Preface, Introduction and Summary

Preface

The Booh of the Twelve Beguines has been here translated from the original Flemish Texts, collated and published by the Society of Flemish Bibliophiles in 1863.

In the Flemish, the first eight Chapters are in rhymed verse ; but I have preferred to follow the example of Surius, and to make no attempt to reproduce the metre or the rhymes of the original, believing that such a course results only in increasing the difficulty of obtaining an exact and accurate rendering ; and in this I am confirmed by a comparison of the existing translations in French, which are often little more than paraphrases of the author's meaning. I have, however, in those Chapters, kept to the original lines, beginning each in turn with a capital letter.

The old Manuscripts were not consistently divided into Chapters, and the 7 usual numeration is that of Surius, who also added a brief descriptive heading to each Chapter. While his division is occasionally at fault, it seems less confusing to the reader to adopt it, subdividing the longer Chapters, where necessary, into two parts ; and this I have done. The descriptive headings are my own, although they follow, in the main, the intention of the headings added by Surius.

The language chosen has been always the simplest possible, in order to retain, as far as practicable, the primitive flavour of the original ; but it should be remembered that Ruysbroeck himself often uses long words, though always in their simplest signification.

I have thought it useful to summarise briefly the contents of the work, and this Summary will be found immediately after the Introduction.

It remains only to acknowledge, here and at once, the invaluable assistance which I have obtained from a careful study of the French translations made by the Abbe Cuylits and by M. Chamonal, however often I may have the temerity to disagree with their rendering ; and, above all, the priceless aid of the great Latin translation of Surius, seldom at fault, and always illuminating. The Collection of the Society of Flemish Bibliophiles, to which I have already alluded, is the foundation of all, and, without it, I could have written nothing.

I trust, most earnestly, that this little book, which I believe to be the first translation of any part of Ruysbroeck from the original Flemish into English, may lead someone, more capable than I, to undertake the greater task of a more extended translation ; and if it has this result, it may well prove, in years to come, that few books can show a greater worth.

J- F.

Introduction

THE student of mystical literature has, to-day, no greater or more pressing need than an accurate and careful translation of the works of Jan van Ruysbroeck, himself one of the most arresting figures of mediaeval Mysticism.

And, at the threshold, we must needs ask ourselves what it is that we mean by this word " Mysticism " ; for upon the answer which we make to that question will depend the whole meaning of this book — and indeed of all other books — for us.

" Mysticism,'* then, as we speak of it to-day, is no phantasy of mystery and legend, no foolish tale of useless occult adeptship, no farrago of ancient and discredited heresies. It imports a deep and earnest striving of the soul, to live, first, the life enjoined by all the authorised teachers, and then — and not till then — to pass, if she be called, beyond, into the

Life of Love in God, and into intimate communion with Himself.

It is not a science or a philosophy, exploring, by the light of the intellect, the secret places of the soul. It is, in the deepest and truest sense, the living of a Life — a Life of continual realisation, in which every deed and word and thought is for ever governed and made holy by the Love that rules in all.

To those who live this Life there comes at length a reward wh(ich is past all telling, when the life of eager quest and longing is taken up into the Life of consciousness with God.

Such is the claim of those who have left their record with us — a tale of stammering lips, and spoken in strange tongues. They have turned to us radiant faces, and in their eyes we have read unutterable things.

They have given us scattered landmarks on the road that they have travelled, and we come, in time, to understand that " there are many paths to the ' ' Centre, ' ' and that hardly any one of them has followed in the footsteps of another.

Each in his turn has taken up his staff, and struck out across the desert, if haply he might come one day to see the gilded spires and temples of his early vision. Each in his turn has felt the " Song of " Joy " swelling in his inmost heart, the Song " that no man knoweth, save him " that hath conceived it." *

Ruysbroeck, in other words, tells us of all that this Song meant for him. He finds within himself a constant craving, a continual inward longing. He describes how the attitude of the true lover of God is "an intellectual gazing and " a loving inclination " 2 towards Him, mind and will aspiring to intimate communion with the God of All. " Behold," he cries, " we are one life in God," 3 and, through love and virtue, we shall come to our Eternal Life and Rest in Him.

He calls to those who hear him in a voice that thrills with earnestness, bidding them to follow where he leads : —

1 XII. Beguines, chap. x. pt. 2.

2 Ibid., chap. xiv. pt. i.

3 Ibid., chap. xvi. pt. i.

" Ministering, in the world without, to all who need, in love and mercy ; " And, in the world within, emptying thyself of every vain imagining ; " Gazing inward with an eye uplifted and open to the

Eternal Truth ; " Inwardly abiding in simplicity, and stillness, and in utter peace.

" So shalt thou bring with thee " A burning earnestness of love, " A fiery Flame of devotion, leaping and ascending into the very Goodness of God Himself, " A loving longing of the soul to be with God in His

Eternity, " A turning from all things of self into the Freedom of the

Will of God, " With all the forces of the soul gathered into the unity of the Spirit, " Thanking and glorifying God, and loving and serving

Him, in everlasting reverence." l

His way is the living of the Life of Christ, in a constant inward recollection, in a continual outward loving and serving, and in an uninterrupted inward-and-outward realisation of the everlasting "Presence of the Majesty of God." To such a life there comes the Gift of loving promise, the Holy Spirit, " Whom we liken to a Living Fountain, " Wherein we live above our created be- " ing, Whence spring rivulets of the living " waters of His Grace, and streams that

1 XII. Btyuines, chap. vii.

" scatter in our spirits His innumerable " Gifts. " l

" This man," you exclaim, " is an " Enthusiast." — It is true. Enthusiasm is the great watchword of the Mystic Life, and stands for almost all that is meant by " Mysticism," just as it stands for all that is best in the religious life of every day. It is one of the rulers of the modern Church who tells us that " Mysticism is the raw material of all " religion," and that "it is easier to dis- " cipline the enthusiast than to breathe " enthusiasm into the disciplinarian." 2

Only the enthusiast will hear the voice of Jan van Ruysbroeck, and only enthusiasm will carry the traveller who is following in his steps across the wilderness of his occasional lapses into mediaeval mannerisms. To the true enthusiast for Life there is no weariness, no hesitation, no return. For ever and for ever he goes forward on the path that he has chosen, to join the ranks of those to whom he now and evermore belongs.

1 XII. B6guines, chap. xiii.

2 Rev. W. R. Inge, Dean of St Paul's, in Light, Life, and Loue, Intro.,fp. xiii.

Of such was Ruysbroeck, and of such are those to whom alone his message will sound in understanding ears.

To the difficulty of translating his writings, witness has been borne continually by many of those who have entered into that labour, and M. Maeterlinck, in the incomparable Introduction to his translation into French of the Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, has given some of the reasons therefor.1

This " humble Flemish priest," as M. Maeterlinck calls him,2 had, in truth, at his service, one of the most primitive of modern tongues, adapted only to the simplest expression of the thoughts of daily life. He writes, in this medium, of things that pass beyond all expression, of abstract ideas just caught upon the uttermost limits of that territory in which alone the human intellect can live, and he employs, at times, the boldest and most amazing imagery, the subtlest analogies, and the utmost refinements of abstract

1 Cf. Ruysbroeck and the Mystics, by M. Maeterlinck (trans. Stoddart), pp. 117 et seq. 1 Ibid., p. 13.

thought, in seeking to tell of the ineffable in the terms of human speech.

He is like a child who has seen a vision of the Infinite. He understands, although he knows not how ; but he cannot formulate his knowledge even in his thought ; and, at the attempt to convey his meaning into words, all but the least fragments of the Vision fade and pass away. It is those least fragments alone that we can see, shining through the short phrases and the simple stumbling sentences. In rough and uncouth analogy, in tortured rhythm, and in weird flights of strange imagination, we grasp and reconstruct, little by little, piece by piece, and, as it were, rebuilding it out of the material of our own original thought, the tumbled fragments of his scattered edifice.

" The Unutterable remains for ever " unuttered," but we have with us some memory of a moment spent upon the edge of all the world, gazing out across the mists of far Eternity.

Small wonder that in such an atmosphere the translator stands amazed. He has no words to fit his own half i8 THE BOOK OF understanding of his original ; and, too often, perhaps, he forgets that he is only a translator, and tries to add a word here or a word there, in the hope of making intelligible to others what he has been unable to understand himself.

Or again, he is horrified at some rugged metaphor of mediaeval flavour, and strives to palliate what he conceives to be an offence against good manners. He finds his author speaking, in all sincerity, of the pious soul " feeding " upon God " ; or " gasping for His sacred " Flesh " ; and he is appalled. He cuts and alters and emasculates, and finally produces something wholly inoffensive, and wholly useless, and totally unlike the original. Shall we not remember the well-worn words of our own orthodox Church prayers, or the many striking phrases scattered throughout our own English Testament ? Ruysbroeck is never less reverent ; seldom, I think, so daring. And, were he otherwise, his sincerity is so patent, and his essential respect for all that is holy is so deep and loving, that he would be a harsh critic who found offence therein.

And, after all, it is the duty of a translator just to translate ; altering nothing, if he can avoid it ; omitting nothing ; and, if he does not wholly understand the hidden meaning of the plain words upon his written page, leaving them undisturbed, and the understanding of them to wiser men.

In the midst of the great awakening of recent years, this Flemish saint has, for us and for our generation, emerged from the obscurity of centuries, and we have been able to read, for ourselves, even in our own tongue, some few selections from his writings. It is in no disrespect of those admirable translations that one can but feel once more the difficulties of which I have just spoken, as well as the great limitation of selected passages for the purpose of enabling the student to follow the connected thought of the author, no less than one realises the disadvantage of what M. Maeterlinck calls a " double translation."

So far as I am acquainted therewith, all the English versions of Ruysbroeck that have yet appeared are limited to selections from the original, and are, moreover, translations, not of the Flemish, but of some rendering thereof in French or Latin. Miss Stoddart has translated the Introduction and some few extracts from M. Maeterlinck's French rendering of the Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage,1 while Dean Inge's abridged version of that work, given in Light, Life, and Loue^ is from the French version and from the Latin translation by Surius.

With these two exceptions, all the English selections have been translated from the French of Ernest Hello, who, as M. Maeterlinck points out,3 does not claim to have done more than loosely paraphrase the Latin text of Surius, himself the translator, nearly two centuries after Ruysbroeck's death, of the then existing manuscripts.

In so many retranslations and re-renderings, the opportunities of missing the exact shade of thought or the subtle turn of phrase, which were long ago in

1 Ruysbroech and the Mystics, byM. Maeterlinck (trans. Stoddart). Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.

2 Light, Life, and Love, by the Rev. W. R. Inge. Methuen, 1904.

3 Cf. Ruysbroech and the Mystics, pp. 117 et seq.

the mind of him who wrote, or of toning down some too bold analogy or some too vivid imagery, are almost endless ; and it has seemed to me that even the most elementary attempt at an exact rendering of the original text, while it must, of necessity, lack much of the literary merit of a freer translation, may well be of more general utility in reproducing the true meaning of the author.

I have translated, then, as a whole, and, so far as possible, without omission of any kind. One may be forgiven some passing impatience when, in the midst of an amazing flood of eloquence, the writer pauses to digress upon the fate, let us say, which in mediaeval times was reserved for the unbeliever and the Jew. But I cannot think that this impatience is an excuse for depriving others of the privilege of forming their own judgment ; and, indeed, in the Booh of the Twelue Btguines these digressions are so rare, and so short when they do occur, that their omission would have resulted in no gain either of clearness or of brevity. Moreover, in all his works, what Ruysbroeck has written he has written as a whole ; and there never was, perhaps, a writer who passed more subtly from point to point of exposition, or whose digressions it was more dangerous to omit. He troubles us little, after all, with the usual mediaeval condemnation of the wicked man : and, if these digressions, almost essential as they were in those days for the orthodox son of Holy Church, be faults indeed, we may surely forgive them for the sake of the great love and the tender charity that are so conspicuous in all his teachings.

Jan van Ruysbroeck was born in 1293 A.D. in the village of Ruysbroeck, or Ruusbroec, near Brussels, to which he owes his name. The circumstances of his outer life need delay us but one moment, and have often been set out before. His mother, a good and pious woman, was yet too fond of her son to wish him to leave her for the stern life of a mediaeval priest ; and at the age of eleven, he ran away from home to his Uncle John Hinckaert, who was a Canon of the first degree at the Church of Saint Michael and Saint Gudule in Brussels.

With him he studied hard in all kinds for four years, and then abandoned these labours as beside the point of his one enthusiasm, and devoted himself exclusively to theology.

Those who saw his wonderful progress in this respect thought him inspired from Heaven, and in his Uncle Hinckaert and the latter 's colleague, Franc van Coudenberg, a minor canon, he found ready and invaluable assistance.

More and more as the years went on he devoted himself to the life of contemplation, till, at the age of twenty-four, when he was ordained priest, his uncle made him Chaplain of the Church of Saint Gudule.

In 1343, at Coudenberg's suggestion, the three friends left Brussels for Groennendael in the Forest of Soignes, hoping for greater peace and seclusion, and took up their abode in the old hermitage of Jean de Buscho, vacated for that purpose by the recluse Lambert, who was then in occupation. In 1344 they built a chapel which was duly consecrated by the Bishop of Trebizonde, and many clergy and laymen came to join them.

In 1349, upon a remonstrance from the Abbot of Saint Victor, they took the habit of regular Canons of Saint Augustine ; and while Coudenberg became Provost, Ruysbroeck himself became the Prior of the new settlement.

From this time forward his fame spread far and wide. Sometimes, we are told, his words flowed forth like wine from a broken vessel, and it is on record that he often spoke of God and of Eternal happiness until the dawn was breaking, and that the brethren who joined him after compline would find him still beside them at the bell for matins.

He always spoke without preparation, and always eloquently ; and if he did not feel himself inspired to speak, he would humbly beg to be excused. Ever ready to help his brethren even in the midst of the weakness caused by his ascetic life and his increasing years, he would undertake the hardest and the meanest labour, always being the first in all monastic exercises, and continuing his contemplation in the midst of every labour.

All that he did he consecrated to the service of God ; and he would say continually that it was as easy to lift the soul to God as to lift the hand to the head ; while of his writings he said that he had never written one least word without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. His saintliness was noised abroad throughout all Flanders, Holland, and France ; and among the crowds who came from far and near for his counsel and advice were the Dominican Tauler and Gerard Groote, the founder of the " Brotherhood of the " Common Life."

In 1381 he fell ill, and died at the age of eighty-eight, without pain, and fully conscious to the end ; while those who stood around him saw his face aglow and burning with an inward light.1

So he lived and so he died, fulfilling in his own life that perfect and humble following of Christ that he so eagerly urges in the priceless heritage of labour and of love that he has left behind him.

Of that heritage it would be hard to speak too highly. It is almost unknown

1 See Biographle Belgique for a full account, of which the above is, in the main, a summary.

to English readers ; and what they lose thereby it is impossible to estimate.

I have chosen to translate the Booh of the Twelve Beguines because, so far as we can tell, it was one of the last treatises he ever wrote, and because it seems to contain, in a remarkable degree, the summary and the crown of his life's teaching. Surius includes it in a collection of treatises which he entitles " De " vera Contemplatione, opus praeclarum, " variis divinis institutionibus, eo quo " Spiritus Sanctus suggessit ordine de- " scriptis, exuberans," and these treatises, under the comprehensive title oi"Dat Boec " van den twaelf beghinen " have, together with all the other known works of Ruysbroeck, been collected and edited from the original manuscripts by the Society of Flemish Bibliophiles.

The Society, for this particular collection, drew mainly from three manuscripts, known, respectively, as Codex D, Codex F, and Codex G ; and it is perhaps needless to say more on this head, save that, for various reasons, I have, when in doubt, given the preference to Codex

G, which was copied in 1480 by " Sister " Martin van Woolputte, procuratress at " Bergen in the enclosed cloister of Saint " Margaret in the Valley of Josaphat." * Ruysbroeck himself never gave any title to his works, and the name of " The Twelve " Beguines " is, in consequence, the addition of some copyist or critic at a later date.

The collection itself consists, as I have said, of several treatises, and much difference of opinion has arisen as to the particular division which is to be adopted.

The editors of the Society of Flemish Bibliophiles treat it as whole and complete, and consider that the sense is uninterrupted from the beginning to the end.

M. Maeterlinck, on the other hand, thinks that the Book of the Twelve Beguines ends with Chapter Thirty or Thirty-one 2 in Surius' numeration, after which the author goes on to treat mystically of the science of astronomy.

I have, however, adopted neither of these views. The Codex G, to which

1 Maetschappij der Vlaemsche Bibliophilen : Werken v. J. v. Ruusbroec : IIIde Deel, Bl. xii.

2 M. Maeterlinck himself says chap, xxxi., but the passage he cites is taken from chap. xxx. Cf. Ruysbroeck and the Mystics, p. 35.

I have already referred, has a note at the end of the Sixteenth Chapter to this effect, — " Here the Twelve Beguines go out " ; x and Chapter Seventeen is headed with the words, " Here beginneth an Instruction." These two additions by a later hand, for such they undoubtedly are, do not occur in the other manuscripts ; but I think there can be little doubt that they are justified. The last few Chapters of the Booh of the Twelue Beguines have risen from height to height of abstract thought and overwhelming richness of expression, until in Chapter Sixteen the six Points of highest communion between God and man are described and dwelt upon with every circumstance of powerful analysis and imagery. The Chapter concludes with these words : —

" May the Father, the Son, and the " Holy Ghost, One True God in Three " Persons, Who is our Reward and Crown, " so grant to all of us. Amen," while the next Chapter begins with an elementary distinction between good and wicked men ; and, were it indeed part of that

1 It may be remarked that the Flemish for " go out " is the same as for " finish " or " end."

which had gone before, would provide one of the most lamentable examples of an uncalled-for anticlimax in the whole of literary history.

The learned Abbe Cuylits, who has had access to the original manuscript of which I have spoken, closes his own admirable French translation, as I have closed mine, at the end of the Sixteenth Chapter ; and Professor Vreese, in the B log rap hie Belgique, while he says nothing of the interpolations, yet draws attention to the entire change of thought and subject-matter which occurs at the beginning of Chapter Seventeen.

The word " Beguine " stands for a woman leading the religious life in community ; and I think we cannot certainly say more than that. Father Poulain, whose great work, Des Graces cTOraison, has not long been translated into English, is my authority for the statement that the word itself may possibly be traced to Lambert of Begue, a priest of Liege, who founded Beguinages at the end of the twelfth century.1 Surius calls them " cordatse virgines," which can hardly

1 The Graces of Interior Prayer, chap, xxvii. 5 n., p. 488.

be strictly accurate, since we know at least that Ruysbroeck's own mother died in a Beguinage at Brussels, to which she had come in order to be near her son. Dean Inge, moreover, has shown that many reasons, among which the loss of life in the Crusades was not the least, combined, in mediaeval times, " to " swell the number of indigent females " who, having no male protector, were " forced to beg their bread. " "The better " class of these female mendicants," he says, " soon formed themselves into * * uncloistered charitable Orders, who were " not forbidden to marry, and who devoted 1 ' themselves chiefly to the care of the sick. ' ' He speaks of their religion as " intensely " inward," and " based on the longing of " the soul for immediate access to God." l

I pass from these matters of less moment to the immediate subject that lies before us.

It has been said of the mediaeval mystics, and most frequently by those who do not read their writings, that they teach a lesson that is limited to the in-

1 Light, Life, and Loue, Intro., p. x.

ward life, and to the inward life alone ; that their message has no meaning for the wider outlook and the deeper sympathies of modern thought ; and that, whereas they sought to rouse and exercise the " emotions " only, we need, to-day, a using of the " intellect " and " will " as well. I think it is Henry Suso who says somewhere that " he " who seeks to find the inward in the out- " ward, is in better case than he who only " finds the inward in the inward " ; and indeed there is abundant testimony that the mystics, mediaeval or otherwise, all, or nearly all, teach, in the end, the same great lesson ; that it is love and understanding of the outward things that lead those who are called thereto into the unity of the Inward Life.1

The value of Ruysbroeck lies in his perpetual recognition of this fact, no less than in his continual implicit that " intellect " and " will " must play their due part in the life of love and virtue. Again and again he distinguishes between

1 Of. St Teresa : "To give to our Lord a perfect hospi- " tality, Mary and Martha must combine." — Interior Castle, vii. 4.

our life " within ourselves," wherein we labour in the outer world, and that Life which is " without ourselves, wherein " we are One with God."

They correspond to the Outpouring and the Indrawing of the Holy Spirit, Who " sendeth us forth to live good and " virtuous lives," and " draweth us in also " to inward observances " ; l for while " within ourselves " we abide in perpetual likeness to God, and must live in goodness and virtue, yet we are also One with God " without ourselves " in Eternal Rest.

Love is the way — the seeing and the loving of God in all His works and creatures, until " the Light and the Fire " of the Holy Spirit " shall have wrought His Will upon us, " the Light showing us " our Oneness, and the Fire burning out all " unlikeness." *

Such is the message of Ruysbroeck, a message, not of pious self-delusion or of morbid introversion, but of love and an abounding sympathy, exercised " in a " medium of sweet sanity."

1 XII. Bdguines, chap. xv.

2 Ibid., Summary of chap. xvi. pt. 2.

It is necessary, in conclusion, to prefix to my own translation that same warning that all who have gone before me have found occasion to convey to their intending readers. He who takes up the study of Ruysbroeck seeking to find therein the agreeable passing of an hour of leisure, some faint tickling of his appetite for mystery, or some easy initiation into a higher life, will meet with grievous disappointment.

Here, as in everything else, it is true to say that " he who will not work, * ' neither shall he eat. ' ' The teachings of our author, as, perhaps, of all other mystical writers, do not often appear upon the surface, nor always upon a first reading thereof. There is light in abundance, but it must be sought for, and that with diligence and sympathetic understanding. And only he who is content to labour, to read and to re-read, turning back, referring, and collating, will find a full reward.

It is worth a little labour ; for here is wise counsel, succour for those at need, and food for weary travellers, pressed down and running over ; a richness and a profusion of help and loving instruction that are rarely found within the limits of so short an essay. But they are not for the idler and the literary dilettante, nor for them that are seeking some new and curious thing.

To most, the way of the True Life is infinitely commonplace, as commonplace indeed as is Infinity to us who dwell Therein ; and they are very few and foolish, as the world judges, whose enthusiasm blinds them to the dust and weariness of the long road they tread.

Every here and there, as in that Way, so in the writings of the Mystics, there are, set in the midst of the desert, green oases, full of the sound of many waters, tinkling into pools of still delight. But the desert is still the Way : through it one must pass to reach them, and without it they have no message and no meaning for the traveller.

So then, let him who has read so far, read no more, unless indeed he has the heart courageous, and the strong right hand that, once upon the plough, will press to the furrow's end.

So much is in warning to all who come upon such literature for the first time and unawares.

For the true Travellers there need be no misgiving. To them nothing is commonplace, and dust and weariness are welcome. " Pilgrims of an inward " Odyssey," with faces set towards Jerusalem, they who have heard the Call press on toward their Goal. No one of them but knows, even if he be the very humblest and weakest, something of the glory and the peace of the will that is turned to God for evermore. No one, however often faint and stumbling, but lives the happier in his earthly life for the " Song of Joy " that is rising deep within his soul.

Around them everywhere they see the gleaming of the rainbow that is arched as high as heaven, and in every sound of earth they hear the low throbbing of the heart of Love.

These are the friends of Ruysbroeck, speaking the same language, thinking the same thoughts. And they need no words of mine.

JOHN FRANCIS.

April, 1913.

Summary of Chapters

TO those who are unaccustomed to the style and manner of Ruysbroeck, some description of this particular work may be of use ; and I add, accordingly, a short analysis and summary thereof.

The first eight Chapters, in the original, are in rhymed verse, and they will be found far more simple, if less interesting, both in expression and in subject-matter, than the later Chapters. At times they do not rise above the level of orthodox mediaeval thought, although they are, to some extent, a necessary preparation for that which follows after.

THE FIRST CHAPTER gives the conversation of the Twelve Beguines, who are supposed to be discoursing of the Love of Jesus, and, so far as the first Six are concerned, at all events, there will be found some fundamental error in the 36 ideas put forward by each of them, which it will be the part of the careful reader to detect, and which it is the undoubted intention of the author to dispel in due course.

THE SECOND CHAPTER shows how simple Faith must live and suffer in the midst of an evil world ; but also how, in another sense, it is necessary for us to abandon the world, in order that Love may enter the heart. The conclusion sets out the characteristics of those who follow the way of Love.

THE THIRD CHAPTER contains the prayer of the devout soul who would partake of the Holy Sacrament.

THE FOURTH CHAPTER sets forth God's answer to this soul, and the offer of His own Flesh and Blood for food and drink thereto.

THE FIFTH CHAPTER contains the soul's appreciation of God's Love and Goodness to her, and her ecstasy in receiving the Holy Sacrament. It concludes with a distinction between man, who is created according to " mode," and the Infinite God, Who is " modeless." For the finite soul cannot apprehend the

Infinite God, while she is still bound by the limits of mortality.

THE SIXTH CHAPTER describes some of the hindrances to Contemplation, and shows how those who are careful and troubled about many things in the life of the senses, cannot come to the knowledge of that God Who is beyond the law of this world.

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER is a beautiful instruction to the soul as to the manner in which she may come to the Contemplative life ; and, in this chapter, the rhythm of the original verses is broken and lengthened out of all proportion, as if the enthusiasm of the writer could no longer contain itself within the restrictions imposed by form.

THE EIGHTH CHAPTER teaches the nature of true Contemplation, and how it lies, not without the reason, but beyond it, in the limitless region, above all forms and likenesses.

At this point in the original, the form of verse is finally abandoned, and the remainder is written in prose.

THE NINTH CHAPTER treats in Part 1 of the Way of Contemplation, showing how the Incomprehensible Light shines in the Living Mirror of a pure spirit. Without is Likeness ; within is Unity. The Voice of God's Wisdom speaks to the contemplating spirit, showing her how we, who are made one with God by our " God-likeness," ought to find a new Unity with Him through His Grace and our goodness.

In Part 2, Our Lord Jesus Christ, telling the soul of all His love for her and His labour therein, calls upon her to answer.

THE TENTH CHAPTER, which I have also divided into two parts, gives, in Part 1, the soul's reply to this demand, and, in Part 2, sets out the First Mode of Contemplation. Ruysbroeck describes the joy of the loving heart, which is opened to God and closed to all created things ; he tells of the " Song of Joy " and of " Joyfulness," which belong to the lowest degree of the Contemplative Life, and he shows how the Fire of the Divine Love descends on him who, in purity of heart, high aim, and tender love, comes into the Presence of the Holy Majesty of God.

THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER sets out the Second Mode of Contemplation, in which the soul, uplifted above all semblances, beyond and without the reason, is illuminated by the uncreated Light, which is not God, but is the intermediary between Him and the " seeing thought." Therein the soul knows God.

THE TWELFTH CHAPTER describes the Third Mode of Contemplation, consisting of—

(a) " Speculatio," in which the soul, as in a mirror, sees God in all, not in His own nature, but in such intellectual images as are adapted to her capacity. God is seen as every abstract quality, and in the distinction of His Three Persons.

(b) " Contemplatio,n wherein, at her earnest desiring, the soul contemplates God in modeless and limitless Contemplation. This limitless Contemplation is midway between Contemplation in intellectual images (" speculatio ") and Contemplation in the Light of God.

THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER sets out the Fourth Mode of Contemplation, which is the Perfection of the Contemplative

Life. It is the Spirit of God working in us, the transcendental and illuminated exercise of Love. We must be like to God, through graces ; and One with Him, in Love. Our love fails before His Measureless Love, and, failing, becomes modeless.

God's Love towards us is a purifying of the Spirit, whereby He distributes His Graces and His Gifts to each several one of us.

THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER, Part 7, tells of the Four Modes of Louing.

The First Mode is that of the " Friends of God,'1 who practise goodness and virtue in the outward ways.

The Second Mode is a " loving intention " towards God inwardly, rather than the performing of good works in the outer world ; a continual emptying of self, attaining to modeless Love ; and an "intellectual gazing and a loving inclination," which are intermediary between Modeless Love and Love that is bare and empty of all.

The Third Mode belongs to the " Sons of God," who, uplifted above all in a bare understanding and love, labour no more, for the Holy Spirit labours in them. They are born anew, and, though they do not become God, they are " God-formed," even as red-hot iron does not become fire, but takes the nature thereof.

Part 2 describes the Fourth Mode, in which the soul is made one with God in Love, and finds herself one Breadth and Length and Height and Depth with Him. We are told of the Outpouring and Indrawing of God, and how, in Outpouring, He works in a living differentiation of His Persons, but, in Indrawing, rests in an Eternal Repose without differentiation. We are One with God in both ways ; and, for our better realisation thereof, Jesus Christ has given us His Spirit, that we may grow in grace.

THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER describes the operation of the Holy Spirit within us, Who (a) sends us out to live in the practice of Love, and (b) draws us in to be One in Love with Him.

THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER, Part 1, tells of the six points of communion between God and man.

The First Point shows how we are one life in God, and how, by grace and virtue, we are uplifted into Eternal Life with Him.

The Second Point, how, in ourselves, we are apart from God, yet are we like Him, and, in the life of virtue, we live in Him, and He in us.

The Third Point shows how, stirred by God, sent out by Him to lead lives of virtue, and indrawn by Him again, we abide, within ourselves, in perpetual likeness to Him, and, beyond ourselves, are One with Him.

The Fourth Point, how the Spirit moves us to yield ourselves, outside ourselves, to God, and, within ourselves, to grasp and apprehend Him. These two things are impossible for us, but possible to God, and we must endure the workings of God therein.

Part 2 shows, in the Fifth Point, how we have always, within ourselves, a continual hunger and thirst and longing for God, and must for ever be striving ; but, beyond ourselves, are satisfied, and One with Him. These are the states of " labour " and " enjoyment/' and this is the " life in Truth."

The Sixth Point treats of the still and essential and glorious Oneness of Fruition, where all is rest, and we are One with God in Love. We learn that, where we are " made one " with God in Love by grace and good actions, we receive each his own reward ; but, where we are One with Him beyond all separation, there is God our Fruition and His own in a fathomless bliss.

The Chapter concludes in gathering up all that has gone before, by showing how God is One Fruitful Nature in a Trinity of Persons ; and passes on, after an orthodox condemnation of unbelievers and hypocrites, to tell how, if we would be chosen, we must be clothed, in ourselves, with the Life of Christ, and, beyond ourselves, must be One with God in Love. In us is Likeness ; in God is Oneness ; and between these there mediate the Light and the Fire of the Spirit. The Light shows us our Oneness, and the Fire burns out all unlikeness.

And so the Discourse ends, with a prayer that God may grant these things to all who hear and understand.

Contents