Preface

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PRACTICAL MYSTICISM
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THE GREY WORLD.
THE LOST WORD.
THE COLUMN OF DUST.
THE MIRACLES OF OUR LADY SAINT MARY.
MYSTICISM: A Study in the Nature & Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness.
THE MYSTIC WAY: A Psychologi- cal Study in Christian Origins.
IMMANENCE: A Book of Verses.
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PRACTICAL MYSTICISM
A LITTLE BOOK FOR NORMAL PEOPLE
BY
EVELYN UNDERHILL
•'If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through the narrow chinks of his cavern.*' William Blake.
LONDON AND TORONTO J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON tf CO.
1914
-V
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First Edition Reprinted
November 1914 Deumber 1914
343378
All rights reserved
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TO THE UNSEEN FUTURE
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PREFACE
This little book, written daring the last months of peace, goes to press in the first weeks of the great war . Many will feel that in such a time of conflict and horror, when only the most ignorant, disloyal, or apathetic can hope for quietness of mind, a book which deals with that which is called the “ contemplative " attitude to existence is wholly out of place. So obvious, indeed, is this point of view, that I had at first thought of postponing its publication. On the one hand, it seems as though the dreams of a spiritual , renaissance, which promised so fairly but a little time J ago, had perished in the sudden explosion of brute force. On the other hand, the thoughts of the English race are now tamed, and rightly, towards the most concrete forms of action — struggle and endurance, practical sacrifices, difficult and long-continued effort — rather than towards the passive attitude of self- surrender which is all that the practice of mysticism seems, at first sight, to demand. Moreover, that
deep conviction of the dependence of all human worth
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upon eternal values, the immanence of the Divine Spirit within the human soul, which lies at the root of a mystical concept of life, is hard indeed to reconcile with much of the human history now being poured red-hot from the cauldron of war . For all these reasons, we are likely during the present crisis to witness a revolt from those superficially mystical notions which threatened to become too popular during the immediate past .
Yet, the title deliberately chosen for this book — that of “ Practical " Mysticism — means nothing if the attitude and the discipline which it recommends be adapted to fair weather alone : if the principles for which it stands break down when subjected to the pressure of events, and cannot be reconciled with the sterner duties of the national life. To accept this position is to reduce mysticism to the status of a spiritual plaything. On the contrary, if the experi-. ences on which it is based have indeed the transcendent value for humanity which the mystics claim for them — if they reveal to us a world of higher truth am greater reality than the world of concrete happenings in which we seem to be immersed — then that value is increased rather than lessened when confronted by
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the overwhelming disharmonies and sufferings of the I present time. It is significant that many of these / experiences are reported to us from periods of war and distress : that the stronger the forces of destruc- tion appeared, the more intense grew the spiritual vision which opposed them. We learn from these records that the mystical consciousness has the power of lifting those who possess it to a plane of reality which no struggle, no cruelty, can disturb : of con- ferring a certitude which no catastrophe can wreck.\ Yet it does not wrap its initiates in a selfish and other- worldly calm, isolate them from the pain and effort of the common life. Rather, it gives them renewed vitality ; administering to the human spirit not — as some suppose — a soothing draught, but the most powerful of stimulants. Stayed upon eternal realities « that spirit will be far better able to endure and profit by the stem discipline which the race is now callei to undergo, than those who are wholly at the mercy of events ; better able to discern the reed from th illusory issues, and to pronounce judgment on the nett problems, new difficulties, new fields of activity non disclosed. Perhaps it is worth while to remind our- selves that the two women who have left the deepest
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mark upon the military history of France and England — Joan of Arc and Florence Nightingale — both acted wider mystical compulsion . So, too, did one of the noblest of modern soldiers, General Gordon . Their national value was directly connected with their deep spiritual consciousness : their intensely practical energies were the flowers of a contemplative life.
We are often told, that in the critical periods of history it is the national soul which counts: that “ where there is no vision, the people perish.” No nation is truly defeated which retains its spiritual self-possession. No nation is truly victorious which does not emerge with soul unstained. If this be so, it becomes a part of true patriotism to keep the spiritual life, both of the individual citizen and of the social group, active and vigorous; its vision of realities J unsullied by the entangled interests and passions off the time. This is a task in which all may do theirj jpart. The spiritual life is not a special career, involving abstraction from the world of things. It is a part of every man’s life ; and until he has realised it he is not a complete human being, has not entered into possession of all his powers. It is therefore the
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function of a practical mysticism to increase, not diminish, the total efficiency, the wisdom and stead- fastness, of those who try to practise it. It will help them to enter, more completely than ever before, into the life of the group to which they belong. It will . teach them to see the world in a truer proportion, \ discerning eternal beauty beyond and beneath apparent \ ruthlessness. It will educate them in a charity free from all taint of sentimentalism ; it will confer on them an unconquerable hope ; and assure them that still, even in the hour of greatest desolation, “ There ' lives the dearest freshness deep down things.”
As a contribution, then, to these purposes, this little