"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"
I. The Point of Departure
CHAPTER I
