tion for realities. Sudden impressions were cherished as the illai)sc of the Spirit, and jjictures of morbid fancj- were hailed as exhibiting the odors, hues, and riches of a spiritual paradise.
The forms of thought and modes of action in which mysticism has been developetl in different periods and among different nations are almost infinitely varied. Mysticism has appeared in the loftiest abstract sjiecu- lation, and in the grossest and most sensuous idolatrv. It has allied itself with theism, atheism, and pantheism. Vaughan, in his Hours with the Mystics, divides ^lystics into three classes: the Tlieopatlietic, tha 'r/ieosojiliir, and the T/ieurr/ic. Under the first class, or the Theoiiathists, are included all those who resign themselves, in a pas- sivity more or less absolute, to an imagined divine man- ifestation. Ths Theosophists, again, are those who form a theory of God, or the works of God, which has not reason, but an inspiration of their own for its basis. Finally, the Theurgists include all who claim supernatu- ral jjowers generally through converse with the world of spirits.
Minds predisposed to mysticism have been found in every age and in every country. The earliest mysticism, that of India, as exhibited in tlie I5haga- vat Gita [sec Hinuiis.mJ, appears not in a rudiment- al and initial form, but fully developed, and as com- plete as it has ever manifested itself in modern Ciiris- tendom. The Jewish Mystics are to be found at an early period among the ascetic TIterajieutw, a sect similar to the Essenes. " The soul of man," said they, "is divine, and his highest wisdom is to become as much as possible a stranger to the body, with its em- barrassing appetites. God has breathed into man from heaven a portion of his own divinity. That which is divine is indivisible. It may be extended, but it is in- capable of separation. Consider how vast is the range of our thought over the past and the future, the heav- ens and the earth. This alliance with an upper world of which we are conscious would be impossible were not the soul of man an indivisible portion of that divine and blessed Spirit. Contemplation of the Divine Essence is the noblest experience of man ; it is the only means of attaining to the highest truth and virtue, and therein to behold (iod is the consummation of our happiness here." Jewish mysticism, combined with fiie profound philosophy of Plato, gave rise to the Xeo-1'latonic school, which, as shown in the teaching of Plotinus, its founder, was thoroughly mystical. Tlie Mystic, accord- ing to this sect, contemplates the divine iierfections in himself; and in the ecstatic state, individuality, mem- ory, time, space, phenomenal contradictions and logical distinctions, all vanish.
In the Church, Jlystics sprang up in its earliest days. They were to be met with in large numbers in the '2d and 3d centuries. But little is known of them histori- cally. Their existence and influence, however, is mani- fest from the strange theological coloring of the writings of some C'hiirch fathers. The princijiles from which Christian mysticisr.i sprang are more readily ascertained, and we are enabled to trace it back to the allegorizing exegesis of the Alexandrian school of theology, the re- mote source of which may be found in the writings of I'hilo (ij. v.\ The historical treatises of this writer were evidently composed for Hellenistic readers, and set forth such facts of .lewish history as were known to every diild under synagogal discipline. His allegoriz- ing treatises were .addressed to that particular ]>hase of the Jewish mind which is dimly indicated in tlie Prov- erbs of Solomon, more clearly in the writings of the Son of Sirach. and which became a rule of life in the Therapeuta' ol Alexandria. At .\lexandria the literary Jew added the study of Plato to the teadiiiigs of the Law, and learned to qualify the antiiroponiorphism of the latter by the transcendental notions of the Deity conveyed in tlu' purest form of (Jreek philosojiliy. By a natural progression the aiithro)io])alhic descriptions of the Sacred Book were spiritually interpreted as divine
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allegory, and in time the whole letter of the Law was re- garded only as a v^eil that screened deep mystical truths from the vulgar gaze; ffyf^'H' tu -rcavrn dWtjyopHTai are the words of Philo. This is the true origin of the allegorizing school of exegesis that was developed in the catechetical school of Alexandria by Clement and Origen, and continued elsewhere by Theophilus of An- tioch, Hilary, Cyril of Alexandria, Ephraem Syrus, and the elder Macarius.
The number of the Mystics was not large in the Chiirch until the Gth century, when they rapidly in- creased, under the influence of the Grecian writings of the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (q. v.), the then supposed and reputed disciple of St. Paul. It was at this time — that is, shortly after the Constantinopoli- tan Council of A.D. 533 — that the Dionysian mystical views freely circulated, and made many converts. The Dionysians, by pretending to higher degrees of perfec- tion than other Christians, and practicing great aus- terities, rapidly advanced their cause, especially in the Eastern provinces. Dionysian opinions were set forth in the works entitled Mystical Theology, the Divine Names, the Heavenly Hierarchy, and the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. The object of the author of these writings was to give a Platonic development and coloring to the deep mysteries of the Christian faith, and to lead the soul on by contemplative energy to adunation with the Deity. The highest attainment in Christian philosophy he teaches is to behold in spirit and to become one with God, who is neither darkness nor light, neither negative nor positive. Three steps lead to this blissful consumma- tion : purilii'.itimi. iUumination, and vision (tiroiTTtict) — terms ailiijitt^l fioin the various grades ofEleusinian in- itiation (Pint. Deiuetr. 26). A more direct application of the terminology of heathen mysticism was made by this writer when he gave its title to the work De Mystica Theoloyia. A copy of the pretended works of Diony- sius was sent by Balbus to Louis the Meelc in the year 824, which kindled the flame of mysticism in the West- ern provinces, and, filling the Latins with the most en- thusiastic admiration of these new opinions, consider- ably iniiuenced the thought of the Western Church of the iliddle Ages. John Scotus Erigena translated the writings of Dionysius into Latin by the command of Charles the Bald, and left them as a model, of which the St. Victoire schoolmen afterwards made use. AVe have seen in the article Dionysius that these writings are believed to be the work of the 5th or Gth century. One of the most recent critics on this subject. Dr. West- cott {Contemp. Rev. May, 1867), attributes the author- ship to some writer of the Edessene school at the latter end of the 5th or commencement of the Gth century. The immediate source of Dionysian mysticism was cer- tainly the Symposium of Plato, in which the function of Eros is described as the medium of intimate com- munication between God and man ; filling every void place throughout the universe, and binding together all its parts, celestial and mundane, in one compact body of love (^Symposimn, 202, E). Says one, the Mystics of the early Church, led on by Dionysius, " proceeded upon the known doctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that 'the di- vine nature was infused through all human souls;' or that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigor of the mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine." "All that exists," says A^aughan, in describing the Dionysian sentiments, " this JNIystic regards as a symbolical mani- festation of the superexistent. What we call creation is the divine allegory. In nature, in Scripture, in tra- dition, God is revealed only in figures. This sacred imagery should be studied, but in such study we are still far from any adequate cognizance of the divine na- ture. God is above all negation and affirmation ; in him such contraries are at once identified and tran- scended. But by negation we approach most nearly to