Christian Mysticism Part 8

[Footnote 126: _Enn_. i. 8. 14, [Greek: ouden estin ho amoiron esti psyches].]

[Footnote 127: _Enn_. iii. 2. 7; iv. 7. 14.]

[Footnote 128: _Enn_. iv. 4. 26.]

[Footnote 129: _Enn_. iv. 1. 1.]

[Footnote 130: Matter is [Greek: alogos, skia logou kai ekptosis]

_Enn_. vi. 3. 7; [Greek: eidolon kai phantasma ogkou kai hopostaseos ephesis] _Enn_. iii. 6. 7. If matter were _nothing_, it could not desire to be something; it is only no-thing--[Greek: apeiria, aoristia].]

[Footnote 131: These three stages correspond to the three stages in the mystical ladder which appear in nearly all the Christian mystics.]

[Footnote 132: The pa.s.sages in which Plotinus (following Plato) bids us mount by means of the beauty of the external world, do not contradict those other pa.s.sages in which he bids us "turn from things without to look within" (_Enn_. iv. 8. 1). Remembering that postulate of all Mysticism, that we only know a thing by _becoming_ it, we see that we can only know the world by finding it in ourselves, that is, by cherishing those "best hours of the mind" (as Bacon says) when we are lifted above ourselves into union with the world-spirit.]

[Footnote 133: Plotinus guards against this misconception of his meaning, _Enn_. v. 1. 6, [Greek: ekpodon de emin esto genesis he en chrono].]

[Footnote 134: [Greek: zoe exelittomene], _Enn_. i. 4. 1.]

[Footnote 135: See especially _Enn_. iv. 4. 32, 45.]

[Footnote 136: _Enn_. iv. 5. 3, [Greek: sympathes to zoon tode to pan heauto]; iv. 9. 1, [Greek: hoste emou pathontos synaisthanesthai to pan].]

[Footnote 137: _Enn_. iv. 5. 2, [Greek: sympatheia amydra].]

[Footnote 138: See Bigg, _Neoplatonism_, pp. 203, 204. He shows that with the Stoics, who were Pantheists, the Logos was regarded as a first cause; while with the Neoplatonists, who were Theists and Transcendentalists, it was a secondary cause. In Plotinus, the Intelligence ([Greek: Nous]) is "King" (_Enn_. v. 3. 3), and "the law of Being" (_Enn_. v. 9. 5). But the Johannine Logos is both immanent and transcendent. When Erigena says, "Certius cognoscas verb.u.m Naturam omnium esse," he gives a true but incomplete account of the Nature of the Second Person of the Trinity.]

[Footnote 139: See especially the interesting pa.s.sage, _Enn_. i. 8.

3.]

[Footnote 140: _Enn_. i. 8. 13, [Greek: eti anthropikon he kakia, memigmene tini enantio].]

[Footnote 141: The "civil virtues" are the four cardinal virtues.

Plotinus says that justice is mainly "minding one's business" [Greek: oikeiopagia]. "The purifying virtues" deliver us from sin; but [Greek: he spoude ouk exo hamartias einai, alla theon einai].]

[Footnote 142: Compare Hegel's criticism of Sch.e.l.ling, in the latter's Asiatic period, "This so-called wisdom, instead of being yielded up to the influence of Divinity _by its contempt of all proportion and definiteness_, does really nothing but give full play to accident and caprice. Nothing was ever produced by such a process better than mere dreams" (_Vorrede zur Phanomenologie_, p. 6).]

[Footnote 143: Heb. viii. 5.]

[Footnote 144: _Enn_. iii. 8. 4, [Greek: hotan asthenesosin eis to theorein, skian theorias kai logou ten praxin poiountai]. Cf. Amiel's _Journal_, p. 4, "action is coa.r.s.ened thought."]

[Footnote 145: _Enn_. iii. 2. 15, [Greek: hypokriseis] and [Greek: paignion]; and see iv. 3. 32, on love of family and country.]

[Footnote 146: _Enn_. vi. 7. 34.]

[Footnote 147: It would be an easy and rather amusing task to ill.u.s.trate these and other aberrations of speculative Mysticism from Herbert Spencer's philosophy. E.g., he says that, though we cannot know the Absolute, we may have "an indefinite consciousness of it."

"It is impossible to give to this consciousness any qualitative or quant.i.tative expression whatever," and yet it is quite certain that we have it. Herbert Spencer's Absolute is, in fact, _matter without form_. This would seem to identify it rather with the all but non-existing "matter" of Plotinus (see Bigg, _Neoplatonism_, p. 199), than with the superessential "One"; but the later Neoplatonists found themselves compelled to call _both_ extremes [Greek: to me on].

Plotinus struggles hard against this conclusion, which threatens to make shipwreck of his Platonism. "Hierotheus," whose sympathies are really with Indian nihilism, welcomes it.]

[Footnote 148: The following advice to directors, quoted by Ribet, may be added: "Director valde attendat ad personas languidae valetudinis.

Si tales personae a Deo in quamdam quietis orationem eleventur, contingit ut in omnibus exterioribus sensibus certum defectum ac speciem quamdam deliquii experiantur c.u.m magna interna suavitate, quod extasim aut raptum esse facillime putant. c.u.m Dei Spiritui resistere nolint, deliquio illi totas se tradunt, et per multas horas, c.u.m gravissimo valetudinis praeiudicio in tali mentis stupiditate persistunt." Genuine ecstasy, according to these authorities, seldom lasted more than half an hour, though one Spanish writer speaks of an hour.]

[Footnote 149: Mrs. Humphry Ward's translation, p. 72.]

[Footnote 150: But we should not forget that the author of the _Epistle to Diognetus_ speaks of the Logos as [Greek: pantote neos en hagion kardiais gennomenos]. In St. Augustine we find it in a rather surprisingly bold form; cf. _in Joh. tract._ 21, n. 8: "Gratulemur et grates agamus non solum nos Christianos factos esse, sed Christum ...

Admiramini, gaudete: Christus facti sumus." But this is really quite different from saying, "Ego Christus factus sum."]

[Footnote 151: "Greek" must here be taken to include the h.e.l.lenised Jews. Those who are best qualified to speak on Jewish philosophy believe that it exercised a strong influence at Alexandria.]

[Footnote 152: Proclus used to say that a philosopher ought to show no exclusiveness in his worship, but to be the hierophant of the whole world. This eclecticism was not confined to cultus.]

[Footnote 153: This account of "Hierotheus" is, of course, taken from Frothingham's most interesting monograph.]

[Footnote 154: So Ruysbroek says, "We must not remain on the top of the ladder, but must descend."]

[Footnote 155: Another description of the process of [Greek: haplosis]

may be found in the curious work of Ibn Tophail, translated by Ockley, and much valued by the Quakers, _The Improvement of Human Reason, exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Tophail, newly translated by Simon Ockley_, 1708.]

[Footnote 156: [Greek: ou monon mathon alla kai pathon ta theia.]]

[Footnote 157: See Harnack, vol. iv. pp. 282, 283. Frothingham's theory necessitates a later date for Dionysius than that which Harnack believes to be most probable; the latter is in favour of placing him in the second half of the fourth century. The writings of Dionysius are quoted not much later than 500.]

[Footnote 158: E.g., he agrees with Iamblichus and Proclus (in opposition to Plotinus) that "the One" is exalted above "Goodness."]

[Footnote 159: At the present time the more pious opinion among Romanists seems to be that the writings are genuine; but Schram admits that "there is a dispute" about their date, and some Roman Catholic writers frankly give them up.]

[Footnote 160: E.g., [Greek: katharsis, photismos, myesis, epopteia, theosis; hierotelestai] and [Greek: mystagogoi] (of the bishops), [Greek: photistikoi] (of the priests), [Greek: kathartikoi] (of the deacons).]

[Footnote 161: [Greek: hyperousios aoristia--hyper noun hynotes--henas henopoios hapases henados--hyperousios ousia kai nous anoetos kai logos arretos--alogia kai anoesia kai anonymia--auto de me on os pases ousias epekeina.]]

[Footnote 162: [Greek: oudemia e monas e trias exagei ten hyper panta krypsioteta tes hyper panta hyperousios hyperouses hypertheotetos.]]

[Footnote 163: [Greek: monas estai pases dyados arche] is stated by Dionysius as an axiom.]

[Footnote 164: See especially Bradley's _Appearance and Reality_, some chapters of which show a certain sympathy with Oriental speculative Mysticism. The theory set forth in the text must not be confounded with true pantheism, to which every phenomenon is equally Divine as it stands. See below, at the end of this Lecture.]

[Footnote 165: See _De Div. Nom._ iv. 8; xi. 3.]

[Footnote 166: Dionysius distinguishes _three_ movements of the human mind--the _circular_, wherein the soul returns in upon itself; the _oblique_, which includes all knowledge acquired by reasoning, research, etc.; and the _direct_, in which we rise to higher truths by using outward things as symbols. The last two he regards as inferior to the "circular" movement, which he also calls "simplification"

[Greek: haplosis].]

[Footnote 167: The highest stage (he says) is to reach [Greek: ton hyperphoton gnophon kai di' ablepsias kai agnosias idein kai gnonai].]

[Footnote 168: [Greek: tolmosa theoplasia] and [Greek: paidariodes phantasia] are phrases which he applies to Old Testament narratives.]

[Footnote 169: As a specimen of his language, we may quote [Greek: esti de ekstatikos ho theios eros, ouk eon eauton einai tous erastas, alla ton eromenon] (_De Div. Nom_. iv. 13).]

[Footnote 170: I am inclined to agree with Dr. Bigg (_Bampton Lectures_, Introduction, pp. viii, ix), that Dionysius and the later mystics are right in their interpretation of this pa.s.sage. Bishop Lightfoot and some other good scholars take it to mean, "My earthly affections are crucified." See the discussion in Lightfoot's edition of Ignatius, and in Bigg's Introduction. I am not aware how the vindicators of "Dionysius" explain the curious fact that he had read Ignatius!]