NATURE S GOOD: A CONVERSATION 39 



of unity, and hence of truth, you smile courteously ; 

 say or think mysticism; and the case for you 

 is dismissed. Words like feeling, sensation, imme 

 diate appreciation, self-communication of Being, 

 I must indeed use when I try to tell the truth I see. 

 But I well know how inadequate the words are. 

 And why? Because language is the chosen tool 

 of intelligence, and hence inevitably bewrayeth the 

 truth it would convey. But remember that words 

 are but symbols, and that intelligence must dwell 

 in the realm of symbols, and you realize a way out. 

 These words, sensation, feeling, etc., as I utter 

 them are but invitations to woo you to put your 

 selves into the one attitude that reveals truth 

 an attitude of direct vision. 



The beatific vision? Yes, and No. No, if you 

 mean something rare, extreme, almost abnormal. 

 Yes, if you mean the commonest and most convinc 

 ing, the only convincing self-impartation of the ul 

 timate good in the scale of goods; the vision of 

 blessedness in God. For this doctrine is empirical ; 

 mysticism is the heart of all positive empiricism, 

 of all empiricism which is not more interested in 

 denying rationalism than in asserting itself. The 

 mystical experience marks every man s realization 

 of the supremacy of good, and hence measures the 

 distance that separates him from pure materialism. 

 And since the unmitigated materialist is the rarest 

 of creatures, and the man with faith in an unseen 



