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قراءة كتاب Ruysbroeck
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THE QUEST SERIES
Edited by G. R. S. MEAD,
EDITOR OF ‘THE QUEST.’
Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net each.
FIRST LIST OF VOLUMES.
- PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND SURVIVAL. By James H. Hyslop, Ph.D., LL.D., Secretary of Psychical Research Society of America.
- THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL. By Jessie L. Weston, Author of ‘The Legend of Sir Perceval.’
- JEWISH MYSTICISM. By J. Abelson, M.A., D.Lit, Principal of Aria College, Portsmouth.
- THE MYSTICS OF ISLAM. By Reynold A. Nicholson, M.A., Litt.D, LL.D., Lecturer on Persian, Cambridge University.
- BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY. By C. A. F. Rhys Davids, M.A., Lecturer on Indian Philosophy, Manchester University.
- RUYSBROECK. By Evelyn Underhill, Author of ‘Mysticism,’ ‘The Mystic Way,’ etc.
- THE SIDEREAL RELIGION OF THE ANCIENTS. By Robert Eisler, Ph.D., Author of Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt.’ [In the Press.
London: G. BELL AND SONS LTD.
RUYSBROECK
BY
EVELYN UNDERHILL
AUTHOR OF
‘MYSTICISM,’ ‘THE MYSTIC WAY,’ ETC., ETC.
LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS LTD.
1915
FOR
JESSIE
TO WHOM IT OWES SO MUCH
THIS LITTLE TRIBUTE TO A MUTUAL FRIEND
EDITOR’S NOTE
A glance at the excellent Bibliographical Note at the end of the volume will reveal the surprising paucity of literature on Ruysbroeck in this country. A single version from the original of one short treatise, published in the present year, is all that we possess of direct translation; even in versions from translation there is only one treatise represented; add to this one or two selections of the same nature, and the full tale is told. We are equally poorly off for studies of the life and doctrine of the great Flemish contemplative of the fourteenth century. And yet Jan van Ruusbroec is thought, by no few competent judges, to be the greatest of all the mediæval Catholic mystics; and, indeed, it is difficult to point to his superior. Miss Evelyn Underhill is, therefore, doing lovers not only of Catholic mysticism, but also of mysticism in general, a very real service by her monograph, which deals more satisfactorily than any existing work in English with the life and teachings of one of the most spiritual minds in Christendom. Her book is not simply a painstaking summary of the more patent generalities of the subject, but rather a deeply sympathetic entering into the mind of Ruysbroeck, and that, too, with no common insight.
PREFATORY NOTE
I owe to the great kindness of my friend, Mrs. Theodore Beck, the translation of several passages from Ruysbroeck’s Sparkling Stone given in the present work; and in quoting from The Twelve Béguines have often, though not always, availed myself of the recently published version by Mr. John Francis. For all other renderings I alone am responsible.
E. U.
CONTENTS
- CHAP. PAGE
- I. Ruysbroeck the Man 1
- II. His Works 36
- III. His Doctrine of God 52
- IV. His Doctrine of Man 66
- V. The Active Life 94
- VI. The Interior Life: Illumination and Destitution 115
- VII. The Interior Life: Union and Contemplation 136
- VIII. The Superessential Life 164
Luce divina sopra me s’ appunta,
penetrando per questa ond’ io m’ inventro;
La cui virtù, col mio veder conguinta,
mi leva sopra me tanto, ch’ io veggio
la somma essenza della quale è munta.
Quinci vien l’ allegrezza, ond’ io fiammeggio;
perchè alla vista mia, quant’ ella è chiara,
la chiarità della fiamma pareggio.
Par. xxi. 83.
[Divine Light doth focus itself upon me, piercing through that wherein I am enclosed; the power of which, united with my sight, so greatly lifts me up above myself that I see the Supreme Essence where from it is drawn. Thence comes the joy wherewith I flame; for to my vision, even as it is clear, I make the clearness of the flame respond.]
RUYSBROECK
CHAPTER I
RUYSBROECK THE MAN
The tree Igdrasil, which has its head in heaven and its roots in hell (the lower parts of the earth), is the image of the true man.... In proportion to the divine heights to which it ascends must be the obscure depths in which the tree is rooted, and from which it draws the mystic sap of its spiritual life.
Coventry Patmore.
In the history of the spiritual adventures of man, we find at intervals certain great mystics, who appear to gather up and fuse together in the crucible of the heart the diverse tendencies of those who have preceded them, and, adding to these elements the tincture of their own rich experience, give to us an