Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness/Part 1

by Evelyn Underhill

What the world, which truly knows nothing, calls ‘mysticism’ is the science of ultimates, . . . the science of self-evident Reality, which cannot be ‘reasoned about,’ because it is the object of pure reason or perception. The Babe sucking its mother’s breast, and the Lover returning, after twenty years’ separation, to his home and food in the same bosom, are the types and princes of Mystics.

—Coventry Patmore,
“The Rod, the Root, and the Flower”