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James, William, 1842-1910

"Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature"

, ad libitum.[264]
[264] T. Davidson's translation, in Journal of Speculative
Philosophy, 1893, vol. xxii., p. 399.

But these qualifications are denied by Dionysius, not because the
truth falls short of them, but because it so infinitely excels
them. It is above them. It is SUPER-lucent, SUPER-splendent,
SUPER-essential, SUPER-sublime, SUPER EVERYTHING that can be
named. Like Hegel in his logic, mystics journey towards the
positive pole of truth only by the "Methode der Absoluten
Negativitat."[265]
[265] "Deus propter excellentiam non immerito Nihil vocatur."
Scotus Erigena, quoted by Andrew Seth: Two Lectures on Theism,
New York, 1897, p. 55.

Thus come the paradoxical expressions that so abound in mystical
writings. As when Eckhart tells of the still desert of the
Godhead, "where never was seen difference, neither Father, Son,
nor Holy Ghost, where there is no one at home, yet where the
spark of the soul is more at peace than in itself."[266] As when
Boehme writes of the Primal Love, that "it may fitly be compared
to Nothing, for it is deeper than any Thing, and is as nothing
with respect to all things, forasmuch as it is not comprehensible
by any of them.


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