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Edited by G. R. S. MEAD, EDITOR OF ‘THE QUEST.’
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RUYSBROECK
BY EVELYN UNDERHILL AUTHOR OF ‘MYSTICISM,’ ‘THE MYSTIC WAY,’ ETC., ETC.
LONDON G. BELL AND SONS LTD. 1915
FOR JESSIE TO WHOM IT OWES SO MUCH THIS LITTLE TRIBUTE TO A MUTUAL FRIEND
EDITOR’S NOTE
A glance at the excellent Bibliographical Note at the end of the volume will reveal the surprising paucity of literature on Ruysbroeck in this country. A single version from the original of one short treatise, published in the present year, is all that we possess of direct translation; even in versions from translation there is only one treatise represented; add to this one or two selections of the same nature, and the full tale is told. We are equally poorly off for studies of the life and doctrine of the great Flemish contemplative of the fourteenth century. And yet Jan van Ruusbroec is thought, by no few competent judges, to be the greatest of all the mediæval Catholic mystics; and, indeed, it is difficult to point to his superior. Miss Evelyn Underhill is, therefore, doing lovers [viii] not only of Catholic mysticism, but also of mysticism in general, a very real service by her monograph, which deals more satisfactorily than any existing work in English with the life and teachings of one of the most spiritual minds in Christendom. Her book is not simply a painstaking summary of the more patent generalities of the subject, but rather a deeply sympathetic entering into the mind of Ruysbroeck, and that, too, with no common insight.
PREFATORY NOTE
I owe to the great kindness of my friend, Mrs. Theodore Beck, the translation of several passages from Ruysbroeck’s Sparkling Stone given in the present work; and in quoting from The Twelve Béguines have often, though not always, availed myself of the recently published version by Mr. John Francis. For all other renderings I alone am responsible.
E. U.
CONTENTS
Luce divina sopra me s’ appunta,
penetrando per questa ond’ io m’ inventro;
La cui virtù, col mio veder conguinta,
mi leva sopra me tanto, ch’ io veggio
la somma essenza della quale è munta.
Quinci vien l’ allegrezza, ond’ io fiammeggio;
perchè alla vista mia, quant’ ella è chiara,
la chiarità della fiamma pareggio.
Par. xxi. 83.
[Divine Light doth focus itself upon me, piercing through that wherein I am enclosed; the power of which, united with my sight, so greatly lifts me up above myself that I see the Supreme Essence where from it is drawn. Thence comes the joy wherewith I flame; for to my vision, even as it is clear, I make the clearness of the flame respond.]
RUYSBROECK
CHAPTER I RUYSBROECK THE MAN
The tree Igdrasil, which has its head in heaven and its roots in hell (the lower parts of the earth), is the image of the true man.... In proportion to the divine heights to which it ascends must be the obscure depths in which the tree is rooted, and from which it draws the mystic sap of its spiritual life.
Coventry Patmore.
In the history of the spiritual adventures of man, we find at intervals certain great mystics, who appear to gather up and fuse together in the crucible of the heart the diverse tendencies of those who have preceded them, and, adding to these elements the tincture of their own rich experience, give to us an intensely personal, yet universal, vision of God and man. These are constructive spirits, whose creations in the spiritual sphere sum up and represent the best achievement of a whole epoch; as in other spheres the great artist, musician, or [2] poet—always the child of tradition as well as of inspiration—may do.
