and most methodical of Ruysbroeck's works. In form a threefold
under five modes: in the sense world, in the soul's nature, in the witness of Scripture, in the life of grace or 'glory,' and in the Superessential Kingdom of the Divine Unity. By the threefold way of the Active, Contemplative, and Superessential Life, here described as the steady and orderly appropriation of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of man may enter into its inheritance and attain at last to the perfect fruition of God. To the Active Life belong the gifts of Holy Fear, Godliness, and Knowledge; to the Contemplative those of Strength and Counsel; to the Superessential those of Intelligence and Wisdom. The Kingdom of God's Lovers was traditionally regarded as Ruysbroeck's earliest work. It was more probably written during the early years at Groenendael. Much of it, like The Twelve Béguines, is in poetical form. This was the book which, falling into the hands of Gerard Naghel, made him seek Ruysbroeck's acquaintance, in order that he might ask for an explanation of several profound and difficult passages. 5. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage. This is the best known and most methodical of Ruysbroeck's works. In form a threefold commentary upon the text, "Behold, the bridegroom comes; go out to meet him," it is divided into three books, tracing out in great detail, and with marvellous psychological insight, those three stages of Active, Contemplative and Superessential Life, which appear again and again in his writings. Paying due attention to the aberrations of the quietists, he exhibits - with an intimacy which surely reflects his own personal experience of the Way - the conditions under which selves in each stage of development may see, encounter, and at last unite with, the Divine Bridegroom of the soul. A German translation of several of its chapters, preserved in MS. at Munich, states that Ruysbroeck sent this book to the Friends of God in 1350. In this case it belongs to the years immediately preceding or succeeding his retreat. We now come to the works which were certainly composed at Groenendael, though probably some of those already enumerated also belong to the last thirty years of Ruysbroeck's life. First come the three treatises apparently written for Margaret van Meerbeke, a choir nun of the Convent of Poor Clares at Brussels; who seems to have been to him what St. Clare was to St. Francis, Elizabeth Stägel to Suso,