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Mystics of all times and all religions have found inspiration and strength of spirit on the hilltops; they have forsaken the haunts of men for the silence of the heights, preparing themselves by meditation and self-purification to receive the Beatific Vision. They have gone up alone in anguish and uncertainty, they have come down inspired bearers of transcendental tidings to men.
If we fall back on collective hallucination, then that hallucination is something of world-wide diffusion, ancient and continuous, for the effects are those attributed by Iamblichus to his mystics, by the Church to her saints, by witnesses to the 'possessed, by savages to medicine-men, and by Mr. Crookes and Lord Crawford to D. D. Home.
Are we to swallow it whole, accept a part of it, or reject it altogether? Each must decide for himself. I insist only on the rightness of my aesthetic hypothesis. And of one other thing am I sure. Be they artists or lovers of art, mystics or mathematicians, those who achieve ecstasy are those who have freed themselves from the arrogance of humanity.
Did we realize how slight an adjustment of our own organs is needed to initiate us into such a world, we should perhaps be less contemptuous of those mystics who tell us in moments of transcendental consciousness they 'heard flowers that sounded, and saw notes that shone'; or that they have experienced rare moments of consciousness in which the senses were fused organs is needed to initiate us into such a world into a single and ineffable act of perception, in which color and sound were known as aspects of the same thing."
Other carriages followed in due course, for there was an illustrious house-party at Deadborough Hall the owner of which was not only a slayer of pheasants, but a reader of books and a student of things. He had gathered together the Bishop of the Diocese, a Cabinet Minister, two eminent philosophers, the American Ambassador, a leading historian, and a Writer on the Mystics.
"She was, in short, in that sanctuary, the Virgin of the world at large, not the Virgin of mystics and artists, the Virgin of the few, as at La Salette. "What a mystery is this direct intervention of the Christ's Mother on earth!" thought Durtal. And he went on: "It is clear, on reflection, that the churches founded by Her may be classed in two very distinct groups.
As a matter of fact, it was not the original of 'Wilderspin' nearly so much as the original D'Arcy who was captured by the doctrine of what is called in the story the 'Aylwinian. With regard to Johann Kaspar Lavater, Jay Aitch is no doubt aware that, although this once noted writer's fame rests entirely upon his treatise Physiognomische Fragmente, he founded a school of mystics in Switzerland.
It has been pointed out that the ecstasies, trances, etc., of the mystic, while essentially pathological, have the evil effects of such morbid manifestations modified or largely neutralized by the idealism behind them, by that measure of true religious faith and feeling which dominates the whole process in the case at least of the higher mystics.
The version of the teachings preserved by the Mystics has a corresponding passage, "And we know the truth of the deathlessness of the soul." The consideration of remaining passages in the creeds, relating to the existence of the "Holy Ghost," must be deferred until our next lesson. "I believe in the Holy Ghost." "And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life."
"Listen to your Councillor!" "Listen to the Prophet! The Voice of the Prophet calls upon you. Will you deny it?" The Precursor's voice shook with excitement. "This is the truth! I tell you the truth!" Bale-Corphew appealed to the people with out-stretched arms. But the tumult broke forth again. "Mystics! Mystics!"
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