CHAPTER VIII.

Explanation of the first line of the first stanza. ‘ Beginning of the explanation of the dark night.'
‘In a dark night/ This night — it is c ontemplation — produces in spiritual men two sorts of darkness or purgations comformable to the two divisions of man’s nature into sensual and spiritual. Thus the first night, or sensual purgation, wherein the soul is purified or detached, will be of the senses, subjecting them to the ^spirit. The other is that night or spiritual purgation
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CHAP, vni.]
OF THE SOUL.
wherein the soul is purified and detached in the spirit, l H and which subdues and disposes it for union with Godr in love. The night of sense is common, and the lot of many : these are the beginners, of whom I shall first speak. The spiritual night is the portion of very few ; and they are those who have made some progress,] exercised therein, of whom I shall speak hereafter.* ^ — 3
2. The first night, or purgation, is bitter and terrible , to sense. The second is not to be compared with it, for it is much more awful to the spirit, as I shall soon show.t But as the night of sense is the first in order and the first to be entered, I shall speak of it briefly — for being of ordinary occurrence, it is the matter of many treatises — that I may pass on to treat more at large of the spiritual night ; for of that very little hai been said, either by word of mouth or in writing, ajias little is known of it even by experience.
3. But the behaviour of these beginners on the way of God is not noble, and very much according to their own liking and self-love, as I have said before.* Meanwhile, God seeks to raise them higher, to draw them out of this miserable manner of loving to a higher state of the , love of God, to deliver them from the low usage of the senses and meditation whereby they seek after God, as
I said before, § in ways so miserable and so unworthy of Him. He seeks to place them in the way of the spirit
* Bk. ii. ch. i. f Bk. ii. ch. v. { Ch. i. § Ch. vi. § 7.
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[BOOK I.
wherein they may the more abundantly, and more free from imperfections, commune with God now that they have been for some time tried in the way of goodness, persevering in meditation and prayer, and because of the sweetness they found therein have withdrawn their affections from the things of this world, and gained a certain spiritual strength in God, whereby they in some measure curb their love of the creature, and are able for the love of God, to carry a slight burden of dryness, * without going back to that more pleasant time when their spiritual exercises abounded in delights, and when the sun of the divine graces shone as they think, more clearly upon them. God is now changing that light into darkness, and sealing up the door of the fountain of the sweet spiritual waters, which they tasted in God as often and as long as they wished. For when they were weak and tender, this door was then not shut, as it is written, ‘Behold, I have given before thee an opened door, which no man can shut ; because thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name/*
4. God thus leaves them in darkness so great that they know not whither to betake themselves with their imaginations and reflections of sense. They cannot advance a single step in meditation, as before, the inward sense now being overwhelmed in this night, and * Apoc. iii. 8.
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CHAP. VHI.] OF THE SOUL.
abandoned to dryness so great that they have no more any joy or sweetness in their spiritual exercises, as they had before ; and in their place they find nothing but insipidity and bitterness. For, as I said before,* God now, looking upon them as somewhat grown in grace, weans them from the breasts that they may become strong, and cast their swaddling-clothes aside : He carries them in His arms no longer, and shows them how to walk alone. All this is strange to them, for all things seem to go against them.
5. Recollected persons enter the dark night sooitefif than others, after they have begun their spiritual course t (because they are kept at a greater distance from the occasions of falling away* and because they correct more quickly their worldly desires, which is necessary in orderly to begin to enter the blessed night of sense. In general, there elapses no great length of time after they have begun before they enter the night of sense, and most of them do enter it, for they generally suffer aridities. The Holy Scriptures throughout, but especially the Psalms , and the prophetical books, furnish many illustrations of the night of sense, for it is so common ; but, to avoid prolixity, I omit them for the present, though I shall make use of some of them later on.
* Ch. i.
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[BOOK I.