The author differentiates between the mystic and his mystical experiences, and the metaphysics of mysticism. The mystic, he says, can not adequately state his experiences in terms of discursive reason, nevertheless the philosophy of mysticism is “the body of truth about the nature of ultimate reality and of our relationship to it to be derived from the content of mystical experience.” (Preface) He regards the Catholic church as the best vehicle of expression for this body of truth. The contents are: The divine immanence; Unity of God; The transcendence of God; The relation between the soul and God; Views of the mystic way; The negative way; The active night; Mystical experience previous to the night of spirit; The passive night of spirit; Purgatory and the passive night of spirit; The transforming union: or mystical marriage; On the mystical interpretation of Scripture; The witness of nature mysticism to the teaching of Catholic mysticism studied in the mysticism of Richard Jefferies; St John the poet; Epilogue; Notes.
Reviewed by G. E. Partridge
N Y Times p28 D 26 ’20 170w
“Mr Watkin’s book is written exclusively for his co-religionists, and others will not find it worth while to study it.”
− The Times [London] Lit Sup p387 Je 17 ’20 420w
WATSON, E. L. GRANT. Deliverance. *$2 (2½c) Knopf
20–3264
The author tells us that in this his third novel he has tried to portray the spiritual emancipation of a woman whose “love for the increasing light of her own spirit ... becomes more precious than even the unique love of woman for man.” (Preface) The scene is laid in contemporary England. The principal characters are Susan Zalesky, who is brought up in the country by her aunt, Mrs Dorothy Tyler; Paul Zalesky, Susan’s father, a philanderer, who carries on a secret love affair with Dorothy; Tom Northover, the “primitive male,” who marries Susan but makes “no claims upon her soul”; Noel Sarret, a young painter with whom Tom, who believes that the only test of morality is “the sincerity of the emotion,” goes to live shortly before the birth of Susan’s child; and Martin Hyde, a gentle young painter who loves Susan.