f indignantly denying this fact, as though it were
profane criticism of the saints, defenders of the Theological view of
mysticism would calmly consider and accept the evidence, they would be
able to infuse into the creeds, the vitality which they so lack.

The lives of the saints, in so far as they relate to trance and
ecstatic visions, must, sooner or later meet one of two fates. Either
they will be analyzed and presented, with the reverence that is due
the subject, as proofs of the spiritual function of sex-love; or they
must be relegated to the position to which the Church assigns all
sexual desire--that of eroticism and innate and ineradicable
depravity.

Viewed in the light in which Theology has held the sex relation, the
paroxysms which are ascribed to St. Catherine of Sienna, and to the
Holy Mechthild and other saints, have in them something decidedly
obnoxious; while, if we take the premise that these saints, by virtue
of prayer, aspiration, and intended sacrifice of the mortal self to an
ideal, transmuted their sex-nature from the physical to the spiritual,
then indeed, we have an approach to a mighty truth, which is at once
both explanatory and satisfying. St. Catherine is referred to as "the
mystic bride;" and Jesus Christ, to whom she was "espoused" (using the
terminology which the Church prefers, as suggesting a less physical
union than the word "married") was the "bride-groom;" more than that;
she declared that she was married with a ring, set with precious
stones; just like any other betrothal or wedding ring.

Always in these recitals we find the phraseology which lovers employ
when exalting the loved one above the world. The term "My Beloved" is
singularly universal, and seems to spring involuntarily to the lips of
the lover when his love is of the quality that reverences; adores; and
exalts its object. And it is equally foreign to the lips of the
dilettante lover.

To their credit be it said, the love which the saints developed within
themselves, by dint of their attempts to exalt celibacy in an age of
sexual profligacy, is none the less human love; it is human love
spiritualized, exalted, and transmuted from the plane of the animal to
that of the soul. This transmutation is in fact responsible for the
intensity, the absorbing power of the love which thrilled them into
such an ecstacy that in most instances they became lost in the bliss
of the emotions excited by the inward flow of their sex natur