KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNKNOWABLE 



ments or sparks of the All-Sustaining Mind, may 

 not it sometimes be granted to the pure in heart 

 that "they shall see God"? 



Let me put the question in the clear words of a 

 friend : 



"You say that reality is, strictly speaking, unknow- 

 able, yet we can infer somewhat of its nature by the be- 

 havior of its appearances! It seems to me that this 

 should commend itself to everybody, so long as our 

 ordinary faculties are relied on. But does this inability 

 to escape beyond the limits of consciousness necessarily 

 preclude our arriving at reality? What of that higher 

 consciousness which pantheists possess that ardor, that 

 feeling of association with nature and the universe, 

 often tempered with a deep sense of beauty, which we 

 meet with in Wordsworth, Shelley, Richard Jeffries, Walt 

 Whitman, and others ? Does not this consciousness with- 

 in the consciousness lead to reality? Is it too much to 

 say that reality is limitedly known to the pantheistic 

 mystic?" 



Here, indeed, is a question to be approached 

 barefooted, lest we be on holy ground. If an- 

 swered at all, it can be only after a serious study of 

 mysticism in all places and ages some such study 

 as Professor Seth's. Thereafter is answer to be 

 made in general and comprehensive terms by any 

 student ? or must we make personal experience our 

 guide ? And if so, what shall those say who have 

 no such experiences? Are they to explain away, 

 or to accept, or to withhold judgment? Ere we 

 continue, let us hear the case as put by Plotinus 

 the Alexandrian. "The finite, as finite, can never 

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