Mysticism in English Literature | Page 7

of this lower life, which can never satisfy them,
and they are ignorant of their own true nature and essence. In order to
return home, the soul has to retrace the path along which she came, and

the first step is to get to know herself, and so to know God. (See Enn.
vi. 9, § 7.) Thus only can she be restored to the central unity of the
universal soul. This first stage on the upward path is the purgative life,
which includes all the civic and social virtues, gained through general
purification, self-discipline, and balance, with, at the same time, a
gradual attainment of detachment from the things of sense, and a desire
for the things of the spirit.
The next step is to rise up to mind (Enn. v. 1, § 3) to the world of pure
thought, the highest unity possible to a self-conscious being. This is
often called the illuminative life, and it might be summed up as
concentration of all the faculties--will, intellect, feeling--upon God.
And lastly comes the unitive life, which is contemplation, the intense
desire of the soul for union with God, the momentary foretaste of
which has been experienced by many of the mystics. This last stage of
the journey home, the supreme Adventure, the ascension to the One
above thought, this cannot be spoken of or explained in words, for it is
a state beyond words, it is "a mode of vision which is ecstasy." When
the soul attains to this state, the One suddenly appears, "with nothing
between," "and they are no more two but one; and the soul is no more
conscious of the body or of whether she lives or is a human being or an
essence; she knows only that she has what she desired, that she is
where no deception can come, and that she would not exchange her
bliss for the whole of Heaven itself" (paraphrased from Enn. vi. 7, §
24).
The influence of Plotinus upon later Christian mysticism was immense,
though mainly indirect, through the writings of two of his spiritual
disciples, St Augustine (354-450), and the unknown writer, probably of
the early sixth century, possibly a Syrian monk, who ascribes his works
to Dionysius the Areopagite, the friend of St Paul. The works of
"Dionysius" were translated from Greek into Latin by the great Irish
philosopher and scholar, John Scotus Erigena (Eriugena), and in that
form they widely influenced later mediæval mysticism.
The fusion of Eastern mysticism with Christianity finally brought about
the great change which constitutes the difference between Eastern and

Western mysticism, a change already foreshadowed in Plato, for it was
in part the natural outcome of the Greek delight in material beauty, but
finally consummated by the teachings of the Christian faith. Eastern
thought was pure soul-consciousness, its teaching was to annihilate the
flesh, to deny its reality, to look within, and so to gain enlightenment.
Christianity, on the other hand, was centred in the doctrine of the
Incarnation, in the mystery of God the Father revealing Himself in
human form. Hence the human body, human love and relationships
became sanctified, became indeed a means of revelation of the divine,
and the mystic no longer turned his thoughts wholly inwards, but also
outwards and upwards, to the Father who loved him and to the Son who
had died for him. Thus, in the West, mystical thought has ever
recognised the deep symbolism and sacredness of all that is human and
natural, of human love, of the human intellect, and of the natural world.
All those things which to the Eastern thinker are but an obstruction and
a veil, to the Western have become the very means of spiritual
ascent[5]. The ultimate goal of the Eastern mystic is summed up in his
assertion, "I am Brahman," whereas the Western mystic believes that
"he who sees the Infinite in all things, sees God."
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the mystical tradition was carried
on in France by St Bernard (1091-1153), the Abbot of Clairvaux, and
the Scotch or Irish Richard of the Abbey of St Victor at Paris, and in
Italy, among many others, by St Bonaventura (1221-1274), a close
student of Dionysius, and these three form the chief direct influences
on our earliest English mystics.
England shares to the full in the wave of mystical experience, thought,
and teaching which swept over Europe in the fourteenth and early
fifteenth centuries, and at first the mystical literature of England, as
also of France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, is purely religious or
devotional in type, prose treatises for the most part containing practical
instruction for the inner life, written by hermits, priests, and
"anchoresses." In the fourteenth century we have a group of such
writers of great power and beauty, and in