Chapter 4, Section 1i

an introversion 288 288 ἡ εἰς ἑαυτὴν εἴσοδος. from things without and the unified concentration 289 289 In souls being unified and simplified. See Intr., p. 25. of its spiritual powers—which gives it a kind of fixed revolution, and, turning it from the multiplicity without, draws it together first into itself, 290 290 Cf. St. Aug. ”ascendat per se supra se.“ and then (after it has reached this unified condition) unites it to those powers which are a 99 perfect Unity, 291 291 i. e. To the Angels and the perfected Saints. There is a somewhat similar thought in Wordsworth’s Prelude: “To hold fit converse with the spiritual world / and with the generations of mankind / spread over time past, present, and to come / age after age till time shall be no more.” This thought in Wordsworth and in D. is an experience and not a speculation. and thus leads it on unto the Beautiful and Good Which is beyond all things, and is One and is the Same, without beginning or end. (2) And the soul moves with a spiral motion whensoever (according to its capacity) it is enlightened with truths of Divine Knowledge, not in the special unity of its being 292 292 This spiritual unity was by later Mystical writers called the apex of the soul, or the ground, or the spark. Another name is synteresis or synderesis. but by the process of its discursive reason and by mingled and alternative activities. 293 293 There is an element of intuition in all discursive reasoning because all argument is based on certain axioms which are beyond proof (e. g. the law of universal causation). In fact the validity of our laws of thought is an axiom and therefore perceived by intuition. In the present passage D. means something deeper. He means that formal Dogmatic Theology advances round a central core of spiritual experience by which it must constantly be verified, Pectus facit theologum. Whenever theology even attempts to be purely deductive it goes wrong (e. g. Calvinism). If it is not rooted in intuition it will be rooted in fancies. (3) And it moves straight forward when it does not enter into itself to feel the stirrings of its spiritual unity (for this, as I said, is the circular motion), but goes forth unto the things around it and feels an influence coming even from the outward world, as from a rich abundance of cunning tokens, drawing it unto the simple unity of contemplative acts. 294 294 In D.‘s classification Introversion and Sensation are both unmixed movements, for each leads to a kind of perception. Discursive reasoning is a mixed movement because it does not lead to a direct perception and yet it must contain an element of perception. 10. These three motions, and also the similar motions we perceive in this material world and (far anterior to these) the individual permanence, rest and 100 grounding of each Kind 295 295 i.e. The types of things existent in the permanent spiritual world before the things were created in this transitory material world; the Platonic Ideas. There was also a Jewish belief in such a pre-existence of things. Cf. Rev. iv. 11 (R. V.).] have their Efficient, Formal, and Final Cause in the Beautiful and Good; Which is above all rest and motion; through Which all rest and motion come; and from Which, and in Which, and unto Which, and for the sake of Which they are.