CHAPTER XIV.

Repeats and explains the last three lines of the first stanza.
O happy lot !
Forth unobserved I went ,
My house being now at rest.
"The happy lot of which the soul is singing in the first of
these three lines befel it through those means of which it
speaks in the two lines that follow it ; making use of a
metaphor, it describes itself as one who, for the better
K
Digitized by CjOOQle
THE DARK NIGHT
130
[book: u.
execution of his purpose, goes out of his house by night, in the dark, the inmates of which are at rest, in order that none might hinder him. The soul having to perform so heroic and so rare an act, that of being united to the divine Beloved, sallies forth, because the Beloved is to be found only without, in solitude. The bride therefore desired to find him alone, saying : 4 Who shall give Thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find Thee without and kiss Thee?’* It is necessary for the enamoured soul, in order to obtain the end desired, to act in the same way ; to go out by night when all the inmates of its house repose and sleep ; that is, when its lower operations, passions, and desires are at rest and asleep in this night. These are the inmates of its house which when awake ever hinder its good, enemies of its freedom. These are they of whom our Saviour said in the holy gospel, 4 A man’s enemies shall be they of his own household/ f 2. Thus it is necessary that their operations and motions should be lulled to sleep in this night in order that they may be no hindrance to the supernatural blessings of union with God in love, for while they continue to energise and act, that is unattainable. All movement and action on their part, instead of helping, hinder the reception of the spiritual blessings of the union of love, because all natural exertion is defective with
♦ Cant. viii. i. f St. Matt. x. 36.
Digitized by kjOOQle
131
CHAP. XIV.] OF THE SOUL.
regard to those supernatural blessings which God alone secretly and silently infuses into the passive soul. Hence it is necessary that the powers of the soul should be at rest, if it is to receive what God infus es, and should not interfere with their own inferior actions and base inclinations.
3. It was a happy lot for the soul when God in this night put all its household to sleep, that is, all the powers, passions, affections, and desires of the sensual and spiritual soul, that it may attain to the spiritual union of the perfect love of God 4 unobserved/ that is, unhindered by them, because they were all asleep and mortified in that night. O how happy must the soul then be, when it can escape from the house of its sensuality! None can understand it, I think, except that soul which has experienced it. That soul clearly sees how wretched was its former slavery, and how great its misery when it lay at the mercy of its passions and desires ; it learns now that the life of the spirit is true liberty and riches, with innumerable blessings in its train, some of which I shall speak of while explaining the following stanzas, when it will more clearly appear, what good reasons the soul has for describing the passage of this awful night as a happy lot.
Digitized by L^ooQle
132
THE DARK NIGHT
[book. n.