CHAPTER L.

A good distinction between a true and false use of reason noticeable in certain persons.

"As the eagle enticing her young to fly” (Deut. xxxii. 11).

WHEN this holy daughter, by the good instructions of her spiritual father, had been thoroughly fashioned after the outward man to every branch of holiness which can be taught by examples, just as a piece of soft wax before the fire takes the form of the seal which is impressed upon it, and when she had been for a long time regularly trained in the imitation of the mirror-like life of Christ, which is the surest way, she received the following letter from her spiritual father, the Servitor:—Daughter, the time is now come for thee to aim at something higher, and to fly upwards out of the nest of forms and images, and the consolations which proceed from them. Do like a young, newly-fledged eagle, and soar upwards on thy well-grown pinions—I mean thy soul’s highest powers—to the heights of that noble contemplation which belongs to a blissful and perfect life. Knowest thou not what Christ said to His disciples, who clung so closely to 253His sensible presence?—It is expedient for you that I go away from you, if you are to receive the Holy Ghost (John xvi. 7). Thy former exercises have been a good preparation to bring thee onwards through the wilderness of an animal and unconscious life, into the promised land of a pure and quiet heart, where bliss begins in this world, and will continue everlastingly in the next. But that thou mayest better under stand this high intellectual way, I will cause to shine before thee the light of a good distinction, which, if thou clearly comprehendest it, will save thee from all error, however high thou mayest soar with thy mind.

Observe this then. Two courses are to be met with among apparently good persons. Some pursue a course in harmony with reason, and others a course at variance with it. The first are those who make it their aim to shape all their thoughts, actions, and omissions according to the rule of sound discretion, in harmony with the sentiments of holy Christendom, to God’s glory, and the peace and quiet of all other men; while at the same time they keep diligent watch over their words and ways, so as to give scandal to no one, unless indeed a person takes scandal at them through his own 254fault, as often happens. Now the very name and nature of reason admonish us to pursue a guarded walk and manner of life like this. And the reason of these persons is after the fashion of the Divine reason, and worthy of praise, for its light shines inwards in itself in a true though hidden way, just as the heavens shine in the bright stars. On the contrary, in those apparently good persons who follow a course at variance with reason, and with an unmortified nature make self their aim, and only gaze intently upon objects with their reason after the manner of contemplation, and are able to discourse about them overbearingly before the unlearned, while by word and deed they testify contempt for every unfavourable judgment passed upon them; in such persons the intellectual light streams outwards, and not inwards; and just as decayed wood, from the glimmer it sends forth at night, seems to be something, and yet is nothing, even so the inward light and outward walk of these persons show themselves to be in all respects unlike that which they ought to resemble.

What these persons are may be easily gathered from the free and unweighed maxims which they put forth. We will only take one 255of these maxims, and by it we can estimate all the rest. The following words occur in a poem by one of them, “The just needs shun no obstacle.” This saying, and others like it, have an air of importance in the eyes of certain dim-sighted persons, but will meet with no praise from those who see well and understand what they really mean. This is evident in the case of the saying just quoted, “The just needs shun no obstacle.” For what is “the just,” and what is an “obstacle"? “The just,” according to the usual meaning of the term, is a just man regarded as actually existing in creation. For the quality “just” has no existence by itself, but needs a subject in which it can exist, and this subject in the present case is the just man. Again, what is an “obstacle"? It is sin which separates a man from God. Is a just man, then, to shun no obstacle—that is to say, is he to avoid or shun no sin? Such an assertion would be simply false, and at variance with all reason. It is true, indeed, that the just man, and all other things, when viewed, antecedently to their coming into being and their creation, as existing ideally from everlasting in God’s essential reason, are all one and the same, without any formal difference, and therefore the saying, 256if understood in this sense, may be allowed to pass. But then it must be remembered that the just man, regarded as existing only in this simple super-essential basis, is not the corporeal man; for there is nothing corporeal in the God head, neither is there any obstacle there. But it is outside this basis that each man finds himself to be this or that individual man; for outside of it he is mortal, and within it he is immortal: and it is outside of it that he now exists in his frail created nature, in which he has great need to shun every hurtful obstacle. If, then, I were to try to regard myself in my own mind as non-existent, and in this way to know nothing of myself; and if, without distinguishing between myself and God, I were to do all corporeal actions as though the uncreated Being did them—this would be a crime above all crimes.

From this we see, that such maxims as these have really nothing rational in them. In saying this, however, it is not meant to condemn rational doctrine or rational well-weighed maxims and poems, by which men are refined, and guided towards intellectual truth, even though they are not understood by every body. For it is manifestly true, that no one can speak with sufficient clearness to be understood by those 257who are grossly blind, and as ignorant as brute beasts.

The daughter answered:—Praised be God for this good distinction! But I should also be very glad to hear the distinction between a well-ordered reason and one which is all flowers and outward show, as well as between true and false detachment.