Mysticism in English Literature

and Relig

Christian religion, as is the case with our earliest mystics, with Crashaw and Francis Thompson and it applies in some measure to Blake. But beyond this, it seems, in more general terms, to apply specially to those

, a system, and a profound scheme of the universe revealed to him in vision. But within what category could Blake be imprisoned? He outsoars them all and includes the

nd Richard of St Victor), and it is this type of thought and belief cast into the mould of the Catholic Church that we find mainly in the

w, and they are often subtle exponents of the deepest mystical truths and teac

ssion in our poetry of passionate yearning of the soul towards Christ as her true lover, and of the joy of mystic union with Him. A maid of Christ, says the poet, has begged him to

Paris an

bright and f

ristram a

and all

h his sch

iche of wor

glyden ut o

hef is of

Helen and all bright lovers have passed

rest, truest, and richest in the whole world. Henry, King of England, is his v

he he send

h for to b

the passionate delight and joy and peace of the soul in attaining

probably early in the thirteenth century. An account is there given, quite unsurpassed for delicate beauty, of the wooing of the soul by God.[54] On the whole, however, this type of mysticism is rare in England, and we scarcely meet it again after these early writers until we come to the poems of Crashaw. The finest expression of it is the Song of Solomon, and it is easy to see that such a form of symbolism is specially liable to degradation, and is open to grave dangers, which it has not always escaped. Yet, in no other terms

much of the religious writing of this time is still in manuscript. The country was full of devotees who had taken religious vows, which they fulfilled either in the many monasteries an

ee rooms built generally against the church wall, so that one of her windows could open into the church, and another, veiled by a curtain, looked on to the outer world, where she held converse with and gave counsel to those

said, gave him wisdom and subtlety, and he preached a religion of love. Indeed the whole of his work is a symphony of feeling, a song of Love, and forms a curious reaction against the exaltation of reason and logic in scholasticism. He wrote a large number of treatises and poems, both in Latin and English, lyrical songs and alliterative homilies, burning spiritual rhapsodies and sound practical sermons, all of which were widely known and read. Certain points about Rolle are of special interest and distinguish him from other mystics and seers. One is that for him the culminating mystical experience took the form of melody, rhythm, harmony. He is the most musical of mystics, and where others "see" or "feel" Reality,

ich he gives the names of "calor, canor, dulcor," heat, song, and sweetness. "Heat soothly I call when the mind tr

tates, and possibly the cryptic notes made by Pascal record a similar experience.[57] He continued in this warmth for nine months, when suddenly he felt and hear

manner I wot not, in me the sound of song I felt; and likeliest heavenly melody I took, with me dwelling in mind. Forsooth my thought continually to mirth of song was changed: and as it were the same that loving I had thought,

e final stage of "sweetness" seems really to include the other two, it is their completion and fruition. The first two, says Rolle, are gained by devotion, and out of them springs the third.[60] Rolle's description of it, of the all-pervading holy joy, rhythm, and melody, when the soul, "now becom

Pricke of Conscience, is entirely unlike all his other work, both in form and matter. It is a long, prosaic and entirely unmystical homily in riming couplets, of a very ordinary medi?val type, stirring men's minds to the horrors of sin by dwelling on the pains of purgatory and hell. It would

in the course of the subsequent twenty years. This experience, which lasted altogether between five and six hours, was preceded by a seven days' sickness most vividly described, ending in a semi-rigidity of the body as if it were already half dead, and it took the form of sixteen "Shewings" or "Visions." These, she says, reached her in three ways, "by bodily sight, by word formed in mine understanding" (verbal messages which took form in her mind), "and by spiritual sight." But of this last, she adds, "I may never fully tell it."[64] It is impossible here to do justice to this little book, for it is one of t

ow our own soul.[65] "Our passing life here that we have in our sense-soul knoweth not what our Self is," and the cause of our disease is that we rest in little things which can never satisfy us, for "our Soul may never have rest in things that are beneath itself." She actually saw God enfolding all things. "For as the body is cla

ered in my understanding: It lasteth, and ever shall [last] for that God loveth it. And so All-thing hath the Being by the love of God." Later, she adds, "Well I wot that heaven and earth, and all that is made is great and large, fair and good; but the cause why it shewed so little to my sight was for that I saw it in the presence of Him that is the Maker of all things: for to a soul that seeth the Maker of all, all that is made seemeth full little." "

cial interest. The problem of evil has never

sight I saw that He is in all things. I beheld and considered, seeing and k

but we must go through the pain in order to learn, without it we could never have the bliss. As a wave draws back from the shore, in order to return again with fuller force; so sin, the lack of love, is permitted for a time, in order that an opening be made for an inrush of the Divine Love, fuller and more complete than would otherwise be possible. It is in some such way as this, dimly shadowed, that it was shown to Julian that sin and pain ar

world. Childlike and yet rashly bold, deeply spiritual, yet intensely human, "a simple creature, unlettered," yet presenting solutions of problems which h

t beauty on the spiritual life.[66] An interesting group of writings are the five little treatises, almost certainly by one author (c. 1350-1400), to be found in Harleian 674, and other MSS. Their names are The Cloud of Unknowing, The Epistle of Prayer, The Epistle of Discretion, The Treatise of Discerning Spirit

simple English of the Dionysian teaching of concentration joined to the practice of contemplation taught by Richard of St Victor, and it describes very clearly the preliminary struggles and bewilderment of the soul. The Epistle of Privy Coun

he fourteenth-century alliterative poem of Piers the Plowman.[67] This is mystical throughout in tone, more especially in t

nte the to go

thi-selve Treuthe

haryte as thow a

three stages of the mystic's path, as will be seen if the description of the quali

of the soul for God in the terms of passionate human love: Crashaw with an ardour which has never been surpassed, Herbert with a homely intimacy

for his God, and he describes in terms only matched by his spiritual

Lord, the m

disdain tha

hidd

tratagem to w

his hea

to cr

mistak

the nex

e might

your trou

o hims

to God. This is the mystical quality in his verse, which is quieter and far less musical than Cra

his poems some lines which breathe almost as rapturous a passion of spiritual lo

d world is not

e corners; but i

inity, that

st-triangled h

School of the Heart), he puts the main teaching of

ng heart, that

ace on earth w

, the Author

st, its one

r "name and honor" is one of the great English poems; it burns with spiritual flame, it soars with noble desire. Near the beginning of it, Crashaw has, in six simple lines, pictured the essential m

undertoo

th love shoul

e e're yet

ove, she shou

she cannot

OVE, and

s memory, and that its deep emotion and rich melody stimulated his poet's ear and imagination to write Christabel.[71] Cra

roach of death by singing songs of joy which made the rafters ring, he lived in an atmosphere of divine illumination. The material facts of his career were simple and uneventful. He was an engraver by profession, poet and painter by choice, mystic and seer by nature. From the outer point of view his life was a failure. He was always crippled by poverty, alm

ky spread ove

Sun that mo

fields full o

ils who fight

lanted in Haw

lf in the pas

rthright for a mess of pottage." The strength of his illumination at times intoxicated him with joy, as he writes to Hayley (October 23, 1804) after a recurrence of vision which had lapsed for some years, "Dear Sir, excuse my enthusiasm or rath

rk was written under direct inspiration, that it was an automatic composition, which, whatever its source

out pre-meditation and even against my will. The time it has taken in writing was thus rendered non-existent,

tely with these works, with the thought and teaching they contain, and the method of clothing it, would necessitate a volume, if not a small library, devoted to that purpose. It is possible, however, to indicate certain fundamental beliefs and assertions which lie at the base of

ndless diversity. "God is in the lowest effects as [in] the highest causes. He is become a worm that

his usual amount of paradox, the inherent divinity of man. G

st thyself, th

dwellst in

man: God

manity lea

my Spirit

he whole gist of that apparently most ch

sire what he has not seen. This view is summed up in the eight sentences which form the little book (ab

ans of perception, he perceives more tha

ral or organic thoughts if he h

his perceptions, none can des

taught by anything but organs of sens

given in large script on the las

es as we are, that

tion or "state" Blake personifies as "Urizen" (=Reason) a great dramatic figure who stalks through the prophetic books, proclaiming himself "God from Eternity to Eternity," taking up now one characteristic and now another, but ever of the nature of materialism, opaqueness, contraction. In the case of man, the result of this contraction is to close him up into separate "selfhoods," so that the inlets of communication with the universal spirit have become gradually stopped up; until now, for mos

of the stars, when t

rth-born man, then tu

ry orbs, concentr

iral ascents to the

d, and the nostrils

r'd, and petrify'd

act. For him, Imagination is the one great reality, in it alone he sees a human faculty that touches both nature and spirit, thus uniting them in one. The language of Imagination is Art, for it speaks through symbols so that men shut up in their selfhoods are thus ever reminded that nature herself is a symbol. W

al worlds, to ope

the worlds of thou

he bosom of God, th

ns, or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings." To understand is three parts of love, and it is only through Imagination that we can understand. It is the lack of imagination that is at the root of al

y of the h

om the Bra

wounded

does ceas

s of In

love and understanding then, and all else will follow. Energy, desire, intellect; dangerous and deadly forces in the selfish and impure, become in the pure in heart the greatest forces for good. What mattered to Blake,

e sows sa

limbs & fl

sire G

of life & be

confidently proclaim such a dangerous doctrine. But in Blake's creed, as

rine of self-sacrifice. It is in Milton that Blake most fully develops his great dogma of the eternity of sacrifice. "One must di

self-annihilatio

gment come and fi

giv'n into the hands

ell repays study, for one feels it to be alive with meaning, holding symbol within symbol. Blake's symbolism, and his fourfold view of nature and

hers a tri

ll of smile

he vision my

vision is a

d Eye, 'tis a

rd, a Thistle

ourfold v

ld vision is

d in my supr

d in soft Be

Always. Ma

ision & Newto

r thing behind it. It was in this way that he looked at the human body, physical beauty, splendour of colour, insec

he compass, the four senses (taste and touch counting as one), and so on. Blake seemed, as it were, to hold his vision in his mind in solution, and to be able to condense it into gaseous, liquid, or solid elements at whatever point he willed. Thus we feel that the prophetic books contain meaning within meaning, bearing interpretation from many points of view; and to arrive at their full value, we should need to be able-as Blake was-to apprehend all simultaneously,[79] instead of being forced laboriously to trace them out one by one in succession. It is this very faculty of "fourfold vision" which gives to these

rt of the seer. These are principally owing to lack of training, and possibly to lack of patience, sometimes also it w

of all forms in earth and sky and sea. This, and much more, he attempts to clothe in concrete forms or symbols, and if he fails at times to be explicit, it is conceivable that the fault may lie as much with our density as with his obscurity. Indeed, when we speak of

pproached by mystical thinkers in various ways (such as that evil is illusion, which seems to be Browning's view), but the boldest of them, and notably Blake and Boehme, have attacked the problem directly, and carrying mystical thought to its logical conclusion, have unhesitatingly asserted that God is the origin of Good and Evil alike, that

n and Energy, Love and Hate, ar

spring what the religi

n. Evil is the active springing from

, pp. 226-252). Certainly, if one work had to be selected as representative of Blake, as containing his most characteristic doctrines clothed in striking form, this is the book to be chosen. Place a copy of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in the hands of any would-be Blake student (an original or facsimile copy, needless to say, containing Blake's exquisite designs, else the book is shorn of half its force and beauty); let him pond

es have been the causes

l existing principles,

ne from the Body; and that reason,

nt Man in Eternity for

g Contraries to

t called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by th

om the Body, and Reason is the bound

is Etern

e with thought and meaning, and inexhaustible in suggestion. Taken all together they express in epigrammatic form every important doctrine of Blake's. Some of them, to be fully understood, must be read in the light of his other work. Thus, "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom," or, "I

he same tree that

s no light shall n

high, if he soars

oved was once

e sea to a fish, so is con

nce is

e to be believed i

riting that seems strange and difficult; and, on the other, reveals a deep meaning in remarks apparently simple to the point of silliness. These are his v

e's attitude and that of the ordinary practical man of the world is summed up in his characteristic pencil comment in his copy of Bacon's Essays on the remark, "Good thoughts are little better than good dreams," in the Essay on Virtue. Blake writes beside this, "T

ce, in the poems called "Holy Thursday" in the Songs of Innocence and Experience, he paints first of all with infinite gr

titudes of lambs, Thousands of little b

rdians of the poor; Then cherish pity,

metre he reverses the picture to show his view of it,

holy thi

and frui

duc'd to

old and us

at we can bear to see this so-

want a gift, and t

the crust of bread to exist. This is a view wh

me of these truths in the Proverbs, and the Auguries of Innocence is nothing else but a series of such facts, a storehouse of deepest wisdom. Some of t

& Moon sh

mmediate

faith is in truth their life, and the veriest shadow of doubt would be to them a condition of death. They are the only people in the world who are the "possessors of ce

sense, the consciousness that everything is closely related, closely linked together, is ever present in his po

he new ey

s by immo

or

dd

other li

anst not st

roubling

tress o

d sensitive in soul, he sank lower and lower, from selling boots to errand-boy, and finally for five years living as a vagabond without home or shelter, picking up a few pence by day, selling matches or fetching cabs, and sleeping under the archways of Covent Garden Market at night. At last, in the very depth of his misery, he was sought out and rescued by the editor of the paper to whom he had sent Health and Holiness and some of his poems. This saved him, his work brought him good friend

he water Not of Gen

of mystic devotion and aspiration, but the followin

ty which Vaughan and Wordsworth saw, and his poems to children, such as Dais

iew of Plato and of Donne. He shares their belief that love is but the power to catch sight o

auge what beau

her countenan

ot the casemen

eck they prove

of her body

rred the heave

Port

d he sees in them a profound and far-reaching symbolism. This is magnificently expressed in the Ode to the Setting Sun, where he paints a picture, unmatched in English verse, of the sun sinking to rest amid the splendours gat

in itself the

in itself the

lling acorn

ain that bear

moulder when t

thing lives but

thing dies but

d ... is present with all things, though they are ignorant that He is so. For they fly from Him, or rather from themselves. They are unable, therefore, to apprehend that from which they fly" (Ennead, vi. § 7). We see the spirit of man fleeing in terror "down the nigh

ake, and Wordsworth, would seem analogous to Macaulay's view that "perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry without a certain unsoundness of mind." Our opinion about this must depend on what we mean by "soundness of mind." To some it may appear possible that the mystics and poets are as sound as their critics. In any case, the unprejudiced person to-day would seem driven to the conclusio

test of European philosophers, M. Bergson, builds up on a mystical basis the whole of his method of thought, that is, on his perception of the s

e question by sounding an octave on the piano. But this solution is reached by having sensible knowledge of the reality and not by logical argument. Bergson's view, therefore, is that the intellect has been evolved for practical purposes, to deal in a certain way with material things by cutting up into little bits what is an undivided flow of movement, and by looking at these little bits side by side. This, thoug

It is "a direction of movement: and, although capable of infinite development, is simplicity itself." This is the mystic art, which in its early stages is a direction of movement, an alteration of the quality and intensity of the self. So Bergson, making use of and apply

sense, of the second dialectic, of the third intuition. To the last I subordinate reason. It is abso

gh it appears to our observation to do this. So possibly, in turn, the intellect, however acute, may have to be corrected by intuition, and the impotence of

e itself. It limits the field of vision, it cuts in one direction only, it puts blinkers on the mind, forcing it to concentrate on a limited range of facts. It is conceivable that what happens with the mystics is that their mental blinkers become slightly shifted, and they are thus able to respond to another aspect or order of reality. So that they are swept by emotions and invaded by harmonies from which the average man is screened. Life having for them somewhat changed in direction, the brain is forced to learn new movements, to cut al

tween its movement and the rhythm or movement of other aspects of the flux. It is obvious that there are a variety of rhythms or tensions of duration. For example, in what is the fraction of a second of our own duration, hundreds of millions of vibrations, which it would need thousands of our years to count, are taking place successively in

her degree of tension than our own?" A momentary quickening of rhythm might thus account for the sensation of t

side by side in the same direction. Here, once more, may not the mystic sensation of "stillness," of being at one with the central Life, be owing to some change having taken place in the spiritual rhythm of the

least possible that the attainment of the consciousness that this individual self forms part of a larger Whole, may prove to be yet another step forward in the evolution of the human spirit. If this be so, the mystics would appear to be those who, living with an intensity greater than their fellows, are thus enabled to catch the first gleams of the realisation of a greater self. In any case, it would seem certa

iogr

al works on it. In the case of individual writers, references are given only where there might be difficulty about

ne

(See the valuable Bibliography of mystical wo

ies in Mystical Reli

ties of Religious Experie

nglish Mystics, Murray, 1905. Light, Life and Love. Selectio

Mystical Element in Relig

stoiré et de Psychologie

la Connaissance Mystique, Paris, 1897 (t

ly Wisdom. Selections from some English pro

n Infl

Burnet, 5 vols. (Bibliotheca Scriptor

ues, translated by B. Jowett,

glish translation of the Enneads, only Select Works, translated by T. Taylor, 1817; re-issued, George Bell, 1895. (French trans.) Les Ennéades de Plotin, translated by M.-N. Bouillet, 3 vols., Paris,

agite. Works, trans

omplete works in progress, ed. C. J. Barker, published J. Watkins. (See Bibl

the Swedenborg Society, London. Selections, A Compe

sh Wr

Ron, (printed in) Morris's Old En

ed. Horstmann, 2 vols., Sonnenschein, 1895-6. The Fire of L

Cloud of Unknowing, ed. Evel

f Self-Knowledge, ed. E. G. Gardner, Chatto & Windus, 1910. The Epistle

vy Counsel, in MS., British M

rs the Plowman, ed. Skeat, 2 vols., Oxford, 1886. Jusserand, J. J. Piers Plowman: a Contr

Guy, 1869; ed. Dalgairns, 1870. The Song of Angels, pr

). Revelations of Divine Love

1649). Poems, ed. A. R.

oetical Works, ed. Griers

). Poems, ed. Grosart, 18

(1597-1663). Poems,

Grosart, 1878. Life, by R. Ward, 1710, repri

1695). Poems, ed. Ch

. Dobell, 1903. Centuries of Meditations, ed. Dobe

892-3. The Liberal and Mystical Writings of William Law, ed. W Scott Palmer, 1908. (Se

Works, ed. Ellis and Yeat

e of Prophetic Books), ed. Sampson, Oxford, 1905. (The best text of the poems.) Life, Gilchrist, 2 vols., Macmillan, 1880. Willi

ed. E. H. Coleridge, 2 vols., Oxford, 1912. Biograph

Shorter, Hodder and Stoughton, 1910. The Thr

The Rod, the Root, and the Flower, 1895. Memoirs and

. The Story of my Heart, 1883

oems, Burns and Oates, 1897. Select

n

chy

hem

horship of the Pr

ias S

en R

Francis

oon the s

to

th

shi

(See also

ical basis of

dy

y of

avad

, Wil

s of In

ro

sting

ations

natio

dness to

tnes

of Heaven

lt

ural R

of Inn

dy

of Na

of Last

me,

ridg

uenc

s us

dy

of

gnon,

C., Shakespe

?, Ch

ily; Las

osop

son

dy

ion

, Sir

Elizabet

ra L

ing,

lan

-str

tral te

in the

tellec

ve-mys

ace

e-exi

henstiel-

ben

ion and

ance to

nd the

e and

dy

iew o

, Gio

an,

e, E

t Disc

ud

y

dge Pl

le, T

e of Eme

ro

f his my

r Res

ud

ine of

au

use of s

nity and

of Unk

idge,

's infl

ect

y of N

at Mid

s inf

Se

r to

tonic i

ous Mu

dy

org's i

aw, R

uenc

Ter

car

e Hid

Areopagite, My

ne,

st

to Wo

Countess of

tive

Sense o

n Eliz

s of th

l's

dy

ert

yd

,

kh

son,

nal character

beh

of Dis

of Privy

Thos., of

under Go

ili

har,

ne

ch

of, held by

ax

, G

see Shelley,

et

e of En

nce on

Evil, p

d, on Patmor

elight

. J. C., Do

sse

n, M

ley,

topher, Schoo

e

rt, G

myst

mes, Myste

of St

on,

or Per

gin

ative

t of trut

e a

lit

our of th

lections from t

uit

s, W

ies, R

of My

ud

an,

ons of D

a

s, G

e

ymi

r to

Night

Greci

influe

n of Hy

ud

mental an

n over intellectual,

is

, Ch

o-

Wil

o all th

s influ

y st

ous

t of

dy

Divine

ce, Si

uman an

cren

ke

hme

ning

ridg

sha

ne

ber

ts

Julia

mor

rd Ro

lle

de Ha

s Thom

her

ca

eod,

ity and gr

y wi

ice,

ith,

ysical

Keat's sens

e,

ism, a

c fa

ings i

contribu

charac

ot

ces of m

ines

i

g of t

under Love, Vision,

bea

see also under

osop

and, (see also unde

ws and inte

plat

. L., Philoso

debt t

John, of

prob

al,

re, C

in the

t in t

urchase a

ugia

's infl

et ma

mo

cur

gio

ot, and

nsa

ud

s Pl

l

nce on

ot

el

en

ug

bea

l

?d

pu

pos

tem

sts, Ca

ot

ne

r to

s infl

tem

o

rp

igious Philosophy

tence, b

hag

ak

more l

on and

eigson's

d of S

amin

n, Henr

e, R

of

of Co

ud

ti, Ch

tti,

and

e of

ousne

ud

sbr

ugus

y o

e of Plo

ard of

onav

erine o

ncis o

or

n of t

Mar

P

Ter

ell

Eriugen

ek

ara

kes

Mrs (Ma

el

on

sych

ntellectu

natio

nce of

and M

ystici

met

t of

nd and

ud

ohn, the

ty, u

cr

of So

, Edmun

s infl

in

J., Myths

fferies' sen

u

den

n and

uenc

ugh

m of

A. C., Es

bol

ul

Keats's

nn

ent

r Pan

y G

emor

ud

el

gia Ge

e Hales,

on, Fr

's infl

is

and H

of H

Setti

pp

ud

t, rea

i

erne

roa

s of Med

d

oce

pt

uta

dy

nd

endent

f Discerni

beaut

natio

llec

. See also un

k,

, Evelyn,

nis

han,

lic

en F

ckn

rea

ion and I

rl

ud

culty and

in

l condi

ciati

Theodore, arti

ote, B

, po

orth,

ment o

to Va

on S

urs

usual con

atio

mations of

el

cl

ary R

ing W

ud

ern

f commo

of

s, W

tno

illiam James," by J. B. Pratt, Hi

Remains of R. L. Nettleship, ed

blic, i

osium,

llowers of Bhakti, and Ramananda and his great disciple, Kabir, who taught that man was the supreme manifestation of God; an

Boehme's philosophy

y on him in Rep

of C. Palmore, by B. Champne

German Mystics, ed. Ing

ossetti in the Nineteent

of Life, S

fe, Sonnets i.,

eligio Po

, ed. Champ

n the House. Bk

the House, canto

p. 113, 1

and The Toys, poems, I

o Poet?, 1

o Poet?, 1

ughan doubtless knew in other writers; for instance as used by Su

sentially mystic feeling given by J. Stewart in

y of my Hear

bid.,

ry of my He

bid.,

bid.,

l digest of the Abhidhamma, translated by S

Poems, Oxford, 1912, vol ii., pp. cxxxv.-vi.), holds that the style and tone of this song poi

e, but see Grierson, vo

ditations, ed. Dobe

of Meditatio

y his son, 1905, p. 268

nating with Boehme, which is worked out in the sugges

Work's, vol.

Prayer, Works, vol

ook xi. chap, iv.), or Ruysbroek's answer to the priests from Paris who cam

f Prayer, Works, vol

l, Works, vo

d., pp.

d., pp.

Prayer, Works, vol

ine Knowledge, Wor

Works, vol. vii. p. 68.

Works, vol. v

bid.,

l, Works, vo

iny of Natio

t Midnight,

esartus, Boo

tor, Book i

ith God is expressed in English as early as

m, by E. Underhi

d. J. Morton, Camden So

ove, Bk. 1. c

Bk. i. cap.

m, by E. Underhi

ove, Bk. i. c

k. ii. cap.

Love, Bk.

, Bk. ii.

ads, vi.

nscience, by H. E. Allen, Radcliffe Colle

8. All the quotations which follow are t

rd of St Victor in Benjamin Minor, cap. 75, or Walter Hylton in The Scale of Perfection. Note the emphasis laid upon it

tailed account of it in Studies of

lowman, by J. J

assus v.,

d. Waller, 1

d. Grosart,

e Talk of S. T. O., ed.

ed. Samps

and specially the passage from the Fioreth of St

es to L

Poetical Works, ed. Joh

ed. Samps

the condition of mind which sees no farther than the concrete facts before it; a condition he

the "Mirror," or "Looking Glass." Blake's names for these four principles, as

phony. "Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them a

s 2 and 16 to the Book of Job, see the commentary on them in Blake's Vision of the Book of Job, by J. H. Wicksteed, 1910, p. 21 and note 4. It is interesting to note

of the Job illustrations by W

Land. Selected P

," the quest of the soul by God, especially in the anonymous Middle English

tics, by Evelyn Underhill, in the English Review, Feb. 1912, which should be consulted f