Mysticism In English Literature

MYSTICISM IN ENGLISH LITERATURE Many are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics PHK W Wilb rbe excepiion of the coui of nrnrs rlt the foot, tbe defign on the tirlr page iJ n earlie, krrown reproduction oJo11e used by h e Cambridge printer, John Sibrrcb, - NOTE THE variety of applications of the term c lnysticisln hss forced me to restrict myself here to a discussion of that philosophical type of mysticism which con- cerns itself with questions of ultimate reality. My aim, too, has been to consider this subject in con- nection with great English writers. I have had, therefore, to exclude, with regret, the literature of America, so rich in mystical thought. I wish to thank Mr John Murray for kind permis- sion to make use of an article of mine which appeared in the Qmrterly Review, and also Dr Ward and Mr Waer for similar permission with regard to certain passages in a chapter of the Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. k. I am also indebted to Mr Bertram Dobell, Messra Longmans, Green, Mrs Coventry Patmore and Mr Francis Meynell for most kindly allowing me to quote from the works respectively of Thomas Traherne, Richard Jeff eries, Coventry Patmore, and Francis Thompson. C. F. E. S. April 1913. -- CONTENTS -- CHAP. PAGE I. INTRODUCTION . 1 Definition of Mysticism. The Early Mystical Writers. Plato. Plotinus. Chronological Sketch of Mystical Thought in England. 11. LOVE AND BEAUTY MYSTICS . . 33 SheIley, Rossetti, Browning, Coventry Patmore, and Keats. Henry Vaughan, Wordsworth, Richard Jefferies. IV. PHILOSOPHICAL IYSTICS . 72 i P0ei.s.-Donne, Traherne, Emily BrontS, Tennyson. ii Prose Writers.-William Law, Burke, Coleridge, CarlyIe. The Early English Writers Richard Rolleand Julfan Crashawe, Herbert, and Christopher Harvey Blake and Francie Thompson., . MYSTICISM IN ENGLISH LITERATURE - CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION MYSTICISM is a term so irresponsibly applied in English that it has become the fist duty of those who use it to explain what they mean by it. The Concise Oxford Dictionary 19 1 l, after defining a mystic as one who believes in spiritual apprehen- sion of truths beyond the understanding, adds, whence mysticism n. oftencontempt. What- ever may be the precise force of the remark in brackets, it is unquestionably true that mysticism is often used in a semi-contemptuous way to denote vaguely any kind of occultism or spiritualism, or any specially curious or fantastic views about Gbd and the universe. The word itself was originally taken over by the Neo-platonists from the Greek mysteries, where the name of pibrlls, given to the initiate, probably arose from the fact that he was one who was gaining a knowledge of divine things about which he must, keep his mouth shut pbclose lips or eyes. Hence the association of secrecy or mystery which still clings round the word. Two facts in connection with mysticism are un- deniable, whatever it may be, and whatever part it is destined to play in the development of thought and of knowledge. In the first place, it is the leading characteristic of some of the greatest thinkers of the world--of the founders of the Eastern reli- gions, of Plato and Plotinus, of Eckhart and Bruno, of Spinoza, Goethe, and Hegel. Secondly, no one has ever been a lukewarm, an indifferent, or an unhappy mystic. If a man has this particular temperament, his mysticism is the very centre of his being it is the flame which feeds his whole lifeand he is intensely and supremely happy just so far as he is steeped in it. Mysticism is, in truth, a temper rather than a doctrine, an atmosphere rather than a system of philosophy...