Nature Mysticism

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Nature Mysticism

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nature Mysticism, by J. Edward Mercer This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Nature Mysticism
Author: J. Edward Mercer
Release Date: June 9, 2006 [EBook #18539]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURE MYSTICISM ***

Produced by Ruth Hart

NATURE MYSTICISM
BY
J. EDWARD MERCER, D.D., OXON. BISHOP OF TASMANIA
LONDON GEORGE ALLEN & COMPANY, Ltd. 44 & 45 RATHBONE PLACE
1913
All rights reserved
PREFACE
The aims of this study of Nature Mysticism, and the methods adopted for attaining them, are sufficiently described in the introductory chapter. It may be said, by way of special preface, that the nature mystic here portrayed is essentially a "modern." He is assumed to have accepted the fundamentals of the hypothesis of evolution. Accordingly, his sympathy with the past is profound: so also is his sense of the reality and continuity of human development, physical, psychic, and mystical. Moreover, he tries to be abreast of the latest critical and scientific conclusions. Imperfections manifold will be discovered in the pages that follow; but the author asks that a percentage of them may be attributed to the difficulties of writing in Tasmania and publishing at the antipodes.
J. E. M.
Bishop's Court, Hobart, March, 1912.

CONTENTS
Chapter I.
Introductory 1
Chapter II.
Nature, and the Absolute 7
Chapter III.
Mystic Intuition and Reason 15
Chapter IV.
Man and Nature 23
Chapter V.
Mystic Receptivity 30
Chapter VI.
Development and Discipline of Intuition 38
Chapter VII.
Nature not Symbolic 45
Chapter VIII.
The Charge of Anthropomorphism 54
Chapter IX.
The Immanent Idea 65
Chapter X.
Animism, Ancient and Modern 71
Chapter XI.
Will and Consciousness in Nature 79
Chapter XII.
Mythology 90
Chapter XIII.
Poetry and Nature Mysticism 97
Chapter XIV.
The Beautiful and the Ugly 106
Chapter XV.
Nature Mysticism and the Race 117
Chapter XVI.
Thales 123
Chapter XVII.
The Waters under the Earth 129
Chapter XVIII.
Springs and Wells 138
Chapter XIX.
Brooks and Streams 145
Chapter XX.
Rivers and Life 151
Chapter XXI.
Rivers and Death 158
Chapter XXII.
The Ocean 165
Chapter XXIII.
Waves 172
Chapter XXIV.
Still Waters 179
Chapter XXV.
Anaximenes and the Air 187
Chapter XXVI.
Winds and Clouds 192
Chapter XXVII.
Heracleitus and the Cosmic Fire 203
Chapter XXVIII.
Fire and the Sun 211
Chapter XXIX.
Light and Darkness 222
Chapter XXX.
The Expanse of Heaven--Colour 228
Chapter XXXI.
The Moon--A Special Problem 235
Chapter XXXII.
Earth, Mountains, and Plains 242
Chapter XXXIII.
Seasons, Vegetation, Animals 248
Chapter XXXIV.
Pragmatic 257
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
A wave of Mysticism is passing over the civilised nations. It is welcomed by many: by more it is mistrusted. Even the minds to which it would naturally appeal are often restrained from sympathy by fears of vague speculative driftings and of transcendental emotionalism. Nor can it be doubted that such an attitude of aloofness is at once reasonable and inevitable. For a systematic exaltation of formless ecstasies, at the expense of sense and intellect, has a tendency to become an infirmity if it does not always betoken loss of mental balance. In order, therefore, to disarm natural prejudice, let an opening chapter be devoted to general exposition of aims and principles.
The subject is Nature Mysticism. The phenomena of "nature" are to be studied in their mystical aspects. The wide term Mysticism is used because, in spite of many misleading associations, it is hard to replace. "Love of nature" is too general: "cosmic emotion" is too specialised. But let it at once be understood that the Mysticism here contemplated is neither of the popular nor of the esoteric sort. In other words, it is not loosely synonymous with the magical or supernatural; nor is it a name for peculiar forms of ecstatic experience which claim to break away from the spheres of the senses and the intellect. It will simply be taken to cover the causes and the effects involved in that wide range of intuitions and emotions which nature stimulates without definite appeal to conscious reasoning processes. Mystic intuition and mystic emotion will thus be regarded, not as antagonistic to sense impression, but as dependent on it--not as scornful of reason, but merely as more basic and primitive.
Science describes nature, but it cannot feel nature; still less can it account for that sense of kinship with nature which is so characteristic of many of the foremost thinkers of the day. For life is more and more declaring itself to be something fuller than a blind play of physical forces, however complex and sublimated their interactions. It reveals a ceaseless striving--an elan vital (as Bergson calls it) to expand and enrich the forms of experience--a reaching forward to fuller beauty and more perfect order.
A certain amount of metaphysical discussion will be necessary; but it will be reduced to the minimum compatible with coherency. Fortunately, Nature Mysticism can be at home with diverse world-views. There is, however, one exception--the world-view which is based on the concept of an Unconditioned Absolute. This will be unhesitatingly rejected as subversive of any genuine "communion"