384 



NEW ESSAYS 



Quietists 119 , who imagine an absorption of the soul 

 and its reunion with the ocean of divinity, a notion 



which is universal and which animates the whole universe and all 

 its parts, according to the structure of each and the organs it finds 

 in each, as the same blast of wind produces the various sounds 

 from different organ-pipes. And thus when the organs of an 

 animal are rightly arranged, this spirit appears in it as an in- 

 dividual soul, but when the organs are broken up, this individual 

 soul comes to nothing again or returns, so to speak, into the ocean 

 of bhe universal spirit. To many people Aristotle appears to have 

 had an opinion of this kind, which has been revived by Averroes, 

 a famous Arabian philosopher. He held that there is in us an 

 intellectus agens, or active understanding, and also an intelltctus paliens, 

 or passive understanding ; and that the former of these, coming 

 from outside of us, is eternal and universal for all, while the 

 passive understanding, which is peculiar to each, passes away at 

 the man's death. This doctrine was held by some of the Peri- 

 patetics, two or three centuries ago, such as Pomponatius, 

 Contarenus and others,' 



119 See Considerations sur la Doctrine d'un Esprit Universel Unique 

 (E. 178 b ; G. vi. 530) : 'Apparently Molinos, and some other new 

 Quietists, among otliers a certain author called Joannes Angelus 

 Silesius, who wrote before Molinos, and some of whose works have 

 lately been reprinted, and even Weigelius before them, favoured 

 this opinion of the Sabbath or rest of souls in God. And for 

 this reason they held that the cessation of individual functions is 

 the highest state of perfection.' Miguel de Molinos was born at 

 Saragossa in 1627 and died (in the prison of the Inquisition) in 

 1697. His chief book was his Spiritual Guide, published in Spanish 

 and afterwards translated into many languages. Madame Guyon 

 and Fenelon were much influenced by his work. Valentine Weigel 

 ws born at Hayn in Thuringia in 1533 and died in 1588. He was 

 a Protestant minister in a village near Dresden, and although only 

 one book of his was published in his lifetime, he left a large number 

 of works in manuscript, many of which are still unpublished. He 

 was a believer in the direct revelation of truth by the ' inward light,' 

 in answer to prayer. Leibniz elsewhere mentions him as ' a clever 

 man, who was indeed too clever,' and he says that Angelus was Hhe 

 author of certain rather pretty little bits of devotional verse, in 

 the form of epigrams.' Discours de la Conformite de la Foi avec la 

 Raison, 9 (E. 482 b ; G. vi. 55). There has been much dispute as 

 to the identity of Angelus and little is known about him. His 

 best known poem is the CheruUnischer Wandersmann. See Vaughari, 

 Hours with the Mystics, bk. vii. ch. i ; and Schrader, Angelus Silcsius u. 

 seine Mystik. Leibniz distinguishes between the Quietist 'Sabbath' 

 and the 'beatific vision,' saying that the 'beatific vision of completely 



