Mysticism in English Literature

Mysticism in English Literature

by Caroline F. E. Spurgeon

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Title: Mysticism in English Literature
Author: Caroline F. E. Spurgeon
Release Date: April 7, 2004 [EBook #11935]
Language: English
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Mysticism in English Literature
By

Caroline F. E. Spurgeon

"Many are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics"
Phædo
Mysticism in English Literature

Note

The variety of applications of the term "mysticism" has forced me to
restrict myself here to a discussion of that philosophical type of
mysticism which concerns itself with questions of ultimate reality. My
aim, too, has been to consider this subject in connection with great
English writers. I have had, therefore, to exclude, with regret, the
literature of America, so rich in mystical thought.
I wish to thank Mr John Murray for kind permission to make use of an
article of mine which appeared in the Quarterly Review, and also Dr
Ward and Mr Waller for similar permission with regard to certain
passages in a chapter of the Cambridge History of English Literature,
vol. ix.
I am also indebted to Mr Bertram Dobell, Messrs Longmans, Green,
Mrs Coventry Patmore and Mr Francis Meynell for most kindly
allowing me to quote from the works respectively of Thomas Traherne,
Richard Jefferies, Coventry Patmore, and Francis Thompson.
C.F.E.S.
April 1913.

Contents

I. Introduction
Definition of Mysticism. The Early Mystical Writers. Plato. Plotinus.
Chronological Sketch of Mystical Thought in England.
II. Love and Beauty Mystics
Shelley, Rossetti, Browning, Coventry Patmore, and Keats.
III. Nature Mystics
Henry Vaughan, Wordsworth, Richard Jefferies.
IV. Philosophical Mystics
(i) Poets.--Donne, Traherne, Emily Brontë, Tennyson.
(ii) Prose Writers.--William Law, Burke, Coleridge, Carlyle.
V. Devotional and Religious Mystics
The Early English Writers: Richard Rolle and Julian; Crashawe,
Herbert, and Christopher Harvey; Blake and Francis Thompson.
Bibliography
Index

Mysticism in English Literature
Chapter I
Introduction

Mysticism is a term so irresponsibly applied in English that it has

become the first duty of those who use it to explain what they mean by
it. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1911), after defining a mystic as
"one who believes in spiritual apprehension of truths beyond the
understanding," adds, "whence mysticism (n.) (often contempt)."
Whatever may be the precise force of the remark in brackets, it is
unquestionably true that mysticism is often used in a
semi-contemptuous way to denote vaguely any kind of occultism or
spiritualism, or any specially curious or fantastic views about God and
the universe.
The word itself was originally taken over by the Neo-platonists from
the Greek mysteries, where the name of [Greek: mystês] given to the
initiate, probably arose from the fact that he was one who was gaining a
knowledge of divine things about which he must keep his mouth shut
([Greek: myo] = close lips or eyes). Hence the association of secrecy or
"mystery" which still clings round the word.
Two facts in connection with mysticism are undeniable whatever it
may be, and whatever part it is destined to play in the development of
thought and of knowledge. In the first place, it is the leading
characteristic of some of the greatest thinkers of the world--of the
founders of the Eastern religions of Plato and Plotinus, of Eckhart and
Bruno, of Spinoza, Goethe, and Hegel. Secondly, no one has ever been
a lukewarm, an indifferent, or an unhappy mystic. If a man has this
particular temperament, his mysticism is the very centre of his being: it
is the flame which feeds his whole life; and he is intensely and
supremely happy just so far as he is steeped in it.
Mysticism is, in truth, a temper rather than a doctrine, an atmosphere
rather than a system of philosophy. Various mystical thinkers have
contributed fresh aspects of Truth as they saw her, for they have caught
glimpses of her face at different angles, transfigured by diverse
emotions, so that their testimony, and in some respects their views, are
dissimilar to the point of contradiction. Wordsworth, for instance,
gained his revelation of divinity through Nature, and through Nature
alone; whereas to Blake "Nature was a hindrance," and Imagination the
only reality. But all alike agree in one respect, in one passionate

assertion, and this is that unity underlies diversity. This, their
starting-point and their goal, is the basic fact of mysticism, which, in its
widest sense, may be described as an attitude of mind founded upon