Fancy  a  man  seeing  a  certain  kind  of  thing  for  the  first  time  in
his  life.  He  can  understand  it,  use  and  enjoy  it,  but  he  cannot
apply  a  name  to  it,  nor  communicate  any  idea  of  it,  even  though
all  the  while  it  be  a  mere  thing  of  sense.  How  much  greater
will  be  his  powerlessness  when  it  goes  beyond  the  senses !  This
is  the  peculiarity  of  the  divine  language.  The  more  infused,
intimate,  spiritual,  and  supersensible  it  is,  the  more  does  it
exceed  the  senses,  both  inner  and  outer,  and  impose  silence
upon  them.  .  .  .  The  soul  then  feels  as  if  placed  in  a  vast  and
profound  solitude,  to  which  no  created  thing  has  access,  in  an
immense  and  boundless  desert,  desert  the  more  delicious  the

^  M.  'RtctJACf  in  a  recenfc  volume,  makes  them  essential.  Mysticism  he
defines  as  <*  the  tendency  to  draw  near  to  the  Absolute  morally,  and  by  the  aid
of  Symbols,**  See  his  Fondements  de  la  Connaissance  mystique,  Paris,  1897,
p.  66.  But  there  are  unquestioiiably  mystical  conditions  in  which  sensible
symbols  play  no  part


408       THE  VARIETIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE

more  solitary  it  is.  There,  in  this  abyss  of  wisdom,  the  soul
grows  by  what  it  drinks  in  from  the  well-springs  of  the  com-
prehension of  love,  .  .  .  and  recognizes,  however  sublime  and
learned  may  be  the  terms  we  employ,  how  utterly  vile,  insignifi-
cant, and  improper  they  are,  when  we  seek  to  discourse  of  divine
things  by  their  means."  ^

I  cannot  pretend  to  detail  to  you  the  sundry  stages  of
the  Christian  mystical  lif  e.^  Our  time  would  not  suffice,
for  one  thing ;  and  moreover,  I  confess  that  the  subdi-
visions and  names  which  we  find  in  the  Catholic  books
seem  to  me  to  represent  nothing  objectively  distinct.  So
many  men,  so  many  minds :  I  imagine  that  these  experi-
ences can  be  as  infinitely  varied  as  are  the  idiosyncrasies
of  individuals.
