In the middle ages 293

by which His nature, sovereignly blessed and fer-

tile, pours itself out.^"

This brings us to a second characteristic, very

much more important, in which the philosophy of

the Germans of the thirteenth century is opposed

to scholastic philosophy. This is the leaning to-

wards pantheism, which unites men with God even

to the point of fusion; the carrying of the soul for

commerce with the Divinity, a mystic communion

so intimate that every distinction between God and

the soul disappears. In the whole group of Ger-

man thinkers of the thirteenth century it is Eck-

hart who shows this tendency most strongly, and

it is also he who exerts the greatest influence upon

the German mind. He boldly teaches that the ex-

istence of God is also the very eccistence of crea-

tures.^^ In this he differs totally with the schol-

astic philosophy, which gives to each person (as

to each individual being) not only his own essence, |

but an eccistence distinct from the existence of every i

other being, and also from that of God.^* He thus

maintains a fusion of God and His creatures, since

the same single existence envelops them both. One

understands, therefore, how he can say that God is

like an infinite sphere, whose centre is everywhere

22 Edit., Krebs, pp. 129 and 133.

23 Ens tantum unum et Deus est. Extra primam causam nichil

est; quod enim est extra causam primam, deum scilicet, est extra esse,

quia deus est esse. Edit., Denifle, p. 549.

24 See above, pp. 195, 218.

(

294 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

and whose circumference is nowhere,^^ and that

every creature has a lasting hunger and thirst for

God: qui edimt me adhuc esuriunt. The animals,

he vi^rites, cease to nourish their young as soon as

these have their fill; but beings are insatiable of

God, for they exist in Him/*^

On the basis of this metaphysics, Eckhart elabo-

rates a mysticism vi^herein the soul contracts a union

with God which would bridge the gulf between in-

finite and finite. The description which he makes

of this mystic union makes one tremble. That

which God loves in us is Himself, His very own

existence; the soul is the sanctuary of God where

He finds Himself! But God does not enter into

the sanctuary unless the soul is prepared, it must

have renounced everything, — not only all external

things, but also its very self, its knowledge, its will,

its feelings, its strivings, its personality. In short,

God enters in only if the soul is in a state of abso-

lute renunciation, of complete passivity, (ahge-

schiedenheit) .'^ And then the miracle takes place;

God discloses the imity and the infinity of His na-

ture. The soul is transported into the silent desert

where there is neither effort, nor doubt, nor faith:

where, in order to know, there is no further need

of images, of similitudes, of interpretation, of writ-

ing, or of dogma. God is found in me; He is not

•i^Ihid., p. 571.

26 Ibid., p. 582.

21 Edit., PfeiflFer, pp. 650 ff.