Chapter XIV
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
according to the similitude of Peter, having an angel going before and offering guidance.
I think I have not spoken rashly, since he was far above man; since he withdrew far from himself and above himself; since he learned all of these things by means of experience.
Otherwise there was no place from which he might afterward return to himself or of which it might rightly be written concerning him: "And Peter, having returned to himself, said: 'Now I know that the Lord in fact has sent his angel' " (Acts
12:11). There are many things that might have been said in this present chapter if we were obligated to say them in this place. But it is sufficient for us that we have set forth sufficiently from Peter's testimony in order to have proved how a divine showing sometimes is accustomed to precede the effort of our meditation and to incite our sluggish soul and even sometimes to lift the soul above itself after it has been cast down below itself.
Chapter XIV That the third mode of ecstasy is accustomed to come from greatness ofjoy
It still remains for us to show in the third place how the human mind is accustomed to fall into ecstasy and to go out of itself on account of greatness of joy and exultation. This mode of ecstasy seems to me to have been expressed with sufficient suitableness in those words from the Song of Songs which we put in the third place: "Who is she," Scripture says, "who comes up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?" (Song of Songs 8:5). If by the desert is rightly understood the human heart, what will this coming up from the desert mean except ecstasy of the human mind? The human soul comes up from the desert, as it were, when it passes over above itself by means of alienation of mind, when deserting itself in the lowest place and passing upward to heaven it is immersed only in divine things by means of contemplation and devotion. But the cause of this kind of coming up is fitly associated with this passage, because she who comes up is described as "flowing with delights." What does it mean to be "flowing with delights" except to abound with the fullness of spiritual joys? What,
THE MYSTICAL ARK
I say, is this flowing with delights except an abundance of true pleasure given from heaven and a joyfulness infused unrestrainedly? False riches are able to show neither an abundance of these delights nor true rejoicing. Moreover, they would not be false if they had really shown true delights—nay if they had been truly flowing with them. For those persons can be said really to have
(I do not say to flow with) delights who, according to the judgment of the blessed Job, "reckon delights to be under thorns" (Job
30:7).
Surely even the impious are able to have these exterior and false riches; nevertheless they are not able to have any joy at all, unless perchance we make into a liar that One whom we hear truly bearing witness through the Prophet: "It is not for the impious to rejoice, says the Lord"
(Isa.
48:22; 57:21). And so, as often as you are without internal and true delights, even if you abound in exterior riches you can truly sing with the Prophet: "Since now I am needy and a pauper"
(Ps.
85:1). Was it not a powerful king and a rich prince of the people who said these things? Therefore, of what sort are those riches and what sort of delights are they able to confer, in the midst of an abundance of which it is necessary to be needy and, in a different sense, to beg for true joy? "However,
I am a beggar and a pauper; the Lord is solicitous for me" (Ps. 39:18). And so, this flowing with delights and abundance of true joys is not something for which you ought to hope nor something you are capable of possessing, except from that divinely infused inner joyfulness and sweetness of soul: "Who is she who comes up from the desert flowing with delights?" (Song of Songs 8:5).
It does not say "having delights," but "flowing with delights," because not just any experience of these delights but only a flowing with them gives birth to and completes this sort of coming up that comes from the desert.
However, it is evident that however much we advance, we cannot continually have these delights to this extent in this life. And so at the time when the soul is without such a flowing, she is not able to rise up to this coming up about which we are now speaking; for in her coming up she must be "flowing with delights." However,
I think that it is one thing to come up flowing and another to flow coming up, just as it is another thing for the flowing to be the cause of the coming up. And so, flowing with delights appears then as the cause of coming up when, on account of that infusion of divine
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
sweetness, the holy soul does not understand what she feels herself in the innermost place on account of rejoicing and exultation, so that by the greatness of her exultation and joy she pours herself outside of herself and is carried away above herself. In this way, when a forceful and unmeasurable joyfulness grows above a human mode, it raises one above humanity, and after raising him up above human things it suspends him in sublime things. We are surely able to see the form of such things daily, even in animals. In their play animals are often accustomed to make a kind of leap and to suspend their bodies in the air for a short while. In this way fishes often leap above the waters when they play in the water, and they go beyond the bounds of their natural habitation when they suspend themselves for a moment in the void. So without doubt when the holy soul is cut off from herself by a kind of internal applause of her dancing, when she is driven to go above herself by means of alienation of mind, when she is completely suspended in celestial things, when she is completely immersed in angelic manifestations—then she seems to have gone beyond the bounds of natural possibility.
Hence there is that which is said by the Prophet: "The mountains exult like rams and the hills like the lambs of sheep" (Ps.
113:4).
Who does not see that it is above nature, or rather against nature, that mountains and hills should make a kind of leap into higher things, rebound from the earth, and launch themselves through the void, according to a similitude of the playing of rams and lambs?
Can earth be suspended above earth, when man is led above humanity, to whom it is said by the Lord's voice by way of reproach:
"You are earth, and you shall return to earth" (Gen. 3:19)? Therefore, howevermuch he may grow by greatness of virtue, even though he rises to the heights according to a similitude of the hills or the mountains in general, in any case he is earth and can rightly be called earth as long as he inhabits a house of clay and has an earthly foundation. For this reason, this is said by Wisdom: "Why are earth and ashes proud?" (Ecclus.
10:9).
If, therefore, we are content with a simple exposition, perhaps it suffices to say this: that this is the reason that mountains and hills exult according to the similitude of rams and lambs: In the highest and holiest men human nature ascends beyond human nature, and on account of an excess abundance of joy and exultation human nature goes above itself by
THE MYSTICAL ARK
means of alienation of mind. Behold, I think we have already taught by means of a clear example that sometimes a person attains ecstasy of the human mind on account of the greatness of exultation. But perhaps if that which we have said concerning the additional similitude of the sheep suffices less for that person, and he presses on with more curiosity concerning the expression of individual things, he should recall to memory those ninety-nine sheep the supreme Shepherd left in the heights when He came to earth searching for that one which had been lost. Therefore, let one who is able, think how great or what sort of thing it is that the mountainous regions of this earth of ours spring back into the heights with the impulse of their joy according to the similitude of these things, and that this nature of ours forms the applause of its exultation according to the dancing of an angelic similitude. However, if by rams we understand those highest orders of angels, and by lambs, the lower orders of the same, nevertheless since rams of such a sort (that is to say, the highest order of angels) go above themselves with that marvelous sport of their joy and ecstasy of contemplation when they suspend themselves in the higher things of themselves, we know well that they behold above themselves nothing other than the creative substance of everything nor do they find they are better able to contemplate or marvel at His power or wisdom in anything other than in themselves.
But when those lower orders of angels, which seem to be indicated by the lambs, are brought above themselves, they certainly behold those spirits who surpass them by the marvelous prerogative of worth. In this raising up of themselves they now discover a kind of mirror, as it were, in which they marvelously discern the supreme majesty and now they have the advanced ability to see by a mirror, as it were.
Therefore, if contemplative men are understood rightly by mountains, and speculative men by hills, you see how rightly mountains are said to exult according to the similitude of rams, and hills according to the similitude of lambs. For although contemplation and speculation are accustomed to be used with the same meaning and in this way often obscure and cover over the proper sense of Scripture, nevertheless we more aptly and expressly call something speculation when we see by a mirror; but we call it contemplation when we see the truth in its purity without any covering or any veil
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
of shadows. And so the hills exult according to the similitude of lambs when that immense dance of inner solemnity raises them above themselves to the extent that they are capable of seeing the hidden places of celestial secrets— at least by a mirror and in an enigma.
(Cf.
1 Cor.
13:12.) But, in contrast, mountains exult as it were in resemblance to rams when in the ecstasies of their joy the greater ones see in pure and simple truth what the lesser, as has already been said, are scarcely able to see by a mirror and in an enigma.
Chapter XV That any ecstasy of the mind goes beyond the mode of human activity and merit Let no person presume that so much exultation or raising up of the heart is due to his own strength; nor should he attribute this to his own merits.
Surely it is evident that this is not from human merit but from a divine gift. For this reason, every soul that is described as coming up from the desert is said to lean upon her Beloved. What does it mean for her to lean upon her Beloved except to be advanced by the virtue of that one and not by her own strength?
I say, what is it for her to rely upon her Beloved, other than to presume that nothing at all connected with this part is due to her own virtue? As far as it seems to me, she is rightly presuming nothing is due to her own activity, nothing is due to her own prudence, especially in this place where she is coming up from the desert, but not even in the desert either when she is going through the desert. Surely the Beloved of this one knows this and for that reason leads her during the day in a cloud and during the whole night in a light of fire (Exod.
13:21). How could she sustain the burden and heat of the day, except in the shade of that One whom her soul loves? And what would be for her a place of safety from nocturnal fear, especially in a region of terror and vast solitude, unless He sent forth His light and His truth? Finally, she would have nothing whereby the heat of concupiscence might be moderated in her, unless the power of the Most High were to