away. The spirit is joined to the Lord, and, one with Him, transcends itself and all the limitations of human thought.
Sufism is the mystical asceticism of Mohammedanism. The ecstasy of a Sufi saint is thus described :
‘¢ My tongue clave fever-dry, my blood ran fire, My nights were sleepless with consuming love, Till night and day sped past—as flies a lance Grazing a buckler’s rim ; a hundred faiths Seemed there as one ; a hundred thousand years No longer than a moment. In that hour All past eternity and all to come Was gathered up in one stupendous Wow,— Let understanding marvel as it may. Where men see clouds, on the ninth heaven I gaze, And see the throne of God. All heaven and hell Are bare to me and all men’s destinies, The heavens and earth, they vanish at my glance: The dead rise at my look. I tear the veil From all the world, and in the hall of heaven I set me central, radiant as the sun.” Vaughan, ‘‘ Hours with the Mystics,” ii., 19.
Beatrice says to Dante:
“We from the greatest body Have issued to the heaven that is pure light; Light intellectual replete with love, Love of true good replete with ecstasy, Ecstasy that transcendeth every sweetness.”
Dante says:
“‘T perceived myself To be uplifted over my own power, And I with vision new rekindled me, Such that no light whatever is so pure But that mine eyes were fortified against it.” ‘¢ Paradiso,” xxx., 38-60.
Again, just before the consummate beatific vision, Dante Says: *¢ And I, who to the end of all desires Was now approaching, even as I ought
The ardor of desire within me ended. Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling,