accordingly done, she associated him to the rest of the brethren in her monastery, and ordered that he should be taught the whole series of sacred history."*

In the fourteenth century, among many mystical enthusiasts Suso is particularly noteworthy. He, it is recorded, was called to a spiritual life by the Eternal Wisdom manifesting itself to him in the form of a maiden bright as the sun. In order to attain the highest sanctity, he submitted himself to most severe torture, and he was rewarded by the Holy Child appearing to him, and putting to his lips a vessel of spring water. At another time the Blessed Virgin gave him a draught from her own heart. Encouraged by these manifestations of divine favour, he persisted in a life of self-torture. At one time he wore constantly, night and day, a close-fitting shirt, in which had been fixed one hundred and fifty nails, the points turned inwards towards the flesh; and lest at any time he should be tempted to relieve himself, he clad his hands with gloves which were covered with sharp blades. At another time he carried between his shoulders a wooden cross perforated by thirty nails, the points of which rested against the skin. He pursued this system of mortification from his eighteenth to his fortieth year, and its gratefulness to the Divine Power was manifested by numerous heavenly visions and other instances of divine favour. He was permitted to hear the angelic host hymn the praises of the Highest, and often he has been comforted by angels, and been led by them in the spirit to join the celestial dance. One day, when thus surrounded in a vision, he asked a shining prince of heaven to show him the mode in which God had his secret dwelling in his soul. Then answered the angel—‘Take a gladsome look into thine inmost, and see how God in thy living soul playeth his play of love.' Straightway I looked, and behold the body about my heart was as clear as crystal, and I saw the Eternal Wisdom calmly sitting in my heart in lovely wise,† and close by that form of beauty, my soul, leaning on God, embraced by him, and pressed to his heart, full of heavenly longing, transported, intoxicated with love."‡

66

Suso declares that he wrote his Horologe of Wisdom, or Book of the Eternal Wisdom, which he finished in 1340, from inspiration; he himself being "ignorant and passive, but under the immediate impulse and illumination of the Divine Wisdom."

At a period still less remote from us we find, among a host of canonized individuals, St. Catherine of Siena, whose holy life * Eccles. Hist. bk. iv. ch. 24.

"It seemed to me that my body melted away, and became transparent. I saw very clearly within my breast the hachisch that I had eaten, under the form of an emerald, which emitted millions of little sparks."-Moreau (de Tours) du Hachisch, p. 21.

Hours with the Mystics. By R. A. Vaughan, B.A., vol. i. p. 290.

commenced with visions when she was but six years of age, and who was solemnly betrothed to our Lord not long after." She is said to have shown a purity and inspiration in her poems which might have ranked her with Dante and Petrarch. Here is divine. inspiration-holy and miraculous power!"*

St. Hildegarde may be cited as another example. She stands conspicuous among the canonized from the numerous visions with which she was favoured. As in the case of St. Catherine of Siena, the visions of Hildegarde commenced in childhood. "In the third year of my life," she tells us, in a letter to the monk Wibertus, "I beheld such a light that my soul trembled; but, on account of my youth, I was unable to describe it. In my eighth year I was admitted to spiritual communion with God; and, till I was fifteen, I beheld many visions, which I related in my simplicity, and those who heard me were astonished, wondering from whence they could come. At that time I also felt surprised that while I saw internally with my soul, I also saw outwardly with my eyes; and as I never heard of a similar thing in others, I endeavoured to conceal my visions as much as possible. Many things of the world remained unknown to me on account of my continual ill-health, which, dating from my birth, weakened my body and destroyed my strength."

She was, in fact, confined to bed during the greater part of her life, and was subject to frequent cataleptic trances. At one time, being visited by the Abbot of Burgen while she was affected by one of these seizures, he endeavoured to move her head, but found all his exertions vain, whereupon he pronounced her to be a divine prophetess. When, however, he commanded her to arise" in the name of God," she at once left her bed as if nothing had ever ailed her. She had reached maturity before the divine character of her visions was clearly manifested. "When I was twenty-four years and seven months of age, a fiery light coming from heaven filled my brain and influenced my heart-like a fire which burns not, but warms like the sun-and suddenly I had the power of expounding the Scriptures."

She thus describes, in the letter to Wibertus, and in continuation of the paragraph which we have already quoted from it, the character of the seizures to which she was subjected:

-

"During one of these states of prostration, I asked my attendant if she saw anything besides the things of this world; she replied that she did not. Then a great fear seized upon me, and I dared not open my heart to any one; but during conversation I often spoke of future events; and when the visions were strong upon me, I said things which were unintelligible to those around me. When the strength of

*

Quoted by Ennemoser, History of Magic.

Bohn's Ed., vol. i. p. 93.

the vision was somewhat abated, I changed colour and began to weep, more like a child than a person of my age; and I should often have preferred to be silent had it been possible. Fear of ridicule, however, prevented my saying anything; but a noble lady with whom I was placed noticed this, and told a nun who was her friend. After the death of this lady I had visions till my fortieth year, when I was impelled, in a vision, to make known that which I saw. I communicated this to my confessor-an excellent man. He listened willingly to these strange visions, and advised me to write them down and keep them secret, till I should see what they were, and whence they came. After he perceived that they came from God, he communicated them to his abbot, and gave me his aid in these things. In the visions I understood the writings of the prophets, the evangelists, and some holy philosophers, without human assistance. I explained much in these books, although I was scarcely able to distinguish the letters; I also sang verses to the honour of God without having had any instruction in singing-having never ever learned a song. When these things

became known to the church at Mayence, they declared that these visions came from God, and by the gift of prophecy. Upon this my writings were placed before the Pope Eugene, when he was at Trier, who had them read aloud before many, and then sent me a letter begging me to commit my visions to writing."*

Now there can be little question that the abnormal mental phenomena which characterized the lives of Saints Suso, Catherine of Siena, and Hildegarde, as well as the instances stated by Bede, were of a kindred nature with those which formed the substratum of Plato's opinions upon the kinship of madness and genius. There can be little question, also, from the recital we have just given, that the twofold paradox of the ancient Greek philosopher-to wit, the superiority and great good of madness as compared with sanity-flourished vigorously under another phraseology in the Middle Ages.

If we search in our own time for indications of this paradox, we need not look far. We may instance Swedenborg as an illustration of the religious phasis of the paradox. Jung-Stilling is inclined to believe that the "capability of experiencing the arrangements which are made in the world of spirits, and executed in the visible world," may be promoted by drinking ardent spirits. He tells us also that "those who possess this capability are generally simple people;" and he continues-"It again follows from hence, that a developed faculty of presentiment is by no means a quality which belongs solely to devout and pious people, or that it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it, on the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which we ought rather to heal than promote. He that has a natural disposition for it, and then fixes his imagination

* Ennemoser, Op. cit., vol. i. p. 96.

long and intensely, and therefore magically, upon a certain object, may at length be able, with respect to this object, to foresee things which have reference to it. Gravediggers, nurses, and such as are employed to undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the like, are accustomed to be continually reflecting on objects which stand in connexion with death and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their faculty of presentiment at length develop itself on these subjects;" and then he adds the remark already quoted on ardent spirits.*

Jung-Stilling's belief respecting spirituous inspiration is perfectly consistent with the teachings of Scandinavian mythology, in which mead or beer rightly stands metonymically for poetic genius. From the Prose Edda we learn that the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar prepared mead or beer by mixing the blood of the universal genius Kvasir with honey, and that the liquor so prepared was of such surpassing excellence that whosoever drank of it acquired the gift of song. This divine beverage was the source of all poetic genius, and it is easy to conceive how in the first place the effects of spirituous drinks gave rise to the myth, and in the second place the myth gave rise to the conception of the inspired character of tipsiness.

Mrs. Crowe considers it "worthy of observation that idiots. often possess some gleams of the faculty of second sight or presentiment," and stumbling over a subjective phenomenon of vision, she is glad to receive a helping hand from the paradox which concerns us.

"All somnambules of the highest order," she writes-" and when I make use of this expression, I repeat that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric experiments, but to those extraordinary cases of disease, the particulars of which have been recorded by various continental physicians of eminence-all persons in that condition describe themselves as hearing and seeing, not by the ordinary organs, but by some means the idea of which they cannot convey further than that they are pervaded by light; and that this is not the ordinary physical light is evident, inasmuch as they generally see best in the dark-a remarkable instance of which I myself witnessed. I never had the slightest idea of this internal light till, in the way of experiment, I inhaled the sulphhuric ether; but I am now well able to conceive it ; for, after first feeling an agreeable warmth pervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself-I cannot say in this heavenly light, for the light was in me- -I was pervaded by it; it was not perceived by my eyes, which were closed, but perceived internally, I cannot tell how. Of what nature this heavenly light was-I cannot forbear calling it heavenly, for it was like nothing on earth-I know not, &c."†

*

Theory of Pneumatology. Translated by Samuel Jackson. Lond., 1834, p. 197. + The Night Side of Nature. Ed. 1853, pp. 362 and 470.

Again, Ennemoser,* with a woful waste of learning, seeks to prove the frequent development of prophetic power in many bodily affections, and particularly in cataleptic and ecstatic states and certain inflammatory diseases of the brain. He quotes with approval a case "related by Hunaud (Dissert. sur les Vapeurs) of a cataleptic girl who predicted future events, as, for instance'I see poor Maria, who takes so much trouble about her pigs; she may do what she likes, but they will have to be thrown into the water.' The next day six of the pigs were driven home, and a servant fastened them up in a pen, as they were to be killed the next day. During the night, however, one of them went mad, having been bitten a few days before by a mad dog, and bit all the other pigs. They all had to be killed." He also writes: "The powers of the seer are very often remarkable in insanity, and express themselves in direct or allegorical language. Claus, the fool, at Weimar, suddenly entered the privy council and exclaimed, There are you all, consulting about very weighty things, no doubt; but no one considers how the fire in Coburg is to be extinguished.' It was afterwards discovered that a fire had been raging at the very time in Coburg."‡

Ennemoser, also, contends zealously for the supersensual character of visions, and whether they be brought about by bodily disorder, by magical operations, or by divine interposition, he links them all together, as well as the power of prophesying, and solves all difficulties with MAGNETISM. This is the key which unlocks all the mysteries of ancient and modern superstition, all the intricacies of magic, and explains why the ABNORMAL is of greater nobility than the NORMAL. He carefully describes, however, the differences which exist between the visions of the inspired seer and those of a lower grade, produced by human means, and he is careful to isolate the dignity of the Christ, and to reprove those who have reduced the God-man to an ingenious magnetiser. He writes:

The visions of the magicians are, even in the highest stages of enthusiasm, merely shadowy reflections, surrounded by which, the world, with its significations and even its inner constitution, may be seen by him; but the lips are silent in the intoxication of ecstasy and the dazzling light of his pathologic self-illumination.§ On this account, the many phantasmagoria of truth and falsehood; the changing pictures of the imagination, and the feelings, in disordered ranks and inharmonic shapes; the wanderings and convulsions of the mind and body. Their visions are not aways to be relied upon, neither are they always understood. In the prophets, visions are the reflection and illumination of a divine gentle radiance on the mirror of their pure * History of Magic, passim.

+ Vol. i. p. 72.

Vol. i. p. 80.

§ The italics are ours.