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THE DIALOGUE OF THE SERAPHIC VIRGIN CATHERINE OF SIENA
THE DIALOGUE OF THE SERAPHIC VIRGIN CATHERINE OF SIENA
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The celebrated dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin, Catherine of Siena, "the dyer's daughter, whose will, purified and sublimated by prayer, imposed itself on Popes and Princes." This dialogue is described as dictated by her, while in a state of ecstasy, to her secretaries, and completed in the year of our Lord 1370. The form of the dialogue is familiar to all readers of medieval religious literature, and the mystical spirit in which it is composed is a feature of the period. That many of the thoughts are very beautiful no one can deny, though to a reader not impregnated with the spirit of Catholicism, the composition seems prolix and wearisome. As a specimen, and a good one, of the mystical morality we may quote the following lines, which are also a good example of the style both of the original and the translation: "Wherefore know, that the things of the world and all its delights and pleasures they have seized and possessed, without Me, but with disordinate love of self, and these things are like the scorpion which I showed thee in the beginning, after the figure of the tree, telling thee that it carries gold in front and venom behind, and that the venom was not without the gold, nor the gold without the venom, but that the gold was seen first, and that no one preserved himself from the venom except those who were illuminated by the light of faith."
The translator contributes, by way of introduction, an essay on the study of mysticism, which is more interesting than convincing— though there is a kind of truth in his statement that " more can be learnt of the intricacies of our interior life, of the inter-connection and mutual dependence of ' psychic states' from St. Theresa or St. Catherine than from Zola or Wundt." The observation of the inner workings of a human mind, even where abnormal, may throw light upon psychological problems which we cannot get by the observation of external manifestations. The mystics are a curious psychological study to those who read them critically rather than sympathetically. Algar Thorold aims at showing that mysticism is not an obsolete phenomenon, but that Huysmans, Paul Verlaine, and Stephiane Mallarme are under its influence. Mysticism is partly a matter of training and partly of temperament, but to it we owe much that is imperishably beautiful. St. Catherine's mysticism had for its basis the Catholic creed, but any creed or no creed is compatible with the mystic temper.
The translator contributes, by way of introduction, an essay on the study of mysticism, which is more interesting than convincing— though there is a kind of truth in his statement that " more can be learnt of the intricacies of our interior life, of the inter-connection and mutual dependence of ' psychic states' from St. Theresa or St. Catherine than from Zola or Wundt." The observation of the inner workings of a human mind, even where abnormal, may throw light upon psychological problems which we cannot get by the observation of external manifestations. The mystics are a curious psychological study to those who read them critically rather than sympathetically. Algar Thorold aims at showing that mysticism is not an obsolete phenomenon, but that Huysmans, Paul Verlaine, and Stephiane Mallarme are under its influence. Mysticism is partly a matter of training and partly of temperament, but to it we owe much that is imperishably beautiful. St. Catherine's mysticism had for its basis the Catholic creed, but any creed or no creed is compatible with the mystic temper.
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