CHKISTIAN MYSTICISM. 



65 



mere mathematics, symbols which correspond accurately to 

 nothing in the real world. Matter, however, is a mere abstrac- 

 tion. All that gives it meaning and value — all that gives it any 

 quality whatever — is plainly bestowed upon it by the soul. The 

 world of the man of science is full of values and qualities other 

 than spatial : even if he calls himself a materialist, his world is 

 full of soul. It is not the particles of matter to which we can 

 attribute purpose, beauty, design, wisdom, etc. All these are 

 gifts from the soul, when it informs matter and imposes upon it 

 a meaning and a destiny. The attempt, which science has often 

 set before itself, to detach existence from value, and to describe 

 to us a world of existence without values, is a hopeless attempt, 

 and one which betrays some mental confusion. The real world 

 may prove to be something higher than the soul-world ; it is 

 certainly not anything lower. If there were nothing but matter, 

 there could be no materialism ; there certainly could be no sound 

 science. For science is concerned with the appraisement and 

 valuation of the world of existence. Take the most materialistic 

 of philosophers, and you will find that his work is full of poetical, 

 dramatic personalization of ideas. How naturally he breaks into 

 capital letters ! It is no use to spell God with a small " g " if you 

 are driven in the next page to spell " Kature, Force, Energy," 

 etc., with capitals. Nature, say many modern philosophers 

 (Fechner, Lotze, Eucken, Max Miiller, etc.) is possessed of 

 soul throughout. This is not merely revived hylozoism : it 

 means that reality is not matter existing independently and 

 viewed from outside by the mind or soul. All that we call real 

 is in a sense created by soul. Soul is inwoven with the inner- 

 most texture of the world as it really is. And so when we look 

 upon the wonders of nature, we are contemplating that which 

 owes its being to the highest principle that we can discern within 

 ourselves. Many, like Plotinus, Emerson, etc., have spoken of the 

 " universal soul," or over-soul, to which our souls are in some 

 mysterious sort of subordination, and the characters of which are 

 reflected by nature as in a mirror. (I shall show you presently 

 that we cannot stop at soul — soul drives us upward to that 

 which is above itself ; but we are trying to follow the intellectual 

 ascent of the mystic, and we have so far got merely to soul, as 

 the spiritual principle which creates the world as we know it — 

 creates it as a mirror to reflect itself and give actuality to its own 

 activity.) Therefore, when we contemplate the glories of Nature, 

 it is no vain fancy if we find in them types and shadows of our 

 own highest thoughts, and of that which is above and beyond 

 our highest thoughts. We need not trouble ourselves by asking 



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