MYSTICISM. § 1. Meaning of the Words Enthusiasm and Mysticism.
In the popular sense of the word, enthusiasm means a high state of mental excitement. In that state all the powers are exalted, the thoughts become more comprehensive and vivid, the feelings more fervid, and the will more determined. It is in these periods of excitement that the greatest works of genius, whether by poets, painters, or warriors, have been accomplished. The ancients re- ferred this exaltation of the inner man to a divine influence. They regarded persons thus excited as possessed, or having a God within them. Hence they were called enthusiasts {hdeo-i). In theology, therefore, those who ignore or reject the guidance of the Scriptures, and assume to be led by an inward divine influence into the knowl- edge and obedience of the truth, are properly called Enthusiasts. This term, however, has been in a great measure superseded by the word Mystics.
FeAV words indeed have been used in such a vague, indefinite sense as Mysticism. Its etymology does not determine its mean^ ing. A fj.va-rrj'i was one initiated into the knowledge of the Greek mysteries, one to whom secret things had been revealed. Hence in the wide sense of the word, a Mystic is one who claims to see or know what is hidden from other men, whether this knowledge be attained by immediate intuition, or by inward revelation. In most cases these methods were assumed to be identical, as intuition was held to be the immediate vision of God and of divine things. Hence, in the wide sense of the word. Mystics are those who claim to be under the immediate guidance of God or of his Spirit.
A. The Philosophical Use of the Word. Hence Mysticism, in this sense, includes all those systems of ohilosophy, which teach either the identity of God and the soul, or jbe immediate intuition of the infinite. The pantheism of the Brahmins and Buddhists, the theosophy of the Sufis, the Egyptian, and many forms of the Greek philosophy, in this acceptation of the
62 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. IV. — Mysticism.
term, are all Mystical. As the same system has been reproduced in modern times, the same designation is applied to the philosophy of Spinoza, and its various modifications. According to Cousin, " Mysticism in philosophy is the belief that God may be known face to face, without anything intermediate. It is a yielding to the sentiment awakened by the idea of the infinite, and a running up of all knowledge and all duty to the contemplation and love of Him." 1
For the same reason the whole Alexandrian school of theology in the early Church has been called Mystical. They character- istically depreciated the outward authority of the Scriptures, and exalted that of the inward light. It is true they called that light reason, but they regarded it as divine. According to the new Platonic doctrine, the Adyos, or impersonal reason of God, is Reason in man ; or as Clemens Alexandrinus said. The Logos was a light common to all men. That, therefore, to which supreme authority was ascribed in the pursuit of truth, was " God within us." This is the doctrine of modern Eclecticism as presented by Cousin. That philosopher says, " Reason is impersonal in its nature. It is not we who make it. It is so far from being individual, that its peculiar characteristics are the opposite of individuality, namely, universality and necessity, since it is to Reason we ovve the knowledge of universal and necessary truths, of principles which
we all obey, and cannot but obey It descends from
God, and approaches man. It makes its appearance in the con- sciousness as a guest, who brings intelligence of an unknown world, of which it at once presents the idea and awakens the want. If reason were personal, it would have no value, no authority be- yond the limits of the individual subject Reason is a
revelation, a necessary and universal revelation which is wanting to no man, and which enlightens every man on his coming into the world. Reason is the necessary mediator between God and man, the Adyos of Pythagoras and Plato, the Word made Flesh, which serves as the interpreter of God, and teacher of man, divine and human at the same time. It is not indeed the absolute God in his majestic individuality, but his manifestation in spirit and in truth. It is not the E human race."^
Reason, according to this system, is not a faculty of the human
1 Cours (le I' Eist. de la Phil. Mod. Frem. S^r. I'aris, 1846, vol. ii. le?. 9, 10. pp. 95, 120.
2 Specimens of ForeiyA Standard Liteniture, edited by George Ripley, vol. i.; PhUoiopb- ical Miscellanies from Cousin, etal, pp. 125, 149.