Select Library of Mystics

TO THE READERS

—soul, they could satisfy and bring to life; instead, they would rather fill it with a Stygian wind original: vento ſtygio; a reference to the River Styx in the underworld, implying a hellish or deathly breath, with diabolical pride, and with a dull and empty glory. These things would do nothing more than lead the soul toward a deeper damnation.

But if a person—in addition to the faculty of shadowy Reason original: Rationis umbratili; reason that only sees the "shadows" or reflections of truth rather than the truth itself which acts like a painter when reading of mystical matters—also joins the real faculties of a good and living desire and a passive intellect intellectus passivi; a contemplative state where the mind stops its own activity to receive direct illumination from God, then he truly begins to be on a better path. These faculties look toward and long for God himself, for divine realities, and for their living effects and real actions. In this state, a person will find that they are not left without success, fruit, or a clear purpose, provided they proceed well and not poorly.

For many proceed poorly who had begun well; how much more is this true for those who did not begin well enough! Those have not begun well enough who make it their goal to acquire merely ideas and knowledge of spiritual things original: rerum ſpiritualium just so they may "know" them, even if they call upon divine help to do so. They begin better who have as their goal to seek God himself and his—