know of nothing that comes nearer to my ideal of what it
ought to be. It is exactly what the world is perishing for want of--a
reasonable faith." She then told me that it had come to her in her
sleep, but whence or how she did not know; nor could she say whether she
had seen it or heard it, but only that it came suddenly into her mind,
without her having ever heard or thought of such teaching before. It was
an exposition of the Story of the Fall, exhibiting it as a parable
having a significance purely spiritual, wholly reasonable, and of
universal application, physical persons, things, and events described in
it disappearing in favour of principles, processes, and states
appertaining to the soul; no mere local history, therefore, but an
eternal verity. The experience, she went on to tell me, was far from
exceptional; she had received many things which had greatly struck and
pleased her in the same way, and sometimes while in the waking state in
a sort of day-dream. It was subsequently incorporated into our book,
"The Perfect Way."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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