D. MYSTICISM OR PLATONISM? 40

E. PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PHENOMENA: ECSTASY 50
F. THE VISION OF GOD 55
ST AUGUSTINE
ST AUGUSTINE'S Confessions is a Christian classic so widely read that his personality is among the best known in history. There is there- fore no need to give more than the bare dates and facts of his life. He was borne at Thagaste in North Africa, not far from Carthage, in 354. In 374 he became a Manichaean and remained such for some ten years, after which he went to Rome and to Milan as teacher of rhetoric. The story of his conversion is known to all. The beginnings of his return to Catholicism were due to the fact that in 385 some books of the neo-Platonists, without doubt Latin trans- lations of Plotinus, came into his hands and greatly impressed him (Conf. vii.), so that from that time onward he accepted the main principles of the neo-Platonic philosophy, and his whole intellectual outlook, his mysticism included, was coloured by it to the end. The conversion took place in 386, and he was baptised by St Ambrose the following year. Shortly afterwards he returned to Africa and formed a religious community. In 391 he was ordained priest, and in 396 he became bishop of Hippo, and so continued until his death in 430.
The greatness of Augustine as thinker, writer, theologian, cham- pion of the Church, saint, is recognized universally with admiration unreserved. He is on all hands acknowledged to be the dominant figure in Western Christianity. 1 Every aspect, it may be said, of his teaching has been made the object of special study, so that an array of treatises, monographs, books of all kinds and sizes has been pro- duced, dealing separately with his philosophy, his psychology, his theology in its several branches, his philosophy of history, his theory of politics, and a number of other subjects. One conspicuous excep- tion there is. Not yet, I believe, has his mystical theology been made the object of special study. Well-known extracts from the Confessions are made in books on mysticism; but never yet has there been a systematic presentation of his teaching on contemplation and the kindred topics. Here, then, appears to be a lacuna, which, from the point of view of Augustine and of mysticism alike, it is well worth while trying to fill up.
1 The best source known to me for careful and detailed general information on every topic concerning St Augustine are the 300 columns of Abb6 E. Portalid's three articles in the Dictionnaire de TMologie Catholique, edited by Vacant and Mangenot (Paris, 1903).
2O WESTERN MYSTICISM
Augustine is for me the Prince of Mystics, uniting in himself, in a manner I do not find in any other, the two elements of mystical experience, viz. the most penetrating intellectual vision into things divine, and a love of God that was a consuming passion. He shines as a sun in the firmament, shedding forth at once light and heat in the lustre of his intellect and the warmth of his religious emotion.
Augustine is in himself the refutation of a number of popular mis- conceptions about mysticism and mystics. One of these is the notion often heard that mysticism is a reaction and protest against ecclesiasticism, sacramental system, dogma, church authority, insti- tutional religion. But Augustine was pre-eminently a churchman, nay a militant one, a subtle theologian, an almost fierce dogmatist. Another is the notion that mysticism represents an antagonism be- tween personal religion, the religion of the Spirit it has been called, and a religion of authority. But it is acknowledged on all hands, for it is evident, that in Augustine the three elements of well-balanced religion, the personal, the institutional, the intellectual, are triumph- antly conciliated; and we are all of us, in our measure, little Augustines in this regard. Sometimes it is said that a vigorous play of the intellect is an impediment to mystical contemplation. Yet who has been a greater intellectualist than Augustine, with his keen joy in philosophical speculation, and his ever-flowing output of intellectual writing, that to this day has influenced Western theo- logical thought as none other since St Paul? Again, the theory that vacancy from external works and occupations is a condition of contemplation, and that mystics are impracticable dreamers, is shown in Augustine to be untrue. For he was full of business, a bishop devoted to his flock, a popular preacher, a letter- writer ever ready to answer, even at great length, the questions put to him. These and other popular errors, often almost taken for granted by serious writers, are put out of court by the single case of Augustine.
We may now turn to our study of his mystical theology and doctrine on contemplation, which, if I be not mistaken, will prove to be of a religious value quite extraordinary. His teaching has to be picked up from many isolated passages scattered widespread through his writings; but there are certain continuous passages con- taining a more sustained exposition. The principal are the following:
Confessions) vii. 16, 23; ix. 23-25; x. 65; Enanatio in Psalmum xlL (heb. xlii.); de Quantitate Animae, 74, 75, 76; de Genesi ad litteram, xiL; Ep. cxlvii. de Videndo Deo; c. Faustum, xxii. 52-58; de Civitate Dei., xix. i, 2, 19; Sermons , ciii. civ.
In the 'Enarration 3 on Psalm xli. St Augustine gives a continuous
ST AUGUSTINE 21
exposition which may fairly claim to be a doctrine of contemplation. We shall open the investigation of his teaching on mysticism with a consideration of this piece as a whole. The text is first given, In condensed form, the Oxford 'Library of the Fathers' being used, and is followed by a short commentary.
Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, God.
2. This psalm is sung as ( a Psalm for Understanding' (title). For what understanding is it sung? Gome, my brethren, catch my eager- ness; share with me in this my longing: let us both love, let us both be influenced with this thirst, let us both hasten to the well of under- standing. Let us then long for it as the hart for the brook; let us long for that fountain whereof another Scripture saith, For with Thee is the fountain of life. For He is both the Fountain and the Light; for it is In Thy Light that we shall see light. If He is both the Fountain and the Light, with good reason is He the Understanding also, because He both filleth the soul that thirsteth for knowledge, and every one who hath * understanding' is enlightened by a certain light; not a cor- poreal, not a carnal one, not an outward, but an inward light! There is, then, a certain light within, not possessed by those who understand not. Run to the brooks; long after the water-brooks, With God is the fountain of Life; a fountain that shall never be dried up: in His light is a light that shall never be darkened. Long thou for this light: for a certain fountain, a certain light, such as thy bodily eyes know not; a light, to see which the inward eye must be prepared; a fountain, to drink of which the inward thirst is to be kindled. Run to the fountain; long for the fountain; but do it not anyhow, be not satisfied with running like any ordinary animal; run thou like the hart.
3. But perhaps Scripture meant us to consider in the hart another point also. The hart destroys serpents, and after the killing of ser- pents, it is inflamed with thirst yet more violent. The serpents are thy vices; destroy the serpents of iniquity, then wilt thou long yet more for the Fountain of Truth. Whilst thou art yet indulgent to thy vices, thy covetousness or thy appetite, when am I to find in thee a longing such as this, that might make thee run to the water- brooks? When art thou to desire the Fountain of Wisdom, whilst thou art yet labouring in the venom of iniquity? Destroy in thyself whatever is contrary to the truth, and when thou hast seen thyself to be comparatively free from irrational passions, be not contented to stay where thou art, as if there was nothing further for thee to long for. For there is yet somewhat to which thou mayest raise thy- self, even if thou hast already achieved that triumph within, that there is no longer within thee a foe to hinder and to thwart thee. For perhaps if thou art the hart, thou wilt already say to me: 'God knows that I am no longer covetous, that I no longer set my heart on the property of any man; that I am not inflamed by the passion of unlawful love; that I do not pine away with hatred or ill-will
22 WESTERN MYSTICISM
against any man'; and as to all other things of this description, thou wilt say: C I am free from them'; and perhaps thou wouldest fain know wherein thou rnayest find pleasure. Long for the water-brooks; God hath wherewith to refresh thee, and to satisfy thee when thou comest to Him, athirst, like the swift-footed hart, after the destruc- tion of the serpents.
5. Such a hart then, being yet in a state of c faith 5 only, not yet in 'sight 3 of what he believes, has to bear with adversaries, who mock the man who believes, and cannot show them that in which he believes, saying, Where is thy God?
7. Meditating night and day on this taunt, I have myself sought to find my God, that if I could I might not believe only, but might see also somewhat. For I see the things which my God hath made, but my God Himself I do not see.
The effort of rnind to attain to the knowledge and sight of God through creatures is "described in a striking passage: he interrogates the earth, the heavenly bodies, his own body, his soul in its highest and most spiritual mental operations. He goes on:
Is God, then, anything of the same nature as the soul? This mind of ours seeks to find something that is God. It seeks to find a Truth not subject to change, a Substance not capable of failing. The mind itself is not of this nature: it is capable of progress and of decay, of knowledge and of ignorance, of remembering or forgetting. That mutability is not incident to God.
8, Having therefore sought to find my God in visible and cor- poreal things, and found Him not; having sought to find His Sub- stance in myself, and found Him not, I perceive my God to be something higher than my soul. Therefore that I might attain unto Him / thought on these things, and poured out my soul above myself. When would my soul attain to that object of its search, which is 'above my soul, 5 if my soul were not to pour itself out above itself? For were it to rest in itself, it would not see anything else beyond itself; and in seeing itself, would not, For all that, see God. Let then my insulting enemies now say. Where is thy God? Aye, let them say it! I, so long as I do not see., so long as my happiness is postponed, Make my tears my bread day and night. I seek my God in every corporeal nature, terrestrial or celestial, and find Him not: I seek His Substance in my own soul, and I find it not; yet still have I thought on these things, and wishing to see the invisible things of my God., being understood by the things made, I have poured forth my soul above myself, and there remains no longer any being for me to attain to (tangam), save my God. For it is there is the 'house of my God'. His dwelling- place is above my soul; from thence He beholds me; from thence He governs me and provides for me; from thence H appeals to me, and calls me, and directs rne; leads me in the way, and to the end of my way.
9. But He Who has His house very high in secret place, hath also
ST AUGUSTINE 23
on earth a tabernacle. His tabernacle on earth is the Church. It is here that He is to be sought, for it is in the tabernacle that is found the way by which we arrive at the house. For I will go into the place of Thy admirable tabernacle, even unto the house of God. God's tabernacle on earth is the Faithful. How much is there I admire in this taber- nacle: the self-conquest and the virtues of God's servants. I admire the presence of those virtues in the soul; but still I am walking in the place of the tabernacle. I pass beyond these also; and admirable though the tabernacle be, yet when I come to the house of God, I am even struck dumb with astonishment. It is there, in the sanctuary of God, in the house of God, is the fountain of understanding. It was going up to the tabernacle the Psalmist arrived at the house of God. It was thus, that whilst admiring the members of the tabernacle, he was led on to the house of God: by following the leadings of a certain delight, an inward mysterious and hidden pleasure, as if from the house of God there sounded sweetly some instrument; and he, whilst walking in the tabernacle, hearing a certain inward sound, led on by its sweetness, and following the guidance of the sound, with- drawing himself from all noise of flesh and blood, made his way on even to the house of God. For he tells us of his progress and of his guidance thither; as if we had been saying, 'You are admiring the tabernacle here on earth; how came you to the sanctuary of the house of God?' and he says, c /n the voice of joy and praise, the sound of keeping holiday.* In the house of God there is a never-ending festival; the angelic choir makes an eternal holiday, the presence of God's face, joy that never fails. From that everlasting, perpetual festivity there sounds in the ears of the heart a mysterious strain, melodious and sweet, provided only the world do not drown the sounds. As he walks in this tabernacle, and considers God's wonderful works for the redemption of the faithful, the sound of that festivity charms his ears and bears the hart away to the water-brooks.
10. But seeing that 'the corruptible body presseth down the soul,* even though we have in some way dispersed the clouds by walking as longing leads us on, and for a brief while have come within reach of that sound, so that by an effort we may catch something from that house of God; yet thfough the burden, so to speak, of our infirmity, we sink back to our usual level and relapse to our ordinary state (consueta). And just as there we found cause for rejoicing, so here there will not be wanting an occasion for sorrow. For that hart that made tears its bread day and night, borne along by longing to the water- brooks (that is, to the inward sweetness of God), pouring forth his soul above himself, that he may attain to what is above his own soul, walking unto the place- of the admirable tabernacle, even unto the house of God, and led on by the delight of that inward spiritual sound to feel contempt for exterior things and be ravished by things interior, is but a mortal man still; is still groaning here, still bearing about the frailty of the flesh, still in peril in the midst of the offences of this world. He therefore gazes on himself, as if he were coming from that other world; and says to himself, now placed in the midst of these sorrows, comparing these with the things to see which he had
24 WESTERN MYSTICISM
entered in there, and after seeing which he had come forth from thence, Why art thou cast down, my soul, and why dost thou disquiet me? Lo, we have fast now been gladdened by certain inward de- lights; with the mind's eye we have been able to behold, though but with a momentary glance, something not susceptible of change; why dost thou still disquiet me, why art thou still cast down? For thou dost not doubt of thy God. For now thou art not without somewhat to say to thyself in answer to those who say, Where is thy God? I have now had the perception of something that is unchangeable: "why dost thou disquiet me still?' And as if his soul was silently replying to him, 'Why do I disquiet thee, but because I am not yet there, where that delight is, to which I was rapt as it were in passing. Am I already drinking from this fountain with nothing to fear? Have I no longer anything to be anxious about, as if all my passions were conquered and thoroughly subdued? Is not my foe, the devil, on the watch against me? Wouldst thou have me not disquiet thee, placed as I am yet in the world, arid on pilgrimage from the house of God?' Still Hope in God is Ms answer to the soul that disquiets > etc.
This, surely, will, I think, be acknowledged by even the most objective exegete to be a noble piece of exegesis a masterpiece of its kind. For however little it may express the real thought of the Psalmist, still, without doing violence to the text, it makes his words, with rare skill, serve as the basis of a statement of mystical doctrine forestalling the lines laid down by the great mystics of later times. The passage is characteristic alike in the warmth of its devo- tion, in its intellectual method, and in the eloquence and elevation of its language. It will repay a careful study.
In 2 Augustine sets in the forefront the vague yet intense longing for something not clearly known> yet strongly desired, which is the motive power impelling one destined to ascend the Mount of Con- templation to embark on the dark and difficult way that lies before him. The mystics are all agreed as to the necessity of this great desire as the condition of success in the pursuit of the Contemplative Life. Here, too, is emphasized that characteristic doctrine of the mystics the special inward light enlightening with spiritual under- standing the minds of those who cultivate the inaer life.
In 3 is set forth, as a preliminary condition of contemplation, the necessity of the destruction of vices in the soul and the elimina- tion of imperfections. Herein lies the feature which marks off true mysticism from the counterfeits which so often, especially in these our days, masquerade in its name. It is the constant teaching of the great mystics that there can be no progress in prayer without morti- fication; no contemplation without self-denial and self-discipline seriously undertaken; no real mysticism without asceticism, in its full
ST AUGUSTINE 525
sense of spiritual training. After all, this is only the teaching of the Gospel: the clean of heart shall see God. And so Augustine, like all genuine mystics, warns us that this destruction of vices must first be secured; only so can anyone press on to the shrine of contemplation. Though remembering, in 5, that he is now only in a state of *faith s and not yet of 'sight', still in 7 the Psalmist desires to find God, that he may not only believe, but may also see somewhat. Here is formulated the fundamental Postulate of Mysticism: that it is possible in this life to see somewhat of God to have an experi- mental perception of Him.
7 continues in an eloquent passage describing the soul's search for God throughout creation. It is the search for a Truth not subject to change, a Substance not capable of failing.
8. This the mind cannot find in creatures; not in itself. It must mount up above itself, to where God dwells.
9. Finally, it is the contemplation of the virtues of God's servants, and admiration at His gifts in them, that carries the soul up to the threshold of God's dwelling-place. This idea, that that which gives the soul its final lift up to the mystic height is the consideration of the holiness of God's faithful servants, is (to me) a unique, but surely a striking and a fruitful, conception. We no doubt owe it to the exegetical necessities of the Psalm. The more normal teaching of the mystics, that God is found within the soul, is of course taught by Augustine in various places, as will appear later on.
And so he comes to the mystic experience itself. Then is he struck dumb with astonishment. It is as if some strains of the music of the heavenly festival reached the ear of his heart, leading him on by a mysterious inward delight. And led on by the sweetness of this in- ward sound, withdrawing himself from all noise of flesh and blood, charmed by that melodious strain that comes from the court of Heaven, he is borne along to the 'water-brooks' 'that is, to the inward sweetness of God' ( 10).
The imagery of music to express the mystic experience occurs (so far as I know) only here in Augustine, though it is employed by other mystics, as Richard Rolle. 1
In 10 are more precisely described the phenomena of the actual mystical experience. The soul, coming for a brief while within reach of the sound of the music of heaven, is gladdened by inward de-
1 In the following passage, for instance, Rolle expresses the mystical experience as *the inshedding and receiving of this heavenly and ghostly sound, the which belongs to the songs of everlasting praise and the sweetness of unseen melody. Whiles I took heed to praying to heaven with my whole desire, suddenly, I wot not in what manner, I felt in me the noise of song, and received the most liking heavenly melody which dwelt with me in my mind* (Fire of Love, p. 71, ed. Gomper, 1914).
26 WESTERN MYSTICISM
lights and the mind's eye is able to behold, though but with a momentary glance. Something not susceptible of change. The act of contemplation is here characterized as 'the perception of Some- thing Unchangeable/ accompanied by a wondrous inward joy. Its effect on the soul is to make it feel contempt for exterior things, and be ravished by things interior. But after the brief moment of realization, the soul, weighed down by the burden of its infirmity, sinks back to its ordinary level and its normal experience: and this return, as it were, from the other world is an occasion of sorrow, and of longing for a renewal of the experience. Here is emphasized what is the testimony of all the mystics as to the transient nature of the act of contemplation.
The foregoing passage is the most considerable and complete of Augustine's descriptions of the process and nature of the mystic experience. But there are in the Confessions definitely autobio- graphical relations of the way in which he attained to contemplation. These passages will be adduced in the proper place.
The attempt will now be made to present in orderly sequence, under certain main headings, St Augustine's full doctrine on mysticism and contemplation, all the principal passages that I have been able to collect from his writings being duly co-ordinated, and reproduced mostly in his own words, but sometimes in compressed form. The general outlines correspond in main features to those under which the doctrine of St Gregory and that of St Bernard will be presented. In the case of each Doctor the subject matter will be treated under two heads: in Part I, the Nature of Contemplation; and in Part II, the Relations between the Contemplative and the Active Lives.
St Augustine's teaching on the nature of contemplation may be formulated under the following aspects:
He gives in one place a definition or description of contemplation in general: It is the directing a serene and straight look on the object to be looked at. 1
(i) The Contemplation of God is the lot of the Blessed in heaven; in it consists their essential eternal happiness.
The contemplation of God 'face to face' is promised to us as the end of all our actions and the perfection of all our joys (de Trin. i. 17).
1 'Serenum atque rectum aspectum in id, quod videndum est, dirigere* (de Quant. Anim. 75).
ST AUGUSTINE 27
In the contemplation of God is the end of all good actions, and everlasting rest, and joy that never will be taken from us (ibid. L 20).
That vision of God whereby we shall contemplate the unchange- able and to human eyes invisible Substance of God, alone is our suBimum bonum, for the attaining to which we are commanded to do whatever we rightly do (ibid. i. 31).
The contemplation of God will be the highest reward of the saints (ibid. xii. 22).
(2) Though Contemplation really belongs to the next life, in this life some beginnings of it are possible, some passing glimpses or intuitions of divine things.
Thus he says: Contemplation is only begun in this life, to be per- fected in the next (Tract, in loan, cxxiv. 5).
Even in this life our soul hungers and thirsts for God, and we can find real satisfaction only in Him. This truth is enunciated in St Augustine's celebrated formulation of what may be called the Great Mystic Postulate: Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is restless till it rest in Thee (Conf. L i).
A. PRELIMINARY PHASES
(3) The Remote Preparation for Contemplation lies in the Purification of the Soul
For Augustine, as for all true mystics, the indispensable condition of contemplation is such a purification of the soul as will render it fit for the ascent to the contemplation of God: a purification which is the result of a long process of self-denial and self-conquest, of mortification and the practice of virtue in short, asceticism in the broad and full meaning of the word, viz. 'training'.
This is the teaching, for instance, of Cassian, who divides spiritual knowledge into two branches: practical, which consists in the elim- ination of faults and acquiring of virtues; and theoretic, which con- sists in the contemplation of divine things. There is no arriving at contemplation without a serious pursuit of practical discipline asceticism for 'in vain does one strive for the vision of God, who does not shun the stains of sin' (ColL xiv. 1,2). And so, in such a book as Fr Augustine Baker's Sancta Sophia, being 'Directions for the Prayer of Contemplation,' the section of Mortification, conceived identically with Cassian's practical discipline, occupies nearly as much space as that of Prayer. This truth is asserted, too, in the classical division of the spiritual life into the three phases of Purga- tion, Illumination, and Union, the first being that process of self-
28 WESTERN MYSTICISM
discipline and reformation and readjustment of character which is the necessary preparation for entry into the higher degrees of the spiritual life.
And it is remarkable that in the treatise de Quantitate Animae^ written shortly after his baptism, St Augustine forestalls, in fact though not in nomenclature, this received division of later writers into the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways. He distinguishes seven grades or degrees (gradus) in the functions or operations of the soul: it is the principle of life, of sensation, of intelligence, of morality; the fifth grade he characterizes as 'tranquillitas', the calm- ing of the passions; the sixth as 'ingressio', the approach to con- templation; the seventh as contemplation. These last three corres- pond in idea to the familiar stages of purgation, illumination, and union. He uses, indeed, the actual word 'purgation', but of the fourth grade. He summarizes them thus: In the fourth God purges the soul, in the fifth He reforms it, in the sixth He leads it in, in the seventh He feeds it. 1 The last two, 'ingressio' and 'contemplatio', will be spoken of again; but the fourth and fifth represent the pro- cess of ethical reconstruction and transformation of the self, the conflict with sin and the establishment of the soul in good, the difference between the two grades lying in this, that what was effected in the fourth is made permanent in the fifth: 'for it is one thing to purify the soul, and another to keep it pure; one thing to restore it when sullied, another not to suffer it to become sullied again.' And more than once is the truth insisted on, that not until this purification of the soul has been effected, not until it has been 'cleansed and healed,' can it proceed to contemplation. 2
And indeed this same truth is proclaimed throughout the Confessions the portrayal of an emergence alike from intellectual error and from moral disorder. The latter it was that for a long while held back the mind from its flight to God and hindered it from fixing its gaze upon Him. Not till the struggle had issued in full moral victory and regeneration could Augustine attain to that clear vision of heavenly things and that intimate realization that afterwards were his not infrequent experience. And so in certain premonitory experiences and elevations during the pre-Christian neo-Platonist phase described in Book vii. of the Confessions, before he had emancipated himself from sinful habits, of the first, viz. vision, he says: 'When first I knew Thee, Thou didst take hold of me, that I might see there was Something to see, but that I was not yet such as to see it* (16); and of the second, viz. realization, wherein he did attain to a momentary glimpse: C I was fully con- 1 De Quant Anim. 79, 80. * Op. cit. 73, 74, 75.
ST AUGUSTINE 2Q
vinced there was One to Whom I might cleave, but that I was not yet such as to cleave to Him 5 (23). Thus it is Augustine's witness that there was for him neither clear vision of God nor union with Him, until both mind and heart should be effectively purged: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
(4) The Proximate Preparation for Contemplation lies in the processes called 'Recollection* and 'Introversion*
The word 'recollection* is taken, not in its present, secondary, sense of remembering, but in its primary sense of gathering together and concentrating the mind. It consists first in the effort to banish from the mind all images and thoughts of external things, all sense perceptions and thoughts of creatures; then the reasoning processes of the intellect are silenced, and by this exercise of abstraction a solitude is produced wherein the soul may operate in its most spiritual faculties. This shutting off all external things from the mind, and emptying it of distracting thoughts, which is the object of 'recollection 3 , is the prelude to that entering of the mind into itself that is effected by 'introversion 9 , which is a concentration of the mind on its own highest, or deepest, part. In the account of the soul's quest for God through creatures, in Enar. in Psalm, xli. (see above, p. 22), the process of introversion is described as the final step before the soul finds God. Thus: 'the mind abstracts itself from all the bodily senses, as interrupting and confounding it with their din, in order to see itself in itself, and know itself as mirrored in itself (7); and again, it is by 'abstracting its attention from all noise of flesh and blood* that it arrives at God ( 9).
The philosophical, or rather theological, explanation of the reason and meaning of introversion has been clearly set forth by Bishop Ullathorne:
Let it be plainly understood that we cannot return to God unless we enter first into ourselves. God is everywhere, but not everywhere to us. There is but one point in the Universe where God com- municates with us, and that is the centre of our own soul. There He waits for us; there He meets us; there He speaks to us. To seek Him, therefore, we must enter into our own interior (Groundwork of the Christian Virtues, p. 74).
The most noteworthy of Augustine's various descriptions of the soul's search for God through the ascending grades of creation, wherein the mind finally turns itself in upon itself, mounting through its progressively more and more spiritual faculties, till it finds God at once in and above itself, is the elaborate and eloquent passage in Book x. of the Confessions (12-38), which Mr Montgomery
30 WESTERN MYSTICISM
singles out as an acute and true psychological analysis of the phenomena of consciousness and sub-consciousness memory, Augustine calls it. 1 In it he describes his own seeking to find God throughout the different regions of consciousness how, turning in- wards on itself, his mind passed successively through those regions that contain the images of material things, and those that contain the 'affections' of the mind not merely emotions, but purely intellectual phenomena, 'ideas' till at last he entered 'into the very seat of the mind. 5
Thou remainest unchangeable over all, and yet hast vouchsafed to dwell in my memory, since I learnt Thee. And why seek I now in what place thereof Thou dwellest, as if there were places therein? Sure I am^ that in it Thou dwellest, since I have remembered Thee, ever since I learnt Thee, and there I find Thee, when I call Thee to remembrance. Where then did I find Thee, that I might learn Thee? For in my memory Thou wert not, before I learned Thee. Where then did I find Thee, that I might learn Thee, but in Thee above me ? (loc. cit. 36, 37). It culminates in the following fine piece, embodying the normal teaching of the mystics on God's immanence in the soul: Too late loved I Thee, O Beauty so old, yet ever new! too late loved I Thee. And behold Thou wert within, and I abroad, and there I searched for Thee. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. Thou calledst, and shoutedst, burstedst my deafness. Thou flashedst, shonedst, and scatteredst my blindness. Thou breathedst odours, and I drew in breath, and pant for Thee. I tasted, and hunger and thirst. Thou touchedst me, and I was on fire for Thy peace (38).
The question raised in the above passage. Whether God is to be found within the soul or above it, is solved in the following striking utterance, declared by the latest editor to be one of his memorable phrases, wherein the simultaneous truth of both ideas, the imman- ence and the transcendence of God, is affirmed:
Thou wert more inward to me than my most inward part, and higher than my highest (Conf. iii. n).
1 St Augustine, p. 117. The Confessions is the work which, more than any other, supplies material for the study of St Augustine's mysticism. The edition by Dr Gibb and Mr Montgomery ('Cambridge Patristic Texts', 1908) will be found the most serviceable; it supplies a critical text, based on that of the Vienna 'Corpus', and explained in a running commentary of useful notes. Pusey's trans- lation in the Oxford 'Library of the Fathers' has been reprinted in handy form in 'Everyman's Library* (Dent). A somewhat modernized translation was made by Dr Bigg in the 'Library of Devotion' (Methuen), but it closes with Book ix. [The early one, by Sir Tobie Matthew, 1620, is printed in 'Orchard Books' (Burns and Oates).]
ST AUGUSTINE 3!
There are certain passages in the Confessions strongly autobio- graphical in character, and therefore wholly convincing, describing with great power and rare eloquence Augustine's own elevations to the mystic experience, wherein the processes of recollection and introversion and the subsequent contemplation are very vividly depicted. It would be a pity to break up these passages into frag- ments in order to illustrate severally the different elements: for their value lies largely in their delineation of the experience as a whole. So they will be here recited in their entirety, as a basis for the coming study.
B. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PASSAGES
The thought and the language of the following pieces are strongly coloured by Plotinus, whose philosophy was the vehicle whereby Augustine habitually formulated to himself and others his experi- ences of mind and soul. The first two of these realizations of the mystic experience are taken from the Seventh Book of the Confessions., which depicts the phase that intervened between the abandonment of Manichaeism and the full embracing of Catholic Christianity, while he was captivated by the religious Platonism of Plotinus.
After speaking at some length of what he had found c in the books of the Platonists,' he says:
And being by them admonished to return into myself, I entered even into my inmost self, Thou being my Guide. I entered and beheld with the eye of my soul, above the same eye of my soul, above my mind, the Light Unchangeable. ... 1 And Thou didst beat back the weakness of my sight, streaming forth Thy beams of light upon me most strongly, and I trembled with love and awe (Conf. vii. 1 6).
More precise in details is the following powerful piece:
Step by step was I led upwards, from bodies to the soul which perceives by means of the bodily senses; and thence to the soul's inward faculty to which the bodily senses report external things, which is the limit of the intelligence of animals; and thence again to the reasoning faculty, to whose judgement is referred the know- ledge received by the bodily senses. And when this power also within me found itself changeable, it lifted itself up to its own intelligence, and withdrew its thoughts from experience, abstracting itself from the contradictory throng of sense images, that it might find what that light was wherein it was bathed when it cried out that beyond
1 The passage wherein he explains what this Light is, is given at a later place (PP- 43-44)-
32 WESTERN MYSTICISM
all doubt the unchangeable is to be preferred to the changeable; whence also it knew That Unchangeable: and thus with the flash of one trembling glance it arrived at THAT WHICH is. And then at last I saw Thy 'invisible things understood by the things that are made'; but I could not sustain my gaze, and my weakness being struck back, I was relegated to my ordinary experience,, bearing with me but a loving memory and a longing for what I had, as it were, perceived the odour of, but was not yet able to feed upon (Conf. vii. 23).
There is a special interest in the circumstance that these experi- ences, evidently in full sense mystical, were pre-Christian, or at any rate pre-Catholic; 1 and they are couched in great measure in the very language of Plotinus. 2 This is true also in some degree of the description of the fully Catholic experience in the well-known scene at Ostia, just before Monica's death, when mother and son opened to each other their inmost thoughts, and together strove to rise to a realization of the heavenly joys.
We were discoursing together alone, very sweetly, and we were enquiring between ourselves in the presence of the Truth, which Thou art, of what sort the eternal life of the saints was to be. With the lips of our souls we panted for the heavenly streams of Thy fountain, the fountain of life which is with Thee, that, sprinkled with that water to the measure of our capacity, we might attain some poor conception of that glorious theme. And as our converse drew to this conclusion, that the sweetest conceivable delight of sense in the brightest conceivable earthly sunshine was not to be compared, no, nor even named, with the happiness of that life, we soared with ardent longing towards the 'Self-same 5 [i.e. the un- changing God], we passed from stage to stage through all material things, through heaven itself, whence sun and moon and stars shed their radiance upon earth. And now we began a more inward ascent, by thinking and speaking and marvelling at Thy works. And so we came to our own minds, and we passed beyond them, that we might come unto the region of unfailing plenty, where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food of truth. There Life is the wisdom by which all things come to be, both those that have been and those that are to be; and the Life itself never comes to be, but is as it was and shall be ever more, because in it is neither past nor future but present only, for it is eternal. And as we talked and yearned after it, we touched it and hardly touched it with the full beat (to to ictu) of our heart. And we sighed and left there im- pawned the firstfruits of the spirit, and we relapsed into articulate speech, where the word has beginning and ending (Conf. ix. 23, 24).
1 He did not yet accept the Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation or the divinity of Christ (ibid. 25).
* See notes in edition of Gibb and Montgomery (Cambridge 1908).
ST AUGUSTINE 33
It is a common teaching of mystic writers that introversion is effected by a successive silencing of the faculties of the mind and of the powers of the soul, till the actuations become blind elevations to God; and in the 'Quiet' thus produced, the very being of the soul the "Ground of the Spirit', the later mystics call it comes into immediate relation with the Ultimate Reality which is God. This silencing of the faculties is systematically pursued in, for instance, the work of St John of the Gross, The Ascent of Mount Camel; and it is described with much eloquence and power by Augustine in the continuation of the foregoing passage:
We said then: If the tumult of the flesh were hushed; hushed the sense impressions (phantasiae) of earth, sea, sky; hushed also the heavens, yea the very soul be hushed to herself, and by not thinking on self transcend self; hushed all dreams and revelations which come by imagery; if every tongue and every symbol, and all things subject to transiency were wholly hushed: since, if any could hear, all these say: 'We made not ourselves, but He made us who abideth for ever.' If then, having uttered this, they too should be hushed, having roused only our ears to Him who made them; and He alone speak, not by them but by Himself, so that we may hear His word, not through any tongue of flesh nor angel's voice nor sound of thunder, not in any similitude, but His voice whom we love in these His creatures may hear His Very Self without intermediary at all as now we reached forth and with one flash of thought touched the Eternal Wisdom that abides over all: suppose that experience were prolonged, and all other visions of far inferior order were taken away, and this one vision were to ravish the beholder, and absorb him and plunge him in these inward joys, so that eternal life were like that moment of insight for which we sighed were not this: Enter into the joy of thy Lord! 1 (Conf. ix. 25).
Those familiar with the later literature of mysticism and with the mystics' records of their own souls' flights to God, are sure to be struck by one feature of the foregoing passages. In all of them, those from the Confessions as well as that from the 'Enarration' on Psalm xli., Augustine's accounts of the process whereby the soul mounts up
1 This passage is reminiscent of Plotinus, Em. v. i. 1-3, translated by Dean Inge, Plotinus, i. 205, and by Taylor, Select Works of Plotinus, edited by Mead ('Bonn's Philosophical Library'), p. 162. The following are the most striking resemblances: The soul ought first to examine its own nature to know whether it has the faculty of contemplating spiritual things, and if it ought to embark on the quest. ... The soul makes itself worthy to contemplate by ridding itself, through quiet recollection, of deceit and of all that bewitches vulgar souls. For it let all be quiet; not only the body which encompasses it, and the tumult of the senses; but let all its environment be at peace. Let the earth be quiet, and the sea and air, and the heaven itself calm (Inge).
34 WESTERN MYSTICISM
to contemplation are for the most part intellectual in idea and in language, sometimes being frankly Plotinian. Western mystics com- monly represent contemplation as attained to by and in absorption in prayer; but for Augustine it seems to have been primarily an intellectual process informed, indeed, by intense religious warmth, but still primarily intellectual. It is the search for Something not subject to change, that leads the soul up to God, and it is represented as a great effort of intellect and will. This is very interesting and valuable; especially as it will be shown in the sequel that the reli- gious experience described by Augustine as the culmination of these efforts, was, without any doubt, identical in kind with those described by the later mystics.