have too often been made to appear trivial and
ridiculous.

In the pursuit of inspiration the methods observed present an
interesting similarity. The votary who aspires to a communion with the
god, shuts himself out from the distraction of social intercourse and
the disturbing allurements of the senses. In the solitude of the forest
or the cell, with complete bodily inaction, he gives himself to fasting
and devotion, to a concentration of all his mind on the one object of
his wish, the expected revelation. Waking and sleeping he banishes all
other topics of thought, perhaps by an incessant repetition of a
formula, until at last the moment comes, as it surely will come in some
access of hallucination, furor or ecstasy, the unfailing accompaniments
of excessive mental strain, when the mist seems to roll away from the
mortal vision, the inimical powers which darkened the mind are baffled,
and the word of the Creator makes itself articulate to the creature.

Take any connected account of the revelation of the divine will, and
this history is substantially the same. It differs but little whether
told of Buddha Sakyamuni, the royal seer of Kapilavastu, or by Catherine
Wabose, the Chipeway squaw,[146-1] concerning the _Revelations_ of St.
Gertrude of Nivelles or of Saint Brigida, or in the homely language of
the cobbler George Fox.

For six years did Sakyamuni wander in the forest, practising the
mortifications of the flesh and combatting the temptations of the
devil,before[TN-8] the final night when, after overcoming the crowning
enticements of beauty, power and wealth, at a certain moment he became
the "awakened," and knew himself in all his previous births, and with
that knowledge soared above the "divine illusion" of existence. In the
cave of Hari, Mohammed fasted and prayed until "the night of the divine
decisions;" then he saw the angel Gabriel approach and inspire him:

"A revelation was revealed to him:
One terrible in power taught it him,
Endowed with wisdom. With firm step stood he,
There, where the horizon is highest,
Then came he near and nearer,
A matter of two bowshots or closer,
And he revealed to his servant a revelation;
He has falsified not what he saw."[147-1]

With not dissimilar preparation did George Fox seek the "openings" which
revealed to him the hollowness of the Christianity of his day, in
contrast to the truth he found. In his _Journal_ he records that for
mon