Chapter XVIII
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
may ask what it means to him that according to the historical sense a Prophet of the Lord sought a minstrel and received the spirit of prophecy because of his singing. Now, we do know this: that in an ordinary state of mind, a sweet harmony is accustomed to gladden the heart and to recall its joy to memory for it. Without doubt the more strongly anyone's love affects his soul, certainly the more deeply the harmony that is heard touches affection. The more profoundly he is touched by affection, the more effectively he is renewed with respect to his longings.
Therefore, what else is it proper to feel about the prophetic man except that for him an external harmony brought back to memory that interior and spiritual harmony, and the melody that was heard called back and raised to customary joy the mind of the one listening? However, why should we not feel with respect to spiritual and true delight what we demonstrate by daily experience with respect to corporeal and empty delight? For who does not know how the mere memory of carnal delights can carry the carnal mind away into delight? Why should the delight of spiritual men not have the same—nay, rather a greater—effect in supreme things? And so the melody that was heard by the Prophet—what else was it other than a kind of ladder that raised him to customary joy? Although it is usually the cause of ruin for carnal persons, in this case the melody emerges as the cause of ascension. Let a person who is able think how profoundly, how intimately, that which carried him away above himself and restored the prophetic spirit and sense in the prophet's soul touched him on the occasion of someone's singing, on account of the memory of that supercelestial sweetness.
Chapter XVIII What is especially accustomed to be effective for the renewal ofgrace of this sort O soul, whoever you are, you who are accustomed to flow with spiritual delights of this sort, to come up often from the desert, leaning upon your Beloved, to be raised up to some contemplative ecstasies by a kind of sudden and unexpected— nay, even
THE MYSTICAL ARK
inconceivable—dance of rejoicing, and to be lifted up on high divinely by certain prophetic understandings and showings as it were: You, O soul, ought to learn from the example of the Prophet what you ought to do in order that in a time of great need you may have at hand, as it were, a way in which you are capable of restoring your soul to customary delights. Perhaps it would not be useless for you to summon a minstrel and listen to one who sings on the occasion of a similar need. But so that we may briefly bring to a close what we think concerning this thing, what else can we call that minstrel except the exultation of the heart in God? He who said: "Be joyful in the Lord and exult you just; glory all you upright of heart"
(Ps.
31:11) wanted us to have such a minstrel present.
However, what does it mean to summon a minstrel of this sort except to regain exultation of the heart by provident meditation and to awaken devotion of the heart by recollection of divine kindnesses and promises? Here without doubt we cause a minstrel to sing when on account of great dancing of the heart we shout in divine celebration and while rising up in thanksgiving we reecho in divine praises with a great shout of the heart from the innermost parts of ourselves. What does it mean to do these things, other than that we prepare the way by which we may receive the Lord when He comes and visits us? "The sacrifice of praise shall clothe me with honor, and there is the way by which I will show that one the salvation of God" (Ps. 49:23). And so, by singing and praising the way is prepared for the Lord, the way by which He judges it worthy to come to us and to show us some marvelous showings of His mysteries. Hence it is read in another place, "Sing to God, say a psalm to His name, make a way for Him who ascends above the west" (Ps. 67:5). Perhaps you seek to know what it means to ascend above the west.* Surely common usage agreed to call "west" that region of the earth in which the sun sets and light fades away each day.t Therefore, what can we more rightly understand by "west" than the failure of human understanding? For the sun of the under- *In Ps. 67:5 and the sentences that follow, occasus is translated "west." Richard exploits a word play inherent in the Latin. Occasus may mean: "the setting of the sun"; "the west" as the quarter of the heavens in which the sun sets; "downfall or death." Setting sun, compass point, and the failure or "death" of understanding are all involved in this passage. tThe word deftcio in varied forms reappears here.
It is variously translated (e.g., fades away, failure). [See 5:12 above]
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
standing runs there towards the west, as it were, and hides the rays of its knowing, and the aforementioned Hght of day turns in a certain measure into the darkness of the land of night and draws everything away from human sight—when the human spirit falls into alienation of mind and knows nothing at all concerning what happens in it or around it when it fails with regard to ordinary sense and has been carried away outside of itself. However, what does it mean that the Lx)rd ascends in the eyes of our consideration, except that by the showing of His greatness He increases the growth of our knowing? For the more He shows us the sublimer things concerning the loftiness of His greatness, the more He raises Himself to loftier heights in the view of our understanding. He truly ascends in the west when He carries a man above himself, draws away from his memory all those things which the man knows according to ordinary sense and manifests to him by means of ecstasy of mind this concerning the lofty height of His majesty, something that he would in no way be able to comprehend according to the ordinary state of this life and ordinary mode of human capacity. Therefore, let us strive with great quickness of mind to rejoice in the Lord; let us continually endeavor to sing with intimate devotion in His presence, so that it may be by these things that He will regard it as suitable to ascend in the west. In order to do this, it is necessary for us to summon a singer of this sort, just as it is also useful for us to hear someone singing. The spiritual soul is touched at the very core of its being because of the voice of a singer of this sort and it is spiritually affected when the spirit rushes into it. When the sense of understanding is opened to divine inspiration, in some way the grace of prophecy is renewed in it. And so, because of such psalmody and spiritual harmony, the contemplative soul accustomed to spiritual contemplations begins to dance and to make gestures in a certain way because of its excess of joy, to make some unique spiritual leaps, to suspend itself above the earth and all earthly things and to pass over completely to contemplation of celestial things by alienation of mind. Therefore, it is this, as we have said, that is effective for the renewing of the mind; it is this that is accustomed to be effective especially for the restoration of grace that has been lost.